diff options
| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-07 14:15:28 -0800 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-07 14:15:28 -0800 |
| commit | c3f5570074f496c4353477ee868e585c14ba7d3e (patch) | |
| tree | 1f77688f2491100958a580f5ae29471775526ea1 /43814-0.txt | |
| parent | 4b003f3036a53ac821adf103b7cc28c31abb77c2 (diff) | |
Diffstat (limited to '43814-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 43814-0.txt | 9962 |
1 files changed, 9962 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/43814-0.txt b/43814-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c12ac4 --- /dev/null +++ b/43814-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9962 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43814 *** + +BLACKWOOD'S + +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + +NO. CCCCIX. NOVEMBER, 1849. VOL. LXVI. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + THE TRANSPORTATION QUESTION, 519 + + MY PENINSULAR MEDAL. BY AN OLD PENINSULAR. PART I., 539 + + DISENCHANTMENT. BY DELTA, 563 + + ACROSS THE ATLANTIC, 567 + + PEACE AND WAR AGITATORS, 581 + + THE FRENCH NOVELS OF 1849, 607 + + DIES BOREALES. NO. V. CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS, 620 + + EDINBURGH: + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; + AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. + + _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._ + SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. + +PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. + +BLACKWOOD'S + +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + +NO. CCCCIX. NOVEMBER, 1849. VOL. LXVI. + + + + +THE TRANSPORTATION QUESTION. + + +The great question of SECONDARY PUNISHMENTS has now been settled by +experience, so far as the mother country is concerned. It is now known +that imprisonment has no effect whatever, either in deterring from +crime, or in reforming criminals. Government, albeit most unwilling to +recur to the old system of transportation, has been compelled to do so +by the unanimous voice of the country; by the difficulty of finding +accommodation for the prodigious increase of prisoners in the jails +of the kingdom; and by the still greater difficulty, in these days of +cheapness and declining incomes, of getting the persons intrusted with +the duty of providing additional prison accommodation, to engage in the +costly and tedious work of additional erections. An order in council +has expressly, and most wisely, authorised a return to transportation, +under such regulations as seem best calculated to reform the convicts, +and diminish the dread very generally felt in the colonies, of being +flooded with an inundation of crime from the mother country. And the +principal difficulty felt now is, to find a colony willing to receive +the penal settlers, and incur the risks thought to be consequent on +their unrestricted admission. + +It is not surprising that government should have been driven from the +ruinous system of substituting imprisonment for transportation; for +the results, even during the short period that it was followed out, +were absolutely appalling. The actual augmentation of criminals was the +least part of the evil; the increase of serious crimes, in consequence +of the hardened offenders not being sent out of the country, but +generally liberated after eighteen months' or two years' confinement, +was the insupportable evil. The demoralisation so strongly felt and +loudly complained of in Van Diemen's Land, from the accumulation of +criminals, was rapidly taking place in this country. The persons tried +under the aggravation of previous convictions in Scotland, in the three +last years, have stood as follows:-- + + Under aggravation + Years. Total convicted. of previous + convictions. + 1846 2936 858 + 1847 3569 1024 + 1848 3669 1043 + + --_Parliamentary Reports_, 1846-48. + +So rapid an increase of crimes, and especially among criminals +previously convicted, sufficiently demonstrates the inadequacy of +imprisonment as a means either of deterring from crimes, or reforming +the criminals. The same result appears in England, where the rapid +increase of criminals sentenced to transportation, within the same +period, demonstrates the total inefficacy of the new imprisonment +system. + + Transported. + Years. England and Wales. Scotland. + 1846 2805 352 + 1847 2896 456 + 1848 3251 459 + +And of the futility of the hope that the spread of education will +have any effect in checking the increase of crime, decisive proof +is afforded in the same criminal returns; for from them it appears +that the number of educated criminals in England is above twice, in +Scotland _above three times and a half that of the uneducated_,--the +numbers, during the last three years, being as follows:-- + + | | ENGLAND AND WALES. | SCOTLAND. | + |Years.| | | | | + | | Educated. |Uneducated. | Educated. |Uneducated.| + +------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+ + |1846 | 16,963 | 7,698 | 3,155 | 903 | + |1847 | 19,307 | 9,050 | 3,562 | 1,048 | + |1848 | 20,176 | 9,691 | 3,985 | 911 | + + --_Parliamentary Returns_, 1846-8. + +Nay, what is still more alarming, it distinctly appears, from the +same returns, that the proportion of educated criminals to uneducated +is _steadily on the increase_ in Great Britain. Take the centesimal +proportions given in the last returns for England--those of 1848:-- + + | Degrees of | | | | | | | | | | | + |Instruction.|1839.| 1840.|1841.|1842.|1843.|1844.|1845.|1846.|1847.|1848.| + +------------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ + |Unable to | | | | | | | | | | | + |read or | | | | | | | | | | | + |write, |33.53| 33.32|33.21|32.35|31.00|29.77|30.61|30.66|31.39|31.93| + | | | | | | | | | | | | + |Imperfectly,|53.48| 55.57|56.67|58.32|57.60|59.28|58.34|59.51|58.59|56.38| + | | | | | | | | | | | | + |Well, |10.07| 8.29| 7.40| 6.77| 8.02| 8.12| 8.38| 7.71| 7.79| 9.83| + | | | | | | | | | | | | + |Superior, | 0.32| 0.37| 0.45| 0.22| 0.47| 0.42| 0.37| 0.34| 0.28| 0.27| + | | | | | | | | | | | | + |Not | | | | | | | | | | | + |ascertained,| 2.60| 2.45| 2.27| 2.34| 2.91| 2.41| 2.30| 1.78| 1.60| 1.59| + + --_Parliamentary Returns for England_, 1848, p. 12. + +The great increase here is in the criminals who have received an +_imperfect education_, which class has increased as much as that of the +totally uneducated has diminished. Unhappily, imperfect education is +precisely the species of instruction which alone, in the present days +of cheapened production and diminishing wages, the great body of the +poor are able to give to their children. + +Mr Pearson, M.P., who has paid great attention to this subject, and +whose high official situation in the city of London gives him such +ample means of being acquainted with the practical working of the +criminal law, has given the following valuable information in a public +speech, which every one acquainted with the subject must know to be +thoroughly well founded:-- + + "In the year 1810, which is the earliest account that we possess + in any of our archives, the number of commitments, of assize + and sessions cases, was 5146. In the year 1848, the number of + commitments for sessions and assize cases was 30,349. Population + during that period had increased but 60 per cent, whilst the + commitments for crime had increased 420 per cent. I should not be + candid with this assembly if I did not at once say, that there + are various disturbing circumstances which intervene, during + that period, to prevent the apparent increase of commitments + being the real estimate of the actual increase. There was the + transition from war to peace. We all know, that from the days + of Hollingshed, the old chronicler, it has been said that war + takes to itself a portion of the loose population, who find + in the casualties of war, its dangers, rewards and profligate + indulgences, something like a kindred feeling to the war made upon + society by the predatory classes. Hence we find that, when war + ceases, a number of that class of the community are thrown back on + the honest portion of society, which, during the period of war, + had been drained off. Besides this, there are other co-operating + causes. There is the improved police, the constabulary, rural + or metropolitan, who undoubtedly detect many of those offences + which were formerly committed with impunity. There is also the + act of parliament for paying prosecutors and witnesses their + expenses, which led to an increased number of prosecutors in + proportion to the number of crimes actually detected. These + circumstances have, no doubt, exercised a considerable influence + over the increase in the commitments; but after having for 35 + years paid the closest attention to the subject, having filled, + and still filling, a high office in regard to the administration + of the law in the city of London, I am bound to say, that, making + full deduction from the number which every feeling of anxiety + to raise the country from the imputation of increasing in its + criminal character dictates--after making every deduction, I am + bound with shame and humility to acknowledge, that it leaves a + very large amount of increase in the actual, the positive number + of commitments for crime. Sir, this is indeed a humiliating + acknowledgment; but happily the statistics of this country, + in other particulars, warrant us in drawing comfort from the + conviction, that even this fact affords no true representation of + the state of the moral character of the people--no evidence of + their increasing degradation of character or conduct, in anything + like the proportion or degree that those statistics would appear + to show. I appeal to history--I appeal to the recollection of + every man in this assembly, who, like myself, has passed the + meridian of life, whether society has not advanced in morals as + well as in arts, science, and literature, and everything which + tends to improve the social character of the people. Let any man + who has read not our country's history alone, but the tales and + novels of former times--and we must frequently look to them, + rather than to the records of history, for a faithful transcript + of the morals of the age in which they were written,--let any man + recur to the productions of Fielding and of Smollett, and say + whether the habits, manners, and morals of the great masses of our + population are not materially improved within the last century. + Great popular delusions prevail as to the causes of the increase + of commitments for criminal offences in this country, which I deem + it to be my duty to endeavour to dispel. Some ascribe the increase + to the want of instruction of our youth, some to the absence of + religious teaching, some to the increased intemperance, and some + to the increased poverty of the people. I assert that there is no + foundation for the opinions that ascribe the increase of crime to + these causes. If the absence of education were the cause of crime, + surely crime would be found to have diminished since education + has increased. For the purpose of comparing the present and past + state of education, for its influence upon the criminal statistics + of the nation, I will not go back to the time when the single + Bible in the parish was chained to a pillar in the church; or when + the barons affixed their cross to documents, from inability to + write their names. I refer to dates, and times, and circumstances + within our own recollection. In the year 1814 the report of the + National Society says, there were only 100,000 children receiving + the benefit of education. Now there are above 1,000,000 under that + excellent institution, besides the tens of thousands and hundreds + of thousands who are receiving education under the auspices of the + Lancasterian Society Schools. But some may say that the value of + education is not to be estimated by numbers. Well then, I reject + numbers, if you please, and try it by its quality. I ask any man + who listens to me if he does not know that the national schools, + and other gratuitous establishments in this country, now give + privileges in education which children in a respectable condition + of life could hardly obtain, such was the defective state of + instruction in this country, 40 or 50 years ago. (Cheers.) No man, + therefore, can say that the increase of crime is attributable + to the absence of education. If it were so, with education + increased 800 per cent during the last 30 years, crime would have + diminished, instead of increased, 400 per cent."--_Times_, Aug. + 28, 1849. + +The immense _expense_ with which the maintenance of such prodigious +numbers of prisoners in jail is attended, is another most serious +evil, especially in these days of retrenchment, diminished profits, +and economy. From the last Report of the Jail Commissioners for +Scotland--that for 1848--it appears that the average cost of each +prisoner over the whole country for a year, after deducting his +earnings in confinement, is £16, 7s. 6d. As this is the cost after +labour has been generally introduced into prisons, and the greatest +efforts to reduce expense have been made, it may fairly be presumed +that it cannot be reduced lower. The average number of prisoners +constantly in jail in Scotland is now about 3500, which, at £16, +7s. 6d. a-head, will come to about £53,000 a-year.[1] Applying this +proportion to the 60,000 criminals, now on an average constantly +in confinement in the two islands,[2] the annual expense of their +maintenance cannot be under a million sterling. The prison and county +rates of England alone, which include the cost of prosecutions, are +£1,300,000 a-year. But that result, enormous as it is in a country +in which poor-rates and all local burdens are so rapidly augmenting, +is but a part of the evil. Under the present system a thief is +seldom transported, at least in Scotland, till he has been three +or four years plying his trade; during which period his gains by +depredations, and expenses of maintenance, cannot have averaged less +than £25 yearly. Thus it may with safety be affirmed, that every thief +transported from Scotland _has cost the country, before he goes, at +least £100_; and that has been expended in training him up to such +habits of hardened depravity, that he is probably as great a curse +to the colony to which he is sent, as he had proved a burden to that +from which he was conveyed. _Sixteen pounds_ would have been the cost +of his transportation in the outset of his career, when, from his +habits of crime not being matured, he had a fair chance of proving an +acquisition, instead of a curse, to the place of his destination. + +As the question of imprisonment or transportation, so far as Great +Britain and Ireland are concerned, is now settled by the demonstrative +evidence of the return of a reluctant government to the system which +in an evil hour they abandoned, it may seem unnecessary to go into +detail in order to show how absolutely necessary it was to do so; +and how entirely the boasted system of imprisonment, with all its +adjuncts of separation, silence, hard labour, and moral and religious +instruction, has failed either in checking crime, or producing any +visible reformation in the criminals. No one practically acquainted +with the subject ever entertained the slightest doubt that this would +be the case; and in two articles directed to the subject in this +magazine, in 1844, we distinctly foretold what the result would be.[3] +To those who, following in the wake of prelates or philanthropists, +how respectable soever, such as Archbishop Whately, who know +nothing whatever of the subject except from the fallacious evidence +of parliamentary committees, worked up by their own theoretical +imaginations, we recommend the study of the Tables below, compiled +from the parliamentary returns since the imprisonment system began, to +show to what a pass the adoption of their rash visions has brought the +criminal administration of the country.[4] + +It is not surprising that it should be so, and that all the pains +taken, and philanthropy wasted, in endeavouring to reform criminals +in jail in this country, or hindering them from returning to their +old habits when let loose within it, should have proved abortive. +Two reasons of paramount efficacy have rendered them all nugatory. +The first of these is, that the theory regarding the possibility of +reforming offenders when in prison, or suffering punishment in this +country, is wholly erroneous, and proceeds on an entire misconception +of the principles by which alone such a reformation can in any case be +effected. In prison, how solitary soever, you can work only on the +_intellectual_ faculties. The _active_ powers or feelings can receive +no development within the four walls of a cell, for they have no +object by which they can be called forth. But nine-tenths of mankind +in any rank, and most certainly nineteen-twentieths of persons bred as +criminals, are wholly inaccessible to the influence of the intellect, +considered as a restraint or regulator of their passions. If they had +been capable of being influenced in that way, they would never have +become criminals. Persons who fall into the habits which bring them +under the lash of the criminal law, are almost always those in whom, +either from natural disposition, or the unhappy circumstances of early +habits and training, the intellectual faculties are almost entirely in +abeyance, so far as self-control is concerned; and any development they +have is only directed to procuring gratification for, or furthering the +objects of the senses. To address to such persons the moral discipline +of a prison, however admirably conducted, is as hopeless as it would be +to descant to a man born blind on the objects of sight, or to preach to +an ignorant boor in the Greek or Hebrew tongue. Sense is to them all in +all. Esau is the true prototype of this class of men; they are always +ready to exchange their birthright for a mess of pottage. + +No length of solitary confinement, or scarce any amount of moral +or religious instruction, can awaken in them either the slightest +repentance for their crimes, or the least power of self-control when +temptation is again thrown in their way. They regard the period of +imprisonment as a blank in their lives--a time of woful monotony +and total deprivation of enjoyment, which only renders it the more +imperative on them, the moment it is terminated, to begin anew with +fresh zest their old enjoyments. Their first object is to make up +for months of compulsory sobriety by days of voluntary intoxication. +At the close of a short period of hideous _saturnalia_, they are +generally involved in some fresh housebreaking or robbery, to pay for +their long train of indulgence; and soon find themselves again immured +in their old quarters, only the more determined to run through the +same course of forced regularity and willing indulgence. They are +often able to feign reformation, so as to impose on their jailors, +and obtain liberation on pretended amendment of character. But it is +rarely if ever that they are really reclaimed; and hence the perpetual +recurrences of the same characters in the criminal courts; till the +magistrates, tired of imprisoning them, send them to the assizes or +quarter-sessions for transportation. Even then, however, their career +is often far from being terminated in this country. The keepers of the +public penitentiaries become tired of keeping them. When they cannot +send them abroad, their cells are soon crowded; and they take advantage +of a feigned amendment to open the prison doors and let them go. They +are soon found again in their old haunts, and at their old practices. +At the spring circuit held at Glasgow in April 1848, when the effects +of the recent imprisonment mania were visible,--out of 117 ordinary +criminals indicted, no less than _twenty-two_ had been sentenced to +transportation at Glasgow, for periods not less than seven years, +_within the preceding two years_; and the previous conviction and +sentence of transportation was charged as an aggravation of their new +offence against each in the indictment. + +The next reason which renders imprisonment, in an old society and +amidst a redundant population, utterly inefficacious as a means of +reforming criminals is, that, even if they do imbibe better ideas +and principles during their confinement, they find it impossible on +their liberation to get into any honest employment, or gain admission +into any well-doing circle, where they may put their newly-acquired +principles into practice. If, indeed, there existed a government or +parochial institution, into which they might be received on leaving +prison, and by which they might be marched straightway to the nearest +seaport, and there embarked for Canada or Australia, a great step +would be made towards giving them the means of durable reformation. +But as there is none such in existence, and as they scarcely ever are +possessed of money enough, on leaving prison, to carry them across +the Atlantic, they are of necessity obliged to remain in their own +country--and that, to persons in their situation, is certain ruin. +In new colonies, or thinly-peopled countries, such as Australia or +Siberia, convicts, from the scarcity of labour, may in general be +able to find employment; and from the absence of temptation, and the +severance of the links which bound them to their old associates, they +are often there found to do well. But nothing of that sort can be +expected in an old and thickly-peopled country, where the competition +for employment is universal, and masters, having the choice of honest +servants of untainted character, cannot be expected to take persons who +have been convicted of crimes, and exposed to the pollutions of a jail. + +Practically speaking, it is _impossible_ for persons who have been +in jail to get into any honest or steady employment in their own +country; and if they do by chance, or by the ignorance of their +employers of their previous history, get into a situation, it is ere +long discovered, by the associates who come about them, where they +have been, and they speedily lose it. If you ask any person who has +been transported in consequence of repeated convictions, why he did +not take warning by the first, the answer uniformly is, that he could +not get into employment, and was obliged to take to thieving, or +starve. Add to this that the newly-reformed criminal, on leaving jail, +and idling about, half starved, in search of work, of necessity, as +well as from inclination, finds his way back to his old residence, +where his character is known, and he is speedily surrounded by his +old associates, who, in lieu of starving integrity, offer him a life +of joyous and well-fed depravity. It can hardly be expected that +human virtue, and least of all the infant virtue of a newly-reformed +criminal, can withstand so rude a trial. Accordingly, when the author +once asked Mr Brebner, the late governor of the Glasgow bridewell, what +proportion of formed criminals he ever knew to have been reformed by +prison discipline, he answered that the proportion was easily told, +for _he never knew one_. And in the late debate in parliament on +this subject, it was stated by the Home Secretary, Sir George Grey, +that while the prison discipline at Pentonville promised the most +cheering results, it was among those trained there, and _subsequently +transported_, that the improvement was visible; for that no such +results were observed among those who, after liberation, were allowed +to remain in this country. + +But while it is thus proved, both by principle and experience, that the +moral reformation of offenders cannot be effected by imprisonment, even +under the most improved system, in this country, yet, in one respect, +a very great amelioration of the prisoner's habits, and extension of +his powers, is evidently practicable. It is easy _to teach a prisoner +a trade_; and such is the proficiency which is rapidly acquired by the +undivided attention to one object in a jail, that one objection which +has been stated to the imprisonment system is, that it interferes +with the employment of honest industry out of doors. No one can walk +through any of the well-regulated prisons in Great Britain without +seeing that, whatever else you cannot do, it is easy to teach such +a proficiency in trade to the convicts as may render them, if their +depraved inclinations can be arrested, useful members of society, and +give them the means of earning a livelihood by honest industry. Many +of them are exceedingly clever, evince great aptitude for the learning +of handicrafts, and exert the utmost diligence in their prosecution. +Let no man, however, reckon on their reformation, because they are thus +skilful and assiduous: turn them out of prison in this country, and +you will soon see them drinking and thieving with increased alacrity, +from the length of their previous confinement. It is evidently not +intellectual cunning, or manual skill, or vigour in pursuit, which +they in general want--it is the power of directing their faculties to +proper objects, when at large in this country, which they are entirely +without, and which no length of confinement, or amount of moral and +religious instruction communicated in prison, is able to confer upon +them. Here then is one great truth ascertained, by the only sure guide +in such matters--_experience_--that while it is wholly impossible to +give prisoners the power of controlling their passions, or abstaining +from their evil propensities, when at large, by any amount of prison +discipline, it is always not only possible, but easy, to communicate to +them such handicraft skill, or power of exercising trades, as may, the +moment the wicked dispositions are brought under control, render them +useful and even valuable members of society. + +Experience equally proves that, though the moral reformation of +convicts in this country is so rare as, practically speaking, to be +considered as impossible, yet this is very far indeed from being the +case when they are removed to a distant land, where all connexion +with their old associates is at once and for ever broken; where an +honest career is not only open, but easy, to the most depraved, and a +boundless supply of fertile but unappropriated land affords scope for +the exercise of the desire of gain on legitimate objects, and affords +no facilities for the commission of crime, or the acquisition of +property, by the short-hand methods of theft or robbery. Lord Brougham, +in a most able work, which is little known only because it runs counter +to the prejudices of the age, has well explained the causes of this +peculiarity:-- + + "The new emigrants, who at various times continued to flock to + the extensive country of America, were by no means of the same + description with the first settlers. Some of these were the + scourings of jails, banished for their crimes; many of them + were persons of desperate fortunes, to whom every place was + equally uninviting; or men of notoriously abandoned lives, to + whom any region was acceptable that offered them a shelter from + the vengeance of the law, or the voice of public indignation. + But a change of scene will work some improvement upon the most + dissolute of characters. It is much to be removed from the scenes + with which villany has been constantly associated, and the + companions who have rendered it agreeable. It is something to + have the leisure of a long voyage, with its awakening terrors, to + promote reflection. Besides, to regain once more the privilege + of that good name, which every unknown man may claim until he is + tried, presents a powerful temptation to reform, and furnishes + an opportunity of amendment denied in the scenes of exposure and + destruction. If the convicts in the colony of New Holland, though + surrounded on the voyage and in the settlement by the companions + of their iniquities, have in a great degree been reclaimed by + the mere change of scene, what might not be expected from such + a change as we are considering? But the honest acquisition of a + little property, and its attendant importance, is, beyond any + other circumstance, the one most calculated to reform the conduct + of a needy and profligate man, by inspiring him with a respect + for himself and a feeling of his stake in the community, and + by putting a harmless and comfortable life at least within the + reach of his exertions. If the property is of a nature to require + constant industry, in order to render it of any value; if it + calls forth that sort of industry which devotes the labourer to + a solitary life in the open air, and repays him not with wealth + and luxury, but with subsistence and ease; if, in short, it is + property in land, divided into small portions and peopled by + few inhabitants, no combination of circumstances can be figured + to contribute more directly to the reformation of the new + cultivator's character and manners."[5] + +In addition to these admirable observations, it may be stated, as +another, and perhaps the principal reason why transportation, when +conducted on proper principles, is attended with such immediate and +beneficial influences on the moral character of the convict, that it +places him in situations where scope is afforded for the development +of the _domestic and generous affections_. A counterpoise is provided +to self. It is the impossibility of providing such a counterpoise +within the four walls of a cell--the extreme difficulty of finding +it, in any circumstances in which a prisoner can be placed, on his +liberation from jail in his own country, which is the chief cause of +the total failure of all attempts to work a moral reform on prisoners, +when kept at home, by any, even the most approved system of jail +discipline. But that which cannot be obtained at home is immediately, +on transportation, found in the colonies. The criminal is no longer +thrown back on himself in the solitude of a cell--he is not surrounded +by thieves and prostitutes, urging him to resume his old habits, on +leaving it. The female convict, on arriving in New South Wales, is +almost immediately married; ere long the male, if he is industrious +and well-behaved, has the means of being so. Regular habits then come +to supplant dissolute--the natural affections spring up in the heart +with the creation of the objects on which they are to be exercised. The +solitary tenant of a cell--the dissolute frequenter of spirit-cellars +and bagnios, acquires _a home_. The affections of the fireside begin to +spring up, because a fireside is obtained. + +Incalculable is the effect of this change of circumstances on the +character of the most depraved. Accordingly it is mentioned by Mr +Cunningham, in his very interesting _Account of New South Wales_, that +great numbers of young women taken from the streets of London, who have +resisted all efforts of Christian zeal and philanthropy in Magdalene +Asylums or Penitentiaries at home, and embark for New South Wales in +the most shocking state of depravity, become sensibly improved in their +manners, and are not unfrequently entirely reformed by forming, during +the voyage, _temporary connections with sailors_, to whom, when the +choice is once made, they generally remain faithful: so powerful and +immediate is the effect of an approach even to a home, and lasting +ties, on the female heart.[6] The feelings which offspring produces are +never entirely obliterated in the breast of woman. It has been often +observed, that though dissolute females generally, when they remain at +home, find it impossible to reform their own lives, yet they rarely, if +they have the power, fail to bring up their children at a distance from +their haunts of iniquity. So powerful is the love of children, and the +secret sense of shame at their own vices, in the breasts even of the +most depraved of the female sex. + +It has been proved, accordingly, by experience, on the very largest +scale, not only that the reformation of offenders, when transported +to a colony in a distant part of the world, takes place, if they +are preserved _in a due proportion of numerical inferiority to +the untainted population_, to an extent unparalleled in any other +situation; but that, when so regulated, they constitute the _greatest +possible addition to the strength, progress, and riches of a colony_. +From official papers laid before parliament, before the unhappy +crowding of convicts in New South Wales began, and the gang-system was +introduced, it appears that between the years 1800 and 1817--that is, +in seventeen years--out of 17,000 convicts transported to New South +Wales, no less than _six thousand had, at the close of the period, +obtained their freedom from their good conduct, and had earned among +them, by their free labour, property to the amount of £1,500,000_! It +may be safely affirmed that the history of the world does not afford +so astonishing and gratifying an instance of the moral reformation of +offenders, or one pointing so clearly to the true system to be pursued +regarding them. It will be recollected that this reformation took place +when 17,000 convicts were transported in seventeen years--that is, on +an average, 1000 a-year only--and when the gang-system was unknown, and +the convict on landing at Sidney was immediately assigned to a free +colonist, by whom he was forthwith marched up the country into a remote +situation, and employed under his master's direction in rural labour or +occupations. + +And that the colony itself prospers immensely from the forced labour of +convicts being added, _in not too great proportions_, to the voluntary +labour of freemen, is decisively proved by the astonishing progress +which Australia has made during the last fifty years; the degree in +which it has distanced all its competitors in which convict labour +was unknown; and the marvellous amount of wealth and comfort, so much +exceeding upon the whole that known in any other colony, which now +exists among its inhabitants. We say upon the whole, because we are +well aware that in some parts of Australia, particularly Van Diemen's +Land, property has of late years been most seriously depreciated in +value--partly from the monetary crisis, which has affected that +distant settlement as well as the rest of the empire, and partly from +the inordinate number of convicts who have been sent to that one +locality, from the vast increase of crime at home, and the cessations +of transportation to Sidney;--a number which has greatly exceeded the +proper and salutary proportion to freemen, and has been attended with +the most disastrous results. But that the introduction of convicts, +when not too depraved, and kept in due subordination by being in a +_small minority compared to the freemen_, is, so far from being an +evil, the greatest possible advantage to a colony, is decisively proved +by the parliamentary returns quoted below, showing the comparative +progress during a long course of years of Australia, aided by convict +labour, and the Cape of Good Hope and Canada, which have not enjoyed +that advantage. These returns are decisive. They demonstrate that the +progress of the convict colonies, during the last half century, has +been three times as rapid as that of those enjoying equal or greater +advantages, to whom convicts have not been sent; and that the present +state of comforts they enjoy, as measured by the amount per head of +British manufactures they consume, is also triple that of any other +colony who have been kept entirely clear from the supposed stain, but +real advantages, of forced labour.[7] + +Accordingly, the ablest and best-informed statistical writers and +travellers on the Continent, struck with the safe and expeditious +method of getting quit of and reforming its convicts which Great +Britain enjoys, from its numerous colonies in every part of the +world, and the want of which is so severely felt in the Continental +states, are unanimous in considering the possession of such colonies, +and consequent power of unlimited transportation, as one of the very +greatest social advantages which England enjoys. Hear what one of the +most enlightened of those writers, M. Malte-Brun, says on the subject:-- + + "England has long been in the habit of disposing of its wicked + citizens in a way at once philosophic and politic, by sending them + out to cultivate distant colonies. It was thus that the shores + of the Delaware and the Potomac were peopled in America. After + the American war, they were at a loss where to send the convicts, + and the Cape of Good Hope was first thought of; but, on the + recommendation of the learned Sir Joseph Banks, New South Wales + obtained the preference. The first vessel arrived at Botany Bay on + the 20th January 1788, and brought out 760 convicts, and according + to a census taken in 1821, exhibited the following results in + thirty-three years, viz.-- + + Free settlers, men, women + and children 23,254 + Convicts 13,814 + ------ + 37,068" + +In 1832, that population had risen to 40,000 souls.[8] In 1821, there +were in the colony 5000 horses, 120,000 horned cattle, and 350,000 +sheep. It consumed, at that period, 8,500,000 francs' (£340,000) worth +of English manufactures, being about £8, 10s. a-head, and exported to +Europe about £100,000 worth in rude produce. + + "Great division of opinion has existed in France, for a long + course of years, on the possibility of diminishing the frequency + of the punishment of death, as well as that of the galleys; but + a serious difficulty has been alleged in the expense with which + an establishment such as New South Wales would cost. It is worthy + of remark, however, that from 1789 to the end of 1821, England + had expended for the transport, maintenance, and other charges + of 33,155 convicts, transported to New South Wales, £5,301,023, + being _scarce a third_ of what the prisoners would have cost in + the prisons of Great Britain, without having the satisfaction of + having changed into useful citizens those who were the shame and + terror of society. + + "When a vessel with convicts on board arrives in the colony, + the men who are not married in it, are permitted to choose a + wife among the female convicts. At the expiration of his term + of punishment, every convict is at liberty to return to his own + country, at his own expense. If he chooses to remain, he obtains + a grant of land, and provisions for 18 months: if he is married + the allotment is larger, and an adequate portion is allowed for + each child. Numbers are provided with the means of emigration + at the expense of government; they obtain 150 acres of land, + seed-corn, and implements of husbandry. It is worthy of remark + that, thanks to the vigilance of the authorities, the transported + in that colony lose their depraved habits; that the women + become well behaved and fruitful; and that the children do not + inherit the vices of their parents. These results are sufficient + to place the colony of New South Wales _among the most noble + philanthropic institutions in the world_. After that, can any one + ask the expense of the establishment?"--MALTE-BRUN, _Géographie + Universelle_, xii. 194-196. + +But here a fresh difficulty arises. Granting, it will be said, that +transportation is so immense a benefit to the mother country, in +affording a safe and certain vent for its criminals; and to the +colonies, by providing them with so ample a supply of forced labour, +what is to be done when they will not receive it? The colonies are +all up in arms against transportation; not one can be persuaded, +on any terms, to receive these convicts. When a ship with convicts +arrives, they begin talking about separation and independence, and +reminding us of Bunker's Hill and Saratoga. The Cape shows us with +what feelings colonies which have not yet received them view the +introduction of criminals; Van Diemen's Land, how well founded their +apprehensions are of the consequences of such an invasion of civilised +depravity. This difficulty, at first sight, appears not only serious +but insurmountable. On a nearer examination, however, it will be found +that, however formidable it may appear, it could easily be got over; +and that it is entirely owing to the true principles of transportation +having been forgotten, and one of the first duties of government +neglected by our rulers for the last thirty years. + +It is very remarkable, and throws an important light on this question, +that this horror at the influx of convicts, which has now become so +general in the colonies as to render it almost impossible to find a +place where they can with safety be landed, is entirely of _recent_ +origin. It never was heard of till within the last fifteen or twenty +years. Previous to that time, and even much later, transportation was +not only regarded by the penal colonies without aversion, but with the +utmost possible complacency. They looked to a series of heavy assizes +in Great Britain with the same feelings of anxious solicitude, as the +working classes do to a good harvest, or the London tradesman to a +gay and money-spending season. Spirits never were so high in Sidney, +speculation never so rife, property never so valuable, profits never so +certain, as when the convict ships arrived well stored with compulsory +emigrants. If any one doubts this, let him open the early numbers of +the _Colonial Magazine_, and he will find them filled with resolutions +of public meetings in New South Wales, recounting the immense +advantages the colony had derived from the forced labour of convicts, +and most earnestly deprecating any intermission in their introduction. +As a specimen, we subjoin a series of resolutions, by the Governor +and Council of New South Wales, on a petition agreed to, at a public +meeting held in Sidney, on 18th February 1838. + + _Resolutions of the Legislative Council, New South Wales, 17th + July 1838._ + + 4. _Resolved._--That, in opinion of this council, the numerous + free emigrants of character and capital, including many officers + of the army and navy, and East India Company's service, who have + settled in this colony, with their families, together with a + rising generation of native-born subjects, constitute a body of + colonists who, in the exercise of the social and moral relations + of life, are not inferior to the inhabitants of any other + dependency of the British crown, and are sufficient to impress a + character of respectability upon the colony at large. + + 5. _Resolved._--That, in the opinion of this council, the rapid + and increasing advance of this colony, in the short space of + fifty years from its first establishment, in rural, commercial, + and financial prosperity, proves indisputably the activity, + the enterprise, and industry of the colonists, and is wholly + incompatible with the state of society represented to exist here. + + 6. _Resolved._--That, in the opinion of this council, the strong + desire manifested by the colonists generally, to obtain moral and + religious instruction, and the liberal contributions, which have + been made from private funds, towards this most essential object, + abundantly testify that the advancement of virtue and religion + amongst them is regarded with becoming solicitude. + + 7. _Resolved._--That, in the opinion of this council, if + transportation and assignment have hitherto failed to produce all + the good effects anticipated by their projectors, such failure + may be traced to circumstances, many of which are no longer in + existence, whilst others are in rapid progress of amendment. + Amongst the most prominent causes of failure may be adduced the + absence, at the first establishment of the colony, of adequate + religious and moral instruction, and the want of proper means of + classification in the several gaols throughout the colony, as well + as of a sufficient number of free emigrants, properly qualified to + become the assignees of convicts, and to be intrusted with their + management and control. + + 8. _Resolved._--That, in the opinion of this council, the great + extension which has latterly been afforded of moral and religious + instruction, the classification which may in future be made in the + numerous gaols now in progress of erection, upon the most approved + principles of inspection and separation, the most effectual + punishment and classification of offenders in ironed gangs, + according to their improved system of management--the numerous + free emigrants now eligible as the assignees of convicts, and + the accumulated experience of half a century--form a combination + of circumstances, which renders the colony better adapted at the + present, than at any former period, to carry into effect the + praiseworthy intentions of the first founders of the system of + transportation and assignment, which had no less for its object + reformation of character than a just infliction of punishment. + + 9. _Resolved._--That, in the opinion of this council, no system + of penal discipline, or secondary punishment, will be found at + once so cheap, so effective, and so reformatory, as that of + well-regulated assignment--the good conduct of the convict, and + his continuance at labour, being so obviously the interest of the + assignee; whilst the partial solitude and privations, incidental + to a pastoral or agricultural life in the remote districts of the + colony, (which may be made the universal employment of convicts,) + by effectually breaking a connexion with companions and habits of + vice, is better calculated than any other system to produce moral + reformation, when accompanied by adequate religious instruction. + + 10. _Resolved._--That, in the opinion of this council, many men + who, previously to their conviction, had been brought up in habits + of idleness and vice, have acquired, by means of assignment, + not only habits of industry and labour, but the knowledge of a + remunerative employment, which, on becoming free, forms a strong + inducement to continue in an honest course of life. + + 11. _Resolved._--That, in the opinion of this council, the sudden + discontinuance of transportation and assignment, by depriving the + colonists of convict labour, must necessarily curtail their means + of purchasing crown lands, and, consequently, the supply of funds + for the purpose of immigration. + + 12. _Resolved._--That, in the opinion of this council, the produce + of the labour of convicts, in assignment, is thus one of the + principal, though indirect means, of bringing into the colony + free persons: it is obvious, therefore, that the continuance of + emigration in any extended form, must necessarily depend upon the + continuance of the assignment of convicts.[9] + +It is not surprising that they viewed, at this period, the +transportation system in this light; for under it they had made +advances in population, comfort, and riches, unparalleled in any other +age or country of the world. + +How, then, has it happened that so great a change has come over the +views of the colonists on this subject; and that the system which +they formerly regarded, with reason, as the sheet-anchor of their +prosperity, is now almost universally looked to with unqualified +aversion, as the certain forerunner of their destruction? The answer +is easy. It is because transportation, as formerly conducted, _was +a blessing_, and because, as conducted of late years, it _has +become a curse_, that the change of opinion has arisen in regard to +it. The feelings of the colonists, in both cases, were founded on +experience--both were, in the circumstances in which they arose, +equally well founded, and both were therefore equally entitled to +respect and attention. We have only to _restore the circumstances_ in +which the convicts were a blessing, to revive the times in which their +arrival will be regarded as a boon. And to effect this, can easily be +shown not only to be attended with no difficulty, but only to require +the simultaneous adoption by government of a system of punishment +at home, and of voluntary emigration at the public expense abroad, +attended with a very trifling expense, and calculated to relieve, +beyond any other measure that could by possibility be devised, the +existing distress among the labouring classes of Great Britain and +Ireland. + +To render the introduction of penal labour into a colony an advantage, +three things are necessary. 1st, that the convicts sent out should be +for the most part instructed in some simple rural art or occupation, +of use in the country into which they are to be transplanted. 2d, that +they should in general be _beginners in crime_, and a small number of +them only hardened in depravity. 3d, what is most important of all, +that they should be preserved in a _due proportion_, never exceeding +_a fourth or a fifth_ to the free and untainted settlers. Under these +conditions, their introduction will always prove a blessing, and will +be hailed as a boon. If they are neglected, they will prove a curse, +and their arrival be regarded as a punishment. + +Various circumstances have contributed, of late years, to render the +convict system a dreadful evil, instead of, as formerly, a signal +benefit to the colonies. But that affords no ground for despair; on the +contrary, it furnishes the most well-grounded reason for hope. We are +suffering under the effects of an erroneous regimen, not any inherent +malady in the patient. Change this treatment, and his health will soon +return. + +It is well known that the greatest pains have of _late years_ been +taken, in this country, to instruct prisoners in jail in some +useful handicraft; and that, so far has this been carried, that our +best-regulated jails are more in fact great houses of industry. The +general penitentiary at Pentonville, in particular, where the convicts +sentenced to transportation are trained, previous to their removal to +the penal settlements, is a perfect model of arrangement and attention +in this important respect. But it is equally well known that it is only +of _late_ years that this signal reform has come into operation; and +we have the satisfaction of knowing that already its salutary effects +have been evinced, in the most signal manner, with the convicts sent +abroad. Previous to the year 1840, scarcely anything was done on any +considerable scale, either to teach ordinary prisoners trades in jail, +to separate them from each other, or to prepare them, in the public +penitentiaries, for the duties in which they were to be engaged, +when they arrived at their distant destination. The county jails, +now resounding with the clang of ceaseless occupation, pursued by +prisoners in their separate cells, then only re-echoed the din of riot +and revelling in the day-rooms where the idle prisoners were huddled +together, and beguiled the weary hours of their captivity by stories +of perpetrated crime, or plans for its renewal the moment they got out +of confinement. But the ideas of men are all formed on the experience +of facts, or the thoughts driven into them, for a considerable time +back. The present universal horror at transportation is founded on the +experience of the prisoners with which, for a quarter of a century, New +South Wales had been flooded, from the idle day-rooms or profligate +hulks of Great Britain. Some years must elapse before the effects of +the improved discipline received, and laborious habits acquired, in the +jails and penitentiaries of the mother country, produces any general +effect on public opinion in its distant colonies. + +The relaxation of the severity of our penal code at home, during the +last thirty years, however loudly called for by considerations of +justice and humanity, has undoubtedly had a most pernicious influence +on the _class of convicts_ who have, during that period, been sent to +the colonies. In so far as that change of system has diminished the +frequency of the infliction of the punishment of death, and limited, +practically speaking, that dreadful penalty to cases of wilful and +inexcusable murder, it must command the assent of every benevolent and +well-regulated mind. But, unfortunately, the change has not stopped +there. It has descended through every department of our criminal +jurisprudence, and come in that way to alter much for the worse _the +class of criminals_ who of late years have been sent to the penal +colonies. The men who were formerly hanged are now for the most part +transported; those formerly transported are now imprisoned; and those +sent abroad have almost all, on repeated occasions, been previously +confined, generally for a very long period. As imprisonment scarcely +ever works any reformation on the _moral_ character or habits of a +prisoner, whatever improved skill in handicraft it may put into his +fingers, this change has been attended with most serious and pernicious +effect on the character of the convicts sent to the colonies, and gone +far to produce the aversion with which they are now everywhere regarded. + +It has been often observed, by those practically acquainted with the +working of the transportation system in the colonies, that the Irish +convicts were generally the best, and the Scotch, beyond all question, +the worst who arrived. This peculiarity, so widely different from, in +fact precisely the reverse of, what has been observed of the _free_ +settlers from these respective countries, in every part of the world, +has frequently been made the subject of remark, and excited no little +surprise. But the reason of it is evident, and, when once stated, +perfectly satisfactory. The Scotch law, administered almost entirely by +professional men, and on fixed principles, has long been based on the +principle of transporting persons only who were deemed irreclaimable in +this country. Very few have been sent abroad for half a century, from +Scotland, who had not either committed some very grave offence, or +been four or five times, often eight or ten times, previously convicted +and imprisoned. In Ireland, under the moderate and lenient sway of +Irish county justices, a poacher was often transported who had merely +been caught with a hare tucked up under his coat. Whatever we may think +of the justice of such severe punishments for trivial offences, in the +first instance, there can be but one opinion as to its tendency to +lead a much better class of convicts from the Emerald Isle, than the +opposite system did from the shores of Caledonia. Very probably, also, +the system of giving prisoners "repeated opportunities of amendment," +as it is called in this country--but which, in fact, would be more +aptly styled "renewed opportunities for depravity"--has, from good but +mistaken motives, been carried much too far in Scotland. Be this as it +may, nothing is more certain than that the substitution of a race of +repeatedly convicted and hardened offenders, under the milder system +of punishment in Great Britain, during the last twenty years, for one +comparatively uninitiated in crime, such as were formerly sent out, has +had a most pernicious effect on the character of the convicts received +in the colonies, and the sentiments with which their arrival was +regarded. + +But by far the most powerful cause, which has been in operation for +above a quarter of a century, in destroying the beneficial effects +of the system of transportation, and substituting the worst possible +consequences in their stead, has been the sending out of convicts _in +too great a proportion to the free population_, and the consequent +necessity for substituting the _gang for the assignment system_. This +is a matter of the very highest, indeed of paramount importance; and +it may safely be affirmed that, unless a remedy is found for it, all +efforts made to render the system of transportation palatable to the +colonies will prove nugatory. Fortunately the means of remedying +that evil are not only easy, but, comparatively speaking, cheap, +and perfectly efficacious; and they promise, while they remedy the +above-mentioned evil, to confer, in other respects, signal benefits +both on the colonies and the mother country. + +New South Wales was originally selected, and not without sufficient +reasons, as the place for the establishment of penal colonies, +because the distance of it from the mother country, and the length of +the voyage, rendered it a very difficult matter either for runaway +convicts, or those who had served their time, to get home again. Once +sent out, you were, in the great majority of cases, clear of them for +ever. This circumstance was no disadvantage, but rather the reverse, to +the colony, and certainly a very great advantage to the parent state, +as long as the number of convicts annually sent out was inconsiderable, +and the whole convict population formed a small minority to the number +of free settlers. When the whole number committed a-year in England was +4500, and in Scotland under 100, as it was in Great Britain in 1804 or +1805, the settlement of convicts on the distant shores of Australia +worked well. They were glad to get the 300 or 400 annually sent out; +they were benefited by their forced labour; and the free settlers +were in sufficient numbers to keep them with ease in subjection, and +prevent their habits from contaminating those of the free inhabitants +of the colony. But when the commitments from Great Britain and Ireland +had risen to 50,000 or 60,000 a-year, and the convicts sent out to +3000 or 4000 annually, as they have done for some years past, the case +was entirely altered. The polluted stream became much too large and +powerful for the land it was intended to fertilise; it did more harm +than good, and became the object of uniform and undisguised aversion. + +The _distance_ of Australia from the mother country, which formerly had +been so great an advantage to both parties, now became the greatest +possible evil; because it prevented, at the time this great influx +of convicts was going on, the immigration of freemen from preserving +anything like a due proportion to it. When the convicts rose to 2000 +and 3000 yearly, the free settlers should have been raised to 8000 or +10,000 annually. This would have kept all right; because the tainted +population would have been always in a small minority compared to the +virtuous; order would have been preserved by the decided majority of +the well-disposed; and the assignment system, the parent of so much +good, still rendered practicable by the ceaseless extension of free +settlers in the wilds of nature. But the distance of Australia rendered +this impracticable, when the emigration of freemen was left to its own +unaided resources. Steam navigation contributed powerfully to throw it +into the back-ground for all but the very highest class of emigrants. +The voyage to Australia is one of fourteen thousand miles; it takes +from five to six months, must still be performed by sailing vessels, +and costs about £16 a-head for the ordinary class of emigrants. That +to America is one of three thousand miles; it takes from a fortnight +to three weeks, is performed by great numbers of steam as well as +sailing vessels, and costs from £3 to £4 a-head for the same class of +passengers.[10] + +These facts are decisive, and must always continue so, against the +choice of Australia, as the place of their destination, by the great +bulk of ordinary emigrants. Several young men of good family, indeed, +tempted by the high profits generally made there in the wool trade, and +the boundless facilities for the multiplication of flocks which its +prairies afforded, have settled there, and some have done well. But of +ordinary labourers, and persons to do the work of common workmen, there +has always been felt a very great deficiency, for this simple reason, +that they could not afford the expense of the voyage. The settlers were +almost entirely of the better class, and they were in no proportion at +all to the number of the convicts. This distinctly appears, not only +from the extravagant wages paid to shepherds and common labourers, +generally not less than five or six shillings a-day, but from the very +limited number of emigrants, even during the distress of the last +three years, when the voluntary emigration had reached two hundred and +fifty thousand annually from the British islands, who have gone to our +colonies in New South Wales.[11] + +This unhappy turn of affairs has been attended with a double +disadvantage. In the first place, the vast increase in the number +of convicts sent to Sydney, compared with the small number of free +settlers, has for a long time past rendered the continuance of the +assignment system impossible; and _the gang system_, to take off and +embody the surplus numbers, became in a manner a matter of necessity. +The manners of the colony, its habits, its prospects, its morality, +have been seriously damaged by this change. The emancipated convicts +who have made money, known by the name of "canary birds," have pressed +upon the heels, and come to excite the jealousy, of the free settlers. +The accumulation of convicts in the lower walks of life has checked the +immigration of free labour, perpetuated the frightful inequality of the +sexes, and led to the most lamentable disorders. The gang system, of +necessity introduced, because free settlers did not exist to take the +convicts off under the assignment system, perpetuated in the colony the +vices of the hulks, the depravity of the galleys. The whole benefits of +transportation to the convicts, their whole chances of amendment, are +lost, when, instead of being sent to rural labour in the solitude of +the woods and the prairies, they are huddled together, in gangs of four +or five hundred, without hope to counterbalance evil propensities, or +inducement to resist the seduction of mutual bad example. These evils +were so sensibly felt, and led to such energetic representations to the +government at home, that at length the colony was pacified, but at the +same time its progress checked, by an order in council in 1837, that +no more convicts, for a limited time, should be sent to Sydney or its +dependencies. + +But this only shifted the seat of the evil, and augmented its +intensity. The convicts, now swelled to above four thousand a-year, +could not be kept at home; they required to be sent somewhere, and +where was that place to be? Van Diemen's Land was selected, being the +most southernly portion of New Holland, and of course the farthest +removed from this country; and thither nearly the _whole convicts_ of +Great Britain and Ireland, soon above thirty-five hundred annually +in number, were sent for several years. The consequence of this +prodigious influx of criminals into an infant colony, so far removed +from the parent state that it cost £20 a-head to send a common labourer +there--and of course no free emigration in proportionate numbers could +be expected without public aid--might easily have been anticipated. +Government did nothing to encourage the simultaneous settlement of +free settlers in that distant land, thus flooded with convicts, or so +little as amounted to nothing. The consequence was, that, ere long, +_three-fifths_ of the inhabitants of the colony were convicts. Every +one knows, none could have failed to anticipate the consequences. The +morals of the settlement, thus having a majority of its inhabitants +convicts, were essentially injured. Crimes unutterable were committed; +the hideous inequality of the sexes induced its usual and frightful +disorders; the police, how severe and vigilant soever, became unable +to coerce the rapidly-increasing multitude of criminals; the most +daring fled to the woods, where they became bush-rangers; life became +insecure; property sank to half its former value. So powerful, and +evidently well-founded, were the representations made on the subject to +the legislature, that it became evident that a remedy must be applied; +and this was done by an order in council in 1844, which suspended +entirely for two years the transportation of _male_ convicts to the +colonies. That of females was still and most properly continued, in the +hope that, by doing so, the inequality of the sexes in Australia might +in some degree be corrected. + +But this measure, like all the rest, not being founded on the right +principle, has entirely failed. The accumulation of offenders in the +British islands, from the stoppage of the usual vent by which they were +formerly carried off, soon became insupportable. The jails were crowded +to suffocation; it was ere long found to be necessary to liberate many +persons, transported seven years, at the expiration of two, to make way +for new inmates. The liberated convicts were soon back in their old +haunts, and at their old practices; and the great increase of _serious_ +crimes, such as robberies, burglaries, and murders, demonstrated that +the public morals in the great towns were rapidly giving way, under the +influence of that worst species of criminals--returned convicts. The +judges both of Great Britain and Ireland, in common with every person +practically acquainted with the subject, and who had daily proofs, +in the discharge of their important official duties, of the total +failure of the imprisonment system, were unanimous in recommending a +return to transportation. All the temporary expedients adopted, such +as Gibraltar, Bermuda, &c., soon failed from the rapid increase of +convicts, who greatly exceeded all the means left of taking them off. +Government became convinced that they had made a step in the wrong +direction; and they most wisely took counsel from experience, and +determined to resume the practice of sending convicts abroad. But, on +the threshold of the renewed attempt, they were met by the refusal +of the colonies to take them. The Cape is almost in rebellion on the +subject; and in despair of finding a willing colony, it is said they +have in contemplation to send them to be roasted under the White +Cliffs, and increase the already redundant population of Malta. + +It is not necessary to do any such thing. The solution of the +transportation question is easy, the method to be followed perfectly +efficacious. Government have only _to commence the discharge_ of +one of their most important social duties to get rid of all their +difficulties, and render the immigration of criminals, as it was +in time past, as great a blessing to the colonies, and as ardently +desired, as of late years it has been a curse, and earnestly deprecated. + +Transportation is a blessing to a colony when the convicts are kept +in a minority, perhaps in a fourth or a fifth of the community to +which they are sent, and when they are not hardened in crime, and all +instructed in some useful trade. In such circumstances, they are the +greatest possible addition to its strength, riches, and progress, and +will always be gladly received. + +Transportation is a curse when the convicts sent out are so numerous, +and the free settlers so few, that the former forms a large proportion +of the community compared to the latter, and when their habits are +those of hardened irreclaimable criminals, instead of youthful novices +in crime. If they become a majority, certain ruin may be anticipated to +the colony thus flooded with crime. + +The difficulties which now beset the transportation question have all +arisen from our having pursued a course, of late years, which rendered +the settlement of convicts a curse instead of a blessing, as it was +at first, when the system was directly the reverse. To render it a +blessing again, we have only to restore the circumstances which made +it so formerly--sending out the convicts when not completely hardened +in depravity, and in such a proportion to the free settlers as to +keep them a _small minority_ to the free and untainted part of the +community. The immigration of convicts to our colonies is like that of +the Irish into western Britain: everything depends on the proportion +they bear to the remainder of the population. They are very useful if +a fourth; they can be borne if they are a third; but let them become +a majority, and they will soon land the country in the condition of +Skibbereen or Connemara. + +We cannot diminish the numbers of convicts transported; on the +contrary, woful results have made us aware that it should be materially +increased. Experience has taught us, also, that voluntary unaided +emigration cannot enable the free settlers in Australia to keep pace +with the rapid increase of crime in the British islands. What, then, +is to be done? The answer is simple: Discharge in part the vast duty, +so long neglected by government, of providing, at the public expense, +for the emigration of a certain portion of the _most indigent_ part of +the community, who cannot get abroad on their own resources, and SETTLE +THEM IN THE SAME COLONY WITH THE CONVICTS. Do this, and the labour +market is lightened at home; the convicts are kept in a small minority +abroad; the colony, thus aided by the combined virtue and penal labour +of the mother country, is secured of prosperity and rapid progress; and +its rate of increase will soon induce the other colonies to petition +for a share of the prolific stream. + +At present, there are, or at least should be, above 5000 criminals +annually transported from the British islands.[12] The cost of settling +a free labourer in Australia is about £16 a-head. To send 16,000 free +labourers with these 5000 criminals would cost just £256,000 a-year: +call it £300,000 yearly, to make room for the probable increase of +criminals, from the growing necessities or depravity of the mother +country, and provide for the extra and unavoidable expenses of an +infant establishment, and the transportation question is at once +solved, a great relief is afforded to the distressed labourers of the +parent state, and a certain market for our manufactures provided, +which will double every two or three years, as long as the system is +continued. + +Let government, by an order in council, propose these terms to the +colonies, and we shall see if any of them will refuse them. If none +will close with them, let them at once establish a new colony on these +principles, in some unoccupied part of New Holland. In twelve months, +there will be a race for who is to get a share of the fertilising +stream. Sixteen thousand free settlers, and five or six thousand +convicts, annually sent to any colony, would cause its numbers to +double every two, and its prosperity to triple in value every three +years. Everything would go on in a geometrical progression. It would +soon rival California in progress and reputation. Capital would rapidly +follow this scene of activity and progress. Moneyed men are not slow +in discovering where labour is plentiful and comparatively cheap, and +where their investments are doubled in amount and value every two or +three years. A colony thus powerfully supported by the parent state +would soon distance all its competitors: while the Cape, New Zealand, +and Australia were slumbering on with a population doubling every ten +years, from the tardy and feeble support of free emigrants on their +own resources, the establishment thus protected would double in two +or three. Voluntary emigrants would crowd to the scene of activity, +progress, and opulence. The 20,000 persons annually sent out would +immediately become consumers of our manufactures to the extent of +£150,000 a-year:[13] and this rate would be doubled the very next +year! At the end of five or six years, it would amount to £800,000 or +£900,000 annually. What a relief at once to the manufacturers of Great +Britain, now labouring so severely under the combined effect of foreign +competition and a declining home market, and the starving peasantry of +Ireland, where half a million of stout labourers--admirable workmen +in a foreign country, though wretched ones in their own--are pining +in hopeless destitution, a burden upon their parishes, or flocking in +ruinous multitudes to Liverpool and Glasgow. + +But where is the £300,000 to come from? The Chancellor of the Exchequer +has no money; taxation has reached its limits; and loans are out of +the question. What! have free trade and a restricted currency, then, +so quickly prostrated the resources of the country, that the nation +which, in 1813, with eighteen millions of inhabitants, at the close +of a twenty years' costly war, raised £72,000,000 by taxation, and +£80,000,000 by loan, cannot now, with thirty millions, for so very +important an object, after thirty-three years of unbroken peace, muster +up £300,000 a-year? A shilling a gallon on the 6,259,000 gallons of +whisky annually consumed in _Scotland alone_, in demoralising the +community, would provide the requisite sum, and tend to equalise the +ruinous exemption which Scotland now enjoys in the manufacture of that +attractive and pernicious liquor. A similar duty on the 12,000,000 +gallons annually consumed in England, would raise double the sum. But +if government, despite the £100,000,000 we were promised by free trade, +cannot afford £300,000 a-year for this vital object, let it be laid on +the counties as part of the prison or county rates. A little reflection +would soon show every person of sense in the country, that its amount +could speedily be saved in prison and poor rates. + +Simultaneously with this change, an alteration, equally loudly called +for, should take place in the administration of our criminal law at +home. The present system of inflicting short imprisonments at first, +and reserving long imprisonments and transportation for criminals who +have plied their trade of pillage for two or three years, should be +abolished. Imprisonment should consist of three kinds:--1. A very +short imprisonment, perhaps of a week or ten days, for the youngest +criminals and a first trifling offence, intended to terrify merely. 2. +For a second offence, however trivial--or a first, if considerable, +and indicating an association with professional thieves--a long +imprisonment of _nine months or a year_, sufficient _to teach every +one a trade_, should invariably be inflicted. 3. The criminal who +has been thus imprisoned, and taught a trade, should, when next +convicted, be _instantly transported_. In this way a triple advantage +would be gained. 1. The immense number of prisoners now constantly +in confinement in the British islands would be materially lessened, +and the prison-rates proportionally relieved. 2. The cost of now +maintaining a convict in one of the public penitentiaries, to prepare +him for transportation, not less than £17 or £18, would be almost +entirely saved; he would be prepared for it, in the great majority +of cases, by his previous imprisonment. 3. The character and habits +of the convicts sent out would be materially improved, by getting +comparatively young and untainted men for penal labour, instead of +old offenders, who have learned no other trade than that of thieving. +To the country it would undoubtedly save £60 or £80 on each criminal +transported, by removing him at the commencement of his career, when +his reformation was possible, instead of waiting till its close, when +he had lived for three or four years in flash-houses and prisons at +the public expense, paid in depredations or prison rates, and acquired +nothing but habits which rendered any change of character abroad +difficult, if not impossible. The prisons would become, instead of mere +receptacles of vice, great houses of industry, where the most dangerous +and burdensome part of our population would be trained for a life of +industry and utility in the colonies. + +For a similar reason, the great object in poor-houses, houses of +refuge, hospitals, and other institutions where the destitute poor +children are maintained at the public expense, or that of foundations +bequeathed by the piety of former times, should be to prepare the +young of both sexes, by previous education, for the habits and duties +of colonists; and, when they become adults, to _send them abroad at +the expense of the public or the institution_. Incalculable would be +the blessings which would ensue, both to the public morals and the +public expenditure, from the steady adoption of this principle. It +is a lamentable fact, well known to all practically acquainted with +this subject, that a large proportion of the orphan or destitute boys, +educated in this manner at the public expense, in public institutions, +become thieves, and nearly all the girls prostitutes. It could not +be otherwise with young creatures of both sexes, turned out without +a home, relation, or friend, shortly after the age of puberty, into +the midst of an old and luxurious community, overloaded with labour, +abounding in snares, thickly beset with temptations. Removed to +Australia, the Cape, or Canada, they might do well, and would prove as +great a blessing in those colonies, where labour is dear, women wanted, +and land boundless, as they are a burden here, where labour is cheap, +women redundant, and land all occupied. Every shilling laid out in the +training the youth of both sexes in such situations, for the duties of +colonial life, and sending them to it when adults, would save three in +future prison or poor rates. A pauper or criminal, costing the nation +£15 or £20 a-year, would be converted into an independent man living on +his labour, and consuming £7 or £8 worth yearly of the manufactures of +his native country. + +The number of emigrants who now annually leave the British shores, is +above 250,000![14] No such migration of mankind is on record since +the days when the Goths and Vandals overthrew the Roman empire, and +settled amidst its ruins. It might naturally have been supposed that +so prodigious a removal of persons, most of them in the prime of +life, would have contributed in a material degree to lighten the +market of labour, and lessen the number of persons who, by idleness or +desperation, are thrown into habits of crime. But the result has been +just the reverse; and perhaps nothing has contributed so powerfully to +increase crime, and augment destitution among the labouring classes +of late years, as this very emigration. The reason is evident. It is +for the most part _the wrong class which has gone abroad_. It is the +employer, not the employed; the holders of little capitals, not the +holders of none. Left to its own unaided resources, emigration could +be undertaken only by persons possessed of some funds to pay their +passage. It took £100 to transport a family to Australia; £20 or £30 +to America. The destitute, the insolvent, the helpless, could not get +away, and they fell in overwhelming and crushing multitudes on the +parish funds, county rates, and charity of the benevolent at home. +Labour became everywhere redundant, because so many of the employers +of labour had gone away. The grand object for all real lovers of their +country now, should be to induce government or the counties to provide +means for the emigration, on a large scale, of destitute _labourers_, +chained by their poverty to the soil. About 150,000 persons have +annually emigrated from Ireland for the last three years, carrying +with them above half its agricultural capital; and the consequence is, +that in many districts the land is uncultivated, _and the banknotes +in circulation, which, in 1846, were £7,500,000, have sunk in August +1849 to £3,833,000_![15] The small cultivators, the employers of the +poor, have disappeared, and with them their capital--leaving only +to the owners of land a crowd of starving, unemployed labourers, to +consume their rents. A million of such starving labourers now oppress +the industry of Ireland. Such is the result of agitation at home, and +free trade in emigration abroad. The American papers tell us, that +each of these starving Irishmen, if strong and healthy, is worth 1000 +dollars to the United States. Free-trade emigration can never send them +out--it can transport only those who can pay. A large increase of penal +emigration, coupled with such a proportionate influx, at the public +expense, of free settlers, as would prevent it from becoming an evil, +at once solves the transportation question, and is the first step in +the right direction in that of Emigration. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Prison Report 1848_, p. 73. + +[2] In 1848, the number committed for serious offences was 73,770. + +[3] See the "Increase of Crime, and Imprisonment, and Transportation," +_Blackwood's Magazine_, May and July 1844, vol. lv. p. 532, and vol. +lvi. p. 1. + +[4] Table showing the number of commitments for serious offences in the +undermentioned years in England, Scotland, and Ireland:-- + + |Years. | England. | Scotland. | Ireland. | Total. | + +-------+----------+-----------+-----------+--------+ + | 1837 | 23,612 | 3,126 | 24,804 | 51,542 | + | 1838 | 23,094 | 3,418 | 25,723 | 52,235 | + | 1839 | 24,443 | 3,409 | 26,392 | 54,244 | + | 1840 | 27,187 | 3,872 | 23,833 | 54,892 | + | 1841 | 27,760 | 3,562 | 20,776 | 52,118 | + | 1842 | 31,309 | 4,189 | 21,186 | 56,684 | + | 1843 | 29,591 | 3,615 | 20,126 | 53,332 | + | 1844 | 26,542 | 3,577 | 19,448 | 49,565 | + | 1845 | 24,309 | 3,537 | 16,696 | 44,542 | + | 1846 | 25,107 | 2,901 | 18,492 | 46,500 | + | 1847 | 28,833 | 4,635 | 31,209 | 64,677 | + | 1848 | 30,349 | 4,909 | 38,522* | 73,770 | + + --_Parliamentary Returns_, 1842-8. + +* Irish Rebellion. + + + +[5] BROUGHAM'S _Colonial Policy_, i. 61, 62. + +[6] CUNNINGHAM'S _New South Wales_, i. 262. + +[7] Table showing the annual exports of British manufactures to the +undermentioned Colonies, from 1828 to 1846. + + | | Canada, &c. | The Cape, | Australia, | + |Years.| Without Convicts. | Without Convicts. | With Convicts.| + +------+ | | | + |1828 | £1,691,044 | £218,849 | £443,839 | + |1829 | 1,581,723 | 257,501 | 310,681 | + |1830 | 1,857,133 | 330,036 | 314,677 | + |1831 | 2,089,327 | 257,245 | 398,471 | + |1832 | 2,075,725 | 292,405 | 466,328 | + |1833 | 2,092,550 | 346,197 | 558,372 | + |1834 | 1,671,069 | 304,382 | 716,014 | + |1835 | 2,158,158 | 326,921 | 696,345 | + |1836 | 2,732,291 | 482,315 | 835,637 | + |1837 | 2,141,035 | 488,811 | 921,568 | + |1838 | 1,992,457 | 623,323 | 1,336,662 | + |1839 | 3,047,671 | 464,130 | 1,679,390 | + |1840 | 2,847,913 | 417,091 | 2,004,385 | + |1841 | 2,947,061 | 384,574 | 1,269,351 | + |1842 | 2,333,525 | 369,076 | 916,164 | + |1843 | 1,751,211 | 502,577 | 1,211,815 | + |1844 | 3,076,861 | 420,151 | 744,482 | + |1845 | 3,555,954 | 648,749 | 1,201,076 | + |1846 | 3,308,059 | 480,979 | 1,441,640 | + + --PORTER'S _Parliamentary Tables_, 1846, p. 121. + + Exports, per head, to the following countries in 1836. + + | | | |Proportion| + | | Population. | Exports. | per head.| + | | +-------------+----------+ + |United States of America, | 14,000,000 | £12,425,605 | £0 17 6 | + |Canada, &c., | 1,500,000 | 2,739,291 | 1 16 0 | + |British West India Islands, | 900,000 | 3,786,453 | 3 12 0 | + |Australia, | 100,000 | 835,637 | 8 14 0 | + + --PORTER'S _Parliamentary Tables_. + + + +[8] It now (1849) exceeds 200,000 souls. + +[9] _Colonial Magazine_, i. 431, 433. + +[10] While we write these lines, the following advertisement, which +appeared in the _Times_ of Oct. 10, will illustrate this vital +difference:-- + +"EMIGRATION.--The undersigned are prepared to forward intending +emigrants to every colony now open for colonisation, at the following +rates of passage-money:--To Sydney, £15; Melbourne, £15; Adelaide, +£15; Swan River, £20; Van Diemen's Land, £20; New Zealand, £18; Cape +of Good Hope, £10; Natal, £10; California, £25; New York, £2, 10s.; +Philadelphia, £2, 10s.; New Orleans, £3.--HARRISON & CO.--_11 Union +Street, Birmingham._" + +[11] Emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland to Australia and New +Zealand:-- + + 1830, 1,242 1836, 3,124 1842, 8,534 + 1831, 1,561 1837, 5,054 1843, 3,478 + 1832, 3,733 1838, 14,021 1844, 2,229 + 1833, 4,093 1839, 15,726 1845, 830 + 1834, 2,800 1840, 15,850 1846, 2,227 + 1835, 1,860 1841, 32,625 + +--PORTER'S _Parliamentary Tables_, 1846, p. 236. + +[12] Sentenced to be transported-- + + England. Scotland. Ireland. Total. + 1846, 2805 352 753 3810 + 1847, 2896 456 2185 5537 + 1848, 3251 459 2678* 6388 + + * Rebellion. + +--_Parliamentary Returns_, 1846-8. + +[13] At the rate of £7, 14s. a-head--the present rate in Australia. + +[14] Viz.:--1847, 258,000; 1848, 248,000; 1849, understood to be still +larger.--_Parliamentary Reports._ + +[15] See _Dublin University Magazine_, October 1849, p. 372. + + + + +MY PENINSULAR MEDAL. + +BY AN OLD PENINSULAR. + + +PART I.--CHAPTER I. + +On the evening of the 13th of February last, I was sitting in my +library, at my residence in ---- Square, when a double knock at the +door announced the postman. Betty presently entered, bringing, not as +I anticipated, a letter or two, but a small packet, which evidently +excited her curiosity, as it did mine. + +The first thing upon the said packet that caught my eye was a large +seal of red wax--the royal arms!--then, above the direction, "On Her +Majesty's service!"--just beneath, the word, "Medal!" Yes, the medal +that I had earned five-and-thirty years before, in the hard-fought +fight on the hill of Toulouse--long expected, it was come at last! +And, let me tell you, a very handsome medal, too; well designed, well +executed; and accompanied with a very civil letter, from that old +soldier, and true soldier's friend, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, the military +secretary. This letter being, no doubt, precisely the same as hundreds +of "Old Peninsulars" have by this time received, I presume I am guilty +of no breach of confidence in here transcribing it for the benefit of +my readers:-- + + "Horse-Guards, 31st January 1849. + + "Sir,--I am directed by the Commander-in-Chief to transmit to you + the Medal and Clasps graciously awarded to you by her Majesty + under the general order of the first of June 1847. I have the + honour to be, &c. + + "FITZROY SOMERSET." + +As I never attempt to describe my own feelings, except such as are +describable, I shall not relate what I now felt on the receipt of this +much desired, anxiously expected medal. But this I will say;--long live +the Queen! long live Queen Victoria! God bless her! Oh, it was a kind +thought: it was a gracious act. It comes to cheer the heart of many an +old soldier, and of many a middle-aged gentleman like myself, who got +nothing but honour and aching bones for his share in the Peninsular +glories; and now has something that he can add to the archives of his +family, and leave to those who come after him. "Graciously awarded to +you by her Majesty:" Yes; and I feel it as much so, as if her Majesty's +own gracious hands had placed it in mine. And, if ever she wants +defenders, so long as this arm can wield--but enough: romance would be +out of place. + +After the delivery of the medals had been proceeding for some time, I +was coming, one morning, out of the Horse-Guards, when I met old Major +Snaffle, who had just got his. The major belongs to that class who are +known in the army by the name of "grumblers;" and, having been knocked +down by the wind of a shot at the Trocadero, having been brought away +in the last boat but nineteen from Corunna, having seen the battle of +Salamanca from the top of a tree, having been seized with the ague but +an hour before the storming of Badajoz, having again been very ill in +the south of France from eating unripe grapes, having regularly drawn +his pay and allowances, and never having been absent from his regiment +on sick leave when he could not get it, now justly deems himself a very +ill-used man, because more has not been done for him. "Well, major," +said I, "I wish you joy. So you have got your medal at last." "Yes," +growled the major, or rather grunted, "at last I _have_ got it. Long +time, though, six-and-thirty years--long time to wait for half-a-crown." + +My own profession, at present, is very different from that of arms. +Nor can I presume, having been in but one general action, to rank with +those brave old fire-eaters of the Peninsular army, whose medals with +_many_ clasps--bar above bar--tell of six, seven, eight, critical +combats or more, in which they took a part under the illustrious +Wellington, in Portugal, in Spain, in the south of France. By the bye, +how I should like to see the Duke's own medal! What a lot of bars HE +must have!--what a glorious ladder, step rising above step in regular +succession, when he sits down to soup in his field-marshal's coat! But +I was going to say--to return from great things to small--so far from +being able to claim high military honours for myself, though serving +under his Grace's orders in the Peninsular war, I was not there at all +in a strictly military capacity. Yet as, from this very circumstance, +I had opportunities of seeing scenes, characters, and incidents, +connected with the British army, of a different kind from those +described by other writers on the subject, I am induced, by the arrival +of my medal, to place on record a short narrative of my personal +adventures in the Peninsula and south of France. + +Yet, ere I commence the yarn, a word, one word, for the honoured dead. +Many, who came home safe from the Peninsula, fell at Waterloo. Others +were borne from the western ports of Europe across the Atlantic, to +be marks for Kentucky riflemen and New England bushfighters. Of the +survivors, multitudes upon multitudes have gradually dropped off; and +those who now remain, of the legions that conquered at Vimeira, at +Vittoria, and at Orthes, to receive her Majesty's gracious gift, are +probably fewer in number than those who are gone. One "Old Peninsular" +I have heard of, in whose own family and connexions, had all lived, +there would have been fourteen or fifteen claimants of the medal. He is +now, if he still survives, the only one left. In my own connexions we +should have made seven; and now, besides myself, there remains only one +venerable uncle, who is comfortably located in a snug berth in Canada. +There was my honoured father, who received the thanks of parliament +for his services at Corunna, and pounded the French batteries at +Cadiz. There was my cousin, Tom Impett, of the 53d, whom I found with +a musket-ball in his leg two days after the battle of Toulouse, in a +house full of wounded men and officers. He died in Canada. There was +another venerable uncle, as kind an uncle as ever breathed, and as +honest a man as ever lived. He died, to his honour, far from rich, +after having been personally responsible for millions upon millions +of public money, the sinews of war, all paid away in hard cash for +our Peninsular expenses. He was generally known at headquarters +by a comical modification of his two Christian names. There was +Captain, afterwards Colonel B----, of the Royal Engineers, a quiet, +mild-tempered man, with military ardour glowing in his breast--the +man of education and the gentleman. We met near the platform of +St Cyprien; and he had the kindness to entertain me with a calm +disquisition on the fight, while we were both in the thick of it. He +had his share of professional employment in the Peninsular sieges, and +got a bad wound or two; but lived to fortify Spike Island, and was at +length lost at sea. And then there was colonel H----, who commanded a +Portuguese brigade with the rank of brigadier-general--an extraordinary +composition of waggery, shrewdness, chivalry, and professional talent. +He came down to Lisbon while I was there, on his way to England, quite +worn out with hard service and the effect of his wounds, or, as he told +us himself, "unripped at every seam." He died not many days after, on +his passage to England. + +Now for myself. I commenced keeping my terms at Trinity College, +Cambridge, in the year 1809, the seventeenth of my age. A college +life was not altogether my own choice; for nearly all the males of my +family, for three generations, had served or were serving their country +either in the army, navy, or marines, to the number of some ten or +twelve; and I myself had always looked forward to wearing the king's +uniform. Moreover, as the Peninsular war had already commenced when I +went to college, and I had learned at school the use of the broadsword +and small sword, had been drilled, and could handle a musket, my +thoughts often turned to military scenes, especially when I read in +the daily journals of victories won, first by Sir Arthur Wellesley, +then by Lord Wellington. But, once at Cambridge, I caught the fever of +academic emulation. My cousin B---- (brother of the Captain B---- above +mentioned,) had been senior wrangler, and had given me some useful +hints as to the mode of reading with effect; I read hard, obtained a +Trinity scholarship in my first year, first class the same year, ditto +the second year, and stood fair for a place among the wranglers. But +now my health broke; not, however, from hard living, but from hard +study. I was compelled to give up; and, not choosing to read for a +middling degree after having been booked for a high one, determined to +go out among the hoys. Now my penchant for military adventure returned +with full force. I was miserably out of health, with an excellent +constitution--in proof of which I always found that I lost ground by +nursing, but gained by a rough open-air life. A campaign or two would +be just the thing for me. And I beg to offer this suggestion to growing +young gentlemen who are sickly, and consequently hipped, as I was. +If, with rough living--that is, with much moving about, and constant +exposure to the atmosphere--you grow worse, I can give you no comfort; +you are a poor creature, take all the care of yourself you can. But +if, with the same kind of life, you grow better, stronger, stouter, +heartier, saucier, depend upon it, you have some stamina. This was my +case. I saw that a sedentary life was not the life I was made for; an +active life was the life for me; and my thoughts dwelt more and more on +the Peninsula. I rubbed up my French, procured a Gil Blas in Spanish, +ditto in Portuguese, a Portuguese and a Spanish grammar, and, for a +sick man, made wonderful progress in all the three languages. + +But, alas! there was a hitch. I was an only son, and an only +child--intended for the _law_! My dear father had already made me +a present, while at school, of Fortescue _De Laudibus_; and I had +already gobbled up a portion of that excellent work--for I was always +an omnivorous reader--and had digested it too. And then what would my +dear mother say, if I talked to her about going to be shot at for the +benefit of my health? It was a delicate point to manage, and how to +manage it I knew not. + +In the long vacation of 1812, which closed my third year at Trinity +College, Cambridge, I brought matters to an explanation. My father's +ship, the----, 74, was then in the Downs, and we had lodgings on Walmer +beach. I stated my desire to enter the army, and my firm conviction +that nothing else would restore my shattered constitution. But my +father was inflexible, my mother answered all my arguments, and I saw +that I had no chance. + +But when one way of gaining an object fails, another sometimes presents +itself. My two uncles, of whom I have spoken, were already in the +Peninsula, both of them in the same department, the senior at the head +of it, with the privilege of occasionally nominating his own clerks. +Their friends in England heard from them now and then; and I saw a +letter from my senior uncle to a particular old crony of his own, who +had influential connexions, asking him why he did not come out to the +army with the rank of A. D. P. M. G.,[16] instead of staying at home, +and eating roast pig for supper. + +Like all the hipped, a miserable race, I was constantly thinking +about myself; and now a happy thought struck me. As to parliamentary +interest, to be sure I had none. Besides, being under one-and-twenty, +I was not of an age to aspire to an officer's rank, in a department of +so much responsibility as the paymaster-general's; therefore, the above +standing of assistant-deputy, which put an epaulet on the shoulder at +once, was not to be thought of. But then, if Buonaparte would only have +the kindness to keep us in hot water two or three years longer, I might +rise to the said rank by previous good conduct in the office of clerk, +and that my uncle could get me at once. + +I again broke ground with my honoured parents. My father assured me +that, if I went to Lisbon, where he had been stationed with his ship, +I should find it a hell upon earth: though I afterwards learned that +he had contrived to spend a tolerably happy life there. "And as to +your being attached to headquarters, and following the movements of +the army, I," said he, "have seen quite enough of service ashore to +be able to tell you that you will be soon sick of that." But, to cut +the story short, my dear mother now began to incline to my view of the +subject. To be sure a clerkship was not exactly what they had thought +of for me--but it might lead to something better--no man's education +was complete without a tour on the Continent--the usual tour through +France, Italy, and the south of Germany, was rendered impossible by +the war--and where, in all Europe, could a young man travel, except +in Spain and Portugal? Fighting, and paying those who fought, were +different things--I might keep out of the way of bullets, and yet +contrive to see the world. In short, these arguments prevailed. A +letter was written out to my uncle, begging him to write a letter to +the head office in London, nominating me as one of his clerks for +Peninsular service. I went back to Cambridge, attacked Spanish and +Portuguese with renewed ferocity, took my degree of A. B., and returned +home in the early part of 1813, just in time to meet a letter from the +best of uncles, stating that he had written to the home authorities, +and was anxiously expecting my valuable assistance in the Peninsula. + +Nothing was now wanting but the nomination from London. That anxious +month! Morning after morning I watched for the postman's knock; and, +at every such summons, it was myself that opened the door to him. But +great bodies move slowly, and official dignity delights to announce +itself by tardiness of action. At length the wished-for communication +arrived; a letter, "On His Majesty's Service," of no common magnitude; +a seal of correspondent amplitude; and an intimation, in terms of +stately brevity, that I was appointed a clerk of the military chest +attached to the Peninsular army, and was to attend at the office in +London to receive my instructions. + +During that month the bustle of preparation, in our usually quiet +domicile, had been immense. Stockings sufficient to set up a Cheapside +hosier, shirts enough for a voyage to India, flannel commensurate +with a visit to the North Pole--everything, in short, that could be +thought of, was prepared for the occasion with kind and provident care. +I said farewell, reached London, reported myself, got my orders and +an advance, booked my place for Falmouth, and found myself the same +evening a passenger to Exeter by the fast coach. + +In those times, the journey from London to Falmouth by the fast coach +was a light off-hand affair of two nights and two days. We reached +Exeter on the second night, and there I was allowed the indulgence +of three hours' bed, till the Falmouth coach was ready to start. As +part of the said three hours was occupied in undressing and dressing, +and part also in saying my prayers, I entered the new vehicle far +more disposed for sleep than for conversation. But there I found, +to my consternation, a very chatty passenger, perfectly _fresh_! He +was a man of universal information--in short, a talented individual, +and an intellectual character; had his own ideas upon morals, +politics, theology, physics, metaphysics, and general literature; was +particularly anxious to impart them; and was travelling to obtain +orders in the rum and hollands line. Ah, what a night was that! Oh the +dismal suffering which a prosy talker inflicts on a weary head! Of all +nuisances, the most unconscious is the bore. I do think the Speaker of +the House of Commons is the most ill-used man in the three kingdoms. +Reflect: he must not only hear--he must _listen_! And then think what +a time!--hour after hour, and day after day! For a period amounting, +in the aggregate, to no small portion of the life of man, must that +unfortunate victim of British institutions sit and hearken to + + "Now a louder, now a weaker, + Now a snorter, now a squeaker; + How I pity Mr Speaker!" + +Some portion of such suffering I myself was now compelled to endure, +by my communicative friend in the Falmouth coach. To be sure, it +was only a single proser; but then there was variety in one. He +commenced by a few remarks on the weather, by which he introduced a +disquisition on meteorology. He then passed, by an easy transition, +to the question of secondary punishments; glanced at the theory of +gravitation; dwelt for some time on heraldry; touched on hydrostatics; +was large on logarithms; then digressed on the American war; proposed +emendations of our authorised version; discussed the Neptunian theory; +and at length suspended his course, to inform me that I was decidedly +the most agreeable fellow-traveller he had ever met with. The fact +is, I was sitting up all this time in the corner of the coach, in a +state of agony and indignation indescribable, meditating some mode +of putting a stop to the annoyance, and mentally seeking a solution +to the question--What right has a very stupid person to make your +brain a thoroughfare for his stupid ideas, especially when you would +particularly like to go to sleep? He mistook my silence for attention, +and thought he was appreciated. This went on till daylight--continued +to breakfast-time--proceeded during breakfast--ceased not when we +had re-entered the coach-talk, talk, talk, _de omnibus rebus et +quibusdam aliis_--still the same stream of stuff. That long, that +dreary journey from Exeter to Falmouth! The soft lull of somnolency +came at length to my relief; and I began to nod my assent, much to my +tormentor's gratification. But presently I was dead asleep; and, most +unfortunately, my head dropped forward into the pit of his stomach. +The breath, knocked out of his body, escaped with a gasp, like an +Indian's "ugh!" In a moment I was broad awake, and made a thousand +apologies, which he politely accepted, and renewed the thread of his +discourse. Again, I dropped off; and again my head dropped forward. +Another "ugh!" another ocean of apologies, another resumption of the +endless yarn. The other passengers, two sedate and remarkably silent +gentlemen of Falmouth, in broad-brimmed hats and drab coats of a +peculiar cut, had each his weather-eye open, and began to enjoy the +joke amazingly. Gradually, once more, the incessant clack subsided in +my ears to a pleasing hum; I was off; the cervical, dorsal, and lumbar +muscles once more lost their tension beneath the narcotic influence of +incessant sound; and my drowsy head gave a pitch as before, with the +same results--"ugh!"--apologies unlimited--ditto accepted--and more +yarn. The Quakers--I beg their pardon, the "Friends"--are, you must +know, eminently humourists. This, please to take notice, arises from +their superior intelligence, and high degree of mental culture; the +result of which is high susceptibility. You might now have seen, in +our two fellow-travellers in the Falmouth coach, what you would see +nowhere but in their "connexion"--two men ready to die of laughing, +and each looking as grave as a judge. For a few miles it went on. +Talk--sleep--head pitched into bread-basket--"ugh!"--pungent and +profound regrets--regrets accepted--talk recommenced--and so on with a +perpetual _da capo_. At length the most gifted of gratuitous lecturers +began to perceive that he was contributing to the amusement of the +party in a way that he had not intended, and grew indignant. But I +pacified him, as we drove into Falmouth, by politely soliciting a card +of his house; stepped out of the coach into the coffee-room of the +hotel, out of the coffee-room into bed as soon as it was ready, and +made up for two sleepless nights by not coming down to breakfast till +two o'clock the next day. + +The Lisbon packet was not to sail for a week. My extra baggage arrived +in due time by the heavy; and I occupied the interval, as best I +could, in a pedestrian survey of the environs of Falmouth, walks to +Truro, Pendennis Castle, &c. I was much delighted with clouted cream, +and gave the landlady an unlimited order always to let me have a john +dory for dinner, when there was one in the market. N.B.--No place like +Falmouth for john dories. Clouted cream always ask for, when you go +into the West--very good with tea, not bad with coffee; and _mem._, +unimpeachable with apple-pie. + +The packet, that was to have the honour of conveying me from Falmouth +to Lisbon, was a little tub of a gun-brig, yclept the Princess +Wilhelmina. Judging from her entire want of all the qualities requisite +for the service on which she was employed, I presume she must have +obtained the situation through some member of parliament. Her captain +was laid up with the gout; and we were to be commanded by the mate, who +turned out to be a Yankee, and an ugly customer; but more of him anon. +At the same hotel where I had established my _habitat_, was a military +party, three in number, waiting, like myself, for the sailing of the +packet; yet not, like myself, men fresh in the service, but all three +regular "Peninsulars"--men who had returned on leave from the British +army, and were now about to join, in time for the opening of the +campaign. They had established themselves in a front drawing-room on +the first floor, seemed very fond of music, and had good voices. But as +they always sang together, and each sang his own song, it was not easy +to determine the vocal powers of each. The coffee-room was quite good +enough for me; and there I had the honour of forming the acquaintance +of another fellow-voyager that was to be--a partner in a large London +house in the Manchester line, whom, to avoid personality, I beg leave +to distinguish by the name of Gingham. He had many of the peculiarities +of Cockneyism, and some that were entirely his own; but I found him a +very pleasant companion, and we perambulated the town and neighbourhood +in company. + + +CHAPTER II. + +My first chapter brought me, on my way to Portugal, as far as the +Royal Hotel, Falmouth. At this stage of my travels, I must beg to +detain the reader for a short space; for here it is that I may be +said to have had my seasoning; here, in fact, I obtained my first +introduction to military society, and to military life, as it prevailed +at the British headquarters in the Peninsula. This advantage I gained +by falling in with the party of "Peninsulars" already mentioned, who +were on their way out, like myself. I must also make my readers better +acquainted with my friend Gingham, whom I hope they will not dislike +on further knowledge. Gingham and I afterwards campaigned in company. +I must premise that he had a touch of romance; and, as I afterwards +discovered, had not been brought up as a merchant. + +It was the early spring of 1813: a year big with events of import to +Spain, to France, to England, and, in fact, to the whole of Europe. On +leaving London by the fast coach, we had bowled away over frozen roads. +But at Falmouth, the trees were budding in the hedgerows, the sun +was shining, the birds were singing; while the soft air stole gently +by, and, whispering, sportively saluted us as it passed, like some +coy nymph invisible--that idea was Gingham's--the sky was clear, and +the haze danced in the sunshine on the distant hills--Gingham again. +Towards the afternoon, it generally fell calm. The capacious harbour, +smooth as glass, though gently undulating at its entrance, with the +swell of the Atlantic that rolled lazily in, bore on its bosom not only +the tub-like Princess Wilhelmina and her Yankee mate, but many a noble +vessel of ampler tonnage, that showed no water-line in the transparent +and silent mirror on which it floated, and seemed to hang suspended +between earth and heaven, motionless in the sun-lit and misty ether. + +A very odd fish was that Gingham. We enjoyed our walks amazingly. He +was going out to Lisbon in a large way, on a mission of mercantile +speculation, with full authority from his firm to do anything and +everything, whether in the way of contracts for the army, buying up +commissariat bills, engaging in monetary transactions, or, above +all--for that was his chief object--forming a Peninsular connexion, and +opening a new market for British goods. His was, indeed, a voyage of +enterprise and of discovery; not, however, his first. His manners were +precise. He was a higgler in little things, but had large ideas, and +lots of gentlemanly feeling. Like many other Cockneys of those days, +he was always dressed, and always conscious of being dressed. His hat +was white, with the exception of the interior green of the brim, which +matched with his spectacles. His gloves were white, his unmentionables +were white, and so was his waistcoat. His white cravat was tied before +in a sort of pilot-balloon, or white rosicrucian puff. His hair also +was pomatum'd, and powdered white. His very pigtail, all but the narrow +silk ribbon that held it together, was white. His coat was not white, +but a light pepper-and-salt, approaching to white. On the whole, there +was so much white in his general appearance, that on board the packet +he at once received the name of "the white man." He was generally +well-informed, but particularly so in matters of commerce. Our intimacy +increased rapidly, and I afterwards, indeed very soon, found the +advantage of it. He was naturally of a communicative disposition, +while he had much to communicate that was worth knowing. In me he +found a willing hearer; for I was glad to receive any kind of useful +information. With the prospect before us of a campaign in common, we +soon knocked up a sort of friendship. + +Gingham could do the handsome thing. Two days before our embarkation +he insisted on my dining with him--taking my chop with him, he called +it--in return for half a beefsteak, which he had accepted from me at +breakfast, his own being delayed. I entered the coffee-room at the +appointed hour; but was ushered up stairs into a private room with +some degree of ceremony by the waiter, who, I observed, had on gloves, +knees, silk stockings, and pumps. + +Gingham was there. He had ordered a regular spread. We sat down. The +landlord, who had not hitherto made himself visible, emerged on this +festive occasion, brought in the soup, bowed, and retired. Gingham said +grace. The soup excellent: it was turtle! "Capital turtle!" said I; +"had no idea that anything half so good was to be had in all Falmouth." +"Always take a small stock when I travel," said Gingham; "got a +dozen three-quart cases from Cornhill. Just found room for it in my +travelling store-closet." "Travelling store-closet!" thought I: "what a +capital fellow to campaign with!" + +Soup removed. Re-enter landlord, attended by waiter. John dory, in +compliment to me, splendid. Large soles, fried. "I despise the man that +boils a sole," said Gingham. It was despicable, I admitted. "My dear +sir," said he, "allow me to lay down a principle, which you will find +useful as long as you live. With _boiled_ fish--turbot, for instance, +or john dory--always take sauce. You did quite right, in allowing me to +help you to sauce just now. But with _fried_ fish, at least with fried +sole--this, for instance--never, never permit sauce or melted butter to +be put upon your plate." It was a manoeuvre to get me to try the sole, +after the john dory. "Fried sole without butter?" said I. "Try it my +way," said Gingham, helping me: "take some salt--that's right--now put +to that a modicum of cayenne--there--a little more--don't be afraid +of putting enough--cayenne, though hot, is not heating, like common +pepper--now mix them well together with the point of your knife." I +obeyed implicitly. "Now then," said Gingham, with a look of exultation, +"TRY THAT." I tried it; and owned that I had never known, till then, +the right way of eating fried sole. It was excellent, even after the +john dory. Try it, only try it, the first time a fried sole appears on +the dinner table, under which are your legs. + +A peculiar sound at the side-table now announced that he of the pumps +was opening a bottle of champagne. Up to that moment we had managed to +put up with Madeira, which was the fashionable dinner wine in those +days. N.B.--Good wine to be got at Falmouth. It comes direct from +abroad, not viâ _London_. + +Fish removed. Door opens. Though rejoicing in those days in a very +fair appetite, I was rather alarmed, after such a commencement of our +humble meal, at the thought of what might be coming. But Gingham had +a delicacy of taste, which never overdid things. Enter once more +the landlord, bearing an elegant little saddle of Dartmoor mutton, +and audibly whispering to the waiter, "Boiled fowls and tongue to +follow." I commenced this history with a resolution to conceal nothing; +therefore, away with reserve: both mutton, fowls, and tongue were +excellent. "A little more Madeira, Mr Y--," said Gingham. The currant +jelly had distasted my mouth. I merely put the glass to my lips, and +set it down again. Gingham observed, and at once discovered the reason. +"Take a mouthful of potato," said Gingham, "the hottest you can find in +the dish." My taste was restored. Table cleared again. I hoped the next +_entrée_ would be the cheese and celery. + +During the short armistice, Gingham, who delighted to communicate +useful knowledge, resumed the subject of the potato. Like all merchants +who pay frequent visits to the Peninsula--and Gingham had been there +often--he was knowing in wines, and in everything vinous. "Yes," said +he, "nothing like a mouthful of hot potato to make you taste wine. +There are lots of things besides, but none equal to that. The invention +is my own." + +"Then," replied I, "I presume you use it at Oporto and Xeres, when you +make purchases?" + +"Why, not exactly that neither," said he. "The worst of it is, it makes +all wine relish alike, bad as well as good. Now, in buying wine, you +want something to distinguish the good wine from the bad. And for this +purpose--" The landlord and waiter reappeared. + +"Sorry, Mr Y--, there is no game," said Gingham. "Fine jack hare in the +larder this morning, but rather late in the season. Wouldn't have it. +Can you finish off with one or two light things in the French way?" + +"My dear sir, my dear sir!" + +The table was this time covered with such a display of _pâtisserie_, +macaroni, and made dishes, as would have formed of itself a very +handsome _petit souper_ for half-a-dozen people. Gingham wanted me to +try everything, and set me an example. + +The whole concluded, and the cloth about to be removed, "Mr Gingham," +said I, "you said grace before dinner, and I think _I_ ought to +say grace now." The waiter drew up reverently with his back to the +sideboard, adjusted his neckcloth, and tightened with his right hand +the glove upon his left. + +We sat sipping our wine, and nibbling at a very handsome dessert. I +wanted to know more about distinguishing good wine from bad. + +"I have made large purchases of wine on commission," said Gingham, +"for private friends; and that, you know, is a delicate business, and +sometimes a thankless one. But I never bought a bad lot yet; and if +they found fault with it, I wouldn't let them have it--kept it myself, +or sold it for more in the market." + +"You were just on the point," said I, "of mentioning a method of +distinguishing good wine from bad." + +"Well," replied he, "those fellows there, on the other side of the +Bay of Biscay, have methods innumerable. After all, taste, judgment, +and experience must decide. The Oporto wine-merchants, who know what +they are about, use a sort of silver saucer, with its centre bulging +upwards. In this saucer they make the wine spin round. My plan is +different." + +"I should like to know it," said I. + +"Well, sir," said he, "mix with water--two-thirds water to one-third +wine. Then try it." + +"Well?" + +"If there is any bad taste in the wine, the mixing brings it out. Did +you never notice in London, even if the port or sherry seems passable +alone, when you water it the compound is truly horrid, too nauseous to +drink?" + +"The fact is, though a moderate man, I am not very fond of watering +wine." + +"The fact is," continued Gingham, "there is very little good wine +to be got in London, always excepting such places, for instance, as +the Chapter. When you return, after having tasted wine in the wine +countries, you will be of my opinion. Much that you get is merely poor +wine of the inferior growths, coloured, flavoured, and dressed up with +bad brandy for the London market. That sort comes from abroad. And much +that you get is not wine at all, but a decoction; a vile decoction, +sir; not a drop of wine in its composition. That sort is the London +particular." I felt that I was receiving ideas. + +"Now, sir," said Gingham, "my cold-water test detects this. If what you +get for wine is a decoction, a compound, and nothing but a compound, no +wine in it, then the water--about two-thirds to one-third--detects the +filthy reality. Add a lump or two of sugar, and you get as beastly a +dose of physic as was ever made up in a doctor's shop." + +"Just such a dose," I replied, "as I remember getting, now you mention +it, as I came down here by the fast coach, at an inn where I asked, by +way of a change, for a glass of cold white-wine negus. The slice of +lemon was an improvement, having done duty before in a glass of gin +punch." + +"Shouldn't wonder," said Gingham. "And if what you buy for port or +sherry be not absolutely a decoction, but only inferior wine made +up, then the water equally acts as a detective. For the dilution has +the effect of separating, so to speak, the respective tastes of the +component parts--brings them out, sir; and you get each distinct. You +get, on the one hand, the taste of the bad brandy, harsh, raw, and +empyreumatic: and you get, on the other hand, the taste of the poor, +paltry wine, wretched stuff, the true _vinho ordinario_ flavour, that +makes you think at once of some dirty roadside Portuguese _posada_, +swarming with fleas." + +"But what if you water really good wine?" + +"Why, then," said Gingham, "the flavour, though diluted, is still the +flavour of good wine." + +"I should like," said I, "to be knowing in wines." + +Seeing in me a willing learner, he was about to open. But at this +moment the mail drove into the yard of the hotel; and, knowing that +Gingham was always ravenous for the London journals on their first +arrival, I insisted on our going down into the public room, taking a +cup of coffee, and reading the papers. We had talked about wines; but, +being neither of us topers, had taken only a moderate _quantum suff._, +though all of the best kind. Gingham, out of compliment to me, wished +to prolong the sitting. But, knowing his penchant for a wet newspaper, +I was inflexible. We rose from the table. + +I felt that I had been handsomely entertained, and that something +handsome ought to be said. The pleasing consciousness, however, of +having eaten a good dinner, though it excited my finest feelings, did +not confer the faculty of expressing them. I began: + +"Sir, Mr Gingham; I feel we ought not to leave this room, till I have +expressed the emotions--" Then, taking a new departure, "Really, sir, +your kind hospitality to a comparative stranger--" + +"Well, sir," said Gingham, laughing, "I will tell you how it was. Do +you remember your first breakfast in the coffee-room, the day after +your arrival by the mail? I was present, and enjoyed it amazingly." + +"Oh, sir! oh, sir!" said I, a _leetle_ taken aback; "really I was +enormously hungry. In fact I had eaten nothing during my two days' +previous journey; and was so sleepy on my arrival, that I got to bed as +fast as I could, without thinking of ordering supper. And when I came +down next morning, or rather afternoon, why, to tell you the truth, I +made it breakfast and dinner in one; and perhaps I did seem a little +savage in my first onset on the Falmouth--" + +"No, NO, NO!" exclaimed Gingham, interrupting me. "That was not it. No, +NO, NO! far from it. My dear sir, you merely disposed of two or three +plates of ham and eggs; then a few muffins, with about half-a-dozen +basins of tea. After that--let me see--after that, to the best of my +recollection--after that, you took nothing, no, nothing, but the mutton +chops. No, sir, it was not the quantity. I have often made as hearty a +meal myself; and, if we campaign together, I trust we shall often make +as hearty a meal together. Nothing like campaigning for an appetite. +No, sir; that was not it. It was your manner of taking it." + +"My manner of taking it? Really! And pray what did you see in my manner +of taking it?" + +"Sir," said Gingham, with emotion, "I know this house. I have long +used this house. Everything in this house is good. The accommodation +is good. The attendance is good. The wine is good. The dinners are +good. The breakfasts are good. Now, sir, I have seen some persons +conduct themselves in this house in a manner that filled me with scorn, +disgust, and indignation. They arrive by the London mail, sir, as you +did, and go to bed. In the morning they come down into the public room, +and order breakfast. They breakfast, not like you, my dear sir, very +moderately, but enormously. That I could forgive; after a long journey +it is excusable. But, sir, what I cannot tolerate is this: They find +fault with everything. The tea is bad; the coffee is bad. They take up +the silver cream-jug; examine the clouted cream; smell to it--yes, sir; +they actually smell to it--and smelling to anything, I need not say, is +as great a _bêtise_ as a man can commit at table--ask the waiter what +he means by bringing them such stuff as that; and, before they have +done, gobble up the whole, and perhaps call for more." + +"Call for more? Why, that, I think, is exactly what I did." + +"Yes, my dear sir," said Gingham, "you enjoyed it; and you took a +pretty good lot of it; but you did not find fault with it. Not so the +people I am talking of. The fact is, sir, we Londoners have a great +idea of keeping up our dignity. These persons wish to pass for people +of importance; and they think importance is announced by finding +fault. Item, they are enormously, indecently hungry, and fully intend +to make a breakfast for two, but wish to do it surreptitiously. On +the arrival of the beefsteak, they turn round the dish, and look at +it contemptuously, longing, all the while, to fall to. Yes, sir, they +turn round the dish two or three times; then stick their fork into the +steak, and turn it over and over; perhaps hold it up, suspended by a +single prong, and examine it critically; and end all by pushing away +their plate, drawing the dish into its place, and bolting the whole +beefsteak, without taking time to masticate. Sir, there was a man in +that coffee-room this morning, who grumbled at everything, and ate like +a dog. In short, they clear the table of eatables and drinkables; then +call the waiter, and reproach him, with a savage look, for bringing +them a tough beefsteak; and, in a plaintive voice, like ill-used men, +inquire if there is any cold meat-pie." + +I owned, from personal observation in the public room, to the general +correctness of this sketch. + +"Now you, sir," continued Gingham, "enjoyed your breakfast, and made a +good one; but found fault with nothing; because, I presume, there was +nothing to find fault with. I like to see a man enjoy his meals. And if +he does, I like to see him show it. It is one of the tokens by which I +judge of character. Your conduct, my dear sir, commanded my respect. +Shall I say more? It won my esteem. Then and there my resolution was +formed, to invite you, at the first convenient opportunity, to partake +of my humble hospitality." + +It was too much. I extended my fist. A shaking of hands, of some +continuance--cordial on my part, and evidently so on Gingham's, by the +pain I felt in my shoulder. + +"Well, sir," said Gingham, "I had already learned that you were a +passenger for the Peninsula. I was a passenger for the Peninsula; and, +as we were to sail together, and probably to campaign together, I +resolved to introduce myself. I said, this lad--I beg your pardon, this +youth--excuse me, this gentleman, this young gentleman--for I guess you +have some ten years the advantage of me in that respect--this gentleman +is, like myself, bound for the headquarters of the Peninsular army. I +know something of campaigning; he knows nothing. We campaign together." + +"Well now," said I, "that is just what I should like amazingly." + +Gingham now took the initiative, and put forth his paw. Again we +tackled, and, in the true pump-handle style, so dear to Englishmen, +expressed mutual cordiality: only that this time, being better +prepared, I reversed the electric stream, and brought tears into +Gingham's eyes. He sung out, "Oh!" and rubbed his arm. + +"The rest," said Gingham, "is easily told. After breakfast you walked +out into the court-yard, lit a cigar, and stood on the steps. I lit +another, followed, and had the pleasure of making your acquaintance." + +I gave audible expression to my profound self-congratulations. + +"Allow me, however, to add," said Gingham, "you raised yourself greatly +in my esteem by asking the waiter for a red herring. The request +evinced a superiority to vulgar prejudices. Your way of putting it, +too, was in perfect good keeping: for you did not commit yourself by +_ordering_ a red herring; but asked whether you could have one in +the coffee-room. Believe me, I was pained, when he stated that red +herrings were not permitted; and could but admire your self-denial, in +accepting, as a substitute, the mutton-chops." + +We adjourned to the public room. + +Gingham had entertained me hospitably and handsomely. Yet this was +the same Gingham who, when I made him take part of my beefsteak at +breakfast, because his own was delayed, proposed that we should desire +the waiter to tell the landlady to charge only half a beefsteak to me, +and half a beefsteak to him, Gingham. My rejection of this proposal was +the immediate occasion of the dinner, at which the reader has just been +present. + +While we were eviscerating the papers, fresh from London, Gingham +leaned over the table, with the air of a man who had something +important to communicate. He looked me earnestly in the face. + +"Mr Y----," said he, "what do you say--to a red herring--this +evening--for supper?" + +"Thank you. You must excuse me. Nothing more to-night, but one cup +of coffee, and perhaps a cigar. Not even an anchovy toast. I really +couldn't." + +"Well, then," said Gingham, "to-morrow at breakfast. We will engage a +room up stairs, and ask leave of nobody. I have brought down a small +barrel from London--always take some when I visit the Peninsula--get +them in Lower Thames Street. You will pronounce them excellent." + +The offer was too good to be declined. + +Next morning we ordered breakfast up stairs. Indeed, a fire had been +lit in one of the parlours, by Gingham's directions; and there I found +him, with the table laid, and the herrings ready for cooking. Gingham +had secured a small Dutch oven; not with the design of _baking_ the +herrings--no, no, he knew better than that--but to keep them hot when +done. The doing he reserved to himself, on the plea of experience. I +was not to assist, except in eating them. + +"Do you understand cookery, Mr Y--?" said Gingham. + +I ingenuously owned my deficiency in that branch of education, which is +no part of the Cambridge curriculum. + +"Three months at headquarters," said he, "will make you an excellent +cook." + +It so happened that the parlour, in which we had located ourselves for +the purpose of cooking our herrings, was not that in which we had dined +the day before, but one adjoining the larger apartment occupied by the +three military gentlemen, with whom we were to cross the Bay of Biscay. +A boarding, removable at pleasure, was the only separation between the +two rooms. We had not yet become acquainted. + +Shortly after I joined Gingham, two of the three entered their +parlour; presently the third followed. They rang the bell, and ordered +breakfast, all in high good humour, and talking incessantly. We were +not listeners, but could not help hearing every word that was said. + +"Good blow-out that, yesterday."--"Pity we didn't know of it sooner; +might as well have dined with them."--"Turtle, too."--"'Pon your +honour?"--"Turtle, and lots of champagne. Caught the waiter swigging +off the end of a bottle in the passage."--"Who are they?"--"Don't +know; can't make them out. Both going out with us in the packet, +though."--"Think I remember seeing the white fellow at Cadiz; almost +sure I did; and afterwards again at Madrid. Always wore his hair in +that way, well floured and larded, except when it was too hot, and +combed down straight on each side of his ugly face."--"What a nose! +Prodigious! A regular proboscis."--"Yes, and all on one side, like the +rudder of a barge."--"Let me tell you, a very good thing; for if it +was straight, it would be always in his way."--"Always in his way? Why +it would trip him up when he walked."--_Omnes_, "Ha, ha, ha."--"Going +with us, do you say? Hope he don't snore. Why, such a _tromba_ as that +would keep a whole line-of-battle ship awake."--"Bet you a dollar he's +blind of one eye."--"Done." "Done. Book it, major."--"I'll trouble +you for a dollar. He does walk a little sideways, but it isn't his +eye."--"What is it, then? One-eyed people always walk sideways."--"Why, +I'll tell you, now. It's a principle which most people observe through +life."--"What principle?"--"Guess."--"Come, tell us, old fellow. None +of your nonsense."--"D'ye give it up?"--"Yes, I give it up. Come, tell +us."--"Follow your nose."--_Omnes_, "Ha, ha, ha."--"Capital! capital! +That's the best we've had for some time. Follow your nose! Capital! +Ha, ha, ha."--"Well, that's it, depend upon it. Other people follow +their noses by walking straight forward. That white fellow walks +sideways, but still follows his nose."--"No, no, major. Your theory is +fallacious. When he walks his nose points backwards. His nose points +over his left shoulder, and he walks right shoulders forward." I looked +at Gingham, and laughed. Gingham was looking rather grave, and feeling +his nose. "No, no. I tell you he walks _left_ shoulders forward."--"Bet +you a dollar."--"Done."--"Done. Book it, major."--"I'll trouble you +for a dollar. Saw him this morning, all in a bustle. Took particular +notice of his nose."--"Who is the young chap?"--"Oh, he's a regular +Johnny Newcome, that's evident."--"Johnny Newcome? Yes; but I wish he +wasn't such a chap for john dories. Price in the market is doubled." +Gingham laughed and looked at me. "Suppose he's a sub going out to +join his regiment."--"No, no. Got such lots of baggage. No regimental +officer would be ass enough to take such a heap of trunks. Load for +three mules."--"He'll soon knock up. Those long fellows always knock +up."--"Shouldn't wonder if he gets the fever next autumn. Then what +will his mammy say?"--"Well, but what did they dine about? Thousand +pities we did not join them."--"Oh, I suppose it was something of a +parting feed; taking leave of Old England, you know: toasting Miss +Ann Chovy, Miss Mary Gold, Miss Polly Anthus, and all that kind of +thing."--"Hang it all; a good dinner for eight people; thousand pities +we missed it." + +By this time, our cookery was proceeding in due course. Two splendid +bloaters, whole, lay extended where chestnuts are roasted; while two +more, split open, hung suspended from a large toasting-fork, held +by Gingham, who told me to look and learn, but not to meddle. With +a clear bright fire, they soon began to spit. Nor was there wanting +another token of our operations. For now the savoury odour of four red +herrings, simultaneously under a brisk process of culinary preparation, +diffused itself through the apartment, and no doubt through the whole +hotel, from the cellar to the attics. The effect on our friends in the +next room was instantaneous. Conversation ceased. Then there was a deal +of sniffing--then audible whispering and suppressed laughter--then +again, a dead silence. Gingham and I exchanged looks. "We _must_ be +acquainted," said Gingham, quietly; "and the sooner the better." I +saw he had made up his mind, and was prepared for what was about to +take place. Then the conversation was heard a little louder, but not +distinguishable. There was evidently a council of war. Much laughter. +Then, audibly spoken, "Are you fond of herrings?"--"Very; capital for +breakfast."--"So am I, very; that is, of _red_ herrings. _Fresh_, +can't endure them."--"Nor I; they have such a horrid SMELL. But a +bloater,--often dined off them up the country; didn't we, major?"--"Oh +yes, lots of times. But you were moderate. Never could manage above +half-a-dozen at a sitting."--"Ring for the waiter."--"No, no; nonsense. +Major M--, YOU." After a moment's pause, one of the party left the +room; walked, apparently to the end of the passage; then walked +back again; opened our door; entered, and politely apologised for +the mistake. He was a middle-aged, well-built, gentlemanly-looking +man, with _bonhomie_ beaming in his countenance, and came at once to +business. His eye dropped upon the herrings. + +"Beg ten thousand pardons. Oh! I see it's _here_. We perceived that +bloaters were frying somewhere in the house, and thought we should like +to try a few. Will you have the kindness to inform me where they can be +procured? Didn't know there was a single bloater in all Falmouth." + +I, in my simplicity, thought the major was really asking for +_information_, and was going to tell him of several shops where I had +seen bloaters; but Gingham was too quick for me. + +"Here is a barrel-full," said Gingham, pointing to the corner of the +room. "Shall be most happy to supply you and your friends with any +quantity. Do me the favour to accept of two or three dozen." + +"Oh no, sir," said Major M--, drawing up, as if he had been +misunderstood. The major was playing a higher game. "Couldn't think of +such a thing. Thought you had procured them in the town." + +"Indeed, sir," said Gingham, "I don't think the town contains their +equals. They are from London direct. Always take a small barrel with me +when I visit the Peninsula. Get them in Lower Thames Street." + +"Really, a most excellent idea," said Major M--. "I wish I had done the +same. Well, I think I never will return to headquarters again without +taking a barrel of red herrings." The Major cast a sort of domesticated +look about the room, as if he felt quite at home with us. + +"Go it, Major!" said an opening in the partition, _sotto voce_. + +"Come, Major," said Gingham, "I see you and the gentlemen your +companions are old campaigners. So am I. Suppose we waive ceremony. You +see we have got our cooking apparatus all ready. Suppose--do us the +favour--excuse the shortness of the invitation--I shall be delighted, +and so will my friend here, if you and your party will oblige us with +your company to breakfast." + +"Yes, yes, Major," said the crevice, as before. "Yes, Major, yes," said +another crevice. + +"Really, sir," said the Major, with an admirably assumed look of polite +embarrassment, and turning a deaf ear to his two prompters behind the +scenes--"really, sir, I hardly know how to thank you sufficiently for +your obliging invitation. But--shall we not intrude? You meant to +breakfast in private. You have, perhaps, business? Matters to arrange, +preparatory to the voyage?" + +"None in the world, sir," said Gingham, "till after breakfast. Our only +business here is to cook our bloaters and eat them, which we could not +do in the public room below. Do, pray, oblige us by negotiating this +little affair, Major, and persuade your friends to favour us with their +company." + +The Major, in fact, was negotiating already; and a capital negotiator +he made. He might, had he pleased, have walked off, at an earlier stage +of the proceedings, with a whole pile of herrings; and even that, at +college, we should have thought a capital _coup_. But the Major was not +so green. + +"Well, sir, since you are so very pressing, I shall have the pleasure +of communicating to my comrades your kind invitation; and I presume," +he added, bowing politely to me, "I may also have the honour of saying, +the invitation of your friend, Captain Y--." + +I bowed in return, too much taken by surprise to disclaim the rank so +unexpectedly conferred; and a little sore at being saluted "captain," +by the same voice which I had heard, just before, proclaiming aloud, +that if I was a regimental officer I was an ass. The Major bowed again; +backed out of the room, still bowing, and closed the door. + +The remaining negotiation was not of long continuance. His two +friends were already in the passage, hard by the entrance of our +apartment. A dead silence--one irrepressible burst of laughter, +instantly hushed--again dead silence--a tap at the door--door opened by +Gingham--and enter THE THREE PENINSULARS. + +I really could not help admiring the perfectly free and easy, but at +the same time quiet, self-possessed, and gentlemanly style of their +_entrée_, and of their bearing during the first few moments of our +interview. Gingham expressed his gratification; was happy to see them. +Advancing on their right flank, taking up a central position, and then +facing to the left, "Allow me," said the major, "to avail myself of +my brief priority of acquaintance, and to introduce--Captain Gabion, +of the Royal Engineers," (bowing, on both sides)--"and Mr Commissary +Capsicum," (more bowing,)--"half-brothers, I need not say--the family +likeness is so striking." Gingham presented Mr Y--. Mr Y--(booby!) +presented Gingham. + +"Not very striking that family likeness, though," thought I, of +course taking seriously what the wag of a major spoke with perfect +seriousness. The captain of the Engineers was a pale-looking man, +buttoned up to the chin in his regulation frock-coat, rather above +the common height, air military and symmetrical. Education had traced +on his countenance the lines of thought; and, in short, his whole +appearance was a little aristocratic, and what we now call _distingué_. +His "half-brother," the commissary, on the contrary, who appeared at +least twelve years his senior, was a short, pursy, puffy man; with +a full, rubicund, oleaginous, and pimpled visage; a large, spongy, +purple blob of a nose, its broad lower extremity pendulous, and +slightly oscillatory when he moved; a humorous twinkle in his eye, +which was constantly on the range in search of fun; two black, bushy +tufts for eyebrows; his hair distributed over his ample pericranium in +large detached _flocks_, each flock growing a way of its own, and no +two alike; coat flying open; waistcoat open, all but the two bottom +buttons; a bull neck, with very little cravat; and a profuse display +of shirt and frill. His shirt and frill, imperfectly closed, revealed +his grizzly chest; while his nether extremities were set off to great +advantage by a pair of tight blue kerseymere pantaloons with a scarlet +stripe; and something--I suppose, as bustles were not then the fashion, +it must have been his tailors' clumsiness--imparted a peculiar breadth +and bulge to the tail of his coat. He wore splendid gaiters of bright +nankeen, with mother-of-pearl buttons. No ceremony when gentlemen meet. +We were all quite at home in a moment. + +There was a little hitch. All the party were quite of one mind and +will, in the project and purpose of cooking and eating bloaters. But +how were five cooks to cook at one fire? + +We all saw it together. I looked at the partition. "Better unship +that," said the commissary. The commissary, I soon saw, was, by common +consent, the commanding officer of the party. We went to work; and in +no time the partition was cleverly removed, and stowed away on one +side. We thus made our small parlour a large one, with the additional +advantage of two fires instead of one for our culinary operations. +Gingham, meanwhile, had slipped out of the room; but returned in a few +minutes, looking quite innocent. He had been absent to some purpose, +as the result shortly proved. We now found full employment with the +herrings, roasting and toasting. Gingham, the captain, and the major, +at the larger fire; I and Mr Commissary Capsicum at the other. + +Gingham, when he left the room, had given his order; a _carte blanche_ +to the whole establishment to extemporise as handsome a breakfast as +circumstances would permit, with a special caveat against delay. + +Enter the waiter, with a tray, and a large tablecloth.--Previous +set-out transferred from the table to the tray, and placed on the +sideboard.--Two tables run into one--fresh tablecloth laid.--Exit +waiter. + +Enter waiter again, with plates, cups and saucers, knives, forks, and +spoons, basin, two sugar-basins--in short, all the apparatus of a +breakfast-table.--The whole laid, in the twinkling of an eye.--Exit +waiter. + +Enter waiter a third time, with a large tray--bread, (varieties,) +butter, water-cresses, ham, tongue, cold fillet of veal, cold chicken, +cold pigeon-pie, all the cold eatables.--Boots handed in from the +door a large block of quince marmalade, on a silver salver.--Boots +handed in small jars: potted shrimps, pickled oysters, pot of Scotch +honey, strawberry jam, other jams.--Boots handed in one larger jar, +a Portuguese conserve, _quartos de marmelas_. (N. B. quinces cut up +into lumps, and boiled in Brazilian sugar. Portuguese beat all the +world in sweetmeats, and _quartos de marmelas_ beat all the rest.) +I guessed Gingham had given the landlady the key of his travelling +store-chest.--Boots handed in milk, cream, clouted cream. Boots handed +in two splendid brass kettles of boiling water, one of which waiter +placed on each fire.--Exit waiter. + +A temporary pause. During this lull, the utmost energies of the +house were in exercise below, to provide with despatch the remaining +_matériel_ of our humble meal. I observed, from time to time, that he +of the commissariat eyed the preparations with peculiar benignity. It +was all in his way, as I subsequently had the pleasure of experiencing, +among the sources of the Adour and the Garonne. "Ever been with the +army?" said he.--"Never," said I; "but hope to be soon."--"Hope you'll +often dine with me. But don't spoil that fine bloater. There, hold it a +little further from the fire. Red herring should be toasted, not burnt +to death. Done, when the backbone is crisp; not before. But should not +be done quickly, like murder in Shakspeare. Do it slowly, my dear sir; +do it slowly. If you do it fast, you burn all the flavour out of it." I +saw he was a connoisseur. + +Yet--stupid, conceited, arrogant young coxcomb--so inexperienced was I +then, so indignant at the shadow of interference, so unaccustomed to +anything that bore the least semblance of control, I inwardly curled at +even these valuable and truly philanthropic suggestions--thought it all +exceedingly odd, and took it for dictation. + +Lots of bloaters were now toasted or roasted, and prepared for eating. +Just as we were ready, for the fourth time enter waiter, bringing eggs, +coffee-pot, two tea-pots, (tea and coffee ready,) muffins, hot buttered +rolls, &c., &c., &c. But among the _etceteras_ I really must pause, +to specify a certain delicate sort of round west-country breakfast +cake--piles of which were also brought in, buttered and smoking hot. +Gingham whispered the waiter, "Keep on bringing _them_." + +Gingham, with his usual judgment, had prohibited anything hot in the +shape of chops, steaks, cutlets, grills, rashers, or even kidneys. It +was a herring breakfast; and he excluded what would only have divided +the appetite, and interfered with the bloaters. + +We made a capital breakfast. Everything was excellent. The pile of +breakfast cakes received perpetual accessions, but never gained in +height. The bloaters, however, were the staple of our meal; and +Gingham's barrel suffered a considerable reduction. As we were all +sensible people, or wished to appear so, there was very little talk; +and what there was referred to the important business in hand. At +length it was clear that we had breakfasted. Gingham was beginning to +recommend the knick-knackeries--jams, pickled oysters, marmalade. Each +seemed disposed to pause, yet none had quite left off. Our guests were +evidently telegraphing, and exchanging looks of approval, when-- + +Enter the waiter once more, bringing, upon a silver tray, two curiously +shaped bottles cased in a sort of wicker-work, with glasses. A splendid +Italian liqueur! It was sipped, approved, tossed off with wonderful +despatch. One by one we gradually leaned back in our chairs, and the +bottles began to move round, as if spontaneously. That is, I cannot +exactly say I saw any one pass them; but from time to time, first here, +first there, I noticed a little finger pointing to the ceiling; a +movement which certainly had something to do with the progress of the +bottles. We sat, sipped, and chatted. Our breakfast was an accomplished +fact. + +"Hear, hear, hear!" Mr Commissary Capsicum was on his legs. Knuckles +rapped; glasses jingled; "Hear, hear, hear!"--The telegraphic +communications of his two friends had intimated to him their wishes: +the unexpected bonus of the liqueur, coming in at the last, had +awakened, in his own bosom, its most benevolent emotions: he rose to +acknowledge our hospitality; and in his friends' name, as well as in +his own, to invite us that day to dinner. + +His address I shall not attempt to report. It was brief, well-bred, and +well-expressed; had several good points, and was heard with immense +applause. He invited us to dinner; gave Gingham's health and mine; and +concluded by observing that, "conscious that he had not made a neat and +appropriate speech, he begged leave," (filling, and suiting the action +to the word,) "to drink long life and prosperity to us, in a neat and +appropriate bumper." Considering it was our first meeting, I did think +_that_ was a little broad. + +Gingham returned thanks, and gave the health of Major M--, R.A. Major +M-- returned thanks. + +I returned thanks, and gave the health of Captain Gabion, R.E. + +Captain Gabion returned thanks, sat down, and rose a second time, but +was anticipated by Gingham again, who gave the health of Mr Commissary +Capsicum. + +Mr Commissary Capsicum returned thanks. + +With respect to the dinner, it would not do. It was our last day before +sailing; Gingham had whole reams of letters to write; I also had +matters to attend to; we pleaded the circumstances, and begged to be +excused. Our friends saw the difficulty, and reluctantly accepted our +apologies. + +There was a moment's pause. Then all three rose from the table at once, +again thanked us politely for our hospitality, and withdrew to their +private apartments. Shortly after, looking out of the window, I saw +them walking down the street, all arm in arm, and each puffing a cigar. + +Gingham stood pensive by the fire, his elbow on the mantelpiece, his +head leaning on his hand. + +"I fear," said I, "your exertions to entertain your guests have wearied +you." + +He made no reply. I went up to him. He seemed to awake as from a +reverie. + +"Hang it!" said Gingham, in a plaintive tone, "there _should_ have been +some mashed potatoes." + +"Never mind, my dear sir--excellent breakfast; everything went off +capitally. I, for one, enjoyed it amazingly." + +"Yes," said Gingham, mournfully; "but, to make the thing complete, +there _should_ have been some mashed potatoes with the bloaters. +Had I only known of it in time! By the bye," added he, "I thought +once or twice, you did not seem entirely at your ease. Nothing more +gentlemanly, my dear sir, than your general manner. But at times, it +struck me, you did appear a little--a little--stiffish. You must get +rid of that before we reach headquarters." + +"Well," said I, "I'll tell you. That 'captain' stuck in my gizzard. +There's the truth. Coupled with what we heard previously, and Major +M--must have known that we heard it, it was just the same as calling me +a donkey to my face." + +"Oh, that's nothing," said Gingham. "Don't distress yourself about such +trifles as that." + +"To tell you the truth," said I, "the whole thing appeared to me a +little too free and easy. Here were you and I preparing to take a quiet +breakfast, when those three guerilla fellows, with their off-hand +Peninsular manners, actually took us by storm, made a most ferocious +attack on your barrel of herrings, sunk it one-third, drank up your +two bottles of liqueurs, and civilly wished us good morning. Now, when +I was at college, to be sure we were merry enough, no etiquette, no +ceremony there. But then there was a certain gentlemanly feeling, which +forbade vulgar familiarity in any shape. And as to people that assumed, +or made free, I always kept them at arm's length." + +"Well, Mr Y--," said Gingham, "I see plainly how it is. Follow my +advice. If you can't take a joke, resign your appointment, forfeit your +money, and return to London. You'll find it awkward enough living among +military men on actual service." + +"I trust," said I, "by adhering to my invariable rule, never to offer a +deliberate insult, but at the same time never to brook one, go where I +will, I shall be fortunate enough to escape disagreeable rencontres." + +"Nonsense!" said Gingham, looking very serious, and speaking quite +in a sharp and peremptory tone--"nonsense!" Then softening a little, +"Rencontres, my dear sir? Rencontres? Nothing of the kind. Rencontres? +You talk like a militia officer. Rencontres? You'll soon dismiss all +that kind of thing from your thoughts, after you have seen two or +three rencontres with the French. Rencontres? No, no; no field of +forty footsteps at headquarters. Rencontres? It would be a perfect +absurdity, where men have the chance of being shot gratis every day of +their lives, without going out of the way for it. Rencontres? No; I did +not mean that. What I meant to say was this: you would infallibly be +made a general butt. Rencontres? Why, Mr Y--, if you show any nonsense +of that sort, you'll be tormented to death. Rencontres? Oh, what lots +of fun they'll take out of you! Meanwhile, think yourself fortunate +that you are now getting a seasoning. I am truly glad, for your sake, +that you have had the opportunity here at Falmouth, and will have the +opportunity on your passage out, of seeing something of military men +and modes before you join. You may, and probably will, be dubbed, on +your arrival, a Johnny Newcome. But, at any rate, you will not be a +Johnny Raw." + +Gingham closed the conference by walking to the other end of the room, +and steadfastly contemplating his own beautiful physiognomy in the +glass. During our conversation, his hand had frequently visited his +nose. He now stood opposite the mirror, slewing his head first this +way, then that, and at length broke silence:-- + +"Well, I was not aware of it; but I do think that my nose is a little +crooked." + +"I presume," said I, "you have no sisters?" + +"I have none," replied Gingham. + +"Nor are you, I apprehend, a married man?" + +"There, alas, you are right again," said Gingham; "but what has that to +do with it?" + +"Your wife, or your sisters, if you had any, would have told you that +you have a very crooked nose." + +"Well, but," said Gingham, "there's my mother. My dear mother never +told me that my nose was crooked." + +"Your mother, probably, is totally unconscious of the fact; and, +should she hear any one else assert such a thing, would deny it most +strenuously." + +"Nay, but," said Gingham, "though I have neither sister nor wife, and +supposing my dear mother to be blind to my personal defects, I have--in +short, Mr Y--, before I left London, I took a tender leave of her whom +I hope to persuade, on my next return from the Peninsula, to accept the +hand and the heart of a Gingham. SHE did not tell me that my nose was +crooked. She mentioned various obstacles to our union; but she never +mentioned _that_." + +"Then," said I, "depend upon it, she means to have you. And depend upon +this, too; she will tell you your nose is crooked when you have made +her Mrs Gingham, if she does not tell you so before." + +"As to my walking sideways," said Gingham, "that's a palpable fiction." + +"Here," said I, "come to this extremity of the room, and place yourself +opposite the glass." He came, and placed himself accordingly. + +"Now walk straight down upon, the glass, keeping your eye fixed upon +your reflected nose." + +"What nose? Which nose?" said Gingham, in a state of obvious alarm. "Do +you mean the nose in my face?" + +"I mean your nose in the glass." He walked as I had directed. + +"Well, really," said Gingham, it's extraordinary; it's very curious. +When I walk and look at my nose in the glass, it appears quite straight +again--just as it ought to be, in the middle of my face." + +"That's just it," said I. "Then you walk sideways. Depend upon it, if +you walked straight, your nose would appear crooked." + +He repeated the experiment again, and again, muttering to himself, +"Very remarkable, very curious; quite a natural phenomenon." + +"Don't distress yourself about your nose," said I; "it is a good enough +nose, in magnitude respectable, though not strictly rectilinear. Make +yourself easy; and say, with Erasmus, 'Nihil me poenitet hugeous +nasi.'" + + +CHAPTER III. + +Where Gingham got his classical knowledge, I had not at this time +ascertained. Certain it is, he was a very fair classic. But there was +one dreadful drawback to his character, and, in a man of his gravity, +a strange one: I mean his offensive, horrid practice of making most +atrocious Latin puns. A pun in English he viewed with utter contempt. +It stirred his bile. No English pun escaped his lips. But for a Latin +pun, he scrupled not to lay under contribution even the first-rate +Latin poets, Virgil, Ovid--nay, his favourite author, Horace; and if I, +influenced by bad example, was weak enough, in an unguarded moment, to +commit the same offence, he stole my puns, and made them again as his +own. + +On the eve of our embarkation we strolled forth, after an early +dinner, for a parting view of the sunset from the castle. Walking +up town, we met the man of rum, the sleep-murdering Macbeth of the +mail-coach. Still he was talking--for want of company, talking to +himself. But his eyes were set, half-closed, and dim; his aspect was +peculiarly meditative, and his course curvilinear. He had taken on +board _plus æquo_ of his own samples. Perceiving our approach, he +gave a lurch to clear us. But his legs, being not altogether under +management, brought him exactly in the direction which he sought +to shun; his stomach, which had already suffered so many assaults +in the coach, most unfortunately impinged upon my elbow; and again +it was "ugh!" His gummy eyes expanded, and gleamed on us like two +fresh-opened oysters. Awhile he gazed with drunken gravity; then, +turning round, bent over the roadside gutter, as if about to tumble +in, and jocosely imitated the operation of drawing a cork. His organs +of vision then assumed a slow movement of horizontal oscillation, and +gradually settled on a pastry-cook's shop over the way. Towards this +point he directed his zigzag approaches, recommencing his agreeable +conference with himself, in terms of which we could catch only the +words--"Archimedes--screw--pneumatic chemistry--soda water--pop!" He +left with us the odour of a very bad cigar, which led Gingham to remark +that he was "backy plenus" in more senses than one. + +The influence of bad example is dreadful. Emerging from the town in +our way to the castle, we met a merry party, male and female, all +equestrians save some six or eight, who occupied the interior and +exterior of a post-chaise. Gingham, who saw into a thing at once, +pronounced them a wedding party; and a buxom dame, who was mounted on +a lively little west country galloway, the bride. "Pony subit conjux," +said I. "Yes," said Gingham; "but if that dear lady rides so near the +carriage, oh! oh! oh! she will infallibly be capsized! 'Pony sub curru +nimium propinqui!'" We reached the hill in time, saw a glorious sunset, +and returned to letter-writing, and a light supper on hashed duck. + +As Gingham appears more than once upon the stage in the course of +my Peninsular adventures, and I should really be sorry to annoy the +reader, as much as I was annoyed myself, with his perpetual and +abominable perversions of classic latinity, I beg leave to dispose +of this part of the subject at once, before we get to sea. Suffice +it to say, then, that in the spring of the year 1838, just a quarter +of a century after the period of which I am now writing, I once more +left London for Falmouth, _en route_ to Lisbon, though with an object +far different from that of my voyage now to be recorded, and in a far +different capacity. Science, in these five-and-twenty years, had done +wonders; and I had secured my passage in London, not by a miserable tub +of a sailing packet, but by a well-found and fast Peninsular steamer. +The day before the steamer was to start from Falmouth, I walked down to +the water's side to take a view of her. On the quay stood Gingham. By +one of those strange coincidences which sometimes happen in life, we +had again met at Falmouth, and were again to cross the Bay of Biscay in +company. I recognised him: he did not recognise me. Time had somewhat +changed his look, his dress very little. Its predominant aspect was +still white. His nose, too, was unmistakeable. Perceiving at once that +he was, like myself, a passenger to the Peninsula, I availed myself of +the freedom conceded in such cases, and commenced a conversation by +some remark on the steamer. + +"I presume, sir," said he, "you are a passenger?" + +"Yes, Mr Gingham, and so are you. Glad to meet you." He stared, but +admitted the fact. + +"But, sir," said he, "you have the advantage of me." + +"Well, well," said I, "you'll find me out to-morrow on board the +Guadalquivir. Fine ship that. To-morrow, you know, as Horace said, when +he was off by the steamer:-'Cras, ingins! iterabimus æquor!" + +The effect was instantaneous. Gingham did not speak, he shouted:--"Dine +with me: I have got a john dory." + +We walked off to the town--I rubbing my shoulder, which Gingham shook, +when he shook my hand--he, for a few paces, thoughtful and silent. I +expected a burst of sentiment. + +"By the bye," said Gingham, "while your hand was in, you might just +as well have quoted the _other_ line, for that, also, refers to our +voyage." + +"The other line?" + +"Yes, the other line. Don't you see that pair of rooks flying over the +harbour?" + +"Rooks fly in droves. I see no rooks." + +"Right," said he; "they are a couple of crows." + +"But the line from Horace, referring to our voyage?" + +"Not only referring to it," said Gingham, "but highly encouraging. 'Nil +desperandum two crow duce, et auspice two crow." + +"Gingham, you are incorrigible." + +To reach the street from the water's side we had to pass through a +narrow passage, and there met the stewardess of the steamer, who was +going on board. She stalked along in clogs on tiptoe, her left hand +gathering up, behind, her cloak, gown, petticoat, &c., while her right +hand bore an umbrella one size larger than a parasol, and a reticule +one size less than a pannier; emerging from which pannier appeared +the ugly mug of an enormous Portuguese red ram cat, the pet of the +stewardess, and the constant companion of her Peninsular voyages. + +"My cat inter omnes," said Gingham. + + * * * * * + +But I have rambled, and am a quarter of a century wide of the mark. +The period of which I have now to write, the important period to which +my present narrative refers, is not the more recent year, 1838, but +the remoter year, 1813, glorious in the annals of England; the year +that saw the commencement of Napoleon's downfall; the year of triumph +and rout beneath the walls of Vittoria; the year of a still sterner +and equally successful conflict at St Sebastian; the year, too, that +furnished a name for a princess of a royal line, that QUEEN VICTORIA +who, in her high estate and royal clemency, remembered and rewarded the +long-forgotten and long unrecompensed heroes of those bygone times. +In the early spring of that year, 1813, I was there at Falmouth, a +raw youth, launched on the wide world in search of adventure, burning +to reach the headquarters of the Peninsular army, fully capable of +making a fool of myself when I got there, and anxiously waiting for +the sailing of the Princess Wilhelmina gun-brig, which, for want of a +better, performed the office of Lisbon packet. It was well for me that, +at Falmouth, I had already fallen into friendly hands. + +On the morning of our embarkation, March the--th, 1813, Gingham went +early on board the packet, for his personal baggage was bulky and +various, to see to its stowage--part in his berth, part in the hold. +It was settled between us that he was to return ashore, that we were +to breakfast together at the hotel, and afterwards go off together to +the packet, which was still lying in the harbour, and was to sail about +noon. + +I waited breakfast for Gingham, but no Gingham came. At length I +received a long note from him, dated on board the packet. It began by +stating that an attempt had been made to impose upon him, and that he +was determined not to stand it. The attempted imposition, as I learned +from him afterwards, was this:-- + +Gingham walked down from the hotel to the water's side, and engaged a +boat, which was to take him on board the packet for eighteen-pence; +he, Gingham, understanding thereby, according to the tenor of many +previous bargains at the same rate of payment, that he was to be taken +on board, and put on shore again. On this, however, the last day of +our abode at Falmouth, the two boatmen, thinking they might safely try +it on, and conjecturing also that Gingham's time might possibly be too +valuable to be wasted in discussion, determined to take a different +view of the subject, and exact a second fare for landing him. The boat +reached the packet, Gingham went on board, the boatmen made fast to +a harbour-buoy, and waited the result. Gingham went below, made his +arrangements, came on deck, and hailed his boat to take him ashore. The +elder boatman civilly touched his hat, and remarked, with a winning +smile, that they hadn't been paid "nuffin" for bringing him _on board_. +Gingham replied, that he should pay as usual when they had got back to +the quay. The boatman, courteous as before, again touched his hat, and +answered, simpering, "Beg your pardon, sir, but this ear last day, when +the peckit's hoff, jeddlemen hol-ways pays bode ways, cumin aboard, +and goon back again." "Oh, do they?" said Gingham, and walked down +into the cabin, where he quietly wrote his note to me, in a hand that +beat copperplate; and breakfasted upon sea biscuit, junk, and ship's +cocoa, the steward not having yet got off his stock of groceries for +the voyage. Everybody on board knew Gingham, and he had no difficulty +in getting his note brought ashore in the ship's boat, without the +knowledge of the two 'longshore fellows, who were riding at the buoy, +and who still thought they had the best of the bargain--as it is a rule +in harbour, or at any rate was in those days, that no private passenger +by a packet passed or repassed except by 'longshore boats. Gingham was +now all right, and did not care one farthing for the boatmen; for he +already had the bulk of his things on board, he was on board himself, +and his note advised me respecting his remaining matters ashore. He +continued below, having resolved, as he told me afterwards, to keep the +boatmen waiting alongside till the packet was off, and then give them +ninepence. Meanwhile he sent up, by the steward, an injunction to the +people on deck, who enjoyed not a little the false position of the two +boatmen, not on any account to let them come on board. + +Gingham's note to me, which was, as I have already intimated, a +beautiful specimen of commercial penmanship, was to the following +effect:--That he was detained on board by his determination to resist +a gross imposition; that the laundress had still in her keeping a +small quantity of his linen, which she was to bring to the hotel about +breakfast-time; that he had settled with the servants that morning; +and that the landlady was indebted to him in the sum of two shillings, +he having paid his bill the night before, in which bill was included +the charge of two shillings for a cold-meat breakfast, which he should +not take; that he requested me to get back the two shillings from +the landlady; that he would also thank me to receive the linen from +the laundress, see that it was correct per invoice, (washing-bill, I +presume,) check her account, liquidate it, and bring the linen on board +with me. + +Meanwhile a circumstance arose, which was of great moment in itself, +and gave Gingham a further advantage in his affair with the two +Falmouth lads. An extra mail for Lisbon had arrived from London, +sent off by despatch to catch the packet before she sailed; and, by +management of Gingham's partners, who were influential people, brought +Gingham letters on a matter of some importance. These letters were +taken off to Gingham by a trusty drab-coated Falmouth "Friend," in +another 'longshore boat, and rendered it absolutely requisite that he +should go ashore, and perhaps defer his voyage. The packet at this +time was surrounded with boats and bustle, the two boatmen still +fast to the buoy; and Gingham had no difficulty in returning ashore +by the boat which brought off his mercantile friend, without being +observed by them. In fact, they were half asleep, still secure, as they +thought, of their victim, and affording no small sport to the crew of +the packet, who saw how things were going. I shall only mention here, +that the communication, received by Gingham from London, related to +a grand financial speculation, an idea of his own, having reference +to the monetary transactions at headquarters, which were very large, +and as well conducted as circumstances permitted, but attended with +great difficulties, and considerable loss to the British government. +Gingham's plan would have been backed by private capital to any amount. +It was knocked on the head by the peace of 1814: but I have more to say +about it hereafter. + +True to her time, the laundress arrived at the hotel; not bringing, as +Gingham had described it, a small quantity of linen, but attended by +a man with a barrow, wheeling two large buck-baskets, each piled with +an immense heap of shirts, white inexpressibles, white double-breasted +dimity waistcoats,--in short every thing white,--a stock for a voyage +to China. On the interior of the collar of one of the said white +double-breasted dimity waistcoats, I noticed the cypher G G!--No. + 37 +1 of the fourth dozen! So profuse was Gingham in his provision for the +habiliment of his own elegant exterior. I settled with the laundress, +engaged the barrow-man to go off with me in charge of the linen, and +take back the baskets, finished my breakfast, paid my bill, and went on +board. Such was my first embarkation for the Peninsula. Little dreaming +that there was a spoke in my wheel, and that some time was still to +elapse between my departure from Falmouth and my arrival at the British +headquarters, I had longed for the day of the packet's sailing. But +now, when the wished-for moment had arrived, a lot of little things, +coming upon me at the last, quite put it out of my head that I was +quitting my native land, and about to enter on new scenes, mingle +with strangers, embark in active life, and master--where alone they +could be mastered, on their vernacular soil--two ancient, expressive, +and kindred languages, which I had conned rudimentally on the banks +of Cam. Nor did I dream that I went to earn a prospective claim to a +Peninsular Medal; and jot down mental memoranda, still vividly legible, +of all I heard and saw, for the information and amusement of readers +then unborn. "Gooin' off to the peckit, sir? Here, Bill, hand the +jeddleman's boxes." Then, when we were half way to the brig,--"Wherry +'ot on the worter, sir. Ope you'll be ginnerous a little hextry for the +luggidge, sir. Wherry dry work pullin', sir." + +Gingham, when I reached the packet, was not on board. The cause of his +absence was explained to me by the steward, who assisted in stowing +away the contents of the two buck-baskets in Gingham's berth. During +this operation, the steward, who fully participated in the antipathy +to 'longshore boatmen common to his class, communicated to me, with no +small glee, the occurrences of the morning; and begged me to take a +sight, when I went on deck, of the two expectant gentlemen at the buoy. +There they were, sure enough, very much at their ease--quite satisfied +that Gingham would want to be taken ashore again before the packet +sailed, that theirs was the boat that must take him, and that they had +the game in their own hands. + +On deck I met our three breakfast guests of the day before. They +greeted me cordially, made many inquiries after Gingham, and introduced +me, as a particular old crony of theirs, to Staff-Surgeon Pledget, who +had arrived by the mail overnight, and was also a passenger to Lisbon, +on his return to the British army. I soon began to perceive that it was +a standing rule with my three new acquaintances, regular "Peninsulars," +to extract fun from even the most common incidents--in fact, from +everybody and everything. Staff-Surgeon Pledget, as able a man in his +profession as any staff-surgeon attached to the Peninsular army, was +matter-of-fact personified; and the dignified cordiality with which +he received an old crony of _theirs_, evidently afforded the three +hoaxers extraordinary sport. Major M---- did the presentation with +perfect coolness and amenity. Gammon was his element. Mr Commissary +Capsicum winked his eye in the richest style of comedy, and nearly made +me spoil all by laughing. Captain Gabion looked gravely on, and laughed +internally. His sides shook, his elbows twitched, and his countenance +wore its usual expression of melancholy. + +Presently after was seen approaching a man-of-war's boat, pulling at +the steady rate, which indicated that it conveyed an officer of rank. +The boat came alongside with a graceful sweep; twelve oars stood +upright, as if by magic; and a tall, military-looking man, who had +lost an arm, rose, politely took leave of the lieutenant in charge of +the boat, ascended the ship's side, with the aid of his single hand, +faster than some people perform the same difficult operation with two, +and stood on deck. This was the brave Colonel ---- of the cavalry, +who was going out with us to rejoin his regiment. He had lost his +arm at Oporto, on that memorable occasion when the French, to their +astonishment, found the British army on _their_ side of the Douro; and +when the British army, too, quite surprised at finding itself, as if by +magic, on the _opposite_ bank of a broad, deep, and rapid river, and +struck with admiration at the bold conception and skilful execution +which had effected the transition under the enemy's nose, with one +consent dubbed its illustrious leader "Old Douro." By that title, +from that time forward, he was commonly known at headquarters: and is +it not a glorious one, so won, and so conferred, and truly worthy of +descending in his family? On that occasion, I was told, Colonel ---- +charged through the enemy at the head of his regiment, and, as one good +turn deserves another, thought he might as well charge back again. It +was in this second charge that he lost his arm. + +Arrived on deck, the colonel made a somewhat semicircular bow to all +of us, and immediately recognised Major M----. His valet followed him, +and presently went below. The next moment, the colonel began to take a +first view of the vessel, and turned from us for that purpose. Captain +Gabion, first nudging Mr Commissary Capsicum, whispered Major M----, +"Come, major, give us the colonel." The major, having an arm too many, +in a twinkling whipped one behind him, stepped to the gangway, and did +the colonel's first appearance to the life. To execute the colonel's +recognition of himself, for want of a better substitute, he advanced, +with the colonel's three military strides, to _me_. I, carried away by +the drollery of the scene, so far forgot myself that I did the major. +This caused a general laugh; the colonel turned round, and caught me +and the major bowing, grimacing, and shaking hands. He saw at once what +had been going on, and laughed too. But the major wished to shift the +responsibility. "That Pledget," said he, "keeps us in a constant roar." +Mr Staff-Surgeon Pledget looked a little surprised. When the major +gave us the colonel's horizontal salutation to the company assembled, +Pledget took it all in earnest, and bowed in return. + +One other arrival followed. A shore boat came off, having four more +passengers--a lady, two gentlemen, and a female attendant. One of the +said gentlemen, an Irishman, was the lady's brother: she, in face +and form, a perfect specimen of Irish beauty; he, both in person +and in feature, all that might be expected in the brother of such a +sister. In this respect he presented a remarkable contrast to their +fellow-passenger, who was a young Irish officer of the East India +Company's navy, and, what made it more remarkable, the accepted +swain, as we afterwards had every reason to conclude, of his fair +countrywoman. How shall I describe this lovely youth? His head was +large; his face prodigiously large and _flat_; his features were +ludicrously diminutive. Fancy a full moon seen broad and white through +a Shetland mist--in short, a full moon of putty; then fancy, stuck +exactly in the centre of this moon, the little screwed-up pug face of a +little ugly monkey, and you have him to a T. His two little twinkling +eyes, deep sunk beneath the beetling brow of his prominent and massive +forehead, and in such close proximity that nothing separated them but +the bridge of his nose, were constantly and inquisitively on the +move. The nose itself was too insignificant to merit a description. +Yet it was not exactly what is called a squashed nose, but a nose +without a nib. It conveyed to you, indeed, the painful impression that +some unfeeling barber had sliced off its extremity, and left the two +unprotected nostrils staring you full in the face, like the open ports +of a ship. His ears were like an elephant's,--large, loose, thin, +flat, and un-hemmed. His mouth, like that described by a distinguished +authoress, "had a physiognomy of its own." Not very observable when +quiescent, in speaking it became curiously expressive, and, at times, +enormously elongated or strangely curvilinear. It had also, under the +same circumstances, another peculiarity. It was a travelling mouth: +yes, it travelled. When it talked, it was constantly shifting its +position, not only up and down, but sideways and obliquely. In the +utterance of a single sentence, it would traverse the whole extent of +his face. It was now high, now low; now on this side, now on that. +It ranged, at will, the whole breadth of his countenance from ear to +ear; so that at times he was all mouth on one side of his face, and no +mouth on the other. This gave him the additional advantage, that his +profile could maintain a dialogue with you, as well as another man's +full face. When conversing with his lady-love, side by side at the +dinner-table, he never turned to look at her--he had no need. Viewing +her with one eye, like a duck, in tones of deferential tenderness he +addressed her from the cheek that was nearest hers. His perfectly +well-bred deportment, nay, elegance of manner, his inexhaustible fund +of good humour, and amusing waggery, did not, I am sorry to say, +prevent his acquiring, and bearing during the voyage, the name of +Joey: allusive, I presume, to the feats of mouth performed in those +days by the far-famed Grimaldi. The malevolent suspicion, that a title +so derogatory was any suggestion of mine, I scorn to notice. To this, +however, I do confess, that, ere we had been four-and-twenty hours at +sea, as a slight token of my profound veneration for the stateliest +and the loveliest of Erin's daughters, I proposed, and it was carried +unanimously, that she should bear the name of Juno. And, the colonel +having pronounced her brother a perfect Apollo, I also proposed, +and it was also carried unanimously, that we should call him Mr +Belvidere. But I am anticipating. On the practice of giving sobriquets, +so common at headquarters, much remains to be said hereafter. As +to the maid-servant, she was a quiet little Irishwoman of about +five-and-thirty, in a duffle cloak with pink bows, snug straw bonnet +neatly tied under her chin with a pink ribbon, and snow-white cotton +stockings, exhibiting a rather broad instep, which led me to conjecture +that she had not always worn shoes. Her mistress called her Kitty, and +that name she was allowed to keep, as no one on board thought he could +improve it. + +It is time to get to sea. Gingham, where are you? what are you about? +We shall be off, and leave you behind. Noon, our hour of sailing, was +now near at hand. The anchor was hove short; the sails were shaking in +the wind; the skipper came on board; the foresail was then set; still +there was no Gingham. Those talented individuals, the two boatmen, +still supposing Gingham was on board, were getting a little uneasy. +They were now wide awake, and anxiously peering at the ship with +their hands over their eyes, watching every one that came on deck, +but watching in vain. Their uneasiness evidently increased, as our +remaining time diminished; till at length, as the town clock struck +twelve, the capstan was manned. The anchor was then hove to the tune of +"Off she goes," performed on a single fife in admirable time, marked by +the tread of many feet. The flood-tide was beginning to make; but we +didn't care for that, as we had wind enough from the north-east, and +to spare. Other sails were now set, and we were beginning to get way; +while I was intently eyeing the shore, expecting to see Gingham shove +off, and perfectly sure he would come, because he had taken no steps +for the re-landing of his baggage. + +But I did not look in the right direction. Gingham, detained to the +last moment, and then, having settled all things to his satisfaction, +at liberty to prosecute his voyage, had made his arrangements with his +usual judgment. It was a near thing though. He put off from a part of +the town lower down than the quay from which he usually embarked, so +as to cut in upon us as we glided down the harbour; and was within a +few fathoms of the ship before I saw him. He was then standing upright +in his boat, completely absorbed in a London paper, but with one hand +waving his umbrella, without looking up, to stop the ship. Stopping +the ship was out of the question. Indeed, I fancied the skipper would +have been glad to go without him. The boat, coming end on, and not very +cleverly handled by the Falmouth fellows, bumped against the side of +the ship, which, as she was now under way, they were afraid of missing +altogether; and the shock almost pitched Gingham and his umbrella into +the water. He came on board amidst general laughter, and the hearty +greetings of such of the passengers as knew him--none heartier than +mine. "How his green spectacles would have frightened the fishes!" said +Mr Commissary Capsicum to Captain Gabion. "Don't joke on such a serious +subject," replied the captain; "had he gone over, we should have +quitted England without getting a sight of the last London newspaper." + +The two worthies, who, still expecting to see Gingham emerge from +the cabin, had so long waited for him in vain, were by this time in +an awkward predicament. When the ship first began to move, they had +no resource but to unmoor from the buoy, out oars, and pull away in +company. But this, it was soon clear, would not do. The ship was +getting more and more way, and, had they pulled their hearts out, would +soon have left them astern; when, as their only chance, they pulled +close alongside, and made free with a rope's end that was dragging +through the water. This one of them held, after giving it a turn round +a bench; while the other kept off the boat from the ship's side by +means of the boat-hook. While they were being thus dragged through the +water, each, as he could, from time to time touching his hat, each +beseechingly simpering, each saying something that nobody could hear, +and both anxiously looking for Gingham on deck, to their great surprise +they saw him come alongside in another boat, as I have already related; +and, before they could say Jack Robinson, he was on board. + +After our first greetings, I called Gingham's attention to the +disagreeable position of our two friends, who were still holding on +alongside, and dragging through the water. Indeed, I was disposed to +hold an argument with him on the subject, and thought a different view +might be taken of their case. "No, no," said Gingham; "this is the +first time any Falmouth man has ever attempted to impose upon me, and I +mean it to be the last." + +The breeze, no unusual circumstance in such localities, stiffened +as we approached the entrance of the harbour, where the high land +closes in, and the sea-way is comparatively narrow; and, meeting the +swell which came tumbling in from the ocean with the flood-tide, +knocked up a little bit of an ugly ripple. The situation of the two +boatmen was becoming every moment more awkward. We were now going six +knots, (through the _water_, mind you, not _making_ six knots--that, +against such a current, was quite beyond our tubby little Wilhelmina's +capabilities;) the ripple was gradually becoming nastier; the boatmen, +still touching their hats from time to time, still blandly smiling, and +still making unheard but pathetic appeals to Gingham's generosity, did +not like to let go till they had got _something_; and I really thought +the end must be, that their boat would be swamped alongside. At length, +Gingham put an end to the farce, by screwing up ninepence in a bit of +paper, and throwing it into the boat, telling them it was threepence +more than they deserved. They then let go; and we left them poppling up +and down, like a cork, in the broken water, and scuffling about in the +bottom of the boat for the scattered coin. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] For the benefit of the uninitiated, +assistant-deputy-paymaster-general; A. A. D. P. +M. G., acting-assistant-deputy-paymaster-general; +a long title, but not so long, by four syllables, +as that of the letter-carrier of a certain German +war-office--Ober-kriegsversammlungrathsverhandlungpapieraufhebergehülfe. + + + + +DISENCHANTMENT. + +BY DELTA. + + + I. + + Although from Adam stained with crime, + A halo girds the path of time, + As 'twere things humble with sublime, + Divine with mortal blending, + And that which is, with that which seems,-- + Till blazoned o'er were Jacob's dreams + With heaven's angelic hosts, in streams, + Descending and ascending. + + II. + + Ask of the clouds, why Eden's dyes + Have vanished from the sunset skies? + Ask of the winds, why harmonies + Now breathe not in their voices? + Ask of the spring, why from the bloom + Of lilies comes a less perfume? + And why the linnet, 'mid the broom, + Less lustily rejoices? + + III. + + Silent are now the sylvan tents; + The elves to airy elements + Resolved are gone; grim castled rents + No more show demons gazing, + With evil eyes, on wandering men; + And, where the dragon had his den + Of fire, within the haunted glen, + Now herds unharmed are grazing.[17] + + + IV. + + No more, as horror stirs the trees, + The path-belated peasant sees + Witches, adown the sleety breeze, + To Lapland flats careering:[18] + As on through storms the Sea-kings sweep, + No more the Kraken huge, asleep, + Looms like an island, 'mid the deep, + Rising and disappearing. + + V. + + No more, reclined by Cona's streams, + Before the seer, in waking dreams, + The dim funereal pageant gleams, + Futurity fore-showing; + No more, released from churchyard trance, + Athwart blue midnight, spectres glance, + Or mingle in the bridal dance, + To vanish ere cock-crowing.[19] + + VI. + + Alas! that Fancy's fount should cease! + In rose-hues limn'd, the myths of Greece + Have waned to dreams--the Colchian fleece, + And labours of Alcides:-- + Nay, Homer, even thy mighty line-- + Thy living tale of Troy divine-- + The sceptic scholiast doubts if thine, + Or Priam, or Pelides! + + VII. + + As silence listens to the lark, + And orient beams disperse the dark, + How sweet to roam abroad, and mark + Their gold the fields adorning: + But, when we think of where are they, + Whose bosoms like our own were gay, + While April gladdened life's young day, + Joy takes the garb of mourning. + + VIII. + + Warm gushing thro' the heart come back + The thoughts that brightened boyhood's track; + And hopes, as 'twere from midnight black, + All star-like re-awaken; + Until we feel how, one by one, + The faces of the loved are gone, + And grieve for those left here alone, + Not those who have been taken. + + IX. + + The past returns in all we see, + The billowy cloud, and branching tree; + In all we hear--the bird and bee + Remind of pleasures cherish'd; + When all is lost it loved the best, + Oh! pity on that vacant breast, + Which would not rather be at rest, + Than pine amid the perish'd! + + X. + + A balmy eve! the round white moon + Emparadises midmost June, + Tune trills the nightingale on tune-- + What magic! when a lover, + To him, who now, gray-haired and lone, + Bends o'er the sad sepulchral stone + Of her, whose heart was once his own: + Ah! bright dream briefly over! + + XI. + + See how from port the vessel glides + With streamered masts, o'er halcyon tides; + Its laggard course the sea-boy chides, + All loath that calms should bind him; + But distance only chains him more, + With love-links, to his native shore, + And sleep's best dream is to restore + The home he left behind him. + + XII. + + To sanguine youth's enraptured eye, + Heaven has its reflex in the sky, + The winds themselves have melody, + Like harp some seraph sweepeth; + A silver decks the hawthorn bloom, + A legend shrines the mossy tomb, + And spirits throng the starry gloom, + Her reign when midnight keepeth. + + XIII. + + Silence o'erhangs the Delphic cave; + Where strove the bravest of the brave, + Naught met the wandering Byron, save + A lone, deserted barrow; + And Fancy's iris waned away, + When Wordsworth ventured to survey, + Beneath the light of common day, + The dowie dens of Yarrow. + + XIV. + + Little we dream--when life is new, + And Nature fresh and fair to view, + When throbs the heart to pleasure true, + As if for naught it wanted,-- + That, year by year, and ray by ray, + Romance's sunlight dies away, + And long before the hair is gray, + The heart is disenchanted. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] A clearer day has dispelled the marvels, which showed themselves +in heaven above and in earth beneath, when twilight and superstition +went hand in hand. Horace's + + "Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, + Nocturnos Lemures, portentaque Thessala," + +as well as Milton's + + "Gorgons, Hydras, and Chimæras dire," + +have all been found wanting, when reduced to the admeasurements of +science; and the "sounds that syllable men's names, on sands, and +shores, and desert wildernesses," are quenched in silence, or only +exist in what James Hogg most poetically terms + + "That undefined and mingled hum, + Voice of the desert, never dumb." + +The inductive philosophy was "the bare bodkin" which gave many a +pleasant vision "its quietus." "Homo, naturæ minister," saith Lord +Bacon, "et interpres, tantum facit et intelligit, quantum de naturæ +ordine se vel mente observaverit: nec amplius scit nec potest."--_Nov. +Organum_, Aph. I. + +The fabulous dragon has long acted a conspicuous part in the poetry +both of the north and south. We find him in the legends of Regnar +Lodbrog and Kempion, and in the episode of Brandimarte in the second +book of the Orlando Inamorato. He is also to be recognised as the huge +snake of the Edda; and figures with ourselves in the stories of the +Chevalier St George and the Dragon--of Moor of Moorhall and the Dragon +of Wantley--in the Dragon of Loriton--in the Laidley Worm of Spindleton +Heugh--in the Flying Serpent of Lockburne--the Snake of Wormieston, +&c. &c. Bartholinus and Saxo-Grammaticus volunteer us some curious +information regarding a species of these monsters, whose particular +office was to keep watch over hidden treasure. The winged Gryphon is +of "auld descent," and has held a place in unnatural history from +Herodotus (_Thalia_, 116, and _Melpomene_, 13, 27) to Milton (_Paradise +Lost_, book v.)-- + + "As when a Gryphon, through the wilderness, + With wingèd course, o'er hill or moory dale, + Pursues the Arimaspian," &c. + + + +[18] Of the many mysterious chapters of the human mind, surely one of +the most obscure and puzzling is that of witchcraft. For some reason, +not sufficiently explained, Lapland was set down as a favourite seat of +the orgies of the "Midnight Hags." When, in the ballad of "The Witch +of Fife," the auld gudeman, in the exercise of his conjugal authority, +questions his errant spouse regarding her nocturnal absences without +leave, she is made ecstatically to answer, + + "Whan we came to the Lapland lone, + The fairies war all in array; + For all the genii of the North + War keepyng their holyday. + The warlocke man and the weird womyng, + And the fays of the woode and the steep, + And the phantom hunteris all were there, + And the mermaidis of the deep. + And they washit us all with the witch-water, + Distillit fra the moorland dew, + Quhill our beauty bloomit like the Lapland rose, + That wylde in the foreste grew." + + _Queen's Wake_, Night 1st. + +"Like, but oh how different," are these unearthly goings on to +the details in the Walpurgis Night of Faust (Act v. Scene 1.) The +"phantom-hunters" of the north were not the "Wilde Jäger" of Burger, or +"the Erl-king" of Goethe. It is related by Hearne, that the tribes of +the Chippewas Indians suppose the northern lights to be occasioned by +the frisking of herds of deer in the fields above, caused by the hallo +and chase of their departed friends. + +[19] It is very probable, that the apparitional visit of "Alonzo the +Brave" to the bridal of "the Fair Imogene," was suggested to M. G. +Lewis, by the story in the old chronicles of the skeleton masquer +taking his place among the wedding revellers, at Jedburgh Castle, on +the night when Alexander III., in 1286, espoused as his second queen, +Joleta, daughter of the Count le Dreux. These were the palmy days of +portents; and the prophecy uttered by Thomas of Ercildoune, of the +storm which was to roar + + "From Ross's hills to Solway sea," + +was supposed to have had its fulfilment in the death of the lamented +monarch, which occurred, only a few months after the appearance of the +skeleton masquer, by a fall from his horse, over a precipice, while +hunting between Burntisland and Kinghorn, at a place still called "the +King's Wood-end." + +Wordsworth appears to have had the subject in his eye, in two of the +stanzas of his lyric, entitled _Presentiments_,--the last of which runs +as follows:-- + + "Ye daunt the proud array of war, + Pervade the lonely ocean far + As sail hath been unfurled, + For dancers in the festive hall + What ghostly partners hath your call + Fetched from the shadowy world." + + --_Poetical Works_, 1845, p. 176. + +The same incident has been made the subject of some very spirited +verses, in a little volume--_Ballads and Lays from Scottish +History_--published in 1844; and which, I fear, has not attracted the +attention to which its intrinsic merits assuredly entitle it. + + + + +ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.[20] + + +Another book from the active pen of our American acquaintance, the able +seaman. The question having been raised whether Mr Herman Melville +has really served before the mast, and has actually, like the heroine +of a well-known pathetic ballad, disfigured his lily-white fingers +with the nasty pitch and tar, he does his best to dissipate all such +doubts by the title-page of his new work, on which, in large capitals, +is proclaimed that _Redburn_ is "_The Sailor-boy Confessions and +Reminiscences of the son of a gentleman in the merchant service_;" and, +collaterally, by a dedication to his younger brother, "_now a sailor +on a voyage to China_." An unmerited importance has perhaps been given +to the inquiry whether Mr Melville's voyages were made on quarterdeck +or on forecastle, and are genuine adventures or mere Robinsonades. The +book, not the writer, concerns the critic; and even as there assuredly +are circumstances that might induce a youth of gentle birth and +breeding to don flannel shirt, and put fist in tar-bucket as a merchant +seaman, so the probably unpleasant nature of those circumstances +precludes too inquisitive investigation into them. We accept Mr +Melville, therefore, for what he professes to be, and we accept his +books, also, with pleasure and gratitude when good, just as we neglect +and reject them when they are the contrary. _Redburn_, we are bound +to admit, is entitled to a more favourable verdict than the author's +last previous work. We do not like it so well as _Typee_ and _Omoo_; +and, although quite aware that this is a class of fiction to which one +cannot often return without finding it pall, by reason of a certain +inevitable sameness, we yet are quite sure we should not have liked it +so well as those two books, even though priority of publication had +brought it to a palate unsated with that particular sort of literary +diet. Nevertheless, after a decided and deplorable retrogression, Mr +Melville seems likely to go a-head again, if he will only take time and +pains, and not over-write himself, and avoid certain affectations and +pedantry unworthy a man of his ability. Many of the defects of _Mardi_ +are corrected in _Redburn_. We gladly miss much of the obscurity and +nonsense that abound in the former work. The style, too, of this one +is more natural and manly; and even in the minor matter of a title, we +find reason to congratulate Mr Melville on improved taste, inasmuch as +we think an English book is better fitted with an English-sounding name +than with uncouth dissyllables from Polynesia, however convenient these +may be found for the purposes of the puff provocative. + +_Redburn_ comprises four months of the life of a hardy wrong-headed +lad, who ships himself on board a trading vessel, for the voyage from +New York to Liverpool and back. As there is no question of shipwreck, +storm, pirates, mutiny, or any other nautico-dramatic incidents, during +Wellingborough Redburn's voyage out and home; and as the events of his +brief abode in England are neither numerous nor (with the exception +of one rather far-fetched episode) by any means extraordinary, it is +evident that a good deal of detail and ingenuity are necessary to +fill two volumes, on so simple and commonplace a theme. So a chapter +is devoted to the causes of his addiction to the sea, and shows how +it was that childish reminiscences of a seaport town, and stories of +maritime adventure told him by his father, who had many times crossed +the Atlantic, and visions of European magnificence, and, above all, +the frequent contemplation of an old-fashioned glass ship which stood +in his mother's sitting-room, and which is described with considerable +minuteness, and some rather feeble attempts at the facetious--how all +these things combined had imbued young Wellingborough with a strong +craving after salt water. Other circumstances concurred to drive him +forth upon the world. He hints at family misfortunes. His father had +been a merchant at New York, in a flourishing business. Things were now +less prosperous. "Some time previous, my mother had removed from New +York to a pleasant village on the Hudson river, where we lived in a +small house, in a quiet way. Sad disappointments in several plans which +I had sketched for my future life; the necessity of doing something for +myself, united to a naturally roving disposition, had now conspired +within me to send me to sea as a sailor." And yet it would appear +that he might have done better than plunge thus recklessly into the +hardships and evil associations of a merchantman's forecastle; for he +more than half admits that he was erring and wilful, and that he had +kind relatives and sympathising patrons, who would have put him in the +way of earning a living otherwise. Redburn, however, seems to have +been in some respects as precocious as in others we shall presently +find him simple and inexperienced. A mere boy, adversity had already +converted him into a misanthrope, at an age when most lads are as yet +without plans for their future, and know not disappointment in any +more important matters than a treat to the play, or an extra week's +holiday. The forwardness of the rising generation is remarkable enough +in England, and has been amusingly hit off by one of our cleverest +caricaturists. In America, therefore, which notoriously goes a-head of +the old country in most particulars, and whose inhabitants lay claim to +an extraordinary share of railroad and earthquake in their composition, +boyish precocity is possibly still more remarkable; and one must not +wonder at finding Master Redburn talking in misanthropic vein of the +world's treatment of him, how bleak and cheerless everything seemed, +and how "the warm soul of him had been flogged out by adversity." +This, at an age when the stinging memory of the schoolmaster's taws +must still have been tolerably vivid about the seat of his breeks, +seems rather absurd to begin with. It was under the influence of such +feelings, however, that this infant Timon left his home to cast his +lot upon the wide waters. His friends were evidently either very angry +with him or very poor; for they allowed him to depart with but one +dollar in his pocket, a big shooting-jacket with foxes' heads on the +buttons, and a little bundle, containing his entire kit, slung at the +end of the fowling-piece which his good-natured elder brother pressed +upon him at parting. Thus equipped, he tramps of to the steamer that +is to carry him down the Hudson, early on a raw morning, along a muddy +road, and through a drizzling rain. The skyey influences will at +times affect even the most stoical, and the dismal aspect of external +nature makes Master Redburn revert to his blighted prospects--how his +soul is afflicted with mildew, "and the fruit which, with others, is +only blasted after ripeness, with him is nipped in the first blossom +and bud." The blight he complains of is evidently of a most virulent +description, for it "leaves such a scar that the air of Paradise might +not erase it." As he has just before told us how, whilst walking along, +his fingers "worked moodily at the stock and trigger" of his brother's +rifle, and that he had thought this was indeed "the proper way to +begin life, with a gun in your hand," we feel, upon hearing him croak +so desperately, some apprehension for his personal safety, and think +his brother would have done as well to have kept his gun. On this last +point we quite make up our minds, when we shortly afterwards find him +levelling the weapon at the left eye of a steamboat passenger who is so +imprudent as to stare at him, and bullying the steward for demanding +the fare, (which is two dollars, whereas Redburn has but one,) and +looking cat-a-mounts at his less needy fellow-voyagers, because they +have the rudeness to enjoy their roast beef dinner, whilst he has had +the improvidence to leave home without even a crust in his wallet. It +seems the author's aim to start his hero in life under every possible +circumstance of disadvantage and hardship; and to do this, he rather +loses sight of probability. At last, however, Redburn reaches New York, +with gun and bundle, foxes' heads and shooting-jacket, and hastens to +visit a friend of his brother's, to whom he is recommended. A kind +welcome, good supper, and warm bed, go some way towards dissipating his +ill humour; and next morning the friend accompanies him to the docks +to seek a ship. But none of his brother's kindnesses prosper him. The +gun, as we have seen, has already led him to the verge of homicide, +the foxes' heads are yet to be the source of innumerable vexations; +and Mr Jones, a silly young man, does more harm than good, by taking +the direction of Redburn's affairs, and acting as his spokesman with +Captain Riga, of the regular trader, _Highlander_, then loading for +Liverpool. + + "We found the captain in the cabin, which was a very handsome one, + lined with mahogany and maple; and the steward, an elegant-looking + mulatto, in a gorgeous turban, was setting out, on a sort of + sideboard, some dinner-service which looked like silver, but it + was only Britannia ware highly polished. As soon as I clapped my + eye on the captain, I thought to myself he was just the captain + to suit me. He was a fine-looking man, about forty, splendidly + dressed, with very black whiskers and very white teeth, and what I + took to be a free frank look out of a large hazel eye. I liked him + amazingly." + +The scene that ensues is quietly humorous, and reminds us a good deal +of Marryat, in whose style of novel we think Mr Melville would succeed. +The upshot of the conference is that Redburn ships as a boy on board +the Highlander. By vaunting his respectability, and the wealth of his +relations, his injudicious friend furnishes Riga with a pretext for +withholding the customary advance of pay; and although the sale of the +fowling-piece to a Jew pawnbroker produces wherewith to purchase a red +woollen shirt, a tarpaulin hat, and jack-knife, Redburn goes on board +but slenderly provided. His reception is not very cheering. + + "When I reached the deck, I saw no one but a large man in a large + dripping pea-jacket, who was calking down the main-hatches. + + "'What do you want, Pillgarlic?' said he. + + "'I've shipped to sail in this ship,' I replied, assuming a little + dignity to chastise his familiarity. + + "'What for--a tailor?' said he, looking at my shooting-jacket. + + "I answered that I was going as a 'boy;' for so I was technically + put down on the articles. + + "'Well,' said he, 'have you got your traps aboard?' + + "I told him I didn't know there were any rats in the ship, and + hadn't brought any 'trap.' + + "At this he laughed out with a great guffaw, and said there must + be hay-seed in my hair. + + "This made me mad; but, thinking he must be one of the sailors who + was going in the ship, I thought it wouldn't be wise to make an + enemy of him, so only asked him where the men slept in the vessel, + for I wanted to put my clothes away. + + "'Where's your clothes?' said he. + + "'Here in my bundle,' said I, holding it up. + + "'Well, if that's all you've got,' he cried, 'you'd better chuck + it overboard. But go forward, go forward to the forecastle; that's + the place you live in aboard here.' + + "And with that he directed me to a sort of hole in the deck of the + bow of the ship; but looking down, and seeing how dark it was, I + asked him for a light. + + "'Strike your eyes together and make one,' said he, 'we don't have + any lights here.' So I groped my way down into the forecastle, + which smelt so bad of old ropes and tar, that it almost made me + sick. After waiting patiently, I began to see a little; and, + looking round, at last perceived I was in a smoky-looking place, + with twelve wooden boxes stuck round the sides. In some of these + boxes were large chests, which I at once supposed to belong to the + sailors, who must have taken that method of appropriating their + 'bunks,' as I afterwards found these boxes were called. And so it + turned out. + + "After examining them for a while, I selected an empty one, and + put my bundle right in the middle of it, so that there might be no + mistake about my claim to the place, particularly as the bundle + was so small." + +The ship is not to sail till the next day; the crew are not yet aboard; +there is no mess, and Redburn has no money. He passes a wretched +night in his evil-smelling bunk, and next morning is crawling about +the deck, weak from hunger, when he is accosted by the first mate, +who curses him for a lubber, asks his name, swears it is too long to +be handy, rebaptizes him by that of _Buttons_, and sets him to clean +out the pig-pen, and grease the main-topmast. Having accomplished +these savoury duties, and narrowly escaped falling overboard from +his unwonted elevation, Redburn is ordered to the quarterdeck, +where the men are divided into watches, and he falls to the lot of +his friend the first mate, who tries hard to get rid of him to Mr +Rigs, the second mate; but Mr Rigs refuses the tyro, even as a free +gift. Redburn now gets sea-sick, and, when ordered on deck to stand +the first night-watch, from eight o'clock to midnight, he, feeling +qualmish, requests one of the sailors to make his excuses very civilly +to the chief mate, for that he thinks he will go below and spend the +night in his bunk. The sailor, a good-natured Greenlander, laughs at +his simplicity, and doctors him with a canikin of rum and some ship +biscuits, which enable him to get through his watch. Minute incidents +of this kind, reflections, reminiscences, and thoughts of home, occupy +many chapters; and, at times, one is inclined to think they are dwelt +upon at too great length: but, as before hinted, it is necessary to do +something to fill two volumes. A slight inconsistency strikes us in +this first portion of the book. Redburn, a sharp enough lad on shore, +and who, it has been seen, is altogether precocious in experience +of the world's disappointments, seems converted, by the first sniff +of salt water, into as arrant a simpleton as ever made mirth in a +cockpit. Mr Melville must surely have had Peter Simple in his head, +when describing "Buttons" at his first deck-washing. "The water began +to splash about all over the decks, and I began to think I should +surely get my feet wet, and catch my death of cold. So I went to the +chief mate and told him I thought I would just step below, till this +miserable wetting was over; for I did not have any waterproof boots, +and an aunt of mine had died of consumption. But he only roared out +for me to get a broom, and go to scrubbing, or he would prove a worse +consumption to me than ever got hold of my poor aunt." Now Redburn, +from what has previously been seen of him, was evidently not the lad to +care a rush about wet soles, or even about a thorough ducking. On the +Hudson river steamer, he had voluntarily walked the deck in a dreary +storm till soaked through; and his first night on board the Highlander +had been passed uncomplainingly in wet clothes. He has borne hunger +and thirst and other disagreeables most manfully, and the impression +given of him is quite that of a stubborn hardy fellow. So that this +sudden fear of a splashing is evidently introduced merely to afford Mr +Melville opportunity of making a little mild fun, and is altogether +out of character. Equally so is the elaborate _naiveté_ with which +Redburn inquires of a sailor whether, as the big bell on the forecastle +"hung right over the scuttle that went down to the place where the +watch below were sleeping, such a ringing every little while would not +tend to disturb them, and beget unpleasant dreams." The account of +his attempts at intimacy with the captain, although humorous enough, +is liable to a similar objection; and, in so sharp a lad, such simple +blunders are not sufficiently accounted for by ignorance of sea usages. +His recollection of the bland urbanity with which Captain Riga had +received him and Mr Jones, when they first boarded the Highlander, +induces him to believe that he may reckon on sympathy and attention +in that quarter, when bullied by the rough sailors, and abused by the +snappish mate. He had vague ideas of Sunday dinners in the cabin, of an +occasional lesson in navigation, or an evening game at chess. Desirous +to realise these pleasant visions, but observing that the captain takes +no notice of him, and altogether omits to invite him aft, Buttons, as +he is now universally called on board the trader, thinks it may be +expected that he, the younger man, should make the first advances. His +pig-sty and chicken-coop cleanings have not greatly improved the aspect +of his clothes, or the colour of his hands; but a bucket of water gets +off the worst of the stains, and a selection from his limited wardrobe +converts him into a decent enough figure for a forecastle, although +he still would not have excited much admiration in Broadway or Bond +Street. + + "When the sailors saw me thus employed, they did not know what + to make of it, and wanted to know whether I was dressing to go + ashore. I told them no, for we were then out of sight of land, but + that I was going to pay my respects to the captain. Upon which + they all laughed and shouted, as if I were a simpleton; although + there seemed nothing so very simple in going to make an evening + call upon a friend. When some of them tried to dissuade me, saying + I was green and raw; but Jackson, who sat looking on, cried out + with a hideous grin--'Let him go, let him go, men; he's a nice + boy. Let him go; the captain has some nuts and raisins for him.' + And so he was going on, when one of his violent fits of coughing + seized him, and he almost choked.... For want of kids, I slipped + on a pair of woollen mittens, which my mother had knit for me to + carry to sea. As I was putting them on, Jackson asked me whether + he shouldn't call a carriage; and another bade me not forget + to present his best respects to the skipper. I left them all + tittering, and, coming on deck, was passing the cook-house, when + the old cook called after me, saying I had forgot my cane." + +The Jackson here referred to is a prominent character in the book, an +important personage amongst the inmates of the Highlander's forecastle. +He was a yellow-visaged, whiskerless, squinting, broken-nosed ruffian, +and his head was bald, "except in the nape of his neck and just behind +the ears, where it was stuck over with short little tufts, and looked +like a worn-out shoe-brush." He claimed near relationship with General +Jackson, was a good seaman and a great bully, and, although physically +weak, and broken down by excess and disease, the other sailors gave +way to, and even petted him. He had been at sea ever since his early +childhood, and he told strange wild tales of his experiences in +many lands and on many distant seas, and of perils encountered in +Portuguese slavers on the African coast, and of Batavian fevers and +Malay pirates, and the like horrible things, which composed, indeed, +all his conversation, save when he found fault with his shipmates, and +cursed, and reviled, and jeered at them--all of which they patiently +endured, as though they feared the devil that glared out of "his deep, +subtle, infernal-looking eye." All who have read _Omoo_, (the best +of Mr Melville's books,) will remember that the author is an adept +in the sketching of nautical originals. Jackson is by no means a bad +portrait, and doubtless he is "founded on fact;" although much of his +savage picturesqueness may be attributed to the clever pencil of his +former shipmate. Riga is another good hit. The handsome captain, with +the fine clothes and the shining black whiskers, who spoke so smooth +and looked so sleek when his craft lay moored by New York quay, is +altogether another sort of character when once the anchor is up. Seamen +never judge a captain by his shore-going looks. Tyrants and martinets +afloat are often all simper and benevolence across a mahogany plank +ashore. But certainly there never was a more thorough metamorphosis +than a four-and-twenty hours' sail produced in Captain Riga. His +glossy suit and gallant airs disappeared altogether. "He wore nothing +but old-fashioned snuff-coloured coats, with high collars and short +waists, and faded short-legged pantaloons, very tight about the knees, +and vests that did not conceal his waistbands, owing to their being so +short, just like a little boy's. And his hats were all caved in and +battered, as if they had been knocked about in a cellar, and his boots +were sadly patched. Indeed, I began to think he was but a shabby fellow +after all, particularly as his whiskers lost their gloss, and he went +days together without shaving; and his hair, by a sort of miracle, +began to grow of a pepper and salt colour, which might have been owing, +though, to his discontinuing the use of some kind of dye while at sea. +I put him down as a sort of impostor." This the captain certainly +is, and ultimately proves to be something worse, for he swindles +poor Buttons and another unfortunate "boy" out of their hard-earned +wages, and proves himself altogether a far worse fellow than the rough +mate, whose first salutation is often a curse or a cuff, but who, +nevertheless, has some heart and humanity under his coarse envelope. Of +various other individuals of the ship's company sketches are given, and +prominent amongst these is the dandy mulatto steward, called Lavender +by the crew, from his having been a barber in New York. Following the +example of the captain, whose immediate dependant he is, Lavender, when +at sea, lays by his gorgeous turban, and sports his wool, profusely +scented with the residue of his stock in trade. "He was a sentimental +sort of darky, and read the _Three Spaniards_ and _Charlotte Temple_, +and carried a lock of frizzled hair in his vest pocket, which he +frequently volunteered to show to people, with his handkerchief to +his eyes." It must have been sympathy of race, not congeniality of +disposition, that made cronies of Lavender and the methodistical +black cook. Thompson, the sable Soyer of the _Highlander_, was known +as the Doctor, according to the nautical practice of confounding the +medical and the gastronomical professions. He is a capital portrait, +scarcely caricatured. On a Sunday morning, "he sat over his boiling +pots, reading out of a book which was very much soiled, and covered +with grease spots, for he kept it stuck into a little leather strap, +nailed to the keg where he kept the fat skimmed off the water in which +the salt beef was cooked." This book was the Bible, and what with +the heat of the five-feet-square kitchen, and his violent efforts to +comprehend the more mysterious passages of scripture, the beads of +sweat would roll off the Doctor's brow as he sat upon a narrow shelf, +opposite the stove, and so close to it that he had to spread his legs +out wide to keep them from scorching. During the whole voyage he was +never known to wash his face but once, and that was on a dark night, +in one of his own soup-pots. His coffee, by courtesy so called, was a +most extraordinary compound, and would not bear analysis. Sometimes +it tasted fishy, at others salt; then it would have a cheesy flavour, +or--but we abridge the unsavoury details with which Redburn disgusts us +upon this head. Sambo's devotional practices precluded due attention +to his culinary duties. For his narrow caboose he entertained a warm +affection. "In fair weather he spread the skirt of an old jacket before +the door by way of a mat, and screwed a small ringbolt into the door +for a knocker, and wrote his name, 'Mr Thompson,' over it, with a bit +of red chalk." The old negro stands before us as we read; cooking, +praying, perspiring, and with all the ludicrous self-sufficiency of +his tribe. Mr Melville is very happy in these little touches. Max +the Dutchman is another original. Although married to two highly +respectable wives, one at Liverpool and the other at New York, at sea +he is quite an old bachelor, precise and finical, with old-fashioned +straight-laced notions about the duties of sailor boys, which he tries +hard to inculcate upon Redburn. Upon the whole, however, Red Max, as he +is sometimes called--his shirt, cheeks, hair, and whiskers being all +of that colour--is tolerably kind to the youngster, in whose welfare +he occasionally shows some little interest. Jack Blunt, to whose +description the author devotes the greater part of a chapter, is not +quite so happy a hit--rather overdone--overloaded with peculiarities. +Although quite a young fellow, his hair is turning gray, and, to +check this premature sign of age, he thrice in the day anoints his +bushy locks with _Trafalgar Oil_ and _Copenhagen Elixir_, invaluable +preparations retailed to him by a knavish Yankee apothecary. He is also +greatly addicted to drugging himself: takes three pills every morning +with his coffee, and every now and then pours down "a flowing bumper of +_horse salts_." Then he has a turn for romance, and sings sentimental +songs, which must have had an odd enough sound from the lips of one +whose general appearance is that of "a fat porpoise standing on end;" +and he believes in witchcraft, and studies a dream-book, and mutters +Irish invocations for a breeze when the ship is becalmed, &c., &c. +Rather much of all this, Mr Melville, and not equal, by a long chalk, +to what you once before did in the same line. As we read, we cannot +help a comparison with some former pencillings of yours, which, +although earlier made, referred to a later voyage. Involuntarily we +are carried back to the rat-and-cockroach-haunted hull of the crazy +little Jule, and to the strange collection of originals that therein +did dwell. We think of bold Jermin and timid Captain Guy, and, above +all, of that glorious fellow Doctor Long-Ghost. We remember the easy +natural tone, and well-sustained interest of the book in which they +figured; and, desirous though we are to praise, we are compelled to +admit that, in _Redburn_, Mr Melville comes not up to the mark he +himself has made. It is evident that, on his debut, he threw off the +rich cream of his experiences, and he must not marvel if readers have +thereby been rendered dainty, and grumble a little when served with the +skim-milk. _Redburn_ is a clever book, as books now go, and we are far +from visiting it with wholesale condemnation; but it certainly lacks +the spontaneous flow and racy originality of the author's South Sea +narration. + +To proceed, however. "_Redburn grows intolerably flat and stupid over +some outlandish old guide-books._" Such is the heading of Chapter +XXX.; and, from what Mr Melville says, we do not, in this instance, +presume to differ. We are now in Liverpool. Much of what Redburn +there sees, says, and does, will be more interesting to American than +to English readers, although to many even of the latter there will +be novelty in his minute account of sailor life ashore--of their +boarding-houses, haunts, and habits; of the German emigrant ships, +and the salt-droghers and Lascars, and of other matters seemingly +commonplace, but in which his observant eye detects much that escapes +ordinary gazers. We ourselves, to whom the aspect and ways of the +great trading city of northern England are by no means unfamiliar, +have derived some new lights from Redburn's account of what he there +saw. Clergymen of the Church of England, we are informed, stand up on +old casks, at quay corners, arrayed in full canonicals, and preach +thus, _al fresco_, to sailors and loose women. Paupers are allowed to +linger and perish unaided, almost in the public thoroughfare, within +sight and knowledge of neighbours and police. Curious, seemingly, of +the horrible, Redburn visits the dead-house, where he sees "a sailor +stretched out, stark and stiff, with the sleeve of his frock rolled +up, and showing his name and date of birth tattooed upon his arm. It +was a sight full of suggestions: _he seemed his own head-stone_." We +would implore Mr Melville to beware of a fault by no means uncommon +with a certain school of writers at the present day, but into which +it would be unworthy a man of his ability to fall. We refer to that +straining for striking similes, at the expense of truth and good +taste, of which he has here furnished us with a glaring example. A +dead sailor's name is tattooed upon his arm; _therefore_--mark the +consequence--he seems his own head-stone. How totally inapt is this; +how violent and distorted the figure! Such tricks of pen may, by a +sort of tinsel glitter, dazzle for a moment superficial persons, +who weigh not what they read; but they will never obtain favour, or +enhance a reputation with any for whose verdict Mr Melville need care. +Neither will he, we apprehend, gain much praise, that is worth having, +for such exaggerated exhibitions of the horrible as that afforded in +chapter VI. of his second volume. Passing through Lancelott's Hey, +a narrow street of warehouses, Redburn heard "a feeble wail, which +seemed to come out of the earth.... I advanced to an opening, which +communicated downwards with deep tiers of cellars beneath a crumbling +old warehouse; and there, some fifteen feet below the walk, crouching +in nameless squalor, with her head bowed over, was the figure of what +had been a woman. Her blue arms folded to her livid bosom two shrunken +things like children, that leaned towards her, one on each side. At +first I knew not whether they were dead or alive. They made no sign; +they did not move or stir; but from the vault came that soul-sickening +wail." We cannot quite realise the "opening" in question, but take +it for granted to be some sufficiently dreary den, and are only +puzzled to conjecture how, considering its depth, the woman and +children got there. Redburn himself seems at a loss to account for it. +This, however, his compassionate heart tarried not to inquire; but, +perceiving the poor creatures were nearly dead with want, he hurried +to procure them assistance. In an open space hard by, some squalid +old women, the wretched _chiffonières_ of the docks, were gathering +flakes of cotton in the dirt heaps. To these Redburn appealed. They +knew of the beggar-woman and her brats, who had been three days in +the pit or vault, with nothing to eat, but they would not meddle in +the matter; and one hag, with an exaggerated morality that does not +sound very probable, declared "Betsy Jennings deserved it, for she had +never been married!" Turning into a more frequented street, Redburn +met a policeman. "None of my business, Jack," was the reply to his +application. "I don't belong to that street. But what business is it of +yours? Are you not a Yankee?" + +"Yes," said I; "but come, I will help you to remove that woman, if you +say so." + +"There now, Jack, go on board your ship, and stick to it, and leave +these matters to the town." + +Two more policemen were applied to with a like result. Appeals to +the porter at an adjacent warehouse, to Handsome Mary the hostess, +and Brandy Nan the cook at the Sailors' boarding-house, were equally +fruitless. Redburn took some bread and cheese from his dinner-room, +and carried it to the sufferers, to whom he gave water to drink in his +hat--descending with great difficulty into the vault, which was like +a well. The two children ate, but the woman refused. And then Redburn +found a dead infant amongst her rags, (he describes its appearance +with harrowing minuteness,) and almost repented having brought food to +the survivors, for it could but prolong their misery, without hope of +permanent relief. And on reflection, "I felt an almost irresistible +impulse to do them the last mercy, of in some way putting an end to +their horrible lives; and I should almost have done so, I think, had +I not been deterred by thought of the law. For I well knew that the +law, which would let them perish of themselves, without giving them +one sup of water, would spend a thousand pounds, if necessary, in +convicting him who should so much as offer to relieve them from their +miserable existence." The whole chapter is in this agreeable style, and +indeed we suppress the more revolting and exaggerated passages. Two +days longer, Redburn informs us, the objects of his compassion linger +in their foul retreat, and then the bread he throws to them remains +untasted. They are dead, and a horrible stench arises from the opening. +The next time he passes, the corpses have disappeared, and quicklime +strews the ground. Within a few hours of their death the nuisance +has been detected and removed, although for five days, according to +Redburn, they had been allowed to die by inches, within a few yards +of frequented streets, and with the full knowledge and acquiescence +of sundry policemen. We need hardly waste a comment on the more than +improbable, on the utterly absurd character, of this incident. It will +be apparent to all readers. Mr Melville is, of course, at liberty to +introduce fictitious adventure into what professes to be a narrative +of real events; the thing is done every day, and doubtless he largely +avails of the privilege. He has also a clear right to deal in the +lugubrious, and even in the loathsome, if he thinks an occasional +dash of tragedy will advantageously relieve the humorous features of +his book. But here he is perverting truth, and leading into error the +simple persons who put their faith in him. And, from the consideration +of such misguidance, we naturally glide into the story of Master +Harry Bolton. Redburn had been at Liverpool four weeks, and began to +suspect that was all he was likely to see of the country, and that he +must return to New York without obtaining the most distant glimpse +of "the old abbeys, and the York minsters, and the lord mayors, and +coronations, and the maypoles and fox-hunters, and Derby races, and +dukes, and duchesses, and Count d'Orsays," which his boyish reading +had given him the habit of associating with England,--when he one +day made acquaintance, at the sign of the Baltimore Clipper, with "a +handsome, accomplished, but unfortunate youth, one of those small but +perfectly-formed beings who seem to have been born in cocoons. His +complexion was a _mantling brunette_, feminine as a girl's; his feet +were small; his hands were white; and his eyes were large, black, and +womanly; and, poetry aside, his voice was as the sound of a harp." It +is natural to wonder what this dainty gentleman does in the sailors' +quarter of Liverpool, and how he comes to rub his dandified costume +against the tarry jackets of the Clippers' habitual frequenters. +On these points we are presently enlightened. Harry Bolton was born +at Bury St Edmunds. At a very early age he came into possession of +five thousand pounds, went up to London, was at once admitted into +the most aristocratic circles, gambled and dissipated his money in a +single winter, made two voyages to the East Indies as midshipman in +a Company's ship, squandered his pay, and was now about to seek his +fortune in the New World. On reaching Liverpool, he took it into his +head, for the romance of the thing, to ship as a sailor, and work his +passage. Hence his presence at the docks, and his acquaintance with +Redburn, who, delighted with his new acquaintance, prevails on him to +offer his services to Captain Riga of the Highlander, who graciously +accepts them. + + "I now had a comrade in my afternoon strolls and Sunday + excursions; and as Harry was a generous fellow, he shared with + me his purse and his heart. He sold off several more of his fine + vests and trousers, his silver-keyed flute and enamelled guitar; + and a portion of the money thus furnished was pleasantly spent in + refreshing ourselves at the roadside inns, in the vicinity of the + town. Reclining side by side in some agreeable nook, we exchanged + our experiences of the past. Harry enlarged upon the fascinations + of a London life; described the curricle he used to drive in Hyde + Park; gave me the measurement of Madame Vestris' ankle; alluded + to his first introduction, at a club, to the madcap Marquis of + Waterford; told over the sums he had lost upon the turf on a Derby + day; and made various but enigmatical allusions to a certain Lady + Georgiana Theresa, the noble daughter of an anonymous earl." + +Even Redburn, inexperienced as he is in the ways of the old +country, is inclined to suspect his new friend of "spending funds +of reminiscences not his own,"--that being as near an approach as +he can make to accusing the he-brunette with the harp-like voice of +telling lies--until one day, when passing a fashionable hotel, Harry +points out to him "a remarkable elegant coat and pantaloons, standing +upright on the hotel steps, and containing a young buck, tapping his +teeth with an ivory-headed riding-whip." The buck is "very thin and +limber about the legs, with small feet like a doll's, and a small, +glossy head like a seal's," and presently he steps to "the open window +of a flashing carriage which drew up: and, throwing himself into an +interesting posture, _with the sole of one boot vertically exposed, +so as to show the stamp on it--a coronet_--fell into a sparkling +conversation with a magnificent white satin hat, surmounted by a regal +marabout feather, inside." The young gentleman with the seal's-head +and the coroneted-boot, is, as Harry assures Redburn, whilst dragging +him hastily round a corner, Lord Lovely, a most particular "old chum" +of his own. "Sailors," Redburn somewhere observes, "only go _round_ +the world without going _into_ it; and their reminiscences of travel +are only a dim recollection of a chain of tap-rooms surrounding the +globe, parallel with the equator." This being the case, we would +have him abstain from giving glimpses of the English aristocracy, +his knowledge of which seems to be based upon the revelations of +Sunday newspapers, and upon that class of novels usually supposed to +be written by discarded valets-de-chambre. But we are not let off +with this peep at a truant fashionable. Mr Bolton, having found a +purse, or picked a pocket, or in some way or other replenished his +exchequer, rigs out Redburn in a decent suit of clothes, and carries +him off to London, previously disguising himself with false whiskers +and mustaches. Enchanted to visit the capital, Redburn does not +inquire too particularly concerning these suspicious proceedings, +but takes all for granted, until he finds himself "dropped down in +the evening among gas-lights, under a great roof in Euston Square. +London at last," he exclaims, "and in the West End!" If not quite in +the West End, he is soon transported thither by the agency of a cab, +and introduced by his friend into a "semi-public place of opulent +entertainment," such as certainly exists nowhere (at least in London) +but in our sailor-author's lively imagination. The number of this +enchanted mansion is forty, it is approached by high steps, and has a +purple light at the door. Can any one help us with a conjecture? The +following passage we take to be good of its kind: "The cabman being +paid, Harry, adjusting his whiskers and mustaches, _and bidding me +assume a lounging look, pushed his hat a little to one side_, and then, +locking arms, we sauntered into the house, myself feeling not a little +abashed--it was so long since I had been in any courtly society." +A pair of tailors strutting into a casino. It would seem there are +cockneys even in America. The "courtly society" into which the Yankee +sailor boy and his anomalous acquaintance now intrude themselves is +that of "knots of gentlemanly men, seated at numerous Moorish-looking +tables, supported by Caryatides of turbaned slaves, with cut decanters +and taper-waisted glasses, journals, and cigars before them." We regret +we have not room for the description of the magnificent interior, which +is a remarkable specimen of fine writing; but we must devote a word to +the presiding genius of the mysterious palace, were it only for the +sake of a simile indulged in by Redburn. At the further end of the +brilliant apartment, "behind a rich mahogany turret-like structure, was +a very handsome florid old man, with snow-white hair and whiskers, and +in a snow-white jacket--_he looked like an almond-tree in blossom_." +Enshrined in mahogany turrets, and adorned by so imaginative a pen, +who would suspect this benign and blooming old sinner of condescending +to direct waiters and receive silver. Nevertheless these, we are told, +are his chief duties--in short, we are allowed to suppose that he is +the steward of this club, hell, tavern, or whatever else it is intended +to be. Bolton speaks a word to the almond tree, who appears surprised, +and they leave the room together. Redburn remains over a decanter of +pale-yellow wine, and catches unintelligible sentences, in which the +words _Loo_ and _Rouge_ occur. Presently Bolton returns, his face +rather flushed, and drags away Redburn, not, as the latter hoped, for +a ramble, "perhaps to Apsley House, in the Park, to get a sly peep +at the old Duke before he retired for the night," but up magnificent +staircases, through rosewood-doors and palatial halls, of all which +we have a most florid, high-flown, and classical description. Again +Bolton leaves him, after being very oracular and mysterious, and giving +him money for his journey back to Liverpool, and a letter which he is +to leave at Bury, should he (the aforesaid Bolton) not return before +morning. And thereupon he departs with the almond-tree, and Redburn is +left to his meditations, and hears dice rattle, has visions of frantic +men rushing along corridors, and fancies he sees reptiles crawling over +the mirrors, and at last, what with wine, excitement, and fatigue, he +falls asleep. He is roused by Harry Bolton, very pale and desperate, +who draws a dirk, and nails his empty purse to the table, and whistles +fiercely, and finally screams for brandy. Now all this sort of thing, +we can assure its author, is in the very stalest style of minor-theatre +melodrama. We perfectly remember our intense gratification when +witnessing, at country fairs in our boyish days, a thrilling domestic +tragedy, in which the murderer rushes on the stage with a chalked face +and a gory carving-knife, howling for "Brandy! Brandy!!" swallows a +goblet of strong toast and water, and is tranquillised. But surely Mr +Melville had no need to recur to such antiquated traditions. Nor had +he any need to introduce this fantastical gambling episode, unless it +were upon the principle of the old cakes of roses in the apothecary's +shop--to make up a show. We unhesitatingly qualify the whole of this +London expedition as utter rubbish, intended evidently to be very fine +and effective, but which totally misses the mark. Why will not Mr +Melville stick to the ship? There he is at home. The worst passages of +his sea-going narrative are better than the best of his metropolitan +experiences. In fact, the introduction at all of the male brunette is +quite impertinent. Having got him, Mr Melville finds it necessary to +do something with him, and he is greatly puzzled what that is to be. +Bolton's character is full of inconsistencies. Notwithstanding his two +voyages to the East Indies, and his great notion of "the romance" of +working his passage as a common sailor, when he comes to do duty on +board the Highlander he proves himself totally ignorant of nautical +matters, and is so nerveless a mariner that, on ascending a mast, he +nearly falls into the sea, and nothing can induce him again to go +aloft. This entails upon him the contempt and ill-treatment of his +officers and shipmates, and he leads a dog's life between Liverpool and +New York. "Few landsmen can imagine the depressing and self-humiliating +effect of finding one's self, for the first time, at the beck of +illiterate sea-tyrants, with no opportunity of exhibiting any trait +about you but your ignorance of everything connected with the sea-life +that you lead, and the duties you are constantly called on to perform. +In such a sphere, and under such circumstances, Isaac Newton and Lord +Bacon would be sea-clowns and bumpkins, and Napoleon Buonaparte be +cuffed and kicked without remorse. In more than one instance I have +seen the truth of this; and Harry, poor Harry, proved no exception." +Poor Harry, nervous, effeminate, and sensitive, was worried like a hare +by the rude sea-dogs amongst whom he had so imprudently thrust himself. +His sole means of propitiating his tormentors was by his voice, and +"many a night was he called upon to sing for those who, through the +day, had insulted and derided him." Amidst his many sufferings, Redburn +was his only comforter, and at times, of an evening, they would creep +under the lee of the long-boat and talk of the past, and still oftener +of the future; for Harry referred but unwillingly to things gone by, +and especially would never explain any of the mysteries of their London +expedition, and had bound Redburn by an oath not to question him +concerning it. He confessed, however, that his resources were at end; +that besides a chest of clothes--relics of former finery--he had but +a few shillings in the world; and, although several years his senior, +he was glad to take counsel of the sailor boy as to his future course +of life, and what he could do in America to earn a living, for he was +determined never to return to England. And when Redburn suggested that +his friend's musical talents might possibly be turned to account, Harry +caught at the idea, and volunteered the following curious information:-- + + "In some places in England, he said, it was customary for two + or three young men of highly respectable families, of undoubted + antiquity, but unfortunately in lamentably decayed circumstances, + and threadbare coats--it was customary for two or three young + gentlemen, so situated, to obtain their livelihood by their + voices; coining their silvery songs into silvery shillings. They + wandered from door to door, and rang the bell--_Are the ladies + and gentlemen in?_ Seeing them at least gentlemanly-looking, + if not sumptuously apparelled, the servant generally admitted + them at once; and when the people entered to greet them, their + spokesman would rise with a gentle bow, and a smile, and say, _We + come, ladies and gentlemen, to sing you a song; we are singers, + at your service._ And so, without waiting reply, forth they burst + into song; and, having most mellifluous voices, enchanted and + transported all auditors; so much so, that at the conclusion of + the entertainment they very seldom failed to be well recompensed, + and departed with an invitation to return again, and make the + occupants of that dwelling once more delighted and happy." + +Should it not be added that these errant minstrels of ancient +family, decayed circumstances, and courtly manners, had their faces +lamp-blacked, and carried bones and banjos, and sang songs in negro +slang with gurgling choruses? Some such professors we have occasionally +seen parading the streets of English towns, although we are not aware +of their being customarily welcomed in drawing-rooms. We ask Mr Herman +Melville to explain to us his intention in this sort of writing. Does +it contain some subtle satire, imperceptible to our dull optics? Does +he mean it to be humorous? Or is he writing seriously? (although that +seems scarcely possible,) and does he imagine he is here recording +a common English custom? If this last be the case, we strongly urge +him immediately to commence a work "On the Manners and Customs of the +British Isles." We promise him a review, and guarantee the book's +success. But we have not quite done with Harry Bolton, and may as +well finish him off whilst our hand is in. Objections being found to +troubadourising in New York, the notion of a clerkship is started, +Harry being a good penman; and this brings on a discussion about +hands, and Redburn utterly scouts the idea of slender fingers and +small feet being indicative of gentle birth and far descent, because +the half-caste paupers in Lima are dainty-handed and wee-footed, and +moreover, he adds, with crushing force of argument, a fish has no feet +at all! But poor Harry's tender digits and rosy nails have grievously +suffered from the pollution of tar-pots, and the rough contact of +ropes, and oftentimes he bewails his hand's degradation, and sighs for +the palmy days when it handed countesses to their coaches, and pledged +Lady Blessington, and ratified a bond to Lord Lovely, &c. &c. All which +is abundantly tedious and commonplace, and will not bear dwelling upon. + +Part of the Highlander's cargo on home-voyage was five hundred +emigrants, to accommodate whom the "between-decks" was fitted up with +bunks, rapidly constructed of coarse planks, and having something +the appearance of dog-kennels. The weather proved unfavourable, the +voyage long, the provisions of many of the emigrants (who were chiefly +Irish) ran short, and the consequences were disorder, suffering, and +disease. Once more upon his own ground, and telling of things which +he knows, and has doubtless seen, Mr Melville again rises in our +estimation. His details of emigrant life on board are good; and so is +his account of the sailors' shifts for tobacco, which runs short, and +of Jackson's selfishness, and singular ascendency over the crew. And +also, very graphic indeed, is the picture of the steerage, when the +malignant epidemic breaks out, and it becomes a lazar-house, frightful +with filth and fever, where the wild ignorant Irishmen sat smoking +tea leaves on their chests, and rise in furious revolt, to prevent +the crew from taking the necessary sanitary measures of purification, +until at last favourable breezes came, and fair mild days, and fever +fled, and the human stable (for it was no better) was cleansed, and the +Highlander bowled cheerily onwards, over a pleasant sea, towards the +much-desired haven. Two incidents of especial prominence occur during +the voyage--one at its outset, the other near its close. Whilst yet +in the Prince's Dock, three drunken sailors are brought on board the +Highlander by the crimps. One of them, a Portuguese, senseless from +intoxication, is lowered on deck by a rope and rolled into his bunk, +where the crimp tucks him in, and desires he may not be disturbed till +out at sea. There he lies, regardless of the mate's angry calls, and +seemingly sunk in a trance, until an unpleasant odour in the forecastle +arouses attention, and Jackson discovers that the man is dead. Yet the +other sailors doubt it, especially when, upon Red Max holding a light +to his face, "the yellow flame wavered for a moment at the seaman's +motionless mouth. But then, to the silent horror of all, two threads +of greenish fire, like a forked tongue, darted out from between the +lips; and in a moment the cadaverous face was crawled over by a swarm +of wormlike flames. The lamp dropped from the hand of Max, and went +out, which covered all over with spires and sparkles of flame, that +faintly crackled in the silence; the uncovered parts of the body burned +before us, precisely like a phosphorescent shark in a midnight sea." +Spirit-drinking, the seaman's bane, had made an end of Miguel the +Portuguese. What shocked Redburn particularly, was Jackson's opinion +"that the man had been actually dead when brought on board the ship; +and that knowingly, and merely for the sake of the month's advance, +paid into his hand upon the strength of the bill he presented, the +body-snatching crimp had shipped a corpse on board the Highlander." +The men trembled at the supernatural aspect of the burning body, but +reckless Jackson, with a fierce jeer, bade them hurl it overboard, +which was done. Jackson knew not how soon the waves were to close over +his own corpse. Off Cape Cod, when the smell of land was strong in the +nostrils of the weary emigrants, orders were given, one dark night, in +a stiff breeze, to reef topsails; and Jackson, who had been deadly ill +and off duty most part of the voyage, came upon deck, to the surprise +of many, to do his duty with the rest, by way of reminder, perhaps, to +the captain, that he was alive and expected his wages. Having pointed +pretty freely to Mr Melville's defects, it is fair to give an example +of his happier manner. + + "At no time could Jackson better signalise his disposition to + work, than upon an occasion like the present; which generally + attracts every soul on deck, from the captain to the child in the + steerage. + + "His aspect was damp and deathlike; the blue hollows of his + eyes were like vaults full of snakes, [another of Mr Melville's + outrageous similes]; and, issuing so unexpectedly from his dark + tomb in the forecastle, he looked like a man raised from the dead. + + "Before the sailors had made fast the reef-tackle, Jackson + was tottering up the rigging; thus getting the start of them, + and securing his place at the extreme weather end of the + topsail-yard--which is accounted the post of honour. For it was + one of the characteristics of this man, that, though when on duty + he would shy away from mere dull work in a calm, yet in tempest + time he always claimed the van, and would yield it to none; and + this, perhaps, was one cause of his unbounded dominion over the + men. + + "Soon we were all strung along the main-topsail yard; the ship + rearing and plunging under us, like a runaway steed; each man + griping his reef-point, and sideways leaning, dragging the sail + over towards Jackson, whose business it was to confine the reef + corner to the yard. + + "His hat and shoes were off; and he rode the yard-arm end, leaning + backward to the gale, and pulling at the earing-rope like a + bridle. At all times, this is a moment of frantic exertion with + sailors, whose spirits seem then to partake of the commotion + of the elements, as they hang in the gale, between heaven and + earth--and then it is, too, that they are the most profane. + + "'Haul out to windward!' coughed Jackson with a blasphemous cry, + and he threw himself back with a violent strain upon the bridle + in his hand. But the wild words were hardly out of his mouth when + his hands dropped to his side, and the bellying sail was spattered + with a torrent of blood from his lungs. + + "As the man next him stretched out his arm to save, Jackson fell + headlong from the yard, and, with a long seethe, plunged like a + diver into the sea. + + "It was when the ship had rolled to windward; which, with the long + projection of the yard-arm over the side, made him strike far out + upon the water. His fall was seen by the whole upward-gazing crowd + on deck, some of whom were spotted with the blood that trickled + from the sail, while they raised a spontaneous cry, so shrill + and wild, that a blind man might have known something deadly had + happened. + + "Clutching our reef-points, we hung over the stick, and gazed down + to the one white, bubbling spot, which had closed over the head of + our shipmate; but the next minute it was brewed into the common + yeast of the waves, and Jackson never arose. We waited a few + moments, expecting an order to descend, haul back the foreyard, + and man the boat; but instead of that, the next sound that greeted + us was, 'Bear a hand, and reef away, men!' from the mate." + +If it be possible (we are aware that it is very difficult) for an +author to form a correct estimate of his own productions, it must +surely have struck Mr Melville, whilst glancing over the proof-sheets +of _Redburn_, that plain, vigorous, unaffected writing of this sort +is a far superior style of thing to rhapsodies about Italian boys and +hurdy-gurdies, to gairish descriptions of imaginary gambling-houses, +and to sentimental effusions about Harry Bolton, his "Bury blade," +and his "Zebra," as he called him--the latter word being used, we +suppose, to indicate that the young man was only one remove from a +donkey. We can assure Mr Melville he is most effective when most simple +and unpretending; and if he will put away affectation and curb the +eccentricities of his fancy, we see no reason for his not becoming a +very agreeable writer of nautical fictions. He will never have the +power of a Cringle, or the sustained humour and vivacity of a Marryat, +but he may do very well without aspiring to rival the masters of the +art. + +_Redburn_ is not a novel; it has no plot; the mysterious visit to +London remains more or less an enigma to the end. But having said so +much about Harry Bolton, the author deems it expedient to add a tag +touching the fate of this worthy, whom Redburn left in New York; in +charge of a friend, during his own temporary absence, and who had +disappeared on his return. For years he hears nothing of him, but then +falls in, whilst on a whaling cruise in the Pacific, with an English +sailor, who tells how a poor little fellow, a countryman of his, a +gentleman's son, and who sang like a bird, had fallen over the side of +a Nantucket craft, and been jammed between ship and whale. And this is +Harry Bolton. A most lame and impotent conclusion, and as improbable a +one as could well be devised, seeing that a sailor's life was the very +last the broken down gambler was likely to choose, after his experience +of his utter incapacity for it, and after the persecution and torments +he had endured from his rude shipmates on board the Highlander. + +When this review of his last work meets the eye of Mr Herman Melville, +which probably it will do, we would have him bear in mind that, if +we have now dwelt upon his failings, it is in the hope of inducing +him to amend them; and that we have already, on a former occasion, +expended at least as much time and space on a laudation of his merits, +and many undeniable good qualities, as a writer. It always gives us +pleasure to speak favourably of a book by an American author, when we +conscientiously can do so. First, because Americans, although cousins, +are not _of the house_; although allied by blood, they are in some +sort strangers; and it is an act of more graceful courtesy to laud +a stranger than one of ourselves. Secondly, because we hope thereby +to encourage Americans to the cultivation of literature--to induce +some to write, who, having talent, have not hitherto revealed it; and +to stimulate those who have already written to increased exertion +and better things. For it were false modesty on our part to ignore +the fact, that the words of Maga have much weight and many readers +throughout the whole length and breadth of the Union--that her verdict +is respectfully heard, not only in the city, but in the hamlet, and +even in those remote back-woods where the law of Lynch prevails. And, +thirdly, we gladly praise an American book because we praise none but +good books, and we desire to see many such written in America, in the +hope that she will at last awake to the advantages of an international +copyright. For surely it is little creditable to a great country to see +her men of genius and talent, her Irvings and Prescotts, and we will +also say her Coopers and Melvilles, publishing their works in a foreign +capital, as the sole means of obtaining that fair remuneration which, +although it should never be the sole object, is yet the legitimate and +honourable reward of the labourer in literature's paths. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] _Redburn: his First Voyage._ By HERMAN MELVILLE, author of +_Typee_, _Omoo_, and _Mardi_. 2 vols. London, 1849. + + + + +PEACE AND WAR AGITATORS. + + +If the experience of the last twelve months has not opened the eyes +of the most inveterate of Mr Cobden's quondam admirers to the real +quality of their idol, we very much fear that such unhappy persons +are beyond the reach of the moral oculist. From the first moment of +his appearance upon the political stage, while yet unbe-praised by +Peel, and unrewarded by that splendid testimonial, accorded unto him +by judicious patriots, one moiety of whom have since done penance for +their premature liberality in the _Gazette_, we understood the true +capabilities of the man, and scrupled not to say that a more conceited +personage never battered the front of a hustings. Some excellent but +decidedly weak-minded people were rather offended with the freedom of +our remarks upon the self-sufficient Cagliostro of free trade, in whose +powers of transmutation they were disposed to place implicit reliance +and belief. The Tamworth certificate, which we shrewdly suspect its +author would now give a trifle to recall, was founded on as evidence +sufficient to condemn our obstinate blindness and illiberality; for who +could doubt the soundness of an opinion emanating from a statesman who +was just then depositing, in a mahogany wheelbarrow, the first sod, +raised with a silver spade, on a railway which, when completed, was to +prove a perfect California to the shareholders? It is not impossible +that, at this moment, some of the shareholders may be on their way +to the actual California--having found, through bitter experience, +that some kinds of diggings are anything but productive, and having +learned that elderly orators, who make a practice of studying the +gyrations of the weather-cock, may be sometimes mistaken in their +calculations. Matters fared worse with us, when it was bruited through +the trumpet of fame, that, in every considerable capital of Europe, +multitudes had assembled to do homage to the apostle of the new era. +Our compassionate friends, possibly deeming us irretrievably committed +to folly, put on mourning for our transgression, and ceased to combat +with our adversaries, who classed us with the worst of unbelievers. +One facetious gentleman proposed that we should be exhibited in a +glass-case, as a specimen of an extinct animal; another, indulging +in a more daring flight of fancy, stigmatised us as a cankerworm, +gnawing at the root of the tree of liberty. We fairly confess that +we were pained at the alienation of friends whom we had previously +considered as staunch as the steel of Toledo: as for our foemen, we, +being used to that kind of warfare, treated them with consummate +indifference. Yet not the less, on that account, did we diligently +peruse the journals, which, from various lands, winged their way +to the table of our study, each announcing, in varied speech, that +Richard Cobden was expatiating upon the blessings of free-trade and +unlimited calico to the nations. These we had not studied long, ere +we discovered that, upon one or two unfortunate points, there was a +want of understanding between the parties who thus fraternised. The +foreign audiences knew nothing whatever about the principles which the +orator propounded; and the orator knew, if possible, still less of the +languages in which the compliments of the audiences were conveyed. In +so far as any interchange of ideas was concerned, Mr Cobden might as +well have been dining on cold roast monkey with the King of Congo and +his court, as with the bearded patriots who entertained him in Italy +and Spain. His talk about reciprocity was about as distinct to their +comprehension, as would have been his definition of the differential +calculus; nevertheless their shoutings fell no whit less gratefully +on the ear of the Manchester manufacturer, who interpreted the same +according to his own sweet will, and sent home bragging bulletins to +his backers, descriptive of the thirst for commercial interchange which +raged throughout Europe, and of the pacific tendencies of the age. +Need we remind our readers of what followed? Never had unfortunate +prophet been possessed by a more lying and delusive demon. The words +were hardly out of his mouth, before the thunderstorm of revolution +broke in all its fury upon France, and rolled in devastating wrath +over every kingdom of the Continent. Amongst the foremost agents in +this unholy work were the friends and entertainers of Mr Cobden, for +whose tranquil dispositions he had been foolish enough to volunteer a +pledge. How he must have cursed "my friend Cremieux," when he found +that unscrupulous gentleman giving the lie to all his asseverations! +No man, unless cased in a threefold covering of brass, could have +held up his head to the public, after so thorough and instantaneous +an exposure of his miserable fallacies. But our Richard is not to be +easily put down. No one understands the trade of the agitator better; +for, when baffled, put to silence, and covered with ridicule on one +topic, he straightway shifts his ground, and is heard declaiming on +another. It is his misfortune that he has been compelled to do this +rather frequently, for in no one single instance have events realised +his predictions. Free trade, which was to make every man rich, has +plunged the nation in misery. Reciprocity, for all practical purposes, +is an obsolete word in the dictionary. The Continental apostles of +commercial exchange have been amusing themselves by cutting each +others' throats, and hatching villanous schemes for the subversion of +all government; nor has one of them a maravedi left, to expend in the +purchase of calico. The colonies are up in arms against the policy of +the mother country. Undismayed by these failures, still the undaunted +Cobden lifts up his oracular voice, advocating in turn the extension +of the suffrage, the abolition of standing armies, financial reform, +and what not. It matters not to him that, on each new attempt, the +rotten tub on which he takes his stand is either kicked from under his +feet, or goes crashing down beneath the weight of the husky orator--up +he starts from the mire like a new Antæus, and, without stopping to +wipe away the unsavoury stains from his visage, holds forth upon a +different text, the paragon of pertinacious preachers. We could almost +find it in our hearts to be sorry that such singular pluck should go +without its adequate reward. But a patriot of this stamp is sure to +become a nuisance. However numerous his audience may be at first, they +are apt to decline when the folly of the harangue is made patent to +the meanest capacity, and when current events everlastingly combine +to expose the nature of the imposture. The popularity of Cobden, for +some time back, has been terribly on the wane. Few and far between are +his present political ovations; and even men of his own class begin to +consider him a humbug. We are given to understand that, in a majority +of the commercial rooms, the first glass of the statutory pint of wine +is no longer graced with an aspiration for his prosperity and length +of years; and some ungrateful recreants of the road now hint, that to +his baleful influence may be attributed the woful diminution of orders. +That exceedingly mangy establishment, ycleped the Free-trade Club, +of which he was the father and founder, has just given up the ghost; +and great is the joy of the denizens of St James's Square at being +relieved from the visitations of the crew that haunted its ungarnished +halls. Ordinary men might be disheartened by a succession of such +reverses--not so Cobden. Like an ancient Roman, he gathers his calico +around him, and announces to a gratified world that he is ready to +measure inches with the Autocrat of all the Russias! + +Cobden is fond of this kind of feat. About a year ago he put out the +same challenge to the Duke of Wellington and the Horse Guards, just +as we find it announced in the columns of _Bell's Life in London_, +that Charles Onions of Birmingham is ready to pitch into the Champion +of England for five pounds aside, and that his money is deposited at +the bar of the Pig and Whistles. But even as the said champion does +not reply to the defiance of the full-flavoured Charles, so silent +was He of the hundred fights when Richard summoned him to the field. +Failing this meditated encounter, our pugnacious manufacturer next +despatches a cartel to Nicholas, and no response having arrived from +St Petersburg, he magnanimously professes himself ready to serve out +the house of Hapsburg! Really there is no setting bounds to the valour +or the ambition of this vaunting Achilles, who, far stronger than his +prototype, or even than the fabled Hercules, states that he can crumple +up kingdoms in his hand as easily as a sheet of foolscap. We stand +absolutely appalled at the temerity of unappeasable Pelides. + +Our readers are probably aware that, for some time past, there has +been an attempt to preach up a sort of seedy Crusade, having for +its ostensible object the universal pacification of mankind. With +such an aim no good man or sincere Christian can quarrel. Peace and +good-will are expressly inculcated by the Gospel, and even upon lower +grounds than these we are all predisposed in their favour. So that, +when America sent us a new Peter the Hermit, in the shape of one +Elihu Burritt, heretofore a hammerer of iron, people were at a loss +to comprehend what sort of a mission that could be, which, without +any fresh revelation, was to put the matter in a clearer light than +was ever exhibited before. We care not to acknowledge that we were +of the number of those who classed the said Elihu with the gang of +itinerant lecturers, who turn a questionable penny by holding forth to +ignorant audiences upon subjects utterly beyond their own contracted +comprehension. Nor have we seen any reason to alter our opinion since; +for the accession of any amount of noodles, be they English, French, +Dutch, Flemish, or Chinese, can in no way give importance to a movement +which is simply and radically absurd. If the doctrines and precepts +of Christianity cannot establish peace, cheek aggression, suppress +insubordination, or hasten the coming of the millennium, we may be +excused for doubting, surely, the power of Peace Congresses, even when +presided over by so saintly a personage as Victor Hugo, to accomplish +those desirable ends. We do not know whether Alexander Dumas has as yet +given in his adhesion. If not, it is a pity, for his presence would +decidedly give additional interest to the meetings. + +Even on the score of originality, the founders of the Peace +Associations cannot claim any merit. The idea was long ago struck out, +and promulgated, by that very respectable sect the Quakers; and though +in modern times some of that fraternity, John Bright for example, have +shown themselves more addicted to wrangling than befits the lamb-like +docility of their profession, we believe that opposition to warfare is +still their leading tenet. We can see no reason, therefore, why the +bread should be so unceremoniously taken from the mouth of Obadiah. If +the ingenious author of _Lucretia Borgia_ and _Hans of Iceland_ wishes +to become the leader of a great pacific movement, he ought, in common +justice, to adopt the uniform of the existing corps. He certainly +should treat the promenaders of the Boulevards to a glimpse of the +broad-brimmed hat and sober drab terminations, and conform to the +phraseology as well as the habiliments of the followers of William Penn. + +It may be questionable whether, if the experiment of free trade had +succeeded, Elihu would have obtained the countenance of so potent +an auxiliary as Cobden. Our powers of arithmetic are too limited to +enable us, at this moment, to recall the precise amount of additional +annual wealth which the member for the West Riding, and the wiseacres +of _The Economist_, confidently predicted as the necessary gain to +the nation; it was something, the bare mention of which was enough +to cause a Pactolus to distil from the chops of a Chancellor of the +Exchequer, especially if he belonged to the Whig persuasion, and was, +therefore, unaccustomed to the miracle of a bursting revenue. But as no +such miracle ensued; and as, on the contrary, Sir Charles Wood was put +to his wit's end--no very formidable stretch--to diminish a horrible +deficit by the sale of rope-ends, rusty metal, and other material which +was classed under the head of government stores, it was clearly high +time for our nimble Cobden to shift his ground. Accordingly he fell +foul of the army, which he would fain have insisted on disbanding; +and this move, of course, brought him within the range of the orbit +already occupied by the eccentric Elihu. + +It is not very easy to attain to a distinct understanding of the means +which the Peace Association proposed to adopt, for carrying out this +benevolent scheme. Most of the gentlemen who have already figured at +their debates are so excessively muddleheaded, that it seems impossible +to extract from their speeches the vestige of a distinct idea. This +much, however, after diligent study, we have gathered, that it is +proposed to substitute arbitration in place of war, and to render that +mode of arrangement almost necessary by a general European disarmament. +Nothing could tally better with the views of Cobden. A higher principle +than that of mere retrenchment is thus brought to bear upon his darling +scheme of wiping off the army and the navy; and we must needs confess +that, to a considerable proportion of the population of modern Europe, +the scheme must be extremely palatable. + +Standing armies, we are told, are of no earthly use in the time of +peace, and their expense is obviously undeniable. If peace could be +made universal and perpetual, there would be an end of standing armies. +The best means for securing perpetual peace is to do away with standing +armies, because without standing armies there would be no facilities +for war. This is the sort of argument which we are now asked to accept; +but, unfortunately, we demur both to the premises and the conclusion. +Indeed, in a matter of this kind, we utterly repudiate the aid of +logic, even were it a great deal more scientifically employed. That of +the free-traders is, if possible, worse than their arithmetic, though, +a year or two ago, they were ready to have staked their existence on +the infallibility of the latter. + +The experience of the last eighteen months has given us all some +tangible proof of the advantages of standing armies. Setting aside the +Denmark affair, and also the occupation of Rome, there has been one +aggressive war waged in Europe by sovereign against sovereign. That +war, we need hardly say, was commenced by Charles Albert of Sardinia, +who, basely and perfidiously availing himself of the intestine +difficulties of Austria, attempted to seize the opportunity of making +himself master of Lombardy. We need not recapitulate the history of +that campaign, so glorious to the veteran Radetsky, and so shameful +to his unprincipled opponent: but it is well worth remarking, that +the whole of the sympathies of Mr Cobden and his radical confederates +are enlisted on the side of the Italian insurgents; and that, with +all their professed horror for war, we never hear them attribute the +slightest blame to the Sardinians for having marched in hostile array +across the frontier of a friendly power. Nor is this all. In every +case where the torch of insurrection has been lighted, we find the +advocates of peace clamorous in their approbation of the movement. +Without knowledge, without judgment, without anything like due +consideration either of the provocation given on the one side, or the +license claimed on the other, they have invariably lent their voices to +swell the revolutionary cry, and backed the drunken populace in their +howl against order and government. Whoever was loyal and true has been +branded as a ruffian and a murderer. Assassination, when it proceeded +from the mob, was in their eyes no offence at all. Some of them, +employing terms which we never thought to have heard an Englishman +utter, have rather chuckled over the spectacle of nobles, priests, and +statesmen stabbed, shot down, hewn with axes, or torn limb from limb by +savages, whose atrocity was not equalled by that of the worst actors in +the early French Revolution,--and have not been ashamed to vindicate +the authors of such hideous outrage. + +Aggressive war we deprecate, to say the least of it, as strongly +as any peace orator who ever spouted from a platform; but we by no +means think that peace, in the catholic sense of the word, can be at +all endangered by the maintenance of standing armies. So far as the +military establishment of Great Britain is concerned, we have already +had occasion, in a former paper, to show that it is barely sufficient +for the occupation of our large and numerous colonies, and greatly +inferior in proportion to that of any other country in Europe. We +certainly do not intend to resume that discussion, because the sense +of the nation has unequivocally condemned the pragmatic fools who +provoked it; and even the Whigs, who coquetted with them, have seen the +folly of their ways, and are not likely, in a hurry, to attempt any +numerical reduction. But we go a great deal farther. We maintain, that +without the assistance of the standing armies throughout Europe during +the late critical juncture, anarchy would now have been triumphant, and +civilisation have received a check so terrible, that ages might have +elapsed before we could have recovered from its effects. Revolution +is incalculably a greater disaster than war; and the higher the point +of civilisation to which a nation has attained before it permits the +democratic flame, smothering beneath the surface of all society, to +burst out into fury, the more dangerous and difficult to extinguish +must be the conflagration. But for the regular army of France, red +republicanism would now be triumphant, and a new Reign of Terror +have begun. The armies and discipline of Prussia alone preserved +the Rhenish provinces and the Palatinate from anarchy, plunder, and +devastation; and, failing those of Austria, Vienna would have been a +heap of ashes. Ultra-democrats, in all ages, have exclaimed against +standing armies as instruments of tyranny for suppressing and overawing +the people, and they have argued that such a force is incompatible +with free institutions. Such declamation is perfectly natural, both +now and heretofore, when we reflect who the individuals are that use +it. No class of persons are more bitter against the police than the +professional thieves. To them the constable's baton also is an emblem +of intolerable tyranny, because it interferes with those liberal ideas +regarding the distribution of property which have been philosophically +expounded and reduced to ethics by certain sages of the socialist +school. The democrat hates the soldier, because he considers him an +obstacle in the way of that political regeneration which is merely +another word for the institution of a reign of terror. + +We do not, however, think it necessary to enter into any elaborate +exposition of the idleness of the peace movement. So long as the +gentlemen who have gratuitously constituted themselves a congress +exhibit so much common sense as to retain the semblance of consistency, +we should hardly feel ourselves called upon to interfere in any way +with their arrangements. We should be the last people in the world to +grudge to Mr Ewart, or any other senator of such limited calibre, the +little notoriety which he may chance to pick up by figuring in Paris as +a champion of pacific fraternity. The paths towards the Temple of Fame +are many and devious; and if a man feels himself utterly wanting in +that intellectual strength which is necessary for attaining the summit +by the legitimate and beaten road, he is certainly entitled to clamber +up to any odd pinnacle from which he can make himself, for a moment, +the object of observation. In minor theatres, it is not uncommon to +find a broken-down tragedian attempting to achieve some popularity in +a humble line, by jumping as Harlequin through a clock, or distorting +his ochre-coated visage by grinning magnanimously as the clown. To such +feats no fair exception can be taken; and we doubt not that a roar of +laughter, proceeding from the throats of the most ignorant assemblage +of numskulls, is as grateful to the ears of the performer as would +be the applause of the most enlightened and fastidious audience. We +believe that, in the case of the Congress, audience and orators were +extremely well suited to the capacity of each other. The people of +Paris, who drank in the rolling periods of the pacificators, were +exceedingly amused with the exhibition; and testified their delight, by +greeting the reproduction of the farce, in the shape of a Vaudeville at +the Théâtre des Variétés, with unextinguishable shouts of laughter! + +Neither shall we make any comment upon the singularity of the time +selected for these demonstrations. The members of the Congress +expressly set forth, that it was their desire to impress upon the +governments of Europe the folly of maintaining large establishments, +and we presume that they entertained some reasonable hope that their +remonstrances might at least be heard. We need scarcely point out to +our readers the eminent fitness of the present juncture for carrying +these views into effect. We have great faith in the extent and power +of human idiocy, but we hardly supposed that any body of men could +have been congregated, possessed of so much collective imbecility as +to conceive that this was a proper moment for securing the conviction, +or enlisting the sympathies of any government in their scheme. We are, +however, forced to conclude, that a good many of them are sincere; and, +believing this, our regard for their honesty rises in a corresponding +ratio with the decline of our respect for the measure of their +intellects. It would probably be unjust and wrong to confound some of +these simple souls with men of the stamp of their new ally, who use +their association merely as a means for the promulgation of part of +their political opinions, but who, in reality, are so far from being +the friends of peace, that they seem bent upon using their utmost +efforts to involve the whole of Europe in a new and desolating war. +While, therefore, we drop for the present any further notice of the +proceedings of the Peace Congress, we feel it our imperative duty to +trace the steps of Mr Cobden since, arrayed in sheep's clothing, he +chose to make his appearance in the midst of that innocent assembly. + +Whatever sympathy may have been shown in certain quarters towards the +Italian insurgents, that feeling has been materially lessened by the +awful spectacles afforded by insurgent rule. We are, in this country, +a great deal too apt to be carried into extravagance by our abstract +regard for constitutional freedom. We forget that our own system has +been the gradual work of ages; that the enlightenment and education of +the people has invariably preceded every measure of substantial reform; +and that it is quite possible that other nations may not be fitted to +receive like institutions, or to work out the social problem, without +more than British restraint. Arbitrary government, being quite foreign +to our own notions, is invariably regarded by us with dislike; and our +decided impulse, on the appearance of each new insurrection, is to +attribute the whole of the blame to the inflexibility of the sovereign +power. So long as this feeling is merely confined to expression of +opinion at home, it is comparatively, though not altogether, harmless. +Undue weight is attached abroad to the articles of the press, +enunciated with perfect freedom, but certainly not always expressing +the sense of the community; and foreign statesmen, unable to appreciate +this license, have ere now taken umbrage at diatribes, which, could +the matter be investigated, would be found to proceed from exceedingly +humble sources. So long, however, as our government professed and acted +upon the principles of non-interference, there was little likelihood +of our being embroiled in disputes with which we had no concern, +simply on account of liberal meetings, tavern speeches, or hebdomadal +objurgations of despotism. + +The real danger commenced when a government, calling itself liberal, +began to interfere, most unjustifiably and most unwisely, with the +concerns of its neighbours. Powerless to do good at home, the Whigs +have ever shown themselves most ready to do mischief abroad; and +probably, in the whole history of British diplomacy, there stands +recorded no transaction more deplorable, from first to last, than the +part which Lord Palmerston has taken in the late Italian movements. +It is the fashion to laud the present Foreign Secretary as a man +of consummate ability; nor is it possible to deny that, so far as +speech-making is concerned, he certainly surpasses his colleagues. +We were almost inclined to go farther, and admit that no one could +equal him in dexterity of reading official documents, so as to mystify +and distort their meaning; but were we to assign him pre-eminence +in this department, we should do signal injustice to Earl Grey, who +unquestionably stands unrivalled in the art of coopering a despatch. +Ability Lord Palmerston certainly has, but we deny that he has shown +it in his late Italian negotiations. Restless activity is not a proof +of diplomatic talent, any more than an appetite for intrigue, or a +perverse obstinacy of purpose. Men of the above temperament have, in +all ages, been held incompetent for the duties of so delicate and +difficult a station as that of minister of foreign affairs; and yet +who will deny that the whole course of our recent diplomatic relations +with the south of Europe, has been marked by an unusual display of +restlessness, obstinacy, and intrigue? Public men must submit to have +their labours judged of by their fruits; it is the penalty attached +to their high office, and most righteously so, since the destinies of +nations are committed to their hands. Lord Palmerston may possibly +have thought that, by dictating to the governments of Italy the nature +of the relations which, in his opinion, ought to subsist between +them and their subjects, he was consulting the honour and advantage +of England, fulfilling his duty to the utmost, and providing for +the maintenance of the public tranquillity of Europe. We say it is +possible that such was his thought and intention; but, if so, surely +never yet did a man, possessing more than common ability, resort to +such extraordinary means, or employ such incapable agents. Of all the +men who could have been selected for such a service, Lord Minto was +incalculably the worst. We have nothing whatever to say against that +nobleman in his private capacity; but, throughout his whole public, we +cannot say useful, career, he has never, on one occasion, exhibited a +spark even of ordinary talent, and it is more than questioned by many, +whether his intelligence rises to the ordinary level. Through accident +and connexion he has been thrust into state employment, and has never +rendered himself otherwise remarkable than for a most egregious +partiality for those of his family, kindred, and name. And yet this +was the accredited agent sent out by Lord Palmerston to expound the +intentions and views of Great Britain, not only to the sovereigns of +Italy, but also to their revolted subjects. + +We say nothing of the diplomatic employment of such a representative as +Mr Abercromby, at the court of Turin. The correspondence contained in +the Blue Books laid before parliament, shows how singularly ignorant +that minister was of the real posture of affairs in Italy; how eagerly +he caught at every insinuation which was thrown out against the good +faith and pacific policy of Austria; and how completely he was made +the tool and the dupe of the revolutionary party. It is enough to +note the fruits of the Palmerstonian policy, which have been, so far +as we are concerned, the utter annihilation of all respect for the +British name in Italy, insurrections, wild and wasting civil war, and, +finally, the occupation of Rome by the French. Whatever may be thought +of the prudence of this latter move, or whatever may be its remote +consequences, this at least is certain, that, but for Oudinot and his +army, the Eternal City would have been given up as a prey to the vilest +congregation of ruffians that ever profaned the name of liberty by +inscribing it on their blood-stained banners. To associate the cause +of such men with that of legitimate freedom is an utter perversion +of terms; and those who have been rash enough to do so must stand +convicted, before the world, of complete ignorance of their subject. No +pen, we believe, could adequately describe the atrocities which were +perpetrated in Rome, from the day when Count Rossi fell by the poniard +of the assassin, on the steps of the Quirinal palace, down to that on +which the gates were opened for the admittance of the besieging army. +Not the least of Popish miracles was the escape of Pius himself, who +beheld his secretary slain, and his bodyguard butchered by his side. +Of these things modern liberalism takes little note: it hears not +the blood of innocent and unoffending priests cry out for vengeance +from the pavement; it makes no account of pillage and spoliation, of +ransacked convent, or of harried home. It proclaims its sympathy aloud +with the robber and the bravo, and is not ashamed to throw the veil of +patriotism over the enormities of the brigand Garibaldi! + +When, therefore, not only a considerable portion of the press of this +country, but the government itself, is found espousing the cause of +revolution in the south of Europe, we need not be surprised if other +governments, at a period of so much danger and insecurity, regard +Great Britain as a renegade to the cause of order. Our position at +present is, in reality, one of great difficulty, and such as ought +to make us extremely cautious of indulging in unnecessary bravado. +The state of our financial affairs is anything but encouraging. We +are answerable for a larger debt than any other nation of the world; +and our economists are so sensible of the weight of our burdens, that +they would fain persuade us to denude ourselves even of the ordinary +means of defence. Our foreign exports are stationary; our imports +immensely increasing; our home market reduced, for the present, to a +state of terrible prostration. Free trade, by destroying the value +of agricultural produce, has almost extinguished our last hope of +restoring tranquillity to Ireland, and of raising that unhappy country +to the level of the sister kingdoms. It is in vain that we have +crippled ourselves to stay the recurring famine of years, since our +statesmen are leagued with famine, and resolute to persevere in their +iniquity. The old hatred of the Celt to the Saxon is still burning +in the bosoms of a large proportion of the misguided population of +Ireland; and were any opportunity afforded, it would break forth as +violently as ever. So that, even within the girdle of the four seas, +we are not exactly in that situation which might justify our provoking +unnecessary hostility from abroad. So far we are entirely at one with +the Peace Congress. When we look to the state of our colonies, the +prospect is not more encouraging. Through Whig misrule, our tenure of +the Canadas has become exceedingly precarious. The West Indies are +writhing in ruin; and even the inhabitants of the Cape are rampant, +from the duplicity of the Colonial Office. Our interest is most +clearly and obviously identified with the cause of order; for, were +Britain once actively engaged in a general war, it is possible that +the presence of her forces would be required in more than a single +point. Of the final result, in the event of such a calamity, we have no +doubt, but not the less, on that account, should we deeply deplore the +struggle. + +Such being our sentiments, it is with considerable pain that we feel +ourselves called upon to notice as strong an instance of charlatanism +and presumption as was ever exhibited in this country. Fortunately, +on this occasion, the offender has gone so far that no one can be +blind to his delinquencies; for, if there be any truth in the abstract +principles of the Peace Association, their last disciple has disowned +them; if the doctrines of free trade were intended to have universal +application, Richard Cobden, in the face of the universe, has entered +his protest against them. It signifies very little to us, and less to +the powers against whom he has thundered his anathemas, what Mr Cobden +thinks proper either to profess or repudiate; still, as he has been +pleased to attempt the performance of the part of Guy Fawkes, we judge +it necessary to conduct him from the coal-cellar, and to throw the +light of the lantern upon his visage, and that of his accomplices. And, +first, a word or two as to the occasion of his last appearance. + +The recent Hungarian rising is by no means to be classed in the same +category with the wretched Italian insurrections. Much as it is to +be deplored that any misunderstanding should have arisen between +the Austrian cabinet and the Hungarian Diet, so serious as to have +occasioned a war; we look upon the latter body as uninfluenced by +those wild democratic notions which have been and are still prevalent +in the west of Europe. Whatever may have been the case with Kossuth, +and some of his more ambitious confederates, the mass of the Hungarian +people had no wish whatever to rise in rebellion against their king. +Their quarrel was that of a minor state to which certain privileges +had been guaranteed; against the presumed infringement of which, by +their more powerful neighbour, they first protested, and finally +had recourse to arms. Their avowed object, throughout the earlier +part of the struggle, was not to overturn, but to maintain, certain +existing institutions: and it is remarkable that, from the day on +which Kossuth threw off the mask, and renounced allegiance to his +sovereign, the Hungarians lost confidence in their leader, and their +former energy decayed. We need not now discuss the abstract justice +of the Hungarian claims; but whatever may be thought of these, we +must, in common fairness to Austria, consider her peculiar position +at the time when they were sought to be enforced. Concessions which, +during a season of tranquillity, might have been gracefully made, were +rendered almost impossible when demanded with threats, in the midst +of insurrection and revolt. It was but too obvious that the leaders +of the Hungarian movement, forgetful of their fealty to the chief of +that great empire of which their country formed a part, were bent upon +increasing instead of lessening the difficulties with which Austria was +everywhere surrounded, and eager to avail themselves of distractions +elsewhere, for the purpose of dictating insolent and exorbitant terms. +In short, we believe that the real claims of Hungary, however they may +have formed the foundation of the discontent which ripened into war, +were used by Kossuth and his colleagues as instruments for their own +ambition; and that, by throwing off the mask too precipitately, they +opened the eyes of their followers to the true nature of their designs, +and forfeited that support which the realm was ready to accord the men +who, with a single and patriotic purpose, demanded nothing more than +the recognition of the rights of their country. + +It was but natural that the intervention of Russia should have been +viewed with some uneasiness in the west of Europe. Every movement +of that colossal power beyond the boundaries of its own territory +excites a feeling of jealousy, singularly disproportionate to the real +character of its resources, if Mr Cobden's estimate of these should +be adopted as the true one; and we fairly confess that we have no +desire to see any considerable augmentation made to the territorial +possessions of the Czar. But the assistance which, on this occasion, +has been sent to Austria by Russia, however much we may regret the +occasion which called the latter into activity, cannot surely be +tortured into any aggressive design. Apart from all our jealousies, it +was a magnanimous movement on the part of one powerful sovereign in +favour of a harassed ally; nor can we see how that assistance could +have been refused by Russia, without incurring the reproach of bad +faith, and running imminent risk with regard to her own dependencies. +Those active revolutionists, the Poles, whose presence behind every +barricade has been conspicuously marked and unblushingly avowed, showed +themselves foremost in all the disturbances which threatened the +dismemberment of Austria. By them the Hungarian army was principally +officered; and it now appears, from the intercepted correspondence of +their nominal chief, that the Hungarian insurrection was relied upon as +the first step for a fresh attempt towards the restoration of a Polish +kingdom. Under these circumstances, the Czar felt himself imperatively +called upon to act; and his honour has been amply vindicated by the +withdrawal of his forces after his mission was accomplished, and the +Hungarian insurrection quelled. + +It would undoubtedly have been far more satisfactory to every one, if +the differences between Austria and Hungary could have been settled +without an appeal to arms; but such a settlement was, we apprehend, +utterly beyond the powers even of the Peace Congress to effect; and +the next best thing is to know that tranquillity has actually been +restored. That a great deal of sympathy should be shown for the +Hungarians, is, under the circumstances, by no means unnatural. It +is no exaggeration to say, that hardly one man out of a thousand, in +Britain, comprehends the merits of the dispute, or is able, if called +upon, to give an intelligible account of the quarrel. Such amount of +knowledge, however, is by no means necessary to qualify a platform +orator for holding forth at a moment's notice; and, accordingly, +meetings expressive of sympathy with the persecuted Hungarians +were called in many of our larger towns, and the usual amount of +rhodomontade uttered, by gentlemen who make a point of exhibiting their +elocutionary powers upon the slightest colourable pretence. Had these +meetings been held earlier, they might have been worth something. We +shall not go the length of assuring the very shallow and conceited +personages who constitute the oratorical rump, or public debating +society of Edinburgh, that their opinions are likely to be esteemed +of surpassing importance, even if they were to be heard of so far as +St Petersburg or Vienna; for their utter ignorance of the aspect of +foreign affairs is such as would excite ridicule in the bosoms of +those whom they profess to patronise and applaud. But if they really +were impressed with the notion that the claims of Hungary were of such +mighty importance, how was it that they tarried until the consideration +of all constitutional questions had been swallowed up in war--until +those who fully understood the true position of Hungary, and her +rights as legally guaranteed and defined, were forced to acknowledge +that, through the violence, treachery, and ambition of the insurgent +nobles, all hope of a pacific settlement had disappeared; and that +the best result which Europe could hope for, was the speedy quenching +of an insurrection, now broadly revolutionary and republican, and +threatening to spread still wider the devastating flames of anarchy? +The explanation we believe to be a very simple one. Most of them knew +as much of the affairs of Cappadocia as they did of those of Hungary, +and they would have been equally ready to spout in favour of either +country. + +Late in July, Mr Bernal Osborne, backed by Mr R. M. Milnes, whose +knowledge of politics is about equal to his skill in the construction +of dactyls, brought forward the Hungarian question in the House of +Commons, and thereby gave Lord Palmerston an opportunity of unbosoming +himself on that branch of our European relations. His lordship's +speech, on that occasion, was very much lauded at the time; but on +referring to it now, we are somewhat at a loss to understand how it +could have given satisfaction to any one. It was, indeed, as insulting +to Austria, whose back was then supposed to be at the wall, as any +opponent of constitutional government could have desired. Alliance +was sneered at, as a mere empty word of no significance whatever: +nor can we much wonder at this ebullition, considering the manner in +which his lordship has thought proper to deal with other powers, who +attached some value to the term. This topic was, further, a congenial +one, inasmuch as it afforded the Foreign Secretary an opportunity +of gibing at his predecessor, Lord Aberdeen, whose sense of honour +does not permit him to identify the solemn treaties of nations with +folios of waste paper; and who, therefore, was held up to ridicule as +a pattern of "antiquated imbecility." But, after all this persiflage, +which could serve no purpose whatever, save that of giving vent to an +unusual secretion of Palmerstonian bile, it appeared that his lordship +was actually to do nothing at all. He regretted, just as much as we do, +and probably not more than the Austrian cabinet, that no accommodation +of differences had taken place. He said, very truly, that whatever the +result of the struggle might be, it could not strengthen the stability +of the Austrian empire; but at the same time he distinctly repudiated +all intention of interfering beyond mere passive advice, and he could +not deny the right of Austria, if it thought proper, to call in the +aid of the Russian arms. His conclusion, in short, was sound, and we +only regret that, while it was so, the tone and temper of his speech +were not equally judicious. This debate in the House of Commons was +immediately followed up by a public meeting at the London Tavern, +presided over by Mr Alderman Salomons. + +We had not the good fortune to be present on that occasion; but, from +the accounts contained in the morning papers, it must have been an +assemblage of a singularly motley kind. There was a considerable muster +of Radical members of parliament; the Financial Reform and the Peace +Associations were respectively represented; Lord Nugent and Mr Milnes +stood forth as delegates from the Bards of Britain; Julian Harney and +Mr G. W. M. Reynolds headed a numerous band of Chartists; and Lord +Dudley Stuart, as a matter of course, was surrounded by a whiskered +phalanx of Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Germans, and Sicilians, each +one striving to look more patriotically ferocious than his neighbour. +The first sympathetic resolution was moved by a Quaker, and seconded +by no less a person than Richard Cobden, who had only been prevented +from attending the previous debate in the House of Commons by a +swan-hopping expedition on the Thames. + +Then it was that Mr Cobden first favoured the world with some +economical views, so exceedingly novel and startling, as to excite, +even in that audience, unequivocal symptoms of incredulity. He set +out by laying it down as a general rule, that every separate state +ought to be left to the management of its own affairs, without the +interference of any foreign power whatever. "If," said he, "this had +been a question simply between Hungary and Austria, I should not have +appeared here to-day, nor indeed would it have been necessary for any +of us to have appeared here to-day. So long as the Hungarians were +left to settle their affairs with the government of Vienna, they were +perfectly competent to do it, without the interference of the citizens +of London." This is intelligible enough. So long as central governments +are merely fighting with their own dependencies, there is no room at +all, according to Mr Cobden, for interference. It matters not which +side prevails: they must be left wholly to themselves. This doctrine +could not, we think, have been very acceptable to the Poles; since it +amounts to an entire admission that Russia has a right to deal with +them at her pleasure; neither is it altogether consistent with our +ideas, or interpretation of the law of nations. But it is Cobden's +view, and therefore let it pass, to him, then, it mattered nothing +whether Goth or Hun prevailed--it was the intervention of Russia that +peremptorily called him to the platform. Now we must own, that we +cannot understand this sort of reasoning, though it may possibly be +suited to the capacities of a Manchester audience. If, as many people +no doubt conscientiously believe, Austria was trampling upon the +liberties of a brave and loyal people, not only justice, but humanity +demands that our sympathies should be enlisted on their side. We cannot +acquiesce in a doctrine which would have left the Greeks (lamentably +small sense as they have shown of the benefits of liberty) to toil on +for ever under the grievous yoke of the Ottoman: nor are we prepared +to carry our apathy to so extreme a length. The intervention of Russia +could not, by any possibility, alter the complexion of the quarrel. +It might either crush freedom, or maintain constitutional government +and the balance of power in Europe; but the principle of the contest, +whatever that might be, was declared before Russia appeared, and +according as men view it, so should their sympathies be given. The +whole question, however, as Mr Cobden put the case, turned upon Russian +interference. + +If Mr Cobden's next door neighbour happened to have a dispute with +his operatives, touching the interpretation of certain points of the +Charter, and if the latter, in their zeal for enlightenment, were to +set fire to their master's premises, we apprehend that the honourable +member for the West Riding, (having neglected his own insurance,) +might blamelessly bear a hand to quench the threatening conflagration. +Further, if he were assured that the said operatives, assisted by +a gang of deserters from his own mills, were trying their hands at +an incendiary experiment, preliminary to operating upon his calico +warehouses, how could he be blamed, if he sallied to attack the rioters +in their first position? Yet, if we are permitted to compare very +great things with small, this was precisely the situation of Russia. +If she did not assist Austria, the flame would have been kindled +in her own provinces; if the Hungarian insurrection had triumphed, +Poland would have been up in arms. With the old partition of Poland +we have nothing now to do, any more than with the junction of the +Slavonic provinces with Austria. Right or wrong, these have long become +acknowledged facts in European history, and the boundary divisions +have been acquiesced in by a congress of the assembled nations. We +cannot go back upon matters of ancient right and occupation; were we +to do so, the peace of every nation in Europe must necessarily be +disturbed, and no alternative would remain, save the Utopian one of +parcelling out territory according to the language of the inhabitants. +Boundaries must be settled somehow. They were so settled, by the +consent of all the nations, at the treaty of Vienna; and our duty, +as well as our interest, is to adhere to that arrangement. Russia, by +assisting Austria, has in no way contravened any of the stipulations +of that treaty. From the moment when the Hungarian party declared +their country independent, and proclaimed a republic, a new cause +of discord and misrule was opened in the east of Europe, and the +greatest of the eastern potentates was not only entitled but forced +to interfere. It by no means follows that we, who uphold this view, +have any partiality or liking for Russian institutions. No man who +lives in a free country, like ours, can possibly sympathise with +despotism, serfism, and that enormous stretch of feudal power which +is given to a privileged class--we must regard such things with a +feeling nearly akin to abhorrence; nor can we, with our Saxon notions, +fancy existence even tolerable in such a state of society. But our +likings or disgusts cannot alter matters as they stand. We cannot force +other nations to see with our eyes, to think with our thoughts, or to +adapt their constitutions according to the measure of our accredited +standard of excellence. That amount of irresponsible and uncontrolled +action which we term freedom, presupposes the existence of a large and +general spread of intelligence throughout the community, fixed laws +of property, consolidated social relationship, pure administration of +justice, and wisdom and temperance on the part of the governed and the +governor. Such things are not the rapid results of months, or years, or +centuries. They are of slow growth, but they are the inevitable fruits +of order; and very blind and ignorant must that man be who does not +see the hand of progress at work even in the institutions of Russia. +That country emerged from barbarism later than the rest of Europe, but, +since the days of Peter the Czar, its strides towards civilisation +have been most rapid. Commerce has been established, manufactures +introduced, learning and the arts cultivated, and such a foundation +laid as, in no very long time, must perforce secure to all ranks of +the people a larger share of freedom than they are now qualified to +enjoy. Revolution cannot hasten such a state of matters, but it may +materially retard it. Foolish and short-sighted men seem to think that +revolt is a synonymous term with freedom, and, accordingly, they hail +each fresh outbreak with shouts of indiscriminate approval. They can +draw no distinction between the revolt of the barons and that of Jack +Cade in England; they are as ready to applaud Spartacus as Brutus; +they think a peasant's war as meritorious as the up-raising of the +standard of the League. They never stop to consider that freedom is a +mere relative term, and that it is worse than useless to pluck down +one form of government by violence, unless a better is to be reared in +its stead. And who can venture to say that this would have been the +case with Hungary? Who would predict it with certainty even of Poland, +were that dismembered kingdom to be restored? It is notorious that +Poland went to pieces under the weight of its elective monarchy, and +the perpetual feuds, turbulence, and tyranny of a lawless and fierce +aristocracy. No doubt, men will fight for these things--they will fight +for traditions, and bad ones too, as keenly as for the most substantial +benefits. A century ago, the Highlanders would have fought to the death +for clanship, chieftainship, heritable jurisdictions, and the right of +foray and of feud; but will any man now raise up his voice in favour +of the old patriarchal constitution? In Ireland, at this moment, we +believe that a large body of the Celts is willing to stand up for a +restoration of the days of Malachi of the Golden Collar--a form of +government which, we presume, even an O'Connell would decline. This is +just the case with our sympathisers. They take it for granted that, +because there is revolt, there must be a struggle for freedom, and they +are perfectly ready to accept, without the slightest examination, any +legend that may be coined for the nonce. Gullible as a considerable +number of the British public may be, especially that section of the +public which delights in platform oratory, we really could not have +believed that any assemblage could be so utterly ignorant, as to +receive a statement to the effect that the old constitution of Hungary +bore a close resemblance to our own! + +We are tempted here to insert an extract from the works of a popular +writer regarding the constitution of Poland, because it expresses, in +excellent language, the opinions which we are attempting to set forth +in this article, and denounces the folly of those who confound the term +freedom with its just and rational application. Will the reader favour +us by perusing the following passage with attention?--when he has done +so, we shall state from whose eloquent pen it proceeded. + +"Of how trifling consequence it must be to the practical minded and +humane people of Great Britain, or to the world at large, whether +Poland be governed by a king of this dynasty or of that--whether he +be lineally descended from Boleslas the Great, or of the line of the +Jagellons--contrasted with the importance of the inquiries as to the +social and political condition of its people--whether they be as +well or worse governed, clothed, fed, and lodged in the present day +as compared with any former period,--whether the mass of the people +be elevated in the scale of moral and religious beings,--whether +the country enjoys a smaller or a larger amount of the blessings of +peace; or whether the laws for the protection of life and property +are more or less justly administered. These are the all-important +inquiries about which we busy ourselves; and it is to cheat us of our +stores of philanthropy, by an appeal to the sympathy with which we +regard these vital interests of a whole people, that the declaimers +and writers upon the subject invariably appeal to us on behalf of the +oppressed and enslaved _Polish nation_--carefully obscuring, amidst the +cloud of epithets about 'ancient freedom,' 'national independence,' +'glorious republic,' and the like, the fact that, previously to the +dismemberment, the term _nation_ implied only the nobles;--that, down +to the partition of their territory, about nineteen out of every +twenty of the inhabitants were slaves, possessing no rights, civil or +political; that about one in every twenty was a nobleman--and that that +body of nobles formed the very worst aristocracy of ancient or modern +times; putting up and pulling down their kings at pleasure; passing +selfish laws, which gave them the power of life and death over their +serfs, whom they sold and bought like dogs or horses; usurping, to each +of themselves, the privileges of a petty sovereign, and denying to all +besides the meanest rights of human beings; and, scorning all pursuits +as degrading, except that of the sword, they engaged in incessant wars +with neighbouring states, or plunged their own country into all the +horrors of anarchy, for the purpose of giving employment to themselves +and their dependants." And the same writer, after remarking upon the +character and conduct of the privileged class in Poland, in language +which is just as applicable to those of the Hungarian nobles, thus +accounts for the insurrection in 1830. The Italics are his own. "_We +hesitate not emphatically to assert, that it was wholly, and solely, +and exclusively, at the instigation, and for the selfish benefit, +of this aristocratic faction of the people, that the Polish nation +suffered for twelve months the horrors of civil war, was thrown back +in her career of improvement, and has since had to endure the rigours +of a conqueror's vengeance._ The Russian government was aware of this; +and its severity has since been chiefly directed towards the nobility." +And in a note appended to the above paragraph he says, "The peasants +joined, to a considerable extent, the standard of revolt; but this was +to be expected, in consequence of the influence necessarily exercised +over them by the superior classes. Besides, patriotism or nationality +is an instinctive virtue, that sometimes burns the brightest in the +rudest and least reasoning minds; and its manifestation bears no +proportion to the value of the possessions defended, or the object to +be gained. The Russian serfs at Borodino, the Turkish slaves at Ismail, +and the lazzaroni of Naples, fought for their masters and oppressors +more obstinately than the free citizens of Paris or Washington did, at +a subsequent period, in defence of those capitals." + +And who was the author of these very lucid and really excellent +remarks? We reply, RICHARD COBDEN, ESQ. The curious in such matters +will find these, and many similar passages, in a pamphlet entitled +_Russia, by a Manchester Manufacturer_, which was published in 1836, +for the purpose of showing that, on the whole, it would be an advantage +to British commerce if Russia were to lay violent hands on Turkey, and +possess herself of Constantinople! + +But it is time we should return to the London Tavern meeting, where +we left Mr Cobden, this time denouncing the active interference of +Russia. Here the apostle of peace was certainly upon ticklish ground. +Large as his estimate undoubtedly is of his own influence and power, +he could hardly expect, that, because he and some other gentlemen +of inferior endowments were pleased to hold a meeting in the London +Tavern, and pass resolutions condemnatory of the conduct of the Czar, +the immediate consequence would be a withdrawal of the Russian forces. +Under such circumstances, as he must have perfectly well known, the +expression of his opinion was not worth the splinter of a rush to the +Hungarians, unless, indeed, he were prepared to follow up his words +by deeds. On the other hand, he was debarred, by some fifty public +declarations, from advocating the propriety of a war: not only upon the +general pacific principle--for that might easily have been evaded,--but +upon economical considerations connected with his darling scheme of +reducing the British navy and army, which would be clearly incompatible +with the commencement of a general European conflict. An ordinary man, +entertaining such views and sentiments, would probably have considered +himself as lodged between the horns of an inextricable dilemma. Not +so Cobden, whose genius rose to the difficulty. The experience of +a hundred platform fights had taught him this great truth, that no +proposition was too monstrous to be crammed down the public throat, +provided the operator possessed the requisite share of effrontery; and +he straightway proceeded, _secundum artem_, to exhibit a masterpiece of +his skill. + +Probably not one man in all that room but had been impressed, from his +youth upwards, with a wholesome terror and respect for the magnitude of +the Russian power. That, at all events, was the feeling of the Poles, +and decidedly of the Polish champions. But in less than an instant +they were disabused. Most of our readers must have seen how a small +figure, painted on a tiny slip of glass, may, when passed through +the aperture of a magic lantern, be made to reflect the attitude and +dimensions of a giant: Cobden's trick was exactly the opposite of +this; he made the actual giant appear in the dwindled proportions of +a dwarf. "I will tell you," said he, "how we can bring moral force to +bear on these armed despots. We can stop the supplies. (Loud cheers.) +Why, Russia can't carry on two campaigns beyond her own frontiers, +without coming to Western Europe for a loan. She never has done so, +without being either subsidised by England, or borrowing money from +Amsterdam. I tell you I have paid a visit there, and I assert that they +cannot carry on two campaigns in Hungary, without either borrowing +money in Western Europe or robbing the bank at St Petersburg. (A laugh, +and a cry of 'Question.') That must be a Russian agent, a spy, for +this is the question. I know," continued our magniloquent Richard, +"that the Russian party, here and abroad, would rather that I should +send against them a squadron of cavalry and a battery of cannon, than +that I should fire off the facts that I am about to tell you. I say, +then, that Russia cannot carry on two campaigns without a loan." We +believe that the latter part of Mr Cobden's statement is tolerably +accurate, so that he need not give himself any further trouble about +the production of his indicated horse and artillery. We agree with +him that Russia might be puzzled to carry on two vigorous campaigns +without a loan; but we should be glad to know what country in Europe +is not in the same predicament? War, as everybody knows, is a very +costly matter--not much cheaper than revolution, though a good deal +more speedy in its results--and every nation which engages in it must, +perforce, liquidate the expense. Great Britain could not, any more +than Russia, go to war without a loan. In such an event, the only +difference would be that the British loan must necessarily be six or +seven times greater than that of Russia, for this simple reason, that +Russia has a large standing army levied and prepared, whereas we have +not. Now what is there to prevent Russia from negotiating a loan? The +first question, we apprehend, is the state of her finances--let us +see whether there is any symptom of approaching bankruptcy in these. +The debt of Russia, according to the most recent authorities, is +seventy-six millions, being as near as possible one tenth of our own. +Her revenue is about seventeen millions, or one-third of ours. So +far, therefore, as the mere elements of credit go, Russia would, in +the eyes of the capitalist, be the more eligible debtor of the two. +There could, we apprehend, be no possible doubt of her solvency, for, +with large resources behind, she has a mere fraction of a debt, and +her power of raising revenue by taxes has been little exercised. Our +readers will better understand this by keeping in mind, that, while +the revenue presently levied is just one-third of ours, the population +of Russia is considerably more than double that of Great Britain and +Ireland. Mr Cobden, however, accepting, as we presume he must do, the +above official facts, draws from them inferences of a very startling +character. "Don't let any one talk," said he, "of Russian resources. +It is the poorest and most beggarly country in Europe. It has not a +farthing. Last year there was an immense deficit in its income as +compared with its expenditure, and during the present financial year +it will be far worse. Russia a strong political power! Why, there +is not so gigantic a political imposture in all Europe." And again, +"Russia a strong, a powerful, and a rich country! Don't believe any +one who tells you so in future. Refer them to me." We feel deeply +obliged to Mr Cobden for the last suggestion, but we would rather, +with his permission, refer to facts. If the poorest and most beggarly +country in Europe has contrived to rear its magnificent metropolis +from the marshes of the gelid Neva, to create and maintain large and +well-equipped fleets in the Baltic and the Black seas, and to keep up +a standing army of about half a million of men, without increasing its +permanent debt beyond the amount already specified, all we shall say +is, that the semi-civilised Russian is in possession of an economical +secret utterly unknown to the statesmen of more favoured climes, +and that the single farthing in his hand, has produced results more +wonderful than any achieved by the potency of the lamp of Aladdin. But +the climax has yet to come. Waxing bolder and bolder on the strength +of each successive assertion of Russian weakness and impotency, the +Apostle of Peace assumed the attitude of defiance: "If Russia should +take a step that required England, or any other great maritime power, +like the United States, to attack that power, why, we should fall like +a thunderbolt upon her. You would in six months crumple that empire +up, or drive it into its own dreary fastnesses, as I now crumple up +that piece of paper in my hand!!!" Here is a pretty fellow for you! +This invincible fire-eater is the same man who, for the last couple +of years, has been agitating for the reduction of the army and navy, +on the ground that the whole world was in a state of the profoundest +peace, and likely so to remain! This crumpler-up and defier of empires +is the gentleman who held forth this bygone summer, at Paris, on the +wickedness of war, and on the spread of fraternity and brotherly love +among the nations! Why, if old Admiral Drake had risen from the dead, +he could not have spoken in a more warlike strain, only the temper +and tone of his remarks would have been different. A hero is bold but +temperate: a demagogue blustering and pot-valiant. + +It is but right to say, that this impudent and mischievous trash, +though of course abundantly cheered by many of the poor creatures who +knew no better, did not altogether impose upon the meeting. Mr Bernal +Osborne could not find it in his conscience to acquiesce, even tacitly, +in this monstrous attempt at imposition, and accordingly, though "he +coincided in much that had been said by the member for the West Riding, +he must take the liberty to say that, in exposing the weakness of +Russia, he had gone rather too far. Forewarned was forearmed, and +let them not lay it to their hearts that the great empire was not to +be feared, but despised." And therefore, he, Mr Osborne, "would be +sorry if any man in the meeting should go away with the impression +that the monstrous Pansclavonic empire was to be thoroughly despised." +Neither did the chairman exactly approve of the line of discussion +which had been introduced by Mr Cobden. He said, with great truth, +that they had nothing to do at present with the resources of Russia; +their business being simply to consider the wrongs of Hungary, and to +give utterance to such an expression of opinion as might act upon the +British government. Mr Salomons is a practical man, and understands the +use of mob-meetings, which is to coerce and compel Whig administrations +to do precisely what the frequenters of the London Tavern desire. +Better versed, by a great deal, in monetary matters than Mr Cobden, +he knows that financial discussions are utterly out of place in such +an assemblage; and, moreover, we have a strong suspicion that the +latter part of Mr Cobden's speech, to which we are just about to refer, +must have sounded harshly in the ears of a gentleman of the Hebrew +persuasion, initiated, after the custom of his tribe, in the mysteries +of borrowing and lending. Up to this point we have considered Mr Cobden +in the united character of peace-maker and bully: let us now see how he +contrives to combine the hitherto antagonistic qualities of free-trader +and restrictionist. + +Having, satisfactorily to himself, demonstrated the pitiable weakness +of Russia, and having got over the notorious fact of her large bullion +deposit, and her purchases in the British funds, by explaining that +the first is the foundation of her currency, and the second a private +operation of the Bank of St Petersburg--an establishment which, +according to his showing, is no way connected with the government--Mr +Cobden proceeded to unravel his schemes for paring the claws of the +northern Bear. It has the merit of pure simplicity. Not one penny is +henceforward to be lent to the Russian government. The capitalists of +Europe are henceforth to look, not to the security, but to the motives +of the borrowing power. If they think that the money required is to be +expended in purchasing munitions of war, in fitting out an armament, or +in any other way hostile to the continuance of peace, they are grimly +to close their coffers, shake their heads, and refuse to advance one +single sixpence, whatever be the amount of percentage offered; and this +kind of moral force, Mr Cobden thinks, would not only be effectual, but +can easily be brought into action. Let us hear him. "Now, will any one +in the city of London dare to be a party to a loan to Russia, either +directly or openly, or by agency and copartnership with any house +in Amsterdam or Paris? Will any one dare, I say, to come before the +citizens of this free country, and avow that he has lent his money for +the purpose of cutting the throats of the innocent people of Hungary? +I have heard such a project talked of. But let it only assume a shape, +and I promise you that we, the peace party, will have such a meeting +as has not yet been held in London, for the purpose of denouncing the +blood-stained project--for the purpose of pointing the finger of scorn +at the house, or the individuals, who would employ their money in such +a manner--for the purpose of fixing an indelible stigma of infamy upon +the men who would lend their money for such a vile, unchristian, and +barbarous purpose. That is my moral force. As for Austria, no one, I +suppose, would ever think of lending her money." We shall, by-and-by, +have occasion to see more of Mr Cobden in connexion with the Austrian +loan; in the mean time, let us keep to the general proposition. The +meaning of the above unadorned fustian is simply this--that no man +shall, in future, presume to lend his money without consulting the +views of Mr Cobden and his respectable confederates. This ukase--and +a magnificent one it is--was rapturously received by his audience; a +fiat of approval which we set no great store on, seeing that, in all +probability, not fifty of those excellent philanthropists could command +as many pounds for the permanent purpose of investment. But the idea +of controlling, by their sweet voices, the monetary operations of the +great banking-houses of the world, the Rothschilds, the Barings, and +the Hopes, was too delicious a hallucination not to be rewarded with a +corresponding cheer. Now, setting aside the absolute impudence of the +proposal--for we presume Mr Cobden must have known that he had as much +power to stay the flux of the tides, as to regulate the actions of the +money-lenders--what are we to think of the new principle enunciated +by the veteran free-trader? What becomes of the grand doctrine of +buying in the cheapest and selling in the dearest market, without +the slightest regard to any other earthly consideration, save that +of price? Will Mr Cobden NOW venture to persuade us that he had some +mental reservation, when he propounded that ever-memorable axiom; or +that dealers in coin were to be regulated by a different code of moral +laws from that which was laid down for the use of the more fortunate +dealers in calico? We presume, that, without cotton, and blankets, and +machinery exported from this country, the slaves of Cuba could hardly +be made to work--why, then, should we not clap an embargo on these +articles, and point with the finger of scorn, disgust, and execration, +to every man who traffics in that unholy trade? And yet, if our memory +serves us right, no very long time has elapsed since we beggared our +West Indian colonies, solely to drive a larger trade in those articles +with the slave plantations, for behoof of Messrs Cobden and Co. +Slavery, we presume, is an institution not congenial to the mind of Mr +Cobden--at least we hope not, and we are sure he would not be willing +to admit it. In point of humanity, it is rather worse than war; why +not, then, let us have a strong exercise of moral force to abolish it, +by stopping the supplies? The withdrawal of our custom, for three or +four years, would effectually knock Cuba on the head. Why not try it? +We should like to see Mr Cobden's face, if such a proposition were +made in Parliament; and yet is it not as rational, and a great deal +more feasible, than the other? But it is a positive waste of time to +dwell further upon such a glaring absurdity as this. Baron Rothschild, +member-elect though he be for the city of London, will care very little +for the extended digit of Mr Cobden, and will doubtless consult his own +interest, without troubling himself about Manchester demagogues, when +the next Russian loan is proposed. + +Having delivered himself of this remarkable oration, Mr Cobden very +wisely withdrew; perhaps he had a slight suspicion of the scene which +was presently to follow. The majority of the meeting consisted of +gentlemen whose notions about moral force were exceedingly vague and +general. Their strong British instincts, inflamed by the stimulus of +beer, led them to question the use of abstract sympathy, unless it was +to be followed up by action; and accordingly Mr Reynolds, a person of +some literary as well as political notoriety, thought it his duty to +give a more practical turn to the deliberations of the meeting, and +thereby cut short several interesting harangues. We quote from the +report of the _Times_ of 24th July. + + "Mr G. W. M. REYNOLDS, whose remarks were frequently followed by + interruption and cries of 'question,' next addressed the meeting. + He avowed his belief, that in so holy, sacred, and solemn a cause, + England must even go to war in defence of Hungary, if necessary. + (This assertion was received with such hearty cheering as proved + that the speaker had expressed the sentiments of the vast body of + the meeting.) All the moral effects of that meeting (continued Mr + Reynolds) would be perfectly useless, unless they were prepared + to go further. If the government would employ some of the ships + that were now rotting in our harbours, and some of the troops now + marching about London, that would really benefit the Hungarians. + (Cheers.) France used to be regarded as a barrier against + Russia, but France was no longer so, because that humbug Louis + Napoleon (tremendous cheers--and three hearty groans for Louis + Napoleon)--that rank impostor (continued cheering)-- + + "The CHAIRMAN here interfered, and much interruption ensued. + If anything could disturb and injure the cause which they were + met to support, it was such remarks as they had just heard. + ("No, no.") If he (the Chairman) were a spy of Russia, he should + follow out the course pursued by Mr Reynolds. (Much confusion and + disapprobation.)" #/ + +We really cannot see wherein the author of the _Mysteries of London_ +was to blame. His proposition had, at all events, the merit of being +intelligible, which Mr Cobden's was not, and he clearly spoke the +sentiments of the large majority of the unwashed. He certainly went a +little out of his way, to denounce the President of the French Republic +as an impostor: a deviation which we regret the more, as he might have +found ample scope for such expositions without going further than +the speeches of the gentlemen who immediately preceded him. We need +not linger over the ensuing scene. Mr Duncan--"said to be a Chartist +poet"--attempted to address the meeting, but seems to have failed. We +do not remember to have met with any of Mr Duncan's lyrics, but we +have a distinct impression of having seen a gentleman of his name, +and imputed principles, at the bar of the High Court of Justiciary in +Edinburgh. But if the sacred voice of one poet was not listened to, the +same meed of inattention was bestowed upon another. The arms of Mr R. +M. Milnes were seen hopelessly gesticulating above the press; and Lord +Dudley Stuart, for once, was cut short in his stereotyped harangue. The +case was perfectly clear: Reynolds was the only man who had enunciated +a practical idea, and accordingly the voice of the meeting was +unequivocally declared for war. + +We hope that the Peace Congress, and the economists, and the +free-traders, are all equally delighted with this notable exhibition +of their hero. If they are so, we certainly have no further commentary +to offer. To secure peace, Mr Cobden openly defies and challenges +Russia; to further economy, he does his best to inflame the passions of +the people, and to get up a cry for war; to vindicate free trade, he +proposes henceforward to coerce Lombard Street. Is there, in all the +history of imposture, an instance comparable to this? Possibly there +may be; but, if so, we are certain it was better veiled. + +The evil luck of Mr Cobden still clung to him. Within a very short time +after this memorable meeting was held, the Hungarian armies surrendered +at discretion, and the insurrection was thoroughly quenched. Not two, +not even one complete campaign, were necessary to put an end to an +ill-advised struggle, in which the hearts of the Hungarian people were +never sincerely enlisted; and good men hoped that the sword might now +be sheathed in the eastern territories of Europe. That portion of +the press which had sympathised with the insurgents, and hailed with +frantic delight the suicidal resolution of the Hungarian chiefs to +separate themselves for ever from the house of Austria, was terribly +mortified at a result so speedy and unexpected; and did its best to +keep up the excitement at home, by multiplying special instances of +cruelty and barbarity said to have been wrought by the victors on the +persons of their vanquished foemen. That many such instances really +occurred we do not for a moment doubt. When the passions of men have +been inflamed by civil war, and whetted by a desire for vengeance, +it is always difficult for the authorities to preserve a proper +restraint. This is the case even among civilised nations; and when +we reflect that a large portion of the troops on either side engaged +in the Hungarian war, cannot with any justice be termed civilised, +it is no wonder if deeds of wanton atrocity should occur. Indeed, +late events may lead us to question how far civilisation, on such +occasions, can ever operate as a check. Who could have believed that +last year, in Frankfort, a young and gallant nobleman, whose sole +offence was, the free expressions of his opinions in a parliament +convened by universal suffrage, should have been put to death at +noonday by lingering torments, and his groans of agony echoed back by +the laughter of his brutal assassins? The names of Felix Lichnowsky +and Von Auerswaldt will surely long be remembered to the infamy of +that city which was the birthplace of Goethe, and boasted of itself +as the refined capital of the Rhenish provinces. A veil of mystery +still hangs over the circumstances connected with the assassination +of Count Latour; and though we are unwilling to give currency to a +rumour, which would entail infamy on the memory of one who has since +passed to his account, the victim of an unbridled ambition, strong +suspicions exist that a Hungarian minister was directly privy to that +act of dastardly and cruel murder. But there is no manner of doubt +at all as to the atrocities which were committed in Vienna when that +hapless city was in the hands of the red republicans and the Poles. +Pillage, murder, and violation were crimes of every-day occurrence, +and it is not wonderful if the memory of these wrongs has in some +instances goaded on the victors to a revenge which all must deplore. +As to the military executions which have taken place, we have a word +to say. The suppression of almost every revolt has been followed by +strong measures on the part of the conquerors, against those who +excited the insurrection. Our own history is full of them. Succeeding +generations, according to their estimate of the justness of the cause +which they espoused, have blamed, or pitied, or applauded the conduct +of the men who thus perilled and lost their lives; but the necessity +of such executions has rarely or never been questioned. We allude, +of course, to those who have been the leaders and instigators of the +movement, and upon whom the responsibility, and the expiation for +the blood which has been shed must fall; not to the subordinates who +ought to be, and almost always are, the proper objects of mercy. The +most ardent Jacobite, while he deplored the death, and vindicated the +principles of Lords Balmerino and Kilmarnock, never thought of blaming +the government of the day for having sent those devoted noblemen to +the block. But in their case the execution assumed the character of a +terrible national solemnity--not hastily enacted, but following after a +deliberate trial before unprejudiced judges, upon which the attention +and interest of the whole country was concentrated. And, therefore, +while posterity has been unanimous in expressing its abhorrence of the +bloody butcheries of William, Duke of Cumberland, after the battle +of Culloden, no reflection has been thrown upon the ministers of +George II. for having allowed the law to take its course against the +more prominent leaders of the rebellion, even though the sympathies +of many good men have been enlisted on the losing side. Now, we do +not hesitate to condemn most strongly the conduct of Austria on the +present occasion. No judicial process, so far as we can learn, has been +instituted against the captive chiefs, save that which is equivalent +to no process at all--the sentence of a court-martial. Except in cases +of the most absolute necessity, the functions of the soldier and the +judge ought never to be combined and confounded. When the flame of +civil war is once trodden out, the civil law ought immediately to +resume its wonted supremacy. Treason and rebellion are undoubtedly the +highest of all crimes; but, being the highest, it is therefore the more +necessary that they should be subjected to the gravest investigation; +so that in no way may the punishment inflicted, on account of a heinous +breach of the law, be mistaken, even by the most ignorant, for an act +of hurried vengeance. We may perhaps have no right to object to the +measure of the punishment. We cannot know what charges were brought, +or even substantiated against the unfortunate Hungarian leaders of +Arad. We are quite unaware what disclosures may have been laid before +the Austrian government as to the participation of Count Bathyany in +Kossuth's republican schemes. One and all of them may have been guilty +in the worst degree; one and all of them may have deserved to die; +and it is even possible that circumstances may have rendered such a +terrible example necessary, for the future preservation of order; but +the manner in which the punishment has been dealt, is, we think, wholly +indefensible. It is no answer to say, that the administration of the +laws of Austria is different from that of our own, and that we are +not entitled to apply the measure of a foreign standard. No point of +legal technicality, or even consuetude is involved; there is but one +law which, whatever be its extrinsic form, ought to regulate such a +proceeding as this--a law which, we trust, is acknowledged in Austria +as well as in Britain--the law of justice and humanity. The most +suspected criminal, when arraigned before secret and biassed judges, +loses, in the estimation of the public, half his imputed criminality. +He has not had a fair trial; and, if condemned, it is possible that +his execution may be considered rather as a case of martyrdom, than as +one of righteous punishment. A court-martial never is a satisfactory +tribunal; least of all can it be satisfactory when the object of its +inquiry arises from a civil war. The judges have seen too much of +the actual misery and ruin which has occurred to be impartial. That +propensity to vengeance, from which it can hardly be said that even the +noblest nature is altogether exempt, so nearly akin is it to righteous +indignation, is at such times unnaturally excited. The fiery zeal, +which shows so graceful in the soldier, is utterly unsuited to the +ermine; and when the ermine is thrown, as in this instance, above the +soldier's uniform, there can be very little doubt that ancient habit +and inflamed passion will supersede judicial deliberation. By acting +thus, we conscientiously believe that Austria has inflicted a serious +injury on herself. She has given to those who are her enemies a heavy +cause of argument and reproach against those who are her well-wishers; +and the immediate and not unnatural result will be an increased amount +of sympathy for the political fugitives, and a great disinclination to +canvass their true motives and their characters. Francis Joseph at the +outset of his reign will be stigmatised--most unjustly, indeed, for the +fault lies not with him--as a relentless tyrant, and all who escape +from tyranny are sure of popular though indiscriminate compassion. + +We have thought it our duty to make those remarks at the present time, +because out of this Hungarian affair a question has arisen in which +we are to a certain extent implicated, and which may possibly, though +we do not think probably, be productive of most serious results. We +allude, of course, to the joint demand of Russia and Austria upon +Turkey for the surrender of the political fugitives at Widdin. In +common with the whole public press of this country, we consider such a +demand, on general grounds, to be unexampled and unjust. The abstract +right of every independent nation to afford shelter to political +fugitives, has, we believe, never been questioned; but, even had it +been doubtful, there are very many reasons, founded upon humanity +and honour, why all of us should combine to protest against a claim +so imperiously and threateningly advanced. Cases may arise, and have +arisen, where the privilege has been scandalously abused. For example, +the Baden insurgents have fled for shelter across the frontier of +Switzerland, and have there remained hatching treason, collecting +adherents, and waiting for an opportunity of renewing their treasonable +designs. In such a case, we conceive that the threatened government has +a decided right to require the sheltering country to remove or banish +those fugitives from its territory, and in the event of a refusal, to +declare that a proper _casus belli_. But this, it will be seen, is +widely different from a demand for the surrender of the fugitives; and +we presume that, in the case of the Hungarians, no allegation can be +made, that they have sought harbour, and remain in Turkey, with a view +towards renewing their attempt. Unquestionably it is quite competent +for states to enter into treaties in fulfilment of which political +fugitives must be surrendered when claimed. Such a treaty is said to +exist between Russia and Turkey; but it is clearly not applicable +in the case of such of the Hungarian refugees as have claimed the +shelter of the latter power. Russia, in this quarrel, appears only as +the ally of Austria; and she can have no right to admit the latter to +a direct participation in any of the stipulations contained in her +peculiar treaty. No Hungarian is a subject of Russia; and, therefore, +under that treaty, he cannot possibly be reclaimed. With regard to the +Polish refugees, there certainly does seem to be a difference; and we +care not to own, that we feel far less interest for them than for the +Hungarians. Their own national struggle excited throughout Europe great +sympathy and compassion. No matter what were the merits of the kind of +government which they sought to restore--no man could be cold-blooded +enough to forget that the kingdom of Poland had been violently seized +and partitioned; and though sober reason, and, in fact, good faith, +compelled us to abstain from espousing the cause of those who, by +solemn European treaty, had been confirmed as subjects but who had +risen as rebels, we yet gave our hospitality to the fugitive Poles +with a heartiness greater and more sincere than was ever accorded +on any other occasion. All ranks in this country, and in France, +combined to do them honour; and the general wish in both countries +was, not to afford them a mere temporary shelter, but to give them a +permanent habitation. For this purpose, and to fit them for industrial +employment, the British government gave an annual grant of money, and +the private subscriptions were munificent. Some of the exiles most +creditably availed themselves of the means so placed within their +reach, and have become amongst us useful and esteemed citizens. But +there were others, and the larger number, who utterly misinterpreted +this sympathy, and never would abandon their dreams of Polish +restoration. For this we cannot blame them; and we must needs allow +that they received much encouragement to persevere in those dreams from +men who ought to have been wiser. They took undue advantage of their +situation, and preferred living in idleness, though certainly not in +affluence, upon eleemosynary aid, to gaining their bread honourably by +active industry and exertion. This was certainly not the best way of +securing the affection of a practical people like the British to them +and to their cause; and the result has been, that the moral prestige +of the Poles has greatly declined in this country. We are not arguing +from inference, but from facts; for we are perfectly certain that if +the Emperor Nicholas had made his visit to London in 1834, instead of +nine or ten years later, his reception by the public would have been +materially different. Since then, the Poles have altogether forfeited +the esteem of the friends of order, by coming forward as the most +active agents and instigators of revolution all over the continent of +Europe. In France, in Italy, in Germany, and above all, in Hungary, +they have thrust themselves forward in quarrels with which they had +nothing to do, and even have violated that hospitality which was +accorded them on account of their misfortunes. It is time that they +should learn that the British public has no sympathy with unprincipled +condottieri. No amount of tyranny, inflicted by one nation, will +entitle an exile deliberately to arm himself against the constitution +of another. Foreign service--manly open service indeed is honourable, +but foreign conspiracy is, beyond all doubt, one of the basest and the +worst of crimes. Now, we are not versed enough in treaties to know +what are the exact terms of the conditions made between Russia and +Turkey. We hope, for the sake of Bem, Dembinski, and the others, that +they merely apply to the surrender of those who shall take refuge in +the neighbouring territory on account of war waged, or revolt raised, +against their sovereigns; and though, should such be the nature of the +contract, there may still be a doubt whether the Poles are entitled +to plead exemption under it, that doubt, we presume, will be given in +their favour by the sheltering power; at all events, we think it very +unlikely that any distinction will be drawn betwixt the two classes of +refugees. Still we are compelled to maintain our honest and sincere +conviction that, apart from other and greater considerations, there is +nothing in this demand of Russia and Austria, to justify us in active +interference. The demand has not been made on us; it does not refer to +British subjects; and it in no way concerns our honour. We have nothing +more to do with it, in the abstract, than if it was a demand made by +the Shah of Persia upon the Emperor of China. We beg especial attention +to this point, because we observe that some of our journalists assume +that Great Britain _and France_ will act together vigorously in +resisting the demand. Now, we hold, that, though both countries may +have a clear right to protest against such a demand, on the ground of +its being at variance with the law of nations, neither of them has the +right to make that a pretext for ulterior measures, or for resorting +to the desperate expedient of a war. The representatives of both +powers, it is said, have advised the Porte to return a firm refusal +to the demand; and, since their advice was asked, we hold that they +were clearly right in doing so. They were acting merely as assessors, +or rather as expounders of international law. But suppose that Russia +should make this declinature a _casus belli_ with Turkey,--what then? +We have in that case a most decided interest; because it is part of our +policy that Russia shall not, under any pretext whatever, lay her hand +upon the Turkish dominions, or force the passage of the Dardanelles. +Our policy may be wrong, and Mr Cobden thinks, or thought so: still we +are committed to that view; and we can hardly escape from interpreting +the conduct of Russia, if she shall persist in enforcing her demand by +dint of arms, into an overt attempt to get possession of the Turkish +territory. But France has no such interest as we have. Our reason for +disputing the possession of Turkey with Russia is a purely selfish +one. We wish to prevent the latter power from coming into dangerous +proximity with Egypt, and we have a kind of vague idea that some attack +is meditated upon our Indian provinces. It is quite possible that these +notions may be visionary or greatly exaggerated, and that Russia wants +nothing more than an open passage from the Black Sea--a right which, +if free-trade doctrines are to be held of universal application, it +does seem rather hard to deny to her. Still, such is our idea, and in +our present temper we shall probably act accordingly. But France has +no real interest at stake. She has nothing to lose, suppose Russia got +possession of Turkey to-morrow; and we are very much mistaken if she +will go to war from a mere spirit of chivalry, and in behalf of a few +refugees with whom she is in no way connected. However disturbed may +be the state of France, or however inflammable may be the minds of her +population, she has statesmen who will not suffer her to be committed +to so egregious an act of folly. If Russia perseveres in her demand to +the utmost, on Britain will fall, in the first instance at least, the +whole weight of the resistance. We agree with the _Times_, that "this +demand for the surrender of the refugees, is either a wanton outrage +for an object too trifling to be insisted on, or else it masks a more +serious intention of hostility against the Turkish empire;" but we are +not prepared to adopt the conclusion of that able journal, that "the +governments and the nations of Western Europe are resolved to oppose +that demand, even to the last extremity." On the contrary, we believe +that the opposition would be left to Great Britain alone. + +We trust no apology is necessary for having wandered from our text on +a topic of so much interest; however, we ask Mr Cobden's pardon for +having left him uncourteously so long. + +We were remarking that ill-luck in the way of prophecy and presentiment +still clung to Mr Cobden, even as Care is said to follow the horseman. +Hungary speedily succumbed, and Russia did not ask for a loan. Now +that the Hungarians were beaten and victory impossible, we presume +the next best thing for that unfortunate people would be to bind up +their wounds, and let them return as speedily as might be to their +usual industrial employments. Austria, at the conclusion of the +contest, finds herself largely out of pocket. She has troops whose +pay is greatly in arrear, and she has made temporary loans which +it is absolutely necessary to discharge. She might, if she were so +disposed, liquidate the claims of the first, by letting them loose +upon the conquered Hungarians, from whom they probably could still +contrive to exact a fair modicum of booty; she might pay off the +latter by resorting to wholesale confiscation, and by sweeping into +her public treasury whatever the war has left of value. But Austria +has no desire to proceed to either extremity. She knows very well that +it is not for her interest that Hungary should become a sterile waste; +and she is further aware that the best mode of securing tranquillity +for the future, is to foster industry, and to abstain from laying any +additional burden upon the already impoverished people. Therefore, +meditating no further conquest, but, on the contrary, anxious to sit +down to the sober work of reparation, Austria proposes to borrow +in the public money-markets of Europe a sum of seven millions. The +advertisement meets the eye of Mr Cobden, who straightway rose in +wrath, indited a letter to a certain Mr Edmund Fry, ordaining him to +convene a public meeting in London, for the purpose of considering +the said advertisement, and agreeing "to an address to the friends of +peace and disarmament throughout the world, on the general question of +loans for war purposes," and on the 8th October, the intrepid orator +again mounted on the platform. This time, we are sorry to remark, that +the meeting was neither so variously nor so interestingly attended +as before. The Chartists very properly thought that they had nothing +whatever to do with foreign loans; and, besides, that they had already +been regaled with an ample allowance of Mr Cobden's eloquence on the +subject. The two parliamentary poets were doubtless writing odes, and +did not come. Also there was but a poor sprinkling of M.P.'s; but Lord +Dudley Stuart was at his post, and Friend Alexander; and beyond these +twain there appeared no notable whomsoever. Mr Reynolds must have been +sadly missed. + +Mr Cobden's first speech at this meeting--for the lack of orators was +such, that he was compelled to indulge his audience with two--was +a very dull and dreary affair indeed. He began first with loans in +general, and went on in his usual style of asseveration. "I say that, +as I have gone through the length and breadth of this country with Adam +Smith in my hand to advocate the principles of free trade, I can stand +here with Adam Smith also in my hand, to denounce, not merely for its +inherent waste of national wealth, not only because it anticipates +income and consumes capital, but also on the ground of injustice to +posterity, in saddling upon our heirs a debt we have no right to call +upon them to pay--the loans we have this day met to consider." It is +very hard that unfortunate Adam Smith should be made answerable for +all the eccentricities of Mr Cobden. Little did the poor man think, +whilst hammering his brains at Kirkcaldy, that their product was to +be explained at a future time, according to the sweet will of so +accomplished a commentator! Adam Smith had a great deal too much sense +to expect that wars would cease to arise, and government loans to be +contracted. His remark is not directed against loans, but against the +funding or accumulation of them, which most of us, in the present +generation, are quite ready to admit to be all evil. The remedy to +which he pointed, was the establishment of a sinking-fund to prevent +debt from accumulating; but so long as Mr Cobden's economical views are +acted on, and the currency maintained on its present basis, the idea +of a sinking-fund is altogether visionary. The evil which Adam Smith +complains of is permanent funding, not loan. There is nothing imprudent +in a man borrowing a thousand pounds from his banker, if he regularly +sets apart an annual sum out of his income for its repayment: but it is +a very different thing when he hands over the debt undiminished for his +successor to discharge. + +Having preluded with this little piece of hocus, Mr Cobden came to +the point, and attempted to show that Austria was in such a state of +insolvency that it was not safe for any one to lend money to her. We +by no means object to this sort of exposition. If it be true that the +finances of the borrowing party are in a dismal state, we are none the +worse for the information; if the statement is false, it is sure to be +speedily disproved. We have no objection to concede to Mr Cobden the +possession of that almost preternatural amount of knowledge, which is +his daily and perpetual boast. When he tells us that he knows all about +the produce of the mines of Siberia, because "I have been there, and I +know what is the value of those mines"--when he speaks positively as to +the amount of specie in the vaults of the fortress of St Petersburg, +and states that he knows it--"because I have been on the spot, and +made it my business to understand these things"--and when, with regard +to the general question of Russian finance, he observes that "few +men, probably not six men in England, have had my opportunities of +investigating and ascertaining upon the best and safest authority on +the spot, where alone you can properly understand the matter, what +actually is the state of the resources of Russia,"--we listen with +a kind of awe to the words of this egotistical Exile of Siberia. +But though not six men in England are qualified to compete with him +in his knowledge of Russian affairs, we suspect that it would be no +difficult matter to find six clerks in a single banking establishment +a great deal better acquainted with the state of Austrian finance than +Mr Cobden. His object, it would appear, is less to warn the great +capitalists--who indeed may be supposed to be perfectly capable of +taking care of themselves--against the danger of handing over their +money to Austria, than to secure the poor labouring man with ten pounds +to spare, against defraudment. We were not previously aware that people +with ten pounds to spare were in the habit of investing them in the +foreign funds. We hope to heaven such is not the case, for we happen to +be acquainted with several very estimable porters and Celtic chairmen, +who have saved a little money; and, should the mania for foreign +investment have reached them, we should tremble to approach any corner +of a street where those excellent creatures are wont to linger, lest +we should be assailed with the question, "Hoo's the Peroovian four per +cents?" or, "Div ye ken if they're gaun to pay the interest on the New +Bonos Areas bonds?" We have hitherto been labouring under the delusion +that the accumulations of the working classes were safe in the British +Savings Banks, or Funds; but we are now sorry to learn from Mr Cobden +that such is not the case. "I knew myself," said Mr Cobden, "many years +ago, when resident in the city, a man who worked as a porter on weekly +wages--his family and himself being reduced to that state that they +had no other earthly dependence--and yet that man had Spanish bonds +to the nominal amount of £2000 in his pocket. They were not worth +more than waste paper, and came into the hands of poor men like this +porter, who had no experience and knowledge in such matters; and it +is to guard such poor men that I now utter the voice of warning." We +have not read anything more affecting since we perused _The Dairyman's +Daughter_. Mr Cobden does not tell us that he immediately organised a +subscription for the behoof of the wronged individual; but we think it +probable that he did so, and, if it be not too late, we shall be glad +to contribute our mite--on one condition. The next time Mr Cobden tells +this story, will he be good enough to specify the precise sum _which +the porter paid_ for those bonds? Our reason for requiring particular +information as to this point, is founded on a fact which lately came +to our knowledge, viz. that the name of a promising chimney-sweep +stands recorded in the books of a certain railway company, which shall +be nameless, as the proprietor of stock in new shares, to an amount +of nearly double that possessed by Mr Cobden's acquaintance. The +railway has not paid a single farthing of dividend, several calls are +still due, and the market price of those shares is considerably below +zero. The chimney-sweep is a steady young man, whose only failing is +an inveterate attachment to whisky: he never was in possession of +five pounds in his life, except on the day when he became the nominal +proprietor of that stock. We make Mr Cobden a present of this anecdote, +in case he should have occasion, in the course of some future crusade, +to warn labouring people against indulging in railway speculation. It +is quite as genuine and forcible an illustration as his own; and we +suspect that for one person in the position of the porter, there are at +this moment some hundreds in possession of transferred certificates, +like the chimney-sweep. + +In sober sadness, it is pitiable to see a man reduced, for sheer lack +of argument, to such wretched clap-trap as this. The wildest kind of +rant about freedom and tyranny would have been more to the purpose, +and infinitely more grateful to the popular ear. Mr Cobden's estimate +of his own position and European importance is delicious. "I have no +hesitation in saying that there is not a government in Europe that is +not frowning upon this meeting!" What a mercy it is that Nicholas had +no suspicion of the tremendous influence of the man who was once rash +enough to trust himself in his dominions! We positively tremble at the +thought of what might have ensued had Mr Cobden been detected on his +visit to the Siberian mines! The governments of Europe frowning on Mr +Cobden's meeting--what a subject for the classical painter! + +We need hardly trouble our readers with any remarks upon the speech +of Lord Dudley Stuart. His monomania on Continental subjects is well +known, and he carries it so far as to hazard the most extravagant +statements. For example, he set out with insinuating that this Austrian +loan was neither more nor less than a deliberate attempt at swindling, +seeing that it had not received the sanction of the Diet; "and, +consequently," said Lord Dudley, "nothing could be easier than for the +Austrian government, whenever they found it inconvenient to pay the +interest of the loan, to turn round and call those who had advanced +the money very simple people, and tell them that they ought to have +made due inquiry before parting with it. It might be said that this +would be a most extraordinary and outrageous course for any government +to adopt; but they lived in times when monarchs performed acts of the +most unusual and the most outrageous description; and it seemed almost +as if the dark ages had returned, such scenes of barbarity and cruelty +were being enacted throughout Europe, by order, and in the name of +established governments." Lord Dudley Stuart is one of those who think +that no crowned head can sit down comfortably to supper, unless he has +previously immolated a victim. His idea of the dark ages is derived +from the popular legend of Raw-head and Bloody-bones. Confiding, and it +would appear with justice, in the singular ignorance of his audience, +he went on to say:--"Certain writers and speakers were never tired of +uttering warnings against the danger of an infuriated mob. But had any +of those popular outbreaks, as they were called, ever been attended +with an amount of cruelty, rapine, and spoliation, to be named in +comparison with the deeds of the despots of Europe? At Paris, Vienna, +and Rome, for a time, power was in the hands of the people--the wild +democracy, as it was called. Where were their deeds of blood and +spoliation?" Lord Dudley Stuart might just as well have asked, where +were the victims of the guillotine during the supremacy of Robespierre. +We have known metaphysicians who could not be brought to an +acknowledgment that the continent of America has an actual existence, +or that the battle of Waterloo was ever fought, owing to what they were +pleased to style a want of sufficient evidence. Lord Dudley Stuart is +precisely in the same situation. He has patronised foreign patriots +to such an extent, that he believes every one of them to be a saint; +and if he saw with his own eyes a democrat piking a proprietor, he +would probably consider it a mere _deceptio visus_. Not that he is in +the slightest degree short-sighted, or incredulous, whenever he can +get hold of a story reflecting on the other side. On the contrary, he +favoured his audience with a minute description of several floggings +and executions, which he had, no doubt, received from his foreign +correspondents; and actually threw the blame of the apostacy of some of +his Polish protegees from the Christian faith upon the Czar! This is a +topic upon which we would rather not touch. Men have been known to deny +their Saviour for the sake of escaping from the most hideous personal +agony, but we never heard before of apostacy committed for such motives +as Lord Dudley has assigned. "Some, but very few men, whose lives had +been devoted to fighting against Russia, and whose religion seemed to +consist in that alone, lured, no doubt, by the hope of entering the +Turkish army, and again waging war against their implacable enemies, +Russia and Austria, had been induced to accept the offers of the Porte, +and to embrace Islamism." We hope it may be long before we shall be +again asked to express our sympathy for those wretched renegades from +their faith. + +Mr Cobden having gathered wind, again started up; and this time he did +not confine himself to mere economical prose. We rather think that he +felt slightly jealous of the cheering which Lord Dudley Stuart's more +animated speech had elicited; for it is a well-known fact that the +majority of people would rather listen to the details of an atrocious +murder, than to a dissertation upon Adam Smith. Accordingly he came out +hot, furious, pugnacious, and withal remarkably irrelevant. Throwing +aside all consideration of the Austrian loan, he fell foul of the +Czar, whom he facetiously compared to Nebuchadnezzar. Listen to the +Apostle of peace! "The man was incapable of appreciating anything +but a physical-force argument, and he (Mr Cobden) did not think he +was departing from his peace principles, in resorting to a mode of +admonition which the nature of the animal was capable of understanding. +He surely might be excused from admonishing, if it were possible, a +wild bull, that, if he did not take care, he might run his head against +something harder even than his own skull. He therefore said, that if +the Emperor of Russia attacked us, we might hermetically seal the ports +of Russia, and there would be an end of the matter. There could be +no fighting between England and Russia. If the question were put to +a jury of twelve competent men, belonging to any maritime power, who +were perfectly indifferent to the quarrel, they would at once say that +as England and Russia could not come to collision by land, the only +question was, what naval force would be required by England to blockade +Petersburg, Archangel, Odessa and Riga for six months of the year, and +that the frost would keep up the blockade for the other six months." +But the best is yet to come. Mr Cobden is perfectly aware that the +sentiments of such an eminent European personage as himself must have +terrible weight on the Continent. When the Czar reads the report of the +speeches delivered at the London Tavern, he will burst into a paroxysm +of fury, order some hundred serfs to be instantly knouted to death, and +send for the minister of marine. When it is known at Vienna that Cobden +has declared against the Austrian loan, Francis Joseph will gnash his +teeth, and desire Jellachich, Radetsky, and Haynan to concert measures +with his brother emperor for taking vengeance for this unparalleled +affront. What, then, are we to do? Is there no danger to Great Britain +from such a combination? None--for we have a guarantee. A greater than +Nicholas has promised to stand between us and peril. People of Great +Britain! read the following paragraph, and then lie down in security +under the charge of your protecting angel. + +"_If he (Mr Cobden) were told that he ran the risk of provoking these +brutal tyrants to come here and attack this country_, HE WOULD REPLY +THAT HE WAS PREPARED TO TAKE THE RISK UPON HIMSELF OF ALL THAT THEY +COULD DO!" + +After this, we have not another word to say. Yes--one. Before Mr +Cobden's meeting broke up, the Austrian loan had been subscribed for to +more than the required amount. + + + + +THE FRENCH NOVELS OF 1849. + + +During the twelve months that have elapsed since we devoted a sheet +of Maga to a flying glance at French novels and novelists, there has +been a formidable accumulation upon our shelves of the produce of +Paris and Brussels presses. Were their merit as considerable as their +number, the regiment of pink, blue, and yellow octavos and duodecimos +would need a whole magazine to do them justice. As it is, however, a +line a volume would be too much to devote to some of them. The lull +in literature which ensued in France, on the shock of the February +revolution, has been succeeded by a revival of activity. Most of the +old stagers have resumed the quill, and a few "green hands" have +come forward. As yet, however, the efforts of the former have in few +instances been particularly happy; whilst amongst the latter, there +is no appearance worthy of note. Upon the whole, we think that the +ladies have been at least as successful as the men. Here is a trio of +tales from feminine pens, as good as anything that now lies before us. +_Hélène_, although it may not greatly augment the well-established +reputation of that accomplished authoress, Madame Charles Reybaud, +is yet a very pleasing novel, approaching in character rather to a +graceful English moral tale, than to the commonly received idea of a +French romance. It is a story of the first Revolution; the scene is in +Provence, and subsequently at Rochefort, on board ship, and in French +Guiana. The chief characters are Helen, and her father, the Count do +Blanquefort, a steadfast royalist, who traces back his ancestry to the +crusades; her lover, a plebeian and _Montagnard_; her godmother, Madame +do Rocabert, and Dom Massiot, a fanatic priest. Lovers of mysterious +intrigues, and complicated plots, need not seek them in Madame +Reybaud's novels, whose charm resides for the most part in elegance of +style, graceful description, and delicate and truthful delineation of +character. In one of her recent tales--a very attractive, if not a very +probable one--_Le Cadet de Colobrières_, she admirably sketches the +interior of a poor nobleman's dwelling, where all was pride, penury, +and privation, for appearance sake. The companion and contrast to that +painful picture, is her description of the domestic arrangements of +Castle Rocabert, where ease, placidity, and comfort reign; where the +ancient furniture is solid and handsome, the apartments commodious, +the cheer abundant; where the antiquated waiting women, and venerable +serving men, are clad after the most approved fashion of Louis the +Fifteenth's day, and disciplined in accordance with the most precious +traditions of aristocratic houses. Madame de Rocabert herself is a +fine portrait, from the old French régime. Forty years long has she +dwelt in her lonely chateau, isolated from the world, on the summit +of a cloud-capped rock. Widowed at the age of twenty of an adored +husband, she shut herself up to weep, and, as she hoped, to die. +Contrary to her expectation, little by little she was comforted; she +lived, she grew old. Time and religion had appeased her sorrow, and +dried her tears. There is a tenderness and grace in Madame Reybaud's +account of the widow's mourning and consolation, which reminds us of +the exquisite pathos and natural touches of Madame d'Arbouville. That +such a comparison should occur to us, is of itself a high compliment to +Madame Reybaud, who, however, is unquestionably a very talented writer, +and to the examination of whose collective works it is not impossible +we may hereafter devote an article. At present, we pass on to a lady of +a different stamp, who does not very often obtain commendation at our +hands; and yet, in this instance, we know not why we should withhold +approval from George Sand's last novel, _La Petite Fadette_, one of +those seductive trifles which only Madame Dudevant can produce, and +is free from the pernicious tendencies that disfigure too many of her +works. In this place we can say little about it. A sketch of the plot +would be of small interest, for it is as slight and inartificial +as well may be; and an attempt to analyse the book's peculiar charm +would lead us a length incompatible with the omnium-gatherum design +of this article. _La Petite Fadette_ is a story of peasant habits and +superstitions, and these are treated with that consummate artistical +skill for which George Sand is celebrated--every coarser tint of the +picture mellowed and softened, but never wholly suppressed. Fadette, a +precocious and clever child, and her brother, a poor deformed cripple, +dwelt with their grandmother, a beldame cunning in herbs and simples, +and who practises as a sort of quack doctress. The three are of no good +repute in the country-side; Fadette, especially, with her large black +eyes and Moorish complexion, her elf-like bearing and old-fashioned +attire, is alternately feared and persecuted by the village children, +who have nicknamed her the Cricket. But although her tongue is sharp, +and often malicious, and her humour wilful and strange, the gipsy has +both heart and head; and, above all, she has the true woman's skill +to make herself beloved by him on whom she has secretly fixed her +affections. This is the hero of the story--Landry, the handsome son +of a farmer. Love works miracles with the spiteful slovenly Cricket, +who hitherto has dressed like her grandmother, and squabbled with +all comers. Although the style of George Sand's books is little +favourable to extract, and that in this one the difficulty is increased +by the introduction of provincialisms and peasant phrases, we will +nevertheless translate the account of Fadette's transformation, and of +its effect upon Landry, upon whom, as the reader will perceive, the +charm has already begun to work. + +"Sunday came at last, and Landry was one of the first at mass. He +entered the church before the bells began to ring, knowing that _la +petite_ Fadette was accustomed to come early, because she always made +long prayers, for which many laughed at her. He saw a little girl +kneeling in the chapel of the Holy Virgin, but her back was turned +to him, and her face was hidden in her hands, that she might pray +without disturbance. It was Fadette's attitude, but it was neither +her head-dress nor her figure, and Landry went out again to see if he +could not meet her in the porch, which, in our country, we call the +_guenillière_, because the ragged beggars stand there during service. +But Fadette's rags were the only ones he could not see there. He heard +mass without perceiving her, until, chancing to look again at the girl +who was praying so devoutly in the chapel, he saw her raise her head, +and recognised his Cricket, although her dress and appearance were +quite new to him. The clothes were still the same--her petticoat of +drugget, her red apron, and her linen coif without lace; but during +the week she had washed and re-cut and re-sewn all that. Her gown was +longer, and fell decently over her stockings, which were very white, +as was also her coif, which had assumed the new shape, and was neatly +set upon her well-combed black hair; her neckerchief was new, and of +a pretty pale yellow, which set off her brown skin to advantage. Her +boddice, too, she had lengthened, and, instead of looking like a piece +of wood dressed up, her figure was as slender and supple as the body +of a fine honey-bee. Besides all this, I know not with what extract of +flowers or herbs she had washed her hands and face during the week, but +her pale face and tiny hands looked as clear and as delicate as the +white hawthorn in spring. + +"Landry, seeing her so changed, let his prayer-book fall, and at the +noise little Fadette turned herself about, and her eyes met his. Her +cheek turned a little red--not redder than the wild rose of the hedges; +but that made her appear quite pretty--the more so that her black eyes, +against which none had ever been able to say anything, sparkled so +brightly, that, for the moment, she seemed transfigured. And once more +Landry thought to himself: + +"'She is a witch; she wished to become pretty, from ugly that she was, +and behold the miracle has been wrought!' + +"A chill of terror came over him, but his fear did not prevent his +having so strong a desire to approach and speak to her, that his heart +throbbed with impatience till the mass was at an end. + +"But she did not look at him again, and instead of going to run and +sport with the children after her prayers, she departed so discreetly, +that there was hardly time to notice how changed and improved she was. +Landry dared not follow her, the less so that Sylvinet would not leave +him a moment; but in about an hour he succeeded in escaping; and this +time, his heart urging and directing him, he found little Fadette +gravely tending her flock in the hollow road which they call the +_Traine-au-Gendarme_, because one of the king's gendarmes was killed +there by the people of La Cosse, in the old times, when they wished to +force poor people to pay taillage, and to work without wage, contrary +to the terms of the law, which already was hard enough, such as they +had made it." + +But it is not sufficient to win Landry's heart: Fadette has much more +to overcome. Public prejudice, the dislike of her lover's family, her +own poverty, are stumbling-blocks, seemingly insurmountable, in her +path to happiness. She yields not to discouragement; and finally, by +her energy and discretion, she conquers antipathies, converts foes into +friends, and attains her ends--all of which are legitimate, and some +highly praiseworthy. The narrative of her tribulations, constancy, +and ultimate triumph, is couched in a style of studied simplicity, +but remarkable fascination. Slight as it is, a mere _bluette_, _La +Petite Fadette_ is a graceful and very engaging story; and it would be +ungrateful to investigate too closely the amount of varnish applied by +Madame Dudevant to her pictures of the manners, language, and morals of +French peasantry. + +_La Famille Récour_ is the last book, by a lady novelist, to which +we shall now refer. It is the best of a series of six, intended as +pictures of French society, in successive centuries, closing with the +nineteenth. The five previous novels, which were published at pretty +long intervals, being of no very striking merit, we were agreeably +surprised by the lively and well-sustained interest of this romance, +the last, Madame de Bawr informs us, which she intends to offer to the +public. Paul Récour, the penniless nephew of a rich capitalist, is +defrauded by a forged will of his uncle's inheritance, which goes to a +worthless cousin, who also obtains the hand of a girl between whom and +Paul an ardent attachment exists. The chief interest of the tale hinges +on Paul's struggles, after an interval of deep despondency, against +poverty and the world--struggles in which he is warmly encouraged by +his friend Alfred, a successful _feuilletoniste_ and dramatic author; +and by a warmhearted but improvident physician, M. Duvernoy, whose +daughter Paul ultimately marries, out of gratitude, and to save her +from the destitution to which her father's extravagance and approaching +death are about to consign her. Paul is a charming character--a model +of amiability, generosity, and self-devotion, and yet not too perfect +to be probable. There is a strong interest in the account of his +combat with adversity, and of the tribulations arising from the folly +and thoughtlessness of his wife, and the implacable hostility of his +treacherous cousin. How the story ends need not here be told. The first +four-fifths of the book entitle it to a high place amongst the French +light literature of the year 1849; but then it begins to flag, and the +termination is lame and tame--a falling off which strikes the more +from its contrast with the preceding portion. The authoress appears, +in some degree, conscious of this defect, and prepares her readers +for it in her preface. "The second volume," she says, "was written +amidst the anguish and alarm which revolutions occasion to a poor old +woman. Although but ill-satisfied with my work, I have not courage to +recommence it. I appeal, then, to the reader's indulgence for my last +romance, happy in the consciousness that my pen has never traced a +single word which was not dictated by my lively desire to lead men to +virtue." So humble and amiable an apology disarms criticism. + +Having given precedence to the ladies, we look around for some of their +male colleagues who may deserve a word. Amongst the new candidates for +the favour of romance-readers is a writer, signing himself Marquis +de Foudras, and whose debut, if we err not, was made in conjunction +with a M. de Montepin, in a romance entitled _Les Chévaliers du +Lansquenet_--a long-winded imitation of the Sue school, extremely +feeble, and in execrable taste, but which, nevertheless, obtained +a sort of circulating library success. Encouraged by this, Messrs +Foudras and Montepin achieved a second novel, upon the whole a shade +better than the first; and then, dissolving their association, set +off scribbling, each "on his own hook;" and threaten to become as +prolific, although not as popular, as the great Dumas himself. The +last production of M. de Foudras bears the not unattractive title of +_Les Gentilhommes Chasseurs_. It is a series of sporting sketches and +anecdotes, of various merit, in most of which the author--who would +evidently convince us that he is a genuine marquis, and not a plebeian +under a pseudonyme--himself has cut a more or less distinguished +figure. To the curious in the science of venery, as practised in +various parts of France, these two volumes may have some interest; +and the closing and longest sketch of the series, a tale of shooting +and smuggling adventures in the Alps, is, we suspect, the best thing +the author has written. Unless, indeed, we except his account of a +stag-hunt in Burgundy in 1785, in which he gives a most animated and +graphic account of the mishaps of a dull-dog of an Englishman, who +arrives from the further extremity of Italy to join the party of French +sportsmen. Of course Lord Henry is formal, peevish, and unpolished; +the very model, in short, of an English nobleman. Disdaining to mount +French horses, which, he politely informs his entertainer, have no +speed, and cannot leap, he has had four hunters brought from England, +upon one of which, "a lineal descendant of _Arabian Godolphin_, and +whose dam was a mare unconquered at Newmarket," he follows the first +day's hunt, by the side of a beautiful countess, by whose charms he is +violently smitten, and who rides a little old Limousin mare, of piteous +exterior, but great merit. The pace is severe, the country heavy, +the Arabian's grandson receives the go-by from the Limousin cob, and +shows signs of distress. The following passage exhibits the author's +extraordinary acquaintance with the customs and usages of the English +hunting-field,--"We were still a-head, and had leaped I know not how +many hedges, ditches, and _ravines_, when I observed that Lord Henry, +_who had refused to take either a whip or spurs_, struck repeated +blows on the flank of his horse, which, still galloping, writhed under +the pressure of its master's fist. Looking with more attention, I +presently discovered in _milord's_ hand a sharp and glittering object, +in which I recognised _one of the elegant chased gold toothpicks_ which +men carried in those days. I saw at once that poor _Coeur-de-Lion_ +was done up." In spite of the toothpick, _Coeur-de-Lion_ refuses a +leap, whereupon his master hurls away the singular spur, leaps from +his saddle, draws his hunting-knife, and plunges it to the hilt in +the horse's breast!--with which taste of his quality, we bid a long +farewell to the Marquis de Foudras. + +It were strange indeed if the name of Dumas did not more than +once appear on the numerous title-pages before us. We find it in +half-a-dozen different places. The amusing Charlatan, who, in the +first fervour and novelty of the republican regime, seemed disposed +to abandon romance for politics, has found time to unite both. Whilst +writing a monthly journal, in which he professes to give the detailed +history of Europe day by day--forming, as his puffs assure us, the +most complete existing narrative of political events since February +1848--he has also produced, in the course of the last twelve months, +some twenty-five or thirty volumes of frivolities. Thus, whilst with +one hand he instructs, with the other he entertains the public. For +our part, we have enjoyed too many hearty laughs, both with and at +M. Dumas, not to have all inclination to praise him when possible. +In the present instance, and with respect to his last year's tribute +to French literature, we regret to say it is quite impossible. He +has been trifling with his reputation, and with the public patience. +Since last we mentioned him, he has added a dozen volumes to the +_Vicomte de Bragelonne_, which nevertheless still drags itself along, +without prospect of a termination. A tissue of greater improbabilities +and absurdities we have rarely encountered. Certainly no one but +Alexander Dumas would have ventured to strain out so flimsy a web +to so unconscionable a length. Are there, we wonder, in France or +elsewhere, any persons so simple as to rely on his representations +of historical characters and events? The notions they must form of +French kings and heroes, courtiers and statesmen, are assuredly of +the strangest. We doubt if, in any country but France, a writer +could preserve the popularity Dumas enjoys, who caricatured and made +ridiculous, as he continually does, the greatest men whose names honour +its chronicles. Besides the wearisome adventures of Mr Bragelonne and +the eternal Musketeers, M. Dumas has given forth the first three or +four volumes of a rambling story, founded on the well-known affair +of Marie Antoinette's diamond necklace. Then he has completed the +account of his Spanish rambles, which we rather expected he would have +left incomplete, seeing the very small degree of favour with which +the first instalment of those most trivial letters was received. In +the intervals of these various labours, he has thrown off a history +of the regency, and a historical romance, of which Edward III. of +England is the hero. The latter we have not read. On French ground, +M. Dumas is sometimes unsuccessful, but when he meddles with English +personages he is invariably absurd. Finally, and we believe this closes +the catalogue--although we will not answer but that some trifle of +half-a-dozen volumes may have escaped our notice--M. Dumas, gliding, +with his usual facility of transition, from the historical to the +speculative, has begun a series of ghost-stories, whose probable length +it is difficult to foretell, seeing that what he calls the introduction +occupies two volumes. Some of these tales are tolerably original, +others are old stories dressed up _à la Dumas_. They are preceded by +a dedication to M. Dumas' former patron, the Duke of Montpensier, and +by a letter to his friend Véron, editor of the _Constitutionnel_, +theatrical manager, &c. These two epistles are by no means the least +diverting part of the book. M. Dumas, whom we heard of, twenty months +ago, as a fervid partisan and armed supporter of the republic, appears +to have already changed his mind, and to hanker after a monarchy. +Some passages of his letter to his friend are amusingly conceited and +characteristic. "My dear Véron," he writes, "you have often told me, +during those evening meetings, now of too rare occurrence, where each +man talks at leisure, telling the dream of his heart, following the +caprice of his wit, or squandering the treasures of his memory--you +have often told me, that, since Scheherazade, and after Nodier, I am +one of the most amusing narrators you know. To-day you write to me +that, _en attendant_ a long romance from my pen--one of my interminable +romances, in which I comprise a whole century--you would be glad of +some tales, two, four, or six volumes at most--poor flowers from my +garden--to serve as an interlude amidst the political preoccupations +of the moment: between the trials at Bourges, for instance, and the +elections of the month of May. Alas! my friend, the times are sad, +and my tales, I warn you, will not be gay. Weary of what I daily see +occurring in the real world, you must allow me to seek the subjects +of my narratives in an imaginary one. Alas! I greatly fear that all +minds somewhat elevated, somewhat poetical and addicted to reverie, +are now situated similarly to mine; in quest--that is to say, of the +ideal--sole refuge left us by God against reality." After striking +this desponding chord, the melancholy poet of elevated mind proceeds +to regret the good old times, to deplore the degeneracy of the age, +to declare himself inferior to his grandfather, and to express his +conviction that his son will be inferior to himself. We are sorry for +M. Dumas, junior. "It is true," continues Alexander, "that each day we +take a step towards liberty, equality, fraternity, three great words +which the Revolution of 1793--you know, the other, the dowager--let +loose upon modern society as she might have done a tiger, a lion, and +a bear, disguised in lambskins; empty words, unfortunately, which +were read, through the smoke of June, on our public monuments all +battered with bullets." After so reactionary a tirade, let M. Dumas +beware lest, in the first fight that occurs in Paris streets, a +Red cartridge snatch him from an admiring world. His moan made for +republican illusions, he proceeds to cry the coronach over French +society, unhinged, disorganised, destroyed, by successive revolutions. +And he calls to mind a visit he paid, in his childhood, to a very old +lady, a relic of the past century, and widow of King Louis Philippe's +grandfather, to whom Napoleon paid an annuity of one hundred thousand +crowns--for what? "_For having preserved in her drawing-rooms the +traditions of good society of the times of Louis XIV. and Louis XV._ +It is just half what the chamber now gives his nephew for making +France forget what his uncle desired she should remember." Take that, +President Buonaparte, and go elsewhere for a character than to the +_Débit de Romans_ of Mr Alexander Dumas. How is it you have neglected +to propitiate the suffrage of the melancholy poet? Repair forthwith the +omission. Summon him to the Elysée. Pamper, caress, and consult him, +or tremble for the stability of your presidential chair! After Louis +Napoleon, comes the turn of the legislative chamber; apropos of which +M. Dumas quotes the Marquis d'Argenson's memoirs, where the courtier +of 1750 bewails the degeneracy of the times neither more nor less than +does the dramatic author of a century later. "People complain," M. +d'Argenson says, "that in our day there is no longer any conversation +in France. I well know the reason. It is that our cotemporaries daily +become less patient listeners. They listen badly, or rather they listen +not at all. I have remarked this in the very best circles I frequent." +"Now, my dear friend," argues M. Dumas, with irresistible logic, "what +is the best society one can frequent at the present day? Very certainly +it is that which eight millions of electors have judged worthy to +represent the interests, the opinions, the genius of France. It is the +chamber, in short. Well! enter the chamber, at a venture, any day and +hour that you please. The odds are a hundred to one, that you will find +one man speaking in the tribune, and five or six hundred others sitting +on the benches, not listening, but interrupting him. And this is so +true, that there is an article of the constitution of 1848 prohibiting +interruptions. Again, reckon the number of boxes on the ear, and +fisticuffs given in the chamber during a year that it has existed--they +are innumerable. All in the name--be it well understood--of liberty, +equality, and fraternity!" Rather strange language in the mouth of a +citizen of the young republic; and its oddness diminishes the surprise +with which we find, on turning the page, the captor of the Tuileries +paying his devoirs to the most presently prosperous member of the house +of Orleans. "Monseigneur," he says, to the illustrious husband of the +Infanta Louisa, "this book is composed for you, written purposely for +you. Like all men of elevated minds, you believe in the impossible," +&c. &c. Then a flourish about Galileo, Columbus, and Fulton, and a +quotation from Shakspeare, some of whose plays M. Dumas has been so +condescending as to translate and improve. Then poor Scheherazade is +dragged in again, always apropos of "I, Alexander," and then, the +flourish of trumpets over, the fun begins and phantoms enter. + + * * * * * + +Although not generally partial to tales of _diablerie_--a style which +the Germans have overdone, and in which few writers of other nations +have succeeded--we have been much amused by the story of _Jean le +Trouveur_, in which, upon the old yarn of a pact with the evil one, M. +Paul de Musset has strung a clever and spirited series of Gil-Blas-like +adventures, interspersed with vivid glimpses of historical events and +personages, with here and there a garnishing of quiet satire. "The life +of Jean le Trouveur," says the ingenious and painstaking author of +these three pleasant little volumes, "is one of those histories which +the people tell, and nobody has written.... This fantastical personage +is known in several countries, under different names. In Provence he +is called Jean l'Heureux; in Arragon, Don Juan el Pajarero--that is to +say, the Fowler or Birdcatcher; in Italy Giovanni il Trovatore. His +real name will be found in the course of the following narration. +His death was related to me in Lower Brittany, where I did not +expect to meet with him. This circumstance decided me to write his +history, uniting the various chronicles, whose connexion is evident." +That accomplished antiquarian and legendary, M. Prosper Mérimée, +would doubtless be able to tell us whether this be a mere author's +subterfuge, or a veritable account of the sources whence M. de Musset +derived the amusing adventures of John the Finder. We ourselves are not +sufficiently versed in the traditions of Provence and Italy, Arragon +and Brittany, to decide, nor is it of much interest to inquire. M. de +Musset may possibly have found the clay, but he has made the bricks +and built the house. It is a light and pleasant edifice, and does him +credit. + +The main outline of the story of _Jean le Trouveur_ is soon told, +and has no great novelty. The interest lies in the varied incidents +that crowd every chapter. In the year 1699 there dwelt at Arles, in +Provence, a commander of Malta, by name Anthony Quiqueran, Lord of +Beaujeu. After an adventurous career, and innumerable valiant exploits +achieved in the wars of the Order against Turks and barbarians; after +commanding the galleys of Malta in a hundred successful sea-fights, +and enduring a long captivity in the fortress of the Seven Towers, +this brave man, at the age of nearly eighty years, dwelt tranquilly in +his castle of Beaujeu, reposing, in the enjoyment of perfect health, +from the fatigues of his long and busy life, and awaiting with seeming +resignation and confidence the inevitable summons of death. Only two +peculiarities struck the neighbours of the old knight: one of which +was, that he avoided speaking of his past adventures; the other, that +he would attend mass but at a particular convent, and that even there +he never entered the chapel, but kneeled on a chair in the porch, his +face covered with his hands, until the service was concluded. It was +supposed by many that he was bound by a vow, and that his conduct was +a mark of penitence and humiliation. And although the commander never +went to confession, or the communion table, his life was so pure, his +charities were so numerous, and he had rendered such great services to +the cause of religion, that none ventured to blame his eccentricities +and omissions. But one stormy day a little old Turk, the fashion of +whose garments was a century old, landed from a brigantine, which had +made its way up the Rhone in spite of wind, and, to the wonder of the +assembled population, approached the commander of Malta, and said to +him--"Anthony Quiqueran, you have but three days left to fulfil your +engagements." An hour later, the old knight is in the convent chapel, +assisting at a mass, which he has requested the superior to say for +him. But when the priest takes the sacred wafer it falls from his +hands, a gust of wind extinguishes the tapers, and a confused murmur +of voices is heard in the lateral nave of the church. In spite of +himself, the officiant utters a malediction instead of a prayer, and, +horror-stricken, he descends the steps of the altar, at whose foot M. +de Beaujeu lies senseless, his face against the ground. The ensuing +chapters contain the commander's confession. Long previously, when +languishing in hopeless captivity in a Turkish dungeon, he had made a +compact with a demon, by which he was to enjoy liberty and health, and +thirty years of glory and good fortune. At the end of that term he must +find another person to take his place on similar conditions, or his +soul was the property of the fiend. Scarcely was the bargain concluded, +when he doubted its reality, and was disposed to attribute it to the +delirium of fever. In the uncertainty, he studiously abstained from +the advantage of the compact, hoping thereby to expiate its sin. His +health returned, his liberty was given him, but he sought neither +glory, nor wealth, nor honours, living retired upon ten thousand +crowns a-year, the gift of the King of France and other princes, for +his services to Christendom, practising good works, and cultivating +his garden. He began to hope that this long course of virtue and +self-denial had redeemed his sin, when the warning of the demon, in the +garb of the Turkish captain, renewed his alarm, and the interrupted +mass convinced him of the graceless state of his soul. No act of +penitence, the superior now assured him, could atone his crime. Too +high-minded to seek a substitute, and endeavour to shift its penalty +upon another's shoulders, M. de Beaujeu attempts the only reparation +in his power, by bequeathing half his wealth to charities. To inherit +the other moiety, he entreats the superior to select a foundling +worthy of such good fortune. The superior is not at a loss. "I have +got exactly what you want," he says; "the chorister who answered at +the mass at which you swooned away has no relations. I picked him +up in the street on a winter's night, fourteen years ago, and since +then he has never left me. He has no vocation for the church, and you +will do a good action in restoring him to the world." The chorister +boy, who had been baptised Jean le Trouvé, is sent for, but cannot at +first be found; for the excellent reason that, hidden in the recesses +of the superior's bookcase, behind a row of enormous folios, he had +listened to all that had passed between the commander and the monk. +As soon as he can escape he repairs to the castle of Beaujeu, where +his good looks, his simplicity and vivacity, interest the old knight, +who receives him kindly, resolves to make him his heir, and sends him +back to the convent to announce his determination to the superior. The +foundling is grateful. His joy at his brilliant prospects is damped by +the recollection of the commander's confession and despair. He resolves +to astonish his benefactor by the greatness of his gratitude. The +following extract, which has a good deal of the _Hoffmannsche_ flavour, +will show how he sets about it. + +In the street of La Trouille, which took its name from the fortress +built by the Emperor Constantine, dwelt a barber, who, to follow +the mode of the barbers and bath-keepers of Paris, sold wine and +entertained gamesters. Young men, sailors, merchants, and citizens +of Arles, resorted to his shop--some to transact business; others +to discuss matters of gallantry or pleasure; others, again, to seek +dupes. Of a night, sounds of quarrel were often heard in the shop, to +which the town-archers had more than once paid a visit. If a stranger +staked his coin on a turn of the cards, or throw of the dice, it was no +mere hazard that transferred his ducats to the pockets of the regular +frequenters of the house. Seated upon a post, opposite to this honest +establishment, John the Foundling watched each face that entered or +came out. After some time, he saw approaching from afar the captain of +the brigantine, with his flat turban and his great matchlock pistol. +When the Turk reached the barber's door, John placed himself before him. + +"Sir stranger," said the boy, "did you not arrive here this morning +from the East, on important business which concerns the Commander de +Beaujeu?" + +"_Si_," replied the Turk; "but I may also say that it is business which +concerns you not." + +"You mistake," said John; "it does concern me, and I come on purpose to +speak to you about it." + +"'Tis possible," said the old captain; "_ma mi non voler, mi non poter, +mi non aver tempo_." + +"Nevertheless," firmly retorted John, "you must find time to hear me. +What I have to communicate to you is of the utmost importance." + +"Do me the pleasure _de andar al diable_!" cried the Turk, in his +Franco-Italian jargon. + +"I am there already," replied the lad; "rest assured that I know who +you are. I will not leave you till you have given me a hearing." + +The old Mussulman, who had hitherto averted his head to try to break +off the conversation, at last raised his melancholy and aquiline +countenance. With his yellow eyes he fixed an angry gaze upon the +chorister, and said to him in a full strong voice:-- + +"Well, enter this shop with me. We will presently speak together." + +There was company in the barber's shop of the Rue de la Trouille, when +little John and the captain of the brigantine raised the curtain of +checked linen which served as a door. In a corner of the apartment, +four men, seated round a table, were absorbed in a game at cards, to +which they appeared to pay extreme attention, although the stake was +but of a few miserable sous. One of the gamblers examined, with the +corner of his eye, the two persons who entered; and, seeing it was +only a lad and a Turk of mean and shabby appearance, he again gave all +his attention to the game. The master of the shop conceived no greater +degree of esteem for the new comers, for he did not move from the +stool on which he was sharpening his razors. At the further end of the +apartment a servant stood beside the fire, and stirred with a stick the +dirty linen of the week, which boiled and bubbled in a copper caldron. +A damaged hour-glass upon a board pretended to mark the passage of +time; and small tables, surrounded with straw-bottomed stools, awaited +the drinkers whom evening usually brought. Bidding the chorister to +be seated, the captain of the brigantine placed himself at one of the +tables, and called for wine for all the company. The barber hasted to +fetch a jug of Rhone wine, and as many goblets as there were persons in +the room. When all the glasses were filled, the captain bid the barber +distribute them, and exclaimed, as he emptied his own at a draft.-- + +"_A la salute de Leurs Seigneuries!_" + +Thereupon the four gamblers exchanged significant glances, whispered a +few words, and then, as if the politeness of the Turkish gentleman had +caused them as much pleasure as surprise, they pocketed their stakes +and discontinued their game. With gracious and gallant air, and smiling +countenance, one hand upon the hip and the other armed with the goblet, +the four gentlemen approached the old Turk with a courteous mien, +intended to eclipse all the graces of the courtiers of Versailles. But +there was no need of a magnifying-glass to discern the true character +of the four companions; the adventurer was detectible at once in their +threadbare coats, their collars of false lace, and in the various +details of their dress, where dirt and frippery were ill concealed +by trick and tawdry. A moderately experienced eye would easily have +seen that it was vice which had fattened some of them, and made others +lean. The most portly of the four, approaching the Turkish gentleman, +thanked him in the name of his friends, and placed his empty glass upon +the table with so polite and kindly an air, that the Turk, touched by +his good grace, took the wine jug and refilled the four goblets to +the brim. Some compliments were exchanged, and all sorts of titles +used; so that by the time the jug was empty they had got to calling +each other Excellency. The barber, putting his mouth to the captain's +ear, with such intense gravity that one might have thought him angry, +assured him that these gentlemen were of the very first quality, +whereat the Turk testified his joy by placing his hand on his lips and +on his forehead. In proportion as mutual esteem and good understanding +augmented, the contents of the jug diminished. A second was called for; +it was speedily emptied in honour of the happy chance that had brought +the jovial company together. A third disappeared amidst promises of +frequent future meetings, and a fourth was drained amidst shaking of +hands, friendly embraces, and unlimited offers of service. + +The barber, a man of taste, observed to his guests, that four jugs +amongst five persons made an uneven reckoning, which it would need the +mathematical powers of Barême duly to adjust. For symmetry's sake, +therefore, a fifth jug was brought, out of which the topers drank the +health of the king, of their Amphitryon, and of Barême, so appositely +quoted. The four seedy gentlemen greatly admired the intrepidity with +which the little old man tossed off his bumpers. Their project of +making the captain drunk was too transparent to escape any spectator +less innocent than the chorister; but in vain did they seek signs of +intoxication on the imperturbable countenance of the old Turk. In reply +to each toast and protestation of friendship, the captain emptied his +glass, and said:-- + +"Much obliged, gentlemen; _mi trop flatté_." + +No sparkle of the eyes, no movement of the muscles, broke the monotony +of his faded visage. His parchment complexion preserved its yellow +tint. On the other hand, the cheeks of the four adventurers began to +flush purple; they unbuttoned their doublets, and used their hats as +fans. The signs of intoxication they watched for in their neighbour +were multiplied in their own persons. At last they got quite drunk. He +of the four whose head was the coolest proposed a game at cards. + +"I plainly see," said the Turk, accepting, "that the _Signori n'esser +pas joueurs per habitude_." + +"And how," exclaimed one of the adventurers, "did your excellency infer +from our physiognomy that incontestible truth?" + +"_Perché_," replied the Turk, "on my arrival you broke off in the +middle of your game. A professed gambler never did such a thing." + +They were in ecstasies at the noble foreigner's penetration, and they +called for the dice. When the captain drew forth his long purse, +stuffed with _génovèses_,[21] the four gentlemen experienced a sudden +shock, as if a thunderbolt had passed between them without touching +them, and this emotion half sobered them. The Turk placed one of the +large gold pieces upon the table, saying he would hold whatever stake +his good friends chose to venture. The others said that a _génovèse_ +was a large sum, but that nothing in the world should make them flinch +from the honour of contending with so courteous an adversary. By +uniting their purses, they hoped to be able to hold the whole of his +stake. And accordingly, from the depths of their fobs, the gentlemen +produced so many six-livre and three-livre pieces, that they succeeded +in making up the thirty-two crowns, which were equivalent to the +_génovèse_. They played the sum in a rubber. The Turk won the first +game, then the second; and the four adventurers, on beholding him sweep +away their pile of coin, were suddenly and completely sobered. The +captain willingly agreed to give them their revenge. The difficulty +was to find the two-and-thirty crowns. By dint of rummaging their +pockets, the gentlemen exhibited four-and-twenty livres: but this was +only a quarter of the sum. The oldest of the adventurers then took the +buckle from his hat, and threw it on the table, swearing by the soul +of his uncle that the trinket was worth two hundred livres, although +even the simple chorister discerned the emeralds that adorned it to be +but bits of bottle-glass. Like a generous player, the old Turk made no +difficulties; he agreed that the buckle should stand for two hundred +livres, and it was staked to the extent of twenty-four crowns. This +time the dice was so favourable to the captain, that the game was not +even disputed. His adversaries were astounded: they twisted their +mustaches till they nearly pulled them up by the roots; they rubbed +their eyes, and cursed the good wine of Rhone. In the third game, the +glass jewel, already pledged for twenty-four crowns, passed entire +into the possession of the Turk. Then the excited gamblers threw upon +the table their rings, their sword-knots, and the swords themselves, +assigning to all these things imaginary value, which the Turk feigned +to accept as genuine. Not a single game did they win. The captain took +a string, and proceeded to tie together the tinsel and old iron he had +won, when he felt a hand insinuate itself into the pocket of his ample +hose. He seized this hand, and holding it up in the air-- + +"_Messirs_," he said, "_vous esser des coquins. Mi saper que vous aver +triché._" + +"_Triché!_" cried one of the sharpers. "He strips us to the very shirt, +and then accuses us of cheating! _Morbleu!_ Such insolence demands +punishment." + +A volley of abuse and a storm of blows descended simultaneously upon +the little old man. The four adventurers, thinking to have an easy +bargain of so puny a personage, threw themselves upon him to search +his pockets; but in vain did they ransack every fold of his loose +garments. The purse of gold _génovèses_ was not to be found; and +unfortunately the old Turk, in his struggles, upset the tripod which +supported the copper caldron. A flood of hot water boiled about the +legs of the thieves, who uttered lamentable cries. But it was far +worse when they saw the overturned caldron continue to pour forth its +scalding stream as unceasingly as the allegoric urn of Scamander. +The four sharpers and the barber, perched upon stools, beheld, with +deadly terror, the boiling lake gradually rising around them. Their +situation resembled that in which Homer has placed the valiant and +light-footed Achilles; but as these rogues had not the intrepid soul of +the son of Peleus, they called piteously upon God and all the saints +of paradise; mingling, from the force of habit, not a few imprecations +with their prayers. The wizened carcase of the old Turk must have +been proof against fire and water, for he walked with the streaming +flood up to his knees. Lifting the chorister upon his shoulders, he +issued, dry-footed, from the barber's shop, like Moses from the bosom +of the Red Sea. The river of boiling water waited but his departure to +re-enter its bed. This prodigy suddenly took place, without any one +being able to tell how. The water subsided, and flowed away rapidly, +leaving the various objects in the shop uninjured, with the exception +of the legs of the four adventurers, which were somewhat deteriorated. +The servant, hurrying back at sound of the scuffle, raised the caldron, +and resumed the stirring of her dirty linen, unsuspicious of the +sorcery that had just been practised. The barber and the four sharpers +took counsel together, and deliberated amongst themselves whether it +was proper to denounce the waterproof and incombustible old gentleman +to the authorities. The quantity of hot water that had been spilled +being out of all proportion with the capacity of the kettle, it seemed +a case for hanging or burning alive the author of the infernal jest. +The barber, however, assured his customers that learned physicians +had recently made many marvellous discoveries, in which the old Turk +might possibly be versed. He also deemed it prudent not lightly to put +himself in communication with the authorities, lest they should seek +to inform themselves as to the manner in which the cards were shuffled +in his shop. It was his opinion that the offender should be generously +pardoned, unless, indeed, an opportunity occurred of knocking him on +the head in some dark corner. This opinion met with general approbation. + +Whilst this council of war is held, Jean and the old Turk are in +confabulation, and a bargain is at last concluded, by which the +commander's soul is redeemed, and Jean is to have five years of +earthly prosperity, at the end of which time, if he has failed to find +a substitute, his spiritual part becomes the demon's property. Two +years later we find Jean upon the road to Montpellier, well mounted +and equipped, and his purse well lined. Although but in his eighteenth +year, he is already a gay gallant, with some knowledge of the world, +and eager for adventures. These he meets with in abundance. A mark, +imprinted upon his arm by his attendant demon, causes him to be +recognised as the son of the Chevalier de Cerdagne. Thus ennobled, he +feels that he may aspire to all things, and soon we find him pushing +his fortune in Italy, attached to the person of the French Marshal de +Marchin, discovering the Baron d'Isola's conspiracy against the life +of Philip V. of Spain, and gaining laurels in the campaigns of the +War of Succession. There is much variety and interest in some of his +adventures, and the supernatural agency is sufficiently lost sight +of not to be wearisome. Time glides away, and the fatal term of five +years is within a few days of its completion. But _Jean le Trouvé_, now +_le Trouveur_, is in no want of substitutes. Two volunteers present +themselves; one his supposed sister, Mademoiselle de Cerdagne, whom +he has warmly befriended in certain love difficulties; the other a +convent gardener, whom he has made his private secretary, and whose +name is Giulio Alberoni. The demon, who still affects the form of +an old Turkish sailor, receives Alberoni in lieu of Jean, to whom, +however,--foreseeing that the young man's good fortune may be the means +of bringing him many other victims--he offers a new contract on very +advantageous terms. But Jean de Cerdagne, who is now Spanish ambassador +at Venice, with the title of prince, and in the enjoyment of immense +wealth, refuses the offer, anxious to save his soul. He soon discovers +that his good fortune is at an end. The real son of the Chevalier de +Cerdagne turns up, Jean is disgraced, stripped of his honours and +dignities, and his vast property is confiscated by the Inquisition. +The ex-ambassador exchanges for a squalid disguise his rich costume of +satin and velvet, and we next find him a member of a secret society in +the thieves' quarter of Venice. The worshipful fraternity of Chiodo--so +called from their sign of recognition, which is a rusty nail--live by +the exercise of various small trades and occupations, which, although +not strictly beggary or theft, are but a degree removed from these +culpable resources. Jean, whose conscience has become squeamish, will +accept none but honest employment. But the malice of the demon pursues +him, and he succeeds in nothing. He stations himself at a ferry to +catch gondolas with a boat-hook, and bring them gently alongside the +quay; he stands at a bridge stairs, to afford support to passengers +over the stones, slippery with the slime of the lagoons; he takes post +in front of the Doge's palace, with a vessel of fresh water and a +well-polished goblet, to supply passers-by. Many accept his stout arm, +and drink his cool beverage, but none think of rewarding him. Not all +his efforts and attention are sufficient to coax a sou from the pockets +of his careless customers. At last, upon the third day, he receives a +piece of copper, and trusts that the charm is broken. The coin proves +a bad one. His seizure by the authorities, and transportation to Zara, +relieve him of care for his subsistence. At last, pushed by misery, +and in imminent danger of punishment for having struck a Venetian +officer, Jean succumbs to temptation, and renews his infernal compact. +A Venetian senator adopts him, and he discovers, but too late, that +had he delayed for a few minutes his recourse to diabolical aid, he +would have stood in no need of it. He proceeds to Spain, where he has +many adventures and quarrels with his former secretary, Alberoni, now +a powerful minister. His contract again at an end, he would gladly +abstain from renewing it, but is hunted by the Inquisition into the +arms of the fiend. After a lapse of years, he is again shown to us +in Paris, and, finally, in Brittany, where he meets his death, but, +at the eleventh hour, disappoints the expectant demon, (who in a +manner outwits himself,) and re-enters the bosom of the church, his +bad bargain being taken off his hands by an ambitious village priest. +The book, which has an agreeable vivacity, closes with an attempt to +explain a portion of its supernatural incidents by a reference to +popular tradition and peasant credulity. Near the ramparts of the +Breton town of Guérande, an antiquary shows M. de Musset a moss-grown +stone, with a Latin epitaph, which antiquary and novelist explain each +after his own fashion. + +"Let us see if you understand that, _M. le Parisien_," said the +antiquary. "Up to the two last words we shall agree; but what think you +of the _Ars. Inf._?" + +"It appears to me," I replied, "that the popular chronicle perfectly +explains the whole epitaph--_Ars. Inf._ means _ars inferna_; that is +to say,--'Here reposes Jean Capello, citizen of Venice, whose body was +sent to the grave, and his soul to heaven, by infernal artifices.'" + +"A translation worthy of a romance writer," said the antiquary. "You +believe then in the devil, in compact with evil spirits, in absurd +legends invented by ignorance and superstition amidst the evening +gossip of our peasants? You believe that, in 1718, a parish priest of +Guérande flew away into the air, after having redeemed the soul of this +Jean Capello. You are very credulous, M. le Parisien. This Venetian, +who came here but to die, was simply poisoned by the priest, who took +to flight; the town doctor, having opened the body, found traces of +the poison. That is why they engraved upon the tomb these syllables: +_Ars. Inf._, which signify _arsenici infusio_, an infusion of arsenic. +I will offer you another interpretation--Jean Capello was perhaps a +salt-maker, killed by some accident in our salt-works, and as in 1718 +labourers of that class were very miserable, they engraved upon this +stone, to express the humility of his station, _Ars. Inf._, that is to +say, inferior craft." + +"Upon my word!" I exclaimed, "that explanation is perfectly absurd. +I keep to the popular version: Jean le Trouveur was sent to heaven +by the stratagems of the demon himself. Let sceptics laugh at my +superstition, I shall not quarrel with them for their incredulity." + +We see little else worthy of extract or comment in the mass of books +before us. M. Méry, whose extraordinary notions of English men and +things we exhibited in a former article, has given forth a rhapsodical +history, entitled _Le Transporté_, beginning with the Infernal +Machine, and ending with Surcouf the Pirate, full of conspiracies, +dungeons, desperate sea-fights, and tropical scenery, where English +line-of-battle ships are braved by French corvettes, and where the +transitions are so numerous, and the variety so great, that we may +almost say everything is to be found in its pages, except probability. +Mr Dumas the younger, who follows at respectful distance in his +father's footsteps, and publishes a volume or two per month, has not +yet, so far as we have been able to discover, produced anything that +attains mediocrity. M. Sue has dished up, since last we have adverted +to him, two or three more capital sins, his illustrations of which +are chiefly remarkable for an appearance of great effort, suggestive +of the pitiable plight of an author who, having pledged himself to +public and publishers for the production of a series of novels on +given subjects, is compelled to work out his task, however unwilling +his mood. This is certainly the most fatal species of book-making--a +selling by the cubic foot of a man's soul and imagination. Evil as it +is, the system is largely acted upon in France at the present day. Home +politics having lost much of the absorbing interest they possessed +twelve months ago, the Paris newspapers are resorting to their old +stratagems to maintain and increase their circulation. Prominent +amongst these is the holding out of great attractions in the way of +literary feuilletons. Accordingly, they contract with popular writers +for a name and a date, which are forthwith printed in large capitals +at the head of their leading columns. Thus, one journal promises its +readers six volumes by M. Dumas, to be published in its feuilleton, to +commence on a day named, and to be entitled _Les Femmes_. The odds are +heavy, that Alexander himself has not the least idea what the said six +volumes are to be about; but he relies on his fertility, and then so +vague and comprehensive a title gives large latitude. Moreover, he has +time before him, although he has promised in the interval to supply +the same newspaper with a single volume, to be called _Un Homme Fort_, +and to conclude the long procession of _Fantômes_, a thousand and one +in number, which now for some time past has been gliding before the +astonished eyes of the readers of the _Constitutionnel_. Other journals +follow the same plan with other authors, and in France no writer now +thinks of publishing a work of fiction elsewhere than at the foot of +a newspaper. To this feuilleton system, pushed to an extreme, and +entailing the necessity of introducing into each day's fragment an +amount of incident mystery or pungent matter, sufficient to carry the +reader over twenty-four hours, and make him anxious for the morrow's +return, is chiefly to be attributed the very great change for the worse +that of late has been observable in the class of French literature at +present under consideration. Its actual condition is certainly anything +but vigorous and flourishing, and until a manifest improvement takes +place, we are hardly likely again to pass it in review. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] A large gold coin, then worth nearly a hundred French livres. + + + + +Dies Boreales. + +No. V. + +CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS. + +_Camp at Cladich._ + + +SCENE--_The Pavilion._ TIME--_After breakfast._ + +NORTH--TALBOYS--SEWARD--BULLER. + +NORTH. + +I begin to be doubtful of this day. On your visits to us, Talboys, you +have been most unfortunate in weather. This is more like August than +June. + +TALBOYS. + +The very word, my dear sir. It is indeed most august weather. + +NORTH. + +Five weeks to-day since we pitched our Camp--and we have had the +Beautiful of the Year in all its varieties; but the spiteful Season +seems to owe you some old grudge, Talboys--and to make it a point still +to assail your arrival with "thunder, lightning, and with rain." + +TALBOYS. + +"I tax not you, ye Elements! with unkindness." I feel assured they mean +nothing personal to me--and though this sort of work may not be very +favourable to Angling, 'tis quite a day for tidying our Tackle--and +making up our Books. But don't you think, sir, that the Tent would look +nothing the worse with some artificial light in this obscuration of the +natural? + +NORTH. + +Put on the gas. Pretty invention, the Gutta Percha tube, isn't it? The +Electric Telegraph is nothing to it. Tent illuminated in a moment, at a +pig's whisper. + +TALBOYS. + +Were I to wish, sir, for anything to happen now to the weather at all, +it would be just ever so little toning down of that one constituent +of the orchestral harmony of the Storm which men call--howling. +The Thunder is perfect--but that one Wind Instrument is slightly +out of tune--he is most anxious to do his best--his motive is +unimpeachable; but he has no idea how much more impressive--how much +more popular--would be a somewhat subdued style. There again--that's +positive discord--does he mean to disconcert the Concert--or does he +forget that he is not a Solo? + +BULLER. + +That must be a deluge of--hail. + +TALBOYS. + +So much the better. Hitherto we have had but rain. "Mysterious horrors! +HAIL!" + + "'Twas a rough night. + My young remembrance cannot parallel + A fellow to it." + +NORTH. + +Suppose we resume yesterday's conversation? + +TALBOYS. + +By all manner of means. Let's sit close--and speak loud--else all will +be dumb show. The whole world's one waterfall. + +NORTH. + +Take up Knight on Taste. Look at the dog-ear. + +TALBOYS. + +"The most perfect instance of this kind is the Tragedy of Macbeth, +in which the character of an ungrateful traitor, murderer, usurper, +and tyrant, is made in the highest degree interesting by the sublime +flashes of generosity, magnanimity, courage, and tenderness, which +continually burst forth in the manly but ineffective struggle of every +exalted quality that can dignify and adorn the human mind, first +against the allurements of ambition, and afterwards against the pangs +of remorse and horrors of despair. Though his wife has been the cause +of all his crimes and sufferings, neither the agony of his distress, +nor the fury of his rage, ever draw from him an angry word, or +upbraiding expression towards her; but even when, at her instigation, +he is about to add the murder of his friend and late colleague to that +of his sovereign, kinsman, and benefactor, he is chiefly anxious that +she should not share the guilt of his blood:--'Be innocent of the +knowledge, dearest chuck! till thou applaud the deed.' How much more +real grandeur and exaltation of character is displayed in one such +simple expression from the heart, than in all the laboured pomp of +rhetorical amplification." + +NORTH. + +What think you of that, Talboys? + +TALBOYS. + +Why, like much of the cant of criticism, it sounds at once queer and +commonplace. I seem to have heard it before many thousand times, and +yet never to have heard it at all till this moment. + +NORTH. + +Seward? + +SEWARD. + +Full of audacious assertions, that can be forgiven but in the belief +that Payne Knight had never read the tragedy, even with the most +ordinary attention. + +NORTH. + +Buller? + +BULLER. + +Cursed nonsense. Beg pardon, sir--sink cursed--mere nonsense--out and +out nonsense--nonsense by itself nonsense. + +NORTH. + +How so? + +BULLER. + +A foolish libel on Shakspeare. Was he the man to make the character of +an ungrateful traitor, murderer, usurper, and tyrant, interesting by +sublime flashes of generosity, magnanimity, courage, and tenderness, +and--do I repeat the words correctly?--of every exalted quality that +can dignify and adorn the human mind. + +NORTH. + +Buller--keep up that face--you are positively beautiful-- + +BULLER. + +No quizzing--I am ugly--but I have a good figure--look at that leg, sir! + +NORTH. + +I prefer the other. + +TALBOYS. + +There have been Poets among us who fain would--if they could--have +so violated nature; but their fabrications have been felt to be +falsehoods--and no quackery may resuscitate drowned lies. + +NORTH. + +Shakspeare nowhere insists on the virtues of Macbeth--he leaves their +measure indeterminate. That the villain may have had some good points +we are all willing to believe--few people are without them;--nor have +I any quarrel with those who believe he had high qualities, and is +corrupted by ambition. But what high qualities had he shown before +Shakspeare sets him personally before us to judge for ourselves? +Valour--courage--intrepidity--call it what you will--Martial Virtue-- + + "For brave Macbeth, (well he deserves that name,) + Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, + Which smoked with bloody execution + Like valour's minion, + Carved out his passage till he faced the slave; + And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, + Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, + And fixed his head upon our battlements." + +The "bleeding Serjeant" pursues his panegyric till he grows faint--and +is led off speechless; others take it up--and we are thus--and in other +ways--prepared to look on Macbeth as a paragon of bravery, loyalty, and +patriotism. + +TALBOYS. + +So had seemed Cawdor. + +NORTH. + +Good. Shakspeare sets Macbeth before us under the most imposing +circumstances of a warlike age; but of his inner character as yet he +has told us nothing--we are to find that out for ourselves during +the Drama. If there be sublime flashes of generosity, magnanimity, +and every exalted virtue, we have eyes to see, unless indeed blinded +by the lightning--and if the sublime flashes be frequent, and the +struggle of every exalted quality that can adorn the human mind, though +ineffectual, yet strong--why, then, we must not only pity and forgive, +but admire and love the "traitor, murderer, usurper, and tyrant," with +all the poetical and philosophical fervour of that amiable enthusiast, +Mr Payne Knight. + +BULLER. + +Somehow or other I cannot help having an affection for Macbeth. + +NORTH. + +You had better leave the Tent, sir. + +BULLER. + +No. I won't. + +NORTH + +Give us then, my dear Buller, your Theory of the Thane's character. + +BULLER. + +"Theory, God bless you, I have none to give, sir." Warlike valour, as +you said, is marked first and last--at the opening, and at the end. +Surely a good and great quality, at least for poetical purposes. High +general reputation won and held. The opinion of the wounded soldier was +that of the whole army; and when he himself says, "I have bought golden +opinions from all sorts of people, which would be worn now in their +newest gloss, not thrown aside so soon," I accept that he then truly +describes his position in men's minds. + +NORTH. + +All true. But we soon gain, too, this insight into his constitution, +that the pillar upon which he has built up life is Reputation, and +not Respect of Law--not Self-Respect; that the point which Shakspeare +above all others intends in him, is that his is a spirit not +self-stayed--leaning upon outward stays--and therefore-- + +BULLER. + +Liable to all-- + +NORTH. + +Don't take the words out of my mouth, sir; or rather, don't put them +into my mouth, sir. + +BULLER. + +Touchy to-day. + +NORTH. + +The strongest expression of this character is his throwing himself upon +the illicit divinings of futurity, upon counsellors known for infernal; +and you see what subjugating sway the Three Spirits take at once over +him. On the contrary, the Thaness is self-stayed; and this difference +grounds the poetical opposition of the two personages. In Macbeth, +I suppose a certain splendour of character--magnificence of action +high--a certain impure generosity--mixed up of some kindliness and +sympathy, and of the pleasure from self-elation and self-expansion in a +victorious career, and of that ambition which feeds on public esteem. + +BULLER. + +Ay--just so, sir. + +NORTH. + +Now mark, Buller--this is a character which, if the path of duty and +the path of personal ambition were laid out by the Sisters to be one +and the same path, might walk through life in sunlight and honour, and +invest the tomb with proud and revered trophies. To show such a spirit +wrecked and hurled into infamy--the ill-woven sails rent into shreds +by the whirlwind--is a lesson worthy the Play and the Poet--and such +a lesson as I think Shakspeare likely to have designed--or, without +preaching about lessons, such an ethical revelation as I think likely +to have caught hold upon Shakspeare's intelligence. It would seem to me +a dramatically-poetical subject. The mightiest of temptations occurs +to a mind, full of powers, endowed with available moral elements, but +without set virtue--without principles--"and down goes all before +it." If the essential delineation of Macbeth be this conflict of +Moral elements--of good and evil--of light and darkness--I see a very +poetical conception; if merely a hardened and bloody hypocrite from +the beginning, I see none. But I need not say to you, gentlemen, that +all this is as far as may be from the exaggerated panegyric on his +character by Payne Knight. + +TALBOYS. + +Macbeth is a brave man--so is Banquo--so are we Four, brave men--they +in their way and day--we in ours--they as Celts and Soldiers--we as +Saxons and Civilians--and we had all need to be so--for hark! in the +midst of ours, "Thunder and Lightning, and enter Three Witches." + +BULLER. + +I cannot say that I understand distinctly their first Confabulation. + +NORTH. + +That's a pity. A sensible man like you should understand everything. +But what if Shakspeare himself did not distinctly understand it? +There may have been original errata in the report, as extended by +himself from notes taken in short-hand on the spot--light bad--noise +worse--voices of Weird Sisters worst--matter obscure--manner +uncouth--why really, Buller, all things considered, Shakspeare has +shown himself a very pretty Penny-a-liner. + +BULLER. + +I cry you mercy, sir. + +SEWARD. + +_Where_ are the Witches on their first appearance, at the very opening +of the wonderful Tragedy? + +NORTH. + +An open Place, with thunder and lightning. + +SEWARD. + +I know that--the words are written down. + +NORTH. + +Somewhere or other--anywhere--nowhere. + +BULLER. + +In Fife or Forfar? Or some one or other of your outlandish, or +inlandish, Lowland or Highland Counties? + +NORTH. + +Not knowing, can't say. Probably. + +SEWARD + + "When the Hurly Burly's done, + When the Battle's lost and won." + +What Hurly Burly? What Battle? That in which Macbeth is then engaged? +And which is to be brought to issue ere "set of sun" of the day on +which "enter Three Witches?" + +NORTH. + +Let it be so. + +SEWARD. + + "Upon the heath, + There to meet with Macbeth." + +The Witches, then, are to meet with Macbeth on the heath on the Evening +of the Battle? + +NORTH. + +It would seem so. + +SEWARD. + +They are "posters over sea and land"--and, like whiffs of lightning, +can outsail and outride the sound of thunder. But Macbeth and Banquo +must have had on their seven-league boots. + +NORTH. + +They must. + +SEWARD. + + "A drum, a drum! + Macbeth doth come." + +Was he with the advanced guard of the Army? + +NORTH. + +Not unlikely--attended by his Staff. Generals, on such occasions, +usually ride--but perhaps Macbeth and Banquo, being in kilts, preferred +walking in their seven-league boots. Thomas Campbell has said, "When +the drum of the Scottish Army is heard on the wild heath, and when I +fancy it advancing with its bowmen in front, and its spears and banners +in the distance, I am always disappointed with Macbeth's entrance at +the head of a few kilted actors." The army may have been there--but +they did not see the Weirds--nor, I believe, did the Weirds see them. +With Macbeth and Banquo alone had they to do: we see no Army at that +hour--we hear no drums--we are deaf even to the Great Highland Bagpipe, +though He, you may be sure, was not dumb--all "plaided and plumed in +their tartan array" the Highland Host ceased to be--like vanished +shadows--at the first apparition of "those so withered and so wild in +their attire"--not of the earth though on it, and alive somewhere till +this day--while generations after generations of mere Fighting Men have +been disbanded by dusty Death. + +SEWARD. + +I wish to know _where_ and _when_ had been the Fighting? The +Norwegian--one Sweno, had come down very handsomely at Inchcolm with +ten thousand dollars--a sum in those days equal to a million of money +in Scotland---- + +NORTH. + +Seward, speak on subjects you understand. What do you know, sir, of the +value of money _in_ those days in Scotland? + +SEWARD. + +But _where_ had been all the Fighting? There would seem to have been +two hurley-burleys. + +NORTH. + +I see your drift, Seward. _Time and Place_, through the First Scene of +the First Act, are past finding out. It has been asked--Was Shakspeare +ever in Scotland? Never. There is not one word in this Tragedy leading +a Scotsman to think so--many showing he never had that happiness. Let +him deal with our localities according to his own sovereign will and +pleasure, as a prevailing Poet. But let no man point out his dealings +with our localities as proofs of his having such knowledge of them as +implies personal acquaintance with them gained by a longer or shorter +visit in Scotland. The Fights at the beginning seem to be in Fife. The +Soldier, there wounded, delivers his relation at the King's Camp before +Forres. He has crawled, in half-an-hour, or an hour--or two hours--say +seventy, eighty, or a hundred miles, or more--crossing the ridge of the +Grampians. Rather smart. I do not know what you think here of Time; but +I think that Space is here pretty well done for. The TIME of the Action +of Shakspeare's Plays has never yet, so far as I know, been, in any +one Play, carefully investigated--never investigated at all; and I now +announce to you Three--don't mention it--that I have made discoveries +here that will astound the whole world, and demand a New Criticism of +the entire Shakspearean Drama. + +BULLER. + +Let us have one now, I beseech you, sir. + +NORTH. + +Not now. + +BULLER. + +No sleep in the Tent till we have it, sir. I do dearly love astounding +discoveries--and at this time of day, in astounding discovery in +Shakspeare! May it not prove a Mare's Nest! + +NORTH. + +The Tragedy of Macbeth is a _prodigious_ Tragedy, because in it the +Chariot of Nemesis _visibly_ rides in the lurid thunder-sky. Because +in it the ill motions of a human soul, which Theologians account for +by referring them all to suggestions of Beelzebub, are expounded in +visible, mysterious, tangible, terrible shape and symbolisation by +the Witches. It is great by the character and person, workings and +sufferings, of Lady Macbeth--by the immense poetical power in doing +the Witches--mingling for once in the world the Homely-Grotesque and +the Sublime--extinguishing the Vulgar in the Sublime--by the bond, +whatsoever it be, between Macbeth and his wife--by making us tolerate +her and him---- + +BULLER. + +Didn't I say that in my own way, sir? And didn't you reprove me for +saying it, and order me out of the Tent? + +NORTH. + +And what of the Witches? + +BULLER. + +Had you not stopt me. I say now, sir, that nobody understands +Shakspeare's HECATE. Who is SHE? Each of the Three Weirds is = one +Witch + one of the Three Fates--therefore the union of two incompatible +natures--more than in a Centaur. Oh! Sir! what a hand that was which +bound the two into one--inseverably! There they are for ever as the +Centaurs _are_. But the gross Witch prevails; which Shakspeare needed +for securing belief, and he has it, full. Hecate, sir, comes in to +balance the disproportion--she lifts into Mythology--and strengthens +the mythological tincture. So does the "Pit of Acheron." That is +classical. To the best of my remembrance, no mention of any such Pit in +the Old or New Statistical Account of Scotland. + +NORTH. + +And, in the Incantation Scene, those Apparitions! Mysterious, ominous, +picturesque--and self-willed. They are commanded by the Witches, but +under a limitation. Their oracular power is their own. They are of +unknown orders--as if for the occasion created in Hell. + +North. + +Talboys, are you asleep--or are you at Chess with your eyes shut? + +TALBOYS. + +At Chess with my eyes shut. I shall send off my move to my friend +Stirling by first post. But my ears were open--and I ask--when did +Macbeth first design the murder of Duncan? Does not everybody think--in +the moment _after_ the Witches have first accosted and left him? Does +not--it may be asked--the whole moral significancy of the Witches +disappear, unless the invasion of hell into Macbeth's bosom is first +made by their presence and voices? + +NORTH. + +No. The whole moral significancy of the Witches only then appears, when +we are assured that they address themselves only to those who already +have been tampering with their conscience. "Good sir! why do you start, +and seem to fear things that do sound so fair?" That question put to +Macbeth by Banquo turns our eyes to his face--and we see Guilt. There +was no start at "Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor,"--but at the word +"King" well might he start; for ---- eh? + +TALBOYS. + +We must look up the Scene. + +NORTH. + +No need for that. You have it by heart--recite it. + +TALBOYS. + + "_Macbeth._ So foul and fair a day I have not seen. + + _Banquo._ How far is't call'd to Forres?--What are these, + So wither'd, and so wild in their attire; + That look not like the inhabitants of the earth, + And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught + That man may question? You seem to understand me, + By each at once her choppy finger laying + Upon her skinny lips:--You should be women, + And yet your beards forbid me to interpret + That you are so. + + _Macbeth._ Speak, if you can;--What are you? + + _1st Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis! + + _2d Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! + + _3d Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. + + _Banquo._ Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear + Things that do sound so fair?--I' the name of truth, + Are ye fantastical, or that indeed + Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner + You greet with present grace, and great prediction + Of noble having, and of royal hope, + That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not: + If you can look into the seeds of time, + And say which grain will grow, and which will not; + Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear + Your favours nor your hate. + + _1st Witch._ Hail! + + _2d Witch._ Hail! + + _3d Witch._ Hail! + + _1st Witch._ Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. + + _2d Witch._ Not so happy, yet much happier. + + _3d Witch._ Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: + So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! + + _1st Witch._ Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! + + _Macbeth._ Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: + By Sinel's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis; + But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, + A prosperous gentleman; and to be king, + Stands not within the prospect of belief, + No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence + You owe this strange intelligence? or why + Upon this blasted heath you stop our way + With such prophetic greeting?--Speak, I charge you. + +[_Witches vanish._ + + _Banquo._ The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, + And these are of them:--Whither are they vanish'd? + + _Macbeth._ Into the air, and what seem'd corporal, melted + As breath into the wind. 'Would they had staid! + + _Banquo._ Were such things here, as we do speak about? + Or have we eaten of the insane root, + That takes the reason prisoner. + + _Macbeth._ Your children shall be kings. + + _Banquo._ You shall be king. + + _Macbeth._ And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so? + + _Banquo._ To the self-same tune, and words." + +NORTH. + +Charles Kemble himself could not have given it more impressively. + +BULLER. + +You make him blush, sir. + +NORTH. + +Attend to that "start" of Macbeth, Talboys. + +TALBOYS. + +He might well start on being told of a sudden, by such seers, that he +was hereafter to be King of Scotland. + +NORTH. + +There was more in the start than that, my lad, else Shakspeare would +not have so directed our eyes to it. I say again--it was the start--of +a murderer. + +TALBOYS. + +And what if I say it was not? But I have the candour to confess, that +I am not familiar with the starts of murderers--so may possibly be +mistaken. + +NORTH. + +Omit what intervenes--and give us the Soliloquy, Talboys. But before +you do so, let me merely remind you that Macbeth's mind, from the +little he says in the interim, is manifestly ruminating on something +bad, ere he breaks out into Soliloquy. + +TALBOYS. + + "Two truths are told, + As happy prologues to the swelling act + Of the imperial theme--I thank you, gentlemen.-- + This supernatural soliciting + Cannot be ill--cannot be good:--If ill, + Why hath it given me earnest of success, + Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor: + If good, why do I yield to that suggestion + Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, + And make my seated heart knock at my ribs + Against the use of nature? Present fears + Are less than horrible imaginings: + My thought whose murder is yet but fantastical + Shakes so my single state of man, that function + Is smothered in surmise; and nothing is, + But what is not." + +NORTH. + +Now, my dear Talboys, you will agree with me in thinking that this +first great and pregnant, although brief soliloquy, stands for germ, +type, and law of the whole Play, and of its criticism--and for clue +to the labyrinth of the Thane's character. "Out of this wood do not +desire to go." Out of it I do not expect soon to go. I regard William +as a fair Poet and a reasonable Philosopher; but as a supereminent +Play-wright. The First Soliloquy _must_ speak the nature of Macbeth, +else the Craftsman has no skill in his trade. A Soliloquy _reveals_. +That is its function. Therein is the soul heard and seen discoursing +with itself--within itself; and if you carry your eye through--up to +the First Appearance of Lady Macbeth--this Soliloquy is distinctly +the highest point of the Tragedy--the tragic acme--or dome--or +pinnacle--therefore of power indefinite, infinite. On this rock I +stand, a Colossus ready to be thrown down by--an Earthquake. + +BULLER. + +Pushed off by--a shove. + +NORTH. + +Not by a thousand Buller-power. Can you believe, Buller, that the word +of the Third Witch, "that shalt be KING Hereafter," _sows_ the murder +in Macbeth's heart, and that it springs up, flowers, and fruits with +such fearful rapidity. + +BULLER. + +Why--Yes and No. + +NORTH. + +Attend, Talboys, to the words "supernatural soliciting." What +"supernatural soliciting" to evil is there here? Not a syllable +had the Weird Sisters breathed about Murder. But now there is much +soliloquising--and Cawdor contemplates himself _objectively_--seen +busy upon an elderly gentleman called Duncan--after a fashion that so +frightens him _subjectively_--that Banquo cannot help whispering to +Rosse and Angus-- + + "See how our partner's rapt!" + +TALBOYS. + +"My thought whose murder's yet fantastical." I agree with you, sir, in +suspecting he must have thought of the murder. + +NORTH. + +It is from no leaning towards the Weird Sisters--whom I never set eyes +on but once, and then without interchanging a word, leapt momentarily +out of this world into that pitch-pot of a pond in Glenco--it is, I +say, from no leaning towards the Weird Sisters that I take this view of +Macbeth's character. No "sublime flashes of generosity, magnanimity, +tenderness, and every exalted quality that can dignify and adorn the +human mind," do I ever suffer to pass by without approbation, when +coruscating from the character of any well-disposed man, real or +imaginary, however unaccountable at other times his conduct may appear +to be; but Shakspeare, who knew Macbeth better than any of us, has here +assured us that he was in heart a murderer--for how long he does not +specify--before he had ever seen a birse on any of the Weird Sisters' +beards. But let's be canny. Talboys--pray, what is the meaning of the +word "soliciting," "preternatural soliciting," in this Soliloquy? + +TALBOYS. + +Soliciting, sir, is, in my interpreting, "an appealing, intimate +visitation." + +NORTH. + +Right. The appeal is general--as that _challenge_ of a trumpet--_Fairy +Queen_, book III., canto xii., stanza 1-- + + "Signe of nigh battail or got victorye"-- + +which, all indeterminate, is notwithstanding _a challenge_--operates, +and is felt as such. + +TALBOYS. + +So a thundering knock at your door--which may be a friend or an +enemy. It comes as a summoning. It is more than internal urging and +inciting of me by my own thoughts--for mark, sir, the rigour of the +word "supernatural," which throws the soliciting off his own soul upon +the Weirds. The word is really undetermined to pleasure or pain--the +essential thought being that there is a searching or penetrating +provocative--a stirring up of that which lay dead and still. Next is +the debate whether this intrusive, and pungent, and stimulant assault +of a presence and an oracle be good or ill? + +NORTH. + +Does the hope live in him for a moment that this home-visiting is not +ill--that the Spirits are not ill? They have spoken truth so far--ergo, +the Third "All hail!" shall be true, too. But more than that--they have +spoken _truth_. Ergo, they are not spirits of Evil. That hope dies +in the same instant, submerged in the stormy waves which the blast +from hell arouses. The infernal revelation glares clear before him--a +Crown held out by the hand of Murder. One or two struggles occur. Then +the truth stands before him fixed and immutable--"Evil, be thou my +good." He is dedicated: and passive to fate. I cannot comprehend this +so feeble debate in the mind of a good man--I cannot comprehend any +such debate at all in the mind of a previously settled and determined +murderer; but I can comprehend and feel its awful significancy in the +mind of a man already in a most perilous moral condition. + +SEWARD. + +The "start" shows that the spark has caught--it has fallen into a tun +of gunpowder. + +TALBOYS. + +The touch of Ithuriel's spear. + +NORTH. + +May we not say, then, that perhaps the Witches have shown no more than +this--the Fascination of Contact between Passion and Opportunity? + +SEWARD. + +To Philosophy reading the hieroglyphic; but to the People what? To +them they are a reality. They seize the imagination with all power. +They come like "blasts from hell"--like spirits of Plague, whose +breath--whose very sight kills. + + "Within them Hell + They bring, and round about them; nor from Hell + One step, no more than from themselves, can fly." + +The contagion of their presence, in spite of what we have been saying, +almost reconciles my understanding to what it would otherwise revolt +from, the _suddenness_ with which the penetration of Macbeth into +futurity lays fast hold upon Murder. + +BULLER. + +Pretty fast--though it gives a twist or two in his handling. + +SEWARD. + +Lady Macbeth herself corroborates your judgment and Shakspeare's on her +husband's character. + +TALBOYS. + +Does she? + +SEWARD. + +She does. In that dreadful parley between them on the night of the +Murder--she reminds him of a time when + + "_Nor time nor place + Did then adhere, and yet you would make both_; + They have made themselves, and that their fitness now + Does unmake you." + +This--mark you, sir--must have been before the Play began! + +NORTH. + +I have often thought of the words--and Shakspeare himself has so +adjusted the action of the Play as that, _since the encounter with the +Weirds_, no opportunity had occurred to Macbeth for the "making of +time and place." Therefore it must, as you say, have been _before it_. +Buller, what say you now? + +BULLER. + +Gagged. + +NORTH. + +True, she speaks of his being "full of the milk of human kindness." +The words have become favourites with us, who are an affectionate and +domestic people--and are lovingly applied to the loving; but Lady +Macbeth attached no such profound sense to them as we do; and meant +merely that she thought her husband would, after all, much prefer +greatness unbought by blood; and, at the time she referred to, it is +probable he would; but that she meant no more than that, is plain from +the continuation of her praise, in which her ideas get not a little +confused; and her words, interpret them as you will, leave nothing +"milky" in Macbeth at all. Milk of human kindness, indeed! + +TALBOYS. + + "What thou would'st highly, + That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, + And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'dst have great Glamis, + That which cries, 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it; + And that which rather thou dost fear to do + Than wishest should be undone.'" + +_That_ is her Ladyship's notion of the "milk of human kindness"! "I +wish somebody would murder Duncan--as for murdering him myself, I am +much too tender-hearted and humane for perpetrating such cruelty with +my own hand!" + +BULLER. + +Won't you believe a Wife to be a good judge of her Husband's +disposition? + +NORTH. + +Not Lady Macbeth. For does not she herself tell us, at the same time, +that he had formerly schemed how to commit Murder? + +BULLER. + +Gagged again. + +NORTH. + +I see no reason for doubting that she was attached to her husband; and +Shakspeare loved to put into the lips of women beautiful expressions of +love--but he did not intend that we should be deceived thereby in our +moral judgements. + +SEWARD. + +Did this ever occur to you, sir? Macbeth, when hiring the murderers who +are to look after Banquo and Fleance, cites a conversation in which +he had demonstrated to them that the oppression under which they had +long suffered, and which they had supposed to proceed from Macbeth, +proceeded really from Banquo? My firm belief is that it proceeded from +Macbeth--that their suspicion was right--that Macbeth is misleading +them--and that Shakspeare means you to apprehend this. But why should +Macbeth have oppressed his inferiors, unless he had been--long +since--of a tyrannical nature? He oppresses his inferiors--they are +sickened and angered with the world--by his oppression--he tells them +'twas not he but another who had oppressed them--and that other--at his +instigation--they willingly murder. An ugly affair altogether. + +NORTH. + +Very. But let us keep to the First Act--and see what a hypocrite +Macbeth has so very soon become--what a savage assassin! He has just +followed up his Soliloquy with these significant lines-- + + "Come what come may, + _Time and the hour run through the roughest day_;" + +when he recollects that Banquo, Rosse, and Angus are standing near. +Richard himself is not more wily--guily--smily--and oily; to the Lords +his condescension is already quite kingly-- + + "Kind gentlemen, your pains + Are registered where every day I turn + The leaf to read them"-- + +TALBOYS. + +And soon after, to the King how obsequious! + + "The service and the loyalty I owe, + In doing it, pays itself. Your Highness' part + Is to receive our duties; and our duties + Are to your throne and state, children, and servants; + Which do but what they should by doing everything + Safe toward you love and honour." + +What would Payne Knight have said to all that? This to his King, whom +he has resolved, first good opportunity, to murder! + +NORTH. + +Duncan is now too happy for this wicked world. + + "My plenteous joys, + Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves + In drops of sorrow." + +Invaders--traitors--now there are none. Peace is restored to the +Land--the Throne rock-fast--the line secure-- + + "We will establish our estate upon + Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter, + The Prince of Cumberland: which honour must + Not, unaccompanied, invest him only, + But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine + On all deservers." + +Now was the time for "the manly but ineffectual struggle of every +exalted quality that can dignify and exalt the human mind"--for a few +sublime flashes at least of generosity and tenderness, et cetera--now +when the Gracious Duncan is loading him with honours, and, better than +all honours, lavishing on him the boundless effusions of a grateful +and royal heart. The Prince of Cumberland! Ha, ha! + + "The Prince of Cumberland!--That is a step + On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, + For in my way it lies." + +But the remorseless miscreant becomes poetical-- + + "Stars, hide your fires! + Let not light see my black and deep desires: + The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be, + Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see!" + +The milk of human kindness has coagulated into the curd of inhuman +ferocity--and all this--slanderers say--is the sole work of the Weird +Sisters! No. His wicked heart--because it is wicked--believes in +their Prophecy--the end is assured to him--and the means are at once +suggested to his own slaughterous nature. No supernatural soliciting +here, which a better man would not successfully have resisted. I +again repudiate--should it be preferred against me--the charge of a +_tendresse_ towards the Bearded Beauties of the Blasted Heath; but +rather would I marry them all Three--one after the other--nay all three +at once, and as many more as there may be in our Celtic Mythology--than +see your Sophia, Seward, or, Buller, your-- + +BULLER. + +We have but Marmy. + +NORTH. + +Wedded to a Macbeth. + +SEWARD. + +We know your affection, my dear sir, for your goddaughter. She is +insured. + +NORTH. + +Well, this Milk of Human Kindness is off at a hand-gallop to Inverness. +The King has announced a Royal Visit to Macbeth's own Castle. But +Cawdor had before this despatched a letter to his lady, from which +Shakspeare has given us an extract. And then, as I understand it, a +special messenger besides, to say "the King comes here to-night." +Which of the two is the more impatient to be at work 'tis hard to say; +but the idea of the murder originated with the male Prisoner. We have +his wife's word for it--she told him so to his face--and he did not +deny it. We have his own word for it--he told himself so to his own +face--and he never denies it at any time during the play. + +TALBOYS. + +You said, a little while ago, sir, that you believed Macbeth and his +wife were a happy couple. + +NORTH. + +Not I. I said she was attached to him--and I say now that the wise +men are not of the Seven, who point to her reception of her husband, +on his arrival at _home_, as a proof of her want of affection. They +seem to think she ought to have rushed into his arms--slobbered upon +his shoulder--and so forth. For had he not been at the Wars? Pshaw! +The most tender-hearted Thanesses of those days--even those that +kept albums--would have been ashamed of weeping on sending their +Thanes off to battle--much more on receiving them back in a sound +skin--with new honours nodding on their plumes. Lady Macbeth was not +one of the turtle-doves--fit mate she for the King of the Vultures. +I am too good an ornithologist to call them Eagles. She received her +mate fittingly--with murder in her soul; but more cruel--more selfish +than he, she could not be--nor, perhaps, was she less; but she was +more resolute--and resolution even in evil--in such circumstances as +hers--seems to argue a superior nature to his, who, while he keeps +vacillating, as if it were between good and evil, betrays all the time +the bias that is surely inclining him to evil, into which he makes a +sudden and sure wheel at last. + +BULLER. + +The Weirds--the Weirds!--the Weirds have done it all! + +NORTH. + +Macbeth--Macbeth!--Macbeth has done it all! + +BULLER. + +Furies and Fates! + +NORTH. + +Who make the wicked their victims! + +SEWARD. + +Is she sublime in her wickedness? + +NORTH. + +It would, I fear, be wrong to say so. But I was speaking of Macbeth's +character--not of hers--and, in comparison with him, she may seem a +great creature. They are now utterly alone--and of the two he has been +the more familiar with murder. Between them, Duncan already is a dead +man. But how pitiful--at such a time and at such a greeting--Macbeth's +cautions-- + + "My dearest Love, + Duncan comes here to-night! + + _Lady._--And when goes hence? + + _Macbeth._--To-morrow, as he purposes. + + _Lady._--Oh, never + Shall sun that morrow see!" + +Why, Talboys, does not the poor devil-- + +TALBOYS. + +Poor devil! Macbeth a poor devil? + +NORTH. + +Why, Buller, does not the poor devil? + +BULLER. + +Poor devil! Macbeth a poor devil? + +NORTH. + +Why, Seward, does not the poor devil-- + +SEWARD. + +Speak up--speak out? Is he afraid of the spiders? You know him, +sir--you see through him. + +NORTH. + +Ay, Seward--reserved and close as he is--he wants nerve--_pluck_--he is +close upon the coward--and that would be well, were there the slightest +tendency towards change of purpose in the Pale Face; but there is +none--he is as cruel as ever--the more close the more cruel--the more +irresolute the more murderous--for to murder he is sure to come. +Seward, you said well--why does not the poor devil speak up--speak out? +Is he afraid of the spiders? + +TALBOYS. + +Murderous-looking villain--no need of words. + +NORTH. + +I did not say, sir, there was any need of words. Why, will you always +be contradicting one? + +TALBOYS. + +Me? I? I hope I shall never live to see the day on which I contradict +Christopher North in his own Tent. At least--rudely. + +NORTH. + +Do it rudely--not as you did now--and often do--as if you were agreeing +with me--but you are incurable. I say, my dear Talboys, that Macbeth +so bold in a "twa-haun'd crack" with himself in a Soliloquy--so +figurative--and so fond of swearing by the Stars and old Mother +Night, who were not aware of his existence--should not have been thus +tongue-tied to his own wife in their own secretest chamber--should have +unlocked and flung open the door of his heart to her--like a Man. I +blush for him--I do. So did his wife. + +BULLER. + +I don't find that in the record. + +NORTH. + +Don't you? "Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men may read +strange matters." She sees in his face self-alarm at his own +murderous intentions. And so she counsels him about his face--like a +self-collected, trustworthy woman. "To beguile the time, look like the +time;" with further good stern advice. But--"We shall speak farther," +is all she can get from him in answer to conjugal assurances that +should have given him a palpitation at the heart, and set his eyes on +fire-- + + "He that's coming + Must be provided for; and you shall put + This night's great business into my despatch; + Which shall, to all our nights and days to come, + Give solely sovereign sway and Masterdom." + +There spoke one worthy to be a Queen! + +SEWARD. + +Worthy! + +NORTH. + +Ay--in that age--in that country. 'Twas not then the custom "to speak +daggers but use none." Did Shakspeare mean to dignify, to magnify +Macbeth by such demeanour? No--to degrade and minimise the murderer. + +TALBOYS. + +My dear sir, I cordially agree with every word you utter. Go on--my +dear sir--to instruct--to illumine-- + +SEWARD. + +To bring out "sublime flashes of magnanimity, courage, tenderness," in +Macbeth-- + +BULLER. + +"Of every exalted quality that can dignify and adorn the human +mind"--the mind of Macbeth in his struggle with the allurements of +ambition! + +NORTH. + +Observe, how this reticence--on the part of Macbeth--contrasted with +his wife's eagerness and exultation, makes her, for the moment, seem +the wickeder of the two--the fiercer and the more cruel. For the moment +only; for we soon ask ourselves what means this un-husbandly reserve +in him who had sent her _that letter_--and then a messenger to tell +her the king was coming--and who had sworn to himself as savagely as +she now does, not to let slip this opportunity of cutting his king's +throat. He is well-pleased to see that his wife is as bloody-minded as +himself--that she will not only give all necessary assistance--as an +associate--but concert the when, and the where, and the how--and if +need be, with her own hand deal the blow. + +SEWARD. + +She did not then know that Macbeth had made up his mind to murder +Duncan that very night. _But we know it._ She has instantly made up +hers--we know how; but being as yet unassured of her husband, she +welcomes him home with a Declaration that must have more than answered +his fondest hopes; and, therefore, he is almost mute--the few words he +does utter seem to indicate no settled purpose--Duncan may fulfil his +intention of going in the morning, or he may not; but we know that the +silence of the murderer now is because the murderess is manifestly all +he could wish--and that, had she shown any reluctance, he would have +resumed his eloquence, and, to convert her to his way of thinking, +argued as powerfully as he did when converting himself. + +BULLER. + +You carry on at such a pace, sir, there's no keeping up with you. +Pull up, that I may ask you a very simple question. On his arrival at +his castle, Macbeth finds his wife reading a letter from her amiable +spouse, about the Weird Sisters. Pray, when was that letter written? + +NORTH. + +At what hour precisely? That I can't say. It must, however, have been +written before Macbeth had been presented to the King--for there is no +allusion in it to the King's intention to visit their Castle. I believe +it to have been written about an hour or so after the prophecy of the +Weirds--either in some place of refreshment by the roadside--or in +such a Tent as this--kept ready for the General in the King's Camp at +Forres. He despatched it by a Gilly--a fast one like your Cornwall +Clipper--and then tumbled in. + +BULLER. + +When did she receive it? + +NORTH. + +Early next morning. + +BULLER. + +How could that be, since she is reading it, as her husband steps in, +well on, as I take it, in the afternoon? + +NORTH. + +Buller, you are a blockhead. There had she, for many hours, been +sitting, and walking _about_ with it, now rumpled up in her fist--now +crunkled up between her breasts--now locked up in a safe--now spread +out like a sampler on that tasty little oak table--and sometimes +she might have been heard by the servants--had they had the unusual +curiosity to listen at the door--murmuring like a stock-dove--anon +hooting like an owl--by-and-by barking like an eagle--then bellowing +liker a hart than a hind--almost howling like a wolf--and why not?--now +singing a snatch of an old Gaelic air, with a clear, wild, sweet voice, +like that of "a human!" + + "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be + What thou art promised." + "Hie thee hither, + That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, + And chastise with the valour of my tongue, + All that impedes thee from the golden round, + Which Fate and metaphysical aid doth seem + To have thee crown'd withal." + +BULLER. + +Grand indeed. + +NORTH. + +It _is_ grand indeed. But, my dear Buller, was that all she had said +to herself, think you? No--no--no. But it was all Shakspeare had time +for on the Stage. Oh, sirs! The Time of the Stage is but a simulacrum +of true Time. That must be done at one stroke, on the Stage, which +in a Life takes ten. The Stage persuades _that_ in one conversation, +or soliloquy, which Life may do in twenty--you have not leisure or +good-will for the ambages and iterations of the Real. + +SEWARD. + +See an artist with a pen in his hand, challenged; and with a few lines +he will exhibit a pathetic story. From how many millions has he given +you--One? The units which he abstracts, represent sufficiently and +satisfactorily the millions of lines and surfaces which he neglects. + +NORTH. + +So in Poetry. You take little for much. You need not wonder, then, that +on an attendant entering and saying, "The King comes here to-night," +she cries, "Thou'rt mad to say it!" Had you happened to tell her so +half-an-hour ago, who knows but that she might have received it with a +stately smile, that hardly moved a muscle on her high-featured front, +and gave a merciful look to her green eyes even when she was communing +with Murder! + +NORTH. + +What hurry and haste had been on all sides to get into the House of +Murder! + + "Where's the Thane of Cawdor? + We coursed him, at the heels, and had a purpose + To be his purveyor: but he rides well: + And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him + To his home before us--Fair and noble Hostess, + We are your guest to-night." + +Ay, where is the Thane of Cawdor? I, for one, not knowing, can't say. +The gracious Duncan desires much to see him as well as his gracious +Hostess. + + "Give me your hand: + Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly, + And shall continue our graces towards him. + By your leave, Hostess." + +Ay--where's the Thane of Cawdor? Why did not Shakspeare show him to us, +sitting at supper with the King? + +TALBOYS. + +Did he sup with the King? + +BULLER. + +I believe he sat down--but got up again--and left the Chamber. + +TALBOYS. + +His wife seeks him out. "He has almost supped. Why have you left the +Chamber?" "Has he asked for me?" "Know ye not he has?" + +NORTH. + +On Macbeth's Soliloquy, which his wife's entrance here interrupts, +how much inconsiderate comment have not moralists made! Here--they +have said--is the struggle of a good man with temptation. Hearken, +say they--to the voice of Conscience! What does the good man, in this +hour of trial, say to himself? He says to himself--"I have made up my +mind to assassinate my benefactor in my own house--the only doubt I +have, is about the consequences to myself in the world to come." Well, +then--"We'd jump the world to come. But if I murder him--may not others +murder me? Retribution even in this world." Call you that the voice of +Conscience? + +SEWARD. + +Hardly. + +NORTH. + +He then goes on to descant to himself about the relation in which he +stands to Duncan, and apparently discovers for the first time, that +"he's here in double trust;" and that as his host, his kinsman, and his +subject, he should "against his murderer shut the door, not bear the +knife myself." + +SEWARD. + +A man of genius. + +NORTH. + +Besides, Duncan is not only a King, but a good King-- + + "So clear in his great office, that his virtues + Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against + The deep damnation of his taking-off." + +That is much better morality--keep there, Macbeth--or thereabouts--and +Duncan's life is tolerably safe--at least for one night. But Shakspeare +knew his man--and what manner of man he is we hear in the unbearable +context, that never yet has been quoted by any one who had ears to +distinguish between the true and the false. + + "And pity, like a naked new-born babe, + Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd + Upon the sightless couriers of the air, + Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, + That tears shall drown the wind." + +Cant and fustian. Shakspeare knew that cant and fustian would come +at that moment from the mouth of Macbeth. Accordingly, he offers but +a poor resistance to the rhetoric that comes rushing from his wife's +heart--even that sentiment which is thought so fine--and 'tis well +enough in its way-- + + "I dare do all that may become a man; + Who dares do more is none"-- + +is set aside at once by-- + + "What beast was it, then, + That made you break this enterprise to me?" + +We hear no more of "Pity like a naked new-born babe"--but at her horrid +scheme of the murder-- + + "Bring forth men-children only! + For thy undaunted mettle should compose + Nothing but males!" + +Shakspeare does not paint here a grand and desperate struggle between +good and evil thoughts in Macbeth's mind--but a mock fight; had there +been any deep sincerity in the feeling expressed in the bombast--had +there been any true feeling at all--it would have revived and +deepened--not faded and died almost--at the picture drawn by Lady +Macbeth of their victim-- + + "When Duncan is asleep, + Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey + Soundly invite him," + +the words that had just left his own lips-- + + "His virtues + Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against + The deep damnation of his taking-off," + +would have re-rung in his ears; and a strange medley--words and +music--would they have made--with his wife's + + "When in swinish sleep + Their drenched natures lie, as in a death, + What cannot you and I perform upon + The unguarded Duncan?" + +That is my idea of the Soliloquy. Think on it. + +TALBOYS. + +The best critics tell us that Shakspeare's Lady Macbeth has a +commanding Intellect. Certes she has a commanding Will. I do not see +what a commanding Intellect has to do in a Tragedy of this kind--or +what opportunity she has of showing it. Do you, sir? + +NORTH. + +I do not. + +TALBOYS. + +Her Intellect seems pretty much on a par with Macbeth's in the planning +of the murder. + +NORTH. + +I defy any human Intellect to devise well an atrocious Murder. Pray, +how would you have murdered Duncan? + +TALBOYS. + +Ask me rather how I would--this night--murder Christopher North. + +NORTH. + +No more of that--no dallying in that direction. You make me shudder. +Shakspeare knew that a circumspect murder is an impossibility--that +a murder of a King in the murderer's own house, with expectation +of non-discovery, is the irrationality of infatuation. The poor +Idiot chuckles at the poor Fury's device as at once original and +plausible--and, next hour, what single soul in the Castle does not know +who did the deed? + +SEWARD. + +High Intellect indeed! + +TALBOYS. + +The original murder is bad to the uttermost. I mean badly contrived. +What colour was there in colouring the two Grooms? No two men kill +their master, and then go to bed again in his room with bloody faces +and poignards. + +BULLER. + +If this was really a very bad plot altogether, it is her Ladyship's as +much--far more than his Lordship's. Against whom, then, do we conclude? +Her? I think not--but the Poet. _He_ is the badly-contriving assassin. +He does not intend lowering your esteem for her Ladyship's talents. +Am I, sir, to think that William himself, after the same game, would +have hunted no better? I believe he would; but he thinks that this will +carry the Plot through for the Stage well enough. The House, seeing and +hearing, will not stay to criticise. The Horror persuades Belief. He +knew the whole mystery of murder. + +NORTH. + +My dear Buller, wheel nearer me. I would not lose a word you say. + +BULLER. + +Did Macbeth commit an error in killing the two Grooms? And does his +Lady think so? + +TALBOYS. + +A gross error, and his Lady thinks so. + +BULLER. + +Why was it a gross error--and why did his lady think so? + +TALBOYS. + +Because--why--I really can't tell. + +BULLER. + +Nor I. The question leads to formidable difficulties--either way. But +answer me this. Is her swooning at the close of her husband's most +graphic picture of the position of the corpses--real or pretended? + +SEWARD. + +Real. + +TALBOYS. + +Pretended. + +BULLER. + +Sir? + +NORTH. + +I reserve my opinion. + +TALBOYS. + +Not a faint--but a _feint_. She cannot undo that which is done; nor +hinder that which he will do next. She must mind her own business. +Now distinctly her own business is--to faint. A high-bred, sensitive, +innocent Lady, startled from her sleep to find her guest and King +murdered, and the room full of aghast nobles, cannot possibly do +anything else but faint. Lady Macbeth, who "all particulars of duty +knows," faints accordingly. + +NORTH. + +Seward, we are ready to hear you. + +SEWARD. + +She has been about a business that must have somewhat shook her +nerves--granting them to be of iron. She would herself have murdered +Duncan had he not resembled her Father as he slept; and on sudden +discernment of that dreadful resemblance, her soul must have shuddered, +if her body served her to stagger away from parricide. On the deed +being done, she is terrified after a different manner from the doer of +the deed; but her terror is as great; and though she says-- + + "The sleeping and the dead + Are but as pictures--'tis the eye of childhood + That fears a painted Devil--" + +believe me that her face was like ashes, as she returned to the +chamber to gild the faces of the grooms with the dead man's blood. +That knocking, too, alarmed the Lady--believe me--as much as her +husband; and to keep cool and collected before him, so as to be able +to support him at that moment with her advice, must have tried the +utmost strength of her nature. Call her Fiend--she was Woman. Down +stairs she comes--and stands among them all, at first like one alarmed +only--astounded by what she hears--and striving to simulate the +ignorance of the innocent--"What, in our house?" "Too cruel anywhere!" +What she must have suffered then, Shakspeare lets us conceive for +ourselves; and what on her husband's elaborate description of his +inconsiderate additional murders. "The whole is too much for her"--she +"is perplexed in the extreme"--and the sinner swoons. + +NORTH. + +Seward suggests a bold, strong, deep, tragical turn of the scene--that +she faints actually. Well--so be it. I shall say, first, that I think +it a weakness in my favourite; but I will go so far as to add that I +can let it pass for a not unpardonable weakness--the occasion given. +But I must deal otherwise with her biographer. Him I shall hold to +a strict rendering of account. I will know of him what he is about, +and what she is about. If she faints really, and against her will, +having forcible reasons for holding her will clear, she must be shown +fighting to the last effort of will, against the assault of womanly +nature, and drop, vanquished, as one dead, without a sound. But the +Thaness calls out lustily--she remembers, "as we shall make our griefs +and clamours roar upon his death." She makes noise enough--takes +good care to attract everybody's attention to her performance--for +which I commend her. Calculate as nicely as you will--she distracts +or diverts speculation, and makes an interesting and agreeable break +in the conversation.--I think that the obvious meaning is the right +meaning--and _that she faints on purpose_. + +NORTH. + +Decided in favour of Feint. + +BULLER. + +You might have had the good manners to ask for _my_ opinion. + +NORTH. + +I beg a thousand pardons, Buller. + +BULLER. + +A hundred will do, North. In Davies' _Anecdotes of the Stage_, I +remember reading that Garrick would not trust Mrs Pritchard with the +Swoon--and that Macklin thought Mrs Porter alone could have been +endured by the audience. Therefore, by the Great Manager, Lady Macbeth +was not allowed in the Scene to appear at all. His belief was, that +with her Ladyship it was a feint--and that the Gods, aware of that, +unless restrained by profound respect for the actress, would have +_laughed_--as at something rather comic. If the Gods, in Shakspeare's +days, were as the Gods in Garrick's, William, methinks, would not, on +any account, have exposed the Lady to derision at such a time. But I +suspect the Gods of the Globe would not have laughed, whatever they +might have thought of her sincerity, and that she did appear before +them in a Scene from which nothing could account for her absence. She +was not, I verily believe, given to fainting--perhaps this was the +first time she had ever fainted since she was a girl. _Now_ I believe +she did. She would have stood by her husband at all hazards, had she +been able, both on his account and her own; she would not have so +deserted him at such a critical juncture; her character was of boldness +rather than duplicity; her business now--her duty--was to brazen it +out; but she grew sick--qualms of conscience, however terrible, can +be borne by sinners standing upright at the mouth of hell--but the +flesh of man is weak, in its utmost strength, when moulded to woman's +form--other qualms assail suddenly the earthly tenement--the breath is +choked--the "distracted globe" grows dizzy--they that look out of the +windows know not what they see--the body reels, lapses, sinks, and at +full length smites the floor. + +SEWARD. + +Well said--Chairman of the Quarter-sessions. + +BULLER. + +Nor, with all submission, my dear Sir, can I think you treat your +favourite murderess, on this trying occasion, with your usual fairness +and candour. All she says, is, "Help me hence, ho!" Macduff says, "Look +to the Lady"--and Banquo says, "Look to the Lady"--and she is "carried +off." Some critic or other--I think Malone--says that Macbeth shows +he knows "'tis a feint" by not going to her assistance. Perhaps he +was mistaken--know it he could not. And nothing more likely to make a +woman faint than that revelling and wallowing of his in that bloody +description. + +NORTH. + +By the Casting Vote of the President--_Feint_. + +TALBOYS. + +Let's to Lunch. + +NORTH. + +Go. You will find me sitting here when you come back. + + +SCENE II. + +SCENE--_The Pavilion._ TIME--_after Lunch_. + +NORTH--TALBOYS--BULLER--SEWARD. + +NORTH. + +Claudius, the Uncle-king in Hamlet, is perhaps the most odious +character in all Shakspeare. But he does no unnecessary murders. He has +killed the Father, and will the Son, all in regular order. But Macbeth +plunges himself, like a drunken man, into unnecessary and injurious +cruelties. He throws like a reckless gamester. If I am to own the +truth, I don't know why he is so cruel. I don't think that he takes any +pleasure in mere cruelty, like Nero-- + +BULLER. + +What do we know of Nero? Was he mad? + +NORTH. + +I don't think that he takes any pleasure in mere cruelty, like Nero; +but he seems to be under some infatuation that drags or drives him +along. To kill is, in every difficulty, the ready resource that occurs +to him--as if to go on murdering were, by some law of the Universe, the +penalty which you must pay for having once murdered. + +SEWARD. + +I think, Sir, that without contradicting anything we said before Lunch +about his Lordship or his Kingship, we may conceive in the natural +Macbeth considerable force of Moral Intuition. + +NORTH. + +We may. + +SEWARD. + +Of Moral Intelligence? + +NORTH. + +Yes. + +SEWARD. + +Of Moral Obedience? + +NORTH. + +No. + +SEWARD. + +Moral Intuition, and Moral Intelligence breaking out, from time to +time, all through--we understand how there is engendered in him strong +self-dissatisfaction--thence perpetual goadings on--and desperate +attempts to lose conscience in more and more crime. + +NORTH. + +Ay--Seward--even so. He tells you that he stakes soul and body upon the +throw for a Crown. He has got the Crown--and _paid for it_. He _must_ +keep it--else he has bartered soul and body--for nothing! To make his +first crime _good_--he strides gigantically along the road of which it +opened the gate. + +TALBOYS. + +An almost morbid impressibility of imagination is energetically +stamped, and universally recognised in the Thane, and I think, sir, +that it warrants, to a certain extent, a _sincerity_ of the mental +movements. He really sees a fantastical dagger--he really hears +fantastical voices--perhaps he really sees a fantastical Ghost. +All this in him is Nature--not artifice--and a nature deeply, +terribly, tempestuously commoved by the near contact of a murder +imminent--doing--done. It is more like a murderer a-making than a +murderer made. + +SEWARD. + +See, sir, how precisely this characteristic is proposed. + +BULLER. + +By whom? + +SEWARD. + +By Shakspeare, in that first Soliloquy. The poetry colouring, +throughout, his discourse, is its natural efflorescence. + +NORTH. + +Talboys, Seward, you have spoken well. + +BULLER. + +And I have spoken ill? + +NORTH. + +I have not said so. + +BULLER. + +We have all Four of us spoken well--we have all Four of us +spoken ill--and we have all Four of us spoken but so-so--now and +heretofore--in this Tent--hang the wind--there's no hearing twelve +words in ten a body says. Honoured sir, I beg permission to say that I +cannot admit the Canon laid down by your Reverence, an hour or two ago, +or a minute or two ago, that Macbeth's extravagant language is designed +by Shakspeare to designate hypocrisy. + +NORTH. + +Why? + +BULLER. + +You commended Talboys and Seward for noticing the imaginative--the +poetical character of Macbeth's mind. There we find the reason of his +extravagant language. It may, as you said, be cant and fustian--or it +may not--but why attribute to hypocrisy--as you did--what may have +flowed from his genius? Poets may rant as loud as he, and yet be honest +men. "In a fine frenzy rolling," their eyes may fasten on fustian. + +NORTH. + +Good--go on. Deduct. + +BULLER. + +Besides, sir, the Stage had such a language of its own; and I cannot +help thinking that Shakspeare often, and too frankly, gave in to it. + +NORTH. + +He did. + +BULLER. + +I would, however, much rather believe that if Shakspeare meant anything +by it in Macbeth's Oratory or Poetry, he intended thereby rather to +impress on us that last noticed constituent of his nature--a vehement +seizure of imagination. I believe, sir, that in the hortatory scene +Lady Macbeth really vanquishes--as the scene ostensibly shows--his +_ir_resolution. And if Shakspeare means _ir_resolution, I do not know +why the _grounds_ thereof which Shakspeare assigns to Macbeth should +not be accepted as the true grounds. The Dramatist would seem to me to +demand too much of me, if, _under_ the grounds which he expresses, he +requires me to discard these, and to discover and express others. + +SEWARD. + +I do not know, sir, if that horrible Invocation of _hers_ to the +Spirits of Murder to unsex her, be held by many to imply that she has +no need of their help? + +NORTH. + +It is held by many to prove that she was not a woman but a fiend. It +proves the reverse. I infer from it that she does need their help--and, +what is more, _that she gets it_. Nothing so dreadful, in the whole +range of Man's Tragic Drama, as that Murder. But I see Seward is +growing pale--we know his infirmity--and for the present shun it. + +SEWARD. + +Thank you, sir. + +NORTH. + +I may, however, ask a question about Banquo's Ghost. + +SEWARD. + +Well--well--do so. + +TALBOYS. + +You put the question to me, sir? I am inclined to think, sir, that no +real Ghost sits on the Stool--but that Shakspeare meant it as with the +Daggers. On the Stage he appears--that is an abuse. + +NORTH. + +Not so sure of that, Talboys. + +TALBOYS. + +Had Macbeth himself continued to believe that the first-seen Ghost was +a real Ghost, he would not, could not have ventured so soon after its +disappearance to say again, "And to our dear friend Banquo." He does +say it--and then again diseased imagination assails him at the rash +words. Lady Macbeth reasons with him again, and he finally is persuaded +that the Ghost, both times, had been but brain-sick creations. + + "My strange and self-abuse + Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:-- + I am but young in deed." + +BULLER. + +That certainly looks as if he did then know he had been deceived. But +perhaps he only censures himself for being too much agitated by a real +ghost. + +TALBOYS. + +That won't do. + +NORTH. + +But go back, my dear Talboys, to the first enacting of the Play. What +could the audience have understood to be happening, without other +direction of their thoughts than the terrified Macbeth's bewildered +words? He never mentions Banquo's name--and recollect that nobody +sitting there then knew that Banquo had been murdered. The dagger is +not in point. Then the spectators heard him say, "Is this a dagger that +I see before me?" And if no dagger was there, they could at once see +that 'twas phantasy. + +TALBOYS. + +Something in that. + +BULLER. + +A settler. + +NORTH. + +I entirely separate the two questions--first, how did the Manager of +the Globe Theatre have the King's Seat at the Feast filled; and second, +what does the highest poetical Canon deliver. I speak now, but to the +first. Now, here the rule is--"the audience _must understand, and at +once_, what that which they see and hear means"--that Rule must govern +the art of the drama in the Manager's practice. You allow that, Talboys? + +TALBOYS. + +I do. + +BULLER. + +Rash--Talboys--rash: he's getting you into a net. + +NORTH. + +That is not my way, Buller. Well, then, suppose Macbeth acted for the +first time to an audience, who are to establish it for a stock-play or +to _damn it_. Would the Manager commit the whole power of a scene which +is perhaps the most--singly--effective of the whole Play-- + +BULLER. + +No--no--not the most effective of the whole Play-- + +NORTH. + +The rival, then, of the Murder Scene--the Sleep-Walking stands aloof +and aloft--to the chance of a true divination by the whole Globe +audience? I think not. The argument is of a vulgar tone, I confess, and +extremely literal, but it is after the measure of my poor faculties. + +SEWARD. + +In confirmation of what you say, sir, it has been lately asserted that +one of the two appearings at least is not Banquo's--but Duncan's. How +is that to be settled but by a real Ghost--or Ghosts? + +NORTH. + +And I ask, what has Shakspeare himself undeniably done elsewhere? In +Henry VIII., Queen Katherine sleeps and _dreams_. Her Dream enters, +and performs various acts--somewhat expressive--minutely contrived and +prescribed. It is a mute Dream, which she with shut eyes sees--which +you in pit, boxes, and gallery see--which her attendants, watching +about her upon the stage, do _not_ see. + +SEWARD. + +And in Richard III--He dreams, and so does Richmond. Eight Ghosts rise +in succession and _speak_ to Richard first, and to the Earl next--each +hears, I suppose, what concerns himself--they seem to be present in the +two Tents at once. + +NORTH. + +In Cymbeline, Posthumus dreams. His Dream enters--Ghosts and even +JUPITER! They act and speak; and this Dream has a reality--for Jupiter +hands or tosses a parchment-roll to one of the Ghosts, who lays it, as +bidden, on the breast of the Dreamer, where he, on awaking, perceives +it! I call all this physically strong, sir, for the representation of +the metaphysically thought. + +BULLER. + +If Buller may speak, Buller would observe, that once or twice both +Ariel and Prospero come forward "invisible." And in Spenser, the Dream +of which Morpheus lends the use to Archimago, is--carried. + +SEWARD. + +We all remember the Dream which Jupiter sends to Agamemnon, and which, +while standing at his bed's-head, puts on the shape of Nestor and +speaks;--the Ghost of Patroclus--the actual Ghost which stands at the +bed's-head of Achilles, and _is_ his Dream. + +NORTH. + +My friends, Poetry gives a body to the bodiless. The Stage of +Shakspeare was rude, and gross. In my boyhood, I saw the Ghosts appear +to John Kemble in Richard III. Now they may be abolished with Banquo. +So may be Queen Katherine's Angels. But Shakspeare and his Audience +had no difficulty about one person's seeing what another does not--or +one's _not_ seeing, rather, that which another does. Nor had Homer, +when Achilles alone, in the Quarrel Scene, sees Minerva. Shakspeare +and his Audience had no difficulty about the bodily representation of +Thoughts--the inward by the outward. Shakspeare and the Great Old Poets +leave vague, shadowy, mist-shrouded, and indeterminate the boundaries +between the Thought and the Existent--the Real and the Unreal. I am +able to believe with you, Talboys, that Banquo's Ghost was understood +by Shakspeare, the Poet, to be the Phantasm of the murderer's +guilt-and-fear-shaken soul; but was required by Shakspeare, the Manager +of the Globe Theatre, to rise up through a trap-door, mealy-faced and +blood-boultered, and so make "the Table full." + +BULLER. + +Seward, do bid him speak of Lady Macbeth. + +SEWARD. + +Oblige me, sir--don't now--after dinner, if you will. + +NORTH. + +I shall merely allude now, as exceedingly poetical treatment, to the +discretion throughout used in the SHOWING of Lady Macbeth. You might +almost say that she never takes a step on the stage, that does not +_thrill the Theatre_. Not a waste word, gesture, or look. All at the +studied fulness of sublime tragical power--yet all wonderfully tempered +and governed. I doubt if Shakspeare could have given a good account of +everything that he makes Macbeth say--but of all that She says he could. + +TALBOYS. + +As far as I am able to judge, she but once in the whole Play loses her +perfect self-mastery--when the servant surprises her by announcing the +King's coming. She answers, 'thou'rt mad to say it;' which is a manner +of speaking used by those who cannot, or can hardly believe tidings +that fill them with exceeding joy. It is not the manner of a Lady +to her servant who unexpectedly announces the arrival of a high--of +the highest visitor. She recovers herself instantly. 'Is not thy +master with him, who, wer't so, would have informed for preparation?' +This is a turn colouring her exclamation, and is spoken in the most +self-possessed, argumentative, demonstrative tone. The preceding words +had been torn from her; now she has passed, with inimitable dexterity, +from the dreamed Queen, to the usual mistress of her household--_to the +huswife_. + +NORTH. + +In the Fourth Act--she is not seen at all. But in the Fifth, lo! and +behold! and at once we know why she had been absent--we see and are +turned to living stone by the revelation of the terrible truth. I +am always inclined to conceive Lady Macbeth's night-walking as the +summit, or topmost peak of all tragic conception and execution--in +Prose, too, the crowning of Poetry! But it must be, because these are +the _ipsissima verba_--yea, the escaping sighs and moans of the bared +soul. There must be nothing, not even the thin and translucent veil +of the verse, betwixt her soul showing itself, and yours beholding. +Words which your "hearing latches" from the threefold abyss of Night, +Sleep, and Conscience! What place for the enchantment of any music +is here? Besides, she speaks in a whisper. The Siddons did--audible +distinctly, throughout the stilled immense theatre. Here music is +not--sound is not--only an anguished soul's faint breathings--gaspings. +And observe that Lady Macbeth carries--a candle--besides washing her +hands--and besides speaking prose--three departures from the severe +and elect method, to bring out that supreme revelation. I have been +told that the great Mrs Pritchard used to touch the palm with the tips +of her fingers, for the washing, keeping candle in hand;--that the +Siddons first set down her candle, that she might come forwards, and +wash her hands in earnest, one over the other, as if she were at her +wash-hand stand, with plenty of water in her basin--that when Sheridan +got intelligence of her design so to do, he ran shrieking to her, and, +with tears in his eyes, besought that she would not, at one stroke, +overthrow Drury Lane--that she persisted, and turned the thousands of +bosoms to marble. + +TALBOYS. + +Our dear, dear Master. + +NORTH. + +You will remember, my friends, her _four rhymed lines_--uttered to +herself in Act Third. They are very remarkable-- + + "Nought's had, all's spent, + Where our desire is got without content: + 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy, + Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy." + +They are her only _waking_ acknowledgments of having _mis_taken life! +So--they forebode the Sleep-Walking, and the Death--as an owl, or a +raven, or vulture, or any fowl of obscene wing, might flit between the +sun and a crowned but doomed head--the shadow but of a moment, yet +ominous, for the augur, of an entire fatal catastrophe. + +SEWARD. + +They do. But to say the truth, I had either forgot them, or never +discovered their significancy. O that William Shakspeare! + +TALBOYS. + +O that Christopher North! + +NORTH. + +Speak so, friends--'tis absurd, but I like it. + +TALBOYS. + +It is sincere. + +NORTH. + +At last they call him "black Macbeth," and "this dead Butcher." And +with good reason. They also call her "his fiend-like Queen," which last +expression I regard as highly offensive. + +BULLER. + +And they call her so not without strong reason. + +NORTH. + +A bold, bad woman--not a Fiend. I ask--Did she, or did she not, "with +violent hand foredo her life?" They mention it as a rumour. The Doctor +desires that all means of self-harm may be kept out of her way. Yet +the impression on us, as the thing proceeds, is, that she dies of pure +remorse--which I believe. She is _visibly dying_. The cry of women, +announcing her death, is rather as of those who stood around the bed +watching, and when the heart at the touch of the invisible finger +stops, shriek--than of one after the other coming in and finding +the self-slain--a confused, informal, perplexing, and perplexed +proceeding--but the Cry of Women is formal, regular for the stated +occasion. You may say, indeed, that she poisoned herself--and so died +in bed--watched. Under the precautions, that is unlikely--too refined. +The manner of Seyton, "The Queen, my Lord, is dead," shows to me that +it was hourly expected. How these few words would _seek_ into you, did +you first read the Play in mature age! She died a natural death--of +remorse. Take my word for it--the rumour to the contrary was natural to +the lip and ear of Hate. + +TALBOYS. + +A question of primary import is--What is the relation of feeling +between him and her? The natural impression, I think, is, that the +confiding affection--the intimate confidence--is "there"--of a husband +and wife who love one another--to whom all interests are in common, +and are consulted in common. Without this belief, the Magic of the +Tragedy perishes--vanishes to me. "My dearest love, Duncan comes +here to-night." "Be innocent of the knowledge, _dearest Chuck_"--a +marvellous phrase for Melpomene. It is the full union--for ill +purposes--that we know habitually for good purposes--that to me tempers +the Murder Tragedy. + +NORTH. + +Yet believe me, my dear Talboys--that of all the murders Macbeth may +have committed, she knew beforehand but of ONE--Duncan's. The haunted +somnambulist speaks the truth--the whole truth, and nothing but the +truth. + +TALBOYS. + +"The Thane of Fife had a Wife." Does not that imply that she was privy +to _that_ Murder? + +NORTH. + +No. Except that she takes upon herself _all_ the murders that are the +offspring, legitimate or illegitimate, of that First Murder. But we +_know_ that Macbeth, in a sudden fit of fury, ordered the Macduffs to +be massacred when on leaving the Cave Lenox told him of the Thane's +flight. + +TALBOYS. + +That is decisive. + +NORTH. + +A woman, she feels for a murdered woman. That is all--a touch of +nature--from Shakspeare's profound and pitiful heart. + +TALBOYS. + +"The Queen, my lord, is dead." "She should have died hereafter; There +would have been a time for such a word"--Often have I meditated on the +meaning of these words--yet even now I do not fully feel or understand +them. + +NORTH. + +Nor I. This seems to look from them--"so pressed by outward besiegings, +I have not capacity to entertain the blow as it requires to be +entertained. With a free soul I could have measured it. Now I cannot." + +TALBOYS. + +Give us, sir, a commentary on the Revelations of the Sleeping Spectre. + +NORTH. + +I dare not. Let's be cheerful. I ask this--when you see and hear +Kemble-Macbeth--and Siddons-Macbeth--whom do you believe that you see +and hear? I affirm that you at one and the same instant--(or at the +most in two immediately successive instants--yet I believe in one and +the same instant)--_know_ that you see and hear Kemble--or if that +accomplished gentleman and admirable actor--Macready be performing the +part--then Macready;--and yet _believe_ that you see and hear Lord +Macbeth. I aver that you entertain a mixt--confused--self-contradictory +state of mind--that two elements of thought which cannot co-subsist do +co-subsist. + +TALBOYS. + +_De jure_ they cannot--DE FACTO they do. + +NORTH. + +Just so. + +TALBOYS. + +They co-subsist fighting, and yet harmonising--there is +half-belief--semi-illusion. + +NORTH. + +I claim the acknowledgment of such a state--which any one who chooses +may better describe, but which shall come to that effect--for the +lowest substratum of all science and criticism concerning POESY. Will +anybody grant me this, then I will reason with him about Poesy, for we +begin with something in common. Will anybody deny me this, then I will +not argue with him about Poesy, for we set out with nothing in common. + +BULLER. + +We grant you all you ask--we are all agreed--"our unanimity is +wonderful." + +NORTH. + +Leave out the great Brother and Sister, and take the Personated alone. +I _know_ that Othello and Desdemona never existed--that an Italian +Novelist began, and an English Dramatist ended them--and there they +are. But do I not _believe_ in their existence, "their loves and woes?" +Yes I do _believe_ in their existence, in their loves and woes--and I +hate Iago accordingly with a vicious, unchristian, personal, active, +malignant hatred. + +TALBOYS. + +Dr Johnson's celebrated expression, "all the belief that Poetry +claims"---- + +BULLER. + +Celebrated! Where is it? + +TALBOYS. + +Preface to Shakspeare--is idle, and frivolous, and false? + +NORTH. + +It is. He belies his own experience. He cannot make up his mind to +admit the _irrational thought_ of belief which you at once reject +and accept. But exactly the half acceptance, and the half rejection, +separates poetry from--prose. + +TALBOYS. + +That is, sir, the poetical from the prosaic. + +NORTH. + +Just so. It is the life and soul of all poetry--the lusus--the +make-believe--the glamour and the gramarye. I do not know--gentlemen--I +wish to be told, whether I am now throwing away words upon the setting +up of a pyramid which was built by Cheops, and is only here and there +crumbling a little, or whether the world requires that the position +shall be formally argued and acknowledged. Johnson, as you reminded me, +Talboys, did not admit it. + +TALBOYS. + +That he tells us in so many words. Has any more versed and +profound master in criticism, before or since, authentically and +authoritatively, luminously, cogently, explicitly, psychologically, +metaphysically, physiologically, psychologically, propounded, reasoned +out, legislated, and enthroned the Dogma? + +NORTH. + +I know not, Talboys. Do you admit the Dogma? + +TALBOYS. + +I do. + +NORTH. + +Impersonation--Apostrophe--of the absent; every poetical motion of +the Soul; the whole pathetic beholding of Nature--involve the secret +existence and necessity of this irrational psychical state for +grounding the Logic of Poesy. + +BULLER. + +Go on, sir. + +NORTH. + +I will--but in a new direction. Before everything else, I desire, for +the settlement of this particular question, a foundation for, and some +progress in the science of MURDER TRAGEDIES. + +SEWARD. + +I know _properly_ two. + +BULLER. + +Two only? Pray name. + +SEWARD. + +This of Macbeth and Richard III. + +BULLER. + +The Agamemnon--the Choephoræ--the Electra--the Medea-- + +SEWARD. + +In the Agamemnon, your regard is drawn to Agamemnon himself and to +Cassandra. However, it is after a measure a prototype. Clytemnestra +has in it a principality. Medea stands eminent--but then she is in the +right. + +BULLER. + +In the right? + +SEWARD. + +Jason at least is altogether in the wrong. But we must--for obvious +reasons--discuss the Greek drama by itself; therefore not a word more +about it now. + +NORTH. + +Richard III., and Macbeth and his wife, are in their Plays the +principal people. You must go along with them to a certain guarded +extent--else the Play is done for. To be kept abhorring and abhorring, +for Five Acts together, you can't stand. + +SEWARD. + +Oh! that the difference between Poetry and Life were once for all +set down--and not only once for all, but every time that it comes in +question. + +BULLER. + +My dear sir, do gratify Seward's very reasonable desire, and once for +all set down the difference. + +SEWARD. + +You bear suicides on the stage, and tyrannicides and other cides--all +simple homicide--much murder. Even Romeo's killing Tybalt in the +street, in reparation for Mercutio's death, you would take rather +differently, if happening to-day in Pall Mall, or Moray Place. + +NORTH. + +We have assuredly for the Stage a qualified scheme of +sentiment--grounded no doubt on our modern or every-day morality--but +specifically modified by Imagination--by Poetry--for the use of the +dramatist. Till we have set down what we _do_ bear, and why, we are not +prepared for distinguishing what we won't bear, and why. + +BULLER. + +Oracular! + +SEWARD. + +Suggestive. + +NORTH. + +And if so, sufficient for the nonce. Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, seems +to me to be the most that can be borne of one purely abhorrible. He +is made disgusting besides--drunken and foul. Able he is--for he won +the Queen by "witchcraft of his wit;" but he is made endurable by his +diminished proportion in the Play--many others overpowering and hiding +him. + +BULLER. + +Pardon me, sir, but I have occasionally felt, in course of this +conversation, that you were seeking--in opposition to Payne Knight--to +reduce Macbeth to a species of Claudius. I agree with you in thinking +that Shakspeare would not give a Claudius so large a proportion of his +drama. The pain would be predominant and insupportable. + +NORTH. + +I would fain hope you have misunderstood me, Buller. + +BULLER. + +Sometimes, sir, it is not easy for a plain man to know what you would +be at. + +NORTH. + +I? + +BULLER. + +Yea--you. + +NORTH. + +Richard III. _is_ a hypocrite--a hard, cold murderer from of old--and +yet you bear him. I suppose, friends, chiefly from his pre-eminent +Intellectual Faculties, and his perfectly courageous and self-possessed +Will. You do support your conscience--or traffic with it--by saying +all along--we are only conducting him to the retribution of Bosworth +Field. But, friends, if these motions in Macbeth, which look like +revealings and breathings of some better elements, are sheer and vile +hypocrisy--if it is merely his manhood that quails, which his wife +has to virilify--a dastard and a hypocrite, and no more--I cannot +abide him--there is too much of a bad business, and then I must think +Shakspeare has committed an egregious error in Poetry. Richard III. is +a bold, heroic hypocrite. He knows he is one. He lies to Man--never to +his own Conscience, or to Heaven. + +TALBOYS. + +What? + +NORTH. + +Never. There he is clear-sighted, and stands, like Satan, in open and +impious rebellion. + +BULLER. + +But your Macbeth, sir, would be a shuffling Puritan--a mixture of Holy +Willie and Greenacre. Forgive me---- + +SEWARD. + +Order--order--order. + +TALBOYS. + +Chair--chair--chair. + +BULLER. + +Swing--Swing--Swing. + +NORTH. + +My dear Buller--you have misunderstood me--I assure you you have. Some +of my expressions may have been too strong--not sufficiently qualified. + +BULLER. + +I accept the explanation. But be more guarded in future, my dear sir. + +NORTH. + +I will. + +BULLER. + +On that assurance I ask you, sir, how is the Tragedy of Macbeth morally +saved? That is, how does the degree of complacency with which we +consider the two murderers not morally taint ourselves--not leave us +predisposed murderers? + +NORTH. + +That is a question of infinite compass and fathom--answered then only +when the whole Theory of Poesy has been expounded. + +BULLER. + +Whew! + +NORTH. + +The difference established between our contemplation of the Stage and +of Life. + +BULLER. + +I hardly expect that to be done this Summer in this Tent. + +NORTH. + +Friends! Utilitarians and Religionists shudder and shun. They consider +the Stage and Life as of one and the same kind--look on both through +one glass. + +BULLER. + +Eh? + +NORTH. + +The Utilitarian will settle the whole question of Life upon half its +data--the lowest half. He accepts Agriculture, which he understands +logically--but rejects Imagination, which he does not understand at +all--because, if you sow it in the track of his plough, no wheat +springs. Assuredly not; a different plough must furrow a different soil +for that seed and that harvest. + +BULLER. + +Now, my dear sir, you speak like yourself. You always do so--the +rashness was all on my side. + +SEWARD. + +Nobody cares--hold your tongue. + +NORTH. + +The Religionist errs from the opposite quarter. He brings measures +from Heaven to measure things of the Earth. He weighs Clay in the +balance of Spirit. I call him a Religionist who overruns with religious +rules and conceptions things that do not come under them--completely +distinct from the native simplicity and sovereignty of Religion in a +piously religious heart. Both of them are confounders of the sciences +which investigate the Facts and the Laws of Nature, visible and +invisible--subduing inquiry under preconception. + +BULLER. + +Was that the Gong--or but thunder? + +NORTH. + +The Gong. + +TALBOYS. + +I smell sea-trout. + + +SCENE III. + +SCENE--_Deeside_. TIME--_after Dinner_. + +NORTH--BULLER--SEWARD--TALBOYS. + +NORTH. + +One hour more--and no more--to Shakspeare. + +BULLER. + +May we crack nuts? + +NORTH. + +By all means. And here they are for you to crack. + +BULLER. + +Now for some of your _astounding Discoveries_. + +NORTH. + +If you gather the Movement, scene by scene, of the Action of this +Drama, you see a few weeks, or it may be months. There must be time +to hear that Malcolm and his brother have reached England and +Ireland--time for the King of England to interest himself in behalf of +Malcolm, and muster his array. More than this seems unrequired. But +the zenith of tyranny to which Macbeth has arrived, and particularly +the manner of describing the desolation of Scotland by the speakers +in England, conveys to you the notion of a long, long dismal reign. +Of old it always used to do so with me; so that when I came to visit +the question of the Time, I felt myself as if baffled and puzzled, not +finding the time I had looked for, demonstrable. Samuel Johnson has had +the same impression, but has not scrutinised the data. He goes probably +by the old Chronicler for the actual time, and this, one would think, +must have floated before Shakspeare's own mind. + +TALBOYS. + +Nobody can read the Scenes in England without seeing long-protracted +time. + + "_Malcolm._ Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there + Weep our sad bosoms empty. + + _Macduff._ Let us rather + Hold fast the mortal sword, and, like good men, + Bestride our down-fallen birthdom: Each new morn, + New widows howl; new orphans cry; new sorrows + Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds + As if it felt with Scotland, and yell'd out + Like syllable of dolour." + +NORTH. + +Ay, Talboys, that is true Shakspeare. No Poet--before or since--has in +so few words presented such a picture. No poet, before or since, has +used _such_ words. He writes like a man inspired. + +TALBOYS. + +And in the same dialogue Malcolm says-- + + "I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; + It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash + Is added to her wounds." + +NORTH. + +Go on, my dear Talboys. Your memory is a treasury of all the highest +Poetry of Shakspeare. Go on. + +TALBOYS. + +And hear Rosse, on his joining Malcolm and Macduff in this scene, the +latest arrival from Scotland:-- + + "_Macduff._ Stands Scotland where it did? + + _Rosse._ Alas, poor country! + Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot + Be call'd our mother, but our grave: where nothing, + But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile; + Where sighs and groans, and shrieks that rent the air, + Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems + A modern ecstasy; the dead man's knell + Is there scarce ask'd, for who; and good men's lives + Expire before the flowers in their caps, + Dying, or ere they sicken." + +NORTH. + +Words known to all the world, yet coming on the ear of each individual +listener with force unweaken'd by familiarity, power increased by +repetition, as it will be over all Scottish breasts _in secula +seculorum_. + +TALBOYS. + +By Heavens! he smiles! There is a sarcastic smile on that +incomprehensible face of yours, sir--of which no man in this Tent, I am +sure, may divine the reason. + +NORTH. + +I was not aware of it. Now, my dear Talboys, let us here endeavour +to ascertain Shakspeare's Time. Here we have long time with a +vengeance--_and here we have short time_; FOR THIS IS THE PICTURE OF +THE STATE OF POOR SCOTLAND BEFORE THE MURDER OF MACDUFF'S WIFE AND +CHILDREN. + +BULLER. + +What? + +SEWARD. + +Eh? + +NORTH. + +Macduff, moved by Rosse's words, asks him, you know, Talboys, "how does +my wife?" And then ensues the affecting account of her murder, which +you need not recite. Now, I ask, when was the murder of Lady Macduff +perpetrated? Two days--certainly not more--after the murder of Banquo. +Macbeth, incensed by the flight of Fleance, goes, the morning after +the murder of Banquo, to the Weirds, to know by "the worst means, the +worst." You know what they showed him--and that, as they vanished, he +exclaimed-- + + "Where are they? Gone?--Let this pernicious hour + Stand aye accursed in the calendar!-- + Come in, without there! + + _Enter_ LENOX. + + _Len._ What's your grace's will? + + _Macb._ Saw you the weird sisters? + + _Len._ No, my lord. + + _Macb._ Came they not by you? + + _Len._ No, indeed, my lord. + + _Macb._ Infected be the air whereon they ride; + And damn'd all those that trust them!--I did hear + The galloping of horse: Who was't came by? + + _Len._ 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word, + MACDUFF IS FLED TO ENGLAND. + + _Macb._ Fled to England? + + _Len._ Ay, my good lord. + + _Macb._ Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits: + The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, + Unless the deed go with it: from this moment, + The very firstlings of my heart shall be + The firstlings of my hand. And even now + To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: + The castle of Macduff I will surprise; + Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword + His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls + That trace his line. No boasting like a fool: + This deed I'll do, before this purpose cool." + +And his purpose does not cool--for the whole Family are murdered. When, +then, took place the murder of Banquo? Why, a week or two after the +Murder of Duncan. A very short time indeed, then, intervened between +the first and the last of these Murders. And yet from those pictures +of Scotland, painted in England for our information and horror, we +have before us a long, long time, all filled up with butchery over +all the land! But I say there had been no such butchery--or anything +resembling it. There was, as yet, little amiss with Scotland. Look at +the _linking_ of Acts II. and III. End of Act II., Macbeth is gone +to Scone--to be invested. Beginning of Act III., Banquo says, in +soliloquy, in Palace of Fores, "Thou hast it _now_." I ask, when is +_this_ NOW? Assuredly just after the Coronation. The Court was moved +from Scone to Fores, which, we may gather from finding Duncan there +formerly, to be the usual Royal Residence. "Enter Macbeth as King." +"Our great Feast"--our "solemn Supper"--"this day's Council"--all have +the aspect of new taking on the style of Royalty. "Thou hast it NOW," +is formal--weighed--and in a position that gives it authority--at the +very beginning of an Act--therefore intended to mark time--a very +pointing of the finger on the dial. + +BULLER. + +Good image--short and apt. + +TALBOYS. + +Let me perpend. + +BULLER. + +Do, sir, let him perpend. + +NORTH. + +Banquo _fears_ "Thou play'dst most foully for it;" he goes no +farther--not a word of any tyranny done. All the style of an incipient, +_dangerous_ Rule--clouds, but no red rain yet. And I need not point +out to you, Talboys, who carry Shakspeare unnecessarily in a secret +pocket of that strange Sporting Jacket, which the more I look at it +the greater is my wonder--that Macbeth's behaviour at the Banquet, on +seeing Banquo nodding at him from his own stool, proves him to have +been _then_ young in blood. + + "My strange and self-abuse + Is the initiate fear that wants hard use. + We are yet but young in deed." + +He had a week or two before committed a first-rate murder, +Duncan's--that night he had, by hired hands, got a second-rate job +done, Banquo's--and the day following he gave orders for a bloody +business on a more extended scale, the Macduffs. But nothing here +the least like Rosse's, or Macduff's, or Malcolm's Picture of +Scotland--during those few weeks. For Shakspeare forgot what the true +time was--his own time--_the short time_; and introduced _long time +at the same time_--why, he himself no doubt knew--and you no doubt, +Talboys, know also--and will you have the goodness to tell the "why" to +the Tent? + +TALBOYS. + +In ten minutes. Are you done? + +NORTH. + +Not quite. Meanwhile--Two Clocks are going at once--which of the two +gives the true time of Day? + +BULLER. + +Short and apt. Go on, Sir. + +NORTH. + +I call that an ASTOUNDING DISCOVERY. Macduff speaks as if he knew that +Scotland had been for ever so long desolated by the Tyrant--and yet +till Rosse told him, never had he heard of the Murder of his own Wife! +Here Shakspeare either forgot himself wholly, and the short time he had +himself assigned--or, with his eyes open, forced in the _long time_ +upon the _short_--in wilful violation of possibility! All silent? + +TALBOYS. + +After supper--you shall be answered. + +NORTH. + +Not by any man now sitting here--or elsewhere. + +TALBOYS. + +That remains to be heard. + +NORTH. + +Pray, Talboys, explain to me _this_. The Banquet scene breaks up in +most admired disorder--"stand not upon the order of your going--but go +at once,"--quoth the Queen. The King, in a state of great excitement, +says to her-- + + "I will to-morrow, + (Betimes I will,) unto the weird sisters: + More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, + By the worst means, the worst: for mine own good, + All causes shall give way; I am in blood + Stept in so far, that, should I wade no more, + Returning were as tedious as go o'er." + +One might have thought not quite so tedious; as yet he had murdered +only Duncan and his grooms, and to-night Banquo. Well, he does go +"to-morrow and by times" to the Cave. + + "_Witch._--By the pricking of my thumbs, + Something wicked this way comes: + Open, locks, whoever knocks. + + _Macbeth._--How now, you secret, Black, and midnight Hags?" + +It is a "dark Cave"--dark at all times--and now "by times" of the +morning! Now--observe--Lenox goes along with Macbeth--on such occasions +'tis natural to wish "one of ourselves" to be at hand. And Lenox had +been at the Banquet. Had he gone to bed after that strange Supper? No +doubt, for an hour or two--like the rest of "the Family." But whether +he went to bed or not, _then and there_ he and another Lord had a +confidential and miraculous conversation. + +TALBOYS. + +Miraculous! What's miraculous about it? + +NORTH. + +Lenox says to the other Lord-- + + "_My former speeches_ have but hit your thoughts, + Which can interpret further; only, I say, + Things have been strangely borne: the gracious Duncan + Was pitied of Macbeth--marry he was dead. + _And the right valiant Banquo walked too late; + Whom, you may say, if it please you, Fleance killed, + For Fleance fled._" + +Who told him all this about Banquo and Fleance? He speaks of it +quite familiarly to the "other lord," as a thing well known in all +its bearings. But not a soul but Macbeth, and the Three Murderers +themselves, could possibly have known anything about it! As for Banquo, +"Safe in a ditch he bides,"--and Fleance had fled. The body may, +perhaps in a few days, be found, and, though "with twenty trenched +gashes on its head," identified as Banquo's, and, in a few weeks, +Fleance may turn up in Wales. Nay, the Three Murderers may confess. +But now all is hush; and Lenox, unless endowed with second sight, or +clairvoyance, could know nothing of the murder. Yet, from his way +of speaking of it, one might imagine crowner's 'quest had sitten +on the body--and the report been in the _Times_ between supper and +that after-supper confab! I am overthrown--everted--subverted--the +contradiction is flagrant--the impossibility monstrous--I swoon. + +BULLER. + +Water--water. + +NORTH. + +Thank you, Buller. That's revivifying--I see now all objects +distinctly. Where was I? O, ay. The "other Lord" seems as warlock-wise +as Lenox--for he looks forward to times when + + "We may again + Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights; + _Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives_." + +An allusion, beyond doubt, to the murder of Banquo! A sudden thought +strikes me. Why, not only must the real, actual, spiritual, corporeal +Ghost of Banquo _sate on the stool_, but "Lenox and the other Lord," as +well as Macbeth, _saw him_. + +BULLER. + +Are you serious, sir? + +NORTH. + +So serious that I can scarcely hope to recover my usual spirits to-day. +Have you, gentlemen, among you any more plausible solution to offer? +All mum. One word more with you. Lenox tells the "other Lord" + + "From broad words, and 'cause he fail'd + His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear, + MACDUFF LIVES IN DISGRACE; SIR, CAN YOU TELL + WHERE HE BESTOWS HIMSELF?" + +And the "other Lord," who is wonderfully well informed for a person +"strictly anonymous," replies that Macduff-- + + "Is gone to pray the holy king, (Edward) on his aid + To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward." + +Nay, he minutely describes Macduff's surly reception of the King's +messenger, sent to invite him to the Banquet, and the happy style of +that official on getting the Thane of Fife's "absolute, Sir, not I," +and D. I. O.! And the same nameless "Lord in waiting" says to Lenox, +that + + "_this report + Hath so exasperate the king, that he + Prepares for some attempt of war_." + +I should like to know first where and when these two gifted individuals +picked up all this information? The king himself had told the Queen, +that same night, that he had _not sent_ to Macduff--but that he had +heard "by the way" that he was not coming to the Banquet--and he only +_learns_ the flight of Macduff after the Cauldron Scene--that is at end +of it:-- + + "_Macbeth._ Come in, without there! + + _Enter Lenox._ + + _Lenox._ What's your Grace's will? + + _Macbeth._ Saw you the Weird Sisters? + + _Lenox._ No, indeed, my Lord. + + _Macbeth._ Infected be the air whereon they ride; + And damn'd all those that trust them!--I did hear + The galloping of horse: Who was't came by? + + _Lenox._ _'Tis two or three, my Lord, that bring you word_, + MACDUFF IS FLED TO ENGLAND. + + _Macbeth._ FLED TO ENGLAND?" + +For an Usurper and Tyrant, his Majesty is singularly ill-informed about +the movements of his most dangerous Thanes! But Lenox, I think, must +have been not a little surprised at that moment to find that, so far +from the _exasperated_ Tyrant having "_prepared for some attempt of +war_" with England--he had not till then positively known that Macduff +had fled! I pause, as a man pauses who has no more to say--not for a +reply. But to be sure, Talboys will reply to anything--and were I to +say that the Moon is made of green cheese, he would say--yellow-- + +TALBOYS. + +If of weeping Parmesan, then I--of the "cheese without a tear"--Double +Gloster. + +NORTH. + +The whole Dialogue between Lenox and the Lord is _miraculous_. It +abounds with knowledge of events that had not happened--and _could +not_ have happened--on the showing of Shakspeare himself; but I do +not believe that there is another man now alive who knows that Lenox +and the "other Lord" are caught up and strangled in that _noose of +Time_. Did the Poet? You would think, from the way they go on, that +one ground of war, one motive of Macduff's going, is the murder of +Banquo--perpetrated since he is gone off! + +TALBOYS. + +Eh? + +NORTH. + +Gentlemen, I have given you a specimen or two of Shakspeare's way of +dealing with Time--and I can elicit no reply. You are one and all +dumbfoundered. What will you be--where will you be--when I-- + +BULLER. + +Have announced "all my astounding discoveries!" and where, also, will +be poor Shakspeare--where his Critics? + +NORTH. + +Friends, Countrymen, and Romans, lend me your ears! A dazzling spell +is upon us that veils from our apprehension all incompatibilities--all +impossibilities--for he dips the Swan-quill in Power--and Power is +that which you must accept from him, and so to the utter oblivion, +while we read or behold, of them all. To go to work with such inquiries +is to try to articulate thunder. What do I intend? That Shakspeare +is only to be _thus_ criticised? Apollo forbid--forbid the Nine! I +intend Prologomena to the Criticism of Shakspeare. I intend mowing +and burning the brambles before ploughing the soil. I intend showing +where we must not look for the Art and the Genius of Shakspeare, as a +step to discovering where we must. I suspect--I know--that Criticism +has oscillated from one extreme to another, in the mind of the +country--from denying all art, to acknowledging consummated art, and no +flaw. I would find the true Point. Stamped and staring upon the front +of these Tragedies is a conflict. He, the Poet, beholds Life--he, the +Poet, is on the Stage. The littleness of the Globe Theatre mixes with +the greatness of human affairs. You think of the Green-room and the +Scene-shifters. I think that when we have stripped away the disguises +and incumbrances of the Power, we shall see, naked, and strong, and +beautiful, the statue moulded by Jupiter. + + +_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._ + + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + + + Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant + preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. + + Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected. + + Italics markup is denoted by _underscores_. + + Bold markup is denoted by =equals=. + + Rendered the cypher on p. 559 as Gs over numerals. + + Added anchor for unanchored footnote on p. 567. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. +66, No 409, November 1849, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43814 *** |