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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/35731-8.txt b/35731-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed58454 --- /dev/null +++ b/35731-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9249 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, +No. 370, August 1846, 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 60, No. 370, August 1846 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 31, 2011 [EBook #35731] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, AUGUST 1846 *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Library of Early Journals.) + + + + + + + + + + BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + NO. CCCLXX. AUGUST, 1846. VOL. LX. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + THE ARMY, 129 + + MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. NO. IV. CHARLES RUSSELL, + THE GENTLEMAN COMMONER. CHAPTER I., 145 + + THE ROMANTIC DRAMA, 161 + + THE MINSTREL'S CURSE. FROM UHLAND, 177 + + THE MINE, THE FOREST, AND THE CORDILLERA, 179 + + "MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO," 194 + + MESMERIC MOUNTEBANKS, 223 + + COOKERY AND CIVILISATION, 238 + + THE LATE AND THE PRESENT MINISTRY, 249 + + + EDINBURGH: + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; + AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, 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. CCCLXX. AUGUST, 1846. VOL. LX. + + + + +THE ARMY.[1] + + +When we glance back at the bright page of British military history, so +thickly strewn with triumphs, so rarely checkered by a reverse, it seems +paradoxical to assert that the English are not a military nation. Such, +nevertheless, is the case. Our victories have been the result of no +especial fitness for the profession of arms, but of dauntless spirit and +cool stubborn courage, characterising the inhabitants of the narrow island +that breeds very valiant children. Mere bravery, however heroic, does not +of itself constitute an aptitude for the soldier's trade. Other qualities +are needful--qualities conspicuous in many European nations, but less +manifest in the Englishman. Naturally military nations are those of +France, the Highlands of Scotland, Poland, and Switzerland--every one of +them affording good specimens of the stuff peculiarly fitted for the +manufacture of soldiers. They all possess a martial bent, a taste for the +military career, submitting willingly to its hardships and privations, and +are endowed with a faculty of acquiring the management of offensive +weapons, with which for the most part they become acquainted early in +life. A system of national conscription, like that established in many +continental countries, is the readiest and surest means of giving a +military tone to the character of a people, and of increasing the civil +importance and respectability of an army. But without proceeding to so +extreme a measure, other ways may be devised of producing, as far as is +desirable, similar results. + +We appeal to all intelligent observers, and especially to military men, +whom travel or residence upon the Continent have qualified to judge, +whether in any of the great European states the soldier has hitherto +obtained so little of the public attention and solicitude as in England? +Whether in any country he is so completely detached from the population, +enjoying so little sympathy, in all respects so uncared for and unheeded +by the masses, and, we are sorry to say it, often so despised and looked +down upon, even by those classes whence he is taken? Let war call him to +the field, and for a moment he forces attention: his valour is extolled, +his fortitude admired, his sufferings are pitied. But when peace, bought +by his bravery and blood, is concluded, what ensues? Houses of Parliament +thank and commend him, towns illuminate in honour of his deeds, pensions +and peerages are showered upon his chiefs, perhaps some brief indulgence +is accorded to himself; but it is a nine days' wonder, and those elapsed, +no living creature, save barrack masters, inspecting officers, and +Horse-guards authorities, gives him another thought, or wastes a moment +upon the consideration of what might render him a happier and a better +man. Like a well-tried sabre that has done its work and for the present +may lie idle, he is shelved in the barrack room, to be occasionally +glanced at with pride and satisfaction. Hilt and scabbard are, it is true, +kept carefully polished--drill and discipline are maintained; but +insufficient pains are taken to ascertain whether rust corrodes the blade, +whether the trusty servant, whose achievements have been so glorious and +advantageous, does not wear out his life in discouragement and +despondency. But this state of things, we hope and believe, is about to +change. We rejoice to see a daily increasing disposition on the part of +English legislators and of the English nation, to investigate and amend +the condition of their gallant defenders. If war is justly considered the +natural state of an army,[2] peace, on the other hand, is the best time to +moot and discuss measures likely to raise its character and increase its +efficiency. + +We do not fear to be accused of advocating change for its own sake, or +what is vulgarly nicknamed Reform, in any of the institutions of this +country, whether civil or military. But we rejoice at the appearance of +books calculated to direct attention, we will not say to the abuses of the +army, but to its possible improvement. And we know no class of men better +qualified to write such books than army surgeons, whose occupations, when +attached to regiments, bring them of necessity into more frequent contact +with a greater variety of men, and to a more intimate acquaintance with +the soldier's real character and feelings, than the duties of field or +company officers in our service either exact or permit. + +"To obviate the reproaches I may encounter for presuming to write upon +subjects altogether military, I may be allowed to state, that during a +quarter of a century that I served with the armies of the country, I +officiated as surgeon of three different regiments in different parts of +the world. I embarked nine times from the shores of Britain with armaments +on foreign expeditions, and out of twenty-four years' actual service, (for +the year of the peace of Amiens has to be deducted,) I spent seventeen +years, or parts of them, in other climates, passing through every grade of +medical rank, in every variety of service, even to the sister service of +the navy."--DR. FERGUSSON. _Preface._ + +These are the men, or we greatly err, to write books about the army. They +may not be conversant with tactics in the field, although even of those, +unless they wilfully shut both eyes and ears, they can hardly avoid +acquiring some knowledge. But on other matters connected with soldiers and +armies, they must be competent to speak, and should be listened to as +authorities. We look upon Dr Fergusson's testimony, and upon the +information--the result of his vast experience--which he gives us in +concise form and plain language, as most valuable; although some of the +changes he suggests have been accomplished, wholly or partially, since his +book was written. Mr Marshall's opportunities of personal observation +have, we suspect, been less extensive; but to atone for such deficiency, +he has been a diligent reader, and he places before us a host of military +authorities, references and statistical tables. The value of his +authorities may, perhaps, here and there be questioned; and he sometimes +gives, in the form of extracts, statements unauthenticated by a name, but +of which he does not himself seem to accept the responsibility. +Nevertheless, his book has merit, and is not unlikely to accomplish both +the objects proposed by its author,--namely, "to supply some information +respecting the constitution, laws, and usages of the army, and to excite +attention to the means which may meliorate the condition of soldiers, and +exalt their moral and intellectual character." + +These are three measures whose adoption would, we fully believe, elevate +the character of the British soldier, increase his self-respect and +willingness to serve, and, consequently, his efficiency in the field and +good conduct in quarters. They will not be thought the worse of, we are +sure, because they would assimilate the organization of our army to that +of certain foreign services. The day is gone by when prejudice prevented +Englishmen from adopting improvements, merely because they were based upon +foreign example. The measures referred to, and whose adoption we would +strenuously urge, are--first, the enlistment of soldiers for limited +periods only; secondly, the total abolition of corporal punishment; +thirdly, the increase of rewards, and especially a gradual and cautious +augmentation of the number of commissions given to non-commissioned +officers. Be it understood that we recommend these changes collectively, +and not separately. They hinge upon each other, particularly the two last; +and if one of them be refused, the others may require modification. + +By the British constitution, no man may sell himself to unlimited +servitude. On what grounds, then, is the practice of enlistment for life +to be justified; and can it be justified upon any, even upon those of +expediency? Ought not the thoughtless and the destitute--for under these +heads the majority of recruits must at present be ranked--rather to be +protected against themselves, and preserved, as far as may be, from the +consequences of non-reflection and of want? Such is assuredly the duty of +a just and paternal government. Very different is the practice of this +country under the present system! Influenced by a boyish caprice, or +driven by necessity, an inexperienced lad takes the shilling and mounts +the cockade. After a while he gets weary of the service; perhaps he sees +opportunities, if once more a civilian, of making his way in the world. +But weary though he be, or eagerly as he may desire to strip off the +uniform assumed hastily, or by compulsion of circumstances, no perspective +of release encourages him to patient endurance. No hope of emancipation, +so long as his health holds good, or his services are found useful, smiles +to him in the distance. After twenty-one years he _may_ obtain his +discharge, as a favour, but without pension. After twenty-five years, if +discharged at his own request, he gets sixpence a-day! Truly a cheering +prospect and great encouragement, to be liberated in the decline of life, +any trade that he had learned as a boy forgotten, and with sixpence a-day +as sole reward for having fought the battles and mounted the guards of his +country during a quarter of a century! What are the frequent results of so +gloomy a perspective? Despondency, desertion, drunkenness, and even +suicide. + +The British army, its strength considered, and in comparison with the +armies of other countries, is, undeniably, a very expensive establishment, +and the necessity of economy has been urged as an argument in favour of +unlimited enlistment. The evidence both of Dr Fergusson and of Mr Marshall +goes far to prove that one more fallacious was never advanced. Innumerable +are the artifices resorted to by soldiers, under the present system, in +the hope of obtaining their discharge--artifices sometimes successful, +frequently entailing expense on the government, and at times almost +impairing the efficiency of an army. Speaking of the last war, Dr +Fergusson says,--"Artificial ulcers of the legs were all but universal +amongst young recruits, and spurious ophthalmia was organised in +conspiracy so complicated and extended, that at one time it threatened +seriously to affect the general efficiency of the forces, and was in every +respect so alarming that the then military authorities durst not expose +its naked features to the world. These are the results, and ever will be +the results, whilst human nature is constituted as it is, of service for +life." That unlimited service is the chief cause of desertion may be +proved beyond a doubt, if there be any value in the statistics of armies +as given by Mr Marshall. In the year 1839, the mean strength of the French +army was three hundred and seventeen thousand five hundred and +seventy-eight men; the number condemned for desertion was six hundred and +six. Eight hundred and eighty-one conscripts were punished for failing to +join their corps. In the same year, in our army, of which the strength +was less than one third of the French--under one hundred thousand men--the +deserters punished amounted to two thousand one hundred and ten, or nearly +one-fifth of the number of recruits annually raised. Where must we seek +the cause of so monstrous a disparity? Chiefly in the difference of the +term of service. The English soldier is by far the best paid and rationed; +most of his comforts are more cared for than those of the Frenchman; but +the latter takes his service kindly, because he knows that in six or seven +years (the period varies a little according to the arm served in) he will +be free to return to civil life, whilst still at an age to begin the world +on his own account. The following extract from the _Military Miscellany_ +illustrates and confirms our present argument, that unlimited enlistment +is no saving to the country. + +"I have no adequate materials to enable me to state the mean duration of +service of men who enlist for the army; but I am disposed to conjecture +that it is not much, if at all, above ten years. It has, I believe, been +ascertained, that the average length of service performed by men now on +the permanent pension list, is about fifteen or sixteen years. Upon these +grounds I conclude that enlistment for life, as a means of obtaining an +average length of service of more than from ten to twelve years, is a +fallacy; and consequently, I submit whether it would not be an advisable +measure to abolish enlistment for an unlimited period, and to adopt a +regulation whereby a soldier might have the option of being discharged +after a certain length of service, say ten years." + +In estimating the average duration of service at ten to twelve years, Mr +Marshall has, we conjecture, taken into consideration the men discharged +under fifteen years' service, before which time they would not be entitled +to a pension. To the ten years' enlistment proposed by him, we should +prefer the term of seven years, fixed by Mr Wyndham's bill, passed in +1806, but rendered nugatory in 1808, by a clause in Lord Castlereagh's +Military bill, which made it optional to enlist for life, adding the +temptation of a higher bounty. The latter bait, aided by the +thoughtlessness of recruits, and by the cajolery of recruiting sergeants, +caused the engagement to be almost invariably for life. And since then, +Horse-guards' orders have been issued, forbidding recruiting officers to +accept men for limited service. According to Mr Wyndham's plan, the seven +years' engagement was to be prolonged indefinitely in war time. We should +not object to the latter arrangement, which is necessary for the safety of +the country. Nor is it when actively engaged in the field that soldiers +are likely to repine at length of service, but in the tedium of a +garrison, when no change, or prospect of one, no opportunity of +distinction, or chance of promotion, relieves the monotony of a military +existence. + +There is one advantage of short enlistments that has been overlooked both +by Dr Fergusson and by Mr Marshall, but which nevertheless is, in our +opinion, an important one. It is the increased military character that it +would give to the nation, the greater number of men whom it would +familiarize with the use of arms, and render competent to use them +effectually at a moment's notice. We believe that short enlistments, and +the other improvements already referred to, and which we shall presently +speak of at greater length, would produce, in this thickly peopled +kingdom, a regular annual supply of recruits, a large proportion of them +of a very superior class to those who now offer. On the other hand, the +army, instead of being thinned by desertions, transportations, and feigned +diseases, would each year give up from its ranks a number of young and +able-bodied men, who, whilst entering upon the occupations of civil life, +would in a great measure retain their soldierly qualities, and be ready, +in case of an emergency, to stand forward successfully in defence of their +homes and families. We have long been accustomed to look upon this country +as guaranteed from invasion by her wooden walls. Noble as the bulwark is, +there is no dissembling the fact, that its efficiency has been greatly +impaired by the progress of steam, rendering it extremely difficult, in +case of a war, effectually to guard our long line of coast. And although +Europe seems now as disinclined for war as a long experience of the +blessings of peace can render her, this happy state cannot, in the nature +of things, last for ever. Let us suppose a general war, and a large body +of French troops thrown upon our shores in a night, whilst our armies were +absent on the battle fields of the Continent, or of America. The +supposition is startling, but cannot be viewed as absurd; many looked upon +its realization as certain when circumstances were far less favourable to +it than they would now be. How far would volunteers and militiamen, +hastily raised, unaccustomed to services in the field, and many of whom +had never fired a ball-cartridge in their lives,[3] be able to cope, with +any chance of success, with fifty thousand French soldiers? And admitting +that they did successfully contend, and that superior numbers and +steadfast courage--although these, without good drill and discipline, are +of little avail against a veteran army--eventually gained the day, how +much more effective would they be, and how much loss of life and injury to +the country might be avoided, did their ranks contain a fair proportion of +men trained to arms, and able to instruct and encourage their comrades? +But these are subjects so suggestive as to afford themes for volumes, +where they might be better discussed than in the scanty pages of a review. +We can only afford to glance at them, and to throw out hints for others to +improve upon. + +The liability to the lash, inflicted, until very recently, even for the +least disgraceful offences, has long been thrown in the teeth of the +British soldier by his foreign brethren in arms. That infamous punishment +has been utterly disapproved and eloquently argued against by military men +of high rank and great abilities, whose enlightened minds and long +experience taught them to condemn it. The feeling of the nation is +strongly against it, the armies of other countries are seen to flourish +and improve without it, and yet it is still maintained, although gradually +sinking into disuse, and, we hope and believe, drawing near to its +abolition. Unnecessarily cruel as a punishment, ineffectual as an example +to repress crime, and stamping the indelible brand of infamy on men the +soul of whose profession should be a feeling of honour, why is it so +lovingly and tenaciously clung to? "The service would go to the +devil--could not be carried on without it--no soldiering without +flogging," is the reply of a section of officers--the minority, we +assuredly believe. "No one can doubt," says Dr Fergusson, "that for +infamous crimes there ought to be infamous punishments, and to them let +the lash be restricted." Be it so, but then devise some plan by which the +soldier, whose offence is so disgraceful as to need the most humiliating +of chastisements, shall be thenceforward excluded from the army. When he +leaves the hospital, let his discharge be handed to him. "A fine plan, +indeed!" it will be said. "Men will incur a flogging every day to get out +of the service." Doubtless they will, so long as service is unlimited. And +this is one reason why short enlistments and abolition of corporal +punishment should go together. Against desertion, transportation has +hitherto been found an ineffectual remedy. If men were enlisted for seven +years only, it would cease to be so. Few would then be sufficiently +perverse to risk five or seven years' transportation in order to get rid +of what remained of their period of service. To flog for drunkenness, +however frequent the relapse, is an absurdity, for it usually drives the +culprit to habits of increased intemperance, that he may forget the +disgraceful punishment he has suffered. In war time, when in the field +before the enemy, discipline should assume its most Spartan and inflexible +aspect. The deserter, the mutineer, the confirmed marauder, to the +provost-marshal and cord. For minor offences, there would be no difficulty +in finding appropriate punishments; such as fines, imprisonment in irons, +extra guards and pickets, fatigue-duty, and the like. No military +offenders should be punished by the cat. It is in direct opposition to the +spirit by which armies should be governed: a spirit of honour and +self-respect. + +"The incorrigible deserter," says Dr Fergusson, "may be safely committed +to penal service in the West Indies or the coast of Africa; and should the +pseudo-philanthropists interfere with the cant of false humanity, let them +be told that the best and bravest of our troops have too often been sent +there, as to posts of honour and duty, from which they are hereafter to be +saved by the substitution of the criminal and the worthless. The other +nations of the Continent, who have not these outlets, conduct the +discipline of their armies without flogging; and why should not we? They, +it may be said, cultivate the point of honour. And does not the germ of +pride and honour reside as well, and better, in the breast of the British +soldier, distinguished, as he has ever been, for fidelity to his colours, +obedience to his commanders, pride in his corps, and attachment to its +very name?" + +Mr Marshall's history of punishments in the army is rather to be termed +curious than useful. Agreeable it certainly cannot be considered, except +by those persons, if such there be, who luxuriate in Fox's _Book of +Martyrs_, or gloat over the annals of the Spanish Inquisition. It shows +human ingenuity taxed to the utmost to invent new tortures for the +soldier. The last adhered to, and, it may safely be said, the worst +devised, is the lash; and we need look back but a very little way to find +its infliction carried to a frightful extent. A thousand lashes used to be +no unusual award; and it sometimes happened (frequently, Mr Marshall +asserts, but this other information induces us to doubt) that a man who +had been unable, with safety to his life, to receive the whole of the +punishment at one time, was brought out again, as soon as his back was +skinned over, to take the rest. At one time there was no limit to the +number of lashes that a general court-martial might award. Mr Marshall +says, that at Amboyna, in the year 1813 or 1814, he knew three men to be +condemned to fifteen hundred lashes each. The whole punishment was +inflicted. At Dinapore, on the 12th September 1825, a man was sentenced to +nineteen hundred lashes, which sentence the commander-in-chief commuted to +twelve hundred. Such sentences, however, were in direct contradiction to +the general order of the 30th January 1807, by which "his Majesty was +graciously pleased to express his opinion, that no sentence for corporal +punishment should exceed one thousand lashes." In 1812, when the powers +of a regimental court-martial had been limited to the infliction of three +hundred lashes, "many old officers believed, and did not hesitate to say, +that such limitation would destroy the discipline of the +army."--(_Marshall_, p. 185.) We cannot put the same faith that Mr +Marshall appears to do in the outrageous narratives of some of his +authorities. It is impossible, for instance, to swallow such a tale as we +find at page 267 of the _Military Miscellany_, of seventy men of one +battalion being flogged on the line of march in one day. This, however, is +only given as an _on dit_. Equally incredible is the story quoted from the +book of a certain Sergeant Teesdale, of ten to twenty-five men being +flogged daily for six weeks for coming dirty on parade; and another, which +Mr Marshall tells, of _seventeen thousand_ lashes being for some time the +monthly allowance of a regiment in India--the said regiment being, we are +informed, treated very little worse than its neighbours. The articles of +war, as they stand at the present day, restrict the award of corporal +punishment, by a general court-martial, to two hundred lashes; by a +district court-martial, to one hundred and fifty; and by a regimental +court, to one hundred. + +We would put the question to any military man--even to the strongest +advocate of flogging--what is the usual effect of corporal punishment on +the soldier? Does it make or mar him, improve his character and correct +his vices, or render him more reckless and abandoned than before? The +conscientious answer would be, we are persuaded, that seldom is a good +soldier made of a flogged man. "There is not an instance in a thousand," +says Dr Jackson, "where severe punishment (flogging is here referred to) +has made a soldier what he ought to be; there are thousands where it has +rendered those who were forgetful and careless, rather than vicious, +insensible to honour, and abandoned to crime." But then the example is +supposed, erroneously, as we believe, to be of good operation. We cannot +admit that, to justify the practice of marking a man's shoulders with the +ineffaceable stripes of disgrace. + +In speaking of corporal punishment, we have considered only its moral +effect, and have not touched on the unnecessary and unequal amount of pain +it occasions. Much might be said upon this head. "My first objection to +flogging," says Sir Charles Napier, in his treatise "_On Military Law_," +published in 1837, "is, that it is torture,"--using the word, no doubt, in +the sense of inhumanity, and meaning that more pain than is necessary is +inflicted. Sir Charles's second objection is, that it is torture of a very +unequal infliction--varying, of course, according to the strength of the +drummers or others employed, to the rigour of the drum-major +superintending their exertions, and to other circumstances. Mr Marshall +tells us that different men suffer in very different degrees from +punishment of like severity. Tall slender men, of a sanguine temperament, +feel a flogging more severely than short, thickset ones; and instances +have been known of soldiers succumbing under a sixth part of the +punishment which others have borne and rapidly recovered from. The +presence of a surgeon is in many cases no guarantee against a fatal +result. "It is impossible to say what may be the effect of corporal +infliction with more certainty than to predict the consequences of a +surgical operation."--(_Military Miscellany_, p. 224.) "No medical officer +can answer either for the immediate or ultimate consequences of this +species of corporal punishment. Inflammation of the back, or general +fever, may occur after a very moderate infliction, and may terminate +fatally, notwithstanding the greatest diligence and attention on the part +of a well-informed and conscientious surgeon."--(_Ibid._ p. 276.) Besides +the reasons against corporal punishment above stated, Sir Charles Napier +advances and supports by argument six others equally cogent. Gustavus +Adolphus of Sweden, although he introduced into his army the species of +flogging known as the gantlope or gauntlet, rarely had recourse to it, +being persuaded that "such a disgrace cast a damp upon the soldier's +vivacity, and did not well agree with the notions which a high spirit +ought to entertain of honour." "Il ne faut point," says Kirckhoff, a +medical officer in the army of the king of the Netherlands, quoted by Mr +Marshall, "soumettre le soldat fautif à des punitions avilissantes. A quoi +bon les coups de bâton qu'on donne trop légèrement au soldat, si ce n'est +pour l'abrutir, et pour déshonorer le noble état du defenseur de la +patrie? Ce genre de punition déshonorant ne devrait être réservé qu'aux +lâches et aux traîtres; et dès qu'une fois un militaire l'aurait subi, il +faudrait l'exclure à jamais d'un ordre auquel les destins d'une nation +sont confiés; d'un ordre qui a pour base le courage, l'honneur, et toutes +les vertus généreuses." + +It is singular that whilst such remarkable ingenuity has been exhibited in +devising punishments for the soldier, so very little should have been +displayed in the invention of rewards. Of these latter, the most +legitimate and desirable are pensions and promotion. We would add a +third--a military order of merit to be bestowed upon men distinguishing +themselves by acts of gallantry, or by steady good conduct. Decorations of +this kind--we are convinced of it by our observations on various foreign +services--act as a strong incentive to the soldier. There exists in this +country a prejudice against their adoption, principally because we are +accustomed to see such rewards heaped without discrimination, and with a +profusion that renders them worthless, upon the soldiers of foreign +nations. There seems a natural tendency to the abuse of such institutions, +and Napoleon might well shudder were he to rise from his grave and see his +"Star of the Brave" dangling from the buttonhole of half the pamphleteers +and national guardsmen of the French capital. In other countries the +lavish profusion with which stars, crosses, riband-ends, and rosettes are +bestowed, is enough to raise a suspicion of collusion between the royal +donors and the jewellers and haberdashers of their dominions. But even +when largely distributed, we believe them to act as a spur to the soldier. +If there is a fear of England's becoming what we find so ridiculous in +others, a country where the non-decorated amongst military men are the +exception, let great caution be used in the bestowal of such honours. We +now refer to an order of merit for the soldiers only. With officers we +have at present nothing to do; although we shall be found upon occasion +equally ready and willing to support their just claims. But they can plead +their own cause, if not effectually, at least perseveringly, as the recent +numerous letters in newspapers, and articles in military periodicals, +claiming a decoration for Peninsular services, sufficiently prove. Such a +decoration was certainly nobly deserved, but, if conceded at all, it +should be given quickly, or its existence, it is to be feared, will be +very brief. Our present business, however, is with the soldier--the humble +private, the deserving non-commissioned officer. + +It is not unnatural that when tardy reflection comes to the thoughtless +lad who has sold himself to unlimited military bondage, he should be +anxious to know what provision is made for him when age or disease shall +cause his services to be dispensed with. Inquiry or reference informs him, +that should he be discharged after fourteen and under twenty-one years +service, so far disabled as to be _unable to work_--this is a +condition--he may be awarded the magnificent sum of from sixpence to +eightpence a-day! Discharged under twenty-one years' service, as disabled +for the army only, he may get a temporary pension of sixpence a-day for a +period varying from one month to five years. Discharged by indulgence +after twenty-five years, he may receive sixpence a-day. We have already +remarked on the little heed taken by civilians in this country of the +treatment and ordinances of the army. These statements will probably be +new to most of our non-military readers, many of whom, we doubt not, +entertain an absurd notion, that when a man has served his country well +and faithfully during twenty-five years, or is dismissed, as unable to +work, after fourteen years' servitude, he invariably finds a snug berth +ready for him at Chelsea, or at least has a pension awarded to him +tolerably adequate to supply him with the bare necessaries of life, and to +keep him from begging or crossing-sweeping. As to the savings of soldiers +out of their pay, facilitated though they now are by the establishment of +savings' banks in the army, they can be but exceedingly small. A soldier's +pay varies from thirteen to fifteen pence, according to the time he has +served. Deduct from this the cost of his clothing, only a portion of which +is supplied to him free of charge, and sixpence a-day for his rations of +bread and meat, and what remains will frequently not exceed threepence +a-day for tobacco, vegetables, coffee, and other small necessaries. The +great difference between the pay, rations, and pensions of soldiers and +sailors, is not generally known. Besides receiving rations far more +abundant and varied, an able seaman gets thirty-four shillings per month +of twenty-eight days, more than double the pay of a soldier under seven +years' service. Seamen have a claim of right to be discharged after +twenty-one years' service with a pension of one shilling to fourteen pence +a-day. And, besides this, it must be remembered that a sailor may enlist +for a short time, and at its expiration, or at any time that he is +discharged, employment is open to him in the merchant service. But what is +the soldier to do when dismissed from the army at forty years of age or +upwards? "A very small number of men," says Mr Marshall, "are fit after +forty years of age for the arduous duties of the service." Surely it may +be claimed for our brave fellows that a more liberal system of pensioning +be adopted. We do not lose sight of the necessity of economy in these days +of heavy taxation; and before deciding on a plan, the matter should be +well sifted and considered. But we have already expressed our conviction +that limited service would of itself in various ways produce a pecuniary +saving to the government. Adequate pensions would have other beneficial +results. Mr Marshall throws out suggestions for a new scale of pensions, +and declares his opinion, that no man who has served twenty-one years +should receive a smaller allowance than a shilling a-day. + +"The more striking," he proceeds to say, "the honourable example of an old +soldier enjoying his pension, the more likely is it to contribute to +spread a military feeling in the neighbourhood. But to repay the retired +soldier by a pension inadequate to his sustenance, must have the effect of +consigning him to the workhouse, and of sinking him and the army in the +estimation of the working class of the population; destroying all military +feeling, and, whilst the soldier is serving, weakening those important +aids to discipline--the cheerfulness and satisfaction which the prospect +of a pension, after a definite period, inspires." + +We now come to a branch of our subject encompassed with peculiar +difficulties, and that will be met with many objections; the present +system of disposing of commissions in the army is too convenient and +agreeable to a large and influential class of the community for it to be +otherwise. The most important part of the proposed scheme of rewards is +the bestowing of commissions upon sergeants. We are aware that, in the +present constitution of the army, much may be urged against such a plan +being carried out beyond an exceedingly limited extent. But most of the +objections would, we think, be removed by the adoption and consequences of +limited service, and by the extinction of corporal punishment. Others +would disappear before a greater attention to the education of the +soldier, and before some slight reductions in what are now erroneously +considered the necessary expenses of officers. + +Constituted and regulated as the British army now is, the immediate +consequences of enlistment to the young peasant or artisan of previous +respectability is a total breach with his family. However good his +previous character, the single fact of his entering what ought to be an +honourable profession, excludes him from the society and good opinion of +his nearest friends. Former associates shun and look coldly upon him, his +female relatives are ashamed to be seen walking with him, often the door +of his father's cottage or workshop is shut on his approach. The community +in general, there is no dissembling the fact, look upon soldiers as a +degraded class, and upon the recruit as a man consigned to evil company, +to idleness and the alehouse, and perhaps to the ignominy of the lash. To +brand an innocent man as criminal is the way to render him so. Avoided and +despised, the young soldier, to whom bad example is not wanting, speedily +comes to deserve the disreputable character which the mere assumption of a +red coat has caused to be fixed upon him. So long as military service +stands thus low in the opinion of the people, the army will have to +recruit its ranks from the profligate and the utterly destitute, and the +supply of respectable volunteers will be as limited as heretofore. At +present, most young men of a better class whom a temporary impulse, or a +predilection for the service, has induced to enlist, strain every nerve, +when they awake to their real position, to raise funds for their +discharge. In this their friends often aid them; and we have known +instances of incredible sacrifices being made by the poor to snatch a son +or brother from what they looked upon as the jaws of destruction. And thus +is it that a large proportion of the respectable recruits are bought out +after a brief period of service. + +Assuming limitation of service and the abolition of corporal punishment to +have been conceded, the next thing demanding attention would be the +education of the soldier. This has hitherto been sadly neglected, +strangely so at a period and in a country where education of the people is +so strongly and generally advocated. The schoolmaster is abroad, we are +told--we should be glad to hear of his visiting the barrack-room. To no +class of the population would a good plain education be more valuable than +to the soldier, as a means of filling up his abundant leisure, of +improving his moral condition, and preserving him from drunkenness and +vice. How extraordinary that its advantages should so long have been +overlooked, even by those to whom they ought to have been the most +palpable. "Of two hundred and fourteen officers," Mr Marshall writes, "who +returned answers to the following query, addressed to them by the General +Commanding in Chief, in 1834, only two or three recommended intellectual, +moral, or religious cultivation as a means of preventing crime:--'Are you +enabled to suggest any means of restraining, or eradicating the propensity +to drunkenness, so prevalent among the soldiery, and confessedly the +parent of the majority of military crimes?' A great variety of penal +enactments were recommended, but no one suggested the school master's +drill but Sir George Arthur and the late Colonel Oglander. The colonel's +words are:--'The only effectual corrective of this, as of every other +vice, is a sound and rational sense of religion. This is the only true +foundation of moral discipline. The establishment of libraries, and the +system of _adult_ schools, would be useful in this view.'" To prevent crime +is surely better than to punish it. Vast pains are taken with the merely +military education of the soldier. A recruit is carefully drilled into the +perpendicular, taught to handle his musket, mount his guards, clean his +accoutrements--converted, in short, into an excellent automaton--and then +he is dismissed as perfect, and left to lounge away, as best he may, his +numerous hours of daily leisure. He has perhaps never been taught to read +and write, or may possess those accomplishments but imperfectly. What more +natural than to encourage, and, if necessary, to compel him to acquire +them, together with such other useful scholarship as it may be desirable +for him to possess? Education would be especially valuable under a system +of limited service. The soldier, leaving the army when still a young man, +would be better fitted than before he entered it, for any trade or +occupation he might adopt. And when the lower classes found that military +service was made a medium for the communication of knowledge, and that +their sons, after seven years passed under the colours, were better able +to get through the world advantageously and creditably than when they +enlisted, the present strong prejudice against a soldier's life would +rapidly become weakened, and finally disappear. The army would then be +looked upon by poor men with large families as no undesirable resource +for temporarily providing for one or two of their sons. + +It is certainly not creditable to this country, that in France, Prussia, +Holland, and even in Russia--that land of the serf and the Cossack--greater +pains are taken with the education of the soldier than in free and +enlightened England. It has become customary to compare our navy with that +of France, and when we are found to have a carronade or a cock-boat less +than our friends across the water, a shout of indignation is forthwith set +up by vigilant journalists and nervous naval officers. We heartily wish +that it were equally usual to contrast our army with that of the +French--not in respect of numbers, but of the attention paid to the +education and moral discipline of the men. Every French regiment has two +schools, a higher and a lower one. In the latter are taught reading, +writing, and arithmetic; in the former, geography, book-keeping, the +elements of geometry and fortification, and other things equally useful. +The schools are managed by lieutenants, aided by non-commissioned +officers; and sergeants recommended for commissions are required to pass +an examination in the branches of knowledge there taught. It is well known +that in the French service, as in most others, excepting the English, a +proportion of the commissions is set aside for the sergeants. In the +Prussian service there is a school in each battalion, superintended by a +captain and three lieutenants, who receive additional pay for alternately +taking a share in the instruction of the soldiers. "Non-commissioned +officers," Mr Marshall informs us, "who wish to become officers, first +undergo an examination in geography, history, simple mathematics, and the +French and German languages. At the end of another year they are again +examined in the same branches of knowledge, and also in algebra, military +drawing, and fortification. If they pass this second examination, they +become officers." + +How many of the young men, who, by virtue of interest or money, enter the +British army as ensigns and cornets, would be found willing to devote even +a small portion of their time to the instruction of the soldier? Very few, +we fear. By the majority, the idea would be scouted as a bore, and as +quite inconsistent with their dignity. Extra pay, however acceptable to +the comparatively needy Prussian lieutenant, might be expected to prove an +insufficient inducement in a service where it is frequently difficult to +find a subaltern to accept the duties of adjutant. None can entertain a +higher respect than we do for the gallant spirit and many excellent +qualities of the present race of British officers; but we confess a wish +that they would view their profession in a more serious light. Young men +entering the army seemingly imagine, that the sole object of their so +doing is to wear a well-made uniform, and dine at a pleasant mess; and +that, once dismissed to their duty by the adjutant, they may fairly +discard all idea of self-instruction and improvement. But war is an art, +and therefore its principles can be acquired but by study. Our young +officers too often neglect not only their military studies, but their +mental improvement in other respects; forgetting that the most valuable +part of a man's education is not that acquired at a public school before +the age of eighteen, but that which he bestows upon himself after that +age. The former is the foundation; the latter the fabric to be raised upon +it. We have known instances of smart subs deft upon parade, brilliants in +the ball-room, perfect models of a pretty soldier from plume to boot-heel, +so supremely ignorant of the common business of life as to be unable to +write a letter without a severe effort, or to draw a bill upon their +agents when no one was at hand to instruct them in its form. It was but +the other day that an officer related to us, that, being detached on an +outpost in one of our colonies, he found himself in company with two +brother subalterns, both most anxious to make a call upon their father's +strong-box, but totally ignorant how to effect the same. Their spirit was +very willing, but their pen lamentably weak; their exchequer was +exhausted, and in their mind's-eye the paternal coffers stood invitingly +open; but nevertheless they sat helpless, ruefully contemplating oblong +slips of blank paper, until our friend, whose experience as a man of +business was somewhat greater, extricated them from their painful dilemma, +by drawing up the necessary document at _thirty days' sight_. In this +particular view, want of skill as a "pen and ink man" would probably not +be regretted by those most interested in their sons; and doubtless many +_governors_ would exclaim, as fervently as Lord Douglas in _Marmion_, + + "Thanks to St Bothan, son of mine + Could never pen a written line!" + +Seriously speaking, a graver and more studious tone is wanted in our +service. It is found in the military services of other countries. German +and French officers take their calling far more _au sérieux_ than do ours. +They find abundant time for pleasure, but also for solitude and reading, +and for attention to the improvement of the soldier. Dressing, dining, and +cigars, and beating the pavements of a garrison town with his boot-heels, +ought not to fill up the whole time of a subaltern officer. That in this +country they usually do so, will be admitted by all who have had +opportunities of observing young English officers in peace time. We could +bring hosts of witnesses in support of our assertion, but will content +ourselves with one whose competency to judge in such matters will not be +disputed. The following passages are from Major-General Sir George +Arthur's "General Observations upon Military Discipline, and the +Intellectual and Moral Improvement of both Officers and Soldiers." + +"I have said that education is essential, as well as moral character, and +so it is. Look into the habits of the officers of almost every regiment in +His Majesty's service--how are they formed? Do men study at all after they +get commissions? Very far from it; unless an officer is employed in the +field, his days are passed in mental idleness--his ordinary duties are +carried on instinctively--there is no intellectual exertion. To discuss +fluently upon women, play, horses, and wine, is, with some excellent +exceptions, the ordinary range of mess conversation. In these matters lie +the education of young officers, generally speaking, after entering the +service." + +"If the officers were not seen so habitually walking in the streets in +every garrison town, the soldiers would be less frequently found in +public-houses." + +The influence of example is great, especially when exercised by those whom +we are taught to look up to and respect. A change in the habits of +officers will go far to produce one in those of their men. French +officers, of whom we are sure that no British officer who has met them, +either in the field or in quarters, will speak without respect, feel a +pride and a pleasure in the instruction of the soldier, and take pains to +induce him to improve his mind, holding out as an incentive the prospect +of promotion. And such interest and solicitude produce, amongst other good +effects, an affectionate feeling on the part of the soldier towards his +superiors, which, far from interfering with discipline, makes him perform +his duties, often onerous and painful, with increased zeal and good-will. +For the want of this kindly sympathy between different ranks, and of the +moral instruction which, by elevating their character, would go far to +produce it, our soldiers are converted into mere machines, unable even to +think, often forbidden so to do. We are convinced that attention to the +education of the soldier, introduced simultaneously with short enlistments +and abolition of flogging, would speedily create in the army of this +country a body of non-commissioned officers, who, when promoted, would +disgrace no mess-table in the service. With the prospect of the epaulet +before them, they would strive to improve themselves, and to become fit +society for the men of higher breeding and education with whom they hoped +one day to be called upon to associate. For, if it be painful and +unpleasant to a body of gentlemen to have a coarse and ill-mannered man +thrust upon them, it is certainly not less so to the intruder, if he +possess one spark of feeling, to find himself shunned and looked coldly +upon by his new associates. The total abolition of corporal punishment is, +we consider, a necessary preliminary to promotion from the ranks on an +extensive scale. We were told four years ago, in the House of Commons, +during a debate on the Mutiny bill, that there were then in the British +army four colonels who were flogged men. Many will remember the story +related in a recent military publication, of the old field-officer who, +one day at the mess-table, or amongst a party of his comrades, declared +himself in favour of corporal punishment, on the ground that he himself +had never been worth a rush till he had taken his cool three hundred. +During a long war, abounding in opportunities of distinction, and at a +time when the lash was the universal punishment for nearly every offence, +it is not surprising that here and there a flogged man got his commission. +But, in our opinion, not only the circumstance of having been flogged, but +the mere liability to so degrading an infliction, might plausibly be urged +as an argument against promotion from the ranks. Let the lash, then, at +once and totally disappear; replace torture by instruction, hold out +judicious rewards instead of disgraceful punishment, appeal to the sense +of honour of the man, instead of to the sense of pain of the brute; and, +repudiating the harsh traditions of less enlightened days, lay it down as +an axiom, that the British soldier can and will fight at least as well +under a mild and generous system, as when the bloody thongs of the cat are +suspended _in terrorem_ over him. + +The physical as well as moral training of the soldier should receive +attention, as a means both of filling up his time, thereby keeping him +from the alehouse, and of increasing his efficiency in the field. At +present the marching qualities of our armies are very far inferior to +their fighting ones. In the latter, they are surpassed by none--in the +former, equal to few. And yet how important is it that troops should be +able to perform long and rapid marches! The fate of a campaign, the +destruction of an enemy's army, may, and often does depend upon a forced +march. At that work there is scarcely an army in Europe worth the naming, +but would beat us, at least at the commencement of a war, and until our +soldiers had got their marching legs--a thing not done in a day, or +without great loss and inconvenience by straggling. Foot-sore men are +almost as great a nuisance and encumbrance to infantry, as sore-backed +horses to dragoons. Our soldiers are better fed than those of most other +countries, and to keep them in hard and serviceable condition they require +more exercise than they get. French soldiers are encouraged to practice +athletic exercises and games; running, quoit-playing, and fencing, the +latter especially, are their constant pastimes. Most of them are expert +swordsmen, no valueless accomplishment even to the man whose usual weapons +are musket and bayonet, but one that in our infantry regiments is +frequently neglected even by those whose only arm is the sword, namely, +the officers. Surely the man who carries a sword should know how to use it +in the most effectual manner. Let old officers say on whose side the +advantage usually was in the sword duels that occurred when Paris was +occupied by the Allies, and when the French officers, maddened by their +reverses, sought opportunities of picking quarrels with their conquerors. +The adjutant of a British foot regiment informed us, that on one occasion, +not very long ago, at a review of his corps by an officer of high rank, +the latter, after applauding the performances of the regiment, expressed a +wish to see the officers do the sword exercise. In obedience to orders, +the adjutant called the officers to the front. "I suppose, gentlemen," +said he, "that few of you know much about the sword exercise." His +assumption was not contradicted. "Probably, your best plan will be to +watch the sergeant-major and myself." And accordingly adjutant and +sergeant-major placed themselves in front of each flank, and the officers, +looking to them as fuglemen, went through their exercise with great +delicacy and tolerable correctness, to the perfect satisfaction of the +inspecting general, who probably was not disposed to be very captious. But +we are digressing from the subject of the soldier's occupations. In +France, let a military work be required--a wall, road, or +fortification--and the soldiers slip into their working dresses, and +labour at it with a good will produced by additional pay. Thus were the +forts and vast wall now surrounding Paris run up in wonderfully short time +by the exertions of the soldiery. In all German garrison towns, we +believe--certainly in all that we have visited--is found an Exercitiums +Platz, a field or plot of ground with bars, poles, and other gymnastic +contrivances, reserved for the troops, who are frequently to be seen +there, amusing themselves, and improving their strength and activity of +body. We are aware of nothing of this kind in our service, beyond a rare +game at cricket, got up by the good-nature of officers. As Dr Fergusson +truly says, "of all European troops, our own appear to be the most +helpless and listless in their quarters. Whilst the soldiers of other +nations employ their leisure hours in fencing, gymnastics, and other +exercises of strength, ours are lounging idle, or muddled, awaiting the +hour of their unvaried meal, or the drum being beat for the daily +parades." This might easily be altered. It needs but to be thought of, +which hitherto it appears not to have been. No men are naturally more +adapted and prone to manly exercises than the English. Give the soldier +the opportunity, and he will gladly avail himself of it. + +Before closing this paper, a word or two on the equipment and dress of the +army will not be out of place. We are glad to find the opinions we have +long entertained on those subjects confirmed by a pithy and pointed +chapter in Dr Fergusson's book. The externals of the army have of late +been much discussed, and have undergone certain changes, scarcely +deserving the name of improvements. In regulating such matters, three +objects should be kept in view, and their pursuit never departed from; +lightness on the march, protection from the weather, ease of movement. The +attainment of these should be sought by every means; even by the +sacrifice, if necessary, of what pleases the eye. The most heavily laden, +the British soldier is in many respects the most inconveniently equipped, +of all European men-at-arms. The covering of his head, the material and +colour of his belts, the very form of the foot-soldier's overalls, cut +large over the shoe, as if on purpose to become dirty and draggled on the +march, seem selected with a view to occasion him as much uncomfort and +trouble as possible. Time was, when the soldier was compelled to powder +his hair and wear a queue and tight knee breeches, like a dancing master +or a French marquis of the _ancien régime_. For the sweeping away of such +absurdities, which must have been especially convenient and agreeable in a +bivouac; we may thank the Duke of York; but much as has been done, there +is much more to do. And first as regards the unnecessarily heavy belts, +the cumbersome and misplaced cartridge-box. Than the latter it would be +difficult to devise any thing more inconvenient, as all who have seen +British infantry in the field will admit. The soldier has to make a rapid +advance, to pursue a flying enemy, to scud across fields, leap ditches or +jump down banks when out skirmishing. At every spring or jump, bang goes +the lumbering cartridge-box against his posteriors, until he is fain to +use his hand to steady it, thereby of course greatly impeding his +progress, the swiftness and ease of running depending in great measure on +one arm, at least, being at liberty. And then the belts, what an +unnecessary mass of leather is there, all bedaubed with the fictitious +purity of chalk and water. When will the soldier cease to depend for +cleanliness upon pipe-clay, justly styled by Dr Fergusson "as absurd and +unwholesome a nuisance as ever was invented." Had the object been to give +the utmost possible trouble to the infantry-man, no better means could +have been devised than inflicting on him the belts at present used, of all +others the most easily sullied and troublesome to clean. Let a black +patent leather belt and rifleman's cartridge-box be adopted as the +regulation for the whole of the British service. Light to carry, +convenient in form, and easy to clean, it is the perfection of infantry +equipment. + +There has recently been a great talk about hats, and various shocking bad +ones have been proposed as a substitute for the old top-heavy shako. +Without entering upon a subject that has already caused so much +controversy, we would point attention to the light shako worn by the +French troops in Algeria. Low, and slightly tapering in form, with a broad +peak projecting horizontally, so as to shade the eyes without embarrassing +the vision, which peaks that droop overmuch are apt to do, its +circumference is of cloth, its crown of thick leather painted white. The +general effect is good, conveying an idea of lightness and convenience, +both of which this head-dress certainly possesses; and it appears to us +that a hint might be taken from it, at any rate, for our troops in India, +and other hot climates. As to fur caps a yard high, and similar +nonsensical exhibitions, we can only say that the sooner they are done +away with, the better for the credit of those who have it in their power +to abolish such gross absurdities. With regard to coats, "I advance no +pretensions," says Dr Fergusson, "to fancy or taste in military dress, but +I ought to know what constitutes cover and protection to the human frame, +and amongst these the swallow-tailed coat of the infantry, pared away as +it is to an absurdity, holds no place. If health and protection were the +object, the coat should be of round cut, to cover the thighs as low as the +knees, with body of sufficient depth to support the unprotected flanks and +abdomen of the wearer." In the French service, frock-coats have of late +been universally adopted. We should prefer a tailed coat of greater +amplitude of skirt and depth of body than the one in present use; for it +is certain, and will be acknowledged by all who have performed marches and +pedestrian excursions, that the skirts of a frock-coat flapping against +the front of the thighs, more or less impede motion and add to fatigue. + +Although the form of a soldier's dress is important, for it may make a +considerable difference in his health and comfort, its colour and +ornamental details are a very secondary consideration. It were absurd to +doubt that a British soldier would fight equally well, whatever the tint +of the cloth that covered his stalwart arm and stout heart. Strip him +to-morrow of his scarlet, and he will do his devoir as nobly in the white +jacket of the Austrian grenadier or the brown one of the Portuguese +_cazador_. Such matters, it will be said, may be left to army tailors and +pet colonels of fancy regiments, in conclave assembled. Nevertheless it is +a subject that should not entirely be passed over. Soldiers are apt to +look with disgust and contempt upon equipments that are tawdry and +unserviceable, or that give them unnecessary trouble. They should be +gravely, soberly, and usefully clad, in the garb that may be found most +comfortable and durable in the field, not in that which most flatters the +eye on a Hounslow or Hyde Park parade. Dr Fergusson is amusing enough upon +the subject of hussar pelisses and such-like foreign fooleries. + +"The first time I ever saw a hussar, or hulan, was at Ghent, in Flanders, +then an Austrian town; and when I beheld a richly decorated pelisse +waving, empty sleeves and all, from his shoulder, I never doubted that the +poor man must have been recently shot through the arm; a glance, however, +upon a tightly braided sleeve underneath, made it still more +unaccountable; and why he should not have had an additional pair of richly +ornamental breeches dangling at his waist, as well as a jacket from his +shoulders, has, I confess, puzzled me from that time to the present; it +being the first rule of health to keep the upper portion of the body as +cool, and the lower as warm as possible." + +The doctor further disapproves of scarlet as a colour for uniform, because +"a man clothed in scarlet exhibits the dress of a mountebank rather than +of a British warrior going forth to fight the battles of his country," and +also "because it is the worst adapted for any hard work of all the +colours, as it immediately becomes shabby and tarnished on being exposed +to the weather; and a single wet night in the bivouac spoils it +completely." Here we must differ from the doctor. The chief advantage of +scarlet, we have always considered, and we believe the same opinion to be +generally held by military men, is that it looks well longer, gets white +and shabby later, than a darker colour. The preparation of the cloth and +mode of dyeing, may, however, have been improved since Dr Fergusson's +period of service. With regard to the colour, there is a popular prejudice +in its favour, associating it as most persons do, from childhood upwards, +with ideas of glory and victory. Had our uniform been yellow for the same +period that it has been red, we should have attached those ideas to the +former colour; but that would be no reason for continuing to dress +soldiers like canary birds. Apart from association, scarlet is unmilitary, +first, because it is tawdry; and, secondly, as rendering the soldier, when +isolated, an easier mark than a less glaring colour. We doubt also, if it +would harmonize well with the black belts, which we desire to see adopted; +and on these various accounts we must give our vote in favour of the sober +blue of the Prussians, assuredly no un-British colour, and one already in +use for many of our cavalry regiments. The Portuguese troops, as they are +now uniformed, or were, when last we saw them, offer no bad model in this +respect. Blue coats and dark grey trousers are the colours of their line +regiments, and these we should like to see adopted in our service, +preserving always the green for the rifles, who ought to be ten times as +numerous as they are, as we shall discover whenever we come to a brush +with the Yankees, or with our old and gallant opponent, Monsieur +Nong-tong-paw. One would have thought that the picking off of our officers +at New Orleans, and on other occasions, and the stinging practice of +French tirailleurs during the last war, would have taught our military +rulers a lesson in this respect; but the contrary seems the case, and on +we go at the old jog-trot, heavy men, heavy equipments, and slow march, +whilst seven-eighths of the French army are practically light infantry, +and it is only the other day that they raised ten new regiments of +sharpshooters, the Chasseurs de Vincennes, or some such name, little light +active riflemen, trained to leap and to march for leagues at double quick, +and who would scamper round a ten acre field whilst a heavy British +grenadier went through his facings. The cool steadiness and indomitable +pluck of our fellows has hitherto carried the day, and will doubtless do +it again when the time comes, but it would be done with greater ease and +less loss if we could condescend to fight our enemy rather more with his +own weapons. _Fas est ab hoste doceri_, is a maxim oftener quoted than +acted upon. But to return to uniforms. The scarlet might be reserved for +the guards--it has always been a guardsman's colour--the blue given to the +line, the green kept for the rifles; black belts on rifle plan for all. +And above all, if it can be done without too great annoyance to tailors, +amateur and professional, deliver us from braided pelisses, bearskin caps, +crimson pantaloons, and all such costly and unserviceable fopperies. Spend +money on the well-being of the soldier, rather than on the smartness of +his uniform; cut down frippery, and increase comfort. Attend less to the +glitter of externals, and more to that moral and intellectual cultivation, +which will convert men now treated as machines, into reasoning and +reasonable creatures, and valuable members of society. + + + + +MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. NO. IV. + +CHARLES RUSSELL, THE GENTLEMAN-COMMONER. + + +CHAP. I. + +"Have you any idea who that fresh gentleman-commoner is?" said I to +Savile, who was sitting next to me at dinner, one day soon after the +beginning of term. We had not usually in the college above three or four +of that privileged class, so that any addition to their table attracted +more attention than the arrival of the vulgar herd of freshmen to fill up +the vacancies at our own. Unless one of them had choked himself with his +mutton, or taken some equally decided mode of making himself an object of +public interest, scarcely any man of "old standing" would have even +inquired his name. + +"Is he one of our men?" said Savile, as he scrutinized the party in +question. "I thought he had been a stranger dining with some of them. +Murray, you know the history of every man who comes up, I believe--who is +he?" + +"His name is Russell," replied the authority referred to; "Charles +Wynderbie Russell; his father's a banker in the city: Russell and Smith, +you know, ---- Street." + +"Ay, I dare say," said Savile; "one of your rich tradesmen; they always +come up as gentlemen-commoners, to show that they have lots of money: it +makes me wonder how any man of decent family ever condescends to put on a +silk gown." Savile was the younger son of a poor baronet, thirteenth in +descent, and affected considerable contempt for any other kind of +distinction. + +"Oh!" continued Murray, "this man is by no means of a bad family: his +father comes of one of the oldest houses in Dorsetshire, and his mother, +you know, is one of the Wynderbies of Wynderbie Court--a niece of Lord De +Staveley's." + +"_I_ know!" said Savile; "nay, I never heard of Wynderbie Court in my +life; but I dare say _you_ know, which is quite sufficient. Really, +Murray, you might make a good speculation by publishing a genealogical +list of the undergraduate members of the university--birth, parentage, +family connexions, governors' present incomes, probable expectations, &c., +&c. It would sell capitally among the tradesmen--they'd know exactly when +it was safe to give credit. You could call it _A Guide to Duns_." + +"Or a _History of the_ Un-_landed Gentry_," suggested I. + +"Well, he is a very gentleman-like looking fellow, that Mr Russell, banker +or not," said Savile, as the unconscious subject of our conversation left +the hall; "I wonder who knows him?" + +The same question might have been asked a week--a month after this +conversation, without eliciting any very satisfactory answer. With the +exception of Murray's genealogical information--the correctness of which +was never doubted for a moment, though how or where he obtained this and +similar pieces of history, was a point on which he kept up an amusing +mystery--Russell was a man of whom no one appeared to know any thing at +all. The other gentlemen-commoners had, I believe, all called upon him, as +a matter of courtesy to one of their own limited mess; but in almost every +case it had merely amounted to an exchange of cards. He was either out of +his rooms, or "sporting oak;" and "Mr C. W. Russell," on a bit of +pasteboard, had invariably appeared in the note-box of the party for whom +the honour was intended, on their return from their afternoon's walk or +ride. Invitations to two or three wine-parties had followed, and been +civilly declined. It was at one of these meetings that he again became the +subject of conversation. We were a large party, at a man of the name of +Tichborne's rooms, when some one mentioned having met "the Hermit," as +they called him, taking a solitary walk about three miles out of Oxford +the day before. + +"Oh, you mean Russell," said Tichborne: "well, I was going to tell you, I +called on him again this morning, and found him in his rooms. In fact, I +almost followed him in after lecture; for I confess I had some little +curiosity to find out what he was made of." + +"And did you find out?"--"What sort of a fellow is he?" asked half-a-dozen +voices at once; for, to say the truth, the curiosity which Tichborne had +just confessed had been pretty generally felt, even among those who +usually affected a dignified disregard of all matters concerning the +nature and habits of freshmen. + +"I sat with him for about twenty minutes; indeed, I should have staid +longer, for I rather liked the lad; but he seemed anxious to get rid of +me. I can't make him out at all, though. I wanted him to come here +to-night, but he positively would not, though he didn't pretend to have +any other engagement: he said he never, or seldom, drank wine." + +"Not drink wine!" interrupted Savile. "I always said he was some low +fellow!" + +"I have known some low fellows drink their skins full of wine, though; +especially at other men's expense," said Tichborne, who was evidently not +pleased with the remark; "and Russell is _not_ a low fellow by any means." + +"Well, well," replied Savile, whose good-humour was imperturbable--"if you +say so, there's an end of it: all I mean to say is, I can't conceive any +man not drinking wine, unless for the simple reason that he prefers brandy +and water, and that I _do_ call low. However, you'll excuse my helping +myself to another glass of this particularly good claret, Tichborne, +though it _is_ at your expense: indeed, the only use of you +gentlemen-commoners, that I am aware of, is to give us a taste of the +senior common-room wine now and then. They do manage to get it good there, +certainly. I wish they would give out a few dozens as prizes at +collections; it would do us a great deal more good than a Russia-leather +book with the college arms on it. I don't know that I shouldn't take to +reading in that case." + +"Drink a dozen of it, old fellow, if you can," said Tichborne. "But really +I am sorry we couldn't get Russell here this evening; I think he would be +rather an acquisition, if he could be drawn out. As to his not drinking +wine, that's a matter of taste; and he is not very likely to corrupt the +good old principles of the college on that point. But he must please +himself." + +"What does he do with himself?" said one of the party--"read?" + +"Why, he didn't _talk_ about reading, as most of our literary freshmen do, +which might perhaps lead one to suppose he really was something of a +scholar; still, I doubt if he is what you call a reading man; I know he +belongs to the Thucydides lecture, and I have never seen him there but +once." + +"Ah!" said Savile, with a sigh, "that's another privilege of yours I had +forgotten, which is rather enviable; you can cut lectures when you like, +without getting a thundering imposition. Where does this man Russell +live?" + +"He has taken those large rooms that Sykes used to have, and fitted up so +capitally; they were vacant, you remember, the last two terms; I had some +thought of moving into them myself, but they were confoundedly expensive, +and I didn't think it worth while. They cost Sykes I don't know how much, +in painting and papering, and are full of all sorts of couches, and easy +chairs, and so forth. And this man seems to have got two or three good +paintings into them; and, altogether, they are now the best rooms in +college, by far." + +"Does he mean to hunt?" asked another. + +"No, I fancy not," replied our host: "though he spoke as if he knew +something about it; but he said he had no horses in Oxford." + +"Nor any where else, I'll be bound; he's a precious slow coach, you may +depend upon it." And with this decisive remark, Mr Russell and his affairs +were dismissed for the time. + +A year passed away, and still, at the end of that time--(a long time it +seemed in those days)--Russell was as much a stranger in college as ever. +He had begun to be regarded as a rather mysterious person. Hardly two men +in the college agreed in their estimate of his character. Some said he was +a natural son--the acknowledged heir to a large fortune, but too proud to +mix in society, under the consciousness of a dishonoured birth. But this +suspicion was indignantly refuted by Murray, as much on behalf of his own +genealogical accuracy, as for Russell's legitimacy,--he was undoubtedly +the true and lawful son and heir of Mr Russell the banker, of ---- Street. +Others said he was poor; but his father was reputed to be the most wealthy +partner in a wealthy firm, and was known to have a considerable estate in +the west of England. There were not wanting those who said he was +"eccentric,"--in the largest sense of the term. Yet his manners and +conduct, as far as they came within notice, were correct, regular, and +gentlemanly beyond criticism. There was nothing about him which could +fairly incur the minor charge of being odd. He dressed well, though very +plainly; would converse freely enough, upon any subject, with the few men +who, from sitting at the same table, or attending the same lectures, had +formed a doubtful sort of acquaintance with him; and always showed great +good sense, a considerable knowledge of the world, and a courtesy, and at +the same time perfect dignity of manner, which effectually prevented any +attempt to penetrate, by jest or direct question, the reserve in which he +had chosen to inclose himself. All invitations he steadily refused; even +to the extent of sending an excuse to the dean's and tutors' breakfast +parties, to their ineffable disgust. Whether he read hard, or not, was +equally a secret. He was regular in his attendance at chapel, and +particularly attentive to the service; a fact which by no means tended to +lower him in men's estimation, though in those days more remarkable than, +happily, it would be now. At lectures, indeed, he was not equally +exemplary, either as to attendance or behaviour; he was often absent when +asked a question, and not always accurate when he replied; and +occasionally declined translating a passage which came to his turn, on the +ground of not having read it. Yet his scholarship, if not always strictly +accurate, had a degree of elegance which betokened both talent and +reading; and his taste was evidently naturally good, and classical +literature a subject of interest to him. Altogether, it rather piqued the +vanity of those who saw most of him, that he would give them no +opportunity of seeing more; and many affected to sneer at him, as a +"_muff_," who would have been exceedingly flattered by his personal +acquaintance. Only one associate did Charles Russell appear to have in the +university; and this was a little greenish-haired man in a scholar's gown, +a perfect contrast to himself in appearance, whose name or college no man +knew, though some professed to recognise him as a Bible-clerk of one of +the smallest and most obscure of the halls. + +Attempts were made to pump out of his scout some information as to how +Russell passed his time: for, with the exception of a daily walk, +sometimes with the companion above mentioned, but much oftener alone, and +his having been seen once or twice in a skiff on the river, he appeared +rarely to quit his own rooms. Scouts are usually pretty communicative of +all they know--and sometimes a great deal more--about the affairs of their +many masters; and they are not inclined in general to hold a very high +opinion of those among "their gentlemen" who, like Russell, are +behind-hand in the matter of wine and supper parties--their own +perquisites suffering thereby. But Job Allen was a scout of a thousand. +His honesty and integrity made him quite the "_rara avis_" of his +class--_i.e._, a _white_ swan amongst a flock of black ones. Though +really, since I have left the university, and been condemned to +house-keeping, and have seen the peculation and perquisite-hunting +existing pretty nearly in the same proportion amongst ordinary +servants--and the higher you go in society the worse it seems to +be--without a tittle of the activity and cleverness displayed by a good +college scout, who provides supper and etceteras for an extemporary party +of twenty or so at an hour's notice, without starting a difficulty or +giving vent to a grumble, or neglecting any one of his other multifarious +duties, (further than perhaps borrowing for the service of the said +supper, some hard-reading freshman's whole stock of knives, and leaving +him to spread his nocturnal bread and butter with his fingers;) since I +have been led to compare this with the fuss and fidget caused in a +"well-regulated family" among one's own lazy vagabonds by having an extra +horse to clean, or by a couple of friends arriving unexpectedly to dinner, +when they all stare at you as if you were expecting impossibilities, I +have nearly come to the conclusion that college servants, like hedgehogs, +are a grossly calumniated race of animals--wrongfully accused of getting +their living by picking and stealing, whereas they are in fact rather more +honest than the average of their neighbours. It is to be hoped that, like +the hedgehogs, they enjoy a compensation in having too thick skins to be +over-sensitive. At all events, Job Allen was an honest fellow. He had been +known to expostulate with some of his more reckless masters upon the +absurdities of their goings-on; and had more than once had a commons of +bread flung at his head, when taking the opportunity of symptoms of +repentance, in an evident disrelish for breakfast, to hint at the slow but +inevitable approach of "degree-day." Cold chickens from the evening's +supper-party had made a miraculous reappearance at next morning's lunch or +breakfast; half-consumed bottles of port seemed, under his auspices, to +lead charmed lives. No wonder, then, there was very little information +about the private affairs of Russell to be got out of Job Allen. He had +but a very poor talent for gossip, and none at all for invention. "Mr +Russell's a very nice, quiet sort of gentleman, sir, and keeps his-self +pretty much to his-self." This was Job's account of him; and, to curious +enquirers, it was provoking both for its meagreness and its truth. "Who's +his friend in the rusty gown, Job?" "I thinks, sir, his name's Smith." "Is +Mr Russell going up for a class, Job?" "I can't say indeed, sir." "Does he +read hard?" "Not over-hard I think, sir." "Does he sit up late, Job?" "Not +over-late, sir." If there was any thing to tell, it was evident Job would +neither commit himself nor his master. + +Russell's conduct was certainly uncommon. If he had been the son of a poor +man, dependent for his future livelihood on his own exertions, eking out +the scanty allowance ill-spared by his friends by the help of a +scholarship or exhibition, and avoiding society as leading to necessary +expense, his position would have been understood, and even, in spite of +the prejudices of youthful extravagance, commended. Or if he had been a +hard-reading man from choice--or a stupid man--or a "saint"--no one would +have troubled themselves about him or his proceedings. But Russell was a +gentleman-commoner, and a man who had evidently seen something of the +world; a rich man, and apparently by no means of the character fitted for +a recluse. He had dined once with the principal, and the two or three men +who had met him there were considerably surprised at the easy gracefulness +of his manners, and his information upon many points usually beyond the +range of undergraduates: at his own table, too, he never affected any +reserve, although, perhaps from a consciousness of having virtually +declined any intimacy with his companions, he seldom originated any +conversation. It might have been assumed, indeed, that he despised the +society into which he was thrown, but that his bearing, so far from being +haughty or even cold, was occasionally marked by apparent dejection. There +was also, at times, a breaking out as it were of the natural spirits of +youth, checked almost abruptly; and once or twice he had betrayed an +interest in, and a knowledge of, field-sports and ordinary amusements, +which for the moment made his hearers fancy, as Tichborne said, that he +was "coming out." But if, as at first often happened, such conversations +led to a proposal for a gallop with the harriers, or a ride the next +afternoon, or a match at billiards, or even an invitation to a quiet +breakfast party--the refusal, though always courteous--and sometimes it +was fancied unwilling--was always decided. And living day by day within +reach of that close companionship which similarity of age, pursuits, and +tastes, strengthened by daily intercourse, was cementing around him, +Charles Russell, in his twentieth year, in a position to choose his own +society, and qualified to shine in it, seemed to have deliberately adopted +the life of a recluse. + +There were some, indeed, who accounted for his behaviour on the ground of +stinginess; and it was an opinion somewhat strengthened by one or two +trifling facts. When the subscription-list for the College boat was handed +to him, he put his name down for the minimum of one guinea, though Charley +White, our secretary, with the happy union of impudence and "soft sawder" +for which he was remarkable, delicately drew his attention to the fact, +that no other gentleman-commoner had given less than five. Still it was +not very intelligible that a man who wished to save his pocket, should +choose to pay double fees for the privilege of wearing a velvet cap and +silk gown, and rent the most expensive set of rooms in the college. + +It happened that I returned one night somewhat late from a friend's rooms +out of college, and had the satisfaction to find that my scout, in an +unusually careful mood, had shut my outer "oak," which had a spring lock, +of which I never by any chance carried the key. It was too late to send +for the rascal to open it, and I was just planning the possibility of +effecting an entrance at the window by means of the porter's ladder, when +the light in Russell's room caught my eye, and I remembered that, in the +days of their former occupant, our keys used to correspond, very much to +our mutual convenience. It was no very great intrusion, even towards one +in the morning, to ask a man to lend you his door-key, when the +alternative seemed to be spending the night in the quadrangle: so I walked +up his staircase, knocked, was admitted, and stated my business with all +proper apologies. The key was produced most graciously, and down I went +again--unluckily two steps at a time. My foot slipped, and one grand +rattle brought me to the bottom: not head first, but feet first, which +possibly is not quite so dangerous, but any gentleman who has tried it +will agree with me that it is sufficiently unpleasant. I was dreadfully +shaken; and when I tried to get up, found it no easy matter. Russell, I +suppose, heard the fall, for he was by my side by the time I had collected +my ideas. I felt as if I had skinned myself at slight intervals all down +one side; but the worst of it was a sprained ankle. How we got up-stairs +again I have no recollection; but when a glass of brandy had brought me to +a little, I found myself in an easy-chair, with my foot on a stool, +shivering and shaking like a wet puppy. I staid there a fortnight, (not in +the chair, reader, but in the rooms;) and so it was I became intimately +acquainted with Charles Russell. His kindness and attention to me were +excessive; I wished of course to be moved to my own rooms at once, but he +would not hear of it; and as I found every wriggle and twist which I gave +quite sufficiently painful, I acceded to my surgeon's advice to remain +where I was. + +It was not a very pleasant mode of introduction for either party. Very few +men's acquaintance is worth the pains of bumping all the way downstairs +and spraining an ankle for: and for a gentleman who voluntarily confines +himself to his own apartment and avoids society, to have another party +chummed in upon him perforce, day and night, sitting in an armchair, with +a suppressed groan occasionally, and an abominable smell of hartshorn--is, +to say the least of it, not the happiest mode of hinting to him the evils +of solitude. Whether it was that the one of us, compelled thus against his +will to play the host, was anxious to show he was no churl by nature, and +the other, feeling himself necessarily in a great degree an intruder and a +bore, put forth more zealously any redeeming social qualities he might +possess; be this as it might, within that fortnight Russell and I became +sincere friends. + +I found him, as I had expected, a most agreeable and gentlemanlike +companion, clever and well informed, and with a higher and more settled +tone of principles than is common to his age and position. But strongly +contrasted with his usually cheerful manner, were sudden intervals of +abstraction approaching to gloominess. In him, it was evidently not the +result of caprice, far less of any thing approaching to affectation. I +watched him closely, partly from interest, partly because I had little +else to do, and became convinced that there was some latent cause of grief +or anxiety at work. Once in particular, after the receipt of some letters, +(they were always opened hurriedly, and apparently with a painful +interest,) he was so visibly discomposed and depressed in spirits, that I +ventured to express a hope that they had contained no distressing +intelligence. Russell seemed embarrassed at having betrayed any unusual +emotion, and answered in the negative; adding, that "he knew he was +subject to the blues occasionally"--and I felt I could say no more. But I +suppose I did not look convinced; for catching my eyes fixed on him soon +afterwards, he shook my hand and said, "Something _has_ vexed me--I cannot +tell you what; but I won't think about it again now." + +One evening, towards the close of my imprisonment, after a long and +pleasant talk over our usual sober wind-up of a cup of coffee, some recent +publication, tasteful, but rather expensive, was mentioned, which Russell +expressed a wish to see. I put the natural question, to a man in his +position who could appreciate the book, and to whom a few pounds were no +consideration--why did he not order it? He coloured slightly, and after a +moment's hesitation hurriedly replied, "Because I cannot afford it." I +felt a little awkwardness as to what to say next; for the style of every +thing round me betrayed a lavish disregard of expense, and yet the remark +did not at all bear the tone of a jest. Probably Russell understood what +was passing in my mind; for presently, without looking at me, he went on: +"Yes, you may well think it a pitiful economy to grudge five guineas for a +book like that, and indulge one's-self in such pompous mummery as we have +here;" and he pushed down with his foot a massive and beautiful silver +coffee-pot, engraved with half-a-dozen quarterings of arms, which, in +spite of a remonstrance from me, had been blackening before the fire to +keep its contents warm. "Never mind it," he continued, as I in vain put +out my hand to save it from falling--"it won't be damaged; it will fetch +just as much per ounce; and I really cannot afford to buy an inferior +article." Russell's behaviour up to this moment had been rational enough, +but at the moment a suspicion crossed my mind that "eccentricity," as +applied to his case, might possibly, as in some other cases, be merely an +euphonism for something worse. However, I picked up the coffee-pot, and +said nothing. "You must think me very strange, Hawthorne; I quite forgot +myself at the moment; but if you choose to be trusted with a secret, which +will be no secret long, I will tell you what will perhaps surprise you +with regard to my own position, though I really have no right to trouble +you with my confidences." I disclaimed any wish to assume the right of +inquiring into private matters, but at the same time expressed, as I +sincerely felt, an interest in what was evidently a weight on my +companion's mind. "Well, to say the truth," continued Russell, "I think it +will be a relief to me to tell you how I stand. I know that I have often +felt of late that I am acting a daily lie here, to all the men about me; +passing, doubtless, for a rich man, when in truth, for aught I know, I and +all my family are beggars at this moment." He stopped, walked to the +window, and returned. "I am surrounded here by luxuries which have little +right within a college's walls; I occupy a distinctive position which you +and others are supposed not to be able to afford. I never can mix with any +of you, without, as it were, carrying with me every where the +superscription written--'This is a rich man.' And yet, with all this +outward show, I may be a debtor to your charity for my bread to-morrow. +You are astonished, Hawthorne; of course you are. I am not thus playing +the hypocrite willingly, believe me. Had I only my own comfort, and my own +feelings to consult, I would take my name off the college books to-morrow. +How I bear the life I lead, I scarcely know." + +"But tell me," said I, "as you have told me so much, what is the secret of +all this?" + +"I will; I was going to explain. My only motive for concealment, my only +reason for even wishing you to keep my counsel, is, because the character +and prospects of others are concerned. My father, as I dare say you know, +is pretty well known as the head of the firm of Russell and Smith: he +passes for a rich man, of course; he _was_ a rich man, I believe, once; +and I, his only son and heir--brought up as I was to look upon money as a +plaything--I was sent to college of course as a gentleman-commoner. I knew +nothing, as a lad, of my father's affairs: there were fools enough to tell +me he was rich, and that I had nothing to do but to spend his money--and I +did spend it--ay, too much of it--yet not so much, perhaps, as I might. +Not since I came here, Hawthorne; oh no!--not since I found out that it +was neither his nor mine to spend--I have not been so bad as that, thank +God. And if ever man could atone, by suffering, for the thoughtlessness +and extravagance of early days, I have wellnigh paid my penalty in full +already. I told you, I entered here as a gentleman-commoner; my father +came down to Oxford with me, chose my rooms, sent down this furniture and +these paintings from town--thank Heaven, I knew not what they +cost--ordered a couple of hunters and a groom for me--those I stopped from +coming down--and, in fact, made every preparation for me to commence my +career with credit as to heir-apparent to a large fortune. Some suspicions +that all was not right had crossed my mind before: certain conversations +between my father and cold-looking men of business, not meant for my ear, +and very imperfectly understood--for it appeared to be my father's object +to keep me totally ignorant of all the mysteries of banking--an increasing +tendency on his part to grumble over petty expenses which implied ready +payment, with an ostentatious profusion in show and entertainments--many +slight circumstances put together had given me a sort of vague alarm at +times, which I shook off, as often as it recurred, like a disagreeable +dream. A week after I entered college, a letter from my only sister opened +my eyes to the truth. What I had feared was a temporary embarrassment--a +disagreeable necessity for retrenchment, or, at the worst, a stoppage of +payment, and a respectable bankruptcy, which would injure no one but the +creditors. What she spoke of, was absolute ruin, poverty, and, what was +worse, disgrace. It came upon me very suddenly--but I bore it. I am not +going to enter into particulars about family matters to you, +Hawthorne--you would not wish it, I know; let me only say, my sister Mary +is an angel, and my father a weak-minded man--I will hope, not +intentionally a dishonest one. But I have learnt enough to know that there +are embarrassments from which he can never extricate himself with honour, +and that every month, every week, that he persists in maintaining a +useless struggle will only add misery to misery in the end. How long it +may go on no one can say--but the end must come. My own first impulse was, +of course, to leave this place at once, and so, at all events, to avoid +additional expenses: but my father would not hear of it. I went to him, +told him what I knew, though not how I had heard it, and drew from him a +sort of confession that he had made some unfortunate speculations. But +'only let us keep up appearances'--those were his words--a little while, +and all would be right again, he assured me. I made no pretence of +believing him; but, Hawthorne, when he offered to go on his knees to +me--and I his only son--and promised to retrench in every possible method +that would not betray his motives, if I would but remain at college to +take my degree--'to keep up appearances'--what could I do?" + +"Plainly," said I, "you did right: I do not see that you had any +alternative. Nor have you any right to throw away your future prospects. +Your father's unfortunate embarrassments are no disgrace to you." + +"So said my sister. I knew her advice must be right, and I consented to +remain here. _You_ know I lead no life of self-indulgence; and the +necessary expenses, even as a gentleman-commoner, are less than you would +suppose, unless you had tried matters as closely as I have." + +"And with our talents," said I. + +"My talents! I am conscious of but one talent at present: the faculty of +feeling acutely the miserable position into which I have been forced. No, +if you mean that I am to gain any sort of distinction by hard reading, it +is simply what I cannot do. Depend upon it, Hawthorne, a man must have a +mind tolerably at ease to put forth any mental exertion to good purpose. +If this crash were once over, and I were reduced to my proper level in +society--which will, I suppose, be pretty nearly that of a pauper--_then_ +I think I could work for my bread either with head or hands: but in this +wretchedly false position, here I sit bitterly, day after day, with books +open before me perhaps, but with no heart to read, and no memory but for +one thing. You know my secret now, Hawthorne, and it has been truly a +relief to me to unburden my mind to some one here. I am very much alone, +indeed; and it is not at all my nature to be solitary: if you will come +and see me sometimes, now that you know all, it will be a real kindness. +It is no great pleasure, I assure you," he continued, smiling, "to be +called odd, and selfish, and stingy, by those of one's own age, as I feel +I must be called; but it is much better than to lead the life I might +lead--spending money which is not mine, and accustoming myself to +luxuries, when I may soon have to depend on charity even for necessaries. +For my own comfort, it might be better, as I said before, that the crisis +came at once: still, if I remain here until I am qualified for some +profession, by which I may one day be able to support my sister--that is +the hope I feed on--why, then, this sort of existence may be endured." + +Russell had at least no reason to complain of having disclosed his mind to +a careless listener. I was moved almost to tears at his story: but, +stronger than all other feelings, was admiration of his principles and +character. I felt that some of us had almost done him irreverence in +venturing to discuss him so lightly as we had often done. How little we +know the heart of others, and how readily we prate about "seeing through" +a man, when in truth what we see is but a surface, and the image conveyed +to our mind from it but the reflection of ourselves! + +My intimacy with Russell, so strangely commenced, had thus rapidly and +unexpectedly taken the character of that close connexion which exists +between those who have one secret and engrossing interest confined to +themselves alone. We were now more constantly together, perhaps, than any +two men in college: and many were the jokes I had to endure in +consequence. Very few of my old companions had ventured to carry their +attentions to me, while laid up in Russell's rooms, beyond an occasional +call at the door to know how I was going on; and when I got back to my old +quarters, and had refused one or two invitations on the plea of having +Russell coming to spend a quiet evening with me, their astonishment and +disgust were expressed pretty unequivocally, and they affected to call us +the exclusives. However, Russell was a man who, if he made few friends, +gave no excuse for enemies: and, in time, my intimacy with him, and +occasional withdrawals from general society in consequence, came to be +regarded as a pardonable weakness--unaccountable, but past all help--a +subject on which the would-be wisest of my friends shook their heads, and +said nothing. + +I think this new connexion was of advantage to both parties. To myself it +certainly was. I date the small gleams of good sense and sobermindedness +which broke in upon my character at that critical period of life, solely +from my intercourse with Charles Russell. He, on the other hand, had +suffered greatly from the want of that sympathy and support which the +strongest mind at times stands as much in need of as the weakest, and +which in his peculiar position could only be purchased by an unreserved +confidence. From any premeditated explanation he would have shrunk; nor +would he ever, as he himself confessed, have made the avowal he did to me, +except it had escaped him by a momentary impulse. But, having made it, he +seemed a happier man. His reading, which before had been desultory and +interrupted, was now taken up in earnest: and idly inclined as I was +myself, I became, with the pseudo sort of generosity not uncommon at that +age, so much more anxious for his future success than my own, that, in +order to encourage him, I used to go to his rooms to read with him, and we +had many a hard morning's work together. + +We were very seldom interrupted by visitors: almost the only one was that +unknown and unprepossessing friend of Russell's who has been mentioned +before--his own contradictory in almost every respect. Very uncouth and +dirty-looking he was, and stuttered terribly--rather, it seemed, from +diffidence than from any natural defect. He showed some surprise on the +first two or three occasions in which he encountered me, and made an +immediate attempt to back out of the room again: and though Russell +invariably recalled him, and showed an evident anxiety to treat him with +every consideration, he never appeared at his ease for a moment, and made +his escape as soon as possible. Russell always fixed a time for seeing him +again--usually the next day: and there was evidently some object in these +interviews, into which, as it was no concern of mine, I never enquired +particularly, as I had already been intrusted with a confidence rather +unusual as the result of a few weeks' acquaintance; and on the subject of +his friend--"poor Smith," as he called him--Russell did not seem disposed +to be communicative. + +Time wore on, and brought round the Christmas vacation. I thought it due +to myself, as all young men do, to get up to town for a week or two if +possible; and being lucky enough to have an old aunt occupying a very dark +house much too large for her, and who, being rather a prosy personage, a +little deaf, and very opinionated, and therefore not a special object of +attraction to her relations, (her property was merely a life-interest,) +was very glad to get any one to come and see her--I determined to pay a +visit, in which the score of obligations would be pretty equally balanced +on both sides. On the one hand, the tête-à-tête dinners with the old lady, +and her constant catechising about Oxford, were a decided bore to me; +while it required some forbearance on her part to endure an inmate who +constantly rushed into the drawing-room without wiping his boots, who had +no taste for old china, and against whom the dear dog Petto had an +unaccountable but decided antipathy. (Poor dog! I fear he was ungrateful: +I used to devil spunge biscuit, internally, for him after dinner, kept a +snuff-box more for his use than my own, and prolonged his life, I feel +confident, at least twelve months from apoplexy, by pulling hairs out of +his tail with a tweezer whenever he went to sleep.) On the other hand, my +aunt had good wine, and I used to praise it; which was agreeable to both +parties. She got me pleasant invitations, and was enabled herself to make +her appearance in society with a live nephew in her suite, who in her eyes +(I confess, reader, old aunts are partial) was a very eligible young man. +So my visit, on the whole, was mutually agreeable and advantageous. I had +my mornings to myself, gratifying the dowager occasionally by a drive with +her in the afternoon; and we had sufficient engagements for our evenings +to make each other's sole society rather an unusual infliction. It is +astonishing how much such an arrangement tends to keep people the best +friends in the world. + +I had attended my respectable relation one evening (or rather she had +attended me, for I believe she went more for my sake than her own) to a +large evening party, which was a ball in every thing but the name. Nearly +all in the rooms were strangers to me; but I had plenty of introductions, +and the night wore on pleasantly enough. I saw a dozen pretty faces I had +never seen before, and was scarcely likely to see again--the proportion of +ugly ones I forbear to mention--and was prepared to bear the meeting and +the parting with equal philosophy, when the sight of a very familiar face +brought different scenes to my mind. Standing within half-a-dozen steps of +me, and in close conversation with a lady, of whom I could see little +besides a cluster of dark curls, was Ormiston, one of our college tutors, +and one of the most universally popular men in Oxford. It would be wrong +to say I was surprised to see him there or any where else, for his roll of +acquaintance was most extensive, embracing all ranks and degrees; but I +was very glad to see him, and made an almost involuntary dart forward in +his direction. He saw me, smiled, and put out his hand, but did not seem +inclined to enter into any conversation. I was turning away, when a sudden +movement gave me a full view of the face of the lady to whom he had been +talking. It was a countenance of that pale, clear, intellectual beauty, +with a shade of sadness about the mouth, which one so seldom sees but in a +picture, but which, when seen, haunts the imagination and the memory +rather than excites passionate admiration. The eyes met mine, and, quite +by accident, for the thoughts were evidently pre-occupied, retained for +some moments the same fixed gaze with which I almost as unconsciously was +regarding them. There was something in the features which seemed not +altogether unknown to me; and I was beginning to speculate on the +possibility of any small heroine of my boyish admiration having shot up +into such sweet womanhood--such changes soon occur--when the eyes became +conscious, and the head was rapidly turned away. I lost her a moment +afterwards in the crowd, and although I watched the whole of the time we +remained, with an interest that amused myself, I could not see her again. +She must have left the party early. + +So strong became the impression on my mind that it was a face I had known +before, and so fruitless and tantalizing were my efforts to give it "a +local habitation and a name"--that I determined at last to question my +aunt upon the subject, though quite aware of the imputation that would +follow. The worst of it was, I had so few tangible marks and tokens by +which to identify my interesting unknown. However, at breakfast next +morning, I opened ground at once, in answer to my hostess's remark that +the rooms had been very full. + +"Yes, they were: I wanted very much, my dear aunt, to have asked you the +names of all the people; but you really were so much engaged, I had no +opportunity." + +"Ah! if you had come and sat by me, I could have told you all about them; +but there were some very odd people there, too." + +"There was one rather interesting-looking girl I did not see dancing +much--tallish, with pearl earrings." + +"Where was she sitting? how was she dressed?" + +I had only seen her standing--I never noticed--I hardly think I could have +seen--even the colour of her dress. + +"Not know how she was dressed? My dear Frank, how strange!" + +"All young ladies dress alike now, aunt; there's really not much +distinction: they seemed all black and white to me." + +"Certainly the balls don't look half so gay as they used to do: a little +colour gives cheerfulness, I think." (The good old lady herself had worn +crimson satin and a suite of chrysolites--if her theory were correct, she +was enough to have spread a glow over the whole company.) "But let me +see;--tall, with pearls, you say; dark hair and eyes?" + +"Yes." + +"You must mean Lucy Fielding." + +"Nonsense, my dear Ma'am--I beg a thousand pardons; but I was introduced +to Miss Fielding, and danced with her--she squints." + +"My dear Frank, don't say such a thing!--she will have half the +Strathinnis property when she comes of age. But let me see again. Had she +a white rose in her hair?" + +"She had, I think; or something like it." + +"It might have been Lord Dunham's youngest daughter, who is just come +out--she was there for an hour or so." + +"No, no, aunt: I know her by sight too--a pale gawky thing, with an arm +and hand like a prize-fighter's--oh no!" + +"Upon my word, my dear nephew, you young men give yourselves abominable +airs: call her a very fine young woman, and I've no doubt she will marry +well, though she hasn't much fortune. Was it Miss Cassilis, then?--white +tulle over satin, looped with roses, with gold sprigs"---- + +"And freckles to match: why, she's as old as"----; I felt myself on +dangerous ground, and filled up the hiatus, I fear not very happily, by +looking full at my aunt. + +"Not so very old, indeed, my dear: she refused a very good offer last +season: she cannot possibly be above"-- + +"Oh! spare the particulars, pray, my dear Ma'am; but you could not have +seen the girl I mean: I don't think she staid after supper: I looked every +where for her to ask who she was, but she must have been gone." + +"Really! I wish I could help you," said my aunt with a very insinuating +smile. + +"Oh," said I, "what made me anxious to know who she was at the time, was +simply that I saw her talking to an old friend of mine, whom you know +something of, I believe; did you not meet Mr Ormiston somewhere last +winter?" + +"Mr Ormiston! oh, I saw him there last night! and now I know who you mean; +it must have been Mary Russell, of course; she did wear pearls, and plain +white muslin." + +"Russell! what Russells are they?" + +"Russell the banker's daughter; I suppose nobody knows how many thousands +she'll have; but she is a very odd girl. Mr Ormiston is rather committed +in that quarter, I fancy. Ah, he's a very gentlemanly man, certainly, and +an old friend of the family; but that match would never do. Why, he must +be ten years older than she is, in the first place, and hasn't a penny +that I know of except his fellowship. No, no; she refused Sir John Maynard +last winter, with a clear twelve thousand a-year; and angry enough her +papa was about that, every body says, though he never contradicts her; but +she never will venture upon such a silly thing as a match with Mr +Ormiston." + +"Won't she?" said I mechanically, not having had time to collect my +thoughts exactly. + +"To be sure she won't," replied my aunt rather sharply. It certainly +struck me that Mary Russell, from what her brother had told me, was a +person very likely to show some little disregard of any conventional +notions of what was, or what was not desirable in the matter of matrimony; +but at the same time I inclined to agree with my aunt, that it was not +very probable she would become Mrs Ormiston; indeed, I doubted any very +serious intentions on his part. Fellows of colleges are usually somewhat +lavish of admiration and attentions; but, as many young ladies know, very +difficult to bring to book. Ormiston was certainly not a man to be +influenced by the fortune which the banker's daughter might reasonably be +credited with; if any thing made the matter seem serious, it was that his +opinion of the sex in general--as thrown out in an occasional hint or +sarcasm--seemed to border on a supercilious contempt. + +I did not meet Miss Russell again during my short stay in town; but two or +three days after this conversation, in turning the corner of the street, I +came suddenly upon Ormiston. I used to flatter myself with being rather a +favourite of his--not from any conscious merit on my part, unless that, +during the year of his deanship, when summoned before him for any small +atrocities, and called to account for them, I never took up his time or my +own by any of the usual somewhat questionable excuses, but awaited my +fate, whether "imposition" or reprimand, in silence; a plan which, with +him, answered very well, and saved occasionally some straining of +conscience on one side, and credulity on the other. I tried it with his +successor, who decided that I was contumacious, because, the first time I +was absent from chapel, in reply to his interrogations I answered nothing, +and upon his persevering, told him that I had been at a very late +supper-party the night before. I think, then, I was rather a favourite of +Ormiston's. To say that he was a favourite of mine would be saying very +little; for there could have been scarcely a man in college, of any degree +of respectability, who would not have been ready to say the same. No man +had a higher regard for the due maintenance of discipline, or his own +dignity, and the reputation of the college; yet nowhere among the seniors +could the undergraduate find a more judicious or a kinder friend. He had +the art of mixing with them occasionally with all the unreservedness of an +equal, without for a moment endangering the respect due to his position. +There was no man you could ask a favour of--even if it infringed a little +upon the strictness of college regulations--so readily as Ormiston; and no +one appeared to retain more thoroughly some of his boyish tastes and +recollections. He subscribed his five guineas to the boat, even after a +majority of the fellows had induced our good old Principal, whose annual +appearance at the river-side to cheer her at the races had seemed almost a +part of his office, to promulgate a decree to the purport that boat-racing +was immoral, and that no man engaged therein should find favour in the +sight of the authorities. Yet, at the same time, Ormiston could give grave +advice when needed; and give it in such a manner, that the most +thoughtless among us received it as from a friend. And whenever he did +administer a few words of pointed rebuke--and he did not spare it when any +really discreditable conduct came under his notice--they fell the more +heavily upon the delinquent, because the public sympathy was sure to be on +the side of the judge. The art of governing young men is a difficult one, +no doubt; but it is surprising that so few take any pains to acquire it. +There were very few Ormistons, in my time, in the high places in Oxford. + +On that morning, however, Ormiston met me with evident embarrassment, if +not with coolness. He started when he first saw me, and, had there been a +chance of doing so with decency, looked as if he would have pretended not +to recognise me. But we were too near for that, and our eyes met at once. +I was really very glad to see him, and not at all inclined to be content +with the short "How d'ye do?" so unlike his usual cordial greetings, with +which he was endeavouring to hurry on; and there was a little curiosity +afloat among my other feelings. So I fairly stopped him with a few of the +usual inquiries, as to how long he had been in town, &c., and then plunged +at once into the affair of the ball at which we had last met. He +interrupted me at once. + +"By the way," said he, "have you heard of poor Russell's business?" + +I actually shuddered, for I scarcely knew what was to follow. As +composedly as I could, I simply said, "No." + +"His father is ruined, they say--absolutely ruined. I suppose _that_ is no +secret by this time, at all events. He cannot possibly pay even a shilling +in the pound." + +"I'm very sorry indeed to hear it," was all I could say. + +"But do you know, Hawthorne," continued Ormiston, taking my arm with +something like his old manner, and no longer showing any anxiety to cut +short our interview, "I am afraid this is not the worst of it. There is a +report in the city this morning, I was told, that Mr Russell's character +is implicated by some rather unbusinesslike transactions. I believe you +are a friend of poor Russell's, and for that reason I mention it to you in +confidence. He may not be aware of it; but the rumour is, that his father +_dare_ not show himself again here: that he has left England I know to be +a fact." + +"And his daughter? Miss Russell?" I asked involuntarily--"his children, I +mean--where are they?" + +I thought Ormiston's colour heightened; but he was not a man to show much +visible emotion. "Charles Russell and his sister are still in London," he +replied; "I have just seen them. They know their father has left for the +Continent; I hope they do _not_ know all the reasons. I am very sincerely +sorry for young Russell; it will be a heavy blow to him, and I fear he +will find his circumstances bitterly changed. Of course he will have to +leave Oxford." + +"I suppose so," said I; "no one can feel more for him than I do. It was +well, perhaps, that this did not happen in term time." + +"It spared him some mortification, certainly. You will see him, perhaps, +before you leave town; he will take it kind. And if you have any influence +with him--(he will be inclined to listen, perhaps just now, to you more +than to me--being more of his own age, he will give you credit for +entering into his feelings)--do try and dissuade him from forming any wild +schemes, to which he seems rather inclined. He has some kind friends, no +doubt; and remember, if there is any thing in which I can be of use to +him, he shall have my aid--even to the half of my kingdom--that is, my +tutorship." + +And with a smile and tone which seemed a mixture of jest and earnest, Mr +Ormiston wished me good-morning. He was to leave for Oxford that night. + +Of Russell's address in town I was up to this moment ignorant, but +resolved to find it out, and see him before my return to the University. +The next morning, however, a note arrived from him, containing a simple +request that I would call. I found him at the place from which he +wrote--one of those dull quiet streets that lead out of the Strand--in +very humble lodgings; his father's private establishment having been given +up, it appeared, immediately. The moment we met, I saw at once, as I +expected, that the blow which, to Ormiston, had naturally seemed so +terrible a one--no less than the loss, to a young man, of the wealth, +rank, and prospects in life to which he had been taught to look +forward--had been, in fact, to Russell a merciful relief. The failure of +that long-celebrated and trusted house, which was causing in the public +mind, according to the papers, so much "consternation" and "excitement," +was to him a consummation long foreseen, and scarcely dreaded. It was only +the shadow of wealth and happiness which he had lost now; its substance +had vanished long since. And the conscious hollowness and hypocrisy, as he +called it, of his late position, had been a far more bitter trial to a +mind like his, than any which could result from its exposure. He was one +to hail with joy any change which brought him back to truth and reality, +no matter how rude and sudden the revulsion. + +He met me with a smile; a really honest, almost a light-hearted smile. "It +is come at last, Hawthorne; perhaps it would be wrong, or I feel as if I +could say, thank God. There is but one point which touches me at all; what +do they say about my father?" I told him--fortunately, my acquaintance +lying but little among men of business, I could tell him so honestly--that +I had not heard a syllable breathed to his discredit. + +"Well, well; but they will, soon. Oh! Hawthorne; the utter misery, the +curse that money-making brings with it! That joining house to house, and +field to field, how it corrupts all the better part of a man's nature! I +vow to you, I believe my father would have been an honest man if he had +but been a poor one! If he had never had any thing to do with interest +tables, and had but spent his capital, instead of trying to double and +redouble it! One thing I have to thank him for; that he never would suffer +me to imbibe any taste for business; he knew the evil and the pollution +money-handling brings with it--I am sure he did; he encouraged me, I fear, +in extravagance; but I bless him that he never encouraged me in +covetousness." + +He grew a little calmer by degrees, and we sat down and took counsel as to +his future plans. He was not, of course, without friends, and had already +had many offers of assistance for himself and his sister; but his heart +appeared, for the present, firmly bent upon independence. Much to my +surprise, he decided on returning at once to Oxford, and reading for his +degree. His sister had some little property settled upon her--some hundred +and fifty pounds a-year; and this she had insisted on devoting to this +purpose. + +"I love her too well," said Russell, "to refuse her: and trifling as this +sum is,--I remember the time when I should have thought it little to keep +me in gloves and handkerchiefs,--yet, with management, it will be more +than I shall spend in Oxford. Of course, I play the gentleman-commoner no +longer; I shall descend to the plain stuff gown." + +"You'll go to a hall, of course?" said I; for I concluded he would at +least avoid the mortification of so palpable a confession of reduced +circumstances as this degradation of rank in his old College would be. + +"I can see no occasion for it; that is, if they will allow me to change; I +have done nothing to be ashamed of, and shall be much happier than I was +before. I only strike my false colours; and you know they were never +carried willingly." + +I did not attempt to dissuade him, and soon after rose to take my leave. + +"I cannot ask my sister to see you now," he said, as we shook hands: "she +is not equal to it. But some other time, I hope"---- + +"At any other time, I shall be most proud of the introduction. By the way, +have you seen Ormiston? He met me this morning, and sent some kind +messages, to offer any service in his power." + +"He did, did he?" + +"Yes; and, depend upon it, he will do all he can for you in college; you +don't know him very well, I think; but I am sure he takes an interest in +you now, at all events," I continued, "and no man is a more sincere and +zealous friend." + +"I beg your pardon, Hawthorne, but I fancy I _do_ know Mr Ormiston very +well." + +"Oh! I remember, there seemed some coolness between you, because you never +would accept his invitations. Ormiston thought you were too proud to dine +with him; and then _his_ pride, which he has his share of, took fire. But +that misunderstanding must be all over now." + +"My dear Hawthorne, I believe Mr Ormiston and I understand each other +perfectly. Good-morning; I am sorry to seem abrupt, but I have a host of +things, not the most agreeable, to attend to." + +It seemed quite evident that there was some little prejudice on Russell's +part against Ormiston. Possibly he did not like his attentions to his +sister. But that was no business of mine, and I knew the other too well to +doubt his earnest wish to aid and encourage a man of Russell's high +principles, and in his unfortunate position. None of us always know our +best friends. + +The step which Russell had resolved on taking was, of course, an unusual +one. Even the college authorities strongly advised him to remove his name +to the books of one of the halls, where he would enter comparatively as a +stranger, and where his altered position would not entail so many painful +feelings. Every facility was offered him of doing so at one of them where +a relative of our Principal's was the head, and even a saving in expense +might thus be effected. But this evident kindness and consideration on +their part, only confirmed him in the resolution of remaining where he +was. He met their representations with the graceful reply, that he had an +attachment to the college which did not depend upon the rank he held in +it, and that he trusted he should not be turned out of two homes at once. +Even the heart of the splenetic little vice-principal was moved by this +genuine tribute to the venerable walls, which to him, as his mistress's +girdle to the poet, encircled all he loved, or hoped, or cared for; and +had the date been some century earlier--in those remarkable times when a +certain fellow was said to have owed his election into that body to a +wondrous knack he had at compounding sherry-posset--it is probable Charles +Russell would have stepped into a fellowship by special license at once. + +He had harder work before him, however, and he set stoutly to it. He got +permission to lodge out of college--a privilege quite unusual, and +apparently without any sufficient object in his case. A day or two after +his return, he begged me to go with him to see the rooms he had taken: and +I was surprised to find that although small, and not in a good part of the +town, they were furnished in a style by no means, I thought, in accordance +with the strict economy I knew him to be practising in every other +respect. They contained, on a small scale, all the appointments of a +lady's drawing-room. It was soon explained. His sister was coming to live +with him. "We are but two, now," said Russell in explanation, "and though +poor Mary has been offered what might have been a comfortable home +elsewhere, which perhaps would have been more prudent, we both thought why +should we be separated? As to these little things you see, they are nearly +all hers: we offered them to the creditors, but even the lawyers would not +touch them: and here Mary and I shall live. Very strange, you think, for +her to be here in Oxford with no one to take care of her but me; but she +does not mind that, and we shall be together. However, Hawthorne, we shall +keep a dragon: there is an old housekeeper who would not be turned off, +and she comes down with Mary, and may pass for her aunt, if that's all; so +don't, pray, be shocked at us." + +And so the old housekeeper did come down, and Mary with her; and under +such guardianship, a brother and an old servant, was that fair girl +installed within the perilous precincts of the University of Oxford; +perilous in more senses than one, as many a speculative and disappointed +mamma can testify, whose daughters, brought to market at the annual +"show" at commemoration, have left uncaught those dons of dignity, and +heirs-apparent of property, whom they ought to have caught, and caught +those well-dressed and good-looking, but undesirable young men, whom they +ought not to have caught. Mary Russell, however, was in little peril +herself, and, as little as she could help it, an occasion of peril to +others. Seldom did she move out from her humble abode, except for an early +morning walk with her brother, or sometimes leaning on the arm of her old +domestic, so plainly dressed that you might have mistaken her for her +daughter, and wondered how those intensely expressive features, and +queen-like graces, should have been bestowed by nature on one so humble. +Many a thoughtful student, pacing slowly the parks or Christchurch meadow +after early chapel, book in hand, cheating himself into the vain idea that +he was taking a healthful walk, and roused by the flutter of approaching +female dress, and unwillingly looking up to avoid the possible and +unwelcome collision with a smirking nurse-maid and an unresisting +baby--has met those eyes, and spoilt his reading for the morning; or has +paused in the running tour of Headington hill, or Magdalen walk, by which +he was endeavouring to cram his whole allotted animal exercise for the day +into an hour, as that sweet vision crossed his path, and wondered in his +heart by what happy tie of relationship, or still dearer claim, his +fellow-undergraduate had secured to himself so lovely a companion; and has +tried in vain, over his solitary breakfast, to rid himself of the +heterodox notion which would still creep in upon his thoughts, that in the +world there might be, after all, things better worth living and working +for, prizes more valuable--and perhaps not harder to win--than a first +class, and living personations of the beautiful which Aristotle had +unaccountably left out. Forgive me, dear reader, if I seem to be somewhat +sentimental: I am not, and I honestly believe I never was, in love with +Mary Russell; I am not--I fear I never was or shall be--much of a reading +man or an early riser; but I will confess, it would have been a great +inducement to me to adopt such habits, if I could have ensured such +pleasant company in my morning walks. + +To the general world of Oxford, for a long time, I have no doubt the very +existence of such a jewel within it was unknown; for at the hours when +liberated tutors and idle undergraduates are wont to walk abroad, Mary was +sitting, hid within a little ambush of geraniums, either busy at her work, +or helping--as she loved to fancy she helped him--her brother at his +studies. Few men, I believe, ever worked harder than Russell did in his +last year. With the exception of the occasional early walk, and the +necessary attendance at chapel and lecture, he read hard nearly the whole +day; and I always attributed the fact of his being able to do so with +comparatively little effort, and no injury to his health, to his having +such a sweet face always present, to turn his eyes upon, when wearied with +a page of Greek, and such a kind voice always ready to speak or to be +silent. + +It was not for want of access to any other society that Mary Russell spent +her time so constantly with her brother. The Principal, with his usual +kindheartedness, had insisted--a thing he seldom did--upon his lady making +her acquaintance; and though Mrs Meredith, who plumed herself much upon +her dignity, had made some show of resistance at first to calling upon a +young lady who was living in lodgings by herself in one of the most +out-of-the-way streets in Oxford, yet, after her first interview with Miss +Russell, so much did her sweetness of manner win upon Mrs Principal's +fancy--or perhaps it will be doing that lady but justice to say, so much +did her more than orphan unprotectedness and changed fortunes soften the +woman's heart that beat beneath that formidable exterior of silk and +ceremony, that before the first ten minutes of what had been intended as a +very condescending and very formal call, were over, she had been offered a +seat in Mrs Meredith's official pew in St Mary's; the pattern of a +mysterious bag, which that good lady carried every where about with her, +it was believed for no other purpose; and an airing the next day behind +the fat old greys, which their affectionate coachman--in commemoration of +his master's having purchased them at the time he held that +dignity--always called by the name of the "Vice-Chancellors." Possibly an +absurd incident, which Mary related with great glee to her brother and +myself, had helped to thaw the ice in which "our governess" usually +encased herself. When the little girl belonging to the lodgings opened the +door to these dignified visitors, upon being informed that Miss Russell +was at home, the Principal gave the name simply as "Dr and Mrs Meredith:" +which, not appearing to his more pompous half at all calculated to convey +a due impression of the honour conveyed by the visit, she corrected him, +and in a tone quite audible--as indeed every word of the conversation had +been--up the half-dozen steep stairs which led to the little drawing-room, +gave out "the Master of ---- and lady, if you please." The word "master" +was quite within the comprehension of the little domestic, and dropping an +additional courtesy of respect to an office which reminded her of her +catechism and the Sunday school, she selected the appropriate feminine +from her own vocabulary, and threw open the door with "the master and +mistress of ---- if you please, Miss." Dr Meredith laughed, as he entered, +so heartily, that even Mary could not help smiling, and the "mistress," +seeing the odds against her, smiled too. An acquaintance begun in such +good humour, could hardly assume a very formal character; and, in fact, +had Mary Russell not resolutely declined all society, Mrs Meredith would +have felt rather a pleasure in patronising her. But both her straitened +means and the painful circumstances of her position--her father already +spoken of almost as a criminal--led her to court strict retirement; while +she clung with redoubled affection to her brother. He, on his part, seemed +to have improved in health and spirits since his change of fortunes; the +apparent haughtiness and coldness with which many had charged him before, +had quite vanished; he showed no embarrassment, far less any consciousness +of degradation, in his conversation with any of his old messmates at the +gentlemen-commoners' table; and though his communication with the college +was but comparatively slight, nearly all his time being spent in his +lodgings, he was becoming quite a popular character. + +Meanwhile, a change of a different kind seemed to be coming over Ormiston. +It was remarked, even by those not much given to observation, that his +lectures, which were once considered endurable, even by idle men, from his +happy talent of remark and illustration, were fast becoming as dull and +uninteresting as the common run of all such business. Moreover, he had +been in the habit of giving, occasionally, capital dinners, invitations to +which were sent out frequently and widely among the young men of his own +college: these ceased almost entirely; or, when they occurred, had but the +shadow of their former joyousness. Even some of the fellows were known to +have remarked that Ormiston was much altered lately; some said he was +engaged to be married, a misfortune which would account for any imaginable +eccentricities; but one of the best of the college livings falling vacant +about the time, and, on its refusal by the two senior fellows, coming +within Ormiston's acceptance, and being passed by him, tended very much to +do away with any suspicion of that kind. + +Between him and Russell there was an evident coolness, though noticed by +few men but myself; yet Ormiston always spoke most kindly of him, while on +Russell's part there seemed to be a feeling almost approaching to +bitterness, ill concealed, whenever Ormiston became the subject of +conversation. I pressed him once or twice upon the subject, but he always +affected to misunderstand me, or laughed off any sarcastic remark he might +have made, as meaning nothing; so that at last the name was seldom +mentioned between us, and almost the only point on which we differed +seemed to be our estimation of Ormiston. + + + + +THE ROMANTIC DRAMA. + + +Macaulay says, that the object of the drama is the painting of the human +heart; and, as that is portrayed by the events of a whole life, he +concludes that it is by poets representing in a short space a long series +of actions, that the end of dramatic composition is most likely to be +attained. "The mixture," says he, "of tragedy and comedy, and the length +and extent of the action, which the French consider as defects, is the +chief cause of the excellence of our older dramatists. The former is +necessary to render the drama a just representation of the world, in which +the laughers and the weepers are perpetually jostling each other, in which +every event has its serious and ludicrous side. The latter enables us to +form an intimate acquaintance with characters, with which we could not +possibly become familiar during the few hours to which the unities +restrict the poet. In this respect the works of Shakspeare in particular +are miracles of art. In a piece which may be read aloud in three hours, we +see a character gradually unfold all its recesses to us. We see it change +with the change of circumstances. The petulant youth rises into the +politic and warlike sovereign. The profuse and courteous philanthropist +sours at length into a hater and scorner of his kind. The tyrant is +altered by the chastening of affliction into a pensive moralist. The +veteran general, distinguished by coolness, sagacity, and self-command, +sinks under a conflict between love strong as death, and jealousy cruel as +the grave. The brave and loyal subject passes step by step to the excesses +of human depravity. We trace his progress step by step, from the first +dawnings of unlawful ambition, to the cynical melancholy of his impenitent +remorse. Yet in these pieces there are no unnatural transitions. Nothing +is omitted; nothing is crowded. Great as are the changes, narrow as is the +compass within which they are exhibited, they shock us as little as the +gradual alterations of those familiar faces which we see every evening and +morning. The magical skill of the poet resembles that of the dervise in +the _Spectator_, who condensed all the events of seven years into the +single moment during which the king held his head under water."[4] + +In this admirable passage, the principle on which the Romantic Drama +rests, is clearly and manfully stated; and it is on the possibility of +effecting the object which is here so well described, that the whole +question between it and the Greek unities depends. As we have decidedly +embraced the opposite opinion, and regard, after much consideration, the +adherence to the variety and license of the romantic drama as the main +cause of the present degraded condition of our national theatre, we have +prefaced our observations with a defence of the romantic drama by one of +its ablest advocates, and shall now state the reasons which appear to us +conclusive in favour of a very different view. + +The drama is part of the great effort of mankind for the representation of +human character, passion, and event. Other sister arts--History, the +Historical Romance, the Epic poem--also aim in some degree, by different +methods, at the same object; and it is by considering their different +principles, and necessary limitations, that the real rules of the drama +will best be understood. + +HISTORY, as all the world knows, embraces the widest range of human +events. Confined to no time, restricted to no locality, it professes, in a +comparatively short space, to portray the most extensive and important of +human transactions. Centuries, even thousands of years, are sometimes, by +its greatest masters, embraced within its mighty arms. The majestic +series of Roman victories may occupy the genius of one writer: the fifteen +centuries of its decline and fall be spanned by the powers of another. The +vast annals of Mahommetan conquest, the long sway of the Papal dominion, +present yet untrodden fields to future historical effort.[5] But it is +this very greatness and magnitude of his subject which presents the chief +difficulty with which the historian has to contend. With the exception of +a very few instances, such lengthened annals are necessarily occupied by a +vast variety of characters, actions, states, and events, having little or +no connexion with each other, scarce any common object of union, and no +thread by which the interest of the reader is to be kept up throughout. +Hence it is that works of history are so generally complained of as dull: +that, though they are more numerous than any other class of literary +compositions, the numbers of those generally read is so extremely small. +Enter any public library, you will see hundreds of historical works +reposing in respectable dignity on the shelves. How many of them are +generally studied, or have taken hold by common consent on the minds of +men? Not ten. Romance numbers its readers by hundreds, Poetry by fifties, +where History can with difficulty muster one. This amazing difference is +not owing to any deficiency of ability turned to the subject, or interest +in the materials of which it is formed. It can never be supposed that men +will be indifferent to the annals of their own fame, or that the +groundwork of all human invention--real event--can be wanting in the means +of moving the heart. It is the extraordinary difficulty of this branch of +composition, owing to its magnitude and complication, which is the sole +cause of the difference. + +The HISTORICAL ROMANCE is founded on history, but it differs from it in +the most essential particulars, and is relieved from the principal +difficulties with which the annalist of actual occurrences has to contend. +It selects a particular period out of past time, and introduces the +characters and events most remarkable for their interest, or the deep +impress they have left on the minds of men. This is an immense advantage; +for it relieves the writer from the great difficulty with which the +general historian has to contend, and which, in ninety-nine cases out of +an hundred, proves fatal to his success. Unity in the midst of confusion +is given to his subject. Room is afforded for graphic painting, space for +forcible delineations of character. It becomes possible to awaken interest +by following out the steps of individual adventure. Though the name of +historical romance is not to be found in antiquity, the thing itself was +far from being unknown. Its most charming Histories are little other than +Historical Romance; at least, they possess its charm, because they exhibit +its unity. The _Cyropædia_ of Xenophon, the _Lives_ of Plutarch, many of +the heart-stirring _Legends_ of Livy, of the profound _Sketches_ of the +Emperors in Tacitus, are in truth historical romances under the name of +histories or biography. The lives of eminent men owe their chief charm to +the unity of the subject, and the possibility of strongly exciting the +feelings, by strictly adhering to the delineation of individual +achievement. So great is the weight of the load--crushing to the +historian--which is thus taken from the biographer or writer of historical +romance, that second-rate genius can effect triumphs in that department, +to which the very highest mind alone is equal in general historical +composition. No one would think of comparing the intellect of Plutarch +with that of Tacitus; but, nevertheless, the _Lives_ of the former will +always prove more generally attractive than the annals of the latter. +Boswell's mind was immeasurably inferior to that of Hume; but for one +reader of his _History of England_, will be found ten of the _Life of +Johnson_. Sir Walter Scott's _Life of Napoleon_ proves that he was not +altogether qualified to take a place among the great English historians; +but, to the end of the world, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, Queen Mary, and +Elizabeth, will stand forth from his canvass more clearly than either from +the rhetoric of Hume, or the eloquence of Robertson. + +The EPIC POEM confines within still narrower limits the narration of human +events. As it borrows the language and is clothed with the colours of +poetry, so it is capable of rousing the feelings more powerfully than +either biography or romance, and, when crowned with success, attains a +fame, and takes a hold of the hearts of men, to which nothing in prose +composition can be compared. Elevation of thought, fervour of language, +powerful delineation of character, are its essential qualities. But all +these would prove unavailing if the one thing needful, _unity of subject_, +were awanting. It is that which is its essential quality, for that alone +lets in all the others. All the great Epic Poems which have appeared in +the world are not only devoted to one interest, but are generally +restricted in point of space and time within limits not materially wider +than those of the Greek drama. The _Iliad_ not only relates exclusively +the latter stages of the siege of Troy, but the whole period of its action +is forty-eight days--of its absorbing interest, (the time from the +storming of the Greek lines by Hector to his death by the heaven-defended +Achilles,) thirty-six hours. The _Paradise Lost_ adheres strictly to unity +both of subject and time: the previous battles of the angels is the +subject of narrative by the angel Raphael; but the time that elapses from +the convocation of the devils in Pandemonium to the expulsion of Adam and +Eve from paradise is only three days. The _Jerusalem Delivered_ has the +one absorbing interest arising from the efforts of the Christians for the +deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre; and its time is limited to a few weeks. +Virgil was so enamoured of his great predecessor that he endeavoured to +imitate, in one poem, both his great works. The _Æneid_ is an _Iliad_ and +_Odyssey_ in one. But every one must feel that it is on the episode with +Dido that the interest of the poem really rests; and that all the magic of +his exquisite pencil can scarcely sustain the interest after the pious +Æneas has taken his departure from the shores of Carthage. The _Lusiad_ of +Camoens, necessarily, from its subject, embraced wider limits; but the one +interest of the poem is as single and sustained as that of the discovery +of the new world by Columbus. If any of these writers had professed in +rhyme to give a history of a wider or more protracted subject, the +interest would have been so much diffused as to be lost. The confusion of +ideas and incidents so painfully felt by all the readers of _Orlando +Furioso_, and which the boundless fancy of Ariosto was unable to prevent, +proves that epic poetry has its limits, and that they are narrower than +either history or romance. + +What epic poetry is to romance or biography, THE DRAMA is to epic poetry. +As the former selects from the romance of history its most interesting and +momentous events, and makes them the subject of brilliant description, of +impassioned rhetoric, so the latter chooses from the former its most +heart-stirring episodes, and brings them in actual dialogue and +representation before the mind of the spectator. Immense is the effect of +this concentration--still more marvellous that of the personation with +which it is attended. Imagination assumes the actual form of beings; +conception is realised. The airy visions of the past are clothed in flesh +and blood. The marvels of acting, scenery, and stage effect, come to add +to the pathos of incident, to multiply tenfold the charms of poetry. It is +impossible to conceive intellectual enjoyment carried beyond the point it +attained, when the magic of Shakspeare's thought and language was enhanced +by the power of Siddons or Kemble's acting, or is personified by the +witchery of Helen Faucit's conceptions. But for the full effect of this +combination, it is indispensable that the principles of dramatic +composition be duly observed, and the stage kept within its due limits, +more contracted in point of time and place than either romance or epic +poetry. Within those bounds it is omnipotent, and produces an impression +to which, while it lasts, none of the sister arts can pretend. Beyond +them it never fails to break down, and not only ceases to interest, but +often becomes to the last degree wearisome and exhausting. It is not +difficult to see to what this general failure of the drama, when it +outstrips its proper bounds, is owing. It arises from the impossibility of +awakening interest without attending to unity of emotion; of keeping alive +attention without continuity of incident; of making the story intelligible +without simplicity of action. + +Dramatic authors, actors, and actresses, how gifted soever in other +respects, are the worst possible judges on this subject. They are so +familiar with the story, from having composed the piece themselves, or +made it the subject of frequent repetition or rehearsal, that they can +form no conception of the difficulty which nine tenths of the audience, to +whom the piece is entirely strange, experience in understanding the plot, +or acquiring any interest in the incidents or development of the piece. It +may safely be affirmed, that a vast majority of the spectators of the +dramas now habitually represented, with the exception of a few of +Shakspeare's, which have become as household words on the English stage, +never understand any thing of the story till the end of the third act, and +are only beginning to take an interest in the piece when the curtain +falls. Dramatic authors and performers would do well to ponder on this +observation; they may rely upon it that it furnishes the key to the +present degraded state of the English drama. + +It is not obtuseness on the part of the audience which occasions this. So +complicated is the story, so lengthened the succession of events, in most +of our modern theatrical pieces, that the most acute understanding, +fortified by the most extensive practice, requiring alertness of +intellect, will long be at fault in comprehending them. We have seen many +a barrister famed for cross-examination unable to comprehend, till the +piece was half over, the drift of Sheridan Knowles's dramas. Is it +surprising, when this is the case, that the vast majority of the audience +complain of weariness during the representation, and that the managers of +theatres, sensible of this difficulty, are fain to eke out the proper +interest of the drama by the meretricious aids of scenery, and dancing, +and decorations? + +What is constantly complained of by all classes at the theatre is, that it +is so tiresome; that the back is broken by sitting without a support; that +they cannot comprehend the story; that they do not understand what it is +all about; and that the performance is infinitely too long. This last +observation is, undoubtedly, frequently well founded: no where is the +truth of old Hesiod's maxim, that a half is often greater than the whole, +more frequently exemplified than in dramatic representations. But still +the fact of the complaint being so universally made, and equally by all +classes, is very remarkable, and pregnant with instruction, as to the +limits of the drama and the causes of the decline of its popularity so +painfully conspicuous in the British empire. No one complains of his back +being broken for want of support at a trial for murder; on the contrary, +all classes, and _especially the lowest_, will sit at such heart-stirring +scenes, without feeling fatigue, for ten, twelve, sometimes eighteen hours +consecutively. Nor can it be affirmed that this is because the interest is +real; that the life of a human being is at stake. Every day's experience +proves that fiction, when properly managed, is more interesting than +reality. The vast multitude of novels which yearly issue from the press, +the eagerness with which they are sought after by all classes, the +extraordinary extent of their circulation, sufficiently prove this. No one +complains that the best romances of Sir Walter Scott or Bulwer are too +long; on the contrary, they are generally felt to be too short; and those +who are loudest in their declamations against the intolerable fatigue of +the theatre, will sit for days together with their feet at the fire, +devouring even an indifferent novel. + +The general complaint now made in Great Britain against the tedium of +theatrical representations was unknown in other ages and countries. The +passion of the Greeks for their national theatre is well known, and the +matchless perfection of their great dramatists proves to what a degree it +is capable of rousing the human mind. The French, prior to the Revolution, +were passionately fond of the drama, which was then entirely founded on +the Greek model. The decline complained of in the Parisian theatre has +been contemporary with the introduction of the Romantic school. In Italy, +it is, with the opera, the chief, almost the sole public amusement. There +is not a city with forty thousand inhabitants in the classic peninsula +that has not a theatre and opera, superior to any thing to be met with in +the British islands out of London. The theatre is in high favour in +Germany and Russia. Complaints, indeed, are frequently made, that the +drama is declining on the Continent, and the present state of the lesser +Parisian theatres certainly affords no indication that, in departing from +the old land-marks and bringing romance on the stage, they have either +preserved its purity or extended its influence. But the decline of the +theatre is far greater and more remarkable in England than in any of the +continental states. It has, indeed, gone so far as to induce a serious +apprehension among many well-informed persons, that it will cease to +exist, and the country of Shakspeare and Garrick, of Kemble and Siddons, +be left altogether without a theatre at which the legitimate drama is +represented. Such a result in a country overflowing, in its great cities +and metropolis at least, with riches, and with a population passionately +desirous of every species of enjoyment, is very remarkable, and deserving +of the most serious consideration. It may well make us pause in our +career, and consider whether the course we have been pursuing has, or has +not, been likely to lead to perfection and success in this noble and +important branch of composition. + +We have stated what are the limits of the drama, and what part is assigned +to it in the general effort of the human mind to portray events, or paint +the human heart. Macaulay has explained, in the passage already quoted, +what the Romantic drama proposes to do, and the reason why, in his +estimation, it is more likely to attain its end than the more closely +fettered theatre of the Greeks. The whole question comes to be, which of +the two systems is best adapted to attain the undoubted end of all +dramatic composition, the painting of the human heart? If he is right in +the views he has so well expressed, it is very singular how it has +happened, that in a country which, for the last three centuries, has +constantly adhered to these ideas, and worked out the Romantic drama with +extraordinary zeal and vigour, dramatic representations should have been +constantly declining, so as at length to be threatened with total +extinction. This becomes the more remarkable, when it is recollected, that +in other countries, inferior in wealth, genius, and energy to Great +Britain, but where the old system had been adhered to, it continued to +flourish in undiminished vigour, and that decay in them has uniformly been +coexistent with the entry on the stage of Romantic representation. Racine, +Corneille, Voltaire in France, and Metastasio and Alfieri in Italy, +Schiller and Goethe in Germany, have nobly upheld the legitimate drama in +their respective countries. Still more extraordinary is it, if these views +be the correct ones, that while, by the marvels of one heaven-born genius, +the Romantic drama was in the days of Queen Elizabeth raised to the very +highest perfection in this country, it has since continually languished, +and cannot from his day number one name destined for immortality among its +votaries. + +It is said in answer to this obvious objection to the Romantic drama, +founded on its fate in all the countries where it has been established, +that it shares in this respect only in the common destiny of mankind in +creating works of imagination; that the period of great and original +conception is the first only--that Homer was succeeded by Virgil, Æschylus +by Euripides, Dante by Tasso, Shakspeare by Pope, and that the age of +genius in all countries is followed by that of criticism.[6] There can be +no doubt that this observation is in many respects well founded; but it +affords no solution of the causes of the present degraded condition of our +national drama, nor does it explain the course it has taken in this +country. We have made a progress, but it has not been from originality to +taste, but from genius to folly. The age of Æschylus has not with us been +succeeded by that of Sophocles and Euripides, but by that of melodrama and +_spectacle_. We have not advanced from the wildness of conception to the +graces of criticism, but from the rudeness of some barbaric imagination, +to the cravings of corrupted fancy. The age of Garrick has been with us +succeeded, not by that of Roscius, but by that of Cerito; the melodrama of +the _Crusaders_, the dancing of Carlotta Grisi, have banished tragedy from +the boards trod by Kemble and Siddons. The modern dramas which have been +published, and in part appeared on the stage, have in no respect been +distinguished by more legitimate taste, or a stricter adherence to rule, +than those of Ford and Massinger, of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Jonson and +Shakspeare. They have discarded, indeed, the indecency which forms so +serious a blot on our older dramatists, but, in other respects, they have +faithfully followed out their principles. The drama still, as in earlier +days, professes to exhibit in a few hours a representation of the +principal events of a lifetime. Time and place are set at nought, as they +were by the bard of Avon, and not unfrequently the last act opens at the +distance of years, or hundreds of miles from the first. We need only +mention two of the ablest and most popular of our modern dramas--_The Lady +of Lyons_, by Bulwer, and the best of Sheridan Knowles' theatrical pieces, +for a confirmation of these observations. But no one will pretend that the +dramatic works of these writers, excellent in many respects as they are, +can be set off against the master-pieces of the Greek or French drama +which succeeded the days of Æschylus and Corneille. + +Again it is said, and very commonly too, as an explanation of the +extraordinary failure of dramatic genius since the days of Queen Elizabeth +in this country, that originality and greatness can be reached only once +in the lifetime of a nation; that we have had our Shakspeare as Greece had +its Homer, and that we should be content; and that it is the necessary +effect of superlative excellence in the outset, to extinguish rivalry and +induce mediocrity in the end. The observation is plausible, and it has +been so frequently made, that it has passed with many into a sort of +axiom. But when tried by the only test of truth in human affairs--that of +experience--it entirely fails. Past history affords no countenance to the +idea, that early greatness extinguishes subsequent emulation, or that +superlative genius in one department is fatal to subsequent perfection in +it. On the contrary, it creates it. It is by the collision of one great +mind with another, that the greatest achievements of the human mind have +been effected--often the chain continues from one age and nation to +another; but it is never snapped asunder. + +These considerations are fitted to cast a serious doubt on the question, +how far the true principles of the drama are those which have been +embraced by the English school, and may lead us to consider whether the +acknowledged inferiority of our tragic writers, since the time of +Shakspeare, is not in reality to be ascribed to his transcendent genius +having led them astray from the true principles of the art. It will be +considered in the sequel, to what cause _his_ acknowledged success has +been owing, and whether his finest dramas, those which chiefly retain +their popularity, are not in reality constructed on the Grecian model. +But, in the mean time, let it be considered what in reality the drama can +do, and what limits are imposed upon it, not by the arbitrary rules of +critics, but by the lasting nature of things. + +The drama is restricted by the well known limits of human patience to a +representation of three hours. Experience has every where proved that the +greatest genius, both in the poet and performer, cannot keep alive +interest, or avert weariness, beyond that period. The spectators sit still +in their places the whole time. Whatever changes of scene, or external +objects to look at are introduced, the audience itself is motionless. It +is to persons thus situated, and within this time, that theatrical +representations are addressed. They expect, and with reason, to be amused +and interested in comedy, moved and melted in tragedy. It is for this they +go to the theatre, for this they pay their money. Writers and actors are +equally aware that this is the case. Then what course do the Greek and the +Romantic school respectively follow to attain this object? + +Both in some respects follow the same course, or rather both make use, for +the main part, of the same materials. It is universally acknowledged, that +it is essential to the success of the drama, in all its branches, that the +plot be interesting, the characters forcible, the ideas natural, the +attention constantly kept up. In tragedy, by far its noblest department, +it is indispensable, in addition, that the feelings should be vehemently +excited in the spectators, and the human heart laid bare, by the most +violent passions, in the characters on the stage. Aristotle expressly +says, that it is the delineation of passions which is the object of +tragedy. In order to achieve this object, all are agreed, that some +permanent characters must be selected, generally from those known to +history, to whom striking and tragic events have occurred; and it is in +the delineation of the passions which those events excite, and the +interest they awaken in the breast of the spectators, that the art of the +writer consists. So far both parties are agreed; but they differ widely in +the methods which they respectively take to attain this object. + +The Romantic dramatist, overstepping the bounds of time and place, +professes in three hours to portray the principal events of years--it may +be of a whole lifetime. He selects the prominent events of his hero's or +heroine's career, the salient angles, as it were, of human existence, and +brings them forward in different scenes of his brief representation. Years +often intervene between the commencement of his piece and its termination; +the spectator is transported hundreds, it may be thousands of miles by a +mere mechanical sleight of hand in the scene-shifter, or between the acts. +The drama constructed on these principles does not represent a short +period, into which the crisis, as it were, of a whole lifetime is +concentrated, but it gives sketches of the whole life itself, from the +commencement of its eventful period to its termination. The poet chooses +the most exciting scenes out of the three volumes of the historical novel, +and brings these scenes on the stage in a few hours. As the drama, +constructed on this principle, professes to portray the changes of real +life, so it admits, it is thought, of that intermixture of the serious and +the comic, which the actual world exhibits; and willingly transports the +spectator from the most highly wrought scenes of passion, the deepest +accents of woe, to the burlesque of extravagant characters, or the picture +of vulgar life. This is deemed admissible, because it is natural; and +certainly no one can have gone from the drawing-room, or the library, to +the stage-coach or the steam-boat, without seeing that it exhibits at +least a true picture of the varied phantasmagoria which existence +presents. + +The Greek dramatists, and their successors in modern Europe, proceed upon +an entirely different principle. Having made their selection of the +characters and the events on which their piece is to be constructed, they +pitch upon that period in their progress in which matters were brought to +a crisis, and, for good or for evil, their destiny was accomplished. +Having done this, they portray the minutest incidents of that brief period +with the utmost care, and exert all their strength on the graphic painting +on which every artist knows the awakening of interest is almost entirely +dependent. The previous history of the principal personages is described +in dialogue at the commencement of the piece, so as to make the spectators +aware both of the great lives of the characters which are brought before +them, and of the antecedent events which had brought matters to their +present crisis. Having carried them to this point, the crisis itself is +portrayed at full length, and with all the power and pathos of which the +artist is capable. The poet does not pretend to narrate the campaign from +its commencement to its termination: he begins his piece with the +commencement of the last battle, and exerts all his strength on painting +the decisive charge. He does not give the voyage from its commencement to +its termination, with its long periods of monotonous weariness; he +confines himself to the brief and terrible scene of the ship-wreck. As the +crisis and catastrophe of life is thus alone represented, and every thing +depends on the interest excited by its development, so nothing is admitted +which can disturb the unity of the emotion, or interrupt the flow of the +sympathy which it is the great object of the piece from first to last to +awaken. + +If it were _possible_ to create the same interest, or delineate character +and passion as completely, by brief and consequently imperfect sketches of +a whole lifetime, as it is by a minute and glowing representation of its +most eventful period, much might be advanced with justice in favour of the +Romantic school of the drama. Our objection is, that this is impossible; +and that the failure of the English theatre, since the time of Shakspeare, +is entirely to be ascribed to this impossibility. And the impossibility is +owing to the length of time which it requires, by narrative or +representation, to kindle that warm and glowing image, or awaken those +ardent feelings in the mind of another, upon which the emotion of taste +and the success of all the Fine Arts depend. + +In the arts which address themselves to the _eye_, and through it to the +heart, it is possible to produce a very strong impression almost +instantaneously. A beautiful woman has only to be seen to be admired; a +charming landscape bursts upon the sight with immediate and almost magical +force. The impression produced by the finest objects in Europe,--the sun +setting on the Jungfrawhorn, the interior of St Peter's, the fall of +Schaffhausen, the view on the Acropolis of Athens, Constantinople from the +Seraglio point, the Bay of Naples, for example,--is such, that though seen +_only_ for a few minutes, it may almost be said seconds, an impression is +made, a picture is painted, on the mind's retina, which can never be +effaced. Painting, as it imitates external nature, so it shares in the +rapidity and, in the hands of great masters, durability of its +impressions. Sculpture and architecture have the same advantage. Yet even +in these arts, the productions of which require only to be seen to be +admired, it is well known that the impression, strong as it is at first, +is, with all persons of a cultivated mind, greatly increased by repeated +inspections. The common observation, that a fine painting or statue grows +upon you the oftener you see it, and that "Time but the impression deeper +wears," sufficiently proves that it is not at once, even in those arts +which speak at once to the eye, that the soul of the artist is transferred +to that of the spectator. + +But the case is entirely different with those arts--such as history, +romance, epic poetry, or the drama--which do not at once produce a visible +object to the mind, but give descriptions or dialogues by which the reader +or spectator is required to form a _mental_ object or awaken a mental +interest of his own creation, though from the materials furnished, and +under the guidance of the genius of the artist. It is not instantaneously +that this can be done: on the contrary, it is by very slow degrees and +many successive efforts that the inward picture is created in the mind, +the absorbing interest awakened in the heart, which gives the pleasure or +rouses the sympathy which is the object of the writer to communicate. A +very little reflection will be sufficient to show that this observation is +well founded, in all the arts of narrative or description. And nothing, we +apprehend, can be clearer than that the Romantic Drama has failed because +it professes, within limits and by means which render the attempt +hopeless, to excite this interest. + +Notwithstanding the well-known and proverbial dulness of history, there +are many historical works which do succeed in awakening a durable and +sometimes absorbing interest in the mind of the reader. Probably few works +professedly addressed to the imagination have awakened in many breasts so +deep and lasting an interest as the narrative of Livy, the biography of +Tacitus, the pictured page of Gibbon. Such works are almost always +complained of as dull at first: but the interest gradually waxes warmer as +the narrative proceeds; the feelings become roused on one side, or in +favour of one hero or another, in the great drama of the world; and not +unfrequently in the end the most attractive works of imagination are laid +aside for the annals of real events. But how is it that this interest is +awakened? By the study of months, sometimes of years: by an interest +produced by the reading of a whole winter by the fireside. Let any man +try, in a narrative of _long_ continued historical events, to excite a +deep interest in a space which can be read _in three hours_, and the +powers of Tacitus or Gibbon would at once fail in the attempt. It is quite +possible in that brief period to awaken the deepest interest in a single +or closely connected series of events, as a battle, a siege, a revolt, a +ship-wreck: but wholly impossible to do so with incidents scattered over a +long course of years. + +The interest so generally felt in epic poetry and romance is excited in +the same way, though in a much shorter period. As the colours of these +species of composition are more brilliant, the feelings more chastened, +the events more select, the characters more prominent, the catastrophe +more rapidly brought about, than in real life, so the artist has the +means, in a much shorter period, of awakening the interest upon the growth +of which the success of his work is chiefly dependent. But nevertheless, +even there, it is by comparatively slow degrees, and by reading for a very +considerable period, that the interest is created. It is wholly impossible +to produce it, or make the story or the characters intelligible, in a few +hours. Every scholar recollects the delight with which his mind grew, as +it were, under the fire of Homer's conceptions, his taste matured under +the charm of Virgil's feelings: but no one will pretend that the intense +delight he felt could be awakened, if he had read extracts from their most +brilliant passages in a few hours; this pleasure was the feast, this +interest the growth, of weeks and months. No reader of Tasso, Milton, or +Klopstock, for the first time, would think he could acquire an interest in +the _Jerusalem Delivered_, the _Paradise Lost_, or the _Messiah_, between +tea and supper. Many of their finest passages might be read in that brief +space, and their beauty _as pieces of poetry_ fully appreciated; but it +would be wholly impossible in so short a time to awaken an interest in the +whole story, or the fate of the principal characters.--Nevertheless it +would be quite possible, in that period to excite the deepest sympathy +with some of their most striking events or episodes _taken singly_; as the +parting of Hector and Andromache, or the death of the Trojan hero, in the +_Iliad_; the love of Dido for Æneas, or the catastrophe of Nisus and +Euryalus, in the _Æneid_; the death of Clorinda, or the flight of Erminia, +in the _Jerusalem Delivered_. The reason is, that it is possible in a +short space to point a single catastrophe with such force and minuteness +as to excite the warmest sympathy, but wholly impossible to effect that +object within such limits, with a long series of consecutive events. + +Again, look at the historical romance or the common novel. No one needs to +be told how deep and universal is the interest which the masterpieces in +that department awaken. Whatever may be said to the decline of the public +taste for the drama, most certainly there is no symptom of any abatement +in the general interest awakened by works of fiction; but that interest is +of comparatively slow growth. It would be impossible to produce it in a +few hours. It is excited by the reading of three evenings by the fireside. +No one would deem it possible to awaken the interest, or make the +characters intelligible, in three hours. + +It is true that to the aid of six or eight chapters culled out of three +volumes, the Romantic dramatist brings the auxiliaries of acting, scenery, +and stage effect; but that adds little to the power of exciting deep +sympathy or powerful emotion. Such feelings cannot be awakened without +minute painting, and continuity of action, and they are excluded by the +very nature of the Romantic drama. That species of composition proposes to +give a picture of the principal events of a long period, as the +peristrephic panorama does of the chief scenes of a great space, as the +whole course of the Rhine or the Danube. Every one knows how inferior the +interest it excites is to those in which the whole skill of the artist and +outlay of the proprietor have been exerted on a single picture, as the +original round one of Barker and Burford. The art of panoramic painting +has signally receded, since the moving panorama has been substituted for +the fixed one. A series of galloping lithographic sketches of Italy, +however highly coloured or skilfully drawn, will never paint that lovely +peninsula like a single sunset of Claude in the bay of Naples. Claude +himself could not do so in his varied sketches, graphic and masterly as +they are. The Romantic drama is the _Liber Veritatis_; the Greek drama is +the finished Claude in the Doria Palace, or the National Gallery. Few +persons will hesitate to say which excites the strongest admiration, which +they would rather possess. + +Performers on the stage are very naturally led to form an erroneous +opinion on this subject. Many of the most captivating qualities they +possess are seen at once. Physical beauty, elegance of manner, a noble +air, a majestic carriage, a lovely figure, a bewitching smile, produce +their effect instantaneously. No one needs to be told how quickly and +powerfully they speak to the heart, how warmly they kindle the +imagination. But that admiration is _personal_ to the artist; it does not +extend to the piece, nor can it overcome its imperfections. It gives +pleasure often of the very highest kind; but it is a pleasure very +different from the true interest of dramatic representation, and cannot be +relied on to sustain the interest of an audience for a long period. It is +where these powers of the performer are exerted on a drama constructed on +its true principles, that the full delight of the theatre is felt. No +talents in the performer can sustain a faulty piece. We cannot sit three +hours merely to admire the most beautiful and gifted actress that ever +trod the boards. Mental sympathy, the rousing of the feelings, is +required, and that is mainly the work of the poet. + +We are the more confirmed in the opinion that these are the true +principles of dramatic composition, from observing how generally they are +applicable to the historical novel; how clearly they are illustrated by +the decided verdict of public opinion pronounced on the works of the most +popular writers in that species of composition. The two novels of Sir +Walter Scott that are most admired, are _Ivanhoe_ and _The Bride of +Lammermoor_. Well, these romances have the interest concentrated within +the narrowest limits. _The Bride of Lammermoor_ is a Greek drama in prose. +It has its simplicity of story, unity of emotion, and terrible concluding +catastrophe. _Lucia di Lammermoor_, performed with signal success in every +opera of Europe, is a proof how easily it was dramatised. It is the _only +one_ of Sir Walter's novels that, out of Scotland, where local feelings +warp the judgment, has been durably successful on the stage. The principal +events in _Ivanhoe_ are contracted within three days; the characters which +interest are only two or three in number. Look at Cooper. The great secret +of his success is the minuteness and fidelity of his painting, and the +graphic power with which heart-stirring events occurring within a very +short period are painted. In the most admired of all his novels, _The +Deerslayer_, the whole scene is laid on the borders of a single lake, and +the interest arises from the adventures of two girls on its watery bosom. +Events in _The Pathfinder_, _The Last of the Mohicans_, and _The Prairie_, +are nearly as concentrated in point of time and characters, though, as the +story depends in each on the adventures of a party on a journey, a +considerable transference of place is of course introduced. _The Promessi +Sposi_ of Manzoni has acquired a European reputation, and every reader of +it knows how entirely its interest is dependent on the unity of interest +and extraordinary fidelity and skill with which, within narrow limits, the +characters, events, and still life, are portrayed. It is the same in +history. The success of Alison's _History of Europe_ has been mainly +owing to the fortunate unity of the subject, and the dramatic character of +the events which, within the space of twenty years, were thus crowded into +the theatre of human affairs. + +In those romances again, and they are many, in which great latitude in the +unities has been taken, it is very rarely that the skill of the artist has +succeeded in preventing a painful break in the interest, or cessation in +the sympathy, where any considerable transposition of place or overleaping +of time occurs. It is very frequent in James's novels to see this done; +but we believe he never yet had a reader in whom it did not excite a +feeling of regret. When a chapter begins--"We must now transport the +reader to a distant part of the country"--or "Many years after the events +detailed in the last chapter had occurred, two persons met in an hostelry +on the side of a forest," &c., we may rely upon it that, not only is the +scene changed, but the interest, for the time at least, is lost. The +pictures formed in the mind, the interest awakened in the events, the +admiration felt for the characters, are alike at an end. The chain of +sympathy is broken with the rupture of the continuity of events. The +reader's mind sets out as it were on a new track, in which the sails must +be spread, and the oars worked afresh. Everything must be done over again; +fresh pictures conjured up in the mind, new interests awakened in the +breast from the last starting-point. But it is seldom that such new +interests can supply the want of those which have been lost, or that, +where such a system is adopted, even a sustained sympathy can be +maintained throughout. We do not say that the first love is exclusive of +any other; but only that the interest is not to be transferred from one to +the other, until a considerable time has elapsed, and no small pains have +been taken. Several such dislocations of place, or violations of time, +will prove fatal to a novel, though written with the utmost ability, and +managed in other respects with the most consummate skill. Every reader of +Mr James's romances, which in many respects possess high merits, must be +sensible of the truth of this observation; and all the richness of +colouring, and fidelity in drawing, in Sir L. Bulwer's splendid historical +romance of _Rienzi_, cannot take away the painful impression produced by +the long interval which elapses between the commencement of the story, +where the characters first appear, its middle, where the real interest is +developed, and its termination, where the catastrophe occurs. + +In the historical romance, however, such diffusion of the events over a +long period, though extremely difficult to be managed in consistence with +the preservation of interest in the story, is adverse to no principle; +because it is the very object of that species of mingled truth and fiction +to narrate a lengthened course of events as they affected the history of +individual men; and the only unity to which the author is restricted by +the principles of his art is the unity of interest. But the curious thing +is, that in the Romantic drama this difficulty is voluntarily undertaken +when no necessity exists for its introduction; nay, when the principles of +the art, as evinced in the works of its greatest masters, forbid its +adoption. What would the historian give to be able to dwell only on the +brilliant episodes of his period--to be permitted to throw aside the long +intervening years of monotony or prose, and dwell only on those where the +poetry of existence is brought forth? On what scenes does the romance +writer dwell with transport--where does he paint with force and minuteness +but in those incidents, generally few and far between in his volumes, +which form the fit subject of dramatic composition? The stage alone is +relieved from the necessity of portraying the prosaic adjunct to poetic +interest; the dramatist only is permitted to select the decisive +crisis--the burning incident of life--and present it with all the +additions of poetry, music, scenery, and personation. Strange that, when +thus relieved of the fetters which so grievously restrain the other +species of human narrative, he should voluntarily choose to wear them; +that when at liberty to soar on the eagle's wing, he should gratuitously +assume the camel's load. + +In truth, the adoption of the Romantic style in theatrical composition, +and the tenacity with which, despite centuries of failure, it is still +adhered to by dramatic poets, is mainly to be ascribed to a secret sense +of inability to work up the simpler old drama of Greece with the requisite +force and effect. Men distrust their own powers in awaking a continued +interest for hours from one incident, or the portraying of a single +catastrophe. They are fain to borrow the adventitious aid to be derived, +as they think, from frequent changes of time and place. They rail at the +drama of Athens, as many modern artists do at the paintings of Claude +Lorraine, because they feel themselves unable to imitate them. They crowd +their canvass with objects, from a secret sense of inability to finish any +one with perfect force and fidelity. In that way they flatter themselves +that the defects of their composition will be less strongly felt, and the +audience will experience something like the enjoyment of foreign +travelling without any great trouble on the part of their conductor, on +the brilliant succession of pictures which is presented to their +intellectual vision. They forget only one thing, but it generally proves +fatal to their whole undertaking. Foreign travelling is delightful; but it +is only so when sufficient time is allowed to see the objects properly, +and take in the impression. Without this, it is little more than a +grievous fatigue, relieved by one or two splendid but fleeting pictures +painted on the mind. The drama being limited to a three hours' +representation, must portray the events of years, if it attempts it, at +railway speed. Thence it is, that no greater pleasure is in general felt +from its representations than from seeing the tops of villages or the +steeples of churches fleeting past when travelling fifty miles an hour on +the Great Western. If we would really enjoy nature, we must stop short and +sketch one of them, and then we shall feel pleasure indeed. + +It is a most grievous but unavoidable consequence of this original +departure, as we deem it, from right principle in dramatic composition, +that it leads by a natural and almost unavoidable transition to all the +extravagances and meritricious aids, the presence of which has so long +been felt as the chief disgrace of the British stage. As long as the +unities of time and place are adhered to, the poet has no resource but in +the forces of character, the pathos of incident, the beauty of language. +If he does not succeed in these he is lost. But the moment that he feels +himself at liberty to change the scene or time at pleasure, there is no +end to the assistance which he will seek to derive from such adventitious +support, how foreign soever to the real interest and true principles of +his art. Frequent changes of scene, gorgeous pictures of buildings or +scenery, brilliant exhibitions of stage effect, processions, battles, +storming of castles, the clang of trumpets, the clashing of swords, the +discharge of fire-arms, are all resorted to in order to save the trouble +of thought, or conceal mediocrity of conception. It may be that such +exhibitions are very attractive, that they draw full houses of children, +or of men and women with the minds of children--no small portion of the +human race. But no one will assert that they are the drama, any more than +that name belonged to the exhibitions of lions or cameleopards in the +Roman amphitheatre. But the Romantic drama, by the unbounded latitude in +point of time, place, and incident, which it permits, opens the door to +all these substitutes for genius which the great drama, by excluding them, +kept carefully closed. Therefore it is that the corruption of taste has +been much more rapid and irremediable in the countries by which it has +been adopted, than in those in which the old landmarks were adhered to; +and that in the latter the taste for extravagance in the public, and the +degradation in the character of dramatic composition, has always been +contemporary with the introduction of the Romantic style on the theatre. + +To see to what the Romantic style leads, we have only to look at the +dramatic pieces founded on the favourite works of fiction which have +recently appeared in England and France. Dramas in both countries have +been formed on the stories of the most popular novels of Scott, Bulwer, +Victor Hugo, Janin, and Eugene Sue. What success have they had? What sort +of things are they? We pass over the horrors, the indecency, adulterous +incest, and murders of the modern French drama, founded on the romances of +three popular and imaginative novelists, and come to the dramas founded on +our own great romance writers, against whom no such charges can be +brought, and the original plots of which have been constructed with the +utmost talent by the greatest master of prose fiction the world ever saw. +What has been the fate of the dramas of _Ivanhoe_, _The Antiquary_, _Guy +Mannering_, _Rob Roy_, or Sir Walter's other popular novels? With the +exception of the lowest class of Scotch audiences, who roar on the +representations of Dandie Dinmont, Bailie Nicol Jarvie, or the like, it +may safely be affirmed that they have every where proved entire failures. +The talent of a popular actress may for a time keep some of them up, as +Miss Cushman has recently done with Meg Merrilies both in the London and +provincial theatres; but left to themselves, they have every where sunk to +the ground. The reason is evident. The story is so complicated, and leaps +so from one thing to another, from a desire to skim over the whole novel, +that except to those who have the original by heart, it is absolutely +unintelligible. + +It is said that the sketch of a whole lifetime, or of many years, is +essential to the true development of character, which it is the great end +of the drama to exhibit, because it is by the varied events of so long a +period that we are made acquainted with it in real life. Here again we +join issue with our opponents, and do most confidently maintain that the +Greek drama, which professes to paint the heart by the paroxysms of +passion it undergoes in the crisis of its fate, is much more likely to do +it faithfully and effectually than the Romantic, which portrays the events +of a whole lifetime. When it is said the object of the drama is to paint +the human heart, a distinction must be made. The heart may become known by +ordinary life or moments of crisis, _by custom or passion_. The novelist, +who portrays a whole life, may delineate it in the first way; but the +dramatic poet, who is limited to a representation of three hours, must of +necessity embrace the latter. But if the delineation of the heart by its +expressions or sufferings in moments of passion, when it is laid bare by +the vehemence of emotions, be the end in view, it must at once be evident +that it is much more likely to be attained by vividly and minutely +painting a single decisive crisis, with the acts and feelings to which it +gives rise, than by presenting comparatively hurried and imperfect +sketches of previous events, when the current of life ran comparatively +smoothly. Every one knows how much the character of the French church and +nobility rose during the sufferings of the Revolution; with truth was the +instrument of their execution called the "holy guillotine," from the +virtues previously unheard of which it brought to light. Could any +dramatic sketch of their previous lives paint the inmost heart of these +victims so well as one faithful portrait of their conduct in the supreme +hour? Could the mingled greatness and meanness of Napoleon's character be +so well portrayed, by a sketch of his life and impressive scenes from Lodi +to St Helena, as by a graphic delineation of his conduct in the decisive +crisis at Waterloo? + +It sounds well, no doubt, to say, as Macaulay does, that the Romantic +drama exhibits all the plans of a man's life, from the ardour of generous +youth to the coolness of experienced age. This may be done in history or +romance; but it is impossible within the limits of a single +representation. It is quite enough if, in so short a space, the stage can +represent one momentous crisis with adequate power, and really paint the +heart as laid bare by its occurrence. He who knows how difficult it is to +do that in a single instance, will feel that the effect can only be +weakened by repeated draughts upon the sympathy of the audience, from the +effect of different events in the same piece. The attempt to do so +scarcely ever fails to weaken the effect of the whole piece, by +distracting the interest and confusing the idea of the spectators. If it +succeeds, the result, like the repeated demands which Matthews made on +our risible faculties, in general is to produce an effect directly the +reverse of what was intended. The comedian, by trying too often to make us +laugh, made us in the end more ready to cry; the tragedian, by trying too +often to make us cry, succeeds generally only in making us laugh. + +But what, then, it is said, is to be made of Shakspeare, and how is his +transcendent and universally acknowledged greatness, while setting the +unities at defiance, to be reconciled with those principles? We accept the +challenge; we take the case of the Earl of Avon, with his deathless fame, +and maintain that his dramatic excellence not only affords no impeachment +of what has now been advanced, but furnishes its most decisive +confirmation. + +When it is commonly said that Shakspeare sets the unities at defiance, and +assumed that his success has been owing to his disregarding them, the +_fact_ is not correctly stated, and the _inference_ is not logically +drawn. It is a mistake to say that the unities are always disregarded by +the great English tragedian. In many of his most popular pieces, they are +maintained nearly as strictly as they were by Sophocles; and we are aware +of not one of his dramas which is still represented with undiminished +effect on the stage, in which the principle of the unities may not +distinctly be recognised, and the long-continued success is not to be +traced to their observation. + +The Greeks, as every scholar knows, took great latitude with _time_ in +their representations. The interval between one act and another, often +even the time occupied by the chaunting of the chorus, frequently was made +to cover a very considerable period, during which battles were fought, a +duel or a conspiracy broke forth, an execution took place, and the most +momentous events of the piece off the stage occurred. In place, it is +true, they were strictly limited; the scene never changed, and all the +incidents were introduced by bringing successive persons upon it. In this +respect, it may be admitted, they carried their strictness too far. +Probably it arose from the pieces being represented, for the most part, in +the open air, under circumstances when the illusion produced by a change +of scene, such as we witness at our theatres, was difficult, if not +impossible, from the audience being, for the most part, above the actors, +and the stage having no top. But to whatever cause it may have been owing, +we hold the adherence to unity of place an unnecessary and prejudicial +strictness in the Greek theatre. But a very slight deviation from it alone +seems admissible; and the unity of action or emotion seems to be the very +essence of this species of composition. + +The true principle appears to be, that the place should not change to a +greater extent than the spectators _can conceive the actors to have gone +over without inconvenience within the time embraced in the +representation_. This time often extended with the Greeks to a half of, or +even a whole day, and there seems nothing adverse to principle in such +extension. Changes of scene, therefore, from one room in a palace to +another; from one part of a town to another; or even from town to a +chateau, garden, forest, or other place in its near vicinity, appear to be +perfectly admissible, without any violation of true dramatic principle. +The popular opera of the "Black Domino," to which the charming singing and +acting of Madame Thillon have recently given such celebrity at the +Haymarket, may be considered in this respect as a model of the unities +taken in a reasonable sense. The time which elapses in the piece is a +single night; the subject is the adventures which befel the heroine during +that period; the scene changes, but only to the places in the same town to +which she went during its continuance. There seems nothing inconsistent +with the production of unity of interest in such a latitude. And with this +inconsiderable expansion of the old Greek unities, it will be found that +Shakspeare's greatest plays, and those which experience has found to be +best adapted for the stage, have been constructed on the true principles. + +Take for example, _Romeo and Juliet_, and _As you Like it_; perhaps the +tragedy and comedy of his composition which have most completely kept +their hold of the stage. The unities are nearly as closely observed in +both as in any drama of Sophocles. With the exception of a slight +alteration of place and scene, every thing is concentrated. The interest +and emotion, which is the great point, is maintained one and indivisible. +With the exception of Romeo's banishment to Mantua, and the scene with the +druggist there, which, after all, is but an episode, and took the hero +only two hours' drive from Verona, the place is confined to different +scenes in that town. The festive hall where the lovers first meet--the +exquisite meeting on the balcony--Father Ambrose's cell--the room where +Juliet coaxes the nurse--the garden where she parts from Romeo, when + + "Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day + Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain's top--" + +the terrible scene where Juliet contemplates wakening in the tomb amidst +her ancestors' bones--the mausoleum itself, where the catastrophe occurs, +are all in the same town. The time supposed to elapse does not exceed +twenty-four hours; not more than in the _Electra_ or _Iphigenia in Aulis_ +of Euripides. The interest, dependent entirely on the ardent love of +Juliet, is as much undivided as in the _Antigone_ of Sophocles. And yet we +are told Shakspeare succeeded by disregarding the unities. + +Again, in _As you Like it_, the same observation holds true. Whoever +recollects the scenes of that delightful drama, must be sensible that it +is, with the single exception of the scenes of the wrestlers in the first +act, nothing but a Greek drama on the English stage. Menander or +Aristophanes would have made one of the characters recount that scene, +which is merely introductory, and introduced Rosalind and her companions +for the first time in the Forest of Arden, where the real interest of the +piece commences. A slight change of scene, indeed, occurs from one part of +the forest to another, but it is so inconsiderable as in no degree to +interfere with the unity of effect. The single interest awakened by +Rosalind's secret love and playful archness of manner is kept up undivided +throughout. So also in _The Tempest_, the unities in all the scenes which +excite sympathy are as completely preserved as ever they were on the Greek +stage; and the angelic innocence of Miranda stands forth in as striking +and undivided relief as the devotion of Antigone to sisterly affection, or +the self-immolation of Iphigenia to patriotic duty. We are well aware +there are characters of a very different kind in that drama; but the +interest is concentrated on those in which the unity is preserved. Look at +_Othello_. In what play of Euripides is singleness of interest more +completely preserved than in that noble tragedy? The haughty bearing, +conscious pride, but ardent love of the Moor; the deep love of Desdemona, +nourished, as we so often see in real life, by qualities in her the very +reverse; the gradual growth of jealousy from her innocent sportiveness of +manner, and the diabolical machinations of Iago; her murder, in a fit of +jealousy, by her despairing husband, and his self-sacrifice when the veil +was drawn from his eyes,--are all brought forward, if not with the literal +strictness of the Greek drama, at least with as much regard to unity of +time, place, and action, as is required by its principles. + +We are well aware that there are many other dramas, and those, perhaps, +not less popular, of Shakspeare, in which unity of time and place is +entirely set at defiance, and in which the piece ends at the distance of +hundreds of miles, sometimes after the lapse of years, from the point +whence it commenced. _Macbeth_, _Julius Cæsar_, _Richard III._, _Henry +V._, _Hamlet_, and many others, are examples of this deviation from former +principle, and it is to the universal admiration which they excite that +the national partiality for the Romantic drama is to be ascribed. But in +all these instances it will be found--and the observation is a most +material one--that the real interest is nearly as much centralised as it +was in the Greek stage, and that it is on the extraordinary fascination +which a few scenes, or _the incidents grouped round a single event_, +possess, that the success of the piece depends. The historical tragedies +read well, just as a historical romance does, and from the same cause, +that they are looked on, not as dramas, but as brilliant passages of +history. But this has proved unable to support them on the theatre. One by +one they have gradually dropped away from the stage. Some are occasionally +revived, from time to time, in order to display the power of a particular +actor or actress, but never with any lasting success. Those plays of +Shakspeare which alone retain their hold of the theatre, are either those, +such as _Romeo and Juliet_, or _As you Like it_, in which the unities are +substantially observed, or in which the resplendent brilliancy of a few +characters or scenes, within very narrow limits, fixes the attention of +the audience so completely as to render comparatively harmless, because +unfelt, the distraction produced by the intermixture of farce in the +subordinate persons, or the violations of time and place in the structure +of the piece. But it is not to every man that the pencil of the Bard of +Avon, + + "Dipp'd in the orient hues of heaven," + +is given; and the subsequent failure of the Romantic drama, in this and +every other country, is mainly to be ascribed to succeeding writers not +having possessed his power of fixing, by the splendid colours of genius, +the attention of the spectators on a particular part of the piece. +Shakspeare disregards the unities in form; but his burning imagination +restores their operations in substance. + +Take for example the most popular of the really Romantic dramas, _Macbeth_ +and _Hamlet_. No one need be told how the unities are violated in the +first of these pieces: that it begins on a heath in Morayshire, where the +witches appear to the victorious Thane; that the murder of the King takes +place in the Castle of Inverness; that the usurper is slain by Macduff in +front of Dunsinnane Castle near the Tay. But none can either have read the +play, or seen it acted, without feeling that the real interest lies in the +events which occurred, and the ambitious feelings which were awakened in +Macbeth and his wife, when temptation was put in their way within their +own halls. Sophocles would have laid the scene there, and made one of the +characters narrate in the outset the appearance of the witches on the +heath, and brought Macduff to the gates of Macbeth's castle shortly after +the murder of Duncan to avenge his death. Shakspeare has not done this; +but he has painted the scenes in the interior of the castle, before and +after the murder, with such force and effect, that the mind is as much +riveted by them, as if no previous or subsequent deviation from the +unities had been introduced. _Hamlet_ begins in a strain of unparalleled +interest; had the last four acts proceeded in the same sublime style as +the first, and the filial duty devolved by the ghost on his son of +avenging his murder been discharged as rapidly as it should have been, and +as the feelings of the audience lead them to desire, it would have been +perhaps the most powerful tragedy in the world. Had Shakspeare proceeded +on the principles of the Greek drama, he would have done this, and +produced a drama as universally admired as the _Agamemnon_ of Æschylus. +But every one feels that the interest is weakened and wellnigh lost as the +play proceeds; new characters are introduced, the burlesque succeeds the +sublime, the original design is forgotten; and when the spectre appears a +second time "to whet your almost blunted purpose," his appearance is felt +to be as necessary to revive the decaying interest of the piece, as to +resuscitate the all but forgotten fervour of the Prince of Denmark. + +We feel that we have committed high treason in the estimation of a large +part of our readers, by contesting the justice of the principles on which +Shakspeare proceeded in the construction of many of his dramas; and we +know that the opinions advanced are adverse to those of many, whose genius +and professional success entitle their judgment on this subject to the +very highest respect. But yet the weight of authority, if that is to be +appealed to, is decidedly in favour of the principles of the Greek being +the true ones of the drama. From the days of Aristotle to those of +Addison, the greatest critics have concurred in this opinion; and he is a +bold innovater on this subject who sets at nought the precepts of Horace +and Quintilian, forgets the example of Sophocles and Schiller, of +Euripides and Alfieri, of Corneille and Metastasio, and disregards the +decided judgment of Pope[7] and Byron. The opinion of the latter poet was +peculiarly strong in favour of the unities, and was repeatedly expressed +in his correspondence preserved in Moore's Life; although his own noble +dramas, being avowedly constructed with no view to representation, but as +a vehicle for powerful declamation or impassioned poetry, often exhibit, +especially in _Manfred_, the most glaring violations of them. Johnson +confessed that the weight of authority in favour of the Greek rules was so +great, that it required no small courage to attempt even to withstand it. +But it is not by authority that this, or any other question of taste, is +to be decided. The true test of the correctness of opinion on such matters +is to be found in experience, and the inward feelings of persons of +cultivated minds and enlarged observation. And in the preceding remarks we +have only extended to the drama, principles familiar to artists in every +other department of human imagination, and generally admitted in them, at +least, to be correct; and appealed, we trust not in vain, to the +experience gained, and the lessons learned, by those who have cultivated +the sister arts in those times with the greatest success. + + + + +THE MINSTREL'S CURSE. + +FROM UHLAND. BY A. LODGE. + + + A castle of the olden time, o'er subject regions wide, + Throned on its rocky height afar looked forth in feudal pride; + And fragrant gardens decked the plain, where lakes, with crystal sheen, + Mirrored the pleasant sylvan glades and lawns of living green. + + Here dwelt, of jealous fears the prey, in pomp of moody state, + A King, by realms and cities fair, and conquest's laurels great; + His glance bespoke the tyrant soul to pity ne'er subdued; + His words were chains and torments--his characters were blood! + + Once to these lordly towers at eve approached a tuneful pair, + Of reverend silvery tresses one, and one with golden hair; + The old man on a palfrey sate--his harp, the Minstrel's pride, + He bore--his comrade, young and blithe, tripped lightly at his side. + + Thus to the youth the old man spoke--"My son, it boots to-day, + To try our deepest melodies, our most impassioned lay; + With cunning'st art essay the notes of blended joy and pain; + Perchance this royal heart may own the magic of the strain." + + Soon in the pillared regal hall, amid the courtly throng + Of belted knights and beauteous dames, they range the sons of song:-- + The King, in fearful majesty, recalled the meteor's blaze; + His spouse, with beaming loveliness, the moonlight's gentle rays. + + The old man swept the chords--and quick, responsive to the tone, + Through all the train each heart confessed the spell of power unknown; + And when a clear angelic voice chimed in with youthful fire, + 'Twas like the unseen minstrelsy of some ethereal quire! + + They sang of Love's delightful spring--of the old golden time; + Of knightly leal, and maiden's truth, and chivalry sublime; + Of each high thought that stirs the soul informed with heavenly flame; + Of man's exalted destinies--of freedom, worth, and fame! + + They paused:--in rapt attention hushed, the crowd had clustered near; + The courtier smoothed the lip of scorn, the warrior dropped a tear; + The Queen, with trembling extasy, took from her breast a rose; + And see! at the young Minstrel's feet the guerdon flower she throws. + + "Ha!" shrieked the King--"my lieges first, with your detested lays, + Ye have seduced--and now my Queen their witchery betrays; + Die, tuneful minion!"--at the youth he hurled the gleaming sword, + And from the fount of golden strains the crimson tide was poured. + + While scared, as by the lightning's flash, all stood in mute dismay, + The boy on his loved master's breast had breathed his soul away:-- + The old man round the bleeding form his mantle wrapped with speed; + Raised the dear victim in his arms, and bound him on his steed. + + The portals passed, he stood awhile, and gazed with tearful eyes-- + And grasped his harp--the master harp--of thousand harps the prize: + Then frantic on a column's base he dashed the useless lyre, + And thus the curse of Poesy spoke with a prophet's fire! + + "Woe! Woe! proud towers--dire House of blood! thy guilty courts among, + Ne'er may the chords of harmony be waked--the voice of song; + The tread of silent slaves alone shall echo mid the gloom, + Till Ruin waits, and hovering fiends of vengeance shriek thy doom! + + "Woe! Woe! ye blooming gardens fair--decked in the pride of May, + Behold this flower untimely cropped--look--and no more be gay! + The sight should wither every leaf--make all your fountains dry, + And bid the bright enchantment round in wasteful horror lie! + + "And thou, fell Tyrant, curst for aye of all the tuneful train-- + May blighted bays, and bitter scorn, mock thy inglorious reign! + Perish thy hated name with thee--from songs and annals fade-- + Thy race--thy power--thy very crimes--lost in oblivion's shade!" + + The aged Bard has spoken--and Heaven has heard the prayer; + The haughty towers are crumbling low--no regal dome is there! + A single column soars on high, to tell of splendours past-- + And see! _'tis cracked--it nods the head_--this hour may be it's last! + + Where once the fairy garden smiled, a mournful desert lies-- + No rills refresh the barren sand--no graceful stems arise-- + From storied page, and legend strain, this King has vanished long; + His race is dead--his power forgot:--such is the might of song! + + + + +THE MINE, THE FOREST, AND THE CORDILLERA.[8] + + +The silver mines of Potosi, the virgin forests, and mighty cordilleras of +South America, are words familiar and full of interest to European ears. +Countless riches, prodigious vegetable luxuriance, stupendous grandeur, +are the associations they suggest. With these should be coupled ideas of +cruelty, desolation, and disease, of human suffering and degradation +pushed to their utmost limit, of opportunities neglected, and advantages +misused. Not a bar of silver, or a healing drug, or an Alpaca fleece, +shipped from Peruvian ports to supply another hemisphere with luxuries and +comforts, but is the price of an incalculable amount of misery, and even +of blood--the blood of a race once noble and powerful, now wretched and +depraved by the agency of those whose duty and in whose power it was to +civilize and improve them. The corrupt policy of Spanish rulers, the +baneful example of Spanish colonists and their descendants, have gone far +towards the depopulation and utter ruin of the richest of South American +countries. How imprudent and suicidal has been the course adopted, will +presently be made apparent. Those who desire evidence in support of our +assertion, need but follow Dr Tschudi, as we now propose doing, into the +mining, mountainous, and forest districts of Peru. + +Difficult and dangerous as a journey through the maritime provinces of +Peru undeniably is, it is mere railroad travelling when compared with an +expedition into the interior of the country. In the former case, the land +is level, and the sun, the sand, and the highwayman, are the only perils +to be encountered or evaded. But a ramble in the mountains is a succession +of hairbreadth escapes, a deliberate confronting of constantly recurring +dangers, to which even the natives unwillingly expose themselves, and +frequently fall victims. The avalanches, precipices, gaping ravines, +slippery glaciers, and violent storms common to all Alpine regions, are +here complicated by other risks peculiar to the South American mountains. +Heavy rains, lasting for weeks together, falls of snow that in a few +moments obliterate all trace of a path, treacherous swamps, strange and +loathsome maladies, and even blindness, combine to deter the traveller +from his dangerous undertaking. All these did Dr Tschudi brave, and from +them all, after the endurance of great hardship and suffering, he was +fortunate enough to escape. + +At a very short distance from Lima, the traveller, proceeding eastward, +gets a foretaste of the difficulties and inconveniences in reserve for +him. Whilst riding, through the vale of Surco, or through some other of +the valleys leading from the coast to the mountains, he perceives a +fountain by the road side, and pauses to refresh his tired mule. Scarcely +is his intention manifest, when he is startled by a cry from his guide, or +from a passing Indian--"_Cuidado! Es agua de verruga!_" In these valleys +reigns a terrible disease called the _verrugas_, attributed by the natives +to the water of certain springs, and for which all Dr Tschudi's +investigations were insufficient to discover another cause. Fever, pains +in the bones, and loss of blood from cutaneous eruptions, are the leading +symptoms of this malady, which is frequently of long duration, and +sometimes terminates fatally. It seizes the Indians and lighter castes in +preference to the white men and negroes, and no specific has yet been +discovered for its cure. Mules and horses are also subject to its attacks. +In no country, it would appear from Dr Tschudi's evidence, are there so +many strange and unaccountable maladies as in Peru. Nearly every valley +has its peculiar disease, extending over a district of a few square miles, +and unknown beyond its limits. To most of them it has hitherto been +impossible to assign a cause. Their origin must probably be sought in +certain vegetable influences, or in those of the vast variety of minerals +which the soil of Peru contains. + +In the mountains, the shoeing of mules and horses is frequently a matter +of much difficulty; and it is advisable for the traveller to acquire the +art, and furnish himself with needful implements, before leaving the more +civilized part of the country. Farriers are only to be found in the large +Indian villages, and it is common to ride fifty or sixty leagues without +meeting with one. In the village of San Geronimo de Surco, the innkeeper +is the only blacksmith, and Dr Tschudi, whose horse had cast a shoe, was +compelled to pay half a gold ounce (upwards of thirty shillings) to have +it replaced. This was one half less than the sum at first demanded by the +exorbitant son of Vulcan, who doubtless remembered the old Spanish +proverb, "for a nail is lost a shoe, for a shoe the horse, for the horse +the horseman."[9] The doctor took the hint, and some lessons in shoeing, +which afterwards stood him in good stead. It is a common practice in Peru, +on the sandy coast, and where the roads permit it, to ride a horse or mule +unshod for the first four or five days of a journey. Then shoes are put on +the fore feet, and a few days later on the hinder ones. This is thought to +give new strength to the animals, and to enable them to hold out longer. +On the mountain tracks, the wear and tear of iron must be prodigious, as +may be judged from the following description of three leagues of road +between Viso and San Mateo, by no means the worst bit met with by our +traveller. + +"The valley frequently becomes a mere narrow split in the mountains, +enclosed between walls of rock a thousand feet high. These enormous +precipices are either perpendicular, or their summits incline inwards, +forming a vast arch; along their base, washed by the foaming waters of the +river, or higher up, along their side, winds the narrow and dangerous +path. In some places they recede a little from the perpendicular, and +their abrupt slopes are sprinkled with stones and fragments of rock, which +every now and then, loosened by rain, detach themselves and roll down into +the valley. The path is heaped with these fragments, which give way under +the tread of the heavily laden mules, and afford them scanty foothold. +From time to time, enormous blocks thunder down the precipice, and bury +themselves in the waters beneath. I associate a painful recollection with +the road from Viso to San Mateo. It was there that a mass of stone struck +one of my mules, and precipitated it into the river. My most important +instruments and travelling necessaries, a portion of my collections and +papers, and--an irreparable loss--a diary carefully and conscientiously +kept during a period of fourteen months, became the prey of the waters. +Two days later the mule was washed ashore; but its load was irrecoverably +lost. Each year numerous beasts of burden, and many travellers, perish +upon this dangerous road. Cavalry on the march are particularly apt to +suffer, and often a slip of the horse's foot, or a hasty movement of the +rider, suffices to consign both to the yawning chasm by their side. At the +inn at Viso I met an officer, who had just come from the mountains, +bringing his two sons with him. He had taken the youngest before him; the +other, a boy of ten years of age, rode upon the mule's crupper. Half a +league from Viso, a large stone came plunging down from the mountain, +struck the eldest lad, and dashed him into the stream." + +Although frequently ill-treated by the Creoles, and especially by the +officers, the Indians in most parts of Peru show ready hospitality and +good-will to the solitary traveller. Those in the neighborhood of San +Mateo are an exception; they are distrustful, rough, and disobliging. When +a traveller enters the village, he is instantly waited upon by the alcalde +and regidores, who demand his passport. Has he none, he risks +ill-treatment, and being put upon a jackass and carried off to the +nearest prefect. Luckily the ignorance of the village authorities renders +them easy to deal with; it is rare that they can read. On one occasion, +when Dr Tschudi's passport was demanded, the only printed paper in his +pocket was an old playbill, that of the last opera he had attended before +his departure from Lima, and which he had taken with him as wadding for +his gun. He handed it to the Indian regidor, who gravely unfolded it, +stared hard at the words Lucia di Lammermoor, and returned it with the +remark, that the passport was perfectly in order. + +Any thing more wretched in their accommodations than the _tambos_ or +village inns, can scarcely be imagined. So bad are they, that the +traveller is sometimes driven to pass the night in the snow rather than +accept of their shelter, and at the same time submit to the nuisances with +which they abound. One of these villanous hostelries, in which Dr Tschudi +several times attempted to sleep, is described by him with a minuteness +that will rather startle the squeamish amongst his readers. Vermin every +where, on the floor and walls, in the clothes of the Indian hag +officiating as hostess, even in the caldron in which a vile mixture of +potatoe water and Spanish pepper is prepared for supper. For sole bed +there is the damp earth, upon which hosts, children, and travellers +stretch themselves. Each person is accommodated with a sheepskin, and over +the whole company is spread an enormous woollen blanket. But woe to the +inexperienced traveller who avails himself of the coverings thus +bountifully furnished, swarming as they are with inhabitants from whose +assaults escape is impossible. Even if he creeps into a corner, and makes +himself a bed with his saddle-cloths, he is not secure. Add to these +comforts a stifling smoke, and other nauseous exhalations, and the gambols +of innumerable guinea-pigs, common as mice in many parts of Peru, who +caper the night through over the faces and bodies of the sleepers, and the +picture of a South American mountain inn will be as complete as it is +uninviting. But these annoyances, great though they be, are very trifles +compared to the more serious evils awaiting the traveller in the higher +regions of the Cordilleras. At about 12,600 feet above the level of the +sea, the effects of the rarefaction of the atmosphere begin to be sensibly +and painfully felt. The natives, unacquainted with the real cause of the +malady thus occasioned, and which by them is called _puna_, by the Spanish +Creoles _veta_ or _mareo_, attribute it to the exhalations of metals, +especially of antimony. Horses, not bred in the mountains, suffer greatly +from the _veta_, and frequently fall down helpless. The arrieros adopt +various cruel means for their revival, such as cutting off their ears and +tail, and slitting up their nostrils, the latter being probably the only +useful remedy, as it allows the animal to inhale a large volume of air. To +preserve them from the _veta_, chopped garlic is put into their nostrils. +With human beings, this state of the atmosphere causes the blood to gush +from the eyes, nose, and lips, and occasions faintings, blood-spittings, +vomitings, and other unpleasant and dangerous symptoms. The sensation +somewhat resembles that of sea-sickness, whence the Spanish name of +_mareo_. The malady, in its most violent form, sometimes causes death from +excessive loss of blood. Of this, Dr Tschudi saw instances. Much depends +on the general health and constitution of the persons attacked. The action +of the _veta_ is very capricious. Some persons do not experience it on a +first visit to the mountains, but suffer on subsequent ones. Another +singular circumstance is, that it is much more violent in some places than +in others of a greater altitude. This affords ground for a supposition, +that other causes, besides the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, +concur to occasion it. These as yet remain unknown. The districts in which +the _veta_ is felt with the greatest intensity, are for the most part very +metallic, and this has given rise to the Indian theory of its cause. + +Another terrible scourge to the traveller in the Cordilleras is the +_surumpe_, a violent inflammation of the eye, brought on by the sudden +reflection of the sun from the snow. In those mountains the eyes are kept +continually in an irritated state by the rarefied air and cutting winds, +and are consequently unusually susceptible. Often the heavens become +suddenly overcast, and in a few minutes the yellowish-green waste is one +sheet of snow. Then out bursts the sun with overpowering splendour, a +sharp burning pain is instantly felt in the eyes, and speedily increases +to an unbearable extent. The eyes become red, the lids swell and bleed. So +violent is the agony as to cause despair and delirium. Dr Tschudi compares +it to the sensation occasioned by rubbing Spanish pepper or gunpowder into +the eyes. Chronic inflammation, even total blindness, is the frequent +consequence of the _surumpe_ in its most intense form. In the Cordilleras +it is no unusual thing to find Indians sitting by the wayside, shrieking +from pain, and unable to continue their journey. The Creoles, when they +visit the mountains, protect themselves with green spectacles and veils. + +During five months of the year, from November till March, storms are of +almost daily occurrence in the Cordilleras. They commence with remarkable +punctuality between two and three in the afternoon, and continue till five +or half-past; later than this, or in the night, a storm was never known to +occur. They are accompanied by falls of snow, which last till after +midnight. The morning sun dispels the cold mist that hangs about the +mountain peaks, and in a few hours the snow is melted. "On the raging +ocean," says Dr Tschudi, "and in the dark depths of the aboriginal +forests, I have witnessed terrific storms, whose horrors were increased by +surrounding gloom and imminent danger, but never did I feel anxiety and +alarm as in Antaichahua, (a district of the Cordilleras celebrated for +storms.) For hours together flash followed flash in uninterrupted +succession, painting blood-red cataracts upon the naked precipices; the +thunder crashed, the zigzag lightning ran along the ground, leaving long +furrows in the scorched grass. The atmosphere quivered with the continuous +roll of thunder, repeated a thousand-fold by the mountain echoes. The +traveller, overtaken by these terrific tempests, leaves his trembling +horse, and seeks shelter and refuge beneath some impending rock." + +The hanging bridges and _huaros_ are not to be forgotten in enumerating +the perils of Peruvian travelling. The former are composed of four thick +ropes of cow-hide, connected by a weft of cords of the same material, and +overlaid with branches, straw, and agair roots. The ropes are fastened to +posts on either side of the river; a couple of cords, two or three feet +higher than the bridge, serve for balustrades; and over this unsteady +causeway, which swings like a hammock, the traveller has to pass, leading +his reluctant mule. The passage of rivers by _huaros_ is much worse, and +altogether a most unpleasant operation. It can be effected only where the +banks are high and precipitous. A single strong rope extends from one +shore to the other, with a wooden machine, in form of a yoke, slung upon +it. To this yoke the traveller is tied, and is then drawn over by means of +a second cord. In case of the main rope breaking, the passenger by the +yoke is inevitably drowned. When rivers are traversed in this manner, the +mules and horses are driven into the water, and compelled to swim across. + +But a further detail of the dangers and difficulties of travel in Peru +would leave us little space to enumerate its interesting results. +Supposing the reader, therefore, to have safely accomplished his journey +through the solitary ravines, and over the chilly summits of the +Cordilleras, we transport him at once to the Cerro de Pasco, famed for the +wealth of its silver mines. In a region of snow and ice, at an elevation +of 13,673 feet above the sea, he suddenly comes in sight of a large and +populous city, built in a hollow, and surrounded on all sides by lakes and +swamps. On the margin of eternal snows, in the wildest district of Peru, +and in defiance of the asperities of climate, Mammon has assembled a host +of worshippers to dig and delve in the richest of his storehouses. + +Some two hundred and fifteen years ago, according to the legend, a small +pampa that lies south-east from Lake Lauricocha, the mother of the mighty +river Amazon, an Indian, Hauri Capcha by name, tended his master's sheep. +Having wandered one day to an unusual distance from his hut, he sought +shelter from the cold under a rock, and lighted a large fire. The +following morning he saw to his astonishment that the stone beneath the +ashes had melted and become pure silver. He joyfully informed his +employer, a Spaniard of the name of Ugarte, of this singular circumstance. +Ugarte hastened to the place, and found that his shepherd had lit upon a +vein of silver ore of extraordinary richness, of which he at once took +possession, and worked it with great success. This same mine is still +worked, and is known as _la Descubridora_, the discoverer. Presently a +number of persons came from the village of Pasco, two leagues distant, and +sought and discovered new veins. The great richness of the ore and the +increase of employment soon drew crowds to the place--some to work, others +to supply the miners with the necessaries of life; and thus, in a very +brief time, there sprung up a town of eighteen thousand inhabitants. + +The ground whereon Cerro de Pasco is built is a perfect network of silver +veins, to get at which the earth has been opened in every direction. Many +of the inhabitants work the mines in their own cellars; but this, of +course, is on a small scale, and there are not more than five hundred +openings meriting, by reason of their depth and importance, the name of +shafts. All, however, whether deep or shallow, are worked in a very +senseless, disorderly, and imprudent manner--the sole object of their +owners being to obtain, at the least possible expense, and in the shortest +possible time, the utmost amount of ore. Nobody ever thinks of arching or +walling the interior of the excavations, and consequently the shafts and +galleries frequently fall in, burying under their ruins the unfortunate +Indian miners. Not a year passes without terrible catastrophes of this +kind. In the mine of Matagente, (literally, Kill-people,) now entirely +destroyed, three hundred labourers lost their lives by accident. For +incurring these terrible risks, and for a species of labour of all others +the most painful and wearisome, the Indians are wretchedly paid, and their +scanty earnings are diminished by the iniquitous truck system which is in +full operation in the mines as well as in the plantations of Peru. The +miner who, at the week's end, has a dollar to receive, esteems himself +fortunate, and forthwith proceeds to spend it in brandy. The mining +Indians are the most depraved and degraded of their race. When a mine is +in _boya_, as it is called, that is to say, at periods when it yields +uncommonly rich metal, more labourers are required, and temporarily taken +on. When this occurs in several mines at one time, the population of Cerro +de Pasco sometimes doubles and trebles itself. During the boyas, the +miners are paid by a small share in the daily produce of their labours. +They sometimes succeed in improving their shares by stealing the ore, but +this is very difficult, so narrowly are they searched when they leave the +mine. One man told Dr Tschudi how he had managed to appropriate the +richest piece of ore he ever saw. He tied it on his back, and pretended to +be so desperately ill, that the corporal allowed him to leave the mine. +Wrapped in his poncho, he was carried past the inspectors by two +confederates, and the treasure was put in safety. Formerly when a mine +yielded polvorilla, a black ore in the form of powder, but of great +richness, the miners stripped themselves naked, wetted their whole body, +and then rolled in this silver dust, which stuck to them. Released from +the mine they washed off the crust, and sold it for several dollars. This +device, however, was detected, and, for several years past, the departing +miners are compelled to strip for inspection. + +Like the extraction of the ore, the purification of the silver from the +dross is conducted in the rudest and most primitive manner. The +consequence is an immense consumption of quicksilver. On each mark of +silver, worth in Lima eight and a-half dollars, or about thirty shillings, +it is estimated that half a pound of quicksilver is expended. The +quicksilver comes chiefly from Spain--very little from Idria--in iron jars +containing seventy-five pounds weight. The price of one of these jars +varies from sixty to one hundred dollars, but is sometimes as high as one +hundred and forty dollars. Both the amalgamation and separation of the +metals are so badly managed, as to occasion a terrible amount of mercurial +disease amongst the Indians employed in the process. From the +refining-houses the silver is, or ought to be, sent to Callana, the +government melting-house, there to be cast into bars of a hundred pounds +weight, each of which is stamped and charged with imposts to the amount of +about forty-four dollars. But a vast deal of the metal is smuggled to the +coast and shipped for Europe without ever visiting the Callana. Hence it +is scarcely possible to estimate the quantity annually produced. The +amount registered is from two to three hundred thousand marks--rarely over +the latter sum. + +Residence in the Cerro de Pasco is highly disagreeable. The climate is +execrable; cold and stormy, with heavy rains and violent falls of snow. +Nothing less than the _auri sacra fames_ could have induced such a +congregation of human beings, from all nations and corners of the globe, +in so inhospitable a latitude. The new-comer with difficulty accustoms +himself to the severity of the weather, and to the perpetual hammering +going on under his feet, and at night under his very bed, for the mines +are worked without cessation. Luckily earthquakes are rare in that region. +A heavy shock would bury the whole town in the bosom of the earth. + +Silver being the only produce of the soil, living is very dear in the +Cerro. All the necessaries of life have to be brought from a great +distance; and this, combined with the greediness of the vendors, and the +abundance of money, causes enormous prices to be demanded and obtained. +House-rent is exorbitantly high; the keep of a horse often costs, owing to +the want of forage, from two to three dollars a-day. Here, as at Lima, the +coffee and eating-houses are kept by Italians, principally Genoese. The +population of the town is the most motley imaginable; scarcely a country +in the world but has its representatives. Of the upper classes the darling +vice is gambling, carried to an almost unparalleled extent. From earliest +morning cards and dice are in full activity: the mine proprietor leaves +his counting-house and silver carts, the trader abandons his shop, to +indulge for a couple of hours in his favourite amusement; and, when the +evening comes, play is universal in all the best houses of the town. The +mayordomos, or superintendents of the mines, sit down to the gaming-table +at nightfall, and only leave it when at daybreak the bell summons them to +the shaft. Often do they gamble away their share in a boya long before +signs of one are apparent. Amongst the Indians, drunkenness is the chief +failing. When primed by spirits, they become quarrelsome; and scarcely a +Sunday or holiday passes without savage fights between the workmen of +different mines. Severe wounds, and even deaths, are the consequences of +these encounters, in which the authorities never dream of interfering. +When, owing to the richness of a boya, the Indian finds himself possessed +of an unusual number of dollars, he squanders then in the most ridiculous +manner, like a drunken sailor with a year's pay in his pocket. Dr Tschudi +saw one fellow buy a Spanish cloak for ninety-two dollars. Draping it +round him, he proceeded to the next town, got drunk, rolled himself in the +gutter, and then threw away the cloak because it was torn and dirty. A +watchmaker told the doctor that once an Indian came to him to buy a gold +watch. He handed him one, with the remark that the price was twelve gold +ounces, (two hundred and four dollars,) and that it would probably be too +dear for him. The Indian took the watch, paid for it, and then dashing it +upon the ground, walked away, saying that the thing was no use to him. + +Besides the mines of Cerro de Pasco, Dr Tschudi gives us details of many +others situate in various parts of Peru. The Salcedo mine, in the province +of Puno, is celebrated for the tragical end of its discoverer. Don José +Salcedo, a poor Spaniard, was in love with an Indian girl, whose mother +promised to show him a silver vein of uncommon richness if he would marry +her daughter. He did so, and worked the vein with great success. After a +time the fame of his wealth roused the envy of the Conde de Lemos, then +viceroy of Peru. By his generosity and benevolence Salcedo had made +himself very popular with the Indians, and this served the viceroy as a +pretext to accuse him of high treason, on the ground of his stirring up +the population against the Spanish government. Salcedo was imprisoned, and +sentenced to death. Whilst in his dungeon he besought Count Lemos to send +the papers relating to his trial to the supreme tribunal at Madrid, and to +allow him to make an appeal to the king's mercy. If this request were +granted, he promised to pay a daily tribute of a bar of silver, from the +time of the ship's sailing from Callao to that of its return. In those +days the voyage from Callao to Spain and back occupied from twelve to +sixteen months. This may give an idea of the wealth of Salcedo and his +mine. The viceroy refused the condition, hung up Salcedo, (in May 1669,) +and set out for the mines. But his injustice and cruelty were doomed to +disappointment. Whilst Salcedo prepared for death, his mother-in-law and +her friends and relations betook themselves to the mine, destroyed the +works, filled it with water, and closed the entrance so skilfully that it +was impossible to discover it. They then dispersed in various directions, +and neither promises nor tortures could induce those who were afterwards +captured, to reveal the position of the mine. To this day it remains +undiscovered. + +Another example of the exceeding richness of Peruvian mines is to be found +in that of San José, in the department of Huancavelica. Its owner asked +the viceroy Castro, whose friend he was, to stand godfather to his first +child. The viceroy was prevented from going himself, but sent his wife as +a proxy. To do her honour, the proprietor of San José caused a triple row +of silver bars to be placed along the whole of the distance, and it was no +short one, between his house and the church. Over this costly causeway the +vice-queen Castro accompanied the child to its baptism. On her departure +her magnificent Amphitryon made her a present of the silver road as a mark +of gratitude for the honour she had done him. Since then, the mines and +the province have borne the name of Castrovireyna. Most of the former are +now no longer worked. In the richest of them, owing to the careless mode +of mining, one hundred and twenty-two workmen were buried alive at one +time. Since then, no Indian can be prevailed upon to enter it. + +The Indians have not been slow to discover how little advantage they +derive from the mining system, procuring them, as it does, small pay for +severe labour. Hence, although acquainted for centuries past with +innumerable rich veins of ore, the knowledge of which has been handed down +from father to son, they obstinately persist in keeping them secret. All +endeavours to shake this determination have hitherto been fruitless; even +the rarely failing argument of brandy in these cases loses its power. The +existence of the treasures has been ascertained beyond a doubt; but there +is not a shadow of hope that the stubborn reserved Indian will ever reveal +their locality to the greedy Creole and detested Metis. Numerous and +romantic are the tales told of this determined concealment, and of the +prudence and watchfulness of the Indians. "In the great village of +Huancayo," says Dr Tschudi, "there lived, a few years ago, two brothers, +José and Pedro Iriarte, who ranked amongst the most influential of +Peruvian miners. They knew that in the neighbouring hills veins of almost +virgin silver existed, and, with a view to their discovery, they +dispatched a young man to a village near which they suspected them to be +situate. The emissary took up his dwelling in the hut of a shepherd, with +whose daughter, after a few months' residence, he established an intrigue. +At last the young girl promised to show him a rich mine. On a certain day, +when she drove her sheep to the pasture, he was to follow her at a +distance, and to dig the spot where she should let her cloak fall. This he +did, and after very brief labour found a cavity in the earth disclosing +ore of uncommon richness. Whilst breaking out the metal, he was joined by +the girl's father, who declared himself delighted at the discovery, and +offered to help him. After some hours' labour they paused to rest, and the +old Indian handed his companion a gourd of chicha, (a fermented drink,) of +which the latter thankfully drank. Soon, however, the young man felt +himself ill, and knew that he was poisoned. Taking his wallet full of ore, +he hastened to the village, mounted his horse, and rode to Huancayo, where +he informed Iriarte of what had occurred, described the position of the +mine, and died the same night. Immediate and careful researches were of no +avail. The Indian and his family had disappeared, the mine had been filled +up, and was never discovered." + +A Franciscan monk, also resident in Huancayo, a confirmed gambler, and +consequently often embarrassed for money, had gained, by his kindness, the +affections of the Indians, who constantly brought him small presents of +cheese and poultry. One day when he had lost heavily, he confided his +difficulties to an Indian, his particular gossip. The latter promised to +help him, and the next evening brought him a large sack full of the +richest silver ore. The same was repeated several times; but the monk, not +satisfied, did not cease to importune his friend to show him the place +whence he took the treasure. The Indian at last agreed to do so. In the +night-time he came, with two companions, to the dwelling of the +Franciscan, blindfolded him, put him on his shoulders, and carried him, +alternately with his comrades, a distance of some leagues into the +mountains. Here the monk was set down, and found himself in a small +shallow shaft, where his eyes were dazzled by the beauty of the silver. +When he had gazed at it long enough, and loaded himself with the ore, he +was carried back as he had been brought. On his way he unfastened his +chaplet, and from time to time let a grain drop, trusting by this means to +trace out the mine. He had been but a few hours in bed when he was +disturbed by the entrance of his guide. "Father," said the Indian, +quietly, "you have lost your rosary." And he presented him with a handful +of the beads. + +This mania for concealment is not universal amongst the Peruvians, who, it +must be remembered, originally sprang from various tribes, united by the +Incas into one nation. Great differences of character and manners are +still to be found amongst them, some showing themselves as frank and +friendly towards the white men as others are mistrustful and inimical. The +principal mines that are or have been worked, were pointed out to the +Spaniards by the natives. Generally, however, the latter look upon seekers +of mines with suspicion, and they still relate with horror and disgust, +how Huari Capcha, the discoverer of the mines of Cerro de Pasco, was +thrown by Ugarte into a gloomy dungeon, where he pined away his life. Dr +Tschudi could not ascertain the authenticity of this tale, but he often +heard it told by the Indians, who gave it as a reason for concealing any +new mines they might discover. + +At the pass of Antarangra, 15,600 feet above the level of the sea, Dr +Tschudi found two small lakes, scarcely thirty paces asunder. One of these +is the source of the river San Mateo, which flows westward, passes Lima +under the name of the Rimac, and discharges itself into the Pacific Ocean; +the other sends its waters through a number of small mountain lakes to the +river Pachachaca, a diminutive tributary of the mighty Amazon. The worthy +doctor confesses that he could not resist the temptation to disturb the +order of nature, by transporting a jug-full of the water intended for the +Atlantic, into the lake communicating with the Pacific. Of a more serious +cast were his reflections on the mighty power that had raised these +tremendous mountains, on whose summits sea-shells and other marine +substances testify to the fact of the ocean having once rolled over their +materials. + +Between the Cordilleras and the Andes, 12,000 feet above the sea, lie the +vast tracts of desolate tableland known as the Puna, a Peruvian word +equivalent to the Spanish _despoblado_. These plains extend through the +whole length of Peru from N.W. to S.E., a distance of 350 Spanish miles, +continue through Bolivia, and run out eastward into the territory of the +Argentine republic. Their sole inhabitants are a few shepherds, who live +with their families in wretched huts, and tend large flocks of sheep, +oxen, alpacas, and llamas, to which the yellow and meagre grasses of the +Puna yield a scanty nourishment. The district is swept by the cold winds +from the Cordilleras, the climate is most inhospitable, unintermitting +snow and storm during four months of the year. A remarkable effect of the +Puna wind is the rapid drying of dead bodies. A few days suffice to +convert a dead mule into a perfect mummy, the very entrails free from +corruption. Here and there the dry and piercingly cold wind, which causes +extreme suffering to the traveller's eyes and skin, changes its +temperature, or, it were better said, is crossed by a current of warm air, +sometimes only two or three paces, at others several hundred feet, in +breadth. These warm streams run in a parallel direction to each other, and +Dr Tschudi deposes to having passed through five or six in the space of +two leagues. He noticed them particularly in the months of August and +September, and, according to his observations, their usual direction was +that of the Cordillera, namely, from S.S.W. to N.N.E. He once travelled +for several leagues in one of these currents, the width of which did not +exceed seven-and-twenty paces. Its temperature was eleven degrees of +Reaumur higher than the adjacent atmosphere. The existence of these warm +streams is in some cases permanent, for the muleteers will frequently tell +beforehand where they are to be met with. The causes of such singular +phenomena, says Dr Tschudi, are well deserving the closest investigation +of the meteorologist. + +The numerous deep valleys, of greater or less extent, which intersect the +Puna, are known as the Sierra, and their inhabitants as Serranos, although +that term is also applied by the dwellers on the coast of Peru to all +natives of the interior. Here the climate is temperate, not unlike that of +the central countries of Europe; towns and villages are numerous, and the +fruitful soil brings forth abundantly, watered by the sweat of the +laborious Indians. The people are hospitable in the extreme, and the +stranger is welcome in their dwellings so long as he chooses to abide +there. They appear, however, to be as yet very far removed from +civilisation. Their favourite diversions, cock and bull fighting, are +carried on in the most barbarous manner. Their chief vice is an extreme +addiction to brandy, and even the better classes get up evening parties +for the express purpose of indulging in the fiery liquor. The ladies as +well as the men consume it in large quantities, and Dr Tschudi estimates +the average consumption at one of these jaranas, or drinking bouts, to +amount to nearly a bottle per man or woman. At a ball given in 1839, in +one of the principal towns of the Sierra, to the Chilian general +Bulnes--now president of Chili--the brandy flowed so abundantly, that when +morning came many of the dancers, both male and female, lay dead drunk +upon the floor. The sole extenuation of such disgusting excesses is the +want of education of those who commit them, and the force of habit, which +prevents them from seeing any thing disgraceful in intoxication. It is +only in society that the Serrano gets drunk. In everyday life, when +jaranas are not going on, he is a sober man. + +The dramatic representations of scenes in the life of Christ, introduced +by the Spanish monks who accompanied Pizarro, with a view to the easier +conversion of the Aborigines, have long been discontinued in the larger +Peruvian cities. But in the Sierra they are still kept up, and all the +efforts of enlightened priests to suppress them, have been frustrated by +the tenacity and threats of the Indians. Dr Tschudi gives an extraordinary +description of the celebration of Good Friday. "From early dawn," he says, +"the church is crammed with Indians, who pass the morning in fasting and +prayer. At two in the afternoon a large image of the Saviour is brought +out of the sacristy and laid down near the altar, which is veiled. No +sooner does this occur than the whole congregation rush forward and +strive to touch the wounds with scraps of cotton, and then ensues a +screaming, crowding, and fighting, only to be equalled by the uproar at an +ill conducted fair, until the priests at last succeed in restoring order. +The figure of the Saviour is now attached to the cross with three very +large silver nails, and a rich silver crown is placed upon its head; on +either side are the crosses of the two thieves. The Indians gaze their +fill and leave the church, but return thither at eight in the evening. The +edifice is then brilliantly illuminated, and at the foot of the cross +stand, wrapped in white robes, four priests, the _santos varones_ or holy +men, whose office it is to take down the body of the Saviour. A short +distance off, upon a stage or scaffolding, stands the Virgin Mary, in deep +mourning, and with a white cloth round her head. In a long discourse a +priest explains the scene to the congregation, and at the close of his +sermon, turning to the _santos varones_, he says--'Ye holy men, mount the +ladders of the cross, and bring down the body of the dead Saviour!' Two of +the priests ascend with hammers, and the preacher continues--'Thou, holy +man on the right side of the Saviour, strike the first blow upon the nail +in the hand, and take it out!' The hammer falls, and the sound of the blow +is the signal for the cry of _Misericordia! Misericordia!_ repeated by +thousands of voices in tones of anguish so heart-rending, as to produce a +strangely painful impression upon the hearer. The nail is handed to a +priest at the foot of the cross, to be taken to the Virgin Mary, still +standing upon her scaffold. To her the preacher now addressed himself with +the words--'Thou, afflicted mother, approach and receive the nail that +pierced the right hand of thy blessed son!' And as the priest draws near +to the image of the Virgin, the latter, moved by a secret mechanism, +advances to meet him, receives the nail in both hands, places it in a +silver bowl, dries its eyes, and returns to its place. These movements are +repeated when the two other nails and the crown are brought down. The +whole scene has for accompaniment the unintermitting howling and sobbing +of the Indians, which redouble at each stroke of the hammer, and reaches +its apogee when the body is delivered to the Virgin, who then again begins +to weep violently. The image of Christ is laid in a coffin adorned with +flowers, and is carried by torchlight through every street of the town. +Whilst the procession makes its circuit, the Indians erect twelve arches +of flowers in front of the church door, placing between each two of them a +carpet of the like materials, the simplest and most beautiful that it is +possible to see. Each carpet is manufactured by two Indians, neither of +whom seems to trouble himself about the proceedings of his comrade; but +yet, with incredible rapidity and a wonderful harmony of operation, the +most tasteful designs grow under their hands in rich variety of colours. +Arabesques, landscapes, and animals appear as if by magic. It was highly +interesting to me to observe in Tarma, upon one of these carpets, an exact +representation of the Austrian double eagle, as the Indians had seen it on +the quicksilver jars from Idria. When the procession returns, the Virgin +Mary is carried back into the church through the arches of flowers." + +The traveller in the Sierras of Peru frequently encounters plantations of +a shrub about six feet high, bearing bright green leaves, white flowers, +and scarlet berries. This is the celebrated coca tree, the comforter and +friend of the Peruvian Indian under all hardships and evil usage. Deprive +the Turk of coffee and pipe, the Chinese of opium, the sailor and soldier +of grog and tobacco, and no one of them will be so miserable as the Indian +bereft of his coca. Without it he cannot exist; it is more essential to +him than meat or drink, for it enables him to dispense with both. With his +quid of dried coca leaves in his mouth, he forgets all calamities; his +rags, his poverty, the cruelties of his taskmaster. One meal a-day +suffices him, but thrice at least he must suspend his labour to chew his +coca. Even the greedy Creoles have been compelled to give in to this +imperious necessity, and to allow their labourers a quarter or half an +hour's respite three times in the day. In mines and plantations, wherever +Indians work, this is the universal practice. Although continued as a +barbarous custom by the whites, some few of the latter are inveterately +addicted to coca chewing, which they generally, however, practise +clandestinely. The effect of this plant upon the human system is very +similar to that of certain narcotics, administered in small doses. Taken +in excessive quantities it is highly injurious; used in moderation, Dr +Tschudi inclines to think it not only harmless, but positively salutary. +The longevity of the Indians, and their power of enduring great fatigue, +and performing the hardest work upon a very scant allowance of food, are +certainly in favour of this belief. The doctor met with men of 120 and 130 +years old, and he assures us that such are by no means exceedingly rare in +Peru.[10] Some of these men had chewed coca leaves from their boyhood +upwards. + +Allowing their daily ration to be no more than one ounce, the consumption, +in their lifetime, would amount to the prodigious quantity of twenty-seven +hundred pounds weight. Yet they were in perfect health. The coca is +considered by the Indians to be an antidote to the _veta_, and Dr Tschudi +confirms this by his own experience. Previously to his hunting excursions +in the upper regions of the Puna, he used to drink a strong decoction of +coca leaves, and found it strengthening and a preservative from the +effects of the rarefied atmosphere. So convinced is he of its salubrious +properties, that he recommends its adoption in European navies, or at +least a trial of its effects during a Polar or some other distant +expedition. One of the chief causes of Indian hatred to the Spaniards is +to be traced in the attempted suppression by the latter of the use of +coca, during the earlier period of their domination in Peru, their sole +reason being their contempt for Indian customs, and wish to destroy the +nationality of the people. Royal decrees were fulminated against coca +chewing, and priests and governors united to abolish it. After a time, the +owners of mines and plantations discovered its utility, in giving strength +and courage to their Indian vassals; books were written in its defence, +and anti-coca legislation speedily became obsolete. Since then, several +learned and reverend writers, Jesuits and others, have suggested its +introduction into Europe, as a substitute for tea and coffee, to which +they hold it far superior. There can be little doubt that--like as tobacco +is considered to preserve armies from mutiny and disaffection--the +soothing properties of coca have saved Peru from many bloody outbreaks of +the Indian population. But even this potent and much-loved drug has at +times been insufficient to restrain the deadly hatred cherished by the +Peruvians towards their white oppressors. + +The Leyes de las Indias, or code for the government of the Spanish +colonies, although in some instances severe and arbitrary, were mild and +paternal compared with their administration by the viceroys and other +officials. Amongst them were two enactments, the Mita and the +Repartimiento, intended by their propounders to civilize and improve the +Indians, but fearfully abused in practice. By the Mita, the Peruvians were +compelled to work in the mines and plantations. Every Spaniard who +possessed one of these, received from the corregidor a certain number of +Indians, to each of whom he paid daily wages, and for each of them an +annual contribution of eight dollars to the State. This plan, if fairly +and conscientiously carried out, might have been made a means of +reclaiming the Indians from barbarity and idleness. But the truck system, +unlimited and excessive time of labour, and other abuses, caused it to +produce the precisely opposite effect to that proposed by the framers of +the law. One-third only of the stipulated wage was given in money, the +remainder in European manufactures, charged at exorbitant prices; and the +Indians, unable to purchase the bare necessaries of life, were compelled +to incur debts with their employers--debts that they could never pay off, +and which rendered them slaves for their whole lives. The field labourers +were made to toil from three in the morning till an hour after sundown; +even the Sunday was no day of rest for these unfortunate helots. Such +increasing and painful exertions annually swept away thousands of Indians. +Various writers estimate at nine millions the number of those killed by +labour and accident in the mines, during the last three centuries. Dr +Tschudi does not think this an exaggeration, and calculates that three +millions more have been sacrificed in the plantations, especially in the +coca fields of the backwoods. + +The Repartimiento was the distribution of European wares and luxuries by +the provincial authorities. Under this law, intended for the convenience +of the people, and to supply them with clothes and other necessaries at +fair prices, every corregidor became a sort of shopkeeper, caused all +manner of merchandise to be sent to him from the capital, and compelled +the Indian to buy. The prices affixed to the articles were absurdly +exorbitant; a needle cost a real, a worthless knife or a pound of iron a +dollar, an ell of printed calico two or three dollars. Lace, silk +stockings, and false jewellery, were forced upon the richer class. After a +short delay, the money was demanded; those who could not pay had their +goods seized, and were sold as slaves to the mines or plantations. Not +only useless objects--razors, for instance, for the beardless Indians--but +things positively injurious and inconvenient, were thrust upon the +unwilling purchasers. It will scarcely be believed that a corregidor, to +whom a commercial friend had sent a consignment of spectacles, issued an +edict, compelling all Indians, under penalty of a heavy fine, to wear +glasses at certain public festivals. + +Against the abominable system of which the above abuses formed but a part, +it was to be expected that sooner or later the Indians would revolt. For +two centuries they submitted to it with wonderful patience and +long-suffering. At last, a man was found to hoist the bloody flag of +insurrection and revenge. + +Juan Santos, surnamed the Apostate, was an Indian from Huamanga, and +claimed descent from Atahualpa, the last of the Incas, whom Pizarro hung. +In the year 1741, having killed a Spaniard of noble birth in a quarrel, he +fled to the woods, and there brooded over the oppression to which his +countrymen were subjected. At that time, the zealous Spanish missionaries +had made great progress in the conversion of the _Indios bravos_, a savage +and cannibal tribe, amongst whom they fearlessly ventured, undeterred by +the murder of many who had preceded them. Against these priests Santos +instigated an outbreak. He first addressed himself to the tribe of the +Campas, declared himself a descendant of the mighty Peruvian kings, and +asserted that he possessed supernatural power, that he knew all their +thoughts, and had the portrait of each of them in his heart. Then calling +the Indians to him one by one, he lifted his upper garment, and allowed +them to look in a mirror fastened upon his breast. The savages, astonished +at the reflection of their faces, conceived a great veneration for Santos, +and implicitly obeyed him. He at once led them to a general attack upon +the priests, their property, and religion. By bold and sudden assaults, +several Spanish fortified posts were taken, and the garrisons murdered. At +the fort of Quimiri, the Indians put the muskets of the slain soldiers in +a heap, set fire to them, and danced round the blazing pile. But the +surprise of the place had been so well managed, that the Spaniards had had +no time to fire even one volley, and their muskets were still loaded. +Heated by the flames, they exploded, and spread destruction amongst the +dancing savages. Churches and mission-houses were destroyed, villages +burnt, plantations laid waste; the priests were tied to the images of +saints, and thrown into the rivers. In a few weeks, the missionary +districts of middle Peru were utterly ravaged, and terror reigned in the +land. The Spaniards feared a revolt of the Sierra Indians; strong measures +were taken, forts built along the frontier, and the _bravos_ driven back +to their own territory. What became of Santos is not exactly known. Some +affirm that he united several savage tribes in a confederacy, and ruled +over them till his death. In the monastery of Ocopa, Dr Tschudi found an +old manuscript, in which was the following note:--"The monster and +apostate Juan Santos Atahualpa, after his diabolical destruction of our +missions, suffered terribly from the wrath of God. He met the fate of +Herod, and was eaten alive by worms." + +Although of short duration, the insurrection headed by Santos was weighty +in its consequences. It showed the Indians their strength, and was +followed by repeated revolts, especially in Southern Peru. For want of an +able leader they all proved fruitless, until Tupac Amaru, cacique of +Tungasuca, put himself at the head of a matured and well-organized +revolution. A valid pretext for this was afforded by the corregidor of +Tinta, Don Antonio Ariaga, who in one year, 1780, made repartimientos to +the amount of three hundred and forty thousand dollars, and exacted the +money for the useless wares with cruel severity. Tupac Amaru assembled the +Indians, seized the corregidor, and hung him. This was the signal for a +general uprising in the whole of Southern Peru, and a bloody war ensued. +In April 1781, Tupac Amaru, his wife, and several of the rebel chiefs, +were made prisoners by a detachment of Spanish cavalry. They were tried at +Cuzco, found guilty, and condemned to death. The unfortunate cacique was +compelled to witness the execution of his wife, two sons, his +brother-in-law, Antonio Bastidas, and of other relations and friends. He +then had his tongue cut out, and was torn by four horses. His body was +burned, his head and limbs were stuck upon poles in different towns of the +disturbed districts. In Huancayo, Dr Tschudi met with an old Creole, who, +when a lad of sixteen, had witnessed the barbarous execution of the +cacique of Tangasuca. He described him as a tall handsome man, with a +quick piercing eye, and serious resolute countenance. He beheld the death +of his family with great emotion, but submitted without a murmur to his +own horrible fate. He was not long unavenged. His brother, his remaining +son Andres, and a daring Indian chief named Nicacatari, carried on the war +with increased vigour and ferocity, and at the head of a numerous force +threw themselves before the large fortified town of Sorrata, whither the +Spaniards from the surrounding country, trusting to the strength of the +place, had fled for safety. When Andres Tupac Amaru saw that with his +Indians, armed only with knives, clubs, and slings, he had no chance +against the powerful artillery of his foe, he caused the streams from the +neighbouring mountains to be conducted to the town, and surrounded it with +water The earthen fortifications were soon undermined, and when they gave +way the place was taken by assault. With the exception of eighty-seven +priests and monks, the whole of the besieged, twenty-two thousand in +number, were cruelly slaughtered. From Sorrata the Indian army moved +westwards, and was victorious in several actions with the Spanish troops. +Gold, however, accomplished what the sword had failed to do. Seduced by +bribes and promises, an Indian follower of Andres guided a party of +Spanish soldiers to the council house of the rebels. The chiefs were all +taken and put to death. Deprived of its leaders, the Indian army broke up +and dispersed. Innumerable executions followed, and the war was estimated +to have cost from first to last nearly a hundred thousand lives. Its only +beneficial result to the Indians was the abolition of repartimientos. + +During the revolution that lost Peru to Spain, the Indians took part with +the patriots, who deluded them with promises of a monarchy, and of placing +a descendant of the Incas on the throne. Not clearly understanding the +causes of the war, the Indians frequently turned their arms against their +own allies, and killed all white men who fell into their power. Many +provinces were entirely deserted by the Creoles and Metises, in +consequence of the furious animosity of the coloured race. In Jauja, the +Indians swore they would not leave so much as a white dog or fowl alive, +and they even scratched the white paint from the walls of the houses. When +General Valdos and his cavalry crossed the river of Jauja and attacked the +Indians, the latter scorned to save themselves by flight, but threw +themselves upon the lances with cries of "_Mata me, Godo!_[11] Kill me!" +Two thousand remained upon the field, the Spaniards not ceasing to kill +till their arms were too tired to strike. + +Dr Tschudi inclines to believe that sooner or later the Indians will throw +off the yoke of the effeminate and cowardly Creoles, and establish a +government of their own. Whether such a government will be able or allowed +to maintain itself, it is difficult to say; although, as the doctor +observes, why should it not, at least, as well as a negro republic in an +Archipelago peopled by the most civilized nations of Europe? Since the +separation of Peru from Spain, the Indians have made great progress in +many respects; they have been admitted into the army, have become familiar +with fire-arms and military manoeuvres, and have learned the manufacture +of gunpowder, materials for which their mountains abundantly afford. Their +hatred of the whites is bitter as ever, their feeling of nationality very +strong--their attachment to the memory of their Incas, and to their old +form of government, undiminished. In spite of long oppression, they still +possess pride and self-reliance. Besides the government forced upon them +by the Creoles, they preserve and obey their old laws. Let a leader like +Tupac Amaru appear amongst them, and there is every probability of an +Indian revolution, very different in its results to any that has yet +occurred. + +Most Robinson Crusoe-like in its interest is the long chapter wherein Dr +Tschudi details his forest adventures, and we regret that we must be very +summary in our notice of it. With extraordinary courage and perseverance +the doctor and a German friend made their way to the heart of the +backwoods, built themselves a log-hut, and, despising the numerous dangers +by which they were environed, abode there for months, collecting +zoological specimens. Of the perils that beset them, Dr Tschudi's +unvarnished narrative of the daily sights and nocturnal sounds that +assailed their startled senses in those wild regions, gives a lively idea. +Indian cannibals, ferocious beasts, reptiles whose bite is instant death, +venomous insects, and even vampires, compose the pleasant population of +this district, into which these stout-hearted Europeans fearlessly +ventured. Of the beasts of prey the ounce is the most dangerous; and so +fierce and numerous has its breed become in certain districts of Peru, as +to compel the Indians to abandon their villages. We are told of one +hamlet, in the ravine of Mayunmarca, that has been desolate for a century +past on this account. The ounces used annually to decimate its +inhabitants. More perilous even than these animals, to the wanderer in the +forest, are the innumerable serpents that lurk beneath the accumulation of +dead leaves bestrewing the ground. The most deadly is a small viper about +ten inches long, the only species of the viper family as yet discovered in +South America. The virulence of its venom kills the strongest man in the +space of two or three minutes. The Indians, when bitten by it, do not +dream of seeking an antidote, but at once lie down to die. Bats are +exceedingly plentiful, and very large, some measuring nearly two feet +across the extended wings. The blood-sucker or vampire (phyllostoma) finds +its way in search of food into stables and houses. The smooth-haired +domestic animals are especially liable to its attacks. With wings half +open it places itself upon their backs, and rubs with its snout till the +small sharp teeth break the outer skin. Then it draws in its wings, +stretches itself out, and sucks the blood, making the while a gentle +movement with its body, not unlike the undulations of a busy leech. The +fanning motion of the wings described by some writers was never observed +by Dr Tschudi. Although these vampires only imbibe a few ounces of blood, +the subsequent hæmorrhage is very great, and full-grown mules sometimes +die of the exhaustion caused by their repeated attacks. One of the +doctor's beasts was only saved from such a fate by being rubbed every five +or six days with turpentine and other strong-smelling drugs, which kept +off the vampires. It has often been disputed whether these disgusting +animals attack human beings. Our traveller deposes to their doing so, and +cites an instance witnessed by himself. A bat (Ph. erythromos, Tsch.) +fixed upon the nose of an Indian who lay drunk in the court of a +plantation, and sucked his blood till it was unable to fly away. Violent +inflammation and swelling of the Indian's head were the consequences of +the trifling wound inflicted. + +We must here make mention of the carbunculo, a fabulous animal, whose +existence obtains credit in most parts of Peru. Wherever he went, Dr +Tschudi heard stories of this creature, and met persons who asserted that +they had seen it. It is reported to be of the size of a fox, with long +black hair, and only to appear at night, when it glides slowly through the +bushes or amongst the rocks. When pursued, a valve or trap-door opens in +its forehead, and an extraordinarily brilliant object--believed by the +natives to be a precious stone--becomes visible, dispelling the darkness +and dazzling the pursuer. Then the forehead closes, and the creature +disappears. According to other accounts, it emerges from its lurking-place +with carbuncle displayed, and only conceals it when attacked. This strange +superstition is not of Spanish origin, but of older date than Pizarro's +invasion. Of course it has never been possible to catch or kill a specimen +of this remarkable species, although the Spaniards have used every effort +to get hold of such a creature; and in the viceroy's instructions to the +missionaries, the carbunculo was set down in the very first rank of +desiderata. Dr Tschudi vainly endeavoured to discover, with some degree of +certainty, what animal had served as a pretext for the fable. + +After a four years residence in Peru, and when preparing for a journey +that was to include an investigation of all the provinces, and to last for +several years, Dr Tschudi was seized in the Cordilleras with a nervous +fever, which brought him to the brink of the grave. Upon his recovery, he +found that long repose, both of mind and body, was essential to the +complete restoration of his health. Such repose he could not be certain of +granting himself if he remained in Peru, and he therefore resolved to seek +it upon the ocean. He took ship, and reached Europe at the commencement of +1843, after an absence of five years. He greatly regrets not having +visited every part of Peru, especially the historical city of Cuzco, and +the forests of Urubamba. But his harvest of knowledge has been so rich and +abundant, that he should not, we think, begrudge the remnant of the crop +to the gleaners who may come after him. + + + + +"MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO." + + +CHAPTER I. + + "Our coming + Is not for salutation: we have business." + BEN. JONSON. + +On the 9th of September 1741, shortly after the hour of nightfall, a +silvery mist hung over the broad stream of the Danube, and the environs of +the city of Presburg--at that time considered the capital of Hungary--and +shrouded the earth with its grey veil; although the heavens above were +bright and clear, and the stars shone cheerily and proudly, as if no +earthly influence could damp or dull them. Before the St Michael's gate, +which opens on the side of the town the most remote from the Danube, and +on to the road leading into the interior of the country, and towards the +first low ridge of the Carpathians which skirts Presburg to the north, sat +a traveller on horseback--his ample cloak wrapped carefully about his +person, as much, it would seem, to screen him from observation, as from +the first freshness of the commencing autumn season, and his broad +three-cornered and gold-laced hat pulled down upon his brow. + +He had ridden, at the brisk pace, across the stone bridge which leads over +a dry moat to the old gateway, and had suddenly checked his horse on +finding the gate closed before him. + +"_Corpo di Bacco!_" he exclaimed aloud, in a tone of intense vexation. +"The gate is shut for the night--I feared as much." + +"What's to be done!" he continued to murmur to himself, after a pause. "To +wake the guardian of the gate, and demand an entrance, would be to excite +attention, and subject myself, perhaps, to questionings. No, no! That, +above all, must be avoided. And yet, see him I must to-night. Time +presses. Should the devil, who has served me so well as yet, desert me +now, and take flight, the coward! before a few inches of deal board, and a +few pounds of hammered iron! Bolts and bars! _Bagatelles!_ Fortunately the +old fox has taken up his earth near the gate. If I calculate aright, the +hinder windows of his lodging must look out upon the moat; and I will try +whether I cannot come to speech of him." + +"Fortuna, jade! Thou art propitious still, if yonder rays be those from +the old ivy-owl's watch-lamp!" muttered the traveller once more to +himself, as he looked towards a light, which apparently struggled to send +its gleams through the thick haze, from a low window of one of the houses +overhanging the dry moat, to the left of the gateway. "At all events, I'll +even risk the venture; and if, after all, I am out in my reckoning, and +should stumble either upon an amorous dame awaiting her adored, or a mad +student seeking the philosopher's stone--should I appear as a spirit of +love from above, or a spirit of darkness from below--_Cospetto!_ I'll play +my part to the life, and find an entrance to this cursed town, spite of +locked gates and barred posterns! The Virgin be praised! I am no schoolboy +at my first adventure." + +"_Allons_, Briccone!" he cried, applying the spur to his jaded horse, +which stood reeking thickly, in the misty air, from the effects of a long +and rapid journey. "You must seek other quarters for the night, old boy!" + +The animal snorted, as its head was turned once more from the gateway, and +moved unwillingly, as if endeavouring to resist the seeming attempt to +undertake any further excursion that night: but the way was not long which +it was destined to travel. Among the clay-built houses which formed the +suburb, the traveller speedily discovered the projecting whisp of hay, +announcing that the hovel, from the doorway of which it was suspended, +offered accommodation, such as it was, for man and beast. Summoning from +the interior a sleepy lad, in a dirty Hungarian costume, of full +shirt-sleeves and broad trowsers, which once had been white, and +confiding Briccone to his care, he returned to the gateway of the town. + +When he again stood upon the gateway bridge, the first care of the +stranger was to stoop, and collect a quantity of small pebbles in the +hollow of his left hand. Provided with this ammunition, he approached as +near as he could towards the spot whence the light he had before remarked +proceeded. + +"A curse upon this rotten mist!" he muttered. "I can see nothing. Around +and about is a fog from the devil's own caldron, as if it were cooked on +purpose to blind me; whilst the stars are twinkling above, as if they +squinted down upon my confusion, and laughed me to scorn. However, at all +ventures, have at my mark!" + +With these words, he flung pebble after pebble in the direction of the +light. Several of the missiles were heard to rattle against the walls of +the house; and a few others rendered a clearer ringing sound, as if they +had struck upon glass. After a short space of time, the light disappeared +almost entirely; and a window was heard to open. The traveller raised +another pebble in his hand, with a smile upon his face, as if inclined to +take a last random shot at the head which had probably replaced the light +at the open window; but he checked his humour with a short low laugh, and +coughed to attract attention. The cough was immediately re-echoed in a +hoarse and hollow voice. + +"That should be the old raven's croak," said the stranger to himself. + +"Bandini!" he cried, in a low but distinct tone, through his hollowed +hands. + +"Hush!" rejoined the voice from the window. "Not so loud! Is it you?" + +"_Diavolo!_" replied the traveller, approaching closer to the wall of the +town, and speaking as low as possible. "Who should it be, man? But the +gate is closed; and I have no mind to expose myself to the investigations +of the gatekeeper's lantern, and all the cross-examination and +tittle-tattle that may follow." + +"I waited for you with impatience," pursued his interlocutor; "and when +the gate closed for the night, placed my lamp at the window as a beacon." + +"All right!" replied the other. "But what's to be done now, man?" + +"Can you climb?" continued the hoarse voice. + +"Like a cat or a Spanish lover," was the reply. "Perhaps I have no little +in me of the first; at all events I have often tried the trade of the +latter." + +"Descend into the moat from the end of the bridge," pursued the personage +at the window. "The passage is easy. I will provide for your ascent." + +Following these short instructions, the stranger returned over the bridge; +and catching from stem to stem of the few stunted trees that grew upon the +precipitous sides of the descent, he clambered, without much difficulty, +to the bottom of the steep. As he crossed the reedy and moist soil of the +moat, the noise of a falling object directed his steps towards a part of +the wall where a ladder of cords awaited him. Profiting by this aid, and +grasping, where he could, the projecting stones of the rude masonry which +formed the lower part of the house, the stranger mounted with ready +agility to the level of a window. + +"You have not chosen your quarters upon the town-wall for nothing, I am +inclined to suppose, Master Bandini," he said, as he found himself in face +of a dark form at the opening to which he had arrived. + +"All things have their uses," was the laconic reply, uttered with a hoarse +laugh. + +In a few moments the stranger had squeezed his person adroitly through the +low window, and stood in the interior of the room. + +The apartment into which he had been thus clandestinely introduced, was +faintly lighted by the single lamp which had served as a beacon; and the +rays of this lamp, as they fell upon the dark walls, half revealed, in +fantastic indistinctness, a variety of miscellaneous objects. Ranged upon +shelves on either side of the entrance door, stood a quantity of jars and +phials of different shapes, mixed with glass vessels, containing strange +serpents and lizards, and human half-born deformities, preserved in +spirits--all the _materia medica_, either for use or show, necessary for +the establishment of a druggist-physician of the day. On the opposite side +of the room, beneath the hard and slovenly pallet which served as bed, +might be half seen, from under the covering, two or three chests, the iron +clasps and fastenings of which, with their immense padlocks, seemed to +tell a tale of well-stored treasures of moneys or papers, and of other +avocations than those of doctoring and leeching. Above the bed hung the +crucifix, that necessary appendage to the dwelling of a good and pious +Catholic; but, whether by accident or design, the form of the Divine +sufferer on the cross was now turned against the wall. A table in the +middle of the room was covered with old books and papers; and before the +chair, from which the inmate of the apartment had probably risen when +surprised by the signals of his visitor, was a large volume, which he now +precipitately closed, but not, however, without being remarked by the +stranger, who smiled a significant smile upon observing this hasty +movement. + +But, if the aspect of the apartment was strange, stranger still was that +of its occupier. He was a little man, at an advanced period of life, whose +spare and shrivelled form might be fancied ill-calculated to support the +large head which surmounted it. Was the head, however, ill-proportioned to +the body, still more out of proportion were the large black projecting +eyebrows, the huge eagle nose, and the swelled hanging under-lip, to the +general contour of the head. His thick black hair was closely shorn to his +skull, as if to develop more clearly these interesting features; and if +powder had been bestowed upon it, in obedience to the fashion of the +better classes of the day, it had been bestowed so sparingly, or had +assumed a colour so closely assimilated to that of dust and dirt, as to +escape the discovery of all eyes but those of a very closely investigating +naturalist. No less doubtful was the colour of the long cravat tied +loosely about his neck. His upper person was inclosed in a huge black +widely pocketed coat and lappet waistcoat, both many ells too wide for his +shrunken form; whilst his nether man disported at ease in a pair of black +pantaloons and high boots, which seemed to incase the proportions of a +skeleton. From the sleeves of the wide coat hung a pair of long dirty +begrimed hands, which, without a doubt, belonged rightfully to the owner +of the aforesaid skeleton shanks. + +Far different was the appearance of his visitor. He was a tall well-formed +man, between thirty and forty years of age. His dress, which he displayed +as he threw aside his cloak, cut in the cumbrous fashion of the day, was +that of a man of pretensions to a certain rank; and his _coiffure_, with +its necessary appendage of pigtail, might be seen, in spite of his hasty +journey, to have been arranged with care, and powdered. Although his +person was prepossessing, there was, however, a certain dash of the _roué_ +in his appearance, and a look of design and cunning in his dark eyes, long +fine-drawn nose, and thin lipless mouth, which would speedily have removed +the first more agreeable impression of an observer. + +"All's well that ends well!" said the stranger, as he removed his hat and +cloak. "It is perhaps better, after all, that I should make my entry thus. +I have ridden hard, Master Bandini, and Briccone carried me well; but the +road was longer than I had surmised, and I had a matter or two to dispose +of on my way." + +"Better late than never, noble cavaliere!" replied the man addressed as +Bandini. + +"Hush! no names, man, until I be assured that we have no listeners here," +said the cavaliere. + +Without replying, the old man removed the shutters from a window, forming +a thorough light to that by which the stranger had entered, and looked out +into the winding steep descent which forms the first street of the city of +Presburg from St Michael's gate. It was faintly lighted by a lantern, but +empty of all passengers. + +"How now, man!" said the stranger impatiently. + +"Why! if it must be said," replied the old man, closing the shutter and +returning; "I have a lodger here, in my apartment. But he is still +without; nor will he yet return." + +"A lodger!" exclaimed the other, in an angry tone--"and at such a moment! +How could you be so incautious, Bandini? This is one of your miserly +tricks: you would expose your best friends for a few miserable kreutzers +more or less." + +"Live and let live, is my maxim," answered Bandini with a growl. + +The stranger shrugged his shoulders with vexation. + +"And who is this lodger, man?" he cried. + +"Only a poor Hungarian country noble," replied Bandini in a more cajoling +tone. "A youth! a very youth! a poor unsuspecting youth! He has come, like +all the other nobles of the land, great and small, to obey the call of her +they call their _King_, to attend this Diet summoned at Presburg; and he +occupies my other rooms with his servant--a rustic!--a mere rustic!--a +rude untutored rustic!" + +"It was ill done, Bandini," continued the stranger, with still evident +marks of discontent. "A lodger in the house, when you must know that I +need privacy! It was ill done, I tell you." + +The old man only muttered something between his teeth by way of a reply. + +"Have a care, man," resumed his visitor, "how you juggle with me in this +matter. You are richly paid by my employers for the support you give me, +and the concealment your house affords; but should evil befall us--be it +through your treachery or your imprudence, it matters not--_per Jovem_, +the evil shall fall a hundred-fold upon your own head. I swear it to you; +and you know I am a man to keep my word." + +"Jehovah! here's a turmoil about the mere miserable lodging of a poor +youth!" growled the old man doggedly, although the rapid passing of a long +skeleton finger over the tip of his huge nose betrayed a certain degree of +nervous agitation. + +"Master Bandini," interrupted the stranger, unheeding him, "I have a word +to speak with you--and one that nearly concerns yourself, Master +Bandini--before we proceed further in business." + +"Look ye!" he pursued, in a more indifferent tone, throwing himself down +on to a chair, and crossing his legs composedly, but fixing the man called +Bandini at the same time with his keen eye. "Look ye, friend druggist, +physician, usurer, miser, secret agent, spy--or whatever other name you +bear in designation, avocation, character, or _creed_"--and he laid a +slight emphasis on the word--"there are no friends so sure as those who +are convinced we know then thoroughly--a right understanding is sympathy, +_amico mio_, and sympathy is bond and union." + +The old man looked through his beetling brows at his visitor without any +evidence of trouble; but he ceased irritating the tip of his nose only to +twitch more nervously at the sleeves of his coat, as if to give himself an +air of composure and dignity by adjusting them, as a modern fop might do +by pulling up his shirt-collar. + +"Think you I have forgotten," continued the stranger with a slight sneer, +"that when we first met in Italy--no matter upon what business, or to what +intent--Master Bandini bore the name of Israeli, and that, when forced to +leave that country--persecuted, as he himself would say, for some little +matter of flagrant usury, and mayhap also of a drug or two that lulled +some rich old uncle to a sleep from which he woke not, and made a +spendthrift debtor his heir--he returned to the land of his birth, I will +not say of his fathers, and, for reasons good, under another name and a +foreign guise, thinking that the name of Israel, spite of its adopted +termination, smacked somewhat too notoriously of his origin, his Jewish +origin, Master Bandini?" + +The Jew druggist tossed his heavy head with an expression that, however +ill assured, was meant to say, "Well! and what then?" + +"Think you I know not that, fearing the prejudices against his race might +injure the gains of his various trades, perhaps also that the name he bore +might recal reminiscences better forgotten for ever, he assumed a +Christian appellation, passed for an honest Christian man--_honest_, +humph!" added the stranger with a sniggering laugh--"and infringed the +severe laws of Hungary, which compel all of his tribe to dwell within one +prescribed street in each city, and wear one distinctive dress--laws that, +if called into execution, would bring him contumely, imprisonment, +ruin--ay ruin, Master Israeli--humph, I forgot--Bandini? Think you I have +no eyes to see yon cross ostentatiously displayed to Christian visitors, +now turned against the wall, with the contempt of one of your accursed +race--a deed in itself a crime to merit mortal punishment?" + +The Jew stole a glance at the cross, and was evidently moved. + +"Think you I divine not," pursued his visitor, hastily snatching from the +table the heavy book closed upon his entrance, and flinging it open upon +his knees, "that this jargon of the devil is your Hebrew book of worship, +in which Master Bandini seeks for rules of conduct for the further welfare +of his soul--if so be he have one--in the persecution and torture of +Christian men--a pretty religion, _cospetto!_--or may be, practises +sorcery?" And the stranger laughed ironically at his own suggestion. +"Think you I know not all this, Master Bandini?" + +"And if the Cavaliere Caracalli knows me, what have I to fear from him?" +said the Jew sullenly, with a look of defiance. + +"Ha! that would seem a threat!" answered the cavaliere haughtily. "Once +more, have a care, man, how you deal with me! What you have to fear I will +tell you, Master Bandini, rogue--all that your worst fears can +contemplate, should I have reason to believe you a traitor." And, at these +words, he sprang up from his chair, and confronted the old man, with an +evident desire to intimidate him by his movement. + +The Jew druggist did not flinch; but he answered with less of defiance. + +"I am no traitor--no traitor to you; and, though you know me, why should I +not serve you still? Why should we not be friends?" + +"Friends! you and I!" said the cavaliere with scorn. "But no matter! This +affair of the lodger looks ill, I tell you." + +"Times are bad--times are bad, noble cavaliere," stammered the Jew, in a +whining and apologetic tone. "Our contract stipulated not that I should +not strive to earn an honest livelihood where I could." + +"And who prevents you, man," said the cavaliere, with a sneer, "from +earning what you please to term an honest livelihood, as far as it +interfere not with my interests? But this imprudence"---- + +"Heavy losses! heavy losses!" continued the old man, interrupting him, to +pursue his apology. "I have had heavy and serious losses, which I must +strive to cover by what scanty means are left me--to say naught of drugs +unpaid, and services to the rich ill recompensed and scouted. I am a needy +man. I am, indeed, a needy man." The cavaliere shrugged his shoulders. +"Ah! You feel not that, noble sir. But the God of my fathers knows that it +is true. Was there not the Illok affair, in which the poor money-lender +was cheated of his honest earnings? Did not the Count Csaki leave the +country, a bankrupt, and cause me all but utter ruin? And, worse than all, +did not the Baron Bartori, after he had made over to me his estates, in +return for moneys lent him in his need, die with the intent and purpose, +as one would say, to defraud me of my just dues? and did not his son, +without whose signature to destroy the entail, I cannot obtain possession +of my rights--the God of Israel's curse be on the Philistine laws of this +unjust country!--disappear, no one knows whither? He is an honest youth, +and a just, they say, who would not deprive a poor needy man of his own: +but he may be dead--he may be dead, without giving his precious +sign-manual; and I should be a ruined man--a ruined man--alas! alas!" + +The cavaliere had borne impatiently the lamentations thus uttered as +apologies for his love of gain by the Jew money-lender: and he now broke +in upon them with disgust. + +"A truce to all this comedy of woe, man! If you be shorn of a lock or two +of your ill-gotten golden fleece, we well know that it is still a full and +warm one. Come, come--no more of this!" he pursued, as the Jew continued +to squeeze alternately the skeleton fingers of each hand, as though he +pretended to be wringing them in despair. "We must to business; and since +the mischief has been done--and, mark me! it must be remedied forthwith, +and this boy driven from the house--see that the coast be clear!" + +"He is from home, I tell you," was Bandini's reply; and he was continuing +to murmur, with sunken head, the words, "Heavy losses! heavy losses! Why +did he die? And were aught to happen to his son, as is likely in these +troublesome times, I were ruined--utterly ruined. Oh! heavy losses!"--when +an angry exclamation and an imperative gesture from his visitor, repeated +the order to look that they were alone and undisturbed. + +The old man lighted a small hand-lamp at that which stood upon the table, +undrew the bolts that fastened the door, and left the room with sullen +look and step. He was gone for a very brief space of time; but this short +interval was employed by the stranger in turning over, with rapid hand and +scrutinizing eye, the papers which lay upon the table. He shook his head +with a sneer of indifference, as if he had found nothing worthy of his +attention, and had scarcely time to resume his seat with an air of +unconcern, when the Jew returned, and, eyeing him narrowly, advanced into +the room with that haste of suspicion and fear, which induced even the +usurer to forget his usual precautions of bolts and bars. + +"There is no one in the house but ourselves," he said, with still sulky +air. + +"Then seat yourself, man, and open to me your wallet of sayings and +doings; and let's see what scraps of information you may have gleaned. It +should be crammed full, ere this. Seat yourself, I say, and clear that +gloomy brow of yours," said the cavaliere with a laugh. "What has passed +since I last saw you?" + +"The city is already thronged with the nobility of Hungary, convoked by +this woman, who still asserts her rights over them, in the hope that they +may aid her in her troubles;" commenced the Jew, seating himself, in +obedience to his visitor's command. "Jehovah! what a stir they make! What +moneys do they lavish upon foolish pomp! What spendthrift profusion do +they display! It curdles the very blood of a poor thrifty man within him, +to witness such insensate prodigality. But they must rue their folly. They +will need moneys; they will seek to obtain moneys of the poor druggist. +Ah!" And the usurer rubbed his hands with satisfaction; but then, seeing +the gestures of impatience displayed by his companion, he proceeded: "But +there is much discontent, I hear, among them; and, where she has not +enemies, she has lukewarm friends. They will no longer, they say, be +governed by a weak woman, who can so ill wield the reins of power, and who +has already staked and lost all the other inheritance of her father"---- + +"Unjustly herited--unjustly held. Forget not that, Master Bandini!" +interrupted the Italian. + +"Unjustly--well, well! I am no legist to understand these things," pursued +the Jew; "only a poor thrifty physician"---- + +"And usurer," again broke in his companion. + +Bandini smiled a sour smile, and continued: + +"Call me usurer, if you will. I see no scorn in the term; and I have +turned my money-lending to account in this matter. Yes! and in your +service; although you but now called me traitor. Have I not refused moneys +to those who offered me good securities and values, and at my own loss--at +my own loss, cavaliere--because I would not deal with those who would +hazard their all in a war to aid this woman in her desperate need? And +although my friend Zachariah has lent them sums of precious metal, has it +not been upon such great interest, and at such peril to themselves, that +they cannot risk so dangerous a venture as the espousing her cause, and +upon their written engagement also--and this as by my advice, mark me, +noble cavaliere!--that they should not take up arms? Have I not done this +to serve you?--at my own loss, I say; and can you call me traitor now?" + +"So far all goes well," said the Italian, unheeding the importance +attached by the Jew to the supposed services rendered. "Maria Theresa will +be foiled in her last attempt at opposition to her enemy's force, by +seeking succours from her so-called faithful Hungarians. Success, also, +has crowned my efforts in my expedition throughout the land, Master +Bandini," he pursued, raising himself from his listless posture, with a +look of animation and triumph. "The seeds of discord and discontent have +every where been sown. I have visited these proud eagles, the Hungarian +nobles, in their country-nests; and I have employed all means to turn them +from listening to the appeal of their fugitive queen. To the worldly-wise, +I have urged the ruin of war to their already troubled and impoverished +country,--to the lovers of their fatherland, the independence of Hungary, +and freedom from the House of Austria, if they will seize this opportunity +to shake off its yoke, instead of again cringing to its call,--to the man, +the weakness of submitting to a woman's sway,--to the needy and the +grasping, I have promised, and even already lavished, the bribes of +France, Spain, and Sardinia, to induce them to refuse their aid,--to the +ambitious, place, rank, orders, courtly favour from my powerful employers, +should they espouse their cause. I have studied men's characters, and read +men's minds, to turn them to my will; and although I have met with +opposition, endangered my life indeed, and risked my safety from ill-will, +yet I have so strewn my grain, that, when Maria Theresa shall appear upon +the field, she shall reap tares where she hoped to gather wheat. The cause +is lost, I tell you!" + +The Jew rubbed his hands with an air of satisfaction, which seemed to show +that the profits to be divided from his association in the political +manoeuvres of his visitor were to be proportionate to the success of +these hazardous schemes, and that visions of golden reward already floated +before his eyes. + +"And the opening of the Diet is still fixed for the 11th?" inquired the +Italian, after a pause, in which he had allowed his unwonted enthusiasm to +cool down to a bearing of indifference, which was more his nature. + +"Yes--the day following the morrow," answered Bandini. + +"Has she already made her appearance in the city?" again asked his +visitor. + +"It is supposed that she is not yet here. There has been no solemn entry; +but she must be here every hour," was the reply. + +"In that morrow we have as yet time for much," said the cavaliere. "I must +pursue my measures here with caution. My great scheme, of which more, +perhaps, hereafter, may be tried at any issue; and woe betide Maria +Theresa, if"-- + +As he uttered these words, the Italian was startled and interrupted by the +abrupt opening of the door of the apartment. The Jew turned round with +surprise, whilst his companion, checking the first involuntary movement, +which induced him to look in the same direction, buried himself in his +chair, so as to conceal himself as much as possible from the intruder. + +The person who entered was a tall old man, whose erect figure and firm +step proved how little time had weighed upon his natural vigour. His +features were bold and rude, although not deficient in that species of +manly beauty which an expression of confidence and energy bestows, and +were fully displayed by the disposal of his grizzled hair, which, torn +back from his forehead, and plastered over his head with an evident +profusion of grease, descended on to his back in a long braided tail. His +dress was of that description known in other parts of Europe as the hussar +uniform, which was worn by certain of the domestics belonging to the +Hungarian nobility. The yellow braid profusely bestowed across the breast +of his jacket, and upon the pockets and sides of his tight blue +pantaloons, was of a colour that showed what good service his attire had +already seen. In his brawny hands he held his shako, as he advanced into +the room, with more of rudeness than of deference in his manner. + +"Is it you, Master Farkas?" said the Jew, rising to meet him. "I did not +hear you enter." + +"I opened the street door below with the pass-key you gave us," replied +the man; whilst, at these words, the cavaliere stamped his foot in anger. + +"You made but little noise," resumed Bandini suspiciously. + +"I suppose you were too much engaged to hear us; for I see you have a +visitor," said the old man, fixing his eyes upon the form whose back was +turned to him, and advancing familiarly further into the room. + +But the Jew intercepted him. + +"What do you want here, Master Farkas?" + +"_Teremtette!_" said the fellow roughly. "Would you have my lord up to bed +in the dark, like a rat or a gipsy thief? I want a light." + +"I will attend your master forthwith," said the Jew, taking up the +hand-lamp, and hastening to the door. + +"My master, ugh! My lord, if it please or please not your worship," +growled Farkas, preceding the landlord out of the apartment. + +When the Jew returned, his visitor confronted him with angry looks. + +"See to what you expose me, fellow, by your villanous meanness!" exclaimed +the cavaliere. "And, not content with harbouring vagabonds in your house, +that, for aught I know, may be spies upon us, you furnish them with +pass-keys, to surprise us when they will--to ear-wig at the doors, hear +our discourse, betray our secrets. How now, fellow, what have you to +answer?" + +"I tell you that they are most innocent and unsuspecting rustics, both," +stammered the Jew--"both master and man. There can be no danger." + +"No danger!" continued the angry cavaliere. "No danger, fellow! +_Cospetto!_ this very circumstance may be my ruin! That voice, too, was +not unknown to me. I have heard it somewhere, although I know not where. +It sounded to me as the reminiscence of some past evil--a raven's croak, +announcing still more ill to come. _Santa Vergine!_ If we are lost, I will +have your life, with my own hand;" and he half drew his sword from the +scabbard. + +Bandini drew back sulkily, with further protestations, deprecations, and +endeavours to mollify his visitor: but it was long before the cavaliere +could be appeased. Once he left the room and listened in the passage, and +at the young Hungarian's door. Then he descended to the street entrance, +and examined the lock: and only when convinced that the other inhabitants +of the house were still, and had probably retired to rest, did he come +back. When he returned to the Jew's room, his brow was still knitted +angrily; but, after drawing a bolt across the door, he sat down with less +of agitation. + +More unfriendly words again passed between the confederates; but, after a +time, the Italian spy and the Jew money-lender were again conversing, in +lowered tones, upon the schemes of the former. + + +CHAPTER II + + "Underneath the grove of sycamore, + That westward rooteth from the city's side-- + So early walking did I see your son: + Towards him I made; but he was ware of me + And stole into a covert of the wood."-- + + * * * * * + + "Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her-- + O teach me how I should forget to think."--SHAKSPEARE. + + "Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch!"--IDEM. + +On the following afternoon, the sun shone brightly; and the whole +atmosphere, in spite of the slight haze which faintly silvered the distant +hills, was imbued with that exhilarating freshness and lightness, which +sheds a poetic charm of animation, vividness, and--did it not appear a +paradox--it might be added, youth also, over an Hungarian autumn, unknown +in other European countries. + +The streets of Presburg were thronged by the crowds whom the approaching +opening of the Diet, convoked by Maria Theresa, had attracted to that +city; and highly picturesque and varied was the scene composed by the +multifarious parties, pushing and thrusting along, or gathered in groups +and knots, discussing the momentous events of those troubled times, +between the rows of antique houses, which bestow upon Presburg the aspect +rather of an old town of the German Empire, than of less civilized +Hungary. + +In the middle space pranced upon their richly caparisoned steeds, +glittering with the hanging trappings of that semi-oriental taste which, +although somewhat modified, still forms a striking characteristic of the +country, several of the Hungarian magnates, already attired in the +national costumes--the richly embroidered attila, or long frock-coat, +loaded with ornament--the furred cloak, clasped with glittering jewels to +the shoulder--the high flat cap of fur or velvet, displaying an egret of +rare feathers, which dashed upwards from the diamond broach--the tight +gold-braided pantaloons--the tasselled boots--their powdered hair alone +displaying, in some instances, their submission to the fashion of the day +in other countries. Thronging among them were many of the lesser nobles, +either on horseback or on foot, all dressed in the same characteristic +style, with less of richness and embroidery, according to their lesser +ranks or lesser means--each dress cut, and fashioned, and braided, +according to the taste or whim of the wearer. Now and then rumbled along a +cumbrous gilded and fantastically painted coach, swinging heavily between +its monstrous gilded wheels, and sometimes adorned upon the four corners +of its broad projecting roof with clumps of feathers, not unlike an +ancient tester-bed--the coachman in richly-laced Hungarian livery, or in +the silver-buttoned vest, hanging white sleeves, and broad white trowsers +of the peasant; but of finer stuff, gayer embroidery, and richer fringe to +the trowsers' edge, than the humbler of his class, as befitted the +elevation to which he had been raised--the six horses, loaded with studded +sparkling harness, and hanging strips of metal-behung leather, which +streamed down the flanks and shoulders. Within them sat alone the proud +dames of the Hungarian magnates, in even costlier dress than was the wont +of that period of costly and cumbrous attire--their powdered heads adorned +with the bejewelled caps of the national costume; for in those days a man, +who really deemed himself a man, disdained to show himself the lazy tenant +of these moving houses; and more especially the Hungarian, who considered +the name of horseman as synonymous with that of man, and himself as born +to be "a tamer of horses." Amidst these heavier vehicles, the light wooden +carts of the peasant-noble, ignorant of all attempt at springs, of all +harness but the rudest cords, endeavoured in vain to advance rapidly, in +obedience to the impatience of the small, meagre, but impetuous horses of +Tartar race which were lightly attached to them. + +Among the crowded pedestrians was the scene still more checkered with +kaleidescope variety. Here the embroidered pantaloons, the braided +dolmans, and the feathered bonnets, were mingled with the long-fringed, +full white trowsers, the large hanging shirt-sleeves, the broad-brimmed +upturned hats--from beneath which streamed long black shaggy mane-like +locks, over dark swarthy countenances, adorned with immense hanging +moustaches--and the huge sheepskin cloaks, decorated on the exterior with +fancifully embroidered flowers, and patches of bright cloth; the jaunty, +dancing, bold, easy air of the Hungarians, all booted and spurred even to +the very children, contrasting with the slouched gait of the Sclavonians, +with their curiously sandled feet--the Croat, still attired like the +Dacian of old, thronging along with the demi-brigand of the southern +provinces, whose savage bandit aspect would have struck terror in the +streets of any more civilized land--the purple talas, and long flowing +beard of the followers of the Greek Pope, sweeping against the dark robe +of the bald monk from the neighbouring convent--the smoother, finer gown +of the richer Catholic priest brushing past the white uniform of the +Austrian grenadier, with his conical headpiece, and long powdered pigtail. + +Amidst the hum of the many voices, the salutations of friends, the +laughter of some of the squeezing throng, the oaths of others, the cries +of the coachmen and the shouts of the horsemen to those who obstructed the +streets, arose, nevertheless, one unwearied and endless sound--the sound +of ringing metal--from the rattling of the universal spurs, and the +clashing of the many sabres. + +But if the scene was varied, more varied still were the emotions of the +crowd--among those, at least, who were more deeply interested in the +result of the event which had called together a great part of the nation +within the walls of the city of Presburg; according as their party +feelings or private interests led them to desire that resistance should be +shown to the appeal made by her whom the Hungarians styled their "King," +to her faithful subjects of Hungary, for succour under her distresses; or +as their enthusiasm or attachment to the House of Austria induced them to +wish that every assistance should be bestowed to enable her to restore her +fallen fortunes. + +The situation of Maria Theresa was indeed desperate. Her right to the +countries inherited by her from her father Charles VI., emperor of +Germany, were contested by almost all the other states of Europe. Her +friends and allies were few; and those few seemed to have deserted her at +this critical juncture. And yet with what confidence, with what a +well-assured prospect of a glorious reign, had she mounted the throne +secured to her! + +As early as the year 1713, the Emperor Charles VI. had issued, in his +privy council, a solemn ordinance, by which the female succession was +secured throughout his states, in case of the failure of male issue--an +ordinance well known in history, under the name of the "Pragmatic +Sanction." It was published throughout the Austrian states as inviolable +law, was made known to all the European courts, and by degrees guaranteed +by all, forming the ground and basis of all their treaties and alliances +with the House of Austria, and was moreover confirmed by oath by the +princes allied to the family by their intermarriage with Austrian +princesses. It was this ordinance, which only afterwards came into effect +upon the death of the Archduke Leopold, the only son of Charles VI., that +secured the right of succession to his daughter Maria Theresa, who at his +decease, which occurred in October 1740, and closed the male succession of +the House of Hapsburg, succeeded him, with the title of Queen of Hungary +and Bohemia, in these and all the other Austrian States, including, Milan, +Parma, Placentia, and the Netherlands. All these lands gave in their oath +of adherence. + +In spite of the triple right, however, which gave the States of Austria to +Maria Theresa--the right of nature, the law of the Pragmatic sanction, and +the sureties given by all the European states--several powers shortly +afterwards rose to contest her heritage. The Elector of Bavaria laid claim +to the succession, in virtue of a will of the Emperor Ferdinand the First, +dated in the year 1543; Augustus of Poland, in virtue of the earlier +rights of his wife, Maria Josepha, daughter of the Emperor Joseph, the +elder brother of Charles the Sixth. The King of Spain, Philip the Fifth, +went back as far as the rights of the wife of Philip the Second, a +daughter of the Emperor Maximilian the Second, from whom he was descended +in the female line. The King of Sardinia, Charles Emmanuel, laid claim to +the duchy of Milan; and Louis the Fifteenth of France supported the +Elector of Bavaria and the King of Spain. All Europe was quickly in flames +upon the subject of the succession. Not only princes, but many private +individuals, took an eager and active part in the quarrel. But the war, at +last, broke out from an unexpected quarter. Frederic the Second of Prussia +now laid claim to four duchies in Silesia, in spite of the renunciations +of these lands frequently made by his predecessors in favour of the House +of Austria, and suddenly, in December 1740, invaded the country, which, +being almost entirely undefended, was soon completely overrun by the +Prussian army. Maria Theresa, in spite of the alliance offered her by the +King of Prussia against her other enemies, in case Silesia should be +yielded up to him, stoutly and valiantly refused all compromise, declared +herself noways disposed to dismember, in the least degree, the States left +her by her father, and bade defiance to Frederic. Her enemies now took +this opportunity to attack her. Bavaria declared war, and was supported +by France, Spain, Savoy, and Saxony. In spite of the opposition of +Cardinal Fleury, the French minister, who was favourable to the cause of +the young Queen, Louis the Fifteenth placed under the command of Marshal +Count de Belle-Isle, a large French army, which crossed the Rhine in +August 1741; whilst the Chevalier de Belle-Isle was sent from court to +court in Germany, to rouse the powers against Maria Theresa; and numerous +spies and agents were dispatched, in every direction, to undermine the +last support she might have to hope for from her few remaining allies. +Linz quickly fell into the hands of the enemy, who approached upon Vienna. +Utter ruin lay before the persecuted Queen, who was obliged to leave her +capital, and seek refuge in Hungary. And under these circumstances it was, +that she had convoked at Presburg the Diet of the four orders of the +kingdom, the opening of which now caused the city to throng with crowds of +Hungarians from all quarters of the country. + +Among the mass of persons that thus swarmed in the main street of +Presburg, like ants upon the chief passage to the anthill, in seeming +confusion in which each individual atom has, nevertheless, its own purpose +and design, was a young man, whose striking personal appearance +continually attracted attention among those who crossed his path, and +caused many a head to turn and gaze after him, even in that favoured land +where beauty of the most romantic kind is common among all classes. He was +a youth of scarcely more than twenty years, as might be seen by the fresh +bloom upon his cheek, and the first down of dark moustaches which faintly +painted his upper-lip. His figure was slim, but yet his carriage had all +the bold ease of Hungarian youth; his features were regularly and +beautifully fashioned, although not of that extreme symmetry which mars +expression by its coldness; his dark-grey eyes, shaded by long black +lashes, which bestowed on them an Oriental cast, wore a look of hardihood +and languor combined, which spoke of a romantic temperament; and his +dark-brown hair, unconcealed by the fashion of the times, streamed free +and unfettered on to his neck and temples. He was attired in a sombre +dress, which well became his figure and poetic look. His braided attila +and pantaloons were of black cloth slightly relieved with velvet of the +same colour upon the cuffs and collar; and a black velvet Hungarian cap, +surmounted by a plume of black eaglet's feathers, sat boldly upon his +head. The silver-mounted belt and chains of his sabre were the only +ornaments that glittered on his dress. + +Whatever the purpose of the seemingly capricious wanderings of the young +man, as he thrust obstinately and somewhat rudely through the crowds which +opposed his progress, he was not to be diverted from it by the +objurgations of some of those whom he thus elbowed on his passage, or the +commendatory remarks of others, who noticed his good mien. His eye roved +perpetually to every window at which a female form appeared; and, upon the +approach of each coach that passed, he pushed boldly forward, to obtain as +near a view as possible of its fair inmates. But he evidently sought some +one particular form, which he found not in his unwearying scrutiny; for, +as often as some fresh female face had been narrowly examined, followed +sometimes with a moment's doubt, and then abandoned, he gently shook his +head, with knitted brow, and an expression of disappointment, and, falling +back, uttered an impatient sigh. + +At a short distance from the youth followed a tall old man, in the hussar +dress of an Hungarian domestic, who, in turn, pushed sturdily after him, +never losing him entirely from his sight, and utterly heedless of the +exclamations of those thrust aside, who, however they might spare their +angry comments to the handsome young noble, bestowed them with double +wrath upon his rude attendant. The look of the old man was one of +discontent, as he thus pursued the capricious movements of the youth; and +he gave vent to a continued string of muttered rough Hungarian oaths, +whilst he pushed on, and muttered such phrases as, "he is distraught--he +is utterly distraught with this silly boyish fancy!" + +At length, as the dusk of approaching evening began slowly to fall upon +the streets, as the crowd gradually lessened, as no more carriages rumbled +heavily along the causeway, and as no more faces appeared at the windows, +the young man paused in his hurried walk, uttered a still deeper sigh of +disappointment, and leaning himself wearily against a doorway, sank his +head downwards, and seemed lost in painful meditation. + +His old attendant approached him, and after a time, seeing that his +presence was unnoticed, and that the gloomy reverie of the young man +continued, he addressed him in a tone in which rude familiarity and +respect were strangely combined-- + +"Is my lord's young blood so hot, then, that he seeks to cool it by taking +up his night-quarters under this airy gateway?" But seeing that the young +man heeded him not, he muttered an inpatient "_Teremtette!_" between his +teeth, and then, plucking at his master's dress, he continued-- + +"Have you no orders to give me, Master Otmar?" + +"None, Farkas. No, leave me!" was the only reply vouchsafed. + +"Look you, Master Otmar," pursued his attendant--"You are observed +here--you are an object of attention, perhaps of mockery, to the +passers-by." + +"What mean you, Farkas?" cried the young man, in a tone of displeasure. + +"Nay! if my lord is angry, I have no more to say," replied Farkas, drawing +back. + +"Perhaps you are right," said the young man, with a sigh; "although your +words were rude." And without further comment, he removed himself from his +reclining position, and walked away with hurried steps. + +The old domestic followed rapidly, and, as they approached the St +Michael's gate, evidently expected that his young master would enter his +lodging close by; but, seeing that he still walked on, Farkas paused for a +moment, and murmured the words, "He bade me leave him. But he is utterly +distraught. He knows not what he says; he has forgotten his command ere +now; and who knows what may happen to the poor foolish boy!" And having +thus reassured his conscience upon his act of disobedience, he pursued the +young man's footsteps at a respectful distance, through the gateway, over +the bridge, and along the suburb. + +Beyond lay a more open road, skirted by gardens, and enlivened here and +there by summer pavilions, belonging to some of the wealthier nobles; and, +at about a quarter of a mile from the town, stood, to the left of the +wanderers, a stately palace, built in the heavy but ornamented style of +the commencement of the same century, and backed by gardens, that +stretched out behind it to the foot of that richly wooded and romantic +ridge of low mountains which gives so peculiar a charm to the environs of +the fine old city of Presburg. + +Passing through a side entrance of the court of this palace, which served +as a summer residence to the Archbishop Primate of Hungary--at that period +the Prince Immeric Esterhazy--and entering the gardens beyond, which the +liberality of the wealthy primate opened to public recreation, but which +were now empty, the young noble sauntered on, lost in meditation, through +statues of heathen divinities, which seemed ill in accordance with the +abode of a Christian bishop; and tritoned fountains, and stiff parterres, +and huge incommodious stone benches; until, reaching an alley of shady +planes and clustering chestnut-trees, he flung himself listlessly down on +the mossy bench of a shell and pebble-studded niche. The glow of the last +rays of the setting sun faintly penetrated the entrance of the avenue, +adding a still richer colour to the rich green shades of the trees, as yet +untouched by the influence of autumn; while, in the distant opening of the +dark vista, framed, as it were, by the circling trees, appeared a hazy +landscape of calm vine-covered hills, dotted with white cottages. It was a +spot peculiarly adapted to meditation and repose, the solitude of which +was enhanced, rather than disturbed, by its sole occupant--a misanthropic +stork, that with its wings folded on its back, like a sulky old gentleman +with his arms behind him, placed slowly and deliberately one foot before +the other, as it stepped on in lonely thoughtfulness. + +For a time the young man sat lost in reflection; and it was not until he +at length raised his head to gaze upon a scene congenial to his feelings, +that he became aware of the form of old Farkas, standing erect against a +tree, like a sentry in his box, at no great distance from him. + +"This is a persecution to which I cannot submit," he murmured to himself; +and then rising, and calling angrily to his attendant, he cried, + +"Did I not bid you leave me, Farkas?" + +"Leave you, my lord?" said the attendant, advancing with an air of +surprise. + +"Yes, leave me. Do you hear now?" + +"My duty"--continued the old man, in an expostulatory tone. + +"Is to obey me." + +"My attachment"---- + +"Becomes importunate," broke in his master, "if my footsteps are to be +thus dogged, and my solitude to be disturbed, fellow." + +Farkas tossed his head, with a sigh, that perhaps might be more +appropriately termed a grunt, and moved a few steps backwards; but then, +as if unable to obey, he again lingered and returned. + +"Master Otmar," he said, "call me rude, unmannered, disobedient. Bid me +leave you--yes, leave you for ever, if you will. But, out it must, +_teremtette!_ in spite of all. I cannot see you thus, and quit you, +without a word--you, your father's son. You, Master Otmar, whose heels I +was the first to spur, whom I first set on horseback to gallop alone over +the Puszta, whom I first taught a good round Hungarian oath. I could not +do it, were I to know it were the last word I spoke." + +"Speak then! What have you to say?" cried Otmar, in a tone of vexed +impatience; but then, as he saw the eyes of the old man fixed in such +mournful earnestness and solicitude upon him, he seemed to repent his +harshness, and stretched out his hand, which his attendant took and kissed +with reverence, according to the custom of the country. + +"Speak!" he said more mildly; "I know you love me, although sometimes you +show your love after a strange rude fashion, Farkas!" + +"Are you a man, Master Otmar," began the old attendant, bluntly, "that you +should be thus cast down because you have seen a pretty face that smiled +upon you?" The young man showed evident marks of impatience at these +words; but Farkas had seized his advantage, and continued, "Is a chitfaced +woman's glance, seen only once, to break a man's bold spirit thus? You are +in love, you will tell me. That's a boy's answer to all; but"-- + +"Peace, foolish man! what do you know of love?" said Otmar, impatiently. + +"Foolish!" echoed the old man, with a toss of the head, as if he were for +a moment inclined to argue which were the more foolish, he or his master. +"Be that as it may. Perhaps I understand little of this love, at least +now. But I remember the time I understood it better; and, _teremtette!_ +that was another sort of thing. When I was in love, I danced and sprang, +and drank and swore, and flung up my cap on to the very horns of the young +moon! There was some spirit in love then! But you have saved a fair lady +from danger, as her unruly devils of horses were about to plunge her +travelling coach from the bank into the broad stream of the Danube, and +you are as cast down about it as if you had caused her death, instead of +saving her from destruction. _Eb adta!_ it is for her to whine and pine, +and lament that she sees the bright eyes of her handsome deliverer no +more; not for you, boy!" + +"And with how sweet a smile! with what a dignity and grace! with what a +look of angel brightness, did she hold out her hand to thank me!" muttered +the young man to himself, as he again sank down upon the bank. + +"Be a man, Master Otmar!" pursued Farkas, with more animation and +earnestness. "Call back again your energy and spirit! Where is the bold +young fellow, now, who challenged that cursed outlandish rascal, who not +long since strove to tamper with his loyalty, and throw doubts upon the +rights of our King--God bless _her_!--and pricked him, too, right through +the sword-arm, and did it well, right well?" + +"And would again, Farkas!" said Otmar, raising his head proudly. + +"Although, to be sure, you would not allow me to cudgel him soundly, and +beat his treacherous brains out afterwards," continued the man, with a +grim smile; "but, no matter for that, he had half his deserts, and shall +have the other half one of these days. An honest man pays his just debts." + +"Leave the villain to his fate!" cried the young man with a look of scorn. + +"That's right!" pursued his attendant. "Now, you are yourself again. Look +you, Master Otmar! I cannot bear to see you thus unhappy and cast down, +and all for the look of a bright eye. It goes nigh to break my heart, I +tell you." And the old man's voice began to falter with emotion. + +"But I am not unhappy," said Otmar, smiling; "I am happy, very happy. Let +that re-assure you, Farkas. You tell me, be a man. Can I be a man, and not +indulge grave thoughts in these times of strife and trouble?" + +The old man shook his head. + +"You love me, Farkas," continued the young noble. "Let, then, the +assurance that I am far from unhappy suffice you. Now leave me, in all +earnest. I shortly will return home--Home!" he murmured to himself, "have +I a home now?" + +The old attendant still lingered; but, as his master stretched forth his +hand, he again kissed it reverently, and, turning up the alley, +disappeared from sight. + +"No! I am not unhappy," muttered Otmar, when he found himself alone. "Why +should I not be happy, when she smiled upon me so sweetly? But should I +not see her again? Oh no! Fate cannot be so cruel. And who was he that sat +by her side, and took her hand in his, as she again entered the coach? Her +husband--her lover, perhaps. I will not believe it. Her brother, may be. +No! I am not unhappy. I should be happy that I can place between myself +and the dark realities of life a bright barrier of fancy, of poetry, of +love--like unto those glorious painted windows in the old cathedral, which +spread out, between the inclemencies of the atmosphere without, and the +mysteries of the calm sanctuary within, the thousand glories of a thousand +colours, a radiant curtain of purple, and crimson, and gold, in such wise +that the passing cloud, with all its variations of shade, only develops +fresh treasures of harmony and beauty; and if a ray of sun bursts +forth--oh then!--it might almost seem as if, in those dazzling showers of +light and radiance, a whole celestial choir of angels descended upon the +altar! Thrice happy should I be, that, on the sanctuary of my heart, +shines such a ray of light! Yes, in the midst of the darkness of my life," +pursued the young man to himself, still following up the same images of +his poetic fancy, "my thoughts should be as the thousand particles of dust +that may be seen to turn, and whirl, and gambol in the golden shaft of +light which streams through a peephole into a darkened prison! No, I +should not be--I am not unhappy!" And yet Otmar sighed, as he bent his +head again to the earth. + +From this poetic reverie he was roused, however, by the noise of +footsteps; and, as he lifted up his head, he saw that the entrance to the +alley was darkened by the forms of three persons who were advancing +towards him. That which immediately attracted his attention, and caused +him to spring up from his seat as if struck by an electric shock which +darted through his heart, was a young female, whose features and +expression, as she approached nearer, might be seen, spite of the +gathering darkness, to be of singular beauty. She was attired in a dark +brocaded dress, the long and slim waist of which was set off by a small +hoop, in accordance with the custom of the times; a thick veil, or rather +Spanish mantilla, of similar stuff was fastened into the top of her +powdered edifice of hair, and covered her neck and shoulders; and from +beneath its folds protruded a small hand, the fingers of which rested +gently upon the arm of a young man. This second personage was dressed in +all the rich extravagance of the French fashion of the day--his long +lappeted coat, hanging waistcoat, and breeches, all laced and spangled, +and behung with knots of ribands--his three-cornered hat flung under the +arm which did not serve as support to the lady--and an embroidered +handkerchief, the perfumes of which scented the air even at a distance, +ostentatiously flourished in his hand; and if Otmar's heart beat +involuntarily at first sight of the female, it was twinged with an equally +involuntary pang of painful emotion as his eye wandered to her companion. +The group was completed by an aged man, in the plain costume of a Catholic +ecclesiastic of the day, to whom the lady turned her head to address some +remark, as he lingered somewhat behind the other personages. + +The first instinctive movement of Otmar's heart had not deceived him. As +the lady approached still nearer, the lingering doubt gave way to full +conviction. It was she--she of whom he had dreamt so fondly-she whom he +had sought all day so eagerly among the crowds that thronged the city +streets! And now that she stood before him, his knees trembled, whilst his +feet seemed to be rooted to the ground, and his tongue to cleave to the +roof of his mouth. Had she passed him unnoticed where he stood, he could +not have moved to claim a look, or framed a word to address her. But, as +she drew closer to him, she checked her steps with a slight exclamation of +surprise, almost of alarm, at the sight of the half-concealed stranger in +the dusk. Her companion moved forward hastily, and, dropping her arm, +advanced his hand to his sword; but, before he could say a word, she had +in turn come forward. + +"Forbear, my friend!" she said; and then, advancing to Otmar, she +continued, "I am not deceived. It is my noble rescuer. I have sought you, +sir, in vain, to tender you my thanks for your good services, if my poor +thanks, indeed, can be a recompense for service so beyond all price." + +"Madam, I did but the duty of a gentleman," stammered Otmar; "and for you, +who would not----?" + +"I owe you, indeed, more than thanks can pay," interrupted the young +female. "You left us so hastily, after accomplishing that deed of courage +at the risk of your own life, that I had no time to learn who was my bold +deliverer from peril. In the confusion and trouble of the moment, I +allowed you to depart; and, believe me, my heart has not ceased to +reproach me since for a seeming want of gratitude, that, the Saints of +Heaven know, was far from it." + +"Oh! I am repaid, fully repaid, fair lady, by these words," interrupted +the eager youth in his turn. + +"But I may still repair my error," resumed the lady. "Alas! I have little +to bestow," she continued, with a sigh, "save empty words of gratitude. +But the time may come. Let me know, at least, the name of him who has done +me such essential service." + +"It were unworthy of your ears, fair lady," stammered Otmar timidly + +"Again, I reclaim the favour of your name, sir," said the young female. +"You are noble; your mien proclaims it, did not the sabre by your side +attest it." And her eyes seemed to rest with satisfaction upon the figure +of the handsome youth. "You have more--you have the true nobility of +heart. You will not refuse your name to a lady who demands it." + +Otmar was about to speak, when the noise of several persons advancing into +the alley with rapid steps, caused the heads of all parties to turn in +that direction. A troop of five or six men, with drawn swords, and black +masks upon their faces, rushed violently upon them. + +"Seize her! It is she!" cried a tall man, who appeared the leader of the +party, as he darted forward. + +A violent scream issued from the mouth of the female--exclamations of +alarm, and shouts of rescue from those of her companions. Otmar +instinctively drew his sabre with cry of rage, and the next moment all was +skirmish and confusion. + +"Ruffian!" exclaimed the young Hungarian, attacking the taller mask, who +had now seized with rude grasp the hand of the female, and causing him, by +the violence of the onset, to let go his hold. + +"Ha! he once more! God's curse on him!" cried the leader, parrying the +attack as best he might, whilst he endeavoured to regain possession of the +lady. + +"Let her not escape! let her not escape!" he shouted again to his +followers, finding himself hardly pressed upon. "I will dispatch this +fellow, on whom I reckoned not." And he, in his turn, attacked Otmar with +fury. + +Even in the midst of the skirmish, the young man could not resist seeking +the lady with his eye; and he could dimly perceive, in the darkness and +confusion, that she had taken refuge with the ecclesiastic, whilst her +companion was making desperate efforts with his French small-sword, to +keep at bay the other assailants. But his unwary solicitude had wellnigh +cost him his life. A plunge of his adversary's sword passed through his +attila, and slightly grazed his side. The next moment his own sabre +descended on to the shoulder of the man with whom he was engaged, with +sufficient effect, although the blow was evaded, to disable him for the +moment, and cause him to stagger back. + +Profiting by this circumstance, Otmar rushed upon the other ravishers, and +came up at the very instant when, overpowered by numbers, the companion of +the lady had lost all power of any longer protecting her retreat, and +preventing their object of seizing on her. Attacking then with fury, and +dealing several severe wounds, he succeeded in turning their attention +chiefly to himself. + +Thus desperately engaged in a most unequal combat, he heard the step and +voice of his first antagonist from behind. A dagger already gleamed over +his head, when suddenly a heavy blow resounded, and his assailant +staggered and fell to the ground. In a few moments more he had contrived +to disperse the other ruffians, who, wounded and alarmed, now took to +flight. When he turned, he found his old Farkas standing over the +prostrate body of his first foe. + +"I could not leave my lord," cried the old domestic, brandishing a stout +stick: which he had snatched up. "And, _teremtette!_ I was right, whatever +you may say. But I have done for one of the rascals, _eb adta!_ and just +at the right nick too!" + +"Leave him an follow me, Farkas!" cried the young man. "They may still +again assail her." And he hurried up the avenue, followed by the old man +who grunted with unwillingness at leaving the prize of his strong arm. + +When they reached the open space beyond the alley, no one was visible in +the dark. The lady and her companions had disappeared. Lights, however, +were moving, in the archbishop's palace; and, at the same moment, a troop +of servants, torches in hand, was seen to issue from the lower part of the +building, attracted, probably, by the noise of the tumult. + +"Where can she be? Again lost to me! Lost, perhaps, for ever!" exclaimed +Otmar. + +"Shall we not secure the fellow I knocked down?" said Farkas +insinuatingly, with no small spice of pride at the thoughts of the +capture. "He may be yet alive." + +"You are right," replied his master. "He was the leader of this troop of +bravoes. He may be compelled to divulge the mystery of this deed; and I +knew that voice, methinks, although as yet my recollections are confused." + +With these words he hurried back into the avenue. But when master and man +had reached the spot where the body had lain, it was no longer visible. +Marks of blood and of trampling feet, two broken swords and a ragged hat, +were the only evidences that remained of the late combat. + +"Gone!" cried Otmar. + +"The other ruffians have returned and carried him off, _eb adta_!" +exclaimed Farkas, with intense vexation. + +"Let us follow on their traces!" said the young noble. "See here! This way +through the thicket! There are marks of broken boughs." And pushing his +way through the bushes, he entered the dark wood, followed by his +attendant. + +A moment afterwards the avenue was illuminated by the torches of the +domestics from the archbishop's palace. + + +CHAPTER III. + + "Spirit of men, + Thou heart of our great enterprise, how much + I love these voices in thee!" + BEN. JONSON. + + "Love is ambitious, and loves majesty." + DECKER. + +Upon an imposing hill, which rises from the Danube's banks, and frowns +over the city of Presburg, still stand the extensive ruins of a fine old +castle, which was destroyed by fire at the commencement of the present +century, but which, at this period of history, was generally occupied as a +residence by the rulers of Hungary, when they paid a royal visit to their +Hungarian capital; and in the large hall of state in this immense building +it was, that the Diet of the four orders of the kingdom, convoked by Maria +Theresa, had assembled on the eleventh of September--the morning following +that evening so eventful to Otmar and his young love. + +At the upper end of this large apartment, a throne had been arranged for +the young Queen. In the spaces between the old portraits of the heads of +the House of Hapsburg, which adorned the walls, were now displayed +Hungarian banners. On either side of the throne, awaiting the arrival of +Maria Theresa, were several of her German ministers and household; and, as +it was well known that those immediately about her person had protested +energetically against her appeal to her Hungarian subjects, these German +servants of the Queen were regarded with no looks of good-will or sympathy +by those who filled the hall. + +Upon the first step of the throne, and apart from those who surrounded it, +stood, on the right, the Count John Pallfy, the Palatin or Viceroy of the +kingdom, his handsome martial countenance, with that semi-oriental disdain +of all expression of emotion in the physiognomy, betraying none of those +anxious feelings which were natural as to the result of a crisis so +important; on the left, Count Louis Batthyani, the _Reichskanzler_ or +Chancellor. Immediately below the throne were ranged, on one side, the +bishops and prelates of the kingdom, to the number of sixty-seven, in +their rich ecclesiastical attire; on the other, the numerous magnates of +the realm, the princes, counts, and barons, to the amount of seven hundred +and eighty, glittering in all the marvellous pomp and splendour of the +Hungarian costume, and reaching in proud array far beyond the middle of +the hall--the lower part of which was thronged by a crowd of the lesser +nobles, and the deputies from the provinces, and from the royal free-towns +of Hungary. Brilliant and dazzling was the scene composed of this living +mass, with its thousand fantastic and bejewelled dresses; and wonderful to +look at the many fine energetic countenances of all ages of which it was +composed. + +Among the nobles, towards the middle of the hall, stood Otmar, his +handsome face still pale from the excitement of the previous evening, and +a night passed in sleeplessness. It was in vain that he had sought to find +the trace of the ruffians who had made so strange an attempt to seize upon +the person of the mysterious object of his affections: and only late in +the night had he returned to his lodging, and striven to calm the anxiety +of his mind in a useless attempt at repose upon his couch. His brain +whirled with the confusion of his thoughts. All the past was involved in +mystery and conjecture. Who was the beautiful female, to whom he had so +quickly given all the first emotions and energies of his young heart? +Should he ever again behold her who had thus twice crossed his path, to +disappear as suddenly from before his eyes? Had she escaped the hands of +her ravishers? What had become of her? And who, again--he demanded with a +pang of bitter jealousy--was that young man who had twice been her +companion, and whom she had styled her friend? Thus agonized with a +thousand doubts and apprehensions, he could scarcely command his senses to +gaze upon the scene around, or to reflect upon the important purpose which +had called him, with the other Hungarian nobles, to that hall. The +troubles of his life, his doubtful fate, his dreary position in the world, +were all forgotten in the absorbing thoughts connected with her he loved: +all minor anxieties--such as his dismissal that morning, as he left the +house, from his poor lodging by his old landlord, in a manner which, had +he been able to think on other matters, might have appeared to him as +heartless as inconsistent--found no room in his tormented mind. The noise +of the trumpets, announcing the entry of the Queen; the opening of the +door, to the right of the throne, through which she passed; the murmur, +and partial confusion, which attended her ascending the steps, and placing +herself in presence of that crowded assembly, scarcely roused him from his +reverie. + +But when he raised his eyes, he scarcely could credit their own evidence. +There she stood on high before him! The crown of St Stephen of Hungary was +on her lofty brow: the royal mantle covered her shoulders: the bejewelled +cimiter of the Hungarian kings was at her side. In her arms she held a +baby of about six months of age; in her left hand she clasped that of a +little girl. She was there in all her dazzling splendour of royal beauty. +And it was she!--she to whom his heart was given--she whom he had dared to +love! + +For a moment the whole scene whirled before the eyes of Otmar: he +staggered as one struck by lightning: his pale cheek grew paler still: he +felt as if he were falling to the earth. How he found a tongue to speak, +he himself could not have told. But, with faltering voice, he turned to an +old Hungarian magnate by his side, and stammered-- + +"Is it possible? Is that--she--our King--is that?" + +"Who should it be, _domine illustrissime_?" answered the person thus +addressed, with the Latin courtesy of the country. "Who should it be, +friend?" + +Again Otmar found force to falter forth-- + +"And he, who has given her his hand to mount the throne--he who now stands +behind her, glittering in all the rich fancifulness of that outlandish +dress--who is _he_?" + +"Humph!" replied the old Hungarian, in no very amiable tone of voice. +"That is her favourite German minister, the young Prince Kaunitz--a silly +fop! She might have better and less compromising servants about her +person, methinks. As you seem a stranger, _domine_," he pursued, unheeding +Otmar's agitation, "you may like to know that the old ecclesiastic, who +has taken the other place behind her, is our Archbishop Primate, the +Prince Emmeric Esterhazy, at whose summer palace she took up her +residence, _incognita_, on first arriving here." + +"Kaunitz! her favourite minister, and she called him 'my friend!'" +muttered the young man, trembling with emotion. + +"Yes! and they do say," continued his informant lightly, "that now her +husband, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, is absent with the remains of her +discomfited army, she and the young prince"--and he whispered in Otmar's +ear. + +A pang of the bitterest feeling passed through the young noble's heart. +But that pang, by its very revulsion, gave him fresh energy. + +"Calumny!" he exclaimed, angrily, to his companion, whom he doubted not to +be one of those disaffected to the cause of the persecuted Queen. +"Calumny!" But his voice was drowned in the loud murmur which arose on all +sides calling for silence. + +Maria Theresa had risen from the throne, upon which she had seated herself +on her first entrance to calm her feelings; and she gazed, with evident +emotion, and with faltering purpose, upon the vast crowd before her. No +doubt that she saw a stern discouraging frown upon many a brow: no doubt +that she knew how deeply the seeds of discontent and disaffection had been +sown among her subjects--how great a majority was unfavourable to her +cause: and she trembled and faltered for a moment. + +But the beauty, the dignity, and grace of the young Queen had already +worked their spell upon the susceptible natures of the Hungarians, who, +stern as they may be, are easily led away by enthusiastic impulses. A +flattering murmur of applause ran through the assembly. + +Encouraged by this movement of sympathy, which her quickly sensitive +woman's heart felt rather than perceived, Maria Theresa lifted her head +more boldly, and advancing one step forward, with her little daughter +clinging to her dress, held forward in her arms the baby boy, whose +destinies afterwards fixed him on the imperial throne of Germany as Joseph +the Second. + +All set speeches, all forms were forgotten by her in the trouble of the +moment. + +"Hungarians!" she said, with quivering voice, in Latin,--"deserted by my +friends, persecuted by my enemies, attacked and oppressed by my nearest +relations, my only refuge, in my utmost need, is in your fidelity, +courage, and support. To you alone, with God, can I any longer look for +safety. To your loyalty alone can I confide the welfare of the son and +daughter of your kings. At your feet I lay my children. I come to you for +succour. Will you grant it me?" + +Her voice trembled. She could not proceed. A pause ensued. + +"_Vitam et sanguinem!_" responded a voice. + +It was that of Otmar, who had listened, with beating heart, to the accents +of his adored Queen; whilst the blood had gradually risen into his pale +cheeks, and now flushed his animated countenance with colour. + +"_Vitam et sanguinem!_" was shouted by almost every voice in the assembly, +as it caught up the cry. + +"MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO!" again cried Otmar, drawing forth his sabre. + +"MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO!" was re-echoed by a thousand mouths, as a +thousand sabres were waved on high, and flashed upon the air. + +The enthusiastic feeling had been communicated as an electric shock +throughout the crowd. Spite of party feelings, party purpose, stern +resolves, it had proved irresistible. Before the Hungarian nobles was a +woman--a beautiful female in distress--and she their Queen! The burst of +loyal fervour was spontaneous, uncontrollable. + +The bosom of Maria Theresa heaved with emotion at the sound of this wild +cry. For a moment she struggled with her feelings, strove to be a queen: +but her woman's nature gave way; and, sinking back on her throne, she +burst into tears. + +The sight of this outbreak of emotion spoke again to each Hungarian heart; +and, with still wilder and louder shouts of frenzied enthusiasm, the cry +of "MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO!" rang again through the hall of the Castle +of Presburg, until the old walls trembled to their base. Tears sprang from +many of the sternest eyes, and rolled down many a withered cheek. But they +were tears of pity, admiration, and fury. + +All rancour, discontent, political difference, purpose of treachery, had +been forgotten. The cause of Maria Theresa had been won! + +Long it was before the tumult of the many voices ceased, or the flashing +sabres were restored to their scabbards. And when at length the murmur in +the hall was somewhat stilled, the aged archbishop advanced to the side of +Maria Theresa, who, with her eyes streaming with tears, stood up at once. +He attempted to speak in the name of the Hungarian nation in answer to her +appeal. But the old man's voice failed him; and only in broken accents, +which scarcely could be heard beyond the throne, could he utter a few +words of fervent devotion, and pray God to bless her. + +In his turn also, the Palatin, Count Pallfy, stepped forward and spoke of +supplies and men. But his voice, also, was drowned in the enthusiastic +shouts which promised to the persecuted Queen the succour of the very +life's blood of her faithful Hungarians, and the aid of their fortunes to +the last florin. It could scarcely at last be heard, as the official +declaration was made of the opening of the Diet and of the sittings to be +held, at which the necessary measures to be taken to be debated. + +Then again rose the shouts, as Maria Theresa attempted to thank her +faithful subjects. She could no longer speak; but she waved her hand to +them, with a graceful gesture, and a look of gratitude which betrayed the +depth of her feelings. Otmar's heart again beat tumultuously. He closed +his eyes, as if to shut out from his very heart the dangerous sight of her +who held over it so powerful a fascination. When he again looked up, she +had descended from the throne. She was gone. + +Overpowered by the various conflicting feelings which had so powerfully +assailed him in the last short hour, the young noble followed +instinctively the crowd as it streamed out of the great hall; and it was +only when he found himself in a large ante-room, somewhat severed from the +general mass, that he stopped and threw himself down upon a bench near a +doorway, to collect his confused and scattered thoughts. He remained for a +time lost in a reverie, from which he was aroused by a tap upon his +shoulder. + +Before him stood a boy, in a military dress, whose mien bore all the +boldness and pertness of a page. + +"_Servus, domine!_" said the youth, with an impudent air. + +"What want you with me?" asked Otmar sharply. "I do not know you, sir. +This is some mistake." + +"It is none at all, if I read right your person," answered the boy pertly, +mustering Otmar from top to toe. "Are you not he who was last night in the +primate's garden? The description answers that of him I was bid to seek." + +"I was in the primate's garden last night, of a truth," said the young +noble: "but"---- + +"Then follow me," continued the boy, with a nod of the head. + +"Whither?" + +"Where a lady calls you," laughed the page, with an impudent swagger. "A +young fellow of our age and blood needs no other bidding, methinks." + +"What lady?" once more asked Otmar. But the boy only winked him to follow, +as a reply; and turning into a side-door, beckoned to him once more; and +then, seeing that the summons was obeyed, proceeded on, through several +passages and corridors, until, reaching a door, he pushed it open. Within +stood a female; and Otmar's heart, which had beat high with vague +expectations of what he himself scarce dared to divine, was suddenly +chilled, when he saw before him an elderly lady, altogether unknown to +him. But as she came forward to ask the boy whether it was the person he +was charged to seek, he became aware that it was not she into whose +presence he was to be introduced. The lady, in turn, signed to him to +follow; and after tapping gently upon an inner-door, and waiting for a +reply, opened it, and bade him enter. + +The apartment into which the young noble had been thus ushered, seemed to +have been hastily fitted up with such resources of a lady's chamber as the +cumbrous and incommodious fashion of the day offered. At the upper end, in +a large high-backed chair, sat a female figure, behind whom a tirewoman +appeared in waiting. + +Those hopes and expectations which, once or twice, Otmar had permitted to +float over his mind, as he had followed the page through the passages of +the castle, and had then dismissed from it as fantastic and improbable, +and yet again, in spite of his better reasonings, indulged, were now +confirmed, and still, to his dazzled sight, appeared impossible. + +It was indeed Maria Theresa who sat before him. + +The mantle had been disengaged from the shoulders, the cimeter ungirded +from her side, and the crown removed from her head: but she still wore the +rich dark dress, incrusted with gems, that proclaimed her royalty, but +which she needed not to stamp her "every inch" a queen. Her hair had been, +apparently, loosened by the removal of the diadem from her brow; and +powdered as it was, it fell in luxuriant ringlets over her neck and +shoulders. The glow of her recent emotion still remained upon her face, +and added to the natural grace of her beauty: and her lustrous dark-grey +eyes were still moist with her late tears. + +No wonder that Otmar stood before her, doubly dazzled with her beauty as a +woman, and her majesty as a queen--bewildered that she, whom he had +presumed to love, and for whom, in spite of himself, his heart yet beat +wildly, should be his sovereign, and that he should stand thus in her +presence. + +"Ah! is it you, sir--you, doubly my rescuer from evil!" said Maria +Theresa, rising from her chair, and advancing a few steps towards him. +"Welcome, to accept your Monarch's inmost thanks!" And she stretched out +her hand, which, although totally unpractised in the etiquette of courts, +Otmar, by an instinctive impulse, knelt down to kiss. + +"Rise, sir!" she continued. "Were my gratitude alone to speak, it were for +me, your Queen, to kneel and kiss the hand that a second time has, through +God's providence, been the instrument of my deliverance from peril." + +Otmar rose from his knees, a deep blush overspreading his handsome +countenance. The young Queen seemed to gaze upon him for a moment with +satisfaction; and then, waving her hand to her female attendant to retire, +she again addressed him. + +"What can I do to serve you, sir?" she said--"you, who have thus twice +served me at the peril of your life. I am but a poor and a powerless +Queen," she continued, with a faint smile: "but a grateful heart may still +find means to recompense"---- + +"To live and die in your majesty's defence, is all your poor servant, who +has but done his duty to his Queen, although unknowingly, has to desire," +was the young noble's reply. + +"Nay, sir, we have too many obligations towards you," said the Queen, "to +allow ourselves to be quit thus. Can I do naught to serve you in return?" +she pursued, with a less dignified and more familiar tone. "You must not +allow so great a weight of thanks to lie upon my heart. Take pity on me!" + +Otmar could with difficulty find words to speak. The tumult of his +feelings almost overpowered him, as he began to forget the queen in the +beautiful and loved woman before him. But he struggled with the impetuous +dictates of his heart. + +"Madam!" he said, commanding himself, "I am a poor noble, left alone in +this wide world, almost without a friend, since my poor father's death, +which left me with involved fortunes, and without a prospect for the +future; and I was careless of life, until--until I had seen--your +majesty," he continued with emotion, whilst the blush upon the cheek of +the young Queen showed her perception that the homage paid was as much to +the woman as the monarch. "And now my only wish, as I have said, is to die +in your service and defence." + +"Die! God forbid!" said Maria Theresa, with a woman's ready tear starting +to her eye. "Live, sir! and, if you will, to fight in our cause. Enter the +army. Rank shall be granted you. Your advancement shall be cared for. Live +to be again the friend and champion of the poor persecuted Queen, who +needs friends indeed, when all are set against her." + +"Say not so, madam," interrupted Otmar, with fervour. "Have we not, one +and all, sworn to give our life and life's blood in your cause?" + +"Yes," said the Queen, her tears now fully flowing, at the recollection of +the late scene of wild enthusiasm. "I have found friends among my +faithful, and my true--my gallant, noble Hungarians. Think you I did not +mark you, sir--you, who were the first to shout, 'For Maria Theresa we +will die!' Think you that my heart did not feel that you were, perhaps, a +third time, my friend in need? But I have enemies still. Calumny, I am +aware, miscolours my simplest actions. My very feelings may be +misinterpreted, my very tears, at this moment, in your presence, +misconstrued. Who can know what is the worth of friends better than those +who suffer from such odious attacks of enemies as I have suffered?" And +Maria Theresa clasped her hands before her eyes. + +Otmar once more sank down at her feet deeply affected. + +"But I must away with this weakness!" said the Queen, struggling to +recover from her agitation, and dashing away her tears with her fingers. + +As she saw Otmar kneeling before her, his fine features fixed upon her +with the liveliest expression of pity and admiration, his handsome figure +bent to do homage to her loveliness and worth, her woman's feelings had +the mastery of her feelings as a queen, and, smiling upon him with a +smile, which shone all the more brightly through her tears--that smile, +with the power and fascination of which none knew better how to fetter +hearts than Maria Theresa--she hastily detached from her shoulders a +string of diamonds, and passed them over the young man's neck. + +"This is no recompense, to reward your services with matters of sordid +value, sir," she said. "This is no gift to enable you to retrieve, however +slightly, your fallen fortunes. This is the chain of honour which I bestow +upon my champion and knight; for such you shall be in the eyes of the +world. Here, in Maria Theresa's chamber, you are to her the deliverer and +friend." + +"Madam! my life, my heart, and soul are yours!" stammered the young man, +no longer able to control his feelings, under circumstances which made him +forget for a moment that distance which the sovereign herself seemed to +have overleapt. + +Again Maria Theresa blushed slightly. In spite of her strong +understanding, her virtue, and her worth, she was not above those feelings +of coquetry which, joined to her admiration of beauty, often, especially +at an after period of her life, gave handle to the many unjust calumnies +of her traducers. + +"Rise once more, my noble knight!" said the young Queen, with another +smile; "for we have dubbed you such. We will attach you to our especial +service, since such is your desire, and find a place for you in our suite; +although it be but badly paid in our state of disastrous fortune. But I +know you heed not that. I see it in that look, that would reproach me for +such a thought. You shall remain with us until you join our army," she +added with a sigh, "to fight in our cause." + +"This honour, madam"--stammered Otmar, rising. + +"Is not without its perils and its pains, good youth," continued Maria +Theresa. "You will have to combat envy, jealousy, ill-will within; for +such is the life of courts. Alas! I know it but too well. Without, you may +have often wearisome and dangerous services." + +"None can be felt as such when it is you--your Majesty I serve," said the +young man with enthusiasm. + +"I will--I do believe you, sir," replied the Queen. "I have said it once, +and I repeat it. Yours is the true nobility of heart. Ah! were they all +so--they who serve me and call themselves my friends! But enough of this! +Let your first service be to direct the search of our agents to the +discovery of the disguised enemies who made that bold attempt last night +to secure my person during my evening stroll--my poor moments of liberty! +Ah! France, I recognise there your treacherous designs! You did not know +who were your adversaries?" + +"Madam," answered the young man, "I should recognise again the voice of +him who was my principal assailant; and who, if I mistake not, has already +crossed his sword with mine. But I know him not." + +"I would not punish when I can forgive," said Maria Theresa, with a sigh. +"But the discovery of these complotters on my liberty, perhaps my life, is +necessary for the safety of my realm." + +"If my zeal avail aught," said Otmar warmly, "their life shall pay their +treachery." + +"No bloodshed, no bloodshed, as you love me, good youth!" said the Queen, +shuddering. "Blood enough is shed upon the battle-field for me and mine. +And who knows how far such blood should lie upon the conscience of a +miserable queen?--how far the Almighty will write it to her dread account +at the last great day of reckoning?" And, with that nobility of feeling +peculiar to Maria Theresa, she sank her head downwards in gloomy thought. +For a time she thus remained, as if forgetful of the presence of the young +noble; at length she again raised her head, cleared away the gloom upon +her features with a faint smile, and once more extending her hand, +said--"Now leave us, sir, but to return shortly hither. Already they may +cry scandal that I should have talked to one of such good mien so long. +But go not," she continued, as Otmar moved towards the door, "until I have +told you how my heart was pained, that the search of those who sought to +discover you, after the skirmish of last evening, was useless--how +anxiously I prayed, in the darkness of the night, that no ill might have +befallen my young, champion--how my very soul was gratified to see him in +the crowd before me, to know that he was safe! You must not think your +Queen heartless and ungrateful, sir. Now, go!" + +With a wave of the hand, Maria Theresa dismissed from her presence the +young noble, who staggered from the chamber in a tempest of tumultuous +emotions. + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Stand back, thou manifest conspirator: + Thou that contrivedst to murder!" + SHAKSPEARE. + + "Farewell, my lord! Good wishes, praise, and prayers, + Shall Suffolk ever have of Margaret. + Farewell, sweet madam!" + _Idem._ + +In a small room on the first floor of the old house occupied by the Jew +druggist, sat Otmar once more, on the evening of the important day which +had decided the fortunes of Maria Theresa. He had returned to the +temporary home from which he had been so inhospitably driven, in order to +direct the removal of his scanty baggage, and the few relics that reminded +him of happier times, and the brighter days of his childhood, and which, +during the day, his old attendant had collected together. + +The room was wainscoted with blackened oak, the sombre shades of which +were unrelieved by any ornament; and at a table, near the heavy +casement-window, a part of which was open, rather to admit the fading +light of day into the dark apartment than the autumn air of the chill +evening, sat the young noble, tracing slowly the lines of a letter, which +he seemed to compose with difficulty, and not without many a hesitation +and many a heavy sigh. + +Upon a packed portmanteau, in the middle of the room, sat Farkas, puffing +from a short pipe small clouds of smoke, which issued in regular but +uneasy jerks from beneath his thick overhanging moustache. From time to +time he nodded his head impatiently, with a sideward movement, and +murmured between his teeth, without interrupting his employment, words +that accompanied his intermittent puffs, like the distant rumbling which +follows the smoke of the cannon on the far-off battle-field. + +"_Teremtette!_" he muttered angrily. "I shall not be easy until I am quit +of this den of the old hyena, who has turned my lord out of doors like a +gipsy beggar-boy--and why? The foul fiend only knows. I should like to +wring the old ruffian's neck for him, like a carrion-crow, _eb adta_!" + +At length the young noble threw down his pen. + +"It is done!" he exclaimed with a sigh. "I have written to the old +advocate at Buda to send me the papers I require. I must not think on my +own fortunes. My father's honour must be saved; and my own beggary shall +be signed before I leave this country." + +"Too honest by half to such rascals as those villanous cheating +money-lenders, whoever they may be, _eb adta_!" muttered Farkas again +unheard, with a vexed shrug of the shoulders. + +"Is all prepared?" said Otmar, turning to his attendant. + +"There is nothing but what I can take upon my own shoulders," answered the +old man with a sigh; "and they are broad enough to bear twice the +weight." And rising from his temporary seat, he jerked it on to his back. +Then seizing up another small valise in his hand, he stood ready for +departure. + +"Enter the first inn, and there await my orders, whether they have room to +lodge us or no; as is not probable in the confusion of the town," said +Otmar. "I trust that I may yet find us other and better quarters for +another night; and we can seek a home for once under nature's roof, +without much detriment to our bones." + +"What his lord can bear, can old Farkas also," was the attendant's sturdy +answer, and he left the room. + +"Farewell then," said Otmar, gazing around him. "Farewell, my poor +chamber, the depositary of so many hopes and aspirations, regrets, sad +thoughts, and air-built castles. Visions, bright visions of beauty and of +love, have illumined thy dark walls; and they, too, have flown--flown +before a stern reality, which proclaimed them folly, madness--ay, madness! +They are gone for ever! But shall they not be followed by dreams of glory, +of renown, of smiles from her beaming eyes to thank her champion--her +friend? Yes--me, too, she has called her friend. Farewell, then, my poor +chamber! Thou hast witnessed little but my wretchedness, and yet I regret +thee; for her spirit--hers--the beautiful, the bright, the unknown--still +hovers around thee. Fare-thee-well!" + +Otmar prepared to depart; but he was still lingering to send around him a +last look upon those bare walls which he had thus apostrophized, when +hasty steps were heard to mount the stair, and Farkas abruptly re-entered +the room. + +"Quick, quick!" cried the old man. "I saw him coming up the street--him, +you know--that outlandish rascal, whom you fought by the inn on the +roadside, because he would have spoken ill of our Queen--God preserve +her!--the same who, if your doubts prove true, was the villain who tore +that cursed slip in your attila last night--the foul fiend confound him, +_eb adta_! I thought I had a stronger arm--old fool that I was! Quick, +quick!" And seizing Otmar's arm, he dragged him to the open window. + +"It is he!" exclaimed the young noble, looking out; "the same tall form +and insolent gait. Ah! he is entering the house. Hark! he is mounting the +stair. God be praised, he falls into my very hands!" + +In truth, footsteps were evidently ascending the staircase. Otmar and his +old attendant paused to listen with palpitating interest. The next moment +the door of the Jew's apartment, on the other side of the passage, was +heard to open, and a voice to exclaim, "Hello! old fox, where have you hid +yourself? Out of your hole, I say! I have to speak with you." Then the +door closed, and all was still. + +"It is the same voice!" exclaimed Otmar again. "It is he who made that +foul attempt upon her liberty. Villain!" And half-drawing his sabre, he +rushed towards the door of the room. + +"Down with him! down with the rascal, _teremtette_!" cried Farkas, +following his master in excitement. + +"No, no!" said Otmar, checking his own first impulse, and catching the old +man's arm. "He is a traitor and a spy! It is not for me to punish; it is +for the country's laws. She bids me seek to discover him. Providence has +thrown him into my hands, and enabled me to obey her behest. She would +condemn me were I to take vengeance into my own hands." + +"What!" cried Farkas, violently. "My lord has his enemy face to face, and +hesitates to defy him to the death!" + +"Peace, old man!" exclaimed Otmar; "you know not what you say. Ah! I see +it all now," he continued. "He is the agent of her enemies, and is in +collusion with our doctor landlord. It is here their villainous schemes +are hatched." + +"True! It was he--it must have been he," said Farkas in his turn, "who sat +with the rascally old thief, when I entered his room the night before the +last." + +"Hear me, Farkas," continued the young noble. "I must away to the castle. +Maria Theresa may still be there. All shall be revealed. Watch you, at +some distance, in the street, that he leave not the house or escape us." + +"Better split the cowardly villain's skull at once, _teremtette_!" cried +the old man once more, indignantly. + +"Peace, I say!" said Otmar. "Follow me, and stealthily." And with these +words he left the room, followed down the stairs by his grumbling +attendant, who still muttered many an angry "_teremtette!_" between his +lips, unable to comprehend the hesitation of his young master, when so +good an opportunity was before him of taking revenge upon "such a +villainous scoundrel" as the spy. + +Scarcely had they quitted the apartment, when an angle of the wainscoting, +forming the door of a partially concealed closet, opened; and the form of +the Jew money-lender--pale, trembling, and with haggard eyes--staggered +into the room. + +"Jehovah! We are lost--irretreviably lost!" he exclaimed with a choked +husky voice. "Cavaliere! Cavaliere!" and he hastened, as fast as his +trembling limbs would carry him, to the door. But, in spite of his agony +and his alarm, his usual habits of caution, and perhaps of +self-appropriation also, did not forsake him, and with the words, "That +paper the young fellow wrote may tell us more!" he turned back, shuffled +to the table, snatched up the letter, which Otmar had forgotten in his +hurry, and then gained his room, where, seated, with gloomy and +discontented brow, the Italian spy waited him. + +"_Diavolo!_ Where have you been hiding, Bandini? I need your aid," +exclaimed the cavaliere, as he entered. "All is ruined, if still stronger +measures be not taken. My grand expedition of last night, which might have +secured all at a blow, has utterly failed, through the interference of a +rash young fool, who has twice crossed my path to baffle me. I myself am +wounded,"--and he pointed to a bandage, partly concealed by a scarf thrown +over his shoulder--"still confused, from a blow dealt upon my head by some +meddling ruffian. The curses of hell blight their arms, one and all! Those +traitors, too, the Hungarians, have broken every promise, to shout +_Vivat!_ to that woman; because she shed before them a few maudlin tears. +Weak fools! weak fools! and that they call enthusiasm! They promise her +supplies of men and money. My schemes are ruined--my services all +naught--your hopes of reward utterly gone, Master Bandini--utterly gone, +do you hear?--if some great _coup-de-main_ be not yet tried. There! look +not so pale and frightened, man, with that ugly wo-begone face of yours. +There are yet means that may be used." + +"But we are lost--lost!" stammered the Jew, shaking in every limb, and +struggling in vain to speak. + +"Lost! Not yet!" replied the Italian scornfully "whilst I have yet a head +to scheme, and a bold heart to execute." + +"We are lost, I tell you. All is discovered. We are betrayed!" cried the +Jew. "That young fellow--in yonder room--alas! he knows all. We must +fly--conceal ourselves." + +"How now, man?" exclaimed the cavaliere, in his turn springing up in +alarm. + +"I had driven him from the house, at your desire," stammered Bandini, +panting for breath; "but he returned to seek his baggage. They had both +been absent, master and man; and I had thought to look after my own poor +goods and chattels in the room"-- + +"Or to that which you could lay your hands upon, old thief--I know you. +But proceed! What means this tale?" said the spy. + +"Jehovah knows you speak not true!" continued the Jew. "But they came back +suddenly and unawares. I feared they might think evil of me, if they found +me there; and I concealed myself in the closet. I heard all!" + +"All!--all what? Speak, man!" exclaimed the Italian furiously. + +"He is the same--the same of whom you spoke just now," pursued the old +man, trembling. "He who wounded you last night. He recognised you as you +entered. He knows all. He is gone up to the castle to betray us. Oh! I am +a lost man--a lost man!" and the Jew wrung his hands bitterly. + +"Betrayed!" cried the spy--"gone, to the castle! Ten thousand devils drag +him down to hell! Which way did he go? What did you hear? Speak, +man!--speak, I tell you." And he shook the old man violently by the +collar. + +"He will probably mount to it by the shorter ascent, along the Jews' +street," gasped forth Bandini with difficulty. + +"And is there no quicker way?" exclaimed the Italian hurriedly. + +"By the lane opposite," stammered the Jew breathlessly. "Turn to the +left--mount the crooked street--you will find yourself opposite to the +garden, behind my old friend Zachariah's house. On passing through it, you +are at the upper end of the Jews' street, and near the castle plain." + +"There is no time to be lost!" cried the spy, flinging his hat upon his +head. "My pistols are primed and loaded," he continued, feeling in an +inner pocket of his coat. "I shall be there before him. He must die. The +same passage will favour my escape. Ah! it is you rascal of a Jew, +villainous miser, who are the cause of all! Dearly shall you repay me +this!" And seizing the old money-lender by the throat, he nearly throttled +him, and, when he was almost black in the face, flung him with violence +into a corner of the room. + +As the Italian disappeared, the old man raised himself, with difficulty, +from the ground. + +"And such is the poor Jew's reward," he muttered, "from these Christian +dogs, for all his losses, and his sacrifices, and his perils! What is to +be done? If he kill the youth, I have still to fear his wrath. If he come +not in time, we are undone. Every way is danger. Shall I myself turn +informer? It is late--very late in the day--but yet it may be tried. Can I +glean nothing from this paper that may sound like fresh and genuine +information? What have we here?" he continued, rapidly scanning parts of +Otmar's letter with his eye, and murmuring its contents to himself. "'I +leave the country'--'But my father's honour must be covered'--'Send the +papers ceding the estates'--'I am resolved to sign, although it be my +utter ruin'--The name?--'Otmar, Baron Bartori.'--Merciful Jehovah!" burst +forth the Jew. "It is he! It is my young man--and I knew it not--he, whose +sign-manual is to convey to me the estates, in return for my poor moneys +lent: and, if he sign not, the heritage goes to the next male heir; and I +am frustrated of my dues. But he will be killed--die without signing. I am +a ruined man--a ruined man!" And the money-lender clasped his hands in +despair. "No, no--he must not die. Caracalli! Caracalli! touch him not! +touch him not! He must not die, ere I have his precious sign-manual. Save +him! save him! Jehovah! what shall I do? Caracalli! Caracalli!" And thus +madly shouting after the Italian, the Jew rushed from his room in a frenzy +of despair. + +In addition to the great and winding carriage-road which leads up to the +summit of the hill on which stands the castle of Presburg, there is a +shorter passage to it, by a narrow tortuous street, lined with old falling +houses, and paved at intervals with terrace-like stone steps to aid the +steep ascent. To this street, in former times, the Israelites residing in +the city were restricted as a dwelling-place, incurring heavy fine and +imprisonment by daring, either openly or under a feigned name, to infringe +this severe rule: and even at the present day, although this restriction +has been removed, it is almost entirely occupied, either from habit or +from choice, by petty and most doubtful traders of the same persuasion, +and is still known under the name of the Jews' Quarter. The upper end of +this steep and winding lane is terminated, between high walls, by a large +old gateway, opening into the castle plain. And under this gateway it was, +that the Italian spy awaited his victim. He had contrived to evade the +vigilance of Farkas, by darting up a lane immediately fronting the St +Michael's gate, and now, having ascertained, by a few hasty words +interchanged with the Jew Zachariah, that no one answering the description +of the young noble had been seen to pass, he felt assured, that, by his +haste in pursuing the shorter cut from behind, he had gained an advance +upon him. + +The night was fast closing in, and the Italian felt himself secure from +observation in the dark recess in which he lurked behind the gate. Aware +that by a deed of assassinating alone he could save himself from the +consequences of a revelation which not only ruined all his schemes, but +placed his life at stake, he grasped a pistol in his hand, and waited +firmly, with calmness which showed his long acquaintance with deeds of +hazard and of crime. + +He had stood some time, counting with impatience the moments, until he +began to fear that the young noble had taken the longer road, when at last +the sound of footsteps struck upon his ear. Looking out from the corner of +the gateway in which he had concealed himself, he could plainly see, at +some little distance, the form of a man, resembling that of his expected +victim, mounting the stone steps of the lane between the row of walls; and +he drew back, cocked his pistol, and prepared to fire at him as he passed. +Presently hastier footsteps--those of a running man--sounded nearer. Had +he been perceived? Was his purpose divined? Was his victim about to rush +upon him? These thoughts had scarcely time to pass rapidly through his +brain, when a dark form hurried round the angle of the gateway. The +Italian's hand was on the lock. He fired. + +A terrific cry, and then a groan, followed the explosion. A body fell. The +Italian bent forward. At his feet lay the form of his associate, the +miserable Jew. + +"Kill him not--the sign-manual"--were the only last words that faintly met +the ear of the assassin, before the blood rushed up in torrents into the +mouth of the unhappy man, and choked his voice for ever. + +Before the spy had a moment's time to recover from his surprise at the +unexpected deed he had done, another cry of "Murder! murder!" was shouted +close beside him, by a man who had run up. A strong hand grasped his arm. +It was that of his intended victim. + +"Assassin!" cried Otmar. "Ah! it is again he! God's will be done!" + +"_Mille diavoli!_ Have at thee yet!" exclaimed the Italian, struggling to +disengage himself with a strong effort, and staggering back. + +Succeeding in the attempt, he drew his sword. The weapons of the two men +were immediately crossed. Both fought with desperation. Already a wound on +Otmar's arm had rather excited his energies than disabled him, when a +crowd was seen approaching rapidly from the direction of the castle. Some +persons detached themselves from it, and ran forward, attracted by the +previous cry of "murder," and the clash of arms. The cavaliere felt that +he was lost, if he made not a fearful effort to disengage himself at once +from his antagonist, and made a violent lunge at Otmar. The active young +noble swerved aside. The sword passed him unscathed, and the next moment +his sabre descended on to the Italian's head. With a fearful curse, the +spy staggered, reeled backward, and fell to the ground. + +When the persons from the castle hurried up, they found the young noble +standing by his prostrate foe, and leaning upon his sabre--his cheek +already pale from the loss of the blood which streamed from his wound. +Before, in the confusion, much explanation could be asked or given, others +of the approaching party had come up: at an order issued, a sedan chair, +borne by eight men, was set down under the gateway; a female form issued +from it, and, in spite of the opposition of those about her, Maria Theresa +advanced through the crowd. + +"What has happened? Who disturbs the peace?" she exclaimed, coming forward +with that courage she evinced on all emergencies. + +"Retire, I beseech you, to your chair, madam, and allow yourself to be +carried on," said the young Prince Kaunitz, who formed one of the suite. +"This is no sight for a woman, and a queen." And he interposed his person +between his sovereign and the bodies of the Italian and the Jew. + +"Permit me, prince," said Maria Theresa, waving him aside; for she had now +caught sight of the pale face of Otmar, brightly illumined by the lighted +torches which some of her attendants bore to light her on her way, upon +her evening transit from the castle to the primate's summer palace. + +"You, my young champion, here!" she cried, with tones of evident anxiety, +stepping forward. "What has happened? In God's name, what is this? You are +not hurt, sir?" + +"Only a scratch, so please your majesty," replied Otmar; "and happy and +proud I am that I should have gained it in your service." + +"Tell me what has passed? How do I find you here? Who is this man?" +continued the young Queen, glancing slightly at the form of the prostrate +Italian. + +"It is the same villain who has already dared to lay his hand upon the +sacred person of your majesty," said the young noble proudly. "Chance led +me to his discovery. I was hurrying to seek my Queen, to obey her orders. +The wretch--I know not how--was beforehand with me. He would have waylaid +me, as I must suppose. Another, who passed me at the moment, was his +victim. I attacked him; and there he lies. I know no more." + +"And who is that poor man?" said Maria Theresa, pointing to the body of +the Jew. + +Some of her attendants raised up the corpse. + +"I recognise him," said Otmar. "He was the accomplice of that fellow. +God's justice has fallen on him by the hand of his own confederate. But +how, is still to me a mystery." + +"The other still lives," exclaimed the voices of some, who had now lifted +up the form of the Italian. + +"Let him be conveyed to the castle," commanded the Queen. "Every inquiry +shall be instituted in this affair. Let justice take its course upon the +spy and traitor." + +The Italian was conveyed away. + +"But you are hurt, noble youth. Your cheek grows paler still," cried Maria +Theresa. "Help there! Bring water! quick! He may be dying." + +"It is nothing!" said Otmar, with sinking voice and failing senses. "A +little faintness! I shall be better soon. A smile from you will repay +all!" + +His head whirled, and he fell back into the arms of the bystanders. + +In spite of the alarm of the young Queen, a deep blush overspread her +countenance at these last words. + +"Ah! should it be so!" she murmured to herself; and, after casting a long +look upon the form of the handsome youth before her, she bent her head to +the earth. + +Water was quickly brought from a neighbouring house. In spite of the +increasing crowd attracted to the spot, Maria Theresa disdained not to +bathe with her own hands the temples of the fainting man. Snatching a +perfumed handkerchief from the hand of Kaunitz, she bound it tightly on +the young noble's arm. In a short time, he once more opened his eyes. +Water was given him to drink; and he again was able to stand, weakly, on +his feet. + +"You--my Queen. You have deigned--to look upon your poor subject-to tend +him"--he stammered faintly, as his eyes fell upon the lovely face before +him. "You--the noble--the beautiful--the beloved"-- + +"Hush! hush, sir," interposed the young Queen hurriedly. "You must not +speak now. Your brain wanders. You shall be conveyed to the castle, and +tended there. As soon as you are fully recovered, a post is ready for you +with the army. You must leave us forthwith. Be brave, be gallant, be +noble, as you have ever shown yourself; and, perhaps, hereafter"-- + +She checked herself; with a sigh, and turned away her face. + +"Yes--away from here! I must away," said Otmar. "The army, the +battle-field, glory, renown, must be my only thoughts." And, sinking his +head on his heart, he murmured lowly-- + +"_Moriamur pro Rege Nostro._" + + +CONCLUSION. + +It is well known in history, that the rising of the Hungarian saved the +falling fortunes of Maria Theresa. The enthusiasm of this sensitive and +energetic people, once awakened, knew no bounds. All the country nobles, +with their followers, took up arms. Croatia alone supplied twelve +thousand men. Immense sums of money, to support the army, were offered by +the clergy; and, out of the most distant provinces, sprang up, as the +soldiers sown by the teeth of Cadmus from the earth, those countless +savage hordes, who under the name of Pandours carried terror into every +part of Europe. From the moment of the "insurrection," as it is called, of +the Hungarian nobility, the aspect of affairs began to change. The Elector +of Bavaria, who, to the grief of Maria Theresa, had received the imperial +crown of Germany, so long in the possession of the House of Hapsburg, +chiefly by the influence of French intrigues, under the name of Charles +the Seventh, was driven from his States. England and Holland were won over +to the cause of the persecuted Queen; and both, especially the former, +lent her large sums. The whole British nation was interested in her +favour. The English nobility, instigated by the Duchess of Marlborough, +offered her a subscription collected to the amount of a hundred thousand +pounds; but this sum Maria Theresa nobly refused, accepting nothing that +was not granted to her by the nation in Parliament assembled. By the +valour of Hungarian arms, the French were at length driven out of Bohemia; +and what still more contributed to the peace shortly after obtained from a +great portion of the Queen's enemies, was the result of the bloody field +of Hanau, which turned out entirely to the advantage of Maria Theresa and +her noble allies, and at which half of the _noblesse_ of France was either +killed or wounded. + +It was shortly after this great battle, in which so many bold spirits fell +on either side, that a catafalk was erected at the upper end of the middle +aisle belonging to the glorious Gothic Church of St Stephen's in Vienna. +The service for the dead had been performed with pomp. The priests had +retired from the aisle. But still, upon the steps, covered with black +cloth, and illumined from above by many wax-lights, knelt two personages. +The one was a female, dressed in deep mourning, who appeared to be praying +fervently. A group of attendants, both male and female, in the attire of +the court mourning of the day, stood at a little distance from her. The +other was an old man, in a well-worn hussar dress, who had thrown himself +forward on to the upper step, upon another side of the catafalk, and had +buried his face in his hands. At length the female rose, gave a last look +at that dark mass, which concealed a coffin, and, within, a corpse; and +then, drawing her veil over her face, moved slowly towards a side-door, +followed by her attendants, with a respect paid only to a royal personage. +A crowd of beggars surrounded the door, where an Imperial carriage waited; +and distributing the contents of a heavy purse among them, the lady said, +with broken voice, + +"Pray for the soul of Otmar, Baron Bartori, who died in battle for his +Queen." + + + + +MESMERIC MOUNTEBANKS. + + +In an age of utilitarian philosophy and materialism, we are proud to stand +forth as the champion of he Invisible World. MAGA and MAGIC are words +which we cannot dissociate from one another, either in sound or in +affection. The first was the mistress of our youth--our literary +mother--our guide and instructress in the paths of Toryism, +good-fellowship, and honour. Fain would we hope that, in maturer years, we +have rendered back to the eldest-born of Buchanan some portion of the deep +debt of gratitude which from our childhood upwards we have incurred. We +have ever striven to comport ourselves in sublunary matters as beseemeth +one who has sat at the feet of Christopher, imbibed the ethical lore of a +Tickler, and received the sublimest of peptic precepts and dietetic +instruction from the matchless lips of an Odoherty. Her creed is ours, and +no other--the bold, the true, and the unwavering--and when we die, bewept, +as we trust we shall be by many a youth and maiden of the next generation, +we shall ask no better epitaph for our monument than that selected by poor +John Keats, though with the alteration of a single word--"HERE LIETH ONE +WHOSE NAME IS WRIT IN MAGA." + +Magic, however--not Maga--is the theme of our present article; nor do we +scruple at the very outset to proclaim ourselves a devout and fervent +believer in almost every known kind of diablerie, necromancy, and +witchcraft. We are aware that in the present day such confessions are very +rare, and that when made by some reluctant follower of the occult faith, +they are always accompanied with pusillanimous qualifications, and weak +excuses for adherence to opinions which, in one shape or another, pervade +the population of Christendom, and pass for current truth throughout the +extensive realm of Heathenesse. So much the better. We like a fair field +and no auxiliaries; and we are here to do battle for the memory and fair +fame of Michael Scott, Doctor Faustus, and the renowned Cornelius Agrippa. + +Sooth to say, we were born and bred long before Peter Parley had +superseded the Fairy Tales, and poisoned the budding faculties of the +infancy of these realms with his confounded philosophical nonsense, and +his endless editions of _Copernicus made Easy_. Our nurserymaid, a hizzie +from the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, was a confirmed and noted believer in +dreams, omens, tatie-bogles, and sundry other kinds of apparitions. Her +mother was, we believe, the most noted spaewife of the district; and it +was popularly understood that she had escaped at least three times, in +semblance of an enormous hare, from the pursuit of the Laird of Lockhart's +grews. Such at least was the explanation which Lizzy Lindsay gave, before +being admitted as an inmate of our household, of the malignant persecution +which doomed her for three consecutive Sundays to a rather isolated, but +prominent seat in the Kirk of Dolphington Parish: nor did our worthy +Lady-mother see any reason to doubt the accuracy of the statement. For was +it not most natural that the daughter--however comely--and Lizzy was as +strapping a lass as ever danced at a kirn--of a woman who had the evil +reputation of divining surreptitious fortunes by means of the sediment of +a tea-cup--of prophesying future sweethearts in exchange for hoarded +sixpences--and of milking dry her neighbours' cows by aid of cantrips and +an enchanted hair rope--was it not most natural, we say, that the daughter +of the witch should have been looked upon with a suspicious eye by the +minister, who used annually to preach four sermons in vituperation of Her +of Endor, and by the Elders, whose forefathers had turned out doggedly for +the Covenant, and among whom still circulated strange and fantastic tales +of bodily apparitions of the Evil One to the fugitives in the muir and the +wilderness--of hideous shapes, which disturbed the gathered conventicle +by the sides of the lonely burn--of spells, which made the buff-coats of +their adversaries impenetrable as adamant to leaden bullet or the sweep of +the Cameronian steel? + +Upon these testimonials, and a strong affidavit from Lizzy, that in every +other earthly matter she was innocent of the slightest peccadillo, the +Lily of Lanark was installed as mistress and governante of the Nursery. We +were then in the days of teething, and sorely tormented with our gums, +which neither for knob of poker, nor handle of kitchen-fork--the ancient +Caledonian corals--would surrender their budding ornaments. We believe, +therefore, that Lizzy Lindsay erred not materially from the path of truth +when she signalized us as "the maist fractious bairn that ever broke a +woman's heart." Night and day did we yell, with Satanic energy, from the +excruciating molar pain, and little sympathy did our tears awaken in our +pillow, as we lay in fevered anguish on the exuberant bosom of our +guardian. Fortunately for us, in these days Daffy's Elixir was a thing +unknown, else no doubt we should have received an early introduction to +dram-drinking by means of the soft carminative. The fertile genius of +Lizzy suggested a better spell for allaying our infant sorrows. Whenever +we indulged in a more than ordinary implacable fit of screeching, she +threatened us with the apparition of "the Boo-man," a hideous spectre +which was then supposed to perambulate the nurseries in the shape of +Napoleon-Bonaparte. In a very short while, no Saracen child ever became +dumber when threatened by its mother with a visit from the Melech-Ric, +than we did at the proposed coming of the dark and sanguinary phantom. For +many years afterwards we believed as sincerely in the existence of this +anthropophagus as in our own; and very nearly became a Bauldy for life, +from having been surprised on one occasion, whilst surreptitiously +investigating the contents of a jampot, by the descent of a climbing-boy +into the nursery, and the terrors of his telegraphic boo! As we grew up, +our nascent intellect received still more supernatural services from the +legendary lore of Lizzy. She taught us the occult and mysterious meaning +of those singular soot-flakes which wave upon the ribs of a remarkably +ill-pokered fire--the dark significance which may be drawn from the +spluttering and cabbaging of a candle--and the misfortunes sure to follow +the mismanagement of the sacred salt. Often, too, her talk was of the +boding death-watch--the owl which flapped its wings at the window of the +dying--and the White Dove that flitted noiselessly from the room at the +fearful, and then to us incomprehensible moment of dissolution. As +Hallowe'en approached, she told us of the mystic hempseed, of the figure +which stalled behind the enterprising navigator of the stacks, and that +awful detention of the worsted clue, which has made the heart of many a +rustic maiden leap hurriedly towards her throat, when in the dead of +night, and beneath the influence of a waning moon, she has dared to pry +into the secrets of futurity, and, lover-seeking, has dropped the ball +into the chasm of the deserted kiln. + +Such being the groundwork of our mystic education, it is little wonder +that we turned our novel knowledge of the alphabet to account, by pouncing +with intense eagerness upon every work of supernatural fiction upon which +we possibly could lay our hands. We speak not now of Jack the +Giant-killer, of the aspiring hero of the Beanstalk, or the appropriator +of the Seven-leagued boots. These were well enough in their way; but not, +in our diseased opinion, sufficiently practical. We liked the fairies +better. For many a day we indulged in the hope that we might yet become +possessed of a pot of that miraculous unguent, which, when applied to the +eye, has the virtue of disclosing the whole secrets of the Invisible +World. We looked with a kind of holy awe upon the emerald rings of the +greensward, and would have given worlds to be present at the hour when the +sloping side of the mountain is opened, and from a great ball, all +sparkling with a thousand prismatic stalactites, ride forth, to the sound +of flute and recorder, the squadrons of the Elfin Chivalry. Well do we +remember the thrill of horror which pervaded our being when we first read +of the Great Spectre of Glenmore, the Headless Fiend that haunts the black +solitudes of the Rothemurchus Forest, whom to see is madness, and to meet +is inexorable death! Much did we acquire in these days of the natural +history of Wraiths and Corpse-candles-of Phantom Funerals encountered on +their way to the kirkyard by some belated peasant, who, marveling at the +strange array at such an hour, turns aside to let the grim procession +pass, and beholds the visionary mourners--his own friends--sweep past, +without sound of footfall or glance of recognition, bearing upon their +shoulders a melancholy burden, wherein, he knows, is stretched the wan +Eidolon of himself! No wonder that he takes to his bed that night, nor +leaves it until the final journey. + +Not for worlds would we have left the Grange house, which was then our +summer residence, after nightfall, and, skirting the hill by the old +deserted burial-ground, venture down the little glen, gloomy with the +shade of hazels--cross the burn by the bridge above the Caldron pool--and +finally gaze upon the loch all tranquil in the glory of the stars! Not all +the fish that ever struggled on a night-line-and there were prime +two-pounders, and no end of eels, in the loch--would have tempted us to so +terrible a journey. For just below the bridge, where the rocks shot down +precipitously into the black water, and the big patches of foam went +slowly swirling round--there, we say, in some hideous den, heaven knows +how deep, lurked the hateful Water-Kelpy, whose yell might be heard, +during a spate, above the roar of the thundering stream, and who, if he +did not lure and drown the cat-witted tailor of the district, was, to say +the least of it, the most maligned and slandered individual of his race. +Even in broad day we never liked that place. It had a mischievous and +uncanny look; nor could you ever entirely divest yourself of the idea that +there was something at the bottom of the pool. Bad as was the burn, the +loch was a great deal worse. For here, at no very remote period, the fiend +had emerged from its depths in the shape of a black steed, gentle and +mild-eyed to look upon, and pacing up to three children, not ten minutes +before dismissed from the thraldom of the dominie, had mutely but +irresistibly volunteered the accommodation of an extempore ride. And so, +stepping on with his burden across the gowans--which never grew more, and +never will grow, where the infernal hoof was planted--the demon horse +arrived at the margin of the loch where the bank is broken and the water +deep, and with a neigh of triumph bounded in, not from that day to this +were the bodies of the victims found. Moreover, yonder at the stunted +thorn-trees is the spot where poor Mary Walker drowned herself and her +innocent and unchristened bairn; and they say that, at midnight when all +is quiet, you will hear the wailing of a female voice, as if the spirit of +the murdered infant were bewailing its lost estate; and that a white +figure may be seen wringing its hands in agony, as it flits backwards and +forwards along the range of the solitary loch. Therefore, though the black +beetle is an irresistible bait, we never threw a fly at night on the +surface of the Haunted Tarn. + +Penny Encyclopædias, although Lord Brougham had advanced considerably +towards manhood, were not then the fashion. Information for the people was +not yet collected into hebdomadal tracts; and those who coveted the fruit +of the tree of knowledge were left to pursue their horticultural +researches at their own free will. In the days of which we write, the two +leading weekly serials were the "_Tales of Terror_" and "_The Terrific +Register_," to both of which we regularly subscribed. To our present +taste--somewhat, we hope, improved since then--the latter seems a vulgar +publication. It was neither more nor less than a _rifacciamento_ of the +most heinous and exaggerated murders, by steel, fire, and poison, which +could be culled from the records of ancient and modern villany. It was, in +short, the quintessence of the _Newgate Calendar_, powerful enough to +corrupt a nation; as a proof of which--we mention it with regret--the +servant lad who ten years ago purloined it from our library, has since +been transported for life. We even dare to back it, for pernicious +results, against the moral influence which has been since exercised by +the authors of Oliver Twist and Jack Sheppard, to both of whom the penal +colonies have incurred a debt of lasting gratitude. It is true that, in +point of sentiment, these gentlemen have the advantage of the Editor of +The Terrific Register, but he beats them hollow in the broad delinquency +of his facts. But in the Tales of Terror we possessed a real supernatural +treasure. Every horrible legend of demon, ghost, goule, gnome, +salamandrine, and fire-king, which the corrupted taste of Germany had +hatched, was contained in this precious repository. It was illustrated +also, as we well remember, by woodcuts of the most appalling description, +which used to haunt us in our sleep long after we had stolen to our bed at +half-past eleven punctually, in order that we might be drenched in slumber +before the chiming of the midnight hour--at which signal, according to the +demonologists, the gates of Hades are opened wide, and the defunct usurer +returns to mourn and gibber above the hiding-place of his buried gold. + +Gradually, however, we waxed more bold; and by dint of constant study +familiarized ourselves so much with the subject, that we not only ceased +to fear, but absolutely longed for a personal acquaintance with an +apparition. The History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, which shortly +afterwards fell into our hands, inspired us with the ambition of becoming +a practical magician, and we thirsted for a knowledge of the Cabala. We +had already done a little business in the way of turnip lanterns, the +favourite necromantic implements of the ingenuous Scottish youth--hideous +in the whiteness of their vegetable teeth, and not unappalling when +dexterously placed upon the edge of the kirk-yard wall. Electric shocks +conveyed by means of the door-handles, phosphoric writings on the wall, +and the mystery of spontaneous bells, were our next chemical amusements; +nor did we desist from this branch of practice until we had received a +most sound castigation, at the recollection of which our bones still ache, +from a crusty old tutor whose couch we had strewn, not with roses, but +with chopped horse-hair. + +We are old enough to recollect the first representation of _Der +Freischutz_, and it is an era in our dramatic reminiscences. Previously to +that, we had seen a Vampire appear upon the boards of the Edinburgh stage, +and after an extravagant consumption of victims throughout the course of +three acts, fall thunder-smitten by an indigo bolt through a deep and +yawning trap-door. But Zamiel, as then represented by Mr Lynch, completely +distanced the Blood-sucker. With feelings of intensest awe, we beheld the +mysterious preparations in the Wolf's Glen--the circle of skull and +bone--the magic ring of light blue that flickered round it--the brazier +with the two kneeling figures beside it--the owl on the blasted tree, +which opened its eyes and flapped its wings with true demoniacal +perseverance--and the awful shapes that appeared at the casting of every +bullet! But when, as the last of them was thrown from the mould, a crash +of thunder pealed along the stage, and lurid lightnings glared from either +wing--when the cataract was converted into blood, and the ferocious form +of Lynch stood forth as the Infernal Hunter, discharging, after the manner +of such beings, two rifles at once--our enthusiasm utterly overcame us; we +gave vent to an exulting cheer, and were conducted from the boxes in a +state of temporary insanity. + +We pass over our classical studies. We were no great dab at Virgil, but we +relished Apuleius exceedingly, and considerably petrified the Rector, by +giving up, as the subject of our private reading, "_Wierus de +Proestigiis Demonum_." Our favourite philosopher was Sir Kenelm Digby, +whose notions upon sympathy and antipathy we thought remarkably rational; +so much so, that up to the present time, we recognise no other treatment +for a cut finger than a submersion of the bloody rag in vitriol and water, +and a careful unction of the knife. We lost our degree in medicine by +citing as a case in point the wonderful cure of Telephus by the +application of oxide of iron, which we held to be no specific at all, +except as obtained from the spear of Achilles. This dogma, coupled with +our obstinate adherence to the occult doctrines of Van Helmont, the only +medical writer whose works we ever perused with the slightest +satisfaction, was too much for the bigoted examinators. We were +recommended to go abroad and study homoeopathy. We did so, and we swear +by Hahnemann. + +It is now some years since we received our first inkling of mesmeric +revelation. Since then, we have read almost every work which has appeared +upon the subject; and we scruple not to say that we are a profound +believer in all of its varied mysteries. In it we recognise a natural +explanation of all our earlier studies; and we hail with sincere delight +the progress of a science which reconciles us to magic without the +necessity of interposing a diabolic agency. The miracles of Apollonius of +Tyana, as related by Philostratus, become very commonplace performances +when viewed by the light of mesmerism. The veriest bungler who ever +practised the passes can explain to you the nature of that secret +intelligence which enabled the _clair-voyant_ philosopher, then at +Ephesus, to communicate the murder of Domitian to his friends at the +moment it took place at Rome. Second-sight has ceased to be a marvel: the +preternatural powers, long supposed to be confined to Skye, Uist, and +Benbecula, are now demonstrated to be universal, and are exhibited on the +platform by scores of urchins picked up at random from the gutter. Even +the Arabian Nights have become probable. Any perambulating mesmeriser can +show you scores of strapping, fellows, reduced by a single wave of his +hand to the unhappy condition of the young Prince whose lower extremities +were stone. Comus was nothing more than a common Professor of the science; +and Hermotimus a silly blockhead, who could not wake himself from his +trance in time to prevent his wife from consigning him to the funeral +pile. + +The practical utility of the science is no less prodigious. Is it nothing, +think you, if you have suffered a compound fracture of the leg, so bad +that amputation is indispensable, to be relieved from all the horrors of +the operation, from the sickening sight of the basins, the bandages, and +the saw--to feel yourself sinking into a delicious slumber at the wave of +the surgeon's hand, and to wake up ten minutes afterwards an unsuffering +uniped, and as fresh as the Marquis of Anglesea? Is it nothing, when that +back-grinder of yours gives you such intolerable agony that the very +maid-servants in the attics cannot sleep o'nights because of your +unmitigated roaring--is it nothing to avoid the terrible necessity of a +conscious Tusculan disputation with Nasmith or Spence--to settle down for +a few moments into a state of unconsciousness, and to revive with your +masticators in such a condition as to defy the resistance of a navy +biscuit? Or, if you are a stingy person and repugnant to postage, do you +think it is no advantage to get gratis information about your friends in +India through the medium of your eldest son, who, though apparently +sitting like a senseless booby in your armchair, is at this moment +invisibly present in the mess-room at Hyderabad, and will express, if you +ask him, his wonder at the extreme voracity with which Uncle David devours +his curry? Why, in that boy you possess an inestimable treasure! You may +send him to Paris at a moment's notice for a state of the French funds--he +will be at St Petersburg and back again in the twinkling of an eye--and if +our own sight is failing, you have nothing to do but to clap the last +number of the Magazine below him, and he will straightway regale your +heart with the contents of the leading article. + +There is a great deal of romance about Mesmerism. We have nowhere read a +more touching story than that of the two consumptive sisters who were +thrown into the Magic trance about the end of autumn, who lay folded in +each other's arms--pale lilies--throughout the whole of the dreary winter, +and awoke to life and renovated health in the joyous month of May, when +the leaves were green, the flowers in bud, and the lambkins frolicking on +the meadow! Read you ever any thing in novels so touching and pathetic as +this? Nor is the case once recounted to us by a friend of our own, a noted +mesmerizer, one whit less marvellous. In the ardent prosecution of his +art, he had cast his glamour upon a fair Parisian damsel of the name of +Leontine--we believe she was a laundress--and daily held conference with +the dormant Delphic girl. On one occasion he left her, wrapt in the +profoundest sleep, in his chamber, and proceeded to perambulate the +Boulevards on his own secular affairs. On returning, he found poor +Leontine suffused in tears; deep and stifling sobs disturbed her +utterance, nor was it until the charmer had soothed her with a few +additional passes, that she could falter out the tender reproach--"Why did +you not bring me some bonbons on the shop where you eat those three +ice-creams?" Our friend had not walked alone through Paris. The spirit of +the loving Leontine was invisibly clinging to his arm. + +Now, although we make it an invariable rule to believe every thing which +we read or hear, we were not a little desirous to behold with our own eyes +an exhibition of these marvellous phenomena. But somehow or other, whilst +the papers told us of Mesmeric miracles performed in every other part of +the world, Edinburgh remained without a prophet. Either the Thessalian +influence had not extended so far, or the Scottish frame was unsusceptible +to the subtle fluid of the conjuror. One or two rumours reached us of +young ladies who had become spellbound; but on inquiring more minutely +into the circumstances, we found that there was an officer in each case, +and we therefore were inclined to think that the symptoms might be +naturally accounted for. There was, however, no want of curiosity on the +part of the public. The new science had made a great noise in the world, +and was the theme of conversation at every tea-table. Various attempts at +mesmerization were made, but without success. We ourselves tried it; but +after looking steadfastly for about twenty minutes into a pair of laughing +blue eyes, we were compelled to own that the power was not in us, and that +all the fascination had been exercised on the other side. Nobody had +succeeded, if we except a little cousin of ours--rather addicted to +fibbing--who averred that she had thrown a cockatoo into a deep and +mysterious slumber. + +Great, therefore, was our joy, and great was the public excitement, when +at length a genuine professor of the art vouchsafed to favour us with a +visit. He was one of those intelligent and patriotic men who go lecturing +from town to town, inspired thereto by no other consideration than an +ardour for the cause of science. The number of them is absolutely amazing. +Throughout the whole winter, which is popularly called the lecturing +season, the dead walls of every large city in the empire are covered with +placards, announcing that Mr Tomlinson will have the honour of delivering +six lectures upon Syria, or that Mr. Whackingham, the famous Timbuctoo +traveller, will describe the interior of Africa. They are even clannish in +their subjects. The Joneses are generally in pay of the League, and hold +forth upon the iniquity of the Corn-duties. The Smiths, with laudable +impartiality, are divided between slavery and liberation, and lecture +_pro_ or _con_, as the humour or opportunity may serve. The +Macgillicuddies support the Seceding interest, and deliver facers in the +teeth of all establishments whatsoever. The Robinsons are phrenological, +the Browns chemical, and the Bletheringtons are great on the subject of +universal education for the people. To each and all of these interesting +courses you may obtain admittance for the expenditure of a trifling sum, +and imbibe, in exchange for your shilling or half-crown, a considerable +allowance of strong and full-flavoured information. Always ardent in the +cause of science, we never, if we can help it, miss one of these seducing +soirees: and we invariably find, that whatever may have been the +heterodoxy of our former opinion, we become a convert through the powerful +arguments of these peripatetic apostles of science. + +Our new Xavier belonged to what is called the mesmerico-phrenological +school. He was a man of bumps as well as passes--a disciple alike of +German Spurzheim and of English Elliotson. His placard was a modest one. +It set forth, as usual; the disinterested nature of his journey, which was +to expound to the intelligent citizens of Edinburgh a few of the great +truths of mesmerism, illustrated by a series of experiments. He +studiously disclaimed all connexion with preternatural art, and ventured +to assure every visitor, that, so far as he was concerned, no advantage +should be taken of their attendance at his _Seance_ in any future stage of +their existence. This distinct pledge removed from our minds any little +scruple which we otherwise might have felt. We became convinced that the +lecturer was far too much of a gentleman to take advantage of our +weakness, and report us to the Powers of Evil; and accordingly, on the +appointed night, after a bottle or so of fortifying port, we took our way +to the exhibition-room, where Isis was at last to be revealed to our +adoring eyes. + +We selected and paid for a front seat, and located ourselves in the +neighbourhood of a very smart bonnet, which had mesmerically attracted our +eye. Around us were several faces well known in the northern metropolis, +some of them wearing an expression of dull credulity, and others with a +sneer of marked derision on the lip. On looking at the platform, we were +not altogether surprised at the earliness of the latter demonstration. +There was no apparatus there beyond a few chairs; but around a sort of +semicircular screen were suspended a series of the most singular portraits +we ever had the fortune to behold. One head was graced with a mouth big +enough to contain a haggis, and a coronal of erected hair like a +hearth-brush surmounting it left no doubt in our mind that it was intended +for a representation of Terror. It was enough, as a young Indian officer +afterwards remarked, to have made a Chimpanzee miscarry. Joy was the exact +portraiture of a person undergoing the punishment of death by means of +tickling. We should not like to have met Benevolence in a dark lane: he +looked confoundedly like a fellow who would have eased you of your last +copper, and knocked you down into the bargain. As for Amativeness, he +seemed to us the perfect incarnation of hydrophobia. In fact, out of some +two dozen passions, the only presentable personage was Self-esteem, a +prettyish red-haired girl, with an expression of fun about the eyes. + +In a short time the lecturer made his appearance. To do him justice, he +did not look at all like a conjuror, nor did he use any of those becoming +accessories which threw an air of picturesque dignity around the wizard of +the middle ages. We could not say of him as of Lord Gifford, + + "His shoes were mark'd with cross and spell, + Upon his breast pentacle; + His zone, of virgin parchment thin, + Or, as some tell, of dead-man's skin, + Bore many a planetary sign, + Combust, and retrograde, and trine." + +On the contrary, he was simply attired in a black coat and tweed +terminations; and his attendant imps consisted of half a dozen young +gentlemen, who might possibly, by dint of active exertion, have been made +cleaner, and whose free-and-easy manner, as they scrambled towards their +chairs, elicited some hilarious expressions from the more distant portion +of the audience. + +The introductory portion of the lecture appeared to us a fair specimen of +Birmingham rhetoric. There was a great deal in it about mysterious +agencies, invisible fluids, connexion of mind and matter, outer and inner +man, and suchlike phrases, all of which sounded very deep and +unintelligible--so much so indeed, that we suspected certain passages of +it to have been culled with little alteration from the emporium of Sartor +Resartus. Meanwhile the satellites upon the platform amused themselves by +grimacing at each other, and exchanging a series of telegraphic gestures, +which proved that they were all deep adepts in the art of masonry as +practised by the youth of the Lawnmarket. The exposition might have lasted +about a quarter of an hour, when sundry shufflings of the feet gave a hint +to the lecturer that he had better stop discoursing, and proceed +incontinently to experiment. He therefore turned to the imps, who +straightway desisted from mowing, and remained mute and motionless before +the eye of the mighty master. Seizing one of them by the hands, the +operator looked steadfastly in his face. A dull film seemed to gather over +the orbs of the gaping urchin--his jaw fell--his toes quivered--a few +spasmodic jerks of the elbows showed that his whole frame was becoming +Leyden, jar of animal electricity--his arms dropped fecklessly down--few +waves across the forehead, and the Lazarillo of Dunedin was transported to +the Invisible World! + +Muttered exclamations--for the sanctity of the scene was too great to +admit of ruffing--were now heard throughout the room. "Did you ever?"--"By +Jove, there's a go!"--"Lord save us! but that's fearsome!"--"I say, Bob, +d'ye no see him winking?" and other similar ejaculations caught our ear. +Presently the operator abandoned his first victim, and advanced towards +another, with the look of a rattlesnake, who, having bolted one rabbit, is +determined to exterminate the warren. The second gutter-blood succumbed. +His resistance to the mesmeric agency was even weaker than the other's: +and, indeed, to judge from the rapidity of his execution, the marvellous +fluid was now pouring in cataracts from the magic fingers of the adept. In +a very few seconds the whole of the lads were as fast asleep as dormice. + +Leaving them in their chairs, like so many slumbering Cupids, the lecturer +next proceeded to favour us with a dissertation upon the functions of the +brain. Cries of "Get on!"--"Gar them speak!"--"We ken a' aboot it!" +assured him at once of the temper and the acquired information of the +Modem Athenians; so, turning round once more, he pitched upon Lazarillo as +a subject. So far as our memory will serve us, the following is a fair +report of the colloquy. + +"Are you asleep, my little boy?" + +"I should think sae!" + +"Do you feel comfortable?" + +"No that ill. What was ye speering for?" + +"Ha! a cautious boy! You observe, ladies and gentlemen, how remarkably the +natural character is developed during the operation of the mesmeric +trance. An English boy, I assure you, would have given me a very different +reply. Let us now proceed to another test. You see, I take him by the +hand, and at the same time introduce this piece of lump sugar into my own +mouth. Remark how instantaneously the muscles of his face are affected. My +little fellow, what is that you are eating?" + +"Sweeties." + +"Where did you get them?" + +"What's yeer bizziness?" + +"Well, well--we must not irritate him. Let us now change the +experiment--how do you like this?" + +"Fich!--proots!--Ye nastie fellie, if ye pit saut in ma mooth, I'll hit ye +a duff in the muns!" + +"How! I do not understand you!" + +"A dad in the haffits." + +Here a benevolent gentleman, with a bald head and spectacles, was kind +enough to act as interpreter, and explained to the scientific Anglican the +meaning of the minatory term. + +"Ha! our young friend is becoming a little restive. We must alter his +frame of mind. Observe, ladies and gentlemen, I shall now touch the organ +of Benevolence." + +With an alacrity which utterly dumbfoundered us, the young hope of the +Crosscauseway now sprung to his feet. His hands were precipitately plunged +into the inmost recesses of his corduroys. + +"Puir man! puir man!" he exclaimed with a deep expression of sympathy, +"ye're looking far frae weel! Ay, ay! a wife and saxteen weans at hame, +and you just oot o' the hospital!--Hech-how! but this is a weary warld. +Hae--it's no muckle I can gie ye, but tak it a'--tak it a'!" + +So saying, he drew forth from his pockets a miscellaneous handful of +slate-pencil, twine, stucco-bowls, and, if we mistake not, gib--a +condiment much prized by the rising generation of the metropolis--all of +which he deposited, as from a cornucopia, at the feet of the delighted +lecturer. + +A loud hum of admiration arose from the back-benches. Charity is a popular +virtue, as you may learn at the theatre, from the tumultuous applause of +the gallery whenever the hero of the melodrama chucks a purse at the head +of some unfortunate starveling. Two old ladies in our neighbourhood began +to whimper; and one of them publicly expressed her intention of rewarding +with half-a-crown the good intentions of the munificent Lazarillo, so soon +as the lecture was over. This seemed to inspire him with a fresh accession +of benevolence; for, the organ being still excited, he made another +desperate attempt, and this time fished up a brass button. + +"Let us now," said the magician, "excite the counter organ of +Secretiveness; and, in order to give this experiment its full effect, I +shall also irritate the kindred organs of Acquisitiveness and Caution." + +To our great disgust, Lazarillo instantly threw off the character of +Howard, and appeared in that of David Haggart. He was evidently mentally +prowling with an associate in the vicinity of a stall bedecked with +tempting viands, irresistible to the inner Adam of the boy. + +"I say, Tam! did ye ever see sic speldrings? Eh, man--but they'd be grand +chowin! What'n rock!--and thae bonnie red-cheekit aipples! Whisht-ye, +man--bide back in the close-head, or auld Kirsty will see ye! Na--she's no +lookin' now. Gang ye ahint her, and cry oot that ye see a mad dowg, and +I'll make a spang at the stall! That's yeer sort! I've gotten a hantle o' +them. Stick them into ma pouches for fear they tumble oot, and we'll rin +doon to the King's Park and hide them at the auld dyke!" + +"This boy," said the operator, "evidently imagines himself to be engaged +in an act of larceny. Such is the wonderful power of mesmerism, and such +and so varied is the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the human frame. What we +call man is a shell of virtue and of vice. In the same brain are contained +the virtues of an Aristides, and the coarse malignity of a Nero. I could +now, ladies and gentlemen, very easily procure from this lad the +restitution of his imaginary spoils, by simply exciting the organ of +Justice, which at once would prompt him to a full and candid confession. +But I shall prefer to develop the experiment, by slightly awakening the +powerful functions of Terror, an organ which we dare not trifle with, as +the consequences are sometimes calamitous. I think, however, from the +peculiar construction of this boy's head, that we may safely make the +attempt. Mark the transition." + +The hair of Lazarillo bristled. + +"Gosh, Tam! are ye sure naebody seed us! Wha's that wi' the white breeks +comin' down the close? Rin, man, rin--as sure's death it's the poliss! O +Lord! what will become o' ma puir mither gin they grup me! O man--let's +in! let's in! The door's fast steekit--Mercy--mercy--mercy--! Tak' yeer +knuckles oot o' ma neck, and I'll gie ye the hale o' them back. It wasna +me, it was Tam that did it! Ye're no gaun to tak us up to the office for +sic a thing as that?--O dear me--dear me--dear me!" and the voice of +Lazarillo died away in almost inarticulate moaning. + +This scene had so affected the nerves of our fair neighbour in the bonnet, +that, out of common civility, we felt ourselves compelled to offer a +little consolation. In the mean time, the stern operator continued to +aggravate the terrors of poor Lazarillo, whose cup of agony was full even +to the brim, and who now fancied himself in the dock, tried, and found +guilty, and awaiting with fear and tribulation the tremendous sentence of +the law. + +"O, ma lord, will ye no hae mercy on us? As true as I'm stannin' here, +it's the first time I ever stealt ony thing. O whaur's mither? Is that her +greeting outside? O, ma lord, what are ye puttin' on that black hat for? +Ye daurna hang us surely for a wheen wizzened speldrings!--O dear--O dear! +Is there naebody will say a word for me? O mercy--mercy! Wae's me--wae's +me! To be hangit by the neck till I'm deid, and me no fifteen year auld!" + +"We shall now," said the operator, "conduct our young friend to the +scaffold"-- + +"Stop, sir!" cried the benevolent gentleman in the spectacles--"I insist +that we shall have no more of this. Are you aware, sir, that you are +answerable for the intellects of that unhappy boy? Who knows but that the +cruel excitement he has already undergone may have had the effect of +rendering him a maniac for life? I protest against any further exhibition +of this nature, which is absolutely harrowing to my own feelings and to +those of all around me. What if the boy should die?" + +"Let alane Jimsy!" cried a voice from the back row. "I ken him fine; he'll +dee nane." + +"I shall have much pleasure, sir," said the mesmerist, with a polite bow, +"in complying with your humane suggestion. At the same time, let me assure +you that your apprehensions are without foundation. Never, I trust, in my +hands, shall science be perverted from its legitimate object, or the +glorious truths I am permitted to display, minister in the slightest +degree to the wretchedness of any one individual of the great human +family. I shall now awaken this boy from his trance, when you will find +him wholly unconscious of every thing which has taken place." + +Accordingly, he drew forth his bandana, flapped it a few times before the +eyes of Lazarillo, and then breathed lightly on his forehead. The boy +yawned, rubbed his eyes, stretched his limbs, sneezed, and then rose up. + +"How do you feel?" asked the operator. + +"A wee stiff--that's a.'" + +"Would you like a glass of water?" + +"I'd rather hae yill." + +"Do you recollect what you have been doing?" + +"I've been sleeping, I think." + +"Nothing more?" + +"Naething. What else should I hae been doing? I say--I want to gang hame." + +"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think we may dismiss this boy." + +Lazarillo, however, did not show any immediate hurry to depart. He +lingered for a while near that edge of the platform where the two aged +ladies were seated, as though some faint vaticination of the advent of +half-a-crown still haunted his bewildered faculties. But the profligacy of +his latter conduct had effaced all memory of the liberality with which he +first dispensed his earthly treasures. His unhallowed propensity for +speldrings had exhibited itself in too glaring colours, and each lady, +while she thought of the pilfered Kirsty, clutched her reticule with a +firmer grasp, as though she deemed that the contents thereof were not +altogether safe in the vicinity of the marvellous boy. At length, finding +that delay was fruitless, Lazarillo, _alias_ Jimsy, went his way. + +The phrenological organs of the remaining lads were now subjected to +similar experiments. These were, we freely admit, remarkably interesting. +One youth, being called upon to give a specimen of his imitative powers, +took off our friend Frederick Lloyd of the Theatre-Royal to the life; +whilst another treated us to a very fair personification of Edmund Glover. +Some youths in the back gallery began to whistle and scream, and the +sounds were regularly caught up and transmitted by the slumbering mimics. +A learned Pundit, who sate on the same bench with ourselves, favoured them +with a German sentence, which did certainly appear to us to be repeated +with some slight difference of accent. A Highland divinity student went +the length of asserting that the reply was conveyed in Gaelic, which, if +true, must be allowed to throw some light upon the knotty subject of the +origin of languages. Is it possible that, in the mesmeric trance, the mind +in some cases rejects as artificial fabric all the educated +conventionality of tongues, and resumes unconsciously the original and +genuine dialect of the world? We have a great mind, at some future moment +of leisure, to indite an article on the subject, and vindicate, in all its +antiquity, the speech of Ossian and of Adam. + +We shall pass over several of the same class of experiments, such as the +display of Adoration, which struck us as bordering very closely upon the +limits of profanity. In justice to the operator, we ought to mention that +they were all remarkably successful. We admired the dexterity with which +two lads, under the savage influence of combativeness, punched and squared +at each other; we were pleased with the musical talents of another boy, +who varied the words, airs, and style of his singing as the fingers of the +mesmerist wandered around the several protuberances of his cranium. In +fact, we saw before us a human organ of sound, played upon with as much +ease as a mere pianoforte. After such exhibitions as these, it was +impossible to remain a sceptic. + +A grand chorus by the patients, of "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," under +the influence of some bump corresponding to Patriotism, terminated this +portion of the evening's entertainments. But all was not yet over. The +lecturer informed us that he would now exhibit the power of mesmerism over +the body, apart from the enchainment of the mental faculties--that is, +that he would produce paralysis in the limbs of a thinking and a sentient +being. We are ashamed to say that a cry of "Gammon!" arose from different +parts of the hall. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," said the undaunted sorcerer, "some incredulous +persons seem to doubt my power. You shall see it with your own eyes. I +shall now proceed to waken these boys, and submit them to the new +experiment." + +In the twinkling of a handkerchief they were awake and lively, and beyond +a slight complaint from the pugilists of pain in the region of the +abdomen, and a very reasonable demand on the part of the musician for +lozenges, they did not seem at all the worse in consequence of their +recent exercise. One of them was now desired to stretch out his arm. He +did so. A few passes were made along it, and he remained in the attitude +of a fakeer. + +"That lad's arm," said he of the mysterious art, "is now as fixed as +marble. He cannot take it down. Can you, O'Shaughnessy?" + +"The divil a bit!" replied the Hibernian, a stout and brawny villain of +some two and twenty. + +"Would any gentleman like to try it?" inquired the operator. + +"It's myself has no manner of objections at all!" exclaimed a stalwart +medical student, springing upon the platform, amidst a shout of general +exultation. "Hould yerself tight, Pat, my boy; for, by the powers, I'll +twist ye like an ounce of pig-tail!" + +"Tear and owns!"--replied O'Shaughnessy, looking somewhat dismayed, for +the volunteer was about as stout a Connaughter as it ever was our fortune +to behold. "Tear and owns! it isn't after breaking my arm you'd be at? Och +wirra! Would ye take a dirty advantage of a decent lad, and him as stiff +as a poker?" + +"I protest against this exhibition!" said the benevolent gentleman, in +whom we now recognised a Vice-President of the Fogie Club. "The shoulder +of the man may be dislocated--or there may be a fracture of the ulna--or +some other horrid catastrophe may happen, and we shall all be prosecuted +for murder!" + +"And am I not here to set the bone!" demanded the student indignantly +"Give us a hould of ye, Pat, and stand firm on your pins, for I'll work ye +like a pump-handle." + +So saying, he closed with O'Shaughnessy. But that wary individual, whilst +he abandoned his arm to the student, evidently considered himself under no +obligation to forego the use of his legs. He spun round and round like a +teetotum, and stooped whenever an attempt was made to draw him down, but +still the arm remained extended. + +"You see, ladies and gentlemen!" said the operator, after the scuffle was +over--"You see how the power of the mesmeric fluid operates above the +exertion of physical force. This amazingly powerful young gentleman has +totally failed to move the arm one inch from its place." + +"I'd move it fast enough, if he'd only stand still," replied the student. +"I'll tell you what. I look upon the whole thing as egregious humbug. +There's my own arm out, and I defy either you or Pat to bring it down!" + +"Excuse me, sir," replied the mesmerist with dignity--"We do not meet here +to practise feats of strength, but to discuss a scientific question. I +appeal to this intelligent individual, who has taken so distinguished a +part in the interesting proceedings of this evening, whether I am in any +way bound to accept such a challenge." + +"Certainly not--certainly not!" said the Vice-President, delighted with +this appeal to his understanding. + +"You hear the remark of the gentleman, sir," said the mesmerist. "May I +now beg you will retire, and permit me to go on with the experiments?" + +"Take it all your own way, then," replied the student, reluctantly +retiring from the platform; "but as sure's I am out of purgatory, that +lad's arm was no more fixed than your tongue!" + +This slight episode over, the work went on accordingly. Paralysis +flourished in all its shapes. One lad was spellbound to the floor, and +could not move a yard from the spot, though encouraged to do so by an +offer of twenty pounds from the liberal and daring artist. What effect the +superadded security of the Vice-President might have had upon the +patient's powers of locomotion, we really cannot say. Another, as he +assured us, was utterly deprived of sight by a few cross passes of the +operator--a third was charmed into dumbness--whilst a fourth declared his +readiness to be converted into a pin-cushion; but was, at the intreaty of +some ladies and our benevolent acquaintance, exempted from that +metamorphosis, and merely endured, without murmuring, a few nips from the +fingers of the lecturer. + +This closed the _séance_. We moved a vote of thanks to the Mesmerist for +his gratifying exertions, and then retired to our Club to meditate upon +the subject over a comfortable board of pandores. A few days afterwards, +we met our friend the young Indian officer in Prince's Street. + +"I say, old fellow," quoth the Jemadar, "that was a confounded take-in the +other night." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Why, that magnetizing nonsense. Not a soul of then was asleep after all." + +"Do you wish me to disbelieve the evidence of my own senses?" + +"You may believe whatever you like; I only wish you had been with us last +Tuesday at a meeting we held in the Café. If you've got any tin about you, +and don't mind standing an ice or so at Mrs Stewart's, I'll tell you all +about it." + +Our desire for truth overcame our habitual parsimony. We led the way into +the back saloon, and at a moderate expenditure became possessed of the +following particulars:-- + +"You see," said the Jemadar, sipping his cherry bounce, "there were a lot +of clever fellows sitting near me the other night, and I made out from +what they said that they were by no means satisfied with the whole +proceeding. Now, as I have seen a thing or two in India, where, by Jove, a +native will make a mango-tree grow out of a flowerpot before your eyes, +and bear fruit enough in a few months to keep a large family for a year in +pickles--and as I knew all about snake-charming, the singeing of tiger's +whiskers, and so forth, I thought I might be of some use to the scientific +birds; so, when the meeting broke up, I proposed an adjournment and a +tumbler. I looked about for you, but you seemed more agreeably occupied." + +"You never were in a greater mistake in your life." + +"Well--that's all one; but I thought so. They were quite agreeable, and we +passed a very pleasant evening. There were two or three young advocates +who went the pace in regular style, a fair sprinkling of medicos, and that +Irish student who handled the humbug on the platform; and who, let me tell +you, is little short of a perfect trump. We reviewed the whole +experiments, quite impartially, over a moderate allowance of alcohol, and +were unanimously of opinion that it was necessary, for the interests of +science, to examine into the matter more closely. One of the company +undertook to procure the attendance of some of those lads whom you saw +upon the platform; and another, who believes in mesmerism, but scouts the +idea of phrenology, was acquainted with a creditable magnetizer, who, he +said, would be sure to attend. We fixed our meeting for the second evening +afterwards, and then adjourned. + +"When the appointed hour came, we mustered to the number of about thirty. +Some scientific fellows about town had got wind of the thing, and wished +to be present: to this we made no manner of objection, as it was not a +hole-and-corner meeting. Of course, we took care that the lecturer should +know nothing about it--indeed, he had left Edinburgh, for the purpose, I +suppose, of enlightening the gallant Glaswegians; so that we had nothing +to fear on the ground of secret influence. Well, sir, we elected a +President, who gave his vote in favour of the postponement of beer until +all the experiments were over, and had in the raggamuffins, who at their +own request were each accompanied by a friend. They did not look quite +easy on finding themselves introduced to such an assemblage, but native +brass prevailed--they were in for it, and they durst not recede. + +"After a pretty tight examination by the President as to their former +experiences and sensations, which of course resulted in nothing, one of +the lads--the fellow who became blind--consented to be mesmerised by his +brother. The latter, a very sheepish-looking sort of journeyman, went +awkwardly through the usual flummery of passes, and then ensued this +dialogue. + +"'Hoo are ye, Jock?'" + +"'Man, I'm blind!'" + +"'Can ye see naething?'" + +"'Naething ava. It's jist a' blackness afore me. Gudesake, dinna keep us +lang this way--it's positeevely fearsome.'" + +"'Gentlemen,' said the brother, 'I hope you'll no be ower lang wi' oor +Jock. Puir fallow! he's no jist a' thegether right in the nerves, and a +wee thing is eneuch to upset him. Dinna handle him roughly, sir!' he +continued, as one of our party commenced turning up his sleeves +preparatory to an ocular demonstration; 'ye manna pit your hand upon +him--it's enough to destroy the haill mesmereesin' influence, and he'll +gang into a fit. Nane but the operawtor should touch him. Gin ye want to +look into his een, I'se haud up the lids myself.' + +"He did so; and sure enough he disclosed a couple of unmeaning grey +gooseberry orbs which stared perseveringly upon vacancy. A medical +gentleman approached a candle towards them without any visible effect. The +urchin was perfect in his calling. He did not even shrink at the rapid +approach of a finger. + +"I was convinced in my own mind," continued the Jemadar, "that this was a +piece of absolute humbug. The anxiety of the brother to keep every person +at a distance was quite palpable, so I had recourse to stratagem to get +him out of the way. We pretended to give the boy a momentary respite, and +a proffered pot of porter proved a bait too tempting to the Argus of the +blind. In short, we got him out of the room, and then resumed our +examination of Jock, who still pled, like another Homer, to absolute want +of vision. + +"'This is really very extraordinary, gentlemen,' said I, assuming the airs +of a lecturer, but getting carefully in the rear of patient. 'I am now +perfectly convinced that this boy is, by some inexplicable means, deprived +of the functions of sight. You observe that when I advance the finger of +my right hand towards his right eye--so--there is not the slightest +shrinking or palpable contraction of the iris. It is the same when I +approach the left eye--thus. If any gentleman doubts the success of the +experiment, I shall again make it on the right eye.' + +"But this time, instead of probing the dexter orbit, for which he was +prepared, I made a rapid pass at the other. The effect was instantaneous. +A spasmodic twitch of the eyelid betrayed the acuteness of Jock's ocular +perception. + +"'He winks, by the soul of Lord Monboddo!' cried one of my legal +acquaintances. 'I saw it perfectly plainly!' + +"'Ye're leein'!' retorted Jock, whose pease-soup complexion suddenly +became flushed with crimson--"'Ye're leein'! I winkit nane. It was a flea. +Did ye no see that I winkit nane when ye pit the lancet forrard?' + +"'Oh! my fine fellow!' replied the Advocate, a youth who had evidently +picked up a wrinkle or two at circuit, 'you've fairly put your foot into +it this time. Not a living soul has said a single word about a lancet, and +how could you know that this gentleman held in his hand unless you +positively saw it?' + +"This was a floorer, but Jock would not abandon his point. + +"'Ye dinna ken what mesmereesin' is,' he exclaimed. 'It's a shame for a +wheen muckle chaps like you to be trying yer cantrips that way on a laddie +like me. It's no fair, and I'll no stand it ony langer. Whaur's my +brither? Let me gang, I say--I'm no weel ava'!' and straightway the +miraculous boy girded up his loins, and flew swiftly from the apartment. + +"Pat O'Shaughnessy was next brought forward to exhibit once more his +unparalleled feat of rigidity. Confident in the strength of his brawny +arm, the young Milesian evinced no scruples. The magnetist who had +attended, at our request--a pleasant gentlemanly person--made the usual +passes along the arm, and O'Shaughnessy stood out in the attitude of the +Pythian Apollo. + +"I tried to bend his arm at the elbow, but sure enough I could not do it. +The fellow had the muscles of a rhinosceros, and defied my utmost efforts. +The magnetizer now began to exhibit another phenomenon. He made a few +passes downwards, and the arm gradually fell, as if there were some +undefinable attraction in the hand of the operator. He then reversed the +motion, and the arm slowly ascended. Being quite convinced that in this +case there was no collusion, I said a few words to the operator, who then +took his post _behind_ the giant carcase of the navigator. A friend of the +latter, who was detected dodging in front of him, was politely conducted +to the door, and in this way the experiment was tried. + +"'Now sir,' said I, 'will you have the kindness to attract his arm +upwards? I am curious to see if the mesmeric principle applies equally to +all the muscles.' + +"'Faix!' volunteered O'Shaughnessy, 'it does that, and no mistake. Ye +might make me hould up my fist on the other side of an oak door!' + +"I am sorry for the honour of Tipperary. The operator, as had been +privately agreed on, commenced the downward passes, when, to our extreme +delight, the arm of O'Shaughnessy rose directly upwards, until his fist +pointed to the zenith! + +"'Beautiful!--admirable!--miraculous!' shouted half a dozen voices. + +"'Now, sir, will you try if you can take it down?' + +"'The magnetiser made efforts which, if successful, would have enabled +O'Shaughnessy to count the number of his own dorsal vertebræ. He didn't +seem, however, to have any such passion for osteology. The arm gradually +declined, and at last reposed passively by his side. A general cheer +proclaimed the success of the experiment. + +"'Mr Chairman,' said one gentleman, 'I move that it be recorded as the +opinion of this meeting, that the late exhibitions of mesmerism, as +exhibited in this city, were neither more nor less than a tissue of +unmitigated humbug!' + +"'After what we have seen this evening,' said another, 'I do not feel the +slightest hesitation in seconding that motion.' + +"'And I move,' said a third, 'that in case that motion should be carried, +we do incontinently proceed to supper.' + +"So far as I recollect, there was not a dissentient voice in the room to +either proposition. + +"'Axing yer pardon,' said O'Shaughnessy, advancing to the chairman, 'it's +five shillings I was promised for time and trouble, and expinces in +attending this mating. Perhaps yer honour will allow a thrifle over and +above to my friend Teddy yonder, who came to see that I wasn't bothered +all at onst?' + +"'You are an impudent scoundrel, sir,' said the chairman, 'and deserve to +be kicked down stairs. However, a promise is a promise. There is your +money, and let us never see your face again.' + +"'Och, long life to yese all!' said the undaunted O'Shaughnessy, 'but its +mismirism is a beautiful science! Divil a barrow have I wheeled this last +month on the North British Railway, and it isn't soon that I'll be after +doing it again. Teddy, ye sowl! let's be off to the ould place, and dhrink +good luck to the gintlemin in a noggin.' + +"Such," concluded the Jemadar, "was the result of our meeting; and I can +tell you that you lost a rich treat by not hearing of it in time." + +"I don't want to be disenchanted," said we. "Nothing that you have said +can shake my firm belief in mesmerism in all its stages. I allow that the +science, like every thing else, is liable to abuse, but that does not +affect my faith in the slightest degree. Have you ever read Chauncey Hare +Townshend's book? Why, my dear fellow, he has magnetized a female patient, +through mere volition alone, at the other end of the town; and I have not +the remotest doubt that it is quite possible to exercise the same powers +between Edinburgh and Madras. What a beautiful thought it is that two +lovers, separated by land and ocean, may yet exercise a sweet influence +over each other--that at a certain hour, a balmy slumber, stealing over +their frames, apprises them that their souls are about to meet in +undisturbed and tranquil union! That in a few moments, perhaps, far, far +above the galaxy"-- + +"Oh, confound the galaxy!" interrupted the prosaic Jemadar. "If you're +going on in that style, I shall be off at once. I have no idea of any +communication quicker than the electric telegraph; and as for your +sympathies, and that sort of rubbish, any body may believe them that +likes. I suppose, too, you believe in clair-voyance?" + +"Most assuredly," we replied. "The case of Miss M'Avoy of Liverpool--of +Prince Hohenlohe, and many others"---- + +"Are all very wonderful, I daresay; but I should like to see the thing +with my own eyes. A friend of mine told me, no later than yesterday, that +he had been present at a meeting, held in a professional gentleman's +house, for the purpose of testing the powers of a lad said to be +clair-voyant, who was exhibited by one of those itinerant lecturers. In +addition to the usual bandages, of which there was much suspicion, a mask, +previously prepared, was put upon the face, so that all deception was +impossible. In this state, the boy, though professedly in the mesmeric +sleep, could see nothing. He fingered the cards--fumbled with the +books--but could read no more than my poodle-dog. In fact, the whole thing +was considered by every one present not only a failure, but a rank and +palpable sham; and until I have some better evidence in support of these +modern miracles, I shall take the liberty of denouncing the system as one +of most impudent imposture." + +"But, my dear fellow, recollect the number of persons of rank and +station--the highly intellectual and cultivated minds which have formed a +directly opposite opinion. What say you to Van Helmont? What say you to +Michael Scott, + + 'A wizard of such dreaded fame, + That when in Salamanca's cave, + Him listed his magic wand to wave, + The bells would ring in Notre Dame?' + +What say you to the sympathetic secrets still known to be preserved in the +monastery of Mount Carmel? What say you"-- + +"I say," replied the Jemadar, "that you are beginning to talk most +infernal nonsense, and that I must be off, as I have an engagement at +three to play a match at billiards. In the meantime, you'll oblige me by +settling with Mrs Stewart for the ices." + + + + +COOKERY AND CIVILISATION.[12] + + +It is only after passing through an ordeal cruelly insidious, tolerably +severe, and rather protracted, that we feel conscientiously entitled to +assert our ability to dine every day of every week at the Reform Club, +without jeopardy to those immutable principles which are incorruptible by +Whigs and indestructible by Rats. A sneer, perhaps, is curling with +"beautiful disdain" the lips of some Conservative Achilles. Let us nip his +complacent sense of invulnerability in the bud. To eat and to err are +equally attributes of humanity. Looking at ourselves in the mirror of +honest criticism, we behold features as unchangeable as sublunary +vicissitudes will allow. + + "Time writes no wrinkles on our azure brow." + +Witness it! ye many years of wondrous alternation--of lurid tempest and +sunny calm--of disastrous rout and triumphant procession--of shouting pæan +and wailing dirge--witness the imperturbable tenor of our way! Attest it, +thou goodly array of the tomes of Maga, laden and sparkling, now as ever, +with wisdom and wit, science and fancy!--attest the unwavering fidelity of +our career! All this is very true; but the secret annals of the good can +never be free from temptations, and never are in reality unblotted by +peccadilloes. The fury of the demagogue has been our laughing-stock--the +versatility of trimming politicians, our scorn. We have crouched before +none of the powers which have been, or be; neither have we been carried +off our feet by the whirlwinds of popular passion. Yet it is difficult to +resist a good dinner. The victories of Miltiades robbed Themistocles of +sleep. The triumphs of SOYER are apt to affect us, "with a difference," +after the same fashion. + +There was, we remember, a spirit of surly independence within us on +visiting, for the first time, the "high capital" of Whiggery, where the +Tail at present + + "New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer + Their State affairs." + +To admire any thing was not our mood: + + "The ascending pile + Stood fix'd her stately heighth; and straight the doors, + Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide + Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth + And level pavement." + +And as these lines suggested themselves, we recollected who the first Whig +is said to have been, and whose architectural glories Milton was +recording. We never yet heard a Radical disparage a peer of the realm +without being convinced, that deep in the pocket, next his heart, lay an +incautious hospitable invitation from the noble lord, to which a +precipitate answer in the affirmative had already been dispatched. +Analogously, in the magnificent edifice, whose tesselated floor we were +treading gingerly, it seemed to us that we surveyed an unmistakable +monument of an innate predilection for the splendours and comforts, the +pomp and the _abandon_, of a "proud aristocracy." This was before dinner, +and we were hungry. To tell all that happened to us for some hours +afterwards, would, in fact, force us to transfer to our pages more than +half of the volume which is prompting these observations. Suffice it to +say, that when we again stood on Pall-Mall, a bland philanthropy of +sentiment, embracing all races, and classes, and sects of men, permeated +our bosom. Whence came the mellowing influence, seeing that we had been, +as our custom is, very innocent of wine? Nor could it be the seductive +eloquence of the company. We had indeed been roundly vituperated in +argument by the Liberator. Oh yes! but we had been fed by the Regenerator. + +To us, then, on these things much meditating--so Cicero and Brougham love +to write--many of the speculations in which we had indulged, and of the +principles which we had advocated, were obviously not quite in harmony +with the views long inculcated by us on a docile public. Suddenly the +truth flashed across and illuminated the perplexity of our ponderings. We +were aware that, early in the evening, a much milder censure than usual +upon some factious Liberal manoeuvre had passed our lips. This took +place just about the fourth spoonful of soup. The spells were already in +operation under the shape of "_potage à la Marcus Hill_." There is a +fascination even in the name of this "delicious soup"--such is the epithet +of Soyer--which our readers will better understand in the sequel. Again, +it was impossible to deny that we had hazarded several equivocal +observations in reference to the Palmerstonian policy in Syria. But it was +equally true that such inadvertencies slipped from us while laboriously +engaged in determining a delicate competition between "_John Dorée à +l'Orléannaise_" and "_saumon à la Beyrout_." A transient compliment to the +influence at elections of the famous Duchess of Devonshire was little +liable to objection, we imagined, during a playful examination of a few +"_aiguillettes de volaille à la jolie fille_." More questionable, it must +be admitted, were certain assertions regarding the Five Points, enunciated +hastily over a "_neck of mutton à la Charte_." No fault, however, had we +to find with the cutting facetiousness with which we had garnished +"_cotelettes d'Agneau à la réforme en surprise aux Champignons_." The +title of this dish was so ludicrously applicable to the consternation of +the remnants of the Melbourne ministry--the cutlets of lamb--in finding +themselves outrun in the race by mushroom free-traders, that our +pleasantry thereanent was irresistible. It was difficult, at the same +time, to justify the expression of an opinion, infinitely too favourable +to Peel's commercial policy, yielding to the allurements of a "_turban des +cailles à la financière_." And, on the whole, we smarted beneath a +consciousness that all our conversation had been perceptibly flavoured by +"_filets de bécasses à la Talleyrand_." + +The result of these reflections was, simply, an alarming conviction of the +tremendous influence exercised by Soyer throughout all the workings of the +British constitution. The causes of the success of the League begin to +dawn upon us, while our gravest suspicions are confirmed by the +appearance, at this peculiar crisis, of the "Gastronomic Regenerator." +What patriotism can withstand a superabundance of untaxed food, cooked +according to the tuition of Soyer? How can public virtue keep its ground +against such a rush of the raw material, covered by such a "_batterie de +cuisine_?" Cobden and Soyer, in alliance, have given a new turn, and +terribly literal power, to the fable of Menenius Agrippa. + + "There was a time when all the body's members + Rebell'd against the belly." + +Such times are gone. The belly now has it all its own way, while + + "The kingly-crownèd head, the vigilant eye, + The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier, + Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter," + +are conjunctly and severally cuffed, or bunged up, or broken, or stifled, +unless they are perpetually ministering to the service of the great +cormorant corporation. It is mighty well to talk of the dissolution of the +League. The testament of Cæsar, commented on by Mark Antony, was +eventually more fatal to the liberties of Rome, than the irrepressible +ambition which originally urged the arch-traitor across the Rubicon. The +"Gastronomic Regenerator," in the hands of every housewife in the country, +is merely to convert the most invincible portion of the community into a +perpetual militia of free-traders. All cooks proverbially encourage an +enormous consumption of victuals. The study of Soyer will infallibly +transform three-fourths of the empire into cooks. Consequently, the demand +for every variety of sustenance, by an immense majority of the nation, +will be exorbitant and perennial. No syllogism can be more unassailable. +We venture also to affirm that the judgment of posterity will be rigidly +true in apportioning the endurance of fame which the conflicting merits of +our great benefactors may deserve. It is far from unlikely that the +glories of a Peel may be disregarded, forgotten, and unsung, when the +trophies of a Soyer, still odorous, and unctuous, and fresh, shall be in +every body's mouth. + +The "Gastronomic Regenerator" has not assumed his imposing title without a +full appreciation of the dignity of his office and the elevation of his +mission. The brief and graceful "dialogue culinaire" between Lord M. H. +and himself, illustrates the grand doctrines that man is a cooking animal, +and that the progress of cooking is the progress of civilisation. There is +something prodigiously sublime in the words of the noble interlocutor, +when he declares, "Read history, and you see that in every age, and among +all nations, the good which has been done, and sometimes the evil, has +been always preceded or followed by a copious dinner." This language, we +presume, must be considered on the great scale, as applicable to the most +solemn and momentous occurrences in the history of governments and +countries. Not that we can exclude it from individual biography. +Benevolence we have always regarded as a good sauce, and have often +observed it to be an excellent dessert. The man who tucks his napkin under +his chin immediately after conferring a benefit on a fellow-creature, +invariably manifests marvellous capabilities for digestion; and, on the +other hand, the man who has dined to his own entire satisfaction, if +solicited in the nick of time, will frequently evince an open-handed +generosity, to which his more matutine emotions would have been strangers. +But--to reverse the picture--any interruption to the near prospect of a +"copious dinner" is at all times inimical to charity; while repletion, we +know, occasionally reveals such unamiable dispositions as could not have +been detected by the most jealous scrutiny at an earlier period of the +day. Nations are but hives of individuals. We understand, therefore, the +noble lord to mean, that all the history of all the thousand races of the +globe concurrently teaches us that every great event, social or political, +domestic or foreign, involving their national weal or woe, has been +harbingered or commemorated by a "copious dinner." Many familiar instances +of this profound truth--some of very recent date--crowd into our +recollection. But we cannot help suspecting a deeper meaning to be +inherent in the enunciation of this "great fact." Copious dinners are, as +it strikes us, here covertly represented as the means of effecting the +most extensive ameliorations. To dine is insinuated to be the first step +on the highway to improvement. In the consequences which flow from dining +copiously, what is beneficial is evidently stated to preponderate over +what is hurtful, the qualifying "sometimes" being only attached to the +latter. In this respect, dinners seem to differ from men, that the evil is +more frequently "interred with their bones," while the "good they do lives +after them." This is, assuredly, ringing a dinner-bell incessantly to the +whole universe. We have ourselves, not half an hour ago, paid our quota +for participating within the last week in congratulatory festivities to +two eminent public characters. The overwhelming recurrence, in truth, of +these entertainments, drains us annually of a handsome income; and +reading, as we do daily in the newspapers, how every grocer, on changing +his shop round the corner, and every professor of dancing, on being driven +by the surges of the Utilitarian system up another flight of stairs, must, +to felicitate or soothe him, receive the tribute or consolation of a +banquet and demonstration, we hold up our hands in amazement at the +opulence and deglutition of Scotland. + +What shall become of us, driven further onwards still, by the impetus of +the Gastronomic Regenerator, we dare not foretell. The whole year may be a +circle of public feasts; and our institutions gradually, although with no +small velocity, relapse into the common table of Sparta. But never, +whispers Soyer, into the black broth of Lycurgus. And so he ensnares us +into the recognition of another fundamental principle, that the simplicity +of Laconian fare night be admirably appropriate for infant republics and +penniless helots, but can afford no subsistence to an overgrown empire, +and the possessors of the wealth of the world! Thus cookery marks, dates, +and authenticates the refinement of mankind. The savage cuts his warm +slice from the haunches of the living animal, and swallows it reeking from +the kitchen of nature. The civilized European, revolting from the dreadful +repast, burns, and boils, and stews, and roasts his food into an external +configuration, colour, and substance, as different from its original +condition as the mummy of Cheops differs from the Cheops who watched, with +an imperial dilatation of his brow, the aspiring immortality of the +pyramids. Both, in acting so differently, are the slaves and the types of +the circumstances of their position. The functions in the frames of both +are the same; but these functions curiously follow the discipline of the +social situation which directs and regulates their development. The +economy of the kitchen is only a counterpart, in its simplicity or +complication, its rudeness or luxury, of the economy of the state. The +subjects of patriarchs and despots may eat uncooked horses with relish and +nourishment. The denizens of a political system whose every motion is +regulated by an intricate machinery, in which the teeth of all the myriad +wheels in motion are indented with inextricable multiplicity of confusion +into each other, perish under any nurture which is not as intricate, +complex, artificial, and confused. What a noble and comprehensive science +is this Gastronomy! + +"Are you not also," says the philosophic Soyer, in the same interesting +dialogue, "of opinion with me, my lord, that nothing better disposes the +mind of man to amity in thought and deed, than a dinner which has been +knowingly selected, and artistically served?" The answer is most pregnant. +"It is my thinking so," replies Lord M. H., "which has always made me say +that a good cook is as useful as a wise minister." Behold to what an +altitude we are carried! The loaves and fishes in the hands of the Whigs, +and Soyer at the Reform Club to dress them! Let us banish melancholy, and +drive away dull care. The bellicose propensities of a foreign secretary +are happily innocuous. The rumours of war pass by us like the idle wind +which we regard not. Protocols and treaties, notes and representations, +are henceforth disowned by diplomacy. The figure of Britannia with a +stew-pan for her helmet, and a spit for a spear, leaning in statuesque +repose on a folio copy of the _Gastronomic Regenerator_, + + "Surveys mankind from China to Peru;" + +and with an unruffled ocean at her feet, and a cloudless sky overhead, +smiles on the countless millions of the children of earth, chatting +fraternally together at the round table of universal peace. Bright will be +the morning of the day which sees the impress of such an image on our +currency. Of course, it will be understood that we are entirely of the +same mind, abstractly, as M. Soyer and Lord M. H. The _maître de cuisine_ +appears to us unquestionably to be one of the most important functionaries +belonging to an embassy. Peace or war, which it is scarcely necessary to +interpret as the happiness or the misery of two great countries, may +depend upon a headache. Now, if it were possible, in any case, to trace +the bilious uneasiness which may have perverted pacific intentions into +hostile designs, to the unskilful or careless performance of his momentous +duties by the cook-legate, no punishment could too cruelly expiate such a +blunder. We should be inclined to propose that the brother artist who most +adroitly put the delinquent to torture, should be his successor, holding +office under a similar tenure. It may be matter of controversy, however, +at once whether such a system would work well, and whether it is agreeable +to the prevalence of those kindly feelings which it is the object of M. +Soyer, and every other good cook or wise statesman, to promulgate +throughout the human family. The publication of the _Gastronomic +Regenerator_ inspires us with better hopes. The tyro of the dripping-pan +will be no more entitled to screen himself behind his imperfect science or +neglected education, than the unlettered criminal to plead his ignorance +of the alphabet as a justification of his ignorance of the statute law, +whose enactments send him to Botany Bay. The rudiments and the +mysteries--the elementary axioms and most recondite problems--of his lofty +vocation are unrolled before him in legible and intelligible characters. +The skill which is the offspring of practice, must be attained by his +opportunities and his industry. And if + + "Fame is the spur which the clear spirit doth raise," + +it might, we trust, satiate the most ravenous appetite which ever gnawed +the bowels even of a cook, not merely to secure the tranquillity of the +universe, but to save his native land the expense of armies and fleets, +and turn the currents of gold absorbed by taxation, into the more +congenial channel of gastronomical enterprise. The majestic and +far-spreading oak springs out of the humble acorn. In future ages, the +acute historian will demonstrate how the "copious dinner" which cemented +the bonds of eternal alliance between vast and consolidated empires, whose +people were clothed in purple and fine linen, lived in habitations +decorated with every tasteful and gorgeous variety which caprice could +suggest and affluence procure, and mingled the physical indolence of +Sybaris with the intellectual activity of Athens, was but the ripe fruit +legitimately matured from the simple bud of the calumet of peace, which +sealed a hollow truce among the roving and puny lands of the naked, +cityless, and untutored Indian. So, once more, the perfectibility of +cookery indicates the perfectibility of society. + +The gallantry of Soyer is as conspicuous as his historical and political +philosophy. He would not profusely "scatter plenty o'er a smiling land" +solely for the gratification of his own sex. The sun shines on woman as on +man; and when the sun will not shine, a woman's eye supplies all the light +we need. The sagacious "Regenerator" refuses to restrict to the lordly +moiety of mankind a monopoly of his beams, feeling that, when the pressure +of mortal necessity sinks his head, fairer hands than those of the +statesman or the warrior, the ecclesiastic or the lawyer, are likely to be +the conservators of his reputation. "Allow me," he remarks, "to suggest to +your lordship, that a meeting for practical gastronomical purposes, _where +there are no ladies_, is in my eyes a garden without flowers, a sea +without waves, an experimental squadron without sails." + + "Without the smile from partial beauty won, + Say what were man?--a world without a sun!" + +The harrowing picture of desolation, from the pen of M. Soyer, may be +equalled, but cannot be surpassed, by a line here and there in Byron's +"Darkness." The sentiment, at the same time, sounds oddly, as it issues +from the penetralia of a multitudinous club. Our notion has hitherto been, +that a club was an invention of which a principal object was to prove that +female society was far from being indispensable to man, and that all the +joys of domesticity might be tasted in a state of single-blessedness +beyond the precincts of home for a small annual payment. A thorough-going +club-man would very soon drive a coach and four through the Regenerator's +polite eloquence. For instance, a garden without flowers has so much the +more room for the growth of celery, asparagus, artichokes, and the like. +There could not possibly be a greater convenience than the evaporation or +disappearance of the waters of the ocean; because we should then have +railways every where, and no nausea. Sails, likewise, are not requisite +now-a-days for ships; on the contrary, steam-vessels are so evidently +superior, that the sail-maker may as well shut up his shop. The flowers of +a garden are an incumbrance--the waves of the sea are an impediment--the +sails of a ship are a superfluity. Garden, sea, and ship would be better +wanting flowers, waves, and sails. On the same principles a club is +preferable to a family fire-side, and the lot of a bachelor to the fate of +a Benedict. M. Soyer, speaking _ex cathedrâ_ from the kitchen of the +Reform Club, would find it no easy matter to parry the cogency of this +reasoning. He forgets, apparently, that he bares his breast to a most +formidable attack. What right have MEN to be Cooks? What hypocrisy it is +to regret that women cannot eat those dinners which women alone are +entitled, according to the laws of nature and the usages of Britain, to +dress! Be just before you affect to be generous! Surrender the place, and +the privileges, and the immunities, which are the heritage and birthright +of the petticoat! Hercules with a distaff was bad enough; but here, in the +vagaries and metamorphoses of heathen mythology, do you read of Hercules +with a dishclout? What would the moon say, should the sun insist on +blazing away all night as well as all day? Your comparisons are full of +poetry and humbug. A kitchen without a female cook--it _is_ like a +flowerless garden, a waveless sea, a sail-less ship. A kitchen with a male +cook--is a monster which natural history rejects, and good feeling abhors. +The rights of women are scarcely best vindicated by him who usurps the +most precious of them. There will be time to complain of their absence +from the scene, when, by a proper self-ostracism, you leave free for them +the stage which it becomes them to occupy. These are knotty matters, M. +Soyer, for digestion. With so pretty a quarrel we shall not interfere, +having a wholesome respect for an Amazonian enemy who can stand fire like +salamanders. To be candid, we are puzzled by the sprightliness of our own +fancy, and do not very distinctly comprehend how we have managed to +involve the Regenerator, whose thoughts were bent on the pale and slim +sylphs of the boudoir, in a squabble with the rubicund and rotund vestals +who watch the inextinguishable flames of THE GREAT HEARTH. + +This marvellous dialogue, from which we have taken with our finger and +thumb a tit-bit here and there, might be the text for inexhaustible +annotation. It occupies no more than two pages; but, as Gibbon has said of +Tacitus, "they are the pages of Soyer." Every topic within the range of +human knowledge is touched, by direct exposition or collateral allusion. +The metaphysician and the theologian, the physiologist and the moralist, +are all challenged to investigate its dogmas, which, let us forewarn them, +are so curtly, positively, and oracularly propounded, as, if orthodox, to +need no commentary; and if heterodox, to demand accumulated mountains of +controversy to overwhelm them. For he, we believe, can hardly be deemed a +mean opponent, unworthy of a foeman's steel-pen, who has at his fingers' +ends "Mullets à la Montesquieu," "Fillets of Haddock à la St Paul," +"Saddle of Mutton à la Mirabeau," "Ribs of Beef à la Bolingbroke," +"Pounding Soufflé à la Mephistopheles," "Woodcock à la Staël," and "Filets +de Boeuf farcis à la Dr Johnson." + +The constitution of English cookery is precisely similar to the +constitution of the English language. Both were prophetically sketched by +Herodotus in his description of the army of Xerxes, which gathered its +numbers, and strength, and beauty, from "all the quarters in the shipman's +card." That imperishable mass of noble words--that glorious tongue in +which Soyer has prudently written the "Gastronomic Regenerator," is in +itself an unequalled specimen of felicitous cookery. The dishes which +furnished the most _recherché_ dinner Soyer ever dressed, the "Diner +Lucullusian à la Sampayo," being resolved into the chaos whence they arose +in faultless proportions and resistless grace, would not disclose elements +and ingredients more heterogenous, remote, and altered from their primal +nature, than those which go to the composition of the few sentences in +which he tells us of this resuscitation of the _cæna_ of Petronius. A +thousand years and a thousand accidents, the deepest erudition and the +keenest ingenuity, the most delicate wit and most outrageous folly, have +been co-operating in the manufacture of the extraordinary vocabulary which +has enabled the Regenerator himself to concoct the following unparalleled +receipt for + + "THE CELESTIAL AND TERRESTRIAL CREAM OF GREAT BRITAIN. + + "Procure, if possible, the antique Vase of the Roman Capitol; the Cup + of Hebe; the Strength of Hercules; and the Power of Jupiter;" + + "_Then proceed as follows:_--" + + "Have ready the chaste Vase (on the glittering rim of which three + doves are resting in peace), and in it deposit a Smile from the + Duchess of Sutherland, from which Terrestrial Déesse it will be most + graceful; then add a Lesson from the Duchess of Northumberland; the + Happy Remembrance of Lady Byron; an Invitation from the Marchioness + of Exeter; a Walk in the Fairy Palace of the Duchess of Buckingham; + an Honour of the Marchioness of Douro; a Sketch from Lady + Westmoreland; Lady Chesterfield's Conversation; the Deportment of the + Marchioness of Aylesbury; the Affability of Lady Marcus Hill; some + Romances of Mrs Norton; a Mite of Gold from Miss Coutts; a Royal + Dress from the Duchess of Buccleuch; a Reception from the Duchess of + Leinster; a Fragment of the Works of Lady Blessington; a Ministerial + Secret from Lady Peel; a Gift from the Duchess of Bedford; an + Interview with Madame de Bunsen; a Diplomatic Reminiscence from the + Marchioness of Clanricarde; an Autocratic Thought from the Baroness + Brunow; a Reflection from Lady John Russell; an amiable Word from + Lady Wilton; the Protection of the Countess de St Aulaire; a Seraphic + Strain from Lady Essex; a poetical gift of the Baroness de la + Calabrala; a Welcome from Lady Alice Peel; the Sylph-like form of the + Marchioness of Abercorn; a Soirée of the Duchess of Beaufort; a + Reverence of the Viscountess Jocelyn; and the Good-will of Lady + Palmerston. + + "Season with the Piquante Observation of the Marchioness of + Londonderry; the Stately Mein of the Countess of Jersey; the Trésor + of the Baroness Rothschild; the Noble Devotion of Lady Sale; the + Knowledge of the Fine Arts of the Marchioness of Lansdowne; the + Charity of the Lady De Grey; a Criticism from the Viscountess of + Melville;--with a Musical Accompaniment from the whole; and Portraits + of all these Ladies taken from the Book of Celebrated Beauties. + + "Amalgamate scientifically; and should you find this _Appareil_ + (which is without a parallel) does not mix well, do not regard the + expense for the completion of a dish worthy of the Gods! + + "Endeavour to procure, no matter at what price, a Virtuous Maxim from + the Book of Education of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent; a + Kiss from the Infant Princess Alice; an Innocent Trick of the + Princess-Royal; a Benevolent Visit from the Duchess of Gloucester; a + Maternal Sentiment of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge; a + Compliment from the Princess Augusta de Mecklenbourg; the future + Hopes of the Young Princess Mary;-- + + "And the Munificence of Her Majesty Queen Adelaide. + + "Cover the Vase with the Reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty, and let + it simmer for half a century, or more, if possible, over a Fire of + Immortal Roses. + + "Then uncover, with the greatest care and precision, this Mysterious + Vase; garnish the top with the Aurora of a Spring Morning; several + Rays of the Sun of France; the Serenity of an Italian Sky; and the + Universal Appreciation of the Peace of Europe. + + "Add a few Beams of the Aurora Borealis; sprinkle over with the + Virgin Snow of Mont Blanc; glaze with an Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, + cause the Star of the Shepherd to dart over it; and remove, as + quickly as possible, this _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the nineteenth century + from the Volcanic District. + + "Then fill Hebe's Enchanted Cup with a religious Balm, and with it + surround this mighty Cream of Immortality; + + "Terminate with the Silvery light of the Pale Queen of Night, without + disturbing a Ray of the Brilliancy of the brightest Queen of the + Day." + +Half a century hence, when the simmering over the roseate fire is silent, +may we, with M. Soyer, be present to gaze on the happy consummation of the +conceptions of his transcendant imagination! + +The Regenerator is too conversant with universal history not to know that +his book, in crossing the Tweed northwards, approaches a people more +familiar with its fundamental principles than any other inhabitants of +these Fortunate Isles. England, for any thing we care, may deserve the +opprobrious title of perfidious Albion. Scotland--("Stands Scotland where +it did?")--was ever the firm friend of France. Ages ago, when our southern +cousins were incessantly fighting, we were constantly dining, with the +French. Our royal and noblest families were mingled by the dearest ties +with the purest and proudest blood of the adopted land of Mary. For +centuries uninterruptedly was maintained an interchange of every gentle +courtesy, and every friendly succour; and when the broadsword was not +needed to gleam in the front ranks of Gallic chivalry, the dirk never +failed to emit the first flash in the onslaughts of Gallic hospitality. +The Soyers of those times--dim precursors of the Regenerator--did not +disdain to alight on our hungry shores, and leave monuments of their +beneficence, which are grateful to this hour in the nostrils and to the +palate of prince and peasant. Nay, we shrewdly conjecture that some +time-honoured secrets still dwell with us, of which the memory has long +since perished in their birth-place. Boastful we may not suffer ourselves +to be. But if M. Soyer ever heard of, or dressed or tasted precisely as we +have dressed and tasted, what is known to us and a very limited circle of +acquaintances as "Lamb-toasty," we shall start instantly from the +penultimate habitation of Ultima Thule, commonly known as John O'Groat's +House, expressly to test his veracity, and gratify our voracity. Perhaps +he may think it would not be too polite in us to transmit him the receipt. +Not for a wilderness of Regenerators! Could we unfold to him the awful +legend in connexion with it, of which we are almost the exclusive +depositaries, the cap so lightly lying on his brow would be projected +upwards to the roof by the instantaneous starting of his hair. The Last +Minstrel himself, to whom it was narrated, shook his head when he heard +it, and was never known to allude to it again; in reference to which +circumstance, all that the bitterest malice could insinuate was, that if +the story had been worth remembering, he was not likely to have forgotten +it. "One December midnight, a shriek"--is probably as far as we can now +venture to proceed. There are some descendants of the parties, whose +feelings, even after the lapse of five hundred years, which is but as +yesterday in a Highlander's genealogy, we are bound to respect. In other +five hundred years, we shall, with more safety to ourselves, let them "sup +full of horrors." + +The Gastronomic Regenerator reminds us of no book so much as the +Despatches of Arthur Duke of Wellington. The orders of Soyer emanate from +a man with a clear, cool, determined mind--possessing a complete mastery +of his weapons and materials, and prompt to make them available for +meeting every contingency--singularly fertile in conceiving, and fortunate +without a check in executing, sudden, rapid, and difficult +combinations--overlooking nothing with his eagle eye, and, by the powerful +felicity of his resources, making the most of every thing--matchless in +his "Hors-d'OEuvres"--unassailable in his "Removes"--impregnable in his +"Pièces de resistance"--and unconquerable with his "Flanks." His +directions are lucid, precise, brief, and unmistakeable. There is not a +word in them superfluous--or off the matter immediately on hand--or not +directly to the point. They are not the dreams of a visionary theorist and +enthusiast, but the hard, solid, real results of the vast experience of a +tried veteran, who has personally superintended or executed all the +operations of which he writes. It may be matter of dispute whether +Wellington or Soyer acquired their knowledge in the face of the hotter +fire. They are both great Chiefs--whose mental and intellectual faculties +have a wonderful similarity--and whose sayings and doings are +characterised by an astonishing resemblance in nerve, perspicuity, vigour, +and success. In one respect M. Soyer has an advantage over his illustrious +contemporary. His Despatches are addressed to an army which as far +outnumbers any force every commanded or handled by the Hero of Waterloo, +as the stars in the blue empyrean exceed the gas-lamps of London--an army +which, instead of diminishing under any circumstances, evinces a tendency, +we fear, of steadily swelling its ranks year by year, and day by day--a +standing army, which the strong hand of the most jealous republicanism +cannot suppress, and which the realization of the bright chimera of +universal peace will fail to disband. Before many months are gone, +thousands and tens of thousands will be marching and countermarching, +cutting and skewering, broiling and freezing, in blind obedience to the +commands of the Regenerator. "Peace hath her victories no less than those +of war." But it is not to be forgotten that if the sword of Wellington had +not restored and confirmed the tranquillity of the world, the +carving-knife of Soyer might not have been so bright. + +The confidence of Soyer in his own handiwork is not the arrogant +presumption of vanity, but the calm self-reliance of genius. There is a +deal of good sense in the paragraph which we now quote:-- + + "Although I am entirely satisfied with the composition, distribution, + and arrangement of my book, should some few little mistakes be + discovered they will be the more excusable under those circumstances, + as in many instances I was unable to devote that tedious time + required for correction; and although I have taken all possible care + to prescribe, by weight and measure, the exact quantity of + ingredients used in the following receipts for the seasoning and + preparing of all kinds of comestibles, I must observe that the + ingredients are not all either of the same size or quality; for + instance, some eggs are much larger than others, some pepper + stronger, salt salter, and even some sugar sweeter. In vegetables, + again, there is a considerable difference in point of size and + quality; fruit is subject to the same variation, and, in fact all + description of food is subject to a similar fluctuation. I am far, + however, from taking these disproportions for excuses, but feel + satisfied, if the medium of the specified ingredients be used, and + the receipts in other respects closely followed, nothing can hinder + success." + +It seems a childish remark to make, that all salts do not coincide in +their saltness, nor sugars in their sweetness. The principle, however, +which the observation contains within it, is any thing but childish. It +implies, that, supposing the accuracy of a Soyer to be nearly infallible, +the faith in his instructions must never be so implicit as to supersede +the testimony of one's own senses, and the admonitions of one's own +judgment. It is with the most poignant recollections that we acknowledge +the justice of the Regenerator's caution on this head. We once, with a +friend who shared our martyrdom, tried to make onion soup in exact +conformity with what was set down in an Oracle of Cookery, which a foul +mischance had placed across our path. With unerring but inflecting +fidelity, we filled, and mixed, and stirred, and watched, the fatal +caldron. The result was to the eye inexpressibly alarming. A thick oily +fluid, repulsive in colour, but infinitely more so in smell, fell with a +flabby, heavy, lazy stream, into the soup-plate. Having swallowed, with a +Laocoonic contortion of countenance, two or three mouthfuls, our +individual eyes wandered stealthily towards our neighbour. Evidently we +were fellow-sufferers; but pride, which has occasioned so many lamentable +catastrophes, made us both dumb and obdurate in our agony. Slowly and +sadly, at lengthened intervals, the spoon, with its abominable freight, +continued to make silent voyages from the platters to our lips. How long +we made fools of ourselves it is not necessary to calculate. Suddenly, by +a simultaneous impulse, the two windows of the room favoured the headlong +exit of two wretches whose accumulated grievances were heavier than they +could endure. Hours rolled away, while the beautiful face of Winandermere +looked as ugly as Styx, as we writhed along its banks, more miserably +moaning than the hopeless beggar who sighed for the propitiatory obolus to +Charon. And from that irrevocable hour we have abandoned onions to the +heroines of tragedy. Fools, in spite of all warning, are taught by such a +process as that to which we submitted. Wise men, take a hint. + +"Nature, says I to myself"--Soyer is speaking--"compels us to dine more or +less once a-day." The average which oscillates between the "more" and the +"less," it requires considerable dexterity to catch. Having read six +hundred pages and fourteen hundred receipts, the question is, where are we +to begin? Our helplessness is confessed. Is it possible the Regenerator +is, after all, more tantalizing than the Barmecide? No--here is the very +aid we desiderate. Our readers shall judge of a + + "DINNER PARTY AT HOME." + + BILL OF FARE FOR EIGHT PERSONS. + + Asparagus. + + New Potatoes. + + 1 SOUP. + French Pot au Feu. + + 1 FISH. + 3 Slices of Salmon en matelote. + + 2 REMOVES. + Braised Fowls with spring vegetables. + Leg of Mutton basted with devil's tears. + + 2 ENTREES. + Lamb Cutlets with asparagus, peas. + Salmi of Plovers with mushrooms. + + 2 ROASTS. + 2 Ducklings. + 4 Pigeons barded with vine leaves. + + 4 ENTREMETS. + Orange Jelly. + Green peas. + Omelette, with fine herbs. + Gooseberry Tart with cream. + + 1 REMOVE. + Iced Cake with fruits. + + "Nothing but light wine is drunk at the first course, but at the + second my guests are at liberty to drink wines of any other + description, intercepting them with several hors-d'oeuvres, which + are small dishes of French pickled olives and sardines, thin slices + of Bologna sausage, fillets of anchovies, ciboulettes, or very small + green onions, radishes, &c.; also a plain dressed salade à la + Français, (for which see end of the entrées, Kitchen at Home), + fromage de brie Neufchatel, or even Windsor cheese, when it can be + procured. The coffee and dessert I usually leave to the good taste + and economy of my menagere." + +We shall be exceedingly curious to hear how many hundred parties of eight +persons, upon reading this bill of fare in our pages, will, without loss +of time, congregate in order to do it substantial honour. Such clattering +of brass and brandishing of steel may strike a new government as +symptomatical or preparatory of a popular rising. We may therefore +reassure them with the information, that those who sit down with M. Soyer, +will have little thought of rising for a long time afterwards. + +We have introduced the Gastronomic Regenerator to public notice in that +strain which its external appearance, its title, its scheme and its +contents, demand and justify. But we must not, even good-humouredly, +mislead those for whose use its publication is principally intended. To +all intents and purposes M. Soyer's work is strictly and most intelligibly +practical. It is as full of matter as an egg is full of meat; and the +household which would travel through its multitudinous lessons must be as +full of meat as the Regenerator is full of matter. The humblest, as well +as the wealthiest kitchen economy, is considered and instructed; nor will +the three hundred receipts at the conclusion of the volume, which are more +peculiarly applicable to the "Kitchen at Home," be, probably the portion +of the book least agreeable and valuable to the general community. For +example, just before shaking hands with him, let us listen to M. Soyer, +beginning admirably to discourse + + _Of the Choosing and Roasting of Plain Joints._ + + "Here I must claim all the attention of my readers. Many of the + profession will, I have no doubt, be surprised that I should dwell + upon a subject, which appears of so little importance, saying that, + from the plain cook to the most professed, all know how to roast or + boil a piece of meat; but there I must beg their pardon. I will + instance myself, for, previously to my forming any intention of + writing the present work, I had not devoted the time necessary to + become professionally acquainted with it, always depending upon my + roasting cook, who had constant practice, myself only having the + knowledge of whether or not properly done. I have since not only + studied it closely, but have made in many respects improvements upon + the old system, and many discoveries in that branch which I am sure + is the most beneficial to all classes of society, (remembering, as I + have before stated, that three parts of the animal food of this + country is served either plain-roasted or boiled) My first study was + the fire, which I soon perceived as too deep, consumed too much coal, + and required poking every half hour, thus sending dust and dirt all + over the joints, which were immediately basted to wash it off; seeing + plainly this inconvenience, I immediately remedied it by inventing my + new roasting fire-place, by which means I saved two hundred-weight of + coals per day, besides the advantage of never requiring to be poked, + being narrow and perpendicular; the fire is lighted with the greatest + facility, and the front of the fire being placed a foot back in the + chimney-piece, throws the heat of the fire direct upon the meat, and + not out at the sides, as many persons know, from the old roasting + ranges. I have many times placed ladies or gentlemen, visiting the + club, within two feet of the fire when six large joints have been + roasting, and they have been in perfect ignorance that it was near + them, until, upon opening the wing of the screen by surprise, they + have appeared quite terrified to think they were so near such an + immense furnace. My next idea was to discontinue basting, perhaps a + bold attempt to change and upset at once the custom of almost all + nations and ages, but being so confident of its evil effects and + tediousness, I at once did away with it, and derived the greatest + benefit (for explanation, see remarks at the commencement of the + roasts in the Kitchen of the Wealthy,) for the quality of meat in + England is, I may say, superior to any other nation; its moist soil + producing fine grass almost all the year round, which is the best + food for every description of cattle; whilst in some countries not so + favoured by nature they are obliged to have recourse to artificial + food, which fattens the animals but decreases the flavour of the + meat: and, again, we, must take into consideration the care and + attention paid by the farmers and graziers to improve the stock of + those unfortunate benefactors of the human family." + +How full of milky kindness is his language, still breathing the spirit of +that predominant idea--the tranquillisation of the universe by "Copious +Dinners!" He has given up "basting" with success. Men may as well give up +basting one another. Nobody will envy the Regenerator the bloodless +fillets worthily encircling his forehead, should the aspirations of his +benevolent soul in his lifetime assume any tangible shape. But if a more +distant futurity is destined to witness the lofty triumph, he may yet +depart in the confidence of its occurrence. The most precious fruits ripen +the most slowly. The sun itself does not burst at once into meridian +splendour. Gradually breaks the morning; and the mellow light glides +noiselessly along, tinging mountain, forest, and city spire, till a +stealthy possession seems to be taken of the whole upper surface of +creation, and the mighty monarch at last uprises on a world prepared to +expect, to hail, and to reverence his perfect and unclouded majesty. + + + + +THE LATE AND THE PRESENT MINISTRY. + + +Our sentiments with regard to the change of policy on the part of Sir +Robert Peel and his coadjutors, were early, and we hope forcibly, +expressed. We advocated then, as ever, the principle of protection to +native industry and agriculture, not as a class-benefit, but on far deeper +and more important considerations. We deprecated the rash experiment of +departing from a system under which we had flourished so long--of yielding +to the clamours of a grasping and interested faction, whose object in +raising the cry of cheap bread, was less the welfare of the working man, +than the depression of his wages, and a corresponding additional profit to +themselves. The decline of agricultural prosperity--inevitable if the +anticipations of the free traders should be fulfilled--seems to us an evil +of the greatest possible magnitude, and the more dangerous because the +operation must be necessarily slow. And in particular, we protested +against the introduction of free-trade measures, at a period when their +consideration was not called for by the pressure of any exigency, when the +demand for labour was almost without parallel, and before the merits of +the sliding-scale of duty, introduced by Sir Robert Peel himself in the +present Parliament, had been sufficiently tested or observed. Those who +make extravagant boast of the soundness and sagacity of their leader +cannot deny, that the facts upon which he based his plan of financial +reform, were in reality not facts, but fallacies. The political Churchill +enunciated his _Prophecy of Famine_, not hesitatingly nor doubtfully, but +in the broadest and the strongest language. Month after month glided away, +and still the famine came not; until men, marvelling at the unaccountable +delay, looked for it as the ignorant do for the coming of a predicted +eclipse, and were informed by the great astrologer of the day that it was +put off for an indefinite period! Now, when another and a more beautiful +harvest is just beginning, we find that in reality the prophecy was a mere +delusion; that there were no grounds whatever to justify any such +anticipation, and that the pseudo-famine was a mere stalking-horse, +erected for the purpose of concealing the stealthy advance of free-trade. + +If this measure of free-trade was in itself right and proper, it required +no such paltry accessories and stage tricks to make it palatable to the +nation at large. Nay, we go further, and say, that under no circumstances +ought the distress of a single year to be assigned as a sufficient reason +for a great fiscal change which must derange the whole internal economy +and foreign relations of the country, and which must be permanent in its +effects. There is, and can be, no such thing as a permanent provision for +exigencies. Were it so, the art of government might be reduced to +principles as unerring in their operation as the tables of an assurance +company--every evil would be provided for before it occurred, and +fluctuations become as unknown among us as the recurrence of an +earthquake. A famine, had it really occurred, would have been no apology +for a total repeal of the corn-laws, though it might have been a good +reason for their suspension. As, however, no famine took place, we take +the prophecy at its proper value, and dismiss it at once to the limbo of +popular delusions; at the same time, we trust that future historians, when +they write this chapter of our chronicles, will not altogether overlook +the nature of the foundation upon which this change has been placed. + +It requires no great penetration to discover how the repeal of the +corn-laws has been carried. The leaders of a powerful party who for ten +years misgoverned the country, were naturally desirous, after an exile of +half that period, to retaste the sweets of office--and were urged +thereunto, not only by their own appetites, but by the clamour of a +ravenous crew behind them, who cared nothing for principle. While in +power, they had remained most dogmatically opposed to the repeal of the +corn-laws. Lord Melbourne denounced the idea as maniacal--he was +supported in that view by almost every one of his colleagues; nor was it +until they found themselves upon the eve of ejectment, that any new light +ever dawned upon the minds of the steadfast myrmidons of Whiggery. The +election of 1841, which turned them out of office made matters worse +instead of better. They now saw no prospect of a restoration to power, +unless they could adopt some blatant cry similar to that which formerly +brought them in. Such a cry was rather difficult to be found. Their +ignorance of finance, their mismanagement abroad, their gross bungling of +almost every measure which they touched, had made them so unpopular that +the nation at large regarded their return to office much as a sufferer +from nightmare contemplates the arrival of his nocturnal visitant. +Undeterred by scruple or by conscience, they would with the greatest +readiness have handed over the national churches to the tender mercies of +the Dissenters, if such a measure could have facilitated their recall to +the pleasant Goshen of Downing Street. It was not however, either +advisable or necessary to carry matters quite so far. Midway between them +and revolution lay the corn-law question once despised but now very +valuable as a workable engine. The original advocates of abolition were +not prime favourites with the Whigs. The leaders of that party have always +been painfully and even ludicrously particular abut their associates. +Liberal in appearance they yet bind themselves together with a thin belt +of aristocratic prejudice and though insatiable in their lust for public +applause, they obstinately refuse to strengthen their coterie by any more +popular addition. They found the corn-law question in the hands of Messrs +Cobden, Bright and Wilson--men of the people--who by their own untiring +energy and the efforts of the subsidiary League, had brought the question +prominently forward, and were fighting independent of party, a sort of +guerilla battle in support of their favourite principle. Our regard for +these gentlemen is not of the highest order, but we should do them great +injustice if we did not bear testimony to the zeal and perseverance they +have exhibited throughout. These are qualities which may be displayed +alike in a good and in an evil cause; and yet earnestness of purpose is at +all times a high attribute of manhood, and enforces the respect of an +enemy. With the constitution of the League we have at present nothing to +do. The organization and existence of such a body, for the purposes of +avowed agitation, was a fact thoroughly within the cognisance of +ministers--it was checked, and is now triumphant, and may therefore prove +the precursor of greater democratic movements. + +The question of the corn-laws was, however, emphatically theirs. A body of +men, consisting almost entirely of master manufacturers, had conceived the +project of getting rid of a law which interfered materially, according to +their views, with the profit and interests of their class. Their arguments +were specious, their enthusiasm in the cause unbounded. They spared no +exertions, grudged no expense, to obtain converts; they set up gratuitous +newspapers, hired orators, held meetings, established bazars--in short +erected such a complicated machine of agitation as had never before +entered into the minds of democrats to conceive. With all this however, +their success, save for political accident, was doubtful. The leaders of +the League were not popular even with their own workmen. Some of the +simpler rules of political economy are tolerably well known among the +operative classes, and of these none is better understood than the +relationship betwixt the prices of labour and of food. Cheap bread, if +accompanied at the same time by a reduction of wages, was at best but a +questionable blessing; nor were these doubts at all dispelled by the +determined resistance of the master manufacturers to every scheme proposed +for shortening the hours of labour, and ameliorating the social as well as +the moral condition of the poor. All that the taskmaster cared for was the +completion of the daily tale. The truck system--that most infamous species +of cruel and tyrannical robbery--gave sad testimony of the extent, as well +as the meanness, of the avarice which could wring profit even from the +most degraded source, and which absolutely sought to establish, here, +within the heart of Britain, a slavery as complete and more odious than +that which is the disgrace of the American republic. It is, therefore, not +to be wondered at if the great mass of the working population regarded the +proceedings of the Anti-Corn-law League with apathy and indifference. For, +be it remarked, that the original Leaguers were by no means thorough-paced +free-traders. Their motive was to deal most summarily with every +restriction which stood in the way of their business, both as regarded +export and import, and the establishment of a lower rate of wages. For +such purposes they were ready to sacrifice every interest in the +commonwealth except their own; but they showed no symptoms whatever of +anxiety to discard restriction wherever it was felt to be advantageous to +themselves. They were, in fact, the aspiring monopolists of the country. +In their disordered imagination, the future position of Britain was to be +that of one mighty workshop, from which the whole world was to be +supplied--a commonalty of cotton, calico, and iron, with a Birmingham and +Manchester aristocracy. + +Such was the position of the League at the moment when the Whigs, eager +for a gathering-cry, came forward as auxiliaries; and yet we have some +doubt as to the propriety of that latter term. They did not come as +helpers--as men who, devoted in singleness of heart to the welfare of +their country, were anxious to assist in the promotion of a measure which +the sagacity of others had discovered--but claiming a sort of divine right +of opposition, similar to that which the lion exercises when the jackal +has run down the prey. Accordingly, upon the corn-laws did the magnanimous +Whig lion place its paw, and wheeze out a note of defiance against all +interlopers whatsoever. Henceforward that question was to be a Whig one. +English agriculture was not to receive its death from the ignoble hands of +Cobden and Co. + +Such was the move of the Whigs in the month of November last. A paltrier +one, in every sense of the word, was never yet attempted nor did the +simultaneous conversion of the whole party, with scarcely more than one or +two honourable exceptions, present a very creditable specimen of the +integrity of her Majesty's Opposition. They had become convinced--why or +wherefore was not stated--that "the time had now arrived" for a total +repeal of the corn-laws, and there was an end of the matter. They were +prepared to vote for it in Parliament--to go to the country with it as +their rallying-cry--to adopt it, in short, as their readiest +stepping-stone into office. The old champions of repeal--the +Leaguers--might go about their business. The conduct of the question was +now transferred into the same hands which had become imbecile and +paralysed in 1841, but which had since been renovated and invigorated by a +wholesome course of five years' banishment from office. + +It is somewhat remarkable, but rather instructive, that the Whigs do not +seem to have contemplated any other financial alteration beyond the repeal +of the corn-laws. Of an equitable adjustment of clashing interests, they +appear to have had no idea. It is quite true that they had been of old +well accustomed to a deep defalcation of the public revenue, and the +probability of the recurrence of _that_ fact, may have been viewed by them +as a mere bagatelle. From vague and general protestations of economy, we +can form no proper estimate of the real nature of their plans. Economy, or +that paltry system of paring, which passes with the Whigs for such, is, +after all, a political virtue of minor import. What we require from every +administration is the adoption of such measures only as shall tend to +promote the general wealth and prosperity of the country; and, in +consequence, render more easy the payment of the national burdens. Any +fiscal change which affects the revenue, must, as a matter of course, +affect some particular class of the community. A certain yearly sum has to +be made up--no matter how--and every million which is remitted from one +source of the revenue must be supplied by another. It is this necessity +which renders the administration of our finances so difficult. Great +Britain, when she obtained her place in the foremost rank of nations, had +to pay a fancy price for that supremacy. Our system of taxation is not the +growth of a few years, but of a large tract of time, embracing periods of +enormous expenditure and of intense excitement. It is of the most complex +and artificial nature; for the reservoir of the state is filled from a +thousand separate sources, and not one of these can be cut off without +occasioning a greater drain upon the rest. + +In such a state of things, it is quite natural that each particular +interest should be desirous to shift the burden from itself. This may not +be right nor proper, but it is natural; and the desire is greatly fostered +by the frequent changes which have of late been made in the financial +department, and by the alteration and adjustment of duties. The attack of +the League upon the agriculturists is a specimen of this, though upon the +largest scale; and the Whigs were quite ready to have lent it their +support, without any further consideration. That they were really and +sincerely converts to the new doctrine, we do not believe--but, if so, it +is little creditable to their understanding. The repeal of the corn-laws, +as a solitary and isolated measure, is, we maintain, an act of gross +injustice and impolicy--as part of a great financial reform, or rather +remodelment of our whole system, it may bear a different character. The +Whigs, however, in adopting it, gave no promise of an altered system. The +creed and articles of the League were ready made, and sufficient for them, +nor did they think it necessary to enlarge the sphere of their financial +relief; and so, towards the end of last year, they presented themselves in +the quality of aspirants for office. + +It is to us matter of great and lasting regret, that this move was not met +by Sir Robert Peel and his cabinet with a front of determined resistance. +Whatever may be the opinions of the late premier, of Lords Aberdeen and +Lincoln, or any other members of that cabinet, on the abstract advantages +of free-trade, we still hold that they were bound, in justice to the great +body of gentlemen whose suffrages in the House of Commons had carried them +into power, to have pursued a very different course. It is in vain for +them to take shelter under their privileges or their duties as ministers +of the crown. Their official dignity by no means relieved them from the +pledges, direct or implied, in virtue of which alone they were elevated to +that position. The understanding of the country at large was broad and +clear upon the point, that the agricultural interest should not suffer +from the acts of the late administration; and it was their duty, as well +as their true interest, to have kept that confidence inviolate. + +The financial plans of Sir Robert Peel have not yet been fully expounded. +Over-caution has always been his characteristic and his misfortune. It is +beyond dispute, that, in point of tact and business talent, he has no +superior; but he either does not possess, or will not exhibit, that +frankness which is necessary to make a leader not only respected but +beloved; and hence it is that he has again alienated from himself the +confidence of a large proportion of his followers. Enough, however, has +transpired to convince us that his scheme is of a much more comprehensive +nature than any which has been yet submitted. Various acts of his +administration have shown a strong tendency towards free-trade. The +establishment of the property and income tax, though apparently laid on to +retrieve the country from the effects of Whig mismanagement, seemed to us +at the time very ominous of a coming fiscal change. It organized a +machinery by means of which direct taxation, however graduated, became the +simplest method of raising the revenue; and the revision of the tariff was +doubtless another step in the same direction. + +If on these foundations it was intended to rear a perfect system of +free-trade--by which we understand an abolition of all restrictions and +protections, of all duties and customs on exports and on imports--and the +substitution, for revenue purposes, of direct taxation, we think that the +country may fairly complain of having been kept most lamentably in the +dark. It is a great--nay, a gigantic plan--one which certainly would +simplify or remove many of the intricacies of government,--it might +possibly put an end, as is most desirable, to all clashing interests at +home, and might open up abroad a new and greater field to the operations +of British industry. All these are possible, nay, probable results--at the +same time we are quite justified in saying, that if so wide and important +a change was really contemplated, it was somewhat hazardous, and surely +unprecedentedly bold, to keep it all the time concealed from public +observation, and to give a different gloss and colour to the measures +devised for its advancement. In reality, a more momentous question than +this does not exist. The fortunes of every man in this country are more or +less bound up with it,--it is one of the deepest import to our colonies, +and calculated to affect the whole range of our commercial relations. We +say further, that such a measure is not one which ought to be considered +in detail--that is, brought about by the gradual abolition of different +imposts without reference to the general end--but that, if entertained, it +ought to be proclaimed at once, and carried into effect so soon as the +nation has been enabled to pronounce an opinion upon it. + +Our surmises are, of course, conjectural; for hitherto Sir Robert Peel has +chosen to wear the mask of mystery, and has enunciated nothing clearly, +beyond a single statement, to the effect that the late bills for the +regulations of corn and the customs formed only a part of a larger +measure. It is to this reserve that Sir Robert owes his defeat; and we +cannot but deeply regret that he should have thought fit to persevere in +it at so serious a cost as the dismemberment of his party. We have a +strong and rooted objection to this kind of piecemeal legislation. It is, +we think, foreign to the genius of this country, which requires the +existence between the minister and his supporters of a certain degree of +confidence and reciprocity which in this case has certainly not been +accorded to the latter. The premier of Britain is not, and cannot be, +independent of the people. It is their confidence and opinion which does +practically make or mar him; and in the House of Commons, no measure +whatever ought to be proposed by a minister without a full and candid +admission of its real object, an exposition of its tendencies, and, at +least, an honest opinion of its results. + +There were, we think two courses open to Sir Robert Peel and his cabinet, +either of which might have been adopted, after the issue of the Russell +manifesto, with perfect consistency. The first of these, and the manlier +one, was a steady adherence, during the existence of the present +Parliament, to the established commercial regulations. They had already +done quite enough to free them from any charge of bigotry--they had +modified the corn-duties, with the consent even of the agricultural body, +who were induced to yield to that change on the ground that thereby a +permanent settlement of the question would be effected, and a baneful +agitation discontinued. It is quite true that neither of these results +followed. The settlement was not held to be permanent; and the agitation, +as is always the case after partial concession, was rather increased than +diminished. This, however, was a cogent reason why the ministry should not +have proceeded further. Under their guidance, and at their persuasion, the +agriculturists had already made a large concession, and that easiness of +temper on their part ought not to have been seized on as a ground for +further innovation. Within the walls of Parliament the Conservative party +possessed a large majority; without, if we except the manifestations of +the League, there was no popular cry whatever against the operation of the +sliding-scale. Even with the prospect of a bad winter--an auxiliary +circumstance not unlooked for by the Whigs--Lord John Russell and his +colleagues would have had no chance whatever of unseating their political +rivals, supported as these were by the votes of the country party. Had +distress absolutely occurred, the means of remedying the more immediate +pressure of the evil were in the hands of ministers, who, moreover, would +have been cordially assisted by every one in any scheme calculated to ward +away famine from the door of the industrious and the poor. In short, +there was no political necessity for any such precipitate change. + +Far better, therefore, would it have been for the late ministry had they +remained uninfluenced by the interested conversion of the Whigs. By doing +so they would have saved both character and consistency, without impairing +in the least degree the strength of her Majesty's government--an excuse +which the experience of a few mouths has shown to be utterly fallacious. +How, indeed, could it be otherwise? Was it conceivable that a change of +policy upon a point on which an immense majority of the supporters were +distinctly pledged, could _add_ to the permanent strength of the +ministry?--was no allowance to be made for irritated feelings, for broken +ties, for inevitable desertion on the part of those who believe themselves +to be wantonly betrayed? The Duke of Wellington surrendered his own +private opinion in order that her Majesty's government might be carried +on! A sentiment which might have been applauded to the echo in ancient +times but which, it must be confessed by all, is wholly inapplicable to +the notions of the century in which we live. The result has proved it. Her +Majesty's government was indeed able by joining with the Whig-Radical +faction, or rather by adopting their game to carry the corn-bill by the +most incongruous majority ever counted out in the lobby of St Stephens, +but at their very next step the day of reckoning arrived. Indeed the +presages of their coming fall was so apparent, that the Irish coercion +bill--the measure which more than any other if we may believe the tissue +of bloody and disgusting facts upon which its introduction was founded +demanded attention and despatch--was put off from day to day, lest a +hostile division upon it should oust the ministry before the corn-bill +could be carried through the House of Lords and receive the royal assent. +Had Sir Robert Peel and his supporters been wedded from their infancy +upwards to free-trade opinions--had these been the golden dreams of their +political life-principles which they had adhered to, and sworn by, through +many a long year of adversity and opposition--they could not have +manifested a more unseemly haste in seizing upon the favourable moment, +and paralysing all the efforts of the agricultural party, at a time when +their own official existence was fast drawing to its close. Public +opinion, as we are now told from a very high source, ought always to guide +a minister in the formation of his measures, irrespective of the +considerations of party. The axiom is indeed a true one, but true only +when followed out according to the letter of the constitution. Public +opinion is to be gathered neither from the voice, however loudly +expressed, of a clamant faction like the League--nor from the sentiments +enunciated by a changeable press, which shifts oftener, according to the +flow of its own proper interests, than the quicksands of the deceitful +Solway--nor even from the votes of renegades, who promised one thing upon +the hustings and promoted the reverse in Parliament--but from the +sentiments of the electors of the country, from _their_ votes and _their_ +understanding, which have not been appealed to since 1841, when +deliberately and unmistakeably they pronounced in favour of protection. + +This brings us to the alternative course, which, without any peril of +honesty or of honour, was open to the late ministry. We mean, a clear and +unreserved declaration of their future policy, and an appeal to the +country for its support. If Sir Robert Peel was convinced in his own mind +that the principles of protection which he had hitherto advocated were in +themselves objectionable--that the time had arrived for a great experiment +whereby the whole taxation of the realm should be remodelled, and the many +smaller sources of revenue abolished, in order to make way for a broader +and a simpler system--if, furthermore, he believed that the continuance +even of such agitation as prevailed upon the subject of the corn-laws, was +likely to become more serious and more hurtful to the general interest by +the factious declaration of the Whigs--then, he had it in his power at +once to test the opinion of the country, by offering to the crown the +alternative of his resignation or a dissolution of Parliament; and upon +obtaining the latter, to have put forth, in unambiguous language, a +statement of the policy which he intended thereafter to pursue, so that +the constituencies of the empire might fairly have chosen between +adherence to the ancient, or adoption of the novel plan. We can admit of +no excuse such as the stoppage of private business, or any other similar +impediment. These are reasons which, if just, might apply to every +dissolution of Parliament short of the statutory term; nor can they in the +present instance be brought forward, since the late government were by +their own confession seriously perplexed by the amount of railway and +other bills which this session have been crowded before Parliament, and +had sought, without discovering, some method which might check at an early +stage the flood of untoward speculation. In such a crisis as this, private +interests ought to have been as nothing in comparison with the public +good. If the choice lay between free-trade in its widest sense, and +protection, it was but common justice that the country should have had the +opportunity of making its selection. In no other way can public opinion be +gathered. At last general election the country declared for +protection--ministers since then have manoeuvred that protection away. +We were told that certain compensations were to be given; but, alas! the +ministry is no more, and compensation has perished with it. The old +balance has been disturbed, and the task of adjusting a new one--if that +indeed be contemplated--is now left to weak and incompetent hands. + +Most heartily, therefore, do we regret that these great changes, which +have free-trade for their ultimate object, were commenced in the present +Parliament. Sir Robert Peel cannot but have foreseen--indeed he +acknowledged it--that the corn-bill could not be carried without a +complete disorganization of the Conservative party. In his eyes this may +seem a small matter, but we view it very differently. It has shaken, and +that to a great degree, the confidence which the people of the country +were proud to place in the declarations and sincerity of the government. +It has generated a belief, now very common, that the plain course of open +and manly dealing has been abandoned for a system of finesse; and that for +the last few months--it may be longer--the leaders of the two great +political parties have been playing a match at chess, with less regard to +the safety of the instruments they were using, than to the exhibition of +their own adroitness. Perhaps no minister of this country ever owed more +to party than Sir Robert Peel; and yet, without the excuse of strong +necessity, he has not only abandoned that party, but placed it in a false +position. The majority of the Conservatives were sent to Parliament under +clear and distinct pledges, which honour forbade them to violate. This of +the corn-laws was so far from being a discretionary question, that the +continuance or discontinuance of agricultural protection was the great +theme of the hustings at last general election, and their opinions upon +that point became the touchstone on which the merits of the respective +candidates were tried. It is worse than vain to talk of Parliamentary +freedom, and the right of honourable members to act irrespective of the +opinion of their constituents. They are neither more nor less than the +embodied representatives of that opinion; and no man of uprightness or +honour--we say it deliberately--ought to retain his seat in the House of +Commons after the confidence of his supporters is withdrawn. It is neither +fair nor honourable to taunt members with having been too free and liberal +with their pledges before they knew the policy of their leaders. All men +do not possess that happy ambiguity of phrase which can bear a double +construction, and convey one meaning to the ear of the listener, whilst +another served for the purposes of future explanation. It is not pleasant +to believe that we are moving in an atmosphere of perpetual deceit. It is +not wholesome to be forced to construe sentences against their obvious and +open meaning, or to suspect every public speaker of wrapping up equivoques +in his statement. At the last general election there was no +misunderstanding. The Conservative candidates believed that their leaders +were resolved to uphold protection; the people believed so likewise, and +in consequence they gave them a majority. Situated as the protectionists +were, they had no alternative but to act in accordance with their first +professions, and to maintain their trust inviolate. + +We have no pleasure in referring to that tedious and protracted debate. +Yet this much we are bound to say, that the country party, under +circumstances of unparalleled discouragement, abandoned, nay, opposed by +their former chiefs, and deprived of the benefit which they undoubtedly +would have received from the great talents and untiring energy of Lord +Stanley--a champion too soon removed from the Lower House--did +nevertheless acquit themselves manfully and well, and have earned the +respect of all who, whatever may be their opinions, place a proper value +upon consistency. It was perhaps inevitable that in such a contest there +should have been a display of some asperity. We cannot blame those who, +believing themselves to have been betrayed, gave vent to their indignation +in language less measured than becomes the dignity of the British senate: +nor, had these displays been confined to the single question then at +issue, should we have alluded even remotely to the subject. But whilst our +sympathies are decidedly with the vanquished party--whilst we deplore as +strongly as they can the departure of the ministers from their earlier +policy at such a time and in such a manner--we cannot join with the more +violent of the protectionists in their virulent denunciations of Sir +Robert Peel, and we demur as to the policy of their vote upon the Irish +coercion bill, which vote was the immediate instrument of recalling the +Whigs to power. + +Sir Robert Peel has told us that he is contented to be judged by +posterity. He is so far wise in his appeal. The opinions of contemporaries +are comparatively worthless on a matter like this, and very few of us are +really able to form an unprejudiced opinion. But, unless we are greatly +mistaken, he does not contemplate the possibility of appearing before that +tribunal in his present posture and condition. There is much yet to come +upon which he must depend, not only for a posthumous verdict, but for that +which we hope he may yet receive, an honourable acquittal from those who +are at present alienated from his side. As the foe to agricultural +protection, he can look but for sorry praise--as the financial reformer of +the whole national system, he may, though at heavy risk, become a public +benefactor. Every thing depends upon the future. He has chosen to play a +very close and cautious game. His is a style of legislation not palatable +to the nation; for he has taken upon himself too boldly the functions and +responsibilities of a dictator--he has aspired to govern the freest +country of the world without the aid of party--and he has demanded a +larger and more implicit confidence, even whilst withholding explanation, +than any minister has ever yet exacted from the representatives of the +people. The risk, however, is his. But clearly, in our opinion, it was not +the policy of the protectionists, after the corn-bill was carried and past +control, to take a nominal revenge upon their former leader, and eject him +from office by a vote inconsistent with their previous professions. By +doing so, they have relieved him of the necessity which must soon have +become imperative, of announcing the full nature of his scheme of +financial reform; they have contributed to an interregnum, possibly of +some endurance, from which we do not augur much advantage to the public +welfare; and, finally, they have in some degree relinquished the credit +and the strength of their position. From the moment the corn-bill was +carried, they should have resolved themselves into a corps of observation. +Their numbers were formidable enough to have controlled either party; and +in all future measures, whenever explanation was required, they were in a +condition to have enforced it. + +The step, however, has been taken, and it is of course irremediable. All +that remains for them and for us is to watch the progress of events during +the remainder of the present Parliament--a period which, so far as we can +judge from recent disclosures, is likely to pass over without any very +marked attempts at innovation. The Whigs are at present too happy in the +resumption of office, to be actually dangerous. They are, or they profess +to be, in high good-humour. They have thrown aside for a time the besom of +Radical reform, and are now extending in place of it the olive-branch of +peace to each different section of their antagonists. We look, however, a +little below the surface, and we think that we can discover two very +cogent reasons for this state of singular placidity. In the first place, +the Whigs are in a minority in the House of Commons. Their political walk +cannot extend a yard beyond the limits of Sir Robert's sufferance; and as +the boundary line, like the Oregon, has not been clearly laid down, they +will be most cautious to avoid transgression. In the second place, they +are, as is well known, most miserably divided in opinion among themselves. +There is no kind of coherency in the councils of the present cabinet. They +cannot approach any single great question without the imminent risk of +internal discord; and it is only so long as they can remain quiescent that +any show of cordiality can be maintained among them. Accordingly, when we +look to Lord John Russell's manifestoes, we are quite delighted with their +imbecility. As a matter of course, he has put forward, in the first rank +of his declarations, the usual vague rhetoric about the social improvement +of the people, which is to be effected by the same means which the Whigs +have always used towards that desirable end--viz. by doing nothing. Then +there is the subject of education, which we must own opens up a vast field +for the exertions of government, if they will only seriously undertake it. +This, however, cannot be done without the establishment of a new +department in the state, which ought to have been created long ago--we +mean a board, with a Minister of public instruction at its head; but we +hardly expect that Lord John Russell will vigorously proceed to its +formation. Then come what are called sanatory measures, by which we +understand an improved system of sewerage, and a larger supply of water to +the inhabitants of the towns. On this point, we understand, the whole of +the cabinet are united, and we certainly rejoice to hear it. It is +certainly the first time in our experience, that a ministry has founded +its claims to public support on the ground of a promised superintendence +of drains and water-carts. Upon this topic, one of the members for +Edinburgh was extremely eloquent the other day upon the hustings. We hope +sincerely that he is in earnest, and that, for the credit of Whig +legislation, since we cannot obtain it from the municipality, our citizens +may occasionally be indulged with the sight of a sprinkled street in +summer, and that some means will be adopted for irrigating the closes, +which at present do stand most sorely in need of the sanatory services of +the scavenger. This point, then, of sewerage we freely concede to the +Whigs. Let them grapple with it manfully, annihilate all the +water-companies in the realm, and give us an unlimited supply of the pure +fresh element without restriction or assessment. They cannot be employed +more harmlessly--nay, more usefully, than in such a task. Let them also +look to the points of adequate endowment for hospitals, and the +institution of public baths and washing-houses, and for once in their +lives they shall promote measures of real importance and benefit to the +poor. + +But, unfortunately, sewerage and its concomitants form but a small part of +the considerations connected with the government of this country. A +ministry may ask some popularity, but it can hardly found a claim for +permanency on the fact of its attention to drains. In the first place, +Lord John Russell and his colleagues have serious difficulties before them +in the state of the public revenue. The late fiscal changes cannot but +have the effect of causing a most serious defalcation, which must be +immediately and summarily supplied. It will not do to attribute this +defalcation to the acts of the late government, since the Whigs were not +only the cordial supporters of these measures, but were ready to have +taken the initiative. They are as much answerable as Sir Robert Peel, if, +at the end of the present year, the accounts of Exchequer shall exhibit a +large deficiency, which cannot, consistently with their own policy, be +remedied by any new indirect taxation. The moment that free-trade is +adopted as a broad principle, there can be no going back upon former +steps. There is no resource left except a direct appeal to the purse, +which may, indeed, be made by an additional income-tax, if the country are +of a temper to submit to it. But we apprehend that a good deal of +negotiation will be necessary before any such measure can be carried. The +agriculturists are not in a mood to submit to any further burdens. The +eyes of the productive classes are by this time a little opened to the +effects of foreign importation, and their trade has been already much +crippled by the influx of manufactured articles from abroad. Above all, a +strong conviction is felt, both in England and in Scotland, of the gross +injustice of the system which throws the whole burden of the direct +taxation upon the inhabitants of these two countries, whilst Ireland is +entirely free. It is a system which admits of no excuse, and which cannot +continue long. The immunities which Ireland already enjoyed were any thing +but reasons for exempting her from the operation of income-tax. It is not +a question of relative poverty, for the scale is so adjusted that no man +is taxed except according to his possession; and it does seem utterly +inexplicable, and highly unjust to the Scotsman who pays his regular +assessments, and a per centage besides upon his income of £150, that the +Irishman, in similar circumstances, should be exempt from either charge. +It was this feeling, we believe, more than any other, which rendered the +increased grant to Maynooth college obnoxious to the greater part of the +British nation; and which, setting aside all other considerations, would +at once seal the fate of any ministry that might be rash enough to propose +the endowment of the Romish clergy out of the consolidated fund. An +increased direct taxation, therefore, would, under present circumstances, +be a most dangerous experiment for the Whigs; and yet, if they do not +attempt it, how are they to make good the almost certain deficiency of the +revenue? + +Probably that point may be postponed for future consideration. Sufficient +for the day is the evil thereof, and the sugar-duties are more immediately +pressing. Whether the West Indian proprietors are to receive the +_coup-de-grâce_ during the present year, or whether they are to be allowed +a further respite, seems at the present a matter of absolute uncertainty. +It is, however, merely a question of time. Free-trade cares not for the +colonies; and, indeed, whilst the work of protective abolition is going on +so rapidly both at home and abroad, no isolated interest has reason to +expect that it will be exempted from the common rule. Ireland, it seems, +is to have an extension of the franchise; and with respect to her social +grievances, Lord John Russell is hopeful that his ministry will be enabled +"to afford, not a complete and immediate remedy, _but some remedy--some +kind of improvement; so that some kind of hope may be entertained that_, +SOME TEN OR TWELVE YEARS HENCE, the country will, by the measures we +undertake, be in a far better state with respect to the frightful +destitution and misery which now prevail in that country." Here is a +precious enunciation of principles and grammar!--A complete remedy for the +Irish social grievances is avowedly out of the power of the most intrepid +of Whig politicians--a confession of which we presume Mr O'Connell will +not be slow to avail himself. But then he expects--or, to use his own +phraseology thinks--"it is _most likely_ to be in our power to afford" +_some_ remedy, _some_ kind of improvement, the nature of which is still in +embryo, but which shall be so matured that _some_ kind of hope may be +entertained, that in _some_ ten or twelve years hence the country may be +in a far better state with regard to the destitution which now prevails in +the country! Was there ever, we ask, in the whole history of oracles, any +thing more utterly devoid of meaning, more thoroughly and helplessly +vague, than the above declaration? Why, the whole hopes of the noble scion +of the house of Russell are filtered away to nothing before he has +achieved the limits of his sentence. There are four or five different +stages of trust through which we decline to follow him, being perfectly +convinced that the hope of his being likely to introduce any such +measure, is quite as improbable as the implied hope conveyed a little +further on, to the effect that he and his party may be allowed to remain +for some ten or twelve years in office, until these exceedingly musty +ideas all have resolved themselves into a tangible form. + +In the mean time it is some gratification to know that the Churches are to +be spared for the present. Not that Lord John Russell has any abstract +love for these institutions--for he has no objection to Romish endowment +out of the funds of the Irish Protestant Church--but then he is quite +aware that any such move on his part would lead to his instant and +ignominious expulsion from power. Earl Grey is of a different opinion; but +the construction of the present cabinet is such, that it admits of every +possible diversity of opinion, and was, in fact, so planned by the new +premier, that the lion and the lamb might lie down together, and Radical +Ward be installed in peace by the side of Conservative Lord Lincoln and of +Sidney Herbert, about a year ago the pride of the protectionists! + +There is something painfully ludicrous in Lord John's exposition of the +theories of cabinet construction. It was, as he experienced last winter, +quite impossible to bring the chiefs of his party to any thing like a +common understanding. The revelations of Mr Macaulay to his correspondent +in Edinburgh, gave any thing but a flattering picture of the unity which +then pervaded the councils of Chesham Place. It is gratifying to know, +that individuals who at that time expressed so exalted an opinion of the +intellects and temper of each other, should have met and consented to act +together in a spirit of mutual forgiveness. And we are now asked to +receive from the lips of Lord John this profound political axiom, that it +is not at all necessary that members of the same cabinet should agree in +their individual opinions. We have all heard of cabinets breaking up +through their own internal dissensions. Such a disruption, in the eyes of +Lord John, was an act of egregious folly. What was to have prevented each +man from voting according to his own opinions? On urgent questions, he +admits, they should maintain some show of unanimity; but, with all respect +for such an authority, we think he is unnecessarily scrupulous. Why +quarrel or dissolve upon any single point? Let every man vote according to +his own mind--let every question be considered an open one--and we shall +answer for the stability of the ministry. In fact, Lord John Russell has +at last discovered the political _elixir vitæ_. No disunion can break up +his administration, because disunion is the very principle upon which it +has been formed. He has sought support from all classes of men. He is so +far from disapproving of Conservative doctrines, that he absolutely has +solicited three members of the late government to hold office under him. +He asks no recantation of their former opinions, and binds them down to no +pledges for the future. Their associates, it is true, are to be men of +liberal opinions, some of them verging upon Chartism, and others avowed +ecclesiastical destructionists; but that need not deter them from +accepting and retaining office. We once knew a worthy Highland chief--a +more hospitable being never breathed--who towards the conclusion of his +third bottle, invariably lapsed into an affectionate polemical mood, and +with tears in his eyes used to put this question to his friends--"Why +can't a man be a Christian and a good fellow at the same time?" This is +just the theory of Lord John Russell. He can see no objection to diversity +of opinions, so long as the whole body of the cabinet are agreed upon one +essential point--that of holding fast by office; and surrendering it upon +no account whatever. + +Accordingly, when we look narrowly into his manifesto, we find that he has +chalked out for himself a course which makes this singular coalition by no +means absolutely impossible. He will do nothing, if he can help it, which +may give offence to any body. The cabinet are to have an easy task of it. +They have nothing to do but to sit still with uplifted oars, and allow the +vessel of the state to drift quietly along with the stream. We fear, +however, that the Whig Palinurus has not taken into account the existence +of such things as shoals and sand-banks. Let him provide what crew he +pleases, the keel, unless we are sadly mistaken, will erelong be grating +upon some submerged impediment; and then he will have a fair opportunity +of testing the discipline of his motley band. Neither sewerage nor +education can well be expected to last for ever. Enormous interests are at +present placed in his charge; and these, handled and deranged as they have +been of late, will not admit of idling or inattention. There can be no +dawdling with these as with the Irish social measures. They will not stand +the postponement of some ten or twelve years; nor will Lombard Street +permit a second derangement of the financial affairs of the nation. In the +manufacturing districts, the workmen are demanding the relief of a +controlling factory bill, and on that point the cabinet is divided. The +railway system requires particular attention, less for the sake of +remedying past ministerial neglect, than of regulating future proceedings. +The affairs of the colonies may erelong require the superintendence of a +calm, temperate, and experienced head; and, finally, there is the question +of revenue and the inchoate system of free-trade. There is quite enough +work ready to the hand of the present ministry, if they only choose to +undertake it. The country party, we believe, will form an effective and a +watchful opposition, and will prove the best safeguard against any rash or +uncalled-for experiments. Situated as they now are, they have no other +functions to perform; and we would earnestly entreat of them, during the +period which must elapse between the present time and the next general +election, to bury, in so far as may be, all animosity for the past; and to +reflect seriously in what manner the changes, which are now inevitable, +may be best carried out for the benefit of the nation at large. The +artificial fabric which has been reared during many years of conquest and +successful industry, has now been deprived of its equipoise, and is fast +becoming a ruin We thought, and we still think, that it may be difficult +to find a better; but the work of demolition has already commenced, and we +must do what we can to assist in the construction of another. At all +events, we are entitled to insist upon working rigidly by plan. Let us +know what we are about to do, before we bind our hands to any partial and +one-sided measure; and, above all things, let us take care that the poorer +classes of our fellow-subjects shall not suffer privation or want of +employment during the adjusting and development of the new commercial +theories. A little time will show their actual value. Long before the +invention of the Irish social remedies, we shall be enabled to judge how +far the free-trade policy of England is likely to be reciprocated +abroad--we shall learn too, by the sure index of the balance-sheet, +whether these changes are operating towards our loss or our gain; and we +shall also have some opportunity of testing the efficiency of the present +administration. Let us, at all events, be prepared for future action; and +since we cannot altogether dismiss from our minds the political history of +the last few months, let us make it a useful lesson. It may be instructive +for future statesmen to learn how the most powerful party in this age and +country has been broken up and severed, not by any act of their own, but +by the change of policy of their leader. It may also teach then the value +of candour and of open dealing--virtues of such universal application, +that we cannot yield to doctrines which would exclude then even from the +councils of a cabinet. + + +_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._ + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] _Notes and Recollections of a Professional Life._ By the late WM. +FERGUSSON, M.D., Inspector-General of Military Hospitals. Longmans: 1846. + +_The Military Miscellany._ By HENRY MARSHALL, F.R.S.E., Deputy +Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. Murray: 1846. + +[2] Sir Charles Napier. + +[3] "The author, soon after his last return from the West Indies, at the +close of the year 1817, was induced, from the then troubled state of the +country, to join the ranks of a volunteer corps in Scotland, which was +drilled and instructed by experienced men in all manner of ways, with the +exception of the one thing needful--the firing ball--for during the whole +time he remained with them, nearly two years, that was never thought of; +and this was the case generally with the whole volunteer force of Great +Britain, as well as the militia, at least in the early part of the war. +Future wars must and will recur, and volunteer corps will again be formed; +but if they be unused to the full-charged musket, however much their first +appearance may impose, they will be found, when brought into action, of as +much use as so many Chinese. Let them not suppose that until they have +attained this skill, which it is in the power of every man to do, they are +qualified to fight the battles of their country. * * * * In their present +state, supposing two such bodies to get into collision, it would indeed be +matter of wonder to think how they could contrive to kill one another +without the aid of the cannon and other adjuncts. If they carried +broomsticks on their shoulders, instead of muskets, they would no doubt +make a sturdy fight of it; but with fire-arms which they had never been +taught to use, the battle would resemble those of the Italian republics in +the middle ages, when mailed knights fought the livelong day without +mortal casualty."--DR FERGUSSON, p. 42. + +Is ball practice sufficiently attended to in our army generally? We are +inclined to doubt it. "We are economical people," says Dr Ferguson in +another place, "famed for straining at gnats and swallowing camels, and +the expense of ball cartridge is ever brought up in bar of the soldier +being in the constant habit of firing it." We should also like to see some +of our muskets replaced by rifles, an arm in which we have ever been +deficient. + +[4] Macaulay's _Miscellaneous Essays_. Article _Dryden_. + +[5] Ranke's _History of the Popes_ is a most valuable addition to +historical knowledge; but no one will assign it a place beside Livy or +Gibbon. + +[6] Macaulay's _Essays_. Article _Dryden_. + +[7] + + "Those rules of old discover'd, not devised, + As Nature still, but Nature methodised: + Nature, like Liberty, is but restrain'd + By the same laws which first herself ordain'd. + Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites, + When to repress, and when indulge our flights: + + * * * * * + + Just precepts thus from great examples given, + She drew from them what they derived from heaven." + _Essay on Criticism._ + +[8] _Peru._ _Reiseskizzen aus den Jahren_, 1838-1842. Von J. J. VON +TSCHUDI. Volume the second. + +[9] "Por un clavo se pierde una herradura, por una herradura un cavallo, +por un cavallo un caballero." + +[10] Stevenson, in his work on South America, refers to the extraordinary +longevity of the Peruvian Indians. In the church register at Barranca, he +found recorded the deaths of eleven persons in the course of seven years, +whose joint ages made up 1207 years, giving an average of 110 years per +man. Dr Tschudi mentions an Indian in Jauja, still living in 1839, and who +was born, if the register and the priest's word might be believed, in the +year 1697. Since the age of eleven years he had made a moderate daily use +of coca. However old, few Indians lose their teeth or hair. + +[11] _Godo_, _goth_, the nickname given by Peruvian Indians to the +Spaniards. + +[12] _The Gastronomic Regenerator; a Simplified and entirely New System of +Cookery, &c._ By MONSIEUR A. SOYER, of the Reform Club. London; 1846. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +60, No. 370, August 1846, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, AUGUST 1846 *** + +***** This file should be named 35731-8.txt or 35731-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/7/3/35731/ + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://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 60, No. 370, August 1846 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 31, 2011 [EBook #35731] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, AUGUST 1846 *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Library of Early Journals.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>BLACKWOOD'S<br />EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1> +<h2><span class="smcap">No.</span> CCCLXX.<span class="spacer2"> </span>AUGUST, 1846.<span class="spacer2"> </span><span class="smcap">Vol.</span> LX.</h2> + + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<h3>CONTENTS.</h3> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Army,</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">My College Friends. No. IV. Charles Russell, the Gentleman Commoner. Chapter I.,</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Romantic Drama,</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Minstrel's Curse. From Uhland,</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Mine, the Forest, and the Cordillera</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>"<span class="smcap">Moriamur pro Rege Nostro,</span>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Mesmeric Mountebanks,</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Cookery and Civilisation,</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Late and the Present Ministry,</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center">EDINBURGH:<br /> +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;<br /> +AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.<br /> +<br /> +<i>To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed.</i><br /> +<span class="smcaplc">SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcaplc">PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.</span></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">BLACKWOOD'S<br />EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><span class="smcap">No.</span> CCCLXX.<span class="spacer2"> </span>AUGUST, 1846.<span class="spacer2"> </span><span class="smcap">Vol.</span> LX.</span></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h2>THE ARMY.<span class="foot"><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></span></h2> + +<p>When we glance back at the bright page of British military history, so +thickly strewn with triumphs, so rarely checkered by a reverse, it seems +paradoxical to assert that the English are not a military nation. Such, +nevertheless, is the case. Our victories have been the result of no +especial fitness for the profession of arms, but of dauntless spirit and +cool stubborn courage, characterising the inhabitants of the narrow island +that breeds very valiant children. Mere bravery, however heroic, does not +of itself constitute an aptitude for the soldier's trade. Other qualities +are needful—qualities conspicuous in many European nations, but less +manifest in the Englishman. Naturally military nations are those of +France, the Highlands of Scotland, Poland, and Switzerland—every one of +them affording good specimens of the stuff peculiarly fitted for the +manufacture of soldiers. They all possess a martial bent, a taste for the +military career, submitting willingly to its hardships and privations, and +are endowed with a faculty of acquiring the management of offensive +weapons, with which for the most part they become acquainted early in +life. A system of national conscription, like that established in many +continental countries, is the readiest and surest means of giving a +military tone to the character of a people, and of increasing the civil +importance and respectability of an army. But without proceeding to so +extreme a measure, other ways may be devised of producing, as far as is +desirable, similar results.</p> + +<p>We appeal to all intelligent observers, and especially to military men, +whom travel or residence upon the Continent have qualified to judge, +whether in any of the great European states the soldier has hitherto +obtained so little of the public attention and solicitude as in England? +Whether in any country he is so completely detached from the population, +enjoying so little sympathy, in all respects so uncared for and unheeded +by the masses, and, we are sorry to say it, often so despised and looked +down upon, even by those classes whence he is taken? Let war call him to +the field, and for a moment he forces attention: his valour is extolled, +his fortitude admired, his sufferings are pitied. But when peace, bought +by his bravery and blood, is concluded, what ensues? Houses of Parliament +thank and commend him, towns illuminate in honour of his deeds, pensions +and peerages are showered upon his chiefs, perhaps some brief indulgence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +is accorded to himself; but it is a nine days' wonder, and those elapsed, +no living creature, save barrack masters, inspecting officers, and +Horse-guards authorities, gives him another thought, or wastes a moment +upon the consideration of what might render him a happier and a better +man. Like a well-tried sabre that has done its work and for the present +may lie idle, he is shelved in the barrack room, to be occasionally +glanced at with pride and satisfaction. Hilt and scabbard are, it is true, +kept carefully polished—drill and discipline are maintained; but +insufficient pains are taken to ascertain whether rust corrodes the blade, +whether the trusty servant, whose achievements have been so glorious and +advantageous, does not wear out his life in discouragement and +despondency. But this state of things, we hope and believe, is about to +change. We rejoice to see a daily increasing disposition on the part of +English legislators and of the English nation, to investigate and amend +the condition of their gallant defenders. If war is justly considered the +natural state of an army,<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small> peace, on the other hand, is the best time to +moot and discuss measures likely to raise its character and increase its +efficiency.</p> + +<p>We do not fear to be accused of advocating change for its own sake, or +what is vulgarly nicknamed Reform, in any of the institutions of this +country, whether civil or military. But we rejoice at the appearance of +books calculated to direct attention, we will not say to the abuses of the +army, but to its possible improvement. And we know no class of men better +qualified to write such books than army surgeons, whose occupations, when +attached to regiments, bring them of necessity into more frequent contact +with a greater variety of men, and to a more intimate acquaintance with +the soldier's real character and feelings, than the duties of field or +company officers in our service either exact or permit.</p> + +<p>"To obviate the reproaches I may encounter for presuming to write upon +subjects altogether military, I may be allowed to state, that during a +quarter of a century that I served with the armies of the country, I +officiated as surgeon of three different regiments in different parts of +the world. I embarked nine times from the shores of Britain with armaments +on foreign expeditions, and out of twenty-four years' actual service, (for +the year of the peace of Amiens has to be deducted,) I spent seventeen +years, or parts of them, in other climates, passing through every grade of +medical rank, in every variety of service, even to the sister service of +the navy."—<span class="smcap">Dr. Fergusson.</span> <i>Preface.</i></p> + +<p>These are the men, or we greatly err, to write books about the army. They +may not be conversant with tactics in the field, although even of those, +unless they wilfully shut both eyes and ears, they can hardly avoid +acquiring some knowledge. But on other matters connected with soldiers and +armies, they must be competent to speak, and should be listened to as +authorities. We look upon Dr Fergusson's testimony, and upon the +information—the result of his vast experience—which he gives us in +concise form and plain language, as most valuable; although some of the +changes he suggests have been accomplished, wholly or partially, since his +book was written. Mr Marshall's opportunities of personal observation +have, we suspect, been less extensive; but to atone for such deficiency, +he has been a diligent reader, and he places before us a host of military +authorities, references and statistical tables. The value of his +authorities may, perhaps, here and there be questioned; and he sometimes +gives, in the form of extracts, statements unauthenticated by a name, but +of which he does not himself seem to accept the responsibility. +Nevertheless, his book has merit, and is not unlikely to accomplish both +the objects proposed by its author,—namely, "to supply some information +respecting the constitution, laws, and usages of the army, and to excite +attention to the means which may meliorate the condition of soldiers, and +exalt their moral and intellectual character."</p> + +<p>These are three measures whose adoption would, we fully believe, elevate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +the character of the British soldier, increase his self-respect and +willingness to serve, and, consequently, his efficiency in the field and +good conduct in quarters. They will not be thought the worse of, we are +sure, because they would assimilate the organization of our army to that +of certain foreign services. The day is gone by when prejudice prevented +Englishmen from adopting improvements, merely because they were based upon +foreign example. The measures referred to, and whose adoption we would +strenuously urge, are—first, the enlistment of soldiers for limited +periods only; secondly, the total abolition of corporal punishment; +thirdly, the increase of rewards, and especially a gradual and cautious +augmentation of the number of commissions given to non-commissioned +officers. Be it understood that we recommend these changes collectively, +and not separately. They hinge upon each other, particularly the two last; +and if one of them be refused, the others may require modification.</p> + +<p>By the British constitution, no man may sell himself to unlimited +servitude. On what grounds, then, is the practice of enlistment for life +to be justified; and can it be justified upon any, even upon those of +expediency? Ought not the thoughtless and the destitute—for under these +heads the majority of recruits must at present be ranked—rather to be +protected against themselves, and preserved, as far as may be, from the +consequences of non-reflection and of want? Such is assuredly the duty of +a just and paternal government. Very different is the practice of this +country under the present system! Influenced by a boyish caprice, or +driven by necessity, an inexperienced lad takes the shilling and mounts +the cockade. After a while he gets weary of the service; perhaps he sees +opportunities, if once more a civilian, of making his way in the world. +But weary though he be, or eagerly as he may desire to strip off the +uniform assumed hastily, or by compulsion of circumstances, no perspective +of release encourages him to patient endurance. No hope of emancipation, +so long as his health holds good, or his services are found useful, smiles +to him in the distance. After twenty-one years he <i>may</i> obtain his +discharge, as a favour, but without pension. After twenty-five years, if +discharged at his own request, he gets sixpence a-day! Truly a cheering +prospect and great encouragement, to be liberated in the decline of life, +any trade that he had learned as a boy forgotten, and with sixpence a-day +as sole reward for having fought the battles and mounted the guards of his +country during a quarter of a century! What are the frequent results of so +gloomy a perspective? Despondency, desertion, drunkenness, and even +suicide.</p> + +<p>The British army, its strength considered, and in comparison with the +armies of other countries, is, undeniably, a very expensive establishment, +and the necessity of economy has been urged as an argument in favour of +unlimited enlistment. The evidence both of Dr Fergusson and of Mr Marshall +goes far to prove that one more fallacious was never advanced. Innumerable +are the artifices resorted to by soldiers, under the present system, in +the hope of obtaining their discharge—artifices sometimes successful, +frequently entailing expense on the government, and at times almost +impairing the efficiency of an army. Speaking of the last war, Dr +Fergusson says,—"Artificial ulcers of the legs were all but universal +amongst young recruits, and spurious ophthalmia was organised in +conspiracy so complicated and extended, that at one time it threatened +seriously to affect the general efficiency of the forces, and was in every +respect so alarming that the then military authorities durst not expose +its naked features to the world. These are the results, and ever will be +the results, whilst human nature is constituted as it is, of service for +life." That unlimited service is the chief cause of desertion may be +proved beyond a doubt, if there be any value in the statistics of armies +as given by Mr Marshall. In the year 1839, the mean strength of the French +army was three hundred and seventeen thousand five hundred and +seventy-eight men; the number condemned for desertion was six hundred and +six. Eight hundred and eighty-one conscripts were punished for failing to +join their corps. In the same year, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> our army, of which the strength +was less than one third of the French—under one hundred thousand men—the +deserters punished amounted to two thousand one hundred and ten, or nearly +one-fifth of the number of recruits annually raised. Where must we seek +the cause of so monstrous a disparity? Chiefly in the difference of the +term of service. The English soldier is by far the best paid and rationed; +most of his comforts are more cared for than those of the Frenchman; but +the latter takes his service kindly, because he knows that in six or seven +years (the period varies a little according to the arm served in) he will +be free to return to civil life, whilst still at an age to begin the world +on his own account. The following extract from the <i>Military Miscellany</i> +illustrates and confirms our present argument, that unlimited enlistment +is no saving to the country.</p> + +<p>"I have no adequate materials to enable me to state the mean duration of +service of men who enlist for the army; but I am disposed to conjecture +that it is not much, if at all, above ten years. It has, I believe, been +ascertained, that the average length of service performed by men now on +the permanent pension list, is about fifteen or sixteen years. Upon these +grounds I conclude that enlistment for life, as a means of obtaining an +average length of service of more than from ten to twelve years, is a +fallacy; and consequently, I submit whether it would not be an advisable +measure to abolish enlistment for an unlimited period, and to adopt a +regulation whereby a soldier might have the option of being discharged +after a certain length of service, say ten years."</p> + +<p>In estimating the average duration of service at ten to twelve years, Mr +Marshall has, we conjecture, taken into consideration the men discharged +under fifteen years' service, before which time they would not be entitled +to a pension. To the ten years' enlistment proposed by him, we should +prefer the term of seven years, fixed by Mr Wyndham's bill, passed in +1806, but rendered nugatory in 1808, by a clause in Lord Castlereagh's +Military bill, which made it optional to enlist for life, adding the +temptation of a higher bounty. The latter bait, aided by the +thoughtlessness of recruits, and by the cajolery of recruiting sergeants, +caused the engagement to be almost invariably for life. And since then, +Horse-guards' orders have been issued, forbidding recruiting officers to +accept men for limited service. According to Mr Wyndham's plan, the seven +years' engagement was to be prolonged indefinitely in war time. We should +not object to the latter arrangement, which is necessary for the safety of +the country. Nor is it when actively engaged in the field that soldiers +are likely to repine at length of service, but in the tedium of a +garrison, when no change, or prospect of one, no opportunity of +distinction, or chance of promotion, relieves the monotony of a military +existence.</p> + +<p>There is one advantage of short enlistments that has been overlooked both +by Dr Fergusson and by Mr Marshall, but which nevertheless is, in our +opinion, an important one. It is the increased military character that it +would give to the nation, the greater number of men whom it would +familiarize with the use of arms, and render competent to use them +effectually at a moment's notice. We believe that short enlistments, and +the other improvements already referred to, and which we shall presently +speak of at greater length, would produce, in this thickly peopled +kingdom, a regular annual supply of recruits, a large proportion of them +of a very superior class to those who now offer. On the other hand, the +army, instead of being thinned by desertions, transportations, and feigned +diseases, would each year give up from its ranks a number of young and +able-bodied men, who, whilst entering upon the occupations of civil life, +would in a great measure retain their soldierly qualities, and be ready, +in case of an emergency, to stand forward successfully in defence of their +homes and families. We have long been accustomed to look upon this country +as guaranteed from invasion by her wooden walls. Noble as the bulwark is, +there is no dissembling the fact, that its efficiency has been greatly +impaired by the progress of steam, rendering it extremely difficult, in +case of a war, effectually to guard our long line of coast. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> although +Europe seems now as disinclined for war as a long experience of the +blessings of peace can render her, this happy state cannot, in the nature +of things, last for ever. Let us suppose a general war, and a large body +of French troops thrown upon our shores in a night, whilst our armies were +absent on the battle fields of the Continent, or of America. The +supposition is startling, but cannot be viewed as absurd; many looked upon +its realization as certain when circumstances were far less favourable to +it than they would now be. How far would volunteers and militiamen, +hastily raised, unaccustomed to services in the field, and many of whom +had never fired a ball-cartridge in their lives,<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small> be able to cope, with +any chance of success, with fifty thousand French soldiers? And admitting +that they did successfully contend, and that superior numbers and +steadfast courage—although these, without good drill and discipline, are +of little avail against a veteran army—eventually gained the day, how +much more effective would they be, and how much loss of life and injury to +the country might be avoided, did their ranks contain a fair proportion of +men trained to arms, and able to instruct and encourage their comrades? +But these are subjects so suggestive as to afford themes for volumes, +where they might be better discussed than in the scanty pages of a review. +We can only afford to glance at them, and to throw out hints for others to +improve upon.</p> + +<p>The liability to the lash, inflicted, until very recently, even for the +least disgraceful offences, has long been thrown in the teeth of the +British soldier by his foreign brethren in arms. That infamous punishment +has been utterly disapproved and eloquently argued against by military men +of high rank and great abilities, whose enlightened minds and long +experience taught them to condemn it. The feeling of the nation is +strongly against it, the armies of other countries are seen to flourish +and improve without it, and yet it is still maintained, although gradually +sinking into disuse, and, we hope and believe, drawing near to its +abolition. Unnecessarily cruel as a punishment, ineffectual as an example +to repress crime, and stamping the indelible brand of infamy on men the +soul of whose profession should be a feeling of honour, why is it so +lovingly and tenaciously clung to? "The service would go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> to the +devil—could not be carried on without it—no soldiering without +flogging," is the reply of a section of officers—the minority, we +assuredly believe. "No one can doubt," says Dr Fergusson, "that for +infamous crimes there ought to be infamous punishments, and to them let +the lash be restricted." Be it so, but then devise some plan by which the +soldier, whose offence is so disgraceful as to need the most humiliating +of chastisements, shall be thenceforward excluded from the army. When he +leaves the hospital, let his discharge be handed to him. "A fine plan, +indeed!" it will be said. "Men will incur a flogging every day to get out +of the service." Doubtless they will, so long as service is unlimited. And +this is one reason why short enlistments and abolition of corporal +punishment should go together. Against desertion, transportation has +hitherto been found an ineffectual remedy. If men were enlisted for seven +years only, it would cease to be so. Few would then be sufficiently +perverse to risk five or seven years' transportation in order to get rid +of what remained of their period of service. To flog for drunkenness, +however frequent the relapse, is an absurdity, for it usually drives the +culprit to habits of increased intemperance, that he may forget the +disgraceful punishment he has suffered. In war time, when in the field +before the enemy, discipline should assume its most Spartan and inflexible +aspect. The deserter, the mutineer, the confirmed marauder, to the +provost-marshal and cord. For minor offences, there would be no difficulty +in finding appropriate punishments; such as fines, imprisonment in irons, +extra guards and pickets, fatigue-duty, and the like. No military +offenders should be punished by the cat. It is in direct opposition to the +spirit by which armies should be governed: a spirit of honour and +self-respect.</p> + +<p>"The incorrigible deserter," says Dr Fergusson, "may be safely committed +to penal service in the West Indies or the coast of Africa; and should the +pseudo-philanthropists interfere with the cant of false humanity, let them +be told that the best and bravest of our troops have too often been sent +there, as to posts of honour and duty, from which they are hereafter to be +saved by the substitution of the criminal and the worthless. The other +nations of the Continent, who have not these outlets, conduct the +discipline of their armies without flogging; and why should not we? They, +it may be said, cultivate the point of honour. And does not the germ of +pride and honour reside as well, and better, in the breast of the British +soldier, distinguished, as he has ever been, for fidelity to his colours, +obedience to his commanders, pride in his corps, and attachment to its +very name?"</p> + +<p>Mr Marshall's history of punishments in the army is rather to be termed +curious than useful. Agreeable it certainly cannot be considered, except +by those persons, if such there be, who luxuriate in Fox's <i>Book of +Martyrs</i>, or gloat over the annals of the Spanish Inquisition. It shows +human ingenuity taxed to the utmost to invent new tortures for the +soldier. The last adhered to, and, it may safely be said, the worst +devised, is the lash; and we need look back but a very little way to find +its infliction carried to a frightful extent. A thousand lashes used to be +no unusual award; and it sometimes happened (frequently, Mr Marshall +asserts, but this other information induces us to doubt) that a man who +had been unable, with safety to his life, to receive the whole of the +punishment at one time, was brought out again, as soon as his back was +skinned over, to take the rest. At one time there was no limit to the +number of lashes that a general court-martial might award. Mr Marshall +says, that at Amboyna, in the year 1813 or 1814, he knew three men to be +condemned to fifteen hundred lashes each. The whole punishment was +inflicted. At Dinapore, on the 12th September 1825, a man was sentenced to +nineteen hundred lashes, which sentence the commander-in-chief commuted to +twelve hundred. Such sentences, however, were in direct contradiction to +the general order of the 30th January 1807, by which "his Majesty was +graciously pleased to express his opinion, that no sentence for corporal +punishment should exceed one <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>thousand lashes." In 1812, when the powers +of a regimental court-martial had been limited to the infliction of three +hundred lashes, "many old officers believed, and did not hesitate to say, +that such limitation would destroy the discipline of the +army."—(<i>Marshall</i>, p. 185.) We cannot put the same faith that Mr +Marshall appears to do in the outrageous narratives of some of his +authorities. It is impossible, for instance, to swallow such a tale as we +find at page 267 of the <i>Military Miscellany</i>, of seventy men of one +battalion being flogged on the line of march in one day. This, however, is +only given as an <i>on dit</i>. Equally incredible is the story quoted from the +book of a certain Sergeant Teesdale, of ten to twenty-five men being +flogged daily for six weeks for coming dirty on parade; and another, which +Mr Marshall tells, of <i>seventeen thousand</i> lashes being for some time the +monthly allowance of a regiment in India—the said regiment being, we are +informed, treated very little worse than its neighbours. The articles of +war, as they stand at the present day, restrict the award of corporal +punishment, by a general court-martial, to two hundred lashes; by a +district court-martial, to one hundred and fifty; and by a regimental +court, to one hundred.</p> + +<p>We would put the question to any military man—even to the strongest +advocate of flogging—what is the usual effect of corporal punishment on +the soldier? Does it make or mar him, improve his character and correct +his vices, or render him more reckless and abandoned than before? The +conscientious answer would be, we are persuaded, that seldom is a good +soldier made of a flogged man. "There is not an instance in a thousand," +says Dr Jackson, "where severe punishment (flogging is here referred to) +has made a soldier what he ought to be; there are thousands where it has +rendered those who were forgetful and careless, rather than vicious, +insensible to honour, and abandoned to crime." But then the example is +supposed, erroneously, as we believe, to be of good operation. We cannot +admit that, to justify the practice of marking a man's shoulders with the +ineffaceable stripes of disgrace.</p> + +<p>In speaking of corporal punishment, we have considered only its moral +effect, and have not touched on the unnecessary and unequal amount of pain +it occasions. Much might be said upon this head. "My first objection to +flogging," says Sir Charles Napier, in his treatise "<i>On Military Law</i>," +published in 1837, "is, that it is torture,"—using the word, no doubt, in +the sense of inhumanity, and meaning that more pain than is necessary is +inflicted. Sir Charles's second objection is, that it is torture of a very +unequal infliction—varying, of course, according to the strength of the +drummers or others employed, to the rigour of the drum-major +superintending their exertions, and to other circumstances. Mr Marshall +tells us that different men suffer in very different degrees from +punishment of like severity. Tall slender men, of a sanguine temperament, +feel a flogging more severely than short, thickset ones; and instances +have been known of soldiers succumbing under a sixth part of the +punishment which others have borne and rapidly recovered from. The +presence of a surgeon is in many cases no guarantee against a fatal +result. "It is impossible to say what may be the effect of corporal +infliction with more certainty than to predict the consequences of a +surgical operation."—(<i>Military Miscellany</i>, p. 224.) "No medical officer +can answer either for the immediate or ultimate consequences of this +species of corporal punishment. Inflammation of the back, or general +fever, may occur after a very moderate infliction, and may terminate +fatally, notwithstanding the greatest diligence and attention on the part +of a well-informed and conscientious surgeon."—(<i>Ibid.</i> p. 276.) Besides +the reasons against corporal punishment above stated, Sir Charles Napier +advances and supports by argument six others equally cogent. Gustavus +Adolphus of Sweden, although he introduced into his army the species of +flogging known as the gantlope or gauntlet, rarely had recourse to it, +being persuaded that "such a disgrace cast a damp upon the soldier's +vivacity, and did not well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> agree with the notions which a high spirit +ought to entertain of honour." "Il ne faut point," says Kirckhoff, a +medical officer in the army of the king of the Netherlands, quoted by Mr +Marshall, "soumettre le soldat fautif à des punitions avilissantes. A quoi +bon les coups de bâton qu'on donne trop légèrement au soldat, si ce n'est +pour l'abrutir, et pour déshonorer le noble état du defenseur de la +patrie? Ce genre de punition déshonorant ne devrait être réservé qu'aux +lâches et aux traîtres; et dès qu'une fois un militaire l'aurait subi, il +faudrait l'exclure à jamais d'un ordre auquel les destins d'une nation +sont confiés; d'un ordre qui a pour base le courage, l'honneur, et toutes +les vertus généreuses."</p> + +<p>It is singular that whilst such remarkable ingenuity has been exhibited in +devising punishments for the soldier, so very little should have been +displayed in the invention of rewards. Of these latter, the most +legitimate and desirable are pensions and promotion. We would add a +third—a military order of merit to be bestowed upon men distinguishing +themselves by acts of gallantry, or by steady good conduct. Decorations of +this kind—we are convinced of it by our observations on various foreign +services—act as a strong incentive to the soldier. There exists in this +country a prejudice against their adoption, principally because we are +accustomed to see such rewards heaped without discrimination, and with a +profusion that renders them worthless, upon the soldiers of foreign +nations. There seems a natural tendency to the abuse of such institutions, +and Napoleon might well shudder were he to rise from his grave and see his +"Star of the Brave" dangling from the buttonhole of half the pamphleteers +and national guardsmen of the French capital. In other countries the +lavish profusion with which stars, crosses, riband-ends, and rosettes are +bestowed, is enough to raise a suspicion of collusion between the royal +donors and the jewellers and haberdashers of their dominions. But even +when largely distributed, we believe them to act as a spur to the soldier. +If there is a fear of England's becoming what we find so ridiculous in +others, a country where the non-decorated amongst military men are the +exception, let great caution be used in the bestowal of such honours. We +now refer to an order of merit for the soldiers only. With officers we +have at present nothing to do; although we shall be found upon occasion +equally ready and willing to support their just claims. But they can plead +their own cause, if not effectually, at least perseveringly, as the recent +numerous letters in newspapers, and articles in military periodicals, +claiming a decoration for Peninsular services, sufficiently prove. Such a +decoration was certainly nobly deserved, but, if conceded at all, it +should be given quickly, or its existence, it is to be feared, will be +very brief. Our present business, however, is with the soldier—the humble +private, the deserving non-commissioned officer.</p> + +<p>It is not unnatural that when tardy reflection comes to the thoughtless +lad who has sold himself to unlimited military bondage, he should be +anxious to know what provision is made for him when age or disease shall +cause his services to be dispensed with. Inquiry or reference informs him, +that should he be discharged after fourteen and under twenty-one years +service, so far disabled as to be <i>unable to work</i>—this is a +condition—he may be awarded the magnificent sum of from sixpence to +eightpence a-day! Discharged under twenty-one years' service, as disabled +for the army only, he may get a temporary pension of sixpence a-day for a +period varying from one month to five years. Discharged by indulgence +after twenty-five years, he may receive sixpence a-day. We have already +remarked on the little heed taken by civilians in this country of the +treatment and ordinances of the army. These statements will probably be +new to most of our non-military readers, many of whom, we doubt not, +entertain an absurd notion, that when a man has served his country well +and faithfully during twenty-five years, or is dismissed, as unable to +work, after fourteen years' servitude, he invariably finds a snug berth +ready for him at Chelsea, or at least has a pension<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> awarded to him +tolerably adequate to supply him with the bare necessaries of life, and to +keep him from begging or crossing-sweeping. As to the savings of soldiers +out of their pay, facilitated though they now are by the establishment of +savings' banks in the army, they can be but exceedingly small. A soldier's +pay varies from thirteen to fifteen pence, according to the time he has +served. Deduct from this the cost of his clothing, only a portion of which +is supplied to him free of charge, and sixpence a-day for his rations of +bread and meat, and what remains will frequently not exceed threepence +a-day for tobacco, vegetables, coffee, and other small necessaries. The +great difference between the pay, rations, and pensions of soldiers and +sailors, is not generally known. Besides receiving rations far more +abundant and varied, an able seaman gets thirty-four shillings per month +of twenty-eight days, more than double the pay of a soldier under seven +years' service. Seamen have a claim of right to be discharged after +twenty-one years' service with a pension of one shilling to fourteen pence +a-day. And, besides this, it must be remembered that a sailor may enlist +for a short time, and at its expiration, or at any time that he is +discharged, employment is open to him in the merchant service. But what is +the soldier to do when dismissed from the army at forty years of age or +upwards? "A very small number of men," says Mr Marshall, "are fit after +forty years of age for the arduous duties of the service." Surely it may +be claimed for our brave fellows that a more liberal system of pensioning +be adopted. We do not lose sight of the necessity of economy in these days +of heavy taxation; and before deciding on a plan, the matter should be +well sifted and considered. But we have already expressed our conviction +that limited service would of itself in various ways produce a pecuniary +saving to the government. Adequate pensions would have other beneficial +results. Mr Marshall throws out suggestions for a new scale of pensions, +and declares his opinion, that no man who has served twenty-one years + +should receive a smaller allowance than a shilling a-day.</p> + +<p>"The more striking," he proceeds to say, "the honourable example of an old +soldier enjoying his pension, the more likely is it to contribute to +spread a military feeling in the neighbourhood. But to repay the retired +soldier by a pension inadequate to his sustenance, must have the effect of +consigning him to the workhouse, and of sinking him and the army in the +estimation of the working class of the population; destroying all military +feeling, and, whilst the soldier is serving, weakening those important +aids to discipline—the cheerfulness and satisfaction which the prospect +of a pension, after a definite period, inspires."</p> + +<p>We now come to a branch of our subject encompassed with peculiar +difficulties, and that will be met with many objections; the present +system of disposing of commissions in the army is too convenient and +agreeable to a large and influential class of the community for it to be +otherwise. The most important part of the proposed scheme of rewards is +the bestowing of commissions upon sergeants. We are aware that, in the +present constitution of the army, much may be urged against such a plan +being carried out beyond an exceedingly limited extent. But most of the +objections would, we think, be removed by the adoption and consequences of +limited service, and by the extinction of corporal punishment. Others +would disappear before a greater attention to the education of the +soldier, and before some slight reductions in what are now erroneously +considered the necessary expenses of officers.</p> + +<p>Constituted and regulated as the British army now is, the immediate +consequences of enlistment to the young peasant or artisan of previous +respectability is a total breach with his family. However good his +previous character, the single fact of his entering what ought to be an +honourable profession, excludes him from the society and good opinion of +his nearest friends. Former associates shun and look coldly upon him, his +female relatives are ashamed to be seen walking with him, often the door +of his father's cottage or workshop is shut on his approach. The community +in general, there is no dissembling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> the fact, look upon soldiers as a +degraded class, and upon the recruit as a man consigned to evil company, +to idleness and the alehouse, and perhaps to the ignominy of the lash. To +brand an innocent man as criminal is the way to render him so. Avoided and +despised, the young soldier, to whom bad example is not wanting, speedily +comes to deserve the disreputable character which the mere assumption of a +red coat has caused to be fixed upon him. So long as military service +stands thus low in the opinion of the people, the army will have to +recruit its ranks from the profligate and the utterly destitute, and the +supply of respectable volunteers will be as limited as heretofore. At +present, most young men of a better class whom a temporary impulse, or a +predilection for the service, has induced to enlist, strain every nerve, +when they awake to their real position, to raise funds for their +discharge. In this their friends often aid them; and we have known +instances of incredible sacrifices being made by the poor to snatch a son +or brother from what they looked upon as the jaws of destruction. And thus +is it that a large proportion of the respectable recruits are bought out +after a brief period of service.</p> + +<p>Assuming limitation of service and the abolition of corporal punishment to +have been conceded, the next thing demanding attention would be the +education of the soldier. This has hitherto been sadly neglected, +strangely so at a period and in a country where education of the people is +so strongly and generally advocated. The schoolmaster is abroad, we are +told—we should be glad to hear of his visiting the barrack-room. To no +class of the population would a good plain education be more valuable than +to the soldier, as a means of filling up his abundant leisure, of +improving his moral condition, and preserving him from drunkenness and +vice. How extraordinary that its advantages should so long have been +overlooked, even by those to whom they ought to have been the most +palpable. "Of two hundred and fourteen officers," Mr Marshall writes, "who +returned answers to the following query, addressed to them by the General +Commanding in Chief, in 1834, only two or three recommended intellectual, +moral, or religious cultivation as a means of preventing crime:—'Are you +enabled to suggest any means of restraining, or eradicating the propensity +to drunkenness, so prevalent among the soldiery, and confessedly the +parent of the majority of military crimes?' A great variety of penal +enactments were recommended, but no one suggested the school master's +drill but Sir George Arthur and the late Colonel Oglander. The colonel's +words are:—'The only effectual corrective of this, as of every other +vice, is a sound and rational sense of religion. This is the only true +foundation of moral discipline. The establishment of libraries, and the +system of <i>adult</i> schools, would be useful in this view.'" To prevent crime +is surely better than to punish it. Vast pains are taken with the merely +military education of the soldier. A recruit is carefully drilled into the +perpendicular, taught to handle his musket, mount his guards, clean his +accoutrements—converted, in short, into an excellent automaton—and then +he is dismissed as perfect, and left to lounge away, as best he may, his +numerous hours of daily leisure. He has perhaps never been taught to read +and write, or may possess those accomplishments but imperfectly. What more +natural than to encourage, and, if necessary, to compel him to acquire +them, together with such other useful scholarship as it may be desirable +for him to possess? Education would be especially valuable under a system +of limited service. The soldier, leaving the army when still a young man, +would be better fitted than before he entered it, for any trade or +occupation he might adopt. And when the lower classes found that military +service was made a medium for the communication of knowledge, and that +their sons, after seven years passed under the colours, were better able +to get through the world advantageously and creditably than when they +enlisted, the present strong prejudice against a soldier's life would +rapidly become weakened, and finally disappear. The army would then be +looked upon by poor men with large families as no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> undesirable resource +for temporarily providing for one or two of their sons.</p> + +<p>It is certainly not creditable to this country, that in France, Prussia, +Holland, and even in Russia—that land of the serf and the Cossack—greater +pains are taken with the education of the soldier than in free and +enlightened England. It has become customary to compare our navy with that +of France, and when we are found to have a carronade or a cock-boat less +than our friends across the water, a shout of indignation is forthwith set +up by vigilant journalists and nervous naval officers. We heartily wish +that it were equally usual to contrast our army with that of the +French—not in respect of numbers, but of the attention paid to the +education and moral discipline of the men. Every French regiment has two +schools, a higher and a lower one. In the latter are taught reading, +writing, and arithmetic; in the former, geography, book-keeping, the +elements of geometry and fortification, and other things equally useful. +The schools are managed by lieutenants, aided by non-commissioned +officers; and sergeants recommended for commissions are required to pass +an examination in the branches of knowledge there taught. It is well known +that in the French service, as in most others, excepting the English, a +proportion of the commissions is set aside for the sergeants. In the +Prussian service there is a school in each battalion, superintended by a +captain and three lieutenants, who receive additional pay for alternately +taking a share in the instruction of the soldiers. "Non-commissioned +officers," Mr Marshall informs us, "who wish to become officers, first +undergo an examination in geography, history, simple mathematics, and the +French and German languages. At the end of another year they are again +examined in the same branches of knowledge, and also in algebra, military +drawing, and fortification. If they pass this second examination, they +become officers."</p> + +<p>How many of the young men, who, by virtue of interest or money, enter the +British army as ensigns and cornets, would be found willing to devote even +a small portion of their time to the instruction of the soldier? Very few, +we fear. By the majority, the idea would be scouted as a bore, and as +quite inconsistent with their dignity. Extra pay, however acceptable to +the comparatively needy Prussian lieutenant, might be expected to prove an +insufficient inducement in a service where it is frequently difficult to +find a subaltern to accept the duties of adjutant. None can entertain a +higher respect than we do for the gallant spirit and many excellent +qualities of the present race of British officers; but we confess a wish +that they would view their profession in a more serious light. Young men +entering the army seemingly imagine, that the sole object of their so +doing is to wear a well-made uniform, and dine at a pleasant mess; and +that, once dismissed to their duty by the adjutant, they may fairly +discard all idea of self-instruction and improvement. But war is an art, +and therefore its principles can be acquired but by study. Our young +officers too often neglect not only their military studies, but their +mental improvement in other respects; forgetting that the most valuable +part of a man's education is not that acquired at a public school before +the age of eighteen, but that which he bestows upon himself after that +age. The former is the foundation; the latter the fabric to be raised upon +it. We have known instances of smart subs deft upon parade, brilliants in +the ball-room, perfect models of a pretty soldier from plume to boot-heel, +so supremely ignorant of the common business of life as to be unable to +write a letter without a severe effort, or to draw a bill upon their +agents when no one was at hand to instruct them in its form. It was but +the other day that an officer related to us, that, being detached on an +outpost in one of our colonies, he found himself in company with two +brother subalterns, both most anxious to make a call upon their father's +strong-box, but totally ignorant how to effect the same. Their spirit was +very willing, but their pen lamentably weak; their exchequer was +exhausted, and in their mind's-eye the paternal coffers stood <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>invitingly +open; but nevertheless they sat helpless, ruefully contemplating oblong +slips of blank paper, until our friend, whose experience as a man of +business was somewhat greater, extricated them from their painful dilemma, +by drawing up the necessary document at <i>thirty days' sight</i>. In this +particular view, want of skill as a "pen and ink man" would probably not +be regretted by those most interested in their sons; and doubtless many +<i>governors</i> would exclaim, as fervently as Lord Douglas in <i>Marmion</i>,</p> + +<p class="poem">"Thanks to St Bothan, son of mine<br /> +Could never pen a written line!"</p> + +<p>Seriously speaking, a graver and more studious tone is wanted in our +service. It is found in the military services of other countries. German +and French officers take their calling far more <i>au sérieux</i> than do ours. +They find abundant time for pleasure, but also for solitude and reading, +and for attention to the improvement of the soldier. Dressing, dining, and +cigars, and beating the pavements of a garrison town with his boot-heels, +ought not to fill up the whole time of a subaltern officer. That in this +country they usually do so, will be admitted by all who have had +opportunities of observing young English officers in peace time. We could +bring hosts of witnesses in support of our assertion, but will content +ourselves with one whose competency to judge in such matters will not be +disputed. The following passages are from Major-General Sir George +Arthur's "General Observations upon Military Discipline, and the +Intellectual and Moral Improvement of both Officers and Soldiers."</p> + +<p>"I have said that education is essential, as well as moral character, and +so it is. Look into the habits of the officers of almost every regiment in +His Majesty's service—how are they formed? Do men study at all after they +get commissions? Very far from it; unless an officer is employed in the +field, his days are passed in mental idleness—his ordinary duties are +carried on instinctively—there is no intellectual exertion. To discuss +fluently upon women, play, horses, and wine, is, with some excellent +exceptions, the ordinary range of mess conversation. In these matters lie +the education of young officers, generally speaking, after entering the +service."</p> + +<p>"If the officers were not seen so habitually walking in the streets in +every garrison town, the soldiers would be less frequently found in +public-houses."</p> + +<p>The influence of example is great, especially when exercised by those whom +we are taught to look up to and respect. A change in the habits of +officers will go far to produce one in those of their men. French +officers, of whom we are sure that no British officer who has met them, +either in the field or in quarters, will speak without respect, feel a +pride and a pleasure in the instruction of the soldier, and take pains to +induce him to improve his mind, holding out as an incentive the prospect +of promotion. And such interest and solicitude produce, amongst other good +effects, an affectionate feeling on the part of the soldier towards his +superiors, which, far from interfering with discipline, makes him perform +his duties, often onerous and painful, with increased zeal and good-will. +For the want of this kindly sympathy between different ranks, and of the +moral instruction which, by elevating their character, would go far to +produce it, our soldiers are converted into mere machines, unable even to +think, often forbidden so to do. We are convinced that attention to the +education of the soldier, introduced simultaneously with short enlistments +and abolition of flogging, would speedily create in the army of this +country a body of non-commissioned officers, who, when promoted, would +disgrace no mess-table in the service. With the prospect of the epaulet +before them, they would strive to improve themselves, and to become fit +society for the men of higher breeding and education with whom they hoped +one day to be called upon to associate. For, if it be painful and +unpleasant to a body of gentlemen to have a coarse and ill-mannered man +thrust upon them, it is certainly not less so to the intruder, if he +possess one spark of feeling, to find himself shunned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> and looked coldly +upon by his new associates. The total abolition of corporal punishment is, +we consider, a necessary preliminary to promotion from the ranks on an +extensive scale. We were told four years ago, in the House of Commons, +during a debate on the Mutiny bill, that there were then in the British +army four colonels who were flogged men. Many will remember the story +related in a recent military publication, of the old field-officer who, +one day at the mess-table, or amongst a party of his comrades, declared +himself in favour of corporal punishment, on the ground that he himself +had never been worth a rush till he had taken his cool three hundred. +During a long war, abounding in opportunities of distinction, and at a +time when the lash was the universal punishment for nearly every offence, +it is not surprising that here and there a flogged man got his commission. +But, in our opinion, not only the circumstance of having been flogged, but +the mere liability to so degrading an infliction, might plausibly be urged +as an argument against promotion from the ranks. Let the lash, then, at +once and totally disappear; replace torture by instruction, hold out +judicious rewards instead of disgraceful punishment, appeal to the sense +of honour of the man, instead of to the sense of pain of the brute; and, +repudiating the harsh traditions of less enlightened days, lay it down as +an axiom, that the British soldier can and will fight at least as well +under a mild and generous system, as when the bloody thongs of the cat are +suspended <i>in terrorem</i> over him.</p> + +<p>The physical as well as moral training of the soldier should receive +attention, as a means both of filling up his time, thereby keeping him +from the alehouse, and of increasing his efficiency in the field. At +present the marching qualities of our armies are very far inferior to +their fighting ones. In the latter, they are surpassed by none—in the +former, equal to few. And yet how important is it that troops should be +able to perform long and rapid marches! The fate of a campaign, the +destruction of an enemy's army, may, and often does depend upon a forced +march. At that work there is scarcely an army in Europe worth the naming, +but would beat us, at least at the commencement of a war, and until our +soldiers had got their marching legs—a thing not done in a day, or +without great loss and inconvenience by straggling. Foot-sore men are +almost as great a nuisance and encumbrance to infantry, as sore-backed +horses to dragoons. Our soldiers are better fed than those of most other +countries, and to keep them in hard and serviceable condition they require +more exercise than they get. French soldiers are encouraged to practice +athletic exercises and games; running, quoit-playing, and fencing, the +latter especially, are their constant pastimes. Most of them are expert +swordsmen, no valueless accomplishment even to the man whose usual weapons +are musket and bayonet, but one that in our infantry regiments is +frequently neglected even by those whose only arm is the sword, namely, +the officers. Surely the man who carries a sword should know how to use it +in the most effectual manner. Let old officers say on whose side the +advantage usually was in the sword duels that occurred when Paris was +occupied by the Allies, and when the French officers, maddened by their +reverses, sought opportunities of picking quarrels with their conquerors. +The adjutant of a British foot regiment informed us, that on one occasion, +not very long ago, at a review of his corps by an officer of high rank, +the latter, after applauding the performances of the regiment, expressed a +wish to see the officers do the sword exercise. In obedience to orders, +the adjutant called the officers to the front. "I suppose, gentlemen," +said he, "that few of you know much about the sword exercise." His +assumption was not contradicted. "Probably, your best plan will be to +watch the sergeant-major and myself." And accordingly adjutant and +sergeant-major placed themselves in front of each flank, and the officers, +looking to them as fuglemen, went through their exercise with great +delicacy and tolerable correctness, to the perfect satisfaction of the +inspecting general, who probably was not disposed to be very captious. But +we are digressing from the subject of the soldier's <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>occupations. In +France, let a military work be required—a wall, road, or +fortification—and the soldiers slip into their working dresses, and +labour at it with a good will produced by additional pay. Thus were the +forts and vast wall now surrounding Paris run up in wonderfully short time +by the exertions of the soldiery. In all German garrison towns, we +believe—certainly in all that we have visited—is found an Exercitiums +Platz, a field or plot of ground with bars, poles, and other gymnastic +contrivances, reserved for the troops, who are frequently to be seen +there, amusing themselves, and improving their strength and activity of +body. We are aware of nothing of this kind in our service, beyond a rare +game at cricket, got up by the good-nature of officers. As Dr Fergusson +truly says, "of all European troops, our own appear to be the most +helpless and listless in their quarters. Whilst the soldiers of other +nations employ their leisure hours in fencing, gymnastics, and other +exercises of strength, ours are lounging idle, or muddled, awaiting the +hour of their unvaried meal, or the drum being beat for the daily +parades." This might easily be altered. It needs but to be thought of, +which hitherto it appears not to have been. No men are naturally more +adapted and prone to manly exercises than the English. Give the soldier +the opportunity, and he will gladly avail himself of it.</p> + +<p>Before closing this paper, a word or two on the equipment and dress of the +army will not be out of place. We are glad to find the opinions we have +long entertained on those subjects confirmed by a pithy and pointed +chapter in Dr Fergusson's book. The externals of the army have of late +been much discussed, and have undergone certain changes, scarcely +deserving the name of improvements. In regulating such matters, three +objects should be kept in view, and their pursuit never departed from; +lightness on the march, protection from the weather, ease of movement. The +attainment of these should be sought by every means; even by the +sacrifice, if necessary, of what pleases the eye. The most heavily laden, +the British soldier is in many respects the most inconveniently equipped, +of all European men-at-arms. The covering of his head, the material and +colour of his belts, the very form of the foot-soldier's overalls, cut +large over the shoe, as if on purpose to become dirty and draggled on the +march, seem selected with a view to occasion him as much uncomfort and +trouble as possible. Time was, when the soldier was compelled to powder +his hair and wear a queue and tight knee breeches, like a dancing master +or a French marquis of the <i>ancien régime</i>. For the sweeping away of such +absurdities, which must have been especially convenient and agreeable in a +bivouac; we may thank the Duke of York; but much as has been done, there +is much more to do. And first as regards the unnecessarily heavy belts, +the cumbersome and misplaced cartridge-box. Than the latter it would be +difficult to devise any thing more inconvenient, as all who have seen +British infantry in the field will admit. The soldier has to make a rapid +advance, to pursue a flying enemy, to scud across fields, leap ditches or +jump down banks when out skirmishing. At every spring or jump, bang goes +the lumbering cartridge-box against his posteriors, until he is fain to +use his hand to steady it, thereby of course greatly impeding his +progress, the swiftness and ease of running depending in great measure on +one arm, at least, being at liberty. And then the belts, what an +unnecessary mass of leather is there, all bedaubed with the fictitious +purity of chalk and water. When will the soldier cease to depend for +cleanliness upon pipe-clay, justly styled by Dr Fergusson "as absurd and +unwholesome a nuisance as ever was invented." Had the object been to give +the utmost possible trouble to the infantry-man, no better means could +have been devised than inflicting on him the belts at present used, of all +others the most easily sullied and troublesome to clean. Let a black +patent leather belt and rifleman's cartridge-box be adopted as the +regulation for the whole of the British service. Light to carry, +convenient in form, and easy to clean, it is the perfection of infantry +equipment.</p> + +<p>There has recently been a great talk about hats, and various shocking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> bad +ones have been proposed as a substitute for the old top-heavy shako. +Without entering upon a subject that has already caused so much +controversy, we would point attention to the light shako worn by the +French troops in Algeria. Low, and slightly tapering in form, with a broad +peak projecting horizontally, so as to shade the eyes without embarrassing +the vision, which peaks that droop overmuch are apt to do, its +circumference is of cloth, its crown of thick leather painted white. The +general effect is good, conveying an idea of lightness and convenience, +both of which this head-dress certainly possesses; and it appears to us +that a hint might be taken from it, at any rate, for our troops in India, +and other hot climates. As to fur caps a yard high, and similar +nonsensical exhibitions, we can only say that the sooner they are done +away with, the better for the credit of those who have it in their power +to abolish such gross absurdities. With regard to coats, "I advance no +pretensions," says Dr Fergusson, "to fancy or taste in military dress, but +I ought to know what constitutes cover and protection to the human frame, +and amongst these the swallow-tailed coat of the infantry, pared away as +it is to an absurdity, holds no place. If health and protection were the +object, the coat should be of round cut, to cover the thighs as low as the +knees, with body of sufficient depth to support the unprotected flanks and +abdomen of the wearer." In the French service, frock-coats have of late +been universally adopted. We should prefer a tailed coat of greater +amplitude of skirt and depth of body than the one in present use; for it +is certain, and will be acknowledged by all who have performed marches and +pedestrian excursions, that the skirts of a frock-coat flapping against +the front of the thighs, more or less impede motion and add to fatigue.</p> + +<p>Although the form of a soldier's dress is important, for it may make a +considerable difference in his health and comfort, its colour and +ornamental details are a very secondary consideration. It were absurd to +doubt that a British soldier would fight equally well, whatever the tint +of the cloth that covered his stalwart arm and stout heart. Strip him +to-morrow of his scarlet, and he will do his devoir as nobly in the white +jacket of the Austrian grenadier or the brown one of the Portuguese +<i>cazador</i>. Such matters, it will be said, may be left to army tailors and +pet colonels of fancy regiments, in conclave assembled. Nevertheless it is +a subject that should not entirely be passed over. Soldiers are apt to +look with disgust and contempt upon equipments that are tawdry and +unserviceable, or that give them unnecessary trouble. They should be +gravely, soberly, and usefully clad, in the garb that may be found most +comfortable and durable in the field, not in that which most flatters the +eye on a Hounslow or Hyde Park parade. Dr Fergusson is amusing enough upon +the subject of hussar pelisses and such-like foreign fooleries.</p> + +<p>"The first time I ever saw a hussar, or hulan, was at Ghent, in Flanders, +then an Austrian town; and when I beheld a richly decorated pelisse +waving, empty sleeves and all, from his shoulder, I never doubted that the +poor man must have been recently shot through the arm; a glance, however, +upon a tightly braided sleeve underneath, made it still more +unaccountable; and why he should not have had an additional pair of richly +ornamental breeches dangling at his waist, as well as a jacket from his +shoulders, has, I confess, puzzled me from that time to the present; it +being the first rule of health to keep the upper portion of the body as +cool, and the lower as warm as possible."</p> + +<p>The doctor further disapproves of scarlet as a colour for uniform, because +"a man clothed in scarlet exhibits the dress of a mountebank rather than +of a British warrior going forth to fight the battles of his country," and +also "because it is the worst adapted for any hard work of all the +colours, as it immediately becomes shabby and tarnished on being exposed +to the weather; and a single wet night in the bivouac spoils it +completely." Here we must differ from the doctor. The chief advantage of +scarlet, we have always considered, and we believe the same opinion to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> be +generally held by military men, is that it looks well longer, gets white +and shabby later, than a darker colour. The preparation of the cloth and +mode of dyeing, may, however, have been improved since Dr Fergusson's +period of service. With regard to the colour, there is a popular prejudice +in its favour, associating it as most persons do, from childhood upwards, +with ideas of glory and victory. Had our uniform been yellow for the same +period that it has been red, we should have attached those ideas to the +former colour; but that would be no reason for continuing to dress +soldiers like canary birds. Apart from association, scarlet is unmilitary, +first, because it is tawdry; and, secondly, as rendering the soldier, when +isolated, an easier mark than a less glaring colour. We doubt also, if it +would harmonize well with the black belts, which we desire to see adopted; +and on these various accounts we must give our vote in favour of the sober +blue of the Prussians, assuredly no un-British colour, and one already in +use for many of our cavalry regiments. The Portuguese troops, as they are +now uniformed, or were, when last we saw them, offer no bad model in this +respect. Blue coats and dark grey trousers are the colours of their line +regiments, and these we should like to see adopted in our service, +preserving always the green for the rifles, who ought to be ten times as +numerous as they are, as we shall discover whenever we come to a brush +with the Yankees, or with our old and gallant opponent, Monsieur +Nong-tong-paw. One would have thought that the picking off of our officers +at New Orleans, and on other occasions, and the stinging practice of +French tirailleurs during the last war, would have taught our military +rulers a lesson in this respect; but the contrary seems the case, and on +we go at the old jog-trot, heavy men, heavy equipments, and slow march, +whilst seven-eighths of the French army are practically light infantry, +and it is only the other day that they raised ten new regiments of +sharpshooters, the Chasseurs de Vincennes, or some such name, little light +active riflemen, trained to leap and to march for leagues at double quick, +and who would scamper round a ten acre field whilst a heavy British +grenadier went through his facings. The cool steadiness and indomitable +pluck of our fellows has hitherto carried the day, and will doubtless do +it again when the time comes, but it would be done with greater ease and +less loss if we could condescend to fight our enemy rather more with his +own weapons. <i>Fas est ab hoste doceri</i>, is a maxim oftener quoted than +acted upon. But to return to uniforms. The scarlet might be reserved for +the guards—it has always been a guardsman's colour—the blue given to the +line, the green kept for the rifles; black belts on rifle plan for all. +And above all, if it can be done without too great annoyance to tailors, +amateur and professional, deliver us from braided pelisses, bearskin caps, +crimson pantaloons, and all such costly and unserviceable fopperies. Spend +money on the well-being of the soldier, rather than on the smartness of +his uniform; cut down frippery, and increase comfort. Attend less to the +glitter of externals, and more to that moral and intellectual cultivation, +which will convert men now treated as machines, into reasoning and +reasonable creatures, and valuable members of society.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p> +<h2>MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. NO. IV.</h2> +<h3><span class="smcap">Charles Russell, the Gentleman-commoner.</span></h3> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Chap.</span> I.</p> + +<p>"Have you any idea who that fresh gentleman-commoner is?" said I to +Savile, who was sitting next to me at dinner, one day soon after the +beginning of term. We had not usually in the college above three or four +of that privileged class, so that any addition to their table attracted +more attention than the arrival of the vulgar herd of freshmen to fill up +the vacancies at our own. Unless one of them had choked himself with his +mutton, or taken some equally decided mode of making himself an object of +public interest, scarcely any man of "old standing" would have even +inquired his name.</p> + +<p>"Is he one of our men?" said Savile, as he scrutinized the party in +question. "I thought he had been a stranger dining with some of them. +Murray, you know the history of every man who comes up, I believe—who is +he?"</p> + +<p>"His name is Russell," replied the authority referred to; "Charles +Wynderbie Russell; his father's a banker in the city: Russell and Smith, +you know, —— Street."</p> + +<p>"Ay, I dare say," said Savile; "one of your rich tradesmen; they always +come up as gentlemen-commoners, to show that they have lots of money: it +makes me wonder how any man of decent family ever condescends to put on a +silk gown." Savile was the younger son of a poor baronet, thirteenth in +descent, and affected considerable contempt for any other kind of +distinction.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" continued Murray, "this man is by no means of a bad family: his +father comes of one of the oldest houses in Dorsetshire, and his mother, +you know, is one of the Wynderbies of Wynderbie Court—a niece of Lord De +Staveley's."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> know!" said Savile; "nay, I never heard of Wynderbie Court in my +life; but I dare say <i>you</i> know, which is quite sufficient. Really, +Murray, you might make a good speculation by publishing a genealogical +list of the undergraduate members of the university—birth, parentage, +family connexions, governors' present incomes, probable expectations, &c., +&c. It would sell capitally among the tradesmen—they'd know exactly when +it was safe to give credit. You could call it <i>A Guide to Duns</i>."</p> + +<p>"Or a <i>History of the</i> Un-<i>landed Gentry</i>," suggested I.</p> + +<p>"Well, he is a very gentleman-like looking fellow, that Mr Russell, banker +or not," said Savile, as the unconscious subject of our conversation left +the hall; "I wonder who knows him?"</p> + +<p>The same question might have been asked a week—a month after this +conversation, without eliciting any very satisfactory answer. With the +exception of Murray's genealogical information—the correctness of which +was never doubted for a moment, though how or where he obtained this and +similar pieces of history, was a point on which he kept up an amusing +mystery—Russell was a man of whom no one appeared to know any thing at +all. The other gentlemen-commoners had, I believe, all called upon him, as +a matter of courtesy to one of their own limited mess; but in almost every +case it had merely amounted to an exchange of cards. He was either out of +his rooms, or "sporting oak;" and "Mr C. W. Russell," on a bit of +pasteboard, had invariably appeared in the note-box of the party for whom +the honour was intended, on their return from their afternoon's walk or +ride. Invitations to two or three wine-parties had followed, and been +civilly declined. It was at one of these meetings that he again became the +subject of conversation. We were a large party, at a man of the name of +Tichborne's rooms, when some one mentioned having met "the Hermit," as +they called him, taking a solitary walk about three miles out of Oxford +the day before.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>"Oh, you mean Russell," said Tichborne: "well, I was going to tell you, I +called on him again this morning, and found him in his rooms. In fact, I +almost followed him in after lecture; for I confess I had some little +curiosity to find out what he was made of."</p> + +<p>"And did you find out?"—"What sort of a fellow is he?" asked half-a-dozen +voices at once; for, to say the truth, the curiosity which Tichborne had +just confessed had been pretty generally felt, even among those who +usually affected a dignified disregard of all matters concerning the +nature and habits of freshmen.</p> + +<p>"I sat with him for about twenty minutes; indeed, I should have staid +longer, for I rather liked the lad; but he seemed anxious to get rid of +me. I can't make him out at all, though. I wanted him to come here +to-night, but he positively would not, though he didn't pretend to have +any other engagement: he said he never, or seldom, drank wine."</p> + +<p>"Not drink wine!" interrupted Savile. "I always said he was some low +fellow!"</p> + +<p>"I have known some low fellows drink their skins full of wine, though; +especially at other men's expense," said Tichborne, who was evidently not +pleased with the remark; "and Russell is <i>not</i> a low fellow by any means."</p> + +<p>"Well, well," replied Savile, whose good-humour was imperturbable—"if you +say so, there's an end of it: all I mean to say is, I can't conceive any +man not drinking wine, unless for the simple reason that he prefers brandy +and water, and that I <i>do</i> call low. However, you'll excuse my helping +myself to another glass of this particularly good claret, Tichborne, +though it <i>is</i> at your expense: indeed, the only use of you +gentlemen-commoners, that I am aware of, is to give us a taste of the +senior common-room wine now and then. They do manage to get it good there, +certainly. I wish they would give out a few dozens as prizes at +collections; it would do us a great deal more good than a Russia-leather +book with the college arms on it. I don't know that I shouldn't take to +reading in that case."</p> + +<p>"Drink a dozen of it, old fellow, if you can," said Tichborne. "But really +I am sorry we couldn't get Russell here this evening; I think he would be +rather an acquisition, if he could be drawn out. As to his not drinking +wine, that's a matter of taste; and he is not very likely to corrupt the +good old principles of the college on that point. But he must please +himself."</p> + +<p>"What does he do with himself?" said one of the party—"read?"</p> + +<p>"Why, he didn't <i>talk</i> about reading, as most of our literary freshmen do, +which might perhaps lead one to suppose he really was something of a +scholar; still, I doubt if he is what you call a reading man; I know he +belongs to the Thucydides lecture, and I have never seen him there but +once."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Savile, with a sigh, "that's another privilege of yours I had +forgotten, which is rather enviable; you can cut lectures when you like, +without getting a thundering imposition. Where does this man Russell +live?"</p> + +<p>"He has taken those large rooms that Sykes used to have, and fitted up so +capitally; they were vacant, you remember, the last two terms; I had some +thought of moving into them myself, but they were confoundedly expensive, +and I didn't think it worth while. They cost Sykes I don't know how much, +in painting and papering, and are full of all sorts of couches, and easy +chairs, and so forth. And this man seems to have got two or three good +paintings into them; and, altogether, they are now the best rooms in +college, by far."</p> + +<p>"Does he mean to hunt?" asked another.</p> + +<p>"No, I fancy not," replied our host: "though he spoke as if he knew +something about it; but he said he had no horses in Oxford."</p> + +<p>"Nor any where else, I'll be bound; he's a precious slow coach, you may +depend upon it." And with this decisive remark, Mr Russell and his affairs +were dismissed for the time.</p> + +<p>A year passed away, and still, at the end of that time—(a long time it +seemed in those days)—Russell was as much a stranger in college as ever. +He had begun to be regarded as a rather mysterious person. Hardly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> two men +in the college agreed in their estimate of his character. Some said he was +a natural son—the acknowledged heir to a large fortune, but too proud to +mix in society, under the consciousness of a dishonoured birth. But this +suspicion was indignantly refuted by Murray, as much on behalf of his own +genealogical accuracy, as for Russell's legitimacy,—he was undoubtedly +the true and lawful son and heir of Mr Russell the banker, of —— Street. +Others said he was poor; but his father was reputed to be the most wealthy +partner in a wealthy firm, and was known to have a considerable estate in +the west of England. There were not wanting those who said he was +"eccentric,"—in the largest sense of the term. Yet his manners and +conduct, as far as they came within notice, were correct, regular, and +gentlemanly beyond criticism. There was nothing about him which could +fairly incur the minor charge of being odd. He dressed well, though very +plainly; would converse freely enough, upon any subject, with the few men +who, from sitting at the same table, or attending the same lectures, had +formed a doubtful sort of acquaintance with him; and always showed great +good sense, a considerable knowledge of the world, and a courtesy, and at +the same time perfect dignity of manner, which effectually prevented any +attempt to penetrate, by jest or direct question, the reserve in which he +had chosen to inclose himself. All invitations he steadily refused; even +to the extent of sending an excuse to the dean's and tutors' breakfast +parties, to their ineffable disgust. Whether he read hard, or not, was +equally a secret. He was regular in his attendance at chapel, and +particularly attentive to the service; a fact which by no means tended to +lower him in men's estimation, though in those days more remarkable than, +happily, it would be now. At lectures, indeed, he was not equally +exemplary, either as to attendance or behaviour; he was often absent when +asked a question, and not always accurate when he replied; and +occasionally declined translating a passage which came to his turn, on the +ground of not having read it. Yet his scholarship, if not always strictly +accurate, had a degree of elegance which betokened both talent and +reading; and his taste was evidently naturally good, and classical +literature a subject of interest to him. Altogether, it rather piqued the +vanity of those who saw most of him, that he would give them no +opportunity of seeing more; and many affected to sneer at him, as a +"<i>muff</i>," who would have been exceedingly flattered by his personal +acquaintance. Only one associate did Charles Russell appear to have in the +university; and this was a little greenish-haired man in a scholar's gown, +a perfect contrast to himself in appearance, whose name or college no man +knew, though some professed to recognise him as a Bible-clerk of one of +the smallest and most obscure of the halls.</p> + +<p>Attempts were made to pump out of his scout some information as to how +Russell passed his time: for, with the exception of a daily walk, +sometimes with the companion above mentioned, but much oftener alone, and +his having been seen once or twice in a skiff on the river, he appeared +rarely to quit his own rooms. Scouts are usually pretty communicative of +all they know—and sometimes a great deal more—about the affairs of their +many masters; and they are not inclined in general to hold a very high +opinion of those among "their gentlemen" who, like Russell, are +behind-hand in the matter of wine and supper parties—their own +perquisites suffering thereby. But Job Allen was a scout of a thousand. +His honesty and integrity made him quite the "<i>rara avis</i>" of his +class—<i>i.e.</i>, a <i>white</i> swan amongst a flock of black ones. Though +really, since I have left the university, and been condemned to +house-keeping, and have seen the peculation and perquisite-hunting +existing pretty nearly in the same proportion amongst ordinary +servants—and the higher you go in society the worse it seems to +be—without a tittle of the activity and cleverness displayed by a good +college scout, who provides supper and etceteras for an extemporary party +of twenty or so at an hour's notice, without starting a difficulty or +giving vent to a grumble, or neglecting any one of his other multifarious +duties, (further than <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>perhaps borrowing for the service of the said +supper, some hard-reading freshman's whole stock of knives, and leaving +him to spread his nocturnal bread and butter with his fingers;) since I +have been led to compare this with the fuss and fidget caused in a +"well-regulated family" among one's own lazy vagabonds by having an extra +horse to clean, or by a couple of friends arriving unexpectedly to dinner, +when they all stare at you as if you were expecting impossibilities, I +have nearly come to the conclusion that college servants, like hedgehogs, +are a grossly calumniated race of animals—wrongfully accused of getting +their living by picking and stealing, whereas they are in fact rather more +honest than the average of their neighbours. It is to be hoped that, like +the hedgehogs, they enjoy a compensation in having too thick skins to be +over-sensitive. At all events, Job Allen was an honest fellow. He had been +known to expostulate with some of his more reckless masters upon the +absurdities of their goings-on; and had more than once had a commons of +bread flung at his head, when taking the opportunity of symptoms of +repentance, in an evident disrelish for breakfast, to hint at the slow but +inevitable approach of "degree-day." Cold chickens from the evening's +supper-party had made a miraculous reappearance at next morning's lunch or +breakfast; half-consumed bottles of port seemed, under his auspices, to +lead charmed lives. No wonder, then, there was very little information +about the private affairs of Russell to be got out of Job Allen. He had +but a very poor talent for gossip, and none at all for invention. "Mr +Russell's a very nice, quiet sort of gentleman, sir, and keeps his-self +pretty much to his-self." This was Job's account of him; and, to curious +enquirers, it was provoking both for its meagreness and its truth. "Who's +his friend in the rusty gown, Job?" "I thinks, sir, his name's Smith." "Is +Mr Russell going up for a class, Job?" "I can't say indeed, sir." "Does he +read hard?" "Not over-hard I think, sir." "Does he sit up late, Job?" "Not +over-late, sir." If there was any thing to tell, it was evident Job would +neither commit himself nor his master.</p> + +<p>Russell's conduct was certainly uncommon. If he had been the son of a poor +man, dependent for his future livelihood on his own exertions, eking out +the scanty allowance ill-spared by his friends by the help of a +scholarship or exhibition, and avoiding society as leading to necessary +expense, his position would have been understood, and even, in spite of +the prejudices of youthful extravagance, commended. Or if he had been a +hard-reading man from choice—or a stupid man—or a "saint"—no one would +have troubled themselves about him or his proceedings. But Russell was a +gentleman-commoner, and a man who had evidently seen something of the +world; a rich man, and apparently by no means of the character fitted for +a recluse. He had dined once with the principal, and the two or three men +who had met him there were considerably surprised at the easy gracefulness +of his manners, and his information upon many points usually beyond the +range of undergraduates: at his own table, too, he never affected any +reserve, although, perhaps from a consciousness of having virtually +declined any intimacy with his companions, he seldom originated any +conversation. It might have been assumed, indeed, that he despised the +society into which he was thrown, but that his bearing, so far from being +haughty or even cold, was occasionally marked by apparent dejection. There +was also, at times, a breaking out as it were of the natural spirits of +youth, checked almost abruptly; and once or twice he had betrayed an +interest in, and a knowledge of, field-sports and ordinary amusements, +which for the moment made his hearers fancy, as Tichborne said, that he +was "coming out." But if, as at first often happened, such conversations +led to a proposal for a gallop with the harriers, or a ride the next +afternoon, or a match at billiards, or even an invitation to a quiet +breakfast party—the refusal, though always courteous—and sometimes it +was fancied unwilling—was always decided. And living day by day within +reach of that close companionship which similarity of age, pursuits, and +tastes, strengthened by daily intercourse, was cementing around him,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +Charles Russell, in his twentieth year, in a position to choose his own +society, and qualified to shine in it, seemed to have deliberately adopted +the life of a recluse.</p> + +<p>There were some, indeed, who accounted for his behaviour on the ground of +stinginess; and it was an opinion somewhat strengthened by one or two +trifling facts. When the subscription-list for the College boat was handed +to him, he put his name down for the minimum of one guinea, though Charley +White, our secretary, with the happy union of impudence and "soft sawder" +for which he was remarkable, delicately drew his attention to the fact, +that no other gentleman-commoner had given less than five. Still it was +not very intelligible that a man who wished to save his pocket, should +choose to pay double fees for the privilege of wearing a velvet cap and +silk gown, and rent the most expensive set of rooms in the college.</p> + +<p>It happened that I returned one night somewhat late from a friend's rooms +out of college, and had the satisfaction to find that my scout, in an +unusually careful mood, had shut my outer "oak," which had a spring lock, +of which I never by any chance carried the key. It was too late to send +for the rascal to open it, and I was just planning the possibility of +effecting an entrance at the window by means of the porter's ladder, when +the light in Russell's room caught my eye, and I remembered that, in the +days of their former occupant, our keys used to correspond, very much to +our mutual convenience. It was no very great intrusion, even towards one +in the morning, to ask a man to lend you his door-key, when the +alternative seemed to be spending the night in the quadrangle: so I walked +up his staircase, knocked, was admitted, and stated my business with all +proper apologies. The key was produced most graciously, and down I went +again—unluckily two steps at a time. My foot slipped, and one grand +rattle brought me to the bottom: not head first, but feet first, which +possibly is not quite so dangerous, but any gentleman who has tried it +will agree with me that it is sufficiently unpleasant. I was dreadfully +shaken; and when I tried to get up, found it no easy matter. Russell, I +suppose, heard the fall, for he was by my side by the time I had collected +my ideas. I felt as if I had skinned myself at slight intervals all down +one side; but the worst of it was a sprained ankle. How we got up-stairs +again I have no recollection; but when a glass of brandy had brought me to +a little, I found myself in an easy-chair, with my foot on a stool, +shivering and shaking like a wet puppy. I staid there a fortnight, (not in +the chair, reader, but in the rooms;) and so it was I became intimately +acquainted with Charles Russell. His kindness and attention to me were +excessive; I wished of course to be moved to my own rooms at once, but he +would not hear of it; and as I found every wriggle and twist which I gave +quite sufficiently painful, I acceded to my surgeon's advice to remain +where I was.</p> + +<p>It was not a very pleasant mode of introduction for either party. Very few +men's acquaintance is worth the pains of bumping all the way downstairs +and spraining an ankle for: and for a gentleman who voluntarily confines +himself to his own apartment and avoids society, to have another party +chummed in upon him perforce, day and night, sitting in an armchair, with +a suppressed groan occasionally, and an abominable smell of hartshorn—is, +to say the least of it, not the happiest mode of hinting to him the evils +of solitude. Whether it was that the one of us, compelled thus against his +will to play the host, was anxious to show he was no churl by nature, and +the other, feeling himself necessarily in a great degree an intruder and a +bore, put forth more zealously any redeeming social qualities he might +possess; be this as it might, within that fortnight Russell and I became +sincere friends.</p> + +<p>I found him, as I had expected, a most agreeable and gentlemanlike +companion, clever and well informed, and with a higher and more settled +tone of principles than is common to his age and position. But strongly +contrasted with his usually cheerful manner, were sudden intervals of +abstraction approaching to gloominess.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> In him, it was evidently not the +result of caprice, far less of any thing approaching to affectation. I +watched him closely, partly from interest, partly because I had little +else to do, and became convinced that there was some latent cause of grief +or anxiety at work. Once in particular, after the receipt of some letters, +(they were always opened hurriedly, and apparently with a painful +interest,) he was so visibly discomposed and depressed in spirits, that I +ventured to express a hope that they had contained no distressing +intelligence. Russell seemed embarrassed at having betrayed any unusual +emotion, and answered in the negative; adding, that "he knew he was +subject to the blues occasionally"—and I felt I could say no more. But I +suppose I did not look convinced; for catching my eyes fixed on him soon +afterwards, he shook my hand and said, "Something <i>has</i> vexed me—I cannot +tell you what; but I won't think about it again now."</p> + +<p>One evening, towards the close of my imprisonment, after a long and +pleasant talk over our usual sober wind-up of a cup of coffee, some recent +publication, tasteful, but rather expensive, was mentioned, which Russell +expressed a wish to see. I put the natural question, to a man in his +position who could appreciate the book, and to whom a few pounds were no +consideration—why did he not order it? He coloured slightly, and after a +moment's hesitation hurriedly replied, "Because I cannot afford it." I +felt a little awkwardness as to what to say next; for the style of every +thing round me betrayed a lavish disregard of expense, and yet the remark +did not at all bear the tone of a jest. Probably Russell understood what +was passing in my mind; for presently, without looking at me, he went on: +"Yes, you may well think it a pitiful economy to grudge five guineas for a +book like that, and indulge one's-self in such pompous mummery as we have +here;" and he pushed down with his foot a massive and beautiful silver +coffee-pot, engraved with half-a-dozen quarterings of arms, which, in +spite of a remonstrance from me, had been blackening before the fire to +keep its contents warm. "Never mind it," he continued, as I in vain put +out my hand to save it from falling—"it won't be damaged; it will fetch +just as much per ounce; and I really cannot afford to buy an inferior +article." Russell's behaviour up to this moment had been rational enough, +but at the moment a suspicion crossed my mind that "eccentricity," as +applied to his case, might possibly, as in some other cases, be merely an +euphonism for something worse. However, I picked up the coffee-pot, and +said nothing. "You must think me very strange, Hawthorne; I quite forgot +myself at the moment; but if you choose to be trusted with a secret, which +will be no secret long, I will tell you what will perhaps surprise you +with regard to my own position, though I really have no right to trouble +you with my confidences." I disclaimed any wish to assume the right of +inquiring into private matters, but at the same time expressed, as I +sincerely felt, an interest in what was evidently a weight on my +companion's mind. "Well, to say the truth," continued Russell, "I think it +will be a relief to me to tell you how I stand. I know that I have often +felt of late that I am acting a daily lie here, to all the men about me; +passing, doubtless, for a rich man, when in truth, for aught I know, I and +all my family are beggars at this moment." He stopped, walked to the +window, and returned. "I am surrounded here by luxuries which have little +right within a college's walls; I occupy a distinctive position which you +and others are supposed not to be able to afford. I never can mix with any +of you, without, as it were, carrying with me every where the +superscription written—'This is a rich man.' And yet, with all this +outward show, I may be a debtor to your charity for my bread to-morrow. +You are astonished, Hawthorne; of course you are. I am not thus playing +the hypocrite willingly, believe me. Had I only my own comfort, and my own +feelings to consult, I would take my name off the college books to-morrow. +How I bear the life I lead, I scarcely know."</p> + +<p>"But tell me," said I, "as you have told me so much, what is the secret of +all this?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>"I will; I was going to explain. My only motive for concealment, my only +reason for even wishing you to keep my counsel, is, because the character +and prospects of others are concerned. My father, as I dare say you know, +is pretty well known as the head of the firm of Russell and Smith: he +passes for a rich man, of course; he <i>was</i> a rich man, I believe, once; +and I, his only son and heir—brought up as I was to look upon money as a +plaything—I was sent to college of course as a gentleman-commoner. I knew +nothing, as a lad, of my father's affairs: there were fools enough to tell +me he was rich, and that I had nothing to do but to spend his money—and I +did spend it—ay, too much of it—yet not so much, perhaps, as I might. +Not since I came here, Hawthorne; oh no!—not since I found out that it +was neither his nor mine to spend—I have not been so bad as that, thank +God. And if ever man could atone, by suffering, for the thoughtlessness +and extravagance of early days, I have wellnigh paid my penalty in full +already. I told you, I entered here as a gentleman-commoner; my father +came down to Oxford with me, chose my rooms, sent down this furniture and +these paintings from town—thank Heaven, I knew not what they +cost—ordered a couple of hunters and a groom for me—those I stopped from +coming down—and, in fact, made every preparation for me to commence my +career with credit as to heir-apparent to a large fortune. Some suspicions +that all was not right had crossed my mind before: certain conversations +between my father and cold-looking men of business, not meant for my ear, +and very imperfectly understood—for it appeared to be my father's object +to keep me totally ignorant of all the mysteries of banking—an increasing +tendency on his part to grumble over petty expenses which implied ready +payment, with an ostentatious profusion in show and entertainments—many +slight circumstances put together had given me a sort of vague alarm at +times, which I shook off, as often as it recurred, like a disagreeable +dream. A week after I entered college, a letter from my only sister opened +my eyes to the truth. What I had feared was a temporary embarrassment—a +disagreeable necessity for retrenchment, or, at the worst, a stoppage of +payment, and a respectable bankruptcy, which would injure no one but the +creditors. What she spoke of, was absolute ruin, poverty, and, what was +worse, disgrace. It came upon me very suddenly—but I bore it. I am not +going to enter into particulars about family matters to you, +Hawthorne—you would not wish it, I know; let me only say, my sister Mary +is an angel, and my father a weak-minded man—I will hope, not +intentionally a dishonest one. But I have learnt enough to know that there +are embarrassments from which he can never extricate himself with honour, +and that every month, every week, that he persists in maintaining a +useless struggle will only add misery to misery in the end. How long it +may go on no one can say—but the end must come. My own first impulse was, +of course, to leave this place at once, and so, at all events, to avoid +additional expenses: but my father would not hear of it. I went to him, +told him what I knew, though not how I had heard it, and drew from him a +sort of confession that he had made some unfortunate speculations. But +'only let us keep up appearances'—those were his words—a little while, +and all would be right again, he assured me. I made no pretence of +believing him; but, Hawthorne, when he offered to go on his knees to +me—and I his only son—and promised to retrench in every possible method +that would not betray his motives, if I would but remain at college to +take my degree—'to keep up appearances'—what could I do?"</p> + +<p>"Plainly," said I, "you did right: I do not see that you had any +alternative. Nor have you any right to throw away your future prospects. +Your father's unfortunate embarrassments are no disgrace to you."</p> + +<p>"So said my sister. I knew her advice must be right, and I consented to +remain here. <i>You</i> know I lead no life of self-indulgence; and the +necessary expenses, even as a gentleman-commoner, are less than you would +suppose, unless you had tried matters as closely as I have."</p> + +<p>"And with our talents," said I.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>"My talents! I am conscious of but one talent at present: the faculty of +feeling acutely the miserable position into which I have been forced. No, +if you mean that I am to gain any sort of distinction by hard reading, it +is simply what I cannot do. Depend upon it, Hawthorne, a man must have a +mind tolerably at ease to put forth any mental exertion to good purpose. +If this crash were once over, and I were reduced to my proper level in +society—which will, I suppose, be pretty nearly that of a pauper—<i>then</i> +I think I could work for my bread either with head or hands: but in this +wretchedly false position, here I sit bitterly, day after day, with books +open before me perhaps, but with no heart to read, and no memory but for +one thing. You know my secret now, Hawthorne, and it has been truly a +relief to me to unburden my mind to some one here. I am very much alone, +indeed; and it is not at all my nature to be solitary: if you will come +and see me sometimes, now that you know all, it will be a real kindness. +It is no great pleasure, I assure you," he continued, smiling, "to be +called odd, and selfish, and stingy, by those of one's own age, as I feel +I must be called; but it is much better than to lead the life I might +lead—spending money which is not mine, and accustoming myself to +luxuries, when I may soon have to depend on charity even for necessaries. +For my own comfort, it might be better, as I said before, that the crisis +came at once: still, if I remain here until I am qualified for some +profession, by which I may one day be able to support my sister—that is +the hope I feed on—why, then, this sort of existence may be endured."</p> + +<p>Russell had at least no reason to complain of having disclosed his mind to +a careless listener. I was moved almost to tears at his story: but, +stronger than all other feelings, was admiration of his principles and +character. I felt that some of us had almost done him irreverence in +venturing to discuss him so lightly as we had often done. How little we +know the heart of others, and how readily we prate about "seeing through" +a man, when in truth what we see is but a surface, and the image conveyed +to our mind from it but the reflection of ourselves!</p> + +<p>My intimacy with Russell, so strangely commenced, had thus rapidly and +unexpectedly taken the character of that close connexion which exists +between those who have one secret and engrossing interest confined to +themselves alone. We were now more constantly together, perhaps, than any +two men in college: and many were the jokes I had to endure in +consequence. Very few of my old companions had ventured to carry their +attentions to me, while laid up in Russell's rooms, beyond an occasional +call at the door to know how I was going on; and when I got back to my old +quarters, and had refused one or two invitations on the plea of having +Russell coming to spend a quiet evening with me, their astonishment and +disgust were expressed pretty unequivocally, and they affected to call us +the exclusives. However, Russell was a man who, if he made few friends, +gave no excuse for enemies: and, in time, my intimacy with him, and +occasional withdrawals from general society in consequence, came to be +regarded as a pardonable weakness—unaccountable, but past all help—a +subject on which the would-be wisest of my friends shook their heads, and +said nothing.</p> + +<p>I think this new connexion was of advantage to both parties. To myself it +certainly was. I date the small gleams of good sense and sobermindedness +which broke in upon my character at that critical period of life, solely +from my intercourse with Charles Russell. He, on the other hand, had +suffered greatly from the want of that sympathy and support which the +strongest mind at times stands as much in need of as the weakest, and +which in his peculiar position could only be purchased by an unreserved +confidence. From any premeditated explanation he would have shrunk; nor +would he ever, as he himself confessed, have made the avowal he did to me, +except it had escaped him by a momentary impulse. But, having made it, he +seemed a happier man. His reading, which before had been desultory and +interrupted, was now taken up in earnest: and idly inclined as I was +myself, I became,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> with the pseudo sort of generosity not uncommon at that +age, so much more anxious for his future success than my own, that, in +order to encourage him, I used to go to his rooms to read with him, and we +had many a hard morning's work together.</p> + +<p>We were very seldom interrupted by visitors: almost the only one was that +unknown and unprepossessing friend of Russell's who has been mentioned +before—his own contradictory in almost every respect. Very uncouth and +dirty-looking he was, and stuttered terribly—rather, it seemed, from +diffidence than from any natural defect. He showed some surprise on the +first two or three occasions in which he encountered me, and made an +immediate attempt to back out of the room again: and though Russell +invariably recalled him, and showed an evident anxiety to treat him with +every consideration, he never appeared at his ease for a moment, and made +his escape as soon as possible. Russell always fixed a time for seeing him +again—usually the next day: and there was evidently some object in these +interviews, into which, as it was no concern of mine, I never enquired +particularly, as I had already been intrusted with a confidence rather +unusual as the result of a few weeks' acquaintance; and on the subject of +his friend—"poor Smith," as he called him—Russell did not seem disposed +to be communicative.</p> + +<p>Time wore on, and brought round the Christmas vacation. I thought it due +to myself, as all young men do, to get up to town for a week or two if +possible; and being lucky enough to have an old aunt occupying a very dark +house much too large for her, and who, being rather a prosy personage, a +little deaf, and very opinionated, and therefore not a special object of +attraction to her relations, (her property was merely a life-interest,) +was very glad to get any one to come and see her—I determined to pay a +visit, in which the score of obligations would be pretty equally balanced +on both sides. On the one hand, the tête-à-tête dinners with the old lady, +and her constant catechising about Oxford, were a decided bore to me; +while it required some forbearance on her part to endure an inmate who +constantly rushed into the drawing-room without wiping his boots, who had +no taste for old china, and against whom the dear dog Petto had an +unaccountable but decided antipathy. (Poor dog! I fear he was ungrateful: +I used to devil spunge biscuit, internally, for him after dinner, kept a +snuff-box more for his use than my own, and prolonged his life, I feel +confident, at least twelve months from apoplexy, by pulling hairs out of +his tail with a tweezer whenever he went to sleep.) On the other hand, my +aunt had good wine, and I used to praise it; which was agreeable to both +parties. She got me pleasant invitations, and was enabled herself to make +her appearance in society with a live nephew in her suite, who in her eyes +(I confess, reader, old aunts are partial) was a very eligible young man. +So my visit, on the whole, was mutually agreeable and advantageous. I had +my mornings to myself, gratifying the dowager occasionally by a drive with +her in the afternoon; and we had sufficient engagements for our evenings +to make each other's sole society rather an unusual infliction. It is +astonishing how much such an arrangement tends to keep people the best +friends in the world.</p> + +<p>I had attended my respectable relation one evening (or rather she had +attended me, for I believe she went more for my sake than her own) to a +large evening party, which was a ball in every thing but the name. Nearly +all in the rooms were strangers to me; but I had plenty of introductions, +and the night wore on pleasantly enough. I saw a dozen pretty faces I had +never seen before, and was scarcely likely to see again—the proportion of +ugly ones I forbear to mention—and was prepared to bear the meeting and +the parting with equal philosophy, when the sight of a very familiar face +brought different scenes to my mind. Standing within half-a-dozen steps of +me, and in close conversation with a lady, of whom I could see little +besides a cluster of dark curls, was Ormiston, one of our college tutors, +and one of the most universally popular men in Oxford. It would be wrong +to say I was surprised to see him there or any where else, for his roll of +acquaintance was most extensive, embracing all ranks and degrees; but I +was very glad to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> see him, and made an almost involuntary dart forward in +his direction. He saw me, smiled, and put out his hand, but did not seem +inclined to enter into any conversation. I was turning away, when a sudden +movement gave me a full view of the face of the lady to whom he had been +talking. It was a countenance of that pale, clear, intellectual beauty, +with a shade of sadness about the mouth, which one so seldom sees but in a +picture, but which, when seen, haunts the imagination and the memory +rather than excites passionate admiration. The eyes met mine, and, quite +by accident, for the thoughts were evidently pre-occupied, retained for +some moments the same fixed gaze with which I almost as unconsciously was +regarding them. There was something in the features which seemed not +altogether unknown to me; and I was beginning to speculate on the +possibility of any small heroine of my boyish admiration having shot up +into such sweet womanhood—such changes soon occur—when the eyes became +conscious, and the head was rapidly turned away. I lost her a moment +afterwards in the crowd, and although I watched the whole of the time we +remained, with an interest that amused myself, I could not see her again. +She must have left the party early.</p> + +<p>So strong became the impression on my mind that it was a face I had known +before, and so fruitless and tantalizing were my efforts to give it "a +local habitation and a name"—that I determined at last to question my +aunt upon the subject, though quite aware of the imputation that would +follow. The worst of it was, I had so few tangible marks and tokens by +which to identify my interesting unknown. However, at breakfast next +morning, I opened ground at once, in answer to my hostess's remark that +the rooms had been very full.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they were: I wanted very much, my dear aunt, to have asked you the +names of all the people; but you really were so much engaged, I had no +opportunity."</p> + +<p>"Ah! if you had come and sat by me, I could have told you all about them; +but there were some very odd people there, too."</p> + +<p>"There was one rather interesting-looking girl I did not see dancing +much—tallish, with pearl earrings."</p> + +<p>"Where was she sitting? how was she dressed?"</p> + +<p>I had only seen her standing—I never noticed—I hardly think I could have +seen—even the colour of her dress.</p> + +<p>"Not know how she was dressed? My dear Frank, how strange!"</p> + +<p>"All young ladies dress alike now, aunt; there's really not much +distinction: they seemed all black and white to me."</p> + +<p>"Certainly the balls don't look half so gay as they used to do: a little +colour gives cheerfulness, I think." (The good old lady herself had worn +crimson satin and a suite of chrysolites—if her theory were correct, she +was enough to have spread a glow over the whole company.) "But let me +see;—tall, with pearls, you say; dark hair and eyes?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You must mean Lucy Fielding."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, my dear Ma'am—I beg a thousand pardons; but I was introduced +to Miss Fielding, and danced with her—she squints."</p> + +<p>"My dear Frank, don't say such a thing!—she will have half the +Strathinnis property when she comes of age. But let me see again. Had she +a white rose in her hair?"</p> + +<p>"She had, I think; or something like it."</p> + +<p>"It might have been Lord Dunham's youngest daughter, who is just come +out—she was there for an hour or so."</p> + +<p>"No, no, aunt: I know her by sight too—a pale gawky thing, with an arm +and hand like a prize-fighter's—oh no!"</p> + +<p>"Upon my word, my dear nephew, you young men give yourselves abominable +airs: call her a very fine young woman, and I've no doubt she will marry +well, though she hasn't much fortune. Was it Miss Cassilis, then?—white +tulle over satin, looped with roses, with gold sprigs"——</p> + +<p>"And freckles to match: why, she's as old as"——; I felt myself on +dangerous ground, and filled up the hiatus, I fear not very happily, by +looking full at my aunt.</p> + +<p>"Not so very old, indeed, my dear: she refused a very good offer last +season: she cannot possibly be above"—</p> + +<p>"Oh! spare the particulars, pray,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> my dear Ma'am; but you could not have +seen the girl I mean: I don't think she staid after supper: I looked every +where for her to ask who she was, but she must have been gone."</p> + +<p>"Really! I wish I could help you," said my aunt with a very insinuating +smile.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said I, "what made me anxious to know who she was at the time, was +simply that I saw her talking to an old friend of mine, whom you know +something of, I believe; did you not meet Mr Ormiston somewhere last +winter?"</p> + +<p>"Mr Ormiston! oh, I saw him there last night! and now I know who you mean; +it must have been Mary Russell, of course; she did wear pearls, and plain +white muslin."</p> + +<p>"Russell! what Russells are they?"</p> + +<p>"Russell the banker's daughter; I suppose nobody knows how many thousands +she'll have; but she is a very odd girl. Mr Ormiston is rather committed +in that quarter, I fancy. Ah, he's a very gentlemanly man, certainly, and +an old friend of the family; but that match would never do. Why, he must +be ten years older than she is, in the first place, and hasn't a penny +that I know of except his fellowship. No, no; she refused Sir John Maynard +last winter, with a clear twelve thousand a-year; and angry enough her +papa was about that, every body says, though he never contradicts her; but +she never will venture upon such a silly thing as a match with Mr +Ormiston."</p> + +<p>"Won't she?" said I mechanically, not having had time to collect my +thoughts exactly.</p> + +<p>"To be sure she won't," replied my aunt rather sharply. It certainly +struck me that Mary Russell, from what her brother had told me, was a +person very likely to show some little disregard of any conventional +notions of what was, or what was not desirable in the matter of matrimony; +but at the same time I inclined to agree with my aunt, that it was not +very probable she would become Mrs Ormiston; indeed, I doubted any very +serious intentions on his part. Fellows of colleges are usually somewhat +lavish of admiration and attentions; but, as many young ladies know, very +difficult to bring to book. Ormiston was certainly not a man to be +influenced by the fortune which the banker's daughter might reasonably be +credited with; if any thing made the matter seem serious, it was that his +opinion of the sex in general—as thrown out in an occasional hint or +sarcasm—seemed to border on a supercilious contempt.</p> + +<p>I did not meet Miss Russell again during my short stay in town; but two or +three days after this conversation, in turning the corner of the street, I +came suddenly upon Ormiston. I used to flatter myself with being rather a +favourite of his—not from any conscious merit on my part, unless that, +during the year of his deanship, when summoned before him for any small +atrocities, and called to account for them, I never took up his time or my +own by any of the usual somewhat questionable excuses, but awaited my +fate, whether "imposition" or reprimand, in silence; a plan which, with +him, answered very well, and saved occasionally some straining of +conscience on one side, and credulity on the other. I tried it with his +successor, who decided that I was contumacious, because, the first time I +was absent from chapel, in reply to his interrogations I answered nothing, +and upon his persevering, told him that I had been at a very late +supper-party the night before. I think, then, I was rather a favourite of +Ormiston's. To say that he was a favourite of mine would be saying very +little; for there could have been scarcely a man in college, of any degree +of respectability, who would not have been ready to say the same. No man +had a higher regard for the due maintenance of discipline, or his own +dignity, and the reputation of the college; yet nowhere among the seniors +could the undergraduate find a more judicious or a kinder friend. He had +the art of mixing with them occasionally with all the unreservedness of an +equal, without for a moment endangering the respect due to his position. +There was no man you could ask a favour of—even if it infringed a little +upon the strictness of college regulations—so readily as Ormiston; and no +one appeared to retain more thoroughly some of his boyish tastes and +recollections. He subscribed his five guineas to the boat, even after a +majority of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> fellows had induced our good old Principal, whose annual +appearance at the river-side to cheer her at the races had seemed almost a +part of his office, to promulgate a decree to the purport that boat-racing +was immoral, and that no man engaged therein should find favour in the +sight of the authorities. Yet, at the same time, Ormiston could give grave +advice when needed; and give it in such a manner, that the most +thoughtless among us received it as from a friend. And whenever he did +administer a few words of pointed rebuke—and he did not spare it when any +really discreditable conduct came under his notice—they fell the more +heavily upon the delinquent, because the public sympathy was sure to be on +the side of the judge. The art of governing young men is a difficult one, +no doubt; but it is surprising that so few take any pains to acquire it. +There were very few Ormistons, in my time, in the high places in Oxford.</p> + +<p>On that morning, however, Ormiston met me with evident embarrassment, if +not with coolness. He started when he first saw me, and, had there been a +chance of doing so with decency, looked as if he would have pretended not +to recognise me. But we were too near for that, and our eyes met at once. +I was really very glad to see him, and not at all inclined to be content +with the short "How d'ye do?" so unlike his usual cordial greetings, with +which he was endeavouring to hurry on; and there was a little curiosity +afloat among my other feelings. So I fairly stopped him with a few of the +usual inquiries, as to how long he had been in town, &c., and then plunged +at once into the affair of the ball at which we had last met. He +interrupted me at once.</p> + +<p>"By the way," said he, "have you heard of poor Russell's business?"</p> + +<p>I actually shuddered, for I scarcely knew what was to follow. As +composedly as I could, I simply said, "No."</p> + +<p>"His father is ruined, they say—absolutely ruined. I suppose <i>that</i> is no +secret by this time, at all events. He cannot possibly pay even a shilling +in the pound."</p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry indeed to hear it," was all I could say.</p> + +<p>"But do you know, Hawthorne," continued Ormiston, taking my arm with +something like his old manner, and no longer showing any anxiety to cut +short our interview, "I am afraid this is not the worst of it. There is a +report in the city this morning, I was told, that Mr Russell's character +is implicated by some rather unbusinesslike transactions. I believe you +are a friend of poor Russell's, and for that reason I mention it to you in +confidence. He may not be aware of it; but the rumour is, that his father +<i>dare</i> not show himself again here: that he has left England I know to be +a fact."</p> + +<p>"And his daughter? Miss Russell?" I asked involuntarily—"his children, I +mean—where are they?"</p> + +<p>I thought Ormiston's colour heightened; but he was not a man to show much +visible emotion. "Charles Russell and his sister are still in London," he +replied; "I have just seen them. They know their father has left for the +Continent; I hope they do <i>not</i> know all the reasons. I am very sincerely +sorry for young Russell; it will be a heavy blow to him, and I fear he +will find his circumstances bitterly changed. Of course he will have to +leave Oxford."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," said I; "no one can feel more for him than I do. It was +well, perhaps, that this did not happen in term time."</p> + +<p>"It spared him some mortification, certainly. You will see him, perhaps, +before you leave town; he will take it kind. And if you have any influence +with him—(he will be inclined to listen, perhaps just now, to you more +than to me—being more of his own age, he will give you credit for +entering into his feelings)—do try and dissuade him from forming any wild +schemes, to which he seems rather inclined. He has some kind friends, no +doubt; and remember, if there is any thing in which I can be of use to +him, he shall have my aid—even to the half of my kingdom—that is, my +tutorship."</p> + +<p>And with a smile and tone which seemed a mixture of jest and earnest, Mr +Ormiston wished me good-morning. He was to leave for Oxford that night.</p> + +<p>Of Russell's address in town I was up to this moment ignorant, but +resolved to find it out, and see him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> before my return to the University. +The next morning, however, a note arrived from him, containing a simple +request that I would call. I found him at the place from which he +wrote—one of those dull quiet streets that lead out of the Strand—in +very humble lodgings; his father's private establishment having been given +up, it appeared, immediately. The moment we met, I saw at once, as I +expected, that the blow which, to Ormiston, had naturally seemed so +terrible a one—no less than the loss, to a young man, of the wealth, +rank, and prospects in life to which he had been taught to look +forward—had been, in fact, to Russell a merciful relief. The failure of +that long-celebrated and trusted house, which was causing in the public +mind, according to the papers, so much "consternation" and "excitement," +was to him a consummation long foreseen, and scarcely dreaded. It was only +the shadow of wealth and happiness which he had lost now; its substance +had vanished long since. And the conscious hollowness and hypocrisy, as he +called it, of his late position, had been a far more bitter trial to a +mind like his, than any which could result from its exposure. He was one +to hail with joy any change which brought him back to truth and reality, +no matter how rude and sudden the revulsion.</p> + +<p>He met me with a smile; a really honest, almost a light-hearted smile. "It +is come at last, Hawthorne; perhaps it would be wrong, or I feel as if I +could say, thank God. There is but one point which touches me at all; what +do they say about my father?" I told him—fortunately, my acquaintance +lying but little among men of business, I could tell him so honestly—that +I had not heard a syllable breathed to his discredit.</p> + +<p>"Well, well; but they will, soon. Oh! Hawthorne; the utter misery, the +curse that money-making brings with it! That joining house to house, and +field to field, how it corrupts all the better part of a man's nature! I +vow to you, I believe my father would have been an honest man if he had +but been a poor one! If he had never had any thing to do with interest +tables, and had but spent his capital, instead of trying to double and +redouble it! One thing I have to thank him for; that he never would suffer +me to imbibe any taste for business; he knew the evil and the pollution +money-handling brings with it—I am sure he did; he encouraged me, I fear, +in extravagance; but I bless him that he never encouraged me in +covetousness."</p> + +<p>He grew a little calmer by degrees, and we sat down and took counsel as to +his future plans. He was not, of course, without friends, and had already +had many offers of assistance for himself and his sister; but his heart +appeared, for the present, firmly bent upon independence. Much to my +surprise, he decided on returning at once to Oxford, and reading for his +degree. His sister had some little property settled upon her—some hundred +and fifty pounds a-year; and this she had insisted on devoting to this +purpose.</p> + +<p>"I love her too well," said Russell, "to refuse her: and trifling as this +sum is,—I remember the time when I should have thought it little to keep +me in gloves and handkerchiefs,—yet, with management, it will be more +than I shall spend in Oxford. Of course, I play the gentleman-commoner no +longer; I shall descend to the plain stuff gown."</p> + +<p>"You'll go to a hall, of course?" said I; for I concluded he would at +least avoid the mortification of so palpable a confession of reduced +circumstances as this degradation of rank in his old College would be.</p> + +<p>"I can see no occasion for it; that is, if they will allow me to change; I +have done nothing to be ashamed of, and shall be much happier than I was +before. I only strike my false colours; and you know they were never +carried willingly."</p> + +<p>I did not attempt to dissuade him, and soon after rose to take my leave.</p> + +<p>"I cannot ask my sister to see you now," he said, as we shook hands: "she +is not equal to it. But some other time, I hope"——</p> + +<p>"At any other time, I shall be most proud of the introduction. By the way, +have you seen Ormiston? He met me this morning, and sent some kind +messages, to offer any service in his power."</p> + +<p>"He did, did he?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>"Yes; and, depend upon it, he will do all he can for you in college; you +don't know him very well, I think; but I am sure he takes an interest in +you now, at all events," I continued, "and no man is a more sincere and +zealous friend."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, Hawthorne, but I fancy I <i>do</i> know Mr Ormiston very +well."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I remember, there seemed some coolness between you, because you never +would accept his invitations. Ormiston thought you were too proud to dine +with him; and then <i>his</i> pride, which he has his share of, took fire. But +that misunderstanding must be all over now."</p> + +<p>"My dear Hawthorne, I believe Mr Ormiston and I understand each other +perfectly. Good-morning; I am sorry to seem abrupt, but I have a host of +things, not the most agreeable, to attend to."</p> + +<p>It seemed quite evident that there was some little prejudice on Russell's +part against Ormiston. Possibly he did not like his attentions to his +sister. But that was no business of mine, and I knew the other too well to +doubt his earnest wish to aid and encourage a man of Russell's high +principles, and in his unfortunate position. None of us always know our +best friends.</p> + +<p>The step which Russell had resolved on taking was, of course, an unusual +one. Even the college authorities strongly advised him to remove his name +to the books of one of the halls, where he would enter comparatively as a +stranger, and where his altered position would not entail so many painful +feelings. Every facility was offered him of doing so at one of them where +a relative of our Principal's was the head, and even a saving in expense +might thus be effected. But this evident kindness and consideration on +their part, only confirmed him in the resolution of remaining where he +was. He met their representations with the graceful reply, that he had an +attachment to the college which did not depend upon the rank he held in +it, and that he trusted he should not be turned out of two homes at once. +Even the heart of the splenetic little vice-principal was moved by this +genuine tribute to the venerable walls, which to him, as his mistress's +girdle to the poet, encircled all he loved, or hoped, or cared for; and +had the date been some century earlier—in those remarkable times when a +certain fellow was said to have owed his election into that body to a +wondrous knack he had at compounding sherry-posset—it is probable Charles +Russell would have stepped into a fellowship by special license at once.</p> + +<p>He had harder work before him, however, and he set stoutly to it. He got +permission to lodge out of college—a privilege quite unusual, and +apparently without any sufficient object in his case. A day or two after +his return, he begged me to go with him to see the rooms he had taken: and +I was surprised to find that although small, and not in a good part of the +town, they were furnished in a style by no means, I thought, in accordance +with the strict economy I knew him to be practising in every other +respect. They contained, on a small scale, all the appointments of a +lady's drawing-room. It was soon explained. His sister was coming to live +with him. "We are but two, now," said Russell in explanation, "and though +poor Mary has been offered what might have been a comfortable home +elsewhere, which perhaps would have been more prudent, we both thought why +should we be separated? As to these little things you see, they are nearly +all hers: we offered them to the creditors, but even the lawyers would not +touch them: and here Mary and I shall live. Very strange, you think, for +her to be here in Oxford with no one to take care of her but me; but she +does not mind that, and we shall be together. However, Hawthorne, we shall +keep a dragon: there is an old housekeeper who would not be turned off, +and she comes down with Mary, and may pass for her aunt, if that's all; so +don't, pray, be shocked at us."</p> + +<p>And so the old housekeeper did come down, and Mary with her; and under +such guardianship, a brother and an old servant, was that fair girl +installed within the perilous precincts of the University of Oxford; +perilous in more senses than one, as many a speculative and disappointed +mamma can testify, whose daughters, brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> to market at the annual +"show" at commemoration, have left uncaught those dons of dignity, and +heirs-apparent of property, whom they ought to have caught, and caught +those well-dressed and good-looking, but undesirable young men, whom they +ought not to have caught. Mary Russell, however, was in little peril +herself, and, as little as she could help it, an occasion of peril to +others. Seldom did she move out from her humble abode, except for an early +morning walk with her brother, or sometimes leaning on the arm of her old +domestic, so plainly dressed that you might have mistaken her for her +daughter, and wondered how those intensely expressive features, and +queen-like graces, should have been bestowed by nature on one so humble. +Many a thoughtful student, pacing slowly the parks or Christchurch meadow +after early chapel, book in hand, cheating himself into the vain idea that +he was taking a healthful walk, and roused by the flutter of approaching +female dress, and unwillingly looking up to avoid the possible and +unwelcome collision with a smirking nurse-maid and an unresisting +baby—has met those eyes, and spoilt his reading for the morning; or has +paused in the running tour of Headington hill, or Magdalen walk, by which +he was endeavouring to cram his whole allotted animal exercise for the day +into an hour, as that sweet vision crossed his path, and wondered in his +heart by what happy tie of relationship, or still dearer claim, his +fellow-undergraduate had secured to himself so lovely a companion; and has +tried in vain, over his solitary breakfast, to rid himself of the +heterodox notion which would still creep in upon his thoughts, that in the +world there might be, after all, things better worth living and working +for, prizes more valuable—and perhaps not harder to win—than a first +class, and living personations of the beautiful which Aristotle had +unaccountably left out. Forgive me, dear reader, if I seem to be somewhat +sentimental: I am not, and I honestly believe I never was, in love with +Mary Russell; I am not—I fear I never was or shall be—much of a reading +man or an early riser; but I will confess, it would have been a great +inducement to me to adopt such habits, if I could have ensured such +pleasant company in my morning walks.</p> + +<p>To the general world of Oxford, for a long time, I have no doubt the very +existence of such a jewel within it was unknown; for at the hours when +liberated tutors and idle undergraduates are wont to walk abroad, Mary was +sitting, hid within a little ambush of geraniums, either busy at her work, +or helping—as she loved to fancy she helped him—her brother at his +studies. Few men, I believe, ever worked harder than Russell did in his +last year. With the exception of the occasional early walk, and the +necessary attendance at chapel and lecture, he read hard nearly the whole +day; and I always attributed the fact of his being able to do so with +comparatively little effort, and no injury to his health, to his having +such a sweet face always present, to turn his eyes upon, when wearied with +a page of Greek, and such a kind voice always ready to speak or to be +silent.</p> + +<p>It was not for want of access to any other society that Mary Russell spent +her time so constantly with her brother. The Principal, with his usual +kindheartedness, had insisted—a thing he seldom did—upon his lady making +her acquaintance; and though Mrs Meredith, who plumed herself much upon +her dignity, had made some show of resistance at first to calling upon a +young lady who was living in lodgings by herself in one of the most +out-of-the-way streets in Oxford, yet, after her first interview with Miss +Russell, so much did her sweetness of manner win upon Mrs Principal's +fancy—or perhaps it will be doing that lady but justice to say, so much +did her more than orphan unprotectedness and changed fortunes soften the +woman's heart that beat beneath that formidable exterior of silk and +ceremony, that before the first ten minutes of what had been intended as a +very condescending and very formal call, were over, she had been offered a +seat in Mrs Meredith's official pew in St Mary's; the pattern of a +mysterious bag, which that good lady carried every where about with her, +it was believed for no other purpose; and an airing the next day behind +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> fat old greys, which their affectionate coachman—in commemoration of +his master's having purchased them at the time he held that +dignity—always called by the name of the "Vice-Chancellors." Possibly an +absurd incident, which Mary related with great glee to her brother and +myself, had helped to thaw the ice in which "our governess" usually +encased herself. When the little girl belonging to the lodgings opened the +door to these dignified visitors, upon being informed that Miss Russell +was at home, the Principal gave the name simply as "Dr and Mrs Meredith:" +which, not appearing to his more pompous half at all calculated to convey +a due impression of the honour conveyed by the visit, she corrected him, +and in a tone quite audible—as indeed every word of the conversation had +been—up the half-dozen steep stairs which led to the little drawing-room, +gave out "the Master of —— and lady, if you please." The word "master" +was quite within the comprehension of the little domestic, and dropping an +additional courtesy of respect to an office which reminded her of her +catechism and the Sunday school, she selected the appropriate feminine +from her own vocabulary, and threw open the door with "the master and +mistress of —— if you please, Miss." Dr Meredith laughed, as he entered, +so heartily, that even Mary could not help smiling, and the "mistress," +seeing the odds against her, smiled too. An acquaintance begun in such +good humour, could hardly assume a very formal character; and, in fact, +had Mary Russell not resolutely declined all society, Mrs Meredith would +have felt rather a pleasure in patronising her. But both her straitened +means and the painful circumstances of her position—her father already +spoken of almost as a criminal—led her to court strict retirement; while +she clung with redoubled affection to her brother. He, on his part, seemed +to have improved in health and spirits since his change of fortunes; the +apparent haughtiness and coldness with which many had charged him before, +had quite vanished; he showed no embarrassment, far less any consciousness +of degradation, in his conversation with any of his old messmates at the +gentlemen-commoners' table; and though his communication with the college +was but comparatively slight, nearly all his time being spent in his +lodgings, he was becoming quite a popular character.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, a change of a different kind seemed to be coming over Ormiston. +It was remarked, even by those not much given to observation, that his +lectures, which were once considered endurable, even by idle men, from his +happy talent of remark and illustration, were fast becoming as dull and +uninteresting as the common run of all such business. Moreover, he had +been in the habit of giving, occasionally, capital dinners, invitations to +which were sent out frequently and widely among the young men of his own +college: these ceased almost entirely; or, when they occurred, had but the +shadow of their former joyousness. Even some of the fellows were known to +have remarked that Ormiston was much altered lately; some said he was +engaged to be married, a misfortune which would account for any imaginable +eccentricities; but one of the best of the college livings falling vacant +about the time, and, on its refusal by the two senior fellows, coming +within Ormiston's acceptance, and being passed by him, tended very much to +do away with any suspicion of that kind.</p> + +<p>Between him and Russell there was an evident coolness, though noticed by +few men but myself; yet Ormiston always spoke most kindly of him, while on +Russell's part there seemed to be a feeling almost approaching to +bitterness, ill concealed, whenever Ormiston became the subject of +conversation. I pressed him once or twice upon the subject, but he always +affected to misunderstand me, or laughed off any sarcastic remark he might +have made, as meaning nothing; so that at last the name was seldom +mentioned between us, and almost the only point on which we differed +seemed to be our estimation of Ormiston.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE ROMANTIC DRAMA.</h2> + +<p>Macaulay says, that the object of the drama is the painting of the human +heart; and, as that is portrayed by the events of a whole life, he +concludes that it is by poets representing in a short space a long series +of actions, that the end of dramatic composition is most likely to be +attained. "The mixture," says he, "of tragedy and comedy, and the length +and extent of the action, which the French consider as defects, is the +chief cause of the excellence of our older dramatists. The former is +necessary to render the drama a just representation of the world, in which +the laughers and the weepers are perpetually jostling each other, in which +every event has its serious and ludicrous side. The latter enables us to +form an intimate acquaintance with characters, with which we could not +possibly become familiar during the few hours to which the unities +restrict the poet. In this respect the works of Shakspeare in particular +are miracles of art. In a piece which may be read aloud in three hours, we +see a character gradually unfold all its recesses to us. We see it change +with the change of circumstances. The petulant youth rises into the +politic and warlike sovereign. The profuse and courteous philanthropist +sours at length into a hater and scorner of his kind. The tyrant is +altered by the chastening of affliction into a pensive moralist. The +veteran general, distinguished by coolness, sagacity, and self-command, +sinks under a conflict between love strong as death, and jealousy cruel as +the grave. The brave and loyal subject passes step by step to the excesses +of human depravity. We trace his progress step by step, from the first +dawnings of unlawful ambition, to the cynical melancholy of his impenitent +remorse. Yet in these pieces there are no unnatural transitions. Nothing +is omitted; nothing is crowded. Great as are the changes, narrow as is the +compass within which they are exhibited, they shock us as little as the +gradual alterations of those familiar faces which we see every evening and +morning. The magical skill of the poet resembles that of the dervise in +the <i>Spectator</i>, who condensed all the events of seven years into the +single moment during which the king held his head under water."<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small></p> + +<p>In this admirable passage, the principle on which the Romantic Drama +rests, is clearly and manfully stated; and it is on the possibility of +effecting the object which is here so well described, that the whole +question between it and the Greek unities depends. As we have decidedly +embraced the opposite opinion, and regard, after much consideration, the +adherence to the variety and license of the romantic drama as the main +cause of the present degraded condition of our national theatre, we have +prefaced our observations with a defence of the romantic drama by one of +its ablest advocates, and shall now state the reasons which appear to us +conclusive in favour of a very different view.</p> + +<p>The drama is part of the great effort of mankind for the representation of +human character, passion, and event. Other sister arts—History, the +Historical Romance, the Epic poem—also aim in some degree, by different +methods, at the same object; and it is by considering their different +principles, and necessary limitations, that the real rules of the drama +will best be understood.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">History</span>, as all the world knows, embraces the widest range of human +events. Confined to no time, restricted to no locality, it professes, in a +comparatively short space, to portray the most extensive and important of +human transactions. Centuries, even thousands of years, are sometimes, by +its greatest masters,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> embraced within its mighty arms. The majestic +series of Roman victories may occupy the genius of one writer: the fifteen +centuries of its decline and fall be spanned by the powers of another. The +vast annals of Mahommetan conquest, the long sway of the Papal dominion, +present yet untrodden fields to future historical effort.<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small> But it is +this very greatness and magnitude of his subject which presents the chief +difficulty with which the historian has to contend. With the exception of +a very few instances, such lengthened annals are necessarily occupied by a +vast variety of characters, actions, states, and events, having little or +no connexion with each other, scarce any common object of union, and no +thread by which the interest of the reader is to be kept up throughout. +Hence it is that works of history are so generally complained of as dull: +that, though they are more numerous than any other class of literary +compositions, the numbers of those generally read is so extremely small. +Enter any public library, you will see hundreds of historical works +reposing in respectable dignity on the shelves. How many of them are +generally studied, or have taken hold by common consent on the minds of +men? Not ten. Romance numbers its readers by hundreds, Poetry by fifties, +where History can with difficulty muster one. This amazing difference is +not owing to any deficiency of ability turned to the subject, or interest +in the materials of which it is formed. It can never be supposed that men +will be indifferent to the annals of their own fame, or that the +groundwork of all human invention—real event—can be wanting in the means +of moving the heart. It is the extraordinary difficulty of this branch of +composition, owing to its magnitude and complication, which is the sole +cause of the difference.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Historical Romance</span> is founded on history, but it differs from it in +the most essential particulars, and is relieved from the principal +difficulties with which the annalist of actual occurrences has to contend. +It selects a particular period out of past time, and introduces the +characters and events most remarkable for their interest, or the deep +impress they have left on the minds of men. This is an immense advantage; +for it relieves the writer from the great difficulty with which the +general historian has to contend, and which, in ninety-nine cases out of +an hundred, proves fatal to his success. Unity in the midst of confusion +is given to his subject. Room is afforded for graphic painting, space for +forcible delineations of character. It becomes possible to awaken interest +by following out the steps of individual adventure. Though the name of +historical romance is not to be found in antiquity, the thing itself was +far from being unknown. Its most charming Histories are little other than +Historical Romance; at least, they possess its charm, because they exhibit +its unity. The <i>Cyropædia</i> of Xenophon, the <i>Lives</i> of Plutarch, many of +the heart-stirring <i>Legends</i> of Livy, of the profound <i>Sketches</i> of the +Emperors in Tacitus, are in truth historical romances under the name of +histories or biography. The lives of eminent men owe their chief charm to +the unity of the subject, and the possibility of strongly exciting the +feelings, by strictly adhering to the delineation of individual +achievement. So great is the weight of the load—crushing to the +historian—which is thus taken from the biographer or writer of historical +romance, that second-rate genius can effect triumphs in that department, +to which the very highest mind alone is equal in general historical +composition. No one would think of comparing the intellect of Plutarch +with that of Tacitus; but, nevertheless, the <i>Lives</i> of the former will +always prove more generally attractive than the annals of the latter. +Boswell's mind was immeasurably inferior to that of Hume; but for one +reader of his <i>History of England</i>, will be found ten of the <i>Life of +Johnson</i>. Sir Walter Scott's <i>Life of Napoleon</i> proves that he was not +altogether qualified to take a place among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> the great English historians; +but, to the end of the world, Richard Cœur-de-Lion, Queen Mary, and +Elizabeth, will stand forth from his canvass more clearly than either from +the rhetoric of Hume, or the eloquence of Robertson.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Epic Poem</span> confines within still narrower limits the narration of human +events. As it borrows the language and is clothed with the colours of +poetry, so it is capable of rousing the feelings more powerfully than +either biography or romance, and, when crowned with success, attains a +fame, and takes a hold of the hearts of men, to which nothing in prose +composition can be compared. Elevation of thought, fervour of language, +powerful delineation of character, are its essential qualities. But all +these would prove unavailing if the one thing needful, <i>unity of subject</i>, +were awanting. It is that which is its essential quality, for that alone +lets in all the others. All the great Epic Poems which have appeared in +the world are not only devoted to one interest, but are generally +restricted in point of space and time within limits not materially wider +than those of the Greek drama. The <i>Iliad</i> not only relates exclusively +the latter stages of the siege of Troy, but the whole period of its action +is forty-eight days—of its absorbing interest, (the time from the +storming of the Greek lines by Hector to his death by the heaven-defended +Achilles,) thirty-six hours. The <i>Paradise Lost</i> adheres strictly to unity +both of subject and time: the previous battles of the angels is the +subject of narrative by the angel Raphael; but the time that elapses from +the convocation of the devils in Pandemonium to the expulsion of Adam and +Eve from paradise is only three days. The <i>Jerusalem Delivered</i> has the +one absorbing interest arising from the efforts of the Christians for the +deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre; and its time is limited to a few weeks. +Virgil was so enamoured of his great predecessor that he endeavoured to +imitate, in one poem, both his great works. The <i>Æneid</i> is an <i>Iliad</i> and +<i>Odyssey</i> in one. But every one must feel that it is on the episode with +Dido that the interest of the poem really rests; and that all the magic of +his exquisite pencil can scarcely sustain the interest after the pious +Æneas has taken his departure from the shores of Carthage. The <i>Lusiad</i> of +Camoens, necessarily, from its subject, embraced wider limits; but the one +interest of the poem is as single and sustained as that of the discovery +of the new world by Columbus. If any of these writers had professed in +rhyme to give a history of a wider or more protracted subject, the +interest would have been so much diffused as to be lost. The confusion of +ideas and incidents so painfully felt by all the readers of <i>Orlando +Furioso</i>, and which the boundless fancy of Ariosto was unable to prevent, +proves that epic poetry has its limits, and that they are narrower than +either history or romance.</p> + +<p>What epic poetry is to romance or biography, <span class="smcap">the Drama</span> is to epic poetry. +As the former selects from the romance of history its most interesting and +momentous events, and makes them the subject of brilliant description, of +impassioned rhetoric, so the latter chooses from the former its most +heart-stirring episodes, and brings them in actual dialogue and +representation before the mind of the spectator. Immense is the effect of +this concentration—still more marvellous that of the personation with +which it is attended. Imagination assumes the actual form of beings; +conception is realised. The airy visions of the past are clothed in flesh +and blood. The marvels of acting, scenery, and stage effect, come to add +to the pathos of incident, to multiply tenfold the charms of poetry. It is +impossible to conceive intellectual enjoyment carried beyond the point it +attained, when the magic of Shakspeare's thought and language was enhanced +by the power of Siddons or Kemble's acting, or is personified by the +witchery of Helen Faucit's conceptions. But for the full effect of this +combination, it is indispensable that the principles of dramatic +composition be duly observed, and the stage kept within its due limits, +more contracted in point of time and place than either romance or epic +poetry. Within those bounds it is omnipotent, and produces an impression +to which, while it lasts, none of the sister arts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> can pretend. Beyond +them it never fails to break down, and not only ceases to interest, but +often becomes to the last degree wearisome and exhausting. It is not +difficult to see to what this general failure of the drama, when it +outstrips its proper bounds, is owing. It arises from the impossibility of +awakening interest without attending to unity of emotion; of keeping alive +attention without continuity of incident; of making the story intelligible +without simplicity of action.</p> + +<p>Dramatic authors, actors, and actresses, how gifted soever in other +respects, are the worst possible judges on this subject. They are so +familiar with the story, from having composed the piece themselves, or +made it the subject of frequent repetition or rehearsal, that they can +form no conception of the difficulty which nine tenths of the audience, to +whom the piece is entirely strange, experience in understanding the plot, +or acquiring any interest in the incidents or development of the piece. It +may safely be affirmed, that a vast majority of the spectators of the +dramas now habitually represented, with the exception of a few of +Shakspeare's, which have become as household words on the English stage, +never understand any thing of the story till the end of the third act, and +are only beginning to take an interest in the piece when the curtain +falls. Dramatic authors and performers would do well to ponder on this +observation; they may rely upon it that it furnishes the key to the +present degraded state of the English drama.</p> + +<p>It is not obtuseness on the part of the audience which occasions this. So +complicated is the story, so lengthened the succession of events, in most +of our modern theatrical pieces, that the most acute understanding, +fortified by the most extensive practice, requiring alertness of +intellect, will long be at fault in comprehending them. We have seen many +a barrister famed for cross-examination unable to comprehend, till the +piece was half over, the drift of Sheridan Knowles's dramas. Is it +surprising, when this is the case, that the vast majority of the audience +complain of weariness during the representation, and that the managers of +theatres, sensible of this difficulty, are fain to eke out the proper +interest of the drama by the meretricious aids of scenery, and dancing, +and decorations?</p> + +<p>What is constantly complained of by all classes at the theatre is, that it +is so tiresome; that the back is broken by sitting without a support; that +they cannot comprehend the story; that they do not understand what it is +all about; and that the performance is infinitely too long. This last +observation is, undoubtedly, frequently well founded: no where is the +truth of old Hesiod's maxim, that a half is often greater than the whole, +more frequently exemplified than in dramatic representations. But still +the fact of the complaint being so universally made, and equally by all +classes, is very remarkable, and pregnant with instruction, as to the +limits of the drama and the causes of the decline of its popularity so +painfully conspicuous in the British empire. No one complains of his back +being broken for want of support at a trial for murder; on the contrary, +all classes, and <i>especially the lowest</i>, will sit at such heart-stirring +scenes, without feeling fatigue, for ten, twelve, sometimes eighteen hours +consecutively. Nor can it be affirmed that this is because the interest is +real; that the life of a human being is at stake. Every day's experience +proves that fiction, when properly managed, is more interesting than +reality. The vast multitude of novels which yearly issue from the press, +the eagerness with which they are sought after by all classes, the +extraordinary extent of their circulation, sufficiently prove this. No one +complains that the best romances of Sir Walter Scott or Bulwer are too +long; on the contrary, they are generally felt to be too short; and those +who are loudest in their declamations against the intolerable fatigue of +the theatre, will sit for days together with their feet at the fire, +devouring even an indifferent novel.</p> + +<p>The general complaint now made in Great Britain against the tedium of +theatrical representations was unknown in other ages and countries. The +passion of the Greeks for their national theatre is well known, and the +matchless perfection of their great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> dramatists proves to what a degree it +is capable of rousing the human mind. The French, prior to the Revolution, +were passionately fond of the drama, which was then entirely founded on +the Greek model. The decline complained of in the Parisian theatre has +been contemporary with the introduction of the Romantic school. In Italy, +it is, with the opera, the chief, almost the sole public amusement. There +is not a city with forty thousand inhabitants in the classic peninsula +that has not a theatre and opera, superior to any thing to be met with in +the British islands out of London. The theatre is in high favour in +Germany and Russia. Complaints, indeed, are frequently made, that the +drama is declining on the Continent, and the present state of the lesser +Parisian theatres certainly affords no indication that, in departing from +the old land-marks and bringing romance on the stage, they have either +preserved its purity or extended its influence. But the decline of the +theatre is far greater and more remarkable in England than in any of the +continental states. It has, indeed, gone so far as to induce a serious +apprehension among many well-informed persons, that it will cease to +exist, and the country of Shakspeare and Garrick, of Kemble and Siddons, +be left altogether without a theatre at which the legitimate drama is +represented. Such a result in a country overflowing, in its great cities +and metropolis at least, with riches, and with a population passionately +desirous of every species of enjoyment, is very remarkable, and deserving +of the most serious consideration. It may well make us pause in our +career, and consider whether the course we have been pursuing has, or has +not, been likely to lead to perfection and success in this noble and +important branch of composition.</p> + +<p>We have stated what are the limits of the drama, and what part is assigned +to it in the general effort of the human mind to portray events, or paint +the human heart. Macaulay has explained, in the passage already quoted, +what the Romantic drama proposes to do, and the reason why, in his +estimation, it is more likely to attain its end than the more closely +fettered theatre of the Greeks. The whole question comes to be, which of +the two systems is best adapted to attain the undoubted end of all +dramatic composition, the painting of the human heart? If he is right in +the views he has so well expressed, it is very singular how it has +happened, that in a country which, for the last three centuries, has +constantly adhered to these ideas, and worked out the Romantic drama with +extraordinary zeal and vigour, dramatic representations should have been +constantly declining, so as at length to be threatened with total +extinction. This becomes the more remarkable, when it is recollected, that +in other countries, inferior in wealth, genius, and energy to Great +Britain, but where the old system had been adhered to, it continued to +flourish in undiminished vigour, and that decay in them has uniformly been +coexistent with the entry on the stage of Romantic representation. Racine, +Corneille, Voltaire in France, and Metastasio and Alfieri in Italy, +Schiller and Goethe in Germany, have nobly upheld the legitimate drama in +their respective countries. Still more extraordinary is it, if these views +be the correct ones, that while, by the marvels of one heaven-born genius, +the Romantic drama was in the days of Queen Elizabeth raised to the very +highest perfection in this country, it has since continually languished, +and cannot from his day number one name destined for immortality among its +votaries.</p> + +<p>It is said in answer to this obvious objection to the Romantic drama, +founded on its fate in all the countries where it has been established, +that it shares in this respect only in the common destiny of mankind in +creating works of imagination; that the period of great and original +conception is the first only—that Homer was succeeded by Virgil, Æschylus +by Euripides, Dante by Tasso, Shakspeare by Pope, and that the age of +genius in all countries is followed by that of criticism.<small><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">[6]</a></small> There can be +no doubt that this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> observation is in many respects well founded; but it +affords no solution of the causes of the present degraded condition of our +national drama, nor does it explain the course it has taken in this +country. We have made a progress, but it has not been from originality to +taste, but from genius to folly. The age of Æschylus has not with us been +succeeded by that of Sophocles and Euripides, but by that of melodrama and +<i>spectacle</i>. We have not advanced from the wildness of conception to the +graces of criticism, but from the rudeness of some barbaric imagination, +to the cravings of corrupted fancy. The age of Garrick has been with us +succeeded, not by that of Roscius, but by that of Cerito; the melodrama of +the <i>Crusaders</i>, the dancing of Carlotta Grisi, have banished tragedy from +the boards trod by Kemble and Siddons. The modern dramas which have been +published, and in part appeared on the stage, have in no respect been +distinguished by more legitimate taste, or a stricter adherence to rule, +than those of Ford and Massinger, of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Jonson and +Shakspeare. They have discarded, indeed, the indecency which forms so +serious a blot on our older dramatists, but, in other respects, they have +faithfully followed out their principles. The drama still, as in earlier +days, professes to exhibit in a few hours a representation of the +principal events of a lifetime. Time and place are set at nought, as they +were by the bard of Avon, and not unfrequently the last act opens at the +distance of years, or hundreds of miles from the first. We need only +mention two of the ablest and most popular of our modern dramas—<i>The Lady +of Lyons</i>, by Bulwer, and the best of Sheridan Knowles' theatrical pieces, +for a confirmation of these observations. But no one will pretend that the +dramatic works of these writers, excellent in many respects as they are, +can be set off against the master-pieces of the Greek or French drama +which succeeded the days of Æschylus and Corneille.</p> + +<p>Again it is said, and very commonly too, as an explanation of the +extraordinary failure of dramatic genius since the days of Queen Elizabeth +in this country, that originality and greatness can be reached only once +in the lifetime of a nation; that we have had our Shakspeare as Greece had +its Homer, and that we should be content; and that it is the necessary +effect of superlative excellence in the outset, to extinguish rivalry and +induce mediocrity in the end. The observation is plausible, and it has +been so frequently made, that it has passed with many into a sort of +axiom. But when tried by the only test of truth in human affairs—that of +experience—it entirely fails. Past history affords no countenance to the +idea, that early greatness extinguishes subsequent emulation, or that +superlative genius in one department is fatal to subsequent perfection in +it. On the contrary, it creates it. It is by the collision of one great +mind with another, that the greatest achievements of the human mind have +been effected—often the chain continues from one age and nation to +another; but it is never snapped asunder.</p> + +<p>These considerations are fitted to cast a serious doubt on the question, +how far the true principles of the drama are those which have been +embraced by the English school, and may lead us to consider whether the +acknowledged inferiority of our tragic writers, since the time of +Shakspeare, is not in reality to be ascribed to his transcendent genius +having led them astray from the true principles of the art. It will be +considered in the sequel, to what cause <i>his</i> acknowledged success has +been owing, and whether his finest dramas, those which chiefly retain +their popularity, are not in reality constructed on the Grecian model. +But, in the mean time, let it be considered what in reality the drama can +do, and what limits are imposed upon it, not by the arbitrary rules of +critics, but by the lasting nature of things.</p> + +<p>The drama is restricted by the well known limits of human patience to a +representation of three hours. Experience has every where proved that the +greatest genius, both in the poet and performer, cannot keep alive +interest, or avert weariness, beyond that period. The spectators sit still +in their places the whole time. Whatever changes of scene, or external +objects<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> to look at are introduced, the audience itself is motionless. It +is to persons thus situated, and within this time, that theatrical +representations are addressed. They expect, and with reason, to be amused +and interested in comedy, moved and melted in tragedy. It is for this they +go to the theatre, for this they pay their money. Writers and actors are +equally aware that this is the case. Then what course do the Greek and the +Romantic school respectively follow to attain this object?</p> + +<p>Both in some respects follow the same course, or rather both make use, for +the main part, of the same materials. It is universally acknowledged, that +it is essential to the success of the drama, in all its branches, that the +plot be interesting, the characters forcible, the ideas natural, the +attention constantly kept up. In tragedy, by far its noblest department, +it is indispensable, in addition, that the feelings should be vehemently +excited in the spectators, and the human heart laid bare, by the most +violent passions, in the characters on the stage. Aristotle expressly +says, that it is the delineation of passions which is the object of +tragedy. In order to achieve this object, all are agreed, that some +permanent characters must be selected, generally from those known to +history, to whom striking and tragic events have occurred; and it is in +the delineation of the passions which those events excite, and the +interest they awaken in the breast of the spectators, that the art of the +writer consists. So far both parties are agreed; but they differ widely in +the methods which they respectively take to attain this object.</p> + +<p>The Romantic dramatist, overstepping the bounds of time and place, +professes in three hours to portray the principal events of years—it may +be of a whole lifetime. He selects the prominent events of his hero's or +heroine's career, the salient angles, as it were, of human existence, and +brings them forward in different scenes of his brief representation. Years +often intervene between the commencement of his piece and its termination; +the spectator is transported hundreds, it may be thousands of miles by a +mere mechanical sleight of hand in the scene-shifter, or between the acts. +The drama constructed on these principles does not represent a short +period, into which the crisis, as it were, of a whole lifetime is +concentrated, but it gives sketches of the whole life itself, from the +commencement of its eventful period to its termination. The poet chooses +the most exciting scenes out of the three volumes of the historical novel, +and brings these scenes on the stage in a few hours. As the drama, +constructed on this principle, professes to portray the changes of real +life, so it admits, it is thought, of that intermixture of the serious and +the comic, which the actual world exhibits; and willingly transports the +spectator from the most highly wrought scenes of passion, the deepest +accents of woe, to the burlesque of extravagant characters, or the picture +of vulgar life. This is deemed admissible, because it is natural; and +certainly no one can have gone from the drawing-room, or the library, to +the stage-coach or the steam-boat, without seeing that it exhibits at +least a true picture of the varied phantasmagoria which existence +presents.</p> + +<p>The Greek dramatists, and their successors in modern Europe, proceed upon +an entirely different principle. Having made their selection of the +characters and the events on which their piece is to be constructed, they +pitch upon that period in their progress in which matters were brought to +a crisis, and, for good or for evil, their destiny was accomplished. +Having done this, they portray the minutest incidents of that brief period +with the utmost care, and exert all their strength on the graphic painting +on which every artist knows the awakening of interest is almost entirely +dependent. The previous history of the principal personages is described +in dialogue at the commencement of the piece, so as to make the spectators +aware both of the great lives of the characters which are brought before +them, and of the antecedent events which had brought matters to their +present crisis. Having carried them to this point, the crisis itself is +portrayed at full length, and with all the power and pathos of which the +artist is capable. The poet does not pretend to narrate the campaign from +its commencement to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> its termination: he begins his piece with the +commencement of the last battle, and exerts all his strength on painting +the decisive charge. He does not give the voyage from its commencement to +its termination, with its long periods of monotonous weariness; he +confines himself to the brief and terrible scene of the ship-wreck. As the +crisis and catastrophe of life is thus alone represented, and every thing +depends on the interest excited by its development, so nothing is admitted +which can disturb the unity of the emotion, or interrupt the flow of the +sympathy which it is the great object of the piece from first to last to +awaken.</p> + +<p>If it were <i>possible</i> to create the same interest, or delineate character +and passion as completely, by brief and consequently imperfect sketches of +a whole lifetime, as it is by a minute and glowing representation of its +most eventful period, much might be advanced with justice in favour of the +Romantic school of the drama. Our objection is, that this is impossible; +and that the failure of the English theatre, since the time of Shakspeare, +is entirely to be ascribed to this impossibility. And the impossibility is +owing to the length of time which it requires, by narrative or +representation, to kindle that warm and glowing image, or awaken those +ardent feelings in the mind of another, upon which the emotion of taste +and the success of all the Fine Arts depend.</p> + +<p>In the arts which address themselves to the <i>eye</i>, and through it to the +heart, it is possible to produce a very strong impression almost +instantaneously. A beautiful woman has only to be seen to be admired; a +charming landscape bursts upon the sight with immediate and almost magical +force. The impression produced by the finest objects in Europe,—the sun +setting on the Jungfrawhorn, the interior of St Peter's, the fall of +Schaffhausen, the view on the Acropolis of Athens, Constantinople from the +Seraglio point, the Bay of Naples, for example,—is such, that though seen +<i>only</i> for a few minutes, it may almost be said seconds, an impression is +made, a picture is painted, on the mind's retina, which can never be +effaced. Painting, as it imitates external nature, so it shares in the +rapidity and, in the hands of great masters, durability of its +impressions. Sculpture and architecture have the same advantage. Yet even +in these arts, the productions of which require only to be seen to be +admired, it is well known that the impression, strong as it is at first, +is, with all persons of a cultivated mind, greatly increased by repeated +inspections. The common observation, that a fine painting or statue grows +upon you the oftener you see it, and that "Time but the impression deeper +wears," sufficiently proves that it is not at once, even in those arts +which speak at once to the eye, that the soul of the artist is transferred +to that of the spectator.</p> + +<p>But the case is entirely different with those arts—such as history, +romance, epic poetry, or the drama—which do not at once produce a visible +object to the mind, but give descriptions or dialogues by which the reader +or spectator is required to form a <i>mental</i> object or awaken a mental +interest of his own creation, though from the materials furnished, and +under the guidance of the genius of the artist. It is not instantaneously +that this can be done: on the contrary, it is by very slow degrees and +many successive efforts that the inward picture is created in the mind, +the absorbing interest awakened in the heart, which gives the pleasure or +rouses the sympathy which is the object of the writer to communicate. A +very little reflection will be sufficient to show that this observation is +well founded, in all the arts of narrative or description. And nothing, we +apprehend, can be clearer than that the Romantic Drama has failed because +it professes, within limits and by means which render the attempt +hopeless, to excite this interest.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the well-known and proverbial dulness of history, there +are many historical works which do succeed in awakening a durable and +sometimes absorbing interest in the mind of the reader. Probably few works +professedly addressed to the imagination have awakened in many breasts so +deep and lasting an interest as the narrative of Livy, the biography of +Tacitus, the pictured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> page of Gibbon. Such works are almost always +complained of as dull at first: but the interest gradually waxes warmer as +the narrative proceeds; the feelings become roused on one side, or in +favour of one hero or another, in the great drama of the world; and not +unfrequently in the end the most attractive works of imagination are laid +aside for the annals of real events. But how is it that this interest is +awakened? By the study of months, sometimes of years: by an interest +produced by the reading of a whole winter by the fireside. Let any man +try, in a narrative of <i>long</i> continued historical events, to excite a +deep interest in a space which can be read <i>in three hours</i>, and the +powers of Tacitus or Gibbon would at once fail in the attempt. It is quite +possible in that brief period to awaken the deepest interest in a single +or closely connected series of events, as a battle, a siege, a revolt, a +ship-wreck: but wholly impossible to do so with incidents scattered over a +long course of years.</p> + +<p>The interest so generally felt in epic poetry and romance is excited in +the same way, though in a much shorter period. As the colours of these +species of composition are more brilliant, the feelings more chastened, +the events more select, the characters more prominent, the catastrophe +more rapidly brought about, than in real life, so the artist has the +means, in a much shorter period, of awakening the interest upon the growth +of which the success of his work is chiefly dependent. But nevertheless, +even there, it is by comparatively slow degrees, and by reading for a very +considerable period, that the interest is created. It is wholly impossible +to produce it, or make the story or the characters intelligible, in a few +hours. Every scholar recollects the delight with which his mind grew, as +it were, under the fire of Homer's conceptions, his taste matured under +the charm of Virgil's feelings: but no one will pretend that the intense +delight he felt could be awakened, if he had read extracts from their most +brilliant passages in a few hours; this pleasure was the feast, this +interest the growth, of weeks and months. No reader of Tasso, Milton, or +Klopstock, for the first time, would think he could acquire an interest in +the <i>Jerusalem Delivered</i>, the <i>Paradise Lost</i>, or the <i>Messiah</i>, between +tea and supper. Many of their finest passages might be read in that brief +space, and their beauty <i>as pieces of poetry</i> fully appreciated; but it +would be wholly impossible in so short a time to awaken an interest in the +whole story, or the fate of the principal characters.—Nevertheless it +would be quite possible, in that period to excite the deepest sympathy +with some of their most striking events or episodes <i>taken singly</i>; as the +parting of Hector and Andromache, or the death of the Trojan hero, in the +<i>Iliad</i>; the love of Dido for Æneas, or the catastrophe of Nisus and +Euryalus, in the <i>Æneid</i>; the death of Clorinda, or the flight of Erminia, +in the <i>Jerusalem Delivered</i>. The reason is, that it is possible in a +short space to point a single catastrophe with such force and minuteness +as to excite the warmest sympathy, but wholly impossible to effect that +object within such limits, with a long series of consecutive events.</p> + +<p>Again, look at the historical romance or the common novel. No one needs to +be told how deep and universal is the interest which the masterpieces in +that department awaken. Whatever may be said to the decline of the public +taste for the drama, most certainly there is no symptom of any abatement +in the general interest awakened by works of fiction; but that interest is +of comparatively slow growth. It would be impossible to produce it in a +few hours. It is excited by the reading of three evenings by the fireside. +No one would deem it possible to awaken the interest, or make the +characters intelligible, in three hours.</p> + +<p>It is true that to the aid of six or eight chapters culled out of three +volumes, the Romantic dramatist brings the auxiliaries of acting, scenery, +and stage effect; but that adds little to the power of exciting deep +sympathy or powerful emotion. Such feelings cannot be awakened without +minute painting, and continuity of action, and they are excluded by the +very nature of the Romantic drama. That species of composition proposes to +give a picture of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> principal events of a long period, as the +peristrephic panorama does of the chief scenes of a great space, as the +whole course of the Rhine or the Danube. Every one knows how inferior the +interest it excites is to those in which the whole skill of the artist and +outlay of the proprietor have been exerted on a single picture, as the +original round one of Barker and Burford. The art of panoramic painting +has signally receded, since the moving panorama has been substituted for +the fixed one. A series of galloping lithographic sketches of Italy, +however highly coloured or skilfully drawn, will never paint that lovely +peninsula like a single sunset of Claude in the bay of Naples. Claude +himself could not do so in his varied sketches, graphic and masterly as +they are. The Romantic drama is the <i>Liber Veritatis</i>; the Greek drama is +the finished Claude in the Doria Palace, or the National Gallery. Few +persons will hesitate to say which excites the strongest admiration, which +they would rather possess.</p> + +<p>Performers on the stage are very naturally led to form an erroneous +opinion on this subject. Many of the most captivating qualities they +possess are seen at once. Physical beauty, elegance of manner, a noble +air, a majestic carriage, a lovely figure, a bewitching smile, produce +their effect instantaneously. No one needs to be told how quickly and +powerfully they speak to the heart, how warmly they kindle the +imagination. But that admiration is <i>personal</i> to the artist; it does not +extend to the piece, nor can it overcome its imperfections. It gives +pleasure often of the very highest kind; but it is a pleasure very +different from the true interest of dramatic representation, and cannot be +relied on to sustain the interest of an audience for a long period. It is +where these powers of the performer are exerted on a drama constructed on +its true principles, that the full delight of the theatre is felt. No +talents in the performer can sustain a faulty piece. We cannot sit three +hours merely to admire the most beautiful and gifted actress that ever +trod the boards. Mental sympathy, the rousing of the feelings, is +required, and that is mainly the work of the poet.</p> + +<p>We are the more confirmed in the opinion that these are the true +principles of dramatic composition, from observing how generally they are +applicable to the historical novel; how clearly they are illustrated by +the decided verdict of public opinion pronounced on the works of the most +popular writers in that species of composition. The two novels of Sir +Walter Scott that are most admired, are <i>Ivanhoe</i> and <i>The Bride of +Lammermoor</i>. Well, these romances have the interest concentrated within +the narrowest limits. <i>The Bride of Lammermoor</i> is a Greek drama in prose. +It has its simplicity of story, unity of emotion, and terrible concluding +catastrophe. <i>Lucia di Lammermoor</i>, performed with signal success in every +opera of Europe, is a proof how easily it was dramatised. It is the <i>only +one</i> of Sir Walter's novels that, out of Scotland, where local feelings +warp the judgment, has been durably successful on the stage. The principal +events in <i>Ivanhoe</i> are contracted within three days; the characters which +interest are only two or three in number. Look at Cooper. The great secret +of his success is the minuteness and fidelity of his painting, and the +graphic power with which heart-stirring events occurring within a very +short period are painted. In the most admired of all his novels, <i>The +Deerslayer</i>, the whole scene is laid on the borders of a single lake, and +the interest arises from the adventures of two girls on its watery bosom. +Events in <i>The Pathfinder</i>, <i>The Last of the Mohicans</i>, and <i>The Prairie</i>, +are nearly as concentrated in point of time and characters, though, as the +story depends in each on the adventures of a party on a journey, a +considerable transference of place is of course introduced. <i>The Promessi +Sposi</i> of Manzoni has acquired a European reputation, and every reader of +it knows how entirely its interest is dependent on the unity of interest +and extraordinary fidelity and skill with which, within narrow limits, the +characters, events, and still life, are portrayed. It is the same in +history.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> The success of Alison's <i>History of Europe</i> has been mainly +owing to the fortunate unity of the subject, and the dramatic character of +the events which, within the space of twenty years, were thus crowded into +the theatre of human affairs.</p> + +<p>In those romances again, and they are many, in which great latitude in the +unities has been taken, it is very rarely that the skill of the artist has +succeeded in preventing a painful break in the interest, or cessation in +the sympathy, where any considerable transposition of place or overleaping +of time occurs. It is very frequent in James's novels to see this done; +but we believe he never yet had a reader in whom it did not excite a +feeling of regret. When a chapter begins—"We must now transport the +reader to a distant part of the country"—or "Many years after the events +detailed in the last chapter had occurred, two persons met in an hostelry +on the side of a forest," &c., we may rely upon it that, not only is the +scene changed, but the interest, for the time at least, is lost. The +pictures formed in the mind, the interest awakened in the events, the +admiration felt for the characters, are alike at an end. The chain of +sympathy is broken with the rupture of the continuity of events. The +reader's mind sets out as it were on a new track, in which the sails must +be spread, and the oars worked afresh. Everything must be done over again; +fresh pictures conjured up in the mind, new interests awakened in the +breast from the last starting-point. But it is seldom that such new +interests can supply the want of those which have been lost, or that, +where such a system is adopted, even a sustained sympathy can be +maintained throughout. We do not say that the first love is exclusive of +any other; but only that the interest is not to be transferred from one to +the other, until a considerable time has elapsed, and no small pains have +been taken. Several such dislocations of place, or violations of time, +will prove fatal to a novel, though written with the utmost ability, and +managed in other respects with the most consummate skill. Every reader of +Mr James's romances, which in many respects possess high merits, must be +sensible of the truth of this observation; and all the richness of +colouring, and fidelity in drawing, in Sir L. Bulwer's splendid historical +romance of <i>Rienzi</i>, cannot take away the painful impression produced by +the long interval which elapses between the commencement of the story, +where the characters first appear, its middle, where the real interest is +developed, and its termination, where the catastrophe occurs.</p> + +<p>In the historical romance, however, such diffusion of the events over a +long period, though extremely difficult to be managed in consistence with +the preservation of interest in the story, is adverse to no principle; +because it is the very object of that species of mingled truth and fiction +to narrate a lengthened course of events as they affected the history of +individual men; and the only unity to which the author is restricted by +the principles of his art is the unity of interest. But the curious thing +is, that in the Romantic drama this difficulty is voluntarily undertaken +when no necessity exists for its introduction; nay, when the principles of +the art, as evinced in the works of its greatest masters, forbid its +adoption. What would the historian give to be able to dwell only on the +brilliant episodes of his period—to be permitted to throw aside the long +intervening years of monotony or prose, and dwell only on those where the +poetry of existence is brought forth? On what scenes does the romance +writer dwell with transport—where does he paint with force and minuteness +but in those incidents, generally few and far between in his volumes, +which form the fit subject of dramatic composition? The stage alone is +relieved from the necessity of portraying the prosaic adjunct to poetic +interest; the dramatist only is permitted to select the decisive +crisis—the burning incident of life—and present it with all the +additions of poetry, music, scenery, and personation. Strange that, when +thus relieved of the fetters which so grievously restrain the other +species of human narrative, he should voluntarily choose to wear them; +that when at liberty to soar on the eagle's wing, he should gratuitously +assume the camel's load.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>In truth, the adoption of the Romantic style in theatrical composition, +and the tenacity with which, despite centuries of failure, it is still +adhered to by dramatic poets, is mainly to be ascribed to a secret sense +of inability to work up the simpler old drama of Greece with the requisite +force and effect. Men distrust their own powers in awaking a continued +interest for hours from one incident, or the portraying of a single +catastrophe. They are fain to borrow the adventitious aid to be derived, +as they think, from frequent changes of time and place. They rail at the +drama of Athens, as many modern artists do at the paintings of Claude +Lorraine, because they feel themselves unable to imitate them. They crowd +their canvass with objects, from a secret sense of inability to finish any +one with perfect force and fidelity. In that way they flatter themselves +that the defects of their composition will be less strongly felt, and the +audience will experience something like the enjoyment of foreign +travelling without any great trouble on the part of their conductor, on +the brilliant succession of pictures which is presented to their +intellectual vision. They forget only one thing, but it generally proves +fatal to their whole undertaking. Foreign travelling is delightful; but it +is only so when sufficient time is allowed to see the objects properly, +and take in the impression. Without this, it is little more than a +grievous fatigue, relieved by one or two splendid but fleeting pictures +painted on the mind. The drama being limited to a three hours' +representation, must portray the events of years, if it attempts it, at +railway speed. Thence it is, that no greater pleasure is in general felt +from its representations than from seeing the tops of villages or the +steeples of churches fleeting past when travelling fifty miles an hour on +the Great Western. If we would really enjoy nature, we must stop short and +sketch one of them, and then we shall feel pleasure indeed.</p> + +<p>It is a most grievous but unavoidable consequence of this original +departure, as we deem it, from right principle in dramatic composition, +that it leads by a natural and almost unavoidable transition to all the +extravagances and meritricious aids, the presence of which has so long +been felt as the chief disgrace of the British stage. As long as the +unities of time and place are adhered to, the poet has no resource but in +the forces of character, the pathos of incident, the beauty of language. +If he does not succeed in these he is lost. But the moment that he feels +himself at liberty to change the scene or time at pleasure, there is no +end to the assistance which he will seek to derive from such adventitious +support, how foreign soever to the real interest and true principles of +his art. Frequent changes of scene, gorgeous pictures of buildings or +scenery, brilliant exhibitions of stage effect, processions, battles, +storming of castles, the clang of trumpets, the clashing of swords, the +discharge of fire-arms, are all resorted to in order to save the trouble +of thought, or conceal mediocrity of conception. It may be that such +exhibitions are very attractive, that they draw full houses of children, +or of men and women with the minds of children—no small portion of the +human race. But no one will assert that they are the drama, any more than +that name belonged to the exhibitions of lions or cameleopards in the +Roman amphitheatre. But the Romantic drama, by the unbounded latitude in +point of time, place, and incident, which it permits, opens the door to +all these substitutes for genius which the great drama, by excluding them, +kept carefully closed. Therefore it is that the corruption of taste has +been much more rapid and irremediable in the countries by which it has +been adopted, than in those in which the old landmarks were adhered to; +and that in the latter the taste for extravagance in the public, and the +degradation in the character of dramatic composition, has always been +contemporary with the introduction of the Romantic style on the theatre.</p> + +<p>To see to what the Romantic style leads, we have only to look at the +dramatic pieces founded on the favourite works of fiction which have +recently appeared in England and France. Dramas in both countries have +been formed on the stories of the most popular novels of Scott,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> Bulwer, +Victor Hugo, Janin, and Eugene Sue. What success have they had? What sort +of things are they? We pass over the horrors, the indecency, adulterous +incest, and murders of the modern French drama, founded on the romances of +three popular and imaginative novelists, and come to the dramas founded on +our own great romance writers, against whom no such charges can be +brought, and the original plots of which have been constructed with the +utmost talent by the greatest master of prose fiction the world ever saw. +What has been the fate of the dramas of <i>Ivanhoe</i>, <i>The Antiquary</i>, <i>Guy +Mannering</i>, <i>Rob Roy</i>, or Sir Walter's other popular novels? With the +exception of the lowest class of Scotch audiences, who roar on the +representations of Dandie Dinmont, Bailie Nicol Jarvie, or the like, it +may safely be affirmed that they have every where proved entire failures. +The talent of a popular actress may for a time keep some of them up, as +Miss Cushman has recently done with Meg Merrilies both in the London and +provincial theatres; but left to themselves, they have every where sunk to +the ground. The reason is evident. The story is so complicated, and leaps +so from one thing to another, from a desire to skim over the whole novel, +that except to those who have the original by heart, it is absolutely +unintelligible.</p> + +<p>It is said that the sketch of a whole lifetime, or of many years, is +essential to the true development of character, which it is the great end +of the drama to exhibit, because it is by the varied events of so long a +period that we are made acquainted with it in real life. Here again we +join issue with our opponents, and do most confidently maintain that the +Greek drama, which professes to paint the heart by the paroxysms of +passion it undergoes in the crisis of its fate, is much more likely to do +it faithfully and effectually than the Romantic, which portrays the events +of a whole lifetime. When it is said the object of the drama is to paint +the human heart, a distinction must be made. The heart may become known by +ordinary life or moments of crisis, <i>by custom or passion</i>. The novelist, +who portrays a whole life, may delineate it in the first way; but the +dramatic poet, who is limited to a representation of three hours, must of +necessity embrace the latter. But if the delineation of the heart by its +expressions or sufferings in moments of passion, when it is laid bare by +the vehemence of emotions, be the end in view, it must at once be evident +that it is much more likely to be attained by vividly and minutely +painting a single decisive crisis, with the acts and feelings to which it +gives rise, than by presenting comparatively hurried and imperfect +sketches of previous events, when the current of life ran comparatively +smoothly. Every one knows how much the character of the French church and +nobility rose during the sufferings of the Revolution; with truth was the +instrument of their execution called the "holy guillotine," from the +virtues previously unheard of which it brought to light. Could any +dramatic sketch of their previous lives paint the inmost heart of these +victims so well as one faithful portrait of their conduct in the supreme +hour? Could the mingled greatness and meanness of Napoleon's character be +so well portrayed, by a sketch of his life and impressive scenes from Lodi +to St Helena, as by a graphic delineation of his conduct in the decisive +crisis at Waterloo?</p> + +<p>It sounds well, no doubt, to say, as Macaulay does, that the Romantic +drama exhibits all the plans of a man's life, from the ardour of generous +youth to the coolness of experienced age. This may be done in history or +romance; but it is impossible within the limits of a single +representation. It is quite enough if, in so short a space, the stage can +represent one momentous crisis with adequate power, and really paint the +heart as laid bare by its occurrence. He who knows how difficult it is to +do that in a single instance, will feel that the effect can only be +weakened by repeated draughts upon the sympathy of the audience, from the +effect of different events in the same piece. The attempt to do so +scarcely ever fails to weaken the effect of the whole piece, by +distracting the interest and confusing the idea of the spectators. If it +succeeds, the result, like the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> repeated demands which Matthews made on +our risible faculties, in general is to produce an effect directly the +reverse of what was intended. The comedian, by trying too often to make us +laugh, made us in the end more ready to cry; the tragedian, by trying too +often to make us cry, succeeds generally only in making us laugh.</p> + +<p>But what, then, it is said, is to be made of Shakspeare, and how is his +transcendent and universally acknowledged greatness, while setting the +unities at defiance, to be reconciled with those principles? We accept the +challenge; we take the case of the Earl of Avon, with his deathless fame, +and maintain that his dramatic excellence not only affords no impeachment +of what has now been advanced, but furnishes its most decisive +confirmation.</p> + +<p>When it is commonly said that Shakspeare sets the unities at defiance, and +assumed that his success has been owing to his disregarding them, the +<i>fact</i> is not correctly stated, and the <i>inference</i> is not logically +drawn. It is a mistake to say that the unities are always disregarded by +the great English tragedian. In many of his most popular pieces, they are +maintained nearly as strictly as they were by Sophocles; and we are aware +of not one of his dramas which is still represented with undiminished +effect on the stage, in which the principle of the unities may not +distinctly be recognised, and the long-continued success is not to be +traced to their observation.</p> + +<p>The Greeks, as every scholar knows, took great latitude with <i>time</i> in +their representations. The interval between one act and another, often +even the time occupied by the chaunting of the chorus, frequently was made +to cover a very considerable period, during which battles were fought, a +duel or a conspiracy broke forth, an execution took place, and the most +momentous events of the piece off the stage occurred. In place, it is +true, they were strictly limited; the scene never changed, and all the +incidents were introduced by bringing successive persons upon it. In this +respect, it may be admitted, they carried their strictness too far. +Probably it arose from the pieces being represented, for the most part, in +the open air, under circumstances when the illusion produced by a change +of scene, such as we witness at our theatres, was difficult, if not +impossible, from the audience being, for the most part, above the actors, +and the stage having no top. But to whatever cause it may have been owing, +we hold the adherence to unity of place an unnecessary and prejudicial +strictness in the Greek theatre. But a very slight deviation from it alone +seems admissible; and the unity of action or emotion seems to be the very +essence of this species of composition.</p> + +<p>The true principle appears to be, that the place should not change to a +greater extent than the spectators <i>can conceive the actors to have gone +over without inconvenience within the time embraced in the +representation</i>. This time often extended with the Greeks to a half of, or +even a whole day, and there seems nothing adverse to principle in such +extension. Changes of scene, therefore, from one room in a palace to +another; from one part of a town to another; or even from town to a +chateau, garden, forest, or other place in its near vicinity, appear to be +perfectly admissible, without any violation of true dramatic principle. +The popular opera of the "Black Domino," to which the charming singing and +acting of Madame Thillon have recently given such celebrity at the +Haymarket, may be considered in this respect as a model of the unities +taken in a reasonable sense. The time which elapses in the piece is a +single night; the subject is the adventures which befel the heroine during +that period; the scene changes, but only to the places in the same town to +which she went during its continuance. There seems nothing inconsistent +with the production of unity of interest in such a latitude. And with this +inconsiderable expansion of the old Greek unities, it will be found that +Shakspeare's greatest plays, and those which experience has found to be +best adapted for the stage, have been constructed on the true principles.</p> + +<p>Take for example, <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, and <i>As you Like it</i>; perhaps the +tragedy and comedy of his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>composition which have most completely kept +their hold of the stage. The unities are nearly as closely observed in +both as in any drama of Sophocles. With the exception of a slight +alteration of place and scene, every thing is concentrated. The interest +and emotion, which is the great point, is maintained one and indivisible. +With the exception of Romeo's banishment to Mantua, and the scene with the +druggist there, which, after all, is but an episode, and took the hero +only two hours' drive from Verona, the place is confined to different +scenes in that town. The festive hall where the lovers first meet—the +exquisite meeting on the balcony—Father Ambrose's cell—the room where +Juliet coaxes the nurse—the garden where she parts from Romeo, when</p> + +<p class="poem">"Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day<br /> +Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain's top—"</p> + +<p>the terrible scene where Juliet contemplates wakening in the tomb amidst +her ancestors' bones—the mausoleum itself, where the catastrophe occurs, +are all in the same town. The time supposed to elapse does not exceed +twenty-four hours; not more than in the <i>Electra</i> or <i>Iphigenia in Aulis</i> +of Euripides. The interest, dependent entirely on the ardent love of +Juliet, is as much undivided as in the <i>Antigone</i> of Sophocles. And yet we +are told Shakspeare succeeded by disregarding the unities.</p> + +<p>Again, in <i>As you Like it</i>, the same observation holds true. Whoever +recollects the scenes of that delightful drama, must be sensible that it +is, with the single exception of the scenes of the wrestlers in the first +act, nothing but a Greek drama on the English stage. Menander or +Aristophanes would have made one of the characters recount that scene, +which is merely introductory, and introduced Rosalind and her companions +for the first time in the Forest of Arden, where the real interest of the +piece commences. A slight change of scene, indeed, occurs from one part of +the forest to another, but it is so inconsiderable as in no degree to +interfere with the unity of effect. The single interest awakened by +Rosalind's secret love and playful archness of manner is kept up undivided +throughout. So also in <i>The Tempest</i>, the unities in all the scenes which +excite sympathy are as completely preserved as ever they were on the Greek +stage; and the angelic innocence of Miranda stands forth in as striking +and undivided relief as the devotion of Antigone to sisterly affection, or +the self-immolation of Iphigenia to patriotic duty. We are well aware +there are characters of a very different kind in that drama; but the +interest is concentrated on those in which the unity is preserved. Look at +<i>Othello</i>. In what play of Euripides is singleness of interest more +completely preserved than in that noble tragedy? The haughty bearing, +conscious pride, but ardent love of the Moor; the deep love of Desdemona, +nourished, as we so often see in real life, by qualities in her the very +reverse; the gradual growth of jealousy from her innocent sportiveness of +manner, and the diabolical machinations of Iago; her murder, in a fit of +jealousy, by her despairing husband, and his self-sacrifice when the veil +was drawn from his eyes,—are all brought forward, if not with the literal +strictness of the Greek drama, at least with as much regard to unity of +time, place, and action, as is required by its principles.</p> + +<p>We are well aware that there are many other dramas, and those, perhaps, +not less popular, of Shakspeare, in which unity of time and place is +entirely set at defiance, and in which the piece ends at the distance of +hundreds of miles, sometimes after the lapse of years, from the point +whence it commenced. <i>Macbeth</i>, <i>Julius Cæsar</i>, <i>Richard III.</i>, <i>Henry +V.</i>, <i>Hamlet</i>, and many others, are examples of this deviation from former +principle, and it is to the universal admiration which they excite that +the national partiality for the Romantic drama is to be ascribed. But in +all these instances it will be found—and the observation is a most +material one—that the real interest is nearly as much centralised as it +was in the Greek stage, and that it is on the extraordinary fascination +which a few scenes, or <i>the incidents grouped round a single event</i>, +possess, that the success of the piece depends. The historical tragedies +read well,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> just as a historical romance does, and from the same cause, +that they are looked on, not as dramas, but as brilliant passages of +history. But this has proved unable to support them on the theatre. One by +one they have gradually dropped away from the stage. Some are occasionally +revived, from time to time, in order to display the power of a particular +actor or actress, but never with any lasting success. Those plays of +Shakspeare which alone retain their hold of the theatre, are either those, +such as <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, or <i>As you Like it</i>, in which the unities are +substantially observed, or in which the resplendent brilliancy of a few +characters or scenes, within very narrow limits, fixes the attention of +the audience so completely as to render comparatively harmless, because +unfelt, the distraction produced by the intermixture of farce in the +subordinate persons, or the violations of time and place in the structure +of the piece. But it is not to every man that the pencil of the Bard of +Avon,</p> + +<p class="poem">"Dipp'd in the orient hues of heaven,"</p> + +<p>is given; and the subsequent failure of the Romantic drama, in this and +every other country, is mainly to be ascribed to succeeding writers not +having possessed his power of fixing, by the splendid colours of genius, +the attention of the spectators on a particular part of the piece. +Shakspeare disregards the unities in form; but his burning imagination +restores their operations in substance.</p> + +<p>Take for example the most popular of the really Romantic dramas, <i>Macbeth</i> +and <i>Hamlet</i>. No one need be told how the unities are violated in the +first of these pieces: that it begins on a heath in Morayshire, where the +witches appear to the victorious Thane; that the murder of the King takes +place in the Castle of Inverness; that the usurper is slain by Macduff in +front of Dunsinnane Castle near the Tay. But none can either have read the +play, or seen it acted, without feeling that the real interest lies in the +events which occurred, and the ambitious feelings which were awakened in +Macbeth and his wife, when temptation was put in their way within their +own halls. Sophocles would have laid the scene there, and made one of the +characters narrate in the outset the appearance of the witches on the +heath, and brought Macduff to the gates of Macbeth's castle shortly after +the murder of Duncan to avenge his death. Shakspeare has not done this; +but he has painted the scenes in the interior of the castle, before and +after the murder, with such force and effect, that the mind is as much +riveted by them, as if no previous or subsequent deviation from the +unities had been introduced. <i>Hamlet</i> begins in a strain of unparalleled +interest; had the last four acts proceeded in the same sublime style as +the first, and the filial duty devolved by the ghost on his son of +avenging his murder been discharged as rapidly as it should have been, and +as the feelings of the audience lead them to desire, it would have been +perhaps the most powerful tragedy in the world. Had Shakspeare proceeded +on the principles of the Greek drama, he would have done this, and +produced a drama as universally admired as the <i>Agamemnon</i> of Æschylus. +But every one feels that the interest is weakened and wellnigh lost as the +play proceeds; new characters are introduced, the burlesque succeeds the +sublime, the original design is forgotten; and when the spectre appears a +second time "to whet your almost blunted purpose," his appearance is felt +to be as necessary to revive the decaying interest of the piece, as to +resuscitate the all but forgotten fervour of the Prince of Denmark.</p> + +<p>We feel that we have committed high treason in the estimation of a large +part of our readers, by contesting the justice of the principles on which +Shakspeare proceeded in the construction of many of his dramas; and we +know that the opinions advanced are adverse to those of many, whose genius +and professional success entitle their judgment on this subject to the +very highest respect. But yet the weight of authority, if that is to be +appealed to, is decidedly in favour of the principles of the Greek being +the true ones of the drama. From the days of Aristotle to those of +Addison, the greatest critics have concurred in this opinion; and he is a +bold innovater on this subject who sets at nought the precepts of Horace<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +and Quintilian, forgets the example of Sophocles and Schiller, of +Euripides and Alfieri, of Corneille and Metastasio, and disregards the +decided judgment of Pope<small><a name="f7.1" id="f7.1" href="#f7">[7]</a></small> and Byron. The opinion of the latter poet was +peculiarly strong in favour of the unities, and was repeatedly expressed +in his correspondence preserved in Moore's Life; although his own noble +dramas, being avowedly constructed with no view to representation, but as +a vehicle for powerful declamation or impassioned poetry, often exhibit, +especially in <i>Manfred</i>, the most glaring violations of them. Johnson +confessed that the weight of authority in favour of the Greek rules was so +great, that it required no small courage to attempt even to withstand it. +But it is not by authority that this, or any other question of taste, is +to be decided. The true test of the correctness of opinion on such matters +is to be found in experience, and the inward feelings of persons of +cultivated minds and enlarged observation. And in the preceding remarks we +have only extended to the drama, principles familiar to artists in every +other department of human imagination, and generally admitted in them, at +least, to be correct; and appealed, we trust not in vain, to the +experience gained, and the lessons learned, by those who have cultivated +the sister arts in those times with the greatest success.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<h2>THE MINSTREL'S CURSE.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">From Uhland. By A. Lodge.</span></h3> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>A castle of the olden time, o'er subject regions wide,<br /> +Throned on its rocky height afar looked forth in feudal pride;<br /> +And fragrant gardens decked the plain, where lakes, with crystal sheen,<br /> +Mirrored the pleasant sylvan glades and lawns of living green.<br /> +<br /> +Here dwelt, of jealous fears the prey, in pomp of moody state,<br /> +A King, by realms and cities fair, and conquest's laurels great;<br /> +His glance bespoke the tyrant soul to pity ne'er subdued;<br /> +His words were chains and torments—his characters were blood!<br /> +<br /> +Once to these lordly towers at eve approached a tuneful pair,<br /> +Of reverend silvery tresses one, and one with golden hair;<br /> +The old man on a palfrey sate—his harp, the Minstrel's pride,<br /> +He bore—his comrade, young and blithe, tripped lightly at his side.<br /> +<br /> +Thus to the youth the old man spoke—"My son, it boots to-day,<br /> +To try our deepest melodies, our most impassioned lay;<br /> +With cunning'st art essay the notes of blended joy and pain;<br /> +Perchance this royal heart may own the magic of the strain."<br /> +<br /> +Soon in the pillared regal hall, amid the courtly throng<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>Of belted knights and beauteous dames, they range the sons of song:—<br /> +The King, in fearful majesty, recalled the meteor's blaze;<br /> +His spouse, with beaming loveliness, the moonlight's gentle rays.<br /> +<br /> +The old man swept the chords—and quick, responsive to the tone,<br /> +Through all the train each heart confessed the spell of power unknown;<br /> +And when a clear angelic voice chimed in with youthful fire,<br /> +'Twas like the unseen minstrelsy of some ethereal quire!<br /> +<br /> +They sang of Love's delightful spring—of the old golden time;<br /> +Of knightly leal, and maiden's truth, and chivalry sublime;<br /> +Of each high thought that stirs the soul informed with heavenly flame;<br /> +Of man's exalted destinies—of freedom, worth, and fame!<br /> +<br /> +They paused:—in rapt attention hushed, the crowd had clustered near;<br /> +The courtier smoothed the lip of scorn, the warrior dropped a tear;<br /> +The Queen, with trembling extasy, took from her breast a rose;<br /> +And see! at the young Minstrel's feet the guerdon flower she throws.<br /> +<br /> +"Ha!" shrieked the King—"my lieges first, with your detested lays,<br /> +Ye have seduced—and now my Queen their witchery betrays;<br /> +Die, tuneful minion!"—at the youth he hurled the gleaming sword,<br /> +And from the fount of golden strains the crimson tide was poured.<br /> +<br /> +While scared, as by the lightning's flash, all stood in mute dismay,<br /> +The boy on his loved master's breast had breathed his soul away:—<br /> +The old man round the bleeding form his mantle wrapped with speed;<br /> +Raised the dear victim in his arms, and bound him on his steed.<br /> +<br /> +The portals passed, he stood awhile, and gazed with tearful eyes—<br /> +And grasped his harp—the master harp—of thousand harps the prize:<br /> +Then frantic on a column's base he dashed the useless lyre,<br /> +And thus the curse of Poesy spoke with a prophet's fire!<br /> +<br /> +"Woe! Woe! proud towers—dire House of blood! thy guilty courts among,<br /> +Ne'er may the chords of harmony be waked—the voice of song;<br /> +The tread of silent slaves alone shall echo mid the gloom,<br /> +Till Ruin waits, and hovering fiends of vengeance shriek thy doom!<br /> +<br /> +"Woe! Woe! ye blooming gardens fair—decked in the pride of May,<br /> +Behold this flower untimely cropped—look—and no more be gay!<br /> +The sight should wither every leaf—make all your fountains dry,<br /> +And bid the bright enchantment round in wasteful horror lie!<br /> +<br /> +"And thou, fell Tyrant, curst for aye of all the tuneful train—<br /> +May blighted bays, and bitter scorn, mock thy inglorious reign!<br /> +Perish thy hated name with thee—from songs and annals fade—<br /> +Thy race—thy power—thy very crimes—lost in oblivion's shade!"<br /> +<br /> +The aged Bard has spoken—and Heaven has heard the prayer;<br /> +The haughty towers are crumbling low—no regal dome is there!<br /> +A single column soars on high, to tell of splendours past—<br /> +And see! <i>'tis cracked—it nods the head</i>—this hour may be it's last!<br /> +<br /> +Where once the fairy garden smiled, a mournful desert lies—<br /> +No rills refresh the barren sand—no graceful stems arise—<br /> +From storied page, and legend strain, this King has vanished long;<br /> +His race is dead—his power forgot:—such is the might of song!</td></tr></table> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE MINE, THE FOREST, AND THE CORDILLERA.<span class="foot"><a name="f8.1" id="f8.1" href="#f8">[8]</a></span></h2> + +<p>The silver mines of Potosi, the virgin forests, and mighty cordilleras of +South America, are words familiar and full of interest to European ears. +Countless riches, prodigious vegetable luxuriance, stupendous grandeur, +are the associations they suggest. With these should be coupled ideas of +cruelty, desolation, and disease, of human suffering and degradation +pushed to their utmost limit, of opportunities neglected, and advantages +misused. Not a bar of silver, or a healing drug, or an Alpaca fleece, +shipped from Peruvian ports to supply another hemisphere with luxuries and +comforts, but is the price of an incalculable amount of misery, and even +of blood—the blood of a race once noble and powerful, now wretched and +depraved by the agency of those whose duty and in whose power it was to +civilize and improve them. The corrupt policy of Spanish rulers, the +baneful example of Spanish colonists and their descendants, have gone far +towards the depopulation and utter ruin of the richest of South American +countries. How imprudent and suicidal has been the course adopted, will +presently be made apparent. Those who desire evidence in support of our +assertion, need but follow Dr Tschudi, as we now propose doing, into the +mining, mountainous, and forest districts of Peru.</p> + +<p>Difficult and dangerous as a journey through the maritime provinces of +Peru undeniably is, it is mere railroad travelling when compared with an +expedition into the interior of the country. In the former case, the land +is level, and the sun, the sand, and the highwayman, are the only perils +to be encountered or evaded. But a ramble in the mountains is a succession +of hairbreadth escapes, a deliberate confronting of constantly recurring +dangers, to which even the natives unwillingly expose themselves, and +frequently fall victims. The avalanches, precipices, gaping ravines, +slippery glaciers, and violent storms common to all Alpine regions, are +here complicated by other risks peculiar to the South American mountains. +Heavy rains, lasting for weeks together, falls of snow that in a few +moments obliterate all trace of a path, treacherous swamps, strange and +loathsome maladies, and even blindness, combine to deter the traveller +from his dangerous undertaking. All these did Dr Tschudi brave, and from +them all, after the endurance of great hardship and suffering, he was +fortunate enough to escape.</p> + +<p>At a very short distance from Lima, the traveller, proceeding eastward, +gets a foretaste of the difficulties and inconveniences in reserve for +him. Whilst riding, through the vale of Surco, or through some other of +the valleys leading from the coast to the mountains, he perceives a +fountain by the road side, and pauses to refresh his tired mule. Scarcely +is his intention manifest, when he is startled by a cry from his guide, or +from a passing Indian—"<i>Cuidado! Es agua de verruga!</i>" In these valleys +reigns a terrible disease called the <i>verrugas</i>, attributed by the natives +to the water of certain springs, and for which all Dr Tschudi's +investigations were insufficient to discover another cause. Fever, pains +in the bones, and loss of blood from cutaneous eruptions, are the leading +symptoms of this malady, which is frequently of long duration, and +sometimes terminates fatally. It seizes the Indians and lighter castes in +preference to the white men and negroes, and no specific has yet been +discovered for its cure. Mules and horses are also subject to its attacks. +In no country, it would appear from Dr Tschudi's evidence, are there so +many strange and unaccountable maladies as in Peru. Nearly every valley +has its peculiar disease, extending over a district of a few square miles, +and unknown beyond its limits. To most of them it has hitherto been +impossible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> to assign a cause. Their origin must probably be sought in +certain vegetable influences, or in those of the vast variety of minerals +which the soil of Peru contains.</p> + +<p>In the mountains, the shoeing of mules and horses is frequently a matter +of much difficulty; and it is advisable for the traveller to acquire the +art, and furnish himself with needful implements, before leaving the more +civilized part of the country. Farriers are only to be found in the large +Indian villages, and it is common to ride fifty or sixty leagues without +meeting with one. In the village of San Geronimo de Surco, the innkeeper +is the only blacksmith, and Dr Tschudi, whose horse had cast a shoe, was +compelled to pay half a gold ounce (upwards of thirty shillings) to have +it replaced. This was one half less than the sum at first demanded by the +exorbitant son of Vulcan, who doubtless remembered the old Spanish +proverb, "for a nail is lost a shoe, for a shoe the horse, for the horse +the horseman."<small><a name="f9.1" id="f9.1" href="#f9">[9]</a></small> The doctor took the hint, and some lessons in shoeing, +which afterwards stood him in good stead. It is a common practice in Peru, +on the sandy coast, and where the roads permit it, to ride a horse or mule +unshod for the first four or five days of a journey. Then shoes are put on +the fore feet, and a few days later on the hinder ones. This is thought to +give new strength to the animals, and to enable them to hold out longer. +On the mountain tracks, the wear and tear of iron must be prodigious, as +may be judged from the following description of three leagues of road +between Viso and San Mateo, by no means the worst bit met with by our +traveller.</p> + +<p>"The valley frequently becomes a mere narrow split in the mountains, +enclosed between walls of rock a thousand feet high. These enormous +precipices are either perpendicular, or their summits incline inwards, +forming a vast arch; along their base, washed by the foaming waters of the +river, or higher up, along their side, winds the narrow and dangerous +path. In some places they recede a little from the perpendicular, and +their abrupt slopes are sprinkled with stones and fragments of rock, which +every now and then, loosened by rain, detach themselves and roll down into +the valley. The path is heaped with these fragments, which give way under +the tread of the heavily laden mules, and afford them scanty foothold. +From time to time, enormous blocks thunder down the precipice, and bury +themselves in the waters beneath. I associate a painful recollection with +the road from Viso to San Mateo. It was there that a mass of stone struck +one of my mules, and precipitated it into the river. My most important +instruments and travelling necessaries, a portion of my collections and +papers, and—an irreparable loss—a diary carefully and conscientiously +kept during a period of fourteen months, became the prey of the waters. +Two days later the mule was washed ashore; but its load was irrecoverably +lost. Each year numerous beasts of burden, and many travellers, perish +upon this dangerous road. Cavalry on the march are particularly apt to +suffer, and often a slip of the horse's foot, or a hasty movement of the +rider, suffices to consign both to the yawning chasm by their side. At the +inn at Viso I met an officer, who had just come from the mountains, +bringing his two sons with him. He had taken the youngest before him; the +other, a boy of ten years of age, rode upon the mule's crupper. Half a +league from Viso, a large stone came plunging down from the mountain, +struck the eldest lad, and dashed him into the stream."</p> + +<p>Although frequently ill-treated by the Creoles, and especially by the +officers, the Indians in most parts of Peru show ready hospitality and +good-will to the solitary traveller. Those in the neighborhood of San +Mateo are an exception; they are distrustful, rough, and disobliging. When +a traveller enters the village, he is instantly waited upon by the alcalde +and regidores, who demand his passport. Has he none, he risks +ill-treatment, and being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> put upon a jackass and carried off to the +nearest prefect. Luckily the ignorance of the village authorities renders +them easy to deal with; it is rare that they can read. On one occasion, +when Dr Tschudi's passport was demanded, the only printed paper in his +pocket was an old playbill, that of the last opera he had attended before +his departure from Lima, and which he had taken with him as wadding for +his gun. He handed it to the Indian regidor, who gravely unfolded it, +stared hard at the words Lucia di Lammermoor, and returned it with the +remark, that the passport was perfectly in order.</p> + +<p>Any thing more wretched in their accommodations than the <i>tambos</i> or +village inns, can scarcely be imagined. So bad are they, that the +traveller is sometimes driven to pass the night in the snow rather than +accept of their shelter, and at the same time submit to the nuisances with +which they abound. One of these villanous hostelries, in which Dr Tschudi +several times attempted to sleep, is described by him with a minuteness +that will rather startle the squeamish amongst his readers. Vermin every +where, on the floor and walls, in the clothes of the Indian hag +officiating as hostess, even in the caldron in which a vile mixture of +potatoe water and Spanish pepper is prepared for supper. For sole bed +there is the damp earth, upon which hosts, children, and travellers +stretch themselves. Each person is accommodated with a sheepskin, and over +the whole company is spread an enormous woollen blanket. But woe to the +inexperienced traveller who avails himself of the coverings thus +bountifully furnished, swarming as they are with inhabitants from whose +assaults escape is impossible. Even if he creeps into a corner, and makes +himself a bed with his saddle-cloths, he is not secure. Add to these +comforts a stifling smoke, and other nauseous exhalations, and the gambols +of innumerable guinea-pigs, common as mice in many parts of Peru, who +caper the night through over the faces and bodies of the sleepers, and the +picture of a South American mountain inn will be as complete as it is +uninviting. But these annoyances, great though they be, are very trifles +compared to the more serious evils awaiting the traveller in the higher +regions of the Cordilleras. At about 12,600 feet above the level of the +sea, the effects of the rarefaction of the atmosphere begin to be sensibly +and painfully felt. The natives, unacquainted with the real cause of the +malady thus occasioned, and which by them is called <i>puna</i>, by the Spanish +Creoles <i>veta</i> or <i>mareo</i>, attribute it to the exhalations of metals, +especially of antimony. Horses, not bred in the mountains, suffer greatly +from the <i>veta</i>, and frequently fall down helpless. The arrieros adopt +various cruel means for their revival, such as cutting off their ears and +tail, and slitting up their nostrils, the latter being probably the only +useful remedy, as it allows the animal to inhale a large volume of air. To +preserve them from the <i>veta</i>, chopped garlic is put into their nostrils. +With human beings, this state of the atmosphere causes the blood to gush +from the eyes, nose, and lips, and occasions faintings, blood-spittings, +vomitings, and other unpleasant and dangerous symptoms. The sensation +somewhat resembles that of sea-sickness, whence the Spanish name of +<i>mareo</i>. The malady, in its most violent form, sometimes causes death from +excessive loss of blood. Of this, Dr Tschudi saw instances. Much depends +on the general health and constitution of the persons attacked. The action +of the <i>veta</i> is very capricious. Some persons do not experience it on a +first visit to the mountains, but suffer on subsequent ones. Another +singular circumstance is, that it is much more violent in some places than +in others of a greater altitude. This affords ground for a supposition, +that other causes, besides the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, +concur to occasion it. These as yet remain unknown. The districts in which +the <i>veta</i> is felt with the greatest intensity, are for the most part very +metallic, and this has given rise to the Indian theory of its cause.</p> + +<p>Another terrible scourge to the traveller in the Cordilleras is the +<i>surumpe</i>, a violent inflammation of the eye, brought on by the sudden +reflection of the sun from the snow. In those mountains the eyes are kept<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +continually in an irritated state by the rarefied air and cutting winds, +and are consequently unusually susceptible. Often the heavens become +suddenly overcast, and in a few minutes the yellowish-green waste is one +sheet of snow. Then out bursts the sun with overpowering splendour, a +sharp burning pain is instantly felt in the eyes, and speedily increases +to an unbearable extent. The eyes become red, the lids swell and bleed. So +violent is the agony as to cause despair and delirium. Dr Tschudi compares +it to the sensation occasioned by rubbing Spanish pepper or gunpowder into +the eyes. Chronic inflammation, even total blindness, is the frequent +consequence of the <i>surumpe</i> in its most intense form. In the Cordilleras +it is no unusual thing to find Indians sitting by the wayside, shrieking +from pain, and unable to continue their journey. The Creoles, when they +visit the mountains, protect themselves with green spectacles and veils.</p> + +<p>During five months of the year, from November till March, storms are of +almost daily occurrence in the Cordilleras. They commence with remarkable +punctuality between two and three in the afternoon, and continue till five +or half-past; later than this, or in the night, a storm was never known to +occur. They are accompanied by falls of snow, which last till after +midnight. The morning sun dispels the cold mist that hangs about the +mountain peaks, and in a few hours the snow is melted. "On the raging +ocean," says Dr Tschudi, "and in the dark depths of the aboriginal +forests, I have witnessed terrific storms, whose horrors were increased by +surrounding gloom and imminent danger, but never did I feel anxiety and +alarm as in Antaichahua, (a district of the Cordilleras celebrated for +storms.) For hours together flash followed flash in uninterrupted +succession, painting blood-red cataracts upon the naked precipices; the +thunder crashed, the zigzag lightning ran along the ground, leaving long +furrows in the scorched grass. The atmosphere quivered with the continuous +roll of thunder, repeated a thousand-fold by the mountain echoes. The +traveller, overtaken by these terrific tempests, leaves his trembling +horse, and seeks shelter and refuge beneath some impending rock."</p> + +<p>The hanging bridges and <i>huaros</i> are not to be forgotten in enumerating +the perils of Peruvian travelling. The former are composed of four thick +ropes of cow-hide, connected by a weft of cords of the same material, and +overlaid with branches, straw, and agair roots. The ropes are fastened to +posts on either side of the river; a couple of cords, two or three feet +higher than the bridge, serve for balustrades; and over this unsteady +causeway, which swings like a hammock, the traveller has to pass, leading +his reluctant mule. The passage of rivers by <i>huaros</i> is much worse, and +altogether a most unpleasant operation. It can be effected only where the +banks are high and precipitous. A single strong rope extends from one +shore to the other, with a wooden machine, in form of a yoke, slung upon +it. To this yoke the traveller is tied, and is then drawn over by means of +a second cord. In case of the main rope breaking, the passenger by the +yoke is inevitably drowned. When rivers are traversed in this manner, the +mules and horses are driven into the water, and compelled to swim across.</p> + +<p>But a further detail of the dangers and difficulties of travel in Peru +would leave us little space to enumerate its interesting results. +Supposing the reader, therefore, to have safely accomplished his journey +through the solitary ravines, and over the chilly summits of the +Cordilleras, we transport him at once to the Cerro de Pasco, famed for the +wealth of its silver mines. In a region of snow and ice, at an elevation +of 13,673 feet above the sea, he suddenly comes in sight of a large and +populous city, built in a hollow, and surrounded on all sides by lakes and +swamps. On the margin of eternal snows, in the wildest district of Peru, +and in defiance of the asperities of climate, Mammon has assembled a host +of worshippers to dig and delve in the richest of his storehouses.</p> + +<p>Some two hundred and fifteen years ago, according to the legend, a small +pampa that lies south-east from Lake Lauricocha, the mother of the mighty +river Amazon, an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> Indian, Hauri Capcha by name, tended his master's sheep. +Having wandered one day to an unusual distance from his hut, he sought +shelter from the cold under a rock, and lighted a large fire. The +following morning he saw to his astonishment that the stone beneath the +ashes had melted and become pure silver. He joyfully informed his +employer, a Spaniard of the name of Ugarte, of this singular circumstance. +Ugarte hastened to the place, and found that his shepherd had lit upon a +vein of silver ore of extraordinary richness, of which he at once took +possession, and worked it with great success. This same mine is still +worked, and is known as <i>la Descubridora</i>, the discoverer. Presently a +number of persons came from the village of Pasco, two leagues distant, and +sought and discovered new veins. The great richness of the ore and the +increase of employment soon drew crowds to the place—some to work, others +to supply the miners with the necessaries of life; and thus, in a very +brief time, there sprung up a town of eighteen thousand inhabitants.</p> + +<p>The ground whereon Cerro de Pasco is built is a perfect network of silver +veins, to get at which the earth has been opened in every direction. Many +of the inhabitants work the mines in their own cellars; but this, of +course, is on a small scale, and there are not more than five hundred +openings meriting, by reason of their depth and importance, the name of +shafts. All, however, whether deep or shallow, are worked in a very +senseless, disorderly, and imprudent manner—the sole object of their +owners being to obtain, at the least possible expense, and in the shortest +possible time, the utmost amount of ore. Nobody ever thinks of arching or +walling the interior of the excavations, and consequently the shafts and +galleries frequently fall in, burying under their ruins the unfortunate +Indian miners. Not a year passes without terrible catastrophes of this +kind. In the mine of Matagente, (literally, Kill-people,) now entirely +destroyed, three hundred labourers lost their lives by accident. For +incurring these terrible risks, and for a species of labour of all others +the most painful and wearisome, the Indians are wretchedly paid, and their +scanty earnings are diminished by the iniquitous truck system which is in +full operation in the mines as well as in the plantations of Peru. The +miner who, at the week's end, has a dollar to receive, esteems himself +fortunate, and forthwith proceeds to spend it in brandy. The mining +Indians are the most depraved and degraded of their race. When a mine is +in <i>boya</i>, as it is called, that is to say, at periods when it yields +uncommonly rich metal, more labourers are required, and temporarily taken +on. When this occurs in several mines at one time, the population of Cerro +de Pasco sometimes doubles and trebles itself. During the boyas, the +miners are paid by a small share in the daily produce of their labours. +They sometimes succeed in improving their shares by stealing the ore, but +this is very difficult, so narrowly are they searched when they leave the +mine. One man told Dr Tschudi how he had managed to appropriate the +richest piece of ore he ever saw. He tied it on his back, and pretended to +be so desperately ill, that the corporal allowed him to leave the mine. +Wrapped in his poncho, he was carried past the inspectors by two +confederates, and the treasure was put in safety. Formerly when a mine +yielded polvorilla, a black ore in the form of powder, but of great +richness, the miners stripped themselves naked, wetted their whole body, +and then rolled in this silver dust, which stuck to them. Released from +the mine they washed off the crust, and sold it for several dollars. This +device, however, was detected, and, for several years past, the departing +miners are compelled to strip for inspection.</p> + +<p>Like the extraction of the ore, the purification of the silver from the +dross is conducted in the rudest and most primitive manner. The +consequence is an immense consumption of quicksilver. On each mark of +silver, worth in Lima eight and a-half dollars, or about thirty shillings, +it is estimated that half a pound of quicksilver is expended. The +quicksilver comes chiefly from Spain—very little from Idria—in iron jars +containing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> seventy-five pounds weight. The price of one of these jars +varies from sixty to one hundred dollars, but is sometimes as high as one +hundred and forty dollars. Both the amalgamation and separation of the +metals are so badly managed, as to occasion a terrible amount of mercurial +disease amongst the Indians employed in the process. From the +refining-houses the silver is, or ought to be, sent to Callana, the +government melting-house, there to be cast into bars of a hundred pounds +weight, each of which is stamped and charged with imposts to the amount of +about forty-four dollars. But a vast deal of the metal is smuggled to the +coast and shipped for Europe without ever visiting the Callana. Hence it +is scarcely possible to estimate the quantity annually produced. The +amount registered is from two to three hundred thousand marks—rarely over +the latter sum.</p> + +<p>Residence in the Cerro de Pasco is highly disagreeable. The climate is +execrable; cold and stormy, with heavy rains and violent falls of snow. +Nothing less than the <i>auri sacra fames</i> could have induced such a +congregation of human beings, from all nations and corners of the globe, +in so inhospitable a latitude. The new-comer with difficulty accustoms +himself to the severity of the weather, and to the perpetual hammering +going on under his feet, and at night under his very bed, for the mines +are worked without cessation. Luckily earthquakes are rare in that region. +A heavy shock would bury the whole town in the bosom of the earth.</p> + +<p>Silver being the only produce of the soil, living is very dear in the +Cerro. All the necessaries of life have to be brought from a great +distance; and this, combined with the greediness of the vendors, and the +abundance of money, causes enormous prices to be demanded and obtained. +House-rent is exorbitantly high; the keep of a horse often costs, owing to +the want of forage, from two to three dollars a-day. Here, as at Lima, the +coffee and eating-houses are kept by Italians, principally Genoese. The +population of the town is the most motley imaginable; scarcely a country +in the world but has its representatives. Of the upper classes the darling +vice is gambling, carried to an almost unparalleled extent. From earliest +morning cards and dice are in full activity: the mine proprietor leaves +his counting-house and silver carts, the trader abandons his shop, to +indulge for a couple of hours in his favourite amusement; and, when the +evening comes, play is universal in all the best houses of the town. The +mayordomos, or superintendents of the mines, sit down to the gaming-table +at nightfall, and only leave it when at daybreak the bell summons them to +the shaft. Often do they gamble away their share in a boya long before +signs of one are apparent. Amongst the Indians, drunkenness is the chief +failing. When primed by spirits, they become quarrelsome; and scarcely a +Sunday or holiday passes without savage fights between the workmen of +different mines. Severe wounds, and even deaths, are the consequences of +these encounters, in which the authorities never dream of interfering. +When, owing to the richness of a boya, the Indian finds himself possessed +of an unusual number of dollars, he squanders then in the most ridiculous +manner, like a drunken sailor with a year's pay in his pocket. Dr Tschudi +saw one fellow buy a Spanish cloak for ninety-two dollars. Draping it +round him, he proceeded to the next town, got drunk, rolled himself in the +gutter, and then threw away the cloak because it was torn and dirty. A +watchmaker told the doctor that once an Indian came to him to buy a gold +watch. He handed him one, with the remark that the price was twelve gold +ounces, (two hundred and four dollars,) and that it would probably be too +dear for him. The Indian took the watch, paid for it, and then dashing it +upon the ground, walked away, saying that the thing was no use to him.</p> + +<p>Besides the mines of Cerro de Pasco, Dr Tschudi gives us details of many +others situate in various parts of Peru. The Salcedo mine, in the province +of Puno, is celebrated for the tragical end of its discoverer. Don José +Salcedo, a poor Spaniard, was in love with an Indian girl, whose mother +promised to show him a silver<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> vein of uncommon richness if he would marry +her daughter. He did so, and worked the vein with great success. After a +time the fame of his wealth roused the envy of the Conde de Lemos, then +viceroy of Peru. By his generosity and benevolence Salcedo had made +himself very popular with the Indians, and this served the viceroy as a +pretext to accuse him of high treason, on the ground of his stirring up +the population against the Spanish government. Salcedo was imprisoned, and +sentenced to death. Whilst in his dungeon he besought Count Lemos to send +the papers relating to his trial to the supreme tribunal at Madrid, and to +allow him to make an appeal to the king's mercy. If this request were +granted, he promised to pay a daily tribute of a bar of silver, from the +time of the ship's sailing from Callao to that of its return. In those +days the voyage from Callao to Spain and back occupied from twelve to +sixteen months. This may give an idea of the wealth of Salcedo and his +mine. The viceroy refused the condition, hung up Salcedo, (in May 1669,) +and set out for the mines. But his injustice and cruelty were doomed to +disappointment. Whilst Salcedo prepared for death, his mother-in-law and +her friends and relations betook themselves to the mine, destroyed the +works, filled it with water, and closed the entrance so skilfully that it +was impossible to discover it. They then dispersed in various directions, +and neither promises nor tortures could induce those who were afterwards +captured, to reveal the position of the mine. To this day it remains +undiscovered.</p> + +<p>Another example of the exceeding richness of Peruvian mines is to be found +in that of San José, in the department of Huancavelica. Its owner asked +the viceroy Castro, whose friend he was, to stand godfather to his first +child. The viceroy was prevented from going himself, but sent his wife as +a proxy. To do her honour, the proprietor of San José caused a triple row +of silver bars to be placed along the whole of the distance, and it was no +short one, between his house and the church. Over this costly causeway the +vice-queen Castro accompanied the child to its baptism. On her departure +her magnificent Amphitryon made her a present of the silver road as a mark +of gratitude for the honour she had done him. Since then, the mines and +the province have borne the name of Castrovireyna. Most of the former are +now no longer worked. In the richest of them, owing to the careless mode +of mining, one hundred and twenty-two workmen were buried alive at one +time. Since then, no Indian can be prevailed upon to enter it.</p> + +<p>The Indians have not been slow to discover how little advantage they +derive from the mining system, procuring them, as it does, small pay for +severe labour. Hence, although acquainted for centuries past with +innumerable rich veins of ore, the knowledge of which has been handed down +from father to son, they obstinately persist in keeping them secret. All +endeavours to shake this determination have hitherto been fruitless; even +the rarely failing argument of brandy in these cases loses its power. The +existence of the treasures has been ascertained beyond a doubt; but there +is not a shadow of hope that the stubborn reserved Indian will ever reveal +their locality to the greedy Creole and detested Metis. Numerous and +romantic are the tales told of this determined concealment, and of the +prudence and watchfulness of the Indians. "In the great village of +Huancayo," says Dr Tschudi, "there lived, a few years ago, two brothers, +José and Pedro Iriarte, who ranked amongst the most influential of +Peruvian miners. They knew that in the neighbouring hills veins of almost +virgin silver existed, and, with a view to their discovery, they +dispatched a young man to a village near which they suspected them to be +situate. The emissary took up his dwelling in the hut of a shepherd, with +whose daughter, after a few months' residence, he established an intrigue. +At last the young girl promised to show him a rich mine. On a certain day, +when she drove her sheep to the pasture, he was to follow her at a +distance, and to dig the spot where she should let her cloak fall. This he +did, and after very brief labour found a cavity in the earth disclosing +ore of uncommon richness. Whilst breaking out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> the metal, he was joined by +the girl's father, who declared himself delighted at the discovery, and +offered to help him. After some hours' labour they paused to rest, and the +old Indian handed his companion a gourd of chicha, (a fermented drink,) of +which the latter thankfully drank. Soon, however, the young man felt +himself ill, and knew that he was poisoned. Taking his wallet full of ore, +he hastened to the village, mounted his horse, and rode to Huancayo, where +he informed Iriarte of what had occurred, described the position of the +mine, and died the same night. Immediate and careful researches were of no +avail. The Indian and his family had disappeared, the mine had been filled +up, and was never discovered."</p> + +<p>A Franciscan monk, also resident in Huancayo, a confirmed gambler, and +consequently often embarrassed for money, had gained, by his kindness, the +affections of the Indians, who constantly brought him small presents of +cheese and poultry. One day when he had lost heavily, he confided his +difficulties to an Indian, his particular gossip. The latter promised to +help him, and the next evening brought him a large sack full of the +richest silver ore. The same was repeated several times; but the monk, not +satisfied, did not cease to importune his friend to show him the place +whence he took the treasure. The Indian at last agreed to do so. In the +night-time he came, with two companions, to the dwelling of the +Franciscan, blindfolded him, put him on his shoulders, and carried him, +alternately with his comrades, a distance of some leagues into the +mountains. Here the monk was set down, and found himself in a small +shallow shaft, where his eyes were dazzled by the beauty of the silver. +When he had gazed at it long enough, and loaded himself with the ore, he +was carried back as he had been brought. On his way he unfastened his +chaplet, and from time to time let a grain drop, trusting by this means to +trace out the mine. He had been but a few hours in bed when he was +disturbed by the entrance of his guide. "Father," said the Indian, +quietly, "you have lost your rosary." And he presented him with a handful +of the beads.</p> + +<p>This mania for concealment is not universal amongst the Peruvians, who, it +must be remembered, originally sprang from various tribes, united by the +Incas into one nation. Great differences of character and manners are +still to be found amongst them, some showing themselves as frank and +friendly towards the white men as others are mistrustful and inimical. The +principal mines that are or have been worked, were pointed out to the +Spaniards by the natives. Generally, however, the latter look upon seekers +of mines with suspicion, and they still relate with horror and disgust, +how Huari Capcha, the discoverer of the mines of Cerro de Pasco, was +thrown by Ugarte into a gloomy dungeon, where he pined away his life. Dr +Tschudi could not ascertain the authenticity of this tale, but he often +heard it told by the Indians, who gave it as a reason for concealing any +new mines they might discover.</p> + +<p>At the pass of Antarangra, 15,600 feet above the level of the sea, Dr +Tschudi found two small lakes, scarcely thirty paces asunder. One of these +is the source of the river San Mateo, which flows westward, passes Lima +under the name of the Rimac, and discharges itself into the Pacific Ocean; +the other sends its waters through a number of small mountain lakes to the +river Pachachaca, a diminutive tributary of the mighty Amazon. The worthy +doctor confesses that he could not resist the temptation to disturb the +order of nature, by transporting a jug-full of the water intended for the +Atlantic, into the lake communicating with the Pacific. Of a more serious +cast were his reflections on the mighty power that had raised these +tremendous mountains, on whose summits sea-shells and other marine +substances testify to the fact of the ocean having once rolled over their +materials.</p> + +<p>Between the Cordilleras and the Andes, 12,000 feet above the sea, lie the +vast tracts of desolate tableland known as the Puna, a Peruvian word +equivalent to the Spanish <i>despoblado</i>. These plains extend through the +whole length of Peru from N.W.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> to S.E., a distance of 350 Spanish miles, +continue through Bolivia, and run out eastward into the territory of the +Argentine republic. Their sole inhabitants are a few shepherds, who live +with their families in wretched huts, and tend large flocks of sheep, +oxen, alpacas, and llamas, to which the yellow and meagre grasses of the +Puna yield a scanty nourishment. The district is swept by the cold winds +from the Cordilleras, the climate is most inhospitable, unintermitting +snow and storm during four months of the year. A remarkable effect of the +Puna wind is the rapid drying of dead bodies. A few days suffice to +convert a dead mule into a perfect mummy, the very entrails free from +corruption. Here and there the dry and piercingly cold wind, which causes +extreme suffering to the traveller's eyes and skin, changes its +temperature, or, it were better said, is crossed by a current of warm air, +sometimes only two or three paces, at others several hundred feet, in +breadth. These warm streams run in a parallel direction to each other, and +Dr Tschudi deposes to having passed through five or six in the space of +two leagues. He noticed them particularly in the months of August and +September, and, according to his observations, their usual direction was +that of the Cordillera, namely, from S.S.W. to N.N.E. He once travelled +for several leagues in one of these currents, the width of which did not +exceed seven-and-twenty paces. Its temperature was eleven degrees of +Reaumur higher than the adjacent atmosphere. The existence of these warm +streams is in some cases permanent, for the muleteers will frequently tell +beforehand where they are to be met with. The causes of such singular +phenomena, says Dr Tschudi, are well deserving the closest investigation +of the meteorologist.</p> + +<p>The numerous deep valleys, of greater or less extent, which intersect the +Puna, are known as the Sierra, and their inhabitants as Serranos, although +that term is also applied by the dwellers on the coast of Peru to all +natives of the interior. Here the climate is temperate, not unlike that of +the central countries of Europe; towns and villages are numerous, and the +fruitful soil brings forth abundantly, watered by the sweat of the +laborious Indians. The people are hospitable in the extreme, and the +stranger is welcome in their dwellings so long as he chooses to abide +there. They appear, however, to be as yet very far removed from +civilisation. Their favourite diversions, cock and bull fighting, are +carried on in the most barbarous manner. Their chief vice is an extreme +addiction to brandy, and even the better classes get up evening parties +for the express purpose of indulging in the fiery liquor. The ladies as +well as the men consume it in large quantities, and Dr Tschudi estimates +the average consumption at one of these jaranas, or drinking bouts, to +amount to nearly a bottle per man or woman. At a ball given in 1839, in +one of the principal towns of the Sierra, to the Chilian general +Bulnes—now president of Chili—the brandy flowed so abundantly, that when +morning came many of the dancers, both male and female, lay dead drunk +upon the floor. The sole extenuation of such disgusting excesses is the +want of education of those who commit them, and the force of habit, which +prevents them from seeing any thing disgraceful in intoxication. It is +only in society that the Serrano gets drunk. In everyday life, when +jaranas are not going on, he is a sober man.</p> + +<p>The dramatic representations of scenes in the life of Christ, introduced +by the Spanish monks who accompanied Pizarro, with a view to the easier +conversion of the Aborigines, have long been discontinued in the larger +Peruvian cities. But in the Sierra they are still kept up, and all the +efforts of enlightened priests to suppress them, have been frustrated by +the tenacity and threats of the Indians. Dr Tschudi gives an extraordinary +description of the celebration of Good Friday. "From early dawn," he says, +"the church is crammed with Indians, who pass the morning in fasting and +prayer. At two in the afternoon a large image of the Saviour is brought +out of the sacristy and laid down near the altar, which is veiled. No +sooner does this occur than the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> congregation rush forward and +strive to touch the wounds with scraps of cotton, and then ensues a +screaming, crowding, and fighting, only to be equalled by the uproar at an +ill conducted fair, until the priests at last succeed in restoring order. +The figure of the Saviour is now attached to the cross with three very +large silver nails, and a rich silver crown is placed upon its head; on +either side are the crosses of the two thieves. The Indians gaze their +fill and leave the church, but return thither at eight in the evening. The +edifice is then brilliantly illuminated, and at the foot of the cross +stand, wrapped in white robes, four priests, the <i>santos varones</i> or holy +men, whose office it is to take down the body of the Saviour. A short +distance off, upon a stage or scaffolding, stands the Virgin Mary, in deep +mourning, and with a white cloth round her head. In a long discourse a +priest explains the scene to the congregation, and at the close of his +sermon, turning to the <i>santos varones</i>, he says—'Ye holy men, mount the +ladders of the cross, and bring down the body of the dead Saviour!' Two of +the priests ascend with hammers, and the preacher continues—'Thou, holy +man on the right side of the Saviour, strike the first blow upon the nail +in the hand, and take it out!' The hammer falls, and the sound of the blow +is the signal for the cry of <i>Misericordia! Misericordia!</i> repeated by +thousands of voices in tones of anguish so heart-rending, as to produce a +strangely painful impression upon the hearer. The nail is handed to a +priest at the foot of the cross, to be taken to the Virgin Mary, still +standing upon her scaffold. To her the preacher now addressed himself with +the words—'Thou, afflicted mother, approach and receive the nail that +pierced the right hand of thy blessed son!' And as the priest draws near +to the image of the Virgin, the latter, moved by a secret mechanism, +advances to meet him, receives the nail in both hands, places it in a +silver bowl, dries its eyes, and returns to its place. These movements are +repeated when the two other nails and the crown are brought down. The +whole scene has for accompaniment the unintermitting howling and sobbing +of the Indians, which redouble at each stroke of the hammer, and reaches +its apogee when the body is delivered to the Virgin, who then again begins +to weep violently. The image of Christ is laid in a coffin adorned with +flowers, and is carried by torchlight through every street of the town. +Whilst the procession makes its circuit, the Indians erect twelve arches +of flowers in front of the church door, placing between each two of them a +carpet of the like materials, the simplest and most beautiful that it is +possible to see. Each carpet is manufactured by two Indians, neither of +whom seems to trouble himself about the proceedings of his comrade; but +yet, with incredible rapidity and a wonderful harmony of operation, the +most tasteful designs grow under their hands in rich variety of colours. +Arabesques, landscapes, and animals appear as if by magic. It was highly +interesting to me to observe in Tarma, upon one of these carpets, an exact +representation of the Austrian double eagle, as the Indians had seen it on +the quicksilver jars from Idria. When the procession returns, the Virgin +Mary is carried back into the church through the arches of flowers."</p> + +<p>The traveller in the Sierras of Peru frequently encounters plantations of +a shrub about six feet high, bearing bright green leaves, white flowers, +and scarlet berries. This is the celebrated coca tree, the comforter and +friend of the Peruvian Indian under all hardships and evil usage. Deprive +the Turk of coffee and pipe, the Chinese of opium, the sailor and soldier +of grog and tobacco, and no one of them will be so miserable as the Indian +bereft of his coca. Without it he cannot exist; it is more essential to +him than meat or drink, for it enables him to dispense with both. With his +quid of dried coca leaves in his mouth, he forgets all calamities; his +rags, his poverty, the cruelties of his taskmaster. One meal a-day +suffices him, but thrice at least he must suspend his labour to chew his +coca. Even the greedy Creoles have been compelled to give in to this +imperious necessity, and to allow their labourers a quarter or half an +hour's respite three times in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> the day. In mines and plantations, wherever +Indians work, this is the universal practice. Although continued as a +barbarous custom by the whites, some few of the latter are inveterately +addicted to coca chewing, which they generally, however, practise +clandestinely. The effect of this plant upon the human system is very +similar to that of certain narcotics, administered in small doses. Taken +in excessive quantities it is highly injurious; used in moderation, Dr +Tschudi inclines to think it not only harmless, but positively salutary. +The longevity of the Indians, and their power of enduring great fatigue, +and performing the hardest work upon a very scant allowance of food, are +certainly in favour of this belief. The doctor met with men of 120 and 130 +years old, and he assures us that such are by no means exceedingly rare in +Peru.<small><a name="f10.1" id="f10.1" href="#f10">[10]</a></small> Some of these men had chewed coca leaves from their boyhood +upwards.</p> + +<p>Allowing their daily ration to be no more than one ounce, the consumption, +in their lifetime, would amount to the prodigious quantity of twenty-seven +hundred pounds weight. Yet they were in perfect health. The coca is +considered by the Indians to be an antidote to the <i>veta</i>, and Dr Tschudi +confirms this by his own experience. Previously to his hunting excursions +in the upper regions of the Puna, he used to drink a strong decoction of +coca leaves, and found it strengthening and a preservative from the +effects of the rarefied atmosphere. So convinced is he of its salubrious +properties, that he recommends its adoption in European navies, or at +least a trial of its effects during a Polar or some other distant +expedition. One of the chief causes of Indian hatred to the Spaniards is +to be traced in the attempted suppression by the latter of the use of +coca, during the earlier period of their domination in Peru, their sole +reason being their contempt for Indian customs, and wish to destroy the +nationality of the people. Royal decrees were fulminated against coca +chewing, and priests and governors united to abolish it. After a time, the +owners of mines and plantations discovered its utility, in giving strength +and courage to their Indian vassals; books were written in its defence, +and anti-coca legislation speedily became obsolete. Since then, several +learned and reverend writers, Jesuits and others, have suggested its +introduction into Europe, as a substitute for tea and coffee, to which +they hold it far superior. There can be little doubt that—like as tobacco +is considered to preserve armies from mutiny and disaffection—the +soothing properties of coca have saved Peru from many bloody outbreaks of +the Indian population. But even this potent and much-loved drug has at +times been insufficient to restrain the deadly hatred cherished by the +Peruvians towards their white oppressors.</p> + +<p>The Leyes de las Indias, or code for the government of the Spanish +colonies, although in some instances severe and arbitrary, were mild and +paternal compared with their administration by the viceroys and other +officials. Amongst them were two enactments, the Mita and the +Repartimiento, intended by their propounders to civilize and improve the +Indians, but fearfully abused in practice. By the Mita, the Peruvians were +compelled to work in the mines and plantations. Every Spaniard who +possessed one of these, received from the corregidor a certain number of +Indians, to each of whom he paid daily wages, and for each of them an +annual contribution of eight dollars to the State. This plan, if fairly +and conscientiously carried out, might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> have been made a means of +reclaiming the Indians from barbarity and idleness. But the truck system, +unlimited and excessive time of labour, and other abuses, caused it to +produce the precisely opposite effect to that proposed by the framers of +the law. One-third only of the stipulated wage was given in money, the +remainder in European manufactures, charged at exorbitant prices; and the +Indians, unable to purchase the bare necessaries of life, were compelled +to incur debts with their employers—debts that they could never pay off, +and which rendered them slaves for their whole lives. The field labourers +were made to toil from three in the morning till an hour after sundown; +even the Sunday was no day of rest for these unfortunate helots. Such +increasing and painful exertions annually swept away thousands of Indians. +Various writers estimate at nine millions the number of those killed by +labour and accident in the mines, during the last three centuries. Dr +Tschudi does not think this an exaggeration, and calculates that three +millions more have been sacrificed in the plantations, especially in the +coca fields of the backwoods.</p> + +<p>The Repartimiento was the distribution of European wares and luxuries by +the provincial authorities. Under this law, intended for the convenience +of the people, and to supply them with clothes and other necessaries at +fair prices, every corregidor became a sort of shopkeeper, caused all +manner of merchandise to be sent to him from the capital, and compelled +the Indian to buy. The prices affixed to the articles were absurdly +exorbitant; a needle cost a real, a worthless knife or a pound of iron a +dollar, an ell of printed calico two or three dollars. Lace, silk +stockings, and false jewellery, were forced upon the richer class. After a +short delay, the money was demanded; those who could not pay had their +goods seized, and were sold as slaves to the mines or plantations. Not +only useless objects—razors, for instance, for the beardless Indians—but +things positively injurious and inconvenient, were thrust upon the +unwilling purchasers. It will scarcely be believed that a corregidor, to +whom a commercial friend had sent a consignment of spectacles, issued an +edict, compelling all Indians, under penalty of a heavy fine, to wear +glasses at certain public festivals.</p> + +<p>Against the abominable system of which the above abuses formed but a part, +it was to be expected that sooner or later the Indians would revolt. For +two centuries they submitted to it with wonderful patience and +long-suffering. At last, a man was found to hoist the bloody flag of +insurrection and revenge.</p> + +<p>Juan Santos, surnamed the Apostate, was an Indian from Huamanga, and +claimed descent from Atahualpa, the last of the Incas, whom Pizarro hung. +In the year 1741, having killed a Spaniard of noble birth in a quarrel, he +fled to the woods, and there brooded over the oppression to which his +countrymen were subjected. At that time, the zealous Spanish missionaries +had made great progress in the conversion of the <i>Indios bravos</i>, a savage +and cannibal tribe, amongst whom they fearlessly ventured, undeterred by +the murder of many who had preceded them. Against these priests Santos +instigated an outbreak. He first addressed himself to the tribe of the +Campas, declared himself a descendant of the mighty Peruvian kings, and +asserted that he possessed supernatural power, that he knew all their +thoughts, and had the portrait of each of them in his heart. Then calling +the Indians to him one by one, he lifted his upper garment, and allowed +them to look in a mirror fastened upon his breast. The savages, astonished +at the reflection of their faces, conceived a great veneration for Santos, +and implicitly obeyed him. He at once led them to a general attack upon +the priests, their property, and religion. By bold and sudden assaults, +several Spanish fortified posts were taken, and the garrisons murdered. At +the fort of Quimiri, the Indians put the muskets of the slain soldiers in +a heap, set fire to them, and danced round the blazing pile. But the +surprise of the place had been so well managed, that the Spaniards had had +no time to fire even one volley, and their muskets were still loaded. +Heated by the flames, they exploded, and spread destruction amongst the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +dancing savages. Churches and mission-houses were destroyed, villages +burnt, plantations laid waste; the priests were tied to the images of +saints, and thrown into the rivers. In a few weeks, the missionary +districts of middle Peru were utterly ravaged, and terror reigned in the +land. The Spaniards feared a revolt of the Sierra Indians; strong measures +were taken, forts built along the frontier, and the <i>bravos</i> driven back +to their own territory. What became of Santos is not exactly known. Some +affirm that he united several savage tribes in a confederacy, and ruled +over them till his death. In the monastery of Ocopa, Dr Tschudi found an +old manuscript, in which was the following note:—"The monster and +apostate Juan Santos Atahualpa, after his diabolical destruction of our +missions, suffered terribly from the wrath of God. He met the fate of +Herod, and was eaten alive by worms."</p> + +<p>Although of short duration, the insurrection headed by Santos was weighty +in its consequences. It showed the Indians their strength, and was +followed by repeated revolts, especially in Southern Peru. For want of an +able leader they all proved fruitless, until Tupac Amaru, cacique of +Tungasuca, put himself at the head of a matured and well-organized +revolution. A valid pretext for this was afforded by the corregidor of +Tinta, Don Antonio Ariaga, who in one year, 1780, made repartimientos to +the amount of three hundred and forty thousand dollars, and exacted the +money for the useless wares with cruel severity. Tupac Amaru assembled the +Indians, seized the corregidor, and hung him. This was the signal for a +general uprising in the whole of Southern Peru, and a bloody war ensued. +In April 1781, Tupac Amaru, his wife, and several of the rebel chiefs, +were made prisoners by a detachment of Spanish cavalry. They were tried at +Cuzco, found guilty, and condemned to death. The unfortunate cacique was +compelled to witness the execution of his wife, two sons, his +brother-in-law, Antonio Bastidas, and of other relations and friends. He +then had his tongue cut out, and was torn by four horses. His body was +burned, his head and limbs were stuck upon poles in different towns of the +disturbed districts. In Huancayo, Dr Tschudi met with an old Creole, who, +when a lad of sixteen, had witnessed the barbarous execution of the +cacique of Tangasuca. He described him as a tall handsome man, with a +quick piercing eye, and serious resolute countenance. He beheld the death +of his family with great emotion, but submitted without a murmur to his +own horrible fate. He was not long unavenged. His brother, his remaining +son Andres, and a daring Indian chief named Nicacatari, carried on the war +with increased vigour and ferocity, and at the head of a numerous force +threw themselves before the large fortified town of Sorrata, whither the +Spaniards from the surrounding country, trusting to the strength of the +place, had fled for safety. When Andres Tupac Amaru saw that with his +Indians, armed only with knives, clubs, and slings, he had no chance +against the powerful artillery of his foe, he caused the streams from the +neighbouring mountains to be conducted to the town, and surrounded it with +water The earthen fortifications were soon undermined, and when they gave +way the place was taken by assault. With the exception of eighty-seven +priests and monks, the whole of the besieged, twenty-two thousand in +number, were cruelly slaughtered. From Sorrata the Indian army moved +westwards, and was victorious in several actions with the Spanish troops. +Gold, however, accomplished what the sword had failed to do. Seduced by +bribes and promises, an Indian follower of Andres guided a party of +Spanish soldiers to the council house of the rebels. The chiefs were all +taken and put to death. Deprived of its leaders, the Indian army broke up +and dispersed. Innumerable executions followed, and the war was estimated +to have cost from first to last nearly a hundred thousand lives. Its only +beneficial result to the Indians was the abolition of repartimientos.</p> + +<p>During the revolution that lost Peru to Spain, the Indians took part with +the patriots, who deluded them with promises of a monarchy, and of placing +a descendant of the Incas on the throne. Not clearly understanding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> the +causes of the war, the Indians frequently turned their arms against their +own allies, and killed all white men who fell into their power. Many +provinces were entirely deserted by the Creoles and Metises, in +consequence of the furious animosity of the coloured race. In Jauja, the +Indians swore they would not leave so much as a white dog or fowl alive, +and they even scratched the white paint from the walls of the houses. When +General Valdos and his cavalry crossed the river of Jauja and attacked the +Indians, the latter scorned to save themselves by flight, but threw +themselves upon the lances with cries of "<i>Mata me, Godo!</i><small><a name="f11.1" id="f11.1" href="#f11">[11]</a></small> Kill me!" +Two thousand remained upon the field, the Spaniards not ceasing to kill +till their arms were too tired to strike.</p> + +<p>Dr Tschudi inclines to believe that sooner or later the Indians will throw +off the yoke of the effeminate and cowardly Creoles, and establish a +government of their own. Whether such a government will be able or allowed +to maintain itself, it is difficult to say; although, as the doctor +observes, why should it not, at least, as well as a negro republic in an +Archipelago peopled by the most civilized nations of Europe? Since the +separation of Peru from Spain, the Indians have made great progress in +many respects; they have been admitted into the army, have become familiar +with fire-arms and military manœuvres, and have learned the manufacture +of gunpowder, materials for which their mountains abundantly afford. Their +hatred of the whites is bitter as ever, their feeling of nationality very +strong—their attachment to the memory of their Incas, and to their old +form of government, undiminished. In spite of long oppression, they still +possess pride and self-reliance. Besides the government forced upon them +by the Creoles, they preserve and obey their old laws. Let a leader like +Tupac Amaru appear amongst them, and there is every probability of an +Indian revolution, very different in its results to any that has yet +occurred.</p> + +<p>Most Robinson Crusoe-like in its interest is the long chapter wherein Dr +Tschudi details his forest adventures, and we regret that we must be very +summary in our notice of it. With extraordinary courage and perseverance +the doctor and a German friend made their way to the heart of the +backwoods, built themselves a log-hut, and, despising the numerous dangers +by which they were environed, abode there for months, collecting +zoological specimens. Of the perils that beset them, Dr Tschudi's +unvarnished narrative of the daily sights and nocturnal sounds that +assailed their startled senses in those wild regions, gives a lively idea. +Indian cannibals, ferocious beasts, reptiles whose bite is instant death, +venomous insects, and even vampires, compose the pleasant population of +this district, into which these stout-hearted Europeans fearlessly +ventured. Of the beasts of prey the ounce is the most dangerous; and so +fierce and numerous has its breed become in certain districts of Peru, as +to compel the Indians to abandon their villages. We are told of one +hamlet, in the ravine of Mayunmarca, that has been desolate for a century +past on this account. The ounces used annually to decimate its +inhabitants. More perilous even than these animals, to the wanderer in the +forest, are the innumerable serpents that lurk beneath the accumulation of +dead leaves bestrewing the ground. The most deadly is a small viper about +ten inches long, the only species of the viper family as yet discovered in +South America. The virulence of its venom kills the strongest man in the +space of two or three minutes. The Indians, when bitten by it, do not +dream of seeking an antidote, but at once lie down to die. Bats are +exceedingly plentiful, and very large, some measuring nearly two feet +across the extended wings. The blood-sucker or vampire (phyllostoma) finds +its way in search of food into stables and houses. The smooth-haired +domestic animals are especially liable to its attacks. With wings half +open it places itself upon their backs, and rubs with its snout till the +small sharp teeth break the outer skin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> Then it draws in its wings, +stretches itself out, and sucks the blood, making the while a gentle +movement with its body, not unlike the undulations of a busy leech. The +fanning motion of the wings described by some writers was never observed +by Dr Tschudi. Although these vampires only imbibe a few ounces of blood, +the subsequent hæmorrhage is very great, and full-grown mules sometimes +die of the exhaustion caused by their repeated attacks. One of the +doctor's beasts was only saved from such a fate by being rubbed every five +or six days with turpentine and other strong-smelling drugs, which kept +off the vampires. It has often been disputed whether these disgusting +animals attack human beings. Our traveller deposes to their doing so, and +cites an instance witnessed by himself. A bat (Ph. erythromos, Tsch.) +fixed upon the nose of an Indian who lay drunk in the court of a +plantation, and sucked his blood till it was unable to fly away. Violent +inflammation and swelling of the Indian's head were the consequences of +the trifling wound inflicted.</p> + +<p>We must here make mention of the carbunculo, a fabulous animal, whose +existence obtains credit in most parts of Peru. Wherever he went, Dr +Tschudi heard stories of this creature, and met persons who asserted that +they had seen it. It is reported to be of the size of a fox, with long +black hair, and only to appear at night, when it glides slowly through the +bushes or amongst the rocks. When pursued, a valve or trap-door opens in +its forehead, and an extraordinarily brilliant object—believed by the +natives to be a precious stone—becomes visible, dispelling the darkness +and dazzling the pursuer. Then the forehead closes, and the creature +disappears. According to other accounts, it emerges from its lurking-place +with carbuncle displayed, and only conceals it when attacked. This strange +superstition is not of Spanish origin, but of older date than Pizarro's +invasion. Of course it has never been possible to catch or kill a specimen +of this remarkable species, although the Spaniards have used every effort +to get hold of such a creature; and in the viceroy's instructions to the +missionaries, the carbunculo was set down in the very first rank of +desiderata. Dr Tschudi vainly endeavoured to discover, with some degree of +certainty, what animal had served as a pretext for the fable.</p> + +<p>After a four years residence in Peru, and when preparing for a journey +that was to include an investigation of all the provinces, and to last for +several years, Dr Tschudi was seized in the Cordilleras with a nervous +fever, which brought him to the brink of the grave. Upon his recovery, he +found that long repose, both of mind and body, was essential to the +complete restoration of his health. Such repose he could not be certain of +granting himself if he remained in Peru, and he therefore resolved to seek +it upon the ocean. He took ship, and reached Europe at the commencement of +1843, after an absence of five years. He greatly regrets not having +visited every part of Peru, especially the historical city of Cuzco, and +the forests of Urubamba. But his harvest of knowledge has been so rich and +abundant, that he should not, we think, begrudge the remnant of the crop +to the gleaners who may come after him.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p> +<h2>"MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO."</h2> + +<p> </p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> I.</h3> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Our coming</span><br /> +Is not for salutation: we have business."<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Ben. Jonson.</span></span></td></tr></table> + +<p>On the 9th of September 1741, shortly after the hour of nightfall, a +silvery mist hung over the broad stream of the Danube, and the environs of +the city of Presburg—at that time considered the capital of Hungary—and +shrouded the earth with its grey veil; although the heavens above were +bright and clear, and the stars shone cheerily and proudly, as if no +earthly influence could damp or dull them. Before the St Michael's gate, +which opens on the side of the town the most remote from the Danube, and +on to the road leading into the interior of the country, and towards the +first low ridge of the Carpathians which skirts Presburg to the north, sat +a traveller on horseback—his ample cloak wrapped carefully about his +person, as much, it would seem, to screen him from observation, as from +the first freshness of the commencing autumn season, and his broad +three-cornered and gold-laced hat pulled down upon his brow.</p> + +<p>He had ridden, at the brisk pace, across the stone bridge which leads over +a dry moat to the old gateway, and had suddenly checked his horse on +finding the gate closed before him.</p> + +<p>"<i>Corpo di Bacco!</i>" he exclaimed aloud, in a tone of intense vexation. +"The gate is shut for the night—I feared as much."</p> + +<p>"What's to be done!" he continued to murmur to himself, after a pause. "To +wake the guardian of the gate, and demand an entrance, would be to excite +attention, and subject myself, perhaps, to questionings. No, no! That, +above all, must be avoided. And yet, see him I must to-night. Time +presses. Should the devil, who has served me so well as yet, desert me +now, and take flight, the coward! before a few inches of deal board, and a +few pounds of hammered iron! Bolts and bars! <i>Bagatelles!</i> Fortunately the +old fox has taken up his earth near the gate. If I calculate aright, the +hinder windows of his lodging must look out upon the moat; and I will try +whether I cannot come to speech of him."</p> + +<p>"Fortuna, jade! Thou art propitious still, if yonder rays be those from +the old ivy-owl's watch-lamp!" muttered the traveller once more to +himself, as he looked towards a light, which apparently struggled to send +its gleams through the thick haze, from a low window of one of the houses +overhanging the dry moat, to the left of the gateway. "At all events, I'll +even risk the venture; and if, after all, I am out in my reckoning, and +should stumble either upon an amorous dame awaiting her adored, or a mad +student seeking the philosopher's stone—should I appear as a spirit of +love from above, or a spirit of darkness from below—<i>Cospetto!</i> I'll play +my part to the life, and find an entrance to this cursed town, spite of +locked gates and barred posterns! The Virgin be praised! I am no schoolboy +at my first adventure."</p> + +<p>"<i>Allons</i>, Briccone!" he cried, applying the spur to his jaded horse, +which stood reeking thickly, in the misty air, from the effects of a long +and rapid journey. "You must seek other quarters for the night, old boy!"</p> + +<p>The animal snorted, as its head was turned once more from the gateway, and +moved unwillingly, as if endeavouring to resist the seeming attempt to +undertake any further excursion that night: but the way was not long which +it was destined to travel. Among the clay-built houses which formed the +suburb, the traveller speedily discovered the projecting whisp of hay, +announcing that the hovel, from the doorway of which it was suspended, +offered accommodation, such as it was, for man and beast. Summoning from +the interior a sleepy lad, in a dirty Hungarian costume, of full +shirt-sleeves and broad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> trowsers, which once had been white, and +confiding Briccone to his care, he returned to the gateway of the town.</p> + +<p>When he again stood upon the gateway bridge, the first care of the +stranger was to stoop, and collect a quantity of small pebbles in the +hollow of his left hand. Provided with this ammunition, he approached as +near as he could towards the spot whence the light he had before remarked +proceeded.</p> + +<p>"A curse upon this rotten mist!" he muttered. "I can see nothing. Around +and about is a fog from the devil's own caldron, as if it were cooked on +purpose to blind me; whilst the stars are twinkling above, as if they +squinted down upon my confusion, and laughed me to scorn. However, at all +ventures, have at my mark!"</p> + +<p>With these words, he flung pebble after pebble in the direction of the +light. Several of the missiles were heard to rattle against the walls of +the house; and a few others rendered a clearer ringing sound, as if they +had struck upon glass. After a short space of time, the light disappeared +almost entirely; and a window was heard to open. The traveller raised +another pebble in his hand, with a smile upon his face, as if inclined to +take a last random shot at the head which had probably replaced the light +at the open window; but he checked his humour with a short low laugh, and +coughed to attract attention. The cough was immediately re-echoed in a +hoarse and hollow voice.</p> + +<p>"That should be the old raven's croak," said the stranger to himself.</p> + +<p>"Bandini!" he cried, in a low but distinct tone, through his hollowed +hands.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" rejoined the voice from the window. "Not so loud! Is it you?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Diavolo!</i>" replied the traveller, approaching closer to the wall of the +town, and speaking as low as possible. "Who should it be, man? But the +gate is closed; and I have no mind to expose myself to the investigations +of the gatekeeper's lantern, and all the cross-examination and +tittle-tattle that may follow."</p> + +<p>"I waited for you with impatience," pursued his interlocutor; "and when +the gate closed for the night, placed my lamp at the window as a beacon."</p> + +<p>"All right!" replied the other. "But what's to be done now, man?"</p> + +<p>"Can you climb?" continued the hoarse voice.</p> + +<p>"Like a cat or a Spanish lover," was the reply. "Perhaps I have no little +in me of the first; at all events I have often tried the trade of the +latter."</p> + +<p>"Descend into the moat from the end of the bridge," pursued the personage +at the window. "The passage is easy. I will provide for your ascent."</p> + +<p>Following these short instructions, the stranger returned over the bridge; +and catching from stem to stem of the few stunted trees that grew upon the +precipitous sides of the descent, he clambered, without much difficulty, +to the bottom of the steep. As he crossed the reedy and moist soil of the +moat, the noise of a falling object directed his steps towards a part of +the wall where a ladder of cords awaited him. Profiting by this aid, and +grasping, where he could, the projecting stones of the rude masonry which +formed the lower part of the house, the stranger mounted with ready +agility to the level of a window.</p> + +<p>"You have not chosen your quarters upon the town-wall for nothing, I am +inclined to suppose, Master Bandini," he said, as he found himself in face +of a dark form at the opening to which he had arrived.</p> + +<p>"All things have their uses," was the laconic reply, uttered with a hoarse +laugh.</p> + +<p>In a few moments the stranger had squeezed his person adroitly through the +low window, and stood in the interior of the room.</p> + +<p>The apartment into which he had been thus clandestinely introduced, was +faintly lighted by the single lamp which had served as a beacon; and the +rays of this lamp, as they fell upon the dark walls, half revealed, in +fantastic indistinctness, a variety of miscellaneous objects. Ranged upon +shelves on either side of the entrance door, stood a quantity of jars and +phials of different shapes, mixed with glass vessels, containing strange +serpents and lizards, and human half-born deformities, preserved in +spirits—all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> <i>materia medica</i>, either for use or show, necessary for +the establishment of a druggist-physician of the day. On the opposite side +of the room, beneath the hard and slovenly pallet which served as bed, +might be half seen, from under the covering, two or three chests, the iron +clasps and fastenings of which, with their immense padlocks, seemed to +tell a tale of well-stored treasures of moneys or papers, and of other +avocations than those of doctoring and leeching. Above the bed hung the +crucifix, that necessary appendage to the dwelling of a good and pious +Catholic; but, whether by accident or design, the form of the Divine +sufferer on the cross was now turned against the wall. A table in the +middle of the room was covered with old books and papers; and before the +chair, from which the inmate of the apartment had probably risen when +surprised by the signals of his visitor, was a large volume, which he now +precipitately closed, but not, however, without being remarked by the +stranger, who smiled a significant smile upon observing this hasty +movement.</p> + +<p>But, if the aspect of the apartment was strange, stranger still was that +of its occupier. He was a little man, at an advanced period of life, whose +spare and shrivelled form might be fancied ill-calculated to support the +large head which surmounted it. Was the head, however, ill-proportioned to +the body, still more out of proportion were the large black projecting +eyebrows, the huge eagle nose, and the swelled hanging under-lip, to the +general contour of the head. His thick black hair was closely shorn to his +skull, as if to develop more clearly these interesting features; and if +powder had been bestowed upon it, in obedience to the fashion of the +better classes of the day, it had been bestowed so sparingly, or had +assumed a colour so closely assimilated to that of dust and dirt, as to +escape the discovery of all eyes but those of a very closely investigating +naturalist. No less doubtful was the colour of the long cravat tied +loosely about his neck. His upper person was inclosed in a huge black +widely pocketed coat and lappet waistcoat, both many ells too wide for his +shrunken form; whilst his nether man disported at ease in a pair of black +pantaloons and high boots, which seemed to incase the proportions of a +skeleton. From the sleeves of the wide coat hung a pair of long dirty +begrimed hands, which, without a doubt, belonged rightfully to the owner +of the aforesaid skeleton shanks.</p> + +<p>Far different was the appearance of his visitor. He was a tall well-formed +man, between thirty and forty years of age. His dress, which he displayed +as he threw aside his cloak, cut in the cumbrous fashion of the day, was +that of a man of pretensions to a certain rank; and his <i>coiffure</i>, with +its necessary appendage of pigtail, might be seen, in spite of his hasty +journey, to have been arranged with care, and powdered. Although his +person was prepossessing, there was, however, a certain dash of the <i>roué</i> +in his appearance, and a look of design and cunning in his dark eyes, long +fine-drawn nose, and thin lipless mouth, which would speedily have removed +the first more agreeable impression of an observer.</p> + +<p>"All's well that ends well!" said the stranger, as he removed his hat and +cloak. "It is perhaps better, after all, that I should make my entry thus. +I have ridden hard, Master Bandini, and Briccone carried me well; but the +road was longer than I had surmised, and I had a matter or two to dispose +of on my way."</p> + +<p>"Better late than never, noble cavaliere!" replied the man addressed as +Bandini.</p> + +<p>"Hush! no names, man, until I be assured that we have no listeners here," +said the cavaliere.</p> + +<p>Without replying, the old man removed the shutters from a window, forming +a thorough light to that by which the stranger had entered, and looked out +into the winding steep descent which forms the first street of the city of +Presburg from St Michael's gate. It was faintly lighted by a lantern, but +empty of all passengers.</p> + +<p>"How now, man!" said the stranger impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Why! if it must be said," replied the old man, closing the shutter and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +returning; "I have a lodger here, in my apartment. But he is still +without; nor will he yet return."</p> + +<p>"A lodger!" exclaimed the other, in an angry tone—"and at such a moment! +How could you be so incautious, Bandini? This is one of your miserly +tricks: you would expose your best friends for a few miserable kreutzers +more or less."</p> + +<p>"Live and let live, is my maxim," answered Bandini with a growl.</p> + +<p>The stranger shrugged his shoulders with vexation.</p> + +<p>"And who is this lodger, man?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Only a poor Hungarian country noble," replied Bandini in a more cajoling +tone. "A youth! a very youth! a poor unsuspecting youth! He has come, like +all the other nobles of the land, great and small, to obey the call of her +they call their <i>King</i>, to attend this Diet summoned at Presburg; and he +occupies my other rooms with his servant—a rustic!—a mere rustic!—a +rude untutored rustic!"</p> + +<p>"It was ill done, Bandini," continued the stranger, with still evident +marks of discontent. "A lodger in the house, when you must know that I +need privacy! It was ill done, I tell you."</p> + +<p>The old man only muttered something between his teeth by way of a reply.</p> + +<p>"Have a care, man," resumed his visitor, "how you juggle with me in this +matter. You are richly paid by my employers for the support you give me, +and the concealment your house affords; but should evil befall us—be it +through your treachery or your imprudence, it matters not—<i>per Jovem</i>, +the evil shall fall a hundred-fold upon your own head. I swear it to you; +and you know I am a man to keep my word."</p> + +<p>"Jehovah! here's a turmoil about the mere miserable lodging of a poor +youth!" growled the old man doggedly, although the rapid passing of a long +skeleton finger over the tip of his huge nose betrayed a certain degree of +nervous agitation.</p> + +<p>"Master Bandini," interrupted the stranger, unheeding him, "I have a word +to speak with you—and one that nearly concerns yourself, Master +Bandini—before we proceed further in business."</p> + +<p>"Look ye!" he pursued, in a more indifferent tone, throwing himself down +on to a chair, and crossing his legs composedly, but fixing the man called +Bandini at the same time with his keen eye. "Look ye, friend druggist, +physician, usurer, miser, secret agent, spy—or whatever other name you +bear in designation, avocation, character, or <i>creed</i>"—and he laid a +slight emphasis on the word—"there are no friends so sure as those who +are convinced we know then thoroughly—a right understanding is sympathy, +<i>amico mio</i>, and sympathy is bond and union."</p> + +<p>The old man looked through his beetling brows at his visitor without any +evidence of trouble; but he ceased irritating the tip of his nose only to +twitch more nervously at the sleeves of his coat, as if to give himself an +air of composure and dignity by adjusting them, as a modern fop might do +by pulling up his shirt-collar.</p> + +<p>"Think you I have forgotten," continued the stranger with a slight sneer, +"that when we first met in Italy—no matter upon what business, or to what +intent—Master Bandini bore the name of Israeli, and that, when forced to +leave that country—persecuted, as he himself would say, for some little +matter of flagrant usury, and mayhap also of a drug or two that lulled +some rich old uncle to a sleep from which he woke not, and made a +spendthrift debtor his heir—he returned to the land of his birth, I will +not say of his fathers, and, for reasons good, under another name and a +foreign guise, thinking that the name of Israel, spite of its adopted +termination, smacked somewhat too notoriously of his origin, his Jewish +origin, Master Bandini?"</p> + +<p>The Jew druggist tossed his heavy head with an expression that, however +ill assured, was meant to say, "Well! and what then?"</p> + +<p>"Think you I know not that, fearing the prejudices against his race might +injure the gains of his various trades, perhaps also that the name he bore +might recal reminiscences better forgotten for ever, he assumed a +Christian appellation, passed for an honest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> Christian man—<i>honest</i>, +humph!" added the stranger with a sniggering laugh—"and infringed the +severe laws of Hungary, which compel all of his tribe to dwell within one +prescribed street in each city, and wear one distinctive dress—laws that, +if called into execution, would bring him contumely, imprisonment, +ruin—ay ruin, Master Israeli—humph, I forgot—Bandini? Think you I have +no eyes to see yon cross ostentatiously displayed to Christian visitors, +now turned against the wall, with the contempt of one of your accursed +race—a deed in itself a crime to merit mortal punishment?"</p> + +<p>The Jew stole a glance at the cross, and was evidently moved.</p> + +<p>"Think you I divine not," pursued his visitor, hastily snatching from the +table the heavy book closed upon his entrance, and flinging it open upon +his knees, "that this jargon of the devil is your Hebrew book of worship, +in which Master Bandini seeks for rules of conduct for the further welfare +of his soul—if so be he have one—in the persecution and torture of +Christian men—a pretty religion, <i>cospetto!</i>—or may be, practises +sorcery?" And the stranger laughed ironically at his own suggestion. +"Think you I know not all this, Master Bandini?"</p> + +<p>"And if the Cavaliere Caracalli knows me, what have I to fear from him?" +said the Jew sullenly, with a look of defiance.</p> + +<p>"Ha! that would seem a threat!" answered the cavaliere haughtily. "Once +more, have a care, man, how you deal with me! What you have to fear I will +tell you, Master Bandini, rogue—all that your worst fears can +contemplate, should I have reason to believe you a traitor." And, at these +words, he sprang up from his chair, and confronted the old man, with an +evident desire to intimidate him by his movement.</p> + +<p>The Jew druggist did not flinch; but he answered with less of defiance.</p> + +<p>"I am no traitor—no traitor to you; and, though you know me, why should I +not serve you still? Why should we not be friends?"</p> + +<p>"Friends! you and I!" said the cavaliere with scorn. "But no matter! This +affair of the lodger looks ill, I tell you."</p> + +<p>"Times are bad—times are bad, noble cavaliere," stammered the Jew, in a +whining and apologetic tone. "Our contract stipulated not that I should +not strive to earn an honest livelihood where I could."</p> + +<p>"And who prevents you, man," said the cavaliere, with a sneer, "from +earning what you please to term an honest livelihood, as far as it +interfere not with my interests? But this imprudence"——</p> + +<p>"Heavy losses! heavy losses!" continued the old man, interrupting him, to +pursue his apology. "I have had heavy and serious losses, which I must +strive to cover by what scanty means are left me—to say naught of drugs +unpaid, and services to the rich ill recompensed and scouted. I am a needy +man. I am, indeed, a needy man." The cavaliere shrugged his shoulders. +"Ah! You feel not that, noble sir. But the God of my fathers knows that it +is true. Was there not the Illok affair, in which the poor money-lender +was cheated of his honest earnings? Did not the Count Csaki leave the +country, a bankrupt, and cause me all but utter ruin? And, worse than all, +did not the Baron Bartori, after he had made over to me his estates, in +return for moneys lent him in his need, die with the intent and purpose, +as one would say, to defraud me of my just dues? and did not his son, +without whose signature to destroy the entail, I cannot obtain possession +of my rights—the God of Israel's curse be on the Philistine laws of this +unjust country!—disappear, no one knows whither? He is an honest youth, +and a just, they say, who would not deprive a poor needy man of his own: +but he may be dead—he may be dead, without giving his precious +sign-manual; and I should be a ruined man—a ruined man—alas! alas!"</p> + +<p>The cavaliere had borne impatiently the lamentations thus uttered as +apologies for his love of gain by the Jew money-lender: and he now broke +in upon them with disgust.</p> + +<p>"A truce to all this comedy of woe, man! If you be shorn of a lock or two +of your ill-gotten golden fleece, we well know that it is still a full and +warm one. Come, come—no more of this!" he pursued, as the Jew continued +to squeeze alternately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> the skeleton fingers of each hand, as though he +pretended to be wringing them in despair. "We must to business; and since +the mischief has been done—and, mark me! it must be remedied forthwith, +and this boy driven from the house—see that the coast be clear!"</p> + +<p>"He is from home, I tell you," was Bandini's reply; and he was continuing +to murmur, with sunken head, the words, "Heavy losses! heavy losses! Why +did he die? And were aught to happen to his son, as is likely in these +troublesome times, I were ruined—utterly ruined. Oh! heavy losses!"—when +an angry exclamation and an imperative gesture from his visitor, repeated +the order to look that they were alone and undisturbed.</p> + +<p>The old man lighted a small hand-lamp at that which stood upon the table, +undrew the bolts that fastened the door, and left the room with sullen +look and step. He was gone for a very brief space of time; but this short +interval was employed by the stranger in turning over, with rapid hand and +scrutinizing eye, the papers which lay upon the table. He shook his head +with a sneer of indifference, as if he had found nothing worthy of his +attention, and had scarcely time to resume his seat with an air of +unconcern, when the Jew returned, and, eyeing him narrowly, advanced into +the room with that haste of suspicion and fear, which induced even the +usurer to forget his usual precautions of bolts and bars.</p> + +<p>"There is no one in the house but ourselves," he said, with still sulky +air.</p> + +<p>"Then seat yourself, man, and open to me your wallet of sayings and +doings; and let's see what scraps of information you may have gleaned. It +should be crammed full, ere this. Seat yourself, I say, and clear that +gloomy brow of yours," said the cavaliere with a laugh. "What has passed +since I last saw you?"</p> + +<p>"The city is already thronged with the nobility of Hungary, convoked by +this woman, who still asserts her rights over them, in the hope that they +may aid her in her troubles;" commenced the Jew, seating himself, in +obedience to his visitor's command. "Jehovah! what a stir they make! What +moneys do they lavish upon foolish pomp! What spendthrift profusion do +they display! It curdles the very blood of a poor thrifty man within him, +to witness such insensate prodigality. But they must rue their folly. They +will need moneys; they will seek to obtain moneys of the poor druggist. +Ah!" And the usurer rubbed his hands with satisfaction; but then, seeing +the gestures of impatience displayed by his companion, he proceeded: "But +there is much discontent, I hear, among them; and, where she has not +enemies, she has lukewarm friends. They will no longer, they say, be +governed by a weak woman, who can so ill wield the reins of power, and who +has already staked and lost all the other inheritance of her father"——</p> + +<p>"Unjustly herited—unjustly held. Forget not that, Master Bandini!" +interrupted the Italian.</p> + +<p>"Unjustly—well, well! I am no legist to understand these things," pursued +the Jew; "only a poor thrifty physician"——</p> + +<p>"And usurer," again broke in his companion.</p> + +<p>Bandini smiled a sour smile, and continued:</p> + +<p>"Call me usurer, if you will. I see no scorn in the term; and I have +turned my money-lending to account in this matter. Yes! and in your +service; although you but now called me traitor. Have I not refused moneys +to those who offered me good securities and values, and at my own loss—at +my own loss, cavaliere—because I would not deal with those who would +hazard their all in a war to aid this woman in her desperate need? And +although my friend Zachariah has lent them sums of precious metal, has it +not been upon such great interest, and at such peril to themselves, that +they cannot risk so dangerous a venture as the espousing her cause, and +upon their written engagement also—and this as by my advice, mark me, +noble cavaliere!—that they should not take up arms? Have I not done this +to serve you?—at my own loss, I say; and can you call me traitor now?"</p> + +<p>"So far all goes well," said the Italian, unheeding the importance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +attached by the Jew to the supposed services rendered. "Maria Theresa will +be foiled in her last attempt at opposition to her enemy's force, by +seeking succours from her so-called faithful Hungarians. Success, also, +has crowned my efforts in my expedition throughout the land, Master +Bandini," he pursued, raising himself from his listless posture, with a +look of animation and triumph. "The seeds of discord and discontent have +every where been sown. I have visited these proud eagles, the Hungarian +nobles, in their country-nests; and I have employed all means to turn them +from listening to the appeal of their fugitive queen. To the worldly-wise, +I have urged the ruin of war to their already troubled and impoverished +country,—to the lovers of their fatherland, the independence of Hungary, +and freedom from the House of Austria, if they will seize this opportunity +to shake off its yoke, instead of again cringing to its call,—to the man, +the weakness of submitting to a woman's sway,—to the needy and the +grasping, I have promised, and even already lavished, the bribes of +France, Spain, and Sardinia, to induce them to refuse their aid,—to the +ambitious, place, rank, orders, courtly favour from my powerful employers, +should they espouse their cause. I have studied men's characters, and read +men's minds, to turn them to my will; and although I have met with +opposition, endangered my life indeed, and risked my safety from ill-will, +yet I have so strewn my grain, that, when Maria Theresa shall appear upon +the field, she shall reap tares where she hoped to gather wheat. The cause +is lost, I tell you!"</p> + +<p>The Jew rubbed his hands with an air of satisfaction, which seemed to show +that the profits to be divided from his association in the political +manœuvres of his visitor were to be proportionate to the success of +these hazardous schemes, and that visions of golden reward already floated +before his eyes.</p> + +<p>"And the opening of the Diet is still fixed for the 11th?" inquired the +Italian, after a pause, in which he had allowed his unwonted enthusiasm to +cool down to a bearing of indifference, which was more his nature.</p> + +<p>"Yes—the day following the morrow," answered Bandini.</p> + +<p>"Has she already made her appearance in the city?" again asked his +visitor.</p> + +<p>"It is supposed that she is not yet here. There has been no solemn entry; +but she must be here every hour," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"In that morrow we have as yet time for much," said the cavaliere. "I must +pursue my measures here with caution. My great scheme, of which more, +perhaps, hereafter, may be tried at any issue; and woe betide Maria +Theresa, if"—</p> + +<p>As he uttered these words, the Italian was startled and interrupted by the +abrupt opening of the door of the apartment. The Jew turned round with +surprise, whilst his companion, checking the first involuntary movement, +which induced him to look in the same direction, buried himself in his +chair, so as to conceal himself as much as possible from the intruder.</p> + +<p>The person who entered was a tall old man, whose erect figure and firm +step proved how little time had weighed upon his natural vigour. His +features were bold and rude, although not deficient in that species of +manly beauty which an expression of confidence and energy bestows, and +were fully displayed by the disposal of his grizzled hair, which, torn +back from his forehead, and plastered over his head with an evident +profusion of grease, descended on to his back in a long braided tail. His +dress was of that description known in other parts of Europe as the hussar +uniform, which was worn by certain of the domestics belonging to the +Hungarian nobility. The yellow braid profusely bestowed across the breast +of his jacket, and upon the pockets and sides of his tight blue +pantaloons, was of a colour that showed what good service his attire had +already seen. In his brawny hands he held his shako, as he advanced into +the room, with more of rudeness than of deference in his manner.</p> + +<p>"Is it you, Master Farkas?" said the Jew, rising to meet him. "I did not +hear you enter."</p> + +<p>"I opened the street door below with the pass-key you gave us," replied +the man; whilst, at these words,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> the cavaliere stamped his foot in anger.</p> + +<p>"You made but little noise," resumed Bandini suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you were too much engaged to hear us; for I see you have a +visitor," said the old man, fixing his eyes upon the form whose back was +turned to him, and advancing familiarly further into the room.</p> + +<p>But the Jew intercepted him.</p> + +<p>"What do you want here, Master Farkas?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Teremtette!</i>" said the fellow roughly. "Would you have my lord up to bed +in the dark, like a rat or a gipsy thief? I want a light."</p> + +<p>"I will attend your master forthwith," said the Jew, taking up the +hand-lamp, and hastening to the door.</p> + +<p>"My master, ugh! My lord, if it please or please not your worship," +growled Farkas, preceding the landlord out of the apartment.</p> + +<p>When the Jew returned, his visitor confronted him with angry looks.</p> + +<p>"See to what you expose me, fellow, by your villanous meanness!" exclaimed +the cavaliere. "And, not content with harbouring vagabonds in your house, +that, for aught I know, may be spies upon us, you furnish them with +pass-keys, to surprise us when they will—to ear-wig at the doors, hear +our discourse, betray our secrets. How now, fellow, what have you to +answer?"</p> + +<p>"I tell you that they are most innocent and unsuspecting rustics, both," +stammered the Jew—"both master and man. There can be no danger."</p> + +<p>"No danger!" continued the angry cavaliere. "No danger, fellow! +<i>Cospetto!</i> this very circumstance may be my ruin! That voice, too, was +not unknown to me. I have heard it somewhere, although I know not where. +It sounded to me as the reminiscence of some past evil—a raven's croak, +announcing still more ill to come. <i>Santa Vergine!</i> If we are lost, I will +have your life, with my own hand;" and he half drew his sword from the +scabbard.</p> + +<p>Bandini drew back sulkily, with further protestations, deprecations, and +endeavours to mollify his visitor: but it was long before the cavaliere +could be appeased. Once he left the room and listened in the passage, and +at the young Hungarian's door. Then he descended to the street entrance, +and examined the lock: and only when convinced that the other inhabitants +of the house were still, and had probably retired to rest, did he come +back. When he returned to the Jew's room, his brow was still knitted +angrily; but, after drawing a bolt across the door, he sat down with less +of agitation.</p> + +<p>More unfriendly words again passed between the confederates; but, after a +time, the Italian spy and the Jew money-lender were again conversing, in +lowered tones, upon the schemes of the former.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> II</h3> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Underneath the grove of sycamore,</span><br /> +That westward rooteth from the city's side—<br /> +So early walking did I see your son:<br /> +Towards him I made; but he was ware of me<br /> +And stole into a covert of the wood."—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span></span><br /> +"Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her—<br /> +O teach me how I should forget to think."—<span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch!"—<span class="smcap">Idem.</span></td></tr></table> + +<p>On the following afternoon, the sun shone brightly; and the whole +atmosphere, in spite of the slight haze which faintly silvered the distant +hills, was imbued with that exhilarating freshness and lightness, which +sheds a poetic charm of animation, vividness, and—did it not appear a +paradox—it might be added, youth also, over an Hungarian autumn, unknown +in other European countries.</p> + +<p>The streets of Presburg were thronged by the crowds whom the approaching +opening of the Diet, convoked by Maria Theresa, had attracted to that +city; and highly picturesque and varied was the scene composed by the +multifarious parties, pushing and thrusting along, or gathered in groups +and knots, discussing the momentous events of those troubled times, +between the rows of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> antique houses, which bestow upon Presburg the aspect +rather of an old town of the German Empire, than of less civilized +Hungary.</p> + +<p>In the middle space pranced upon their richly caparisoned steeds, +glittering with the hanging trappings of that semi-oriental taste which, +although somewhat modified, still forms a striking characteristic of the +country, several of the Hungarian magnates, already attired in the +national costumes—the richly embroidered attila, or long frock-coat, +loaded with ornament—the furred cloak, clasped with glittering jewels to +the shoulder—the high flat cap of fur or velvet, displaying an egret of +rare feathers, which dashed upwards from the diamond broach—the tight +gold-braided pantaloons—the tasselled boots—their powdered hair alone +displaying, in some instances, their submission to the fashion of the day +in other countries. Thronging among them were many of the lesser nobles, +either on horseback or on foot, all dressed in the same characteristic +style, with less of richness and embroidery, according to their lesser +ranks or lesser means—each dress cut, and fashioned, and braided, +according to the taste or whim of the wearer. Now and then rumbled along a +cumbrous gilded and fantastically painted coach, swinging heavily between +its monstrous gilded wheels, and sometimes adorned upon the four corners +of its broad projecting roof with clumps of feathers, not unlike an +ancient tester-bed—the coachman in richly-laced Hungarian livery, or in +the silver-buttoned vest, hanging white sleeves, and broad white trowsers +of the peasant; but of finer stuff, gayer embroidery, and richer fringe to +the trowsers' edge, than the humbler of his class, as befitted the +elevation to which he had been raised—the six horses, loaded with studded +sparkling harness, and hanging strips of metal-behung leather, which +streamed down the flanks and shoulders. Within them sat alone the proud +dames of the Hungarian magnates, in even costlier dress than was the wont +of that period of costly and cumbrous attire—their powdered heads adorned +with the bejewelled caps of the national costume; for in those days a man, +who really deemed himself a man, disdained to show himself the lazy tenant +of these moving houses; and more especially the Hungarian, who considered +the name of horseman as synonymous with that of man, and himself as born +to be "a tamer of horses." Amidst these heavier vehicles, the light wooden +carts of the peasant-noble, ignorant of all attempt at springs, of all +harness but the rudest cords, endeavoured in vain to advance rapidly, in +obedience to the impatience of the small, meagre, but impetuous horses of +Tartar race which were lightly attached to them.</p> + +<p>Among the crowded pedestrians was the scene still more checkered with +kaleidescope variety. Here the embroidered pantaloons, the braided +dolmans, and the feathered bonnets, were mingled with the long-fringed, +full white trowsers, the large hanging shirt-sleeves, the broad-brimmed +upturned hats—from beneath which streamed long black shaggy mane-like +locks, over dark swarthy countenances, adorned with immense hanging +moustaches—and the huge sheepskin cloaks, decorated on the exterior with +fancifully embroidered flowers, and patches of bright cloth; the jaunty, +dancing, bold, easy air of the Hungarians, all booted and spurred even to +the very children, contrasting with the slouched gait of the Sclavonians, +with their curiously sandled feet—the Croat, still attired like the +Dacian of old, thronging along with the demi-brigand of the southern +provinces, whose savage bandit aspect would have struck terror in the +streets of any more civilized land—the purple talas, and long flowing +beard of the followers of the Greek Pope, sweeping against the dark robe +of the bald monk from the neighbouring convent—the smoother, finer gown +of the richer Catholic priest brushing past the white uniform of the +Austrian grenadier, with his conical headpiece, and long powdered pigtail.</p> + +<p>Amidst the hum of the many voices, the salutations of friends, the +laughter of some of the squeezing throng, the oaths of others, the cries +of the coachmen and the shouts of the horsemen to those who obstructed the +streets, arose, nevertheless, one unwearied and endless sound—the sound +of ringing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> metal—from the rattling of the universal spurs, and the +clashing of the many sabres.</p> + +<p>But if the scene was varied, more varied still were the emotions of the +crowd—among those, at least, who were more deeply interested in the +result of the event which had called together a great part of the nation +within the walls of the city of Presburg; according as their party +feelings or private interests led them to desire that resistance should be +shown to the appeal made by her whom the Hungarians styled their "King," +to her faithful subjects of Hungary, for succour under her distresses; or +as their enthusiasm or attachment to the House of Austria induced them to +wish that every assistance should be bestowed to enable her to restore her +fallen fortunes.</p> + +<p>The situation of Maria Theresa was indeed desperate. Her right to the +countries inherited by her from her father Charles VI., emperor of +Germany, were contested by almost all the other states of Europe. Her +friends and allies were few; and those few seemed to have deserted her at +this critical juncture. And yet with what confidence, with what a +well-assured prospect of a glorious reign, had she mounted the throne +secured to her!</p> + +<p>As early as the year 1713, the Emperor Charles VI. had issued, in his +privy council, a solemn ordinance, by which the female succession was +secured throughout his states, in case of the failure of male issue—an +ordinance well known in history, under the name of the "Pragmatic +Sanction." It was published throughout the Austrian states as inviolable +law, was made known to all the European courts, and by degrees guaranteed +by all, forming the ground and basis of all their treaties and alliances +with the House of Austria, and was moreover confirmed by oath by the +princes allied to the family by their intermarriage with Austrian +princesses. It was this ordinance, which only afterwards came into effect +upon the death of the Archduke Leopold, the only son of Charles VI., that +secured the right of succession to his daughter Maria Theresa, who at his +decease, which occurred in October 1740, and closed the male succession of +the House of Hapsburg, succeeded him, with the title of Queen of Hungary +and Bohemia, in these and all the other Austrian States, including, Milan, +Parma, Placentia, and the Netherlands. All these lands gave in their oath +of adherence.</p> + +<p>In spite of the triple right, however, which gave the States of Austria to +Maria Theresa—the right of nature, the law of the Pragmatic sanction, and +the sureties given by all the European states—several powers shortly +afterwards rose to contest her heritage. The Elector of Bavaria laid claim +to the succession, in virtue of a will of the Emperor Ferdinand the First, +dated in the year 1543; Augustus of Poland, in virtue of the earlier +rights of his wife, Maria Josepha, daughter of the Emperor Joseph, the +elder brother of Charles the Sixth. The King of Spain, Philip the Fifth, +went back as far as the rights of the wife of Philip the Second, a +daughter of the Emperor Maximilian the Second, from whom he was descended +in the female line. The King of Sardinia, Charles Emmanuel, laid claim to +the duchy of Milan; and Louis the Fifteenth of France supported the +Elector of Bavaria and the King of Spain. All Europe was quickly in flames +upon the subject of the succession. Not only princes, but many private +individuals, took an eager and active part in the quarrel. But the war, at +last, broke out from an unexpected quarter. Frederic the Second of Prussia +now laid claim to four duchies in Silesia, in spite of the renunciations +of these lands frequently made by his predecessors in favour of the House +of Austria, and suddenly, in December 1740, invaded the country, which, +being almost entirely undefended, was soon completely overrun by the +Prussian army. Maria Theresa, in spite of the alliance offered her by the +King of Prussia against her other enemies, in case Silesia should be +yielded up to him, stoutly and valiantly refused all compromise, declared +herself noways disposed to dismember, in the least degree, the States left +her by her father, and bade defiance to Frederic. Her enemies now took +this opportunity to attack her. Bavaria declared war, and was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> supported +by France, Spain, Savoy, and Saxony. In spite of the opposition of +Cardinal Fleury, the French minister, who was favourable to the cause of +the young Queen, Louis the Fifteenth placed under the command of Marshal +Count de Belle-Isle, a large French army, which crossed the Rhine in +August 1741; whilst the Chevalier de Belle-Isle was sent from court to +court in Germany, to rouse the powers against Maria Theresa; and numerous +spies and agents were dispatched, in every direction, to undermine the +last support she might have to hope for from her few remaining allies. +Linz quickly fell into the hands of the enemy, who approached upon Vienna. +Utter ruin lay before the persecuted Queen, who was obliged to leave her +capital, and seek refuge in Hungary. And under these circumstances it was, +that she had convoked at Presburg the Diet of the four orders of the +kingdom, the opening of which now caused the city to throng with crowds of +Hungarians from all quarters of the country.</p> + +<p>Among the mass of persons that thus swarmed in the main street of +Presburg, like ants upon the chief passage to the anthill, in seeming +confusion in which each individual atom has, nevertheless, its own purpose +and design, was a young man, whose striking personal appearance +continually attracted attention among those who crossed his path, and +caused many a head to turn and gaze after him, even in that favoured land +where beauty of the most romantic kind is common among all classes. He was +a youth of scarcely more than twenty years, as might be seen by the fresh +bloom upon his cheek, and the first down of dark moustaches which faintly +painted his upper-lip. His figure was slim, but yet his carriage had all +the bold ease of Hungarian youth; his features were regularly and +beautifully fashioned, although not of that extreme symmetry which mars +expression by its coldness; his dark-grey eyes, shaded by long black +lashes, which bestowed on them an Oriental cast, wore a look of hardihood +and languor combined, which spoke of a romantic temperament; and his +dark-brown hair, unconcealed by the fashion of the times, streamed free +and unfettered on to his neck and temples. He was attired in a sombre +dress, which well became his figure and poetic look. His braided attila +and pantaloons were of black cloth slightly relieved with velvet of the +same colour upon the cuffs and collar; and a black velvet Hungarian cap, +surmounted by a plume of black eaglet's feathers, sat boldly upon his +head. The silver-mounted belt and chains of his sabre were the only +ornaments that glittered on his dress.</p> + +<p>Whatever the purpose of the seemingly capricious wanderings of the young +man, as he thrust obstinately and somewhat rudely through the crowds which +opposed his progress, he was not to be diverted from it by the +objurgations of some of those whom he thus elbowed on his passage, or the +commendatory remarks of others, who noticed his good mien. His eye roved +perpetually to every window at which a female form appeared; and, upon the +approach of each coach that passed, he pushed boldly forward, to obtain as +near a view as possible of its fair inmates. But he evidently sought some +one particular form, which he found not in his unwearying scrutiny; for, +as often as some fresh female face had been narrowly examined, followed +sometimes with a moment's doubt, and then abandoned, he gently shook his +head, with knitted brow, and an expression of disappointment, and, falling +back, uttered an impatient sigh.</p> + +<p>At a short distance from the youth followed a tall old man, in the hussar +dress of an Hungarian domestic, who, in turn, pushed sturdily after him, +never losing him entirely from his sight, and utterly heedless of the +exclamations of those thrust aside, who, however they might spare their +angry comments to the handsome young noble, bestowed them with double +wrath upon his rude attendant. The look of the old man was one of +discontent, as he thus pursued the capricious movements of the youth; and +he gave vent to a continued string of muttered rough Hungarian oaths, +whilst he pushed on, and muttered such phrases as, "he is distraught—he +is utterly distraught with this silly boyish fancy!"</p> + +<p>At length, as the dusk of approaching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> evening began slowly to fall upon +the streets, as the crowd gradually lessened, as no more carriages rumbled +heavily along the causeway, and as no more faces appeared at the windows, +the young man paused in his hurried walk, uttered a still deeper sigh of +disappointment, and leaning himself wearily against a doorway, sank his +head downwards, and seemed lost in painful meditation.</p> + +<p>His old attendant approached him, and after a time, seeing that his +presence was unnoticed, and that the gloomy reverie of the young man +continued, he addressed him in a tone in which rude familiarity and +respect were strangely combined—</p> + +<p>"Is my lord's young blood so hot, then, that he seeks to cool it by taking +up his night-quarters under this airy gateway?" But seeing that the young +man heeded him not, he muttered an inpatient "<i>Teremtette!</i>" between his +teeth, and then, plucking at his master's dress, he continued—</p> + +<p>"Have you no orders to give me, Master Otmar?"</p> + +<p>"None, Farkas. No, leave me!" was the only reply vouchsafed.</p> + +<p>"Look you, Master Otmar," pursued his attendant—"You are observed +here—you are an object of attention, perhaps of mockery, to the +passers-by."</p> + +<p>"What mean you, Farkas?" cried the young man, in a tone of displeasure.</p> + +<p>"Nay! if my lord is angry, I have no more to say," replied Farkas, drawing +back.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are right," said the young man, with a sigh; "although your +words were rude." And without further comment, he removed himself from his +reclining position, and walked away with hurried steps.</p> + +<p>The old domestic followed rapidly, and, as they approached the St +Michael's gate, evidently expected that his young master would enter his +lodging close by; but, seeing that he still walked on, Farkas paused for a +moment, and murmured the words, "He bade me leave him. But he is utterly +distraught. He knows not what he says; he has forgotten his command ere +now; and who knows what may happen to the poor foolish boy!" And having +thus reassured his conscience upon his act of disobedience, he pursued the +young man's footsteps at a respectful distance, through the gateway, over +the bridge, and along the suburb.</p> + +<p>Beyond lay a more open road, skirted by gardens, and enlivened here and +there by summer pavilions, belonging to some of the wealthier nobles; and, +at about a quarter of a mile from the town, stood, to the left of the +wanderers, a stately palace, built in the heavy but ornamented style of +the commencement of the same century, and backed by gardens, that +stretched out behind it to the foot of that richly wooded and romantic +ridge of low mountains which gives so peculiar a charm to the environs of +the fine old city of Presburg.</p> + +<p>Passing through a side entrance of the court of this palace, which served +as a summer residence to the Archbishop Primate of Hungary—at that period +the Prince Immeric Esterhazy—and entering the gardens beyond, which the +liberality of the wealthy primate opened to public recreation, but which +were now empty, the young noble sauntered on, lost in meditation, through +statues of heathen divinities, which seemed ill in accordance with the +abode of a Christian bishop; and tritoned fountains, and stiff parterres, +and huge incommodious stone benches; until, reaching an alley of shady +planes and clustering chestnut-trees, he flung himself listlessly down on +the mossy bench of a shell and pebble-studded niche. The glow of the last +rays of the setting sun faintly penetrated the entrance of the avenue, +adding a still richer colour to the rich green shades of the trees, as yet +untouched by the influence of autumn; while, in the distant opening of the +dark vista, framed, as it were, by the circling trees, appeared a hazy +landscape of calm vine-covered hills, dotted with white cottages. It was a +spot peculiarly adapted to meditation and repose, the solitude of which +was enhanced, rather than disturbed, by its sole occupant—a misanthropic +stork, that with its wings folded on its back, like a sulky old gentleman +with his arms behind him, placed slowly and deliberately one foot before +the other, as it stepped on in lonely thoughtfulness.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>For a time the young man sat lost in reflection; and it was not until he +at length raised his head to gaze upon a scene congenial to his feelings, +that he became aware of the form of old Farkas, standing erect against a +tree, like a sentry in his box, at no great distance from him.</p> + +<p>"This is a persecution to which I cannot submit," he murmured to himself; +and then rising, and calling angrily to his attendant, he cried,</p> + +<p>"Did I not bid you leave me, Farkas?"</p> + +<p>"Leave you, my lord?" said the attendant, advancing with an air of +surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes, leave me. Do you hear now?"</p> + +<p>"My duty"—continued the old man, in an expostulatory tone.</p> + +<p>"Is to obey me."</p> + +<p>"My attachment"——</p> + +<p>"Becomes importunate," broke in his master, "if my footsteps are to be +thus dogged, and my solitude to be disturbed, fellow."</p> + +<p>Farkas tossed his head, with a sigh, that perhaps might be more +appropriately termed a grunt, and moved a few steps backwards; but then, +as if unable to obey, he again lingered and returned.</p> + +<p>"Master Otmar," he said, "call me rude, unmannered, disobedient. Bid me +leave you—yes, leave you for ever, if you will. But, out it must, +<i>teremtette!</i> in spite of all. I cannot see you thus, and quit you, +without a word—you, your father's son. You, Master Otmar, whose heels I +was the first to spur, whom I first set on horseback to gallop alone over +the Puszta, whom I first taught a good round Hungarian oath. I could not +do it, were I to know it were the last word I spoke."</p> + +<p>"Speak then! What have you to say?" cried Otmar, in a tone of vexed +impatience; but then, as he saw the eyes of the old man fixed in such +mournful earnestness and solicitude upon him, he seemed to repent his +harshness, and stretched out his hand, which his attendant took and kissed +with reverence, according to the custom of the country.</p> + +<p>"Speak!" he said more mildly; "I know you love me, although sometimes you +show your love after a strange rude fashion, Farkas!"</p> + +<p>"Are you a man, Master Otmar," began the old attendant, bluntly, "that you +should be thus cast down because you have seen a pretty face that smiled +upon you?" The young man showed evident marks of impatience at these +words; but Farkas had seized his advantage, and continued, "Is a chitfaced +woman's glance, seen only once, to break a man's bold spirit thus? You are +in love, you will tell me. That's a boy's answer to all; but"—</p> + +<p>"Peace, foolish man! what do you know of love?" said Otmar, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Foolish!" echoed the old man, with a toss of the head, as if he were for +a moment inclined to argue which were the more foolish, he or his master. +"Be that as it may. Perhaps I understand little of this love, at least +now. But I remember the time I understood it better; and, <i>teremtette!</i> +that was another sort of thing. When I was in love, I danced and sprang, +and drank and swore, and flung up my cap on to the very horns of the young +moon! There was some spirit in love then! But you have saved a fair lady +from danger, as her unruly devils of horses were about to plunge her +travelling coach from the bank into the broad stream of the Danube, and +you are as cast down about it as if you had caused her death, instead of +saving her from destruction. <i>Eb adta!</i> it is for her to whine and pine, +and lament that she sees the bright eyes of her handsome deliverer no +more; not for you, boy!"</p> + +<p>"And with how sweet a smile! with what a dignity and grace! with what a +look of angel brightness, did she hold out her hand to thank me!" muttered +the young man to himself, as he again sank down upon the bank.</p> + +<p>"Be a man, Master Otmar!" pursued Farkas, with more animation and +earnestness. "Call back again your energy and spirit! Where is the bold +young fellow, now, who challenged that cursed outlandish rascal, who not +long since strove to tamper with his loyalty, and throw doubts upon the +rights of our King—God bless <i>her</i>!—and pricked him, too, right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> through +the sword-arm, and did it well, right well?"</p> + +<p>"And would again, Farkas!" said Otmar, raising his head proudly.</p> + +<p>"Although, to be sure, you would not allow me to cudgel him soundly, and +beat his treacherous brains out afterwards," continued the man, with a +grim smile; "but, no matter for that, he had half his deserts, and shall +have the other half one of these days. An honest man pays his just debts."</p> + +<p>"Leave the villain to his fate!" cried the young man with a look of scorn.</p> + +<p>"That's right!" pursued his attendant. "Now, you are yourself again. Look +you, Master Otmar! I cannot bear to see you thus unhappy and cast down, +and all for the look of a bright eye. It goes nigh to break my heart, I +tell you." And the old man's voice began to falter with emotion.</p> + +<p>"But I am not unhappy," said Otmar, smiling; "I am happy, very happy. Let +that re-assure you, Farkas. You tell me, be a man. Can I be a man, and not +indulge grave thoughts in these times of strife and trouble?"</p> + +<p>The old man shook his head.</p> + +<p>"You love me, Farkas," continued the young noble. "Let, then, the +assurance that I am far from unhappy suffice you. Now leave me, in all +earnest. I shortly will return home—Home!" he murmured to himself, "have +I a home now?"</p> + +<p>The old attendant still lingered; but, as his master stretched forth his +hand, he again kissed it reverently, and, turning up the alley, +disappeared from sight.</p> + +<p>"No! I am not unhappy," muttered Otmar, when he found himself alone. "Why +should I not be happy, when she smiled upon me so sweetly? But should I +not see her again? Oh no! Fate cannot be so cruel. And who was he that sat +by her side, and took her hand in his, as she again entered the coach? Her +husband—her lover, perhaps. I will not believe it. Her brother, may be. +No! I am not unhappy. I should be happy that I can place between myself +and the dark realities of life a bright barrier of fancy, of poetry, of +love—like unto those glorious painted windows in the old cathedral, which +spread out, between the inclemencies of the atmosphere without, and the +mysteries of the calm sanctuary within, the thousand glories of a thousand +colours, a radiant curtain of purple, and crimson, and gold, in such wise +that the passing cloud, with all its variations of shade, only develops +fresh treasures of harmony and beauty; and if a ray of sun bursts +forth—oh then!—it might almost seem as if, in those dazzling showers of +light and radiance, a whole celestial choir of angels descended upon the +altar! Thrice happy should I be, that, on the sanctuary of my heart, +shines such a ray of light! Yes, in the midst of the darkness of my life," +pursued the young man to himself, still following up the same images of +his poetic fancy, "my thoughts should be as the thousand particles of dust +that may be seen to turn, and whirl, and gambol in the golden shaft of +light which streams through a peephole into a darkened prison! No, I +should not be—I am not unhappy!" And yet Otmar sighed, as he bent his +head again to the earth.</p> + +<p>From this poetic reverie he was roused, however, by the noise of +footsteps; and, as he lifted up his head, he saw that the entrance to the +alley was darkened by the forms of three persons who were advancing +towards him. That which immediately attracted his attention, and caused +him to spring up from his seat as if struck by an electric shock which +darted through his heart, was a young female, whose features and +expression, as she approached nearer, might be seen, spite of the +gathering darkness, to be of singular beauty. She was attired in a dark +brocaded dress, the long and slim waist of which was set off by a small +hoop, in accordance with the custom of the times; a thick veil, or rather +Spanish mantilla, of similar stuff was fastened into the top of her +powdered edifice of hair, and covered her neck and shoulders; and from +beneath its folds protruded a small hand, the fingers of which rested +gently upon the arm of a young man. This second personage was dressed in +all the rich extravagance of the French fashion of the day—his long +lappeted coat, hanging waistcoat, and breeches,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> all laced and spangled, +and behung with knots of ribands—his three-cornered hat flung under the +arm which did not serve as support to the lady—and an embroidered +handkerchief, the perfumes of which scented the air even at a distance, +ostentatiously flourished in his hand; and if Otmar's heart beat +involuntarily at first sight of the female, it was twinged with an equally +involuntary pang of painful emotion as his eye wandered to her companion. +The group was completed by an aged man, in the plain costume of a Catholic +ecclesiastic of the day, to whom the lady turned her head to address some +remark, as he lingered somewhat behind the other personages.</p> + +<p>The first instinctive movement of Otmar's heart had not deceived him. As +the lady approached still nearer, the lingering doubt gave way to full +conviction. It was she—she of whom he had dreamt so fondly-she whom he +had sought all day so eagerly among the crowds that thronged the city +streets! And now that she stood before him, his knees trembled, whilst his +feet seemed to be rooted to the ground, and his tongue to cleave to the +roof of his mouth. Had she passed him unnoticed where he stood, he could +not have moved to claim a look, or framed a word to address her. But, as +she drew closer to him, she checked her steps with a slight exclamation of +surprise, almost of alarm, at the sight of the half-concealed stranger in +the dusk. Her companion moved forward hastily, and, dropping her arm, +advanced his hand to his sword; but, before he could say a word, she had +in turn come forward.</p> + +<p>"Forbear, my friend!" she said; and then, advancing to Otmar, she +continued, "I am not deceived. It is my noble rescuer. I have sought you, +sir, in vain, to tender you my thanks for your good services, if my poor +thanks, indeed, can be a recompense for service so beyond all price."</p> + +<p>"Madam, I did but the duty of a gentleman," stammered Otmar; "and for you, +who would not——?"</p> + +<p>"I owe you, indeed, more than thanks can pay," interrupted the young +female. "You left us so hastily, after accomplishing that deed of courage +at the risk of your own life, that I had no time to learn who was my bold +deliverer from peril. In the confusion and trouble of the moment, I +allowed you to depart; and, believe me, my heart has not ceased to +reproach me since for a seeming want of gratitude, that, the Saints of +Heaven know, was far from it."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I am repaid, fully repaid, fair lady, by these words," interrupted +the eager youth in his turn.</p> + +<p>"But I may still repair my error," resumed the lady. "Alas! I have little +to bestow," she continued, with a sigh, "save empty words of gratitude. +But the time may come. Let me know, at least, the name of him who has done +me such essential service."</p> + +<p>"It were unworthy of your ears, fair lady," stammered Otmar timidly</p> + +<p>"Again, I reclaim the favour of your name, sir," said the young female. +"You are noble; your mien proclaims it, did not the sabre by your side +attest it." And her eyes seemed to rest with satisfaction upon the figure +of the handsome youth. "You have more—you have the true nobility of +heart. You will not refuse your name to a lady who demands it."</p> + +<p>Otmar was about to speak, when the noise of several persons advancing into +the alley with rapid steps, caused the heads of all parties to turn in +that direction. A troop of five or six men, with drawn swords, and black +masks upon their faces, rushed violently upon them.</p> + +<p>"Seize her! It is she!" cried a tall man, who appeared the leader of the +party, as he darted forward.</p> + +<p>A violent scream issued from the mouth of the female—exclamations of +alarm, and shouts of rescue from those of her companions. Otmar +instinctively drew his sabre with cry of rage, and the next moment all was +skirmish and confusion.</p> + +<p>"Ruffian!" exclaimed the young Hungarian, attacking the taller mask, who +had now seized with rude grasp the hand of the female, and causing him, by +the violence of the onset, to let go his hold.</p> + +<p>"Ha! he once more! God's curse on him!" cried the leader, parrying the +attack as best he might, whilst he endeavoured to regain possession of the +lady.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>"Let her not escape! let her not escape!" he shouted again to his +followers, finding himself hardly pressed upon. "I will dispatch this +fellow, on whom I reckoned not." And he, in his turn, attacked Otmar with +fury.</p> + +<p>Even in the midst of the skirmish, the young man could not resist seeking +the lady with his eye; and he could dimly perceive, in the darkness and +confusion, that she had taken refuge with the ecclesiastic, whilst her +companion was making desperate efforts with his French small-sword, to +keep at bay the other assailants. But his unwary solicitude had wellnigh +cost him his life. A plunge of his adversary's sword passed through his +attila, and slightly grazed his side. The next moment his own sabre +descended on to the shoulder of the man with whom he was engaged, with +sufficient effect, although the blow was evaded, to disable him for the +moment, and cause him to stagger back.</p> + +<p>Profiting by this circumstance, Otmar rushed upon the other ravishers, and +came up at the very instant when, overpowered by numbers, the companion of +the lady had lost all power of any longer protecting her retreat, and +preventing their object of seizing on her. Attacking then with fury, and +dealing several severe wounds, he succeeded in turning their attention +chiefly to himself.</p> + +<p>Thus desperately engaged in a most unequal combat, he heard the step and +voice of his first antagonist from behind. A dagger already gleamed over +his head, when suddenly a heavy blow resounded, and his assailant +staggered and fell to the ground. In a few moments more he had contrived +to disperse the other ruffians, who, wounded and alarmed, now took to +flight. When he turned, he found his old Farkas standing over the +prostrate body of his first foe.</p> + +<p>"I could not leave my lord," cried the old domestic, brandishing a stout +stick: which he had snatched up. "And, <i>teremtette!</i> I was right, whatever +you may say. But I have done for one of the rascals, <i>eb adta!</i> and just +at the right nick too!"</p> + +<p>"Leave him an follow me, Farkas!" cried the young man. "They may still +again assail her." And he hurried up the avenue, followed by the old man +who grunted with unwillingness at leaving the prize of his strong arm.</p> + +<p>When they reached the open space beyond the alley, no one was visible in +the dark. The lady and her companions had disappeared. Lights, however, +were moving, in the archbishop's palace; and, at the same moment, a troop +of servants, torches in hand, was seen to issue from the lower part of the +building, attracted, probably, by the noise of the tumult.</p> + +<p>"Where can she be? Again lost to me! Lost, perhaps, for ever!" exclaimed +Otmar.</p> + +<p>"Shall we not secure the fellow I knocked down?" said Farkas +insinuatingly, with no small spice of pride at the thoughts of the +capture. "He may be yet alive."</p> + +<p>"You are right," replied his master. "He was the leader of this troop of +bravoes. He may be compelled to divulge the mystery of this deed; and I +knew that voice, methinks, although as yet my recollections are confused."</p> + +<p>With these words he hurried back into the avenue. But when master and man +had reached the spot where the body had lain, it was no longer visible. +Marks of blood and of trampling feet, two broken swords and a ragged hat, +were the only evidences that remained of the late combat.</p> + +<p>"Gone!" cried Otmar.</p> + +<p>"The other ruffians have returned and carried him off, <i>eb adta</i>!" +exclaimed Farkas, with intense vexation.</p> + +<p>"Let us follow on their traces!" said the young noble. "See here! This way +through the thicket! There are marks of broken boughs." And pushing his +way through the bushes, he entered the dark wood, followed by his +attendant.</p> + +<p>A moment afterwards the avenue was illuminated by the torches of the +domestics from the archbishop's palace.</p> + + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> III.</h3> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 10em;">"Spirit of men,</span><br /> +Thou heart of our great enterprise, how much<br /> +I love these voices in thee!"<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Ben. Jonson.</span></span></td></tr></table> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>"Love is ambitious, and loves majesty."<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Decker.</span></span></td></tr></table> + +<p>Upon an imposing hill, which rises from the Danube's banks, and frowns +over the city of Presburg, still stand the extensive ruins of a fine old +castle, which was destroyed by fire at the commencement of the present +century, but which, at this period of history, was generally occupied as a +residence by the rulers of Hungary, when they paid a royal visit to their +Hungarian capital; and in the large hall of state in this immense building +it was, that the Diet of the four orders of the kingdom, convoked by Maria +Theresa, had assembled on the eleventh of September—the morning following +that evening so eventful to Otmar and his young love.</p> + +<p>At the upper end of this large apartment, a throne had been arranged for +the young Queen. In the spaces between the old portraits of the heads of +the House of Hapsburg, which adorned the walls, were now displayed +Hungarian banners. On either side of the throne, awaiting the arrival of +Maria Theresa, were several of her German ministers and household; and, as +it was well known that those immediately about her person had protested +energetically against her appeal to her Hungarian subjects, these German +servants of the Queen were regarded with no looks of good-will or sympathy +by those who filled the hall.</p> + +<p>Upon the first step of the throne, and apart from those who surrounded it, +stood, on the right, the Count John Pallfy, the Palatin or Viceroy of the +kingdom, his handsome martial countenance, with that semi-oriental disdain +of all expression of emotion in the physiognomy, betraying none of those +anxious feelings which were natural as to the result of a crisis so +important; on the left, Count Louis Batthyani, the <i>Reichskanzler</i> or +Chancellor. Immediately below the throne were ranged, on one side, the +bishops and prelates of the kingdom, to the number of sixty-seven, in +their rich ecclesiastical attire; on the other, the numerous magnates of +the realm, the princes, counts, and barons, to the amount of seven hundred +and eighty, glittering in all the marvellous pomp and splendour of the +Hungarian costume, and reaching in proud array far beyond the middle of +the hall—the lower part of which was thronged by a crowd of the lesser +nobles, and the deputies from the provinces, and from the royal free-towns +of Hungary. Brilliant and dazzling was the scene composed of this living +mass, with its thousand fantastic and bejewelled dresses; and wonderful to +look at the many fine energetic countenances of all ages of which it was +composed.</p> + +<p>Among the nobles, towards the middle of the hall, stood Otmar, his +handsome face still pale from the excitement of the previous evening, and +a night passed in sleeplessness. It was in vain that he had sought to find +the trace of the ruffians who had made so strange an attempt to seize upon +the person of the mysterious object of his affections: and only late in +the night had he returned to his lodging, and striven to calm the anxiety +of his mind in a useless attempt at repose upon his couch. His brain +whirled with the confusion of his thoughts. All the past was involved in +mystery and conjecture. Who was the beautiful female, to whom he had so +quickly given all the first emotions and energies of his young heart? +Should he ever again behold her who had thus twice crossed his path, to +disappear as suddenly from before his eyes? Had she escaped the hands of +her ravishers? What had become of her? And who, again—he demanded with a +pang of bitter jealousy—was that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> young man who had twice been her +companion, and whom she had styled her friend? Thus agonized with a +thousand doubts and apprehensions, he could scarcely command his senses to +gaze upon the scene around, or to reflect upon the important purpose which +had called him, with the other Hungarian nobles, to that hall. The +troubles of his life, his doubtful fate, his dreary position in the world, +were all forgotten in the absorbing thoughts connected with her he loved: +all minor anxieties—such as his dismissal that morning, as he left the +house, from his poor lodging by his old landlord, in a manner which, had +he been able to think on other matters, might have appeared to him as +heartless as inconsistent—found no room in his tormented mind. The noise +of the trumpets, announcing the entry of the Queen; the opening of the +door, to the right of the throne, through which she passed; the murmur, +and partial confusion, which attended her ascending the steps, and placing +herself in presence of that crowded assembly, scarcely roused him from his +reverie.</p> + +<p>But when he raised his eyes, he scarcely could credit their own evidence. +There she stood on high before him! The crown of St Stephen of Hungary was +on her lofty brow: the royal mantle covered her shoulders: the bejewelled +cimiter of the Hungarian kings was at her side. In her arms she held a +baby of about six months of age; in her left hand she clasped that of a +little girl. She was there in all her dazzling splendour of royal beauty. +And it was she!—she to whom his heart was given—she whom he had dared to +love!</p> + +<p>For a moment the whole scene whirled before the eyes of Otmar: he +staggered as one struck by lightning: his pale cheek grew paler still: he +felt as if he were falling to the earth. How he found a tongue to speak, +he himself could not have told. But, with faltering voice, he turned to an +old Hungarian magnate by his side, and stammered—</p> + +<p>"Is it possible? Is that—she—our King—is that?"</p> + +<p>"Who should it be, <i>domine illustrissime</i>?" answered the person thus +addressed, with the Latin courtesy of the country. "Who should it be, +friend?"</p> + +<p>Again Otmar found force to falter forth—</p> + +<p>"And he, who has given her his hand to mount the throne—he who now stands +behind her, glittering in all the rich fancifulness of that outlandish +dress—who is <i>he</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Humph!" replied the old Hungarian, in no very amiable tone of voice. +"That is her favourite German minister, the young Prince Kaunitz—a silly +fop! She might have better and less compromising servants about her +person, methinks. As you seem a stranger, <i>domine</i>," he pursued, unheeding +Otmar's agitation, "you may like to know that the old ecclesiastic, who +has taken the other place behind her, is our Archbishop Primate, the +Prince Emmeric Esterhazy, at whose summer palace she took up her +residence, <i>incognita</i>, on first arriving here."</p> + +<p>"Kaunitz! her favourite minister, and she called him 'my friend!'" +muttered the young man, trembling with emotion.</p> + +<p>"Yes! and they do say," continued his informant lightly, "that now her +husband, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, is absent with the remains of her +discomfited army, she and the young prince"—and he whispered in Otmar's +ear.</p> + +<p>A pang of the bitterest feeling passed through the young noble's heart. +But that pang, by its very revulsion, gave him fresh energy.</p> + +<p>"Calumny!" he exclaimed, angrily, to his companion, whom he doubted not to +be one of those disaffected to the cause of the persecuted Queen. +"Calumny!" But his voice was drowned in the loud murmur which arose on all +sides calling for silence.</p> + +<p>Maria Theresa had risen from the throne, upon which she had seated herself +on her first entrance to calm her feelings; and she gazed, with evident +emotion, and with faltering purpose, upon the vast crowd before her. No +doubt that she saw a stern discouraging frown upon many a brow: no doubt +that she knew how deeply the seeds of discontent and disaffection had been +sown among her subjects—how great a majority was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> unfavourable to her +cause: and she trembled and faltered for a moment.</p> + +<p>But the beauty, the dignity, and grace of the young Queen had already +worked their spell upon the susceptible natures of the Hungarians, who, +stern as they may be, are easily led away by enthusiastic impulses. A +flattering murmur of applause ran through the assembly.</p> + +<p>Encouraged by this movement of sympathy, which her quickly sensitive +woman's heart felt rather than perceived, Maria Theresa lifted her head +more boldly, and advancing one step forward, with her little daughter +clinging to her dress, held forward in her arms the baby boy, whose +destinies afterwards fixed him on the imperial throne of Germany as Joseph +the Second.</p> + +<p>All set speeches, all forms were forgotten by her in the trouble of the +moment.</p> + +<p>"Hungarians!" she said, with quivering voice, in Latin,—"deserted by my +friends, persecuted by my enemies, attacked and oppressed by my nearest +relations, my only refuge, in my utmost need, is in your fidelity, +courage, and support. To you alone, with God, can I any longer look for +safety. To your loyalty alone can I confide the welfare of the son and +daughter of your kings. At your feet I lay my children. I come to you for +succour. Will you grant it me?"</p> + +<p>Her voice trembled. She could not proceed. A pause ensued.</p> + +<p>"<i>Vitam et sanguinem!</i>" responded a voice.</p> + +<p>It was that of Otmar, who had listened, with beating heart, to the accents +of his adored Queen; whilst the blood had gradually risen into his pale +cheeks, and now flushed his animated countenance with colour.</p> + +<p>"<i>Vitam et sanguinem!</i>" was shouted by almost every voice in the assembly, +as it caught up the cry.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Moriamur pro Rege Nostro!</span>" again cried Otmar, drawing forth his sabre.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Moriamur pro Rege Nostro!</span>" was re-echoed by a thousand mouths, as a +thousand sabres were waved on high, and flashed upon the air.</p> + +<p>The enthusiastic feeling had been communicated as an electric shock +throughout the crowd. Spite of party feelings, party purpose, stern +resolves, it had proved irresistible. Before the Hungarian nobles was a +woman—a beautiful female in distress—and she their Queen! The burst of +loyal fervour was spontaneous, uncontrollable.</p> + +<p>The bosom of Maria Theresa heaved with emotion at the sound of this wild +cry. For a moment she struggled with her feelings, strove to be a queen: +but her woman's nature gave way; and, sinking back on her throne, she +burst into tears.</p> + +<p>The sight of this outbreak of emotion spoke again to each Hungarian heart; +and, with still wilder and louder shouts of frenzied enthusiasm, the cry +of "<span class="smcap">Moriamur pro Rege Nostro!</span>" rang again through the hall of the Castle +of Presburg, until the old walls trembled to their base. Tears sprang from +many of the sternest eyes, and rolled down many a withered cheek. But they +were tears of pity, admiration, and fury.</p> + +<p>All rancour, discontent, political difference, purpose of treachery, had +been forgotten. The cause of Maria Theresa had been won!</p> + +<p>Long it was before the tumult of the many voices ceased, or the flashing +sabres were restored to their scabbards. And when at length the murmur in +the hall was somewhat stilled, the aged archbishop advanced to the side of +Maria Theresa, who, with her eyes streaming with tears, stood up at once. +He attempted to speak in the name of the Hungarian nation in answer to her +appeal. But the old man's voice failed him; and only in broken accents, +which scarcely could be heard beyond the throne, could he utter a few +words of fervent devotion, and pray God to bless her.</p> + +<p>In his turn also, the Palatin, Count Pallfy, stepped forward and spoke of +supplies and men. But his voice, also, was drowned in the enthusiastic +shouts which promised to the persecuted Queen the succour of the very +life's blood of her faithful Hungarians, and the aid of their fortunes to +the last florin. It could scarcely at last be heard, as the official +declaration was made of the opening of the Diet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> and of the sittings to be +held, at which the necessary measures to be taken to be debated.</p> + +<p>Then again rose the shouts, as Maria Theresa attempted to thank her +faithful subjects. She could no longer speak; but she waved her hand to +them, with a graceful gesture, and a look of gratitude which betrayed the +depth of her feelings. Otmar's heart again beat tumultuously. He closed +his eyes, as if to shut out from his very heart the dangerous sight of her +who held over it so powerful a fascination. When he again looked up, she +had descended from the throne. She was gone.</p> + +<p>Overpowered by the various conflicting feelings which had so powerfully +assailed him in the last short hour, the young noble followed +instinctively the crowd as it streamed out of the great hall; and it was +only when he found himself in a large ante-room, somewhat severed from the +general mass, that he stopped and threw himself down upon a bench near a +doorway, to collect his confused and scattered thoughts. He remained for a +time lost in a reverie, from which he was aroused by a tap upon his +shoulder.</p> + +<p>Before him stood a boy, in a military dress, whose mien bore all the +boldness and pertness of a page.</p> + +<p>"<i>Servus, domine!</i>" said the youth, with an impudent air.</p> + +<p>"What want you with me?" asked Otmar sharply. "I do not know you, sir. +This is some mistake."</p> + +<p>"It is none at all, if I read right your person," answered the boy pertly, +mustering Otmar from top to toe. "Are you not he who was last night in the +primate's garden? The description answers that of him I was bid to seek."</p> + +<p>"I was in the primate's garden last night, of a truth," said the young +noble: "but"——</p> + +<p>"Then follow me," continued the boy, with a nod of the head.</p> + +<p>"Whither?"</p> + +<p>"Where a lady calls you," laughed the page, with an impudent swagger. "A +young fellow of our age and blood needs no other bidding, methinks."</p> + +<p>"What lady?" once more asked Otmar. But the boy only winked him to follow, +as a reply; and turning into a side-door, beckoned to him once more; and +then, seeing that the summons was obeyed, proceeded on, through several +passages and corridors, until, reaching a door, he pushed it open. Within +stood a female; and Otmar's heart, which had beat high with vague +expectations of what he himself scarce dared to divine, was suddenly +chilled, when he saw before him an elderly lady, altogether unknown to +him. But as she came forward to ask the boy whether it was the person he +was charged to seek, he became aware that it was not she into whose +presence he was to be introduced. The lady, in turn, signed to him to +follow; and after tapping gently upon an inner-door, and waiting for a +reply, opened it, and bade him enter.</p> + +<p>The apartment into which the young noble had been thus ushered, seemed to +have been hastily fitted up with such resources of a lady's chamber as the +cumbrous and incommodious fashion of the day offered. At the upper end, in +a large high-backed chair, sat a female figure, behind whom a tirewoman +appeared in waiting.</p> + +<p>Those hopes and expectations which, once or twice, Otmar had permitted to +float over his mind, as he had followed the page through the passages of +the castle, and had then dismissed from it as fantastic and improbable, +and yet again, in spite of his better reasonings, indulged, were now +confirmed, and still, to his dazzled sight, appeared impossible.</p> + +<p>It was indeed Maria Theresa who sat before him.</p> + +<p>The mantle had been disengaged from the shoulders, the cimeter ungirded +from her side, and the crown removed from her head: but she still wore the +rich dark dress, incrusted with gems, that proclaimed her royalty, but +which she needed not to stamp her "every inch" a queen. Her hair had been, +apparently, loosened by the removal of the diadem from her brow; and +powdered as it was, it fell in luxuriant ringlets over her neck and +shoulders. The glow of her recent emotion still remained upon her face, +and added to the natural grace of her beauty: and her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> lustrous dark-grey +eyes were still moist with her late tears.</p> + +<p>No wonder that Otmar stood before her, doubly dazzled with her beauty as a +woman, and her majesty as a queen—bewildered that she, whom he had +presumed to love, and for whom, in spite of himself, his heart yet beat +wildly, should be his sovereign, and that he should stand thus in her +presence.</p> + +<p>"Ah! is it you, sir—you, doubly my rescuer from evil!" said Maria +Theresa, rising from her chair, and advancing a few steps towards him. +"Welcome, to accept your Monarch's inmost thanks!" And she stretched out +her hand, which, although totally unpractised in the etiquette of courts, +Otmar, by an instinctive impulse, knelt down to kiss.</p> + +<p>"Rise, sir!" she continued. "Were my gratitude alone to speak, it were for +me, your Queen, to kneel and kiss the hand that a second time has, through +God's providence, been the instrument of my deliverance from peril."</p> + +<p>Otmar rose from his knees, a deep blush overspreading his handsome +countenance. The young Queen seemed to gaze upon him for a moment with +satisfaction; and then, waving her hand to her female attendant to retire, +she again addressed him.</p> + +<p>"What can I do to serve you, sir?" she said—"you, who have thus twice +served me at the peril of your life. I am but a poor and a powerless +Queen," she continued, with a faint smile: "but a grateful heart may still +find means to recompense"——</p> + +<p>"To live and die in your majesty's defence, is all your poor servant, who +has but done his duty to his Queen, although unknowingly, has to desire," +was the young noble's reply.</p> + +<p>"Nay, sir, we have too many obligations towards you," said the Queen, "to +allow ourselves to be quit thus. Can I do naught to serve you in return?" +she pursued, with a less dignified and more familiar tone. "You must not +allow so great a weight of thanks to lie upon my heart. Take pity on me!"</p> + +<p>Otmar could with difficulty find words to speak. The tumult of his +feelings almost overpowered him, as he began to forget the queen in the +beautiful and loved woman before him. But he struggled with the impetuous +dictates of his heart.</p> + +<p>"Madam!" he said, commanding himself, "I am a poor noble, left alone in +this wide world, almost without a friend, since my poor father's death, +which left me with involved fortunes, and without a prospect for the +future; and I was careless of life, until—until I had seen—your +majesty," he continued with emotion, whilst the blush upon the cheek of +the young Queen showed her perception that the homage paid was as much to +the woman as the monarch. "And now my only wish, as I have said, is to die +in your service and defence."</p> + +<p>"Die! God forbid!" said Maria Theresa, with a woman's ready tear starting +to her eye. "Live, sir! and, if you will, to fight in our cause. Enter the +army. Rank shall be granted you. Your advancement shall be cared for. Live +to be again the friend and champion of the poor persecuted Queen, who +needs friends indeed, when all are set against her."</p> + +<p>"Say not so, madam," interrupted Otmar, with fervour. "Have we not, one +and all, sworn to give our life and life's blood in your cause?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Queen, her tears now fully flowing, at the recollection of +the late scene of wild enthusiasm. "I have found friends among my +faithful, and my true—my gallant, noble Hungarians. Think you I did not +mark you, sir—you, who were the first to shout, 'For Maria Theresa we +will die!' Think you that my heart did not feel that you were, perhaps, a +third time, my friend in need? But I have enemies still. Calumny, I am +aware, miscolours my simplest actions. My very feelings may be +misinterpreted, my very tears, at this moment, in your presence, +misconstrued. Who can know what is the worth of friends better than those +who suffer from such odious attacks of enemies as I have suffered?" And +Maria Theresa clasped her hands before her eyes.</p> + +<p>Otmar once more sank down at her feet deeply affected.</p> + +<p>"But I must away with this weakness!" said the Queen, struggling to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +recover from her agitation, and dashing away her tears with her fingers.</p> + +<p>As she saw Otmar kneeling before her, his fine features fixed upon her +with the liveliest expression of pity and admiration, his handsome figure +bent to do homage to her loveliness and worth, her woman's feelings had +the mastery of her feelings as a queen, and, smiling upon him with a +smile, which shone all the more brightly through her tears—that smile, +with the power and fascination of which none knew better how to fetter +hearts than Maria Theresa—she hastily detached from her shoulders a +string of diamonds, and passed them over the young man's neck.</p> + +<p>"This is no recompense, to reward your services with matters of sordid +value, sir," she said. "This is no gift to enable you to retrieve, however +slightly, your fallen fortunes. This is the chain of honour which I bestow +upon my champion and knight; for such you shall be in the eyes of the +world. Here, in Maria Theresa's chamber, you are to her the deliverer and +friend."</p> + +<p>"Madam! my life, my heart, and soul are yours!" stammered the young man, +no longer able to control his feelings, under circumstances which made him +forget for a moment that distance which the sovereign herself seemed to +have overleapt.</p> + +<p>Again Maria Theresa blushed slightly. In spite of her strong +understanding, her virtue, and her worth, she was not above those feelings +of coquetry which, joined to her admiration of beauty, often, especially +at an after period of her life, gave handle to the many unjust calumnies +of her traducers.</p> + +<p>"Rise once more, my noble knight!" said the young Queen, with another +smile; "for we have dubbed you such. We will attach you to our especial +service, since such is your desire, and find a place for you in our suite; +although it be but badly paid in our state of disastrous fortune. But I +know you heed not that. I see it in that look, that would reproach me for +such a thought. You shall remain with us until you join our army," she +added with a sigh, "to fight in our cause."</p> + +<p>"This honour, madam"—stammered Otmar, rising.</p> + +<p>"Is not without its perils and its pains, good youth," continued Maria +Theresa. "You will have to combat envy, jealousy, ill-will within; for +such is the life of courts. Alas! I know it but too well. Without, you may +have often wearisome and dangerous services."</p> + +<p>"None can be felt as such when it is you—your Majesty I serve," said the +young man with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"I will—I do believe you, sir," replied the Queen. "I have said it once, +and I repeat it. Yours is the true nobility of heart. Ah! were they all +so—they who serve me and call themselves my friends! But enough of this! +Let your first service be to direct the search of our agents to the +discovery of the disguised enemies who made that bold attempt last night +to secure my person during my evening stroll—my poor moments of liberty! +Ah! France, I recognise there your treacherous designs! You did not know +who were your adversaries?"</p> + +<p>"Madam," answered the young man, "I should recognise again the voice of +him who was my principal assailant; and who, if I mistake not, has already +crossed his sword with mine. But I know him not."</p> + +<p>"I would not punish when I can forgive," said Maria Theresa, with a sigh. +"But the discovery of these complotters on my liberty, perhaps my life, is +necessary for the safety of my realm."</p> + +<p>"If my zeal avail aught," said Otmar warmly, "their life shall pay their +treachery."</p> + +<p>"No bloodshed, no bloodshed, as you love me, good youth!" said the Queen, +shuddering. "Blood enough is shed upon the battle-field for me and mine. +And who knows how far such blood should lie upon the conscience of a +miserable queen?—how far the Almighty will write it to her dread account +at the last great day of reckoning?" And, with that nobility of feeling +peculiar to Maria Theresa, she sank her head downwards in gloomy thought. +For a time she thus remained, as if forgetful of the presence of the young +noble; at length<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> she again raised her head, cleared away the gloom upon +her features with a faint smile, and once more extending her hand, +said—"Now leave us, sir, but to return shortly hither. Already they may +cry scandal that I should have talked to one of such good mien so long. +But go not," she continued, as Otmar moved towards the door, "until I have +told you how my heart was pained, that the search of those who sought to +discover you, after the skirmish of last evening, was useless—how +anxiously I prayed, in the darkness of the night, that no ill might have +befallen my young, champion—how my very soul was gratified to see him in +the crowd before me, to know that he was safe! You must not think your +Queen heartless and ungrateful, sir. Now, go!"</p> + +<p>With a wave of the hand, Maria Theresa dismissed from her presence the +young noble, who staggered from the chamber in a tempest of tumultuous +emotions.</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> IV.</h3> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>"Stand back, thou manifest conspirator:<br /> +Thou that contrivedst to murder!"<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></span></td></tr></table> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>"Farewell, my lord! Good wishes, praise, and prayers,<br /> +Shall Suffolk ever have of Margaret.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Farewell, sweet madam!"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><i>Idem.</i></span></td></tr></table> + +<p>In a small room on the first floor of the old house occupied by the Jew +druggist, sat Otmar once more, on the evening of the important day which +had decided the fortunes of Maria Theresa. He had returned to the +temporary home from which he had been so inhospitably driven, in order to +direct the removal of his scanty baggage, and the few relics that reminded +him of happier times, and the brighter days of his childhood, and which, +during the day, his old attendant had collected together.</p> + +<p>The room was wainscoted with blackened oak, the sombre shades of which +were unrelieved by any ornament; and at a table, near the heavy +casement-window, a part of which was open, rather to admit the fading +light of day into the dark apartment than the autumn air of the chill +evening, sat the young noble, tracing slowly the lines of a letter, which +he seemed to compose with difficulty, and not without many a hesitation +and many a heavy sigh.</p> + +<p>Upon a packed portmanteau, in the middle of the room, sat Farkas, puffing +from a short pipe small clouds of smoke, which issued in regular but +uneasy jerks from beneath his thick overhanging moustache. From time to +time he nodded his head impatiently, with a sideward movement, and +murmured between his teeth, without interrupting his employment, words +that accompanied his intermittent puffs, like the distant rumbling which +follows the smoke of the cannon on the far-off battle-field.</p> + +<p>"<i>Teremtette!</i>" he muttered angrily. "I shall not be easy until I am quit +of this den of the old hyena, who has turned my lord out of doors like a +gipsy beggar-boy—and why? The foul fiend only knows. I should like to +wring the old ruffian's neck for him, like a carrion-crow, <i>eb adta</i>!"</p> + +<p>At length the young noble threw down his pen.</p> + +<p>"It is done!" he exclaimed with a sigh. "I have written to the old +advocate at Buda to send me the papers I require. I must not think on my +own fortunes. My father's honour must be saved; and my own beggary shall +be signed before I leave this country."</p> + +<p>"Too honest by half to such rascals as those villanous cheating +money-lenders, whoever they may be, <i>eb adta</i>!" muttered Farkas again +unheard, with a vexed shrug of the shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Is all prepared?" said Otmar, turning to his attendant.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing but what I can take upon my own shoulders," answered the +old man with a sigh;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> "and they are broad enough to bear twice the +weight." And rising from his temporary seat, he jerked it on to his back. +Then seizing up another small valise in his hand, he stood ready for +departure.</p> + +<p>"Enter the first inn, and there await my orders, whether they have room to +lodge us or no; as is not probable in the confusion of the town," said +Otmar. "I trust that I may yet find us other and better quarters for +another night; and we can seek a home for once under nature's roof, +without much detriment to our bones."</p> + +<p>"What his lord can bear, can old Farkas also," was the attendant's sturdy +answer, and he left the room.</p> + +<p>"Farewell then," said Otmar, gazing around him. "Farewell, my poor +chamber, the depositary of so many hopes and aspirations, regrets, sad +thoughts, and air-built castles. Visions, bright visions of beauty and of +love, have illumined thy dark walls; and they, too, have flown—flown +before a stern reality, which proclaimed them folly, madness—ay, madness! +They are gone for ever! But shall they not be followed by dreams of glory, +of renown, of smiles from her beaming eyes to thank her champion—her +friend? Yes—me, too, she has called her friend. Farewell, then, my poor +chamber! Thou hast witnessed little but my wretchedness, and yet I regret +thee; for her spirit—hers—the beautiful, the bright, the unknown—still +hovers around thee. Fare-thee-well!"</p> + +<p>Otmar prepared to depart; but he was still lingering to send around him a +last look upon those bare walls which he had thus apostrophized, when +hasty steps were heard to mount the stair, and Farkas abruptly re-entered +the room.</p> + +<p>"Quick, quick!" cried the old man. "I saw him coming up the street—him, +you know—that outlandish rascal, whom you fought by the inn on the +roadside, because he would have spoken ill of our Queen—God preserve +her!—the same who, if your doubts prove true, was the villain who tore +that cursed slip in your attila last night—the foul fiend confound him, +<i>eb adta</i>! I thought I had a stronger arm—old fool that I was! Quick, +quick!" And seizing Otmar's arm, he dragged him to the open window.</p> + +<p>"It is he!" exclaimed the young noble, looking out; "the same tall form +and insolent gait. Ah! he is entering the house. Hark! he is mounting the +stair. God be praised, he falls into my very hands!"</p> + +<p>In truth, footsteps were evidently ascending the staircase. Otmar and his +old attendant paused to listen with palpitating interest. The next moment +the door of the Jew's apartment, on the other side of the passage, was +heard to open, and a voice to exclaim, "Hello! old fox, where have you hid +yourself? Out of your hole, I say! I have to speak with you." Then the +door closed, and all was still.</p> + +<p>"It is the same voice!" exclaimed Otmar again. "It is he who made that +foul attempt upon her liberty. Villain!" And half-drawing his sabre, he +rushed towards the door of the room.</p> + +<p>"Down with him! down with the rascal, <i>teremtette</i>!" cried Farkas, +following his master in excitement.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" said Otmar, checking his own first impulse, and catching the old +man's arm. "He is a traitor and a spy! It is not for me to punish; it is +for the country's laws. She bids me seek to discover him. Providence has +thrown him into my hands, and enabled me to obey her behest. She would +condemn me were I to take vengeance into my own hands."</p> + +<p>"What!" cried Farkas, violently. "My lord has his enemy face to face, and +hesitates to defy him to the death!"</p> + +<p>"Peace, old man!" exclaimed Otmar; "you know not what you say. Ah! I see +it all now," he continued. "He is the agent of her enemies, and is in +collusion with our doctor landlord. It is here their villainous schemes +are hatched."</p> + +<p>"True! It was he—it must have been he," said Farkas in his turn, "who sat +with the rascally old thief, when I entered his room the night before the +last."</p> + +<p>"Hear me, Farkas," continued the young noble. "I must away to the castle. +Maria Theresa may still be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> there. All shall be revealed. Watch you, at +some distance, in the street, that he leave not the house or escape us."</p> + +<p>"Better split the cowardly villain's skull at once, <i>teremtette</i>!" cried +the old man once more, indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Peace, I say!" said Otmar. "Follow me, and stealthily." And with these +words he left the room, followed down the stairs by his grumbling +attendant, who still muttered many an angry "<i>teremtette!</i>" between his +lips, unable to comprehend the hesitation of his young master, when so +good an opportunity was before him of taking revenge upon "such a +villainous scoundrel" as the spy.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had they quitted the apartment, when an angle of the wainscoting, +forming the door of a partially concealed closet, opened; and the form of +the Jew money-lender—pale, trembling, and with haggard eyes—staggered +into the room.</p> + +<p>"Jehovah! We are lost—irretreviably lost!" he exclaimed with a choked +husky voice. "Cavaliere! Cavaliere!" and he hastened, as fast as his +trembling limbs would carry him, to the door. But, in spite of his agony +and his alarm, his usual habits of caution, and perhaps of +self-appropriation also, did not forsake him, and with the words, "That +paper the young fellow wrote may tell us more!" he turned back, shuffled +to the table, snatched up the letter, which Otmar had forgotten in his +hurry, and then gained his room, where, seated, with gloomy and +discontented brow, the Italian spy waited him.</p> + +<p>"<i>Diavolo!</i> Where have you been hiding, Bandini? I need your aid," +exclaimed the cavaliere, as he entered. "All is ruined, if still stronger +measures be not taken. My grand expedition of last night, which might have +secured all at a blow, has utterly failed, through the interference of a +rash young fool, who has twice crossed my path to baffle me. I myself am +wounded,"—and he pointed to a bandage, partly concealed by a scarf thrown +over his shoulder—"still confused, from a blow dealt upon my head by some +meddling ruffian. The curses of hell blight their arms, one and all! Those +traitors, too, the Hungarians, have broken every promise, to shout +<i>Vivat!</i> to that woman; because she shed before them a few maudlin tears. +Weak fools! weak fools! and that they call enthusiasm! They promise her +supplies of men and money. My schemes are ruined—my services all +naught—your hopes of reward utterly gone, Master Bandini—utterly gone, +do you hear?—if some great <i>coup-de-main</i> be not yet tried. There! look +not so pale and frightened, man, with that ugly wo-begone face of yours. +There are yet means that may be used."</p> + +<p>"But we are lost—lost!" stammered the Jew, shaking in every limb, and +struggling in vain to speak.</p> + +<p>"Lost! Not yet!" replied the Italian scornfully "whilst I have yet a head +to scheme, and a bold heart to execute."</p> + +<p>"We are lost, I tell you. All is discovered. We are betrayed!" cried the +Jew. "That young fellow—in yonder room—alas! he knows all. We must +fly—conceal ourselves."</p> + +<p>"How now, man?" exclaimed the cavaliere, in his turn springing up in +alarm.</p> + +<p>"I had driven him from the house, at your desire," stammered Bandini, +panting for breath; "but he returned to seek his baggage. They had both +been absent, master and man; and I had thought to look after my own poor +goods and chattels in the room"—</p> + +<p>"Or to that which you could lay your hands upon, old thief—I know you. +But proceed! What means this tale?" said the spy.</p> + +<p>"Jehovah knows you speak not true!" continued the Jew. "But they came back +suddenly and unawares. I feared they might think evil of me, if they found +me there; and I concealed myself in the closet. I heard all!"</p> + +<p>"All!—all what? Speak, man!" exclaimed the Italian furiously.</p> + +<p>"He is the same—the same of whom you spoke just now," pursued the old +man, trembling. "He who wounded you last night. He recognised you as you +entered. He knows all. He is gone up to the castle to betray us. Oh! I am +a lost man—a lost man!" and the Jew wrung his hands bitterly.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>"Betrayed!" cried the spy—"gone, to the castle! Ten thousand devils drag +him down to hell! Which way did he go? What did you hear? Speak, +man!—speak, I tell you." And he shook the old man violently by the +collar.</p> + +<p>"He will probably mount to it by the shorter ascent, along the Jews' +street," gasped forth Bandini with difficulty.</p> + +<p>"And is there no quicker way?" exclaimed the Italian hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"By the lane opposite," stammered the Jew breathlessly. "Turn to the +left—mount the crooked street—you will find yourself opposite to the +garden, behind my old friend Zachariah's house. On passing through it, you +are at the upper end of the Jews' street, and near the castle plain."</p> + +<p>"There is no time to be lost!" cried the spy, flinging his hat upon his +head. "My pistols are primed and loaded," he continued, feeling in an +inner pocket of his coat. "I shall be there before him. He must die. The +same passage will favour my escape. Ah! it is you rascal of a Jew, +villainous miser, who are the cause of all! Dearly shall you repay me +this!" And seizing the old money-lender by the throat, he nearly throttled +him, and, when he was almost black in the face, flung him with violence +into a corner of the room.</p> + +<p>As the Italian disappeared, the old man raised himself, with difficulty, +from the ground.</p> + +<p>"And such is the poor Jew's reward," he muttered, "from these Christian +dogs, for all his losses, and his sacrifices, and his perils! What is to +be done? If he kill the youth, I have still to fear his wrath. If he come +not in time, we are undone. Every way is danger. Shall I myself turn +informer? It is late—very late in the day—but yet it may be tried. Can I +glean nothing from this paper that may sound like fresh and genuine +information? What have we here?" he continued, rapidly scanning parts of +Otmar's letter with his eye, and murmuring its contents to himself. "'I +leave the country'—'But my father's honour must be covered'—'Send the +papers ceding the estates'—'I am resolved to sign, although it be my +utter ruin'—The name?—'Otmar, Baron Bartori.'—Merciful Jehovah!" burst +forth the Jew. "It is he! It is my young man—and I knew it not—he, whose +sign-manual is to convey to me the estates, in return for my poor moneys +lent: and, if he sign not, the heritage goes to the next male heir; and I +am frustrated of my dues. But he will be killed—die without signing. I am +a ruined man—a ruined man!" And the money-lender clasped his hands in +despair. "No, no—he must not die. Caracalli! Caracalli! touch him not! +touch him not! He must not die, ere I have his precious sign-manual. Save +him! save him! Jehovah! what shall I do? Caracalli! Caracalli!" And thus +madly shouting after the Italian, the Jew rushed from his room in a frenzy +of despair.</p> + +<p>In addition to the great and winding carriage-road which leads up to the +summit of the hill on which stands the castle of Presburg, there is a +shorter passage to it, by a narrow tortuous street, lined with old falling +houses, and paved at intervals with terrace-like stone steps to aid the +steep ascent. To this street, in former times, the Israelites residing in +the city were restricted as a dwelling-place, incurring heavy fine and +imprisonment by daring, either openly or under a feigned name, to infringe +this severe rule: and even at the present day, although this restriction +has been removed, it is almost entirely occupied, either from habit or +from choice, by petty and most doubtful traders of the same persuasion, +and is still known under the name of the Jews' Quarter. The upper end of +this steep and winding lane is terminated, between high walls, by a large +old gateway, opening into the castle plain. And under this gateway it was, +that the Italian spy awaited his victim. He had contrived to evade the +vigilance of Farkas, by darting up a lane immediately fronting the St +Michael's gate, and now, having ascertained, by a few hasty words +interchanged with the Jew Zachariah, that no one answering the description +of the young noble had been seen to pass, he felt assured, that, by his +haste in pursuing the shorter cut from behind, he had gained an advance +upon him.</p> + +<p>The night was fast closing in, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> the Italian felt himself secure from +observation in the dark recess in which he lurked behind the gate. Aware +that by a deed of assassinating alone he could save himself from the +consequences of a revelation which not only ruined all his schemes, but +placed his life at stake, he grasped a pistol in his hand, and waited +firmly, with calmness which showed his long acquaintance with deeds of +hazard and of crime.</p> + +<p>He had stood some time, counting with impatience the moments, until he +began to fear that the young noble had taken the longer road, when at last +the sound of footsteps struck upon his ear. Looking out from the corner of +the gateway in which he had concealed himself, he could plainly see, at +some little distance, the form of a man, resembling that of his expected +victim, mounting the stone steps of the lane between the row of walls; and +he drew back, cocked his pistol, and prepared to fire at him as he passed. +Presently hastier footsteps—those of a running man—sounded nearer. Had +he been perceived? Was his purpose divined? Was his victim about to rush +upon him? These thoughts had scarcely time to pass rapidly through his +brain, when a dark form hurried round the angle of the gateway. The +Italian's hand was on the lock. He fired.</p> + +<p>A terrific cry, and then a groan, followed the explosion. A body fell. The +Italian bent forward. At his feet lay the form of his associate, the +miserable Jew.</p> + +<p>"Kill him not—the sign-manual"—were the only last words that faintly met +the ear of the assassin, before the blood rushed up in torrents into the +mouth of the unhappy man, and choked his voice for ever.</p> + +<p>Before the spy had a moment's time to recover from his surprise at the +unexpected deed he had done, another cry of "Murder! murder!" was shouted +close beside him, by a man who had run up. A strong hand grasped his arm. +It was that of his intended victim.</p> + +<p>"Assassin!" cried Otmar. "Ah! it is again he! God's will be done!"</p> + +<p>"<i>Mille diavoli!</i> Have at thee yet!" exclaimed the Italian, struggling to +disengage himself with a strong effort, and staggering back.</p> + +<p>Succeeding in the attempt, he drew his sword. The weapons of the two men +were immediately crossed. Both fought with desperation. Already a wound on +Otmar's arm had rather excited his energies than disabled him, when a +crowd was seen approaching rapidly from the direction of the castle. Some +persons detached themselves from it, and ran forward, attracted by the +previous cry of "murder," and the clash of arms. The cavaliere felt that +he was lost, if he made not a fearful effort to disengage himself at once +from his antagonist, and made a violent lunge at Otmar. The active young +noble swerved aside. The sword passed him unscathed, and the next moment +his sabre descended on to the Italian's head. With a fearful curse, the +spy staggered, reeled backward, and fell to the ground.</p> + +<p>When the persons from the castle hurried up, they found the young noble +standing by his prostrate foe, and leaning upon his sabre—his cheek +already pale from the loss of the blood which streamed from his wound. +Before, in the confusion, much explanation could be asked or given, others +of the approaching party had come up: at an order issued, a sedan chair, +borne by eight men, was set down under the gateway; a female form issued +from it, and, in spite of the opposition of those about her, Maria Theresa +advanced through the crowd.</p> + +<p>"What has happened? Who disturbs the peace?" she exclaimed, coming forward +with that courage she evinced on all emergencies.</p> + +<p>"Retire, I beseech you, to your chair, madam, and allow yourself to be +carried on," said the young Prince Kaunitz, who formed one of the suite. +"This is no sight for a woman, and a queen." And he interposed his person +between his sovereign and the bodies of the Italian and the Jew.</p> + +<p>"Permit me, prince," said Maria Theresa, waving him aside; for she had now +caught sight of the pale face of Otmar, brightly illumined by the lighted +torches which some of her attendants bore to light her on her way, upon +her evening transit from the castle to the primate's summer palace.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>"You, my young champion, here!" she cried, with tones of evident anxiety, +stepping forward. "What has happened? In God's name, what is this? You are +not hurt, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Only a scratch, so please your majesty," replied Otmar; "and happy and +proud I am that I should have gained it in your service."</p> + +<p>"Tell me what has passed? How do I find you here? Who is this man?" +continued the young Queen, glancing slightly at the form of the prostrate +Italian.</p> + +<p>"It is the same villain who has already dared to lay his hand upon the +sacred person of your majesty," said the young noble proudly. "Chance led +me to his discovery. I was hurrying to seek my Queen, to obey her orders. +The wretch—I know not how—was beforehand with me. He would have waylaid +me, as I must suppose. Another, who passed me at the moment, was his +victim. I attacked him; and there he lies. I know no more."</p> + +<p>"And who is that poor man?" said Maria Theresa, pointing to the body of +the Jew.</p> + +<p>Some of her attendants raised up the corpse.</p> + +<p>"I recognise him," said Otmar. "He was the accomplice of that fellow. +God's justice has fallen on him by the hand of his own confederate. But +how, is still to me a mystery."</p> + +<p>"The other still lives," exclaimed the voices of some, who had now lifted +up the form of the Italian.</p> + +<p>"Let him be conveyed to the castle," commanded the Queen. "Every inquiry +shall be instituted in this affair. Let justice take its course upon the +spy and traitor."</p> + +<p>The Italian was conveyed away.</p> + +<p>"But you are hurt, noble youth. Your cheek grows paler still," cried Maria +Theresa. "Help there! Bring water! quick! He may be dying."</p> + +<p>"It is nothing!" said Otmar, with sinking voice and failing senses. "A +little faintness! I shall be better soon. A smile from you will repay +all!"</p> + +<p>His head whirled, and he fell back into the arms of the bystanders.</p> + +<p>In spite of the alarm of the young Queen, a deep blush overspread her +countenance at these last words.</p> + +<p>"Ah! should it be so!" she murmured to herself; and, after casting a long +look upon the form of the handsome youth before her, she bent her head to +the earth.</p> + +<p>Water was quickly brought from a neighbouring house. In spite of the +increasing crowd attracted to the spot, Maria Theresa disdained not to +bathe with her own hands the temples of the fainting man. Snatching a +perfumed handkerchief from the hand of Kaunitz, she bound it tightly on +the young noble's arm. In a short time, he once more opened his eyes. +Water was given him to drink; and he again was able to stand, weakly, on +his feet.</p> + +<p>"You—my Queen. You have deigned—to look upon your poor subject-to tend +him"—he stammered faintly, as his eyes fell upon the lovely face before +him. "You—the noble—the beautiful—the beloved"—</p> + +<p>"Hush! hush, sir," interposed the young Queen hurriedly. "You must not +speak now. Your brain wanders. You shall be conveyed to the castle, and +tended there. As soon as you are fully recovered, a post is ready for you +with the army. You must leave us forthwith. Be brave, be gallant, be +noble, as you have ever shown yourself; and, perhaps, hereafter"—</p> + +<p>She checked herself; with a sigh, and turned away her face.</p> + +<p>"Yes—away from here! I must away," said Otmar. "The army, the +battle-field, glory, renown, must be my only thoughts." And, sinking his +head on his heart, he murmured lowly—</p> + +<p>"<i>Moriamur pro Rege Nostro.</i>"</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Conclusion.</span></h3> + +<p>It is well known in history, that the rising of the Hungarian saved the +falling fortunes of Maria Theresa. The enthusiasm of this sensitive and +energetic people, once awakened, knew no bounds. All the country nobles, +with their followers, took up arms. Croatia alone supplied twelve +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>thousand men. Immense sums of money, to support the army, were offered by +the clergy; and, out of the most distant provinces, sprang up, as the +soldiers sown by the teeth of Cadmus from the earth, those countless +savage hordes, who under the name of Pandours carried terror into every +part of Europe. From the moment of the "insurrection," as it is called, of +the Hungarian nobility, the aspect of affairs began to change. The Elector +of Bavaria, who, to the grief of Maria Theresa, had received the imperial +crown of Germany, so long in the possession of the House of Hapsburg, +chiefly by the influence of French intrigues, under the name of Charles +the Seventh, was driven from his States. England and Holland were won over +to the cause of the persecuted Queen; and both, especially the former, +lent her large sums. The whole British nation was interested in her +favour. The English nobility, instigated by the Duchess of Marlborough, +offered her a subscription collected to the amount of a hundred thousand +pounds; but this sum Maria Theresa nobly refused, accepting nothing that +was not granted to her by the nation in Parliament assembled. By the +valour of Hungarian arms, the French were at length driven out of Bohemia; +and what still more contributed to the peace shortly after obtained from a +great portion of the Queen's enemies, was the result of the bloody field +of Hanau, which turned out entirely to the advantage of Maria Theresa and +her noble allies, and at which half of the <i>noblesse</i> of France was either +killed or wounded.</p> + +<p>It was shortly after this great battle, in which so many bold spirits fell +on either side, that a catafalk was erected at the upper end of the middle +aisle belonging to the glorious Gothic Church of St Stephen's in Vienna. +The service for the dead had been performed with pomp. The priests had +retired from the aisle. But still, upon the steps, covered with black +cloth, and illumined from above by many wax-lights, knelt two personages. +The one was a female, dressed in deep mourning, who appeared to be praying +fervently. A group of attendants, both male and female, in the attire of +the court mourning of the day, stood at a little distance from her. The +other was an old man, in a well-worn hussar dress, who had thrown himself +forward on to the upper step, upon another side of the catafalk, and had +buried his face in his hands. At length the female rose, gave a last look +at that dark mass, which concealed a coffin, and, within, a corpse; and +then, drawing her veil over her face, moved slowly towards a side-door, +followed by her attendants, with a respect paid only to a royal personage. +A crowd of beggars surrounded the door, where an Imperial carriage waited; +and distributing the contents of a heavy purse among them, the lady said, +with broken voice,</p> + +<p>"Pray for the soul of Otmar, Baron Bartori, who died in battle for his +Queen."</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> +<h2>MESMERIC MOUNTEBANKS.</h2> + +<p>In an age of utilitarian philosophy and materialism, we are proud to stand +forth as the champion of he Invisible World. <span class="smcap">Maga</span> and <span class="smcap">Magic</span> are words +which we cannot dissociate from one another, either in sound or in +affection. The first was the mistress of our youth—our literary +mother—our guide and instructress in the paths of Toryism, +good-fellowship, and honour. Fain would we hope that, in maturer years, we +have rendered back to the eldest-born of Buchanan some portion of the deep +debt of gratitude which from our childhood upwards we have incurred. We +have ever striven to comport ourselves in sublunary matters as beseemeth +one who has sat at the feet of Christopher, imbibed the ethical lore of a +Tickler, and received the sublimest of peptic precepts and dietetic +instruction from the matchless lips of an Odoherty. Her creed is ours, and +no other—the bold, the true, and the unwavering—and when we die, bewept, +as we trust we shall be by many a youth and maiden of the next generation, +we shall ask no better epitaph for our monument than that selected by poor +John Keats, though with the alteration of a single word—"<span class="smcap">Here lieth one +whose name is writ in Maga.</span>"</p> + +<p>Magic, however—not Maga—is the theme of our present article; nor do we +scruple at the very outset to proclaim ourselves a devout and fervent +believer in almost every known kind of diablerie, necromancy, and +witchcraft. We are aware that in the present day such confessions are very +rare, and that when made by some reluctant follower of the occult faith, +they are always accompanied with pusillanimous qualifications, and weak +excuses for adherence to opinions which, in one shape or another, pervade +the population of Christendom, and pass for current truth throughout the +extensive realm of Heathenesse. So much the better. We like a fair field +and no auxiliaries; and we are here to do battle for the memory and fair +fame of Michael Scott, Doctor Faustus, and the renowned Cornelius Agrippa.</p> + +<p>Sooth to say, we were born and bred long before Peter Parley had +superseded the Fairy Tales, and poisoned the budding faculties of the +infancy of these realms with his confounded philosophical nonsense, and +his endless editions of <i>Copernicus made Easy</i>. Our nurserymaid, a hizzie +from the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, was a confirmed and noted believer in +dreams, omens, tatie-bogles, and sundry other kinds of apparitions. Her +mother was, we believe, the most noted spaewife of the district; and it +was popularly understood that she had escaped at least three times, in +semblance of an enormous hare, from the pursuit of the Laird of Lockhart's +grews. Such at least was the explanation which Lizzy Lindsay gave, before +being admitted as an inmate of our household, of the malignant persecution +which doomed her for three consecutive Sundays to a rather isolated, but +prominent seat in the Kirk of Dolphington Parish: nor did our worthy +Lady-mother see any reason to doubt the accuracy of the statement. For was +it not most natural that the daughter—however comely—and Lizzy was as +strapping a lass as ever danced at a kirn—of a woman who had the evil +reputation of divining surreptitious fortunes by means of the sediment of +a tea-cup—of prophesying future sweethearts in exchange for hoarded +sixpences—and of milking dry her neighbours' cows by aid of cantrips and +an enchanted hair rope—was it not most natural, we say, that the daughter +of the witch should have been looked upon with a suspicious eye by the +minister, who used annually to preach four sermons in vituperation of Her +of Endor, and by the Elders, whose forefathers had turned out doggedly for +the Covenant, and among whom still circulated strange and fantastic tales +of bodily apparitions of the Evil One to the fugitives in the muir and the +wilderness—of hideous shapes, which <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>disturbed the gathered conventicle +by the sides of the lonely burn—of spells, which made the buff-coats of +their adversaries impenetrable as adamant to leaden bullet or the sweep of +the Cameronian steel?</p> + +<p>Upon these testimonials, and a strong affidavit from Lizzy, that in every +other earthly matter she was innocent of the slightest peccadillo, the +Lily of Lanark was installed as mistress and governante of the Nursery. We +were then in the days of teething, and sorely tormented with our gums, +which neither for knob of poker, nor handle of kitchen-fork—the ancient +Caledonian corals—would surrender their budding ornaments. We believe, +therefore, that Lizzy Lindsay erred not materially from the path of truth +when she signalized us as "the maist fractious bairn that ever broke a +woman's heart." Night and day did we yell, with Satanic energy, from the +excruciating molar pain, and little sympathy did our tears awaken in our +pillow, as we lay in fevered anguish on the exuberant bosom of our +guardian. Fortunately for us, in these days Daffy's Elixir was a thing +unknown, else no doubt we should have received an early introduction to +dram-drinking by means of the soft carminative. The fertile genius of +Lizzy suggested a better spell for allaying our infant sorrows. Whenever +we indulged in a more than ordinary implacable fit of screeching, she +threatened us with the apparition of "the Boo-man," a hideous spectre +which was then supposed to perambulate the nurseries in the shape of +Napoleon-Bonaparte. In a very short while, no Saracen child ever became +dumber when threatened by its mother with a visit from the Melech-Ric, +than we did at the proposed coming of the dark and sanguinary phantom. For +many years afterwards we believed as sincerely in the existence of this +anthropophagus as in our own; and very nearly became a Bauldy for life, +from having been surprised on one occasion, whilst surreptitiously +investigating the contents of a jampot, by the descent of a climbing-boy +into the nursery, and the terrors of his telegraphic boo! As we grew up, +our nascent intellect received still more supernatural services from the +legendary lore of Lizzy. She taught us the occult and mysterious meaning +of those singular soot-flakes which wave upon the ribs of a remarkably +ill-pokered fire—the dark significance which may be drawn from the +spluttering and cabbaging of a candle—and the misfortunes sure to follow +the mismanagement of the sacred salt. Often, too, her talk was of the +boding death-watch—the owl which flapped its wings at the window of the +dying—and the White Dove that flitted noiselessly from the room at the +fearful, and then to us incomprehensible moment of dissolution. As +Hallowe'en approached, she told us of the mystic hempseed, of the figure +which stalled behind the enterprising navigator of the stacks, and that +awful detention of the worsted clue, which has made the heart of many a +rustic maiden leap hurriedly towards her throat, when in the dead of +night, and beneath the influence of a waning moon, she has dared to pry +into the secrets of futurity, and, lover-seeking, has dropped the ball +into the chasm of the deserted kiln.</p> + +<p>Such being the groundwork of our mystic education, it is little wonder +that we turned our novel knowledge of the alphabet to account, by pouncing +with intense eagerness upon every work of supernatural fiction upon which +we possibly could lay our hands. We speak not now of Jack the +Giant-killer, of the aspiring hero of the Beanstalk, or the appropriator +of the Seven-leagued boots. These were well enough in their way; but not, +in our diseased opinion, sufficiently practical. We liked the fairies +better. For many a day we indulged in the hope that we might yet become +possessed of a pot of that miraculous unguent, which, when applied to the +eye, has the virtue of disclosing the whole secrets of the Invisible +World. We looked with a kind of holy awe upon the emerald rings of the +greensward, and would have given worlds to be present at the hour when the +sloping side of the mountain is opened, and from a great ball, all +sparkling with a thousand prismatic stalactites, ride forth, to the sound +of flute and recorder, the squadrons of the Elfin Chivalry. Well do we +remember the thrill of horror which pervaded our being when we first read<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +of the Great Spectre of Glenmore, the Headless Fiend that haunts the black +solitudes of the Rothemurchus Forest, whom to see is madness, and to meet +is inexorable death! Much did we acquire in these days of the natural +history of Wraiths and Corpse-candles-of Phantom Funerals encountered on +their way to the kirkyard by some belated peasant, who, marveling at the +strange array at such an hour, turns aside to let the grim procession +pass, and beholds the visionary mourners—his own friends—sweep past, +without sound of footfall or glance of recognition, bearing upon their +shoulders a melancholy burden, wherein, he knows, is stretched the wan +Eidolon of himself! No wonder that he takes to his bed that night, nor +leaves it until the final journey.</p> + +<p>Not for worlds would we have left the Grange house, which was then our +summer residence, after nightfall, and, skirting the hill by the old +deserted burial-ground, venture down the little glen, gloomy with the +shade of hazels—cross the burn by the bridge above the Caldron pool—and +finally gaze upon the loch all tranquil in the glory of the stars! Not all +the fish that ever struggled on a night-line-and there were prime +two-pounders, and no end of eels, in the loch—would have tempted us to so +terrible a journey. For just below the bridge, where the rocks shot down +precipitously into the black water, and the big patches of foam went +slowly swirling round—there, we say, in some hideous den, heaven knows +how deep, lurked the hateful Water-Kelpy, whose yell might be heard, +during a spate, above the roar of the thundering stream, and who, if he +did not lure and drown the cat-witted tailor of the district, was, to say +the least of it, the most maligned and slandered individual of his race. +Even in broad day we never liked that place. It had a mischievous and +uncanny look; nor could you ever entirely divest yourself of the idea that +there was something at the bottom of the pool. Bad as was the burn, the +loch was a great deal worse. For here, at no very remote period, the fiend +had emerged from its depths in the shape of a black steed, gentle and +mild-eyed to look upon, and pacing up to three children, not ten minutes +before dismissed from the thraldom of the dominie, had mutely but +irresistibly volunteered the accommodation of an extempore ride. And so, +stepping on with his burden across the gowans—which never grew more, and +never will grow, where the infernal hoof was planted—the demon horse +arrived at the margin of the loch where the bank is broken and the water +deep, and with a neigh of triumph bounded in, not from that day to this +were the bodies of the victims found. Moreover, yonder at the stunted +thorn-trees is the spot where poor Mary Walker drowned herself and her +innocent and unchristened bairn; and they say that, at midnight when all +is quiet, you will hear the wailing of a female voice, as if the spirit of +the murdered infant were bewailing its lost estate; and that a white +figure may be seen wringing its hands in agony, as it flits backwards and +forwards along the range of the solitary loch. Therefore, though the black +beetle is an irresistible bait, we never threw a fly at night on the +surface of the Haunted Tarn.</p> + +<p>Penny Encyclopædias, although Lord Brougham had advanced considerably +towards manhood, were not then the fashion. Information for the people was +not yet collected into hebdomadal tracts; and those who coveted the fruit +of the tree of knowledge were left to pursue their horticultural +researches at their own free will. In the days of which we write, the two +leading weekly serials were the "<i>Tales of Terror</i>" and "<i>The Terrific +Register</i>," to both of which we regularly subscribed. To our present +taste—somewhat, we hope, improved since then—the latter seems a vulgar +publication. It was neither more nor less than a <i>rifacciamento</i> of the +most heinous and exaggerated murders, by steel, fire, and poison, which +could be culled from the records of ancient and modern villany. It was, in +short, the quintessence of the <i>Newgate Calendar</i>, powerful enough to +corrupt a nation; as a proof of which—we mention it with regret—the +servant lad who ten years ago purloined it from our library, has since +been transported for life. We even dare to back it, for pernicious +results, against the moral influence which has been since exercised by +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> authors of Oliver Twist and Jack Sheppard, to both of whom the penal +colonies have incurred a debt of lasting gratitude. It is true that, in +point of sentiment, these gentlemen have the advantage of the Editor of +The Terrific Register, but he beats them hollow in the broad delinquency +of his facts. But in the Tales of Terror we possessed a real supernatural +treasure. Every horrible legend of demon, ghost, goule, gnome, +salamandrine, and fire-king, which the corrupted taste of Germany had +hatched, was contained in this precious repository. It was illustrated +also, as we well remember, by woodcuts of the most appalling description, +which used to haunt us in our sleep long after we had stolen to our bed at +half-past eleven punctually, in order that we might be drenched in slumber +before the chiming of the midnight hour—at which signal, according to the +demonologists, the gates of Hades are opened wide, and the defunct usurer +returns to mourn and gibber above the hiding-place of his buried gold.</p> + +<p>Gradually, however, we waxed more bold; and by dint of constant study +familiarized ourselves so much with the subject, that we not only ceased +to fear, but absolutely longed for a personal acquaintance with an +apparition. The History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, which shortly +afterwards fell into our hands, inspired us with the ambition of becoming +a practical magician, and we thirsted for a knowledge of the Cabala. We +had already done a little business in the way of turnip lanterns, the +favourite necromantic implements of the ingenuous Scottish youth—hideous +in the whiteness of their vegetable teeth, and not unappalling when +dexterously placed upon the edge of the kirk-yard wall. Electric shocks +conveyed by means of the door-handles, phosphoric writings on the wall, +and the mystery of spontaneous bells, were our next chemical amusements; +nor did we desist from this branch of practice until we had received a +most sound castigation, at the recollection of which our bones still ache, +from a crusty old tutor whose couch we had strewn, not with roses, but +with chopped horse-hair.</p> + +<p>We are old enough to recollect the first representation of <i>Der +Freischutz</i>, and it is an era in our dramatic reminiscences. Previously to +that, we had seen a Vampire appear upon the boards of the Edinburgh stage, +and after an extravagant consumption of victims throughout the course of +three acts, fall thunder-smitten by an indigo bolt through a deep and +yawning trap-door. But Zamiel, as then represented by Mr Lynch, completely +distanced the Blood-sucker. With feelings of intensest awe, we beheld the +mysterious preparations in the Wolf's Glen—the circle of skull and +bone—the magic ring of light blue that flickered round it—the brazier +with the two kneeling figures beside it—the owl on the blasted tree, +which opened its eyes and flapped its wings with true demoniacal +perseverance—and the awful shapes that appeared at the casting of every +bullet! But when, as the last of them was thrown from the mould, a crash +of thunder pealed along the stage, and lurid lightnings glared from either +wing—when the cataract was converted into blood, and the ferocious form +of Lynch stood forth as the Infernal Hunter, discharging, after the manner +of such beings, two rifles at once—our enthusiasm utterly overcame us; we +gave vent to an exulting cheer, and were conducted from the boxes in a +state of temporary insanity.</p> + +<p>We pass over our classical studies. We were no great dab at Virgil, but we +relished Apuleius exceedingly, and considerably petrified the Rector, by +giving up, as the subject of our private reading, "<i>Wierus de +Prœstigiis Demonum</i>." Our favourite philosopher was Sir Kenelm Digby, +whose notions upon sympathy and antipathy we thought remarkably rational; +so much so, that up to the present time, we recognise no other treatment +for a cut finger than a submersion of the bloody rag in vitriol and water, +and a careful unction of the knife. We lost our degree in medicine by +citing as a case in point the wonderful cure of Telephus by the +application of oxide of iron, which we held to be no specific at all, +except as obtained from the spear of Achilles. This dogma, coupled with +our obstinate adherence to the occult doctrines of Van Helmont, the only +medical writer whose works we ever perused with the slightest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +satisfaction, was too much for the bigoted examinators. We were +recommended to go abroad and study homœopathy. We did so, and we swear +by Hahnemann.</p> + +<p>It is now some years since we received our first inkling of mesmeric +revelation. Since then, we have read almost every work which has appeared +upon the subject; and we scruple not to say that we are a profound +believer in all of its varied mysteries. In it we recognise a natural +explanation of all our earlier studies; and we hail with sincere delight +the progress of a science which reconciles us to magic without the +necessity of interposing a diabolic agency. The miracles of Apollonius of +Tyana, as related by Philostratus, become very commonplace performances +when viewed by the light of mesmerism. The veriest bungler who ever +practised the passes can explain to you the nature of that secret +intelligence which enabled the <i>clair-voyant</i> philosopher, then at +Ephesus, to communicate the murder of Domitian to his friends at the +moment it took place at Rome. Second-sight has ceased to be a marvel: the +preternatural powers, long supposed to be confined to Skye, Uist, and +Benbecula, are now demonstrated to be universal, and are exhibited on the +platform by scores of urchins picked up at random from the gutter. Even +the Arabian Nights have become probable. Any perambulating mesmeriser can +show you scores of strapping, fellows, reduced by a single wave of his +hand to the unhappy condition of the young Prince whose lower extremities +were stone. Comus was nothing more than a common Professor of the science; +and Hermotimus a silly blockhead, who could not wake himself from his +trance in time to prevent his wife from consigning him to the funeral +pile.</p> + +<p>The practical utility of the science is no less prodigious. Is it nothing, +think you, if you have suffered a compound fracture of the leg, so bad +that amputation is indispensable, to be relieved from all the horrors of +the operation, from the sickening sight of the basins, the bandages, and +the saw—to feel yourself sinking into a delicious slumber at the wave of +the surgeon's hand, and to wake up ten minutes afterwards an unsuffering +uniped, and as fresh as the Marquis of Anglesea? Is it nothing, when that +back-grinder of yours gives you such intolerable agony that the very +maid-servants in the attics cannot sleep o'nights because of your +unmitigated roaring—is it nothing to avoid the terrible necessity of a +conscious Tusculan disputation with Nasmith or Spence—to settle down for +a few moments into a state of unconsciousness, and to revive with your +masticators in such a condition as to defy the resistance of a navy +biscuit? Or, if you are a stingy person and repugnant to postage, do you +think it is no advantage to get gratis information about your friends in +India through the medium of your eldest son, who, though apparently +sitting like a senseless booby in your armchair, is at this moment +invisibly present in the mess-room at Hyderabad, and will express, if you +ask him, his wonder at the extreme voracity with which Uncle David devours +his curry? Why, in that boy you possess an inestimable treasure! You may +send him to Paris at a moment's notice for a state of the French funds—he +will be at St Petersburg and back again in the twinkling of an eye—and if +our own sight is failing, you have nothing to do but to clap the last +number of the Magazine below him, and he will straightway regale your +heart with the contents of the leading article.</p> + +<p>There is a great deal of romance about Mesmerism. We have nowhere read a +more touching story than that of the two consumptive sisters who were +thrown into the Magic trance about the end of autumn, who lay folded in +each other's arms—pale lilies—throughout the whole of the dreary winter, +and awoke to life and renovated health in the joyous month of May, when +the leaves were green, the flowers in bud, and the lambkins frolicking on +the meadow! Read you ever any thing in novels so touching and pathetic as +this? Nor is the case once recounted to us by a friend of our own, a noted +mesmerizer, one whit less marvellous. In the ardent prosecution of his +art, he had cast his glamour upon a fair Parisian damsel of the name of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +Leontine—we believe she was a laundress—and daily held conference with +the dormant Delphic girl. On one occasion he left her, wrapt in the +profoundest sleep, in his chamber, and proceeded to perambulate the +Boulevards on his own secular affairs. On returning, he found poor +Leontine suffused in tears; deep and stifling sobs disturbed her +utterance, nor was it until the charmer had soothed her with a few +additional passes, that she could falter out the tender reproach—"Why did +you not bring me some bonbons on the shop where you eat those three +ice-creams?" Our friend had not walked alone through Paris. The spirit of +the loving Leontine was invisibly clinging to his arm.</p> + +<p>Now, although we make it an invariable rule to believe every thing which +we read or hear, we were not a little desirous to behold with our own eyes +an exhibition of these marvellous phenomena. But somehow or other, whilst +the papers told us of Mesmeric miracles performed in every other part of +the world, Edinburgh remained without a prophet. Either the Thessalian +influence had not extended so far, or the Scottish frame was unsusceptible +to the subtle fluid of the conjuror. One or two rumours reached us of +young ladies who had become spellbound; but on inquiring more minutely +into the circumstances, we found that there was an officer in each case, +and we therefore were inclined to think that the symptoms might be +naturally accounted for. There was, however, no want of curiosity on the +part of the public. The new science had made a great noise in the world, +and was the theme of conversation at every tea-table. Various attempts at +mesmerization were made, but without success. We ourselves tried it; but +after looking steadfastly for about twenty minutes into a pair of laughing +blue eyes, we were compelled to own that the power was not in us, and that +all the fascination had been exercised on the other side. Nobody had +succeeded, if we except a little cousin of ours—rather addicted to +fibbing—who averred that she had thrown a cockatoo into a deep and +mysterious slumber.</p> + +<p>Great, therefore, was our joy, and great was the public excitement, when +at length a genuine professor of the art vouchsafed to favour us with a +visit. He was one of those intelligent and patriotic men who go lecturing +from town to town, inspired thereto by no other consideration than an +ardour for the cause of science. The number of them is absolutely amazing. +Throughout the whole winter, which is popularly called the lecturing +season, the dead walls of every large city in the empire are covered with +placards, announcing that Mr Tomlinson will have the honour of delivering +six lectures upon Syria, or that Mr. Whackingham, the famous Timbuctoo +traveller, will describe the interior of Africa. They are even clannish in +their subjects. The Joneses are generally in pay of the League, and hold +forth upon the iniquity of the Corn-duties. The Smiths, with laudable +impartiality, are divided between slavery and liberation, and lecture +<i>pro</i> or <i>con</i>, as the humour or opportunity may serve. The +Macgillicuddies support the Seceding interest, and deliver facers in the +teeth of all establishments whatsoever. The Robinsons are phrenological, +the Browns chemical, and the Bletheringtons are great on the subject of +universal education for the people. To each and all of these interesting +courses you may obtain admittance for the expenditure of a trifling sum, +and imbibe, in exchange for your shilling or half-crown, a considerable +allowance of strong and full-flavoured information. Always ardent in the +cause of science, we never, if we can help it, miss one of these seducing +soirees: and we invariably find, that whatever may have been the +heterodoxy of our former opinion, we become a convert through the powerful +arguments of these peripatetic apostles of science.</p> + +<p>Our new Xavier belonged to what is called the mesmerico-phrenological +school. He was a man of bumps as well as passes—a disciple alike of +German Spurzheim and of English Elliotson. His placard was a modest one. +It set forth, as usual; the disinterested nature of his journey, which was +to expound to the intelligent citizens of Edinburgh a few of the great +truths of mesmerism, illustrated by a series of experiments. He +studiously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> disclaimed all connexion with preternatural art, and ventured +to assure every visitor, that, so far as he was concerned, no advantage +should be taken of their attendance at his <i>Seance</i> in any future stage of +their existence. This distinct pledge removed from our minds any little +scruple which we otherwise might have felt. We became convinced that the +lecturer was far too much of a gentleman to take advantage of our +weakness, and report us to the Powers of Evil; and accordingly, on the +appointed night, after a bottle or so of fortifying port, we took our way +to the exhibition-room, where Isis was at last to be revealed to our +adoring eyes.</p> + +<p>We selected and paid for a front seat, and located ourselves in the +neighbourhood of a very smart bonnet, which had mesmerically attracted our +eye. Around us were several faces well known in the northern metropolis, +some of them wearing an expression of dull credulity, and others with a +sneer of marked derision on the lip. On looking at the platform, we were +not altogether surprised at the earliness of the latter demonstration. +There was no apparatus there beyond a few chairs; but around a sort of +semicircular screen were suspended a series of the most singular portraits +we ever had the fortune to behold. One head was graced with a mouth big +enough to contain a haggis, and a coronal of erected hair like a +hearth-brush surmounting it left no doubt in our mind that it was intended +for a representation of Terror. It was enough, as a young Indian officer +afterwards remarked, to have made a Chimpanzee miscarry. Joy was the exact +portraiture of a person undergoing the punishment of death by means of +tickling. We should not like to have met Benevolence in a dark lane: he +looked confoundedly like a fellow who would have eased you of your last +copper, and knocked you down into the bargain. As for Amativeness, he +seemed to us the perfect incarnation of hydrophobia. In fact, out of some +two dozen passions, the only presentable personage was Self-esteem, a +prettyish red-haired girl, with an expression of fun about the eyes.</p> + +<p>In a short time the lecturer made his appearance. To do him justice, he +did not look at all like a conjuror, nor did he use any of those becoming +accessories which threw an air of picturesque dignity around the wizard of +the middle ages. We could not say of him as of Lord Gifford,</p> + +<p class="poem">"His shoes were mark'd with cross and spell,<br /> +Upon his breast pentacle;<br /> +His zone, of virgin parchment thin,<br /> +Or, as some tell, of dead-man's skin,<br /> +Bore many a planetary sign,<br /> +Combust, and retrograde, and trine."</p> + +<p>On the contrary, he was simply attired in a black coat and tweed +terminations; and his attendant imps consisted of half a dozen young +gentlemen, who might possibly, by dint of active exertion, have been made +cleaner, and whose free-and-easy manner, as they scrambled towards their +chairs, elicited some hilarious expressions from the more distant portion +of the audience.</p> + +<p>The introductory portion of the lecture appeared to us a fair specimen of +Birmingham rhetoric. There was a great deal in it about mysterious +agencies, invisible fluids, connexion of mind and matter, outer and inner +man, and suchlike phrases, all of which sounded very deep and +unintelligible—so much so indeed, that we suspected certain passages of +it to have been culled with little alteration from the emporium of Sartor +Resartus. Meanwhile the satellites upon the platform amused themselves by +grimacing at each other, and exchanging a series of telegraphic gestures, +which proved that they were all deep adepts in the art of masonry as +practised by the youth of the Lawnmarket. The exposition might have lasted +about a quarter of an hour, when sundry shufflings of the feet gave a hint +to the lecturer that he had better stop discoursing, and proceed +incontinently to experiment. He therefore turned to the imps, who +straightway desisted from mowing, and remained mute and motionless before +the eye of the mighty master. Seizing one of them by the hands, the +operator looked steadfastly in his face. A dull film seemed to gather over +the orbs of the gaping urchin—his jaw fell—his toes quivered—a few +spasmodic jerks of the elbows showed that his whole frame was becoming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +Leyden, jar of animal electricity—his arms dropped fecklessly down—few +waves across the forehead, and the Lazarillo of Dunedin was transported to +the Invisible World!</p> + +<p>Muttered exclamations—for the sanctity of the scene was too great to +admit of ruffing—were now heard throughout the room. "Did you ever?"—"By +Jove, there's a go!"—"Lord save us! but that's fearsome!"—"I say, Bob, +d'ye no see him winking?" and other similar ejaculations caught our ear. +Presently the operator abandoned his first victim, and advanced towards +another, with the look of a rattlesnake, who, having bolted one rabbit, is +determined to exterminate the warren. The second gutter-blood succumbed. +His resistance to the mesmeric agency was even weaker than the other's: +and, indeed, to judge from the rapidity of his execution, the marvellous +fluid was now pouring in cataracts from the magic fingers of the adept. In +a very few seconds the whole of the lads were as fast asleep as dormice.</p> + +<p>Leaving them in their chairs, like so many slumbering Cupids, the lecturer +next proceeded to favour us with a dissertation upon the functions of the +brain. Cries of "Get on!"—"Gar them speak!"—"We ken a' aboot it!" +assured him at once of the temper and the acquired information of the +Modem Athenians; so, turning round once more, he pitched upon Lazarillo as +a subject. So far as our memory will serve us, the following is a fair +report of the colloquy.</p> + +<p>"Are you asleep, my little boy?"</p> + +<p>"I should think sae!"</p> + +<p>"Do you feel comfortable?"</p> + +<p>"No that ill. What was ye speering for?"</p> + +<p>"Ha! a cautious boy! You observe, ladies and gentlemen, how remarkably the +natural character is developed during the operation of the mesmeric +trance. An English boy, I assure you, would have given me a very different +reply. Let us now proceed to another test. You see, I take him by the +hand, and at the same time introduce this piece of lump sugar into my own +mouth. Remark how instantaneously the muscles of his face are affected. My +little fellow, what is that you are eating?"</p> + +<p>"Sweeties."</p> + +<p>"Where did you get them?"</p> + +<p>"What's yeer bizziness?"</p> + +<p>"Well, well—we must not irritate him. Let us now change the +experiment—how do you like this?"</p> + +<p>"Fich!—proots!—Ye nastie fellie, if ye pit saut in ma mooth, I'll hit ye +a duff in the muns!"</p> + +<p>"How! I do not understand you!"</p> + +<p>"A dad in the haffits."</p> + +<p>Here a benevolent gentleman, with a bald head and spectacles, was kind +enough to act as interpreter, and explained to the scientific Anglican the +meaning of the minatory term.</p> + +<p>"Ha! our young friend is becoming a little restive. We must alter his +frame of mind. Observe, ladies and gentlemen, I shall now touch the organ +of Benevolence."</p> + +<p>With an alacrity which utterly dumbfoundered us, the young hope of the +Crosscauseway now sprung to his feet. His hands were precipitately plunged +into the inmost recesses of his corduroys.</p> + +<p>"Puir man! puir man!" he exclaimed with a deep expression of sympathy, +"ye're looking far frae weel! Ay, ay! a wife and saxteen weans at hame, +and you just oot o' the hospital!—Hech-how! but this is a weary warld. +Hae—it's no muckle I can gie ye, but tak it a'—tak it a'!"</p> + +<p>So saying, he drew forth from his pockets a miscellaneous handful of +slate-pencil, twine, stucco-bowls, and, if we mistake not, gib—a +condiment much prized by the rising generation of the metropolis—all of +which he deposited, as from a cornucopia, at the feet of the delighted +lecturer.</p> + +<p>A loud hum of admiration arose from the back-benches. Charity is a popular +virtue, as you may learn at the theatre, from the tumultuous applause of +the gallery whenever the hero of the melodrama chucks a purse at the head +of some unfortunate starveling. Two old ladies in our neighbourhood began +to whimper; and one of them publicly expressed her intention of rewarding +with half-a-crown the good intentions of the munificent Lazarillo, so soon +as the lecture was over. This seemed to inspire him with a fresh accession +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> benevolence; for, the organ being still excited, he made another +desperate attempt, and this time fished up a brass button.</p> + +<p>"Let us now," said the magician, "excite the counter organ of +Secretiveness; and, in order to give this experiment its full effect, I +shall also irritate the kindred organs of Acquisitiveness and Caution."</p> + +<p>To our great disgust, Lazarillo instantly threw off the character of +Howard, and appeared in that of David Haggart. He was evidently mentally +prowling with an associate in the vicinity of a stall bedecked with +tempting viands, irresistible to the inner Adam of the boy.</p> + +<p>"I say, Tam! did ye ever see sic speldrings? Eh, man—but they'd be grand +chowin! What'n rock!—and thae bonnie red-cheekit aipples! Whisht-ye, +man—bide back in the close-head, or auld Kirsty will see ye! Na—she's no +lookin' now. Gang ye ahint her, and cry oot that ye see a mad dowg, and +I'll make a spang at the stall! That's yeer sort! I've gotten a hantle o' +them. Stick them into ma pouches for fear they tumble oot, and we'll rin +doon to the King's Park and hide them at the auld dyke!"</p> + +<p>"This boy," said the operator, "evidently imagines himself to be engaged +in an act of larceny. Such is the wonderful power of mesmerism, and such +and so varied is the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the human frame. What we +call man is a shell of virtue and of vice. In the same brain are contained +the virtues of an Aristides, and the coarse malignity of a Nero. I could +now, ladies and gentlemen, very easily procure from this lad the +restitution of his imaginary spoils, by simply exciting the organ of +Justice, which at once would prompt him to a full and candid confession. +But I shall prefer to develop the experiment, by slightly awakening the +powerful functions of Terror, an organ which we dare not trifle with, as +the consequences are sometimes calamitous. I think, however, from the +peculiar construction of this boy's head, that we may safely make the +attempt. Mark the transition."</p> + +<p>The hair of Lazarillo bristled.</p> + +<p>"Gosh, Tam! are ye sure naebody seed us! Wha's that wi' the white breeks +comin' down the close? Rin, man, rin—as sure's death it's the poliss! O +Lord! what will become o' ma puir mither gin they grup me! O man—let's +in! let's in! The door's fast steekit—Mercy—mercy—mercy—! Tak' yeer +knuckles oot o' ma neck, and I'll gie ye the hale o' them back. It wasna +me, it was Tam that did it! Ye're no gaun to tak us up to the office for +sic a thing as that?—O dear me—dear me—dear me!" and the voice of +Lazarillo died away in almost inarticulate moaning.</p> + +<p>This scene had so affected the nerves of our fair neighbour in the bonnet, +that, out of common civility, we felt ourselves compelled to offer a +little consolation. In the mean time, the stern operator continued to +aggravate the terrors of poor Lazarillo, whose cup of agony was full even +to the brim, and who now fancied himself in the dock, tried, and found +guilty, and awaiting with fear and tribulation the tremendous sentence of +the law.</p> + +<p>"O, ma lord, will ye no hae mercy on us? As true as I'm stannin' here, +it's the first time I ever stealt ony thing. O whaur's mither? Is that her +greeting outside? O, ma lord, what are ye puttin' on that black hat for? +Ye daurna hang us surely for a wheen wizzened speldrings!—O dear—O dear! +Is there naebody will say a word for me? O mercy—mercy! Wae's me—wae's +me! To be hangit by the neck till I'm deid, and me no fifteen year auld!"</p> + +<p>"We shall now," said the operator, "conduct our young friend to the +scaffold"—</p> + +<p>"Stop, sir!" cried the benevolent gentleman in the spectacles—"I insist +that we shall have no more of this. Are you aware, sir, that you are +answerable for the intellects of that unhappy boy? Who knows but that the +cruel excitement he has already undergone may have had the effect of +rendering him a maniac for life? I protest against any further exhibition +of this nature, which is absolutely harrowing to my own feelings and to +those of all around me. What if the boy should die?"</p> + +<p>"Let alane Jimsy!" cried a voice from the back row. "I ken him fine; he'll +dee nane."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>"I shall have much pleasure, sir," said the mesmerist, with a polite bow, +"in complying with your humane suggestion. At the same time, let me assure +you that your apprehensions are without foundation. Never, I trust, in my +hands, shall science be perverted from its legitimate object, or the +glorious truths I am permitted to display, minister in the slightest +degree to the wretchedness of any one individual of the great human +family. I shall now awaken this boy from his trance, when you will find +him wholly unconscious of every thing which has taken place."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, he drew forth his bandana, flapped it a few times before the +eyes of Lazarillo, and then breathed lightly on his forehead. The boy +yawned, rubbed his eyes, stretched his limbs, sneezed, and then rose up.</p> + +<p>"How do you feel?" asked the operator.</p> + +<p>"A wee stiff—that's a.'"</p> + +<p>"Would you like a glass of water?"</p> + +<p>"I'd rather hae yill."</p> + +<p>"Do you recollect what you have been doing?"</p> + +<p>"I've been sleeping, I think."</p> + +<p>"Nothing more?"</p> + +<p>"Naething. What else should I hae been doing? I say—I want to gang hame."</p> + +<p>"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think we may dismiss this boy."</p> + +<p>Lazarillo, however, did not show any immediate hurry to depart. He +lingered for a while near that edge of the platform where the two aged +ladies were seated, as though some faint vaticination of the advent of +half-a-crown still haunted his bewildered faculties. But the profligacy of +his latter conduct had effaced all memory of the liberality with which he +first dispensed his earthly treasures. His unhallowed propensity for +speldrings had exhibited itself in too glaring colours, and each lady, +while she thought of the pilfered Kirsty, clutched her reticule with a +firmer grasp, as though she deemed that the contents thereof were not +altogether safe in the vicinity of the marvellous boy. At length, finding +that delay was fruitless, Lazarillo, <i>alias</i> Jimsy, went his way.</p> + +<p>The phrenological organs of the remaining lads were now subjected to +similar experiments. These were, we freely admit, remarkably interesting. +One youth, being called upon to give a specimen of his imitative powers, +took off our friend Frederick Lloyd of the Theatre-Royal to the life; +whilst another treated us to a very fair personification of Edmund Glover. +Some youths in the back gallery began to whistle and scream, and the +sounds were regularly caught up and transmitted by the slumbering mimics. +A learned Pundit, who sate on the same bench with ourselves, favoured them +with a German sentence, which did certainly appear to us to be repeated +with some slight difference of accent. A Highland divinity student went +the length of asserting that the reply was conveyed in Gaelic, which, if +true, must be allowed to throw some light upon the knotty subject of the +origin of languages. Is it possible that, in the mesmeric trance, the mind +in some cases rejects as artificial fabric all the educated +conventionality of tongues, and resumes unconsciously the original and +genuine dialect of the world? We have a great mind, at some future moment +of leisure, to indite an article on the subject, and vindicate, in all its +antiquity, the speech of Ossian and of Adam.</p> + +<p>We shall pass over several of the same class of experiments, such as the +display of Adoration, which struck us as bordering very closely upon the +limits of profanity. In justice to the operator, we ought to mention that +they were all remarkably successful. We admired the dexterity with which +two lads, under the savage influence of combativeness, punched and squared +at each other; we were pleased with the musical talents of another boy, +who varied the words, airs, and style of his singing as the fingers of the +mesmerist wandered around the several protuberances of his cranium. In +fact, we saw before us a human organ of sound, played upon with as much +ease as a mere pianoforte. After such exhibitions as these, it was +impossible to remain a sceptic.</p> + +<p>A grand chorus by the patients, of "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," under +the influence of some bump corresponding to Patriotism, terminated this +portion of the evening's <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>entertainments. But all was not yet over. The +lecturer informed us that he would now exhibit the power of mesmerism over +the body, apart from the enchainment of the mental faculties—that is, +that he would produce paralysis in the limbs of a thinking and a sentient +being. We are ashamed to say that a cry of "Gammon!" arose from different +parts of the hall.</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen," said the undaunted sorcerer, "some incredulous +persons seem to doubt my power. You shall see it with your own eyes. I +shall now proceed to waken these boys, and submit them to the new +experiment."</p> + +<p>In the twinkling of a handkerchief they were awake and lively, and beyond +a slight complaint from the pugilists of pain in the region of the +abdomen, and a very reasonable demand on the part of the musician for +lozenges, they did not seem at all the worse in consequence of their +recent exercise. One of them was now desired to stretch out his arm. He +did so. A few passes were made along it, and he remained in the attitude +of a fakeer.</p> + +<p>"That lad's arm," said he of the mysterious art, "is now as fixed as +marble. He cannot take it down. Can you, O'Shaughnessy?"</p> + +<p>"The divil a bit!" replied the Hibernian, a stout and brawny villain of +some two and twenty.</p> + +<p>"Would any gentleman like to try it?" inquired the operator.</p> + +<p>"It's myself has no manner of objections at all!" exclaimed a stalwart +medical student, springing upon the platform, amidst a shout of general +exultation. "Hould yerself tight, Pat, my boy; for, by the powers, I'll +twist ye like an ounce of pig-tail!"</p> + +<p>"Tear and owns!"—replied O'Shaughnessy, looking somewhat dismayed, for +the volunteer was about as stout a Connaughter as it ever was our fortune +to behold. "Tear and owns! it isn't after breaking my arm you'd be at? Och +wirra! Would ye take a dirty advantage of a decent lad, and him as stiff +as a poker?"</p> + +<p>"I protest against this exhibition!" said the benevolent gentleman, in +whom we now recognised a Vice-President of the Fogie Club. "The shoulder +of the man may be dislocated—or there may be a fracture of the ulna—or +some other horrid catastrophe may happen, and we shall all be prosecuted +for murder!"</p> + +<p>"And am I not here to set the bone!" demanded the student indignantly +"Give us a hould of ye, Pat, and stand firm on your pins, for I'll work ye +like a pump-handle."</p> + +<p>So saying, he closed with O'Shaughnessy. But that wary individual, whilst +he abandoned his arm to the student, evidently considered himself under no +obligation to forego the use of his legs. He spun round and round like a +teetotum, and stooped whenever an attempt was made to draw him down, but +still the arm remained extended.</p> + +<p>"You see, ladies and gentlemen!" said the operator, after the scuffle was +over—"You see how the power of the mesmeric fluid operates above the +exertion of physical force. This amazingly powerful young gentleman has +totally failed to move the arm one inch from its place."</p> + +<p>"I'd move it fast enough, if he'd only stand still," replied the student. +"I'll tell you what. I look upon the whole thing as egregious humbug. +There's my own arm out, and I defy either you or Pat to bring it down!"</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, sir," replied the mesmerist with dignity—"We do not meet here +to practise feats of strength, but to discuss a scientific question. I +appeal to this intelligent individual, who has taken so distinguished a +part in the interesting proceedings of this evening, whether I am in any +way bound to accept such a challenge."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not—certainly not!" said the Vice-President, delighted with +this appeal to his understanding.</p> + +<p>"You hear the remark of the gentleman, sir," said the mesmerist. "May I +now beg you will retire, and permit me to go on with the experiments?"</p> + +<p>"Take it all your own way, then," replied the student, reluctantly +retiring from the platform; "but as sure's I am out of purgatory, that +lad's arm was no more fixed than your tongue!"</p> + +<p>This slight episode over, the work went on accordingly. Paralysis +flourished in all its shapes. One lad was spellbound to the floor, and +could not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> move a yard from the spot, though encouraged to do so by an +offer of twenty pounds from the liberal and daring artist. What effect the +superadded security of the Vice-President might have had upon the +patient's powers of locomotion, we really cannot say. Another, as he +assured us, was utterly deprived of sight by a few cross passes of the +operator—a third was charmed into dumbness—whilst a fourth declared his +readiness to be converted into a pin-cushion; but was, at the intreaty of +some ladies and our benevolent acquaintance, exempted from that +metamorphosis, and merely endured, without murmuring, a few nips from the +fingers of the lecturer.</p> + +<p>This closed the <i>séance</i>. We moved a vote of thanks to the Mesmerist for +his gratifying exertions, and then retired to our Club to meditate upon +the subject over a comfortable board of pandores. A few days afterwards, +we met our friend the young Indian officer in Prince's Street.</p> + +<p>"I say, old fellow," quoth the Jemadar, "that was a confounded take-in the +other night."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that magnetizing nonsense. Not a soul of then was asleep after all."</p> + +<p>"Do you wish me to disbelieve the evidence of my own senses?"</p> + +<p>"You may believe whatever you like; I only wish you had been with us last +Tuesday at a meeting we held in the Café. If you've got any tin about you, +and don't mind standing an ice or so at Mrs Stewart's, I'll tell you all +about it."</p> + +<p>Our desire for truth overcame our habitual parsimony. We led the way into +the back saloon, and at a moderate expenditure became possessed of the +following particulars:—</p> + +<p>"You see," said the Jemadar, sipping his cherry bounce, "there were a lot +of clever fellows sitting near me the other night, and I made out from +what they said that they were by no means satisfied with the whole +proceeding. Now, as I have seen a thing or two in India, where, by Jove, a +native will make a mango-tree grow out of a flowerpot before your eyes, +and bear fruit enough in a few months to keep a large family for a year in +pickles—and as I knew all about snake-charming, the singeing of tiger's +whiskers, and so forth, I thought I might be of some use to the scientific +birds; so, when the meeting broke up, I proposed an adjournment and a +tumbler. I looked about for you, but you seemed more agreeably occupied."</p> + +<p>"You never were in a greater mistake in your life."</p> + +<p>"Well—that's all one; but I thought so. They were quite agreeable, and we +passed a very pleasant evening. There were two or three young advocates +who went the pace in regular style, a fair sprinkling of medicos, and that +Irish student who handled the humbug on the platform; and who, let me tell +you, is little short of a perfect trump. We reviewed the whole +experiments, quite impartially, over a moderate allowance of alcohol, and +were unanimously of opinion that it was necessary, for the interests of +science, to examine into the matter more closely. One of the company +undertook to procure the attendance of some of those lads whom you saw +upon the platform; and another, who believes in mesmerism, but scouts the +idea of phrenology, was acquainted with a creditable magnetizer, who, he +said, would be sure to attend. We fixed our meeting for the second evening +afterwards, and then adjourned.</p> + +<p>"When the appointed hour came, we mustered to the number of about thirty. +Some scientific fellows about town had got wind of the thing, and wished +to be present: to this we made no manner of objection, as it was not a +hole-and-corner meeting. Of course, we took care that the lecturer should +know nothing about it—indeed, he had left Edinburgh, for the purpose, I +suppose, of enlightening the gallant Glaswegians; so that we had nothing +to fear on the ground of secret influence. Well, sir, we elected a +President, who gave his vote in favour of the postponement of beer until +all the experiments were over, and had in the raggamuffins, who at their +own request were each accompanied by a friend. They did not look quite +easy on finding themselves introduced to such an assemblage, but native +brass prevailed—they were in for it, and they durst not recede.</p> + +<p>"After a pretty tight examination<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> by the President as to their former +experiences and sensations, which of course resulted in nothing, one of +the lads—the fellow who became blind—consented to be mesmerised by his +brother. The latter, a very sheepish-looking sort of journeyman, went +awkwardly through the usual flummery of passes, and then ensued this +dialogue.</p> + +<p>"'Hoo are ye, Jock?'"</p> + +<p>"'Man, I'm blind!'"</p> + +<p>"'Can ye see naething?'"</p> + +<p>"'Naething ava. It's jist a' blackness afore me. Gudesake, dinna keep us +lang this way—it's positeevely fearsome.'"</p> + +<p>"'Gentlemen,' said the brother, 'I hope you'll no be ower lang wi' oor +Jock. Puir fallow! he's no jist a' thegether right in the nerves, and a +wee thing is eneuch to upset him. Dinna handle him roughly, sir!' he +continued, as one of our party commenced turning up his sleeves +preparatory to an ocular demonstration; 'ye manna pit your hand upon +him—it's enough to destroy the haill mesmereesin' influence, and he'll +gang into a fit. Nane but the operawtor should touch him. Gin ye want to +look into his een, I'se haud up the lids myself.'</p> + +<p>"He did so; and sure enough he disclosed a couple of unmeaning grey +gooseberry orbs which stared perseveringly upon vacancy. A medical +gentleman approached a candle towards them without any visible effect. The +urchin was perfect in his calling. He did not even shrink at the rapid +approach of a finger.</p> + +<p>"I was convinced in my own mind," continued the Jemadar, "that this was a +piece of absolute humbug. The anxiety of the brother to keep every person +at a distance was quite palpable, so I had recourse to stratagem to get +him out of the way. We pretended to give the boy a momentary respite, and +a proffered pot of porter proved a bait too tempting to the Argus of the +blind. In short, we got him out of the room, and then resumed our +examination of Jock, who still pled, like another Homer, to absolute want +of vision.</p> + +<p>"'This is really very extraordinary, gentlemen,' said I, assuming the airs +of a lecturer, but getting carefully in the rear of patient. 'I am now +perfectly convinced that this boy is, by some inexplicable means, deprived +of the functions of sight. You observe that when I advance the finger of +my right hand towards his right eye—so—there is not the slightest +shrinking or palpable contraction of the iris. It is the same when I +approach the left eye—thus. If any gentleman doubts the success of the +experiment, I shall again make it on the right eye.'</p> + +<p>"But this time, instead of probing the dexter orbit, for which he was +prepared, I made a rapid pass at the other. The effect was instantaneous. +A spasmodic twitch of the eyelid betrayed the acuteness of Jock's ocular +perception.</p> + +<p>"'He winks, by the soul of Lord Monboddo!' cried one of my legal +acquaintances. 'I saw it perfectly plainly!'</p> + +<p>"'Ye're leein'!' retorted Jock, whose pease-soup complexion suddenly +became flushed with crimson—"'Ye're leein'! I winkit nane. It was a flea. +Did ye no see that I winkit nane when ye pit the lancet forrard?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh! my fine fellow!' replied the Advocate, a youth who had evidently +picked up a wrinkle or two at circuit, 'you've fairly put your foot into +it this time. Not a living soul has said a single word about a lancet, and +how could you know that this gentleman held in his hand unless you +positively saw it?'</p> + +<p>"This was a floorer, but Jock would not abandon his point.</p> + +<p>"'Ye dinna ken what mesmereesin' is,' he exclaimed. 'It's a shame for a +wheen muckle chaps like you to be trying yer cantrips that way on a laddie +like me. It's no fair, and I'll no stand it ony langer. Whaur's my +brither? Let me gang, I say—I'm no weel ava'!' and straightway the +miraculous boy girded up his loins, and flew swiftly from the apartment.</p> + +<p>"Pat O'Shaughnessy was next brought forward to exhibit once more his +unparalleled feat of rigidity. Confident in the strength of his brawny +arm, the young Milesian evinced no scruples. The magnetist who had +attended, at our request—a pleasant gentlemanly person—made the usual +passes along the arm, and O'Shaughnessy stood out in the attitude of the +Pythian Apollo.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>"I tried to bend his arm at the elbow, but sure enough I could not do it. +The fellow had the muscles of a rhinosceros, and defied my utmost efforts. +The magnetizer now began to exhibit another phenomenon. He made a few +passes downwards, and the arm gradually fell, as if there were some +undefinable attraction in the hand of the operator. He then reversed the +motion, and the arm slowly ascended. Being quite convinced that in this +case there was no collusion, I said a few words to the operator, who then +took his post <i>behind</i> the giant carcase of the navigator. A friend of the +latter, who was detected dodging in front of him, was politely conducted +to the door, and in this way the experiment was tried.</p> + +<p>"'Now sir,' said I, 'will you have the kindness to attract his arm +upwards? I am curious to see if the mesmeric principle applies equally to +all the muscles.'</p> + +<p>"'Faix!' volunteered O'Shaughnessy, 'it does that, and no mistake. Ye +might make me hould up my fist on the other side of an oak door!'</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for the honour of Tipperary. The operator, as had been +privately agreed on, commenced the downward passes, when, to our extreme +delight, the arm of O'Shaughnessy rose directly upwards, until his fist +pointed to the zenith!</p> + +<p>"'Beautiful!—admirable!—miraculous!' shouted half a dozen voices.</p> + +<p>"'Now, sir, will you try if you can take it down?'</p> + +<p>"'The magnetiser made efforts which, if successful, would have enabled +O'Shaughnessy to count the number of his own dorsal vertebræ. He didn't +seem, however, to have any such passion for osteology. The arm gradually +declined, and at last reposed passively by his side. A general cheer +proclaimed the success of the experiment.</p> + +<p>"'Mr Chairman,' said one gentleman, 'I move that it be recorded as the +opinion of this meeting, that the late exhibitions of mesmerism, as +exhibited in this city, were neither more nor less than a tissue of +unmitigated humbug!'</p> + +<p>"'After what we have seen this evening,' said another, 'I do not feel the +slightest hesitation in seconding that motion.'</p> + +<p>"'And I move,' said a third, 'that in case that motion should be carried, +we do incontinently proceed to supper.'</p> + +<p>"So far as I recollect, there was not a dissentient voice in the room to +either proposition.</p> + +<p>"'Axing yer pardon,' said O'Shaughnessy, advancing to the chairman, 'it's +five shillings I was promised for time and trouble, and expinces in +attending this mating. Perhaps yer honour will allow a thrifle over and +above to my friend Teddy yonder, who came to see that I wasn't bothered +all at onst?'</p> + +<p>"'You are an impudent scoundrel, sir,' said the chairman, 'and deserve to +be kicked down stairs. However, a promise is a promise. There is your +money, and let us never see your face again.'</p> + +<p>"'Och, long life to yese all!' said the undaunted O'Shaughnessy, 'but its +mismirism is a beautiful science! Divil a barrow have I wheeled this last +month on the North British Railway, and it isn't soon that I'll be after +doing it again. Teddy, ye sowl! let's be off to the ould place, and dhrink +good luck to the gintlemin in a noggin.'</p> + +<p>"Such," concluded the Jemadar, "was the result of our meeting; and I can +tell you that you lost a rich treat by not hearing of it in time."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to be disenchanted," said we. "Nothing that you have said +can shake my firm belief in mesmerism in all its stages. I allow that the +science, like every thing else, is liable to abuse, but that does not +affect my faith in the slightest degree. Have you ever read Chauncey Hare +Townshend's book? Why, my dear fellow, he has magnetized a female patient, +through mere volition alone, at the other end of the town; and I have not +the remotest doubt that it is quite possible to exercise the same powers +between Edinburgh and Madras. What a beautiful thought it is that two +lovers, separated by land and ocean, may yet exercise a sweet influence +over each other—that at a certain hour, a balmy slumber, stealing over +their frames, apprises them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> that their souls are about to meet in +undisturbed and tranquil union! That in a few moments, perhaps, far, far +above the galaxy"—</p> + +<p>"Oh, confound the galaxy!" interrupted the prosaic Jemadar. "If you're +going on in that style, I shall be off at once. I have no idea of any +communication quicker than the electric telegraph; and as for your +sympathies, and that sort of rubbish, any body may believe them that +likes. I suppose, too, you believe in clair-voyance?"</p> + +<p>"Most assuredly," we replied. "The case of Miss M'Avoy of Liverpool—of +Prince Hohenlohe, and many others"——</p> + +<p>"Are all very wonderful, I daresay; but I should like to see the thing +with my own eyes. A friend of mine told me, no later than yesterday, that +he had been present at a meeting, held in a professional gentleman's +house, for the purpose of testing the powers of a lad said to be +clair-voyant, who was exhibited by one of those itinerant lecturers. In +addition to the usual bandages, of which there was much suspicion, a mask, +previously prepared, was put upon the face, so that all deception was +impossible. In this state, the boy, though professedly in the mesmeric +sleep, could see nothing. He fingered the cards—fumbled with the +books—but could read no more than my poodle-dog. In fact, the whole thing +was considered by every one present not only a failure, but a rank and +palpable sham; and until I have some better evidence in support of these +modern miracles, I shall take the liberty of denouncing the system as one +of most impudent imposture."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear fellow, recollect the number of persons of rank and +station—the highly intellectual and cultivated minds which have formed a +directly opposite opinion. What say you to Van Helmont? What say you to +Michael Scott,</p> + +<p class="poem">'A wizard of such dreaded fame,<br /> +That when in Salamanca's cave,<br /> +Him listed his magic wand to wave,<br /> +The bells would ring in Notre Dame?'</p> + +<p>What say you to the sympathetic secrets still known to be preserved in the +monastery of Mount Carmel? What say you"—</p> + +<p>"I say," replied the Jemadar, "that you are beginning to talk most +infernal nonsense, and that I must be off, as I have an engagement at +three to play a match at billiards. In the meantime, you'll oblige me by +settling with Mrs Stewart for the ices."</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> +<h2>COOKERY AND CIVILISATION.<span class="foot"><a name="f12.1" id="f12.1" href="#f12">[12]</a></span></h2> + +<p>It is only after passing through an ordeal cruelly insidious, tolerably +severe, and rather protracted, that we feel conscientiously entitled to +assert our ability to dine every day of every week at the Reform Club, +without jeopardy to those immutable principles which are incorruptible by +Whigs and indestructible by Rats. A sneer, perhaps, is curling with +"beautiful disdain" the lips of some Conservative Achilles. Let us nip his +complacent sense of invulnerability in the bud. To eat and to err are +equally attributes of humanity. Looking at ourselves in the mirror of +honest criticism, we behold features as unchangeable as sublunary +vicissitudes will allow.</p> + +<p class="poem">"Time writes no wrinkles on our azure brow."</p> + +<p>Witness it! ye many years of wondrous alternation—of lurid tempest and +sunny calm—of disastrous rout and triumphant procession—of shouting pæan +and wailing dirge—witness the imperturbable tenor of our way! Attest it, +thou goodly array of the tomes of Maga, laden and sparkling, now as ever, +with wisdom and wit, science and fancy!—attest the unwavering fidelity of +our career! All this is very true; but the secret annals of the good can +never be free from temptations, and never are in reality unblotted by +peccadilloes. The fury of the demagogue has been our laughing-stock—the +versatility of trimming politicians, our scorn. We have crouched before +none of the powers which have been, or be; neither have we been carried +off our feet by the whirlwinds of popular passion. Yet it is difficult to +resist a good dinner. The victories of Miltiades robbed Themistocles of +sleep. The triumphs of <span class="smcap">Soyer</span> are apt to affect us, "with a difference," +after the same fashion.</p> + +<p>There was, we remember, a spirit of surly independence within us on +visiting, for the first time, the "high capital" of Whiggery, where the +Tail at present</p> + +<p class="poem">"New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer<br /> +Their State affairs."</p> + +<p>To admire any thing was not our mood:</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 4em;">"The ascending pile</span><br /> +Stood fix'd her stately heighth; and straight the doors,<br /> +Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide<br /> +Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth<br /> +And level pavement."</p> + +<p>And as these lines suggested themselves, we recollected who the first Whig +is said to have been, and whose architectural glories Milton was +recording. We never yet heard a Radical disparage a peer of the realm +without being convinced, that deep in the pocket, next his heart, lay an +incautious hospitable invitation from the noble lord, to which a +precipitate answer in the affirmative had already been dispatched. +Analogously, in the magnificent edifice, whose tesselated floor we were +treading gingerly, it seemed to us that we surveyed an unmistakable +monument of an innate predilection for the splendours and comforts, the +pomp and the <i>abandon</i>, of a "proud aristocracy." This was before dinner, +and we were hungry. To tell all that happened to us for some hours +afterwards, would, in fact, force us to transfer to our pages more than +half of the volume which is prompting these observations. Suffice it to +say, that when we again stood on Pall-Mall, a bland philanthropy of +sentiment, embracing all races, and classes, and sects of men, permeated +our bosom. Whence came the mellowing influence, seeing that we had been, +as our custom is, very innocent of wine? Nor could it be the seductive +eloquence of the company. We had indeed been roundly vituperated in +argument by the Liberator. Oh yes! but we had been fed by the Regenerator.</p> + +<p>To us, then, on these things much meditating—so Cicero and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> Brougham love +to write—many of the speculations in which we had indulged, and of the +principles which we had advocated, were obviously not quite in harmony +with the views long inculcated by us on a docile public. Suddenly the +truth flashed across and illuminated the perplexity of our ponderings. We +were aware that, early in the evening, a much milder censure than usual +upon some factious Liberal manœuvre had passed our lips. This took +place just about the fourth spoonful of soup. The spells were already in +operation under the shape of "<i>potage à la Marcus Hill</i>." There is a +fascination even in the name of this "delicious soup"—such is the epithet +of Soyer—which our readers will better understand in the sequel. Again, +it was impossible to deny that we had hazarded several equivocal +observations in reference to the Palmerstonian policy in Syria. But it was +equally true that such inadvertencies slipped from us while laboriously +engaged in determining a delicate competition between "<i>John Dorée à +l'Orléannaise</i>" and "<i>saumon à la Beyrout</i>." A transient compliment to the +influence at elections of the famous Duchess of Devonshire was little +liable to objection, we imagined, during a playful examination of a few +"<i>aiguillettes de volaille à la jolie fille</i>." More questionable, it must +be admitted, were certain assertions regarding the Five Points, enunciated +hastily over a "<i>neck of mutton à la Charte</i>." No fault, however, had we +to find with the cutting facetiousness with which we had garnished +"<i>cotelettes d'Agneau à la réforme en surprise aux Champignons</i>." The +title of this dish was so ludicrously applicable to the consternation of +the remnants of the Melbourne ministry—the cutlets of lamb—in finding +themselves outrun in the race by mushroom free-traders, that our +pleasantry thereanent was irresistible. It was difficult, at the same +time, to justify the expression of an opinion, infinitely too favourable +to Peel's commercial policy, yielding to the allurements of a "<i>turban des +cailles à la financière</i>." And, on the whole, we smarted beneath a +consciousness that all our conversation had been perceptibly flavoured by +"<i>filets de bécasses à la Talleyrand</i>."</p> + +<p>The result of these reflections was, simply, an alarming conviction of the +tremendous influence exercised by Soyer throughout all the workings of the +British constitution. The causes of the success of the League begin to +dawn upon us, while our gravest suspicions are confirmed by the +appearance, at this peculiar crisis, of the "Gastronomic Regenerator." +What patriotism can withstand a superabundance of untaxed food, cooked +according to the tuition of Soyer? How can public virtue keep its ground +against such a rush of the raw material, covered by such a "<i>batterie de +cuisine</i>?" Cobden and Soyer, in alliance, have given a new turn, and +terribly literal power, to the fable of Menenius Agrippa.</p> + +<p class="poem">"There was a time when all the body's members<br /> +Rebell'd against the belly."</p> + +<p>Such times are gone. The belly now has it all its own way, while</p> + +<p class="poem">"The kingly-crownèd head, the vigilant eye,<br /> +The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,<br /> +Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,"</p> + +<p>are conjunctly and severally cuffed, or bunged up, or broken, or stifled, +unless they are perpetually ministering to the service of the great +cormorant corporation. It is mighty well to talk of the dissolution of the +League. The testament of Cæsar, commented on by Mark Antony, was +eventually more fatal to the liberties of Rome, than the irrepressible +ambition which originally urged the arch-traitor across the Rubicon. The +"Gastronomic Regenerator," in the hands of every housewife in the country, +is merely to convert the most invincible portion of the community into a +perpetual militia of free-traders. All cooks proverbially encourage an +enormous consumption of victuals. The study of Soyer will infallibly +transform three-fourths of the empire into cooks. Consequently, the demand +for every variety of sustenance, by an immense majority of the nation, +will be exorbitant and perennial. No syllogism can be more unassailable. +We venture also to affirm that the judgment of posterity will be rigidly +true in apportioning the endurance of fame which the conflicting merits of +our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> great benefactors may deserve. It is far from unlikely that the +glories of a Peel may be disregarded, forgotten, and unsung, when the +trophies of a Soyer, still odorous, and unctuous, and fresh, shall be in +every body's mouth.</p> + +<p>The "Gastronomic Regenerator" has not assumed his imposing title without a +full appreciation of the dignity of his office and the elevation of his +mission. The brief and graceful "dialogue culinaire" between Lord M. H. +and himself, illustrates the grand doctrines that man is a cooking animal, +and that the progress of cooking is the progress of civilisation. There is +something prodigiously sublime in the words of the noble interlocutor, +when he declares, "Read history, and you see that in every age, and among +all nations, the good which has been done, and sometimes the evil, has +been always preceded or followed by a copious dinner." This language, we +presume, must be considered on the great scale, as applicable to the most +solemn and momentous occurrences in the history of governments and +countries. Not that we can exclude it from individual biography. +Benevolence we have always regarded as a good sauce, and have often +observed it to be an excellent dessert. The man who tucks his napkin under +his chin immediately after conferring a benefit on a fellow-creature, +invariably manifests marvellous capabilities for digestion; and, on the +other hand, the man who has dined to his own entire satisfaction, if +solicited in the nick of time, will frequently evince an open-handed +generosity, to which his more matutine emotions would have been strangers. +But—to reverse the picture—any interruption to the near prospect of a +"copious dinner" is at all times inimical to charity; while repletion, we +know, occasionally reveals such unamiable dispositions as could not have +been detected by the most jealous scrutiny at an earlier period of the +day. Nations are but hives of individuals. We understand, therefore, the +noble lord to mean, that all the history of all the thousand races of the +globe concurrently teaches us that every great event, social or political, +domestic or foreign, involving their national weal or woe, has been +harbingered or commemorated by a "copious dinner." Many familiar instances +of this profound truth—some of very recent date—crowd into our +recollection. But we cannot help suspecting a deeper meaning to be +inherent in the enunciation of this "great fact." Copious dinners are, as +it strikes us, here covertly represented as the means of effecting the +most extensive ameliorations. To dine is insinuated to be the first step +on the highway to improvement. In the consequences which flow from dining +copiously, what is beneficial is evidently stated to preponderate over +what is hurtful, the qualifying "sometimes" being only attached to the +latter. In this respect, dinners seem to differ from men, that the evil is +more frequently "interred with their bones," while the "good they do lives +after them." This is, assuredly, ringing a dinner-bell incessantly to the +whole universe. We have ourselves, not half an hour ago, paid our quota +for participating within the last week in congratulatory festivities to +two eminent public characters. The overwhelming recurrence, in truth, of +these entertainments, drains us annually of a handsome income; and +reading, as we do daily in the newspapers, how every grocer, on changing +his shop round the corner, and every professor of dancing, on being driven +by the surges of the Utilitarian system up another flight of stairs, must, +to felicitate or soothe him, receive the tribute or consolation of a +banquet and demonstration, we hold up our hands in amazement at the +opulence and deglutition of Scotland.</p> + +<p>What shall become of us, driven further onwards still, by the impetus of +the Gastronomic Regenerator, we dare not foretell. The whole year may be a +circle of public feasts; and our institutions gradually, although with no +small velocity, relapse into the common table of Sparta. But never, +whispers Soyer, into the black broth of Lycurgus. And so he ensnares us +into the recognition of another fundamental principle, that the simplicity +of Laconian fare night be admirably appropriate for infant republics and +penniless helots, but can afford no subsistence to an overgrown empire, +and the possessors of the wealth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> of the world! Thus cookery marks, dates, +and authenticates the refinement of mankind. The savage cuts his warm +slice from the haunches of the living animal, and swallows it reeking from +the kitchen of nature. The civilized European, revolting from the dreadful +repast, burns, and boils, and stews, and roasts his food into an external +configuration, colour, and substance, as different from its original +condition as the mummy of Cheops differs from the Cheops who watched, with +an imperial dilatation of his brow, the aspiring immortality of the +pyramids. Both, in acting so differently, are the slaves and the types of +the circumstances of their position. The functions in the frames of both +are the same; but these functions curiously follow the discipline of the +social situation which directs and regulates their development. The +economy of the kitchen is only a counterpart, in its simplicity or +complication, its rudeness or luxury, of the economy of the state. The +subjects of patriarchs and despots may eat uncooked horses with relish and +nourishment. The denizens of a political system whose every motion is +regulated by an intricate machinery, in which the teeth of all the myriad +wheels in motion are indented with inextricable multiplicity of confusion +into each other, perish under any nurture which is not as intricate, +complex, artificial, and confused. What a noble and comprehensive science +is this Gastronomy!</p> + +<p>"Are you not also," says the philosophic Soyer, in the same interesting +dialogue, "of opinion with me, my lord, that nothing better disposes the +mind of man to amity in thought and deed, than a dinner which has been +knowingly selected, and artistically served?" The answer is most pregnant. +"It is my thinking so," replies Lord M. H., "which has always made me say +that a good cook is as useful as a wise minister." Behold to what an +altitude we are carried! The loaves and fishes in the hands of the Whigs, +and Soyer at the Reform Club to dress them! Let us banish melancholy, and +drive away dull care. The bellicose propensities of a foreign secretary +are happily innocuous. The rumours of war pass by us like the idle wind +which we regard not. Protocols and treaties, notes and representations, +are henceforth disowned by diplomacy. The figure of Britannia with a +stew-pan for her helmet, and a spit for a spear, leaning in statuesque +repose on a folio copy of the <i>Gastronomic Regenerator</i>,</p> + +<p class="poem">"Surveys mankind from China to Peru;"</p> + +<p>and with an unruffled ocean at her feet, and a cloudless sky overhead, +smiles on the countless millions of the children of earth, chatting +fraternally together at the round table of universal peace. Bright will be +the morning of the day which sees the impress of such an image on our +currency. Of course, it will be understood that we are entirely of the +same mind, abstractly, as M. Soyer and Lord M. H. The <i>maître de cuisine</i> +appears to us unquestionably to be one of the most important functionaries +belonging to an embassy. Peace or war, which it is scarcely necessary to +interpret as the happiness or the misery of two great countries, may +depend upon a headache. Now, if it were possible, in any case, to trace +the bilious uneasiness which may have perverted pacific intentions into +hostile designs, to the unskilful or careless performance of his momentous +duties by the cook-legate, no punishment could too cruelly expiate such a +blunder. We should be inclined to propose that the brother artist who most +adroitly put the delinquent to torture, should be his successor, holding +office under a similar tenure. It may be matter of controversy, however, +at once whether such a system would work well, and whether it is agreeable +to the prevalence of those kindly feelings which it is the object of M. +Soyer, and every other good cook or wise statesman, to promulgate +throughout the human family. The publication of the <i>Gastronomic +Regenerator</i> inspires us with better hopes. The tyro of the dripping-pan +will be no more entitled to screen himself behind his imperfect science or +neglected education, than the unlettered criminal to plead his ignorance +of the alphabet as a justification of his ignorance of the statute law,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +whose enactments send him to Botany Bay. The rudiments and the +mysteries—the elementary axioms and most recondite problems—of his lofty +vocation are unrolled before him in legible and intelligible characters. +The skill which is the offspring of practice, must be attained by his +opportunities and his industry. And if</p> + +<p class="poem">"Fame is the spur which the clear spirit doth raise,"</p> + +<p>it might, we trust, satiate the most ravenous appetite which ever gnawed +the bowels even of a cook, not merely to secure the tranquillity of the +universe, but to save his native land the expense of armies and fleets, +and turn the currents of gold absorbed by taxation, into the more +congenial channel of gastronomical enterprise. The majestic and +far-spreading oak springs out of the humble acorn. In future ages, the +acute historian will demonstrate how the "copious dinner" which cemented +the bonds of eternal alliance between vast and consolidated empires, whose +people were clothed in purple and fine linen, lived in habitations +decorated with every tasteful and gorgeous variety which caprice could +suggest and affluence procure, and mingled the physical indolence of +Sybaris with the intellectual activity of Athens, was but the ripe fruit +legitimately matured from the simple bud of the calumet of peace, which +sealed a hollow truce among the roving and puny lands of the naked, +cityless, and untutored Indian. So, once more, the perfectibility of +cookery indicates the perfectibility of society.</p> + +<p>The gallantry of Soyer is as conspicuous as his historical and political +philosophy. He would not profusely "scatter plenty o'er a smiling land" +solely for the gratification of his own sex. The sun shines on woman as on +man; and when the sun will not shine, a woman's eye supplies all the light +we need. The sagacious "Regenerator" refuses to restrict to the lordly +moiety of mankind a monopoly of his beams, feeling that, when the pressure +of mortal necessity sinks his head, fairer hands than those of the +statesman or the warrior, the ecclesiastic or the lawyer, are likely to be +the conservators of his reputation. "Allow me," he remarks, "to suggest to +your lordship, that a meeting for practical gastronomical purposes, <i>where +there are no ladies</i>, is in my eyes a garden without flowers, a sea +without waves, an experimental squadron without sails."</p> + +<p class="poem">"Without the smile from partial beauty won,<br /> +Say what were man?—a world without a sun!"</p> + +<p>The harrowing picture of desolation, from the pen of M. Soyer, may be +equalled, but cannot be surpassed, by a line here and there in Byron's +"Darkness." The sentiment, at the same time, sounds oddly, as it issues +from the penetralia of a multitudinous club. Our notion has hitherto been, +that a club was an invention of which a principal object was to prove that +female society was far from being indispensable to man, and that all the +joys of domesticity might be tasted in a state of single-blessedness +beyond the precincts of home for a small annual payment. A thorough-going +club-man would very soon drive a coach and four through the Regenerator's +polite eloquence. For instance, a garden without flowers has so much the +more room for the growth of celery, asparagus, artichokes, and the like. +There could not possibly be a greater convenience than the evaporation or +disappearance of the waters of the ocean; because we should then have +railways every where, and no nausea. Sails, likewise, are not requisite +now-a-days for ships; on the contrary, steam-vessels are so evidently +superior, that the sail-maker may as well shut up his shop. The flowers of +a garden are an incumbrance—the waves of the sea are an impediment—the +sails of a ship are a superfluity. Garden, sea, and ship would be better +wanting flowers, waves, and sails. On the same principles a club is +preferable to a family fire-side, and the lot of a bachelor to the fate of +a Benedict. M. Soyer, speaking <i>ex cathedrâ</i> from the kitchen of the +Reform Club, would find it no easy matter to parry the cogency of this +reasoning. He forgets, apparently, that he bares his breast to a most +formidable attack. What right have <span class="smcaplc">MEN</span> to be Cooks? +What hypocrisy it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +to regret that women cannot eat those dinners which women alone are +entitled, according to the laws of nature and the usages of Britain, to +dress! Be just before you affect to be generous! Surrender the place, and +the privileges, and the immunities, which are the heritage and birthright +of the petticoat! Hercules with a distaff was bad enough; but here, in the +vagaries and metamorphoses of heathen mythology, do you read of Hercules +with a dishclout? What would the moon say, should the sun insist on +blazing away all night as well as all day? Your comparisons are full of +poetry and humbug. A kitchen without a female cook—it <i>is</i> like a +flowerless garden, a waveless sea, a sail-less ship. A kitchen with a male +cook—is a monster which natural history rejects, and good feeling abhors. +The rights of women are scarcely best vindicated by him who usurps the +most precious of them. There will be time to complain of their absence +from the scene, when, by a proper self-ostracism, you leave free for them +the stage which it becomes them to occupy. These are knotty matters, M. +Soyer, for digestion. With so pretty a quarrel we shall not interfere, +having a wholesome respect for an Amazonian enemy who can stand fire like +salamanders. To be candid, we are puzzled by the sprightliness of our own +fancy, and do not very distinctly comprehend how we have managed to +involve the Regenerator, whose thoughts were bent on the pale and slim +sylphs of the boudoir, in a squabble with the rubicund and rotund vestals +who watch the inextinguishable flames of <span class="smcap">The Great Hearth</span>.</p> + +<p>This marvellous dialogue, from which we have taken with our finger and +thumb a tit-bit here and there, might be the text for inexhaustible +annotation. It occupies no more than two pages; but, as Gibbon has said of +Tacitus, "they are the pages of Soyer." Every topic within the range of +human knowledge is touched, by direct exposition or collateral allusion. +The metaphysician and the theologian, the physiologist and the moralist, +are all challenged to investigate its dogmas, which, let us forewarn them, +are so curtly, positively, and oracularly propounded, as, if orthodox, to +need no commentary; and if heterodox, to demand accumulated mountains of +controversy to overwhelm them. For he, we believe, can hardly be deemed a +mean opponent, unworthy of a foeman's steel-pen, who has at his fingers' +ends "Mullets à la Montesquieu," "Fillets of Haddock à la St Paul," +"Saddle of Mutton à la Mirabeau," "Ribs of Beef à la Bolingbroke," +"Pounding Soufflé à la Mephistopheles," "Woodcock à la Staël," and "Filets +de Bœuf farcis à la Dr Johnson."</p> + +<p>The constitution of English cookery is precisely similar to the +constitution of the English language. Both were prophetically sketched by +Herodotus in his description of the army of Xerxes, which gathered its +numbers, and strength, and beauty, from "all the quarters in the shipman's +card." That imperishable mass of noble words—that glorious tongue in +which Soyer has prudently written the "Gastronomic Regenerator," is in +itself an unequalled specimen of felicitous cookery. The dishes which +furnished the most <i>recherché</i> dinner Soyer ever dressed, the "Diner +Lucullusian à la Sampayo," being resolved into the chaos whence they arose +in faultless proportions and resistless grace, would not disclose elements +and ingredients more heterogenous, remote, and altered from their primal +nature, than those which go to the composition of the few sentences in +which he tells us of this resuscitation of the <i>cæna</i> of Petronius. A +thousand years and a thousand accidents, the deepest erudition and the +keenest ingenuity, the most delicate wit and most outrageous folly, have +been co-operating in the manufacture of the extraordinary vocabulary which +has enabled the Regenerator himself to concoct the following unparalleled +receipt for</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">"THE CELESTIAL AND TERRESTRIAL CREAM OF GREAT BRITAIN.</p> + +<p>"Procure, if possible, the antique Vase of the Roman Capitol; the Cup +of Hebe; the Strength of Hercules; and the Power of Jupiter;"</p> + +<p>"<i>Then proceed as follows:</i>—"</p> + +<p>"Have ready the chaste Vase (on the glittering rim of which three +doves are resting in peace), and in it deposit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> a Smile from the +Duchess of Sutherland, from which Terrestrial Déesse it will be most +graceful; then add a Lesson from the Duchess of Northumberland; the +Happy Remembrance of Lady Byron; an Invitation from the Marchioness +of Exeter; a Walk in the Fairy Palace of the Duchess of Buckingham; +an Honour of the Marchioness of Douro; a Sketch from Lady +Westmoreland; Lady Chesterfield's Conversation; the Deportment of the +Marchioness of Aylesbury; the Affability of Lady Marcus Hill; some +Romances of Mrs Norton; a Mite of Gold from Miss Coutts; a Royal +Dress from the Duchess of Buccleuch; a Reception from the Duchess of +Leinster; a Fragment of the Works of Lady Blessington; a Ministerial +Secret from Lady Peel; a Gift from the Duchess of Bedford; an +Interview with Madame de Bunsen; a Diplomatic Reminiscence from the +Marchioness of Clanricarde; an Autocratic Thought from the Baroness +Brunow; a Reflection from Lady John Russell; an amiable Word from +Lady Wilton; the Protection of the Countess de St Aulaire; a Seraphic +Strain from Lady Essex; a poetical gift of the Baroness de la +Calabrala; a Welcome from Lady Alice Peel; the Sylph-like form of the +Marchioness of Abercorn; a Soirée of the Duchess of Beaufort; a +Reverence of the Viscountess Jocelyn; and the Good-will of Lady +Palmerston.</p> + +<p>"Season with the Piquante Observation of the Marchioness of +Londonderry; the Stately Mein of the Countess of Jersey; the Trésor +of the Baroness Rothschild; the Noble Devotion of Lady Sale; the +Knowledge of the Fine Arts of the Marchioness of Lansdowne; the +Charity of the Lady De Grey; a Criticism from the Viscountess of +Melville;—with a Musical Accompaniment from the whole; and Portraits +of all these Ladies taken from the Book of Celebrated Beauties.</p> + +<p>"Amalgamate scientifically; and should you find this <i>Appareil</i> +(which is without a parallel) does not mix well, do not regard the +expense for the completion of a dish worthy of the Gods!</p> + +<p>"Endeavour to procure, no matter at what price, a Virtuous Maxim from +the Book of Education of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent; a +Kiss from the Infant Princess Alice; an Innocent Trick of the +Princess-Royal; a Benevolent Visit from the Duchess of Gloucester; a +Maternal Sentiment of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge; a +Compliment from the Princess Augusta de Mecklenbourg; the future +Hopes of the Young Princess Mary;—</p> + +<p>"And the Munificence of Her Majesty Queen Adelaide.</p> + +<p>"Cover the Vase with the Reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty, and let +it simmer for half a century, or more, if possible, over a Fire of +Immortal Roses.</p> + +<p>"Then uncover, with the greatest care and precision, this Mysterious +Vase; garnish the top with the Aurora of a Spring Morning; several +Rays of the Sun of France; the Serenity of an Italian Sky; and the +Universal Appreciation of the Peace of Europe.</p> + +<p>"Add a few Beams of the Aurora Borealis; sprinkle over with the +Virgin Snow of Mont Blanc; glaze with an Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, +cause the Star of the Shepherd to dart over it; and remove, as +quickly as possible, this <i>chef-d'œuvre</i> of the nineteenth century +from the Volcanic District.</p> + +<p>"Then fill Hebe's Enchanted Cup with a religious Balm, and with it +surround this mighty Cream of Immortality;</p> + +<p>"Terminate with the Silvery light of the Pale Queen of Night, without +disturbing a Ray of the Brilliancy of the brightest Queen of the +Day."</p></div> + +<p>Half a century hence, when the simmering over the roseate fire is silent, +may we, with M. Soyer, be present to gaze on the happy consummation of the +conceptions of his transcendant imagination!</p> + +<p>The Regenerator is too conversant with universal history not to know that +his book, in crossing the Tweed northwards, approaches a people more +familiar with its fundamental principles than any other inhabitants of +these Fortunate Isles. England, for any thing we care, may deserve the +opprobrious title of perfidious Albion. Scotland—("Stands Scotland where +it did?")—was ever the firm friend of France. Ages ago, when our southern +cousins were incessantly fighting, we were constantly dining, with the +French. Our royal and noblest families were mingled by the dearest ties +with the purest and proudest blood of the adopted land of Mary. For +centuries uninterruptedly was maintained an interchange of every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> gentle +courtesy, and every friendly succour; and when the broadsword was not +needed to gleam in the front ranks of Gallic chivalry, the dirk never +failed to emit the first flash in the onslaughts of Gallic hospitality. +The Soyers of those times—dim precursors of the Regenerator—did not +disdain to alight on our hungry shores, and leave monuments of their +beneficence, which are grateful to this hour in the nostrils and to the +palate of prince and peasant. Nay, we shrewdly conjecture that some +time-honoured secrets still dwell with us, of which the memory has long +since perished in their birth-place. Boastful we may not suffer ourselves +to be. But if M. Soyer ever heard of, or dressed or tasted precisely as we +have dressed and tasted, what is known to us and a very limited circle of +acquaintances as "Lamb-toasty," we shall start instantly from the +penultimate habitation of Ultima Thule, commonly known as John O'Groat's +House, expressly to test his veracity, and gratify our voracity. Perhaps +he may think it would not be too polite in us to transmit him the receipt. +Not for a wilderness of Regenerators! Could we unfold to him the awful +legend in connexion with it, of which we are almost the exclusive +depositaries, the cap so lightly lying on his brow would be projected +upwards to the roof by the instantaneous starting of his hair. The Last +Minstrel himself, to whom it was narrated, shook his head when he heard +it, and was never known to allude to it again; in reference to which +circumstance, all that the bitterest malice could insinuate was, that if +the story had been worth remembering, he was not likely to have forgotten +it. "One December midnight, a shriek"—is probably as far as we can now +venture to proceed. There are some descendants of the parties, whose +feelings, even after the lapse of five hundred years, which is but as +yesterday in a Highlander's genealogy, we are bound to respect. In other +five hundred years, we shall, with more safety to ourselves, let them "sup +full of horrors."</p> + +<p>The Gastronomic Regenerator reminds us of no book so much as the +Despatches of Arthur Duke of Wellington. The orders of Soyer emanate from +a man with a clear, cool, determined mind—possessing a complete mastery +of his weapons and materials, and prompt to make them available for +meeting every contingency—singularly fertile in conceiving, and fortunate +without a check in executing, sudden, rapid, and difficult +combinations—overlooking nothing with his eagle eye, and, by the powerful +felicity of his resources, making the most of every thing—matchless in +his "Hors-d'Œuvres"—unassailable in his "Removes"—impregnable in his +"Pièces de resistance"—and unconquerable with his "Flanks." His +directions are lucid, precise, brief, and unmistakeable. There is not a +word in them superfluous—or off the matter immediately on hand—or not +directly to the point. They are not the dreams of a visionary theorist and +enthusiast, but the hard, solid, real results of the vast experience of a +tried veteran, who has personally superintended or executed all the +operations of which he writes. It may be matter of dispute whether +Wellington or Soyer acquired their knowledge in the face of the hotter +fire. They are both great Chiefs—whose mental and intellectual faculties +have a wonderful similarity—and whose sayings and doings are +characterised by an astonishing resemblance in nerve, perspicuity, vigour, +and success. In one respect M. Soyer has an advantage over his illustrious +contemporary. His Despatches are addressed to an army which as far +outnumbers any force every commanded or handled by the Hero of Waterloo, +as the stars in the blue empyrean exceed the gas-lamps of London—an army +which, instead of diminishing under any circumstances, evinces a tendency, +we fear, of steadily swelling its ranks year by year, and day by day—a +standing army, which the strong hand of the most jealous republicanism +cannot suppress, and which the realization of the bright chimera of +universal peace will fail to disband. Before many months are gone, +thousands and tens of thousands will be marching and countermarching, +cutting and skewering, broiling and freezing, in blind obedience to the +commands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> the Regenerator. "Peace hath her victories no less than those +of war." But it is not to be forgotten that if the sword of Wellington had +not restored and confirmed the tranquillity of the world, the +carving-knife of Soyer might not have been so bright.</p> + +<p>The confidence of Soyer in his own handiwork is not the arrogant +presumption of vanity, but the calm self-reliance of genius. There is a +deal of good sense in the paragraph which we now quote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Although I am entirely satisfied with the composition, distribution, +and arrangement of my book, should some few little mistakes be +discovered they will be the more excusable under those circumstances, +as in many instances I was unable to devote that tedious time +required for correction; and although I have taken all possible care +to prescribe, by weight and measure, the exact quantity of +ingredients used in the following receipts for the seasoning and +preparing of all kinds of comestibles, I must observe that the +ingredients are not all either of the same size or quality; for +instance, some eggs are much larger than others, some pepper +stronger, salt salter, and even some sugar sweeter. In vegetables, +again, there is a considerable difference in point of size and +quality; fruit is subject to the same variation, and, in fact all +description of food is subject to a similar fluctuation. I am far, +however, from taking these disproportions for excuses, but feel +satisfied, if the medium of the specified ingredients be used, and +the receipts in other respects closely followed, nothing can hinder +success."</p></div> + +<p>It seems a childish remark to make, that all salts do not coincide in +their saltness, nor sugars in their sweetness. The principle, however, +which the observation contains within it, is any thing but childish. It +implies, that, supposing the accuracy of a Soyer to be nearly infallible, +the faith in his instructions must never be so implicit as to supersede +the testimony of one's own senses, and the admonitions of one's own +judgment. It is with the most poignant recollections that we acknowledge +the justice of the Regenerator's caution on this head. We once, with a +friend who shared our martyrdom, tried to make onion soup in exact +conformity with what was set down in an Oracle of Cookery, which a foul +mischance had placed across our path. With unerring but inflecting +fidelity, we filled, and mixed, and stirred, and watched, the fatal +caldron. The result was to the eye inexpressibly alarming. A thick oily +fluid, repulsive in colour, but infinitely more so in smell, fell with a +flabby, heavy, lazy stream, into the soup-plate. Having swallowed, with a +Laocoonic contortion of countenance, two or three mouthfuls, our +individual eyes wandered stealthily towards our neighbour. Evidently we +were fellow-sufferers; but pride, which has occasioned so many lamentable +catastrophes, made us both dumb and obdurate in our agony. Slowly and +sadly, at lengthened intervals, the spoon, with its abominable freight, +continued to make silent voyages from the platters to our lips. How long +we made fools of ourselves it is not necessary to calculate. Suddenly, by +a simultaneous impulse, the two windows of the room favoured the headlong +exit of two wretches whose accumulated grievances were heavier than they +could endure. Hours rolled away, while the beautiful face of Winandermere +looked as ugly as Styx, as we writhed along its banks, more miserably +moaning than the hopeless beggar who sighed for the propitiatory obolus to +Charon. And from that irrevocable hour we have abandoned onions to the +heroines of tragedy. Fools, in spite of all warning, are taught by such a +process as that to which we submitted. Wise men, take a hint.</p> + +<p>"Nature, says I to myself"—Soyer is speaking—"compels us to dine more or +less once a-day." The average which oscillates between the "more" and the +"less," it requires considerable dexterity to catch. Having read six +hundred pages and fourteen hundred receipts, the question is, where are we +to begin? Our helplessness is confessed. Is it possible the Regenerator +is, after all, more tantalizing than the Barmecide? No—here is the very +aid we desiderate. Our readers shall judge of a</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">"DINNER PARTY AT HOME."</p> +<p class="center">BILL OF FARE<br /><small>FOR EIGHT PERSONS.</small></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td valign="middle">A<br />s<br />p<br />a<br />r<br />a<br />g<br />u<br />s.</td> +<td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> +<td align="center"> +1 <span class="smcap">Soup</span>.<br /> +French Pot au Feu.<br /> +<br /> +1 <span class="smcap">Fish</span>.<br /> +3 Slices of Salmon en matelote.<br /> +<br /> +2 <span class="smcap">Removes</span>.<br /> +Braised Fowls with spring vegetables.<br /> +Leg of Mutton basted with devil's tears.<br /> +<br /> +2 <span class="smcap">Entrees</span>.<br /> +Lamb Cutlets with asparagus, peas.<br /> +Salmi of Plovers with mushrooms.<br /> +<br /> +2 <span class="smcap">Roasts</span>.<br /> +2 Ducklings.<br /> +4 Pigeons barded with vine leaves.<br /> +<br /> +4 <span class="smcap">Entremets</span>.<br /> +Orange Jelly.<br /> +Omelette, with fine herbs.<br /> +Green peas.<br /> +Gooseberry Tart with cream.<br /> +<br /> +1 <span class="smcap">Remove</span>.<br /> +Iced Cake with fruits.</td> +<td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> +<td valign="middle">N<br />e<br />w<br /><br />P<br />o<br />t<br />a<br />t<br />o<br />e<br />s.</td></tr></table> + +<p>"Nothing but light wine is drunk at the first course, but at the +second my guests are at liberty to drink wines of any other +description, intercepting them with several hors-d'œuvres, which +are small dishes of French pickled olives and sardines, thin slices +of Bologna sausage, fillets of anchovies, ciboulettes, or very small +green onions, radishes, &c.; also a plain dressed salade à la +Français, (for which see end of the entrées, Kitchen at Home), +fromage de brie Neufchatel, or even Windsor cheese, when it can be +procured. The coffee and dessert I usually leave to the good taste +and economy of my menagere."</p></div> + +<p>We shall be exceedingly curious to hear how many hundred parties of eight +persons, upon reading this bill of fare in our pages, will, without loss +of time, congregate in order to do it substantial honour. Such clattering +of brass and brandishing of steel may strike a new government as +symptomatical or preparatory of a popular rising. We may therefore +reassure them with the information, that those who sit down with M. Soyer, +will have little thought of rising for a long time afterwards.</p> + +<p>We have introduced the Gastronomic Regenerator to public notice in that +strain which its external appearance, its title, its scheme and its +contents, demand and justify. But we must not, even good-humouredly, +mislead those for whose use its publication is principally intended. To +all intents and purposes M. Soyer's work is strictly and most intelligibly +practical. It is as full of matter as an egg is full of meat; and the +household which would travel through its multitudinous lessons must be as +full of meat as the Regenerator is full of matter. The humblest, as well +as the wealthiest kitchen economy, is considered and instructed; nor will +the three hundred receipts at the conclusion of the volume, which are more +peculiarly applicable to the "Kitchen at Home," be, probably the portion +of the book least agreeable and valuable to the general community. For +example,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> just before shaking hands with him, let us listen to M. Soyer, +beginning admirably to discourse</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="center"><i>Of the Choosing and Roasting of Plain Joints.</i></p> + +<p>"Here I must claim all the attention of my readers. Many of the +profession will, I have no doubt, be surprised that I should dwell +upon a subject, which appears of so little importance, saying that, +from the plain cook to the most professed, all know how to roast or +boil a piece of meat; but there I must beg their pardon. I will +instance myself, for, previously to my forming any intention of +writing the present work, I had not devoted the time necessary to +become professionally acquainted with it, always depending upon my +roasting cook, who had constant practice, myself only having the +knowledge of whether or not properly done. I have since not only +studied it closely, but have made in many respects improvements upon +the old system, and many discoveries in that branch which I am sure +is the most beneficial to all classes of society, (remembering, as I +have before stated, that three parts of the animal food of this +country is served either plain-roasted or boiled) My first study was +the fire, which I soon perceived as too deep, consumed too much coal, +and required poking every half hour, thus sending dust and dirt all +over the joints, which were immediately basted to wash it off; seeing +plainly this inconvenience, I immediately remedied it by inventing my +new roasting fire-place, by which means I saved two hundred-weight of +coals per day, besides the advantage of never requiring to be poked, +being narrow and perpendicular; the fire is lighted with the greatest +facility, and the front of the fire being placed a foot back in the +chimney-piece, throws the heat of the fire direct upon the meat, and +not out at the sides, as many persons know, from the old roasting +ranges. I have many times placed ladies or gentlemen, visiting the +club, within two feet of the fire when six large joints have been +roasting, and they have been in perfect ignorance that it was near +them, until, upon opening the wing of the screen by surprise, they +have appeared quite terrified to think they were so near such an +immense furnace. My next idea was to discontinue basting, perhaps a +bold attempt to change and upset at once the custom of almost all +nations and ages, but being so confident of its evil effects and +tediousness, I at once did away with it, and derived the greatest +benefit (for explanation, see remarks at the commencement of the +roasts in the Kitchen of the Wealthy,) for the quality of meat in +England is, I may say, superior to any other nation; its moist soil +producing fine grass almost all the year round, which is the best +food for every description of cattle; whilst in some countries not so +favoured by nature they are obliged to have recourse to artificial +food, which fattens the animals but decreases the flavour of the +meat: and, again, we, must take into consideration the care and +attention paid by the farmers and graziers to improve the stock of +those unfortunate benefactors of the human family."</p></div> + +<p>How full of milky kindness is his language, still breathing the spirit of +that predominant idea—the tranquillisation of the universe by "Copious +Dinners!" He has given up "basting" with success. Men may as well give up +basting one another. Nobody will envy the Regenerator the bloodless +fillets worthily encircling his forehead, should the aspirations of his +benevolent soul in his lifetime assume any tangible shape. But if a more +distant futurity is destined to witness the lofty triumph, he may yet +depart in the confidence of its occurrence. The most precious fruits ripen +the most slowly. The sun itself does not burst at once into meridian +splendour. Gradually breaks the morning; and the mellow light glides +noiselessly along, tinging mountain, forest, and city spire, till a +stealthy possession seems to be taken of the whole upper surface of +creation, and the mighty monarch at last uprises on a world prepared to +expect, to hail, and to reverence his perfect and unclouded majesty.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE LATE AND THE PRESENT MINISTRY.</h2> + +<p>Our sentiments with regard to the change of policy on the part of Sir +Robert Peel and his coadjutors, were early, and we hope forcibly, +expressed. We advocated then, as ever, the principle of protection to +native industry and agriculture, not as a class-benefit, but on far deeper +and more important considerations. We deprecated the rash experiment of +departing from a system under which we had flourished so long—of yielding +to the clamours of a grasping and interested faction, whose object in +raising the cry of cheap bread, was less the welfare of the working man, +than the depression of his wages, and a corresponding additional profit to +themselves. The decline of agricultural prosperity—inevitable if the +anticipations of the free traders should be fulfilled—seems to us an evil +of the greatest possible magnitude, and the more dangerous because the +operation must be necessarily slow. And in particular, we protested +against the introduction of free-trade measures, at a period when their +consideration was not called for by the pressure of any exigency, when the +demand for labour was almost without parallel, and before the merits of +the sliding-scale of duty, introduced by Sir Robert Peel himself in the +present Parliament, had been sufficiently tested or observed. Those who +make extravagant boast of the soundness and sagacity of their leader +cannot deny, that the facts upon which he based his plan of financial +reform, were in reality not facts, but fallacies. The political Churchill +enunciated his <i>Prophecy of Famine</i>, not hesitatingly nor doubtfully, but +in the broadest and the strongest language. Month after month glided away, +and still the famine came not; until men, marvelling at the unaccountable +delay, looked for it as the ignorant do for the coming of a predicted +eclipse, and were informed by the great astrologer of the day that it was +put off for an indefinite period! Now, when another and a more beautiful +harvest is just beginning, we find that in reality the prophecy was a mere +delusion; that there were no grounds whatever to justify any such +anticipation, and that the pseudo-famine was a mere stalking-horse, +erected for the purpose of concealing the stealthy advance of free-trade.</p> + +<p>If this measure of free-trade was in itself right and proper, it required +no such paltry accessories and stage tricks to make it palatable to the +nation at large. Nay, we go further, and say, that under no circumstances +ought the distress of a single year to be assigned as a sufficient reason +for a great fiscal change which must derange the whole internal economy +and foreign relations of the country, and which must be permanent in its +effects. There is, and can be, no such thing as a permanent provision for +exigencies. Were it so, the art of government might be reduced to +principles as unerring in their operation as the tables of an assurance +company—every evil would be provided for before it occurred, and +fluctuations become as unknown among us as the recurrence of an +earthquake. A famine, had it really occurred, would have been no apology +for a total repeal of the corn-laws, though it might have been a good +reason for their suspension. As, however, no famine took place, we take +the prophecy at its proper value, and dismiss it at once to the limbo of +popular delusions; at the same time, we trust that future historians, when +they write this chapter of our chronicles, will not altogether overlook +the nature of the foundation upon which this change has been placed.</p> + +<p>It requires no great penetration to discover how the repeal of the +corn-laws has been carried. The leaders of a powerful party who for ten +years misgoverned the country, were naturally desirous, after an exile of +half that period, to retaste the sweets of office—and were urged +thereunto, not only by their own appetites, but by the clamour of a +ravenous crew behind them, who cared nothing for principle. While in +power, they had remained most dogmatically opposed to the repeal of the +corn-laws. Lord Melbourne denounced the idea as maniacal—he was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>supported in that view by almost every one of his colleagues; nor was it +until they found themselves upon the eve of ejectment, that any new light +ever dawned upon the minds of the steadfast myrmidons of Whiggery. The +election of 1841, which turned them out of office made matters worse +instead of better. They now saw no prospect of a restoration to power, +unless they could adopt some blatant cry similar to that which formerly +brought them in. Such a cry was rather difficult to be found. Their +ignorance of finance, their mismanagement abroad, their gross bungling of +almost every measure which they touched, had made them so unpopular that +the nation at large regarded their return to office much as a sufferer +from nightmare contemplates the arrival of his nocturnal visitant. +Undeterred by scruple or by conscience, they would with the greatest +readiness have handed over the national churches to the tender mercies of +the Dissenters, if such a measure could have facilitated their recall to +the pleasant Goshen of Downing Street. It was not however, either +advisable or necessary to carry matters quite so far. Midway between them +and revolution lay the corn-law question once despised but now very +valuable as a workable engine. The original advocates of abolition were +not prime favourites with the Whigs. The leaders of that party have always +been painfully and even ludicrously particular abut their associates. +Liberal in appearance they yet bind themselves together with a thin belt +of aristocratic prejudice and though insatiable in their lust for public +applause, they obstinately refuse to strengthen their coterie by any more +popular addition. They found the corn-law question in the hands of Messrs +Cobden, Bright and Wilson—men of the people—who by their own untiring +energy and the efforts of the subsidiary League, had brought the question +prominently forward, and were fighting independent of party, a sort of +guerilla battle in support of their favourite principle. Our regard for +these gentlemen is not of the highest order, but we should do them great +injustice if we did not bear testimony to the zeal and perseverance they +have exhibited throughout. These are qualities which may be displayed +alike in a good and in an evil cause; and yet earnestness of purpose is at +all times a high attribute of manhood, and enforces the respect of an +enemy. With the constitution of the League we have at present nothing to +do. The organization and existence of such a body, for the purposes of +avowed agitation, was a fact thoroughly within the cognisance of +ministers—it was checked, and is now triumphant, and may therefore prove +the precursor of greater democratic movements.</p> + +<p>The question of the corn-laws was, however, emphatically theirs. A body of +men, consisting almost entirely of master manufacturers, had conceived the +project of getting rid of a law which interfered materially, according to +their views, with the profit and interests of their class. Their arguments +were specious, their enthusiasm in the cause unbounded. They spared no +exertions, grudged no expense, to obtain converts; they set up gratuitous +newspapers, hired orators, held meetings, established bazars—in short +erected such a complicated machine of agitation as had never before +entered into the minds of democrats to conceive. With all this however, +their success, save for political accident, was doubtful. The leaders of +the League were not popular even with their own workmen. Some of the +simpler rules of political economy are tolerably well known among the +operative classes, and of these none is better understood than the +relationship betwixt the prices of labour and of food. Cheap bread, if +accompanied at the same time by a reduction of wages, was at best but a +questionable blessing; nor were these doubts at all dispelled by the +determined resistance of the master manufacturers to every scheme proposed +for shortening the hours of labour, and ameliorating the social as well as +the moral condition of the poor. All that the taskmaster cared for was the +completion of the daily tale. The truck system—that most infamous species +of cruel and tyrannical robbery—gave sad testimony of the extent, as well +as the meanness, of the avarice which could wring profit even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> from the +most degraded source, and which absolutely sought to establish, here, +within the heart of Britain, a slavery as complete and more odious than +that which is the disgrace of the American republic. It is, therefore, not +to be wondered at if the great mass of the working population regarded the +proceedings of the Anti-Corn-law League with apathy and indifference. For, +be it remarked, that the original Leaguers were by no means thorough-paced +free-traders. Their motive was to deal most summarily with every +restriction which stood in the way of their business, both as regarded +export and import, and the establishment of a lower rate of wages. For +such purposes they were ready to sacrifice every interest in the +commonwealth except their own; but they showed no symptoms whatever of +anxiety to discard restriction wherever it was felt to be advantageous to +themselves. They were, in fact, the aspiring monopolists of the country. +In their disordered imagination, the future position of Britain was to be +that of one mighty workshop, from which the whole world was to be +supplied—a commonalty of cotton, calico, and iron, with a Birmingham and +Manchester aristocracy.</p> + +<p>Such was the position of the League at the moment when the Whigs, eager +for a gathering-cry, came forward as auxiliaries; and yet we have some +doubt as to the propriety of that latter term. They did not come as +helpers—as men who, devoted in singleness of heart to the welfare of +their country, were anxious to assist in the promotion of a measure which +the sagacity of others had discovered—but claiming a sort of divine right +of opposition, similar to that which the lion exercises when the jackal +has run down the prey. Accordingly, upon the corn-laws did the magnanimous +Whig lion place its paw, and wheeze out a note of defiance against all +interlopers whatsoever. Henceforward that question was to be a Whig one. +English agriculture was not to receive its death from the ignoble hands of +Cobden and Co.</p> + +<p>Such was the move of the Whigs in the month of November last. A paltrier +one, in every sense of the word, was never yet attempted nor did the +simultaneous conversion of the whole party, with scarcely more than one or +two honourable exceptions, present a very creditable specimen of the +integrity of her Majesty's Opposition. They had become convinced—why or +wherefore was not stated—that "the time had now arrived" for a total +repeal of the corn-laws, and there was an end of the matter. They were +prepared to vote for it in Parliament—to go to the country with it as +their rallying-cry—to adopt it, in short, as their readiest +stepping-stone into office. The old champions of repeal—the +Leaguers—might go about their business. The conduct of the question was +now transferred into the same hands which had become imbecile and +paralysed in 1841, but which had since been renovated and invigorated by a +wholesome course of five years' banishment from office.</p> + +<p>It is somewhat remarkable, but rather instructive, that the Whigs do not +seem to have contemplated any other financial alteration beyond the repeal +of the corn-laws. Of an equitable adjustment of clashing interests, they +appear to have had no idea. It is quite true that they had been of old +well accustomed to a deep defalcation of the public revenue, and the +probability of the recurrence of <i>that</i> fact, may have been viewed by them +as a mere bagatelle. From vague and general protestations of economy, we +can form no proper estimate of the real nature of their plans. Economy, or +that paltry system of paring, which passes with the Whigs for such, is, +after all, a political virtue of minor import. What we require from every +administration is the adoption of such measures only as shall tend to +promote the general wealth and prosperity of the country; and, in +consequence, render more easy the payment of the national burdens. Any +fiscal change which affects the revenue, must, as a matter of course, +affect some particular class of the community. A certain yearly sum has to +be made up—no matter how—and every million which is remitted from one +source of the revenue must be supplied by another. It is this necessity +which renders the administration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> of our finances so difficult. Great +Britain, when she obtained her place in the foremost rank of nations, had +to pay a fancy price for that supremacy. Our system of taxation is not the +growth of a few years, but of a large tract of time, embracing periods of +enormous expenditure and of intense excitement. It is of the most complex +and artificial nature; for the reservoir of the state is filled from a +thousand separate sources, and not one of these can be cut off without +occasioning a greater drain upon the rest.</p> + +<p>In such a state of things, it is quite natural that each particular +interest should be desirous to shift the burden from itself. This may not +be right nor proper, but it is natural; and the desire is greatly fostered +by the frequent changes which have of late been made in the financial +department, and by the alteration and adjustment of duties. The attack of +the League upon the agriculturists is a specimen of this, though upon the +largest scale; and the Whigs were quite ready to have lent it their +support, without any further consideration. That they were really and +sincerely converts to the new doctrine, we do not believe—but, if so, it +is little creditable to their understanding. The repeal of the corn-laws, +as a solitary and isolated measure, is, we maintain, an act of gross +injustice and impolicy—as part of a great financial reform, or rather +remodelment of our whole system, it may bear a different character. The +Whigs, however, in adopting it, gave no promise of an altered system. The +creed and articles of the League were ready made, and sufficient for them, +nor did they think it necessary to enlarge the sphere of their financial +relief; and so, towards the end of last year, they presented themselves in +the quality of aspirants for office.</p> + +<p>It is to us matter of great and lasting regret, that this move was not met +by Sir Robert Peel and his cabinet with a front of determined resistance. +Whatever may be the opinions of the late premier, of Lords Aberdeen and +Lincoln, or any other members of that cabinet, on the abstract advantages +of free-trade, we still hold that they were bound, in justice to the great +body of gentlemen whose suffrages in the House of Commons had carried them +into power, to have pursued a very different course. It is in vain for +them to take shelter under their privileges or their duties as ministers +of the crown. Their official dignity by no means relieved them from the +pledges, direct or implied, in virtue of which alone they were elevated to +that position. The understanding of the country at large was broad and +clear upon the point, that the agricultural interest should not suffer +from the acts of the late administration; and it was their duty, as well +as their true interest, to have kept that confidence inviolate.</p> + +<p>The financial plans of Sir Robert Peel have not yet been fully expounded. +Over-caution has always been his characteristic and his misfortune. It is +beyond dispute, that, in point of tact and business talent, he has no +superior; but he either does not possess, or will not exhibit, that +frankness which is necessary to make a leader not only respected but +beloved; and hence it is that he has again alienated from himself the +confidence of a large proportion of his followers. Enough, however, has +transpired to convince us that his scheme is of a much more comprehensive +nature than any which has been yet submitted. Various acts of his +administration have shown a strong tendency towards free-trade. The +establishment of the property and income tax, though apparently laid on to +retrieve the country from the effects of Whig mismanagement, seemed to us +at the time very ominous of a coming fiscal change. It organized a +machinery by means of which direct taxation, however graduated, became the +simplest method of raising the revenue; and the revision of the tariff was +doubtless another step in the same direction.</p> + +<p>If on these foundations it was intended to rear a perfect system of +free-trade—by which we understand an abolition of all restrictions and +protections, of all duties and customs on exports and on imports—and the +substitution, for revenue purposes, of direct taxation, we think that the +country may fairly complain of having been kept most lamentably in the +dark. It is a great—nay, a gigantic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> plan—one which certainly would +simplify or remove many of the intricacies of government,—it might +possibly put an end, as is most desirable, to all clashing interests at +home, and might open up abroad a new and greater field to the operations +of British industry. All these are possible, nay, probable results—at the +same time we are quite justified in saying, that if so wide and important +a change was really contemplated, it was somewhat hazardous, and surely +unprecedentedly bold, to keep it all the time concealed from public +observation, and to give a different gloss and colour to the measures +devised for its advancement. In reality, a more momentous question than +this does not exist. The fortunes of every man in this country are more or +less bound up with it,—it is one of the deepest import to our colonies, +and calculated to affect the whole range of our commercial relations. We +say further, that such a measure is not one which ought to be considered +in detail—that is, brought about by the gradual abolition of different +imposts without reference to the general end—but that, if entertained, it +ought to be proclaimed at once, and carried into effect so soon as the +nation has been enabled to pronounce an opinion upon it.</p> + +<p>Our surmises are, of course, conjectural; for hitherto Sir Robert Peel has +chosen to wear the mask of mystery, and has enunciated nothing clearly, +beyond a single statement, to the effect that the late bills for the +regulations of corn and the customs formed only a part of a larger +measure. It is to this reserve that Sir Robert owes his defeat; and we +cannot but deeply regret that he should have thought fit to persevere in +it at so serious a cost as the dismemberment of his party. We have a +strong and rooted objection to this kind of piecemeal legislation. It is, +we think, foreign to the genius of this country, which requires the +existence between the minister and his supporters of a certain degree of +confidence and reciprocity which in this case has certainly not been +accorded to the latter. The premier of Britain is not, and cannot be, +independent of the people. It is their confidence and opinion which does +practically make or mar him; and in the House of Commons, no measure +whatever ought to be proposed by a minister without a full and candid +admission of its real object, an exposition of its tendencies, and, at +least, an honest opinion of its results.</p> + +<p>There were, we think two courses open to Sir Robert Peel and his cabinet, +either of which might have been adopted, after the issue of the Russell +manifesto, with perfect consistency. The first of these, and the manlier +one, was a steady adherence, during the existence of the present +Parliament, to the established commercial regulations. They had already +done quite enough to free them from any charge of bigotry—they had +modified the corn-duties, with the consent even of the agricultural body, +who were induced to yield to that change on the ground that thereby a +permanent settlement of the question would be effected, and a baneful +agitation discontinued. It is quite true that neither of these results +followed. The settlement was not held to be permanent; and the agitation, +as is always the case after partial concession, was rather increased than +diminished. This, however, was a cogent reason why the ministry should not +have proceeded further. Under their guidance, and at their persuasion, the +agriculturists had already made a large concession, and that easiness of +temper on their part ought not to have been seized on as a ground for +further innovation. Within the walls of Parliament the Conservative party +possessed a large majority; without, if we except the manifestations of +the League, there was no popular cry whatever against the operation of the +sliding-scale. Even with the prospect of a bad winter—an auxiliary +circumstance not unlooked for by the Whigs—Lord John Russell and his +colleagues would have had no chance whatever of unseating their political +rivals, supported as these were by the votes of the country party. Had +distress absolutely occurred, the means of remedying the more immediate +pressure of the evil were in the hands of ministers, who, moreover, would +have been cordially assisted by every one in any scheme calculated to ward +away famine from the door of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>industrious and the poor. In short, +there was no political necessity for any such precipitate change.</p> + +<p>Far better, therefore, would it have been for the late ministry had they +remained uninfluenced by the interested conversion of the Whigs. By doing +so they would have saved both character and consistency, without impairing +in the least degree the strength of her Majesty's government—an excuse +which the experience of a few mouths has shown to be utterly fallacious. +How, indeed, could it be otherwise? Was it conceivable that a change of +policy upon a point on which an immense majority of the supporters were +distinctly pledged, could <i>add</i> to the permanent strength of the +ministry?—was no allowance to be made for irritated feelings, for broken +ties, for inevitable desertion on the part of those who believe themselves +to be wantonly betrayed? The Duke of Wellington surrendered his own +private opinion in order that her Majesty's government might be carried +on! A sentiment which might have been applauded to the echo in ancient +times but which, it must be confessed by all, is wholly inapplicable to +the notions of the century in which we live. The result has proved it. Her +Majesty's government was indeed able by joining with the Whig-Radical +faction, or rather by adopting their game to carry the corn-bill by the +most incongruous majority ever counted out in the lobby of St Stephens, +but at their very next step the day of reckoning arrived. Indeed the +presages of their coming fall was so apparent, that the Irish coercion +bill—the measure which more than any other if we may believe the tissue +of bloody and disgusting facts upon which its introduction was founded +demanded attention and despatch—was put off from day to day, lest a +hostile division upon it should oust the ministry before the corn-bill +could be carried through the House of Lords and receive the royal assent. +Had Sir Robert Peel and his supporters been wedded from their infancy +upwards to free-trade opinions—had these been the golden dreams of their +political life-principles which they had adhered to, and sworn by, through +many a long year of adversity and opposition—they could not have +manifested a more unseemly haste in seizing upon the favourable moment, +and paralysing all the efforts of the agricultural party, at a time when +their own official existence was fast drawing to its close. Public +opinion, as we are now told from a very high source, ought always to guide +a minister in the formation of his measures, irrespective of the +considerations of party. The axiom is indeed a true one, but true only +when followed out according to the letter of the constitution. Public +opinion is to be gathered neither from the voice, however loudly +expressed, of a clamant faction like the League—nor from the sentiments +enunciated by a changeable press, which shifts oftener, according to the +flow of its own proper interests, than the quicksands of the deceitful +Solway—nor even from the votes of renegades, who promised one thing upon +the hustings and promoted the reverse in Parliament—but from the +sentiments of the electors of the country, from <i>their</i> votes and <i>their</i> +understanding, which have not been appealed to since 1841, when +deliberately and unmistakeably they pronounced in favour of protection.</p> + +<p>This brings us to the alternative course, which, without any peril of +honesty or of honour, was open to the late ministry. We mean, a clear and +unreserved declaration of their future policy, and an appeal to the +country for its support. If Sir Robert Peel was convinced in his own mind +that the principles of protection which he had hitherto advocated were in +themselves objectionable—that the time had arrived for a great experiment +whereby the whole taxation of the realm should be remodelled, and the many +smaller sources of revenue abolished, in order to make way for a broader +and a simpler system—if, furthermore, he believed that the continuance +even of such agitation as prevailed upon the subject of the corn-laws, was +likely to become more serious and more hurtful to the general interest by +the factious declaration of the Whigs—then, he had it in his power at +once to test the opinion of the country, by offering to the crown the +alternative of his resignation or a dissolution of Parliament; and upon +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>obtaining the latter, to have put forth, in unambiguous language, a +statement of the policy which he intended thereafter to pursue, so that +the constituencies of the empire might fairly have chosen between +adherence to the ancient, or adoption of the novel plan. We can admit of +no excuse such as the stoppage of private business, or any other similar +impediment. These are reasons which, if just, might apply to every +dissolution of Parliament short of the statutory term; nor can they in the +present instance be brought forward, since the late government were by +their own confession seriously perplexed by the amount of railway and +other bills which this session have been crowded before Parliament, and +had sought, without discovering, some method which might check at an early +stage the flood of untoward speculation. In such a crisis as this, private +interests ought to have been as nothing in comparison with the public +good. If the choice lay between free-trade in its widest sense, and +protection, it was but common justice that the country should have had the +opportunity of making its selection. In no other way can public opinion be +gathered. At last general election the country declared for +protection—ministers since then have manœuvred that protection away. +We were told that certain compensations were to be given; but, alas! the +ministry is no more, and compensation has perished with it. The old +balance has been disturbed, and the task of adjusting a new one—if that +indeed be contemplated—is now left to weak and incompetent hands.</p> + +<p>Most heartily, therefore, do we regret that these great changes, which +have free-trade for their ultimate object, were commenced in the present +Parliament. Sir Robert Peel cannot but have foreseen—indeed he +acknowledged it—that the corn-bill could not be carried without a +complete disorganization of the Conservative party. In his eyes this may +seem a small matter, but we view it very differently. It has shaken, and +that to a great degree, the confidence which the people of the country +were proud to place in the declarations and sincerity of the government. +It has generated a belief, now very common, that the plain course of open +and manly dealing has been abandoned for a system of finesse; and that for +the last few months—it may be longer—the leaders of the two great +political parties have been playing a match at chess, with less regard to +the safety of the instruments they were using, than to the exhibition of +their own adroitness. Perhaps no minister of this country ever owed more +to party than Sir Robert Peel; and yet, without the excuse of strong +necessity, he has not only abandoned that party, but placed it in a false +position. The majority of the Conservatives were sent to Parliament under +clear and distinct pledges, which honour forbade them to violate. This of +the corn-laws was so far from being a discretionary question, that the +continuance or discontinuance of agricultural protection was the great +theme of the hustings at last general election, and their opinions upon +that point became the touchstone on which the merits of the respective +candidates were tried. It is worse than vain to talk of Parliamentary +freedom, and the right of honourable members to act irrespective of the +opinion of their constituents. They are neither more nor less than the +embodied representatives of that opinion; and no man of uprightness or +honour—we say it deliberately—ought to retain his seat in the House of +Commons after the confidence of his supporters is withdrawn. It is neither +fair nor honourable to taunt members with having been too free and liberal +with their pledges before they knew the policy of their leaders. All men +do not possess that happy ambiguity of phrase which can bear a double +construction, and convey one meaning to the ear of the listener, whilst +another served for the purposes of future explanation. It is not pleasant +to believe that we are moving in an atmosphere of perpetual deceit. It is +not wholesome to be forced to construe sentences against their obvious and +open meaning, or to suspect every public speaker of wrapping up equivoques +in his statement. At the last general election there was no +misunderstanding. The Conservative candidates believed that their leaders +were resolved to uphold protection;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> the people believed so likewise, and +in consequence they gave them a majority. Situated as the protectionists +were, they had no alternative but to act in accordance with their first +professions, and to maintain their trust inviolate.</p> + +<p>We have no pleasure in referring to that tedious and protracted debate. +Yet this much we are bound to say, that the country party, under +circumstances of unparalleled discouragement, abandoned, nay, opposed by +their former chiefs, and deprived of the benefit which they undoubtedly +would have received from the great talents and untiring energy of Lord +Stanley—a champion too soon removed from the Lower House—did +nevertheless acquit themselves manfully and well, and have earned the +respect of all who, whatever may be their opinions, place a proper value +upon consistency. It was perhaps inevitable that in such a contest there +should have been a display of some asperity. We cannot blame those who, +believing themselves to have been betrayed, gave vent to their indignation +in language less measured than becomes the dignity of the British senate: +nor, had these displays been confined to the single question then at +issue, should we have alluded even remotely to the subject. But whilst our +sympathies are decidedly with the vanquished party—whilst we deplore as +strongly as they can the departure of the ministers from their earlier +policy at such a time and in such a manner—we cannot join with the more +violent of the protectionists in their virulent denunciations of Sir +Robert Peel, and we demur as to the policy of their vote upon the Irish +coercion bill, which vote was the immediate instrument of recalling the +Whigs to power.</p> + +<p>Sir Robert Peel has told us that he is contented to be judged by +posterity. He is so far wise in his appeal. The opinions of contemporaries +are comparatively worthless on a matter like this, and very few of us are +really able to form an unprejudiced opinion. But, unless we are greatly +mistaken, he does not contemplate the possibility of appearing before that +tribunal in his present posture and condition. There is much yet to come +upon which he must depend, not only for a posthumous verdict, but for that +which we hope he may yet receive, an honourable acquittal from those who +are at present alienated from his side. As the foe to agricultural +protection, he can look but for sorry praise—as the financial reformer of +the whole national system, he may, though at heavy risk, become a public +benefactor. Every thing depends upon the future. He has chosen to play a +very close and cautious game. His is a style of legislation not palatable +to the nation; for he has taken upon himself too boldly the functions and +responsibilities of a dictator—he has aspired to govern the freest +country of the world without the aid of party—and he has demanded a +larger and more implicit confidence, even whilst withholding explanation, +than any minister has ever yet exacted from the representatives of the +people. The risk, however, is his. But clearly, in our opinion, it was not +the policy of the protectionists, after the corn-bill was carried and past +control, to take a nominal revenge upon their former leader, and eject him +from office by a vote inconsistent with their previous professions. By +doing so, they have relieved him of the necessity which must soon have +become imperative, of announcing the full nature of his scheme of +financial reform; they have contributed to an interregnum, possibly of +some endurance, from which we do not augur much advantage to the public +welfare; and, finally, they have in some degree relinquished the credit +and the strength of their position. From the moment the corn-bill was +carried, they should have resolved themselves into a corps of observation. +Their numbers were formidable enough to have controlled either party; and +in all future measures, whenever explanation was required, they were in a +condition to have enforced it.</p> + +<p>The step, however, has been taken, and it is of course irremediable. All +that remains for them and for us is to watch the progress of events during +the remainder of the present Parliament—a period which, so far as we can +judge from recent disclosures, is likely to pass over without any very +marked attempts at innovation. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> Whigs are at present too happy in the +resumption of office, to be actually dangerous. They are, or they profess +to be, in high good-humour. They have thrown aside for a time the besom of +Radical reform, and are now extending in place of it the olive-branch of +peace to each different section of their antagonists. We look, however, a +little below the surface, and we think that we can discover two very +cogent reasons for this state of singular placidity. In the first place, +the Whigs are in a minority in the House of Commons. Their political walk +cannot extend a yard beyond the limits of Sir Robert's sufferance; and as +the boundary line, like the Oregon, has not been clearly laid down, they +will be most cautious to avoid transgression. In the second place, they +are, as is well known, most miserably divided in opinion among themselves. +There is no kind of coherency in the councils of the present cabinet. They +cannot approach any single great question without the imminent risk of +internal discord; and it is only so long as they can remain quiescent that +any show of cordiality can be maintained among them. Accordingly, when we +look to Lord John Russell's manifestoes, we are quite delighted with their +imbecility. As a matter of course, he has put forward, in the first rank +of his declarations, the usual vague rhetoric about the social improvement +of the people, which is to be effected by the same means which the Whigs +have always used towards that desirable end—viz. by doing nothing. Then +there is the subject of education, which we must own opens up a vast field +for the exertions of government, if they will only seriously undertake it. +This, however, cannot be done without the establishment of a new +department in the state, which ought to have been created long ago—we +mean a board, with a Minister of public instruction at its head; but we +hardly expect that Lord John Russell will vigorously proceed to its +formation. Then come what are called sanatory measures, by which we +understand an improved system of sewerage, and a larger supply of water to +the inhabitants of the towns. On this point, we understand, the whole of +the cabinet are united, and we certainly rejoice to hear it. It is +certainly the first time in our experience, that a ministry has founded +its claims to public support on the ground of a promised superintendence +of drains and water-carts. Upon this topic, one of the members for +Edinburgh was extremely eloquent the other day upon the hustings. We hope +sincerely that he is in earnest, and that, for the credit of Whig +legislation, since we cannot obtain it from the municipality, our citizens +may occasionally be indulged with the sight of a sprinkled street in +summer, and that some means will be adopted for irrigating the closes, +which at present do stand most sorely in need of the sanatory services of +the scavenger. This point, then, of sewerage we freely concede to the +Whigs. Let them grapple with it manfully, annihilate all the +water-companies in the realm, and give us an unlimited supply of the pure +fresh element without restriction or assessment. They cannot be employed +more harmlessly—nay, more usefully, than in such a task. Let them also +look to the points of adequate endowment for hospitals, and the +institution of public baths and washing-houses, and for once in their +lives they shall promote measures of real importance and benefit to the +poor.</p> + +<p>But, unfortunately, sewerage and its concomitants form but a small part of +the considerations connected with the government of this country. A +ministry may ask some popularity, but it can hardly found a claim for +permanency on the fact of its attention to drains. In the first place, +Lord John Russell and his colleagues have serious difficulties before them +in the state of the public revenue. The late fiscal changes cannot but +have the effect of causing a most serious defalcation, which must be +immediately and summarily supplied. It will not do to attribute this +defalcation to the acts of the late government, since the Whigs were not +only the cordial supporters of these measures, but were ready to have +taken the initiative. They are as much answerable as Sir Robert Peel, if, +at the end of the present year, the accounts of Exchequer shall exhibit a +large deficiency, which cannot, consistently with their own policy, be +remedied by any new <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>indirect taxation. The moment that free-trade is +adopted as a broad principle, there can be no going back upon former +steps. There is no resource left except a direct appeal to the purse, +which may, indeed, be made by an additional income-tax, if the country are +of a temper to submit to it. But we apprehend that a good deal of +negotiation will be necessary before any such measure can be carried. The +agriculturists are not in a mood to submit to any further burdens. The +eyes of the productive classes are by this time a little opened to the +effects of foreign importation, and their trade has been already much +crippled by the influx of manufactured articles from abroad. Above all, a +strong conviction is felt, both in England and in Scotland, of the gross +injustice of the system which throws the whole burden of the direct +taxation upon the inhabitants of these two countries, whilst Ireland is +entirely free. It is a system which admits of no excuse, and which cannot +continue long. The immunities which Ireland already enjoyed were any thing +but reasons for exempting her from the operation of income-tax. It is not +a question of relative poverty, for the scale is so adjusted that no man +is taxed except according to his possession; and it does seem utterly +inexplicable, and highly unjust to the Scotsman who pays his regular +assessments, and a per centage besides upon his income of £150, that the +Irishman, in similar circumstances, should be exempt from either charge. +It was this feeling, we believe, more than any other, which rendered the +increased grant to Maynooth college obnoxious to the greater part of the +British nation; and which, setting aside all other considerations, would +at once seal the fate of any ministry that might be rash enough to propose +the endowment of the Romish clergy out of the consolidated fund. An +increased direct taxation, therefore, would, under present circumstances, +be a most dangerous experiment for the Whigs; and yet, if they do not +attempt it, how are they to make good the almost certain deficiency of the +revenue?</p> + +<p>Probably that point may be postponed for future consideration. Sufficient +for the day is the evil thereof, and the sugar-duties are more immediately +pressing. Whether the West Indian proprietors are to receive the +<i>coup-de-grâce</i> during the present year, or whether they are to be allowed +a further respite, seems at the present a matter of absolute uncertainty. +It is, however, merely a question of time. Free-trade cares not for the +colonies; and, indeed, whilst the work of protective abolition is going on +so rapidly both at home and abroad, no isolated interest has reason to +expect that it will be exempted from the common rule. Ireland, it seems, +is to have an extension of the franchise; and with respect to her social +grievances, Lord John Russell is hopeful that his ministry will be enabled +"to afford, not a complete and immediate remedy, <i>but some remedy—some +kind of improvement; so that some kind of hope may be entertained that</i>, +<span class="smcaplc">SOME TEN OR TWELVE YEARS HENCE</span>, the country will, by the measures we +undertake, be in a far better state with respect to the frightful +destitution and misery which now prevail in that country." Here is a +precious enunciation of principles and grammar!—A complete remedy for the +Irish social grievances is avowedly out of the power of the most intrepid +of Whig politicians—a confession of which we presume Mr O'Connell will +not be slow to avail himself. But then he expects—or, to use his own +phraseology thinks—"it is <i>most likely</i> to be in our power to afford" +<i>some</i> remedy, <i>some</i> kind of improvement, the nature of which is still in +embryo, but which shall be so matured that <i>some</i> kind of hope may be +entertained, that in <i>some</i> ten or twelve years hence the country may be +in a far better state with regard to the destitution which now prevails in +the country! Was there ever, we ask, in the whole history of oracles, any +thing more utterly devoid of meaning, more thoroughly and helplessly +vague, than the above declaration? Why, the whole hopes of the noble scion +of the house of Russell are filtered away to nothing before he has +achieved the limits of his sentence. There are four or five different +stages of trust through which we decline to follow him, being perfectly +convinced that the hope of his being likely to introduce any such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +measure, is quite as improbable as the implied hope conveyed a little +further on, to the effect that he and his party may be allowed to remain +for some ten or twelve years in office, until these exceedingly musty +ideas all have resolved themselves into a tangible form.</p> + +<p>In the mean time it is some gratification to know that the Churches are to +be spared for the present. Not that Lord John Russell has any abstract +love for these institutions—for he has no objection to Romish endowment +out of the funds of the Irish Protestant Church—but then he is quite +aware that any such move on his part would lead to his instant and +ignominious expulsion from power. Earl Grey is of a different opinion; but +the construction of the present cabinet is such, that it admits of every +possible diversity of opinion, and was, in fact, so planned by the new +premier, that the lion and the lamb might lie down together, and Radical +Ward be installed in peace by the side of Conservative Lord Lincoln and of +Sidney Herbert, about a year ago the pride of the protectionists!</p> + +<p>There is something painfully ludicrous in Lord John's exposition of the +theories of cabinet construction. It was, as he experienced last winter, +quite impossible to bring the chiefs of his party to any thing like a +common understanding. The revelations of Mr Macaulay to his correspondent +in Edinburgh, gave any thing but a flattering picture of the unity which +then pervaded the councils of Chesham Place. It is gratifying to know, +that individuals who at that time expressed so exalted an opinion of the +intellects and temper of each other, should have met and consented to act +together in a spirit of mutual forgiveness. And we are now asked to +receive from the lips of Lord John this profound political axiom, that it +is not at all necessary that members of the same cabinet should agree in +their individual opinions. We have all heard of cabinets breaking up +through their own internal dissensions. Such a disruption, in the eyes of +Lord John, was an act of egregious folly. What was to have prevented each +man from voting according to his own opinions? On urgent questions, he +admits, they should maintain some show of unanimity; but, with all respect +for such an authority, we think he is unnecessarily scrupulous. Why +quarrel or dissolve upon any single point? Let every man vote according to +his own mind—let every question be considered an open one—and we shall +answer for the stability of the ministry. In fact, Lord John Russell has +at last discovered the political <i>elixir vitæ</i>. No disunion can break up +his administration, because disunion is the very principle upon which it +has been formed. He has sought support from all classes of men. He is so +far from disapproving of Conservative doctrines, that he absolutely has +solicited three members of the late government to hold office under him. +He asks no recantation of their former opinions, and binds them down to no +pledges for the future. Their associates, it is true, are to be men of +liberal opinions, some of them verging upon Chartism, and others avowed +ecclesiastical destructionists; but that need not deter them from +accepting and retaining office. We once knew a worthy Highland chief—a +more hospitable being never breathed—who towards the conclusion of his +third bottle, invariably lapsed into an affectionate polemical mood, and +with tears in his eyes used to put this question to his friends—"Why +can't a man be a Christian and a good fellow at the same time?" This is +just the theory of Lord John Russell. He can see no objection to diversity +of opinions, so long as the whole body of the cabinet are agreed upon one +essential point—that of holding fast by office; and surrendering it upon +no account whatever.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, when we look narrowly into his manifesto, we find that he has +chalked out for himself a course which makes this singular coalition by no +means absolutely impossible. He will do nothing, if he can help it, which +may give offence to any body. The cabinet are to have an easy task of it. +They have nothing to do but to sit still with uplifted oars, and allow the +vessel of the state to drift quietly along with the stream. We fear,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +however, that the Whig Palinurus has not taken into account the existence +of such things as shoals and sand-banks. Let him provide what crew he +pleases, the keel, unless we are sadly mistaken, will erelong be grating +upon some submerged impediment; and then he will have a fair opportunity +of testing the discipline of his motley band. Neither sewerage nor +education can well be expected to last for ever. Enormous interests are at +present placed in his charge; and these, handled and deranged as they have +been of late, will not admit of idling or inattention. There can be no +dawdling with these as with the Irish social measures. They will not stand +the postponement of some ten or twelve years; nor will Lombard Street +permit a second derangement of the financial affairs of the nation. In the +manufacturing districts, the workmen are demanding the relief of a +controlling factory bill, and on that point the cabinet is divided. The +railway system requires particular attention, less for the sake of +remedying past ministerial neglect, than of regulating future proceedings. +The affairs of the colonies may erelong require the superintendence of a +calm, temperate, and experienced head; and, finally, there is the question +of revenue and the inchoate system of free-trade. There is quite enough +work ready to the hand of the present ministry, if they only choose to +undertake it. The country party, we believe, will form an effective and a +watchful opposition, and will prove the best safeguard against any rash or +uncalled-for experiments. Situated as they now are, they have no other +functions to perform; and we would earnestly entreat of them, during the +period which must elapse between the present time and the next general +election, to bury, in so far as may be, all animosity for the past; and to +reflect seriously in what manner the changes, which are now inevitable, +may be best carried out for the benefit of the nation at large. The +artificial fabric which has been reared during many years of conquest and +successful industry, has now been deprived of its equipoise, and is fast +becoming a ruin We thought, and we still think, that it may be difficult +to find a better; but the work of demolition has already commenced, and we +must do what we can to assist in the construction of another. At all +events, we are entitled to insist upon working rigidly by plan. Let us +know what we are about to do, before we bind our hands to any partial and +one-sided measure; and, above all things, let us take care that the poorer +classes of our fellow-subjects shall not suffer privation or want of +employment during the adjusting and development of the new commercial +theories. A little time will show their actual value. Long before the +invention of the Irish social remedies, we shall be enabled to judge how +far the free-trade policy of England is likely to be reciprocated +abroad—we shall learn too, by the sure index of the balance-sheet, +whether these changes are operating towards our loss or our gain; and we +shall also have some opportunity of testing the efficiency of the present +administration. Let us, at all events, be prepared for future action; and +since we cannot altogether dismiss from our minds the political history of +the last few months, let us make it a useful lesson. It may be instructive +for future statesmen to learn how the most powerful party in this age and +country has been broken up and severed, not by any act of their own, but +by the change of policy of their leader. It may also teach then the value +of candour and of open dealing—virtues of such universal application, +that we cannot yield to doctrines which would exclude then even from the +councils of a cabinet.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><i>Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong></p> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> <i>Notes and Recollections of a Professional Life.</i> By the late <span class="smcap">Wm. +Fergusson</span>, M.D., Inspector-General of Military Hospitals. Longmans: 1846.</p> + +<p><i>The Military Miscellany.</i> By <span class="smcap">Henry Marshall</span>, F.R.S.E., Deputy +Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. Murray: 1846.</p> + +<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> Sir Charles Napier.</p> + +<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> "The author, soon after his last return from the West Indies, at the +close of the year 1817, was induced, from the then troubled state of the +country, to join the ranks of a volunteer corps in Scotland, which was +drilled and instructed by experienced men in all manner of ways, with the +exception of the one thing needful—the firing ball—for during the whole +time he remained with them, nearly two years, that was never thought of; +and this was the case generally with the whole volunteer force of Great +Britain, as well as the militia, at least in the early part of the war. +Future wars must and will recur, and volunteer corps will again be formed; +but if they be unused to the full-charged musket, however much their first +appearance may impose, they will be found, when brought into action, of as +much use as so many Chinese. Let them not suppose that until they have +attained this skill, which it is in the power of every man to do, they are +qualified to fight the battles of their country. * * * * In their present +state, supposing two such bodies to get into collision, it would indeed be +matter of wonder to think how they could contrive to kill one another +without the aid of the cannon and other adjuncts. If they carried +broomsticks on their shoulders, instead of muskets, they would no doubt +make a sturdy fight of it; but with fire-arms which they had never been +taught to use, the battle would resemble those of the Italian republics in +the middle ages, when mailed knights fought the livelong day without +mortal casualty."—<span class="smcap">Dr Fergusson</span>, p. 42.</p> + +<p>Is ball practice sufficiently attended to in our army generally? We are +inclined to doubt it. "We are economical people," says Dr Ferguson in +another place, "famed for straining at gnats and swallowing camels, and +the expense of ball cartridge is ever brought up in bar of the soldier +being in the constant habit of firing it." We should also like to see some +of our muskets replaced by rifles, an arm in which we have ever been +deficient.</p> + +<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> Macaulay's <i>Miscellaneous Essays</i>. Article <i>Dryden</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> Ranke's <i>History of the Popes</i> is a most valuable addition to +historical knowledge; but no one will assign it a place beside Livy or +Gibbon.</p> + +<p><a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">[6]</a> Macaulay's <i>Essays</i>. Article <i>Dryden</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="f7" id="f7" href="#f7.1">[7]</a></p> + +<p class="poem">"Those rules of old discover'd, not devised,<br /> +As Nature still, but Nature methodised:<br /> +Nature, like Liberty, is but restrain'd<br /> +By the same laws which first herself ordain'd.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites,</span><br /> +When to repress, and when indulge our flights:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span><span class="spacer">*</span></span><br /> +Just precepts thus from great examples given,<br /> +She drew from them what they derived from heaven."<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><i>Essay on Criticism.</i></span></p> + +<p><a name="f8" id="f8" href="#f8.1">[8]</a> <i>Peru.</i> <i>Reiseskizzen aus den Jahren</i>, 1838-1842. Von J. J. <span class="smcap">Von +Tschudi</span>. Volume the second.</p> + +<p><a name="f9" id="f9" href="#f9.1">[9]</a> "Por un clavo se pierde una herradura, por una herradura un cavallo, +por un cavallo un caballero."</p> + +<p><a name="f10" id="f10" href="#f10.1">[10]</a> Stevenson, in his work on South America, refers to the extraordinary +longevity of the Peruvian Indians. In the church register at Barranca, he +found recorded the deaths of eleven persons in the course of seven years, +whose joint ages made up 1207 years, giving an average of 110 years per +man. Dr Tschudi mentions an Indian in Jauja, still living in 1839, and who +was born, if the register and the priest's word might be believed, in the +year 1697. Since the age of eleven years he had made a moderate daily use +of coca. However old, few Indians lose their teeth or hair.</p> + +<p><a name="f11" id="f11" href="#f11.1">[11]</a> <i>Godo</i>, <i>goth</i>, the nickname given by Peruvian Indians to the +Spaniards.</p> + +<p><a name="f12" id="f12" href="#f12.1">[12]</a> <i>The Gastronomic Regenerator; a Simplified and entirely New System of +Cookery, &c.</i> By <span class="smcap">Monsieur A. Soyer</span>, of the Reform Club. London; 1846.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +60, No. 370, August 1846, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, AUGUST 1846 *** + +***** This file should be named 35731-h.htm or 35731-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/7/3/35731/ + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://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 60, No. 370, August 1846 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 31, 2011 [EBook #35731] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, AUGUST 1846 *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Library of Early Journals.) + + + + + + + + + + BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + NO. CCCLXX. AUGUST, 1846. VOL. LX. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + THE ARMY, 129 + + MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. NO. IV. CHARLES RUSSELL, + THE GENTLEMAN COMMONER. CHAPTER I., 145 + + THE ROMANTIC DRAMA, 161 + + THE MINSTREL'S CURSE. FROM UHLAND, 177 + + THE MINE, THE FOREST, AND THE CORDILLERA, 179 + + "MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO," 194 + + MESMERIC MOUNTEBANKS, 223 + + COOKERY AND CIVILISATION, 238 + + THE LATE AND THE PRESENT MINISTRY, 249 + + + EDINBURGH: + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; + AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, 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. CCCLXX. AUGUST, 1846. VOL. LX. + + + + +THE ARMY.[1] + + +When we glance back at the bright page of British military history, so +thickly strewn with triumphs, so rarely checkered by a reverse, it seems +paradoxical to assert that the English are not a military nation. Such, +nevertheless, is the case. Our victories have been the result of no +especial fitness for the profession of arms, but of dauntless spirit and +cool stubborn courage, characterising the inhabitants of the narrow island +that breeds very valiant children. Mere bravery, however heroic, does not +of itself constitute an aptitude for the soldier's trade. Other qualities +are needful--qualities conspicuous in many European nations, but less +manifest in the Englishman. Naturally military nations are those of +France, the Highlands of Scotland, Poland, and Switzerland--every one of +them affording good specimens of the stuff peculiarly fitted for the +manufacture of soldiers. They all possess a martial bent, a taste for the +military career, submitting willingly to its hardships and privations, and +are endowed with a faculty of acquiring the management of offensive +weapons, with which for the most part they become acquainted early in +life. A system of national conscription, like that established in many +continental countries, is the readiest and surest means of giving a +military tone to the character of a people, and of increasing the civil +importance and respectability of an army. But without proceeding to so +extreme a measure, other ways may be devised of producing, as far as is +desirable, similar results. + +We appeal to all intelligent observers, and especially to military men, +whom travel or residence upon the Continent have qualified to judge, +whether in any of the great European states the soldier has hitherto +obtained so little of the public attention and solicitude as in England? +Whether in any country he is so completely detached from the population, +enjoying so little sympathy, in all respects so uncared for and unheeded +by the masses, and, we are sorry to say it, often so despised and looked +down upon, even by those classes whence he is taken? Let war call him to +the field, and for a moment he forces attention: his valour is extolled, +his fortitude admired, his sufferings are pitied. But when peace, bought +by his bravery and blood, is concluded, what ensues? Houses of Parliament +thank and commend him, towns illuminate in honour of his deeds, pensions +and peerages are showered upon his chiefs, perhaps some brief indulgence +is accorded to himself; but it is a nine days' wonder, and those elapsed, +no living creature, save barrack masters, inspecting officers, and +Horse-guards authorities, gives him another thought, or wastes a moment +upon the consideration of what might render him a happier and a better +man. Like a well-tried sabre that has done its work and for the present +may lie idle, he is shelved in the barrack room, to be occasionally +glanced at with pride and satisfaction. Hilt and scabbard are, it is true, +kept carefully polished--drill and discipline are maintained; but +insufficient pains are taken to ascertain whether rust corrodes the blade, +whether the trusty servant, whose achievements have been so glorious and +advantageous, does not wear out his life in discouragement and +despondency. But this state of things, we hope and believe, is about to +change. We rejoice to see a daily increasing disposition on the part of +English legislators and of the English nation, to investigate and amend +the condition of their gallant defenders. If war is justly considered the +natural state of an army,[2] peace, on the other hand, is the best time to +moot and discuss measures likely to raise its character and increase its +efficiency. + +We do not fear to be accused of advocating change for its own sake, or +what is vulgarly nicknamed Reform, in any of the institutions of this +country, whether civil or military. But we rejoice at the appearance of +books calculated to direct attention, we will not say to the abuses of the +army, but to its possible improvement. And we know no class of men better +qualified to write such books than army surgeons, whose occupations, when +attached to regiments, bring them of necessity into more frequent contact +with a greater variety of men, and to a more intimate acquaintance with +the soldier's real character and feelings, than the duties of field or +company officers in our service either exact or permit. + +"To obviate the reproaches I may encounter for presuming to write upon +subjects altogether military, I may be allowed to state, that during a +quarter of a century that I served with the armies of the country, I +officiated as surgeon of three different regiments in different parts of +the world. I embarked nine times from the shores of Britain with armaments +on foreign expeditions, and out of twenty-four years' actual service, (for +the year of the peace of Amiens has to be deducted,) I spent seventeen +years, or parts of them, in other climates, passing through every grade of +medical rank, in every variety of service, even to the sister service of +the navy."--DR. FERGUSSON. _Preface._ + +These are the men, or we greatly err, to write books about the army. They +may not be conversant with tactics in the field, although even of those, +unless they wilfully shut both eyes and ears, they can hardly avoid +acquiring some knowledge. But on other matters connected with soldiers and +armies, they must be competent to speak, and should be listened to as +authorities. We look upon Dr Fergusson's testimony, and upon the +information--the result of his vast experience--which he gives us in +concise form and plain language, as most valuable; although some of the +changes he suggests have been accomplished, wholly or partially, since his +book was written. Mr Marshall's opportunities of personal observation +have, we suspect, been less extensive; but to atone for such deficiency, +he has been a diligent reader, and he places before us a host of military +authorities, references and statistical tables. The value of his +authorities may, perhaps, here and there be questioned; and he sometimes +gives, in the form of extracts, statements unauthenticated by a name, but +of which he does not himself seem to accept the responsibility. +Nevertheless, his book has merit, and is not unlikely to accomplish both +the objects proposed by its author,--namely, "to supply some information +respecting the constitution, laws, and usages of the army, and to excite +attention to the means which may meliorate the condition of soldiers, and +exalt their moral and intellectual character." + +These are three measures whose adoption would, we fully believe, elevate +the character of the British soldier, increase his self-respect and +willingness to serve, and, consequently, his efficiency in the field and +good conduct in quarters. They will not be thought the worse of, we are +sure, because they would assimilate the organization of our army to that +of certain foreign services. The day is gone by when prejudice prevented +Englishmen from adopting improvements, merely because they were based upon +foreign example. The measures referred to, and whose adoption we would +strenuously urge, are--first, the enlistment of soldiers for limited +periods only; secondly, the total abolition of corporal punishment; +thirdly, the increase of rewards, and especially a gradual and cautious +augmentation of the number of commissions given to non-commissioned +officers. Be it understood that we recommend these changes collectively, +and not separately. They hinge upon each other, particularly the two last; +and if one of them be refused, the others may require modification. + +By the British constitution, no man may sell himself to unlimited +servitude. On what grounds, then, is the practice of enlistment for life +to be justified; and can it be justified upon any, even upon those of +expediency? Ought not the thoughtless and the destitute--for under these +heads the majority of recruits must at present be ranked--rather to be +protected against themselves, and preserved, as far as may be, from the +consequences of non-reflection and of want? Such is assuredly the duty of +a just and paternal government. Very different is the practice of this +country under the present system! Influenced by a boyish caprice, or +driven by necessity, an inexperienced lad takes the shilling and mounts +the cockade. After a while he gets weary of the service; perhaps he sees +opportunities, if once more a civilian, of making his way in the world. +But weary though he be, or eagerly as he may desire to strip off the +uniform assumed hastily, or by compulsion of circumstances, no perspective +of release encourages him to patient endurance. No hope of emancipation, +so long as his health holds good, or his services are found useful, smiles +to him in the distance. After twenty-one years he _may_ obtain his +discharge, as a favour, but without pension. After twenty-five years, if +discharged at his own request, he gets sixpence a-day! Truly a cheering +prospect and great encouragement, to be liberated in the decline of life, +any trade that he had learned as a boy forgotten, and with sixpence a-day +as sole reward for having fought the battles and mounted the guards of his +country during a quarter of a century! What are the frequent results of so +gloomy a perspective? Despondency, desertion, drunkenness, and even +suicide. + +The British army, its strength considered, and in comparison with the +armies of other countries, is, undeniably, a very expensive establishment, +and the necessity of economy has been urged as an argument in favour of +unlimited enlistment. The evidence both of Dr Fergusson and of Mr Marshall +goes far to prove that one more fallacious was never advanced. Innumerable +are the artifices resorted to by soldiers, under the present system, in +the hope of obtaining their discharge--artifices sometimes successful, +frequently entailing expense on the government, and at times almost +impairing the efficiency of an army. Speaking of the last war, Dr +Fergusson says,--"Artificial ulcers of the legs were all but universal +amongst young recruits, and spurious ophthalmia was organised in +conspiracy so complicated and extended, that at one time it threatened +seriously to affect the general efficiency of the forces, and was in every +respect so alarming that the then military authorities durst not expose +its naked features to the world. These are the results, and ever will be +the results, whilst human nature is constituted as it is, of service for +life." That unlimited service is the chief cause of desertion may be +proved beyond a doubt, if there be any value in the statistics of armies +as given by Mr Marshall. In the year 1839, the mean strength of the French +army was three hundred and seventeen thousand five hundred and +seventy-eight men; the number condemned for desertion was six hundred and +six. Eight hundred and eighty-one conscripts were punished for failing to +join their corps. In the same year, in our army, of which the strength +was less than one third of the French--under one hundred thousand men--the +deserters punished amounted to two thousand one hundred and ten, or nearly +one-fifth of the number of recruits annually raised. Where must we seek +the cause of so monstrous a disparity? Chiefly in the difference of the +term of service. The English soldier is by far the best paid and rationed; +most of his comforts are more cared for than those of the Frenchman; but +the latter takes his service kindly, because he knows that in six or seven +years (the period varies a little according to the arm served in) he will +be free to return to civil life, whilst still at an age to begin the world +on his own account. The following extract from the _Military Miscellany_ +illustrates and confirms our present argument, that unlimited enlistment +is no saving to the country. + +"I have no adequate materials to enable me to state the mean duration of +service of men who enlist for the army; but I am disposed to conjecture +that it is not much, if at all, above ten years. It has, I believe, been +ascertained, that the average length of service performed by men now on +the permanent pension list, is about fifteen or sixteen years. Upon these +grounds I conclude that enlistment for life, as a means of obtaining an +average length of service of more than from ten to twelve years, is a +fallacy; and consequently, I submit whether it would not be an advisable +measure to abolish enlistment for an unlimited period, and to adopt a +regulation whereby a soldier might have the option of being discharged +after a certain length of service, say ten years." + +In estimating the average duration of service at ten to twelve years, Mr +Marshall has, we conjecture, taken into consideration the men discharged +under fifteen years' service, before which time they would not be entitled +to a pension. To the ten years' enlistment proposed by him, we should +prefer the term of seven years, fixed by Mr Wyndham's bill, passed in +1806, but rendered nugatory in 1808, by a clause in Lord Castlereagh's +Military bill, which made it optional to enlist for life, adding the +temptation of a higher bounty. The latter bait, aided by the +thoughtlessness of recruits, and by the cajolery of recruiting sergeants, +caused the engagement to be almost invariably for life. And since then, +Horse-guards' orders have been issued, forbidding recruiting officers to +accept men for limited service. According to Mr Wyndham's plan, the seven +years' engagement was to be prolonged indefinitely in war time. We should +not object to the latter arrangement, which is necessary for the safety of +the country. Nor is it when actively engaged in the field that soldiers +are likely to repine at length of service, but in the tedium of a +garrison, when no change, or prospect of one, no opportunity of +distinction, or chance of promotion, relieves the monotony of a military +existence. + +There is one advantage of short enlistments that has been overlooked both +by Dr Fergusson and by Mr Marshall, but which nevertheless is, in our +opinion, an important one. It is the increased military character that it +would give to the nation, the greater number of men whom it would +familiarize with the use of arms, and render competent to use them +effectually at a moment's notice. We believe that short enlistments, and +the other improvements already referred to, and which we shall presently +speak of at greater length, would produce, in this thickly peopled +kingdom, a regular annual supply of recruits, a large proportion of them +of a very superior class to those who now offer. On the other hand, the +army, instead of being thinned by desertions, transportations, and feigned +diseases, would each year give up from its ranks a number of young and +able-bodied men, who, whilst entering upon the occupations of civil life, +would in a great measure retain their soldierly qualities, and be ready, +in case of an emergency, to stand forward successfully in defence of their +homes and families. We have long been accustomed to look upon this country +as guaranteed from invasion by her wooden walls. Noble as the bulwark is, +there is no dissembling the fact, that its efficiency has been greatly +impaired by the progress of steam, rendering it extremely difficult, in +case of a war, effectually to guard our long line of coast. And although +Europe seems now as disinclined for war as a long experience of the +blessings of peace can render her, this happy state cannot, in the nature +of things, last for ever. Let us suppose a general war, and a large body +of French troops thrown upon our shores in a night, whilst our armies were +absent on the battle fields of the Continent, or of America. The +supposition is startling, but cannot be viewed as absurd; many looked upon +its realization as certain when circumstances were far less favourable to +it than they would now be. How far would volunteers and militiamen, +hastily raised, unaccustomed to services in the field, and many of whom +had never fired a ball-cartridge in their lives,[3] be able to cope, with +any chance of success, with fifty thousand French soldiers? And admitting +that they did successfully contend, and that superior numbers and +steadfast courage--although these, without good drill and discipline, are +of little avail against a veteran army--eventually gained the day, how +much more effective would they be, and how much loss of life and injury to +the country might be avoided, did their ranks contain a fair proportion of +men trained to arms, and able to instruct and encourage their comrades? +But these are subjects so suggestive as to afford themes for volumes, +where they might be better discussed than in the scanty pages of a review. +We can only afford to glance at them, and to throw out hints for others to +improve upon. + +The liability to the lash, inflicted, until very recently, even for the +least disgraceful offences, has long been thrown in the teeth of the +British soldier by his foreign brethren in arms. That infamous punishment +has been utterly disapproved and eloquently argued against by military men +of high rank and great abilities, whose enlightened minds and long +experience taught them to condemn it. The feeling of the nation is +strongly against it, the armies of other countries are seen to flourish +and improve without it, and yet it is still maintained, although gradually +sinking into disuse, and, we hope and believe, drawing near to its +abolition. Unnecessarily cruel as a punishment, ineffectual as an example +to repress crime, and stamping the indelible brand of infamy on men the +soul of whose profession should be a feeling of honour, why is it so +lovingly and tenaciously clung to? "The service would go to the +devil--could not be carried on without it--no soldiering without +flogging," is the reply of a section of officers--the minority, we +assuredly believe. "No one can doubt," says Dr Fergusson, "that for +infamous crimes there ought to be infamous punishments, and to them let +the lash be restricted." Be it so, but then devise some plan by which the +soldier, whose offence is so disgraceful as to need the most humiliating +of chastisements, shall be thenceforward excluded from the army. When he +leaves the hospital, let his discharge be handed to him. "A fine plan, +indeed!" it will be said. "Men will incur a flogging every day to get out +of the service." Doubtless they will, so long as service is unlimited. And +this is one reason why short enlistments and abolition of corporal +punishment should go together. Against desertion, transportation has +hitherto been found an ineffectual remedy. If men were enlisted for seven +years only, it would cease to be so. Few would then be sufficiently +perverse to risk five or seven years' transportation in order to get rid +of what remained of their period of service. To flog for drunkenness, +however frequent the relapse, is an absurdity, for it usually drives the +culprit to habits of increased intemperance, that he may forget the +disgraceful punishment he has suffered. In war time, when in the field +before the enemy, discipline should assume its most Spartan and inflexible +aspect. The deserter, the mutineer, the confirmed marauder, to the +provost-marshal and cord. For minor offences, there would be no difficulty +in finding appropriate punishments; such as fines, imprisonment in irons, +extra guards and pickets, fatigue-duty, and the like. No military +offenders should be punished by the cat. It is in direct opposition to the +spirit by which armies should be governed: a spirit of honour and +self-respect. + +"The incorrigible deserter," says Dr Fergusson, "may be safely committed +to penal service in the West Indies or the coast of Africa; and should the +pseudo-philanthropists interfere with the cant of false humanity, let them +be told that the best and bravest of our troops have too often been sent +there, as to posts of honour and duty, from which they are hereafter to be +saved by the substitution of the criminal and the worthless. The other +nations of the Continent, who have not these outlets, conduct the +discipline of their armies without flogging; and why should not we? They, +it may be said, cultivate the point of honour. And does not the germ of +pride and honour reside as well, and better, in the breast of the British +soldier, distinguished, as he has ever been, for fidelity to his colours, +obedience to his commanders, pride in his corps, and attachment to its +very name?" + +Mr Marshall's history of punishments in the army is rather to be termed +curious than useful. Agreeable it certainly cannot be considered, except +by those persons, if such there be, who luxuriate in Fox's _Book of +Martyrs_, or gloat over the annals of the Spanish Inquisition. It shows +human ingenuity taxed to the utmost to invent new tortures for the +soldier. The last adhered to, and, it may safely be said, the worst +devised, is the lash; and we need look back but a very little way to find +its infliction carried to a frightful extent. A thousand lashes used to be +no unusual award; and it sometimes happened (frequently, Mr Marshall +asserts, but this other information induces us to doubt) that a man who +had been unable, with safety to his life, to receive the whole of the +punishment at one time, was brought out again, as soon as his back was +skinned over, to take the rest. At one time there was no limit to the +number of lashes that a general court-martial might award. Mr Marshall +says, that at Amboyna, in the year 1813 or 1814, he knew three men to be +condemned to fifteen hundred lashes each. The whole punishment was +inflicted. At Dinapore, on the 12th September 1825, a man was sentenced to +nineteen hundred lashes, which sentence the commander-in-chief commuted to +twelve hundred. Such sentences, however, were in direct contradiction to +the general order of the 30th January 1807, by which "his Majesty was +graciously pleased to express his opinion, that no sentence for corporal +punishment should exceed one thousand lashes." In 1812, when the powers +of a regimental court-martial had been limited to the infliction of three +hundred lashes, "many old officers believed, and did not hesitate to say, +that such limitation would destroy the discipline of the +army."--(_Marshall_, p. 185.) We cannot put the same faith that Mr +Marshall appears to do in the outrageous narratives of some of his +authorities. It is impossible, for instance, to swallow such a tale as we +find at page 267 of the _Military Miscellany_, of seventy men of one +battalion being flogged on the line of march in one day. This, however, is +only given as an _on dit_. Equally incredible is the story quoted from the +book of a certain Sergeant Teesdale, of ten to twenty-five men being +flogged daily for six weeks for coming dirty on parade; and another, which +Mr Marshall tells, of _seventeen thousand_ lashes being for some time the +monthly allowance of a regiment in India--the said regiment being, we are +informed, treated very little worse than its neighbours. The articles of +war, as they stand at the present day, restrict the award of corporal +punishment, by a general court-martial, to two hundred lashes; by a +district court-martial, to one hundred and fifty; and by a regimental +court, to one hundred. + +We would put the question to any military man--even to the strongest +advocate of flogging--what is the usual effect of corporal punishment on +the soldier? Does it make or mar him, improve his character and correct +his vices, or render him more reckless and abandoned than before? The +conscientious answer would be, we are persuaded, that seldom is a good +soldier made of a flogged man. "There is not an instance in a thousand," +says Dr Jackson, "where severe punishment (flogging is here referred to) +has made a soldier what he ought to be; there are thousands where it has +rendered those who were forgetful and careless, rather than vicious, +insensible to honour, and abandoned to crime." But then the example is +supposed, erroneously, as we believe, to be of good operation. We cannot +admit that, to justify the practice of marking a man's shoulders with the +ineffaceable stripes of disgrace. + +In speaking of corporal punishment, we have considered only its moral +effect, and have not touched on the unnecessary and unequal amount of pain +it occasions. Much might be said upon this head. "My first objection to +flogging," says Sir Charles Napier, in his treatise "_On Military Law_," +published in 1837, "is, that it is torture,"--using the word, no doubt, in +the sense of inhumanity, and meaning that more pain than is necessary is +inflicted. Sir Charles's second objection is, that it is torture of a very +unequal infliction--varying, of course, according to the strength of the +drummers or others employed, to the rigour of the drum-major +superintending their exertions, and to other circumstances. Mr Marshall +tells us that different men suffer in very different degrees from +punishment of like severity. Tall slender men, of a sanguine temperament, +feel a flogging more severely than short, thickset ones; and instances +have been known of soldiers succumbing under a sixth part of the +punishment which others have borne and rapidly recovered from. The +presence of a surgeon is in many cases no guarantee against a fatal +result. "It is impossible to say what may be the effect of corporal +infliction with more certainty than to predict the consequences of a +surgical operation."--(_Military Miscellany_, p. 224.) "No medical officer +can answer either for the immediate or ultimate consequences of this +species of corporal punishment. Inflammation of the back, or general +fever, may occur after a very moderate infliction, and may terminate +fatally, notwithstanding the greatest diligence and attention on the part +of a well-informed and conscientious surgeon."--(_Ibid._ p. 276.) Besides +the reasons against corporal punishment above stated, Sir Charles Napier +advances and supports by argument six others equally cogent. Gustavus +Adolphus of Sweden, although he introduced into his army the species of +flogging known as the gantlope or gauntlet, rarely had recourse to it, +being persuaded that "such a disgrace cast a damp upon the soldier's +vivacity, and did not well agree with the notions which a high spirit +ought to entertain of honour." "Il ne faut point," says Kirckhoff, a +medical officer in the army of the king of the Netherlands, quoted by Mr +Marshall, "soumettre le soldat fautif a des punitions avilissantes. A quoi +bon les coups de baton qu'on donne trop legerement au soldat, si ce n'est +pour l'abrutir, et pour deshonorer le noble etat du defenseur de la +patrie? Ce genre de punition deshonorant ne devrait etre reserve qu'aux +laches et aux traitres; et des qu'une fois un militaire l'aurait subi, il +faudrait l'exclure a jamais d'un ordre auquel les destins d'une nation +sont confies; d'un ordre qui a pour base le courage, l'honneur, et toutes +les vertus genereuses." + +It is singular that whilst such remarkable ingenuity has been exhibited in +devising punishments for the soldier, so very little should have been +displayed in the invention of rewards. Of these latter, the most +legitimate and desirable are pensions and promotion. We would add a +third--a military order of merit to be bestowed upon men distinguishing +themselves by acts of gallantry, or by steady good conduct. Decorations of +this kind--we are convinced of it by our observations on various foreign +services--act as a strong incentive to the soldier. There exists in this +country a prejudice against their adoption, principally because we are +accustomed to see such rewards heaped without discrimination, and with a +profusion that renders them worthless, upon the soldiers of foreign +nations. There seems a natural tendency to the abuse of such institutions, +and Napoleon might well shudder were he to rise from his grave and see his +"Star of the Brave" dangling from the buttonhole of half the pamphleteers +and national guardsmen of the French capital. In other countries the +lavish profusion with which stars, crosses, riband-ends, and rosettes are +bestowed, is enough to raise a suspicion of collusion between the royal +donors and the jewellers and haberdashers of their dominions. But even +when largely distributed, we believe them to act as a spur to the soldier. +If there is a fear of England's becoming what we find so ridiculous in +others, a country where the non-decorated amongst military men are the +exception, let great caution be used in the bestowal of such honours. We +now refer to an order of merit for the soldiers only. With officers we +have at present nothing to do; although we shall be found upon occasion +equally ready and willing to support their just claims. But they can plead +their own cause, if not effectually, at least perseveringly, as the recent +numerous letters in newspapers, and articles in military periodicals, +claiming a decoration for Peninsular services, sufficiently prove. Such a +decoration was certainly nobly deserved, but, if conceded at all, it +should be given quickly, or its existence, it is to be feared, will be +very brief. Our present business, however, is with the soldier--the humble +private, the deserving non-commissioned officer. + +It is not unnatural that when tardy reflection comes to the thoughtless +lad who has sold himself to unlimited military bondage, he should be +anxious to know what provision is made for him when age or disease shall +cause his services to be dispensed with. Inquiry or reference informs him, +that should he be discharged after fourteen and under twenty-one years +service, so far disabled as to be _unable to work_--this is a +condition--he may be awarded the magnificent sum of from sixpence to +eightpence a-day! Discharged under twenty-one years' service, as disabled +for the army only, he may get a temporary pension of sixpence a-day for a +period varying from one month to five years. Discharged by indulgence +after twenty-five years, he may receive sixpence a-day. We have already +remarked on the little heed taken by civilians in this country of the +treatment and ordinances of the army. These statements will probably be +new to most of our non-military readers, many of whom, we doubt not, +entertain an absurd notion, that when a man has served his country well +and faithfully during twenty-five years, or is dismissed, as unable to +work, after fourteen years' servitude, he invariably finds a snug berth +ready for him at Chelsea, or at least has a pension awarded to him +tolerably adequate to supply him with the bare necessaries of life, and to +keep him from begging or crossing-sweeping. As to the savings of soldiers +out of their pay, facilitated though they now are by the establishment of +savings' banks in the army, they can be but exceedingly small. A soldier's +pay varies from thirteen to fifteen pence, according to the time he has +served. Deduct from this the cost of his clothing, only a portion of which +is supplied to him free of charge, and sixpence a-day for his rations of +bread and meat, and what remains will frequently not exceed threepence +a-day for tobacco, vegetables, coffee, and other small necessaries. The +great difference between the pay, rations, and pensions of soldiers and +sailors, is not generally known. Besides receiving rations far more +abundant and varied, an able seaman gets thirty-four shillings per month +of twenty-eight days, more than double the pay of a soldier under seven +years' service. Seamen have a claim of right to be discharged after +twenty-one years' service with a pension of one shilling to fourteen pence +a-day. And, besides this, it must be remembered that a sailor may enlist +for a short time, and at its expiration, or at any time that he is +discharged, employment is open to him in the merchant service. But what is +the soldier to do when dismissed from the army at forty years of age or +upwards? "A very small number of men," says Mr Marshall, "are fit after +forty years of age for the arduous duties of the service." Surely it may +be claimed for our brave fellows that a more liberal system of pensioning +be adopted. We do not lose sight of the necessity of economy in these days +of heavy taxation; and before deciding on a plan, the matter should be +well sifted and considered. But we have already expressed our conviction +that limited service would of itself in various ways produce a pecuniary +saving to the government. Adequate pensions would have other beneficial +results. Mr Marshall throws out suggestions for a new scale of pensions, +and declares his opinion, that no man who has served twenty-one years +should receive a smaller allowance than a shilling a-day. + +"The more striking," he proceeds to say, "the honourable example of an old +soldier enjoying his pension, the more likely is it to contribute to +spread a military feeling in the neighbourhood. But to repay the retired +soldier by a pension inadequate to his sustenance, must have the effect of +consigning him to the workhouse, and of sinking him and the army in the +estimation of the working class of the population; destroying all military +feeling, and, whilst the soldier is serving, weakening those important +aids to discipline--the cheerfulness and satisfaction which the prospect +of a pension, after a definite period, inspires." + +We now come to a branch of our subject encompassed with peculiar +difficulties, and that will be met with many objections; the present +system of disposing of commissions in the army is too convenient and +agreeable to a large and influential class of the community for it to be +otherwise. The most important part of the proposed scheme of rewards is +the bestowing of commissions upon sergeants. We are aware that, in the +present constitution of the army, much may be urged against such a plan +being carried out beyond an exceedingly limited extent. But most of the +objections would, we think, be removed by the adoption and consequences of +limited service, and by the extinction of corporal punishment. Others +would disappear before a greater attention to the education of the +soldier, and before some slight reductions in what are now erroneously +considered the necessary expenses of officers. + +Constituted and regulated as the British army now is, the immediate +consequences of enlistment to the young peasant or artisan of previous +respectability is a total breach with his family. However good his +previous character, the single fact of his entering what ought to be an +honourable profession, excludes him from the society and good opinion of +his nearest friends. Former associates shun and look coldly upon him, his +female relatives are ashamed to be seen walking with him, often the door +of his father's cottage or workshop is shut on his approach. The community +in general, there is no dissembling the fact, look upon soldiers as a +degraded class, and upon the recruit as a man consigned to evil company, +to idleness and the alehouse, and perhaps to the ignominy of the lash. To +brand an innocent man as criminal is the way to render him so. Avoided and +despised, the young soldier, to whom bad example is not wanting, speedily +comes to deserve the disreputable character which the mere assumption of a +red coat has caused to be fixed upon him. So long as military service +stands thus low in the opinion of the people, the army will have to +recruit its ranks from the profligate and the utterly destitute, and the +supply of respectable volunteers will be as limited as heretofore. At +present, most young men of a better class whom a temporary impulse, or a +predilection for the service, has induced to enlist, strain every nerve, +when they awake to their real position, to raise funds for their +discharge. In this their friends often aid them; and we have known +instances of incredible sacrifices being made by the poor to snatch a son +or brother from what they looked upon as the jaws of destruction. And thus +is it that a large proportion of the respectable recruits are bought out +after a brief period of service. + +Assuming limitation of service and the abolition of corporal punishment to +have been conceded, the next thing demanding attention would be the +education of the soldier. This has hitherto been sadly neglected, +strangely so at a period and in a country where education of the people is +so strongly and generally advocated. The schoolmaster is abroad, we are +told--we should be glad to hear of his visiting the barrack-room. To no +class of the population would a good plain education be more valuable than +to the soldier, as a means of filling up his abundant leisure, of +improving his moral condition, and preserving him from drunkenness and +vice. How extraordinary that its advantages should so long have been +overlooked, even by those to whom they ought to have been the most +palpable. "Of two hundred and fourteen officers," Mr Marshall writes, "who +returned answers to the following query, addressed to them by the General +Commanding in Chief, in 1834, only two or three recommended intellectual, +moral, or religious cultivation as a means of preventing crime:--'Are you +enabled to suggest any means of restraining, or eradicating the propensity +to drunkenness, so prevalent among the soldiery, and confessedly the +parent of the majority of military crimes?' A great variety of penal +enactments were recommended, but no one suggested the school master's +drill but Sir George Arthur and the late Colonel Oglander. The colonel's +words are:--'The only effectual corrective of this, as of every other +vice, is a sound and rational sense of religion. This is the only true +foundation of moral discipline. The establishment of libraries, and the +system of _adult_ schools, would be useful in this view.'" To prevent crime +is surely better than to punish it. Vast pains are taken with the merely +military education of the soldier. A recruit is carefully drilled into the +perpendicular, taught to handle his musket, mount his guards, clean his +accoutrements--converted, in short, into an excellent automaton--and then +he is dismissed as perfect, and left to lounge away, as best he may, his +numerous hours of daily leisure. He has perhaps never been taught to read +and write, or may possess those accomplishments but imperfectly. What more +natural than to encourage, and, if necessary, to compel him to acquire +them, together with such other useful scholarship as it may be desirable +for him to possess? Education would be especially valuable under a system +of limited service. The soldier, leaving the army when still a young man, +would be better fitted than before he entered it, for any trade or +occupation he might adopt. And when the lower classes found that military +service was made a medium for the communication of knowledge, and that +their sons, after seven years passed under the colours, were better able +to get through the world advantageously and creditably than when they +enlisted, the present strong prejudice against a soldier's life would +rapidly become weakened, and finally disappear. The army would then be +looked upon by poor men with large families as no undesirable resource +for temporarily providing for one or two of their sons. + +It is certainly not creditable to this country, that in France, Prussia, +Holland, and even in Russia--that land of the serf and the Cossack--greater +pains are taken with the education of the soldier than in free and +enlightened England. It has become customary to compare our navy with that +of France, and when we are found to have a carronade or a cock-boat less +than our friends across the water, a shout of indignation is forthwith set +up by vigilant journalists and nervous naval officers. We heartily wish +that it were equally usual to contrast our army with that of the +French--not in respect of numbers, but of the attention paid to the +education and moral discipline of the men. Every French regiment has two +schools, a higher and a lower one. In the latter are taught reading, +writing, and arithmetic; in the former, geography, book-keeping, the +elements of geometry and fortification, and other things equally useful. +The schools are managed by lieutenants, aided by non-commissioned +officers; and sergeants recommended for commissions are required to pass +an examination in the branches of knowledge there taught. It is well known +that in the French service, as in most others, excepting the English, a +proportion of the commissions is set aside for the sergeants. In the +Prussian service there is a school in each battalion, superintended by a +captain and three lieutenants, who receive additional pay for alternately +taking a share in the instruction of the soldiers. "Non-commissioned +officers," Mr Marshall informs us, "who wish to become officers, first +undergo an examination in geography, history, simple mathematics, and the +French and German languages. At the end of another year they are again +examined in the same branches of knowledge, and also in algebra, military +drawing, and fortification. If they pass this second examination, they +become officers." + +How many of the young men, who, by virtue of interest or money, enter the +British army as ensigns and cornets, would be found willing to devote even +a small portion of their time to the instruction of the soldier? Very few, +we fear. By the majority, the idea would be scouted as a bore, and as +quite inconsistent with their dignity. Extra pay, however acceptable to +the comparatively needy Prussian lieutenant, might be expected to prove an +insufficient inducement in a service where it is frequently difficult to +find a subaltern to accept the duties of adjutant. None can entertain a +higher respect than we do for the gallant spirit and many excellent +qualities of the present race of British officers; but we confess a wish +that they would view their profession in a more serious light. Young men +entering the army seemingly imagine, that the sole object of their so +doing is to wear a well-made uniform, and dine at a pleasant mess; and +that, once dismissed to their duty by the adjutant, they may fairly +discard all idea of self-instruction and improvement. But war is an art, +and therefore its principles can be acquired but by study. Our young +officers too often neglect not only their military studies, but their +mental improvement in other respects; forgetting that the most valuable +part of a man's education is not that acquired at a public school before +the age of eighteen, but that which he bestows upon himself after that +age. The former is the foundation; the latter the fabric to be raised upon +it. We have known instances of smart subs deft upon parade, brilliants in +the ball-room, perfect models of a pretty soldier from plume to boot-heel, +so supremely ignorant of the common business of life as to be unable to +write a letter without a severe effort, or to draw a bill upon their +agents when no one was at hand to instruct them in its form. It was but +the other day that an officer related to us, that, being detached on an +outpost in one of our colonies, he found himself in company with two +brother subalterns, both most anxious to make a call upon their father's +strong-box, but totally ignorant how to effect the same. Their spirit was +very willing, but their pen lamentably weak; their exchequer was +exhausted, and in their mind's-eye the paternal coffers stood invitingly +open; but nevertheless they sat helpless, ruefully contemplating oblong +slips of blank paper, until our friend, whose experience as a man of +business was somewhat greater, extricated them from their painful dilemma, +by drawing up the necessary document at _thirty days' sight_. In this +particular view, want of skill as a "pen and ink man" would probably not +be regretted by those most interested in their sons; and doubtless many +_governors_ would exclaim, as fervently as Lord Douglas in _Marmion_, + + "Thanks to St Bothan, son of mine + Could never pen a written line!" + +Seriously speaking, a graver and more studious tone is wanted in our +service. It is found in the military services of other countries. German +and French officers take their calling far more _au serieux_ than do ours. +They find abundant time for pleasure, but also for solitude and reading, +and for attention to the improvement of the soldier. Dressing, dining, and +cigars, and beating the pavements of a garrison town with his boot-heels, +ought not to fill up the whole time of a subaltern officer. That in this +country they usually do so, will be admitted by all who have had +opportunities of observing young English officers in peace time. We could +bring hosts of witnesses in support of our assertion, but will content +ourselves with one whose competency to judge in such matters will not be +disputed. The following passages are from Major-General Sir George +Arthur's "General Observations upon Military Discipline, and the +Intellectual and Moral Improvement of both Officers and Soldiers." + +"I have said that education is essential, as well as moral character, and +so it is. Look into the habits of the officers of almost every regiment in +His Majesty's service--how are they formed? Do men study at all after they +get commissions? Very far from it; unless an officer is employed in the +field, his days are passed in mental idleness--his ordinary duties are +carried on instinctively--there is no intellectual exertion. To discuss +fluently upon women, play, horses, and wine, is, with some excellent +exceptions, the ordinary range of mess conversation. In these matters lie +the education of young officers, generally speaking, after entering the +service." + +"If the officers were not seen so habitually walking in the streets in +every garrison town, the soldiers would be less frequently found in +public-houses." + +The influence of example is great, especially when exercised by those whom +we are taught to look up to and respect. A change in the habits of +officers will go far to produce one in those of their men. French +officers, of whom we are sure that no British officer who has met them, +either in the field or in quarters, will speak without respect, feel a +pride and a pleasure in the instruction of the soldier, and take pains to +induce him to improve his mind, holding out as an incentive the prospect +of promotion. And such interest and solicitude produce, amongst other good +effects, an affectionate feeling on the part of the soldier towards his +superiors, which, far from interfering with discipline, makes him perform +his duties, often onerous and painful, with increased zeal and good-will. +For the want of this kindly sympathy between different ranks, and of the +moral instruction which, by elevating their character, would go far to +produce it, our soldiers are converted into mere machines, unable even to +think, often forbidden so to do. We are convinced that attention to the +education of the soldier, introduced simultaneously with short enlistments +and abolition of flogging, would speedily create in the army of this +country a body of non-commissioned officers, who, when promoted, would +disgrace no mess-table in the service. With the prospect of the epaulet +before them, they would strive to improve themselves, and to become fit +society for the men of higher breeding and education with whom they hoped +one day to be called upon to associate. For, if it be painful and +unpleasant to a body of gentlemen to have a coarse and ill-mannered man +thrust upon them, it is certainly not less so to the intruder, if he +possess one spark of feeling, to find himself shunned and looked coldly +upon by his new associates. The total abolition of corporal punishment is, +we consider, a necessary preliminary to promotion from the ranks on an +extensive scale. We were told four years ago, in the House of Commons, +during a debate on the Mutiny bill, that there were then in the British +army four colonels who were flogged men. Many will remember the story +related in a recent military publication, of the old field-officer who, +one day at the mess-table, or amongst a party of his comrades, declared +himself in favour of corporal punishment, on the ground that he himself +had never been worth a rush till he had taken his cool three hundred. +During a long war, abounding in opportunities of distinction, and at a +time when the lash was the universal punishment for nearly every offence, +it is not surprising that here and there a flogged man got his commission. +But, in our opinion, not only the circumstance of having been flogged, but +the mere liability to so degrading an infliction, might plausibly be urged +as an argument against promotion from the ranks. Let the lash, then, at +once and totally disappear; replace torture by instruction, hold out +judicious rewards instead of disgraceful punishment, appeal to the sense +of honour of the man, instead of to the sense of pain of the brute; and, +repudiating the harsh traditions of less enlightened days, lay it down as +an axiom, that the British soldier can and will fight at least as well +under a mild and generous system, as when the bloody thongs of the cat are +suspended _in terrorem_ over him. + +The physical as well as moral training of the soldier should receive +attention, as a means both of filling up his time, thereby keeping him +from the alehouse, and of increasing his efficiency in the field. At +present the marching qualities of our armies are very far inferior to +their fighting ones. In the latter, they are surpassed by none--in the +former, equal to few. And yet how important is it that troops should be +able to perform long and rapid marches! The fate of a campaign, the +destruction of an enemy's army, may, and often does depend upon a forced +march. At that work there is scarcely an army in Europe worth the naming, +but would beat us, at least at the commencement of a war, and until our +soldiers had got their marching legs--a thing not done in a day, or +without great loss and inconvenience by straggling. Foot-sore men are +almost as great a nuisance and encumbrance to infantry, as sore-backed +horses to dragoons. Our soldiers are better fed than those of most other +countries, and to keep them in hard and serviceable condition they require +more exercise than they get. French soldiers are encouraged to practice +athletic exercises and games; running, quoit-playing, and fencing, the +latter especially, are their constant pastimes. Most of them are expert +swordsmen, no valueless accomplishment even to the man whose usual weapons +are musket and bayonet, but one that in our infantry regiments is +frequently neglected even by those whose only arm is the sword, namely, +the officers. Surely the man who carries a sword should know how to use it +in the most effectual manner. Let old officers say on whose side the +advantage usually was in the sword duels that occurred when Paris was +occupied by the Allies, and when the French officers, maddened by their +reverses, sought opportunities of picking quarrels with their conquerors. +The adjutant of a British foot regiment informed us, that on one occasion, +not very long ago, at a review of his corps by an officer of high rank, +the latter, after applauding the performances of the regiment, expressed a +wish to see the officers do the sword exercise. In obedience to orders, +the adjutant called the officers to the front. "I suppose, gentlemen," +said he, "that few of you know much about the sword exercise." His +assumption was not contradicted. "Probably, your best plan will be to +watch the sergeant-major and myself." And accordingly adjutant and +sergeant-major placed themselves in front of each flank, and the officers, +looking to them as fuglemen, went through their exercise with great +delicacy and tolerable correctness, to the perfect satisfaction of the +inspecting general, who probably was not disposed to be very captious. But +we are digressing from the subject of the soldier's occupations. In +France, let a military work be required--a wall, road, or +fortification--and the soldiers slip into their working dresses, and +labour at it with a good will produced by additional pay. Thus were the +forts and vast wall now surrounding Paris run up in wonderfully short time +by the exertions of the soldiery. In all German garrison towns, we +believe--certainly in all that we have visited--is found an Exercitiums +Platz, a field or plot of ground with bars, poles, and other gymnastic +contrivances, reserved for the troops, who are frequently to be seen +there, amusing themselves, and improving their strength and activity of +body. We are aware of nothing of this kind in our service, beyond a rare +game at cricket, got up by the good-nature of officers. As Dr Fergusson +truly says, "of all European troops, our own appear to be the most +helpless and listless in their quarters. Whilst the soldiers of other +nations employ their leisure hours in fencing, gymnastics, and other +exercises of strength, ours are lounging idle, or muddled, awaiting the +hour of their unvaried meal, or the drum being beat for the daily +parades." This might easily be altered. It needs but to be thought of, +which hitherto it appears not to have been. No men are naturally more +adapted and prone to manly exercises than the English. Give the soldier +the opportunity, and he will gladly avail himself of it. + +Before closing this paper, a word or two on the equipment and dress of the +army will not be out of place. We are glad to find the opinions we have +long entertained on those subjects confirmed by a pithy and pointed +chapter in Dr Fergusson's book. The externals of the army have of late +been much discussed, and have undergone certain changes, scarcely +deserving the name of improvements. In regulating such matters, three +objects should be kept in view, and their pursuit never departed from; +lightness on the march, protection from the weather, ease of movement. The +attainment of these should be sought by every means; even by the +sacrifice, if necessary, of what pleases the eye. The most heavily laden, +the British soldier is in many respects the most inconveniently equipped, +of all European men-at-arms. The covering of his head, the material and +colour of his belts, the very form of the foot-soldier's overalls, cut +large over the shoe, as if on purpose to become dirty and draggled on the +march, seem selected with a view to occasion him as much uncomfort and +trouble as possible. Time was, when the soldier was compelled to powder +his hair and wear a queue and tight knee breeches, like a dancing master +or a French marquis of the _ancien regime_. For the sweeping away of such +absurdities, which must have been especially convenient and agreeable in a +bivouac; we may thank the Duke of York; but much as has been done, there +is much more to do. And first as regards the unnecessarily heavy belts, +the cumbersome and misplaced cartridge-box. Than the latter it would be +difficult to devise any thing more inconvenient, as all who have seen +British infantry in the field will admit. The soldier has to make a rapid +advance, to pursue a flying enemy, to scud across fields, leap ditches or +jump down banks when out skirmishing. At every spring or jump, bang goes +the lumbering cartridge-box against his posteriors, until he is fain to +use his hand to steady it, thereby of course greatly impeding his +progress, the swiftness and ease of running depending in great measure on +one arm, at least, being at liberty. And then the belts, what an +unnecessary mass of leather is there, all bedaubed with the fictitious +purity of chalk and water. When will the soldier cease to depend for +cleanliness upon pipe-clay, justly styled by Dr Fergusson "as absurd and +unwholesome a nuisance as ever was invented." Had the object been to give +the utmost possible trouble to the infantry-man, no better means could +have been devised than inflicting on him the belts at present used, of all +others the most easily sullied and troublesome to clean. Let a black +patent leather belt and rifleman's cartridge-box be adopted as the +regulation for the whole of the British service. Light to carry, +convenient in form, and easy to clean, it is the perfection of infantry +equipment. + +There has recently been a great talk about hats, and various shocking bad +ones have been proposed as a substitute for the old top-heavy shako. +Without entering upon a subject that has already caused so much +controversy, we would point attention to the light shako worn by the +French troops in Algeria. Low, and slightly tapering in form, with a broad +peak projecting horizontally, so as to shade the eyes without embarrassing +the vision, which peaks that droop overmuch are apt to do, its +circumference is of cloth, its crown of thick leather painted white. The +general effect is good, conveying an idea of lightness and convenience, +both of which this head-dress certainly possesses; and it appears to us +that a hint might be taken from it, at any rate, for our troops in India, +and other hot climates. As to fur caps a yard high, and similar +nonsensical exhibitions, we can only say that the sooner they are done +away with, the better for the credit of those who have it in their power +to abolish such gross absurdities. With regard to coats, "I advance no +pretensions," says Dr Fergusson, "to fancy or taste in military dress, but +I ought to know what constitutes cover and protection to the human frame, +and amongst these the swallow-tailed coat of the infantry, pared away as +it is to an absurdity, holds no place. If health and protection were the +object, the coat should be of round cut, to cover the thighs as low as the +knees, with body of sufficient depth to support the unprotected flanks and +abdomen of the wearer." In the French service, frock-coats have of late +been universally adopted. We should prefer a tailed coat of greater +amplitude of skirt and depth of body than the one in present use; for it +is certain, and will be acknowledged by all who have performed marches and +pedestrian excursions, that the skirts of a frock-coat flapping against +the front of the thighs, more or less impede motion and add to fatigue. + +Although the form of a soldier's dress is important, for it may make a +considerable difference in his health and comfort, its colour and +ornamental details are a very secondary consideration. It were absurd to +doubt that a British soldier would fight equally well, whatever the tint +of the cloth that covered his stalwart arm and stout heart. Strip him +to-morrow of his scarlet, and he will do his devoir as nobly in the white +jacket of the Austrian grenadier or the brown one of the Portuguese +_cazador_. Such matters, it will be said, may be left to army tailors and +pet colonels of fancy regiments, in conclave assembled. Nevertheless it is +a subject that should not entirely be passed over. Soldiers are apt to +look with disgust and contempt upon equipments that are tawdry and +unserviceable, or that give them unnecessary trouble. They should be +gravely, soberly, and usefully clad, in the garb that may be found most +comfortable and durable in the field, not in that which most flatters the +eye on a Hounslow or Hyde Park parade. Dr Fergusson is amusing enough upon +the subject of hussar pelisses and such-like foreign fooleries. + +"The first time I ever saw a hussar, or hulan, was at Ghent, in Flanders, +then an Austrian town; and when I beheld a richly decorated pelisse +waving, empty sleeves and all, from his shoulder, I never doubted that the +poor man must have been recently shot through the arm; a glance, however, +upon a tightly braided sleeve underneath, made it still more +unaccountable; and why he should not have had an additional pair of richly +ornamental breeches dangling at his waist, as well as a jacket from his +shoulders, has, I confess, puzzled me from that time to the present; it +being the first rule of health to keep the upper portion of the body as +cool, and the lower as warm as possible." + +The doctor further disapproves of scarlet as a colour for uniform, because +"a man clothed in scarlet exhibits the dress of a mountebank rather than +of a British warrior going forth to fight the battles of his country," and +also "because it is the worst adapted for any hard work of all the +colours, as it immediately becomes shabby and tarnished on being exposed +to the weather; and a single wet night in the bivouac spoils it +completely." Here we must differ from the doctor. The chief advantage of +scarlet, we have always considered, and we believe the same opinion to be +generally held by military men, is that it looks well longer, gets white +and shabby later, than a darker colour. The preparation of the cloth and +mode of dyeing, may, however, have been improved since Dr Fergusson's +period of service. With regard to the colour, there is a popular prejudice +in its favour, associating it as most persons do, from childhood upwards, +with ideas of glory and victory. Had our uniform been yellow for the same +period that it has been red, we should have attached those ideas to the +former colour; but that would be no reason for continuing to dress +soldiers like canary birds. Apart from association, scarlet is unmilitary, +first, because it is tawdry; and, secondly, as rendering the soldier, when +isolated, an easier mark than a less glaring colour. We doubt also, if it +would harmonize well with the black belts, which we desire to see adopted; +and on these various accounts we must give our vote in favour of the sober +blue of the Prussians, assuredly no un-British colour, and one already in +use for many of our cavalry regiments. The Portuguese troops, as they are +now uniformed, or were, when last we saw them, offer no bad model in this +respect. Blue coats and dark grey trousers are the colours of their line +regiments, and these we should like to see adopted in our service, +preserving always the green for the rifles, who ought to be ten times as +numerous as they are, as we shall discover whenever we come to a brush +with the Yankees, or with our old and gallant opponent, Monsieur +Nong-tong-paw. One would have thought that the picking off of our officers +at New Orleans, and on other occasions, and the stinging practice of +French tirailleurs during the last war, would have taught our military +rulers a lesson in this respect; but the contrary seems the case, and on +we go at the old jog-trot, heavy men, heavy equipments, and slow march, +whilst seven-eighths of the French army are practically light infantry, +and it is only the other day that they raised ten new regiments of +sharpshooters, the Chasseurs de Vincennes, or some such name, little light +active riflemen, trained to leap and to march for leagues at double quick, +and who would scamper round a ten acre field whilst a heavy British +grenadier went through his facings. The cool steadiness and indomitable +pluck of our fellows has hitherto carried the day, and will doubtless do +it again when the time comes, but it would be done with greater ease and +less loss if we could condescend to fight our enemy rather more with his +own weapons. _Fas est ab hoste doceri_, is a maxim oftener quoted than +acted upon. But to return to uniforms. The scarlet might be reserved for +the guards--it has always been a guardsman's colour--the blue given to the +line, the green kept for the rifles; black belts on rifle plan for all. +And above all, if it can be done without too great annoyance to tailors, +amateur and professional, deliver us from braided pelisses, bearskin caps, +crimson pantaloons, and all such costly and unserviceable fopperies. Spend +money on the well-being of the soldier, rather than on the smartness of +his uniform; cut down frippery, and increase comfort. Attend less to the +glitter of externals, and more to that moral and intellectual cultivation, +which will convert men now treated as machines, into reasoning and +reasonable creatures, and valuable members of society. + + + + +MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. NO. IV. + +CHARLES RUSSELL, THE GENTLEMAN-COMMONER. + + +CHAP. I. + +"Have you any idea who that fresh gentleman-commoner is?" said I to +Savile, who was sitting next to me at dinner, one day soon after the +beginning of term. We had not usually in the college above three or four +of that privileged class, so that any addition to their table attracted +more attention than the arrival of the vulgar herd of freshmen to fill up +the vacancies at our own. Unless one of them had choked himself with his +mutton, or taken some equally decided mode of making himself an object of +public interest, scarcely any man of "old standing" would have even +inquired his name. + +"Is he one of our men?" said Savile, as he scrutinized the party in +question. "I thought he had been a stranger dining with some of them. +Murray, you know the history of every man who comes up, I believe--who is +he?" + +"His name is Russell," replied the authority referred to; "Charles +Wynderbie Russell; his father's a banker in the city: Russell and Smith, +you know, ---- Street." + +"Ay, I dare say," said Savile; "one of your rich tradesmen; they always +come up as gentlemen-commoners, to show that they have lots of money: it +makes me wonder how any man of decent family ever condescends to put on a +silk gown." Savile was the younger son of a poor baronet, thirteenth in +descent, and affected considerable contempt for any other kind of +distinction. + +"Oh!" continued Murray, "this man is by no means of a bad family: his +father comes of one of the oldest houses in Dorsetshire, and his mother, +you know, is one of the Wynderbies of Wynderbie Court--a niece of Lord De +Staveley's." + +"_I_ know!" said Savile; "nay, I never heard of Wynderbie Court in my +life; but I dare say _you_ know, which is quite sufficient. Really, +Murray, you might make a good speculation by publishing a genealogical +list of the undergraduate members of the university--birth, parentage, +family connexions, governors' present incomes, probable expectations, &c., +&c. It would sell capitally among the tradesmen--they'd know exactly when +it was safe to give credit. You could call it _A Guide to Duns_." + +"Or a _History of the_ Un-_landed Gentry_," suggested I. + +"Well, he is a very gentleman-like looking fellow, that Mr Russell, banker +or not," said Savile, as the unconscious subject of our conversation left +the hall; "I wonder who knows him?" + +The same question might have been asked a week--a month after this +conversation, without eliciting any very satisfactory answer. With the +exception of Murray's genealogical information--the correctness of which +was never doubted for a moment, though how or where he obtained this and +similar pieces of history, was a point on which he kept up an amusing +mystery--Russell was a man of whom no one appeared to know any thing at +all. The other gentlemen-commoners had, I believe, all called upon him, as +a matter of courtesy to one of their own limited mess; but in almost every +case it had merely amounted to an exchange of cards. He was either out of +his rooms, or "sporting oak;" and "Mr C. W. Russell," on a bit of +pasteboard, had invariably appeared in the note-box of the party for whom +the honour was intended, on their return from their afternoon's walk or +ride. Invitations to two or three wine-parties had followed, and been +civilly declined. It was at one of these meetings that he again became the +subject of conversation. We were a large party, at a man of the name of +Tichborne's rooms, when some one mentioned having met "the Hermit," as +they called him, taking a solitary walk about three miles out of Oxford +the day before. + +"Oh, you mean Russell," said Tichborne: "well, I was going to tell you, I +called on him again this morning, and found him in his rooms. In fact, I +almost followed him in after lecture; for I confess I had some little +curiosity to find out what he was made of." + +"And did you find out?"--"What sort of a fellow is he?" asked half-a-dozen +voices at once; for, to say the truth, the curiosity which Tichborne had +just confessed had been pretty generally felt, even among those who +usually affected a dignified disregard of all matters concerning the +nature and habits of freshmen. + +"I sat with him for about twenty minutes; indeed, I should have staid +longer, for I rather liked the lad; but he seemed anxious to get rid of +me. I can't make him out at all, though. I wanted him to come here +to-night, but he positively would not, though he didn't pretend to have +any other engagement: he said he never, or seldom, drank wine." + +"Not drink wine!" interrupted Savile. "I always said he was some low +fellow!" + +"I have known some low fellows drink their skins full of wine, though; +especially at other men's expense," said Tichborne, who was evidently not +pleased with the remark; "and Russell is _not_ a low fellow by any means." + +"Well, well," replied Savile, whose good-humour was imperturbable--"if you +say so, there's an end of it: all I mean to say is, I can't conceive any +man not drinking wine, unless for the simple reason that he prefers brandy +and water, and that I _do_ call low. However, you'll excuse my helping +myself to another glass of this particularly good claret, Tichborne, +though it _is_ at your expense: indeed, the only use of you +gentlemen-commoners, that I am aware of, is to give us a taste of the +senior common-room wine now and then. They do manage to get it good there, +certainly. I wish they would give out a few dozens as prizes at +collections; it would do us a great deal more good than a Russia-leather +book with the college arms on it. I don't know that I shouldn't take to +reading in that case." + +"Drink a dozen of it, old fellow, if you can," said Tichborne. "But really +I am sorry we couldn't get Russell here this evening; I think he would be +rather an acquisition, if he could be drawn out. As to his not drinking +wine, that's a matter of taste; and he is not very likely to corrupt the +good old principles of the college on that point. But he must please +himself." + +"What does he do with himself?" said one of the party--"read?" + +"Why, he didn't _talk_ about reading, as most of our literary freshmen do, +which might perhaps lead one to suppose he really was something of a +scholar; still, I doubt if he is what you call a reading man; I know he +belongs to the Thucydides lecture, and I have never seen him there but +once." + +"Ah!" said Savile, with a sigh, "that's another privilege of yours I had +forgotten, which is rather enviable; you can cut lectures when you like, +without getting a thundering imposition. Where does this man Russell +live?" + +"He has taken those large rooms that Sykes used to have, and fitted up so +capitally; they were vacant, you remember, the last two terms; I had some +thought of moving into them myself, but they were confoundedly expensive, +and I didn't think it worth while. They cost Sykes I don't know how much, +in painting and papering, and are full of all sorts of couches, and easy +chairs, and so forth. And this man seems to have got two or three good +paintings into them; and, altogether, they are now the best rooms in +college, by far." + +"Does he mean to hunt?" asked another. + +"No, I fancy not," replied our host: "though he spoke as if he knew +something about it; but he said he had no horses in Oxford." + +"Nor any where else, I'll be bound; he's a precious slow coach, you may +depend upon it." And with this decisive remark, Mr Russell and his affairs +were dismissed for the time. + +A year passed away, and still, at the end of that time--(a long time it +seemed in those days)--Russell was as much a stranger in college as ever. +He had begun to be regarded as a rather mysterious person. Hardly two men +in the college agreed in their estimate of his character. Some said he was +a natural son--the acknowledged heir to a large fortune, but too proud to +mix in society, under the consciousness of a dishonoured birth. But this +suspicion was indignantly refuted by Murray, as much on behalf of his own +genealogical accuracy, as for Russell's legitimacy,--he was undoubtedly +the true and lawful son and heir of Mr Russell the banker, of ---- Street. +Others said he was poor; but his father was reputed to be the most wealthy +partner in a wealthy firm, and was known to have a considerable estate in +the west of England. There were not wanting those who said he was +"eccentric,"--in the largest sense of the term. Yet his manners and +conduct, as far as they came within notice, were correct, regular, and +gentlemanly beyond criticism. There was nothing about him which could +fairly incur the minor charge of being odd. He dressed well, though very +plainly; would converse freely enough, upon any subject, with the few men +who, from sitting at the same table, or attending the same lectures, had +formed a doubtful sort of acquaintance with him; and always showed great +good sense, a considerable knowledge of the world, and a courtesy, and at +the same time perfect dignity of manner, which effectually prevented any +attempt to penetrate, by jest or direct question, the reserve in which he +had chosen to inclose himself. All invitations he steadily refused; even +to the extent of sending an excuse to the dean's and tutors' breakfast +parties, to their ineffable disgust. Whether he read hard, or not, was +equally a secret. He was regular in his attendance at chapel, and +particularly attentive to the service; a fact which by no means tended to +lower him in men's estimation, though in those days more remarkable than, +happily, it would be now. At lectures, indeed, he was not equally +exemplary, either as to attendance or behaviour; he was often absent when +asked a question, and not always accurate when he replied; and +occasionally declined translating a passage which came to his turn, on the +ground of not having read it. Yet his scholarship, if not always strictly +accurate, had a degree of elegance which betokened both talent and +reading; and his taste was evidently naturally good, and classical +literature a subject of interest to him. Altogether, it rather piqued the +vanity of those who saw most of him, that he would give them no +opportunity of seeing more; and many affected to sneer at him, as a +"_muff_," who would have been exceedingly flattered by his personal +acquaintance. Only one associate did Charles Russell appear to have in the +university; and this was a little greenish-haired man in a scholar's gown, +a perfect contrast to himself in appearance, whose name or college no man +knew, though some professed to recognise him as a Bible-clerk of one of +the smallest and most obscure of the halls. + +Attempts were made to pump out of his scout some information as to how +Russell passed his time: for, with the exception of a daily walk, +sometimes with the companion above mentioned, but much oftener alone, and +his having been seen once or twice in a skiff on the river, he appeared +rarely to quit his own rooms. Scouts are usually pretty communicative of +all they know--and sometimes a great deal more--about the affairs of their +many masters; and they are not inclined in general to hold a very high +opinion of those among "their gentlemen" who, like Russell, are +behind-hand in the matter of wine and supper parties--their own +perquisites suffering thereby. But Job Allen was a scout of a thousand. +His honesty and integrity made him quite the "_rara avis_" of his +class--_i.e._, a _white_ swan amongst a flock of black ones. Though +really, since I have left the university, and been condemned to +house-keeping, and have seen the peculation and perquisite-hunting +existing pretty nearly in the same proportion amongst ordinary +servants--and the higher you go in society the worse it seems to +be--without a tittle of the activity and cleverness displayed by a good +college scout, who provides supper and etceteras for an extemporary party +of twenty or so at an hour's notice, without starting a difficulty or +giving vent to a grumble, or neglecting any one of his other multifarious +duties, (further than perhaps borrowing for the service of the said +supper, some hard-reading freshman's whole stock of knives, and leaving +him to spread his nocturnal bread and butter with his fingers;) since I +have been led to compare this with the fuss and fidget caused in a +"well-regulated family" among one's own lazy vagabonds by having an extra +horse to clean, or by a couple of friends arriving unexpectedly to dinner, +when they all stare at you as if you were expecting impossibilities, I +have nearly come to the conclusion that college servants, like hedgehogs, +are a grossly calumniated race of animals--wrongfully accused of getting +their living by picking and stealing, whereas they are in fact rather more +honest than the average of their neighbours. It is to be hoped that, like +the hedgehogs, they enjoy a compensation in having too thick skins to be +over-sensitive. At all events, Job Allen was an honest fellow. He had been +known to expostulate with some of his more reckless masters upon the +absurdities of their goings-on; and had more than once had a commons of +bread flung at his head, when taking the opportunity of symptoms of +repentance, in an evident disrelish for breakfast, to hint at the slow but +inevitable approach of "degree-day." Cold chickens from the evening's +supper-party had made a miraculous reappearance at next morning's lunch or +breakfast; half-consumed bottles of port seemed, under his auspices, to +lead charmed lives. No wonder, then, there was very little information +about the private affairs of Russell to be got out of Job Allen. He had +but a very poor talent for gossip, and none at all for invention. "Mr +Russell's a very nice, quiet sort of gentleman, sir, and keeps his-self +pretty much to his-self." This was Job's account of him; and, to curious +enquirers, it was provoking both for its meagreness and its truth. "Who's +his friend in the rusty gown, Job?" "I thinks, sir, his name's Smith." "Is +Mr Russell going up for a class, Job?" "I can't say indeed, sir." "Does he +read hard?" "Not over-hard I think, sir." "Does he sit up late, Job?" "Not +over-late, sir." If there was any thing to tell, it was evident Job would +neither commit himself nor his master. + +Russell's conduct was certainly uncommon. If he had been the son of a poor +man, dependent for his future livelihood on his own exertions, eking out +the scanty allowance ill-spared by his friends by the help of a +scholarship or exhibition, and avoiding society as leading to necessary +expense, his position would have been understood, and even, in spite of +the prejudices of youthful extravagance, commended. Or if he had been a +hard-reading man from choice--or a stupid man--or a "saint"--no one would +have troubled themselves about him or his proceedings. But Russell was a +gentleman-commoner, and a man who had evidently seen something of the +world; a rich man, and apparently by no means of the character fitted for +a recluse. He had dined once with the principal, and the two or three men +who had met him there were considerably surprised at the easy gracefulness +of his manners, and his information upon many points usually beyond the +range of undergraduates: at his own table, too, he never affected any +reserve, although, perhaps from a consciousness of having virtually +declined any intimacy with his companions, he seldom originated any +conversation. It might have been assumed, indeed, that he despised the +society into which he was thrown, but that his bearing, so far from being +haughty or even cold, was occasionally marked by apparent dejection. There +was also, at times, a breaking out as it were of the natural spirits of +youth, checked almost abruptly; and once or twice he had betrayed an +interest in, and a knowledge of, field-sports and ordinary amusements, +which for the moment made his hearers fancy, as Tichborne said, that he +was "coming out." But if, as at first often happened, such conversations +led to a proposal for a gallop with the harriers, or a ride the next +afternoon, or a match at billiards, or even an invitation to a quiet +breakfast party--the refusal, though always courteous--and sometimes it +was fancied unwilling--was always decided. And living day by day within +reach of that close companionship which similarity of age, pursuits, and +tastes, strengthened by daily intercourse, was cementing around him, +Charles Russell, in his twentieth year, in a position to choose his own +society, and qualified to shine in it, seemed to have deliberately adopted +the life of a recluse. + +There were some, indeed, who accounted for his behaviour on the ground of +stinginess; and it was an opinion somewhat strengthened by one or two +trifling facts. When the subscription-list for the College boat was handed +to him, he put his name down for the minimum of one guinea, though Charley +White, our secretary, with the happy union of impudence and "soft sawder" +for which he was remarkable, delicately drew his attention to the fact, +that no other gentleman-commoner had given less than five. Still it was +not very intelligible that a man who wished to save his pocket, should +choose to pay double fees for the privilege of wearing a velvet cap and +silk gown, and rent the most expensive set of rooms in the college. + +It happened that I returned one night somewhat late from a friend's rooms +out of college, and had the satisfaction to find that my scout, in an +unusually careful mood, had shut my outer "oak," which had a spring lock, +of which I never by any chance carried the key. It was too late to send +for the rascal to open it, and I was just planning the possibility of +effecting an entrance at the window by means of the porter's ladder, when +the light in Russell's room caught my eye, and I remembered that, in the +days of their former occupant, our keys used to correspond, very much to +our mutual convenience. It was no very great intrusion, even towards one +in the morning, to ask a man to lend you his door-key, when the +alternative seemed to be spending the night in the quadrangle: so I walked +up his staircase, knocked, was admitted, and stated my business with all +proper apologies. The key was produced most graciously, and down I went +again--unluckily two steps at a time. My foot slipped, and one grand +rattle brought me to the bottom: not head first, but feet first, which +possibly is not quite so dangerous, but any gentleman who has tried it +will agree with me that it is sufficiently unpleasant. I was dreadfully +shaken; and when I tried to get up, found it no easy matter. Russell, I +suppose, heard the fall, for he was by my side by the time I had collected +my ideas. I felt as if I had skinned myself at slight intervals all down +one side; but the worst of it was a sprained ankle. How we got up-stairs +again I have no recollection; but when a glass of brandy had brought me to +a little, I found myself in an easy-chair, with my foot on a stool, +shivering and shaking like a wet puppy. I staid there a fortnight, (not in +the chair, reader, but in the rooms;) and so it was I became intimately +acquainted with Charles Russell. His kindness and attention to me were +excessive; I wished of course to be moved to my own rooms at once, but he +would not hear of it; and as I found every wriggle and twist which I gave +quite sufficiently painful, I acceded to my surgeon's advice to remain +where I was. + +It was not a very pleasant mode of introduction for either party. Very few +men's acquaintance is worth the pains of bumping all the way downstairs +and spraining an ankle for: and for a gentleman who voluntarily confines +himself to his own apartment and avoids society, to have another party +chummed in upon him perforce, day and night, sitting in an armchair, with +a suppressed groan occasionally, and an abominable smell of hartshorn--is, +to say the least of it, not the happiest mode of hinting to him the evils +of solitude. Whether it was that the one of us, compelled thus against his +will to play the host, was anxious to show he was no churl by nature, and +the other, feeling himself necessarily in a great degree an intruder and a +bore, put forth more zealously any redeeming social qualities he might +possess; be this as it might, within that fortnight Russell and I became +sincere friends. + +I found him, as I had expected, a most agreeable and gentlemanlike +companion, clever and well informed, and with a higher and more settled +tone of principles than is common to his age and position. But strongly +contrasted with his usually cheerful manner, were sudden intervals of +abstraction approaching to gloominess. In him, it was evidently not the +result of caprice, far less of any thing approaching to affectation. I +watched him closely, partly from interest, partly because I had little +else to do, and became convinced that there was some latent cause of grief +or anxiety at work. Once in particular, after the receipt of some letters, +(they were always opened hurriedly, and apparently with a painful +interest,) he was so visibly discomposed and depressed in spirits, that I +ventured to express a hope that they had contained no distressing +intelligence. Russell seemed embarrassed at having betrayed any unusual +emotion, and answered in the negative; adding, that "he knew he was +subject to the blues occasionally"--and I felt I could say no more. But I +suppose I did not look convinced; for catching my eyes fixed on him soon +afterwards, he shook my hand and said, "Something _has_ vexed me--I cannot +tell you what; but I won't think about it again now." + +One evening, towards the close of my imprisonment, after a long and +pleasant talk over our usual sober wind-up of a cup of coffee, some recent +publication, tasteful, but rather expensive, was mentioned, which Russell +expressed a wish to see. I put the natural question, to a man in his +position who could appreciate the book, and to whom a few pounds were no +consideration--why did he not order it? He coloured slightly, and after a +moment's hesitation hurriedly replied, "Because I cannot afford it." I +felt a little awkwardness as to what to say next; for the style of every +thing round me betrayed a lavish disregard of expense, and yet the remark +did not at all bear the tone of a jest. Probably Russell understood what +was passing in my mind; for presently, without looking at me, he went on: +"Yes, you may well think it a pitiful economy to grudge five guineas for a +book like that, and indulge one's-self in such pompous mummery as we have +here;" and he pushed down with his foot a massive and beautiful silver +coffee-pot, engraved with half-a-dozen quarterings of arms, which, in +spite of a remonstrance from me, had been blackening before the fire to +keep its contents warm. "Never mind it," he continued, as I in vain put +out my hand to save it from falling--"it won't be damaged; it will fetch +just as much per ounce; and I really cannot afford to buy an inferior +article." Russell's behaviour up to this moment had been rational enough, +but at the moment a suspicion crossed my mind that "eccentricity," as +applied to his case, might possibly, as in some other cases, be merely an +euphonism for something worse. However, I picked up the coffee-pot, and +said nothing. "You must think me very strange, Hawthorne; I quite forgot +myself at the moment; but if you choose to be trusted with a secret, which +will be no secret long, I will tell you what will perhaps surprise you +with regard to my own position, though I really have no right to trouble +you with my confidences." I disclaimed any wish to assume the right of +inquiring into private matters, but at the same time expressed, as I +sincerely felt, an interest in what was evidently a weight on my +companion's mind. "Well, to say the truth," continued Russell, "I think it +will be a relief to me to tell you how I stand. I know that I have often +felt of late that I am acting a daily lie here, to all the men about me; +passing, doubtless, for a rich man, when in truth, for aught I know, I and +all my family are beggars at this moment." He stopped, walked to the +window, and returned. "I am surrounded here by luxuries which have little +right within a college's walls; I occupy a distinctive position which you +and others are supposed not to be able to afford. I never can mix with any +of you, without, as it were, carrying with me every where the +superscription written--'This is a rich man.' And yet, with all this +outward show, I may be a debtor to your charity for my bread to-morrow. +You are astonished, Hawthorne; of course you are. I am not thus playing +the hypocrite willingly, believe me. Had I only my own comfort, and my own +feelings to consult, I would take my name off the college books to-morrow. +How I bear the life I lead, I scarcely know." + +"But tell me," said I, "as you have told me so much, what is the secret of +all this?" + +"I will; I was going to explain. My only motive for concealment, my only +reason for even wishing you to keep my counsel, is, because the character +and prospects of others are concerned. My father, as I dare say you know, +is pretty well known as the head of the firm of Russell and Smith: he +passes for a rich man, of course; he _was_ a rich man, I believe, once; +and I, his only son and heir--brought up as I was to look upon money as a +plaything--I was sent to college of course as a gentleman-commoner. I knew +nothing, as a lad, of my father's affairs: there were fools enough to tell +me he was rich, and that I had nothing to do but to spend his money--and I +did spend it--ay, too much of it--yet not so much, perhaps, as I might. +Not since I came here, Hawthorne; oh no!--not since I found out that it +was neither his nor mine to spend--I have not been so bad as that, thank +God. And if ever man could atone, by suffering, for the thoughtlessness +and extravagance of early days, I have wellnigh paid my penalty in full +already. I told you, I entered here as a gentleman-commoner; my father +came down to Oxford with me, chose my rooms, sent down this furniture and +these paintings from town--thank Heaven, I knew not what they +cost--ordered a couple of hunters and a groom for me--those I stopped from +coming down--and, in fact, made every preparation for me to commence my +career with credit as to heir-apparent to a large fortune. Some suspicions +that all was not right had crossed my mind before: certain conversations +between my father and cold-looking men of business, not meant for my ear, +and very imperfectly understood--for it appeared to be my father's object +to keep me totally ignorant of all the mysteries of banking--an increasing +tendency on his part to grumble over petty expenses which implied ready +payment, with an ostentatious profusion in show and entertainments--many +slight circumstances put together had given me a sort of vague alarm at +times, which I shook off, as often as it recurred, like a disagreeable +dream. A week after I entered college, a letter from my only sister opened +my eyes to the truth. What I had feared was a temporary embarrassment--a +disagreeable necessity for retrenchment, or, at the worst, a stoppage of +payment, and a respectable bankruptcy, which would injure no one but the +creditors. What she spoke of, was absolute ruin, poverty, and, what was +worse, disgrace. It came upon me very suddenly--but I bore it. I am not +going to enter into particulars about family matters to you, +Hawthorne--you would not wish it, I know; let me only say, my sister Mary +is an angel, and my father a weak-minded man--I will hope, not +intentionally a dishonest one. But I have learnt enough to know that there +are embarrassments from which he can never extricate himself with honour, +and that every month, every week, that he persists in maintaining a +useless struggle will only add misery to misery in the end. How long it +may go on no one can say--but the end must come. My own first impulse was, +of course, to leave this place at once, and so, at all events, to avoid +additional expenses: but my father would not hear of it. I went to him, +told him what I knew, though not how I had heard it, and drew from him a +sort of confession that he had made some unfortunate speculations. But +'only let us keep up appearances'--those were his words--a little while, +and all would be right again, he assured me. I made no pretence of +believing him; but, Hawthorne, when he offered to go on his knees to +me--and I his only son--and promised to retrench in every possible method +that would not betray his motives, if I would but remain at college to +take my degree--'to keep up appearances'--what could I do?" + +"Plainly," said I, "you did right: I do not see that you had any +alternative. Nor have you any right to throw away your future prospects. +Your father's unfortunate embarrassments are no disgrace to you." + +"So said my sister. I knew her advice must be right, and I consented to +remain here. _You_ know I lead no life of self-indulgence; and the +necessary expenses, even as a gentleman-commoner, are less than you would +suppose, unless you had tried matters as closely as I have." + +"And with our talents," said I. + +"My talents! I am conscious of but one talent at present: the faculty of +feeling acutely the miserable position into which I have been forced. No, +if you mean that I am to gain any sort of distinction by hard reading, it +is simply what I cannot do. Depend upon it, Hawthorne, a man must have a +mind tolerably at ease to put forth any mental exertion to good purpose. +If this crash were once over, and I were reduced to my proper level in +society--which will, I suppose, be pretty nearly that of a pauper--_then_ +I think I could work for my bread either with head or hands: but in this +wretchedly false position, here I sit bitterly, day after day, with books +open before me perhaps, but with no heart to read, and no memory but for +one thing. You know my secret now, Hawthorne, and it has been truly a +relief to me to unburden my mind to some one here. I am very much alone, +indeed; and it is not at all my nature to be solitary: if you will come +and see me sometimes, now that you know all, it will be a real kindness. +It is no great pleasure, I assure you," he continued, smiling, "to be +called odd, and selfish, and stingy, by those of one's own age, as I feel +I must be called; but it is much better than to lead the life I might +lead--spending money which is not mine, and accustoming myself to +luxuries, when I may soon have to depend on charity even for necessaries. +For my own comfort, it might be better, as I said before, that the crisis +came at once: still, if I remain here until I am qualified for some +profession, by which I may one day be able to support my sister--that is +the hope I feed on--why, then, this sort of existence may be endured." + +Russell had at least no reason to complain of having disclosed his mind to +a careless listener. I was moved almost to tears at his story: but, +stronger than all other feelings, was admiration of his principles and +character. I felt that some of us had almost done him irreverence in +venturing to discuss him so lightly as we had often done. How little we +know the heart of others, and how readily we prate about "seeing through" +a man, when in truth what we see is but a surface, and the image conveyed +to our mind from it but the reflection of ourselves! + +My intimacy with Russell, so strangely commenced, had thus rapidly and +unexpectedly taken the character of that close connexion which exists +between those who have one secret and engrossing interest confined to +themselves alone. We were now more constantly together, perhaps, than any +two men in college: and many were the jokes I had to endure in +consequence. Very few of my old companions had ventured to carry their +attentions to me, while laid up in Russell's rooms, beyond an occasional +call at the door to know how I was going on; and when I got back to my old +quarters, and had refused one or two invitations on the plea of having +Russell coming to spend a quiet evening with me, their astonishment and +disgust were expressed pretty unequivocally, and they affected to call us +the exclusives. However, Russell was a man who, if he made few friends, +gave no excuse for enemies: and, in time, my intimacy with him, and +occasional withdrawals from general society in consequence, came to be +regarded as a pardonable weakness--unaccountable, but past all help--a +subject on which the would-be wisest of my friends shook their heads, and +said nothing. + +I think this new connexion was of advantage to both parties. To myself it +certainly was. I date the small gleams of good sense and sobermindedness +which broke in upon my character at that critical period of life, solely +from my intercourse with Charles Russell. He, on the other hand, had +suffered greatly from the want of that sympathy and support which the +strongest mind at times stands as much in need of as the weakest, and +which in his peculiar position could only be purchased by an unreserved +confidence. From any premeditated explanation he would have shrunk; nor +would he ever, as he himself confessed, have made the avowal he did to me, +except it had escaped him by a momentary impulse. But, having made it, he +seemed a happier man. His reading, which before had been desultory and +interrupted, was now taken up in earnest: and idly inclined as I was +myself, I became, with the pseudo sort of generosity not uncommon at that +age, so much more anxious for his future success than my own, that, in +order to encourage him, I used to go to his rooms to read with him, and we +had many a hard morning's work together. + +We were very seldom interrupted by visitors: almost the only one was that +unknown and unprepossessing friend of Russell's who has been mentioned +before--his own contradictory in almost every respect. Very uncouth and +dirty-looking he was, and stuttered terribly--rather, it seemed, from +diffidence than from any natural defect. He showed some surprise on the +first two or three occasions in which he encountered me, and made an +immediate attempt to back out of the room again: and though Russell +invariably recalled him, and showed an evident anxiety to treat him with +every consideration, he never appeared at his ease for a moment, and made +his escape as soon as possible. Russell always fixed a time for seeing him +again--usually the next day: and there was evidently some object in these +interviews, into which, as it was no concern of mine, I never enquired +particularly, as I had already been intrusted with a confidence rather +unusual as the result of a few weeks' acquaintance; and on the subject of +his friend--"poor Smith," as he called him--Russell did not seem disposed +to be communicative. + +Time wore on, and brought round the Christmas vacation. I thought it due +to myself, as all young men do, to get up to town for a week or two if +possible; and being lucky enough to have an old aunt occupying a very dark +house much too large for her, and who, being rather a prosy personage, a +little deaf, and very opinionated, and therefore not a special object of +attraction to her relations, (her property was merely a life-interest,) +was very glad to get any one to come and see her--I determined to pay a +visit, in which the score of obligations would be pretty equally balanced +on both sides. On the one hand, the tete-a-tete dinners with the old lady, +and her constant catechising about Oxford, were a decided bore to me; +while it required some forbearance on her part to endure an inmate who +constantly rushed into the drawing-room without wiping his boots, who had +no taste for old china, and against whom the dear dog Petto had an +unaccountable but decided antipathy. (Poor dog! I fear he was ungrateful: +I used to devil spunge biscuit, internally, for him after dinner, kept a +snuff-box more for his use than my own, and prolonged his life, I feel +confident, at least twelve months from apoplexy, by pulling hairs out of +his tail with a tweezer whenever he went to sleep.) On the other hand, my +aunt had good wine, and I used to praise it; which was agreeable to both +parties. She got me pleasant invitations, and was enabled herself to make +her appearance in society with a live nephew in her suite, who in her eyes +(I confess, reader, old aunts are partial) was a very eligible young man. +So my visit, on the whole, was mutually agreeable and advantageous. I had +my mornings to myself, gratifying the dowager occasionally by a drive with +her in the afternoon; and we had sufficient engagements for our evenings +to make each other's sole society rather an unusual infliction. It is +astonishing how much such an arrangement tends to keep people the best +friends in the world. + +I had attended my respectable relation one evening (or rather she had +attended me, for I believe she went more for my sake than her own) to a +large evening party, which was a ball in every thing but the name. Nearly +all in the rooms were strangers to me; but I had plenty of introductions, +and the night wore on pleasantly enough. I saw a dozen pretty faces I had +never seen before, and was scarcely likely to see again--the proportion of +ugly ones I forbear to mention--and was prepared to bear the meeting and +the parting with equal philosophy, when the sight of a very familiar face +brought different scenes to my mind. Standing within half-a-dozen steps of +me, and in close conversation with a lady, of whom I could see little +besides a cluster of dark curls, was Ormiston, one of our college tutors, +and one of the most universally popular men in Oxford. It would be wrong +to say I was surprised to see him there or any where else, for his roll of +acquaintance was most extensive, embracing all ranks and degrees; but I +was very glad to see him, and made an almost involuntary dart forward in +his direction. He saw me, smiled, and put out his hand, but did not seem +inclined to enter into any conversation. I was turning away, when a sudden +movement gave me a full view of the face of the lady to whom he had been +talking. It was a countenance of that pale, clear, intellectual beauty, +with a shade of sadness about the mouth, which one so seldom sees but in a +picture, but which, when seen, haunts the imagination and the memory +rather than excites passionate admiration. The eyes met mine, and, quite +by accident, for the thoughts were evidently pre-occupied, retained for +some moments the same fixed gaze with which I almost as unconsciously was +regarding them. There was something in the features which seemed not +altogether unknown to me; and I was beginning to speculate on the +possibility of any small heroine of my boyish admiration having shot up +into such sweet womanhood--such changes soon occur--when the eyes became +conscious, and the head was rapidly turned away. I lost her a moment +afterwards in the crowd, and although I watched the whole of the time we +remained, with an interest that amused myself, I could not see her again. +She must have left the party early. + +So strong became the impression on my mind that it was a face I had known +before, and so fruitless and tantalizing were my efforts to give it "a +local habitation and a name"--that I determined at last to question my +aunt upon the subject, though quite aware of the imputation that would +follow. The worst of it was, I had so few tangible marks and tokens by +which to identify my interesting unknown. However, at breakfast next +morning, I opened ground at once, in answer to my hostess's remark that +the rooms had been very full. + +"Yes, they were: I wanted very much, my dear aunt, to have asked you the +names of all the people; but you really were so much engaged, I had no +opportunity." + +"Ah! if you had come and sat by me, I could have told you all about them; +but there were some very odd people there, too." + +"There was one rather interesting-looking girl I did not see dancing +much--tallish, with pearl earrings." + +"Where was she sitting? how was she dressed?" + +I had only seen her standing--I never noticed--I hardly think I could have +seen--even the colour of her dress. + +"Not know how she was dressed? My dear Frank, how strange!" + +"All young ladies dress alike now, aunt; there's really not much +distinction: they seemed all black and white to me." + +"Certainly the balls don't look half so gay as they used to do: a little +colour gives cheerfulness, I think." (The good old lady herself had worn +crimson satin and a suite of chrysolites--if her theory were correct, she +was enough to have spread a glow over the whole company.) "But let me +see;--tall, with pearls, you say; dark hair and eyes?" + +"Yes." + +"You must mean Lucy Fielding." + +"Nonsense, my dear Ma'am--I beg a thousand pardons; but I was introduced +to Miss Fielding, and danced with her--she squints." + +"My dear Frank, don't say such a thing!--she will have half the +Strathinnis property when she comes of age. But let me see again. Had she +a white rose in her hair?" + +"She had, I think; or something like it." + +"It might have been Lord Dunham's youngest daughter, who is just come +out--she was there for an hour or so." + +"No, no, aunt: I know her by sight too--a pale gawky thing, with an arm +and hand like a prize-fighter's--oh no!" + +"Upon my word, my dear nephew, you young men give yourselves abominable +airs: call her a very fine young woman, and I've no doubt she will marry +well, though she hasn't much fortune. Was it Miss Cassilis, then?--white +tulle over satin, looped with roses, with gold sprigs"---- + +"And freckles to match: why, she's as old as"----; I felt myself on +dangerous ground, and filled up the hiatus, I fear not very happily, by +looking full at my aunt. + +"Not so very old, indeed, my dear: she refused a very good offer last +season: she cannot possibly be above"-- + +"Oh! spare the particulars, pray, my dear Ma'am; but you could not have +seen the girl I mean: I don't think she staid after supper: I looked every +where for her to ask who she was, but she must have been gone." + +"Really! I wish I could help you," said my aunt with a very insinuating +smile. + +"Oh," said I, "what made me anxious to know who she was at the time, was +simply that I saw her talking to an old friend of mine, whom you know +something of, I believe; did you not meet Mr Ormiston somewhere last +winter?" + +"Mr Ormiston! oh, I saw him there last night! and now I know who you mean; +it must have been Mary Russell, of course; she did wear pearls, and plain +white muslin." + +"Russell! what Russells are they?" + +"Russell the banker's daughter; I suppose nobody knows how many thousands +she'll have; but she is a very odd girl. Mr Ormiston is rather committed +in that quarter, I fancy. Ah, he's a very gentlemanly man, certainly, and +an old friend of the family; but that match would never do. Why, he must +be ten years older than she is, in the first place, and hasn't a penny +that I know of except his fellowship. No, no; she refused Sir John Maynard +last winter, with a clear twelve thousand a-year; and angry enough her +papa was about that, every body says, though he never contradicts her; but +she never will venture upon such a silly thing as a match with Mr +Ormiston." + +"Won't she?" said I mechanically, not having had time to collect my +thoughts exactly. + +"To be sure she won't," replied my aunt rather sharply. It certainly +struck me that Mary Russell, from what her brother had told me, was a +person very likely to show some little disregard of any conventional +notions of what was, or what was not desirable in the matter of matrimony; +but at the same time I inclined to agree with my aunt, that it was not +very probable she would become Mrs Ormiston; indeed, I doubted any very +serious intentions on his part. Fellows of colleges are usually somewhat +lavish of admiration and attentions; but, as many young ladies know, very +difficult to bring to book. Ormiston was certainly not a man to be +influenced by the fortune which the banker's daughter might reasonably be +credited with; if any thing made the matter seem serious, it was that his +opinion of the sex in general--as thrown out in an occasional hint or +sarcasm--seemed to border on a supercilious contempt. + +I did not meet Miss Russell again during my short stay in town; but two or +three days after this conversation, in turning the corner of the street, I +came suddenly upon Ormiston. I used to flatter myself with being rather a +favourite of his--not from any conscious merit on my part, unless that, +during the year of his deanship, when summoned before him for any small +atrocities, and called to account for them, I never took up his time or my +own by any of the usual somewhat questionable excuses, but awaited my +fate, whether "imposition" or reprimand, in silence; a plan which, with +him, answered very well, and saved occasionally some straining of +conscience on one side, and credulity on the other. I tried it with his +successor, who decided that I was contumacious, because, the first time I +was absent from chapel, in reply to his interrogations I answered nothing, +and upon his persevering, told him that I had been at a very late +supper-party the night before. I think, then, I was rather a favourite of +Ormiston's. To say that he was a favourite of mine would be saying very +little; for there could have been scarcely a man in college, of any degree +of respectability, who would not have been ready to say the same. No man +had a higher regard for the due maintenance of discipline, or his own +dignity, and the reputation of the college; yet nowhere among the seniors +could the undergraduate find a more judicious or a kinder friend. He had +the art of mixing with them occasionally with all the unreservedness of an +equal, without for a moment endangering the respect due to his position. +There was no man you could ask a favour of--even if it infringed a little +upon the strictness of college regulations--so readily as Ormiston; and no +one appeared to retain more thoroughly some of his boyish tastes and +recollections. He subscribed his five guineas to the boat, even after a +majority of the fellows had induced our good old Principal, whose annual +appearance at the river-side to cheer her at the races had seemed almost a +part of his office, to promulgate a decree to the purport that boat-racing +was immoral, and that no man engaged therein should find favour in the +sight of the authorities. Yet, at the same time, Ormiston could give grave +advice when needed; and give it in such a manner, that the most +thoughtless among us received it as from a friend. And whenever he did +administer a few words of pointed rebuke--and he did not spare it when any +really discreditable conduct came under his notice--they fell the more +heavily upon the delinquent, because the public sympathy was sure to be on +the side of the judge. The art of governing young men is a difficult one, +no doubt; but it is surprising that so few take any pains to acquire it. +There were very few Ormistons, in my time, in the high places in Oxford. + +On that morning, however, Ormiston met me with evident embarrassment, if +not with coolness. He started when he first saw me, and, had there been a +chance of doing so with decency, looked as if he would have pretended not +to recognise me. But we were too near for that, and our eyes met at once. +I was really very glad to see him, and not at all inclined to be content +with the short "How d'ye do?" so unlike his usual cordial greetings, with +which he was endeavouring to hurry on; and there was a little curiosity +afloat among my other feelings. So I fairly stopped him with a few of the +usual inquiries, as to how long he had been in town, &c., and then plunged +at once into the affair of the ball at which we had last met. He +interrupted me at once. + +"By the way," said he, "have you heard of poor Russell's business?" + +I actually shuddered, for I scarcely knew what was to follow. As +composedly as I could, I simply said, "No." + +"His father is ruined, they say--absolutely ruined. I suppose _that_ is no +secret by this time, at all events. He cannot possibly pay even a shilling +in the pound." + +"I'm very sorry indeed to hear it," was all I could say. + +"But do you know, Hawthorne," continued Ormiston, taking my arm with +something like his old manner, and no longer showing any anxiety to cut +short our interview, "I am afraid this is not the worst of it. There is a +report in the city this morning, I was told, that Mr Russell's character +is implicated by some rather unbusinesslike transactions. I believe you +are a friend of poor Russell's, and for that reason I mention it to you in +confidence. He may not be aware of it; but the rumour is, that his father +_dare_ not show himself again here: that he has left England I know to be +a fact." + +"And his daughter? Miss Russell?" I asked involuntarily--"his children, I +mean--where are they?" + +I thought Ormiston's colour heightened; but he was not a man to show much +visible emotion. "Charles Russell and his sister are still in London," he +replied; "I have just seen them. They know their father has left for the +Continent; I hope they do _not_ know all the reasons. I am very sincerely +sorry for young Russell; it will be a heavy blow to him, and I fear he +will find his circumstances bitterly changed. Of course he will have to +leave Oxford." + +"I suppose so," said I; "no one can feel more for him than I do. It was +well, perhaps, that this did not happen in term time." + +"It spared him some mortification, certainly. You will see him, perhaps, +before you leave town; he will take it kind. And if you have any influence +with him--(he will be inclined to listen, perhaps just now, to you more +than to me--being more of his own age, he will give you credit for +entering into his feelings)--do try and dissuade him from forming any wild +schemes, to which he seems rather inclined. He has some kind friends, no +doubt; and remember, if there is any thing in which I can be of use to +him, he shall have my aid--even to the half of my kingdom--that is, my +tutorship." + +And with a smile and tone which seemed a mixture of jest and earnest, Mr +Ormiston wished me good-morning. He was to leave for Oxford that night. + +Of Russell's address in town I was up to this moment ignorant, but +resolved to find it out, and see him before my return to the University. +The next morning, however, a note arrived from him, containing a simple +request that I would call. I found him at the place from which he +wrote--one of those dull quiet streets that lead out of the Strand--in +very humble lodgings; his father's private establishment having been given +up, it appeared, immediately. The moment we met, I saw at once, as I +expected, that the blow which, to Ormiston, had naturally seemed so +terrible a one--no less than the loss, to a young man, of the wealth, +rank, and prospects in life to which he had been taught to look +forward--had been, in fact, to Russell a merciful relief. The failure of +that long-celebrated and trusted house, which was causing in the public +mind, according to the papers, so much "consternation" and "excitement," +was to him a consummation long foreseen, and scarcely dreaded. It was only +the shadow of wealth and happiness which he had lost now; its substance +had vanished long since. And the conscious hollowness and hypocrisy, as he +called it, of his late position, had been a far more bitter trial to a +mind like his, than any which could result from its exposure. He was one +to hail with joy any change which brought him back to truth and reality, +no matter how rude and sudden the revulsion. + +He met me with a smile; a really honest, almost a light-hearted smile. "It +is come at last, Hawthorne; perhaps it would be wrong, or I feel as if I +could say, thank God. There is but one point which touches me at all; what +do they say about my father?" I told him--fortunately, my acquaintance +lying but little among men of business, I could tell him so honestly--that +I had not heard a syllable breathed to his discredit. + +"Well, well; but they will, soon. Oh! Hawthorne; the utter misery, the +curse that money-making brings with it! That joining house to house, and +field to field, how it corrupts all the better part of a man's nature! I +vow to you, I believe my father would have been an honest man if he had +but been a poor one! If he had never had any thing to do with interest +tables, and had but spent his capital, instead of trying to double and +redouble it! One thing I have to thank him for; that he never would suffer +me to imbibe any taste for business; he knew the evil and the pollution +money-handling brings with it--I am sure he did; he encouraged me, I fear, +in extravagance; but I bless him that he never encouraged me in +covetousness." + +He grew a little calmer by degrees, and we sat down and took counsel as to +his future plans. He was not, of course, without friends, and had already +had many offers of assistance for himself and his sister; but his heart +appeared, for the present, firmly bent upon independence. Much to my +surprise, he decided on returning at once to Oxford, and reading for his +degree. His sister had some little property settled upon her--some hundred +and fifty pounds a-year; and this she had insisted on devoting to this +purpose. + +"I love her too well," said Russell, "to refuse her: and trifling as this +sum is,--I remember the time when I should have thought it little to keep +me in gloves and handkerchiefs,--yet, with management, it will be more +than I shall spend in Oxford. Of course, I play the gentleman-commoner no +longer; I shall descend to the plain stuff gown." + +"You'll go to a hall, of course?" said I; for I concluded he would at +least avoid the mortification of so palpable a confession of reduced +circumstances as this degradation of rank in his old College would be. + +"I can see no occasion for it; that is, if they will allow me to change; I +have done nothing to be ashamed of, and shall be much happier than I was +before. I only strike my false colours; and you know they were never +carried willingly." + +I did not attempt to dissuade him, and soon after rose to take my leave. + +"I cannot ask my sister to see you now," he said, as we shook hands: "she +is not equal to it. But some other time, I hope"---- + +"At any other time, I shall be most proud of the introduction. By the way, +have you seen Ormiston? He met me this morning, and sent some kind +messages, to offer any service in his power." + +"He did, did he?" + +"Yes; and, depend upon it, he will do all he can for you in college; you +don't know him very well, I think; but I am sure he takes an interest in +you now, at all events," I continued, "and no man is a more sincere and +zealous friend." + +"I beg your pardon, Hawthorne, but I fancy I _do_ know Mr Ormiston very +well." + +"Oh! I remember, there seemed some coolness between you, because you never +would accept his invitations. Ormiston thought you were too proud to dine +with him; and then _his_ pride, which he has his share of, took fire. But +that misunderstanding must be all over now." + +"My dear Hawthorne, I believe Mr Ormiston and I understand each other +perfectly. Good-morning; I am sorry to seem abrupt, but I have a host of +things, not the most agreeable, to attend to." + +It seemed quite evident that there was some little prejudice on Russell's +part against Ormiston. Possibly he did not like his attentions to his +sister. But that was no business of mine, and I knew the other too well to +doubt his earnest wish to aid and encourage a man of Russell's high +principles, and in his unfortunate position. None of us always know our +best friends. + +The step which Russell had resolved on taking was, of course, an unusual +one. Even the college authorities strongly advised him to remove his name +to the books of one of the halls, where he would enter comparatively as a +stranger, and where his altered position would not entail so many painful +feelings. Every facility was offered him of doing so at one of them where +a relative of our Principal's was the head, and even a saving in expense +might thus be effected. But this evident kindness and consideration on +their part, only confirmed him in the resolution of remaining where he +was. He met their representations with the graceful reply, that he had an +attachment to the college which did not depend upon the rank he held in +it, and that he trusted he should not be turned out of two homes at once. +Even the heart of the splenetic little vice-principal was moved by this +genuine tribute to the venerable walls, which to him, as his mistress's +girdle to the poet, encircled all he loved, or hoped, or cared for; and +had the date been some century earlier--in those remarkable times when a +certain fellow was said to have owed his election into that body to a +wondrous knack he had at compounding sherry-posset--it is probable Charles +Russell would have stepped into a fellowship by special license at once. + +He had harder work before him, however, and he set stoutly to it. He got +permission to lodge out of college--a privilege quite unusual, and +apparently without any sufficient object in his case. A day or two after +his return, he begged me to go with him to see the rooms he had taken: and +I was surprised to find that although small, and not in a good part of the +town, they were furnished in a style by no means, I thought, in accordance +with the strict economy I knew him to be practising in every other +respect. They contained, on a small scale, all the appointments of a +lady's drawing-room. It was soon explained. His sister was coming to live +with him. "We are but two, now," said Russell in explanation, "and though +poor Mary has been offered what might have been a comfortable home +elsewhere, which perhaps would have been more prudent, we both thought why +should we be separated? As to these little things you see, they are nearly +all hers: we offered them to the creditors, but even the lawyers would not +touch them: and here Mary and I shall live. Very strange, you think, for +her to be here in Oxford with no one to take care of her but me; but she +does not mind that, and we shall be together. However, Hawthorne, we shall +keep a dragon: there is an old housekeeper who would not be turned off, +and she comes down with Mary, and may pass for her aunt, if that's all; so +don't, pray, be shocked at us." + +And so the old housekeeper did come down, and Mary with her; and under +such guardianship, a brother and an old servant, was that fair girl +installed within the perilous precincts of the University of Oxford; +perilous in more senses than one, as many a speculative and disappointed +mamma can testify, whose daughters, brought to market at the annual +"show" at commemoration, have left uncaught those dons of dignity, and +heirs-apparent of property, whom they ought to have caught, and caught +those well-dressed and good-looking, but undesirable young men, whom they +ought not to have caught. Mary Russell, however, was in little peril +herself, and, as little as she could help it, an occasion of peril to +others. Seldom did she move out from her humble abode, except for an early +morning walk with her brother, or sometimes leaning on the arm of her old +domestic, so plainly dressed that you might have mistaken her for her +daughter, and wondered how those intensely expressive features, and +queen-like graces, should have been bestowed by nature on one so humble. +Many a thoughtful student, pacing slowly the parks or Christchurch meadow +after early chapel, book in hand, cheating himself into the vain idea that +he was taking a healthful walk, and roused by the flutter of approaching +female dress, and unwillingly looking up to avoid the possible and +unwelcome collision with a smirking nurse-maid and an unresisting +baby--has met those eyes, and spoilt his reading for the morning; or has +paused in the running tour of Headington hill, or Magdalen walk, by which +he was endeavouring to cram his whole allotted animal exercise for the day +into an hour, as that sweet vision crossed his path, and wondered in his +heart by what happy tie of relationship, or still dearer claim, his +fellow-undergraduate had secured to himself so lovely a companion; and has +tried in vain, over his solitary breakfast, to rid himself of the +heterodox notion which would still creep in upon his thoughts, that in the +world there might be, after all, things better worth living and working +for, prizes more valuable--and perhaps not harder to win--than a first +class, and living personations of the beautiful which Aristotle had +unaccountably left out. Forgive me, dear reader, if I seem to be somewhat +sentimental: I am not, and I honestly believe I never was, in love with +Mary Russell; I am not--I fear I never was or shall be--much of a reading +man or an early riser; but I will confess, it would have been a great +inducement to me to adopt such habits, if I could have ensured such +pleasant company in my morning walks. + +To the general world of Oxford, for a long time, I have no doubt the very +existence of such a jewel within it was unknown; for at the hours when +liberated tutors and idle undergraduates are wont to walk abroad, Mary was +sitting, hid within a little ambush of geraniums, either busy at her work, +or helping--as she loved to fancy she helped him--her brother at his +studies. Few men, I believe, ever worked harder than Russell did in his +last year. With the exception of the occasional early walk, and the +necessary attendance at chapel and lecture, he read hard nearly the whole +day; and I always attributed the fact of his being able to do so with +comparatively little effort, and no injury to his health, to his having +such a sweet face always present, to turn his eyes upon, when wearied with +a page of Greek, and such a kind voice always ready to speak or to be +silent. + +It was not for want of access to any other society that Mary Russell spent +her time so constantly with her brother. The Principal, with his usual +kindheartedness, had insisted--a thing he seldom did--upon his lady making +her acquaintance; and though Mrs Meredith, who plumed herself much upon +her dignity, had made some show of resistance at first to calling upon a +young lady who was living in lodgings by herself in one of the most +out-of-the-way streets in Oxford, yet, after her first interview with Miss +Russell, so much did her sweetness of manner win upon Mrs Principal's +fancy--or perhaps it will be doing that lady but justice to say, so much +did her more than orphan unprotectedness and changed fortunes soften the +woman's heart that beat beneath that formidable exterior of silk and +ceremony, that before the first ten minutes of what had been intended as a +very condescending and very formal call, were over, she had been offered a +seat in Mrs Meredith's official pew in St Mary's; the pattern of a +mysterious bag, which that good lady carried every where about with her, +it was believed for no other purpose; and an airing the next day behind +the fat old greys, which their affectionate coachman--in commemoration of +his master's having purchased them at the time he held that +dignity--always called by the name of the "Vice-Chancellors." Possibly an +absurd incident, which Mary related with great glee to her brother and +myself, had helped to thaw the ice in which "our governess" usually +encased herself. When the little girl belonging to the lodgings opened the +door to these dignified visitors, upon being informed that Miss Russell +was at home, the Principal gave the name simply as "Dr and Mrs Meredith:" +which, not appearing to his more pompous half at all calculated to convey +a due impression of the honour conveyed by the visit, she corrected him, +and in a tone quite audible--as indeed every word of the conversation had +been--up the half-dozen steep stairs which led to the little drawing-room, +gave out "the Master of ---- and lady, if you please." The word "master" +was quite within the comprehension of the little domestic, and dropping an +additional courtesy of respect to an office which reminded her of her +catechism and the Sunday school, she selected the appropriate feminine +from her own vocabulary, and threw open the door with "the master and +mistress of ---- if you please, Miss." Dr Meredith laughed, as he entered, +so heartily, that even Mary could not help smiling, and the "mistress," +seeing the odds against her, smiled too. An acquaintance begun in such +good humour, could hardly assume a very formal character; and, in fact, +had Mary Russell not resolutely declined all society, Mrs Meredith would +have felt rather a pleasure in patronising her. But both her straitened +means and the painful circumstances of her position--her father already +spoken of almost as a criminal--led her to court strict retirement; while +she clung with redoubled affection to her brother. He, on his part, seemed +to have improved in health and spirits since his change of fortunes; the +apparent haughtiness and coldness with which many had charged him before, +had quite vanished; he showed no embarrassment, far less any consciousness +of degradation, in his conversation with any of his old messmates at the +gentlemen-commoners' table; and though his communication with the college +was but comparatively slight, nearly all his time being spent in his +lodgings, he was becoming quite a popular character. + +Meanwhile, a change of a different kind seemed to be coming over Ormiston. +It was remarked, even by those not much given to observation, that his +lectures, which were once considered endurable, even by idle men, from his +happy talent of remark and illustration, were fast becoming as dull and +uninteresting as the common run of all such business. Moreover, he had +been in the habit of giving, occasionally, capital dinners, invitations to +which were sent out frequently and widely among the young men of his own +college: these ceased almost entirely; or, when they occurred, had but the +shadow of their former joyousness. Even some of the fellows were known to +have remarked that Ormiston was much altered lately; some said he was +engaged to be married, a misfortune which would account for any imaginable +eccentricities; but one of the best of the college livings falling vacant +about the time, and, on its refusal by the two senior fellows, coming +within Ormiston's acceptance, and being passed by him, tended very much to +do away with any suspicion of that kind. + +Between him and Russell there was an evident coolness, though noticed by +few men but myself; yet Ormiston always spoke most kindly of him, while on +Russell's part there seemed to be a feeling almost approaching to +bitterness, ill concealed, whenever Ormiston became the subject of +conversation. I pressed him once or twice upon the subject, but he always +affected to misunderstand me, or laughed off any sarcastic remark he might +have made, as meaning nothing; so that at last the name was seldom +mentioned between us, and almost the only point on which we differed +seemed to be our estimation of Ormiston. + + + + +THE ROMANTIC DRAMA. + + +Macaulay says, that the object of the drama is the painting of the human +heart; and, as that is portrayed by the events of a whole life, he +concludes that it is by poets representing in a short space a long series +of actions, that the end of dramatic composition is most likely to be +attained. "The mixture," says he, "of tragedy and comedy, and the length +and extent of the action, which the French consider as defects, is the +chief cause of the excellence of our older dramatists. The former is +necessary to render the drama a just representation of the world, in which +the laughers and the weepers are perpetually jostling each other, in which +every event has its serious and ludicrous side. The latter enables us to +form an intimate acquaintance with characters, with which we could not +possibly become familiar during the few hours to which the unities +restrict the poet. In this respect the works of Shakspeare in particular +are miracles of art. In a piece which may be read aloud in three hours, we +see a character gradually unfold all its recesses to us. We see it change +with the change of circumstances. The petulant youth rises into the +politic and warlike sovereign. The profuse and courteous philanthropist +sours at length into a hater and scorner of his kind. The tyrant is +altered by the chastening of affliction into a pensive moralist. The +veteran general, distinguished by coolness, sagacity, and self-command, +sinks under a conflict between love strong as death, and jealousy cruel as +the grave. The brave and loyal subject passes step by step to the excesses +of human depravity. We trace his progress step by step, from the first +dawnings of unlawful ambition, to the cynical melancholy of his impenitent +remorse. Yet in these pieces there are no unnatural transitions. Nothing +is omitted; nothing is crowded. Great as are the changes, narrow as is the +compass within which they are exhibited, they shock us as little as the +gradual alterations of those familiar faces which we see every evening and +morning. The magical skill of the poet resembles that of the dervise in +the _Spectator_, who condensed all the events of seven years into the +single moment during which the king held his head under water."[4] + +In this admirable passage, the principle on which the Romantic Drama +rests, is clearly and manfully stated; and it is on the possibility of +effecting the object which is here so well described, that the whole +question between it and the Greek unities depends. As we have decidedly +embraced the opposite opinion, and regard, after much consideration, the +adherence to the variety and license of the romantic drama as the main +cause of the present degraded condition of our national theatre, we have +prefaced our observations with a defence of the romantic drama by one of +its ablest advocates, and shall now state the reasons which appear to us +conclusive in favour of a very different view. + +The drama is part of the great effort of mankind for the representation of +human character, passion, and event. Other sister arts--History, the +Historical Romance, the Epic poem--also aim in some degree, by different +methods, at the same object; and it is by considering their different +principles, and necessary limitations, that the real rules of the drama +will best be understood. + +HISTORY, as all the world knows, embraces the widest range of human +events. Confined to no time, restricted to no locality, it professes, in a +comparatively short space, to portray the most extensive and important of +human transactions. Centuries, even thousands of years, are sometimes, by +its greatest masters, embraced within its mighty arms. The majestic +series of Roman victories may occupy the genius of one writer: the fifteen +centuries of its decline and fall be spanned by the powers of another. The +vast annals of Mahommetan conquest, the long sway of the Papal dominion, +present yet untrodden fields to future historical effort.[5] But it is +this very greatness and magnitude of his subject which presents the chief +difficulty with which the historian has to contend. With the exception of +a very few instances, such lengthened annals are necessarily occupied by a +vast variety of characters, actions, states, and events, having little or +no connexion with each other, scarce any common object of union, and no +thread by which the interest of the reader is to be kept up throughout. +Hence it is that works of history are so generally complained of as dull: +that, though they are more numerous than any other class of literary +compositions, the numbers of those generally read is so extremely small. +Enter any public library, you will see hundreds of historical works +reposing in respectable dignity on the shelves. How many of them are +generally studied, or have taken hold by common consent on the minds of +men? Not ten. Romance numbers its readers by hundreds, Poetry by fifties, +where History can with difficulty muster one. This amazing difference is +not owing to any deficiency of ability turned to the subject, or interest +in the materials of which it is formed. It can never be supposed that men +will be indifferent to the annals of their own fame, or that the +groundwork of all human invention--real event--can be wanting in the means +of moving the heart. It is the extraordinary difficulty of this branch of +composition, owing to its magnitude and complication, which is the sole +cause of the difference. + +The HISTORICAL ROMANCE is founded on history, but it differs from it in +the most essential particulars, and is relieved from the principal +difficulties with which the annalist of actual occurrences has to contend. +It selects a particular period out of past time, and introduces the +characters and events most remarkable for their interest, or the deep +impress they have left on the minds of men. This is an immense advantage; +for it relieves the writer from the great difficulty with which the +general historian has to contend, and which, in ninety-nine cases out of +an hundred, proves fatal to his success. Unity in the midst of confusion +is given to his subject. Room is afforded for graphic painting, space for +forcible delineations of character. It becomes possible to awaken interest +by following out the steps of individual adventure. Though the name of +historical romance is not to be found in antiquity, the thing itself was +far from being unknown. Its most charming Histories are little other than +Historical Romance; at least, they possess its charm, because they exhibit +its unity. The _Cyropaedia_ of Xenophon, the _Lives_ of Plutarch, many of +the heart-stirring _Legends_ of Livy, of the profound _Sketches_ of the +Emperors in Tacitus, are in truth historical romances under the name of +histories or biography. The lives of eminent men owe their chief charm to +the unity of the subject, and the possibility of strongly exciting the +feelings, by strictly adhering to the delineation of individual +achievement. So great is the weight of the load--crushing to the +historian--which is thus taken from the biographer or writer of historical +romance, that second-rate genius can effect triumphs in that department, +to which the very highest mind alone is equal in general historical +composition. No one would think of comparing the intellect of Plutarch +with that of Tacitus; but, nevertheless, the _Lives_ of the former will +always prove more generally attractive than the annals of the latter. +Boswell's mind was immeasurably inferior to that of Hume; but for one +reader of his _History of England_, will be found ten of the _Life of +Johnson_. Sir Walter Scott's _Life of Napoleon_ proves that he was not +altogether qualified to take a place among the great English historians; +but, to the end of the world, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, Queen Mary, and +Elizabeth, will stand forth from his canvass more clearly than either from +the rhetoric of Hume, or the eloquence of Robertson. + +The EPIC POEM confines within still narrower limits the narration of human +events. As it borrows the language and is clothed with the colours of +poetry, so it is capable of rousing the feelings more powerfully than +either biography or romance, and, when crowned with success, attains a +fame, and takes a hold of the hearts of men, to which nothing in prose +composition can be compared. Elevation of thought, fervour of language, +powerful delineation of character, are its essential qualities. But all +these would prove unavailing if the one thing needful, _unity of subject_, +were awanting. It is that which is its essential quality, for that alone +lets in all the others. All the great Epic Poems which have appeared in +the world are not only devoted to one interest, but are generally +restricted in point of space and time within limits not materially wider +than those of the Greek drama. The _Iliad_ not only relates exclusively +the latter stages of the siege of Troy, but the whole period of its action +is forty-eight days--of its absorbing interest, (the time from the +storming of the Greek lines by Hector to his death by the heaven-defended +Achilles,) thirty-six hours. The _Paradise Lost_ adheres strictly to unity +both of subject and time: the previous battles of the angels is the +subject of narrative by the angel Raphael; but the time that elapses from +the convocation of the devils in Pandemonium to the expulsion of Adam and +Eve from paradise is only three days. The _Jerusalem Delivered_ has the +one absorbing interest arising from the efforts of the Christians for the +deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre; and its time is limited to a few weeks. +Virgil was so enamoured of his great predecessor that he endeavoured to +imitate, in one poem, both his great works. The _AEneid_ is an _Iliad_ and +_Odyssey_ in one. But every one must feel that it is on the episode with +Dido that the interest of the poem really rests; and that all the magic of +his exquisite pencil can scarcely sustain the interest after the pious +AEneas has taken his departure from the shores of Carthage. The _Lusiad_ of +Camoens, necessarily, from its subject, embraced wider limits; but the one +interest of the poem is as single and sustained as that of the discovery +of the new world by Columbus. If any of these writers had professed in +rhyme to give a history of a wider or more protracted subject, the +interest would have been so much diffused as to be lost. The confusion of +ideas and incidents so painfully felt by all the readers of _Orlando +Furioso_, and which the boundless fancy of Ariosto was unable to prevent, +proves that epic poetry has its limits, and that they are narrower than +either history or romance. + +What epic poetry is to romance or biography, THE DRAMA is to epic poetry. +As the former selects from the romance of history its most interesting and +momentous events, and makes them the subject of brilliant description, of +impassioned rhetoric, so the latter chooses from the former its most +heart-stirring episodes, and brings them in actual dialogue and +representation before the mind of the spectator. Immense is the effect of +this concentration--still more marvellous that of the personation with +which it is attended. Imagination assumes the actual form of beings; +conception is realised. The airy visions of the past are clothed in flesh +and blood. The marvels of acting, scenery, and stage effect, come to add +to the pathos of incident, to multiply tenfold the charms of poetry. It is +impossible to conceive intellectual enjoyment carried beyond the point it +attained, when the magic of Shakspeare's thought and language was enhanced +by the power of Siddons or Kemble's acting, or is personified by the +witchery of Helen Faucit's conceptions. But for the full effect of this +combination, it is indispensable that the principles of dramatic +composition be duly observed, and the stage kept within its due limits, +more contracted in point of time and place than either romance or epic +poetry. Within those bounds it is omnipotent, and produces an impression +to which, while it lasts, none of the sister arts can pretend. Beyond +them it never fails to break down, and not only ceases to interest, but +often becomes to the last degree wearisome and exhausting. It is not +difficult to see to what this general failure of the drama, when it +outstrips its proper bounds, is owing. It arises from the impossibility of +awakening interest without attending to unity of emotion; of keeping alive +attention without continuity of incident; of making the story intelligible +without simplicity of action. + +Dramatic authors, actors, and actresses, how gifted soever in other +respects, are the worst possible judges on this subject. They are so +familiar with the story, from having composed the piece themselves, or +made it the subject of frequent repetition or rehearsal, that they can +form no conception of the difficulty which nine tenths of the audience, to +whom the piece is entirely strange, experience in understanding the plot, +or acquiring any interest in the incidents or development of the piece. It +may safely be affirmed, that a vast majority of the spectators of the +dramas now habitually represented, with the exception of a few of +Shakspeare's, which have become as household words on the English stage, +never understand any thing of the story till the end of the third act, and +are only beginning to take an interest in the piece when the curtain +falls. Dramatic authors and performers would do well to ponder on this +observation; they may rely upon it that it furnishes the key to the +present degraded state of the English drama. + +It is not obtuseness on the part of the audience which occasions this. So +complicated is the story, so lengthened the succession of events, in most +of our modern theatrical pieces, that the most acute understanding, +fortified by the most extensive practice, requiring alertness of +intellect, will long be at fault in comprehending them. We have seen many +a barrister famed for cross-examination unable to comprehend, till the +piece was half over, the drift of Sheridan Knowles's dramas. Is it +surprising, when this is the case, that the vast majority of the audience +complain of weariness during the representation, and that the managers of +theatres, sensible of this difficulty, are fain to eke out the proper +interest of the drama by the meretricious aids of scenery, and dancing, +and decorations? + +What is constantly complained of by all classes at the theatre is, that it +is so tiresome; that the back is broken by sitting without a support; that +they cannot comprehend the story; that they do not understand what it is +all about; and that the performance is infinitely too long. This last +observation is, undoubtedly, frequently well founded: no where is the +truth of old Hesiod's maxim, that a half is often greater than the whole, +more frequently exemplified than in dramatic representations. But still +the fact of the complaint being so universally made, and equally by all +classes, is very remarkable, and pregnant with instruction, as to the +limits of the drama and the causes of the decline of its popularity so +painfully conspicuous in the British empire. No one complains of his back +being broken for want of support at a trial for murder; on the contrary, +all classes, and _especially the lowest_, will sit at such heart-stirring +scenes, without feeling fatigue, for ten, twelve, sometimes eighteen hours +consecutively. Nor can it be affirmed that this is because the interest is +real; that the life of a human being is at stake. Every day's experience +proves that fiction, when properly managed, is more interesting than +reality. The vast multitude of novels which yearly issue from the press, +the eagerness with which they are sought after by all classes, the +extraordinary extent of their circulation, sufficiently prove this. No one +complains that the best romances of Sir Walter Scott or Bulwer are too +long; on the contrary, they are generally felt to be too short; and those +who are loudest in their declamations against the intolerable fatigue of +the theatre, will sit for days together with their feet at the fire, +devouring even an indifferent novel. + +The general complaint now made in Great Britain against the tedium of +theatrical representations was unknown in other ages and countries. The +passion of the Greeks for their national theatre is well known, and the +matchless perfection of their great dramatists proves to what a degree it +is capable of rousing the human mind. The French, prior to the Revolution, +were passionately fond of the drama, which was then entirely founded on +the Greek model. The decline complained of in the Parisian theatre has +been contemporary with the introduction of the Romantic school. In Italy, +it is, with the opera, the chief, almost the sole public amusement. There +is not a city with forty thousand inhabitants in the classic peninsula +that has not a theatre and opera, superior to any thing to be met with in +the British islands out of London. The theatre is in high favour in +Germany and Russia. Complaints, indeed, are frequently made, that the +drama is declining on the Continent, and the present state of the lesser +Parisian theatres certainly affords no indication that, in departing from +the old land-marks and bringing romance on the stage, they have either +preserved its purity or extended its influence. But the decline of the +theatre is far greater and more remarkable in England than in any of the +continental states. It has, indeed, gone so far as to induce a serious +apprehension among many well-informed persons, that it will cease to +exist, and the country of Shakspeare and Garrick, of Kemble and Siddons, +be left altogether without a theatre at which the legitimate drama is +represented. Such a result in a country overflowing, in its great cities +and metropolis at least, with riches, and with a population passionately +desirous of every species of enjoyment, is very remarkable, and deserving +of the most serious consideration. It may well make us pause in our +career, and consider whether the course we have been pursuing has, or has +not, been likely to lead to perfection and success in this noble and +important branch of composition. + +We have stated what are the limits of the drama, and what part is assigned +to it in the general effort of the human mind to portray events, or paint +the human heart. Macaulay has explained, in the passage already quoted, +what the Romantic drama proposes to do, and the reason why, in his +estimation, it is more likely to attain its end than the more closely +fettered theatre of the Greeks. The whole question comes to be, which of +the two systems is best adapted to attain the undoubted end of all +dramatic composition, the painting of the human heart? If he is right in +the views he has so well expressed, it is very singular how it has +happened, that in a country which, for the last three centuries, has +constantly adhered to these ideas, and worked out the Romantic drama with +extraordinary zeal and vigour, dramatic representations should have been +constantly declining, so as at length to be threatened with total +extinction. This becomes the more remarkable, when it is recollected, that +in other countries, inferior in wealth, genius, and energy to Great +Britain, but where the old system had been adhered to, it continued to +flourish in undiminished vigour, and that decay in them has uniformly been +coexistent with the entry on the stage of Romantic representation. Racine, +Corneille, Voltaire in France, and Metastasio and Alfieri in Italy, +Schiller and Goethe in Germany, have nobly upheld the legitimate drama in +their respective countries. Still more extraordinary is it, if these views +be the correct ones, that while, by the marvels of one heaven-born genius, +the Romantic drama was in the days of Queen Elizabeth raised to the very +highest perfection in this country, it has since continually languished, +and cannot from his day number one name destined for immortality among its +votaries. + +It is said in answer to this obvious objection to the Romantic drama, +founded on its fate in all the countries where it has been established, +that it shares in this respect only in the common destiny of mankind in +creating works of imagination; that the period of great and original +conception is the first only--that Homer was succeeded by Virgil, AEschylus +by Euripides, Dante by Tasso, Shakspeare by Pope, and that the age of +genius in all countries is followed by that of criticism.[6] There can be +no doubt that this observation is in many respects well founded; but it +affords no solution of the causes of the present degraded condition of our +national drama, nor does it explain the course it has taken in this +country. We have made a progress, but it has not been from originality to +taste, but from genius to folly. The age of AEschylus has not with us been +succeeded by that of Sophocles and Euripides, but by that of melodrama and +_spectacle_. We have not advanced from the wildness of conception to the +graces of criticism, but from the rudeness of some barbaric imagination, +to the cravings of corrupted fancy. The age of Garrick has been with us +succeeded, not by that of Roscius, but by that of Cerito; the melodrama of +the _Crusaders_, the dancing of Carlotta Grisi, have banished tragedy from +the boards trod by Kemble and Siddons. The modern dramas which have been +published, and in part appeared on the stage, have in no respect been +distinguished by more legitimate taste, or a stricter adherence to rule, +than those of Ford and Massinger, of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Jonson and +Shakspeare. They have discarded, indeed, the indecency which forms so +serious a blot on our older dramatists, but, in other respects, they have +faithfully followed out their principles. The drama still, as in earlier +days, professes to exhibit in a few hours a representation of the +principal events of a lifetime. Time and place are set at nought, as they +were by the bard of Avon, and not unfrequently the last act opens at the +distance of years, or hundreds of miles from the first. We need only +mention two of the ablest and most popular of our modern dramas--_The Lady +of Lyons_, by Bulwer, and the best of Sheridan Knowles' theatrical pieces, +for a confirmation of these observations. But no one will pretend that the +dramatic works of these writers, excellent in many respects as they are, +can be set off against the master-pieces of the Greek or French drama +which succeeded the days of AEschylus and Corneille. + +Again it is said, and very commonly too, as an explanation of the +extraordinary failure of dramatic genius since the days of Queen Elizabeth +in this country, that originality and greatness can be reached only once +in the lifetime of a nation; that we have had our Shakspeare as Greece had +its Homer, and that we should be content; and that it is the necessary +effect of superlative excellence in the outset, to extinguish rivalry and +induce mediocrity in the end. The observation is plausible, and it has +been so frequently made, that it has passed with many into a sort of +axiom. But when tried by the only test of truth in human affairs--that of +experience--it entirely fails. Past history affords no countenance to the +idea, that early greatness extinguishes subsequent emulation, or that +superlative genius in one department is fatal to subsequent perfection in +it. On the contrary, it creates it. It is by the collision of one great +mind with another, that the greatest achievements of the human mind have +been effected--often the chain continues from one age and nation to +another; but it is never snapped asunder. + +These considerations are fitted to cast a serious doubt on the question, +how far the true principles of the drama are those which have been +embraced by the English school, and may lead us to consider whether the +acknowledged inferiority of our tragic writers, since the time of +Shakspeare, is not in reality to be ascribed to his transcendent genius +having led them astray from the true principles of the art. It will be +considered in the sequel, to what cause _his_ acknowledged success has +been owing, and whether his finest dramas, those which chiefly retain +their popularity, are not in reality constructed on the Grecian model. +But, in the mean time, let it be considered what in reality the drama can +do, and what limits are imposed upon it, not by the arbitrary rules of +critics, but by the lasting nature of things. + +The drama is restricted by the well known limits of human patience to a +representation of three hours. Experience has every where proved that the +greatest genius, both in the poet and performer, cannot keep alive +interest, or avert weariness, beyond that period. The spectators sit still +in their places the whole time. Whatever changes of scene, or external +objects to look at are introduced, the audience itself is motionless. It +is to persons thus situated, and within this time, that theatrical +representations are addressed. They expect, and with reason, to be amused +and interested in comedy, moved and melted in tragedy. It is for this they +go to the theatre, for this they pay their money. Writers and actors are +equally aware that this is the case. Then what course do the Greek and the +Romantic school respectively follow to attain this object? + +Both in some respects follow the same course, or rather both make use, for +the main part, of the same materials. It is universally acknowledged, that +it is essential to the success of the drama, in all its branches, that the +plot be interesting, the characters forcible, the ideas natural, the +attention constantly kept up. In tragedy, by far its noblest department, +it is indispensable, in addition, that the feelings should be vehemently +excited in the spectators, and the human heart laid bare, by the most +violent passions, in the characters on the stage. Aristotle expressly +says, that it is the delineation of passions which is the object of +tragedy. In order to achieve this object, all are agreed, that some +permanent characters must be selected, generally from those known to +history, to whom striking and tragic events have occurred; and it is in +the delineation of the passions which those events excite, and the +interest they awaken in the breast of the spectators, that the art of the +writer consists. So far both parties are agreed; but they differ widely in +the methods which they respectively take to attain this object. + +The Romantic dramatist, overstepping the bounds of time and place, +professes in three hours to portray the principal events of years--it may +be of a whole lifetime. He selects the prominent events of his hero's or +heroine's career, the salient angles, as it were, of human existence, and +brings them forward in different scenes of his brief representation. Years +often intervene between the commencement of his piece and its termination; +the spectator is transported hundreds, it may be thousands of miles by a +mere mechanical sleight of hand in the scene-shifter, or between the acts. +The drama constructed on these principles does not represent a short +period, into which the crisis, as it were, of a whole lifetime is +concentrated, but it gives sketches of the whole life itself, from the +commencement of its eventful period to its termination. The poet chooses +the most exciting scenes out of the three volumes of the historical novel, +and brings these scenes on the stage in a few hours. As the drama, +constructed on this principle, professes to portray the changes of real +life, so it admits, it is thought, of that intermixture of the serious and +the comic, which the actual world exhibits; and willingly transports the +spectator from the most highly wrought scenes of passion, the deepest +accents of woe, to the burlesque of extravagant characters, or the picture +of vulgar life. This is deemed admissible, because it is natural; and +certainly no one can have gone from the drawing-room, or the library, to +the stage-coach or the steam-boat, without seeing that it exhibits at +least a true picture of the varied phantasmagoria which existence +presents. + +The Greek dramatists, and their successors in modern Europe, proceed upon +an entirely different principle. Having made their selection of the +characters and the events on which their piece is to be constructed, they +pitch upon that period in their progress in which matters were brought to +a crisis, and, for good or for evil, their destiny was accomplished. +Having done this, they portray the minutest incidents of that brief period +with the utmost care, and exert all their strength on the graphic painting +on which every artist knows the awakening of interest is almost entirely +dependent. The previous history of the principal personages is described +in dialogue at the commencement of the piece, so as to make the spectators +aware both of the great lives of the characters which are brought before +them, and of the antecedent events which had brought matters to their +present crisis. Having carried them to this point, the crisis itself is +portrayed at full length, and with all the power and pathos of which the +artist is capable. The poet does not pretend to narrate the campaign from +its commencement to its termination: he begins his piece with the +commencement of the last battle, and exerts all his strength on painting +the decisive charge. He does not give the voyage from its commencement to +its termination, with its long periods of monotonous weariness; he +confines himself to the brief and terrible scene of the ship-wreck. As the +crisis and catastrophe of life is thus alone represented, and every thing +depends on the interest excited by its development, so nothing is admitted +which can disturb the unity of the emotion, or interrupt the flow of the +sympathy which it is the great object of the piece from first to last to +awaken. + +If it were _possible_ to create the same interest, or delineate character +and passion as completely, by brief and consequently imperfect sketches of +a whole lifetime, as it is by a minute and glowing representation of its +most eventful period, much might be advanced with justice in favour of the +Romantic school of the drama. Our objection is, that this is impossible; +and that the failure of the English theatre, since the time of Shakspeare, +is entirely to be ascribed to this impossibility. And the impossibility is +owing to the length of time which it requires, by narrative or +representation, to kindle that warm and glowing image, or awaken those +ardent feelings in the mind of another, upon which the emotion of taste +and the success of all the Fine Arts depend. + +In the arts which address themselves to the _eye_, and through it to the +heart, it is possible to produce a very strong impression almost +instantaneously. A beautiful woman has only to be seen to be admired; a +charming landscape bursts upon the sight with immediate and almost magical +force. The impression produced by the finest objects in Europe,--the sun +setting on the Jungfrawhorn, the interior of St Peter's, the fall of +Schaffhausen, the view on the Acropolis of Athens, Constantinople from the +Seraglio point, the Bay of Naples, for example,--is such, that though seen +_only_ for a few minutes, it may almost be said seconds, an impression is +made, a picture is painted, on the mind's retina, which can never be +effaced. Painting, as it imitates external nature, so it shares in the +rapidity and, in the hands of great masters, durability of its +impressions. Sculpture and architecture have the same advantage. Yet even +in these arts, the productions of which require only to be seen to be +admired, it is well known that the impression, strong as it is at first, +is, with all persons of a cultivated mind, greatly increased by repeated +inspections. The common observation, that a fine painting or statue grows +upon you the oftener you see it, and that "Time but the impression deeper +wears," sufficiently proves that it is not at once, even in those arts +which speak at once to the eye, that the soul of the artist is transferred +to that of the spectator. + +But the case is entirely different with those arts--such as history, +romance, epic poetry, or the drama--which do not at once produce a visible +object to the mind, but give descriptions or dialogues by which the reader +or spectator is required to form a _mental_ object or awaken a mental +interest of his own creation, though from the materials furnished, and +under the guidance of the genius of the artist. It is not instantaneously +that this can be done: on the contrary, it is by very slow degrees and +many successive efforts that the inward picture is created in the mind, +the absorbing interest awakened in the heart, which gives the pleasure or +rouses the sympathy which is the object of the writer to communicate. A +very little reflection will be sufficient to show that this observation is +well founded, in all the arts of narrative or description. And nothing, we +apprehend, can be clearer than that the Romantic Drama has failed because +it professes, within limits and by means which render the attempt +hopeless, to excite this interest. + +Notwithstanding the well-known and proverbial dulness of history, there +are many historical works which do succeed in awakening a durable and +sometimes absorbing interest in the mind of the reader. Probably few works +professedly addressed to the imagination have awakened in many breasts so +deep and lasting an interest as the narrative of Livy, the biography of +Tacitus, the pictured page of Gibbon. Such works are almost always +complained of as dull at first: but the interest gradually waxes warmer as +the narrative proceeds; the feelings become roused on one side, or in +favour of one hero or another, in the great drama of the world; and not +unfrequently in the end the most attractive works of imagination are laid +aside for the annals of real events. But how is it that this interest is +awakened? By the study of months, sometimes of years: by an interest +produced by the reading of a whole winter by the fireside. Let any man +try, in a narrative of _long_ continued historical events, to excite a +deep interest in a space which can be read _in three hours_, and the +powers of Tacitus or Gibbon would at once fail in the attempt. It is quite +possible in that brief period to awaken the deepest interest in a single +or closely connected series of events, as a battle, a siege, a revolt, a +ship-wreck: but wholly impossible to do so with incidents scattered over a +long course of years. + +The interest so generally felt in epic poetry and romance is excited in +the same way, though in a much shorter period. As the colours of these +species of composition are more brilliant, the feelings more chastened, +the events more select, the characters more prominent, the catastrophe +more rapidly brought about, than in real life, so the artist has the +means, in a much shorter period, of awakening the interest upon the growth +of which the success of his work is chiefly dependent. But nevertheless, +even there, it is by comparatively slow degrees, and by reading for a very +considerable period, that the interest is created. It is wholly impossible +to produce it, or make the story or the characters intelligible, in a few +hours. Every scholar recollects the delight with which his mind grew, as +it were, under the fire of Homer's conceptions, his taste matured under +the charm of Virgil's feelings: but no one will pretend that the intense +delight he felt could be awakened, if he had read extracts from their most +brilliant passages in a few hours; this pleasure was the feast, this +interest the growth, of weeks and months. No reader of Tasso, Milton, or +Klopstock, for the first time, would think he could acquire an interest in +the _Jerusalem Delivered_, the _Paradise Lost_, or the _Messiah_, between +tea and supper. Many of their finest passages might be read in that brief +space, and their beauty _as pieces of poetry_ fully appreciated; but it +would be wholly impossible in so short a time to awaken an interest in the +whole story, or the fate of the principal characters.--Nevertheless it +would be quite possible, in that period to excite the deepest sympathy +with some of their most striking events or episodes _taken singly_; as the +parting of Hector and Andromache, or the death of the Trojan hero, in the +_Iliad_; the love of Dido for AEneas, or the catastrophe of Nisus and +Euryalus, in the _AEneid_; the death of Clorinda, or the flight of Erminia, +in the _Jerusalem Delivered_. The reason is, that it is possible in a +short space to point a single catastrophe with such force and minuteness +as to excite the warmest sympathy, but wholly impossible to effect that +object within such limits, with a long series of consecutive events. + +Again, look at the historical romance or the common novel. No one needs to +be told how deep and universal is the interest which the masterpieces in +that department awaken. Whatever may be said to the decline of the public +taste for the drama, most certainly there is no symptom of any abatement +in the general interest awakened by works of fiction; but that interest is +of comparatively slow growth. It would be impossible to produce it in a +few hours. It is excited by the reading of three evenings by the fireside. +No one would deem it possible to awaken the interest, or make the +characters intelligible, in three hours. + +It is true that to the aid of six or eight chapters culled out of three +volumes, the Romantic dramatist brings the auxiliaries of acting, scenery, +and stage effect; but that adds little to the power of exciting deep +sympathy or powerful emotion. Such feelings cannot be awakened without +minute painting, and continuity of action, and they are excluded by the +very nature of the Romantic drama. That species of composition proposes to +give a picture of the principal events of a long period, as the +peristrephic panorama does of the chief scenes of a great space, as the +whole course of the Rhine or the Danube. Every one knows how inferior the +interest it excites is to those in which the whole skill of the artist and +outlay of the proprietor have been exerted on a single picture, as the +original round one of Barker and Burford. The art of panoramic painting +has signally receded, since the moving panorama has been substituted for +the fixed one. A series of galloping lithographic sketches of Italy, +however highly coloured or skilfully drawn, will never paint that lovely +peninsula like a single sunset of Claude in the bay of Naples. Claude +himself could not do so in his varied sketches, graphic and masterly as +they are. The Romantic drama is the _Liber Veritatis_; the Greek drama is +the finished Claude in the Doria Palace, or the National Gallery. Few +persons will hesitate to say which excites the strongest admiration, which +they would rather possess. + +Performers on the stage are very naturally led to form an erroneous +opinion on this subject. Many of the most captivating qualities they +possess are seen at once. Physical beauty, elegance of manner, a noble +air, a majestic carriage, a lovely figure, a bewitching smile, produce +their effect instantaneously. No one needs to be told how quickly and +powerfully they speak to the heart, how warmly they kindle the +imagination. But that admiration is _personal_ to the artist; it does not +extend to the piece, nor can it overcome its imperfections. It gives +pleasure often of the very highest kind; but it is a pleasure very +different from the true interest of dramatic representation, and cannot be +relied on to sustain the interest of an audience for a long period. It is +where these powers of the performer are exerted on a drama constructed on +its true principles, that the full delight of the theatre is felt. No +talents in the performer can sustain a faulty piece. We cannot sit three +hours merely to admire the most beautiful and gifted actress that ever +trod the boards. Mental sympathy, the rousing of the feelings, is +required, and that is mainly the work of the poet. + +We are the more confirmed in the opinion that these are the true +principles of dramatic composition, from observing how generally they are +applicable to the historical novel; how clearly they are illustrated by +the decided verdict of public opinion pronounced on the works of the most +popular writers in that species of composition. The two novels of Sir +Walter Scott that are most admired, are _Ivanhoe_ and _The Bride of +Lammermoor_. Well, these romances have the interest concentrated within +the narrowest limits. _The Bride of Lammermoor_ is a Greek drama in prose. +It has its simplicity of story, unity of emotion, and terrible concluding +catastrophe. _Lucia di Lammermoor_, performed with signal success in every +opera of Europe, is a proof how easily it was dramatised. It is the _only +one_ of Sir Walter's novels that, out of Scotland, where local feelings +warp the judgment, has been durably successful on the stage. The principal +events in _Ivanhoe_ are contracted within three days; the characters which +interest are only two or three in number. Look at Cooper. The great secret +of his success is the minuteness and fidelity of his painting, and the +graphic power with which heart-stirring events occurring within a very +short period are painted. In the most admired of all his novels, _The +Deerslayer_, the whole scene is laid on the borders of a single lake, and +the interest arises from the adventures of two girls on its watery bosom. +Events in _The Pathfinder_, _The Last of the Mohicans_, and _The Prairie_, +are nearly as concentrated in point of time and characters, though, as the +story depends in each on the adventures of a party on a journey, a +considerable transference of place is of course introduced. _The Promessi +Sposi_ of Manzoni has acquired a European reputation, and every reader of +it knows how entirely its interest is dependent on the unity of interest +and extraordinary fidelity and skill with which, within narrow limits, the +characters, events, and still life, are portrayed. It is the same in +history. The success of Alison's _History of Europe_ has been mainly +owing to the fortunate unity of the subject, and the dramatic character of +the events which, within the space of twenty years, were thus crowded into +the theatre of human affairs. + +In those romances again, and they are many, in which great latitude in the +unities has been taken, it is very rarely that the skill of the artist has +succeeded in preventing a painful break in the interest, or cessation in +the sympathy, where any considerable transposition of place or overleaping +of time occurs. It is very frequent in James's novels to see this done; +but we believe he never yet had a reader in whom it did not excite a +feeling of regret. When a chapter begins--"We must now transport the +reader to a distant part of the country"--or "Many years after the events +detailed in the last chapter had occurred, two persons met in an hostelry +on the side of a forest," &c., we may rely upon it that, not only is the +scene changed, but the interest, for the time at least, is lost. The +pictures formed in the mind, the interest awakened in the events, the +admiration felt for the characters, are alike at an end. The chain of +sympathy is broken with the rupture of the continuity of events. The +reader's mind sets out as it were on a new track, in which the sails must +be spread, and the oars worked afresh. Everything must be done over again; +fresh pictures conjured up in the mind, new interests awakened in the +breast from the last starting-point. But it is seldom that such new +interests can supply the want of those which have been lost, or that, +where such a system is adopted, even a sustained sympathy can be +maintained throughout. We do not say that the first love is exclusive of +any other; but only that the interest is not to be transferred from one to +the other, until a considerable time has elapsed, and no small pains have +been taken. Several such dislocations of place, or violations of time, +will prove fatal to a novel, though written with the utmost ability, and +managed in other respects with the most consummate skill. Every reader of +Mr James's romances, which in many respects possess high merits, must be +sensible of the truth of this observation; and all the richness of +colouring, and fidelity in drawing, in Sir L. Bulwer's splendid historical +romance of _Rienzi_, cannot take away the painful impression produced by +the long interval which elapses between the commencement of the story, +where the characters first appear, its middle, where the real interest is +developed, and its termination, where the catastrophe occurs. + +In the historical romance, however, such diffusion of the events over a +long period, though extremely difficult to be managed in consistence with +the preservation of interest in the story, is adverse to no principle; +because it is the very object of that species of mingled truth and fiction +to narrate a lengthened course of events as they affected the history of +individual men; and the only unity to which the author is restricted by +the principles of his art is the unity of interest. But the curious thing +is, that in the Romantic drama this difficulty is voluntarily undertaken +when no necessity exists for its introduction; nay, when the principles of +the art, as evinced in the works of its greatest masters, forbid its +adoption. What would the historian give to be able to dwell only on the +brilliant episodes of his period--to be permitted to throw aside the long +intervening years of monotony or prose, and dwell only on those where the +poetry of existence is brought forth? On what scenes does the romance +writer dwell with transport--where does he paint with force and minuteness +but in those incidents, generally few and far between in his volumes, +which form the fit subject of dramatic composition? The stage alone is +relieved from the necessity of portraying the prosaic adjunct to poetic +interest; the dramatist only is permitted to select the decisive +crisis--the burning incident of life--and present it with all the +additions of poetry, music, scenery, and personation. Strange that, when +thus relieved of the fetters which so grievously restrain the other +species of human narrative, he should voluntarily choose to wear them; +that when at liberty to soar on the eagle's wing, he should gratuitously +assume the camel's load. + +In truth, the adoption of the Romantic style in theatrical composition, +and the tenacity with which, despite centuries of failure, it is still +adhered to by dramatic poets, is mainly to be ascribed to a secret sense +of inability to work up the simpler old drama of Greece with the requisite +force and effect. Men distrust their own powers in awaking a continued +interest for hours from one incident, or the portraying of a single +catastrophe. They are fain to borrow the adventitious aid to be derived, +as they think, from frequent changes of time and place. They rail at the +drama of Athens, as many modern artists do at the paintings of Claude +Lorraine, because they feel themselves unable to imitate them. They crowd +their canvass with objects, from a secret sense of inability to finish any +one with perfect force and fidelity. In that way they flatter themselves +that the defects of their composition will be less strongly felt, and the +audience will experience something like the enjoyment of foreign +travelling without any great trouble on the part of their conductor, on +the brilliant succession of pictures which is presented to their +intellectual vision. They forget only one thing, but it generally proves +fatal to their whole undertaking. Foreign travelling is delightful; but it +is only so when sufficient time is allowed to see the objects properly, +and take in the impression. Without this, it is little more than a +grievous fatigue, relieved by one or two splendid but fleeting pictures +painted on the mind. The drama being limited to a three hours' +representation, must portray the events of years, if it attempts it, at +railway speed. Thence it is, that no greater pleasure is in general felt +from its representations than from seeing the tops of villages or the +steeples of churches fleeting past when travelling fifty miles an hour on +the Great Western. If we would really enjoy nature, we must stop short and +sketch one of them, and then we shall feel pleasure indeed. + +It is a most grievous but unavoidable consequence of this original +departure, as we deem it, from right principle in dramatic composition, +that it leads by a natural and almost unavoidable transition to all the +extravagances and meritricious aids, the presence of which has so long +been felt as the chief disgrace of the British stage. As long as the +unities of time and place are adhered to, the poet has no resource but in +the forces of character, the pathos of incident, the beauty of language. +If he does not succeed in these he is lost. But the moment that he feels +himself at liberty to change the scene or time at pleasure, there is no +end to the assistance which he will seek to derive from such adventitious +support, how foreign soever to the real interest and true principles of +his art. Frequent changes of scene, gorgeous pictures of buildings or +scenery, brilliant exhibitions of stage effect, processions, battles, +storming of castles, the clang of trumpets, the clashing of swords, the +discharge of fire-arms, are all resorted to in order to save the trouble +of thought, or conceal mediocrity of conception. It may be that such +exhibitions are very attractive, that they draw full houses of children, +or of men and women with the minds of children--no small portion of the +human race. But no one will assert that they are the drama, any more than +that name belonged to the exhibitions of lions or cameleopards in the +Roman amphitheatre. But the Romantic drama, by the unbounded latitude in +point of time, place, and incident, which it permits, opens the door to +all these substitutes for genius which the great drama, by excluding them, +kept carefully closed. Therefore it is that the corruption of taste has +been much more rapid and irremediable in the countries by which it has +been adopted, than in those in which the old landmarks were adhered to; +and that in the latter the taste for extravagance in the public, and the +degradation in the character of dramatic composition, has always been +contemporary with the introduction of the Romantic style on the theatre. + +To see to what the Romantic style leads, we have only to look at the +dramatic pieces founded on the favourite works of fiction which have +recently appeared in England and France. Dramas in both countries have +been formed on the stories of the most popular novels of Scott, Bulwer, +Victor Hugo, Janin, and Eugene Sue. What success have they had? What sort +of things are they? We pass over the horrors, the indecency, adulterous +incest, and murders of the modern French drama, founded on the romances of +three popular and imaginative novelists, and come to the dramas founded on +our own great romance writers, against whom no such charges can be +brought, and the original plots of which have been constructed with the +utmost talent by the greatest master of prose fiction the world ever saw. +What has been the fate of the dramas of _Ivanhoe_, _The Antiquary_, _Guy +Mannering_, _Rob Roy_, or Sir Walter's other popular novels? With the +exception of the lowest class of Scotch audiences, who roar on the +representations of Dandie Dinmont, Bailie Nicol Jarvie, or the like, it +may safely be affirmed that they have every where proved entire failures. +The talent of a popular actress may for a time keep some of them up, as +Miss Cushman has recently done with Meg Merrilies both in the London and +provincial theatres; but left to themselves, they have every where sunk to +the ground. The reason is evident. The story is so complicated, and leaps +so from one thing to another, from a desire to skim over the whole novel, +that except to those who have the original by heart, it is absolutely +unintelligible. + +It is said that the sketch of a whole lifetime, or of many years, is +essential to the true development of character, which it is the great end +of the drama to exhibit, because it is by the varied events of so long a +period that we are made acquainted with it in real life. Here again we +join issue with our opponents, and do most confidently maintain that the +Greek drama, which professes to paint the heart by the paroxysms of +passion it undergoes in the crisis of its fate, is much more likely to do +it faithfully and effectually than the Romantic, which portrays the events +of a whole lifetime. When it is said the object of the drama is to paint +the human heart, a distinction must be made. The heart may become known by +ordinary life or moments of crisis, _by custom or passion_. The novelist, +who portrays a whole life, may delineate it in the first way; but the +dramatic poet, who is limited to a representation of three hours, must of +necessity embrace the latter. But if the delineation of the heart by its +expressions or sufferings in moments of passion, when it is laid bare by +the vehemence of emotions, be the end in view, it must at once be evident +that it is much more likely to be attained by vividly and minutely +painting a single decisive crisis, with the acts and feelings to which it +gives rise, than by presenting comparatively hurried and imperfect +sketches of previous events, when the current of life ran comparatively +smoothly. Every one knows how much the character of the French church and +nobility rose during the sufferings of the Revolution; with truth was the +instrument of their execution called the "holy guillotine," from the +virtues previously unheard of which it brought to light. Could any +dramatic sketch of their previous lives paint the inmost heart of these +victims so well as one faithful portrait of their conduct in the supreme +hour? Could the mingled greatness and meanness of Napoleon's character be +so well portrayed, by a sketch of his life and impressive scenes from Lodi +to St Helena, as by a graphic delineation of his conduct in the decisive +crisis at Waterloo? + +It sounds well, no doubt, to say, as Macaulay does, that the Romantic +drama exhibits all the plans of a man's life, from the ardour of generous +youth to the coolness of experienced age. This may be done in history or +romance; but it is impossible within the limits of a single +representation. It is quite enough if, in so short a space, the stage can +represent one momentous crisis with adequate power, and really paint the +heart as laid bare by its occurrence. He who knows how difficult it is to +do that in a single instance, will feel that the effect can only be +weakened by repeated draughts upon the sympathy of the audience, from the +effect of different events in the same piece. The attempt to do so +scarcely ever fails to weaken the effect of the whole piece, by +distracting the interest and confusing the idea of the spectators. If it +succeeds, the result, like the repeated demands which Matthews made on +our risible faculties, in general is to produce an effect directly the +reverse of what was intended. The comedian, by trying too often to make us +laugh, made us in the end more ready to cry; the tragedian, by trying too +often to make us cry, succeeds generally only in making us laugh. + +But what, then, it is said, is to be made of Shakspeare, and how is his +transcendent and universally acknowledged greatness, while setting the +unities at defiance, to be reconciled with those principles? We accept the +challenge; we take the case of the Earl of Avon, with his deathless fame, +and maintain that his dramatic excellence not only affords no impeachment +of what has now been advanced, but furnishes its most decisive +confirmation. + +When it is commonly said that Shakspeare sets the unities at defiance, and +assumed that his success has been owing to his disregarding them, the +_fact_ is not correctly stated, and the _inference_ is not logically +drawn. It is a mistake to say that the unities are always disregarded by +the great English tragedian. In many of his most popular pieces, they are +maintained nearly as strictly as they were by Sophocles; and we are aware +of not one of his dramas which is still represented with undiminished +effect on the stage, in which the principle of the unities may not +distinctly be recognised, and the long-continued success is not to be +traced to their observation. + +The Greeks, as every scholar knows, took great latitude with _time_ in +their representations. The interval between one act and another, often +even the time occupied by the chaunting of the chorus, frequently was made +to cover a very considerable period, during which battles were fought, a +duel or a conspiracy broke forth, an execution took place, and the most +momentous events of the piece off the stage occurred. In place, it is +true, they were strictly limited; the scene never changed, and all the +incidents were introduced by bringing successive persons upon it. In this +respect, it may be admitted, they carried their strictness too far. +Probably it arose from the pieces being represented, for the most part, in +the open air, under circumstances when the illusion produced by a change +of scene, such as we witness at our theatres, was difficult, if not +impossible, from the audience being, for the most part, above the actors, +and the stage having no top. But to whatever cause it may have been owing, +we hold the adherence to unity of place an unnecessary and prejudicial +strictness in the Greek theatre. But a very slight deviation from it alone +seems admissible; and the unity of action or emotion seems to be the very +essence of this species of composition. + +The true principle appears to be, that the place should not change to a +greater extent than the spectators _can conceive the actors to have gone +over without inconvenience within the time embraced in the +representation_. This time often extended with the Greeks to a half of, or +even a whole day, and there seems nothing adverse to principle in such +extension. Changes of scene, therefore, from one room in a palace to +another; from one part of a town to another; or even from town to a +chateau, garden, forest, or other place in its near vicinity, appear to be +perfectly admissible, without any violation of true dramatic principle. +The popular opera of the "Black Domino," to which the charming singing and +acting of Madame Thillon have recently given such celebrity at the +Haymarket, may be considered in this respect as a model of the unities +taken in a reasonable sense. The time which elapses in the piece is a +single night; the subject is the adventures which befel the heroine during +that period; the scene changes, but only to the places in the same town to +which she went during its continuance. There seems nothing inconsistent +with the production of unity of interest in such a latitude. And with this +inconsiderable expansion of the old Greek unities, it will be found that +Shakspeare's greatest plays, and those which experience has found to be +best adapted for the stage, have been constructed on the true principles. + +Take for example, _Romeo and Juliet_, and _As you Like it_; perhaps the +tragedy and comedy of his composition which have most completely kept +their hold of the stage. The unities are nearly as closely observed in +both as in any drama of Sophocles. With the exception of a slight +alteration of place and scene, every thing is concentrated. The interest +and emotion, which is the great point, is maintained one and indivisible. +With the exception of Romeo's banishment to Mantua, and the scene with the +druggist there, which, after all, is but an episode, and took the hero +only two hours' drive from Verona, the place is confined to different +scenes in that town. The festive hall where the lovers first meet--the +exquisite meeting on the balcony--Father Ambrose's cell--the room where +Juliet coaxes the nurse--the garden where she parts from Romeo, when + + "Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day + Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain's top--" + +the terrible scene where Juliet contemplates wakening in the tomb amidst +her ancestors' bones--the mausoleum itself, where the catastrophe occurs, +are all in the same town. The time supposed to elapse does not exceed +twenty-four hours; not more than in the _Electra_ or _Iphigenia in Aulis_ +of Euripides. The interest, dependent entirely on the ardent love of +Juliet, is as much undivided as in the _Antigone_ of Sophocles. And yet we +are told Shakspeare succeeded by disregarding the unities. + +Again, in _As you Like it_, the same observation holds true. Whoever +recollects the scenes of that delightful drama, must be sensible that it +is, with the single exception of the scenes of the wrestlers in the first +act, nothing but a Greek drama on the English stage. Menander or +Aristophanes would have made one of the characters recount that scene, +which is merely introductory, and introduced Rosalind and her companions +for the first time in the Forest of Arden, where the real interest of the +piece commences. A slight change of scene, indeed, occurs from one part of +the forest to another, but it is so inconsiderable as in no degree to +interfere with the unity of effect. The single interest awakened by +Rosalind's secret love and playful archness of manner is kept up undivided +throughout. So also in _The Tempest_, the unities in all the scenes which +excite sympathy are as completely preserved as ever they were on the Greek +stage; and the angelic innocence of Miranda stands forth in as striking +and undivided relief as the devotion of Antigone to sisterly affection, or +the self-immolation of Iphigenia to patriotic duty. We are well aware +there are characters of a very different kind in that drama; but the +interest is concentrated on those in which the unity is preserved. Look at +_Othello_. In what play of Euripides is singleness of interest more +completely preserved than in that noble tragedy? The haughty bearing, +conscious pride, but ardent love of the Moor; the deep love of Desdemona, +nourished, as we so often see in real life, by qualities in her the very +reverse; the gradual growth of jealousy from her innocent sportiveness of +manner, and the diabolical machinations of Iago; her murder, in a fit of +jealousy, by her despairing husband, and his self-sacrifice when the veil +was drawn from his eyes,--are all brought forward, if not with the literal +strictness of the Greek drama, at least with as much regard to unity of +time, place, and action, as is required by its principles. + +We are well aware that there are many other dramas, and those, perhaps, +not less popular, of Shakspeare, in which unity of time and place is +entirely set at defiance, and in which the piece ends at the distance of +hundreds of miles, sometimes after the lapse of years, from the point +whence it commenced. _Macbeth_, _Julius Caesar_, _Richard III._, _Henry +V._, _Hamlet_, and many others, are examples of this deviation from former +principle, and it is to the universal admiration which they excite that +the national partiality for the Romantic drama is to be ascribed. But in +all these instances it will be found--and the observation is a most +material one--that the real interest is nearly as much centralised as it +was in the Greek stage, and that it is on the extraordinary fascination +which a few scenes, or _the incidents grouped round a single event_, +possess, that the success of the piece depends. The historical tragedies +read well, just as a historical romance does, and from the same cause, +that they are looked on, not as dramas, but as brilliant passages of +history. But this has proved unable to support them on the theatre. One by +one they have gradually dropped away from the stage. Some are occasionally +revived, from time to time, in order to display the power of a particular +actor or actress, but never with any lasting success. Those plays of +Shakspeare which alone retain their hold of the theatre, are either those, +such as _Romeo and Juliet_, or _As you Like it_, in which the unities are +substantially observed, or in which the resplendent brilliancy of a few +characters or scenes, within very narrow limits, fixes the attention of +the audience so completely as to render comparatively harmless, because +unfelt, the distraction produced by the intermixture of farce in the +subordinate persons, or the violations of time and place in the structure +of the piece. But it is not to every man that the pencil of the Bard of +Avon, + + "Dipp'd in the orient hues of heaven," + +is given; and the subsequent failure of the Romantic drama, in this and +every other country, is mainly to be ascribed to succeeding writers not +having possessed his power of fixing, by the splendid colours of genius, +the attention of the spectators on a particular part of the piece. +Shakspeare disregards the unities in form; but his burning imagination +restores their operations in substance. + +Take for example the most popular of the really Romantic dramas, _Macbeth_ +and _Hamlet_. No one need be told how the unities are violated in the +first of these pieces: that it begins on a heath in Morayshire, where the +witches appear to the victorious Thane; that the murder of the King takes +place in the Castle of Inverness; that the usurper is slain by Macduff in +front of Dunsinnane Castle near the Tay. But none can either have read the +play, or seen it acted, without feeling that the real interest lies in the +events which occurred, and the ambitious feelings which were awakened in +Macbeth and his wife, when temptation was put in their way within their +own halls. Sophocles would have laid the scene there, and made one of the +characters narrate in the outset the appearance of the witches on the +heath, and brought Macduff to the gates of Macbeth's castle shortly after +the murder of Duncan to avenge his death. Shakspeare has not done this; +but he has painted the scenes in the interior of the castle, before and +after the murder, with such force and effect, that the mind is as much +riveted by them, as if no previous or subsequent deviation from the +unities had been introduced. _Hamlet_ begins in a strain of unparalleled +interest; had the last four acts proceeded in the same sublime style as +the first, and the filial duty devolved by the ghost on his son of +avenging his murder been discharged as rapidly as it should have been, and +as the feelings of the audience lead them to desire, it would have been +perhaps the most powerful tragedy in the world. Had Shakspeare proceeded +on the principles of the Greek drama, he would have done this, and +produced a drama as universally admired as the _Agamemnon_ of AEschylus. +But every one feels that the interest is weakened and wellnigh lost as the +play proceeds; new characters are introduced, the burlesque succeeds the +sublime, the original design is forgotten; and when the spectre appears a +second time "to whet your almost blunted purpose," his appearance is felt +to be as necessary to revive the decaying interest of the piece, as to +resuscitate the all but forgotten fervour of the Prince of Denmark. + +We feel that we have committed high treason in the estimation of a large +part of our readers, by contesting the justice of the principles on which +Shakspeare proceeded in the construction of many of his dramas; and we +know that the opinions advanced are adverse to those of many, whose genius +and professional success entitle their judgment on this subject to the +very highest respect. But yet the weight of authority, if that is to be +appealed to, is decidedly in favour of the principles of the Greek being +the true ones of the drama. From the days of Aristotle to those of +Addison, the greatest critics have concurred in this opinion; and he is a +bold innovater on this subject who sets at nought the precepts of Horace +and Quintilian, forgets the example of Sophocles and Schiller, of +Euripides and Alfieri, of Corneille and Metastasio, and disregards the +decided judgment of Pope[7] and Byron. The opinion of the latter poet was +peculiarly strong in favour of the unities, and was repeatedly expressed +in his correspondence preserved in Moore's Life; although his own noble +dramas, being avowedly constructed with no view to representation, but as +a vehicle for powerful declamation or impassioned poetry, often exhibit, +especially in _Manfred_, the most glaring violations of them. Johnson +confessed that the weight of authority in favour of the Greek rules was so +great, that it required no small courage to attempt even to withstand it. +But it is not by authority that this, or any other question of taste, is +to be decided. The true test of the correctness of opinion on such matters +is to be found in experience, and the inward feelings of persons of +cultivated minds and enlarged observation. And in the preceding remarks we +have only extended to the drama, principles familiar to artists in every +other department of human imagination, and generally admitted in them, at +least, to be correct; and appealed, we trust not in vain, to the +experience gained, and the lessons learned, by those who have cultivated +the sister arts in those times with the greatest success. + + + + +THE MINSTREL'S CURSE. + +FROM UHLAND. BY A. LODGE. + + + A castle of the olden time, o'er subject regions wide, + Throned on its rocky height afar looked forth in feudal pride; + And fragrant gardens decked the plain, where lakes, with crystal sheen, + Mirrored the pleasant sylvan glades and lawns of living green. + + Here dwelt, of jealous fears the prey, in pomp of moody state, + A King, by realms and cities fair, and conquest's laurels great; + His glance bespoke the tyrant soul to pity ne'er subdued; + His words were chains and torments--his characters were blood! + + Once to these lordly towers at eve approached a tuneful pair, + Of reverend silvery tresses one, and one with golden hair; + The old man on a palfrey sate--his harp, the Minstrel's pride, + He bore--his comrade, young and blithe, tripped lightly at his side. + + Thus to the youth the old man spoke--"My son, it boots to-day, + To try our deepest melodies, our most impassioned lay; + With cunning'st art essay the notes of blended joy and pain; + Perchance this royal heart may own the magic of the strain." + + Soon in the pillared regal hall, amid the courtly throng + Of belted knights and beauteous dames, they range the sons of song:-- + The King, in fearful majesty, recalled the meteor's blaze; + His spouse, with beaming loveliness, the moonlight's gentle rays. + + The old man swept the chords--and quick, responsive to the tone, + Through all the train each heart confessed the spell of power unknown; + And when a clear angelic voice chimed in with youthful fire, + 'Twas like the unseen minstrelsy of some ethereal quire! + + They sang of Love's delightful spring--of the old golden time; + Of knightly leal, and maiden's truth, and chivalry sublime; + Of each high thought that stirs the soul informed with heavenly flame; + Of man's exalted destinies--of freedom, worth, and fame! + + They paused:--in rapt attention hushed, the crowd had clustered near; + The courtier smoothed the lip of scorn, the warrior dropped a tear; + The Queen, with trembling extasy, took from her breast a rose; + And see! at the young Minstrel's feet the guerdon flower she throws. + + "Ha!" shrieked the King--"my lieges first, with your detested lays, + Ye have seduced--and now my Queen their witchery betrays; + Die, tuneful minion!"--at the youth he hurled the gleaming sword, + And from the fount of golden strains the crimson tide was poured. + + While scared, as by the lightning's flash, all stood in mute dismay, + The boy on his loved master's breast had breathed his soul away:-- + The old man round the bleeding form his mantle wrapped with speed; + Raised the dear victim in his arms, and bound him on his steed. + + The portals passed, he stood awhile, and gazed with tearful eyes-- + And grasped his harp--the master harp--of thousand harps the prize: + Then frantic on a column's base he dashed the useless lyre, + And thus the curse of Poesy spoke with a prophet's fire! + + "Woe! Woe! proud towers--dire House of blood! thy guilty courts among, + Ne'er may the chords of harmony be waked--the voice of song; + The tread of silent slaves alone shall echo mid the gloom, + Till Ruin waits, and hovering fiends of vengeance shriek thy doom! + + "Woe! Woe! ye blooming gardens fair--decked in the pride of May, + Behold this flower untimely cropped--look--and no more be gay! + The sight should wither every leaf--make all your fountains dry, + And bid the bright enchantment round in wasteful horror lie! + + "And thou, fell Tyrant, curst for aye of all the tuneful train-- + May blighted bays, and bitter scorn, mock thy inglorious reign! + Perish thy hated name with thee--from songs and annals fade-- + Thy race--thy power--thy very crimes--lost in oblivion's shade!" + + The aged Bard has spoken--and Heaven has heard the prayer; + The haughty towers are crumbling low--no regal dome is there! + A single column soars on high, to tell of splendours past-- + And see! _'tis cracked--it nods the head_--this hour may be it's last! + + Where once the fairy garden smiled, a mournful desert lies-- + No rills refresh the barren sand--no graceful stems arise-- + From storied page, and legend strain, this King has vanished long; + His race is dead--his power forgot:--such is the might of song! + + + + +THE MINE, THE FOREST, AND THE CORDILLERA.[8] + + +The silver mines of Potosi, the virgin forests, and mighty cordilleras of +South America, are words familiar and full of interest to European ears. +Countless riches, prodigious vegetable luxuriance, stupendous grandeur, +are the associations they suggest. With these should be coupled ideas of +cruelty, desolation, and disease, of human suffering and degradation +pushed to their utmost limit, of opportunities neglected, and advantages +misused. Not a bar of silver, or a healing drug, or an Alpaca fleece, +shipped from Peruvian ports to supply another hemisphere with luxuries and +comforts, but is the price of an incalculable amount of misery, and even +of blood--the blood of a race once noble and powerful, now wretched and +depraved by the agency of those whose duty and in whose power it was to +civilize and improve them. The corrupt policy of Spanish rulers, the +baneful example of Spanish colonists and their descendants, have gone far +towards the depopulation and utter ruin of the richest of South American +countries. How imprudent and suicidal has been the course adopted, will +presently be made apparent. Those who desire evidence in support of our +assertion, need but follow Dr Tschudi, as we now propose doing, into the +mining, mountainous, and forest districts of Peru. + +Difficult and dangerous as a journey through the maritime provinces of +Peru undeniably is, it is mere railroad travelling when compared with an +expedition into the interior of the country. In the former case, the land +is level, and the sun, the sand, and the highwayman, are the only perils +to be encountered or evaded. But a ramble in the mountains is a succession +of hairbreadth escapes, a deliberate confronting of constantly recurring +dangers, to which even the natives unwillingly expose themselves, and +frequently fall victims. The avalanches, precipices, gaping ravines, +slippery glaciers, and violent storms common to all Alpine regions, are +here complicated by other risks peculiar to the South American mountains. +Heavy rains, lasting for weeks together, falls of snow that in a few +moments obliterate all trace of a path, treacherous swamps, strange and +loathsome maladies, and even blindness, combine to deter the traveller +from his dangerous undertaking. All these did Dr Tschudi brave, and from +them all, after the endurance of great hardship and suffering, he was +fortunate enough to escape. + +At a very short distance from Lima, the traveller, proceeding eastward, +gets a foretaste of the difficulties and inconveniences in reserve for +him. Whilst riding, through the vale of Surco, or through some other of +the valleys leading from the coast to the mountains, he perceives a +fountain by the road side, and pauses to refresh his tired mule. Scarcely +is his intention manifest, when he is startled by a cry from his guide, or +from a passing Indian--"_Cuidado! Es agua de verruga!_" In these valleys +reigns a terrible disease called the _verrugas_, attributed by the natives +to the water of certain springs, and for which all Dr Tschudi's +investigations were insufficient to discover another cause. Fever, pains +in the bones, and loss of blood from cutaneous eruptions, are the leading +symptoms of this malady, which is frequently of long duration, and +sometimes terminates fatally. It seizes the Indians and lighter castes in +preference to the white men and negroes, and no specific has yet been +discovered for its cure. Mules and horses are also subject to its attacks. +In no country, it would appear from Dr Tschudi's evidence, are there so +many strange and unaccountable maladies as in Peru. Nearly every valley +has its peculiar disease, extending over a district of a few square miles, +and unknown beyond its limits. To most of them it has hitherto been +impossible to assign a cause. Their origin must probably be sought in +certain vegetable influences, or in those of the vast variety of minerals +which the soil of Peru contains. + +In the mountains, the shoeing of mules and horses is frequently a matter +of much difficulty; and it is advisable for the traveller to acquire the +art, and furnish himself with needful implements, before leaving the more +civilized part of the country. Farriers are only to be found in the large +Indian villages, and it is common to ride fifty or sixty leagues without +meeting with one. In the village of San Geronimo de Surco, the innkeeper +is the only blacksmith, and Dr Tschudi, whose horse had cast a shoe, was +compelled to pay half a gold ounce (upwards of thirty shillings) to have +it replaced. This was one half less than the sum at first demanded by the +exorbitant son of Vulcan, who doubtless remembered the old Spanish +proverb, "for a nail is lost a shoe, for a shoe the horse, for the horse +the horseman."[9] The doctor took the hint, and some lessons in shoeing, +which afterwards stood him in good stead. It is a common practice in Peru, +on the sandy coast, and where the roads permit it, to ride a horse or mule +unshod for the first four or five days of a journey. Then shoes are put on +the fore feet, and a few days later on the hinder ones. This is thought to +give new strength to the animals, and to enable them to hold out longer. +On the mountain tracks, the wear and tear of iron must be prodigious, as +may be judged from the following description of three leagues of road +between Viso and San Mateo, by no means the worst bit met with by our +traveller. + +"The valley frequently becomes a mere narrow split in the mountains, +enclosed between walls of rock a thousand feet high. These enormous +precipices are either perpendicular, or their summits incline inwards, +forming a vast arch; along their base, washed by the foaming waters of the +river, or higher up, along their side, winds the narrow and dangerous +path. In some places they recede a little from the perpendicular, and +their abrupt slopes are sprinkled with stones and fragments of rock, which +every now and then, loosened by rain, detach themselves and roll down into +the valley. The path is heaped with these fragments, which give way under +the tread of the heavily laden mules, and afford them scanty foothold. +From time to time, enormous blocks thunder down the precipice, and bury +themselves in the waters beneath. I associate a painful recollection with +the road from Viso to San Mateo. It was there that a mass of stone struck +one of my mules, and precipitated it into the river. My most important +instruments and travelling necessaries, a portion of my collections and +papers, and--an irreparable loss--a diary carefully and conscientiously +kept during a period of fourteen months, became the prey of the waters. +Two days later the mule was washed ashore; but its load was irrecoverably +lost. Each year numerous beasts of burden, and many travellers, perish +upon this dangerous road. Cavalry on the march are particularly apt to +suffer, and often a slip of the horse's foot, or a hasty movement of the +rider, suffices to consign both to the yawning chasm by their side. At the +inn at Viso I met an officer, who had just come from the mountains, +bringing his two sons with him. He had taken the youngest before him; the +other, a boy of ten years of age, rode upon the mule's crupper. Half a +league from Viso, a large stone came plunging down from the mountain, +struck the eldest lad, and dashed him into the stream." + +Although frequently ill-treated by the Creoles, and especially by the +officers, the Indians in most parts of Peru show ready hospitality and +good-will to the solitary traveller. Those in the neighborhood of San +Mateo are an exception; they are distrustful, rough, and disobliging. When +a traveller enters the village, he is instantly waited upon by the alcalde +and regidores, who demand his passport. Has he none, he risks +ill-treatment, and being put upon a jackass and carried off to the +nearest prefect. Luckily the ignorance of the village authorities renders +them easy to deal with; it is rare that they can read. On one occasion, +when Dr Tschudi's passport was demanded, the only printed paper in his +pocket was an old playbill, that of the last opera he had attended before +his departure from Lima, and which he had taken with him as wadding for +his gun. He handed it to the Indian regidor, who gravely unfolded it, +stared hard at the words Lucia di Lammermoor, and returned it with the +remark, that the passport was perfectly in order. + +Any thing more wretched in their accommodations than the _tambos_ or +village inns, can scarcely be imagined. So bad are they, that the +traveller is sometimes driven to pass the night in the snow rather than +accept of their shelter, and at the same time submit to the nuisances with +which they abound. One of these villanous hostelries, in which Dr Tschudi +several times attempted to sleep, is described by him with a minuteness +that will rather startle the squeamish amongst his readers. Vermin every +where, on the floor and walls, in the clothes of the Indian hag +officiating as hostess, even in the caldron in which a vile mixture of +potatoe water and Spanish pepper is prepared for supper. For sole bed +there is the damp earth, upon which hosts, children, and travellers +stretch themselves. Each person is accommodated with a sheepskin, and over +the whole company is spread an enormous woollen blanket. But woe to the +inexperienced traveller who avails himself of the coverings thus +bountifully furnished, swarming as they are with inhabitants from whose +assaults escape is impossible. Even if he creeps into a corner, and makes +himself a bed with his saddle-cloths, he is not secure. Add to these +comforts a stifling smoke, and other nauseous exhalations, and the gambols +of innumerable guinea-pigs, common as mice in many parts of Peru, who +caper the night through over the faces and bodies of the sleepers, and the +picture of a South American mountain inn will be as complete as it is +uninviting. But these annoyances, great though they be, are very trifles +compared to the more serious evils awaiting the traveller in the higher +regions of the Cordilleras. At about 12,600 feet above the level of the +sea, the effects of the rarefaction of the atmosphere begin to be sensibly +and painfully felt. The natives, unacquainted with the real cause of the +malady thus occasioned, and which by them is called _puna_, by the Spanish +Creoles _veta_ or _mareo_, attribute it to the exhalations of metals, +especially of antimony. Horses, not bred in the mountains, suffer greatly +from the _veta_, and frequently fall down helpless. The arrieros adopt +various cruel means for their revival, such as cutting off their ears and +tail, and slitting up their nostrils, the latter being probably the only +useful remedy, as it allows the animal to inhale a large volume of air. To +preserve them from the _veta_, chopped garlic is put into their nostrils. +With human beings, this state of the atmosphere causes the blood to gush +from the eyes, nose, and lips, and occasions faintings, blood-spittings, +vomitings, and other unpleasant and dangerous symptoms. The sensation +somewhat resembles that of sea-sickness, whence the Spanish name of +_mareo_. The malady, in its most violent form, sometimes causes death from +excessive loss of blood. Of this, Dr Tschudi saw instances. Much depends +on the general health and constitution of the persons attacked. The action +of the _veta_ is very capricious. Some persons do not experience it on a +first visit to the mountains, but suffer on subsequent ones. Another +singular circumstance is, that it is much more violent in some places than +in others of a greater altitude. This affords ground for a supposition, +that other causes, besides the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, +concur to occasion it. These as yet remain unknown. The districts in which +the _veta_ is felt with the greatest intensity, are for the most part very +metallic, and this has given rise to the Indian theory of its cause. + +Another terrible scourge to the traveller in the Cordilleras is the +_surumpe_, a violent inflammation of the eye, brought on by the sudden +reflection of the sun from the snow. In those mountains the eyes are kept +continually in an irritated state by the rarefied air and cutting winds, +and are consequently unusually susceptible. Often the heavens become +suddenly overcast, and in a few minutes the yellowish-green waste is one +sheet of snow. Then out bursts the sun with overpowering splendour, a +sharp burning pain is instantly felt in the eyes, and speedily increases +to an unbearable extent. The eyes become red, the lids swell and bleed. So +violent is the agony as to cause despair and delirium. Dr Tschudi compares +it to the sensation occasioned by rubbing Spanish pepper or gunpowder into +the eyes. Chronic inflammation, even total blindness, is the frequent +consequence of the _surumpe_ in its most intense form. In the Cordilleras +it is no unusual thing to find Indians sitting by the wayside, shrieking +from pain, and unable to continue their journey. The Creoles, when they +visit the mountains, protect themselves with green spectacles and veils. + +During five months of the year, from November till March, storms are of +almost daily occurrence in the Cordilleras. They commence with remarkable +punctuality between two and three in the afternoon, and continue till five +or half-past; later than this, or in the night, a storm was never known to +occur. They are accompanied by falls of snow, which last till after +midnight. The morning sun dispels the cold mist that hangs about the +mountain peaks, and in a few hours the snow is melted. "On the raging +ocean," says Dr Tschudi, "and in the dark depths of the aboriginal +forests, I have witnessed terrific storms, whose horrors were increased by +surrounding gloom and imminent danger, but never did I feel anxiety and +alarm as in Antaichahua, (a district of the Cordilleras celebrated for +storms.) For hours together flash followed flash in uninterrupted +succession, painting blood-red cataracts upon the naked precipices; the +thunder crashed, the zigzag lightning ran along the ground, leaving long +furrows in the scorched grass. The atmosphere quivered with the continuous +roll of thunder, repeated a thousand-fold by the mountain echoes. The +traveller, overtaken by these terrific tempests, leaves his trembling +horse, and seeks shelter and refuge beneath some impending rock." + +The hanging bridges and _huaros_ are not to be forgotten in enumerating +the perils of Peruvian travelling. The former are composed of four thick +ropes of cow-hide, connected by a weft of cords of the same material, and +overlaid with branches, straw, and agair roots. The ropes are fastened to +posts on either side of the river; a couple of cords, two or three feet +higher than the bridge, serve for balustrades; and over this unsteady +causeway, which swings like a hammock, the traveller has to pass, leading +his reluctant mule. The passage of rivers by _huaros_ is much worse, and +altogether a most unpleasant operation. It can be effected only where the +banks are high and precipitous. A single strong rope extends from one +shore to the other, with a wooden machine, in form of a yoke, slung upon +it. To this yoke the traveller is tied, and is then drawn over by means of +a second cord. In case of the main rope breaking, the passenger by the +yoke is inevitably drowned. When rivers are traversed in this manner, the +mules and horses are driven into the water, and compelled to swim across. + +But a further detail of the dangers and difficulties of travel in Peru +would leave us little space to enumerate its interesting results. +Supposing the reader, therefore, to have safely accomplished his journey +through the solitary ravines, and over the chilly summits of the +Cordilleras, we transport him at once to the Cerro de Pasco, famed for the +wealth of its silver mines. In a region of snow and ice, at an elevation +of 13,673 feet above the sea, he suddenly comes in sight of a large and +populous city, built in a hollow, and surrounded on all sides by lakes and +swamps. On the margin of eternal snows, in the wildest district of Peru, +and in defiance of the asperities of climate, Mammon has assembled a host +of worshippers to dig and delve in the richest of his storehouses. + +Some two hundred and fifteen years ago, according to the legend, a small +pampa that lies south-east from Lake Lauricocha, the mother of the mighty +river Amazon, an Indian, Hauri Capcha by name, tended his master's sheep. +Having wandered one day to an unusual distance from his hut, he sought +shelter from the cold under a rock, and lighted a large fire. The +following morning he saw to his astonishment that the stone beneath the +ashes had melted and become pure silver. He joyfully informed his +employer, a Spaniard of the name of Ugarte, of this singular circumstance. +Ugarte hastened to the place, and found that his shepherd had lit upon a +vein of silver ore of extraordinary richness, of which he at once took +possession, and worked it with great success. This same mine is still +worked, and is known as _la Descubridora_, the discoverer. Presently a +number of persons came from the village of Pasco, two leagues distant, and +sought and discovered new veins. The great richness of the ore and the +increase of employment soon drew crowds to the place--some to work, others +to supply the miners with the necessaries of life; and thus, in a very +brief time, there sprung up a town of eighteen thousand inhabitants. + +The ground whereon Cerro de Pasco is built is a perfect network of silver +veins, to get at which the earth has been opened in every direction. Many +of the inhabitants work the mines in their own cellars; but this, of +course, is on a small scale, and there are not more than five hundred +openings meriting, by reason of their depth and importance, the name of +shafts. All, however, whether deep or shallow, are worked in a very +senseless, disorderly, and imprudent manner--the sole object of their +owners being to obtain, at the least possible expense, and in the shortest +possible time, the utmost amount of ore. Nobody ever thinks of arching or +walling the interior of the excavations, and consequently the shafts and +galleries frequently fall in, burying under their ruins the unfortunate +Indian miners. Not a year passes without terrible catastrophes of this +kind. In the mine of Matagente, (literally, Kill-people,) now entirely +destroyed, three hundred labourers lost their lives by accident. For +incurring these terrible risks, and for a species of labour of all others +the most painful and wearisome, the Indians are wretchedly paid, and their +scanty earnings are diminished by the iniquitous truck system which is in +full operation in the mines as well as in the plantations of Peru. The +miner who, at the week's end, has a dollar to receive, esteems himself +fortunate, and forthwith proceeds to spend it in brandy. The mining +Indians are the most depraved and degraded of their race. When a mine is +in _boya_, as it is called, that is to say, at periods when it yields +uncommonly rich metal, more labourers are required, and temporarily taken +on. When this occurs in several mines at one time, the population of Cerro +de Pasco sometimes doubles and trebles itself. During the boyas, the +miners are paid by a small share in the daily produce of their labours. +They sometimes succeed in improving their shares by stealing the ore, but +this is very difficult, so narrowly are they searched when they leave the +mine. One man told Dr Tschudi how he had managed to appropriate the +richest piece of ore he ever saw. He tied it on his back, and pretended to +be so desperately ill, that the corporal allowed him to leave the mine. +Wrapped in his poncho, he was carried past the inspectors by two +confederates, and the treasure was put in safety. Formerly when a mine +yielded polvorilla, a black ore in the form of powder, but of great +richness, the miners stripped themselves naked, wetted their whole body, +and then rolled in this silver dust, which stuck to them. Released from +the mine they washed off the crust, and sold it for several dollars. This +device, however, was detected, and, for several years past, the departing +miners are compelled to strip for inspection. + +Like the extraction of the ore, the purification of the silver from the +dross is conducted in the rudest and most primitive manner. The +consequence is an immense consumption of quicksilver. On each mark of +silver, worth in Lima eight and a-half dollars, or about thirty shillings, +it is estimated that half a pound of quicksilver is expended. The +quicksilver comes chiefly from Spain--very little from Idria--in iron jars +containing seventy-five pounds weight. The price of one of these jars +varies from sixty to one hundred dollars, but is sometimes as high as one +hundred and forty dollars. Both the amalgamation and separation of the +metals are so badly managed, as to occasion a terrible amount of mercurial +disease amongst the Indians employed in the process. From the +refining-houses the silver is, or ought to be, sent to Callana, the +government melting-house, there to be cast into bars of a hundred pounds +weight, each of which is stamped and charged with imposts to the amount of +about forty-four dollars. But a vast deal of the metal is smuggled to the +coast and shipped for Europe without ever visiting the Callana. Hence it +is scarcely possible to estimate the quantity annually produced. The +amount registered is from two to three hundred thousand marks--rarely over +the latter sum. + +Residence in the Cerro de Pasco is highly disagreeable. The climate is +execrable; cold and stormy, with heavy rains and violent falls of snow. +Nothing less than the _auri sacra fames_ could have induced such a +congregation of human beings, from all nations and corners of the globe, +in so inhospitable a latitude. The new-comer with difficulty accustoms +himself to the severity of the weather, and to the perpetual hammering +going on under his feet, and at night under his very bed, for the mines +are worked without cessation. Luckily earthquakes are rare in that region. +A heavy shock would bury the whole town in the bosom of the earth. + +Silver being the only produce of the soil, living is very dear in the +Cerro. All the necessaries of life have to be brought from a great +distance; and this, combined with the greediness of the vendors, and the +abundance of money, causes enormous prices to be demanded and obtained. +House-rent is exorbitantly high; the keep of a horse often costs, owing to +the want of forage, from two to three dollars a-day. Here, as at Lima, the +coffee and eating-houses are kept by Italians, principally Genoese. The +population of the town is the most motley imaginable; scarcely a country +in the world but has its representatives. Of the upper classes the darling +vice is gambling, carried to an almost unparalleled extent. From earliest +morning cards and dice are in full activity: the mine proprietor leaves +his counting-house and silver carts, the trader abandons his shop, to +indulge for a couple of hours in his favourite amusement; and, when the +evening comes, play is universal in all the best houses of the town. The +mayordomos, or superintendents of the mines, sit down to the gaming-table +at nightfall, and only leave it when at daybreak the bell summons them to +the shaft. Often do they gamble away their share in a boya long before +signs of one are apparent. Amongst the Indians, drunkenness is the chief +failing. When primed by spirits, they become quarrelsome; and scarcely a +Sunday or holiday passes without savage fights between the workmen of +different mines. Severe wounds, and even deaths, are the consequences of +these encounters, in which the authorities never dream of interfering. +When, owing to the richness of a boya, the Indian finds himself possessed +of an unusual number of dollars, he squanders then in the most ridiculous +manner, like a drunken sailor with a year's pay in his pocket. Dr Tschudi +saw one fellow buy a Spanish cloak for ninety-two dollars. Draping it +round him, he proceeded to the next town, got drunk, rolled himself in the +gutter, and then threw away the cloak because it was torn and dirty. A +watchmaker told the doctor that once an Indian came to him to buy a gold +watch. He handed him one, with the remark that the price was twelve gold +ounces, (two hundred and four dollars,) and that it would probably be too +dear for him. The Indian took the watch, paid for it, and then dashing it +upon the ground, walked away, saying that the thing was no use to him. + +Besides the mines of Cerro de Pasco, Dr Tschudi gives us details of many +others situate in various parts of Peru. The Salcedo mine, in the province +of Puno, is celebrated for the tragical end of its discoverer. Don Jose +Salcedo, a poor Spaniard, was in love with an Indian girl, whose mother +promised to show him a silver vein of uncommon richness if he would marry +her daughter. He did so, and worked the vein with great success. After a +time the fame of his wealth roused the envy of the Conde de Lemos, then +viceroy of Peru. By his generosity and benevolence Salcedo had made +himself very popular with the Indians, and this served the viceroy as a +pretext to accuse him of high treason, on the ground of his stirring up +the population against the Spanish government. Salcedo was imprisoned, and +sentenced to death. Whilst in his dungeon he besought Count Lemos to send +the papers relating to his trial to the supreme tribunal at Madrid, and to +allow him to make an appeal to the king's mercy. If this request were +granted, he promised to pay a daily tribute of a bar of silver, from the +time of the ship's sailing from Callao to that of its return. In those +days the voyage from Callao to Spain and back occupied from twelve to +sixteen months. This may give an idea of the wealth of Salcedo and his +mine. The viceroy refused the condition, hung up Salcedo, (in May 1669,) +and set out for the mines. But his injustice and cruelty were doomed to +disappointment. Whilst Salcedo prepared for death, his mother-in-law and +her friends and relations betook themselves to the mine, destroyed the +works, filled it with water, and closed the entrance so skilfully that it +was impossible to discover it. They then dispersed in various directions, +and neither promises nor tortures could induce those who were afterwards +captured, to reveal the position of the mine. To this day it remains +undiscovered. + +Another example of the exceeding richness of Peruvian mines is to be found +in that of San Jose, in the department of Huancavelica. Its owner asked +the viceroy Castro, whose friend he was, to stand godfather to his first +child. The viceroy was prevented from going himself, but sent his wife as +a proxy. To do her honour, the proprietor of San Jose caused a triple row +of silver bars to be placed along the whole of the distance, and it was no +short one, between his house and the church. Over this costly causeway the +vice-queen Castro accompanied the child to its baptism. On her departure +her magnificent Amphitryon made her a present of the silver road as a mark +of gratitude for the honour she had done him. Since then, the mines and +the province have borne the name of Castrovireyna. Most of the former are +now no longer worked. In the richest of them, owing to the careless mode +of mining, one hundred and twenty-two workmen were buried alive at one +time. Since then, no Indian can be prevailed upon to enter it. + +The Indians have not been slow to discover how little advantage they +derive from the mining system, procuring them, as it does, small pay for +severe labour. Hence, although acquainted for centuries past with +innumerable rich veins of ore, the knowledge of which has been handed down +from father to son, they obstinately persist in keeping them secret. All +endeavours to shake this determination have hitherto been fruitless; even +the rarely failing argument of brandy in these cases loses its power. The +existence of the treasures has been ascertained beyond a doubt; but there +is not a shadow of hope that the stubborn reserved Indian will ever reveal +their locality to the greedy Creole and detested Metis. Numerous and +romantic are the tales told of this determined concealment, and of the +prudence and watchfulness of the Indians. "In the great village of +Huancayo," says Dr Tschudi, "there lived, a few years ago, two brothers, +Jose and Pedro Iriarte, who ranked amongst the most influential of +Peruvian miners. They knew that in the neighbouring hills veins of almost +virgin silver existed, and, with a view to their discovery, they +dispatched a young man to a village near which they suspected them to be +situate. The emissary took up his dwelling in the hut of a shepherd, with +whose daughter, after a few months' residence, he established an intrigue. +At last the young girl promised to show him a rich mine. On a certain day, +when she drove her sheep to the pasture, he was to follow her at a +distance, and to dig the spot where she should let her cloak fall. This he +did, and after very brief labour found a cavity in the earth disclosing +ore of uncommon richness. Whilst breaking out the metal, he was joined by +the girl's father, who declared himself delighted at the discovery, and +offered to help him. After some hours' labour they paused to rest, and the +old Indian handed his companion a gourd of chicha, (a fermented drink,) of +which the latter thankfully drank. Soon, however, the young man felt +himself ill, and knew that he was poisoned. Taking his wallet full of ore, +he hastened to the village, mounted his horse, and rode to Huancayo, where +he informed Iriarte of what had occurred, described the position of the +mine, and died the same night. Immediate and careful researches were of no +avail. The Indian and his family had disappeared, the mine had been filled +up, and was never discovered." + +A Franciscan monk, also resident in Huancayo, a confirmed gambler, and +consequently often embarrassed for money, had gained, by his kindness, the +affections of the Indians, who constantly brought him small presents of +cheese and poultry. One day when he had lost heavily, he confided his +difficulties to an Indian, his particular gossip. The latter promised to +help him, and the next evening brought him a large sack full of the +richest silver ore. The same was repeated several times; but the monk, not +satisfied, did not cease to importune his friend to show him the place +whence he took the treasure. The Indian at last agreed to do so. In the +night-time he came, with two companions, to the dwelling of the +Franciscan, blindfolded him, put him on his shoulders, and carried him, +alternately with his comrades, a distance of some leagues into the +mountains. Here the monk was set down, and found himself in a small +shallow shaft, where his eyes were dazzled by the beauty of the silver. +When he had gazed at it long enough, and loaded himself with the ore, he +was carried back as he had been brought. On his way he unfastened his +chaplet, and from time to time let a grain drop, trusting by this means to +trace out the mine. He had been but a few hours in bed when he was +disturbed by the entrance of his guide. "Father," said the Indian, +quietly, "you have lost your rosary." And he presented him with a handful +of the beads. + +This mania for concealment is not universal amongst the Peruvians, who, it +must be remembered, originally sprang from various tribes, united by the +Incas into one nation. Great differences of character and manners are +still to be found amongst them, some showing themselves as frank and +friendly towards the white men as others are mistrustful and inimical. The +principal mines that are or have been worked, were pointed out to the +Spaniards by the natives. Generally, however, the latter look upon seekers +of mines with suspicion, and they still relate with horror and disgust, +how Huari Capcha, the discoverer of the mines of Cerro de Pasco, was +thrown by Ugarte into a gloomy dungeon, where he pined away his life. Dr +Tschudi could not ascertain the authenticity of this tale, but he often +heard it told by the Indians, who gave it as a reason for concealing any +new mines they might discover. + +At the pass of Antarangra, 15,600 feet above the level of the sea, Dr +Tschudi found two small lakes, scarcely thirty paces asunder. One of these +is the source of the river San Mateo, which flows westward, passes Lima +under the name of the Rimac, and discharges itself into the Pacific Ocean; +the other sends its waters through a number of small mountain lakes to the +river Pachachaca, a diminutive tributary of the mighty Amazon. The worthy +doctor confesses that he could not resist the temptation to disturb the +order of nature, by transporting a jug-full of the water intended for the +Atlantic, into the lake communicating with the Pacific. Of a more serious +cast were his reflections on the mighty power that had raised these +tremendous mountains, on whose summits sea-shells and other marine +substances testify to the fact of the ocean having once rolled over their +materials. + +Between the Cordilleras and the Andes, 12,000 feet above the sea, lie the +vast tracts of desolate tableland known as the Puna, a Peruvian word +equivalent to the Spanish _despoblado_. These plains extend through the +whole length of Peru from N.W. to S.E., a distance of 350 Spanish miles, +continue through Bolivia, and run out eastward into the territory of the +Argentine republic. Their sole inhabitants are a few shepherds, who live +with their families in wretched huts, and tend large flocks of sheep, +oxen, alpacas, and llamas, to which the yellow and meagre grasses of the +Puna yield a scanty nourishment. The district is swept by the cold winds +from the Cordilleras, the climate is most inhospitable, unintermitting +snow and storm during four months of the year. A remarkable effect of the +Puna wind is the rapid drying of dead bodies. A few days suffice to +convert a dead mule into a perfect mummy, the very entrails free from +corruption. Here and there the dry and piercingly cold wind, which causes +extreme suffering to the traveller's eyes and skin, changes its +temperature, or, it were better said, is crossed by a current of warm air, +sometimes only two or three paces, at others several hundred feet, in +breadth. These warm streams run in a parallel direction to each other, and +Dr Tschudi deposes to having passed through five or six in the space of +two leagues. He noticed them particularly in the months of August and +September, and, according to his observations, their usual direction was +that of the Cordillera, namely, from S.S.W. to N.N.E. He once travelled +for several leagues in one of these currents, the width of which did not +exceed seven-and-twenty paces. Its temperature was eleven degrees of +Reaumur higher than the adjacent atmosphere. The existence of these warm +streams is in some cases permanent, for the muleteers will frequently tell +beforehand where they are to be met with. The causes of such singular +phenomena, says Dr Tschudi, are well deserving the closest investigation +of the meteorologist. + +The numerous deep valleys, of greater or less extent, which intersect the +Puna, are known as the Sierra, and their inhabitants as Serranos, although +that term is also applied by the dwellers on the coast of Peru to all +natives of the interior. Here the climate is temperate, not unlike that of +the central countries of Europe; towns and villages are numerous, and the +fruitful soil brings forth abundantly, watered by the sweat of the +laborious Indians. The people are hospitable in the extreme, and the +stranger is welcome in their dwellings so long as he chooses to abide +there. They appear, however, to be as yet very far removed from +civilisation. Their favourite diversions, cock and bull fighting, are +carried on in the most barbarous manner. Their chief vice is an extreme +addiction to brandy, and even the better classes get up evening parties +for the express purpose of indulging in the fiery liquor. The ladies as +well as the men consume it in large quantities, and Dr Tschudi estimates +the average consumption at one of these jaranas, or drinking bouts, to +amount to nearly a bottle per man or woman. At a ball given in 1839, in +one of the principal towns of the Sierra, to the Chilian general +Bulnes--now president of Chili--the brandy flowed so abundantly, that when +morning came many of the dancers, both male and female, lay dead drunk +upon the floor. The sole extenuation of such disgusting excesses is the +want of education of those who commit them, and the force of habit, which +prevents them from seeing any thing disgraceful in intoxication. It is +only in society that the Serrano gets drunk. In everyday life, when +jaranas are not going on, he is a sober man. + +The dramatic representations of scenes in the life of Christ, introduced +by the Spanish monks who accompanied Pizarro, with a view to the easier +conversion of the Aborigines, have long been discontinued in the larger +Peruvian cities. But in the Sierra they are still kept up, and all the +efforts of enlightened priests to suppress them, have been frustrated by +the tenacity and threats of the Indians. Dr Tschudi gives an extraordinary +description of the celebration of Good Friday. "From early dawn," he says, +"the church is crammed with Indians, who pass the morning in fasting and +prayer. At two in the afternoon a large image of the Saviour is brought +out of the sacristy and laid down near the altar, which is veiled. No +sooner does this occur than the whole congregation rush forward and +strive to touch the wounds with scraps of cotton, and then ensues a +screaming, crowding, and fighting, only to be equalled by the uproar at an +ill conducted fair, until the priests at last succeed in restoring order. +The figure of the Saviour is now attached to the cross with three very +large silver nails, and a rich silver crown is placed upon its head; on +either side are the crosses of the two thieves. The Indians gaze their +fill and leave the church, but return thither at eight in the evening. The +edifice is then brilliantly illuminated, and at the foot of the cross +stand, wrapped in white robes, four priests, the _santos varones_ or holy +men, whose office it is to take down the body of the Saviour. A short +distance off, upon a stage or scaffolding, stands the Virgin Mary, in deep +mourning, and with a white cloth round her head. In a long discourse a +priest explains the scene to the congregation, and at the close of his +sermon, turning to the _santos varones_, he says--'Ye holy men, mount the +ladders of the cross, and bring down the body of the dead Saviour!' Two of +the priests ascend with hammers, and the preacher continues--'Thou, holy +man on the right side of the Saviour, strike the first blow upon the nail +in the hand, and take it out!' The hammer falls, and the sound of the blow +is the signal for the cry of _Misericordia! Misericordia!_ repeated by +thousands of voices in tones of anguish so heart-rending, as to produce a +strangely painful impression upon the hearer. The nail is handed to a +priest at the foot of the cross, to be taken to the Virgin Mary, still +standing upon her scaffold. To her the preacher now addressed himself with +the words--'Thou, afflicted mother, approach and receive the nail that +pierced the right hand of thy blessed son!' And as the priest draws near +to the image of the Virgin, the latter, moved by a secret mechanism, +advances to meet him, receives the nail in both hands, places it in a +silver bowl, dries its eyes, and returns to its place. These movements are +repeated when the two other nails and the crown are brought down. The +whole scene has for accompaniment the unintermitting howling and sobbing +of the Indians, which redouble at each stroke of the hammer, and reaches +its apogee when the body is delivered to the Virgin, who then again begins +to weep violently. The image of Christ is laid in a coffin adorned with +flowers, and is carried by torchlight through every street of the town. +Whilst the procession makes its circuit, the Indians erect twelve arches +of flowers in front of the church door, placing between each two of them a +carpet of the like materials, the simplest and most beautiful that it is +possible to see. Each carpet is manufactured by two Indians, neither of +whom seems to trouble himself about the proceedings of his comrade; but +yet, with incredible rapidity and a wonderful harmony of operation, the +most tasteful designs grow under their hands in rich variety of colours. +Arabesques, landscapes, and animals appear as if by magic. It was highly +interesting to me to observe in Tarma, upon one of these carpets, an exact +representation of the Austrian double eagle, as the Indians had seen it on +the quicksilver jars from Idria. When the procession returns, the Virgin +Mary is carried back into the church through the arches of flowers." + +The traveller in the Sierras of Peru frequently encounters plantations of +a shrub about six feet high, bearing bright green leaves, white flowers, +and scarlet berries. This is the celebrated coca tree, the comforter and +friend of the Peruvian Indian under all hardships and evil usage. Deprive +the Turk of coffee and pipe, the Chinese of opium, the sailor and soldier +of grog and tobacco, and no one of them will be so miserable as the Indian +bereft of his coca. Without it he cannot exist; it is more essential to +him than meat or drink, for it enables him to dispense with both. With his +quid of dried coca leaves in his mouth, he forgets all calamities; his +rags, his poverty, the cruelties of his taskmaster. One meal a-day +suffices him, but thrice at least he must suspend his labour to chew his +coca. Even the greedy Creoles have been compelled to give in to this +imperious necessity, and to allow their labourers a quarter or half an +hour's respite three times in the day. In mines and plantations, wherever +Indians work, this is the universal practice. Although continued as a +barbarous custom by the whites, some few of the latter are inveterately +addicted to coca chewing, which they generally, however, practise +clandestinely. The effect of this plant upon the human system is very +similar to that of certain narcotics, administered in small doses. Taken +in excessive quantities it is highly injurious; used in moderation, Dr +Tschudi inclines to think it not only harmless, but positively salutary. +The longevity of the Indians, and their power of enduring great fatigue, +and performing the hardest work upon a very scant allowance of food, are +certainly in favour of this belief. The doctor met with men of 120 and 130 +years old, and he assures us that such are by no means exceedingly rare in +Peru.[10] Some of these men had chewed coca leaves from their boyhood +upwards. + +Allowing their daily ration to be no more than one ounce, the consumption, +in their lifetime, would amount to the prodigious quantity of twenty-seven +hundred pounds weight. Yet they were in perfect health. The coca is +considered by the Indians to be an antidote to the _veta_, and Dr Tschudi +confirms this by his own experience. Previously to his hunting excursions +in the upper regions of the Puna, he used to drink a strong decoction of +coca leaves, and found it strengthening and a preservative from the +effects of the rarefied atmosphere. So convinced is he of its salubrious +properties, that he recommends its adoption in European navies, or at +least a trial of its effects during a Polar or some other distant +expedition. One of the chief causes of Indian hatred to the Spaniards is +to be traced in the attempted suppression by the latter of the use of +coca, during the earlier period of their domination in Peru, their sole +reason being their contempt for Indian customs, and wish to destroy the +nationality of the people. Royal decrees were fulminated against coca +chewing, and priests and governors united to abolish it. After a time, the +owners of mines and plantations discovered its utility, in giving strength +and courage to their Indian vassals; books were written in its defence, +and anti-coca legislation speedily became obsolete. Since then, several +learned and reverend writers, Jesuits and others, have suggested its +introduction into Europe, as a substitute for tea and coffee, to which +they hold it far superior. There can be little doubt that--like as tobacco +is considered to preserve armies from mutiny and disaffection--the +soothing properties of coca have saved Peru from many bloody outbreaks of +the Indian population. But even this potent and much-loved drug has at +times been insufficient to restrain the deadly hatred cherished by the +Peruvians towards their white oppressors. + +The Leyes de las Indias, or code for the government of the Spanish +colonies, although in some instances severe and arbitrary, were mild and +paternal compared with their administration by the viceroys and other +officials. Amongst them were two enactments, the Mita and the +Repartimiento, intended by their propounders to civilize and improve the +Indians, but fearfully abused in practice. By the Mita, the Peruvians were +compelled to work in the mines and plantations. Every Spaniard who +possessed one of these, received from the corregidor a certain number of +Indians, to each of whom he paid daily wages, and for each of them an +annual contribution of eight dollars to the State. This plan, if fairly +and conscientiously carried out, might have been made a means of +reclaiming the Indians from barbarity and idleness. But the truck system, +unlimited and excessive time of labour, and other abuses, caused it to +produce the precisely opposite effect to that proposed by the framers of +the law. One-third only of the stipulated wage was given in money, the +remainder in European manufactures, charged at exorbitant prices; and the +Indians, unable to purchase the bare necessaries of life, were compelled +to incur debts with their employers--debts that they could never pay off, +and which rendered them slaves for their whole lives. The field labourers +were made to toil from three in the morning till an hour after sundown; +even the Sunday was no day of rest for these unfortunate helots. Such +increasing and painful exertions annually swept away thousands of Indians. +Various writers estimate at nine millions the number of those killed by +labour and accident in the mines, during the last three centuries. Dr +Tschudi does not think this an exaggeration, and calculates that three +millions more have been sacrificed in the plantations, especially in the +coca fields of the backwoods. + +The Repartimiento was the distribution of European wares and luxuries by +the provincial authorities. Under this law, intended for the convenience +of the people, and to supply them with clothes and other necessaries at +fair prices, every corregidor became a sort of shopkeeper, caused all +manner of merchandise to be sent to him from the capital, and compelled +the Indian to buy. The prices affixed to the articles were absurdly +exorbitant; a needle cost a real, a worthless knife or a pound of iron a +dollar, an ell of printed calico two or three dollars. Lace, silk +stockings, and false jewellery, were forced upon the richer class. After a +short delay, the money was demanded; those who could not pay had their +goods seized, and were sold as slaves to the mines or plantations. Not +only useless objects--razors, for instance, for the beardless Indians--but +things positively injurious and inconvenient, were thrust upon the +unwilling purchasers. It will scarcely be believed that a corregidor, to +whom a commercial friend had sent a consignment of spectacles, issued an +edict, compelling all Indians, under penalty of a heavy fine, to wear +glasses at certain public festivals. + +Against the abominable system of which the above abuses formed but a part, +it was to be expected that sooner or later the Indians would revolt. For +two centuries they submitted to it with wonderful patience and +long-suffering. At last, a man was found to hoist the bloody flag of +insurrection and revenge. + +Juan Santos, surnamed the Apostate, was an Indian from Huamanga, and +claimed descent from Atahualpa, the last of the Incas, whom Pizarro hung. +In the year 1741, having killed a Spaniard of noble birth in a quarrel, he +fled to the woods, and there brooded over the oppression to which his +countrymen were subjected. At that time, the zealous Spanish missionaries +had made great progress in the conversion of the _Indios bravos_, a savage +and cannibal tribe, amongst whom they fearlessly ventured, undeterred by +the murder of many who had preceded them. Against these priests Santos +instigated an outbreak. He first addressed himself to the tribe of the +Campas, declared himself a descendant of the mighty Peruvian kings, and +asserted that he possessed supernatural power, that he knew all their +thoughts, and had the portrait of each of them in his heart. Then calling +the Indians to him one by one, he lifted his upper garment, and allowed +them to look in a mirror fastened upon his breast. The savages, astonished +at the reflection of their faces, conceived a great veneration for Santos, +and implicitly obeyed him. He at once led them to a general attack upon +the priests, their property, and religion. By bold and sudden assaults, +several Spanish fortified posts were taken, and the garrisons murdered. At +the fort of Quimiri, the Indians put the muskets of the slain soldiers in +a heap, set fire to them, and danced round the blazing pile. But the +surprise of the place had been so well managed, that the Spaniards had had +no time to fire even one volley, and their muskets were still loaded. +Heated by the flames, they exploded, and spread destruction amongst the +dancing savages. Churches and mission-houses were destroyed, villages +burnt, plantations laid waste; the priests were tied to the images of +saints, and thrown into the rivers. In a few weeks, the missionary +districts of middle Peru were utterly ravaged, and terror reigned in the +land. The Spaniards feared a revolt of the Sierra Indians; strong measures +were taken, forts built along the frontier, and the _bravos_ driven back +to their own territory. What became of Santos is not exactly known. Some +affirm that he united several savage tribes in a confederacy, and ruled +over them till his death. In the monastery of Ocopa, Dr Tschudi found an +old manuscript, in which was the following note:--"The monster and +apostate Juan Santos Atahualpa, after his diabolical destruction of our +missions, suffered terribly from the wrath of God. He met the fate of +Herod, and was eaten alive by worms." + +Although of short duration, the insurrection headed by Santos was weighty +in its consequences. It showed the Indians their strength, and was +followed by repeated revolts, especially in Southern Peru. For want of an +able leader they all proved fruitless, until Tupac Amaru, cacique of +Tungasuca, put himself at the head of a matured and well-organized +revolution. A valid pretext for this was afforded by the corregidor of +Tinta, Don Antonio Ariaga, who in one year, 1780, made repartimientos to +the amount of three hundred and forty thousand dollars, and exacted the +money for the useless wares with cruel severity. Tupac Amaru assembled the +Indians, seized the corregidor, and hung him. This was the signal for a +general uprising in the whole of Southern Peru, and a bloody war ensued. +In April 1781, Tupac Amaru, his wife, and several of the rebel chiefs, +were made prisoners by a detachment of Spanish cavalry. They were tried at +Cuzco, found guilty, and condemned to death. The unfortunate cacique was +compelled to witness the execution of his wife, two sons, his +brother-in-law, Antonio Bastidas, and of other relations and friends. He +then had his tongue cut out, and was torn by four horses. His body was +burned, his head and limbs were stuck upon poles in different towns of the +disturbed districts. In Huancayo, Dr Tschudi met with an old Creole, who, +when a lad of sixteen, had witnessed the barbarous execution of the +cacique of Tangasuca. He described him as a tall handsome man, with a +quick piercing eye, and serious resolute countenance. He beheld the death +of his family with great emotion, but submitted without a murmur to his +own horrible fate. He was not long unavenged. His brother, his remaining +son Andres, and a daring Indian chief named Nicacatari, carried on the war +with increased vigour and ferocity, and at the head of a numerous force +threw themselves before the large fortified town of Sorrata, whither the +Spaniards from the surrounding country, trusting to the strength of the +place, had fled for safety. When Andres Tupac Amaru saw that with his +Indians, armed only with knives, clubs, and slings, he had no chance +against the powerful artillery of his foe, he caused the streams from the +neighbouring mountains to be conducted to the town, and surrounded it with +water The earthen fortifications were soon undermined, and when they gave +way the place was taken by assault. With the exception of eighty-seven +priests and monks, the whole of the besieged, twenty-two thousand in +number, were cruelly slaughtered. From Sorrata the Indian army moved +westwards, and was victorious in several actions with the Spanish troops. +Gold, however, accomplished what the sword had failed to do. Seduced by +bribes and promises, an Indian follower of Andres guided a party of +Spanish soldiers to the council house of the rebels. The chiefs were all +taken and put to death. Deprived of its leaders, the Indian army broke up +and dispersed. Innumerable executions followed, and the war was estimated +to have cost from first to last nearly a hundred thousand lives. Its only +beneficial result to the Indians was the abolition of repartimientos. + +During the revolution that lost Peru to Spain, the Indians took part with +the patriots, who deluded them with promises of a monarchy, and of placing +a descendant of the Incas on the throne. Not clearly understanding the +causes of the war, the Indians frequently turned their arms against their +own allies, and killed all white men who fell into their power. Many +provinces were entirely deserted by the Creoles and Metises, in +consequence of the furious animosity of the coloured race. In Jauja, the +Indians swore they would not leave so much as a white dog or fowl alive, +and they even scratched the white paint from the walls of the houses. When +General Valdos and his cavalry crossed the river of Jauja and attacked the +Indians, the latter scorned to save themselves by flight, but threw +themselves upon the lances with cries of "_Mata me, Godo!_[11] Kill me!" +Two thousand remained upon the field, the Spaniards not ceasing to kill +till their arms were too tired to strike. + +Dr Tschudi inclines to believe that sooner or later the Indians will throw +off the yoke of the effeminate and cowardly Creoles, and establish a +government of their own. Whether such a government will be able or allowed +to maintain itself, it is difficult to say; although, as the doctor +observes, why should it not, at least, as well as a negro republic in an +Archipelago peopled by the most civilized nations of Europe? Since the +separation of Peru from Spain, the Indians have made great progress in +many respects; they have been admitted into the army, have become familiar +with fire-arms and military manoeuvres, and have learned the manufacture +of gunpowder, materials for which their mountains abundantly afford. Their +hatred of the whites is bitter as ever, their feeling of nationality very +strong--their attachment to the memory of their Incas, and to their old +form of government, undiminished. In spite of long oppression, they still +possess pride and self-reliance. Besides the government forced upon them +by the Creoles, they preserve and obey their old laws. Let a leader like +Tupac Amaru appear amongst them, and there is every probability of an +Indian revolution, very different in its results to any that has yet +occurred. + +Most Robinson Crusoe-like in its interest is the long chapter wherein Dr +Tschudi details his forest adventures, and we regret that we must be very +summary in our notice of it. With extraordinary courage and perseverance +the doctor and a German friend made their way to the heart of the +backwoods, built themselves a log-hut, and, despising the numerous dangers +by which they were environed, abode there for months, collecting +zoological specimens. Of the perils that beset them, Dr Tschudi's +unvarnished narrative of the daily sights and nocturnal sounds that +assailed their startled senses in those wild regions, gives a lively idea. +Indian cannibals, ferocious beasts, reptiles whose bite is instant death, +venomous insects, and even vampires, compose the pleasant population of +this district, into which these stout-hearted Europeans fearlessly +ventured. Of the beasts of prey the ounce is the most dangerous; and so +fierce and numerous has its breed become in certain districts of Peru, as +to compel the Indians to abandon their villages. We are told of one +hamlet, in the ravine of Mayunmarca, that has been desolate for a century +past on this account. The ounces used annually to decimate its +inhabitants. More perilous even than these animals, to the wanderer in the +forest, are the innumerable serpents that lurk beneath the accumulation of +dead leaves bestrewing the ground. The most deadly is a small viper about +ten inches long, the only species of the viper family as yet discovered in +South America. The virulence of its venom kills the strongest man in the +space of two or three minutes. The Indians, when bitten by it, do not +dream of seeking an antidote, but at once lie down to die. Bats are +exceedingly plentiful, and very large, some measuring nearly two feet +across the extended wings. The blood-sucker or vampire (phyllostoma) finds +its way in search of food into stables and houses. The smooth-haired +domestic animals are especially liable to its attacks. With wings half +open it places itself upon their backs, and rubs with its snout till the +small sharp teeth break the outer skin. Then it draws in its wings, +stretches itself out, and sucks the blood, making the while a gentle +movement with its body, not unlike the undulations of a busy leech. The +fanning motion of the wings described by some writers was never observed +by Dr Tschudi. Although these vampires only imbibe a few ounces of blood, +the subsequent haemorrhage is very great, and full-grown mules sometimes +die of the exhaustion caused by their repeated attacks. One of the +doctor's beasts was only saved from such a fate by being rubbed every five +or six days with turpentine and other strong-smelling drugs, which kept +off the vampires. It has often been disputed whether these disgusting +animals attack human beings. Our traveller deposes to their doing so, and +cites an instance witnessed by himself. A bat (Ph. erythromos, Tsch.) +fixed upon the nose of an Indian who lay drunk in the court of a +plantation, and sucked his blood till it was unable to fly away. Violent +inflammation and swelling of the Indian's head were the consequences of +the trifling wound inflicted. + +We must here make mention of the carbunculo, a fabulous animal, whose +existence obtains credit in most parts of Peru. Wherever he went, Dr +Tschudi heard stories of this creature, and met persons who asserted that +they had seen it. It is reported to be of the size of a fox, with long +black hair, and only to appear at night, when it glides slowly through the +bushes or amongst the rocks. When pursued, a valve or trap-door opens in +its forehead, and an extraordinarily brilliant object--believed by the +natives to be a precious stone--becomes visible, dispelling the darkness +and dazzling the pursuer. Then the forehead closes, and the creature +disappears. According to other accounts, it emerges from its lurking-place +with carbuncle displayed, and only conceals it when attacked. This strange +superstition is not of Spanish origin, but of older date than Pizarro's +invasion. Of course it has never been possible to catch or kill a specimen +of this remarkable species, although the Spaniards have used every effort +to get hold of such a creature; and in the viceroy's instructions to the +missionaries, the carbunculo was set down in the very first rank of +desiderata. Dr Tschudi vainly endeavoured to discover, with some degree of +certainty, what animal had served as a pretext for the fable. + +After a four years residence in Peru, and when preparing for a journey +that was to include an investigation of all the provinces, and to last for +several years, Dr Tschudi was seized in the Cordilleras with a nervous +fever, which brought him to the brink of the grave. Upon his recovery, he +found that long repose, both of mind and body, was essential to the +complete restoration of his health. Such repose he could not be certain of +granting himself if he remained in Peru, and he therefore resolved to seek +it upon the ocean. He took ship, and reached Europe at the commencement of +1843, after an absence of five years. He greatly regrets not having +visited every part of Peru, especially the historical city of Cuzco, and +the forests of Urubamba. But his harvest of knowledge has been so rich and +abundant, that he should not, we think, begrudge the remnant of the crop +to the gleaners who may come after him. + + + + +"MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO." + + +CHAPTER I. + + "Our coming + Is not for salutation: we have business." + BEN. JONSON. + +On the 9th of September 1741, shortly after the hour of nightfall, a +silvery mist hung over the broad stream of the Danube, and the environs of +the city of Presburg--at that time considered the capital of Hungary--and +shrouded the earth with its grey veil; although the heavens above were +bright and clear, and the stars shone cheerily and proudly, as if no +earthly influence could damp or dull them. Before the St Michael's gate, +which opens on the side of the town the most remote from the Danube, and +on to the road leading into the interior of the country, and towards the +first low ridge of the Carpathians which skirts Presburg to the north, sat +a traveller on horseback--his ample cloak wrapped carefully about his +person, as much, it would seem, to screen him from observation, as from +the first freshness of the commencing autumn season, and his broad +three-cornered and gold-laced hat pulled down upon his brow. + +He had ridden, at the brisk pace, across the stone bridge which leads over +a dry moat to the old gateway, and had suddenly checked his horse on +finding the gate closed before him. + +"_Corpo di Bacco!_" he exclaimed aloud, in a tone of intense vexation. +"The gate is shut for the night--I feared as much." + +"What's to be done!" he continued to murmur to himself, after a pause. "To +wake the guardian of the gate, and demand an entrance, would be to excite +attention, and subject myself, perhaps, to questionings. No, no! That, +above all, must be avoided. And yet, see him I must to-night. Time +presses. Should the devil, who has served me so well as yet, desert me +now, and take flight, the coward! before a few inches of deal board, and a +few pounds of hammered iron! Bolts and bars! _Bagatelles!_ Fortunately the +old fox has taken up his earth near the gate. If I calculate aright, the +hinder windows of his lodging must look out upon the moat; and I will try +whether I cannot come to speech of him." + +"Fortuna, jade! Thou art propitious still, if yonder rays be those from +the old ivy-owl's watch-lamp!" muttered the traveller once more to +himself, as he looked towards a light, which apparently struggled to send +its gleams through the thick haze, from a low window of one of the houses +overhanging the dry moat, to the left of the gateway. "At all events, I'll +even risk the venture; and if, after all, I am out in my reckoning, and +should stumble either upon an amorous dame awaiting her adored, or a mad +student seeking the philosopher's stone--should I appear as a spirit of +love from above, or a spirit of darkness from below--_Cospetto!_ I'll play +my part to the life, and find an entrance to this cursed town, spite of +locked gates and barred posterns! The Virgin be praised! I am no schoolboy +at my first adventure." + +"_Allons_, Briccone!" he cried, applying the spur to his jaded horse, +which stood reeking thickly, in the misty air, from the effects of a long +and rapid journey. "You must seek other quarters for the night, old boy!" + +The animal snorted, as its head was turned once more from the gateway, and +moved unwillingly, as if endeavouring to resist the seeming attempt to +undertake any further excursion that night: but the way was not long which +it was destined to travel. Among the clay-built houses which formed the +suburb, the traveller speedily discovered the projecting whisp of hay, +announcing that the hovel, from the doorway of which it was suspended, +offered accommodation, such as it was, for man and beast. Summoning from +the interior a sleepy lad, in a dirty Hungarian costume, of full +shirt-sleeves and broad trowsers, which once had been white, and +confiding Briccone to his care, he returned to the gateway of the town. + +When he again stood upon the gateway bridge, the first care of the +stranger was to stoop, and collect a quantity of small pebbles in the +hollow of his left hand. Provided with this ammunition, he approached as +near as he could towards the spot whence the light he had before remarked +proceeded. + +"A curse upon this rotten mist!" he muttered. "I can see nothing. Around +and about is a fog from the devil's own caldron, as if it were cooked on +purpose to blind me; whilst the stars are twinkling above, as if they +squinted down upon my confusion, and laughed me to scorn. However, at all +ventures, have at my mark!" + +With these words, he flung pebble after pebble in the direction of the +light. Several of the missiles were heard to rattle against the walls of +the house; and a few others rendered a clearer ringing sound, as if they +had struck upon glass. After a short space of time, the light disappeared +almost entirely; and a window was heard to open. The traveller raised +another pebble in his hand, with a smile upon his face, as if inclined to +take a last random shot at the head which had probably replaced the light +at the open window; but he checked his humour with a short low laugh, and +coughed to attract attention. The cough was immediately re-echoed in a +hoarse and hollow voice. + +"That should be the old raven's croak," said the stranger to himself. + +"Bandini!" he cried, in a low but distinct tone, through his hollowed +hands. + +"Hush!" rejoined the voice from the window. "Not so loud! Is it you?" + +"_Diavolo!_" replied the traveller, approaching closer to the wall of the +town, and speaking as low as possible. "Who should it be, man? But the +gate is closed; and I have no mind to expose myself to the investigations +of the gatekeeper's lantern, and all the cross-examination and +tittle-tattle that may follow." + +"I waited for you with impatience," pursued his interlocutor; "and when +the gate closed for the night, placed my lamp at the window as a beacon." + +"All right!" replied the other. "But what's to be done now, man?" + +"Can you climb?" continued the hoarse voice. + +"Like a cat or a Spanish lover," was the reply. "Perhaps I have no little +in me of the first; at all events I have often tried the trade of the +latter." + +"Descend into the moat from the end of the bridge," pursued the personage +at the window. "The passage is easy. I will provide for your ascent." + +Following these short instructions, the stranger returned over the bridge; +and catching from stem to stem of the few stunted trees that grew upon the +precipitous sides of the descent, he clambered, without much difficulty, +to the bottom of the steep. As he crossed the reedy and moist soil of the +moat, the noise of a falling object directed his steps towards a part of +the wall where a ladder of cords awaited him. Profiting by this aid, and +grasping, where he could, the projecting stones of the rude masonry which +formed the lower part of the house, the stranger mounted with ready +agility to the level of a window. + +"You have not chosen your quarters upon the town-wall for nothing, I am +inclined to suppose, Master Bandini," he said, as he found himself in face +of a dark form at the opening to which he had arrived. + +"All things have their uses," was the laconic reply, uttered with a hoarse +laugh. + +In a few moments the stranger had squeezed his person adroitly through the +low window, and stood in the interior of the room. + +The apartment into which he had been thus clandestinely introduced, was +faintly lighted by the single lamp which had served as a beacon; and the +rays of this lamp, as they fell upon the dark walls, half revealed, in +fantastic indistinctness, a variety of miscellaneous objects. Ranged upon +shelves on either side of the entrance door, stood a quantity of jars and +phials of different shapes, mixed with glass vessels, containing strange +serpents and lizards, and human half-born deformities, preserved in +spirits--all the _materia medica_, either for use or show, necessary for +the establishment of a druggist-physician of the day. On the opposite side +of the room, beneath the hard and slovenly pallet which served as bed, +might be half seen, from under the covering, two or three chests, the iron +clasps and fastenings of which, with their immense padlocks, seemed to +tell a tale of well-stored treasures of moneys or papers, and of other +avocations than those of doctoring and leeching. Above the bed hung the +crucifix, that necessary appendage to the dwelling of a good and pious +Catholic; but, whether by accident or design, the form of the Divine +sufferer on the cross was now turned against the wall. A table in the +middle of the room was covered with old books and papers; and before the +chair, from which the inmate of the apartment had probably risen when +surprised by the signals of his visitor, was a large volume, which he now +precipitately closed, but not, however, without being remarked by the +stranger, who smiled a significant smile upon observing this hasty +movement. + +But, if the aspect of the apartment was strange, stranger still was that +of its occupier. He was a little man, at an advanced period of life, whose +spare and shrivelled form might be fancied ill-calculated to support the +large head which surmounted it. Was the head, however, ill-proportioned to +the body, still more out of proportion were the large black projecting +eyebrows, the huge eagle nose, and the swelled hanging under-lip, to the +general contour of the head. His thick black hair was closely shorn to his +skull, as if to develop more clearly these interesting features; and if +powder had been bestowed upon it, in obedience to the fashion of the +better classes of the day, it had been bestowed so sparingly, or had +assumed a colour so closely assimilated to that of dust and dirt, as to +escape the discovery of all eyes but those of a very closely investigating +naturalist. No less doubtful was the colour of the long cravat tied +loosely about his neck. His upper person was inclosed in a huge black +widely pocketed coat and lappet waistcoat, both many ells too wide for his +shrunken form; whilst his nether man disported at ease in a pair of black +pantaloons and high boots, which seemed to incase the proportions of a +skeleton. From the sleeves of the wide coat hung a pair of long dirty +begrimed hands, which, without a doubt, belonged rightfully to the owner +of the aforesaid skeleton shanks. + +Far different was the appearance of his visitor. He was a tall well-formed +man, between thirty and forty years of age. His dress, which he displayed +as he threw aside his cloak, cut in the cumbrous fashion of the day, was +that of a man of pretensions to a certain rank; and his _coiffure_, with +its necessary appendage of pigtail, might be seen, in spite of his hasty +journey, to have been arranged with care, and powdered. Although his +person was prepossessing, there was, however, a certain dash of the _roue_ +in his appearance, and a look of design and cunning in his dark eyes, long +fine-drawn nose, and thin lipless mouth, which would speedily have removed +the first more agreeable impression of an observer. + +"All's well that ends well!" said the stranger, as he removed his hat and +cloak. "It is perhaps better, after all, that I should make my entry thus. +I have ridden hard, Master Bandini, and Briccone carried me well; but the +road was longer than I had surmised, and I had a matter or two to dispose +of on my way." + +"Better late than never, noble cavaliere!" replied the man addressed as +Bandini. + +"Hush! no names, man, until I be assured that we have no listeners here," +said the cavaliere. + +Without replying, the old man removed the shutters from a window, forming +a thorough light to that by which the stranger had entered, and looked out +into the winding steep descent which forms the first street of the city of +Presburg from St Michael's gate. It was faintly lighted by a lantern, but +empty of all passengers. + +"How now, man!" said the stranger impatiently. + +"Why! if it must be said," replied the old man, closing the shutter and +returning; "I have a lodger here, in my apartment. But he is still +without; nor will he yet return." + +"A lodger!" exclaimed the other, in an angry tone--"and at such a moment! +How could you be so incautious, Bandini? This is one of your miserly +tricks: you would expose your best friends for a few miserable kreutzers +more or less." + +"Live and let live, is my maxim," answered Bandini with a growl. + +The stranger shrugged his shoulders with vexation. + +"And who is this lodger, man?" he cried. + +"Only a poor Hungarian country noble," replied Bandini in a more cajoling +tone. "A youth! a very youth! a poor unsuspecting youth! He has come, like +all the other nobles of the land, great and small, to obey the call of her +they call their _King_, to attend this Diet summoned at Presburg; and he +occupies my other rooms with his servant--a rustic!--a mere rustic!--a +rude untutored rustic!" + +"It was ill done, Bandini," continued the stranger, with still evident +marks of discontent. "A lodger in the house, when you must know that I +need privacy! It was ill done, I tell you." + +The old man only muttered something between his teeth by way of a reply. + +"Have a care, man," resumed his visitor, "how you juggle with me in this +matter. You are richly paid by my employers for the support you give me, +and the concealment your house affords; but should evil befall us--be it +through your treachery or your imprudence, it matters not--_per Jovem_, +the evil shall fall a hundred-fold upon your own head. I swear it to you; +and you know I am a man to keep my word." + +"Jehovah! here's a turmoil about the mere miserable lodging of a poor +youth!" growled the old man doggedly, although the rapid passing of a long +skeleton finger over the tip of his huge nose betrayed a certain degree of +nervous agitation. + +"Master Bandini," interrupted the stranger, unheeding him, "I have a word +to speak with you--and one that nearly concerns yourself, Master +Bandini--before we proceed further in business." + +"Look ye!" he pursued, in a more indifferent tone, throwing himself down +on to a chair, and crossing his legs composedly, but fixing the man called +Bandini at the same time with his keen eye. "Look ye, friend druggist, +physician, usurer, miser, secret agent, spy--or whatever other name you +bear in designation, avocation, character, or _creed_"--and he laid a +slight emphasis on the word--"there are no friends so sure as those who +are convinced we know then thoroughly--a right understanding is sympathy, +_amico mio_, and sympathy is bond and union." + +The old man looked through his beetling brows at his visitor without any +evidence of trouble; but he ceased irritating the tip of his nose only to +twitch more nervously at the sleeves of his coat, as if to give himself an +air of composure and dignity by adjusting them, as a modern fop might do +by pulling up his shirt-collar. + +"Think you I have forgotten," continued the stranger with a slight sneer, +"that when we first met in Italy--no matter upon what business, or to what +intent--Master Bandini bore the name of Israeli, and that, when forced to +leave that country--persecuted, as he himself would say, for some little +matter of flagrant usury, and mayhap also of a drug or two that lulled +some rich old uncle to a sleep from which he woke not, and made a +spendthrift debtor his heir--he returned to the land of his birth, I will +not say of his fathers, and, for reasons good, under another name and a +foreign guise, thinking that the name of Israel, spite of its adopted +termination, smacked somewhat too notoriously of his origin, his Jewish +origin, Master Bandini?" + +The Jew druggist tossed his heavy head with an expression that, however +ill assured, was meant to say, "Well! and what then?" + +"Think you I know not that, fearing the prejudices against his race might +injure the gains of his various trades, perhaps also that the name he bore +might recal reminiscences better forgotten for ever, he assumed a +Christian appellation, passed for an honest Christian man--_honest_, +humph!" added the stranger with a sniggering laugh--"and infringed the +severe laws of Hungary, which compel all of his tribe to dwell within one +prescribed street in each city, and wear one distinctive dress--laws that, +if called into execution, would bring him contumely, imprisonment, +ruin--ay ruin, Master Israeli--humph, I forgot--Bandini? Think you I have +no eyes to see yon cross ostentatiously displayed to Christian visitors, +now turned against the wall, with the contempt of one of your accursed +race--a deed in itself a crime to merit mortal punishment?" + +The Jew stole a glance at the cross, and was evidently moved. + +"Think you I divine not," pursued his visitor, hastily snatching from the +table the heavy book closed upon his entrance, and flinging it open upon +his knees, "that this jargon of the devil is your Hebrew book of worship, +in which Master Bandini seeks for rules of conduct for the further welfare +of his soul--if so be he have one--in the persecution and torture of +Christian men--a pretty religion, _cospetto!_--or may be, practises +sorcery?" And the stranger laughed ironically at his own suggestion. +"Think you I know not all this, Master Bandini?" + +"And if the Cavaliere Caracalli knows me, what have I to fear from him?" +said the Jew sullenly, with a look of defiance. + +"Ha! that would seem a threat!" answered the cavaliere haughtily. "Once +more, have a care, man, how you deal with me! What you have to fear I will +tell you, Master Bandini, rogue--all that your worst fears can +contemplate, should I have reason to believe you a traitor." And, at these +words, he sprang up from his chair, and confronted the old man, with an +evident desire to intimidate him by his movement. + +The Jew druggist did not flinch; but he answered with less of defiance. + +"I am no traitor--no traitor to you; and, though you know me, why should I +not serve you still? Why should we not be friends?" + +"Friends! you and I!" said the cavaliere with scorn. "But no matter! This +affair of the lodger looks ill, I tell you." + +"Times are bad--times are bad, noble cavaliere," stammered the Jew, in a +whining and apologetic tone. "Our contract stipulated not that I should +not strive to earn an honest livelihood where I could." + +"And who prevents you, man," said the cavaliere, with a sneer, "from +earning what you please to term an honest livelihood, as far as it +interfere not with my interests? But this imprudence"---- + +"Heavy losses! heavy losses!" continued the old man, interrupting him, to +pursue his apology. "I have had heavy and serious losses, which I must +strive to cover by what scanty means are left me--to say naught of drugs +unpaid, and services to the rich ill recompensed and scouted. I am a needy +man. I am, indeed, a needy man." The cavaliere shrugged his shoulders. +"Ah! You feel not that, noble sir. But the God of my fathers knows that it +is true. Was there not the Illok affair, in which the poor money-lender +was cheated of his honest earnings? Did not the Count Csaki leave the +country, a bankrupt, and cause me all but utter ruin? And, worse than all, +did not the Baron Bartori, after he had made over to me his estates, in +return for moneys lent him in his need, die with the intent and purpose, +as one would say, to defraud me of my just dues? and did not his son, +without whose signature to destroy the entail, I cannot obtain possession +of my rights--the God of Israel's curse be on the Philistine laws of this +unjust country!--disappear, no one knows whither? He is an honest youth, +and a just, they say, who would not deprive a poor needy man of his own: +but he may be dead--he may be dead, without giving his precious +sign-manual; and I should be a ruined man--a ruined man--alas! alas!" + +The cavaliere had borne impatiently the lamentations thus uttered as +apologies for his love of gain by the Jew money-lender: and he now broke +in upon them with disgust. + +"A truce to all this comedy of woe, man! If you be shorn of a lock or two +of your ill-gotten golden fleece, we well know that it is still a full and +warm one. Come, come--no more of this!" he pursued, as the Jew continued +to squeeze alternately the skeleton fingers of each hand, as though he +pretended to be wringing them in despair. "We must to business; and since +the mischief has been done--and, mark me! it must be remedied forthwith, +and this boy driven from the house--see that the coast be clear!" + +"He is from home, I tell you," was Bandini's reply; and he was continuing +to murmur, with sunken head, the words, "Heavy losses! heavy losses! Why +did he die? And were aught to happen to his son, as is likely in these +troublesome times, I were ruined--utterly ruined. Oh! heavy losses!"--when +an angry exclamation and an imperative gesture from his visitor, repeated +the order to look that they were alone and undisturbed. + +The old man lighted a small hand-lamp at that which stood upon the table, +undrew the bolts that fastened the door, and left the room with sullen +look and step. He was gone for a very brief space of time; but this short +interval was employed by the stranger in turning over, with rapid hand and +scrutinizing eye, the papers which lay upon the table. He shook his head +with a sneer of indifference, as if he had found nothing worthy of his +attention, and had scarcely time to resume his seat with an air of +unconcern, when the Jew returned, and, eyeing him narrowly, advanced into +the room with that haste of suspicion and fear, which induced even the +usurer to forget his usual precautions of bolts and bars. + +"There is no one in the house but ourselves," he said, with still sulky +air. + +"Then seat yourself, man, and open to me your wallet of sayings and +doings; and let's see what scraps of information you may have gleaned. It +should be crammed full, ere this. Seat yourself, I say, and clear that +gloomy brow of yours," said the cavaliere with a laugh. "What has passed +since I last saw you?" + +"The city is already thronged with the nobility of Hungary, convoked by +this woman, who still asserts her rights over them, in the hope that they +may aid her in her troubles;" commenced the Jew, seating himself, in +obedience to his visitor's command. "Jehovah! what a stir they make! What +moneys do they lavish upon foolish pomp! What spendthrift profusion do +they display! It curdles the very blood of a poor thrifty man within him, +to witness such insensate prodigality. But they must rue their folly. They +will need moneys; they will seek to obtain moneys of the poor druggist. +Ah!" And the usurer rubbed his hands with satisfaction; but then, seeing +the gestures of impatience displayed by his companion, he proceeded: "But +there is much discontent, I hear, among them; and, where she has not +enemies, she has lukewarm friends. They will no longer, they say, be +governed by a weak woman, who can so ill wield the reins of power, and who +has already staked and lost all the other inheritance of her father"---- + +"Unjustly herited--unjustly held. Forget not that, Master Bandini!" +interrupted the Italian. + +"Unjustly--well, well! I am no legist to understand these things," pursued +the Jew; "only a poor thrifty physician"---- + +"And usurer," again broke in his companion. + +Bandini smiled a sour smile, and continued: + +"Call me usurer, if you will. I see no scorn in the term; and I have +turned my money-lending to account in this matter. Yes! and in your +service; although you but now called me traitor. Have I not refused moneys +to those who offered me good securities and values, and at my own loss--at +my own loss, cavaliere--because I would not deal with those who would +hazard their all in a war to aid this woman in her desperate need? And +although my friend Zachariah has lent them sums of precious metal, has it +not been upon such great interest, and at such peril to themselves, that +they cannot risk so dangerous a venture as the espousing her cause, and +upon their written engagement also--and this as by my advice, mark me, +noble cavaliere!--that they should not take up arms? Have I not done this +to serve you?--at my own loss, I say; and can you call me traitor now?" + +"So far all goes well," said the Italian, unheeding the importance +attached by the Jew to the supposed services rendered. "Maria Theresa will +be foiled in her last attempt at opposition to her enemy's force, by +seeking succours from her so-called faithful Hungarians. Success, also, +has crowned my efforts in my expedition throughout the land, Master +Bandini," he pursued, raising himself from his listless posture, with a +look of animation and triumph. "The seeds of discord and discontent have +every where been sown. I have visited these proud eagles, the Hungarian +nobles, in their country-nests; and I have employed all means to turn them +from listening to the appeal of their fugitive queen. To the worldly-wise, +I have urged the ruin of war to their already troubled and impoverished +country,--to the lovers of their fatherland, the independence of Hungary, +and freedom from the House of Austria, if they will seize this opportunity +to shake off its yoke, instead of again cringing to its call,--to the man, +the weakness of submitting to a woman's sway,--to the needy and the +grasping, I have promised, and even already lavished, the bribes of +France, Spain, and Sardinia, to induce them to refuse their aid,--to the +ambitious, place, rank, orders, courtly favour from my powerful employers, +should they espouse their cause. I have studied men's characters, and read +men's minds, to turn them to my will; and although I have met with +opposition, endangered my life indeed, and risked my safety from ill-will, +yet I have so strewn my grain, that, when Maria Theresa shall appear upon +the field, she shall reap tares where she hoped to gather wheat. The cause +is lost, I tell you!" + +The Jew rubbed his hands with an air of satisfaction, which seemed to show +that the profits to be divided from his association in the political +manoeuvres of his visitor were to be proportionate to the success of +these hazardous schemes, and that visions of golden reward already floated +before his eyes. + +"And the opening of the Diet is still fixed for the 11th?" inquired the +Italian, after a pause, in which he had allowed his unwonted enthusiasm to +cool down to a bearing of indifference, which was more his nature. + +"Yes--the day following the morrow," answered Bandini. + +"Has she already made her appearance in the city?" again asked his +visitor. + +"It is supposed that she is not yet here. There has been no solemn entry; +but she must be here every hour," was the reply. + +"In that morrow we have as yet time for much," said the cavaliere. "I must +pursue my measures here with caution. My great scheme, of which more, +perhaps, hereafter, may be tried at any issue; and woe betide Maria +Theresa, if"-- + +As he uttered these words, the Italian was startled and interrupted by the +abrupt opening of the door of the apartment. The Jew turned round with +surprise, whilst his companion, checking the first involuntary movement, +which induced him to look in the same direction, buried himself in his +chair, so as to conceal himself as much as possible from the intruder. + +The person who entered was a tall old man, whose erect figure and firm +step proved how little time had weighed upon his natural vigour. His +features were bold and rude, although not deficient in that species of +manly beauty which an expression of confidence and energy bestows, and +were fully displayed by the disposal of his grizzled hair, which, torn +back from his forehead, and plastered over his head with an evident +profusion of grease, descended on to his back in a long braided tail. His +dress was of that description known in other parts of Europe as the hussar +uniform, which was worn by certain of the domestics belonging to the +Hungarian nobility. The yellow braid profusely bestowed across the breast +of his jacket, and upon the pockets and sides of his tight blue +pantaloons, was of a colour that showed what good service his attire had +already seen. In his brawny hands he held his shako, as he advanced into +the room, with more of rudeness than of deference in his manner. + +"Is it you, Master Farkas?" said the Jew, rising to meet him. "I did not +hear you enter." + +"I opened the street door below with the pass-key you gave us," replied +the man; whilst, at these words, the cavaliere stamped his foot in anger. + +"You made but little noise," resumed Bandini suspiciously. + +"I suppose you were too much engaged to hear us; for I see you have a +visitor," said the old man, fixing his eyes upon the form whose back was +turned to him, and advancing familiarly further into the room. + +But the Jew intercepted him. + +"What do you want here, Master Farkas?" + +"_Teremtette!_" said the fellow roughly. "Would you have my lord up to bed +in the dark, like a rat or a gipsy thief? I want a light." + +"I will attend your master forthwith," said the Jew, taking up the +hand-lamp, and hastening to the door. + +"My master, ugh! My lord, if it please or please not your worship," +growled Farkas, preceding the landlord out of the apartment. + +When the Jew returned, his visitor confronted him with angry looks. + +"See to what you expose me, fellow, by your villanous meanness!" exclaimed +the cavaliere. "And, not content with harbouring vagabonds in your house, +that, for aught I know, may be spies upon us, you furnish them with +pass-keys, to surprise us when they will--to ear-wig at the doors, hear +our discourse, betray our secrets. How now, fellow, what have you to +answer?" + +"I tell you that they are most innocent and unsuspecting rustics, both," +stammered the Jew--"both master and man. There can be no danger." + +"No danger!" continued the angry cavaliere. "No danger, fellow! +_Cospetto!_ this very circumstance may be my ruin! That voice, too, was +not unknown to me. I have heard it somewhere, although I know not where. +It sounded to me as the reminiscence of some past evil--a raven's croak, +announcing still more ill to come. _Santa Vergine!_ If we are lost, I will +have your life, with my own hand;" and he half drew his sword from the +scabbard. + +Bandini drew back sulkily, with further protestations, deprecations, and +endeavours to mollify his visitor: but it was long before the cavaliere +could be appeased. Once he left the room and listened in the passage, and +at the young Hungarian's door. Then he descended to the street entrance, +and examined the lock: and only when convinced that the other inhabitants +of the house were still, and had probably retired to rest, did he come +back. When he returned to the Jew's room, his brow was still knitted +angrily; but, after drawing a bolt across the door, he sat down with less +of agitation. + +More unfriendly words again passed between the confederates; but, after a +time, the Italian spy and the Jew money-lender were again conversing, in +lowered tones, upon the schemes of the former. + + +CHAPTER II + + "Underneath the grove of sycamore, + That westward rooteth from the city's side-- + So early walking did I see your son: + Towards him I made; but he was ware of me + And stole into a covert of the wood."-- + + * * * * * + + "Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her-- + O teach me how I should forget to think."--SHAKSPEARE. + + "Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch!"--IDEM. + +On the following afternoon, the sun shone brightly; and the whole +atmosphere, in spite of the slight haze which faintly silvered the distant +hills, was imbued with that exhilarating freshness and lightness, which +sheds a poetic charm of animation, vividness, and--did it not appear a +paradox--it might be added, youth also, over an Hungarian autumn, unknown +in other European countries. + +The streets of Presburg were thronged by the crowds whom the approaching +opening of the Diet, convoked by Maria Theresa, had attracted to that +city; and highly picturesque and varied was the scene composed by the +multifarious parties, pushing and thrusting along, or gathered in groups +and knots, discussing the momentous events of those troubled times, +between the rows of antique houses, which bestow upon Presburg the aspect +rather of an old town of the German Empire, than of less civilized +Hungary. + +In the middle space pranced upon their richly caparisoned steeds, +glittering with the hanging trappings of that semi-oriental taste which, +although somewhat modified, still forms a striking characteristic of the +country, several of the Hungarian magnates, already attired in the +national costumes--the richly embroidered attila, or long frock-coat, +loaded with ornament--the furred cloak, clasped with glittering jewels to +the shoulder--the high flat cap of fur or velvet, displaying an egret of +rare feathers, which dashed upwards from the diamond broach--the tight +gold-braided pantaloons--the tasselled boots--their powdered hair alone +displaying, in some instances, their submission to the fashion of the day +in other countries. Thronging among them were many of the lesser nobles, +either on horseback or on foot, all dressed in the same characteristic +style, with less of richness and embroidery, according to their lesser +ranks or lesser means--each dress cut, and fashioned, and braided, +according to the taste or whim of the wearer. Now and then rumbled along a +cumbrous gilded and fantastically painted coach, swinging heavily between +its monstrous gilded wheels, and sometimes adorned upon the four corners +of its broad projecting roof with clumps of feathers, not unlike an +ancient tester-bed--the coachman in richly-laced Hungarian livery, or in +the silver-buttoned vest, hanging white sleeves, and broad white trowsers +of the peasant; but of finer stuff, gayer embroidery, and richer fringe to +the trowsers' edge, than the humbler of his class, as befitted the +elevation to which he had been raised--the six horses, loaded with studded +sparkling harness, and hanging strips of metal-behung leather, which +streamed down the flanks and shoulders. Within them sat alone the proud +dames of the Hungarian magnates, in even costlier dress than was the wont +of that period of costly and cumbrous attire--their powdered heads adorned +with the bejewelled caps of the national costume; for in those days a man, +who really deemed himself a man, disdained to show himself the lazy tenant +of these moving houses; and more especially the Hungarian, who considered +the name of horseman as synonymous with that of man, and himself as born +to be "a tamer of horses." Amidst these heavier vehicles, the light wooden +carts of the peasant-noble, ignorant of all attempt at springs, of all +harness but the rudest cords, endeavoured in vain to advance rapidly, in +obedience to the impatience of the small, meagre, but impetuous horses of +Tartar race which were lightly attached to them. + +Among the crowded pedestrians was the scene still more checkered with +kaleidescope variety. Here the embroidered pantaloons, the braided +dolmans, and the feathered bonnets, were mingled with the long-fringed, +full white trowsers, the large hanging shirt-sleeves, the broad-brimmed +upturned hats--from beneath which streamed long black shaggy mane-like +locks, over dark swarthy countenances, adorned with immense hanging +moustaches--and the huge sheepskin cloaks, decorated on the exterior with +fancifully embroidered flowers, and patches of bright cloth; the jaunty, +dancing, bold, easy air of the Hungarians, all booted and spurred even to +the very children, contrasting with the slouched gait of the Sclavonians, +with their curiously sandled feet--the Croat, still attired like the +Dacian of old, thronging along with the demi-brigand of the southern +provinces, whose savage bandit aspect would have struck terror in the +streets of any more civilized land--the purple talas, and long flowing +beard of the followers of the Greek Pope, sweeping against the dark robe +of the bald monk from the neighbouring convent--the smoother, finer gown +of the richer Catholic priest brushing past the white uniform of the +Austrian grenadier, with his conical headpiece, and long powdered pigtail. + +Amidst the hum of the many voices, the salutations of friends, the +laughter of some of the squeezing throng, the oaths of others, the cries +of the coachmen and the shouts of the horsemen to those who obstructed the +streets, arose, nevertheless, one unwearied and endless sound--the sound +of ringing metal--from the rattling of the universal spurs, and the +clashing of the many sabres. + +But if the scene was varied, more varied still were the emotions of the +crowd--among those, at least, who were more deeply interested in the +result of the event which had called together a great part of the nation +within the walls of the city of Presburg; according as their party +feelings or private interests led them to desire that resistance should be +shown to the appeal made by her whom the Hungarians styled their "King," +to her faithful subjects of Hungary, for succour under her distresses; or +as their enthusiasm or attachment to the House of Austria induced them to +wish that every assistance should be bestowed to enable her to restore her +fallen fortunes. + +The situation of Maria Theresa was indeed desperate. Her right to the +countries inherited by her from her father Charles VI., emperor of +Germany, were contested by almost all the other states of Europe. Her +friends and allies were few; and those few seemed to have deserted her at +this critical juncture. And yet with what confidence, with what a +well-assured prospect of a glorious reign, had she mounted the throne +secured to her! + +As early as the year 1713, the Emperor Charles VI. had issued, in his +privy council, a solemn ordinance, by which the female succession was +secured throughout his states, in case of the failure of male issue--an +ordinance well known in history, under the name of the "Pragmatic +Sanction." It was published throughout the Austrian states as inviolable +law, was made known to all the European courts, and by degrees guaranteed +by all, forming the ground and basis of all their treaties and alliances +with the House of Austria, and was moreover confirmed by oath by the +princes allied to the family by their intermarriage with Austrian +princesses. It was this ordinance, which only afterwards came into effect +upon the death of the Archduke Leopold, the only son of Charles VI., that +secured the right of succession to his daughter Maria Theresa, who at his +decease, which occurred in October 1740, and closed the male succession of +the House of Hapsburg, succeeded him, with the title of Queen of Hungary +and Bohemia, in these and all the other Austrian States, including, Milan, +Parma, Placentia, and the Netherlands. All these lands gave in their oath +of adherence. + +In spite of the triple right, however, which gave the States of Austria to +Maria Theresa--the right of nature, the law of the Pragmatic sanction, and +the sureties given by all the European states--several powers shortly +afterwards rose to contest her heritage. The Elector of Bavaria laid claim +to the succession, in virtue of a will of the Emperor Ferdinand the First, +dated in the year 1543; Augustus of Poland, in virtue of the earlier +rights of his wife, Maria Josepha, daughter of the Emperor Joseph, the +elder brother of Charles the Sixth. The King of Spain, Philip the Fifth, +went back as far as the rights of the wife of Philip the Second, a +daughter of the Emperor Maximilian the Second, from whom he was descended +in the female line. The King of Sardinia, Charles Emmanuel, laid claim to +the duchy of Milan; and Louis the Fifteenth of France supported the +Elector of Bavaria and the King of Spain. All Europe was quickly in flames +upon the subject of the succession. Not only princes, but many private +individuals, took an eager and active part in the quarrel. But the war, at +last, broke out from an unexpected quarter. Frederic the Second of Prussia +now laid claim to four duchies in Silesia, in spite of the renunciations +of these lands frequently made by his predecessors in favour of the House +of Austria, and suddenly, in December 1740, invaded the country, which, +being almost entirely undefended, was soon completely overrun by the +Prussian army. Maria Theresa, in spite of the alliance offered her by the +King of Prussia against her other enemies, in case Silesia should be +yielded up to him, stoutly and valiantly refused all compromise, declared +herself noways disposed to dismember, in the least degree, the States left +her by her father, and bade defiance to Frederic. Her enemies now took +this opportunity to attack her. Bavaria declared war, and was supported +by France, Spain, Savoy, and Saxony. In spite of the opposition of +Cardinal Fleury, the French minister, who was favourable to the cause of +the young Queen, Louis the Fifteenth placed under the command of Marshal +Count de Belle-Isle, a large French army, which crossed the Rhine in +August 1741; whilst the Chevalier de Belle-Isle was sent from court to +court in Germany, to rouse the powers against Maria Theresa; and numerous +spies and agents were dispatched, in every direction, to undermine the +last support she might have to hope for from her few remaining allies. +Linz quickly fell into the hands of the enemy, who approached upon Vienna. +Utter ruin lay before the persecuted Queen, who was obliged to leave her +capital, and seek refuge in Hungary. And under these circumstances it was, +that she had convoked at Presburg the Diet of the four orders of the +kingdom, the opening of which now caused the city to throng with crowds of +Hungarians from all quarters of the country. + +Among the mass of persons that thus swarmed in the main street of +Presburg, like ants upon the chief passage to the anthill, in seeming +confusion in which each individual atom has, nevertheless, its own purpose +and design, was a young man, whose striking personal appearance +continually attracted attention among those who crossed his path, and +caused many a head to turn and gaze after him, even in that favoured land +where beauty of the most romantic kind is common among all classes. He was +a youth of scarcely more than twenty years, as might be seen by the fresh +bloom upon his cheek, and the first down of dark moustaches which faintly +painted his upper-lip. His figure was slim, but yet his carriage had all +the bold ease of Hungarian youth; his features were regularly and +beautifully fashioned, although not of that extreme symmetry which mars +expression by its coldness; his dark-grey eyes, shaded by long black +lashes, which bestowed on them an Oriental cast, wore a look of hardihood +and languor combined, which spoke of a romantic temperament; and his +dark-brown hair, unconcealed by the fashion of the times, streamed free +and unfettered on to his neck and temples. He was attired in a sombre +dress, which well became his figure and poetic look. His braided attila +and pantaloons were of black cloth slightly relieved with velvet of the +same colour upon the cuffs and collar; and a black velvet Hungarian cap, +surmounted by a plume of black eaglet's feathers, sat boldly upon his +head. The silver-mounted belt and chains of his sabre were the only +ornaments that glittered on his dress. + +Whatever the purpose of the seemingly capricious wanderings of the young +man, as he thrust obstinately and somewhat rudely through the crowds which +opposed his progress, he was not to be diverted from it by the +objurgations of some of those whom he thus elbowed on his passage, or the +commendatory remarks of others, who noticed his good mien. His eye roved +perpetually to every window at which a female form appeared; and, upon the +approach of each coach that passed, he pushed boldly forward, to obtain as +near a view as possible of its fair inmates. But he evidently sought some +one particular form, which he found not in his unwearying scrutiny; for, +as often as some fresh female face had been narrowly examined, followed +sometimes with a moment's doubt, and then abandoned, he gently shook his +head, with knitted brow, and an expression of disappointment, and, falling +back, uttered an impatient sigh. + +At a short distance from the youth followed a tall old man, in the hussar +dress of an Hungarian domestic, who, in turn, pushed sturdily after him, +never losing him entirely from his sight, and utterly heedless of the +exclamations of those thrust aside, who, however they might spare their +angry comments to the handsome young noble, bestowed them with double +wrath upon his rude attendant. The look of the old man was one of +discontent, as he thus pursued the capricious movements of the youth; and +he gave vent to a continued string of muttered rough Hungarian oaths, +whilst he pushed on, and muttered such phrases as, "he is distraught--he +is utterly distraught with this silly boyish fancy!" + +At length, as the dusk of approaching evening began slowly to fall upon +the streets, as the crowd gradually lessened, as no more carriages rumbled +heavily along the causeway, and as no more faces appeared at the windows, +the young man paused in his hurried walk, uttered a still deeper sigh of +disappointment, and leaning himself wearily against a doorway, sank his +head downwards, and seemed lost in painful meditation. + +His old attendant approached him, and after a time, seeing that his +presence was unnoticed, and that the gloomy reverie of the young man +continued, he addressed him in a tone in which rude familiarity and +respect were strangely combined-- + +"Is my lord's young blood so hot, then, that he seeks to cool it by taking +up his night-quarters under this airy gateway?" But seeing that the young +man heeded him not, he muttered an inpatient "_Teremtette!_" between his +teeth, and then, plucking at his master's dress, he continued-- + +"Have you no orders to give me, Master Otmar?" + +"None, Farkas. No, leave me!" was the only reply vouchsafed. + +"Look you, Master Otmar," pursued his attendant--"You are observed +here--you are an object of attention, perhaps of mockery, to the +passers-by." + +"What mean you, Farkas?" cried the young man, in a tone of displeasure. + +"Nay! if my lord is angry, I have no more to say," replied Farkas, drawing +back. + +"Perhaps you are right," said the young man, with a sigh; "although your +words were rude." And without further comment, he removed himself from his +reclining position, and walked away with hurried steps. + +The old domestic followed rapidly, and, as they approached the St +Michael's gate, evidently expected that his young master would enter his +lodging close by; but, seeing that he still walked on, Farkas paused for a +moment, and murmured the words, "He bade me leave him. But he is utterly +distraught. He knows not what he says; he has forgotten his command ere +now; and who knows what may happen to the poor foolish boy!" And having +thus reassured his conscience upon his act of disobedience, he pursued the +young man's footsteps at a respectful distance, through the gateway, over +the bridge, and along the suburb. + +Beyond lay a more open road, skirted by gardens, and enlivened here and +there by summer pavilions, belonging to some of the wealthier nobles; and, +at about a quarter of a mile from the town, stood, to the left of the +wanderers, a stately palace, built in the heavy but ornamented style of +the commencement of the same century, and backed by gardens, that +stretched out behind it to the foot of that richly wooded and romantic +ridge of low mountains which gives so peculiar a charm to the environs of +the fine old city of Presburg. + +Passing through a side entrance of the court of this palace, which served +as a summer residence to the Archbishop Primate of Hungary--at that period +the Prince Immeric Esterhazy--and entering the gardens beyond, which the +liberality of the wealthy primate opened to public recreation, but which +were now empty, the young noble sauntered on, lost in meditation, through +statues of heathen divinities, which seemed ill in accordance with the +abode of a Christian bishop; and tritoned fountains, and stiff parterres, +and huge incommodious stone benches; until, reaching an alley of shady +planes and clustering chestnut-trees, he flung himself listlessly down on +the mossy bench of a shell and pebble-studded niche. The glow of the last +rays of the setting sun faintly penetrated the entrance of the avenue, +adding a still richer colour to the rich green shades of the trees, as yet +untouched by the influence of autumn; while, in the distant opening of the +dark vista, framed, as it were, by the circling trees, appeared a hazy +landscape of calm vine-covered hills, dotted with white cottages. It was a +spot peculiarly adapted to meditation and repose, the solitude of which +was enhanced, rather than disturbed, by its sole occupant--a misanthropic +stork, that with its wings folded on its back, like a sulky old gentleman +with his arms behind him, placed slowly and deliberately one foot before +the other, as it stepped on in lonely thoughtfulness. + +For a time the young man sat lost in reflection; and it was not until he +at length raised his head to gaze upon a scene congenial to his feelings, +that he became aware of the form of old Farkas, standing erect against a +tree, like a sentry in his box, at no great distance from him. + +"This is a persecution to which I cannot submit," he murmured to himself; +and then rising, and calling angrily to his attendant, he cried, + +"Did I not bid you leave me, Farkas?" + +"Leave you, my lord?" said the attendant, advancing with an air of +surprise. + +"Yes, leave me. Do you hear now?" + +"My duty"--continued the old man, in an expostulatory tone. + +"Is to obey me." + +"My attachment"---- + +"Becomes importunate," broke in his master, "if my footsteps are to be +thus dogged, and my solitude to be disturbed, fellow." + +Farkas tossed his head, with a sigh, that perhaps might be more +appropriately termed a grunt, and moved a few steps backwards; but then, +as if unable to obey, he again lingered and returned. + +"Master Otmar," he said, "call me rude, unmannered, disobedient. Bid me +leave you--yes, leave you for ever, if you will. But, out it must, +_teremtette!_ in spite of all. I cannot see you thus, and quit you, +without a word--you, your father's son. You, Master Otmar, whose heels I +was the first to spur, whom I first set on horseback to gallop alone over +the Puszta, whom I first taught a good round Hungarian oath. I could not +do it, were I to know it were the last word I spoke." + +"Speak then! What have you to say?" cried Otmar, in a tone of vexed +impatience; but then, as he saw the eyes of the old man fixed in such +mournful earnestness and solicitude upon him, he seemed to repent his +harshness, and stretched out his hand, which his attendant took and kissed +with reverence, according to the custom of the country. + +"Speak!" he said more mildly; "I know you love me, although sometimes you +show your love after a strange rude fashion, Farkas!" + +"Are you a man, Master Otmar," began the old attendant, bluntly, "that you +should be thus cast down because you have seen a pretty face that smiled +upon you?" The young man showed evident marks of impatience at these +words; but Farkas had seized his advantage, and continued, "Is a chitfaced +woman's glance, seen only once, to break a man's bold spirit thus? You are +in love, you will tell me. That's a boy's answer to all; but"-- + +"Peace, foolish man! what do you know of love?" said Otmar, impatiently. + +"Foolish!" echoed the old man, with a toss of the head, as if he were for +a moment inclined to argue which were the more foolish, he or his master. +"Be that as it may. Perhaps I understand little of this love, at least +now. But I remember the time I understood it better; and, _teremtette!_ +that was another sort of thing. When I was in love, I danced and sprang, +and drank and swore, and flung up my cap on to the very horns of the young +moon! There was some spirit in love then! But you have saved a fair lady +from danger, as her unruly devils of horses were about to plunge her +travelling coach from the bank into the broad stream of the Danube, and +you are as cast down about it as if you had caused her death, instead of +saving her from destruction. _Eb adta!_ it is for her to whine and pine, +and lament that she sees the bright eyes of her handsome deliverer no +more; not for you, boy!" + +"And with how sweet a smile! with what a dignity and grace! with what a +look of angel brightness, did she hold out her hand to thank me!" muttered +the young man to himself, as he again sank down upon the bank. + +"Be a man, Master Otmar!" pursued Farkas, with more animation and +earnestness. "Call back again your energy and spirit! Where is the bold +young fellow, now, who challenged that cursed outlandish rascal, who not +long since strove to tamper with his loyalty, and throw doubts upon the +rights of our King--God bless _her_!--and pricked him, too, right through +the sword-arm, and did it well, right well?" + +"And would again, Farkas!" said Otmar, raising his head proudly. + +"Although, to be sure, you would not allow me to cudgel him soundly, and +beat his treacherous brains out afterwards," continued the man, with a +grim smile; "but, no matter for that, he had half his deserts, and shall +have the other half one of these days. An honest man pays his just debts." + +"Leave the villain to his fate!" cried the young man with a look of scorn. + +"That's right!" pursued his attendant. "Now, you are yourself again. Look +you, Master Otmar! I cannot bear to see you thus unhappy and cast down, +and all for the look of a bright eye. It goes nigh to break my heart, I +tell you." And the old man's voice began to falter with emotion. + +"But I am not unhappy," said Otmar, smiling; "I am happy, very happy. Let +that re-assure you, Farkas. You tell me, be a man. Can I be a man, and not +indulge grave thoughts in these times of strife and trouble?" + +The old man shook his head. + +"You love me, Farkas," continued the young noble. "Let, then, the +assurance that I am far from unhappy suffice you. Now leave me, in all +earnest. I shortly will return home--Home!" he murmured to himself, "have +I a home now?" + +The old attendant still lingered; but, as his master stretched forth his +hand, he again kissed it reverently, and, turning up the alley, +disappeared from sight. + +"No! I am not unhappy," muttered Otmar, when he found himself alone. "Why +should I not be happy, when she smiled upon me so sweetly? But should I +not see her again? Oh no! Fate cannot be so cruel. And who was he that sat +by her side, and took her hand in his, as she again entered the coach? Her +husband--her lover, perhaps. I will not believe it. Her brother, may be. +No! I am not unhappy. I should be happy that I can place between myself +and the dark realities of life a bright barrier of fancy, of poetry, of +love--like unto those glorious painted windows in the old cathedral, which +spread out, between the inclemencies of the atmosphere without, and the +mysteries of the calm sanctuary within, the thousand glories of a thousand +colours, a radiant curtain of purple, and crimson, and gold, in such wise +that the passing cloud, with all its variations of shade, only develops +fresh treasures of harmony and beauty; and if a ray of sun bursts +forth--oh then!--it might almost seem as if, in those dazzling showers of +light and radiance, a whole celestial choir of angels descended upon the +altar! Thrice happy should I be, that, on the sanctuary of my heart, +shines such a ray of light! Yes, in the midst of the darkness of my life," +pursued the young man to himself, still following up the same images of +his poetic fancy, "my thoughts should be as the thousand particles of dust +that may be seen to turn, and whirl, and gambol in the golden shaft of +light which streams through a peephole into a darkened prison! No, I +should not be--I am not unhappy!" And yet Otmar sighed, as he bent his +head again to the earth. + +From this poetic reverie he was roused, however, by the noise of +footsteps; and, as he lifted up his head, he saw that the entrance to the +alley was darkened by the forms of three persons who were advancing +towards him. That which immediately attracted his attention, and caused +him to spring up from his seat as if struck by an electric shock which +darted through his heart, was a young female, whose features and +expression, as she approached nearer, might be seen, spite of the +gathering darkness, to be of singular beauty. She was attired in a dark +brocaded dress, the long and slim waist of which was set off by a small +hoop, in accordance with the custom of the times; a thick veil, or rather +Spanish mantilla, of similar stuff was fastened into the top of her +powdered edifice of hair, and covered her neck and shoulders; and from +beneath its folds protruded a small hand, the fingers of which rested +gently upon the arm of a young man. This second personage was dressed in +all the rich extravagance of the French fashion of the day--his long +lappeted coat, hanging waistcoat, and breeches, all laced and spangled, +and behung with knots of ribands--his three-cornered hat flung under the +arm which did not serve as support to the lady--and an embroidered +handkerchief, the perfumes of which scented the air even at a distance, +ostentatiously flourished in his hand; and if Otmar's heart beat +involuntarily at first sight of the female, it was twinged with an equally +involuntary pang of painful emotion as his eye wandered to her companion. +The group was completed by an aged man, in the plain costume of a Catholic +ecclesiastic of the day, to whom the lady turned her head to address some +remark, as he lingered somewhat behind the other personages. + +The first instinctive movement of Otmar's heart had not deceived him. As +the lady approached still nearer, the lingering doubt gave way to full +conviction. It was she--she of whom he had dreamt so fondly-she whom he +had sought all day so eagerly among the crowds that thronged the city +streets! And now that she stood before him, his knees trembled, whilst his +feet seemed to be rooted to the ground, and his tongue to cleave to the +roof of his mouth. Had she passed him unnoticed where he stood, he could +not have moved to claim a look, or framed a word to address her. But, as +she drew closer to him, she checked her steps with a slight exclamation of +surprise, almost of alarm, at the sight of the half-concealed stranger in +the dusk. Her companion moved forward hastily, and, dropping her arm, +advanced his hand to his sword; but, before he could say a word, she had +in turn come forward. + +"Forbear, my friend!" she said; and then, advancing to Otmar, she +continued, "I am not deceived. It is my noble rescuer. I have sought you, +sir, in vain, to tender you my thanks for your good services, if my poor +thanks, indeed, can be a recompense for service so beyond all price." + +"Madam, I did but the duty of a gentleman," stammered Otmar; "and for you, +who would not----?" + +"I owe you, indeed, more than thanks can pay," interrupted the young +female. "You left us so hastily, after accomplishing that deed of courage +at the risk of your own life, that I had no time to learn who was my bold +deliverer from peril. In the confusion and trouble of the moment, I +allowed you to depart; and, believe me, my heart has not ceased to +reproach me since for a seeming want of gratitude, that, the Saints of +Heaven know, was far from it." + +"Oh! I am repaid, fully repaid, fair lady, by these words," interrupted +the eager youth in his turn. + +"But I may still repair my error," resumed the lady. "Alas! I have little +to bestow," she continued, with a sigh, "save empty words of gratitude. +But the time may come. Let me know, at least, the name of him who has done +me such essential service." + +"It were unworthy of your ears, fair lady," stammered Otmar timidly + +"Again, I reclaim the favour of your name, sir," said the young female. +"You are noble; your mien proclaims it, did not the sabre by your side +attest it." And her eyes seemed to rest with satisfaction upon the figure +of the handsome youth. "You have more--you have the true nobility of +heart. You will not refuse your name to a lady who demands it." + +Otmar was about to speak, when the noise of several persons advancing into +the alley with rapid steps, caused the heads of all parties to turn in +that direction. A troop of five or six men, with drawn swords, and black +masks upon their faces, rushed violently upon them. + +"Seize her! It is she!" cried a tall man, who appeared the leader of the +party, as he darted forward. + +A violent scream issued from the mouth of the female--exclamations of +alarm, and shouts of rescue from those of her companions. Otmar +instinctively drew his sabre with cry of rage, and the next moment all was +skirmish and confusion. + +"Ruffian!" exclaimed the young Hungarian, attacking the taller mask, who +had now seized with rude grasp the hand of the female, and causing him, by +the violence of the onset, to let go his hold. + +"Ha! he once more! God's curse on him!" cried the leader, parrying the +attack as best he might, whilst he endeavoured to regain possession of the +lady. + +"Let her not escape! let her not escape!" he shouted again to his +followers, finding himself hardly pressed upon. "I will dispatch this +fellow, on whom I reckoned not." And he, in his turn, attacked Otmar with +fury. + +Even in the midst of the skirmish, the young man could not resist seeking +the lady with his eye; and he could dimly perceive, in the darkness and +confusion, that she had taken refuge with the ecclesiastic, whilst her +companion was making desperate efforts with his French small-sword, to +keep at bay the other assailants. But his unwary solicitude had wellnigh +cost him his life. A plunge of his adversary's sword passed through his +attila, and slightly grazed his side. The next moment his own sabre +descended on to the shoulder of the man with whom he was engaged, with +sufficient effect, although the blow was evaded, to disable him for the +moment, and cause him to stagger back. + +Profiting by this circumstance, Otmar rushed upon the other ravishers, and +came up at the very instant when, overpowered by numbers, the companion of +the lady had lost all power of any longer protecting her retreat, and +preventing their object of seizing on her. Attacking then with fury, and +dealing several severe wounds, he succeeded in turning their attention +chiefly to himself. + +Thus desperately engaged in a most unequal combat, he heard the step and +voice of his first antagonist from behind. A dagger already gleamed over +his head, when suddenly a heavy blow resounded, and his assailant +staggered and fell to the ground. In a few moments more he had contrived +to disperse the other ruffians, who, wounded and alarmed, now took to +flight. When he turned, he found his old Farkas standing over the +prostrate body of his first foe. + +"I could not leave my lord," cried the old domestic, brandishing a stout +stick: which he had snatched up. "And, _teremtette!_ I was right, whatever +you may say. But I have done for one of the rascals, _eb adta!_ and just +at the right nick too!" + +"Leave him an follow me, Farkas!" cried the young man. "They may still +again assail her." And he hurried up the avenue, followed by the old man +who grunted with unwillingness at leaving the prize of his strong arm. + +When they reached the open space beyond the alley, no one was visible in +the dark. The lady and her companions had disappeared. Lights, however, +were moving, in the archbishop's palace; and, at the same moment, a troop +of servants, torches in hand, was seen to issue from the lower part of the +building, attracted, probably, by the noise of the tumult. + +"Where can she be? Again lost to me! Lost, perhaps, for ever!" exclaimed +Otmar. + +"Shall we not secure the fellow I knocked down?" said Farkas +insinuatingly, with no small spice of pride at the thoughts of the +capture. "He may be yet alive." + +"You are right," replied his master. "He was the leader of this troop of +bravoes. He may be compelled to divulge the mystery of this deed; and I +knew that voice, methinks, although as yet my recollections are confused." + +With these words he hurried back into the avenue. But when master and man +had reached the spot where the body had lain, it was no longer visible. +Marks of blood and of trampling feet, two broken swords and a ragged hat, +were the only evidences that remained of the late combat. + +"Gone!" cried Otmar. + +"The other ruffians have returned and carried him off, _eb adta_!" +exclaimed Farkas, with intense vexation. + +"Let us follow on their traces!" said the young noble. "See here! This way +through the thicket! There are marks of broken boughs." And pushing his +way through the bushes, he entered the dark wood, followed by his +attendant. + +A moment afterwards the avenue was illuminated by the torches of the +domestics from the archbishop's palace. + + +CHAPTER III. + + "Spirit of men, + Thou heart of our great enterprise, how much + I love these voices in thee!" + BEN. JONSON. + + "Love is ambitious, and loves majesty." + DECKER. + +Upon an imposing hill, which rises from the Danube's banks, and frowns +over the city of Presburg, still stand the extensive ruins of a fine old +castle, which was destroyed by fire at the commencement of the present +century, but which, at this period of history, was generally occupied as a +residence by the rulers of Hungary, when they paid a royal visit to their +Hungarian capital; and in the large hall of state in this immense building +it was, that the Diet of the four orders of the kingdom, convoked by Maria +Theresa, had assembled on the eleventh of September--the morning following +that evening so eventful to Otmar and his young love. + +At the upper end of this large apartment, a throne had been arranged for +the young Queen. In the spaces between the old portraits of the heads of +the House of Hapsburg, which adorned the walls, were now displayed +Hungarian banners. On either side of the throne, awaiting the arrival of +Maria Theresa, were several of her German ministers and household; and, as +it was well known that those immediately about her person had protested +energetically against her appeal to her Hungarian subjects, these German +servants of the Queen were regarded with no looks of good-will or sympathy +by those who filled the hall. + +Upon the first step of the throne, and apart from those who surrounded it, +stood, on the right, the Count John Pallfy, the Palatin or Viceroy of the +kingdom, his handsome martial countenance, with that semi-oriental disdain +of all expression of emotion in the physiognomy, betraying none of those +anxious feelings which were natural as to the result of a crisis so +important; on the left, Count Louis Batthyani, the _Reichskanzler_ or +Chancellor. Immediately below the throne were ranged, on one side, the +bishops and prelates of the kingdom, to the number of sixty-seven, in +their rich ecclesiastical attire; on the other, the numerous magnates of +the realm, the princes, counts, and barons, to the amount of seven hundred +and eighty, glittering in all the marvellous pomp and splendour of the +Hungarian costume, and reaching in proud array far beyond the middle of +the hall--the lower part of which was thronged by a crowd of the lesser +nobles, and the deputies from the provinces, and from the royal free-towns +of Hungary. Brilliant and dazzling was the scene composed of this living +mass, with its thousand fantastic and bejewelled dresses; and wonderful to +look at the many fine energetic countenances of all ages of which it was +composed. + +Among the nobles, towards the middle of the hall, stood Otmar, his +handsome face still pale from the excitement of the previous evening, and +a night passed in sleeplessness. It was in vain that he had sought to find +the trace of the ruffians who had made so strange an attempt to seize upon +the person of the mysterious object of his affections: and only late in +the night had he returned to his lodging, and striven to calm the anxiety +of his mind in a useless attempt at repose upon his couch. His brain +whirled with the confusion of his thoughts. All the past was involved in +mystery and conjecture. Who was the beautiful female, to whom he had so +quickly given all the first emotions and energies of his young heart? +Should he ever again behold her who had thus twice crossed his path, to +disappear as suddenly from before his eyes? Had she escaped the hands of +her ravishers? What had become of her? And who, again--he demanded with a +pang of bitter jealousy--was that young man who had twice been her +companion, and whom she had styled her friend? Thus agonized with a +thousand doubts and apprehensions, he could scarcely command his senses to +gaze upon the scene around, or to reflect upon the important purpose which +had called him, with the other Hungarian nobles, to that hall. The +troubles of his life, his doubtful fate, his dreary position in the world, +were all forgotten in the absorbing thoughts connected with her he loved: +all minor anxieties--such as his dismissal that morning, as he left the +house, from his poor lodging by his old landlord, in a manner which, had +he been able to think on other matters, might have appeared to him as +heartless as inconsistent--found no room in his tormented mind. The noise +of the trumpets, announcing the entry of the Queen; the opening of the +door, to the right of the throne, through which she passed; the murmur, +and partial confusion, which attended her ascending the steps, and placing +herself in presence of that crowded assembly, scarcely roused him from his +reverie. + +But when he raised his eyes, he scarcely could credit their own evidence. +There she stood on high before him! The crown of St Stephen of Hungary was +on her lofty brow: the royal mantle covered her shoulders: the bejewelled +cimiter of the Hungarian kings was at her side. In her arms she held a +baby of about six months of age; in her left hand she clasped that of a +little girl. She was there in all her dazzling splendour of royal beauty. +And it was she!--she to whom his heart was given--she whom he had dared to +love! + +For a moment the whole scene whirled before the eyes of Otmar: he +staggered as one struck by lightning: his pale cheek grew paler still: he +felt as if he were falling to the earth. How he found a tongue to speak, +he himself could not have told. But, with faltering voice, he turned to an +old Hungarian magnate by his side, and stammered-- + +"Is it possible? Is that--she--our King--is that?" + +"Who should it be, _domine illustrissime_?" answered the person thus +addressed, with the Latin courtesy of the country. "Who should it be, +friend?" + +Again Otmar found force to falter forth-- + +"And he, who has given her his hand to mount the throne--he who now stands +behind her, glittering in all the rich fancifulness of that outlandish +dress--who is _he_?" + +"Humph!" replied the old Hungarian, in no very amiable tone of voice. +"That is her favourite German minister, the young Prince Kaunitz--a silly +fop! She might have better and less compromising servants about her +person, methinks. As you seem a stranger, _domine_," he pursued, unheeding +Otmar's agitation, "you may like to know that the old ecclesiastic, who +has taken the other place behind her, is our Archbishop Primate, the +Prince Emmeric Esterhazy, at whose summer palace she took up her +residence, _incognita_, on first arriving here." + +"Kaunitz! her favourite minister, and she called him 'my friend!'" +muttered the young man, trembling with emotion. + +"Yes! and they do say," continued his informant lightly, "that now her +husband, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, is absent with the remains of her +discomfited army, she and the young prince"--and he whispered in Otmar's +ear. + +A pang of the bitterest feeling passed through the young noble's heart. +But that pang, by its very revulsion, gave him fresh energy. + +"Calumny!" he exclaimed, angrily, to his companion, whom he doubted not to +be one of those disaffected to the cause of the persecuted Queen. +"Calumny!" But his voice was drowned in the loud murmur which arose on all +sides calling for silence. + +Maria Theresa had risen from the throne, upon which she had seated herself +on her first entrance to calm her feelings; and she gazed, with evident +emotion, and with faltering purpose, upon the vast crowd before her. No +doubt that she saw a stern discouraging frown upon many a brow: no doubt +that she knew how deeply the seeds of discontent and disaffection had been +sown among her subjects--how great a majority was unfavourable to her +cause: and she trembled and faltered for a moment. + +But the beauty, the dignity, and grace of the young Queen had already +worked their spell upon the susceptible natures of the Hungarians, who, +stern as they may be, are easily led away by enthusiastic impulses. A +flattering murmur of applause ran through the assembly. + +Encouraged by this movement of sympathy, which her quickly sensitive +woman's heart felt rather than perceived, Maria Theresa lifted her head +more boldly, and advancing one step forward, with her little daughter +clinging to her dress, held forward in her arms the baby boy, whose +destinies afterwards fixed him on the imperial throne of Germany as Joseph +the Second. + +All set speeches, all forms were forgotten by her in the trouble of the +moment. + +"Hungarians!" she said, with quivering voice, in Latin,--"deserted by my +friends, persecuted by my enemies, attacked and oppressed by my nearest +relations, my only refuge, in my utmost need, is in your fidelity, +courage, and support. To you alone, with God, can I any longer look for +safety. To your loyalty alone can I confide the welfare of the son and +daughter of your kings. At your feet I lay my children. I come to you for +succour. Will you grant it me?" + +Her voice trembled. She could not proceed. A pause ensued. + +"_Vitam et sanguinem!_" responded a voice. + +It was that of Otmar, who had listened, with beating heart, to the accents +of his adored Queen; whilst the blood had gradually risen into his pale +cheeks, and now flushed his animated countenance with colour. + +"_Vitam et sanguinem!_" was shouted by almost every voice in the assembly, +as it caught up the cry. + +"MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO!" again cried Otmar, drawing forth his sabre. + +"MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO!" was re-echoed by a thousand mouths, as a +thousand sabres were waved on high, and flashed upon the air. + +The enthusiastic feeling had been communicated as an electric shock +throughout the crowd. Spite of party feelings, party purpose, stern +resolves, it had proved irresistible. Before the Hungarian nobles was a +woman--a beautiful female in distress--and she their Queen! The burst of +loyal fervour was spontaneous, uncontrollable. + +The bosom of Maria Theresa heaved with emotion at the sound of this wild +cry. For a moment she struggled with her feelings, strove to be a queen: +but her woman's nature gave way; and, sinking back on her throne, she +burst into tears. + +The sight of this outbreak of emotion spoke again to each Hungarian heart; +and, with still wilder and louder shouts of frenzied enthusiasm, the cry +of "MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO!" rang again through the hall of the Castle +of Presburg, until the old walls trembled to their base. Tears sprang from +many of the sternest eyes, and rolled down many a withered cheek. But they +were tears of pity, admiration, and fury. + +All rancour, discontent, political difference, purpose of treachery, had +been forgotten. The cause of Maria Theresa had been won! + +Long it was before the tumult of the many voices ceased, or the flashing +sabres were restored to their scabbards. And when at length the murmur in +the hall was somewhat stilled, the aged archbishop advanced to the side of +Maria Theresa, who, with her eyes streaming with tears, stood up at once. +He attempted to speak in the name of the Hungarian nation in answer to her +appeal. But the old man's voice failed him; and only in broken accents, +which scarcely could be heard beyond the throne, could he utter a few +words of fervent devotion, and pray God to bless her. + +In his turn also, the Palatin, Count Pallfy, stepped forward and spoke of +supplies and men. But his voice, also, was drowned in the enthusiastic +shouts which promised to the persecuted Queen the succour of the very +life's blood of her faithful Hungarians, and the aid of their fortunes to +the last florin. It could scarcely at last be heard, as the official +declaration was made of the opening of the Diet and of the sittings to be +held, at which the necessary measures to be taken to be debated. + +Then again rose the shouts, as Maria Theresa attempted to thank her +faithful subjects. She could no longer speak; but she waved her hand to +them, with a graceful gesture, and a look of gratitude which betrayed the +depth of her feelings. Otmar's heart again beat tumultuously. He closed +his eyes, as if to shut out from his very heart the dangerous sight of her +who held over it so powerful a fascination. When he again looked up, she +had descended from the throne. She was gone. + +Overpowered by the various conflicting feelings which had so powerfully +assailed him in the last short hour, the young noble followed +instinctively the crowd as it streamed out of the great hall; and it was +only when he found himself in a large ante-room, somewhat severed from the +general mass, that he stopped and threw himself down upon a bench near a +doorway, to collect his confused and scattered thoughts. He remained for a +time lost in a reverie, from which he was aroused by a tap upon his +shoulder. + +Before him stood a boy, in a military dress, whose mien bore all the +boldness and pertness of a page. + +"_Servus, domine!_" said the youth, with an impudent air. + +"What want you with me?" asked Otmar sharply. "I do not know you, sir. +This is some mistake." + +"It is none at all, if I read right your person," answered the boy pertly, +mustering Otmar from top to toe. "Are you not he who was last night in the +primate's garden? The description answers that of him I was bid to seek." + +"I was in the primate's garden last night, of a truth," said the young +noble: "but"---- + +"Then follow me," continued the boy, with a nod of the head. + +"Whither?" + +"Where a lady calls you," laughed the page, with an impudent swagger. "A +young fellow of our age and blood needs no other bidding, methinks." + +"What lady?" once more asked Otmar. But the boy only winked him to follow, +as a reply; and turning into a side-door, beckoned to him once more; and +then, seeing that the summons was obeyed, proceeded on, through several +passages and corridors, until, reaching a door, he pushed it open. Within +stood a female; and Otmar's heart, which had beat high with vague +expectations of what he himself scarce dared to divine, was suddenly +chilled, when he saw before him an elderly lady, altogether unknown to +him. But as she came forward to ask the boy whether it was the person he +was charged to seek, he became aware that it was not she into whose +presence he was to be introduced. The lady, in turn, signed to him to +follow; and after tapping gently upon an inner-door, and waiting for a +reply, opened it, and bade him enter. + +The apartment into which the young noble had been thus ushered, seemed to +have been hastily fitted up with such resources of a lady's chamber as the +cumbrous and incommodious fashion of the day offered. At the upper end, in +a large high-backed chair, sat a female figure, behind whom a tirewoman +appeared in waiting. + +Those hopes and expectations which, once or twice, Otmar had permitted to +float over his mind, as he had followed the page through the passages of +the castle, and had then dismissed from it as fantastic and improbable, +and yet again, in spite of his better reasonings, indulged, were now +confirmed, and still, to his dazzled sight, appeared impossible. + +It was indeed Maria Theresa who sat before him. + +The mantle had been disengaged from the shoulders, the cimeter ungirded +from her side, and the crown removed from her head: but she still wore the +rich dark dress, incrusted with gems, that proclaimed her royalty, but +which she needed not to stamp her "every inch" a queen. Her hair had been, +apparently, loosened by the removal of the diadem from her brow; and +powdered as it was, it fell in luxuriant ringlets over her neck and +shoulders. The glow of her recent emotion still remained upon her face, +and added to the natural grace of her beauty: and her lustrous dark-grey +eyes were still moist with her late tears. + +No wonder that Otmar stood before her, doubly dazzled with her beauty as a +woman, and her majesty as a queen--bewildered that she, whom he had +presumed to love, and for whom, in spite of himself, his heart yet beat +wildly, should be his sovereign, and that he should stand thus in her +presence. + +"Ah! is it you, sir--you, doubly my rescuer from evil!" said Maria +Theresa, rising from her chair, and advancing a few steps towards him. +"Welcome, to accept your Monarch's inmost thanks!" And she stretched out +her hand, which, although totally unpractised in the etiquette of courts, +Otmar, by an instinctive impulse, knelt down to kiss. + +"Rise, sir!" she continued. "Were my gratitude alone to speak, it were for +me, your Queen, to kneel and kiss the hand that a second time has, through +God's providence, been the instrument of my deliverance from peril." + +Otmar rose from his knees, a deep blush overspreading his handsome +countenance. The young Queen seemed to gaze upon him for a moment with +satisfaction; and then, waving her hand to her female attendant to retire, +she again addressed him. + +"What can I do to serve you, sir?" she said--"you, who have thus twice +served me at the peril of your life. I am but a poor and a powerless +Queen," she continued, with a faint smile: "but a grateful heart may still +find means to recompense"---- + +"To live and die in your majesty's defence, is all your poor servant, who +has but done his duty to his Queen, although unknowingly, has to desire," +was the young noble's reply. + +"Nay, sir, we have too many obligations towards you," said the Queen, "to +allow ourselves to be quit thus. Can I do naught to serve you in return?" +she pursued, with a less dignified and more familiar tone. "You must not +allow so great a weight of thanks to lie upon my heart. Take pity on me!" + +Otmar could with difficulty find words to speak. The tumult of his +feelings almost overpowered him, as he began to forget the queen in the +beautiful and loved woman before him. But he struggled with the impetuous +dictates of his heart. + +"Madam!" he said, commanding himself, "I am a poor noble, left alone in +this wide world, almost without a friend, since my poor father's death, +which left me with involved fortunes, and without a prospect for the +future; and I was careless of life, until--until I had seen--your +majesty," he continued with emotion, whilst the blush upon the cheek of +the young Queen showed her perception that the homage paid was as much to +the woman as the monarch. "And now my only wish, as I have said, is to die +in your service and defence." + +"Die! God forbid!" said Maria Theresa, with a woman's ready tear starting +to her eye. "Live, sir! and, if you will, to fight in our cause. Enter the +army. Rank shall be granted you. Your advancement shall be cared for. Live +to be again the friend and champion of the poor persecuted Queen, who +needs friends indeed, when all are set against her." + +"Say not so, madam," interrupted Otmar, with fervour. "Have we not, one +and all, sworn to give our life and life's blood in your cause?" + +"Yes," said the Queen, her tears now fully flowing, at the recollection of +the late scene of wild enthusiasm. "I have found friends among my +faithful, and my true--my gallant, noble Hungarians. Think you I did not +mark you, sir--you, who were the first to shout, 'For Maria Theresa we +will die!' Think you that my heart did not feel that you were, perhaps, a +third time, my friend in need? But I have enemies still. Calumny, I am +aware, miscolours my simplest actions. My very feelings may be +misinterpreted, my very tears, at this moment, in your presence, +misconstrued. Who can know what is the worth of friends better than those +who suffer from such odious attacks of enemies as I have suffered?" And +Maria Theresa clasped her hands before her eyes. + +Otmar once more sank down at her feet deeply affected. + +"But I must away with this weakness!" said the Queen, struggling to +recover from her agitation, and dashing away her tears with her fingers. + +As she saw Otmar kneeling before her, his fine features fixed upon her +with the liveliest expression of pity and admiration, his handsome figure +bent to do homage to her loveliness and worth, her woman's feelings had +the mastery of her feelings as a queen, and, smiling upon him with a +smile, which shone all the more brightly through her tears--that smile, +with the power and fascination of which none knew better how to fetter +hearts than Maria Theresa--she hastily detached from her shoulders a +string of diamonds, and passed them over the young man's neck. + +"This is no recompense, to reward your services with matters of sordid +value, sir," she said. "This is no gift to enable you to retrieve, however +slightly, your fallen fortunes. This is the chain of honour which I bestow +upon my champion and knight; for such you shall be in the eyes of the +world. Here, in Maria Theresa's chamber, you are to her the deliverer and +friend." + +"Madam! my life, my heart, and soul are yours!" stammered the young man, +no longer able to control his feelings, under circumstances which made him +forget for a moment that distance which the sovereign herself seemed to +have overleapt. + +Again Maria Theresa blushed slightly. In spite of her strong +understanding, her virtue, and her worth, she was not above those feelings +of coquetry which, joined to her admiration of beauty, often, especially +at an after period of her life, gave handle to the many unjust calumnies +of her traducers. + +"Rise once more, my noble knight!" said the young Queen, with another +smile; "for we have dubbed you such. We will attach you to our especial +service, since such is your desire, and find a place for you in our suite; +although it be but badly paid in our state of disastrous fortune. But I +know you heed not that. I see it in that look, that would reproach me for +such a thought. You shall remain with us until you join our army," she +added with a sigh, "to fight in our cause." + +"This honour, madam"--stammered Otmar, rising. + +"Is not without its perils and its pains, good youth," continued Maria +Theresa. "You will have to combat envy, jealousy, ill-will within; for +such is the life of courts. Alas! I know it but too well. Without, you may +have often wearisome and dangerous services." + +"None can be felt as such when it is you--your Majesty I serve," said the +young man with enthusiasm. + +"I will--I do believe you, sir," replied the Queen. "I have said it once, +and I repeat it. Yours is the true nobility of heart. Ah! were they all +so--they who serve me and call themselves my friends! But enough of this! +Let your first service be to direct the search of our agents to the +discovery of the disguised enemies who made that bold attempt last night +to secure my person during my evening stroll--my poor moments of liberty! +Ah! France, I recognise there your treacherous designs! You did not know +who were your adversaries?" + +"Madam," answered the young man, "I should recognise again the voice of +him who was my principal assailant; and who, if I mistake not, has already +crossed his sword with mine. But I know him not." + +"I would not punish when I can forgive," said Maria Theresa, with a sigh. +"But the discovery of these complotters on my liberty, perhaps my life, is +necessary for the safety of my realm." + +"If my zeal avail aught," said Otmar warmly, "their life shall pay their +treachery." + +"No bloodshed, no bloodshed, as you love me, good youth!" said the Queen, +shuddering. "Blood enough is shed upon the battle-field for me and mine. +And who knows how far such blood should lie upon the conscience of a +miserable queen?--how far the Almighty will write it to her dread account +at the last great day of reckoning?" And, with that nobility of feeling +peculiar to Maria Theresa, she sank her head downwards in gloomy thought. +For a time she thus remained, as if forgetful of the presence of the young +noble; at length she again raised her head, cleared away the gloom upon +her features with a faint smile, and once more extending her hand, +said--"Now leave us, sir, but to return shortly hither. Already they may +cry scandal that I should have talked to one of such good mien so long. +But go not," she continued, as Otmar moved towards the door, "until I have +told you how my heart was pained, that the search of those who sought to +discover you, after the skirmish of last evening, was useless--how +anxiously I prayed, in the darkness of the night, that no ill might have +befallen my young, champion--how my very soul was gratified to see him in +the crowd before me, to know that he was safe! You must not think your +Queen heartless and ungrateful, sir. Now, go!" + +With a wave of the hand, Maria Theresa dismissed from her presence the +young noble, who staggered from the chamber in a tempest of tumultuous +emotions. + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Stand back, thou manifest conspirator: + Thou that contrivedst to murder!" + SHAKSPEARE. + + "Farewell, my lord! Good wishes, praise, and prayers, + Shall Suffolk ever have of Margaret. + Farewell, sweet madam!" + _Idem._ + +In a small room on the first floor of the old house occupied by the Jew +druggist, sat Otmar once more, on the evening of the important day which +had decided the fortunes of Maria Theresa. He had returned to the +temporary home from which he had been so inhospitably driven, in order to +direct the removal of his scanty baggage, and the few relics that reminded +him of happier times, and the brighter days of his childhood, and which, +during the day, his old attendant had collected together. + +The room was wainscoted with blackened oak, the sombre shades of which +were unrelieved by any ornament; and at a table, near the heavy +casement-window, a part of which was open, rather to admit the fading +light of day into the dark apartment than the autumn air of the chill +evening, sat the young noble, tracing slowly the lines of a letter, which +he seemed to compose with difficulty, and not without many a hesitation +and many a heavy sigh. + +Upon a packed portmanteau, in the middle of the room, sat Farkas, puffing +from a short pipe small clouds of smoke, which issued in regular but +uneasy jerks from beneath his thick overhanging moustache. From time to +time he nodded his head impatiently, with a sideward movement, and +murmured between his teeth, without interrupting his employment, words +that accompanied his intermittent puffs, like the distant rumbling which +follows the smoke of the cannon on the far-off battle-field. + +"_Teremtette!_" he muttered angrily. "I shall not be easy until I am quit +of this den of the old hyena, who has turned my lord out of doors like a +gipsy beggar-boy--and why? The foul fiend only knows. I should like to +wring the old ruffian's neck for him, like a carrion-crow, _eb adta_!" + +At length the young noble threw down his pen. + +"It is done!" he exclaimed with a sigh. "I have written to the old +advocate at Buda to send me the papers I require. I must not think on my +own fortunes. My father's honour must be saved; and my own beggary shall +be signed before I leave this country." + +"Too honest by half to such rascals as those villanous cheating +money-lenders, whoever they may be, _eb adta_!" muttered Farkas again +unheard, with a vexed shrug of the shoulders. + +"Is all prepared?" said Otmar, turning to his attendant. + +"There is nothing but what I can take upon my own shoulders," answered the +old man with a sigh; "and they are broad enough to bear twice the +weight." And rising from his temporary seat, he jerked it on to his back. +Then seizing up another small valise in his hand, he stood ready for +departure. + +"Enter the first inn, and there await my orders, whether they have room to +lodge us or no; as is not probable in the confusion of the town," said +Otmar. "I trust that I may yet find us other and better quarters for +another night; and we can seek a home for once under nature's roof, +without much detriment to our bones." + +"What his lord can bear, can old Farkas also," was the attendant's sturdy +answer, and he left the room. + +"Farewell then," said Otmar, gazing around him. "Farewell, my poor +chamber, the depositary of so many hopes and aspirations, regrets, sad +thoughts, and air-built castles. Visions, bright visions of beauty and of +love, have illumined thy dark walls; and they, too, have flown--flown +before a stern reality, which proclaimed them folly, madness--ay, madness! +They are gone for ever! But shall they not be followed by dreams of glory, +of renown, of smiles from her beaming eyes to thank her champion--her +friend? Yes--me, too, she has called her friend. Farewell, then, my poor +chamber! Thou hast witnessed little but my wretchedness, and yet I regret +thee; for her spirit--hers--the beautiful, the bright, the unknown--still +hovers around thee. Fare-thee-well!" + +Otmar prepared to depart; but he was still lingering to send around him a +last look upon those bare walls which he had thus apostrophized, when +hasty steps were heard to mount the stair, and Farkas abruptly re-entered +the room. + +"Quick, quick!" cried the old man. "I saw him coming up the street--him, +you know--that outlandish rascal, whom you fought by the inn on the +roadside, because he would have spoken ill of our Queen--God preserve +her!--the same who, if your doubts prove true, was the villain who tore +that cursed slip in your attila last night--the foul fiend confound him, +_eb adta_! I thought I had a stronger arm--old fool that I was! Quick, +quick!" And seizing Otmar's arm, he dragged him to the open window. + +"It is he!" exclaimed the young noble, looking out; "the same tall form +and insolent gait. Ah! he is entering the house. Hark! he is mounting the +stair. God be praised, he falls into my very hands!" + +In truth, footsteps were evidently ascending the staircase. Otmar and his +old attendant paused to listen with palpitating interest. The next moment +the door of the Jew's apartment, on the other side of the passage, was +heard to open, and a voice to exclaim, "Hello! old fox, where have you hid +yourself? Out of your hole, I say! I have to speak with you." Then the +door closed, and all was still. + +"It is the same voice!" exclaimed Otmar again. "It is he who made that +foul attempt upon her liberty. Villain!" And half-drawing his sabre, he +rushed towards the door of the room. + +"Down with him! down with the rascal, _teremtette_!" cried Farkas, +following his master in excitement. + +"No, no!" said Otmar, checking his own first impulse, and catching the old +man's arm. "He is a traitor and a spy! It is not for me to punish; it is +for the country's laws. She bids me seek to discover him. Providence has +thrown him into my hands, and enabled me to obey her behest. She would +condemn me were I to take vengeance into my own hands." + +"What!" cried Farkas, violently. "My lord has his enemy face to face, and +hesitates to defy him to the death!" + +"Peace, old man!" exclaimed Otmar; "you know not what you say. Ah! I see +it all now," he continued. "He is the agent of her enemies, and is in +collusion with our doctor landlord. It is here their villainous schemes +are hatched." + +"True! It was he--it must have been he," said Farkas in his turn, "who sat +with the rascally old thief, when I entered his room the night before the +last." + +"Hear me, Farkas," continued the young noble. "I must away to the castle. +Maria Theresa may still be there. All shall be revealed. Watch you, at +some distance, in the street, that he leave not the house or escape us." + +"Better split the cowardly villain's skull at once, _teremtette_!" cried +the old man once more, indignantly. + +"Peace, I say!" said Otmar. "Follow me, and stealthily." And with these +words he left the room, followed down the stairs by his grumbling +attendant, who still muttered many an angry "_teremtette!_" between his +lips, unable to comprehend the hesitation of his young master, when so +good an opportunity was before him of taking revenge upon "such a +villainous scoundrel" as the spy. + +Scarcely had they quitted the apartment, when an angle of the wainscoting, +forming the door of a partially concealed closet, opened; and the form of +the Jew money-lender--pale, trembling, and with haggard eyes--staggered +into the room. + +"Jehovah! We are lost--irretreviably lost!" he exclaimed with a choked +husky voice. "Cavaliere! Cavaliere!" and he hastened, as fast as his +trembling limbs would carry him, to the door. But, in spite of his agony +and his alarm, his usual habits of caution, and perhaps of +self-appropriation also, did not forsake him, and with the words, "That +paper the young fellow wrote may tell us more!" he turned back, shuffled +to the table, snatched up the letter, which Otmar had forgotten in his +hurry, and then gained his room, where, seated, with gloomy and +discontented brow, the Italian spy waited him. + +"_Diavolo!_ Where have you been hiding, Bandini? I need your aid," +exclaimed the cavaliere, as he entered. "All is ruined, if still stronger +measures be not taken. My grand expedition of last night, which might have +secured all at a blow, has utterly failed, through the interference of a +rash young fool, who has twice crossed my path to baffle me. I myself am +wounded,"--and he pointed to a bandage, partly concealed by a scarf thrown +over his shoulder--"still confused, from a blow dealt upon my head by some +meddling ruffian. The curses of hell blight their arms, one and all! Those +traitors, too, the Hungarians, have broken every promise, to shout +_Vivat!_ to that woman; because she shed before them a few maudlin tears. +Weak fools! weak fools! and that they call enthusiasm! They promise her +supplies of men and money. My schemes are ruined--my services all +naught--your hopes of reward utterly gone, Master Bandini--utterly gone, +do you hear?--if some great _coup-de-main_ be not yet tried. There! look +not so pale and frightened, man, with that ugly wo-begone face of yours. +There are yet means that may be used." + +"But we are lost--lost!" stammered the Jew, shaking in every limb, and +struggling in vain to speak. + +"Lost! Not yet!" replied the Italian scornfully "whilst I have yet a head +to scheme, and a bold heart to execute." + +"We are lost, I tell you. All is discovered. We are betrayed!" cried the +Jew. "That young fellow--in yonder room--alas! he knows all. We must +fly--conceal ourselves." + +"How now, man?" exclaimed the cavaliere, in his turn springing up in +alarm. + +"I had driven him from the house, at your desire," stammered Bandini, +panting for breath; "but he returned to seek his baggage. They had both +been absent, master and man; and I had thought to look after my own poor +goods and chattels in the room"-- + +"Or to that which you could lay your hands upon, old thief--I know you. +But proceed! What means this tale?" said the spy. + +"Jehovah knows you speak not true!" continued the Jew. "But they came back +suddenly and unawares. I feared they might think evil of me, if they found +me there; and I concealed myself in the closet. I heard all!" + +"All!--all what? Speak, man!" exclaimed the Italian furiously. + +"He is the same--the same of whom you spoke just now," pursued the old +man, trembling. "He who wounded you last night. He recognised you as you +entered. He knows all. He is gone up to the castle to betray us. Oh! I am +a lost man--a lost man!" and the Jew wrung his hands bitterly. + +"Betrayed!" cried the spy--"gone, to the castle! Ten thousand devils drag +him down to hell! Which way did he go? What did you hear? Speak, +man!--speak, I tell you." And he shook the old man violently by the +collar. + +"He will probably mount to it by the shorter ascent, along the Jews' +street," gasped forth Bandini with difficulty. + +"And is there no quicker way?" exclaimed the Italian hurriedly. + +"By the lane opposite," stammered the Jew breathlessly. "Turn to the +left--mount the crooked street--you will find yourself opposite to the +garden, behind my old friend Zachariah's house. On passing through it, you +are at the upper end of the Jews' street, and near the castle plain." + +"There is no time to be lost!" cried the spy, flinging his hat upon his +head. "My pistols are primed and loaded," he continued, feeling in an +inner pocket of his coat. "I shall be there before him. He must die. The +same passage will favour my escape. Ah! it is you rascal of a Jew, +villainous miser, who are the cause of all! Dearly shall you repay me +this!" And seizing the old money-lender by the throat, he nearly throttled +him, and, when he was almost black in the face, flung him with violence +into a corner of the room. + +As the Italian disappeared, the old man raised himself, with difficulty, +from the ground. + +"And such is the poor Jew's reward," he muttered, "from these Christian +dogs, for all his losses, and his sacrifices, and his perils! What is to +be done? If he kill the youth, I have still to fear his wrath. If he come +not in time, we are undone. Every way is danger. Shall I myself turn +informer? It is late--very late in the day--but yet it may be tried. Can I +glean nothing from this paper that may sound like fresh and genuine +information? What have we here?" he continued, rapidly scanning parts of +Otmar's letter with his eye, and murmuring its contents to himself. "'I +leave the country'--'But my father's honour must be covered'--'Send the +papers ceding the estates'--'I am resolved to sign, although it be my +utter ruin'--The name?--'Otmar, Baron Bartori.'--Merciful Jehovah!" burst +forth the Jew. "It is he! It is my young man--and I knew it not--he, whose +sign-manual is to convey to me the estates, in return for my poor moneys +lent: and, if he sign not, the heritage goes to the next male heir; and I +am frustrated of my dues. But he will be killed--die without signing. I am +a ruined man--a ruined man!" And the money-lender clasped his hands in +despair. "No, no--he must not die. Caracalli! Caracalli! touch him not! +touch him not! He must not die, ere I have his precious sign-manual. Save +him! save him! Jehovah! what shall I do? Caracalli! Caracalli!" And thus +madly shouting after the Italian, the Jew rushed from his room in a frenzy +of despair. + +In addition to the great and winding carriage-road which leads up to the +summit of the hill on which stands the castle of Presburg, there is a +shorter passage to it, by a narrow tortuous street, lined with old falling +houses, and paved at intervals with terrace-like stone steps to aid the +steep ascent. To this street, in former times, the Israelites residing in +the city were restricted as a dwelling-place, incurring heavy fine and +imprisonment by daring, either openly or under a feigned name, to infringe +this severe rule: and even at the present day, although this restriction +has been removed, it is almost entirely occupied, either from habit or +from choice, by petty and most doubtful traders of the same persuasion, +and is still known under the name of the Jews' Quarter. The upper end of +this steep and winding lane is terminated, between high walls, by a large +old gateway, opening into the castle plain. And under this gateway it was, +that the Italian spy awaited his victim. He had contrived to evade the +vigilance of Farkas, by darting up a lane immediately fronting the St +Michael's gate, and now, having ascertained, by a few hasty words +interchanged with the Jew Zachariah, that no one answering the description +of the young noble had been seen to pass, he felt assured, that, by his +haste in pursuing the shorter cut from behind, he had gained an advance +upon him. + +The night was fast closing in, and the Italian felt himself secure from +observation in the dark recess in which he lurked behind the gate. Aware +that by a deed of assassinating alone he could save himself from the +consequences of a revelation which not only ruined all his schemes, but +placed his life at stake, he grasped a pistol in his hand, and waited +firmly, with calmness which showed his long acquaintance with deeds of +hazard and of crime. + +He had stood some time, counting with impatience the moments, until he +began to fear that the young noble had taken the longer road, when at last +the sound of footsteps struck upon his ear. Looking out from the corner of +the gateway in which he had concealed himself, he could plainly see, at +some little distance, the form of a man, resembling that of his expected +victim, mounting the stone steps of the lane between the row of walls; and +he drew back, cocked his pistol, and prepared to fire at him as he passed. +Presently hastier footsteps--those of a running man--sounded nearer. Had +he been perceived? Was his purpose divined? Was his victim about to rush +upon him? These thoughts had scarcely time to pass rapidly through his +brain, when a dark form hurried round the angle of the gateway. The +Italian's hand was on the lock. He fired. + +A terrific cry, and then a groan, followed the explosion. A body fell. The +Italian bent forward. At his feet lay the form of his associate, the +miserable Jew. + +"Kill him not--the sign-manual"--were the only last words that faintly met +the ear of the assassin, before the blood rushed up in torrents into the +mouth of the unhappy man, and choked his voice for ever. + +Before the spy had a moment's time to recover from his surprise at the +unexpected deed he had done, another cry of "Murder! murder!" was shouted +close beside him, by a man who had run up. A strong hand grasped his arm. +It was that of his intended victim. + +"Assassin!" cried Otmar. "Ah! it is again he! God's will be done!" + +"_Mille diavoli!_ Have at thee yet!" exclaimed the Italian, struggling to +disengage himself with a strong effort, and staggering back. + +Succeeding in the attempt, he drew his sword. The weapons of the two men +were immediately crossed. Both fought with desperation. Already a wound on +Otmar's arm had rather excited his energies than disabled him, when a +crowd was seen approaching rapidly from the direction of the castle. Some +persons detached themselves from it, and ran forward, attracted by the +previous cry of "murder," and the clash of arms. The cavaliere felt that +he was lost, if he made not a fearful effort to disengage himself at once +from his antagonist, and made a violent lunge at Otmar. The active young +noble swerved aside. The sword passed him unscathed, and the next moment +his sabre descended on to the Italian's head. With a fearful curse, the +spy staggered, reeled backward, and fell to the ground. + +When the persons from the castle hurried up, they found the young noble +standing by his prostrate foe, and leaning upon his sabre--his cheek +already pale from the loss of the blood which streamed from his wound. +Before, in the confusion, much explanation could be asked or given, others +of the approaching party had come up: at an order issued, a sedan chair, +borne by eight men, was set down under the gateway; a female form issued +from it, and, in spite of the opposition of those about her, Maria Theresa +advanced through the crowd. + +"What has happened? Who disturbs the peace?" she exclaimed, coming forward +with that courage she evinced on all emergencies. + +"Retire, I beseech you, to your chair, madam, and allow yourself to be +carried on," said the young Prince Kaunitz, who formed one of the suite. +"This is no sight for a woman, and a queen." And he interposed his person +between his sovereign and the bodies of the Italian and the Jew. + +"Permit me, prince," said Maria Theresa, waving him aside; for she had now +caught sight of the pale face of Otmar, brightly illumined by the lighted +torches which some of her attendants bore to light her on her way, upon +her evening transit from the castle to the primate's summer palace. + +"You, my young champion, here!" she cried, with tones of evident anxiety, +stepping forward. "What has happened? In God's name, what is this? You are +not hurt, sir?" + +"Only a scratch, so please your majesty," replied Otmar; "and happy and +proud I am that I should have gained it in your service." + +"Tell me what has passed? How do I find you here? Who is this man?" +continued the young Queen, glancing slightly at the form of the prostrate +Italian. + +"It is the same villain who has already dared to lay his hand upon the +sacred person of your majesty," said the young noble proudly. "Chance led +me to his discovery. I was hurrying to seek my Queen, to obey her orders. +The wretch--I know not how--was beforehand with me. He would have waylaid +me, as I must suppose. Another, who passed me at the moment, was his +victim. I attacked him; and there he lies. I know no more." + +"And who is that poor man?" said Maria Theresa, pointing to the body of +the Jew. + +Some of her attendants raised up the corpse. + +"I recognise him," said Otmar. "He was the accomplice of that fellow. +God's justice has fallen on him by the hand of his own confederate. But +how, is still to me a mystery." + +"The other still lives," exclaimed the voices of some, who had now lifted +up the form of the Italian. + +"Let him be conveyed to the castle," commanded the Queen. "Every inquiry +shall be instituted in this affair. Let justice take its course upon the +spy and traitor." + +The Italian was conveyed away. + +"But you are hurt, noble youth. Your cheek grows paler still," cried Maria +Theresa. "Help there! Bring water! quick! He may be dying." + +"It is nothing!" said Otmar, with sinking voice and failing senses. "A +little faintness! I shall be better soon. A smile from you will repay +all!" + +His head whirled, and he fell back into the arms of the bystanders. + +In spite of the alarm of the young Queen, a deep blush overspread her +countenance at these last words. + +"Ah! should it be so!" she murmured to herself; and, after casting a long +look upon the form of the handsome youth before her, she bent her head to +the earth. + +Water was quickly brought from a neighbouring house. In spite of the +increasing crowd attracted to the spot, Maria Theresa disdained not to +bathe with her own hands the temples of the fainting man. Snatching a +perfumed handkerchief from the hand of Kaunitz, she bound it tightly on +the young noble's arm. In a short time, he once more opened his eyes. +Water was given him to drink; and he again was able to stand, weakly, on +his feet. + +"You--my Queen. You have deigned--to look upon your poor subject-to tend +him"--he stammered faintly, as his eyes fell upon the lovely face before +him. "You--the noble--the beautiful--the beloved"-- + +"Hush! hush, sir," interposed the young Queen hurriedly. "You must not +speak now. Your brain wanders. You shall be conveyed to the castle, and +tended there. As soon as you are fully recovered, a post is ready for you +with the army. You must leave us forthwith. Be brave, be gallant, be +noble, as you have ever shown yourself; and, perhaps, hereafter"-- + +She checked herself; with a sigh, and turned away her face. + +"Yes--away from here! I must away," said Otmar. "The army, the +battle-field, glory, renown, must be my only thoughts." And, sinking his +head on his heart, he murmured lowly-- + +"_Moriamur pro Rege Nostro._" + + +CONCLUSION. + +It is well known in history, that the rising of the Hungarian saved the +falling fortunes of Maria Theresa. The enthusiasm of this sensitive and +energetic people, once awakened, knew no bounds. All the country nobles, +with their followers, took up arms. Croatia alone supplied twelve +thousand men. Immense sums of money, to support the army, were offered by +the clergy; and, out of the most distant provinces, sprang up, as the +soldiers sown by the teeth of Cadmus from the earth, those countless +savage hordes, who under the name of Pandours carried terror into every +part of Europe. From the moment of the "insurrection," as it is called, of +the Hungarian nobility, the aspect of affairs began to change. The Elector +of Bavaria, who, to the grief of Maria Theresa, had received the imperial +crown of Germany, so long in the possession of the House of Hapsburg, +chiefly by the influence of French intrigues, under the name of Charles +the Seventh, was driven from his States. England and Holland were won over +to the cause of the persecuted Queen; and both, especially the former, +lent her large sums. The whole British nation was interested in her +favour. The English nobility, instigated by the Duchess of Marlborough, +offered her a subscription collected to the amount of a hundred thousand +pounds; but this sum Maria Theresa nobly refused, accepting nothing that +was not granted to her by the nation in Parliament assembled. By the +valour of Hungarian arms, the French were at length driven out of Bohemia; +and what still more contributed to the peace shortly after obtained from a +great portion of the Queen's enemies, was the result of the bloody field +of Hanau, which turned out entirely to the advantage of Maria Theresa and +her noble allies, and at which half of the _noblesse_ of France was either +killed or wounded. + +It was shortly after this great battle, in which so many bold spirits fell +on either side, that a catafalk was erected at the upper end of the middle +aisle belonging to the glorious Gothic Church of St Stephen's in Vienna. +The service for the dead had been performed with pomp. The priests had +retired from the aisle. But still, upon the steps, covered with black +cloth, and illumined from above by many wax-lights, knelt two personages. +The one was a female, dressed in deep mourning, who appeared to be praying +fervently. A group of attendants, both male and female, in the attire of +the court mourning of the day, stood at a little distance from her. The +other was an old man, in a well-worn hussar dress, who had thrown himself +forward on to the upper step, upon another side of the catafalk, and had +buried his face in his hands. At length the female rose, gave a last look +at that dark mass, which concealed a coffin, and, within, a corpse; and +then, drawing her veil over her face, moved slowly towards a side-door, +followed by her attendants, with a respect paid only to a royal personage. +A crowd of beggars surrounded the door, where an Imperial carriage waited; +and distributing the contents of a heavy purse among them, the lady said, +with broken voice, + +"Pray for the soul of Otmar, Baron Bartori, who died in battle for his +Queen." + + + + +MESMERIC MOUNTEBANKS. + + +In an age of utilitarian philosophy and materialism, we are proud to stand +forth as the champion of he Invisible World. MAGA and MAGIC are words +which we cannot dissociate from one another, either in sound or in +affection. The first was the mistress of our youth--our literary +mother--our guide and instructress in the paths of Toryism, +good-fellowship, and honour. Fain would we hope that, in maturer years, we +have rendered back to the eldest-born of Buchanan some portion of the deep +debt of gratitude which from our childhood upwards we have incurred. We +have ever striven to comport ourselves in sublunary matters as beseemeth +one who has sat at the feet of Christopher, imbibed the ethical lore of a +Tickler, and received the sublimest of peptic precepts and dietetic +instruction from the matchless lips of an Odoherty. Her creed is ours, and +no other--the bold, the true, and the unwavering--and when we die, bewept, +as we trust we shall be by many a youth and maiden of the next generation, +we shall ask no better epitaph for our monument than that selected by poor +John Keats, though with the alteration of a single word--"HERE LIETH ONE +WHOSE NAME IS WRIT IN MAGA." + +Magic, however--not Maga--is the theme of our present article; nor do we +scruple at the very outset to proclaim ourselves a devout and fervent +believer in almost every known kind of diablerie, necromancy, and +witchcraft. We are aware that in the present day such confessions are very +rare, and that when made by some reluctant follower of the occult faith, +they are always accompanied with pusillanimous qualifications, and weak +excuses for adherence to opinions which, in one shape or another, pervade +the population of Christendom, and pass for current truth throughout the +extensive realm of Heathenesse. So much the better. We like a fair field +and no auxiliaries; and we are here to do battle for the memory and fair +fame of Michael Scott, Doctor Faustus, and the renowned Cornelius Agrippa. + +Sooth to say, we were born and bred long before Peter Parley had +superseded the Fairy Tales, and poisoned the budding faculties of the +infancy of these realms with his confounded philosophical nonsense, and +his endless editions of _Copernicus made Easy_. Our nurserymaid, a hizzie +from the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, was a confirmed and noted believer in +dreams, omens, tatie-bogles, and sundry other kinds of apparitions. Her +mother was, we believe, the most noted spaewife of the district; and it +was popularly understood that she had escaped at least three times, in +semblance of an enormous hare, from the pursuit of the Laird of Lockhart's +grews. Such at least was the explanation which Lizzy Lindsay gave, before +being admitted as an inmate of our household, of the malignant persecution +which doomed her for three consecutive Sundays to a rather isolated, but +prominent seat in the Kirk of Dolphington Parish: nor did our worthy +Lady-mother see any reason to doubt the accuracy of the statement. For was +it not most natural that the daughter--however comely--and Lizzy was as +strapping a lass as ever danced at a kirn--of a woman who had the evil +reputation of divining surreptitious fortunes by means of the sediment of +a tea-cup--of prophesying future sweethearts in exchange for hoarded +sixpences--and of milking dry her neighbours' cows by aid of cantrips and +an enchanted hair rope--was it not most natural, we say, that the daughter +of the witch should have been looked upon with a suspicious eye by the +minister, who used annually to preach four sermons in vituperation of Her +of Endor, and by the Elders, whose forefathers had turned out doggedly for +the Covenant, and among whom still circulated strange and fantastic tales +of bodily apparitions of the Evil One to the fugitives in the muir and the +wilderness--of hideous shapes, which disturbed the gathered conventicle +by the sides of the lonely burn--of spells, which made the buff-coats of +their adversaries impenetrable as adamant to leaden bullet or the sweep of +the Cameronian steel? + +Upon these testimonials, and a strong affidavit from Lizzy, that in every +other earthly matter she was innocent of the slightest peccadillo, the +Lily of Lanark was installed as mistress and governante of the Nursery. We +were then in the days of teething, and sorely tormented with our gums, +which neither for knob of poker, nor handle of kitchen-fork--the ancient +Caledonian corals--would surrender their budding ornaments. We believe, +therefore, that Lizzy Lindsay erred not materially from the path of truth +when she signalized us as "the maist fractious bairn that ever broke a +woman's heart." Night and day did we yell, with Satanic energy, from the +excruciating molar pain, and little sympathy did our tears awaken in our +pillow, as we lay in fevered anguish on the exuberant bosom of our +guardian. Fortunately for us, in these days Daffy's Elixir was a thing +unknown, else no doubt we should have received an early introduction to +dram-drinking by means of the soft carminative. The fertile genius of +Lizzy suggested a better spell for allaying our infant sorrows. Whenever +we indulged in a more than ordinary implacable fit of screeching, she +threatened us with the apparition of "the Boo-man," a hideous spectre +which was then supposed to perambulate the nurseries in the shape of +Napoleon-Bonaparte. In a very short while, no Saracen child ever became +dumber when threatened by its mother with a visit from the Melech-Ric, +than we did at the proposed coming of the dark and sanguinary phantom. For +many years afterwards we believed as sincerely in the existence of this +anthropophagus as in our own; and very nearly became a Bauldy for life, +from having been surprised on one occasion, whilst surreptitiously +investigating the contents of a jampot, by the descent of a climbing-boy +into the nursery, and the terrors of his telegraphic boo! As we grew up, +our nascent intellect received still more supernatural services from the +legendary lore of Lizzy. She taught us the occult and mysterious meaning +of those singular soot-flakes which wave upon the ribs of a remarkably +ill-pokered fire--the dark significance which may be drawn from the +spluttering and cabbaging of a candle--and the misfortunes sure to follow +the mismanagement of the sacred salt. Often, too, her talk was of the +boding death-watch--the owl which flapped its wings at the window of the +dying--and the White Dove that flitted noiselessly from the room at the +fearful, and then to us incomprehensible moment of dissolution. As +Hallowe'en approached, she told us of the mystic hempseed, of the figure +which stalled behind the enterprising navigator of the stacks, and that +awful detention of the worsted clue, which has made the heart of many a +rustic maiden leap hurriedly towards her throat, when in the dead of +night, and beneath the influence of a waning moon, she has dared to pry +into the secrets of futurity, and, lover-seeking, has dropped the ball +into the chasm of the deserted kiln. + +Such being the groundwork of our mystic education, it is little wonder +that we turned our novel knowledge of the alphabet to account, by pouncing +with intense eagerness upon every work of supernatural fiction upon which +we possibly could lay our hands. We speak not now of Jack the +Giant-killer, of the aspiring hero of the Beanstalk, or the appropriator +of the Seven-leagued boots. These were well enough in their way; but not, +in our diseased opinion, sufficiently practical. We liked the fairies +better. For many a day we indulged in the hope that we might yet become +possessed of a pot of that miraculous unguent, which, when applied to the +eye, has the virtue of disclosing the whole secrets of the Invisible +World. We looked with a kind of holy awe upon the emerald rings of the +greensward, and would have given worlds to be present at the hour when the +sloping side of the mountain is opened, and from a great ball, all +sparkling with a thousand prismatic stalactites, ride forth, to the sound +of flute and recorder, the squadrons of the Elfin Chivalry. Well do we +remember the thrill of horror which pervaded our being when we first read +of the Great Spectre of Glenmore, the Headless Fiend that haunts the black +solitudes of the Rothemurchus Forest, whom to see is madness, and to meet +is inexorable death! Much did we acquire in these days of the natural +history of Wraiths and Corpse-candles-of Phantom Funerals encountered on +their way to the kirkyard by some belated peasant, who, marveling at the +strange array at such an hour, turns aside to let the grim procession +pass, and beholds the visionary mourners--his own friends--sweep past, +without sound of footfall or glance of recognition, bearing upon their +shoulders a melancholy burden, wherein, he knows, is stretched the wan +Eidolon of himself! No wonder that he takes to his bed that night, nor +leaves it until the final journey. + +Not for worlds would we have left the Grange house, which was then our +summer residence, after nightfall, and, skirting the hill by the old +deserted burial-ground, venture down the little glen, gloomy with the +shade of hazels--cross the burn by the bridge above the Caldron pool--and +finally gaze upon the loch all tranquil in the glory of the stars! Not all +the fish that ever struggled on a night-line-and there were prime +two-pounders, and no end of eels, in the loch--would have tempted us to so +terrible a journey. For just below the bridge, where the rocks shot down +precipitously into the black water, and the big patches of foam went +slowly swirling round--there, we say, in some hideous den, heaven knows +how deep, lurked the hateful Water-Kelpy, whose yell might be heard, +during a spate, above the roar of the thundering stream, and who, if he +did not lure and drown the cat-witted tailor of the district, was, to say +the least of it, the most maligned and slandered individual of his race. +Even in broad day we never liked that place. It had a mischievous and +uncanny look; nor could you ever entirely divest yourself of the idea that +there was something at the bottom of the pool. Bad as was the burn, the +loch was a great deal worse. For here, at no very remote period, the fiend +had emerged from its depths in the shape of a black steed, gentle and +mild-eyed to look upon, and pacing up to three children, not ten minutes +before dismissed from the thraldom of the dominie, had mutely but +irresistibly volunteered the accommodation of an extempore ride. And so, +stepping on with his burden across the gowans--which never grew more, and +never will grow, where the infernal hoof was planted--the demon horse +arrived at the margin of the loch where the bank is broken and the water +deep, and with a neigh of triumph bounded in, not from that day to this +were the bodies of the victims found. Moreover, yonder at the stunted +thorn-trees is the spot where poor Mary Walker drowned herself and her +innocent and unchristened bairn; and they say that, at midnight when all +is quiet, you will hear the wailing of a female voice, as if the spirit of +the murdered infant were bewailing its lost estate; and that a white +figure may be seen wringing its hands in agony, as it flits backwards and +forwards along the range of the solitary loch. Therefore, though the black +beetle is an irresistible bait, we never threw a fly at night on the +surface of the Haunted Tarn. + +Penny Encyclopaedias, although Lord Brougham had advanced considerably +towards manhood, were not then the fashion. Information for the people was +not yet collected into hebdomadal tracts; and those who coveted the fruit +of the tree of knowledge were left to pursue their horticultural +researches at their own free will. In the days of which we write, the two +leading weekly serials were the "_Tales of Terror_" and "_The Terrific +Register_," to both of which we regularly subscribed. To our present +taste--somewhat, we hope, improved since then--the latter seems a vulgar +publication. It was neither more nor less than a _rifacciamento_ of the +most heinous and exaggerated murders, by steel, fire, and poison, which +could be culled from the records of ancient and modern villany. It was, in +short, the quintessence of the _Newgate Calendar_, powerful enough to +corrupt a nation; as a proof of which--we mention it with regret--the +servant lad who ten years ago purloined it from our library, has since +been transported for life. We even dare to back it, for pernicious +results, against the moral influence which has been since exercised by +the authors of Oliver Twist and Jack Sheppard, to both of whom the penal +colonies have incurred a debt of lasting gratitude. It is true that, in +point of sentiment, these gentlemen have the advantage of the Editor of +The Terrific Register, but he beats them hollow in the broad delinquency +of his facts. But in the Tales of Terror we possessed a real supernatural +treasure. Every horrible legend of demon, ghost, goule, gnome, +salamandrine, and fire-king, which the corrupted taste of Germany had +hatched, was contained in this precious repository. It was illustrated +also, as we well remember, by woodcuts of the most appalling description, +which used to haunt us in our sleep long after we had stolen to our bed at +half-past eleven punctually, in order that we might be drenched in slumber +before the chiming of the midnight hour--at which signal, according to the +demonologists, the gates of Hades are opened wide, and the defunct usurer +returns to mourn and gibber above the hiding-place of his buried gold. + +Gradually, however, we waxed more bold; and by dint of constant study +familiarized ourselves so much with the subject, that we not only ceased +to fear, but absolutely longed for a personal acquaintance with an +apparition. The History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, which shortly +afterwards fell into our hands, inspired us with the ambition of becoming +a practical magician, and we thirsted for a knowledge of the Cabala. We +had already done a little business in the way of turnip lanterns, the +favourite necromantic implements of the ingenuous Scottish youth--hideous +in the whiteness of their vegetable teeth, and not unappalling when +dexterously placed upon the edge of the kirk-yard wall. Electric shocks +conveyed by means of the door-handles, phosphoric writings on the wall, +and the mystery of spontaneous bells, were our next chemical amusements; +nor did we desist from this branch of practice until we had received a +most sound castigation, at the recollection of which our bones still ache, +from a crusty old tutor whose couch we had strewn, not with roses, but +with chopped horse-hair. + +We are old enough to recollect the first representation of _Der +Freischutz_, and it is an era in our dramatic reminiscences. Previously to +that, we had seen a Vampire appear upon the boards of the Edinburgh stage, +and after an extravagant consumption of victims throughout the course of +three acts, fall thunder-smitten by an indigo bolt through a deep and +yawning trap-door. But Zamiel, as then represented by Mr Lynch, completely +distanced the Blood-sucker. With feelings of intensest awe, we beheld the +mysterious preparations in the Wolf's Glen--the circle of skull and +bone--the magic ring of light blue that flickered round it--the brazier +with the two kneeling figures beside it--the owl on the blasted tree, +which opened its eyes and flapped its wings with true demoniacal +perseverance--and the awful shapes that appeared at the casting of every +bullet! But when, as the last of them was thrown from the mould, a crash +of thunder pealed along the stage, and lurid lightnings glared from either +wing--when the cataract was converted into blood, and the ferocious form +of Lynch stood forth as the Infernal Hunter, discharging, after the manner +of such beings, two rifles at once--our enthusiasm utterly overcame us; we +gave vent to an exulting cheer, and were conducted from the boxes in a +state of temporary insanity. + +We pass over our classical studies. We were no great dab at Virgil, but we +relished Apuleius exceedingly, and considerably petrified the Rector, by +giving up, as the subject of our private reading, "_Wierus de +Proestigiis Demonum_." Our favourite philosopher was Sir Kenelm Digby, +whose notions upon sympathy and antipathy we thought remarkably rational; +so much so, that up to the present time, we recognise no other treatment +for a cut finger than a submersion of the bloody rag in vitriol and water, +and a careful unction of the knife. We lost our degree in medicine by +citing as a case in point the wonderful cure of Telephus by the +application of oxide of iron, which we held to be no specific at all, +except as obtained from the spear of Achilles. This dogma, coupled with +our obstinate adherence to the occult doctrines of Van Helmont, the only +medical writer whose works we ever perused with the slightest +satisfaction, was too much for the bigoted examinators. We were +recommended to go abroad and study homoeopathy. We did so, and we swear +by Hahnemann. + +It is now some years since we received our first inkling of mesmeric +revelation. Since then, we have read almost every work which has appeared +upon the subject; and we scruple not to say that we are a profound +believer in all of its varied mysteries. In it we recognise a natural +explanation of all our earlier studies; and we hail with sincere delight +the progress of a science which reconciles us to magic without the +necessity of interposing a diabolic agency. The miracles of Apollonius of +Tyana, as related by Philostratus, become very commonplace performances +when viewed by the light of mesmerism. The veriest bungler who ever +practised the passes can explain to you the nature of that secret +intelligence which enabled the _clair-voyant_ philosopher, then at +Ephesus, to communicate the murder of Domitian to his friends at the +moment it took place at Rome. Second-sight has ceased to be a marvel: the +preternatural powers, long supposed to be confined to Skye, Uist, and +Benbecula, are now demonstrated to be universal, and are exhibited on the +platform by scores of urchins picked up at random from the gutter. Even +the Arabian Nights have become probable. Any perambulating mesmeriser can +show you scores of strapping, fellows, reduced by a single wave of his +hand to the unhappy condition of the young Prince whose lower extremities +were stone. Comus was nothing more than a common Professor of the science; +and Hermotimus a silly blockhead, who could not wake himself from his +trance in time to prevent his wife from consigning him to the funeral +pile. + +The practical utility of the science is no less prodigious. Is it nothing, +think you, if you have suffered a compound fracture of the leg, so bad +that amputation is indispensable, to be relieved from all the horrors of +the operation, from the sickening sight of the basins, the bandages, and +the saw--to feel yourself sinking into a delicious slumber at the wave of +the surgeon's hand, and to wake up ten minutes afterwards an unsuffering +uniped, and as fresh as the Marquis of Anglesea? Is it nothing, when that +back-grinder of yours gives you such intolerable agony that the very +maid-servants in the attics cannot sleep o'nights because of your +unmitigated roaring--is it nothing to avoid the terrible necessity of a +conscious Tusculan disputation with Nasmith or Spence--to settle down for +a few moments into a state of unconsciousness, and to revive with your +masticators in such a condition as to defy the resistance of a navy +biscuit? Or, if you are a stingy person and repugnant to postage, do you +think it is no advantage to get gratis information about your friends in +India through the medium of your eldest son, who, though apparently +sitting like a senseless booby in your armchair, is at this moment +invisibly present in the mess-room at Hyderabad, and will express, if you +ask him, his wonder at the extreme voracity with which Uncle David devours +his curry? Why, in that boy you possess an inestimable treasure! You may +send him to Paris at a moment's notice for a state of the French funds--he +will be at St Petersburg and back again in the twinkling of an eye--and if +our own sight is failing, you have nothing to do but to clap the last +number of the Magazine below him, and he will straightway regale your +heart with the contents of the leading article. + +There is a great deal of romance about Mesmerism. We have nowhere read a +more touching story than that of the two consumptive sisters who were +thrown into the Magic trance about the end of autumn, who lay folded in +each other's arms--pale lilies--throughout the whole of the dreary winter, +and awoke to life and renovated health in the joyous month of May, when +the leaves were green, the flowers in bud, and the lambkins frolicking on +the meadow! Read you ever any thing in novels so touching and pathetic as +this? Nor is the case once recounted to us by a friend of our own, a noted +mesmerizer, one whit less marvellous. In the ardent prosecution of his +art, he had cast his glamour upon a fair Parisian damsel of the name of +Leontine--we believe she was a laundress--and daily held conference with +the dormant Delphic girl. On one occasion he left her, wrapt in the +profoundest sleep, in his chamber, and proceeded to perambulate the +Boulevards on his own secular affairs. On returning, he found poor +Leontine suffused in tears; deep and stifling sobs disturbed her +utterance, nor was it until the charmer had soothed her with a few +additional passes, that she could falter out the tender reproach--"Why did +you not bring me some bonbons on the shop where you eat those three +ice-creams?" Our friend had not walked alone through Paris. The spirit of +the loving Leontine was invisibly clinging to his arm. + +Now, although we make it an invariable rule to believe every thing which +we read or hear, we were not a little desirous to behold with our own eyes +an exhibition of these marvellous phenomena. But somehow or other, whilst +the papers told us of Mesmeric miracles performed in every other part of +the world, Edinburgh remained without a prophet. Either the Thessalian +influence had not extended so far, or the Scottish frame was unsusceptible +to the subtle fluid of the conjuror. One or two rumours reached us of +young ladies who had become spellbound; but on inquiring more minutely +into the circumstances, we found that there was an officer in each case, +and we therefore were inclined to think that the symptoms might be +naturally accounted for. There was, however, no want of curiosity on the +part of the public. The new science had made a great noise in the world, +and was the theme of conversation at every tea-table. Various attempts at +mesmerization were made, but without success. We ourselves tried it; but +after looking steadfastly for about twenty minutes into a pair of laughing +blue eyes, we were compelled to own that the power was not in us, and that +all the fascination had been exercised on the other side. Nobody had +succeeded, if we except a little cousin of ours--rather addicted to +fibbing--who averred that she had thrown a cockatoo into a deep and +mysterious slumber. + +Great, therefore, was our joy, and great was the public excitement, when +at length a genuine professor of the art vouchsafed to favour us with a +visit. He was one of those intelligent and patriotic men who go lecturing +from town to town, inspired thereto by no other consideration than an +ardour for the cause of science. The number of them is absolutely amazing. +Throughout the whole winter, which is popularly called the lecturing +season, the dead walls of every large city in the empire are covered with +placards, announcing that Mr Tomlinson will have the honour of delivering +six lectures upon Syria, or that Mr. Whackingham, the famous Timbuctoo +traveller, will describe the interior of Africa. They are even clannish in +their subjects. The Joneses are generally in pay of the League, and hold +forth upon the iniquity of the Corn-duties. The Smiths, with laudable +impartiality, are divided between slavery and liberation, and lecture +_pro_ or _con_, as the humour or opportunity may serve. The +Macgillicuddies support the Seceding interest, and deliver facers in the +teeth of all establishments whatsoever. The Robinsons are phrenological, +the Browns chemical, and the Bletheringtons are great on the subject of +universal education for the people. To each and all of these interesting +courses you may obtain admittance for the expenditure of a trifling sum, +and imbibe, in exchange for your shilling or half-crown, a considerable +allowance of strong and full-flavoured information. Always ardent in the +cause of science, we never, if we can help it, miss one of these seducing +soirees: and we invariably find, that whatever may have been the +heterodoxy of our former opinion, we become a convert through the powerful +arguments of these peripatetic apostles of science. + +Our new Xavier belonged to what is called the mesmerico-phrenological +school. He was a man of bumps as well as passes--a disciple alike of +German Spurzheim and of English Elliotson. His placard was a modest one. +It set forth, as usual; the disinterested nature of his journey, which was +to expound to the intelligent citizens of Edinburgh a few of the great +truths of mesmerism, illustrated by a series of experiments. He +studiously disclaimed all connexion with preternatural art, and ventured +to assure every visitor, that, so far as he was concerned, no advantage +should be taken of their attendance at his _Seance_ in any future stage of +their existence. This distinct pledge removed from our minds any little +scruple which we otherwise might have felt. We became convinced that the +lecturer was far too much of a gentleman to take advantage of our +weakness, and report us to the Powers of Evil; and accordingly, on the +appointed night, after a bottle or so of fortifying port, we took our way +to the exhibition-room, where Isis was at last to be revealed to our +adoring eyes. + +We selected and paid for a front seat, and located ourselves in the +neighbourhood of a very smart bonnet, which had mesmerically attracted our +eye. Around us were several faces well known in the northern metropolis, +some of them wearing an expression of dull credulity, and others with a +sneer of marked derision on the lip. On looking at the platform, we were +not altogether surprised at the earliness of the latter demonstration. +There was no apparatus there beyond a few chairs; but around a sort of +semicircular screen were suspended a series of the most singular portraits +we ever had the fortune to behold. One head was graced with a mouth big +enough to contain a haggis, and a coronal of erected hair like a +hearth-brush surmounting it left no doubt in our mind that it was intended +for a representation of Terror. It was enough, as a young Indian officer +afterwards remarked, to have made a Chimpanzee miscarry. Joy was the exact +portraiture of a person undergoing the punishment of death by means of +tickling. We should not like to have met Benevolence in a dark lane: he +looked confoundedly like a fellow who would have eased you of your last +copper, and knocked you down into the bargain. As for Amativeness, he +seemed to us the perfect incarnation of hydrophobia. In fact, out of some +two dozen passions, the only presentable personage was Self-esteem, a +prettyish red-haired girl, with an expression of fun about the eyes. + +In a short time the lecturer made his appearance. To do him justice, he +did not look at all like a conjuror, nor did he use any of those becoming +accessories which threw an air of picturesque dignity around the wizard of +the middle ages. We could not say of him as of Lord Gifford, + + "His shoes were mark'd with cross and spell, + Upon his breast pentacle; + His zone, of virgin parchment thin, + Or, as some tell, of dead-man's skin, + Bore many a planetary sign, + Combust, and retrograde, and trine." + +On the contrary, he was simply attired in a black coat and tweed +terminations; and his attendant imps consisted of half a dozen young +gentlemen, who might possibly, by dint of active exertion, have been made +cleaner, and whose free-and-easy manner, as they scrambled towards their +chairs, elicited some hilarious expressions from the more distant portion +of the audience. + +The introductory portion of the lecture appeared to us a fair specimen of +Birmingham rhetoric. There was a great deal in it about mysterious +agencies, invisible fluids, connexion of mind and matter, outer and inner +man, and suchlike phrases, all of which sounded very deep and +unintelligible--so much so indeed, that we suspected certain passages of +it to have been culled with little alteration from the emporium of Sartor +Resartus. Meanwhile the satellites upon the platform amused themselves by +grimacing at each other, and exchanging a series of telegraphic gestures, +which proved that they were all deep adepts in the art of masonry as +practised by the youth of the Lawnmarket. The exposition might have lasted +about a quarter of an hour, when sundry shufflings of the feet gave a hint +to the lecturer that he had better stop discoursing, and proceed +incontinently to experiment. He therefore turned to the imps, who +straightway desisted from mowing, and remained mute and motionless before +the eye of the mighty master. Seizing one of them by the hands, the +operator looked steadfastly in his face. A dull film seemed to gather over +the orbs of the gaping urchin--his jaw fell--his toes quivered--a few +spasmodic jerks of the elbows showed that his whole frame was becoming +Leyden, jar of animal electricity--his arms dropped fecklessly down--few +waves across the forehead, and the Lazarillo of Dunedin was transported to +the Invisible World! + +Muttered exclamations--for the sanctity of the scene was too great to +admit of ruffing--were now heard throughout the room. "Did you ever?"--"By +Jove, there's a go!"--"Lord save us! but that's fearsome!"--"I say, Bob, +d'ye no see him winking?" and other similar ejaculations caught our ear. +Presently the operator abandoned his first victim, and advanced towards +another, with the look of a rattlesnake, who, having bolted one rabbit, is +determined to exterminate the warren. The second gutter-blood succumbed. +His resistance to the mesmeric agency was even weaker than the other's: +and, indeed, to judge from the rapidity of his execution, the marvellous +fluid was now pouring in cataracts from the magic fingers of the adept. In +a very few seconds the whole of the lads were as fast asleep as dormice. + +Leaving them in their chairs, like so many slumbering Cupids, the lecturer +next proceeded to favour us with a dissertation upon the functions of the +brain. Cries of "Get on!"--"Gar them speak!"--"We ken a' aboot it!" +assured him at once of the temper and the acquired information of the +Modem Athenians; so, turning round once more, he pitched upon Lazarillo as +a subject. So far as our memory will serve us, the following is a fair +report of the colloquy. + +"Are you asleep, my little boy?" + +"I should think sae!" + +"Do you feel comfortable?" + +"No that ill. What was ye speering for?" + +"Ha! a cautious boy! You observe, ladies and gentlemen, how remarkably the +natural character is developed during the operation of the mesmeric +trance. An English boy, I assure you, would have given me a very different +reply. Let us now proceed to another test. You see, I take him by the +hand, and at the same time introduce this piece of lump sugar into my own +mouth. Remark how instantaneously the muscles of his face are affected. My +little fellow, what is that you are eating?" + +"Sweeties." + +"Where did you get them?" + +"What's yeer bizziness?" + +"Well, well--we must not irritate him. Let us now change the +experiment--how do you like this?" + +"Fich!--proots!--Ye nastie fellie, if ye pit saut in ma mooth, I'll hit ye +a duff in the muns!" + +"How! I do not understand you!" + +"A dad in the haffits." + +Here a benevolent gentleman, with a bald head and spectacles, was kind +enough to act as interpreter, and explained to the scientific Anglican the +meaning of the minatory term. + +"Ha! our young friend is becoming a little restive. We must alter his +frame of mind. Observe, ladies and gentlemen, I shall now touch the organ +of Benevolence." + +With an alacrity which utterly dumbfoundered us, the young hope of the +Crosscauseway now sprung to his feet. His hands were precipitately plunged +into the inmost recesses of his corduroys. + +"Puir man! puir man!" he exclaimed with a deep expression of sympathy, +"ye're looking far frae weel! Ay, ay! a wife and saxteen weans at hame, +and you just oot o' the hospital!--Hech-how! but this is a weary warld. +Hae--it's no muckle I can gie ye, but tak it a'--tak it a'!" + +So saying, he drew forth from his pockets a miscellaneous handful of +slate-pencil, twine, stucco-bowls, and, if we mistake not, gib--a +condiment much prized by the rising generation of the metropolis--all of +which he deposited, as from a cornucopia, at the feet of the delighted +lecturer. + +A loud hum of admiration arose from the back-benches. Charity is a popular +virtue, as you may learn at the theatre, from the tumultuous applause of +the gallery whenever the hero of the melodrama chucks a purse at the head +of some unfortunate starveling. Two old ladies in our neighbourhood began +to whimper; and one of them publicly expressed her intention of rewarding +with half-a-crown the good intentions of the munificent Lazarillo, so soon +as the lecture was over. This seemed to inspire him with a fresh accession +of benevolence; for, the organ being still excited, he made another +desperate attempt, and this time fished up a brass button. + +"Let us now," said the magician, "excite the counter organ of +Secretiveness; and, in order to give this experiment its full effect, I +shall also irritate the kindred organs of Acquisitiveness and Caution." + +To our great disgust, Lazarillo instantly threw off the character of +Howard, and appeared in that of David Haggart. He was evidently mentally +prowling with an associate in the vicinity of a stall bedecked with +tempting viands, irresistible to the inner Adam of the boy. + +"I say, Tam! did ye ever see sic speldrings? Eh, man--but they'd be grand +chowin! What'n rock!--and thae bonnie red-cheekit aipples! Whisht-ye, +man--bide back in the close-head, or auld Kirsty will see ye! Na--she's no +lookin' now. Gang ye ahint her, and cry oot that ye see a mad dowg, and +I'll make a spang at the stall! That's yeer sort! I've gotten a hantle o' +them. Stick them into ma pouches for fear they tumble oot, and we'll rin +doon to the King's Park and hide them at the auld dyke!" + +"This boy," said the operator, "evidently imagines himself to be engaged +in an act of larceny. Such is the wonderful power of mesmerism, and such +and so varied is the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the human frame. What we +call man is a shell of virtue and of vice. In the same brain are contained +the virtues of an Aristides, and the coarse malignity of a Nero. I could +now, ladies and gentlemen, very easily procure from this lad the +restitution of his imaginary spoils, by simply exciting the organ of +Justice, which at once would prompt him to a full and candid confession. +But I shall prefer to develop the experiment, by slightly awakening the +powerful functions of Terror, an organ which we dare not trifle with, as +the consequences are sometimes calamitous. I think, however, from the +peculiar construction of this boy's head, that we may safely make the +attempt. Mark the transition." + +The hair of Lazarillo bristled. + +"Gosh, Tam! are ye sure naebody seed us! Wha's that wi' the white breeks +comin' down the close? Rin, man, rin--as sure's death it's the poliss! O +Lord! what will become o' ma puir mither gin they grup me! O man--let's +in! let's in! The door's fast steekit--Mercy--mercy--mercy--! Tak' yeer +knuckles oot o' ma neck, and I'll gie ye the hale o' them back. It wasna +me, it was Tam that did it! Ye're no gaun to tak us up to the office for +sic a thing as that?--O dear me--dear me--dear me!" and the voice of +Lazarillo died away in almost inarticulate moaning. + +This scene had so affected the nerves of our fair neighbour in the bonnet, +that, out of common civility, we felt ourselves compelled to offer a +little consolation. In the mean time, the stern operator continued to +aggravate the terrors of poor Lazarillo, whose cup of agony was full even +to the brim, and who now fancied himself in the dock, tried, and found +guilty, and awaiting with fear and tribulation the tremendous sentence of +the law. + +"O, ma lord, will ye no hae mercy on us? As true as I'm stannin' here, +it's the first time I ever stealt ony thing. O whaur's mither? Is that her +greeting outside? O, ma lord, what are ye puttin' on that black hat for? +Ye daurna hang us surely for a wheen wizzened speldrings!--O dear--O dear! +Is there naebody will say a word for me? O mercy--mercy! Wae's me--wae's +me! To be hangit by the neck till I'm deid, and me no fifteen year auld!" + +"We shall now," said the operator, "conduct our young friend to the +scaffold"-- + +"Stop, sir!" cried the benevolent gentleman in the spectacles--"I insist +that we shall have no more of this. Are you aware, sir, that you are +answerable for the intellects of that unhappy boy? Who knows but that the +cruel excitement he has already undergone may have had the effect of +rendering him a maniac for life? I protest against any further exhibition +of this nature, which is absolutely harrowing to my own feelings and to +those of all around me. What if the boy should die?" + +"Let alane Jimsy!" cried a voice from the back row. "I ken him fine; he'll +dee nane." + +"I shall have much pleasure, sir," said the mesmerist, with a polite bow, +"in complying with your humane suggestion. At the same time, let me assure +you that your apprehensions are without foundation. Never, I trust, in my +hands, shall science be perverted from its legitimate object, or the +glorious truths I am permitted to display, minister in the slightest +degree to the wretchedness of any one individual of the great human +family. I shall now awaken this boy from his trance, when you will find +him wholly unconscious of every thing which has taken place." + +Accordingly, he drew forth his bandana, flapped it a few times before the +eyes of Lazarillo, and then breathed lightly on his forehead. The boy +yawned, rubbed his eyes, stretched his limbs, sneezed, and then rose up. + +"How do you feel?" asked the operator. + +"A wee stiff--that's a.'" + +"Would you like a glass of water?" + +"I'd rather hae yill." + +"Do you recollect what you have been doing?" + +"I've been sleeping, I think." + +"Nothing more?" + +"Naething. What else should I hae been doing? I say--I want to gang hame." + +"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think we may dismiss this boy." + +Lazarillo, however, did not show any immediate hurry to depart. He +lingered for a while near that edge of the platform where the two aged +ladies were seated, as though some faint vaticination of the advent of +half-a-crown still haunted his bewildered faculties. But the profligacy of +his latter conduct had effaced all memory of the liberality with which he +first dispensed his earthly treasures. His unhallowed propensity for +speldrings had exhibited itself in too glaring colours, and each lady, +while she thought of the pilfered Kirsty, clutched her reticule with a +firmer grasp, as though she deemed that the contents thereof were not +altogether safe in the vicinity of the marvellous boy. At length, finding +that delay was fruitless, Lazarillo, _alias_ Jimsy, went his way. + +The phrenological organs of the remaining lads were now subjected to +similar experiments. These were, we freely admit, remarkably interesting. +One youth, being called upon to give a specimen of his imitative powers, +took off our friend Frederick Lloyd of the Theatre-Royal to the life; +whilst another treated us to a very fair personification of Edmund Glover. +Some youths in the back gallery began to whistle and scream, and the +sounds were regularly caught up and transmitted by the slumbering mimics. +A learned Pundit, who sate on the same bench with ourselves, favoured them +with a German sentence, which did certainly appear to us to be repeated +with some slight difference of accent. A Highland divinity student went +the length of asserting that the reply was conveyed in Gaelic, which, if +true, must be allowed to throw some light upon the knotty subject of the +origin of languages. Is it possible that, in the mesmeric trance, the mind +in some cases rejects as artificial fabric all the educated +conventionality of tongues, and resumes unconsciously the original and +genuine dialect of the world? We have a great mind, at some future moment +of leisure, to indite an article on the subject, and vindicate, in all its +antiquity, the speech of Ossian and of Adam. + +We shall pass over several of the same class of experiments, such as the +display of Adoration, which struck us as bordering very closely upon the +limits of profanity. In justice to the operator, we ought to mention that +they were all remarkably successful. We admired the dexterity with which +two lads, under the savage influence of combativeness, punched and squared +at each other; we were pleased with the musical talents of another boy, +who varied the words, airs, and style of his singing as the fingers of the +mesmerist wandered around the several protuberances of his cranium. In +fact, we saw before us a human organ of sound, played upon with as much +ease as a mere pianoforte. After such exhibitions as these, it was +impossible to remain a sceptic. + +A grand chorus by the patients, of "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," under +the influence of some bump corresponding to Patriotism, terminated this +portion of the evening's entertainments. But all was not yet over. The +lecturer informed us that he would now exhibit the power of mesmerism over +the body, apart from the enchainment of the mental faculties--that is, +that he would produce paralysis in the limbs of a thinking and a sentient +being. We are ashamed to say that a cry of "Gammon!" arose from different +parts of the hall. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," said the undaunted sorcerer, "some incredulous +persons seem to doubt my power. You shall see it with your own eyes. I +shall now proceed to waken these boys, and submit them to the new +experiment." + +In the twinkling of a handkerchief they were awake and lively, and beyond +a slight complaint from the pugilists of pain in the region of the +abdomen, and a very reasonable demand on the part of the musician for +lozenges, they did not seem at all the worse in consequence of their +recent exercise. One of them was now desired to stretch out his arm. He +did so. A few passes were made along it, and he remained in the attitude +of a fakeer. + +"That lad's arm," said he of the mysterious art, "is now as fixed as +marble. He cannot take it down. Can you, O'Shaughnessy?" + +"The divil a bit!" replied the Hibernian, a stout and brawny villain of +some two and twenty. + +"Would any gentleman like to try it?" inquired the operator. + +"It's myself has no manner of objections at all!" exclaimed a stalwart +medical student, springing upon the platform, amidst a shout of general +exultation. "Hould yerself tight, Pat, my boy; for, by the powers, I'll +twist ye like an ounce of pig-tail!" + +"Tear and owns!"--replied O'Shaughnessy, looking somewhat dismayed, for +the volunteer was about as stout a Connaughter as it ever was our fortune +to behold. "Tear and owns! it isn't after breaking my arm you'd be at? Och +wirra! Would ye take a dirty advantage of a decent lad, and him as stiff +as a poker?" + +"I protest against this exhibition!" said the benevolent gentleman, in +whom we now recognised a Vice-President of the Fogie Club. "The shoulder +of the man may be dislocated--or there may be a fracture of the ulna--or +some other horrid catastrophe may happen, and we shall all be prosecuted +for murder!" + +"And am I not here to set the bone!" demanded the student indignantly +"Give us a hould of ye, Pat, and stand firm on your pins, for I'll work ye +like a pump-handle." + +So saying, he closed with O'Shaughnessy. But that wary individual, whilst +he abandoned his arm to the student, evidently considered himself under no +obligation to forego the use of his legs. He spun round and round like a +teetotum, and stooped whenever an attempt was made to draw him down, but +still the arm remained extended. + +"You see, ladies and gentlemen!" said the operator, after the scuffle was +over--"You see how the power of the mesmeric fluid operates above the +exertion of physical force. This amazingly powerful young gentleman has +totally failed to move the arm one inch from its place." + +"I'd move it fast enough, if he'd only stand still," replied the student. +"I'll tell you what. I look upon the whole thing as egregious humbug. +There's my own arm out, and I defy either you or Pat to bring it down!" + +"Excuse me, sir," replied the mesmerist with dignity--"We do not meet here +to practise feats of strength, but to discuss a scientific question. I +appeal to this intelligent individual, who has taken so distinguished a +part in the interesting proceedings of this evening, whether I am in any +way bound to accept such a challenge." + +"Certainly not--certainly not!" said the Vice-President, delighted with +this appeal to his understanding. + +"You hear the remark of the gentleman, sir," said the mesmerist. "May I +now beg you will retire, and permit me to go on with the experiments?" + +"Take it all your own way, then," replied the student, reluctantly +retiring from the platform; "but as sure's I am out of purgatory, that +lad's arm was no more fixed than your tongue!" + +This slight episode over, the work went on accordingly. Paralysis +flourished in all its shapes. One lad was spellbound to the floor, and +could not move a yard from the spot, though encouraged to do so by an +offer of twenty pounds from the liberal and daring artist. What effect the +superadded security of the Vice-President might have had upon the +patient's powers of locomotion, we really cannot say. Another, as he +assured us, was utterly deprived of sight by a few cross passes of the +operator--a third was charmed into dumbness--whilst a fourth declared his +readiness to be converted into a pin-cushion; but was, at the intreaty of +some ladies and our benevolent acquaintance, exempted from that +metamorphosis, and merely endured, without murmuring, a few nips from the +fingers of the lecturer. + +This closed the _seance_. We moved a vote of thanks to the Mesmerist for +his gratifying exertions, and then retired to our Club to meditate upon +the subject over a comfortable board of pandores. A few days afterwards, +we met our friend the young Indian officer in Prince's Street. + +"I say, old fellow," quoth the Jemadar, "that was a confounded take-in the +other night." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Why, that magnetizing nonsense. Not a soul of then was asleep after all." + +"Do you wish me to disbelieve the evidence of my own senses?" + +"You may believe whatever you like; I only wish you had been with us last +Tuesday at a meeting we held in the Cafe. If you've got any tin about you, +and don't mind standing an ice or so at Mrs Stewart's, I'll tell you all +about it." + +Our desire for truth overcame our habitual parsimony. We led the way into +the back saloon, and at a moderate expenditure became possessed of the +following particulars:-- + +"You see," said the Jemadar, sipping his cherry bounce, "there were a lot +of clever fellows sitting near me the other night, and I made out from +what they said that they were by no means satisfied with the whole +proceeding. Now, as I have seen a thing or two in India, where, by Jove, a +native will make a mango-tree grow out of a flowerpot before your eyes, +and bear fruit enough in a few months to keep a large family for a year in +pickles--and as I knew all about snake-charming, the singeing of tiger's +whiskers, and so forth, I thought I might be of some use to the scientific +birds; so, when the meeting broke up, I proposed an adjournment and a +tumbler. I looked about for you, but you seemed more agreeably occupied." + +"You never were in a greater mistake in your life." + +"Well--that's all one; but I thought so. They were quite agreeable, and we +passed a very pleasant evening. There were two or three young advocates +who went the pace in regular style, a fair sprinkling of medicos, and that +Irish student who handled the humbug on the platform; and who, let me tell +you, is little short of a perfect trump. We reviewed the whole +experiments, quite impartially, over a moderate allowance of alcohol, and +were unanimously of opinion that it was necessary, for the interests of +science, to examine into the matter more closely. One of the company +undertook to procure the attendance of some of those lads whom you saw +upon the platform; and another, who believes in mesmerism, but scouts the +idea of phrenology, was acquainted with a creditable magnetizer, who, he +said, would be sure to attend. We fixed our meeting for the second evening +afterwards, and then adjourned. + +"When the appointed hour came, we mustered to the number of about thirty. +Some scientific fellows about town had got wind of the thing, and wished +to be present: to this we made no manner of objection, as it was not a +hole-and-corner meeting. Of course, we took care that the lecturer should +know nothing about it--indeed, he had left Edinburgh, for the purpose, I +suppose, of enlightening the gallant Glaswegians; so that we had nothing +to fear on the ground of secret influence. Well, sir, we elected a +President, who gave his vote in favour of the postponement of beer until +all the experiments were over, and had in the raggamuffins, who at their +own request were each accompanied by a friend. They did not look quite +easy on finding themselves introduced to such an assemblage, but native +brass prevailed--they were in for it, and they durst not recede. + +"After a pretty tight examination by the President as to their former +experiences and sensations, which of course resulted in nothing, one of +the lads--the fellow who became blind--consented to be mesmerised by his +brother. The latter, a very sheepish-looking sort of journeyman, went +awkwardly through the usual flummery of passes, and then ensued this +dialogue. + +"'Hoo are ye, Jock?'" + +"'Man, I'm blind!'" + +"'Can ye see naething?'" + +"'Naething ava. It's jist a' blackness afore me. Gudesake, dinna keep us +lang this way--it's positeevely fearsome.'" + +"'Gentlemen,' said the brother, 'I hope you'll no be ower lang wi' oor +Jock. Puir fallow! he's no jist a' thegether right in the nerves, and a +wee thing is eneuch to upset him. Dinna handle him roughly, sir!' he +continued, as one of our party commenced turning up his sleeves +preparatory to an ocular demonstration; 'ye manna pit your hand upon +him--it's enough to destroy the haill mesmereesin' influence, and he'll +gang into a fit. Nane but the operawtor should touch him. Gin ye want to +look into his een, I'se haud up the lids myself.' + +"He did so; and sure enough he disclosed a couple of unmeaning grey +gooseberry orbs which stared perseveringly upon vacancy. A medical +gentleman approached a candle towards them without any visible effect. The +urchin was perfect in his calling. He did not even shrink at the rapid +approach of a finger. + +"I was convinced in my own mind," continued the Jemadar, "that this was a +piece of absolute humbug. The anxiety of the brother to keep every person +at a distance was quite palpable, so I had recourse to stratagem to get +him out of the way. We pretended to give the boy a momentary respite, and +a proffered pot of porter proved a bait too tempting to the Argus of the +blind. In short, we got him out of the room, and then resumed our +examination of Jock, who still pled, like another Homer, to absolute want +of vision. + +"'This is really very extraordinary, gentlemen,' said I, assuming the airs +of a lecturer, but getting carefully in the rear of patient. 'I am now +perfectly convinced that this boy is, by some inexplicable means, deprived +of the functions of sight. You observe that when I advance the finger of +my right hand towards his right eye--so--there is not the slightest +shrinking or palpable contraction of the iris. It is the same when I +approach the left eye--thus. If any gentleman doubts the success of the +experiment, I shall again make it on the right eye.' + +"But this time, instead of probing the dexter orbit, for which he was +prepared, I made a rapid pass at the other. The effect was instantaneous. +A spasmodic twitch of the eyelid betrayed the acuteness of Jock's ocular +perception. + +"'He winks, by the soul of Lord Monboddo!' cried one of my legal +acquaintances. 'I saw it perfectly plainly!' + +"'Ye're leein'!' retorted Jock, whose pease-soup complexion suddenly +became flushed with crimson--"'Ye're leein'! I winkit nane. It was a flea. +Did ye no see that I winkit nane when ye pit the lancet forrard?' + +"'Oh! my fine fellow!' replied the Advocate, a youth who had evidently +picked up a wrinkle or two at circuit, 'you've fairly put your foot into +it this time. Not a living soul has said a single word about a lancet, and +how could you know that this gentleman held in his hand unless you +positively saw it?' + +"This was a floorer, but Jock would not abandon his point. + +"'Ye dinna ken what mesmereesin' is,' he exclaimed. 'It's a shame for a +wheen muckle chaps like you to be trying yer cantrips that way on a laddie +like me. It's no fair, and I'll no stand it ony langer. Whaur's my +brither? Let me gang, I say--I'm no weel ava'!' and straightway the +miraculous boy girded up his loins, and flew swiftly from the apartment. + +"Pat O'Shaughnessy was next brought forward to exhibit once more his +unparalleled feat of rigidity. Confident in the strength of his brawny +arm, the young Milesian evinced no scruples. The magnetist who had +attended, at our request--a pleasant gentlemanly person--made the usual +passes along the arm, and O'Shaughnessy stood out in the attitude of the +Pythian Apollo. + +"I tried to bend his arm at the elbow, but sure enough I could not do it. +The fellow had the muscles of a rhinosceros, and defied my utmost efforts. +The magnetizer now began to exhibit another phenomenon. He made a few +passes downwards, and the arm gradually fell, as if there were some +undefinable attraction in the hand of the operator. He then reversed the +motion, and the arm slowly ascended. Being quite convinced that in this +case there was no collusion, I said a few words to the operator, who then +took his post _behind_ the giant carcase of the navigator. A friend of the +latter, who was detected dodging in front of him, was politely conducted +to the door, and in this way the experiment was tried. + +"'Now sir,' said I, 'will you have the kindness to attract his arm +upwards? I am curious to see if the mesmeric principle applies equally to +all the muscles.' + +"'Faix!' volunteered O'Shaughnessy, 'it does that, and no mistake. Ye +might make me hould up my fist on the other side of an oak door!' + +"I am sorry for the honour of Tipperary. The operator, as had been +privately agreed on, commenced the downward passes, when, to our extreme +delight, the arm of O'Shaughnessy rose directly upwards, until his fist +pointed to the zenith! + +"'Beautiful!--admirable!--miraculous!' shouted half a dozen voices. + +"'Now, sir, will you try if you can take it down?' + +"'The magnetiser made efforts which, if successful, would have enabled +O'Shaughnessy to count the number of his own dorsal vertebrae. He didn't +seem, however, to have any such passion for osteology. The arm gradually +declined, and at last reposed passively by his side. A general cheer +proclaimed the success of the experiment. + +"'Mr Chairman,' said one gentleman, 'I move that it be recorded as the +opinion of this meeting, that the late exhibitions of mesmerism, as +exhibited in this city, were neither more nor less than a tissue of +unmitigated humbug!' + +"'After what we have seen this evening,' said another, 'I do not feel the +slightest hesitation in seconding that motion.' + +"'And I move,' said a third, 'that in case that motion should be carried, +we do incontinently proceed to supper.' + +"So far as I recollect, there was not a dissentient voice in the room to +either proposition. + +"'Axing yer pardon,' said O'Shaughnessy, advancing to the chairman, 'it's +five shillings I was promised for time and trouble, and expinces in +attending this mating. Perhaps yer honour will allow a thrifle over and +above to my friend Teddy yonder, who came to see that I wasn't bothered +all at onst?' + +"'You are an impudent scoundrel, sir,' said the chairman, 'and deserve to +be kicked down stairs. However, a promise is a promise. There is your +money, and let us never see your face again.' + +"'Och, long life to yese all!' said the undaunted O'Shaughnessy, 'but its +mismirism is a beautiful science! Divil a barrow have I wheeled this last +month on the North British Railway, and it isn't soon that I'll be after +doing it again. Teddy, ye sowl! let's be off to the ould place, and dhrink +good luck to the gintlemin in a noggin.' + +"Such," concluded the Jemadar, "was the result of our meeting; and I can +tell you that you lost a rich treat by not hearing of it in time." + +"I don't want to be disenchanted," said we. "Nothing that you have said +can shake my firm belief in mesmerism in all its stages. I allow that the +science, like every thing else, is liable to abuse, but that does not +affect my faith in the slightest degree. Have you ever read Chauncey Hare +Townshend's book? Why, my dear fellow, he has magnetized a female patient, +through mere volition alone, at the other end of the town; and I have not +the remotest doubt that it is quite possible to exercise the same powers +between Edinburgh and Madras. What a beautiful thought it is that two +lovers, separated by land and ocean, may yet exercise a sweet influence +over each other--that at a certain hour, a balmy slumber, stealing over +their frames, apprises them that their souls are about to meet in +undisturbed and tranquil union! That in a few moments, perhaps, far, far +above the galaxy"-- + +"Oh, confound the galaxy!" interrupted the prosaic Jemadar. "If you're +going on in that style, I shall be off at once. I have no idea of any +communication quicker than the electric telegraph; and as for your +sympathies, and that sort of rubbish, any body may believe them that +likes. I suppose, too, you believe in clair-voyance?" + +"Most assuredly," we replied. "The case of Miss M'Avoy of Liverpool--of +Prince Hohenlohe, and many others"---- + +"Are all very wonderful, I daresay; but I should like to see the thing +with my own eyes. A friend of mine told me, no later than yesterday, that +he had been present at a meeting, held in a professional gentleman's +house, for the purpose of testing the powers of a lad said to be +clair-voyant, who was exhibited by one of those itinerant lecturers. In +addition to the usual bandages, of which there was much suspicion, a mask, +previously prepared, was put upon the face, so that all deception was +impossible. In this state, the boy, though professedly in the mesmeric +sleep, could see nothing. He fingered the cards--fumbled with the +books--but could read no more than my poodle-dog. In fact, the whole thing +was considered by every one present not only a failure, but a rank and +palpable sham; and until I have some better evidence in support of these +modern miracles, I shall take the liberty of denouncing the system as one +of most impudent imposture." + +"But, my dear fellow, recollect the number of persons of rank and +station--the highly intellectual and cultivated minds which have formed a +directly opposite opinion. What say you to Van Helmont? What say you to +Michael Scott, + + 'A wizard of such dreaded fame, + That when in Salamanca's cave, + Him listed his magic wand to wave, + The bells would ring in Notre Dame?' + +What say you to the sympathetic secrets still known to be preserved in the +monastery of Mount Carmel? What say you"-- + +"I say," replied the Jemadar, "that you are beginning to talk most +infernal nonsense, and that I must be off, as I have an engagement at +three to play a match at billiards. In the meantime, you'll oblige me by +settling with Mrs Stewart for the ices." + + + + +COOKERY AND CIVILISATION.[12] + + +It is only after passing through an ordeal cruelly insidious, tolerably +severe, and rather protracted, that we feel conscientiously entitled to +assert our ability to dine every day of every week at the Reform Club, +without jeopardy to those immutable principles which are incorruptible by +Whigs and indestructible by Rats. A sneer, perhaps, is curling with +"beautiful disdain" the lips of some Conservative Achilles. Let us nip his +complacent sense of invulnerability in the bud. To eat and to err are +equally attributes of humanity. Looking at ourselves in the mirror of +honest criticism, we behold features as unchangeable as sublunary +vicissitudes will allow. + + "Time writes no wrinkles on our azure brow." + +Witness it! ye many years of wondrous alternation--of lurid tempest and +sunny calm--of disastrous rout and triumphant procession--of shouting paean +and wailing dirge--witness the imperturbable tenor of our way! Attest it, +thou goodly array of the tomes of Maga, laden and sparkling, now as ever, +with wisdom and wit, science and fancy!--attest the unwavering fidelity of +our career! All this is very true; but the secret annals of the good can +never be free from temptations, and never are in reality unblotted by +peccadilloes. The fury of the demagogue has been our laughing-stock--the +versatility of trimming politicians, our scorn. We have crouched before +none of the powers which have been, or be; neither have we been carried +off our feet by the whirlwinds of popular passion. Yet it is difficult to +resist a good dinner. The victories of Miltiades robbed Themistocles of +sleep. The triumphs of SOYER are apt to affect us, "with a difference," +after the same fashion. + +There was, we remember, a spirit of surly independence within us on +visiting, for the first time, the "high capital" of Whiggery, where the +Tail at present + + "New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer + Their State affairs." + +To admire any thing was not our mood: + + "The ascending pile + Stood fix'd her stately heighth; and straight the doors, + Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide + Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth + And level pavement." + +And as these lines suggested themselves, we recollected who the first Whig +is said to have been, and whose architectural glories Milton was +recording. We never yet heard a Radical disparage a peer of the realm +without being convinced, that deep in the pocket, next his heart, lay an +incautious hospitable invitation from the noble lord, to which a +precipitate answer in the affirmative had already been dispatched. +Analogously, in the magnificent edifice, whose tesselated floor we were +treading gingerly, it seemed to us that we surveyed an unmistakable +monument of an innate predilection for the splendours and comforts, the +pomp and the _abandon_, of a "proud aristocracy." This was before dinner, +and we were hungry. To tell all that happened to us for some hours +afterwards, would, in fact, force us to transfer to our pages more than +half of the volume which is prompting these observations. Suffice it to +say, that when we again stood on Pall-Mall, a bland philanthropy of +sentiment, embracing all races, and classes, and sects of men, permeated +our bosom. Whence came the mellowing influence, seeing that we had been, +as our custom is, very innocent of wine? Nor could it be the seductive +eloquence of the company. We had indeed been roundly vituperated in +argument by the Liberator. Oh yes! but we had been fed by the Regenerator. + +To us, then, on these things much meditating--so Cicero and Brougham love +to write--many of the speculations in which we had indulged, and of the +principles which we had advocated, were obviously not quite in harmony +with the views long inculcated by us on a docile public. Suddenly the +truth flashed across and illuminated the perplexity of our ponderings. We +were aware that, early in the evening, a much milder censure than usual +upon some factious Liberal manoeuvre had passed our lips. This took +place just about the fourth spoonful of soup. The spells were already in +operation under the shape of "_potage a la Marcus Hill_." There is a +fascination even in the name of this "delicious soup"--such is the epithet +of Soyer--which our readers will better understand in the sequel. Again, +it was impossible to deny that we had hazarded several equivocal +observations in reference to the Palmerstonian policy in Syria. But it was +equally true that such inadvertencies slipped from us while laboriously +engaged in determining a delicate competition between "_John Doree a +l'Orleannaise_" and "_saumon a la Beyrout_." A transient compliment to the +influence at elections of the famous Duchess of Devonshire was little +liable to objection, we imagined, during a playful examination of a few +"_aiguillettes de volaille a la jolie fille_." More questionable, it must +be admitted, were certain assertions regarding the Five Points, enunciated +hastily over a "_neck of mutton a la Charte_." No fault, however, had we +to find with the cutting facetiousness with which we had garnished +"_cotelettes d'Agneau a la reforme en surprise aux Champignons_." The +title of this dish was so ludicrously applicable to the consternation of +the remnants of the Melbourne ministry--the cutlets of lamb--in finding +themselves outrun in the race by mushroom free-traders, that our +pleasantry thereanent was irresistible. It was difficult, at the same +time, to justify the expression of an opinion, infinitely too favourable +to Peel's commercial policy, yielding to the allurements of a "_turban des +cailles a la financiere_." And, on the whole, we smarted beneath a +consciousness that all our conversation had been perceptibly flavoured by +"_filets de becasses a la Talleyrand_." + +The result of these reflections was, simply, an alarming conviction of the +tremendous influence exercised by Soyer throughout all the workings of the +British constitution. The causes of the success of the League begin to +dawn upon us, while our gravest suspicions are confirmed by the +appearance, at this peculiar crisis, of the "Gastronomic Regenerator." +What patriotism can withstand a superabundance of untaxed food, cooked +according to the tuition of Soyer? How can public virtue keep its ground +against such a rush of the raw material, covered by such a "_batterie de +cuisine_?" Cobden and Soyer, in alliance, have given a new turn, and +terribly literal power, to the fable of Menenius Agrippa. + + "There was a time when all the body's members + Rebell'd against the belly." + +Such times are gone. The belly now has it all its own way, while + + "The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye, + The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier, + Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter," + +are conjunctly and severally cuffed, or bunged up, or broken, or stifled, +unless they are perpetually ministering to the service of the great +cormorant corporation. It is mighty well to talk of the dissolution of the +League. The testament of Caesar, commented on by Mark Antony, was +eventually more fatal to the liberties of Rome, than the irrepressible +ambition which originally urged the arch-traitor across the Rubicon. The +"Gastronomic Regenerator," in the hands of every housewife in the country, +is merely to convert the most invincible portion of the community into a +perpetual militia of free-traders. All cooks proverbially encourage an +enormous consumption of victuals. The study of Soyer will infallibly +transform three-fourths of the empire into cooks. Consequently, the demand +for every variety of sustenance, by an immense majority of the nation, +will be exorbitant and perennial. No syllogism can be more unassailable. +We venture also to affirm that the judgment of posterity will be rigidly +true in apportioning the endurance of fame which the conflicting merits of +our great benefactors may deserve. It is far from unlikely that the +glories of a Peel may be disregarded, forgotten, and unsung, when the +trophies of a Soyer, still odorous, and unctuous, and fresh, shall be in +every body's mouth. + +The "Gastronomic Regenerator" has not assumed his imposing title without a +full appreciation of the dignity of his office and the elevation of his +mission. The brief and graceful "dialogue culinaire" between Lord M. H. +and himself, illustrates the grand doctrines that man is a cooking animal, +and that the progress of cooking is the progress of civilisation. There is +something prodigiously sublime in the words of the noble interlocutor, +when he declares, "Read history, and you see that in every age, and among +all nations, the good which has been done, and sometimes the evil, has +been always preceded or followed by a copious dinner." This language, we +presume, must be considered on the great scale, as applicable to the most +solemn and momentous occurrences in the history of governments and +countries. Not that we can exclude it from individual biography. +Benevolence we have always regarded as a good sauce, and have often +observed it to be an excellent dessert. The man who tucks his napkin under +his chin immediately after conferring a benefit on a fellow-creature, +invariably manifests marvellous capabilities for digestion; and, on the +other hand, the man who has dined to his own entire satisfaction, if +solicited in the nick of time, will frequently evince an open-handed +generosity, to which his more matutine emotions would have been strangers. +But--to reverse the picture--any interruption to the near prospect of a +"copious dinner" is at all times inimical to charity; while repletion, we +know, occasionally reveals such unamiable dispositions as could not have +been detected by the most jealous scrutiny at an earlier period of the +day. Nations are but hives of individuals. We understand, therefore, the +noble lord to mean, that all the history of all the thousand races of the +globe concurrently teaches us that every great event, social or political, +domestic or foreign, involving their national weal or woe, has been +harbingered or commemorated by a "copious dinner." Many familiar instances +of this profound truth--some of very recent date--crowd into our +recollection. But we cannot help suspecting a deeper meaning to be +inherent in the enunciation of this "great fact." Copious dinners are, as +it strikes us, here covertly represented as the means of effecting the +most extensive ameliorations. To dine is insinuated to be the first step +on the highway to improvement. In the consequences which flow from dining +copiously, what is beneficial is evidently stated to preponderate over +what is hurtful, the qualifying "sometimes" being only attached to the +latter. In this respect, dinners seem to differ from men, that the evil is +more frequently "interred with their bones," while the "good they do lives +after them." This is, assuredly, ringing a dinner-bell incessantly to the +whole universe. We have ourselves, not half an hour ago, paid our quota +for participating within the last week in congratulatory festivities to +two eminent public characters. The overwhelming recurrence, in truth, of +these entertainments, drains us annually of a handsome income; and +reading, as we do daily in the newspapers, how every grocer, on changing +his shop round the corner, and every professor of dancing, on being driven +by the surges of the Utilitarian system up another flight of stairs, must, +to felicitate or soothe him, receive the tribute or consolation of a +banquet and demonstration, we hold up our hands in amazement at the +opulence and deglutition of Scotland. + +What shall become of us, driven further onwards still, by the impetus of +the Gastronomic Regenerator, we dare not foretell. The whole year may be a +circle of public feasts; and our institutions gradually, although with no +small velocity, relapse into the common table of Sparta. But never, +whispers Soyer, into the black broth of Lycurgus. And so he ensnares us +into the recognition of another fundamental principle, that the simplicity +of Laconian fare night be admirably appropriate for infant republics and +penniless helots, but can afford no subsistence to an overgrown empire, +and the possessors of the wealth of the world! Thus cookery marks, dates, +and authenticates the refinement of mankind. The savage cuts his warm +slice from the haunches of the living animal, and swallows it reeking from +the kitchen of nature. The civilized European, revolting from the dreadful +repast, burns, and boils, and stews, and roasts his food into an external +configuration, colour, and substance, as different from its original +condition as the mummy of Cheops differs from the Cheops who watched, with +an imperial dilatation of his brow, the aspiring immortality of the +pyramids. Both, in acting so differently, are the slaves and the types of +the circumstances of their position. The functions in the frames of both +are the same; but these functions curiously follow the discipline of the +social situation which directs and regulates their development. The +economy of the kitchen is only a counterpart, in its simplicity or +complication, its rudeness or luxury, of the economy of the state. The +subjects of patriarchs and despots may eat uncooked horses with relish and +nourishment. The denizens of a political system whose every motion is +regulated by an intricate machinery, in which the teeth of all the myriad +wheels in motion are indented with inextricable multiplicity of confusion +into each other, perish under any nurture which is not as intricate, +complex, artificial, and confused. What a noble and comprehensive science +is this Gastronomy! + +"Are you not also," says the philosophic Soyer, in the same interesting +dialogue, "of opinion with me, my lord, that nothing better disposes the +mind of man to amity in thought and deed, than a dinner which has been +knowingly selected, and artistically served?" The answer is most pregnant. +"It is my thinking so," replies Lord M. H., "which has always made me say +that a good cook is as useful as a wise minister." Behold to what an +altitude we are carried! The loaves and fishes in the hands of the Whigs, +and Soyer at the Reform Club to dress them! Let us banish melancholy, and +drive away dull care. The bellicose propensities of a foreign secretary +are happily innocuous. The rumours of war pass by us like the idle wind +which we regard not. Protocols and treaties, notes and representations, +are henceforth disowned by diplomacy. The figure of Britannia with a +stew-pan for her helmet, and a spit for a spear, leaning in statuesque +repose on a folio copy of the _Gastronomic Regenerator_, + + "Surveys mankind from China to Peru;" + +and with an unruffled ocean at her feet, and a cloudless sky overhead, +smiles on the countless millions of the children of earth, chatting +fraternally together at the round table of universal peace. Bright will be +the morning of the day which sees the impress of such an image on our +currency. Of course, it will be understood that we are entirely of the +same mind, abstractly, as M. Soyer and Lord M. H. The _maitre de cuisine_ +appears to us unquestionably to be one of the most important functionaries +belonging to an embassy. Peace or war, which it is scarcely necessary to +interpret as the happiness or the misery of two great countries, may +depend upon a headache. Now, if it were possible, in any case, to trace +the bilious uneasiness which may have perverted pacific intentions into +hostile designs, to the unskilful or careless performance of his momentous +duties by the cook-legate, no punishment could too cruelly expiate such a +blunder. We should be inclined to propose that the brother artist who most +adroitly put the delinquent to torture, should be his successor, holding +office under a similar tenure. It may be matter of controversy, however, +at once whether such a system would work well, and whether it is agreeable +to the prevalence of those kindly feelings which it is the object of M. +Soyer, and every other good cook or wise statesman, to promulgate +throughout the human family. The publication of the _Gastronomic +Regenerator_ inspires us with better hopes. The tyro of the dripping-pan +will be no more entitled to screen himself behind his imperfect science or +neglected education, than the unlettered criminal to plead his ignorance +of the alphabet as a justification of his ignorance of the statute law, +whose enactments send him to Botany Bay. The rudiments and the +mysteries--the elementary axioms and most recondite problems--of his lofty +vocation are unrolled before him in legible and intelligible characters. +The skill which is the offspring of practice, must be attained by his +opportunities and his industry. And if + + "Fame is the spur which the clear spirit doth raise," + +it might, we trust, satiate the most ravenous appetite which ever gnawed +the bowels even of a cook, not merely to secure the tranquillity of the +universe, but to save his native land the expense of armies and fleets, +and turn the currents of gold absorbed by taxation, into the more +congenial channel of gastronomical enterprise. The majestic and +far-spreading oak springs out of the humble acorn. In future ages, the +acute historian will demonstrate how the "copious dinner" which cemented +the bonds of eternal alliance between vast and consolidated empires, whose +people were clothed in purple and fine linen, lived in habitations +decorated with every tasteful and gorgeous variety which caprice could +suggest and affluence procure, and mingled the physical indolence of +Sybaris with the intellectual activity of Athens, was but the ripe fruit +legitimately matured from the simple bud of the calumet of peace, which +sealed a hollow truce among the roving and puny lands of the naked, +cityless, and untutored Indian. So, once more, the perfectibility of +cookery indicates the perfectibility of society. + +The gallantry of Soyer is as conspicuous as his historical and political +philosophy. He would not profusely "scatter plenty o'er a smiling land" +solely for the gratification of his own sex. The sun shines on woman as on +man; and when the sun will not shine, a woman's eye supplies all the light +we need. The sagacious "Regenerator" refuses to restrict to the lordly +moiety of mankind a monopoly of his beams, feeling that, when the pressure +of mortal necessity sinks his head, fairer hands than those of the +statesman or the warrior, the ecclesiastic or the lawyer, are likely to be +the conservators of his reputation. "Allow me," he remarks, "to suggest to +your lordship, that a meeting for practical gastronomical purposes, _where +there are no ladies_, is in my eyes a garden without flowers, a sea +without waves, an experimental squadron without sails." + + "Without the smile from partial beauty won, + Say what were man?--a world without a sun!" + +The harrowing picture of desolation, from the pen of M. Soyer, may be +equalled, but cannot be surpassed, by a line here and there in Byron's +"Darkness." The sentiment, at the same time, sounds oddly, as it issues +from the penetralia of a multitudinous club. Our notion has hitherto been, +that a club was an invention of which a principal object was to prove that +female society was far from being indispensable to man, and that all the +joys of domesticity might be tasted in a state of single-blessedness +beyond the precincts of home for a small annual payment. A thorough-going +club-man would very soon drive a coach and four through the Regenerator's +polite eloquence. For instance, a garden without flowers has so much the +more room for the growth of celery, asparagus, artichokes, and the like. +There could not possibly be a greater convenience than the evaporation or +disappearance of the waters of the ocean; because we should then have +railways every where, and no nausea. Sails, likewise, are not requisite +now-a-days for ships; on the contrary, steam-vessels are so evidently +superior, that the sail-maker may as well shut up his shop. The flowers of +a garden are an incumbrance--the waves of the sea are an impediment--the +sails of a ship are a superfluity. Garden, sea, and ship would be better +wanting flowers, waves, and sails. On the same principles a club is +preferable to a family fire-side, and the lot of a bachelor to the fate of +a Benedict. M. Soyer, speaking _ex cathedra_ from the kitchen of the +Reform Club, would find it no easy matter to parry the cogency of this +reasoning. He forgets, apparently, that he bares his breast to a most +formidable attack. What right have MEN to be Cooks? What hypocrisy it is +to regret that women cannot eat those dinners which women alone are +entitled, according to the laws of nature and the usages of Britain, to +dress! Be just before you affect to be generous! Surrender the place, and +the privileges, and the immunities, which are the heritage and birthright +of the petticoat! Hercules with a distaff was bad enough; but here, in the +vagaries and metamorphoses of heathen mythology, do you read of Hercules +with a dishclout? What would the moon say, should the sun insist on +blazing away all night as well as all day? Your comparisons are full of +poetry and humbug. A kitchen without a female cook--it _is_ like a +flowerless garden, a waveless sea, a sail-less ship. A kitchen with a male +cook--is a monster which natural history rejects, and good feeling abhors. +The rights of women are scarcely best vindicated by him who usurps the +most precious of them. There will be time to complain of their absence +from the scene, when, by a proper self-ostracism, you leave free for them +the stage which it becomes them to occupy. These are knotty matters, M. +Soyer, for digestion. With so pretty a quarrel we shall not interfere, +having a wholesome respect for an Amazonian enemy who can stand fire like +salamanders. To be candid, we are puzzled by the sprightliness of our own +fancy, and do not very distinctly comprehend how we have managed to +involve the Regenerator, whose thoughts were bent on the pale and slim +sylphs of the boudoir, in a squabble with the rubicund and rotund vestals +who watch the inextinguishable flames of THE GREAT HEARTH. + +This marvellous dialogue, from which we have taken with our finger and +thumb a tit-bit here and there, might be the text for inexhaustible +annotation. It occupies no more than two pages; but, as Gibbon has said of +Tacitus, "they are the pages of Soyer." Every topic within the range of +human knowledge is touched, by direct exposition or collateral allusion. +The metaphysician and the theologian, the physiologist and the moralist, +are all challenged to investigate its dogmas, which, let us forewarn them, +are so curtly, positively, and oracularly propounded, as, if orthodox, to +need no commentary; and if heterodox, to demand accumulated mountains of +controversy to overwhelm them. For he, we believe, can hardly be deemed a +mean opponent, unworthy of a foeman's steel-pen, who has at his fingers' +ends "Mullets a la Montesquieu," "Fillets of Haddock a la St Paul," +"Saddle of Mutton a la Mirabeau," "Ribs of Beef a la Bolingbroke," +"Pounding Souffle a la Mephistopheles," "Woodcock a la Stael," and "Filets +de Boeuf farcis a la Dr Johnson." + +The constitution of English cookery is precisely similar to the +constitution of the English language. Both were prophetically sketched by +Herodotus in his description of the army of Xerxes, which gathered its +numbers, and strength, and beauty, from "all the quarters in the shipman's +card." That imperishable mass of noble words--that glorious tongue in +which Soyer has prudently written the "Gastronomic Regenerator," is in +itself an unequalled specimen of felicitous cookery. The dishes which +furnished the most _recherche_ dinner Soyer ever dressed, the "Diner +Lucullusian a la Sampayo," being resolved into the chaos whence they arose +in faultless proportions and resistless grace, would not disclose elements +and ingredients more heterogenous, remote, and altered from their primal +nature, than those which go to the composition of the few sentences in +which he tells us of this resuscitation of the _caena_ of Petronius. A +thousand years and a thousand accidents, the deepest erudition and the +keenest ingenuity, the most delicate wit and most outrageous folly, have +been co-operating in the manufacture of the extraordinary vocabulary which +has enabled the Regenerator himself to concoct the following unparalleled +receipt for + + "THE CELESTIAL AND TERRESTRIAL CREAM OF GREAT BRITAIN. + + "Procure, if possible, the antique Vase of the Roman Capitol; the Cup + of Hebe; the Strength of Hercules; and the Power of Jupiter;" + + "_Then proceed as follows:_--" + + "Have ready the chaste Vase (on the glittering rim of which three + doves are resting in peace), and in it deposit a Smile from the + Duchess of Sutherland, from which Terrestrial Deesse it will be most + graceful; then add a Lesson from the Duchess of Northumberland; the + Happy Remembrance of Lady Byron; an Invitation from the Marchioness + of Exeter; a Walk in the Fairy Palace of the Duchess of Buckingham; + an Honour of the Marchioness of Douro; a Sketch from Lady + Westmoreland; Lady Chesterfield's Conversation; the Deportment of the + Marchioness of Aylesbury; the Affability of Lady Marcus Hill; some + Romances of Mrs Norton; a Mite of Gold from Miss Coutts; a Royal + Dress from the Duchess of Buccleuch; a Reception from the Duchess of + Leinster; a Fragment of the Works of Lady Blessington; a Ministerial + Secret from Lady Peel; a Gift from the Duchess of Bedford; an + Interview with Madame de Bunsen; a Diplomatic Reminiscence from the + Marchioness of Clanricarde; an Autocratic Thought from the Baroness + Brunow; a Reflection from Lady John Russell; an amiable Word from + Lady Wilton; the Protection of the Countess de St Aulaire; a Seraphic + Strain from Lady Essex; a poetical gift of the Baroness de la + Calabrala; a Welcome from Lady Alice Peel; the Sylph-like form of the + Marchioness of Abercorn; a Soiree of the Duchess of Beaufort; a + Reverence of the Viscountess Jocelyn; and the Good-will of Lady + Palmerston. + + "Season with the Piquante Observation of the Marchioness of + Londonderry; the Stately Mein of the Countess of Jersey; the Tresor + of the Baroness Rothschild; the Noble Devotion of Lady Sale; the + Knowledge of the Fine Arts of the Marchioness of Lansdowne; the + Charity of the Lady De Grey; a Criticism from the Viscountess of + Melville;--with a Musical Accompaniment from the whole; and Portraits + of all these Ladies taken from the Book of Celebrated Beauties. + + "Amalgamate scientifically; and should you find this _Appareil_ + (which is without a parallel) does not mix well, do not regard the + expense for the completion of a dish worthy of the Gods! + + "Endeavour to procure, no matter at what price, a Virtuous Maxim from + the Book of Education of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent; a + Kiss from the Infant Princess Alice; an Innocent Trick of the + Princess-Royal; a Benevolent Visit from the Duchess of Gloucester; a + Maternal Sentiment of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge; a + Compliment from the Princess Augusta de Mecklenbourg; the future + Hopes of the Young Princess Mary;-- + + "And the Munificence of Her Majesty Queen Adelaide. + + "Cover the Vase with the Reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty, and let + it simmer for half a century, or more, if possible, over a Fire of + Immortal Roses. + + "Then uncover, with the greatest care and precision, this Mysterious + Vase; garnish the top with the Aurora of a Spring Morning; several + Rays of the Sun of France; the Serenity of an Italian Sky; and the + Universal Appreciation of the Peace of Europe. + + "Add a few Beams of the Aurora Borealis; sprinkle over with the + Virgin Snow of Mont Blanc; glaze with an Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, + cause the Star of the Shepherd to dart over it; and remove, as + quickly as possible, this _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the nineteenth century + from the Volcanic District. + + "Then fill Hebe's Enchanted Cup with a religious Balm, and with it + surround this mighty Cream of Immortality; + + "Terminate with the Silvery light of the Pale Queen of Night, without + disturbing a Ray of the Brilliancy of the brightest Queen of the + Day." + +Half a century hence, when the simmering over the roseate fire is silent, +may we, with M. Soyer, be present to gaze on the happy consummation of the +conceptions of his transcendant imagination! + +The Regenerator is too conversant with universal history not to know that +his book, in crossing the Tweed northwards, approaches a people more +familiar with its fundamental principles than any other inhabitants of +these Fortunate Isles. England, for any thing we care, may deserve the +opprobrious title of perfidious Albion. Scotland--("Stands Scotland where +it did?")--was ever the firm friend of France. Ages ago, when our southern +cousins were incessantly fighting, we were constantly dining, with the +French. Our royal and noblest families were mingled by the dearest ties +with the purest and proudest blood of the adopted land of Mary. For +centuries uninterruptedly was maintained an interchange of every gentle +courtesy, and every friendly succour; and when the broadsword was not +needed to gleam in the front ranks of Gallic chivalry, the dirk never +failed to emit the first flash in the onslaughts of Gallic hospitality. +The Soyers of those times--dim precursors of the Regenerator--did not +disdain to alight on our hungry shores, and leave monuments of their +beneficence, which are grateful to this hour in the nostrils and to the +palate of prince and peasant. Nay, we shrewdly conjecture that some +time-honoured secrets still dwell with us, of which the memory has long +since perished in their birth-place. Boastful we may not suffer ourselves +to be. But if M. Soyer ever heard of, or dressed or tasted precisely as we +have dressed and tasted, what is known to us and a very limited circle of +acquaintances as "Lamb-toasty," we shall start instantly from the +penultimate habitation of Ultima Thule, commonly known as John O'Groat's +House, expressly to test his veracity, and gratify our voracity. Perhaps +he may think it would not be too polite in us to transmit him the receipt. +Not for a wilderness of Regenerators! Could we unfold to him the awful +legend in connexion with it, of which we are almost the exclusive +depositaries, the cap so lightly lying on his brow would be projected +upwards to the roof by the instantaneous starting of his hair. The Last +Minstrel himself, to whom it was narrated, shook his head when he heard +it, and was never known to allude to it again; in reference to which +circumstance, all that the bitterest malice could insinuate was, that if +the story had been worth remembering, he was not likely to have forgotten +it. "One December midnight, a shriek"--is probably as far as we can now +venture to proceed. There are some descendants of the parties, whose +feelings, even after the lapse of five hundred years, which is but as +yesterday in a Highlander's genealogy, we are bound to respect. In other +five hundred years, we shall, with more safety to ourselves, let them "sup +full of horrors." + +The Gastronomic Regenerator reminds us of no book so much as the +Despatches of Arthur Duke of Wellington. The orders of Soyer emanate from +a man with a clear, cool, determined mind--possessing a complete mastery +of his weapons and materials, and prompt to make them available for +meeting every contingency--singularly fertile in conceiving, and fortunate +without a check in executing, sudden, rapid, and difficult +combinations--overlooking nothing with his eagle eye, and, by the powerful +felicity of his resources, making the most of every thing--matchless in +his "Hors-d'OEuvres"--unassailable in his "Removes"--impregnable in his +"Pieces de resistance"--and unconquerable with his "Flanks." His +directions are lucid, precise, brief, and unmistakeable. There is not a +word in them superfluous--or off the matter immediately on hand--or not +directly to the point. They are not the dreams of a visionary theorist and +enthusiast, but the hard, solid, real results of the vast experience of a +tried veteran, who has personally superintended or executed all the +operations of which he writes. It may be matter of dispute whether +Wellington or Soyer acquired their knowledge in the face of the hotter +fire. They are both great Chiefs--whose mental and intellectual faculties +have a wonderful similarity--and whose sayings and doings are +characterised by an astonishing resemblance in nerve, perspicuity, vigour, +and success. In one respect M. Soyer has an advantage over his illustrious +contemporary. His Despatches are addressed to an army which as far +outnumbers any force every commanded or handled by the Hero of Waterloo, +as the stars in the blue empyrean exceed the gas-lamps of London--an army +which, instead of diminishing under any circumstances, evinces a tendency, +we fear, of steadily swelling its ranks year by year, and day by day--a +standing army, which the strong hand of the most jealous republicanism +cannot suppress, and which the realization of the bright chimera of +universal peace will fail to disband. Before many months are gone, +thousands and tens of thousands will be marching and countermarching, +cutting and skewering, broiling and freezing, in blind obedience to the +commands of the Regenerator. "Peace hath her victories no less than those +of war." But it is not to be forgotten that if the sword of Wellington had +not restored and confirmed the tranquillity of the world, the +carving-knife of Soyer might not have been so bright. + +The confidence of Soyer in his own handiwork is not the arrogant +presumption of vanity, but the calm self-reliance of genius. There is a +deal of good sense in the paragraph which we now quote:-- + + "Although I am entirely satisfied with the composition, distribution, + and arrangement of my book, should some few little mistakes be + discovered they will be the more excusable under those circumstances, + as in many instances I was unable to devote that tedious time + required for correction; and although I have taken all possible care + to prescribe, by weight and measure, the exact quantity of + ingredients used in the following receipts for the seasoning and + preparing of all kinds of comestibles, I must observe that the + ingredients are not all either of the same size or quality; for + instance, some eggs are much larger than others, some pepper + stronger, salt salter, and even some sugar sweeter. In vegetables, + again, there is a considerable difference in point of size and + quality; fruit is subject to the same variation, and, in fact all + description of food is subject to a similar fluctuation. I am far, + however, from taking these disproportions for excuses, but feel + satisfied, if the medium of the specified ingredients be used, and + the receipts in other respects closely followed, nothing can hinder + success." + +It seems a childish remark to make, that all salts do not coincide in +their saltness, nor sugars in their sweetness. The principle, however, +which the observation contains within it, is any thing but childish. It +implies, that, supposing the accuracy of a Soyer to be nearly infallible, +the faith in his instructions must never be so implicit as to supersede +the testimony of one's own senses, and the admonitions of one's own +judgment. It is with the most poignant recollections that we acknowledge +the justice of the Regenerator's caution on this head. We once, with a +friend who shared our martyrdom, tried to make onion soup in exact +conformity with what was set down in an Oracle of Cookery, which a foul +mischance had placed across our path. With unerring but inflecting +fidelity, we filled, and mixed, and stirred, and watched, the fatal +caldron. The result was to the eye inexpressibly alarming. A thick oily +fluid, repulsive in colour, but infinitely more so in smell, fell with a +flabby, heavy, lazy stream, into the soup-plate. Having swallowed, with a +Laocoonic contortion of countenance, two or three mouthfuls, our +individual eyes wandered stealthily towards our neighbour. Evidently we +were fellow-sufferers; but pride, which has occasioned so many lamentable +catastrophes, made us both dumb and obdurate in our agony. Slowly and +sadly, at lengthened intervals, the spoon, with its abominable freight, +continued to make silent voyages from the platters to our lips. How long +we made fools of ourselves it is not necessary to calculate. Suddenly, by +a simultaneous impulse, the two windows of the room favoured the headlong +exit of two wretches whose accumulated grievances were heavier than they +could endure. Hours rolled away, while the beautiful face of Winandermere +looked as ugly as Styx, as we writhed along its banks, more miserably +moaning than the hopeless beggar who sighed for the propitiatory obolus to +Charon. And from that irrevocable hour we have abandoned onions to the +heroines of tragedy. Fools, in spite of all warning, are taught by such a +process as that to which we submitted. Wise men, take a hint. + +"Nature, says I to myself"--Soyer is speaking--"compels us to dine more or +less once a-day." The average which oscillates between the "more" and the +"less," it requires considerable dexterity to catch. Having read six +hundred pages and fourteen hundred receipts, the question is, where are we +to begin? Our helplessness is confessed. Is it possible the Regenerator +is, after all, more tantalizing than the Barmecide? No--here is the very +aid we desiderate. Our readers shall judge of a + + "DINNER PARTY AT HOME." + + BILL OF FARE FOR EIGHT PERSONS. + + Asparagus. + + New Potatoes. + + 1 SOUP. + French Pot au Feu. + + 1 FISH. + 3 Slices of Salmon en matelote. + + 2 REMOVES. + Braised Fowls with spring vegetables. + Leg of Mutton basted with devil's tears. + + 2 ENTREES. + Lamb Cutlets with asparagus, peas. + Salmi of Plovers with mushrooms. + + 2 ROASTS. + 2 Ducklings. + 4 Pigeons barded with vine leaves. + + 4 ENTREMETS. + Orange Jelly. + Green peas. + Omelette, with fine herbs. + Gooseberry Tart with cream. + + 1 REMOVE. + Iced Cake with fruits. + + "Nothing but light wine is drunk at the first course, but at the + second my guests are at liberty to drink wines of any other + description, intercepting them with several hors-d'oeuvres, which + are small dishes of French pickled olives and sardines, thin slices + of Bologna sausage, fillets of anchovies, ciboulettes, or very small + green onions, radishes, &c.; also a plain dressed salade a la + Francais, (for which see end of the entrees, Kitchen at Home), + fromage de brie Neufchatel, or even Windsor cheese, when it can be + procured. The coffee and dessert I usually leave to the good taste + and economy of my menagere." + +We shall be exceedingly curious to hear how many hundred parties of eight +persons, upon reading this bill of fare in our pages, will, without loss +of time, congregate in order to do it substantial honour. Such clattering +of brass and brandishing of steel may strike a new government as +symptomatical or preparatory of a popular rising. We may therefore +reassure them with the information, that those who sit down with M. Soyer, +will have little thought of rising for a long time afterwards. + +We have introduced the Gastronomic Regenerator to public notice in that +strain which its external appearance, its title, its scheme and its +contents, demand and justify. But we must not, even good-humouredly, +mislead those for whose use its publication is principally intended. To +all intents and purposes M. Soyer's work is strictly and most intelligibly +practical. It is as full of matter as an egg is full of meat; and the +household which would travel through its multitudinous lessons must be as +full of meat as the Regenerator is full of matter. The humblest, as well +as the wealthiest kitchen economy, is considered and instructed; nor will +the three hundred receipts at the conclusion of the volume, which are more +peculiarly applicable to the "Kitchen at Home," be, probably the portion +of the book least agreeable and valuable to the general community. For +example, just before shaking hands with him, let us listen to M. Soyer, +beginning admirably to discourse + + _Of the Choosing and Roasting of Plain Joints._ + + "Here I must claim all the attention of my readers. Many of the + profession will, I have no doubt, be surprised that I should dwell + upon a subject, which appears of so little importance, saying that, + from the plain cook to the most professed, all know how to roast or + boil a piece of meat; but there I must beg their pardon. I will + instance myself, for, previously to my forming any intention of + writing the present work, I had not devoted the time necessary to + become professionally acquainted with it, always depending upon my + roasting cook, who had constant practice, myself only having the + knowledge of whether or not properly done. I have since not only + studied it closely, but have made in many respects improvements upon + the old system, and many discoveries in that branch which I am sure + is the most beneficial to all classes of society, (remembering, as I + have before stated, that three parts of the animal food of this + country is served either plain-roasted or boiled) My first study was + the fire, which I soon perceived as too deep, consumed too much coal, + and required poking every half hour, thus sending dust and dirt all + over the joints, which were immediately basted to wash it off; seeing + plainly this inconvenience, I immediately remedied it by inventing my + new roasting fire-place, by which means I saved two hundred-weight of + coals per day, besides the advantage of never requiring to be poked, + being narrow and perpendicular; the fire is lighted with the greatest + facility, and the front of the fire being placed a foot back in the + chimney-piece, throws the heat of the fire direct upon the meat, and + not out at the sides, as many persons know, from the old roasting + ranges. I have many times placed ladies or gentlemen, visiting the + club, within two feet of the fire when six large joints have been + roasting, and they have been in perfect ignorance that it was near + them, until, upon opening the wing of the screen by surprise, they + have appeared quite terrified to think they were so near such an + immense furnace. My next idea was to discontinue basting, perhaps a + bold attempt to change and upset at once the custom of almost all + nations and ages, but being so confident of its evil effects and + tediousness, I at once did away with it, and derived the greatest + benefit (for explanation, see remarks at the commencement of the + roasts in the Kitchen of the Wealthy,) for the quality of meat in + England is, I may say, superior to any other nation; its moist soil + producing fine grass almost all the year round, which is the best + food for every description of cattle; whilst in some countries not so + favoured by nature they are obliged to have recourse to artificial + food, which fattens the animals but decreases the flavour of the + meat: and, again, we, must take into consideration the care and + attention paid by the farmers and graziers to improve the stock of + those unfortunate benefactors of the human family." + +How full of milky kindness is his language, still breathing the spirit of +that predominant idea--the tranquillisation of the universe by "Copious +Dinners!" He has given up "basting" with success. Men may as well give up +basting one another. Nobody will envy the Regenerator the bloodless +fillets worthily encircling his forehead, should the aspirations of his +benevolent soul in his lifetime assume any tangible shape. But if a more +distant futurity is destined to witness the lofty triumph, he may yet +depart in the confidence of its occurrence. The most precious fruits ripen +the most slowly. The sun itself does not burst at once into meridian +splendour. Gradually breaks the morning; and the mellow light glides +noiselessly along, tinging mountain, forest, and city spire, till a +stealthy possession seems to be taken of the whole upper surface of +creation, and the mighty monarch at last uprises on a world prepared to +expect, to hail, and to reverence his perfect and unclouded majesty. + + + + +THE LATE AND THE PRESENT MINISTRY. + + +Our sentiments with regard to the change of policy on the part of Sir +Robert Peel and his coadjutors, were early, and we hope forcibly, +expressed. We advocated then, as ever, the principle of protection to +native industry and agriculture, not as a class-benefit, but on far deeper +and more important considerations. We deprecated the rash experiment of +departing from a system under which we had flourished so long--of yielding +to the clamours of a grasping and interested faction, whose object in +raising the cry of cheap bread, was less the welfare of the working man, +than the depression of his wages, and a corresponding additional profit to +themselves. The decline of agricultural prosperity--inevitable if the +anticipations of the free traders should be fulfilled--seems to us an evil +of the greatest possible magnitude, and the more dangerous because the +operation must be necessarily slow. And in particular, we protested +against the introduction of free-trade measures, at a period when their +consideration was not called for by the pressure of any exigency, when the +demand for labour was almost without parallel, and before the merits of +the sliding-scale of duty, introduced by Sir Robert Peel himself in the +present Parliament, had been sufficiently tested or observed. Those who +make extravagant boast of the soundness and sagacity of their leader +cannot deny, that the facts upon which he based his plan of financial +reform, were in reality not facts, but fallacies. The political Churchill +enunciated his _Prophecy of Famine_, not hesitatingly nor doubtfully, but +in the broadest and the strongest language. Month after month glided away, +and still the famine came not; until men, marvelling at the unaccountable +delay, looked for it as the ignorant do for the coming of a predicted +eclipse, and were informed by the great astrologer of the day that it was +put off for an indefinite period! Now, when another and a more beautiful +harvest is just beginning, we find that in reality the prophecy was a mere +delusion; that there were no grounds whatever to justify any such +anticipation, and that the pseudo-famine was a mere stalking-horse, +erected for the purpose of concealing the stealthy advance of free-trade. + +If this measure of free-trade was in itself right and proper, it required +no such paltry accessories and stage tricks to make it palatable to the +nation at large. Nay, we go further, and say, that under no circumstances +ought the distress of a single year to be assigned as a sufficient reason +for a great fiscal change which must derange the whole internal economy +and foreign relations of the country, and which must be permanent in its +effects. There is, and can be, no such thing as a permanent provision for +exigencies. Were it so, the art of government might be reduced to +principles as unerring in their operation as the tables of an assurance +company--every evil would be provided for before it occurred, and +fluctuations become as unknown among us as the recurrence of an +earthquake. A famine, had it really occurred, would have been no apology +for a total repeal of the corn-laws, though it might have been a good +reason for their suspension. As, however, no famine took place, we take +the prophecy at its proper value, and dismiss it at once to the limbo of +popular delusions; at the same time, we trust that future historians, when +they write this chapter of our chronicles, will not altogether overlook +the nature of the foundation upon which this change has been placed. + +It requires no great penetration to discover how the repeal of the +corn-laws has been carried. The leaders of a powerful party who for ten +years misgoverned the country, were naturally desirous, after an exile of +half that period, to retaste the sweets of office--and were urged +thereunto, not only by their own appetites, but by the clamour of a +ravenous crew behind them, who cared nothing for principle. While in +power, they had remained most dogmatically opposed to the repeal of the +corn-laws. Lord Melbourne denounced the idea as maniacal--he was +supported in that view by almost every one of his colleagues; nor was it +until they found themselves upon the eve of ejectment, that any new light +ever dawned upon the minds of the steadfast myrmidons of Whiggery. The +election of 1841, which turned them out of office made matters worse +instead of better. They now saw no prospect of a restoration to power, +unless they could adopt some blatant cry similar to that which formerly +brought them in. Such a cry was rather difficult to be found. Their +ignorance of finance, their mismanagement abroad, their gross bungling of +almost every measure which they touched, had made them so unpopular that +the nation at large regarded their return to office much as a sufferer +from nightmare contemplates the arrival of his nocturnal visitant. +Undeterred by scruple or by conscience, they would with the greatest +readiness have handed over the national churches to the tender mercies of +the Dissenters, if such a measure could have facilitated their recall to +the pleasant Goshen of Downing Street. It was not however, either +advisable or necessary to carry matters quite so far. Midway between them +and revolution lay the corn-law question once despised but now very +valuable as a workable engine. The original advocates of abolition were +not prime favourites with the Whigs. The leaders of that party have always +been painfully and even ludicrously particular abut their associates. +Liberal in appearance they yet bind themselves together with a thin belt +of aristocratic prejudice and though insatiable in their lust for public +applause, they obstinately refuse to strengthen their coterie by any more +popular addition. They found the corn-law question in the hands of Messrs +Cobden, Bright and Wilson--men of the people--who by their own untiring +energy and the efforts of the subsidiary League, had brought the question +prominently forward, and were fighting independent of party, a sort of +guerilla battle in support of their favourite principle. Our regard for +these gentlemen is not of the highest order, but we should do them great +injustice if we did not bear testimony to the zeal and perseverance they +have exhibited throughout. These are qualities which may be displayed +alike in a good and in an evil cause; and yet earnestness of purpose is at +all times a high attribute of manhood, and enforces the respect of an +enemy. With the constitution of the League we have at present nothing to +do. The organization and existence of such a body, for the purposes of +avowed agitation, was a fact thoroughly within the cognisance of +ministers--it was checked, and is now triumphant, and may therefore prove +the precursor of greater democratic movements. + +The question of the corn-laws was, however, emphatically theirs. A body of +men, consisting almost entirely of master manufacturers, had conceived the +project of getting rid of a law which interfered materially, according to +their views, with the profit and interests of their class. Their arguments +were specious, their enthusiasm in the cause unbounded. They spared no +exertions, grudged no expense, to obtain converts; they set up gratuitous +newspapers, hired orators, held meetings, established bazars--in short +erected such a complicated machine of agitation as had never before +entered into the minds of democrats to conceive. With all this however, +their success, save for political accident, was doubtful. The leaders of +the League were not popular even with their own workmen. Some of the +simpler rules of political economy are tolerably well known among the +operative classes, and of these none is better understood than the +relationship betwixt the prices of labour and of food. Cheap bread, if +accompanied at the same time by a reduction of wages, was at best but a +questionable blessing; nor were these doubts at all dispelled by the +determined resistance of the master manufacturers to every scheme proposed +for shortening the hours of labour, and ameliorating the social as well as +the moral condition of the poor. All that the taskmaster cared for was the +completion of the daily tale. The truck system--that most infamous species +of cruel and tyrannical robbery--gave sad testimony of the extent, as well +as the meanness, of the avarice which could wring profit even from the +most degraded source, and which absolutely sought to establish, here, +within the heart of Britain, a slavery as complete and more odious than +that which is the disgrace of the American republic. It is, therefore, not +to be wondered at if the great mass of the working population regarded the +proceedings of the Anti-Corn-law League with apathy and indifference. For, +be it remarked, that the original Leaguers were by no means thorough-paced +free-traders. Their motive was to deal most summarily with every +restriction which stood in the way of their business, both as regarded +export and import, and the establishment of a lower rate of wages. For +such purposes they were ready to sacrifice every interest in the +commonwealth except their own; but they showed no symptoms whatever of +anxiety to discard restriction wherever it was felt to be advantageous to +themselves. They were, in fact, the aspiring monopolists of the country. +In their disordered imagination, the future position of Britain was to be +that of one mighty workshop, from which the whole world was to be +supplied--a commonalty of cotton, calico, and iron, with a Birmingham and +Manchester aristocracy. + +Such was the position of the League at the moment when the Whigs, eager +for a gathering-cry, came forward as auxiliaries; and yet we have some +doubt as to the propriety of that latter term. They did not come as +helpers--as men who, devoted in singleness of heart to the welfare of +their country, were anxious to assist in the promotion of a measure which +the sagacity of others had discovered--but claiming a sort of divine right +of opposition, similar to that which the lion exercises when the jackal +has run down the prey. Accordingly, upon the corn-laws did the magnanimous +Whig lion place its paw, and wheeze out a note of defiance against all +interlopers whatsoever. Henceforward that question was to be a Whig one. +English agriculture was not to receive its death from the ignoble hands of +Cobden and Co. + +Such was the move of the Whigs in the month of November last. A paltrier +one, in every sense of the word, was never yet attempted nor did the +simultaneous conversion of the whole party, with scarcely more than one or +two honourable exceptions, present a very creditable specimen of the +integrity of her Majesty's Opposition. They had become convinced--why or +wherefore was not stated--that "the time had now arrived" for a total +repeal of the corn-laws, and there was an end of the matter. They were +prepared to vote for it in Parliament--to go to the country with it as +their rallying-cry--to adopt it, in short, as their readiest +stepping-stone into office. The old champions of repeal--the +Leaguers--might go about their business. The conduct of the question was +now transferred into the same hands which had become imbecile and +paralysed in 1841, but which had since been renovated and invigorated by a +wholesome course of five years' banishment from office. + +It is somewhat remarkable, but rather instructive, that the Whigs do not +seem to have contemplated any other financial alteration beyond the repeal +of the corn-laws. Of an equitable adjustment of clashing interests, they +appear to have had no idea. It is quite true that they had been of old +well accustomed to a deep defalcation of the public revenue, and the +probability of the recurrence of _that_ fact, may have been viewed by them +as a mere bagatelle. From vague and general protestations of economy, we +can form no proper estimate of the real nature of their plans. Economy, or +that paltry system of paring, which passes with the Whigs for such, is, +after all, a political virtue of minor import. What we require from every +administration is the adoption of such measures only as shall tend to +promote the general wealth and prosperity of the country; and, in +consequence, render more easy the payment of the national burdens. Any +fiscal change which affects the revenue, must, as a matter of course, +affect some particular class of the community. A certain yearly sum has to +be made up--no matter how--and every million which is remitted from one +source of the revenue must be supplied by another. It is this necessity +which renders the administration of our finances so difficult. Great +Britain, when she obtained her place in the foremost rank of nations, had +to pay a fancy price for that supremacy. Our system of taxation is not the +growth of a few years, but of a large tract of time, embracing periods of +enormous expenditure and of intense excitement. It is of the most complex +and artificial nature; for the reservoir of the state is filled from a +thousand separate sources, and not one of these can be cut off without +occasioning a greater drain upon the rest. + +In such a state of things, it is quite natural that each particular +interest should be desirous to shift the burden from itself. This may not +be right nor proper, but it is natural; and the desire is greatly fostered +by the frequent changes which have of late been made in the financial +department, and by the alteration and adjustment of duties. The attack of +the League upon the agriculturists is a specimen of this, though upon the +largest scale; and the Whigs were quite ready to have lent it their +support, without any further consideration. That they were really and +sincerely converts to the new doctrine, we do not believe--but, if so, it +is little creditable to their understanding. The repeal of the corn-laws, +as a solitary and isolated measure, is, we maintain, an act of gross +injustice and impolicy--as part of a great financial reform, or rather +remodelment of our whole system, it may bear a different character. The +Whigs, however, in adopting it, gave no promise of an altered system. The +creed and articles of the League were ready made, and sufficient for them, +nor did they think it necessary to enlarge the sphere of their financial +relief; and so, towards the end of last year, they presented themselves in +the quality of aspirants for office. + +It is to us matter of great and lasting regret, that this move was not met +by Sir Robert Peel and his cabinet with a front of determined resistance. +Whatever may be the opinions of the late premier, of Lords Aberdeen and +Lincoln, or any other members of that cabinet, on the abstract advantages +of free-trade, we still hold that they were bound, in justice to the great +body of gentlemen whose suffrages in the House of Commons had carried them +into power, to have pursued a very different course. It is in vain for +them to take shelter under their privileges or their duties as ministers +of the crown. Their official dignity by no means relieved them from the +pledges, direct or implied, in virtue of which alone they were elevated to +that position. The understanding of the country at large was broad and +clear upon the point, that the agricultural interest should not suffer +from the acts of the late administration; and it was their duty, as well +as their true interest, to have kept that confidence inviolate. + +The financial plans of Sir Robert Peel have not yet been fully expounded. +Over-caution has always been his characteristic and his misfortune. It is +beyond dispute, that, in point of tact and business talent, he has no +superior; but he either does not possess, or will not exhibit, that +frankness which is necessary to make a leader not only respected but +beloved; and hence it is that he has again alienated from himself the +confidence of a large proportion of his followers. Enough, however, has +transpired to convince us that his scheme is of a much more comprehensive +nature than any which has been yet submitted. Various acts of his +administration have shown a strong tendency towards free-trade. The +establishment of the property and income tax, though apparently laid on to +retrieve the country from the effects of Whig mismanagement, seemed to us +at the time very ominous of a coming fiscal change. It organized a +machinery by means of which direct taxation, however graduated, became the +simplest method of raising the revenue; and the revision of the tariff was +doubtless another step in the same direction. + +If on these foundations it was intended to rear a perfect system of +free-trade--by which we understand an abolition of all restrictions and +protections, of all duties and customs on exports and on imports--and the +substitution, for revenue purposes, of direct taxation, we think that the +country may fairly complain of having been kept most lamentably in the +dark. It is a great--nay, a gigantic plan--one which certainly would +simplify or remove many of the intricacies of government,--it might +possibly put an end, as is most desirable, to all clashing interests at +home, and might open up abroad a new and greater field to the operations +of British industry. All these are possible, nay, probable results--at the +same time we are quite justified in saying, that if so wide and important +a change was really contemplated, it was somewhat hazardous, and surely +unprecedentedly bold, to keep it all the time concealed from public +observation, and to give a different gloss and colour to the measures +devised for its advancement. In reality, a more momentous question than +this does not exist. The fortunes of every man in this country are more or +less bound up with it,--it is one of the deepest import to our colonies, +and calculated to affect the whole range of our commercial relations. We +say further, that such a measure is not one which ought to be considered +in detail--that is, brought about by the gradual abolition of different +imposts without reference to the general end--but that, if entertained, it +ought to be proclaimed at once, and carried into effect so soon as the +nation has been enabled to pronounce an opinion upon it. + +Our surmises are, of course, conjectural; for hitherto Sir Robert Peel has +chosen to wear the mask of mystery, and has enunciated nothing clearly, +beyond a single statement, to the effect that the late bills for the +regulations of corn and the customs formed only a part of a larger +measure. It is to this reserve that Sir Robert owes his defeat; and we +cannot but deeply regret that he should have thought fit to persevere in +it at so serious a cost as the dismemberment of his party. We have a +strong and rooted objection to this kind of piecemeal legislation. It is, +we think, foreign to the genius of this country, which requires the +existence between the minister and his supporters of a certain degree of +confidence and reciprocity which in this case has certainly not been +accorded to the latter. The premier of Britain is not, and cannot be, +independent of the people. It is their confidence and opinion which does +practically make or mar him; and in the House of Commons, no measure +whatever ought to be proposed by a minister without a full and candid +admission of its real object, an exposition of its tendencies, and, at +least, an honest opinion of its results. + +There were, we think two courses open to Sir Robert Peel and his cabinet, +either of which might have been adopted, after the issue of the Russell +manifesto, with perfect consistency. The first of these, and the manlier +one, was a steady adherence, during the existence of the present +Parliament, to the established commercial regulations. They had already +done quite enough to free them from any charge of bigotry--they had +modified the corn-duties, with the consent even of the agricultural body, +who were induced to yield to that change on the ground that thereby a +permanent settlement of the question would be effected, and a baneful +agitation discontinued. It is quite true that neither of these results +followed. The settlement was not held to be permanent; and the agitation, +as is always the case after partial concession, was rather increased than +diminished. This, however, was a cogent reason why the ministry should not +have proceeded further. Under their guidance, and at their persuasion, the +agriculturists had already made a large concession, and that easiness of +temper on their part ought not to have been seized on as a ground for +further innovation. Within the walls of Parliament the Conservative party +possessed a large majority; without, if we except the manifestations of +the League, there was no popular cry whatever against the operation of the +sliding-scale. Even with the prospect of a bad winter--an auxiliary +circumstance not unlooked for by the Whigs--Lord John Russell and his +colleagues would have had no chance whatever of unseating their political +rivals, supported as these were by the votes of the country party. Had +distress absolutely occurred, the means of remedying the more immediate +pressure of the evil were in the hands of ministers, who, moreover, would +have been cordially assisted by every one in any scheme calculated to ward +away famine from the door of the industrious and the poor. In short, +there was no political necessity for any such precipitate change. + +Far better, therefore, would it have been for the late ministry had they +remained uninfluenced by the interested conversion of the Whigs. By doing +so they would have saved both character and consistency, without impairing +in the least degree the strength of her Majesty's government--an excuse +which the experience of a few mouths has shown to be utterly fallacious. +How, indeed, could it be otherwise? Was it conceivable that a change of +policy upon a point on which an immense majority of the supporters were +distinctly pledged, could _add_ to the permanent strength of the +ministry?--was no allowance to be made for irritated feelings, for broken +ties, for inevitable desertion on the part of those who believe themselves +to be wantonly betrayed? The Duke of Wellington surrendered his own +private opinion in order that her Majesty's government might be carried +on! A sentiment which might have been applauded to the echo in ancient +times but which, it must be confessed by all, is wholly inapplicable to +the notions of the century in which we live. The result has proved it. Her +Majesty's government was indeed able by joining with the Whig-Radical +faction, or rather by adopting their game to carry the corn-bill by the +most incongruous majority ever counted out in the lobby of St Stephens, +but at their very next step the day of reckoning arrived. Indeed the +presages of their coming fall was so apparent, that the Irish coercion +bill--the measure which more than any other if we may believe the tissue +of bloody and disgusting facts upon which its introduction was founded +demanded attention and despatch--was put off from day to day, lest a +hostile division upon it should oust the ministry before the corn-bill +could be carried through the House of Lords and receive the royal assent. +Had Sir Robert Peel and his supporters been wedded from their infancy +upwards to free-trade opinions--had these been the golden dreams of their +political life-principles which they had adhered to, and sworn by, through +many a long year of adversity and opposition--they could not have +manifested a more unseemly haste in seizing upon the favourable moment, +and paralysing all the efforts of the agricultural party, at a time when +their own official existence was fast drawing to its close. Public +opinion, as we are now told from a very high source, ought always to guide +a minister in the formation of his measures, irrespective of the +considerations of party. The axiom is indeed a true one, but true only +when followed out according to the letter of the constitution. Public +opinion is to be gathered neither from the voice, however loudly +expressed, of a clamant faction like the League--nor from the sentiments +enunciated by a changeable press, which shifts oftener, according to the +flow of its own proper interests, than the quicksands of the deceitful +Solway--nor even from the votes of renegades, who promised one thing upon +the hustings and promoted the reverse in Parliament--but from the +sentiments of the electors of the country, from _their_ votes and _their_ +understanding, which have not been appealed to since 1841, when +deliberately and unmistakeably they pronounced in favour of protection. + +This brings us to the alternative course, which, without any peril of +honesty or of honour, was open to the late ministry. We mean, a clear and +unreserved declaration of their future policy, and an appeal to the +country for its support. If Sir Robert Peel was convinced in his own mind +that the principles of protection which he had hitherto advocated were in +themselves objectionable--that the time had arrived for a great experiment +whereby the whole taxation of the realm should be remodelled, and the many +smaller sources of revenue abolished, in order to make way for a broader +and a simpler system--if, furthermore, he believed that the continuance +even of such agitation as prevailed upon the subject of the corn-laws, was +likely to become more serious and more hurtful to the general interest by +the factious declaration of the Whigs--then, he had it in his power at +once to test the opinion of the country, by offering to the crown the +alternative of his resignation or a dissolution of Parliament; and upon +obtaining the latter, to have put forth, in unambiguous language, a +statement of the policy which he intended thereafter to pursue, so that +the constituencies of the empire might fairly have chosen between +adherence to the ancient, or adoption of the novel plan. We can admit of +no excuse such as the stoppage of private business, or any other similar +impediment. These are reasons which, if just, might apply to every +dissolution of Parliament short of the statutory term; nor can they in the +present instance be brought forward, since the late government were by +their own confession seriously perplexed by the amount of railway and +other bills which this session have been crowded before Parliament, and +had sought, without discovering, some method which might check at an early +stage the flood of untoward speculation. In such a crisis as this, private +interests ought to have been as nothing in comparison with the public +good. If the choice lay between free-trade in its widest sense, and +protection, it was but common justice that the country should have had the +opportunity of making its selection. In no other way can public opinion be +gathered. At last general election the country declared for +protection--ministers since then have manoeuvred that protection away. +We were told that certain compensations were to be given; but, alas! the +ministry is no more, and compensation has perished with it. The old +balance has been disturbed, and the task of adjusting a new one--if that +indeed be contemplated--is now left to weak and incompetent hands. + +Most heartily, therefore, do we regret that these great changes, which +have free-trade for their ultimate object, were commenced in the present +Parliament. Sir Robert Peel cannot but have foreseen--indeed he +acknowledged it--that the corn-bill could not be carried without a +complete disorganization of the Conservative party. In his eyes this may +seem a small matter, but we view it very differently. It has shaken, and +that to a great degree, the confidence which the people of the country +were proud to place in the declarations and sincerity of the government. +It has generated a belief, now very common, that the plain course of open +and manly dealing has been abandoned for a system of finesse; and that for +the last few months--it may be longer--the leaders of the two great +political parties have been playing a match at chess, with less regard to +the safety of the instruments they were using, than to the exhibition of +their own adroitness. Perhaps no minister of this country ever owed more +to party than Sir Robert Peel; and yet, without the excuse of strong +necessity, he has not only abandoned that party, but placed it in a false +position. The majority of the Conservatives were sent to Parliament under +clear and distinct pledges, which honour forbade them to violate. This of +the corn-laws was so far from being a discretionary question, that the +continuance or discontinuance of agricultural protection was the great +theme of the hustings at last general election, and their opinions upon +that point became the touchstone on which the merits of the respective +candidates were tried. It is worse than vain to talk of Parliamentary +freedom, and the right of honourable members to act irrespective of the +opinion of their constituents. They are neither more nor less than the +embodied representatives of that opinion; and no man of uprightness or +honour--we say it deliberately--ought to retain his seat in the House of +Commons after the confidence of his supporters is withdrawn. It is neither +fair nor honourable to taunt members with having been too free and liberal +with their pledges before they knew the policy of their leaders. All men +do not possess that happy ambiguity of phrase which can bear a double +construction, and convey one meaning to the ear of the listener, whilst +another served for the purposes of future explanation. It is not pleasant +to believe that we are moving in an atmosphere of perpetual deceit. It is +not wholesome to be forced to construe sentences against their obvious and +open meaning, or to suspect every public speaker of wrapping up equivoques +in his statement. At the last general election there was no +misunderstanding. The Conservative candidates believed that their leaders +were resolved to uphold protection; the people believed so likewise, and +in consequence they gave them a majority. Situated as the protectionists +were, they had no alternative but to act in accordance with their first +professions, and to maintain their trust inviolate. + +We have no pleasure in referring to that tedious and protracted debate. +Yet this much we are bound to say, that the country party, under +circumstances of unparalleled discouragement, abandoned, nay, opposed by +their former chiefs, and deprived of the benefit which they undoubtedly +would have received from the great talents and untiring energy of Lord +Stanley--a champion too soon removed from the Lower House--did +nevertheless acquit themselves manfully and well, and have earned the +respect of all who, whatever may be their opinions, place a proper value +upon consistency. It was perhaps inevitable that in such a contest there +should have been a display of some asperity. We cannot blame those who, +believing themselves to have been betrayed, gave vent to their indignation +in language less measured than becomes the dignity of the British senate: +nor, had these displays been confined to the single question then at +issue, should we have alluded even remotely to the subject. But whilst our +sympathies are decidedly with the vanquished party--whilst we deplore as +strongly as they can the departure of the ministers from their earlier +policy at such a time and in such a manner--we cannot join with the more +violent of the protectionists in their virulent denunciations of Sir +Robert Peel, and we demur as to the policy of their vote upon the Irish +coercion bill, which vote was the immediate instrument of recalling the +Whigs to power. + +Sir Robert Peel has told us that he is contented to be judged by +posterity. He is so far wise in his appeal. The opinions of contemporaries +are comparatively worthless on a matter like this, and very few of us are +really able to form an unprejudiced opinion. But, unless we are greatly +mistaken, he does not contemplate the possibility of appearing before that +tribunal in his present posture and condition. There is much yet to come +upon which he must depend, not only for a posthumous verdict, but for that +which we hope he may yet receive, an honourable acquittal from those who +are at present alienated from his side. As the foe to agricultural +protection, he can look but for sorry praise--as the financial reformer of +the whole national system, he may, though at heavy risk, become a public +benefactor. Every thing depends upon the future. He has chosen to play a +very close and cautious game. His is a style of legislation not palatable +to the nation; for he has taken upon himself too boldly the functions and +responsibilities of a dictator--he has aspired to govern the freest +country of the world without the aid of party--and he has demanded a +larger and more implicit confidence, even whilst withholding explanation, +than any minister has ever yet exacted from the representatives of the +people. The risk, however, is his. But clearly, in our opinion, it was not +the policy of the protectionists, after the corn-bill was carried and past +control, to take a nominal revenge upon their former leader, and eject him +from office by a vote inconsistent with their previous professions. By +doing so, they have relieved him of the necessity which must soon have +become imperative, of announcing the full nature of his scheme of +financial reform; they have contributed to an interregnum, possibly of +some endurance, from which we do not augur much advantage to the public +welfare; and, finally, they have in some degree relinquished the credit +and the strength of their position. From the moment the corn-bill was +carried, they should have resolved themselves into a corps of observation. +Their numbers were formidable enough to have controlled either party; and +in all future measures, whenever explanation was required, they were in a +condition to have enforced it. + +The step, however, has been taken, and it is of course irremediable. All +that remains for them and for us is to watch the progress of events during +the remainder of the present Parliament--a period which, so far as we can +judge from recent disclosures, is likely to pass over without any very +marked attempts at innovation. The Whigs are at present too happy in the +resumption of office, to be actually dangerous. They are, or they profess +to be, in high good-humour. They have thrown aside for a time the besom of +Radical reform, and are now extending in place of it the olive-branch of +peace to each different section of their antagonists. We look, however, a +little below the surface, and we think that we can discover two very +cogent reasons for this state of singular placidity. In the first place, +the Whigs are in a minority in the House of Commons. Their political walk +cannot extend a yard beyond the limits of Sir Robert's sufferance; and as +the boundary line, like the Oregon, has not been clearly laid down, they +will be most cautious to avoid transgression. In the second place, they +are, as is well known, most miserably divided in opinion among themselves. +There is no kind of coherency in the councils of the present cabinet. They +cannot approach any single great question without the imminent risk of +internal discord; and it is only so long as they can remain quiescent that +any show of cordiality can be maintained among them. Accordingly, when we +look to Lord John Russell's manifestoes, we are quite delighted with their +imbecility. As a matter of course, he has put forward, in the first rank +of his declarations, the usual vague rhetoric about the social improvement +of the people, which is to be effected by the same means which the Whigs +have always used towards that desirable end--viz. by doing nothing. Then +there is the subject of education, which we must own opens up a vast field +for the exertions of government, if they will only seriously undertake it. +This, however, cannot be done without the establishment of a new +department in the state, which ought to have been created long ago--we +mean a board, with a Minister of public instruction at its head; but we +hardly expect that Lord John Russell will vigorously proceed to its +formation. Then come what are called sanatory measures, by which we +understand an improved system of sewerage, and a larger supply of water to +the inhabitants of the towns. On this point, we understand, the whole of +the cabinet are united, and we certainly rejoice to hear it. It is +certainly the first time in our experience, that a ministry has founded +its claims to public support on the ground of a promised superintendence +of drains and water-carts. Upon this topic, one of the members for +Edinburgh was extremely eloquent the other day upon the hustings. We hope +sincerely that he is in earnest, and that, for the credit of Whig +legislation, since we cannot obtain it from the municipality, our citizens +may occasionally be indulged with the sight of a sprinkled street in +summer, and that some means will be adopted for irrigating the closes, +which at present do stand most sorely in need of the sanatory services of +the scavenger. This point, then, of sewerage we freely concede to the +Whigs. Let them grapple with it manfully, annihilate all the +water-companies in the realm, and give us an unlimited supply of the pure +fresh element without restriction or assessment. They cannot be employed +more harmlessly--nay, more usefully, than in such a task. Let them also +look to the points of adequate endowment for hospitals, and the +institution of public baths and washing-houses, and for once in their +lives they shall promote measures of real importance and benefit to the +poor. + +But, unfortunately, sewerage and its concomitants form but a small part of +the considerations connected with the government of this country. A +ministry may ask some popularity, but it can hardly found a claim for +permanency on the fact of its attention to drains. In the first place, +Lord John Russell and his colleagues have serious difficulties before them +in the state of the public revenue. The late fiscal changes cannot but +have the effect of causing a most serious defalcation, which must be +immediately and summarily supplied. It will not do to attribute this +defalcation to the acts of the late government, since the Whigs were not +only the cordial supporters of these measures, but were ready to have +taken the initiative. They are as much answerable as Sir Robert Peel, if, +at the end of the present year, the accounts of Exchequer shall exhibit a +large deficiency, which cannot, consistently with their own policy, be +remedied by any new indirect taxation. The moment that free-trade is +adopted as a broad principle, there can be no going back upon former +steps. There is no resource left except a direct appeal to the purse, +which may, indeed, be made by an additional income-tax, if the country are +of a temper to submit to it. But we apprehend that a good deal of +negotiation will be necessary before any such measure can be carried. The +agriculturists are not in a mood to submit to any further burdens. The +eyes of the productive classes are by this time a little opened to the +effects of foreign importation, and their trade has been already much +crippled by the influx of manufactured articles from abroad. Above all, a +strong conviction is felt, both in England and in Scotland, of the gross +injustice of the system which throws the whole burden of the direct +taxation upon the inhabitants of these two countries, whilst Ireland is +entirely free. It is a system which admits of no excuse, and which cannot +continue long. The immunities which Ireland already enjoyed were any thing +but reasons for exempting her from the operation of income-tax. It is not +a question of relative poverty, for the scale is so adjusted that no man +is taxed except according to his possession; and it does seem utterly +inexplicable, and highly unjust to the Scotsman who pays his regular +assessments, and a per centage besides upon his income of L150, that the +Irishman, in similar circumstances, should be exempt from either charge. +It was this feeling, we believe, more than any other, which rendered the +increased grant to Maynooth college obnoxious to the greater part of the +British nation; and which, setting aside all other considerations, would +at once seal the fate of any ministry that might be rash enough to propose +the endowment of the Romish clergy out of the consolidated fund. An +increased direct taxation, therefore, would, under present circumstances, +be a most dangerous experiment for the Whigs; and yet, if they do not +attempt it, how are they to make good the almost certain deficiency of the +revenue? + +Probably that point may be postponed for future consideration. Sufficient +for the day is the evil thereof, and the sugar-duties are more immediately +pressing. Whether the West Indian proprietors are to receive the +_coup-de-grace_ during the present year, or whether they are to be allowed +a further respite, seems at the present a matter of absolute uncertainty. +It is, however, merely a question of time. Free-trade cares not for the +colonies; and, indeed, whilst the work of protective abolition is going on +so rapidly both at home and abroad, no isolated interest has reason to +expect that it will be exempted from the common rule. Ireland, it seems, +is to have an extension of the franchise; and with respect to her social +grievances, Lord John Russell is hopeful that his ministry will be enabled +"to afford, not a complete and immediate remedy, _but some remedy--some +kind of improvement; so that some kind of hope may be entertained that_, +SOME TEN OR TWELVE YEARS HENCE, the country will, by the measures we +undertake, be in a far better state with respect to the frightful +destitution and misery which now prevail in that country." Here is a +precious enunciation of principles and grammar!--A complete remedy for the +Irish social grievances is avowedly out of the power of the most intrepid +of Whig politicians--a confession of which we presume Mr O'Connell will +not be slow to avail himself. But then he expects--or, to use his own +phraseology thinks--"it is _most likely_ to be in our power to afford" +_some_ remedy, _some_ kind of improvement, the nature of which is still in +embryo, but which shall be so matured that _some_ kind of hope may be +entertained, that in _some_ ten or twelve years hence the country may be +in a far better state with regard to the destitution which now prevails in +the country! Was there ever, we ask, in the whole history of oracles, any +thing more utterly devoid of meaning, more thoroughly and helplessly +vague, than the above declaration? Why, the whole hopes of the noble scion +of the house of Russell are filtered away to nothing before he has +achieved the limits of his sentence. There are four or five different +stages of trust through which we decline to follow him, being perfectly +convinced that the hope of his being likely to introduce any such +measure, is quite as improbable as the implied hope conveyed a little +further on, to the effect that he and his party may be allowed to remain +for some ten or twelve years in office, until these exceedingly musty +ideas all have resolved themselves into a tangible form. + +In the mean time it is some gratification to know that the Churches are to +be spared for the present. Not that Lord John Russell has any abstract +love for these institutions--for he has no objection to Romish endowment +out of the funds of the Irish Protestant Church--but then he is quite +aware that any such move on his part would lead to his instant and +ignominious expulsion from power. Earl Grey is of a different opinion; but +the construction of the present cabinet is such, that it admits of every +possible diversity of opinion, and was, in fact, so planned by the new +premier, that the lion and the lamb might lie down together, and Radical +Ward be installed in peace by the side of Conservative Lord Lincoln and of +Sidney Herbert, about a year ago the pride of the protectionists! + +There is something painfully ludicrous in Lord John's exposition of the +theories of cabinet construction. It was, as he experienced last winter, +quite impossible to bring the chiefs of his party to any thing like a +common understanding. The revelations of Mr Macaulay to his correspondent +in Edinburgh, gave any thing but a flattering picture of the unity which +then pervaded the councils of Chesham Place. It is gratifying to know, +that individuals who at that time expressed so exalted an opinion of the +intellects and temper of each other, should have met and consented to act +together in a spirit of mutual forgiveness. And we are now asked to +receive from the lips of Lord John this profound political axiom, that it +is not at all necessary that members of the same cabinet should agree in +their individual opinions. We have all heard of cabinets breaking up +through their own internal dissensions. Such a disruption, in the eyes of +Lord John, was an act of egregious folly. What was to have prevented each +man from voting according to his own opinions? On urgent questions, he +admits, they should maintain some show of unanimity; but, with all respect +for such an authority, we think he is unnecessarily scrupulous. Why +quarrel or dissolve upon any single point? Let every man vote according to +his own mind--let every question be considered an open one--and we shall +answer for the stability of the ministry. In fact, Lord John Russell has +at last discovered the political _elixir vitae_. No disunion can break up +his administration, because disunion is the very principle upon which it +has been formed. He has sought support from all classes of men. He is so +far from disapproving of Conservative doctrines, that he absolutely has +solicited three members of the late government to hold office under him. +He asks no recantation of their former opinions, and binds them down to no +pledges for the future. Their associates, it is true, are to be men of +liberal opinions, some of them verging upon Chartism, and others avowed +ecclesiastical destructionists; but that need not deter them from +accepting and retaining office. We once knew a worthy Highland chief--a +more hospitable being never breathed--who towards the conclusion of his +third bottle, invariably lapsed into an affectionate polemical mood, and +with tears in his eyes used to put this question to his friends--"Why +can't a man be a Christian and a good fellow at the same time?" This is +just the theory of Lord John Russell. He can see no objection to diversity +of opinions, so long as the whole body of the cabinet are agreed upon one +essential point--that of holding fast by office; and surrendering it upon +no account whatever. + +Accordingly, when we look narrowly into his manifesto, we find that he has +chalked out for himself a course which makes this singular coalition by no +means absolutely impossible. He will do nothing, if he can help it, which +may give offence to any body. The cabinet are to have an easy task of it. +They have nothing to do but to sit still with uplifted oars, and allow the +vessel of the state to drift quietly along with the stream. We fear, +however, that the Whig Palinurus has not taken into account the existence +of such things as shoals and sand-banks. Let him provide what crew he +pleases, the keel, unless we are sadly mistaken, will erelong be grating +upon some submerged impediment; and then he will have a fair opportunity +of testing the discipline of his motley band. Neither sewerage nor +education can well be expected to last for ever. Enormous interests are at +present placed in his charge; and these, handled and deranged as they have +been of late, will not admit of idling or inattention. There can be no +dawdling with these as with the Irish social measures. They will not stand +the postponement of some ten or twelve years; nor will Lombard Street +permit a second derangement of the financial affairs of the nation. In the +manufacturing districts, the workmen are demanding the relief of a +controlling factory bill, and on that point the cabinet is divided. The +railway system requires particular attention, less for the sake of +remedying past ministerial neglect, than of regulating future proceedings. +The affairs of the colonies may erelong require the superintendence of a +calm, temperate, and experienced head; and, finally, there is the question +of revenue and the inchoate system of free-trade. There is quite enough +work ready to the hand of the present ministry, if they only choose to +undertake it. The country party, we believe, will form an effective and a +watchful opposition, and will prove the best safeguard against any rash or +uncalled-for experiments. Situated as they now are, they have no other +functions to perform; and we would earnestly entreat of them, during the +period which must elapse between the present time and the next general +election, to bury, in so far as may be, all animosity for the past; and to +reflect seriously in what manner the changes, which are now inevitable, +may be best carried out for the benefit of the nation at large. The +artificial fabric which has been reared during many years of conquest and +successful industry, has now been deprived of its equipoise, and is fast +becoming a ruin We thought, and we still think, that it may be difficult +to find a better; but the work of demolition has already commenced, and we +must do what we can to assist in the construction of another. At all +events, we are entitled to insist upon working rigidly by plan. Let us +know what we are about to do, before we bind our hands to any partial and +one-sided measure; and, above all things, let us take care that the poorer +classes of our fellow-subjects shall not suffer privation or want of +employment during the adjusting and development of the new commercial +theories. A little time will show their actual value. Long before the +invention of the Irish social remedies, we shall be enabled to judge how +far the free-trade policy of England is likely to be reciprocated +abroad--we shall learn too, by the sure index of the balance-sheet, +whether these changes are operating towards our loss or our gain; and we +shall also have some opportunity of testing the efficiency of the present +administration. Let us, at all events, be prepared for future action; and +since we cannot altogether dismiss from our minds the political history of +the last few months, let us make it a useful lesson. It may be instructive +for future statesmen to learn how the most powerful party in this age and +country has been broken up and severed, not by any act of their own, but +by the change of policy of their leader. It may also teach then the value +of candour and of open dealing--virtues of such universal application, +that we cannot yield to doctrines which would exclude then even from the +councils of a cabinet. + + +_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._ + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] _Notes and Recollections of a Professional Life._ By the late WM. +FERGUSSON, M.D., Inspector-General of Military Hospitals. Longmans: 1846. + +_The Military Miscellany._ By HENRY MARSHALL, F.R.S.E., Deputy +Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. Murray: 1846. + +[2] Sir Charles Napier. + +[3] "The author, soon after his last return from the West Indies, at the +close of the year 1817, was induced, from the then troubled state of the +country, to join the ranks of a volunteer corps in Scotland, which was +drilled and instructed by experienced men in all manner of ways, with the +exception of the one thing needful--the firing ball--for during the whole +time he remained with them, nearly two years, that was never thought of; +and this was the case generally with the whole volunteer force of Great +Britain, as well as the militia, at least in the early part of the war. +Future wars must and will recur, and volunteer corps will again be formed; +but if they be unused to the full-charged musket, however much their first +appearance may impose, they will be found, when brought into action, of as +much use as so many Chinese. Let them not suppose that until they have +attained this skill, which it is in the power of every man to do, they are +qualified to fight the battles of their country. * * * * In their present +state, supposing two such bodies to get into collision, it would indeed be +matter of wonder to think how they could contrive to kill one another +without the aid of the cannon and other adjuncts. If they carried +broomsticks on their shoulders, instead of muskets, they would no doubt +make a sturdy fight of it; but with fire-arms which they had never been +taught to use, the battle would resemble those of the Italian republics in +the middle ages, when mailed knights fought the livelong day without +mortal casualty."--DR FERGUSSON, p. 42. + +Is ball practice sufficiently attended to in our army generally? We are +inclined to doubt it. "We are economical people," says Dr Ferguson in +another place, "famed for straining at gnats and swallowing camels, and +the expense of ball cartridge is ever brought up in bar of the soldier +being in the constant habit of firing it." We should also like to see some +of our muskets replaced by rifles, an arm in which we have ever been +deficient. + +[4] Macaulay's _Miscellaneous Essays_. Article _Dryden_. + +[5] Ranke's _History of the Popes_ is a most valuable addition to +historical knowledge; but no one will assign it a place beside Livy or +Gibbon. + +[6] Macaulay's _Essays_. Article _Dryden_. + +[7] + + "Those rules of old discover'd, not devised, + As Nature still, but Nature methodised: + Nature, like Liberty, is but restrain'd + By the same laws which first herself ordain'd. + Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites, + When to repress, and when indulge our flights: + + * * * * * + + Just precepts thus from great examples given, + She drew from them what they derived from heaven." + _Essay on Criticism._ + +[8] _Peru._ _Reiseskizzen aus den Jahren_, 1838-1842. Von J. J. VON +TSCHUDI. Volume the second. + +[9] "Por un clavo se pierde una herradura, por una herradura un cavallo, +por un cavallo un caballero." + +[10] Stevenson, in his work on South America, refers to the extraordinary +longevity of the Peruvian Indians. In the church register at Barranca, he +found recorded the deaths of eleven persons in the course of seven years, +whose joint ages made up 1207 years, giving an average of 110 years per +man. Dr Tschudi mentions an Indian in Jauja, still living in 1839, and who +was born, if the register and the priest's word might be believed, in the +year 1697. Since the age of eleven years he had made a moderate daily use +of coca. However old, few Indians lose their teeth or hair. + +[11] _Godo_, _goth_, the nickname given by Peruvian Indians to the +Spaniards. + +[12] _The Gastronomic Regenerator; a Simplified and entirely New System of +Cookery, &c._ By MONSIEUR A. SOYER, of the Reform Club. London; 1846. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +60, No. 370, August 1846, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, AUGUST 1846 *** + +***** This file should be named 35731.txt or 35731.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/7/3/35731/ + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://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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