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diff --git a/43225-0.txt b/43225-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e560d15 --- /dev/null +++ b/43225-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9136 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43225 *** + + BLACKWOOD'S + + EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + NO. CCCXCVII. NOVEMBER, 1848. VOL. LXIV. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +A GLIMPSE AT GERMANY AND ITS PARLIAMENT, 515 + +SATIRES AND CARICATURES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 543 + +A PARCEL FROM PARIS, 557 + +LIFE IN THE "FAR WEST." PART THE LAST, 573 + +THE LATE GEORGE FREDERICK RUXTON, 591 + +THE NAVAL WAR OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 595 + +DANUBE AND THE EUXINE, 608 + +THE MEMOIRS OF LORD CASTLEREAGH, 610 + +A CALL, 625 + +WHAT IS SPAIN ABOUT? 627 + +CONSERVATIVE UNION, 632 + + + EDINBURGH: + + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; + AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. + +_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._ + + SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. + + PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S + +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + +NO. CCCXCVII. NOVEMBER, 1848. VOL. LXIV. + + + + +A GLIMPSE AT GERMANY AND ITS PARLIAMENT. + + +We are not old enough to have been politically detained at Verdun. +Our impressions of Napoleon are soured by no recollections of +personal tyranny; and though a near relative wasted the better +portion of his life in the dreary enjoyments of that conventional +fortress, we do not carry the spirit of clanship so far as to +entertain on that account a revengeful hatred towards the memory of +the Corsican. At the same time, it must be confessed that, towards +the latter part of this past August, the idea of Verdun more than +once recurred unpleasantly to our mind. It became clear to us that, +for this year at least, there was little probability of our realising +certain visions of Highland sport which had been called up by a +perusal of the exciting work of the Stuarts. Her Majesty was coming +down to Balmoral, and, in consequence, the red deer of Aberdeenshire +were safe, at least from a private rifle. The grouse, with a degree +of obstinacy truly irritating, had again failed, and we were little +disposed to levy war against the few and feeble remaining broods +of the cheepers. The Duke of Sutherland, with a just economy, had +shut up his rivers, and given the salmon a jubilee; so that there +was no hope of throwing a fly on the surface of the Shin or the +Laxford. On the other hand, there seemed to be plenty of sport, and +no want of shooting on the Continent. Licences were not required, +and restrictive seasons unknown. The odour of gunpowder was distinct +in Paris as early as the month of February; and ever since then +there had been occasional explosions and discharges all over the +face of Europe. True, a _garde mobile_, or a gentleman in a blouse, +especially when provided with a rusty detonator and bayonet, is an +awkward kind of sportsman to encounter. Barricades may be curious +structures to inspect; but it is not pleasant to be on either side of +them when the Red Republic is in question; and still more ungenial +to be placed exactly in the centre, as once occurred to a worthy +bailie of our acquaintance, who, having been sent to Paris in 1830, +on a special mission to fetch home some stray voters for an impending +election in the west, found, to his intense horror, that the +diligence in which he was located was built up as a popular defence; +that the bullets were whistling through the windows; and that even +his patron, St Rollox, seemed deaf to his intercessions for rescue. + +But as we do not happen to hold stock in the French lines, and +therefore have not thought it necessary, as yet, to identify +ourselves with any of the parties who are presently contending +for the palm of mastery in France; as the crusade under the white +flag or the oriflamme in favour of the descendant of Saint Louis +has not yet been openly proclaimed or enthusiastically preached by +any bearded representative of Peter, the Miraculous Hermit; and +as, moreover, we had seen quite enough of France in her earliest +stages of paroxysm, and had no wish to behold the professors of the +vaudeville and palette engaged, in the present dearth of money, at +the novel occupation of cobbling shoes for the Sardinian soldiery +in the _ateliers nationaux_--we resolved to abstain from Paris in +the meantime, and rather to bend our steps towards Germany, then in +the full ferment of the Schleswig Holstein affair. Germany has been +an old haunt of ours from our boyhood. So far back as 1833, we had +the pleasure of witnessing a tight little skrimmage between the +Heidelberg students and the soldiery in the square of Frankfort; and +since that time we have watched with great interest the progress +of the arts, literature, and sciences, and the development of the +interior resources of the country. Right sorry were we, though not +altogether surprised, to learn that quiet Germany had lighted her +revolutionary pipe from the French insurrectionary fires; that +Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Hanau, those notorious nests of democracy, +had succeeded in perverting the minds of many throughout the circle +of the Rhenish provinces; and that studentism, once comparatively +harmless, had become utterly rampant throughout the land. For +although we never could, even in our earlier years, take any deep +pleasure in cultivating the society of the Burschenschaft, but, +on the contrary, rather regarded them as a race to be eschewed by +all who had a wholesome reverence for soap and a horror for the +Kantean philosophy, we were not unpleased at the national spirit +which they exhibited long ago; and more than once, in the vaults of +the _Himmels-leiter_ and _Jammerthal_, at Nuremberg, we have joined +cordially in the chorus of defiance to French aggression-- + + 'Sie sollen ihn nicht haben + Den Deutschen freien Rhein!' + +That Germany, under her peculiar constitution, should retain her +own, and that the boundaries should be strictly preserved, seemed +to us a highly proper, laudable, and patriotic sentiment; but, when +the Teutonic youth went further, and demanded an immediate return to +the mediæval system, and the glorious times of the Empire, we must +confess that their aspirations seemed to us to savour slightly of +insanity. We are, constitutionally, an admirer of the ancient times. +We do not think that people are happier, or wiser, or better, or +that they fulfil one whit more conscientiously their duties to God +and man, when cooped up and collected within the dingy alleys of a +commercial town, instead of treading the free soil which gave their +fathers birth. We are not especially affected to the over-increase of +factories, neither would we award an ovation to any one for breeding +up human beings expressly for the production of calico. But not, on +that account, would we willingly recur to the days of the forays and +the raids. We don't want to see the clans reintegrated, the philabeg +on every hip, and the hills covered with caterans, each ettling at +his skian-dhu. We have no desire to cross the Border of moonlight +night at the head of a score of jackmen, and, _more majorum_, +regale our ears with the lowing of the Northumbrian kine. We do not +consider such a feat necessary, simply because a remote ancestor +was afflicted with too earnest a desire for the improvement of his +patrimonial breed of cattle, and, having been unluckily found on +the wrong side of the Tweed, died, like a poet as he was, with some +neck-verses in his mouth, at a place denominated Hairibee. But our +German friends--more especially the students--have long been haunted +by some such ideas. _The Robbers_ of Schiller, and the _Goetz von +Berlichingen_ of Goëthe, have had a poisonous effect upon the fancy +or fantasy of the young. They have long been dreaming of doublets, +boots, and spurs, and it needed but a little thing to set them +utterly crazy. Their modern school of painting has for years been +even more mediæval than their literature; and what the poets began, +Schnorr and Cornelius have been rapidly bringing to a head. No one +who is intimate with the German character, will lightly undervalue +the effect of such a popular sentiment, when an actual opportunity +for outbreak is afforded in revolutionary times. + +This feeling, absurd as it is, has been greatly favoured and fostered +by the infinitesimal division of Germany at the Treaty of Vienna, +and the maintenance as sovereignties of small states, which ought +long ago to have been remorselessly absorbed. By that settlement +Germany was declared to consist of no less than thirty-eight separate +and independent states, with no other tie of union than an annual +diet at Frankfort. Previous to the Revolutionary wars, there were +actually about three hundred sovereign rulers in Germany, each of +whom might have worn a crown, if he could only have found money +enough to buy one. This was a miserable farce and a caricature, and +it could not possibly last. The King of Man was a powerful potentate +in comparison with some of these autocrats; and if there had been a +royal house of Benbecula, the crown-prince of that insular Eden would +have been a proper match for the daughter of their sublime Highnesses +of Fugger-Kirchberg-Weisenborn, or Salm-Reifferscheid-Krautheim. The +French invasion blew away a crowd of these little sovereigns, like +mites from the surface of a cheese; but, very unfortunately, a tithe +of them were permitted to clamber back. Some of the larger German +states thought to fortify their position, and to obtain an ascendency +in the Diet, by maintaining several of the minor principalities +intact, and, in return, commanding their votes. Hence the retention +as sovereign princedoms of the three Anhalts, the two Schwartzbergs, +the two Hohenzollerns, the two houses of Reuss, the two Lippes, +Waldeck, Lichtenstein, and Homburg--territories, the outlines of +which you can hardly discover on an ordinary map of Europe, or even +on one of Germany. These are the instances which we think the most +objectionable and absurd, but the case of several others is not much +better. For example, there are four sovereign Saxe Duchies, besides +the kingdom of Saxony proper. + +Thirty-eight, then, were preserved by the Congress of Vienna, +whereas, for the sake of stability, there should not have been more +than five. The remaining German states might have been absorbed, as +were many more, into Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, and Hanover; +and, in this way, power would have been consolidated, a balance +preserved, and entire centralisation avoided. Instead of which, for +more than thirty years there has been a constellation of princes +and of petty courts throughout Germany, to its infinite detriment +and discredit. Magnificent Lichtenstein, with a territory of two +square miles, and about five thousand subjects, takes rank with +imperial Austria; and Henry, styling himself the twenty-second of +Reuss-Lobenstein and Ebersdorf, has as good a patrimonial sceptre as +Frederick-William of Prussia. Out of all this, what could arise save +endless wrangling and confusion? + +The smaller states, especially those which border on the Rhine, +gradually became the acknowledged hotbeds of sedition. It was there +that the expatriated journalists and crack-brained patriotic poets +sought refuge, when their articles, pamphlets, and ditties, became +too strong for the stomach of the legitimate censor; and there they +have been for years hatching treason upon unaddled eggs. The old +influence exercised by France over the Rhenish Confederation has +never utterly decayed. Each fresh insurrectionary leap in Paris +has been followed by a convulsive movement in the western Germanic +princedoms; and no pains have been spared for the dissemination of +the republican propaganda. Even this evil might have been checked, +had Austria and Prussia acted in unison and good faith towards each +other; but, unfortunately for Europe, the policy of the latter power +has always been of the most tortuous and deceptive kind. Prussia, +raised to and maintained in the first class of European states, +solely on the strength of her military armament, and jealous of +the superior strength of her southern rival, has for many years +been engaged in intrigues with the minor states, for the purpose of +securing to herself an independent position, in the event of the +dissolution of the great German confederation. Unable to obtain +her object through a legitimate supremacy in the Diet, Prussia has +gradually withdrawn from the proceedings of the Federal Congress, +and apparently surrendered to Austria the command of that feeble +body. But by means of the Zollverein, or Commercial League--a scheme +which she maturely prepared and perseveringly pursued--Prussia had +contrived to secure the adhesion of fully three-fourths of the +Germanic states--thus expecting to constitute herself a protectorate +in reality, if not in name, and to set the authority of the Diet at +absolute defiance. + +In England, where very little is known of the secret springs of +continental diplomacy, the Zollverein was regarded as a mere +commercial measure. It was, in reality, nothing more than a +preparation for the coming crisis, in the course of which, as +Prussia fondly hoped, Germany might be rent asunder, and the larger +portion of the spoil accrue naturally to her share. As if to make +the distinction between herself and Austria more apparent, Prussia +began to affect liberalism in a remarkable degree. Her talk was of +constitutions on the broadest basis; and her king was, in words +at least, a Quixote in the cause of freedom. But words, however +skilfully uttered, cannot, in the total absence of action, deceive +a people long. The king of Prussia's promises were not a whit more +fruitful than the prophecies of the free-traders, who told us of an +immediate millennium. The censorship of the press was maintained +as stringently as ever, and no concession was made to the popular +demands, naturally stimulated to excess by this show of liberality on +the part of the sovereign. + +At the commencement of the present year, the affairs of Germany +were thus singularly complicated. Austria stood alone on the basis +of her old position, as an absolute and paternal monarchy, refusing +all innovation. Prussia appeared to favour liberal institutions, +but delayed to grant them--professed her willingness to take the +lead in a new era of Germany, but gave no guarantee for her faith. +In consequence, she was not trusted by the revolutionist party in +the south and west, who, having altogether got the better of their +princes, were determined, on the very first opportunity, to try their +hands at the task of regenerating the whole of Germany. Central +authority there was none, for the Diet, deserted and disregarded by +Prussia, had sunk into utter insignificance, and hardly knew what +function it was still entitled to perform. + +At the tocsin of the French revolution, the south-west of Germany +arose. The princes bordering on the Rhine had long been aware +that they were quite powerless in the event of any general +insurrectionary movement, and, accordingly, they were prepared, +without any hesitation, to grant constitutions by the score, whenever +their bearded subjects thought fit, in earnest, to demand them. A +constitution is a cheap thing, and, to a princely proprietor of +limited means, who needed no seven-league boots to traverse the +circle of his dominions, must be infinitely better than forfeiture. +Baden began the dance. The Grand-duke made no difficulty in granting +to his loving liegemen whatever they were pleased to require. The +last of the Electors--he of Hesse-Cassel--was equally accommodating; +and, in such circumstances, it would have been madness for the +King of Wurtemberg to refuse. In Bavaria, the government attempted +to make a stand; but it was of no use. The late king, one of the +most accomplished of dilettantes, worst of poets, and silliest of +created men, had latterly put the coping-stone to a life of folly, +by engaging, though a prospective saint of the Romish calendar, in a +most barefaced intrigue with the notorious Lola Montes. The indecency +and infatuation of this last _liaison_, far more openly conducted +than any of his former numerous amours, had given intense umbrage, +not only to the people, but to the nobility, whom he had insulted by +elevating the _ci-devant_ opera-dancer to their ranks. Other causes +of offence were not wanting; so that poor Ludwig, though the best +judge of pictures in Europe, was forced to give in, and surrender his +dignity to his son. Then rose Nassau and Frankfort, Saxony and Saxe +Weimar, and what other small states we wot not. + +Constitutions became as plenty in the market as blackberries; indeed, +rather too much so, for at last there was a sort of glut. If the +Germans had merely desired freedom of the press, trial by jury, +burgher-guards, and the repeal of exceptional laws, the gift was +ready for them; but they wanted something more, which the separate +sovereigns could not give. In the midst of the haze of revolution, +the popular eye was fixed upon a dim phantom of German unity--upon +the eidolon of old Germania, once more compact and reunited. True, +the old lady had been laid in her grave long before any of the +present generation were born, not in the fulness of her strength, +but after a gradual decay of atrophy. This, however, was a sort of +political resurrection; for there she, or her image, stood, comely as +in her best days, and clothed in mediæval attire. The dreams of the +students seemed to be in the fair way of accomplishment, and a loud +shout of "_Germania soll leben!_" arose from the banks of the Rhine. + +At Heidelberg, on the 5th of March, an assembly of the German +notables was held. This was a self-constituted congress of +fifty-one persons, and represented eight states, in rather singular +proportions; for while the duchy of Baden contributed no less than +twenty-one members, Wurtemberg nine, and Hesse-Cassel six, Austria +was represented by one individual, and Rhenish Prussia by four. +These gentlemen passed resolutions to the effect that Germany +should become one and united; that her safety lay in herself, and +not in alliance with Russia; and that the time had arrived for the +assemblage of a body of national representatives. In the list of the +parties so gathered together, we find the honoured names of Hecker +and of Struve: the star of Von Gagern of Darmstadt was not yet in the +ascendant. After having delegated to a committee of seven the task of +preparing the basis of a German parliament, this meeting separated, +to assemble again with others on the 30th of March at Frankfort, in +the character of a legislative body. + +Although insurrectionary symptoms had been shown at Cologne and +Dusseldorf--both of them especially black-guard places--Prussia +remained tolerably quiet for a week after constitutions were +circulating like currency on the Rhine. But on the 13th the storm +burst both at Berlin and Vienna. Austria did little more than shrug +her shoulders and submit. Prince Metternich, the oldest statesman +of Europe, and the man most personally identified with the ancient +system, was the main object of popular obloquy; and the master +whom he had served so long and so well was physically incapable of +defending him. The Archduke John espoused the popular side, and +the result was the self-exile of the Prince. The King of Prussia +remained true to his original character of charlatan. First of all, +his troops fired upon the mob; then came a temporising period and a +public funeral, spinning out time, until the result of the Vienna +insurrection was known; and at last Frederick-William appeared +to astonished Europe in the character of the great regenerator +of Germany, and as candidate for the throne of the Empire. The +impudence of the address which he issued upon the memorable 18th of +March, absolutely transcends belief; and that document, doubtless, +will remain to posterity, to be marked as one of the most singular +instances on record of royal confidence in public sottishness and +credulity. Here is a short bit of it; and we are sure the reader will +agree with us in our estimate of the character and sincerity of the +august author:-- + + "We believe it right to declare before all--not only before + Prussia, but before Germany, if such be the will of God, and + before the whole united nation, what are the propositions which we + have resolved to make to our German confederates. Above all, we + demand that Germany be transformed from a confederation of states + into a federal state. We admit that this implies a recognisation + of the federal constitution, which cannot be carried into effect + save by the union of the princes with the people. In consequence, + a temporary federal representation from all the states of Germany + must be formed, and immediately convoked. We admit that such + a federal representation renders constitutional institutions + necessary in the German States, in order that the members of that + representation may sit side by side, with equal rights. We demand + a general military system of defence for Germany, copied, in its + essential parts, from that under which our Prussian armies have + won unfading laurels, in the war of liberation. We demand that the + German army shall be united under one single federal banner, and + we hope to see a federal general-in-chief at its head. We demand a + German federal flag, and we hope that, in a short time, a German + fleet will cause the German name to be respected on neighbouring + and on distant seas. We demand a German federal tribunal, to + settle all political differences between the princes and their + estates, as also between the different German governments. We + demand a common law of settlement for all natives of Germany, + and perfect liberty for them to settle in any German country. We + demand that, for the future, there shall be no barriers raised + against commerce and industry in Germany. We demand a general + Zollverein, in which the same measures and weights, the same + coinage, the same commercial rights, shall cement still more + closely the material union of the country. We propose the liberty + of the press, with the same guarantees against abuses for every + part of Germany. Such are our propositions and wishes, the + realisation of which we shall use our utmost efforts to obtain." + +It certainly is to be regretted, for his own sake, that the King of +Prussia, if he really had the above projects thoroughly at heart, +did not announce them a little sooner. Had he done so, there could +have been no mistake about the matter; and he can hardly plead want +of opportunity. But to delay the annunciation of the above sweeping +scheme until the French revolution had given an impulse to the +turbulent population of the Rhenish states--until constitutions had +been every where granted--until the foundations of a German National +Assembly had been laid--until Austria was paralysed by domestic +insurrection--and finally, until Berlin itself had been in temporary +possession of the mob--does most certainly expose his Majesty of +Prussia to divers grave insinuations affecting his probity and his +honour. Sir Robert Peel, in like manner, told us that, for several +years, he had been secretly preparing matters for the repeal of the +corn-laws. We believe in the admitted treachery; but what shall +we say to the occasion which caused it to be developed? Simply +this, that in both cases there was an utter want of principle. The +King of Prussia, like Peel, thought that he perceived an admirable +opportunity of obtaining power and popularity, by not only yielding +to, but anticipating, the democratic roar; and, in consequence, he +has shared the fate which, even on this earth, is awarded to detected +hypocrites. The south-west of Germany looked coldly on this new ally. +The democratic leaders, however wild in their principles, were, after +their own fashion, sincere; and they had no idea of intrusting the +modelment of their new government to such exceeding slippery hands. +Accordingly, the Frankfort Assembly met, discussed, and quarrelled, +fixed upon a basis of universal suffrage, and summoned together, of +their own authority, though not without recognition of the princes, +the first German Parliament, of which more anon. In the mean time, +valorous Hecker and sturdy Struve, choice republicans both, had +hoisted the red banner in Baden, but were somewhat ignominiously +routed. The Parliament finally met, annihilated the Diet, and +resolved that the provisional central power of Germany should +be vested in a Reichsverweser, or Administrator of the Empire, +irresponsible himself, but with a responsible ministry; and--no doubt +to the infinite disgust of Frederick-William of Prussia, who was +not even named as a candidate--the choice of the Assembly fell upon +Archduke John of Austria, who, as we have already seen, had embraced +the popular side, and forced on, at Vienna, the deposition of the +venerable Metternich. + +The Reichsverweser was not summoned to occupy a bed of roses. +Nominally, he was constituted the most powerful man in the whole +German confederation, the sovereign of an emperor, and the controller +of divers kings, princes, grand-dukes, electors, and landgraves. +In reality he was nobody. Universal suffrage and empire are things +which can hardly exist together; and it very soon appeared that +the motive power, whatever that might be, was exclusively in the +hands of the six hundred and eighty-four individuals who occupied +the church of Saint Paul. To chronicle their doings is not the +object of the present paper. It may be sufficient to remark that the +first stumbling-block in the way of German unity was to discover +the limits of what properly might be denominated Germany. On this +point there were many strange and conflicting opinions. Some were +for incorporating every possession which had fallen under the rule +of any German house,--in which case, Hungary, Lombardy, and part of +Poland, would have fallen under the protection of Frankfort. Some, +with more classical tastes, were desirous of extending their claim +to every country which at any time had been under Teutonic rule,--in +which case, Palestine and Sicily, if not Italy, would fall to be +annexed, and the shadow of the Empire be thrown as far as the Euxine, +on the strength of the ancient tradition that Ovid, in his exile at +Pontus, had studied the German language and composed German poetry. +The map of Europe afforded no solution of the difficulty. There had +been cessions, and clippings, and parings innumerable during the +last century and a half. Limburg had been annexed to Holland, and +Schleswig was clearly under the dominion of Denmark. In this position +the Germans committed the enormous folly of adopting the cause of the +Schleswig malcontents, and of plunging, before their own house was +set in order, into the dangers of a European war. + +Having proceeded thus far in the exposition of German affairs, we +now cede the narrative to our excellent friend Dunshunner, who, +with characteristic kindness, accompanied us in this expedition. +Notwithstanding some few omissions, such as that of entirely +forgetting to muniment himself with letters of credit, we found him a +very agreeable companion. He was perfectly acquainted with Frankfort +and elsewhere, and, we suspect, better known than trusted throughout +the valley of the Rhine. On looking over his notes, we observe that, +with his usual devotedness, he has entirely dispensed with any notice +of our existence--a circumstance which we are the more ready to +pardon, as it relieves us from the necessity of pledging ourselves +to the minute accuracy of his statements. But whatever ingredient of +fiction there may be in his dialogue, this at least is certain, that +as a general picture it is true. + +No man--says Dunshunner--who has this year visited Germany, could +believe that it is the same country which he knew in the days of its +tranquillity. In former times, the tourist, if his opinions happened +to be extra liberal, or slightly savouring of republicanism, would +have done well to abstain from proclaiming them over loudly in the +streets. I have myself seen a dirty Frenchman, of the propaganda +school, ceremoniously conducted from the hotel to the guard-house +of Mayence, by a couple of armed police, in consequence of a tirade +against royalty; and I recollect that, for some time afterwards, +there was considerable speculation as to the place of his ultimate +destination. Now, the danger lies the other way. The more radicalism +you can muster up, the better you will be appreciated in such cities +as Cologne and Frankfort,--the former of which places, if I had my +will, should be deliberately devoted without mercy to the infernal +gods. Always a nest of rascality and filth, Cologne now presents an +appearance which is absolutely revolting. Its streets are swarming +with scores of miscreants in blouses, belching out their unholy +hymns of revolution in your face, and execrating aristocracy with a +gusto that would be refreshing to the soul of Cuffey. The manners +of the people even in the hotels, which I was glad to find nearly +deserted, are rude and ruffianly in the extreme. The very waiters +seem impressed with the idea that civility is a failing utterly +inconsistent with the dignity of regenerated patriots; and they take +such pains to show it that I could well understand the apprehensions +of a timorous countryman, who confessed to me in the steam-boat that +he had been so alarmed at the threatening aspect of a democratic +_kellner_ as to take the precaution of locking himself up in his +bed-room, lest haply, in the course of the night, his weazand should +be made an offering to Nemesis, and his watch and purse transferred +upon the communist principle. + +The traveller who, this year, passed for the first time from Belgium +into Germany, must have been deeply impressed with the marked +difference between the manners of the two people. In Belgium all is +tranquillity, order, and apparent ease. Neither in the towns nor in +the country is there discernible the slightest trace of disaffection +or turbulence. Citizens and peasantry are pursuing their usual +avocations in peace, and the contentment which reigns throughout +bears testimony to the blessings of a firm and prudent government. +But the instant the boundary is passed, you are immediately and +painfully reminded that you have left a land of order, and entered +into one of anarchy. Instead of the quiet civil Belgian traders +and _negociants_, the carriages on the railway--especially the +third class, which I invariably preferred for the sake of enjoying +the full flavour of democratic society--are crowded with every +imaginable species of pongo pertaining to the liberal creed. Your +ears are filled with a gush of guttural jargon, in which the words +_einigkeit_, _despotismus_, and _unabhängigkeit_ prodigiously +preponderate; and ever and anon some canorous votary of freedom +shouts out a stave of a song, constructed upon any thing but +constitutional principles. The first feature which strikes you in the +male portion of the population is, the preposterous length of their +beards. Formerly the Germans used to shave; at least they kept their +chins reasonably clean, and if they cultivated any extra capillary +growth, reserved their care for their mustache. Now every one of them +has a beard like a rabbi, and to use razors is considered the sure +and infallible sign of a loyalist and an aristocrat. At Juliers I had +the pleasure of encountering the first specimen of Young Germany that +crossed my path, and a precious object he was. I had been sitting for +some time _vis-a-vis_ with a little punchy fellow from Vienna, with a +beard as red as that which the old masters have assigned to Barabbas; +and as he spoke little, but smoked a great deal, I was inclined to +think him rather a companionable sort of individual than otherwise. +But, at the station, in stepped a youth apparelled precisely after +the fashion of an assassin in a melodrama. His broad beaver hat, with +a conical crown, was looped up at one side, garnished with an immense +cockade of red, black, and gold, and surmounted by a couple of dingy +ostrich feathers. I lament, for the sake of our home manufactures, +to state that he exhibited no symptom of shirt-collar; nor, so far +as I could observe, had he invested any portion of his capital in +the purchase of interior linen. Over his bare neck there descended +a pointed Maximilian beard. A green blouse, curiously puckered and +slashed on the sleeves, was secured round his person by a glazed +black belt and buckle, and his legs were cased in a pair of rusty +Hessians. In short, he needed but a dagger and a brace of pistols +to render him theatrically complete; and had Fitzball been in the +carriage, the heart of that amiable dramatist would assuredly have +yearned within him at the sight of this living personification of +his own most romantic conceptions. I had forgotten to state that the +patriot had slung by his side a wallet, of the sort which is familiar +to the students of Retzsch, in which he carried his tobacco. + +To my amazement, nobody, not even the gens-d'armes on the platform, +appeared to be the least surprised at this formidable apparition, +who commenced filling his pipe with the calmness of an ordinary +Christian. For my own part, I could not take my eyes off him, but +sate speechlessly staring at this splendid specimen of the Empire. +Nor was it long before he thought fit to favour us with his peculiar +sentiments. Some sort of masonic sign was interchanged between +the new comer and Barabbas, and the former instantly burst forth +into a lecture upon the political prospects of his country. It has +been my fortune to hear various harangues, from the hustings and +elsewhere--and I have even solaced my soul with the outpourings of +civic eloquence--but never was it my fortune to hear such a discourse +upon constitutions as that pronounced by this interesting stranger. +The total demolishment of thrones, the levelling of all ranks, the +abolition of all religions, and the partition of property, were the +themes in which he revelled; and, to my considerable surprise and +infinite disgust, the punchy Viennese assented to one and all of +his propositions. Some remark which I was rash enough to hazard, +impugning the purity of the doctrines professed by the respectable +Louis Blanc, drew upon me the ire of both; and I was courteously +informed, in almost as many words, that freedom, as understood in +Britain, was utterly effete and worn out,--that Germany was fifty +years in advance of the wretched island,--and that, when the German +fleet was fairly launched upon the ocean, satisfaction would be taken +for divers insults which it did not seem convenient to specify. + +It is, of course, utterly out of the question to reason with +maniacs, else I should have been very glad to know why these new +republicans entertained such a decided hatred of England. One can +perfectly well understand the existence of a similar feeling among +the French,--indeed, abuse of our nation is the surest topic to win +applause from a Parisian audience, and it has been, and will be, +employed as the last resource of detected patriots and impostors. +But why Young Germany should hate us, as it clearly does, is to me a +profound enigma. During the Revolutionary wars, we allowed ourselves +to be plundered and subsidised in support of the freedom which the +Germans could not maintain. Prussia, after taking our money, most +infamously went over to France, and laid her clutches upon Hanover. +We forgave the aggression and the treachery, and still continued to +lavish our gold and our blood in their defence, performing, up to +the close of the struggle, the part of a faithful and by far too +generous ally. Notwithstanding all this, which is clearly written in +history, the fact is certain, that every one of these revolutionists +devoutly longs for the downfall of Britain, and would gladly lend +a helping hand to assist. Cobden was fêted on the Continent, not +because he was a commercial reformer, but because he was known to be +a determined enemy to the British aristocracy, and a virulent and +successful demagogue. It was for that reason, and for that alone, +that he was greeted on his progress by the rising rascaldom of +Europe: he was to them the mere type of a coming democracy, and they +cared not a copper for his calico. + +It is comfortable, however, to know that Young Germany has other +enemies, whom she regards with even more jaundiced eyes. There is +not one republican rogue on the Rhine but feels a pang of terror +at the mere mention of the name of Russia. They are perfectly well +aware that Great Britain has no intention of meddling with them, +and that they may cut and carve at their own constitutions without +the slightest risk of exciting an active interference. But they +are not so sure of the permanent neutrality of Nicholas; and an +unwholesome suspicion is constantly present to their minds, that, in +the progress of events, Russia may combine with the constitutional +party in Austria and Bavaria, and restore order by sweeping from +the face of the earth the whole revolutionary gang. And it is not +at all impossible that such may be the result, when the government +of Prussia awakes to a sense of its duty, and their king becomes +thoroughly ashamed of the unworthy part he has acted. At present, +he has the merit of having stirred up a conflagration which he is +not permitted to direct, and the misfortune of finding that, besides +his neighbour's house, his own is threatened with the flames. He has +thrown himself into the arms of the ultra-democratic party, without +the slightest symptom of recognition on their part. His name is in +every mouth a by-word. He is cursed by the constitutionalists for his +treachery and fickleness, and laughed at by the movement party, whose +aim is a pure republic. + +I took the earliest possible opportunity of treating both of the +admirers of freedom to beer at a station, and, in consequence, rose +somewhat in their good graces. He in the garb of the middle ages +had evidently been refreshing himself already in the course of the +forenoon, and proceeded to vary the monotony of the journey by +chanting a hymn of Freiligrath's, which, it struck me, might have +been improved by the omission of considerable bloodthirstiness. I was +not sorry when we arrived at Cologne, and had to submit our baggage +for inspection to the custom-house officers--an operation which they +performed with much civility; nevertheless I thought it incumbent +upon me, before parting, to point out this remnant of feudal tyranny +to my companions, and to request that, when Germany had become a +republic, and kings and kaisers were no more, the grievance might be +redressed. Though neither of them were burdened with goods, they were +kind enough to assure me that my recommendation should be attended +to--a promise which they sealed with oaths; whereupon we shook hands, +and parted, I sincerely trust, for ever. + +Not having the slightest wish to renew my acquaintance with the +skulls of Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, or with the interesting +relics of Saint Ursula and her plurality of virgins, I set off early +next morning on the customary passage up the Rhine. Judging from +the diminished numbers and appearance of the passengers, the hand +of revolution has already weighed heavily upon the industry of this +district. There were none of the English travelling carriages on +board--none of the merry groups that used to congregate under the +awning, and spread the echoes of their laughter and merriment over +the bosom of Father Rhine. Even the artists, that ubiquitous class, +were unrepresented. The quarter-deck was sparsely tenanted by a few +Germans wearing the national cockade, who were evidently on their +way to Frankfort; one or two Frenchmen, who, having nothing to do +in Paris, were killing time by a short summer ramble, and a single +enterprising Cockney and his bride. Every one seemed dull and +dispirited, and utterly without that store of enthusiasm which used +to be expended as a sort of necessary tribute to the glorious scenery +of the river. I made acquaintance with a young Parisian banker, a +gay good-humoured fellow of Herculean proportions, who had fought +on the side of order in the bloody affair of June. He was a decided +Orleanist in his politics, and had no faith whatever in the ultimate +stability of the Republic. + +"I turned out," he said, "with the national guard, and a hard time +we had of it at the barricades. The _canaille_ fought like devils. +But what would you have?--it was neck or nothing with us. Property is +worth little in France, thanks to Lamartine and the rest; but there +is a worse thing than the loss of property--_le pillage et le viol_! +So I fought for the Republic, bad as it is, being the only barrier +between us and absolute ruin. For myself, I am heartily tired of the +whole concern. I have come away with fifty louis in my purse, to +amuse myself for a month; and then I shall return to Paris, in the +full expectation of being shot before the month of February." + +His disgust at the present aspect of Germany was excessive. + +"The fools! the imbeciles! What possible good can they expect to +receive from their revolution? My countrymen were foolish enough--but +we laboured under the curse of centralisation in Paris, and, heaven +knows! we are paying the penalty. The departments of France did +not want a change; but here the infection appears to be universal. +Look at that fat fool with the absurd cockade!--I take him to be a +substantial merchant in one of their towns--he may not have felt the +pressure as yet, but before six months are over his stock will be +lying useless on his hands, and his affairs utterly bankrupt. That +is the price he must pay for national unity, and the privilege of +wearing in his hat a badge about the size of a soup-plate!" + +Presently we were favoured with a specimen of the warlike +preparations of the assembly at Frankfort. That body had, a few days +before, refused their consent to the armistice which the regent had +been empowered to conclude with the king of Denmark; and steamer +after steamer dashed past us, conveying Prussian, Nassau, and +Darmstadt troops from Mayence to the scene of action. With the new +gaudy colours of the Empire trailing at the stern, these vessels came +down the stream, the troops cheering as they went by, and apparently +in high spirits. + +"Very well, gentlemen!" thought I, "go on. The attack on little +Denmark by a great bully of a power may seem a very creditable thing +at present, but we shall see how it will end. Take care you don't +run your heads against a certain individual to the northward, who is +popularly supposed to subsist principally upon spermaceti, and who +would ask no better amusement than that of extracting a little of +your extra democracy with the knout. There would be some grimacing in +Cologne at the sight of a pulk of Cossacks!" + +Coblentz, that pretty little town which reposed so quietly under the +huge shadow of Ehrenbreitstein, was crowded with troops, waiting +for the opportunity of transport. I had scarcely stepped upon the +quay when I found myself enveloped in the embrace of a gentleman in +military accoutrements, who exclaimed with Teutonic fervour-- + +"_Du lieber himmel! Er ist's! August Reignold von Dunshunner, wie +geht's?_" + +I looked up, and presently recognised an old acquaintance in the +person of one Ernest Herrmann, formerly _fahntrager_ or ensign in +a regiment of Wurtemberg infantry, and now a captain in the same +distinguished service. Years before, I had seen a good deal of him at +Stuttgardt, and still remembered with pleasure his accomplishments in +the ball-room and the skittle-ground. + +"Herrmann, my dear fellow!" said I, "is it possible that I meet +you here? Have you changed service, or what brings you here from +Stuttgardt?" + +"Not I," replied Herrmann. "Still true to the old colours; but you +see we have added another since you were last here. The fact is, that +our regiment is on its way for a brush with the Danes, and we expect +to take up our winter-quarters at Copenhagen." + +"Indeed!" + +"Will you not join us? I have no doubt it will be the rarest fun--and +I am sure the colonel would not have the least objection to your +being of our party." + +"Thank you!" said I drily, "I am afraid I should be rather in the +way. And how are our old friends Krauss and Bartenstein, and the +rest?" + +"All well and all here! Come along with me, we are just going to +dinner, and you positively must spend an hour with us. Not that way!" +said my friend, as I was making for one of the larger hotels, at the +door of which two waiters were waving napkins, as if to allure the +unwary passenger--"not that way! We have a quiet _gast-haus_ of our +own, and I think I can promise you a tolerable spread." + +I yielded to the suggestion, and accompanied Herrmann down a back +street until we reached a tavern, which, certainly, I would not +have been inclined to select as my own peculiar domicile. Several +Wurtemberg soldiers were smoking their pipes in the passage, and +the aroma which issued from the _Stuben_ was far more pungent than +pleasant. We ascended a wooden stair leading to an upper apartment, +in which a number of officers were already seated at table. + +"Whom do you think I have here?" cried Herrmann. "Krauss, Offenbach, +Bartenstein--have you forgot our old friend the Freyherr von +Dunshunner?" + +In an instant I was pounced upon by Krauss, who, after a hug of +German fraternity, passed me to his nearest comrade; and in this way +I made the round of the table, until I emerged from the arms of an +aged major, as odorous as Cadwallader when mounted on his goat after +a liberal luncheon upon leeks. + +I used to like the German officers. They were a frank, good-humoured, +rough-and-ready sort of fellows, decently educated, as times go, +and easily and innocently amused. I would rather, however, not mess +with them, for they are extremely national and economical in their +diet; and I never throve much upon the bread soup, sauer kraut, and +pork, which constitute the staple of their entertainments. But I was +gratified at meeting once more with old companions, though under +circumstances singularly changed. The senior officers, I could see, +were not very sanguine as to the results of their expedition, and it +was only among the younger portion that any enthusiasm was exhibited. +So we talked a great deal, and consumed a considerable quantity of +indifferent Moselle, until a messenger announced that time was up, +and the steamer ready to depart. I accompanied my friends to the +quay, and bade them farewell, with a strong conviction that, from the +present state of European affairs, it was highly improbable that we +should ever meet again. + +Two days afterwards I arrived at Frankfort, every hour upon the road +having afforded farther evidence of the entire disorganisation which +is prevalent throughout Germany. In Mayence, that strong garrison +town, any thing but a friendly feeling subsists between the military +and the populace. The latter, long accustomed to strict rule, have +become turbulent and insolent, never omitting any opportunity of +displaying their ill-will, especially to the Austrians, who have as +yet received such demonstrations with the phlegm peculiar to their +nation. But it is very evident that the Austrian soldiery are sick +of this order of things, and that, whenever an opportunity of action +may occur, they will not be slow in taking a summary vengeance on the +blouses. In the mean time discipline is relaxed, and men seem hardly +to know who is their legitimate master. France never yet had so good +an opportunity of achieving that old object of her ambition--the +boundary of the Rhine; and, in the event of a European war, it is +almost certain that the attempt will be made. + +Frankfort, to outward appearance, is, or at least was when I entered +it, as brisk and bustling as ever. The tradesmen, with the exception +of the publishers, to whom the Revolution has been a godsend, may +not be driving so profitable a business, but the influx of strangers +since the Assembly met has been remarkable. Here Young Germany +flourishes in full unwashed and uncontrolled luxuriance. Every +kind of costume which idiocy can devise is to be met with in the +streets, and the conical parliamentary hat confronts you at every +turn. The bustle of politics has superseded that of commerce, and +the conversation relates far more to democracy than to dollars. The +hotels are still crowded, it being the fashion for members of the +same political views to dine together at the _tables-d'hôte_--so +that the traveller who is not aware of this arrangement may, by +going to one house, find himself a participator in a red republican +banquet; whereas, had he merely crossed the street, he might have +fed with moderate conservatives. My old quarters used to be at the +_Weidenbusch_; but by this time I had become so disgusted with +everything savouring of liberalism that I directed the coachman to +drive to the _Russischer Hof_, where I trusted to find rest and peace +under the protecting shadow of Saint Nicholas. + +I was leisurely washing down my evening cutlet with the contents of +a flask of _Liebfrauenmilch_, and wondering whether the pleasant +_cafés_ outside the city gates were still in existence, when a huge +colossus of a man entered the _salle-à-manger_, seated himself +immediately opposite me at table, and demanded a double portion of +_kalbs-braten_. I could not refrain from taking a deliberate view of +the stranger. He appeared to be upwards of sixty, was curiously clad +in duffle, possessed a double, nay, a triple chin, and his small pig +eyes peered out from under their pent-house above a mass of pendulous +and quivering cheek. His stomach, enormous in its development, seemed +to extend from his neck to his knees; his short stubby fingers were +girded with divers seal-rings of solid bullion, and he spoke in the +husky accents of an ogre after too plentiful a repast in the nursery. + +As I gazed upon this marked victim for apoplexy, his features +gradually seemed to become familiar to my eyes. I was certain that +I had heard that short asthmatic wheeze, and seen that pendulous +lip before. Strange suspicions crossed my mind, but it was not +until I saw him produce from his pocket a pipe well known to me in +former days, that I felt assured of being in the presence of my old +preceptor the Herr Professor Klingemann. + +The worthy man had, in the mean time, honoured me with a reciprocal +survey; but either his eyes had failed him, or his memory was not +so retentive as mine, for he betrayed no symptoms of recognising +his quondam pupil. Much affected, I rose up, extended my hand, and +inquired if he did not know me. + +He stared at me in bewilderment until I mentioned my name, and then +suddenly, with a chuckle of delight, he extended his arms, as if to +embrace me across the table--a ceremony which I wisely avoided, as I +have observed that glasses broken in a hotel are invariably charged +at double the original cost. I made the circuit, however, and, after +undergoing the usual hug, and a world of preliminary inquiries, sat +down by the side of my former guide, philosopher, and friend. + +Klingemann had always been suspected to be somewhat of a democrat. +He had smoked his way through all the intricate labyrinth of German +philosophy, in search of what he called the universal system of +reconcilement of theory, until his brain became as muddy as the +Compensation Pond which supplies Edinburgh with water. Of course, +as is always the case under such circumstances, he acquired a +corresponding reputation for profundity, and was, by many of his +students, esteemed the leading metaphysician of Europe. If a man +cannot achieve any other kind of character, he has always this in +reserve: if he will make a point of talking unintelligibly, and of +employing words which nobody else understands, he will, in time, +be raised to the level of Kant and Hegel, without giving himself +any extraordinary trouble in the search for fugitive ideas. But the +politics of Klingemann--at least in my university days--never used +to emerge until he had moistened his clay with a certain modicum of +liquid. Then, to be sure, he would descant with almost superhuman +energy upon constitutional and despotic systems. He used to +demonstrate how perfect liberty was attainable by an immediate return +to the noble principles of the Lacedæmonians, whose social code and +black broth he esteemed as the perfection of human sagacity. He also +held in deep respect the patriarchal form of government, and was of +opinion that the soil of the earth belonged to nobody, but ought to +be cultivated in common. + +Solomon was right when he averred that there is nothing new under +the sun. The principles of communism, as at present advocated on +the Continent by Messrs Louis Blanc and Prudhon, and in England by +the unfortunate Cuffey, were long ago expounded and practised by +Luckie Buchan and Mr Robert Owen. Let us be just in our movement, and +pay honour where honour is due. Let those who embrace the creed do +justice to the manes of its founder, and style themselves Buchanites, +in veneration of that estimable woman whose attempted apotheosis has +been so well described by Mr Joseph Train. Professor Klingemann, +with all his erudition, had never heard of Luckie Buchan; but, for +all that, he was completely of her mind. Had his views been openly +promulgated, there can be little doubt that his labours in the +university would have been cut short in a somewhat despotic manner; +but he had sense enough to avoid observation, and never lectured upon +politics except in private, to a select circle of his acolytes. + +Such was Klingemann when I knew him first. We had corresponded for +a short while after I left the university, but I soon got tired of +the professor's hazy lucubrations, and undutifully omitted to reply, +which in time produced the desired effect. For years I heard nothing +of him, save on one occasion, when he did me the honour to send me +a copy of his _magnum opus_, entitled "An Essay upon the Ideality, +Perceptiveness, and Ratiocination of Notions," closely printed upon +two thousand mortal pages of dingy paper, with a request that I would +be kind enough to translate and publish it in the English language. +As I bore no spite at the moment against any particular bookseller, +and was by no means covetous of working out my own individual ruin, +I did not think it necessary to comply with this philanthropic +suggestion; and the original of the work is perfectly at the service +of any gentleman who may have the fancy for attaining a European +reputation. Klingemann, I dare say, was disappointed, but he bore no +manner of malice. + +"My dear professor," said I, "you are the last man whom I should have +expected to meet in Frankfort. I thought you were far away at the +university, occupied as usual with those sublime works which have +made your name immortal." + +"Ah, Augustus, my dear child!" replied the professor with a deep +sigh, "things have strangely altered since you were here last. I +used to think that I was labouring in the sphere of usefulness, by +concentrating into one focus of ever-brilliant illumination the +scattered rays of human idiosyncrasy and idoneousness; but I find now +that, for many years, I have been sending the plummet vainly down the +deep unfathomable chasm of psychology and speculation! _Wass henker!_ +what keeps that _schelm_ with my _kalbs-braten_? No, my son; I have +discovered, though late, that I am made for action, and henceforth I +shall devote my energies to the amelioration of the human race." + +"As how, my honoured sir? I am somewhat at a loss to understand you." + +"By taking an active interest in the affairs of the outer and living +man, as contradistinguished from the internal reflective being. Know, +August Reignold von Dunshunner, that I am a member of the German +parliament!" + +"You, my dear professor! Is it possible? And yet why should I doubt?" +continued I, bowing reverently to the illustrious man; "at this +particular crisis, Europe imperatively needs the services of her +master spirits." + +"She does," replied the professor, "and Germany requires them in +particular. You see our system was old and antiquated. We were +pressed upon from without, and the dark subtile spirit of the +Metternichian policy spread like a poisonous miasmatical exhalation +over the whole surface of the land. It was time to alter these +things--full time that the most gigantically-gifted and heroical race +of the world should escape from the insidious fetters of a low and +degrading despotism!" + +"Pardon me, my dear professor, but so long a time has elapsed since +I left the university, that I can hardly follow the meaning of some +of these very lengthy words. But am I right in addressing you by your +academic title? Do you still retain possession of your chair?" + +"Of course," replied Klingemann, with a twinkle of his eye. "I +should like to see any of the princes venture just now to infringe +the rights of the universities! Our noble German youth have been the +first to assert the grand principle of unity, and future ages will +record with triumph their deeds at the barricades of Vienna and of +Berlin." + +"And your salary?" + +"I draw it still, with compensation for the loss of students." + +"That must be a pleasant arrangement!" + +"It is. I have left my lectures with a famulus to be read next +winter, in case there should be any class. But, before then, I expect +that Germany will require the active service of its youth." + +"Indeed!" said I; "are you then apprehensive of a general European +war?" + +The learned man made no reply, being intently occupied with his +victuals. There was silence in the room for about a quarter of an +hour, until the professor, having finished his meal, and mopped up +the last drop of gravy with a morsel of bread which he incontinently +devoured, removed the napkin from his bosom, filled out a tumbler of +Moselle, and thus resumed:-- + +"Hear me, young man! I always loved you; for, in the midst of a +certain frivolity of disposition, I discerned the traces of a strong +practical enterprising genius. Nay--I am serious. Often, in the +course of the speculations which have been forced upon me, during the +late headlong current of events, have I thought of you in connexion +with the coming destinies of your country. For--do not mistake my +meaning--the avalanche which is now sliding down the mountain, with +terrific velocity, will not stay itself until it reaches the valley. +The rights of the people are not the sole object of the present +movement. The awakening of the great heart of Germany is the mere +prelude to events that will upset monarchies, overthrow thrones, and +shatter society to its deepest foundations, until, by an unerring +law of nature, which provides that light shall emerge from darkness, +order will uprear itself from the shattered elemental chaos, and the +work of social reorganisation be commenced anew. You see my purpose?" + +"Why, to say the truth, profoundest of professors, I have not the +slightest glimmering of your drift!" + +"You are dull, Herr von Dunshunner!" replied Klingemann, knitting +his brows--"much duller than I could have expected from one who has +attended my lectures. In Britain, you have not yet attained that +point of exalted _rationalismus_, from which alone the true surface +of society can be surveyed. You think, I presume, that your own +present system of government is perfect?" + +"If you mean government by Queen, Lords, and Commons, I am clearly +of opinion that it is. But if you mean to ask my impressions of the +present Cabinet, I rather think I should give you a very different +answer." + +"You mistake me altogether," replied the professor. "What are you, +in Britain but a heterogeneous mixture of all possible races, +without unity of blood, and sometimes even unity of language? Are +not Celt and Saxon, Dane and Norman, jumbled together in the great +social sphere? And can you expect, out of these warring elements, +ever to produce harmony? No, August Reignold! One great error--the +total disregard of unity of race--has hitherto been the enormous +stumbling-block in the way of human perfection, and it is for the +cure of that error that Germany has arisen from her sleep!" + +"And what the deuce--excuse my profanity--do you intend to do?" + +"To reunite and reconstitute the nations upon the foundation of unity +of race," replied the professor. + +"It would be rather a difficult thing to accomplish in my case, +professor." I replied. "Without raising a multiplepoinding; as we say +in Scotland, I could hardly ascertain to which race I really belong. +My father was a Saxon, my mother a Celt--I have a cross of the Norman +ancestry, and a decided dash of the Dane. It would defy anatomy to +rank me!" + +"In cases of admixture," said the professor, lighting his +pipe--"which, be it remarked, are the exceptions, and not the +rule--we are willing to admit the minor test of language. Now, +observe. Western Europe--for we need not complicate ourselves with +the Sclavonic question--may be considered as occupied by four +different races. It is, I believe, quite possible to reduce them to +three, but, in order to avoid controversy, I am willing to take the +higher number. In this way we should have, instead of many separate +states, merely to undertake the arrangement or federalisation of +four distinct races--the Latin, the Teutonic, the Celtic, and +Scandinavian. Each tree should be allowed to grow separately, but all +its branches should be interwoven together, and the result will be a +harmony of system which the world has never yet attained." + +"You hold France to be Celtic, I presume, professor?" + +"Decidedly. The southern portion has an infusion of Latin, and the +northern of Scandinavian blood; but the preponderance lies with the +Celt." + +"And who do you propose should join with France?" + +"Three-fourths of Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland, Wales, and the +Basque Provinces." + +"So far well.--And England?" + +"England is confessedly Saxon; and, as such, the greater portion of +her territory must be annexed to Germany." + +"While Northumberland and the Orkney islands are handed over to +Scandinavia! I'll tell you what, professor--you'll excuse my freedom; +but, although I have heard a good deal of nonsense in the course of +my life, this idea of yours is the most preposterous that was ever +started." + +"We are acting upon it, however," replied Klingemann; "for it is upon +that principle we are claiming Schleswig from Denmark, and Limburg +from the crown of Holland. But for that principle we should be +clearly wrong, since it is admitted that, in all past time, the Eyder +has been the boundary of Germany. All territorial limits, however, +must yield to unity of race." + +"May I ask if there are many members of the German parliament who +favour the same theory?" + +"A good many--at least of the left section." + +"They must be an enlightened set of legislators! Take my word for +it, professor, you will have enough to do in settling the affairs of +Germany Proper, without meddling with any of your neighbours." + +"It must be owned," said the professor, "that we still require a good +deal of internal arrangement. We have our fleet to build." + +"A fleet!--what can you possibly want with a fleet? And if you had +one, where are your harbours?" + +"That is a point for after consideration," replied Klingemann. "I +am not much acquainted with maritime matters, because I never have +seen the sea; but we consider a fleet as quite essential, and are +determined to build one. Then there is the settlement of religious +differences. That, I own, gives me some anxiety." + +"Why should it, in a country where three-fourths of the population, +thanks to metaphysics, are rationalists?" + +"I do not know. There is a proposal to construct a pantheon, somewhat +on the principle of the Valhalla, in which men of all sects may +worship; but I am strongly impressed with the propriety of a unity of +creed as well as a unity of race." + +"And this creed you would make compulsive?" + +"To be sure. We expect obedience to the laws--that is, to our laws, +when we shall have made them; and I cannot see why a law of worship +should be less imperative than a law which binds mankind to the +observance of social institutions." + +Shade of Doctor Martin Luther!--this in thy native land! + +"Well, professor," said I, "you have given me enough to think on for +one night at least. Perhaps to-morrow you will be kind enough to take +me to the parliament, and point out some of the distinguished men who +are about to regenerate the world." + +"Willingly, my dear boy," said the professor; "it is your parliament +as well as mine, for you are clearly of the Saxon race." + +"Which," interrupted I, "I intend to repudiate as soon as the +partition begins; for, whatever may be doing elsewhere, there are at +least no symptoms of barricades in the Highlands." + +Although it exceeded the bounds of human credulity to suppose that a +majority, or even a considerable section of the German parliament, +entertained such preposterous ideas as those which I had just heard +from Klingemann, it was obvious that the supreme authority had +fallen into the hands of men utterly incapable of discharging the +duty of legislators to the country. A movement, commenced by the +universities, and eagerly seconded by the journalists, had resulted +in the abrupt recognition of universal suffrage as the basis of +popular representation. There had been no intermediate stage between +total absence of political privilege and the surrender of absolute +power, without check or discipline, to the many. What wonder, then, +if the revolution, so rashly accomplished, so weakly acquiesced in +by the majority of the princes of Germany, should already be giving +token of its disastrous fruit? What wonder if the representatives +of an excited and turbulent people should carry with them, to the +grave deliberations of the senate, the same wild and crude ideas +which were uppermost in the minds of their constituency? It needed +but a glance at the parliamentary list to discover that, among +the men assembled in the church of St Paul, there were hardly any +fitted, from previous experience, to undertake the delicate task of +reconstructing the constitutions of Germany. There were plenty of +professors--men who had dreamed away the best part of their lives in +abstract contemplation, but who never had mingled with the world, and +who formed their sole estimate of modern society from the books and +traditions of the past. The recluse scholar is proverbially a man +unfit to manage his own affairs, much less to direct the destinies +of nations; and all experience has shown that the popular estimate +has, in this instance, been strictly true. There were poets of name +and note, whose strains are familiar throughout Europe; but, alas! +it is in vain to expect that the power of Orpheus still accompanies +his art, and that the world can be governed by a song. There were +political writers of the Heine school, enthusiastic advocates of +systems which they could neither defend nor explain--worshippers of +Mirabeau and of the heroes of the French Revolution--and most of them +imbued with such religions and social tenets as were promulgated by +Thomas Paine. There were burghers and merchants from the far cities, +who, since the days of their studentism, had fattened on tobacco +and beer; gained small local reputations by resisting the petty +tyranny of some obnoxious burgo-master; and who now, in consequence +of the total bouleversement of society, find themselves suddenly +exalted to a position of which they do not understand the duties, +or comprehend the enormous responsibility. Political adventurers +there were of every description, but few members of that class which +truly represents the intelligence and property of the country. +In the preliminary assembly, the names of five or six mediatised +princes--particularly those of the house of Hohenlohe--and of several +of the higher nobility, were to be found. Few such names occur in +the present roll,--the only mediatised member is the prince of +Waldburg-Zeil-Trauchburg. This is ominous of the tendency of the +parliament, and of its pure democratic condition. + +So much I had learned from a perusal of the debates, which are +now regularly published at Frankfort, and which hereafter may be +considered as valuable documents, illustrating the rise and progress +of revolution. But I was curious to see, with my own eyes, the aspect +of the German parliament, and not a little pleased to find that my +old friend, the professor, was punctual in keeping his appointment. + +Saint Paul's church, a circular building of no great architectural +merit, has been appropriated as the theatre of council. Thither +every morning, a crowd of the enthusiastic Frankforters, and crazy +students in their mediæval garbs, repair to pack the galleries, and +bestow their applause upon the speeches of their favourite members. +It is needless to say that, the more democratic the harangue, the +more liberal is the tribute of cheering. The back benches on one side +of the main body of the hall are reserved for the ladies, who, in +Frankfort at least, are keen partisans of revolution. The volubility +with which these fair creatures discuss the affairs of state, and +questions of political economy which the science of Miss Martineau +could not unravel, is really quite astounding. Whenever you meet +a German woman now, you may prepare to hear a tirade upon popular +freedom: they are, as might be expected, even more bitter than the +men in their denunciation of artificial rank; nor do they seem to +be in the slightest degree aware of the fact, that of all hideous +objects on earth, the worst is a patriot in petticoats. I have heard +such venom and bloodthirstiness expressed by a pair of coral lips +that, upon the whole, I should rather have preferred soliciting a +salute from Medusa. + +Above the president's chair, and painted in fresco upon the wall, is +a very dirty figure intended to represent Germania, clad in garments +which, at first sight, appeared to be covered with a multitude of +black beetles. On a more close inspection, however, you discover that +these are diminutive eagles; but I can hardly recommend the pattern. +The president, Von Gagern, a tall, dark, fanatic-looking man, is +seated immediately below, and confronts the most motley assemblage of +men that I ever had the fortune to behold. + +Klingemann, having intimated to me that it was not his intention to +illuminate the mind of Germany that day by any elaborate discourse, +was kind enough to place himself beside me, and perform the part of +cicerone. My first impression, on surveying the sea of heads in the +assembly, was decidedly unfavourable; for I could hardly discern +amongst the ranks one single individual whose appearance bespoke him +to be a gentleman. The countenances of the members were generally +mean and vulgar, and in many cases absurdly bizarre. Near me sate an +old pantaloon, with a white beard flowing over a frogged surtout, his +head surmounted with a black velvet scull-cap, which gave him all +the appearance of a venerable baboon just escaped from the operation +of trepanning, and a staff of singular dimensions in his hand. This, +Klingemann told me, was Professor Jahn, formerly of Freiburg, and +surnamed the father of gymnastics. + +This superannuated acrobat seemed to be the centre of a group of +literary notables, for my friend pointed out in succession, and with +great pride, the burley forms of Dahlman and other thoroughgoing +professors. In fact, one large section of the hall was nothing but a +Senatus Academicus. + +"But where," said I, "are the poets? I am very curious to see the +collection of modern minstrels. I presume that young fellow with +the black beard, who is firing away in the tribune, and bawling +himself hoarse, must be one of them. He can, at all events, claim the +possession of a full share of godlike insanity." + +"He is not a poet," replied the professor; "that is Simon of Treves, +a very intelligent young man, though a little headstrong. I wish he +would be somewhat milder in his manner." + +"Nay, he seems to be suiting the action to the word, according to the +established rules of rhetoric. So far as I can understand him, he +is just suggesting that divers political opponents, whom he esteems +reactionary, should be summarily ejected from the window!" + +"Ah, good Simon!--but we have all been young once," said the +professor. "After all, he is a stanch adherent of unity." + +"Yes--I daresay he would like to have every thing his own way, in +which case a certain ingenious machine for facilitating decapitation +would probably come into vogue. But the poets?" + +"You see that old man over yonder, with the calm, benignant, nay, +seraphic expression of countenance, which betokens that his soul +is at this moment far withdrawn from its earthly tabernacle, and +wandering amidst those paradisaical regions where unity and light +prevail." + +"Do you allude to that respectable gentleman, rather up in years, who +seems to me to have swallowed verjuice after his coffee this morning, +or to be labouring under a severe attack of toothache?" + +"Irreverend young man! Know that is Ludwig Uhland." + +"You don't mean to say that that crossgrained surly old fellow is the +author of the famous ballads!" exclaimed I. "Why, there is a snarl +on his visage that might qualify him to sit for a fancy portrait of +Churchill in extreme old age!" + +"He is the last of a great race. Look yonder, at that other venerable +figure----" + +"The gentleman who is twiddling his stick across his arm, as though +he were practising the bars of a fandango? Who may he be?" + +"Arndt, the great composer. Have you men like him in your British +parliament?" + +"Why, I must confess we have not yet thought of ransacking the +orchestra for statesmen. Any more?" + +"Yes. You see that tall grizzled man over the way. That is Anastasius +Grün." + +"Graf von Auersperg? Well, he is a gentleman at least; though, as to +poetical pretension, I have always considered him very much on a par +with Dicky Milnes. But where are your statesmen, professor? Where are +the men who have made politics the study of their lives, who have +mastered the theories of government and the science of economics, and +who have all the different treaties of Europe at the ends of their +fingers?" + +"As we are commencing a new era," replied Klingemann, "we need +none of those. Treaties, ideologically considered, are merely +the exponents of the position of past generations, and bear no +reference to the future, the tendency of which is lost in the mists +of eternity. Such men as you describe we had under the Metternich +system, but we have discarded them all with their master." + +"Then I must say that, idiotically considered, you have done a very +foolish thing. Where at least are your financiers?" + +"My dear friend, I must for once admit that you have stumbled on a +weak point. We are very much in want of a financier indeed. Would you +believe it? the sum of five florins a-day, which is the amount of +recompense allowed to each member of the Assembly, has been allowed +to fall into arrear!" + +"What! do each of these fellows get five florins a-day, in return for +cobbling up the Empire? Then it is very easy to see that, unless the +exchequer fails altogether, the parliament will never be prorogued." + +"Certainly not until it has completed the task of adjusting a German +constitution," observed the professor. + +"Which is just saying the same thing in different words. But, pray, +what is exciting this storm of wrath in the bosom of the respectable +Mr Simon?" + +"He is merely denouncing the sovereigns and the aristocracy. It is +a favourite topic. But look there! that is a great man--ah, a very +great man indeed!" + +Without challenging the claim of the individual indicated to +greatness, I am committing no libel when I designate him as the very +ugliest man in Europe. The broad arch of his face was fringed with +a red bush of furzy hair. His eyes were inflamed and pinky, like +those of a ferret labouring under opthalmia, and his nose, mouth, +and tusks, bore a palpable resemblance to the muzzle of the bulldog. +Altogether, it is impossible to conceive a more thoroughly forbidding +figure. This was Robert Blum, the well-known publisher of Leipzig, +who has put himself prominently forward from the very commencement of +the movement; and who, possessing a certain power of language which +may pass with the multitude for eloquence, and professing opinions +of extreme democratic tendency, has gained a popularity and power in +Frankfort, which is not regarded without uneasiness by the members +of the more moderate party. As this worthy was a bookseller, and +Klingemann still in possession of piles of unpublished manuscript, +I could understand and forgive the enthusiasm and veneration of the +latter. + +Simon having concluded his inflammatory harangue, the tribune was +next occupied by a person of a different stamp. He was, I think, +without any exception, the finest-looking man in the Assembly--in +the prime of manhood, tall, handsome, and elegantly dressed, and +bearing, moreover, that unmistakeable air which belongs to the +polished gentleman alone. His manner of speaking was hasty, and +not such as might be approved of by the practised debater, but +extremely fluent and energetic; and it was evident that Simon and his +confederates writhed under the castigation which, half-seriously, +half-sarcastically, the bold orator unsparingly bestowed. Judging +from the occasional hisses, the speaker seemed no favourite either +with the members of the extreme left or with the galleries; but +probably he was used to such manifestations, for he went through +his work undauntedly. I asked his name. It was Felix, Prince of +Lichnowsky. + +Poor Lichnowsky! a few weeks after I saw him in the Assembly, he +was barbarously and brutally murdered by savages at the gate of +Frankfort--the flesh cut off his arms with scythes--his body put up +as a target for their balls--and every execrable device of ingenuity +employed to prolong his suffering. O ye who wink at revolutions +abroad, and who would stimulate the populace to excess--ye who, +in days past, have written or been privy to letters from the Home +Office, conniving at undeniable treason--think of this scene, +and repent of your miserable folly! In a civilised city--among a +Christian and educated population--that deed of hideous atrocity +was perpetrated at noon-day: the young life of one of the most +accomplished and chivalrous cavaliers of Europe was torn from him +piecemeal, in a manner which humanity shudders to record, and for +no other reason than because he had stood forth as the advocate of +constitutional order! Liberal historians, in their commentaries upon +the first French Revolution, spare no pains to argue us into the +conviction that such tragedies as that of the Princess de Lamballe +could not be enacted save amongst a people degraded and brutalised +by long centuries of misgovernment, oppression, and superstition. +They have lied in saying so. A pack of famished wolves is not so +merciless as a human mob, when drunk with the revolutionary puddle; +and were the strong arm of the law once paralysed in Britain, we +should inevitably become the spectators, if not the victims, of the +same butcheries which have disgraced almost every country in Europe +now clamouring for independence and unity. The sacerdotal robes of +the Archbishop of Paris--the gray hairs of Major von Auerswaldt--the +station and public virtue of the Counts of Lamburg, Zichy, and +Latour--could not save these unhappy men from a fate far worse than +simple assassination: and this century and year have likewise been +reserved for the unexampled abomination of Christian men adopting +cannibalism, and feeding upon human flesh, as was the case not a +month ago at Messina! Well might Madame Roland exclaim, "O Liberty! +what things are done in thy name!" Poor Lichnowsky! Better had he +fallen on the fields of Spain, in the combat for honour and loyalty, +with the red steel in his hand, and the flush of victory on his brow, +than have perished so miserably by the hands of the cowardly and +rascal rout of the _free_ city of Frankfort! + +"That's Zitz of Mayence," said the professor, as a heavy-looking +demagogue stumbled clumsily up to the tribune. + +"Oh! that's Zitz, is it?" replied I. "Well, professor, I think I +have had quite enough of the Assembly for one morning, and as I feel +a certain craving for a cigar, I think I shall leave you for the +present." + +"Won't you dine to-day at the Swan?" said Klingemann, "most of my +friends of the left frequent the _table-d'hote_ there, and I should +like to introduce you to Zitz." + +"Thank you!" said I, "I shall be punctual, and pray keep a place for +me;" and so for the present we parted. + +"The dunderheads!" thought I, as I emerged into the street and lit +an undeniable havannah, "here is a nation which, for thirty years +past, has been eating its _sauer-kraut_ and sausages in peace, paying +almost no taxes, and growing its own wine and tobacco, about to be +plunged into irretrievable misery and ruin, by a set of selfish +hounds who look to nothing beyond their stipend of five florins +a-day! Heaven help the idiots! what would they be at? They have got +all manner of constitutions, liberty of the press--though there is +not a man in Germany who could write a decent leading article--and a +great deal more freedom than is good for them already. And now the +world is to be turned upside down, because a parcel of trash, not +a whit more respectable than Cuffey and his confederates, and very +nearly as stupid, have taken the notion of unity into their heads, +and are resolved to build up, with rotten bricks, the ricketty +structure of an empire. Nicholas, my dear friend, there is work +chalked out for you, and ready. If these scum presume to meddle with +their neighbours, they must be crushed like a hive of hornets; and I +do not know any foot so heavy and elephantine as your own!" + +Pondering these things deeply, I strolled on from shop to shop, +gleaning everywhere as I went statistics touching the manner in +which our free-trade innovations have affected the industry of Great +Britain. For a year and a half, the boot and shoe trade has been +remarkably thriving; the London market being the most profitable in +the world, and nothing but British gold exported in return. As to +cotton manufactures, Belgium and Switzerland have the monopoly of +Southern Germany. The trade in Bohemian glass is rapidly superseding +at home the labour of the silversmith. A complete service, so +beautiful that it might be laid out on the table of a prince, costs +about thirty pounds; and the names of the British magnates, which +the dealer pointed to with ineffable triumph as purchasers, were +so numerous as to convince me that the deteriorating influence of +free trade was rapidly rising upwards. The same may be said of the +cutlery, which is now sent to undersell the product of the British +artisan in his own peculiar market. When we couple those facts, which +may be learned in every Continental town, with the state of our +falling revenue, and the grievous direct burden which is imposed upon +us in the shape of property and income tax, it is difficult for any +Briton to understand upon what grounds the financial reputation of +Sir Robert Peel is based, or to comprehend the wisdom of adhering to +a system which sacrifices every thing in favour of the foreigner, and +brings us in return no earthly recompense or gain. + +I duly kept my engagement at the Swan, and was introduced by the +Professor to Zitz, Gervinus, and some more of the radical party. The +dinners at the Swan are unexceptionable; indeed, out of Paris, it is +impossible to discover better. + +"What do you think of our German parliament?" asked a deputy of the +name of Neukirch, next whom I was seated. "It must be an interesting +sight for an Englishman to behold the aspirations of our rising +freedom." + +"Oh, charming!" I replied: "and such splendid oratory--we have +nothing like it in the House of Commons." + +"Do you really think so?" said Neukirch, looking absurdly gratified. + +"I do indeed. The speech which I had the privilege of hearing this +morning from the gentleman opposite--" here I bowed to Simon of +Treves, who was picking the backbone of a pike--"was equal to the +most elaborate efforts of our greatest orator, Mr Chisholm Anstey. +It is not often that one has the fortune to listen to such talent +combined with patriotism!" + +"You speak like a man of sense," said the flattered Simon. "I believe +that I have given those infernal princes their gruel. Lichnowsky had +better hold his peace, for the time is coming when a sharp reckoning +must be held between the aristocrats and the people." + +"_Potz tausend!_" cried Zitz, "do they think to lord it over us +longer with their stars and ribbons? I hold myself to be as good a +man as any grand-duke of them all, and a great deal better than some +I could name who would give a trifle to be out of Germany." + +"And how does the cause of democracy progress in England?" asked +Neukirch. "We are somewhat surprised to find that, after all the +preparation, there has been no revolution in London." + +"As to that," said I, "you must hardly judge us too rashly. Two +distinguished patriots, called Ernest Jones and Fussell, were +desirous of raising barricades; but, somehow or other, the plan was +communicated to Government, the troops refused to fraternise, and the +attempt was postponed for the present." + +"I see!" cried Zitz, "Russian influence has been at work in England +too. Nicholas has been sowing his gold, and the fruit is continued +tyranny." + +"The fact is," said I, "though I would not wish it to be repeated, +that a good many of us are of opinion that we have no tyranny at +all, but rather more freedom than is absolutely necessary for our +happiness." + +"No tyranny!" shouted Zitz; "is there not a chamber of peers?" + +"Too much freedom!" roared Simon of Treves; "have you not an +Established Church?" + +"Is not your sovereign a niece of the odious despot of Hanover?" +asked Neukirch. + +"Is there not a heavy tax on tobacco?" inquired my friend and +preceptor Klingemann. + +"Gentlemen all," said I, "these things must perforce be admitted. +We have a chamber of peers, and are thankful for it, because it +curbs democracy in the Commons. We have an Established Church, +and we honour it, because it has taught the people to fear their +Creator and to reverence their queen. Our sovereign is a niece of +the King of Hanover, and she has no reason whatever to be ashamed +of the connexion. And as to the article of tobacco, I may remark to +my learned friend the professor, that revenue must necessarily be +raised, and that, moreover, I have not smoked a single decent cigar +since I set foot in Germany." + +"These are reactionary doctrines!" growled Zitz; "I fear you are no +true friend of the people." + +"A firmer one never sat under the sign of Geordie Buchanan," said +I; "but I suspect your estimate of the people is somewhat different +from mine. Pray, Herr Neukirch, will you pardon the curiosity of a +stranger, if I ask one or two questions upon points which I do not +thoroughly comprehend? I observe, from the tenor of the proclamations +issued by Herr von Soiron, that you contemplate the erection of one +free, united, and indissoluble Germany." + +"That is precisely our object." + +"Then, am I right in holding that the Reichsverweser concentrates in +his own person the whole power and puissance of the different states?" + +"Just so. He is president of Germany." + +"So that with him and his council rest the whole responsibility of +disposing of the troops of the confederation, of making treaties, of +proclaiming peace and war, of regulating coinage and customs, and, in +fact, of exerting every royal prerogative?" + +"Always with consent of the German parliament," said Zitz. "You +may believe we are not such fools as to substitute one tyrant for +thirty-eight." + +"Then, gentlemen, it appears to me that your whole scheme, upon which +I am not qualified to express an opinion, resolves itself into one +of extensive and entire mediatisation. If the Emperor of Austria and +the King of Prussia have no power to declare peace or war--if their +armies are to obey the orders of the central power at Frankfort--it +will follow, as a matter of course, that their kingly privileges are +at an end. The interchange of ambassadors with foreign states will be +a ceremony so clearly futile that it must at once be abandoned, and +the monarchs will become merely the first of a titular nobility." + +"That is the inevitable and glorious consequence!" cried my new +acquaintance, Neukirch. "You see the whole subject in its proper +light. First, we clip the wings of the princes till they can do +no more than hop about their own home-yards; then we control the +proceedings of the Reichsverweser by a parliament elected on the +principles of universal suffrage; and finally, we can eject the +puppet if necessary, and resolve ourselves into a pure democracy." + +"One thing, then," said I, "is only wanting for this desirable +consummation, and that is, the consent of the princes. I admit that +you may have little trouble with Baden, Wurtemberg, and the like, but +what say Austria, Prussia, and Bavaria to this wholesale abdication +of their thrones?" + +"We don't affect to deny that there may be a crisis approaching. +Austria has her hands full for the present with Italy and Hungary, +and has given no definite reply. But the clubs are strong and active +at Vienna, and on the very first opportunity you will see a general +rising. 'Anarchy first--order afterwards,' is our motto. Then, as to +Prussia, we do not want to push on matters too rapidly there. The +king has been playing into our hands; and, to tell you the truth, we +depend upon him alone for the continuance of our five florins a-day. +So that, in the mean time, you may be sure we shall be moderate in +that quarter. Bavaria may do as she pleases. If the others yield, +that power must necessarily succumb." + +"Then I want to understand a little about the justice of your cause. +You have claimed Schleswig-Holstein as part of Germany, and you have +sent German troops, for the purpose of recovering it as your right?" + +"Quite true." + +"And at the same time Germany, or you as its representatives, +have acknowledged the right of all foreign nations to their own +independence?" + +"We have." + +"Then, will you have the kindness to explain to me how it is that +your philanthropic parliament, holding such principles, has not +thought proper to insist that every Austrian soldier, belonging to +the confederation, should be immediately withdrawn from Lombardy and +Hungary? How is it that General Wrangel, in the north, has ceased to +be a Prussian, and become a German soldier, whilst Marshal Radetsky, +in the south, is fighting without remonstrance at the head of troops +which you claim as your own, and against that independence of a +foreign nation, which you have thought proper expressly to recognise? +If Germany claims Schleswig on the ground of unity of race and +language, how can she, at the same time, countenance a subordinate +German power in infringing the very principle which she has so +determinedly proclaimed?" + +Neither on this occasion, nor on any other, could I obtain a +satisfactory reply to the above question. In fact, from the very +beginning, the conduct of the men who have put themselves at the head +of the present movement, has been checkered by contradictions of +the most glaring and obvious kind. On the fifth of May, the present +vice-president, Von Soiron, put forth an address to the inhabitants +of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, calling upon them to co-operate and +join with the German confederacy, and to send representatives to the +union. Two of these states are comprised in the Austrian, and one in +the Prussian dominions; _but none of them are German_. If nationality +is to be recognised as the ruling principle--and the scheme of German +confederation and empire contemplated nothing else--these countries +would fall to be excluded, since, by language and race, they form +part of a totally different branch of the European family. But before +the ink on their proclamation of strict unity and independence was +dry,--that proclamation containing the following remarkable words, +"The Germans shall not be induced, on any consideration, to abridge +or deprive other nations of that freedom and independence which they +claim for themselves as their own unalienable right,"--we find the +Germans calmly annexing Polish Posen to their league, proposing to +include Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia in the limits of the empire, +and by their official congratulatory address to Radetsky, giving +national countenance to the war of subjugation in Lombardy. Even were +their case otherwise good, such acts as these form an irresistible +argument against their present claim for Schleswig; for upon no +principle whatever are they entitled to add, on one side, to the +possessions of the empire by foreign annexation, and on the other to +repudiate annexation, when in favour of a foreign power. + +But it is useless, in their present state, to demand explanation +from the Germans. They are like men who, in attempting to cross +a ford, have been carried off their feet by the swollen waters, +and are now plunging in the pool, unable to reach the shore. +_Imperium in imperio_ is clearly unattainable. German unity, as at +present contemplated, with a common army, common taxes, and common +constitutions, under one central government, can only be achieved by +an entire prostration of the princes, and the abolition of the kingly +dignity. Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, and all the states, +must be blotted from the map of Europe, their boundaries erased, +their conditions forgotten, and their names for ever proscribed. The +republican party know this well, and it is in this conviction that +they are still labouring on, taking advantage of the unhappy state of +Austria in relation to its foreign possessions, sympathising with the +Hungarian revolt, and exciting the clubs at Vienna; whilst, at the +same moment, they are availing themselves to the utmost of the weak +and foolish blunder committed by the king of Prussia, and appealing +to his own declaration in favour of German unity, whenever he shows +the slightest symptom of receding from the popular path. There is +hardly a shade of difference between the opinions entertained by +a large mass of the Frankfort parliament, and those professed by +Hecker and Struve, the leaders of the Baden insurrections. The aim +of both parties was the same; but the insurgents sought to attain +their end by a speedy and violent process, for which the others +were not prepared. They proposed to undermine the power of the +sovereigns by a continued course of agitation, to arm a burgher +guard throughout Germany, as a countercheck to the troops, and, +wherever it is possible, to seduce the latter from their allegiance. +In this latter scheme, as recent events have shown, they have been +unfortunately too successful; and the military system of Germany had +afforded them great facilities. The German regiments are not, as is +the case in Britain, transferred from town to town, and from province +to province, in a continual round of service. They are quartered +for years in the same place, make alliances with the town-folks, +and become imbued with all their local and prevalent prejudices. +They are, in fact, too much identified with the populace to be +thoroughly relied on in the case of any sudden emeute, and too much +associated with the landwehr or militia, to be ready to act against +them. Let those who have not reflected upon this serious element +of discord, consider what in all probability would be the state of +an Irish regiment, if quartered permanently among the peasantry of +Tipperary--exposed, not for a short time, but for years, to the +baneful influences of agitation and deliberate seduction, and never +having an opportunity of contemplating elsewhere the advantages of +order and obedience? The circumscribed dimensions of some of the +German states has increased this evil enormously; and the example +set by General Wrangel, when, in the case of the Swedish armistice, +he declared himself to be an Imperial and not a Prussian commander, +cannot but have had a powerful effect in sapping the loyalty of the +troops. If Wrangel took that step in consequence of secret orders +from his master, as is by no means improbable, he may be personally +absolved from blame, but only by shifting to the royal shoulders such +a load of obloquy and scorn as never monarch carried before. If, on +the contrary, Wrangel did this on his own authority, the Prussian +government has evinced lamentable weakness, in not having him tried +by a court-martial, and shot for audacious treason. + +If the monarchies of Germany are to be preserved, it must be through +the resolution of the troops. A congress is at this moment obviously +impossible, nor can it be attempted until the Frankfort parliament +has ran its course--a consummation which some people think is not +only devoutly to be desired, but very near at hand. Things have now +gone so far, that it is difficult to see how any kind of order can +be restored, without the disastrous alternative of commotion and +civil war. There are again symptoms of republican gatherings in the +north, which Prussia cannot this time overlook, without sacrificing +the fragments of her honour. At Vienna, the insurrection has been +successful. The emperor has, a second time, quitted Schönbrunn, and +has openly announced that, when he next returns to his capital, it +will be at the head of an avenging army. There is nothing improbable +in this announcement. The Austrian army is less liable to the +impairing influence already noticed than that of any other German +state; and though there never was a time when its services were so +urgently required at so many menacing points as at the present, there +may yet be strength enough left to crush the insurgent capital. Of +course, in such an event, all men may be prepared to hear from the +liberals the same howl of horror which issued from their sympathising +throats, when the populace of Naples manfully and boldly espoused +the cause of their legitimate sovereign. Sicilian cannibalism can be +pardoned, but Neapolitan loyalty, never! + +It is a vain dream to associate German unity with the existing +system of principalities. Whether Von Gagern is really in earnest, +in attempting to labour towards this end, or whether he is merely +keeping up the appearance of such a union, for the purpose of +paving the way to a more sweeping measure of democracy, may be the +subject of legitimate doubt. If the former be the case, he has +committed a grave error, in allowing the Diet to be annihilated. +Though difficult, it was by no means impossible to have adjusted the +separate constitutions of the German states upon a liberal basis, +and to have devolved upon the chambers the right of nominating the +members of the imperial diet. Such a system might have secured as +much unity of purpose as was requisite for general administration, +without resorting to the dangerous experiment of a parliament elected +by universal suffrage. But nothing of this sort was attempted. On the +contrary, the Diet fell without a struggle: its old functions had +ceased when Prussia deserted it for the carrying out an independent +policy of her own; and no one attempted to resuscitate it by the +infusion of novel blood. + +Notwithstanding such charm as might be derived from the society +of Messrs Zitz, Simon, and Co., and the fund of information which +professor Klingemann was ever ready to pour into my ear, I soon +became tired of Frankfort, and betook myself to the watering-places. +This was a good year for calculating what proportion of the company +usually located during the summer months at Wiesbaden, Homburg, and +Baden, sought those places for the benefit of the Hygeian springs, in +contradistinction to those whose main attraction was the Casino. The +number of the former class, I should say, was comparatively small. +Although one cannot feel much sympathy for such nests of gambling, +maintained, to the discredit of the smaller German princes, for +the sake of the revenue obtained from the Israelitish proprietors +of the banks, it was yet painful to observe the dull appearance +of the towns. There was hardly any remnant of that gaiety and +sprightliness, which used to characterise these haunts of fashion +and dissipation--none of the equipages which were wont to roll along +the environs, with ducal coronets on their blazon. The bazaars were +deserted: the _tables-d'hôte_ miserably attended. If thirty people +assembled in one of the great saloons, which formerly used to be +occupied by two hundred, the countenance of the host relaxed, and +lie evidently caught at the circumstance, as a gleam of returning +prosperity. There were still one or two desperate gamblers to be seen +at the roulette and rouge-et-noir tables, staking their gold with +as much eagerness and stern determination as ever; but, in general, +there seemed to prevail such a serious scarcity of bullion, that +those who possessed any were chary of hazarding their florins. The +brass bands still played as of yore, but their music sounded dull and +melancholy. Few subscribed to raffles, and the balls were miserable +failures. + +The state of the small capitals is still worse. Darmstadt, never +a lively town, is literally shut up. You may wander through the +streets of Carlsruhe, as in the solitudes of Balbec, wondering what +on earth can have become of the whole population, and not be able +to solve the problem, unless, indeed, you should happen to hear the +clattering of the hoofs of the Baden cavalry awakening the dormant +echoes of the street. Then, with a shrill whoop of "Hier kommt die +Badische cavallerie!" man, woman, and child,--chambermaid and waiter, +rush to the windows to admire the exciting spectacle of their native +heroes, mounted upon animals not very much larger than ponies, and, +the moment the procession has passed, relapse into the same state of +somnolency as before. The palaces do not seem to be occupied, and the +voice of the syrens on the boards of the theatres is mute. + +Perfectly disgusted with the change, which was too conspicuous +everywhere, I bent my way towards Switzerland; and there, amidst the +mountains, snows, cascades and glaciers of the Oberland, strove to +banish from my mind all thoughts of revolution and its concomitant +ruin. But Switzerland has suffered, in its way, almost as much as +Germany. Although the central point of Europe to which the steps +of the tourists tend, it furnishes ample proof of the general +consternation and misery in its lonely roads and empty hotels. There +are no English travelling abroad this year. Sometimes you encounter +an American party who have crossed the Atlantic, curious to see how +the old countries are getting on in their novel craze for republican +institutions, but the staple of the travelling commodity consists of +Italian refugees from Lombardy. These men also seem to have adopted +a kind of mediæval garb, more graceful than that of the Germans, and +are, to outward appearance, no despicable specimens of humanity. +They vapour and bluster, largely about their exertions for Italian +independence, though I never could meet with one who had actually +struck a blow in its behalf. They were furious at Charles Albert, +whom they characterised as a "traditore sceleratissimo," and vaunted +that, but for him and his Piedmontese troops, they would long ago +have freed their country from the grasp of the Austrians. I was not +altogether able to comprehend by what process of ratiocination these +illustrious exiles arrived at this result. It would appear odd if +they could not accomplish, with the aid of allies, the very same task +for which they asserted their notorious unassisted competency. This +is a political riddle of such a nature, that I shall not attempt to +solve it. + +It is, however, comfortable to remark, that Swiss industry, in +many of its branches, still continues undiminished. The squat and +unwholesome hunter, who for years has infested the Rosenthal, +still pursues his prey, in the shape of the unwary traveller, with +perpetual impudence and importunity. Out of his clutches you cannot +get, until you have purchased, at triple its artificial value, the +wooden effigy of a chamois, a horn whistle, or the image of an Alpine +cow; and even after you have made your escape, crossed the bridge, +and are in full retreat up the valley, you hear him clamouring +behind you with offers of a staff to sell. From every cottage-door +rush forth hordes of uncompromising children; nay, they surprise +you in the very wastes, far from any human dwelling, and their only +cry is "_Batzen!_" Approach a waterfall, and you are immediately +surrounded by a plump of those juvenile Cossacks, seizing hold of +your skirts, thrusting their hands upwards in your face, and denying +you one moment's leisure to survey the scene. Their yelp for pence is +heard above the sullen roaring of the cataract. In vain you take to +flight--they cleave to you like a swarm of midges. You leap brook, +scale bank, and scour across the meadow towards the road, but you +fare no better than the Baron of Cranstoun in his race with the +Goblin Page; and at last are compelled to ransom yourself by parting +with the whole of the change in your possession. + +If I can judge from the present temper of the Swiss, they are not +likely to return a very complacent answer to the charge made against +them by the central power at Frankfort, of having harboured Struve +and his gang. The German troubles have kept back so many visitors +from their country, that the Swiss are not inclined to be particular +as to the political opinions of any one who may favour them with a +sojourn; and in the present state of matters it is rather difficult +to determine who are rebels or the reverse. Bitterly at this moment +is Switzerland execrating a revolution which has entailed upon her +consequences almost equivalent to the total failure of a harvest. + +After spending a fortnight among the mountains, I retraced my steps +to Frankfort. There I discovered that, in the interim, some little +change had taken place in the aspect of political affairs. Prussia +had at length taken heart of grace, and had remonstrated against +the arbitrary refusal of the armistice with Denmark, which she had +been expressly empowered, by the authority of the Reichsverweser, +to conclude. This tardy recognition of the laws of honour had, +of course, given enormous umbrage to the Frankforters, who now +considered themselves as the supreme arbiters of peace or war in +Europe; the more so, because they were not called upon to pay a +single farthing of the necessary expenses. They appeared to think +that, _jure divino_, they were entitled to the gratuitous services of +the Prussian and Hanoverian armies; and, with that sublime disregard +of cost which we are all apt to feel when negotiating with our +neighbours' money, they were furious at any interruption of the war +unworthily commenced against their small but spirited antagonist. +Such, at least, was the feeling among the burghers, in which they +were powerfully encouraged by the co-operation of the women. It is a +singular fact that, in times of revolution, the fair sex is always +inclined to push matters to greater extremity than the other, for +what reason it is literally impossible to say. I had the pleasure of +spending an evening at a social reunion in Frankfort, and can aver +that the sentiments which emanated from the ladies would have done no +discredit to Demoiselle Theroigne de Mericourt in the midst of the +Reign of Terror. + +But other motives than those of mere abstract democracy had some +influence with the members of the parliament. Many of them who, +in the first instance, had voted for the peremptory infraction of +the armistice, were fully aware that they could not afford as yet +to affront Prussia, or to give her an open pretext for resiling +from the movement party. Such a step would have been tantamount to +annihilation, and therefore they were disposed to succumb. Others, +I verily believe, thought seriously upon their five florins a-day. +Hitherto Prussia had been the only state which had granted a monetary +contingent, and to refuse compliance with her wishes would inevitably +involve a sacrifice of the goose that furnished the supply of +metallic eggs. Therefore, after a long and rather furious debate, +the assembly retracted their former decision, and consented to a +cessation of hostilities. + +A parliament, chosen upon the basis of universal suffrage, is only +safe when its opinions coincide with those of the mob. In the +present instance they were directly counter to the sweet will of the +populace, and of course the decision was received with every symptom +of turbulence. + +"Professor," said I to my learned friend, on the evening after this +memorable debate, "you have given one sensible vote to-day, and I +hope you will never repent of it. But, if you will take my advice, +you will do well to absent yourself from the parliament to-morrow. +There are certain symptoms going on in the streets which I do not +altogether like, for they put me forcibly in mind of what I saw in +Paris this last spring; and, unless a German mob differs essentially +from a French one, we shall smell gunpowder to-morrow. I should be +sorry to, see my ancient preceptor fragmentally distributed as an +offering to the goddess of discord." + +"Don't speak of it, August Reignold, my dear boy!" said the Professor +in manifest terror. "I wouldn't mind much being hauled up to a +lamp-post, for I am heavy enough to break any in Frankfort down; but +the bare notion of dismemberment fills my soul with fear. Well says +the poet, _varium et mutabile_; and he might safely have applied it +to the people. Will you believe that I, whose whole soul is engrossed +with the thoughts of unity and the public weal, was actually hissed +and hooted at as a traitor, when I emerged to-day from the assembly?" + +"It is the penalty you must pay for your political greatness," +I replied. "But, if I were you, I should back out of the thing +altogether. Cobbling constitutions is rather dangerous work in such +times as these; and it strikes me that your valuable health may be +somewhat impaired by your exertions." + +"Heaven knows," said the Professor devoutly, "that I would willingly +die for my country--that is, in my bed. But I do begin to perceive +that I am overworking this frail tenement of clay. Once let this +crisis be past, and I shall return to the university, resume my +philosophic labours, and finish my inchoate treatise upon the +'Natural History of Axioms.'" + +"You will do wisely, Professor, and humanity will owe you a debt: +only don't employ that fellow Blum as your publisher. _Apropos_, what +is Simon, of Treves saying to this state of matters?" + +"Simon of Treves," replied my learned friend, "is little better than +an arrogant coxcomb. He had the inconceivable audacity to laugh in +my face, when I proposed, on the ground of common ancestry, to open +negotiations with the Thracians, and to ask me if it would not be +desirable to include the whole of the Peloponnesus." + +"He must indeed be a blockhead! Well, Professor, keep quiet for the +evening, and don't show yourself in the streets. I am going to take +a little stroll of observation before bed, and to-morrow morning we +shall hold a committee of personal safety." + +On ordinary occasions, the streets of Frankfort are utterly deserted +by ten o'clock. This night, however, the case was different. Groups +of ill-looking, ruffianly fellows, were collected at the corners of +the streets; and more than once, beneath the blouse, I could detect +the glitter of a furtive weapon. There were lights and bustle in the +club-houses, and every thing betokened the approach of a popular +emeute. + +"You will do well," said I to the Swiss porter of the _Russischer +Hof_ on re-entering, "to warn any strangers in your house to keep +within doors to-morrow. Unless I am strangely mistaken, we shall have +a repetition of the scenes in Paris to-morrow. In the mean time, I +shall trouble you for my key." + +I rose next morning at six, and looked out of my window, half +expecting to see a barricade; but for once I was disappointed--the +Germans are a much slower set than the French. At nine, however, +there were reasonable symptoms of commotion, and I could hear the +hoarse roar of a mob in the distance whilst I was occupied in shaving. + +Presently up came a waiter. + +"The Herr Professor desires me to say that, if you have no objection, +he would be glad to breakfast in your room." My apartments were on +the third story. + +"Show him up," said I; and my friend entered as pale as death. + +"O August Reignold, this is a horrible business!" + +"Pshaw!" said I, "how can you expect unity without a row?" + +"But they tell me that the mob are already breaking into the +assembly--into the free, inviolable, sacred parliament of Germany!" + +"Is that all? They might, in my humble opinion, be doing a great deal +worse." + +"And they are beginning to put up barricades." + +"That's serious," said I; "however, one comfort is, that they expect +somebody to attack them. Take your coffee, Professor, and let us +await events with fortitude. You are tolerably safe here." + +The Professor groaned, for his spirit was sorely troubled. I really +felt for the poor man, who was now beginning, for the first time, +to taste the bitter fruits of revolution. They were as ashes in his +academical mouth. + +There was a balcony before my window, from which I could survey the +whole of the Zeil, or principal street of Frankfort. The people were +swarming below as busy as a disturbed nest of ants. A huge gang of +fellows, with pickaxes, took up their post immediately in front of +the hotel, and began to demolish the pavement with a tolerable show +of alacrity. + +"Here is the work of unity begun in earnest!" I exclaimed. "Where +is your armed burgher guard now, Professor? This is a glorious +development of your national theories! Quite right, gentlemen; upset +that carriage--roll out those barrels. In five minutes you will have +erected as pretty a fortalice as would have crowned the sconce of +Drumsnab, if Dugald Dalgetty had had his will. The arrangement also +of stationing sharpshooters at the neighbouring windows is judicious. +Have a care, Professor! If any of these patriots should chance to +recognise a recusant member, you may possibly have the worst of it. +For the sake of shelter, and to prevent accidents, I shall even put +my portmanteau in front of us; for damaged linen is better than an +ounce of lead in the thorax." + +In a very short time the barricade, was completed, but as yet no +assailants had appeared. This circumstance seemed to astonish even +the insurgents, who held a consultation, and then, with tolerable +philosophy, proceeded to light their pipes. They were not altogether +composed of the lower orders; some of them seemed to belong to the +middle-classes, and were the active directors of the defence. We +could not, of course, tell what was going on in other parts of the +town, for all communication was barred. Better for us it was so, for +about this time Prince Lichnowsky, and Major von Auerswaldt were +murdered. + +A considerable period of time elapsed, and yet there was no +appearance of the soldiery. I had almost begun to think that the +insurrection might pass away without bloodshed, when a mounted +aide-de-camp rode up and conferred with the leaders on the barricade. +From his gestures it was evident that he was urging them to disperse, +but this they peremptorily refused. Shortly afterwards a body of +Austrian soldiers charged up the street at double-quick time, and the +firing began in earnest. + +"I am a doomed man!" cried the Professor, and he leaped convulsively +on my bed. "As sure as Archimedes was killed in his closet, I shall +be dragged out to the street and massacred!" + +"No fear of that," said I. "Body of Bacon, man! do you think that +those fellows have nothing else to do than to hunt out philosophers? +That's sharp work though! The windows are strongly manned, and I fear +the military will suffer." + +The loud explosion of a cannon shook the hotel, and a grateful sound +it was, for I knew that, if artillery were employed, the cause of +order was secure. It produced, however, a contrary effect on the +Professor, who thought he was listening to his death-knell. On a +sudden there was a trampling on the stairs. + +"They are coming for me!" groaned the Professor. "_Ora pro nobis!_ +I shall never read a lecture more!" And sure enough the door was +flung open, and five or six Prussian soldiers, bearing their muskets, +entered. Klingemann dropped down in a swoon. + +"You must excuse ceremony, gentlemen," said the corporal; "we have +orders to dislodge the rioters." And forthwith the whole party +stepped out on the balcony, and commenced a regular fusillade. +Presently one of them dropped his weapon, and staggered into the +room; he had received a bad wound in the shoulder. Immediately +afterwards a bullet went plump into my portmanteau. + +"Oh confound it!" cried I; "if they are beginning to attack property, +it is full time to be on the alert. With your leave, friend, I shall +borrow your musket." + +Next morning I took a final farewell of the Professor. The good +man was much agitated, for, besides his bodily terror, he had been +suffering from the effects of a violent purgative attack. + +"I have thought seriously over what you said, my dear boy, and I +begin to perceive that I have been acting very much like a fool. +I shall pack up my chattels this evening, wash my hands of public +affairs, and return to lay my old bones in peace beside those of my +predecessors in the university." + +"You can't do better, Professor; and if, in your prelections, you +would omit all notice of Harmodius and Aristogiton, and say as little +as possible about the Lacedæmonian code, it might tend to promote the +welfare of your students, both in this world and in the next." + +"Of that, my dear August Reignold, I am now thoroughly convinced. But +you must admit that the abstract idea of unity--" + +"Is utter fudge! You see the result of it already in the blood which +is thickening in the streets. Adieu, Professor! Put your cockade in +the fire, and offer my warmest congratulations to your friend Mr +Simon of Treves." + +Two days afterwards I experienced a genuine spasm of satisfaction +while setting my foot on Dutch ground at Arnheim. The change from +a democratic to a conservative country was so exhilarating, that I +nearly slew myself by drinking confusion to democracy in bumpers of +veritable Schiedam. + + + + +SATIRES AND CARICATURES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.[1] + + +A Comic History of England would be an exceedingly curious, and even +a valuable work. We do not mean a caricatured history, with great +men turned into ridicule, and important events burlesqued; such +absurdities may provoke pity, but they will hardly extort a smile +from any whose suffrage is worth courting. We have had a vast deal +of comic literature in this country during the last dozen years; +quite a torrent of _facetiæ_, a surfeit of slang and puns. One or +two popular humorists gave the impetus, and set a host of imitators +sliding and wriggling down the inclined plane leading from wit +and humour to buffoonery and bad taste. The majority reached in +an instant the bottom of the slope, and have ever since remained +there. The truth is, the funny style has been overdone; the supply +of jokers has exceeded the demand for jokes, until the very word +"comic" resounds unpleasantly upon the public tympanum. It were +a change to revert for a while to the wit of our forefathers, at +least as good, we suspect, as much of more modern manufacture. And +therefore, we repeat, a comic English history, whose claims to +the quality should be founded on its illustration by the songs, +satires, and caricatures of its respective periods, would be +interesting and precious in many ways; particularly as giving an +insight into popular feelings and characteristics, and often as +throwing additional light upon the causes of important revolutions +and political changes. It would certainly be a very difficult book +to compile. Instead of beginning at the usual starting-post of Roman +invasion, it could hardly be carried back to the first William. The +Saxons may possibly have revenged themselves on their conquerors by +satirical ditties, and by rude and grotesque delineations; but it +may be doubted whether any authenticated specimens of either their +poetry or painting are in existence at the present day. It would not +surprise us if King John's courtiers had curried favour with their +master by lampooning the absent Coeur-de-Lion; and doubtless when +there were men sufficiently sacrilegious to slay a churchman at the +altar, others may have ventured to satirise in rude doggrel the +pride and presumption of Thomas à Becket. But have their graceless +effusions survived? Can they be traced in black letter, or deciphered +on the blocks of wood and stone referred to in Mr Wright's preface? +We fear not; and we believe that, up to the date of the invention +of printing, the history suggested would be very meagre, and the +task of writing it most ungrateful. For some time after that date +the humorous illustrations would be written, and not pictorial; +songs and lampoons, perhaps, but of caricatures few or none. For +although caricature, in one variety or other, is ancient as the +Pyramids, its introduction is recent into the country where, of all +others, it seems most at home. Fostered by political liberty, it has +naturalised itself kindly on English soil, but its foreign origin +remains undeniable. Already, in the sixteenth century, Italy had her +Caracci, and France her Callot; whilst in England we vainly seek, +until the appearance of Hogarth, a caricaturist whose name abides in +our memories, or whose works grace our museums. + +It is evident, then, that the easiest way to write a history of the +kind we have spoken of, is to begin at the end and write backwards. +At any rate the historian avoids discouragement, at the very +commencement, from the paucity of materials. And that is the plan +Mr Wright has adopted. Breaking new ground, he naturally selected +the spot most likely to reward his toil, and pitched upon the reigns +of the first three Georges. He could hardly have chosen a more +interesting period; and certainly, without coming inconveniently near +to the present day, he could have fixed on none more prolific in the +satires and drolleries he has made it his business to disinter and +reproduce. + +The contents of Mr Wright's book would sort into two comprehensive +classes--the social and the political; the former the least +voluminous, but the most entertaining. Political satires and +caricatures, under the first two Georges, possess but a moderate +attraction at the present day; and it is not till the period of +the American war--we might almost say not until that of the French +Revolution--that they excite interest, and move to mirth. The hits +at the follies of society at large have a more general and enduring +interest than those levelled at individuals and intrigues long since +passed away. The first ten years of the accession of the house of +Hanover were poor both in the number and quality of caricatures; and +the remoteness of the period has enhanced the difficulty of finding +them. Written satires and pasquinades were abundant, but, to judge +from those preserved, few were worth preserving. Of these ephemeral +publications there exists no important collection, either public or +private. Of caricatures, more are to be got at, although, strange +to say, the British Museum contains very few. There was far less of +humour and spirit in those that appeared during the early part of the +eighteenth century than in those produced during its latter portion. +In fact, until the reign of George II., the art could hardly be said +to be cultivated. In the first hundred pages of the book before us, +which comprise nearly the whole reign of George I., we find only +fourteen cuts--a small proportion of the three hundred scattered +through the two volumes. And scarcely one of the fourteen has the +qualities essential to a genuine caricature. They aim at telling +a story, or conveying an insinuation, rather than at burlesquing +persons. Sometimes the prints or medals (the latter were a favourite +vehicle for the circulation of satire) were simply allegories, and +as such are incorrectly designated by the word caricature, which, as +derived from the Italian _caricare_, implies a thing overcharged or +exaggerated in its proportions. As an instance of these allegories, +we may cite a Jacobite medal, where Britannia is seen weeping, whilst +the horse of Hanover tramples on the lion and unicorn. The English +nation was at that period usually personified by Britannia and her +lion, until Gillray, much later--taking the idea, it is said, from Dr +Arbuthnot's satire--hit off the humourous figure of John Bull, which +has been preserved, with more or less modification, by all subsequent +caricaturists. Hogarth, who first attracted notice in 1723-4, by his +attacks upon the degeneracy of the stage--then abandoned to opera, +masquerade, and pantomime--brought up a broader style of caricature +than his predecessors, but still he was too emblematical. Then, for +a time, caricature got into the hands of amateur artists--female as +well as male. Thus a humorous drawing of the Italian singers, Cuzzoni +and Farinelli, and of Heidegger the ugly manager, is attributed to +the Countess of Burlington. Then, after an interregnum, during which +caricature languished, Gillray arose--Gillray, who, coarse and often +indecent as he was, (in which respects, however, he did but conform +to the tone and manners of his day,) was unquestionably the ablest +of his tribe, the most thoroughly English, and the most irresistibly +humorous caricaturist we have had. The refined might tax him with +grossness, but his delineations went home to the multitude; and to +the multitude the caricaturist must address himself, if he would +produce effect, and enjoy influence. For a while, during the war with +France, Gillray's active pencil was a power in the state. In his turn +he was surpassed in coarseness and vulgarity, but not in wit, by his +contemporary Rowlandson. + +The sketches before us, of the history of England under the house of +Hanover, are not to be considered as dependent on the satires and +caricatures used to illustrate them. They form a general narrative +of the most prominent events of a very important century, with +which are interwoven, when opportunity offers, the most remarkable +pen and pencil pasquinades of the day. The latter, however, have +not always been obtainable, or are not worth recording. As we have +already mentioned, they are scarce at the commencement of the book, +which opens at the death of Queen Anne in 1714. When Jacobite plots +were rife, and party-feeling ran so high as to produce frequent +bloody struggles in London streets, between the Whigs or Hanoverians +and the "Jacks," as the adherents of the Pretender were styled by +their opponents, there appear to have existed no draughtsmen of much +talent for caricature; whilst the poetical satires, judging from +the specimens furnished by Mr Wright, are very middling in merit, +although exceedingly numerous. If there was little wit, there was +much violence and abuse on both sides. On the part of the Jacobites, +agitation was the order of the day; and the mob, both in London and +the provinces, were incited to many excesses--such as attacking +houses, robbing passengers, pulling down Dissenting chapels, and +drinking James the Third's health in the open streets. In Manchester, +in June 1715, the population were for several days masters of +the town. The results were the passing of the Riot Act, and the +quartering of cavalry in the places most disaffected. The Whigs, on +their part, were not idle, but carried on a brisk war of words, and +raked up all the old stories about the Pretender--that he was no +king's son, but a miller's offspring, conveyed into the Queen's bed +in a warming-pan by the Jesuit Father Petre. Of course such tales as +these gave a fine handle to squib and lampoon; and, in reference to +the Jesuit's name, the Whigs designated the Pretender as Peterkin or +Perkin--an appellation offering a convenient coincidence with that +of a previous impudent aspirant to the English crown. To sneers of +this kind the Jacobite minstrels manfully and spiritedly replied; and +although the muse was less propitious in England than in Scotland, +there is no doubt these effusions had a considerable effect upon the +people. But the suppression of the rebellion damped their spirits, +and with it their poetic fire; whilst the exulting Whigs triumphantly +flapped their wings, and crowed a yet louder strain. Perkin and the +warming-pan were the burden of every lay, and a peal of parodies +celebrated the flight of the Stuart. + + "'Twas when the seas were roaring + With blasts of northern wind, + Young Perkin lay deploring, + On warming-pan reclined + Wide o'er the roaring billows + He cast a dismal look, + And shiver'd like the willows + That tremble o'er the brook." + +One would think the "Oxford scholars," accounted such fervent +Jacobites, might have replied victoriously to such tepid couplets as +this. But their hearts were down at their King's repulse. And poor +as the verses were, no doubt they took wonderfully at the time,--so +much, in such things, depends upon the _apropos_. And now a large +section of the Tories, previously favourable to the Jacobites, broke +away from them in their misfortune, made their peace with the ruling +powers, and took the oath of allegiance. But long after fighting +was over in the North--to be revived only in '45 by the chivalrous +Charles Edward--the Jacobite mob kept London in hot water, and, +thanks to the inefficiency of the police, might have done serious +mischief, but for the Muggite Societies formed at that period. These +were simply Whig clubs, meeting at certain public-houses, (the +Magpie and Stump, in Newgate Street, was one,) and sallying out +upon occasion to fight the Jacobites. The latter had also taverns +of rendezvous, but these were few, and it was chiefly the lowest +mob that in London still sported the White Rose, and cursed the +Hanoverian. In most of the many conflicts that then occurred, the +"Jacks" got the worst of it. If they assembled to break windows on an +illumination night, or to burn William or George in effigy, they were +soon assailed by the Loyal Society, or some other Whig association, +who, acting as special constables without having taken the oath, +drubbed them with cudgels, and extinguished their bonfires. It would +appear that the Jacks did not often venture to impede the Whig mob +in the performance of analogous ceremonies; since we read of a +certain Fifth of November, when caricature effigies of the Pretender +and his chief adherents and supporters were carried in triumph +through the streets. "First, two men bearing each a warming-pan, +with a representation of the infant Pretender--a nurse attending +him with a sucking bottle, and another playing with him by beating +the warming-pan. These were followed by three trumpeters, playing +Lillibulero and other Whig tunes. Then came a cart with Ormond and +Marr, appropriately dressed. This was followed by another cart, +containing the Pope and Pretender seated together, and Bolingbroke +as the secretary of the latter. They were all drawn backwards, with +halters round their necks." The sole opposition made by the Jacobites +to this outrageous demonstration, was by the somewhat paltry +proceeding of stealing the faggots collected for the Whig bonfire. +Four months after this, the Jacobites attempted a procession, and a +great fight ensued, in which the Whigs were victorious, after having +"made rare work for the surgeons." The government of the day showed +little mercy to the rioters. Seditious ballad-singers, and persons +holding disloyal discourse, were flogged and pilloried; and at last, +the hanging of several of the disaffected for storming a Mug-house, +put an end to the disturbances. That the Whigs did not bear their +triumph very meekly appears from the following paragraph, extracted +from _Read's Weekly Journal_ of June 15, 1717. + + "Last Monday being supposed to be the birthday of the Sovereign + of the White Rose, in respect to the anniversary, an honest Whig + went from the Roebuck to St James's, with a jackdaw finely dressed + in white roses, and set on a warming-pan bedeckt with the same + sweet-scented commodity, which caused abundance of laughter all + the way, to the great mortification of the Knights Companions of + that order, and all the other Jacks, to see their sovereign so + maltreated in the person of his representative." + +The poor crushed Jacobites were fain to grin and bear it. + +The suppression of political riots was followed by a great prevalence +of highway robberies, in and around the metropolis. The streets +of London were not safe, even in the daytime; and ladies went out +in their chairs guarded by servants with loaded blunderbusses. +The following extracts from newspapers of the time read oddly +enough--especially when we remember that not a hundred and thirty +years have elapsed since the crimes recorded in them occurred. + + "Thursday, 21st January 1720. About five o'clock in the evening, + the stage-coach from London to Hampstead was attacked and robbed + by highwaymen, at the foot of the hill, and one of the passengers + severely beaten for attempting to hide his money." + + "Sunday 24. At eight o'clock in the evening, two highwaymen + attacked a gentleman in a coach on the south side of St Paul's + churchyard, and robbed him." + + "Sunday 31. A gentleman robbed and murdered in Bishopsgate street." + + "Monday, February 1. The Duke of Chandos, coming from Canons, had + another encounter with highwaymen, whom he captured." + + "Tuesday 2. The postboy was attacked by three highwaymen in Tyburn + road, but the Duke of Chandos, happening to pass that way, came to + his rescue." + +His grace of Chandos seems to have been a sort of amateur +thief-taker. Then we read of stage-coaches stopped and robbed +between London and Stoke Newington, and of a certain day, when +"_all_ the stage-coaches coming from Surrey to London were robbed +by highwaymen." At last a reward of one hundred pounds was offered +for the apprehension of any highwayman within five miles of London. +Amongst those captured were several persons of good repute in their +respective callings. They included a London tradesman, a duke's +valet, and the keeper of a boxing-school. + +The speculative madness that prevailed in the year 1719-20, the +"bubble mania," as it was called, offered a fertile field to the +satirist. The contagion was caught from France, where, about that +time, John Law projected his celebrated Mississippi Company, and, +by his wild financial manoeuvres, first rendered money a mere +drug, then plunged Paris and France into the profoundest misery. The +outline of Law's history is familiar to most persons. It will be +remembered how, having killed a man in a duel in his own country, he +broke his prison, and fled to France, met the young Duke of Orleans +at the house of a courtesan named Duclos, and, being handsome, +accomplished, and graceful, contracted with him an intimacy that led +eventually to the hatching of the notable Mississippi scheme. The +delusion began to flourish towards the middle of 1718, and was at its +apogee at the close of the following year. The market for the shares +was in an insignificant street, still existing in Paris under the +name of the Rue Quincampoix, where every house was soon subdivided +into an infinity of little offices, and a dwelling whose usual rent +was of six hundred livres yielded one hundred thousand; where a +cobbler gained two hundred livres a-day, by hiring out his shed to +ladies who came to share in and look on at the game; and a hunchback +earned a handsome income by lending his shoulders as a writing-desk. +The five-hundred-livre shares rose to twenty thousand livres--to a +premium, that is to say, of four thousand per cent. Money was for the +time so abundant, that goods rose immensely, and articles of luxury +were all bought up. Cloth of gold, a French writer tells us, became +exceeding rare, except in the streets, where it was seen draping the +plebeian persons of the newly-enriched speculators. A nobleman and +a Mississippian disputed a partridge in a cook's shop: the latter +obtained it for two hundred livres, or more than eight pounds! +Beranger has devoted a witty stanza to that year of madness. + + "C'était la régence alors + Et sans hyperbole, + Grâce aux plus drôles de corps, + La France étoit folle; + Tous les hommes s'amusaient, + Et les femmes se prêtaient + A la gaudriole an gué, + A la gaudriole." + +As an essential preliminary to holding the office of +Comptroller-general of the French finances, Law allowed the Abbé +de Tençin to convert him to the religion of Rome. This apostasy, +and its disastrous consequences to France, became the subject of +many squibs and satirical verses when the fallacy of the system +ultimately appeared. Before the panic came, however, and an attempted +realisation on the part of some of the largest holders proved +the exaggerated and fictitious value of the bonds, the mania for +speculation had crossed the Channel, and raged in this country. The +South-Sea bill passed through parliament, and received the royal +assent; and on a sudden stock-jobbing seemed to become the sole +business of all classes. The Tory papers ridiculed the folly. Sir +Robert Walpole published a warning pamphlet, a proclamation forbade +the formation of unauthorised companies; but all in vain. Shares +in the most absurd bubbles were eagerly caught at. "A company was +even announced, and its shares bought, which was merely advertised +as 'for an undertaking which shall in due time be revealed.' Among +other odd projects were companies 'for planting of mulberry trees, +and breeding of silk-worms in Chelsea Park;' 'for importing a number +of large jack-asses from Spain, in order to propagate a larger breed +of mules in England;' 'for fattening of hogs.' In August, the stock +of the various London companies was calculated to exceed the value +of five hundred millions." About this time Law's credit balloon +began to collapse, which was a hint to the English jobbers of what +they might in their turn expect. It was nearly the end of the year +when he was compelled to fly from Paris, and take refuge in Venice, +where he died, an impoverished gambler, in May 1729, leaving for sole +inheritance a diamond worth about 1500 pounds sterling, which he had +been in the habit of pawning when hard pushed. Many weeks before his +departure from France, however, the London companies were discredited +and turned into ridicule by a host of songs and satirical pieces, one +of the best of which was the celebrated _South-Sea Ballad; or, Merry +Remarks upon Exchange-Alley Bubbles_. + +"From the month of October to the end of the year, songs, and squibs, +and pamphlets of all descriptions, on the misfortunes occasioned by +the explosion of the bubble system, became exceedingly numerous.... +The general feeling against the directors was becoming so strong in +the month of November, that we are told it had become a practice +among the ladies, when in playing at cards they turned up a knave, +to cry, 'There's a director for you!'" The period of the South-Sea +bubble was particularly prolific in caricatures. A vast number +appeared in Holland and France, and for the first time political +caricatures became common in England. Those of which copies are given +in Mr Wright's book have small claims to wit. Most of the foreign +ones were aimed at Law, and those published in this country at the +'Change Alley speculators. Hogarth's first political caricature +related to the bubbles of 1720, and appeared the following year. + +As in France the temporary glut of wealth produced by Law's financial +operations had the most unfavourable effect upon the public morals, +so in England "the South-Sea convulsion had hardly subsided, when a +general outcry was heard against the alarming increase of atheism, +profaneness, and immorality; and an attempt was made to suppress +them by act of parliament, but the bill for that purpose was not +allowed to pass." Masquerades were especially inveighed against +by the upholders of propriety, and were made the subject of much +satire. The ugliness of Heidegger, "_le surintendant des plaisirs +de l'Angleterre_," as the French called him; the conceit and +caprices of the opera-singers, then, as now, notorious for their +extortionate greediness and constant bickerings and jealousies; +the neglect of Shakspeare and the old dramatists; the prevailing +taste for pantomime and buffoonery--were so many targets for the +wits and caricaturists of the day. But neither Hogarth's pencil +nor the pungent pen of Pope had power to correct the depravity of +public taste. Masquerades continued the favourite amusement of the +town, and opera and pantomime preserved their vogue. The satirists +persevered in their crusade, and as late as 1742 we find Hogarth +still working the mine, in a capital caricature of Monsieur Desnoyer +and Signora Barberina,--the Taglioni and Perrot of their day whose +graceful attitudes he cleverly burlesques. Previously to the year +1737 the stage was used as a political engine, and violent attacks +on the government were introduced into farces and pantomimes. Some +of these were direct and open pasquinades, and gave great umbrage to +the ministry; and amongst them two of the most conspicuous were a +lampooning farce called _Pasquin_, and a dramatic satire entitled the +_Historical Register for the year 1736_, both by Fielding. A still +more abusive piece, to be entitled _The Golden Rump_, was spoken +of as forthcoming; but, before it appeared, the matter was brought +before the House of Commons; an act was passed "for restraining +the licentiousness of the stage," and the office of Licenser of +Plays was established. Thus a stop was put to stage-politics: but +nevertheless--and although, in an age when parties ran so high, this +suppression must materially have diminished the attractiveness of +theatrical entertainments--the theatres continued, for many years, +and from various causes, to receive a very large share of public +attention, and to be made the subject of numerous prose and verse +pamphlets, and of occasional caricatures. Pantomime and burlesque +were still in vogue, but not to the exclusion of the regular drama; +and Shakspeare gained ground, interpreted, as he was, by first-rate +actors--by Garrick, Quin, and Macklin, by Mrs Woffington, Mrs +Clive, Mrs Cibber, and others. About the middle of the century, the +rivalry between Drury and the Garden ran so high as to be a subject +of annoyance and inconvenience to the public. "In October 1749 the +Covent-Garden company opened the theatrical campaign with _Romeo +and Juliet_--a play in which Barry, and especially Mrs Cibber, had +shone with peculiar excellence. Garrick had armed himself for the +contest: he had prepared a rival actress in Miss Bellamy; and he +produced, to the surprise of his opponents, the same play of _Romeo +and Juliet_, at Drury Lane, on the very night it came out at Covent +Garden. The town was divided for a long time between the two 'Romeo +and Juliets,' which produced a mass of contradictory criticism, and +finished by almost emptying both houses, for every body began to tire +of the monotonous repetition of the same play." There is not much +danger, at the present day, of rivalry of this sort. How Garrick +and Quin would stare, were they galvanised out of their graves, to +see Grisi queen of Covent Garden, and Jullien lord of Drury Lane! +Theatrical opposition is a thing nobody now dreams of, unless it +be between a French vaudeville company and an English troop of low +comedians. And were a contest to arise between the English theatres, +it would most likely be of the nature of that which occurred in the +reign of George the First, between the rival harlequins, when it was +common enough for the two great theatres to bring out pantomimes +founded on the same subject--as in 1723, when _Harlequin Dr Faustus_ +had great success at both Drury Lane and Covent Garden. That was +also the period of the first introduction, on the English stage, +of wild beasts, dragons, monsters, and goblins of various kinds, +besides mountebanks, tumblers, and rope-dancers. Even Garrick, +however, did not disdain the pantomime, when he saw in it the means +to annoy and injure a rival. "At the beginning of 1750 he brought +out a new pantomime, entitled _Queen Mab_, in which Woodward acted +the part of harlequin. The great success of this piece, which drew +crowded houses for forty nights, without intermission, gave rise to +a very popular caricature, entitled _The Theatrical Steelyard_, in +which Mrs Cibber, Mrs Woffington, Quin, and Barry, are outweighed +by Woodward's _Harlequin_ and Garrick's _Queen Mab_. Rich, (the +Covent-Garden manager,) dressed in the garb of harlequin, lies on +the ground expiring." Excepting the two important particulars, that +good actors were then as plentiful as they now are scarce, and that +the two great theatres were occupied by Shakspeare and Englishmen, +instead of by fiddlers and foreigners, there is much coincidence +between some recent occurrences in the theatrical world and others a +hundred years old. Then, as now, attempts were made to drive French +actors from the country. These attempts arose, however, from no +apprehension of foreigners injuring or eclipsing native talent, then +so superior to such fears, but from the anti-Gallican feeling abroad +at the time. During the Westminster election of 1749 a company of +French players were performing at the Haymarket, and Lord Trentham, +the government candidate, was accused of favouring and protecting +them. He spoke French well, and was said to affect French manners; +and all this, of course, was made the most of for electioneering +purposes. He was lampooned as "the champion of the French strollers;" +and the mob, with their usual wisdom and admirable logic, said "that +learning to talk French was only a step towards the introduction of +French tyranny." A deluge of ballads descended upon the heads of the +candidate and his assumed _protégés_; and the quality of the poetry +seems to have been on a par with the liberality of the sentiments--to +judge, at least, from the following brilliant specimen:-- + + "Our natives are starving, whom Nature has made + The brightest of wits, and to comedy bred; + Whilst apes are caress'd, which God made by chance, + The worst of all mortals, the strollers from France." + +This is wretched enough, even for an election ditty. And we are +little disposed to join in the regret expressed in Mr Wright's +preface, that no one, as far as he has been able to discover, "has +made any considerable collection of political songs, satires, +and other such tracts, published during the last century and the +present;" since the wit and merit of those he has been able to +get together are in general so exceedingly small. He is, very +judiciously, sparing of his extracts, except when he stumbles upon +a really good song or set of verses, a few of which are scattered +through his volumes. + +To return to the mob-hatred of the French. After the Westminster +election, this feeling was kept up by squib and caricature; and +in November 1755, Garrick having occasion to employ some French +dancers, in a grand spectacle brought out at Drury Lane under the +title of _The Chinese Festival_, a theatre row was the result. It +was kept up for five nights; and on the sixth the mob smashed the +lamps, demolished the scenery, and did several thousand pounds' +worth of damage. This popular antipathy to the French did not, +however, extend to the produce of France, or prevent the higher +classes from patronising and importing French luxuries of all kinds, +as well as a host of milliners, governesses, quacks, valets, and +professors of other menial and decorative arts. The Gallomania of +the fashionable world offered a fine field to the caricaturists, who +made the most of it, to the great delight of the populace. French +fashions, cookery, education, and nicknacks, were alternately taken +as targets for the shafts of ridicule. Mr Wright transfers to his +pages a ludicrous fragment of a print by Boitard, entitled "The +Imports of Great Britain from France," in which an Englishwoman of +quality is seen embracing and caressing a French female dancer, +and assuring her that her arrival is to the honour and delight of +England. And the mob of that day went so far as to believe that it +was the love of the aristocracy for French perfumes and delicacies, +cooks and coiffeurs, which prevented English ministers from properly +protecting the national honour, and avenging the insults put upon +us by our neighbours. The real evil, far more important than the +consumption of French finery and cosmetics, was the importation of +French corruption and immorality, so prevalent in England during +the whole reign of George II., and during a portion of that of +his successor. By this time the masquerades and _ridottos_, which +had kept their ground in spite of the moralists, had grown so +flagrant in their excesses and indecencies that, about the end of +1755, they were nearly suppressed; the earthquake at Lisbon having +come to the aid of the anti-maskers, who took advantage of the +panic it caused in London, to represent it as a judgment on the +profligacy of the age. Previously to that, masquerades--not only +those at public establishments, such as Vauxhall and Ranelagh, +but at the private houses of persons of rank and fashion--offered +glaring examples of indecorum--to use the very mildest word--until +at last Miss Chudleigh, maid of honour to the Princess of Wales, +and afterwards Duchess of Kingston, showed herself at the Venetian +ambassador's in a close-fitting dress of flesh-coloured silk. We +may judge of the court morals of the time from the circumstance, +that her royal mistress's sole rebuke was by throwing her own veil +over the immodest beauty. The host of caricatures to which this +gave rise, and the grossness of many of them, in that day of great +pictorial license, are easily imagined. After this there were very +few masquerades during ten or twelve years, at the end of which +time the court again set the fashion of them, soon after George the +Third's accession. Towards 1770, Mrs Cornelys got up her "Harmonic +Meetings," at Carlisle House in Soho Square. These subscription balls +and masquerades were attended by most of the nobility and leaders of +the _ton_; and, at one of them, we learn the presence of "two royal +dukes, and nearly all the fashionable portion of the aristocracy. On +this occasion, Colonel Luttrell (the same who had opposed Wilkes in +the election for Middlesex) appeared as a dead corpse in a shroud, +in his coffin." Much used, from the very first, for purposes of +intrigue, these assemblies soon became unbearably licentious. The +company fell off, both in numbers and respectability, until the only +way to fill the rooms was by the admission of bad characters. This +made them sink lower and lower, until "we read in the _St James's +Chronicle_ of April 23, 1795, the remark that 'No amusement seems +to have fallen into greater contempt, in this country, than the +masquerades.... They have been lately mere assemblages of the idle +and profligate of both sexes, who made up in indecency what they +wanted in wit.'" A description that has ever since been applicable to +London masquerades, which still continue, we apprehend, to be mere +pretexts for debauchery; whilst even in Paris, whose atmosphere, +and the character of whose inhabitants, have generally been found +more favourable to that class of amusements, the famed opera balls +have sunk, within the last twenty years, into the saturnalia of idle +students, profligate apprentices, and ladies of uncertain virtue. + +It would be unjust to leave out Samuel Foote, in a work treating +of the satires and caricatures of the last century. Possessing +neither the brush of Hogarth nor the pen of Churchill, he wielded a +weapon as formidable in its way--that, namely, of dramatic mimicry, +or stage satire; and he is properly named by Mr Wright the great +theatrical caricaturist of the age. For a time, the reckless and +vindictive wit was the terror of the town: an affront to him, real +or imaginary, caused the unlucky offender to be paraded before the +world, under some fictitious name, upon the boards of his theatre, +which, at first, was the "little" one in the Haymarket. For some +time Foote and Macklin had it between them, but, disagreeing, +Macklin left, whereupon his ex-partner immediately caricatured him +upon the very stage he had so lately trodden. "The Haymarket was +an unlicensed theatre, and Foote evaded the law by serving his +audience with tea, and calling the performance in the bills 'Mr +Foote's giving tea to his friends.' His advertisement ran, 'Mr Foote +presents his compliments to his friends and the public, and desires +them to drink tea at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, every +morning, at playhouse prices.' The house was always crowded, and +Foote came forward and said, that as he had some young actors in +training, he would go on with his instructions whilst the tea was +preparing." Afterwards he got a license, and rebuilt the theatre. +But his bitter wit and gross personalities continually got him into +trouble, frequently caused his pieces to be prohibited; exposed him +to threatened, if not to actual castigation; and, finally, were the +indirect cause of his death, accelerated, it is generally believed, +by shame and vexation at the false but revolting charge brought +against him by a clergyman he had savagely lampooned. + +The fate of Hogarth was not dissimilar to that of Foote, with the +difference that the painter was slain literally with his own weapons. +Foote's victims had neither the ability nor the opportunity to expose +him, as he did them, upon the stage. The Methodists, Dr Johnson, +the East India Company, and the Duchess of Kingston, each in turn +subjected to his vicious attacks, retorted as best they might by +pamphlets and cudgels, but apparently made little impression on +the player's tough epidermis, until a disreputable parson devised +the poisoned dart with which to inflict a sure and cowardly wound. +But Hogarth caricatured others till others learned to caricature +him,--with less talent, certainly, but with sufficient malice to +annoy and harass the artist, and finally, it is said, to break his +heart. "His constant practice," says Mr Wright, "of introducing +contemporaries into his moral satires, had procured him a host of +enemies in the town; whilst his vain egotism, and the scornful tone +in which he spoke of the other artists of the age, offended and +irritated them." How seldom do satirists preserve temper and coolness +under the retort of their own aggressions! After more than a quarter +of a century passed in turning his neighbours into ridicule, Hogarth +might be thought able to endure a rub or two in his turn, and even to +receive them with good grace and a smiling countenance. But many a +veteran has found, to his cost, that a life passed in the field does +not render bullet-proof. Hogarth made good fight to the last, but +his offensive arms were better than his defensive ones; his enemies' +shot fell thick and fast, and all he could do was to die upon his +guns. For the last twelve or fifteen years of his life he appears +to have been particularly unpopular, and continually caricatured. +His _Analysis of Beauty_, published in 1753, drew upon him a great +deal of ridicule; and in 1758, his opposition to the foundation of +an Academy of Fine Art was the signal for a shower of abuse and +caricatures, more or less witty--oftener _less_ than _more_. But the +campaign that finished him--the Waterloo of the unlucky humorist--was +one he rashly undertook against Wilkes and Churchill, previously +his friends. This was imprudent in the extreme; for he might be +sure that all the minor curs, who had so long yelped at his heels, +would redouble their wearisome assaults when reinforced by such +formidable champions as the _North Briton_ and "Bruiser" Churchill. +Wilkes warned Hogarth that he would not be kicked unresistingly, +but the painter persevered; and Wilkes kept his word. No. 17 of the +_North Briton_ was stinging retaliation for No. 1 of _The Times_; and +Churchill's "Epistle to William Hogarth" was at least as galling +to the artist as his well-known portrait of "A Patriot" could be to +Wilkes. The quarrel was kept up with much spirit till the death of +Hogarth in October 1764. + +The American war, and the ill-advised colonial legislation which +brought it on, gave rise to many caricatures, some of them of +considerable merit. The first of which a transcript is given us by +Mr Fairholt's graver, relates to the Boston tea-riots of 1770. In it +Lord North is pouring tea down the throat of America, personified +by a half-naked woman with a crown of feathers, who rejects the +unwelcome draught in his lordship's face. Britannia weeps in the +background, and Lord Chancellor Mansfield, the compiler of the +obnoxious acts, holds down the victim. When war actually broke +out, and the bloody fight of Bunker's Hill gave a foretaste of its +disasters, satires fell thick upon the ministry as well as upon +the king, whose will, the Opposition maintained, was law with Lord +North's cabinet. In June 1776 a long poem, smart enough, but very +violent and unpatriotic, was published under the title of _Lord +Chatham's Prophecy_. + + "Your plumèd corps though Percy cheers, + And far-famed British grenadiers, + Renown'd for martial skill; + Yet Albion's heroes bite the plain, + Her chiefs round gallant Howe are slain, + On fallow Bunker's Hill." + +Subsequent verses foretell all manner of evils to Great Britain, +and the whole poem breathes a spirit of exultation at our reverses, +which would have been less ungraceful from an American than from +an English pen, and which, at the present day, no amount of party +feeling would be held to justify. But the shamelessness of Whiggery +was then at its height; the pseudo-patriots of the time recked little +of their country's misfortunes when these gave them opportunity of +triumph over a political antagonist. What cared they for the reverses +of British arms, or the lopping off of Britain's colonies, if they +thereby saw themselves nearer the possession of the place and power +whose emoluments they so greedily coveted? Charles Fox, with his +faro-purse empty and an execution in his house, could hardly afford +to be particular as to the strict cleanliness of the path to the +treasury bench. Then or never was the moment to sacrifice public weal +to private advantage. And accordingly, when, "on the 3d December +1777, the Court was thunderstruck with the disastrous intelligence +of the surrender of General Burgoyne and his army at Saratoga, the +Opposition could hardly conceal their exultation: the disgrace and +loss which had fallen on the British arms were exaggerated, and +chanted about the streets in doggerel ballads." An "Ode on the +success of his Majesty's Arms," written in December, and printed in +the _Foundling Hospital for Wit_, celebrates ironically the glorious +results of the campaign, and the skill and prudence of the ministers +at home; and ends with a congratulation on the old tale of King +George's mechanical amusements:-- + + "Then shall my lofty numbers tell, + Who taught the royal babes to spell, + And sovereign arts pursue; + To mend a watch, or set a clock, + New patterns shape for Hervey's frock, + Or buttons make at Kew." + +The homely tastes of George III., his love of farming, and habit +of amusing himself with a turning-lathe, were great themes for +scurrilous attacks upon the royal person, both in print and +caricature. "Mr King the button-maker" was held up to ridicule in +every low publication on the Opposition side of the question. The +_Oxford Magazine_ frequently returned to the charge, sometimes with +almost as much humour as impertinence. This was rather earlier than +the American war, which gave rise to still more offensive inuendoes +against the sovereign. Thus, when an outcry was got up against the +employment of Indians in conjunction with the British troops in North +America, and when all manner of horrible stories of cannibalism and +so forth were set afloat, we are shown a caricature of the king +squatted on the ground, cheek by jowl with a befeathered savage. The +Indian handles a tomahawk, the king holds a skull, and "the Allies" +(this is the title of the disgusting print) gnaw each at his own end +of a large human bone. The brutality of the conception renders such a +caricature as this far more unpleasant than the coarse, but generally +good-humoured, quizzes subsequently executed by Gillray on royal +foibles and economy. Some of our older readers may remember these. +They were published towards the end of the last century. Half-a-dozen +are excellently well copied on pages 205 to 211 of Mr Wright's second +volume. There is "The Introduction"--George III and Queen Charlotte +receiving their daughter-in-law the Princess of Prussia, and +bewildered with delight at the golden dowery she brings. Then we have +the King toasting his muffins, and the Queen frying her sprats; and +again, (the best of them,) the royal pair out for a walk, and majesty +overwhelming an unlucky pig-feeder by a volley of interrogative +iterations. But few caricatures bear description, and least of all +Gillray's, where the design is often of the simplest, and the humour +of the execution every thing. + +Gillray's first attempts at caricature were on the occasion of Lord +Rodney's victory over De Grasse. It will be remembered that, when +the North Administration went out in 1782, one of the first acts of +their Liberal successors was to recall Rodney, a stanch Tory, on +pretext of his not having done all he ought to have done with the +West Indian fleet. England was badgered by her numerous enemies, +and her affairs looked altogether discouraging, when sudden news +arrived of the triumph which established her sovereignty of the +seas. Ministers found themselves in an awkward predicament. It was +neither gracious nor graceful to persist in the victor's recall, +and yet, what else could be done? His successor, Admiral Pigot, had +already sailed. Too late, an express was sent to stop him. "A cold +vote of thanks was given by both Houses to the victorious Rodney, and +he was raised to the peerage, but only as a baron, and was voted a +pension of but £2000 a-year." Such shabby reward for an achievement +of immense importance was, of course, not suffered to pass unnoticed +by the late ministry, now the Opposition. A fleet of caricatures was +launched, and amongst them were two by the then unknown Gillray. In +one of them, "King George runs towards the admiral with the reward +of a baron's coronet, and exclaims, (in allusion to Rodney's recall +and elevation to the peerage,) 'Hold, my dear Rodney, you have +done enough! I will now make a lord of you, and you shall have the +happiness of never being heard of again!'" Probably these maiden +efforts attracted little notice, for some time still elapsed before +Gillray made much use of his pencil for the public amusement. In +this same year of 1782, however, he brought out a clever caricature +of Fox, who had just resigned his foreign secretaryship on Lord +Shelburne's coming to be prime minister, _vice_ Rockingham, deceased. +In this print Charles James is represented, as a sort of parody on +Milton's Satan, gazing with envious eye at Shelburne and Pitt, as +they count their money on the treasury table. + + "Aside he turned + For envy, yet with jealous leer malign + Eyed them askance." + +The expression of Fox's face is excellent, and the likeness good, +but yet it wants something of the raciness of Gillray's later +works. Fox and Burke were the great butts of the satirists at this +particular moment, and also in the following year, on the occasion +of their coalition with Lord North. James Sayer, then in full force +as a caricaturist, and anxious to curry favour with his patron Pitt, +to whom he was subsequently indebted for more than one lucrative +place, was very severe upon them; and the power of caricature at +that time must have been very great, if it be true that Fox admitted +the severest blow received by his India Bill to have been from a +drawing of Sayer's. It was a cry of the day that Fox aimed at a +sort of Indian dictatorship for himself, and the satirists gave him +the nickname of Carlo Khan. In the caricature in question, entitled +"Carlo Khan's Triumphant Entry into Leadenhall Street," "Fox, in his +new character, is conducted to the door of the India House on the +back of an elephant, which exhibits the full face of Lord North, +and he is led by Burke as his imperial trumpeter; for he had been +the loudest supporter of the bill in the House of Commons. A bird +of ill-omen croaks from above the would-be monarch's doom." On the +other side of the question, several good caricatures also appeared, +levelled chiefly at William Pitt, then on the eve of his prime +ministership, and amongst these were three, published anonymously, +which Mr Wright is probably not mistaken in attributing to the pencil +of Rowlandson. + +The imitation of French fashions and manners, and even of French +profligacy, already noticed as gaining ground in English society +about the middle of the eighteenth century, had reached the highest +pitch towards its close. Nothing could be more absurd than the +dresses of 1785, the enormous hats and prodigious _buffonts_ and +buckram monstrosities of the women, except perhaps the rush into +the opposite extreme which took place at the commencement of the +French Revolution. One of the caricatures of 1787, under the title +of "Mademoiselle Parapluie," shows us a young lady serving as an +umbrella, sheltering a whole family from a shower beneath the +tremendous brim of her hat, (a regular fore-and-after), and under the +protecting shadow of a protuberance, concerning whose composition +(crinoline not having then been invented) future ages must remain in +deplorable darkness. Then, every thing was sacrificed to breadth in +costume. Pass we over six or seven years, and the lady of fashion +who, at their commencement, could hardly get through a moderate-sized +doorway, might almost glide head-foremost through the keyhole. A +thin scanty robe, clinging close to the form, a turban and a single +lofty plume, a waist close up under the arms, a watch the size of +a Swedish turnip, with a profusion of seals and pendants, compose +the fashionable female attire of that day. The dress of the men is +equally ridiculous, both in cut and material, the great rage then +being for striped stuffs, known as Zebras, and employed for coats +as well as for the absurd pantaloons, puffed out round the hips and +buttoned tight on the leg, in vogue amongst the beaux of the period. +The modes that succeeded these were equally exaggerated and ugly. And +the frivolity and extravagance of the time kept pace with the follies +of dress. There was a rage for strange sights and extraordinary +exhibitions; and the Londoners, especially, carried this passion to +an extent that rendered them easy dupes of charlatans and impostors. +"It stands recorded in the newspapers of the time, on the 9th of +September 1785,--'Handbills were distributed this morning that a bold +adventurer meant to walk upon the Thames from Riley's Tea Gardens.' +We are further informed that, at the hour appointed, thousands of +people had crowded to the spot, and the river was so thickly covered +with boats, that it was no easy matter to find enough water uncovered +to walk upon." Of course the thing was a mere trick, and the Cockneys +had their disappointment for their pains. Then balloons were the +crotchet of the hour, and they also came from France, where they had +been brought to a certain degree of perfection, but where it was +soon found they were more positively dangerous than probably useful; +for in May 1784, "a royal _ordonnance_ forbade the construction or +sending up of 'any aërostatic machine,' without an express permission +from the king, on account of the various dangers attendant upon +them; intimating, however, that this precaution was not intended +to let the 'sublime discovery' fall into neglect, but only to +confine the experiments to the direction of intelligent persons." +In England, the fancy for them increased, and was the subject of +various caricatures and pamphlets, until the death of a couple of +Frenchmen, thrown to the earth from an immense height, cooled the +soaring courage of the aëronauts. A more destructive and permanent +folly was the passion for gambling, which, in spite of the attacks of +the press, of grave censure and cutting satire, pervaded all ranks +of society. There was a perfect fury for faro; and ladies of high +fashion, and of aristocratic name, thought it not beneath them to +convert their houses into hells. Three of these sporting dames, who +had made themselves a name as keepers of banks, to which they enticed +young men of fortune, were popularly known as "Faro's daughters." +Lord Kenyon, when deciding on a gambling case, pledged himself, in +a moment of virtuous indignation, to sentence _the first ladies in +the land_ to the pillory, should they be brought before him for a +similar offence. Not long afterwards, several titled gamblers were +actually arraigned at his tribunal, but he forgot his threat, and +let them off with a fine. The hint, however, was enough for Gillray, +then in his glory, and for his brothers of the comic brush, and the +moral exposure and castigation which 'Faro's daughters' endured at +the hands of the caricaturists, can have been hardly less stinging +and annoying than actual exposure to the hooting and pelting of the +mob. General demoralisation, the natural consequence of gambling, +characterised this period. Men and women, ruined at the board of +green cloth, recruited their finances as best they might; and when no +other resource remained, the latter bartered their reputation, and +the former took to the road. Those were the palmy days of highway +robbery. "We are in a state of war at home that is shocking," writes +Horace Walpole in 1782. "I mean from the enormous profusion of +housebreakers, highwaymen, and footpads; and, what is worse, from +the savage barbarities of the two latter, who commit the most wanton +cruelties. The grievance is so crying, that one dares not stir out +after dinner but well armed. If one goes abroad to dinner, you would +think he was going to the relief of Gibraltar." Sixty-two years ago, +in January 1786, "the mail was stopped in Pall Mall, close to the +palace, and deliberately pillaged, at so early an hour as a quarter +past eight in the evening." + +After having for some years drawn their principal themes for +satire from the social follies and political dissensions of their +countrymen, the English caricaturists and song-writers found +"fresh fields and pastures new" in foreign menaces and threatened +invasion. In their usual presumptuous tone, French newspapers and +proclamations spoke of the conquest of England by the conqueror of +Italy, as of a project whose realisation admitted not the smallest +doubt. This country had not then that confidence of invincibility +which she gathered from subsequent victories in the field; and the +positive assertions of France, that she had but to throw an army +on the English coast to secure prompt and powerful co-operation +from the Jacobin party, caused considerable alarm in the country. +To kindle true patriotism, and raise the courage of the nation, +recourse was had to loyal songs, and anti-French caricatures. The +anti-Jacobin lent efficient aid, and Gillray put his shoulder to +the wheel. The periodical and the artist were a host in themselves. +Clever verses, and pointed caricatures, followed each other in quick +succession. Soon Buonaparte betook himself to Egypt, the victory of +the Nile spread rejoicing through the land, and caricatures caught +the exultation of the hour. John Bull was represented at dinner, +forking French frigates down his capacious gullet, and supplied +with the provender, as fast as he could devour it, by Nelson and +other nautical cooks. Buonaparte, stripped to the waist, with all +enormous cocked-hat on his head, and the claret flowing freely from +his nose, receives fistic punishment at the hands of Jack Tar. The +suppression of the Irish rebellion of '98, and the death of General +Hoche, who had replaced Buonaparte as the threatened invader of the +British Isles, confirmed the feeling of security our naval triumphs +had inspired. The Peace of Amiens set the wags of the pencil on a +new tack, and Monsieur François was represented as imprinting "The +first Kiss these Ten Years" on the lips of burly, blushing Britannia, +who, whilst accepting the salute, hints a doubt of her admirer's +sincerity. The doubt was justified by the rupture that speedily +followed. The camp of Boulogne was formed; the French army were +reminded of the pleasant pastime, in the shape of rape and robbery, +that awaited them in the island famed for wealth and beauty. On +this side the Channel nothing was left undone that might increase +English contempt and hatred for the blustering bullies upon the +other. Individuals and associations printed and disseminated "loyal +tracts," as they were called. "Every kind of wit and humour was +brought into play to enliven these sallies of patriotism; sometimes +they came forth in the shape of national playbills, sometimes they +were coarse and laughable dialogues between the Corsican and John +Bull." Libels on Buonaparte, burlesques on his acts, parodies of his +bulletins, accounts of the atrocities of his armies, were daily put +forth, mingled with countless songs and tracts of encouragement and +defiance. Some of these were spirited, but generally the substance +and intention were better than the form--at least so they now +appear to us, who read them without the additional savour imparted +by the appropriateness of their time of production. Gillray keeps +better, and one still must smile at his John Bull, standing in +mid-Channel with trousers tucked up to his thighs, offering a fair +fight to his meagre enemy, who contemplates him with a visage of +grim dismay from above the triple batteries of the French coast. It +is said that Buonaparte was much annoyed by personalities levelled +at himself and his family, in some of the caricatures of 1803. They +were often very coarse, and conveyed unhandsome imputations on the +conduct of his female relatives; some of whom--rather flighty dames, +if all tales be true--gave by their conduct plausible grounds for +such attacks. Napoleon himself was represented in every odious and +contemptible shape that could be devised,--as a butcher, a pigmy, +an ogre, and even as a _fiddle_, transformed by an abominable pun +into a _base villain_, upon which John Bull, a complacent smile upon +his honest face, plays with sword instead of bow. This was after +Maida, when the British army had begun to share the high esteem in +which repeated victories had long caused our fleets to be held. +A droll caricature, by Woodward, represents Napoleon abusing his +master-shipwright for not keeping him better supplied with ships; +whilst the unfortunate constructor, with hair on end, and a shrug +to his ears, excuses himself upon the ground that, as fast as he +builds, the English capture. It is to be remarked that hardly any of +the caricatures of Napoleon attempt a likeness of him. They usually +represent him as a lantern-jawed, disconsolate-looking wretch, with +a prodigious cocked-hat and plume of feathers--that is to say, quite +the contrary, both in head and head-dress, of what he really was. +Both Gillray and his successors seem to have preferred sketching him +as the received personification of a Frenchman, to giving a burlesque +portrait or real caricature of the man. We trace this peculiarity, +in many instances, up to the year 1814, when George Cruikshank, in +depicting a Cossack "snuffing out Boney," (an allusion to French +disasters in Russia), still represents the then plump Emperor as a +lean, long-chinned scarecrow, with sash and feathers. Rowlandson +does nearly the same thing, in his vulgar print of Napoleon's +reception in the Island of Elba; and the only caricature reproduced +by Mr Fairholt, in which is preserved the general character of the +Emperor's head, is an anonymous one, where the head is placed on a +dog's shoulders, and "Blucher the Brave," by a rough grasp on the +nape of the quadruped's neck, extracts "the groan of abdication +from the Corsican Bloodhound." Probably the classic regularity of +Napoleon's countenance discouraged the caricaturists from attempting +his likeness. They were deterred by the difficulty of burlesquing a +face whose grave expression and perfect proportion gave no hold to +ridicule, and made it pretty certain that the general resemblance +would be sacrificed to the exaggeration of even a single feature. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] _England under the House of Hanover; its History and Condition +during the reigns of the three Georges, illustrated from the +Caricatures and Satires of the day._ By THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., +M.A.F.S.A. &c. With numerous illustrations, executed by F. W. +FAIRHOLT, F.S.A. In two volumes. London: 1848. + + + + +A PARCEL FROM PARIS. + + +It is some time since we had a gossip about French literature and +_littérateurs_. The fact is, that, since the blessed days of February +drove crestfallen monarchy from France, and began the pleasant state +of things under which that country has since so notably flourished, +literature has been at a complete stand-still in the land beyond the +Channel. We refer especially to the light and amusing class of books +it has been our habit occasionally to notice and extract from. With +these the revolution has played the very mischief. Feuilletons have +made way for bulletins of barricade contests, for reports of state +trials, for the new dictator's edicts and proclamations. The rush +at the _Cabinets de Lecture_ has been for lists of genuine killed +and wounded, not for imaginary massacres, by M. Dumas' heroes, of +hosts of refractory plebeians, or for the full and particular account +of the gallant defence of Bussy d'Amboise, against a quarter of a +hundred hired assassins--all picked men-at-arms, and all setting on +him at once, but of whom, nevertheless, he slays twenty-four, and +only by the twenty-fifth is slain. And, by the bye, what pity it is +that a few of our friend Alexander's redoubted swordsmen could not +have been summoned from their laurel-shaded repose in Père la Chaise, +to avert the recent catastrophe of the house of Orleans. Just a brace +and a half of his king-making _mousquetaires_ would have done the +trick in a trice. Rumour certainly says that, in February last, a +tall dark-complexioned gentleman, with a bran-new African _Kepi_ on +his martial brow, a foil, freshly unbuttoned, in his strong right +hand, and a yell of liberty upon his massive lips, was seen to head +a furious assault upon the Tuileries, at a time when that palace was +undefended. Ill-natured tongues have asserted that this adventurous +forlorn-hope leader was no other than the author of _Monte Christo_; +but of this we credit not a syllable. It is notorious that M. Dumas +is under the deepest obligations to the ex-king of the French, to +whose kind and efficacious patronage (when Duke of Orleans) his first +very sudden, very brilliant, and not altogether deserved success +as a dramatist was mainly due. Equally well known is it that the +popular writer was the favoured and intimate associate of two of +Louis Philippe's sons--the Dukes of Orleans and Montpensier. Take, +in conjunction with these facts, M. Dumas' established reputation +for steady consistency, gravity, and gratitude, and of course +it is impossible to believe that he ever acted so basely to his +benefactors. But, even admitting republican predilections on his +part, his love of liberty would assuredly prevent his constraining +those well-known stanch supporters of the right divine, Messrs Athos, +Artagnan, and Company, who, if set down in Paris in 1848, would have +played the very deuce with the young republic. The giant Porthos +would have stridden along the boulevards, kicking over the barricades +as easily as he raised, single-handed, the stone which six of the +degenerate inhabitants of Bellisle were unable to lift, (_Vide "Le +Vicomte de Bragelonne;"_) whilst the astute Gascon Artagnan would +have packed General Cavaignac in a magnified _bonbon_-box, with +air-holes in the lid, and _Copahine-Mège_ or _Chocolat-Cuillier_ on +the label; and would have conveyed him on board a fishing smack, +there detaining him till he pledged his honour that the king should +have his own again. And, upon the whole, and whatever budding honours +and civic crowns M. Dumas may anticipate under the genial reign of +republicanism, it would have been more to his present interest to +have stuck to monarchy, and led his legions to its rescue. Under the +new regime his occupation is gone; his literary merchandise vainly +seeks a market. Paris, engrossed by domestic broils and political +discussions, by its anarchy, its misery, and its hunger--no longer +cares for the fabulous exploits of Gascon paladins, and of privates +in the Guards, who make thrones to totter, and armies to fly, by +the prowess of their single arm. But M. Dumas is not disheartened. +When the drama languishes, and the feuilleton grows unproductive, +he falls back upon the _Premier-Paris_. When readers are scarce for +twelve-volume romances, and plays in ten acts and thirty _tableaux_ +cease to draw, he starts upon a fresh tack--proposes enlightening +the public on politics, regenerating France through the leaders of +a newspaper. We were greatly amused by his advertisement of the +journal, intended to act as lantern to this shining light of the +new political day. "Our task is easy"--these were its concluding +words--"_Dieu dicte, nous écrivons!_" Setting aside the slight +profanity of this startling assertion, one cannot but admire the +characteristic modesty of the self-conferred secretaryship. We are +assured, however, that M. Dumas has been found far less able and +attractive at the head of the column, than he was in his old place at +the foot of the page. + +The disjointed times being decidedly unfavourable to _belles +lettres_, we were scarcely surprised at the first non-arrival of +the monthly parcel, in which our punctual Paris agent is wont to +forward us the literary novelties of the preceding thirty days. +On a second and a third omission, we grew uneasy, and suspected +the Red Republicans of abstracting our packages _in transitu_; but +absolved the democrats on receipt of advice, that if the books did +not arrive, it was because they were not sent; and that, if they +were not sent, it was because there were none, or as good as none, +to send. At last a case has reached us--half the usual size, but +containing, nevertheless, the French literature of the entire summer. +A poor display indeed! The pens of the novelists have shrivelled in +their grasp; their plump goose-quills have dwindled into emaciated +tooth-picks. Instead of the exuberant eight-volume romance, with +promise of continuation, we have single volumes, meagre tales, +that seem nipped in the bad, blighted by the breath of revolution. +No author, not already involved in one of those tremendous series +with which French writers have lately abused the public patience, +now cares to exceed a volume or two. M. Sue, having got into the +middle of the seven capital sins, is fain to flounder on through +the ocean of iniquity; but his pen flags, evidently affected by +the discouraging influence of the times. M. Dumas has brought out +the final volume of "_Les Quarante Cinq_," a romance which we may +observe, _en passant_, is a scandalous specimen of what the French +call _faire la ligne_--doing the line, writing against paper, upon +the Vauxhall principle of making the smallest possible substance +cover the utmost possible surface. It is pity to see a man of +remarkable talent, which M. Dumas really is, thus degrading himself +into a mere mercantile speculator, lumbering his books with pages +upon pages of useless and meaningless dialogue--if dialogue that is +to be called, of which the following stuff is a specimen:-- + +"You are the Chevalier d'Artagnan." + +"Then let me pass." + +"Useless!" + +"Why useless?" + +"Because his Eminence is not at home." + +"What! His Eminence not at home! Where is he then?" + +"Gone." + +"Gone?" + +"Yes." + +"Where?" &c., &c. + +This is taken at random, from the volume last published of the +_Vicomte de Bragelonne_, in which romance the marvellous and +Crichtonian musketeers, brought forward again, when hard upon +threescore, show less sign of suffering from the march of years +than does the narrative of their adventures from its unconscionable +protraction. Much more than half the book is made up of such +wearisome conferences as that above-cited, where the interlocutors +carry on a sort of cut-and-thrust conversation, with an economy +of words explicable by the fact that in a French feuilleton, or +volume, one word of dialogue makes a line, as well as ten. With the +assistance of his secretary, M. Maquet, and of his son, Alexander +the Younger, M. Dumas gets through a prodigious amount of this sort +of trash, at once productive to his pocket and damaging to his +reputation; and then, when he finds publishers beginning to grumble, +and the public detecting the device, and rejecting the windy repast, +he applies himself in earnest, and produces something exceedingly +good, of which he is quite capable, if once he gets the spur. It +is to the necessity of thus occasionally redeeming his reputation, +that we are indebted for the few really praiseworthy romances he +has written--for the _Chevalier d'Harmental_, for the earlier +portion of the _Mousquetaires_, and for his masterpiece, _Le Comte +de Monte Christo_. His enemies and libellers have asserted, that +the first-named of these books was written by M. Maquet, and only +fathered by Dumas; but the assertion is absurd, and is belied by the +book itself, replete with that vivid animation which characterises +whatever Alexander writes. Moreover, the man who could write such a +novel would have no need to purchase the name of M. Dumas. He would +not lack a publisher, and his reputation would soon be made. We +believe the fact to be, that Maquet is a sort of industrious drudge, +employed by Dumas to rummage chronicles, and to collate and write +down historical incidents and facts, for his employer to distort +and expand into romances. For, as an historical romance writer, M. +Dumas is utterly without a conscience. By him characters and events +are twisted and turned as best suits his convenience. "I have twenty +years' work before me," he is reported to have said, "to illustrate +French history." Heaven knows what sort of an illustrator he is! +We would advise no one to take their notions of French historical +personages from M. Dumas' novels, or from his history either--for he +writes history also, at times, and the only doubt is, which is the +greatest fiction, his history or his romance. But for the titles, it +were not always easy to distinguish between them. It were unfair, +however, whilst quizzing his absurdities, to lose sight of his +merits. These are numerous and remarkable. His spirit and vivacity +of style are extraordinary; and we can call to mind no living writer +superior to him for invention. _Monte Christo_ is his masterpiece. It +is indeed a very striking and amusing book. With defects that forbid +our calling it a first-rate romance of its class, it is yet far more +entertaining than many that claim and obtain the title. The readers +of the _Journal des Debats_ well remember the eagerness with which +each successive _feuilleton_ was looked for, during its appearance +in that paper. We ourselves abominate the _feuilleton_ system, by +which one is a year or two reading a book, imbibing it by daily +crumbs, like the lady who eats her pillau with a bodkin. We waited +till the work was complete, and then read it off the reel,--not at a +sitting, certainly, considering the length, but early and late, in +bed and at board. And being somewhat fastidious in matter of novels, +it is evident _Monte Christo_ must have great attractions thus to +carry us at a canter through its interminable series of volumes. Its +chief fault is the usual one of its author--exaggeration. We are +sure M. Dumas is one of those persons who love to dream with their +eyes open--to build themselves palaces in fairyland, to arrange +gardens after the fashion of that of Eden, to furnish the most +preterperfect of apartments with the most fabulous of furniture, to +hang diamonds on their trees, and a roc's egg in their drawing-room. +His air-constructed castles find a site in the pages of his romances. +The right way to read them is to forget as fast as possible the +improbabilities and impossibilities. The supernatural being out +of vogue, he does not give to Edmund Dantes the lamp of Aladdin, +but (which is quite equivalent) a few double handfuls of precious +stones, whereof the smallest specimen is caught at by a Jew for a +thousand pounds; whilst one of the largest, hollowed out, forms a +convenient receptacle for a score of pills, as big as peas, which it +is the Count's custom to carry about with him. With the aid of this +incalculable wealth, Dantes pursues his grand scheme of revenge upon +the persons to whom he is indebted for fourteen years' undeserved +imprisonment in the dungeons of the Chateau d'If. Gold being the +universal key, all doors fly open before him: nothing is impossible +to the man who scatters millions upon the path leading to the goal of +his desires. Take the treasure for granted, and still there is much +exaggeration to get over; but there are also many truthful touches, +many finely-drawn characters. How exquisitely tender are some of the +scenes between the paralytic and his granddaughter; how capital and +characteristic the interview between the old Italian gambler and +the young French thief, when they are paid by the Count to consider +each other as father and son! In this romance there is none of the +make-weight dialogue so lavishly interpolated in most of the same +author's works. In style, too, and description, M. Dumas here rises +above his average. His style, always lively and piquant, is usually +loose, unpolished, and defaced by conventionalisms the Academy would +hardly sanction. In _Monte Christo_ he has evidently taken pains to +do well, and the result is the best written book he has yet produced. + +But we lose sight of our parcel, as yet but half unpacked. Here +is a volume of the _Député d'Arcis_, (another of the continuation +family,) heavy stuff, seemingly, by Balzac; and this brings us to +the end of the continuations. With these exceptions, the French +writers who have not altogether left off writing, have at least +kept within circumscribed limits. Here we have a volume from M. +Méry of Marseilles, a clever, careless writer, not much known in +England; another by the authoress of _Consuelo_; two more from M. +Alphonse Karr; a couple from that old sinner, Paul de Kock, who +is not often so concise, having superadded, of late years, to his +other transgressions the crime of long-windedness; a brief Sicilian +sketch from M. Paul de Musset. We turn aside a heap of political +matter, of no great merit or value; a few pamphlets, of some talent, +but fugitive interest, by Girardin and others; a ream of portraits +and caricatures; a few more novels whose authors' names or whose +first pages condemn them; _Mourir pour la Patrie_, and some other +revolutionary staves, bad music and worse words, and the box is +empty. We sit down to peruse the little we have selected as worth +perusal from the pile of printed paper. _La Famille Alain_, by Karr, +is the first thing that comes to hand. We have read the greater +part of it already, in the French periodical in which it first +appeared. M. Karr is rather a favourite of ours. There are many good +points about his novels, although he is, perhaps, less popular as a +novelist than as the writer of a small monthly satirical pamphlet, +_Les Guèpes_, The Wasps, which has existed for several years, with +varying, but, upon the whole, with very great success. M. Karr's +wit is of a peculiar order, approaching more nearly to _humour_ +than French wit generally does. There is an odd sort of dryness and +fantastic _naïveté_ in some of his drolleries, quite distinct from +what we are accustomed to in the comic writings of his countrymen. +With this the German origin to be inferred from his name may have +some connexion. There is also a Germanic vagueness and dreaminess in +some of his books, although their scene is usually on French ground, +frequently on the coast of Brittany, a country M. Karr evidently well +knows and loves. One of his great recommendations is the general +propriety of his writings. Of most of them, the tone and tendency +are alike unexceptionable, and some are mere "simple stories," which +the most fastidious papas--who deny that any good thing can proceed +from a French press, and look upon the yellow paper cover with +"Paris" at its foot as the ineradicable mark of the beast, the moral +quarantine flag, betokening uncleanness which no amount of lazaretto +can purge or purify--might with safe conscience place in the hands +of their blooming artless sixteen-year-old daughters. The fact is, +that people _will_ read French novels--so long as they are not +audaciously indecent, immoral, or irreligious--because the present +race of French novelists are far cleverer and more amusing than their +English brethren. And although some French novels are offensive and +abominable, it is not fair to include all in the black list, or to +deny that a great improvement has taken place since the period (the +early years of the reign of the first and last King of the French) +when the Paris press was clogged with indecency and infidelity. We +should be very sorry to put Mrs George Sand's works into the hands of +any young woman; we would insult no woman, of any age, by commending +to her notice the obscene buffoonery of De Kock; but neither would +we condemn the whole flock for a sprinkling of scabby sheep. There +are many French writers of a very different stamp from the two just +named; and M. Karr is one of the better sort. The tale now before +us is a Norman story, possessing better plot and incident than +many of its predecessors; for in these respects, this author--from +indolence, we suspect--is often rather deficient. We need hardly +tell our readers that the Norman is noted for his cunning, and for +his litigious propensities, as the Gascon is for his boasting and +vanity, the Lorrainer for his stolidity, &c., &c. In _La Famille +Alain_, the characteristics of the province, and the casualties +of the peasant's and fisherman's life, are cleverly illustrated. +Tranquille Alain, surnamed Risquetout, from certain bold feats of his +earlier years, lives by the seaside on the produce of his nets. His +family consists of his wife Pélagie, his sons and daughter, Cæsar, +Onesimus, and Berenice, and of his foster-daughter Pulchérie. With +respect to these magnificent names, M. Karr thinks it necessary to +offer some explanation. "I am not their inventor," he says, "and they +are very common in Normandy. There is not a village that has not its +Berenices, its Artemesias, its Cleopatras. I know not whence the +inhabitants originally took these names. Perhaps they were given by +dames of high degree, who took them from Mademoiselle de Scudery's +romances, to bestow them on their rustic god-children, and they have +since remained traditional in the country." The book opens with the +christening of a new fishing-boat, to build which Tranquille Alain +has borrowed a hundred crowns of his cousin Eloi, miller and usurer. +In France, as elsewhere, and especially in Normandy, millers have a +roguish reputation. The loan is to be repaid, part at the beginning +and part at the end of the fishing season, with twenty crowns +interest. But the season sets in stormy and unfavourable; the fish +shun the coast; and at the date appointed for the first payment, the +debtor is unprepared with either principal or interest. At last the +wind lulls, and the angry waves subside into a long sullen swell. +Risquetout and his sons put to sea. + +"Towards the close of day, as the boats reappeared on the horizon, +Eloi Alain came down from Beuzeval, and waited their arrival upon the +beach. They had taken a few whitings. Onesimus was proud, because +almost all the fish had been caught on his line. + +"Risquetout, who had started that morning rather prematurely, without +waiting till the fine weather had thoroughly set in, had a feeling of +fear and embarrassment at sight of the miller. + +"'Have you caught any thing?' said Eloi. + +"'A few whitings. Will you come, and eat some with us?' + +"Eloi made no answer; but when the lines and fish had been taken out +of the boat, and the boat had been washed and hauled up upon the +shore, he followed the three fishers to their home. Pélagie also felt +uneasy at sight of Eloi; she asked him, as Tranquille had done, if he +would eat a whiting, to which he replied,-- + +"'Not to refuse you.' + +"Then, as they changed the fish from one basket to another, he took +up two, and kept them a long time in his hands, repeating, 'Fine +whitings these, very fine whitings!' until Pélagie said:-- + +"'You shall take them home with you, cousin.' + +"Eloi answered nothing; they sat down to dinner; he found the cider +not very good, which did not prevent his drinking a great deal of it. + +"'Well, Tranquille,' said he, at last, 'it is to-day you are to pay +me the hundred and twenty crowns I lent you.' + +"Neither the intrepid Risquetout, nor any of his family, dared to +observe that the loan was not of one hundred and twenty crowns, but +only of one hundred crowns, for which a hundred and twenty were to be +paid back. + +"'True,' said Tranquille Alain, 'true; but the same reason which +prevented my paying you the other day, prevents me to-day; to-day +only have we been able to put to sea. + +"'I am sadly inconvenienced for these hundred and twenty crowns I +lent you, cousin. I had reckoned on them to employ in an affair--I +had taken them from a sum I had in reserve--and here I am, distressed +for want of them.' + +"'I am sorrier for it than you are, cousin, but a little patience and +all will go well.' + +"Tranquille did not dare say that Eloi could not be distressed for +the hundred and twenty crowns, their agreement having been, that he +should repay only a portion at the beginning of the season, and the +remainder at its conclusion. + +"'And when will you pay me?' + +"'Well, cousin, at the end of the season.' + +"'The two halves shall be paid together,' added Pélagie, bolder than +her husband. + +"'It is to-day the money would be useful to me; I miss an affair on +which I should gain fifty crowns! It is very hard to have obliged +people, and to find one's-self in difficulty in consequence. I am so +much in want of money, Risquetout, that if you give me two hundred +francs, I will return you these two bills of sixty crowns each.' + +"'You know very well I have no money, Eloi.' + +"'Never mind, it shows you what sacrifices I would make to-day, to +receive what you owe me.' + +"Again no one dared tell the miller that he was not very sincere when +he offered to sacrifice a hundred and sixty francs to obtain payment +of a sum which would enable him, he said, to gain a hundred and fifty. + +"'What is to be done?' said he. + +"'I wish I had the money, Eloi.' + +"'You say then that you cannot pay, till Michaelmas, the hundred and +twenty crowns you should have paid to-day?' + +"'That is to say, cousin,' cried Pélagie, always bolder or less +patient than her husband, 'that we should have given you half of it.' + +"'Yes; but that half was due a fortnight ago; and, besides, I am in +such want of that half, that--See here, now, I offered just now to +give you back your bills for two hundred francs; well, pay me one, +and I return you both. There is nothing stingy or greedy in that +offer, I hope; I lent you a hundred and twenty crowns, and I cry +quits for sixty.' + +"'Cousin, I repeat that I have no money, and besides, if I had sixty +crowns, I would give them you, which would not prevent my giving you +the sixty others later.' + +"'It is sixty crowns that I lose on the affair I miss for want of +money.' + +"'Pélagie longed to remind Eloi that the profit sacrificed had been +but fifty crowns a few minutes before, but she held her tongue. + +"'I am no Turk,' continued the miller; 'I will renew your bills. Draw +one of a hundred and fifty crowns payable at Michaelmas.' + +"The husband and wife exchanged a look. Pélagie spoke. + +"'What, cousin! a hundred and fifty crowns! That makes, then, thirty +crowns interest from now till Michaelmas, and that on sixty crowns, +or rather on fifty, since only half the sum is due; and out of the +sixty crowns ten are for interest.' + +"'I don't deny it. You think thirty crowns interest too much; well, I +offer sixty for the same time. Give me sixty crowns, and I return the +two bills, and thank you into the bargain, and you will have done me +famous service.' + +"'Ah! cousin, I wish I had never borrowed this money of you!' + +"'I am sure I wish you had not; I should not be pinched for it +to-day. And why am I? Because I won't get you into difficulties, +for I might give your two bills in payment for the affair I speak +of, and then you would be made to pay, or your boats would be sold; +but I prefer being the loser myself, for after all, cousin, we are +brothers' sons, and we must help one another in this world.' + +"'Nevertheless, cousin, thirty crowns are a very high figure.' + +"'Yes; and I should be quite content if you would give me sixty for +the hundred and twenty I lent you; but, Lord bless me! add nothing to +the bill, if you like--let me lose every thing.' + +"'It is fair to add something, Eloi.' + +"'Well, since you find thirty crowns too much, when I should be too +happy to give sixty, add nothing, or add thirty crowns.' + +"Tranquille and his wife looked at each other. + +"'I will do as you wish,' said Risquetout. + +"'Observe,' said the miller, 'that it is not I who wish it. What I +wish, on the contrary, is to see my hundred and twenty crowns which +went out of my pocket, and to receive them without addition; what I +would gladly agree to is, to receive sixty, and make you a present of +the rest.' + +"'Write out the bill; I will make my mark.' + +"Eloi wrote; but, when about to set down the sum upon the stamp he +had brought with him, he checked himself. + +"'Tranquille,' said he, 'the stamp is five sous; it is not fair I +should pay it. Give me five sous.' + +"'There is not a sou in the house,' said Pélagie. + +"'Then we will add it to the amount of the bill. Thus: At Michaelmas +I promise to pay to my cousin, Eloi Alain, the sum of four hundred +and fifty-one francs (one cannot put four hundred and fifty francs +and five sous, it would look so paltry,) which he has been so +obliging as to lend me in hard cash. Signed, Tranquille Alain. There, +put your mark, and you, Pélagie, put yours also.' + +"The signatures given, Eloi returned the old bills with the air of a +benefactor conferring an immense favour. + +"'This time, cousin,' said he, 'be punctual. I shall pay away your +bill to a miller at Cherbourg; and if you are not prepared to take +it up when due, he may not be so accommodating as I am; for, after +all, these four hundred and fifty-one francs would be very useful to +me, if I had them in my pocket instead of having lent them to you. +Four hundred and fifty-one francs are not to be picked up under every +hedge; it is not every day one finds a cousin willing to lend him +four hundred and fifty-one francs.' + +"No one made any observation on this pretended loan of four hundred +and fifty-one francs. + +"'Well, I must be off. I perhaps lost my temper a little, cousin, +but I am really in want of the money. You understand--when one has +reckoned on four hundred and fifty-one francs that one has lent--and +then not to receive a single copper, it is rather vexatious; but, +however, I will manage as I can. I am hasty at the moment, but I bear +no malice. It is all forgotten.' + +"He then took up the two whitings which had been laid aside for him. +At the same time he took a third out of the basket, and placed it +beside one of his, comparing the two. + +"'I think this is a finer one!' he said. And he weighed them, one in +each hand. + +"'There is not much difference,' he observed. + +"He changed them into the opposite hands, weighed them again, and +appeared sadly embarrassed, until his kinsman said to him: + +"'Don't mind, cousin, take the three.' + +"'Here, Onesimus,' said he, 'run a piece of string through their +gills.' + +"Onesimus strung them on the end of a strong line. He was about to +cut the piece off, when Eloi checked him. + +"'Bless me!' said the miller, 'how wasteful children are! He would +cut that capital new cord.' + +"And he carried away the entire cord, with the three whitings at +the end of it, after having several times repeated his advice to +Risquetout to be punctual in the payment of his bill, and after +kissing Berenice, and saying,-- + +"'Good-bye, my dear children; I am delighted to have been of service +to you.' + +"'Our cousin is a very hard and a very griping man,' said Pélagie. + +"'God does not pay his labourers every night,' replied Tranquille, +lifting his woollen cap, 'but sooner or later he never forgets to +pay. Each man shall be recompensed according to his work.'" + +This is by no means the sort of thing generally met with in +French romances of the present day. It is neither the back-slum +and bloody-murder style, nor the self-styled historical, nor the +social-subversive. It is just simple, natural, pleasant reading, free +from anything indecent or objectionable. We have taken this chapter +because it bears extraction well, not as the best in the book, still +less as the only good one. _La Famille Alain_ has a well-contrived +plot and well-managed incidents, contains some droll and quiet +caricature, and many touching and delicately-handled passages. The +correspondence between the young lady at the Paris boarding-school, +and the fisherman's daughter at Dive, and the sketches of the +company at the watering-place, are each excellent in their way. +The introduction of Madame du Mortal and her daughter, and of the +Viscount de Morgenstein, is rather foreign to the story, but affords +M. Karr opportunity of sketching characters by no means uncommon in +France, although little known in England. At this sort of delineation +he is the Gavarni of the pen. + +"The truth is, that Madame du Mortal's existence had been tolerably +agitated. Eight years previously she had quitted M. du Mortal for the +society of an officer, who soon, touched by remorse, had left her +at full liberty to repair their mutual fault by returning to edify +the conjugal mansion by her repentance, and by the exercise of those +domestic virtues she had somewhat neglected. Madame du Mortal did +nothing of the sort; she knew how to create resources for herself. +Formerly, deceived and discouraged people fled to a convent, now they +fly to the feuilleton. When a woman finds herself, by misconduct and +scandal, excluded from society, she does not weep over her fault and +expiate it in a cloister; before long you see her name at the bottom +of a newspaper feuilleton, in which she demands the enfranchisement +of her sex. No great effort of invention was requisite for Madame du +Mortal to devise this resource. Her husband, M. du Mortal, a tall, +corpulent man, with a severe countenance and formidable mustaches, +had long furnished the article MODES to a widely-circulated +newspaper; and under the name of the Marchioness of M----, discoursed +weekly upon tucks and flounces, upon the length of gowns and the +size of bonnets, according to the instructions of milliners and +dressmakers, who paid him to give their names and addresses. Madame +du Mortal devoted herself to the same branch of literature, and +succeeded in seducing some of her husband's customers." + +"The Viscount de Morgenstein was one of those illustrious pianists +whose talent has much less connexion with music than with sleight +of hand. M. de Morgenstein achieved only three notes a minute less +than M. Henry Herz; as he was young and worked hard, it was thought +he would overtake, and perhaps surpass that master. He had long +curling hair, affected a melancholy and despairing countenance, and +was considered to have something fatal in his gait. His mere aspect +betrayed the man overwhelmed by the burden of genius and by the +divine malediction." + +The character of an old country gentleman, who has ruined himself +to marry his niece to a spendthrift count, is very well hit off. +Eloi Alain, who has a grudge against the poor old fellow, persecutes +him in every possible way; his aristocratic and ungrateful nephew +refuses him the pension agreed upon, and, to maintain appearances, +Monsieur Malais de Beuzeval is reduced to shifts worthy of Caleb +Balderstone. Although a _parvenu_, with vanity for the stimulus +of his stratagems, one cannot help feeling sorry for the weak but +kind-hearted old man, who shuffles on a livery coat, and puts a patch +over his eye, to inform visitors, through the wicket, that he himself +is not at home--his own servants having left him; who paints a blaze, +each alternate day, upon the face of his sole remaining horse, that +neighbours may credit the duplicity of his stud; and who illuminates +his drawing-room and jingles his piano in melancholy solitude, to +make the world believe M. de Beuzeval is receiving his friends. His +manoeuvres to procure a supply of forage, and his ingenuity in +dissipating the astonishment of its vender, who cannot comprehend +that the master of broad pastures should purchase a load of hay, are +capitally drawn. Like every thing else, however, the hay comes to an +end, and, at the same time with the horse, the master runs short of +provender. Only the four-legged animal has resources the biped does +not possess. + +"M. de Malais was again compelled to lead out his horse Pyramus +during the night, to graze the neighbours' lucerne. One morning +the inhabitants of the village of Beuzeval heard the castle-bell +announce, as usual, the breakfast. M. de Beuzeval walked into the +breakfast room, but found nothing to eat. He nibbled a stale crust +and set out for Caen, whence he always brought back a little money, +his journeys thither being for the purpose of disposing of some +relic of his departed splendour. But when he had ridden a league he +remembered it was Sunday; the man he had to see would not be at his +shop, and he must wait till the next day. He returned to Beuzeval, +and thence rode down to Dive. Berenice, who was lace-making at her +door, made him a grateful curtsey, and he stopped to exchange a few +words with her. Pélagie, who was preparing dinner, inquired after +Pulchérie. + +"'Madame la Comtesse de Morville is well,' he replied; 'I heard from +her the other day. My nephew, Count de Morville, has promised to +bring the countess to see me this summer.' + +"Onesimus and his father were close to shore. Pélagie begged M. de +Beuzeval's permission to look to their dinner, as they were obliged +to put to sea again as soon as they had eaten it. M. Malais got off +his horse and entered the house. + +"'Your soup smells deliciously,' said he; 'it is cabbage soup.' + +"'A soup you seldom see, M. de Beuzeval.' + +"'Not for want of asking for it. I am passionately fond of cabbage +soup, but they never will make it at my house.' + +"'I daresay not. It is not a soup for gentlefolk.' + +"'Yours smells excellent, Pélagie; but you were always a good cook.' + +"'Ah, sir! there is one thing that helps me to make good dinners for +our men!' + +"'What is that, Pélagie?' + +"'A good appetite. They put to sea last night, and here they come, +tired, wet, dying of hunger: all that is spice for a plain meal.' + +"The fishermen entered. + +"'Come along!' cried M. Malais, 'you have a famous soup waiting for +you. Upon my word, it smells too good; I must taste it. Pélagie, give +me a plate; I will eat a few spoonsful with you. Certainly, it is +but a short time since I took my breakfast--what people call a good +breakfast--but without appetite, without pleasure.' + +"'Indeed! M. Malais, you will do us the honour of tasting our soup?' + +"And Pélagie hastened to put a clean cloth upon the table. Berenice +fetched a pot of cider. Onesimus _moored_ the horse in the shade; +then they all sat down, taking care to give the best place to M. +Malais, who eagerly devoured a plateful of soup." + +We refer to the book itself those who would know how the poor old +gentleman made a second fierce assault on the tureen, and an equally +determined one on the bacon and greens; to what expedients he was +subsequently reduced; how it fared with the Countess Pulchérie and +her scapegrace husband, and what were the struggles, sufferings, and +ultimate rewards, of the courageous and simple-hearted Alains. The +book may safely be recommended to all readers. This is more than we +can say for the next that comes to hand--_Un Mariage de Paris_ by +Méry. This we should pitch into the rubbish-basket after reading the +first two chapters, did it not serve to illustrate what we have often +noted--the profound and barbarous ignorance of French literary men +on the subject of England and the English. Were this confined to the +smaller fry, the inferior herd of _Trans-canalic_ scribblers, one +would not be surprised. It is nothing wonderful that such gentlemen +as M. Paul Feval and poor blind Jacques Arago, should take _le gin_ +and _le boxe_ to be the Alpha and Omega of English propensities and +manners, and should proceed upon that presumption in romances of +such distinguished merit as _Les Mystères de Londres_ and _Zambala +l'Indien_. But M. Méry is a man of letters esteemed amongst his +fellows--a hasty and slovenly writer, certainly, but possessing wit, +and tact, and style, when he chooses to employ them; and having, +moreover, he himself assures us, in the pages of the singular +production now under dissection, been all through England--although +this we apprehend he effected by means of express trains, without +stop or stay, from Folkestone to Berwick-upon-Tweed and back again. +Even this much acquaintance with the British Isles is denied to many +of his contemporaries, who evidently derive their notions of English +habits and customs from the frequenters of the English taverns about +the Places Favart and Madeleine at Paris. M. Méry is above this. +He draws entirely upon his imagination for the manners, morals, +and topography of the country in which his scene is laid. He has +got a few names of places, which he jumbles together in the most +diverting manner. His hero, Cyprian de Mayran, a Paris exquisite of +the first water, saddened by a domestic calamity, comes to London +in quest of dissipation and oblivion. He has some acquaintances +there, dating from a previous visit, and amongst them is the popular +singer Sidora W----, a lady, we are told, "whose talent would have +been very contestable at Paris, but was venerated in London, the +city of universal toleration. When, in Norma, or Fidelio, she kept +only tolerably near to the intentions of the composers, changing +their notes into false coin, a phalanx of admirers rose like one +man, and a triple round of applause rent thirty pair of yellow +gloves. The name of Sidora W---- had _great attraction_, (the italics +are M. Méry's,) and when displayed on gigantic placards, before +_Mansion-house_, or _Post-office_, as well as on the modest gray +circulars of the grocers, at night whole squadrons of noble equipages +were seen manoeuvring between _Long Acre_ and the peristyle of +_Covent Garden_, and the theatre of _Drury Lane_ was invaded." The +nightingale who thus, in 1845, filled to suffocation the walls of +Drury, (a fact Mr Bunn may have difficulty to remember,) had a rural +retreat at Highgate, where she received a motley company. "The +garden of reception was like a vast flower-basket inhabited by a +woman, and surrounded by a dark fringe of mute adorers. There were +all the faces of the English universe: retired Calcutta nabobs; +ex-governors of unknown Archipelagos; colonels whose defunct wives +were Malabar widows, snatched from the funeral pile of their +Indian spouses; admirals bronzed by twenty cruises under the +equator; nephews of Tippoo Saib; disgraced ministers from Lahore; +ex-criminals from Botany Bay, who, having grown rich, were voted +virtuous; princes of Madagascar and Borneo; citizens of New Holland, +(naturalised Englishmen, notwithstanding their close affinity to +orang-outangs,)--in short all the human or inhuman types that Sem, +Cham, and Japhet invented on their escape from the Ark, to amuse +themselves a little after a year's diluvian captivity on the summit +of Mount Ararat. It is only in London such collections are to be met +with; and the foreign naturalist has the gratuitous enjoyment of +them. The capital of England is sometimes generous and disinterested +in its zoological exhibitions." + +Amidst these dingy exotics, Cyprian, "with his Parisian elegance, +his fresh complexion, his hair of a vivid auburn, waving like that +of the Apollo Belvedere," appeared like a swan amongst gray geese; +and, seating himself between "two equinoctial beings not classed +by Buffon," he soon engrossed all the attention of the fascinating +Sidora, to the suppressed but violent indignation of Prince +Rajab-Nandy, and her other copper-coloured admirers. One of these +waylays the handsome Frenchman on his return home. Whilst passing +over _Highgate Bridge_, Cyprian's horse starts violently, and an +"equinoctial gentleman, with nothing _white_ about his whole person, +except a pair of _yellow_ gloves, (a Gallo-Irishism,) springs from +amongst the _brushwood_, and plants himself in the middle of the +bridge, like a satyr in the poem of Ramaiana." A duel is arranged, to +take place at _Cricklewood Cottage_, and Cyprian gallops into London +by _Tottenham-Road_. Having no male acquaintances in London, except +two sobersided bankers, he is at a loss for seconds. Finally he +prevails on two of the opera chorus, in consideration of a new coat +and a sovereign, to accompany him to the field of danger; and, after +duly gloving and dressing them in _Saint-Martin-Court_, he packs them +in a hackney-coach and starts for _Cricklewood_, which we now learn +is on the summit of the _mountain of Hamstead_. "There, in a pavilion +decorated Chinese-fashion, three men of tropical physiognomy awaited +De Mayran...." Opposite the cottage there stretched out, to an +immense distance, over hill and over valley, a gloomy forest, which +served as dueling ground in the quarrelsome days of the Roundheads +and Cavaliers. In a level glade, bare of trees, the Anglo-Indians +paused. It was a wild and solitary place; nevertheless, here and +there, on the fir trees, were seen enormous electioneering placards, +bearing the words, "_Vote for Parker!_" This is rich, particularly if +we bear in mind that the author is perfectly serious, and devoutly +believes he is giving a very curious insight into the local usages +and characteristics of semi-civilised England. M. Méry's hero has +other adventures, equally true to life,--makes new acquaintances on +board a river-steamer; dines with them at _Sceptre and Crown_ at +Greenwich, and at _Star and Garter_ at Richmond; and falls violently +in love with Madame Katrina Lewing, a beautiful Englishwoman. M. Méry +makes merry on the river Thames, which he affects to believe rises in +the immediate vicinity of Richmond, and concerning whose origin and +exiguity he is very facetious. He also displays his acquaintance with +English literature by quoting "the great poet Pope's famous drinking +song in honour of the Thames, '_I you like, little stream!_'" Then +Cyprian prevails on Katrina to elope with him to _Port Natal_, (of +all places in the world!) and realises his fortune as a preparatory +measure; but Katrina proves a mere decoy-duck, and the amorous +Frenchman is stripped of his bank-notes, and left in the dead of +night in the middle of a field. In vain, at daybreak, does he seek +a shepherd to question, because, as M. Méry testifies, English +peasants do not inhabit the fields; shepherds are scarcely known in +the country; and the only one he, the aforesaid Méry, ever beheld, +during his extensive rambles in England, was a well-dressed young +gentleman, with gloves on, reading the _Morning Chronicle_ under a +tree. Then we have a thieves' orgie, where the liquors in demand are +claret and _absinthe_, nothing less--M. Méry not condescending to the +gin, so much abused by his contemporaries. And, finally, a murder +having been committed, its circumstances are investigated on the +spot, by a _Queen's proctor_, assisted by two policemen, a barmaid, +and a physician. We might multiply these literary curiosities; but +we have given enough to prove their author's intimate acquaintance +with the country about which he so agreeably writes. It is related +of M. Méry's friend Dumas, that he once resolved on a visit to +London, posted to Boulogne, steamed to London bridge, and reached St +Paul's, but there turned back, anathematising fog and sea-coal, and +never stopped till he found himself in the Chaussée d'Antin. Without +vouching for the truth of this tale, we must admit its probability +when told of the eccentric Alexander. Mr Méry's knowledge of this +country is just what he might have obtained by an hour's conversation +with his friend, upon the return of the latter from his journey to St +Paul's. But it is a crying sin of French writers, when they get upon +foreign ground, that, in their anxiety to give to their books a tinge +characteristic of the country, (_couleur locale_ they call it,) they +outstrip the limits assigned to them by their real knowledge of the +land and its inhabitants, and, meaning to be effective, become simply +ridiculous. And England is the country, of all others, whose ways +they apparently have most difficulty in rightly comprehending. On a +more southern soil they are less apt to run into absurdities, but sin +chiefly on the side of overcolouring. This may be alleged, although +to no violent extent, of a pleasant little romance by Paul de Musset, +_La Chèvre Jaune_--The Yellow Goat--intended as an illustration of +Sicilian life, particularly amongst the lower orders. The hero of +the tale is a precocious peasant boy, dwelling in the mountains with +his mother--a fierce old lady who owns a rifle, and detests the +Neapolitans. This boy, who herds goats, pets one of them, and trains +her to dance; by which means, and by his own good mien, he gains the +affections of a notary's daughter, whose papa, disapproving of the +attachment, has the peasant taken up on a false accusation of theft. +The boy escapes, turns bandit, and is accompanied in his forays and +ambuscades by his goat, who dances tarantellas on the mountain-tops, +and plays so many queer antics that she finally is held uncanny, and +becomes an object of fear and veneration to the ignorant Sicilians. +The story is prettily and pleasingly told, and is just the sort of +reading for a lazy man on a hot day. But, like most of the same +author's works, it wants vigour and originality. Paul de Musset is +a careful and a polished writer, and whatever he executes conveys +the idea of his having done his best; but his best is by no means +first-rate, and he labours under the great disadvantage of having a +younger brother a far cleverer fellow than himself. Nevertheless, +he is not to be spoken of disrespectfully. Slight as most of his +productions are, they are often graceful, and sometimes witty. One of +his recent _bluettes, Fleuranges_, although a thrice-told tale, is +distinguished by its charming vivacity and lightness. + +We turn to _François le Champi_, by George Sand. We need hardly say +that Madame Dudevant is any thing but a favourite of ours. Whilst +admitting her genius and great literary talent, we deplore the evil +application of such rare powers,--the perversion of intellect so +high to purposes so mischievous. And we cannot agree with M. de +Lomenie, who, in his sketch of her life, asserts the pernicious +influence of her books to be greatly exaggerated, maintaining that +"the catastrophe of almost all of them contains a sort of morality +of misfortune which, to a certain extent, replaces any other." +This is a specious, but a very hollow argument. How many of those +who read George Sand's books have ability or inclination to strike +this nice balance between virtue and vice, and do not rather yield +themselves captives to the seductive eloquence with which the poetess +depicts and palliates the immorality of her characters! Her earlier +works gave her a fair claim to the title of the Muse of Adultery, +which some uncivil critic conferred on her. The personages were +invariably husband, wife, and lover, and the former was by no means +the best treated of the three. After a while she deviated from this +formula--employed other types, and produced occasionally books of +a less objectionable character; but, upon the whole, they are ill +to choose amongst. In the one before us there is no great harm, +but neither is there much to admire. As a literary production, it +is below the average of its predecessors. It is a story of peasant +life in western France. George Sand is taking a country walk one +evening, when her companion accuses her of making her rustics +speak the language of cities. She admits the charge, but urges, in +extenuation, that if she makes the dweller in the fields speak as +he really speaks, she must subjoin a translation for the civilised +reader. Her friend still insists on the possibility of elevating the +peasant dialect, without depriving it of its simplicity; of writing +a book in language that a peasant might employ, and which a Parisian +would understand without a single explanatory note. To professors and +amateurs of literary art, the discussion is of interest. Madame Sand +agrees to attempt the task; and takes for her subject a tale she has +heard related the previous evening, at a neighbouring farm-house. +She calls it _François le Champi_, but her critic cavils at the +very title. _Champi_, he says, is not French. George Sand quotes +Montaigne, to prove the contrary, although the dictionary declares +the word out of date. A _champi_ is a foundling, or child abandoned +in the fields, the derivation being from _champ_. And having thus +justified her hero's cognomen, she at once introduces him, at the +tender age of six years, boarded by the parish with Zabella, an +old woman who dwells in a hovel, and lives on the produce of a few +goats and fowls that find subsistence on the common. Madeleine +Blanchet, the pretty and very young wife of the miller of Cornouer, +takes compassion on the poor infant, and finds means to supply him, +unknown to her brutal husband and cross mother-in-law, with food and +raiment. The child grows into a comely lad, gentle, intelligent, +and right-hearted, and devotedly attached to Madeleine. He enters +the service of the miller, a rough dissipated fellow, given up to +the fascinations of a loose widow, Madame Sévère, a sort of rural +Delilah, who tries to seduce the handsome Champi, and, failing of +success, instils jealousy into the ear of the miller, who drives +François from his house. The young man finds occupation in a distant +village, and returns to the mill of Cornouer only when its master is +dead and Madeleine on a bed of sickness, to rescue his benefactress +from grasping creditors, by means of a sum of money his unknown +father has transmitted to him. George Sand makes every woman in +the book fall in love with the Champi; but he repulses all, save +one, and that one never dreams of loving him otherwise than as a +mother. At last one of the fair ones who would fain have gained his +heart, generously reveals to him, what he himself has difficulty in +believing, that he is in love with Madeleine Blanchet; and, further, +compassionating his timidity, undertakes to break the ice to the +pretty widow. It requires a talent like that of George Sand to give +an air of probability to all this. There are at most but a dozen +years' difference between Madeleine and the Champi, but the reader +has been so much accustomed to look upon them in the light of mother +and son, that he is somewhat startled on finding the boy of nineteen +enamoured of the woman of thirty. The love-passages, however, are +managed with Madame Sand's usual skill. As a picture of peasant life, +the book yields internal evidence of fidelity. The granddaughter +of the farmer-general of Berri has called up the memories of her +youthful days, passed in happy liberty upon the sunny banks of +Indre, and of the years of connubial discontent that went heavily +by in her husband's Aquitanian castle, when country rides and the +study of Nature's book were her chief resources. It was from this +castle of Nohant that the Baroness Dudevant fled, now nearly twenty +years ago, to commence the exceptional existence she since has led. +We may venture to take a page from her _Lettres d'un Voyageur_--a +page replete with that peculiar fascination which renders her pen so +powerful for good or evil. + +"It grieves me not to grow old, it would grieve me much to grow +old alone; but I have not yet met the being with whom I would fain +have lived and died; or, if I have met him, I have not known how +to keep him. Hearken to a tale, and weep. There was a good artist, +called Watelet, who engraved in aquafortis better than any man of +his time. He loved Margaret Lecomte, and taught her to engrave as +well as himself. She left her husband, her wealth, and her country, +to live with Watelet. The world cursed them; then, as they were +poor and humble, it forgot them. Forty years afterwards there were +discovered, in the neighbourhood of Paris, in a little house called +_Moulin-Joli_, an old man who engraved in aquafortis, with an old +woman whom he called his _Meunière_, who also engraved at the same +table. The last plate they executed represented _Moulin-Joli_, +Margaret's house, with this device,--_Cur valle permutem Sabinâ +divitias operosiores!_ It hangs in my room, above a portrait whose +original no one here has seen. During one year, he who gave me that +portrait seated himself every night with me at a little table, and +lived on the same labour as myself. At daybreak we consulted each +other on our work, and we supped at the same table, talking of art, +of sentiment, and of the future. The future has broken its word to +us. Pray for me, O Margaret Lecomte!" + +It is no secret that Madame Dudevant's Watelet was Jules Sandeau, +a French novelist of some ability, whose name still makes frequent +apparitions in the windows of circulating libraries, and at the foot +of newspaper feuilletons. Let us see what M. de Lomenie says of this +period of her life, and of her first appearance in the lists of +literature, in his brief but amusing memoir of this remarkable woman. + +"Some time after the July revolution, there appeared a book entitled, +_Rose et Blanche_, or the Actress and the Nun. This book, which at +first passed unnoticed, fell by chance into a publisher's hands; he +read it, and, struck by the richness of certain descriptive passages, +and by the novelty of the situations, he inquired the author's +address. He was referred to a humble lodging-house, and, upon +applying there, was conducted to a small attic. There he saw a young +man writing at a little table, and a young woman painting flowers +by his side. These were Watelet and Margaret Lecomte. The publisher +spoke of the book, and it appeared that Margaret, who could write +books as well as Watelet, and even better, had written a good part, +and the best part, of this one; only, as books sold badly, or not at +all, she combined with her literary occupations the more lucrative +labour of a colourist. Encouraged by the publisher's approval, she +took from a drawer a manuscript written entirely by herself; the +publisher examined it, bought it, doubtless very cheap, and might +have paid a much higher price without making a bad speculation, for +it was the manuscript of _Indiana_. Soon after that, Margaret Lecomte +left Watelet, took half his name, called herself George Sand, and of +that half name has made herself one which shines to-day amongst the +greatest and most glorious." + +Somebody has hazarded the sweeping assertion that the lover is the +_King_ of George Sand's novels. George Sand herself is the queen +of the class of _femmes incomprises_, the victim of a _mariage de +convenance_. The death of her grandmother left her, at the very +moment she quitted the convent where she had been educated, alone +and almost friendless. Ignorant of the world, she allowed herself +to be married to a rough old soldier, who led a prosaic existence +in a lonely country-house, had no notion of romance, sentiment, or +reverie, and made little allowance for them in others. The days that +ought to rank amongst the brightest memories of a woman's heart, the +early years of marriage, were a blank, or worse, to Aurora Dudevant, +and the bitterness thus amassed not unfrequently breaks forth in +her writings. It has been urged by her partisans, in extenuation of +her conjugal _faux pas_, that her husband was ignorant and brutal. +On the other hand, the idle have invented many of the delinquencies +imputed to her since her separation, just as they have told absurd +stories about her fantastical habits; and have made her out a sort +of literary Lola Montes, swaggering and smoking in man's attire, +and brandishing pistol and horsewhip with virile energy and effect. +The atmosphere of Paris is famous for its magnifying powers. Seen +through it, a grain of sand becomes a mountain, an eccentricity +is often distended into a vice. We lay this down as a rule, which +none who know and understand the French metropolis will dispute; +but we do not, at the same time, in any way take up the gloves +in defence of George Sand, with whom we have not the honour of a +personal acquaintance, and whose writings would certainly incline +us to somewhat ready credence of her irregularities and masculine +addictions. Now that she has attained the ripe age of forty-four, +we may suppose her sobered down a little. Before the February +revolution upset society, and drove the majority of the wealthy from +Paris, we happen to know she was a welcome guest in some of the +most fashionable and aristocratic drawing-rooms of the Faubourg St +Germain, where she was sought and cultivated for the charm of her +conversation. Since the revolution, there have been reports of her +presiding, or at least assisting, at democratic orgies; but these +rumours, as the newspapers say, "require confirmation." Since we +have, somehow or other, got led into this long gossip about the +lady, we will make another extract from the writer already quoted, +who tells an amusing story of his first introduction, obtained by +means of a misdelivered note, intended by the authoress of _Lelia_ +for a man who cured smoky chimnies. A resemblance of name brought +the missive (a summons to a sick funnel) into the hands of the +biographer, who, puzzled at first, finally resolved to take advantage +of the mistake, to ascertain whether George Sand really did wear +boots and spurs, and smoke Virginian in a short pipe. He expected +something masculine and alarming, but in this respect was agreeably +disappointed. + +"I saw before me a woman of short stature, of comfortable plumpness, +and of an aspect not at all _Dantesque_. She wore a dressing gown, in +form by no means unlike the wrapper which I, a commonplace mortal, +habitually wear; her fine hair, still perfectly black, whatever +evil tongues may say, was separated on a brow broad and smooth as a +mirror, and fell freely adown her cheeks, in the manner of Raphael; +a silk handkerchief was fastened loosely round her throat; her eyes, +to which some painters persist in imparting an exaggerated power of +expression, were remarkable, on the contrary, for their melancholy +softness; her voice was sweet, and not very strong; her mouth, +especially, was singularly graceful; and in her whole attitude +there was a striking character of simplicity, nobility, and calm. +In the ample temples and rich development of brow, Gall would have +discerned genius; in the frankness of her glance, in the outline of +her countenance, and in the features, correct but worn, Lavater would +have read, it seems to me, past suffering, a time-present somewhat +barren, an extreme propensity to enthusiasm, and consequently to +discouragement. Lavater might have read many other things, but he +certainly could have discovered neither insincerity, nor bitterness, +nor hatred, for there was not a trace of these on that sad but serene +physiognomy. The Lelia of my imagination vanished before the reality; +and it was simply a good, gentle, melancholy, intelligent, and +handsome face that I had before my eyes. + +"Continuing my examination, I remarked with pleasure that the +_grande désolée_ had not yet completely renounced human vanities; +for, beneath the floating sleeves of her gown, at the junction of +the wrist with the white and delicate hand, I saw the glitter of +two little gold bracelets of exquisite workmanship. These feminine +trinkets, which became her much, greatly reassured me touching the +sombre tint, and the politico-philosophic exaltation, of certain of +George Sand's recent writings. One of the hands that thus caught +my attention concealed a _cigarito_, and concealed it badly, for a +treacherous little column of smoke ascended behind the back of the +prophetess." + +Whether or no the interview thus described really took place, Madame +Dudevant should feel obliged to her biographer for his gentle +treatment and abstinence from exaggeration. On the strength of the +puff of smoke and the epicene dressing gown, many writers would +have sketched her hussar fashion, and hardly have let her off the +mustaches. + +We are nearly at the end of our parcel, at least of such portion of +it as appears worthy a few words. Here are a brace of volumes by M. +de Kock, over which we are not likely long to linger. An esteemed +contributor to Maga expressed, a few years ago, his and our opinion +concerning this ancient dealer in dirt--namely, that he has no +deliberate intention to corrupt the morals or alarm the delicacy of +his readers, for that morals and delicacy are words of whose meaning +he has not the slightest conception. Paul, every Frenchman tells +you, is not read in France, save by milliners' girls and shopboys, +or by literary porters, who solace the leisure of their lodge by a +laugh over his pages, contraband amongst _gens comme il faut_. No +man is a prophet in his own land; and yet we have certain reasons +for believing that, even in France, Paul has more readers, avowed +or secret, than his countrymen admit. But at any rate, we can offer +the old gentleman (for M. Kock must be waxing venerable, and his +son has for some years been before the public as an author,) the +consolatory assurance, that in England he has numerous admirers, +to judge from the thumbed condition of a set of his works, which +caught our eye last summer on the shelves of a London circulating +library. To these amateurs of "Kockneyisms," whether genuine +cockneys, or naturalised cooks and barbers from Gaul, _Taquinet le +Bossu_ will be welcome. The hunchback, everybody knows, is a great +type in France. Who is not acquainted with the glorious _Mayeux_, +the swearing, fighting, love-making hero of a host of popular songs, +anecdotes, and caricatures, and of more than one romance--especially +of a four-volume one by Ricard, a deceased rival of De Kock? +Well, Paul--who, we must admit, is quite original, and disdains +imitation--has never meddled with the hackneyed veteran Mayeux, but +now creates a hunchback of his own. Taquinet is the dwarf clerk of +a notary, luxuriating in a wage of fifty pounds a-year, and a hunch +of the first magnitude. Pert as a magpie, mischievous and confiding, +devoted to the fair sex, and especially to its taller specimens, he +is a fine subject for Monsieur de Kock, who gets him into all manner +of queer scrapes, some not of the most refined description. The +French hunchback, we must observe, is a genus apart--quite different +from high-shouldered people of other countries. Far from being +susceptible on the score of his dorsal protuberance, he views it in +the light of an excellent joke, a benefaction of nature, placed upon +his spine for the diversion of himself and his fellow-men. The words +_bosse_ and _bossu_ (hunch and hunchback) have various idiomatic and +proverbial applications in France. To laugh like a _bossu_, implies +the _ne plus ultra_ of risibility: _se donner une bosse_--literally, +to give one's-self a hunch--is synonymous with sharing in a jovial +repast where much is eaten and more drunk. An excellent caricature in +the _Charivari_, some years ago, represented a group of half-starved +soldiers sitting round a fire of sticks at the foot of Atlas, and +picking a dromedary's scull--"_Pas moyen de se donner une bosse!_" +exclaims one of the dissatisfied conscripts. On twelve hundred francs +per annum, poor Taquinet often makes the same complaint; and, in +hopes of bettering his fortune, wanders into Germany on a matrimonial +venture, there to be jilted by Fraulein Carottsmann, for a strolling +player with one coat and three sets of buttons, who styles himself +Marquis, because he has been occasionally hissed in the line of +characters designated in France by that aristocratic denomination. +Then there is a general of Napoleon's army who cannot write his name; +and a buxom sutler and a handsome aide-de-camp, sundry grisettes, and +the other _dramatis personæ_ habitually to be met with in the pages +of Paul--the whole set forth in indifferent French, and garnished +with buffoonery and impropriety, after the usual fashion of this zany +of Parisian novelists. + +Is it true that M. Honoré de Balzac is married to a female +_millionnaire_, who fell in love with him through his books and his +reputation? If so, let him take our advice and abjure scribbling--at +least till he is in the vein to turn out something better than his +recent productions--better, at least, than the first volume of the +_Député d'Arcis_, now lying before us. What heavy, vulgar trash, +to flow from the pen of a man of his abilities! After beginning +his literary career with a series of worthless books, published +under various pseudonymes, and whose authorship he has since in +vain endeavoured to disclaim, he rose into fame by his _Scènes de +la Vie de Province_, by his _Peau de Chagrin_, his _Père Goriot_, +and other striking and popular works. The hour of his decline then +struck, and he has since been rolling down the hill at a faster rate +than he ascended it. His affectation of originality is wearisome +and nauseous in the extreme. He reminds us of a nurseryman we once +knew, who, despairing of equalling the splendour of a neighbour's +flowers, applied himself to the production of all manner of floral +monstrosities, mistaking distortion for beauty, and eccentricity +for grace. He strains for new conceptions and ideas till he writes +nonsense, or something very little better. And his mania for +introducing the same personages in twenty different books, renders +it necessary to read all in order to understand one. The question +becomes, whether it is worth while going through so much to obtain +so little. Our reply is a decided negative. If the system, however, +be annoying to the reader, for the author it has its advantages. It +is, in fact, a new species of puffery, of considerable ingenuity. +Backwards and forwards, M. de Balzac refers his public; his books +are a system of mutual accommodation and advertisement. Thus, in +the _Député &c._, apropos of a lawsuit, we find in brackets and in +large capitals,--"_See_ UNE TENEBREUSE AFFAIRE." A little farther +on, an allusion being made to the town of Provins, we are requested +to "_See_ PIERRETTE." Similar admonitions are of constant recurrence +in the same author's writings. The plan is really clever, and proves +Paris a step or two ahead of London in the art of advertising. We +have not yet heard of Moses and Doudney stamping on a waistcoat back +an injunction to "Try our trousers," or embroidering on a new surtout +a hint as to the merits of a 'poplin overcoat.' "Buy our bear's +grease!" cries Mr Ross the perfumer. "_Prenez mon ours!_" chimes +in M. Balzac, the author. O Paris! Paris! romantic and republican, +political and poetical, of all the cities of the plain thou art the +queen, and humbug is the chief jewel in thy diadem! + + + + +LIFE IN THE "FAR WEST." + +PART THE LAST. + + +No sooner was it known that Los Americanos had arrived, than nearly +all the householders of Fernandez presented themselves to offer the +use of their "salas" for the fandango which invariably celebrated +their arrival. This was always a profitable event; for as the +mountaineers were generally pretty well "flush" of cash when on +their "spree," and as open-handed as an Indian could wish, the sale +of whisky, with which they regaled all comers, produced a handsome +return to the fortunate individual whose room was selected for the +fandango. On this occasion the sala of the Alcalde Don Cornelio Vegil +was selected and put in order; a general invitation was distributed; +and all the dusky beauties of Fernandez were soon engaged in arraying +themselves for the fête. Off came the coats of dirt and "alegnía" +which had bedaubed their faces since the last "funcion," leaving +their cheeks clear and clean. Water was profusely used, and their +cuerpos were doubtless astonished by the unusual lavation. Their long +black hair was washed and combed, plastered behind their ears, and +plaited into a long queue, which hung down their backs. _Enaguas_ +of gaudy colour (red most affected) were donned, fastened round the +waist with ornamented belts, and above this a snow-white _camisita_ +of fine linen was the only covering, allowing a prodigal display +of their charms. Gold and silver ornaments, of antiquated pattern, +decorate their ears and necks; and massive crosses of the precious +metals, wrought from the gold or silver of their own placeres, hang +pendant on their breasts. The enagua or petticoat, reaching about +half-way between the knee and ancle, displays their well-turned +limbs, destitute of stockings, and their tiny feet, thrust into +quaint little shoes (_zapatitos_) of Cinderellan dimensions. Thus +equipped, with the reboso drawn over their heads and faces, out of +the folds of which their brilliant eyes flash like lightning, and +each pretty mouth armed with its cigarito, they coquettishly enter +the fandango.[2] Here, at one end of a long room, are seated the +musicians, their instruments being generally a species of guitar, +called heaca, _bandolin_, and an Indian drum, called _tombé_--one +of each. Round the room groups of New Mexicans lounge, wrapped in +the eternal sarape, and smoking of course, scowling with jealous +eyes at the more favoured mountaineers. These, divested of their +hunting-coats of buckskins, appear in their bran-new shirts of gaudy +calico, and close fitting buckskin pantaloons, with long fringes +down the outside seam from the hip to the ancle; with mocassins, +ornamented with bright beads and porcupine quills. Each, round his +waist, wears his mountain-belt and scalp-knife, ominous of the +company he is in, and some have pistols sticking in their belt. + +The dances--save the mark!--are without form or figure, at least +those in which the white hunters sport the "fantastic toe." Seizing +his partner round the waist with the gripe of a grisly bear, each +mountaineer whirls and twirls, jumps and stamps; introduces Indian +steps used in the "scalp" or "buffalo" dances, whooping occasionally +with unearthly cry, and then subsiding into the jerking step, raising +each foot alternately from the ground, so much in vogue in Indian +ballets. The hunters have the floor all to themselves. The Mexicans +have no chance in such physical force dancing; and if a dancing +Peládo[3] steps into the ring, a lead-like thump from a galloping +mountaineer quickly sends him sprawling, with the considerate +remark--"Quit, you darned Spaniard! you can't 'shine' in this crowd." + +During a lull, guagés[4] filled with whisky go the rounds--offered +to and seldom refused by the ladies--sturdily quaffed by the +mountaineers, and freely swallowed by the Peládos, who drown +their jealousy and envious hate of their entertainers in potent +aguardiente. Now, as the guagés are oft refilled and as often +drained, and as night advances, so do the spirits of the mountaineers +become more boisterous, while their attentions to their partners +become warmer--the jealousy of the natives waxes hotter thereat--and +they begin to show symptoms of resenting the endearments which the +mountaineers bestow upon their wives and sweethearts. And now, +when the room is filled to crowding,--with two hundred people, +swearing, drinking, dancing, and shouting--the half-dozen Americans +monopolising the fair, to the evident disadvantage of at least +threescore scowling Peládos, it happens that one of these, maddened +by whisky and the green-eyed monster, suddenly seizes a fair one +from the waist-encircling arm of a mountaineer, and pulls her from +her partner. Wagh!--La Bonté--it is he--stands erect as a pillar for +a moment, then raises his hand to his mouth, and gives a ringing +war-whoop--jumps upon the rash Peládo, seizes him by the body as if +he were a child, lifts him over his head, and dashes him with the +force of a giant against the wall. + +The war, long threatened, has commenced; twenty Mexicans draw their +knives and rush upon La Bonté, who stands his ground, and sweeps +them down with his ponderous fist, one after another, as they throng +around him. "Howgh-owgh-owgh-owgh-h!" the well-known war-whoop, +bursts from the throats of his companions, and on they rush to the +rescue. The women scream, and block the door in their eagerness to +escape; and thus the Mexicans are compelled to stand their ground +and fight. Knives glitter in the light, and quick thrusts are given +and parried. In the centre of the room the whites stand shoulder to +shoulder--covering the floor with Mexicans by their stalwart blows; +but the odds are fearful against them, and other assailants crowd up +to supply the place of those who fall. + +Alarm being given by the shrieking women, reinforcements of Peládos +rushed to the scene of action, but could not enter the room, which +was already full. The odds began to tell against the mountaineers, +when Kit Carson's quick eye caught sight of a high stool or stone, +supported by three long heavy legs. In a moment he had cleared his +way to this, and in another the three legs were broken off and in +the hands of himself, Dick Wooton, and La Bonté. Sweeping them round +their heads, down came the heavy weapons amongst the Mexicans with +wonderful effect--each blow, dealt by the nervous arms of Wooton +and La Bonté, mowing down a good half-dozen of the assailants. At +this the mountaineers gave a hearty whoop, and charged the wavering +enemy with such resistless vigour, that they gave way and bolted +through the door, leaving the floor strewed with wounded, many +most dangerously; for, as may be imagined, a thrust from the keen +scalp-knife by the nervous arm of a mountaineer was no baby blow, and +seldom failed to strike home--up to the "Green River"[5] on the blade. + +The field being won, the whites, too, beat a quick retreat to the +house where they were domiciled, and where they had left their +rifles. Without their trusty weapons they felt, indeed, unarmed; +and not knowing how the affair just over would be followed up, lost +no time in making preparations for defence. However, after great +blustering on the part of the prefecto, who, accompanied by a _posse +comitatus_ of "Greasers," proceeded to the house, and demanded the +surrender of all concerned in the affair--which proposition was +received with a yell of derision--the business was compounded by the +mountaineers promising to give sundry dollars to the friends of two +of the Mexicans, who died during the night of their wounds, and to +pay for a certain amount of masses to be sung for the repose of their +souls in purgatory. Thus the affair blew over; but for several days +the mountaineers never showed themselves in the streets of Fernandez +without their rifles on their shoulders, and refrained from attending +fandangos for the present, and until the excitement had cooled down. + +A bitter feeling, however, existed on the part of the men; and one +or two offers of a matrimonial nature were rejected by the papas of +certain ladies who had been wooed by some of the white hunters, and +their hands formally demanded from the respective padres. + +La Bonté had been rather smitten with the charms of one Dolores +Salazar--a buxom lass, more than three parts Indian in her blood, but +confessedly the "beauty" of the Vale of Taos. She, by dint of eye, +and of nameless acts of elaborate coquetry, with which the sex so +universally bait their traps, whether in the salons of Belgravia, or +the rancherias of New Mexico, contrived to make considerable havoc in +the heart of our mountaineer; and when once Dolores saw she had made +an impression, she followed up her advantage with all the arts the +most civilised of her sex could use when fishing for a husband. + +La Bonté, however, was too old a hunter to be easily caught; and, +before committing himself, he sought the advice of his tried +companion Killbuck. Taking him to a retired spot without the village, +he drew out his pipe and charged it--seated himself cross-legged on +the ground, and, with Indian gravity, composed himself for a "talk." + +"Ho, Killbuck!" he began, touching the ground with the bowl of his +pipe, and then turning the stem upwards for "_medicine_"--"Hyar's +a child feels squamptious like, and nigh upon 'gone beaver,' _he_ +is--Wagh!" + +"Wagh!" exclaimed Killbuck, all attention. + +"Old hos," continued the other; "thar's no use câching anyhow what a +niggur feels--so hyar's to 'put out.' You're good for beaver I know; +at deer or buffler, or darned red Injun either, you're 'some.' Now +that's a fact. 'Off-hand,' or 'with a rest,' you make 'em 'come.' +You knows the 'sign' of Injuns slick--Blackfoot or Sioux, Pawnee or +Burntwood, Zeton, Rapaho, Shian, or Shoshonée, Yutah, Piyutah, or +Yamhareek--their trail's as plain as writin', old hos, to you." + +"Wagh!" grunted Killbuck, blushing bronze at all these compliments. + +"Your sight ain't bad. Elks is elk; black-tail deer ain't +white-tails; and b'ar is b'ar to you, and nothin' else, a long mile +off and more." + +"Wa-agh!" + +"Thar ain't a track as leaves its mark upon the plains or mountains +but you can read off-hand; that I've see'd myself. But tell me, old +hos, can you make understand the 'sign' as shows itself in a woman's +breast?" + +Killbuck removed the pipe from his mouth, raised his head, and puffed +a rolling cloud of smoke into the air,--knocked the ashes from the +bowl, likewise made his "medicine"--and answered thus:-- + +"From Red River, away up north amongst the Britishers, to Heely +(Gila) in the Spanish country--from old Missoura to the sea of +Californy, I've trapped and hunted. I knows the Injuns and thar +'sign,' and they knows _me_, I'm thinkin. Thirty winters has snowed +on me in these hyar mountains, and a niggur or a Spaniard[6] would +larn 'some' in that time. This old tool" (tapping his rifle) "shoots +'center,' _she_ does; and if thar's game afoot, this child knows +'bull' from 'cow,' and ought to could. That deer is deer, and goats +is goats, is plain as paint to any but a greenhorn. Beaver's a +cunning crittur, but I've trapped a 'heap;' and at killing meat +when meat's a-running, I'll 'shine' in the biggest kind of crowd. +For twenty year I packed a squaw along. Not one, but a many. First +I had a Blackfoot--the darndest slut as ever cried for fofarraw. I +lodge-poled her on Colter's Creek, and made her quit. My buffler +hos, and as good as four packs of beaver, I gave for old Bull-tail's +daughter. He was head chief of the Ricaree, and 'came' nicely 'round' +me. Thar wasn't enough scarlet cloth, nor beads, nor vermilion in +Sublette's packs for her. Traps wouldn't buy her all the fofarrow she +wanted; and in two years I'd sold her to Cross-Eagle for one of Jake +Hawkin's guns--this very one I hold in my hands. Then I tried the +Sioux, the Shian, and a Digger from the other side, who made the best +mocassin as ever _I_ wore. She was the best of all, and was rubbed +out by the Yutahs in the Bayou Salade. Bad was the best; and after +she was gone under I tried no more. + +"Afore I left the settlements I know'd a white gal, and she was some +punkins. I have never seed nothing as 'ould beat her. Red blood +won't 'shine' any ways you fix it; and though I'm hell for 'sign,' a +woman's breast is the hardest kind of rock to me, and leaves no trail +that I can see of. I've hearn you talk of a gal in Memphis county; +Mary Brand you called her oncest. The gal I said _I_ know'd, her +name I disremember, but she stands afore me as plain as Chimley Rock +on Platte, and thirty year and more har'nt changed a feature in her +face, to me. + +"If you ask this child, he'll tell you to leave the Spanish slut to +her Greasers, and hold on till you take the trail to old Missoura, +whar white and Christian gals are to be had for axing. Wagh!" + +La Bonté rose to his feet. The mention of Mary Brand's name decided +him; and he said-- + +"Darn the Spaniard! she cant shine with me; come, old hos! let's +move." + +And, shouldering their rifles, the two compañeros returned to the +Ronch. More than one of the mountaineers had fulfilled the object of +their journey, and had taken to themselves a partner from amongst +the belles of Taos, and now they were preparing for their return +to the mountains. Dick Wooton was the only unfortunate one. He had +wooed a damsel whose parents peremptorily forbade their daughter to +wed the hunter, and he therefore made ready for his departure with +considerable regret. + +The day came, however. The band of mountaineers were already mounted, +and those with wives in charge were some hours on the road, leaving +the remainder quaffing many a stirrup-cup before they left. Dick +Wooton was as melancholy as a buffalo bull in spring; and as he rode +down the village, and approached the house of his lady-love, who +stood wrapped in reboso, and cigarito in mouth, on the sill of the +door, he turned away his head as if dreading to say adios. La Bonté +rode beside him, and a thought struck him. + +"Ho, Dick!" he said, "thar's the gal, and thar's the mountains: shoot +sharp's the word." + +Dick instantly understood him, and was "himself again." He rode up to +the girl as if to bid her adieu, and she came to meet him. Whispering +one word, she put her foot upon his, was instantly seized round the +waist, and placed upon the horn of his saddle. He struck spurs into +his horse, and in a minute was out of sight, his three companions +covering his retreat, and menacing with their rifles the crowd which +was soon drawn to the spot by the cries of the girl's parents, who +had been astonished spectators of the daring rape. + +The trapper and his bride, however, escaped scatheless, and the whole +party effected a safe passage of the mountains, and reached the +Arkansa, where the band was broken up,--some proceeding to Bent's +Fort, and others to the Platte, amongst whom were Killbuck and La +Bonté, still in company. + +These two once more betook themselves to trapping, the Yellow Stone +being their chief hunting-ground. But we must again leap over months +and years, rather than conduct the reader through all their perilous +wanderings, and at last bring him back to the camp on Bijou, where +we first introduced him to our mountaineers; and as we have already +followed them on the Arapaho trail, which they pursued to recover +their stolen animals from a band of that nation, we will once again +seat ourselves at the camp on Boiling Spring, where they had met a +strange hunter on a solitary expedition to the Bayou Salade, and +whose double-barrelled rifle had excited their wonder and curiosity. + +From him they learned also that a large band of Mormons were +wintering on the Arkansa, _en route_ to the Great Salt Lake and Upper +California; and as our hunters had before fallen in with the advanced +guard of these fanatic emigrants, and felt no little wonder that +such helpless people should undertake so long a journey through the +wilderness, the stranger narrated to them the history of the sect, +which we will also shortly transcribe for the benefit of the reader. + +The Mormons were originally of the sect known as "Latter-day +Saints," which sect flourishes wherever Anglo-Saxon gulls are found +in sufficient numbers to swallow the egregious nonsense of fanatic +humbugs who fatten upon their credulity. In the United States they +especially abounded; but, the creed becoming "slow," one Joe Smith, a +_smart_ man, arose from its ranks, and instilled a little life into +the decaying sect. + +Joe, better known as the "Prophet Joe," was taking his siesta one +fine day, upon a hill in one of the New England States, when an angel +suddenly appeared to him, and made known the locality of a new Bible +or Testament, which contained the history of the lost tribes of +Israel; that these tribes were no other than the Indian nations which +possessed the continent of America at the time of its discovery, +and the remains of which still existed in their savage state; that, +through the agency of Joe, these were to be reclaimed, collected +into the bosom of a church to be there established, according to +principles which would be found in the wonderful book--and which +church was gradually to receive into its bosom all other churches, +sects, and persuasions, with "unanimity of belief and perfect +brotherhood." + +After a certain probation, Joe was led in body and spirit to the +mountain by the angel who first appeared to him, was pointed out the +position of the wonderful book, which was covered by a flat stone, +on which would be found two round pebbles, called Urim and Thummim, +and through the agency of which the mystic characters inscribed on +the pages of the book were to be deciphered and translated. Joe found +the spot indicated without any difficulty, cleared away the earth, +and discovered a hollow place formed by four flat stones; on removing +the topmost one of which sundry plates of brass presented themselves, +covered with quaint and antique carving; on the top lay Urim and +Thummim, (commonly known to the Mormons as Mummum and Thummum, the +pebbles of wonderful virtue,) through which the miracle of reading +the plates of brass was to be performed. + +Joe Smith, on whom the mantle of Moses had so suddenly fallen, +carefully removed the plates and hid them, burying himself in woods +and mountains whilst engaged in the work of translation. However, he +made no secret of the important task imposed upon him, nor of the +great work to which he had been called. Numbers at once believed +him, but not a few were deaf to belief, and openly derided him. +Being persecuted, (as the sect declares, at the instigation of the +authorities,) and many attempts being made to steal his precious +treasure, Joe, one fine night, packed his plates in a sack of beans, +bundled them into a Jersey waggon, and made tracks for the West. Here +he completed the great work of translation, and not long after gave +to the world the "Book of Mormon," a work as bulky as the Bible, and +called "of Mormon," for so was the prophet named by whose hand the +history of the lost tribes had been handed down in the plates of +brass thus miraculously preserved for thousands of years, and brought +to light through the agency of Joseph Smith. + +The fame of the Book of Mormon spread over all America, and even to +Great Britain and Ireland. Hundreds of proselytes flocked to Joe, to +hear from his lips the doctrine of Mormonism; and in a very brief +period the Mormons became a numerous and recognised sect, and Joe was +at once, and by universal acclamation, installed as the head of the +Mormon church, and was ever known by the name of the "Prophet Joseph." + +However, from certain peculiarities in their social system, the +Mormons became rather unpopular in the settled States, and at length +moved bodily into Missouri, where they purchased several tracts +of land in the neighbourhood of Independence. Here they erected a +large building, which they called the Lord's Store, where goods were +collected on the common account, and retailed to members of the +church at moderate prices. All this time their numbers increased in +a wonderful manner, and immigrants from all parts of the States, as +well as Europe, continually joined them. As they became stronger, +they grew bolder and more arrogant in their projects. They had +hitherto been considered as bad neighbours, on account of their +pilfering propensities, and their utter disregard of the conventional +decencies of society--exhibiting the greatest immorality, and +endeavouring to establish amongst their society a universal +concubinage. This was sufficient to produce an ill feeling against +them on the part of their neighbours, the honest Missourians; but +they still tolerated their presence amongst them, until the Saints +openly proclaimed their intention of seizing upon the country, and +expelling by force the present occupants--giving, as their reason, +that it had been revealed to their prophets that the "Land of Zion" +was to be possessed by themselves alone. + +The sturdy Missourians began to think this was a little too strong, +and that, if they permitted such aggressions any longer, they would +be in a fair way of being despoiled of their lands by the Mormon +interlopers. At length matters came to a crisis, and the Saints, +emboldened by the impunity with which they had hitherto carried out +their plans, issued a proclamation to the effect that all in that +part of the country, who did not belong to the Mormon persuasion, +must "clear out," and give up possession of their lands and houses. +The Missourians collected in a body, burned the printing-press from +which the proclamation had emanated, seized several of the Mormon +leaders, and, after inflicting a summary chastisement, "tarred and +feathered" them, and let them go. + +To revenge this insult, the Mormons marshalled an army of Saints, and +marched upon Independence, threatening vengeance against the town +and people. Here they met, however, a band of sturdy backwoodsmen, +armed with rifles, determined to defend the town against the fanatic +mob, who, not relishing their appearance, refused the encounter, and +surrendered their leaders at the first demand. The prisoners were +afterwards released, on condition that the Mormons left that part of +the country without delay. + +Accordingly, they once more "took up their beds and walked," crossing +the Missouri to Clay County, where they established themselves, and +would finally have formed a thriving settlement but for their own +acts of wilful dishonesty. At this time their blasphemous mummery +knew no bounds. Joe Smith, and other prophets who had lately arisen, +were declared to be chosen of God; and it was the general creed +that, on the day of judgment, the former would take his stand on the +right hand of the judgment-seat, and that none would pass into the +kingdom of heaven without his seal and touch. One of their tenets +was the faith in "spiritual matrimony." No woman, it appeared, would +be admitted into heaven unless "passed" by a saint. To qualify them +for this, it was necessary that the woman should first be received +by the guaranteeing Mormon as an "earthly wife," in order that he +did not pass in any of whom he had no knowledge. The consequence of +this state of things may be imagined. The most debasing immorality +was a precept of the order, and an almost universal concubinage +existed amongst the sect, which at this time numbered at least forty +thousand. Their disregard to the laws of decency and morality was +such as could not be tolerated in any class of civilised society. + +Again did the honest Missourians set their faces against this +pernicious example, and when the county to which the Mormons had +removed became more thickly settled, they rose to a man against the +modern Gomorrah. The Mormons, by this time, having on their part +gained considerable accession to their strength, thought to set the +laws at defiance, organised and armed large bodies of men, in order +to maintain the ascendency over the legitimate settlers, and bid fair +to constitute an "imperium in imperio" in the State, and become the +sole possessors of the public lands. This, of course, could not be +tolerated. Governor Boggs at once ordered out a large force of State +militia to put down this formidable demonstration, marched against +the Mormons, and suppressed the insurrectionary movement without +bloodshed. + +From Clay County they moved still farther into the wilds, and settled +at last in Caldwell County, where they built the town of "Far West," +and here they remained for the space of three years. + +During this time they were continually receiving converts to the +faith, and many of the more ignorant country people were disposed to +join them, being only deterred by the fear of incurring ridicule from +the stronger-minded. The body of the Mormons seeing this, called upon +their prophet, Joe Smith, to perform a miracle in public before all +comers, which was to prove to those of their own people who still +doubted the doctrine, the truth of what it advanced--(the power of +performing miracles was steadfastly declared to be in their hands by +the prophets)--and to enlist those who wavered in the Mormon cause. + +The prophet instantly agreed, and declared that, upon a certain day, +he would walk across the broad waters of the Missouri without wetting +the soles of his feet. On the appointed day, the river banks were +thronged by an expectant crowd. The Mormons sang hymns of praise in +honour of their prophet, and were proud of the forthcoming miracle, +which was to set finally at rest all doubt as to his power and +sanctity. + +This power of performing miracles, and effecting miraculous cures of +the sick, was so generally believed by the Mormons, that physic was +never used amongst them. The prophets visited the beds of the sick, +and laid hands upon them, and if, as of course was almost invariably +the case, the patient died, it was attributed to his or her want of +faith; but if, on the contrary, the patient recovered, there was +universal glorification on the miraculous cure. + +Joe Smith was a tall, fine-looking man, of most plausible address, +and possessed the gift of the gab in great perfection. At the time +appointed for the performance of the walking-water miracle, he duly +attended on the river banks, and descended barefoot to the edge of +the water. + +"My brethren!" he exclaimed in a loud voice, "this day is a happy +one to me, to us all, who venerate the great and only faith. The +truth of our great and blessed doctrine will now be proved before the +thousands I see around me. You have asked me to prove by a miracle +that the power of the prophets of old has been given to me. I say +unto you, not only to me, but to all who have faith. I have faith, +and can perform miracles--that faith empowers me to walk across the +broad surface of that mighty river without wetting the soles of my +unworthy feet; but if ye are to _see_ this miracle performed, it is +necessary that ye have faith also, not only in yourselves, but in me. +Have ye this faith in yourselves?" + +"We have, we have!" roared the crowd. + +"Have ye the faith in me, that ye believe I can perform this miracle?" + +"We have, we have!" roared the crowd. + +"Then," said Joe Smith, coolly walking away, "with such faith do ye +know well that I _could_, but it boots not that I _should_, do it; +therefore, my brethren, doubt no more"--and Joe put on his boots and +disappeared. + +Being again compelled to emigrate, the Mormons proceeded into the +state of Illinois, where, in a beautiful situation, they founded the +new Jerusalem, which, it had been declared by the prophet Mormon, +should rise out of the wilderness of the west, and where the chosen +people should be collected under one church, and governed by the +elders after a "spiritual fashion." + +The city of Nauvoo soon became a large and imposing settlement. An +enormous building, called the Temple of Zion, was erected, half +church, half hotel, in which Joe Smith and the other prophets +resided--and large storehouses were connected with it, in which the +goods and chattels belonging to the community were kept for the +common good. + +However, here, as every where else, they were continually quarrelling +with their neighbours; and as their numbers increased, so did their +audacity. A regular Mormon militia was again organised and armed, +under the command of experienced officers, who had joined the sect; +and now the authority of the state government was openly defied. In +consequence, the executive took measures to put down the nuisance, +and a regular war commenced, and was carried on for some time, with +no little bloodshed on both sides; and this armed movement is known +in the United States as the Mormon war. The Mormons, however, who, +it seemed, were much better skilled in the use of the tongue than +the rifle, succumbed: the city of Nauvoo was taken, Joe Smith and +other ringleading prophets captured; and the former, in an attempt to +escape from his place of confinement was seized and shot. The Mormons +declare he had long foretold his own fate, and that when the rifles +of the firing party who were his executioners were levelled at the +prophet's breast, a flash of lightning struck the weapons from their +hands, and blinded for a time the eyes of the sacrilegious soldiers. + +With the death of Joe Smith the prestige of the Mormon cause +declined; but still thousands of proselytes joined them annually, and +at last the state took measures to remove them altogether, as a body, +from the country. + +Once again they fled, as they themselves term it, before the +persecutions of the ungodly! But this time their migration was far +beyond the reach of their enemies, and their intention was to place +between them the impassable barrier of the Rocky Mountains, and to +seek a home and resting-place in the remote regions of the Far West. + +This, the most extraordinary migration of modern times, commenced +in the year 1845; but it was not till the following year that the +great body of the Mormons turned their backs upon the settlements of +the United States, and launched boldly out into the vast and barren +prairies, without any fixed destination as a goal to their endless +journey. For many months, long strings of Pittsburg and Conostoga +waggons, with herds of horses and domestic cattle, wound their way +towards the Indian frontier, with the intention of rendezvousing +at Council Bluffs on the Upper Missouri. Here thousands of waggons +were congregated, with their tens of thousands of men, women, and +children, anxiously waiting the route from the elders of the church, +who on their parts scarcely knew whither to direct the steps of +the vast crowd they had set in motion. At length the indefinite +destination of Oregon and California was proclaimed, and the long +train of emigrants took up the line of march. It was believed the +Indian tribes would immediately fraternise with the Mormons, on their +approaching their country; but the Pawnees quickly undeceived them +by running off with their stock on every opportunity. Besides these +losses, at every camp, horses, sheep, and oxen strayed away and were +not recovered, and numbers died from fatigue and want of provender; +so that, before they had been many weeks on their journey, nearly +all their cattle, which they had brought to stock their new country, +were dead or missing, and those that were left were in most miserable +condition. + +They had started so late in the season, that the greater part were +compelled to winter on the Platte, on Grand Island, and in the +vicinity, where they endured the greatest privations and suffering +from cold and hunger. Many who had lost their stock lived upon +roots and pig-nuts; and scurvy, in a most malignant form, and other +disorders, carried off numbers of the wretched fanatics. + +Amongst them were many substantial farmers from all parts of the +United States, who had given up their valuable farms, sold off all +their property, and were dragging their irresponsible and unfortunate +families into the wilderness--carried away by their blind and +fanatic zeal in this absurd and incredible faith. There were also +many poor wretches from different parts of England, mostly of the +farm-labouring class, with wives and families, crawling along with +helpless and almost idiotic despair, but urged forward by the fanatic +leaders of the movement, who promised them a land flowing with milk +and honey to reward them for all their hardships and privations. + +Their numbers were soon reduced by want and disease. When too late, +they often wished themselves back in the old country, and sighed many +a time for the beer and bacon of former days, now preferable to the +dry buffalo meat (but seldom obtainable) of the Far West. + +Evil fortune pursued the Mormons, and dogged their steps. The year +following, some struggled on towards the promised land, and of these +a few reached Oregon and California. Many were killed by hostile +Indians; many perished of hunger, cold, and thirst, in passing the +great wilderness; and many returned to the States, penniless and +crestfallen, and heartily cursing the moment in which they had +listened to the counsels of the Mormon prophet. The numbers who +reached their destination of Oregon, California, and the Great Salt +Lake, are computed at 20,000, of whom the United States had an +unregretted riddance. + +One party had followed the troops of the American government intended +for the conquest of New Mexico and the Californias. Of these a +battalion was formed, and part of it proceeded to Upper California; +but the way being impracticable for waggons, some seventy families +proceeded up the Arkansa, and wintered near the mountains, intending +to cross to the Platte the ensuing spring, and join the main body of +emigrants on their way by the south pass of the Rocky Mountains. + +In the wide and well-timbered bottom of the Arkansa, the Mormons had +erected a street of log shanties, in which to pass the inclement +winter. These were built of rough logs of cotton-wood, laid one above +the other, the interstices filled with mud, and rendered impervious +to wind or wet. At one end of the row of shanties was built the +"church" or temple--a long building of huge logs, in which the +prayer-meetings and holdings-forth took place. The band wintering on +the Arkansa were a far better class than the generality of Mormons, +and comprised many wealthy and respectable farmers from the western +states, most of whom were accustomed to the life of woodmen, and were +good hunters. Thus they were enabled to support their families upon +the produce of their rifles, frequently sallying out to the nearest +point of the mountains with a waggon, which they would bring back +loaded with buffalo, deer, and elk meat, thereby saving the necessity +of killing any of their stock of cattle, of which but few remained. + +The mountain hunters found this camp a profitable market for their +meat and deer-skins with which the Mormons were now compelled to +clothe themselves, and resorted there for that purpose--to say +nothing of the attraction of the many really beautiful Missourian +girls who sported their tall graceful figures at the frequent +fandangoes. Dancing and preaching go hand in hand in Mormon doctrine, +and the "temple" was generally cleared for a hop two or three times +during the week, a couple of fiddles doing the duty of orchestra. A +party of mountaineers came in one day, bringing some buffalo meat and +dressed deer-skins, and were invited to be present at one of these +festivals. + +Arrived at the temple, they were rather taken aback by finding +themselves in for a sermon, which one of the elders delivered +preparatory to the "physical exercises." The preacher was one +Brown--called, by reason of his commanding a company of Mormon +volunteers, "Cap'en Brown,"--a hard-featured, black-coated, man of +five-and-forty, correctly got up in black continuations and white +handkerchief round his neck, a costume seldom seen at the foot of +the Rocky Mountains. The Cap'en, rising, cleared his voice, and thus +commenced, first turning to an elder (with whom there was a little +rivalry in the way of preaching,) "Brother Dowdle!" (brother Dowdle +blushed and nodded--he was a long tallow-faced man, with black hair +combed over his face,) "I feel like holding forth a little this +afternoon, before we glorify the Lord,--a--a--in the--a--holy dance. +As there are a many strange gentlemen now--a--present, it's about +right to tell 'em--a--what our doctrine just is, and so I tells 'em +right off what the Mormons is. They are the chosen of the Lord; they +are the children of glory, persecuted by the hand of man: they flies +here to the wilderness, and, amongst the _Injine_ and the buffler, +they lifts up their heads, and cries with a loud voice, Susannah, and +hurray for the promised land! Do you believe it? I _know_ it. + +"They wants to know whar we're going. Whar the church goes--thar we +goes. Yes, to hell, and pull the devil off his throne--that's what +we'll do. Do you believe it? I _know_ it. + +"Thar's milk and honey in that land as we're goin' to, and the lost +tribes of Israel is thar, and will jine us. They say as we'll starve +on the road, bekase thar's no game and no water; but thar's manna up +in heaven, and it'll rain on us, and thar's prophets among us as can +make the water 'come.' Can't they, brother Dowdle?" + +"_Well_, they can." + +"And now, what have the Gen_tiles_ and the Philis_tines_ to say +against us Mormons? They says we're thieves, and steal hogs; yes, +d---- 'em! they say we has as many wives as we like. So we have. I've +twenty--forty, myself, and mean to have as many more as I can get. +But it's to pass unfortunate females into heaven that I has 'em--yes, +to prevent 'em going to roaring flames and damnation that I does it. + +"Brother Dowdle," he continued, in a hoarse, low voice, "I've 'give +out,' and think we'd better begin the exercises grettful to the Lord." + +Brother Dowdle rose, and, after saying that "he didn't feel like +saying much, begged to remind all hands, that dancing was solemn +music like, to be sung with proper devotion, and not with laughing +and talking, of which he hoped to hear little or none; that joy +was to be in their hearts, and not on their lips; that they danced +for the glory of the Lord, and not their own amusement, as did the +Gen_tiles_." After saying thus, he called upon brother Ezra to +"strike up:" sundry couples stood forth, and the ball commenced. + +Ezra of the violin was a tall, shambling Missourian, with a pair +of "homespun" pantaloons thrust into the legs of his heavy boots. +Nodding his head in time with the music, he occasionally gave +instructions to such of the dancers as were at fault, singing them to +the tune he was playing, in a dismal nasal tone,-- + + "Down the centre--hands across," + "You, Jake Herring--thump it," + "Now, you all go right a-head-- + Every one of you hump it. + Every one of you--_hump it_." + +The last words being the signal that all should clap the steam on, +which they did _con amore_, and with comical seriousness. + +A mountaineer, Rube Herring, whom we have more than once met in the +course of this narrative, became a convert to the Mormon creed, +and held forth its wonderful doctrines to such of the incredulous +trappers as he could induce to listen to him. Old Rube stood nearly +six feet six in height, and was spare and bony in make. He had picked +up a most extraordinary cloth coat amongst the Mormons, which had +belonged to some one his equal in stature. This coat, which was of +a snuff-brown colour, had its waist about a hand's span from the +nape of Rube's neck, or about a yard above its proper position, and +the skirts reached to his ancles. A slouching felt-hat covered his +head, from which long black hair escaped, hanging in flakes over his +lantern-jaws. His pantaloons of buckskin were shrunk with wet, and +reached midway between his knees and ankles, and his huge feet were +encased in mocassins of buffalo-cow skin. + +Rube was never without the book of Mormon in his hand, and his +sonorous voice might be heard, at all hours of the day and night, +reading passages from its wonderful pages. He stood the badgering +of the hunters with most perfect good humour, and said there never +was such a book as that ever before printed; that the Mormons were +the "biggest kind" of prophets, and theirs the best faith ever man +believed in. + +Rube had let out one day, that he was to be hired as guide by this +party of Mormons to the Great Salt Lake; but their destination being +changed, and his services not required, a wonderful change came over +his mind. He was, as usual, book of Mormon in hand, when brother +Brown announced the change in their plans; at which the book was cast +into the Arkansa, and Rube exclaimed,--"Cuss your darned Mummum and +Thummum! thar's not one among you knows 'fat cow' from 'poor bull,' +and you may go h---- for me." And turning away, old Rube spat out a +quid of tobacco and his Mormonism together. + +Amongst the Mormons was an old man, named Brand, from Memphis +county, state of Tennessee, with a family of a daughter and two +sons, the latter with their wives and children. Brand was a wiry old +fellow, nearly seventy years of age, but still stout and strong, +and wielded axe or rifle better than many a younger man. If truth +be told, he was not a very red-hot Mormon, and had joined them as +much for the sake of company to California, whither he had long +resolved to emigrate, as from any implicit credence in the faith. His +sons were strapping fellows, of the sterling stuff that the Western +pioneers are made of; his daughter Mary, a fine woman of thirty, for +whose state of single blessedness there must doubtless have been +sufficient reason; for she was not only remarkably handsome, but was +well known in Memphis to be the best-tempered and most industrious +young woman in those diggings. She was known to have received several +advantageous offers, all of which she had refused; and report said, +that it was from having been disappointed in very early life in an +_affaire du coeur_, at an age when such wounds sometimes strike +strong and deep, leaving a scar difficult to heal. Neither his +daughter, nor any of his family, had been converted to the Mormon +doctrine, but had ever kept themselves aloof, and refused to join +or associate with them; and, for this reason, the family had been +very unpopular with the Mormon families on the Arkansa; and hence, +probably, one great reason why they now started alone on their +journey. + +Spring had arrived, and it was time the Mormons should start on their +long journey; but whether already tired of the sample they had had +of life in the wilderness, or fearful of encountering the perils +of the Indian country, not one amongst them, with the exception of +old Brand, seemed inclined to pursue the journey farther. That old +backwoodsman, however, was not to be deterred, but declared his +intention of setting out alone, with his family, and risking all the +dangers to be anticipated. + +One fine sunny evening in April of 1847, when the cotton-woods on the +banks of the Arkansa began to put forth their buds, and robins and +blue-birds--harbingers of spring,--were hopping, with gaudy plumage, +through the thickets, three white tilted Conostoga waggons emerged +from the timbered bottom of the river, and rumbled slowly over +the prairie, in the direction of the Platte's waters. Each waggon +was drawn by eight oxen, and contained a portion of the farming +implements and household utensils of the Brand family. The teams were +driven by the young boys, the men following in rear with shouldered +rifles--Old Brand himself, mounted on an Indian horse, leading the +advance. The women were safely housed under the shelter of the waggon +tilts, and out of the first the mild face of Mary Brand smiled adieu +to many of her old companions who had accompanied them thus far, and +now wished them "God-speed" on their long journey. Some mountaineers, +too, galloped up, dressed in buckskin, and gave them rough +greeting,--warning the men to keep their "eyes skinned," and look out +for the Arapahos, who were out on the waters of the Platte. Presently +all retired, and then the huge waggons and the little company were +rolling on their solitary way through the deserted prairies--passing +the first of the many thousand miles which lay between them and the +"setting sun," as the Indians style the distant regions of the Far +West. And on, without casting a look behind him, doggedly and boldly +marched old Brand, followed by his sturdy family. + +They made but a few miles that evening, for the first day the _start_ +is all that is effected; and nearly the whole morning is taken up in +getting fairly underweigh. The loose stock had been sent off earlier, +for they had been collected and corralled the previous night; and, +after a twelve hours' fast, it was necessary they should reach the +end of the day's journey betimes. They found the herd grazing in the +bottom of the Arkansa, at a point previously fixed upon for their +first camp. Here the oxen were unyoked, and the waggons drawn up to +form the three sides of a small square. The women then descended from +their seats, and prepared the evening meal. A huge fire was kindled +before the waggons, and round this the whole party collected; whilst +large kettles of coffee boiled on it, and hoe-cakes baked upon the +embers. + +The women were sadly down-hearted, as well they might be, with the +dreary prospect before them; and poor Mary, when she saw the Mormon +encampment shut out from her sight by the rolling bluffs, and nothing +before her but the bleak, barren prairie, could not divest herself +of the idea that she had looked for the last time on civilised +fellow-creatures, and fairly burst into tears. + +In the morning the heavy waggons rolled on again, across the upland +prairies, to strike the trail used by the traders in passing from +the south fork of the Platte to the Arkansa. They had for guide a +Canadian voyageur, who had been in the service of the Indian traders, +and knew the route well, and who had agreed to pilot them to Fort +Lancaster, on the north fork of the Platte. Their course led for +about thirty miles up the Boiling Spring River, whence they pursued +a north-easterly course to the dividing ridge which separates the +waters of the Platte and Arkansa. Their progress was slow, for the +ground was saturated with wet, and exceedingly heavy for the cattle, +and they scarcely advanced more than ten miles a-day. + +At the camp-fire at night, Antoine, the Canadian guide, amused them +with tales of the wild life and perilous adventures of the hunters +and trappers who make the mountains their home; often extorting a +scream from the women by the description of some scene of Indian +fight and slaughter, or beguiling them of a commiserating tear by the +narrative of the sufferings and privations endured by those hardy +hunters in their arduous life. + +Mary listened with the greater interest, since she remembered that +such was the life, which had been led by one very dear to her--by +one, long supposed to be dead, of whom she had never but once, since +his departure, nearly fifteen years before, heard a syllable. Her +imagination pictured him as the bravest and most daring of these +adventurous hunters, and conjured up his figure charging through the +midst of whooping savages, or stretched on the ground perishing from +wounds, or cold, or famine. + +Amongst the characters who figured in Antoine's stories, a hunter +named La Bonté was made conspicuous for deeds of hardiness, and +daring. The first mention of the name caused the blood to rush to +Mary's face: not that she for a moment imagined it was her La Bonté, +for she knew the name was a common one; but, associated with feelings +which she had never got the better of, it recalled a sad epoch in her +former life, to which she could not look back without mingled pain +and pleasure. + +Once only, and about two years after his departure, had she ever +received tidings of her former lover. A mountaineer had returned from +the Far West to settle in his native State, and had found his way to +the neighbourhood of old Brand's farm. Meeting him by accident, Mary, +hearing him speak of the mountain hunters, had inquired, tremblingly +after La Bonté. Her informant knew him well--had trapped in company +with him--and had heard at the trading fort, whence he had taken his +departure for the settlements, that La Bonté had been killed on the +Yellow Stone by Blackfeet; which report was confirmed by some Indians +of that nation. This was all she had ever learned of the lover of her +youth. + +Now, upon hearing the name of La Bonté so often mentioned by Antoine, +a vague hope was raised in her breast that he was still alive, and +she took an opportunity of questioning the Canadian closely on the +subject. + +"Who was this La Bonté, Antoine, whom you say was so brave a +mountaineer?" she asked one day. + +"J'ne sais pas, he vas un beau garçon, and strong comme le +diable--enfant de garce, mais he pas not care a dam for les sauvages, +pe gar. He shoot de centare avec his carabine; and ride de cheval +comme one Comanche. He trap heap castor, (what you call beevare,) and +get plenty dollare--mais he open hand vare wide--and got none too. +Den, he hont vid de Blackfoot and avec de Cheyenne, and all round de +montaignes he hont dam sight." + +"But, Antoine, what became of him at last? and why did he not come +home, when he made so many dollars?" asked poor Mary. + +"Enfant de garce, mais pourquoi he com home? Pe gar, de +montaigne-man, he love de montaigne and de prairie more better dan he +love de grandes villes--même de Saint Louis ou de Montreal. Wagh! La +Bonté, well he one montaigne-man, wagh! He love de buffaloe, an de +chevreaux plus que de boeuf and de mouton, may be. Mais on-dit dat +he have autre raison--dat de gal he lofe in Missouri not lofe him, +and for dis he not go back. Mais now he go ondare, m' on dit. He vas +go to de Californe, may be to steal de hos and de mule--pe gar, and +de Espagnols rub him out, and take his hair, so he mort." + +"But are you sure of this?" she asked, trembling with grief. + +"Ah, now, j'ne suis pas sûr, mais I tink you know dis La Bonté. +Enfant de garce, maybe you de gal in Missouri he lofe, and not lofe +him. Pe gar! 'fant de garce! fort beau garçon dis La Bonté, pourquoi +you ne l'aimez pas? Maybe he not gone ondare. Maybe he turn op, +autre-fois. De trappares, dey go ondare tree, four, ten times, mais +dey turn op twenty time. De sauvage not able for kill La Bonté, ni de +dam Espagnols. Ah, non! ne craignez pas; pe gar, he not gone ondare +encore." + +Spite of the good-natured attempts of the Canadian, poor Mary burst +into a flood of tears: not that the information took her unawares, +for she long had believed him dead; but because the very mention of +his name awoke the strongest feelings within her breast, and taught +her how deep was the affection she had felt for him whose loss and +violent fate she now bewailed. + +As the waggons of the lone caravan roll on towards the Platte, we +return to the camp where La Bonté, Killbuck, and the stranger, were +sitting before the fire when last we saw them:--Killbuck loquitur. + +"The doins of them Mormon fools can't be beat by Spaniards, stranger. +Their mummums and thummums you speak of won't 'shine' whar Injuns are +about; nor pint out a trail, whar nothin crossed but rattler-snakes +since fust it snow'd on old Pike's Peak. If they pack along them +_profits_, as you tell of, who can make it rain hump-ribs and +marrow-guts when the crowd gets out of the buffler range, they are +'some,' now, that's a fact. But this child don't believe it. I'd +laugh to get a sight on these darned Mormonites, I would. They're +'no account,' I guess; and it's the 'meanest' kind of action to haul +their women critters and their young 'uns to sech a starving country +as the Californys." + +"They are not all Mormons in the crowd," said the strange hunter; +"and there's one family amongst them with some smartish boys and +girls, I tell you. Their name's Brand." + +La Bonté looked up from the lock of his rifle, which he was +cleaning--but either didn't hear, or, hearing, didn't heed, for he +continued his work. + +"And they are going to part company," continued the stranger, "and +put out alone for Platte and the South Pass." + +"They'll lose their hair, I'm thinking," said Killbuck, "if the +Rapahos are out thar." + +"I hope not," continued the other, "for there's a girl amongst them +worth more than that." + +"Poor beaver!" said La Bonté, looking up from his work. "I'd hate to +see any white gal in the hands of Injuns, and of Rapahos worse than +all. Where does she come from, stranger?" + +"Down below St Louis, from Tennessee, I've heard them say." + +"Tennessee," cried La Bonté,--"hurrah for the old State! What's her +name, stran----" At this moment Killbuck's old mule pricked her ears +and snuffed the air, which action catching La Bonté's eye, he rose +abruptly, without waiting a reply to his question, and exclaimed, +"The old mule smells Injuns, or I'm a Spaniard!" + +The hunter did the old mule justice, and she well maintained her +reputation as the best "guard" in the mountains; for in two minutes +an Indian stalked into the camp, dressed in a cloth capote, and in +odds and ends of civilised attire. + +"Rapaho," cried Killbuck, as soon as he saw him; and the Indian +catching the word, struck his hand upon his breast, and exclaimed, +in broken Spanish and English mixed, "Si, si, me Arapaho, white man +amigo. Come to camp--eat heap _carne_--me amigo white man. Come +from Pueblo--hunt cibola--me gun break--_no puedo matar nada: mucha +hambre_, (very hungry)--heap eat." + +Killbuck offered his pipe to the Indian, and spoke to him in his own +language, which both he and La Bonté well understood. They learned +that he was married to a Mexican woman, and lived with some hunters +at the Pueblo fort on the Arkansa. He volunteered the information +that a war party of his people were out on the Platte trail to +intercept the Indian traders on their return from the North Fork; +and as some "Mormones" had just started with three waggons in that +direction, he said his people would make a "roise." Being muy amigo +himself to the whites, he cautioned his present companions from +crossing to the "divide," as the "braves," he said, were a "heap" +mad, and their hearts were "big," and nothing in the shape of white +skin would live before them. + +"Wagh!" exclaimed Killbuck, "the Rapahos know me, I'm thinking; and +small gain they've made against this child. I've knowed the time when +my gun cover couldn't hold more of their scalps." + +The Indian was provided with some powder, of which he stood in need; +and, after gorging as much meat as his capacious stomach would hold, +he left the camp, and started into the mountain. + +The next day our hunters started on their journey down the river, +travelling leisurely, and stopping wherever good grass presented +itself. One morning they suddenly struck a wheel trail, which left +the creek banks and pursued a course at right angles to it, in the +direction of the "divide." Killbuck pronounced it but a few hours +old, and that of three waggons drawn by oxen. + +"Wagh!" he exclaimed, "if them poor devils of Mormonites ain't going +head first into the Rapaho trap. They'll be 'gone beaver' afore long." + +"Ay," said the strange hunter, "these are the waggons belonging to +old Brand, and he has started alone for Laramie. I hope nothing will +happen to them." + +"Brand!" muttered La Bonté. "I knowed that name mighty well once, +years agone; and should hate the worst kind that mischief happened +to any one who bore it. This trail's as fresh as paint; and it goes +against me to let these simple critters help the Rapahos to their own +hair. This child feels like helping 'em out of the scrape. What do +you say, old hos?" + +"I thinks with you, boy," answered Killbuck, "and go in for following +this waggon trail, and telling the poor critters that there's danger +ahead of them. What's your talk, stranger?" + +"I go with you," shortly answered the latter; and both followed +quickly after La Bonté, who was already trotting smartly on the trail. + +Meanwhile the three waggons, containing the household gods of the +Brand family, rumbled slowly over the rolling prairie, and towards +the upland ridge of the "divide," which, studded with dwarf pine +and cedar thickets, rose gradually before them. They travelled with +considerable caution, for already the quick eye of Antoine had +discovered recent Indian sign upon the trail, and, with mountain +quickness, had at once made it out to be that of a war party; +for there were no horses with them, and, after one or two of the +mocassin tracks, the mark of a rope which trailed upon the ground +was sufficient to show him that the Indians were provided with the +usual lasso of skin, with which to secure the horses stolen in the +expedition. The men of the party were consequently all mounted and +thoroughly armed, the waggons moved in a line abreast, and a sharp +look-out was kept on all sides. The women and children were all +consigned to the interior of the waggons; and the latter had also +guns in readiness, to take their part in the defence should an attack +be made. + +However, they had seen no Indians, and no fresh sign, for two days +after they left the Boiling Spring River, and they began to think +they were well out of their neighbourhood. One evening they camped +on a creek called Black Horse, and, as usual, had corralled the +waggons, and forted as well as circumstances would permit, when +three or four Indians suddenly appeared on a bluff at a little +distance, and, making signals of peaceable intentions, approached +the camp. Most of the men were absent at the time, attending to the +cattle or collecting fuel, and only old Brand and one of his young +grandchildren, about fourteen years old, remained in camp. The +Indians were hospitably received, and regaled with a smoke, after +which they began to evince their curiosity by examining every article +lying about, and signifying their wishes that it should be given to +them. Finding their hints were not taken, they laid hold of several +things which took their fancies, and, amongst others, of the pot +which was boiling on the fire, and with which one of them was about +very coolly to walk off, when old Brand, who up to this moment had +retained possession of his temper, seized it out of the Indian's +hand, and knocked him down. One of the others instantly began to +draw the buckskin cover from his gun, and would no doubt have taken +summary vengeance for the insult offered to his companion, when Mary +Brand courageously stepped up to him, and, placing her left hand upon +the gun which he was in the act of uncovering, with the other pointed +a pistol at his breast. + +Whether daunted by the bold act of the girl, or admiring her devotion +to her father, the Indian drew himself back, exclaimed "Howgh!" and +drew the cover again on his piece, went up to old Brand, who all this +time looked him sternly in the face, and, shaking him by the hand, +motioned at the same time to the others to be peaceable. + +The other whites presently coming into camp, the Indians sat quietly +down by the fire, and, when the supper was ready, joined in the +repast, after which they gathered their buffalo robes about them, +and quietly withdrew. Meanwhile Antoine, knowing the treacherous +character of the savages, advised that the greatest precaution should +be taken to secure the stock; and before dark, therefore, all the +mules and horses were hobbled and secured within the corral, the +oxen being allowed to feed at liberty--for the Indians scarcely care +to trouble themselves with such cattle. A guard was also set round +the camp, and relieved every two hours; the fire was extinguished, +lest the savages should fire, by its light, at any of the party, +and all slept with rifles ready at their sides. However, the night +passed quietly, and nothing disturbed the tranquillity of the camp. +The prairie wolves loped hungrily around, and their mournful cry +was borne upon the wind as they chased deer and antelope on the +neighbouring plain; but not a sign of lurking Indians was seen or +heard. + +In the morning, shortly after sunrise, they were in the act of yoking +the oxen to the waggons, and driving in the loose animals which +had been turned out to feed at daybreak, when some Indians again +appeared upon the bluff, and, descending it, confidently approached +the camp. Antoine strongly advised their not being allowed to enter; +but Brand, ignorant of Indian treachery, replied that, so long as +they came as friends they could not be deemed enemies, and allowed no +obstruction to be offered to their approach. It was now observed that +they were all painted, armed with bows and arrows, and divested of +their buffalo robes, appearing naked to the breech-clout, their legs +only being protected by deerskin leggings, reaching to the middle of +the thigh. Six or seven first arrived, and others quickly followed, +dropping in one after the other, until a score or more were collected +round the waggons. Their demeanour, at first friendly, soon changed +as their numbers increased, and they now became urgent in their +demands for powder and lead, and bullying in their manner. A chief +accosted Brand, and, through Antoine, informed him "that, unless the +demands of his braves were acceded to, he could not be responsible +for the consequences; that they were out on the 'war-trail,' and +their eyes were red with blood, so that they could not distinguish +between white and Yutah scalps; that the party, with all their +women and waggons, were in the power of the Indian 'braves,' and +therefore the white chief's best plan was to make the best terms he +could; that all they required was that they should give up their +guns and ammunition 'on the prairie,' and all their mules and +horses--retaining the 'medicine' buffaloes (the oxen) to draw their +waggons." + +By this time the oxen were yoked, and the teamsters, whip in hand, +only waited the word to start. Old Brand foamed whilst the Indian +stated his demands, but, hearing him to the end, exclaimed, "Darn the +red devil! I wouldn't give him a grain of powder to save my life. Put +out, boys!"--and, turning to his horse, which stood ready saddled, +was about to mount, when the Indians sprang at once upon the waggons, +and commenced their attack, yelling like fiends. + +One jumped upon old Brand, pulled him back as he was rising in the +stirrup, and drew his bow upon him at the same moment. In an instant +the old backwoodsman pulled a pistol from his belt, and, putting +the muzzle to the Indian's heart, shot him dead. Another Indian, +flourishing his war-club, laid the old man at his feet; whilst others +dragged the women from the waggons, and others rushed upon the men, +who made brave fight in their defence. + +Mary, when she saw her father struck to the ground, sprang with a +shrill cry to his assistance; for at that moment a savage, frightful +as red paint could make him, was standing over his prostrate body, +brandishing a glittering knife in the air, preparatory to thrusting +it into the old man's breast. For the rest, all was confusion--in +vain the small party of whites struggled against overpowering +numbers. Their rifles cracked but once, and they were quickly +disarmed; whilst the shrieks of the women and children, and the loud +yells of the Indians, added to the scene of horror and confusion. As +Mary flew to her father's side, an Indian threw his lasso at her, +the noose falling over her shoulders, and, jerking it tight, he +uttered a delighted yell as the poor girl was thrown back violently +to the ground. As she fell, another deliberately shot an arrow at her +body, whilst the one who had thrown the lasso rushed forward, his +scalp-knife flashing in his hand, to seize the bloody trophy of his +savage deed. The girl rose to her knees, and looked wildly towards +the spot where her father lay bathed in blood; but the Indian pulled +the rope violently, dragged her some yards upon the ground, and then +rushed with a yell of vengeance upon his victim. He paused, however, +as at that moment a shout as fierce as his own sounded at his very +ear; and, looking up, he saw La Bonté gallopping madly down the +bluff, his long hair and the fringes of his hunting-shirt and leggins +flying in the wind, his right arm supporting his trusty rifle, +whilst close behind him came Killbuck and the stranger. Dashing +with loud hurrahs to the scene of action, La Bonté, as he charged +down the bluff, caught sight of the girl struggling in the hands of +the ferocious Indian. Loud was the war-shout of the mountaineer, as +he struck his heavy spurs to the rowels in his horse's side, and +bounded like lightning to the rescue. In a single stride he was upon +the Indian, and, thrusting the muzzle of his rifle into his very +breast, he pulled the trigger, driving the savage backward by the +blow itself, at the same moment that the bullet passed through his +heart, and tumbled him over stone-dead. Throwing down his rifle, La +Bonté wheeled his obedient horse, and, drawing a pistol from his +belt, again charged the enemy, into the midst of whom Killbuck and +the stranger were dealing death-giving blows. Yelling for victory, +the mountaineers rushed at the Indians; and they, panic-struck at +the sudden attack, and thinking this was but the advanced guard of a +large band, fairly turned and fled, leaving five of their number dead +upon the field. + +Mary, shutting her eyes to the expected death-stroke, heard the loud +shout La Bonté gave in charging down the bluff, and, again looking +up, saw the wild-looking mountaineer rush to her rescue, and save her +from the savage by his timely blow. Her arms were still pinned by the +lasso, which prevented her from rising to her feet; and La Bonté was +the first to run to aid her, as soon as the fight was fairly over. +He jumped from his horse, cut the skin rope which bound her, raised +her from the ground, and, upon her turning up her face to thank him, +beheld his never-to-be-forgotten Mary Brand; whilst she, hardly +believing her senses, recognised in her deliverer her former lover, +and still well-beloved La Bonté. + +"What, Mary! can it be you?" he asked, looking intently upon the +trembling woman. + +"La Bonté, you don't forget me!" she answered, and threw herself +sobbing into the arms of the sturdy mountaineer. + +There we will leave her for the present, and help Killbuck and +his companions to examine the killed and wounded. Of the former, +five Indians and two whites lay dead, grandchildren of old Brand, +fine lads of fourteen or fifteen, who had fought with the greatest +bravery, and lay pierced with arrows and lance wounds. Old Brand had +received a sore buffet, but a hatful of cold water from the creek +sprinkled over his face soon restored him. His sons had not escaped +scot-free, and Antoine was shot through the neck, and, falling, had +actually been half scalped by an Indian, whom the timely arrival of +La Bonté had caused to leave his work unfinished. + +Silently, and with sad hearts, the survivors of the family saw +the bodies of the two boys buried on the river bank, and the spot +marked with a pile of loose stones, procured from the rocky bed of +the creek. The carcasses of the treacherous Indians were left to +be devoured by wolves, and their bones to bleach in the sun and +wind--a warning to their tribe, that such foul treachery as they had +meditated had met with a merited retribution. + +The next day the party continued their course to the Platte. Antoine +and the stranger returned to the Arkansa, starting in the night +to avoid the Indians; but Killbuck and La Bonté lent the aid of +their rifles to the solitary caravan, and, under their experienced +guidance, no more Indian perils were encountered. Mary no longer +sat perched up in her father's Conostoga, but rode a quiet mustang +by La Bonté's side; and no doubt they found a theme with which to +while away the monotonous journey over the dreary plains. South Fork +was passed, and Laramie was reached. The Sweet Water mountains, +which hang over the "pass" to California, were long since in sight; +but when the waters of the North Fork of Platte lay before their +horses' feet, and the broad trail was pointed out which led to the +great valley of Columbia and their promised land, the heads of the +oxen were turned _down_ the stream, where the shallow waters flow +on to join the great Missouri--and not _up_, towards the mountains +where they leave their spring-heads, from which springs flow several +waters--some coursing their way to the eastward, fertilising, in +their route to the Atlantic, the lands of civilised man; others +westward, forcing a passage through rocky cañons, and flowing through +a barren wilderness, inhabited by fierce and barbarous tribes. + +These were the routes to choose from: and, whatever was the cause, +the oxen turned their yoked heads away from the rugged mountains; +the teamsters joyfully cracked their ponderous whips, as the waggons +rolled lightly down the Platte; and men, women, and children, waved +their hats and bonnets in the air, and cried out lustily, "Hurrah for +home!" + +La Bonté looked at the dark sombre mountains ere he turned his +back upon them for the last time. He thought of the many years he +had spent beneath their rugged shadow, of the many hardships he +had suffered, of all his pains and perils undergone in those wild +regions. The most exciting episodes in his adventurous career, his +tried companions in scenes of fierce fight and bloodshed, passed in +review before him. A feeling of regret was creeping over him, when +Mary laid her hand gently on his shoulder. One single tear rolled +unbidden down his cheek, and he answered her inquiring eyes: "I'm not +sorry to leave it, Mary," he said; "but it's hard to turn one's back +upon old friends." + +They had a hard battle with Killbuck, in endeavouring to persuade +him to accompany them to the settlements. The old mountaineer shook +his head. "The time," he said, "was gone by for that. He had often +thought of it, but, when the day arrived, he hadn't heart to leave +the mountains. Trapping now was of no account, he knew; but beaver +was bound to rise, and then the good times would come again. What +could he do in the settlements, where there wasn't room to move, and +where it was hard to breathe--there were so many people?" + +He accompanied them a considerable distance down the river, ever and +anon looking cautiously back, to ascertain that he had not gone out +of sight of the mountains. Before reaching the forks, however, he +finally bade them adieu; and, turning the head of his old grizzled +mule westward, he heartily wrung the hand of his comrade La Bonté; +and, crying Yep! to his well-tried animal, disappeared behind a roll +of the prairie, and was seen no more--a thousand good wishes for the +welfare of the sturdy trapper speeding him on his solitary way. + +Four months from the day when La Bonté so opportunely appeared to +rescue Brand's family from the Indians on Black Horse Creek, that +worthy and the faithful Mary were duly and lawfully united in the +township church of Brandville, Memphis county, State of Tennessee. We +cannot say, in the concluding words of nine hundred and ninety-nine +thousand novels, that "numerous pledges of mutual love surrounded +and cheered them in their declining years," &c. &c.; because it was +only on the 24th of July, in the year of our Lord 1847, that La Bonté +and Mary Brand were finally made one, after fifteen long years of +separation. + + * * * * * + +The fate of one of the humble characters who have figured in these +pages, we must yet tarry a while longer to describe. + +During the past winter, a party of mountaineers, flying from +overpowering numbers of hostile Sioux, found themselves, one stormy +evening, in a wild and dismal cañon near the elevated mountain valley +called the "New Park." + +The rocky bed of a dry mountain torrent, whose waters were now +locked up at their spring-heads by icy fetters, was the only road up +which they could make their difficult way: for the rugged sides of +the gorge rose precipitously from the creek, scarcely affording a +foot-hold to even the active bighorn, which occasionally looked down +upon the travellers from the lofty summit. Logs of pine, uprooted +by the hurricanes which sweep incessantly through the mountain +defiles, and tossed headlong from the surrounding ridges, continually +obstructed their way; and huge rocks and boulders, tumbling from +the heights and blocking up the bed of the stream, added to the +difficulty, and threatened them every instant with destruction. + +Towards sundown they reached a point where the cañon opened out into +a little shelving glade or prairie, a few hundred yards in extent, +the entrance to which was almost hidden by a thicket of dwarf pine +and cedar. Here they determined to encamp for the night, in a spot +secure from Indians, and, as they imagined, untrodden by the foot of +man. + +What, however, was their astonishment, on breaking through the +cedar-covered entrance, to perceive a solitary horse standing +motionless in the centre of the prairie. Drawing near, they found it +to be an old grizzled mustang, or Indian pony, with cropped ears and +ragged tail, (well picked by hungry mules,) standing doubled up with +cold, and at the very last gasp from extreme old age and weakness. +Its bones were nearly through the stiffened skin, the legs of the +animal were gathered under it; whilst its forlorn-looking head and +stretched-out neck hung listlessly downwards, almost overbalancing +its tottering body. The glazed and sunken eye--the protruding and +froth-covered tongue--the heaving flank and quivering tail--declared +its race was run; and the driving sleet and snow, and penetrating +winter blast, scarce made impression upon its callous, insensible, +and worn-out frame. + +One of the band of mountaineers was Marcellin, and a single look +at the miserable beast was sufficient for him to recognise the +once renowned Nez-percé steed of old Bill Williams. That the owner +himself was not far distant he felt certain; and, searching carefully +around, the hunters presently came upon an old deserted camp, before +which lay, protruding from the snow, the blackened remains of pine +logs. Before these, which had been the fire, and leaning with his +back against a pine trunk, and his legs crossed under him, half +covered with snow, reclined the figure of the old mountaineer, his +snow-capped head bent over his breast. His well-known hunting-coat of +fringed elk-skin hung stiff and weather-stained about him; and his +rifle, packs, and traps, were strewed around. + +Awe-struck, the trappers approached the body, and found it frozen +hard as stone, in which state it had probably lain there for many +days or weeks. A jagged rent in the breast of his leather coat, and +dark stains about it, showed he had received a wound before his +death; but it was impossible to say whether to this hurt, or to +sickness, or to the natural decay of age, was to be attributed the +wretched and solitary end of poor Bill Williams. + +A friendly bullet cut short the few remaining hours of the trapper's +faithful steed; and burying, as well as they were able, the body of +the old mountaineer, the hunters next day left him in his lonely +grave, in a spot so wild and remote, that it was doubtful whether +even hungry wolves would discover and disinter his attenuated corpse. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] The word _fandango_, in New Mexico, is not applied to the +peculiar dance known in Spain by that name, but designates a ball or +dancing meeting. + +[3] Nickname for the idle fellows hanging about a Mexican town, +translated into "Greasers" by the Americans. + +[4] Cask-shaped gourds. + +[5] The knives used by the hunters and trappers are manufactured at +the "Green River" works, and have that name stamped upon the blade. +Hence the mountain term for doing any thing effectually is "up to +Green River." + +[6] Always alluding to Mexicans, who are invariably called Spaniards +by the Western Americans. + + + + +THE LATE GEORGE FREDERICK RUXTON. + + +The readers of _Blackwood's Magazine_, who for six succeeding +months have followed La Bonté and his mountain companions through +the hardships, humours, and perils of "Life in the Far West," will +surely not learn with indifference, that the gallant young author of +those spirited sketches has prematurely departed to his long home, +from that Transatlantic land whose prairies and forests he so well +loved to tread, and the existence and eccentricities of whose wildest +sons he so ably and pleasantly portrayed. Nearly a month has now +elapsed since the London newspapers contained the mournful tidings +of the death, at St Louis on the Mississippi, and at the early age +of twenty-eight, of Lieutenant George Frederick Ruxton, formerly +of her Majesty's 89th regiment, known to the reading world as the +author of a volume of Mexican adventure, and of the above-named +contributions to this Magazine. The former work has too completely +gained the suffrages of the public to need commendation at our hands: +it divides, with Madame Calderon de la Barca's well-known volumes, +the merit of being the best narration extant of travel and general +observation in modern Mexico. + +Many individuals, even in the most enterprising periods of our +history, have been made the subjects of elaborate biography, with +far less title to the honour than our late departed friend. Time +was not granted him to embody in a permanent shape more than a +tithe of his personal experiences, and strange adventures, in three +quarters of the globe; indeed, when we consider the amount of +physical labour which he endured, and the extent of the fields over +which his wanderings were spread, we are almost led to wonder how +he could have found leisure even to have written so much. At the +early age of seventeen, Mr Ruxton quitted Sandwich, to learn the +practical part of a soldier's profession on the field of civil war +then raging in the peninsula of Spain. He received a commission in +a royal regiment of lancers, under the command of Don Diego Leon, +and was actively engaged in several of the most important combats +of the campaign. For his marked gallantry on these occasions, he +received from Queen Isabella II. the cross of the first class of the +order of St Fernando, an honour which has seldom been awarded to one +so young. On his return from Spain he found himself gazetted to a +commission in the 89th regiment; and it was while serving with that +distinguished corps in Canada that he first became acquainted with +the stirring scenes of Indian life, which he has since so graphically +portrayed. His eager and enthusiastic spirit soon became wearied with +the monotony of the barrack-room; and, yielding to that impulse which +in him was irresistibly developed, he resigned his commission, and +directed his steps towards the stupendous wilds, only tenanted by the +red Indian, or the solitary American trapper. + +Those who are familiar with his writings cannot fail to have +remarked the singular delight with which the author dwells upon the +recollections of this portion of his career, and the longing which +he carried with him to the hour of death, for a return to those +scenes of primitive freedom. "Although liable to an accusation of +barbarism," he writes, "I must confess that the very happiest moments +of my life have been spent in the wilderness of the Far West; and +I never recall, but with pleasure, the remembrance of my solitary +camp in the Bayou Salade, with no friend near me more faithful than +my rifle, and no companions more sociable than my good horse and +mules, or the attendant cayute which nightly serenaded us. With a +plentiful supply of dry pine-logs on the fire, and its cheerful +blaze streaming far up into the sky, illuminating the valley far and +near, and exhibiting the animals, with well-filled bellies, standing +contentedly at rest over their picket-fires, I would sit cross-legged +enjoying the genial warmth, and, pipe in mouth, watch the blue smoke +as it curled upwards, building castles in its vapoury wreaths, and, +in the fantastic shapes it assumed, peopling the solitude with +figures of those far away. Scarcely, however, did I ever wish to +change such hours of freedom for all the luxuries of civilised life; +and, unnatural and extraordinary as it may appear, yet such is the +fascination of the life of the mountain hunter, that I believe not +one instance could be adduced of even the most polished and civilised +of men, who had once tasted the sweets of its attendant liberty, +and freedom from every worldly care, not regretting the moment when +he exchanged it for the monotonous life of the settlements, nor +sighing and sighing again once more to partake of its pleasures and +allurements." + +On his return to Europe from the Far West, Mr Ruxton, animated with +a spirit as enterprising and fearless as that of Raleigh, planned +a scheme for the exploration of Central Africa, which was thus +characterised by the president of the Royal Geographical Society, in +his anniversary address for 1845:--"To my great surprise, I recently +conversed with an ardent and accomplished youth, Lieutenant Ruxton, +late of the 89th regiment, who had formed the daring project of +traversing Africa in the parallel of the southern tropic, and has +actually started for this purpose. Preparing himself by previous +excursions on foot, in North Africa and Algeria, he sailed from +Liverpool early in December last, in the Royalist, for Ichaboe. From +that spot he was to repair to Walvish Bay, where we have already +mercantile establishments. The intrepid traveller had received from +their agents of the establishments such favourable account of the +nations towards the interior, as also of the nature of the climate, +that he has the most sanguine hopes of being able to penetrate to the +central region, if not of traversing it to the Portuguese colonies +of Mozambique. If this be accomplished, then indeed will Lieutenant +Ruxton have acquired for himself a permanent name among British +travellers, by making us acquainted with the nature of the axis of +the great continent of which we possess the southern extremity." + +In pursuance of this hazardous scheme, Ruxton, along with a single +companion, landed on the coast of Africa, a little to the south of +Ichaboe, and commenced his journey of exploration. But it seemed as +if both nature and man had combined to baffle the execution of his +design. The course of their travel lay along a desert of moving sand, +where no water was to be found, and little herbage, save a coarse +tufted grass, and twigs of the resinous myrrh. The immediate place +of their destination was Angra Peguena, on the coast, described as +a frequented station, but which in reality was deserted. One ship +only was in the offing when the travellers arrived, and, to their +inexpressible mortification, they discovered that she was outward +bound. No trace was visible of the river or streams laid down in +the maps as falling into the sea at this point, and no resource +was left to the travellers save that of retracing their steps--a +labour for which their strength was hardly adequate. But for the +opportune assistance of a body of natives, who encountered them at +the very moment when they were sinking from the influence of fatigue +and thirst, Ruxton and his companion would have been added to the +catalogue long of those whose lives have been sacrificed in the +attempt to explore the interior of this fatal country. + +The jealousy of the traders, and of the missionaries settled on the +African coast, who constantly withheld or perverted that information +which was absolutely necessary for the successful prosecution of the +journey, induced Ruxton to abandon the attempt for the present. He +made, however, several interesting excursions towards the interior, +and more especially in the country of the Bosjesmans. + +Finding that his own resources were inadequate for the accomplishment +of his favourite project, Mr Ruxton, on his return to England, made +application for Government assistance. But though this demand was +not altogether refused, it having been referred to, and favourably +reported on by, the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, so +many delays were interposed that Ruxton, in disgust, resolved to +withdraw from the scheme, and to abandon that field of African +research which he had already contemplated from its borders. He +next bent his steps to Mexico; and, fortunately, has presented to +the world his reminiscences of that country, in one of the most +fascinating volumes which, of late years, has issued from the press. +It would, however, appear that the scheme of African research, the +darling project of his life, had again recurred to him at a later +period; for, in the course of the present spring, before setting +out on that journey which was destined to be his last we find the +following expressions in a letter addressed to us:-- + + "My movements are uncertain, for I am trying to get up a yacht + voyage to Borneo and the Indian Archipelago; have volunteered + to Government to explore Central Africa; and the Aborigines + Protection Society wish me to go out to Canada to organise the + Indian tribes; whilst, for my own part and inclination, I wish to + go to all parts of the world at once." + +As regards his second work, we shall not, under the circumstances, be +deemed egotistical, if we here, at the close of its final portion, +express our very high opinion of its merits. Written by a man +untrained to literature, and whose life, from a very early age, had +been passed in the field and on the road, in military adventure and +travel, its style is yet often as remarkable for graphic terseness +and vigour, as its substance every where is for great novelty and +originality. The narrative of "Life in the Far West" was first +offered for insertion in _Blackwood's Magazine_ in the spring of the +present year, when the greater portion of the manuscript was sent, +and the remainder shortly followed. + +The wildness of the adventures which he relates have, perhaps not +unnaturally, excited suspicions in certain quarters as to their +actual truth and fidelity. It may interest our readers to know, that +the scenes described by the author are faithful pictures of the +results of his personal experience. The following are extracts from +letters addressed to us in the course of last summer:-- + + "I have brought out a few more softening traits in the characters + of the mountaineers--but not at the sacrifice of truth--for some + of them have their good points; which, as they are rarely allowed + to rise to the surface, must be laid hold of at once, before they + sink again. Killbuck--that 'old hos' _par exemple_, was really + pretty much of a gentleman, as was La Bonté. Bill Williams, + another 'hard case,' and Rube Herring, were 'some' too. + + "The scene where La Bonté joins the Chase family is so far true + that he did make a sudden appearance; but, in reality, a day + before the Indian attack. The Chases (and I wish I had not given + the proper name[7]) did start for the Platte alone, and were + stampedoed upon the waters of the Platte. + + "The Mexican fandango _is true to the letter_. It does seem + difficult to understand how they contrived to keep their knives + out of the hump-ribs of the mountaineers; but how can you account + for the fact that, the other day, 4000 Mexicans, with 13 pieces of + artillery, behind strong intrenchments and two lines of parapets, + were routed by 900 raw Missourians; 300 killed, as many more + wounded, all their artillery captured, as well as several hundred + prisoners; and that not one American was killed in the affair? + _This is positive fact._ + + "I myself, with three trappers, cleared a fandango at Taos, armed + only with bowie-knives--some score Mexicans, at least, being in + the room. + + "With regard to the incidents of Indian attacks, starvation, + cannibalism, &c., I have invented not one out of my own head. They + are all matters of history in the mountains; but I have, no doubt, + jumbled the _dramatis personæ_ one with another, and may have + committed anachronisms in the order of their occurrence." + +Again he wrote to us as follows:-- + + "I think it would be as well to correct a misapprehension as to + the truth or fiction of the paper. It is _no fiction_. There is no + incident in it which has not actually occurred, nor one character + who is not well known in the Rocky Mountains, with the exception + of two whose names are changed--the originals of these being, + however, equally well known with the others." + +His last letter, written just before his departure from England, a +few weeks previously to his death, will hardly be read by any who +ever knew the writer, without a tear of sympathy with the sad fate of +this fine young man, dying miserably in a strange land, before he had +well commenced the adventurous journey whose excitement and dangers +he so joyously anticipated:-- + + "As you say, human natur can't go on feeding on civilised fixings + in this 'big village;' and this child has felt like going West + for many a month, being half froze for buffler meat and mountain + doins. My route takes me viâ New York, the Lakes, and St Louis, to + Fort Leavenworth, or Independence on the Indian frontier. Thence + packing my 'possibles' on a mule, and mounting a buffalo horse, + (Panchito, if he is alive,) I strike the Santa Fé trail to the + Arkansa, away up that river to the mountains, winter in the Bayou + Salade, where Killbuck and La Bonté joined the Yutes, cross the + mountains next spring to Great Salt Lake--and that's far enough + to look forward to--always supposing my hair is not lifted by + Comanche or Pawnee on the scalping route of the Coon Creeks and + Pawnee Fork. + + "If anything turns up in the expedition which would 'shine' in + Maga, I will send you a despatch.--Meanwhile," &c. &c. + +Poor fellow! he spoke lightly, in the buoyancy of youth and a +confident spirit, of the fate he little thought to meet, but which +too surely overtook him--not indeed by Indian blade, but by the no +less deadly stroke of disease. Another motive, besides that love of +rambling and adventure, which, once conceived and indulged, is so +difficult to eradicate, impelled him across the Atlantic. He had for +some time been out of health at intervals, and he thought the air +of his beloved prairies would be efficacious to work a cure. In a +letter to a friend, in the month of May last, he thus referred to the +probable origin of the evil:-- + + "I have been confined to my room for many days, from the effects + of an accident I met with in the Rocky Mountains, having been + spilt from the bare back of a mule, and falling on the sharp + picket of an Indian lodge on the small of my back. I fear I + injured my spine, for I have never felt altogether the thing + since, and shortly after I saw you, the symptoms became rather + ugly. However, I am now getting round again." + +His medical advisers shared his opinion that he had sustained +internal injury from this ugly fall; and it is not improbable +that it was the remote, but real cause of his dissolution. Up to +this time of writing, (21st October,) however, no details of his +death have reached his afflicted friends, nor any account of it, +other than that given by the public journals. From whatsoever it +ensued, it will be a source of deep and lasting regret to all who +ever enjoyed opportunities of appreciating the high and sterling +qualities of George Frederick Ruxton. Few men, so prepossessing +on first acquaintance, gained so much by being better known. With +great natural abilities, and the most dauntless bravery, he united +a modesty and gentleness peculiarly pleasing. Had he lived, and +resisted his friends' repeated solicitations to abandon a roving +life, and settle down in England, there can be little doubt that +he would have made his name eminent on the list of those daring +and persevering men, whose travels in distant and dangerous lands +have accumulated for England, and for the world, so rich a store of +scientific and general information. And, although the few words we +have thought it right and becoming here to devote to his memory, +will doubtless be more particularly welcome to his personal friends, +we are persuaded that none will peruse without interest this brief +tribute to the merits of a gallant soldier, and accomplished English +gentleman. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[7] In accordance with this suggestion, the name was changed to +Brand. The mountaineers, it seems, are more sensitive to type than +to tomahawks; and poor Ruxton, who always contemplated another +expedition among them, would sometimes jestingly speculate upon his +reception, should they learn that he had shown them up in print. + + + + +THE NAVAL WAR OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.[8] + + +The navy of England is the right arm of the British empire. The +gallantry of British troops requires no praise of ours, as it admits +of no doubt on the part of our enemies. But until some convulsion of +the globe shall make England _Continental_, so long must her chief +force be naval, her chief defence be by her strength at sea, and her +chief victories be gained on the ocean. + +The navy has another incomparable adaptation to the especial +circumstances of England. Her empire is colonial: the extent of Great +Britain itself scarcely equals one of those provinces beyond the +ocean which Providence has given into her hands. Their defence, their +maintenance, and their existence, must depend on the superiority of +our fleet: if it were once extinguished, the British empire must be +again contracted within the British Isles. + +A third, and perhaps a more important qualification than either, +is--that a fleet is the only form of national force which can _never_ +endanger national freedom. + +On those _data_, the question of _national_ fleets is easily decided. +England is not only the first naval power in the world, but she +must _continue_ the first; because a fleet is _necessary_ to her +existence, which _it is not_ to that of any other European throne. +This is the dictate of nature, and is therefore a _law_. Other powers +may possess a fleet as an appendage to their national strength, as +suitable to their rank, or as adding to their means of hostilities. +Still, to them, a fleet is not a _necessity_. Russia, France, and +Spain have no more _necessity_ for a fleet, than Prussia, Austria, +and Switzerland! But England, without a fleet, would be exposed to +invasion on every point of a coast extending two thousand miles. Her +wealth is all loose upon the ocean; her chief territories are all +beyond the ocean: thus, _without_ a fleet, she would be almost wholly +without the means of external defence, of retaliation for injuries, +and of the commerce which is the most essential basis of her revenue. +The result is, that, while the Continental kingdoms might be powerful +states, yet not possess a ship on the seas, England, stript of her +naval superiority, would instantly sink from her high position, +would lose the larger portion of her power, would be separated from +her most important colonies, would see her revenues decay,--and, +if assailed by a foreign enemy, would see her resources suddenly +stopped, and must prepare for the last extremities of struggle, hand +to hand. + +In this view, we do not confine the question to the national fondness +for the sea--to that mixture of boldness and skill which predominates +in the character of our sailors, and forms the especial qualification +of a sea-faring people,--nor to national superiority of any kind; +but to the simple fact, that the possession of predominant power on +the ocean _cannot_ be dispensed with by England, while it _can_ be +dispensed with by every other power of the globe. + +There is also another reason for this supremacy; arising from the +fact, that England may throw her whole national force into a navy; +while other powers, however ambitious of naval eminence, _must_ at +least divide their force between the land and sea services. France, +with its immense frontier, must keep up an immense army during war. +Russia, with a frontier from the Niemen to the North Pole, must keep +up an immense army at all times. The maintenance of those armies +is essential to the national existence, while the maintenance of a +fleet is only gratifying to the national ambition. The consequence +is as clear as a matter of arithmetic. France and Russia, attacking +England separately, _must_ be ultimately beaten. America, even if she +were a more formidable opponent than either, will also be beaten, and +for the same reason. A fleet is not _essential_ to her; the undivided +force of the States will never be applied to her navy. The national +strength will be expanded over inland conquest; the sea-coast towns +will be rapidly reduced to insignificance by the superiority of the +great inland settlements; and the time will come, when the cities of +New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, will have no more weight with +the inland powers of Louisiana and the prairies, than Brighton or +Broadstairs have with the power of London. They will be watering +places, or, at best, warehousing places, and will be no more able to +keep up a navy, than the Isle of Thanet would be able to keep up the +Channel fleet. All this, however, tends only to show, that a fleet is +the supreme instrument of British dominion; and that its strength, +its skill, and its discipline, should employ the utmost activity, +liberality, and vigilance of every Cabinet which desires to do its +duty to the empire. + +We now proceed to give some account of the interesting and +intelligent work of which Captain Plunket has supplied the +translation, accompanied with valuable explanatory notes of his own. + +Some time since, there appeared in the well-known Parisian _Revue des +deux Mondes_, articles on the English and French naval systems, by a +French officer, Captain de la Gravière. The object of those papers +was less to give a history of the naval war, than to ascertain the +causes of that almost unbroken series of triumphs which made the +fame of the British fleet; and, on the other hand, which ultimately +extinguished the fleet of a nation so brave, ambitious, and +enterprising as the French. + +M. de la Gravière, to his credit, had not followed the usual +"perfide Albion" style of the French journalists, nor exhibited +that jesuitical evasion of fact, and the perpetual peevishness +against England, which marks and disgraces French history. He never +sinks English success into failure, or inflates French failure +into victory. He writes with the calmness of a man in search of +the truth; judges with every visible _intention_ of impartiality; +examines the private documents of the transactions; and pronounces a +judgment which, though obviously and essentially _French_, is perhaps +as honest an effort in pursuit of the reality of things, as is +compatible with the nature of our clever and lively libellers on the +other side of the Channel. + +Those volumes begin by some striking remarks of Napoleon at St +Helena. This extraordinary man never spoke of his defeat at Acre in +1799 but with bitter regret. He declared that it was his intention, +had he taken that fortress, to have marched to Constantinople at the +head of the tribes of Mount Lebanon, or to have followed the steps +of Alexander to the Indus. His repulse from Acre, he always said, +"marred his destiny." + +All this verbiage of the great Captain, however, has been +sufficiently exposed by the actual event. He could no more have +marched to Constantinople than he could have marched to the Indus, +nor have marched to the Indus more than he could have marched to +the Pole star. With but 40,000 men, (the whole number which landed +in Egypt,) it would have been utterly impossible for him to have +carried a force through Syria and Asia Minor equal to the attack on +Constantinople--even if the Russians were not _at hand_. The march to +the Indus would have lain through the deserts of Arabia and Persia, +and have stripped him down to a corporal's guard before he had got +half-way. A French foot would never have been dipt in that far-famed +river, which is now a British Canal. The tribes of Lebanon would no +more have recruited his ranks, than they would have given him their +sequins. His destiny lay in another direction. No man knew this +better; and doubtless he rejoiced, when he found himself on board the +frigate carrying him westward, and relieving him of the "glory" of +being slaughtered by the Arabs, and embalmed by the sands. + +But the inveterate hostility of Napoleon seemed to rage against +England, with the ravening of a mad dog, who dies biting the club +which has laid him on the ground. All his anti-English policy was a +succession of gross and ruinous blunders. To assail England without +a fleet was naturally impossible. To form a fleet for the purpose of +assailing her was, therefore, always a new temptation. If, after the +First of June, which destroyed the Channel fleet of France, and the +burning of the arsenals of Toulon, which destroyed her Mediterranean +fleet, France had never built another vessel beyond the tonnage of a +coaster, she would have shown her good sense. But Napoleon, when in +the plenitude of power, went on building huge vessels, only to see +them sent into English ports. + +The waste of time, waste of thought, and waste of money, on those +projects of English invasion, were among the most capital faults of +his extravagant career. He might have made France the great corn +country, or the great garden of Europe, with half the sums which he +threw away only to be beaten. His fifty ships of the line which were +to sweep the Channel, in the absence of our fleet--his one hundred +and twenty thousand men on the shore of Boulogne--all only enhanced +the naval glory of the great commander; who, after pursuing the +French flying squadron of eighteen great ships, with ten, to the West +Indies, finished in one day the naval war, extinguished the existence +of the French and Spanish navies, and crowned his own gallant career. + +The impolicy of these attempts was equally exhibited in another +form--they stimulated at once the power and the spirit of England. +The monotony of a war of defence would have disgusted the gallantry +of the nation, but the victories of the British navy continually +cheered the people under the burdens of the war. What minister could +have dared to propose a "compromising" peace, on the day after the +battle of the Nile? What minister would have dared to propose any +peace on the day after Trafalgar? The war, too, broke down more than +the French fleet--it buried the Opposition. + +The French author divides his history into three periods--the first, +that of the battles of Howe and Hood, of Hotham and Bridport; the +second, that of Jervis; the third, (from 1798 to 1805) belonging +to Nelson, without an equal, without even a competitor--the most +glorious series of successes ever won on the ocean. + +The true definition of these volumes is, in fact, a "Life of +Nelson"--a hurried, but clear and animated memoir, on a subject +which can never be too often repeated to the ear or the heart of +Englishmen; but a subject which is here coloured with the inevitable, +and yet not unamusing, prejudices of a Frenchman and an enemy. +He admits Nelson to have been a naval hero, while he labours to +show that his chief successes arose from a lofty disregard of +circumstances, a native contempt of rule, a transcendental rashness, +which, continually exposing him to the chance of utter ruin, +strangely always issued in victory. But those views are wholly +imaginary. It is the foreign habit, to be perpetually in pursuit of +_astonishment_; to think nothing meritorious which is not _magical_; +and to carry into the greatest and gravest operations of public life +the passion for the harlequinades of the theatre. The supremacy +of Nelson arose from the more substantial grounds, of a thorough +knowledge of his profession, of a strict deference for discipline, +and a sort of instinctive and unhesitating determination to do the +work set before him, with all the powers of his mind and frame. +He, of course, possessed personal intrepidity in the most complete +degree; but this amounted simply to the exposure of his life on all +occasions where duty was to be done. Nelson was no fire-eater--no +man of quarrel. We are not aware that he ever fought a duel. But he +knew what was due to himself as much as any man--a fact shown by his +answer to the Governor of Jamaica, who, having, on some remonstrances +to him, rather haughtily observed, "that old generals were not +accustomed to take advice from young captains." Nelson retorted +by letter--"That he was of the same age as the prime minister of +England, (Pitt), and that he thought himself as capable of commanding +one of his Majesty's ships, as the premier was of governing the +state." + +But Nelson could not have gained his glories alone: he made his +captains like himself; and every sailor in his fleet was ready to +die along with him. His art in this was the simple one of justice. +He acknowledged every man's merit. The officer who distinguished +himself, was sure of receiving due honour from Nelson; promotion +was regulated by service, and every brave man was confident in the +recommendation of the admiral. He was also a kind man by nature: he +hated punishment on board; he spoke good-naturedly to the sailors; +he even gave way to any peculiarity which was not injurious to +discipline. Some of his crew had become Methodists, and, offended +with the general coarse conversation of the ship, desired to have +their mess separate. Nelson immediately gave the required permission. +The hearts of men naturally follow such a leader. + +He had also the powerful sagacity which insures confidence; and no +man doubted that, when Nelson commanded, he was leading to victory. +He was, besides, a master of his profession--all his battles were the +finest lessons of the tactician. He was never outmanoeuvred; he +was never surprised; he was never even thrown into any difficulty, +for which he had not a ready resource. The "Nelson touch" became +proverbial; and the variety, completeness, and brilliancy of his +plans for action sometimes excited the most extraordinary emotion, +even to tears, among his officers. Something of this kind is said to +have occurred on the final summoning of his captains into the cabin +of the Victory, and laying before them his plan for the battle of +Trafalgar. + +Nelson had also the power, perhaps the most characteristic of +genius, of throwing his thought into those shapes of vividness which +penetrate at once to the understanding. When, on steering down for +the French line at Aboukir, some one observed to him that the enemy +were anchored too near the shore, for the British to pass within +them;--"Where a French ship can swing, a British ship can anchor," +was his decisive reply; and he instantly rushed in, and placed +the French line between two fires. Another of those noble maxims +was--"The captain cannot be wrong, who lays his ship alongside the +enemy." It contains the whole theory of British battle. His "I can +see no signal," when he was told that Admiral Parker had made the +signal for retiring at Copenhagen, would have been immortalised, +with the act which accompanied it, among the most brilliant +"sayings and doings" of ancient Greece. But his last and well-known +signal at Trafalgar surpassed all the rest, as much as the triumph +surpassed these triumphs. The addresses of Napoleon to his armies +were unquestionably fine performances. They spoke to the Frenchman +by his feelings, his recollections, his personal pride, and his +national renown. But, with the animation of the trumpet, they had +its sternness and harshness. They were invocations to the French +idol, that was to be worshipped only with perpetual blood. But the +signal at Trafalgar recalled the Englishman only to the feelings of +home. The voice of war never spoke a language more capable of being +combined with all the purposes of peace. "England expects every man +to do his duty" was fitted to bring before the Englishman the memory +of his country, his home, his wife and children, all who might feel +concerned in his conduct and character in the proud transactions of +that great day. We think it the noblest appeal to national feeling +ever made by a warrior to warriors. + +Yet, what was the especial secret of that supreme rank which Nelson +held over all the naval leaders of his time? Others may have been as +intelligent, and indefatigable, and, it is to be hoped, all were as +brave. The secret was--that Nelson was never satisfied with what he +had done, and that he never _half did_ anything. There was no "drawn +battle," among _his_ recollections. This is the more remarkable, +as, for fifty years before, nearly all our naval battles had been +drawn battles. Rodney's defeat of de Grasse was the great exception. +British admirals, who were afraid of nothing else, were afraid of +losing their masts! and were content with knocking down those of the +enemy. Great fleets met each other, passed in parallel lines, fired +their broadsides as they passed, one to the north and the other to +the south. They might as well have been firing salutes. The wind soon +carried them out of sight of each other; the admirals sat down in +their cabins to write their respective histories of "the battle," +which would have been only too much honoured by being called a +_brush_; and the fleets went by mutual consent into harbour. In this +sort of _War_! the French were as clever as we; and the Suffreins, di +Guichens, d'Estaings, and Villeneuves, made their fame on this system +of cannonading a mile off, and getting out of the way as quickly as +possible. + +Rodney first spoiled the etiquette of those affairs, by driving +straight forward through the enemy's line, changing the easy parallel +for the fighting perpendicular, and compelling at least one-half +of the Frenchmen to come to close quarters. This was the method of +Jervis, when his captain told him, that the fleet on which he was +bearing down in the morning twilight were at least twenty. "If they +were fifty," said the brave sailor, "I'll _drive through them_." He +drove through them accordingly, and beat the Spaniards, with half +their numbers. + +Wellington observed, in the Peninsula, that the generals commanding +under him were afraid of nothing but responsibility. This fear +arose from the ignorant insolence, with which the loungers of the +legislature were in the habit of fighting campaigns over their +coffee-cups. It is to be hoped that the fashion has since changed. +But Wellington demurred to the authority, and Nelson seemed not to +have thought of its existence. They both supplied the sufficient +answer to the _home_ campaigners, by beating the enemy wherever they +met him. + +We find a striking evidence of the hatred of "doing well enough" in +one of Nelson's letters to his wife, on Hotham's battle with the +French, under Martin, off Genoa, in 1795. Hotham was one of the old +school, and though, in two awkward engagements, he had taken two of +the French line, while a third had been burned, Nelson was indignant +that the whole French fleet had not been captured. He had urged the +admiral to leave the disabled ships in charge of the frigates, and +chase the French. + +"But," says the letter, "he, much cooler than myself, said, 'we must +be contented--_we had done very well_.'" Nelson's evidently disgusted +remark on this species of contentment is--"Had we taken ten sail, and +suffered the eleventh to escape, when we could have got at her, I +could _never_ have called it _well done_." In another part he says, +"I wish to be an admiral, and in command of the British fleet. I +should very soon do much, or be ruined. My disposition cannot bear +tame and slow measures. _Sure I am_, that, had I commanded our fleet +on the 14th, the whole French fleet would have graced our triumph, +or I should have been in a confounded scrape." This was the language +which, like the impulse of a powerful instinct, predicted the days of +Aboukir, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar. + +But the drag-chain on the progress of British intrepidity was at +length to be taken of. Hotham was succeeded by Jervis. This eminent +officer instantly reformed the whole condition of the Mediterranean +fleet. He had evidently adopted the same conception of naval merit, +which Nelson had so long kept before his eye. In selecting him for +the command of the squadron sent to the Nile, Jervis wrote to the +admiralty: "Nelson is an officer, who, whatever you bid him do, is +sure _to do more_." And, in this spirit, Nelson was not content with +running to Alexandria, and returning to say, that he found no one +there; his resolve was, to find the French wherever they were, and +fight them wherever they were found. + +One word still for gallant old Jervis, the man who first confirmed +the discipline of the navy. His firmness was the secret. When the +Irish conspirators on board the Channel fleet had spread the spirit +of mutiny in 1797, Jervis was warned from the admiralty that his +fleet was in danger. It was suggested to him by some of his officers, +to stop the letters from home: "No," said he, "the precaution is +useless: I will answer for it that the commander-in-chief of _this_ +fleet will know how to maintain his authority, if it is threatened." + +But he left nothing to chance: he prohibited communication between +the ships--he sent for the captains of marines, and ordered that +their men should mess and sleep separately from the sailors; that +the sailors should not be suffered to converse in Irish, and that the +officers should be on the alert. He hanged the detected mutineers +without delay. Forgiveness was out of the question. To Captain +Pellew, who had interceded in favour of a mutineer, whose conduct +had previously been irreproachable, he replied, "We have, we think, +punished only the worthless. It is time, that our men should learn, +that no past conduct can redeem an act of treason." + +Nothing could be more rational, or even more necessary, than this +determination; for treason is the most comprehensive of all crimes. +The mere robber, or murderer, commits his single act of guilt--but +the guilt of the traitor may cost the lives of thousands. The traitor +is never to be regarded as a solitary criminal, and this maxim was +never more necessary than at this moment. If laws are to be turned +into sentimentality, and conspiracy is to be dealt with like the +tricks of children, there must be an end of all security to _honest +men_. If the villains who have been lately inflaming the Irish mind +into madness, had been hanged by the sentence of the drum-head, +within half an hour after their seizure, there would have been no +necessity, at this moment, for keeping up a garrison of 45,000 men +in Ireland. Martial law is the _only_ law fit for the ruffians of +the torch and pike, and the gibbet is the only moral which they will +ever comprehend. To suppose that the Irish conspirators had even +entertained the expectation of forming an established government, or +of being suffered by England to raise a republic--or that any man out +of Bedlam could have dreamt of the possibility of waging a successful +war against England, while her fleets might starve Ireland in a week, +and nothing but English alms even now enables her to live--would be +absolute folly. The true object of Irish conspiracy was, and is, +and will always be, robbery and revenge; a short burst of rapine +and blood, followed by again running away, again begging pardon, +again living on alms, and again laughing at the weak indulgence and +insulted clemency of England. + +Jervis, instead of listening to the cant of men of blood whining +about their wives and children, hanged them; and, by thus ridding his +fleet of a nest of villains, saved it from destruction, and perhaps, +with it, saved not merely the lives of thousands of brave men, whom +their impunity might have debauched into conspiracy, but saved the +honour of our naval name, and restored the enfeebled hopes of his +country. + +We here quote with pleasure from the Frenchman:--"Jervis, in the +face of those symptoms, which threatened the British navy with +disaffection, sternly devoted himself to the establishment of +_implicit obedience_. The efficient organisation of the fleet was +the labour of his life, and occupied his latest thoughts. Never rash +himself, he nevertheless opened the way for the most daring deeds. +Nelson rushed into the arena, and, with the rapidity of lightning, +showed the latent results of the change. The governing principle +witnessed, rather than decreed the change. Its source, in fact, +was _not_ in the Admiralty, but in those floating camps, wherein +the triumphs which astonish us are gradually elaborated. Official +power is but the inert _crucible_ which transmutes the subsidies +of Parliament into ships. But a quickening principle is wanting to +those immense fleets, and the admirals supply it. Jervis and Nelson +rapidly transmitted the creative spark, and bequeathed a certain sort +of sovereignty under the distrustful eye of the English Admiralty--a +kind of dynasty arose--'the mayors of the palace took the sceptre +from the do-nothing kings.'" + +All this is comparatively just. But the Frenchman peeps out under +the panegyrist, after all. Can it be conceived that any other +human being, at the end of nearly half a century, would quote, +with the slightest degree of approval, the report of Decrès, the +French minister of the marine to Napoleon, in 1805, after all +Nelson's victories, and just preceding the most illustrious of them +all--Trafalgar? + +"The boasting of Nelson," writes Decrès, "equals his silliness, +(_ineptie_)--I use the proper word. But he has one eminent +quality--namely, that of aiming among his captains _only_ at a +character for bravery and good fortune. This makes him _accessible +to counsel_, and consequently, in difficult circumstances, if he +commands nominally, _others direct really_." + +We have no doubt that, after scribbling this supreme _ineptie_, +Decrès considered himself to have settled the whole question, and +to have convicted Nelson of being simply a bold blockhead--Nelson, +the man of the hundred fights--the prince of tacticians--the admiral +who had never been beaten, and from whom, at the battle of Aboukir, +Decrès himself was rejoiced to make his escape, after having seen the +ruin of the French fleet. + +We find a good deal of the same sort of petulant perversion, in the +narrative of Nelson's conduct at Naples. M. Gravière suddenly becomes +moral, and tells us the ten-times-told story of Lady Hamilton. But +what is all this to the naval war? Englishmen are not bound to defend +the character of Lady Hamilton; and if Nelson was actually culpable +in their intercourse, (a matter which actually has never yet been +_proved_,) Englishmen, who have some morality,--not Frenchmen, who +make a point of laughing at all morality--may upbraid his conduct. +But a French stoic is simply ridiculous. There are perhaps not fifty +men in all France, who would not have done, and are not doing every +day, where they have the opportunity, all that this moralist charges +Nelson with having done. Even if he were criminal in his private +life, so much the worse for himself in that solemn account which all +must render; but he was not the less the conqueror of Copenhagen, +Aboukir, and Trafalgar. + +The hanging of Caraccioli also figures among the charges. We regret +that this traitor was not left to die of remorse, or by the course of +nature, at the age of eighty. We regret, too, that he could allege +even the shadow of a capitulation for his security. We equally regret +the execution of Ney under a similar shadow. But Caraccioli had been +an _admiral_ in the Neapolitan service, had joined the rebellion by +which rapine and slaughter overspread the country, and had driven the +King into exile. No man more deserved to be hanged, by the order of +his insulted, and apparently ruined King;--he _was_ hanged, and _all_ +rebels ought thus to suffer. They are made for the scaffold. + +The men who plunge a kingdom in blood, whose success must be +purchased by havoc, and whose triumph makes the misery of thousands +or millions, ought to make the small expiation which can be made by +their public punishment; and no country _can_ be safe in which it +is not the custom to hang traitors. Still, those acts, even if they +were of an order which might shock the sensibility of a Frenchman to +breach of treaty, or the sight of blood, have no reference to the +talents and the triumphs of Nelson. + +But these volumes suddenly deviate from the history of the great +admiral, into remarks on the great living soldier of England. There, +too, we must follow them; and our task is no reluctant one; for it +enables us at once to enlighten intelligent inquiry, and to offer our +tribute to pre-eminent fame. But, in this instance, we argue with our +accomplished neighbours on different principles. The Frenchman loves +glory--the Englishman its fruits. The Frenchman loves the excitement +of war; the Englishman hates it, as mischievous and miserable, and to +be palliated only by the stern necessity of self-defence. He honours +intrepidity, but it only when displayed in a cause worthy of human +feeling. No man more exults in the talent of the field; but it is +only when it brings back security to the fireside. The noblest trophy +of Wellington, in the eyes of his country, is the thirty years of +peace won by his sword! + +It has become the fashion of the French to speak of this illustrious +personage with something of a sneer at what they pronounce his "want +of enterprise." Every thing that he has done is by "_phlegm_!" Phlegm +must be a most valuable quality, in that case, for it enabled him +to defeat every officer to whom he had been opposed; and there was +scarcely any man of repute in the French army to whom he had not been +opposed. It is in no spirit of rational taunt, or of that hostility +which, we will hope, has died away between England and France, that +we give the list of the French marshals whom Wellington has fought, +and _always_ beaten, and several of them _several times_:--Junot at +Vimeira, Soult at Oporto and the Pyrenees, Victor and Sebastiani +at Talavera, Massena at Busaco, Marmont at Salamanca, Jourdan at +Vitoria, and a whole group of the chief generals of France, with Ney, +Soult, and Napoleon himself, at their head, at Waterloo. + +But have the British military authors ever doubted the talent, or +disparaged the gallantry, of those distinguished soldiers? Certainly +not; they have given them every acknowledgment which ability and +bravery could demand. Let the French nation read the eloquent pages +of Alison, and see the character given by the historian to the +leaders in the Italian, German, and Spanish campaigns. Let them read +the spirited pages of Napier, and see them decorated almost with the +colours of romance. Does either of these popular and powerful authors +stigmatise the French generals with "_ineptie_," or characterise +their victories, as the mere results of inability either to attack or +to run away? Let them be the example of the future French military +writers, and let those writers learn that there is a European +tribunal, as well as a Parisian one. + +But the French altogether mistake the question. Men like Wellington +are not the growth of any military school, of any especial army, +or of any peculiar nation. Without offering this great soldier any +personal panegyric, he was a military _genius_. Since Marlborough, +England had produced no such commander of an army, and may not +produce another such for a century to come. Nelson was similarly a +_genius_: he sprang at once to the first rank of sea-officers; and +England, fertile as she is in first-rate sailors and brave men, may +never produce another Nelson. Napoleon was a _genius_, and almost +as palpably superior to the crowd of brave and intelligent generals +round him, as if he had been of another species. The conduct of men +of this exclusive capacity is no more a rule for other men, than +their successes are to be depreciated to the common scale of military +good fortune. The campaigns of Napoleon in Italy; the sea campaign +in which Nelson pursued the French fleet half-round the globe, to +extinguish it at Trafalgar; the seven years' continued campaign of +Wellington in the Peninsula, finished by the most splendid march in +European history, from the frontier of Portugal into the heart of +France, have had no example in the past, and can be no example to +the future. The principle, the power, and the success, lie equally +beyond the limits of ordinary calculation. The evident fact is, that +there is an occasional rank of faculty, which puts all calculation +out of sight, which is found to produce effects of a new magnitude, +and which overpasses all difficulties, by the use of an intellectual +element, but occasionally, and but for especial purpose, communicated +to man. + +We have no doubt whatever of the truth of this solution, and are +consequently convinced, that it would have been much wiser in M. +Gravière to have attempted to describe the career of Wellington, than +to pronounce on the principles of his science; and, above all, than +to account for his victories by the very last means of victory--the +mere brutishness of standing still, the simple immobility of passive +force, the mere unintelligent and insensate working of a machine. + +"What a contrast," exclaims the Frenchman, "between these passionate +traits (of Nelson) and the _impassive bearing_ of Wellington, that +_cool and methodical_ leader, who _maintained_ his ground in the +Peninsula by the _sheer force of order and prudence_! Do they belong +to the same nation? Did they command the same men? The admiral, full +of enthusiasm, and devoured by the love of distinction, and the +general, so _phlegmatic_ and _immovable_, who, intrenched behind +his lines at Torres Vedras, or re-forming, without _emotion_, his +_broken_ squares on the field of Waterloo--(where not a single +British square was broken)--seems rather to aim at _wearying out his +enemy_ than at _conquering him_, and triumphs _only_ by his patient +and unconquerable firmness." + +Must it not be asked, Why did the French suffer him to exhibit this +_firmness_? why did they not beat him at once? Do generals win +battles merely by waiting, until their antagonists are tired of +crushing them? + +But the Frenchman still has a resource--he accounts for it all by +the design of a higher power! "It was _thus_, nevertheless, that +the designs of Providence were to be accomplished. It gave to the +general, destined to meet _incontestably superior_ troops(!!), +whose _first_ efforts were _irresistible_, that _systematic_ and +_temporising_ character, which was to _wear out_ the ardour of +our soldiers." Having thus accounted for the French perpetuity of +defeat on land, by a man of stupidity and stone; he accounts, with +equal satisfaction, for the perpetuity of defeat at sea by a man of +activity and animation. "To the admiral who was to meet squadrons +fresh out of harbour, and easily disconcerted by a sudden attack, +Providence gave that fiery courage and audacity which alone could +bring about those great disasters, that would _not_ have been +inflicted under the rules of the old school of tactics." + +The Frenchman, in his eagerness to disparage Wellington as dull, and +Nelson as rash, forgets that he forces his reader to the conclusion, +that tardiness and precipitancy are equally fit to beat the French. +Or if they are _incontestably_ superior troops, and their first onset +is _irresistible_, how is it that they are beaten at the last, or are +ever beaten at all? We also find the curious and rather unexpected +acknowledgment, that Providence was always against them, and that it +had determined on their _defeat_, whether their enemy were swift or +slow. + +We are afraid that we have been premature in giving M. de la +Gravière credit for getting rid of his prejudices. But we shall +set him a better example. We shall not deny that the French make +excellent soldiers; that they have even a sort of national fitness +for soldiership; that they form active, bold, and highly effective +troops: though, for them, as sailors, we certainly cannot say as +much. Henry IV. remarked "that he never knew a French king lucky +at sea;" and Henry spoke the truth. And the wisest thing which +France could do, would be to give up all attempts to be a "naval +power,"--which she never has been, and never can be--and expend her +money and her time on the comforts, the condition, and the spirit of +her people, both citizens and soldiery. + +But, we must assist the French judgment on the character of +Wellington: and a slight detail will prove him to be the most +_enterprising_ leader of troops in the history of modern Europe. +Let us first settle the meaning of the word enterprise. It is not a +foolish restlessness, a giddy fondness for the flourish of Bulletins, +or a precipitate habit of rushing into projects unconsidered and +ineffective. It is activity, guided by intelligence; a daring +effort to attain a probable success. The French generals, in the +commencement of the revolutionary war, dashed at every thing, and yet +were not entitled to the praise of enterprise. They fought under the +consciousness that, unless they attracted Parisian notice by their +battles, they must pay the penalty with their heads. Thus nearly all +the principal generals of the early Republic were guillotined. The +_levée-en-masse_ gave them immense multitudes, who _must_ fight, or +starve. The Republic had _fourteen_ armies at once in the field, who +_must_ be fed; commissioners from Paris were in the camps; and the +general who declined to fight on all occasions, was stripped of his +epaulets, and sent to the "Place de Grève." + +But enterprise, in the style which distinguishes a master of +strategy, is among the rarest military qualities. Marlborough +was almost the only officer, in the last century, remarkable for +enterprise, and its chief example was his march from Flanders +to attack the French and Bavarian army, which he routed in the +magnificent triumph of Blenheim. Wolfe's attack on the heights of +Abraham was a capital instance of enterprise, for it showed at once +sagacity and daring, and both in pursuit of a probable object,--the +surprise of the enemy, and the power of bringing him to an engagement +on fair ground. + +But enterprise has been the _chief_ characteristic of the whole +military career of Wellington. + +His first great Indian victory, Assaye, (23d September 1802,) was an +"enterprise," by which, in defiance of all difficulties, and with +but 5000 men, he beat the army of Scindiah and the rajah of Berar, +consisting of 50,000, of which 30,000 were cavalry. There, instead +of _phlegm_, he was accused of rashness; but his answer was, the +_necessity_ of stopping the enemy's march; and, more emphatic still, +a most consummate victory. + +On his landing in Portugal, at the head of only 10,000 men, (August +5, 1808,) this man of phlegm instantly broke up the whole plan of +Junot. He first dashed at Laborde, commanding a division of 6000 men, +as the advanced guard of the main army; drove him from the mountain +position of Roliça; marched instantly to meet Junot, whom he defeated +at Vimeira; and, on the 15th of September, the British troops were in +possession of Lisbon. The French soon embarked by a convention, and +Portugal was free! This was the work of a _six-weeks'_ campaign by +this passive soldier. + +The convention of Cintra excited displeasure in England, as the +capture of the whole army had been expected, from the high public +opinion of the British commander; and the opinion would not have been +disappointed, if he had continued in the command. The testimony of +Colonel Torrens, (afterwards military secretary to the Duke of York,) +on the court of inquiry, was, "That, on the defeat of the French at +Vimeira, Sir Arthur rode up to Sir Harry Burrard and said--'Now, Sir +Harry, is your time to advance upon the enemy; they are completely +broken, and we may be in Lisbon in _three days_.' Sir Harry's answer +was, 'that he thought a great deal had been done.'" The army was +halted, and the French, who felt that their cause was hopeless, sent +to propose the convention. + +On the 22d of April 1809, Sir Arthur again landed in Portugal, to +take the command of the army, consisting of but 16,000 men, with 24 +guns. His plan was to drive Soult out of Oporto, fight the French, +wherever he found them; and then return and attack Victor on the +Tagus. Such was the project of the man of phlegm! He made a forced +march of 80 miles, in three days and a-half, from Coimbra, crossed +the Douro, drove Soult out of Oporto, ate the dinner which had been +prepared for the Frenchman, and hunted him into the mountains, with +the loss of all his guns and baggage. The French army was ruined for +the campaign. This was the work of _three weeks_ from his landing at +Lisbon! + +Sir Arthur's next enterprise was an advance into Spain. The kingdom +was held by a French force of upwards of 200,000 men, with all the +principal fortresses in their possession, the Pyrenees open, and +the whole force of France ready to repair their losses. The Spanish +armies were ill commanded, ill provided, and in all pitched battles +regularly beaten. The French force sent to stop him at Talavera, on +his road to Madrid, amounted to 60,000 men, under Jourdan, Victor, +and Sebastiani, with King Joseph at the head of the whole. The battle +began on the 27th of July, and, after a desperate struggle of two +days, with a force of nearly three times the number of the British, +ended by the rapid retreat of the French in the night, with the loss +of 20 pieces of cannon and four standards. The Spanish army under +Cuesta did good service on this occasion, but it was chiefly by +guarding a flank. Their position was strong, and they were but little +assailed. The British lost a fourth of their number in killed and +wounded; the French, 10,000 men. + +The purpose of these pages is, not to give a history of the +illustrious Duke's exploits, but to show the utter absurdity of the +French notion, that he gained all his battles by standing still, +until the enemy grew tired of beating him. There is scarcely an +instance in all his battles, in which he did not _seek_ the enemy, +and there is _no instance_ in which he did not beat them! This is a +sufficient answer to the French theory. + +The ruin of the Spanish armies, and the immense numerical superiority +of the French, commanded by Massena, compelled the British general, +in 1810, to limit himself to the defence of Portugal. Massena +followed him at the head of nearly 90,000 men. The British general +might have marched, without a contest, to the lines of Torres Vedras; +but the man of _phlegm_ resolved to fight by the way. He fought at +Busaco, (September 27.) + +Massena, proverbially the most dashing of the French generals--the +"Enfant gâté de la Victoire," as Napoleon styled him--could not +believe that any officer would be so daring as to stop him on +his road. On being told that the English would fight, and on +reconnoitring their position, he said, "I cannot persuade myself that +Lord Wellington will risk the loss of his reputation; but, if he +does, _I shall have him_." + +Napoleon, at Waterloo, was yet to utter the same words, and make +the same mistake. "Ah! je les tiens, ces Anglais."--"To-morrow," +said Massena, "we shall reconquer Portugal, and in a few days I +shall drive the leopards into the sea." The day of Busaco finished +this boast, with a loss to the French of 2000 killed, 6000 wounded, +and with the loss, which Massena, perhaps, felt still more, of his +military reputation for life. + +But the lines of Torres Vedras must not be forgotten in any memorial, +however brief, to the genius of Wellington. The great problem of +all strategists, at that period, was "the defence of Portugal +against an overwhelming force." Dumouriez and Moore had looked only +to the frontier, and justly declared that, from its extent and +broken nature, it was indefensible. Wellington, with a finer _coup +d'oeil_, looked to the half-circle of rising grounds stretching +from the Tagus to the sea, and enclosing the capital. He fortified +them with such admirable secrecy, that the French had scarcely heard +of their existence; and with such incomparable skill, that, when they +saw them at last, they utterly despaired of an attack. They were on +the largest scale of fortified lines ever constructed, their external +circle occupying forty miles. The defences consisted of 10 separate +fortifications, mounting 444 guns, and manned by 28,000 men. They +formed two lines, the exterior mounting 100 guns, the interior (about +eight miles within) mounting 200; the remaining guns being mounted +on redoubts along the shore and the river. The whole force, British +and Portuguese, within the lines, and keeping up the communication to +Lisbon, was nearly 80,000 men. + +The contrast without and within the lines was of the most striking +kind, and formed a new triumph for the feelings of the British +general. Without, all was famine, ferocity, and despair; within, +all was plenty, animation, and certainty of triumph. Massena, after +gazing on those noble works for a mouth, broke up his hopeless +bivouac; retired to Santarem; saved the remnant of his unfortunate +army only by a retreat in the night; was hunted to the frontier; +fought a useless and despairing battle at Fuentes d'Onore; was +beaten, returned into France, and resigned his command. He was +thenceforth forgotten, probably died of the loss of his laurels, and +is now known only by his tomb in the Cemetery of Paris. + +In October of the year 1811, though the British army had gone into +winter quarters, the man of "_passive_ courage" gave the enemy +another example of "enterprise." The fifth French corps, under +Gerard, had begun to ravage Estremadura. General Hill, by the order +of Lord Wellington, moved against the Frenchman; took him by surprise +at Aroyo de Molinos; fought him through the town, and out of the +town; captured his staff, his whole baggage, commissariat, guns, 30 +captains, and 1000 men. He drove the rest up the mountains, and, in +short, destroyed the whole division--Gerard escaping with but 300 men. + +The French field-marshal here amply acknowledged the effect of +enterprise. In his despatch to Berthier from Seville, Soult +says,--"This event is so disgraceful, that I know not how to qualify +it. General Gerard had choice troops with him, yet shamefully +suffered himself to be _surprised_, from excessive presumption and +confidence. The officers and soldiers were in the houses, as in the +midst of peace. I shall order an inquiry, and a severe example." + +The next year began with the two most splendid sieges of the war. A +siege is proverbially the most difficult of all military operations, +requiring the most costly preparations, and taking up the longest +time. Its difficulty is obviously enhanced by the nearness of a +hostile force. Wellington was watched by two French armies, commanded +by Soult and Marmont, either of them of nearly equal force with his +own, and, combined, numbering 80,000 men. Ciudad Rodrigo was one of +the strongest fortresses of the Peninsula; Marmont was on his march +to succour it. Wellington rushed on it, and captured it by storm, +(January 19.) Marmont, finding that he was too late, retired. Badajoz +was the next prize, a still larger and more important fortress. Soult +was moving from the south to its succour. He had left Seville on +the 1st of April; Wellington rushed on it, as he had done on Ciudad +Rodrigo, and took it by one of the most daring assaults on record, +(April 7.) + +This was again the man who conquered "by standing still." The letter +of General Lery, chief engineer of the army of the south, gives the +most unequivocal character of this latter enterprise. "The conquest +of Badajoz cost me eight engineers. Never was there a place in +a better state, or better provided with the requisite number of +troops. I see in that event a marked _fatality_. Wellington, with +his Anglo-Portuguese army, has taken the place, as it were, in the +presence of two armies. In short, I think the capture of Badajoz a +_very extraordinary_ event. I should be much at a loss to account for +it in any manner consistent with probability." The language of this +chief engineer seems, as if he would have brought all concerned to a +court-martial. + +The conqueror, after those magnificent exploits, which realised to M. +Lery's eye something supernatural--the work of a destiny determined +on smiting France--might have indulged his _passiveness_, without +much fear even of French blame. He had baffled the two favourite +marshals of France--he had torn the two chief fortresses of Spain +out of French hands. There was now no enemy in the field. Soult had +halted, chagrined at the fall of Badajoz. Marmont had retired to the +Tormes. Wellington determined to continue their sense of defeat, by +cutting off the possibility of their future communication. The bridge +of Almarez was the only passage over the Tagus in that quarter. +It was strongly fortified and garrisoned. On this expedition he +despatched his second in command, General Hill, an officer who never +failed, and whose name is still held in merited honour by the British +army. The _tête-du-pont_, a strong fortification, was taken by +escalade. The garrison were made prisoners; the forts were destroyed, +(May 19.) The action was sharp, and cost, in killed and wounded, +nearly 200 officers and men. + +Wellington now advanced to Salamanca, the headquarters of Marmont +during the winter; and pursued him out of it, to the Arapeiles, on +the 22d of July. In this battle Marmont was outmanoeuvred and +totally defeated, with the loss of 6000 killed and wounded, 7000 +prisoners, 20 guns, and several eagles and ammunition waggons. +The British army now moved on Madrid. King Joseph fled; Madrid +surrendered, with 181 guns; and the government of Ferdinand and the +Cortes was restored. + +But a still more striking enterprise was to come, the march to +Vitoria,--the brilliant commencement of the campaign of 1813. +Wellington had now determined to drive the French out of Spain. They +still had a force of 160,000 men, including the army of Suchet, +35,000. Joseph, with Jourdan, fearing to be outflanked, moved with +70,000 men towards the Pyrenees. On the 16th of May, Wellington +crossed the Douro. On the 21st of June he fought the battle of +Vittoria, with the loss of 6000 to the enemy, 150 guns, all their +baggage, and the plunder of Madrid. For this great victory Wellington +was appointed field-marshal. + +The march itself was a memorable instance of "enterprise." It was a +movement of four hundred miles, through one of the most difficult +portions of the Peninsula, by a route never before attempted by +an army, and which, probably, no other general in Europe would +have attempted. Its conduct was so admirable, that it was scarcely +suspected by the French; its movement was so rapid, that it +outstripped them; and its direction was so skilful, that King Joseph +and his marshal had scarcely encamped, and thought themselves out of +the reach of attack, when they saw the English columns overtopping +the heights surrounding the valley of the Zadora. + +In his last Spanish battle, the victory of the Pyrenees, where +he had to defend a frontier of sixty miles, he drove Soult over +the mountains, and was the first of all the generals engaged in +Continental hostilities, to plant his columns on French ground! + +Those are the facts of _seven years_ of the most perilous war, +against the most powerful monarch whom Europe had seen for a thousand +years. The French army in the Peninsula had varied from 150,000 to +300,000 men. It was constantly recruited from a national force of +600,000. It was under the authority of a great military sovereign, +wholly irresponsible, and commanding the entire resources of the most +populous, warlike, and powerful of Continental states. The British +general, on the other hand, was exposed to every difficulty which +could embarrass the highest military skill. He had to guide the +councils of the two most self-willed nations in existence. He had +to train native armies, which scoffed at English discipline; he had +the scarcely less difficult task of contending with the fluctuating +opinions of public men in England: yet he never shrank; he never was +shaken in council, and he never was defeated in the field. + +But by what means were all this succession of unbroken victories +achieved? Who can listen to the French babbling, which tells us that +it was done, simply by _standing still to be beaten_? The very nature +of the war, with an army composed of the raw battalions of England, +which had not seen a shot fired since the invasion of Holland in +1794, a period of fourteen years; his political anxieties from his +position with the suspicious governments of Spain and Portugal, +and not less with his own fluctuating Legislature; his encounters +with a force quadruple his own, commanded by the most practised +generals in Europe, and under the supreme direction of the conqueror +of the Continent--A condition of things so new, perplexing, and +exposed to perpetual hazard, in itself implies _enterprise_, a +character of sleepless activity, unwearied resource, and unhesitating +intrepidity--all the very reverse of passiveness. + +That this illustrious warrior did not plunge into conflict on +every fruitless caprice; that he was not for ever fighting for the +Gazette; that he valued the lives of his brave men; that he never +made a march without a rational object, nor ever fought a battle +without a rational calculation of victory--all this is only to say, +that he fulfilled the duties of a great officer, and deserved the +character of a great man. But, that he made more difficult campaigns, +fought against a greater inequality of force, held out against more +defective means, and accomplished more decisive successes, than any +general on record, is mere matter of history. + +His last and greatest triumph was Waterloo,--a victory less over an +army than an empire,--a triumph gained less for England than for +Europe,--the glorious termination of a contest for the welfare of +mankind. Waterloo was a defensive battle. But it was not the rule, +but the exception. The object of the enemy was Brussels: "To-night +you shall sleep in Brussels," was the address of the French Emperor +to his troops. Wellington's was but the wing of a great army spread +over leagues to meet the march of the French to Brussels. His force +consisted of scarcely more than 40,000 British and Hanoverians, +chiefly new troops; the rest were foreigners, who could scarcely be +relied on. The enemy in front of him were 80,000 veterans, commanded +by Napoleon in person. The left wing of the Allied force--the +Prussians--could not arrive till seven in the evening; after the +battle had continued eight hours. The British general, under those +circumstances, could not move; but he was not to be beaten. If he had +80,000 British troops, he would have finished the battle in an hour. +On seeing the Prussian troops in a position to follow up success, he +gave the order to advance; and in a single charge swept the French +army, the Emperor, and his fortunes, from the field! Thus closed the +18th of June 1815. + +Within _three days_, this "man of passiveness" crossed the French +frontier, (June 21,) took every town in his way, (and all the French +towns on that route are fortified,) and, on the 30th, the English +and Prussians invested Paris. On the 3d of July, the capitulation of +Paris, garrisoned by 50,000 regular troops and the national guard, +was signed at St Cloud, and the French army was marched to the Loire, +where it was disbanded. + +We have now given the answer which common sense gives, and which +history will always give, to the childishness of accounting for +Wellington's unrivalled successes by his "doing nothing" until the +"invincible" French chose to grow weary of being invincible. The +historic fact is, that their generals met a superior general; that +their troops met Englishmen, commanded by an officer worthy of such +a command; and that "enterprise" of the most daring, sagacious, and +brilliant order, was the especial, peculiar, and unequalled character +of Wellington. + +The volumes of M. Gravière are interesting; but he must unlearn his +prejudices; or, if that be nationally impossible, he must palliate +them into something like probability. He must do this even in +consideration of the national passion for "glory." To be beaten +by eminent military qualities softens the shame of defeat; but to +be beaten by mere _passiveness_,--to be driven from a scene of +possession by _phlegm_, and to be stript of laurels by the hand of +indolence and inaptitude,--must be the last aggravation of military +misfortune. + +Yet, this stain they must owe to the pen of men who subscribe to the +doctrine, that the great soldier of England conquered simply by his +_incapacity for action_! + +We think differently of the French people and of the French soldiery. +The people are intelligent and ingenious; the soldiery are faithful +and brave. England has _no_ prejudices against either. Willing to +do justice to the merits of all, she rejoices in making allies +of nations, whom she has never feared as _enemies_. She wants no +conquest, she desires no victories. _Her_ glory is the peace of +mankind. + +But, she will not suffer the tombs of her great men to be defaced, +nor their names to be taken down from the temple consecrated to the +renown of their country. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] _Sketches of the Last Naval War_; from the French of Captain +GRAVIÈRE. By the Hon. Captain PLUNKET. 2 vols. Longman. + + + + +DANUBE AND THE EUXINE. + + + "Danube, Danube! wherefore comest thou + Red and raging to my caves? + Wherefore leap thy swollen waters + Madly through the broken waves? + Wherefore is thy tide so sullied + With a hue unknown to me? + Wherefore dost thou bring pollution + To the old and sacred sea?" + + "Ha! rejoice, old Father Euxine! + I am brimming full and red; + Noble tidings do I carry + From my distant channel bed. + I have been a Christian river + Dull and slow this many a year, + Rolling down my torpid waters + Through a silence morne and drear; + Have not felt the tread of armies + Trampling on my reedy shore; + Have not heard the trumpet calling, + Or the cannon's gladsome roar; + Only listened to the laughter + From the village and the town, + And the church-bells, ever jangling, + As the weary day went down. + And I lay and sorely pondered + On the days long since gone by, + When my old primæval forests + Echoed to the war-man's cry; + When the race of Thor and Odin + Held their battles by my side, + And the blood of man was mingling + Warmly with my chilly tide. + Father Euxine! thou rememb'rest + How I brought thee tribute then-- + Swollen corpses, gash'd and gory, + Heads and limbs of slaughter'd men! + Father Euxine! be thou joyful! + I am running red once more-- + Not with heathen blood, as early, + But with gallant Christian gore! + For the old times are returning, + And the Cross is broken down, + And I hear the tocsin sounding + In the village and the town; + And the glare of burning cities + Soon shall light me on my way-- + Ha! my heart is big and jocund + With the draught I drank to-day. + Ha! I feel my strength awaken'd, + And my brethren shout to me; + Each is leaping red and joyous + To his own awaiting sea. + Rhine and Elbe are plunging downward + Through their wild anarchic land, + Every where are Christians falling + By their brother Christians' hand! + Yea, the old times are returning, + And the olden gods are here! + Take my tribute, Father Euxine, + To thy waters dark and drear. + Therefore come I with my torrents, + Shaking castle, crag, and town; + Therefore, with the shout of thunder, + Sweep I herd and herdsman down; + Therefore leap I to thy bosom, + With a loud, triumphal roar-- + Greet me, greet me, Father Euxine-- + I am Christian stream no more!" + + + + +THE MEMOIRS OF LORD CASTLEREAGH.[9] + + +In the absence of any real history of Ireland, the memoirs of its +distinguished persons are of the first importance. They are the +landmarks within which the broad and general track of historic +narrative must be led. They fix character--the most necessary aid to +the larger views of the historian. They disclose to us those secret +springs which regulate the great social machinery; and by an especial +faculty, more valuable than all, they bring us face to face with +minds of acknowledged eminence, teach us the course which the known +conquerors of difficulties have pursued, and exhibit the training +by which the championship of nations is to be sustained. As the old +lawgiver commanded that beautiful statues should be placed before the +Spartan wives, to impress their infants with beauty of countenance +and stateliness of form, the study of greatness has a tendency to +elevate our nature; and though camps and councils may be above our +course, yet the light shed from those higher spheres may guide our +steps through the tangled paths of our humbler world. + +The present memoir gives evidence of an additional merit in +biography: it assists justice; it offers the power of clearing +character, which might have been refused to the living; it brings +forward means of justification, which the dignity of the injured, his +contempt of calumny, or the circumstances of his time, might have +locked up in his bosom. It is an appeal from the passion of the hour +to the soberness of years. It has the sincerity and the sanctity of a +voice from the world of the future. + +The Stewarts, ancestors of the Marquis of Londonderry, came +originally from Scotland, and, settling in Ireland in the reign of +James I., obtained large possessions among the forfeited lands in +Ulster. The family were Protestants, and distinguished themselves +by Protestant loyalty in the troubled times of Ireland--a country +where trouble seems to be indigenous. One of those loyalists was +Colonel William Stewart, who, during the Irish war, under James II., +raised a troop of horse at his own expense, and skirmished vigorously +against the Popish enemy at the siege of Londonderry. For this good +service he was attainted, with all the chief gentry of the kingdom, +in the confiscating parliament of James. But the confiscation was +not carried into effect, and the estate remained to a long line of +successors. + +The father of the late Marquis of Londonderry was the first of +the family who was ennobled. He was an active, intelligent, and +successful man. Representing his county in two parliaments, and, +acting with the government, he partook of that golden shower which +naturally falls from the treasury. He became in succession the +possessor of office and the possessor of title--baron, viscount, +earl, and marquis--and wisely allied himself with English nobility, +marrying, first, a daughter of the Earl of Hertford, and, secondly, +a sister of Lord Camden. The subject of this memoir was a son of the +first marriage, and was born in Ireland on the 18th of June 1769. +From boyhood he was remarkable for coolness and intrepidity, and was +said to have exhibited both qualities in saving a young companion in +the lake of Strangford. At the age of seventeen he was entered of St +John's College, Cambridge, where he seems to have applied himself +actively to the general studies of the place--elementary mathematics, +classics, logic, and moral philosophy. This sufficiently answers the +subsequent taunts at the narrowness of his education. + +As his father had been a politician, his son and heir was naturally +intended for political life. The first step of his ambition was a +costly one. County elections in those days were formidable affairs. +The Hillsborough family had formerly monopolised the county. Young +Stewart was put forward, according to custom, as "the champion of +independence." He gained but half the day, for the Hillsboroughs +still retained one nominee. The young candidate became a member of +parliament, but this step cost £60,000. + +The sacrifice was enormous, and perhaps, in our day, might startle +the proudest rent-roll in England: but, seventy years ago, and in +Ireland, the real expenditure was probably equivalent to £100,000 in +our day. And it must have been still more distressing to the family, +from the circumstance, that the sum had been accumulated to build +a mansion; that the expense of the election also required the sale +of a fine old collection of family portraits; and that the old lord +was forced to spend the remainder of his life in what the biographer +states to be an old barn, with a few rooms added. But his son was +now launched on public life--that stream in which so many dashing +swimmers sink, but in which talent, guided by caution, seldom fails +to float along, until nature or weariness finishes the effort, and +the man disappears, like all who went before. + +The young member, fresh from college, and flushed with triumph +over "parliamentary monopoly," was, of course, a Whig. _Plutarch's +Lives_, and the history of the classic commonwealths, make every +boy at school a Whig. It is only when they emerge from the cloudy +imaginations of republicanism, and the fabulous feats of Greek +championship, that they acquire common sense, and act according to +the realities of things. The future statesman commenced his career by +the ultra-patriotism of giving a "written pledge," on the hustings, +to the support of "parliamentary reform." + +With this act of boyishness he was, of course, taunted in +after-life by the Whigs. But his answer was natural and just: it +was in substance, that he had been, in 1790, an advocate for Irish +reform; and if the Irish parliament had continued under the same +circumstances, he would be an advocate for its reform still. But in +1793 a measure had been carried, which made all change perilous: the +Popish peasantry had been suffered to obtain the right of voting; and +thenceforward he should not aid parliamentary reform. + +It is to be observed, that this language was not used under +the temptation of office, for he did not possess any share in +administration until four years afterwards, in 1797. + +The forty-shilling franchise was the monster evil of Ireland. Every +measure of corruption, of conspiracy, and of public convulsion, +originated in that most mischievous, factious, and false step. It +put the whole parliamentary power of the country into the hands of +faction; made public counsel the dictation of the populace; turned +every thing into a job; and finally, by the pampering of the rabble, +inflamed them into civil war, and, by swamping the constituency, +rendered the extinction of the parliament a matter of necessity to +the existence of the constitution. + +To this measure--at once weak and ruinous, at once the triumph of +faction and the deathblow of Irish tranquillity; at once paralysing +all the powers of the legislature for good, and sinking the peasantry +into deeper degradation--we must give a few words. + +The original condition of the peasantry in Ireland was serfdom. A +few hereditary chiefs, with the power of life and death, ruled the +whole lower population, as the master of the herd rules his cattle. +English law raised them from this condition, and gave them the +rights of Englishmen. But no law of earth could give the Celt the +industry, frugality, or perseverance of the Englishman. The result +was, that the English artificer, husbandman, and trader, became men +of property, while the Celt lingered out life in the idleness of his +forefathers. Robbery was easier than work, and he robbed; rebellion +was more tempting than loyalty, and he rebelled: the result was +the frequent forfeiture of the lands of chiefs, who, prompted by +their priests, excited by their passions, and urged by the hope of +plunder, were continually rebelling, and necessarily punished for +their rebellion. Portions of their lands were distributed as the pay +of the soldiery who conquered them; portions were given to English +colonists, transplanted for the express purpose of establishing +English allegiance, arts, and feelings in Ireland; and portions +devolved to the crown. But we are not to imagine that these were +transfers of smiling landscapes and propitious harvests--that this +was a renewal of the Goth and Vandal, invading flowery shores, and +sacking the dwellings of native luxury. Ireland, in the 16th and +17th centuries, was a wilderness; the fertility of the soil wasted +in swamps and thickets; no inns, no roads; the few towns, garrisons +in the midst of vast solitudes; the native baron, a human brute, +wallowing with his followers round a huge fire in the centre of a +huge wigwam, passing from intoxication to marauding, and from beaten +and broken marauding to intoxication again. A few of those barons had +been educated abroad, but even they, on their return, brought back +only the love of blood, the habit of political falsehood, and the +hatred to the English name, taught in France and Spain. The wars of +the League, the government of the Inquisition, the subtlety of the +Italian courts, thus added their share of civilised atrocity, to the +gross superstitions and rude revenge of Popish Ireland. + +We must get rid of the tinsel which has been scattered by poetry over +the past ages of Ireland. History shows, under the embroidered cloak, +only squalidness. Common sense tells us what _must_ be the condition +of a people without arts, commerce, or agriculture; perpetually +nurturing a savage prejudice, and exhibiting it in the shape of +a savage revenge; ground to the dust by poverty, yet abhorring +exertion; suffering under hourly tyranny, yet incapable of enjoying +the freedom offered to them; and looking on the vigorous and growing +prosperity of the English colonist, with only the feeling of malice, +and the determination to ruin him. The insurrection of 1641, in which +probably 50,000 Protestant lives were sacrificed, was only one of +the broader scenes of a havoc which every age was exemplifying on +a more obscure, but not less ferocious scale. The evidence of this +indolent misery is given in the narrowness of the population, which, +at the beginning of the last century, scarcely reckoned a million +of souls: and this, too, in a country of remarkable fertility, free +from all habitual disease, with a temperate climate, and a breadth +of territory containing at this hour eight millions, and capable of +supporting eight millions more. + +The existing condition of Ireland, even with all the difficulties of +its own creation, is opulence, peace, and security, compared with its +wretchedness at the period of the English revolution. + +The measure of giving votes for members of parliament to the Popish +peasantry was the immediate offspring of faction, and, like all its +offspring, exhibited the fallacy of faction. It failed in every +form. It had been urged, as a means of raising the character of the +peasantry--it instantly made perfidy a _profession_. It had been +urged, as giving the landlord a stronger interest in the comforts and +conciliation of his tenantry--it instantly produced the splitting +of farms for the multiplication of votes, and, consequently, all +the hopeless poverty of struggling to live on patches of tillage +inadequate for the decent support of life. It had been urged, as a +natural means of attaching the peasantry to the constitution--it +instantly exhibited its effects in increased disorder, in nightly +drillings and daylight outbreaks; in the assassination of landlords +and clergy, and in those more daring designs which grow out of +pernicious ignorance, desperate poverty, and irreconcilable +superstition. The populace--beginning to believe that concession had +been the result of fear; that to receive they had only to terrify; +and that they had discovered the secret of power in the pusillanimity +of parliament--answered the gift of privilege by the pike; and +the "forty-shilling freeholder" exhibited his new sense of right +in the insurrection of 1798--an insurrection which the writer of +these volumes--from his intelligence and opportunities a competent +authority--calculates to have cost 30,000 lives, and not less than +three millions sterling! + +The forty-shilling franchise has since been abolished. Its practical +abominations had become too glaring for the endurance of a rational +legislature, and it perished. Yet the "snake was scotched, not +killed." The spirit of the measure remained in full action: it was +felt in the force which it gave to Irish agitation, and in the +insidiousness which it administered to English party. In Ireland it +raised mobs; in England it divided cabinets. In Ireland it was felt +in the erection of a rabble parliament; in England it was felt in +the pernicious principle of "open questions;" until the leaders of +the legislature, like all men who suffer themselves to tamper with +temptation, gave way; and the second great stage of national hazard +was reached, in the shape of the bill of 1829. + +If the projected measure of "endowing the popery of Ireland"--in +other words, of establishing the worship of images, and bowing down +to the spiritual empire of the papacy--shall ever, in the fatuity +of British rulers and the evil hour of England, become law; a third +great stage will be reached, which may leave the country no farther +room for either advance or retrogression. + + * * * * * + +In the year 1796, the father of the young member had been raised to +the earldom of Londonderry, and his son became Viscount Castlereagh. +In the next year his career as a statesman began; he was appointed +by Lord Camden, (brother-in-law of the second Earl of Londonderry,) +Keeper of the Privy Seal of Ireland. + +The conduct of the Irish administration had long wanted the first +quality for all governments, and the indispensable quality for the +government of Ireland,--firmness. It has been said that the temper of +the Irish is Oriental, and that they require an Oriental government. +Their wild courage, their furious passion, their hatred of toil, and +their love of luxury, certainly seem but little fitted to a country +of uncertain skies and incessant labour. The Saracen, transported to +the borders of the Atlantic, might have been the serf, and, instead +of waving the Crescent over the diadems of Asia, might have been +cowering over the turf-fire of the Celt, and been defrauded of the +pomps of Bagdad and the spoils of Jerusalem. The _decision_ of one +of the magnificent despotisms of the East in Ireland might have been +the true principle of individual progress and national renown. The +scimitar might have been the true talisman. + +But the successive British administrations took the false and the +fatal step of meeting the wild hostility of Ireland by the peaceful +policy of England. Judging only from the habits of a country trained +to the obedience of law, they transferred its quiet formalities into +the midst of a population indignant at all law; and, above all, at +the law which they thought of only as associated with the swords +of the soldiers of William. The government, continually changing +in the person of the Viceroy, fluctuated in its measures with the +fluctuation of its instruments; conceded where it ought to have +commanded; bartered power, where it ought to have enforced authority; +attempted to conciliate, where its duty was to have crushed; and +took refuge behind partisanship, where it ought to have denounced +the disturbers of their country. The result was public irritation +and cabinet incapacity--a continual rise in the terms of official +barter, pressing on a continual helplessness to refuse. This could +not last--the voice of the country was soon an uproar. The guilt, the +folly, and the ruin, had become visible to all. The money-changers +were masters of the temple, until judicial vengeance came, and swept +away the traffickers, and consigned the temple to ruin. + +When we now hear the cry for the return of the Irish legislature, we +feel a just surprise that the memory of the old legislature should +have ever been forgotten, or that it should ever be recorded without +national shame. We should as soon expect to see the corpse of a +criminal exhumed, and placed on the judgment-seat of the court from +which he was sent to the scaffold. + +The Marquis of Buckingham, once a popular idol, and received as +viceroy with acclamation, had no sooner dared to remonstrate with +this imperious parliament, than he was overwhelmed with national +rebuke. The idol was plucked from its pedestal; and the Viceroy, +pursued by a thousand libels, was glad to escape across the Channel. +He was succeeded by the Earl of Westmoreland, a man of some talent +for business, and of some determination, but by no means of the +order that "rides the whirlwind, and directs the storm." He, too, +was driven away. In this dilemma, the British cabinet adopted the +most unfortunate of all courses--concession; and for this purpose +selected the most unfitting of all conceders, the Earl Fitzwilliam--a +man of no public weight, though of much private amiability; sincere, +but simple; honest in his own intentions, but perfectly incapable +of detecting the intentions of others. His lordship advanced to the +Irish shore with conciliation embroidered on his flag. His first +step was to take the chief members of Opposition into his councils; +and the immediate consequence was an outrageousness of demand which +startled even his simple lordship. The British cabinet were suddenly +awakened to the hazard of giving away the constitution by wholesale, +and recalled the Viceroy. He returned forthwith, made a valedictory +complaint in parliament, to which no one responded; published an +explanatory pamphlet, which explained nothing; and then sat down +on the back benches of the peerage for life, and was heard of no +more. The Earl was succeeded by Lord Camden, son of the celebrated +chief-justice, but inheriting less of the law than the temperament +of his father. Graceful in manner, and even aristocratic in person, +his councils were as undecided as his mission was undefined. The +aspect of the times had grown darker hour by hour, yet his lordship +speculated upon perpetual serenity. Conspiracy was notorious +throughout the land, yet he moved as tranquilly as if there were not +a traitor in the earth; and on the very eve of a conflagration, of +which the materials were already laid in every county of Ireland, he +relied on the silent spell of the statute-book! + +The secretary, Mr Pelham, afterwards Lord Chichester, wanted the +meekness, or disdained the short-sightedness of his principal; +and, on the first night of his official appearance in the House, +he gave at once the strongest evidence of his own opinion, and the +strongest condemnation of the past system; by boldly declaring that +"concessions to the Catholics seemed only to increase their demands; +that what they now sought was incompatible with the existence of a +British constitution; that concession must stop somewhere; and that +it had already reached its utmost limit, and could not be allowed to +proceed. Here he would plant his foot, and never consent to recede an +inch further." + +The debate on this occasion continued during the night, and until +eight in the morning. All that fury and folly, the bitterness of +party and the keenness of personality, could combine with the +passionate eloquence of the Irish mind, was exhibited in this +memorable debate. The motion of the popish advocates was lost, but +the rebellion was carried. The echo of that debate was heard in the +clash of arms throughout Ireland; and Opposition, without actually +putting the trumpet to their lips, and marshalling conspiracy, had +the guilty honour of stimulating the people into frenzy, which the +Irishman calls an appeal to the god of battles, but which, in the +language of truth and feeling, is a summons to all the sanguinary +resolves and satanic passions of the human mind. + +The secretary, perhaps foreseeing the results of this night, and +certainly indignant at the undisciplined state of the legislative +council, suddenly returned to England; and Lord Castlereagh was +appointed by his relative, the Viceroy, to fill the post of secretary +daring his absence. The rebellion broke out on the night of the 23d +of May 1798. + +In the year 1757, a committee was first established for the relief +of Roman Catholics from their disabilities by law. From this +justifiable course more dangerous designs were suffered to follow. +The success of republicanism in America, and the menaces of war +with republican France, suggested the idea of overthrowing the +authority of government in Ireland. In 1792, his Majesty's message +directed the repeal of the _whole body_ of anti-Romanist statutes, +excepting those which prohibited admission into parliament, and +into thirty great offices of state, directly connected with the +confidential departments of administration. The Romish committee had +already extended their views still farther. The well-known Theobald +Wolfe Tone was their secretary, and he prepared an alliance with +the republicanised Presbyterians of the north, who, in 1791, had +organised in Belfast a club entitled "The United Irishmen." + +The combination of the Romanist of the south and the dissenter of the +north was rapidly effected. Their mutual hatreds were compromised, +for the sake of their common hostility to Church and State. Upwards +of 100,000 men in arms were promised by the north; millions, to be +hereafter armed, were offered by the south; agents were despatched to +urge French expeditions; correspondences were held with America for +aid; the whole machinery of rebellion was in full employment, and a +civil war was already contemplated by a group of villains, incapable +of any one of the impulses of honourable men. + +It is memorable that, in the subsequent convulsion, not one of those +men of blood displayed the solitary virtue of the ruffian--courage. +They lived in subterfuge, and they died in shame. Some of them +perished by the rope, not one of them fell by the sword. The leaders +begged their lives, betrayed their dupes, acknowledged their +delinquencies, and finished their days beyond the Atlantic, inflaming +the hostility of America, libelling the government by which their +lives were spared, and exemplifying the notorious impossibility of +reforming a rebel but by the scaffold. + +Attempts have been made, of late years, to raise those men into the +reputation of heroism; they might as justly have been raised into +the reputation of loyalty. No sophistry can stand against the facts. +Not one of them took the common hazards of the field: they left the +wretched peasantry to fight, and satisfied themselves with harangues. +Even the poetic painting of Moore cannot throw a halo round the head +of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. This hero walked the country in woman's +clothes, to be arrested in his bed, and perish in a prison. Tone cut +his throat. Irishmen are naturally brave; but it is no dishonour to +the nation to know that treason degrades the qualities of nature, and +that conscience sinks the man of nerve into the poltroon. + +It was among the singular instances of good fortune which saved +Ireland in her crisis, that Lord Castlereagh assumed the duties +of Irish Secretary. Uniting mildness of address with known +determination, he was a favourite in the House of Commons, which +in those days was proud of its character alike for manners and +intrepidity. His indefatigable vigilance, and even the natural vigour +of his time of life, rendered him adequate to services and labours +which might have broken down the powers of an older man, and which +must have been declined by the feeble health of his predecessor, +Pelham, who still actually retained the office. Even his family +connexion with the Viceroy may have given him a larger share than +usual of the immediate confidence of government. + +Under all circumstances, he was the fittest man for the time. He +protected the country in the most difficult period of its existence. +There was but one more service to secure Ireland against ruinous +change--the rescue of her councils from the dominion of the mob; and +it was his eminent fortune to effect it, by the Union. + +There is the most ample evidence, that neither parliamentary reform +nor Catholic emancipation were the true objects of the United +Irishmen. The one was a lure to the malcontents of the north, the +other to the malcontents of the south. But the secret council of the +conspiracy--determined to dupe the one, as it despised the other--had +resolved on a democracy, which, in its day of triumph, following the +steps of France, would, in all probability, have declared itself +infidel, and abolished all religion by acclamation. Party in the +north pronounced its alliance with France, by commemorating, with +French pageantry, the anniversary of the Revolution. The remnants of +the old volunteer corps were collected at this menacing festival, +which lasted for some days, and exhibited all the pomp and all the +insolence of Paris. Emblematic figures were borne on carriages +drawn by horses, with republican devices and inscriptions. On one +of those carriages was a figure of Hibernia, with one hand and +foot in shackles, and a volunteer presenting to her a figure of +Liberty, with the motto, "The releasement of the prisoners from the +Bastille." On another was the motto,--"Our Gallic brethren were born +July 14th, 1789. Alas! we are still in embryo." Another inscription +was--"Superstitious jealousy the cause of the Irish Bastille; let +us unite and destroy it." The portrait of Franklin was exhibited +among them, with this inscription,--"Where Liberty is, there is my +country." Gunpowder and arms were put in store, pikes were forged, +and treasonous addresses were privately distributed throughout the +country. + +It is to be observed, that those acts occurred _before_ the accession +of Lord Castlereagh to office: their existence was the result of +that most miserable of all policies--the sufferance of treason, in +the hope that it may die of sufferance. If he had guided the Irish +councils in 1792 instead of in 1794, the growing treason would have +either shrunk from his energy, or been trampled out by his decision. + +It has been the custom of party writers to charge the secretary with +rashness, and even with insolence. The answer is in the fact, that, +until the year in which the revolt became imminent, his conduct was +limited to vigilant precaution--to sustaining the public spirit--to +resisting the demands of faction in the House--and to giving the +loyal that first and best creator of national courage--the proof +that, if they did not betray themselves, they would not be betrayed +by their government. + +In 1798, the rebellion was ripe. The conspirators had been fully +forewarned of their peril by the vigour of public measures. But, +disgusted by the delays of France,--conscious that every hour was +drawing detection closer round them; and still more, in that final +frenzy which Providence suffers to take possession of men abusing its +gifts of understanding,--they at last resolved on raising the flag +of rebellion. A return of the rebel force was made by Lord Edward +Fitzgerald, stating the number of _armed_ men in Ulster, Leinster, +and Munster, at 279,896! and the 23d of May was named as the day of +the general insurrection. + +Government now began to act. On the 12th of March, it arrested the +whole body of the delegates of Leinster, assembled in committee in +the metropolis. The seizure of their papers gave the details of +the treason. Warrants were instantly issued for the arrest of the +remaining leaders, Emmett, M'Nevin, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and +others. We hasten on. A second committee was formed; and again broken +up by the activity of the government. The French agency was next +extinguished, by the arrest of O'Connor, the priest Quigley, and +others, on the point of leaving England for France. Seizures of arms +were made, the yeomanry were put on duty, the loyalists were formed +into corps, armed, and disciplined. + +Lord Edward Fitzgerald had escaped, and a reward of £1000 was +put upon his head. On the 19th of May, only four days before the +outbreak, he was arrested in an obscure lodging in Dublin, stabbed +one of his captors in the struggle, was himself wounded, and died in +prison of his wound. + +During this most anxious period, the life of every leading member +of government was in imminent peril. Plots were notoriously formed +for the assassination of the commander-in-chief, and the chancellor; +but Lord Castlereagh was obviously the especial mark for the +conspirators. In scorn of this danger, he gallantly persevered; and, +on the 22d of May, the very night before the commencement of the +insurrection, he brought down to the House the following message from +the Lord-lieutenant:-- + +"That his excellency had received information, that the disaffected +had been daring enough to form a plan, for the purpose of possessing +themselves, in the course of the _present week_, of the metropolis; +of seizing the seat of government, and those in authority within +the city. That, in consequence of that information, he had directed +every military precaution to be taken which seemed expedient; that +he had made full communication to the magistrates, for the direction +of their efforts; and that he had not a doubt, by the measures +which would be pursued, that the designs of the rebellious would be +effectually and entirely crushed." + +To this message the House of Commons voted an immediate +answer,--"That the intelligence thus communicated filled them +with horror and indignation, while it raised in them a spirit of +resolution and energy." And, for the purpose of publicly showing +their confidence and their determination, the whole of the Commons, +preceded by the speaker and the officers of the House, went on foot, +two by two, in procession through the streets, to the castle, to +carry up their address to the Viceroy. + +Lord Castlereagh, during this most anxious period, was in constant +activity, keeping up the correspondence of his government with the +British Cabinet and the generals commanding in Ireland. But, the +correspondence preserved in the Memoirs is limited to directions to +the military officers--among whom were the brave and good Abercromby, +and Lake, Moore, and others who, like them, were yet to gain their +laurels in nobler fields. + +The rebellion, after raging for six weeks in the south, and +exhibiting the rude daring of the peasantry, in several desperate +attacks on the principal towns garrisoned by the army, was at +length subdued by Lord Cornwallis; who, at once issuing an amnesty, +and acting at the head of a powerful force, restored the public +tranquillity. This promptitude was fortunate; for in August a +debarkation was made by General Humbert in the west, at the head of +eleven hundred French troops, as the advanced guard of an army. This +force, though absurdly inferior to its task, yet, by the rapidity +of its marches, and the daring of its commander, revived the spirit +of insurrection, and was joined by many of the peasantry. But the +whole were soon compelled to lay down their arms to the troops of the +Viceroy. Scarcely had they been sent to an English prison, when a +French squadron, consisting of a ship of the line and eight frigates, +with 5000 troops on board, appeared off the northern coast. They +were not left long to dream of invasion. On the _very next day_, the +squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren was seen entering the French +anchorage. The enemy were instantly attacked. The line-of-battle +ship, the Hoche, with six of the frigates, was captured after a sharp +cannonade; and among the prisoners was found the original incendiary +of the rebellion, Wolfe Tone, bearing the commission of a French +adjutant-general. On his trial and sentence by a court-martial in +Dublin, he solicited to be shot as a soldier, not hanged as a felon. +But there was too much blood on his head to alter the forms of law +for a villain who had returned for the express purpose of adding the +blood of thousands to the past. To escape being hanged, he died by +his own hand, deplorably, but suitably, closing a life which honesty +and industry might have made happy and honourable, by the last and +only crime which he could have added to the long list of his treasons. + +The administration of Lord Castlereagh was now to be distinguished +by another national service of the highest order. The British +government had been awakened, by the rebellion, to the _necessity of +a union_. The object of the rebels was to separate the two islands +by violence: the danger pointed out the remedy, and the object of +government was to join them indissolubly by law. The measure had +been proposed nearly a century before, by the peerage of Ireland +themselves, then shrinking from a repetition of the war of James +II., and the sweeping confiscations of the popish parliament. The +measure was twice proposed to the British cabinet, in 1703 and 1707. +But the restless intrigues of party in the reign of Anne occupied +all the anxieties of a tottering government; and the men who found +it difficult to float upon the surge, thought themselves fortunate +to escape the additional gusts, which might come ruffling the waters +from Ireland. The Volunteer armament, with the example of America, if +not actually inflaming Ireland to revolution, yet kindling a beacon +to every eye which sought the way to republicanism, again awoke the +cabinet to the necessity of a union. The regency question, in which +the Irish parliament attempted to divide, not only the countries, but +the crown--placing one half on the head of the Prince of Wales, and +the other half on the head of the King--again startled the cabinet. +But, as the peril abated, the means of protection were thrown by. The +hurricane of France then came, and dashed against every throne of +Europe, sinking some, shattering others, and throwing clouds, still +pregnant with storm and flame, over the horizon of the civilised +world. But the vices of France suddenly extinguished the European +perils of Revolution. The democracy which, proclaiming universal +peace and freedom, had summoned all nations to be present at the +erection of a government of philosophy, was seen exulting in the +naked display of cruelty and crime. In place of a demigod, Europe +saw a fiend, and shrank from the altar on which nothing was to be +accepted but the spoil and agonies of man. + +Those facts are alluded to, simply to extinguish the gross and common +charge, that the British cabinet fostered the rebellion, only to +compel the country to take refuge in the Union. It is unquestionable, +that the wisdom of its policy had been a maxim for a hundred years; +that the plan was to be found in the portfolio of every cabinet; that +all administrative foresight acknowledged that the time _must_ come +when it would be inevitable, yet put off the hour of action; that it +haunted successive cabinets like a ghost, in every hour of national +darkness, and that they all rejoiced at its disappearance at the +return of day. But when rebellion broke out in Ireland itself--when +it was no longer the reflection from the glare of American democracy, +nor the echo from the howl of France; when the demand of separation +was made by the subjects of the British crown, in the sight of +England--the necessity was irresistible. There was no longer any +alternative between binding in fetters, and binding in law. Then the +resolve of Pitt was made, and its performance was committed to the +hands of a fearless and faithful man. Ireland was relieved from the +burden of a riotous and impoverished independence, and England was +relieved from the contemptible policy of acting by party, which she +despised, and paying a parliament to protect a constitution. + +But we must hasten to other things. There was, of course, an infinite +outcry among all the tribes who lived upon popular corruption. In +closing the gates of the Irish parliament, they had been shut out +from the mart where they had flocked night and day to sell their +influence, their artifices, and themselves. The voluntary slave-trade +was broken up; and the great dealers in political conscience regarded +themselves as robbed of a right of nature. The kings of Benin and +Congo could not be more indignant at the sight of a British cruiser +blockading one of their rivers. The calamity was universal; the whole +body of parliamentary pauperism was compelled to work or starve. +The barrister was forced to learn law; the merchant to turn to his +ledger; the country gentleman, who had so long consoled himself +for his weedy fallows, by the reflection that, if they _grew_ +nothing else, they could at least grow forty-shilling voters, found +"Othello's occupation gone." The whole flight of carrion-crows, whom +the most distant scent of corruption brought upon the wing; all the +locust race, which never alighted, but to strip the soil; the whole +army of sinecurism, the countless generation of laziness and license, +who, as in the monkish days, looked to receiving their daily meal at +the doors of the treasury, felt the sudden sentence of starvation. + +But this, too, passed away. Jobbery, a more than equivalent for the +exemption of the land from the viper, became no longer a trade; +faction itself, of all existing things the most tenacious of life, +gradually dropped off; the natural vitality of the land, no longer +drained away by its blood-suckers, began to show itself in the +vigour of the public mind; peace did its office in the renewal of +public wealth, and perhaps the happiest years of Ireland were those +which immediately followed the Union. If Ireland was afterwards +overshadowed, the cause was to be found in that sullen influence +which had thrown Europe into darkness for a thousand years. + +Lord Castlereagh was now advanced an important step in public life. +Mr Pelham, who from ill health had long been an absentee, resigned +his office. The services of his manly and intelligent substitute +had been too prominent to be overlooked. A not less trying scene of +ministerial courage and ability was about to open, in the proposal of +the Union; and no man could compete with _him_ who had extinguished +the rebellion. + +A letter from his friend Lord Camden (November 1798) thus announced +the appointment:--"Dear Castlereagh,--I am extremely happy to be +informed by Mr Pitt that the wish of the Lord-lieutenant that you +should succeed Mr Pelham (since he has relinquished the situation of +secretary) has been acceded to by the King and his ministers; and +that the consent of the English government has been communicated to +Lord Cornwallis." + +On the 22d of January, a message to the English House of Commons +was brought down, recommending the Union, on the ground of "the +unremitting industry with which the enemies of the country persevered +in their avowed design of separating Ireland from England." On the +31st, Pitt moved eight resolutions as the basis of the measure. +Sheridan moved an amendment, which was negatived by one hundred +and forty to fifteen votes. In the Lords, the address in answer to +the message was carried without a division. It was clear that the +question in England was decided. + +In Ireland the discussion was more vehement, and more protracted; +but the decision was ultimately the same. Parliament went the way of +all criminals. It must be allowed, that its scaffold was surrounded +with popular clamour, to an extraordinary extent. It faced its fate +with national haughtiness, and vigorously proclaimed its own virtues +to the last. But, when the confusion of the scene was over, and the +scaffold was moved away, none lingered near the spot to wring their +hands over the grave. + +The unquestionable fact is, that there was a national sense of the +unfitness of separate legislatures for two countries, whose closeness +of connexion was essential to the existence of both. The Protestant +felt that, by the fatal folly of conceding votes to the popish +peasantry--votes amounting to universal suffrage--parliament must, +in a few years, become popish in all but the name. The landlords +felt that, the constant operation of party on the peasantry must +rapidly overthrow all property. The still more enlightened portion +of society felt that every hour exposed the country more perilously +to civil commotion. And even the narrowest capacity of judging must +have seen, in the smoking harvest, ruined mansions, and slaughtered +population of the revolted counties, the hazard of trusting to a +native parliament; which, though it might punish, could not protect; +and which, in the hour of danger, could not stir hand or foot but by +the help of their mighty neighbour and fast friend. + +If, in the rebellion, a wall of iron had been drawn round Ireland, +and her constitution had been left to the defence furnished by her +parliament alone, that constitution would have been but a cobweb; +parliament would have been torn down like a condemned building; and +out of the ruins would have been instantly compiled some grim and yet +grotesque fabric of popular power--some fearful and uncouth mixture +of legislation and vengeance: a republic erected on the principles +of a despotism; a temple to anarchy, with the passions of the rabble +for its priesthood, and the fallen heads of all the noble, brave, and +intellectual in the land, for the decorations of the shrine. + +The cry of Repeal has revived the recollection of the parliament; but +the country has refused to recognise that cry as national, and even +the echo has perished. It was notoriously adopted, not for its chance +of success, but for its _certainty_ of failure. It was meant to give +faction a _perpetual_ pretext for mendicancy. But the mendicant and +the pretext are now gone together. A few childish people, forgetting +its uselessness and its errors, alone continue to whine over it--as +a weak parent laments the loss of a son whose life was a burden to +him, and whose death was a relief. The Union was one of the highest +services of Lord Castlereagh. + +In corroboration of those sentiments, if they could require any, +it is observable how rapidly the loudest opponents of the measure +lowered their voices, and adopted the tone of government. Plunket, +the ablest rhetorician of the party--who had made his opposition +conspicuous by the ultra-poetic extravagance, of pledging himself +to swear his sons at the altar, as Hamilcar swore Hannibal to Roman +hostility--took the first opportunity of reconciling his wrath to +office, and settled down into a chancellor. Foster, the speaker, +who had led the opposition, received his salary for life without a +pang, and filled the office of chancellor of the Irish exchequer. +Bushe, the Cicero of the house, glowing with oratorical indignation, +condescended to be chief-justice. All the leaders, when the battle +was over, quietly slipped off their armour, hung up sword and shield +on their walls, put on the peace costume of handsome salary, and +subsided into title and pension. + +No one blamed them then, nor need blame them now. They had all been +_actors_--and who shall reproach the actor, when the lamps are put +out and the audience gone, for thinking of his domestic meal, and +dropping into his bed? Nature, like truth, is powerful, and the +instinct of the lawyer _must_ prevail. + +One man alone "refused to be comforted." Grattan, the Demosthenes +of Ireland, for years kept, without swearing it, the Carthaginian +oath, which had slipped out of the mind of Plunket. He talked of +the past with the rapt anguish of a visionary, and eschewed human +occupation with the rigid inutility of a member of La Trappe. Grattan +long continued to linger in Ireland, until he was hissed out of his +patriotic romance, and laughed into England. There, he found, that he +had lost the better part of his life in dreams, and that the world +demanded evidence that he had not lived in vain. Fortunately for his +own fame, he listened to the demand; forgot his sorrows over the +dead in the claims of the living; threw in his share to the general +contribution of the national heart against the tyranny of Napoleon; +and by some noble speeches vindicated the character of his national +eloquence, and left an honourable recollection of himself in that +greatest temple of fame and free minds which the world has ever +seen--the parliament of England. + +Lord Castlereagh, on the final dissolution of the Irish legislature, +transferred his residence to London, where (in July 1802) he took +office under the Addington ministry as President of the Board of +Control--an appointment which, on the return of Pitt, he retained, +until (in 1805) he was placed by the great minister in the office of +secretary for the war and colonial department. + +The death of Pitt (1806) surrendered the cabinet to the Whigs, and +Lord Castlereagh retired with his colleagues. The death of Fox soon +shook the new administration, and their own imprudence broke it up, +(1807.) The Grey and Grenville party were superseded by Perceval; and +Lord Castlereagh returned to the secretaryship at war, which he held +until 1809, when his duel with Canning caused the retirement of both. + +In the Memoir, the circumstances of this painful transaction are +scarcely more than referred to; but the reply to a letter from Lord +Castlereagh to the King, distinctly shows the sense of his conduct +entertained in the highest quarter. + +"The King has no hesitation in assuring Lord Castlereagh that he has, +at all times, been satisfied with the zeal and assiduity with which +he has discharged the duties of the various situations which he has +filled, and with the exertions which, under every difficulty, he has +made for the support of his Majesty's and the country's interest. + +"His Majesty must ever approve of the principle which shall secure +the support and protection of government to officers exposing their +reputation, as well as their lives, in his service; when their +characters and conduct are attacked, and aspersed on loose and +insufficient grounds, without adverting to embarrassments and local +difficulties, of which those on the spot alone can form an adequate +judgment." This, of course, settled the royal opinion; and the +ministerial confidence shortly after reposed in Lord Castlereagh, in +the most conspicuous manner, fully clears his reputation from every +stain. + +But the letter confirms one fact, hitherto not much known, yet +which would alone entitle him to the lasting gratitude of the +empire. In allusion to the campaign of Portugal under Moore, and the +appointment of a successor, it adds,--"It was also this impression +which prompted the King to acquiesce in the appointment of so young +a lieutenant-general as Lord Wellington to the command of the troops +in Portugal." Thus, it is to Lord Castlereagh's sense of talent, and +to his public zeal, that we ministerially owe the liberation of the +Peninsula. His selection of the great duke, in defiance of the claims +of seniority, and probably of parliamentary connexion, gave England +seven years of victory, and finally gave Europe the crowning triumph +of Waterloo. + +But a still more extensive field of statesmanship was now opened to +him. Canning had left the Foreign Office vacant; before the close +of the year it was given to Lord Castlereagh. Another distinction +followed. The unhappy assassination of Perceval left the premiership +vacant; and Lord Castlereagh, though nominally under Lord Liverpool, +virtually became, by his position in the House of Commons, prime +minister. + +There never was a moment of European history, when higher interests +were suspended on the intrepidity, the firmness, and the wisdom of +British council. The Spanish war, difficult, though glorious, was +at all risks to be sustained; Austria had taken up arms, (in 1809,) +was defeated, and was forced to make the bitter peace that follows +disaster. Napoleon, at Erfurth, sat on a throne which looked over +Europe, and saw none but vassals. At home, Opposition flung its old +predictions of evil in the face of the minister, and incessantly +charged him with their realisation. An infirm minister in England at +that crisis would have humiliated her by a treaty; that treaty would +have been but a truce, and that truce would have been followed by +an invasion. But the Secretary never swerved, and his confidence in +the courage of England was rewarded by the restoration of liberty to +Europe. + +The fortunes of Napoleon were at length on the wane. France had been +stripped of her veterans by the retreat from Moscow, and the Russian +and German armies had hunted the wreck of the French across the +Rhine. But, in sight of final victory, the councils of the Allies +became divided, and it was of the first importance to reunite them. +An interesting letter of the late Lord Harrowby, to the present +Marquis of Londonderry, gives the narrative of this diplomatic +mission. + +"I cannot recollect dates, but it was at the time when you, Lord +Aberdeen, and Lord Cathcart, were accredited to the three sovereigns. +It was mooted in Cabinet, I think, by Lord Castlereagh, whether +it would not be desirable, in order to carry the full weight of +the British Government to bear upon the counsels of the assembled +sovereigns, that some one person should be appointed who might speak +in its name to them all. + +"The notion was approved of; and after the Cabinet was over, +Castlereagh called me into his private room, and proposed the mission +to me. I was, of course, highly flattered by such a proposal from +such a person; but I had not a moment's hesitation in telling him, +that I had tried my hand unsuccessfully on a somewhat similar mission +to Berlin, where I had also been accredited to the two Emperors; +that I had found myself quite incompetent to the task, which had +half-killed me; that I thought the measure highly advisable, but that +there was one person only who could execute it, and that person was +himself. He started at first. How could he, as Secretary of State, +undertake it? The thing was unheard of. I then told him, that it was +not strictly true that it had never been done: that Lord Bolingbroke +went to Paris in a diplomatic capacity when Secretary of State; and +that, though in that case the precedent was not a good one, it was +still a precedent, and I believed there were more. The conclusion to +which this conversation led was, that 'he would talk it over with +Liverpool;' and the consequence was that, the next day, or the day +after, his mission was decided." + +A letter, not less interesting, from Lord Ripon, gives some striking +particulars of this mission. Lord Ripon had accompanied him to the +Congress. "I allude to his first mission to the Continent, at the +close of 1813. I travelled with him from the Hague to Bâle, where he +first came in contact with any of the ministers of the Allied powers; +and thence we proceeded to Langres, where the headquarters of the +Grand Army were established, and where the allied sovereigns, the +Emperors of Austria and Russia and the King of Prussia, with their +respective ministers, were assembled." + +The letter proceeds to state the views of the mission, much of whose +success it attributes to the combined suavity and firmness of Lord +Castlereagh's conduct. But, an instance of his prompt and sagacious +decision suddenly occurred. Blucher's impetuous advance had been +checked, with serious loss, by a desperate assault of Napoleon, who, +availing himself of this success, had fallen upon all the advanced +forces of the Allies. There was wavering at headquarters, and there +were even proposals of retiring beyond the Rhine. It was essential to +reinforce Blucher, but there were no troops at hand. Lord Castlereagh +demanded, "Where were any to be found?" He was answered, that there +were two strong corps of Russians and Prussians under the command +of Bernadotte; but that he was "very tenacious of his command," and +they could not be withdrawn without a tedious negotiation,--in other +words, we presume, without fear of giving that clever but tardy +commander a pretext for abandoning the alliance altogether. The +difficulty was, by a high authority, pronounced _insurmountable_. +Lord Castlereagh, who was present at the council, simply demanded, +"whether the reinforcement was _necessary_;" and, on being answered +in the affirmative, declared that the order must be given; that +England had a right to expect that her allies should not be deterred +from a decisive course by any such difficulties; and that he would +take upon himself all the responsibility that might arise, regarding +the Crown-Prince of Sweden. + +The order was issued: Blucher was reinforced; Napoleon was beaten +at Laon; and the campaign rapidly approached its close. Still, +formidable difficulties arose. Napoleon, though he had at last +found that he could not face the army of the Allies, conceived the +daring manoeuvre of throwing himself in their rear--thus alarming +them for their communications, and forcing them to follow him back +through France. The consequences of a desultory war might have been +the revival of French resistance, and the ruin of the campaign. The +manoeuvre became the subject of extreme anxiety in the Allied +camp, and some of the chief authorities were of opinion, that he +ought to be pursued. It is said (though the Memoir has not yet +reached that part of the subject,) that the decision of leaving him +behind, and marching direct on Paris, was chiefly owing to Lord +Castlereagh; who pointed out the weakness of taking counsel from an +enemy, the advantage of finding the road to Paris open at last, and +the measureless political importance of having the capital in their +possession. + +This advice prevailed: a few thousand cavalry were sent in the track +of Napoleon, to entrap him into the idea that he was followed by the +Grand Army, while Schwartzenberg marched in the opposite direction; +and the first intelligence which reached the French army was in the +thunderclap which announced the fall of the Empire! + +Lord Harrowby's letter, in referring to a subsequent period, gives a +curious instance of the chances on which the highest events may turn. + +"Now for my other service in the dark. After the attempt to +assassinate the Duke of Wellington at Paris, the Government was +naturally most anxious to get him away. But how? Under whatever +pretext it might be veiled, _he_ would still call it running away, to +which he was not partial. But, when Castlereagh was obliged to leave +Vienna, in order to attend his duty in parliament, I was fortunate +enough to suggest that the Duke should be sent to replace him; and +that would be a command which he could not refuse to obey. + +"When I mentioned this to the Duke, just after I left you--for I was +then quite full of the memory of my little exploits--he quite agreed +that, if he had been at Paris, on the return of Buonaparte to France, +it would have been _highly probable that they would have seized him_. + +"Small events are great to little men; and it is not _nothing_, +to have contributed in the smallest degree to the success of +the Congress at Vienna, (nor was it then so called,) and of the +subsequent campaign, and to the saving of the Duke for WATERLOO!" + +After this triumphant course of political life, with every gift of +fortune around him, and perhaps the still higher consciousness of +having achieved a historic name, how can we account for the closing +of such a career in suicide? + +The only probable cause was the intolerable burden of public +business, by his having in charge the chief weight of the home +department as well as the foreign. His leadership of the House of +Commons was enough to have worn him out. Canning once said--"that no +vigour of mind or body can stand the wear and tear of a minister, +above ten years." Castlereagh had been immersed in indefatigable +toil since 1794. He had stood "the wear and tear" for thirty years. +His life was wholly devoted to business. During the summer he rose +at five, in winter at seven, and frequently laboured for twelve or +fourteen hours in succession. + +In person he was tall, with a mild and very handsome countenance in +early life, of which we must regret that the portrait in the first +volume of the Memoir gives but an unfavourable resemblance. The most +faithful likeness is that by Sir Thomas Lawrence, in the Windsor +Gallery of Statesmen, though it has the effeminate air which that +admirable painter had the unlucky habit of giving to his men. + +The death of Lord Castlereagh seems to have been justly attributed to +mental exhaustion, with the addition of a fit of the gout, for which +he had taken some depressing medicines. The state of his spirits +was marked by the King, on his Majesty's departure for Scotland. +At the Cabinet Council, he had been observed to remain helplessly +silent, and his signature to public papers had become suddenly almost +illegible. On those symptoms, he was expressly put into the hands +of his physician, and sent to Foot's Cray, his villa in Kent. The +physician attended him until the Monday following. Early on that +day he was hastily summoned, and found his Lordship dead in his +dressing-room. + +A letter from the Duke of Wellington conveyed the lamentable +intelligence to the present Marquis, who was then at Vienna. After +some prefatory remarks, the Duke says--"You will have seen, that I +witnessed the melancholy state of mind which was the cause of the +catastrophe. I saw him after he had been with the King on the 9th +instant, to whom he had likewise exposed it. But, fearing that he +would not send for his physician, I considered it my duty to go to +him; and not finding him, to write to him, which, considering what +has since happened, was a fortunate circumstance. + +"You will readily believe what a consternation this deplorable event +has occasioned here. The funeral was attended by every person in +London of any mark or distinction, of all parties; and the crowd in +the streets behaved respectfully and creditably." + +The Duke's remarks on "the fortunate circumstance" of applying to the +physician, we presume to have meant, the vindication of the Marquis's +character from the guilt of conscious suicide. For the same reason, +we have given the details. They relieve the mind of the Christian +and the Englishman from the conception, that the most accomplished +intellect, and the highest sense of duty, may not be protective +against the mingled crime and folly of self-murder. + +We have now given a general glance at the _matériel_ of those +volumes. They contain a great variety of public documents, valuable +to the future historian, though too _official_ for the general +reader. One, however, is too curious to be altogether passed by: it +is from Lord Brougham, (dated 1812,) offering himself for employment +in American affairs:-- + +"MY LORD,--I am confident that the step which I am now taking cannot +be misconstrued by your lordship. Under the present circumstances, I +beg to make a tender of my services to his Majesty's government in +the conduct of the negotiation with the United States, wheresoever +the same may be carried on. + +"I am induced to think that I might be of use as a negotiator in this +affair. I trust it is unnecessary to add, that I can have no motive +of a private or personal nature in making this offer. Should it be +accepted, I must necessarily sustain a considerable injury in my +professional pursuits," &c. + +We think that, in giving these volumes to the country, the present +Marquis of Londonderry has not merely fulfilled an honourable +fraternal duty, but has rendered a service to public character. +Faction had calumniated Lord Castlereagh throughout a large portion +of his career. The man who breaks down a fierce rebellion, and who +extinguishes a worthless legislature, must be prepared to encounter +the hostility of all whose crimes he has punished, or whose traffic +he has put to shame. The felon naturally hates the hand which holds +the scales of justice, and, if he cannot strike, is sure to malign. +The contemptuous dignity with which Lord Castlereagh looked down upon +his libellers, and his equally contemptuous disregard of defence, of +course only rendered libel more inveterate; and every low artifice of +falsehood was exerted against the administration of a man who was an +honour to Ireland. + +His course in England was in a higher region, and he escaped the +mosquitoes which infest the swamps of Irish political life. Among the +leaders of English party he had to contend with men of honour, and +on the Continent his task was to sustain the cause of Europe. There, +mingling with monarchs in the simplicity of a British gentleman, he +carried with him all the influence of a great British minister, and +entitled himself to that influence by the value of his services. Yet, +among the highest distinctions of his statesmanship, we have but +slight hesitation in naming the rapid overthrow of the rebellion. The +scene was new, the struggle singularly perplexing. Political artifice +was mingled with brute violence. If the spirit of revolt raged in the +superstition, the fears, and the rude memories of peasant life, it +was still more hazardously spread among the professional ranks, whose +ambition was frenzied by the prospect of a republic, or whose guilt +was to be screened by its establishment. He has been charged with +tyranny and torture in its suppression; his correspondence in these +volumes shows the manly view which he took of the true condition of +Ireland. + +The question of the safety of Ireland has now come before the +legislature once again, in all its breadth. Is Ireland to be a +perpetual seat of rebellion? is every ruffian to find there only an +armoury? is every faction to find there only a parade-ground? Is +its soil to be a perpetual fount of waters, that can flow only to +poison the healthful channels of society? Is the power of government +to be employed only in the hideous duties of the gaoler and the +executioner? Is the noblest constitution that man has ever seen to be +utterly paralysed, from the moment when it touches a soil containing +millions of our fellow subjects?--and to be paralysed by the act of +these millions? + +These are the questions which well may disturb the pillow of the +statesmen of England. We have no hesitation in answering them. As the +ruin of Ireland has been the act of a false religion, its renovation +must be the act of the true. This is no time for tardiness in this +experiment. Revolt has thrown aside its arms, but its antipathy +remains. We shall have revolt upon revolt, until the country is +turned into a field of battle or a sepulchre. If the rude, vulgar, +and cowardly conspirators of the present hour have found followers, +what might not be the national hazard if some valorous hand and +vivid intellect--some one of those mighty men who are born to take +the lead of nations, should marshal the willing multitudes at a time +when England was once again struggling for the liberties of Europe? +Are we to leave Ireland, with all its natural advantages, to the +unchecked progress of superstition, until, like the Roman Campagna, +under the same auspices, it exhibits nothing but a desert, where man +by daylight should put on his swiftest speed, and where he should not +sleep by night, unless he had already taken measure of his grave? + +The Memoir prefixed to the official papers in these volumes touches +with singular brevity on the personal characteristics of the late +Marquis of Londonderry. + +But the true biography of a public man is to be found in his +public career. There flattery can deceive no longer, and panegyric +is brought to the test of posterity. It fell to the lot of Lord +Castlereagh to take a lead in the _four_ most memorable transactions +of his time;--in the overthrow of the Irish Rebellion; in the +establishment of the Union; in the downfall of the French empire; +and in the settlement of the peace of Europe at the Congress of +Vienna. Those four are his claims on the living gratitude of his +country, and on the homage of the generations to come. The mind +which was equal to those tasks must have been a mind of power; the +determination which could have sustained him, in defiance of all +personal and public danger, must have been of the highest order +of personal and public intrepidity; and the patriotism which, in +every advance of his official distinctions, and every act of his +ministerial duty, directed his steps, as it then raised him above all +the imputations of party, now retains his memory in that elevation, +which partisanship can no more reach than it can comprehend. +Estimable in all the relations of private life, and honourable in all +the trusts of statesmanship, the bitterness of Opposition has never +dared to touch his personal character; and even faction has shown +its sense of his services, by never venturing to insult his tomb. If +the enemies of Ireland remember him with hatred, the historian of +Ireland must record him with honour. If faction in England cannot yet +be reconciled to the man who kept it at bay, it must remember him as +the statesman who was neither to be bought nor baffled; whose life +was a security to the constitution, and whose conduct formed the most +prominent contrast to that of those subsequent possessors of office, +whom it found the means alternately to corrupt and to control. + +It is not our wish to offer a rash and groundless panegyric to any +man. We refer simply to the facts--to the eminence of England under +his policy, and to its sudden difficulties under the abandonment +of his principles. We think Lord Castlereagh entitled to the full +tribute which can be paid by national respect to the memory of a +statesman distinguished by courage and conduct, by unblemished +honesty, and by unfailing honour. We think him fully entitled to bear +upon his monument the name of--A GREAT BRITISH MINISTER. + +The most passionate avidity for renown cannot desire a nobler name. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[9] _Memoirs and Correspondence of_ VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH, (_second_ +MARQUIS OF LONDONDERRY.) Edited by his brother, CHARLES VANE, MARQUIS +OF LONDONDERRY. 2 vols. London: Colburn. + + + + +A CALL. + + + There is a cry throughout the land, + The needy loudly ask for bread; + Craving and unappeased they stand, + They cannot all be duly fed. + The rich in vain large alms bestow-- + They fail to stem the rising tide + Of want, and beggary, and woe, + That hems them in on every side. + + Lo! from the stream that overflows, + Fresh gushing rivulets roll wide, + And far from where their source arose, + They bless the land through which they glide. + Shall Britain let such lesson fail? + Shall not her overburthen'd soil + Afar, where skill and strength avail, + Send forth the hardy sons of toil? + + Arise, ye peasants, bold and strong! + Courage! relieve your burthen'd land, + Toward a gracious country throng + That needs the willing heart and hand: + There with a cheerful vigour strive + For the reward denied ye here, + Through wholesome industry to thrive, + With lessening labour, year by year. + + Your many children, that ye feel + Here as a burthen on your hands, + There shall enrich ye through their zeal, + And tend your flocks, and till your lands. + No cry for bread shall pierce your ear, + Full harvests shall requite your toil, + And, bounteously your age to cheer, + Shall yield ye corn, and wine, and oil. + + Behold the paupers of our land, + By want made dissolute and rude, + With sullen heart and wasted hand + Asking an alms of broken food! + Behold, and snatch them from despair-- + Give them for effort a fair field, + With labour their free limbs may bear-- + And toil from vice shall be their shield. + + And ye whose lot is cast above + Want's perilous and grievous woes! + Be yours a full free work of love, + The debt that man his brother owes. + Bestow not that ye prize the least-- + Give knowledge, valour, skill, and worth. + Statesman and soldier, lawyer, priest, + Physician, merchant, go ye forth. + + And, Britain's daughters! give your aid, + Arise, make ready, cross the wave! + Ye, for meet help and solace made, + Go forth to cheer, to bless, to save! + Let not the exiles vainly ask + For home and sweet domestic cares; + Fulfil your high and gracious task-- + Go forth, join heart and hand with theirs. + + And ask ye all, as forth ye go, + The guidance of a light divine, + That through the darkest hours shall glow, + And steadfast in all peril shine. + Go forth with a believing heart, + Your Guard is sure by night and day; + Forth through the wilderness depart-- + Ye shall find manna on your way. + + JULIA + + + + +WHAT IS SPAIN ABOUT? + + +Whilst France, writhing under self-inflicted wounds, is preserved +from anarchy only by despotism; whilst Germany, convulsed by the +imitative folly of her children, enacts a travestie of Paris +tragedies; and Italy, like a froward child, screaming to go alone +before she can walk, kicks at her leading-strings, and falls upon +her nose--the affairs of a third-rate power, such as Spain has +dwindled into, have naturally enough been overlooked and forgotten. +It is time to recur to them for a moment. Spain has once been, and +yet again may be, a leading member of the European family. Under a +better government, she again may see days of prosperity and peace. +Again her merchant-fleets may cover the seas, her traders be renowned +for enterprise and wealth, her population be commensurate with the +extent and productiveness of her territory. And this may occur whilst +nations, but yesterday paramount in riches and power, sink by their +own madness into impotence and poverty. Her rise will not be more +astonishing than their decadence. + +At present, it appears the destiny of Spain to be misgoverned at home +and misunderstood abroad. The insurrection now budding into life and +vigour in so many of her provinces illustrates this proposition. +Originating in the grossest maladministration, out of Spain its +scope and nature, and the possible importance of its results, are +misconceived and underrated. It differs from any previous revolt +since the death of Ferdinand VII., inasmuch as it is less the +effort of a party, striving for the success of a principle and a +man, than the uprising of a nation struggling to shake off the yoke +of a galling and intolerable tyranny. There can be no doubt that +a very large majority of the Spanish people heartily wish success +to the movement against the existing government of the country. +Unfortunately, a majority of this majority confine themselves to +wishing, instead of putting their hand to the work, which then +would soon be done. Their lukewarmness, however, can hardly be +wondered at, when we remember how many of them have sacrificed +property and security to their political convictions, and ruined +themselves in the strife of parties. Of these parties, the two most +numerous, long opposed to each other, and whose tenets once stood +wide as the poles asunder, have forgotten old hatreds, made mutual +sacrifices, and joined heart and hand against the common foe. The +result is, the division of the country into two camps. On the one +hand is the Queen-mother--in whose dexterous fingers Isabella is a +mere puppet--Narvaez, O'Donnell, and the rest of the corrupt cabal +from the Rue de Courcelles. These have possession of the machinery +and _matériel_ of the state. They hold the purse, which places at +their devotion two armies, one of soldiers, the other of policemen, +_employés_, spies, and venal emissaries of all kinds. To use a simile +appropriate to the times, they have got upon the engine and tender, +coals and water are at their command; but they misguide the train and +ill-treat the passengers, clamorous for escape from their control. +Spain, let Madrid papers argue and deny as they will, is in a state +of general fermentation and violent discontent; on the brink of a +convulsion which may very possibly end in the ousting of Isabella +II., and in the enthronement of her cousin, the Count de Montemolin. +In Spain a republic is an impossibility, and almost without +partisans; and if the present queen be swept away by the tide of +national indignation against her unscrupulous mother, the crown must +naturally devolve upon the son of Don Carlos. At least, he is the +only eligible candidate--we may even say, the only possible one. Don +Francisco, the Incapable, would of course depart with his wife; his +brother, Don Enrique, convicted of instability and of treachery to +his party, would have nobody's support; and the Duke of Montpensier +is so totally out of the question, so wholly without adherents +as an aspirant to the Spanish throne, that we have difficulty in +crediting a statement confidently made by persons worthy of belief, +that the recent victim of a great revolution still directs, from his +retirement in this country, intrigues designed to place a crown upon +the head of the youngest hope of the house of Orleans. On the other +hand, the Carlist party is still strong in Spain--much stronger, +comparatively speaking, than it was two or three years ago; for it +has clung together and preserved its integrity, whilst other parties +have split and become dismembered. And although the bulk of the +Spanish people may be less anxious to get any one man, or set of +men, into power, than to get rid of those who at present so brutally +roughride them; yet the conviction has been gradually gaining +strength that, by character, education, and fair promises, the Count +de Montemolin offers the best guarantees for that firm, impartial, +and just government, under which alone is there a chance of Spain +being raised from her present sunken and unprosperous condition. The +Progresistas, who fiercely hated and fought against the father, rally +round the son, persuaded that from Isabella, so long their idol, they +would in vain look for a realisation of their political programme. Of +their cordial understanding and co-operation with the Carlists there +now can hardly exist a doubt. A very brief retrospect will suffice to +explain its causes and foundation. + +When Louis Philippe completed the job of the Spanish marriages, +the Carlists--who, although grievously stricken and disheartened +by the treaty of Bergara, had never entirely ceased to labour for +the attainment of their one great end--rested upon their arms, +and awaited in comparative inaction the dawn of better days. They +abandoned not hope, nor abjured intrigue; but they may be said to +have ceased, for a while, to conspire. In their fallen state, with +their slender resources, what could they do against the puissant King +of the French? For he it was against whom they must contend, did they +venture to assail the throne of Isabella, and to dispute the rule of +Christina. In England, too, their old enemies, the Whigs, had just +come into power; the name of Palmerston was a sound of ill omen to +Carlist ears; Bilbao and British marines, Passages and Commodore Hay, +were words inseparably coupled, and pregnant with fatal memories +to the upholders of legitimacy in Spain. Supposing that, by dint +of indefatigable exertions, they succeeded in raising funds, in +mustering an army, ill entering Spain sword in hand--forthwith they +were met by that ugly and unnatural monster, the Quadruple Alliance, +waiting, open-mouthed, to blast them to the four winds of heaven. +An attempt, under such circumstances, would have been worse than +useless; it would have been squandering a chance, and the Carlists +had none to throw away. So they waited and watched. Meanwhile, what +did the rulers of Spain--the persons governing behind the mask of +that poor, ill-brought-up, ill-used princess, Isabella? It was +natural to suppose that, having many enemies in the country--many +persons and parties whose ambitions and interests were checked +and thwarted by their ascendency--they would endeavour, as far as +possible, to conciliate and gain over these, or at any rate to secure +the support of the masses, by moderation and good government. A very +moderate amount of this latter, be it observed, would have sufficed +to gain them popularity, and to give stability to their reign. The +nation had endured so much--had suffered so terribly from civil wars, +rebellions, reactions, and the like--that all they expected, almost +all they asked, was to be kicked gently. They dared not think the +screw would be altogether taken off; but, considering the damaged +state of their articulations, they did hope it would be a little +eased. A man who had undergone a course of knout, might look upon +a cat-o'-nine tails as a blessed exchange, and be ready to hug the +drummers who applied it. This was exactly the case with Spain, long +drained by war-contributions and ravaged by contending factions. +From her state of exhaustion and suffering she had not had time to +recover during the honest and conscientious, but brief and too gentle +rule of Espartero. Never was there a finer chance for a party coming +into power than the Christinos or Moderados had, when they seized +the reins. The ball was at their foot, and they had but to pick it +up. Instead of that, they kicked it away. A little of the moderation +their political designation implies--a little, a very little, of +the patriotism and disinterestedness always so loud in their mouths, +and so wanting in their deeds, and they might have won the hearts +of their weary, war-worn countrymen. That moderation--they had it +not, and when vaunting their patriotism they thought only of their +profit. No sooner were they in power than they abandoned themselves +to their vicious instincts, and thought but of filling their pockets. +Christina reverted to her old system of unscrupulous appropriation; +Narvaez, having filled the higher military grades with his creatures, +and made the army his own by pampering and flattery, gave free play +to the unbounded brutality of his nature. Universal corruption became +the order of the day, extending through every administration, from +the minister of the crown down to subalterns and clerks. The revenue, +increasing in the very teeth of Spanish financiers--and which, by +the commonest honesty and the most ordinary amount of ability, might +soon have been rendered sufficient to meet the expenditure of the +country, and the long-neglected claims of the foreign creditor--was +so extravagantly collected, and paid tribute to so many infamous +peculators, that it was hardly recognisable in the reduced form in +which it ultimately reached the treasury. The country groaned, the +honest were indignant, the oppressed murmured, the boldest plotted. +Groans and indignation, murmurs and plots, were alike in vain; alike +they were arbitrarily silenced and crushed. Narvaez and his bayonets +were there, keeping the peace; whilst Christina and her friends, with +smooth and smiling countenances, picked up the doubloons. Quick! a +short shrift and a sharp cartridge for the first who speaks above +his breath. This did for a time, and might have done longer, for +in Spain he who holds the purse holds the power: besides which, +the red breeks of King Louis Philippe's cohorts showed menacingly +along the Pyrenees; and Lord Palmerston, although he had been so +scurvily treated in the matter of the marriages, might still, it was +thought, be induced, in case of need, to send a frigate or two, and a +battalion of marines, to protect his old ally Christina, should any +serious rebellion break out. But one morning the Parisians turned +their king out of his house; and the day afterwards, the Spanish +government, whilst labouring under delirium of some kind, ejected +Mr Bulwer from his; thus throwing, as the saying goes, the haft +after the blade, quarrelling with England at the very moment they +most needed her assistance, and remaining exposed, without hope of +succour, to the assaults and machinations of their numerous enemies. +Whereupon there was an immediate cocking of every Carlist beaver in +or out of Spain. The old chiefs, who for six years had starved and +struggled in the cause of their king, (succumbing finally before a +general's treachery rather than to the arms of their foes,) looked +out from the nooks where they long had rusted in retirement or exile, +and more than one was heard, in the words of the old Jacobite song, + + To shout to the north, where his leader shall roam-- + 'Tis time now for Charlie, our king, to come home. + +There was a like stir amongst the Progresistas, who were being +hanged, banished and imprisoned by the score, on account of revolts +and disturbances in which they had less share than the secret agents +of their persecutors. Either from presumptuous confidence in their +own strength, or because they deemed they had gone too far to recede, +and that it was too late to adopt a conciliatory policy, the clever +gentlemen in power at Madrid, not content with reviving, by their +insane foreign policy, the hopes of two powerful and hostile parties, +continued to increase the number of their domestic enemies by +persevering in a system of tyranny and persecution. The consequence +has been a coalition from which they have every thing to dread--a +coalition which has been denied by those interested to place it in +doubt, but whose existence each succeeding day renders more manifest. + +It may be asked how it is possible for stanch absolutists, such as +the Carlists have always been, to coalesce with men of such liberal +principles as the Progresistas profess. This question is replied +to in three words. When he accepted his father's renunciation in +his favour of his claims upon the crown of Spain, Count Montemolin +did not bind himself to adhere to his father's prejudices, or to +the less tolerant part of his political creed. During nine years' +detention and exile, the young prince, whose adherents claim for him +the rights and title of Charles VI. of Spain, has doubtless become +convinced of the impossibility of ever bringing back the country he +aspires to reign over to the old system of irresponsible absolutism +and priestly tyranny,--a system rendered especially odious by the +weakness and vices of the two last monarchs who governed by it. +The Progresistas, on their part, desire no exclusive favour, no +monopoly of power: compelled to withdraw their support from her they +once enthusiastically defended, they have no other candidate to put +forward. Don Enrique, in whom they once were disposed to confide, +basely sold and betrayed them; and as to Espartero, whose ambition +has been the subject of such fierce diatribes on the part of the +ignorant and the malicious, both in Spain and in England--the idea +of his aspiring to regal power appears too ridiculous, to those +acquainted with his simple tastes and unobtrusive worth, to be for an +instant dwelt upon and seriously refuted. No; all the Progresistas +ask is a free press, elections conducted without bribery or bayonets, +security for persons and property. Do one of these things exist in +Spain now? Let facts reply. We read the answer in the suppression or +silence of every Opposition newspaper; in the packed benches of the +Cortes; in the imprisonment, banishment, and confiscation, without +stated accusation or form of trial, of hundreds of innocent persons. +From this tyranny, than which none can be worse, the Count de +Montemolin promises relief. The Progresistas accept his pledge, and +rally round his standard. + +The Madrid government, which, since the commencement of the present +year, has constantly provoked petty disturbances, as pretexts for +arbitrarily consigning to the dungeon or the colonies as many as +possible of those they dislike or fear, now find themselves face to +face with a real insurrection of most formidable aspect. They have +cried wolf till the wolf has come, and they run considerable risk +of being devoured. In vain they deny their peril, affect to bluster +and talk big; their real alarm peeps through the flimsy cloak of +bravado. A government confident of its strength, and of the support +and sympathies of the governed, does not condescend to treat and +tamper with rebels. If the insurgents be so contemptible in numbers +and resources as the organs of Narvaez and the Queen-mother daily +assert them to be, why not crush them at once, instead of attempting +to buy over their chiefs, who, on their part, pocket the bribes and +laugh at their seducers? If Cabrera, for weeks together, lay sick +and bedridden in a Catalonian village, why was not a detachment, +or, if necessary, a division, sent to apprehend him? Such flimsy +impostures deceive no one. The truth is, that, with the exception +of a few fortified places, the east of Spain is in the hands of the +Carlists and Progresistas, who come up to the walls of the cities +and levy contributions at the very gates. The north only waits the +signal to burst into revolt; in the Castiles alarming demonstrations +are daily made, and armed bands show themselves on various points; in +the large commercial towns in the south, whose desire for a revision +of the present absurd Spanish tariff renders them ardent liberals, +discontent smoulders, and in an instant may burst into a flame. There +are Andalusian cities where the appearance of Espartero, or of some +other popular and influential Progresista, would at once raise the +entire population. At present, however, the revolt is in its infancy, +and can hardly be said to have begun. Its chiefs avoid encounters, +and busy themselves with organisation--which proceeds rapidly, in +spite of the marches and countermarches of Messrs Cordova, Pavia, +Villalonga, and the other Christino generals, and of the glorious +victories narrated in the columns of the _Heraldo_ and other equally +veracious journals. According to these, Cabrera has already been +several times totally routed and driven over the frontier. We have +strong grounds for believing that, up to this moment,--although +his lieutenants have been engaged in small affrays, of little or no +importance, but terminating, with scarcely an exception, in their +favour--he himself has not smelt powder, burned in anger, since he +left Spain in 1840. He waits the proper moment, when his arrangements +shall be completed, to commence operations upon a large scale; and +meanwhile he very judiciously avoids frittering away his strength in +profitless skirmishes. By the last advices worthy of credit, he is at +the head of six thousand men, well armed and uniformed, and nearly +all old soldiers, in high spirits and thorough discipline. This force +does not include the numerous detached and irregular bands spread +over Catalonia and Valencia, or various bodies of Progresistas, who +march under their own banner, but are on the best of terms with +the Carlists, and will co-operate with them in the day of battle. +Arms and ammunition are procured without difficulty from France +and England. The French Republic has its hands too full to attend +seriously to such trifles. Although General Cavaignac, to get rid +of the importunities of that blatant knave Sotomayor, did order the +arrest of a brace of unlucky Progresistas, there is little chance of +his carrying out the preventive system to a rigorous extent, or of +his depriving the starving French manufacturers of the crust they may +obtain by fabricating arms and clothing for the Carlist troops. As +to England, she is, of course, in no way called upon to prevent the +export of Birmingham muskets and Hounslow cartridges, even should she +suspect their destination to be different from that entered at the +custom-house. Indeed, it is shrewdly suspected that Lord Palmerston +would like nothing better than to see his quondam friends ejected +from Spain, and to resume amicable relations with that country by +accrediting an ambassador to the court of Charles VI. + +It is worthy of remark that Cabrera, who made himself so +notorious, during the last civil war in Spain, by his barbarous +cruelties--provoked, but not justified, by his mother's +murder--appears now to have adopted a totally different system, +and to have exchanged his ferocity for moderation and humanity. We +hear of no more cold-blooded shooting of prisoners, or wanton and +unprovoked aggressions; Christino soldiers who have fallen into his +hands, or into those of his subordinates, have been disarmed and +set at liberty; good treatment has been shown to magistrates and +other officials, carried off as hostages or held for ransom. The +contributions levied on the country have been regularised, and are +willingly paid; the peasantry receive the insurgents as liberators, +instead of shunning them as spoilers. Furious at this state of +things, which they can neither alter nor conceal, the Christinos +know not how to show their wrath, or on whom to wreak it; and the +means they resort to for the expression of their spite are perfectly +suicidal. The unfortunate _Constitucional_ of Barcelona, one of +the few remaining papers in Spain which now and then venture to +speak the truth, is arbitrarily suppressed for drawing a faithful +picture of the state of the province; whilst the very next day one +of the government generals confirms the truth of the sketch, and the +disaffection of the peasants, by enforcing the premature gathering +in of the fruits of the earth, to rot and perish in store, and by +forbidding the labourer to carry to the field more than six ounces +of food, lest he should sell or give it to the Carlists--annexing to +these stringent enactments others equally onerous and tyrannical. +All this time, at Madrid and in other cities, arrests continue; and +every day fresh victims are consigned to Ceuta, the Philippines, or +the prisons, their relatives and friends being thenceforward added to +the host of the disaffected. Why, this is stark-staring madness!--the +insanity, preceding perdition, with which God afflicts those he would +destroy. To discomfiture and destruction, total and lasting, the +party still dominant in Spain are to all appearance hastening. None +will pity their fall. They will be condemned not only by all just +men, but by the most reckless advocates of political expediency; +for they have been blind to their own true interests, as well as +unblushingly contemptuous of every principle of morality and good +government. + + + + +CONSERVATIVE UNION. + + +No private calamity which has occurred for years has so startled +the mind of England as the withdrawal of Lord George Bentinck from +the scene of his useful labours. In the prime of life, in the full +possession of a vigorous and masculine intellect, at the head of +a large and increasing political party, who revered him for his +unsullied honour, and loved him for his undaunted courage, he has +been taken from us by one of those mysterious visitations which are +sent as a token that the destinies of the world are indeed in the +hands of God. Short as was his public career, he had won for himself +a name which will not lightly die away in the history of his country, +and his memory will be cherished among us as that of a man who had +the welfare of Britain thoroughly at heart; and who, in an age of +degenerate and vacillating statesmanship, had the firmness to tear +off the mask from the features of hypocrisy, and to expose the awful +consequences of that culpable race for power which has effected the +partial disorganisation of this great and once prosperous empire. + +The loss of such a man at such a time is indeed far more a public +than a private calamity. As such, it has been felt throughout the +realm by thousands who understood the true position of Bentinck as +the champion of native industry, and the utter uncompromising foe of +that selfish and sordid system which seeks to aggrandise the few at +the cost of the labouring many. A large proportion even of those who +originally yielded to the deleterious doctrines of the free-traders, +but who, through sad and wholesome experience, had become alive +to the folly and iniquity of the modern scheme, were gathering +confidence from his unremitting exertions, and preparing to rank +themselves by his side. In him the British colonies have lost their +firmest friend and advocate. The noble struggle which he made this +year in behalf of the oppressed and defrauded West Indian planters, +was, in the opinion of many who knew him well, the proximate cause of +his death; for a similar amount of physical and intellectual labour +has hardly ever been undertaken even by a professional man, and never +without the imminent risk of shattering the constitution. + +We should ill perform our duty to the public, and to the +constitutional party whose cause we have undeviatingly supported, +if we omitted to take this last sad opportunity of testifying our +respect for the memory of so valuable a man. The tendency of the +present age is to estimate merit by success, and to offer its sole +homage to the winner of the desperate game. But those who look deeper +into the secret springs of human action and impulse, can hardly fail +to recognise in Bentinck a character invested with that rare chivalry +and devotion which, by common consent, we accept as the attribute of +our purest patriots and heroes. Chicanery, deceit, and falsehood were +utterly abhorrent to his mind. He had no taste for those state tricks +which have superseded the old manly English method, and no sympathy +for those who used them. He went into the arena of politics as a +soldier might go to battle, confident in the integrity and justice +of the cause in which he was engaged, and determined to maintain it +to the last against any weight of opposition. It was this resolute +and undaunted spirit which at once raised him from comparative +obscurity to the rank of a great parliamentary leader; for those who +co-operated with him knew well that they were dealing with a man +superior to all intrigue, and ready to lay down his life rather than +infringe, in the slightest degree, on the pledge which he had offered +to his country. + +We have no hesitation in saying this, because we are certain that no +one will question the sincerity of our conviction. During the last +two years, and almost without intermission, we have been compelled to +devote a large portion of our space to the consideration of public +questions, and of the political difficulties of the time. On more +than one point our views were seriously opposed to those entertained +and advocated by Lord George Bentinck; nor have we concealed our +opinion that his tactics, however bold, were not the best adapted +for accomplishing the object which we have most warmly at heart, the +reconstitution of the Conservative party upon such clear and defined +principles as may rescue the country from its present perilous +position. + +We feel that the necessity of such a union is so plain and +urgent--that the danger of allowing the affairs of Britain to be +longer administered by a feeble but stubborn ministry has been so +clearly demonstrated--that we cannot any longer afford to remain +inactive, or to indulge in idle recrimination. The safety of the +country peremptorily demands the adoption of a different policy, and +the resumption of the reins of government by hands that are capable +of holding them. It is for the gentlemen of England to decide whether +they shall adopt such a course by uniting cordially hand and heart +to retrieve us from our present embarrassments, or sit idly by as +mere spectators of a fatal course of legislation. The present crisis +is by far too serious to be viewed with indifference, or through the +coloured glass of obsolete party interest. The welfare of the empire +is at stake, and that is a subject with which none of us can dare to +dally. + +What are the differences which at present separate one section of +the Conservatives from the other? They resolve themselves simply +into the adhesion of a few talented, but we must say obstinate men, +to a leader whose tortuous policy has been the main cause of our +present unhappy position. We have no wish to say hard things even of +Sir Robert Peel. We believe, and devoutly hope, that his reign of +office is over, and that no combination of circumstances may occur +to bring him back, even for the shortest period, into power; and, +believing and hoping this, we are content to let him alone, and leave +him to the judgment of that posterity which he is so peculiarly +prone to invoke. But we ask those who have clung with such extreme +tenacity to his cause, seriously to view the effect of the late +legislative measures upon the community at large--to consider how +far the result of the free-trade scheme has corresponded with the +nature of its promise--and to reflect upon the present precarious +state of our oldest and most valuable dependencies. We blame no +one for having entertained an opinion conscientiously differing +from our own. There may not be any disgrace in having, consented +to an experiment which, when put into practice, has resulted in an +absolute failure; but there is disgrace, ay, and infinite dishonour, +in refusing to acknowledge an error when its consequences are made +palpably manifest, and in persisting to gloss it over for the sake of +an egotistical consistency. We do not believe that high-minded and +honourable men will be guilty of such vain and frivolous conduct; and +it is in that belief that we make our present most urgent appeal. + +Look at the effect of our present free-trade laws, not only upon +the revenue, but upon the internal industry of Britain. Is it not +clear and utterly beyond dispute, that our exports, for which we +have sacrificed every thing, are greatly on the decline, and that +our imports are steadily increasing? Not even the merest tyro in +political science,--not even the dullest dolt that clamoured at +the meetings of the League,--will venture to affirm that this is a +state of things which can continue without entailing ruin on the +country; and yet the Whigs, with that insensibility and sottishness +which is as much their characteristic as obstinacy, have announced +for next session their intention of pushing the experiment further! +For a year, we have had no budget, a circumstance entirely without +a parallel in parliamentary history. The excess of the national +expenditure above the revenue has been stated at the enormous sum +of a million and a half, though we believe that in reality three +millions would not cover the deficiency; and a considerable item even +of that revenue is to be cut off from us, when the act repealing +the corn law shall come into full operation. We cannot look for any +improvement in trade whilst we leave our markets open to the produce +of foreign labour, and allow the wealthy classes to be supplied +with almost all their articles of consumption from an unremunerating +source. We must again look to the customs as our main source of +revenue, and more than that, as our absolute salvation from the +anarchy which must ensue, if the hundred small non-exporting trades +of the country are to be sacrificed for the monopoly of the few, and +the millions engaged in these pursuits made beggars and driven to +desperation. + +And what is the state of the monopoly? How have the manufacturers +gained? Let FOUR MILLIONS of diminished exports _on the half year_ +only, and the suppression of the Manchester return of the number of +unemployed operatives in the very metropolis of the League, be the +reply. Yes--it has come to this pass, that the free-traders DARE +not publish to the world the results of their own madness. In the +month of June last, there were within a fraction of EIGHT THOUSAND +workmen without employment in Manchester alone, and the numbers were +increasing so fast, that it was deemed expedient to discontinue +the startling return. How can we be surprised that Chartism and +disaffection are rankling in men's minds, when we take such +deliberate pains to make them paupers? + +We are told that the state of the Continent is such that our export +market is impeded. Let us for the moment admit that such is the +case, and let us see what sort of argument that furnishes for the +continuance of the present system. Is it deliberately proposed that +we are to remain with our ports open, until France and Germany, and +Spain and Italy, are tranquillised? Are the prophets of peace still +so sanguine of the speedy realisation of their visions? Are we to +wait for years--with an increasing debt, a diminished revenue, and +still further stagnation of employment--until our brethren on the +other side of the Channel have reconciled their jarring theories of +Red Republics and of unity, adjusted their boundaries, and again +betaken themselves to the arts of peace? Our own constitution may +well be shattered before that consummation can arrive! But the truth +is, that, in many respects, the Continental disturbances are not +unfavourable to our export trade. If, on the one hand, they have +occasioned a less degree of consumption; on the other, they have +paralysed industry and depreciated capital abroad. Belgium, it is +true, is a formidable competitor for our staples in the foreign +market; but, notwithstanding, we do not expect any serious diminution +in this branch of our foreign trade. The evil of which we complain +is chronic, and it has not been caused by any sudden or violent +convulsions. + +It is to our colonies that we must look for the cause of our +diminished exports. It was our paramount duty and obligation to +have fostered these, and to have made them, by a wise system of +reciprocity, at once the best supporters of our power, and the most +sure and steady consumers of our manufactured produce. We have done +nothing of this. On the contrary, the course which we have thought +proper to pursue towards those integral portions of the empire has +been marked by tyranny and injustice. We have ruined the West Indies, +and yet we wonder why they do not consume our cottons! Our weak and +ridiculous legislation, without foresight and without principle, +has not only retarded the progress of the colonies, but absolutely +frightened them out of our market; and unless a very different system +is speedily adopted, we may have bitter occasion to rue our folly, +and to curse the selfishness of the men who, from mere lust of +personal power, have sacrificed the best interests of the nation. + +How, then, have the manufacturers gained by free trade? On the one +hand, they have not been able, by inviting and giving every facility +to imports, to increase the quantity of their export; on the other, +they have closed up several of their surest markets. The full extent +of our egregious folly has not yet become visible to the public. The +manufacturers, by a sort of retributive justice, are the persons +who are feeling it the most, and ere long they will be compelled to +acknowledge it. It is seriously affecting the trade and commerce +of our greatest cities. The number of vessels which have cleared +out of the Clyde from the port of Glasgow during the last nine +months, is in the proportion of 382 to 602 for the same period in +the previous year! Glasgow, as every one knows, owed its rise and +opulence to its connexion with the colonies, more especially the West +Indies; and here is the heaviest blow which probably was ever heard +of in the history of commerce, struck, through free trade, at the +second city of Britain. It is good that we should know these things; +better if, by revolving them, we can turn experience to advantage. +Let the electors throughout the kingdom, more especially in the +towns, meditate seriously before they are again called on to use +their political franchise; let them reflect on their own diminished +prosperity, and beware of that hollow liberalism combined with +quackery which is the stain and the curse of the age. + +To this position we have been brought by a bad commercial policy, +originated by mean and mercenary men, and most unhappily adopted +by a minister who became a convert towards the close of a long +official life. We have seen and felt the system as it works; and +the only question now for our consideration is, whether we are to +suffer it to endure? If we do so, it is vain to deny that we are on +the verge of general ruin. There is not a symptom of improvement. +Day by day the cry of distress waxes louder, and yet we hesitate to +take the necessary steps for effecting our own emancipation. There +is hardly one man in the country--the bailie of Blairgowrie perhaps +excepted--who can have, or feels, the slightest confidence in the +abilities of Lord John Russell. Such a cabinet as this, in point of +political decrepitude and imbecility, was never yet formed; and it +could not live for an hour save for the unseemly dissensions in the +Conservative camp. These cannot be permitted to last. There is no +merit in personal devotion when pushed beyond its proper sphere; and +the best service which Sir Robert Peel can render to his sovereign, +is utterly to abjure all pretension of ever returning to power. +Surely he can have no wish to head a reactionary movement, or expose +himself to the obloquy of recanting the last edition of his views. + +There is another reason why the Conservatives are imperatively called +upon to unite. Recent disclosures of a very startling nature have +forced upon us the conviction, that the Whigs are worse than weak, +and that they cannot be depended on as steadfast guardians of the +crown. There is more in the famous letter written by Mr Thomas Young, +formerly private secretary to Lord Melbourne, than meets the eye. +We attach no undue importance to this epistle--we shall not stoop +so low as to examine the motives and intention of its author. His +own attempted explanation is, if possible, more damning than the +treasonable missive itself. We could only, were we to exhaust our +whole powers of illustration, repeat what has been already stated +in the masterly article of the _Standard_. It is as clear as day, +that at the time of the passing of the Reform Bill, the underlings +of the Whig administration were cognisant of a hideous project for a +violent and bloody revolution, and that, to take the mildest point +of view, they concealed that knowledge from their masters. Franks +were obtained _from the Home Office_, for the purpose of suborning +the loyalty of at least one officer, high in his Majesty's service, +and proposing to him the odious part of a leader in a popular +insurrection. Whether that letter, written as it probably was in +the fullest confidence, ought or ought not to have seen the light, +especially after the lapse of so many years, is a matter with which +we have no concern. That is a question which is only personal to +Mr Young and his correspondent; but we have the document, and the +whole nation is entitled to inquire into its tenor. And never, upon +any accusation of so grave a nature, was a more miserable defence +preferred. In fact there can be, and there is, no escape from the +legitimate conclusion. At that time a section of the Whigs were +ready, for the sake of carrying their own scheme, not only to have +connived at, but to have lent their whole influence to a popular +outbreak and rising, which might, in all human probability, have been +subversive of the constitution of the country. Lord Melbourne might +not have known of that letter: we go farther, and state our positive +opinion that he was utterly ignorant of its existence, because, +however we may have differed from him in politics, he is a man whose +personal honour and loyalty have always been free from a stain. We +believe--and are glad in stating it--that he was utterly ignorant +of the vile treason which was hatching in his own department; but +we shall not extend the same shelter of belief to others of his +unpatriotic party. That treason was meditated is plain; and very +thankful shall we be if the higher order of the Whigs shall take the +pains, by disavowing and repudiating the acts of their subordinates, +and by withdrawing from those implicated the unmerited rewards +of their sedition, to clear themselves from the heavy suspicion +which this document undoubtedly affixes on their loyalty. It is a +disclosure too grave to be met with a light explanation. The fact of +meditated treason, known to Whig officials, has transpired, and we +are entitled to know how far upwards the rank contagion had spread. + +That letter, apart from its historical value, is important at the +present moment, inasmuch as we think that no one can peruse it +without feeling convinced that, in any struggle for power, the Whigs +would have no scruple in sacrificing principle to their interest. +They have done so already repeatedly, and their tactics have always +been to retain or recover office by making large concessions to +the demands of the Radical or the Irish party. We are not without +apprehension that they are, even now, contemplating some move of a +similar nature, to be made during the ensuing session of Parliament, +for the purpose of retrieving some portion of their lost popularity. +The Radical party have openly threatened to withdraw their support +from the ministry unless some increase of the suffrage shall be +granted; and an agitation to that effect would be particularly +palatable to the free-traders, as it might tend, in some degree, +to draw public attention from the utter failure of their schemes. +Any movement, in such a direction, would be followed by the most +disastrous consequences. A further infusion of the popular element +into the House of Commons, would simply lead to greater encroachments +on the constitution, more reckless experiments upon the stability +of our trade and commerce, and more culpable bidding by ministries +for popularity in every shape. Where is to be the end of such an +agitation--unless, indeed, we were to follow the notable examples +of France and Germany, and adopt universal suffrage--if, on each +occasion when the country is suffering under the pressure of noxious +laws, no mode of relief can be suggested, save through an extension +of the Reform Bill? We should have thought that the success of the +first experiment was not quite so conspicuous as to invite another +of the same nature. The impudence of the Radical faction is really +almost incredible. Mr Cobden and his confederates have got free +trade, from the effects of which we are presently languishing; and +they now propose to revive our spirits and replenish our purses by +stocking the House of Commons with an additional importation of men +of precisely the same caste and opinions as their own! We suspect +that the funds would scarce be lively if the country were assured +that forty Brights, instead of one, were seated in our National +Assembly. + +We therefore again implore the Conservatives to unite without loss +of time, since in their hands alone can we have a thorough guarantee +for the safety of the crown, the stability of the national churches, +and for the integrity of the constitution. Let all lukewarmness, all +promptings of personal ambition, all latent rancour, and all absurd +and unreciprocated confidence, be given to the winds at once; and let +us seriously and diligently apply ourselves to the task of recalling +to Britain and her colonies that measure of prosperity which we +possessed before evil counsels prevailed, and which, even now, is not +beyond our power to recall. The industrious classes of the community, +impoverished and straitened as they have been, have a right to this +service from the high-minded gentlemen of England. The power and the +ability are with us, if we only testify the disposition; and surely +it is madness to remain at idle feud while the enemy are visible at +the gate. + +These remarks are not based upon mere speculation. We are well +assured that, during the last few months, much progress has +been made towards a thorough fusion of the two sections of the +Conservative party, upon clear and common grounds. All difficulties +would by this time probably have been removed, but for the scruples +of two or three gentlemen who are supposed to possess the private +confidence of Sir Robert Peel, and who have hitherto identified +themselves with his fortunes. Now, as it must be perfectly apparent +to any man of common reflection, that the bulk of the Conservatives +never can, under any circumstances, consent to act under the +leadership of Peel; as he himself has, over and over again, publicly +stated that no motive or consideration would induce him to return +to power--it is absolutely incomprehensible to us how such scruples +can exist in the minds of the individuals to whom we allude, if +they really believe in the sincerity of this last declaration of +their leader. No one wants him to take office, and he says that +he will not accept it. So far all are agreed. If we believed that +any one of these distinguished and honourable men is convinced +that the commercial policy of the last three years has been wise +and sound, and that, with any amount of trial, it can terminate +otherwise than fatally for the interests of the country, we should +have no right to address them upon a subject so momentous as this, +and certainly no desire for one moment to gain their co-operation. +But we can very well distinguish betwixt a feeling of strong +attachment to an individual whose talents they have been accustomed +to respect, but whose views they have only partially penetrated, +and a settled conviction in the soundness of the policy which it +has been his destiny to originate. We believe that, hitherto, the +former sentiment, and not the latter one, must be taken as the true +explanation of their conduct--that they are unwilling to abandon +the man, although they have lost their faith in the efficacy of his +measures. Now, if this be the case, how can they justify themselves +for opposing, upon such slender grounds, the reconstruction of the +Conservative party? They must be well aware that Sir Robert Peel has +forfeited for ever the confidence of a large majority of those who, +a few years ago, were his most steadfast and faithful followers, +and that far more through his own deliberate acknowledgment of +double-dealing, than from a mere change of opinion upon any one +point of commercial policy, however important it might appear. It +may be the misfortune of Peel, rather than his fault, that he cannot +estimate the proper value of plain manly confidence and unshrinking +candour; that he has invariably declined the straight for the +crooked path; and that an excess of ingenuity--a vast misfortune +for a statesman--has tempted him to meddle, repeatedly and almost +incessantly, with interests far too important to be approached except +with extreme deliberation. These are the considerations which must +preclude him from being restored to his former rank as leader of the +great Conservative party; and we notice them now, not as matter of +blame to him, but in explanation of the general feeling. And we go +further than this. We say that, in order to render the Conservative +union enduring, it will be absolutely necessary to reconstruct the +party upon clear, avowed, solid, and proclaimed principles, so that +no doubt whatever may be left as to the course which in future is to +be pursued. Instead of that shifting and wavering policy which has +paralysed our colonies, terrified our merchants, and depressed the +money market, we must resolve upon a definite plan for the future, +which shall restore confidence, and secure us, so far as may be, +against the recurrence of similar disasters. We must also determine +whether the present currency laws are to be maintained, or whether +they shall undergo such alterations as shall prevent them from +aggravating the pressure in circumstances of unforeseen difficulty. +On all these points Sir Robert Peel stands strongly and unfortunately +committed. Even since he has been in opposition, he has shown no +symptoms of the slightest relaxation of his last adopted ideas; and +it is quite impossible for us to forget that, through his influence, +the Whigs were enabled to carry that bill which is universally +acknowledged to be the death-warrant of our West Indian colonies. +Under these circumstances, the devotion of his few adherents is not +only an act of Quixotry, but a serious injury to the party which has +a right to expect their services and their aid; and, however much we +may respect the talents of the gentlemen to whom we have alluded, we +must tell them that the period for a definite selection has arrived, +and that, by standing in the way of Conservative reconciliation and +union, they are not performing their proper duty either to their +country or their Queen. + +With such financiers as Goulburn and Herries in the Commons,--with +such eminent statesmen as Lords Stanley, Lyndhurst, and Aberdeen in +the House of Peers,--there can be no doubt of the strength and the +success of the Conservative party if once more thoroughly united. +We have always regarded the unfortunate division as one of the most +serious disasters that ever befell the country, not only because it +destroyed the cohesion and severed the councils of a body which, +under any circumstances, would have been strong enough to keep both +the Whigs and the Radicals in check, but also because it engendered +much apathy and some disgust amongst men who were the most valuable +supporters of Conservative principles, and who, in consequence, +ceased for a time to take any active interest in public affairs. The +unseemly election contests which repeatedly took place in England, +between parties mutually designating themselves Protectionists and +Peelites,--sometimes terminating in the defeat of both, or in the +triumph, through their idle rivalry, of a liberal candidate, who +otherwise never could have succeeded--did a great deal to widen the +breach, and to lessen the mass of the opposition; and we revert with +considerable pride and satisfaction to the fact, that in Scotland no +such unnatural dissension was exhibited, but that men belonging to +every shade of Conservatism were eager to act in concert, whenever a +candidate appeared. We can make allowance for some exasperation on +both sides, under such very peculiar and novel circumstances; but we +hope that we have seen the last of these discreditable and weakening +contests. + +Let, then, the short period which is left between the present time +and the reassembling of Parliament be employed by all the friends +of the old Conservative cause for the promotion of union, and the +establishment of a thoroughly good understanding amongst ourselves. +Let all former causes of offence be cordially forgiven: let us +consider what we are to do, and whom we are to follow; and, these +dispositions made, let them be adhered to with integrity and honour. +The Whig faction is utterly effete and incapable of maintaining +its ground. The free-traders stand before the nation as detected +charlatans and impostors. There is no enemy to fear, if we only go +on boldly and do our duty. But if we hesitate and hang back at the +present crisis, and decline to assume a position which might soon +enable us to apply an effectual remedy to the most pressing disorders +of the country, can we be surprised if the masses, irritated and +provoked, seeing no one great party in the state ready to come to +their assistance, should begin to clamour for organic changes; or if +the colonies, weary of their suffering, and despairing of sympathy, +should question the worth of the bonds which bind them to the mother +country? + +Thus far we have thought it our duty to speak in all sincerity and +plainness. We know well that these sentiments are far from being +confined to ourselves. We feel assured that many of the wisest and +best men who ever adorned her Majesty's councils, or those of her +royal predecessors, are deeply desirous that the present anomalous +state of party should be corrected, and unwholesome separation be +superseded by cordial union. This, we firmly believe, could be +effected without any sacrifice of principle, and the sooner it is +accomplished the better. + +There is but one topic more to which we would fain allude before +concluding the present article. The late rebellious outbreaks in +Ireland seem, in certain quarters, to have revived the notion of the +expediency of a state endowment of the Roman Catholic priesthood. +We place very little faith in the sincerity of an announcement +which some time ago was put forth, on hierarchical authority, in +the public prints, to the effect that, even were such an endowment +to be offered, it would be peremptorily and indignantly refused. +But, sincere or not, that statement may serve as an answer to the +writer in the last Number of the _Quarterly Review_, who supports +the endowment scheme with an unction which we were certainly not +prepared to expect. His argument, from first to last, implies the +same unhappy yielding to agitation and terrorism, which, when applied +to civil matters, has ended in open rebellion, and which, if applied +to ecclesiastical affairs, would infallibly result in the total +overthrow and annihilation of the Protestant Church in Ireland. Does +he really believe that--to assume no argument of a graver nature--the +people of Great Britain will be ready, in the present desperate state +of their finances, to submit to additional taxation for the purpose +of establishing, in permanent comfort, the true instigators of the +disturbances which have caused us so much anxiety and pain? Why, if +such endowment can be vindicated upon any intelligible principle, is +it to be confined to the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland alone, and +not extended to the dissenting denominations throughout the width +and breadth of the land? On what plea could the Free and Episcopal +churches in Scotland, or the Wesleyan Methodists of England, be +excluded, if such a proposition were for a moment to be seriously +maintained? The reviewer professes to reject, _in toto_, any idea +of the confiscation of existing church property, and therefore he +must fall back, as his sole resource, upon government endowment, +which means simply a new tax on the people of Great Britain, for the +benefit of Ireland--a country which is already exempted from her +share of our heaviest burdens, and annually receiving eleemosynary +aid to an amount which has grievously contributed to increase our +late monetary pressure. It may be that some such project is in +contemplation, for we never have been able to comprehend, without +some such motive as this, the extraordinary anxiety exhibited by +the present Whig government in carrying through their bill for +the establishment of Diplomatic relations with Rome, at the very +moment when the last fragment of temporal power was passing from the +hands of the Pope. But whether this be so or not--whether this is a +mere private crotchet, or a prepared scheme, to come forth in due +season--we are perfectly satisfied that it will be met throughout +the country with a righteous storm of indignation. The Protestantism +of Britain has been its strength and its glory; and it was only when +called upon to choose between that sacred principle and the hardly +less revered one of loyalty, that our forefathers thought themselves +justified in summoning an alien to the British throne. What cost us +then both tears and blood is an operating principle now; and if, +through the grace of God, we have seen order maintained and rebellion +crushed at home, at a period when half of Europe is plunged in the +horrors of anarchy, we do not fear the charge of bigotry, if we +attribute our preservation as much to the religious establishments +of the land, as to the free institutions which Protestantism has +enabled us to maintain. Loyalty is not a thing to be bought: it is a +spontaneous feeling, unpurchaseable at any price; and if the Irish +Catholic clergy have it not now, the most liberal endowment will work +no change in their political feelings. + +One of the arguments most commonly urged by those who advocate this +system of endowment, is, we think, both erroneous in its assumption +and weak in its application. They maintain that the Catholic clergy, +if in the pay of the state, would have less power over the peasantry +of Ireland than at present. Is that altogether a state of matters +which it would be desirable to bring about? Would it be well to sap +the influence of this moral police? There is not a Roman Catholic +priest in Ireland at this moment who does not know, that were he to +give open countenance to rebellion, he would not only be amenable +to the laws of his country, but, under a firm executive government, +would be selected as the earliest example. The situation of Ireland +is such, that we can never calculate upon the loyalty of a large +portion of its population. Centuries have rolled by, and still +the Celtic race persist in being aliens from our own. We cannot +tame them, cannot cultivate them, cannot win their hearts by any +imaginable sacrifice. They persist in their cry of Ireland for +the Irish, and will not see that the thing is as impossible as the +re-establishment of the Saxon heptarchy, and, were it possible, +would be tantamount to delivering them over to the horrors of a +barbarian war. It is no use disguising the fact--we must deal with +men as they are; and who can doubt that there does exist a great +amount of rooted disaffection among the peasantry of Ireland? And +now it is seriously proposed to cure that disaffection, by taking +means calculated to weaken the influence of the priesthood over the +peasantry! In other words, to give up the only hostages we hold, and +leave the most turbulent and uneducated population of Europe, freed +even from religious control, to be worked up to frenzy by the first +lay demagogue who has the art to make them believe that treason is a +synonymous term with patriotism. Even worldly wisdom would repudiate +such a surrender, and the argument is so weak, that it bears with it +its own refutation. + +We have gained nothing whatever by tampering with Roman Catholicism +in Ireland. Neither the moral nor the social condition of the people +has been improved thereby; on the contrary, each successive step +towards conciliation has been met by augmented turbulence. We cannot +afford to push the experiment farther; and surely it would be a +strange thing, if, while the Romish clergy themselves distinctly +repudiate such an arrangement, and refuse to become the stipendiaries +of the British government, any body of men who may be called to the +responsible situation of her Majesty's advisers, should persist in +tendering the obnoxious and repugnant boon: least of all do we expect +that any such proposal can emanate from the Conservatives. We know +that upon this point various opinions have been expressed, and that +Lord George Bentinck was at one time supposed to be not unfavourable +to such a scheme. No man, we firmly believe, ever had the good of +Ireland more thoroughly at heart; and, had his plan for ameliorating +the Irish distress been adopted last year, and the money which was +uselessly squandered, been applied to the construction of permanent +works eminently calculated to open up and develop the resources of +the country, we might ere this time have seen the foundation laid of +a new era of social and industrial prosperity. But the Whig Cabinet, +perverse to the last, could not bring themselves to acknowledge that +the political sagacity of an opponent was greater than their own; +and, therefore the money which we gave with so lavish a hand, has +disappeared without leaving the smallest trace of its employment. +But, in ecclesiastical matters, Lord George Bentinck professed a +latitudinarianism which was not responded to by the great bulk of his +party. They were not disposed to unchristianise the high assembly of +Britain by the introduction of men who openly avowed their denial +of the faith of the Saviour; nor would they consent to put forth +their hands against the ark of the national churches. And therefore +it was that, upon more than one occasion, the Protestant party, +while cheerfully acknowledging the great public services of the late +departed nobleman, did not attempt to conceal that, upon points so +serious as these, there could be no sympathy of opinion between him +and them. + +The single arrow may be easily splintered, but, to use the memorable +words of Genghis-Khan, "So long as the sheaf is bound together in +three places--in love, honesty, and good accord--no man can have +power to grieve us; but, if we be divided from these three places, +that one of us help not the other, we shall be destroyed and brought +to nothing." We recommend the moral contained in the apologue of the +old Asiatic chief to the serious consideration of all men belonging +to the Conservative party; for this they may rely upon, that, not +only is prolonged discord an act of egregious folly, but that any one +who refuses, in the present troublous times, to lend a hand to the +reknitting of the severed tie, cannot, in the estimation of good men, +be considered a friend to his country. And if this be so, what faith +can we repose in him who cut the cords asunder? + + +_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._ + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious typographical errors were repaired, but valid archaic +spellings were retained. + +Hyphenation variants have been standardized. + +P. 570, "summons to a sick funnel": original read "sick funuel." + +P. 612, "and looking on the vigorous and growing": original showed +"oking" with extra space before it. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +64, No. 397, November 1848, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43225 *** |