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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40397 ***
+
+    BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+    NO. CCCCIII.      MAY, 1849.      VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+    COLONISATION--MR WAKEFIELD'S THEORY,         509
+
+    THE REACTION, OR FOREIGN CONSERVATISM,       529
+
+    MADAME D'ARBOUVILLE'S "VILLAGE DOCTOR,"      542
+
+    NATIONAL EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND,              567
+
+    ARARAT AND THE ARMENIAN HIGHLANDS,           577
+
+    LEGITIMACY IN FRANCE,                        590
+
+    THE COLLEGE. A SKETCH IN VERSE,              601
+
+    JACK MOONLIGHT,                              606
+
+    MOONLIGHT MEMORIES. BY B. SIMMONS,           613
+
+    AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY,                         614
+
+
+
+
+EDINBURGH:
+
+WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & 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 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+    BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+    NO. CCCCIII.      MAY, 1849.      VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+COLONISATION--MR WAKEFIELD'S THEORY.[1]
+
+
+We agree with those, and they are the majority of reflective minds,
+who, taking a survey of our half-peopled globe, and considering the
+peculiar position which England occupies on it--her great maritime
+power, her great commercial wants, her overflowing numbers, her
+overflowing wealth--have concluded that colonisation is a work to
+which she is especially called. She is called to it by her marked
+aptitude and capability for the task, as well as by an enlightened
+view of her own interests. Without too much national partiality,
+without overlooking our own faults, and that canker of a too
+money-loving, too money-making morality, which has eaten into our
+character, (though perhaps not more so than it has corroded the
+character of other European nations, who have quite as strong a
+passion for gold, without the same industry in obtaining it,) we may
+boldly say that the best seed-plot of the human race that now exists
+(let the best be estimated as it may by the moralist and the divine)
+is to be found in this island of Great Britain. To plant the
+unoccupied regions of the earth, or regions merely wandered over by
+scattered tribes of savages, who cannot be said to possess a soil
+which they do not use, by off-sets from this island, is itself a good
+work. It is laying no ill foundation for the future nations that shall
+thus arise, to secure to them the same language, the same literature,
+the same form of religion, the same polity, or, at all events, the
+same political temper (the love and obedience to a constitution) that
+we possess; to make native to them that literature in which the great
+Christian epic has been written, in which philosophy has spoken most
+temperately, and poetry most profusely, diversely, and vigorously. Nor
+will England fail to reap her own reward from this enterprise. In
+every part of the world an Englishman will find a home. It will be as
+if his own native soil had been extended, as if duplicates of his own
+native land had risen from the ocean. A commercial intercourse of the
+most advantageous character will spring up; the population and the
+wealth of the old country will find fresh fields of employment in the
+new; the old country will itself grow young again, and start in the
+race with her own children for competitors. Neither will the present
+age pass by without participating in the benefit, since its
+overcrowded population will be relieved by the departure of many who
+will exchange want for plenty, and despondency for hope. Whatever
+opinion may be held of the remedial efficacy against future pauperism
+of a system of emigration, it must be allowed that this present relief
+arrives most opportunely, as a balance to that extraordinary pressure
+produced by the distress in Ireland, and the influx of its
+famine-stricken peasantry into other parts of the kingdom.
+
+On this subject--the measure of permanent relief which colonisation
+will afford to this country by carrying off its surplus
+population--the degree in which emigration may be calculated upon as
+the future antagonist of pauperism--we would speak with caution. We
+are so far hopeful that we see here a great resource against the
+national evil of an unemployed population, but it is a resource which
+must be rightly understood and wisely taken advantage of; it is a
+great resource for an intelligent people; it comes in aid of that
+fundamental remedy, a good sound education for the people, moral and
+religious, but is no substitute for that most necessary of all
+measures. Misunderstood, and vaguely relied on by those who know not
+how properly to avail themselves of it, the prospect of emigration may
+even prove mischievous, by rendering the thoughtless and improvident
+still more reckless, still more improvident.
+
+Granted, it may be said, that emigration supplies an outlet annually
+for a certain excess of population, it supplies, by that very reason,
+an additional and constant impulse to an increase of population. The
+old country may overflow, but it is always kept full, and to the brim.
+The restraint of prudence is relaxed. "We can feed ourselves; and, as
+to our children, are there not the colonies?" may be said by many an
+improvident pair. People even of the better sort, who would shrink
+from the idea of their children sinking into a lower grade of society
+than they themselves occupied, would find in emigration a vague
+provision for the future family--a provision which would often
+disappoint them, and which they would often fail in resolution to
+embrace.
+
+Let it be borne in mind that, when we speak of the duty of restraining
+from improvident marriage, we are not inculcating any new morality
+founded upon the recent science of political economy. It is a duty as
+old as the love of a parent to his child, and needs only for its
+enforcement an anticipation of this parental affection. No man who
+_has_ married, and become a father, ever doubted of the existence of
+such a duty, or spoke slightingly of it. Ask the Scotch peasant, ask
+the simplest Switzer, who knows nothing of reading-clubs or mechanics'
+institutes--who has perhaps never quitted his native valley, and all
+whose knowledge is the growth of his own roof-tree--what he thinks of
+the morality of him who becomes the father of a family he cannot rear,
+or must rear like wild beasts more than men--he will give you an
+answer that would satisfy the strictest Malthusian. The prudence that
+would avoid famine, the just and righteous fear of having hungry
+children about our knees--this is no new wisdom in the world, though,
+like all our old wisdom, it continually cries in vain in our streets.
+Now the operation of this, in every respect, moral restraint would be
+materially interfered with, if the notion should prevail, that in the
+colonies there existed (without any distinct knowledge how it was to
+be secured) an inexhaustible provision for human life. Numbers would
+marry, trusting to this resource, yet the offspring of such marriages
+might never reach their destined refuge, or reach it only after much
+suffering, and in the degraded condition of uneducated paupers. And
+men who have calculated that, at all events, without seeking aid from
+Government or the parish, they shall be able to send their child
+abroad, when the child has grown up, will hesitate to part with it.
+They had calculated what they would do, when parents, before they
+became such. They had not been able to anticipate that bond of
+parental affection which, we may observe in passing, is by no means
+weakest in the humblest ranks, but, on the contrary, until we reach
+the very lowest, seems to increase in strength as we descend in the
+social scale.
+
+The fact is, that it is not as a distant provision for their children
+that the youthful pair should be taught to look on emigration. If it
+comes at all into their calculation, they should embrace it as a
+provision for themselves, and, through them, for their future
+offspring. They should carry their hopes at once to the climate which
+is to realise them. Marriage should be the period of emigration. At
+this period a man can readily leave his country, for he can leave his
+home. The newly married couple, as it is commonly said, and with no
+undue exaggeration, are all the world to each other. It is at this
+period that men have double the strength, for they have twice the
+hope, and exhilaration, and enterprise, that they have at any other
+epoch of their lives. That slender hoard, too, which will so soon be
+wasted in this country, which a few pleasures will drain, would carry
+them creditably into another, and lay the foundation for the utmost
+prosperity their birth and condition has led them to wish for. To the
+distant colony let them not devote their ill-fed and ill-taught
+children; but, going thither themselves, rear a healthy race for whom
+they will have no cares. If at this period of life it should become
+the fashion of the humbler classes to emigrate, it would be difficult
+to say how far our colonies might become a real, and effectual, and
+permanent resource against overpopulation. At all events, the
+mischievous influence we have been describing could never arise. We
+see not why England, if she learns rightly to use them, may not reap
+from her colonies all those advantages which the United States have
+been so frequently felicitated upon in their territories in the Far
+West. Much will depend on the current which public opinion takes.
+Presuming that Government discontinues entirely the old system of
+transportation, which must always render emigration extremely
+unpalatable; presuming that a steady, equitable rule is adopted in
+dealing with the unappropriated land, so that a moderate price, a
+speedy possession, and a secure title may be depended upon--we think
+it highly probable that colonisation will become very popular amongst
+us. The more that is learnt about the colonies, the more the
+imagination is familiarised with them by accounts of their climate,
+products, and the mode of life pursued in them, the less apparent, and
+the less fearful will their distance become, and the more frequently
+will men find themselves carrying their hopes and enterprises in that
+direction. If, therefore, an intelligent and practicable view is taken
+of colonisation, we may re-echo, without scruple, the words of our
+thoughtful poet--
+
+                    "Avaunt the fear
+    Of numbers crowded in their native soil,
+    To the prevention of all healthful growth
+    Through mutual injury! Rather in the law
+    Of increase, and the mandate from above,
+    Rejoice!--and ye have special cause for joy.
+    For, as the element of air affords
+    An easy passage to the industrious bees,
+    Fraught with their burdens, and a way as smooth,
+    For those ordained to take their sounding flight
+    From the thronged hive, and settle where they list,
+    In fresh abodes--their labour to renew;
+    So the wide waters open to the power,
+    The will, the instincts, and the appointed needs
+    Of Britain; do invite her to cast off
+    Her swarms, and in succession send them forth
+    Bound to establish new communities
+    On every shore whose aspect favours hope
+    Or bold adventure; promising to skill
+    And perseverance their deserved reward."
+
+                                        _Excursion_, book 9.
+
+How best to colonise; how far Government should undertake the
+regulation and control of the enterprise; how far leave it to the
+spirit and intelligence of private individuals, separate or banded
+together in groups, or companies; and especially under what terms it
+shall permit the occupation of the unappropriated soil--all these have
+become highly interesting topics of discussion.
+
+For ourselves, we will at once frankly confess that we have no faith
+in any model colonies, in ideals of any description, or in any "_Art_
+of colonisation." What has been done, may be done again; what America
+is doing every day on the banks of the Mississippi, England may do in
+her Australian continent. With regard more particularly to the last
+and most important matter that can affect a new settlement, the mode
+of dealing with the land, it appears to us that the duties of
+Government are few, simple, and imperative--as simple in their
+character as they are indispensable. A previous survey, a moderate
+price, lots large and small to suit all purchasers--these are what we
+should require. The land-jobber, who interposes between Government
+and the emigrant, to make a cruel profit of the latter, must be kept
+out, either by laying a tax (as they do in America, under the
+denomination of the "Wild-land Tax,") on all land not reclaimed within
+a certain time, or by declaring the purchase forfeited, if, within
+that time, the soil is not cultivated. Government also must restrain
+its own hands from large grants to favoured individuals, who are no
+better than another species of land-jobbers. This, though a merely
+negative duty, will probably be the last performed, and the most
+imperfectly. Few readers are perhaps aware of the criminal ease with
+which the Government has been persuaded into lavish grants of land to
+persons who had, and could have, no immediate prospect of making use
+of it; enormous grants unjust to other settlers, and ruinous to the
+young colony, by dispersing the emigrants, interposing between them
+wide tracts of barren property. We ourselves read with no little
+surprise the following statement, which we extract from the work
+before us, Mr Wakefield's _Art of Colonisation_:--
+
+     "There are plenty of cases in which mischievous dispersion
+     has taken place, but not one, to my knowledge, in which the
+     great bulk of settlers had a choice between dispersion and
+     concentration. In the founding of West Australia there was no
+     choice. In disposing of the waste land, the Government began
+     _by granting 500,000 acres (nearly half as much as the great
+     county of Norfolk) to one person_. _Then came the governor
+     and a few other persons, with grants of immense extent._ The
+     first grantee took his principality at the landing-place; and
+     the second, of course, could only choose his outside of this
+     vast property. Then the property of the second grantee
+     compelled the third to go further off for land; and the
+     fourth again was driven still further into the wilderness. At
+     length, though by a very brief process, an immense territory
+     was appropriated by a few settlers, who were so effectually
+     dispersed, that, as there were no roads or maps, scarcely one
+     of them knew where he was. Each of them knew, indeed, that he
+     was where he was positively; but his relative position--not
+     to his neighbours, for he was alone in the wilderness, but to
+     other settlers, to the seat of government, and even to the
+     landing-place of the colony--was totally concealed from him.
+     This is, I believe, the most extreme case of dispersion on
+     record. In the founding of South Africa by the Dutch, the
+     dispersion of the first settlers, though superficially or
+     _acreably_ less, was as mischievous as at Swan River. The
+     mischief shows itself in the fact, that two of the finest
+     countries in the world are still poor and stagnant colonies.
+     _But in all colonies, without exception, there has been
+     impoverishing dispersion, arising from one and the same
+     cause._"--(P. 433.)
+
+Two very different _ideals_ of colonisation have often haunted the
+imaginations of speculative men, and coloured very diversely their
+views and projects on this subject. Both have their favourable
+aspects; neither is practicable. As is usual, the rough reality rides
+zig-zag between your ideals, touching at both in turns, but running
+parallel with neither.
+
+With one party of reasoners, the ideal of a colony would be a
+miniature England, a little model of the old country, framed here, at
+home, and sent out (like certain ingeniously-constructed houses) to be
+erected forthwith upon the virgin soil. A portion of all classes would
+sally forth for their New Jerusalem. The church, with tower and
+steeple, the manor-house, the public library, the town-hall, the
+museum, and the hospital, would all simultaneously be reproduced.
+Science would have its representatives. Literature with its light
+luggage, thoughts and paper, would be sure to hover about the train.
+Nobility would import its antique honours into the new city, and, with
+escutcheon and coat of arms, traditionally connect it with knighthood
+and chivalry, Agincourt, and the Round Table. There would be
+physicians and divines, lawyers, and country gentlemen "who live at
+ease," as well as the artisan and ploughman, and all who work in wood
+and in iron. Dr Hind, the present Dean of Carlisle, in an elegantly
+written essay, incorporated in Mr Wakefield's book, proposes and
+advocates this mode of colonisation. After remarking on the greater
+success which apparently accompanied the schemes of the Greeks and
+Romans to found new communities, Dr Hind thus proceeds.--The italics,
+it may be as well to say, are his, not ours.
+
+"The main cause of this difference may be stated in few words. We send
+out colonies of the limbs, without the belly and the head; of needy
+persons, many of them mere paupers, or even criminals; colonies made
+up of a _single class_ of persons in the community, and that the most
+helpless, and the most unfit to perpetuate our national character, and
+to become the fathers of a race whose habits of thinking and feeling
+shall correspond to those which, in the mean time, we are cherishing
+at home. The ancients, on the contrary, sent out _a representation of
+the parent state--colonists from all ranks_." And further on, after
+insisting on the propriety of appointing to the colony educated and
+accomplished clergymen, he says--"The same may be urged in respect of
+men of other professions and pursuits. The desirable consummation of
+the plan would be, that a specimen, or sample, as it were, of all that
+goes to make up society in the parent country, should _at once_ be
+transferred to its colony. Instead of sending out bad seedlings, and
+watching their uncertain growth, let us try whether a perfect tree
+will not bear transplanting."
+
+We apprehend that this project of "transplanting a perfect tree" is
+none of the most feasible. However the Greeks managed matters, we
+moderns find it absolutely necessary to begin "at the beginning," and
+with somewhat rude beginnings. If the Greeks had the art in the
+colony, as in the epic poem, of rushing _in medias res_--of starting
+with and from maturity--then indeed must colonisation be reckoned, as
+Dr Hind seems half to suspect, amongst the _artes perditæ_. Anything
+more lamentable than a number of cultivated men--"samples" of all
+kinds, physicians, and divines, and lawyers, with, of course, their
+several ladies--set down upon the uncultivated soil, on the long green
+grass, we cannot imagine. It seems to us quite right and unavoidable
+to send out "a single class," first--good stout "limbs," without much
+of "the belly"--which must mean, we presume, the idle folks, or much
+of "the head," which must mean the thinkers. That class, or those
+classes which cultivate the soil, and render the place somewhat
+habitable, had better surely precede, and act as pioneers, before the
+gentry disembark from their ships. Other classes must follow as they
+are wanted, and find room and scope. What would the physician do with
+his elaborate skill and courtesy, without that congregation of idlers
+on whose ailments he rides and dines? What need yet of eloquent
+barrister, or are his fees forthcoming, when a new estate could be
+purchased with less money than would serve to defend the old one by
+his pleading? Who would attend to the man of science, and his latest
+experiments on magnetic currents, when every one is trying over again
+the very first experiment--how to live?--where corn will grow, and
+what the potato will yield? Even your clergy must be of a somewhat
+different stamp from the polished ecclesiastic, the bland potentate of
+our drawing-rooms. He must have something more natural--"some
+rough-cast and a little loam" about him, be serviceable, accessible.
+And the fair "sample" partners of all these classes, what is to become
+of them? As yet, pin-money is not. There is nothing refined and
+civilised; men talk of marriage as if for prayer-book purposes. Very
+gross ideas!
+
+The ancients, says Dr Hind, "began by nominating to the honourable
+office of captain, or leader of the colony, one of the chief men, if
+not the chief man of the state--like the queen bee leading the
+workers. Monarchies provided a prince of the blood royal; an
+aristocracy its choicest nobleman; a democracy its most influential
+citizen." In order to entice some one of our gentry--some one of
+wealth, station, and cultivated mind, to act as "queen bee" of the
+colony--seeing that a prince of the blood royal, or a Duke of
+Northumberland, would be hard to catch--the Doctor proposes to bestow
+upon him a patent of nobility. Wealth he has already, and wealth would
+not bribe him, but honour might. We see nothing ridiculous whatever in
+the suggestion. A patent of nobility might be much worse bestowed;
+but, unless we err greatly in our notion of what colonisation really
+is, the bribe would be lamentably insufficient. The English gentleman
+of fortune and of taste, who should leave his park and mansion in the
+county of Middlesex, to share the squabbles and discomforts of a crowd
+of emigrants--too often turbulent, anxious, and avaricious--would have
+well earned his earldom. He would be a sort of hero. Men of such a
+temper you may decorate with the strawberry leaf, but it is not the
+coronet, nor any possible bribe--nothing short of a certain thirst for
+noble enterprise can prompt them.
+
+The other ideal of what colonisation might be is quite the reverse,
+presents a picture every way opposite to this of our classical dean.
+Many energetic and not uncultured spirits, wearied with the endless
+anxieties, cares, hypocrisies, and thousand artificialities of life,
+are delighted with the idea of breaking loose from the old trammels
+and conventionalities of civilisation. Their romance is to begin life
+afresh. Far from desiring to form a part of the little model-England,
+they would take from the Old World, if possible, nothing more than
+knowledge, seeds, and tools. To a fresh nature they would take a fresh
+heart, and a vigorous arm. Fields rescued by themselves from the waste
+should ripen under their own eyes. Thus, with a rude plenty, care and
+luxury alike cut off, no heartburnings, no vanity, a cultivated temper
+and coarse raiment--they and their families, and some neighbours of
+kindred dispositions, would really enjoy the earth, and the being God
+had given them. Not theirs the wish to see a matured society spring
+from the new soil. They regret to think that their own rustic
+community must inevitably advance, or decline, into some one of the
+old forms of civilisation; but they and their children, and perhaps
+their grandchildren, would be partakers of a peculiar and envied state
+of social existence, where the knowledge and amenity brought from the
+old country would be combined with the healthy toil and simple
+abundance of the new; where life would be unanxious, laborious, free;
+where there would be no talk of wars, nor politics, nor eternal
+remediless distress; but a disciplined humanity, in face of a kindly
+nature whose bounty had not yet been too severely taxed.
+
+A charming ideal! which here and there is faintly and transiently
+realised. Here and there we catch a description of this simple,
+exhilarating, innocuously enterprising life, either in some Canadian
+settlement, or in the forests of America, or even in _the Bush_ of
+Australia. There is rude health in all the family; housekeeping is a
+sort of perpetual pic-nic, full of amusing make-shifts; there is
+rudeness, but not barbarism; little upholstery, but wife and child are
+caressed with as much amenity and gentle fondness as in carpeted and
+curtained drawing-rooms. If the tin can should substitute the china
+cup, the tea is drunk with not the less urbanity. Such scenes we have
+caught a glimpse of in this or that writer. But alas! that which
+generally characterises the young settlement, let it be young as it
+may--that which would so wofully disappoint our pastoral and romantic
+emigrant, is precisely this: that, instead of leaving care behind
+them, the care to get rich, _to get on_, as it is disgustingly
+called--our colonists take a double portion of this commodity with
+them. Comparatively few seem to emigrate simply to live then and there
+more happily. They take land, as they would take a shop, to get a
+profit and be rich. And then, as for the little community and its
+public or common interests, it is the universal remark that, if
+politics in England are acrid enough, colonial politics are bitterness
+itself. The war is carried on with a personal hatred, and attended by
+personal injuries, unknown in the old country.
+
+One would indeed think that people, fatigued with this anxious passion
+which plays so large a part in English life--this desire to advance,
+or secure, their social position--would seize the opportunity to
+escape from it, and rejoice in their ability to live in some degree of
+freedom and tranquillity. But no. The man commerce bred cares not to
+enjoy life and the day. He must make a profit out of himself; he must
+squeeze a profit out of others; he toils only for this purpose. If he
+has succeeded, in the new colony, in raising about him the requisite
+comforts of life--if he has been even rescued from threatened famine
+in England, and is now living and well housed, he and his family--you
+find him full of discontent because of the "exorbitant wages" he has
+to pay to the fellow emigrants who assist him in gathering in his
+corn--full of discontent because he cannot make the same profit of
+another man's labour _there_ that he could have done in the old
+country--in that old country where he could not for his life have got
+so much land as the miserable rag upon his back would have covered.
+Such men carry out a heart to work, none to enjoy: they have not been
+cultivated for that. The first thing the colonist looks for is
+something _to export_. It was in vain that Adelaide boasted its
+charming climate and fruitful fields; it was on the point of being
+abandoned--so we hear--by many of its inhabitants, when some mines
+were discovered. There was then something that would sell in England,
+something to get rich with; so they that would have left the soil,
+stayed to work in the bowels of the earth. In _the Bush_ you hear of
+the shepherds and small owners of sheep living, the year round, on
+"salt beef, tea, and damper," which last is an extemporised bread, an
+unleavened dough baked in such oven as the usual fire-place supplies.
+But fresh mutton, you exclaim, is plentiful enough; what need to diet
+themselves as if they were still in the hold of that vessel which
+brought them over? True, plentiful enough--it sells in Sydney at some
+three-halfpence a pound; but while the sheep lives it grows wool upon
+its back. For this wool it is bred. Sometimes it is boiled down bodily
+for its tallow, which also can be exported. Mutton-chops would be a
+waste; it would be a sin to think of them.
+
+Set sail from England in whichever direction you will, East or West,
+over whichever ocean, the first thing you hear of, in respect to
+colonial society, is its proverbial "smartness"--an expression which
+signifies a determination to cheat you in every possible manner. The
+Old World, and the worst of it, is already there to welcome you. Nay,
+it has taken possession of the very soil before the spade of the
+emigrant can touch it. There lies the fresh land, fresh--so geologists
+say of Australia--as it came up at its last emergence from the ocean.
+You are first? No. The land-jobber is there before you. This foulest
+harpy from the stock exchange has set its foot upon the greensward,
+and screeches at you its cry for _cent per cent_!
+
+There is yet a third and later ideal of colonisation--the ideal of the
+political economist. With him colonisation presents itself under the
+especial aspect of a great _exploitation_ of the earth. He is desirous
+that capital and labour should resort to those spots where they will
+be most productive. Thus the greatest possible amount of production
+will be generated between man and his terraqueous globe; capital and
+labour are with him the first elements of human prosperity; and to
+transfer these in due proportions, and as quickly as possible, to the
+new land, when they may be most profitably employed, is the main
+object of his legislation. Hitherto, it may be observed, the political
+economist has limited his efforts to the _undoing_ what he conceives
+has been very unskilfully done by previous legislators. In this matter
+of emigration he steps forward as legislator himself. It is no longer
+for mere liberty and _laissez-faire_ that he contends; he assumes a
+new character, and out of the theory of his science produces his
+system of rule and regulation. He knows how a small village becomes a
+great city; he will apply his knowledge, and by positive laws expedite
+the process. Let us see with what success he performs in this new
+character.
+
+Mr Wakefield's system--for it is he who has the honour of originating
+this politico-economical scheme--consists in putting a price upon
+unoccupied land, and with the proceeds of the sale raising a _fund for
+the transmission of emigrant labourers_. This is, however, but a
+subordinate part of his project, which we mention thus separately,
+because, for a purpose of our own, we wish to distinguish it from the
+rest. This price must, moreover, (and here is the gist of the matter,)
+be that "sufficient price" which will _debar the labourer from
+becoming too soon a proprietor of land_, and thus deserting the
+service of the capitalist.
+
+The object of Mr Wakefield, it will be seen at once, is to procure the
+speedy transmission in due proportion of capital and labour. The
+capitalist would afford the means of transferring the labourer to the
+scene of action; the labourer would be retained in that condition in
+order to invite and render profitable the wealth of the capitalist.
+The twofold object is good, and there is an apparent simplicity in the
+means devised, which, at first, is very captivating. There is nothing
+from which the colonial capitalist suffers so much as from the want of
+hired labour. He purchases land and finds no one to cultivate it; the
+few he can engage he cannot depend upon; the project of agricultural
+improvement which, if it be not completed, is utterly null and
+useless, is arrested in mid progress by the desertion of his workmen;
+or his capital is exhausted by the high wages he has paid before the
+necessary works can be brought to a termination. The capitalist has
+gone out, and left behind him that class of hired labourers without
+which his capital is useless. Meanwhile, in England, this very class
+is super-abundant; but it is not the class which spontaneously leaves
+the country, or can leave it. Mr Wakefield's scheme supplies the
+capitalist with the labour so essential to him, and relieves our
+parishes of their unemployed poor. But these emigrant labourers would
+soon extend themselves over the new country, as small proprietors,--Mr
+Wakefield checks this natural tendency by raising the price of land.
+
+There is, we say, an apparent and captivating simplicity in the
+scheme; but we are persuaded that, the more closely it is examined,
+the more impracticable and perplexing it will reveal itself to be. As
+Mr Wakefield's system has made considerable progress in public
+opinion, and obtained the approval, not only of eager speculative
+minds, but of cool and calculating economists--as it has already
+exerted some influence, and may exert still more, upon our colonial
+legislation--and as we believe that the attempt to carry it out will
+give rise to nothing better than confusion and discontent, we think we
+shall be doing no ill service to the cause of colonisation by entering
+into some investigation of it.
+
+We are compelled to make a division, or what to Mr Wakefield will
+appear a most unscientific _fracture_, of the two parts of his scheme.
+We acquiesce in fixing _a_ price upon unappropriated land, and with
+the proceeds of the sale forming a fund for the transmission and
+outfit of the poor emigrant. We do not say that these proceeds must
+necessarily supply _all_ the fund that it may be thought advisable to
+spend in this matter, or that the price is to be regulated solely
+according to the wants of this emigration fund. But we do _not_
+acquiesce in the proposal to fix a price for the specific purpose of
+retarding the period at which the labourer may himself become a
+proprietor. The doctrine of "a sufficient price" (as it has been
+called, and for brevity's sake we shall adopt the name) we entirely
+eschew. To the imposing of an artificial value upon the land, for this
+purpose, we will be no parties. Simply to transport the labourer
+hence, shall be the object of our price, beyond such other reasons as
+may be given for selling at a certain moderate sum the waste land of
+the colonies, instead of disposing of it by free grant. This object
+may be shown to be equitable; it appeals to the common justice of
+mankind. But as to the longer or shorter term the hired labourer
+remains in the condition of hired labourer, for this the capitalist
+must take his chance. This must be determined, as it is in the old
+country, and as alone it can be determined amicably, by that current
+of circumstances over which neither party can exercise a direct
+control. To such collateral advantage as may accrue to the capitalist
+from even the price we should impose, he is welcome; only we do not
+legislate for this object--we neither give it, nor take it away.
+
+The wild unappropriated land of our colonies belongs to the crown, to
+the state--it is, as Mr Wakefield says, "a valuable national
+property." In making use of this land, one main object would be to
+relieve the destitute of the old country; to give them, if possible, a
+share of it. What more just or more rational? To give, however, the
+soil itself to the very poor would be idle. They cannot reach it, they
+cannot travel to their new estate--they have no seeds, no tools, no
+stock of any kind wherewith to cultivate it. The gift would be a mere
+mockery. We will sell it, then, to those who can transport themselves
+thither, and who have the necessary means for its cultivation, and the
+purchase-money shall be paid over to the very poor. By far the best
+way of paying over this purchase-money, which as a mere gift of so
+much coin would be all but worthless, and would be spent in a week, is
+by providing them with a free passage to the colony where they will
+permanently improve their condition; obtaining high wages, and
+probably, after a time, becoming proprietors themselves; and assisting
+in turn, by the purchase-money their own savings will have enabled
+them to pay, to bring over other emigrants to the new field of labour,
+and the new land of promise.
+
+This is an equitable arrangement, and, what is more, the equity of it
+is level to the common sense of all mankind. It effects also certain
+desirable objects, though not such as our theorist has in view. It
+places the land in the possession of men who will and can cultivate
+it, and who, by paying a certain moderate price, have shown they were
+in earnest in the business; and it has transmitted, at their expense,
+labourers to the new soil. With the question, how long these shall
+continue labourers, it interferes not. It is a question, we think, no
+wise man would meddle with. Least of all does it represent that the
+capitalist has obtained any claim upon the services of the labourer,
+by having paid for his passage out: this payment was no gift of his;
+it was the poor man's share of the "national property." They meet in
+the colony as they would have met in England, each at liberty to do
+the best he can for himself.
+
+Observe how the difficulties crowd upon us, when we enter upon the
+other and indeed the essential part of Mr Wakefield's scheme. The
+emigrant is not "too soon" to become a proprietor. What does this "too
+soon" mean? How long is he to be retained in the condition of hired
+labourer? How many years? Mr Wakefield never fixes a period. He could
+not. It must depend much upon the rapidity of immigration into the
+colony. If the second batch of immigrants is slow of coming in, the
+first must be kept labourers the longer. If the stream of labour flow
+but scantily into this artificial canal, the locks must be opened the
+more rarely. But how is the "sufficient price" to be determined until
+this period be known? It is the sum the labourer can save from his
+wages, during this time, which must constitute the price of so much
+land as will support him and his family, and enable him to turn
+proprietor. Thus, in order to regulate the sufficient price, it will
+be necessary to find the average rate of wages, the average amount of
+savings that a labourer could make (which, again, must depend upon the
+price of provisions, and other necessaries of life) during an unknown
+period!--and, in addition to this, to determine the average produce of
+so many acres of land. The apparent simplicity of the scheme resolves
+itself into an extreme complexity. The author of it, indeed, proposes
+a short method by which his sufficient price may be arrived at without
+these calculations: what that short method is, and how fallacious it
+would prove, we shall have occasion to show.
+
+But granting that, in any manner, this "sufficient price" could be
+determined, the measure has an unjust and arbitrary character. It is
+not enough that such a scheme could be defended, and shown to be
+equitable, because for the general good, before some committee of
+legislators; if it offends the popular sense of justice it can never
+prosper. "I know," the humble emigrant might say--"I know there must
+be rich and poor in the world; there always have been, and always will
+be. To what is inevitable one learns to submit. If I am born poor
+there is no help for it, except what lies in my own ability and
+industry. But if you set about, by artificial regulations, in a new
+colony, where fruitful land is in abundance, to keep me poor, because
+I am so now, I rebel. This is not just. Do I not see the open land
+before me unowned, untouched? I well enough understood that, in old
+England, I could not take so much of any field as the merest shed
+would cover--not so much as I could burrow in. Long before I was born
+it had been all claimed, hedged, fenced in, and a title traced from
+ancestor to ancestor. Here, I am the ancestor!"
+
+Tell such a man that a price is put upon the land in order that some
+companions whom he left starving in England may come over and partake
+the benefit of this unbroken soil,--he will see a plain justice here.
+He himself was, perhaps, brought over by the price paid by some
+precursor. What he received from one more prosperous, he returns to
+another less prosperous than himself. But tell him that a price is put
+upon the land, in order that he may serve a rich master the
+longer,--in order that he may be kept in a subordinate station, from
+which circumstances now permit him to escape--he will see no justice
+in the case. He will do everything in his power to evade your law; he
+will look upon your "sufficient price" as a cruel artificial barrier
+raised up against him; he will go and "squat" upon the land, without
+paying any price at all.
+
+Indeed, the objection to his scheme, which Mr Wakefield seems to feel
+the strongest,--to which he gives the least confident reply, is just
+this--that, equitable or not, it would be impossible to carry out his
+law into execution; that if the price were high enough to answer his
+purposes, the land, in colonial dialect, would be "squatted"
+on,--would be taken possession of without any payment whatever. A
+moderate price men will cheerfully pay for the greater security of
+title: Englishmen will not, for a slight matter, put themselves
+wittingly on the wrong side of the law. But, if coupled with a high
+price, there is a rankling feeling of injustice: they will be very apt
+to satisfy themselves with actual possession, and leave the legal
+title to follow as it may. It is true, as Mr Wakefield urges, the
+richer capitalists will by no means favour the squatter; they will be
+desirous of enforcing a law made for their especial benefit. But they
+will not form the majority. Popular opinion will be against them, and
+in favour of the squatter. It would not be very easy to have a police
+force, and an effective magistracy, at the outskirts of a settlement
+stretching out, in some cases, into an unexplored region. Besides, it
+is a conspicuous part of Mr Wakefield's plan to give municipal or
+local governments to our colonies: these, as emanating from the
+British constitution, must need be more or less of a popular
+character; and we are persuaded that no such popular local government
+would uphold his "sufficient price," or tolerate the principle on
+which it was founded.
+
+But, even if practicable, if carried out into complete execution, it
+remains to be considered whether the measure proposed would really
+have the effect contemplated by our theorist--that of supplying the
+capitalist with the labour he needs. With a certain number of
+_labourers_ it might,--but of what character? It is not a remote
+possibility that will influence a common day-labourer to save his
+earnings. It is one of the terms of the proposition that high wages
+are to be given; for without these there would be no emigration, and
+certainly no fear of a too speedy promotion to the rank of proprietor.
+It follows, therefore, that you have a class of men earning high
+wages, and not under any strong stimulus to save--a class of men
+always found to be the most idle and refractory members of the
+community. A journeyman who has no pressing motive for a provident
+economy, and who earns high wages, is almost invariably a capricious
+unsteady workman, on whom no dependence can be placed; who will
+generally work just so many days in the week as are necessary to
+procure him the enjoyments he craves. One of these enjoyments is
+indolence itself,--a sottish, half-drunken indolence. Drinking is the
+coarse pleasure of most uneducated men: it is so even in the old
+country; and in a colony where there are still fewer amusements for
+the idle hour, it becomes almost the sole pleasure. How completely it
+is the reigning vice of our own colonies is known to all. Imagine a
+labourer in the receipt of high wages, little influenced by the remote
+prospect of becoming, by slow savings, a proprietor of land--and
+feeling, moreover, that he was retained in a dependent condition,
+arbitrarily, artificially, expressly for the service of the
+capitalist--what amount of _work_ think you the capitalist-farmer
+would get from such a labourer? Not so much in seven years as he
+would have had from him in two, if, at the end of that two, the man
+had calculated upon being himself a farmer.
+
+Recollect that it is not slave labour, or convict labour, that we are
+here dealing with: it is the free labour of one man working for
+another man, at wages. He gets all the wages he can, and gives as
+little labour as he can. If the wages are high, and the inducement to
+save but feeble, he will probably earn by one day's work what will
+enable him to pass the two next in idleness and debauchery. What boon
+will Mr Wakefield have conferred upon the capitalist?
+
+The theory of a "sufficient price" is, therefore, placed in this
+hopeless predicament:--1. It would be almost impossible to enforce it;
+and, 2. If enforced, it would fail of its purpose. It would supply the
+capitalist with inefficient, profligate, and idle workmen, on whose
+steady co-operation and assistance he could never calculate.
+
+That it may be desirable to tempt the capitalist abroad by securing
+him an abundance of hired labour, something like that which lies at
+his door in England, we do not dispute. But the thing is impossible.
+You cannot manage this by direct legislation. You cannot combine in
+one settlement the advantages of a new and of an old country. It is
+not in the wit of man to bring together these two stages of society.
+Our political economist is in too great a haste to be rich: he forgets
+the many lessons he has given to others against bootless and
+mischievous intermeddling with the natural course of things. Meanwhile
+"the attempt will confound us,"--it will throw an unpopularity over
+the whole subject of emigration in the minds of the working classes.
+Already we hear it murmured that the land is to be made a monopoly for
+the rich; that the man of small substance is to be discouraged; that
+the sole object of the moneyed class is to make profit of the labours
+of others; and that they are bent upon creating, artificially, in the
+colony, those circumstances which put the workmen in their power in
+the old country. We would earnestly counsel those who are interested
+in the subject of emigration, to consider well before they teach or
+practise this new "_art_ of colonisation."
+
+Those who have not perused Mr Wakefield's book may, perhaps, entertain
+a suspicion that, in thus separating the objects for which a price is
+to be laid on land, admitting the one and rejecting the other, we are
+only engaging ourselves unnecessarily in a theoretical debate. If a
+price is to be affixed, the result, it may seem to them, is
+practically the same, whatever the object may be. But the practical
+result would be very different; for a very different price would be
+exacted, according to the object in view, as well as a very different
+motive assigned for imposing it. The price at which a considerable
+fund would be raised for the purpose of emigration, would be too low
+to answer the purpose of restraining the labourer from soon becoming a
+proprietor of land. Those, however, who are familiar with Mr
+Wakefield's book, know well that this last purpose forms the very
+substance of the plan it proposes; and that hitherto no
+price--although it has ranged as high as 40s. per acre--has been
+considered sufficiently high to effect the object of the theorist.
+
+     "There is but one object of a price," says Mr Wakefield, (p.
+     347,) "and about that there can be no mistake. The sole
+     object of a price is to prevent labourers from turning into
+     landowners too soon: the price must be sufficient for that
+     one purpose, and no other." "The sufficient price," he says,
+     (p. 339,) "has never yet been adopted by a colonising
+     government." And a little further, (p. 341,) he thus
+     continues: "There are but three places in which the price of
+     new land has had the least chance of operating beneficially.
+     These are South Australia, Australia Felix, and New Zealand.
+     In none of these cases did the plan of granting with
+     profusion precede that of selling; but in none of them did
+     the price required prevent the cheapest land from being cheap
+     enough to inflict on the colony all the evils of an extreme
+     scarcity of labour for hire. In these cases, moreover, a
+     large portion of the purchase-money of waste land was
+     expended in conveying labourers from the mother-country to
+     the colony. If this money had not been so spent, the
+     proportion of land to people would have been very much
+     greater than it was, and the price of new land still more
+     completely inoperative. More facts might be cited to show the
+     insufficiency of the highest price yet required for new
+     land."
+
+We will continue our first quotation from p. 347. The manner in which
+Mr Wakefield himself exposes the difficulties of fixing the
+"sufficient price," and the very inadequate expedient he points out
+for obviating, or avoiding, these difficulties, may throw some further
+light upon the matter.
+
+     "The sole object of a price is to prevent labourers from
+     turning into landowners too soon: the price must be
+     sufficient for that one purpose, and no other. The question
+     is, What price would have that one effect? That must depend,
+     first, on what is meant by 'too soon;' or on the proper
+     duration of the term of the labourer's employment for hire;
+     which again must depend upon the rate of the increase of
+     population in the colony, especially by means of immigration,
+     which would determine when the place of a labourer, turning
+     out a landowner, would be filled by another labourer; and the
+     rate of labour-emigration again must depend on the popularity
+     of the colony at home, and on the distance between the
+     mother-country and the colony, or the cost of passage for
+     labouring people. Secondly, what price would have the desired
+     effect, must depend on the rate of wages and cost of living
+     in the colony, since according to these would be the
+     labourer's power of saving the requisite capital for turning
+     into a landowner: in proportion to the rate of wages, and the
+     cost of living, would the requisite capital be saved in a
+     longer or a shorter time. It depends, thirdly, on the soil
+     and climate of the colony, which would determine the quantity
+     of land required (on the average) by a labourer, in order to
+     set himself up as a landowner. If the soil and climate were
+     unfavourable to production, he would require more acres; if
+     it were favourable, fewer acres would serve his purpose: in
+     Trinidad, for example, ten acres would support him well; in
+     South Africa, or New South Wales, he might require fifty or a
+     hundred acres. But the variability in our wide colonial
+     empire, not only of soil and climate, but of all the
+     circumstances on which a sufficient price would depend, is so
+     obvious, that no examples of it are needed. It follows, of
+     course, that different colonies, and sometimes different
+     groups of similar colonies, would require different prices.
+     To name a price for all the colonies, would be as absurd as
+     to fix the size of a coat for mankind.
+
+     "'But, at least,' I hear your Mr Mother-country say, 'name a
+     price for some particular colony--a price founded on the
+     elements of calculation which you have stated.' I could do
+     that, certainly, for some colony with which I happen to be
+     particularly well acquainted, but I should do it doubtingly,
+     and with hesitation; for, in truth, the elements of
+     calculation are so many, and so complicated in their various
+     relations to each other, that in depending on them
+     exclusively there would be the utmost liability to error. A
+     very complete and familiar knowledge of them in each case
+     would be a useful general guide, would throw valuable light
+     on the question, would serve to inform the legislator how far
+     his theory and his practice were consistent or otherwise;
+     but, in the main, he must rely, and if he had common sagacity
+     he might solely and safely rely, upon no very elaborate
+     calculation, but on experience, or the facts before his eyes.
+     _He could always tell whether or not labour for hire was too
+     scarce or too plentiful in the colony. If it were too
+     plentiful, he would know that the price of new land was too
+     high--that is, more than sufficient: if it were hurtfully
+     scarce, he would know that the price was too low, or not
+     sufficient. About which the labour was--whether too plentiful
+     or too scarce--no legislature, hardly any individual, could
+     be in doubt_, so plain to the dullest eye would be the facts
+     by which to determine that question. If the lawgiver saw that
+     the labour was scarce, and the price too low, he would raise
+     the price; if he saw that labour was superabundant, and the
+     price too high, he would lower the price; if he saw that
+     labour was neither scarce nor superabundant, he would not
+     alter the price, because he would see that it was neither too
+     high nor too low, but sufficient."
+
+Admirable machinery! No steam-engine could let its steam on, or off,
+with more precision. The legislature or governor "could always tell
+whether or not labour for hire was too scarce or too plentiful," and
+open or close his value accordingly. "No legislature, hardly any
+individual could be in doubt" about the matter! Indeed! when was hired
+labour ever thought too cheap--in other words, too plentiful--by the
+capitalist? When was it ever thought too dear--in other words, too
+scarce--by the labourer? Could the most ingenious man devise a question
+on which there would be more certainly two quite opposite and
+conflicting opinions? And suppose the legislature to have come to a
+decision--say that the labour was too scarce--there would still be this
+other question to decide, whether to _lower_ the price, in order to
+tempt emigrants, might not be as good a means of rendering labour more
+plentiful, as to _raise_ the price in order to render it still more
+difficult for labourers to become landowners? Here there is surely
+scope for the most honest diversity of opinion. One party might very
+rationally advise to entice thither the stream of emigration:--"Let it
+flow more copiously," they might exclaim, "though we retain the waters
+for a shorter time;" while the party thoroughly imbued with the
+doctrine of the "sufficient price" would devise fresh dikes and dams,
+and watch the locks more narrowly.
+
+In his "sufficient price," Mr Wakefield has discovered the secret
+spring that regulates the economical relations of society. He has his
+hand upon it. He, or his lawgiver, will henceforward regulate the
+supply of labour, and the remuneration of labour, upon scientific
+principles. Unenviable post! We should infinitely prefer the task of
+the philosopher in _Rasselas_, who fancied himself commissioned to
+distribute rain and sunshine, in just proportions, to all the farmers
+in the neighbourhood.
+
+It is quite curious to observe how strong a faith our projector has in
+his theory of a sufficient price, and how singular a bias this has
+exerted on his mind in some other matters of speculation. He finds
+that slavery, both in olden and modern times, has been all owing to
+"cheapness of land." Could he have fixed his sufficient price upon the
+arable land in Chaldea, or about the cities of Athens and Rome,
+neither the patriarchs, nor the Greeks, nor the Romans, would have
+known the institution of slavery. "Slavery is evidently," he says, "a
+make-shift for hiring; a proceeding to which recourse is had only
+where hiring is impossible, or difficult. Slave labour is, on the
+whole, much more costly than the labour of hired freemen; and slavery
+is also full of moral and political evils, from which the method of
+hired labour is exempt. Slavery, _therefore_, is not preferred to the
+method of hiring: the method of hiring would be preferred if there was
+a choice."--(P. 324.) Most logical "_therefore_!" The mode of hiring
+is preferred by those to whom experience has taught all this; but
+slavery, so far from being the "make-shift," is the first expedient.
+It is the first rude method which unscrupulous power adopts to engross
+the produce of the earth. The stronger make the weaker labour for
+them. "It happens," he continues, "wherever population is scanty in
+proportion to land." It happens wherever people prefer idleness to
+work, and have been able to coerce others to labour for them, whether
+land has been plentiful or not. Was it abundance of land, or the
+military spirit, that produced the amiable relationship between the
+Spartan and the Helot?--or was there any need of a "sufficient price"
+to limit the supply of good land in Egypt, which lay rigidly enough
+defined between the high and low margin of a river? Or could any
+governor, with his tariff of prices, have performed this duty more
+effectually than the Nile and the desert had done between them?
+
+But the most amusing instance is still to follow. "It was the
+cheapness of land that caused Las Casas (the Clarkson or Wilberforce
+of his time, as respects the Red Indians of America) to invent the
+African slave-trade. It was the cheapness of land that brought African
+slaves to Antigua and Barbadoes."--(P. 328.) It was the cheapness of
+land! If land had been dearer, the Spaniards would have worked for
+themselves, and not have asked the Red Indians for their assistance!
+If land had been dearer in Antigua and Barbadoes, the climate would
+have lost its influence on European frames, and Englishmen would have
+laboured in their own sugar plantations!
+
+Doubtless the difficulty of obtaining hired labour has been sometimes
+a reason, and sometimes an excuse, for the continuance of slavery. It
+is also true that the willingness of the discharged slave to work, as
+a hired labourer, is almost a necessary condition to the extinction of
+slavery. But, losing sight of all our amiable passions and
+propensities, to describe slavery as originating altogether in the
+scarcity of hired labour, (as if the slave had first had the offer
+made to him to work for wages, and had refused it,) and then to
+resolve this cause again into no other circumstance than the
+"cheapness of land," is something like monomania.
+
+In America, those states which have colonised so rapidly have not been
+the slave-holding states, nor have they needed slaves; nor has land
+been scarce; nor has much been done by the mere capitalist who goes to
+hire labour; but almost all by the man who goes there to labour
+himself, upon property of his own. And who, after all, we would ask,
+are the best of emigrants, in every new country where the land has yet
+to be reclaimed? Not those who seek the colony with an intention of
+making a fortune there, and returning to England; nor even those who
+go with some feeling that they shall be the Cæsars of the village; nor
+the easy capitalist, who expects, from the back of his ambling nag, to
+see his fields sprout with corn and grow populous with cattle. The
+best of emigrants, as pioneers of civilisation, are those who intend
+to settle and live on the land they shall have reduced to cultivation,
+who go to labour with their own hands on property they shall call
+their own. It is the labour of such men that has converted into
+corn-fields the dark forests of America. That ardent and indefatigable
+industry which has been so often admired in the peasant
+proprietor--the man who has all the hardy habits of the peasant and
+all the pride of proprietorship--is never more wanted, never more at
+home, than in the new colony. We have a sympathy with these men--we
+like their hearty toil, their guiltless enterprise. This is not the
+class of men we would disgust; yet it is precisely this class who go
+forth with their little store of wealth in their hand, or with hope
+soon to realise it, whom the "sufficient price" of Mr Wakefield would
+deter from entering the colony, or convert, when there, into
+unwilling, discontented, uncertain labourers.
+
+The rights of every class must, of course, be determined by a
+reference to the welfare of the whole community. The poorer settler
+must have his claims decided, and limited, according to rules which
+embrace the interest of the empire at large. We hope we shall not be
+misunderstood on so plain a matter as this. We do not contemplate the
+settler as arriving on the new land unfettered by any allegiance he
+owes to the old country. He belongs to civilised England; carries with
+him the knowledge and the implements which her civilisation has
+procured him; lives under her protection, and must submit to her laws.
+But in limiting the rights of the settler in a land spreading open
+before him--where nothing has taken possession of the soil but the
+fertilising rain, and the broad sunshine playing idly on its
+surface--you must make out a clear case, a case of claims paramount to
+his own, a case which appeals to that sense of justice common to the
+multitude, which will bear examination, which readily forces itself
+upon an honest conviction. It must not be a mere speculative measure,
+a subtle theory, hard for a plain man to understand--benevolently
+meant, but, intricate in its operation, and precarious in its
+result--that should come betwixt him and the free bounty of nature.
+Not of such materials can you make the fence that is to coop him up in
+one corner of a new-found continent. Laudable it may be, this
+experiment to adjust with scientific accuracy the proportion of
+capital and labour; but a man with no peculiar passion for political
+economy, will hardly like to be made the subject of this experiment,
+or that a scientific interest should keep his feet from the
+wilderness, or his spade from the unowned soil. It would be an
+ungracious act of parliament, to say the least of it, whose preamble
+should run thus--"Whereas it is expedient that the labouring
+population emigrating from England should be 'prevented from turning
+too soon into landowners,' and thus cultivating the soil for
+themselves instead of for others, Be it enacted," &c. &c.
+
+Although this theory of a "sufficient price" is the chief topic of Mr
+Wakefield's book, yet there are many other subjects of interest
+discussed, and many valuable suggestions thrown out in it; and if we
+have felt ourselves compelled to enter our protest against his main
+theory, we are by no means unwilling to confess our share of
+obligation to one who has made colonisation the subject of so much
+study, and who has called to it the attention of so many others. It
+was he who, struck with the gross error that had been committed of
+stocking certain of our colonies with too large a proportion of the
+male sex, first pointed out that the period of marriage was the most
+appropriate period for emigration. Do not wait till want drives out
+the half-famished children, but let the young married couple start
+whilst yet healthy and vigorous, and not broken down by poverty. Some
+might be disposed to object that these will do well enough in England.
+They might, but their children might not. It is wise to take the
+stream of population a little higher up, where it yet runs clear; not
+to wait till the waters have become sluggish and polluted.
+
+In a literary point of view, Mr Wakefield's book is an extremely
+entertaining one. It is difficult to believe what we are told in the
+preface, and hear with regret, that it was written in ill health, so
+elastic a spirit is observable throughout. The work assumes the form
+of letters passing between a statesman, who is in search of
+information and theory on the subject of colonisation, and a colonist
+who has both to give. One would naturally conclude, from the letters
+themselves, that both sets were written by the same author, and that
+the correspondence was but one of those well-understood literary
+artifices by which the exposition of certain truths or opinions is
+rendered more clear or interesting. The letters of the statesman have
+that constrained fictitious aspect which responses framed merely for
+the carrying on of the discussion are almost sure to acquire. At all
+events, it was hardly necessary for Mr Wakefield to describe himself
+in the title-page as "_one_ of the writers;" since the part of the
+statesman, in the correspondence, is merely to ask questions at the
+proper time, to put an objection just where it ought to be answered,
+and give other the like promptings to the colonist.
+
+With many readers it will add not a little to the piquancy of the
+work, that a considerable part is occupied in a sharp controversy with
+the Colonial Office and its present chief. Mr Wakefield does not spare
+his adversaries; he seems rather to rejoice in the wind and stir of
+controversy. What provocation he has received we do not know: the
+justice of his quarrel, therefore, we cannot pretend to decide upon;
+but the manner in which he conducts it, is certainly not to our taste.
+For instance, at p. 35 and p. 302, there is a littleness of motive, a
+petty jealousy of him (Mr Wakefield) attributed to Lord Grey as the
+grounds of his public conduct--a sort of imputation which does not
+increase our respect for the person who makes it. But into this
+controversy with the Colonial Office we have no wish to enter. So far
+as it is of a personal character, we can have no motive to meddle with
+it; and so far as the system itself is attacked, of governing our
+colonies through this office, as at present constituted, there appears
+to be no longer any controversy whatever. It seems admitted, on all
+hands, that our colonies have outgrown the machinery of government
+here provided for them.
+
+In the extract we lately made from Mr Wakefield's book, some of our
+readers were perhaps startled at meeting so strange an appellation as
+_Mr Mothercountry_. It is a generic name, which our writer gives to
+that gentleman of the Colonial Office (though it would seem more
+appropriate to one of the female sex) who for the time being really
+governs the colony, and is thus, in fact, the representative of the
+mother country. The _soubriquet_ was adopted from a pamphlet of the
+late Mr Charles Buller, in which he very vividly describes the sort of
+government to which--owing to the frequent change of ministry, and the
+parliamentary duties of the Secretary of State--a colony is
+practically consigned. We wish we had space to quote enough from this
+pamphlet, to show in what a graphic manner Mr Buller gradually narrows
+and limits the ideas which the distant colonist entertains of the
+ruling mother country. "That mother country," he finally says, "which
+has been narrowed from the British isles into the Parliament, from the
+Parliament into the Executive Government, from the Executive
+Government into the Colonial Office, is not to be sought in the
+apartments of the Secretary of State, or his Parliamentary
+under-secretary. Where are we to look for it?" He finds it eventually
+in some back-room in the large house in Downing Street, where some
+unknown gentleman, punctual, industrious, irresponsible, sits at his
+desk with his tape and his pigeon-holes about him. This is the
+original of Mr Mother-country.
+
+That which immediately suggests itself as a substitute and a remedy
+for the inefficient government of Downing Street, is some form of
+local or municipal government. As Mr Wakefield justly observes, a
+local government, having jurisdiction over quite local or special
+matters, by no means implies any relinquishment by the imperial
+government of its requisite control over the colony. Neither does a
+municipal government imply a republican or democratic government. Mr
+Wakefield suggests that the constitution of a colony should be framed,
+as nearly as possible, on the model of our own--that there should be
+two chambers, and one of them hereditary. The extreme distance of
+many, of most of our colonies, absolutely precludes the possibility of
+their being efficiently governed by the English Colonial Office, or by
+functionaries (whether well or ill appointed) who have to receive all
+their instructions from that office. Throughout our colonies, the
+French system of centralisation is adopted, and that with a very
+inadequate machinery. And the evil extends with our increasing
+settlements; for where there is a "seat of government" established in
+a colony, with due legislative and executive powers, every part of
+that colony, however extensive it may be, has to look to that central
+power for the administration of its affairs.
+
+     "In our colonies," says Mr Wakefield, "government resides at
+     what is called its seat; every colony has its Paris, or 'seat
+     of government.' At this spot there is government; elsewhere
+     little or none. Montreal, for example, is the Paris of
+     Canada. Here, of course, as in the Paris of France, or in
+     London, representatives of the people assemble to make laws,
+     and the executive departments, with the cabinet of ministers,
+     are established. But now mark the difference between England
+     on the one hand, and France or Canada on the other. The laws
+     of England being full of delegation of authority for local
+     purposes, and for special purposes whether local or not,
+     spread government all over the country; those of Canada or
+     France in a great measure confine government to the capital
+     and its immediate neighbourhood. If people want to do
+     something of a public nature in Caithness or Cornwall, there
+     is an authority on the spot which will enable them to
+     accomplish this object, without going or writing to a distant
+     place. At Marseilles or Dunkerque you cannot alter a high
+     road, or add a gens-d'arme to the police force, without
+     correspondence with Paris; at Gaspé and Niagara you could
+     not, until lately, get anything of a public nature done,
+     without authority from the seat of government. But what is
+     the meaning, in this case, of a correspondence with Paris or
+     Montreal? It is doubt, hesitation, and ignorant objection on
+     the part of the distant authority; references backwards and
+     forwards; putting off of decisions; delay without end; and
+     for the applicants a great deal of trouble, alternate hope
+     and fear, much vexation of spirit, and finally either a rough
+     defeat of their object or evaporation by lapse of time. In
+     France, accordingly, whatever may be the form of the general
+     government, improvement, except at Paris, is imperceptibly
+     slow; whilst in Old, and still more in New England, you can
+     hardly shut your eyes anywhere without opening them on
+     something new and good, produced by the operation of
+     delegated government specially charged with making the
+     improvement. In the colonies it is much worse than in France.
+     The difficulty there is even to open a correspondence with
+     the seat of government; to find somebody with whom to
+     correspond. In France, at any rate, there is at the centre a
+     very elaborate bureaucratic machinery, instituted with the
+     design of supplying the whole country with government--the
+     failure arises from the practical inadequacy of a central
+     machinery for the purpose in view: but in our colonies, there
+     is but little machinery at the seat of government for even
+     pretending to operate at a distance. The occupants of the
+     public offices at Montreal scarcely take more heed of Gaspé,
+     which is five hundred miles off and very difficult of access,
+     than if that part of Canada were in Newfoundland or Europe.
+     Gaspé, therefore, until lately, when, on Lord Durham's
+     recommendation, some machinery of local government was
+     established in Canada, was almost without government, and one
+     of the most barbarous places on the face of the earth. Every
+     part of Canada not close to the seat of government was more
+     or less like Gaspé. Every colony has numerous Gaspés. South
+     Africa, save at Cape Town, is a Gaspé all over. All Australia
+     Felix, being from five hundred to seven hundred miles distant
+     from its seat of government at Sidney, and without a made
+     road between them, is a great Gaspé. In New Zealand, a
+     country eight or nine hundred miles long, without roads, and
+     colonised, as Sicily was of old, in many distinct
+     settlements, all the settlements, except the one at which the
+     government is seated, are miserable Gaspés as respects
+     paucity of government. In each settlement, indeed, there is a
+     meagre official establishment, and in one of the settlements
+     there is a sort of lieutenant-governor; but these officers
+     have no legislative functions, no authority to determine
+     anything, no originating or constructive powers: they are
+     mere executive organs of the general government at the
+     capital, for administering general laws, and for carrying
+     into effect such arbitrary instructions, which are not laws,
+     as they may receive from the seat of government. The
+     settlers, therefore, are always calling out for something
+     which government alone could furnish. Take one example out of
+     thousands. The settlers at Wellington in New Zealand, the
+     principal settlement of the colony, wanted a light-house at
+     the entrance of this harbour. To get a light-house was an
+     object of the utmost importance to them. The company in
+     England, which had founded the settlement, offered to advance
+     the requisite funds on loan. _But the settlement had no
+     constituted authority that could accept the loan and
+     guarantee its repayment._ The company therefore asked the
+     colonial office, whose authority over New Zealand is supreme,
+     to undertake that the money should be properly laid out and
+     ultimately repaid. But the colonial office, charged as it is
+     with the general government of some forty distinct and
+     distant communities, was utterly incapable of deciding
+     whether or not the infant settlement ought to incur such a
+     debt for such a purpose; it therefore proposed to refer the
+     question to the general government of the colony at Auckland.
+     But Auckland is several hundred miles distant from
+     Wellington, and between these distant places there is no road
+     at all--the only way of communication is by sea; and as there
+     is no commercial intercourse between the places,
+     communication by sea is either so costly, when, as has
+     happened, a ship is engaged for the purpose of sending a
+     message, or so rare, that the settlers at Wellington
+     frequently receive later news from England than from the seat
+     of their government: and moreover the attention of their
+     government was known to be, at the time, absorbed with
+     matters relating exclusively to the settlement in which the
+     government resided. Nothing, therefore, was done; some ships
+     have been lost for want of a lighthouse; and the most
+     frequented harbour of New Zealand is still without one."--(P.
+     212.)
+
+This is a long extract, but it could not be abridged, and the
+importance of the subject required it. Mr Wakefield has some remarks
+upon the necessity of supplying religious instruction and the means of
+public worship to our colonies, with which we cannot but cordially
+agree. But we rubbed our eyes, and read the following passage twice
+over, before we were quite sure that we had not misapprehended it: "I
+am in hopes of being able, when the proper time shall come for that
+part of my task, to persuade you that it would now be easy for England
+to plant _sectarian colonies_--that is, colonies with the strong
+attraction for superior emigrants, of a peculiar creed in each
+colony"--(P. 160.) We thought that it was one of the chief boasts, and
+most fortunate characteristics of our age, that men of different
+sects, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, Independents and Baptists, had
+learned to live quietly together. It is a lesson that has been slowly
+learnt, and through much pain and tribulation. What is the meaning of
+this retrograde movement, this drafting us out again into separate
+corps? Possibly the fact of the whole settlement being of one sect of
+Christians may tend at first to promote harmony--although even this
+cannot be calculated upon; but differences of opinion are sure, in
+time, to creep in; and the ultimate consequence would be, that such a
+colony, in a future generation, would be especially afflicted with
+religious dissensions, and the spirit of persecution. It would have to
+learn again, through the old painful routine, the lesson of mutual
+toleration. We suspect that Mr Wakefield is so engrossed with his
+favourite subject of colonisation, that, if the Mormonites were to
+make a good settlement of it, he would forgive them all their
+absurdities; perhaps congratulate them on their harmony of views.
+
+We have hitherto regarded colonisation in its general, national, and
+legislative aspect: the following passage takes us into the heart of
+the business as it affects the individuals themselves, of all classes,
+who really think of emigrating. It is thus Mr Wakefield describes
+"the charms of colonisation:"--
+
+     "Without having witnessed it, you cannot form a just
+     conception of the pleasurable excitement which those enjoy
+     who engage personally in the business of colonisation. The
+     circumstances which produce these lively and pleasant
+     feelings are, doubtless, counteracted by others productive of
+     annoyance and pain; but, at the worst, there is a great deal
+     of enjoyment for all classes of colonists, which the fixed
+     inhabitants of an old country can with difficulty comprehend.
+     The counteracting circumstances are so many impediments to
+     colonisation, which we must examine presently. I will now
+     endeavour to describe briefly the encouraging circumstances
+     which put emigrants into a state of excitement, similar to
+     that occasioned by opium, wine, or winning at play, but with
+     benefit instead of fatal injury to the moral and physical
+     man.
+
+     "When a man, of whatever condition, has finally determined to
+     emigrate, there is no longer any room in his mind for thought
+     about the circumstances that surround him: his life is for
+     some time an unbroken and happy dream of the imagination. The
+     labourer--whose dream is generally realised--thinks of light
+     work and high wages, good victuals in abundance, beer and
+     tobacco at pleasure, and getting in time to be a master in
+     his trade, or to having a farm of his own. The novelty of the
+     passage would be a delight to him, were it not for the ennui
+     arising from want of occupation. On his arrival at the
+     colony, all goes well with him. He finds himself a person of
+     great value, a sort of personage, and can indulge almost any
+     inclination that seizes him. If he is a brute, as many
+     emigrant labourers are, through being brutally brought up
+     from infancy to manhood, he lives, to use his own expression,
+     'like a fighting cock,' till gross enjoyment carries him off
+     the scene. If he is of the better sort, by nature and
+     education, he works hard, saves money, and becomes a man of
+     property--perhaps builds himself a nice house, glories with
+     his now grand and happy wife in counting the children, the
+     more the merrier, and cannot find anything on earth to
+     complain of, but the exorbitant wages he has to pay. The
+     change for this class of men being from pauperism, or next
+     door to it, to plenty and property, is indescribably, to our
+     apprehensions almost inconceivably, agreeable.
+
+     "But the classes who can hardly imagine the pleasant feelings
+     which emigration provides for the well-disposed pauper, have
+     pleasant feelings of their own when they emigrate, which are
+     perhaps more lively in proportion to the greater
+     susceptibility of a more cultivated mind to the sensations of
+     mental pain and pleasure. Emigrants of cultivated mind, from
+     the moment when they determine to be colonists, have their
+     dreams, which, though far from being always, or ever fully
+     realised, are, I have been told by hundreds of this class,
+     very delightful indeed. They think with great pleasure of
+     getting away from the disagreeable position of anxiety,
+     perhaps of wearing dependence, in which the universal and
+     excessive competition of this country has placed them. But it
+     is on the future that their imagination exclusively seizes.
+     They can think in earnest about nothing but the colony. I
+     have known a man of this class, who had been too careless of
+     money here, begin, as soon as he had resolved on emigration,
+     to save sixpences, and take care of bits of string, saying
+     'everything will be of use _there_.' There! it is common for
+     people whose thoughts are fixed 'there,' to break themselves
+     all at once of a confirmed habit--that of reading their
+     favourite newspaper every day. All the newspapers of the old
+     country are now equally uninteresting to them. If one falls
+     in their way, they perhaps turn with alacrity to the shipping
+     lists, and advertisements of passenger ships, or even to an
+     account of the sale of Australian wool, or New Zealand flax;
+     but they cannot see either the parliamentary debate, or the
+     leading article which used to embody their own opinions, or
+     the reports, accidents, and offences, of which they used to
+     spell every word. Their reading now is confined to letters
+     and newspapers from the colony, and books relating to it.
+     They can hardly talk about anything that does not relate to
+     'there.'"--(P. 127.)
+
+A man is far gone, indeed, when he has given up his _Times_! This zeal
+for emigration amongst the better classes, and especially amongst
+educated youths, who find the avenues to wealth blocked up in their
+own country, is, we apprehend, peculiar to our day, and amongst the
+most novel aspects which the subject of colonisation assumes. How many
+of these latter find their imaginations travelling even to the
+antipodes! _Where_ shall we colonise? is a question canvassed in many
+a family, sometimes half in jest, half in earnest, till it leads to
+the actual departure of the boldest or most restless of the circle.
+Books are brought down and consulted; from the ponderous folio of
+Captain Cook's voyages--which, with its rude but most illustrative of
+prints, was the amusement of their childhood, when they would have
+thought a habitation in the moon as probable a business as one in New
+Zealand--to the last hot-pressed journal of a residence in Sydney; and
+every colony in turn is examined and discussed. Here climate is so
+delicious you may sleep without hazard in the open air. Sleep! yes, if
+the musquitoes let you. Musquitoes--oh! Another reads with delight of
+the noble breed of horses that now run wild in Australia, and of the
+bold horsemanship of those who drive in the herd of bullocks from
+their extensive pasturage, when it is necessary to assemble in order
+to number and to mark them. The name of the thing does not sound so
+romantic as that of a buffalo-hunt; but, armed with your tremendous
+whip, from the back of a horse whom you turn and wind at pleasure, to
+drive your not over-tractable bullocks, must task a good seat, and a
+steady hand, and a quick eye. A third dwells with a quieter delight on
+the beautiful scenery, and the pastoral life so suitable to it, which
+New Zealand will disclose. Valleys green as the meadows of Devonshire,
+hills as picturesque as those of Scotland, and the sky of Italy over
+all! and the aborigines friendly, peaceable. Yes, murmurs one, until
+they eat you. Faugh! but they are reformed in that particular.
+Besides, Dr Dieffenbach says, here, that "they find Europeans salt and
+disagreeable." Probably they had been masticating some tough old
+sailor, who had fed on junk all his life, and they found him salt
+enough. But let no one in his love of science suggest this explanation
+to them; let us rest under the odium of being salt and disagreeable.
+
+These aborigines--one would certainly wish they were out of the way.
+Wild men! Wild--one cannot have fellowship with them. Men--one cannot
+shoot them. In Australia they are said to be not much wiser than
+baboons--one wishes they were altogether baboons, or altogether men.
+In New Zealand they are, upon the whole, a docile, simple people. The
+missionaries are schooling them as they would little children. A very
+simple people! They had heard of horses and of horsemanship; it was
+some tradition handed down from their great discoverer, Captain Cook.
+When lately some portly swine were landed on the island, they
+concluded _these_ were the famous horses men rode upon in England.
+"They rode two of them to death." Probably, by that time, they
+suspected there was some error in the case.
+
+Hapless aborigines! How it comes to pass we cannot stop to inquire,
+but certain it is they never prosper in any union with the white man.
+They get his gin, they get his gunpowder, and, here and there, some
+travesty of his religion. This is the best bargain they make where
+they are most fortunate. The two first gifts of the white man, at all
+events, add nothing to the amenity of character, and happen to be
+precisely the gifts they could most vividly appreciate. Our
+civilisation seems to have no other effect than to break up the sort
+of rude harmony which existed in their previous barbarism. They
+imitate, they do not emulate; what they see of us they do not
+understand. That ridiculous exhibition, so often described, which they
+make with our costume--a naked man with hat and feathers stuck upon
+his head; or, better still, converting a pair of leathers into a
+glistening helmet, the two legs hanging down at the back, where the
+flowing horse-hair is wont to fall--is a perfect emblem of what they
+have gained in mind and character from our civilisation.
+
+These poor New Zealanders are losing--what think you says Dr
+Dieffenbach?--their digestion; getting dyspeptic. The missionaries
+have tamed them down; they eat more, fight less, and die faster. One
+of the "brethren," not the least intelligent to our mind, has
+introduced cricket as a substitute for their war-dances and other
+fooleries they had abolished.
+
+When we want the soil which such aborigines are loosely tenanting, we
+must, we presume, displace them. There is no help for it. But, in all
+other cases, we could wish the white man would leave these dark
+children of the earth alone. If there exists another Tahiti, such as
+it was when Cook discovered it, such as we read of it under the old
+name of Otaheite, we hope that some eternal mist, drawn in a wide
+circle round the island, will shroud it from all future navigators.
+Were we some great mariner, and had discovered such an island, and had
+eaten of the bread-fruit of the hospitable native, and reclined under
+their peaceful trees, and seen their youths and maidens crowned with
+green boughs, sporting like fishes in their beautiful clear seas, no
+mermaid happier--we should know but of one way to prove our
+gratitude--to close our lips for ever on the discovery we had made. If
+there exist in some untraversed region of the ocean another such spot,
+and if there are still any genii, or jins, or whatever sea-fairies may
+be called, left behind in the world, we beseech of them to protect it
+from all prying circumnavigators. Let them raise bewildering mists, or
+scare the helmsman with imaginary breakers, or sit cross-legged upon
+the binnacle, and bewitch the compass--anyhow let them protect their
+charge. We could almost believe, from this moment, in the existence of
+such spirits or genii, having found so great a task for them.
+
+We have no space to go back to other graver topics connected with
+colonisation which we have passed on our road. On one topic we had
+not, certainly, intended to be altogether silent. But it is perhaps
+better as it is; for the subject of transportation is so extensive,
+and so complicate, and so inevitably introduces the whole review of
+what we call secondary punishments--of our penal code, in short--that
+it were preferable to treat it apart. It would be very unsatisfactory
+merely to state a string of conclusions, without being able to throw
+up any defences against those objections which, in a subject so full
+of controversy, they would be sure to provoke.
+
+In fine, we trust to no ideals, no theory or art of colonisation.
+Neither do we make any extraordinary or novel demands on Government. A
+great work is going on, but it will be best performed by simple means.
+We ask from the Government that it should survey and apportion the
+land, and secure its possession to the honest emigrant, and that it
+should delegate to the new settlement such powers of self-government
+as are necessary to its internal improvement. These, however, are
+important duties, and embrace much. The rest, with the exception of
+such liberality as may be thought advisable, in addition to the fund
+raised by the sale of waste land, for the despatch and outfit of the
+poor labourer or artisan--the rest must be left to the free spirit of
+Englishmen, whether going single or in groups and societies.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] _A View of the Art of Colonisation, with present reference to the
+British Empire; in Letters between a Statesman and a Colonist._ Edited
+by (one of the writers) EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD.
+
+
+
+
+THE REACTION, OR FOREIGN CONSERVATISM.
+
+
+                                    BOSTON, _February 1849_.
+
+It is the sage remark of Montesquieu, that, under a government of
+laws, liberty consists simply in the power of doing what we ought to
+will, and in freedom from any constraint to do what we ought not to
+will. The true conservative not only accepts this maxim, but he gives
+it completeness by prescribing a pure religion as the standard of what
+a people ought to will, and as the only sober guide of conscience. And
+this may be added as a corollary, that so long as a free people is
+substantially Christian, their conscience coinciding with absolute
+right, their liberty, so far as affected by popular causes, will
+preserve itself from fatal disorders. Such a people, possessed of
+liberty, will know it and be content. But where the popular conscience
+is morbid, they may have liberty without knowing it. They will fancy
+that they ought to will what they are not permitted to will, and the
+most wholesome restraints of wise laws will appear tyrannical. For
+such a people there can be no cure, till they are restored to a
+healthy conscience. A despotism successfully established over them,
+and then moderately maintained, and benevolently administered, is the
+only thing that can save them from self-destruction.
+
+I was not writing at random, then, my Basil, when I said in my last
+letter that the first want of France is a national conscience. As a
+nation, the French lack the moral sense. What sign of moral life have
+they shown for the last fifty years? The root of bitterness in the
+body politic of France, is the astonishing infidelity of the people.
+Whatever be the causes, the fact is not to be denied: the land whose
+crown was once, by courtesy, _most Christian_, must draw on courtesy
+and charity too, if it be now called Christian at all. The spirit of
+unbelief is national. It is the spirit of French literature--of the
+French press--of the French academy--of the French senate; I had
+almost added of the French church; and if I hesitate, it is not so
+much because I doubt the corrupting influences of the French
+priesthood, as because they are no longer Gallican priests, but simply
+the emissaries of Ultramontanism. There is no longer a French church.
+The Revolution made an end of that. When Napoleon, walking at
+Malmaison, heard the bells of Ruel, he was overpowered with a sense of
+the value of such associations as they revived in his own heart, and
+forthwith he opened the churches which had so long been the sepulchres
+of a nation's faith, convinced that they served a purpose in
+government, if only as a cheap police. He opened the churches, but he
+could not restore the church of France. He could do no more than
+enthrone surviving Ultramontanism in her ancient seats, and that by a
+manoeuvre, which made it a creature and a slave of his ambition. When
+it revolted, he talked of Gallican liberties, but only for political
+purposes. Nor did the Restoration do any better. The church of St
+Louis was defunct. Gallican immunities were indeed asserted on paper;
+but, in effect, the Jesuits gained the day. The Orleans usurpation
+carried things further; for the priesthood, severed from the state,
+became more Ultramontane from apparent necessity, and lost,
+accordingly, their feeble hold on the remaining respect of the French
+people. Who was not startled, when the once devout Lamartine talked of
+"the new Christianity" of Liberty and Equality over the ruins of the
+Orleans dynasty, and thus betrayed the irreligion into which he had
+been repelled by the Christianity of French ecclesiastics! Thus always
+uncongenial to the national character, Ultramontanism has coated, like
+quicksilver, and eaten away those golden liberties which St Louis
+consecrated his life to preserve, and with which have perished the
+life and power of Christianity in France.
+
+The history of France is emphatically a religious history. Every
+student must be struck with it. To understand even the history of its
+court, one must get at least an outline of what is meant by Jansenism
+and Molinism, and Ultramontanism, and the whole tissue of isms which
+they have created. No historian gives us an exemption from this amount
+of polemical information. The school of Michelet is as forward as that
+of de Maistre, in claiming a "religious mission" for France among the
+nations; and de Stael and Chateaubriand are impressed with the same
+idea. Her _publicists_, as well as her statesmen, have been always, in
+their own way, theologians; and, from Louis IX. to Louis XVI., the
+spirit of theology was, in some form or other, the spirit of every
+reign. Not only the Mazarins, but the Pompadours also, have made
+religion part of their craft; and religion became so entirely
+political under Louis XV., that irreligion was easily made political
+in its stead. In the court of France, in fact, theology has been the
+common trade; the trade of Condé and of Guise, of Huguenot and Papist,
+of Jansenist and Jesuit, of philosopher and poet, of harlots, and
+almost of lap-dogs. Even Robespierre must legislate upon the
+"consoling principle of an _Etre Suprême_," and Napoleon elevates
+himself into "the eldest son of the church." "A peculiar
+characteristic of this monarchy," says de Maistre, "is that it
+possesses a certain theocratic element, special to itself, which has
+given it fourteen centuries of duration." This element has given its
+colour to reigns and revolutions alike; and if one admit the necessity
+of religion to the perpetuity of a state, it deserves our attention,
+in the light of whatever contending parties have advanced upon the
+subject.
+
+Let us begin with the revolutionists themselves. In the month of June
+1844, Monsieur Quinet, "of the college of France," stood in his
+lecture-room, venting his little utmost against the "impassioned
+leaven of Reaction," which he declared to be fermenting in French
+society. His audience was literally the youth of nations; for, as I
+gather from his oratory, it embraced not only his countrymen, but,
+besides them, Poles, Russians, Italians, Germans, Hungarians,
+Spaniards, Portuguese, and a sprinkling of negroes. Upon this
+interesting assembly, in which black spirits and white must have
+maintained the proportion, and something of the appearance, of their
+corresponding ebony and ivory in the key-board of a pianoforte, and
+which he had tuned to his liking by a series of preparatory exercises,
+he played, as a grand _finale_, a most brilliant experimental
+quick-step, which satisfied him that every chord vibrated in harmony
+with his own sweet voice. He was closing his instructions, and
+addressed his pupils, not as disciples, but as friends. His great
+object seems to have been to convince them of their own importance, as
+the illuminated school of a new gospel of which he is himself the
+dispenser, and through which, he promised them, they would become,
+with him, the regenerators of the world. Having fully indoctrinated
+them with his new Christianity, it was necessary to work them into
+fury against the old. He had already established the unity of politics
+and religion; he had shown, very artfully, that Christianity had
+identified itself with Ultramontanism, and that France must perish if
+it should triumph; and he had only to convince them of danger from
+that quarter, to influence the combustible spirits of his credulous
+hearers to the heat which his purpose required. This he did by
+bellowing _Reaction_, and anathematising Schlegel and de Maistre.
+
+You were mistaken then, my Basil, in supposing this word _Reaction_
+altogether a bugbear, and in understanding it with reference only to
+the counter-spirit in favour of legitimacy, which has been generated
+by the revolution of last year. You see it was the hobgoblin of a
+certain class of fanatics, long before Louis Philippe had received his
+notice to quit. It was an "impassioned leaven" in French society five
+years ago, in the heated imagination, or else in the artful theory, of
+Quinet. What was really the case? There was, in his sober opinion, as
+much danger from the reaction at that time as from the Great Turk, and
+no more. He merely used it as an academic man-of-straw to play at
+foils with. He held it up to contempt as an exploded folly, and then
+pretended it was a living danger, only to increase his own reputation
+for daring, and to quicken the development of antagonist principles.
+He little dreamed the manikin would come to life, and show fight for
+the Bourbons and legitimacy. He cried _Wolf_ for his own purposes, and
+the actual barking of the pack must be a terrible retribution! The
+reaction of 1848 must have come upon the professors like doomsday. I
+can conceive of him, at present, only as of Friar Bacon, when he
+stumbled upon the discovery of gunpowder. A moment since, he stood in
+his laboratory compounding the genuine elixir of life, and assuring
+his gaping disciples of the success of his experiment; but there has
+been a sudden detonation, and if the professor has miraculously
+escaped, it is only to find chaos come again, his admiring auditors
+blown to atoms, and nothing remaining of his philosophical
+trituration, except his smutty self, and a very bad smell. I speak of
+him as the personification of his system. Personally, he has been a
+gainer by the revolution. Guizot put him out of his place, and the
+Republic has put him back; but the Reaction is upon him, and his
+theories are already resolved into their original gases. "The college
+of France" may soon come to a similar dissolution.
+
+Let us look for a while at foreign conservatism through Monsieur
+Quinet's glasses. I have introduced you to de Maistre, and de Maistre
+is to him what the Pope was to Luther. Quinet is, in his own way,
+another reformer; in fact, he announces his system, in its relations
+to Protestantism, as another noon risen upon mid-day. The theological
+character of foreign politics is as prominent in his writings as in
+those of his antagonists. Thus, to illustrate the character of the
+French Revolution, he takes us to the Council of Trent; and to
+demolish French Tories, he attacks Ultramontanism. This is indeed
+philosophical, considering the actual history of Europe, and the
+affinities of its Conservative party. Action and reaction are always
+equal. The cold infidelity of Great Britain was met by the cool reason
+of Butler, and sufficiently counteracted by even the frigid apologies
+of Watson, and the mechanical faith of Paley. But the passionate
+unbelief of the Encyclopædists produced the unbalanced credulity of
+the reaction; and Diderot, d'Alembert, and Voltaire, have almost, by
+fatality, involved the noble spirits of their correctors in that
+wrongheaded habit of believing, which shows its vigorous weakness in
+the mild Ballanche and the wavering Lamennais, and develops all its
+weak vigour in de Maistre and de Bonald. Thus it happens that Mons.
+Quinet gives to his published lectures the title of _Ultramontanism_;
+for he prefers to meet his antagonists on the untenable field of their
+superstition, and there to win a virtual victory over their
+philosophical and political wisdom. His book has reached me through
+the translation of Mr Cocks,[2] who has kindly favoured the literature
+of England with several similar importations from "the College of
+France," and who seems to be the chosen mouthpiece of the benevolent
+author himself, in addressing the besotted self-sufficiency of John
+Bull. So far, indeed, as it discusses _Ultramontanism_ in itself, the
+work may have its use. It shows, with some force and more
+vociferation, that it has been the death of Spain, and of every state
+in which it has been allowed to work; and that, moreover, it has been
+the persevering foe of law, of science, and of morality. This is a
+true bill; but of him, as of his master Michelet, it may be said with
+emphasis, _Tout, jusqu' à la vérité, trompe dans ses écrits_. It does
+not follow, as he would argue, that political wisdom and Christian
+truth fall with Ultramontanism; nor does he prove it be so, by proving
+that de Maistre and others have thought so. The school of the Reaction
+are convicted of a mistake, into which their masters in Great Britain
+never fell. That is all that Quinet has gained, though he crows
+lustily for victory, and proceeds to construct his own political
+religion, as if Christianity were confessedly defunct. As to the
+style of the Professor, so far as I can judge it from a tumid and
+verbose translation, it is not wanting in the hectic brilliancy of
+rhetoric raised to fever-heat, or of French run mad. Even its
+argument, I doubt not, sounded logical and satisfactory, when its
+slender postulate of truth was set off with oratorical sophistry,
+enforced with professorial shrugs of the shoulders, or driven home
+with conclusive raps upon the auxiliary _tabatière_. But the inanimate
+logic, as it lies coffined in the version of Mr Cocks, looks very
+revolting. In fact, stripped of its false ornament, all its practical
+part is simply the revolutionism of the Chartists. Worse stuff was
+never declaimed to a subterranean conclave of insurgent operatives by
+a drunken Barabbas, with Tom Paine for his text, and a faggot of pikes
+for his rostrum. The results have been too immediate for even Mons.
+Quinet's ambition. From hearing sedition in the "College of France,"
+his motley and party-coloured audience has broken up to enforce it
+behind the barricades. They turned revolutionists against reaction _in
+posse_, and reaction _in esse_ is the very natural consequence.
+
+"Every nation, like every individual, has received a certain mission,
+which it must fulfil. France exercises over Europe a real magistracy,
+which cannot be denied, and she was at the head of its religious
+system." So says de Maistre, and so far his bitter enemy is agreed.
+But, says de Maistre, "She has shamefully abused her mission; and
+since she has used her influence to contradict her vocation, and to
+debauch the morals of Europe, it is not surprising that she is
+restored to herself by terrible remedies." Here speaks the spirit of
+Reaction, and Quinet immediately shows fight. In his view she has but
+carried out her vocation. The Revolution was a glorious outbreak
+towards a new universal principle. In the jargon of his own sect, "it
+was a revolution differing from all preceding revolutions, ancient or
+modern, precisely in this, that it was the deliverance of a nation
+from the bonds and limits of her church, into the spirit of
+universality." The spirit of the national church, he maintains, had
+become Ultramontane; had lost its hold on men's minds; had made way
+for the ascendency of philosophy, and had tacitly yielded the sceptre
+of her sway over the intelligence and the conscience to Rousseau and
+Voltaire. Nor does the Professor admit that subsequent events have
+restored that sceptre. On the contrary, he appeals to his auditors in
+asserting that the priesthood have ceased to guide the French
+conscience. His audience applauds, and the enraptured Quinet catches
+up the response like an auctioneer. He is charmed with his young
+friends. He is sure the reaction will never seduce them into
+travelling to heaven by the old sterile roads. As for the
+_réactionnaires_, no language can convey his contempt for them. "After
+this nation," says he, "has been communing with the spirit of the
+universe upon Sinai, conversing face to face with GOD, they propose to
+her to descend from her vast conceptions, and to creep, crestfallen,
+into the spirit of sect." Thus he contrasts the catholicity of
+Pantheism with the catholicity of Romanism; and thus, with the
+instinct of a bulldog, does he fasten upon the weak points of foreign
+Conservatism, or hold it by the nose, a baited victim, in spite of its
+massive sinews and its generous indignation. This plan is a cunning
+one. He sinks the Conservative principles of the Reaction, and gives
+prominence only to its Ultramontanism. He shows that modern
+Ultramontanism is the creature of the Council of Trent, and reviews
+the history of Europe as connected with that Council. He proves the
+pernicious results of that Council in every state which has
+acknowledged it; shows that not preservation but ruin has been its
+inevitable effect upon national character; and so congratulates France
+for having broken loose from it in the great Revolution. He then
+deprecates its attempted resuscitation by Schlegel and de Maistre,
+and, falling back upon the "religious vocation" of France, exhorts his
+auditors to work it out in the spirit of his own evangel. This new
+gospel, it is almost needless to add, is that detestable impiety which
+was so singularly religious in the revolution of last February,
+profaning the name of the Redeemer to sanctify its brutal excesses,
+and pretending to find in the spirit of his gospel the elements of its
+furious Liberty and Equality. In the true sentiment of that
+revolution, an ideal portrait of the Messiah is elaborately engraved
+for the title-page of Mr Cock's translation! So a French quack adorns
+his shop with a gilded bust of Hippocrates! It is a significant hint
+of the humble origin of a system which, it must be understood, owes
+its present dignity and importance entirely to the genius of Mons.
+Quinet.
+
+That the Reaction is thus identified with Ultramontanism, is a fact
+which its leading spirits would be the very last to deny. The
+necessity of religion to the prosperity of France is their fundamental
+principle; and religion being, in their minds, inseparable from
+Romanism, they will not see its defects; and their blind faith, like
+chloroform, makes them absolutely insensible to the sharp point of the
+weak spear with which Quinet pierces them. And it is but fair to
+suppose that Quinet and his colleagues are equally honest in
+considering Christianity and Ultramontanism synonymous. They see that
+the old religion of France has become, historically, a corrupt thing,
+and they propose a fresh Christianity in its place. Of one thing I am
+sure--they do not over-estimate the political importance of the
+Council of Trent. Let it be fairly traced in its connexions with
+kingdoms, with science, with letters, and with the conscience of
+nations, and it will be seen that Quinet is not far from correct, in
+taking it as the turning-point of the history of Europe. It produced
+Ultramontanism, or rather changed it from an abstraction into an
+organised system; and Ultramontanism, in its new shape, gave birth to
+the Jesuits. Christendom saw a new creed proposed as the bond of
+unity, and a new race of apostles propagating it with intrigue and
+with crime, and, in some places, with fire and sword. In proportion as
+the states of Europe incorporated Ultramontanism with their political
+institutions, they withered and perished. Old Romanism was one thing,
+and modern Ultramontanism another. Kingdoms that flourished while they
+were but Romanised, have perished since they became Tridentine.
+
+Among English writers this distinction has not been generally made.
+Coleridge seems to have observed it, and has incidentally employed it
+in treating of another subject. But foreign literature is full of it,
+either tacitly implied or openly avowed, in different ways.
+Ultramontanism is, in Europe, a political and not merely a theological
+word,--its meaning results from its history. Before the Tridentine
+epoch, the national churches of Europe were still seven candle-sticks,
+in which glittered the seven stars of an essential personality and
+individual completeness. The "Church of Rome" still meant the Roman
+See, and, vast as were its usurpations over the national churches, it
+had neither reduced them to absolute unity in theology, nor absorbed
+their individuality into its own. The Roman Church, as we now
+understand it, was created by the Council of Trent, by a consolidation
+of national churches, and the quiet substitution of the creed of Pius
+IV. for the ancient creeds, as a test of unity. This fact explains the
+position of the Reformed before and after that extraordinary assembly.
+Till its final epoch, they had never fully settled their relations to
+the Papal See. The history of England is full of illustrations of this
+fact. Old Grostete of Lincoln spurned the authority of the Pope, but
+continued in all his functions as an English bishop till his death, in
+the thirteenth century. Wycliffe, in the fourteenth, was still more
+remarkable for resisting the papal pretensions, yet he died in the
+full exercise of his pastoral office, while elevating the host at
+Childermas. Henry VIII. himself had the benefit of masses for his
+pious soul at Notre Dame; and his friend Erasmus lived on easy terms
+with the Reformed, and yet never broke with the Vatican. Even the
+English prayer-book, under Elizabeth, was sanctioned by papal
+authority, with the proviso of her recognition of the supremacy, and
+for twelve years of her reign the popish party lived in communion with
+the Reformed Church of England. During all this period the dogmas of
+popes were fearlessly controverted by Cisalpine theologians, who still
+owned their supremacy in a qualified sense, and who boldly appealed
+to a future council against the decisions of the See of Rome.
+Ultramontanism had then, indeed, its home beyond the mountains, and
+when it came bellowing over its barrier, it was often met as "the
+Tinchel cows the game." But modern Ultramontanism is another thing. It
+is an organised system, swallowing up the nationalities of constituent
+churches, and giving them the absolute unity of an individual Roman
+church, in which Jesuitism is the circulating life-blood, and the
+Italian consistory the heart and head together. Such was the prodigy
+hatched during the seventeen years of Tridentine incubation. It
+appeared at the close of those interminable sessions, so different
+from all that had been anticipated, that it startled all Europe. It
+had quietly changed everything, and made Rome the sole church of
+Southern Europe. Quinet has not failed to present this fact very
+strongly. "That Council," says he, "had not, like its predecessors,
+its roots in all nations; it did not assemble about it the
+representatives of all Christendom. Its spirit was to give full
+sanction to the idea, which certain popes of the middle ages had
+established, of their pre-eminence over oecumenical assemblies.
+Thenceforward, what had been the effect of a particular genius, became
+_the very constitution of the church_. The great adroitness consisted
+_in making the change without anywhere speaking of it_. The church
+which was before tempered by assemblies convoked from all the earth,
+became an absolute monarchy. From that moment the ecclesiastical world
+is silent. The meeting of councils is closed, no more discussions, no
+more solemn deliberations; everything is regulated by bulls, letters,
+and ordinances. Popedom usurps all Christendom; the book of life is
+shut; for three centuries not one page has been added." One would
+think the school of the Reaction would feel the force of facts so
+efficiently urged, even in spite of their towering disgust at the
+purposes for which they are employed. In fact, their own maxims may be
+turned against them with great power, in this matter of
+Ultramontanism. De Maistre, in his argument for unwritten
+constitutions, speaks of the creeds of the church as furnishing no
+exception to his rule; for these, he argues, are not _codes of
+belief_, but they partake the nature of hymns--they have rhythmical
+beauty, they are chanted in solemn services, they are confessed to GOD
+upon the harp and organ. Now this is indeed true of those three
+ancient creeds which are still chanted in the service of the Church of
+England; but the creed of Pius IV., which is the distinguishing creed
+of the Roman church, is absolutely nothing else than a _code of
+belief_, and is the only creed in Christendom which lacks that
+rhythmical glory which he considers a test of truth! Even Quinet
+notices this liturgic impotence of the Ultramontane religion. "The
+Roman church," he says, "has lost in literature, together with the
+ideal of Christianity, the sentiment of her own poetry. What has
+become of the burning accents of Ambrose and Paulinus? Urban VIII.
+writes pagan verses to the Cavalier Berni;[3] and instead of _Stabat
+mater_ or _Salutaris hostia_, the princes of the church compose
+mythological sonnets, at the very moment when Luther is thundering
+_Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott_, that Te Deum of the Reformation."
+
+No wonder France was reluctant to acknowledge a Council which had thus
+imposed a new creed on Christendom, and which dictated a new
+organisation to the ancient churches of Southern Europe. While other
+nations subscribed with artful evasions, she hesitated and submitted,
+but gave no formal assent. Rome had come over the Alps to absorb her,
+and she was loth to yield her birthright. She stood long in what
+Schlegel calls "a disguised half-schism," struggling against
+dissolution, the last lump to melt away in the Tridentine element. But
+where now is the church which St Louis left to France, strong in her
+anti-papal bulwarks? Where now are those bulwarks, the labour of his
+life, and the chief glory of a name which even Rome has canonised? As
+for Spain, Ultramontanism was riveted upon her by the Inquisition,
+and she is twice dead. One sees no more the churches of Western
+Christendom, fortified by Pragmatic Sanctions, and treated with as
+younger sisters, even by domineering Rome! They have disappeared; and
+the only light that lingers in their places is the sad sepulchral
+flame that owes its existence to decay.
+
+Such is Ultramontanism. Follow its history, in connexion with
+political events in France, and you cannot fail to charge it with all
+the responsibility of French infidelity, and, consequently, of the
+present lamentable condition of the nation. Thrice has the spirit of
+France been in deadly collision with it--in the fire, in the wind, and
+in the earthquake. Its first antagonists were the Huguenots, and over
+them it triumphed by the persecutions of Louis XIV., following up the
+policy of Catherine de Medicis. It was next confronted by Jansenism
+under Louis XV., and that it overcame by intrigue and by ridicule.
+Under Louis XVI. it was obliged to meet the atheism of the
+Encyclopædists, which it had itself produced, and which terribly
+visited upon its head its own infernal inventions. To overwhelm the
+Port-Royalists, it had resorted to low caricatures and epigrams, and
+to philosophical satires upon their piety. Voltaire took from these
+the hint of his first warfare against Christianity. This was first a
+joke and a song, and then _Ca Ira_ and _A la lanterne_; first the
+popguns of wit, then the open battery of _Ecrasez l'infâme_, and then
+the exploding mine of revolution. It merely reversed the stratagems of
+Ultramontanism, which began in massacre, and finished its triumphs
+with a jest; and both together have stamped the nation with its
+indelible character of half tiger and half monkey. The origin of such
+an issue of infamy cannot be concealed. France owes it all to her
+conduct in the crisis of the Reformation. Had the Gallic Church, under
+Henry of Navarre, fully copied the example of England, or had she even
+carried out her own instincts, repudiating the Council of Trent, and
+falling back upon the Pragmatic Sanction for a full defence of her
+independence, how different would have been her history, and that of
+the monarchy to which she would have proved a lasting support! Let the
+difference between Henri Quatre and Louis Quatorze, between Sully and
+Richelieu, illustrate the reply. Or it may be imagined, by comparing
+the campaigns of Cevennes with the peaceful mission of Fenelon to the
+Huguenots of Saintonge. Where now both church and state appear the
+mere materials of ambition to such as Mazarin and Dubois, or where
+even the purer genius of such as Bossuet and Massillon is exhibited in
+humiliating and disgraceful associations, the places of history might
+have been adorned by such bright spirits as were immured at
+Port-Royal, or such virtue as sketched the ideal kingdom of
+_Télémaque_, and rendered illustrious a life of uncomplaining sorrow
+in the pastoral chair of Cambray. Where the court can boast one
+Bourdaloue, there would have been, beside him, not a few like Pascal;
+and in the rural parishes there would have been many such as Arnauld
+and Nicole, training in simple piety and loyal worth the successive
+generations of a contented people. As for the palace, it would never
+have been haunted by the dark spirit of Jesuitism, which has so often
+hid itself in the robes of royalty, and reigned in the sovereign's
+name; and the people would have known it only as a fearful thing
+beyond the Pyrenees, whose ear was always in the confessional, and
+whose hand was ever upon the secret wires of the terrible Inquisition.
+The capital would have been a citadel of law, and the kingdom still a
+Christian state. Its history might have lacked a "Grand Monarque," and
+certainly a Napoleon; but then there would have been no _dragonnades_,
+and possibly no Dubarrydom; no _Encyclopædie_, and no _Ca Ira_! The
+bell of St Germain l'Auxerrois would have retained its bloody memory
+as the tocsin of St Bartholomew's massacre, but it would never have
+sounded its second peal of infamy as the signal for storming the
+Tuileries, and for opening those successive vials of avenging woe, in
+which France is expiating her follies and her crimes.
+
+Bossuet, in his funeral oration upon Queen Henrietta, unhappily for
+his own cause, has challenged a comparison between the histories of
+France and England, which, if he were living in our days, he would
+hardly renew with pleasure. The Anglican Reformation was rashly
+charged by him with all the responsibility of the Great Rebellion; but
+facts have proved that revolutions are by no means confined to
+anti-papal countries, while history may be safely appealed to by
+Englishmen, in deciding as to the kind of religion which has best
+encountered the excesses of rebellion, and most effectually cured the
+disease. The Anglican Church survived the Great Rebellion, with
+fidelity to itself: the Gallic Church perished in the Revolution.
+Before the vainglorious taunt of Bossuet had passed from the memory of
+living men, all those causes were at work in France, which bred the
+whirlwind of infidelity, and which insured a revolution, not of
+fanaticism, but of atheism. The real power of the two churches, in
+moulding the character of a people, and retaining the loyalty of its
+noblest intellect, became, then, singularly apparent. In France, it
+was superstition to believe in GOD. In France, philosophers were
+afraid to own a great First Cause. In France, noblemen were ashamed to
+confess a conscience. In France, bishops and cardinals were foremost
+in apostasy, and claimed their sacerdotal rank only to become the
+high-priests of atheistic orgies. It is needless to cite, in
+comparison, the conduct of parallel classes during the Great Rebellion
+in England; while, at the very moment in which these things were
+transacting, the brightest genius in her Imperial Parliament could
+proclaim himself not only a believer, but a crusader for Christianity.
+It was a noble answer to the ghost of poor Bossuet, when such a man as
+Burke, addressing a gentleman of France, declared the adhesion of
+England to her Reformed religion to be not the result of indifference
+but of zeal; when he proudly contrasted the intelligent faith of his
+countrymen with the fanatical impiety of the French; and when, with a
+dignity to which sarcasm has seldom attained, he reminded a nation of
+atheists, that there was a people, every whit its peer, which still
+exulted in the Christian name, and among whom religion, so far from
+being relegated to provinces, and the firesides of peasants, still sat
+in the first rank of the legislature, and "reared its mitred front" in
+the very face of the throne. The withering rebuke of such a boast must
+be measured by the standard of the time when it was given. In Paris,
+the mitre had just been made the ornament of an ass, which bore in
+mockery, upon its back, the vessels of the holy sacrament, and dragged
+a Bible at its tail.
+
+Thus the colossal genius of Burke stood before the world, in that war
+of elements, trampling the irreligion of France beneath his feet, like
+the Archangel thrusting Satan to his bottomless abyss. The spectacle
+was not lost. It was that beautiful and sublime exhibition of moral
+grandeur that quickened the noblest minds in Europe to imitative
+virtue, and produced the school of the Reaction. It was rather the
+spirit of British faith, and law, and loyalty, personified in him. The
+same spirit had been felt in France before: it had moulded the genius
+of Montesquieu, abstractly; but Burke was its mighty concrete, and he
+wrote himself like a photograph upon kindred intellect throughout the
+world. Before his day, the character of English liberty had been
+laboriously studied and mechanically learned; but he, as its living
+representative and embodiment, made himself the procreant author of an
+intellectual family. I fear you will regard this as a theory of my
+own, but I would not have ventured to say this on my mere surmise. One
+whose religion identifies him with Ultramontanism has made the
+acknowledgment before me. I refer to the English editor and translator
+of Schlegel's _Philosophy of History_. According to him, Schlegel at
+Vienna, and Goerres at Munich, were "the supreme oracles of _that
+illustrious school of liberal conservatives_, which numbered, besides
+those eminent Germans, a Baron von Haller in Switzerland, a Viscount
+de Bonald in France, a Count Henri de Merode in Belgium, and a Count
+de Maistre in Piedmont."[4] From the writings of these great men, in a
+greater or less degree, he augurs the future political regeneration of
+Europe; and yet, strongly warped as he is away from England, and
+towards Rome, as the source of all moral and national good, he does
+not conceal the fact that this splendid school of the Reaction was
+"founded by our great Burke." My hopes from the writings of these men
+are not so sanguine: but, so far as they are true to their original,
+they have been already of great service. They may hereafter be made
+still more powerful for good; and if, at the same time, the rising
+school of Conservatism, which begins to make itself felt in America,
+shall impart its wholesome influences to an off-shoot of England, so
+vast already, and of such grand importance to the future, then, and
+not till then, will be duly estimated the real greatness of those
+splendid services which Burke was created to perform, not for his
+country only, but for the human race.
+
+Perhaps it could hardly have been otherwise; but it must always be
+deplored that the Conservatism of England was reproduced on the
+Continent in connexion with the Christianity of Ultramontanism. The
+conservatism of de Stael and of Chateaubriand, though repudiated by
+the _réactionnaires_, is indeed worthy of honourable mention, as their
+characters will ever be of all admiration; yet it must be owned to be
+deficient in force, and by no means executive. It was the Conservatism
+of impulse--the Conservatism of genius, but not the Conservatism of
+profound philosophy and energetic benevolence. The spirit that
+breathes in the _Génie du Christianisme_ is always beautiful, and
+often devout, yet it has been justly censured, as recommending less
+the truth than the beauty of the religion of Jesus Christ; and though
+it doubtless did something to reproduce the religious sentiment, it
+seems to have effected nothing in behalf of religious principle. Its
+author would have fulfilled a nobler mission had he taught his
+countrymen, in sober prose, their radical defects in morality, and
+their absolute lack of a conscience. The Conservatives of the Reaction
+have at least attempted greater things. They have bluntly told the
+French nation that they must reform; they have set themselves to
+produce again the believing spirit: their mistake has been, that they
+have confounded faith with superstition, and taken the cause of the
+Jesuits into the cause of their country and their God. Nothing could
+have been more fatal. It arms against them such characters as
+Michelet,[5] with his _Priests, Women, and Families_, and makes even
+Quinet formidable with his lectures on "the Jesuits and
+Ultramontanism." Yet it must be urged in their behalf, that they have
+been pardonably foolish, for they drew their error with their mother's
+milk; and when even faith was ridiculed as credulity, it was an
+extravagance almost virtuous to rush into superstition. Such is the
+dilemma of a good man in Continental Europe: his choice lies between
+the extremes of corrupt faith and philosophic unbelief. This was the
+misfortune of poor Frederick Schlegel; and, disgusted with the hollow
+rationalism of Germany, he became a Papist, in order to profess
+himself a Christian. The mistake was magnanimously made. We cannot but
+admire the man who eats the book of Roman infallibility, in his hunger
+for the bread of everlasting life. Even Chateaubriand must claim our
+sympathies on this ground. Our feelings are with such errorists--our
+convictions of truth remain unaltered; and we cannot but lament the
+fatality which has thus attended European Conservatism like its
+shadow, and exposed it to successful assaults from its foes. I have
+shown how they use their opportunity. And no wonder, when this
+substitution of Ultramontanism for Christianity has involved de
+Maistre in an elaborate defence of the Inquisition--debased the
+Conservatism of de Bonald to slavish absolutism;[6] and when true to
+its deadening influence upon the conscience, it implicated von Haller
+in the infamous perjury which, though committed under the sanction of
+a Romish bishop, led to his ignominious expulsion from the sovereign
+council at Berne. Chateaubriand has not escaped an infection from the
+same atmosphere. It taints his writings. In such a work as the _Génie
+du Christianisme_, denounced as it is by the Ultramontanists
+generally, there is much that is not wholesome. The eloquent champion
+of faith wields the glaive as stoutly for fables as for eternal
+verities. The poet makes beauty drag decay in her train, and ties a
+dead corpse to the wings of immortality. Truth itself, in his apology,
+though brought out in grand relief, is sculptured on a sepulchre full
+of dead men's bones; and, unhappily, while we draw near to examine the
+perfection of his ideal, we find ourselves repelled by a lurking scent
+of putrefaction.
+
+The career of de Maistre is, in epitome, that of his school. Disgusted
+with Jacobinism, and naturally delighting in paradox, it seemed to
+afford him relief to avow himself a papist, in an age of atheism. He
+was not only the author of the reactionary movement, but his character
+was itself the product of Reaction. Driven with his king to Sardinia,
+in 1792, by the invasion of Piedmont, his philosophical contempt for
+the revolutionists was exhibited in his _Considerations sur la
+France_, from which, in a former letter, I have made so long a
+quotation. In this work--in some respects his best--his Ultramontanism
+is far from extravagant: and not only his religious principles as they
+were then, but also the effect which everything English was then
+producing on his mind, is clearly seen in a comment upon the English
+Church, which, as it passed his review, and was printed again in 1817
+with no retractation, must be regarded as somewhat extraordinary. "If
+ever Christians reunite," says he, "as all things make it their
+interest to do, it would seem that the movement must take rise in the
+Church of England. Calvinism was French work, and consequently an
+exaggerated production. We are pushed too far away by the sectarians
+of so unsubstantial a religion, and there is no mean by which they may
+comprehend us: but the Church of England, which touches us with one
+hand, touches with the other a class whom we cannot reach; and
+although, in a certain point of view, she may thus appear the butt of
+two parties, (as being herself rebellious, though preaching
+authority,) yet in other respects _she is most precious_, and may be
+considered as one of those chemical _intermèdes_, which are capable of
+producing a union between elements dissociable in themselves." He
+seldom shows such moderation; for the Greek and Anglican churches he
+specially hates. In 1804 he was sent ambassador to St Petersburg; and
+there he resided till 1817, fulfilling his diplomatic duties with that
+zeal for his master, and that devotion to conservative interests,
+which are the spirit of his writings. There he published, in 1814, the
+pithy _Essai sur le principe générateur des Constitutions_, in which
+he reduced to an abstract form the doctrines of his former treatise on
+France. His style is peculiarly relishable, sometimes even sportive;
+but its main maxims are laid down with a dictatorial dignity and
+sternness, which associate the tractate, in the minds of many, with
+the writings of Montesquieu. This essay, so little known in England,
+has found an able translator and editor in America, who commends it to
+his countrymen as an antidote to those interpretations which are put
+upon our constitutional law by the political disciples of Rousseau. I
+commend the simple fact to your consideration, as a sign of the more
+earnest tone of thinking, on such matters, which is beginning to be
+felt among us. The fault of the essay is its practical part, or those
+applications into which his growing Ultramontanism diverted his sound
+theories. His principles are often capable of being turned upon
+himself, as I have noticed in the matter of creeds. His genius also
+found a congenial amusement in translating Plutarch's _Delays of
+Divine Justice_, which he accompanied with learned notes, illustrating
+the influence of Christianity upon a heathen mind. On his return from
+St Petersburg in 1817, appeared his violent Ultramontane work, _Du
+Pape_, in which he most ingeniously, but very sophistically, uses in
+support of the papacy an elaborate argument, drawn from the good which
+an overruling Providence has accomplished, by the very usurpations and
+tyrannies of the Roman See. As if this were not enough, however, he
+closes his life and labours with another work, the _Soirées de St
+Petersbourg_, in which, with bewitching eloquence, he expends all his
+powers of varied learning, and pointed sarcasm, and splendid
+sophistry, upon questions which have but the one point of turning
+everything to the account of his grand theory of church and state.
+Thus, from first to last, he identifies his political and moral
+philosophy with religious dogmas essentially ruinous to liberty, and
+which, during three centuries, have wasted every kingdom in which they
+have gained ascendency. To the direct purpose of uprooting the little
+that remained of Gallicanism, he devoted a treatise, which accompanies
+his work _Du Pape_, and of which the first book is entitled, _De
+l'Esprit d'opposition nourri en France contre le Saint-Siège_. Its
+points may be stated in a simple sentence from the works of his
+coadjutor, Frederick Schlegel, who, in a few words, gives the theory
+which has been the great mistake of the Reaction. "The disguised
+half-schism of the Gallican church," says he,--"_not less fatal in its
+historical effects than the open schism of the Greeks_--has
+contributed very materially towards the decline of religion in France,
+down to the period of the Restoration."[7] He illustrates it by the
+disputes of Louis XIV. with the court of Rome, but forgets to say
+anything of his extermination of the Huguenots. In one sense, however,
+he is right. It was precisely the _half_-schism to which the mischief
+is attributable. This half-way work it was that enabled Louis XIV. to
+assert the Gallican theory against a semi-Protestant pope, for the
+very purpose of fostering genuine Ultramontanism and favouring the
+Jesuits; while under another pontiff he could repudiate Gallicanism,
+and force the clergy to retract what he had forced them to adopt! The
+schism of England was doubtless "an open schism," in the opinion of
+Schlegel, and if so, it should have been followed, on his theory, by
+worse effects; but Schlegel lives too long after the days of Bossuet
+to bring her example into view. The natural appeal would have been to
+that example, as its history is cotemporary; but he adroitly diverts
+attention from so instructive a parallel, and cunningly drags in "the
+open schism _of the Greeks_!" Thus, against a bristling front of
+facts, he drives his theory that France has not been Romish enough,
+and lends all his energies to render her less Gallican and more
+Tridentine. Were he now alive, he might see reason to amend his
+doctrine in the condition of Rome itself! But the condition of France
+is quite as conclusive. Since the Restoration, the French Church has
+been growing more and more Ultramontane, and the people are worse and
+worse. Gallicanism is extinct, but results are all against the
+Reactionary theory. France has no more a la Vendée; there will be no
+more Chouans; the present Church is incapable of reviving such things.
+It makes the infidels. I know there is less show of rampant atheism
+just now than formerly; but if there is less of paroxysm, there is
+less of life. France dies of a chronic atheism. The Abbé Bonnetat,
+writing in 1845 on _The Religious and Moral Wants of the French
+Population_, expresses nothing but contempt for the alleged
+improvement in religious feeling. According to him, almost a tenth of
+the male population, in any given district, not only do not believe in
+GOD, but glory in their unbelief. Half of all the rest make no secret
+of their infidelity as to the immortality of the soul; and their wives
+are equally sceptical, to the curse of their children's children! "The
+residue believe," says the Abbé, "only in the sense of not denying.
+They affirm nothing, but, as compared with the others, they lack the
+science of misbelief." To go on with his melancholy picture, the
+divine and salutary institution of the Lord's day no longer effects
+its purpose. In towns, the working classes and tradespeople scarcely
+ever enter the churches. In the rural districts, a tenth of the people
+never go to church at all; and of the rest, one half may hear a mass
+on the five great festivals, while the other half, though more
+frequent in attendance, are very irregular. One Sunday they perform
+the duty perfunctorily; the next they work in the fields; the next
+they stay at home, amuse themselves, and forget religion as part of
+"dull care." The young folk, in many places, receive their first and
+last communion at twelve or fourteen, and that is the end of their
+conformity. A worse feature yet in the domestic manners, resulting
+from this state of religion, is the fact that girls and boys are
+brought up very much in the same way, and are thrown promiscuously
+together, spending their evenings where they choose. Parents have
+ceased to ask their children--_Why were you not at church? Were you at
+vespers? Were you at mass?_ and in fact are the first to corrupt their
+offspring, by their brutal irreligion, and coarse language, and
+shameless behaviour.[8]
+
+Such is the moral picture of France. The Abbé has brightened his mass
+of shadow with here and there a reflection of light, but there is no
+mistaking his work for a Claude Lorraine. France is in a moral
+eclipse, and her portrait presents, of necessity, the _chiaro 'scuro_
+of a Rembrandt. One needs no more than these confessions of a French
+ecclesiastic to account for her false and fickle notions of liberty,
+and for her interminable _émeutes_ and revolutions. Yet if Quinet has
+not wholly invented his assertions, the Conservatism of France is
+pledged to prescribe as remedies the same old poison from which the
+disease results. It would take the Christianity of the nation, at its
+last gasp, and dose it anew with Ultramontanism. They have adopted the
+sound principle, that Christianity moulds a people to enlightened
+notions of liberty, but they seem not to know that it does this by
+acting directly upon the conscience; and hence their political system
+is spoiled by their fatal substitution, for pure Christianity, of that
+spurious religion whose great defect is precisely this, that it does
+not undertake to cleanse and cure the conscience, but only to subject
+it, mechanically, to irrational authority. Montesquieu, in asserting
+the importance of Christianity, without question failed to detect this
+essential defect in Popery, but he instinctively taught his
+countrymen, by memorable example, to eschew Ultramontanism. In the
+closing scene of a life which, with all its blemishes, was a great
+life, and, in comparison with his times, a good one, he accepted with
+reverence the ministrations of his parish priest, but repulsed from
+his deathbed, with aversion and disgust, the officious and intrusive
+Jesuits.[9] De Maistre is more devout than Montesquieu, but he is less
+jealous of liberty, and his ideas of "what a people ought to will" are
+limited, if not illiberal. His more moderate ally, Ballanche, has not
+unjustly characterised him as "not, like Providence, merciful, but,
+like destiny, inexorable." It is impossible that a Conservatism, of
+which such is the sovereign genius, should achieve anything for the
+restoration of such a country as France. I have, indeed, predicted the
+restoration of the Bourbons, according to de Maistre's principles, by
+the sheer tenacity of life which belongs to a hereditary claim, and by
+which it outlasts all other pretensions. But I cannot think that
+either he or his disciples have done much to bring it about; and still
+less do I imagine that their system, as a system, can give permanence
+to the monarchy or prosperity to the state. On the contrary, let Mons.
+Berryer, or the Comte de Montalembert, attempt the settlement of the
+kingdom on the theory of the _réactionnaires_, and they will speedily
+bring it to that full stop which Heaven at last adjudges to princes as
+well as to people, "who show themselves untutored by calamity, and
+rebels to experience." They will, at best, prolong the era of
+revolutions to some indefinite epoch of futurity, and consign the
+nation to a fever, which will return periodically, like a tertian, and
+wear it out by shakings.
+
+It will be well, then, if the imperial farce that must precede "the
+_legitimate_ drama" shall prove somewhat protracted. The Legitimists,
+meantime, may become convinced of the blunder of the Reaction, and
+resolve upon a wiser and more sound conservatism. De Maistre hazards
+some predictions in his works, on which he stakes the soundness of his
+theories, and for which he challenges derision and contempt to his
+doctrines, if they fail. The position of _Pio Nono_, from the very
+outset of his career, has stultified those theories already; and if he
+remains permanently where he now is, it will be to good-breeding alone
+that de Maistre will owe his preservation from the contempt he has
+invoked, by staking his reputation on the conservative character of
+that very court of Rome, from which the democratic wildfire, that has
+inflamed all Europe, has proceeded! In any conceivable settlement of
+the Roman States, the Pontiff will hardly be to Europe what he has
+been during the former years of this century; and if he is to sink to
+a mere patriarchal primate, the grand dream of ultramontanism is
+dissipated.[10] It is to be hoped, then, that the restoration may be
+deferred till the Legitimists have been effectually taught the grand
+fallacy of ultramontane conservatism; and that Henry V. will ascend
+the throne, cured of the hereditary plague of his immediate ancestors,
+and willing to revert, for his example, to his great name-sake, Henri
+Quatre. He will need another Sully to restore France to a sound mind.
+His cause demands a minister who will not trust it to the tide of
+impulse on which it will come in, but who will labour with prudence
+and with foresight, to gain an anchorage before the ebb. Give but a
+minister to the restoration capable of that kind of patient and
+practical forecast, which sent Peter to the dock-yards; and let him
+begin with the parochial schools, to mould a new race of Frenchmen
+under the influences of true religion; and let him have the seventeen
+years which Louis Philippe wasted on steam-ships and bastions, and
+Montpensier marriages; and then, if it be "men that constitute a
+state," there is yet a future of hope for France. And forgive me for
+adding, Basil, that if England shall reverse this policy, and make the
+national schools the sources of disaffection to the national
+religion--then may she expect to see her Oxford and Cambridge degraded
+to such seats of sedition as "the College of France," and their
+ingenuous youth converted from gownsmen into blousemen, under such
+_savans_ as Quinet. Remember, too, in connexion with what I have
+written, that Ireland is the most ultramontane of all nations under
+heaven, and you will be able to estimate the value of government
+measures for its relief! May God open the eyes of all who seek the
+prosperity of the British empire to the primary importance of a
+wholesome national religion, retaining its hold on the national heart,
+and moulding the national conscience to the grand political wisdom of
+the proverb--"My son, fear the Lord and the king, and meddle not with
+them that are given to change." Yours,
+
+                                                     ERNEST.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] _Ultramontanism; or the Roman Church and Modern Society._ By E.
+QUINET, of the College of France. Translated from the French. Third
+edition, with the author's approbation, by C. COCKS, B.L. London: John
+Chapman. 1845.
+
+[3] He surely means _Bernini_, and is a _ninny_ for not saying so. But
+Mr Cocks' translation says _Berni_--p. 144.
+
+[4] _Literary Life of Frederick von Schlegel._ By James Burton
+Robertson, Esq.
+
+[5] See _Blackwood_ for August 1845.
+
+[6] Mr Robertson says of de Bonald, "As long as this great writer
+deals in general propositions, he seldom errs; but when he comes to
+apply his principles to practice, then the political prejudices in
+which he was bred lead him sometimes into exaggerations and errors."
+For "political prejudices" substitute _Ultramontanism_, and Mr
+Robertson has characterised the whole school of the Reaction.
+
+[7] _Philosophy of History._
+
+[8] _De l'Etat et des besoins Religieux et Moraux des Populations en
+France_: par M. L'ABBÉ J. BONNETAT. Paris. 1845.
+
+[9] See _Blackwood_, October 1845.
+
+[10] "Le Souverain Pontife est la base nécessaire, unique, et
+exclusive du Christianisme.... Si les évènements contrarient ce que
+j'avance, j'appelle sur ma mémoire le mépris et les risées de la
+postérité."--_Du Pape_, chap. v. p. 268.
+
+
+
+
+MADAME D'ARBOUVILLE'S "VILLAGE DOCTOR."
+
+
+The readers of _Blackwood_ can hardly have forgotten a charming French
+tale, of which an abridged translation appeared, under the title of
+"_An Unpublished French Novel_," in the number of the Magazine for
+December 1847. In the brief notice prefixed to it, we mentioned the
+existence of a companion story by the same authoress, which had
+obtained wider circulation than its fellow, through arbitrary transfer
+to the pages of a French periodical; and which, on that account,
+although of more convenient length than the _Histoire Hollandaise_, we
+abstained from reproducing. Having thus drawn attention to one of the
+most pleasing tales we in any language are acquainted with, we fully
+expected speedily to meet with it in an English version. Not having
+done so, our vivid recollection of the great merits of "_Le Médecin du
+Village_" now induces us to revoke our first decision--the more
+readily that we have repeatedly been solicited to give the English
+public an opportunity of appreciating a tale unprocurable in the form
+in which it was originally printed, and which few persons in this
+country are likely to have read in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_. The
+exquisite delineation of the erring, but meekly penitent Annunciata,
+and of the long-suffering and enthusiastically pious Christine, may
+well inspire a wish to become acquainted with other productions of the
+same delicate and graceful pen. The simple story of the _Village
+Doctor_ will not disappoint expectation. We ourselves, deeply sensible
+of the fascinations of the Countess d'Arbouville's style, consider it
+her happiest effort; and although we once hinted a doubt of the
+probability of its crowning incident, we forget to play the critic
+when under the influence of her touching pathos and delightful
+diction. In our present capacity of translators we feel but too
+strongly the impossibility of rendering the artless elegance of her
+style, which flows on, smooth, fresh, and sparkling, like a summer
+streamlet over golden sands. And, with all her apparent simplicity,
+Madame d'Arbouville is a cunning artist, playing with skilful hand
+upon the chords of the heart, which vibrate at her lightest touch. The
+effects she produces are the more striking because seemingly unsought.
+But her merits will be better exhibited by this second specimen of her
+writings than by any praise we could lavish; and we therefore proceed,
+without further preamble, to the narrative of Eva Meredith's sorrows,
+as given by her humble friend,
+
+
+THE VILLAGE DOCTOR.
+
+"What is that?" exclaimed several persons assembled in the dining-room
+of the château of Burcy.
+
+The Countess of Moncar had just inherited, from a distant and slightly
+regretted relation, an ancient château which she had never seen,
+although it was at barely fifteen leagues from her habitual summer
+residence. One of the most elegant, and almost one of the prettiest
+women in Paris, Madame de Moncar was but moderately attached to the
+country. Quitting the capital at the end of June, to return thither
+early in October, she usually took with her some of the companions of
+her winter gaieties, and a few young men, selected amongst her most
+assiduous partners. Madame de Moncar was married to a man much older
+than herself, who did not always protect her by his presence. Without
+abusing the great liberty she enjoyed, she was gracefully coquettish,
+elegantly frivolous, pleased with trifles--with a compliment, an
+amiable word, an hour's triumph--loving a ball for the pleasure of
+adorning herself, fond of admiration, and not sorry to inspire love.
+When some grave old aunt ventured a sage remonstrance--"_Mon Dieu!_"
+she replied; "do let me laugh and take life gaily. It is far less
+dangerous than to listen in solitude to the beating of one's heart.
+For my part, I do not know if I even have a heart!" She spoke the
+truth, and really was uncertain upon that point. Desirous to remain
+so, she thought it prudent to leave herself no time for reflection.
+
+One fine morning in September, the countess and her guests set out for
+the unknown château, intending to pass the day there. A cross road,
+reputed practicable, was to reduce the journey to twelve leagues. The
+cross road proved execrable: the travellers lost their way in the
+forest; a carriage broke down; in short, it was not till mid-day that
+the party, much fatigued, and but moderately gratified by the
+picturesque beauties of the scenery, reached the château of Burcy,
+whose aspect was scarcely such as to console them for the annoyances
+of the journey. It was a large sombre building with dingy walls. In
+its front a garden, then out of cultivation, descended from terrace to
+terrace; for the château, built upon the slope of a wooded hill, had
+no level ground in its vicinity. On all sides it was hemmed in by
+mountains, the trees upon which sprang up amidst rocks, and had a dark
+and gloomy foliage that saddened the eyesight. Man's neglect added to
+the natural wild disorder of the scene. Madame de Moncar stood
+motionless and disconcerted upon the threshold of her newly-acquired
+mansion.
+
+"This is very unlike a party of pleasure," said she; "I could weep at
+sight of this dismal abode. Nevertheless here are noble trees, lofty
+rocks, a roaring cataract; doubtless, there is a certain beauty in all
+that; but it is of too grave an order for my humour," added she with a
+smile. "Let us go in and view the interior."
+
+The hungry guests, eager to see if the cook, who had been sent forward
+upon the previous day, as an advanced guard, had safely arrived,
+willingly assented. Having obtained the agreeable certainty that an
+abundant breakfast would soon be upon the table, they rambled through
+the château. The old-fashioned furniture with tattered coverings, the
+arm-chairs with three legs, the tottering tables, the discordant
+sounds of a piano, which for a good score of years had not felt a
+finger, afforded abundant food for jest and merriment. Gaiety
+returned. Instead of grumbling at the inconveniences of this
+uncomfortable mansion, it was agreed to laugh at everything. Moreover,
+for these young and idle persons, the expedition was a sort of event,
+an almost perilous campaign, whose originality appealed to the
+imagination. A faggot was lighted beneath the wide chimney of the
+drawing-room; but clouds of smoke were the result, and the company
+took refuge in the pleasure grounds. The aspect of the gardens was
+strange enough; the stone-benches were covered with moss, the walls of
+the terraces, crumbling in many places, left space between their
+ill-joined stones for the growth of numerous wild plants, which sprung
+out erect and lofty, or trailed with flexible grace towards the earth.
+The walks were overgrown and obliterated by grass; the parterres,
+reserved for garden flowers, were invaded by wild ones, which grow
+wherever the heavens afford a drop of water and a ray of sun; the
+insipid bearbine enveloped and stifled in its envious embrace the
+beauteous rose of Provence; the blackberry mingled its acrid fruits
+with the red clusters of the currant-bush; ferns, wild mint with its
+faint perfume, thistles with their thorny crowns, grew beside a few
+forgotten lilies. When the company entered the enclosure, numbers of
+the smaller animals, alarmed at the unaccustomed intrusion, darted
+into the long grass, and the startled birds flew chirping from branch
+to branch. Silence, for many years the undisturbed tenant of this
+peaceful spot, fled at the sound of human voices and of joyous
+laughter. The solitude was appreciated by none--none grew pensive
+under its influence; it was recklessly broken and profaned. The
+conversation ran upon the gay evenings of the past season, and was
+interspersed with amiable allusions, expressive looks, covert
+compliments, with all the thousand nothings, in short, resorted to by
+persons desirous to please each other, but who have not yet acquired
+the right to be serious.
+
+The steward, after long search for a breakfast-bell along the
+dilapidated walls of the château, at last made up his mind to shout
+from the steps that the meal was ready--the half-smile with which he
+accompanied the announcement, proving that, like his betters, he
+resigned himself for one day to a deviation from his habits of
+etiquette and propriety. Soon a merry party surrounded the board. The
+gloom of the château, its desert site and uncheery aspect, were all
+forgotten; the conversation was general and well sustained; the health
+of the lady of the castle--the fairy whose presence converted the
+crazy old edifice into an enchanted palace, was drunk by all present.
+Suddenly all eyes were turned to the windows of the dining-room.
+
+"What is that?" exclaimed several of the guests.
+
+A small carriage of green wicker-work, with great wheels as high as
+the body of the vehicle, passed before the windows, and stopped at the
+door. It was drawn by a gray horse, short and punchy, whose eyes
+seemed in danger from the shafts, which, from their point of junction
+with the carriage, sloped obliquely upwards. The hood of the little
+cabriolet was brought forward, concealing its contents, with the
+exception of two arms covered with the sleeves of a blue _blouse_, and
+of a whip which fluttered about the ears of the gray horse.
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_" exclaimed Madame de Moncar, "I forgot to tell you I was
+obliged to invite the village doctor to our breakfast. The old man was
+formerly of some service to my uncle's family, and I have seen him
+once or twice. Be not alarmed at the addition to our party: he is very
+taciturn. After a few civil words, we may forget his presence;
+besides, I do not suppose he will remain very long."
+
+At this moment the dining-room door opened, and Dr Barnaby entered. He
+was a little old man, feeble and insignificant-looking, of calm and
+gentle countenance. His gray hairs were collected into a cue,
+according to a bygone fashion; a dash of powder whitened his temples,
+and extended to his furrowed brow. He wore a black coat, and steel
+buckles to his breeches. Over one arm hung a riding-coat of
+puce-coloured taffety. In the opposite hand he carried his hat and a
+thick cane. His whole appearance proved that he had taken unusual
+pains with his toilet; but his black stockings and coat were stained
+with mud, as if the poor old man had fallen into a ditch. He paused at
+the door, astonished at the presence of so many persons. For an
+instant, a tinge of embarrassment appeared upon his face; but
+recovering himself, he silently saluted the company. The strange
+manner of his entrance gave the guests a violent inclination to laugh,
+which they repressed more or less successfully. Madame de Moncar
+alone, in her character of mistress of the house, and incapable of
+failing in politeness, perfectly preserved her gravity.
+
+"Dear me, doctor! have you had an overturn?" was her first inquiry.
+
+Before replying, Dr Barnaby glanced at all these young people in the
+midst of whom he found himself, and, simple and artless though his
+physiognomy was, he could not but guess the cause of their hilarity.
+He replied quietly:
+
+"I have not been overturned. A poor carter fell under the wheels of
+his vehicle; I was passing, and I helped him up." And the doctor took
+possession of a chair left vacant for him at the table. Unfolding his
+napkin, he passed a corner through the buttonhole of his coat, and
+spread out the rest over his waistcoat and knees. At these
+preparations, smiles hovered upon the lips of many of the guests, and
+a whisper or two broke the silence; but this time the doctor did not
+raise his eyes. Perhaps he observed nothing.
+
+"Is there much sickness in the village?" inquired Madame de Moncar,
+whilst they were helping the new comer.
+
+"Yes, madam, a good deal."
+
+"This is an unhealthy neighbourhood?"
+
+"No, madam."
+
+"But the sickness. What causes it?"
+
+"The heat of the sun in harvest time, and the cold and wet of winter."
+
+One of the guests, affecting great gravity, joined in the
+conversation.
+
+"So that in this healthy district, sir, people are ill all the year
+round?"
+
+The doctor raised his little gray eyes to the speaker's face, looked
+at him, hesitated, and seemed either to check or to seek a reply.
+Madame de Moncar kindly came to his relief.
+
+"I know," she said, "that you are here the guardian genius of all who
+suffer."
+
+"Oh, you are too good," replied the old man, apparently much engrossed
+with the slice of pasty upon his plate. Then the gay party left Dr
+Barnaby to himself, and the conversation flowed in its previous
+channel. If any notice was taken of the peaceable old man, it was in
+the form of some slight sarcasm, which, mingled with other discourse,
+would pass, it was thought, unperceived by its object. Not that these
+young men and women were generally otherwise than polite and
+kind-hearted; but upon that day the journey, the breakfast, the
+merriment and slight excitement that had attended all the events of
+the morning, had brought on a sort of heedless gaiety and
+communicative mockery, which rendered them pitiless to the victim whom
+chance had thrown in their way. The doctor continued quietly to eat,
+without looking up, or uttering a word, or seeming to hear one; they
+voted him deaf and dumb, and he was no restraint upon the
+conversation.
+
+When the guests rose from table, Dr Barnaby took a step or two
+backwards, and allowed each man to select the lady he wished to take
+into the drawing-room. One of Madame de Moncar's friends remaining
+without a cavalier, the village doctor timidly advanced, and offered
+her his hand--not his arm. His fingers scarcely touched hers as he
+proceeded, his body slightly bent in sign of respect, with measured
+steps towards the drawing-room. Fresh smiles greeted his entrance, but
+not a cloud appeared upon the placid countenance of the old man, who
+was now voted blind, as well as deaf and dumb. Quitting his companion,
+Dr Barnaby selected the smallest, humblest-looking chair in the room,
+placed it in a corner, at some distance from everybody else, put his
+stick between his knees, crossed his hands upon the knob, and rested
+his chin upon his hands. In this meditative attitude he remained
+silent, and from time to time his eyes closed, as if a gentle slumber,
+which he neither invoked nor repelled, were stealing over him.
+
+"Madame de Moncar!" cried one of the guests, "I presume it is not your
+intention to inhabit this ruin in a desert?"
+
+"Certainly I have no such project. But here are lofty trees and wild
+woods. M. de Moncar may very likely be tempted to pass a few weeks
+here in the shooting season."
+
+"In that case you must pull down and rebuild; clear, alter, and
+improve!"
+
+"Let us make a plan!" cried the young countess. "Let us mark out the
+future garden of my domains."
+
+It was decreed that this party of pleasure should be unsuccessful. At
+that moment a heavy cloud burst, and a close fine rain began to fall.
+Impossible to leave the house.
+
+"How very vexatious!" cried Madame de Moncar. "What shall we do with
+ourselves? The horses require several hours' rest. It will evidently
+be a wet afternoon. For a week to come, the grass, which overgrows
+everything, will not be dry enough to walk upon; all the strings of
+the piano are broken; there is not a book within ten leagues. This
+room is wretchedly dismal. What can we do with ourselves?"
+
+The party, lately so joyous, was gradually losing its gaiety. The
+blithe laugh and arch whisper were succeeded by dull silence. The
+guests sauntered to the windows and examined the sky, but the sky
+remained dark and cloud-laden. Their hopes of a walk were completely
+blighted. They established themselves as comfortably as they could
+upon the old chairs and settees, and tried to revive the conversation;
+but there are thoughts which, like flowers, require a little sun, and
+which will not flourish under a bleak sky. All these young heads
+appeared to droop, oppressed by the storm, like the poplars in the
+garden, which bowed their tops at the will of the wind. A tedious hour
+dragged by.
+
+The lady of the castle, a little disheartened by the failure of her
+party of pleasure, leaned languidly upon a window-sill, and gazed
+vaguely at the prospect without.
+
+"There," said she--"yonder, upon the hill, is a white cottage that
+must come down: it hides the view."
+
+"The white cottage!" cried the doctor. For upwards of an hour Dr
+Barnaby had been mute and motionless upon his chair. Mirth and
+weariness, sun and rain, had succeeded each other without eliciting a
+syllable from his lips. His presence was forgotten by everybody: every
+eye turned quickly upon him when he uttered these three words--"The
+white cottage!"
+
+"What interest do you take in it, doctor?" asked the countess.
+
+"_Mon Dieu, madame!_ Pray forget that I spoke. The cottage will come
+down, undoubtedly, since such is your good pleasure."
+
+"But why should you regret the old shed?"
+
+"I--_Mon Dieu!_ it was inhabited by persons I loved--and--"
+
+"And they think of returning to it, doctor?"
+
+"They are long since dead, madam; they died when I was young!" And the
+old man gazed mournfully at the white cottage, which rose amongst the
+trees upon the hill-side, like a daisy in a green field. There was a
+brief silence.
+
+"Madam," said one of the guests in a low voice to Madame de Moncar,
+"there is mystery here. Observe the melancholy of our Esculapius. Some
+pathetic drama has been enacted in yonder house; a tale of love,
+perhaps. Ask the doctor to tell it us."
+
+"Yes, yes!" was murmured on all sides, "a tale, a story! And should it
+prove of little interest, at any rate the narrator will divert us."
+
+"Not so, gentlemen," replied Madame de Moncar, in the same suppressed
+voice. "If I ask Dr Barnaby to tell us the history of the white
+cottage, it is on the express condition that no one laughs." All
+having promised to be serious and well-behaved, Madame de Moncar
+approached the old man. "Doctor," said she, seating herself beside
+him, "that house, I plainly see, is connected with some reminiscence
+of former days, stored preciously in your memory. Will you tell it us?
+I should be grieved to cause you a regret which it is in my power to
+spare you; the house shall remain, if you tell me why you love it."
+
+Dr Barnaby seemed surprised, and remained silent. The countess drew
+still nearer to him. "Dear doctor!" said she, "see what wretched
+weather; how dreary everything looks. You are the senior of us all;
+tell us a tale. Make us forget rain, and fog, and cold."
+
+Dr Barnaby looked at the countess with great astonishment.
+
+"There is no tale," he said. "What occurred in the cottage is very
+simple, and has no interest but for me, who loved the young people:
+strangers would not call it a tale. And I am unaccustomed to speak
+before many listeners. Besides, what I should tell you is sad, and you
+came to amuse yourselves." And again the doctor rested his chin upon
+his stick.
+
+"Dear doctor," resumed the countess, "the white cottage shall stand,
+if you say why you love it."
+
+The old man appeared somewhat moved; he crossed and uncrossed his
+legs; took out his snuff-box, returned it to his pocket without
+opening it; then, looking at the countess--"You will not pull it
+down?" he said, indicating with his thin and tremulous hand the
+habitation visible at the horizon.
+
+"I promise you I will not."
+
+"Well, so be it; I will do that much for them; I will save the house
+in which they were happy.
+
+"Ladies," continued the old man, "I am but a poor speaker; but I
+believe that even the least eloquent succeed in making themselves
+understood when they tell what they have seen. This story, I warn you
+beforehand, is not gay. To dance and to sing, people send for a
+musician; they call in the physician when they suffer, and are near to
+death."
+
+A circle was formed round Dr Barnaby, who, his hands still crossed
+upon his cane, quietly commenced the following narrative, to an
+audience prepared beforehand to smile at his discourse.
+
+"It was a long time ago, when I was young--for I, too, have been
+young! Youth is a fortune that belongs to all the world--to the poor
+as well as to the rich--but which abides with none. I had just passed
+my examination; I had taken my physician's degree, and I returned to
+my village to exercise my wonderful talents, well convinced that,
+thanks to me, men would now cease to die.
+
+My village is not far from here. From the little window of my room, I
+beheld yonder white house upon the opposite side to that you now
+discern. You certainly would not find my village handsome. In my eyes,
+it was superb; I was born there, and I loved it. We all see with our
+own eyes the things we love. God suffers us to be sometimes a little
+blind; for He well knows that in this lower world a clear sight is not
+always profitable. To me, then, this neighbourhood appeared smiling
+and pleasant, and I lived happily. The white cottage alone, each
+morning when I opened my shutters, impressed me disagreeably: it was
+always closed, still and sad like a forsaken thing. Never had I seen
+its windows open and shut, or its door ajar; never had I known its
+inhospitable garden-gate give passage to human being. Your uncle,
+madam, who had no occasion for a cottage so near his château, sought
+to let it; but the rent was rather higher than anybody here was rich
+enough to give. It remained empty, therefore, whilst in the hamlet
+every window exhibited two or three children's faces peering through
+the branches of gilliflower at the first noise in the street. But one
+morning, on getting up, I was quite astonished to see a long ladder
+resting against the cottage wall; a painter was painting the
+window-shutters green, whilst a maid-servant polished the panes, and a
+gardener hoed the flower-beds.
+
+"All the better," said I to myself; "a good roof like that, which
+covers no one, is so much lost."
+
+From day to day the house improved in appearance. Pots of flowers
+veiled the nudity of the walls; the parterres were planted, the walks
+weeded and gravelled, and muslin curtains, white as snow, shone in the
+sun-rays. One day a post-chaise rattled through the village, and drove
+up to the little house. Who were the strangers? None knew, and all
+desired to learn. For a long time nothing transpired without of what
+passed within the dwelling. The rose-trees bloomed, and the fresh-laid
+lawn grew verdant; still nothing was known. Many were the commentaries
+upon the mystery. They were adventurers concealing themselves--they
+were a young man and his mistress--in short, everything was guessed
+except the truth. The truth is so simple, that one does not always
+think of it; once the mind is in movement, it seeks to the right and
+to the left, and often forgets to look straight before it. The mystery
+gave me little concern. No matter who is there, thought I; they are
+human, therefore they will not be long without suffering, and then
+they will send for me. I waited patiently.
+
+At last one morning a messenger came from Mr William Meredith, to
+request me to call upon him. I put on my best coat, and, endeavouring
+to assume a gravity suitable to my profession, I traversed the
+village, not without some little pride at my importance. That day many
+envied me. The villagers stood at their doors to see me pass. "He is
+going to the white cottage!" they said; whilst I, avoiding all
+appearance of haste and vulgar curiosity, walked deliberately, nodding
+to my peasant neighbours. "Good-day, my friends," I said; "I will see
+you by-and-by; this morning I am busy." And thus I reached the
+hill-side.
+
+On entering the sitting-room of the mysterious house, the scene I
+beheld rejoiced my eyesight. Everything was so simple and elegant.
+Flowers, the chief ornament of the apartment, were so tastefully
+arranged, that gold would not better have embellished the modest
+interior. White muslin was at the windows, white calico on the
+chairs--that was all; but there were roses and jessamine, and flowers
+of all kinds, as in a garden. The light was softened by the curtains,
+the atmosphere was fragrant; and a young girl or woman, fair and fresh
+as all that surrounded her, reclined upon a sofa, and welcomed me with
+a smile. A handsome young man, seated near her upon an ottoman, rose
+when the servant announced Dr Barnaby.
+
+"Sir," said he, with a strong foreign accent, "I have heard so much of
+your skill that I expected to see an old man."
+
+"I have studied diligently, sir," I replied. "I am deeply impressed
+with the importance and responsibility of my calling: you may confide
+in me."
+
+"'Tis well," he said. "I recommend my wife to your best care. Her
+present state demands advice and precaution. She was born in a
+distant land: for my sake she has quitted family and friends. I can
+bring but my affection to her aid, for I am without experience. I
+reckon upon you, sir. If possible, preserve her from all suffering."
+
+As he spoke, the young man fixed upon his wife a look so full of love,
+that the large blue eyes of the beautiful foreigner glistened with
+tears of gratitude. She dropped the tiny cap she was embroidering, and
+her two hands clasped the hand of her husband. I looked at them, and I
+ought to have found their lot enviable, but, somehow or other, the
+contrary was the case. I felt sad; I could not tell why. I had often
+seen persons weep, of whom I said--They are happy! I saw William
+Meredith and his wife smile, and I could not help thinking they had
+much sorrow. I seated myself near my charming patient. Never have I
+seen anything so lovely as that sweet face, shaded by long ringlets of
+fair hair.
+
+"What is your age, madam?"
+
+"Seventeen."
+
+"Is the climate of your native country very different from ours?"
+
+"I was born in America--at New Orleans. Oh! the sun is far brighter
+than here."
+
+Doubtless she feared she had uttered a regret, for she added--
+
+"But every country is beautiful when one is in one's husband's house,
+with him, and awaiting his child!"
+
+Her gaze sought that of William Meredith; then, in a tongue I did not
+understand, she spoke a few words which sounded so soft that they must
+have been words of love.
+
+After a short visit I took my leave, promising to return. I did
+return, and, at the end of two months, I was almost the friend of this
+young couple. Mr and Mrs Meredith were not selfish in their happiness;
+they found time to think of others. They saw that to the poor village
+doctor, whose sole society was that of peasants, those days were
+festivals upon which he passed an hour in hearing the language of
+cities. They encouraged me to frequent them--talked to me of their
+travels, and soon, with the prompt confidence characterising youth,
+they told me their story. It was the girl-wife who spoke:--
+
+"Doctor," she said, "yonder, beyond the seas, I have father, sisters,
+family, friends, whom I long loved, until the day when I loved
+William. But then I shut my heart to those who repulsed my lover.
+William's father forbade him to wed me, because he was too noble for
+the daughter of an American planter. My father forbade me to love
+William, because he was too proud to give his daughter to a man whose
+family refused her a welcome. They tried to separate us; but we loved
+each other. Long did we weep and supplicate, and implore the pity of
+those to whom we owed obedience; they remained inflexible, and we
+loved! Doctor, did you ever love? I would you had, that you might be
+indulgent to us. We were secretly married, and we fled to France. Oh
+how beautiful the ocean appeared in those early days of our affection!
+The sea was hospitable to the fugitives. Wanderers upon the waves, we
+passed happy days in the shadow of our vessel's sails, anticipating
+pardon from our friends, and dreaming a bright future. Alas! we were
+too sanguine. They pursued us; and, upon pretext of some irregularity
+of form in our clandestine marriage, William's family cruelly thought
+to separate us. We found concealment in the midst of these mountains
+and forests. Under a name which is not ours we live unknown. My father
+has not forgiven--he has cursed me! That is the reason, doctor, why I
+cannot always smile, even with my dear William by my side."
+
+How those two loved each other! Never have I seen a being more
+completely wrapped up in another than was Eva Meredith in her husband!
+Whatever her occupation, she always so placed herself, that, on
+raising her eyes, she had William before them. She never read but in
+the book he was reading. Her head against his shoulder, her eyes
+followed the lines on which William's eyes were fixed; she wished the
+same thoughts to strike them at the same moment; and, when I crossed
+the garden to reach their door, I smiled always to see upon the gravel
+the trace of Eva's little foot close to the mark of William's boot.
+What a difference between the deserted old house you see yonder, and
+the pretty dwelling of my young friends! What sweet flowers covered
+the walls! What bright nosegays decked the tables! How many charming
+books were there, full of tales of love that resembled their love! How
+gay the birds that sang around them! How good it was to live there,
+and to be loved a little by those who loved each other so much! But
+those are right who say that happy days are not long upon this earth,
+and that, in respect of happiness, God gives but a little at a time.
+
+One morning Eva Meredith appeared to suffer. I questioned her with all
+the interest I felt for her. She answered me abruptly.
+
+"Do not feel my pulse, doctor," she said; "it is my heart that beats
+too quick. Think me childish if you will, but I am sad this morning.
+William is going away. He is going to the town beyond the mountain, to
+receive money."
+
+"And when will he return?" inquired I, gently.
+
+She smiled, almost blushed, and then, with a look that seemed to say,
+Do not laugh at me, she replied, "_This evening!_"
+
+Notwithstanding her imploring glance, I could not repress a smile.
+Just then a servant brought Mr Meredith's horse to the door. Eva rose
+from her seat, went out into the garden, approached the horse, and,
+whilst stroking his mane, bowed her head upon the animal's neck,
+perhaps to conceal the tear that fell from her eyes. William came out,
+threw himself lightly into the saddle, and gently raised his wife's
+head.
+
+"Silly girl!" said he, with love in his eyes and voice. And he kissed
+her brow.
+
+"William, we have never yet been so many hours apart!"
+
+Mr Meredith stooped his head towards that of Eva, and imprinted a
+second kiss upon her beautiful golden hair; then he touched his
+horse's flank with the spur, and set off at a gallop. I am convinced
+that he, too, was a little moved. Nothing is so contagious as the
+weakness of those we love; tears summon tears, and it is no very
+laudable courage that keeps our eyes dry by the side of a weeping
+friend. I turned my steps homeward, and, once more in my cottage, I
+set myself to meditate on the happiness of loving. I asked myself if
+an Eva would ever cheer my poor dwelling. I did not think of examining
+whether I were worthy to be loved. When we behold two beings thus
+devoted to each other, we easily discern that it is not for good and
+various reasons that they love so well; they love because it is
+necessary, inevitable; they love on account of their own hearts, not
+of those of others. Well, I thought how I might seek and find a heart
+that had need to love, just as, in my morning walks, I might have
+thought to meet, by the road-side, some flower of sweet perfume. Thus
+did I muse, although it is perhaps a wrong feeling which makes us, at
+sight of others' bliss, deplore the happiness we do not ourselves
+possess. Is not a little envy there? and if joy could be stolen like
+gold, should we not then be near a larceny?
+
+The day passed, and I had just completed my frugal supper, when I
+received a message from Mrs Meredith, begging me to visit her. In five
+minutes I was at the door of the white cottage. I found Eva, still
+alone, seated on a sofa, without work or book, pale and trembling.
+"Come, doctor, come," said she, in her soft voice; "I can remain alone
+no longer; see how late it is!--he should have been home two hours
+ago, and has not yet returned!"
+
+I was surprised at Mr Meredith's prolonged absence; but, to comfort
+his wife, I replied quietly, "How can we tell the time necessary to
+transact his business? They may have made him wait; the notary was
+perhaps absent. There were papers to draw up and sign."
+
+"Ah, doctor, I was sure you would find words of consolation! I needed
+to hear some one tell me that it is foolish to tremble thus! Gracious
+heaven, how long the day has been! Doctor, are there really persons
+who live alone? Do they not die immediately, as if robbed of half the
+atmosphere essential to life? But there is eight o'clock!" Eight
+o'clock was indeed striking. I could not imagine why William was not
+back. At all hazards I said to Mrs Meredith, "Madam, the sun is hardly
+set; it is still daylight, and the evening is beautiful; come and
+visit your flowers. If we walk down the road, we shall doubtless meet
+your husband."
+
+She took my arm, and we walked towards the gate of the little garden.
+I endeavoured to turn her attention to surrounding objects. At first
+she replied, as a child obeys. But I felt that her thoughts went not
+with her words. Her anxious gaze was fixed upon the little green gate,
+which had remained open since William's departure. Leaning upon the
+paling, she suffered me to talk on, smiling from time to time, by way
+of thanks; for, as the evening wore away, she lacked courage to answer
+me. Gray tints succeeded the red sunset, foreshadowing the arrival of
+night. Gloom gathered around us. The road, hitherto visible like a
+white line winding through the forest, disappeared in the dark shade
+of the lofty trees, and the village clock struck nine. Eva started. I
+myself felt every stroke vibrate upon my heart. I pitied the poor
+woman's uneasiness.
+
+"Remember, madam," I replied, (she had not spoken, but I answered the
+anxiety visible in her features,) "remember that Mr Meredith must
+return at a walk; the roads through the forest are not in a state to
+admit fast riding." I said this to encourage her; but the truth is, I
+knew not how to explain William's absence. Knowing the distance, I
+also knew that I could have gone twice to the town and back since his
+departure. The evening dew began to penetrate our clothes, and
+especially Eva's thin muslin dress. Again I drew her arm through mine
+and led her towards the house. She followed unresistingly; her gentle
+nature was submissive even in affliction. She walked slowly, her head
+bowed, her eyes fixed on the tracks left by the gallop of her
+husband's horse. How melancholy it was, that evening walk, still
+without William! In vain we listened: there reigned around us the
+profound stillness of a summer night in the country. How greatly does
+a feeling of uneasiness increase under such circumstances. We entered
+the house. Eva seated herself on the sofa, her hands clasped upon her
+knees, her head sunk upon her bosom. There was a lamp on the
+chimney-piece, whose light fell full upon her face. I shall never
+forget its suffering expression. She was pale, very pale--her brow and
+cheeks exactly the same colour; her hair, relaxed by the night-damp,
+fell in disorder upon her shoulders. Tears filled her eyes, and the
+quivering of her colourless lips showed how violent was the effort by
+which she avoided shedding them. She was so young that her face
+resembled that of a child forbidden to cry.
+
+I was greatly troubled, and knew not what to say or how to look.
+Suddenly I remembered (it was a doctor's thought) that Eva, engrossed
+by her uneasiness, had taken nothing since morning, and her situation
+rendered it imprudent to prolong this fast. At my first reference to
+the subject she raised her eyes to mine with a reproachful expression,
+and the motion of her eyelids caused two tears to flow down her
+cheeks.
+
+"For your child's sake, madam," said I.
+
+"Ah, you are right!" she murmured, and she passed into the
+dining-room; but there the little table was laid for two, and at that
+moment this trifle so saddened me as to deprive me of speech and
+motion. My increasing uneasiness rendered me quite awkward; I had not
+the wit to say what I did not think. The silence was prolonged; "and
+yet," said I to myself, "I am here to console her; she sent for me for
+that purpose. There must be fifty ways of explaining this delay--let
+me find one." I sought, and sought--and still I remained silent,
+inwardly cursing the poverty of invention of a poor village doctor.
+Eva, her head resting on her hand, forgot to eat. Suddenly she turned
+to me and burst out sobbing.
+
+"Ah, doctor!" she exclaimed, "I see plainly that you too are uneasy."
+
+"Not so, madam--indeed not so," replied I, speaking at random. "Why
+should I be uneasy? He has doubtless dined with the notary. The roads
+are safe, and no one knows that he went for money."
+
+I had inadvertently revealed one of my secret causes of uneasiness. I
+knew that a band of foreign reapers had that morning passed through
+the village, on their way to a neighbouring department.
+
+Eva uttered a cry.
+
+"Robbers! robbers!" she exclaimed. "I never thought of _that_ danger."
+
+"But, madam, I only mention it to tell you it does not exist."
+
+"Oh! the thought struck you, doctor, because you thought the
+misfortune possible! William, my own William! why did you leave me?"
+cried she, weeping bitterly.
+
+I was in despair at my blunder, and I felt my eyes fill with tears. My
+distress gave me an idea.
+
+"Mrs Meredith," I said, "I cannot see you torment yourself thus, and
+remain by your side unable to console you. I will go and seek your
+husband; I will follow at random one of the paths through the forest;
+I will search everywhere and shout his name, and go, if necessary, to
+the town itself."
+
+"Oh, thanks, thanks, kind friend!" cried Eva Meredith, "take the
+gardener with you and the servant; search in all directions!"
+
+We hurried back into the drawing-room, and Eva rang quickly and
+repeatedly. All the inhabitants of the cottage opened at the same time
+the different doors of the apartment. "Follow Dr Barnaby," cried Mrs
+Meredith.
+
+At that moment a horse's gallop was distinctly heard upon the gravel
+of the garden. Eva uttered a cry of happiness that went home to every
+heart. Never shall I forget the divine expression of joy that
+illumined her face, still inundated with tears. She and I, we flew to
+the house-door. The moon, passing from behind a cloud, threw her full
+light upon a riderless and foam-covered horse, whose bridle dragged
+upon the ground, and whose dusty flanks were galled by the empty
+stirrups. A second cry, this time of intensest horror, burst from
+Eva's breast; then she turned towards me, her eyes fixed, her mouth
+half open, her arms hanging powerless.
+
+The servants were in consternation.
+
+"Get torches, my friends!" cried I, "and follow me! Madam, we shall
+soon return, I hope, and your husband with us. He has received some
+slight hurt, a strained ancle, perhaps. Keep up your courage. We will
+soon be back."
+
+"I go with you!" murmured Eva Meredith in a choking voice.
+
+"Impossible!" I cried. "We must go, fast, perhaps far, and in your
+state--it would be risking your life, and that of your child--"
+
+"I go with you!" repeated Eva.
+
+Then did I feel how cruel was this poor woman's isolation! Had a
+father, a mother been there, they would have ordered her to stay, they
+would have retained her by force; but she was alone upon the earth,
+and to all my hurried entreaties she still replied in a hollow voice:
+"I go with you!"
+
+We set out. The moon was again darkened by dense clouds; there was
+light neither in the heavens nor on the earth. The uncertain radiance
+of our torches barely showed us the path. A servant went in front,
+lowering his torch to the right and to the left, to illumine the
+ditches and bushes bordering the road. Behind him Mrs Meredith, the
+gardener, and myself followed with our eyes the stream of light. From
+time to time we raised our voices and called Mr Meredith. After us a
+stifled sob, murmured the name of William, as if a heart had reckoned
+on the instinct of love to hear its tears better than our shouts. We
+reached the forest. Rain began to fall, and the drops pattered upon
+the foliage with a mournful noise, as if everything around us wept.
+Eva's thin dress was soon soaked with the cold flood. The water
+streamed from her hair over her face. She bruised her feet against the
+stones of the road, and repeatedly stumbled and fell upon her knees;
+but she rose again with the energy of despair, and pushed forwards. It
+was agonising to behold her. I scarcely dared look at her, lest I
+should see her fall dead before my eyes. At last--we were moving in
+silence, fatigued and discouraged--Mrs Meredith pushed us suddenly
+aside, sprang forward and plunged into the bushes. We followed her,
+and, upon raising the torches--alas! she was on her knees beside the
+body of William, who was stretched motionless upon the ground, his
+eyes glazed and his brow covered with blood which flowed from a wound
+in the left temple.
+
+"Doctor?" said Eva to me. That one word expressed--"Does William
+live?"
+
+I stooped and felt the pulse of William Meredith; I placed my hand on
+his heart and remained silent. Eva still gazed at me; but, when my
+silence was prolonged, I saw her bend, waver, and then, without word
+or cry, fall senseless upon her husband's corpse.
+
+"But, ladies," said Dr Barnaby, turning to his audience, "the sun
+shines again; you can go out now. Let us leave this sad story where it
+is."
+
+Madame de Moncar approached the old physician. "Doctor," said she, "I
+implore you to continue; only look at us, and you will not doubt the
+interest with which we listen."
+
+There were no more smiles of mockery upon the young faces that
+surrounded the village doctor. In some of their eyes he might even
+distinguish the glistening of tears. He resumed his narrative.
+
+"Mrs Meredith was carried home, and remained for several hours
+senseless upon her bed. I felt it at once a duty and a cruelty to use
+every effort to recall her to life. I dreaded the agonising scenes
+that would follow this state of immobility. I remained beside the poor
+woman, bathing her temples with fresh water, and awaiting with anxiety
+the sad and yet the happy moment of returning consciousness. I was
+mistaken in my anticipations, for I had never witnessed great grief.
+Eva half opened her eyes and immediately closed them again; no tear
+escaped from beneath their lids. She remained cold, motionless,
+silent; and, but for the heart which again throbbed beneath my hand, I
+should have deemed her dead. Sad is it to behold a sorrow which one
+feels is beyond consolation! Silence, I thought, seemed like a want of
+pity for this unfortunate creature: on the other hand, verbal
+condolence was a mockery of so mighty a grief. I had found no words to
+calm her uneasiness; could I hope to be more eloquent in the hour of
+her great suffering? I took the safest course, that of profound
+silence. I will remain here, I thought, and minister to the physical
+sufferings, as is my duty; but I will be mute and passive, even as a
+faithful dog would lie down at her feet. My mind once made up, I felt
+calmer; I let her live a life which resembled death. After a few
+hours, however, I put a spoonful of a potion to her lips. Eva slowly
+averted her head. In a few moments I again offered her the drug.
+
+"Drink, madam," I said, gently touching her lips with the spoon. They
+remained closed.
+
+"Madam, your child!" I persisted, in a low voice.
+
+Eva opened her eyes, raised herself with effort upon her elbow,
+swallowed the medicine, and fell back upon her pillow.
+
+"I must wait," she murmured, "till another life is detached from
+mine!"
+
+Thenceforward Mrs Meredith spoke no more, but she mechanically
+followed all my prescriptions. Stretched upon her bed of suffering,
+she seemed constantly to sleep; but at whatever moment I said to her,
+even in my lowest whisper, "Drink this," she instantly obeyed; thus
+proving to me that the soul kept its weary watch in that motionless
+body, without a single instant of oblivion and repose.
+
+There were none beside myself to attend to the interment of William.
+Nothing positive was ever known as to the cause of his death. The sum
+he was to bring from the town was not found upon him; perhaps he had
+been robbed and murdered; perhaps the money, which was in notes, had
+fallen from his pocket when he was thrown from his horse, and, as it
+was some time before any thought of seeking it, the heavy rain and
+trampled mud might account for its disappearance. A fruitless
+investigation was made and soon dropped. I endeavoured to learn from
+Eva Meredith if her family, or that of her husband, should not be
+written to. I had difficulty in obtaining an answer. At last she gave
+me to understand that I had merely to inform their agent, who would do
+whatever was needful. I hoped that, at least from England, some
+communication would arrive, decisive of this poor creature's future
+lot. But no; day followed day, and none seemed to know that the widow
+of William Meredith lived in utter isolation, in a poor French
+village. To endeavour to bring back Eva to the sense of her existence,
+I urged her to leave her bed. Upon the morrow I found her up, dressed
+in black; but she was the ghost of the beautiful Eva Meredith. Her
+hair was parted in bands upon her pale forehead, and she sat near a
+window, motionless as she had lain in bed.
+
+I passed long silent evenings with her, a book in my hand for apparent
+occupation. Each day, on my arrival, I addressed to her a few words of
+sympathy. She replied by a thankful look; then we remained silent. I
+waited an opportunity to open a conversation; but my awkwardness and
+my respect for her grief prevented my finding one, or suffered it to
+escape when it occurred. Little by little I grew accustomed to this
+mute intercourse; and, besides, what could I have said to her? My
+chief object was to prevent her feeling quite alone in the world; and,
+obscure as was the prop remaining, it still was something. I went to
+see her merely that my presence might say, "I am here."
+
+It was a singular epoch in my life, and had a great influence on my
+future existence. Had I not shown so much regret at the threatened
+destruction of the white cottage, I would hurry to the conclusion of
+this narrative. But you have insisted upon knowing why that building
+is hallowed to me, and I must tell you therefore what I have thought
+and felt beneath its humble roof. Forgive me, ladies, if my words are
+grave. It is good for youth to be sometimes a little saddened; it has
+so much time before it to laugh and to forget.
+
+The son of a rich peasant, I was sent to Paris to complete my studies.
+During four years passed in that great city, I retained the
+awkwardness of my manners, the simplicity of my language, but I
+rapidly lost the ingenuousness of my sentiments. I returned to these
+mountains, almost learned, but almost incredulous in all those points
+of faith which enable a man to pass his life contentedly beneath a
+thatched roof, in the society of his wife and children, without caring
+to look beyond the cross above the village cemetery.
+
+Whilst contemplating the love of William and of Eva, I had reverted to
+my former simple peasant-nature. I began to dream of a virtuous,
+affectionate wife, diligent and frugal, embellishing my house by her
+care and order. I saw myself proud of the gentle severity of her
+features, revealing to all the chaste and faithful spouse. Very
+different were these reveries from those that haunted me at Paris
+after joyous evenings spent with my comrades. Suddenly, horrible
+calamity descended like a thunderbolt upon Eva Meredith. This time I
+was slower to appreciate the lesson I daily received. Eva sat
+constantly at the window, her sad gaze fixed upon the heavens. The
+attitude, common in persons of meditative mood, attracted my attention
+but little. Her persistence in it at last struck me. My book open upon
+my knees, I looked at Mrs Meredith; and well assured she would not
+detect my gaze, I examined her attentively. She still gazed at the
+sky--my eyes followed the direction of hers. "Ah," I said to myself
+with a half smile, "she thinks to rejoin him _there_!" Then I resumed
+my book, thinking how fortunate it was for the weakness of women that
+such thoughts came to the relief of their sorrows.
+
+I have already told you that my student's life had put evil thoughts
+into my head. Every day, however, I saw Eva in the same attitude, and
+every day my reflections were recalled to the same subject. Little by
+little I came to think her dream a good one, and to regret I could not
+credit its reality. The soul, heaven, eternal life, all that the old
+priest had formerly taught me, glided through my imagination as I sat
+at eventide before the open window. "The doctrine of the old _curé_,"
+I said to myself, "was more comforting than the cold realities science
+has revealed to me." Then I looked at Eva, who still looked to heaven,
+whilst the bells of the village church sounded sweetly in the
+distance, and the rays of the setting sun made the steeple-cross
+glitter against the sky. I often returned to sit opposite the poor
+widow, persevering in her grief as in her holy hopes.
+
+"What!" I thought, "can so much love address itself to a few particles
+of dust, already mingled with the mould; are all these sighs wasted on
+empty air? William departed in the freshness of his age, his
+affections yet vivid, his heart in its early bloom. She loved him but
+a year, one little year--and is all over for her? Above our heads is
+there nothing but void? Love--that sentiment so strong within us--is
+it but a flame placed in the obscure prison of our body, where it
+shines, burns, and is finally extinguished by the fall of the frail
+wall surrounding it? Is a little dust all that remains of our loves,
+and hopes, and passions--of all that moves, agitates, and exalts us?"
+
+There was deep silence in the recesses of my soul. I had ceased to
+think. I was as if slumbering between what I no longer denied, and
+what I did not yet believe. At last, one night, when Eva joined her
+hands to pray, beneath the most beautiful starlit sky possible to
+behold, I know not how it was, but I found my hands also clasped, and
+my lips opened to murmur a prayer. Then, by a happy chance, and for
+the first time, Eva Meredith looked round, as if a secret instinct had
+whispered her that my soul harmonised with hers.
+
+"Thanks," said she, holding out her hand, "keep him in your memory,
+and pray for him sometimes."
+
+"Oh, madam!" I exclaimed, "may we all meet again in a better world,
+whether our lives have been long or short, happy or full of trial."
+
+"The immortal soul of William looks down upon us!" she replied in a
+grave voice, whilst her gaze, at once sad and bright, reverted to the
+star-spangled heavens.
+
+Since that evening, when performing the duties of my profession, I
+have often witnessed death; but never without speaking, to the
+sorrowing survivors, a few consoling words on a better life than this
+one; and those words were words of conviction.
+
+At last, a month after these incidents, Eva Meredith gave birth to a
+son. When they brought her her child,--"William!" exclaimed the poor
+widow; and tears, soothing tears too long denied to her grief, escaped
+in torrents from her eyes. The child bore that much-loved name of
+William, and a little cradle was placed close to the mother's bed.
+Then Eva's gaze, long directed to heaven, returned earthwards. She
+looked to her child now, as she had previously looked to her God. She
+bent over him to seek his father's features. Providence had permitted
+an exact resemblance between William and the son he was fated not to
+see. A great change occurred around us. Eva, who had consented to live
+until her child's existence was detached from hers, was now, I could
+plainly see, willing to live on, because she felt that this little
+being needed the protection of her love. She passed the days and
+evenings seated beside his cradle; and when I went to see her, oh!
+then she questioned me as to what she should do for him, she explained
+what he had suffered, and asked what could be done to save him from
+pain. For her child she feared the heat of a ray of sun, the chill of
+the lightest breeze. Bending over him, she shielded him with her body,
+and warmed him with her kisses. One day, I almost thought I saw her
+smile at him. But she never would sing, whilst rocking his cradle, to
+lull him to sleep; she called one of her women, and said, "Sing to my
+son that he may sleep." Then she listened, letting her tears flow
+softly upon little William's brow. Poor child! he was handsome,
+gentle, easy to rear. But, as if his mother's sorrow had affected him
+even before his birth, the child was melancholy: he seldom cried, but
+he never smiled: he was quiet; and at that age quiet seems to denote
+suffering. I fancied that all the tears shed over the cradle froze
+that poor little soul. I would fain have seen William's arms twined
+caressingly round his mother's neck. I would have had him return the
+kisses lavished upon him. "But what am I thinking about?" I then said
+to myself; "is it reasonable to expect that a little creature, not yet
+a year upon the earth, should understand that it is sent hither to
+love and console this woman?"
+
+It was, I assure you, a touching sight to behold this young mother,
+pale, feeble, and who had once renounced existence, clinging again to
+life for the sake of a little child which could not even say "Thanks,
+dear mother!" What a marvel is the human heart! Of how small a thing
+it makes much! Give it but a grain of sand, and it elevates a
+mountain; at its latest throb show it but an atom to love, and again
+its pulses revive; it stops for good only when all is void around it,
+and when even the shadow of its affections has vanished from the
+earth!
+
+Time rolled on, and I received a letter from an uncle, my sole
+surviving relative. My uncle, a member of the faculty of Montpellier,
+summoned me to his side, to complete in that learned town my
+initiation into the secrets of my art. This letter, in form an
+invitation, was in fact an order. I had to set out. One morning, my
+heart big when I thought of the isolation in which I left the widow
+and the orphan, I repaired to the white cottage to take leave of Eva
+Meredith. I know not whether an additional shade of sadness came over
+her features when I told her I was about to make a long absence. Since
+the death of William Meredith such profound melancholy dwelt upon her
+countenance that a smile would have been the sole perceptible
+variation: sadness was always there.
+
+"You leave us?" she exclaimed; "your care is so useful to my child!"
+
+The poor lonely woman forgot to regret departure of her last friend;
+the mother lamented the loss of the physician useful to her son. I did
+not complain. To be useful is the sweet recompense of the devoted.
+
+"Adieu!" she said, holding out her hand. "Wherever you go, may God
+bless you; and should it be His will to afflict you, may He at least
+afford you the sympathy of a heart compassionate as your own."
+
+I bowed over the hand of Eva Meredith; and I departed, deeply moved.
+
+The child was in the garden in front of the house, lying upon the
+grass, in the sun. I took him in my arms and kissed him repeatedly; I
+looked at long, attentively, sadly, and a tear started to my eyes.
+"Oh, no, no! I must be mistaken!" I murmured, and I hurried from the
+white cottage.
+
+"Good heavens, doctor!" simultaneously exclaimed all Dr Barnaby's
+audience, "what did you apprehend?"
+
+"Suffer me to finish my story my own way," replied the village doctor;
+"everything shall be told in its turn. I relate these events in the
+order in which they occurred."
+
+On my arrival at Montpellier, I was exceedingly well received by my
+uncle; who declared, however, that he could neither lodge nor feed me,
+nor lend me money, and that as a stranger, without a name, I must not
+hope for a patient in a town so full of celebrated physicians.
+
+"Then I will return to my village, uncle," replied I.
+
+"By no means!" was his answer. "I have got you a lucrative and
+respectable situation. An old Englishman, rich, gouty, and restless,
+wishes to have a doctor to live with him, an intelligent young man who
+will take charge of his health under the superintendence of an older
+physician. I have proposed you--you have been accepted; let us go to
+him."
+
+We betook ourselves immediately to the residence of Lord James
+Kysington, a large and handsome house, full of servants, where, after
+waiting some time, first in the anteroom, and then in the parlours, we
+were at last ushered into the presence of the noble invalid. Seated in
+a large arm-chair was an old man of cold and severe aspect, whose
+white hair contrasted oddly with his eyebrows, still of a jet black.
+He was tall and thin, as far as I could judge through the folds of a
+large cloth coat, made like a dressing-gown. His hands disappeared
+under his cuffs, and his feet were wrapped in the skin of a white
+bear. A number of medicine vials were upon a table beside him.
+
+"My lord, this is my nephew, Dr Barnaby."
+
+Lord Kysington bowed; that is to say, he looked at me, and made a
+scarcely perceptible movement with his head.
+
+"He is well versed in his profession, and I doubt not that his care
+will be most beneficial to your lordship."
+
+A second movement of the head was the sole reply vouchsafed.
+
+"Moreover," continued my relation, "having had a tolerably good
+education, he can read to your lordship, or write under your
+dictation."
+
+"I shall be obliged to him," replied Lord Kysington, breaking silence
+at last, and then closing his eyes, either from fatigue, or as a hint
+that the conversation was to drop. I glanced around me. Near the
+window sat a lady, very elegantly dressed, who continued her
+embroidery without once raising her eyes, as if we were not worthy her
+notice. Upon the carpet at her feet a little boy amused himself with
+toys. The lady, although young, did not at first strike me as
+pretty--because she had black hair and eyes; and to be pretty,
+according to my notion, was to be fair, like Eva Meredith; and
+moreover, in my inexperience, I held beauty impossible without a
+certain air of goodness. It was long before I could admit the beauty
+of this woman, whose brow was haughty, her look disdainful, and her
+mouth unsmiling. Like Lord Kysington, she was tall, thin, rather pale.
+In character they were too much alike to suit each other well. Formal
+and taciturn, they lived together without affection, almost without
+converse. The child, too, had been taught silence; he walked on
+tiptoe, and at the least noise a severe look from his mother or from
+Lord Kysington changed him into a statue.
+
+It was too late to return to my village; but it is never too late to
+regret what one has loved and lost. My heart ached when I thought of
+my cottage, my valley, my liberty.
+
+What I learned concerning the cheerless family I had entered was as
+follows:--Lord James Kysington had come to Montpellier for his health,
+deteriorated by the climate of India. Second son of the Duke of
+Kysington, and a lord only by courtesy, he owed to talent and not to
+inheritance his fortune and his political position in the House of
+Commons. Lady Mary was the wife of his youngest brother; and Lord
+James, free to dispose of his fortune, had named her son his heir.
+
+Towards me his lordship was most punctiliously polite. A bow thanked
+me for every service I rendered him. I read aloud for hours together,
+uninterrupted either by the sombre old man, whom I put to sleep, or by
+the young woman, who did not listen to me, or by the child, who
+trembled in his uncle's presence. I had never led so melancholy a
+life, and yet, as you know, ladies, the little white cottage had long
+ceased to be gay; but the silence of misfortune implies such grave
+reflections, that words are insufficient to express them. One feels
+the life of the soul under the stillness of the body. In my new abode
+it was the silence of a void.
+
+One day that Lord James dozed and Lady Mary was engrossed with
+embroidery, little Harry climbed upon my knee, as I sat apart at the
+farther end of the room, and began to question me with the artless
+curiosity of his age. In my turn, and without reflecting on what I
+said, I questioned him concerning his family.
+
+"Have you any brothers or sisters?" I inquired.
+
+"I have a very pretty little sister."
+
+"What is her name," asked I, absently, glancing at the newspaper in my
+hand.
+
+"She has a beautiful name. Guess it, Doctor."
+
+I know not what I was thinking about. In my village I had heard none
+but the names of peasants, hardly applicable to Lady Mary's daughter.
+Mrs Meredith was the only lady I had known, and the child repeating,
+"Guess, guess!" I replied at random,
+
+"Eva, perhaps?"
+
+We were speaking very low; but when the name of Eva escaped my lips,
+Lord James opened his eyes quickly, and raised himself in his chair,
+Lady Mary dropped her needle and turned sharply towards me. I was
+confounded at the effect I had produced; I looked alternately at Lord
+James and at Lady Mary, without daring to utter another word. Some
+minutes passed: Lord James again let his head fall back and closed his
+eyes, Lady Mary resumed her needle, Harry and I ceased our
+conversation. I reflected for some time upon this strange incident,
+until at last, all around me having sunk into the usual monotonous
+calm, I rose to leave the room. Lady Mary pushed away her embroidery
+frame, passed before me, and made me sign to follow. When we were
+both in another room she shut the door, and raising her head, with the
+imperious air which was the most habitual expression of her features:
+"Dr Barnaby," said she, "be so good as never again to pronounce the
+name that just now escaped your lips. It is a name Lord James
+Kysington must not hear." She bowed slightly, and re-entered her
+brother-in-law's apartment.
+
+Thoughts innumerable crowded upon my mind. This Eva, whose name was
+not to be spoken, could it be Eva Meredith? Was she Lord Kysington's
+daughter-in-law? Was I in the house of William's father? I hoped, but
+still I doubted; for, after all, if there was but one Eva in the world
+for me, in England the name was, doubtless, by no means uncommon. But
+the thought that I was perhaps with the family of Eva Meredith, living
+with the woman who robbed the widow and the orphan of their
+inheritance, this thought was present to me by day and by night. In my
+dreams I beheld the return of Eva and her son to the paternal
+residence, in consequence of the pardon I had implored and obtained
+for them. But when I raised my eyes, the cold impassible physiognomy
+of Lord Kysington froze all the hopes of my heart. I applied myself to
+the examination of that countenance as if I had never before seen it;
+I analysed its features and lines to find a trace of sensibility. I
+sought the heart I so gladly would have touched. Alas! I found it not.
+But I had so good a cause that I was not to be discouraged. "Pshaw!" I
+said to myself, "what matters the expression of the face? why heed the
+external envelope? May not the darkest coffer contain bright gold?
+Must all that is within us reveal itself at a glance? Does not every
+man of the world learn to separate his mind and his thoughts from the
+habitual expression of his countenance?"
+
+I resolved to clear up my doubts, but how to do so was the difficulty.
+Impossible to question Lady Mary or Lord James; the servants were
+French, and had but lately come to the house. An English
+valet-de-chambre had just been despatched to London on a confidential
+mission. I directed my investigations to Lord James Kysington. The
+severe expression of his countenance ceased to intimidate me. I said
+to myself:--"When the forester meets with a tree apparently dead, he
+strikes his axe into the trunk to see whether sap does not still
+survive beneath the withered bark; in like manner will I strike at the
+heart, and see whether life be not somewhere hidden." And I only
+waited an opportunity.
+
+To await an opportunity with impatience is to accelerate its coming.
+Instead of depending on circumstances we subjugate them. One night
+Lord James sent for me. He was in pain. After administering the
+necessary remedies, I remained by his bedside, to watch their effect.
+The room was dark; a single wax candle showed the outline of objects,
+without illuminating them. The pale and noble head of Lord James was
+thrown back upon his pillow. His eyes were shut, according to his
+custom when suffering, as if he concentrated his moral energies within
+him. He never complained, but lay stretched out in his bed, straight
+and motionless as a king's statue upon a marble tomb. In general he
+got somebody to read to him, hoping either to distract his thoughts
+from his pains, or to be lulled to sleep by the monotonous sound.
+
+Upon that night he made sign to me with his meagre hand to take a book
+and read, but I sought one in vain; books and newspapers had all been
+removed to the drawing-room; the doors were locked, and unless I rang
+and aroused the house, a book was not to be had. Lord James made a
+gesture of impatience, then one of resignation, and beckoned me to
+resume my seat by his side. We remained for some time without
+speaking, almost in darkness, the silence broken only by the ticking
+of the clock. Sleep came not. Suddenly Lord James opened his eyes.
+
+"Speak to me," he said. "Tell me something; whatever you like."
+
+His eyes closed, and he waited. My heart beat violently. The moment
+had come.
+
+"My lord," said I, "I greatly fear I know nothing that will interest
+your lordship. I can speak but of myself, of the events of my
+life,--and the history of the great ones of the earth were necessary
+to fix your attention. What can a peasant have to say, who has lived
+contented with little, in obscurity and repose? I have scarcely
+quitted my village, my lord. It is a pretty mountain hamlet, where
+even those not born there might well be pleased to dwell. Near it is a
+country house, which I have known inhabited by rich people, who could
+have left it if they liked, but who remained, because the woods were
+thick, the paths bordered with flowers, the streams bright and rapid
+in their rocky beds. Alas! they were two in that house--and soon a
+poor woman was there alone, until the birth of her son. My lord, she
+is a countrywoman of yours, an Englishwoman, of beauty such as is
+seldom seen either in England or in France; good as, besides her, only
+the angels in heaven can be! She had just completed her eighteenth
+year when I left her, fatherless, motherless, and already widowed of
+an adored husband; she is feeble, delicate, almost ill, and yet she
+must live;--who would protect that little child? Oh! my lord, there
+are very unhappy beings in this world! To be unhappy in middle life or
+old age, is doubtless sad, but still you have pleasant memories of the
+past to remind you that you have had your day, your share, your
+happiness; but to weep before you are eighteen is far sadder, for
+nothing can bring back the dead, and the future is dim with tears.
+Poor creature! We see a beggar by the roadside suffering from cold and
+hunger, and we give him alms, and look upon him without pain, because
+it is in our power to relieve him; but this unhappy, broken-hearted
+woman, the only relief to give her would be to love her--and none are
+there to bestow that alms upon her!
+
+"Ah! my lord, if you knew what a fine young man her husband
+was!--hardly three-and-twenty; a noble countenance, a lofty brow--like
+your own, intelligent and proud; dark blue eyes, rather pensive,
+rather sad. I knew why they were sad. He loved his father and his
+native land, and he was doomed to exile from both! And how good and
+graceful was his smile! Ah! how he would have smiled at his little
+child, had he lived long enough to see it. He loved it even before it
+was born: he took pleasure in looking at the cradle that awaited it.
+Poor, poor young man!--I saw him on a stormy night, in the dark
+forest, stretched upon the wet earth, motionless, lifeless, his
+garments covered with mud, his temple shattered, blood escaping in
+torrents from his wound. I saw--alas! I saw William--"
+
+"You saw my son's death!" cried Lord James, raising himself like a
+spectre in the midst of his pillows, and fixing me with eyes so
+distended and piercing, that I started back alarmed. But
+notwithstanding the darkness, I thought I saw a tear moisten the old
+man's eyelids.
+
+"My lord," I replied, "I was present at your son's death, and at the
+birth of his child!"
+
+There was an instant's silence. Lord James looked steadfastly at me.
+At last he made a movement; his trembling hand sought mine, pressed
+it, then his fingers relaxed their grasp, and he fell back upon the
+bed.
+
+"Enough, sir, enough: I suffer, I need repose. Leave me."
+
+I bowed, and retired.
+
+Before I was out of the room, Lord James had relapsed into his
+habitual position; into silence and immobility.
+
+I will not detail to you my numerous and respectful representations to
+Lord James Kysington, his indecision and secret anxiety, and how at
+last his paternal love, awakened by the details of the horrible
+catastrophe, his pride of race, revived by the hope of leaving an heir
+to his name, triumphed over his bitter resentment. Three months after
+the scene I have described, I awaited, on the threshold of the house
+at Montpellier, the arrival of Eva Meredith and her son, summoned to
+their family and to the resumption of all their rights. It was a proud
+and happy day for me.
+
+Lady Mary, perfect mistress of herself, had concealed her joy when
+family dissensions had made her son heir to her wealthy brother. Still
+better did she conceal her regret and anger when Eva Meredith, or
+rather Eva Kysington, was reconciled with her father-in-law. Not a
+cloud appeared upon Lady Mary's marble forehead. But beneath this
+external calm how many evil passions fermented!
+
+When the carriage of Eva Meredith (I will still give her that name)
+entered the court-yard of the house, I was there to receive her. Eva
+held out her hand--"Thanks, thanks, my friend!" she murmured. She
+wiped the tears that trembled in her eyes, and taking her boy, now
+three years old, and of great beauty, by the hand, she entered her new
+abode. "I am afraid!" she said. She was still the weak woman, broken
+by affliction, pale, sad, and beautiful, incredulous of earthly hopes,
+but firm in heavenly faith. I walked by her side; and as she ascended
+the steps, her gentle countenance bedewed with tears, her slender and
+feeble form inclined towards the balustrade, her extended arm
+assisting the child, who walked still more slowly than herself, Lady
+Mary and her son appeared at the door. Lady Mary wore a brown velvet
+dress, rich bracelets encircled her arms, a slender gold chain bound
+her brow, which in truth was of those on which a diadem sits well. She
+advanced with an assured step, her head high, her glance full of
+pride. Such was the first meeting of the two mothers.
+
+"You are welcome, madam," said Lady Mary, bowing to Eva Meredith.
+
+Eva tried to smile, and answered by a few affectionate words. How
+could she forbode hatred, she who only knew love? We proceeded to Lord
+James's room. Mrs Meredith, scarcely able to support herself, entered
+first, took a few steps, and knelt beside her father-in-law's
+arm-chair. Taking her child in her arms, she placed him on Lord James
+Kysington's knee.
+
+"His son!" she said. Then the poor woman wept and was silent.
+
+Long did Lord James gaze upon the child. As he gradually recognised
+the features of the son he had lost, his eyes became moist, and their
+expression affectionate. There came a moment when, forgetting his age,
+lapse of time, and past misfortune, he dreamed himself back to the
+happy day when he first pressed his infant son to his heart. "William,
+William!" he murmured. "My daughter!" added he, extending his hand to
+Eva Meredith.
+
+My eyes filled with tears. Eva had a family, a protector, a fortune. I
+was happy; perhaps that was why I wept.
+
+The child remained quiet upon his grandfather's knees, and showed
+neither pleasure nor fear.
+
+"Will you love me?" said the old man.
+
+The child raised its head, but did not answer.
+
+"Do you hear? I will be your father."
+
+"I will be your father," the child gently repeated.
+
+"Excuse him," said his mother; "he has always been alone. He is very
+young; the presence of many persons intimidates him. By-and-by, my
+lord, he will better understand your kind words."
+
+But I looked at the child; I examined him in silence; I recalled my
+former gloomy apprehensions. Alas! those apprehensions now became a
+certainty; the terrible shock experienced by Eva Meredith during her
+pregnancy had had fatal consequences for her child, and a mother only,
+in her youth, her love, and her inexperience, could have remained so
+long ignorant of her misfortune.
+
+At the same time with myself Lady Mary looked at the child. I shall
+never forget the expression of her countenance. She stood erect, and
+the piercing gaze she fixed upon little William seemed to read his
+very soul. As she gazed, her eyes sparkled, her mouth was half-opened
+as by a smile--she breathed short and thick, like one oppressed by
+great and sudden joy. She looked, looked--hope, doubt, expectation,
+replaced each other on her face. At last her hatred was clear-sighted,
+an internal cry of triumph burst from her heart, but was checked ere
+it reached her lips. She drew herself up, let fall a disdainful glance
+upon Eva, her vanquished enemy, and resumed her usual calm.
+
+Lord James, fatigued by the emotions of the day, dismissed us and
+remained alone all the evening.
+
+Upon the morrow, after an agitated night, when I entered Lord James's
+room, all the family were already assembled around him, and Lady Mary
+had little William on her knees: it was the tiger clutching its prey.
+
+"What a beautiful child!" she said. "See, my lord, these fair and
+silken locks! how brilliant they are in the sunshine! But, dear Eva,
+is your son always so silent? does he never exhibit the vivacity and
+gaiety of his age?"
+
+"He is always sad," replied Mrs Meredith. "Alas! with me he could
+hardly learn to laugh."
+
+"We will try to amuse and cheer him," said Lady Mary. "Come, my dear
+child, kiss your grandfather! hold out your arms, and tell him you
+love him."
+
+William did not stir.
+
+"Do you not know how? Harry, my love, kiss your uncle, and set your
+cousin a good example."
+
+Harry jumped upon Lord James's knees, threw both arms round his neck,
+and said, "I love you, uncle!"
+
+"Now it is your turn, my dear William," said Lady Mary.
+
+William stirred not, and did not even look at his grandfather.
+
+A tear coursed down Eva Meredith's cheek.
+
+"'Tis my fault," she said. "I have brought up my child badly." And,
+taking William upon her lap, her tears fell upon his face: he felt
+them not, but slumbered upon his mother's heavy heart.
+
+"Try to make William less shy," said Lord James to his
+daughter-in-law.
+
+"I will try," replied Eva, in her submissive tones, like those of an
+obedient child. "I will try; and perhaps I shall succeed, if Lady Mary
+will kindly tell me how she rendered her son so happy and so gay."
+Then the disconsolate mother looked at Harry, who was at play near his
+uncle's chair, and her eyes reverted to her poor sleeping child. "He
+suffered even before his birth," she murmured; "we have both been very
+unhappy! but I will try to weep no more, that William may be cheerful
+like other children."
+
+Two days elapsed, two painful days, full of secret trouble and
+ill-concealed uneasiness. Lord James's brow was care-laden; at times
+his look questioned me. I averted my eyes to avoid answering. On the
+morning of the third day, Lady Mary came into the room with a number
+of play-things for the children. Harry seized a sword, and ran about
+the room, shouting for joy. William remained motionless, holding in
+his little hand the toys that were given to him, but not attempting to
+use them; he did not even look at them.
+
+"Here, my lord," said Lady Mary to her brother, "give this book to
+your grandson; perhaps his attention will be roused by the pictures it
+contains." And she led William to Lord James. The child was passive;
+he walked, stopped, and remained like a statue where he was placed.
+Lord James opened the book. All eyes turned towards the group formed
+by the old man and his grandson. Lord James was gloomy, silent,
+severe; he slowly turned several pages, stopping at every picture, and
+looking at William, whose vacant gaze was not directed to the book.
+Lord James turned a few more pages; then his hand ceased to move; the
+book fell from his knees to the ground, and an irksome silence reigned
+in the apartment. Lady Mary approached me, bent forward as if to
+whisper in my ear, and in a voice loud enough to be heard by all--
+
+"The child is an idiot, doctor!" she said.
+
+A shriek answered her. Eva started up as if she had received a blow;
+and seizing her son, whom she pressed convulsively to her breast--
+
+"Idiot!" she exclaimed, her indignant glance flashing, for the first
+time, with a vivid brilliance; "idiot!" she repeated, "because he has
+been unhappy all his life, because he has seen but tears since his
+eyes first opened! because he knows not how to play like your son, who
+has always had joy around him! Ah! madam, you insult misfortune! Come,
+my child!" cried Eva, all in tears. "Come, let us leave these pitiless
+hearts, that find none but cruel words to console our misery!"
+
+And the unhappy mother carried off her boy to her apartment. I
+followed. She set William down, and knelt before the little child. "My
+son! my son!" she cried.
+
+William went close to her, and rested his head on his mother's
+shoulder.
+
+"Doctor!" cried Eva, "he loves me--you see he does! He comes when I
+call him; he kisses me! His caresses have sufficed for my
+tranquillity--for my sad happiness! My God! was it not then enough?
+Speak to me, my son, reassure me! Find a consoling word, a single word
+for your despairing mother! Till now I have asked nothing of you but
+to remind me of your father, and leave me silence to weep. To-day,
+William, you must give me words! See you not my tears--my terror? Dear
+child, so beautiful, so like your father, speak, speak to me!"
+
+Alas! alas! the child remained motionless, without sign of fear or
+intelligence; a smile only, a smile horrible to behold, flitted across
+his features. Eva hid her face in both hands, and remained kneeling
+upon the ground. For a long time no noise was heard save the sound of
+her sobs. Then I prayed heaven to inspire me with consoling thoughts,
+such as might give a ray of hope to this poor mother. I spoke of the
+future, of expected cure, of change possible--even probable. But hope
+is no friend to falsehood. Where she does not exist her phantom cannot
+penetrate. A terrible blow, a mortal one, had been struck, and Eva
+Meredith saw all the truth.
+
+From that day forwards, only one child was to be seen each morning in
+Lord James Kysington's room. Two women came thither, but only one of
+them seemed to live--the other was silent as the tomb. One said, "My
+son!" the other never spoke of her child; one carried her head high,
+the other bowed hers upon her breast, the better to hide her tears;
+one was blooming and brilliant, the other pale and a mourner. The
+struggle was at an end. Lady Mary triumphed. It was cruel how they let
+Harry play before Eva Meredith's eyes. Careless of her anguish, they
+brought him to repeat his lessons in his uncle's presence; they
+vaunted his progress. The ambitious mother calculated everything to
+consolidate her success; and, whilst abounding in honeyed words and
+feigned consolation, she tortured Eva Meredith's heart each moment in
+the day. Lord James, smitten in his dearest hopes, had resumed the
+cold impassibility which I now saw formed the foundation of his
+character. Strictly courteous to his daughter-in-law, he had no word
+of affection for her: only as the mother of his grandson, could the
+daughter of the American planter find a place in his heart. And he
+considered the child as no longer in existence. Lord James Kysington
+was more gloomy and taciturn than ever, regretting, perhaps, to have
+yielded to my importunities, and to have ruffled his old age by a
+painful and profitless emotion.
+
+A year elapsed; then a sad day came, when Lord James sent for Eva
+Meredith, and signed to her to be seated beside his arm-chair.
+
+"Listen to me, madam," he said, "listen with courage. I will act
+frankly with you, and conceal nothing. I am old and ill, and must
+arrange my affairs. The task is painful both for you and for me. I
+will not refer to my anger at my son's marriage; your misfortune
+disarmed me--I called you to my side, and I desired to behold and to
+love in your son William, the heir of my fortune, the pivot of my
+dreams of future ambition. Alas! madam, fate was cruel to us! My son's
+widow and orphan shall have all that can insure them an honourable
+existence; but, sole master of a fortune due to my own exertions, I
+adopt my nephew, and look upon him henceforward as my sole heir. I am
+about to return to London, whither my affairs call me. Come with me,
+madam--my house is yours--I shall be happy to see you there."
+
+Eva (she afterwards told me so) felt, for the first time, her
+despondency replaced by courage. She had the strength that is given by
+a noble pride: she raised her head, and if her brow was less haughty
+than that of Lady Mary, on the other hand it had all the dignity of
+misfortune.
+
+"Go, my lord," she answered, "go; I shall not accompany you. I will
+not witness the usurpation of my son's rights! You are in haste to
+condemn, my lord. Who can foresee the future! You are in haste to
+despair of the mercy of God!"
+
+"The future," replied Lord James, "at my age, is bounded by the
+passing day. What I would be certain to do I must do at once and
+without delay."
+
+"Act as you think proper," replied Eva. "I return to the dwelling
+where I was happy with my husband. I return thither with your
+grandson, William Kysington; of that name, his sole inheritance, you
+cannot deprive him; and though the world should know it but by reading
+it on his tomb, your name, my lord, is the name of my son!"
+
+A week later, Eva Meredith descended the stairs of the hotel, holding
+her son by the hand, as she had done when she entered this fatal
+house. Lady Mary was a little behind her, a few steps higher up: the
+numerous servants, sad and silent, beheld with regret the departure of
+the gentle creature thus driven from the paternal roof. When she
+quitted this abode, Eva quitted the only beings she knew upon the
+earth, the only persons whose pity she had a right to claim--the world
+was before her, an immense wilderness. It was Hagar going forth into
+the desert.
+
+"This is horrible, doctor!" cried Dr Barnaby's audience. "Is it
+possible there are persons so utterly unhappy? What! you witnessed all
+this yourself?"
+
+"I have not yet told you all," replied the village doctor; "let me get
+to the end."
+
+Shortly after Eva Meredith's departure, Lord James went to London.
+Once more my own master, I gave up all idea of further study; I had
+enough learning for my village, and in haste I returned thither. Once
+more I sat opposite to Eva in the little white house, as I had done
+two years before. But how greatly had intervening events increased her
+misfortune! We no longer dared talk of the future, that unknown moment
+of which we all have so great need, and without which our present joys
+appear too feeble, and our misfortunes too great.
+
+Never did I witness grief nobler in its simplicity, calmer in its
+intensity, than that of Eva Meredith. She forgot not to pray to the
+God who chastened her. For her, God was the being in whose hands are
+the springs of hope, when earthly hopes are extinct. Her look of faith
+remained fixed upon her child's brow, as if awaiting the arrival of
+the soul her prayers invoked. I cannot describe the courageous
+patience of that mother speaking to her son, who listened without
+understanding. I cannot tell you all the treasures of love, of
+thought, of ingenious narrative she displayed before that torpid
+intelligence, which repeated, like an echo, the last of her gentle
+words. She explained to him heaven, God, the angels; she endeavoured
+to make him pray, and joined his hands, but she could not make him
+raise his eyes to heaven. In all possible shapes she tried to give him
+the first lessons of childhood; she read to him, spoke to him, placed
+pictures before his eyes--had recourse to music as a substitute for
+words. One day, making a terrible effort, she told William the story
+of his father's death; she hoped, expected a tear. The child fell
+asleep whilst yet she spoke: tears were shed, but they fell from the
+eyes of Eva Meredith.
+
+Thus did she exhaust herself by vain efforts, by a persevering
+struggle. That she might not cease to hope, she continued to toil; but
+to William's eyes pictures were merely colours; to his ears words were
+but noise. The child, however, grew in stature and in beauty. One who
+had seen him but for an instant would have taken the immobility of his
+countenance for placidity. But that prolonged and continued calm, that
+absence of all grief, of all tears, had a strange and sad effect upon
+us. Suffering must indeed be inherent in our nature, since William's
+eternal smile made every one say, "The poor idiot!" Mothers know not
+the happiness concealed in the tears of their child. A tear is a
+regret, a desire, a fear; it is life, in short, which begins to be
+understood. Alas! William was content with everything. All day long he
+seemed to sleep with his eyes open; anger, weariness, impatience, were
+alike unknown to him. He had but one instinct: he knew his mother--he
+even loved her. He took pleasure in resting on her knees, on her
+shoulder; he kissed her. When I kept him long away from her, he
+manifested a sort of anxiety. I took him back to his mother; he showed
+no joy, but he was again tranquil. This tenderness, this faint
+glimmering of William's heart, was Eva's life. It gave her strength
+to strive, to hope, to wait. If her words were not understood, at
+least her kisses were! How often she took her son's head in her hands
+and kissed his forehead, as long and fervently as if she hoped her
+love would warm and vivify his frozen soul! How often did she dream a
+miracle whilst clasping her son in her arms, and pressing his still
+heart to her burning bosom! Often she lingered at night in the village
+church. (Eva Meredith was of a Roman Catholic family.) Kneeling upon
+the cold stone before the Virgin's altar, she invoked the marble
+statue of Mary, holding her child in her arms, "O virgin!" she said,
+"my boy is inanimate as that image of thy Son! Ask of God a soul for
+my child!"
+
+She was charitable to all the poor children of the village, giving
+them bread and clothes, and saying to them, "Pray for him." She
+consoled afflicted mothers, in the secret hope that consolation would
+come at last to her. She dried the tears of others, to enjoy the
+belief that one day she also would cease to weep. In all the country
+round, she was loved, blessed, venerated. She knew it, and she offered
+up to Heaven, not with pride but with hope, the blessings of the
+unfortunate in exchange for the recovery of her son. She loved to
+watch William's sleep; then he was handsome and like other children.
+For an instant, for a second perhaps, she forgot; and whilst
+contemplating those regular features, those golden locks, those long
+lashes which threw their shadow on his rose-tinted cheek, she felt a
+mother's joy, almost a mother's pride. God has moments of mercy even
+for those he has condemned to suffer.
+
+Thus passed the first years of William's childhood. He attained the
+age of eight years. Then a sad change, which could not escape my
+attentive observation, occurred in Eva Meredith. Either that her son's
+growth made his want of intelligence more striking, or that she was
+like a workman who has laboured all day, and sinks at eve beneath the
+load of toil, Eva ceased to hope; her soul seemed to abandon the task
+undertaken, and to recoil with weariness upon itself, asking only
+resignation. She laid aside the books, the engravings, the music, all
+the means, in short, that she had called to her aid; she grew silent
+and desponding; only, if that were possible, she was more affectionate
+than ever to her son. As she lost hope in his cure, she felt the more
+strongly that her child had but her in the world; and she asked a
+miracle of her heart--an increase of the love she bore him. She became
+her son's servant--his slave; her whole thoughts were concentrated in
+his wellbeing. If she felt cold, she sought a warmer covering for
+William; was she hungry, it was for William she gathered the fruits of
+her garden; did she suffer from fatigue, for him she selected the
+easiest chair and the softest cushions; she attended to her own
+sensations only to guess those of her son. She still displayed
+activity, though she no longer harboured hope.
+
+When William was eleven years old, the last phase of Eva Meredith's
+existence began. Remarkably tall and strong for his age, he ceased to
+need that hourly care required by early childhood: he was no longer the
+infant sleeping on his mother's knees; he walked alone in the garden;
+he rode on horseback with me, and accompanied me in my distant visits;
+in short the bird, although wingless, left the nest. His misfortune was
+in no way shocking or painful to behold. He was of exceeding beauty,
+silent, unnaturally calm--his eyes expressing nothing but repose, his
+mouth ignorant of a smile: he was not awkward, or disagreeable, or
+importunate: it was a mind sleeping beside yours, asking no question,
+making no reply. The incessant maternal care which had served to occupy
+Mrs Meredith, and to divert her mind from dwelling on her sorrows,
+became unnecessary, and she resumed her seat at the window, whence she
+beheld the village and the church-steeple--at that same window where
+she had so long wept her husband. Hope and occupation successively
+failed her, and nothing was left her but to wait and watch, by day and
+by night, like the lamp that ever burns beneath cathedral vaults.
+
+But her forces were exhausted. In the midst of this grief which had
+returned to its starting-point, to silence and immobility, after
+having in vain essayed exertion, courage, hope, Eva Meredith fell into
+a decline. In spite of all the resources of my art, I beheld her grow
+weak and thin. How apply a remedy, when the sickness is of the soul?
+
+The poor foreigner! she needed her native sun and a little happiness
+to warm her; but the ray of sun and the ray of joy were alike wanting.
+It was long before she perceived her danger, because she thought not
+of herself; but when at last she was unable to leave her arm-chair,
+she was compelled to understand. I will not describe to you all her
+anguish at the thought of leaving William without a guide, without
+friend or protector--of leaving him alone in the midst of strangers,
+he who needed to be cherished and led by the hand like a child. Oh,
+how she struggled for life! with what avidity she swallowed the
+potions I prepared! how many times she tried to believe in a cure,
+whilst all the time the disease progressed! Then she kept William more
+at home,--she could no longer bear to lose sight of him.
+
+"Remain with me," she said; and William, always content near his
+mother, seated himself at her feet. She looked at him long, until a
+flood of tears prevented her distinguishing his gentle countenance;
+then she drew him still nearer to her, and pressed him to her heart.
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, in a kind of delirium, "if my soul, on leaving my
+body, might become the soul of my child, how happy should I be to
+die!" No amount of suffering could make her wholly despair of divine
+mercy, and when all human possibility disappeared, this loving heart
+had gentle dreams out of which it reconstructed hopes. But how sad it
+was, alas! to see the poor mother slowly perishing before the eyes of
+her son, of a son who understood not death, and who smiled when she
+embraced him.
+
+"He will not regret me," she said: "he will not weep: he will not
+remember." And she remained motionless, in mute contemplation of her
+child. Her hand then sometimes sought mine: "You love him, dear
+doctor?" she murmured.
+
+"I will never quit him," replied I, "so long as he has no better
+friends than myself." God in heaven, and the poor village doctor upon
+earth, were the two guardians to whom she confided her son.
+
+Faith is a great thing! This woman, widowed, disinherited, dying, an
+idiot child at her side, was yet saved from that utter despair which
+brings blasphemy to the lips of death. An invisible friend was near
+her, on whom she seemed to rest, listening sometimes to holy words,
+which she alone could hear.
+
+One morning she sent for me early. She had been unable to get up. With
+her wan, transparent hand she showed me a sheet of paper on which a
+few lines were written.
+
+"Doctor," she said, in her gentlest tones, "I have not strength to
+continue; finish this letter!"
+
+I read as follows:--
+
+"My Lord,--I write to you for the last time. Whilst health is restored
+to your old age, I suffer and am about to die. I leave your grandson,
+William Kysington, without a protector. My Lord, this last letter is
+to recall him to your memory; I ask for him a place in your heart
+rather than a share of your fortune. Of all the things of this world,
+he has understood but one--his mother's love; and now she must leave
+him for ever! Love him, my Lord,--love is the only sentiment he can
+comprehend."
+
+She could write no more. I added:--
+
+"Mrs William Kysington has but few days to live. What are Lord James
+Kysington's orders with respect to the child who bears his name?
+
+                                       "The Doctor Barnaby."
+
+This letter was sent to London, and we waited. Eva kept her bed.
+William, seated near her, held her hand in his: his mother smiled
+sadly upon him, whilst I, at the other side of the bed, prepared
+potions to assuage her pains. Again she began to talk to her son, as
+if no longer despairing that, after her death, some of her words might
+recur to his memory. She gave the child all the advice, all the
+instructions she would have given to an intelligent being. Then she
+turned to me--"Who knows, doctor," she said, "one day, perhaps, he
+will find my words at the bottom of his heart!"
+
+Three more weeks elapsed. Death approached, and submissive as was the
+Christian soul of Eva, she yet felt the anguish of separation and the
+solemn awe of the future. The village priest came to see her, and when
+he left her I met him and took his hand.
+
+"You will pray for her," I said.
+
+"I have entreated _her_ to pray for _me_!" was his reply.
+
+It was Eva Meredith's last day. The sun had set: the window, near
+which she so long had sat, was open: she could see from her bed the
+landscape she had loved. She held her son in her arms and kissed his
+face and hair, weeping sadly. "Poor child! what will become of you?
+Oh!" she said, with tender earnestness, "listen to me, William:--I am
+dying! Your father is dead also; you are alone; you must pray to the
+Lord. I bequeath you to Him who watches over the sparrow upon the
+house-top; He will shield the orphan. Dear child, look at me! listen
+to me! Try to understand that I die, that one day you may remember
+me!" And the poor mother, unable to speak longer, still found strength
+to embrace her child.
+
+At that moment an unaccustomed noise reached my ears. The wheels of a
+carriage grated upon the gravel of the garden drive. I ran to the
+door. Lord James Kysington and Lady Mary entered the house.
+
+"I got your letter," said Lord James. "I was setting out for Italy,
+and it was not much off my road to come myself and settle the future
+destiny of William Meredith: so here I am. Mrs William?----"
+
+"Mrs William Kysington still lives, my lord," I replied.
+
+It was with a painful sensation that I saw this calm, cold, austere
+man approach Eva's chamber, followed by the haughty woman who came to
+witness what for her was a happy event--the death of her former rival!
+They entered the modest little room, so different from the sumptuous
+apartments of their Montpellier hotel. They drew near the bed, beneath
+whose white curtains Eva, pale but still beautiful, held her son upon
+her heart. They stood, one on the right, the other on the left of that
+couch of suffering, without finding a word of affection to console the
+poor woman who looked up at them. They barely gave utterance to a few
+formal and unmeaning phrases. Averting their eyes from the painful
+spectacle of death, and persuading themselves that Eva Meredith
+neither saw nor heard, they passively awaited her spirit's
+departure--their countenances not even feigning an expression of
+condolence or regret. Eva fixed her dying gaze upon them, and sudden
+terror seized the heart which had almost ceased to throb. She
+comprehended, for the first time, the secret sentiments of Lady Mary,
+the profound indifference and egotism of Lord James; she understood at
+last that they were enemies rather than protectors of her son. Despair
+and terror portrayed themselves on her pallid face. She made no
+attempt to soften those soulless beings. By a convulsive movement she
+drew William still closer to her heart, and, collecting her last
+strength--
+
+"My child, my poor child!" she cried, "you have no support upon earth;
+but God above is good. My God! succour my child!"
+
+With this cry of love, with this supreme prayer, she breathed out her
+life: her arms opened, her lips were motionless on William's cheek.
+Since she no longer embraced her son, there could be no doubt she was
+dead--dead before the eyes of those who to the very last had refused
+to comfort her affliction--dead without giving Lady Mary the
+uneasiness of hearing her plead the cause of her son--dead, leaving
+her a complete and decided victory.
+
+There was a moment of solemn silence: none moved or spoke. Death makes
+an impression upon the haughtiest. Lady Mary and Lord James Kysington
+kneeled beside their victim's bed. In a few minutes Lord James arose.
+"Take the child from his mother's room," he said, "and come with me,
+doctor; I will explain to you my intentions respecting him."
+
+For two hours William had been resting on the shoulder of Eva
+Meredith, his heart against her heart, his lips pressed to hers,
+receiving her kisses and her tears. I approached him, and, without
+expending useless words, I endeavoured to raise and lead him from the
+room; but he resisted, and his arms clasped his mother more closely.
+This resistance, the first the poor child had ever offered to living
+creature, touched my very soul. On my renewing the attempt, however,
+William yielded; he made a movement and turned towards me, and I saw
+his beautiful countenance suffused with tears. Until that day, William
+had never wept. I was greatly startled and moved, and I let the child
+throw himself again upon his mother's corpse.
+
+"Take him away," said Lord James.
+
+"My lord," I exclaimed, "he weeps! Ah, check not his tears!"
+
+I bent over the child, and heard him sob.
+
+"William! dear William!" I cried, anxiously taking his hand, "why do
+you weep, William?"
+
+For the second time he turned his head towards me; then, with a gentle
+look, full of sorrow, "My mother is dead," he replied.
+
+I have not words to tell you what I felt. William's eyes were now
+intelligent: his tears were sad and significant; and his voice was
+broken as when the heart suffers. I uttered a cry; I almost knelt down
+beside Eva's bed.
+
+"Ah! you were right, Eva!" I exclaimed, "not to despair of the mercy
+of God!"
+
+Lord James himself had started. Lady Mary was as pale as Eva.
+
+"Mother! mother!" cried William, in tones that filled my heart with
+joy; and then, repeating the words of Eva Meredith--those words which
+she had so truly said he would find at the bottom of his heart--the
+child exclaimed aloud,
+
+"I am dying, my son. Your father is dead; you are alone upon the
+earth; you must pray to the Lord!"
+
+I pressed gently with my hand upon William's shoulder; he obeyed the
+impulse, knelt down, joined his trembling hands--this time it was of
+his own accord--and, raising to heaven a look full of life and
+feeling: "My God! have pity on me!" he murmured.
+
+I took Eva's cold hand. "Oh mother! mother of many sorrows!" I
+exclaimed, "can you hear your child? do you behold him from above? Be
+happy! your son is saved!"
+
+Dead at Lady Mary's feet, Eva made her rival tremble; for it was not I
+who led William from the room, it was Lord James Kysington who carried
+out his grandson in his arms.
+
+I have little to add, ladies. William recovered his reason and
+departed with Lord James. Reinstated in his rights, he was
+subsequently his grandfather's sole heir. Science has recorded a few
+rare instances of intelligence revived by a violent moral shock. Thus
+does the fact I have related find a natural explanation. But the good
+women of the village, who had attended Eva Meredith during her
+illness, and had heard her fervent prayers, were convinced that, even
+as she had asked of Heaven, the soul of the mother had passed into the
+body of the child.
+
+"She was so good," said they, "that God could refuse her nothing."
+This artless belief took firm root in the country. No one mourned Mrs
+Meredith as dead.
+
+"She still lives," said the people of the hamlet: "speak to her son,
+and she will answer you."
+
+And when Lord William Kysington, in possession of his grandfather's
+property, sent each year abundant alms to the village that had
+witnessed his birth and his mother's death, the poor folks
+exclaimed--"There is Mrs Meredith's kind soul thinking of us still!
+Ah, when she goes to heaven, it will be great pity for poor people!"
+
+We do not strew flowers upon her tomb, but upon the steps of the altar
+of the Virgin, where she so often prayed to Mary to send a soul to her
+son. When taking thither their wreaths of wild blossoms, the villagers
+say to each other--"When she prayed so fervently, the good Virgin
+answered her softly: 'I will give thy soul to thy child!'"
+
+The _curé_ has suffered our peasants to retain this touching
+superstition; and I myself, when Lord William came to see me, when he
+fixed upon me his eyes, so like his mother's--when his voice, which
+had a well-known accent, said, as Mrs Meredith was wont to say--"Dear
+Doctor, I thank you!" Then,--smile, ladies, if you will--I wept, and
+I believed, like all the village, that Eva Meredith was before me.
+
+She, whose existence was but a long series of sorrows, has left behind
+her a sweet, consoling memory, which has nothing painful for those who
+loved her.
+
+In thinking of her we think of the mercy of God, and those who have
+hope in their hearts, hope with the greater confidence.
+
+But it is very late, ladies--your carriages have long been at the
+door. Pardon this long story: at my age it is difficult to be concise
+in speaking of the events of one's youth. Forgive the old man for
+having made you smile when he arrived, and weep before he departed."
+
+These last words were spoken in the kindest and most paternal tone,
+whilst a half-smile glided across Dr Barnaby's lips. All his auditors
+now crowded round him, eager to express their thanks. But Dr Barnaby
+got up, made straight for his riding-coat of puce-coloured taffety,
+which hung across a chair back, and, whilst one of the young men
+helped him to put it on--"Farewell, gentlemen; farewell, ladies," said
+the village doctor. "My chaise is ready; it is dark, the road is bad;
+good-night: I must be gone."
+
+When Dr Barnaby was installed in his cabriolet of green wicker-work,
+and the little gray cob, tickled by the whip, was about to set off,
+Madame de Moncar stepped quickly forward, and leaning towards the
+doctor, whilst she placed one foot on the step of his vehicle, she
+said, in quite a low voice--
+
+"Doctor, I make you a present of the white cottage, and I will have it
+fitted up as it was when you loved Eva Meredith!"
+
+Then she ran back into the house. The carriages and the green chaise
+departed in different directions.
+
+
+
+
+NATIONAL EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND.
+
+
+The subject of the Parochial School System of Scotland claims some
+attention at the present moment. Following up certain ominous
+proceedings of other parties high in authority, Lord Melgund, M. P.
+for Greenock, has given notice of a motion for the appointment of a
+select committee of the House of Commons to consider the expediency of
+a fundamental revision of that system. The question here involved is
+one of national importance; and the family and other ties by which
+Lord Melgund is connected with the Government, are likely, we fear, to
+secure for his proposed innovations on that institution which has been
+hitherto, perhaps, the pre-eminent glory of Scotland, a certain degree
+of favour.
+
+It may be of some use to preface the few observations we have to offer
+on the Scottish system, and the proposed alterations of it, by a brief
+recapitulation of some of the more prominent methods and statistics of
+popular education in other countries, taken chiefly from a very
+carefully prepared and important Appendix to the Privy Council
+committee's _Minutes_ for 1847-8. The information was obtained through
+the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, from the Governments of
+the principal states of Europe and America.
+
+The _cost_ of public instruction is defrayed by different means in
+different countries--means varying, however, more in detail than in
+principle. In Prussia, a regular school-rate, varying from 3d. to 6d.
+per month, according to circumstances, is levied upon all who have
+children; but this is supplemented by a grant from the state budget
+which, for elementary schools alone, amounted in 1845 to £37,000. A
+similar practice prevails not only in the other countries of Central
+Europe, but in Pennsylvania, where it was introduced by the German
+emigrants, and, of late years, also in some other parts of the United
+States. The income of schools in the Austrian Empire is derived from a
+variety of sources, of which school-money constitutes little more
+than one-third; the remainder, as far as we can understand the
+technical phraseology of the report, being partly derived from old
+endowments, partly from provincial revenues, and partly from the
+imperial treasury. In Holland, the governments of the towns and
+provinces are charged with the cost of maintaining their own schools,
+aided by grants from the state. On the first year that separate
+accounts were kept for the northern provinces, after their separation
+from Belgium, the sum raised in this way amounted (in a population of
+2,450,000) to no less than £76,317. In Belgium, where the funds are
+derived from old foundations and local endowments, aided by the
+government, two-fifths of the scholars received, in 1840, their
+education gratuitously; but the provision seems to be not very
+complete, for in that year, out of 2510 communes, 163 were without any
+school.
+
+As to _management_, there appears to be no country in Europe in which
+public instruction is not directed by a department of the government.
+No regular system of superintendence, however, has yet been
+established in the United States. In Prussia, there is a minister of
+public instruction, who is also at the head of church affairs, and
+under whom are local consistories and school inspectors, one of the
+latter being always the superintendent or bishop of the district. In
+Würtemberg, each school is inspected by the clergyman of the
+confession to which the schoolmaster belongs, and is subject to the
+control of the presbytery. In the Grand-duchy of Baden, the minister
+of the interior has charge of the department of education. The local
+school authority is commonly a parochial committee, consisting of
+clergy and laymen combined. The parish clergyman is the regular school
+inspector, but where there are different confessions, each clergyman
+inspects the school of his own church. Certain functionaries, called
+"Visitors" and "County Authorities," are also intrusted with special
+powers. In Lombardy, the direction is committed to a chief inspector,
+with a number of subordinates, and the parish clergy. (By _clergy_, of
+course, throughout these details, must usually be understood Roman
+Catholic priests.) In Holland, every province was in 1814 divided into
+educational districts, with a school inspector for each district, and
+provincial school commissions chosen from the leading inhabitants, to
+which were afterwards added provincial "juries." In Russia, public
+instruction is superintended by the government.
+
+The details regarding _religious instruction_ are not so full as we
+should have wished. The great difficulty as regards this appears,
+however, in most of the European states to be met by the establishment
+of separate schools for the different sects. In Würtemberg, "if, in a
+community of different religious confessions, the minority comprises
+sixty families, they may claim the establishment and support of a
+school of their own confession, at the expense of the whole
+community." The ecclesiastical authorities of the various sects are
+not, however, independent of, but merely associated with, the state
+functionaries, whose sanction is indispensable for the catechisms and
+school-books in use in every school. Such, at least, is said to be the
+case in Würtemberg; and, as far as we can judge from the not very
+precise statements made on this subject, the rule appears to be
+universal. Roman Catholic, Protestant, Greek Church, and Jewish
+schools are, in the Austrian empire, alike established by law,
+according to the necessities of each province and district. But in the
+state of New York (and we believe a like practice prevails in other
+parts of the Union) the sectarian difficulty is overcome in a
+different way. By a recent act of the legislature, it is provided that
+"no school shall be entitled to a portion of the school-moneys, in
+which the religious sectarian doctrine or tenet of any particular
+Christians, or other religious sect, shall be taught, inculcated, or
+practised."
+
+The only other particulars we shall notice relate to school
+attendance. It must be premised that, in the countries of central
+Europe, the attendance of every child at the elementary schools is
+compulsory--the only alternative being private instruction. _Fines and
+imprisonment are employed to enforce this regulation._ Free education
+is also provided, at the general expense, for those unable to pay the
+school fees.
+
+In Prussia, the proportion of those enjoying school education was to
+the population, in 1846, as 1 to 6.
+
+In Bavaria, in 1844, nearly as 1 to 4.
+
+In the Austrian empire, as 1 to 9 for boys, and as 1 to 12 for girls;
+but in Upper and Lower Austria, as 1 to 6 for boys, and as 1 to 7 for
+girls.
+
+In Holland, 1 in 8 received, in 1846, public instruction.
+
+In Sweden, in 1843, the proportion was no more than as 1 to 165 of the
+population.
+
+In Belgium, in 1840, it was as 1 to 9.
+
+In Russia, the number attending schools of all kinds, including the
+universities, amounted, in 1846, to 195,819, which, in a population of
+60,000,000, gives a proportion of less than 1 to 300 of the
+inhabitants.
+
+In Pennsylvania, in 1840, 1 in 5 of the population had the advantage
+of instruction in common schools; in New York, on the first of January
+1847, nearly 1 in 16; in Massachusetts, about 1 in 6-1/2 of the
+population.
+
+It is impossible to read these details without two reflections
+especially being immediately suggested to the mind. One of these is
+the necessary connexion between the success of any system of national
+education and the special circumstances of each individual state to
+which it may be applied. To introduce the Prussian system into
+Scotland, with any prospect of its working here as well as it does
+there, one would require to change the whole character of the
+government, and the whole habits, nay, the very nature of the people,
+to make Scotchmen Prussians and Scotland Prussia.
+
+But there is a still more important reflection forced upon us. How
+little mere secular education, apart from that which we hold to be an
+indispensable accompaniment to it--sound religious education--avails
+for the elevation of the people, let these statistics, read in the
+light of recent events, tell! The murderers of Count Latour were all
+well-educated persons, after that fashion which it has been proposed
+to introduce into this country as the national system. They had all
+been at schools--at schools from which religious instruction, however,
+was either excluded, or worse than excluded.
+
+But, to come to National Education in Scotland. On this subject there
+are two questions wholly distinct from each other, which at present
+occupy some attention. The one relates to the long-tried and approved
+parochial system, the other to the plans, professedly of a
+supplementary character, recently introduced by a committee of the
+Privy Council, which constitutes a government board for the
+application of the parliamentary grant, now voted annually for some
+years, for educational purposes. In a pamphlet[11] lately published by
+Lord Melgund, which is of some importance now, as indicating the views
+with which his motion in parliament is introduced, these two questions
+have, we think, been unfairly confounded: with the former we have
+particular concern at present.
+
+We agree, however, with Lord Melgund in condemning utterly the
+procedure of the Privy Council in regard to those schools which are at
+this moment rising up in almost every parish in Scotland, not for the
+purpose, even ostensibly, of supplying destitute localities with the
+means of education, but as parts of an ecclesiastical system, whose
+avowed object is to supersede in all its departments the Established
+Church. These schools receive much the greater part (in fact nearly
+two-thirds) of the whole sum voted for education in Scotland; that is
+to say, about two-thirds of the parliamentary grant, intended to
+promote general education in this part of the kingdom, is by the Privy
+Council diverted altogether from its proper object, and applied to
+purposes exclusively and avowedly sectarian.
+
+This is an abuse which cannot be too severely reprobated. Lord
+Melgund, in his pamphlet, with some justice calls attention to the
+strictly exclusive character of the Free Church--an exclusiveness to
+which the Established Church affords no parallel--to the fact that it
+is an irresponsible body, with whose affairs no man not a member has
+any more right to interfere, than he has with those of a railway
+company to which he does not belong. It is not, however, on this
+ground alone, or chiefly, that the Privy Council's proceedings in
+regard to the Free Church schools are objectionable.
+
+Out of the sum of £5463 granted, according to the committee's minutes
+last issued, to Scotland in 1847, no less than £3485 was apportioned
+to Free Church schools. Let us inquire on what conditions, in what
+circumstances, so large a proportion of the fund at the disposal of
+the committee has been thus expended. If this sum had been
+appropriated _bonâ fide_ for educational purposes, to aid in building
+schools in localities previously unprovided with them, perhaps no very
+serious exception could have been taken to the, in that case,
+comparatively trivial circumstance, that the persons by whom the money
+was to be applied happened to be dissenters from the Established
+Church,--dissenters whose doctrinal standards are the same as those
+recognised by law. In this case, it might with some reason have been
+said by defenders of the Privy Council, "Why should these localities
+remain without schools of any kind, merely because the Free Churchmen
+have been the only parties zealous enough to obtain for them this
+boon?"
+
+But what are the facts? Even on the face of the minutes of council
+themselves, it appears that at least the greater part of the large
+grant in question has been given _to aid in erecting schools where
+there was no pretence at all of destitution_--in localities already
+amply supplied with the means of education, including both parochial
+and non-parochial schools; and has been given, therefore, not for the
+purpose of supplementing, but for the purpose of SUPPLANTING existing
+institutions; not for the advancement of education, but for the
+advancement of Free Churchism.
+
+An assertion of so serious a nature as this requires proof, and proof
+is easily given.
+
+In the return in the minutes of council for 1847-8, of the grants for
+education in Scotland, sixteen of the schools aided are marked F. C.
+S., (Free Church of Scotland;) and there is, in the case of most of
+these, a return as to the existing school accommodation of the
+district, an inquiry on this subject being always and very properly
+made--oftener, as appears, however, made than attended to. The
+following are some of the returns, taken almost at random:--
+
+_Brigton in Polmont._--Population of school district, 3584: existing
+schools--"The parish school, Establishment, (attended by 150
+scholars;) Redding Muir, Establishment, (100;) Redding village,
+Establishment and Free Church, (80;) Redding Muir, Methodist,
+(40.)"[12] Grant to Free Church, £143.
+
+_Dalkeith._--Population, 6000: existing school accommodation--"The
+parochial or grammar school, and _other schools_, partially supported
+by the Duke of Buccleuch." No further particulars. Grant to Free
+Church, £248.--In the following instance, a notable attempt is made to
+manufacture a case of crying destitution:--
+
+_Ellon._--Population, 3000: existing schools--"The parochial school is
+situate about a quarter of a mile distant, at the eastern extremity of
+the old town; the new school will be at the western extremity of the
+new town!" In consideration, however, of the "one-fourth mile,"
+coupled with the interesting topographical information that this is
+the exact distance between the eastern extremity of the old and the
+western extremity [or "west-end"] of the new town of Ellon, and,
+doubtless, for other grave reasons not expressed, £162 is subscribed
+to the funds of the Free Church.
+
+These are average examples of all the cases. Everybody, indeed, knows
+what the practice of the Free Secession has been in choosing sites,
+alike for their churches and for their schools. Their endeavour has
+been to plant both as near as possible to the parish church and the
+parish school,--a most natural, and, for their purposes, wise
+arrangement; but an arrangement, one would imagine, which ought not to
+have been countenanced by the Privy Council. That body might have been
+expected to reply to such an application as that from Polmont
+parish--"The funds at our disposal are intended to supply deficiencies
+in the means of education. We cannot recognise your case as one of
+destitution. As a public body, administering public money, it is not
+permitted to us to agree with you in setting aside the parochial
+schools, and the other schools in the district as of no account,
+merely because they are not under your sectarian control. You are
+applying for our aid, not to supplement, but to supersede existing
+educational institutions; and this is an object to which we could not
+contribute without a gross misappropriation of the national funds." In
+having, instead of returning this answer to the promoters of the
+proposed new school in Polmont, sent them £143, the Privy Council's
+committee have, be it noticed, established a precedent which is not
+likely to be left unimproved: indeed the Free Church are said to have
+about 500 similar applications ready.[13]
+
+The practical evils of such a course are obvious. "Suppose," (say
+the parish schoolmasters, in their memorial to Lord John
+Russell,)--"suppose the people of the parishes where these schools
+shall be established wished to be divided betwixt the parochial
+schools and those of the Free Church, instead of resorting
+exclusively to the former, _are they likely to be better educated in
+consequence of the change_? Is it not rather to be feared that,
+instead of one efficient, two comparatively inefficient schools will
+in consequence be established in a great number of parishes?... At
+all events, the loss resulting from the injury done to the old and
+tried system is certain; the advantages of the new system are
+problematical; and the sacrifice of the former to the latter,
+therefore, seems to us to be inexpedient and unwise."[14]
+
+That "old and tried system" is, however, exposed to other perils. Lord
+Melgund not only finds fault with the above and other abuses of the
+Privy Council's scheme of education, but with the original parochial
+system; and not only suggests that that recent scheme should be
+re-organised, but that the whole system of national education in
+Scotland should undergo a thorough revisal. Let us come at once to
+that reform which it appears to be the chief aim of his pamphlet to
+recommend, and of his motion to effect; which is of a very sweeping
+and fundamental character, and which, in a word, consists in the
+severance of the subsisting connexion between the parochial schools
+and the Established Church.
+
+It is not necessary at present to go back to the origin of the
+ecclesiastical institutions Of Scotland. The question is, not what
+the law _is_, but what the law ought to be; and we shall here assume
+that, whatever may be the vested interests of the Church in the parish
+schools, it is competent for parliament to consider the propriety, in
+existing circumstances, of introducing a new national system of
+education, irrespective altogether of historical considerations. By
+thus arguing the question on its merits, to the exclusion of
+historical associations, we deprive ourselves of many pleas against a
+change which appear relevant and cogent to friends of the Church whose
+judgment is entitled to the highest respect. But we take the ground
+which, if the matter be discussed at all, will doubtless be taken by
+most of those who engage in the controversy, and on which, doubtless,
+the result will be made ultimately to depend.
+
+The parish-school system of Scotland may be described in a few words.
+In every parish, at the present day, there is (except in the case of
+some of the large towns) at least one school,[15] which, with the
+teacher's house, has been erected, and is kept up by the heritors, or
+landed proprietors, of each parish; by whom also a salary is provided
+for the schoolmaster, which, exclusive of house and garden, at present
+varies, according to circumstances, from £25 the minimum, to £34 the
+maximum allowance. This certainly most inadequate remuneration is
+supplemented partly by school fees--which, however, are fixed at a low
+rate, and always dispensed with in cases of necessity--partly by the
+schoolmaster being allowed to hold, in conjunction with his school,
+the offices of heritors' and session clerk, which yield, on an
+average, to each about £14 more, (_Remarks_, p. 15;) and partly,
+though in comparatively few parishes, by local foundations. In 1834,
+the number of parochial schools was 1,047; and the emoluments of the
+teachers amounted for the whole (excluding the augmentations from the
+Dick Bequest) to £55,339: of this sum £29,642 being salaries, £20,717
+school fees, and £4,979 other emoluments.[16]
+
+With regard to management: the election of the teacher is vested in
+the heritors (_the sole rate-payers_) and minister of the parish.
+Before admission to his office, however, the schoolmaster-elect must
+pass a strict examination before the presbytery of the bounds, as to
+his qualifications to teach the elementary branches of education, and
+such of the higher branches as either the heritors on the one hand, or
+the presbytery[17] on the other hand, may think necessary in every
+case; and must profess his adherence to the Established Church by
+signing the Confession of Faith and formula. The parish minister acts
+as the regular school-inspector: and every presbytery is bound to hold
+an annual examination of all the schools within its jurisdiction,
+usually conducted in the presence of the leading inhabitants, and to
+make returns to the supreme ecclesiastical court of the attendance,
+the branches taught, the progress of the scholars, and the efficiency
+of the teachers. It must be here added that, although thus placed
+under the superintendence of the national church, and although based
+on the principles of the national faith, the parish schools are
+acknowledged to be free from anything which, in Scotland at least,
+could be called a _sectarian_ character. Lord Melgund frankly admits
+that "the teachers and presbyteries appear to have dealt liberally by
+all classes of Dissenters in religious matters, and certainly cannot
+be reproached with having given offence by dogmatical teaching, or by
+attempts to proselytise"--(_Remarks_, p. 24;) and adduces some proofs
+in support of this view, with which we shall content ourselves,
+though they might easily be multiplied. About twelve years ago, a
+series of queries was sent to all the parish schools, containing,
+among many others, the following,--"Do children attend the school
+without reference to the religious persuasion of their parents?" and,
+as quoted by Lord Melgund, out of 924 answers, 915 were in the
+affirmative.--(_Remarks_, p. 27.) "It is but justice to the present
+teachers," said the Rev. Dr Taylor of the Secession Church to the
+House of Lords' Committee, in 1848, (_Remarks_, p. 34,) "to say that,
+as far as my knowledge goes, they do not generally attempt to
+proselytise or interfere with the religious opinions of the children."
+Mr John Gibson, the Government inspector, states, that not only the
+children of orthodox Dissenters, but even Roman Catholic children,
+find these schools non-sectarian. "Roman Catholic children (he says)
+have been wont to attend the schools of the Church of Scotland in the
+Highlands and Islands. This they seem to have done in consequence of
+the manner in which these schools have been conducted in reference to
+the Roman Catholic population."--(_Remarks_, p. 32.) With respect,
+indeed, to the great body of dissenters from the Established Church,
+there can be no difficulty. The Catechism taught in the parish
+schools, and, with the exception of the Bible, the only textbook
+insisted upon by the church, is a religious standard acknowledged by
+them all, and is taught almost as generally in the non-parochial as in
+the parochial schools.
+
+Our answer to Lord Melgund's principal reason for a fundamental
+revisal of this the present parochial school system of Scotland is,
+that that reason is founded on a great delusion. The reason may be
+thus stated, that while the parish schools, however useful as far as
+they go, are confessedly inadequate to the increased population, their
+present constitution stands in the way of the introduction into
+Scotland of a general system of national education.--(See _Remarks_,
+p. 35 and _passim_.)
+
+It may be here noticed, in passing, that rather more than enough is
+perhaps sometimes said as to the inadequacy of the provision for
+education made in the parish schools. The population has certainly
+enormously increased since 1696; but so has the wealth of the country,
+and so also, along with the power, has the desire increased, of
+compensating, by voluntary efforts, for the growing disproportion
+between the legal provision and the actual wants of the people in
+regard to education. In a great measure, the parish schools continue
+to serve efficiently some of the main purposes contemplated in their
+institution. In a great measure, they still afford a legal provision
+for education, _as far as legal provision is absolutely
+necessary_.[18]
+
+That a strictly national system of education is on many accounts
+desirable, no one will doubt, any more than that the connexion between
+the parish schools and the National Church is, in the present state of
+opinion in the country, an insuperable obstacle to any such material
+extension of the present machinery, as would constitute a strictly
+national educational system. But whether the necessity or propriety
+of an alteration of the present system be an inference from these
+premises is a different question. Our answer to Lord Melgund here is,
+that to remove the parish schools from the superintendence of the
+Church would not have the smallest effect in facilitating arrangements
+for the purpose which Lord Melgund and others profess--doubtless,
+sincerely--to have so much at heart, and that, upon the whole, a
+national system of education for Scotland, of a more general
+description than the one already in operation, is, at least in present
+circumstances, _wholly impracticable_ on any conditions or terms,
+after any fashion, or mode, or plan whatsoever. It is right that this
+should be distinctly understood. If Lord Melgund believes that the
+only or even the principal difficulty in the way of his utopian scheme
+of a strictly national system for this country, which shall unite all
+sects and parties, is the connexion between the parish school and the
+parish church, he must be extremely ignorant of the state of public
+opinion in Scotland, where, in fact, any such scheme is, on every
+account, notoriously out of the question.
+
+Whether, with all its defects, the present system is not better than
+no system at all, is therefore a question deserving the serious
+consideration even of those who are most inimical to it. We would
+venture here to suggest, that if the existing system is to be
+interfered with, that interference should not at least be attempted
+until a _strictly national substitute_ for it has been actually agreed
+upon. But it is vain to talk thus. The education system of 1696,
+already established, to which the people have long been habituated,
+and whose value they have had the best means of appreciating, is the
+only approximation to a national system which would now be tolerated
+for a moment, and, if it were set aside, could not be replaced by any
+other.
+
+In the first place, the Church herself would not consent to any scheme
+which deprived her of her present securities for the "godly
+upbringing" of the children of her own communion. Abolish in the
+parish schools the tests and rights of supervision which she now
+possesses, and she must seek, in schools raised by voluntary
+contribution, the means of carrying out her principles on the subject
+of education.
+
+It is equally well known, that neither would the dissenters agree
+among themselves as to a national system of education. Of these
+members of the community, a large proportion would object to any
+system which excluded the Bible and the Shorter Catechism from the
+schools; and another large proportion--all who are voluntaries--would
+be equally bound, on their own principles, to oppose any plan which
+did NOT exclude the Bible and the Shorter Catechism--the latter class
+holding that the state cannot, without sin, interfere in any way in
+the religious instruction of the people, as strongly as the former
+class holds such interference to be the duty of the state. But this is
+not all. Thus, for instance, the Free seceders have shown, in the most
+unequivocal manner, that their objection is not only to the parish
+schools, as at present organised, but to all schools not under their
+own special superintendence.
+
+What the views of the present rate-payers would be remains to be seen.
+The endowment of the parish schools cannot be called national. It
+comes exclusively out of the pockets of the landed gentry and other
+heritors of the country, who, as far as we are aware, have never as a
+class expressed any dissatisfaction with its present application, or
+any wish to interfere at all with the general ecclesiastical system
+with which it is connected. How far their concurrence to a radical
+alteration in the appropriation of funds, for which they originally
+consented to assess themselves on specified conditions, could be
+secured, we do not know; but we have strong suspicions that not the
+least of the difficulties would arise from this quarter, which is not
+usually taken into account. In short, let the question be put to the
+test. Propose a substitute for the enactment of 1696. Draw up a bill
+in which the details of a workable national system of education are
+intelligibly set forth, and let that system be what it will, liberal
+or illiberal, exclusive or catholic--a system in which all sects are
+endowed, as in many of the German states, or from which all religious
+instruction is excluded, as in America--let it be the wisest, most
+comprehensive, most flexible scheme ever devised--and see the result:
+see whether the true difficulty in setting in motion a more extended
+and more strictly national system of education than at present exists,
+lies in the connexion between the parish schools and the Established
+Church, which an act of parliament might remedy any day, or in causes
+which no strong-handed measure of the legislature can reach--in the
+irremediable differences of opinion on the subject of education, and
+on the subject of religion, and on the subject of national endowments,
+prevalent at this day in Scotland, to a degree, and with
+complications, perhaps, nowhere else to be found in the world.
+
+We consider it unnecessary to say anything as to the only other reason
+alleged by Lord Melgund for an interference with the present
+management of the parish schools--namely, the practical injustice
+suffered by dissenters from the Established Church, by the exclusive
+character of that management. We almost hope we misinterpret his
+lordship's statement, in attributing to him an objection which is
+nowhere announced in explicit terms, but which seems to us to be not
+the less obviously suggested. The objection, however, is a common one.
+Thus, as quoted by Lord Melgund himself, the Rev. Dr Taylor stated
+before the Lords' Committee, that the "Dissenters desired the reform
+of the parish schools less on account of the education of the
+children, than to open a field of employment for persons who wish to
+be schoolmasters, and are members of congregations not belonging to
+the Established Church;" and that "Dissenters consider it a grievance,
+or badge of inferiority, and an act of injustice, that they should be
+excluded from holding office in schools which are national
+institutions."
+
+We think it needless to enter upon this topic, for if the reason here
+alleged be valid as against the parish schools, it is also valid as
+against the parish churches--against, in a word, the whole system of
+the national religious Establishment; and we trust that the time is
+not yet come when the propriety of overthrowing that institution,
+and--for all must stand or fall together--those of the sister
+kingdoms, admits of serious discussion. It is worthy of notice,
+however, in passing, not only that such is at bottom the true state of
+the question, but that, with almost the whole of the advocates of a
+change, it is acknowledged to be so; and that that change, like the
+similar proposed innovations in the universities, and like the Lord
+Advocate's Marriage and Registration Bills, is mainly desired, when
+desired at all, as an important step towards the gradual
+accomplishment of an ulterior object, which it is not yet expedient to
+seek by open and straightforward means.
+
+Before concluding this protest against the sweeping measures proposed
+by Lord Melgund and the party which he represents, it is right to take
+some notice of another question. Is the school system of Scotland
+incapable of any alteration whatever for the better? Granting that its
+fundamental principles ought to remain intact, may it not, and should
+it not, be rendered more efficient in the details of its
+administration, by the aid of the legislature?
+
+One matter of detail which has been often pointed out as calling for
+legislative interference, is the difficulty, under the present law, of
+relieving parishes from the burden of incompetent schoolmasters, and
+particularly of schoolmasters who have become unfit for their duties
+by age or infirmity. Unhappily there are no retiring allowances
+provided in the parochial school system of Scotland. The consequence
+is, that it depends upon the mere liberality of the heritors--who
+however, to their honour, are seldom found wanting in such
+cases--whether a man who has outlived his usefulness shall continue to
+exercise his functions. For this evil it is very desirable that the
+obvious remedy should be furnished; and we think that there are no
+insurmountable practical difficulties to arrangements on the subject
+being carried into effect. It might also be proper to give greater
+facilities to presbyteries in dismissing teachers for wilful neglect
+of duty--a contingency which it is right to mention is both of very
+rare occurrence, and is best provided against by care in the
+selection, on the part of the heritors, and in the rigorous exercise
+by presbyteries of their large powers of examination and rejection,
+when the appointments are originally made.
+
+With regard to the existing salaries, their inadequacy has been
+already insisted upon. Nor, for many reasons, can we accept the
+recently propounded--if it can be said to be propounded, for its terms
+are not a little ambiguous--plan of the Privy Council's Committee for
+their augmentation as any remedy whatever. That plan--not to speak of
+more serious objections to it--includes certain conditions which are
+so framed, as practically to exclude from participation in the grant
+all parishes except the wealthiest and most liberal, which, of course,
+least need it. It is enough to mention here, that one of the
+conditions on which this grant, in every case, depends, is the
+_voluntary_ concurrence of the heritors themselves in the payment of a
+considerable proportion of any addition to the present salary. We, of
+course, wish, that eventually some truly practicable means may be
+adopted to secure for the parish schoolmasters, throughout the
+country, allowances more in proportion than their present pittances to
+the importance--which can hardly be overrated--of their duties, and,
+we may add, to their merits.
+
+These matters of detail admit, we repeat, of improvement. It is
+desirable that something should be done in the case of both. Better,
+however, a hundredfold, that things should remain altogether as they
+are, than that the principles lying at the foundation of the system
+should be shaken. It is to be hoped that the Church will be true to
+herself in regard to the question of pecuniary aid either from
+government, or by government legislation; refusing for its sake to
+compromise in the least degree her sacred rights--or let us rather
+call them her sacred duties--of superintendence; Better to be poor
+than not pure.
+
+One word more. Alarming as is the proposal of the member for Greenock,
+we have to state, with great regret, that it does no more than confirm
+apprehensions for the safety of a system hitherto found to work well,
+which have been awakened by actual proceedings already adopted. It is
+impossible that any one can have watched the gradual development of
+the plan, in regard particularly, though not exclusively, to Scotland,
+of that anomalous board, the Privy Council's Committee on Education,
+without being persuaded that they are, we do not say intended, but, at
+least, most nicely adapted to the eventual attainment of the very same
+object which Lord Melgund would accomplish _per saltum_. The every-day
+increasing claims of the Board to a right of interference with the
+internal management of all schools, its assumption of apparently
+unlimited legislative powers, and its continual indications of special
+hostility to the parochial school system, constitute an ominous
+combination of unfavourable circumstances. Even in the act of
+ostensibly aiding, it is secretly undermining that system. It is not
+only weakening its efficiency by the encouragement of rival
+schools--_rival_ in the strictest sense of the term--but, by its
+grants to the parish schools themselves, on the conditions now
+exacted, it is purchasing the power, and preparing the way, for an
+eventual absorption of these schools in a comprehensive system to be
+under its own exclusive control, and to be regulated by principles at
+direct variance with those under the influence of which, in the
+schools of Scotland, have been for nearly two centuries brought up a
+people--we may say it with some pride--not behind any other in
+intelligence, or in moral and religious worth.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] _Remarks on the Government Scheme of National Education in
+Scotland_, 1848.
+
+[12] We observe, however, that by the Parliamentary Returns of 1834,
+the school accommodation was even then considerably greater than is
+here stated. The greatest number attending the parish school was 246,
+and non-parochial schools 443; which, to the population there given of
+3210, was nearly a proportion of 1 in 5 of the inhabitants--a larger
+proportion than in Prussia!
+
+[13] They have taken care to sound the committee on the subject, and
+have received an answer encouraging enough. The following extract is
+from their report of a deputation to the Lord President:--"2. In
+regard to applications for annual grants under the minutes, it was
+asked--What evidence will ordinarily be required to satisfy the
+Committee of the Privy Council that any particular school is needed in
+the district in which it stands, and that it ought to be recognised as
+entitled to its fair share of the grant equally with others similarly
+situated? Supposing, in any given school, all the other conditions, as
+to pecuniary resources, the qualifications of teachers, &c.,
+satisfactorily complied with, will it be held enough to have the
+report of the Government inspector or inspectors that a sufficient
+number of children (say 50 or 60 in the country, and 90 or 100 in
+towns) either are actually in attendance upon the school, or engaged
+to attend, _without the question being raised as to the contiguity of
+other schools_ of a different denomination, or the amount of vacant
+accommodation in such schools? In reply, it was stated that the
+Committee of Privy Council could not limit their discretion in judging
+of the comparative urgency of applications; their lordships were
+disposed to receive representations, and to inquire as to the
+sufficiency of the existing school accommodation; and they would also
+consider any other ground which might be urged for the erection of a
+new school where a school or schools had been previously
+established."--_Minutes for 1847-8_, vol. l, p. lxiv.
+
+[14] _Schoolmasters' Memorial_, p. 3.
+
+[15] In many parishes side schools are built and endowed, in addition
+to the parish school, from the same funds: the salary in these cases
+being fixed by the Act at about £17.
+
+[16] _Parliamentary Inquiry_, 1837, _Appendix_.
+
+[17] That the presbytery has the power of insisting upon
+qualifications supplementary to those prescribed by the heritors, was
+decided, we think about a dozen years ago, in the case of Sprouston.
+
+[18] The Church herself, to a considerable extent, supplements
+deficiencies in the legal school provision by means of her "Education
+Scheme," whose object and efficiency may be partly gathered from the
+two first sentences of the last report of the managing committee:--
+
+"The schools under the charge of your committee (as has often been
+stated) are intended to form auxiliaries to the parish schools, not to
+compete or interfere with these admirable institutions; and,
+accordingly, are never planted except where, owing to local
+peculiarities, it is impossible that all the youth of the district
+requiring instruction can be gathered into one place. While much
+needed, your schools continue to be most useful; and, indeed, by the
+divine blessing, they appear to have been rendered eminently
+beneficial.
+
+"The number of schools under the care of your committee may be
+reported of thus:--Those situated in the Highlands and Islands, 125;
+those in the Lowlands, 64; and those planted at the expense of the
+Church of Scotland's Ladies' Gaelic School Society, and placed under
+your committee's charge, 20; in all, 209."
+
+
+
+
+ARARAT AND THE ARMENIAN HIGHLANDS.[19]
+
+
+It were a worthy and novel undertaking for a man of science,
+enterprise, and letters, to explore and describe in succession the
+most celebrated of the earth's mountains. And we know of no person
+better fitted for such a task, and likely to accomplish it with more
+honour to himself and advantage to the world, than the persevering
+traveller and able writer, the title of whose latest work heads this
+page. Has he allotted himself that task? We cannot say; but what he
+has already done looks like its commencement, and he has time before
+him to follow the path upon which he has so successfully and
+creditably entered. In Dr Moritz Wagner we have an instance of a
+strong natural bent forcing its way in defiance of obstacles.
+Compelled by the pressure of peculiar circumstances to abandon his
+academical studies at Augsburg before they were completed, and to
+devote himself to commercial pursuits, he entered a merchant's house
+at Marseilles. Business took him to Algiers, and his visit to that
+country, then in the early years of French occupation, roused beyond
+the possibility of restraint the ardent thirst for travel and
+knowledge which had always been one of his characteristics. Abandoning
+trade, he returned to Germany and devoted himself to the study of
+natural history, and especially to that of zoology, which he had
+cultivated in his youth. In 1836, being then in his twenty-ninth year,
+he started from Paris for Algeria, where he travelled for two years,
+sharing, in the capacity of member of a scientific commission, in the
+second and successful expedition to Constantina. It is a peculiarity,
+and we esteem it laudable, of many German travellers of the more
+reflective and scientific class, that they do not rush into type
+before the dust of the journey is shaken from their feet, but take
+time to digest and elaborate the history of their researches. Thus it
+was not until three years after his return to Europe, that Dr Wagner
+sent forth from his studious retirement at Augsburg an account of his
+African experiences, in a book which still keeps the place it at once
+took as the best upon that subject in the German language.[20] The
+work had not long been issued to the public, when its author again
+girded himself for the road. This time his footsteps were turned
+eastwards; Asia was his goal: he passed three busy and active years in
+Turkey and Russia, Circassia and Armenia. The strictly scientific
+results of this long period of observant travel and diligent research
+are reserved for a great work, now upon the anvil. To the general
+reader Dr Wagner addressed, a few months ago, two volumes of
+remarkable spirit and interest, which we recently noticed; and he now
+comes forward with a third, in its way equally able and attractive.
+The apparent analogy between the subjects of the two books, as
+treating of contiguous countries and nations, but slightly cloaks
+their real contrast. The two mountain ranges, whose world-renowned
+names figure on their title-pages, are, although geographically
+adjacent to each other, as far apart as the antipodes in their history
+and associations, and in the character of their inhabitants. Of the
+one the traditions are biblical, of the other pagan and mythological.
+Upon a crag of Caucasus Prometheus howls, and Medea culls poison at
+its base; upon Ararat's summit the ark reposes, and Noah, stepping
+forth upon the soaked and steaming earth, founds the village of
+Arguri, and plants the first vine in its valley. In modern days the
+contrast is not less striking. Amongst the Caucasian cliffs the rattle
+of musketry, the howl of warlike fanatics, the glitter of Mahomedan
+mail, the charging hoofs of chivalrous squadrons, the wave of rich
+robes and the gleam of costly weapons purchased with the flesh and
+blood of Circassia's comely daughters. "Curse upon the Muscovite!
+Freedom or death!" is here the cry. Upon Ararat's skirts how different
+the scene and sounds! Cloisters and churches, monks and bishops,
+precious relics and sainted sites, the monotonous chant of priests and
+the prayer-bell's musical clang, the holy well of Jacob and the
+vestiges of Noah's floating caravan.[21] Dr Wagner esteems his journey
+to Armenia one of the most interesting episodes of his three years'
+Asiatic wanderings. In the preface to its record, he pays a handsome
+and well-deserved tribute to the enterprise of English travellers--to
+the names of Ker Porter, Wilbraham, Fraser, Hamilton, Ainsworth, and
+many others--who have contributed more, he says, to our geographical
+knowledge of Asia, than the learned travellers of all the other
+nations of Europe. He himself, he modestly and truly intimates, has
+added in the present volume to the store of information.
+
+     "When I undertook, in the year 1843, a journey to Russian
+     Armenia, Mount Ararat was the object I had particularly in
+     view. Various circumstances then compelled me to content
+     myself with a visit to the north side of that mountain. But
+     in the following year, during my journey to Turkish Armenia
+     and Persia, it was vouchsafed me to explore the previously
+     entirely unknown south side of the Ararat group, and to abide
+     upon Turkish and Persian territory, in the vicinity of the
+     mighty boundary-stone of three great empires. The striking
+     position of Ararat, almost equidistant from China and from
+     the Iberian peninsula, from the ice-bound Lena in the high
+     northern latitudes of Siberia, and from the slimy current of
+     the Ganges in Southern Hindostan, has at all periods
+     attracted the attention of geographers. For years I had
+     harboured the ardent wish to visit the mysterious mountain.
+     Towering in the centre of the Old Continent, an image of the
+     fire whose mighty remains extend to the regions of eternal
+     ice, Ararat is indicated by Jewish and Armenian tradition as
+     the peak of refuge, round which the deluge roared, unable to
+     overflow it. From the summit of the gigantic cone descended
+     the pairs of all creatures, whose descendants people the
+     earth."
+
+On Ararat, as in many other places, tradition and science disagree.
+Diluvial traces are sought there in vain. On the other hand, evidences
+of volcanic devastation on every side abound; and a wish to
+investigate this, and to ascertain the details of the subterranean
+commotion that had destroyed Arguri three years previously, was one of
+the principal motives of Dr Wagner's visit to Armenia. Towards the
+middle of May he started from Tefflis, the most important town of the
+Russian trans-Caucasian provinces, accompanied by Abowian, a
+well-educated Armenian and accomplished linguist, and attended by
+Ivan, the doctor's Cossack, a sharp fellow, and a faithful servant
+after his kind, but, like all his countrymen, an inveterate thief.
+Their vehicle was a Russian _telega_, or posting carriage, springless,
+and a perfect bone-setter on the indifferent roads of Armenia. They
+travelled in company with that well-known original and indefatigable
+traveller, General Baron Von Hallberg,[22] of whose appearance, and of
+the sensation it excited in the streets of Erivan, Dr Wagner gives an
+amusing account:--
+
+     "Amongst the travellers was a strange figure, around which
+     the inquisitive mob assembled, with expressions of the utmost
+     wonderment. It was that of an old man, hard upon eighty, but
+     who, nevertheless, sprang into the carriage, and took his
+     seat beside a young Russian lady, with an air of juvenile
+     vigour. From his chin and furrowed cheeks fell a venerable
+     gray beard, half concealing the diamond-studded order of St
+     Anna, which hung round his neck, whilst upon his left breast
+     four or five other stars and crosses glittered from under the
+     black Russian caftan, and his bald head was covered by a red
+     Turkish fez, to the front of which a leathern peak was sewn.
+     'Who can he be?' murmured the curious Armenians and Tartars,
+     who could not reconcile the old gentleman's brilliant
+     decorations with his coachman's caftan and Turkish cap.
+     'Certainly a general, or perhaps a great lord from the
+     emperor's court--a man of the first _tschin_!'--'Or mayhap a
+     foreign ambassador!' quoth others. 'Since he wears the fez,
+     he must come from Stamboul.' A Munich _gamin_ would have
+     enlightened the good folks of Erivan. The interesting
+     stranger, as some of my readers may already have conjectured,
+     was no other than Baron Von Hallberg of Munich, (known also
+     as the Hermit of Gauting,) my much-respected countryman. I
+     made the acquaintance of this remarkable man, and great
+     traveller, in 1836, at Algiers, where we passed many a
+     cheerful day together, in the society of some jovial
+     fellow-countrymen. After a lapse of seven years, I again met
+     him at Tefflis, and we travelled together to Armenia. Since
+     our parting at the foot of Atlas, he had visited the pyramids
+     of Egypt, and the ruined temples of Heliopolis, and now the
+     unwearied traveller thirsted after a sight of the capital of
+     Persia's kings. He had come down the Wolga, and over the
+     Caucasus, and was about to cross the Persian frontier."
+
+At Pipis, the chief town of a circle, and residence of its captain, Dr
+Wagner was struck by the appearance of a handsome modern building; and
+soon he learned, to his astonishment, that it was a district-school
+erected by the former governor, General Von Rosen. A school in this
+wild district, scantily peopled with rude Tartars and Armenians,
+seemed as much out of place as a circulating library in an Ojibbeway
+village. He proceeded forthwith to visit the seminary, whose
+folding-doors stood invitingly open. The spacious halls were
+unfurnished and untenanted; over the mouldy walls spiders spread their
+webs with impunity; the air was damp, the windows were broken, and a
+great lizard scuttled out of sight upon the traveller's intrusion.
+There were neither benches nor desks, teachers nor pupils. Nor had
+there ever been any of these, said a Cossack lieutenant, whose horses
+were feeding in the court-yard. The school-house was a mere impromptu
+in honour of the Russian emperor. In many countries, when the
+sovereign travels, his progress is celebrated by triumphal arches,
+garlands, and illuminations. In Russia it is different. Nicholas is
+known to prefer use to ornament, and when he visits the remote
+provinces of his vast dominions, his lieutenants and governors strain
+their ingenuity to make him credit the advance of civilisation and the
+prosperity of his subjects. The property-men are set to work, and
+edifices spring up, more solid, but, at present, scarcely more useful
+than the pasteboard mansions on a theatrical stage. On his approach to
+Tefflis, the school was run up in all haste, and plans and schemes
+were shown for the education of Tartar and Armenian. Languages and
+every branch of knowledge were to be taught, and money was to be
+given to the people to induce them to send their children to the hall
+of learning. "The project was splendid," said the Cossack officer to
+Dr Wagner, "but there the matter rested. No sooner had the Emperor
+seen the school-house, and expressed his satisfaction, than the hands
+of masons and carpenters seemed suddenly crippled. Not another ruble
+reached Pipis for the prosecution of the philanthropical work, the
+architect took himself off, and we took possession of the empty house.
+The court-yard is convenient for our horses, and in the hot summer
+days my Cossacks find pleasant lying in the large cool halls." Not all
+the acuteness, foresight, and far-sightedness, and many kingly
+qualities, which combine to render Nicholas the most remarkable of
+existing monarchs, can protect from such impositions as this the
+sovereign of so extensive a country as Russia. In vain may the czar,
+indefatigable upon the road, visit the remotest corners of his
+dominions; unless he do so incognito, after the fashion of Haroun
+Alraschid, he will still be cheated. The governing part of the
+population, the civil and military officials, conspire to deceive him;
+and the governed dare not reveal the truth, for their masters have
+abundant means at their disposal to punish an indiscretion. "Life is
+delightful in this country," said Mr Ivanoff, a Russian district
+overseer in Armenia, as he reclined upon his divan, wrapped in a
+silken caftan, sipping coffee and smoking a cigar; "how absurd of
+people in Russia to look upon Caucasus as a murder-hole, and to pity
+those who have to cross it, as if they were going straight to
+purgatory! I reckon one vegetates here very endurably, and he who
+complains is either an ass, a rascal, or a liar. You see, my house is
+tolerably comfortable, my table not bad: I have four-and-twenty
+saddle-horses in my stable, superb beasts, fit for a prince's stud,
+and to crown all, I am loved and honoured by the twenty thousand human
+beings over whom I rule as the sardar's representative." Ivanoff's
+frank avowal of his satisfaction contrasted with the hypocritical
+complaints of many of his colleagues, who, whilst filling their
+pockets and consuming the fat of the land, affect to consider
+residence in trans-Caucasus the most cruel of inflictions. "Truly,"
+says Dr Wagner, "nothing was wanting to the comfort of life in Mr
+Ivanoff's dwelling: convenient furniture, a capital kitchen, wine from
+France, cigars from the Havannah, horses of the best breeds of Arabia,
+Persia, and Turkistan--all these things have their value, and yet, to
+procure them, Mr Ivanoff had a salary of only six hundred paper
+rubles, (about six-and-twenty pounds sterling!) He had a tolerably
+pretty wife, on whom he doated, and to whom he brought all manner of
+presents whenever he returned from the Erivan bazaar, which he visited
+generally once a-week. Trinkets and silken stuffs and rich
+carpets--whatever, in short, the little woman fancied--she at once
+got, and if not to be had at Erivan, it was written for to Tefflis....
+When Ivanoff rode forth in his official capacity, it was with a
+following of twenty horsemen, all belonging to his household, and with
+a banner waving before him. What a life! comfort, riches, oriental
+pomp, and despotic power! Who would not be chief of a Russian district
+in Armenia?" All this upon ten shillings a-week! It was more
+astounding even than the school-house at Pipis. Abowian, as yet
+inexperienced in Russian ways, regarded the riddle as unsolvable.
+Ivanoff confessed he had nothing beside his salary. How then did he
+maintain this princely existence? He assured the travellers he was
+beloved by his people, and the Armenian peasants confirmed the
+assurance. Extortion and violent plunder could not therefore be the
+means employed. It was not till some days later, and in another
+district, that Dr Wagner elucidated the mystery. He saw a long
+procession of Armenian and Tartar peasants proceeding to the house of
+Ivanoff's official brother. They were gift-laden; one led a horse,
+another a sheep, a third dragged a stately goat by the horns, and
+forced the bearded mountaineer to kneel before the Russian's corpulent
+wife, who received the animals, the eggs, milk, cakes, and other
+offerings, as well in coin as in kind, quite as matter of course. Nay,
+she even looked sour and sulky, as though the tribute were scanty;
+and Dr Wagner, who was an unobserved witness of the scene, heard her
+say to the leader of the deputation, (probably the mayor of some
+Armenian village:) "Think yourselves lucky to get off so cheaply, for
+if it were known that the _tschuma_ is amongst you!..." The shrewd
+doctor caught at this menacing phrase, as a possible key to what had
+so greatly puzzled him. The meaning of the Russian word _tschuma_,
+which, upon the man to whom it was addressed, seemed to have the
+effect of a thunderbolt, being unknown to him, he inquired it of his
+companion. _Tschuma_ means the PLAGUE. This frightful disease the
+governor of the trans-Caucasian provinces, stimulated by stringent
+orders from St Petersburg, makes it his constant effort to extirpate at
+any price from the territory under his rule. Let a district-overseer
+report a village infected, and forthwith it is placed in the most rigid
+quarantine by means of a circle of Cossack pickets; for months the
+unlucky inhabitants are deprived of communication with the surrounding
+country; their agriculture is suspended, their crops rot in the ground,
+and they lack the necessaries of life. All their clothes, bedding,
+blankets, everything capable of conveying infection, are burned without
+reserve, and the compensation allowed does not repay a tithe of the
+loss. Hence the terrible power of the district overseer: a word
+suffices; he will declare the village infected! The first death from
+fever, or any other endemic, furnishes him with a pretext. At the least
+threat of this nature, the peasants, apprehending ruin, hasten to
+sacrifice part of their substance, and to avert the evil by gifts to
+the great man, who is maintained in opulence and luxury by these
+illegitimate imposts. Here was the secret of Ivanoff's five-and-twenty
+horses and other little comforts. Nevertheless he was liked in the
+country, for he did not over-drive the willing brute he lived upon,
+neither did he hoard like his colleagues, but spent his money freely
+and generously. And the poor peasants brought him their contributions
+unasked and almost gladly, eager to keep him in good humour, and
+fearful of changing him for a severer task-master. Suppose Czar
+Nicholas on a visit to his Armenian provinces, and how can it be
+expected that the poor ignorant wretches who offer up their sheep and
+chickens as ransom from the plague-spot, will dare carry to his august
+feet a complaint against their tyrants? They may have heard of his
+justice, and feel confidence in it--for it is well known that the
+emperor is prompt and terrible in his chastisement of oppressive and
+unjust officials, when he can detect them--and yet they will hesitate
+to risk greater evils by trying to get rid of those that already
+afflict them. The _esprit-de-corps_ of Russian _employés_ is notorious,
+and a disgraced governor or overseer may generally reckon pretty
+confidently on his successor for vengeance upon those who denounced
+him. The corruption, according to Dr Wagner, extends to the very
+highest; and men of rank and birth, princes and general officers, are
+no more exempt from it than the understrapper with a few hundred rubles
+per annum. "One crow does not pick out another's eyes," says the German
+proverb. But in spite of his officers' cunning and caution, the emperor
+can hardly visit his distant provinces without detecting abuses and
+getting rid of illusions. One of these was dispelled when he, for the
+first time, beheld, upon his journey to Russian Armenia in 1837, the
+much-vaunted fortifications of Erivan's citadel. Count Paskewitch's
+pompous bulletins had led him to expect something very different from
+the feeble walls, composed of volcanic stones, loosely cemented with
+mud and straw, upon whose conqueror a proud title had been bestowed.
+The result of all the emperor's observations at that time had great
+influence--so says Dr Wagner--upon his subsequent policy. His love of
+peace, and his moderation with respect to Asiatic conquest, were
+confirmed by the impression he then received. Of this the doctor was
+assured by many well-informed and trustworthy persons in the
+trans-Caucasus. "This country needs much improvement," said Nicholas to
+a high official who accompanied him through the monotonous,
+thinly-peopled, and scantily-tilled wildernesses, and through the
+indigent towns and villages of Armenia. His desire for conquest was
+cooled, and his wish to consolidate and improve what he already
+possessed was strengthened tenfold. Everywhere upon the south-eastern
+frontier of Russia Dr Wagner traced evidence of this latter feeling.
+But he also beheld forts on a scale and of a construction hinting
+offensive as well as defensive projects on the part of their builder.
+One of them was in process of erection at Erivan, to replace the crazy
+edifice already referred to. In 1843, the progress of the works was
+slow, for another expensive citadel was building on the Turkish
+frontier, and it was desirable to limit the annual outlay for this
+item. And a hostile demonstration against Russia, from Persians beyond
+the river Araxes, was the last thing to be apprehended.
+
+     "The great new fortress is far less intended for a defence
+     than for a storehouse and place of muster for a Russian army
+     of operations against the Persian frontier provinces, whose
+     conquest the Emperor Nicholas undoubtedly bequeaths to his
+     successors. The formidable constructions at Sevastopol,
+     Nicolajeff, and Gumri, are to answer the same end against
+     Turkey as that of Erivan against Persia. These frontier forts
+     are the sword of Damocles, which the emperor--not greedy of
+     conquest himself, but far-calculating for the
+     future--suspends over the heads of his Moslem neighbours, to
+     be drawn from its scabbard under more favourable
+     circumstances by a warlike son or grandson."
+
+The appearance of the forts in question gives a show of reason to Dr
+Wagner's prognostications. Gumri--or Alexandropol, as the Russians
+have re-baptised the contiguous town--is built on a rocky eminence,
+whose crags serve it in some measure for walls. It contains barracks,
+case-mates, storehouses, and hospitals, all as strong as they are
+spacious, and which could be defended as detached citadels, supposing
+an enemy to have mastered the walls and rocky out-works. It is adapted
+for an army of sixty thousand men, and is so roomy, that in case of a
+sudden inroad of the Pasha of Kars--who, if war broke out, could
+probably bring an army to the river Arpatschai before the Russians
+could assemble one at Tefflis, and march to the frontier--not only the
+whole population of Alexandropol, (in 1843 about 6000 souls,) but the
+entire peasantry of the surrounding country would find shelter within
+its walls. Its natural and artificial strength is so great, that a
+small garrison might laugh at the attacks of Turks and Persians.
+
+     "'From these turrets,' said the mustached Russian major who
+     showed me all that was worth seeing in the fortress of Gumri,
+     'our eagle will one day wing its victorious flight.' If the
+     Russians ever conquer Asiatic Turkey, the first step will
+     undoubtedly be taken from this spot, and therefore has the
+     sagacious emperor commanded no expense to be spared in the
+     perfection of the works. 'The power of Russia is patient as
+     time, vast as space,' once exclaimed a renowned orator in the
+     tribune of the French Chamber. Persons who assert that
+     Nicholas has no ambition, that all thirst of conquest is
+     foreign to his character, are perhaps right; but greatly do
+     those err who believe that he contents him with playing the
+     part of the first Tory in Europe, and thinks only of closing
+     the Russian frontier to liberal ideas, of drilling his guards
+     and passing brilliant reviews. The works done, doing, and
+     planned, at Nicolajeff, Sevastopol, Gumri, Erivan, prove the
+     potent monarch to have ulterior views. For himself, he may be
+     content not to enlarge the enormous territory within whose
+     limits his voice is law. So long as he lives, perhaps, no
+     ukase will silence the Hatti-scherif of the padishad beyond
+     the Arpatschai. But under the shadow of this much-vaunted
+     moderation and love of peace, the prudent emperor forgets not
+     to clear the road of conquest into Asia, and to leave it
+     broad, smooth, and convenient for some succeeding Romanoff."
+
+Such speculations as these, proceeding from a man who has travelled,
+with slow step and observant eye, every inch of the ground to which he
+refers, and to whom a clear head, reflective habits, and much
+communion with the people of the country, have given peculiar
+facilities for the formation of a sound judgment, are of high interest
+and value. Dr Wagner is no dogmatist, but a close and candid reasoner,
+abounding in facts to support what he advances, and having at his
+fingers' ends all that has been written not only in his own country,
+but in England and elsewhere, on the subject of Russia and her
+emperor, of her policy and her eastern neighbours. And it is to the
+credit of his impartiality that his writings afford no clue to his own
+political predilections. He stigmatises abuses wherever he meets
+them, and from whatever cause proceeding; but whilst showing due
+sympathy with the gallant Circassians and long-suffering Armenians, he
+wholly eschews the insane propagandism so rife in the writings of many
+of his countrymen. He is evidently not of opinion that autocrat and
+oppressor are always synonymous, and that absolutism is essentially
+the worst tyranny.
+
+A preferable site having been found for the new fort of Erivan, the
+old one was still standing at the period of Dr Wagner's visit. He
+gives an amusing account of its interior, and especially of the
+apartments of the ex-sardar, Hussein Khan, whose walls were painted in
+fresco, an art still quite in its infancy amongst the Persians. The
+pictures, as might be expected, were rather grotesque than graceful in
+their execution.
+
+     "The subject of one of them is the history of Jussuf (Joseph)
+     in Egypt, based upon the Arabian tradition. Zuleikha, the
+     wife of Potiphar--so runs the Moslem legend--had become the
+     laughing-stock of the ladies of Pharaoh's court, by the
+     failure of her attempt to seduce the beautiful Joseph. To
+     revenge herself, she invited all those court-dames to visit
+     her, and commanded Joseph to hand them fruit and sherbet. But
+     when the women beheld him, they were so bewitched by his
+     beauty, that they bit their fingers instead of the
+     pomegranates. This is the moment selected by the Persian
+     artist. One of the ladies is seen to swoon from surprise, and
+     Zuleikha triumphs at this incident, and at the confusion of
+     the scoffers."
+
+There was considerable license in the subjects of some of the other
+pictures, one of which was intended to turn the Armenian Christians
+into ridicule, by representing their priests and bishops in profane
+society and riotous revel. Amongst the portraits, one of the last
+sardar of Erivan represented him with a gloomy and forbidding
+countenance--an expression which, if true to life, was by no means in
+conformity with his character.
+
+     "Hussein Khan was esteemed, even by the Armenians, as an able
+     ruler. He was a brave warrior, a great protector of the fine
+     arts, and tolerably moderate and just in his actions. In the
+     struggle with the Russians he exhibited the utmost personal
+     gallantry, but his example had no effect upon his cowardly
+     soldiery. Without his knowledge his brother had attempted to
+     have the Russian general murdered. When, after the surrender
+     of the citadel, they both fell into the hands of the
+     Russians, Count Paskewitch was inclined to take his revenge,
+     by excluding the sardar's brother, as an assassin, from the
+     benefits of the capitulation. But the firm bearing and cold
+     resignation of the Persian, when brought before his
+     conqueror, moved the latter to mercy. 'Every nation,' said
+     the prisoner to Count Paskewitch, (the words were repeated to
+     Dr Wagner by an eye-witness of the interview,) 'has its own
+     way of making war. With us Persians, all means are held good
+     and praiseworthy by which we can injure our foe. Thy death
+     would have profited us, by spreading confusion and alarm
+     amongst thy troops, and we should have availed ourselves of
+     the circumstance for an attack. And if I sought to kill thee,
+     it was solely in the interest of my sovereign's cause. If you
+     desire revenge, you are free to take it. I am in your power,
+     and shall know how to meet my fate.' This calm courage made a
+     great impression upon the staff of general Paskewitch,
+     (although the Persian noble was a man of very bad
+     reputation,) and the Russian commander generously gave his
+     enemy his life, and ultimately his freedom."
+
+The sardar's harem has less decoration than the state apartments.
+Formerly its walls were covered with frescos, mosaic work, and
+porcelain ornaments of many colours; but since the Russians took
+possession all these have disappeared, leaving the walls bare and
+white. During the czar's short stay at Erivan, he inhabited one of
+these rooms, and wrote, with his own hand, in firm, well-formed
+characters, his name upon the wall. The signature is now framed and
+glazed. In many houses where the emperor passed a night, when upon his
+travels, he left a similar memento of his presence, sometimes adding a
+few friendly words for his host.
+
+From Erivan Dr Wagner started for the far-famed Armenian convent of
+Eshmiadzini; his journey enlivened, or at least saved from complete
+monotony, by the eccentricities of his Cossack attendant. Ivan, warmed
+by a glass of _wodha_, and no way affected by the jolting, which to
+his master was martyrdom, basked in the morning sun, and chanted a
+ditty of the Don, from time to time turning round his mustached
+physiognomy, and looking at the doctor as for applause. An active,
+cunning fellow, with a marvellous facility for making himself
+understood, even by people of whose language he knew not a syllable,
+Dr Wagner was, upon the whole, well contented with him, although
+utterly unable to break him of stealing. He never left his night's
+quarters without booty of some kind, although his master always warned
+the host to keep a sharp eye upon his fingers. But when anything was
+to be pilfered, the Don-Cossack's sleight of hand threw into the shade
+that of the renowned Houdin himself. Even from the wretched Jesides,
+who have scarcely anything to call their own, he carried off a pot of
+buttermilk rather than depart empty-handed.
+
+     "Carefully as I locked away from him my little stock of
+     travelling money, he nevertheless found some inexplicable
+     means of getting at it. At last I adopted the plan of
+     counting it every evening before his eyes, and making him
+     answerable for all deficiencies. Still, from time to time,
+     something was missing, and Ivan employed his utmost eloquence
+     to convince me of the culpability of the Armenian drivers
+     whom I occasionally had in my service. I never could catch
+     him in the fact; but one evening I examined his clothes, and
+     found a packet of silver rubles in a secret pocket. Whereupon
+     the Cossack, with a devout grimace, which sat comically
+     enough upon his sly features, held up his ten fingers in the
+     air, and swore, by all the saints of the Russian calendar,
+     that he had economised the sum out of his wages, and had
+     hidden it for fear of an attack by robbers."
+
+The doctor pardoned his servant's peculations more easily than his
+blunders--one of which, that occurred upon the road to Erivan, was
+certainly provoking enough to so eager a naturalist. On the lonely
+banks of a canal, apparently the work of nature rather than of man,
+(although local traditions maintain the contrary,) one of the outlets
+of the alpine lake of Chenk-sha, or Blue Water, Dr Wagner encountered
+some Armenian anglers, who had secured a rich store of extremely
+curious fish. He purchased a dozen specimens, and on arriving at the
+next posting station, he bade his Cossack put them in a leathern
+bottle of spirits of wine, whilst he himself, armed with the
+geological hammer, availed himself of the short halt to explore some
+adjacent rocks. On his return, he found Ivan hard at work executing
+his orders, in obedience to which this Fair-service from the Don had
+duly immersed the icthyological curiosities in alcohol, but had
+previously _cut them in pieces_, "in order that on arriving at Erivan,
+they might taste more strongly of the pickle."
+
+Eshmiadzini is about fifteen miles from Erivan, across the plain of
+the Araxes, a monotonous stony flat, offering little worthy of note.
+Dr Wagner had expected, in the church and residence of the chief of
+the Armenian Christians, a stately and imposing edifice, something
+after the fashion of Strassburg cathedral; and he wondered greatly not
+to behold its turrets or spire rising in the distance long before he
+came within sound of its bells. In this, as in various other instances
+during his travels, by indulging his imagination, he stored up for
+himself a disappointment. A clumsy stunted dome, a mud-walled convent,
+ugly environs, a miserable village, black pigs wallowing in a pool of
+mud--such was the scene that met his disgusted vision. The people were
+worthy of the place, but from them he had not expected much. He had
+seen enough of the Armenian priesthood at Tefflis, in Constantinople,
+and elsewhere, to appreciate them at their just value. Some dirty,
+stupid-looking monks lounged about the convent entrance, gossiping and
+vermin-hunting. The travellers were conducted into a large room, where
+the archbishops held their conclaves. Five of these dignitaries were
+seated at a long table, dressed in blue robes with loose sleeves, and
+with cowls over their heads. The one in a red velvet arm-chair, at the
+head of the table, represented the absent patriarch. He was a handsome
+man, with an imposing beard, of which he was very vain. Laying his
+hand upon his heart, with an assumption of great dignity, he addressed
+a few words of flattering welcome to Dr Wagner, of whose coming he had
+been forewarned by the Russian general Neidhardt. "We have long
+expected you," he said. "The whole of our clergy rejoice to welcome
+within their walls a man of your merit and reputation." The
+compliment, although laconic, was not ill turned, but it was
+thoroughly insincere. An eruption of Ararat, or a troop of Kurdish
+robbers at their gates, were scarcely a more unwelcome sight to the
+reverend inmates of Eshmiadzini than is the arrival of a literary
+traveller. They well know that little good can be written about them,
+and that even Parrot, habitually so lenient in his judgments, gave but
+an unflattering sketch of the Armenian priesthood. European learning
+is an evil odour in their nostrils, and naturalists, especially, they
+look upon as freethinkers and unbelievers, condemned beyond redemption
+to an eternal penalty. Moreover, the holy fraternity are accustomed to
+measure the importance of their visitors by the Russian standard of
+military rank and decorations, and Dr Wagner's plain coat excited not
+their respect. With wondering eyes they examined the unassuming
+stranger, and asked each other in whispers how the governor-general
+could possibly have taken the trouble to announce the advent of an
+individual without epaulets or embroidered uniform, without _tschin_
+or orders. "When I at last left the room, to visit the church and
+other buildings, Archbishop Barsech (the patriarch's substitute)
+accompanied me, and seemed disposed to act as my cicerone, but
+suddenly bethinking himself, he deemed it perhaps beneath his dignity,
+for he hastily retired. I was escorted by an archimandrite, and
+Abowian by a young Russian official. Barsech's absence was doubly
+agreeable to me, as permitting me to examine at leisure all parts of
+the convent, and to ask many questions which the patriarch's reverend
+vicar might have deemed scarcely becoming."
+
+The attention of the various English travellers who have written about
+Armenia has been chiefly directed to its southern portion, to the
+regions adjacent to the great alpine lakes of Urmia and Van. The
+northern parts of Upper Armenia, north of Mount Ararat, and adjacent
+to Caucasus, have received the notice of several French and German
+writers. But most of these took travellers' license to embellish the
+places they wrote about; or else the change for the worse since their
+visits, now of rather ancient date, has been most grievous. In the
+second half of the seventeenth century, three Frenchmen, Tavernier,
+Chardin, and Tournefort, gave glowing accounts of the prosperity and
+opulence of Eshmiadzini. At the time of Tavernier's visit, (1655,)
+large caravans of traders and merchandise were frequently upon the
+road, bringing wealth to the country and numerous pilgrims to the
+church, many of these being opulent Armenian merchants, whose generous
+offerings enriched the shrine. Tavernier was astonished at the
+treasures of Eshmiadzini, which apparently had then not suffered from
+the spoliating attacks of Turks and Persians. The church was fitted up
+with the utmost luxury, and the conventual life was not without its
+pleasures and diversions, relieving the wearisome monotony that now
+characterises it. In honour of Monsieur Tavernier and of his
+travelling companions, the Christian merchants of the caravan, the
+patriarch gave a grand bull-fight, in which eight bulls were exhibited
+and two killed. Tournefort wrote in raptures of the fertility and
+excellent cultivation of the environs of the convent, dividing his
+praise between the rich adornments of the church and the blooming
+parterres of the garden, and winding up by declaring Eshmiadzini a
+picture of paradise. Dr Wagner, who, before visiting a country, makes
+a point of reading all that has been written of it, had perused these
+glowing descriptions, and was duly disappointed in consequence.
+
+     "Good heavens!" he exclaims, in intense disgust, "how little
+     do those enthusiastic descriptions agree with what is now to
+     be seen! To-day the convent garden is small, run to waste,
+     miserably stocked. Instead of pinks and amaranths, which
+     rejoiced the senses of the lucky Tournefort, I could discern
+     in this Armenian 'paradise' naught besides turnips and
+     cabbages, with here and there a stunted, unhealthy-looking
+     mulberry or apricot tree, and the melancholy wild olive, with
+     its flavourless fruits. No shade from the sun, nothing
+     pleasant to the eye. And neither the interior of the convent
+     nor that of the church exhibit any traces of the splendour
+     vaunted by the old travellers. In the patriarch's
+     reception-chamber, the windows are prettily painted in the
+     Persian style; and here my guide expected, but in vain, to
+     see me struck with wonder and admiration. In the same room is
+     a bust of the Emperor Nicholas, dating, doubtless, from the
+     early years of his reign, for it has no mustaches, and the
+     breast wants breadth. In the next apartment, where the
+     patriarch daily receives the higher clergy of the
+     establishment, is a Madonna, after Raphael, so exquisitely
+     embroidered in silk, that at a short distance it appears a
+     painting. This piece of needlework was sent to the patriarch
+     from Hindostan, by a pious Armenian woman. Then there is an
+     ivory bass-relief of Abraham's sacrifice; and on the walls
+     are depicted horrible scenes of martyrdom, especially the
+     sufferings of St Gregory, buried alive in a deep well. A most
+     artistically carved arm-chair, occupied by the patriarch upon
+     state occasions, was also sent, only a few years ago, from
+     Hindostan, whence, and from other foreign communities of
+     Armenian Christians, far more gifts are received than from
+     Tefflis and other neighbouring places inhabited by many rich
+     Armenians. Behind this arm-chair is a full-length portrait of
+     the Czar of all the Russias, of whom the prelates never speak
+     but in a tone of anxious humility."
+
+The church of Eshmiadzini is rich in monkish legends and precious
+relics. It contains an altar, through which is a passage into
+subterranean excavations, and which stands on the exact spot where the
+Saviour is said to have appeared to St Gregory, armed with a club, and
+to have hurled the heathen gods and evil spirits into the chasm. To
+this day, when, as often happens, the wind whistles through the
+vaults, the bigoted and ignorant monks believe they hear the howling
+of the tortured demons. Eshmiadzini's relics are renowned far and wide
+amongst the scattered Armenian congregations of the East.
+
+     "The chamber of relics, situated on the south-east side of
+     the church, contains, besides the right hand of St Gregory,
+     (with the possession of this relic, the dignity of the
+     Catholicos is indissolubly connected,) and a portion of the
+     skull of St Hripsime, a bit of Noah's ark, and the lance with
+     which Christ's side was pierced. I expressed a wish to see
+     these relics, to which the archimandrite replied that their
+     exhibition could take place only with great ceremonies, with
+     prayers and choral singing, for which a small pecuniary
+     sacrifice was necessary. 'Two ducats,' he whispered in my
+     ear. Curious though I was to have a close view of the lance
+     and the piece of the ark, and to ascertain what effect the
+     lapse of so many centuries had had upon them, I thought the
+     price too high, and as the worthy archimandrite looked
+     inquiringly in my face, I told him dryly, that for the sight
+     of a piece of wood, however old and holy, a poor German
+     naturalist had no ducats to spare."
+
+The first stone of the church of Eshmiadzini was laid by St Gregory in
+the year 302, since which date it has frequently been partially
+restored, and more than once entirely rebuilt, and now exhibits a very
+motley architecture. The convent library would doubtless afford an
+Armenian scholar much curious information concerning its history. This
+library long lay in dusty heaps in a dark hole, probably to protect it
+from the Vandalic outrage of Persian, Kurd, and Turkish plunderers.
+When Erivan was annexed to Russia, and law restored to the land, a
+room was cleared for it, and a good many volumes were ranged upon
+shelves; but a large number, Dr Wagner informs us, still are heaped in
+frightful disorder upon the floor. At the time of his visit, the
+confusion in this celebrated library was as great as if French
+marauders had had the run of it.
+
+     "I can aver, as an eye-witness," says the doctor, who gladly
+     reverts to his African adventures, "that after the storming
+     of Constantina, when the scientific commission visited the
+     house of Ben-Aissa, the library of that wealthy _Kurugli_,
+     which had been ransacked by the conquerors, presented not a
+     picture of worse desolation than the library of the patriarch
+     of Armenia's residence. I asked the monk-librarian, who
+     accompanied me, to show me amongst the historical works the
+     book of Moses of Chorene. The answer was, he could not find
+     it. The learned guardian of the library knew not where to
+     seek even this best-known and most popular of Armenian books
+     of history! I then inquired the number of the manuscripts.
+     The monk replied shortly, he did not know it!"
+
+Well might the vicegerent of the Armenian pope--which the Catholicos
+in fact is, although his title is improperly rendered by foreigners as
+patriarch--and his brother archbishops, feel misgivings at sight of
+the quiet-looking German, who replied to their welcome by a gravely
+ironical compliment on their many virtues and distinguished
+reputation; and who now, having got them upon paper, draws, quarters,
+and dissects them with a merciless scalpel. Whatever their previous
+experience of note-taking travellers, it was insufficient to guard
+them from imprudence, and they allowed Dr Wagner to witness an
+examination of the pupils in their clerical seminary. Here proof was
+quickly elicited of the almost incredible ignorance of scholars and
+teachers. The oldest lad in the school, which included young men
+eighteen and twenty years old, was unable to decline the Russian noun
+_matj_, (mother,) although, for years past, an archimandrite had
+officiated as professor of that language. The professor came to the
+assistance of his embarrassed pupil, (whom Abowian questioned,) and
+managed to prove beyond possibility of doubt, that he himself did not
+know the Russian declensions.
+
+     "I now requested Mr Abowian to ask the boys the simplest
+     possible questions, as, for instance, how many days the year
+     has. Not one of them could answer, although many were already
+     bearded men. And from these dunces are selected archbishops
+     for all Armenia! The instruction in this convent-seminary is
+     limited to mechanical learning by rote, and to a heedless and
+     unmeaning repetition of prayers and Scripture passages. The
+     scholars are well drilled in respect of fasts; and for the
+     slightest offence against external order, for unsteadiness
+     during mass, or the like, they are cruelly chastised with
+     blows. It is not surprising if such treatment extinguishes
+     all vivacity of intellect. It needs but a glance at the pale,
+     thin, stolid countenances of the lads, to discern the hideous
+     effects of their slavish, mind-destroying education. With
+     deep disgust I left the school."
+
+The absurd hours kept in the convent doubtless contribute to the
+unhealthy appearance of these nursling priests. Nothing can be more
+ridiculous and ill-judged, or more indicative of barbarous stupidity
+and bigotry, than the system adopted at Eshmiadzini. At one in the
+morning church-service begins, attended by every one but the
+patriarch. The archbishops and bishops read prayers and portions of
+Scripture; the archimandrites, deacons, and seminarists sing. This
+service lasts from three to four hours, and as every one stands during
+its whole duration, it is productive of no slight fatigue. On
+returning to their cells and dormitories, those priests who have
+private resources take refreshment before retiring to sleep; but the
+younger portion of the congregation, who have greatest need of such
+sustenance, are generally penniless, and must wait till ten in the
+forenoon before obtaining a scanty meal of soup or milk, followed by
+rice or fish. During the long fasts even the fish is suppressed. To
+break a fast in Armenia is a most heinous sin, far exceeding theft in
+enormity. In the day-time, school; in the afternoon and evening, more
+chanting and praying; then to bed, to be again roused at
+midnight--such is the joyless wearisome life of the inmates of
+Eshmiadzini. No study of science or history, no cultivation of the
+fine arts, varies the monotony of their tedious existence.
+Instrumental music is unknown amongst them. Whatever contributes to
+the cheerfulness or elegance of seclusion is rigidly banished and
+prohibited. "Nowhere," says Dr Wagner, "does an educated European find
+life so tiresome as amongst Armenian monks, in comparison with whom
+even Italy's monachism appears genial and agreeable."
+
+The election of the patriarch occurred in April 1843, and Dr Wagner,
+in Tefflis at the time, had fully intended witnessing the ceremony;
+but a sudden outbreak of the plague, in the province of Erivan,
+delayed his visit to Eshmiadzini, as he had no wish to risk a forty
+days' quarantine before he should be allowed to re-enter Georgia. He
+gives some account of the ceremony at second-hand, which is less
+interesting, however, than his narrative of preceding circumstances.
+The choice of the Gregorian congregations fell upon Narses, archbishop
+of Kischenew, a prelate noted for piety, intelligence, and patriotism,
+and so popular, both with priests and laymen, by reason of his mild
+and amiable character, that he would have been elected ten years
+previously, on the death of old Jephrem (Ephraim)--the venerable
+patriarch of whom Parrot and Dubois make mention--but for a serious
+dispute with Count Paskewitch.
+
+     "In the time of the war between Russia and Persia, when the
+     crooked sabres of Aderbidjan's Tartars had driven the Cossack
+     lances across the Araxes, a short pause ensued in the
+     operations of the campaign, Count Paskewitch awaiting
+     reinforcements from the interior of Russia before crossing
+     the Araxes and marching upon Tauris. A division of the
+     Persian army, chiefly Kurds and Tartars, attempted to
+     surprise Eshmiadzini; but the reverend tenants were on their
+     guard, and intrenched themselves behind their lofty earthen
+     walls. Besieged and sorely pressed by the wild hordes, Narses
+     (then archbishop of Eshmiadzini) sent a courier to a Russian
+     colonel, who lay, with a few battalions, a short day's
+     journey distant. This colonel was an Armenian by birth, and
+     entertained a child-like veneration for Archbishop Narses.
+     Unable to resist the latter's earnest entreaty for
+     assistance, he made a forced march upon the convent, although
+     he had been strictly forbidden by his general to quit his
+     position without express orders. Meanwhile the Persians had
+     been reinforced by a detachment of Abbas Mirza's regular
+     troops, and were five times the strength of their advancing
+     foe. In front of Eshmiadzini the Russians suffered a defeat,
+     and the fault was imputed to Archbishop Narses, whose
+     priestly influence had moved the colonel to disregard the
+     orders of his chief. By imperial command, Narses was removed
+     from Eshmiadzini, and sent as archbishop to Kischenew. But in
+     1843, when, in spite of his disgrace with the emperor, the
+     venerated prelate received the unanimous suffrages of the
+     electors, convoked at Eshmiadzini, Nicholas would not oppose
+     the manifest wish of priests and laymen, but confirmed the
+     election. Once more the sun of imperial grace and favour
+     shone full upon Narses. He was sent for to St Petersburg, was
+     received with the utmost distinction, and soon the star of
+     the first class of the order of St Anna glittered upon his
+     blue caftan. In the autumn of 1844 he crossed the Caucasus,
+     met a joyful reception at Tefflis, and, amidst sound of bells
+     and song of priests, re-entered, as spiritual chief of
+     Armenian Christendom, the old convent upon the Araxes, which,
+     sixteen years previously, he had quitted almost as an exile.
+     Narses is eighty years old; his intellects, which long
+     preserved their healthy tone, have latterly, it is said,
+     become weakened."
+
+The election here referred to was one of particular significance and
+importance. There has been no lack of schism in the Armenian church.
+Ambitious priests and false patriarchs have at various periods started
+up and found adherents. For several centuries, one of these sham
+patriarchates had its seat on an island in the lake of Van, and
+maintained itself independent of the Eshmiadzini synod. These Armenian
+anti-popes never, however, obtained a very widely-spread influence,
+and latterly that which they did enjoy sensibly dwindled. "The
+mother-church of Ararat gradually resumed its undivided authority and
+privileges, and, in 1843, Eshmiadzini witnessed, what for many years
+it had not seen, the presence within its walls of deputies from almost
+all the Gregorian congregations of the East, united at the historical
+centre of their country for the choice of a spiritual shepherd."
+
+With his usual shrewdness Dr Wagner analyses Russian policy in
+Armenia, and for a moment dwells admiringly on its depth, foresight,
+and activity. We have already heard him express his conviction that
+under the emperor's present moderation, lurk vast designs of future
+conquest, which he will bequeath as a legacy to his descendants,
+should time and circumstances prevent their execution by himself. This
+is the doctor's fixed idea, and he certainly makes out a good case in
+its support. He has shown us the extensive forts that are to serve as
+depots and places of muster for the Russian armies, which, according
+to his theory and belief, will sooner or later assail Turkey and
+Persia. He now turns to the consideration of the support the Russians
+may expect beyond their own frontier. He extols the wisdom of the
+emperor's conduct towards his Armenian subjects, and points out the
+ulterior advantages to be derived from it by Russia. We shall conclude
+our article by an extract from this curious chapter of a very
+interesting book.
+
+     "In Asia, the Islam nations and governments daily decline,
+     whilst the Christian elements daily assume greater weight;
+     these are not yet strong enough to found a dominion of their
+     own; but, as auxiliaries to a conquering European power, they
+     would be of high importance. When, after the triumphant
+     entrance of Paskewitch's army into the capital of Aderbidjan,
+     Feth Ali Shah trembled on his throne, and submissively
+     subscribed the conditions of peace dictated to him by the
+     Russian general, many thought that Russia had been
+     extraordinarily generous to her humbled foe: she might just
+     as easily have kept the conquered district of Aderbidjan for
+     herself, or have compelled the Persian king to give up the
+     beautiful provinces of Gilan and Masendran. The portion of
+     Armenia with which she contented herself is no very enticing
+     possession, either for its size or for its fertility, but it
+     includes within its limits the Gregorian mother-church; and
+     its temporal ruler disposes of the spiritual weapons of the
+     Catholicos and of the synod, whose religious influence
+     extends whithersoever Armenians dwell. In its last treaty of
+     peace with Turkey and Persia, the Russian government tacitly
+     but fully recognised the value of this territory, so sacred
+     to all Armenians. It was also prudent enough to annex to the
+     country on the left bank of the Araxes, where Eshmiadzini is
+     situated, a portion of the territory on the right bank of
+     that stream, and to secure a part of Ararat itself--the north
+     side of the mountain, viewed with such holy reverence by the
+     Armenian people, with the convent of St Jacob, since
+     overwhelmed by the eruption of 1840. These districts compose
+     the really classic ground of the Armenian-Gregorian church
+     history. No spot in the entire Orient is more attractive and
+     hallowed to the religious feelings of the Armenians--not even
+     the grave of the Redeemer at Jerusalem, or the renowned
+     convent of John the Baptist on the eastern Euphrates. The
+     annual number of pilgrims to Eshmiadzini, although not so
+     great as when Tavernier and Chardin explored that
+     neighbourhood, is still very considerable; and at Easter it
+     is by no means rare to find collected there pious travellers
+     from the Ganges, the Indus, the Don, the Jordan, and the
+     Nile. Both the Shah and the Porte well know the importance of
+     Russian occupation of that territory, as the point where all
+     the religious sympathies of the Armenians concentrate. As
+     viceroy of Aderbidjan, Abbas Mirza always made much of the
+     Catholicos and the synod, and sought to win them to the
+     Persian interest. And long did the warlike prince urge his
+     royal father rather once more to try the fortune of arms,
+     than to suffer a territory to be wrenched from him, less
+     valuable from the revenue it yielded than from the religious
+     power it gave over the Christian subjects of Persia."
+
+The treaty of cession concluded, the Shah did all in his power to
+discourage the emigration of Armenian Christians into Russian Armenia,
+and his example was followed by the Porte; but the labour of both was
+in vain. Permission for such emigration was stipulated by the treaty,
+and the only real check upon it was mistrust of Russia, whose
+intolerant reputation made many Armenian priests suspect an intention
+of proselytising. But Russia, cruel and unsparing to her Roman
+Catholics, whose spiritual chief is out of the reach of her direct
+influence, showed herself tolerant and considerate towards the
+Armenian church, in which she discerned, according to Dr Wagner, a
+most useful instrument for her projects of future aggrandisement: and,
+on occasion of the election of 1843, the Russian government
+particularly insisted that the new patriarch should be named by the
+voices of all the Armenian congregations in the entire East. Flattered
+by this invitation to direct co-operation, the Armenian priesthood of
+Constantinople, who, last of all, still recused the authority of the
+Eshmiadzini synod, suffered themselves to be won over, and sent their
+delegates to the convocation. For Russia it was another triumph, for
+Turkey a fresh vexation.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] _Reise nach dem Ararat und dem Hochland Armenien_, von Dr MORITZ
+WAGNER. Mit einem Anhange: Beiträge zur Naturgeshichte des Hochlandes
+Armenien. Stuttgart und Tübinger, 1848.
+
+[20] _Reise in der Regentschaft Algier in den Jahren 1836-8._ 3
+volumes. Leipzig, 1841.
+
+[21] The Armenian Christians abound in traditions respecting Noah and
+his ark. We have already mentioned the one relating to Arguri, which
+he is said to have founded, and which should therefore have been the
+oldest village in the world, up to its destruction in 1840 by an
+earthquake and volcanic eruption, of which Dr Wagner gives an
+interesting account. The simple and credulous Christians of Armenia
+believe that fragments of the ark are still to be found upon Ararat.
+
+[22] This eccentric old soldier and author, who calls himself the
+Hermit of Gauting, from the name of an estate he possesses, is not
+more remarkable for the oddity of his dress and appearance, than for
+the peculiarities and affected roughness of his literary style, and
+for the overstrained originality of many of his views. In his own
+country he is cited as a contrast to Prince Puckler Muskau, the
+dilettante and silver-fork tourist _par excellence_, whose
+affectation, by no means less remarkable than that of the baron, is
+quite of the opposite description. Von Hallberg's works are numerous,
+and of various merit. One of his most recent publications is a
+"_Journey through England_," (Stuttgard, 1841.) The chief motive of
+his travels is apparently a love of locomotion and novelty. When
+travelling with Dr Wagner, he took little interest in his companion's
+geological and botanical investigations, and directed his attention to
+men rather than to things. After passing the town of Pipis, three
+days' journey from Tefflis, the country and climate assumed a very
+German aspect, strongly reminding the travellers of the vicinity of
+the Hartz Mountains. "It is folly," exclaimed old Baron Hallberg,
+almost angrily, "perfect folly, to travel a couple of thousand miles
+to visit a country as like Germany as one egg is to another." "I
+really pitied the old man, who had daily to support the rude jolting
+of the Russian _telega_, besides suffering greatly from the assaults
+of vermin, and who found so little matter where with to fill his
+journal."--_Reise nach dem Ararat, &c._, p. 15.
+
+
+
+
+LEGITIMACY IN FRANCE.[23]
+
+
+Under the circumstances of the strange anomaly presented by the actual
+condition of France, which never better deserved its title of a
+republic without republicans, it may fairly become a matter of
+speculation, in how much a return to monarchical institutions
+possesses a degree of probability in the future, and, more especially,
+how far the principles of legitimacy stand a chance of assuming,
+hereafter, a supremacy in France. We say "a matter of speculation," in
+as much as the _uncertain_ must ever remain the presiding genius of
+the chances of a revolutionary epoch: and, in such times, it would be
+more than presumption to attempt to prophesy upon a nation's
+destinies. But still there are signs of the times in France, which are
+of sufficient importance to be chronicled; curious facts, that cannot
+but attract attention; and revelations that possess a deep
+interest--all bearing upon the possible restoration of the exiled
+prince of the elder branch of the Bourbons; and, as far as regards
+this eventuality--and who can any more say it shall not be than they
+can say it shall?--the chances appear not so unequal in the balance
+held by the hand of fate--they may be considered worthy of notice and
+comment.
+
+It would be scarcely correct, however, to speak of such a _possible_
+eventuality as the realisation of the prospects of a Legitimate party.
+As a _party_, properly so called, in the language of political and
+revolutionary struggle, the legitimists of France can scarcely be said
+to exist, even although a stanch but small nucleus, professing
+decidedly legitimist principles, may be found among a certain body of
+men, chiefly belonging to the old families of France, in private life.
+During the reign of the Orleans branch, the legitimists gradually
+dwindled into comparative obscurity--almost every family which
+professed to entertain legitimist opinions having attached itself,
+openly or in an underhand manner, to the existing order of things, by
+means of some one of its members: and even in the present day they
+have pursued the same line of policy--a policy which wears now,
+however, a more respectable garb, inasmuch as it is professedly based
+upon the seemingly patriotic and disinterested maxim, "_Français avant
+tout_," which, in declaring the revolution that caused the fall of
+Louis Philippe the work of the "finger of God," and in accepting a
+government founded upon a nation's universal suffrage, as preferable
+to that of a "usurping king," they have adopted as the device of
+chivalry, to influence every action of their lives in such a juncture.
+In fact, with this appearance of more straightforward patriotism, they
+bide their time in faith and patience, and, with a feeling almost
+allied to superstition, repudiate every idea of political intrigue,
+much more of any conspiracy against the existing order of things.
+
+But, if this passive position of the old legitimists does not permit
+them to assume the attitude of a decided _party_, or even of bearing
+properly such a designation, it must not be supposed that the cause of
+legitimacy is dead, or even dormant, in France. Far from it. The
+present state of legitimacy in France, however, must be studied less
+among the avowed legitimists, who have long given themselves the name,
+than in the dispersed and floating elements pervading the mass of the
+nation. The preference of the great majority of the country for
+monarchical institutions, or, at all events, its strong
+anti-revolutionary feeling, and aversion to the republican rule, after
+the sad experience of much misery and misfortune--and from its despair
+of the realisation of that "hope deferred," in the restoration of
+confidence and prosperity, which "maketh the heart sick"--are facts
+which cannot be denied by any man of unprejudiced feelings and sincere
+convictions. By degrees, then, feelings have been latterly assuming a
+form favourable to the cause of legitimacy: and that such sentiments
+now notoriously exist in the hearts of a great proportion of the
+country at large can scarcely be disputed. They are based, it is true,
+in no ways, among the mass, upon any political opinions or
+philosophical principles--they spring up from a desire of having a
+"something" at the head of the state which may be the type of
+stability, and thus the representative of confidence, peace, and
+restored prosperity: and this "something" is best embodied, in the
+minds of men, in the person of a young prince, who represents the
+apparently most stable form of monarchical government--that founded on
+legitimacy. They arise from no personal attachment to the elder branch
+of the Bourbons, or to the Duke of Bordeaux individually, but solely
+from a desire to return to monarchical government, and from the
+growing conviction that, among the many pretenders to the supreme
+power in France, were a monarchy to be established, the sole one who
+presents a firmer hope of stability--who represents a principle, and
+who thus best offers to be pilot to the _terra firma_ of a "promised
+land" to those who are still tossing hither and thither upon the waves
+of revolution, with storms eternally menacing a still more complete
+shipwreck on the horizon--is he who bases his pretensions upon the
+long-scouted theory of legitimacy. To this form of hoped-for
+stability, then, men now begin to attach themselves more and more, in
+their aspirations for the future; and thus legitimist expectations,
+predilections, sympathies--call them what you will--grow, increase,
+spread like a banian tree, which still ever plants its dropping
+branches, and takes root farther and farther still; and they thus
+implant themselves more and more, on all sides, on the soil of the
+revolution. We speak here of a great proportion of men _of all
+classes_ in France. At the same time, it is very clear that a
+conviction is daily gaining more ground, that, in the possible or
+probable revolutionary chances, spite of the popularity of the
+President in the capital, the _prestige_ more or less attached to his
+name, and the party supposed to be connected with his interests, the
+balance chiefly lies between the republic as it is and Henry V. Even
+the ultra-republicans and Socialists appear to feel this so strongly,
+that, in a pamphlet entitled "_La République ou Henri V.--quelques
+mots à Bonaparte_," a certain Monsieur Pertus, a violent Socialist and
+adherent of the so-called democratic and social republic, has given,
+in powerful language, the reasons of the party why the destinies of
+France may be supposed to lie between these two alternatives only, and
+why Louis Napoleon, should he put forward his pretensions to an
+ultimate permanency of power, would probably meet with an utter defeat
+from the nation at large. The immediate interests of the younger
+Bourbon branch are entirely set out of sight in the political
+combinations upon which men speculate in France: adherents they have
+none: they exist not in men's minds, much less in their hearts: they
+are never spoken of.
+
+It is evident, then, to every observing eye, that the cause of
+legitimacy is daily gaining ground in France; although it must be
+admitted that, with all this, attachment to the person of the exiled
+prince of the elder branch of the Bourbons, to the family, or even to
+legitimist principles in theory, has as yet had little to do. But that
+even this personal attachment has been growing gradually and steadily
+in men's minds, as a natural consequence, may also be seen. To this
+latter feeling two men have contributed by their writings--the one a
+friend, the other an avowed enemy to the ancient dynasty--and perhaps
+the latter far the most powerfully. The strange circumstances, which
+have produced results that may have a powerful influence on the future
+destinies of the country, are worthy of record. A singular fate has
+been attached to the two small books here alluded to, more especially
+in the case of that written by a stanch republican, naturally hostile
+to monarchies and princes; and, on that account, although it is
+posterior in date of publication, it may be as well first to direct
+our attention to this latter.
+
+In sight of the struggle, which is continually going on in newspapers,
+pamphlets, printed notices, and every other form of publication,
+between the Socialists and Red-Republicans on the one hand, and the
+"friends of order" on the other--a struggle carried on by the former
+not only with the utmost violence and virulence, but with every most
+desperate weapon of calumny, falsehood, distorted fact, and perverted
+reasoning--in sight of the propagandising efforts, made by these same
+men, to demoralise and debauch the army from its allegiance to the
+country by every underhand corrupting poison--it is quite "refreshing"
+to the spirit, to use a hackneyed phrase, to greet a few words of
+conviction in favour of those considered the enemies of the republic,
+penned, in spite of previous prepossessions and firm opinions, by an
+honest-hearted republican. To men of real and genuine convictions all
+honour is due, more especially in the confusion of party intrigue and
+reckless personal ambition of these revolutionary times, even although
+they be our adversaries: respect may be shown them, even if they
+appear to us mistaken. Unhappily, such men seem in France to be but
+few. But if we find them firm and honest in the expression of their
+convictions, even when in open _opposition_ to their preconceived
+notions, and to the direct tendency of their political opinions, a
+tribute of especial admiration may be given them. And such a tribute
+may be frankly and willingly bestowed upon M. Charles Didier, for his
+little book entitled _Une visite au Duc de Bordeaux_,--a book which
+has lately excited considerable sensation in France, not so much as a
+curious historical document, giving a simple but charming account of
+the life, manners, appearance, and attitude in exile of such prominent
+historical figures as the Duke of Bordeaux, and that patient and pious
+victim of revolutions, the Duchess d'Angoulême; but, in the eyes of
+the legitimists, as a striking refutation of various calumnies
+attached to the person, as well as the education and opinions of the
+young prince, and the highest eulogium of their monarch--in the eyes
+of all, as a "feeler," (in spite of the intentions of the author,) in
+the obscure chances of the future.
+
+Had not the character of Monsieur Charles Didier stood so high, and
+had not his almost rough honesty, and perhaps _naiveté_ of nature,
+been so generally acknowledged by rightly-thinking men, doubts might
+have been entertained, on the one hand, whether he was really acting
+in good faith in his character as a republican; had not his talent,
+discernment, and good sense been sufficiently appreciated in public as
+well as private life--in his literary and lately political career, as
+well as among his acquaintances--suspicions might have been excited,
+on the other, that he had been led into delusions by artful manoeuvre.
+But neither of these suppositions are admissible. Due credit must be
+given to his good faith in the one respect, and to his enlightenment
+of mind and clear-sightedness in the other. Such an explanation
+becomes necessary for a full appreciation of the contents of this
+remarkable little book. To a French reader it would be needless, for
+M. Didier is well known.
+
+As has already been said, the sensation produced by this work has been
+great: and there can be little doubt that the effect which the
+publication will produce must necessarily have a very considerable
+influence upon a great portion of the nation, in the present state of
+France.
+
+Under such circumstances, and with such probable results, which could
+not but be partly apparent to the author himself, the production of
+such a book by a well-known, stanch, and honest republican, such as M.
+Charles Didier, requires some explanation. It was well known among the
+party that M. Didier had been sent upon a _quasi_-diplomatic mission
+to Germany, in the first days of the French revolution; it was
+afterwards rumoured that, upon some occasion, he had paid a visit to
+the members of the exiled family of France in their retreat in
+Austria--and, upon these _data_, M. Didier became the object of
+various calumnies and misrepresentations. His enemies declared that he
+had been sent expressly as a spy upon the ex-royal family. But it was
+more especially his _soi-disant_ friends and allies, the republicans
+_de la veille_, who attached a host of unfounded misrepresentations to
+the objects and results of his journey. While some attacked him as a
+traitor, who had betrayed his trust, and deserted his cause, by
+caballing with the exiled family, others published accounts in their
+journals, as if emanating from his mouth, which affixed not only the
+greatest ridicule and scorn to the person and manners of the Duke of
+Bordeaux, but the hatred and contempt of all "true patriots" to his
+supposed opinions. It was to refute these calumnies, then, and to deny
+these perversions of truth, that M. Didier at last found himself
+reluctantly compelled to publish a simple account of his "_Visite au
+Duc de Bordeaux_." He complains, with much _naiveté_, in a species of
+preface, that he has been forced to this step, which he himself looks
+upon as an indiscretion, by his own party, since, although the whole
+affair appears in his eyes little more than "much ado about nothing,"
+by such means alone, in declaring the whole truth, he can establish
+simple facts. The very same sentiment, he says--that, probably, of
+delicacy--which enjoined his silence at first, now, combined with a
+love of truth, enjoins his giving publicity to an account in which he
+affirms that all is truth, simple truth, and no more nor less than the
+truth. It was as a republican that he presented himself, he goes on to
+say, and as a republican that he was received. In support of his
+words, although refuting all pretensions to discuss politics, he gives
+his republican "_profession de foi_." "I have been thus driven," he
+continues, "to paint, from nature, an interior of an exiled family,
+which struck me by its politeness and dignity. Such was the task
+before me; and I have accomplished it conscientiously, without any
+regard for persons, and without any sacrifice of opinion. The prestige
+of rank has exercised no influence on me. I have been simply true."
+And what has been the result? The supposed friends of M. Didier, the
+arch-republicans, have _forced_ him, an ardent republican himself--a
+republican _de l'avant-veille_, as he calls himself, but genuine and
+sincere--to forward the cause of legitimacy, to publishing an
+eulogium, of the most striking description, of the young prince who
+represents legitimacy in France. Dreamers might almost see the hand of
+Providence in this result of factious calumny.
+
+It is needless, here, to follow M. Didier into the details of the
+mission given him by Lamartine, when minister of foreign affairs, of
+which he explains neither the cause nor the purposes, although he
+dwells at some length upon the cause of his journey through Austria,
+Hungary, Croatia, and a part of Germany, and more especially upon the
+dates of his progress, probably with the intention of refuting the
+calumny which asserted that he was officially sent as a spy upon the
+ex-royal family of the elder branch. It may be remarked, however, _en
+passant_, that he speaks not over-well of the Austrian revolutionists,
+with whom he mixed, and that he readily acknowledges the veritable
+anti-revolutionary spirit of the army and the masses. On the
+conclusion of his mission, and his return to France by the north of
+Italy, he heard by chance, on his passage to Trieste, for the first
+time, he declares, that not far from his road lay the chateau of
+Frohsdorf, and that this same chateau of Frohsdorf was inhabited by
+the exiled family of France. It was only many months afterwards,
+however, when he returned to Germany, for his own pleasure and
+information, and as "_simple voyageur_," that having received, by
+chance, a letter from a friend in Paris for the Duc de Lévis, one of
+the faithful adherents attached to the little court of the exiled
+Bourbons, he determined to profit by it, in order to visit Frohsdorf
+on his way once more from Vienna to the north of Italy. Before
+commencing the recital of this passage of his journey, M. Didier again
+deprecates any purpose but that of interest and curiosity, and enters
+into very minute details, to prove that he made no mystery or
+concealment of his intention.
+
+It would lead to too great diffuseness also to enter into M. Didier's
+description (however prettily written) of his journey through Baden,
+(near Vienna,) Wiener Neustadt; of the deserted and abandoned railroad
+from thence to Oldenburg in Hungary, on which "the station-houses
+were closed, the signals motionless, and the grass grew between the
+rails"--all communication having been cut off on account of the war.
+The description, however, of the habitation of the exiled family of
+French princes offers a more lively interest in an historical point of
+view. We shall quote M. Didier:--
+
+     "Frohsdorf is an old feudal estate, which, from the hands of
+     some Austrian family, the name of which I do not know,
+     passed, under the Restoration, into those of Madame Caroline
+     Murat, the ex-queen of Naples. By her it was sold to the
+     Duchess d'Angoulême, under the name of the Duke of Blacas.
+     The domain administered by a steward, is not vast as a
+     princely domain; but the habitation is spacious, although
+     scarcely sufficing for the number of the inhabitants. It is
+     surrounded on all sides by a dry moat, which is, more
+     properly speaking, only a long area for the kitchen and
+     household offices, crossed by a stone bridge in face of the
+     principal entrance. I do not know whether any other exists: I
+     believe not. The chateau has nothing feudal, much less royal,
+     in appearance. It is a great white German house, the pointed
+     roof of which is crowned with chimneys and garret-windows,
+     and ornamented in the middle with a triangular gable. The
+     ground-floor is on a level with the bridge, and is surmounted
+     by two stories. The façade presents nine windows, those of
+     the second floor being small and square, the others of
+     reasonable dimensions: one alone, immediately above the
+     doorway, which is large and arched, is ornamented by a
+     balcony, and flanked by flattened pillars. These pillars, and
+     the gable above, are the only portions of the façade which
+     have the appearance of any architectural design. A great
+     round tower flanks the western side: it descends into the
+     moat; but, unfortunately, is truncated, and cut off at the
+     level of the roof. In this tower is the chapel: behind is the
+     park, terminated by a _jardin Anglais_, both of which are of
+     no considerable size. A little further is a broken hill,
+     planted with green trees, upon which is built the _Maison de
+     Garde_, a pretty little house, which any Parisian family
+     would occupy with pleasure. A little further, and as if to
+     terminate the view, is a ruin, which marks, I believe, the
+     limits of the estate. The site is stern, and impressed with a
+     certain melancholy. To the west lies a vast plain, at the
+     extremity of which rises, in all its magnificence, the chain
+     of mountains which separates Styria from the Archduchy of
+     Austria. The horizon was dentellated by the mountain points;
+     and the snow, with which the highest was covered, sparkled in
+     the sun with the frozen fire of its thousand diamonds. On the
+     east the aspect was different: on this side, and at
+     musket-shot distance, runs a long hill of no prepossessing
+     appearance, although wooded, upon the summit of which runs
+     the limit of the Hungarian frontiers, guarded, when I was
+     there, by armed peasants. The town of Oldenburg may be seen
+     from it.... Frohsdorf is thus very near the Hungarian
+     frontier--so near, that such an abode is not without its
+     dangers in the present war. In case of an attack, the few
+     troops in the village--the last in Austria on this
+     side--would prove a very insufficient defence. But,
+     accustomed to the vicissitudes of exile, hardened by
+     adversity, and with confidence in God, or their destinies,
+     the inhabitants of Frohsdorf appeared to me to pay no heed to
+     a peril, the possibility of which they could not deny.... The
+     entrance of the chateau is cold and sad as that of a convent;
+     and in the court, narrow and deep, is an air of dampness.
+     Such, at least, was my impression. On the right, in the
+     entrance-hall, is the porter's lodge, and near the door is
+     suspended a great bill indicating the hours of departure and
+     arrival of the trains--the only sign of communication between
+     this solitude and the world beyond. I asked, in French, for
+     the Duke of Levis; and it was in French I was answered; for,
+     from the cellars to the garrets, even to the veriest drudge,
+     all is French. I was conducted, with much politeness, to a
+     large bedroom looking on the country, where lay on the table
+     some French newspapers. M. de Levis joined me immediately."
+
+After some conversation, which naturally turned upon the position of
+France, in which M. Didier was surprised to find the Duc de Levis "_si
+bien au fait des choses et des hommes_,"--the Duke quitted him to ask
+when it would please the Duc de Bordeaux to receive the stranger, and
+returned shortly to say that it would immediately. The following is
+curious in the mouth of the republican:--
+
+     "I was ignorant what title to give to the prince; and, having
+     come to seek him under his own roof, I was naturally desirous
+     to do what was customary, neither more nor less. I asked M.
+     de Levis. 'There is no etiquette here,' he replied; 'we are
+     exiles. We address the prince, however, as _Monseigneur_.' I
+     took the hint; and, although little accustomed to the
+     language of courts, I hope I did what was _convenable_ under
+     the circumstances. I ought to confess, at the same time, that
+     I was afterwards less happy with the Duchess of Bordeaux, and
+     the Duchess of Angoulême, to whom I sometimes gave the title
+     of 'Highness.' Now, it struck me afterwards, that this title,
+     which was a deference on my part, must have appeared to them
+     both a want of respect, and a direct denial of their supposed
+     rights; to the one, because she considers herself queen since
+     her marriage with the descendant of Henri IV., who, in her
+     eyes, is necessarily Henri V.; to the other, because she
+     considers herself to have been queen also in virtue of the
+     abdication of Charles X.; and the fact is, that, even in her
+     presence, the inhabitants of Frohsdorf call her, among
+     themselves, the Queen."
+
+The most remarkable part of the book, in a political point of
+view--that, in fact, which has produced in France the sensation
+already alluded to among all parties--now follows. We must quote M.
+Didier verbally:--
+
+     "_Monsieur le Duc de Bordeaux_ occupies the ground-floor of
+     the chateau. He received me in a study simply furnished,
+     which looks out upon the distant hills of Hungary. I remarked
+     a collection of guns, and an arm-chair entirely made of
+     deer-skin, the horns forming the arms and back. The prince
+     was standing by a writing-table, placed in the middle of the
+     room, with one hand resting upon his arm-chair. He neither
+     sat down, nor bade me be seated, at first; and his reception
+     of me was not exempt from a sort of solemnity. In a word, he
+     received me _en roi_. Habituated to the visits of his
+     partisans, and of his partisans alone, I was a novelty to
+     him. He knew no more of me than my opinions, and some works,
+     the matter of which could evidently not be to his taste.
+     Perhaps he expected to find in me one of those furious
+     democrats, who, to use a common phrase, _mettent les pieds
+     dans les plats_, and supposed that I might attack him
+     coarsely. Hence his reserve at first. It was very evident
+     that he stood on the defensive, and waited to see me advance.
+     His inquiring and somewhat strained look expressed, at least
+     so I read it, what I have here said. After a few trivial
+     remarks, the necessary preamble of every visit, and
+     especially of such a one, he begged me to be seated, and the
+     conversation commenced. As far as I can recollect, the
+     following was the first serious remark I addressed to
+     him,--'_Monseigneur_, I am ignorant, and God alone can know,
+     what destinies are reserved for you in the future; but if you
+     have a chance of reigning one day in France, which, for my
+     own part, I do not desire, the chance is this: If, by any
+     impossibility, France, exhausted by her experiments, at the
+     end of her resources, no longer finds in the elective power
+     the stability she seeks--if discouragement and misreckoning
+     cause her to turn her eyes towards the hereditary principle
+     as the most stable basis of authority--it is you who
+     represent this principle; and in that case France herself
+     will seek you out. Till then you have but one thing to do--to
+     await events.' The Duke of Bordeaux listened to me with
+     attention; as I spoke, his rigidity visibly relaxed; the ice
+     was broken. He answered me without hesitation, that I had
+     interpreted his own thoughts; that he never would undertake
+     anything against the established powers; that he never would
+     put himself forward, and that he had no personal ambition;
+     but that he considered himself, in fact, the principle of
+     order and stability; and that he would leave this principle
+     untouched, were it only for the future peace of France; that
+     this principle constituted his whole power; that he had no
+     other; that he would always find sufficient force in himself
+     to fulfil his duty, whatever it might be, and that God would
+     then stand by him. 'If ever I return to France,' he added,
+     'it would be to promote conciliation; and I believe that I
+     alone am able to effect that object fully.'"
+
+"There was a sincerity in the words of the young prince," pursues M.
+Didier, "which brought conviction to the heart."
+
+Although frank and open in speaking of his personal opinions, the Duke
+of Bordeaux seems to have been very reserved when speaking of _men_,
+and he evidently appears to have made M. Didier talk more than he
+talked himself. Upon this expression of opinions M. Didier makes the
+following remarks:--
+
+"The Duke of Bordeaux is far from entertaining the principles of
+Charles X., and, to cite one example, the grandson repudiates all
+those forms--that etiquette, and that extreme respect paid to the
+royal person--which played so great a part in the House of Bourbon,
+and on which the grandfather laid so much stress. He disregards all
+these pompous inanities, and goes so far in this respect that he is
+determined, should he ever mount upon the throne of France, to have
+no court." And further, "The Duke of Bordeaux directs his attention to
+all the questions of the day; he studies them all thoroughly; he is
+acquainted with all the theories respecting labour. During his stay in
+England, he carefully visited its chief manufactories." And
+again--"Two questions principally occupy his mind--the administrative
+organisation of France, by the commune, and the social problem of the
+working classes. On this latter point he appeared to be imbued with
+social errors, and labouring under illusions. He attributes religious
+sentiments to the working classes of Paris, which they are far from
+entertaining, at least in the sense he attached to the words, and is
+not fully aware of the extent of their repugnance for the _drapeau
+blanc_." It must not be forgotten, that M. Didier does not take into
+account the progress of reactionary ideas in the few last months. M.
+Didier states, that he told the Prince this bitter truth, and was
+listened to with calmness and placidity. "He would have made, I am
+convinced," continues the republican visitor, in a sort of _resumé_,
+"an excellent constitutional monarch. The very disposition of his
+mind, with his natural qualities, seem all adapted to such a
+government; and his education has been directed with such ideas.
+Party-spirit represents him as an _absolutist_; and such he appears to
+the crowd in the distance of his exile. The truth is, that there is
+not perhaps in Europe a more sincere constitutionalist than he--I
+should call him also a religious liberal, without his devotion
+degenerating, as has been said, into bigotry." He then proceeds with a
+statement of his conviction in the moderate liberal ideas of the young
+prince, "which his forefathers might have condemned as those of a
+political heretic." "Many intrigues," continues the honest republican,
+"have been set on foot in his name, but I would wager boldly that he
+is mixed up in none, that he is ignorant of all, would disavow all. As
+much as his mother (the Duchess of Berri) was fond of adventure, is he
+averse to anything of the kind. He would not have a drop of blood shed
+for him. I do not blame him, in this appreciation of his
+character--quite the contrary; I only mean to say that this merit is
+not great, perhaps, inasmuch as it is in him a matter of temperament."
+"He possesses," pursues M. Didier, "good sense, candour, an excessive
+kindliness of heart, and an uncontrollable, I may say, uncontested
+natural generosity. He is an honest man, in the full force of the
+expression." What greater eulogium could the republican pass on his
+political adversary? The only words of blame which he let fall may be
+comprised in the following remark. "He seems to want a directing
+spirit; and perhaps wants resolution. His is a cultivated rather than
+an inventive mind: he probably conceives more than he creates, and
+receives more than he gives."
+
+In justice to Monsieur Didier, who might appear to arrogate to himself
+a degree of discernment which went beyond all probable limits, we must
+not omit to note his own remarks, when, in another passage, he speaks
+of his own _impressions_. "It would be a ridiculous presumption, or
+very idle to imagine, that I could have captivated the confidence of
+the prince, or penetrated his secret character. I am far from putting
+forward so ridiculous a pretension. What was I to him? A stranger; at
+most a curious visitor. He evidently only said to me just what he
+wished to say, went only as far as he intended to go, and made me
+speak more than he spoke himself. I should have wished that it had
+been the contrary; but I was, of course, not the master of the
+conversation." And again he says, "God alone reads the heart! To him
+alone belongs the secret of men's consciences. But still I think I can
+take upon myself to affirm, that all the words of the prince were
+sincere."
+
+On the person of the young prince M. Didier has the following--and
+although there may be, in truth, something of the Lord Burleigh shake
+of the head in the extreme complication of discernment contained in
+the first phrase, yet the impression evidently made upon the mind of
+the republican, by the appearance of the exiled heir of the throne of
+France, bears none the less the stamp of truthfulness:--"His
+physiognomy reveals an extreme uprightness of heart and mind, and a
+lively sentiment of duty and justice, united to a love of all that is
+good. In person he is of middle stature, and inclined to be stout; but
+he is far from having that obesity with which he is generally
+supposed, and I myself believed him, to be afflicted. The fall he had
+from his horse at Kirchberg, some years ago, has left traces of the
+accident. He walks heavily, and, when once seated, has difficulty in
+rising; but they say that he looks well on horseback. He has silky
+fair hair, and although rather full, and marked with the Bourbon type,
+his face is agreeable, frank, open, sympathetic, with an air of youth
+and health--the air, in fact, of his 28 years. He wears a _collier de
+barbe_ and a slight mustache. His eyes are of a limpid blue, lively
+and soft at the same time; he listens well, and inquires constantly:
+he looks at you so straight and fixedly in the face, that I should
+consider it impossible for any one to look _him_ in the face and lie.
+As to himself, one look suffices to assure you of his veracity."
+
+The following remarks about the habits of the young prince are not
+without their historical interest, and complete the eulogium forced
+from the mouth of the republican. "His life is far from being an idle
+one; before and after breakfast he reads several letters, several
+newspapers, and reports, often of a very voluminous description,
+relative to the different questions which are the order of the day in
+France; then he gives a few hours of the afternoon to exercise. He
+scrupulously observes his religious duties, attending divine service
+two or three times a-week in the chapel of the chateau, and every
+Sunday at the parish church. He writes with considerable grace, and
+his letters are remarkable for their correctness and elegance."
+
+Perhaps the most striking, and certainly the most touching, part of
+the book of M. Charles Didier, is that in which he speaks of the
+Duchess d'Angoulême. It belongs not exactly to the subject of
+legitimacy or its prospects in France; but the interest attached to it
+is so full of pathos, and, in an historical point of view, so
+considerable, that we cannot refrain from quoting a few words of the
+author's account of his interview with this remarkable princess.
+
+M. Didier seems to have hesitated about being introduced to the aged
+duchess. He was naturally scrupulous as to the effect which might be
+produced upon the mind of this victim of revolutions, by the
+presentation of one of those republicans, to the very name of whom,
+the disastrous calamities of her early life must have inspired her
+with an unconquerable horror. But he was led on by the Duc de Levis,
+"not without a degree of uneasiness," and his reception by the austere
+princess, in her plain dark attire, and in her severely simple room,
+was as amiable as could be expected from one naturally stern,
+reserved, and cold almost to harshness in manner. M. Didier appears to
+have been inexpressibly touched by her appearance, as well as by her
+kindly reception of him. It is thus that he speaks of the poor
+"_orpheline du Temple_:"--"All party hatred must be extinguished in
+the presence of the reverses of fortune she has undergone. I had
+before me the woman who has suffered what woman never suffered here
+below, can never suffer again. What matter that she be princess? She
+is no less the daughter and the sister, thrice proscribed! She belongs
+no less to a human family. This is certainly the most striking
+historical figure in Europe. She produced the most profound impression
+upon me, and I could not conceal the emotion that thrilled through me.
+My heart was divided betwixt respect and pity. I seemed to see before
+me one of those victims of fatality, immortalised by antique art. Only
+Christian resignation has impressed upon the daughter of Louis XVI. a
+more touching stamp, and raised her on this Christian elevation far
+above the types of antiquity." What a homage is this, complete as it
+is pathetic, from the mouth of the descendant of the enemies of her
+race! The duchess seems to have questioned M. Didier much about that
+country which he would have imagined she must have abhorred, but
+which, he tells us, she cherishes with love resembling that of a
+spaniel to the master whose hand has beaten him. He speaks more than
+once of her extreme devotion, and indeed of that of the whole group
+of exiles, to their fatherland. Another trait, which calls for respect
+and admiration in the aged princess, lies in the moderation and
+tolerance which M. Didier records of her. "She spoke of France with
+tact and reserve, made inquiries as to the religious sentiments of the
+people of Paris, and mentioned, with feelings of admiration, the death
+of the Archbishop of Paris on the barricades of June. His was the only
+name of which she proffered mention." And when the conversation was
+made to turn upon the Orleans branch, now exiled in its turn, she was
+silent about Louis Philippe, but spoke in kind and affectionate terms
+of his family, and of the Duchess of Orleans; and when M. Didier
+addressed her with the words, "It is impossible, Madame, but that you
+must have seen, in the fall of Louis Philippe, the finger of God," she
+replied in words characteristic of that type of Christian resignation,
+"It is in all!" "The answer," pursues the narrator, "was given with
+the utmost simplicity, and without my being able to discover in it the
+least leaven of bitterness." "It may be boldly asserted that there was
+no gall in this heart, which has offered, as holocaust to God, all its
+griefs and all its passions. Religion is now the principal occupation,
+the only consolation, of a life tried by unparalleled adversity." When
+still further M. Didier--indiscreetly, it appears to us--pressed the
+point by saying, "But you must own, Madame, that in spite of your
+Christian magnanimity, the day you heard the news was not one of the
+most unhappy of your life." "She held her peace, but with an air which
+seemed to say, 'You ask too much.'"
+
+After giving his testimony as to the extreme politeness of the Duchess
+d'Angoulême, and recording instances of her boundless charity,
+"immense," he says, "for her present revenue," M. Didier has the
+following touching description of the apartments of the aged princess.
+"The Duchess of Angoulême, lives in the midst of the _souvenirs_ of
+her youth--and yet what _souvenirs_! Far from flying from them, she
+seems to cherish them; as if she found a strange funereal pleasure in
+filling each day the cup of bitterness, in order each day to drain it
+to the dregs. In her bedroom, which is of an austerity almost
+cloistral, she has around her only objects which must recall to her
+the tragic scenes of her childhood,--the portraits of her father, her
+mother, and her mother's friend, the Princess of Lamballe; near her
+bed, which is without curtains, a _prie-dieu_ filled with relics
+sacred to her, such as the black waistcoat which her father wore in
+going to the scaffold, and the lace kerchief which her mother was
+forced to mend with her own hands before appearing at the
+Revolutionary Tribunal. She alone has the key of these sad memorials;
+and once a-year, on the 21st of January, she takes them out from the
+shrine which encloses them, and lays them before her, as if in order
+to live more nearly with the beloved dead who wore them. On that day
+she sheds her tears in the most complete retirement: she sanctifies
+the bloody anniversary by solitude and prayer."
+
+On this subject there is yet more touching matter, which would lead
+us, however, too far. For the same reason we cannot follow the details
+into which M. Didier enters respecting the Duke of Lévis, the young
+Duke of Blacas, M. de Montbel, and other adherents of the exiled
+family: they must be passed over, as not of immediate interest. The
+following words, however, are sufficiently remarkable in the mouth of
+the republican:--"I found them all not only polite and well-informed,
+but most reasonable upon political topics. They are no democrats,
+assuredly, but they are men of sense, who have advanced with the
+progress of the age, and are fully aware of the new needs and new
+interests of Europe in general, and of France in particular. They are
+no conspirators; that I will answer for."
+
+M. Didier is pressed to stop the night; but, hurried in his journey,
+only remains to dinner; and it is in the drawing-room, before dinner,
+that he is presented to the young Duchess of Bordeaux. This figure in
+the group of royal exiles, although of less importance as regards the
+prosperity of legitimacy in France, and of the attachment which the
+family may hereafter command, is worth recording also, as an
+interesting historical portrait.
+
+     "This princess," pursues M. Didier, "is daughter of the late
+     Duke of Modena. She speaks French with a mixed accent, half
+     Italian, half German, which reveals her double origin, as
+     German princess born in Italy. She is, I believe, two years
+     older than her husband. She is slim, and rather thin, but of
+     an elegant figure, with beautiful black wavy hair, dark eyes,
+     full of life and spirit. A natural defect slightly impairs
+     the effect of her mouth when she speaks, which is a pity,
+     for, with this exception, she is a very pretty woman. She
+     wore a white evening dress, with naked arms, and a velvet
+     scarf upon her shoulders. Her toilet was, perhaps, too
+     simple--a reproach rarely to be made--that is to say, with
+     too little of personal _coquetterie_ in it: it was easy to
+     see that no Parisian _femme de chambre_ had superintended the
+     arrangement. Hers is evidently a _nature distinguée_. I was
+     told she was of a kindly, easy disposition, and well
+     educated; she was evidently desirous of pleasing. Although a
+     princess of ancient race, she appeared to me to be timid; but
+     her embarrassment was not without its charm of grace. Proud
+     of her alliance with the descendant of Louis XIV., she has
+     the highest opinion of her husband; and her love for him
+     amounts, I was told, to adoration. She thinks him
+     irresistible; and, more impatient than he, but impatient far
+     more for him than for herself, she is firmly convinced that
+     he has but to show himself, in order to subjugate all the
+     world as he has subjugated her. In this lie all her political
+     opinions; that is to say, her politics are those of the
+     heart."
+
+It is to be regretted, perhaps, that we have not space for the
+anecdotes of the moderation and good sense of the Duke of Bordeaux,
+which M. Didier records, as collected from the mouths of his
+adherents, and which must necessarily complete, upon the minds of the
+great portion of the French nation, the impression made by the rest of
+the book. But we must now hurry on.
+
+The dinner of the exiled princely family is described by the
+republican visitor as simple, although served with a certain state. He
+sits by the side of the Duchess of Angoulême, whose every word is one
+of "politeness, courtesy, or forbearance." "The Duchess of Bordeaux,"
+he says, "continually fixed her eyes upon me, as with a look of
+wonder. In truth, the position was a strange one--a French republican
+sitting at the table of a prescribed French prince, and eating out of
+plate engraved with the royal arms of France!" The evening passes, in
+this little court, almost as in a private family in some French
+chateau. Billiards, tapestry-work, conversation, occupy the various
+personages. The republican again converses with the prince, who
+listens to contradiction with the utmost good-humour. When he departs,
+the whole family express, in their last words, their longing for that
+country which he is about to revisit so soon, but from which they are
+exiled.
+
+We have dwelt upon the book of M. Didier at considerable length, not
+only on account of its historical interest, but on account of the
+strange circumstances which induced its publication, its startling
+result, the sensation it has created, and the ultimate effect it may
+produce in France in paving the way for legitimacy, by attaching
+interest and admiration to the person of its representative--perhaps,
+also, because it does honour to the sincerity of the author, and to
+the more honest republican party to which he belongs. But we have thus
+excluded ourselves from the possibility of giving more than a brief
+notice of the other book alluded to above, that of the Vicomte
+d'Arlincourt, although, in truth, it merits, in all respects, a far
+more extended observation, as a frank and straightforward expression
+of the sentiments of the legitimists. We must confine ourselves, then,
+principally to the circumstances which, independently of its merits,
+have given the little book so great a notoriety in France, and carried
+it on to the almost unexampled honours of a forty-eighth edition. They
+are curious enough in themselves, and bear some analogy to those which
+have determined the publication and the success of the book of M.
+Didier, inasmuch as it was the ardency of republicanism which forced
+upon the public notice a book, likely to forward the cause of
+legitimacy in France. The little work of M. d'Arlincourt is written,
+however, avowedly upon legitimist principles, and for the purpose of
+awakening the attention of the nation to the cause of the man whom
+the author looks upon as the ultimate saviour of the troubled country.
+This legitimist book, under the title of "_Dieu le veut_," written
+after the bloody days of June, might, in spite of the vigour of its
+language, and the justice and good sense of most of its reasonings and
+remarks, never have emerged so prominently from the inundation of
+political pamphlets which floods republican France, had it not pleased
+the government, pushed on by the clamours of a more violent party, to
+seize the work, and bring the author to trial. The affair made a
+considerable sensation in August last; the court of justice was
+crowded: the interest excited was great. The passages more
+particularly incriminated were, that which likened the republic to the
+plague; that which said the sovereignty of the people, when not a
+bloody truth, was a ridiculous mystification; and that which contained
+the words, "the Republic will have proved to be the necessary
+transition from a revolutionary tempest to a social regeneration. In
+the general movement of men's minds is written the happy advent of the
+chosen of Providence. He draws nearer! he will come!" After the
+defence of his own counsel, M. d'Arlincourt himself rose and
+supported, in a striking speech, the honesty of his intentions and his
+designs as a _bon citoyen_, without bating one iota of his legitimist
+principles. The result was a unanimous verdict of "not guilty" from
+the jury. A burst of applause, which no authority could check,
+resounded through the court. It was from the common classes, also,
+that came the approbation: workmen shouted in the court, "_Dieu le
+veut! Dieu le veut!_" to the rhythm of the famous "_des lampions!_"
+and, on the morrow, delegates of the _dames de la Halle_, and of the
+artisans of Paris came, with _bouquets_, to felicitate the author on
+his acquittal. We will not lay an unnecessary weight upon this
+movement of a portion of the lower classes, which may arise from the
+sentiments of a small minority, although perhaps more considerable
+than seems to be generally supposed. The result, however, of the trial
+has been to spread the book through the country in its almost
+interminable editions, and thus to spread more and more abroad those
+legitimist feelings, which, we confidently assert are daily more and
+more gaining ground throughout France, and which may one day, in case
+of another revolution, that may be brought upon the country by the
+excesses of the ultra party, bear their fruits. At all events the
+destiny of these two books, in furthering the cause of legitimacy, in
+the one case contrary to the opinions of the author, in the other by
+the very means intended to check and even crush it, is singular
+enough.
+
+Whatever may be written upon the dark pages of a nation's future, it
+is very evident that "Legitimacy in France" has made considerable
+ground among the masses. It cannot, certainly, be said to have been
+from the influence of convictions, or, in the general herd, from any
+reliance upon theories of legitimacy, properly speaking. It has arisen
+from disgust and distrust of other governments; from the sad
+experience of the miseries occasioned to the country by the present
+revolution; from despair in the stability of a republican rule, with
+insurrection always growling beneath the surface; from hope in a
+greater stability and confidence under a legitimate monarchy.
+Legitimacy, then, can but grow and flourish in France in the chances
+of revolutions; and if it triumphs, it will be by the excesses of its
+enemies, and the restless subversive attempts of the ultra-republican
+party. But again: who can say confidently that it will triumph? Still
+more: who shall dare, in the present state of France, to say that it
+_shall not_?
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[23] _Une Visite â Monsieur le Duc de Bordeaux._ Par CHARLES DIDIER.
+Paris: 1849. _Dieu le Veut._ Par VICOMTE D'ARLINCOURT. Paris: 1848-9.
+
+
+
+
+THE COLLEGE.--A SKETCH IN VERSE.
+
+    "Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus."
+
+      Oft has some fair inquirer bid me say,
+    What tasks, what sports beguile the gownsman's day;
+    What cares are ours--by what light arts we try
+    To teach our sober-footed hours to fly.
+    List, then, ye belles, who, nursed in golden ease,
+    No arts need study, but the arts to please;
+    Who need no science, while with skill ye know
+    To wield the weapons which your charms bestow--
+    With grace to thread the dance's mazy throng--
+    To strike the tuneful chords, and swell the song--
+    To rouse man's sterner spirit to his toil,
+    And cheer its harshness with a grateful smile.
+    Thus my weak muse a bolder flight shall raise,
+    Lured by the glorious hope of Beauty's praise.
+
+      Soon as the clouds divide, and dawning day
+    Tints the quadrangle with its earliest ray,
+    The porter, wearied with his watchings late,
+    Half opes his eyelids and the wicket gate;
+    And many a yawning gyp comes slipshod in,
+    To wake his master ere the bells begin.
+
+      Round yon gray walls, enchained by slumber's spell,
+    Each son of learning snores within his cell.
+    For though long vigils the pale student keep,
+    E'en learning's self, we know, must sometimes sleep--
+    So morn shall see him, with a brightened face,
+    Fresh as a giant, to resume his race.
+    But hark! the chimes of yonder chapel-tower
+    Sound the arrival of the unwelcome hour.
+    Now drowsy Lentulus his head half rears,
+    To mumble curses on the Dean he fears.
+    What though his gyp exhort him, ere too late,
+    To seek the chapel and avert his fate?
+    Who, when secure his downy sheets between,
+    Recks of the threatenings of an angry Dean!
+    Slow rolling round he bids his mentor go
+    And bear his warnings to the shades below.
+    Soon shall he, summoned to the well-known room,[24]
+    Repent his recklessness and learn his doom,
+    Within the walls a dull constraint to know,
+    And many a midnight jollity forego.
+    Far happier he, to whom the harsh-tongued bell
+    Sounds, as it should, his murdered slumber's knell.
+    Cold he contemns, and, shuffling on his clothes,
+    Boldly stalks forth, nor heeds his redd'ning nose.
+    Straight o'er the grass-plot cuts his dewy line
+    In mad defiance of the College fine;
+    Breathless with hurry gains the closing grate,
+    And thanks his stars he was not just too late.
+    His name prick'd off upon the marker's roll,
+    No twinge of conscience racks his easy soul,
+    While tutor's wines and Dean's soft smiles repay
+    His prompt submission to the College sway.
+
+      The service o'er, by Cam's dull bank of sedge
+    He strides, while hunger gains a keener edge;
+    (Though fasting walks I cannot loathe too much,
+    Since such my custom, my advice be such.)
+    For him, who straight returns, what horrors wait!
+    How chill and comfortless his chamber's state.
+    The crackling fuel only serves too well
+    To show the cold it vainly strives to quell;
+    While the grim bedmaker provokes the dust,
+    And soot-born atoms, which his tomes encrust:
+    Awhile suspended high in air they soar,
+    Then, sinking, seek the shelves on which they slept before.
+    Down bolt his commons and his scalding tea,
+    Then off to lectures in pedantic glee.
+    He notes each artifice and master-stroke--
+    Each musty parallel and mustier joke;
+    Snaps up the driblets to his share consigned,
+    And as he cram'd his body crams his mind;
+    Then seeks at home digestion for his lore,
+    And slams in Folly's face the twice-barred door.
+
+      This hour, perchance, sees Lentulus descend
+    To seek the chamber of some jovial friend--
+    Yawn o'er the topics of the passing day,
+    Or damn the losses of his last night's play;
+    While well he augurs from the clattering plates,
+    The glad intelligence that breakfast waits.
+
+      From Memory's store the sportive muse may glean
+    The charms that gild awhile the careless scene--
+    The song, the anecdote, the bet, the joke,
+    The steaming viands, and the circling smoke--
+    The racy cider-cup, or brisk champagne,
+    Long prompt the merriment and rouse the strain;
+    Till Pleasure, sated of the loaded board,
+    Seeks what amusement fresher scenes afford.
+    Some prove their skill in fence--some love to box--
+    Some thirst for vengeance on the dastard fox;
+    Each by his fav'rite sport's enchanting power,
+    Cheats of its tediousness the flying hour.
+
+      Now the dull court a short siesta takes,
+    For scarce a footstep her still echo wakes,
+    Save where the prowling duns their victim scout,
+    And seize the spendthrift wretch that dares steal out.
+
+      Come, let us wander to the river's bank,
+    And learn what charm collects yon breathless rank;
+    The hope or horror pictured in each face
+    Marks the excitement of the coming race.
+    Hark! o'er the waters booms the sound of strife;
+    Now the hush'd voices leap at once to life;
+    Now to their toil the striving oarsmen bend;
+    Now their gay hues the flaunting banners blend;
+    Now leap the wavedrops from the flashing oar;
+    Now the woods echo to the madd'ning roar;
+    Now hot th' enthusiastic crowd pursue,
+    And scream hoarse praises on the unflinching crew;
+    Now in one last wild chance each arm is strained;
+    One panting struggle more--the goal is gained.
+    A scene like this, what stream can boast beside?
+    Scarce rival Isis on her fairer tide.[25]
+    But think not thus could live the rower's power,
+    Save long privation steeled him for the hour.
+    The couch relinquished at the voice of morn,
+    The toilsome exercise, the cup forsworn,
+    The frugal dinner, and scarce-tasted wine--
+    Are these no sacrifice at glory's shrine?
+    Thus with new trophies shall his walls be graced--
+    Each limb new strengthened, and each nerve new braced.
+
+      Some idlers to the pavements keep their feet,
+    And strut and ogle all the passing street.
+    And if 'tis Sunday's noon, on King's Parade,[26]
+    See the smug tradesman too and leering maid;
+    See the trim shop-boy cast his envious eye
+    On Topling's waistcoat and on Sprightly's tie,
+    Bravely resolved to hoard his labour's fruit,
+    And ape their fancies in his next new suit.
+
+      But now the sounding clocks in haste recall
+    Each hungry straggler to his College hall;
+    For Alma Mater well her nursling rears,
+    Nor cheats his gullet, while she fills his ears.
+    Heavens! what a clatter rends the steam-fraught air--
+    How waiters jostle, and how Freshmen stare!
+    One thought here strikes me--and the thought is sad--
+    The carving for the most part is but bad.
+    See the torn turkey and the mangled goose!
+    See the hack'd sirloin and the spattered juice!
+    Ah! can the College well her charge fulfil,
+    Who thus neglects the petit-maître's skill?
+    The tutor proves each pupil on the books--
+    Why not give equal license to the cooks?
+    As the grave lecturer, with scrupulous care,
+    Tries how his class picks up its learned fare--
+    From Wisdom's banquet makes the dullard fast--
+    Denied admittance till his trial's past--
+    So the slow Freshman on a crust should starve,
+    Till practice taught him nobler food to carve:
+    Then Granta's sons a useful fame should know,
+    And shame with skill each dinner-table beau.
+
+      High on the daïs, and more richly stored,
+    Well has old custom placed the Fellow's board:
+    Thus shall the student feel his fire increased
+    By brave ambition for the well-graced feast--
+    Mark the sleek merriment of rev'rend Dons,
+    And learn how science well rewards her sons.
+    But spare, my muse, to pierce the sacred gloom
+    That veils the mysteries of the Fellows' room;
+    Nor hint how Dons, their untasked hours to pass,
+    Like Cato, warm their virtues with the glass.[27]
+
+      Once more, at sound of chapel chime, repairs
+    The surpliced scholar to his vesper prayers;
+    For discipline this tribute at his hands,
+    First and last duty of the day, demands.
+    Then each, as diligence or mirth invite,
+    Careful improves or thriftless wastes the night.
+
+      Stand in the midst, and with observant eye
+    Each chamber's tenant at his task descry.
+    Here the harsh mandate of the Dean enthrals
+    Some prayerless pris'ner to the College walls,
+    Who in the novel's pages seeks to find
+    A brief oblivion for his angry mind.
+    Haply the smoke-wreathed meerschaum shall supply
+    An evenness of soul which they deny.
+    Charm! that alike can soothing pleasure bring
+    To sage or savage, mendicant or king;
+    Sov'reign to blunt the pangs of torturing pain,
+    Or clear the mazes of the student's brain!
+    Swift at thy word, amidst the soul's misrule,
+    Content resumes her sway, and rage grows cool.
+
+      Here pores the student, till his aching sight
+    No more can brook the glimmering taper's light;
+    Then Slumber's links their nerveless captive bind,
+    While Fancy's magic mocks his fevered mind;
+    Then a dim train of years unborn sweeps by
+    In glorious vision on his raptured eye:
+    See Fortune's stateliest sons in homage bow,
+    And fling vain lustre o'er his toilworn brow!
+    Away, ye drivellers! dare ye speak to him
+    Of cheek grown bloodless, or of eye grown dim?
+    Who heeds the sunken cheek, or wasted frame,
+    While Hope shouts "Onward! to undying fame."
+
+      Glance further, if thine eye can pierce the mist
+    Raised round the votaries of Loo and Whist;
+    Scarce such kind Venus round her offspring flung
+    To bear him viewless through the Punic throng;[28]
+    Scarce such floats round old Skiddaw's crown of snow,
+    And veils its grimness from the plains below.
+    Here, too, gay Lentulus conspicuous sits,
+    Chief light and oracle of circling wits.
+    Who with such careless grace the trick can take,
+    Or fling with such untrembling hand his stake?
+    But though with well-feigned case his glass he sips,
+    And puffs the balmy cloud from smiling lips,
+    Care broods within--his soul alone regards
+    His ebbing pocket and the varying cards;
+    While one resolve his saddened spirit fills--
+    The diminution of his next term's bills.
+
+      Lamp after lamp expires as night grows late,
+    And feet less frequent rattle at the gate.
+    The wearied student now rakes out his fire--
+    The host grows dull, and yawning guests retire--
+    Till, all its labours and its follies o'er,
+    The silent College sinks to sleep once more.
+
+      Thus roll the hours, thus roll the weeks away,
+    Till terms expiring bring the long-feared day,
+    When rake and student equal terror know--
+    That lest he's plucked, this lest he pass too low.
+    Though different epochs mark their wide careers,
+    And serve for reck'ning points through fleeting years--
+    To this a tripos or a Senate's grace,
+    To that a fox-hunt, ball, or steeple-chase,--
+    When three short years of toil or sloth are past,
+    This common bugbear scares them all at last.
+
+      The doors flung wide, the boards and benches set,
+    The nervous candidates for fame are met.
+    See yon poor wretch, just shivering from his bed,
+    Gnaw at his nails and scratch his empty head;
+    With lengthened visage o'er each question pore,
+    And ransack all his memory for its store.
+    This Euclid argued, or this Newton taught--
+    Thus Butler reasoned, or thus Paley thought;
+    With many a weapon of the learned strife,
+    Prized for an hour, then flung aside for life.
+    Ah! what avails him now his vaunted art,
+    To stride the steed, or guide the tandem-cart?
+    His loved ecarté, or his gainful whist?
+    What snobs he pommelled, or what maidens kissed?
+    His ball-room elegance, his modish air,
+    And easy impudence, that charmed the fair?
+    Ah! what avails him that to Fashion's fame
+    Admiring boudoirs echoed forth his name?
+    All would he yield, if all could buy one look,
+    Though but a moment's, o'er the once-scorned book.
+    --Enough, enough, once let the scene suffice;
+    Bid me not, Fancy, brave its horrors twice.
+    The wrangler's glory in his well-earned fame,
+    The prizeman's triumph, and the pluck'd man's shame,
+    With all fair Learning's well-bestowed rewards,
+    Are they not fitting themes for nobler bards?
+    Poor Lentulus, twice plucked, some happy day
+    Just shuffles through, and dubs himself B. A.;
+    Thanks heaven, flings by his cap and gown, and shuns
+    A place made odious by remorseless duns.
+    Not so the wrangler,--him the Fellows' room
+    Shall boast its ornament for years to come;
+    Till some snug rectory to his lot may fall,
+    Or e'en (his fondest wish) a prebend's stall:
+    Then burst triumphant on th' admiring town
+    The full-fledged honours of his Doctor's gown.
+
+      Yes, Granta, thus thy sacred shades among
+    Join grave and thoughtless in one motley throng.
+    Forgive my muse, if aught her trifling air
+    Seems to throw scorn upon thy kindly care.
+    Long may thy sons, with heaven-directed hand,
+    Spread wide the glories of a grateful land--
+    Uphold their country's and their sovereign's cause--
+    Adorn her church, or wield her rev'rend laws;
+    By virtue's might her senate's counsel sway,
+    And scare red Faction powerless from his prey.
+
+      And ye, who, thriftless of your life's best days,
+    Have sought but Pleasure in fair Learning's ways,
+    Though nice reformers of the sophists' school
+    Mock the old maxims of Collegiate rule,
+    Deem them not worthless, because oft abused,
+    Nor sneer at blessings, which yourselves refused.--U. T.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[24] _Videlicet_--the Dean's apartment; a visit to which frequently
+concludes by the visitor's finding himself "gated," _i. e._, obliged
+to be within the college walls by 10 o'clock at night; by this he is
+prevented from partaking in suppers, or other nocturnal festivities,
+in any other college or in lodgings.
+
+[25] Be not indignant, ye broader waves of Thames and Isis! In the
+number of contending barks, and the excitement of the spectators of
+the strife, Cam may, with all due modesty, boast herself unequalled.
+To the swiftness of her champion galleys ye have yourselves often
+borne witness.
+
+[26] The most fashionable promenade for the "spectantes" and
+"spectandi" of Cambridge.
+
+[27]
+
+    "Narratur et prisci Catonis
+    Sæpe mero caluisse virtus."--HORACE, _Odes_.
+
+[28] VIRGIL, _Æneid_, i. 415.
+
+
+
+
+JACK MOONLIGHT.
+
+
+Some time ago, on the way from Glasgow to Liverpool, amongst the
+confusion and bustle in the railway terminus at Greenock, I was
+interested by seeing what struck me more by contrast with the rest of
+the scene, but, from old associations, would have drawn my attention
+at any time. Passengers, porters, and trucks were meeting from both
+directions; ladies and gentlemen anxious about their bandboxes and
+portmanteaus; one engine puffing off its steam, and another screaming
+as it departed. Through the midst of all, a group of six seamen, from
+a third-class carriage, were lugging along their bags and hammocks,
+dingy and odorous with genuine tar in all its modifications. Five of
+the party, of different heights, ages, and sizes, were as dark-brown
+mahogany-colour, in face, throat, and hands, as some long sea-voyage
+had made them, evidently through latitudes where the wind blows the
+sun, if the sun doesn't burn the wind. One was a fine, stout,
+middle-aged man, with immense whiskers and a cap of Manilla grass, a
+large blue jacket, with a gorgeous India handkerchief stuffed in its
+capacious outside pocket, and brown trousers, with boots, whom I at
+once set down for the boatswain of some good East-Indiaman. The sixth
+was a woolly-pated negro lad, about nineteen or twenty, dressed in
+sailor's clothes with the rest, but with his characteristically
+shapeless feet cramped up in a pair of Wellingtons, in which he
+stumped along, while his companions had the usual easy roll of their
+calling. The fellow was black as a coal, thick-lipped and flat-nosed;
+but if, like most negroes, he had only kept grinning, it would not
+have seemed so ridiculous as the gravity of his whole air. Some young
+ladies standing near, with parasols spread to save their fair
+complexions from the sun, said to each other, "Oh, do look at the
+foreign sailors!" I knew, however, without requiring to hear a single
+word from them, that they were nothing else but the regular true-blue
+English tars; such, indeed, as you seldom find belonging to even the
+sister kingdoms. A Scotchman or an Irishman may make a good sailor,
+and, for the theory of the thing, why, they are probably "six and
+half-a-dozen;" but, somehow, there appears to be in the English
+sea-dog a peculiar capacity of developing the appropriate ideal
+character--that frank, bluff, hearty _abandon_, and mixture of
+practical skill with worldly simplicity, which mark the oceanic man.
+All dogs can swim, but only water-dogs have the foot webbed and the
+hair shaggy. The Englishman is the only one you can thoroughly salt,
+and make all his bread biscuit, so that he can both be a boy at fifty,
+and yet chew all the hardships of experience without getting conscious
+of his wisdom.
+
+So I reflected, at any rate, half joke, half earnest, while hastening
+to the Liverpool steamer, which lay broadside to the quay, and,
+betwixt letting off steam and getting it up, was blowing like a mighty
+whale come up to breathe. The passengers were streaming up the plank,
+across by her paddle-boxes, as it were so many Jonahs going into its
+belly; amongst whom I was glad to see my nautical friends taking a
+shorter cut to the steerage, and establishing themselves with a sort
+of half-at-home expression in their sunburnt weatherly faces. In a
+little while the "City of Glasgow" was swimming out of the firth, with
+short quick blows of her huge fins, that grew into longer and longer
+strokes as they revolved in the swells of the sea; the jib was set out
+over her sharp nose to steady her, and the column of smoke from her
+funnel, blown out by the wind, was left, in her speed, upon the
+larboard quarter, to compare its dark-brown shadow with the white
+furrow behind. At the beginning of the long summer evening the round
+moon rose, white and beautiful, opposite the blue peaks of Arran,
+shining with sunset. By that time the steamer's crowded and lumbered
+decks had got somewhat settled into order; the splash of the paddles,
+and the clank of the engine, leaping up and down at the window of its
+house, kept up a kind of quiet, by contrast, in spite of the
+different noises going on around. Amongst such, a nuisance apparently
+inseparable from and peculiar to steamboats, is a blind fiddler, whose
+everlasting infernal scrape, squeaking away on the foredeck, one
+cannot help blending with the thump and shudder of those emetic
+machines on a large scale, and considering it not the least element in
+producing the disagreeable phenomena so well known on board of them.
+One of these said floating musicians, who thus wander probably in
+imitation of Arion, and in revenge for his fate, was now performing to
+the groups near the paddle-boxes. Beyond them, however, by the
+steamer's patent iron windlass, there was a quiet space at the bow,
+where, in a short time, I perceived the figures of the sailors
+relieved against the brisk sea-view above the insignificant bowsprit.
+I went forward out of the privileged regions to smoke a cigar, and
+found the two elder ones sitting over the windlass in conversation
+with another seafaring passenger, evidently less thoroughbred,
+however. The rest were walking backwards and forwards to a side, with
+the quick rolling walk, limited in extent, so characteristic of the
+genus _nauta_--the negro turning his head now and then to grin as he
+heard the music, but otherwise above mixing in the rabble of already
+disconsolate-looking people behind. He was plainly considered by his
+shipmates, and considered himself, on a footing of perfect equality:
+his skin was no odium to the men of the sea, whose lot he had no doubt
+shared, whatever it might have been in the cabin. Their bedding was
+already spread under shelter of the half top-gallant forecastle at the
+heel of the bowsprit, amongst spars and coils of rope. Although
+sailors are understood to go half-fare in steamers, they no doubt
+preferred the accommodation thus chosen. It was amusing to notice how
+the regular, long-sea, wind-and-canvass men seemed to look down upon
+the hermaphrodites of the "funnel-boat," and were evidently regarded
+by them as superior beings; nor did they hold much communication
+together.
+
+While standing near, I made a remark or two to the eldest of the
+seamen, whom I had marked down for the leader of the little nautical
+band; and it was not difficult to break ice with the frank tar. He was
+more intelligent and polished than is usual even with the superior
+class of his vocation, having seen more countries of the globe, and
+their peculiarities, than would set up a dozen writers of travels.
+They had all sailed together in the same vessels for several voyages:
+had been last to Calcutta, Singapore, and Canton, in a large Liverpool
+Indiaman, to which they were returning after a trip, during the
+interval, on some affair of the boatswain's at Glasgow; and, curiously
+enough, they had made a cruise up Loch Lomond, none of them having
+seen a fresh-water lake of any size before. In the mean time, while
+the negro passed up and down with his companions before me, I had been
+remarking that his naked breast, seen through the half-open check
+shirt, was tattooed over with a singular device, in conspicuous red
+and blue colours: indeed, without something or other of the sort he
+could scarcely have been a sailor, for the barbarians of the sea and
+those of the American forest have a good deal in common. This peculiar
+ornament of the sable young mariner I at length observed upon to the
+boatswain. "Jack Moonlight!" said the seaman, turning round, "come
+here, my son: show the gentleman your papers, will ye?" The black
+grinned, looked flattered, as I thought, and, opening his shirt,
+revealed to me the whole of his insignia. In the middle was what
+appeared meant for a broken ring-bolt; above that a crown; below an
+anchor; on one side the broad arrow of the dock-yard, and on the other
+the figures of 1838. "My sartif'cates, sar, is dat!" said the negro,
+showing his white teeth. "That's his figure-head, sir," said one of
+the younger sailors, "but he's got a different mark abaft, ye know, Mr
+Wilson!" "Never mind, Dick," said the boatswain; "the one scores out
+the other, my lad." The black looked grave again, and they resumed
+their walk. "What's his name, did you say?" I inquired,--"Moonlight?"
+"Yes, sir; Jack Moonlight it is." _Ut lucus a non lucendo_, thought I:
+rather a preternatural moonlight--a sort of _dark_-lantern! "Why, who
+christened him that?" I said. "Well, sir," replied the boatswain, "the
+whole ship's company, I think: the second mate threw a ship's-bucket
+of gulf-stream water over his head, too, for a blessing; and the black
+cook, being skilled that way, gave him the marks. Jack is his christen
+name, sir--_Moonlight_ is what we call his on-christen one." "There's
+a entire yarn about it, sir," remarked the other sailor. "I wish you
+would tell it me!" said I to the boatswain, seating myself on the
+windlass, while his two companions looked to him with an expression of
+the same desire. "Why, sir," said the bluff foremast officer, hitching
+up his trousers, and looking first at one boot and then at the other,
+"I'm not the best hand myself at laying up the strands of a matter;
+but however, as I was first whistle in the concern, why, you shall
+have the rights of it. You see, sir," continued he, "we were lying at
+that time inside the Havannah, opposight the Mole--the Mary Jane of
+Bristol, Captain Drew, a ship o' seven hundred tons. 'Twas in the year
+'38, I think, Tom?" "Ay, ay, Mr Wilson," replied the other sailor,
+"'tis logged correct enough on Jack Moonlight's breast." "She was
+round from Jamaica for some little matter to fill up," continued the
+boatswain, "so we didn't leave the cable long betwixt wind and water;
+but, two nights before the Mary Jane sailed, a large Portugee schooner
+came in, and brought up within thirty fathoms of our starboard
+quarter, slam on to us, so as we looked into her cabin windows, but
+nothing else. She'd got the American flag flying, and a Yankee mate
+that answered sometimes, 'twas said, for the skipper; but by the looks
+of her, and a large barracoon being a'most right in a line with her
+bowsprit, we hadn't no doubt what she was after. The first night, by
+the lights and the noise, we considered they landed a pretty few score
+of blacks, fresh from the Guinea coast and a stew in the middle
+passage. And all the time there was the Spanish guard-boats, and the
+court sitting every few days to look after such tricks, and saying
+they kept a watch the devil himself couldn't shirk. There was a
+British cruiser off the Floridas, too, but we reckoned she'd been
+blown up the Gulf by a hurricane the morning before. Next night was
+bright moonlight, so they were all quiet till two bells of the third
+watch; then they began to ship off their _bales_ again, as they call
+'em--the moon being on the set, and the schooner in a shadow from the
+ware-houses. 'Twas all of a sort o' smothered bustle aboard of her,
+for the sailmaker and I was keeping our hour of the anchor-watch. I
+was only rated able seaman at that time in the Mary Jane. Well, the
+shadow of the schooner came almost as far as the currents about our
+rudder, and I was looking over the quarter, when I thought I saw a
+trail shining in it, as if something was swimming towards us.
+'Sailmaker,' says I, 'is that the shark, d'ye think, that they say is
+fed alongside of one o' them slavers here for a sentry?' 'Where?' said
+the sailmaker, and 'Look,' says I. Just that moment what did I see but
+the woolly black head of a nigger come out into the stroak of white
+water, 'twixt our counter and the schooner's shadow, swimming as quiet
+as possible to get round into ours! 'Keep quiet, mate,' I said; 'don't
+frighten the poor fellow! He's contrived to slink off, I'll bet you,
+in the row!' Next we heard him scrambling up into the mizen chains,
+then his head peeps over the bulwarks, but neither of us turned about,
+so he crept along to the forecastle, where the scuttle was off, and
+the men all fast in their hammocks. Down he dives in a moment. The
+sailmaker and I slipped along to see what he'd do. Right under the
+fok'sle ladder was the trap of the cook's coal-hole, with a ring-bolt
+in it for lifting; and just when we looked over, there was the nigger,
+as naked as ye please, a heaving of it up to stow himself away,
+without asking where. As soon as he was gone, and the trap closed,
+'Why,' said the sailmaker, 'he's but a boy.' 'He's a smart chap,
+though, sure enough, sailmaker!' says I. 'But what pauls me, is how
+quick he picked out the fittest berth in the ship. Why, old Dido won't
+know but what it's his wife Nancy's son, all blacked over with the
+coals!' 'Well, bo',' says the sailmaker, laughing, 'we mustn't let
+the black doctor get down amongst his gear, on no account, till the
+ship's clear away to sea!' _Doctor_, you know, sir--that's what we
+call the cook at sea. 'Never fear, mate,' says I, 'I'll manage old
+Dido myself, else he'd blow the whole concern amongst them confounded
+planters in the cabin.' This Dido, you must understand, sir, was the
+black cook of the Mary Jane: his name, by rights, was Di'dorus
+Thomson; but he'd been cook's mate of the Dido frigate for two or
+three years before, and always called himself Dido--though I've heard
+'twas a woman's name instead of a man's. He was a Yankee nigger, as
+black as his own coals, and had married a Bristol woman. She had one
+son, but he was as white as herself; so 'twas a joke in the ship
+against old Dido, how he'd contrived to wash his youngster so clean,
+and take all the dirt on himself. We run the rig on him about his
+horns, too, and the white skin under his paint, till the poor fellow
+was afraid to look in a glass for fear of seeing the devil.
+
+"Next morning, before we began to get up anchor, the cook turns out of
+his hammock at six o'clock to light the galley fire, and down he comes
+again to the forecastle to get coals out of his hold. 'Twas just
+alongside of my hammock, so I looked over, and says I, 'Hullo, doctor!
+hold on a minute till I give ye a bit of advice.' 'Mine yar own
+bus'ness, Jack Wilson,' says the cross-grained old beggar, as he was.
+'Dido,' says I, 'who d'ye think I see goin' down your trap last
+night?' 'Golly!' says he, 'don't know; who was dat, Jack--eh?' and he
+lets go of the trap-lid. 'Why, Dido,' I told him, ''twas the devil
+himself!' 'O Lard!' says the nigger, giving a jump, 'what dat
+gen'leman want dere? Steal coal for bad place! O Lard!--Hish!' says
+he, whispering into my hammock, 'tell me, Jack Wilson, he black or
+white--eh?' 'Oh, black!' I said; 'as black as the slaver astarn.' 'O
+Lard! O Lard! black man's own dibble!' says old Dido; 'what's I to do
+for cap'en's breakfast, Jack!' 'Why, see if you haven't a few chips o'
+wood, doctor,' says I, 'till we get out o' this infernal port. Don't
+they know how to lay the old un among your folks in the States, Dido?'
+I said, for I'd seen the thing tried. 'Golly! yis!' says the nigger;
+'leave some bake yam on stone, with little rum in de pumpkin--'at's
+how to do!' 'Very good!' says I; 'well, whatever you've got handy,
+Dido, lower it down to him, and I daresay he'll clear out by
+to-morrow.' 'Why, what the dibble, Jack!' says he again, scratching
+his woolly head, 'feed him in 'e ship, won't he stay--eh?' 'Oh, for
+that matter, Dido,' says I, 'just you send down a sample of the ship's
+biscuit, with a fid of hard junk, and d--me if he stay long!' A good
+laugh I had, too, in my hammock, to see the cook follow my advice: he
+daren't open his hatch more than enough to shove down a line with some
+grub at the end of it, as much as would have provisioned half a dozen;
+so I knew there was a stopper clapped on the spot for that day.
+
+"When we began to get up anchor, a boat belonging to the schooner
+pulled round us, and they seemed to want to look through and through
+us, for them slavers has a nat'ral avarsion to an English ship. They
+gave a squint or two at old black Dido, and he swore at 'em in
+exchange for it like a trooper: 'tis hard to say, for a good slack
+jaw, and all the dirty abuse afloat, whether a Yankee nigger, or a
+Billingsgate fishwoman, or a Plymouth Point lady, is the worst to
+stand. I do believe, if we'd been an hour later of sailing, they'd
+have had a search-warrant aboard of us, with a couple of Spanish
+guardos, and either pretended they'd lost a fair-bought slave, or got
+us perhaps condemned for the very thing they were themselves. However,
+off we went, and by the first dog-watch we'd dropped the land to
+sou'-west, with stunsails on the larboard side, and the breeze on our
+quarter.
+
+"Next morning again the black cook gives me a shake in my hammock, and
+says he, 'Mus' have some coal now, Jack; he gone now, surely--eh,
+lad?' 'Go to the devil, you black fool,' says I, 'can't ye let a
+fellow sleep out his watch without doing your work for you?' 'O
+Golly,' says the cook in a rage, 'I sarve you out for dis, you damn
+tarry black-guard! Don't b'lieb no dibble ever dere! I water you tea
+dis blessed mornin' for dis!' 'Look out for squalls, then, doctor,'
+says I; and he lifts the trap, and began to go down the ladder,
+shaking his black fist at me. 'Good b'ye, Dido!' says I, 'make my
+respects to the old un!' 'O you darty willain!' he sings out from the
+hole; and then I heard him knocking about amongst his lumber, till all
+of a sudden he gave a roar. Up springs the young nigger from under
+hatches, up the ladder and through the trap, then up the fok'sle steps
+again, and out on deck, and I heard him running aft to the
+quarter-deck, where the mate was singing out to set another stunsail.
+Down fell the trap-lid over the coal-hole, and old Dido was caught
+like a mouse. If it hadn't been for our breakfast, I daresay we'd have
+left him there for a spell; but when the doctor got out he was as
+cowed as you please. 'Jack Wilson,' says he to me, 'you say quite
+right--him black dibble dere sure 'naff, Jack! see him go up in flash
+'o fire out of de coal, den all as dark as ---- Hullo, 'mates,' says
+he, 'you laugh, eh? Bery funny though, too--ho-ho-ho!' so he turned to
+grinning at it till the tears ran out of the big whites of his eyes.
+'What does the parson say, doctor?' asks an old salt out of his
+hammock--'stick close to the devil, and he'll flee from ye!'
+'Ho-ho-ho!' roars old Dido; 'bery good--ho-ho-ho!' says he; 'old
+dibble not so bery frightenful after all, now I see he right black!'
+'I say, though, old boy,' puts in the foremastman again, 'I doesn't
+like to hear ye laugh at the devil that way--ye don't know what may
+turn up--'tis good seamanship, as I reckon, never to make an enemy of
+a port on a lee-shore, cook!' 'Ay, ay, old ship,' said another; 'but
+who looks for seaman's ways from a cook?--ye can't expect it!' 'I
+tar'ble 'fraid of white dibble, though, lads,' said old Dido, giving
+an impudent grin. 'Well, if so be,' says the old salt, 'take my word
+for it, ye'd better keep a look-out for him--that's all. White or
+black, all colours has their good words to keep, an' bad ones brings
+their bad luck, mate!'
+
+"Well, sir, as for the young run-away, 'twas all of a kick-up on the
+quarterdeck about him; he couldn't speak a word of English, but he
+hung on the mate's feet like one for bare life. Just then the captain
+came on deck with two lady passengers, to take a look of the morning;
+the poor fellow was spar-naked, and the ladies made a dive below
+again. The captain saw the slave-brand on his shoulder, and he twigged
+the whole matter at once; so he told the mate to get him a pair of
+trousers, and a shirt, and put him to help the cook. Dido laughed
+louder than ever when he found out the devil wasn't so black as he was
+painted; and he was for indopting the youngster, by way of a sort o'
+jury son. However, the whole of the fok'sle took a fancy to him,
+considering him a kind of right to all hands. He was christened Jack,
+as I said before, and instead of hanging on, cook's mate, he was put
+up to something more seaman-like. By the time the Mary Jane got home,
+black Jack could set a stunsail, or furl a royal. We got Dido to give
+him a regular-built sartificate on his breast, of his being free to
+blue water, footing paid, and under the British union-jack, which
+'twas the same as you saw just now, sir."
+
+"Well," said I, "but you haven't explained why he was called by such a
+curious appellation as Moonlight, though?"
+
+"Hold on a bit, sir," said the boatswain, "that's not the whole affair
+from end to end, yet. The next voyage I sailed again in the Mary Jane
+to Jamaica, for I always had a way of sticking to the same ship, when
+I could. I remember Dido, the cook, had a quarrel with his wife,
+Nancy; and one of the first nights we were at sea, he told black Jack,
+before all the fok'sle, how he meant to leave him all his savings,
+which everybody knew was no small thing, for Dido never spent any of
+his wages, and many a good cask of slush the old nigger had pocketed
+the worth of. We made a fine run of it that time down the Trades, till
+we got into the latitude of the Bahamas, and there the ship stuck like
+a log, with blue water round her, as hot as blazes, and as smooth as
+glass, or a bowl of oil. Once or twice we had a black squall that sent
+her on a bit, or another that drove her back, with a heavy swell, and
+now and then a light air, which we made the most of--setting
+stunsails, and hauling 'em down again in a plash of rain. But,
+altogether, we thought we'd never get out of them horse latitudes at
+all, having run over much to west'ard, till we saw the line of the
+Gulf Stream treading away on the sea line to nor'west, as plain as on
+a chart. There was a confounded devil of a shark alongside, that stuck
+by us all through, one of the largest I ever clapped eyes on. Every
+night we saw him cruising away astarn, as green as glass, down through
+the blue water; and in the morning, there he was under the counter,
+with his back fin above, and two little pilot-fish swimming off and on
+round about. He wouldn't take the bait either; and every man forud
+said there was some one to lose his mess before long; however, the
+cook made a dead set to hook the infernal old monster, and at last he
+did contrive to get him fast, with a piece of pork large enough for
+supper to the larboard watch. All hands tailed on to the line, and
+with much ado we got his snout over the taffrail, till one could look
+down his throat, and his tail was like to smash in the starn windows;
+when of a sudden, snap goes the rope where it spliced to the chain,
+down went the shark into the water with a tremendous splash, and got
+clear off, hook, chain, bait an' all. We saw no more of him, though;
+and by sunset we had a bit of a light breeze, that began to take us
+off pleasantly.
+
+"We had had full moon nearly the night before, and this night, I
+remember, 'twas the very pearl of moonlight--the water all of a ripple
+sparkling in it, almost as blue as by day; the sky full o' white
+light; and the moon as large as the capstan-head, but brighter than
+silver. You might ha' said you saw the very rays of it come down to
+the bellies of the sails, and sticking on the same plank in the deck
+for an hour at a time, as the ship surged ahead. Old Dido, the cook,
+had a fashion of coming upon deck of a moonlight night, in warm
+latitudes, to sleep on top o' the spars; he would lie with his black
+face full under it, like a lizard basking in the sun. Many a time the
+men advised him against it, at any rate to cover his face; for, if it
+wouldn't spoil, they said, he might wake up blind, or with his mouth
+pulled down to his shoulder, and out of his mind to boot. It wasn't
+the first time neither, sir, I've known a fellow moonstruck in the
+tropics, for 'tis another guess matter altogether from your hazy bit
+o' white paper yonder: why, if you hang a fish in it for an hour or
+two, 'twill stink like a lucifer match, and be poison to eat. Well,
+sir, that night, sure enough, up comes Dido with a rug to lie upon,
+and turns in upon the spars under the bulwarks, and in five minutes he
+was fast asleep, snoring with his face to the moon. So the watch,
+being tricky inclined ways on account of the breeze, took into their
+heads to give him a fright. One got hold of a paint-pot out of the
+half-deck, and lent him a wipe of white paint with the brush all over
+his face; Dido only gave a grunt, and was as fast as ever. The next
+thing was to grease his wool, and plaster it up in shape of a couple
+o' horns. Then they drew a bucket of water, and set it on the deck
+alongside, for him to see himself. When our watch came on deck, at
+eight bells, the moon was as bright as ever in the west, and the cook
+stretched out like Happy Tom on the spars, with his face slued round
+to meet it. In a little the breeze began to fall, and the light
+canvass to flap aloft, till she was all of a shiver, and the topsails
+sticking in to the masts, and shaking out again, with a clap that made
+the boom-irons rattle. At last she wouldn't answer her wheel, and the
+mate had the courses hauled up in the trails; 'twas a dead calm once
+more, and the blue water only swelled in the moonlight, like one sheet
+of rear-admiral's flags a-washing in a silver steep,--that's the
+likest thing I can fancy. When the ship lay still, up gets the black
+doctor, half asleep, and I daresay he had been laying in a cargo of
+Jamaica rum overnight: the bucket was just under his nose as he looked
+down to see where he was, and the moon shining into it. I heard him
+roar out, 'O de dibble!' and out he sprang to larboard, over the
+bulwarks, into the water. 'Man overboard, ahoy!' I sang out, and the
+whole watch came running from aft and forud to look over. 'Oh Christ!'
+says one o' the men, pointing with his finger--'Look.' Dido's head
+was just rising alongside; but just under the ship's counter what did
+we see but the black back-fin of the shark, coming slowly round, as
+them creatures do when they're not quite sure of anything that gives
+'em the start. 'The shark! the shark!' said every one; 'he's gone, by
+----' 'Down with the quarter-boat, men!' sings out the mate, and he
+ran to one of the falls to let it go. The young nigger, Jack, was
+amongst the rest of us; in a moment he off with his hat and shoes,
+took the cook's big carving-knife out of the galley at his back, and
+was overboard in a moment. He was the best swimmer I ever chanced to
+see, and the most fearless: the moonlight showed everything as plain
+as day, and he watched his time to jump right in where the shark's
+back-fin could be seen coming quicker along, with a wake shining down
+in the water at both fins and tail. Old Dido was striking out like a
+good un, and hailing for a rope, but he knew nothing at all of the
+shark. As for young Jack, he said afterwards he felt his feet come
+full slap on the fish's back, and then he laid out to swim under him
+and give him the length of his knife close by the jaw, when he'd turn
+up to bite--for 'twas what the youngsters along the Guinea coast were
+trained to do every day on the edge of the surf. However, curious
+enough, there wasn't another sign of this confounded old sea-tiger
+felt or seen again; no doubt he got a fright and went straight off
+under the keel; at any rate the boat was alongside of the cook and
+Jack next minute, and picked 'em both up safe. Jack swore he heard the
+chain at the shark's snout rattle, as he was slueing round his head
+within half a fathom of old Dido, and just as he pounced upon the
+bloody devil's back-bone; the next moment it was clear water below his
+feet, and he saw the white bells rise from a lump of green going down
+under the ship's bends, as large as the gig, with its belly glancing
+like silver. If so, I daresay the cook's legs would have stuck on his
+own hook before they were swallowed; but, anyhow, the old nigger was
+ready to believe in the devil as long as he lived. The whole matter
+gave poor Dido a shake he never got the better of; at the end of the
+voyage he vowed he'd live ashore the rest of his days, to be clear of
+all sorts o' devilry. Whether it didn't agree with him or not, I can't
+say, but he knocked off the hooks in a short time altogether, and left
+young Jack the most of his arnings, on the bargain of hailing by his
+name ever after. 'Twas a joke the men both in the Mary Jane and the
+old Rajah got up, when the story was told, to call the cook Dido
+Moonlight, because, after all, 'twas the death of him: and when Jack
+shipped with the rest of us here aboard of the Rajah, having seen Dido
+to the ground, why, all hands christened him over again Jack
+Moonlight; though to look at him now, I daresay, sir, you wouldn't
+well fancy how such things as black Jack's face and moonlight was
+logged together, unless the world went by contrairies!"
+
+
+
+
+MOONLIGHT MEMORIES.
+
+BY B. SIMMONS.
+
+
+I.
+
+    They say Deceit and Change divide
+      The empire of this world below;
+    That, whelm'd by Time's resistless tide,
+      Love's fountain ebbs, no more to flow.
+    Dawn-brow'd MADONNA, deem not so,
+      While to my truth yon Moon in heaven
+    I loved thee by, so long ago,
+      Is still a faithful "witness" given!
+
+II.
+
+    All brightly round, that mellow Moon
+      Rose o'er thy bright, serene abode,
+    When first to win thy smiles' sweet boon
+      My tears of stormy passion flowed.
+    Where Woodburn's larches veil'd our road,
+      I sued thy cheek's averted grace,
+    And, while its lustre paled and glowed,
+      Drank the blest sunshine of thy face.
+
+III.
+
+    And when the darkening Fate, that threw
+      Its waste of seas between us, Sweet,
+    With refluent wave restored me to
+      The soundless music of thy feet,
+    How wild my heart's delighted beat,
+      Once more beneath the mulberry bough,
+    To see the branching shadows fleet
+      Before thy bright approaching brow!
+
+IV.
+
+    Then rose again the Moon's sweet charm,
+      Not in her full and orbéd glow,
+    But young and sparkling as thy form
+      That moved a sister-moon below.
+    The rose-breeze round thee loved to blow--
+      Blue Evening o'er thee bent and smiled--
+    Rejoicing Nature seemed to know,
+      And own, her wildly-gracious child.
+
+V.
+
+    Forth came the Stars, as if to keep
+      Fond watch along thy sinless way;
+    While thy pure eyes, through Ether deep,
+      Sought out lone Hesper's diamond ray,
+    Half shy, half sad, to hear me say,
+      That haply, mid the tearless bliss
+    Of that far world we yet should stray,
+      When we have burst the bonds of this.
+
+VI.
+
+    Too short and shining were those hours
+      I loved, enchanted, by thy side!
+    Hoarding the wealth of myrtle-flowers
+      That in thy dazzling bosom died.
+    Sweet Loiterer by Glenarra's tide,
+      Dost thou not sometimes breathe a prayer
+    For Him who never failed to glide
+      At eve to watch and worship there?
+
+VII.
+
+    Fate's storms again have swept the scene,
+      And, for that fair Moon's summer gleam,
+    Through winter's snow clouds drifting keen
+      I hail at midnight now her beam.
+    Soft may its light this moment stream,
+      My folded Flower! upon thy rest,
+    And, melting through thy placid dream,
+      This heart's unshaken faith attest.
+
+VIII.
+
+    Yes--Rainbow of my ruined youth,
+      Now shining o'er the wreck in vain!
+    Thy rosy tints of grace and truth
+      Life's evening clouds shall long retain.
+    My very doom has less of pain
+      To feel that, ere from Time's dark river
+    Thy form or soul could take one stain,
+      Despair between us came for ever.
+
+IX.
+
+    And if, as sages still avow,
+      The rites once paid on hill and grove
+    To Beings beautiful as thou,
+      To Dian, Hebe, and to Love,
+    Were so imperishably wove
+      Of fancies lovely and elysian,
+    Their spirit to this hour must rove
+      The earth a blest abiding vision;[29]
+
+X.
+
+    Then surely round that mountain rude,
+      And Bridgeton's rill and pathway lone,
+    In years to come, when thon, the Wooed,
+      And thy fond Worshipper are gone,
+    Each suppliant prayer, each ardent tone,
+      Each vow the heart could once supply,
+    Whose every pulse was there thine own,
+      In many an evening breeze will sigh.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[29] It was the fanciful opinion of Hume that the purer Divinities of
+pagan worship, and the system of the Homeric Olympus, were so
+lastingly beautiful, that somewhere or other they must, to this hour,
+continue to exist.
+
+
+
+
+AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.
+
+
+We have been so much accustomed to regard the Austrian empire as one
+German nation, that we sometimes forget of how many separate kingdoms
+and principalities it consists, and of how many different and
+disunited races its population is composed. It may not, therefore, be
+unnecessary to recall attention to the fact that the Austrian
+dominions of the last three hundred years--the Austrian empire of our
+times--consists of three kingdoms and many minor principalities,
+inhabited by five distinct races, whose native tongues are
+unintelligible to each other, and who have no common language in which
+they can communicate; who are divided by religious differences; who
+preserve their distinctive characteristics, customs, and feelings;
+whose sentiments are mutually unfriendly, and who are, to this day,
+unmixed in blood. The Germans, the Italians, the Majjars or
+Hungarians, the Sclaves, and the Wallacks, are distinct and alien
+races--without community of origin, of language, of religion, or of
+sentiments. Except the memory of triumphs and disasters common to them
+all, their allegiance to one sovereign is now, as it was three
+centuries ago, the only bond that unites them. Yet, in all the
+vicissitudes of fortune--some of them disastrous--which this empire
+has survived, these nations and races have held together. The
+inference is inevitable--whatever may have been its defects, that form
+of government could not have been altogether unfit for its purposes,
+which so many different kingdoms and races united to support and
+maintain.
+
+It would be a mistake, however, to assume that these various states
+were under one form of government. There were almost as many forms of
+government as there were principalities; but they were all
+monarchical, and one sovereign happened to become the monarch of the
+whole. The house of Hapsburg, in which the imperial crown of Germany,
+the regal crowns of Hungary, Bohemia, and Lombardy, and the ducal
+crowns of Austria, Styria, the Tyrol, and nearly a dozen other
+principalities, became hereditary, acquired their possessions, not by
+conquest, but by election, succession, or other legitimate titles[30]
+recognised by the people. The descendants of Rodolph thus became the
+sovereigns of many separate states, each of which retained, as a
+matter of right, its own constitution. The sovereign, his chief
+advisers, and the principal officers of state at his court, were
+usually Germans by birth, or by education and predilection; but the
+constitution of each state--the internal administration, and those
+parts of the machinery of government with which the people came more
+immediately into contact--were their own. In some we find the monarchy
+elective, as in Hungary, Bohemia, and Styria; in all we find diets of
+representatives or delegates, chosen by certain classes of the people,
+without whose concurrence taxes could not be imposed, troops levied,
+or legislative measures enacted; and we find municipal institutions
+founded on a broad basis of representation. In none of them was the
+form of government originally despotic.
+
+To the unquestionable titles by which they acquired their
+crowns--titles by which the pride of nation or of race was not
+wounded--and to the more or less perfect preservation, in each state,
+of its national institutions and privileges--to the enjoyment by each
+people of their laws, their language, customs, and prejudices--the
+princes of the house of Hapsburg owed the allegiance of subjects who
+had little else in common. There, as elsewhere in continental Europe,
+the sovereign long continued to encroach upon the rights of his
+subjects, and at length usurped an authority not recognised by the
+laws of his different possessions, or consistent with the conditions
+on which he had received their crowns. These usurpations were
+frequently resisted, and not unfrequently by force of arms. Belgium
+asserted her independence, and was permanently separated from Austria.
+But, in such contests, the sovereign of many separate states had
+obvious advantages. His subjects, divided by differences of race,
+language, religion, and sentiment, were incapable of combining against
+him; and however solicitous each people might be to preserve their own
+liberties and privileges, they were not prepared to resist
+encroachments on those of a neighbouring people, for whom they had no
+friendly feeling. The Austrians and Italians were ready to assert the
+emperor's authority in Hungary or Bohemia, the Hungarians and
+Bohemians to put down resistance in Lombardy. Even in the same kingdom
+the races were not united. In Hungary, the Sclave was sometimes ready
+to aid the emperor against the Majjar, the German against the Sclave.
+The disunion which was a source of weakness to the empire was a source
+of strength to the emperor.
+
+Partly by compulsory changes, effected according to constitutional
+forms, partly by undisguised usurpations, in which these forms were
+disregarded, the emperors were thus enabled to extend the prerogative
+of the crown, to abridge the liberties of their subjects in each of
+their possessions, and, in some of them, to subvert the national
+institutions.
+
+In the Hereditary States of Austria, the power of the emperor has long
+been absolute. The strength of Bohemia was broken, and her spirit
+subdued, by the confiscations and proscriptions that followed upon the
+defeat of the Protestants, near Prague, in the religious wars of
+Frederick II.; and for many years her diet has been subservient.
+Lombardy, the prize of contending armies--German, Spanish, and
+French--passing from hand to hand, has been regarded as a conquered
+country; and, with the forms of a popular representation, has been
+governed as an Austrian province. Hungary alone has preserved her
+independence and her constitution. But these usurpations were not
+always injurious to the great body of the people; on the contrary,
+they were often beneficial. In most of these states, a great part of
+the population was subject to a dominant class, or nobles, who alone
+had a share in the government, or possessed constitutional rights, and
+who exercised an arbitrary jurisdiction over the peasants. The crown,
+jealous of the power of the aristocracy, afforded the peasants some
+protection against the oppressions of their immediate superiors. A
+large body of the people in each state, therefore, saw with
+satisfaction, or without resentment, the increasing power of the
+crown, the abridgment of rights and privileges which armed their
+masters with the power to oppress them, and the subversion of a
+constitution from which they derived no advantage. If the usurpations
+of the crown threatened to alienate the nobles, they promised to
+conciliate the humbler classes.
+
+On the other hand, every noble was a soldier. The wars in which the
+emperor was engaged, while they forced him occasionally to cultivate
+the good-will of the aristocracy, on which he was chiefly dependent
+for his military resources, fostered military habits of submission,
+and feelings of feudal allegiance to the sovereign. Military service
+was the road to distinction--military glory the ruling passion. The
+crown was the fountain of honour, to which all who sought it repaired.
+A splendid court had its usual attractions; and the nobles of the
+different races and nations, rivals for the favour of the prince,
+sought to outdo each other in proofs of devotion to his person and
+service. Thus it was, that, notwithstanding the usurpations of the
+emperor, and the resistance they excited, his foreign enemies
+generally found all classes of his subjects united to defend the
+dignity of his crown, and the integrity of his dominions.
+
+Still there was nothing to bind together the various parts of this
+curious fabric, except the accident of allegiance to one sovereign.
+This was but a precarious bond of union; and the imperial government
+has, therefore, been unremitting in its efforts to amalgamate the
+different parts into one whole. The Germans were but a small minority
+of the emperor's subjects, but the imperial government, the growth of
+their soil, reflected their mind; and it does not appear to have
+entered the Austrian mind to conceive that a more intimate union could
+be accomplished in any other way than by extending the institutions of
+the Hereditary States to all parts of the empire, and thus ultimately
+converting the Italians, the Majjars, and the Sclaves, into Austrian
+Germans.
+
+This policy has been eminently unsuccessful in Hungary, where it has
+frequently been resisted by force of arms; but its failure is not to
+be attributed solely to the freedom of the institutions of that
+country, or to the love of independence, and the feelings of
+nationality which have been conspicuous in her history. The imperial
+government, while it resisted the usurpations of the see of Rome in
+secular matters, asserted its spiritual supremacy with unscrupulous
+zeal. Every one is acquainted with the history of the Reformation in
+Bohemia--its early manifestations, its progress, its unsuccessful
+contests, and its suppression by military force, by confiscations and
+proscriptions, extending to half the property and the proprietors in
+that kingdom; but perhaps it is not so generally known, or remembered,
+that the Majjars early embraced the Reformed doctrines of the school
+of Calvin, which, even now, when more than half their numbers have
+become Roman Catholics, is known in Hungary as "the Majjar faith." The
+history of religious persecution, everywhere a chronicle of misery and
+crime, has few pages so revolting as that which tells of the
+persecutions of the Protestants of Hungary, under her Roman Catholic
+kings of the house of Austria. It was in the name of persecuted
+Protestantism that resistance to Austrian autocracy was organised; it
+was not less in defence of their religion than of their liberties that
+the nation took up arms. Yet there was a time when the Majjars, at
+least as tenacious of their nationality as any other people in the
+empire, might perhaps have been Germanised--had certainly made
+considerable advances towards a more intimate union with Austria.
+Maria Theresa, assailed without provocation by Prussia--in violation
+of justice and of the faith of treaties, by France, Bavaria, Saxony,
+Sardinia, and Spain, and aided only by England and the United
+Provinces--was in imminent danger of losing the greater part of her
+dominions. Guided by the instinct of a woman's heart, and yielding to
+its impulse, she set at naught the remonstrances of her Austrian
+counsellors, and relied on the loyalty of the Hungarians. Proceeding
+to Presburg, she appeared at the meeting of the diet, told the
+assembled nobles the difficulties and dangers by which she was
+surrounded, and threw herself, her child, and her cause, upon their
+generosity. At that appeal every sabre leapt from its scabbard, and
+the shout, "Moriamur pro rege nostro, Maria Theresâ!" called all
+Hungary to arms. The tide of invasion was rolled back beyond the Alps
+and the Rhine, and the empire was saved.
+
+     "On avait vu," says Montesquieu, "la maison d'Autriche
+     travailler sans reláche à opprimer la noblesse Hongroise;
+     elle ignorait de quel prix elle lui serait un jour. Elle
+     cherchait chez ces peuples de l'argent, qui n'y était pas;
+     elle ne voyait pas les hommes, qui y étaient. Lorsque tant de
+     princes partagaient entre eux ces états, toutes les pièces de
+     la monarchie, immobiles et sans action, tombaient, pour ainsi
+     dire, les unes sur les autres. Il n'y avait de vie que dans
+     cette noblesse, qui s'indigna, oublia tout pour combattre, et
+     cru qu'il était de sa gloire de périr et de pardonner."
+
+The nobles of Hungary had fallen by thousands; many families had been
+ruined; all had been impoverished by a war of seven years, which they
+had prosecuted at their private charge; but their queen had not
+forgotten how much she owed them. She treated them with a kindness
+more gratifying than the highest distinction; acquired their
+confidence by confiding in them; taught them to speak the language of
+her court; made their residence in her capital agreeable to them;
+promoted alliances between the noble families of Hungary and Austria;
+obtained from their devotion concessions which her predecessors had
+failed to extort by force; and prepared the way for a more intimate
+union between two nations which had hitherto regarded each other with
+aversion.
+
+M. A. de Gerando has discovered, in the portrait-galleries of the
+Hungarian magnates, amusing traces of some of the means by which the
+clever empress-queen extended Austrian influence and authority into
+Hungary.
+
+     "Il est curieux," (he says,) "de voir, dans les châteaux de
+     Hongrie, les galeries de portraits de famille. Aussi haut que
+     l'on remonte, ce ne sont d'abord que de graves figures
+     orientales. Les hommes out la mine heroïque, comme on se
+     représente ces hardis cavaliers, qui invariablement
+     finissaient par se faire tuer dans quelque action contre les
+     Turcs; les femmes sont austères et tristes ainsi qu'elles
+     devaient l'être en effet. A partir de Marie-Therèse, tout
+     change et la physionomie et l'expression des personnages. On
+     voit bien que ceux-là ont paru à la cour de Vienne, et y ont
+     appris les belles manières. Le contraste est frappant dans le
+     portrait du magnat qui le premier épousa une Allemande. Le
+     Hongrois, seul, occupe un coin de la toile. Il est debout,
+     digne, la main gauche sur la poignée de son sabre recourbée;
+     la droite tient une masse d'armes. De formidables éperons
+     sont cloués à ses bottines jaunes. Il porte un long dolman
+     galonné, et une culotte de hussard brodée d'or. Sur son
+     épaule est attachée une riche pelisse, ou une peau de tigre.
+     Sa moustache noire pend à la turque, et de grands cheveux
+     tombent en boucles sur son cou. Il y a du barbare dans cet
+     homme-là. Sa femme, assise, en robe de cour, est au milieu du
+     tableau. Elle règne et elle domine. Près de son fauteuil se
+     tiennent les enfants, qui ont déjà les yeux bleus et les
+     lèvres Autrichiennes. Les enfants sont à elle, à elle seule.
+     Ils sont poudrés comme elle, lui ressemblent, l'entourent, et
+     lui parlent. Ils parlent l'Allemand, bien entendu."--(Pp.
+     17-18.)
+
+The son and successor of Maria Theresa, Joseph II., attempted, in his
+summary way, by arbitrary edicts promising liberty and equality, to
+subvert the constitution of every country he governed, and to extend
+to them all one uniform despotic system, founded on that of Austria.
+To him Hungary is indebted for the first gleam of religious
+toleration; but his hasty and despotic attempts to suppress national
+distinctions, national institutions and languages, provoked a fierce
+and armed resistance in Hungary, and in other portions of his
+dominions, and more than revived all the old aversion to Austria. His
+more prudent successor made concessions to the spirit of independence,
+and the love of national institutions, which Joseph had so deeply
+wounded. Leopold regained the Hungarians; but Belgium, already
+alienated in spirit, never again gave her heart to the emperor; and he
+never lost sight of the uniformity of system that Maria Theresa had
+done so much to promote, and which Joseph, in his haste to accomplish
+it, had for the moment made unattainable. From the days of Ferdinand
+I. until now, the attempt to assimilate the forms and system of
+government, in every part of their possessions, to the more arbitrary
+Austrian model, has been steadily pursued throughout the reigns of all
+the princes of the house of Hapsburg. These persevering efforts to
+extend the power of the crown by subverting national institutions, and
+thus to obliterate so many separate nationalities, have aroused for
+their defence a spirit that promises to perpetuate them.
+
+Feelings of community of race and language, which had slumbered for
+many generations, have been revived with singular intensity. Italy for
+the Italians--Germany for the Germans--a new Sclavonic empire for the
+western Sclaves--the union of all the Sclave nations under the empire
+of the Czar--are cries which have had power to shake thrones, and may
+hereafter dismember empires.
+
+The separation between the different members of the Austrian empire,
+which the havoc of war could not effect in three centuries, a few
+years of peace and prosperity have threatened to accomplish. The
+energies that were so long concentrated on war, have now, for more
+than thirty years, been directed to the development of intellectual
+and material resources. The ambition that sought its gratification in
+the field, now seeks to acquire influence in the administration, and
+power to sway the opinions of men. The love of national independence,
+that repelled foreign aggression, has become a longing for personal
+liberty, that refuses to submit to arbitrary power. The road to
+distinction no longer leads to the court, but to the popular assembly;
+for the rewards conferred by the voice of the people have become more
+precious than any honours the sovereign can bestow. The duty of
+allegiance to the crown has become a question of reciprocal
+obligations, and has ceased to rest upon divine right. The only bond
+that held the Austrian empire together has thus been loosened, and the
+parts are in danger of falling asunder.
+
+Lombardy, which was united to the German empire nine hundred years
+ago, renounced its allegiance, and refused to be Austrian. Bohemia, a
+part of the old German empire, inhabited chiefly by a Sclavonic race,
+has been dreaming of Pansclavism. Carried away by poetical rhapsodies,
+poured forth in profusion by a Lutheran preacher at Pesth, and
+calculated, if not designed, to promote foreign influence and
+ascendency, she has awoke from her dreams to find herself engaged in a
+sanguinary conflict, which was terminated by the bombardment and
+submission of her capital. Vienna, after having twice forced her
+emperor to fly from his capital, has been taken by storm, and is held
+in subjection by a garrison, whose stragglers are nightly thinned by
+assassins. Hungary, (to which we propose chiefly to direct our
+attention,) whose blood has been shed like water in defence of the
+house of Hapsburg--whose chivalry has more than once saved the
+empire--whom Napoleon, at the head of a victorious army in Vienna, was
+unable to scare, or to seduce from her allegiance to her fugitive
+king--whose population is more sincerely attached to monarchy than
+perhaps any other people in Europe, except ourselves, is in arms
+against the emperor of Austria. All the fierce tribes by which the
+Majjars are encircled have been let loose upon them, and, in the name
+of the emperor, the atrocities of Gallicia, which chilled Europe with
+horror, have been renewed in Pannonia. The army of the Emperor of
+Austria has invaded the territories of the King of Hungary, occupies
+the capital, ravages the towns and villages, expels and denounces the
+constituted authorities of the kingdom, abrogates the laws, and boasts
+of its victories over his faithful subjects, as if they had been
+anarchists who sought to overturn his throne.
+
+The people of this country have long entertained towards Austria
+feelings of kindness and respect. We may smile at her proverbial
+slowness; we may marvel at the desperate efforts she has made to stand
+still, while every one else was pressing forward; the curiously
+graduated system of education, by which she metes out to each class the
+modicum of knowledge which all must accept, and none may exceed--her
+protective custom-houses, which destroy her commerce--her quarantines
+against political contagion, which they cannot exclude--her system of
+passports, with all its complications and vexations, and the tedious
+formalities of her tardy functionaries,--may sometimes be subjects of
+ridicule. But, though the young may have looked with scorn, the more
+thoughtful amongst us have looked with complacency on the social repose
+and general comfort--on the absence of continual jostling and
+struggling in all the roads of life--produced by a system, unsuited to
+our national tastes and tempers, no doubt, but which, till a few months
+ago, appeared to be in perfect harmony with the character of the
+Austrian German. We respect her courage, her constancy in adversity. We
+admire the sturdy obstinacy with which she has so often stood up to
+fight another round, and has finally triumphed after she appeared to be
+beaten. We call to mind the services she rendered to Christian
+civilisation in times past. We remember that her interests have
+generally concurred with our own--have rarely been opposed to them. We
+cannot forget the long and arduous struggles, in which England and
+Austria have stood side by side, in defence of the liberties of
+nations, or the glorious achievements by which those liberties were
+preserved. It is because we would retain unimpaired the feelings which
+these recollections inspire, because we consider the power and the
+character of Austria essential to the welfare of Europe, that we look
+with alarm on the course she has pursued towards Hungary.
+
+The time has not yet come when the whole course of the events
+connected with this unnatural contest can be accurately known. The
+silence maintained and imposed by Austria may have withheld, or
+suppressed, explanations that would justify or palliate much of what
+wears a worse than doubtful aspect. But the authentic, information now
+accessible to the public cannot fail to cause deep anxiety to all who
+care for the reputation of the imperial government--to all who desire
+to see monarchy come pure out of the furnace in which it is now being
+tried. The desire to enforce its hereditary policy of a uniform
+patriarchal system would not justify, in the eyes of Englishmen, an
+alliance with anarchy to put down constitutional monarchy in Hungary,
+or an attempt to cover, with the blood and dust of civil war, the
+departure of the imperial government from solemn engagements entered
+into by the emperor.
+
+The nature of the relations by which Hungary is connected with
+Austria--the origin and progress of their present quarrel, and the
+objects for which the Hungarians are contending--appear to have been
+very generally misunderstood, not in this country only, but in a great
+part of Europe. Men whom we might expect to find better informed, seem
+to imagine that Hungary is an Austrian province in rebellion against
+the emperor, and that the origin and tendency of the movement was
+republican. The reverse of all this is true. Hungary is not, and never
+was, a province of Austria; but has been and is, both _de jure_ and
+_de facto_, an independent kingdom. The Emperor of Austria is also
+King of Hungary, but, as Emperor of Austria, has neither sovereign
+right nor jurisdiction in Hungary. The Hungarians assert, and
+apparently with truth, that they took up arms to repel unprovoked
+aggression, and to defend their constitutional monarchy as by law
+established; that their objects are therefore purely conservative, and
+their principles monarchical; and that it is false and calumnious to
+accuse them of having contemplated or desired to found a republic--a
+form of government foreign to their sentiments, and incompatible with
+their social condition.
+
+The kingdom of Hungary (Hungarey) founded by the Majjars in the tenth
+century, had for several generations been distinguished amongst the
+nations of Europe, when another pagan tribe from the same
+stock--issuing like them from the Mongolian plains, and turning the
+Black Sea by the south, as they had done by the north--crossed the
+Bosphorus, overturned the throne of the Cæsars, and established on its
+ruins an Asiatic empire, which became the terror of Christendom. The
+Majjars, converted to Christianity, encountered on the banks of the
+Danube this cognate race, converted to Islamism, and became the first
+bulwark of Christian Europe against the Turks. The deserts of Central
+Asia, which had sent forth the warlike tribe that threatened Eastern
+Europe with subjugation, had also furnished the prowess that was
+destined to arrest their progress. The court of Hungary had long been
+the resort of men of learning and science; the chivalry of Europe had
+flocked to her camps, where military ardour was never disappointed of
+a combat, or religious zeal of an opportunity to slaughter infidels.
+In 1526, Ludovic, King of Hungary and Bohemia, with the flower of the
+Hungarian chivalry, fell fighting with the Turks at the disastrous
+battle of Mohacs--the Flodden field of Hungary. The monarchy was then
+elective, but when the late king left heirs of his body the election
+was but a matter of form. When the monarch died without leaving an
+heir of his body, the nation freely exercised its right of election,
+and on more than one such occasion had chosen their king from amongst
+the members of princely houses in other parts of Europe. In this
+manner Charles Robert, of the Neapolitan branch of the house of Anjou
+and Ladislas, King of Bohemia, son of Casimir King of Poland, and
+father of Ludovic who fell at Mohacs, had been placed upon the throne.
+Ludovic died without issue, and he was the last male of his line--it
+therefore became necessary to choose a king from some other house.
+Ferdinand, brother of the Emperor Charles V., had married his cousin
+Anne, daughter of Ladislas, and sister of Ludovic the late King of
+Hungary and Bohemia. His personal character, his connexion with the
+royal family of Hungary, and the support he might expect from the
+emperor in the war against the Turks, prevailed over the national
+antipathy to Austria, and he was elected to the vacant throne, though
+not without a contest. He was crowned according to the ancient customs
+of Hungary, and at his coronation took the oath which had been
+administered on similar occasions to his predecessors. He thereby
+bound himself to govern according to the laws, and to maintain and
+defend the constitution and the territory of Hungary. He was likewise
+elected King of Bohemia, after subscribing a document, by which he
+renounced every other claim to the crown than that which he derived
+from his election. The emperor surrendered to him the crown of
+Austria, and these three crowns were thus, for the first time, united
+in a prince of the house of Hapsburg. These states were altogether
+independent one of another, had their separate laws, institutions, and
+customs, and had no other bond of connexion than the accidental union
+of the crowns in one person--a union which might at any time, on the
+demise of the crown, have been dissolved. It resembled, in this
+respect, the union of the crowns of Great Britain and Hanover in the
+persons of our own sovereigns, that it left the kingdoms both _de
+jure_ and _de facto_ independent of each other. In 1558, Ferdinand was
+elected Emperor of Germany; but as emperor he could claim no
+jurisdiction in Hungary, which was not then, and never was, included
+in the German empire. The monarchy of Hungary continued to be
+elective, and the nation continued to give a preference to the heirs
+of the late monarch. The princes of the house of Hapsburg, who
+succeeded to the throne of Austria, were thus successively elected to
+that of Hungary; were separately crowned in that kingdom, according to
+its ancient customs; and at their coronation took the same oath that
+Ferdinand had taken.
+
+In 1687 the states of Hungary decreed that the throne, which had
+hitherto been filled by election, should thenceforward be hereditary
+in the male heirs of the house of Hapsburg; and in 1723, the diet, by
+agreeing to the Pragmatic sanction of Charles III. of Hungary, (the
+Emperor Charles VI. of Germany,) extended the right of succession to
+the female descendants of that prince. These two measures were
+intended, and calculated, to perpetuate the union of the two crowns in
+the same person. The order of succession to the crown of Hungary was
+thus definitively settled by statute, and could not legally be
+departed from, unless with the concurrence both of the diet and of the
+sovereign. So long, therefore, as the crown of Austria was transmitted
+in the same order of succession as that in which the crown of Hungary
+had been settled, the union would be preserved; but any deviation in
+Austria from the order fixed by law in Hungary would lead to a
+separation of the crowns, unless the Hungarian diet could be induced
+to consent to a new settlement. Thus we have seen the crowns of Great
+Britain and Hanover united for four generations, and separated in the
+fifth, because one was settled on heirs male or female, the other on
+heirs male only.
+
+An attempt has been made, with reference to recent events, to found on
+the Pragmatic Sanction pretensions that might derogate from the
+absolute independence of Hungary; but the articles of the Hungarian
+diet[31] of 1790 appear to be fatal to any such pretensions. By
+Article 10 of that year it is declared, that "Hungary is a country
+free and independent in her entire system of legislation and of
+government; that she is not subject to any other people, or any other
+state, but that she shall have her own separate existence, and her own
+constitution, and shall consequently be governed by kings crowned
+according to her national laws and customs." By Article 12 of the same
+diet it was declared, that the power to enact, to interpret, and to
+abrogate the laws, was vested conjointly in the king, legitimately
+crowned, and the diet; and that no attempt should ever be made to
+govern by edicts or arbitrary acts. By Article 13 it was decreed, that
+the diet should be called together once every three years at the
+least. By Article 19 it was declared, that imposts could not be levied
+at the king's pleasure, but must be freely voted by the two tables
+(houses) from one diet to another. All these acts received the formal
+assent of Leopold II., and thus became statutes of the kingdom.
+
+The successors of Leopold--Francis II., and Ferdinand, who has
+recently abdicated--received the crown of Hungary on the conditions
+implied in the coronation oath, which was administered to them in the
+usual manner, and by which they bound themselves to respect and
+maintain the constitution as by law established, and to govern
+according to the statutes. The question whether the late emperor
+should be addressed Ferdinand I. or Ferdinand V. was a subject of
+debate in the diet while Mr Paget was at Presburg, and he gives the
+following account of the proceedings:--
+
+     "The bill now brought up from the deputies, and to which the
+     degree of importance attached by all parties appeared
+     ridiculous to a stranger, had reference to the appellation of
+     the new king.... The matter, however, was not so unimportant
+     as it may appear; the fact is, he is Emperor Ferdinand I. of
+     Austria, and King Ferdinand V. of Hungary; and unless Hungary
+     had ceased to be an independent country, which the greatest
+     courtier would not dare to insinuate, there could be no
+     question as to his proper title. The magnates, however,
+     thought otherwise: it was understood that the court desired
+     that the style of Ferdinand I. should be used, and the
+     magnates were too anxious to please not to desire the same
+     thing. The deputies had now for the fourth time sent up the
+     same bill, insisting on the title of Ferdinand V.; and for
+     the fourth time the magnates were now about to reject it....
+     At the moment when the magnates were as firm as rocks on the
+     wrong side, the court took the wise course of showing its
+     contempt for such supporters, by sending down a proclamation
+     'We Ferdinand V., by the grace of God, King of Hungary, &c.
+     &c.'"
+
+It must not be supposed that these articles of 1790 conferred upon the
+diet any new powers, or implied any new concessions on the part of the
+king. They were declaratory acts, framed for the purpose of exacting
+from Leopold II. securities against a renewal of the arbitrary
+proceedings to which Joseph had resorted; and they merely reasserted
+what the Hungarian constitution had provided long before the election
+of Ferdinand I.--what had for several generations been the law of the
+land.
+
+The Hungarians were not satisfied with having obtained from Leopold a
+formal renunciation of Joseph's illegal pretensions. They felt, and
+the cabinet admitted, that the ancient institutions of Hungary--which
+had with difficulty been preserved, and which for some generations had
+been deteriorating rather than improving under the influence of the
+Austrian government--were no longer suited to the altered
+circumstances of the country, to the growing intelligence and
+advancing civilisation of its inhabitants. But they desired to effect
+all necessary ameliorations cautiously and deliberately. They were
+neither enamoured of the republican doctrines of France, nor disposed
+to engage in destructive reforms for the purpose of framing a new
+constitution. They desired to improve, not to destroy, that which they
+possessed. They would probably have preferred to effect the necessary
+ameliorations in each department successively; but they feared the
+direction that might be given by the influence of the crown, to any
+gradual modification of the existing institutions that might be
+attempted. By the constitution of Hungary, the diet is precluded from
+discussing any measures that have not been brought before it in the
+royal propositions, or king's speech--unless cases of particular
+grievances which may be brought before the diet by individual members.
+To engage in a course of successive reforms would have exposed the
+diet to the danger of being arrested in its progress, as soon as it
+had passed such measures as were acceptable to the cabinet. They
+therefore named a commission, including the most enlightened and the
+ablest men in the country, to report on the whole legislation of
+Hungary in all its branches. This great national commission was formed
+of seven committees, or sub-commissions, each of which undertook to
+report on one department. The committees were--1st, That on the
+Urbarial code, or the condition of the peasants, and their relations
+to the proprietors: 2d, On the army, and all that related to it: 3d,
+On public policy, including the powers and jurisdiction of the diet,
+and of its different component parts: 4th, On matters ecclesiastical
+and literary, including education: 5th, On commerce: 6th, On the civil
+and criminal codes: and 7th, On contributions, including the whole
+system of taxation, and everything connected with the public revenue.
+The reports of this national commission, which are known as the
+"Operata systematica commissionis regnicolaris," recommended
+comprehensive ameliorations of the laws, and were creditable to the
+intelligence, science, statesmanship, and good sense of the
+commissions. The reports upon the commercial and the criminal codes,
+more especially, attracted the attention and the admiration of some of
+the ablest men in Germany.
+
+From this time forward, each succeeding diet endeavoured to get the
+recommendations of the commission introduced into the royal
+propositions. The cabinet never refused--often promised to comply with
+this demand, but always deferred the discussion. Probably it was not
+averse to some of the measures proposed, or at least not unwilling to
+adopt them in part. The projected reform of the Urbarial code would
+have tended to increase the revenue, and to facilitate its collection;
+but it would at the same time have imposed upon the nobles new
+burdens, and required of them considerable sacrifices--and, before
+submitting to these, they were desirous to secure a more efficient
+control over the national expenditure, and ameliorations of the
+Austrian commercial system, which, by heavy duties, had depreciated
+the value of the agricultural produce that furnished their incomes.
+The diet, therefore, desired to get the _operata systematica_
+considered as a whole; the cabinet, and the party in Hungary which
+supported it, sought to restrict the diet to the discussion of such
+changes only as were calculated to benefit Austria.
+
+When Francis II., who had for some years been Palatine of Hungary,
+ascended the thrones of that kingdom and of Austria in 1792, there was
+no question as to the independence of Hungary, which had been so fully
+recognised by his father. The usual oath was administered to him at
+his coronation, which was conducted in the usual manner; and in his
+reply to the address of the Hungarian diet, on his accession, he
+showed no disposition to invade the constitutional rights of the
+Hungarians. "I affirm," he said, "with sincerity, that I will not
+allow myself to be surpassed in the affection we owe to each other.
+Tell your citizens that, faithful to my character, I shall be the
+guardian of the constitution: my will shall be no other than that of
+the law, and my efforts shall have no other guides than honour, good
+faith, and unalterable confidence in the magnanimous Hungarian
+nation." To these sentiments the diet responded by voting all the
+supplies, and the troops, demanded of them by the king.
+
+In 1796, the diet was again called together, to be informed that,
+"attacked by the impious and iniquitous French nation, the king felt
+the necessity of consulting his faithful states of Hungary,
+remembering that, under Maria Theresa, Hungary had saved the
+monarchy." The diet voted a contingent of 50,000 men, and undertook to
+provision the Austrian army, amounting to 340,000 soldiers. It urged
+the government to propose the consideration of the _operata
+systematica_; but the cabinet replied that it must consult and
+reflect; and, in the mean time, the diet was dissolved after only
+nineteen sittings. These proceedings produced a general feeling of
+discontent in Hungary, which threatened to become embarrassing; but
+the success of the French armies aroused the military spirit and
+loyalty of the Hungarians, and the appointment, at the same time, of
+the amicable and enlightened Archduke Joseph to the dignity of
+Palatine of Hungary, in which he retained for fifty years the respect
+and affection of all parties, tended to preserve their attachment,
+though it did not silence their complaints.
+
+When the diet met in 1802, the peace of Amiens had been concluded.
+
+     "Until now," (said the king in his answer to the address,)
+     "circumstances have not permitted my government to attend to
+     anything but the war, which has afforded you an occasion to
+     show your zeal and your fidelity. With commendable
+     generosity, you have voted the contingents and the subsidies
+     which the situation of the empire demanded; and the
+     remembrance of your devotion shall never be extinguished in
+     my heart, or in the hearts of my family. But, now that peace
+     is concluded, I desire to extend my solicitude to the kingdom
+     of Hungary--to the country which has most effectually aided
+     me in the wars I have had to sustain--which, by its extent,
+     its population, its fertility, the noble character and the
+     valour of its inhabitants, is the chief bulwark of the
+     monarchy. My desire is to arrange with the states of Hungary
+     the means of increasing her prosperity, and to merit the
+     thanks of the nation."
+
+But the peace of Amiens proved to be a hollow truce, and this
+flattering communication became the prelude to renewed demands for men
+and money. To hasten the votes on the supplies, the diet was informed
+that it would be dissolved in two months. In the debate which ensued,
+one of the members uttered the sentiments of the nation, when he
+said--"It is plain that the king calls us together only when he wants
+soldiers and supplies. He knows that, after all, we have too much
+honour to allow the majesty of the King of Hungary to be insulted by
+his enemies." The impost was increased, and the contingent raised to
+64,000 men; but the consideration of the measures recommended by the
+great national commission, though promised, was deferred by the king.
+The diet of 1805 resembled that of 1802--the same promises ending in
+similar disappointment.
+
+The diet of 1807 was more remarkable. To the usual demands was added
+the royal proposition, that the "insurrection," or _levée en masse_,
+should be organised, and ready to march at the first signal. The
+patience of the nation was exhausted. The diet represented to the
+king, in firm but respectful addresses, the disorder in the finances
+produced by the amount of paper-money issued in disregard of their
+remonstrances, and called upon the government to repair the evil. They
+said that, during many years, the country had done enough to prove its
+fidelity to the sovereign, whose royal promises had not been
+fulfilled; and that henceforth the Hungarians could not expend their
+lives and fortunes in the defence of his hereditary states, unless he
+seriously took in hand the interests of their native country. They
+demanded the revision of the commercial system, and liberty freely to
+export the produce of the country, and freely to import the
+productions of other countries. They complained of a new depreciation
+of the currency, demanded a reduction of the duty on salt, (the
+produce of their own mines,) which had recently been augmented, and
+denounced "the injustice of paralysing the industry of a people, while
+requiring of them great sacrifices."
+
+The justice of these representations was admitted, but no satisfactory
+answer was returned; and the murmurs at Presburg became loud enough to
+cause alarm at Vienna. The advance of Napoleon to the frontiers of
+Hungary turned the current of the national feeling. It was now the
+sacred soil of Hungary that was threatened with desecration, and the
+diet not only voted all the subsidies and 20,000 recruits, but the
+whole body of the nobles or freemen spontaneously offered one-sixth of
+their incomes, and a _levée en masse_ was decreed for three years.
+Napoleon's attempts to detach the Hungarians from the cause of their
+king were unavailing, and their devotion to his person was never more
+conspicuous than when he had lost the power to reward it.
+
+In 1811 the royal propositions, in addition to the usual demands,
+requested the diet to vote an extraordinary supply of twelve millions
+of florins, and to guarantee Austrian paper money to the amount of one
+hundred millions, (about ten millions sterling.) The diet called for
+the account of the previous expenditure, and were told that the
+details of the budget were secrets of state. This answer excited the
+greatest indignation, and they refused to vote any extraordinary
+supply till the accounts were produced. They complained that the
+finances of Hungary were administered by Austrians--foreigners, who
+were excluded by law from a voice in their affairs--and that the
+cabinet of the emperor had illegally mixed up the finances of Hungary
+with those of the hereditary states of Austria. Some members of the
+diet even threatened to impeach the ministers. In their addresses to
+the throne, the financial administration of the imperial government
+was roughly handled; and the cabinet, perceiving that the debates at
+Presburg had inconveniently directed attention, even in the Hereditary
+States, to financial questions, hastily withdrew their propositions.
+
+The peace of 1815 restored to Europe the repose she had long desired,
+and to Hungary many of her sons who had long been absent. In the midst
+of war, her diet had never ceased to attend to the internal
+administration of the country, to the improvement of her resources,
+and the advancement of her population in material prosperity and
+intelligence. All the comprehensive measures prepared with this view
+had been postponed or neglected by the king, acting by the advice of
+his Austrian cabinet, and supported by a powerful party of the
+magnates of Hungary. But though her hopes had been disappointed,
+Hungary had never failed, in any moment of difficulty or danger, to
+apply her whole power and resources to the defence of the empire. She
+never sought, in the embarrassments, the defeat, and misfortunes of
+Austria, an opportunity to extort from her king the justice he had
+denied to her prayers. She never for a moment swerved from devoted
+allegiance to her constitutional monarch. "After all, she had too much
+honour to allow the majesty of the King of Hungary to be insulted by
+his enemies." She forgave the frequent delays and refusals, by which
+the most salutary measures had been frustrated or rejected, because
+she knew that the thoughts and the energies of her sovereign and his
+Austrian cabinet had been directed to the defence of the empire, and
+the preservation of its independence. But now that these were no
+longer threatened, that the good cause for which she had fought with
+so much gallantry and devotion had triumphed, she had a right to
+expect a grateful return for her services--or at least that the
+promises, on the faith of which she had lavished her blood and her
+treasure in defence of her king and of his Austrian dominions, would
+be fulfilled. But the republican outbreak in France had led to long
+years of war and desolation; the triumph of monarchy and order over
+anarchy had at length been achieved, and men had not only abjured the
+doctrines from which so much evil had sprung, but monarchs had learned
+to look with distrust on every form of government that permitted the
+expression of public opinion, or acknowledged the right of the people
+to be heard. Even the mixed government of England, to which order owed
+its triumph, was regarded as a danger and a snare to other countries.
+The Holy Alliance was formed, and the Austrian cabinet, which for more
+than twenty years had flattered the hopes of Hungary when it wanted
+her assistance, now boldly resolved to govern that kingdom without the
+aid of its diet. In vain did the county assemblies call for the
+convocation of the national parliament, which the king was bound, by
+the laws he had sworn to observe, to summon every three years. Their
+addresses were not even honoured with an answer. In 1822, an attempt
+was made to levy imposts and troops by royal edicts. The comitats
+(county assemblies) refused to enforce them. In 1823, bodies of troops
+were sent--first to overawe, and then to coerce them. The county
+officers concealed their archives and official seals, and dispersed.
+Royal commissioners were appointed to perform their functions, and
+were almost everywhere resisted. The whole administration of the
+country, civil and judicial, was in confusion; and, after an unseemly
+and damaging contest, the cabinet found it necessary, in 1825, to give
+way, and to summon the diet, after an interval of twelve years. One
+personal anecdote will convey a more correct impression of the
+feelings with which the Hungarians, who were most attached to the
+emperor-king, viewed these proceedings, than any detail we could give.
+John Nemet, Director Causarum Regalium of Hungary, at a personal
+interview with the king, denounced the proceedings of the cabinet. "Do
+you know," said the irritated monarch, "that I am emperor and king;
+that you may lose your head?" "I know," replied Nemet, "that my life
+is in your majesty's hands; but the liberty of my country, and the
+honour of my sovereign, are dearer to me than my life."
+
+When the diet met in 1825, the king, in his reply to the address,
+admitted that "things had happened which ought not to have occurred,
+and which should not occur again." The diet did not conceal its
+resentment. The comitat of Zala, through its representatives, demanded
+the names of the traitors who had misled the king; and the
+representatives of all the other counties supported the proposition.
+One of the royal commissioners came in tears to apologise to the diet;
+another, who attempted to justify himself on the ground of obedience
+to the king, was told that a faithful subject honoured his sovereign
+when he reminded him of his duty. The articles of 1790 were declared
+to have been openly violated, and the diet complained that the public
+security had been outraged by arrests and prosecutions, founded on
+anonymous denunciations. The address to the king, in which they set
+forth their grievances, concluded with the following petition:--
+
+     "Convinced that these acts do not emanate from your Majesty,
+     but that they proceed from a system constantly pursued for
+     several centuries, we entreat your Majesty henceforth not to
+     listen to evil counsels--to despise anonymous
+     denunciations--not to exact any impost or any levy of
+     soldiers without the concurrence of the diet--to reinstate
+     the citizens disgraced for having legally resisted the royal
+     commissioners, and regularly to convoke the states, with whom
+     you share the sovereign power."
+
+In his answer, Francis blamed the diet for their proceedings, but
+wisely conceded their demands. By article 3d of 1825, he engaged to
+observe the fundamental laws of the kingdom. By article 4th, never to
+levy subsidies without the concurrence of the diet; by article 5th, to
+convoke the diet every three years.
+
+The attempt of Francis II. to subvert the constitution of Hungary
+terminated, as the similar attempt of Joseph II. had terminated
+thirty-five years before--in renewed acknowledgments of the
+independence of Hungary, and the constitutional rights of the
+Hungarians.
+
+After three centuries of contention, the cabinet of Vienna now
+appeared to have abandoned the hope it had so long entertained, of
+imposing upon Hungary the patriarchal system of Austria. Relinquishing
+the attempt to enforce illegal edicts, it relied upon means more in
+accordance with the practice of constitutional governments. It could
+command a majority at the table of Magnates, and it endeavoured, by
+influencing the elections, to strengthen its party in the Deputies.
+But in this kind of warfare the cabinet of an absolute monarch were
+far less skilful than the popular leaders of a representative
+assembly. The attempts to influence the elections by corrupt means
+were generally unsuccessful, and, when exposed, exhibited the
+government in a light odious to a people tenacious of their liberties
+and distrustful of Austria.
+
+There had long been two parties in the diet, of which one, from
+supporting the views of the court, was considered Austrian; the other,
+from its avowed desire to develop the popular institutions and
+separate nationality of Hungary, was considered Hungarian, and took
+the designation of the patriotic party. There was thus a government
+party and an opposition, which, in 1827, was systematically organised.
+But as Hungary had not a separate ministry, responsible to the diet,
+that could be removed from office by its votes, there was little
+ground for the usual imputation of a struggle for place. The patriotic
+party could expect no favour from the court; their opposition was,
+therefore, so far disinterested, and was, in fact, founded upon the
+instructions of the counties they represented.
+
+It must appear extraordinary that the majority of an assembly composed
+of nobles, of which nine-tenths of the members were elected by
+hereditary nobles or freeholders, should advocate opinions so liberal
+as to alarm even the Austrian government. A great majority of the
+electors, it is true, though rejoicing in the designation of nobles,
+were men who tilled the soil with their own hands; but they are truly
+described by Mr Paget as "generally a proud, unruly set of fellows,
+with higher notions of privilege and power than of right and justice;
+but brave, patriotic, and hospitable in the highest degree." After
+describing the national character of the Majjars, he adds,--
+
+     "It is scarcely necessary to say that, with such
+     dispositions, the Majjar is strongly inclined to
+     conservatism; he hates new-fangled notions and foreign
+     fashions, and considers it a sufficient condemnation to say,
+     'not even my grandfather ever heard of such things.'"
+
+To suppose that these men had republican tendencies would, of course,
+be absurd; and as the patriotic party in the diet represented their
+opinions, we may be well assured that they were not such as, to any
+party in this country, would appear dangerous from excess of
+liberality.
+
+To the government of Austria, however, nothing caused greater
+uneasiness than attempts to consolidate and improve the popular
+institutions of Hungary, or to foster feelings of separate
+nationality, which it had been the constant aim of its policy to
+obliterate. Determined to maintain, at all hazards, her own
+patriarchal system, Austria saw Hungary already separated from the
+Hereditary States by the form of her institutions and by national
+feelings, and dreaded the wider separation which the onward march of
+the one, and the stationary policy of the other, must produce. In
+superficial extent, Hungary is nearly half the empire--in population,
+more than one-third. The separation of the crowns would reduce Austria
+to the rank of a second-rate power; and Hungary separated from
+Austria, and surrounded by despotic governments jealous of her
+constitutional freedom, could not be safe. Not only an Austrian, but a
+patriotic Hungarian, might therefore resist, as perilous to his
+country, any course of legislation that appeared to lead towards such
+a result. If Hungary continued to advance in material prosperity and
+intelligence, and succeeded in giving to her constitution a basis so
+broad as to insure a just distribution of the public burdens, and to
+unite all classes of her population in its support, she must
+ultimately separate from Austria, or Austria must abandon her
+stationary policy, and advance in the same direction. It was
+impossible that two contiguous countries, of extent and resources so
+nearly equal, governed on principles so different, and daily
+increasing the distance between them, should long continue to have
+their separate administrations conducted by one cabinet, or could long
+be held together by their allegiance to the same sovereign. To give
+permanence to their connexion, it was necessary that Austria should
+advance, or that Hungary should stand still. But the condition and
+circumstances of more than one-half of her population made it
+indispensable to her safety--to her internal tranquillity, her
+material prosperity, and social order--that Hungary should go forward.
+The nobles, holding their lands by tenure of military service, bore no
+part of the public burdens during peace. The peasants, though they
+were no longer serfs, and had acquired an acknowledged and valuable
+interest in the lands they held from the proprietors, for which they
+were indebted to Maria Theresa, were yet subject to all manner of
+arbitrary oppressions. They had been promised ameliorations of their
+condition as early as 1790, but these promises had not yet been
+fulfilled. In the mean time, the peasants had been left to endure
+their grievances, and did not endure them without murmuring. The more
+intelligent and enlightened nobles felt the danger, and sought to
+remedy the evil, and hitherto without success. But it is unjust to
+attribute to Austrian influence all the opposition encountered by
+those who sought to ameliorate the condition of the peasants. Men who
+had hitherto been exempted from all public imposts, and who considered
+it humiliating to be taxed, resisted the equalisation of the burdens;
+men who had been taught to consider the peasant as a creature of an
+inferior race, shrank from giving him civil rights equal to their own.
+Nevertheless, in 1835, measures were passed which greatly improved the
+position of the oppressed classes. We cannot stop to trace the course
+of legislation, or to point out the wisdom and disinterested humanity
+that distinguished the leaders in this movement. Amongst them stands
+conspicuous the name of Szechenyi, to whom his country owes an
+everlasting debt of gratitude. Alas! that a mind like his, whose
+leading characteristic was practical good sense, that rejected every
+visionary project, should now be wandering amidst its own morbid
+creations in an unreal world. Several of the wealthier nobles put
+beyond all question the sincerity of the opinions they had maintained,
+by voluntarily inscribing their names in the list of persons subject
+to be taxed; and thus shared the public burdens with their peasants.
+
+Writing after the acts of 1835 had been passed, Mr Paget thus
+describes the feelings of the peasants,--
+
+     "I know that the Hungarian peasant feels that he is
+     oppressed; and if justice be not speedily rendered him, I
+     fear much he will wrest it--perhaps somewhat rudely too--from
+     the trembling grasp of the factitious power which has so long
+     withheld it from him."--(Vol i., p. 313.)
+
+The elective franchise was still withheld from a man born a peasant,
+whatever might be his stake in the country. He was not equal with the
+noble before the law; and, what was perhaps still more grievous to
+him, he continued to bear the whole burden of taxation, local and
+national. The noble contributed nothing. Besides the labour and
+produce he gave to his proprietor as rent for his land, the peasant
+paid tithes to the church, and a head-tax and property-tax to the
+government. He paid the whole charges for the administration of
+justice, which he could rarely obtain; for the municipal government,
+in the election of which he had no vote; for the maintenance of public
+buildings, from many of which he was excluded; and by much the greater
+part of the expenses of the army, in which he was forced to serve,
+without a hope of promotion. He alone made and repaired the roads and
+bridges, and he alone paid tolls on passing them. On him alone were
+soldiers quartered, and he had to furnish them, not only with lodgings
+in the midst of his family, but with fuel, cooking, stable-room, and
+fodder, at about one halfpenny a-day, often not paid, and to sell his
+hay to the government, for the use of the troops, at a fixed price,
+not equal to one-fourth of its value in the market. At the same time,
+a noble who tilled the ground like the peasant--who was perhaps not
+more intelligent, not more industrious--had a hereditary privilege of
+exemption from all these burdens, and enjoyed a share in the
+government of the country.
+
+The revolt of the Ruthene peasants of Gallicia in 1846, who had
+massacred whole families of the Polish nobles, and the belief that the
+Austrian government had encouraged the revolt, had been slow to put it
+down, and had rewarded its leaders, produced agitation amongst the
+peasants in Hungary, and the greatest anxiety in the minds of the
+nobles. They felt that the fate of Gallicia might be their own, if the
+peasants should at any time lose hope and patience, or if the Austrian
+government should be brought to adopt, in Hungary, the policy
+attributed to it in Gallicia. In short, it was plain that, so long as
+the grievances of the peasants remained unredressed, there could be no
+security for Hungary. But these grievances could not be redressed
+without imposing new burdens on the nobles, and, at the same time,
+restricting their privileges. If they were to tax themselves, they
+required an efficient control over the public expenditure, and a
+relaxation of the Austrian commercial system, which prevented the
+development of the country's resources.
+
+The diet had been summoned for November 1847; and in June of that
+year, the patriotic party put forth an exposition of its views
+preparatory to the elections, which, in Hungary, are renewed for every
+triennial meeting of the diet. In that document, a translation of
+which is now before us, they declare, that "our grievances, so often
+set forth, after a long course of years, during which we have
+demanded, urged, and endured, have to this day remained unredressed."
+After enumerating some of these grievances, they proceed to state
+their demands--
+
+     "1st, The equal distribution of the public burdens amongst
+     all the citizens; that the diet should decide on the
+     employment of the public revenue, and that it should be
+     accounted for by responsible administrators.
+
+     "2d, Participation, by the citizens not noble, in the
+     legislation, and in municipal rights.
+
+     "3d, Civil equality.
+
+     "4th, The abolition, by a compulsory law, of the labour and
+     dues exacted from the peasants, with indemnity to the
+     proprietors.
+
+     "5th, Security to property and to credit by the abolition of
+     _aviticite_, (the right of heirs to recover lands alienated
+     by sale.)"
+
+They go on to declare that they will endeavour to promote all that
+tends to the material and intellectual development of the country, and
+especially public instruction: That, in carrying out these views, they
+will never forget the relations which, in terms of the Pragmatic
+Sanction, exist between Hungary and the Hereditary States of Austria:
+That they hold firmly to article 10, of 1790, by which the royal word,
+sanctified by an oath, guarantees the independence of Hungary: That
+they do not desire to place the interests of the country in
+contradiction with the unity or security of the monarchy, but they
+regard as contrary to the laws, and to justice, that the interests of
+Hungary should be made subordinate to those of any other country: That
+they are ready, in justice and sincerity, to accommodate all questions
+on which the interests of Hungary and Austria may be opposed, but they
+will never consent to let the interests and constitution of Hungary be
+sacrificed to unity of the system of government, "which certain
+persons are fond of citing as the leading maxim, instead of the unity
+of the monarchy."
+
+"That unity in the system of government," they assert, "was the point
+from which the cabinet set out when, during the last quarter of the
+past century, it attacked our nationality and our civil liberty,
+promising us material benefits in place of constitutional advantages.
+It was to this unity in the system of government that the constitution
+of the Hereditary States of Austria was sacrificed, and it was on the
+basis of absolute power that the unity of the government was
+developed."
+
+They declare that they consider it their first and most sacred duty to
+preserve their constitution, and to strengthen it more and more by
+giving it a larger and more secure basis; and they conclude by
+expressing their persuasion "that, if the Hereditary States had still
+enjoyed their ancient liberties, or if, in accordance with the demands
+of the age, they were again to take their place amongst constitutional
+nations, our interests and theirs, which now are often divided,
+sometimes even opposed, would be more easily reconciled. The different
+parts of the empire would be bound together by greater unity of
+interests, and by greater mutual confidence, and thus the monarchy,
+growing in material and intellectual power, would encounter in greater
+security the storms to which times and circumstances may expose it."
+
+The diet which met in November 1847, had scarcely completed the
+ordinary forms and routine business with which the session commences,
+when all Europe was thrown into a revolutionary ferment, from the
+Mediterranean to the Baltic, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. The
+revolution of February in Paris, was followed by that of March at
+Vienna, by the expulsion of the Austrians from Milan, and by Sclavonic
+insurrections in Prague and Cracow. Constitutional Hungary alone
+remained tranquil. Surrounded by revolutions, incited by daily reports
+of republican triumphs, Hungary preserved her composure, her
+allegiance, and her internal peace. At a moment when republican
+doctrines found favour with a powerful party in every other portion of
+the emperor's dominions, the diet of Hungary, with the full
+concurrence of the Archduke Palatine, peacefully and unanimously
+passed those acts which the national party had prepared and announced
+some months before the storms had arisen that shook the thrones of
+Europe. At Paris, Berlin, Naples, Rome, Vienna, and in almost every
+minor capital of Germany and Italy, it became a question whether
+monarchy was to be preserved, or whether social order was to be
+overthrown. In Hungary no such questions ever arose or could arise.
+True to their conservative principles, and firm in their allegiance to
+their king, the nobles of Hungary sought by constitutional means, in
+the midst of general anarchy, the same ameliorations of their
+constitution which, in the midst of general tranquillity, they had
+already demanded. But the emperor had, in the mean time, conceded
+constitutional government, and a responsible ministry, to the
+revolutionary party in the Hereditary States, and the change which had
+thus been effected required a modification of the relations between
+Hungary and the imperial government. By the laws of Hungary, no
+foreigner could hold office in her administration; and, by the same
+laws, every Austrian was a foreigner. These laws had been respected;
+Austrians had not been appointed to offices in the Hungarian
+administration. No act of the government of Hungary, no communication
+from the king to the diet, had ever been countersigned by an Austrian
+minister. A ministry responsible to the parliament of Austria, and not
+responsible to the parliament of Hungary, could not administer the
+government of the latter country; and the same ministry could not be
+responsible to both parliaments. If Hungary was not to be incorporated
+with Austria, it was necessary that she should have a separate
+ministry, responsible only to her own diet. An act providing such a
+ministry was passed unanimously, in both houses of the diet, with the
+full concurrence of the Archduke Palatine.
+
+To complete the administration of the kingdom, and to preserve and
+maintain the due influence of the crown in the constitution, it was
+demanded, on the part of the crown, that the powers of the Palatine or
+viceroy should be extended; and having found a precedent--a
+preliminary almost as necessary in the diet of Hungary as in the
+parliament of Great Britain and Ireland--an act was passed without
+opposition, giving the Palatine, in the absence of the king, full
+powers to act in the name and on behalf of the sovereign.
+
+By unanimous votes of both houses, the diet not only established
+perfect equality of civil rights and public burdens amongst all
+classes, denominations, and races in Hungary and its provinces, and
+perfect toleration for every form of religious worship, but, with a
+generosity perhaps unparalleled in the history of nations, and which
+must extort the admiration even of those who may question the wisdom
+of the measure, the nobles of Hungary abolished their own right to
+exact either labour or produce in return for the lands held by
+urbarial tenure, and thus transferred to the peasants the absolute
+ownership, free and for ever, of nearly half the cultivated land in
+the kingdom, reserving to the original proprietors of the soil such
+compensation as the government might award from the public funds of
+Hungary. More than five hundred thousand peasant families were thus
+invested with the absolute ownership of from thirty to sixty acres of
+land each, or about twenty millions of acres amongst them. The
+elective franchise was extended to every man possessed of capital or
+property of the value of thirty pounds, or an annual income of ten
+pounds--to every man who has received a diploma from a university, and
+to every artisan who employs an apprentice. With the concurrence of
+both countries, Hungary and Transylvania were united, and their diets,
+hitherto separate, were incorporated. The number of representatives
+which Croatia was to send to the diet was increased from three to
+eighteen, while the internal institutions of that province remained
+unchanged; and Hungary undertook to compensate the proprietors for the
+lands surrendered to the peasants, to an extent greatly exceeding the
+proportion of that burden which would fall on the public funds of the
+province. The complaints of the Croats, that the Majjars desired to
+impose their own language upon the Sclavonic population, were
+considered, and every reasonable ground of complaint removed.
+Corresponding advantages were extended to the other Sclavonic tribes,
+and the fundamental laws of the kingdom, except in so far as they were
+modified by these acts, remained unchanged.
+
+The whole of the acts passed in March 1848 received the royal assent,
+which, on the 11th of April, the emperor personally confirmed at
+Presburg in the midst of the diet. These acts then became statutes of
+the kingdom, in accordance with which the new responsible Hungarian
+ministry was formed, and commenced the performance of its duties with
+the full concurrence of the emperor-king and the aid of the Archduke
+Palatine. The changes that had been effected were received with
+gratitude by the peasants, and with entire satisfaction, not only by
+the population of Hungary Proper, but also by that of all the
+Sclavonic provinces. From Croatia, more especially, the expression of
+satisfaction was loud, and apparently sincere.
+
+     "If," says Prince Ladeslas Teleki, "the concessions of the
+     emperor-king to the spirit of modern times had been sincerely
+     made, if his advisers had honestly abandoned all idea of
+     returning to the past, Hungary would now be in the enjoyment
+     of the peace she merited. The people who but yesterday held
+     out the hand of brotherhood, would have proceeded, in peace
+     and harmony, on the way of advancement which was opened to
+     them, and civilisation, in its glory and its strength, would
+     have established itself in the centre of Eastern Europe. But
+     the reactionary movement commenced at Vienna the very day
+     liberty was established there. The recognised rights of
+     Hungary were considered but as forced concessions, which must
+     be destroyed at any price--even at the price of her blood.
+     Could there be surer means of attaining that end than
+     dividing and weakening her by civil war? It was not
+     understood that honest conduct towards a loyal nation would
+     more certainly secure her attachment, than attempts to revive
+     a power that could not be re-established. Neither was it
+     understood _that the interests of Hungary demanded that she
+     should seek, in a cordial union with constitutional Austria,
+     securities for her independence and her liberties_."
+
+A party at the Austrian court, opposed to all concessions, and
+desirous still to revert to the patriarchal system that had been
+overturned, saw in the established constitutional freedom of Hungary
+the greatest impediment to the success of their plans. Seeking
+everywhere the means of producing a reaction, it found in Croatia a
+party which had been endeavouring to get up a Sclavonic movement in
+favour of what they called Illyrian nationality, and which was
+therefore opposed to Majjar ascendency in Hungary. The peculiar
+organisation of the military frontier, which extends from the Adriatic
+to the frontiers of Russia, and which is in fact a military colony in
+Hungary, under the immediate influence and authority of Austria, and
+composed almost exclusively of a Sclavonic population, afforded
+facilities for exciting disturbances in Hungary. But it was necessary
+to provide leaders for the Sclavonic revolt against the Hungarians.
+Baron Joseph Jellachich, colonel of a Croat regiment in the army of
+Italy, was selected by the agitators for reaction as a man fitted by
+his position, his character, and military talents, as well as by his
+ambition, to perform this duty in Croatia. He was named Ban of that
+province, without consulting the Hungarian ministry, whose
+countersignature was necessary to legalise the nomination. This was
+the first breach of faith committed by the imperial government; but
+the Hungarian ministry, desirous to avoid causes of difference,
+acquiesced in the appointment, and invited the Ban to put himself in
+communication with them. His first act was to interdict the Croat
+magistrates from holding any communication with the government of
+Hungary, of which Croatia is a province, declaring that the Croat
+revolt was encouraged by the king. On the representation of the
+Hungarian ministry, the king, in an autograph letter, dated 29th May,
+reprobated the proceedings of the Ban, and summoned him to Innspruck.
+On the 10th of June, by a royal ordinance, he was suspended from all
+his functions, civil and military; but Jellachich retained his
+position, and declared that he was acting in accordance with the real
+wishes and instructions of his sovereign, while these public
+ordinances were extorted by compulsion. At the same time, and by
+similar means, a revolt of the Serbes on the Lower Danube was
+organised by Stephen Suplikacs, another colonel of a frontier
+regiment, aided by the Greek patriarch. Several counties, some of
+which were principally inhabited by Hungarians, Wallacks, and
+Germans, were declared to have been formed into a Serbe Vayoodat or
+government, which was to be in alliance with Croatia. The Serbes,
+joined by bands from Turkish Servia, attacked the neighbouring
+Hungarian villages, slaughtered the inhabitants, and plundered the
+country. But this did not prevent Jellachich, who had been denounced
+and charged with high treason, or the Greek patriarch Rajaesis, the
+accomplice of Suplikacs, from being received by the emperor and his
+brother, the Archduke Francis Charles, at Innspruck. In a letter,
+dated the 4th of June, addressed to the frontier regiments stationed
+in Italy, Jellachich declared that the imperial family of Austria
+encouraged the insurrections against the Hungarians. Meanwhile the
+Serbes were carrying on a war of extermination, massacring the
+inhabitants, burning towns and villages, even when they encountered no
+resistance; and a force was collected on the frontiers of Croatia with
+the manifest intention of invading Hungary.
+
+     "In such a crisis," says Count L. Teleki, "the Hungarian
+     government experienced the most painful feelings. Condemned
+     to inaction while entire populations were being exterminated,
+     it acquired the sad conviction that the Austrian ministry
+     only kept the national troops out of the country, and
+     abandoned Hungary to the protection of foreign troops,
+     through connivance with the enemy."
+
+The revolt continued to be pushed forward in the name of the
+emperor-king, and the diet was about to be opened. The Hungarian
+ministers, therefore, entreated his majesty to open the diet in
+person, in order by his presence to prove the falsehood of the enemies
+of Hungary; but the invitation had no effect.
+
+The new national assembly of Hungary, returned for the first time by
+the suffrage of all classes of the nation, was opened at Pesth, when
+it was found that, with scarcely an exception, all the members of the
+diet, formerly elected by the nobles, had been again returned--so
+calmly had the people exercised their newly-acquired privileges. On
+the 2d of July the Archduke Palatine, who had been unanimously chosen
+by the diet on the presentation of the king, alluded in his opening
+speech to a revolt in Croatia, and to the proceedings of armed bands
+in the counties of the Lower Danube. His Imperial Highness made the
+following statement:--
+
+     "His majesty the king has seen with profound grief, after
+     having spontaneously sanctioned the laws voted by the last
+     diet, because they were favourable to the development of the
+     country, that agitators, especially in Croatia and the Lower
+     Danube, had excited against each other the inhabitants of
+     different creeds and races, by false reports and vain alarms,
+     and had urged them to resist the laws and the legislative
+     authority, asserting that they were not the free expression
+     of his majesty's will. Some have gone so far to encourage the
+     revolt, as to pretend that their resistance is made in the
+     interest of the royal family, and with the knowledge and
+     consent of his majesty. For the purpose, therefore, of
+     tranquillising the inhabitants of those countries, I declare,
+     in the name of his majesty, their lord and king, that his
+     majesty is firmly resolved to protect the unity and the
+     inviolability of the royal crown of Hungary, against all
+     attack from without or disturbance in the interior of the
+     kingdom, and to carry out the laws which he has sanctioned.
+     At the same time that his majesty would not allow any
+     infraction of the lawful rights of his subjects, he blames,
+     and in this all the members of the royal family agree with
+     him, the audacity of those who have dared to pretend that
+     illegal acts are compatible with the wishes of his majesty,
+     or were done in the interest of the royal family. His majesty
+     sanctioned, with the greatest satisfaction, the incorporation
+     of Transylvania with Hungary, not only because he thus
+     gratified the ardent desire of his beloved people--both
+     Hungarians and Transylvanians--but also because the union of
+     the two countries will give a more firm support to the throne
+     and to liberty, by the combined development of their power
+     and their prosperity."
+
+The diet, rejoiced by these assurances, immediately sent a deputation
+to entreat the king to repair to Pesth, as the only means of
+disabusing the minds of the Croats and Serbes, who were made to
+believe that his public acts were the result of coercion. The prayer
+of the deputation was refused. The Servian insurrection continued to
+gain ground; the Austrian troops stationed in Hungary, for the defence
+of the country, refused to obey the government, and at length a
+communication to the Hungarian ministry, dated the 29th of June, three
+days prior to the speech of the Archduke Palatine, announced the
+intention of the Austrian ministry to put an end to the neutrality it
+had hitherto observed, and to support Croatia openly. All the
+Hungarians were then convinced that their constitution, and the
+independence of the country, must be defended by force of arms. But
+the ministry and the diet would not depart from the constitutional and
+legal course. A levy of 200,000 men was decreed, as well as an issue
+of bank-notes to cover the deficits; and the acts were presented for
+the royal assent by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice:
+but a long time elapsed before any reply could be obtained. In the
+mean time the situation of the country every day became worse, and
+another deputation was sent to the king, headed by the president of
+the Chamber of Deputies, to obtain the royal assent to the laws
+already presented; the recall of the Hungarian troops of the line,
+quartered everywhere except in Hungary; and orders to the foreign
+troops stationed in that country to discharge their duty faithfully.
+Finally the king was again entreated to come into his kingdom, to
+restore to her peace and order. The deputation received an evasive
+reply. But at the same time, and while the two ministers were at
+Vienna, the king, without acquainting them, despatched, on the 31st of
+August, a letter to the Palatine, directing him to send several
+members of the Hungarian ministry to Vienna, for the purpose of
+concerting measures with the Austrian ministry, to consolidate and
+insure the unity of the government and of the monarchy, and to open
+negotiations with the Croats for the reconciliation of their
+differences. But the king declared it to be an indispensable condition
+that the Ban Jellachich--who in the end of May had been denounced as a
+traitor--should take a part in the conferences; that all preparations
+for war should cease on both sides; and that the districts of the
+military frontier, which have always formed part of Hungary, should be
+provisionally subject to the Austrian ministry. _In this same
+document_ a communication was made to the Hungarian ministry, of a
+note of the Austrian government, on the relations to be established
+between Austria and Hungary. It was stated "that the provisions of the
+law of 1848, by which the Archduke Palatine had been appointed
+depository of the royal authority, and chief of the executive power in
+the absence of the king--and by which a responsible ministry had been
+conceded to Hungary, detaching from the central government of Vienna
+the administration of war, finance, and commerce--were contrary to the
+Pragmatic Sanction, opposed to the legal relations between Austria and
+Hungary, and detrimental alike to the interests of Hungary and
+Austria. These concessions were declared illegal and of none effect,
+under the pretext that they had not been consented to by the
+responsible Austrian ministry; and although they had been sanctioned
+by the royal word on the 11th of April, and again formally recognised
+in the speech from the throne on the 2d July, it was announced that
+these laws were to be considerably modified, in order that a central
+power might be established at Vienna."
+
+Never, we venture to say, was a discreditable breach of public faith
+palliated on pretexts more futile. Hungary is as independent of the
+Hereditary States as the Hereditary States are of Hungary; and, in
+matters relating to Hungary, the ministers of Austria, responsible or
+irresponsible, have no more right to interfere between the King and
+his Hungarian ministers, or Hungarian diet, than these have to
+interfere between the Emperor of Austria and his Austrian ministers,
+in matters relating to the Hereditary States. The pretension to submit
+the decisions of the Hungarian diet, sanctioned by the King, to the
+approval or disapproval of the Austrian ministers, is too absurd to
+have been resorted to in good faith. The truth appears to be, that the
+successes of the gallant veteran Radetzki, and of the Austrian army in
+Italy, which has so well sustained its ancient reputation, had
+emboldened the Austrian government to retrace the steps that had been
+taken by the emperor. Trusting to the movements hitherto successful in
+Croatia and the Danubian provinces of Hungary,--to the absence of the
+Hungarian army, and of all efficient preparation for defence on the
+part of the Hungarian government, and elated with military success in
+Italy,--the Austrian ministers resumed their intention to subvert the
+constitution of Hungary, and to fuse the various parts of the
+emperor's dominions into one whole. Their avidity to accomplish this
+object prevented their perceiving the stain they were affixing to the
+character of the empire, and the honour of the emperor; or the injury
+they were thereby inflicting on the cause of monarchy all over the
+world. "Honour and good faith, if driven from every other asylum,
+ought to find a refuge in the breasts of princes." And the ministers
+who sully the honour of their confiding prince, do more to injure
+monarchy, and therefore to endanger the peace and security of society,
+than the rabble who shout for Socialism.
+
+The Austrian ministry did not halt in their course. They made the
+emperor-king recall, on the 4th September, the decree which suspended
+Jellachich from all his dignities, as a person accused of high
+treason. This was done on the pretext that the accusations against the
+Ban were false, and that he had exhibited undeviating fidelity to the
+house of Austria. He was reinstated in all his offices at a moment
+when he was encamped with his army on the frontiers of Hungary,
+preparing to invade that kingdom. In consequence of this proceeding,
+the Hungarian ministry, which had been appointed in March, gave in
+their resignation. The Palatine, by virtue of his full powers, called
+upon Count Louis Bathianyi to form a new ministry. All hope of a
+peaceful adjustment seemed to be at an end; but, as a last resource, a
+deputation of the Hungarian deputies was sent to propose to the
+representatives of Austria, that the two countries should mutually
+guarantee to each other their constitutions and their independence.
+The deputation was not received.
+
+Count Louis Bathianyi undertook the direction of affairs, upon the
+condition that Jellachich, whose troops had already invaded Hungary,
+should be ordered to retire beyond the boundary. The king replied,
+that this condition could not be accepted before the other ministers
+were known.
+
+But Jellachich had passed the Drave with an army of Croats and
+Austrian regiments. His course was marked by plunder and devastation;
+and so little was Hungary prepared for resistance, that he advanced to
+the lake of Balaton without firing a shot. The Archduke Palatine took
+the command of the Hungarian forces, hastily collected to oppose the
+Ban; but, after an ineffectual attempt at reconciliation, he set off
+for Vienna, whence he sent the Hungarians his resignation.
+
+The die was now cast, and the diet appealed to the nation. The people
+rose _en masse_. The Hungarian regiments of the line declared for
+their country. Count Lemberg had been appointed by the king to the
+command of all the troops stationed in Hungary; but the diet could no
+longer leave the country at the mercy of the sovereign who had
+identified himself with the proceedings of its enemies, and they
+declared the appointment illegal, on the ground that it was not
+countersigned, as the laws required, by one of the ministers. They
+called upon the authorities, the citizens, the army, and Count Lemberg
+himself, to obey this decree under pain of high treason. Regardless of
+this proceeding, Count Lemberg hastened to Pesth, and arrived at a
+moment when the people were flocking from all parts of the country to
+oppose the army of Jellachich. A cry was raised that the gates of Buda
+were about to be closed by order of the count, who was at this time
+recognised by the populace as he passed the bridge towards Buda, and
+brutally murdered. It was the act of an infuriated mob, for which it
+is not difficult to account, but which nothing can justify. The diet
+immediately ordered the murderers to be brought to trial, but they had
+absconded. This was the only act of popular violence committed in the
+capital of Hungary.
+
+On the 29th of September, Jellachich was defeated in a battle fought
+within twelve miles of Pesth. The Ban fled, abandoning to their fate
+the detached corps of his army; and the Croat rearguard, ten thousand
+strong, surrendered, with Generals Roth and Philipovits, who commanded
+it.
+
+In detailing the events subsequent to the 11th of April 1848, we have
+followed the Hungarian manifesto, published in Paris by Count Ladeslas
+Teleki, whose character is a sufficient security for the fidelity of
+his statements; and the English translation of that document by Mr
+Brown, which is understood to have been executed under the Count's own
+eye. But we have not relied upon the Count alone, nor even upon the
+official documents he has printed. We have availed ourselves of other
+sources of information equally authentic. One of the documents, which
+had previously been transmitted to us from another quarter, and which,
+we perceive, has also been printed by the Count, is so remarkable,
+both because of the persons from whom it emanates, and the statements
+it contains, that, although somewhat lengthy, we think it right to
+give it entire.
+
+     _The Roman-Catholic Clergy of Hungary to his Apostolic
+     Majesty, Ferdinand V., King of Hungary._
+
+     Representation presented to the Emperor-King, in the name of
+     the Clergy, by the Archbishop of Gran, Primate of Hungary,
+     and by the Archbishop of Erlaw.
+
+     "Sire! Penetrated with feelings of the most profound sorrow
+     at the sight of the innumerable calamities and the internal
+     evils which desolate our unhappy country, we respectfully
+     address your Majesty, in the hope that you may listen with
+     favour to the voice of those, who, after having proved their
+     inviolable fidelity to your Majesty, believe it to be their
+     duty, as heads of the Hungarian Church, at last to break
+     silence, and to bear to the foot of the throne their just
+     complaints, for the interests of the church, of the country,
+     and of the monarchy.
+
+     "Sire!--We refuse to believe that your Majesty is correctly
+     informed of the present state of Hungary. We are convinced
+     that your Majesty, in consequence of your being so far away
+     from our unfortunate country, knows neither the misfortunes
+     which overwhelm her, nor the evils which immediately threaten
+     her, and which place the throne itself in danger, unless your
+     Majesty applies a prompt and efficacious remedy, by attending
+     to nothing but the dictates of your own good heart.
+
+     "Hungary is actually in the saddest and most deplorable
+     situation. In the south, an entire race, although enjoying
+     all the civil and political rights recognised in Hungary, has
+     been in open insurrection for several months, excited and led
+     astray by a party which seems to have adopted the frightful
+     mission of exterminating the Majjar and German races, which
+     have constantly been the strongest and surest support of your
+     Majesty's throne. Numberless thriving towns and villages have
+     become a prey to the flames, and have been totally destroyed;
+     thousands of Majjar and German subjects are wandering about
+     without food or shelter, or have fallen victims to
+     indescribable cruelty--for it is revolting to repeat the
+     frightful atrocities by which the popular rage, let loose by
+     diabolical excitement, ventures to display itself.
+
+     "These horrors were, however, but the prelude to still
+     greater evils, which were about to fall upon our country. God
+     forbid that we should afflict your Majesty with the hideous
+     picture of all our misfortunes! Suffice it to say, that the
+     different races who inhabit your kingdom of Hungary, stirred
+     up, excited one against the other by infernal intrigues, only
+     distinguish themselves by pillage, incendiarism, and murder,
+     perpetrated with the greatest refinement of atrocity.
+
+     "Sire!--The Hungarian nation, heretofore the firmest bulwark
+     of Christianity and civilisation against the incessant
+     attacks of barbarism, often experienced rude shocks in that
+     protracted struggle for life and death; but at no period did
+     there gather over her head so many and so terrible tempests,
+     never was she entangled in the meshes of so perfidious an
+     intrigue, never had she to submit to treatment so cruel, and
+     at the same time so cowardly--and yet, oh! profound sorrow!
+     all these horrors are committed in the name, and, as they
+     assure us, by the order of your Majesty.
+
+     "Yes, Sire! it is under your government, and in the name of
+     your Majesty, that our flourishing towns are bombarded,
+     sacked, and destroyed. In the name of your Majesty, they
+     butcher the Majjars and Germans. Yes, sire! all this is done;
+     and they incessantly repeat it, in the name and by the order
+     of your Majesty, who nevertheless has proved, in a manner so
+     authentic and so recent, your benevolent and paternal
+     intentions towards Hungary. In the name of your Majesty, who
+     in the last Diet of Presburg, yielding to the wishes of the
+     Hungarian nation, and to the exigencies of the time,
+     consented to sanction and confirm by your royal word and
+     oath, the foundation of a new constitution, established on
+     the still broader foundation of a perfectly independent
+     government.
+
+     "It is for this reason that the Hungarian nation, deeply
+     grateful to your Majesty, accustomed also to receive from her
+     king nothing but proofs of goodness really paternal, when he
+     listens only to the dictates of his own heart, refuses to
+     believe, and we her chief pastors also refuse to believe,
+     that your Majesty either knows, or sees with indifference,
+     still less approves the infamous manner in which the enemies
+     of our country, and of our liberties, compromise the kingly
+     majesty, arming the populations against each other, shaking
+     the very foundations of the constitution, frustrating legally
+     established powers, seeking even to destroy in the hearts of
+     all the love of subjects for their sovereign, by saying that
+     your Majesty wishes to withdraw from your faithful Hungarians
+     the concessions solemnly sworn to and sanctioned in the diet;
+     and, finally, to wrest from the country her character of a
+     free and independent kingdom.
+
+     "Already, Sire! have these new laws and liberties, giving the
+     surest guarantees for the freedom of the people, struck root
+     so deeply in the hearts of the nation, that public opinion
+     makes it our duty to represent to your Majesty, that the
+     Hungarian people could not but lose that devotion and
+     veneration, consecrated and proved on so many occasions, up
+     to the present time, if it was attempted to make them believe
+     that the violation of the laws, and of the government
+     sanctioned and established by your majesty, is committed with
+     the consent of the king.
+
+     "But if, on the one hand, we are strongly convinced that your
+     majesty has taken no part in the intrigues so basely woven
+     against the Hungarian people, we are not the less persuaded,
+     that that people, taking arms to defend their liberty, have
+     stood on legal ground, and that in obeying instinctively the
+     supreme law of nations, _which demands the safety of all_,
+     they have at the same time saved the dignity of the throne
+     and the monarchy, greatly compromised by advisers as
+     dangerous as they are rash.
+
+     "Sire! We, the chief pastors of the greatest part of the
+     Hungarian people, know better than any others their noble
+     sentiments; and we venture to assert, in accordance with
+     history, that there does not exist a people more faithful to
+     their monarchs than the Hungarians, when they are governed
+     according to their laws.
+
+     "We guarantee to your majesty, that this people, such
+     faithful observers of order and of the civil laws in the
+     midst of the present turmoils, desire nothing but the
+     peaceable enjoyment of the liberties granted and sanctioned
+     by the throne.
+
+     "In this deep conviction, moved also by the sacred interests
+     of the country and the good of the church, which sees in your
+     majesty her first and principal defender, we, the bishops of
+     Hungary, humbly entreat your majesty patiently to look upon
+     our country now in danger. Let your majesty deign to think a
+     moment upon the lamentable situation in which this wretched
+     country is at present, where thousands of your innocent
+     subjects, who formerly all lived together in peace and
+     brotherhood on all sides, notwithstanding difference of
+     races, now find themselves plunged into the most frightful
+     misery by their civil wars.
+
+     "The blood of the people is flowing in torrents--thousands of
+     your majesty's faithful subjects are, some massacred, others
+     wandering about without shelter, and reduced to beggary--our
+     towns, our villages, are nothing but heaps of ashes--the
+     clash of arms has driven the faithful people from our
+     temples, which have become deserted--the mourning church
+     weeps over the fall of religion, and the education of the
+     people is interrupted and abandoned.
+
+     "The frightful spectre of wretchedness increases, and
+     develops itself every day under a thousand hideous forms. The
+     morality, and with it the happiness of the people, disappear
+     in the gulf of civil war.
+
+     "But let your majesty also deign to reflect upon the terrible
+     consequences of these civil wars; not only as regards their
+     influence on the moral and substantial interests of the
+     people, but also as regards their influence upon the security
+     and stability of the monarchy. Let your majesty hasten to
+     speak one of those powerful words which calm tempests!--the
+     flood rises, the waves are gathering, and threaten to engulf
+     the throne!
+
+     "Let a barrier be speedily raised against those passions
+     excited and let loose with infernal art amongst populations
+     hitherto so peaceable. How is it possible to make people who
+     have been inspired with the most frightful thirst--that of
+     blood--return within the limits of order, justice, and
+     moderation?
+
+     "Who will restore to the regal majesty the original purity of
+     its brilliancy, of its splendour, after having dragged that
+     majesty in the mire of the most evil passions? Who will
+     restore faith and confidence in the royal word and oath? Who
+     will render an account to the tribunal of the living God, of
+     the thousands of individuals who have fallen, and fall every
+     day, innocent victims to the fury of civil war?
+
+     "Sire! our duty as faithful subjects, the good of the
+     country, and the honour of our religion, have inspired us to
+     make these humble but sincere remonstrances, and have bid us
+     raise our voices! So, let us hope, that your majesty will not
+     merely receive our sentiments, but that, mindful of the
+     solemn oath that you took on the day of your coronation, in
+     the face of heaven, not only to defend the liberties of the
+     people, but to extend them still further--that, mindful of
+     this oath, to which you appeal so often and so solemnly, you
+     will remove from your royal person the terrible
+     responsibility that these impious and bloody wars heap upon
+     the throne, and that you will tear off the tissue of vile
+     falsehoods with which pernicious advisers beset you, by
+     hastening, with prompt and strong resolution, to recall peace
+     and order to our country, which was always the firmest prop
+     of your throne, in order that, with Divine assistance, that
+     country, so severely tried, may again see prosperous days; in
+     order that, in the midst of profound peace, she may raise a
+     monument of eternal gratitude to the justice and paternal
+     benevolence of her king.
+
+    "_Signed at Pesth, the 28th Oct. 1848_,
+
+            "THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF HUNGARY."
+
+
+The Roman Catholic hierarchy of Hungary, it must be kept in mind, have
+at all times been in close connexion with the Roman Catholic court of
+Austria, and have almost uniformly supported its views. The Archbishop
+of Gran, Primate of Hungary, possesses greater wealth and higher
+privileges than perhaps any magnate in Hungary.
+
+In this unhappy quarrel Hungary has never demanded more than was
+voluntarily conceded to her by the Emperor-King on the 11th of April
+1848. All she has required has been that faith should be kept with
+her; that the laws passed by her diet, and sanctioned by her king,
+should be observed. On the other hand, she is required by Austria to
+renounce the concessions then made to her by her sovereign--to
+relinquish the independence she has enjoyed for nine centuries, and to
+exchange the constitution she has cherished, fought for, loved, and
+defended, during seven hundred years, for the experimental
+constitution which is to be tried in Austria, and which has already
+been rejected by several of the provinces. This contest is but another
+form of the old quarrel--an attempt on the part of Austria to enforce,
+at any price, uniformity of system; and a determination on the part of
+Hungary, at any cost, to resist it.
+
+We hope next month to resume the consideration of this subject, to
+which, in the midst of so many stirring and important events in
+countries nearer home and better known, it appears to us that too
+little attention has been directed. We believe that a speedy
+adjustment of the differences between Austria and Hungary, on terms
+which shall cordially reunite them, is of the utmost importance to the
+peace of Europe--and that the complications arising out of those
+differences will increase the difficulty of arriving at such a
+solution, the longer it is delayed. We believe that Austria,
+distracted by a multiplicity of counsels, has committed a great error,
+which is dangerous to the stability of her position as a first-rate
+power; and we should consider her descent from that position a
+calamity to Europe.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[30] Chiefly by marriage with princesses who were heirs to these
+kingdoms and principalities. It was thus that Hungary, Bohemia, and
+the Tyrol were acquired. Hence the lines--
+
+    "Bella gerant alii; tu, felix Austria, nube:
+    Nam quæ Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus."
+
+    You, Austria, wed as others wage their wars;
+    And crowns to Venus owe, as they to Mars.
+
+It was by marriage that the Saxon emperor, Otho the Great, acquired
+Lombardy for the German empire.
+
+[31] The acts passed by the diet are numbered by articles, as those of
+our parliament are by chapters. Each of these articles, when it has
+received the royal assent, becomes a statute of the kingdom, in the
+same manner as with us, and of course equally binds the sovereign and
+his subjects.
+
+
+    _Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious typographical errors were repaired.
+
+Hyphenation and accent variations retained as in original.
+
+Footnotes on p.509, 577 (first footnote), and 590 were unanchored in
+the original. They have been anchored to the chapter headings on those
+pages.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume
+65, No. 403, May, 1849, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40397 ***