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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44344 ***
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+  NO. CCCC.      FEBRUARY, 1849.      VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS,                          129
+
+  THE CAXTONS. PART X.,                               147
+
+  STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND,                   162
+
+  THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART,             175
+
+  AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS,          190
+
+  DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO,                            202
+
+  MODERN BIOGRAPHY.--BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL,      219
+
+  THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS,         235
+
+  THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN. BY DELTA,              244
+
+  THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA,                          248
+
+
+  EDINBURGH:
+  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET:
+  AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
+
+  _To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._
+
+  SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+  PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+  NO. CCCC.       FEBRUARY, 1849.       VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS.
+
+     _Der Kaukasus und das Land der Kosaken in den Jahren 1843 bis
+     1846._ Von MORITZ WAGNER. 2 vols. Dresden und Leipzig, 1848.
+
+
+A handful of men, frugal, hardy, and valiant, successfully defending
+their barren mountains and dearly-won independence against the
+reiterated assaults of a mighty neighbour, offer, apart from
+political considerations, a deeply interesting spectacle. When, upon
+a map of the world's eastern hemisphere, we behold, not far from its
+centre, on the confines of barbarism and civilisation, a spot, black
+with mountains, and marked "Circassia;" when we contrast this petty
+nook with the vast territory stretching from the Black Sea to the
+Northern Ocean, from the Baltic to Behring's Straits, we admire and
+wonder at the inflexible resolution and determined gallantry that
+have so long borne up against the aggressive ambition, iron will,
+and immense resources of a czar. Sixty millions against six hundred
+thousand--a hundred to one, a whole squadron against a single
+cavalier, a colossus opposed to a pigmy--these are the odds at
+issue. It seems impossible that such a contest can long endure. Yet
+it has lasted twenty years, and still the dwarf resists subjugation,
+and contrives, at intervals, to inflict severe punishment upon his
+gigantic adversary. There is something strangely exciting in the
+contemplation of so brave a struggle. Its interest is far superior
+to that of any of the "little wars" in which Europe, since 1815,
+has evaporated her superabundant pugnacity. African raids and
+Spanish skirmishes are pale affairs contrasted with the dashing
+onslaughts of the intrepid Circassians. And, in other respects than
+its heroism, this contest merits attention. As an important section
+of the huge mountain-dyke, opposed by nature to the south-eastern
+extension of the Russian empire, Circassia is not to be overlooked.
+On the rugged peaks and in the deep valleys of the Caucasus, her
+fearless warriors stand, the vedettes of southern Asia, a living
+barrier to the forward flight of the double eagle.
+
+Matters of pressing interest, nearer home, have diverted public
+attention from the warlike Circassians, whose independent spirit and
+unflinching bravery deserves better than even temporary oblivion.
+Not in our day only have they distinguished themselves in freedom's
+fight. Surrounded by powerful and encroaching potentates, their
+history, for the last five hundred years, records constant struggles
+against oppression. Often conquered, they never were fully subdued.
+Their obscure chronicles are illumined by flashes of patriotism
+and heroic courage. Early in the fifteenth century, they conquered
+their freedom from the Georgian yoke. Then came long wars with the
+Tartars, who could hardly, perhaps, be considered the aggressors,
+the Circassians having overstepped their mountain limits, and spread
+over the plains adjacent to the Sea of Azov. In 1555, the Russian
+grand-duke, Ivan Vasilivitch, pressed forward to Tarki upon the
+Caspian, where he placed a garrison. A Circassian tribe submitted
+to him; he married the daughter of one of their princes, and
+assisted them against the Tartars. But after a while the Russians
+withdrew their succour; and the Circassians, driven back to the
+river Kuban, their natural boundary to the north-west, paid tribute
+to the Tartars, till the commencement of the eighteenth century,
+when a decisive victory liberated them. Meanwhile Russia strode
+steadily southwards, reached the Kuban in the west, whilst, in the
+east, Tarki and Derbent fell, in 1722, into the hands of Peter
+the Great. The fort of Swiatoi-Krest, built by the conqueror, was
+soon afterwards retaken by a swarm of fanatical mountaineers from
+the eastern Caucasus. It is now about seventy years since Russian
+and Circassian first crossed swords in serious warfare. A fanatic
+dervise, who called himself Sheikh Mansour, preached a religious war
+against the Muscovites; but, although followed with enthusiasm, his
+success was not great, and at last he was captured and sent prisoner
+into the interior of Russia. With his fall the furious zeal of the
+Caucasians subsided for a while. But the Turks, who viewed Circassia
+as their main bulwark against the rapidly increasing power of their
+dangerous northern neighbour, made friends of the mountaineers, and
+stirred them up against Russia. The fortified town of Anapa, on the
+north-west coast of Circassia, became the focus of the intercourse
+between the Porte and its new allies. The creed of Mahomet was
+actively propagated amongst the Circassians, whose relations with
+Turkey grew more and more intimate, and in the year 1824 several
+tribes took oath of allegiance to the sultan. In 1829, during the
+war between Russia and Turkey, Anapa, which had more than once
+changed hands in the course of previous contests, was taken by the
+former power, to whom, by the treaty of Adrianople, its possession,
+and that of the other Turkish posts on the same coast, was finally
+conceded. Hence the chief claim of Russia upon Circassia--although
+Circassia had never belonged to the Turks, nor been occupied by
+them; and from that period dates the war that has elicited from
+Russia so great a display of force against an apparently feeble, but
+in reality formidable antagonist--an antagonist who has hitherto
+baffled her best generals, and picked troops, and most skilful
+strategists.
+
+The tribes of the Caucasus may be comprehended, for the sake of
+simplicity, under two denominations: the Tcherkesses or Circassians,
+in the west, and the Tshetshens in the east. In loose newspaper
+statements, and in the garbled reports of the war which remote
+position, Russian jealousy, and the peculiarly inaccessible
+character of the Caucasians, suffer to reach us, even this broad
+distinction is frequently disregarded.[1] It is nevertheless
+important, at least in a physiological point of view; and, even
+as regards the resistance offered to Russia, there are differences
+between the Eastern and the Western Caucasians. The military tactics
+of both are much alike, but the character of the war varies. On
+the banks of the Kuban, and on the Euxine shores, the strife has
+never been so desperate, and so dangerous for the Russians, as
+in Daghestan, Lesghistan, and the land of the Tshetshens. The
+Abchasians, Mingrelians, and other Circassian tribes, dwelling on
+the southern slopes of Caucasus, and on the margin of the Black Sea,
+are of more peaceable and passive character than their brethren
+to the North and East. The Tshetshens, by far the most warlike
+and enterprising of the Caucasians, have had the ablest leaders,
+and have at all times been stimulated by fierce religious zeal.
+As far back as 1745, Russian missionaries were sent to the tribe
+of the Osseti, who had relapsed from Christianity to the heathen
+creed of their forefathers. Every Osset who presented himself at
+the baptismal font received a silver cross and a new shirt. The
+bait brought thousands of the mountaineers to the Russian priests,
+who contented themselves with the outward and visible sign of
+conversion. These propagandist attempts enraged the Mahomedan
+tribes, and then it was that they thronged around Sheikh Mansour,
+as they have done in our day (in 1830) around that strange fanatic
+Chasi-Mollah, when in his turn he preached a holy war against the
+Russian. In the latter year, General Paskewitch had just been
+called away to Poland, and his successor, Baron Rosen, found all
+Daghestan in an uproar. He immediately opened the campaign, but met
+a strenuous resistance, and suffered heavy loss. The defence of the
+village of Hermentschuk, held against him, in the year 1832, by
+3000 Tshetshens, was an extraordinary example of heroism. When the
+Russian infantry forced their way into the place with the bayonet, a
+portion of the garrison shut themselves up in a fortified house, and
+made it good against overwhelming numbers, singing passages from the
+Koran amidst a storm of bombs and grapeshot. At last the building
+took fire, and its undaunted defenders, the sacred verses still
+upon their lips, found death in the flames. In an equally desperate
+defence of the fortified village of Himri, Chasi-Mollah met his
+death, falling in the very breach, bleeding from many wounds. The
+chief who succeeded him was less venerated and less energetic,
+and for a few years the Tshetshens remained tolerably quiet, but
+without a thought of submission. Nevertheless the Russians flattered
+themselves that the worst was past; that the death of the mad
+dervish was an irreparable loss to the mountaineers. They were
+mistaken. Out of his most ardent adherents Chasi-Mollah had formed a
+sort of sacred band, whom he called Murides, gloomy fanatics, half
+warriors, half priests. They composed his body-guard, were unwearied
+in preaching up the fight for the Prophet's faith, and in battle
+devoted themselves to death with a heroism that has never been
+surpassed. From these, within a short time of their first leader's
+death, Chamyl, the present renowned chief of the Tshetshens, soon
+stood forth pre-eminent, and the Murides followed him to the field
+with the same enthusiasm and valour they had shown under his
+predecessor. He did not prove less worthy of guiding them; and the
+Russians were compelled to confess, that it was easier for the
+Tshetshens to find an able leader than for them to find a general
+able to beat him. And victories over the restless and enterprising
+Caucasians were of little profit, even when obtained. For the most
+part, they only served to fill the Russian hospitals, and to procure
+the officers those ribbons and distinctions they so greedily covet,
+and which, in that service, are so liberally bestowed.[2] Thus,
+in 1845, Count Woronzoff made a most daring expedition into the
+heart of Daghestan. He found the villages empty and in flames,
+lost three thousand men, amongst them many brave and valuable
+officers, and marched back again, strewing the path with wounded,
+for whom the means of transport (the horses of the Cossack cavalry)
+were quite insufficient. With great difficulty, and protected by
+a column that went out to meet them, the Russians regained their
+lines, harassed to the last by the fierce Caucasians. This affair
+was called a victory, and Count Woronzoff was made a prince. Two
+more such victories would have reduced his expeditionary column to
+a single battalion. Chamyl, who had cannonaded the Russians with
+their own artillery, captured in former actions, possibly considered
+himself equally entitled to triumph, as he slowly retreated, after
+following up the foe nearly to the gates of their fortresses, into
+the recesses of his native valleys.
+
+  [1] "Amongst the Caucasian tribes, the interest of Europe has
+  attached itself especially to the Circassians, because they are
+  regarded (in Urquhart's words) 'as the only people, from the
+  Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, ever ready to revenge an injury
+  and retort a menace proceeding from the Czar of the Muscovites.'
+  Urquhart's opinion, which is shared by the great majority of the
+  European public, is not quite correct, the Circassians not being
+  the only combatants against Russia. Indeed it so happens that,
+  for the last four years, they have kept tolerably quiet in their
+  mountains, contenting themselves with small forays into the Cossack
+  country on the Kuban; whilst the warlike Tshetshens in the eastern
+  Caucasus, their chief, Chamyl, at their head, have given the Russian
+  army much more to do. But, in the absence of official intelligence,
+  and of regular newspaper information concerning the events of the
+  war, people in Europe have got accustomed to admire and praise the
+  Circassians as the only defenders of Caucasian freedom against
+  Russian aggression; and even in St Petersburg the intelligent public
+  hold the famous Chamyl to be chief of the Circassians, with whom he
+  has nothing whatever to do."--_Der Kaukasus_, &c., vol. ii. p. 22-3.
+
+  [2] "It must be admitted that Russian officers are second to those
+  of no other nation, in thirst for distinction, and in honourable
+  ambition, to awaken and stimulate which, innumerable means are
+  employed. In no other army are the rewards for those officers
+  who distinguish themselves in the field of so many kinds, and so
+  lavishly dealt out. There are all manner of medals and marks for
+  good service--crosses and stars of Saints George, Stanislaus,
+  Vladimir, Andrew, Anna, and other holy personages; some with crowns,
+  some with diamonds, peculiar distinctions on the epaulets and
+  uniforms, &c. &c. I was once in a distinguished society, composed
+  almost entirely of officers of the army of the Caucasus. Not finding
+  very much amusement, I had the patience to count all the orders and
+  decorations in the room, and found that upon the breasts of the
+  thirty-five military guests, there glittered more than two hundred
+  stars, crosses, and medals; on some of the generals' coats were
+  more orders than buttons. As it usually happens, the desire for
+  these distinctions increases with their possession. The Russian who
+  has obtained a medal leaves no stone unturned to get a knight's
+  cross, and when the cross is at his button-hole, he is ravenous
+  for the glittering star, and ready to make any sacrifice to obtain
+  it."--_Der Kaukasus_, &c., vol. ii. p. 98.
+
+The interior of Circassia is still an unknown land. The
+investigations of Messrs Bell, Longworth, Stewart, and others,
+who of late years have visited and written about the country,
+were confined to small districts, and cramped by the jealousy of
+the natives. Mr Bell, who made the longest residence, was treated
+more like a prisoner than a guest. Other foreigners find a worse
+reception still. Even the Poles, who desert from the Russian army,
+are made slaves of by the Circassians, and so severely treated
+that they are often glad to return to their colours, and endure
+the flogging that there awaits them. The only European who, having
+penetrated into the interior, has again seen his own country, is
+the Russian Baron Turnau, an aide-de-camp of General Gurko; but
+the circumstances of his abode in Circassia were too painful and
+peculiar to allow opportunity for observation. They are well told by
+Dr Wagner.
+
+     "By the Emperor's command, Russian officers acquainted with
+     the language are sent, from time to time, as spies into
+     Circassia,[3]--partly to make topographical surveys of
+     districts previously unknown; partly to ascertain the numbers,
+     mode of life, and disposition of those tribes with whom no
+     intercourse is kept up. These missions are extremely dangerous,
+     and seldom succeed. Shortly before my arrival at Terek, four
+     Russian staff-officers were sent as spies to various parts of
+     Lesghistan. They assumed the Caucasian garb, and were attended
+     by natives in Russian pay. Only one of them ever returned;
+     the three others were recognised and murdered. Baron Turnau
+     prepared himself long beforehand for his dangerous mission.
+     He gave his complexion a brownish tint, and to his beard the
+     form affected by the aborigines. He also tried to learn the
+     language of the Ubiches, but, finding the harsh pronunciation
+     of certain words quite unattainable, he agreed with his guide
+     to pass for deaf and dumb during his stay in the country.
+     In this guise he set out upon his perilous journey, and for
+     several days wandered undetected from tribe to tribe. But one
+     of the _works_ (nobles) under whose roof he passed a night,
+     conceived suspicions, and threatened the guide, who betrayed his
+     employer's secret. The baron was kept prisoner, and the Ubiches
+     demanded a cap-full of silver for his ransom from the Russian
+     commandant of Fort Ardler. When this officer declared himself
+     ready to pay, they increased their demand to a bushel of silver
+     rubles. The commandant referred the matter to Baron Rosen, then
+     commander-in-chief of the army of the Caucasus; the baron
+     reported it to St Petersburg, and the Emperor consented to pay
+     the heavy ransom. But Rosen represented it to him as more for
+     the Russian interest to leave Turnau for a while in the hands of
+     the Ubiches; for, in the first place, the payment of so large a
+     sum was a bad precedent, likely to encourage the mountaineers to
+     renew the extortion, instead of contenting themselves, as they
+     previously had done, with a few hundred rubles; and, secondly,
+     as a prisoner, Baron Turnau would perhaps have opportunities of
+     gathering valuable information concerning a country and people
+     of whom little or nothing was known. The unfortunate young
+     officer was cruelly sacrificed to these considerations, and
+     passed a long winter in terrible captivity, tortured by frost
+     and hunger, compelled, as a slave, to the severest labour, and
+     often greatly ill-treated. Several attempts at flight failed;
+     and at last the chief, in whose hands he was, confined him in a
+     cage half-buried in the ground, and withal so narrow that its
+     inmate could neither stand upright nor lie at length."
+
+  [3] The reference in this instance is more particularly to the
+  land of the Ubiches and Tchigetes, two tribes that abide south of
+  Circassia Proper, and whose language differs from those of the
+  Circassians and Abchasians, their neighbours to the north and south.
+  The general medium of conversation amongst the various Caucasian
+  tribes is the Turkish-Tartar dialect, current amongst most of the
+  dwellers on the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas.
+
+Thus immured, a prey to painful maladies, his clothes rotting on
+his emaciated limbs, the unhappy man moaned through his long and
+sleepless nights, and gave up hope of rescue. No tender-hearted
+Circassian maiden brought to him, as to the hero of Pushkin's
+well-known Caucasian poem, deliverance and love. Such luck had been
+that of more than one Russian captive; but poor Turnau, in his
+state of filth and squalor, was no very seductive object. He might
+have pined away his life in his cage, before Baron Rosen, or his
+paternal majesty the Czar, had recalled his fate to mind, but for
+an injury done by his merciless master to one of his domestics, who
+vowed revenge. Watching his opportunity, this servant, one day that
+the rest of the household were absent, murdered his lord, released
+the prisoner, tied him with thongs upon his saddle, upon which the
+baron, covered with sores and exhausted by illness, was unable to
+support himself, and galloped with him towards the frontier. In one
+day they rode eighty _versts_, (about fifty-four English miles,)
+outstripped pursuers, and reached Fort Ardler. The accounts given
+by Baron Turnau of the land of his captivity could be but slight:
+he had seen little beyond his place of confinement. What he did
+relate was not very encouraging to Russian invasion. He depicted
+the country as one mass of rock and precipice, partially clothed
+with vast tracts of aboriginal forest, broken by deep ravines and
+mountain torrents, and surmounted by the huge ice-clad pinnacles of
+the loftiest Caucasian ridge. The villages, some of which nestle in
+the deep recesses of the woods, whilst others are perched upon steep
+crags and on the brink of giddy precipices, are universally of most
+difficult access.
+
+Dr Wagner, whose extremely amusing book forms the text of this
+article, has never been in Circassia, although he gives us more
+information about it, of the sort we want, than any traveller in
+that singular land whose writings have come under our notice.
+His wanderings were under Russian guidance and escort. During
+them, he skirted the hostile territory on more than one side;
+occasionally setting a foot across the border, to the alarm of
+his Cossacks, whose dread by day and dreams by night were of
+Circassian ambuscades; he has lingered at the base of Caucasus, and
+has traversed its ranges--without, however, deeming it necessary
+to penetrate into those remote valleys, where foreigners find
+dubious welcome, and whence they are not always sure of exit. He
+has mixed much with Circassians, if he has not actually dwelt in
+their villages. It were tedious and unnecessary to detail his
+exact itinerary. He has not printed his entire journal--according
+to the lazy and egotistical practice of many travellers--but has
+taken the trouble to condense it. The essence is full of variety,
+anecdote and adventure, and gives a clear insight into the nature
+of the war. Professedly a man of science, an antiquary and a
+naturalist, Dr Wagner has evidently a secret hankering after matters
+military. He loves the sound of the drum, and willingly directs
+his scientific researches to countries where he is likely to smell
+powder. We had heard of him in the Atlas mountains, and at the
+siege of Constantina, before we met him risking his neck along the
+banks of the Kuban, and across the wild steppes of the Caucasus.
+He has travelled much in the East, and prepared himself for his
+Caucasian trip by a long stay in Turkey and in Southern Russia.
+Well introduced, he derived from distinguished Russian generals,
+intelligent civilians, and Circassian chiefs, particulars of the war
+more authentic than are to be obtained either from St Petersburg
+bulletins, or from the ordinary trans-Caucasian correspondents of
+German and other newspapers, many of whom are in the pay of Russia.
+His African reminiscences proved of great value. The officers of the
+army of Caucasus take the strongest interest in the contest between
+French and Arabs, finding in it, doubtless, points of similitude
+with the war in which they themselves are engaged. Amongst these
+officers he met, besides Russians and Germans, several naturalised
+Poles and Frenchmen, Flemings and Spaniards, who gave in exchange
+for his tales of razzias and Bedouins, details of Circassian warfare
+which he highly prized, as likely to be more impartial than the
+accounts afforded by the native Russians. His own journey to the
+Caucasus took place in 1843; but a subsequent correspondence with
+well-informed friends, on both sides the Caucasian range, enabled
+him to bring down his sketch of the struggle to the year 1846.
+
+Many English writers on Circassia have been accused of an undue
+preference for the mountaineers, of exaggerating their good
+qualities, and of elevating them by invidious contrasts with the
+Russians. There is no ground for suspecting a German of such
+partiality; and Dr Wagner, whilst lauding the heroic valour and
+independent spirit of the Circassians--qualities which Russian
+authors have themselves admitted and extolled--does not forget
+to do justice to his Muscovite and Cossack friends, to whom he
+devotes a considerable portion of his book, many of his details
+concerning them being extremely novel and curious. He carefully
+studied both Cossacks and Circassians, living amongst the former
+and meeting thousands of the latter, who go and come freely upon
+Russian territory. At Ekaterinodar, the capital of the Tchernamortsy
+Cossacks, the Friday's market swarmed with Circassians. In Turkey,
+and elsewhere, Dr Wagner had met many individuals of that nation,
+but this was the first time he beheld them in crowds. He describes
+them as very handsome men, with black beards, aquiline noses, and
+flashing black eyes. He was struck with their lofty mien, and
+attributes it to their mental energy, and to a consciousness of
+physical strength and beauty.
+
+     "This superiority of the pure Circassian blood does not belie
+     itself under Russian discipline, any more than it does in
+     Mahometan lands, where, as Mamelukes in Cairo, and as pashas in
+     Stamboul, the sons of Caucasus have ever played a prominent and
+     distinguished part. The Turk, who by certain imposing qualities
+     awes all other Orientals, tacitly recognises the superiority of
+     the Circassian _ousden_, or noble. The Emperor Nicholas, who
+     preserves so rigid a discipline in the various corps of his
+     vast army, shows himself extraordinarily considerate towards
+     the Circassian squadrons of his guard. Persons well versed
+     in the military chronicles of St Petersburg relate many a
+     characteristic trait, proving the bold stubborn spirit of these
+     Caucasian men to be still unbroken, and showing how it more
+     than once has so imposed upon the emperor, and even upon the
+     grand-duke Michael, reputed the strictest disciplinarian in
+     Russia, that they have shut their eyes even to open mutiny. At a
+     review, where the Caucasian cavalry formally refused obedience,
+     the emperor contented himself with sending a courteous reproof
+     by General Benkendorf. Beside the coarse common Russians, the
+     Circassian looks like an eagle amidst a flock of bustards. Even
+     capital crimes are not visited upon Circassians with the same
+     severity as upon the other subjects of the emperor. A Circassian
+     who had struck his dagger into the heart of a hackney-coachman
+     at St Petersburg, in requital of an insolent overcharge, was
+     merely sent back to the Caucasus. For a like offence a Russian
+     might reckon upon the knout, and upon banishment for life to the
+     Siberian mines.
+
+     "Amongst the Circassians at Ekaterinodar, a _work_, or noble,
+     of the Shapsookian tribe, was particularly remarkable for his
+     beauty and dignity. None of the picturesque figures of Arabs
+     and Moors furnished me by my African recollections, could bear
+     comparison with this Caucasian eagle. I afterwards saw, in
+     Mingrelia, a more ideal mould of feature, resembling the antique
+     Apollo type: but there the expression was too effeminate; the
+     heroic head of the dweller on the Kuban pleased me better. I
+     stood a good while before the Shapsookian, as if fettered to the
+     ground, so extraordinary was the effect of his striking beauty.
+     What a study, I thought, for a German painter, who would in vain
+     seek such models in Rome; or for a Vernet, whose Arabian groups
+     prove the great power of his pencil! The Arabs, rather priestly
+     than knightly in their aspect, produce far less effect upon
+     the large Algerine pictures at Versailles than the Circassian
+     warrior would do in a battle-piece by such masters as Vernet or
+     Peter Hess. The Shapsook chief at Ekaterinodar seemed conscious
+     of his magnificent appearance. With proud mien, and that light
+     half-gliding gait observable in most Caucasians, he sauntered
+     amongst the groups of Cossacks upon the market-place, casting
+     glances of profoundest scorn upon their clumsy sheepskin-wrapped
+     figures. His slender form and small foot, the grace and elegance
+     of his person and carriage, the richness of his costume and
+     beauty of his weapons, contrasted most advantageously with
+     the muscular but somewhat thickset figures, and with the ugly
+     woolly winter dress of the Tchernamortsies. By help of a Cossack
+     I made his acquaintance, and got into conversation. His name
+     was Chora-Beg, and he dwelt at a hamlet thirty versts south of
+     Ekaterinodar."
+
+Chora-Beg wondered greatly that his new acquaintance was neither
+Russian nor English. He had heard vaguely that there was a third
+Christian nation, which, under Sultan Bunapart, had made war upon
+the Padisha of the Russians, but he had no notion of such a people
+as the Germans. He greatly admired Dr Wagner's rifle, but rather
+doubted its carrying farther than a smooth bore, and allowed free
+inspection of his own arms, consisting of pistols and dagger, and of
+the famous _shaska_--a long heavy cavalry sabre, slightly curved,
+with hilt of silver and ivory. At the doctor's request he drew this
+weapon from the scabbard, and cut twice or thrice at the empty air,
+his dark eyes flashing as he did so. "How many Russians has that
+sabre sent to their account?" asked the inquisitive Doctor. The
+Circassian's intelligent countenance assumed an expression hard to
+interpret, but in which his interlocutor thought he distinguished a
+gleam of scorn, and a shade of suspicion. "It was long," he replied,
+"since his tribe had taken the field against the Russians. Since
+the deaf general (Sass) had left the land of the Cossacks, peace
+had reigned between Muscovite and Shapsookian. Individuals of his
+tribe had certainly been known to join bands from the mountains, and
+to cross the Kuban with arms in hand." And as Chora-Beg spoke, the
+expression of his proud eye belied his pacific pretensions.
+
+The general Sass above-named commanded for several years on
+the line of the Kuban, and is the only Russian general who has
+understood the mountain warfare, and proved himself a match for
+the Circassians at their own game of ambuscades and surprises. His
+tactics were those of the Spanish guerilla leaders. Lavish in his
+payment of spies, he was always accurately informed of the musters
+and projects of the Circassians; whilst he kept his own plans so
+secret, that his personal staff often knew nothing of an intended
+expedition until the call to "boot and saddle" sounded. His raids
+were accomplished, under guidance of his well-paid scouts, with
+such rapidity and local knowledge that the mountaineers rarely had
+time to assemble in force, pursue the retiring column, and revenge
+their burnt vilages and ravished cattle. But one day the report
+spread on the lines of the Kuban that the general was dangerously
+ill; shortly afterwards it became known that the physicians had
+given him up; and finally his death was announced, and bewailed by
+the whole army of the Caucasus. The consternation of the Cossacks,
+accustomed, under his command, to victory and rich booty, was as
+great as the exultation of the mountaineers. Hundreds of these
+visited the Russian territory, to witness the interment of their
+dreaded foe. A magnificent coffin, with the general's cocked hat
+and decorations laid upon it, was deposited in the earth amidst
+the mournful sounds of minute guns and muffled drums. With joyful
+hearts the Circassians returned to their mountains, to tell what
+they had seen, and to congratulate each other at the prospect of
+tranquillity for themselves, and safety to their flocks and herds.
+But upon the second night after Sass's funeral, a strong Russian
+column crossed the Kuban, and the dead general suddenly appeared
+at the head of his trusty lancers, who greeted with wild hurrahs
+their leader's resurrection. Several large _auls_ (villages) whose
+inhabitants were sound asleep, unsuspicious of surprise, were
+destroyed, vast droves of cattle were carried off, and a host of
+prisoners made. This ingenious and successful stratagem is still
+cited with admiration on the banks of the Kuban. Notwithstanding
+his able generalship, Sass was removed from his command when in
+full career of success. All his military services could not shield
+him from the consequences of St Petersburg intrigues and trumped-up
+accusations. None of his successors have equalled him. General
+Willaminoff was a man of big words rather than of great deeds. In
+his bombastic and blasphemous proclamation of the 28th May 1837, he
+informed the Circassians that "If the heavens should fall, Russia
+could prop them with her bayonets;" following up this startling
+assertion with the declaration that "there are but two powers in
+existence--God in heaven, and the emperor upon earth!"[4] The
+Circassians laughed at this rhodomontade, and returned a firm and
+becoming answer. There were but few of them, they said--but, with
+God's blessing, they would hold their own, and fight to the very
+last man: and to prove themselves as good as their word, they soon
+afterwards made fierce assaults upon the line of forts built by the
+Russians upon the shores of the Black Sea. In 1840 four of these
+were taken, but the triumph cost the victors so much blood as to
+disgust them for some time with attacking stone walls, behind which
+the Russians, perhaps the best defensive combatants in the world,
+fight like lions. Indeed, the Circassians would hardly have proved
+victorious, had not the garrisons been enfeebled by disease. During
+the five winter months, the rations of the troops employed upon
+this service are usually salt, and the consequences are scurvy and
+fever. Informed by Polish deserters of the bad condition of the
+garrisons, the Circassians held a great council in the mountains,
+and it was decided to take the forts with the sabre, without
+firing a shot. It is an old Caucasian custom, that, upon suchlike
+perilous undertakings, a chosen band of enthusiastic warrors devote
+themselves to death, binding themselves by a solemn oath not to
+turn their backs upon the enemy. Ever in the van, their example
+gives courage to the timid; and their friends are bound in honour
+to revenge their death. With these fanatics have the Circassian and
+Tshetshen chiefs achieved their greatest victories over the Russians.
+
+  [4] Longworth's _Circassia_, vol. i. p. 1589.
+
+When it was decided to attack the forts, several hundred
+Shapsookians, including gray-haired old men and youths of tender
+age, swore to conquer or to die. They kept their word. At the fort
+of Michailoff, which made the most obstinate defence, the ditch was
+filled with their corpses. The conduct of the garrison was truly
+heroic. Of five hundred men, only one third were fit for duty;
+the others were in hospital, or on the sick-list. But no sooner
+did the Circassian war-cry rend the air than the sufferers forgot
+their pains; the fever-stricken left their beds, and crawled to
+the walls. Their commandant called upon them to shed their last
+drop of blood for their emperor; their old _papa_ exhorted them, as
+Christians, to fight to the death against the unbelieving horde. But
+numbers prevailed: after a valiant defence, the Russians retreated,
+fighting, to the innermost enclosures of the fortress. Their chief
+demanded a volunteer to blow up the fort when farther resistance
+should become impossible. A soldier stepped forward, took a lighted
+match, and entered the powder magazine. The last defences were
+stormed, the Circassians shouted victory. Then came the explosion.
+Most of the buildings were overthrown, and hundreds of maimed
+carcases scattered in all directions. Eleven Russians escaped with
+life, were dragged off to the mountains, and subsequently ransomed,
+and from them the details of this bloody fight were obtained.
+
+The capture of these forts spread discouragement and consternation
+in the ranks of the Russian army. The emperor was furious, and
+General Rajewski, then commander-in-chief on the Circassian
+frontier, was superseded. This officer, who at the tender age of
+twelve was present with his father at the battle of Borodino, and
+who has since distinguished himself in the Turkish and Persian
+wars, was reputed an able general, but was reproached with sleeping
+too much, and with being too fond of botany. His enemies went
+so far as to accuse him of making military expeditions into the
+mountains, with the sole view of adding rare Caucasian plants to his
+_herbarium_, and of procuring seeds for his garden. General Aurep,
+who succeeded him, undertook little beyond reconnoissances, always
+attended with very heavy loss; and the Circassians remained upon the
+defensive until the year 1843, when the example of the Tshetshens,
+who about that time obtained signal advantages over the Russians,
+roused the martial ardour of the chivalrous Circassians, and spurred
+them to fresh hostilities. But the war at the western extremity of
+Caucasus never assumed the importance of that in Daghestan and the
+country of the Tshetshens.
+
+From the straits of Zabache to the frontier of Guria, the Russians
+possess seventeen _Kreposts_, or fortified posts, only a few of
+which deserve the name of regular fortresses, or could resist a
+regular army provided with artillery. To mountaineers, however,
+whose sole weapons are shaska and musket, even earthen parapets
+and shallow ditches are serious obstacles when well manned and
+resolutely defended. The object of erecting this line of forts was
+to cut off the communication by sea between Turkey and the Caucasian
+tribes. It was thought that, when the import of arms and munitions
+of war from Turkey was thus checked, the independent mountain
+tribes would soon be subjugated. The hope was not realised, and the
+expensive maintenance of 15,000 to 20,000 men in the fortresses of
+the Black Sea has but little improved the position of the Russians
+in the Caucasus. The Caucasians have never lacked arms, and with
+money they can always get powder, even from the Cossacks of the
+Kuban. In another respect, however, these forts have done them
+much harm, and thence it arises that, since their erection, and
+the cession of Anapa to Russia, the war has assumed so bitter a
+character. So long as Anapa was Turkish, the export of slaves, and
+the import of powder, found no hindrance. The needy Circassian
+noble, whose rude mountains supply him but sparingly with daily
+bread, obtained, by the sale of slaves, means of satisfying his
+warlike and ostentatious tastes--of procuring rich clothes, costly
+weapons, and ammunition for war and for the chase. In a moral point
+of view, all slave traffic is of course odious and reprehensible,
+but that of Circassia differed from other commerce of the kind,
+in so far that all parties were benefited by, and consenting to,
+the contract. The Turks obtained from Caucasus handsomer and
+healthier wives than those born in the harem; and the Circassian
+beauties were delighted to exchange the poverty and toil of their
+father's mountain huts for the luxurious _farniente_ of the
+seraglio, of whose wonders and delights their ears were regaled,
+from childhood upwards, with the most glowing descriptions. The
+trade, although greatly impeded and very hazardous, still goes on.
+Small Turkish craft creep up to the coast, cautiously evading the
+Russian cruisers, enter creeks and inlets, and are dragged by the
+Circassians high and dry upon the beach, there to remain till the
+negotiation for their live cargo is completed, an operation that
+generally takes a few weeks. The women sold are the daughters of
+serfs and freedmen: rarely does a _work_ consent to dispose of
+his sister or daughter, although the case does sometimes occur.
+But, whilst the sale goes on, the slave-ships are anything but
+secure. It is a small matter to have escaped the Russian frigates
+and steamers. Each of the Kreposts possesses a little squadron of
+row-boats, manned with Cossacks, who pull along the coast in search
+of Turkish vessels. If they detect one, they land in the night, and
+endeavour to set fire to it, before the mountaineers can come to
+the assistance of the crew. The Turks, who live in profound terror
+of these Cossack coast-guards, resort to every possible expedient
+to escape their observation; often covering their vessels with dry
+leaves and boughs, and tying fir branches to the masts, that the
+scouts may take them for trees. If they are captured at sea by the
+cruisers, the crew are sent to hard labour in Siberia, and the
+Circassian girls are married to Cossacks, or divided as handmaidens
+amongst the Russian staff officers. From thirty to forty slaves
+compose the usual cargo of each of these vessels, which are so
+small that the poor creatures are packed almost like herrings in
+a barrel. But they patiently endure the misery of the voyage, in
+anticipation of the honeyed existence of the harem. It is calculated
+that one vessel out of six is taken or lost. In the winter of
+1843-4, eight-and-twenty ships left the coast of Asia Minor for that
+of Caucasia. Twenty-three safely returned, three were burned by the
+Russians, and two swallowed by the waves.
+
+A Turkish captain at Sinope told Dr Wagner the following interesting
+anecdote, illustrating Circassian hatred of the Russians:--"A
+few years ago a slave-ship sprang a leak out at sea, just as a
+Russian steamer passed in the distance. The Turkish slave-dealer,
+who preferred even the chill blasts of Siberia to a grave in deep
+water, made signals of distress, and the steamer came up in time
+to rescue the ship and its living cargo from destruction. But so
+deeply is hatred of Russia implanted in every Circassian heart, that
+the spirit of the girls revolted at the thought of becoming the
+helpmates of gray-coated soldiers, instead of sharing the sumptuous
+couch of a Turkish pasha. They had bid adieu to their native
+mountains with little emotion, but as the Russian ship approached
+they set up terrible and despairing screams. Some sprang headlong
+into the sea; others drove their knives into their hearts:--to
+these heroines death was preferable to the bridal-bed of a detested
+Muscovite. The survivors were taken to Anapa, and married to
+Cossacks, or given to officers as servants." Nearly every Austrian
+or Turkish steamboat that makes, in the winter months, the voyage
+from Trebizond to Constantinople, has a number of Circassian girls
+on board. Dr Wagner made the passage in an Austrian steamer with
+several dozens of these willing slaves, chiefly mere children,
+twelve or thirteen years old, with interesting countenances and
+dark wild eyes, but very pale and thin--with the exception of
+two, who were some years older, far better dressed, and carefully
+veiled. To this favoured pair the slave-dealer paid particular
+attention, and frequently brought them coffee. Dr Wagner got into
+conversation with this man, who was richly dressed in furs and
+silks, and who, despite his vile profession, had the manners of
+a gentleman. The two coffee-drinkers were daughters of noblemen,
+he said, with fine rosy cheeks, and in better condition than the
+others, consequently worth more money at Constantinople. For the
+handsomest he hoped to obtain 30,000 piastres, and for the other
+20,000--about £250 and £170. The herd of young creatures he spoke of
+with contempt, and should think himself lucky to get 2000 piastres
+for them all round. He further informed the doctor that, although
+the slave-trade was more dangerous and difficult since the Russian
+occupation of the Caucasian coast, it was also far more profitable.
+Formerly, when Greek and Armenian women were brought in crowds to
+the Constantinople market, the most beautiful Circassians were
+not worth more than 10,000 piastres; but now a rosy, well-fed,
+fifteen-year-old slave is hardly to be had under 40,000 piastres.
+
+The Tshetshen successes, already referred to as having at the close
+of 1842 stirred into flame and action, by the force of example,
+the smouldering but still ardent embers of Circassian hatred to
+Russia, are described with remarkable spirit by Dr Wagner, in the
+chapter entitled "Caucasian War-Scenes,"--episodes taken down by him
+from the lips of eye-witnesses, and of sharers in the sanguinary
+conflicts described. This graphic chapter at once familiarises the
+reader with the Caucasian war, with which he thenceforward feels
+as well acquainted as with our wars in India, the French contest
+in Africa, or with any other series of combats, of whose nature
+and progress minute information has been regularly received. The
+first event described is the storming of Aculcho, in the summer
+of 1839. It is always a great point with guerilla generals, and
+with leaders of mountain warfare, to have a centre of operations--a
+strong post, whither they can retreat after a reverse, with the
+confidence that the enemy will hesitate before attacking them there.
+In Spain, Cabrera had Morella, the Count d'Espagne had Berga, the
+Navarrese viewed Estella as their citadel. In the eastern Caucasus,
+Chasi-Mollah had Himri, and preferred falling in its defence to
+abandoning his stronghold; his successor, Chamyl, who surpasses him
+in talent for war and organisation, established his headquarters
+at Aculcho, a sort of eagle's nest on the river Koisu, whither his
+escorts brought him intelligence of each movement of Russian troops,
+and whence he swooped, like the bird whose eyrie he occupied, upon
+the convoys traversing the steppe of the Terek. Here he planned
+expeditions and surprises, and kept a store of arms and ammunition;
+and this fort General Grabbe, who commanded in 1839 the Russian
+forces in eastern Caucasus, and who was always a strong advocate
+of the offensive system, obtained permission from St Petersburg to
+attack. General Golowin, commander-in-chief of the whole army of
+the Caucasus, and then resident at Teflis, approved the enterprise,
+whose ultimate results cost both generals their command. The taking
+of Aculcho itself was of little moment; there was no intention of
+placing a Russian garrison there; but the double end to be obtained
+was to capture Chamyl, and to intimidate the Tshetshens, by proving
+to them that no part of their mountains, however difficult of access
+and bravely defended, was beyond the reach of Russian valour and
+resources. Their submission, at least nominal and temporary, was the
+result hoped for.
+
+Nature has done much for the fortification of Aculcho. Imagine
+a hill of sand-stone, nearly surrounded by a loop of the river
+Koisu--a miniature peninsula, in short, connected with the continent
+by a narrow neck of land--provided with three natural terraces,
+accessible only by a small rocky path, whose entrance is fortified
+and defended by 500 resolute Tshetshen warriors. A few artificial
+parapets and intrenchments, some stone huts, and several excavations
+in the sand rock, where the besieged found shelter from shot and
+shell, complete the picture of the place before which Grabbe and his
+column sat down. At first they hoped to reduce it by artillery, and
+bombs and congreve rockets were poured upon the fortress, destroying
+huts and parapets, but doing little harm to the Tshetshens, who lay
+close as conies in their burrows, and watched their opportunity to
+send well-aimed bullets into the Russian camp. From time to time,
+one of the fanatical Murides, of whom the garrison was chiefly
+composed, impatient that the foe delayed an assault, rushed headlong
+down from the rock, his shaska in his right hand, his pistol in his
+left, his dagger between his teeth; causing a momentary panic among
+the Cossacks, who were prepared for the whistling of bullets, but
+not for the sudden appearance of a foaming demon armed _cap-à-pie_,
+who generally, before they could use their bayonets, avenged in
+advance his own certain death by the slaughter of several of his
+foes, whilst his comrades on the rock applauded and rejoiced at
+the heroic self-sacrifice. The first attempt to storm was costly
+to the besiegers. Of fifteen hundred men who ascended the narrow
+path, only a hundred and fifty survived. The Tshetshens maintained
+such a well-directed platoon fire, that not a Russian set foot on
+the second terrace. The foremost men, mown down by the bullets
+of the besieged, fell back upon their comrades, and precipitated
+them from the rock. General Grabbe, undismayed by his heavy loss,
+ordered a second and a third assault; the three cost two thousand
+men, but the lower and middle terraces were taken. The defence
+of the upper one was desperate, and the Russians might have been
+compelled to turn the siege into a blockade, but for the imprudence
+of some of the garrison, who, anxious to ascertain the proceedings
+of the enemy's engineers--then hard at work at a mine under the
+hill--ventured too far from their defences, and were attacked by a
+Russian battalion. The Tshetshens fled; but, swift of foot though
+they were, the most active of the Russians attained the topmost
+terrace with them. A hand-to-hand fight ensued, more battalions
+came up, and Aculcho was taken. The victors, furious at their
+losses, and at the long resistance opposed to them, (this was the
+22d August,) raged like tigers amongst the unfortunate little band
+of mountaineers; some Tshetshen women, who took up arms at this
+last extremity, were slaughtered with their husbands. At last the
+bloody work was apparently at an end, and search ensued amongst the
+dead for the body of Chamyl. It was nowhere to be found. At last
+the discovery was made that a few of the garrison had taken refuge
+in holes in the side of the rock, looking over the river. No path
+led to these cavities; the only way to get at them was to lower
+men by ropes from the crag above. In this manner the surviving
+Tshetshens were attacked; quarter was neither asked nor given.
+The hole in which Chamyl himself was hidden held out the longest.
+Escape seemed, however, impossible; the rock was surrounded; the
+banks of the river were lined with soldiers; Grabbe's main object
+was the capture of Chamyl. At this critical moment the handful of
+Tshetshens still alive gave an example of heroic devotion. They knew
+that their leader's death would be a heavy loss to their country,
+and they resolved to sacrifice themselves to save him. With a few
+beams and planks, that chanced to be in the cave, they constructed
+a sort of raft. This they launched upon the Koisu, and floated with
+it down the stream, amidst a storm of Russian lead. The Russian
+general doubted not that Chamyl was on the raft, and ordered every
+exertion to kill or take him. Whilst the Cossacks spurred their
+horses into the river, and the infantry hurried along the bank,
+following the raft, a man sprang out of the hole into the Koisu,
+swam vigorously across the stream, landed at an unguarded spot, and
+gained the mountains unhurt. This man was Chamyl, who alone escaped
+with life from the bloody rock of Aculcho. His deliverance passed
+for miraculous amongst the enthusiastic mountaineers, with whom
+his influence, from that day forward, increased tenfold. Grabbe
+was furious; Chamyl's head was worth more than the heads of all
+the garrison: three thousand Russians had been sacrificed for the
+possession of a crag not worth the keeping.
+
+After the fall of Aculcho, Chamyl's head-quarters were at the
+village of Dargo, in the mountain region south of the Russian fort
+of Girselaul, and thence he carried on the war with great vigour,
+surprising fortified posts, cutting off convoys, and sweeping the
+plain with his horsemen. Generals Grabbe and Golowin could not
+agree about the mode of operations. The former was for taking
+the offensive; the latter advocated the defensive and blockade
+system. Grabbe went to St Petersburg to plead in person for his
+plan, obtained a favourable hearing, and the emperor sent Prince
+Tchernicheff, the minister at war, to visit both flanks of the
+Caucasus. Before the prince reached the left wing of the line
+of operations, Grabbe resolved to surprise him with a brilliant
+achievement; and on the 29th May 1842, he marched from Girselaul
+with thirteen battalions, a small escort of mounted Cossacks, and a
+train of mountain artillery, to attack Dargo. The route was through
+forests, and along paths tangled with wild flowers and creeping
+plants, through which the heavy Russian infantry, encumbered with
+eight days' rations and sixty rounds of ball-cartridge, made but
+slow and painful progress. The first day's march was accomplished
+without fighting; only here and there the slender active form of
+a mountaineer was descried, as he peered between the trees at the
+long column of bayonets, and vanished as soon as he was observed.
+After midnight the dance began. The troops had eaten their rations,
+and were comfortably bivouacked, when they were assailed by a sharp
+fire from an invisible foe, to which they replied in the direction
+of the flashes. This skirmishing lasted all night; few were killed
+on either side, but the whole Russian division were deprived of
+sleep, and wearied for the next day's march. At daybreak the enemy
+retired; but at noon, when passing through a forest defile, the
+column was again assailed, and soon the horses, and a few light
+carts accompanying it, were insufficient to convey the wounded.
+The staff urged the general to retrace his steps, but Grabbe was
+bent on welcoming Tchernicheff with a triumphant bulletin. Another
+sleepless bivouac--another fagging day, more skirmishing. At last,
+when within sight of the fortified village of Dargo, the loss of
+the column was so heavy, and its situation so critical, that a
+retreat was ordered. The daring and fury of the Tshetshens now knew
+no bounds; they assailed the troops sabre in hand, captured baggage
+and wounded, and at night prowled round the camp, like wolves round
+a dying soldier. On the 1st June, the fight recommenced. The valour
+displayed by the mountaineers was admitted by the Russians to be
+extraordinary, as was also their skill in wielding the terrible
+shaska. They made a fierce attack on the centre of the column--cut
+down the artillery-men and captured six guns. The Russians, who
+throughout the whole of this trying expedition did their duty
+as good and brave soldiers, were furious at the loss of their
+artillery, and by a desperate charge retook five pieces, the sixth
+being relinquished only because its carriage was broken. Upon the
+last day of the retreat, Chamyl came up with his horsemen. Had he
+been able to get these together two days sooner, it is doubtful
+whether any portion of the column would have escaped. As it was,
+the Russians lost nearly two thousand men; the weary and dispirited
+survivors re-entering Girselaul with downcast mien. Preparations
+had been made to celebrate their triumph, and, to add to their
+general's mortification, Tchernicheff was awaiting their arrival. On
+the prince's return to St Petersburg, both Grabbe and Golowin were
+removed from their commands.
+
+Against this same Tshetshen fortress of Dargo, Count Woronzoff's
+expedition (already referred to) was made, in July 1845. A capital
+account of the affair is given in a letter from a Russian officer
+engaged, printed in Dr Wagner's book. Dargo had become an important
+place. Chamyl had established large stores there, and had built
+a mosque, to which came pilgrims from the remotest villages of
+Daghestan and Lesghistan, partly to pray, partly to see the dreaded
+chief--equally renowned as warrior and priest--and to give him
+information concerning the state of the country, and the movements
+of the Russians. Less vigorously opposed than Grabbe, and his
+measures better taken, Woronzoff reached Dargo with moderate loss.
+"The village," says the Russian officer: "was situated on the slope
+of a mountain, at the brink of a ravine, and consisted of sixty
+to seventy small stone-houses, and of a few larger buildings,
+where the stones were joined with mortar, instead of being merely
+superimposed, as is usually the case in Caucasian dwellings. One
+of these buildings had several irregular towers, of some apparent
+antiquity. When we approached, a thick smoke burst from them. Chamyl
+had ordered everything to be set on fire that could not be carried
+away. One must confess that, in this fierce determination of the
+enemy to refuse submission--to defend, foot by foot, the territory
+of his forefathers, and to leave to the Russians no other trophies
+than ashes and smoking ruins--there is a certain wild grandeur which
+extorts admiration, even though the hostile chief be no better
+than a fanatical barbarian." This reminds us of the words of the
+Circassian chief Mansour:--"When Turkey and England abandon us," he
+said, to Bell of the 'Vixen,'--"when all our powers of resistance
+are exhausted, we will burn our houses,and our goods, strangle our
+wives and our children, and retreat to our highest rocks, there to
+die, fighting to the very last man." "The greatest difficulty,"
+said General Neidhardt to Dr Wagner, who was a frequent visitor
+at the house of that distinguished officer, "with which we have
+to contend, is the unappeasable, deep-rooted, ineradicable hatred
+cherished by all the mountaineers against the Russians. For this
+we know no cure; every form of severity and of kindness has been
+tried in turn, with equal ill-success." Valour and patriotism are
+nearly the only good qualities the Caucasians can boast. They are
+cruel, and for the most part faithless, especially the Tshetshens,
+and Dr Wagner warns us against crediting the exaggerated accounts
+frequently given of their many virtues. The Circassians are said
+to respect their plighted word, but there are many exceptions.
+General Neidhardt told Dr Wagner an anecdote of a Circassian, who
+presented himself before the commandant of one of the Black Sea
+fortresses, and offered to communicate most important intelligence,
+on condition of a certain reward. The reward was promised. Then
+said the Circassian,--"To-morrow after sunset, your fort will be
+assailed by thousands of my countrymen." The informer was retained,
+whilst Cossacks and riflemen were sent out, and it proved that he
+had spoken the truth. The enemy, finding the garrison on their
+guard, retired after a short skirmish. The Circassian received his
+recompense, which he took without a word of thanks, and left the
+fortress. Without the walls, he met an unarmed soldier; hatred of
+the Russians, and thirst of blood, again got the ascendency: he shot
+the soldier dead, and scampered off to the mountains.
+
+Chamyl did not long remain indebted to the Russians for their visit
+to Dargo. His reputation of sanctity and valour enabled him to unite
+under his orders many tribes habitually hostile to each other, and
+which previously had fought each "on its own hook." Of these tribes
+he formed a powerful league; and in May 1846 he burst into Cabardia
+at the head of twenty thousand mountaineers, four thousand of whom
+were horsemen. Formidable though this force was, the venture was one
+of extreme temerity. He left behind him a double line of Russian
+camps and forts, and two rivers, then at the flood, and difficult
+to pass. With an undisciplined and heterogeneous army, without
+artillery or regular commissariat, this daring chief threw himself
+into a flat country, unfavourable to guerilla warfare; slipping
+through the Russian posts, marching more than four hundred miles,
+and utterly disregarding the danger he was in from a well-equipped
+army of upwards of seventy thousand men, to say nothing of the
+numerous military population of the Cossack settlements on the
+Terek and Sundscha, and of the fact that the Cabardians, long
+submissive to Russia, were more likely to arm in defence of their
+rulers than to favour the mountaineers. Shepherds and dwellers in
+the plain, and far less warlike than the other Circassian tribes,
+they never were able to make head against the Russians; and had
+remained indifferent to all the incentives of Tshetshen fanatics
+and propagandists. For years past, Chamyl had threatened them with
+a visit; but nevertheless, his sudden appearance greatly surprised
+and confounded both them and the Russian general, who had just
+concentrated all his movable columns, with a view to an expedition,
+relying overmuch upon his lines of forts and blockhouses. The
+Tshetshen raid was more daring, and at least as successful, as
+Abd-el-Kader's celebrated foray in the Metidja, in the year 1839.
+Chamyl addressed to the Cabardians a thundering proclamation, full
+of quotations from the Koran, and denouncing vengeance on them if
+they did not flock to the banner of the Prophet. The unlucky keepers
+of sheep found themselves between the devil and the deep sea. From
+terror rather than sympathy, a large number of villages declared
+for Chamyl, whose wild hordes burned and plundered the property of
+all who adhered to the Russians; leaving, like a swarm of locusts,
+desolation in their track. When the Cossacks began to gather, and
+the Russian generals to manœuvre, Chamyl, who knew he could not
+contend in the plain with disciplined and superior forces, and whose
+retreat by the road he came was already cut off, traversed Great and
+Little Cabardia, burning and destroying as he went; dashed through
+the Cossack colonies to the south of Ekaterinograd, and regained
+his mountains in safety--dragging with him booty, prisoners, and
+Cabardian recruits. These latter, who had joined through fear of
+Chamyl, remained with him through fear of the Russians. By this
+foray, whose apparent great rashness was justified by its complete
+success, Chamyl enriched his people, strengthened his army, and
+greatly weakened the confidence of the tribes of the plain in the
+efficacy of Russian protection. As usual, in cases of disaster, the
+Russians kept the affair as quiet as they could; but the truth could
+not be concealed from those most concerned, and murmurs of dismay
+ran along the exposed line fringing the Muscovite and Circassian
+territories.
+
+The Russian army of the Caucasus reckoned, in 1843, about eighty
+thousand men, exclusive of thirty-five thousand who had little to
+do with the war, but were more especially employed in watching the
+extensive line of Turkish and Persian frontier, and in endeavouring
+to exclude contraband goods and Asiatic epidemics. But the severe
+fighting that occurred in 1842 and 1843, showed the necessity
+of an increase of force. Subsequent events have not admitted of
+a reduction in the Caucasian establishment; and we are probably
+very near the mark, in estimating the troops occupying the various
+forts and camps on the Black Sea, and the lines of the rivers,
+(Terek, Kuban, Koisu, &c.,) at about one hundred thousand men--not
+at all too many to guard so extensive a line, against so active
+and enterprising a foe. The Russian ranks are constantly thinned
+by destructive fevers, which, in bad years, have been known to
+carry off as much as a sixth of the Caucasian army. At a review
+at Vladikawkas, Dr Wagner was struck by the powerful build of the
+Russian foot-soldiers--broad-shouldered, broad-faced Slavonians,
+with enormous mustaches, drilled to automatical perfection. In point
+of bone and limb, every man of them was a grenadier. In a bayonet
+charge, such infantry are formidable opponents. Ségur mentions that,
+on the battle-field of Borodino, the nation of the stripped bodies
+was easily known--the muscle and size of the Russians contrasting
+with the slighter frames of French and Germans. "You may kill the
+Russians, but you will hardly make them run," was a saying of
+Frederick the Great; and certainly Seidlitz, who scattered the
+French so briskly at Rossbach, had to sweat blood before he overcame
+the Russians at Zorndorf. Those survivors of Napoleon's famous Guard
+who fought in the drawn battle of Eylau, will bear witness to the
+stubborn resistance and bull-dog qualities of the Muscovite. But
+the grenadier stature, and the immobility under fire--admirable
+qualities on a plain, and against regular troops--avail little in
+the Caucasus. The burly Russian pants and perspires up the hills,
+which the light-footed chamois-like Circassians and Tshetshens
+ascend at a run. The mountaineers understand their advantages,
+and decline standing still in the plain to be charged by a line
+of bayonets. They dance round the heavy Russian, who, with his
+well-stuffed knapsack and long greatcoat, can barely turn on his
+heel fast enough to face them. They catch him out skirmishing, and
+slaughter him in detail. "One might suppose," said a foreigner in
+the Russian service to Dr Wagner, "that the musket and bayonet of
+the Russian soldier would be too much, in single combat, for the
+sabre and dagger of the Tshetshen. The contrary is the case. Amongst
+the dead, slain in hand-to-hand encounter, there are usually a third
+more Russians than Caucasians. Strange to say, too, the Russian
+soldier, who in the serried ranks of his battalion meets death with
+wonderful firmness, and who has shown the utmost valour in contests
+with European, Turkish, and Persian armies, often betrays timidity
+in the Caucasian war, and retreats from the outposts to the column,
+in spite of the heavy punishment he thereby incurs. I myself was
+exposed, during the murderous fight near Ischkeri (Dargo,) in 1842,
+to considerable danger, because, having gone to the assistance of a
+skirmisher, who was sharply engaged with a Tshetshen, the skirmisher
+ran, leaving me to fight it out alone." This shyness of Russian
+soldiers in single fight and irregular warfare, is not inexplicable.
+They have no chance of promotion, no honourable stimulus: food and
+brandy, discipline and dread of the lash, convert them from serfs
+into soldiers. As bits of a machine, they are admirable when united,
+but asunder they are mere screws and bolts. Fanatic zeal, bitter
+hatred, and thirst of blood, animate the Caucasian, who, trained to
+arms from his boyhood, and ignorant of drill, relies only upon his
+keen shaska, and upon the Prophet's protection.
+
+Presuming Dr Wagner's statement of Russian rations to be correct,
+it is a puzzle how the soldier preserves the condition of his thews
+and sinews. The daily allowance consists of three pounds of bread,
+black as a coal; a water-soup, in which three pounds of bacon are
+cut up for every two hundred and fifty men; a ration of _wodka_,
+or bad brandy, and once a-week a small piece of meat. The pay is
+nine rubles a-year, (about one-third of a penny _per diem_,) out of
+which the unfortunate private has to purchase his stock, cap, soap,
+blacking, salt, &c., &c. Any surplus he is allowed to expend upon
+his amusement. "Our soldiers are obliged to steal a little," said a
+German officer in the Russian service to Dr Wagner; "their pay will
+not purchase soap and blacking; and if their shirts are not clean,
+and their shoes polished, the stick is their portion." "Stealing a
+little," in one way or other, is no uncommon practice in Russia,
+even amongst more highly placed personages than the soldiers.
+Officials of all kinds, both civil and military, particularly those
+of the middle and lower ranks, are prone to peculation. Dr Wagner
+was deafened with the complaints that from all sides met his ear.
+"Ah! if the emperor knew it!" was the usual cry. The subjects of
+Nicholas have strong faith in his justice. It is well remembered
+in the Caucasus, especially by the army, how one day, at Teflis,
+the emperor, upon parade, in full view of mob and soldiers, tore,
+with his own hand, the golden insignia of a general's rank from the
+coat of Prince Dadian, denounced to him as enriching himself at his
+men's expense. For several years afterwards, the prince carried the
+musket, and wore the coarse gray coat of a private sentinel. The
+officers pitied him, although his condemnation was just. "_Il faut
+profiter d'une bonne place_," is their current maxim. The soldiers
+rejoiced; but in secret; for such rejoicings are not always safe.
+A sentence often recoils unpleasantly upon the accuser. Dr Wagner
+gives sundry examples. A major in Sewastopol fell in love with a
+sergeant's wife; and as she disregarded his addresses, he persecuted
+her and her husband at every opportunity. In despair, the sergeant
+at last complained to the general commanding. He was listened to;
+an investigation ensued; the major was superseded; and from his
+successor the sergeant received five hundred lashes, under pretence
+of his having left his regiment without permission when he went to
+lodge his charge. Corporal punishment, of frequent application, at
+the mere caprice of their superiors, to Russian serfs and soldiers,
+is inflicted with sticks or rods, the knout being reserved for
+very grave offences, such as murder, rebellion, &c., and preceding
+banishment to Siberia, should the sufferer survive. Dr Wagner's
+description of this dreadful punishment is horribly vivid. Few
+criminals are sentenced to more than twenty-five lashes, and less
+than twenty often kill. Running the gauntlet through three thousand
+men is the usual punishment of deserters; and this would usually be
+a sentence of death but for the compassion of the officers, who hint
+to their companies to strike lightly. If the sufferer faints, and
+is declared by the surgeon unable to receive all his punishment, he
+gets the remainder at some future time. "Take him down" is a phrase
+unknown in the Russian service, until the offender has received the
+last lash of his sentence.
+
+Severity is doubtless necessary in an army composed like that of
+Russia. Two-thirds of the soldiers are serfs, whose masters, being
+allowed to send what men they please--so long as they make up their
+quota--naturally contribute the greatest scamps and idlers upon
+their estates. The army in Russia is what the galleys are in France,
+and the hulks in England--a punishment for an infinity of offences.
+An official embezzles funds--to the army with him; a Jew is caught
+smuggling--off with him to the ranks; a Tartar cattle-stealer, a
+vagrant gipsy, an Armenian trader convicted of fraud, a Petersburg
+coachman who has run over a pedestrian--all food for powder--gray
+coats and bayonets for them all. Jews abound in the Russian army,
+being subjected to a severe conscription in Poland and southern
+Russia. They submit with exemplary patience to the hardships of the
+service, and to the taunts of their Russian comrades. Poles are of
+course numerous in the ranks, but they are less enduring than the
+Israelite, and often desert to the Circassians, who make them work
+as servants, or sell them as slaves to the Turks. No race are too
+unmilitary in their nature to be ground into soldiers by the mill
+of Russian discipline. Besides Jews, gipsies and Armenians figure
+on the muster-roll. It must have been a queer day for the ragged
+Zingaro, when the Russian sergeant first stepped into his smoky
+tent, bade him clip his elf locks, wash his grimy countenance, and
+follow to the field. For him the pomp of war had no seductions; he
+would far rather have stuck to his den and vermin, and to his meal
+of roast rats and hedgehogs. But military discipline works miracles.
+The slouching filthy vagabond of yesterday now stands erect as if
+he had swallowed his ramrod, his shoes a brilliant jet, his buttons
+sparkling in the sun--a soldier from toe to top-knot.
+
+The right bank of the Kuban, from the Sea of Azov to the mouth
+of the Laba, (a tributary of the former stream,) is peopled with
+Tchernamortsy Cossacks, who furnish ten regiments, each of a
+thousand horsemen, for the defence of their lands and families.
+These cavalry carry a musket, slung on the back, and a long
+red lance: their dress is a sheepskin jacket, except on state
+occasions, when they sport uniform. They are much less feared by
+the Circassians than are the Cossacks of the Line, who wear the
+Circassian dress, carry sabres instead of lances, and are more
+valiant, active and skilful, than their Tchernamortsy neighbours.
+The Cossacks of the Caucasian Line dwell on the banks of the Kuban
+and Terek, form a military colony of about fifty thousand souls,
+and keep six thousand horsemen ready for the field. There is a
+mixture of Circassian blood in their veins, and they are first-rate
+fighting men. Their villages are exposed to frequent attacks from
+the mountaineers; but when these are not exceedingly rapid in
+collecting their booty, and effecting their retreat, the Cossacks
+assemble, and a desperate fight ensues. When the combatants are
+numerically matched, the equality of arms, horses, and skill renders
+the issue very doubtful. The Tchernamortsies and Don Cossacks are
+less able to cope with the Circassians. In a _mêlée_ their lances
+are inferior to the shaska. The rival claims of lance and sabre
+have often been discussed; many trials of their respective merits
+have been made in English, French, and German riding-schools; and
+much ink has been shed on the subject. Unquestionably the lance has
+done good service, and in certain circumstances is a terrible arm.
+"At the battle of Dresden," Marshal Marmont tells us, "the Austrian
+infantry were repeatedly assailed by the French cuirassiers,
+whom they as often beat back, although the rain prevented their
+firing, and the bayonet was their sole defence. But fifty lancers
+of Latour-Maubourg's escort at once broke their ranks." Had the
+cuirassiers had lances, their first charge, Marmont plausibly enough
+asserts, would have sufficed. This leads to another question, often
+mooted--whether the lance be properly a light or a heavy cavalry
+weapon. When used to break infantry, weight of man and horse might
+be an advantage; but in pursuit, where--especially in rugged and
+mountainous countries--the lance is found particularly useful, the
+preference is obviously for the swift steed and light cavalier.
+In the irregular cavalry combats on the Caucasian line, the sabre
+carries the day. Unless the Don Cossack's first lance-thrust settles
+his adversary, (which is rarely the case,) the next instant the
+adroit Circassian is within his guard, and then the betting is ten
+to one on Caucasus. Moreover, the Don Cossacks, brought from afar to
+wage a perilous and profitless war, are unwilling combatants. They
+find blows more plentiful than booty, and approve themselves arrant
+thieves and shy fighters. Relieved every two or three years, they
+have scarcely time to get broken in to the peculiar mode of warfare.
+The Cossacks of the Line are the flower of the hundred thousand wild
+warriors scattered over the steppes of Southern Russia, and ready,
+at one man's word, to vault into the saddle. Their gallant feats
+are numerous. In 1843, during Dr Wagner's visit, three thousand
+Circassians dashed across the Kuban, near the fortified village of
+Ustlaba. A dense fog hid them from the Russian vedettes. Suddenly
+fifty Cossacks of the Line, the escort of a gun, found themselves
+face to face with the mountaineers. The mist was so thick that the
+horses' heads almost touched before either party perceived the
+other. Flight was impossible, but the Cossacks fought like fiends.
+Forty-seven met a soldier's death; only three were captured,
+and accompanied the cannon across the river, by which road the
+Circassians at once retreated, having taken the brave detachment for
+the advanced guard of a strong force.
+
+The word Kasak, Kosak, or Kossack, variously interpreted by Klaproth
+and other etymologists as robber, volunteer, daredevil, &c., conveys
+to civilised ears rude and inelegant associations. Paris has not
+yet forgotten the uncouth hordes, wrapped in sheepskins and overrun
+with vermin, who, in the hour of her humiliation, startled her
+streets, and made her dandies shriek for their smelling-bottles.
+Not that Paris saw the worst of them. Some of the Uralian bears,
+centaurs of the steppes, Calibans on horseback, were never allowed
+to pass the Russian frontier. Their emperor appreciated their good
+qualities, but left them at home. Since then, a change has occured.
+Civilisation has made huge strides north-eastward. Near Fanagoria,
+Dr Wagner passed a pleasant evening with a Cossack officer, a prime
+fellow, with all unquenchable thirst for toddy, and an inexhaustible
+store of information. He had made the campaigns against the French;
+had evidently been bred a savage, or little better; but had
+acquired, during his long military career, knowledge of the world
+and a certain degree of polish. Amongst other interesting matters,
+he gave a sketch of his grandfather, a bloodthirsty old warrior
+and image-worshipper, the scourge of his Nogay neighbours, and a
+great slayer of the Turk; who in 1812, at the mature age of ninety,
+had responded to Czar Alexander's summons to fight for "faith and
+fatherland," and had taken the field under Platoff, at the head of
+thirteen sons and threescore grandsons. Whilst the Cossack major
+told the history of the "Demon of the Steppes," as his ferocious
+ancestor was called, his son, a gay lieutenant in the Cossacks of
+the Guard, entered the apartment. This young gentleman, slender,
+handsome, with well-cut uniform, graceful manners, and well-waxed
+mustaches, declined the punch, "having got used at St Petersburg
+to tea and champagne." He brought intelligence of promotions
+and decorations, of high play at Tcherkask, (the capital of the
+Don-Cossacks' country,) and of the establishment at Toganrog of
+a French _restaurateur_, who retailed _Veuve Clicquot's_ genuine
+champagne at four silver rubles a bottle. He was fascinated by
+the French actresses at St Petersburg, and enthusiastic in praise
+of Taglioni, then displaying her legs and graces in the Russian
+metropolis. Dr Wagner left the symposium with a vivid impression of
+the contrast between the bearded barbarian of 1812 and the dapper
+guardsman of thirty years later; and with the full conviction that
+the next Russian emperor who makes an inroad into civilised Europe,
+will have no occasion to be ashamed of his Cossacks, even though his
+route should lead him to the polite capital of the French republic.
+
+
+
+
+THE CAXTONS.--PART X.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+My uncle's conjecture as to the parentage of Francis Vivian seemed
+to me a positive discovery. Nothing more likely than that this
+wilful boy had formed some headstrong attachment which no father
+would sanction, and so, thwarted and irritated, thrown himself on
+the world. Such an explanation was the more agreeable to me, as it
+cleared up all that had appeared more discreditable in the mystery
+that surrounded Vivian. I could never bear to think that he had done
+anything mean and criminal, however I might believe he had been rash
+and faulty. It was natural that the unfriended wanderer should have
+been thrown into a society, the equivocal character of which had
+failed to revolt the audacity of an inquisitive mind and adventurous
+temper; but it was natural, also, that the habits of gentle birth,
+and that silent education which English gentlemen commonly receive
+from their very cradle, should have preserved his honour, at least,
+intact through all. Certainly the pride, the notions, the very
+faults of the wellborn had remained in full force--why not the
+better qualities, however smothered for the time? I felt thankful
+for the thought that Vivian was returning to an element in which he
+might repurify his mind,--refit himself for that sphere to which he
+belonged;--thankful that we might yet meet, and our present half
+intimacy mature, perhaps, into healthful friendship.
+
+It was with such thoughts that I took up my hat the next morning
+to seek Vivian, and judge if we had gained the right clue, when we
+were startled by what was a rare sound at our door--the postman's
+knock. My father was at the Museum; my mother in high conference, or
+close preparation for our approaching departure, with Mrs Primmins;
+Roland, I, and Blanche had the room to ourselves.
+
+"The letter is not for me," said Pisistratus.
+
+"Nor for me, I am sure," said the Captain, when the servant entered
+and confuted him--for the letter was for him. He took it up
+wonderingly and suspiciously, as Glumdalclitch took up Gulliver, or
+as (if naturalists) we take up an unknown creature, that we are not
+quite sure will not bite and sting us. Ah! it has stung or bit you,
+Captain Roland! for you start and change colour--you suppress a cry
+as you break the seal--you breathe hard as you read--and the letter
+seems short--but it takes time in the reading, for you go over it
+again and again. Then you fold it up--crumple it--thrust it into
+your breast pocket--and look round like a man waking from a dream.
+Is it a dream of pain, or of pleasure? Verily, I cannot guess, for
+nothing is on that eagle face either of pain or pleasure, but rather
+of fear, agitation, bewilderment. Yet the eyes are bright, too, and
+there is a smile on that iron lip.
+
+My uncle looked round, I say, and called hastily for his cane and
+his hat, and then began buttoning his coat across his broad breast,
+though the day was hot enough to have unbuttoned every breast in the
+tropics.
+
+"You are not going out, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"But are you strong enough yet? Let me go with you?"
+
+"No, sir; no. Blanche, come here." He took the child in his arms,
+surveyed her wistfully, and kissed her. "You have never given me
+pain, Blanche: say, 'God bless and prosper you, father!'"
+
+"God bless and prosper my dear, dear papa!" said Blanche, putting
+her little hands together, as if in prayer.
+
+"There--that should bring me luck, Blanche," said the Captain,
+gaily, and setting her down. Then seizing his cane from the servant,
+and putting on his hat with a determined air, he walked stoutly
+forth; and I saw him, from the window, march along the streets as
+cheerfully as if he had been besieging Badajoz.
+
+"God prosper thee, too!" said I, involuntarily.
+
+And Blanche took hold of my hand, and said in her prettiest way,
+(and her pretty ways were many), "I wish you would come with us,
+cousin Sisty, and help me to love papa. Poor papa! he wants us
+both--he wants all the love we can give him!"
+
+"That he does, my dear Blanche; and I think it a great mistake that
+we don't all live together. Your papa ought not to go to that tower
+of his, at the world's end, but come to our snug, pretty house, with
+a garden full of flowers, for you to be Queen of the May--from May
+to November;--to say nothing of a duck that is more sagacious than
+any creature in the Fables I gave you the other day."
+
+Blanche laughed and clapped her hands--"Oh, that would be so nice!
+but,"--and she stopped gravely, and added, "but then, you see, there
+would not be the tower to love papa; and I am sure that the tower
+must love him very much, for he loves it dearly."
+
+It was my turn to laugh now. "I see how it is, you little witch,"
+said I; "you would coax us to come and live with you and the owls!
+With all my heart, so far as I am concerned."
+
+"Sisty," said Blanche, with an appalling solemnity on her face, "do
+you know what I've been thinking?"
+
+"Not I, miss--what?--something very deep, I can see--very horrible,
+indeed, I fear, you look so serious."
+
+"Why, I've been thinking," continued Blanche, not relaxing a muscle,
+and without the least bit of a blush--"I've been thinking that
+I'll be your little wife; and then, of course, we shall all live
+together."
+
+Blanche did not blush, but I did. "Ask me that ten years hence,
+if you dare, you impudent little thing; and now, run away to Mrs
+Primmins, and tell her to keep you out of mischief, for I must say
+good-morning."
+
+But Blanche did not run away, and her dignity seemed exceedingly
+hurt at my mode of taking her alarming proposition, for she retired
+into a corner pouting, and sate down with great majesty. So there
+I left her, and went my way to Vivian. He was out; but, seeing
+books on his table, and having nothing to do, I resolved to wait
+for his return. I had enough of my father in me to turn at once to
+the books for company; and, by the side of some graver works which
+I had recommended, I found certain novels in French, that Vivian
+had got from a circulating library. I had a curiosity to read
+these--for, except the old classic novels of France, this mighty
+branch of its popular literature was then new to me. I soon got
+interested, but what an interest!--the interest that a nightmare
+might excite, if one caught it out of one's sleep, and set to work
+to examine it. By the side of what dazzling shrewdness, what deep
+knowledge of those holes and corners in the human system, of which
+Goethe must have spoken when he said somewhere--(if I recollect
+right, and don't misquote him, which I'll not answer for)--"There
+is something in every man's heart which, if we could know, would
+make us hate him,"--by the side of all this, and of much more that
+showed prodigious boldness and energy of intellect, what strange
+exaggeration--what mock nobility of sentiment--what inconceivable
+perversion of reasoning--what damnable demoralisation! I hate the
+cant of charging works of fiction with the accusation--often unjust
+and shallow--that they interest us in vice, or palliate crime,
+because the author truly shows what virtues may entangle themselves
+with vices; or commands our compassion, and awes our pride, by
+teaching us how men deceive and bewitch themselves into guilt. Such
+painting belongs to the dark truth of all tragedy, from Sophocles to
+Shakspeare. No; this is not what shocked me in those books--it was
+not the interesting me in vice, for I felt no interest in it at all;
+it was the insisting that vice is something uncommonly noble--it
+was the portrait of some coldblooded adultress, whom the author or
+authoress chooses to call _pauvre Ange!_ (poor angel!);--it was some
+scoundrel who dupes, cheats, and murders under cover of a duel, in
+which he is a second St George; who does not instruct us by showing
+through what metaphysical process he became a scoundrel, but who
+is continually forced upon us as a very favourable specimen of
+mankind;--it was the view of society altogether, painted in colours
+so hideous that, if true, instead of a revolution, it would draw
+down a deluge;--it was the hatred, carefully instilled, of the
+poor against the rich--it was the war breathed between class and
+class--it was that envy of all superiorities, which loves to show
+itself by allowing virtue only to a blouse, and asserting that a
+man must be a rogue if he belong to that rank of society in which,
+from the very gifts of education, from the necessary associations
+of circumstances, roguery is the last thing probable or natural.
+It was all this, and things a thousand times worse, that set my
+head in a whirl, as hour after hour slipped on, and I still gazed,
+spell-bound, on these Chimeras and Typhons--these symbols of the
+Destroying Principle. "Poor Vivian!" said I, as I rose at last,
+"if thou readest these books with pleasure, or from habit, no
+wonder that thou seemest to me so obtuse about right and wrong,
+and to have a great cavity where thy brain should have the bump of
+'conscientiousness' in full salience!"
+
+Nevertheless, to do those demoniacs justice, I had got through
+time imperceptibly by their pestilent help; and I was startled to
+see, by my watch, how late it was. I had just resolved to leave
+a line, fixing an appointment for the morrow, and so depart,
+when I heard Vivian's knock--a knock that had great character
+in it--haughty, impatient, irregular; not a neat, symmetrical,
+harmonious, unpretending knock, but a knock that seemed to set the
+whole house and street at defiance: it was a knock bullying--a
+knock ostentatious--a knock irritating and offensive--"impiger" and
+"iracundus."
+
+But the step that came up the stairs did not suit the knock: it was
+a step light, yet firm--slow, yet elastic.
+
+The maid-servant who had opened the door had, no doubt, informed
+Vivian of my visit, for he did not seem surprised to see me; but he
+cast that hurried, suspicious look round the room which a man is apt
+to cast when he has left his papers about, and finds some idler,
+on whose trustworthiness he by no means depends, seated in the
+midst of the unguarded secrets. The look was not flattering; but my
+conscience was so unreproachful that I laid all the blame upon the
+general suspiciousness of Vivian's character.
+
+"Three hours, at least, have I been here!" said I, maliciously.
+
+"Three hours!"--again the look.
+
+"And this is the worst secret I have discovered,"--and I pointed to
+those literary Manicheans.
+
+"Oh!" said he carelessly, "French novels!--I don't wonder you stayed
+so long. I can't read your English novels--flat and insipid: there
+are truth and life here."
+
+"Truth and life!" cried I, every hair on my head erect with
+astonishment--"then hurrah for falsehood and death!"
+
+"They don't please you; no accounting for tastes."
+
+"I beg your pardon--I account for yours, if you really take for
+truth and life monsters so nefast and flagitious. For heaven's
+sake, my dear fellow, don't suppose that any man could get on in
+England--get anywhere but to the Old Bailey or Norfolk Island, if he
+squared his conduct to such topsy-turvy notions of the world as I
+find here."
+
+"How many years are you my senior," asked Vivian sneeringly, "that
+you should play the mentor, and correct my ignorance of the world?"
+
+"Vivian, it is not age and experience that speak here, it is
+something far wiser than they--the instinct of a man's heart, and a
+gentleman's honour."
+
+"Well, well," said Vivian, rather discomposed, "let the poor books
+alone; you know my creed--that books influence us little one way or
+the other."
+
+"By the great Egyptian library, and the soul of Diodorus, I wish you
+could hear my father upon that point! Come," added I, with sublime
+compassion--"come, it is not too late--do let me introduce you to
+my father. I will consent to read French novels all my life, if a
+single chat with Austin Caxton does not send you home with a happier
+face and a lighter heart. Come, let me take you back to dine with us
+to-day."
+
+"I cannot," said Vivian with some confusion--"I cannot, for this day
+I leave London. Some other time perhaps--for," he added, but not
+heartily, "we may meet again."
+
+"I hope so," said I, wringing his hand, "and that is likely,--since,
+in spite of yourself, I have guessed your secret--your birth and
+parentage."
+
+"How!" cried Vivian, turning pale, and gnawing his lip--"what do
+you mean?--speak."
+
+"Well, then, are you not the lost, runaway son of Colonel Vivian?
+Come, say the truth; let us be confidants."
+
+Vivian threw off a succession of his abrupt sighs; and then, seating
+himself, leant his face on the table, confused, no doubt, to find
+himself discovered.
+
+"You are near the mark," said he at last, "but do not ask me farther
+yet. Some day," he cried impetuously, and springing suddenly to his
+feet--"some day you shall know all: yes; some day, if I live, when
+that name shall be high in the world; yes, when the world is at my
+feet!" He stretched his right hand as if to grasp the space, and his
+whole face was lighted with a fierce enthusiasm. The glow died away,
+and with a slight return of his scornful smile, he said--"Dreams
+yet; dreams! And now, look at this paper." And he drew out a
+memorandum, scrawled over with figures.
+
+"This, I think, is my pecuniary debt to you; in a few days, I shall
+discharge it. Give me your address."
+
+"Oh!" said I, pained, "can you speak to me of money, Vivian?"
+
+"It is one of those instincts of honour you cite so often," answered
+he, colouring. "Pardon me."
+
+"That is my address," said I, stooping to write, to conceal my
+wounded feelings. "You will avail yourself of it, I hope, often, and
+tell me that you are well and happy."
+
+"When I am happy, you shall know."
+
+"You do not require any introduction to Trevanion?"
+
+Vivian hesitated: "No, I think not. If ever I do, I will write for
+it."
+
+I took up my hat, and was about to go--for I was still chilled and
+mortified--when, as if by an irresistible impulse, Vivian came to me
+hastily, flung his arms round my neck, and kissed me as a boy kisses
+his brother.
+
+"Bear with me!" he cried in a faltering voice: "I did not think to
+love any one as you have made me love you, though sadly against the
+grain. If you are not my good angel, it is that nature and habit are
+too strong for you. Certainly, some day we shall meet again. I shall
+have time, in the meanwhile, to see if the world can be indeed 'mine
+oyster, which I with sword can open.' I would be _aut Cæsar aut
+nullus_! Very little other Latin know I to quote from! If Cæsar, men
+will forgive me all the means to the end; if _nullus_, London has a
+river, and in every street one may buy a cord!"
+
+"Vivian! Vivian!"
+
+"Now go, my dear friend, while my heart is softened--go, before I
+shock you with some return of the native Adam. Go--go!"
+
+And taking me gently by the arm, Francis Vivian drew me from the
+room, and, re-entering, locked his door.
+
+Ah! if I could have left him Robert Hall, instead of those execrable
+Typhons! But would that medicine have suited his case, or must grim
+Experience write sterner recipes with her iron hand?
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+When I got back, just in time for dinner, Roland had not returned,
+nor did he return till late in the evening. All our eyes were
+directed towards him, as we rose with one accord to give him
+welcome; but his face was like a mask--it was locked, and rigid, and
+unreadable.
+
+Shutting the door carefully after him, he came to the hearth, stood
+on it, upright and calm, for a few moments, and then asked--
+
+"Has Blanche gone to bed?"
+
+"Yes," said my mother, "but not to sleep, I am sure; she made me
+promise to tell her when you came back."
+
+Roland's brow relaxed.
+
+"To-morrow, sister," said he slowly, "will you see that she has the
+proper mourning made for her? My son is dead."
+
+"Dead!" we cried with one voice, and surrounding him with one
+impulse.
+
+"Dead! impossible--you could not say it so calmly. Dead!--how do you
+know? You may be deceived. Who told you?--why do you think so?"
+
+"I have seen his remains," said my uncle, with the same gloomy calm.
+"We will all mourn for him. Pisistratus, you are heir to my name
+now, as to your father's. Good-night; excuse me, all--all you dear
+and kind ones; I am worn out."
+
+Roland lighted his candle and went away, leaving us thunderstruck;
+but he came back again--looked round--took up his book, open in
+the favourite passage--nodded again, and again vanished. We looked
+at each other, as if we had seen a ghost. Then my father rose and
+went out of the room, and remained in Roland's till the night was
+wellnigh gone. We sat up--my mother and I--till he returned. His
+benign face looked profoundly sad.
+
+"How is it, sir Can you tell us more?"
+
+My father shook his head.
+
+"Roland prays that you may preserve the same forbearance you have
+shown hitherto, and never mention his son's name to him. Peace be to
+the living, as to the dead. Kitty, this changes our plans; we must
+all go to Cumberland--we cannot leave Roland thus!"
+
+"Poor, poor Roland!" said my mother, through her tears. "And to
+think that father and son were not reconciled. But Roland forgives
+him now--oh, yes! _now!_"
+
+"It is not Roland we can censure," said my father, almost fiercely;
+"it is--but enough. We must hurry out of town as soon as we can:
+Roland will recover in the native air of his old ruins."
+
+We went up to bed mournfully.
+
+"And so," thought I, "ends one grand object of my life!--I had hoped
+to have brought those two together. But, alas! what peacemaker like
+the grave!"
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+My uncle did not leave his room for three days, but he was much
+closeted with a lawyer; and my father dropped some words which
+seemed to imply that the deceased had incurred debts, and that the
+poor Captain was making some charge on his small property. As Roland
+had said that he had seen the remains of his son, I took it at first
+for granted that we should attend a funeral, but no word of this was
+said. On the fourth day, Roland, in deep mourning, entered a hackney
+coach with the lawyer, and was absent about two hours. I did not
+doubt that he had thus quietly fulfilled the last mournful offices.
+On his return, he shut himself up again for the rest of the day,
+and would not see even my father. But the next morning he made his
+appearance as usual, and I even thought that he seemed more cheerful
+than I had yet known him--whether he played a part, or whether the
+worst was now over, and the grave was less cruel than uncertainty.
+On the following day, we all set out for Cumberland.
+
+In the interval, Uncle Jack had been almost constantly at the house,
+and, to do him justice, he had seemed unaffectedly shocked at the
+calamity that had befallen Roland. There was, indeed, no want of
+heart in Uncle Jack, whenever you went straight at it; but it was
+hard to find if you took a circuitous route towards it through the
+pockets. The worthy speculator had indeed much business to transact
+with my father before we left town. The _Anti-Publisher Society_
+had been set up, and it was through the obstetric aid of that
+fraternity that the Great Book was to be ushered into the world. The
+new journal, the _Literary Times_, was also far advanced--not yet
+out, but my father was fairly in for it. There were preparations for
+its debut on a vast scale, and two or three gentlemen in black--one
+of whom looked like a lawyer, and another like a printer, and a
+third uncommonly like a Jew--called twice, with papers of a very
+formidable aspect. All these preliminaries settled, the last thing
+I heard Uncle Jack say, with a slap on my father's back, was, "Fame
+and fortune both made now!--you may go to sleep in safety, for you
+leave me wide awake. Jack Tibbets never sleeps!"
+
+I had thought it strange that, since my abrupt exodus from
+Trevanion's house, no notice had been taken of any of us by himself
+or Lady Ellinor. But on the very eve of our departure, came a kind
+note from Trevanion to me, dated from his favourite country seat,
+(accompanied by a present of some rare books to my father,) in which
+he said briefly that there had been illness in his family, which had
+obliged him to leave town for a change of air, but that Lady Ellinor
+expected to call on my mother the next week. He had found amongst
+his books some curious works of the Middle Ages, amongst others a
+complete set of Cardan, which he knew my father would like to have,
+and so sent them. There was no allusion to what had passed between
+us.
+
+In reply to this note, after due thanks on my father's part, who
+seized upon the Cardan (Lyons edition, 1663, ten volumes folio) as
+a silkworm does upon a mulberry leaf, I expressed our joint regrets
+that there was no hope of our seeing Lady Ellinor, as we were just
+leaving town. I should have added something on the loss my uncle had
+sustained, but my father thought that, since Roland shrank from any
+mention of his son, even by his nearest kindred, it would be his
+obvious wish not to parade his affliction beyond that circle.
+
+And there had been illness in Trevanion's family! On whom had it
+fallen? I could not rest satisfied with that general expression, and
+I took my answer myself to Trevanion's house, instead of sending it
+by the post. In reply to my inquiries, the porter said that all the
+family were expected at the end of the week; that he had heard both
+Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion had been rather poorly, but that
+they were now better. I left my note, with orders to forward it; and
+my wounds bled afresh as I came away.
+
+We had the whole coach to ourselves in our journey, and a silent
+journey it was, till we arrived at a little town about eight miles
+from my uncle's residence, to which we could only get through a
+cross-road. My uncle insisted on preceding us that night, and,
+though he had written, before we started, to announce our coming, he
+was fidgety lest the poor tower should not make the best figure it
+could;--so he went alone, and we took our ease at our inn.
+
+Betimes the next day we hired a fly-coach--for a chaise could never
+have held us and my father's books--and jogged through a labyrinth
+of villanous lanes, which no Marshal Wade had ever reformed from
+their primal chaos. But poor Mrs Primmins and the canary-bird
+alone seemed sensible of the jolts; the former, who sate opposite
+to us, wedged amidst a medley of packages, all marked "care, to
+be kept top uppermost," (why I know not, for they were but books,
+and whether they lay top or bottom it could not materially affect
+their value,)--the former, I say, contrived to extend her arms over
+those _disjecta membra_, and, griping a window-sill with the right
+hand, and a window-sill with the left, kept her seat rampant, like
+the split eagle of the Austrian Empire--in fact it would be well,
+now-a-days, if the split eagle were as firm as Mrs Primmins! As for
+the canary, it never failed to respond, by an astonished chirp, to
+every "Gracious me!" and "Lord save us!" which the delve into a rut,
+or the bump out of it, sent forth from Mrs Primmins's lips, with all
+the emphatic dolor of thἂe "Ἂῖ, ἂῖ" in a Greek chorus.
+
+But my father, with his broad hat over his brows, was in deep
+thought. The scenes of his youth were rising before him, and his
+memory went, smooth as a spirit's wing, over delve and bump. And
+my mother, who sat next him, had her arm on his shoulder, and was
+watching his face jealously. Did she think that, in that thoughtful
+face, there was regret for the old love? Blanche, who had been
+very sad, and had wept much and quietly since they put on her the
+mourning, and told her that she had no brother, (though she had no
+remembrance of the lost), began now to evince infantine curiosity
+and eagerness to catch the first peep of her father's beloved tower.
+And Blanche sat on my knee, and I shared her impatience. At last
+there came in view a church spire--a church--a plain square building
+near it, the parsonage, (my father's old home)--a long straggling
+street of cottages and rude shops, with a better kind of house here
+and there--and in the hinder ground, a gray deformed mass of wall
+and ruin, placed on one of those eminences on which the Danes loved
+to pitch camp or build fort, with one high, rude, Anglo-Norman tower
+rising from the midst. Few trees were round it, and those either
+poplars or firs, save, as we approached, one mighty oak--integral
+and unscathed. The road now wound behind the parsonage, and up a
+steep ascent. Such a road!--the whole parish ought to have been
+flogged for it! If I had sent up a road like that, even on a map, to
+Dr Herman, I should not have sat down in comfort for a week to come!
+
+The fly-coach came to a full stop.
+
+"Let us get out," cried I, opening the door and springing to the
+ground to set the example.
+
+Blanche followed, and my respected parents came next. But when Mrs
+Primmins was about to heave herself into movement,
+
+"_Papæ!_" said my father. "I think, Mrs Primmins, you must remain
+in, to keep the books steady."
+
+"Lord love you!" cried Mrs Primmins, aghast.
+
+"The subtraction of such a mass, or _moles_--supple and elastic
+as all flesh is, and fitting into the hard corners of the inert
+matter--such a subtraction, Mrs Primmins, would leave a vacuum which
+no natural system, certainly no artificial organisation, could
+sustain. There would be a regular dance of atoms, Mrs Primmins; my
+books would fly here, there, on the floor, out of the window!
+
+  "_Corporis officium est quoniam omnia deorsum._"
+
+The business of a body like yours, Mrs Primmins, is to press all
+things down--to keep them tight, as you will know one of these
+days--that is, if you will do me the favour to read Lucretius,
+and master that material philosophy, of which I may say, without
+flattery, my dear Mrs Primmins, that you are a living illustration."
+
+These, the first words my father had spoken since we set out
+from the inn, seemed to assure my mother that she need have no
+apprehension as to the character of his thoughts, for her brow
+cleared, and she said, laughing,
+
+"Only look at poor Primmins, and then at that hill!"
+
+"You may subtract Primmins, if you will be answerable for the
+remnant, Kitty. Only, I warn you that it is against all the laws of
+physics."
+
+So saying, he sprang lightly forward, and, taking hold of my arm,
+paused and looked round, and drew the loud free breath with which we
+draw native air.
+
+"And yet," said my father, after that grateful and affectionate
+inspiration--"and yet, it must be owned, that a more ugly country
+one cannot see out of Cambridgeshire."[5]
+
+  [5] This certainly cannot be said of Cumberland generally, one of
+  the most beautiful counties in Great Britain. But the immediate
+  district to which Mr Caxton's exclamation refers; if not ugly, is at
+  least savage, bare, and rude.
+
+"Nay," said I, "it is bold and large, it has a beauty of its own.
+Those immense, undulating, uncultivated, treeless tracks have
+surely their charm of wildness and solitude! And how they suit the
+character of the ruin! All is feudal there: I understand Roland
+better now."
+
+"I hope in heaven Cardan will come to no harm!" cried my father; "he
+is very handsomely bound; and he fitted beautifully just into the
+fleshiest part of that fidgety Primmins."
+
+Blanche, meanwhile, had run far before us, and I followed fast.
+There were still the remains of that deep trench (surrounding the
+ruins on three sides, leaving a ragged hill-top at the fourth) which
+made the favourite fortification of all the Teutonic tribes. A
+causeway, raised on brick arches, now, however, supplied the place
+of the drawbridge, and the outer gate was but a mass of picturesque
+ruin. Entering into the courtyard or bailey, the old castle mound,
+from which justice had been dispensed, was in full view, rising
+higher than the broken walls around it, and partially overgrown with
+brambles. And there stood, comparatively whole, the tower or keep,
+and from its portals emerged the veteran owner.
+
+His ancestors might have received us in more state, but certainly
+they could not have given us a warmer greeting. In fact, in his
+own domain, Roland appeared another man. His stiffness, which
+was a little repulsive to those who did not understand it, was
+all gone. He seemed less proud, precisely because he and his
+pride, on that ground, were on good terms with each other. How
+gallantly he extended--not his arm, in our modern Jack-and-Jill
+sort of fashion--but his right hand, to my mother; how carefully
+he led her over "brake, bush, and scaur," through the low vaulted
+door, where a tall servant, who, it was easy to see, had been a
+soldier--in the precise livery, no doubt, warranted by the heraldic
+colours, (his stockings were red!)--stood upright as a sentry.
+And, coming into the hall, it looked absolutely cheerful--it took
+us by surprise. There was a great fire-place, and, though it was
+still summer, a great fire! It did not seem a bit too much, for
+the walls were stone, the lofty roof open to the rafters, while
+the windows were small and narrow, and so high and so deep sunk
+that one seemed in a vault. Nevertheless, I say the room looked
+sociable and cheerful--thanks principally to the fire, and partly
+to a very ingenious medley of old tapestry at one end, and matting
+at the other, fastened to the lower part of the walls, seconded
+by an arrangement of furniture which did credit to my uncle's
+taste for the Picturesque. After we had looked about and admired
+to our hearts' content, Roland took us--not up one of those noble
+staircases you see in the later manorial residences--but a little
+winding stone stair, into the rooms he had appropriated to his
+guests. There was first a small chamber, which he called my father's
+study--in truth, it would have done for any philosopher or saint who
+wished to shut out the world--and might have passed for the interior
+of such a column as Stylites inhabited; for you must have climbed a
+ladder to have looked out of the window, and then the vision of no
+short-sighted man could have got over the interval in the wall made
+by the narrow casement, which, after all, gave no other prospect
+than a Cumberland sky, with an occasional rook in it. But my father,
+I think I have said before, did not much care for scenery, and he
+looked round with great satisfaction upon the retreat assigned him.
+
+"We can knock up shelves for your books in no time," said my uncle,
+rubbing his hands.
+
+"It would be a charity," quoth my father, "for they have been very
+long in a recumbent position, and would like to stretch themselves,
+poor things. My dear Roland, this room is made for books--so round
+and so deep. I shall sit here like Truth in a well."
+
+"And there is a room for you, sister, just out of it," said my
+uncle, opening a little low prison-like door into a charming room,
+for its window was low, and it had an iron balcony; "and out of that
+is the bed-room. For you, Pisistratus, my boy, I am afraid that it
+is soldier's quarters, indeed, with which you will have to put up.
+But never mind; in a day or two we shall make all worthy a general
+of your illustrious name--for he was a great general, Pisistratus
+the First--was he not, brother?"
+
+"All tyrants are," said my father: "the knack of soldiering is
+indispensable to them."
+
+"Oh, you may say what you please here!" said Roland, in high
+good humour, as he drew me down stairs, still apologising for my
+quarters, and so earnestly that I made up my mind that I was to be
+put into an _oubliette_. Nor were my suspicions much dispelled on
+seeing that we had to leave the keep, and pick our way into what
+seemed to me a mere heap of rubbish, on the dexter side of the
+court. But I was agreeably surprised to find, amidst these wrecks,
+a room with a noble casement commanding the whole country, and
+placed immediately over a plot of ground cultivated as a garden.
+The furniture was ample, though homely; the floors and walls well
+matted; and, altogether, despite the inconvenience of having to
+cross the courtyard to get to the rest of the house, and being
+wholly without the modern luxury of a bell, I thought that I could
+not be better lodged.
+
+"But this is a perfect bower, my dear uncle! Depend on it, it was
+the bower-chamber of the Dames de Caxton--heaven rest them!"
+
+"No," said my uncle, gravely; "I suspect it must have been the
+chaplain's room, for the chapel was to the right of you. An earlier
+chapel, indeed, formerly existed in the keep tower--for, indeed, it
+is scarcely a true keep without chapel, well, and hall. I can show
+you part of the roof of the first, and the two last are entire; the
+well is very curious, formed in the substance of the wall at one
+angle of the hall. In Charles the First's time, our ancestor lowered
+his only son down in a bucket, and kept him there six hours, while
+a Malignant mob was storming the tower. I need not say that our
+ancestor himself scorned to hide from such a rabble, for _he_ was a
+grown man. The boy lived to be a sad spendthrift, and used the well
+for cooling his wine. He drank up a great many good acres."
+
+"I should scratch him out of the pedigree, if I were you. But,
+pray, have you not discovered the proper chamber of that great Sir
+William, about whom my father is so shamefully sceptical?"
+
+"To tell you a secret," answered the Captain, giving me a sly poke
+in the ribs, "I have put your father into it! There are the initial
+letters W. C. let into the cusp of the York rose, and the date,
+three years before the battle of Bosworth, over the chimneypiece."
+
+I could not help joining my uncle's grim low laugh at this
+characteristic pleasantry; and after I had complimented him on so
+judicious a mode of proving his point, I asked him how he could
+possibly have contrived to fit up the ruin so well, especially as he
+had scarcely visited it since his purchase.
+
+"Why," said he, "about twelve years ago, that poor fellow you
+now see as my servant, and who is gardener, bailiff, seneschal,
+butler, and anything else you can put him to, was sent out of the
+army on the invalid list. So I placed him here; and as he is a
+capital carpenter, and has had a very fair education, I told him
+what I wanted, and put by a small sum every year for repairs and
+furnishing. It is astonishing how little it cost me, for Bolt,
+poor fellow, (that is his name,) caught the right spirit of the
+thing, and most of the furniture, (which you see is ancient and
+suitable,) he picked up at different cottages and farmhouses in the
+neighbourhood. As it is, however, we have plenty more rooms here and
+there--only, of late," continued my uncle, slightly changing colour,
+"I had no money to spare. But come," he resumed, with an evident
+effort--"come and see my barrack: it is on the other side of the
+hall, and made out of what no doubt were the butteries."
+
+We reached the yard, and found the fly-coach had just crawled to
+the door. My father's head was buried deep in the vehicle,--he was
+gathering up his packages, and sending out, oracle-like, various
+muttered objurgations and anathemas upon Mrs Primmins and her
+vacuum; which Mrs Primmins, standing by, and making a lap with her
+apron to receive the packages and anathemas simultaneously, bore
+with the mildness of an angel, lifting up her eyes to heaven and
+murmuring something about "poor old bones." Though, as for Mrs
+Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years, and you
+might as soon have found a Plesiosaurus in the fat lands of Romney
+Marsh as a bone amidst those layers of flesh in which my poor father
+thought he had so carefully cottoned up his Cardan.
+
+Leaving these parties to adjust matters between them, we stepped
+under the low doorway, and entered Rowland's room. Oh, certainly
+Bolt _had_ caught the spirit of the thing!--certainly he had
+penetrated down even to the very pathos that lay within the deeps
+of Roland's character. Buffon says "the style is the man;" there,
+the room was the man. That nameless, inexpressible, soldier-like,
+methodical neatness which belonged to Roland--that was the first
+thing that struck one--that was the general character of the whole.
+Then, in details, there, in stout oak shelves, were the books on
+which my father loved to jest his more imaginative brother,--there
+they were, Froissart, Barante, Joinville, the _Mort d'Arthur_,
+_Amadis of Gaul_, Spenser's _Fairy Queen_, a noble copy of Strutt's
+_Horda_, Mallet's _Northern Antiquities_, Percy's _Reliques_, Pope's
+_Homer_, books on gunnery, archery, hawking, fortification--old
+chivalry and modern war together cheek by jowl.
+
+Old chivalry and modern war!--look to that tilting helmet with
+the tall Caxton crest, and look to that trophy near it, a French
+cuirass--and that old banner (a knight's pennon) surmounting those
+crossed bayonets. And over the chimneypiece there--bright, clean,
+and, I warrant you, dusted daily--are Roland's own sword, his
+holsters, and pistols, yea, the saddle, pierced and lacerated, from
+which he had reeled when that leg----I gasped--I felt it all at a
+glance, and I stole softly to the spot, and, had Roland not been
+there, I could have kissed that sword as reverently as if it had
+been a Bayard's or a Sidney's.
+
+My uncle was too modest to guess my emotion; he rather thought I
+had turned my face to conceal a smile at his vanity, and said, in
+a deprecating tone of apology--"It was all Bolt's doing, foolish
+fellow."
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+Our host regaled us with a hospitality that notably contrasted his
+economical thrifty habits in London. To be sure, Bolt had caught the
+great pike which headed the feast; and Bolt, no doubt, had helped
+to rear those fine chickens _ab ovo_; Bolt, I have no doubt, made
+that excellent Spanish omelette; and for the rest, the products of
+the sheepwalk and the garden came in as volunteer auxiliaries--very
+different from the mercenary recruits by which those metropolitan
+_Condottieri_, the butcher and green-grocer, hasten the ruin of that
+melancholy commonwealth called "genteel poverty."
+
+Our evening passed cheerfully; and Roland, contrary to his custom,
+was talker in chief. It was eleven o'clock before Bolt appeared with
+a lantern to conduct me through the court-yard to my dormitory,
+among the ruins--a ceremony which, every night, shine or dark, he
+insisted upon punctiliously performing.
+
+It was long before I could sleep--before I could believe that but
+so few days had elapsed since Roland heard of his son's death--that
+son whose fate had so long tortured him; and yet, never had Roland
+appeared so free from sorrow! Was it natural--was it effort? Several
+days passed before I could answer that question, and then not wholly
+to my satisfaction. Effort there was, or rather resolute systematic
+determination. At moments Roland's head drooped, his brows met, and
+the whole man seemed to sink. Yet these were only moments; he would
+rouse himself up like a dozing charger at the sound of a trumpet,
+and shake off the creeping weight. But, whether from the vigour of
+his determination, or from some aid in other trains of reflection, I
+could not but perceive that Roland's sadness really was less grave
+and bitter than it had been, or than it was natural to suppose. He
+seemed to transfer, daily more and more, his affections from the
+dead to those around him, especially to Blanche and myself. He let
+it be seen that he looked on me now as his lawful successor--as the
+future supporter of his name--he was fond of confiding to me all
+his little plans, and consulting me on them. He would walk with me
+around his domains, (of which I shall say more hereafter,)--point
+out, from every eminence we climbed, where the broad lands which
+his forefathers owned stretched away to the horizon; unfold with
+tender hand the mouldering pedigree, and rest lingeringly on those
+of his ancestors who had held martial post, or had died on the
+field. There was a crusader who had followed Richard to Ascalon;
+there was a knight who had fought at Agincourt; there was a cavalier
+(whose picture was still extant, with fair lovelocks) who had fallen
+at Worcester--no doubt the same who had cooled his son in that
+well which the son devoted to more agreeable associations. But of
+all these worthies there was none whom my uncle, perhaps from the
+spirit of contradiction, valued like that apocryphal Sir William:
+and why?--because, when the apostate Stanley turned the fortunes
+of the field at Bosworth, and when that cry of despair--"Treason,
+treason!" burst from the lips of the last Plantagenet, "amongst
+the faithless," this true soldier "faithful found!" had fallen in
+that lion-rush which Richard made at his foe. "Your father tells
+me that Richard was a murderer and usurper," quoth my uncle. "Sir,
+that might be true or not; but it was not on the field of battle
+that his followers were to reason on the character of the master
+who trusted them, especially when a legion of foreign hirelings
+stood opposed to them. I would not have descended from that turncoat
+Stanley to be lord of all the lands the Earls of Derby can boast
+of. Sir, in loyalty, men fight and die for a grand principle, and
+a lofty passion; and this brave Sir William was paying back to the
+last Plantagenet the benefits he had received from the first!"
+
+"And yet it may be doubted," said I maliciously, "whether William
+Caxton the printer did not--"
+
+"Plague, pestilence, and fire seize William Caxton the printer, and
+his invention too!" cried my uncle barbarously. "When there were
+only a few books, at least they were good ones; and now they are
+so plentiful, all they do is to confound the judgment, unsettle
+the reason, drive the good books out of cultivation, and draw a
+ploughshare of innovation over every ancient landmark; seduce the
+women, womanize the men, upset states, thrones, and churches; rear
+a race of chattering, conceited, coxcombs, who can always find
+books in plenty to excuse them from doing their duty; make the poor
+discontented, the rich crotchety and whimsical, refine away the
+stout old virtues into quibbles and sentiments! All imagination
+formerly was expended in noble action, adventure, enterprise, high
+deeds and aspirations; now a man can but be imaginative by feeding
+on the false excitement of passions he never felt, dangers he never
+shared; and he fritters away all there is of life to spare in him
+upon the fictitious love-sorrows of Bond Street and St James's.
+Sir, chivalry ceased when the press rose! And to fasten upon me, as
+a forefather, out of all men who have ever lived and sinned, the
+very man who has most destroyed what I most valued--who, by the
+Lord! with his cursed invention has wellnigh got rid of respect for
+forefathers altogether--is a cruelty of which my brother had never
+been capable, if that printer's devil had not got hold of him!"
+
+That a man in this blessed nineteenth century should be such a
+Vandal! and that my uncle Roland should talk in a strain that
+Totila would have been ashamed of, within so short a time after my
+father's scientific and erudite oration on the Hygeiana of Books,
+was enough to make one despair of the progress of intellect and the
+perfectibility of our species. And I have no manner of doubt that,
+all the while, my uncle had a brace of books in his pockets, Robert
+Hall one of them! In truth, he had talked himself into a passion,
+and did not know what nonsense he was saying, poor man. But this
+explosion of Captain Roland's has shattered the thread of my matter.
+Pouff! I must take breath and begin again!
+
+Yes, in spite of my sauciness, the old soldier evidently took to me
+more and more. And, besides our critical examination of the property
+and the pedigree, he carried me with him on long excursions to
+distant villages, where some memorial of a defunct Caxton, a coat of
+arms, or an epitaph on a tombstone, might be still seen. And he made
+me pore over topographical works and county histories, (forgetful,
+Goth that he was, that for those very authorities he was indebted
+to the repudiated printer!) to find some anecdote of his beloved
+dead! In truth, the county for miles round bore the _vestigia_ of
+those old Caxtons; their handwriting was on many a broken wall.
+And, obscure as they all were, compared to that great operative
+of the Sanctuary at Westminster, whom my father clung to--still,
+that the yesterdays that had lighted them the way to dusty death
+had cast no glare on dishonoured scutcheons seemed clear, from the
+popular respect and traditional affection in which I found that
+the name was still held in hamlet and homestead. It was pleasant
+to see the veneration with which this small hidalgo of some three
+hundred a-year was held, and the patriarchal affection with which
+he returned it. Roland was a man who would walk into a cottage,
+rest his cork leg on the hearth, and talk for the hour together
+upon all that lay nearest to the hearts of the owners. There is
+a peculiar spirit of aristocracy amongst agricultural peasants:
+they like old names and families; they identify themselves with the
+honours of a house, as if of its clan. They do not care so much for
+wealth as townsfolk and the middle class do; they have a pity, but a
+respectful one, for wellborn poverty. And then this Roland, too--who
+would go and dine in a cook shop, and receive change for a shilling,
+and shun the ruinous luxury of a hack cabriolet--could be positively
+extravagant in his liberalities to those around him. He was
+altogether another being in his paternal acres. The shabby-genteel,
+half-pay captain, lost in the whirl of London, here luxuriated into
+a dignified case of manner that Chesterfield might have admired.
+And, if to please is the true sign of politeness, I wish you could
+have seen the faces that smiled upon Captain Roland, as he walked
+down the village, nodding from side to side.
+
+One day a frank, hearty, old woman, who had known Roland as a boy,
+seeing him lean on my arm, stopped us, as she said bluffly, to take
+a "geud luik" at me.
+
+Fortunately I was stalwart enough to pass muster, even in the eyes
+of a Cumberland matron; and, after a compliment at which Roland
+seemed much pleased, she said to me, but pointing to the Captain--
+
+"Hegh, sir, now you ha the bra time before you; you maun een try and
+be as geud as _he_. And if life last, ye wull too--for there never
+waur a bad ane of that stock. Wi' heads kindly stup'd to the least,
+and lifted manfu' oop to the heighest--that ye all war' sin ye came
+from the Ark. Blessins on the ould name--though little pelf goes
+with it--it sounds on the peur man's ear like a bit o' gould!"
+
+"Do you not see now," said Roland, as we turned away, "what we owe
+to a name, and what to our forefathers?--do you not see why the
+remotest ancestor has a right to our respect and consideration--for
+he was a parent? 'Honour your parents'--the law does not say,
+'Honour your children!' If a child disgrace us, and the dead,
+and the sanctity of this great heritage of their virtues--_the
+name_;--if he does--" Roland stopped short, and added fervently,
+"But you are my heir now--I have no fear! What matters one foolish
+old man's sorrow?--the name, that property of generations, is saved,
+thank Heaven--the name!"
+
+Now the riddle was solved, and I understood why, amidst all his
+natural grief for a son's loss, that proud father was consoled.
+For he was less himself a father than a son--son to the long dead.
+From every grave, where a progenitor slept, he had heard a parent's
+voice. He could bear to be bereaved, if the forefathers were not
+dishonoured. Roland was more than half a Roman--the son might still
+cling to his household affections, but the _lares_ were a part of
+his religion.
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+But I ought to be hard at work, preparing myself for Cambridge. The
+deuce!--how can I? The point in academical education on which I
+require most preparation is Greek composition. I come to my father,
+who, one might think, was at home enough in this. But rare indeed is
+it to find a great scholar who is a good teacher.
+
+My dear father! if one is content to take you in your own way,
+there never was a more admirable instructor for the heart, the
+head, the principles, or the tastes--in your own way, when you have
+discovered that there is some one sore to be healed--one defect
+to be repaired; and you have rubbed your spectacles, and got your
+hand fairly into that recess between your frill and your waistcoat.
+But to go to you, cut and dry, monotonously, regularly--book and
+exercise in hand--to see the mournful patience with which you tear
+yourself from that great volume of Cardan in the very honeymoon of
+possession--and then to note those mild eyebrows gradually distend
+themselves into perplexed diagonals, over some false quantity or
+some barbarous collocation--till there steal forth that horrible
+"Papæ!" which means more on your lips than I am sure it ever did
+when Latin was a live language, and "Papæ!" a natural and unpedantic
+ejaculation!--no, I would sooner blunder through the dark by myself
+a thousand times, than light my rush-light at the lamp of that
+Phlegethonian "Papæ!"
+
+And then my father would wisely and kindly, but wondrous slowly,
+erase three-fourths of one's pet verses, and intercalate others that
+one saw were exquisite, but could not exactly see why. And then one
+asked why; and my father shook his head in despair, and said--"But
+you ought to _feel_ why!"
+
+In short, scholarship to him was like poetry: he could no more teach
+it you than Pindar could have taught you how to make an ode. You
+breathed the aroma, but you could no more seize and analyse it,
+than, with the opening of your naked hand, you could carry off the
+scent of a rose. I soon left my father in peace to Cardan, and to
+the Great Book, which last, by the way, advanced but slowly. For
+Uncle Jack had now insisted on its being published in quarto, with
+illustrative plates; and those plates took an immense time, and
+were to cost an immense sum--but that cost was the affair of the
+Anti-Publisher Society. But how can I settle to work by myself?
+No sooner have I got into my room--_penitus ab orbe divisus_, as
+I rashly think--than there is a tap at the door. Now, it is my
+mother, who is benevolently engaged upon making curtains to all
+the windows, (a trifling superfluity that Bolt had forgotten or
+disdained,) and who wants to know how the draperies are fashioned
+at Mr Trevanion's: a pretence to have me near her, and see with her
+own eyes that I am not fretting;--the moment she hears I have shut
+myself up in my room, she is sure that it is for sorrow. Now it
+is Bolt, who is making book-shelves for my father, and desires to
+consult me at every turn, especially as I have given him a Gothic
+design, which pleases him hugely. Now it is Blanche, whom, in an
+evil hour, I undertook to teach to draw, and who comes in on tiptoe,
+vowing she'll not disturb me, and sits so quiet that she fidgets me
+out of all patience. Now, and much more often, it is the Captain,
+who wants me to walk, to ride, to fish. And, by St Hubert! (saint
+of the chase,) bright August comes--and there is moor-game on those
+barren wolds--and my uncle has given me the gun he shot with at my
+age--single-barrelled, flint lock--but you would not have laughed at
+it if you had seen the strange feats it did in Roland's hands--while
+in mine, I could always lay the blame on the flint lock! Time, in
+short, passed rapidly; and if Roland and I had our dark hours, we
+chased them away before they could settle--shot them on the wing as
+they got up.
+
+Then, too, though the immediate scenery around my uncle's was so
+bleak and desolate, the country within a few miles was so full of
+objects of interest--of landscapes so poetically grand or lovely;
+and occasionally we coaxed my father from the Cardan, and spent
+whole days by the margin of some glorious lake.
+
+Amongst these excursions, I made one by myself to that house in
+which my father had known the bliss and the pangs of that stern
+first love that still left its scars fresh on my own memory. The
+house, large and imposing, was shut up--the Trevanions had not been
+there for years--the pleasure-grounds had been contracted into the
+smallest possible space. There was no positive decay or ruin--that
+Trevanion would never have allowed; but there was the dreary look of
+absenteeship everywhere. I penetrated into the house with the help
+of my card and half-a-crown. I saw that memorable boudoir--I could
+fancy the very spot in which my father had heard the sentence that
+had changed the current of his life. And when I returned home, I
+looked with new tenderness on my father's placid brow--and blessed
+anew that tender helpmate, who, in her patient love, had chased from
+it every shadow.
+
+I had received one letter from Vivian a few days after our arrival.
+It had been redirected from my father's house, at which I had given
+him my address. It was short, but seemed cheerful. He said, that
+he believed he had at last hit on the right way, and should keep
+to it--that he and the world were better friends than they had
+been--and that the only way to keep friends with the world was to
+treat it as a tamed tiger, and have one hand on a crow-bar while one
+fondled the beast with the other. He enclosed me a bank-note which
+somewhat more than covered his debt to me, and bade me pay him the
+surplus when he should claim it as a millionnaire. He gave me no
+address in his letter, but it bore the post-mark of Godalming. I had
+the impertinent curiosity to look into an old topographical work
+upon Surrey, and in a supplemental itinerary I found this passage,
+"To the left of the beech-wood, three miles from Godalming, you
+catch a glimpse of the elegant seat of Francis Vivian, Esq." To
+judge by the date of the work, the said Francis Vivian might be the
+grandfather of my friend, his namesake. There could no longer be any
+doubt as to the parentage of this prodigal son.
+
+The long vacation was now nearly over, and all his guests were to
+leave the poor Captain. In fact, we had made a long trespass on
+his hospitality. It was settled that I was to accompany my father
+and mother to their long-neglected _penates_, and start thence for
+Cambridge.
+
+Our parting was sorrowful--even Mrs Primmins wept as she shook hands
+with Bolt. But Bolt, an old soldier, was of course a lady's man. The
+brothers did not shake hands only--they fondly embraced, as brothers
+of that time of life rarely do now-a-days, except on the stage.
+And Blanche, with one arm round my mother's neck, and one round
+mine, sobbed in my ear,--"But I will be your little wife, I will."
+Finally, the fly-coach once more received us all--all but poor
+Blanche, and we looked round and missed her.
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+Alma Mater! Alma Mater! New-fashioned folks, with their large
+theories of education, may find fault with thee. But a true Spartan
+mother thou art--hard and stern as the old matron who bricked up
+her son Pausanias, bringing the first stone to immure him; hard and
+stern, I say, to the worthless, but full of majestic tenderness to
+the worthy.
+
+For a young man to go up to Cambridge (I say nothing of Oxford,
+knowing nothing thereof) merely as routine work, to lounge through
+three years to a degree among the �ι πολλοι--for such an one,
+Oxford Street herself, whom the immortal Opium-eater hath so direly
+apostrophised, is not a more careless and stony-hearted mother.
+But for him who will read, who will work, who will seize the rare
+advantages proffered, who will select his friends judiciously--yea,
+out of that vast ferment of young idea in its lusty vigour, choose
+the good and reject the bad--there is plenty to make those three
+years rich with fruit imperishable--three years nobly spent, even
+though one must pass over the Ass's Bridge to get into the Temple of
+Honour.
+
+Important changes in the Academical system have been recently
+announced, and honours are henceforth to be accorded to the
+successful disciples in moral and natural sciences. By the side
+of the old throne of Mathesis, they have placed two very useful
+_fauteuils à la Voltaire_. I have no objection; but, in those three
+years of life, it is not so much the thing learned, as the steady
+perseverance in learning something that is excellent.
+
+It was fortunate, in one respect, for me that I had seen a little
+of the real world--the metropolitan, before I came to that mimic
+one--the cloistral. For what were called pleasures in the last, and
+which might have allured me, had I come fresh from school, had no
+charm for me now. Hard drinking and high play, a certain mixture of
+coarseness and extravagance, made the fashion among the idle when
+I was at the university _sub consule Planco_--when Wordsworth was
+master of Trinity: it may be altered now.
+
+But I had already outlived such temptations, and so, naturally, I
+was thrown out of the society of the idle, and somewhat into that of
+the laborious.
+
+Still, to speak frankly, I had no longer the old pleasure in
+books. If my acquaintance with the great world had destroyed
+the temptation to puerile excesses, it had also increased my
+constitutional tendency to practical action. And, alas! in spite
+of all the benefit I had derived from Robert Hall, there were
+times when memory was so poignant that I had no choice but to rush
+from the lonely room, haunted by tempting phantoms too dangerously
+fair, and sober down the fever of the heart by some violent bodily
+fatigue. The ardour which belongs to early youth, and which it best
+dedicates to knowledge, had been charmed prematurely to shrines less
+severely sacred. Therefore, though I laboured, it was with that
+full _sense of labour_ which (as I found at a much later period
+of life) the truly triumphant student never knows. Learning--that
+marble image--warms into life, not at the toil of the chisel, but
+the worship of the sculptor. The mechanical workman finds but the
+voiceless stone.
+
+At my uncle's, such a thing as a newspaper rarely made its
+appearance. At Cambridge, even among reading men, the newspapers
+had their due importance. Politics ran high; and I had not been
+three days at Cambridge before I heard Trevanion's name. Newspapers,
+therefore, had their charms for me. Trevanion's prophecy about
+himself seemed about to be fulfilled. There were rumours of changes
+in the cabinet. Trevanion's name was bandied to and fro, struck
+from praise to blame, high and low, as a shuttlecock. Still the
+changes were not made, and the cabinet held firm. Not a word in the
+_Morning Post_, under the head of _fashionable intelligence_, as to
+rumours that would have agitated me more than the rise and fall of
+governments--no hint of "the speedy nuptials of the daughter and
+sole heiress of a distinguished and wealthy commoner:" only now and
+then, in enumerating the circle of brilliant guests at the house of
+some party chief, I gulped back the heart that rushed to my lips,
+when I saw the names of Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion.
+
+But amongst all that prolific progeny of the periodical
+press--remote offspring of my great namesake and ancestor, (for I
+hold the faith of my father,)--where was the _Literary Times_?--what
+had so long retarded its promised blossoms? Not a leaf in the shape
+of advertisements had yet emerged from its mother earth. I hoped
+from my heart that the whole thing was abandoned, and would not
+mention it in my letters home, lest I should revive the mere idea of
+it. But, in default of the _Literary Times_, there did appear a new
+journal, a daily journal too; a tall, slender, and meagre stripling,
+with a vast head, by way of prospectus, which protruded itself for
+three weeks successively at the top of the leading article;--with
+a fine and subtle body of paragraphs;--and the smallest legs, in
+the way of advertisements, that any poor newspaper ever stood upon!
+And yet this attenuated journal had a plump and plethoric title, a
+title that smacked of turtle and venison; an aldermanic, portly,
+grandiose, Falstaffian title--it was called THE CAPITALIST. And all
+those fine subtle paragraphs were larded out with receipts how to
+make money. There was an El Dorado in every sentence. To believe
+that paper, you would think no man had ever yet found a proper
+return for his pounds, shillings, and pence. You would have turned
+up your nose at twenty per cent. There was a great deal about
+Ireland--not her wrongs, thank Heaven! but her fisheries: a long
+inquiry what had become of the pearls for which Britain was once
+so famous: a learned disquisition upon certain lost gold mines now
+happily rediscovered: a very ingenious proposition to turn London
+smoke into manure, by a new chemical process: recommendations to
+the poor to hatch chickens in ovens like the ancient Egyptians:
+agricultural schemes for sowing the waste lands in England with
+onions, upon the system adopted near Bedford, net produce one
+hundred pounds an acre. In short, according to that paper, every
+rood of ground might well maintain its man, and every shilling be
+like Hobson's money-bag, "the fruitful parent of a hundred more."
+For three days, at the newspaper room of the Union Club, men talked
+of this journal: some pished, some sneered, some wondered; till
+an ill-natured mathematician, who had just taken his degree, and
+had spare time on his hands, sent a long letter to the _Morning
+Chronicle_, showing up more blunders, in some article to which the
+editor of _The Capitalist_ had specially invited attention, (unlucky
+dog!) than would have paved the whole island of Laputa. After that
+time, not a soul read _The Capitalist_. How long it dragged on its
+existence I know not; but it certainly did not die of a _maladie de
+langueur_.
+
+Little thought I, when I joined in the laugh against _The
+Capitalist_, that I ought rather to have followed it to its grave,
+in black crape and weepers,--unfeeling wretch that I was! But, like
+a poet, O _Capitalist_! thou wert not discovered, and appreciated,
+and prized, and mourned, till thou wert dead and buried, and the
+bill came in for thy monument!
+
+The first term of my college life was just expiring, when I received
+a letter from my mother, so agitated, so alarming, at first reading
+so unintelligible, that I could only see that some great misfortune
+had befallen us; and I stopped short and dropped on my knees, to
+pray for the life and health of those whom that misfortune more
+specially seemed to menace; and then--and then, towards the end of
+the last blurred sentence--read twice, thrice, over--I could cry,
+"Thank Heaven, thank Heaven! it is only, then, money after all!"
+
+
+
+
+STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND.
+
+
+It is a term of very wide application, this of statistics--extending
+to everything in the state of a country subject to variation either
+from the energies and fancies of men, or from the operations of
+nature, in so far as these, or the knowledge of them, has any
+tendency to occasion change in the condition of the country. Its
+elements must be either changeable in themselves, or the cause of
+change; because the use of the whole matter is to direct men what
+to do for their advantage, moral or physical--by legislation, when
+the case is of sufficient magnitude--or otherwise by the wisdom and
+enterprise of individuals.
+
+Governments, it is plain, must have the greatest interest in
+possessing knowledge of this sort; but they have not been the first
+to engage very earnestly in obtaining it. It would seem that, in all
+countries, the first very noticeable efforts in this way have been
+made by individuals.
+
+In this country we have now from government more and better
+statistics than from any other source; for besides the decennial
+census, there is the yearly produce in this way of Crown Commissions
+and of Parliamentary Committees; and, moreover, there is the late
+institution of a statistical department in connexion with the Board
+of Trade, for arranging, digesting, and rendering more accessible
+all matter of this kind collected, from time to time, by the
+different branches of the administration. But before statistical
+knowledge became the object of much care to the government of
+this country, it had been well cultivated by individuals. So in
+Germany statistics first took a scientific form in the works of an
+individual about the middle of the last century: and in France,
+the unfinished _Mémoires des Intendants_, prepared on the order
+of the king, were scarcely an exception, since meant for the
+private instruction of the young prince. But without attaching
+undue importance to the fact of mere precedence, it may be said
+that, considering the chief uses of this kind of knowledge, it has
+received more contributions from individuals than could have been
+expected.
+
+This admits of being easily explained. It has been well said
+that, while history is a sort of current statistics, statistics
+are a sort of stationary history. The one has therefore much the
+same invitations to mere literary taste as the other; and if the
+subject be not so generally engaging, the fancy way be as strong,
+and produce as pure a devotion to statistics as there ever is to
+history. More than this, the statist may care far less for his
+subject than its uses,--that is, he may choose to undergo the toil
+of researches only recommended by the chance of their ministering
+to the better guidance of some part of public policy, and therefore
+to the public good. The impulse is then not literary; nor is it
+legislative, for the power is wanting; it is simply patriotic, for
+so it must be considered, even when, in the words of Mr M'Culloch,
+the object is only "to bring under the public view the deficiencies
+in statistical information, and so to contribute to the advancement
+of the science."
+
+This public nature of the aim of statistical works, and the
+unlikelihood of their authors choosing that medium to set forth
+anything supposed worthy of notice in the figure of their own
+genius, seem to have been recognised, except in rare instances, as
+giving to works of this kind a title to be well received, and to
+have their faults very gently remarked.
+
+Again, it might be expected that the statistics of individuals
+should have a more limited range than those of governments; that
+they should refer to districts of less extent; and to the state
+of the country in fewer of its aspects. But the case is somewhat
+different. The statistics of individuals are often more national
+than local, and generally consist of many branches presented in some
+connexion; while those of governments are commonly confined to the
+single department on which some question of policy may chance for
+the time to have fixed attention.
+
+On the occasion mentioned, the inquiries instituted in France were
+not so confined, but embraced all the points of chief interest in
+the state of the country. In England, nothing similar has been
+attempted; although, some years ago, it is known that a proposal to
+institute a general survey of Ireland--on the plan, we believe, of
+the Ordnance Survey of the parish of Templemore--was for some time
+under consideration of the government.
+
+On the other hand, the instances of individual enterprise in this
+way to a national extent are numerous, both at home and abroad.
+Among the latter, Aucherwall gives the first example, and Peuchet
+probably the best; both treating of the country not in parts but
+as a whole,--not in one respect but in many. Of the same sort are
+the excellent statistical works of Colquhoun, M'Culloch, Porter,
+and others, relating to the British empire, and directed to many
+aspects of its condition. To these we add the _Statistical Account
+of Scotland_,--occupied with as many or more matters of inquiry,
+but not so properly national, since viewing not the country
+collectively, but its parochial divisions in succession.
+
+One advantage belongs to the collection of statistics upon many
+points, which is not found in those that are limited to one. It is
+remarked by Schlozer in his _Theorie der Statistik_, that "there
+are many facts seemingly of no value, but which become important
+as soon as you combine them with other facts, it may be of quite
+another class. The affinities subsisting among these facts are
+discovered by the talent and genius of the statist; and the more
+various the knowledge he possesses, with so much the more success
+he will perform this last and crowning part of his task." The
+observation need not be confined to facts apparently unimportant:
+for even those, whose importance is at once perceived, may acquire
+a new value from a skilful collation. In either case, there seems
+a necessity for remitting the detached statistics collected by
+government to some such department as that in connexion with the
+Board of Trade; otherwise, the works of individual statists must
+continue to afford the only opportunity of tracing the latent
+relations of one branch of statistics to another.
+
+The individual, however, who attempts so much, is in hazard
+of attempting more than any individual can well perform. For,
+besides this, he has to make another effort quite distinct--in the
+investigation of facts. All the needed scientific knowledge he
+may possess; but the same sufficiency of local or topographical
+knowledge is not supposable. The work so produced, therefore,
+cannot easily avoid the defects, either of error in the details
+of some branch, of unequal development of the parts, or of a
+superficial treatment of the whole. Against these dangers some
+writers have had recourse to assistance, inviting contributions from
+others favoured with better means of information than themselves;
+and to them attributing, in so far as they assisted, the entire
+merit and responsibility of the work.
+
+This transference of responsibility is warranted by the necessity
+of the case--but it is unusual; and as it scarcely occurs except in
+works of the kind in question, it may happen that even a professing
+judge of such works, if the habit of attention be not good, may
+entirely overlook the circumstance.
+
+In the _Statistical Account of Scotland_, the obligation to
+individual contributions has been carried to the greatest extent;
+indeed, it is simply a collection of such contributions, and nothing
+more. This part of the plan was necessitated by another, in which
+the work is equally peculiar--namely, the distinct treatment of
+smaller divisions of the country, than have been taken up in any
+other work of the kind, having an entire country for its object.
+To obtain a body of parochial statistics, it was necessary to
+have recourse to persons well acquainted with the bounds, and
+intelligent, at the same time, upon the various subjects of inquiry.
+But to find such in nine hundred parishes would, of itself, have
+required much of that local knowledge, the want of which was the
+occasion of the search--had there not been a class or order of men
+among whom the desired qualification, in many points, might be
+supposed to be pretty generally diffused; and from whose favour to a
+project of public usefulness much aid might be expected. It was in
+this manner that the co-operation of the parochial clergy came to be
+suggested.
+
+The _Statistical Account of Scotland_ was originated, promoted,
+and superintended by the late Sir John Sinclair. The authors of
+such works, as one of the best of them remarks, should be careful
+to explain their motives in undertaking it--we presume, because
+undertakings of the kind are felt to be scarcely an affair of
+individuals. In this instance, a desire to promote the public good
+was at once professed and accredited by many other acts apparently
+inspired by the same sentiment. The devotion of Sir John Sinclair's
+life in that direction was complete, and the example uncommon.
+In this a late reviewer perceives nothing more than a restless
+pursuit of plans of no further interest to himself than as they
+bore the inscription of his own name. But whenever public spirit is
+professed, and by anything like useful acts attested, our faith, we
+think, should be more generous. On such occasions, if on any, it is
+right to waive all speculation upon private motives, and to presume
+the best--for reasons so well understood in general that they do
+not need to be explained. But if genius, with a bent to that sort
+of penetration, must have its freedom, we do demand that some token
+should appear of a belief in the possibility of the virtue which is
+denied.
+
+It does not improve the grace of any such judgments that they are
+passed fifty years after the occasion; for, in the meantime, the
+work may have acquired merits which could not belong to it at
+first:--and so it has happened with the _Statistical Account_ of Sir
+John Sinclair. Results may be fairly ascribed to that performance
+which were not intended nor foreseen, and which seem to have come
+from its very defects, as well as from the defects which it revealed
+in the condition of the country, and in the means of ascertaining
+what the condition of the country was. Its population-statistics
+were extremely imperfect; the census followed in a very few years.
+Its scanty and unequal notices of agriculture suggested the project
+of the County Reports; and to these succeeded the _General Report of
+Scotland_--a work still useful, and of the first authority in much
+that relates to the agriculture and other industry of the country.
+To take advantage of those capabilities which the statistical
+accounts had shown his country to possess, Sir John Sinclair
+originated the Agricultural Society. All of those things, and more,
+appear to have resulted from the _Statistical Account_. They
+are honours that have arisen to it in the course of time, and may
+be fairly permitted to mitigate the notice and recollection of its
+faults.
+
+After the lapse of fifty years, Scotland had ceased to be the
+country represented in the old _Statistical Account_; for the
+greater part of what is proper to such a work is, as we have said,
+changeable and changing. It contained not a little, however, which
+remained as true and as interesting as at first: the topography,
+the physical characters, the civil divisions of the country were
+the same; all that had been said of its history, whether local or
+general, might be said again as seasonably as before. It occurred,
+then, to those to whom the author had presented the right of this
+work, to attempt to restore it in those parts which time had
+rendered useless, preserving those which were under no disadvantage
+from that cause. This, as we learn, was the plain, unambitious
+intention of the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_. It was
+projected and carried on during ten years by a Society, whose object
+it is to afford aid, where aid is needed, in the education of the
+children of the clergy of the Church of Scotland. Nothing could be
+more foreign to that object than to engage in a work of national
+statistics; nothing more natural than that, in their relation to
+the clergy, and with their interest in the first work, they should
+propose to renew it in the manner mentioned. A society expressly
+formed for statistical purposes, and not restrained like the Society
+for the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy, would probably have
+proposed something different--something more new; it might have
+been expected to produce something more excellent--though, even
+in that case, the demand of excellence would have been limited by
+the consideration, that the means of completely investigating the
+statistics of a country are not at the command of any statistical
+society that exists. A modernisation, so to speak, of the first work
+appears to have been the idea of the second.
+
+It has been executed, however, in the freest style, and scarcely
+admitted, indeed, of being accomplished at all in any other manner.
+In such cases, it is seldom that the adaptation is effected by
+mere numerical changes; the whole statement, in form, manner, and
+substance, behoves to be remodelled. Then, certain parts of the
+original may have been deficient, and become more evidently so by
+the changes that have since ensued in the state of the object: here
+the task is less one of correction than of supplement. For example,
+the very interesting and full accounts of mining and manufacturing
+industry which abound in the new work are nearly peculiar to it,
+and have scarcely an example in the old. One entire section of the
+latter, that of natural history, has been developed to an extent
+not attempted in the former, nor indeed in any other statistical
+work. These are rather noticeable licenses, on the supposition of
+the aim being as moderate as professed, and they go far to form a
+new and independent work--having nothing in common with the first,
+except the parochial divisions and the obligation to the clergy, as
+respects the plan; and as respects the matter, only the small part
+of it which is historical, and therefore not obsolete.
+
+We observe, accordingly, that the society who promoted the new work
+have put it forward as taking some things from the old, for which
+they are not responsible, but as containing far more which must form
+a new and separate character for itself. In both respects, we think
+they have viewed the work with a proper reference to the conditions
+under which it was produced.
+
+In other points, the new Account has improved upon the old, and
+might be expected to do so. It has more matter, by a third part,
+neither less suited to the place, nor more diffuse in the statement;
+and, as befits a work of reference, the arrangement is more orderly
+and more uniform. It is, on the whole, more carefully and better
+written, and shows, on the part of the reverend contributors, a
+remarkable advance in the many sorts of knowledge requisite to the
+task. If the comparison were pursued further, it might be said that
+some contributions to the first are not surpassed in the value of
+what they contain; while, from the greater novelty of the task at
+that time, as well as from the greater freedom of the method, they
+are somewhat fresher and more genial in manner. The later work, if
+fuller, more exact, more statistical throughout, possesses that
+advantage at the cost of appearing sometimes more like a collection
+of returns in answer to submitted points of inquiry,--a character,
+however, by no means unsuitable to a compilation of the kind. In all
+other points a decided superiority must be attributed to the new
+Account.
+
+Our remarks at this time shall be confined to the plan of the new
+Account, and to the general description of its contents.[6]
+
+  [6] _The New statistical Account of Scotland._ In 15 vols.
+  Edinburgh, 1845.
+
+The chief feature of the plan is the distinct treatment of each
+parish--producing a body neither of county nor of national, but
+merely of parochial statistics. This was the design, and there
+is much to recommend it. It is the last thing that can take the
+aspect of a fault in statistics, to view the matter in very minute
+portions; for thus, and thus only, it is possible to arrive at
+an accurate knowledge of the whole. There can be no good county
+statistics which do not suppose inquiries limited, at first, to
+lesser divisions of the country, and which do not express the sum
+of particulars taken from subdivisions that can hardly proceed too
+far. If such minor surveys do not come before the public, they are
+presumptively carried on in private. But, in the latter case, they
+are the more apt to be superficial, as they can be so with the
+less chance of being noticed; they are apt to take aid from mere
+computation of averages; they are apt, also, to result in that vague
+description which is the master-vice of statistics. "In this town,
+there are manufactures which employ _many_ hands; in this district,
+_vast_ quantities of silk are produced. These," says Schlozer, "are
+pet phrases of tourists, who would say something, when they know
+nothing; but they are not the language of statistics." The parochial
+method stands, then, on two good grounds: it is inevitable either
+in an open or a latent form; and it favours the collection of
+sufficient data for those specific enumerations which are the true
+worth and the characteristic grace of this branch of knowledge.
+
+This plan, however, has some disadvantages; in referring to which we
+shall find occasion to bring to view some of the proper merits of
+the work.
+
+In the first place, a work on this plan is inevitably voluminous.
+The territorial divisions submitted to distinct treatment are about
+nine hundred in number, and the matter is still further augmented by
+the occasional assignment to different hands of different parts of
+the survey of a single parish. In proportion to the descent of the
+details, is the bulk of the production; which we suppose to be an
+evil in the same measure in which it exceeds the necessity of the
+case. Now the _New Statistical Account_ is at once seen to contain
+not a little matter of merely local interest, and of the smallest
+value considered as pertaining to a body of national statistics;
+and here, if anywhere, it is apt to be regarded as at fault. It
+is right, however, to recollect the privilege of every work to
+be judged according to the conditions of the species to which it
+belongs. The present is not set forth as a statistical account of
+Scotland, but as a collection of the statistical accounts of all the
+parishes in Scotland; for this, we perceive, is not merely implied
+in the plan of the work, but is declared in the prospectus, where
+the hope is expressed that, by exhibiting the actual state of the
+parishes, with whatever is therein amiss, it may lead to parochial
+improvements. It does not appear, therefore, to have been from any
+miscalculation of their worth, that matters of merely local interest
+have been so liberally admitted; and, all things considered, more of
+that nature might have been expected. Let us quote again from the
+best theory of statistics that has ever been produced. "An object
+may be deserving of remark in the description of some particular
+portion of a country, and at the same time have no claim to notice
+in any general account of that country at large. In the former
+case, the rivulet is not to be omitted; in the latter, any allusion
+to it would be a defect, for it would be matter of unnecessary
+and trifling detail."[7] It is recorded, in the _New Statistical
+Account_, that "Will-o'-wisp had never appeared in the parish of
+South Uist previous to the year 1812." Nothing, in a national point
+of view, can be conceived more insignificant than this fact; but,
+taken in connexion with a notable superstition in that district, its
+local importance appears.[8] To the credit of this method, it may be
+noticed, that the accounts which are most parochial are, at the same
+time, among those which have been drawn up with the most general
+intelligence; and, this being the case, it is not a strange wish
+that the accounts, in general, had been somewhat more parochial than
+they are.
+
+  [7] Schlozer.
+
+  [8] "It is said that a woman in Benbecula went at night to the
+  Sandbanks, to dig for some roe used for dyeing a red colour,
+  against her husband's will; that, when she left her house, she
+  said with an oath she would bring some of it home, though she knew
+  there was a regulation by the factor and magistrates, prohibiting
+  people to use it or dig for it, by reason that the sandbanks, upon
+  being excavated, would be blown away with the wind. The woman
+  never returned home, nor was her body ever found. It was shortly
+  thereafter that the meteor was first seen; and it is said that it is
+  the ghost of the unfortunate and profane woman that appears in this
+  shape."--_New Statistical Account_, "Inverness," p. 184.
+
+On this plan, it is certain there is a risk of much repetition, many
+parishes having some common characterists which, in place of being
+recounted for each, might be stated once for all. How far does the
+_Statistical Account_ offend in this manner? It is true that, where
+the same facts occur in many parishes, a single statement might
+suffice; though this might be at the cost of violating the plan
+which for the whole it might be fittest to adopt, upon consideration
+that the like resemblance is not found among the greater number of
+the parishes. But it is remarkable, how seldom different parishes
+have all the similarity requisite for such a common description;
+for, in statistics, a difference in mere number or quantity is
+a vital difference, and expresses essentially different facts.
+Many parishes have the same articles of produce; while no two
+produce exactly the same quantities. A very short distance often
+brings to view considerable varieties in climate, soil, and other
+physical qualities of a country. Now, considering that the object
+of this work is to present the parishes in their distinguishing,
+as well as in their common features, we do not see much sameness
+in the substance of the details which could have been avoided. A
+sameness there is; but more in form than in substance--each account
+delivering its matter under the same general heads, recurring in
+all cases in exactly the same order. This is convenient when the
+book is used for reference; it may be wearisome to one who reads
+only for amusement: it is monotonous; but who looks for any "soul of
+harmony" in such a quarter? We repeat, it is not attended, on the
+whole, with much importunate reappearance of the same facts, and
+cannot seem to be so, except to a very careless or distempered eye.
+But if, perchance, there may be some facts much alike in several
+parishes, this itself is an unusual fact, and we should not object
+to its coming out in the usual way of each parish speaking for
+itself; in which case, there is always a chance of some variety in
+the description, from the same thing presenting itself to different
+persons under different aspects. But, on the whole, we think there
+is less repetition in these accounts, and indeed less occasion for
+it, than might at first sight be supposed.
+
+There is another obvious tendency to imperfection in the plan of
+parochial accounts. Their first, but not their sole object, is
+to describe the parishes; it is certainly meant that they should
+furnish, at the same time, the grounds of statistical computation
+for the whole country. This is the natural complement and the
+proper conclusion to a work of parish statistics. It is, however,
+a part of the plan which, not being quite necessary, and requiring
+a fresh effort at the last, is apt to be omitted. It was not till
+twenty-five years after the publication of the old Account that Sir
+John Sinclair at length produced his _Analysis of the Statistical
+Account of Scotland considered as one District_. It came too late. A
+similar analysis or summary appears to have been at first intended
+for the new Account: and we regret that this part of the design was,
+by force of circumstances, not carried into effect. One use of it
+would have been to evince that parochial statistics do not assume
+the character of national; while yet, for even national statistics,
+they furnish the most proper foundation. To pass at once, however,
+from parochial to national statistics would have been too great a
+step; there is an intermediate stage, at which the new Account would
+certainly have paused, though it had designed to proceed farther;
+and at which, without that design, it has here rested; presenting
+the statistics of each county in a summary of the more important
+particulars concerning the included parishes; but making no nearer
+approach to any general computations for the country at large.
+
+The method of proceeding from parishes to counties suggests that
+other plan for the entire work, which would have followed the
+opposite course--the plan that would have begun with counties, and
+given County, not Parochial reports. Somewhat in this fashion has
+been formed the _Géographie Départementale_ of France, now in course
+of publication, in which the whole matter is rigorously subjected
+to as skilful an arrangement as has ever been devised for matters
+of the kind. It is plain, however, that greater difficulty and more
+expense would have attended the construction of the Scotch work on
+that scheme, than private parties could have undertaken; and even
+the example of the French work does not show that, for the compacter
+method thus obtained, there might not have been a sacrifice of much
+that is valuable in detail.
+
+It may be added, that when parishes are well described, and a county
+or more general summary succeeds, we ask no more; a work like this
+has then accomplished its object, and what remains must be sought
+for elsewhere. What remains is this--to interpret the statistics
+thus laid down, for they are often very far from interpreting
+themselves; to ascertain, by analysis or combination of their
+different parts, what they signify in regard to the condition of
+the country. Thus, betwixt the rate of wages and the habits of a
+people--the prevailing occupations and the rate of mortality--the
+description of industry and the amount of pauperism--there are
+relations which it is exceedingly important to remark. But if a
+statistical account simply notes the kind, number, or quantity of
+each of these particulars, it performs its part,--no matter how
+blindly, how unconsciously of the relation that subsists betwixt
+them, this may be done. The rest is so different a work, that it
+must be left to other hands. It is not to be forgotten, that, for
+bringing out the more latent truths of statistics in the manner
+mentioned, a work like this is merely _pour servir_; and, keeping
+that in view, our prepossessions are all in favour of abundance and
+minuteness of detail.
+
+Lastly, a work made up of contributions from nine hundred
+individuals must be of unequal merit, according to the different
+measures of intelligence or care, and according to the feeling with
+which a task of that nature may happen to have been undertaken. A
+slight inspection, accordingly, discovers that it is the character
+of the writer, more than of the parish, that determines the length
+and interest of any one of these reports. This is an imperfection,
+and something more--for it makes one part of the book, by
+implication, reveal the defects of another. A few years ago, when
+a Crown commission considered a project for a general survey and
+statistical report of Ireland, their attention was much attracted
+to the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_; and, in their report,
+they notice, in the course of a very fair estimate, this inequality
+as the main disadvantage of the plan. It is, however, inevitable,
+except upon a scheme which, from the expense attending it, would
+have hindered the existence of the Scottish work, and which appears
+to have prevented or postponed the Irish. From a single author,
+something like proportion might be expected in the parts of such a
+compilation; but to that perfection a work like the _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_, with its hundreds of avowed responsible, and
+therefore uncontrolled authors, could not pretend. For this reason,
+it is the more proper to follow a rule of judgment which, in any
+case, is a good one:--to estimate the general character of the work
+with a lively recollection of its merits; and to be much upon our
+guard against the mean instinct of looking only to the weaker and
+more peccant parts of it.
+
+Passing from the plan to the matter of the work, we now ask, whether
+all that it contains is properly statistical, and whether it
+contains all of any consequence that falls under that description.
+
+Nothing, we suppose, is alien to this branch of knowledge that
+tends, in however little, to show the state of a country--social,
+political, moral--or even physical.
+
+But this last, comprising somewhat of geography and natural history,
+some writers would remove entirely from the sphere of statistics.
+Among these is Peuchet, in his work before mentioned--who gives as
+the reason of the exclusion, that, in any analysis of the wealth or
+power of a state, neither its geography nor natural history ever
+come into view: a fact rather hastily assumed. The parallel work for
+this country, by Mr. M'Culloch, while it follows Peuchet's method
+in much, leaves it in this instance, admitting various branches of
+natural history to ample consideration. It is true that trespass
+on the proper ground of statistics has been so common an offence,
+that writers have been careful to mark those cases in which no title
+exists. Thus Schlozer, looking to the intrusions that come from
+the quarter we refer to, is averse to all imaginative descriptions
+of the physical aspect of a country, but does not prohibit
+natural history. Hogel, who also writes well upon the theory of
+statistics,[9] is more explicit--admitting that natural history may
+encroach too far, but asserting that its several branches may be
+received to a certain extent. "Whatever, in the physical nature of a
+country, has any influence upon the life, occupations, or manners of
+the people, pertains to statistics; by all means, therefore, in any
+body of statistics, let us have as much of mineralogy, hydrology,
+botany, geology, meteorology, as has any bearing upon the condition
+of the people." All of these subjects have been allowed to enter
+largely into the _New Statistical Account_.
+
+  [9] HOGEL, _Entwurf zur Theorie der Statistik_.
+
+They form a feature of that work which scarcely belonged to the
+old Account, and which is new, indeed, to parochial statistics.
+Investigations of natural history have usually been carried on with
+reference to other bounds than those of parishes; but, when confined
+to parishes, it is remarkable how much this has been at once for the
+advantage of the science, and for the enhancement of any interest in
+these territorial divisions by the picturesque mixture of natural
+objects with the works and pursuits of men. More of this parochial
+treatment of natural history we may possibly have hereafter, upon
+the suggestion of the _Statistical Account_.
+
+For the abundant favour which the work has shown to the whole
+subject of natural history, reasons are not wanting. One portion
+of that matter has obviously the quality that designates for
+statistical treatment,--comprising, for example, mines, whether
+wrought or unwrought; animals, profitable or destructive; plants, in
+all their variety of uses: the connexion of which with the wealth
+and industry of the country is at once apparent. The same connexion
+exists for another class of objects; but not so obviously. For
+example, there is a detailed account of the flowering periods of
+a variety of plants in one parish; the pertinence of which is not
+perceived, until it is mentioned that, in the same neighbourhood,
+there are two populous and well-frequented watering-places, which
+owe their prosperity to the qualities of the climate: there the
+trade of the locality connects itself with the early honours of the
+hepaticas. A third class of facts, and not the least in amount,
+is not qualified by any relation they are known to possess to the
+social condition of the country; but then they belong to a body
+of facts, some of which have that relation; and the same may be
+established for them hereafter. Still, it may be said that the
+matter, if appropriate, behoves to be presented in a statistical,
+not in a scientific form. But this, perhaps, is to interpret too
+strictly the laws of statistical writing, which do not seem to
+forbid the predominance of a scientific interest in the description,
+when the matter fairly belongs to the province of statistics. And if
+any license at all may be allowed in works of so severe a character,
+it is precisely here where that is least unbefitting. It is not
+among the faults of the _New Statistical Account_, but rather among
+its most interesting features, that the mineral resources of the
+country are so often described with all the skill and passion of the
+mineralogist, forgetting for the moment everything but the phenomena
+of nature.
+
+Under the head of Natural History, we have many instances of the
+landscape painting proscribed by Schlozer. But it is remarked,
+that the same authority, when adverting to another matter, lays
+down a principle of admission which is equally applicable here.
+"Antiquities," he observes, "become a proper subject of statistics
+in such a case as that of Rome, where a large amount of money was at
+one time annually expended by the strangers who came to form their
+taste, or to indulge their curiosity, upon the remains of ancient
+art." In like manner, if there are places in Scotland that profit
+economically by the attractions of their natural beauty, we do
+not see that there is any obligation to be silent upon the cause,
+by reason merely of the seeming dissonance betwixt an imaginative
+description and the austere account of statistics. Other and better
+apologies might be offered; and, on the whole, we are not satisfied
+that, in this respect, any less indulgence of the gentler vein would
+have been attended with advantage to the work.
+
+On these grounds it appears to have been, that so much scope is
+allowed to the whole subject of natural history. But if too much,
+the fault has been redeemed by the frequent excellence of what is
+put forth on that head. Here the _New Statistical Account_ passes
+expectation; and to it we may attribute much of the increased
+interest that has lately attached to that branch of knowledge in
+Scotland.
+
+Another thing of questionable connexion with statistics is
+history, which imports a reference to the past; whereas, as the
+name declares, statistics contemplates but the present, and can
+look neither backward nor forward, without trenching upon other
+provinces. Many excellent statistical works, accordingly, have
+allowed no place to history at all; and the writers before cited,
+on the theory of the subject, concur in excluding it. Hogel is most
+explicit. "Statistics never go beyond the circle of the present
+in their representations of the condition of a country: they are
+like painting--they fix upon a single point of time; and the facts
+which they select are those which come last in the series, though
+the series they belong to may extend backwards for ages. All that
+went before rests on testimony, and is therefore beyond the sphere
+of statistics, whose grounds are in actual observation. There is
+no limit to the number of facts with which statistics have to do,
+provided they are co-existing facts, and do not present themselves
+in succession: facts, and not their causes, are the proper matter
+of statistics; and they must be facts of the present time." This
+doctrine, in which there seems nothing in the main amiss, if
+strictly applied to the work under consideration, cancels a large
+part of it. But against that consequence we can suppose it to
+be pleaded--First, that for relief from a continuity of details
+somewhat arid to many readers, the work borrows something from a
+neighbouring branch of knowledge, and so far, of purpose, drops its
+statistical character--the more allowably, as in this way no harm
+ensues to the statistical character of the rest. And next--that
+all the history of a place has not equally little to do with its
+present state; for past events are often, casually or otherwise,
+related to the present, and so become a fair subject of retrospect,
+unless restraints are to be imposed on this branch of knowledge
+which are unknown to any other. The fault, in this instance, is at
+least not so great, as where no discoverable relation exists. It
+may be worth while, then, to observe how far the historical matter
+of the _Statistical Account_ does show any connexion of the sort in
+question.
+
+It includes, under the head of history, various classes of
+particulars. 1. The parish has been the scene of some event
+remarkable in the history of the country. Of this, perhaps, distinct
+traces remain, not in memory alone, but in some local custom or
+institution. But the most common case is, that, as the range extends
+to the remotest periods, all influence or effect of the event has
+ceased, and the interest of its recital is purely historical. Here
+the _Statistical Account_ transgresses one rule of such a work by
+the admission of such matter, and asks, as we perceive it does ask
+in the prospectus, liberty to do so on one of the grounds above
+suggested.
+
+2. The same apology is required for the antiquities, that form a
+large section under this head. These have sometimes perceptibly the
+connexion that gives the title we desire; a connexion, perhaps, no
+more than perceptible. Thus, in reference to the round hill in the
+parish of Tarbolton, on which the god Thor was anciently worshipped,
+we are told that, "on the evening before the June fair, a piece of
+fuel is still demanded at each house, and invariably given, even by
+the poorest inhabitant," in order to celebrate the form of the same
+superstitious rite which has been annually performed on that hill
+for many centuries. The famous Pictish tower at Abernethy is said
+to be used "for civil purposes connected with the burgh." In these
+cases it is seen how very slight is the qualifying circumstance; but
+it is still more so for much the greater number of particulars of
+this kind which the book contains--such as ancient coins, ancient
+armour, barrows, standing-stones, camps, or moat hills: all of which
+particularly belong to archæology, and obtain a place here simply
+by favour. Indeed, no part of the work adheres to it so loosely as
+this of antiquities. Their objects live as curiosities; but, to all
+intents that can recommend them to the notice of statistics, they
+are dead, "and to be so extant is but a fallacy in duration."
+
+If this portion of the matter be the least appropriate, it is, at
+the same time, not the least difficult to handle; for uncertainty
+besets a very great part of it, and nothing more tries the reach of
+knowledge than conjecture. Besides, the knowledge here requisite
+implies both taste and opportunities for its cultivation,--which may
+belong to individuals, but which cannot be attributed to an entire
+profession, spread over all parts of the country, and designated
+to very different studies. If antiquities could be considered as
+a main part of statistics, it is, assuredly, not to the clergy we
+should look for a statistical account; nor indeed to any other
+body, however learned, if it be not the Society of Antiquaries. The
+clergyman who honours his profession with the greatest amount of
+appropriate learning, may in this particular know but little; and if
+we do not, on that account, the less value him, it is assuredly not
+from undervaluing in the slightest degree a very interesting branch
+of knowledge.
+
+In these circumstances, the reasons for allowing to antiquities
+so much of this compilation appear to have been,--the compelling
+example of the old Account, the occasional aptness of the matter,
+and the effect of such a _mélange_ upon the mass of details that
+form the body of the work. But a better apology remains; and
+it may be extended to what is said of the remarkable events of
+history. We are warranted in saying, that the _New Statistical
+Account_ has contributed much to the history and antiquities of
+Scotland,--evincing on these subjects a frequent novelty and fulness
+of knowledge far surpassing what either the design or the apparatus
+of the undertaking gave any title to expect.
+
+Of one fault, in particular, there is no appearance in the
+archæology of this work. Nowhere is there any sign of an
+idiosyncracy which is not without example--that of professing to
+speak of statistics, and yet speaking of nothing but antiquities;
+as if these, which are saved with so much difficulty from the
+charge of being wholly out of place, were the pith and marrow, the
+most vital part of any body of statistics. This is a small merit,
+but it is allied to a greater. Throughout these volumes, there is
+no tendency to discuss such futile questions as have sometimes
+lowered the credit of antiquarian pursuits. We have seen it solemnly
+inquired, whether Æneas, upon landing in Italy, touched the soil
+with the right or with the left foot foremost; whether Karl Haco
+was in person present at the sacrifice of his son; whether a faded
+inscription upon the walls of an old church be of this import or
+that--in either case the interest having so little to support it
+in the significance of the record that it can scarce be imagined
+to exist at all, except as it may centre in the mere truth of
+the deciphering. Nothing of this doting, degenerate character,
+repudiated by all antiquaries, occurs in the _Statistical Account_:
+if it did, the sum of all the errors in names, dates, and other
+things, inevitably incident to so vast a variety of details, would
+not have been an equal blemish.
+
+It is probable that neither history nor antiquities will find a
+place in any future statistics of Scotland. Not that they have
+been enough examined either in that connexion, or elsewhere; but
+it is now common to make them the subject of separate, independent
+essays--the most proper form for the delivery of anything that
+pertains to such matters. The good service done in this department,
+by both of these Accounts, now falls to be performed by such works
+as the "Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland,"[10]
+which have this for their single object; and the presumption is only
+fair, that some further light on such matters may be contributed by
+the "Parochiale Scoticanum," lately announced as in the course of
+preparation[11]--though our expectations would not have been at all
+lessened by a somewhat less magnificent promise than that "every
+man in Scotland may be enabled to ascertain, with some precision,
+the first footing and _gradual progress of Christianity_ in his own
+district and neighbourhood."
+
+  [10] _The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland._
+  Illustrated by R. W. BILLINGS, and WILLIAM BURN.
+
+  [11] Prospectus _Parochiale Scoticanum_, now editing by COSMO INNES,
+  Esq., Advocate.
+
+It is not to be supposed, however, that some other topics which
+regularly appear in this New Account, under the head of history,
+will ever drop from any work of parochial statistics. We refer to
+what may be termed Parish History, as distinct from what belongs to
+the history of the country,--notices of distinguished individuals
+and of ancient families, changes of property, territorial
+improvements, variations in the social state of the people. No
+part of a book is more novel, or, to a proper curiosity, more
+interesting; and no indication is needed of the fair incidence of
+such matters to a work of this description.
+
+If the _New Statistical Account_ contains, then, some particulars
+not quite proper to the professed object, the excess appears to
+be on the whole venial. But it may still be asked, whether any
+important and proper matters appear to have been omitted.
+
+Now, considering how many things of nature, art, institutions, and
+industry pertain to statistics, we do not expect any compilation to
+embrace all, or to treat completely of all such things as it does
+embrace,--we expect imperfection in the details.
+
+Accordingly, it is seen that some subjects well described in some
+accounts, are either not at all, or not so fully, taken up in
+others; while yet the occasion may be much the same. The climate
+of some districts, for instance, is well illustrated by careful
+observations from the rain-gage and thermometer; in some parishes we
+are informed of the size of the agricultural possessions, the number
+of ploughs, the rent of land; in some, manufactories, mines, and
+other kinds of industry, are viewed in all their aspects. But, for
+other districts or parishes, reports on these subjects are wanting;
+and the disadvantage is, not merely that such desirable information
+is not given for such places, but that the means are not furnished
+of making any general computations for the whole country. It is
+plain there have been special reasons for the less satisfactory
+representation of particular parishes in these respects: but for all
+such faults, both of omission and imperfection, we understand the
+_New Statistical Account_ to have one general apology; which is this.
+
+Two distinct efforts are requisite to the preparation of a
+comprehensive work of statistics. There is first, the investigation
+of facts; and next, the task of arranging and presenting them in
+the report. One of the theorists before-mentioned, views it as
+a necessary division of labour, that both things should not be
+attempted by one and the same party,--especially as the first, when
+the subjects are numerous, is not to be accomplished but by the
+assistance of many hands--all of which, as he observes, must be at
+once skilful and suitably rewarded. Now, here, the task of inquiring
+and reporting was not divided; the whole of it was placed, by the
+necessities of the case, in the hands of the reverend contributors.
+But, as no private society had the means or authority to investigate
+the facts completely, it is urged that the defects to which we have
+alluded, were for the most part inevitable.
+
+We believe it; and, recognising how much the clergy had thus to
+do, which could only be done completely by the government, we only
+advert to the sources of information to which they could have
+recourse.
+
+_Public documents_ seem to have been consulted, when information
+of a later date could not be had,--and chiefly the parliamentary
+reports on population, crime, education, and municipal affairs, from
+which the parish accounts appear to have been supplemented with
+whatever was necessary to the completion of the county summaries.
+Much has also been derived from the reports of Societies, Boards,
+and mercantile companies; of this there is evidence in the account
+of every considerable town.
+
+_Public records_ appear also to have been examined, and chiefly the
+parish registers. Every parish has a record of the transactions of
+its kirk-session,--sometimes extending to distant periods. Extracts
+from these occasionally show, in a clear light, the state and
+manners of the country in former times; more of which authentic
+illustration we could have wished, and more the same sources
+might possibly have supplied. Most parishes have also records of
+births or baptisms, marriages and deaths. From these, and these
+only, this work could derive the elements of its important section
+of vital statistics; but how far were they fitted to serve that
+purpose? It is certain that they nowhere form a complete register
+of these occurrences, and that for the most part they are very
+defective. Baptisms appear to have been entered, in the parish
+register, regularly till the year 1783, when the imposition of
+a small tax first broke the custom of registration; and, when
+that tax was removed, dissenting bodies were unwilling to resume
+the practice. The proportion of registered baptisms to births,
+for instance, is at the present time not more than one fourth in
+Edinburgh, and one third in Glasgow. The marriage register is also
+unavailable to statistical purposes, by reason of the practice of
+double enrolment--in the parish of each party. In many parishes no
+record of burials exists: in others, those of paupers are omitted.
+In short, there is scarcely a country in Europe that does not, by
+proper arrangements, furnish better information on these important
+points; and no industry of individuals can remedy that defect. It is
+therefore among the postulates of a work like this, for Scotland,
+that its vital statistics should be imperfect.
+
+_Books_ relating to the history, civil or natural, the institutions
+or manners of the country, have in many instances been well
+consulted; in some, not at all; but probably as much from want of
+opportunity as from any other cause.
+
+Still much occasion for inquiry remained after all the use that
+could be made of reports, registers, and books. Much of what related
+to the institutions of Religion, education, and the poor, might
+be supposed to come readily to hand, the clergy themselves being
+most conversant with such matters. But they appear to have charged
+themselves with the toil of very different investigations. Some
+have been at the pains to ascertain the amount and occupations of
+the population, betwixt the decennial terms of the parliamentary
+census. Few have omitted to state, in connexion with the agriculture
+of the parish, the quantities of land under tillage or under wood,
+in pasture or in moor, and the amount respectively of the different
+kinds of produce--facts that imply not a little correspondence with
+land-owners and land-occupiers, and much industry in the collation
+of returns. They have had recourse, frequently, to mineralogists,
+botanists, overseers of mining and manufacturing works, whose
+contributions are of as much value as the fullest and ripest
+knowledge can give. Picture-galleries are sometimes described by
+their owners; family papers occasionally disclose facts of some
+interest in the history of the country. Throughout the work there
+are signs not to be mistaken, of much private and unwonted inquiry
+on the part of the reverend authors, to do, in a creditable way, a
+work that, from the nature of it, ought to have been apportioned to
+at least two different parties.
+
+The defects which remain only suggest to us the hope which was thus
+expressed in similar circumstances, that "the circulation of this
+work, by bringing the deficiencies in the means of statistical
+information under the public view, and drawing attention to them,
+may, in this respect, also contribute to the advancement of the
+science." It is implied, of course, that the work, to be useful
+in this indirect way, must have merits of another kind. On these
+the _New Statistical Account_ may stand. No other book affords the
+same insight into the various natural resources of the country;
+none describes so well, and so skilfully, the most considerable
+branches of industry, and the methods of conducting them; none has
+brought together the same variety of statistics, with the same
+ample means of speculating upon their mutual relations. It is still
+more remarkable, that such a work, embracing, as it does, so much
+beyond the usual sphere of their observation, should proceed from
+the clergy; but the explanation is, that the position and character
+of that body open to them the best means of information on many
+subjects with which they are themselves not at all conversant. They
+have produced here a work, which, as a collection of parochial
+statistics, stands alone, without either rival or resemblance in any
+other country, representing the state of Scotland, at the period to
+which it refers, in all its aspects, and so affording the means of
+a definite comparison between the past and the present, such as, in
+all cases, it is at once natural and profitable to make. A peculiar
+interest arises from the unusual diversity of the matter, and the
+familiarity of the writers with the bounds which they describe.
+It is a useful work, and will continue long to be so, in as many
+ways as it throws light upon the condition of the country--and,
+not least, in the local improvements to which its suggestions may
+give rise. But, if its uses were less than they are, it would still
+leave an impression of respect for the general intelligence and the
+readiness to employ their opportunities for the public good, which
+its authors have known to unite with exemplary devotion to the
+duties of their calling.
+
+
+
+
+THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART.
+
+     _The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art._ By Mrs JAMESON.
+
+
+We are of the belief that art without poetry is worthless--dead,
+and deadening; or, if it have vitality, there is no music in its
+speech--no command in its beauty. We treat it with a kind of
+contempt, and make apology for the pleasure it has afforded. _Sacred
+and Legendary Art!_ How different--how precious--how life-bestowing!
+The material and immaterial world linked, as it were, together by
+a new sympathy, working out a tissue of beautiful ideas from the
+golden threads of a Divine revelation! By _Sacred and Legendary Art_
+is meant the treatment of religions subjects, commencing with the
+Old Testament, and terminating in traditionary tales and legends. It
+is from the latter that the old painters have, for the most part,
+taken that rich poetry, which, glowing on the canvass, shows, even
+amidst the wild errors of fable, a truth of sentiment belonging to a
+purer faith.
+
+By the Protestant mind, nursed, perhaps, in an undue contempt of
+histories of saints and martyrs of the Romish Church, the treasures
+of art of the best period are rarely understood, and still more
+rarely felt, in the spirit in which they were conceived. Those for
+whom they were painted needed no cold inquiry into the subjects.
+They accepted them as things universally known and religiously to
+be received, with a veneration which we but little comprehend. With
+them pictures and statues were among their sacred things, and,
+together with architecture, spoke and taught with an authority
+that books, which then were rare in the people's hands, have since
+scarcely ever obtained. Men of genius felt this respect paid to
+their works, if denied too often to themselves; and thus to their
+own devotion was added a kind of ministerial importance. Their work
+became a duty, and was very frequently prosecuted as such by the
+inmates of monasteries. Besides their works on a large scale, upon
+the walls and in their cloisters, the ornamenting and illustrating
+missals embodied a religious feeling, if in some degree peculiar to
+the condition of the workers, of a vital form and beauty. Treasures
+of this kind there are beyond number; but they have been hidden
+treasures for ages. A Protestant contempt for their legends has
+persecuted, with long hatred, and subsequent long indifference,
+the art which glorified them. And now that we awake from this dull
+state, and begin to estimate the poetry of religious art, we stand
+before the noblest productions amazed and ignorant, and looking
+for interpreters, and lose the opportunity of enjoyment in the
+inquiry. Art is too valuable for all it gives, to allow this entire
+ignorance of the subjects of its favourite treatment. If, for the
+better understanding of heathen art, an acquaintance with classical
+literature is thought to be a worthy attainment, the excellence of
+what we may term Christian art surely renders it of importance that
+we should know something about the subjects of which it treats. The
+inquiry will repay us also in other respects, as well as with regard
+to taste. If we would know ourselves, it is well to see the workings
+of the human mind, under its every phase, its every condition. And
+in such a study we shall be gratified, perhaps unexpectedly, to find
+the good and the beautiful still shining through the obscurity of
+many errors, predominant and influential upon our own hearts, and
+scarcely wish the fabulous altogether removed from the minds of
+those who receive it in devotion, lest great truth in feeling be
+removed also. Indeed, the legends themselves are mostly harmless,
+and, even as they become discredited, may be interpreted as not
+unprofitable allegories. Had we not, in a Puritanic zeal, discarded
+art with an iconoclast persecution, _The Pilgrim's Progress_ had
+long ere this been a "golden legend" for the people, and spoken to
+them in worthy illustration; nor would they have been religiously
+or morally the worse had they been imbued with a thorough taste for
+the graceful, the beautiful, and the sublime, which it is in the
+power of well cultivated art to convey to every willing recipient.
+It is a great mistake of a portion of the religious world to look
+upon ornament as a sin or a superstition. Religion is not a bare and
+unadorned thing, nor can it be so received without debasing, without
+making too low and mean the worshipper for the worship. The "wedding
+garment" was not the every-day wear. The poorest must not, of a
+choice, appear in rags before the throne of Him who is clothed in
+glory, nor with less respect of their own person than they would use
+in the presence of their betters. It was originally of God's doing,
+command, and dictation, to sanctify the beautiful in art, by making
+his worship a subject for all embellishment. For such a purport
+were the minute directions for the building of His temple. And yet
+how many "religious" of our day contradict this feeling, which
+seems to come to us, not only by a natural instinct, but with the
+authority of a command! It is a deteriorated worship that prefers
+four bare, unadorned, whitened walls of a mean conventicle to the
+lofty and arched majesty and profuse enrichment of a Gothic minster.
+We want every aid to lift every sense above our daily grovelling
+cares, and ought to feel that we are acceptable and invited guests
+in a house far too great, spacious, and magnificent for ourselves
+alone. Even our humility should be sublime, as all true worship
+is, for we would fain lift it up as an offering to the Heaven of
+heavens. It has its aspect towards Him who deigns to receive,
+together with consciousness of the lowliness of him that offers. It
+is good that the eye and the ear should see and hear other sounds
+and sights than concern things, not only of time, but of that poor
+portion of it which hems in our daily wants and businesses. Beauty
+and music are of and for eternity, and will never die; and in our
+perception of them we make ourselves a part of all that is undying.
+These are senses that the spiritualised body will not lose. Their
+cultivation is a thing for ever; we are now even here the greater
+for their possession in their human perfection. The wondrous pile
+so elaborately finished; the choral service, the pealing organ, and
+the low voice of prayer, and, it may be, angel forms and beatified
+saints in richly-painted windows:--we do not believe all this to be
+solely of man's invention, but of inspiration; how given we ask not,
+seeing what is, and acknowledging a greatness around us far greater
+than ourselves, and lifting up the full mind to a magnitude emulous
+of angelic stature. Yes--poetic genius is a high gift, by which the
+gifted make discoveries, and show high and great truths, and present
+them, palpable and visible, before the world--by architecture,
+by painting, by sculpture, by music--rendering religion itself
+more holy by the inspiration of its service. Take a man out of
+his common, so to speak, irreverent habit, and place him here to
+live for a few moments in this religious atmosphere--how unlike is
+he to himself, and how conscious of this self-unlikeness! Would
+that our cathedrals were open at all times! Even when there is no
+service, though that might be more frequent, there would be much
+good communing with a man's own heart, when, turning away for a
+while from worldly troubles and speculations, in midst of that great
+solemn monument, erected to his Maker's praise, and with the dead
+under his feet--the dead who as busily walked the streets and ways
+he has just left--he would weigh the character of his doings, and in
+a sanctified place breathe a prayer for direction. Nor would it be
+amiss that he should be led to contemplate the "storied pane" and
+religious emblems which abound; he will not fail, in the end, to
+sympathise with the sentiment even where he bows not to the legend.
+He may know the fact that there have been saints and martyrs--that
+faith, hope, and charity are realities--that patience and love may
+be here best learnt to be practised in the world without.
+
+It is curious that the saints, those _Dii minores_, to whom so many
+of our churches are dedicated, still retain their holding. Beyond
+the evangelists and the apostles, little do the people know of the
+other many saints while they enter the churches that bear their
+names. Few of a congregation, we suspect, could give much account of
+St Pancras, St Margaret, St Werburgh, St Dunstan, St Clement, nor
+even of St George, but that he is pictured slaying a dragon, and is
+the patron saint of England. Yet were they once "household gods" in
+the land. It is a curious speculation this of patron saints, and
+how every family and person had his own. There is a great fondness
+in this old personal attachment of his own angel to every man. That
+notion preceded Christianity, and was easily engrafted upon it: and
+the angel that attended from the birth was but supplanted by some
+holy dead whom the Church canonised. And a corrupt church humoured
+the superstition, and attached miracles to relics; and thus, as
+of old, these came, in latter times, to be "gods many." And what
+were these but over again the thirty thousand deities who, Hesiod
+said, inhabited the earth, and were guardians of men? Yet, it must
+be confessed, there has been a popular purification of them. They
+are not the panders to vice that infested the morals of the heathen
+world.
+
+But how came the heathen world by them? Did they invent, or where
+find them? And how came their characteristics to be so universal, in
+all countries differing rather in name than personality? The most
+intellectually-gifted people under the sun, the ancient Greeks,
+give nowhere any rational account how they came by the gods they
+worshipped. They take them as personifications from their poets.
+There is the theogony of Hesiod, and the gods as Homer paints
+them. They have called forth the glory of art; and wonderful were
+the periods that stamped on earth their statues, as if all men's
+intellect had been tasked to the work, that they should leave a
+mark and memorial of beauty than which no age hereafter should show
+a greater. We acknowledge the perfection in the remains that are
+left to us. Greek art stills sways the mind of every country--all
+the world mistrusts every attempt in a contrary direction. The
+excellence of Greek sculpture is reflected back again upon Greek
+fable, the heathen mythology from which it was taken; and perhaps
+a greater partiality is bestowed upon that than it deserves,--at
+least, we may say so in comparison with any other. We must be
+cautious how we take the excellence of art for the excellence of its
+subject. The Greeks were formed for art beyond every other people;
+had their creed been hideous--and indeed it was obscene--they would
+have adorned it with every beauty of ideal form. And this is worthy
+of note here, that their poetry in art was infinitely more beautiful
+than their written poetry. Their sculptors, and perhaps their
+painters, of whom we are not entitled to speak but by conjecture,
+and from the opinions formed by no bad judges of their day, did aim
+at the portraying a kind of divine humanity. If their sculptured
+deities have not a holy repose, they are singularly freed from
+display of human passions; whereas, in their poetry, it is rarely
+that even decent repose is allowed them; they are generally too
+active, without dignity, and without respect to the moral code of a
+not very scrupulous age. Yet have these very heathen gods, even as
+their historians the poets paint them--for it would disgrace them
+to speak of their biographers--a trace of a better origin than we
+can gather out of the whimsical theogony. There are some particulars
+in the heathen mythology that point to a visible track in the
+strange road of history. Much we know was had from Egypt; more,
+probably, came with the Cadmean letters from Phœnicia--a name
+including Palestine itself. Inventions went only to corruptions--the
+original of all creeds of divinity is from revelation. We may not
+be required to point out the direct road nor the resting-places of
+this "_santa casa_," holding all the gods of Greece, so beautiful in
+their personal portraiture, that we love to gaze with the feeling
+of Schiller, though their histories will not bear the scrutiny: but
+it will suffice to note some similitudes that cannot be accidental.
+Somehow or other, both the historic and prophetic writings of the
+Bible, or narratives from them, had reached Greece as well as other
+distant lands. The Greeks had, at a very early period, embodied
+in their myths even the personal characters as shown in those
+writings. Let us, for example, without referring to their Zeus in
+a particular manner, find in the Hermes or Mercury of the Greeks
+the identity with Moses. What are the characteristics of both? If
+Moses descended from the Mount with the commands of God, and was
+emphatically God's messenger, so was Hermes the messenger from
+Olympus: his chief office was that of messenger. If Moses is known
+as the slayer of the Egyptian, so is Hermes, (and so is he more
+frequently called in Homer,) Α�γειφοντης, the slayer of Argus, the
+overseer of a hundred eyes. Moses conducted through the wilderness
+to the Jordan those who died and reached not the promised land; nor
+did he pass the Jordan. So was Hermes the conductor of the dead,
+delivering them over to Charon, (and here note the resemblance of
+name with Aaron, the associate of Moses); nor was he to pass to the
+Elysian fields.
+
+Then the rod, the serpents,--the Caduceus of Hermes, with the
+serpents twining round the rod. The appearance of Moses, and
+the shining from his head, as it is commonly figured, is again
+represented in the winged cap of Hermes. There are other minute
+circumstances, especially some noted in the hymn of Hermes, ascribed
+to Homer, which we forbear to enumerate, thinking the coincidences
+already mentioned are sufficiently striking.
+
+Then, again, the idea of the serpent of the Greek mythology, whence
+did it come, and the slaying of it by the son of Zeus--and its very
+name, the Python, the serpent of corruption? And in that sense it
+has been carried down to this day as an emblem in Christian art.
+But, to go back a moment, this departure of the Israelites from
+Egypt, is there no notice of it in Homer? We think there is a hint
+which indicates a knowledge of at least a part of that history--the
+previous slavery, the being put to work, and the after-readiness of
+the Egyptians to be "spoiled." Ulysses, giving a false account of
+himself, if we remember rightly, to Eumæus, says he came from Egypt,
+where he had been a merchant, that the king of that country seized
+him and all his men, whom _he put to work_, but that at length he
+found favour, and was allowed to depart with his people; adding that
+he collected much property from the people of Egypt, "for all of
+them gave."
+
+    "Πολλὰ αγει�α,
+     Χ�ηματ' Αἰγυπτίους ἄνδ�ας, διδοσαν γα� ἄπαντες."
+
+We do not mean to lay any great stress upon this quotation, and but
+think at least that it shows a characteristic of the Egyptians as
+narrated by Moses; and never having met with any allusion to it, nor
+indeed to our parallel between Moses and Hermes, which it may seem
+to support, we have thought it worthy this brief notice.
+
+We fancy we trace the history of the cause of the fall of man, in
+the eating of the pomegranate seed which doomed Proserpine to half
+an existence in the infernal regions. Can there be anything more
+striking than the Prometheus Bound of Æschylus? Whence could such
+a notion come, that a man-god would, for his love to mankind, (for
+bringing down fire from heaven,) suffer agonies, nailed not upon a
+cross indeed, but on a rock, and, in the description, crucified?
+"It is, after a manner," says Mr Swayne, who has with great power
+translated this strange play of Æschylus, "a Christian poem by a
+pagan author, foreshadowing the opposition and reconciliation of
+Divine justice and Divine love. Whence the sublime conception of
+the subject of this drama could have been obtained, it is useless
+to speculate. Some even suppose that its author must have been
+acquainted with the old Hebrew prophets."
+
+Even the introduction of Io in the tale is suggestive--the
+virgin-mother who was so strangely to conceive (and this too given
+in a prophecy) miraculously.
+
+    "Jove at length shall give thee back thy mind,
+    With one light touch of his unquailing hand,
+    And, from that fertilising touch, a son
+    Shall call thee mother."
+
+Her whom Prometheus thus addresses,--
+
+      "In that the son shall overmatch the sire."
+    --"Of thine own stem the strong one shall be born."
+
+Then again Sampson passes into the Egyptian or Tyrian Hercules, to
+lose his life by another Delilah in Dejaneira. Whence the prophetic
+Sybils, whence and what the Eleusinian mysteries? and that strange
+glimpse of them in the significant passage of the Alcestis, where
+the restored from the dead must abstain from speech till the third
+day--the duration of her consecration to Hades!
+
+    Ὁύπω δέμις σοι τησδε π�οσφωνηματων,
+    Κλύειν, π�ίν ἄν θεωισι τοῖσι νε�τέ�οις
+    Αφαγνῖσηται, καὶτ�ίτον μολῃ φαος.
+
+We might enter largely into the mysteries of heathen mythology, and
+discover strange coincidences and resemblances, but it would take us
+too wide from our present subject. Our present purpose is to show
+that we are apt to attribute too much to the Grecian fable, when
+we ascribe to it all the beauty which Grecian art has elaborated
+from it. For, in fact, the origin of that fabulous poetry is beyond
+them in far-off time; and by them how corrupted, shorn of its real
+grandeur, and at once magnificent and lovely beauty! How much more,
+then, is it ours than theirs, as it is deducible from that high
+revelation which is part of the Christian religion. We overlook,
+in the excellence of Grecian art, the far better materials for all
+art, which we in our religion possess, and have ever possessed.
+With the Greeks it was an instinct to love the beautiful, sensual
+and intellectual: it was a part of their nature to discover it or
+to create it. They would have fabricated it out of any materials;
+and deteriorated, indeed, were those which came to their hands.
+And even this excess of their love, at least in their poets, made
+the sensuous to overcome the intellectual; but the far higher than
+intellectual--the celestial, the spiritual--they had not: their
+highest reach in the moral sense was a sublime pride: they had no
+conception of a sublime humility. Their highest divinity was how
+much lower than the lowest order of angels that wait around the
+heavenly throne and adore,--low as is their Olympus, where they
+placed their Zeus and all his band, to the Christian "heaven of
+heavens," which yet cannot contain the universal Maker. It is bad
+taste, indeed, in us, as some do, to give them the palm of the
+possession of a better field--poetic field for the exercise of art.
+"Christian and Legendary art" has a principle which no other art
+could have, and which theirs certainly had not; they were sensuous
+from a necessity of their nature, lacking this principle. We ought
+to ascribe all which they have left us to their skill, their genius:
+wonderful it was, and wonderful things did it perform; but, after
+all, we admire more than we love. Their divine was but a grand
+and stern repose; their loveliness, but the perfection of the
+human form. And so great were they in this their genius, that the
+monuments of heathen art are beyond the heathen creed; for in those
+the unsensuous prevailed.
+
+Let us suppose the gift of their genius to have been delayed to
+the Christian era--as poetical subjects, their whole mythology
+would have been set aside for a far better adoption; and we should
+be now universally acknowledging how lovely and how great, how
+full and bountiful, for poetry and for art, are the ever-flowing
+fountains, gushing in life, giving exuberance from that high mount,
+to the sight of which Pindus cannot lift its head, nor show its
+poor Castalian rills. The "gods of Greece," the far-famed "gods
+of Greece," what are they to the hierarchy of heaven--angels and
+archangels, and all the host--powers, dominions, hailing the
+admission to the blissful regions of saints spiritualised, and after
+death to die no more--glorified? What loveliness is like that of
+throned chastity? Graces and Muses in their perfectness of marbled
+beauty--what are they to faith, hope, and charity, and the veiled
+virtues that like our angels shroud themselves? When these became
+subjects for our Christian art, then was true expression first
+invented in drapery. "Christian and legendary art" is not denied
+the nude; but no other has so made drapery a living, speaking
+poetry. There is a dignity, a grace, a sweetness, in the drapery of
+mediæval sculpture, that equally commands our admiration, and more
+our reverence and our love, than ancient statues, draped or nude.
+And this is the expression of Scripture poetry--the represented
+language, the "clothing with power," the "garment of righteousness."
+We often loiter about our old cathedrals, and look up with wonder
+at the mutilated remains as a new type of beauty, beaming through
+the obscurity of the so-called dark ages. Lovers of art, as we
+profess to be, in all its forms, we profess without hesitation
+that we would not exchange these--that is, lose them as never to
+have existed--for all that Grecian art has left us. Even now, what
+power have we to restore these specimens of expressive workmanship,
+broken and mutilated as they have been by a low and misbegotten
+zeal? We maintain further, generally, that the works of "Christian
+and legendary art," in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are
+as infinitely superior to the works of all Grecian antiquity, as
+is the source of their inspiration higher and purer: we are, too,
+astonished at the perfect agreement of the one with the other,
+showing one mind, one spirit--devotion. We strongly insist upon
+this, that there has been a far higher character and equal power in
+Christian art compared with heathen. It ought to be so, and it is
+so. It has been too long set aside in the world's opinion (often
+temporary and ill-formed) to establish the inferior. This country,
+in particular, has yielded a cold neglect of these beautiful things,
+in shameful and indolent compliance with the mean, tasteless,
+degrading Puritanism, that mutilated and would have destroyed them
+utterly if it could, as it would have treated every and all the
+beautiful.
+
+Even at the first rise of this Christian art, the superiority of
+the principle which moved the artists was visible through their
+defect of knowledge of art, as art. The devotional spirit is
+evident; a sense of purity, that spiritualised humanity with its
+heavenly brightness, dims the imperfections of style, casting out
+of observation minor and uncouth parts. Often, in the incongruous
+presence of things vulgar in detail of habit and manners, an angelic
+sentiment stands embodied, pure and untouched, as if the artist,
+when he came to that, felt holy ground, and took his shoes from off
+his feet. It was not long before the art was equal to the whole
+work. There are productions of even an early time that are yet
+unequalled, and, for power over the heart and the judgment, are much
+above comparison with any preceding works of boasted antiquity.
+
+Take only the full embodying of all angelic nature: what is
+there like to it out of Christian art? How unlike the cold
+personifications of "Victories" winged,--though even these were
+borrowed,--are the ministering and adoring angels of our art--now
+bringing celestial paradise down to saints on earth, and now
+accompanying them, and worshipping with them, in their upward
+way, amid the receding and glorious clouds of heaven! Look at the
+sepulchral monuments of Grecian art--the frigid mysteries, the
+abhorrent ghost, yet too corporeal, shrinking from Lethé; and
+the dismal boat--the unpromising, unpitying aspect of Charon:
+then turn to some of the sublime Christian monuments of art, that
+speak so differently of that death--the Coronation of the Virgin,
+the Ascension of Saints. The dismal and the doleful earth has
+vanished--choirs of angels rush to welcome and to support the
+beatified, the released: death is no more, but life breathing no
+atmosphere of earth, but all freshness, and all joy, and all music;
+the now changed body glowing, like an increasing light, into its
+spirituality of form and beauty, and thrilling with
+
+    "That undisturbed song of pure consent,
+     Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne
+     To Him that sits thereon;
+     With saintly shout and solemn jubilee,
+     Where the bright seraphim, in burning row,
+     Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow;
+     And the cherubic host, in thousand choirs,
+     Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,
+     With those just spirits that wear victorious palms,
+     Hymns devout and holy psalms
+     Singing everlastingly."
+
+Then shall we doubt, and not dare to pronounce the superior
+capabilities of Christian art, arising out of its subject--poetry?
+We prefer, as a great poetic conception, Raffaelle's Archangel,
+Michael, with his victorious foot upon his prostrate adversary,
+to the far-famed Apollo Belvidere, who has slain his Python; and
+his St Margaret, in her sweet, her innocent, and clothed grace,
+to that perfect model of woman's form, the Venus de Medici. Not
+that we venture a careless or misgiving thought of the perfectness
+of those great antique works: their perfectness was according to
+their purpose. Higher purposes make a higher perfectness. Nor
+would we have them viewed irreverently; for even in them, and the
+genius that produced them, the Creator, as in "times past, left
+not Himself without witness." In showing forth the glory of the
+human form, they show forth the glory of Him who made it--who is
+thus glorified in the witnesses; and so we accept and love them.
+But to a certain degree they must stand dethroned--their influence
+faded. Lowly unassuming virtues--virtues of the soul, far greater
+in their humility, in the sacred poetry of our Christian faith,
+shine like stars, even in their smallness, on the dark night of our
+humanity; and they are to take their places in the celestial of art;
+and we feel that it is His will, who, as the hymn of the blessed
+Virgin--that type of all these united virtues--declares, "hath put
+down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and
+meek."
+
+We trust yet to see sacred art resumed; for the more we consider its
+poetry, the more inexhaustible appears the mine. Nor do we require
+to search and gather in the field of fabulous legends; though in
+a poetic view, and for their intention, and resumed merely as a
+fabulous allegory, they are not to be set aside. But sure we are
+that, whatever can move the heart, can excite to the greatest degree
+our pity, our love, or convey the greatest delight through scenes
+for which the term beautiful is but a poor describer, and personages
+for whose magnificence languages have no name--all is within the
+volume and the history of our suffering and triumphant religion.
+
+Would that we could stir but one of our painters to this, which
+should be his great business! Genius is bestowed for no selfish
+gratification, but for service, and for a "witness," to bear which
+let the gifted offer only a willing heart, and his lamp will not
+be suffered to go out for lack of oil. Why is the tenderness of Mr
+Eastlake's pencil in abeyance? That portion of the sacred history
+which commences with his "Christ weeping over Jerusalem," might well
+be continued in a series. Even still more power has he shown in the
+creative and symbolic, as exemplified in his poetic conception of
+Virtue from Milton--
+
+    "She can teach you how to climb
+     Higher than the sphery chime;
+     Or if Virtue feeble were,
+     Heaven itself would stoop to her."
+
+If we believe genius to be an inspiring spirit, we may contemplate
+it hereafter as an accusing angel. With such a paradise of subjects
+before them, why do so many of our painters run to the kennel
+and the stable, or plunge their pencils into the gaudy hues of
+meretricious enticement? We do verily believe that the world is
+waiting for better things. It is taking a greater interest in higher
+subjects, and those of a pure sentiment. It is that our artists are
+behind the feeling, and not, as they should be, in the advance. It
+is a great fact that there is such a growing feeling. The resumption
+of sacred art in Germany is not without its effect, and is making
+its way here in prints. Most of these are from the Aller Heiligen
+Kapelle at Munich, the result of the taste of at least one crowned
+head in Europe, who, with more limited means and power, has set an
+example of a better patronage, which would have well become Courts
+of greater splendour, and more imperial influence. Must it be asked
+what our own artists--the Academy, with all its staff--are doing?
+
+We must stay our hand; for we took up the pen to notice the two
+volumes just published of Mrs Jameson's _Sacred and Legendary Art_.
+They have excited, in the reading, an enthusiastic pleasure, and led
+the fancy wandering in the delightful fields sanctified by heavenly
+sunshine, and trod by sainted feet; and, like a traveller in a
+desert, having found an oasis, we feel loath to leave it, and would
+fain linger and drink again of its refreshing springs. These volumes
+have reached us most seasonably, at a period of the year when the
+mind is more especially directed to contemplate the main subjects
+of which they treat, and to anticipate only by days the vision of
+joy and glory which will be scripturally put before us--to see the
+Virgin Mother and the Holy Babe--
+
+    "And all about the courtly stable,
+     Bright harness'd angels sit in order serviceable."
+
+Mrs Jameson disclaims in this work any other object than the poetry
+of Sacred and Legendary Art; and to enable those who are, or wish to
+be, conversant with the innumerable productions of Italian and other
+schools, in an artistic view, likewise at once to know the subjects
+upon which they treat. Even as a handbook, therefore, these volumes
+are valuable. Much of the early painting was symbolical. Ignorance
+of the symbols rejects the sentiment, or at least the intention, and
+at the same time makes what is only quaint appear absurd.
+
+"The first volume contains the legends of the Scripture personages,
+and the primitive fathers. The second volume contains those sainted
+personages who lived, or are supposed to have lived, in the first
+ages of Christianity, and whose real history, founded on fact or
+tradition, has been so disguised by poetical embroidery, that they
+have in some sort the air of ideal beings." Possibly this poetical
+disguise is favourable upon the whole to art, but it renders a
+key necessary, and that Mrs Jameson has supplied--not pretending,
+however, to more than a selection of the most interesting; and, what
+is extremely valuable, there are marginal references to pictures,
+and in what places they are to be met with, and by whom painted, of
+the subjects given in the text, and of the view the artists had in
+so painting them. The emblems are amply noted with their meanings;
+and even the significance of colours, which has been so commonly
+overlooked, and is yet so important for the comprehension of the
+full subject of a picture, is clearly laid down. It is well said:
+
+     "All the productions of art, from the time it has been directed
+     and developed by the Christian influences, may be regarded
+     under three different aspects:--1st, The purely religious
+     aspect, which belongs to one mode of faith; 2d, The poetical
+     aspect, which belongs to all; 3d, The artistic, which is the
+     individual point of view, and has reference only to the action
+     of the intellect on the means and material employed. There is
+     a pleasure, an intense pleasure, merely in the consideration
+     of art, as art; in the faculties of comparison and nice
+     discrimination brought to bear on objects of beauty; in the
+     exercise of a cultivated and refined taste on the productions
+     of mind in any form whatever. But a threefold, or rather a
+     thousandfold, pleasure is theirs, who to a sense of the poetical
+     unite a sympathy with the spiritual in art, and who combine with
+     a delicacy of perception and technical knowledge, more elevated
+     sources of pleasure, more variety of association, habits of more
+     excursive thought. Let none imagine, however, that in placing
+     before the uninitiated these unpretending volumes, I assume
+     any such superiority as is here implied. Like a child that
+     has sprang on a little way before its playmates, and caught a
+     glimpse through an opening portal of some varied Eden within,
+     all gay with flowers, and musical with birds, and haunted by
+     divine shapes which beckon forward, and, after one rapturous
+     survey, runs back and catches its companions by the hand, and
+     hurries them forwards to share the new-found pleasure, the yet
+     unexplored region of delight: even so it is with me: I am on the
+     outside, not the inside, of the door I open."
+
+This is a happy introduction to that which immediately follows of
+angels and archangels.
+
+Mrs Jameson has so managed to open the door as to frame in her
+subject to the best advantage; and the reader is willing to stand
+for a moment with her to gaze upon the inward brightness of the
+garden, ere he ventures in to see what is around and what is
+above. It is on the first downward step that we stand breathless
+with Aladdin, and feel the influence of the first--the partial and
+framed-in picture--glowing in the unearthly illumination of its
+magical creation.
+
+There is nothing more interesting than these few pages upon angels.
+The information we receive is very curious. It is beautiful poetry
+to see orders, and degrees, and ministrations various, types of
+an embodied, a ministering church here, and ordained, together
+with the saints of earth, to make one glorified triumphant church
+hereafter. Without entering upon the theological question, as to
+the extension and mystification of the ideas of angels after the
+Captivity, (yet we think it might be shown that there was originally
+no Chaldaic belief on the subject not taken, first or last, from the
+Jews themselves,) it may not be unworthy of remark, that the word
+"angel," signifying messenger, could scarcely with propriety have
+been at the first applied to Satan, the deceiving serpent, until,
+in the after-development of the history of the human race, the
+ministering offices gave the general title, which, when established,
+included all who had not "kept their first estate." Nor do we
+think, with Mrs Jameson, that Chaldea had anything to do with the
+introduction of the worship of angels into the Christian church.
+The "gods many" of the heathen countries in which Christianity
+established itself, will sufficiently account for the readiness of
+the people to transfer the multifarious worship to which they had
+been accustomed to names more suitable to the new religion. It is
+with the poetical development we have here to do; and what ground
+is there for that full development in the New Testament, wherein
+they are represented as "countless--as superior to all human wants
+and weaknesses--as deputed messengers of God? They rejoice over
+the repentant sinner; they take deep interest in the mission of
+Christ; they are present with those who pray; they bear the souls
+of the just to heaven; they minister to Christ on earth, and will
+be present at his second coming." From such authority, from such
+a sacred theatre of scenes and celestial personages, arose the
+beautiful, the magnificent visions of the workers of sacred art.
+Heresy, however, reached it, as might have been expected; and the
+agency of angels, in the creation of the world and of man, has been
+represented, to the deterioration of its great poetry. From the
+beginning of the fourteenth century, a great change seems to have
+taken place in the representation of the angel with reference to the
+Virgin: the feeling is changed; "the veneration paid to the Virgin
+demanded another treatment. She becomes not merely the principal
+person, but the superior being; she is the 'regina angelorum,' and
+the angel bows to her, or kneels before her, as to a queen. Thus,
+in the famous altar-piece at Cologne, the angel kneels; he bears
+the sceptre, and also a sealed roll, as if he were a celestial
+ambassador delivering his credentials. About the same period we
+sometimes see the angel merely with his hands folded over his
+breast, and his head inclined, delivering his message as if to a
+superior being."
+
+It is a great merit in this work of Mrs Jameson's, that we are not
+only referred to the most curious and to the best specimens of art,
+but have likewise beautiful woodcuts, and some etchings admirably
+executed by Mrs Jameson's own hand in illustration. There is a
+greatness in the simplicity of Blake's angels: "The morning stars
+sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Poor Blake!
+Yet why say poor? he was happy in his visions--a little before his
+time, and one of whom the world (of art) in his day were not worthy:
+though, with a wild extravagance of fancy, his creations were his
+faith, often great, and always gentle. Exquisitely beautiful are the
+"angels of the planets" from Raffaelle, and copied by Mrs Jameson
+from Gruner's engravings of the frescoes of the Capella Chigiana.
+That great painter of mystery, Rembrandt, whom the mere lovers of
+form would have mistakenly thought it a profanation to commission
+with an angelic subject, is justly appreciated. A perfect master
+of light, and of darkness, and of colour, it mattered not what
+were the forms, so that they were unearthly, that plunged into or
+broke through his luminous or opaque. Of the picture in the Louvre
+it is thus remarked: "Miraculous for true and spirited expression,
+and for the action of the soaring angel, who parts the clouds and
+strikes through the air like a strong swimmer through the waves of
+the sea." Strange--but so it is--we cannot conceive an alteration of
+his pictures, all parts so agree. Attention to the more beautiful
+in form would have appeared to him a mistrust in his great gift
+of colour and chiaroscuro; and, stranger still, that without, and
+seemingly in a marked defiance of mere beauty, he is, we would
+almost say never, vulgar, never misses the intended sentiment,
+nor fails where it is of tenderness, even of feminine tenderness,
+for which, if he does not give beauty, he gives its equivalent in
+the fulness of the feeling. We instance his Salutation--Elizabeth
+and the Virgin Mary. There is something terrifically grand in the
+crouching angel in the Campo Santo,--not in the form, nor in the
+face, which is mostly hid, but in the conception of the attitude
+of horror with which he beholds the awful scene. It is from the
+Last Judgment of Orcagua in the Campo Santo. We must not speak of
+Rubens as a painter of angels; and, for real angelic expression,
+perhaps the earlier painters are the best. It is surprising that
+Mrs Jameson, from whose refined taste, and from whose sense of the
+beautiful and the graceful in their highest qualities, we should
+have expected another judgment, could have ventured to name together
+Raffaelle and Murillo as angel painters. It is true, in speaking of
+the Visit to Abraham, she admits that the painter has set aside the
+angelic and mystic character, and merely represented three young men
+travellers; but she generally, throughout these volumes, speaks of
+that favourite Spaniard in terms of the highest admiration,--terms,
+as we think, little merited. The angels in the Sutherland Collection
+are as vulgar figures as can well be, and quite antagonistic in
+feeling to a heavenly mission. We confess that we dislike almost
+all the pictures by this so much esteemed master: their artistic
+manner is to us uncertain and unpleasing,--disagreeable in colour,
+deficient in grace. We often wonder at the excess of present
+admiration. We look upon his vulgarity in scriptural subjects as
+quite profane. His highest power was in a peasant gentleness; he
+could not embody a sacred feeling: yet thus is he praised for a
+performance beyond his power:--"St Andrew is suspended on the
+high cross, formed not of planks, but of the trunks of trees laid
+transversely. He is bound with cords, undraped, except by a linen
+cloth, his silver hair and beard loosely streaming on the air, his
+aged countenance illuminated by a heavenly transport, as he looks up
+to the opening skies, whence two angels, of really celestial beauty,
+like almost all Murillo's angels, descend with the crown and palm."
+The angels of Correggio are certainly peculiar: they are not quite
+celestial, but perhaps are sympathetically more lovely from their
+touch of humanity; they are ever pure. Those in the Ascension of
+the the Virgin, in the Cupola at Parma, seem to be rather adopted
+angels than of the "first estate;" for they are of several ages,
+and, if we mistake not, many of them are feminine, and, we suspect,
+are meant really to represent the loveliest of earth beatified,
+adopted into the heavenly choir. Those who have seen Signor Toschi's
+fine drawings of the Parma frescoes, (now in progress of engraving),
+will readily give assent to this impression. We remember this
+feeling crossing our mind, and as it were lightly touching the
+heart with angelic wings--if we have lost a daughter of that sweet
+age, let us fondly see her there. We cannot forbear quoting the
+passage upon the angels of Titian:--"And Titian's angels impress
+me in a similar manner: I mean those in the glorious Assumption at
+Venice, with their childish forms and features, but an expression
+caught from beholding the face of 'our Father which is in heaven:'
+it is glorified infancy. I remember standing before this picture,
+contemplating those lovely spirits one after another, until a thrill
+came over me, like that which I felt when Mendelssohn played the
+organ: I became music while I listened. The face of one of those
+angels is to the face of a child, just what that of the Virgin, in
+the same picture, is, compared with the fairest daughter of earth.
+It is not here superiority of beauty, but mind, and music, and love,
+kneaded together, as it were, into form and colour." This is very
+eloquent, but it was not _the thought_ which supplied that ill word
+"kneaded."
+
+It is remarked by Mrs Jameson, as a singular fact, that neither
+Leonardo da Vinci, nor Michael Angelo, nor Raffaelle, have given
+representations of the Four Evangelists. In very early art they are
+mostly symbolised, and sometimes oddly and uncouthly; and even so
+by Angelico da Fiesole. In Greek art, the Tetramorph, or union of
+the four attributes in one figure, is seen winged. "The Tetramorph,
+in Western art, in some instances became monstrous, instead of
+mystic and poetical." The animal symbols of the Evangelists, however
+familiarised in the eyes of the people, and therefore sanctioned to
+their feeling, required the greatest judgment to bring within the
+poetic of art. We must look also to the most mysterious subjects for
+the elucidation, such as Raffaelle's Vision of Ezekiel. There we
+view in the symbols a great prophetic, subservient to the creating
+and redeeming power, set forth and coming out of that blaze of the
+clouds of heaven that surround the sublime Majesty.
+
+The earlier painters were fond of representing everything
+symbolically: hence the twelve apostles are so treated. In the
+descending scale, to the naturalists, the mystic poetry was reduced
+to its lowest element. The set of the apostles by Agostino Caracci,
+though, as Mrs Jameson observes, famous as works of art, are
+condemned as absolutely vulgar. "St John is drinking out of a cup,
+an idea which might strike some people as picturesque, but it is
+in vile taste. It is about the eighth century that the keys first
+appear in the hand of St Peter. In the old churches at Ravenna, it
+is remarked, St Peter and St Paul do not often appear." Ravenna, in
+the fifth century, did not look to Rome for her saints.
+
+After his martyrdom, St Paul was, it is said, buried in the spot
+where was erected the magnificent church known as St Paolo fuorè-le
+mura. "I saw the church a few months before it was consumed by
+fire in 1823. I saw it again in 1847, when the restoration was far
+advanced. Its cold magnificence, compared with the impressions left
+by the former structure, rich with inestimable remains of ancient
+art, and venerable from a thousand associations, saddened and
+chilled me." We well remember visiting this noble church in 1816. A
+singular coincidence of fact and prophecy has imprinted this visit
+on our memory. Those who have seen it before it was burnt down, must
+remember the series of portraits of popes, and that there was room
+but for one more. We looked to the vacant place, as directed by our
+cicerone, whilst he told us that there was a prophecy concerning it
+to this effect, that when that space was filled up there would be
+no more popes. The prophecy was fulfilled, at least with regard to
+that church, for it was burnt down after that vacant space had been
+occupied by the papal portrait.
+
+The subject of the Last Supper is treated of in a separate chapter.
+There has been a fresco lately discovered at Florence, in the
+refectory of Saint Onofrio, said to have been painted by Raffaelle
+in his twenty-third year. Some have thought it to be the work of
+Neri de Bicci. Mrs Jameson, without hesitation, pronounces it to
+be by Raffaelle, "full of sentiment and grace, but deficient,
+it appears to me, in that depth and discrimination of character
+displayed in his later works. It is evident that he had studied
+Giotto's fresco in the neighbouring Santa Croce. The arrangement
+is nearly the same." All the apostles have glories, but that round
+the head of Judas is smaller than the others. Does the prejudice
+against thirteen at table arise from this betrayal by Judas, or
+from the legend of St Gregory, who, when a monk in the monastery
+of St Andrew, was so charitable, that at length, having nothing
+else to bestow, he gave to an old beggar a silver porringer which
+had belonged to his mother? When pope, it was his custom to
+entertain twelve poor men. On one occasion he observed thirteen,
+and remonstrated with his steward, who, counting the guests, could
+see no more than twelve. After removal from the table, St Gregory
+called the unbidden guest, thus visible, like the ghost of Banquo,
+to the master of the feast only. The old man, on being questioned,
+declared himself to be the old beggar to whom the silver porringer
+had been given, adding, "But my name is Wonderful, and through me
+thou shalt obtain whatever thou shalt ask of God." There is a famous
+fresco on this subject by Paul Veronese, in which the stranger is
+represented to be our Saviour. To entertain even angels unknowingly,
+and at convivial entertainments, and visible perhaps but to one, as
+a messenger of good or of evil, would be little congenial with the
+purport of such meetings.
+
+Mrs Jameson objects to the introduction of dogs in such a subject
+as the Last Supper, but remarks that it is supposed to show that
+the supper is over, and the paschal lamb eaten. It is so common
+that we should rather refer it to a more evident and more important
+signification, to show that this institution was not for the Jews
+only, and alluding to the passage showing that "dogs eat of the
+crumbs which fell from their masters' table." The large dogs,
+however, of Paul Veronese, gnawing bones, do not with propriety
+represent the passage; for there is reason to believe that the word
+"crumbs" describes the small pet dogs, which its was the fashion for
+the rich to carry about with them. The early painters introduced
+Satan in person tempting Judas. When Baroccio, with little taste,
+adopted the same treatment, the pope, Clement VIII., ordered the
+figure to be obliterated--"Che non gli piaceva il demonio si
+dimésticasse tanto con Gesu Christo." We know not where Mrs Jameson
+has found the anecdote which relates that Andrea del Castagno,
+called the Infamous, after he had assassinated Dominico his friend,
+who had intrusted him with Van Eyck's secret, painted his own
+portrait in the character of Judas, from remorse of conscience. We
+are not sure of the story at all respecting Andrea del Castagno:
+there may be other grounds for doubting it, but this anecdote, if
+true to the fact, would rather indicate insanity than guilt. The
+farther we advance in the history and practice of art, the more we
+find it suffering in sentiment from the infusion of the classical.
+In the Pitti Palace is a picture by Vasari of St Jerome as a
+penitent, in which he has introduced Venus and cupids, one of whom
+is taking aim at the saint. It is true that, as we proceed, legends
+crowd in upon us, and the painters find rather scope for fancy than
+subjects for faith and resting-places for devotion. Art, ever fond
+of female forms, readily seized upon the legends of Mary Magdalene.
+Her penitence has ever been a favourite subject, and has given
+opportunity for the introduction of grand landscape backgrounds
+in the lonely solitudes and wildernesses of a rocky desert. The
+individuality of the characters of Mary and Martha in Scripture
+history was too striking not to be taken advantage of by painters.
+There is a legend of an Egyptian penitent Mary, anterior to that
+of Mary Magdalene, which is curious. Whether this was another
+Mary or not, she is represented as a female anchoret; and we are
+reminded thereby of the double story of Helen of Troy, whom a real
+or fabulous history has deposited in Egypt, while the great poet of
+the Iliad has introduced her as so visible and palpable an agent
+in the Trojan war, and not without a touch of penitence, not quite
+characteristic of that age. Accounts say that it was her double, or
+eidolon, which figured at Troy.
+
+Mrs Jameson makes a good conjecture with regard to the famous
+picture by Leonardo da Vinci, known as Modesty and Vanity, and that
+it is Mary Magdalene rebuked by her sister Martha for vanity and
+luxury, which exactly corresponds with the legend respecting her. We
+cannot forbear quoting the following eloquent passage:--
+
+     "On reviewing generally the infinite variety which has been
+     given to these favourite subjects, the life and penance of the
+     Magdalene, I must end where I began. In how few instances has
+     the result been satisfactory to mind, or heart, or soul, or
+     sense! Many have well represented the particular situation,
+     the appropriate sentiment, the sorrow, the hope, the devotion;
+     but who has given us the _character_? A noble creature, with
+     strong sympathies and a strong will, with powerful faculties
+     of every kind, working for good or evil. Such a woman Mary
+     Magdalene must have been, even in her humiliation; and the
+     feeble, girlish, commonplace, and even vulgar women, who appear
+     to have been usually selected as models by the artists, turned
+     into Magdalenes by throwing up their eyes and letting down their
+     hair, ill represent the enthusiastic convert, or the majestic
+     patroness!"
+
+The second volume commences with the patron saints of Christendom.
+These were delightful fables in the credulous age of first youth,
+when feeling was a greater truth than fact; and we confess that we
+read these legends now with some regret at our abated faith, which
+we would not even "now have shaken in the chivalric characters of
+the seven champions of Christendom."
+
+The Romish Church (we say not the Catholic, as Mrs Jameson so
+frequently improperly terms _her_) readily acted that part, to
+the people at large, which nurses assume for the amusement of
+their children; and in both cases, the more improbable the story
+the greater the fascination; and the people, like children, are
+more credulous than critical. Had we not known in our own times,
+and nearly at the present day, stories as absurd as any in these
+legends, gravely asserted, circulated, and credited, and maintained
+by men of responsible station and education--to instance only the
+garment of Treves--we should have pronounced the _aurea legenda_
+to have been a creation of the fancy, arising, not without their
+illumination, from the fogs and fens of the Middle Ages, adapted
+solely for minds of that period. But the sanction of them by the
+Church of Rome leads us to view them as _ignes fatui_ of another
+character, meant to amuse and to bewilder. We must even think it
+possible now for people to be brought to believe such a story as
+this:--"It is related that a certain man, who was afflicted with a
+cancer in his leg, went to perform his devotions in the church of
+St Cosmo and St Damian at Rome, and he prayed most earnestly that
+these beneficent saints would be pleased to aid him. When he had
+prayed, a deep sleep fell upon him. Then he beheld St Cosmo and St
+Damian, who stood beside him; and one carried a box of ointment,
+the other a sharp knife. And one said, 'What shall we do to replace
+this diseased leg, when we have cut it off?' And the other replied,
+'There is a Moor who has been buried just now in San Pietro in
+Vincolo; let us take his leg for the purpose!' Then they brought
+the leg of the dead man, and with it they replaced the leg of the
+sick man--anointing it with celestial ointment, so that he remained
+whole. When he awoke, he almost doubted whether it could be himself;
+but his neighbours, seeing that he was healed, looked into the tomb
+of the Moor, and found that there had been an exchange of legs; and
+thus the truth of this great miracle was proved to all beholders."
+It is, however, rather a hazardous demand upon credulity to serve
+up again the feast of Thyestes, cooked in a caldron of even more
+miraculous efficacy than Medea's. Such is the stupendous power of
+St Nicholas:--"As he was travelling through his diocese, to visit
+and comfort his people, he lodged in the house of a certain host,
+who was a son of Satan. This man, in the scarcity of provisions, was
+accustomed to steal little children, whom he murdered, and served up
+their limbs as meat to his guests. On the arrival of the Bishop and
+his retinue, he had the audacity to serve up the dismembered limbs
+of these unhappy children before the man of God, who had no sooner
+cast his eyes on them than he was aware of the fraud. He reproached
+the host with his abominable crime; and, going to the tub where
+their remains were salted down, he made over them the sign of the
+cross, and they rose up whole and well. The people who witnessed
+this great wonder were struck with astonishment; and the three
+children, who were the sons of a poor widow, were restored to their
+weeping mother."
+
+But what shall we say to an entire new saint of a modern day, who
+has already found his way to Venice, Bologna, and Lombardy,--even
+to Tuscany and Paris, not only in pictures and statues, but even
+in chapels dedicated to her? The reader may be curious to know
+something of a saint of this century. In the year 1802 the skeleton
+of a young female was discovered in some excavations in the catacomb
+of Priscilla at Rome; the remains of an inscription were, "Lumena
+Pax Te Cum Tri." A priest in the train of a Neapolitan prelate, who
+was sent to congratulate Pius VII. on his return from France, begged
+some relics. The newly-discovered treasure was given to him, and the
+inscription thus translated--"Filomena, rest in peace." "Another
+priest, whose name is suppressed _because of his great humility_,
+was favoured by a vision in the broad noonday, in which he beheld
+the glorious virgin Filomena, who was pleased to reveal to him that
+she had suffered death for preferring the Christian faith, and her
+vow of chastity, to the addresses of the emperor, who wished to make
+her his wife. This vision leaving much of her history obscure, a
+certain young artist, whose name is also suppressed--perhaps because
+of his great humility--was informed in a vision that the emperor
+alluded to was Diocletian; and at the same time the torments and
+persecutions suffered by the Christian virgin Filomena, as well as
+her wonderful constancy, were also revealed to him. There were some
+difficulties in the way of the Emperor Diocletian, which inclines
+the writer of the _historical_ account to adopt the opinion that
+the young artist in his vision _may_ have made a mistake, and that
+the emperor may have been his colleague, Maximian. The facts,
+however, now admitted of no doubt; and the relics were carried by
+the priest Francesco da Lucia to Naples; they were inclosed in a
+case of wood, resembling in form the human body. This figure was
+habited in a petticoat of white satin, and over it a crimson tunic,
+after the Greek fashion; the face was painted to represent nature;
+a garland of flowers was placed on the head, and in the hands a
+lily and a javelin--with the point reversed, to express her purity
+and her martyrdom; then she was laid in a half sitting posture in a
+sarcophagus, of which the sides were glass; and after lying for some
+time in state, in the chapel of the Torres family in the Church of
+Saint Angiolo, she was carried in procession to Magnano, a little
+town about twenty miles from Naples, amid the acclamations of the
+people, working many and surprising miracles by the way. Such is
+the legend of St Filomena, and such the authority on which she has
+become, within the last twenty years, one of the most fashionable
+saints in Italy. Jewels to the value of many thousand crowns have
+been offered at her shrine, and solemnly placed round the neck of
+her image, or suspended to her girdle."
+
+We dare not in candour charge the Romanists with being the only
+fabricators or receivers of such goods, remembering our own Saint
+Joanna, and Huntingdon's Autobiography. There are _aurea legenda_ in
+a certain class of our sectarian literature, presenting a large list
+of claimants of very high pretensions to saintship, only waiting for
+power and an established authority to be canonised.
+
+It is not surprising, as the world is--working often in the dark
+places of ignorance--if a few glossy threads of a coarser material,
+and deteriorating quality, be taken up by no wilful mistake, and
+be interwoven into the true golden tissue. Nevertheless the mantle
+may be still beautiful, and fit a Christian to wear and walk in not
+unbecomingly. There are worse things than religious superstition,
+whose badness is of degrees. In the minds of all nations and people
+there is a vacuum for the craving appetite of credulity to fill.
+The great interests of life lie in politics and religion. There
+are bigots in both: but we look upon a little superstition on the
+one point as far safer than upon the other, especially in modern
+times; whereas political bigotry, however often duped, is credulous
+still, and becomes hating and ferocious. We fear even the legends
+are losing their authority in the Roman States, whose history may
+yet have to be filled with far worse tales. A generous, though we
+deem it a mistaken feeling, has induced Mrs Jameson to make what
+we would almost venture to call the only mistake in her volumes:
+the following passage is certainly not in good taste, quite out of
+the intention of her book, and very unfortunately timed--"But Peter
+is certainly the democratical apostle _par excellence_, and his
+representative in our time seems to have awakened to a consciousness
+of this truth, and to have thrown himself--as St Peter would most
+certainly have done, were he living--on the side of the people and
+of freedom." A democratical successor to St Peter! He is, then, the
+first of that character. With him the "side of freedom" seems to
+have been the inside of his prison, and his "side of the people"
+a precipitate flight from contact with them in their liberty--and
+for his tiara the disguise of a valet. We more than pardon Mrs
+Jameson--we love the virtue that gives rise to her error; for it is
+peculiarly the nature of woman to be credulous, and to be deceived.
+We admire, and more than admire, women equally well, whether they
+are right or wrong in politics: these are the business of men,
+for they have to do with the sword, and are out of the tenderer
+impulses of woman. But we are amused when we find grave strong men
+in the same predicament of ill conjectures. We smile as we remember
+a certain dedication "To Pio Nono," which by its simple grandeur
+and magnificent beauty will live _splendide mendax_ to excuse its
+prophetic inaccuracy. It is not wise to foretell events to happen
+whilst we live. Take a "long range," or a studied ambiguity that
+will fit either way. The example of Dr Primrose may be followed
+with advantage, who in every case of domestic doubt and difficulty
+concluded the matter thus--"I wish it may turn out well this day six
+months;" by which, in his simple family, he attained the character
+of a true prophet.
+
+We fear we are losing sight of the "Poetry of Sacred and Legendary
+Art," and gladly turn from the thought of what is to be, to
+those beautiful personified ideas of the past, whether fabulous
+or historical, in which we are ready to take Mrs Jameson as our
+willing and sure guide. The four virgin patronesses and the female
+martyrs are favourite subjects, which she enters into with more
+than her usual spirit and feeling. These two have chiefly engaged
+and fascinated the genius of the painters of the best period, and
+will ever interest the world of taste by their sentiment, as well
+as by their grace of form and beauty, and why not say improved them
+too? The really beautiful is always true. It is not amiss that we
+should be continually reminded, or, as Mrs Jameson better expresses
+it--"It is not a thing to be set aside or forgotten, that generous
+men and meek women, strong in the strength, and elevated by the
+sacrifice of a Redeemer, did suffer, did endure, did triumph for
+the truth's sake; did leave us an example which ought to make our
+hearts glow within us." The memory of Christian heroism should
+never be lost sight of in a Christian country, and we earnestly
+recommend this part of Mrs Jameson's volumes to the attention of our
+painters: they will find not unfrequent instances of fine subjects
+yet untouched, which may sanctify art, and dignify the profession by
+making it the teacher of a purer taste--not that true genius will
+ever lack materials, for materials are but suggestive to an innate
+inventive power. It is curious that the authoress should not yet
+have satisfied our expectation with regard to the legends of the
+Virgin. Whatever the motive of her forbearance, we hope this subject
+will take the lead in the promised third volume, which is to treat
+of the legends of the monastic orders, considered, as she cautiously
+observes, "merely in their connexion with the development of the
+fine arts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."
+
+The numerous pictures in Italy which represent parts of the legends
+of the Virgin render this work incomplete without a full development
+of the subject. If her forbearance arises from a fear that at this
+particular time, when mariolatry is dreaded by a large portion of
+the religious world, we would remind her that the Virgin Mother is
+still "the blessed" of our own church.
+
+It is a question if the list of sainted martyrs in repute has not
+been left to the arbitrament of the painters; for we find many
+deposed, and the adopted favourites of art not found in the early
+list, as represented in their processions. We find a Saint Reparata,
+after having been the patroness saint of Florence for six hundred
+years, deposed, and the city placed under the tutelage of the Virgin
+and St John the Baptist.
+
+Yet these were early times for the influence of art; but, at a
+period when pictures were thought to have a kind of miraculous
+power, it is not improbable that some potent work of art
+representing the Virgin and St John may have caused the new
+devotional dedication--as was the case in modern times, when the
+imaged Madonna de los Dolores was appointed general-in-chief of the
+Carlist army. Painters were what the poets had been--_Vates sacri_.
+Events and the memory of saints may have perished, _Carent quia vate
+sacro_. We wish our own painters were more fully sensible of the
+power of art to perpetuate, and that it is its province to teach.
+With us it has been too long disconnected with our religion. It will
+be a glorious day for art, and for the people that shall witness the
+reunion.
+
+In taking leave of these two fascinating volumes, we do so with
+the less regret, knowing that they will be often in our hands, as
+most valuable for instant reference. No one who wishes to know the
+subjects and feel the sentiment of the finest works in the world,
+will think of going abroad without Mrs Jameson's book. We must again
+thank her for the beautiful woodcuts and etchings; the latter, in
+particular, are lightly and gracefully executed, we presume mostly
+(to speak technically) in dry point. Mrs Jameson writes as an
+enthusiast, her feeling flows from her pen. Her style is fascinating
+to a degree, forcible and graceful; but there is no mistaking its
+character--feminine. We know no other hand that could so happily
+have set forth the _Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art_.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS.
+
+
+  BOSTON, _December 1848_.
+
+THE YEAR OF CONSTITUTIONS is drawing to its end, to be succeeded,
+I doubt not, by the Year of Substitutions. I am sorry, my Basil,
+that you do not quite agree with me as to the issue of all this
+in France; but I am sure you will not dispute my opinion that
+this year's work is good for nothing, so far as it has attempted
+construction, instead of fulfilling its mission by overthrow. Its
+great folly has been the constitution-fever, which has amounted
+to a pestilence. When mushrooms grow to be oaks, then shall such
+constitutions as this year has bred, stand a chance of outliving
+their authors. Will men learn nothing from the past? How can they
+act over such rotten farces,--make themselves such fools!
+
+You admit the difference, which I endeavoured to show you, between
+the American constitution and that of any conceivable constitution
+which may be cooked up for an old European state. I am glad if I
+have directed your attention, accordingly, to the great mistake of
+France. She supposes that a feeble, and debauched old gentleman
+can boil himself in the revolutionary kettle, and emerge in all
+the tender and enviable freshness of the babe just severed from
+the maternal mould. Politicians have committed a blunder in not
+allowing the natural, and hence legitimate, origin of the American
+constitution in that of its British parent. They have thus favoured
+the theory that a tolerably permanent constitution can be drafted _a
+priori_, and imposed upon a state. This is the absurdity that makes
+revolutions. If the silly French, instead of reading De Tocqueville,
+would study each for himself the history of our constitution, and
+see how gradually it grew to be our constitution, before pen was
+put to paper to draft it, they might perhaps stop their abortive
+nonsense in time, to save what they can of their national character
+from the eternal contempt of mankind.
+
+But you cannot think the French will find so fair a destiny as a
+Restoration! Tell me, in what French party, at present existing,
+there is any inherent strength, save in that of the legitimists?
+Other parties are mere factions; but the legitimists have got a
+seminal principle among them, which dies very hard, and of which
+the nature is to sprout and make roots, and then show itself. I am
+no admirer of the Bourbons: their intrigues with Jesuitism have
+been their curse, and are the worst obstacle to their regaining
+a hold on the sympathies of freemen. The reactionary party have
+in vain endeavoured to overcome it for fifty years. Yet there is
+such tenacity of life in legitimacy, that it seems to me destined
+to outlive all opposition, and to succeed by necessity. The rapid
+developments of this memorable year strengthen the probability of
+my prediction. Revolutionism is spasmodic, but not so long in dying
+as it used to be. I cannot but think this year has done more for a
+permanent restoration of the Bourbons than any year since Louis XVI.
+ascended the scaffold. In this respect the Barricades of 1848 may
+tell more impressively on history than the Allies of 1814, or even
+the carnage of Waterloo.
+
+Why should I be ashamed of my theory, when everything, so far, has
+gone as I supposed it would, only a hundred times more rapidly than
+any body could have thought possible? What must be the residue of
+a series which thus far has tended but one way?--what say you of
+the Bartholomew-butchery in June?--what of Lamartine's fall?--what
+of the dictatorship of Cavaignac? If things have gone as seems
+probable, Louis Napoleon is president of the republic. If so, what
+is the instinct which has thus called him into power? The hereditary
+principle is abolished on paper, and instantly recognised by the
+first popular act done under the new constitution! But, for all
+we can tell in America, things may have taken another turn. Is
+Cavaignac elected? Then a military master is put over the republic,
+who can _Cromwellise_ the Assembly, and _Monk_ the state, as
+soon as he chooses. The republic has given itself the form of a
+dictatorship, and demonstrated that it does not exist, except on
+paper. Has there been an insurrection? Then the republic is dead
+already. But I shall assume that Louis has succeeded: then it is
+virtually an hereditary empire. To be sure, instinct has for once
+failed to know "the true prince,"--has accorded, to the mere shadow
+of a usurper, what, in a more substantial form, is due to the heir
+of France; but long-suspended animation must make a mistake or
+two in coming to life again. The events of the year have been all
+favourable to a restoration, because they have crushed a thousand
+other plans and plottings for the sovereignty, and because they must
+have forced upon at least as many theorists the grand practical
+conclusion, that there is to be no rational liberty in France until
+she returns to first principles, and finds the repose which old
+nations can only know under their legitimate kings.
+
+I am ashamed of you for more than hinting that legitimacy must be
+given up, as far as kings are concerned. Alas! Diogenes must light
+his lantern, and hunt through England for a Tory! You are bewhigged,
+indeed, if you give it up that George III. was a legitimate king,
+and that his grand-daughter is to you what no other person alive
+can possibly be,--your true and hereditary sovereign lady! Must I,
+a republican, say this to an English monarchist, who votes himself
+a conservative, and who is the son of a sturdy old English Tory?
+Is there no virtue extant, that even you allow yourself to be
+flippant about "the divinity that hedges kings," and to trifle with
+suggestions which your immortal ancestor, who fell at Prestonpans,
+would have drummed out of doors with poker and tongs? Why, even
+I, who have a right to be whatever I choose, by way of amateur
+allegiance, and who have always found myself a Jacobite whenever
+the talk has been against the White Rose--even I, in sober earnest,
+yield the point, that George I. was a legitimate sovereign, and that
+Charlie was a bit of a rebel. Those stupid Dutchmen! it makes me
+mad to say as much for them; but I love Old England too well to own
+that she bore with such sovereigns on any lower grounds than that of
+their right to reign.
+
+I am sorry you give in to the silly cant of revolutionists, and
+confess yourself posed with their challenge. What if they do insist
+upon a definition? Are you bound to keep your heart from beating
+till you can tell why it throbs over a page of Shakspeare's Richard
+II., and bounces, in precisely an opposite manner, over Carlyle's
+Cromwell? Am I going to let a Whig choke me with a dictionary,
+because it contains no explanation of my good old-fashioned word?
+Let him, with his "Useful Knowledge Society" information, give me
+an explanation of the magnetic needle, or tell me why it turns to
+the pole, and not to the antipodes? The fellow will recollect some
+twopenny picture of the compass, and retail me half a column of the
+Penny Magazine about the mysteries of nature. And what if I talk
+as sensibly from nature in my own heart, and tell the stereotype
+philosopher that I am conscious of an ennobling affection, which
+honest men never lack, and which God Almighty has made a faculty of
+the human soul to dignify subordination; and that loyalty has no
+lode-star but legitimacy? At least, my dear Whigo-Tory, you must
+allow, I should succeed in answering a fool according to his folly.
+But I claim more: I have defined legitimacy when I say it is the
+home of loyalty.
+
+I have amused myself during the summer with some study of the
+history of reaction in France, and flatter myself that I have
+discovered the secret of its failure, and the great distinction
+between its spirit and that of English Conservatism. But this by
+the way; for I was going to say that I have found, in the writings
+of one of the chief of the reactionary party, some very sensible
+hints upon the subject I am discussing with you. Though in many
+respects a dangerous teacher, and, I fear, a little jesuitical in
+practice as well as in theory, I have been surprised to find the
+Count de Maistre willing "to be as _his master_" on this point, and
+to rest legitimacy very nearly on the sober principles of Burke.
+He is far from the extravagances of Sir Robert Filmer, though
+he often expresses, in a startling form, the temperate views of
+English Anti-Jacobins. Thus he says, with evident relish of its
+smart severity, _the people will always accept their masters, and
+will never choose them_. Strongly and unpalatably put, but most
+coincident with history, and not to be disputed by any admirer
+of the glorious Revolution of 1688! I suspect the Frenchman made
+his aphorism without stopping to ask whether it suited any other
+case. But Burke has virtually said the same thing in his reply
+to the Old Jewry doctrine of 1789, in which he so forcibly urges
+the fact, that the settlement of the crown upon William and the
+Georges "was not properly _a choice_, ... but an act of necessity,
+in the strictest moral sense in which necessity can be taken."
+Mary and the Hanoverians, then, were acknowledged by the nation,
+in spite of itself, as legitimate sovereigns; and even William was
+smuggled into the acknowledgment as _quasi_-legitimate. It is the
+clear, reasonable, and truly English doctrine of Burke, that _the
+constitution of a country makes its legitimate kings_; and that the
+princes of the House of Brunswick, coming to the crown according to
+constitutional law, at the date of their respective accessions, were
+as legitimate as King James before he broke his coronation oaths,
+and abdicated, _ipso facto_, his crown and hereditary rights. But
+De Maistre talks more like the schoolmen, though he comes to the
+same practical results. Constitutions, the native growth of their
+respective countries, he would argue, are the ordinance of GOD; and
+kings, though not the subjects of their people, are bound to do
+homage to them, as, in a sense, divine. Legitimacy, therefore, is
+the resultant of hereditary majesty and constitutional designation;
+it being always understood that constitutional laws are never
+written till after they become such by national necessities, which
+are divine providences. Apply this to 1688. The Bill of Rights was
+an unwritten part of the constitution even when James was crowned;
+and so was the principle, that the king must not be a Papist, at
+least in the government of his realms. Such, if I may so speak,
+was the Salic law of England, by which his public and political
+Popery stripped him of his right to the throne. It was the same
+principle that invested the House of Brunswick with a legitimacy
+which the heart of the nation did not hesitate to recognise, in
+spite of unfeigned disgust with the prince in whom the succession
+was established. To throw the proposition into the abstract--there
+can be no legitimacy without hereditary majesty, but that member
+of a royal line is the legitimate king in whom concur all the
+elements of _constitutional designation_. If the phrase be new,
+the idea is as old as empire. I mean that constitutional power
+which, without reference to national choice or personal popularity,
+selects the true heir of the throne, among the descendants of its
+ancient possessors, on fixed principles of national law. Thus,
+in Portugal, the constitution sets aside an idiot heir-apparent
+for a cadet of the same family, or, if need be, for a collateral
+relative; while, in France, it proclaims the line of a king extinct
+in his female heir, and ascends, perhaps, to a remote ancestor for
+a trace of his rightful successor. It is a principle essentially
+the same which, in England, pronounces a Popish prince as devoid
+of hereditary right to the crown, as a bastard, or the child of a
+private marriage; and by which the hereditary blood, shut off from
+its natural course, immediately opens some auxiliary channel, and
+widens it into the main artery of succession, with all the precision
+of similar resources in physical nature. With such an argument, if
+I understand him, the Count de Maistre would put you to the blush
+for sneering _sub rosâ_ at the legitimacy of your Sovereign. I wish
+his principles were always as capable of being put to the proof,
+without any absurdity in the reduction. Hereditary majesty is the
+only material of which constitutions make sovereigns; and that, too,
+deserves a word in the light which this sage Piedmontese Mentor of
+France has endeavoured to throw on the subject. It is interesting
+in the present dilemma of France, which stands like the ass between
+two haystacks--rejecting one dynasty, but not yet choosing another.
+I am a republican, you know, holding that my loyalty is due to the
+constitution of my own country; and yet I subscribe to the doctrine
+that this idea of _majesty_ is a reality, and that, confess it
+or not, even republicans feel its reality. _The king's name is a
+tower of strength_; and inspiration has said to sovereign princes,
+with a pregnant and monitory meaning--_ye are gods_. This is not
+the fawning of courts, but the admonition of Him who invests them
+with His sword of avenging justice, and gives them, age after age,
+the natural homage of their fellow-men. Not that I would flatter
+monarchs: I see that they _die like men_, and, what is worse, live,
+very often, like fools, if not like beasts. Yet I am sure that they
+have something about them which is personally theirs, and cannot
+be given to others, and which is as real a thing as any other
+possession. GOD has endowed them with history, and they are the
+living links which connect nations with their origin, and the men of
+the passing age with bygone generations. Reason about it as we may,
+it is impossible not to look with natural reverence on the breathing
+monuments of venerable antiquity. For a Guelph, indeed, I cannot
+get up any false or romantic enthusiasm; and yet I find it quite
+as impossible not to feel that the house of Guelph entitles its
+royal members to a degree of consideration which is the ordinance
+of Heaven. For how many ages has that house been a great reality,
+casting its shadow over Europe, and stretching it over the world,
+and as absolutely affecting the destinies of men as the geographical
+barriers and highways of nations! The Alps and the Oceans are
+morally, as well as naturally, majestic; and a moral majesty like
+theirs attaches to a line of princes which has stood the storms of
+centuries like them, and like them has been always a bulwark or a
+bond between races and generations. Like the solemnity of mountains
+is the hereditary majesty of a family, of which the origin is
+veiled in the twilight of history, but which is always seen above
+the surface of cotemporary events, a crowned and sceptred thing
+that never dies, but perpetuates, from generation to generation, a
+still increasing emotion of sublimity and awe, which all men feel,
+and none can fully understand. There are many women in England who,
+for personal qualities and graces, would as well become the throne
+as she whom you so loyally entitle "Our Sovereign Lady." Why is
+it that no election, nor any imaginable possession of her place,
+could commend the proudest or the best of them to the homage of the
+nation's heart? Such a one might wear the robes, and glitter like
+a star, outshining the regalia, and might walk like Juno; but not
+a voice would cry _God save her!_--while there is a glory, not to
+be mistaken, which invests the daughter of ancient sovereigns, even
+when she is recognised, against her will, in the costume of travel,
+or when she shows herself among her people, and treads the heather
+in a trim little bonnet and a Highland plaid. Why is it that ten
+thousand feel a thrill when her figure is seen descending from the
+wooden walls of her empire, and alighting upon some long unvisited
+portion of its soil? It is not the same emotion which would be
+inspired by the landing of Wellington. Then the roaring of cannon
+and the waving of ensigns would appear to be a tribute rendered to
+the hero by a grateful country; but when her Majesty touches the
+shore, she seems herself to wake the thunders and to bow the banners
+which announce her coming. The pomp is all her own, and differs from
+the tributary pageant, as the nod of Jove is different from the
+acclamation of Stentor. Even I, who "owe her no subscription," can
+well conceive what a true Briton cannot help but feel, when, with
+an ennobling loyalty, he beholds in her the concentrated blood of
+famous kings, and the propagated soul of mighty monarchs; and when
+he calls to mind, at the same moment, the thousand strange events
+and glorious histories which have their august and venerable issue
+in Victoria, his queen.
+
+But you will bring me back to my main business, by asking--who,
+then, was the legitimate king of France at the beginning of this
+year? The King of the Barricades was not lacking in hereditary
+majesty, and you will make out a case of _constitutional
+designation_, by a parallel between England in 1688, and France
+in 1830. If you do so, you will greatly wrong your country. The
+loyalty of England settled in the house of Brunswick, and would have
+been even less tried if there had been a continuance of the house
+of Orange; but no French loyalist could ever be reconciled to the
+dynasty of Orleans. And why? It was not the natural constitution of
+France, but the mere blunder of a mob, that selected Louis Philippe
+as the king of the French. It was an election, as the accession of
+William and Mary was not: it was a choice, and not a necessity--the
+mere caprice of the hour, and in no sense the rational designation
+of law. Did ever his Barricade Majesty himself, in all his dreams of
+a dynasty, pretend that any unalterable principle, or fundamental
+law of France, had turned the tide of succession from the
+heir-presumptive of Charles X., and forced heralds upon the backward
+trail of genealogy, till they could again descend, and so find the
+hereditary king of the French in the son of Egalité? Louis Philippe
+was not legitimate, in any reasonable sense of the word; and,
+could he have made such men as Chateaubriand regard him as other
+than a usurper, he would not be at Claremont now. That splendid
+Frenchman uttered the voice of a smothered, but not extinguished,
+constitution, when he closed his political life in 1830, by saying
+to the Duchess de Berry--"_Madame, votre fils est mon roi._" He
+lived to see the secret heart of thousands of his countrymen
+repeating his memorable words, and died not till Providence itself
+had overturned the rival throne, and directed every eye in hope, or
+in alarm, to the only prince in Europe who could claim to be their
+king.
+
+I care very little what may be the personal qualifications of Henry
+of Bordeaux; it seems to me that he is destined to reign upon the
+throne of his ancestors--and God grant he may do it in such wise as
+shall make amends for all that France has suffered, by reason of
+his ancestors, since France had a Henry for her king before! The
+prestige of sovereignty is his; and while he lives, no republic can
+be lasting; no government, save his, can insure the peace which
+the state of Europe so imperatively demands. If "experience has
+taught England that in no other course or method than that of an
+hereditary crown her liberties can be regularly perpetuated and
+preserved sacred,"[12]--why should not an experience, a thousandfold
+severer, teach France the same lesson? It has already been taught
+them by a genius which France cannot despise, and to whose oracular
+voice she is now forced to listen, because it issues from his fresh
+grave! "Legitimacy is the very life of France. Invent, calculate,
+combine all sorts of illegitimate governments, you will find nothing
+else possible as the result, nothing which gives any promise of
+duration, of tolerable existence during a course of years, or even
+through several months. Legitimacy is, in Europe, the sanctuary in
+which alone reposes that sovereignty by which states subsist." So
+I endeavour to render the eloquent sentence of Chateaubriand;[13]
+and though, since he wrote it, a score of years have passed, it is
+stronger now than ever--for what was then his prophecy is already
+the deplorable history of his country. Had ever a country such a
+history, without learning more in a year than France has gained from
+a miserable half-century?
+
+  [12] BURKE.
+
+  [13] _Memoires sur le Duc de Berry._
+
+Just so long as France has been busy with experiments, in the insane
+effort to separate her future from her past, just so long have
+all her labours to lay a new foundation been miserable failures,
+covering her, in the eyes of the world, with shame and infamy. What
+has been wanting all the time? I grant that the first want has
+been a national conscience--a sense of religion and of duty. But I
+mean, what has been wanting to the successive administrations and
+governments? Certainly not splendour and personal dignity, for the
+Imperial government had both; and the King of the Barricades made
+himself to be acknowledged and feared as one who bore not the sword
+in vain. But the prestige of legitimacy was wanting; and that want
+has been the downfall of everything that has been tried. You will
+ask, what was the downfall of Charles X? The answer is, that it was
+not a downfall further than concerned himself; for everybody feels
+that the Bourbon claim survives, while every other has been forced
+to yield to destiny and retribution. How is it that legitimacy
+makes itself felt after years of exile and obscurity? Is it not
+that instinct of loyalty which cannot be duped or diverted, and
+which detects and detests all shams? Is it not the instinct which
+constitution-makers have endeavoured to appease by pageants and by
+names, but which has continually revolted against the emptiness of
+both? The existence of that instinct has been perpetually exposed
+by miserable attempts to satisfy its demands with outside show and
+splendid impositions. The French cannot even go to work, under their
+present republic, as we do in America. The common-sense of our
+people teaches them that a republican government is a mere matter
+of business, which must make no pretences to splendour; and hence,
+the constitution once settled, the president is elected and sworn-in
+with no nonsense or parade; and Mr Cincinnatus Polk sits down in the
+White House, and sends every man about his business. A young country
+has as yet but the instincts of infancy; there is as yet nothing to
+satisfy but the craving for nourishment, and the demand for large
+room. But it is not so where nations are full-grown. _Can a maid
+forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?_ Can France forget
+that she had once a court and a throne that dazzled the world? No!
+says every craftsman of the revolution; and therefore our republic,
+too, must be splendid and imperial! So, instead of going to work as
+if their new constitution were a reality, there must be a fète of
+inauguration. In the same conviction, Napoleon is nominated for the
+presidency, because he has a name; and he immediately withdraws from
+vulgar eyes, to keep his "presence like a robe pontifical," against
+the investiture. Oh, for some Yankee farmer to look on and laugh! It
+would not take him long to _calculate_ the end of such a republic.
+Jonathan can understand a queen, and would stare at a coronation
+in sober earnest, convinced that it had a meaning--at least, in
+England! But a republic of kettle-drums and trumpets will never do
+with him; and if he were favoured with an interview with the pompous
+aspirant to the French presidency, it would probably end in his
+telling Louis Napoleon the homely truth--that he has nothing to be
+proud of, and had better eat and drink like other folk, and "define
+his position" as a candidate, if he don't want to find himself
+_used-up_, and sent on a long voyage up Salt River; which, you may
+not know, my Basil, is a Stygian stream, and the ancients called
+it Lethe. So much, then, for the _ultima ratio_ of illegitimate
+governments--the attempt to satisfy the demand for national dignity
+by pageants and by names, and to drown the outcries of natural
+discontent by the sounding of brass and the tinkling of cymbals.
+
+In vain did the sage Piedmontese foretell it all, like a Cassandra.
+"Man is prohibited," said that admirable Mentor, "from giving
+great names to things of which he is the author, and which he
+thinks great; but if he has proceeded legitimately, the vulgar
+names of things will be rendered illustrious, and become grand."
+How specially does England answer to the latter half of this
+maxim! and who can read the former without seeing France, in her
+fool's-cap, before his mental eye? De Maistre himself has instanced
+the revolutionary follies of Paris, and lashed them with unsparing
+severity. Whatever is national in England seems to have grown up,
+like her oaks, from deep and strong roots, and to stand, like them,
+immovable, They make their own associations, and dignify their own
+names. Everything is home-born, natural, and real. The Garter, the
+Wool-sack, Hyde Park, Epsom and Ascot--these things in France would
+be the _Legion of Honour_, the _Curule-chair_, the _Elysian fields_,
+the _Olympic games_! The veritable attempt was made to reinstitute,
+in the Champ-de-Mars, the sports of antiquity; and they received
+the pompous name of _Les jeux Olympiques_. De Maistre ridicules
+their nothingness, and adds that, when he saw a building erected
+and called the _Odéon_, he was sure that music was in its decline,
+and that the place would shortly be to let. In like manner, he says
+of the motto of Rousseau, with intense _naïvete_, "Does any man
+dare to write under his own portrait, _vitam impendere vero_? You
+may wager, without further information, fearlessly, that it is the
+likeness of a liar." How quick the human heart perceives what is
+thus put into words by a philosopher! It is in vain for France to
+think of covering her nakedness with a showy veil. The Empire was a
+glittering gauze, but how transparent! They saw one called Emperor
+and a second Charlemagne; and the Pope himself was there to give
+him a crown. But it was a meagre cheat. Poor Josephine never looked
+ridiculous before, but then she acted nonsense. The imperial robes
+were gorgeous, but they meant nothing on the Citizen Buonaparte.
+Everybody saw behind the scenes. They detected Talma in the strut of
+Napoleon; they pointed at the wires that moved the hands and eyes of
+the Pope. All stage-effect, machinery, and pasteboard. The imperial
+court was all what children call _make-believe_: it vanished like
+the sport of children.
+
+The great feast of fraternity, last spring, was, on de Maistre's
+principles, the natural harbinger of that fraternal massacre in
+June; and the ineffectual attempt to be festive over the late
+inauguration of the constitution, has but one redeeming feature
+to prevent a corresponding augury of disaster. Its miserable
+failure makes it possible that the constitution will survive its
+anniversary. Then there will be a demonstration, at any rate, and
+then the thing will be superannuated. Since 1790, there has been
+no end to such glorifications; each chased and huzza'd, in turn,
+by a nation of full-grown children, and all hollow and transient
+as bubbles. Perpetual beginnings, every one warranted to be _no
+failure this time_, and each going out in a stench. What continual
+_Champs-de-Mars_ and _Champs-de-Mai_! what wavings of new flags, and
+scattering of fresh flowers! and all ending in confessed failure,
+and beginning the same thing over again! "Nothing great has great
+beginnings"--says Mentor again. "History shows no exception to this
+rule. _Crescit occulto velut arbor ævo_,--this is the immortal
+device of every great institution."
+
+Legitimacy never makes such mistakes, except when permitted by GOD,
+to accomplish its own temporary abasement. It needs not to support
+itself by tricks and shams. It has a creative power which dignifies
+everything it touches; which often turns its own occasions into
+festivals, but makes no festivals on purpose to dignify itself. When
+Henry V. is crowned at Rheims, or at Notre-Dame, he will not send
+over the Alps for _Pio Nono_, nor consult _Savans_ to learn how
+Cæsar should be attired that day. That youth may safely dispense
+with all superfluous pageantry, for he is not _new Charlemagne_,
+but _old Charlemagne_. The blood of the Carlovingians has come down
+to him from Isabella of Hainault, through St Louis and Henry IV.
+Chateaubriand should not have forgotten this, when (speaking of this
+prince's unfortunate father, the Duke de Berry) he enthusiastically
+sketched a thousand years of Capetian glory, and cried--"_He bien!
+la revolution a livré tout cela au couteau de Louvel_." Another
+revolution has thus far relegated the same substantial dignity to
+exile and obscurity, as if France could afford to lose its past, and
+begin again, as an infant of days. But besides the evident tendency
+of things to reaction, there is something about the legitimate
+king of France which looks like destiny. He was announced to the
+kingdom by the dying lips of his murdered sire, while yet unborn, as
+if the fate of empire depended on his birth. "_Ménagez-vous, pour
+l'enfant que vous portez dans votre sein_," said the unhappy man to
+his duchess, and the group of bystanders was startled! It was the
+first that France heard of Henry the Fifth, and it seemed to inspire
+Chateaubriand with the spirit of prophecy, and he eloquently remarks
+upon it as a _dernière espérance_. "The dying prince," he says,
+"seemed to bear with him a whole monarchy, and at the same moment to
+announce another. Oh GOD! and is our salvation to spring out of our
+ruin? Has the cruel death of a son of France been ordained in anger,
+or in mercy? is it _a final restoration of the legitimate throne,
+or the downfall of the empire of Clovis_?" This grand question now
+hangs in suspense: but, as I said, Chateaubriand must have taken
+courage before he died, and inwardly answered it favourably. That
+great writer seems to have felt beforehand, for his countrymen,
+the loyalty to which they will probably return. To the prince he
+stood as a sort of sponsor for the future. When the royal babe was
+baptised, he presented water from the Jordan, in which the last hope
+of legitimacy received the name of _Dieu-donné_: when Charles the
+Tenth was dethroned, he stood up for the young king, and consented
+to fall with his exclusion; and the last years of France's greatest
+genius were a consistent confessorship for that legitimacy with
+which he believed the prosperity of his country indissolubly bound.
+Now, I should like to ask a French republican--if I could find
+a sane one,--what would you wish to do with Henry of Bordeaux?
+Would you wish this heir of your old histories to renounce his
+birth-right, declare legitimacy an imposition, and undertake to
+settle down in Paris as one of the people? Why not, if you are all
+republicans, and see no more in a prince than in a _gamin_? Why
+should not this Henry Capet throw up his cap for the constitution,
+and stick up a tradesman's sign in the Place de la Revolution, as
+"Henry Capet, _parfumeur_?" Why not let him hire a shop in the lower
+stories of the Palais Royal and teach the Parisians better manners
+than to cut off his head, by devoting himself to shaving their
+beards? Everybody knows the reason why not; and that reason shows
+the reality of legitimacy. Night and day such a shop would be mobbed
+by friends and foes alike. Go where he might, the _parfumeur_ would
+be pointed at by fingers, and aimed at by _lorgnettes_, and bored to
+death by a rabble of starers, who would insist upon it that he was
+the hereditary lord of France. Mankind cannot free themselves from
+such impressions, and, what is more conclusive, princes cannot free
+themselves from the impressions of mankind, or undertake to live
+like other men, as if history and genealogy were not facts. For weal
+or for woe, they are as unchangeable as the leopard with his spots.
+Let Henry Capet come to America, and try to be a republican with us.
+Our very wild-cats would assert their inalienable right to "look at
+a king," and he would certainly be torn to pieces by good-natured
+curiosity.
+
+It is curious to see the natural instinct amusing itself, for
+the present, with such a mere _nominis umbra_ as Louis Napoleon.
+In some way or other the hereditary _prestige_ must be created;
+nothing less is satisfactory, and the "imperial fetishism" will
+answer very well till something more substantial is found necessary.
+Richard Cromwell was necessary to Charles II., and so is Louis
+Napoleon to Henry V. Napoleon still seems capable of giving France
+a dynasty; this possibility will be soon extinguished by the
+incapability of his representative. Louis will reign long enough
+to exhibit that recompense to Josephine, in the person of her
+grandson, which heaven delights to allot to a repudiated wife; and
+then, for his own sake, he will be called _coquin_ and _poltron_.
+Napoleon will take his historical position as an individual, having
+no remaining hold on France; and the imperial fetishism will be
+ignominiously extinguished. Richard Cromwell made a very decent old
+English gentleman, and Louis Napoleon may perhaps end his days as
+respectably, in some out-of-the-way corner of Corsica. Let me again
+quote the French Mentor. He says, "There never has existed a royal
+family to whom a plebeian origin could be assigned. Men may say, if
+Richard Cromwell had possessed the genius of his father, he would
+have fixed the protectorate in his family; which is precisely the
+same thing as to say--if this family had not ceased to reign, it
+would reign still." Here is the formula that will suit the case of
+Louis Napoleon; but future historians will moralise upon the manner
+in which Napoleon himself worked out his own destruction. For the
+sake of a dynasty, he puts away poor Josephine. The King of Rome is
+born to him, but his throne is taken. The royal youth perishes in
+early manhood, and men find Napoleon's only representative in the
+issue of the repudiated wife. Her grandson comes to power, and holds
+it long enough to make men say--how much better it might have been
+with Napoleon had he kept his faith to Josephine, and contentedly
+taken as his heir the child in whom Providence has revealed at last
+his only chance of continuing his family on a throne! It makes one
+thing of Scripture, "Yet ye say wherefore? because the Lord hath
+been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom
+thou hast dealt treacherously; ... therefore take heed to your
+spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his
+youth, for the Lord, the GOD of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
+away."
+
+A traveller from the south of France says that he saw everywhere
+the portrait of Henry V. Besides the mysterious hold which
+legitimacy keeps upon the vulgar and the polite alike, there are
+associations with it which operate on all classes of men. Tradesmen
+and manufacturers are for legitimacy, because they love peace, and
+want to make money. The _roturiers_ sooner or later learn the misery
+of mobs, and the love of change makes them willing to welcome home
+the king, especially as they mistake their own hearts, and flatter
+themselves that their sudden loyalty is proof of remaining virtue.
+Then the profligate and abandoned, they want a monarchy, in hopes of
+another riot in the palace. It may be doubted whether the _blouses_
+can be permanently contented without a king to curse. The national
+anthem cannot be sung with any spirit, unless there be a monarch
+who can be imagined to hear all its imprecations against tyrants:
+in fact, the king must come back, if only to make sense of the
+Marseilles Hymn.
+
+    Que veut cette horde d'esclaves,
+      De traîtres, de rois conjurés?
+    Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,
+      Ces fers, dès long-tems préparés?
+
+What imaginable sense is there in singing these red-hot verses
+at a feast of fraternity, and in honour of the full possession
+of absolute liberty? Then, where is the sport of clubs, and the
+excitement of conspiracies, if there's no king to execrate within
+locked doors? Is Paris to have no more of those nice little
+_émeutes_? What's to be done with the genius that delights in
+infernal machines? Who's to be fired at in a glass coach? Everybody
+knows that Cavaignacs and Lamartines are small game for such sport.
+Your true assassin must have, at least, a duke of the blood. These
+are considerations which must have their weight in deciding upon
+probabilities; though, for one, I am not sure but France is doomed,
+by retributive justice, to be thus the Tantalus of nations, steeped
+to the neck in liberty, but forbidden to drink, with kings hanging
+over them to provoke the eye, and yet escaping the hand.
+
+In 1796 de Maistre published his _Considérations sur la France_.
+They deserve to be reproduced for the present age. Nothing can
+surpass the cool contempt of the philosophical _réactionnaire_,
+or the confidence with which, from his knowledge of the past, he
+pronounces oracles for the future. Do you ask how Henry V. is to
+recover his rights? In ten thousand imaginable ways. See what
+Cavaignac might have done last July, had the time been ripe for
+another Monk! There's but one way to keep legitimacy out; it comes
+in as water enters a leaky ship, oozing through seams, and gushing
+through cracks, where nobody dreamed of such a thing. As long as
+even a tolerable pretender survives, a popular government must be
+kept in perpetual alarm. But you shall hear the Count, my Basil! Let
+me give you a free translation.
+
+"In speculating about counter-revolutions, we often fall into the
+mistake of taking it for granted that such reactions can only be the
+result of popular deliberation. _The people won't allow it_, it is
+said; _they will never consent; it is against the popular feeling_.
+Ah! is it possible? The people just go for nothing in such affairs;
+at most they are a passive instrument. Four or five persons may give
+France a king. It shall be announced to the provinces that the king
+is restored: up go their hats, and _vive le roi_! Even in Paris,
+the inhabitants, save a score or so, shall know nothing of it till
+they wake up some morning and learn that they have a king. '_Est-il
+possible?_' will be the cry: '_how very singular! What street will
+he pass through? Let's engage a window in good time, there'll be
+such a horrid crowd!_' I tell you the people will have nothing more
+to do with re-establishing the monarchy, than they have had in
+establishing the revolutionary government!... At the first blush
+one would say, undoubtedly, that the previous consent of the French
+is necessary to the restoration; but nothing is more absurd. Come,
+we'll crop theory, and imagine certain facts.
+
+"A courier passes through Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyons, and so _en
+route_, telling everybody that the king is proclaimed at Paris; that
+a certain party has seized the reins, and has declared that it holds
+the government only in the king's name, having despatched an express
+for his majesty, who is expected every minute, and that every one
+mounts the white cockade. Rumour catches up the story, and adds
+a thousand imposing details. What next? To give the republic the
+fairest chance, let us suppose it to have the favour of a majority,
+and to be defended by republican troops. At first these troops shall
+bluster very loudly; but dinner-time will come; the fellows must
+eat, and away goes their fidelity to a cause that no longer promises
+rations, to say nothing of pay. Then your discontented captains
+and lieutenants, knowing that they have nothing to lose, begin to
+consider how easily they can make something of themselves, by being
+the first to set up _Vive-le-roi_! Each one begins to draw his own
+portrait, most bewitchingly coloured; looking down in scorn on the
+republican officers who so lately knocked him about with contempt;
+his breast blazing with decorations, and his name displayed as that
+of an officer of His Most Christian Majesty! Ideas so single and
+natural will work in the brains of such a class of persons: they
+all think them over; every one knows what his neighbour thinks, and
+they all eye one another suspiciously. Fear and distrust follow
+first, and then jealousy and coolness. The common soldier, no
+longer inspired by his commander, is still more discouraged; and,
+as if by witchcraft, the bonds of discipline all at once receive
+an incomprehensible blow, and are instantly dissolved. One begins
+to hope for the speedy arrival of his majesty's paymaster; another
+takes the favourable opportunity to desert and see his wife. There's
+no head, no tail, and no more any such thing as trying to hold
+together.
+
+"The affair takes another turn with the populace. They push about
+hither and thither, knocking one another out of breath, and asking
+all sorts of questions; no one knows what he wants; hours are
+wasted in hesitation, and every minute does the business. Daring
+is everywhere confronted by caution; the old man lacks decision,
+the lad spoils all by indiscretion; and the case stands thus,--one
+may get into trouble by resisting, but he that keeps quiet may be
+rewarded, and will certainly get off without damage. As for making
+a demonstration--where is the means? Who are the leaders? Whom can
+ye trust? There's no danger in keeping still; the least motion may
+get one into trouble. Next day comes news--_such a town has opened
+its gates_. Another inducement to hold back! Soon this news turns
+out to be a lie; but it has been believed long enough to determine
+two other towns, who, supposing that they only follow such example,
+present themselves at the gates of the first town to offer their
+submission. This town had never dreamed of such a thing; but, seeing
+such an example, resolves to fall in with it. Soon it flies about
+that Monsieur the mayor has presented to his majesty the keys of
+his good city of _Quelquechose_, and was the first officer who had
+the honour to receive him within a garrison of his kingdom. His
+Majesty--of course--made him a marshal of France on the spot. Oh!
+enviable brevet! an immortal name, and a scutcheon everlastingly
+blooming with _fleurs-de-lis_! The royalist tide fills up every
+moment, and soon carries all before it. _Vive-le-roi!_ shouts out
+long-smothered loyalty, overwhelmed with transports: _Vive-le-roi!_
+chokes out hypocritical democracy, frantic with terror. No matter!
+there's but one cry; and his Majesty is crowned, and _has all the
+royal makings of a king_. This is the way counter-revolutions
+come about. God having reserved to himself the formation of
+sovereignties, lets us learn the fact, from observing that He never
+commits to the multitude the choice of its masters. He only employs
+them, in those grand movements which decide the fate of empires,
+as passive instruments. Never do they get what they want: they
+always take; they never choose. There is, if one may so speak, an
+_artifice_ of Providence, by which the means which a people take to
+gain a certain object, are precisely those which Providence employs
+to put it from them. Thus, thinking to abase the aristocracy by
+hurrahing for Cæsar, the Romans got themselves masters. It is just
+so with all popular insurrections. In the French revolution the
+people have been perpetually handcuffed, outraged, betrayed, and
+torn to pieces by factions; and factions themselves, at the mercy of
+each other, have only risen to take their turn in being dashed to
+atoms. To know in what the revolution will probably end, find first
+in what points all the revolutionary factions are agreed. Do they
+unite in hating Christianity and monarchy? Very well! The end will
+be, that both will be the more firmly established in the earth."
+
+Cool, certainly; is it not, my Basil? The legitimists are the only
+Frenchmen who can keep cool, and bide their time. Chateaubriand
+has observed, in the same spirit, that there is a hidden power
+which often makes war with powers that are visible, and that a
+secret government was always following close upon the heels of the
+public governments that succeeded each other between the murder of
+Louis XVI. and the restoration of the Bourbons. This hidden power
+he calls the eternal reason of things; the justice of GOD, which
+interferes in human affairs just in proportion as men endeavour to
+banish and drive it from them. It is evident that the whole force
+of de Maistre's prophecy was owing to his religious confidence
+in this divine interference. He wrote in 1796. That year the
+career of Napoleon began at Montenotte; and, for eighteen years
+succeeding, every day seemed to make it less and less probable
+that his predictions could be verified. The Bourbon star was lost
+in the sun of Austerlitz. The Republic itself was forgotten; the
+Pope inaugurated the Empire; Austria gave him a princess, to be the
+mould of a dynasty, and the source of a new legitimacy. France was
+peopled with a generation that never knew the Bourbons, and which
+was dazzled with the genius of Napoleon, and the splendour of his
+imperial government. But the time came for this _puissance occulte,
+cette justice du ciel_! When the Allies entered Paris in 1814, it
+was suggested to Napoleon that the Bourbons would be restored; and,
+with all his sagacity, he made the very mistake which de Maistre had
+foreshown, and said, in almost his very words--"Never! nine-tenths
+of the people are irreconcilably against it!" One can almost hear
+what might have been the Count's reply--"_Quelle pitié! le peuple
+n'est pour rien dans les revolutions. Quatre ou cinq personnes,
+peut-être, donneront un roi à la France._" What could Talleyrand
+tell about that? The facts were, that in four days the Bourbons
+were all the rage! The Place Vendôme could hardly hold the mob that
+raved about Napoleon's statue; and, with ropes and pulleys, they
+were straining every sinew to drag it to the ground, when it was
+taken under the protection of Alexander![14] What next? In terror
+for his very life, this Napoleon flies to Frejus, now sneaking out
+of a back-window, and now riding post, as a common courier, actually
+saving himself by wearing the white cockade over his raging breast,
+and all the time cursing his dear French to Tartarus! A British
+vessel gives him his only asylum, and the salute he receives from
+a generous enemy is all that reminds him what he once had been
+in France. Meantime these detested Bourbons are welcomed home
+again, with De Maistre's own varieties of _Vive-le-roi_! The Duke
+d'Angouleme, advancing to the capital, sees the silver lilies
+dancing above the spires of Bordeaux: the Count d'Artois hails the
+same tokens at Nancy: not captains and lieutenants, but generals
+and marshals, rush to receive His Most Christian Majesty; and the
+successor of the butchered Louis XVI. comes to his palace, after an
+exile of twenty years, with the title of Louis the Desired! Nor are
+subsequent events anything more than the swinging of a pendulum,
+which must eventually subside into a plummet. If the first disaster
+of Napoleon, in the fulness of his strength, could make France
+welcome her legitimacy in 1814, why should not the imbecility of
+the mere shadow of his name produce a stronger revulsion before
+this century gains its meridian? There is a residuary fulfilment
+of de Maistre's augury, which remains to the Bourbons, when all of
+Napoleon that survives has found its ignominious extinction. Then
+will the ripe fruit fall into the lap of one who, if he is wise,
+will make the French forget his kindred with the fourteenth and
+fifteenth Louises, and remember only that Henry of Bordeaux has
+before him the example of Henry of Navarre.
+
+  [14] ALISON.
+
+There is, indeed, another conceivable end. _C'est l'arrêt que le
+ciel prononce enfin contre les peuples sans jugement, et rebelles
+à l'expérience._[15] If France does not soon come back to reason,
+we shall be forced to think her given up of GOD, to become such
+a country as Germany, or perhaps as miserable as Spain. But we
+must not be too hasty in coming to conclusions so deplorable. Let
+the republic have its day. It will work its own cure; for the
+chastisement of France must be the curse of ancient Judah. "The
+people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and everyone by
+his neighbour; the child shall behave himself proudly against the
+ancient, and the base against the honourable." For the mob of Paris,
+who got drunk with riot, and must grow sober with headache; for the
+blousemen and the boys who have pulled a house upon their head,
+and now maul each other in painful efforts to get from under the
+ruins; and for the miserable _philosophes_ who see, in the charming
+state of their country, the fruit of their own atheistic theories;
+for all these it is but retribution. They needed government; they
+resolved on license: GOD has sent them despotism in its worst form.
+One pities Paris, but feels that it is just. My emotions are very
+different when I think of what were once "the pleasant villages
+of France." Miserable _campagnards_! There are thousands of them,
+besides the poor souls starving in provincial towns, who curse
+the republic in their hearts; and, from Normandy to Provence and
+Languedoc, there are millions of such Frenchmen, who care nothing
+for dynasties, or fraternities, or democracy, but only pray the
+good Lord to give peace in their time, that they may sit under
+their own vine, and earn and eat their daily bread. For them--may
+GOD pity them!--what a life Dame Paris leads them! If, with the
+simplicity of rustics, they were for a moment disposed to be merry
+last February--when they heard that thereafter loaves and fishes
+were to fling themselves upon every table, for the mere pleasure of
+being devoured--how bitterly the simpletons are undeceived! Their
+present notions of fraternity and equality they get from hunger
+and from rags. It is not now in France as in the days of Henry
+IV., when every peasant had a pullet in the pot for his Sunday
+dinner. That was despotism. It is liberty now--liberty to starve.
+There is no more oppression, for the very looms refuse to work, and
+water-wheels stand still; and the vines go gadding and unpruned,
+and the grape disdains to be trampled in the wine-vat. Yes--and the
+old _paysan_ and his sprightly dame, who used to drive dull care
+away in the sunshine--she, with her shaking foot and head, and he
+with his fiddle and his bow, they have liberty to the full; for
+their seven sons, who were earning food for them in the sweat of
+their brow, have come home to the old cabin, ragged and unpaid; and
+they lounge about in hungry idleness, longing for war, but only
+because war would provide them with a biscuit or a bullet. What
+care they for glory, or for constitutions? They ask for bread, and
+their teeth are ground with gravel-stones. Let England look and
+learn. If she has troubles, let her see how easily troubles may be
+invested at compound interest, with the certainty of dividends for
+years to come. Is hard thrift in a kingdom so bad as starvation
+in a democracy? And whether is it better to wear out honestly, in
+this work-day world, as good and quiet subjects; or to be thrust
+out of it, kicking and cursing, behind a barricade of cabs and
+paving-stones, in the name of equality? These are the common-sense
+questions, that every English labourer should be made to feel and
+answer.
+
+  [15] CHATEAUBRIAND.
+
+It provokes me, Basil, that my letter may be superannuated while
+it is travelling in the steamer! The changes of democracy are more
+frequent than the revolutions of a paddle-wheel. Adieu. Yours,
+
+  ERNEST.
+
+
+
+
+DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO.
+
+     _Dalmatia and Montenegro._ By Sir J. GARDNER WILKINSON. London:
+     Murray.
+
+
+It is really astonishing that our want of information respecting
+Dalmatia, and its neighbourhood, has not long ago been supplied. It
+is by no means easy, now-a-days, to hit upon a line of country that
+may afford subject-matter for acceptable illustration. Travellers
+are so numerous, and authorship is so generally affected, that the
+best part of Europe has been described over and over again. You may
+get from Mr Murray a handbook for almost any place you will. Manners
+and customs, roads, inns, things to be suffered, and notabilities
+to be visited--in short, all the probable contingencies of travel
+between this and the Vistula, are already noted and set down. We
+take it upon ourselves to say, that it is one of the most difficult
+things in life to realise the sense of desolation and unwontedness
+that are poetic characteristics of the traveller. How can a man feel
+himself strange to any place where he is so thoroughly up to usages
+that no _locandière_ can cheat him to the amount of a _zwanziger_?
+And, thanks to the books written, it is a man's own fault if he
+wend almost anywhither except thus μύστης γενόμενος.
+
+In truth, European travelling is pretty nearly reduced to the work
+of verification. Events are according to prescription; and there
+remains very little room for the play of an exploring spirit. The
+grand thing to be explored is a matter pysychological rather than
+material; it is to prove experimentally what are the emotions that
+a generous mind experiences, when vividly acted upon by association
+with the world of past existences. Beyond doubt, this is the highest
+range of intellectual enjoyment; and to its province may be referred
+much that at first sight would appear to be heterogeneous, as, for
+instance, delights purely scientific. But at any rate, we must all
+agree that the main privilege of a traveller is, that he is enabled
+to test the force of this power of association. It is an enjoyment
+to be known only by experiment. No power of description can give a
+man to understand what is the sensation of gazing on the Acropolis,
+or of standing within Ἁγία Σοφία. It is as another sense, called into
+existence by the occasion of exercise.
+
+To any but the uncommonly well read, there has hitherto been meagre
+entertainment in travelling among the Slavonian borderers on the
+Adriatic. It has been impossible to realise on their subject these
+high pleasures of association, because so little has been known of
+the facts of their history; rather should we perhaps say, that,
+of what has been known, so little has been generally accessible.
+But we are happy to find that the right sort o' "chiel has been
+amang them, takin' notes." The way is now open; and henceforth it
+will be easy to follow with profit. The book which Sir Gardner
+Wilkinson has given us seems to be exactly the thing which was
+wanted; and certainly the use of it will enable a man to travel
+in Dalmatia as a rational creature should. No mere dotter down of
+events could have passed through the course of this country without
+producing a document of considerable value. The widespread family
+of which its inhabitants are a branch have been intimately mixed up
+with the history of the Empire and of Christendom; and now again
+we behold them playing a conspicuous part in European politics.
+Modern Panslavism deepens the interest to be felt in this family,
+and quickens the anxiety to know what they are doing and thinking
+now, as well as what they have done in days of old. In the present
+volumes we have, besides the memoranda of things existing, a
+compendium of Slavonian history and antiquities, and an exhibition
+of the degree in which the race have been mixed up with European
+history. Besides this, an account is given of their more domestic
+traditions, of which monuments survive; and it must be a man's own
+fault if, having this book with him, he miss extracting the utmost
+of profit from a visit to the country.
+
+In one way, we can surely prophesy that this book will prove the
+means of bringing to us increase of lore from out of that land of
+which it treats. It will naturally be taken on board every yacht
+that, when next summer shall open skies and seas, may find its
+way into the Mediterranean. Among these birds of passage, it can
+scarcely be but that some one will shape its course for this land of
+adventure, thus, as it were, newly laid open. It is a little, a very
+little out of the direct track, in which these summer craft are apt
+to be found, plentiful as butterflies. They may rest assured that in
+no place, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pharos of Alexandria,
+can they hope to find such provision of entertainment. The stories
+they may thence bring will really be worth something--a value much
+higher than we can vote ascribable to much that we hear of the
+well-frequented shores of the French lake.
+
+We prophesy, also, that an inspiriting effect will be produced
+on men better qualified even than the yachtsmen for the work of
+travel--we mean on the gallant officers who garrison the island of
+Corfu. They occupy a station so exactly calculated to facilitate
+excursions in the desirable direction, that it will be too bad if
+some of them do not start this very next spring. We do not recommend
+the Adriatic in winter time, and so give them a few months' grace,
+just to keep clear of the Bora. Let them, as soon as possible after
+the equinox, avail themselves of one of those gaps which will be
+occurring in the best-regulated garrison life. Times will come round
+when duty makes no exaction, and when the indigenous resources of
+the island afford no amusement. Should such occasion have place out
+of the shooting months--or when, haply, some row with the Albanians
+has placed Butrinto under interdict--woful are the straits to which
+our ardent young fellow-countrymen are reduced. A ride to the
+Garoona pass, or a lounge into Carabots; or, to come to the worst,
+an hour or two's _flané_ round old Schulenberg's statue, are well in
+their way, but cannot please for ever. All these things considered,
+it is, we say, but likely that we shall reap some substantial
+benefit from the leisure of our military friends, so soon as their
+literary researches shall have carried them into the enjoyment of
+this book. Dalmatia is almost before their very eyes. If hitherto
+they have not drifted thither, under the combined influences of a
+long leave and an uncertain purpose, it is because they have not
+been in a condition to prosecute researches. We must not blame them
+for their past neglect, any more than we blame the idleness of him
+who lacks the implements of work. Give a man tools, and then, if he
+work not, _monstrare digito_. Henceforth they must be regarded as
+thoroughly equipped, and without excuse. Let us hope that some two
+or three may be roused to action on the very next opportunity--that
+is to say, on the very next occasion of leave. Let us hope that,
+instead of sloping away to Paxo, or Santa Maura, they may shape
+their course through the North Channel, and begin, if they please,
+by exploring the Bocca di Cattaro.
+
+Sir Gardner speaks of difficulties and vexatious delays interposed
+between the traveller and his purpose by the Austrian authorities.
+These scrutineers of passports seem to grow worse; and with them
+bad has long been the best. We used to think that the palm of
+pettifogging was fairly due to the officials of his Hellenic
+majesty. It was bad enough, we always thought, to be kept waiting
+and watching for a license to move from the Piræus to Lutraki, by
+steam; but we confess that Sir Gardner makes out a case, or rather
+several cases, that beat our experience hollow. We should like
+to commit the passport system to the verdict to be pronounced by
+common-sense after perusal of the two or three pages he has written
+on this subject. But common-sense must be far from us, or the mob
+would not be raving for liberty while still tolerant of passports.
+
+There is another point in respect of which a change for the worse
+appears to have taken place, and that is in the important point
+of _bienveillance_ towards English travellers. We learn that, at
+present, Austrian officers are shy of English companionship; and
+that it is even enjoined on them authoritatively that they avoid
+intimacy with stragglers from Corfu. The reason assignable is found
+in the late sad and absurd conspiracy hatched in that island--a
+conspiracy which would have been utterly ridiculous, had it not in
+the event proved so melancholy. It will freely be admitted that
+the English would deserve to be sent, as they are, to Coventry,
+were it fact that the insane project of the young Bandieras had
+found English partisans, and that such partisanship had been winked
+at by the authorities. But the real state of the case is exactly
+contrary to this supposition. Humanity must needs have mourned over
+the cutting off of the young men, and the sorrow of their father,
+the gallant old admiral. But common-sense must have condemned the
+undertaking as utterly absurd and mischievous. It is a pity that any
+misunderstanding should be permitted to qualify the good feeling
+towards us, for which the Austrians have been remarkable. This good
+feeling has been observable eminently among their naval officers,
+who have got up a strong fellowship with us, ever since they were
+associated with our fleet in the operations on the coast of Syria.
+That particular service has done much towards the exalting of them
+in their own estimation; and, of course, the increase of friendship
+for us has been in the direct proportion of the lift given to
+them. The Austrian _militaires_, also, used to be a very good set
+of fellows, and only too happy to be civil to an Englishman. At
+their dull stations an arrival is an event, and any considerable
+accession of visitors occasions quite a jubilee. These gentlemen,
+however, cannot have among them much of the spirit of enterprise,
+or they would take more trouble than they do to learn something of
+the condition of their neighbours. They will complain freely of
+the dulness of the place of their location, but at the same time
+will evince little interest in the condition of the world beyond
+their immediate ken. Many of them who live almost within hail of
+the Montenegrini, have never been at the trouble of ascending the
+mountains. Nothing seems to astonish them more than the erratic
+disposition which leads men in quest of adventure; they cannot
+conceive such an idea as that of volunteering for a cruise. Yachts
+puzzle them: the owners must be sailors. Of any military officers
+who may chance to visit them in yachts, they cannot conceive
+otherwise than that they belong to the marine. Nevertheless they
+are, or used to be, kind and hospitable; and would treat you well,
+although they could not quite make you out.
+
+That this country is a neglected portion of the Austrian empire
+is very evident. The officials sigh under the very endearments of
+office. The _sanità_ man, who comes off to greet your arrival, will
+tell you how insufferably dull it is living in the Bocca,--and how
+he longs to be removed anywhither. Place, people, climate, all
+will be condemned. Yet, to a stranger, many of the localities seem
+exquisitely beautiful. The same cause seems to mar enjoyment here
+that spoils the beauty of our own Norfolk Island. The Austrian
+residents regard themselves as being in a state of banishment,
+and take up their abode only by constraint: the constraint, that
+is to say, of mammon. By the government, its possessions in this
+quarter have been neglected in a manner most impolitic. The value
+of this strip of coast to an empire almost entirely inland, yet
+wishing to foster trade, and to possess a navy, is obvious. Yet
+even the plainest use of it they seem, till lately, to have missed.
+Promiscuous conscriptions were the order of the day, and men born
+sailors were enrolled in the levies for the army. Of course they
+were miserable and discontented, and the public service suffered by
+the use of these unfit instruments. Recently it seems that a change
+has been made in this respect, and we doubt not that the navy has
+consequently been greatly improved. But many glaring instances of
+neglect in the administration of the affairs of the country continue
+to astonish beholders, and to prove that the paternal government is
+not awake to its own interests.
+
+But of all objections to be made to the wisdom of the government,
+the strongest may be grounded on the condition of the agricultural
+population in various parts of Dalmatia. Nothing is done to improve
+their knowledge of the primary art of civilisation. Their implements
+of husbandry are described as being on a par with those used by
+the unenlightened inhabitants of Asia Minor. The waggons to be
+encountered in the neighbourhood of Knin are referable to the same
+date in the progress of invention, as are the conveniences in vogue
+in the plains about Mount Ida. The mode of tillage is like that
+followed in the remote provinces of Turkey; the ploughs of the
+rustic population are often inferior to those to be seen in the
+neighbouring Turkish provinces. Lastly--most incredible of all!--we
+learn that there is not to be found in the whole district of the
+Narenta such a thing as a mill, wherein to grind their corn. Will
+it be believed that the rustics have to send all the corn they grow
+into the neighbouring province of Herzegovina to be ground? The
+inconvenience of such an arrangement may easily be conceived. Their
+best of the bargain--_i. e._ the being obliged to seek from across
+the frontier all the flour they want--is bad enough, and must be
+sufficiently expensive; but their predicament is apt to be much
+worse than this. In that part of the world, people are subject to
+stoppages of intercommunication. The plague may break out in the
+Turkish province, and thus a strict quarantine be established, to
+the interdiction even of provisions that generally pass unsuspected;
+or the country may be flooded, and the ways impassable. What are
+the poor people to do then for flour? Why, the only thing they can
+do is, to send their corn to their nearest neighbours possessed of
+mills--that is to say, to Salona, or to Imoschi. As these places
+are distant, the one about thirty-five miles, and the other about
+seventy miles, we may fancy how serious must be the pressure of this
+necessity. The ordinary expense of grinding their corn is stated
+to be about 13 per cent. What it must be when the seventy miles'
+carriage of their produce is an item in the calculation, we are left
+to conjecture. Now these poor folks are not to be blamed--they have
+no funds to enable them to build mills; but that they are left to
+themselves in this inability is a reproach to the government under
+which they live. This inconvenience so intimately affects their
+social wellbeing, that we cannot put faith in the benevolence of the
+rulers who allow them to remain so destitute.
+
+Despite, however, of the disadvantages under which the people of
+Dalmatia labour, it will be seen that pictures chiefly pleasurable
+are to be met by him who shall travel amongst them. Their honest
+nature seems to comprise within itself some compensating principle,
+which makes amends for the damage of circumstances. The Morlacci,
+especially, seem to be a simple, hardy set, of whom one cannot
+read without pleasure. These are the rustic inhabitants of the
+agricultural districts, who eschew the great towns. They made their
+entry into the roll of the peasantry of Dalmatia at a comparatively
+late date. The first notice of them, we are told, is about the
+middle of the fourteenth century. After that time they began to
+retire with their families from Bosnia, as the Turks made advances
+into the country. They are of the same Slavonic family as the
+Croatians; though their hardy manner of life, and the purity of the
+air in which they have dwelt, on the mountains, have co-operated to
+confer on them superiority of personal appearance, and of physical
+condition. On a general estimate of the people of the land, and of
+their mode of receiving strangers, we are disposed to rank highly
+their claims to the title of hospitable and honest.
+
+Sir Gardner Wilkinson certainly travelled amongst them most
+effectually. North, south, east, and west, he intersected the
+country. One part of his travels possesses especial interest,
+because, so far as we know, no denizen of civilised Christendom has
+ever before been so completely over the ground. We refer to his
+expedition into, and through the territory of the Montenegrini.
+Others--some few only, but still some others--have been far enough
+to get a peep at these wild children of the mountains; and more than
+once of late years, Maga has given notices concerning them:[16]
+but only scanty knowledge of their domestic condition has been
+attainable. Sir Gardner went right through their country to the
+Turkish border, and tarried amongst them long enough to form pretty
+accurate notions of their state.
+
+  [16] See _Blackwood's Magazine_, for January 1845, and for October
+  1846.
+
+In the account of our author's first journey, no serious stop is
+made till we come alongside of the island of Veglia: apropos to
+the passage by which, we have given to us, at some length, an
+interesting extract from the report of a Venetian commissioner sent
+to the island, in 1481, to inquire into its state. Of this document
+we will say no more than that it is exceedingly curious, and will
+well reward the pains of reading. A passing notice is given to
+Segna, situated on the mainland, near Veglia, for the memory's sake
+of those desperate villains the Uscocs, to whom it belonged of old.
+A good deal of their history is given in the last chapter of the
+second volume, which serves as a documentary appendix to the work.
+Everything necessary to beget interest in the islands scattered
+hereaway is told; but we pass them by, and are brought to Zara. What
+of antiquities is here discoverable is rooted out for our benefit,
+but not much remains. The most interesting relic in the place, to
+our mind, is the inscription recording the victory of Lepanto. As
+Zara is the capital of Dalmatia, occasion is taken, while speaking
+of the city, to give some account of the government of the province,
+and of the general condition of the people.
+
+An incident mentioned by Sir Gardner displays, in a painful
+light, the kind of feeling entertained by the Austrian government
+towards these its subjects, and permitted by its officials to
+find expression before the natives. We cannot take it as a case
+of isolated insolence: because men in responsible situations,
+especially where the social system comprises an indefinite supply
+of spies, do not ostentatiously commit themselves, unless they
+have a foregone conviction, that what they say is according to
+the authorised tone. Men under inspection of the higher powers
+do not put themselves out of their way to make a display of
+bitterness, unless they think thereby to conciliate the good-will
+of their superiors. This is the incident in question: On a certain
+occasion, the conversation happened to turn on the subject of a
+then recent disturbance in a Dalmatian town. The soldiery and the
+people had quarrelled, and in the _émeute_ two of the soldiers
+had been killed. On these data forth spake a Jack in office. He
+knew not, nor did he care to know, how many of the peasants had
+fallen, nor does he appear to have entered at all curiously into
+the question of the _casus belli_. He simply recommended, as the
+disturbance had taken place, and as the actual perpetrators of
+the violence were not forthcoming, that the whole population of
+the town should be "decimated and shot." "The butchery of any
+number of Dalmatians," says our author, "was thought a fit way of
+remedying the incapacity of the police." One would hardly imagine
+that this counsel could have been met by the applauses of persons
+holding official situations; but so, we are assured, it was in fact
+received. This manifestation of feeling is a sort of thing which,
+when emanating from a group of merely private individuals, may be
+disregarded. Idle people will talk, and their hard words will break
+no bones. But the hard words of the ministers of government do
+break bones; and such words must be accepted as serious indications
+of subsistent evil. Such receipts for keeping people in peace and
+quietness are consistent enough with the genius of their neighbours
+the Turks. Retrenchment of heads, and of causes of complaint, are to
+their apprehension one and the same thing--πολλων ὀνομάτων, μο�φὴ
+μία. We know this, and expect it. It is not so very long ago since
+the Capitan Pasha gave the word to heave the officer of the watch
+overboard, because his ship missed stays in going about in the
+Black Sea. But the Austrians are civilised and Christian; we expect
+better things of them, and can but mourn over their misapprehension
+of the true principles of polity. The Englishman who stood by
+rebuked the promoters of these atrocious sentiments, and for this
+act of championship he was subsequently thanked by the Dalmatians
+who were present. They could not have ventured to undertake their
+own defence, but must have listened in silence to this outrageous
+language. Our author doubts not that this exhibition of simple
+humanity on his part, had the effect of causing him to be forthwith
+placed under the surveillance of the police; and that such a
+consequence should be so very likely to follow the honest expression
+of a common-sense opinion in society is a fact that shows clearly
+enough how _unsound_ that state of things must be. Assuredly one
+of the best effects of intercourse with civilised nations is,
+that we thereby become enabled to institute a comparison between
+their social condition and our own. Even those unhappy Chartists,
+who lately have acquired the habit of addressing one another as
+"brother slaves," would learn to value British freedom, if they knew
+something of the social condition of their European brethren: they
+would see some difference between the security of their own hours of
+relaxation, and the degree in which a man's freedom in Austria is
+invaded by the espionage of the police.
+
+From Zara the course of the narrative takes us to Sebenico, a town
+situated on the inner side of the lake or bay into which the waters
+of the Kerka debouch. It is one of the coaling stations of the
+steamer; and, when the time of arrival will allow such concession,
+the passengers are permitted to take a trip in a four-oared boat,
+to visit the falls of the Kerka. Here the costume of the women
+is noticed as being singularly graceful. In coasting along from
+Sebenico to Spalato, the headland of la Planca is remarkable. Near
+it is a little church which is famous in local chronicle for having
+once upon a time served as a trap, wherein an ass caught a wolf. How
+this marvellous feat was accomplished, we will not just now stop
+to tell, but must refer the curious to the book itself. This point
+is also remarkable, because here begins abruptly a change in the
+climate. Some plants unknown to the northward begin to appear; and
+henceforward, to one proceeding southward, the dreaded Scirocco will
+be a more frequent infliction. To the southward of la Planca, this
+objectionable wind is constantly blowing; and at Spalato, we are
+told, it assumes for its allowance 100 days out of the 365. Apropos
+to the Scirocco, we have an episode on _anemology_, and are taught
+how the old Greeks and Romans used to box the compass--at least
+how they would have done so, had they had compasses to box. In the
+distance, to the south of the promontory of la Planca, is the island
+of Lissa, famous in modern history for Sir William Hoste's action
+in 1811. "Such an action," says James, "stands unrivalled in the
+annals of the naval history of Great Britain, or that of any other
+country, from the great disproportion in numerical force, as well
+as the beauty and address of its manœuvres; it stands surpassed
+by none in the spirit and enterprise with which it was encountered,
+and carried through to a successful issue." There is not much risk
+in making this assertion, when we consider that on that occasion
+the French squadron consisted of four forty-gun frigates, two of
+a smaller class, a sixteen-gun corvette, a ten-gun schooner, one
+six-gun xebec, and two gunboats; and that the English squadron was
+of three frigates, and one twenty-two gunship. Lissa was also famous
+in the time of the Romans, being then called Issa. We have a notice
+of its history, and then pass on to Bua, and so to Spalato.
+
+Concerning Spalato details are given, as might be expected, at
+some length. Much is told us of its past and present condition;
+in fact, there is presented to us a very sufficient assemblage of
+_indicia_ concerning it. We recommend any one who wishes to enjoy
+a visit to Spalato to take with him this book, and chapter 13th of
+Gibbon. The extract from Porphyrogenitus, given by Gibbon, tells us
+what the palace of Diocletian was; and Sir Gardner Wilkinson tells
+us what it is now, and what has been its history. Besides verbal
+description, his pencil affords some apt illustrations of the actual
+condition of the buildings. We see by these, and by his account,
+that the treasures of Spalatine architecture have been obscured by
+the building up of modern edifices on their sites. "The stranger,"
+he says, "is shocked to see windows of houses through the arches of
+the court, intercolumniations filled up with petty shops, and the
+peristyle of the great temple masked by modern houses." Doubtless,
+many a precious relic has been appropriated by modern barbarians to
+common uses, and so perished out of sight. But with joy we learn
+that the government has taken measures to prevent the continuance of
+such destruction, and that the remaining monuments are safe, however
+they may be mixed up with the houses and shops of the present
+generation. We are told that, under the care of the present director
+of antiquarian researches, there is good reason to hope that the
+collection at Spalato may become truly valuable. The high character
+of Professor Carrara is a sure warrant that all will be done which
+is within scope of the means afforded. But as the government
+allowance for excavations at Salona is only £80 yearly, we cannot
+think that the work is likely to proceed rapidly. While we condemn
+as barbarous this carelessness on the part of the Austrians, we must
+bear in mind that we are open to a retort of the censure. We neglect
+altogether the remains of Samos in Cephalonia, and nothing at all
+is allowed for the expense of operations there; yet these remains
+are very extensive, and there is every reason to believe that their
+actual condition would amply repay a diligent search.
+
+We must stop here a moment to congratulate Sir Gardner, on his
+rencontre with the sphinx.
+
+    "A captive when he gazes on the light,
+     A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,"
+
+and so forth, are the only people who may venture to talk of Sir
+Gardner's delight at the sight of a sphinx, or a mummy. With great
+gusto he gives the description of the black granite sphinx, in the
+court of the palace, near the vestibule; and in the drawing which he
+has made of the same court, the sphinx is conspicuous.
+
+From Spalato to Salona, is a distance of some three miles and a
+half, by a good carriage-road. This road crosses the Jader, or Il
+Giadro--a stream so famous for its trout, that it has been thought
+necessary seriously to prove that it was _not_ for the sake of
+these--not in order that of them he might eat his _soûl_ in peace
+and quietness--that Diocletian retired from the command of the world.
+
+Salona is rich in antiquarian remains, though nothing is extant
+to redeem from improbability the testimony of Porphyrogenitus,
+that Salona was half the size of Constantinople. Of its origin no
+record exists, nor is much known of its history till the time of
+Julius Cæsar. Subsequently to that era it was subject to various
+fortunes, and bore various titles. At last, in Christian times it
+became a Bishop's see, and was occupied by 61 bishops in succession.
+Diocletian was its great embellisher and almost rebuilder. Later
+in the day, we find that it was from Salona that Belisarius set
+out in 544, when recalled to the command of the army of Justinian,
+and intrusted with the conduct of the war against Totila. The town
+remained populous and fortified, till destroyed by the Avars in 639.
+These ferocious barbarians having established themselves in Clissa,
+the terror of their propinquity scared away the Salonitans. The
+terrified inhabitants, after a short and ineffectual resistance,
+fled to the islands. The town was pillaged and burnt, and from that
+time Salona has been deserted and in ruins.
+
+     "With these historical facts before us, it is interesting to
+     observe the present state of the place, which affords many
+     illustrations of past events. The positions of its defences,
+     repaired at various times, may be traced: an inscription lately
+     discovered by Professor Carrara, shows that its walls and towers
+     were repaired by Valentinian II., and Theodosius; and the ditch
+     of Constantianus is distinctly seen on the north side. Here and
+     there, it has been filled up with earth and cultivated; but its
+     position cannot be mistaken, and in places its original breadth
+     may be ascertained. A very small portion of the wall remains
+     on the east side, and nearly all traces of it are lost towards
+     the river: but the northern portion is well preserved, and the
+     triangular front, or salient angle of many of its towers, may be
+     traced.
+
+     "In the western part of the town are the theatre, and what is
+     called the amphitheatre. Of the former, some portion of the
+     proscenium remains, as well as the solid tiers of arches, built
+     of square stone, with bevelled edges, about 6-1/4 feet diameter,
+     and 10 feet apart."
+
+We have a good description of the annual fair of Salona. The
+description will be suggestive of picturesque recollections to
+those who have seen the open air festivities celebrated by the
+orthodox--_i. e._ by the children of the Greek Church, about Easter
+time. We can take it upon ourselves to recommend highly the lambs,
+wont to be roasted whole on these occasions. The culinary apparatus
+is rude--consisting merely of a few sticks for a fire, and another
+stick to be used as a spit--but the result of their operations is
+most satisfactory.
+
+     "All Spalato is of course at the fair; and the road to Salona
+     is thronged with carriages of every description, horsemen,
+     and pedestrians. The mixture of the men's hats, red caps, and
+     turbans, and the bonnets and Frank dresses of the Spalatine
+     ladies, contrasted with the costume of the country women,
+     presents one of the most singular sights to be soon in Europe,
+     and to a stranger the language adds in no small degree to the
+     novelty. Some business is done as well as pleasure; and a great
+     number of cattle, sheep, and pigs are bought and sold--as well
+     as various stuffs, trinkets, and the usual goods exhibited at
+     fairs. Long before mid-day, the groups of peasants have thronged
+     the road, not to say street, of Salona; some attend the small
+     church, picturesquely placed upon a green, surrounded by the
+     small streams of the Giadro, and shaded with trees; while others
+     rove about, seeking their friends, looking at, and looked at by
+     strangers, as they pass; and all are intent on the amusements of
+     the day, and the prospect of a feast.
+
+     "Eating and drinking soon begin. On all sides sheep are seen
+     roasting whole on wooden spits, in the open air; and an entire
+     flock is speedily converted into mutton. Small knots of hungry
+     friends are formed in every direction: some seated on a bank
+     beneath the trees, others in as many houses as will hold them;
+     some on grass by the road-side, regardless of sun and dust--and
+     a few quiet families have boats prepared for their reception.
+
+     "In the mean time, the hat-wearing townspeople from Spalato
+     and other places, as they pace up and down, bowing to an
+     occasional acquaintance, view with complacent pity the
+     primitive recreations of the simple peasantry; and arm-in-arm,
+     civilisation, with its propriety and affectation, is here
+     strangely contrasted with the hearty laugh of the unrefined
+     Morlacchi."
+
+We do not know the country where men will meet together and eat
+without drinking also: at the al-fresco entertainments of this
+kind which we have seen, the kegs of wine have ever been in goodly
+proportion to the spitted lambs. And wherever a mob of men set to
+drinking together, they will most assuredly take to fighting. The
+rows at this fair used to be considerable; and, considering that
+more wine is said to be consumed here on this one day than during
+the whole of the rest of the year, we cannot be surprised that
+fights should come off worthy of Donnybrook. At present, better
+order is preserved than of old, because these rows have been so
+excessive that they have enforced the attendance of the police.
+
+At this fair is to be seen the picturesque _collo_ dance of the
+Morlacchi, of which our author affords a capital pencil-sketch, as
+well as the following description:--
+
+     "It sometimes begins before dinner, but is kept up with greater
+     spirit afterwards. They call it _collo_, from being, like most
+     of their national dances, in a circle. A man generally has
+     one partner, sometimes two, but always at his right side. In
+     dancing, he takes her right hand with his, while she supports
+     herself by holding his girdle with her left; and when he has two
+     partners, the one nearest him holds in her right hand that of
+     her companion, who, with her left, takes the right hand of the
+     man; and each set dances forward in a line round the circle. The
+     step is rude, as in most of the Slavonic dances, including the
+     polka and the _radovatschka_; and the music, which is primitive,
+     is confined to a three-stringed violin."
+
+Dancing for dancing's sake, is what enters into no Englishman's
+category of the enjoyable, nor into many an Englishwoman's either,
+we should think, after the passage out of her teens; but that it is,
+in sober earnest, an enjoyment to many people under the sun, there
+is no doubt. Surely there is something wonderful in the faculty of
+finding pleasure in the elephantine manœuvres of the _romaika_,
+or in the still more clumsy gyrations of a _palicari's_ performance.
+The _collo_ we readily believe to be a picturesque dance: but such
+qualification is not the general condition on which the people
+of a nation accept dances as national. Most of these exhibitions
+in Greece and Eastern Europe must be condemned as graceless and
+unmeaning: as an exhibition of earnest tomfoolery, they may be
+accepted as wonderful; and, at all events, may safely be pronounced
+co-excellent with the music that inspires them.
+
+In passing from Salona to Traü, a distance of about thirteen miles
+and a half to the westward, the traveller passes by several of the
+villages called Castelli. The name has been given them from the
+circumstance of their having been built near to, and under the
+protection of, the castles which, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries, were constructed here by some of the nobles.
+
+     "The land was granted to them by the Venetians, on condition
+     of their erecting places of refuge for the peasants during the
+     wars with the Turks. A body of armed men lived within them, and,
+     on the approach of danger, the flocks and herds were protected
+     beneath the walls; and, at harvest time, the peasantry had a
+     place of security for their crops within range of the castle
+     guns."
+
+The rights of lordship over the villages, which used to be exercised
+by the nobles in virtue of the protection afforded, have nearly
+all fallen into disuse. The only relic of feudalism that seems to
+survive is found at Castel Cambio, over which two nobles still
+possess certain rights. One of these was the hospitable host of Sir
+Gardner, and his friend Professor Carrara, on their passage to and
+from Traü.
+
+A fact connected with the peculiarity of the position of this town
+is, we think, well worthy of notice, and deservedly recorded by our
+author. The town stands partly on a peninsula, and partly on the
+island of Bua. A fosse, cut across the narrow neck of the peninsula,
+has completed its isolation. This ditch has proved, on occasion, the
+most effectual of fortifications to the Traürines. They were, in
+1241, besieged by the Tartars in pursuit of King Bela IV., who had
+fled hither before them. These impetuous assailants were unable to
+pass the ditch; and, having waited on the other side till food and
+forage were exhausted, they were obliged to retire. One cannot read
+this story without thinking of the account that Sir Francis Head
+gives of the La Plata Indians, whose habits of warfare are in many
+respects so exactly akin to those of the Tartars. These terrific
+horsemen would be scarcely resistible by their less robust enemies,
+save for their inability to cross anything in the shape of a ditch.
+Out of the saddle they can do nothing, and their horses will not
+leap; so that, if you wish to be safe from their inroads, you have
+but to surround your dwellings with a moderate trench. And very
+striking is the story that Sir Francis Head tells of the handful
+of men who, under such protection, held out successfully against a
+host of Indians. Traü, however, has been elaborately fortified in
+European fashion, though now the works are neglected, as being a
+useless precaution against dangers no longer existent. It has also a
+fine old cathedral, and some pictures of pretension.
+
+After a brief notice of the islands of Brazza and Solta--a notice,
+however, sufficient for all useful purposes--we pass on to the
+picturesque neighbourhood of the falls of the Kerka. Sir Gardner
+speaks of the delay to which the passage by boat from Sebenico to
+Scardona is subject, but does not exactly complain of it. In fact,
+we can easily understand that, for the sake of the passenger, it
+is expedient that some authoritative note should be taken of his
+departure under charge of the particular boatmen who undertake his
+convoy. We never did ascend to Kerka, but from what we have seen
+of the class of men under whose guidance the expedition has to be
+performed, we are disposed to vote the caution of the police to be
+anything but superfluous. Every now and then one hears dreadful
+stories of the atrocities of boatmen in convenient parts of the
+Mediterranean; and there is good reason to be thankful that the
+Austrians think it worth while to be so careful of strangers.
+
+The people about Sebenico, through whose lands the course of
+the lake leads, are spoken of as not paying much attention to
+agriculture or to their fisheries; but it seems that they are
+sedulously bent on raising grapes, and neglect no patch of ground at
+all likely to be available for this purpose. The lake of Scardona
+is considerably larger than that of Sebenico. On the shore here
+the Romans had a settlement, of which scarcely any remains are
+perceptible. They are, however, remarkable as affording a manifest
+proof of the rise of the level of the lake, for some of them are
+under water.
+
+Scardona, we are told, does not occupy the site of the old Scardon,
+which was a place of considerable importance under the empire. Some
+have even imagined that the old city stood on the opposite bank of
+the river. The town at present is small, but well furnished for the
+convenience of strangers. It boasts an inn, at which Sir Gardner put
+up for one night. He then proceeded to the falls, which are distant
+from the inn a three-quarters-of-an-hour journey. As he intended
+to ascend the river above the falls, he had to send to the monks
+of Vissovaz to ask for a boat, and they readily complied with his
+request. The falls do not seem to have been full on the occasion
+of this visit--but, when full, the effect must be striking. They
+are divided into two parts, and their picturesque effect is greatly
+enhanced by the surrounding scenery.
+
+At a distance of a few minutes' walk up the river, above the falls,
+the boat was waiting to transport Sir Gardner to the convent of
+Vissovaz. It is to this fraternity that we have before alluded, as
+being the sole mill-owners on the Kerka. Their convent must indeed
+be beautifully situated, and we can quite enter into the eulogium
+bestowed on it. The fathers are of the Franciscan order. The name
+of Vissovaz is of curious allusion; and as probably few of our
+courteous readers will be the worse for a little help in the matter
+of Slavonian etymology, we may as well tell them that its import
+is "the place of hanging." Not a very complimentary or well-omened
+name, certainly, we would think at first sight; but we see that it
+is so when we learn that the allusion is to the martyrdom of two
+priests, who were hanged here by the Turkish governor of Scardona.
+By the record left of the event, we cannot see that the death of
+these unfortunate victims was in any sense martyrdom: they were
+cruelly and unjustly put to death, but for a cause entirely worldly.
+However, they were Christians, and their murderers were Turks; and
+this has been enough to constitute a claim to canonisation in more
+places than at Vissovaz.
+
+Sir Gardner arrived at the picturesque, red-tiled convent in time
+for dinner; but as the day happened to be a fast, the fare provided
+was not sufficiently tempting to induce a wish to stay. He therefore
+was preparing, with many thanks, to take his leave of the good
+fathers, and proceed on his journey, when he found himself brought
+up by an unexpected difficulty. He was informed that he could not
+proceed except by favour of the monks of the Greek convent of St
+Archangelo, another religious house still farther up the stream.
+His hospitable entertainers readily volunteered to send in quest of
+the requisite assistance. These are the conditions of travelling,
+because there are no carriages for hire hereaway, nor any boats
+to let. The Franciscans had volunteered to do what, when it came
+to the point, was found to be rather an awkward thing. No great
+cordiality subsists generally between the Latins and the orthodox.
+Each charges the other with destructive heresy; and doubtless both
+of these great branches of the church esteem a Protestant safe,
+by comparison with the arch-heretics that they each see the other
+to be. Thus, though dwelling on the confines of Christendom, and
+in a solitude that might have rendered them neighbourly, we find
+that very little intercourse takes place between the two religious
+establishments. Accordingly, the writing of the letter was found to
+be no easy affair; and their guest saw them lay their heads together
+in consultation, after a fashion that boded ill for the prospects
+of his journey. They confessed themselves to be in a fix; and were
+afraid of exposing themselves to some affront if, contrary to their
+wont, they should open a communication with the Greeks, asking of
+them a favour.
+
+     "'Did you ever go as far as the convent?' said an old father
+     to a more restless and locomotive Franciscan, and a negative
+     answer seemed to put an end to the incipient letter; when one of
+     the party suggested that those Greeks had shown themselves very
+     civil on some occasion, and the writer of the epistle once more
+     resumed his spectacles and his pen. 'They are,' he observed,
+     'after all, like ourselves, and must be glad to see a stranger
+     who comes from afar; and besides, our letter may have the effect
+     of commencing a friendly intercourse with them, which we may
+     have no reason to regret.'"
+
+This very sensible hint of the Franciscan philosopher was happily
+acted out. The letter was sent, and in due course of time--_i.
+e._ in time for a start next morning--an answer arrived from the
+Archimandrite. It was to welcome the stranger to their hospitality,
+and to inform him that a boat awaited him at the falls. As the
+issue on the first intention was so favourable, let us hope that
+the other good results anticipated from the sending of the letter
+will have been by this time realised. At all events, Sir Gardner may
+congratulate himself on having afforded occasion for the opening of
+personal as well as epistolary communication between the convents,
+as one of the Franciscans accompanied him in the expedition to St
+Archangelo.
+
+Much praise is bestowed on the beauty of the Kerka, and the view
+of the Falls of Roncislap is especially distinguished. Sir Gardner
+praises it in artistic language; and we may be allowed to regret
+that he has not added a sketch of this scene to the views with
+which his book is embellished. The waters of the Kerka possess a
+petrifying quality that is common in Dalmatia. Much of the rock has
+been formed under the water, and must present a singular appearance.
+
+Near the Falls of Roncislap a depôt for coal has been established,
+that, by all accounts, would seem to be anything but a good
+speculation. We mention it merely for the sake of a good story that
+hangs by it. It seems that the Austrian Lloyds' Company patronise
+this coal because it is cheap. It is one reason, certainly, for
+buying it; but, as the coal will not burn, we may doubt their
+wisdom. We do not wish to spoil the market of the Company of Dernis,
+but we agree with Sir Gardner, that there are reasonable objections
+to the using of food for the furnaces that will get up no steam,
+and must be taken on board in such quantities, as to lumber up the
+decks. Besides this, hear how it goes on when it does burn:--
+
+     "It has also the effect of causing much smoke, and the large
+     flakes of soot that fall from the chimney upon the awning
+     actually burn holes in it, till it looks like a sail riddled
+     with grape-shot; and I remember one day seeing the awning on
+     fire from one of these showers of soot; when the captain calmly
+     ordered it to be put out, as if it had been a common occurrence."
+
+"A Russian consul,"--this is the story:--
+
+     "A Russian consul, who happened to be on board, and who was not
+     much accustomed to the smoky doings of steamers, seemed to be
+     deeply impressed with the inconvenience of the falling flakes
+     of soot. His voice had rarely been heard during the voyage, and
+     he appeared to shun communication with his fellow-passengers;
+     when one afternoon, the awning not being up, he burst forth
+     with these startling remarks, uttered with a broad Slavonian
+     accent,--'_Que ces baateaux à vapeur sont sales! Par suite de
+     maaladie, il y a dix ans que je ne me zuis paas lavré, mais
+     maintenant j'ai zenti le bezoin de me lavver, et je me zuis
+     lavvé!!_'"
+
+This must have been a Russian of the old school.
+
+Arrived at the convent of St Archangelo, they had every reason to
+be content with their hospitable reception. The Archimandrite is
+praised as being gentlemanlike, and of mien as though educated in
+a European capital. This is a very unusual characteristic of any
+Greek ecclesiastic, and what we could predicate of but one or two
+out of the numbers that we have seen. Greek priests of any kind
+are bad enough, but those living in convents seem generally to go
+on the principle of the Russian consul just mentioned, and might
+fitly be invited to associate with him. All honour, then, to Stefano
+Knezovich, and may his example be abundantly followed among his
+brethren!
+
+There was not much in the Greek convent to induce a long visit; so
+the next morning Sir Gardner pushed on to Kistagne, in his progress
+through the country. Here he was again the victim of letter-writing,
+but in a different way. The sirdar of Kistagne took offence at the
+tone of the letter sent to him by the Archimandrite, ordering horses
+for the next morning; and the luckless traveller was consequently
+left in the lurch. However, the monk did his best to make up for
+the deficiency. He lent him his own horse, and had his baggage
+conveyed by some peasants--an excellent arrangement, saving that
+the porters were _female_ peasants. This is a sort of thing that
+sadly shocks our sense of decorum, but which many folks besides
+the Dalmatians take as a matter of course. Sir Gardner says that
+the custom of assigning the heavy burden to the women is prevalent
+among the Montenegrini; it is so also among the Albanians; and to a
+most atrocious extent in the Peloponnesus. In this particular case,
+they were well off to get the job; it was to exchange their task of
+carrying heavy loads of water up the hill for that of shouldering
+his light _impedimenta_.
+
+Arrived at Kistagne, he found the sirdar, who had been so
+disobliging at a distance, much improved on acquaintance, and from
+him he received all requisite assistance for the prosecution of his
+journey to Knin; and by him was guided in his visit to the Roman
+arches, which point out the site of the ancient city of Burnum.
+
+Knin is still a place of considerable strength, and has been once
+upon a time still stronger. It is identified with the ancient
+Arduba. The marshy character of the ground in its immediate
+neighbourhood renders it an unhealthy place of abode; but this evil
+is easily removable by a moderate attention to drainage. Not very
+far from Knin, but over the Turkish border, on the other side of
+Mount Gniath, is supposed to be situated the gold mine that of old
+conferred on Dalmatia the title of auriferous. The mine is said to
+exist here; but so much mystery is observed on its subject by the
+Turks that nothing certain can be affirmed of it. From Verlicca,
+to Sign we pass as quickly as may be, merely noticing that there
+is another convent to be visited _en route_, and that we have the
+opportunity of putting up at the Han, as Sir Gardner did. These
+people certainly have admitted a great many Turkish words into their
+vocabulary: we have _Sirdar_, and _Han_, and _Arambasha_--to say
+nothing of others. At last we come to _Sign_; and, touching this
+place, we must give an extract from the book. An annual tilting
+festival has been established here, in commemoration of the brave
+defence maintained in 1715, against the Pasha of Bosnia with forty
+thousand men.
+
+     "The privilege of tilting is confined to natives of Sign, and
+     its territory. Every one is required to appear dressed in the
+     ancient costume, with the Tartar cap, called kalpak, surmounted
+     by a white heron's plume, or with flowers interlaced in it. He
+     is to wear a sword, to carry a lance, and to be mounted on a
+     good horse richly caparisoned."
+
+     "The opening of the _giostra_ is in this manner: The _footmen_,
+     richly dressed and armed, advance two by two before the
+     cavaliers. In the usual annual exhibitions each cavalier has
+     one _footman_; and on extraordinary occasions, besides the
+     footman, he has a _padrino_ well mounted and equipped. After the
+     _footmen_ come three persons in line--one carrying a shield,
+     and the other two by his side bearing a sort of ancient club;
+     then a fair _manège_ horse, led by the hand, with large housings
+     and complete trappings, richly ornamented, followed by two
+     cavaliers--one the adjutant, the other the ensign-bearer. Next
+     comes the _Maestro-di-Campo_, accompanied by the two _jousters_,
+     and followed by all the others, marching two and two. The
+     rear of the procession is brought up by the _Chiauss_, who
+     rides alone, and whose duty it is to maintain order during the
+     ceremony."
+
+We have a description of a fair at Sign that is almost as suggestive
+of the picturesque as was the account of similar doings at Salona.
+Sir Gardner shall give his own account of his departure from the
+town.
+
+     "In the midst of the bustle and business going on at Sign,
+     I found some difficulty in getting horses to take me on to
+     Spalato; but a letter to the Sirdar removed every impediment,
+     and, after a few hours' delay, the animals being brought out,
+     I prepared to start from the not very splendid inn.' 'Can you
+     ride in that?' asked the ostler, pointing to a huge Turkish
+     saddle that nearly concealed the whole animal, with stirrups
+     that might pass for a pair of coal scuttles; and finding that I
+     was accustomed to the use as well as sight of that un-European
+     horse-furniture, he seemed well satisfied--observing, at the
+     same time, that it was fortunate, as there was no other to
+     be had.... I was glad to take what I could get, and my only
+     question in return was, whether the horse could trot; which
+     being settled, I posted off, leaving my guide and baggage to
+     come after me--for, thanks to the Austrian police, there is
+     no fear of robbers appropriating a portmanteau in Dalmatia:
+     the interesting days of adventure and the Haiduk banditti have
+     passed, and the Morlacchi have ceased to covet, or at least to
+     take other men's goods."
+
+And now we make a resolute halt, and determine to pass _sub
+silentio_ all that intervenes between this part of the book and the
+coming into the country of the Montenegrini. Unless we act thus
+discreetly, we shall never contrive to compress all we have to say
+into due limits; and even now we hardly know how this desirable
+result is to be effected. What we thus leave as fallow-ground
+for the reader will yield to his research a history of the coast
+and islands between Spalato and Cattaro. The notice of Ragusa
+is especially and deservedly full, and presents an admirable
+condensation of Ragusan history.
+
+But it is high time for us to get amongst the children of the Black
+Mountain. Among things excellent it is permitted to institute
+comparison without disparagement to any of them: and, in virtue of
+this license, we are free to say that this part of Sir Gardner's
+book shines forth as _inter minora sidera_. The subject itself is
+of deep intrinsic interest; and he has treated it as we well knew
+that he would. A picture is given of the actual condition of a scion
+of the Christian stock that must astonish those who, by this book,
+first learn to think of the Montenegrini; and must delight those
+who, having heard somewhat of them, or haply even paid them a flying
+visit, have looked in vain for some accurate statement of detail to
+help out their personal observations.
+
+The Montenegrini are descended from the old Servian stock, and still
+look to modern Servia with affection, as to their mother country.
+Thither also we find them, by Sir Gardner's account, retiring,
+when forced by poverty to emigrate from their own territory. Among
+them the Slavonian language is preserved in unusual purity. The
+present population is about 100,000; and the number of fighting men
+amounts to 20,000--a number which, on occasion of need, would be
+greatly augmented by the calling out of the veterans. In fact every
+individual man of the nation, whose arm has power to wield a weapon,
+is a warrior; and the very women are ready to assist in defence. On
+the Turkish border, as is well known, a constant system of bloody
+reprisals is going on; and the endeavours of the Vladika to reduce
+their hostilities to civilised fashion have hitherto failed of
+success. They are sustained at the highest pitch of confident daring
+by the successful war which they have so long been able to carry on
+against their powerful neighbours. One is glad of the opportunity
+of giving, on the authority of Sir Gardner, some of the stories
+of their prowess; for to retail, without the authority of some
+such _padrino_, the tales current in Cattaro, would be to win the
+reputation of talking like Mendez Pinto.
+
+In judging the Montenegrini, we should give charitable consideration
+to their circumstances. War is a system of violence; and with them,
+unhappily, war is a permanent condition of existence. The treachery
+and cruelty of the Turks--are these such recent developments that we
+need make any doubt of them?--have worked out cruel consequences in
+the character of the Montenegrini. They believe a Turk to be utterly
+without honesty and good faith--one with whom it is impossible to
+hold terms--and such, probably, is about the right estimate of some
+of their Turkish neighbours. Who, for instance, that knows anything
+about them, has any other opinion of the Albanians? Are Kaffirs much
+more hopeless subjects? The Montenegrini are far from the commission
+of the horrid cruelties that are of everyday occurrence among the
+Albanians. Their imperfect appreciation of Christianity allows them
+to behold in revenge a virtue; and hence the acts of violence which
+are quoted to their dispraise. Their marauding expeditions are but
+according to the usages of war; and if they sometimes break through
+the restrictions of a truce, it would seem to be because they really
+do not understand what a truce is. We think that a very apt apology
+for the Montenegrini is found in the speech of a German traveller
+quoted by Sir Gardner. He had been mentioning several occurrences of
+English and Scotch history, and spoke in allusion to them.
+
+     "'What think you,' he observed, 'of the state of society in
+     those times? Were the border forays of the English and Scotch
+     more excusable than those of the Montenegrins? And how much more
+     natural is the unforgiving hatred of the Montenegrins against
+     the Turks, the enemies of their country, and their faith, than
+     the relentless strife of Highland clans, with those of their own
+     race and religion! Has not many an old castle in other parts of
+     Europe, witnessed scenes as bad as any enacted by this people? I
+     do not wish to exculpate the Montenegrins; but theirs is still a
+     dark age, and some allowance must be made for their uncivilised
+     condition.'"
+
+The character of the present Vladika affords good hope that an
+improvement will take place among the people; for he evidently has
+devoted all his energies to their amelioration. Sir Gardner entered
+their territory, by what we believe to be the only route--that is to
+say from Cattaro--whence he took letters of introduction from the
+Austrian governor to the Vladika.
+
+We shall best illustrate the condition of the Montenegrini by
+quoting some of Sir Gardner's accounts.
+
+     "Four Montenegrins, and their sister, aged twenty-one, going
+     on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Basilio, were waylaid by
+     seven Turks, in a rocky defile, so narrow that they could only
+     thread it one by one; and hardly had they entered between the
+     precipices that bordered it on either side, when an unexpected
+     discharge of fire-arms killed one brother, and desperately
+     wounded another. To retrace their steps was impossible without
+     meeting certain and shameful death, since to turn their backs
+     would give their enemy the opportunity of destroying them at
+     pleasure.
+
+     "The two who were unhurt, therefore, advanced and returned the
+     fire, killing two Turks--while the wounded one, supporting
+     himself against a rock, fired also, and mortally injured two
+     others, but was killed himself in the act. His sister, taking
+     his gun, loaded and fired simultaneously with her two brothers,
+     but, at the same instant, one of them dropped down dead. The
+     two surviving Turks then rushed furiously at the only remaining
+     Montenegrin--who, however, laid open the skull of one of them
+     with his yatagan, before receiving his own death-blow. The
+     hapless sister, who had all this time kept up a constant fire,
+     stood for an instant irresolute; when suddenly assuming an air
+     of terror and supplication, she entreated for mercy; but the
+     Turk, enraged at the death of his companions, was brutal enough
+     to take advantage of the unhappy girl's agony, and only promised
+     her life at the price of her honour. Hesitating at first, she
+     pretended to listen to the villain's proposal; but no sooner did
+     she see him thrown off his guard, than she buried in his body
+     the knife she carried at her girdle. Although mortally wounded,
+     the Turk endeavoured to make the most of his failing strength,
+     and plucking the dagger from his side, staggered towards the
+     courageous girl,--who, driven to despair, threw herself on the
+     relentless foe, and with superhuman energy hurled him down the
+     neighbouring precipice, at the very moment when some shepherds,
+     attracted by the continued firing, arrived just too late for the
+     rescue."
+
+Fancy the tone that must be given to their lives by the constant
+necessity of being ready for encounters such as this. They never lay
+aside their arms; but in the field, or by the wayside, are armed and
+alert. One hand may be allowed to the implement of tillage, but the
+other must be reserved for the weapon of defence.
+
+On many occasions, Montenegrin courage has prevailed against odds
+far greater than in the above case--indeed such odds as, but for
+authentication of facts, would be incredible. In the year 1840,
+"seventy Montenegrins, in the open field, withstood the attack of
+several thousand Turks; and having made breastworks with the bodies
+of their fallen foes, maintained the unequal conflict till night;
+when forty who survived forced their way through the hostile army,
+and escaped with their lives." Another astonishing achievement
+was the successful defence of a house held by seven-and-twenty
+Montenegrins, against a body of about six thousand Albanians. Of
+this last action, trophies are preserved by the Vladika in his
+palace at Tzetinié, and there Sir Gardner saw them.
+
+We cannot wonder that the effect on their minds of these astonishing
+successes, should be an unbounded confidence in their superiority
+over the Turks. Sir Gardner Wilkinson found them impressed with the
+idea, that bread and arms were the only needful requisites to enable
+them to drive the Turks out of Albania and Herzegovina. It seems
+certain that, in their rencontres With these enemies, they dismiss
+all ordinary considerations of prudence. The spirit of their feeling
+with regard to the Turks is thus portrayed:--
+
+     "It is not the courage, but the cruelty of the Turks which
+     inspires him (the Montenegrin) with hatred; and the sufferings
+     inflicted upon his country by their inroads makes him look upon
+     them with feelings of ferocious vengeance.
+
+     "These savage sentiments are kept alive by the barbarous custom,
+     adopted by both parties, of cutting off the heads of the wounded
+     and the dead; the consequences of which are destructive of all
+     the conditions of fair warfare, and preclude the possibility
+     of peace. The bitter remembrance of the past is constantly
+     revived by the horrors of the present; and the love of revenge,
+     which strongly marks the character of the Montenegrin, makes
+     him insensible to reason or justice, and places the Turks, in
+     his opinion, out of the pale of human beings. He dreams only of
+     vengeance; he cares little for the means employed, and the man
+     who should make any excuse for not persecuting those enemies of
+     his country and his faith, would be treated with ignominy and
+     contempt. Even the sanctity of a truce is not always sufficient
+     to restrain him; and the hatred of the Turk is paramount to all
+     ordinary considerations of honour or humanity."
+
+This cutting off of heads is not peculiar to the Montenegrins.
+The Turks are, in this respect, just as bad, and Sir Gardner
+found, on the occasion of his visit to Mostar, that, in point of
+this barbarism, there is not a pin to choose between them. The
+Turks, however, exceed in cruelty. It appears, on the evidence
+of the letter of the Vladika, given in the second volume, that
+they (the Turks) impale men alive; whereas the Montenegrins are
+chargeable with no wanton cruelty. Indeed, they do not restrict the
+performance of this operation to the case of enemies; but, as an
+act of friendship, decapitate any comrade who may so be wounded in
+action as to have no other means of avoiding capture by the enemy.
+"You are very brave," said a well-meaning Montenegrin to a portly
+Russian officer, who was unable to keep up with his detachment in
+its retreat,--"you are very brave, _and must wish that I should cut
+off your head_: say a prayer, and make the sign of the cross."
+
+Life, passed amidst every hardship, and threatened by constant
+and deadly peril, ought, we suppose, according to all rule, to be
+short in duration. But we find that these people are remarkable for
+longevity. A family is mentioned, in one of the villages, which
+reckoned six generations, there and then extant. The head of the
+family was a great-great-great-grandfather.
+
+The Vladika received his visitor most courteously, as he always
+does those who have the privilege of being presented to him. He
+afforded to Sir Gardner every facility for seeing the country, and
+engaged his secretary to draw up for him a _précis_ of Montenegrin
+history. We will condense some of its more important facts. The
+supremacy in things spiritual and temporal has not been very long
+vested, as it at present is, in the person of the Vladika. The two
+chieftain-ships were of old distinct, and the figment of a separate
+temporal authority was continued till comparatively lately: the
+year 1832 is mentioned as the epoch at which the office of civil
+chief was definitely suppressed. The present family (Petrovich)
+have possessed the dignity of the Vladikate since the close of the
+seventeenth century. The reigning Vladika--this man of magnificent
+presentment--this brave, intellectual, and athletic ruler of an
+indomitable race--is nephew of the late Vladika, who has been
+canonised, although but few years have passed since his death.
+The prince-bishop is not theoretically absolute in power, as the
+form of a republic is kept up: the general assembly has the right
+of deliberation, under the presidency of the Vladika. But this
+restriction of power is pretty nearly nominal only: we give Sir
+Gardner's account of the native Diet.
+
+     "In a semicircular recess, formed by the rocks on one side of
+     the plain of Tzetinié, and about half a mile to the southward
+     of the town, is a level piece of grass land, with a thicket of
+     low poplar trees. Here the diet is held, from which the spot
+     has received the name of _mali sbor_ (the small assembly.)
+     When any matter is to be discussed, the people meet in this
+     their Runimede, or 'meadow of council,' and partly on the level
+     space, partly on the rocks, receive from the Vladika notice of
+     the question proposed. The duration of the discussion is limited
+     to a certain time, at the expiration of which the assembly is
+     expected to come to a decision; and when the monastery bell
+     orders silence, notwithstanding the most animated discussion, it
+     is instantly restored. The Metropolitan asks again what is their
+     decision, and whether they agree to his proposal or not. The
+     answer is always the same: '_Budi po to oyema, Vladika_,'--'Let
+     it be as thou wishest, Vladika.'"
+
+Montenegro first secured its independence about a generation or
+two before the time of the famous Scanderbeg, on the breaking up
+of the kingdom of Servia. Since that time they have constantly
+been subject to the inroads of the Turks, who, claiming them as
+tributaries, have continued to invade their country every now and
+then with savage cruelty. More than once they have carried fire and
+sword to Tzetinié, but have never been able to hold their ground.
+The Montenegrins sought the protection of Russia in the time of
+Peter the Great, and still continue to be subsidised by Russia. At
+the desire of Peter, they invaded the Turkish territory, and were
+subjected to reprisals on a grand scale. At one time 60,000 Turks,
+at another 120,000, broke into Montenegro. The first invasion was
+gloriously repulsed; but the second, combining treachery with
+violence, was successful. Great damage was done to the country; but
+the invaders were at last obliged to quit, on the breaking out of
+war between Turkey and Venice. The Montenegrins then returned to
+their desolate homes, and have since been unintermitting in their
+diligence to pay off old scores. They co-operated with the Austrians
+and Russians, when they had the opportunity of such assistance; and
+when they stood alone, they did so nobly and bravely. The last great
+expedition of the Turks was in the time of the late Vladika. The
+Pasha of Scutari, with an enormous force, invaded the country; and
+the result of the expedition was that 30,000 Turks were killed, and
+among them the Pasha of Albania, whose head now serves as a trophy
+of victory to decorate Tzetinié.
+
+The capital of the Vladika, has been described before--for instance,
+in the pages of this Magazine; so, with one brief extract concerning
+it, we will follow Sir Gardner in his progress through the country.
+
+     "On a rock immediately above the convent is a round tower
+     pierced with embrasures, but without cannon, on which I
+     counted the heads of twenty Turks fixed upon stakes round
+     the parapet--the trophies of Montenegrin victory; and below,
+     scattered upon the rock, were the fragments of other skulls,
+     which had fallen to pieces by time,--a strange spectacle in a
+     Christian country, in Europe, and in the immediate vicinity of a
+     convent and a bishop's palace!"
+
+And, as we said before, when he got to Mostar, in Herzegovina, he
+found a spectacle of the same shocking kind. He did allow his horror
+at this sight to evaporate ineffectually; but in earnest tried to
+interpose his good offices to prevent a continuance of these doings.
+He talked to the two people mainly concerned--_i. e._ to the Vizir
+of Herzegovina, and to the Vladika. He also, at Constantinople,
+endeavoured to effect the making of an appeal to the highest Turkish
+authority. His correspondence with the Vladika on the subject is
+evidence of his zeal; but no positive good seems to have been the
+result of his intercession.
+
+The road leading from the capital to Ostrok is described as being
+very bad at first, and bad beyond description as it recedes from
+the capital. The Vladika kindly sent with Sir Gardner one of his
+guards and an interpreter. The party passed by several villages, and
+arrived at Mishke, the principal village of the Cevo district, where
+they put up for the night at the house of the principal senator of
+the province. Here some amusement was afforded by Sir Gardner's
+proceeding to sketch the domestic party.
+
+In the course of the evening a scene occurred, which sets forth
+their social condition as graphically as the artist's pencil has
+their personal appearance. A party of friends came in to have a
+quiet pipe, and to plan a foray over the border.
+
+     "On inquiry, I found the expedition was to take place
+     immediately. "Is there not," I asked, "a truce at this moment
+     between you and the Turks of Herzegovina?" They laughed, and
+     seemed much amused at my scruples. "We don't mind that," said a
+     stern swarthy man, taking his pipe from his mouth, and shaking
+     his head to and fro; "they are Turks"--and all agreed that the
+     Turks were fair game. "Besides," they said, "it is only to be a
+     plundering excursion;" and they evidently considered that any
+     one refusing to join in a marauding expedition into Turkey, at
+     any time, or in an open attack during a war, would be unworthy
+     the name of a brave man. They seemed to treat the matter like
+     boys in "the good old times," who robbed orchards; the courage
+     it showed being in proportion to the risk, and scruples of
+     conscience were laughed at as a want of spirit."
+
+In a freshly-decapitated head, affixed to a stake at Mostar, he
+shortly afterwards recognised the features of one of these very men.
+
+On the next day he proceeded to Ostrok, and found occasion to
+admire the scenery by the way, especially the vale of Oranido,
+distant from Mishke about four hours. From the vale of Oranido to
+Ostrok is a journey of about the same time. At Ostrok he underwent
+a grand reception, and fully won the hearts of his new friends by
+proposing a ride to the Turkish frontier, and affording them by the
+way an exhibition of Memlook riding. On the frontier is constantly
+maintained a guard of Montenegrins, to give timely warning of any
+suspicious movement among the Turks; and so well do they execute
+this office that no Turk can approach the border without being shot
+at. Near this border it was that, some little time ago, in 1843, an
+affair took place which does not tell well for the Montenegrini; and
+which seems for the present to preclude hope of amicable arrangement
+with the Turks. A deputation of twenty-two Turks, returning from
+Ostrok, were attacked by the people, and nine of them killed.
+This breach of faith is, to their minds, excused by the suspicion
+of meditated treachery on the part of the Turks. But it is a sad
+affair; and the only circumstance which goes in mitigation of its
+guilt is, that the Vladika took precautions against its occurrence.
+He sent an armed guard to protect the deputation, but their defence
+proved insufficient.
+
+The Archimandrite of Ostrok is the person who holds the place of
+second dignity in the government. He ranks next to the Vladika; and
+we are glad to find, by Sir Gardner's account, that he cordially
+co-operates with the Vladika in his plans of amelioration. Here also
+was met the celebrated priest and warrior, Ivan Knezovich, or Popé
+Yovan--a man who, in this nation of brave men, is renowned as the
+bravest. There are two convents at Ostrok, of which one fulfils also
+the function of powder magazine and store depot. Its position is
+very remarkable; and certainly it does bear a strong family likeness
+to Megaspelion. The same quality of not being within reach of any
+missile from above belongs to both of them, and has proved the
+saving of both.
+
+The return to Tzetinié was by a different route, which took Sir
+Gardner within near view of the northern end of the lake of Scutari.
+The island of Vranina, situated at this extremity of the lake, is
+likely to afford the next ostensible ground for an outbreak. It
+belonged to Montenegro, but, a few years ago, was treacherously
+seized by the Albanians, who effected a surprise in time of peace.
+Remonstrances and hard blows have equally failed to promote a
+restoration, _et adhuc sub judice lis est_. Throughout the course
+of his journey, Sir Gardner experienced much and genuine kindness
+from the rude people of the country; they brought him presents of
+such things as they had to offer, and would accept no compensation.
+When at last he bade them farewell, and returned to the haunts of
+civilisation, it was evidently with kindly recollections of them,
+and with the best of good-will towards them. He was able to give a
+satisfactory account of his impressions to the Vladika, who inquired
+thus,--"What do you think of the people? Do they appear to you the
+assassins and barbarians some people pretend to consider them? I
+hope you found them all well-behaved and civil--they are poor, but
+that does not prevent their being hospitable and generous."
+
+
+
+
+MODERN BIOGRAPHY.
+
+BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL.
+
+     _Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell._ Edited by WILLIAM
+     BEATTIE, M.D., one of his Executors. 3 vols. London: Moxon, 1849.
+
+
+The ancients, who lived beyond the reach of the fangs and feelers of
+the printing press, had, in one respect, a decided advantage over us
+unlucky moderns. They were not beset by the terrors of biography.
+No hideous suspicion that, after he was dead and gone--after the
+wine had been poured upon the hissing embers of the pyre, and the
+ashes consigned, by the hands of weeping friends, to the oblivion
+of the funereal urn--some industrious gossip of his acquaintance
+would incontinently sit down to the task of laborious compilation
+and collection of his literary scraps, ever crossed, like a sullen
+shadow, the imagination of the Greek or the Latin poet. Homer,
+though Arctinus was his near relative, could unbosom himself without
+the fear of having his frailties posthumously exposed, or his amours
+blazoned to the world. Lucius Varius and Plotius Tucca, the literary
+executors of Virgil, never dreamed of applying to Pollio for the I O
+Us which he doubtless held in the handwriting of the Mantuan bard,
+or to Horace for the confidential notes suggestive of Falernian
+inspiration. Socrates, indeed, has found a liberal reporter in
+Plato; but this is a pardonable exception. The son of Sophroniscus
+did not write; and therefore it was incumbent on his pupil to
+preserve for posterity the fragments of his oral wisdom. The ancient
+authors rested their reputation upon their published works alone.
+They knew, what we seem to forget, that the poet, apart from his
+genius, is but an ordinary man, and, in many cases, has received,
+along with that gift, a larger share of propensities and weaknesses
+than his fellow-mortals. Therefore it was that they insisted upon
+that right of domestic privacy which is common to us all. The poet,
+in his public capacity as an author, held himself responsible for
+what he wrote; but he had no idea of allowing the whole world to
+walk into his house, open his desk, read his love-letters, and
+criticise the state of his finances. Had Varius and Tucca acted on
+the modern system, the ghost of Virgil would have haunted them on
+their death-beds. Only think what a legacy might have been ours if
+these respectable gentlemen had written to Cremona for anecdotes of
+the poet while at school! No doubt, in some private nook of the old
+farm-house at Andes, there were treasured up, through the infinite
+love of the mother, tablets scratched over with verses, composed
+by young Master Maro at the precocious age of ten. We may, to a
+certainty, calculate--for maternal fondness always has been the
+same, and Virgil was an only child--that, in that emporium, themes
+upon such topics as "Virtus est sola nobilitas" were religiously
+treasured, along with other memorials of the dear, dear boy who
+had gone to college at Naples. Modern Varius would remorselessly
+have printed these: ancient Tucca was more discreet. Then what say
+you to the college career? Would it not be a nice thing to have
+all the squibs and feuds, the rows and rackettings of the jovial
+student preserved to us precisely as they were penned, projected,
+and perpetrated? Have we not lost a great deal in being defrauded of
+an account of the manner in which he singed the wig of his drunken
+old tutor, Parthenius Nicenus, or the scandalously late hours which
+he kept in company with his especial chums? Then comes the period,
+darkly hinted at by Donatus, during which he was, somehow or other,
+connected with the imperial stable; that is, we presume, upon the
+turf. What would we not give for a sight of Virgil's betting-book!
+Did he back the field, or did he take the odds on the Emperor's bay
+mare, Alma Venus Genetrix? How stood he with the legs? What sort of
+reputation did he maintain in the ring of the Roman Tattersall? Was
+he ever posted as a defaulter? Tucca! you should have told us this.
+Then, when sobered down, and in high favour with the court, where is
+the private correspondence between him and Mæcenas, the President
+of the Roman Agricultural Society, touching the compilation of
+the Georgics? The excellent Equestrian, we know, wanted Virgil to
+construct a poem, such as Thomas Tusser afterwards wrote, under the
+title of a "_Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie_," and, doubtless,
+waxed warm in his letters about draining, manure, and mangel-wurzel.
+What sacrifice would we not make to place that correspondence in the
+hands of Henry Stephens! How the author of the _Book of the Farm_
+would revel in his exposure of the crude theories of the Minister
+of the Interior! What a formidable phalanx of facts would he oppose
+to Mæcenas' misconceptions of guano! Through the sensitive delicacy
+of his executors, we have lost the record of Virgil's repeated
+larks with Horace: the pleasant little supper-parties celebrated at
+the villa of that dissipated rogue Tibullus, have passed from the
+memory of mankind. We know nothing of the state of his finances, for
+they have not thought fit to publish his banking-account with the
+firm of Lollius, Spuræna, and Company. Their duty, as they fondly
+believed, was fulfilled, when they gave to the world the glorious
+but unfinished Æneid.
+
+Under the modern system, we constantly ask ourselves whether it
+is wise to wish for greatness, and whether total oblivion is not
+preferable to fame, with the penalty of exposure annexed. We shudder
+at the thoughts of putting out a book, not from fear of anything
+that the critics can do, but lest it should take with the public,
+and expose us to the danger of a posthumous biography. Were we
+to awake some fine morning, and find ourselves famous, our peace
+of mind would be gone for ever. Mercy on us! what a quantity of
+foolish letters have we not written during the days of our youth,
+under the confident impression that, when read, they would be
+immediately committed to the flames. Madrigals innumerable recur to
+our memory; and, if these were published, there would be no rest
+for us in the grave! If any misguided critic should say of us, "The
+works of this author are destined to descend to posterity," our
+response would be a hollow groan. If convinced that our biography
+would be attempted, from that hour the friend of our bosom would
+appear in the light of a base and ignominious spy. How durst we
+ever unbosom ourselves to him, when, for aught we know, the wretch
+may be treasuring up our casual remarks over the fifth tumbler,
+for immediate registration at home? Constitutionally we are not
+hard-hearted; but, were we so situated, we own that the intimation
+of the decease of each early acquaintance would be rather a relief
+than otherwise. Tom, our intimate fellow-student at college, dies.
+We may be sorry for the family of Thomas, but we soon wipe away the
+natural drops, discovering that there is balm in Gilead. We used to
+write him letters, detailing minutely our inward emotions at the
+time we were distractedly in love with Jemima Higginbotham; and Tom,
+who was always a methodical dog, has no doubt docqueted them as
+received. Tom's heirs will doubtless be too keen upon the scent of
+valuables, to care one farthing for rhapsodising: therefore, unless
+they are sent to the snuff-merchant, or disseminated as autographs,
+our epistles run a fair chance of perishing by the flames, and one
+evidence of our weakness is removed. A member of the club meets
+us in George Street, and, with a rueful longitude of countenance,
+asks us if we have heard of the death of poor Harry? To the eternal
+disgrace of human nature, be it recorded, that our heart leaps up
+within us like a foot-ball, as we hypocritically have recourse to
+our cambric. Harry knew a great deal too much about our private
+history just before we joined the Yeomanry, and could have told some
+stories, little flattering to our posthumous renown.
+
+Are we not right, then, in holding that, under the present system,
+celebrity is a thing to be eschewed? Why is it that we are so chary
+of receiving certain Down-Easters, so different from the real
+American gentlemen whom it is our good fortune to know? Simply
+because Silas Fixings will take down your whole conversation
+in black and white, deliberately alter it to suit his private
+purposes, and Transatlantically retail it as a specimen of your
+life and opinions. And is it not a still more horrible idea that a
+Silas may be perpetually watching you in the shape of a pretended
+friend? If the man would at once declare his intention, you might
+be comparatively at ease. Even in that case you never could love
+him more, for the confession implies a disgusting determination of
+outliving you, or rather a hint that your health is not remarkably
+robust, which would irritate the meekest of mankind. But you
+might be enabled, through a strong effort, to repress the outward
+exhibition of your wrath; and, if high religious principle should
+deter you from mixing strychnia or prussic acid with the wine of
+your volunteering executor, you may at least contrive to blind
+him by cautiously maintaining your guard. Were we placed in such
+a trying position, we should utter, before our intending Boswell,
+nothing save sentiments which might have flowed from the lips of the
+Venerable Bede. What letters, full of morality and high feeling,
+would we not indite! Not an invitation to dinner--not an acceptance
+of a tea and turn-out, but should be flavoured with some wholesome
+apothegm. Thus we should strive, through our later correspondence,
+to efface the memory of the earlier, which it is impossible to
+recall,--not without a hope that we might throw upon it, if
+posthumously produced, a tolerable imputation of forgery.
+
+In these times, we repeat, no man of the least mark or likelihood
+is safe. The waiter with the bandy-legs, who hands round the
+negus-tray at a blue-stocking coterie, is in all probability a
+leading contributor to a fifth-rate periodical; and, in a few days
+after you have been rash enough to accept the insidious beverage,
+M'Tavish will be correcting the proof of an article in which your
+appearance and conversation are described. Distrust the gentleman
+in the plush terminations; he, too, is a penny-a-liner, and keeps
+a commonplace-book in the pantry. Better give up writing at once
+than live in such a perpetual state of bondage. What amount of
+present fame can recompense you for being shown up as a noodle, or
+worse, to your children's children? Nay, recollect this, that you
+are implicating your personal, and, perhaps, most innocent friends.
+Bob accompanies you home from an insurance society dinner, where
+the champagne has been rather superabundant, and, next morning,
+you, as a bit of fun, write to the President that the watchman had
+picked up Bob in a state of helpless inebriety from the kennel.
+The President, after the manner of the Fogies, duly docquets your
+note with name and date, and puts it up with a parcel of others,
+secured by red tape. You die. Your literary executor writes to the
+President, stating his biographical intentions, and requesting all
+documents that may tend to throw light upon your personal history.
+Preses, in deep ecstasy at the idea of seeing his name in print as
+the recipient of your epistolary favours, immediately transmits the
+packet; and the consequence is, that Robert is most unjustly handed
+down to posterity in the character of a habitual drunkard, although
+it is a fact that a more abstinent creature never went home to his
+wife at ten. If you are an author, and your spouse is ailing, don't
+give the details to your intimate friend, if you would not wish
+to publish them to the world. Drop all correspondence, if you are
+wise, and have any ambition to stand well in the eyes of the coming
+generation. Let your conversation be as curt as a Quaker's, and
+select no one for a friend, unless you have the meanest possible
+opinion of his capacity. Even in that case you are hardly secure.
+Perhaps the best mode of combining philanthropy, society, and
+safety, is to have nobody in the house, save an old woman who is so
+utterly deaf that you must order your dinner by pantomime.
+
+One mode of escape suggests itself, and we do not hesitate to
+recommend it. Let every man who underlies the terror of the _peine
+forte et dure_, compile his own autobiography at the ripe age of
+forty-five. Few people, in this country, begin to establish a
+permanent reputation before thirty; and we allow them fifteen years
+to complete it. Now, supposing your existence should be protracted
+to seventy, here are clear five-and-twenty years remaining, which
+may be profitably employed in autobiography, by which means you
+secure three vast advantages. In the first place, you can deal
+with your own earlier history as you please, and provide against
+the subsequent production of inconvenient documents. In the second
+place, you defeat the intentions of your excellent friend and
+gossip, who will hardly venture to start his volumes in competition
+with your own. In the third place, you leave an additional copyright
+as a legacy to your children, and are not haunted in your last
+moments by the agonising thought that a stranger in name and blood
+is preparing to make money by your decease. It is, of course,
+unnecessary to say one word regarding the general tone of your
+memoirs. If you cannot contrive to block out such a fancy portrait
+of your intellectual self as shall throw all others into the shade,
+you may walk on fearlessly through life, for your biography never
+will be attempted. Goethe, the most accomplished literary fox of our
+age, perfectly understood the value of these maxims, and forestalled
+his friends, by telling his own story in time. The consequence
+is, that his memory has escaped unharmed. Little Eckermann, his
+amanuensis in extreme old age, did indeed contrive to deliver
+himself of a small Boswellian volume; but this publication, bearing
+reference merely to the dicta of Goethe at a safe period of life,
+could not injure the departed poet. The repetition of the early
+history, and the publication of the early documents, are the points
+to be especially guarded.
+
+We beg that these remarks may be considered, not as strictures upon
+any individual example, but as bearing upon the general style of
+modern biography. This is a gossiping world, in which great men are
+the exceptions; and when one of these ceases to exist, the public
+becomes clamorous to learn the whole minutiæ of his private life.
+That is a depraved taste, and one which ought not to be gratified.
+The author is to be judged by the works which he voluntarily
+surrenders to the public, not by the tenor of his private history,
+which ought not to be irreverently exposed. Thus, in compiling the
+life of a poet, we maintain that a literary executor has purely a
+literary function to perform. Out of the mass of materials which
+he may fortuitously collect, his duty is to select such portions
+as may illustrate the public doings of the man: he may, without
+transgressing the boundaries of propriety, inform us of the
+circumstances which suggested the idea of any particular work,
+the difficulties which were overcome by the author in the course
+of its composition, and even exhibit the correspondence relative
+thereto. These are matters of literary history which we may ask
+for, and obtain, without any breach of the conventional rules of
+society. Whatever refers to public life is public, and may be
+printed: whatever refers solely to domestic existence is private,
+and ought to be held sacred. A very little reflection, we think,
+will demonstrate the propriety of this distinction. If we have
+a dear and valued friend, to whom, in the hours of adversity or
+of joy, we are wont to communicate the thoughts which lie at the
+bottom of our soul, we write to him in the full conviction that he
+will regard these letters as addressed to himself alone. We do not
+insult him, nor wrong the holy attributes of friendship so much, as
+to warn him against communicating our thoughts to any one else in
+the world. We never dream that he will do so, else assuredly those
+letters never would have been written. If we were to discover that
+we had so grievously erred as to repose confidence in a person who,
+the moment he received a letter penned in a paroxysm of emotion
+and revealing a secret of our existence, was capable of exhibiting
+it to the circle of his acquaintance, of a surety he should never
+more be troubled with any of our correspondence. Would any man dare
+to print such documents during the life of the writer? We need not
+pause for a reply: there can be but one. And _why_ is this? Because
+these communications bear on their face the stamp of the strictest
+privacy--because they were addressed to, and meant for the eye
+of but one human being in the universe--because they betray the
+emotions of a soul which asks sympathy from a friend, with only
+less reverence than it implores comfort from its God! Does death,
+then, free the friend and the confidant from all restraint? If the
+knowledge that his secret had been divulged, his agonies exposed,
+his weaknesses surrendered to the vulgar gaze, could have pained
+the living man--is nothing due to his memory, now that he is laid
+beneath the turf, now that his voice can never more be raised to
+upbraid a violated confidence? Many modern biographers, we regret
+to say, do not appear to be influenced by any such consideration.
+They never seem to have asked themselves the question--Would my
+friend, if he had been compiling his own memoirs, have inserted such
+a letter for publication--does it not refer to a matter eminently
+private and personal, and never to be communicated to the world?
+Instead of applying this test, they print everything, and rather
+plume themselves on their impartiality in suppressing nothing.
+They thus exhibit the life not only of the author but of the man.
+Literary and personal history are blended together. The senator is
+not only exhibited in the House of Commons, but we are courteously
+invited to attend at the _accouchement_ of his wife.
+
+What title has any of us, in the abstract, to write the private
+history of his next-door neighbour? Be he poet, lawyer, physician,
+or divine, his private sayings and doings are his property, not that
+of a gaping and curious public. No man dares to say to another,
+"Come, my good fellow! it is full time that the world should know a
+little about your domestic concerns. I have been keeping a sort of
+note-book of your proceedings ever since we were at school together,
+and I intend to make a few pounds by exhibiting you in your true
+colours. You recollect when you were in love with old Tomnoddy's
+daughter? I have written a capital account of your interview with
+her that fine forenoon in the Botanical Gardens! True, she jilted
+you, and went off with young Heavystern of the Dragoons, but the
+public won't relish the scene a bit the less on that account. Then I
+have got some letters of yours from our mutual friend Fitzjaw. How
+very hard-up you must have been at the time when you supplicated him
+for twenty pounds to keep you out of jail! You were rather severe,
+the other day when I met you at dinner, upon your professional
+brother Jenkinson; but I daresay that what you said was all very
+true, so I shall publish that likewise. By the way--how is your
+wife? She had a lot of money, had she not? At all events people say
+so, and it is shrewdly surmised that you did not marry her for her
+beauty. I don't mean to say that _I_ think so, but such is the _on
+dit_, and I have set it down accordingly in my journal. Do, pray,
+tell me about that quarrel between you and your mother-in-law! Is
+it true that she threw a joint-stool at your head? How our friends
+will roar when they see the details in print!" Is the case less
+flagrant if the manuscript is not sent to press, until our neighbour
+is deposited in his coffin? We cannot perceive the difference. If
+the feelings of living people are to be taken as the criterion, only
+one of the domestic actors is removed from the stage of existence.
+Old Tomnoddy still lives, and may not be abundantly gratified at the
+fact of his daughter's infidelity and elopement being proclaimed.
+The intimation of the garden scene, hitherto unknown to Heavystern,
+may fill his warlike bosom with jealousy, and ultimately occasion
+a separation. Fitzjaw can hardly complain, but he will be very
+furious at finding his refusal to accommodate a friend appended to
+the supplicating letter. Jenkinson is only sorry that the libeller
+is dead, otherwise he would have treated him to an action in the
+Jury Court. The widow believes that she was made a bride solely for
+the sake of her Californian attractions, and reviles the memory
+of her spouse. As for the mother-in-law, now gradually dwindling
+into dotage, her feelings are perhaps of no great consequence to
+any human being. Nevertheless, when the obnoxious paragraph in the
+Memoirs is read to her by a shrill female companion, nature makes a
+temporary rally, her withered frame shakes with agitation, and she
+finally falls backward in a fit of hopeless paralysis.
+
+Such is a feeble picture of the results that might ensue from
+private biography, were we all permitted, without reservation, to
+parade the lives and domestic circumstances of our neighbours to
+a greedy and gloating world. Not but that, if our neighbour has
+been a man of sufficient distinction to deserve commemoration,
+we may gracefully and skilfully narrate all of him that is worth
+the knowing. We may point to his public actions, expatiate on
+his achievements, and recount the manner in which he gained his
+intellectual renown; but further we ought not to go. The confidences
+of the dead should be as sacred as those of the living. And here we
+may observe, that there are other parties quite as much to blame
+as the biographers in question. We allude to the friends of the
+deceased, who have unscrupulously furnished them with materials. Is
+it not the fact that in very many cases they have divulged letters
+which, during the writer's lifetime, they would have withheld from
+the nearest and dearest of their kindred? In many such letters
+there occur observations and reflections upon living characters,
+not written in malice, but still such as were never intended to
+meet the eyes of the parties criticised; and these are forthwith
+published, as racy passages, likely to gratify the appetite of a
+coarse, vulgar, and inordinate curiosity. Even this is not the
+worst. Survivors may grieve to learn that the friend whom they
+loved was capable of ridiculing or misrepresenting them in secret,
+and his memory may suffer in their estimation; but, put the case
+of detailed private conversations, which are constantly foisted
+into modern biographies, and we shall immediately discover that the
+inevitable tendency is to engender dislikes among living parties.
+Let us suppose that three men, all of them professional authors,
+meet at a dinner party. The conversation is very lively, takes a
+literary turn, and the three gentlemen, with that sportive freedom
+which is very common in a society where no treachery is apprehended,
+pass some rather poignant strictures upon the writings or habits of
+their contemporaries. One of them either keeps a journal, or is in
+the habit of writing, for the amusement of a confidential friend
+at a distance, any literary gossip which may be current, and he
+commits to paper the heads of the recent dialogue. He dies, and his
+literary executor immediately pounces upon the document, and, to
+the confusion of the two living critics, prints it. Every literary
+brother whom they have noticed is of course their enemy for life.
+
+If, in private society, a snob is discovered retailing
+conversations, he is forthwith cut without compunction. He reads his
+detection in the calm, cold scorn of your eye; and, referring to the
+mirror of his own dim and dirty conscience, beholds the reflection
+of a hound. The biographer seems to consider himself exempt from
+such social secresy. He shelters himself under the plea that the
+public are so deeply interested, that they must not be deprived of
+any memorandum, anecdote, or jotting, told, written, or detailed by
+the gifted subject of their memoirs. Therefore it is not a prudent
+thing to be familiar with a man of genius. He may not betray your
+confidence, but you can hardly trust to the tender mercies of his
+chronicler.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such are our deliberate views upon the subject of biography, and we
+state them altogether independent of the three bulky volumes which
+are now lying before us for review.
+
+We cordially admit that it was right and proper that a life of Campbell
+should be written. Although he did not occupy the same commanding
+position as others of his renowned contemporaries--although his
+writings have not, like those of Scott, Byron, and Southey,
+contributed powerfully to give a tone and idiosyncrasy to the
+general literature of the age--Campbell was nevertheless a man of
+rich genius, and a poet of remarkable accomplishment. It would not
+be easy to select, from the works of any other writer of our time,
+so many brilliant and polished gems, without flaw or imperfection,
+as are to be found amongst his minor poems. Criticism, in dealing
+with these exquisite lyrics, is at fault. If sometimes the suspicion
+of a certain effeminacy haunts us, we have but to turn the page,
+and we arrive at some magnificent, bold, and trumpet-toned ditty,
+appealing directly from the heart of the poet to the imagination of
+his audience, and proving, beyond all contest, that power was his
+glorious attribute. True, he was unequal; and towards the latter
+part of his career, exhibited a marked failing in the qualities
+which originally secured his renown. It is almost impossible to
+believe that the _Pilgrim of Glencoe_, or even _Theodric_, was
+composed by the author of the _Pleasures of Hope_ or _Gertrude_; and
+if you place the _Ritter Bann_ beside _Hohenlinden_ or the _Battle
+of the Baltic_, you cannot fail to be struck with the singular
+diminution of power. Campbell started from a high point--walked for
+some time along level or undulating ground--and then began rapidly
+to descend. This is not, as some idle critics have maintained, the
+common course of genius. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton,
+Dryden, Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth, are remarkable instances to
+the contrary. Whatever may have been the promise of their youth,
+their matured performances, eclipsing their earlier efforts, show us
+that genius is capable of almost boundless cultivation, and that the
+fire of the poet does not cease to burn less brightly within him,
+because the sable of his hair is streaked with gray, or the furrows
+deepening on his brow. Sir Walter Scott was upwards of thirty
+before he began to compose in earnest: after thirty, Campbell wrote
+scarcely anything which has added permanently to his reputation.
+Extreme sensitiveness, an over-strained and fastidious desire of
+polishing, and sometimes the pressure of outward circumstances, may
+have combined to damp his early ardour. He evidently was deficient
+in that resolute pertinacity of labour, through which alone great
+results can be achieved. He allowed the best years of his life to
+be frittered away, in pursuits which could not secure to him either
+additional fame, or the more substantial rewards of fortune: and,
+though far from being actually idle, he was only indolently active.
+Campbell wanted an object in life. Thus, though gifted with powers
+which, directed towards one point, were capable of the highest
+concentration, we find him scattering these in the most desultory
+and careless manner; and surrendering scheme after scheme, without
+making the vigorous effort which was necessary to secure their
+completion. This is a fault by no means uncommon in literature,
+but one which is highly dangerous. No work requiring great mental
+exertion should be undertaken rashly, for the enthusiasm which
+has prompted it rapidly subsides, the labour becomes distasteful
+to the writer, and unless he can bend himself to his task with
+the most dogged perseverance, and a determination to vanquish all
+obstacles, the result will be a fragment or a failure. Of this we
+find two notable instances recorded in the book before us. Twice
+in his life had Campbell meditated the construction of a great
+poem, and twice did he relinquish the task. Of the _Queen of the
+North_ but a few lines remain: of his favourite projected epic on
+the subject of Wallace, nothing. Elegant trifles, sportive verses,
+and playful epigrams were, for many years, the last fruits of that
+genius which had dictated the _Pleasures of Hope_, and rejoiced the
+mariners of England with a ballad worthy of the theme. And yet, so
+powerful is early association--so universal was the recognition of
+the transcendant genius of the boy, that when Campbell sank into
+the grave, there was lamentation as though a great poet had been
+stricken down in his prime, and all men felt that a brilliant light
+had gone out among the luminaries of the age. Therefore it was
+seemly that his memory should receive that homage which has been
+rendered to others less deserving of it, and that his public career,
+at least, should be traced and given to the world.
+
+It was Campbell's own wish that Dr Beattie should undertake his
+biography. Few perhaps knew the motives which led to this selection;
+for the assiduity, care, and filial attachment, bestowed for years
+by the warm-hearted physician upon the poet, was as unostentatious
+as it was honourable and devoted. Not from the pages of this
+biography can the reader form an adequate idea of the extent and
+value of such disinterested friendship: indeed it is not too much
+to say, that the rare and exemplary kindness of Dr Beattie was
+the chief consolation of Campbell during the later period of his
+existence. It was therefore natural that the dying poet should have
+confided this trust to one of whose affection he was assured by so
+many rare and signal proofs; and it is with a kindly feeling to the
+author that we now approach the consideration of the literary merits
+of the book.
+
+The admiration of Dr Beattie for the genius of Campbell has in some
+respects led him astray. It is easy to see at a glance that his
+measure of admiration is not of an ordinary kind, but so excessive
+as to lead him beyond all limit. He seems to have regarded Campbell
+not merely as a great poet, but as the great poet of the age; and
+he is unwilling, æsthetically, to admit any material diminution of
+his powers. He still clings with a certain faith to _Theodric_; and
+declines to perceive any palpable failure even in the _Pilgrim of
+Glencoe_. Verses and fragments which, to the casual reader, convey
+anything but the impression of excellence, are liberally distributed
+throughout the pages of the third volume, and commented on with
+evident rapture. He seems to think that, in the case of his author,
+it may be said, "_Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit_;" and accordingly
+he is slow to suppress, even where suppression would have been of
+positive advantage. In short, he is too full of his subject to do
+it justice. In the hands of a skilful and less biassed artisan, the
+materials which occupy these three volumes, extending to nearly
+fourteen hundred pages of print, might have been condensed into
+one highly interesting and popular volume. We should not then, it
+is true, have been favoured with specimens of Campbell's college
+exercises, with the voluminous chronicles of his family, with
+verses written at the age of eleven, or with correspondence purely
+domestic; but we firmly believe that the reading public would have
+been grateful to Dr Beattie, had he omitted a great deal of matter
+connected with the poet's earlier career, which is of no interest
+whatever. The Campbells of Kirnan were, we doubt not, a highly
+respectable sept, and performed their duty as kirk-elders for many
+generations blamelessly in the parish of Glassary. But it was not
+necessary on that account to trace their descent from the Black
+Knight Of Lochawe, or to give the particular history of the family
+for more than a century and a half. Gillespic-le-Camile may have
+been a fine fellow in his day; but we utterly deny, in the teeth
+of all the Campbells and Kembles in the world, that he had a drop
+of Norman blood in his veins. It is curious to find the poet, at a
+subsequent period, engaged in a correspondence, as to the common
+ancestor of these names, with one of the Kembles, who, as Mrs Butler
+somewhere triumphantly avers, were descended from the lords of
+Campo-bello. Where that favoured region may be, we know not; but
+this we know, that in Gaelic _Cambeul_ signifies _wry-mouth_, and
+hence, as is the custom with primitive nations, the origin of the
+name. And let not the sons of Diarmid be offended at this, or esteem
+their glories less, since the gallant Camerons owe their name to a
+similar conformation of the nose, and the Douglases to their dark
+complexion. Having put this little matter of family etymology right,
+let us return to Dr Beattie.
+
+The first volume, we maintain, is terribly overloaded by trivial
+details, and specimens of the kind to which we have alluded. We
+need not enter into these, except in so far as to state that Thomas
+Campbell was the youngest child of most respectable parents: that
+his father, having been unfortunate in business, was so reduced
+in circumstances, that, whilst attending Glasgow College, the
+young student was compelled to have recourse to teaching; that he
+acquitted himself admirably, and to the satisfaction of all his
+professors in the literary classes; and that, for one vacation at
+least, he resided as private tutor to a family in the island of
+Mull. He was then about eighteen, and had already exhibited symptoms
+of a rare poetical talent, particularly in translations from the
+Greek. Dr Beattie's zeal as a biographer may be gathered from the
+following statement:--
+
+"I applied last year to the Rev. Dr M'Arthur, of Kilninian in Mull,
+requesting him to favour me with such traditional particulars
+regarding the poet as might still be current among the old
+inhabitants; but I regret to say that nothing of interest has
+resulted. 'In the course of my inquiries,' he says, 'I have met with
+only two individuals who had seen Mr Campbell while he was in Mull,
+and the amount of their information is merely that he was _a very
+pretty young man_. Those who must have been personally acquainted
+with him in this country, have, like himself, descended into the
+tomb; so that no authentic anecdotes of him can now be procured in
+this quarter.'"
+
+There is a simplicity in this which has amused us greatly. Campbell,
+in those days, was conspicuous for nothing--at least, for no
+accomplishment which could be appreciated in that distant island.
+In all probability two-thirds of the inhabitants of the parish were
+Campbells, who expired in utter ignorance of the art of writing
+their names; so that to ask for literary anecdotes, at the distance
+of half a century, was rather a work of supererogation.
+
+For two years more, Campbell led a life of great uncertainty. He was
+naturally averse to the drudgery of teaching--an employment which
+never can be congenial to a poetical and creative nature. He had no
+decided predilection for any of the learned professions; for though
+he alternately betook himself to the study of law, physic, and
+divinity, it was hardly with a serious purpose. He visited Edinburgh
+in search of literary employment, was for some time a clerk in a
+writer's office, and, through the kindness of the late Dr Anderson,
+editor of a collection of the British poets,--a man who was ever
+eager to acknowledge and encourage genius,--he received his first
+introduction to a bookselling firm. From them he received some
+little employment, but not of a nature suited to his taste; and we
+soon afterwards find him in Glasgow, meditating the establishment of
+a magazine--a scheme which proved utterly abortive.
+
+In the mean time, however, he had not been idle. At the age of
+twenty the poetical instinct is active, and, even though no audience
+can be found, the muse will force its way. Campbell had already
+translated two plays of Æschylus and Euripides--an exercise which
+no doubt developed largely his powers of versification--and,
+further, had begun to compose original lyric verses. In the foreign
+edition of his works, there is inserted a poem called the Dirge
+of Wallace, written about this period, which, with a very little
+concentration, might have been rendered as perfect as any of his
+later compositions. In spirit and energy it is assuredly inferior to
+none of them. "But," says Dr Beattie, "the fastidious author, who
+thought it too rhapsodical, never bestowed a careful revision upon
+it, and persisted in excluding it from all the London editions." We
+hope to see it restored to its proper place in the next: in the mean
+time we select the following noble stanzas:--
+
+    "They lighted the tapers at dead of night,
+       And chaunted their holiest hymn:
+     But her brow and her bosom were damp with affright,
+       Her eye was all sleepless and dim!
+     And the Lady of Ellerslie wept for her lord,
+       When a death-watch beat in her lonely room,
+     When her curtain had shook of its own accord,
+     And the raven had flapped at her window board,
+       To tell of her warrior's doom.
+
+    "'Now sing ye the death-song, and loudly pray
+       For the soul of my knight so dear!
+     And call me a widow this wretched day,
+       Since the warning of GOD is here.
+     For a nightmare rests on my strangled sleep;
+       The lord of my bosom is doomed to die!
+     His valorous heart they have wounded deep,
+     And the blood-red tears shall his country weep
+       For Wallace of Ellerslie!'
+
+    "Yet knew not his country, that ominous hour--
+       Ere the loud matin-bell was rung--
+     That the trumpet of death, from an English tower,
+       Had the dirge of her champion sung.
+     When his dungeon-light looked dim and red
+       On the highborn blood of a martyr slain,
+     No anthem was sung at his lowly death-bed--
+     No weeping was there when _his_ bosom bled,
+       And is heart was rent in twain.
+
+    "Oh! it was not thus when his ashen spear
+       Was true to that knight forlorn,
+     And hosts of a thousand wore scattered like deer
+       At the blast of a hunter's horn;
+     _When he strode o'er the wreck of each well-fought field,
+       With the yellow-haired chiefs of his native land;_
+     _For his lance was not shivered on helmet or shield,
+     And the sword that was fit for archangel to wield
+       Was light in his terrible hand!_
+
+    "Yet, bleeding and bound, though the Wallace wight
+       For his long-loved country die,
+     The bugle ne'er sung to a braver knight
+       Than William of Ellerslie!
+     But the day of his triumphs shall never depart;
+       His head, unentombed, shall with glory be palmed--
+     From its blood-streaming altar his spirit shall start;
+     Though the raven has fed on his mouldering heart,
+       A nobler was never embalmed!"
+
+Nothing can be finer than the lines we have quoted in Italics, nor
+perhaps did Campbell himself ever match them. Local reputations are
+dearly cherished in the west of Scotland, and even at this early
+period our poet was denominated "the Pope of Glasgow."
+
+Again Campbell migrated to Edinburgh, but still with no fixed
+determination as to the choice of a profession: his intention was
+to attend the public lectures at the University, and also to push
+his connexion with the booksellers, so as to obtain the means of
+livelihood. Failing this last resource, he contemplated removing
+to America, in which country his eldest brother was permanently
+settled. Fortunately for himself, he now made the acquaintance
+of several young men who were destined afterwards to attract the
+public observation, and to win great names in different branches
+of literature. Among these were Scott, Brougham, Leyden, Jeffrey,
+Dr Thomas Brown, and Grahame, the author of _The Sabbath_. Mr
+John Richardson, who had the good fortune to remain through life
+the intimate friend both of Scott and Campbell, was also, at this
+early period, the chosen companion of the latter, and contributed
+much, by his judicious counsels and criticisms, to nerve the poet
+for that successful effort which, shortly afterwards, took the
+world of letters by storm. Dr Anderson also continued his literary
+superintendence, and anxiously watched over the progress of the new
+poem upon which Campbell was now engaged. At length, in 1799, the
+_Pleasures of Hope_ appeared.
+
+Rarely has any volume of poetry met with such rapid success.
+Campbell had few living rivals of established reputation to contend
+with; and the freshness of his thought, the extreme sweetness of his
+numbers, and the fine taste which pervaded the whole composition,
+fell like magic on the ear of the public, and won their immediate
+approbation. It is true that, as a speculation, this volume did
+not prove remarkably lucrative to the author: he had disposed of
+the copyright before publication for a sum of sixty pounds, but,
+through the liberality of the publishers, he received for some
+years a further sum on the issue of each edition. The book was
+certainly worth a great deal more; but many an author would be glad
+to surrender all claim for profit on his first adventure, could he
+be assured of such valuable popularity as Campbell now acquired.
+He presently became a lion in Edinburgh society; and, what was far
+better, he secured the countenance and friendship of such men as
+Dugald Stewart, Henry Mackenzie, Dr Gregory, the Rev. Archibald
+Alison, and Telford, the celebrated engineer. It is pleasant to know
+that the friendships so formed were interrupted only by death.
+
+Campbell had now, to use a common but familiar phrase, the
+ball at his foot, but never did there live a man less capable
+of appreciating opportunity. At an age when most young men are
+students, he had won fame--fame, too, in such measure and of such a
+kind as secured him against reaction, or the possibility of a speedy
+neglect following upon so rapid a success. Had he deliberately
+followed up his advantage with anything like ordinary diligence,
+fortune as well as fame would have been his immediate reward. Like
+Aladdin, he was in possession of a talisman which could open to him
+the cavern in which a still greater treasure was contained; but he
+shrunk from the labour which was indispensable for the effort. He
+either could not or would not summon up sufficient resolution to
+betake himself to a new task; but, under the pretext of improving
+his mind by travel, gave way to his erratic propensities, and
+departed for the Continent with a slender purse, and, as usual, no
+fixity of purpose.
+
+We confess that the portion of his correspondence which relates
+to this expedition does not appear to us remarkably interesting.
+He resided chiefly at Ratisbon, where his time appears to have
+been tolerably equally divided between writing lyrics for the
+_Morning Chronicle_, then under the superintendence of Mr
+Perry, and squabbling with the monks of the Scottish Convent of
+Saint James. Some of his best minor poems were composed at this
+period; but it will be easily comprehended that, from the style
+of their publication in a fugitive form, they could add but
+little at the time to his reputation, and certainly they did not
+materially improve his finances. With a contemplated poem of some
+magnitude--the _Queen of the North_--he made little progress; and,
+upon the whole, this year was spent uncomfortably. After his return
+to Britain, he resided for some time in Edinburgh and London, mixing
+in the best and most cultivated society, but sorely straitened in
+circumstances, which, nevertheless, he had not the courage or the
+patience to improve.
+
+A quarto edition of the _Pleasures_, printed by subscription for
+his own benefit, at length put him in funds, and probably tempted
+him to marry. Then came the real cares of life,--an increased
+establishment, an increasing family: new mouths to provide for,
+and no settled mode of livelihood. Of all literary men, Campbell
+was least calculated, both by habit and inclination, to pursue a
+profession which, with many temptations, was then, and is still,
+precarious. He was not, like Scott, a man of business habits and
+unflagging industry. His impulses to write were short, and his
+fastidiousness interfered with his impulse. Booksellers were slow
+in offering him employment, for they could not depend on his
+punctuality. Those who have frequent dealings with the trade know
+how much depends upon the observance of this excellent virtue;
+but Campbell never could be brought to appreciate its full value.
+The printing-press had difficulty in keeping pace with the pen of
+Scott: to wait for that of Campbell was equivalent to a cessation of
+labour. Therefore it is not surprising that, about this period, most
+of his negotiations failed. Proposals for an edition of the British
+Poets, a large and expensive work, to be executed jointly by Scott
+and Campbell, fell to the ground: and the bard of Hope gave vent to
+his feelings by execrating the phalanx of the Row.
+
+At the very moment when his prospects appeared to be shrouded in
+the deepest gloom, Campbell received intimation that he had been
+placed on the pension-list as an annuitant of £200. Never was the
+royal bounty more seasonably extended; and this high recognition of
+his genius seems for a time to have inspired him with new energy.
+He commenced the compilation of the _Specimens of British Poets_;
+but his indolent habits overcame him, and the work was not given to
+the public until _thirteen years_ after it was undertaken. No wonder
+that the booksellers were chary of staking their capital on the
+faith of his promised performances!
+
+Ten years after the publication of the _Pleasures of Hope_,
+_Gertrude of Wyoming_ appeared. That exquisite little poem
+demonstrated, in the most conclusive manner, that the author's
+poetical powers were not exhausted by his earlier effort, and the
+same volume contained the noblest of his immortal lyrics. Campbell
+was now at the highest point of his renown. Critics may compare
+together the longer poems, and, according as their taste leans
+towards the didactic or the descriptive form of composition, may
+differ in awarding the palm of excellence, but there can be but one
+opinion as to the lyrical poetry. In this respect Campbell stands
+alone among his contemporaries, and since then he has never been
+surpassed. _Lochiel's Warning_ and the _Battle of the Baltic_ were
+among the pieces then published; and it would be difficult, out of
+the whole mass of British poetry, to select two specimens, by the
+same author, which may fairly rank with these.
+
+A new literary field was shortly after this opened to Campbell.
+He was engaged to deliver a course of lectures on poetry at the
+Royal Institution of London, and the scheme proved not only
+successful but lucrative. In after years he lectured repeatedly on
+the belles lettres at Liverpool, Birmingham, and other places, and
+the celebrity of his name always commanded a crowd of listeners.
+We learn from Dr Beattie, that at two periods of his life it was
+proposed to bring him forward as a candidate, either for the chair
+of Rhetoric or that of History in the University of Edinburgh; but
+he seems to have recoiled from the idea of the labour necessary for
+the preparation of a thorough academical course, a task which his
+extreme natural fastidiousness would doubtless have rendered doubly
+irksome. Several more years, a portion of which time was spent on
+the Continent, passed over without any remarkable result, until,
+at the age of forty-three, Campbell entered upon the duties of the
+editorship of the _New Monthly Magazine_.
+
+He held this situation for ten years, and resigned it, according
+to his own account, "because it was utterly impossible to continue
+the editor without interminable scrapes, together with a law-suit
+now and then." In the interim, however, certain important events
+had taken place. In the first place, he had published _Theodric_--a
+poem which, in spite of a most laudatory critique in the _Edinburgh
+Review_, left a painful impression on the public mind, and was
+generally considered as a symptom either that the rich mine of poesy
+was worked out, or that the genius of the author had been employed
+in a wrong direction. In the second place, he took an active share
+in the foundation of the London University. He appears, indeed,
+to have been the originator of the scheme, and to have managed
+the preliminary details with more than common skill and prudence.
+It was mainly through his exertions that it did not assume the
+aspect of a mere sectarian institution, bigoted in its principles
+and circumscribed in its sphere of utility. Shortly after this
+academical experiment, he was elected Lord Rector of the Glasgow
+University. Whatever abstract value may be attached to such an
+honour--and we are aware that very conflicting opinions have been
+expressed upon the point--this distinction was one of the most
+gratifying of all the tributes which were ever rendered to Campbell.
+He found himself preferred, by the students of that university
+where his first aspirations after fame had been roused, to one of
+the first orators and statesmen of the age; and his warm heart
+overflowed with delight at the kindly compliment. He resolved not
+to accept the office as a mere sinecure, but strictly to perform
+those duties which were prescribed by ancient statute, but which
+had fallen into abeyance by the carelessness of nominal Rectors.
+He entered as warmly into the feelings, and as cordially supported
+the interests of the students, as if the academical red gown of
+Glasgow had been still fresh upon his shoulders; and such being the
+case, it is not surprising that he was almost adored by his youthful
+constituents. This portion of the memoirs is very interesting: it
+displays the character of Campbell in a most amiable light; and the
+coldest reader cannot fail to peruse with pleasure the records of
+an ovation so truly gratifying to the sensibilities of the kind and
+affectionate poet. For three years, during which unusual period he
+held the office, his correspondence with the students never flagged;
+and it may be doubted whether the university ever possessed a better
+Rector.
+
+In 1831 he took up the Polish cause, and founded an association
+in London, which for many years was the main support of the
+unfortunate exiles who sought refuge in Britain. The public sympathy
+was at that time largely excited in their favour, not only by the
+gallant struggle which they had made for regaining their ancient
+independence, but from the subsequent severities perpetrated by the
+Russian government. Campbell, from his earliest years, had denounced
+the unprincipled partition of Poland; he watched the progress of
+the revolution with an anxiety almost amounting to fanaticism; and
+when the outbreak was at last put down by the strong hand of power,
+his passion exceeded all bounds. Day and night his thoughts were
+of Poland only: in his correspondence he hardly touched upon any
+other theme; and, carried away by his zeal to serve the exiles, he
+neglected his usual avocations. The mind of Campbell was naturally
+of an impulsive cast: but the fits were rather violent than
+enduring. This psychological tendency was, perhaps, his most serious
+misfortune, since it invariably prevented him from maturing the
+most important projects he conceived. Unless the scheme was such as
+could be executed with rapidity, he was apt to halt in the progress.
+
+He next became engaged in a new magazine speculation--_The
+Metropolitan_--which, instead of turning out, as he anticipated,
+a mine of wealth, very nearly involved him in serious pecuniary
+responsibility. After this, his public career gradually became
+less marked. The last poem which he published, _The Pilgrim of
+Glencoe_, exhibited few symptoms of the fire and energy conspicuous
+in his early efforts. "This work," says Dr Beattie, "in one or
+two instances was very favourably reviewed--in others, the tone
+of criticism was cold and austere; but neither praise nor censure
+could induce the public to judge for themselves; and silence, more
+fatal in such cases than censure, took the poem for a time under her
+wing. The poet himself expressed little surprise at the apathy with
+which his new volume had been received; but whatever indifference
+he felt for the influence it might have upon his reputation, he
+could not feel indifferent to the more immediate effect which a
+tardy or greatly diminished sale must have upon his prospects as a
+householder. 'A new poem from the pen of Campbell,' he was told,
+'was as good as a bill at sight;' but, from some error in the
+drawing, as it turned out, it was not negotiable; and the expenses
+into which he had been led, by trusting too much to popular favour,
+were now to be defrayed from other sources." It ought, however,
+to be remarked, that he had now arrived at his great climacteric.
+He was sixty-four years of age, and his constitution, never very
+robust, began to exhibit symptoms of decay. Dr Beattie, who had long
+watched him with affectionate solicitude, in the double character
+of physician and friend, thus notes his observation of the change.
+"At the breakfast or dinner table--particularly when surrounded
+by old friends--he was generally animated, full of anecdote, and
+always projecting new schemes of benevolence. But still there was a
+visible change in his conversation: it seemed to flow less freely;
+it required an effort to support it; and on topics in which he once
+felt a keen interest, he now said but little, or remained silent
+and thoughtful. The change in his outward appearance was still more
+observable; he walked with a feeble step, complained of constant
+chilliness; while his countenance, unless when he entered into
+conversation, was strongly marked with an expression of languor
+and anxiety. The sparkling intelligence that once animated his
+features was greatly obscured; he quoted his favourite authors with
+hesitation--because, he told me, he often could not recollect their
+names."
+
+The remainder of his life was spent in comparative seclusion. Long
+before this period he was left a solitary man. His wife, whom he
+loved with deep and enduring affection, was taken away--one of his
+sons died in childhood, and the other was stricken with a malady
+which proved incurable. But the kind offices of a nephew and niece,
+and the attentions of many friends, amongst whom Dr Beattie will
+always be remembered as the chief, soothed the last days of the
+poet, and supplied those duties which could not be rendered by
+dearer hands. He expired at Boulogne, on 15th June 1844, his age
+being sixty-seven, and his body was worthily interred in Westminster
+Abbey, with the honours of a public funeral.
+
+     "Never," says Beattie, "since the death of Addison, it was
+     remarked, had the obsequies of any literary man been attended by
+     circumstances more honourable to the national feeling, and more
+     expressive of cordial respect and homage, than those of Thomas
+     Campbell.
+
+     "Soon after noon, the procession began to move from the
+     Jerusalem Chamber to Poet's Corner, and in a few minutes passed
+     slowly down the long lofty aisle--
+
+    'Through breathing statues, then unheeded things;
+    Through rows of warriors, and through walks of kings.'
+
+     On each side the pillared avenues were lined with spectators,
+     all watching the solemn pageant in reverential silence, and
+     mostly in deep mourning. The Rev. Henry Milman, himself an
+     eminent poet, headed the procession; while the service for the
+     dead, answered by the deep-toned organ, in sounds like distant
+     thunder, produced an effect of indescribable solemnity. One only
+     feeling seemed to pervade the assembled spectators, and was
+     visible on every face--a desire to express their sympathy in a
+     manner suitable to the occasion. He who had celebrated the glory
+     and enjoyed the favour of his country for more than forty years,
+     had come at last to take his appointed chamber in the Hall of
+     Death--to mingle ashes with those illustrious predecessors, who,
+     by steep and difficult paths, had attained a lofty eminence in
+     her literature, and made a lasting impression on the national
+     heart."
+
+We observe that Dr Beattie has, very properly, passed over with
+little notice certain statements, emanating from persons who
+styled themselves the friends of Campbell, regarding his habits of
+life during the latter portion of his years. It is a misfortune
+incidental to almost all men of genius, that they are surrounded
+by a fry of small literary adulators, who, in order to magnify
+themselves, make a practice of reporting every circumstance, however
+trivial, which falls under their observation, and who are not always
+very scrupulous in adhering to the truth. Campbell, who had the
+full poetical share of vanity in his composition, was peculiarly
+liable to the attacks of such insidious worshippers, and was not
+sufficiently careful in the selection of his associates. Hence
+imputations, not involving any question of honour or morality, but
+implying frailty to a considerable degree, have been openly hazarded
+by some who, in their own persons, are no patterns of the cardinal
+virtues. Such statements do no honour either to the heart or the
+judgment of those who devised them: nor would we have even touched
+upon the subject, save to reprobate, in the strongest manner, these
+breaches of domestic privacy, and of ill-judged and unmerited
+confidence.
+
+A good deal of the correspondence printed in these volumes is of a
+trifling nature, and interferes materially with the conciseness of
+the biography. We do not mean to say that anything objectionable
+has been included, but there are too many notes and epistles upon
+familiar topics, which neither illustrate the peculiar tone of
+Campbell's mind, nor throw any light whatever upon his poetical
+history. But the correspondence with his own family is highly
+interesting. Nowhere does Campbell appear in a higher and more
+estimable point of view, than in the character of son and brother.
+Even in the hours of his darkest adversity, we find him sharing his
+small and precarious gains with his mother and sisters; and they
+were in an equal degree the participators of his better fortunes.
+His fondness and consideration for his wife and children are most
+conspicuous; and many of his letters regarding his boy, when "the
+dark shadow" had passed across his mind, are extremely affecting.
+Those who have a taste for the modern style of maundering about
+children, and the perverted pictures of infancy so common in our
+social literature, may not, perhaps, see much to admire in the
+following extract from a letter by Campbell, announcing the birth of
+his eldest child: to us it appears a pure and exquisite picture:--
+
+     "This little gentleman all this while looked to be so proud of
+     his new station in society, that he held up his blue eyes and
+     placid little face with perfect indifference to what people
+     about him felt or thought. Our first interview was when he lay
+     in his little crib, in the midst of white muslin and dainty
+     lace, prepared by Matilda's hands, long before the stranger's
+     arrival. I verily believe, in spite of my partiality, that
+     lovelier babe was never smiled upon by the light of heaven. He
+     was breathing sweetly in his first sleep. I durst not waken him,
+     but ventured to give him one kiss. He gave a faint murmur, and
+     opened his little azure lights. Since that time he has continued
+     to grow in grace and stature. I can take him in my arms; but
+     still his good nature and his beauty are but provocatives to
+     the affection which one must not indulge: he cannot bear to
+     be hugged, he cannot yet stand a worrying. Oh! that I were
+     sure he would live to the days when I could take him on my
+     knee, and feel the strong plumpness of childhood waxing into
+     vigorous youth. My poor boy! shall I have the ecstasy to teach
+     him thoughts and knowledge, and reciprocity of love to me? It
+     is bold to venture into futurity so far! at present his lovely
+     little face is a comfort to me; his lips breathe that fragrance
+     which it is one of the loveliest kindnesses of Nature that she
+     has given to infants--a sweetness of smell more delightful than
+     all the treasures of Arabia. What adorable beauties of God and
+     Nature's bounty we live in without knowing! How few have ever
+     seemed to think an infant beautiful! But to me there seems to be
+     a beauty in the earliest dawn of infancy which is not inferior
+     to the attractions of childhood, especially when they sleep.
+     Their looks excite a more tender train of emotions. It is like
+     the tremulous anxiety which we feel for a candle new lighted,
+     which we dread going out."
+
+The sensibility, too, which he uniformly exhibited towards those
+who had shown him kindness, especially his older and earlier
+friends, is exceedingly pleasing. In writing to or speaking of
+the Rev. Archibald Alison and Dugald Stewart, his tone is one of
+heartfelt, and almost filial, affection and reverence; and amongst
+all the benevolent actions performed by those great and good men,
+there were few to which they could revert with more pleasure than
+to their seasonable patronage of the young and sanguine poet. With
+his literary contemporaries, also, he lived upon good terms,--a
+circumstance rather remarkable, for Campbell, notwithstanding his
+good-nature, was sufficiently touchy, and keenly alive to satire or
+hostile criticism. Excepting an early quarrel with John Leyden, on
+the score of some reported misrepresentation, a temporary feud with
+Moore, which was speedily reconciled, and a short and unacrimonious
+disruption from Bowles, we are not aware that he ever differed with
+any of his gifted brethren. He was upon the best terms with Scott;
+and Dr Beattie has given us several valuable specimens of their
+mutual correspondence. With Rogers he was intimate to the last: and
+even the sarcastic and dangerous Byron always mentioned him with
+expressions of regard. Let us add, moreover, that, whenever he had
+the power, he was ready, even in instances where his own interest
+might have counselled otherwise, to lend a helping hand to others
+who were struggling for literary reputation. This generous impulse
+was sometimes carried so far as to injure him in his editorial
+capacity; for, although fastidious to a degree as to the quality of
+his own writings, it was always with a sore heart that he shut the
+door in the face of a needy contributor.
+
+The querulousness with which Campbell complains throughout, of the
+cruel treatment which he met with at the hands of the publishers,
+would be amusing if it were not at the same time most unjust. He
+acknowledges, in a letter written to Mr Richardson, so late as
+1812, that the sale of his poems, for a series of years before, had
+yielded him, on an average, £500 per annum: not a bad annuity, we
+think, as the proceeds of a couple of volumes! We happen to know,
+moreover, that by the first publication of _Gertrude_ Campbell
+made upwards of a thousand pounds; and, unless we are grievously
+misinformed, he received from Mr Murray, for the copyright of the
+_Specimens_, a similar sum, being double the amount contracted for.
+We have already mentioned the publication of a subscription edition
+of the _Pleasures of Hope_, "which," says Dr Beattie, "with great
+liberality on the part of the publishers, was to be brought out for
+his own exclusive benefit." We should not have alluded to these
+matters, which, however, we believe, are no secrets, but for the
+publication by Dr Beattie of some very absurd expressions used and
+reiterated by Campbell. Such phrases as the following constantly
+occur: "They are the greatest ravens on earth with whom we have to
+deal--liberal enough as booksellers go--but still, you know, ravens,
+croakers, suckers of innocent blood, and living men's brains." Nor,
+in the opinion of Campbell, were these outrages confined merely to
+the living subjects, for he says, in reference to the older tenants
+of Parnassus, "Poor Bards! you are all ill used, even after death,
+by those who have lived upon your brains. And now, having scooped
+out those brains, they drink out of them, like Vandals out of the
+skulls of the severed and slain, served up by a Gothic Ganymede!"
+Further, in speaking of Napoleon, he says, " Perhaps in my feelings
+towards the Gallic usurper there may be some personal bias; for I
+must confess that, ever since he shot the bookseller in Germany,
+I have had a warm side to him. It was sacrificing an offering, by
+the hand of genius, to the manes of the victims immolated by the
+trade; and I only wish we had Nap here for a short time, to cut out
+a few of our own cormorants." The fact is, that so far from Campbell
+being ill-used by the trade, they behaved towards him with uncommon
+liberality. It is true that, in several instances, they hesitated
+in making high terms for work not yet commenced, with a man who was
+notoriously deficient in punctuality and perseverance; nor are they
+to be blamed, when we consider the number of his schemes, and the
+very few instances in which these were brought to maturity.
+
+On the whole, then, though we cannot bestow unqualified praise upon
+Dr Beattie, for the manner in which he has compiled these volumes,
+we shall state that we have passed no unprofitable hours in their
+perusal. We rise from them with full appreciation of the many
+excellent points in the poet's character, with an augmented regard
+for his memory on account of the virtues so eminently displayed,
+and with no lessened reverence for the man in consequence of the
+admitted foibles from which none of the human family are exempt.
+The book may be practically useful to those who aspire to literary
+eminence, and who are apt to rely too confidently and implicitly on
+the powers with which they are naturally gifted. So long as Campbell
+was under restraint--so long as he was subjected to the wholesome
+discipline of the University, and forced into the race of emulation,
+we find that his genius was largely and rapidly developed. He was
+not a mere philological scholar, though his attainments in Greek
+might have put many a pedant to the blush; but he improved his sense
+of beauty and his taste by the contemplation of the Attic flowers;
+and, without injuring his style by any affectation of antiquity
+unsuited to the tone of his age, he adorned it by many of the graces
+which are presented by the ancient models. At Glasgow he worked hard
+and won merited honours. But afterwards, by abandoning himself to a
+desultory course of study and of composition, by never acting upon
+the wise and sure plan of keeping one object only steadily in view,
+and persevering in spite of all difficulties until that point was
+attained,--he failed in realising the high expectations which were
+justified by his early promise. As it is, Campbell's name is ranked
+high in the roll of the British poets; but assuredly he would have
+occupied a still more exalted place, and also have avoided much
+of that anxiety which at times clouded his existence, if he had
+used his fine natural gifts with but a portion of the energy and
+determination of his great compatriot, Scott.
+
+In conclusion let us remark, that however Dr Beattie may have
+erred on the side of prolixity, by including in the compass of the
+memoirs some trifling and irrelevant matter, he is more than concise
+whenever it is necessary to allude to his own relationship with
+Campbell. He has made no parade whatever of his intimacy with the
+poet; and no stranger, in perusing these volumes, could discover
+that to Beattie Campbell was substantially indebted for many
+disinterested acts of friendship, which contributed largely to the
+comfort of his declining years. This modesty is a rare feature in
+modern biography; and, when it does occur so remarkably as here, we
+are bound to mention it with special honour.
+
+
+
+
+THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS.
+
+
+All over Europe, of late, we have been hearing a great deal of
+universities and students. The trencher-cap has claimed a right to
+take its part in the movements which make or mar the destinies of
+nations, by the side of plumed casque and priestly tiara. Whether it
+was the beer of the German burschen that "decocted their cold blood
+to such valiant heat," or whether their practice in make-believe
+duels had imparted a savage appetite for foeman's blood in some
+more genuine combat, or whether Fichte's metaphysics had fairly
+muddled their brains into delirium, certain it is that they have,
+wheresoever they could find an opportunity, been foremost in the
+cause of demolition and disorder, vied with and encouraged the
+lowest of the rabble in lawless aggressions, exulted in the glow of
+blazing houses, and cried havoc to rapine and murder.
+
+It is curious that, while all this has been going on in Europe, the
+attention of the public should have been so much occupied by the
+condition of our English universities. Still more curious is it,
+perhaps, that so large a portion of the attention thus directed
+should have assumed an objurgatory tone, as if Oxford and Cambridge
+were not duly performing their functions, as if they were of a
+character suited only to bygone ages, as if, in short, they were
+doing nothing. True enough, in one sense, they were "doing nothing."
+There was no academical legion formed--none, at least, that we
+heard of--in Christchurch Meadows or Trinity Walks; no body of
+sympathising students marched to London, with the view of taking
+part in the democratic exhibitions of the 10th of April. If Cuffey
+is to be President of the British Republic, he must search for the
+body-guard of democracy elsewhere than on the banks of the Cam and
+the Isis. No doubt this excellent result is attributable, in a great
+measure, to the loyalty of the professional and middle classes, from
+which our university students principally spring. Their feelings
+will naturally be akin to those of their relations and friends. But
+when, in so many other instances, we see the academic population
+taking the lead in the work of revolution, beyond any spirit which
+exists among their kindred, and urged on by a democratic madness of
+purely academic growth, we cannot help holding that some credit on
+behalf of the loyalty of English students is due to the institutions
+by the influence of which they are surrounded.
+
+We are inclined to think that the public have not been sufficiently
+alive to this not unimportant difference between Oxford and
+Heidelberg--Cambridge and Vienna. Certes, but little account was
+taken of the peaceful bearing of our academic population. On the
+contrary, much supercilious wordiness has been lavished, more or
+less to the discredit of cap and gown, by portions of the London
+press in the lead, and, as a necessary consequence, by provincial
+journalists _ad libitum_. This talk, current now for some years,
+was all concentrated and endued with new vigour by a movement of
+the University of Cambridge itself. The people who stop your way
+by talking of "progress," and deal out dark rhodomontade on the
+subject of "enlightenment," were all set agog by what they thought
+a symptom of capitulation in the strongholds of the Ancient. All
+our old imbecile friends, the cant phrases of twenty and thirty
+years ago, started up as fresh as paint, ready to go through all
+the handling they had before endured. We heard of, "keeping alive
+ancient prejudices," "cleaving pertinaciously to obsolete forms,"
+"following a monastic rule," "forgetting the world outside their
+college walls," and multifarious twaddle of this sort, till the
+Pope fled from Rome, or some other little revolution occurred to
+withdraw the attention of the public from this set of phrases to
+another, no doubt not less forcible and original. Others, again,
+took a friendly tone and spoke apologetically: it was a great thing
+to get any move at all from the university: those who took the lead
+in her management were not men who mixed with the world at large,
+and allowance must be made if they did not altogether march with
+the times. "The world at large" is an expression of very doubtful
+import: "all think their little set mankind:" but when the resident
+fellows of colleges are charged with not duly mixing with the world
+at large, we cannot help thinking that those who use the phrase are
+ignoring the existence of the Didcot Junction and Eastern Counties
+Railway, and borrowing their ideas of academic life from the time
+when Hobson travelled "betwixt Cambridge and the Bull." As far
+as our observation goes, we should say that there is no class of
+persons who have better opportunities of taking an extended view
+of different phases of social being, or who are more disposed to
+take advantage of those opportunities. A fellow of a college is not
+engaged much more than half the year in university business; for
+four months, at the very least, he generally has it in his power
+to expatiate where he will, from May Fair to Mesopotamia; he has
+no household ties to detain him, and if he does not rub off the
+lexicographic rust, and the mathematical mouldiness, which he may
+have contracted during his labours of the term, he must be possessed
+of a local attachment almost vegetable: some few instances of
+which secluded existence still linger in quiet nooks of our halls
+and colleges, but which are no more the types of their class than
+Parson Trulliber is a representative of the country clergy, or the
+stage Diggory of the English yeoman. But the self-complacency of
+Cockneyism is the most unshaken thing in this revolutionary age.
+It is perfectly ready to lecture the parson on the teaching of
+Greek, or the Yorkshire farmer on the fattening of bullocks. All
+the distributive machinery in the world does not diminish, it would
+seem, the absorption of intelligence by the Ward of Cheap.
+
+We are not, however, surprised that the conclusions, on which we
+have remarked, should be those arrived at by the large class of
+small observers whose phraseology we have quoted. The bustling man
+of business, who takes his day-ticket to Oxford or Cambridge, is
+of course struck by seeing a number of usages, for the original
+of which, if he inquire, he is referred back to hoar mediæval
+times--times which his Cockney guides dispose of by some such phrase
+as crass ignorance, or feudal barbarism. He is naturally surprised
+at such things; he never saw anything like it before; they don't
+do so in Mincing Lane, or even in Gower Street. He can hardly be
+expected to view these matters in their relation to the system of
+which they form a part; he can hardly be expected to realise in
+them the symbols through which the _genius loci_ finds an utterance
+and exerts an agency; and so he goes smiling home in his railway
+carriage, and perhaps buys a number of _Punch_ by the way, and
+thinks that there is more practical wisdom in that periodical than
+is embodied in the great monuments of William of Wykeham or Lady
+Margaret.
+
+Nevertheless, while we rebut these vague general charges of a blind
+impassibility to the influences of the time, we are far from denying
+that a tendency to cling to ancient ideas and observances is a
+characteristic of the universities. This tendency is a property of
+all corporate institutions, and is commonly the reason of their
+foundation. They are to perpetuate to a future time a feeling or
+design of the present; to form a nucleus, round which the thoughts
+and principles of one age congregate, and are thus handed down to
+another in a preserved and crystallised form. Changes of ideas pass
+upon them of necessity, through the individual liability of their
+constituent members to be affected by the current of the passing
+time; but these changes take place rather by a gradual fusion of
+the old into the new, than by those sudden transitions to which the
+popular and prevailing opinions are so often subjected. And it may
+fairly be supposed that, by means of this property, corporations are
+more likely to adopt and amalgamate into their framework that which
+is most permanent and genuine, out of all that the ever-changing
+tide of time casts upon the shore.
+
+Perhaps, too, this tenacity of the bygone will more naturally be
+found to be a characteristic of the universities, than of other
+corporations. The spots which they occupy are holy ground, fraught
+with historic memories of the great and wise of former days. The
+_genius loci_ is a mighty advocate in behalf of antiquity:--
+
+    "As the ghost of Homer clings
+     Round Scamander's wasting springs;
+     As divinest Shakspeare's might
+     Fills Avon and the world with light;"
+
+--so we may not well pass unaffected by the congregation of priest,
+and poet, and sage, whose recollections consecrate the banks of
+our academic rivers. As we go beneath "Bacon's mansion," or about
+Milton's mulberry tree; as we kneel where Newton knelt, or dine in
+halls where the portraits of Erasmus, and Fisher, and Taylor, look
+down upon us,--these are not times and places for the dogmatism and
+arrogance of "the nineteenth century"--for bragging of our advance
+and illumination, or sneering at "the good old times." This is in
+accordance with the law of our nature; but these recollections, and
+the lessons which they teach, are not, if rightly laid hold of,
+such as to induce a mere blind attachment to the skeletons of dead
+notions and practices. And although it may, perhaps must, happen
+that, at any given time, there may be found relics adhering to the
+system, whose vitality and meaning have been withdrawn by time,
+and left them dry and sapless, yet we will venture to assert that,
+if a dogged adherence to antiquated forms could fairly be charged
+on the universities, they could never have maintained their ground
+amidst the mighty historical transmutations that have passed over
+their heads. Civil wars and popular tumults have raged around them;
+the throne has yielded to violence and to intrigue; the Church has
+admitted modifications, both of her doctrine and her discipline;
+and, more than all, the still more important, though silent and
+gradual changes--changes to which the striking and salient events of
+history are but the indexes and visible signs--changes of thought
+and rule of action--have risen and sunk, and ebbed and flowed, and
+still these stable monuments of the piety and munificence of men
+whose names are almost unknown, remain unshorn of their ancient
+vigour, and intimately entwined with our social system.
+
+But it is time that we should come to particulars, and make known
+to our readers, as briefly as we can, the nature of the alterations
+recently introduced at Cambridge, which have called forth so
+much objurgatory commendation from quarters, which were commonly
+considered to entertain tolerably destructive views in regard to the
+universities. We say objurgatory commendation, because the faint
+praise of a "move in the right direction" was generally more or
+less coupled with vigorous denunciation of the antiquated obstinacy
+which had so long kept in the wrong. And here we must premise the
+statement of certain qualities of the age in which we live, which
+will have fallen under the notice of all observers. Perhaps the most
+distinguishing feature of our time is the principle which forms the
+life and soul of retail trade--the principle which sets men to busy
+themselves about small and immediate returns for outlay; which looks
+more to the gains across the counter, than to the advantage which
+is general, or distant, or future. In a word, _practicality_ is the
+ruling passion of our day. As might have been expected, education,
+among other things, has been subjected to this huckstering test.
+People have asked, what is the market value of this or that branch
+of learning? Will it get a boy on in the world? Will it enable him
+to provide for himself soon? Will the returns for the expenditure
+I am going to make be quick and certain? Cowper represents the
+father of a son intended for the church as speculating on his young
+hopeful's prospects after the following fashion:--
+
+    "Let reverend churls his ignorance rebuke,
+     Who starve upon a dog's-eared Pentateuch,
+     The parson knows enough who knows a duke."
+
+In these days the acquaintance of a duke is not of the same relative
+value as it was when Cowper wrote; but this sort of worldly-wise
+calculation is more prevalent than ever, and the cry of the largest
+class of the public is--give us such knowledge as will _pay_.
+Those who took this commercial view of education derived no small
+encouragement from the circumstance that Prince Albert, the learned
+field-marshal, and warlike chancellor of Cambridge University,
+had interfered to promote the culture of modern languages in
+these venerable precincts of Eton, where for many a year Henry's
+holy shade had watched the growth of an education of less obvious
+utility. How was young Thomas or William "the better off" for being
+able to con "the tale of Troy divine?" But teach him to mince a
+little French, simper a little Italian, snarl a little German, and
+there he is at once accomplished for an _attaché_, a correspondent,
+or a bagman--profitable walks of life all of them. And the same
+notions mounted still higher in the ascendant, when the senate of
+the University of Cambridge apparently evinced a desire to examine
+the requirements of that body by the same standard.
+
+The first step of this kind was taken about three years ago. Most
+of our readers are aware that, at Cambridge, those candidates
+for a degree who do not aspire to honours are said to go out in
+the _poll_; this being the abbreviated term to denote those who
+were classically designated �ι πολλοι. Now the qualifications
+required for attaining this poll degree consisted of an acquaintance
+with a part of Homer, a part of Virgil, a part of the Greek
+Testament, and Paley's _Evidences of Christianity_, over and
+above the mathematics, of which we shall speak presently. By
+what curious infelicity the recondite, and, in many particulars,
+inexplicable language of Homer has been so commonly selected for
+beginners in Greek at school, and, as in this case, for those who
+were not expected to appear as accomplished scholars--we need not
+here stop to inquire. Suffice it to say that the university, in
+this initial reform, ousted Homer and Virgil from the course, and
+supplied their places with a Latin and Greek author, to be varied
+in each successive year. This was decidedly an improvement, at
+least as regards Homer, for the reason we have alluded to above.
+Perhaps a better innovation would have been to have followed the
+Oxford system, and allowed to the student a choice of his author.
+But it is a great misfortune that the university, in recasting
+this course, did not substitute a work of some one of the logical
+or philosophical authors current in the English language, for the
+shallow and plausible book of Paley's above mentioned--with regard
+to which it would be difficult to say whether it is worse chosen as
+a model of reasoning, or as a proof of Christian facts.
+
+The mathematical portion of this course consisted of Euclid,
+algebra, and trigonometry, the student being thus trained in the
+model processes of pure mathematical reasoning left us by the
+first, and also brought acquainted with the elementary operations
+of analysis. As a matter of mental training, the most valuable
+portion of this curriculum was the knowledge acquired of the
+geometrical processes employed by Euclid, as familiarising the mind
+of the student with the severest forms of reasoning, and the steps
+whereby indubitable verity is attained. This portion, however, was
+most especially selected for curtailment by the reforms to which
+we are alluding. In the stead of the requirements thus displaced,
+a motley amount of elementary propositions in statics, dynamics,
+and hydrostatics, were substituted--useful information enough as
+instances of the simpler applications of the analytical machinery
+of mathematics, but comparatively worthless as an exercise of
+the mind. Country clergymen, whose forgotten mathematics loomed
+grandly on their minds through the mist of years, were confounded
+with disappointment at beholding their sons, in whom they expected
+to find philosophers, return to them with an examination paper,
+apparently rather calculated to unfold the mysteries of engineering,
+well-sinking, and carpentering.
+
+This object--the practicability and immediate utility of the studies
+pursued, in preference to the superiority of mental training
+derivable from them--seems to be simply that which has dictated
+the recent innovations of 1848. The principle which entered into
+both measures may easily be traced in the prevalent phases of
+literature and science throughout the public at large. A few years
+ago, every one fancied himself a philosopher. Little volumes,
+cabinet cyclopædias and the like, swarmed on the booksellers'
+shelves, containing a string of disjointed and bald scientific
+facts, involving no truth and expressive of no law, but more or less
+adroitly arranged under several heads, with a _savant_ air. The
+man of business--the apprentice--the boarding-school miss--took it
+into their heads that a royal road was thus opened to all branches
+of useful and entertaining knowledge,--that the acquirements of
+Bacon were "in this wonderful age" brought within the reach of
+every one who had an occasional hour or two in the day to spare
+from more mechanical employments; and that the progress from
+ignorance to philosophy was as much facilitated by these little-book
+contrivances, as the journey from London to Birmingham, by the
+rushing railway-train, was an advance upon the week's toil of our
+forefathers in accomplishing the same space. Much of this mania for
+desultory knowledge has evaporated, but its influences are still
+distinctly to be traced among us. It is not surprising that those
+influences should in some measure have affected the universities.
+In accordance with the popular notions afloat, the Cambridge
+legislators followed up the alteration which we have been describing
+by the adoption of their recent measures, by which they effected an
+extension of their field of "honours" similar to that which they
+had already accomplished in the qualifications for the ordinary
+degree. To the old "triposes," or classes of honours in mathematics
+and classics, they have now added two more--namely, one in moral
+sciences and one in natural sciences.
+
+Before, however, we offer any conjectures as to the probable
+effect of these yet untried changes, we must remind our readers
+of a certain characteristic of the Cambridge system, which is
+important in estimating the internal relations of the late reforms.
+The academic life of Cambridge circulates through two concurrent
+systems, which we may term the university and the collegiate system.
+The university is one corporation, and each individual college is
+altogether another. The union between the two systems might be
+dissolved without difficulty. If the university were to abandon
+her ancient seat, and take up some new abode, as she did for a
+time at Northampton some centuries ago, the colleges might still
+remain as places of education, with but little modification of their
+present character. The older system--the university--has had its
+functions gradually absorbed in a great measure by the collegiate.
+The earliest form in which Cambridge appears, dimly seen in hoar
+antiquity, is that of a congregation of students, commonly living
+together for mutual convenience in hostels, governed by a code
+of statutes, and endowed with the privilege of granting degrees.
+Then came the founders of colleges, with their noble endowments,
+and reared edifices, in which societies of these students should
+live together under a common rule, and form distinct corporations
+by themselves, for purposes connected with, and auxiliary to,
+those of the university. The latter body has from time immemorial
+matriculated only those who were already members of some one or
+other of the colleges; but there probably was a time at which a
+student in the university was not necessarily a member of any
+college, until by degrees these foundations absorbed into their
+composition the whole of the academic population. By-and-by, the
+principal part of the functions of teaching also lapsed into the
+hands of the colleges. In the old times, the university discharged
+this duty by means of the public readings or lectures by the newly
+admitted masters of arts, (termed _regents_,) and by the keeping of
+acts and opponencies--being certain _vivâ voce_ disputations--by
+the students. To this system, comprehending the main studies of the
+place, was superadded, by individual endowment or royal beneficence,
+the collateral information on special subjects given by the
+professors. The colleges were altogether subsidiary to this mode
+of instruction--the practice being that every student who enrolled
+himself in the ranks of a particular college, must do so under the
+charge of some one of the fellows of the college, who became a kind
+of private tutor to him. Hence arose college tutors; and as their
+lectures, given in each separate college, were found to be the most
+efficient aids in prosecuting the university studies, the readings
+of the masters of arts gradually fell altogether into disuse, and
+the _vivâ voce_ exercises of the students have nearly done so.
+
+Possibly, along with the transfer of the functions of lecturing
+from the university regents to the college tutors, the professorial
+chairs may also have declined in importance as an element of
+the academic education. But, as we have before seen, these were
+never the main vehicle for the dispensation of knowledge on the
+part of the university. Nevertheless, we suspect that one object
+of the recently erected triposes is to revive the importance of
+the professors' lectures in the university course. For it is now
+required that every one who presents himself as a candidate for the
+ordinary or _poll_ degree, shall have attended the lectures of some
+one of the professors at his individual choice; and these lectures
+will, moreover, be necessary guides in the studies required of
+those who aim at the honours of the new triposes. It seems clear,
+therefore, that the devisers of the scheme had it in contemplation,
+through the medium of their changes, to fill the class-rooms of
+the professors, and so far to assimilate the modern system to the
+ancient, by bringing the university instruction into more active
+play. We are disposed to question the wisdom of these proceedings.
+Until now, the university and the colleges had apportioned their
+several functions, by assigning to the latter the duty of imparting
+proficiency in the studies cultivated; to the former, that of
+testing proficiency attained. The two systems had thus harmonised,
+as we believe, in conformity with the requirements of the age by
+lapse of time; and if it was deemed desirable to disturb this
+arrangement, and restore the faculty of teaching to the university,
+this should rather have been done, we think, by reviving the system
+of _vivâ voce_ disputations, now altogether disused except in the
+progress to a degree in law, physic, or divinity; but which would
+form, under proper regulations, an important adjunct to the ordinary
+course, by cultivating a decision, a readiness, and an ingenuity
+in reasoning, which are comparatively left dormant by a written
+examination. Again, it is, as we consider, altogether a mistake
+to suppose that the primary end of a professorial existence is to
+deliver lectures. The endowment of a professorship is rather, as
+we take it, to enable the holder of it to give up his time to the
+particular science to which he is devoted; and it is by no means
+necessary, especially in these days, when words are so easily winged
+by the printer's devil, that the results of his labours should be
+given forth by oral lectures. At the same time, when his subject,
+and his manner of treating it, were such as to command interest,
+he was at no loss for an audience. The professorships, however,
+being mostly established for the purpose of aiding the pursuit of
+the inductive sciences, side by side with the severer studies of
+the university, fell under the patronage of the spirit of the age.
+Whether the sciences, for the promotion of which they were founded,
+will be materially advanced by this sort of "protection," remains to
+be seen.
+
+It is likely enough, we think, that some confusion may arise from
+this revival of the lecturing powers of the university. This,
+however, will be easily obviated in practice, as the two systems
+have never, so far as we are aware, manifested anything like a
+mutual antagonism or jealousy of each other. A greater practical
+difficulty is one which appears to be left untouched by the new
+regime. We allude to the growing plan of instruction by private
+tutors--a calling which has sprang up, in the strictest principles
+of demand and supply, to meet the eagerness for external aid which
+has been induced by the great competition for university honours.
+The existence and increasing importance of the class of private
+tutors has been decried as an evil; and it, no doubt, enhances
+considerably the expenses attendant on a college education. But,
+after all, this is only part and parcel of the lot which has fallen
+to us in these latter days of merry England. There are so many of
+us, and we keep so constantly adding to our numbers, that we must
+not be surprised at more pushing and contrivance being required to
+realise a livelihood than heretofore; and as the end to be attained
+increases in its relative importance, the outlay attendant on its
+attainment will, in the ordinary course of things, be augmented
+also. It is not our intention, however, to discuss at this time
+the merits or demerits of the private-tutor system; it suffices
+for our purpose to notice it as the reappearance, in another form,
+of the old functions of instruction, as lodged in the hands of the
+university regents. As the collegiate system gradually supplanted
+that pristine form, so the office of the private tutors is, to a
+certain extent, supplanting the collegiate system. These instructors
+are likely, as we before said, to occupy, under the new rules, much
+the same place as they held under the old; and indeed it appears
+that, whether desirable or not, it would be extremely difficult to
+get rid of them; at all events the colleges, being now trenched upon
+by the university professors on the one hand, and by the private
+tutors on the other, must exert themselves to ascertain their proper
+functions, and to fulfil them with zeal and energy.
+
+As for the new triposes themselves, it may be doubted whether the
+name given to them is not the most unfortunate part of them. The
+common name of Tripos looks like a confusion of ideas on the part
+of the university itself, and a want of discrimination between its
+old studies and its new. At first, probably, the recent triposes
+will be comparatively neglected, and on that ground alone it is both
+misjudging and unfair to include in the same category of "honours"
+and "tripos," classes which are respectively the subject of ardent
+competition and of none at all. But supposing that the new classes
+attracted their fair share of competitors, it would still be a
+grievous fault in the university to hold out to the world so false
+an estimate of the vehicle of mental training, as it would appear
+to do by placing on a par the new studies and the old--by assuming,
+or seeming to assume, that ratiocinative thought may be as well
+employed about the fallacies of Mr Ricardo, as the exact reasoning
+and indubitable verities of Euclid and Newton; or that the faculties
+of discrimination and speculation may be unfolded by the "getting
+up" of botanical or chemical nomenclature, not less than by the new
+world of thought opened through the authors of Greece and Rome. We
+must, however, confess that we are now taking the most unfavourable
+view of the matter. With respect, indeed, to the natural sciences'
+tripos, we cannot help being fully of opinion, that it should have
+been distinctly recognised as subsidiary to the main vehicles of
+education adopted at Cambridge. But the moral sciences' tripos
+furnishes, if properly constructed, an excellent means for training
+thought. It is a great misfortune that the study of Aristotle has
+been suffered at Cambridge to fall almost into desuetude: we speak
+of the philosophical study of his works in contradistinction to
+the philological. The former is maintained at Oxford with great
+success; thus combining, with Oxford scholarship, a training of the
+reasoning powers which is almost an equivalent for the mathematical
+studies of her sister university. Moreover, the literature of Great
+Britain boasts of a band of moral philosophers far greater than any
+other modern nation can produce. The works of Butler, Cudworth,
+Berkeley, Hume, Reid, and Stewart, with many others, form a group
+of authorities worthy of the groves of Academus. The metaphysics
+of Locke--we should rather say, the wall which Locke has built
+up between the English mind and the science of metaphysics--has
+too long prevented the moral reasoners of this country from duly
+availing themselves of the treasures at their command. Under the
+guidance of such lights as those we have enumerated, we may hope
+to see a school of metaphysical thinkers arise in England, whose
+exertions may dissipate the mist of half-thought in which Teutonic
+speculation has involved the science of its choice. If, however, the
+tap-root of our metaphysical thought is to be cut through by the
+study of the plausibilities of Locke and Paley, (no very unlikely
+issue, we should fear, at least under present circumstances,) then
+this moral sciences' tripos also is one of those things which had
+better never have been.
+
+We repeat that Cambridge has incurred great blame, if she has
+allowed herself to mislead, or to seem to mislead, the popular
+mind on these matters. The more talkative portion of the public,
+and the newspapers which commonly represent that more talkative
+portion, have evidently been inclined to interpret this movement of
+Cambridge as an indication of a most utilitarian system of education
+coming to supplant the old rules. They anticipate all sorts of
+civil engineering, butterfly-dissecting, light geology, and a whole
+Babel of modern languages, to be victoriously let loose on the home
+where for many a century Wisdom has sat with the scroll of Plato
+on her knee, and Science has unravelled the wizard lore of fluxion
+and equation. The senate of Cambridge is egregiously mistaken if it
+supposes that it will win over to its body the students of these
+popular branches of knowledge, by following the dictation of the
+popular taste. Those who want to be civil engineers will not come
+to a university to learn their art. They will follow Brunel and
+Stephenson, and see how the work is actually done in practice; and
+those who do so will soon prove themselves far superior, _quoad_
+civil engineering, to the Cambridge-bred theorist. In like manner,
+a month's flirtation in Paris, or a few games at _écarté_ with a
+German baron, will teach the student of modern languages more French
+or German than all the philologists of Oxford, Cambridge, or Eton
+can impart in a year.
+
+  "Quam quisque nôrit artem, in hâc se exerceat."
+
+If the public have mistaken the functions of the university, it
+is the more incumbent on her to assert them correctly. Nor is
+the outcry less groundless, that the universities have failed to
+furnish the best men in law and medicine. With regard to the law,
+certain gentlemen were even cited by name, in leading articles of
+newspapers, as types of the class of men who were now taking the
+lead at the bar, and representing an altogether different school
+from that trained at the universities. The fact of the university
+men being supplanted, or being likely to be supplanted, at the bar,
+may admit of considerable question. But it is not, after all, the
+question by which the universities are to be judged. They do not
+undertake to make men great lawyers or skilful physicians; this,
+where it does belong to their functions, is a collateral duty, and
+not the main object of their training. That object is distinctly
+avowed in their own formularies. That noble clause in the "bidding
+prayer" will attach itself to the memories of most of those who have
+heard it:
+
+"_And that there never may be wanting a supply of persons duly
+qualified to serve God, both in Church and State_, let us pray
+for a blessing on all seminaries of sound learning and religious
+education, particularly the universities of this realm."
+
+A higher end to be attained, perhaps, than that of merely qualifying
+the student to "get on in the world." His university education is
+not so much to enable him to attain those eminent stations which
+are the prizes of ability and industry, as to fit him to adorn and
+fill worthily those stations when he has attained them. In truth,
+we think it is not desirable, any more than necessary, that a
+degree should be an essential opening to the bar, the profession of
+medicine, or even the Church. The university is injured by being too
+much regarded as a step to be got over with the view of reaching
+some ulterior end.
+
+We dwell on this point with the more interest, because we are
+satisfied that a still greater responsibility rests with the
+universities, to guard the fountains of knowledge pure and
+unsullied, in those days of professed knowledge, than in the
+so-called dark ages. Our day is rich in the knowledge of _facts_;
+there were many _truths_ influencing those men of the times we
+please to call dark, which we have ignored or forgotten. The general
+demand for information--for this knowledge of facts--has made
+it a marketable commodity, a subject of commercial speculation;
+consequently, a vast deal that is shallow and desultory, a vast
+deal, too, that is counterfeit and fraudulent, is abroad, made up
+for the market, and circulates among multitudes who are incapable
+of separating the grain from the chaff. It is therefore, we repeat,
+even more important that the sources of learning should be guarded
+from contamination, now that the antagonistic principles are the
+knowledge of truth and the subserviency to falsehood, than when, at
+the revival of literature, the struggle was between knowledge and
+ignorance.
+
+We would have the universities remember that it is their best policy
+as corporations, as well as a duty they owe to those great medieval
+spirits who planted them where they stand, to own a better principle
+than that which would lead them to succumb to what is called popular
+opinion--in other words, the floating fallacy of the day--and aim
+at producing the shallow party leaders and favourite writers of
+the passing moment. They cannot control the frothy surface and the
+deep under-current at the same time. It would be a sacrifice to
+expediency which, after all, would not serve their turn. There are
+institutions which will do that work, and which will beat them in
+the race. Let all such take their own course.
+
+"Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his hoggish kinde:" let Stinkomalee
+train the statesmen for the League and the jokers for _Punch_,--but
+Oxford and Cambridge have other rôles.
+
+It is true, we are told there is a new aristocracy rising in
+England, and that the English universities are gaining no hold
+upon the coming generation of "chiefs of industry." It would be
+far better for our social condition that these same chiefs of
+industry should be educated men, and should pass through a training
+which might tend to neutralise the power of the mercantile iron in
+entering into their soul. But at present the race to be rich is
+so strong and hardly contested, that this class is hardly likely,
+in general, to devote their scions to academical studies of any
+description; and the merchant or manufacturer who came from the
+banks of Isis or Cam, at the age of twenty-one, to the Exchange
+or the Cloth-hall, would find himself starting under a most heavy
+disadvantage as compared with his neighbour of the same age, who had
+spent the last three or four years in a counting-house. The reason
+that this class is not commonly trained in the national seminaries,
+is to be sought in the habit and requirements of the class, and not
+in the nature of the education afforded them.
+
+We have spoken chiefly of Cambridge, because Cambridge has put
+herself forward as the representative of a system of so-called
+university reform--of a certain movement in the direction of that
+principle which would accommodate the education of our higher
+classes to the caprice of a popular cry or cant phrase. We care
+not so much whether that movement in itself be advantageous or the
+reverse: it is against the principles supposed to be involved in it
+that we protest. The report goes, that changes of some kind or other
+are contemplated at Oxford also. If these changes be made, we trust
+that they will not be devised in deference to the noisier portion of
+the public, or to that fondness for short-cuts to knowledge, which
+fritters away the energies of the rising man in the collection of
+desultory facts, and the dependence upon shallow plausibilities.
+The Scottish universities, too, are likely to be put to the test in
+the same manner as their sisters of the Southern kingdom; and the
+questions raised cannot be uninteresting to them.
+
+Nor, indeed, can the whole nation be otherwise than deeply concerned
+in this matter; and we are not surprised, at the interest which
+has been excited by the recent alterations at Cambridge, though
+not measures in themselves of any great importance. While we have
+contended for a higher ground on the part of the universities
+than that of merely finding such knowledge as is required by the
+popular taste, and happens to be most current in the market, and
+have called upon them to lead the public mind in these matters,
+we need hardly say that we must not be understood as failing to
+see the necessity of those institutions closely observing the
+shifting relations of our social equilibrium, and adapting their
+policy by judicious change, if need be, to the circumstances in
+which they find themselves. We might perhaps adduce the altered
+position of the Church with respect to the nation at large, as
+an instance of these changes. We have before hinted that the
+universities have, as we think, in some degree aimed at being
+too exclusively the training-schools of the clergy; and this
+circumstance, in our judgment, so far as England is concerned, has
+both narrowed the operations of the Church and the influence of the
+universities. The Church and European civilisation--the latter
+having grown up under the tutelage of the former--stand no longer
+in the relation of nurse and bantling, though Heaven forbid that
+they should ever be other than firm friends and allies! But the
+Church is no longer the exclusive teacher of the world: mankind
+are in a great measure taught by books. Viewing the clergy not in
+respect of their sacerdotal functions, but as the instructors of
+mankind, we find their office shared by a motley crowd of authors,
+pamphleteers, newspaper editors, magazine contributors, _quales
+nos vel Cluvienus_. It is incumbent, then, on the universities to
+consider how they may bring within the sphere of that control which
+they exercised in old times over the clergy, this mixed multitude
+of public instructors; how they may become not merely the schools
+of the clerical order, but also the nurseries of a future caste of
+literary men, who are to bear their part with that order in the
+coming development of human thought.
+
+
+
+
+THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN.
+
+BY DELTA.
+
+
+[Making all allowances for the many over-coloured pictures, nay,
+often onesided statements of such apologetic chroniclers as Knox,
+Melville, Calderwood, and Row, it is yet difficult to divest the
+mind of a strong leaning towards the old Presbyterians and champions
+of the Covenant--probably because we believe them to have been
+sincere, and know them to have been persecuted and oppressed.
+Nevertheless, the liking is as often allied to sympathy as to
+approbation; for a sifting of motives exhibits, in but too many
+instances, a sad commixture of the chaff of selfishness with the
+grain of principle--an exhibition of the over and over again played
+game, by which the gullible many are made the tools of the crafty
+and designing few. Be it allowed that, both in their preachings
+from the pulpit and their teachings by example, the Covenanters
+frequently proceeded more in the spirit of fanaticism than of sober
+religious feeling; and that, in their antagonistic ardour, they did
+not hesitate to carry the persecutions of which they themselves
+so justly complained into the camp of the adversary--sacrificing
+in their mistaken zeal even the ennobling arts of architecture,
+sculpture, and painting, as adjuncts of idol-worship--still it is to
+be remembered, that the aggression emanated not from them; and that
+the rights they contended for were the most sacred and invaluable
+that man can possess--the freedom of worshipping God according
+to the dictates of conscience. They sincerely believed that the
+principles which they maintained were right: and their adherence to
+these with unalterable constancy, through good report and through
+bad report; in the hour of privation and suffering, of danger and
+death; in the silence of the prison-cell, not less than in the
+excitement of the battle-field; by the blood-stained hearth, on the
+scaffold, and at the stake,--forms a noble chapter in the history of
+the human mind--of man as an accountable creature.
+
+Be it remembered, also, that these religious persecutions were not
+mere things of a day, but were continued through at least three
+entire generations. They extended from the accession of James VI. to
+the English throne, (_testibus_ the rhymes of Sir David Lyndsay,
+and the classic prose of Buchanan,) down to the Revolution of
+1688--almost a century, during which many thousands tyrannically
+perished, without in the least degree loosening that tenacity of
+purpose, or subduing that _perfervidum ingenium_, which, according
+to Thuanus, have been national characteristics.
+
+As in almost all similar cases, the cause of the Covenanters, so
+strenuously and unflinchingly maintained, ultimately resulted in
+the victory of Protestantism--that victory, the fruits of which we
+have seemed of late years so readily inclined to throw away; and, in
+its rural districts more especially, of nothing are the people more
+justly proud than
+
+                        ----"the tales
+    Of persecution and the Covenant,
+    Whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour."
+
+So says Wordsworth. These traditions have been emblazoned by the
+pens of Scott, M'Crie, Galt, Hogg, Wilson, Grahame, and Pollok, and
+by the pencils of Wilkie, Harvey, and Duncan,--each regarding them
+with the eye of his peculiar genius.
+
+In reference to the following stanzas, it should be remembered that,
+during the holding of their conventicles,--which frequently, in the
+more troublous times, took place amid mountain solitudes, and during
+the night,--a sentinel was stationed on some commanding height in
+the neighbourhood, to give warning of the approach of danger.]
+
+
+I.
+
+    Ho! plaided watcher of the hill,
+      What of the night?--what of the night?
+    The winds are lown, the woods are still,
+      The countless stars are sparkling bright;
+    From out this heathery moorland glen,
+      By the shy wild-fowl only trod,
+    We raise our hymn, unheard of men,
+      To Thee--an omnipresent God!
+
+
+II.
+
+    Jehovah! though no sign appear,
+      Through earth our aimless path to lead,
+    We know, we feel Thee ever near,
+      A present help in time of need--
+    Near, as when, pointing out the way,
+      For ever in thy people's sight,
+    A pillared wreath of smoke by day,
+      Which turned to fiery flame at night!
+
+
+III.
+
+    Whence came the summons forth to go?--
+      From Thee awoke the warning sound!
+    "Out to your tents, O Israel! Lo!
+      The heathen's warfare girds thee round.
+    Sons of the faithful! up--away!
+      The lamb must of the wolf beware;
+    The falcon seeks the dove for prey;
+      The fowler spreads his cunning snare!"
+
+
+IV.
+
+    Day set in gold; 'twas peace around--
+      'Twas seeming peace by field and flood:
+    We woke, and on our lintels found
+      The cross of wrath--the mark of blood.
+    Lord! in thy cause we mocked at fears,
+      We scorned the ungodly's threatening words--
+    Beat out our pruning-hooks to spears,
+      And turned our ploughshares into swords!
+
+
+V.
+
+    Degenerate Scotland! days have been
+      Thy soil when only freemen trod--
+    When mountain-crag and valley green
+      Poured forth the loud acclaim to God!--
+    The fire which liberty imparts,
+      Refulgent in each patriot eye,
+    And, graven on a nation's hearts,
+      _The Word_--for which we stand or die!
+
+
+VI.
+
+    Unholy change! The scorner's chair
+      Is now the seat of those who rule;
+    Tortures, and bonds, and death, the share
+      Of all except the tyrant's tool.
+    That faith in which our fathers breathed,
+      And had their life, for which they died--
+    That priceless heirloom they bequeathed
+      Their sons--our impious foes deride!
+
+
+VII.
+
+    So We have left our homes behind,
+      And We have belted on the sword,
+    And We in solemn league have joined,
+      Yea! covenanted with the Lord,
+    Never to seek those homes again,
+      Never to give the sword its sheath,
+    Until our rights of faith remain
+      Unfettered as the air we breathe!
+
+
+VIII.
+
+    O Thou, who rulest above the sky,
+      Begirt about with starry thrones,
+    Cast from the Heaven of Heavens thine eye
+      Down on our wives and little ones--
+    From Hallelujahs surging round,
+      Oh! for a moment turn thine ear,
+    The widow prostrate on the ground,
+      The famished orphan's cries to hear!
+
+
+IX.
+
+    And Thou wilt hear! it cannot be,
+      That Thou wilt list the raven's brood,
+    When from their nest they scream to Thee,
+      And in due season send them food;
+    It cannot be that Thou wilt weave
+      The lily such superb array,
+    And yet unfed, unsheltered, leave
+      Thy children--as if less than they!
+
+
+X.
+
+    We have no hearths--the ashes lie
+      In blackness where they brightly shone;
+    We have no homes--the desert sky
+      Our covering, earth our couch alone:
+    We have no heritage--depriven
+      Of these, we ask not such on earth;
+    Our hearts are sealed; we seek in heaven,
+      For heritage, and home, and hearth!
+
+
+XI.
+
+    O Salem, city of the saint,
+      And holy men made perfect! We
+    Pant for thy gates, our spirits faint
+      Thy glorious golden streets to see;--
+    To mark the rapture that inspires
+      The ransomed, and redeemed by grace;
+    To listen to the seraphs' lyres,
+      And meet the angels face to face!
+
+
+XII.
+
+    Father in Heaven! we turn not back,
+      Though briers and thorns choke up the path;
+    Rather the tortures of the rack,
+      Than tread the winepress of Thy wrath.
+    Let thunders crash, let torrents shower,
+      Let whirlwinds churn the howling sea,
+    What is the turmoil of an hour,
+      To an eternal calm with Thee?
+
+
+
+
+THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA.
+
+
+The debates in the Cortes, and the increasing development of the
+civil war in Catalonia, have again called attention to the affairs
+of Spain. Three months ago we glanced at the state of that country,
+briefly and broadly sketching its political history since the royal
+marriages. The quarter of a year that has since elapsed has been a
+busy one in Spain. Two things have been clearly proved: first, that
+the Carlist insurrection is a very different affair from the paltry
+gathering of banditti, as which the Moderados and their newspapers
+so long persisted in depicting it; and, secondly, that the Madrid
+government are heartily repentant of their unceremonious dismissal
+of a British ambassador. Christina and her Camarilla scarcely know
+which most deeply to deplore--the intrusion of Cabrera or the
+expulsion of Bulwer.
+
+In Catalonia, we have a striking example of what may be
+accomplished, under most unfavourable circumstances, by one man's
+energy and talent. Nine months ago there was not a single company of
+Carlist soldiers in the field. A few irregular bands, insignificant
+in numbers, without uniform and imperfectly armed, roamed in the
+mountains, fearing to enter the plain, hunted down like wolves,
+and punished as malefactors when captured. To persons ignorant
+how great was the difference made by the fall of Louis Philippe
+in the chances of the Spanish Carlists, the cause of these never
+appeared more hopeless than in the spring of 1848. Suddenly a man,
+who for seven years had basked in the orange groves of Hyères, and
+listlessly lingered in the mountain solitudes of Auvergne,--reposing
+his body, scarred and weary from many a desperate combat, and
+recruiting his health, impaired by exertion and hardship--crossed
+the Pyrenees, and appeared upon the scene of his former exploits.
+The news of his arrival spread fast, but for a time found few
+believers. Cabrera, said the incredulous, who evacuated Spain at
+the head of ten thousand hardy and well-armed soldiers, because
+he would not condescend to a guerilla warfare, after having held
+towns and fortresses, and won pitched battles in the field--Cabrera
+would never re-enter the country to take command of a few hundred
+scattered adventurers. Others denied his presence, because he had
+not immediately signalised it by some dashing feat, worthy the
+conqueror of Morella and Maella. Various reports were circulated by
+those interested to discredit the arrival of the redoubted chief.
+He was ill, they said; he had never entered Spain or dreamed of
+so doing; he had come to Catalonia, others admitted, but was so
+disgusted at the scanty resources of his party, at the few men in
+the field, at the lack of arms, money, organisation,--of everything,
+in short, necessary for the prosecution of a war,--that he cursed
+the lying representations which had lured him from retirement, and
+was again upon the wing for France. The truth was in none of these
+statements. If Cabrera sounded a retreat in 1840, when ten thousand
+warlike and devoted followers were still at his orders, it was
+because the Carlist _prestige_ was gone for a time, the country was
+exhausted by war, anarchy reigned in the camp, and he himself was
+prostrated by sickness. In seven years, circumstances had entirely
+changed; the country, galled by misgovernment and oppression, was
+ripe for insurrection; the intermeddling of foreign powers was no
+longer to be apprehended; and Cabrera emerged from his retirement,
+not expecting to find an army, or money, or organisation, but
+prepared to create all three. In various ingenious and impenetrable
+disguises he moved rapidly about eastern Spain; fearlessly
+entering the towns, visiting his old partisans, and reviving their
+dormant zeal by ardent and confident speech; giving fresh spirit
+to the timid, shaming the apathetic, and enlisting recruits. His
+unremitting efforts were crowned with success. Numbers of his
+former followers rallied round him; secret adherents of the cause
+contributed funds; arms and equipments, purchased in France and
+England, safely arrived; officers of rank and talent, distinguished
+in former wars, raised their banners and mustered companies and even
+battalions; and soon Cabrera was strong enough to traverse Catalonia
+in all directions, and to collect from the inhabitants regular
+contributions, in almost every instance willingly paid, and gathered
+often within cannon-shot of the enemy's forts. He seemed ubiquitous.
+He was heard of everywhere, but more rarely seen, at least in
+his own character. In various assumed ones, not unfrequently in
+the garb of a priest, he accompanied small detachments sent to
+collect imposts; doing subaltern's rather than general's duty,
+ascertaining by personal observation the temper and disposition
+of the peasantry, and making himself known when a point was to be
+gained by the influence of his name and presence. His prodigious
+activity and perseverance wrought miracles in a country where those
+qualities by no means abound. Doubtless he has been well seconded,
+but his has been the master-spirit. The result of his exertions
+is best shown by a statement of the present Carlist strength in
+Catalonia. We have already mentioned what it was eight or nine
+months ago--a few hundred men, half-armed and ill disciplined,
+wandering amongst ravines and precipices. At the close of 1848, the
+Moderado papers, without means of obtaining correct information,
+estimated the Carlist army in Catalonia at 8000 men. The Carlists
+themselves, whose present policy is rather to under-state their
+strength, admitted 10,000. Their real numbers--and the accuracy of
+these statistics may be relied upon--are 12,000 bayonets and sabres,
+exclusive of small guerilla parties, known as _volantes_, and other
+irregulars. A large proportion of the 12,000 are old soldiers,
+who served in the last war; and all are well armed, equipped, and
+disciplined, and superior to their opponents in power of endurance,
+and of effecting those tremendous marches for which Spanish troops
+are celebrated. Regularly rationed and supplied with tobacco, they
+wait cheerfully till the military chest is in condition to disburse
+arrears. The curious in costume may like to hear something of their
+appearance. The brigade under the immediate orders of Cabrera
+wears a green uniform with black facings: Ramonet's men have dark
+blue jackets; there is a corps clothed _à l'Anglaise_, in scarlet
+coats and blue continuations, which is known as Count Montemolin's
+own regiment. The old _boina_ or flat cap, and a sort of light,
+low-crowned shako, such as is worn by the French in Africa, compose
+the convenient and appropriate head-dress. With the important arms
+of artillery and cavalry, in which armies raised as this one has
+been are apt to be deficient, Cabrera is well provided. A number
+of guns were buried and otherwise concealed in Spain ever since
+the last war, and others have been procured from France. As to
+cavalry, the want of which was so frequently and severely felt by
+the Carlists during the former struggle, the Christinos will be
+surprised, one of these days, to find how formidable a body of
+dragoons their opponents can bring into the field, although at
+the present moment they have but few squadrons under arms. Nearly
+four thousand horses are distributed in various country districts,
+comfortably housed in farm and convent stables, and divided amongst
+the inhabitants by twos and threes. They are well cared for, and
+kept in good condition, ready to muster and march whenever required.
+
+What the Catalonian Carlists are now most in want of, is a centre
+of operations, a strong fortress--a Morella or a Berga--whither to
+retreat and recruit when necessary. That Cabrera feels this want is
+evident from the various attempts he has made to surprise fortified
+towns, with a view to hold them against the Christinos. Hitherto
+these attempts have been unsuccessful, but we may be prepared to
+hear any day of his having made one with a different result.
+
+When the general tranquillity of Europe brought Spanish dissensions
+into relief, a vast deal of romance was written in France, Spain,
+and England, in the guise of memoirs of Cabrera, and of other
+distinguished leaders of the civil war, and not a little was
+swallowed by the simple as historical fact. We remember to have
+seen the Convention of Bergara accounted for in print by a game at
+cards between Espartero and Maroto, who, both being represented as
+desperate gamblers, met at night at a lone farm-house between their
+respective lines, and played for the crown of Spain. Espartero won;
+and Maroto, more loyal as a gamester than to his king, brought
+over his army to the queen. This marvellous tale, although not
+exactly vouched for in the original English, was gravely translated
+in French periodicals; and the chances are that a portion of the
+French nation believe to the present hour that Isabella owes her
+crown to a lucky hit at _monté_. Fables equally preposterous
+have been circulated about Cabrera. Of his personal appearance,
+especially, the most absurd accounts have been published; and
+type and graver have furnished so many fantastical and imaginary
+portraits of him, that one from the life may have its interest.
+Ramon Cabrera is about five feet eight inches in height, square
+built, muscular, and active. He is rather round-shouldered; his
+hair is abundant and very black; his grayish-brown eyes must be
+admitted, even by his admirers, to have a cruel expression. His
+complexion is tawny, his nose aquiline; he has nothing remarkable
+or striking in his appearance, and is neither ugly nor handsome,
+but of the two may be accounted rather good-looking than otherwise.
+He has neither an assassin-scowl nor an expression like a bilious
+hyena, nor any other of the little physiognomical _agrémens_ with
+which imaginative painters have so frequently embellished his
+countenance. His character, as well as his face, has suffered
+from misrepresentation. He has been depicted as a Nero on a small
+scale, dividing his time between fiddling and massacre. There is
+some exaggeration in the statement. Unquestionably he is neither
+mild nor merciful; he has shed much blood, and has been guilty of
+divers acts of cruelty, but more of these have been attributed
+to him than he ever committed. His mother's death by Christino
+bullets inspired him with a burning desire of revenge. The system of
+reprisals, so largely adopted by both sides, during the late civil
+war in Spain, will account for many of his atrocities, although it
+may hardly be held to justify them. But in the present contest he
+has hitherto gone upon a totally different plan. Mercy and humanity
+seem to be his device, as they are undoubtedly his best policy.
+His aim is to win followers, by clemency and conciliation, instead
+of compelling them by intimidation and cruelty. There is as yet no
+authenticated account of an execution occurring by his order. One
+man was shot at Vich by the troops blockading the place; but he
+was known as a spy, and was twice warned not to enter the town. He
+pretended to retire, made a circuit, tried another entrance, and
+met his death. As to Cabrera's having shot four or five officers
+for a plot against his life, as was recently reported in Spanish
+papers, and repeated by English ones, the tale is unconfirmed, and
+has every appearance of a fabrication. There is no doubt he finds
+it necessary to keep a tight hand over his subordinates, especially
+in presence of the recent defection of some of their number, whose
+treachery, however, is not likely to be very advantageous to the
+Christinos. The troops whom Pozas, Pons, Monserrat, and the other
+renegade chiefs induced to accompany them, have for the most part
+returned to their banners, and the queen has gained nothing but a
+few very untrustworthy officers. These, by one of the conditions
+of their desertion, her generals are compelled to employ, thus
+creating much discontent among those officers of the Christino army
+over whose heads the traitors are placed. The principal traitor,
+General Miguel Pons, better known as Bep-al-Oli, has been known
+as a Carlist ever since the rising in Catalonia in 1827, when he
+was captured by the famous Count d'Espagne, and was condemned to
+the galleys, as was his brother Antonio Pons, one of those whom
+Cabrera was lately falsely reported to have shot. After the death
+of Ferdinand, both brothers served under their former persecutor,
+who thought to extinguish their resentment by good treatment and
+promotion, in spite of which precaution a share in his assassination
+is pretty generally attributed to Antonio Pons. Bep-al-Oli is
+Catalan for Joseph-in-oil, or Oily Joe, a slippery cognomen, which
+his recent change of sides seems to justify. Still he is a model
+of consistency compared to many Spanish officers, who have changed
+sides half-a-dozen times in the last fifteen years. And, indeed,
+after one-and-twenty years' stanch and active Carlism, the sincerity
+of Bep's conversion may perhaps be considered dubious. It would be
+no way surprising if he were to return to his first love, carrying
+with him, of course, the large sum for which he was bought. Another
+chief, Monserrat, passed over to the Christinos with two or three
+companions, and the very next week he had the misfortune to fall
+asleep, whereupon the better half of his band took advantage of
+his slumbers to go back to their colours, much comforted by the
+gratuities they had received for changing sides. When Monserrat
+awoke, he was furious at this defection, and instantly pursued his
+stray sheep. Not having been heard of since, it is not unlikely he
+may ultimately have followed their example. Of course, money is
+the means employed to seduce these fickle partisans. They are all
+bought at their own price, which rate is generally so high as to
+preclude profit. The cash-keepers at Madrid will soon get tired
+of such purchases. The regular expenses of the war are enormous,
+without squandering thousands for a few days' use of men who cannot
+be depended upon. It is notorious that immense offers were made to
+Cabrera to induce him to abandon the cause of Charles VI., of which
+he is the life and soul. Gold, titles, rank, governorships, have
+been in turn and together paraded before him, but in vain. _He_
+would indeed be worth buying, at almost any price; for he could
+not be replaced, and his loss would be a death-blow to the Carlist
+cause. Knowing this, and finding him incorruptible, it were not
+surprising if certain unscrupulous persons at Madrid sought other
+means of removing him from the scene. Cabrera, aware of the great
+importance of his life, very prudently takes his precautions. He
+has done so, to some extent, at various periods of his career.
+During the early portion of his exile in France, when that country,
+especially its southern provinces, swarmed with Spanish emigrants,
+many of whom had deep motives for hating him--whilst others, needy
+and starving, and inured to crime and bloodshed, might have been
+tempted to knife him for the contents of his pockets--the refugee
+chief wore a shirt of mail beneath his sheepskin jacket. He had
+also a celebrated pair of leathern trousers, which were generally
+believed to have a metallic lining. And, at the present time, report
+says that his head is the only vulnerable part of his person.
+
+In presence of their Catalonian anxieties, of Cabrera's rapidly
+increasing strength, and of the impotence of Christino generals, who
+start for the insurgent districts with premature vaunts of their
+triumphs, and return to Madrid, baffled and crestfallen, to wrangle
+in the senate and divulge state secrets--the Narvaez government
+is secretly most anxious to make up its differences with England.
+This anxiety has been made sufficiently manifest by the recent
+discussions in the Cortes. Notwithstanding his assumed indifference
+and vain-glorious self-gratulation, the Duke of Valencia would
+gladly give a year's salary, perquisites, and plunder, to recall
+the impolitic act by which a British envoy was expelled the Spanish
+capital. Señor Cortina, the Progresista deputy, after denying that
+there were sufficient grounds for Sir Henry Bulwer's dismissal,
+and lamenting the rupture that has been its consequence, politely
+advised Narvaez to resign office, as almost the only means of
+repairing the dangerous breach. The recommendation, of course,
+was purely ironical. General Narvaez is the last man to play the
+Curtius, and plunge, for his country's sake, into the gulf of
+political extinction. In his scale of patriotism, the good of Spain
+is secondary to the advantage of Ramon Narvaez. We can imagine the
+broad grins of the Opposition, and the suppressed titter of his own
+friends, upon his having the face to declare, that, when the French
+Revolution broke out, he was actually planning a transfer of the
+reins of government into the hands of the Progresistas. The bad
+example of democratic France frustrated his disinterested designs,
+changed his benevolent intentions, and compelled him to transport
+and imprison, by wholesale, the very men towards whom, a few weeks
+previously, he was so magnanimously disposed. Returns of more than
+fifteen hundred persons, thus arbitrarily torn from their homes and
+families, were moved for early in the session; but only the names
+were granted, the charges against them being kept secret, in order
+not to give the lie to the ministerial assertion that but a small
+minority were condemned for political offences. As to the dispute
+with England, although Narvaez' pride will not suffer him to admit
+his blunder and his regrets, many of his party make no secret of
+their desire for a reconciliation at any price; fondly believing,
+perhaps, that it would be followed, upon the _amantium iræ_
+principle, by warmer love and closer union than before. The slumbers
+of these _ojalatero_ politicians are haunted by sweet visions of a
+British steam-flotilla cruising off the Catalonian coast, of Carlist
+supplies intercepted, of British batteries mounted on the shores of
+Spain, and manned by British marines--the sight of whose red jackets
+might serve, at a pinch, to bolster up the wavering courage of a
+Christino division--and of English commodores and artillery-colonels
+supplying such deficient gentlemen as Messrs Cordova and Concha with
+the military skill which, in Spain, is by no means an indispensable
+qualification for a lieutenant-general's commission. Doubtless,
+if the alliance between Lord Palmerston and Queen Christina had
+continued, we should have had something of this sort, some more
+petty intermeddling and minute military operations, consumptive of
+English stores, and discreditable to English reputation. As it is,
+there seems a chance of the quarrel being fairly fought out; of the
+Spaniards being permitted to settle amongst themselves a question
+which concerns themselves alone. If the Carlists get the better of
+the struggle, (and it were unsafe to give long odds against them,)
+it is undeniable that they began with small resources, and that
+their triumph will have been achieved by their own unaided pluck and
+perseverance.
+
+Puzzled how to make his peace with England, without too great
+mortification to his vanity and too great sacrifice of what he
+calls his dignity, Narvaez falls back upon France, and does his
+best to curry favour there by a fulsome acknowledgment of the evils
+averted from Spain by the friendly offices of Messrs Lamartine
+and Bastide, and of "the illustrious General Cavaignac." The fact
+is, that during the first six months of the republic, nobody in
+France had leisure to give a thought to Spain, and Carlists and
+Progresistas were allowed to concert plans and make purchases
+in France without the slightest molestation. At last, General
+Cavaignac, worried by Sotomayor--and partly, perhaps, through
+sympathy with his brother-dictator, Narvaez--sent to the frontier
+one Lebrière, a sort of thieftaker or political Vidocq, who already
+had been similarly employed by Louis Philippe. This man was to
+stir up the authorities and thwart the Carlists, and at first he
+did hamper the latter a little; but whether it was that he was
+worse paid than on his former mission--Cavaignac's interest in the
+affair being less personal than that of the King of the French--or
+that some other reason relaxed his activity, he did not long prove
+efficient. Then came the elections, and the success of Louis
+Napoleon was unwelcome intelligence to the Madrid government--it
+being feared that old friendship might dispose him to favour Count
+Montemolin as far as lay in his power: whereupon--the influence of
+woman being a lever not unnaturally resorted to by a party which
+owes its rise mainly to bedchamber intrigue and to the patronage of
+Madame Muñoz--the notable discovery was made that the Duchess of
+Valencia (a Frenchwoman by birth) is a connexion of the Buonaparte
+family, and her Grace was forthwith despatched to Paris to exercise
+her coquetries and fascinations upon her far-off cousin, and to
+intrigue, in concert with the Duke of Sotomayor, for the benefit
+of her husband's government. The result of her mission is not yet
+apparent. Putting all direct intervention completely out of the
+question, France has still a vast deal in her power in all cases
+of insurrection in the northern and eastern provinces of Spain. A
+sharp look-out on the frontier, seizure of arms destined for the
+insurgents, and the removal of Spanish refugees to remote parts of
+France, are measures that would greatly harass and impede Carlist
+operations; much less so now, however, than three or four months
+ago. Most of the emigrants have now entered Spain; and horses and
+arms--the latter in large numbers--have crossed the frontier.
+
+Up to the middle of January, the Montemolinist insurrection was
+confined to Catalonia, where alone the insurgents were numerous
+and organised. This apparent inactivity in other districts, where
+a rising might be expected, was to be attributed to the season.
+The quantity of snow that had fallen in the northern provinces was
+a clog upon military operations. About the middle of the month, a
+thousand men, including three hundred cavalry, made their appearance
+in Navarre, headed by Colonel Montero, an old and experienced
+officer of the peninsular war, who served on the staff so far back
+as the battle of Baylen. This force is to serve as a nucleus. The
+conscription for 1849 has been anticipated; that is to say, the
+young soldiers who should have joined their colours at the end of
+the year, are called for at its commencement; and it is expected
+that many of these conscripts, discontented at the premature
+summons, will prefer joining the Carlists. When the weather clears,
+it is confidently anticipated that two or three thousand hardy
+recruits will make the valleys of Biscay and Navarre ring once
+more with their Basque war-cries, headed by men whose names will
+astonish those who still discredit the virtual union of Carlists and
+Progresistas.
+
+The masses of troops sent into Catalonia have as yet effected
+literally nothing, not having been able to prevent the enemy even
+from recruiting and organising. General Cordova made a military
+promenade, lost a few hundred men--slain or taken prisoners with
+their brigadier at their head--and resigned the command. He has been
+succeeded by Concha, a somewhat better soldier than Cordova, who
+was never anything but a parade butterfly of the very shallowest
+capacity. Concha has as yet done little more than his predecessor,
+(his reported victory over Cabrera between Vich and St Hippolito was
+a barefaced invention, without a shadow of foundation,) although
+his force is larger than Cordova's was, and his promises of what
+he _would_ do have been all along most magnificent. Already there
+has been talk of his resignation, which doubtless will soon occur,
+and Villalonga is spoken of to succeed him. This general, lately
+created Marquis of the Maestrazgo for his cruelty and oppression
+of the peasantry in that district, will hardly win his dukedom in
+Catalonia, although dukedoms in Spain are now to be had almost for
+the asking. Indeed, they have become so common that, the other day,
+General Narvaez, Duke of Valencia, anxious for distinction from
+the vulgar herd, was about to create himself prince; but having
+unfortunately selected Concord for his intended title, and the
+accounts from Catalonia being just then anything but peaceable,
+he was fain to postpone his promotion till it should be more _de
+circonstance_. The Prince of Concord would be a worthy successor to
+the Prince of the Peace. Spain was once proud of her nobility and
+choice of her titles. Alas! how changed are the times! What a pretty
+list of grandees and _titulos de Castilla_ the Spanish peerage now
+exhibits! Mr Sotomayor, the other day a bookseller's clerk, then
+sub-secretary in a ministry, then understrapper to Gonzales Bravo,
+now duke and ambassador at Paris! What a successor to the princely
+and magnificent envoys of a Philip and a Charles! And Mr Sartorius,
+lately a petty jobber on the Madrid Bolsa, is now Count of St Louis,
+secretary of state, &c.! When the Legion of Honour was prostituted
+in France by lavish and indiscriminate distribution, and by
+conversion into an electioneering bribe and a means of corruption,
+many old soldiers, who had won their cross upon the battle-fields of
+the Empire, had the date of its bestowal affixed in silver figures
+to their red ribbon. The old nobility of Spain must soon resort to
+a similar plan, and sign their date of creation after their names,
+if they would be distinguished from the horde of disreputable
+adventurers on whom titles have of late years been infamously
+squandered.
+
+When the Madrid government has performed its promise, so often
+repeated during the last six months, of extinguishing the Carlists
+and restoring peace to Spain, we hope those ill-treated gentlemen
+in the city of London, who, from time to time, draw up a respectful
+representation to General Narvaez on the subject of Spanish
+debts--a representation which that officer blandly receives, and
+takes an early opportunity of forgetting--will pluck up courage
+and sternly urge the Duke of Valencia and the finance minister
+of the day to apply to the liquidation of Spanish bondholders'
+claims a part, at least, of the resources now expended on military
+operations. Forty-five millions of reals, about half-a-million of
+pounds sterling, are now, we are credibly informed, the monthly
+expenditure of the war department of Spain. That this is squeezed
+out of the country, by some means or other, is manifest, since
+nobody now lends money to Spain. A very large part of this very
+considerable sum being expended in Catalonia, goes into the pockets
+of the inhabitants of that province, who pay it over to the Carlists
+in the shape of contributions, and still make a profit by the
+transaction--so that they are in no hurry to finish the war; and
+Catalonia presents at this moment the singular spectacle of two
+contending armies paid out of the same military chest. But Spain is
+the country of anomalies; and nothing in the conduct of Spaniards
+will ever surprise us, until we find them, by some extraordinary
+chance, conducting their affairs according to the rules of common
+sense and the dictates of ordinary prudence.
+
+
+_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as
+printed.
+
+Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where
+the missing quote should be placed.
+
+The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the
+transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
+65, No. 400, February, 1849, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44344 ***
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+    text-decoration:
+    none;
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+.poem span.i20     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+@media handheld
+{
+  .poetry
+  {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 1.5em;
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+
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+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44344 ***</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+
+
+<h1>BLACKWOOD'S<br />
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.<br /><br />
+
+
+<span class="s08"><span class="smcap">No.</span> CCCC.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;FEBRUARY, 1849.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Vol.</span> LXV.</span>
+</h1>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br />CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="contents">
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Caucasus and the Cossacks</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Caxtons. Part X.</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Statistical Accounts of Scotland</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">American Thoughts on European Revolutions</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Dalmatia and Montenegro</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Modern Biography.&mdash;Beattie's Life of Campbell</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The English Universities and their Reforms</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Covenanters' Night-Hymn. By Delta</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Carlists in Catalonia</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p class="center space-above">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center space-above"><big>EDINBURGH:</big></p>
+<p class="center">WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET:</p>
+<p class="center">AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed.</em></p>
+
+<p class="center">SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.</p>
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<p class="center"><small>PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.</small>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="center b15">BLACKWOOD'S<br />
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">No.</span> CCCC.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;FEBRUARY, 1849.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Vol.</span> LXV.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+<cite>Der Kaukasus und das Land der Kosaken in den Jahren 1843 bis 1846.</cite> Von
+<span class="smcap">Moritz Wagner</span>. 2 vols. Dresden und Leipzig, 1848.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>A handful of men, frugal, hardy,
+and valiant, successfully defending
+their barren mountains and dearly-won
+independence against the reiterated
+assaults of a mighty neighbour,
+offer, apart from political considerations,
+a deeply interesting spectacle.
+When, upon a map of the world's
+eastern hemisphere, we behold, not
+far from its centre, on the confines of
+barbarism and civilisation, a spot,
+black with mountains, and marked
+"Circassia;" when we contrast this
+petty nook with the vast territory
+stretching from the Black Sea to the
+Northern Ocean, from the Baltic to
+Behring's Straits, we admire and wonder
+at the inflexible resolution and
+determined gallantry that have so
+long borne up against the aggressive
+ambition, iron will, and immense resources
+of a czar. Sixty millions
+against six hundred thousand&mdash;a hundred
+to one, a whole squadron against
+a single cavalier, a colossus opposed
+to a pigmy&mdash;these are the odds at
+issue. It seems impossible that such
+a contest can long endure. Yet it
+has lasted twenty years, and still the
+dwarf resists subjugation, and contrives,
+at intervals, to inflict severe
+punishment upon his gigantic adversary.
+There is something strangely
+exciting in the contemplation of so
+brave a struggle. Its interest is far
+superior to that of any of the "little
+wars" in which Europe, since 1815,
+has evaporated her superabundant
+pugnacity. African raids and Spanish
+skirmishes are pale affairs contrasted
+with the dashing onslaughts of the
+intrepid Circassians. And, in other
+respects than its heroism, this contest
+merits attention. As an important
+section of the huge mountain-dyke,
+opposed by nature to the south-eastern
+extension of the Russian empire, Circassia
+is not to be overlooked. On
+the rugged peaks and in the deep valleys
+of the Caucasus, her fearless warriors
+stand, the vedettes of southern
+Asia, a living barrier to the forward
+flight of the double eagle.</p>
+
+<p>Matters of pressing interest, nearer
+home, have diverted public attention
+from the warlike Circassians, whose
+independent spirit and unflinching
+bravery deserves better than even
+temporary oblivion. Not in our day
+only have they distinguished themselves
+in freedom's fight. Surrounded
+by powerful and encroaching potentates,
+their history, for the last five
+hundred years, records constant
+struggles against oppression. Often
+conquered, they never were fully subdued.
+Their obscure chronicles are
+illumined by flashes of patriotism and
+heroic courage. Early in the fifteenth
+century, they conquered their freedom
+from the Georgian yoke. Then came
+long wars with the Tartars, who could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+hardly, perhaps, be considered the
+aggressors, the Circassians having
+overstepped their mountain limits,
+and spread over the plains adjacent
+to the Sea of Azov. In 1555, the
+Russian grand-duke, Ivan Vasilivitch,
+pressed forward to Tarki upon the
+Caspian, where he placed a garrison.
+A Circassian tribe submitted to him;
+he married the daughter of one of
+their princes, and assisted them
+against the Tartars. But after a
+while the Russians withdrew their
+succour; and the Circassians, driven
+back to the river Kuban, their natural
+boundary to the north-west, paid
+tribute to the Tartars, till the commencement
+of the eighteenth century,
+when a decisive victory liberated them.
+Meanwhile Russia strode steadily
+southwards, reached the Kuban in the
+west, whilst, in the east, Tarki and
+Derbent fell, in 1722, into the hands
+of Peter the Great. The fort of
+Swiatoi-Krest, built by the conqueror,
+was soon afterwards retaken by a
+swarm of fanatical mountaineers from
+the eastern Caucasus. It is now
+about seventy years since Russian
+and Circassian first crossed swords in
+serious warfare. A fanatic dervise,
+who called himself Sheikh Mansour,
+preached a religious war against the
+Muscovites; but, although followed
+with enthusiasm, his success was not
+great, and at last he was captured
+and sent prisoner into the interior of
+Russia. With his fall the furious
+zeal of the Caucasians subsided for a
+while. But the Turks, who viewed
+Circassia as their main bulwark
+against the rapidly increasing power
+of their dangerous northern neighbour,
+made friends of the mountaineers,
+and stirred them up against
+Russia. The fortified town of Anapa,
+on the north-west coast of Circassia,
+became the focus of the intercourse
+between the Porte and its new allies.
+The creed of Mahomet was actively
+propagated amongst the Circassians,
+whose relations with Turkey grew
+more and more intimate, and in the
+year 1824 several tribes took oath of
+allegiance to the sultan. In 1829,
+during the war between Russia and
+Turkey, Anapa, which had more than
+once changed hands in the course of
+previous contests, was taken by the
+former power, to whom, by the treaty
+of Adrianople, its possession, and that
+of the other Turkish posts on the same
+coast, was finally conceded. Hence
+the chief claim of Russia upon Circassia&mdash;although
+Circassia had never
+belonged to the Turks, nor been occupied
+by them; and from that period
+dates the war that has elicited from
+Russia so great a display of force
+against an apparently feeble, but in
+reality formidable antagonist&mdash;an
+antagonist who has hitherto baffled
+her best generals, and picked troops,
+and most skilful strategists.</p>
+
+<p>The tribes of the Caucasus may be
+comprehended, for the sake of simplicity,
+under two denominations:
+the Tcherkesses or Circassians, in
+the west, and the Tshetshens in the
+east. In loose newspaper statements,
+and in the garbled reports of the
+war which remote position, Russian
+jealousy, and the peculiarly inaccessible
+character of the Caucasians,
+suffer to reach us, even this broad
+distinction is frequently disregarded.[A]
+It is nevertheless important, at least
+in a physiological point of view;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+and, even as regards the resistance
+offered to Russia, there are differences
+between the Eastern and the
+Western Caucasians. The military
+tactics of both are much alike, but the
+character of the war varies. On the
+banks of the Kuban, and on the Euxine
+shores, the strife has never been
+so desperate, and so dangerous for the
+Russians, as in Daghestan, Lesghistan,
+and the land of the Tshetshens.
+The Abchasians, Mingrelians, and
+other Circassian tribes, dwelling on
+the southern slopes of Caucasus, and
+on the margin of the Black Sea, are
+of more peaceable and passive character
+than their brethren to the North
+and East. The Tshetshens, by far
+the most warlike and enterprising of
+the Caucasians, have had the ablest
+leaders, and have at all times been
+stimulated by fierce religious zeal. As
+far back as 1745, Russian missionaries
+were sent to the tribe of the Osseti,
+who had relapsed from Christianity
+to the heathen creed of their forefathers.
+Every Osset who presented
+himself at the baptismal font received
+a silver cross and a new shirt. The
+bait brought thousands of the mountaineers
+to the Russian priests, who
+contented themselves with the outward
+and visible sign of conversion. These
+propagandist attempts enraged the Mahomedan
+tribes, and then it was that
+they thronged around Sheikh Mansour,
+as they have done in our day (in 1830)
+around that strange fanatic Chasi-Mollah,
+when in his turn he preached a
+holy war against the Russian. In the
+latter year, General Paskewitch had
+just been called away to Poland, and
+his successor, Baron Rosen, found all
+Daghestan in an uproar. He immediately
+opened the campaign, but met
+a strenuous resistance, and suffered
+heavy loss. The defence of the village
+of Hermentschuk, held against him,
+in the year 1832, by 3000 Tshetshens,
+was an extraordinary example of heroism.
+When the Russian infantry
+forced their way into the place with
+the bayonet, a portion of the garrison
+shut themselves up in a fortified house,
+and made it good against overwhelming
+numbers, singing passages from
+the Koran amidst a storm of bombs and
+grapeshot. At last the building took
+fire, and its undaunted defenders, the
+sacred verses still upon their lips,
+found death in the flames. In an
+equally desperate defence of the fortified
+village of Himri, Chasi-Mollah
+met his death, falling in the very
+breach, bleeding from many wounds.
+The chief who succeeded him was less
+venerated and less energetic, and for
+a few years the Tshetshens remained
+tolerably quiet, but without a thought
+of submission. Nevertheless the Russians
+flattered themselves that the worst
+was past; that the death of the mad
+dervish was an irreparable loss to the
+mountaineers. They were mistaken.
+Out of his most ardent adherents Chasi-Mollah
+had formed a sort of sacred
+band, whom he called Murides, gloomy
+fanatics, half warriors, half priests.
+They composed his body-guard, were
+unwearied in preaching up the fight
+for the Prophet's faith, and in battle
+devoted themselves to death with a
+heroism that has never been surpassed.
+From these, within a short time of
+their first leader's death, Chamyl, the
+present renowned chief of the Tshetshens,
+soon stood forth pre-eminent,
+and the Murides followed him to the
+field with the same enthusiasm and
+valour they had shown under his predecessor.
+He did not prove less worthy
+of guiding them; and the Russians
+were compelled to confess, that
+it was easier for the Tshetshens to
+find an able leader than for them to
+find a general able to beat him. And
+victories over the restless and enterprising
+Caucasians were of little profit,
+even when obtained. For the
+most part, they only served to fill the
+Russian hospitals, and to procure the
+officers those ribbons and distinctions
+they so greedily covet, and which, in
+that service, are so liberally bestowed.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+Thus, in 1845, Count Woronzoff
+made a most daring expedition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+into the heart of Daghestan. He found
+the villages empty and in flames, lost
+three thousand men, amongst them
+many brave and valuable officers, and
+marched back again, strewing the path
+with wounded, for whom the means
+of transport (the horses of the Cossack
+cavalry) were quite insufficient. With
+great difficulty, and protected by a
+column that went out to meet them,
+the Russians regained their lines, harassed
+to the last by the fierce Caucasians.
+This affair was called a victory,
+and Count Woronzoff was made
+a prince. Two more such victories
+would have reduced his expeditionary
+column to a single battalion. Chamyl,
+who had cannonaded the Russians
+with their own artillery, captured in
+former actions, possibly considered
+himself equally entitled to triumph,
+as he slowly retreated, after following
+up the foe nearly to the gates of their
+fortresses, into the recesses of his native
+valleys.
+<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The interior of Circassia is still an
+unknown land. The investigations of
+Messrs Bell, Longworth, Stewart, and
+others, who of late years have visited
+and written about the country, were
+confined to small districts, and cramped
+by the jealousy of the natives. Mr
+Bell, who made the longest residence,
+was treated more like a prisoner than
+a guest. Other foreigners find a worse
+reception still. Even the Poles, who
+desert from the Russian army, are
+made slaves of by the Circassians, and
+so severely treated that they are often
+glad to return to their colours, and
+endure the flogging that there awaits
+them. The only European who,
+having penetrated into the interior,
+has again seen his own country, is the
+Russian Baron Turnau, an aide-de-camp
+of General Gurko; but the circumstances
+of his abode in Circassia
+were too painful and peculiar to allow
+opportunity for observation. They
+are well told by Dr Wagner.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"By the Emperor's command, Russian
+officers acquainted with the language are
+sent, from time to time, as spies into Circassia,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>&mdash;partly
+to make topographical
+surveys of districts previously unknown;
+partly to ascertain the numbers, mode
+of life, and disposition of those tribes
+with whom no intercourse is kept up.
+These missions are extremely dangerous,
+and seldom succeed. Shortly before
+my arrival at Terek, four Russian
+staff-officers were sent as spies to various
+parts of Lesghistan. They assumed
+the Caucasian garb, and were attended
+by natives in Russian pay. Only
+one of them ever returned; the three
+others were recognised and murdered.
+Baron Turnau prepared himself long
+beforehand for his dangerous mission. He
+gave his complexion a brownish tint, and
+to his beard the form affected by the aborigines.
+He also tried to learn the language
+of the Ubiches, but, finding the
+harsh pronunciation of certain words quite
+unattainable, he agreed with his guide to
+pass for deaf and dumb during his stay
+in the country. In this guise he set out
+upon his perilous journey, and for several
+days wandered undetected from tribe to
+tribe. But one of the <em>works</em> (nobles) under
+whose roof he passed a night, conceived
+suspicions, and threatened the
+guide, who betrayed his employer's secret.
+The baron was kept prisoner, and the
+Ubiches demanded a cap-full of silver for
+his ransom from the Russian commandant
+of Fort Ardler. When this officer
+declared himself ready to pay, they
+increased their demand to a bushel of
+silver rubles. The commandant referred
+the matter to Baron Rosen, then commander-in-chief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+of the army of the Caucasus;
+the baron reported it to St Petersburg,
+and the Emperor consented to pay
+the heavy ransom. But Rosen represented
+it to him as more for the Russian
+interest to leave Turnau for a while in
+the hands of the Ubiches; for, in the first
+place, the payment of so large a sum was
+a bad precedent, likely to encourage the
+mountaineers to renew the extortion, instead
+of contenting themselves, as they
+previously had done, with a few hundred
+rubles; and, secondly, as a prisoner,
+Baron Turnau would perhaps have opportunities
+of gathering valuable information
+concerning a country and people of whom
+little or nothing was known. The unfortunate
+young officer was cruelly sacrificed
+to these considerations, and passed a long
+winter in terrible captivity, tortured by
+frost and hunger, compelled, as a slave,
+to the severest labour, and often greatly
+ill-treated. Several attempts at flight
+failed; and at last the chief, in whose
+hands he was, confined him in a cage
+half-buried in the ground, and withal so
+narrow that its inmate could neither
+stand upright nor lie at length."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus immured, a prey to painful
+maladies, his clothes rotting on his
+emaciated limbs, the unhappy man
+moaned through his long and sleepless
+nights, and gave up hope of rescue.
+No tender-hearted Circassian maiden
+brought to him, as to the hero of
+Pushkin's well-known Caucasian
+poem, deliverance and love. Such
+luck had been that of more than one
+Russian captive; but poor Turnau, in
+his state of filth and squalor, was no
+very seductive object. He might have
+pined away his life in his cage, before
+Baron Rosen, or his paternal majesty
+the Czar, had recalled his fate to mind,
+but for an injury done by his merciless
+master to one of his domestics,
+who vowed revenge. Watching his
+opportunity, this servant, one day that
+the rest of the household were absent,
+murdered his lord, released the prisoner,
+tied him with thongs upon his
+saddle, upon which the baron, covered
+with sores and exhausted by illness,
+was unable to support himself, and
+galloped with him towards the frontier.
+In one day they rode eighty
+<em>versts</em>, (about fifty-four English miles,)
+outstripped pursuers, and reached
+Fort Ardler. The accounts given by
+Baron Turnau of the land of his captivity
+could be but slight: he had
+seen little beyond his place of confinement.
+What he did relate was not
+very encouraging to Russian invasion.
+He depicted the country as one mass
+of rock and precipice, partially clothed
+with vast tracts of aboriginal forest,
+broken by deep ravines and mountain
+torrents, and surmounted by the huge
+ice-clad pinnacles of the loftiest Caucasian
+ridge. The villages, some of
+which nestle in the deep recesses of
+the woods, whilst others are perched
+upon steep crags and on the brink of
+giddy precipices, are universally of
+most difficult access.</p>
+
+<p>Dr Wagner, whose extremely
+amusing book forms the text of this
+article, has never been in Circassia,
+although he gives us more information
+about it, of the sort we want,
+than any traveller in that singular
+land whose writings have come under
+our notice. His wanderings were
+under Russian guidance and escort.
+During them, he skirted the hostile
+territory on more than one side;
+occasionally setting a foot across the
+border, to the alarm of his Cossacks,
+whose dread by day and dreams
+by night were of Circassian ambuscades;
+he has lingered at the base
+of Caucasus, and has traversed its
+ranges&mdash;without, however, deeming it
+necessary to penetrate into those
+remote valleys, where foreigners find
+dubious welcome, and whence they are
+not always sure of exit. He has
+mixed much with Circassians, if he
+has not actually dwelt in their villages.
+It were tedious and unnecessary
+to detail his exact itinerary.
+He has not printed his entire journal&mdash;according
+to the lazy and egotistical
+practice of many travellers&mdash;but
+has taken the trouble to condense it.
+The essence is full of variety, anecdote
+and adventure, and gives a clear
+insight into the nature of the war.
+Professedly a man of science, an antiquary
+and a naturalist, Dr Wagner
+has evidently a secret hankering after
+matters military. He loves the sound
+of the drum, and willingly directs his
+scientific researches to countries where
+he is likely to smell powder. We
+had heard of him in the Atlas mountains,
+and at the siege of Constantina,
+before we met him risking his neck
+along the banks of the Kuban, and
+across the wild steppes of the Caucasus.
+He has travelled much in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+East, and prepared himself for his
+Caucasian trip by a long stay in
+Turkey and in Southern Russia.
+Well introduced, he derived from
+distinguished Russian generals, intelligent
+civilians, and Circassian chiefs,
+particulars of the war more authentic
+than are to be obtained either from
+St Petersburg bulletins, or from the
+ordinary trans-Caucasian correspondents
+of German and other newspapers,
+many of whom are in the pay
+of Russia. His African reminiscences
+proved of great value. The officers
+of the army of Caucasus take the
+strongest interest in the contest between
+French and Arabs, finding in
+it, doubtless, points of similitude with
+the war in which they themselves are
+engaged. Amongst these officers he
+met, besides Russians and Germans,
+several naturalised Poles and Frenchmen,
+Flemings and Spaniards, who
+gave in exchange for his tales of
+razzias and Bedouins, details of Circassian
+warfare which he highly
+prized, as likely to be more impartial
+than the accounts afforded by the
+native Russians. His own journey to
+the Caucasus took place in 1843; but
+a subsequent correspondence with
+well-informed friends, on both sides
+the Caucasian range, enabled him to
+bring down his sketch of the struggle
+to the year 1846.</p>
+
+<p>Many English writers on Circassia
+have been accused of an undue preference
+for the mountaineers, of exaggerating
+their good qualities, and of
+elevating them by invidious contrasts
+with the Russians. There is no
+ground for suspecting a German of
+such partiality; and Dr Wagner,
+whilst lauding the heroic valour and
+independent spirit of the Circassians&mdash;qualities
+which Russian authors
+have themselves admitted and extolled&mdash;does
+not forget to do justice to
+his Muscovite and Cossack friends,
+to whom he devotes a considerable
+portion of his book, many of his
+details concerning them being extremely
+novel and curious. He carefully
+studied both Cossacks and Circassians,
+living amongst the former
+and meeting thousands of the latter,
+who go and come freely upon Russian
+territory. At Ekaterinodar, the capital
+of the Tchernamortsy Cossacks,
+the Friday's market swarmed with
+Circassians. In Turkey, and elsewhere,
+Dr Wagner had met many
+individuals of that nation, but this
+was the first time he beheld them in
+crowds. He describes them as very
+handsome men, with black beards,
+aquiline noses, and flashing black
+eyes. He was struck with their lofty
+mien, and attributes it to their mental
+energy, and to a consciousness of
+physical strength and beauty.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"This superiority of the pure Circassian
+blood does not belie itself under
+Russian discipline, any more than it does
+in Mahometan lands, where, as Mamelukes
+in Cairo, and as pashas in Stamboul,
+the sons of Caucasus have ever
+played a prominent and distinguished
+part. The Turk, who by certain imposing
+qualities awes all other Orientals,
+tacitly recognises the superiority of the
+Circassian <i>ousden</i>, or noble. The Emperor
+Nicholas, who preserves so rigid a
+discipline in the various corps of his
+vast army, shows himself extraordinarily
+considerate towards the Circassian squadrons
+of his guard. Persons well versed
+in the military chronicles of St Petersburg
+relate many a characteristic trait,
+proving the bold stubborn spirit of these
+Caucasian men to be still unbroken, and
+showing how it more than once has so imposed
+upon the emperor, and even upon
+the grand-duke Michael, reputed the strictest
+disciplinarian in Russia, that they have
+shut their eyes even to open mutiny.
+At a review, where the Caucasian cavalry
+formally refused obedience, the emperor
+contented himself with sending a courteous
+reproof by General Benkendorf.
+Beside the coarse common Russians, the
+Circassian looks like an eagle amidst a
+flock of bustards. Even capital crimes
+are not visited upon Circassians with the
+same severity as upon the other subjects
+of the emperor. A Circassian who had
+struck his dagger into the heart of a
+hackney-coachman at St Petersburg, in
+requital of an insolent overcharge, was
+merely sent back to the Caucasus. For
+a like offence a Russian might reckon
+upon the knout, and upon banishment
+for life to the Siberian mines.</p>
+
+<p>"Amongst the Circassians at Ekaterinodar,
+a <em>work</em>, or noble, of the Shapsookian
+tribe, was particularly remarkable
+for his beauty and dignity. None
+of the picturesque figures of Arabs and
+Moors furnished me by my African recollections,
+could bear comparison with this
+Caucasian eagle. I afterwards saw, in
+Mingrelia, a more ideal mould of feature,
+resembling the antique Apollo type:
+but there the expression was too effeminate;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+the heroic head of the dweller on
+the Kuban pleased me better. I stood
+a good while before the Shapsookian, as
+if fettered to the ground, so extraordinary
+was the effect of his striking beauty.
+What a study, I thought, for a German
+painter, who would in vain seek such
+models in Rome; or for a Vernet, whose
+Arabian groups prove the great power of
+his pencil! The Arabs, rather priestly
+than knightly in their aspect, produce
+far less effect upon the large Algerine
+pictures at Versailles than the Circassian
+warrior would do in a battle-piece by
+such masters as Vernet or Peter Hess.
+The Shapsook chief at Ekaterinodar
+seemed conscious of his magnificent appearance.
+With proud mien, and that
+light half-gliding gait observable in
+most Caucasians, he sauntered amongst
+the groups of Cossacks upon the market-place,
+casting glances of profoundest
+scorn upon their clumsy sheepskin-wrapped
+figures. His slender form and
+small foot, the grace and elegance of his
+person and carriage, the richness of his
+costume and beauty of his weapons, contrasted
+most advantageously with the
+muscular but somewhat thickset figures,
+and with the ugly woolly winter dress of
+the Tchernamortsies. By help of a Cossack
+I made his acquaintance, and got
+into conversation. His name was Chora-Beg,
+and he dwelt at a hamlet thirty
+versts south of Ekaterinodar."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Chora-Beg wondered greatly that
+his new acquaintance was neither
+Russian nor English. He had heard
+vaguely that there was a third Christian
+nation, which, under Sultan
+Bunapart, had made war upon the
+Padisha of the Russians, but he had
+no notion of such a people as the
+Germans. He greatly admired Dr
+Wagner's rifle, but rather doubted its
+carrying farther than a smooth bore,
+and allowed free inspection of his own
+arms, consisting of pistols and dagger,
+and of the famous <i>shaska</i>&mdash;a long
+heavy cavalry sabre, slightly curved,
+with hilt of silver and ivory. At the
+doctor's request he drew this weapon
+from the scabbard, and cut twice or
+thrice at the empty air, his dark eyes
+flashing as he did so. "How many
+Russians has that sabre sent to their
+account?" asked the inquisitive Doctor.
+The Circassian's intelligent
+countenance assumed an expression
+hard to interpret, but in which his
+interlocutor thought he distinguished
+a gleam of scorn, and a shade of suspicion.
+"It was long," he replied,
+"since his tribe had taken the field
+against the Russians. Since the deaf
+general (Sass) had left the land of the
+Cossacks, peace had reigned between
+Muscovite and Shapsookian. Individuals
+of his tribe had certainly been
+known to join bands from the mountains,
+and to cross the Kuban with
+arms in hand." And as Chora-Beg
+spoke, the expression of his proud eye
+belied his pacific pretensions.</p>
+
+<p>The general Sass above-named
+commanded for several years on the
+line of the Kuban, and is the only
+Russian general who has understood
+the mountain warfare, and proved
+himself a match for the Circassians at
+their own game of ambuscades and
+surprises. His tactics were those of
+the Spanish guerilla leaders. Lavish
+in his payment of spies, he was always
+accurately informed of the musters
+and projects of the Circassians;
+whilst he kept his own plans so secret,
+that his personal staff often knew nothing
+of an intended expedition until
+the call to "boot and saddle" sounded.
+His raids were accomplished, under
+guidance of his well-paid scouts, with
+such rapidity and local knowledge that
+the mountaineers rarely had time to
+assemble in force, pursue the retiring
+column, and revenge their burnt vilages
+and ravished cattle. But one
+day the report spread on the lines of
+the Kuban that the general was dangerously
+ill; shortly afterwards it
+became known that the physicians
+had given him up; and finally his
+death was announced, and bewailed
+by the whole army of the Caucasus.
+The consternation of the Cossacks,
+accustomed, under his command, to
+victory and rich booty, was as great
+as the exultation of the mountaineers.
+Hundreds of these visited the Russian
+territory, to witness the interment of
+their dreaded foe. A magnificent
+coffin, with the general's cocked hat
+and decorations laid upon it, was deposited
+in the earth amidst the mournful
+sounds of minute guns and muffled
+drums. With joyful hearts the Circassians
+returned to their mountains,
+to tell what they had seen, and to congratulate
+each other at the prospect of
+tranquillity for themselves, and safety
+to their flocks and herds. But upon
+the second night after Sass's funeral,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+a strong Russian column crossed the
+Kuban, and the dead general suddenly
+appeared at the head of his trusty
+lancers, who greeted with wild hurrahs
+their leader's resurrection. Several
+large <i>auls</i> (villages) whose inhabitants
+were sound asleep, unsuspicious of
+surprise, were destroyed, vast droves
+of cattle were carried off, and a host
+of prisoners made. This ingenious
+and successful stratagem is still cited
+with admiration on the banks of the
+Kuban. Notwithstanding his able
+generalship, Sass was removed from
+his command when in full career of
+success. All his military services
+could not shield him from the consequences
+of St Petersburg intrigues and
+trumped-up accusations. None of his
+successors have equalled him. General
+Willaminoff was a man of big
+words rather than of great deeds. In
+his bombastic and blasphemous proclamation
+of the 28th May 1837, he
+informed the Circassians that "If the
+heavens should fall, Russia could prop
+them with her bayonets;" following
+up this startling assertion with the
+declaration that "there are but two
+powers in existence&mdash;God in heaven,
+and the emperor upon earth!"<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> The
+Circassians laughed at this rhodomontade,
+and returned a firm and becoming
+answer. There were but few of
+them, they said&mdash;but, with God's blessing,
+they would hold their own, and
+fight to the very last man: and to
+prove themselves as good as their
+word, they soon afterwards made
+fierce assaults upon the line of forts
+built by the Russians upon the shores
+of the Black Sea. In 1840 four of
+these were taken, but the triumph cost
+the victors so much blood as to disgust
+them for some time with attacking
+stone walls, behind which the Russians,
+perhaps the best defensive combatants
+in the world, fight like lions.
+Indeed, the Circassians would hardly
+have proved victorious, had not the
+garrisons been enfeebled by disease.
+During the five winter months, the rations
+of the troops employed upon this
+service are usually salt, and the consequences
+are scurvy and fever. Informed
+by Polish deserters of the bad
+condition of the garrisons, the Circassians
+held a great council in the
+mountains, and it was decided to take
+the forts with the sabre, without firing
+a shot. It is an old Caucasian custom,
+that, upon suchlike perilous undertakings,
+a chosen band of enthusiastic
+warrors devote themselves to
+death, binding themselves by a solemn
+oath not to turn their backs upon the
+enemy. Ever in the van, their example
+gives courage to the timid; and
+their friends are bound in honour to
+revenge their death. With these
+fanatics have the Circassian and
+Tshetshen chiefs achieved their greatest
+victories over the Russians.</p>
+
+<p>When it was decided to attack the
+forts, several hundred Shapsookians,
+including gray-haired old men and
+youths of tender age, swore to conquer
+or to die. They kept their word.
+At the fort of Michailoff, which made
+the most obstinate defence, the ditch
+was filled with their corpses. The
+conduct of the garrison was truly
+heroic. Of five hundred men, only
+one third were fit for duty; the others
+were in hospital, or on the sick-list.
+But no sooner did the Circassian war-cry
+rend the air than the sufferers
+forgot their pains; the fever-stricken
+left their beds, and crawled to the
+walls. Their commandant called upon
+them to shed their last drop of blood
+for their emperor; their old <em>papa</em> exhorted
+them, as Christians, to fight to
+the death against the unbelieving
+horde. But numbers prevailed: after
+a valiant defence, the Russians retreated,
+fighting, to the innermost
+enclosures of the fortress. Their chief
+demanded a volunteer to blow up the
+fort when farther resistance should
+become impossible. A soldier stepped
+forward, took a lighted match, and
+entered the powder magazine. The
+last defences were stormed, the Circassians
+shouted victory. Then came
+the explosion. Most of the buildings
+were overthrown, and hundreds of
+maimed carcases scattered in all directions.
+Eleven Russians escaped
+with life, were dragged off to the
+mountains, and subsequently ransomed,
+and from them the details of this
+bloody fight were obtained.</p>
+
+<p>The capture of these forts spread<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+discouragement and consternation in
+the ranks of the Russian army. The
+emperor was furious, and General
+Rajewski, then commander-in-chief on
+the Circassian frontier, was superseded.
+This officer, who at the tender
+age of twelve was present with
+his father at the battle of Borodino,
+and who has since distinguished himself
+in the Turkish and Persian wars,
+was reputed an able general, but was
+reproached with sleeping too much,
+and with being too fond of botany.
+His enemies went so far as to accuse
+him of making military expeditions
+into the mountains, with the sole view
+of adding rare Caucasian plants to his
+<em>herbarium</em>, and of procuring seeds for
+his garden. General Aurep, who succeeded
+him, undertook little beyond
+reconnoissances, always attended with
+very heavy loss; and the Circassians
+remained upon the defensive until the
+year 1843, when the example of the
+Tshetshens, who about that time
+obtained signal advantages over the
+Russians, roused the martial ardour
+of the chivalrous Circassians, and
+spurred them to fresh hostilities. But
+the war at the western extremity of
+Caucasus never assumed the importance
+of that in Daghestan and the
+country of the Tshetshens.</p>
+
+<p>From the straits of Zabache to the
+frontier of Guria, the Russians possess
+seventeen <em>Kreposts</em>, or fortified posts,
+only a few of which deserve the name
+of regular fortresses, or could resist a
+regular army provided with artillery.
+To mountaineers, however, whose sole
+weapons are shaska and musket, even
+earthen parapets and shallow ditches
+are serious obstacles when well manned
+and resolutely defended. The
+object of erecting this line of forts was
+to cut off the communication by sea
+between Turkey and the Caucasian
+tribes. It was thought that, when the
+import of arms and munitions of war
+from Turkey was thus checked, the
+independent mountain tribes would
+soon be subjugated. The hope was
+not realised, and the expensive maintenance
+of 15,000 to 20,000 men in
+the fortresses of the Black Sea has but
+little improved the position of the
+Russians in the Caucasus. The Caucasians
+have never lacked arms, and
+with money they can always get powder,
+even from the Cossacks of the
+Kuban. In another respect, however,
+these forts have done them much
+harm, and thence it arises that, since
+their erection, and the cession of
+Anapa to Russia, the war has assumed
+so bitter a character. So long as
+Anapa was Turkish, the export of
+slaves, and the import of powder,
+found no hindrance. The needy Circassian
+noble, whose rude mountains
+supply him but sparingly with daily
+bread, obtained, by the sale of slaves,
+means of satisfying his warlike and
+ostentatious tastes&mdash;of procuring rich
+clothes, costly weapons, and ammunition
+for war and for the chase. In a
+moral point of view, all slave traffic is
+of course odious and reprehensible, but
+that of Circassia differed from other
+commerce of the kind, in so far that
+all parties were benefited by, and
+consenting to, the contract. The
+Turks obtained from Caucasus handsomer
+and healthier wives than those
+born in the harem; and the Circassian
+beauties were delighted to exchange
+the poverty and toil of their father's
+mountain huts for the luxurious <em>farniente</em>
+of the seraglio, of whose wonders
+and delights their ears were regaled,
+from childhood upwards, with
+the most glowing descriptions. The
+trade, although greatly impeded and
+very hazardous, still goes on. Small
+Turkish craft creep up to the coast,
+cautiously evading the Russian cruisers,
+enter creeks and inlets, and are
+dragged by the Circassians high and
+dry upon the beach, there to remain
+till the negotiation for their live cargo
+is completed, an operation that generally
+takes a few weeks. The women
+sold are the daughters of serfs and
+freedmen: rarely does a <em>work</em> consent
+to dispose of his sister or daughter,
+although the case does sometimes
+occur. But, whilst the sale goes on,
+the slave-ships are anything but secure.
+It is a small matter to have escaped
+the Russian frigates and steamers.
+Each of the Kreposts possesses a little
+squadron of row-boats, manned with
+Cossacks, who pull along the coast in
+search of Turkish vessels. If they
+detect one, they land in the night, and
+endeavour to set fire to it, before the
+mountaineers can come to the assistance
+of the crew. The Turks, who
+live in profound terror of these Cossack
+coast-guards, resort to every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+possible expedient to escape their
+observation; often covering their vessels
+with dry leaves and boughs, and
+tying fir branches to the masts, that
+the scouts may take them for trees.
+If they are captured at sea by the
+cruisers, the crew are sent to hard
+labour in Siberia, and the Circassian
+girls are married to Cossacks, or
+divided as handmaidens amongst the
+Russian staff officers. From thirty
+to forty slaves compose the usual
+cargo of each of these vessels, which
+are so small that the poor creatures
+are packed almost like herrings in a
+barrel. But they patiently endure the
+misery of the voyage, in anticipation
+of the honeyed existence of the harem.
+It is calculated that one vessel out of
+six is taken or lost. In the winter
+of 1843-4, eight-and-twenty ships left
+the coast of Asia Minor for that of
+Caucasia. Twenty-three safely returned,
+three were burned by the
+Russians, and two swallowed by the
+waves.</p>
+
+<p>A Turkish captain at Sinope told
+Dr Wagner the following interesting
+anecdote, illustrating Circassian hatred
+of the Russians:&mdash;"A few years ago
+a slave-ship sprang a leak out at sea,
+just as a Russian steamer passed in
+the distance. The Turkish slave-dealer,
+who preferred even the chill
+blasts of Siberia to a grave in deep
+water, made signals of distress, and the
+steamer came up in time to rescue the
+ship and its living cargo from destruction.
+But so deeply is hatred of
+Russia implanted in every Circassian
+heart, that the spirit of the girls revolted
+at the thought of becoming the
+helpmates of gray-coated soldiers, instead
+of sharing the sumptuous couch
+of a Turkish pasha. They had bid
+adieu to their native mountains with
+little emotion, but as the Russian ship
+approached they set up terrible and
+despairing screams. Some sprang
+headlong into the sea; others drove
+their knives into their hearts:&mdash;to these
+heroines death was preferable to the
+bridal-bed of a detested Muscovite.
+The survivors were taken to Anapa,
+and married to Cossacks, or given to
+officers as servants." Nearly every
+Austrian or Turkish steamboat that
+makes, in the winter months, the voyage
+from Trebizond to Constantinople,
+has a number of Circassian girls on
+board. Dr Wagner made the passage
+in an Austrian steamer with several
+dozens of these willing slaves, chiefly
+mere children, twelve or thirteen years
+old, with interesting countenances and
+dark wild eyes, but very pale and thin&mdash;with
+the exception of two, who were
+some years older, far better dressed,
+and carefully veiled. To this favoured
+pair the slave-dealer paid particular
+attention, and frequently brought them
+coffee. Dr Wagner got into conversation
+with this man, who was richly
+dressed in furs and silks, and who,
+despite his vile profession, had the
+manners of a gentleman. The two
+coffee-drinkers were daughters of
+noblemen, he said, with fine rosy
+cheeks, and in better condition than
+the others, consequently worth more
+money at Constantinople. For the
+handsomest he hoped to obtain 30,000
+piastres, and for the other 20,000&mdash;about
+£250 and £170. The herd of
+young creatures he spoke of with contempt,
+and should think himself lucky
+to get 2000 piastres for them all round.
+He further informed the doctor that,
+although the slave-trade was more
+dangerous and difficult since the Russian
+occupation of the Caucasian coast,
+it was also far more profitable. Formerly,
+when Greek and Armenian
+women were brought in crowds to
+the Constantinople market, the most
+beautiful Circassians were not worth
+more than 10,000 piastres; but now
+a rosy, well-fed, fifteen-year-old slave
+is hardly to be had under 40,000
+piastres.</p>
+
+<p>The Tshetshen successes, already
+referred to as having at the close of
+1842 stirred into flame and action, by
+the force of example, the smouldering
+but still ardent embers of Circassian
+hatred to Russia, are described with
+remarkable spirit by Dr Wagner, in the
+chapter entitled "Caucasian War-Scenes,"&mdash;episodes
+taken down by him
+from the lips of eye-witnesses, and
+of sharers in the sanguinary conflicts
+described. This graphic chapter at
+once familiarises the reader with the
+Caucasian war, with which he thenceforward
+feels as well acquainted as
+with our wars in India, the French
+contest in Africa, or with any other
+series of combats, of whose nature
+and progress minute information has
+been regularly received. The first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+event described is the storming of
+Aculcho, in the summer of 1839. It
+is always a great point with guerilla
+generals, and with leaders of mountain
+warfare, to have a centre of operations&mdash;a
+strong post, whither they can
+retreat after a reverse, with the confidence
+that the enemy will hesitate before
+attacking them there. In Spain,
+Cabrera had Morella, the Count
+d'Espagne had Berga, the Navarrese
+viewed Estella as their citadel. In
+the eastern Caucasus, Chasi-Mollah
+had Himri, and preferred falling in its
+defence to abandoning his stronghold;
+his successor, Chamyl, who surpasses
+him in talent for war and organisation,
+established his headquarters at
+Aculcho, a sort of eagle's nest on the
+river Koisu, whither his escorts
+brought him intelligence of each movement
+of Russian troops, and whence
+he swooped, like the bird whose eyrie
+he occupied, upon the convoys traversing
+the steppe of the Terek.
+Here he planned expeditions and
+surprises, and kept a store of arms
+and ammunition; and this fort General
+Grabbe, who commanded in 1839 the
+Russian forces in eastern Caucasus,
+and who was always a strong advocate
+of the offensive system, obtained
+permission from St Petersburg to
+attack. General Golowin, commander-in-chief
+of the whole army of
+the Caucasus, and then resident at
+Teflis, approved the enterprise, whose
+ultimate results cost both generals
+their command. The taking of
+Aculcho itself was of little moment;
+there was no intention of placing a
+Russian garrison there; but the
+double end to be obtained was to
+capture Chamyl, and to intimidate
+the Tshetshens, by proving to them
+that no part of their mountains, however
+difficult of access and bravely
+defended, was beyond the reach of
+Russian valour and resources. Their
+submission, at least nominal and
+temporary, was the result hoped for.</p>
+
+<p>Nature has done much for the fortification
+of Aculcho. Imagine a hill
+of sand-stone, nearly surrounded by
+a loop of the river Koisu&mdash;a miniature
+peninsula, in short, connected
+with the continent by a narrow neck
+of land&mdash;provided with three natural
+terraces, accessible only by a small
+rocky path, whose entrance is fortified
+and defended by 500 resolute
+Tshetshen warriors. A few artificial
+parapets and intrenchments, some
+stone huts, and several excavations in
+the sand rock, where the besieged
+found shelter from shot and shell,
+complete the picture of the place
+before which Grabbe and his column
+sat down. At first they hoped to
+reduce it by artillery, and bombs and
+congreve rockets were poured upon
+the fortress, destroying huts and
+parapets, but doing little harm to the
+Tshetshens, who lay close as conies
+in their burrows, and watched their
+opportunity to send well-aimed bullets
+into the Russian camp. From time
+to time, one of the fanatical Murides,
+of whom the garrison was chiefly
+composed, impatient that the foe
+delayed an assault, rushed headlong
+down from the rock, his shaska in his
+right hand, his pistol in his left, his
+dagger between his teeth; causing a
+momentary panic among the Cossacks,
+who were prepared for the whistling
+of bullets, but not for the sudden
+appearance of a foaming demon armed
+<i>cap-à-pie</i>, who generally, before they
+could use their bayonets, avenged in
+advance his own certain death by the
+slaughter of several of his foes, whilst
+his comrades on the rock applauded
+and rejoiced at the heroic self-sacrifice.
+The first attempt to storm was
+costly to the besiegers. Of fifteen
+hundred men who ascended the narrow
+path, only a hundred and fifty
+survived. The Tshetshens maintained
+such a well-directed platoon fire, that
+not a Russian set foot on the second
+terrace. The foremost men, mown
+down by the bullets of the besieged,
+fell back upon their comrades, and
+precipitated them from the rock.
+General Grabbe, undismayed by his
+heavy loss, ordered a second and a
+third assault; the three cost two
+thousand men, but the lower and
+middle terraces were taken. The
+defence of the upper one was desperate,
+and the Russians might have
+been compelled to turn the siege into
+a blockade, but for the imprudence
+of some of the garrison, who, anxious
+to ascertain the proceedings of the
+enemy's engineers&mdash;then hard at
+work at a mine under the hill&mdash;ventured
+too far from their defences, and
+were attacked by a Russian battalion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+The Tshetshens fled; but, swift of foot
+though they were, the most active of
+the Russians attained the topmost
+terrace with them. A hand-to-hand
+fight ensued, more battalions came
+up, and Aculcho was taken. The
+victors, furious at their losses, and at
+the long resistance opposed to them,
+(this was the 22d August,) raged like
+tigers amongst the unfortunate little
+band of mountaineers; some Tshetshen
+women, who took up arms at
+this last extremity, were slaughtered
+with their husbands. At last the
+bloody work was apparently at an
+end, and search ensued amongst the
+dead for the body of Chamyl. It was
+nowhere to be found. At last the
+discovery was made that a few of the
+garrison had taken refuge in holes in
+the side of the rock, looking over the
+river. No path led to these cavities;
+the only way to get at them was to
+lower men by ropes from the crag
+above. In this manner the surviving
+Tshetshens were attacked; quarter
+was neither asked nor given. The
+hole in which Chamyl himself was
+hidden held out the longest. Escape
+seemed, however, impossible; the
+rock was surrounded; the banks of
+the river were lined with soldiers;
+Grabbe's main object was the capture
+of Chamyl. At this critical moment
+the handful of Tshetshens still alive
+gave an example of heroic devotion.
+They knew that their leader's death
+would be a heavy loss to their country,
+and they resolved to sacrifice themselves
+to save him. With a few
+beams and planks, that chanced to be
+in the cave, they constructed a sort
+of raft. This they launched upon the
+Koisu, and floated with it down the
+stream, amidst a storm of Russian
+lead. The Russian general doubted
+not that Chamyl was on the raft, and
+ordered every exertion to kill or take
+him. Whilst the Cossacks spurred
+their horses into the river, and the
+infantry hurried along the bank, following
+the raft, a man sprang out of
+the hole into the Koisu, swam vigorously
+across the stream, landed at an
+unguarded spot, and gained the
+mountains unhurt. This man was
+Chamyl, who alone escaped with life
+from the bloody rock of Aculcho.
+His deliverance passed for miraculous
+amongst the enthusiastic mountaineers,
+with whom his influence, from that
+day forward, increased tenfold.
+Grabbe was furious; Chamyl's head
+was worth more than the heads
+of all the garrison: three thousand
+Russians had been sacrificed for the
+possession of a crag not worth the
+keeping.</p>
+
+<p>After the fall of Aculcho, Chamyl's
+head-quarters were at the village of
+Dargo, in the mountain region south
+of the Russian fort of Girselaul, and
+thence he carried on the war with
+great vigour, surprising fortified posts,
+cutting off convoys, and sweeping the
+plain with his horsemen. Generals
+Grabbe and Golowin could not
+agree about the mode of operations.
+The former was for taking the offensive;
+the latter advocated the
+defensive and blockade system.
+Grabbe went to St Petersburg to
+plead in person for his plan, obtained
+a favourable hearing, and the emperor
+sent Prince Tchernicheff, the minister
+at war, to visit both flanks of the
+Caucasus. Before the prince reached
+the left wing of the line of operations,
+Grabbe resolved to surprise him with
+a brilliant achievement; and on the
+29th May 1842, he marched from
+Girselaul with thirteen battalions, a
+small escort of mounted Cossacks, and
+a train of mountain artillery, to attack
+Dargo. The route was through forests,
+and along paths tangled with wild
+flowers and creeping plants, through
+which the heavy Russian infantry,
+encumbered with eight days' rations
+and sixty rounds of ball-cartridge,
+made but slow and painful progress.
+The first day's march was accomplished
+without fighting; only here
+and there the slender active form of a
+mountaineer was descried, as he peered
+between the trees at the long column
+of bayonets, and vanished as soon
+as he was observed. After midnight
+the dance began. The troops had
+eaten their rations, and were comfortably
+bivouacked, when they were
+assailed by a sharp fire from an invisible
+foe, to which they replied in
+the direction of the flashes. This
+skirmishing lasted all night; few were
+killed on either side, but the whole
+Russian division were deprived of
+sleep, and wearied for the next day's
+march. At daybreak the enemy retired;
+but at noon, when passing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+through a forest defile, the column
+was again assailed, and soon the
+horses, and a few light carts accompanying
+it, were insufficient to convey
+the wounded. The staff urged the
+general to retrace his steps, but
+Grabbe was bent on welcoming
+Tchernicheff with a triumphant bulletin.
+Another sleepless bivouac&mdash;another
+fagging day, more skirmishing.
+At last, when within sight
+of the fortified village of Dargo,
+the loss of the column was so heavy,
+and its situation so critical, that
+a retreat was ordered. The daring
+and fury of the Tshetshens now
+knew no bounds; they assailed the
+troops sabre in hand, captured baggage
+and wounded, and at night
+prowled round the camp, like wolves
+round a dying soldier. On the 1st
+June, the fight recommenced. The
+valour displayed by the mountaineers
+was admitted by the Russians to be
+extraordinary, as was also their skill
+in wielding the terrible shaska. They
+made a fierce attack on the centre of
+the column&mdash;cut down the artillery-men
+and captured six guns. The
+Russians, who throughout the whole
+of this trying expedition did their
+duty as good and brave soldiers, were
+furious at the loss of their artillery,
+and by a desperate charge retook five
+pieces, the sixth being relinquished
+only because its carriage was broken.
+Upon the last day of the retreat,
+Chamyl came up with his horsemen.
+Had he been able to get these together
+two days sooner, it is doubtful whether
+any portion of the column would have
+escaped. As it was, the Russians
+lost nearly two thousand men; the
+weary and dispirited survivors re-entering
+Girselaul with downcast
+mien. Preparations had been made
+to celebrate their triumph, and, to
+add to their general's mortification,
+Tchernicheff was awaiting their arrival.
+On the prince's return to St
+Petersburg, both Grabbe and Golowin
+were removed from their commands.</p>
+
+<p>Against this same Tshetshen fortress
+of Dargo, Count Woronzoff's
+expedition (already referred to) was
+made, in July 1845. A capital account
+of the affair is given in a letter
+from a Russian officer engaged, printed
+in Dr Wagner's book. Dargo had
+become an important place. Chamyl
+had established large stores there,
+and had built a mosque, to which
+came pilgrims from the remotest villages
+of Daghestan and Lesghistan,
+partly to pray, partly to see the
+dreaded chief&mdash;equally renowned as
+warrior and priest&mdash;and to give him
+information concerning the state of
+the country, and the movements of the
+Russians. Less vigorously opposed
+than Grabbe, and his measures better
+taken, Woronzoff reached Dargo with
+moderate loss. "The village," says
+the Russian officer: "was situated
+on the slope of a mountain, at the
+brink of a ravine, and consisted of sixty
+to seventy small stone-houses, and of a
+few larger buildings, where the stones
+were joined with mortar, instead of being
+merely superimposed, as is usually
+the case in Caucasian dwellings. One
+of these buildings had several irregular
+towers, of some apparent antiquity.
+When we approached, a thick smoke
+burst from them. Chamyl had ordered
+everything to be set on fire
+that could not be carried away. One
+must confess that, in this fierce determination
+of the enemy to refuse submission&mdash;to
+defend, foot by foot, the
+territory of his forefathers, and to
+leave to the Russians no other trophies
+than ashes and smoking ruins&mdash;there
+is a certain wild grandeur which
+extorts admiration, even though the
+hostile chief be no better than a fanatical
+barbarian." This reminds us
+of the words of the Circassian chief
+Mansour:&mdash;"When Turkey and England
+abandon us," he said, to Bell of
+the 'Vixen,'&mdash;"when all our powers
+of resistance are exhausted, we will
+burn our houses,and our goods,
+strangle our wives and our children,
+and retreat to our highest rocks, there
+to die, fighting to the very last man."
+"The greatest difficulty," said General
+Neidhardt to Dr Wagner, who
+was a frequent visitor at the house of
+that distinguished officer, "with which
+we have to contend, is the unappeasable,
+deep-rooted, ineradicable hatred
+cherished by all the mountaineers
+against the Russians. For this we
+know no cure; every form of severity
+and of kindness has been tried in turn,
+with equal ill-success." Valour and
+patriotism are nearly the only good
+qualities the Caucasians can boast.
+They are cruel, and for the most part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+faithless, especially the Tshetshens,
+and Dr Wagner warns us against
+crediting the exaggerated accounts
+frequently given of their many virtues.
+The Circassians are said to
+respect their plighted word, but there
+are many exceptions. General Neidhardt
+told Dr Wagner an anecdote of
+a Circassian, who presented himself
+before the commandant of one of the
+Black Sea fortresses, and offered to
+communicate most important intelligence,
+on condition of a certain reward.
+The reward was promised.
+Then said the Circassian,&mdash;"To-morrow
+after sunset, your fort will be
+assailed by thousands of my countrymen."
+The informer was retained,
+whilst Cossacks and riflemen were sent
+out, and it proved that he had spoken
+the truth. The enemy, finding the
+garrison on their guard, retired after
+a short skirmish. The Circassian received
+his recompense, which he took
+without a word of thanks, and left the
+fortress. Without the walls, he met
+an unarmed soldier; hatred of the
+Russians, and thirst of blood, again
+got the ascendency: he shot the soldier
+dead, and scampered off to the
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Chamyl did not long remain indebted
+to the Russians for their visit
+to Dargo. His reputation of sanctity
+and valour enabled him to unite under
+his orders many tribes habitually hostile
+to each other, and which previously
+had fought each "on its own hook."
+Of these tribes he formed a powerful
+league; and in May 1846 he burst
+into Cabardia at the head of twenty
+thousand mountaineers, four thousand
+of whom were horsemen. Formidable
+though this force was, the venture was
+one of extreme temerity. He left behind
+him a double line of Russian
+camps and forts, and two rivers, then
+at the flood, and difficult to pass.
+With an undisciplined and heterogeneous
+army, without artillery or regular
+commissariat, this daring chief
+threw himself into a flat country, unfavourable
+to guerilla warfare; slipping
+through the Russian posts, marching
+more than four hundred miles, and
+utterly disregarding the danger he was
+in from a well-equipped army of upwards
+of seventy thousand men, to
+say nothing of the numerous military
+population of the Cossack settlements
+on the Terek and Sundscha, and of the
+fact that the Cabardians, long submissive
+to Russia, were more likely
+to arm in defence of their rulers than
+to favour the mountaineers. Shepherds
+and dwellers in the plain, and
+far less warlike than the other Circassian
+tribes, they never were able
+to make head against the Russians;
+and had remained indifferent to all
+the incentives of Tshetshen fanatics
+and propagandists. For years past,
+Chamyl had threatened them with a
+visit; but nevertheless, his sudden
+appearance greatly surprised and confounded
+both them and the Russian
+general, who had just concentrated all
+his movable columns, with a view to
+an expedition, relying overmuch upon
+his lines of forts and blockhouses.
+The Tshetshen raid was more daring,
+and at least as successful, as Abd-el-Kader's
+celebrated foray in the Metidja,
+in the year 1839. Chamyl addressed
+to the Cabardians a thundering
+proclamation, full of quotations from
+the Koran, and denouncing vengeance
+on them if they did not flock to the
+banner of the Prophet. The unlucky
+keepers of sheep found themselves between
+the devil and the deep sea.
+From terror rather than sympathy,
+a large number of villages declared for
+Chamyl, whose wild hordes burned
+and plundered the property of all who
+adhered to the Russians; leaving, like
+a swarm of locusts, desolation in their
+track. When the Cossacks began to
+gather, and the Russian generals to
+man&oelig;uvre, Chamyl, who knew he
+could not contend in the plain with
+disciplined and superior forces, and
+whose retreat by the road he came
+was already cut off, traversed Great
+and Little Cabardia, burning and destroying
+as he went; dashed through
+the Cossack colonies to the south of
+Ekaterinograd, and regained his mountains
+in safety&mdash;dragging with him
+booty, prisoners, and Cabardian recruits.
+These latter, who had joined
+through fear of Chamyl, remained
+with him through fear of the Russians.
+By this foray, whose apparent great
+rashness was justified by its complete
+success, Chamyl enriched his people,
+strengthened his army, and greatly
+weakened the confidence of the tribes
+of the plain in the efficacy of Russian
+protection. As usual, in cases of disaster,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+the Russians kept the affair as
+quiet as they could; but the truth
+could not be concealed from those
+most concerned, and murmurs of dismay
+ran along the exposed line fringing
+the Muscovite and Circassian territories.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian army of the Caucasus
+reckoned, in 1843, about eighty thousand
+men, exclusive of thirty-five
+thousand who had little to do with
+the war, but were more especially
+employed in watching the extensive
+line of Turkish and Persian frontier,
+and in endeavouring to exclude contraband
+goods and Asiatic epidemics.
+But the severe fighting that occurred
+in 1842 and 1843, showed the necessity
+of an increase of force. Subsequent
+events have not admitted of a
+reduction in the Caucasian establishment;
+and we are probably very near
+the mark, in estimating the troops
+occupying the various forts and camps
+on the Black Sea, and the lines of the
+rivers, (Terek, Kuban, Koisu, &amp;c.,)
+at about one hundred thousand men&mdash;not
+at all too many to guard so extensive
+a line, against so active and
+enterprising a foe. The Russian ranks
+are constantly thinned by destructive
+fevers, which, in bad years, have been
+known to carry off as much as a sixth
+of the Caucasian army. At a review
+at Vladikawkas, Dr Wagner was
+struck by the powerful build of the
+Russian foot-soldiers&mdash;broad-shouldered,
+broad-faced Slavonians, with
+enormous mustaches, drilled to automatical
+perfection. In point of bone
+and limb, every man of them was a
+grenadier. In a bayonet charge, such
+infantry are formidable opponents.
+Ségur mentions that, on the battle-field
+of Borodino, the nation of the
+stripped bodies was easily known&mdash;the
+muscle and size of the Russians
+contrasting with the slighter frames of
+French and Germans. "You may
+kill the Russians, but you will hardly
+make them run," was a saying of
+Frederick the Great; and certainly
+Seidlitz, who scattered the French so
+briskly at Rossbach, had to sweat
+blood before he overcame the Russians
+at Zorndorf. Those survivors of Napoleon's
+famous Guard who fought in
+the drawn battle of Eylau, will bear
+witness to the stubborn resistance and
+bull-dog qualities of the Muscovite.
+But the grenadier stature, and the immobility
+under fire&mdash;admirable qualities
+on a plain, and against regular
+troops&mdash;avail little in the Caucasus.
+The burly Russian pants and perspires
+up the hills, which the light-footed chamois-like
+Circassians and Tshetshens
+ascend at a run. The mountaineers
+understand their advantages, and decline
+standing still in the plain to be
+charged by a line of bayonets. They
+dance round the heavy Russian, who,
+with his well-stuffed knapsack and
+long greatcoat, can barely turn on
+his heel fast enough to face them.
+They catch him out skirmishing, and
+slaughter him in detail. "One might
+suppose," said a foreigner in the Russian
+service to Dr Wagner, "that the
+musket and bayonet of the Russian
+soldier would be too much, in single
+combat, for the sabre and dagger of
+the Tshetshen. The contrary is the
+case. Amongst the dead, slain in
+hand-to-hand encounter, there are
+usually a third more Russians than
+Caucasians. Strange to say, too, the
+Russian soldier, who in the serried
+ranks of his battalion meets death
+with wonderful firmness, and who has
+shown the utmost valour in contests
+with European, Turkish, and Persian
+armies, often betrays timidity in the
+Caucasian war, and retreats from the
+outposts to the column, in spite of the
+heavy punishment he thereby incurs.
+I myself was exposed, during the murderous
+fight near Ischkeri (Dargo,) in
+1842, to considerable danger, because,
+having gone to the assistance of a
+skirmisher, who was sharply engaged
+with a Tshetshen, the skirmisher ran,
+leaving me to fight it out alone."
+This shyness of Russian soldiers in
+single fight and irregular warfare, is
+not inexplicable. They have no
+chance of promotion, no honourable
+stimulus: food and brandy, discipline
+and dread of the lash, convert them
+from serfs into soldiers. As bits of a
+machine, they are admirable when
+united, but asunder they are mere
+screws and bolts. Fanatic zeal, bitter
+hatred, and thirst of blood, animate
+the Caucasian, who, trained to
+arms from his boyhood, and ignorant
+of drill, relies only upon his keen
+shaska, and upon the Prophet's protection.</p>
+
+<p>Presuming Dr Wagner's statement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+of Russian rations to be correct, it is
+a puzzle how the soldier preserves the
+condition of his thews and sinews.
+The daily allowance consists of three
+pounds of bread, black as a coal; a
+water-soup, in which three pounds of
+bacon are cut up for every two hundred
+and fifty men; a ration of <em>wodka</em>,
+or bad brandy, and once a-week a
+small piece of meat. The pay is nine
+rubles a-year, (about one-third of a
+penny <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">per diem</i>,) out of which the unfortunate
+private has to purchase his
+stock, cap, soap, blacking, salt, &amp;c., &amp;c.
+Any surplus he is allowed to expend
+upon his amusement. "Our soldiers
+are obliged to steal a little," said a
+German officer in the Russian service
+to Dr Wagner; "their pay will not
+purchase soap and blacking; and if
+their shirts are not clean, and their
+shoes polished, the stick is their portion."
+"Stealing a little," in one
+way or other, is no uncommon practice
+in Russia, even amongst more highly
+placed personages than the soldiers.
+Officials of all kinds, both civil and military,
+particularly those of the middle
+and lower ranks, are prone to peculation.
+Dr Wagner was deafened with
+the complaints that from all sides met
+his ear. "Ah! if the emperor knew
+it!" was the usual cry. The subjects
+of Nicholas have strong faith in his
+justice. It is well remembered in the
+Caucasus, especially by the army,
+how one day, at Teflis, the emperor,
+upon parade, in full view of mob and
+soldiers, tore, with his own hand, the
+golden insignia of a general's rank
+from the coat of Prince Dadian, denounced
+to him as enriching himself
+at his men's expense. For several
+years afterwards, the prince carried the
+musket, and wore the coarse gray coat
+of a private sentinel. The officers
+pitied him, although his condemnation
+was just. "<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Il faut profiter d'une
+bonne place</i>," is their current maxim.
+The soldiers rejoiced; but in secret;
+for such rejoicings are not always safe.
+A sentence often recoils unpleasantly
+upon the accuser. Dr Wagner gives
+sundry examples. A major in Sewastopol
+fell in love with a sergeant's
+wife; and as she disregarded his addresses,
+he persecuted her and her
+husband at every opportunity. In
+despair, the sergeant at last complained
+to the general commanding.
+He was listened to; an investigation
+ensued; the major was superseded;
+and from his successor the sergeant
+received five hundred lashes, under
+pretence of his having left his regiment
+without permission when he
+went to lodge his charge. Corporal
+punishment, of frequent application,
+at the mere caprice of their superiors,
+to Russian serfs and soldiers, is inflicted
+with sticks or rods, the knout
+being reserved for very grave offences,
+such as murder, rebellion, &amp;c., and
+preceding banishment to Siberia,
+should the sufferer survive. Dr
+Wagner's description of this dreadful
+punishment is horribly vivid. Few
+criminals are sentenced to more than
+twenty-five lashes, and less than
+twenty often kill. Running the gauntlet
+through three thousand men is the
+usual punishment of deserters; and
+this would usually be a sentence of
+death but for the compassion of the
+officers, who hint to their companies
+to strike lightly. If the sufferer
+faints, and is declared by the surgeon
+unable to receive all his punishment,
+he gets the remainder at some future
+time. "Take him down" is a phrase
+unknown in the Russian service, until
+the offender has received the last lash
+of his sentence.</p>
+
+<p>Severity is doubtless necessary in
+an army composed like that of Russia.
+Two-thirds of the soldiers are serfs,
+whose masters, being allowed to send
+what men they please&mdash;so long as
+they make up their quota&mdash;naturally
+contribute the greatest scamps and
+idlers upon their estates. The army
+in Russia is what the galleys are in
+France, and the hulks in England&mdash;a
+punishment for an infinity of offences.
+An official embezzles funds&mdash;to the
+army with him; a Jew is caught
+smuggling&mdash;off with him to the ranks;
+a Tartar cattle-stealer, a vagrant
+gipsy, an Armenian trader convicted
+of fraud, a Petersburg coachman who
+has run over a pedestrian&mdash;all food
+for powder&mdash;gray coats and bayonets
+for them all. Jews abound in the
+Russian army, being subjected to a
+severe conscription in Poland and
+southern Russia. They submit with
+exemplary patience to the hardships
+of the service, and to the taunts of
+their Russian comrades. Poles are of
+course numerous in the ranks, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+they are less enduring than the Israelite,
+and often desert to the Circassians,
+who make them work as servants, or
+sell them as slaves to the Turks. No
+race are too unmilitary in their nature
+to be ground into soldiers by the mill
+of Russian discipline. Besides Jews,
+gipsies and Armenians figure on the
+muster-roll. It must have been a
+queer day for the ragged Zingaro,
+when the Russian sergeant first stepped
+into his smoky tent, bade him
+clip his elf locks, wash his grimy
+countenance, and follow to the field.
+For him the pomp of war had no
+seductions; he would far rather have
+stuck to his den and vermin, and to
+his meal of roast rats and hedgehogs.
+But military discipline works miracles.
+The slouching filthy vagabond of yesterday
+now stands erect as if he had
+swallowed his ramrod, his shoes a
+brilliant jet, his buttons sparkling in
+the sun&mdash;a soldier from toe to top-knot.</p>
+
+<p>The right bank of the Kuban, from
+the Sea of Azov to the mouth of the
+Laba, (a tributary of the former
+stream,) is peopled with Tchernamortsy
+Cossacks, who furnish ten
+regiments, each of a thousand horsemen,
+for the defence of their lands
+and families. These cavalry carry a
+musket, slung on the back, and a long
+red lance: their dress is a sheepskin
+jacket, except on state occasions, when
+they sport uniform. They are much
+less feared by the Circassians than
+are the Cossacks of the Line, who
+wear the Circassian dress, carry sabres
+instead of lances, and are more valiant,
+active and skilful, than their
+Tchernamortsy neighbours. The Cossacks
+of the Caucasian Line dwell on
+the banks of the Kuban and Terek,
+form a military colony of about fifty
+thousand souls, and keep six thousand
+horsemen ready for the field. There
+is a mixture of Circassian blood in
+their veins, and they are first-rate
+fighting men. Their villages are exposed
+to frequent attacks from the
+mountaineers; but when these are not
+exceedingly rapid in collecting their
+booty, and effecting their retreat, the
+Cossacks assemble, and a desperate
+fight ensues. When the combatants
+are numerically matched, the equality
+of arms, horses, and skill renders the
+issue very doubtful. The Tchernamortsies
+and Don Cossacks are less
+able to cope with the Circassians. In
+a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mêlée</i> their lances are inferior to the
+shaska. The rival claims of lance
+and sabre have often been discussed;
+many trials of their respective merits
+have been made in English, French,
+and German riding-schools; and much
+ink has been shed on the subject.
+Unquestionably the lance has done
+good service, and in certain circumstances
+is a terrible arm. "At the
+battle of Dresden," Marshal Marmont
+tells us, "the Austrian infantry were
+repeatedly assailed by the French
+cuirassiers, whom they as often beat
+back, although the rain prevented
+their firing, and the bayonet was their
+sole defence. But fifty lancers of
+Latour-Maubourg's escort at once
+broke their ranks." Had the cuirassiers
+had lances, their first charge,
+Marmont plausibly enough asserts,
+would have sufficed. This leads to
+another question, often mooted&mdash;whether
+the lance be properly a light
+or a heavy cavalry weapon. When
+used to break infantry, weight of man
+and horse might be an advantage;
+but in pursuit, where&mdash;especially in
+rugged and mountainous countries&mdash;the
+lance is found particularly useful,
+the preference is obviously for the
+swift steed and light cavalier. In the
+irregular cavalry combats on the Caucasian
+line, the sabre carries the day.
+Unless the Don Cossack's first lance-thrust
+settles his adversary, (which is
+rarely the case,) the next instant the
+adroit Circassian is within his guard,
+and then the betting is ten to one on
+Caucasus. Moreover, the Don Cossacks,
+brought from afar to wage a
+perilous and profitless war, are unwilling
+combatants. They find blows
+more plentiful than booty, and approve
+themselves arrant thieves and shy
+fighters. Relieved every two or three
+years, they have scarcely time to get
+broken in to the peculiar mode of
+warfare. The Cossacks of the Line
+are the flower of the hundred thousand
+wild warriors scattered over
+the steppes of Southern Russia, and
+ready, at one man's word, to vault
+into the saddle. Their gallant feats
+are numerous. In 1843, during Dr
+Wagner's visit, three thousand Circassians
+dashed across the Kuban,
+near the fortified village of Ustlaba.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+A dense fog hid them from the Russian
+vedettes. Suddenly fifty Cossacks
+of the Line, the escort of a gun,
+found themselves face to face with the
+mountaineers. The mist was so thick
+that the horses' heads almost touched
+before either party perceived the other.
+Flight was impossible, but the Cossacks
+fought like fiends. Forty-seven
+met a soldier's death; only three were
+captured, and accompanied the cannon
+across the river, by which road
+the Circassians at once retreated,
+having taken the brave detachment
+for the advanced guard of a strong
+force.</p>
+
+<p>The word Kasak, Kosak, or Kossack,
+variously interpreted by Klaproth and
+other etymologists as robber, volunteer,
+daredevil, &amp;c., conveys to civilised
+ears rude and inelegant associations.
+Paris has not yet forgotten
+the uncouth hordes, wrapped in sheepskins
+and overrun with vermin, who,
+in the hour of her humiliation, startled
+her streets, and made her dandies
+shriek for their smelling-bottles. Not
+that Paris saw the worst of them.
+Some of the Uralian bears, centaurs of
+the steppes, Calibans on horseback,
+were never allowed to pass the Russian
+frontier. Their emperor appreciated
+their good qualities, but left them at
+home. Since then, a change has occured.
+Civilisation has made huge strides
+north-eastward. Near Fanagoria, Dr
+Wagner passed a pleasant evening
+with a Cossack officer, a prime fellow,
+with all unquenchable thirst for toddy,
+and an inexhaustible store of information.
+He had made the campaigns
+against the French; had evidently
+been bred a savage, or little better;
+but had acquired, during his long military
+career, knowledge of the world and
+a certain degree of polish. Amongst
+other interesting matters, he gave a
+sketch of his grandfather, a bloodthirsty
+old warrior and image-worshipper,
+the scourge of his Nogay
+neighbours, and a great slayer of the
+Turk; who in 1812, at the mature age
+of ninety, had responded to Czar
+Alexander's summons to fight for
+"faith and fatherland," and had
+taken the field under Platoff, at
+the head of thirteen sons and threescore
+grandsons. Whilst the Cossack
+major told the history of the "Demon
+of the Steppes," as his ferocious
+ancestor was called, his son, a gay
+lieutenant in the Cossacks of the Guard,
+entered the apartment. This young
+gentleman, slender, handsome, with
+well-cut uniform, graceful manners,
+and well-waxed mustaches, declined
+the punch, "having got used at St
+Petersburg to tea and champagne."
+He brought intelligence of promotions
+and decorations, of high play at Tcherkask,
+(the capital of the Don-Cossacks'
+country,) and of the establishment
+at Toganrog of a French <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">restaurateur</i>,
+who retailed <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Veuve Clicquot's</i>
+genuine champagne at four silver
+rubles a bottle. He was fascinated
+by the French actresses at St Petersburg,
+and enthusiastic in praise of
+Taglioni, then displaying her legs and
+graces in the Russian metropolis. Dr
+Wagner left the symposium with a
+vivid impression of the contrast between
+the bearded barbarian of 1812
+and the dapper guardsman of thirty
+years later; and with the full conviction
+that the next Russian emperor
+who makes an inroad into civilised
+Europe, will have no occasion to be
+ashamed of his Cossacks, even though
+his route should lead him to the polite
+capital of the French republic.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>THE CAXTONS.&mdash;PART X.</h2>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XLVI.</h3>
+
+<p>My uncle's conjecture as to the
+parentage of Francis Vivian seemed
+to me a positive discovery. Nothing
+more likely than that this wilful boy
+had formed some headstrong attachment
+which no father would sanction,
+and so, thwarted and irritated, thrown
+himself on the world. Such an explanation
+was the more agreeable to me,
+as it cleared up all that had appeared
+more discreditable in the mystery that
+surrounded Vivian. I could never
+bear to think that he had done anything
+mean and criminal, however I
+might believe he had been rash and
+faulty. It was natural that the unfriended
+wanderer should have been
+thrown into a society, the equivocal
+character of which had failed to revolt
+the audacity of an inquisitive mind
+and adventurous temper; but it
+was natural, also, that the habits
+of gentle birth, and that silent education
+which English gentlemen commonly
+receive from their very cradle,
+should have preserved his honour, at
+least, intact through all. Certainly
+the pride, the notions, the very faults
+of the wellborn had remained in full
+force&mdash;why not the better qualities,
+however smothered for the time? I felt
+thankful for the thought that Vivian
+was returning to an element in which he
+might repurify his mind,&mdash;refit himself
+for that sphere to which he belonged;&mdash;thankful
+that we might yet
+meet, and our present half intimacy
+mature, perhaps, into healthful friendship.</p>
+
+<p>It was with such thoughts that I
+took up my hat the next morning to
+seek Vivian, and judge if we had
+gained the right clue, when we were
+startled by what was a rare sound at
+our door&mdash;the postman's knock. My
+father was at the Museum; my mother
+in high conference, or close preparation
+for our approaching departure, with Mrs
+Primmins; Roland, I, and Blanche
+had the room to ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>"The letter is not for me," said
+Pisistratus.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor for me, I am sure," said the
+Captain, when the servant entered
+and confuted him&mdash;for the letter was
+for him. He took it up wonderingly
+and suspiciously, as Glumdalclitch
+took up Gulliver, or as (if naturalists)
+we take up an unknown creature, that
+we are not quite sure will not bite and
+sting us. Ah! it has stung or bit you,
+Captain Roland! for you start and
+change colour&mdash;you suppress a cry as
+you break the seal&mdash;you breathe hard
+as you read&mdash;and the letter seems
+short&mdash;but it takes time in the reading,
+for you go over it again and again.
+Then you fold it up&mdash;crumple it&mdash;thrust
+it into your breast pocket&mdash;and
+look round like a man waking from
+a dream. Is it a dream of pain, or of
+pleasure? Verily, I cannot guess, for
+nothing is on that eagle face either of
+pain or pleasure, but rather of fear,
+agitation, bewilderment. Yet the eyes
+are bright, too, and there is a smile on
+that iron lip.</p>
+
+<p>My uncle looked round, I say, and
+called hastily for his cane and his
+hat, and then began buttoning his coat
+across his broad breast, though the
+day was hot enough to have unbuttoned
+every breast in the tropics.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not going out, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But are you strong enough yet?
+Let me go with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; no. Blanche, come here."
+He took the child in his arms, surveyed
+her wistfully, and kissed her.
+"You have never given me pain,
+Blanche: say, 'God bless and prosper
+you, father!'"</p>
+
+<p>"God bless and prosper my dear,
+dear papa!" said Blanche, putting
+her little hands together, as if in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;that should bring me luck,
+Blanche," said the Captain, gaily, and
+setting her down. Then seizing his
+cane from the servant, and putting on
+his hat with a determined air, he
+walked stoutly forth; and I saw him,
+from the window, march along the
+streets as cheerfully as if he had been
+besieging Badajoz.</p>
+
+<p>"God prosper thee, too!" said I,
+involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p>And Blanche took hold of my hand,
+and said in her prettiest way, (and her
+pretty ways were many), "I wish you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+would come with us, cousin Sisty, and
+help me to love papa. Poor papa! he
+wants us both&mdash;he wants all the love
+we can give him!"</p>
+
+<p>"That he does, my dear Blanche;
+and I think it a great mistake that we
+don't all live together. Your papa
+ought not to go to that tower of his, at
+the world's end, but come to our
+snug, pretty house, with a garden full
+of flowers, for you to be Queen of the
+May&mdash;from May to November;&mdash;to
+say nothing of a duck that is more
+sagacious than any creature in the
+Fables I gave you the other day."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche laughed and clapped her
+hands&mdash;"Oh, that would be so nice!
+but,"&mdash;and she stopped gravely, and
+added, "but then, you see, there would
+not be the tower to love papa; and I
+am sure that the tower must love him
+very much, for he loves it dearly."</p>
+
+<p>It was my turn to laugh now. "I
+see how it is, you little witch," said I;
+"you would coax us to come and
+live with you and the owls! With all
+my heart, so far as I am concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"Sisty," said Blanche, with an
+appalling solemnity on her face, "do
+you know what I've been thinking?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not I, miss&mdash;what?&mdash;something
+very deep, I can see&mdash;very horrible,
+indeed, I fear, you look so serious."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I've been thinking," continued
+Blanche, not relaxing a muscle,
+and without the least bit of a blush&mdash;"I've
+been thinking that I'll be your
+little wife; and then, of course, we
+shall all live together."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche did not blush, but I did.
+"Ask me that ten years hence, if you
+dare, you impudent little thing; and
+now, run away to Mrs Primmins, and
+tell her to keep you out of mischief, for
+I must say good-morning."</p>
+
+<p>But Blanche did not run away, and
+her dignity seemed exceedingly hurt
+at my mode of taking her alarming
+proposition, for she retired into a corner
+pouting, and sate down with great
+majesty. So there I left her, and
+went my way to Vivian. He was out;
+but, seeing books on his table, and
+having nothing to do, I resolved to
+wait for his return. I had enough of
+my father in me to turn at once to the
+books for company; and, by the side of
+some graver works which I had recommended,
+I found certain novels in
+French, that Vivian had got from a
+circulating library. I had a curiosity
+to read these&mdash;for, except the old classic
+novels of France, this mighty branch
+of its popular literature was then
+new to me. I soon got interested, but
+what an interest!&mdash;the interest that a
+nightmare might excite, if one caught
+it out of one's sleep, and set to work
+to examine it. By the side of what
+dazzling shrewdness, what deep knowledge
+of those holes and corners in
+the human system, of which Goethe
+must have spoken when he said somewhere&mdash;(if
+I recollect right, and don't
+misquote him, which I'll not answer
+for)&mdash;"There is something in every
+man's heart which, if we could know,
+would make us hate him,"&mdash;by the
+side of all this, and of much more that
+showed prodigious boldness and energy
+of intellect, what strange exaggeration&mdash;what
+mock nobility of sentiment&mdash;what
+inconceivable perversion of
+reasoning&mdash;what damnable demoralisation!
+I hate the cant of charging
+works of fiction with the accusation&mdash;often
+unjust and shallow&mdash;that they
+interest us in vice, or palliate crime,
+because the author truly shows what
+virtues may entangle themselves with
+vices; or commands our compassion,
+and awes our pride, by teaching us
+how men deceive and bewitch themselves
+into guilt. Such painting belongs
+to the dark truth of all tragedy,
+from Sophocles to Shakspeare. No;
+this is not what shocked me in those
+books&mdash;it was not the interesting me in
+vice, for I felt no interest in it at all; it
+was the insisting that vice is something
+uncommonly noble&mdash;it was the portrait
+of some coldblooded adultress, whom
+the author or authoress chooses to call
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pauvre Ange!</i> (poor angel!);&mdash;it was
+some scoundrel who dupes, cheats,
+and murders under cover of a duel,
+in which he is a second St George; who
+does not instruct us by showing through
+what metaphysical process he became
+a scoundrel, but who is continually
+forced upon us as a very favourable
+specimen of mankind;&mdash;it was the view
+of society altogether, painted in colours
+so hideous that, if true, instead of
+a revolution, it would draw down
+a deluge;&mdash;it was the hatred, carefully
+instilled, of the poor against the
+rich&mdash;it was the war breathed between
+class and class&mdash;it was that envy of all
+superiorities, which loves to show itself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+by allowing virtue only to a blouse, and
+asserting that a man must be a rogue if
+he belong to that rank of society in
+which, from the very gifts of education,
+from the necessary associations
+of circumstances, roguery is
+the last thing probable or natural. It
+was all this, and things a thousand
+times worse, that set my head in a whirl,
+as hour after hour slipped on, and I
+still gazed, spell-bound, on these Chimeras
+and Typhons&mdash;these symbols
+of the Destroying Principle. "Poor
+Vivian!" said I, as I rose at last,
+"if thou readest these books with
+pleasure, or from habit, no wonder that
+thou seemest to me so obtuse about
+right and wrong, and to have a great
+cavity where thy brain should have
+the bump of 'conscientiousness' in
+full salience!"</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, to do those demoniacs
+justice, I had got through time imperceptibly
+by their pestilent help;
+and I was startled to see, by my watch,
+how late it was. I had just resolved to
+leave a line, fixing an appointment for
+the morrow, and so depart, when I
+heard Vivian's knock&mdash;a knock that
+had great character in it&mdash;haughty,
+impatient, irregular; not a neat, symmetrical,
+harmonious, unpretending
+knock, but a knock that seemed to
+set the whole house and street at defiance:
+it was a knock bullying&mdash;a
+knock ostentatious&mdash;a knock irritating
+and offensive&mdash;"impiger" and
+"iracundus."</p>
+
+<p>But the step that came up the stairs
+did not suit the knock: it was a step
+light, yet firm&mdash;slow, yet elastic.</p>
+
+<p>The maid-servant who had opened
+the door had, no doubt, informed
+Vivian of my visit, for he did not seem
+surprised to see me; but he cast that
+hurried, suspicious look round the
+room which a man is apt to cast
+when he has left his papers about, and
+finds some idler, on whose trustworthiness
+he by no means depends, seated
+in the midst of the unguarded secrets.
+The look was not flattering; but my
+conscience was so unreproachful that
+I laid all the blame upon the general
+suspiciousness of Vivian's character.</p>
+
+<p>"Three hours, at least, have I been
+here!" said I, maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Three hours!"&mdash;again the look.</p>
+
+<p>"And this is the worst secret I have
+discovered,"&mdash;and I pointed to those
+literary Manicheans.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said he carelessly, "French
+novels!&mdash;I don't wonder you stayed so
+long. I can't read your English
+novels&mdash;flat and insipid: there are
+truth and life here."</p>
+
+<p>"Truth and life!" cried I, every
+hair on my head erect with astonishment&mdash;"then
+hurrah for falsehood and
+death!"</p>
+
+<p>"They don't please you; no accounting
+for tastes."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon&mdash;I account for
+yours, if you really take for truth and
+life monsters so nefast and flagitious.
+For heaven's sake, my dear fellow,
+don't suppose that any man could get
+on in England&mdash;get anywhere but to
+the Old Bailey or Norfolk Island, if
+he squared his conduct to such topsy-turvy
+notions of the world as I find
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"How many years are you my
+senior," asked Vivian sneeringly,
+"that you should play the mentor,
+and correct my ignorance of the
+world?"</p>
+
+<p>"Vivian, it is not age and experience
+that speak here, it is something
+far wiser than they&mdash;the instinct of
+a man's heart, and a gentleman's
+honour."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said Vivian, rather
+discomposed, "let the poor books
+alone; you know my creed&mdash;that books
+influence us little one way or the
+other."</p>
+
+<p>"By the great Egyptian library,
+and the soul of Diodorus, I wish you
+could hear my father upon that point!
+Come," added I, with sublime compassion&mdash;"come,
+it is not too late&mdash;do
+let me introduce you to my father.
+I will consent to read French
+novels all my life, if a single chat with
+Austin Caxton does not send you
+home with a happier face and a lighter
+heart. Come, let me take you back
+to dine with us to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot," said Vivian with some
+confusion&mdash;"I cannot, for this day I
+leave London. Some other time perhaps&mdash;for,"
+he added, but not heartily,
+"we may meet again."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," said I, wringing his
+hand, "and that is likely,&mdash;since, in
+spite of yourself, I have guessed your
+secret&mdash;your birth and parentage."</p>
+
+<p>"How!" cried Vivian, turning pale,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+and gnawing his lip&mdash;"what do you
+mean?&mdash;speak."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, are you not the lost,
+runaway son of Colonel Vivian?
+Come, say the truth; let us be confidants."</p>
+
+<p>Vivian threw off a succession of his
+abrupt sighs; and then, seating himself,
+leant his face on the table, confused,
+no doubt, to find himself discovered.</p>
+
+<p>"You are near the mark," said he
+at last, "but do not ask me farther
+yet. Some day," he cried impetuously,
+and springing suddenly to his
+feet&mdash;"some day you shall know all:
+yes; some day, if I live, when that
+name shall be high in the world; yes,
+when the world is at my feet!" He
+stretched his right hand as if to grasp the
+space, and his whole face was lighted
+with a fierce enthusiasm. The glow
+died away, and with a slight return of
+his scornful smile, he said&mdash;"Dreams
+yet; dreams! And now, look at this
+paper." And he drew out a memorandum,
+scrawled over with figures.</p>
+
+<p>"This, I think, is my pecuniary
+debt to you; in a few days, I shall
+discharge it. Give me your address."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said I, pained, "can you
+speak to me of money, Vivian?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is one of those instincts of
+honour you cite so often," answered
+he, colouring. "Pardon me."</p>
+
+<p>"That is my address," said I,
+stooping to write, to conceal my
+wounded feelings. "You will avail
+yourself of it, I hope, often, and tell
+me that you are well and happy."</p>
+
+<p>"When I am happy, you shall
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not require any introduction
+to Trevanion?"</p>
+
+<p>Vivian hesitated: "No, I think not.
+If ever I do, I will write for it."</p>
+
+<p>I took up my hat, and was about to
+go&mdash;for I was still chilled and mortified&mdash;when,
+as if by an irresistible impulse,
+Vivian came to me hastily,
+flung his arms round my neck, and
+kissed me as a boy kisses his brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Bear with me!" he cried in a
+faltering voice: "I did not think to
+love any one as you have made me
+love you, though sadly against the
+grain. If you are not my good angel,
+it is that nature and habit are too
+strong for you. Certainly, some day
+we shall meet again. I shall have
+time, in the meanwhile, to see if the
+world can be indeed 'mine oyster,
+which I with sword can open.' I
+would be <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">aut Cæsar aut nullus</i>! Very
+little other Latin know I to quote
+from! If Cæsar, men will forgive me
+all the means to the end; if <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">nullus</i>,
+London has a river, and in every
+street one may buy a cord!"</p>
+
+<p>"Vivian! Vivian!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now go, my dear friend, while
+my heart is softened&mdash;go, before I
+shock you with some return of the
+native Adam. Go&mdash;go!"</p>
+
+<p>And taking me gently by the arm,
+Francis Vivian drew me from the
+room, and, re-entering, locked his
+door.</p>
+
+<p>Ah! if I could have left him Robert
+Hall, instead of those execrable Typhons!
+But would that medicine have
+suited his case, or must grim Experience
+write sterner recipes with her
+iron hand?</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XLVII.</h3>
+
+<p>When I got back, just in time for
+dinner, Roland had not returned, nor
+did he return till late in the evening.
+All our eyes were directed towards
+him, as we rose with one accord to
+give him welcome; but his face was
+like a mask&mdash;it was locked, and rigid,
+and unreadable.</p>
+
+<p>Shutting the door carefully after him,
+he came to the hearth, stood on it,
+upright and calm, for a few moments,
+and then asked&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Has Blanche gone to bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said my mother, "but not
+to sleep, I am sure; she made me
+promise to tell her when you came
+back."</p>
+
+<p>Roland's brow relaxed.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow, sister," said he slowly,
+"will you see that she has the proper
+mourning made for her? My son is
+dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!" we cried with one voice,
+and surrounding him with one impulse.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead! impossible&mdash;you could not
+say it so calmly. Dead!&mdash;how do
+you know? You may be deceived.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+Who told you?&mdash;why do you think
+so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen his remains," said
+my uncle, with the same gloomy
+calm. "We will all mourn for him.
+Pisistratus, you are heir to my name
+now, as to your father's. Good-night;
+excuse me, all&mdash;all you dear
+and kind ones; I am worn out."</p>
+
+<p>Roland lighted his candle and went
+away, leaving us thunderstruck; but
+he came back again&mdash;looked round&mdash;took
+up his book, open in the favourite
+passage&mdash;nodded again, and
+again vanished. We looked at each
+other, as if we had seen a ghost. Then
+my father rose and went out of the
+room, and remained in Roland's till
+the night was wellnigh gone. We
+sat up&mdash;my mother and I&mdash;till he returned.
+His benign face looked profoundly
+sad.</p>
+
+<p>"How is it, sir Can you tell us
+more?"</p>
+
+<p>My father shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Roland prays that you may preserve
+the same forbearance you have
+shown hitherto, and never mention his
+son's name to him. Peace be to the
+living, as to the dead. Kitty, this
+changes our plans; we must all go
+to Cumberland&mdash;we cannot leave Roland
+thus!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor, poor Roland!" said my
+mother, through her tears. "And to
+think that father and son were not
+reconciled. But Roland forgives him
+now&mdash;oh, yes! <em>now!</em>"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not Roland we can censure,"
+said my father, almost fiercely; "it
+is&mdash;but enough. We must hurry out
+of town as soon as we can: Roland
+will recover in the native air of his
+old ruins."</p>
+
+<p>We went up to bed mournfully.</p>
+
+<p>"And so," thought I, "ends one
+grand object of my life!&mdash;I had hoped
+to have brought those two together.
+But, alas! what peacemaker like the
+grave!"</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h3>
+
+<p>My uncle did not leave his room for
+three days, but he was much closeted
+with a lawyer; and my father dropped
+some words which seemed to imply that
+the deceased had incurred debts, and
+that the poor Captain was making
+some charge on his small property.
+As Roland had said that he had seen
+the remains of his son, I took it at
+first for granted that we should attend
+a funeral, but no word of this was
+said. On the fourth day, Roland, in
+deep mourning, entered a hackney
+coach with the lawyer, and was absent
+about two hours. I did not doubt
+that he had thus quietly fulfilled the
+last mournful offices. On his return,
+he shut himself up again for the rest
+of the day, and would not see even
+my father. But the next morning he
+made his appearance as usual, and I
+even thought that he seemed more
+cheerful than I had yet known him&mdash;whether
+he played a part, or whether
+the worst was now over, and the
+grave was less cruel than uncertainty.
+On the following day, we all set out
+for Cumberland.</p>
+
+<p>In the interval, Uncle Jack had
+been almost constantly at the house,
+and, to do him justice, he had seemed
+unaffectedly shocked at the calamity
+that had befallen Roland. There was,
+indeed, no want of heart in Uncle
+Jack, whenever you went straight at
+it; but it was hard to find if you took
+a circuitous route towards it through
+the pockets. The worthy speculator
+had indeed much business to transact
+with my father before we left town.
+The <em>Anti-Publisher Society</em> had been
+set up, and it was through the obstetric
+aid of that fraternity that the
+Great Book was to be ushered into
+the world. The new journal, the <cite>Literary
+Times</cite>, was also far advanced&mdash;not
+yet out, but my father was fairly
+in for it. There were preparations
+for its debut on a vast scale, and
+two or three gentlemen in black&mdash;one
+of whom looked like a lawyer, and
+another like a printer, and a third
+uncommonly like a Jew&mdash;called twice,
+with papers of a very formidable
+aspect. All these preliminaries settled,
+the last thing I heard Uncle Jack say,
+with a slap on my father's back, was,
+"Fame and fortune both made now!&mdash;you
+may go to sleep in safety, for
+you leave me wide awake. Jack Tibbets
+never sleeps!"</p>
+
+<p>I had thought it strange that, since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+my abrupt exodus from Trevanion's
+house, no notice had been taken of
+any of us by himself or Lady Ellinor.
+But on the very eve of our departure,
+came a kind note from Trevanion to
+me, dated from his favourite country
+seat, (accompanied by a present of
+some rare books to my father,) in
+which he said briefly that there had
+been illness in his family, which had
+obliged him to leave town for a change
+of air, but that Lady Ellinor expected
+to call on my mother the next week.
+He had found amongst his books some
+curious works of the Middle Ages,
+amongst others a complete set of
+Cardan, which he knew my father
+would like to have, and so sent them.
+There was no allusion to what had
+passed between us.</p>
+
+<p>In reply to this note, after due
+thanks on my father's part, who seized
+upon the Cardan (Lyons edition,
+1663, ten volumes folio) as a silkworm
+does upon a mulberry leaf, I expressed
+our joint regrets that there was
+no hope of our seeing Lady Ellinor,
+as we were just leaving town. I
+should have added something on the
+loss my uncle had sustained, but my
+father thought that, since Roland
+shrank from any mention of his
+son, even by his nearest kindred, it
+would be his obvious wish not to
+parade his affliction beyond that circle.</p>
+
+<p>And there had been illness in Trevanion's
+family! On whom had it
+fallen? I could not rest satisfied with
+that general expression, and I took my
+answer myself to Trevanion's house,
+instead of sending it by the post. In
+reply to my inquiries, the porter said
+that all the family were expected at
+the end of the week; that he had
+heard both Lady Ellinor and Miss
+Trevanion had been rather poorly, but
+that they were now better. I left my
+note, with orders to forward it; and
+my wounds bled afresh as I came
+away.</p>
+
+<p>We had the whole coach to ourselves
+in our journey, and a silent journey
+it was, till we arrived at a little town
+about eight miles from my uncle's residence,
+to which we could only get
+through a cross-road. My uncle insisted
+on preceding us that night, and,
+though he had written, before we started,
+to announce our coming, he was fidgety
+lest the poor tower should not make
+the best figure it could;&mdash;so he went
+alone, and we took our ease at our
+inn.</p>
+
+<p>Betimes the next day we hired a
+fly-coach&mdash;for a chaise could never
+have held us and my father's books&mdash;and
+jogged through a labyrinth of villanous
+lanes, which no Marshal Wade
+had ever reformed from their primal
+chaos. But poor Mrs Primmins and
+the canary-bird alone seemed sensible
+of the jolts; the former, who sate opposite
+to us, wedged amidst a medley
+of packages, all marked "care, to be
+kept top uppermost," (why I know
+not, for they were but books, and
+whether they lay top or bottom it
+could not materially affect their value,)&mdash;the
+former, I say, contrived to extend
+her arms over those <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">disjecta membra</i>,
+and, griping a window-sill with the
+right hand, and a window-sill with the
+left, kept her seat rampant, like the
+split eagle of the Austrian Empire&mdash;in
+fact it would be well, now-a-days,
+if the split eagle were as firm as Mrs
+Primmins! As for the canary, it never
+failed to respond, by an astonished
+chirp, to every "Gracious me!" and
+"Lord save us!" which the delve
+into a rut, or the bump out of it, sent
+forth from Mrs Primmins's lips, with
+all the emphatic dolor of thἂe "Ἂῖ, ἂῖ" in a Greek chorus.</p>
+
+<p>But my father, with his broad hat
+over his brows, was in deep thought.
+The scenes of his youth were rising
+before him, and his memory went,
+smooth as a spirit's wing, over delve
+and bump. And my mother, who
+sat next him, had her arm on his
+shoulder, and was watching his face
+jealously. Did she think that, in that
+thoughtful face, there was regret for
+the old love? Blanche, who had been
+very sad, and had wept much and
+quietly since they put on her the
+mourning, and told her that she had
+no brother, (though she had no remembrance
+of the lost), began now to
+evince infantine curiosity and eagerness
+to catch the first peep of her
+father's beloved tower. And Blanche
+sat on my knee, and I shared her impatience.
+At last there came in view
+a church spire&mdash;a church&mdash;a plain
+square building near it, the parsonage,
+(my father's old home)&mdash;a long
+straggling street of cottages and rude
+shops, with a better kind of house here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+and there&mdash;and in the hinder ground,
+a gray deformed mass of wall and
+ruin, placed on one of those eminences
+on which the Danes loved to pitch
+camp or build fort, with one high,
+rude, Anglo-Norman tower rising
+from the midst. Few trees were
+round it, and those either poplars or
+firs, save, as we approached, one
+mighty oak&mdash;integral and unscathed.
+The road now wound behind the parsonage,
+and up a steep ascent. Such a
+road!&mdash;the whole parish ought to have
+been flogged for it! If I had sent up
+a road like that, even on a map, to Dr
+Herman, I should not have sat down
+in comfort for a week to come!</p>
+
+<p>The fly-coach came to a full stop.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us get out," cried I, opening
+the door and springing to the ground
+to set the example.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche followed, and my respected
+parents came next. But when Mrs
+Primmins was about to heave herself
+into movement,</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Papæ!</em>" said my father. "I think,
+Mrs Primmins, you must remain in, to
+keep the books steady."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord love you!" cried Mrs Primmins,
+aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"The subtraction of such a mass, or
+<em>moles</em>&mdash;supple and elastic as all flesh
+is, and fitting into the hard corners of
+the inert matter&mdash;such a subtraction,
+Mrs Primmins, would leave a vacuum
+which no natural system, certainly no
+artificial organisation, could sustain.
+There would be a regular dance of
+atoms, Mrs Primmins; my books
+would fly here, there, on the floor, out
+of the window!</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+"<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Corporis officium est quoniam omnia deorsum.</i>"
+</p>
+
+<p class="noind">The business of a body like yours, Mrs
+Primmins, is to press all things down&mdash;to
+keep them tight, as you will know
+one of these days&mdash;that is, if you will
+do me the favour to read Lucretius,
+and master that material philosophy,
+of which I may say, without flattery,
+my dear Mrs Primmins, that you are
+a living illustration."</p>
+
+<p>These, the first words my father
+had spoken since we set out from the
+inn, seemed to assure my mother that
+she need have no apprehension as to
+the character of his thoughts, for her
+brow cleared, and she said, laughing,</p>
+
+<p>"Only look at poor Primmins, and
+then at that hill!"</p>
+
+<p>"You may subtract Primmins, if
+you will be answerable for the remnant,
+Kitty. Only, I warn you that
+it is against all the laws of physics."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he sprang lightly forward,
+and, taking hold of my arm,
+paused and looked round, and drew
+the loud free breath with which we
+draw native air.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet," said my father, after
+that grateful and affectionate inspiration&mdash;"and
+yet, it must be owned,
+that a more ugly country one cannot
+see out of Cambridgeshire."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Nay," said I, "it is bold and large,
+it has a beauty of its own. Those immense,
+undulating, uncultivated, treeless
+tracks have surely their charm of
+wildness and solitude! And how they
+suit the character of the ruin! All
+is feudal there: I understand Roland
+better now."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope in heaven Cardan will
+come to no harm!" cried my father;
+"he is very handsomely bound;
+and he fitted beautifully just into the
+fleshiest part of that fidgety Primmins."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche, meanwhile, had run far
+before us, and I followed fast. There
+were still the remains of that deep
+trench (surrounding the ruins on three
+sides, leaving a ragged hill-top at the
+fourth) which made the favourite fortification
+of all the Teutonic tribes. A
+causeway, raised on brick arches, now,
+however, supplied the place of the
+drawbridge, and the outer gate was
+but a mass of picturesque ruin. Entering
+into the courtyard or bailey, the old
+castle mound, from which justice had
+been dispensed, was in full view, rising
+higher than the broken walls
+around it, and partially overgrown
+with brambles. And there stood,
+comparatively whole, the tower or
+keep, and from its portals emerged
+the veteran owner.</p>
+
+<p>His ancestors might have received us
+in more state, but certainly they could
+not have given us a warmer greeting.
+In fact, in his own domain, Roland
+appeared another man. His stiffness,
+which was a little repulsive to those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+who did not understand it, was all
+gone. He seemed less proud, precisely
+because he and his pride, on
+that ground, were on good terms with
+each other. How gallantly he extended&mdash;not
+his arm, in our modern
+Jack-and-Jill sort of fashion&mdash;but
+his right hand, to my mother; how
+carefully he led her over "brake,
+bush, and scaur," through the low
+vaulted door, where a tall servant,
+who, it was easy to see, had been a
+soldier&mdash;in the precise livery, no doubt,
+warranted by the heraldic colours,
+(his stockings were red!)&mdash;stood upright
+as a sentry. And, coming into
+the hall, it looked absolutely cheerful&mdash;it
+took us by surprise. There was
+a great fire-place, and, though it was
+still summer, a great fire! It did not
+seem a bit too much, for the walls
+were stone, the lofty roof open to the
+rafters, while the windows were small
+and narrow, and so high and so deep
+sunk that one seemed in a vault.
+Nevertheless, I say the room looked
+sociable and cheerful&mdash;thanks principally
+to the fire, and partly to a
+very ingenious medley of old tapestry
+at one end, and matting at the other,
+fastened to the lower part of the walls,
+seconded by an arrangement of furniture
+which did credit to my uncle's
+taste for the Picturesque. After we
+had looked about and admired to our
+hearts' content, Roland took us&mdash;not
+up one of those noble staircases you
+see in the later manorial residences&mdash;but
+a little winding stone stair, into
+the rooms he had appropriated to his
+guests. There was first a small chamber,
+which he called my father's study&mdash;in
+truth, it would have done for any
+philosopher or saint who wished to
+shut out the world&mdash;and might have
+passed for the interior of such a column
+as Stylites inhabited; for you
+must have climbed a ladder to have
+looked out of the window, and then
+the vision of no short-sighted man
+could have got over the interval in the
+wall made by the narrow casement,
+which, after all, gave no other prospect
+than a Cumberland sky, with an occasional
+rook in it. But my father, I
+think I have said before, did not much
+care for scenery, and he looked round
+with great satisfaction upon the retreat
+assigned him.</p>
+
+<p>"We can knock up shelves for your
+books in no time," said my uncle,
+rubbing his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a charity," quoth my
+father, "for they have been very long
+in a recumbent position, and would
+like to stretch themselves, poor things.
+My dear Roland, this room is made
+for books&mdash;so round and so deep. I
+shall sit here like Truth in a well."</p>
+
+<p>"And there is a room for you, sister,
+just out of it," said my uncle, opening
+a little low prison-like door into a
+charming room, for its window was
+low, and it had an iron balcony; "and
+out of that is the bed-room. For you,
+Pisistratus, my boy, I am afraid that
+it is soldier's quarters, indeed, with
+which you will have to put up. But
+never mind; in a day or two we shall
+make all worthy a general of your
+illustrious name&mdash;for he was a great
+general, Pisistratus the First&mdash;was he
+not, brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"All tyrants are," said my father:
+"the knack of soldiering is indispensable
+to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you may say what you please
+here!" said Roland, in high good
+humour, as he drew me down stairs,
+still apologising for my quarters, and
+so earnestly that I made up my mind
+that I was to be put into an <em>oubliette</em>.
+Nor were my suspicions much dispelled
+on seeing that we had to leave
+the keep, and pick our way into what
+seemed to me a mere heap of rubbish,
+on the dexter side of the court. But
+I was agreeably surprised to find,
+amidst these wrecks, a room with a
+noble casement commanding the whole
+country, and placed immediately over
+a plot of ground cultivated as a garden.
+The furniture was ample, though
+homely; the floors and walls well
+matted; and, altogether, despite the
+inconvenience of having to cross the
+courtyard to get to the rest of the
+house, and being wholly without the
+modern luxury of a bell, I thought
+that I could not be better lodged.</p>
+
+<p>"But this is a perfect bower, my
+dear uncle! Depend on it, it was the
+bower-chamber of the Dames de Caxton&mdash;heaven
+rest them!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said my uncle, gravely; "I
+suspect it must have been the chaplain's
+room, for the chapel was to the
+right of you. An earlier chapel, indeed,
+formerly existed in the keep
+tower&mdash;for, indeed, it is scarcely a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+true keep without chapel, well, and
+hall. I can show you part of the roof
+of the first, and the two last are entire;
+the well is very curious, formed in the
+substance of the wall at one angle of
+the hall. In Charles the First's time,
+our ancestor lowered his only son down
+in a bucket, and kept him there six
+hours, while a Malignant mob was
+storming the tower. I need not say
+that our ancestor himself scorned to
+hide from such a rabble, for <em>he</em> was a
+grown man. The boy lived to be a
+sad spendthrift, and used the well for
+cooling his wine. He drank up a
+great many good acres."</p>
+
+<p>"I should scratch him out of the
+pedigree, if I were you. But, pray,
+have you not discovered the proper
+chamber of that great Sir William,
+about whom my father is so shamefully
+sceptical?"</p>
+
+<p>"To tell you a secret," answered
+the Captain, giving me a sly poke in
+the ribs, "I have put your father into
+it! There are the initial letters W. C.
+let into the cusp of the York rose, and
+the date, three years before the battle
+of Bosworth, over the chimneypiece."</p>
+
+<p>I could not help joining my uncle's
+grim low laugh at this characteristic
+pleasantry; and after I had complimented
+him on so judicious a mode of
+proving his point, I asked him how he
+could possibly have contrived to fit up
+the ruin so well, especially as he had
+scarcely visited it since his purchase.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said he, "about twelve
+years ago, that poor fellow you now
+see as my servant, and who is gardener,
+bailiff, seneschal, butler, and
+anything else you can put him to, was
+sent out of the army on the invalid
+list. So I placed him here; and as he
+is a capital carpenter, and has had a
+very fair education, I told him what I
+wanted, and put by a small sum every
+year for repairs and furnishing. It is
+astonishing how little it cost me, for
+Bolt, poor fellow, (that is his name,)
+caught the right spirit of the thing,
+and most of the furniture, (which
+you see is ancient and suitable,) he
+picked up at different cottages and
+farmhouses in the neighbourhood. As
+it is, however, we have plenty more
+rooms here and there&mdash;only, of late,"
+continued my uncle, slightly changing
+colour, "I had no money to
+spare. But come," he resumed, with
+an evident effort&mdash;"come and see my
+barrack: it is on the other side of the
+hall, and made out of what no doubt
+were the butteries."</p>
+
+<p>We reached the yard, and found
+the fly-coach had just crawled to the
+door. My father's head was buried deep
+in the vehicle,&mdash;he was gathering up his
+packages, and sending out, oracle-like,
+various muttered objurgations and
+anathemas upon Mrs Primmins and
+her vacuum; which Mrs Primmins,
+standing by, and making a lap with
+her apron to receive the packages and
+anathemas simultaneously, bore with
+the mildness of an angel, lifting up
+her eyes to heaven and murmuring
+something about "poor old bones."
+Though, as for Mrs Primmins's bones,
+they had been myths these twenty
+years, and you might as soon have
+found a Plesiosaurus in the fat lands
+of Romney Marsh as a bone amidst
+those layers of flesh in which my poor
+father thought he had so carefully
+cottoned up his Cardan.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving these parties to adjust
+matters between them, we stepped
+under the low doorway, and entered
+Rowland's room. Oh, certainly Bolt
+<em>had</em> caught the spirit of the thing!&mdash;certainly
+he had penetrated down even
+to the very pathos that lay within the
+deeps of Roland's character. Buffon
+says "the style is the man;" there,
+the room was the man. That nameless,
+inexpressible, soldier-like, methodical
+neatness which belonged to
+Roland&mdash;that was the first thing that
+struck one&mdash;that was the general character
+of the whole. Then, in details,
+there, in stout oak shelves, were the
+books on which my father loved to
+jest his more imaginative brother,&mdash;there
+they were, Froissart, Barante,
+Joinville, the <em>Mort d'Arthur</em>, <cite>Amadis
+of Gaul</cite>, Spenser's <cite>Fairy Queen</cite>, a
+noble copy of Strutt's <cite>Horda</cite>, Mallet's
+<cite>Northern Antiquities</cite>, Percy's <cite>Reliques</cite>,
+Pope's <cite>Homer</cite>, books on gunnery,
+archery, hawking, fortification&mdash;old
+chivalry and modern war together
+cheek by jowl.</p>
+
+<p>Old chivalry and modern war!&mdash;look
+to that tilting helmet with the
+tall Caxton crest, and look to that
+trophy near it, a French cuirass&mdash;and
+that old banner (a knight's pennon)
+surmounting those crossed bayonets.
+And over the chimneypiece there&mdash;bright,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+clean, and, I warrant you,
+dusted daily&mdash;are Roland's own
+sword, his holsters, and pistols, yea,
+the saddle, pierced and lacerated,
+from which he had reeled when that
+leg&mdash;&mdash;I gasped&mdash;I felt it all at
+a glance, and I stole softly to the
+spot, and, had Roland not been there,
+I could have kissed that sword as
+reverently as if it had been a Bayard's
+or a Sidney's.</p>
+
+<p>My uncle was too modest to guess
+my emotion; he rather thought I had
+turned my face to conceal a smile at
+his vanity, and said, in a deprecating
+tone of apology&mdash;"It was all Bolt's
+doing, foolish fellow."</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XLIX.</h3>
+
+<p>Our host regaled us with a hospitality
+that notably contrasted his
+economical thrifty habits in London.
+To be sure, Bolt had caught
+the great pike which headed the feast;
+and Bolt, no doubt, had helped to
+rear those fine chickens <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ab ovo</i>; Bolt,
+I have no doubt, made that excellent
+Spanish omelette; and for the rest,
+the products of the sheepwalk and the
+garden came in as volunteer auxiliaries&mdash;very
+different from the mercenary
+recruits by which those metropolitan
+<i lang="it" xml:lang="it">Condottieri</i>, the butcher and
+green-grocer, hasten the ruin of that
+melancholy commonwealth called
+"genteel poverty."</p>
+
+<p>Our evening passed cheerfully; and
+Roland, contrary to his custom, was
+talker in chief. It was eleven o'clock
+before Bolt appeared with a lantern
+to conduct me through the court-yard
+to my dormitory, among the ruins&mdash;a
+ceremony which, every night, shine or
+dark, he insisted upon punctiliously
+performing.</p>
+
+<p>It was long before I could sleep&mdash;before
+I could believe that but so few
+days had elapsed since Roland heard
+of his son's death&mdash;that son whose
+fate had so long tortured him; and
+yet, never had Roland appeared so
+free from sorrow! Was it natural&mdash;was
+it effort? Several days passed
+before I could answer that question,
+and then not wholly to my satisfaction.
+Effort there was, or rather resolute
+systematic determination. At
+moments Roland's head drooped, his
+brows met, and the whole man seemed
+to sink. Yet these were only moments;
+he would rouse himself up
+like a dozing charger at the sound of
+a trumpet, and shake off the creeping
+weight. But, whether from the
+vigour of his determination, or from
+some aid in other trains of reflection,
+I could not but perceive that Roland's
+sadness really was less grave and
+bitter than it had been, or than it was
+natural to suppose. He seemed to
+transfer, daily more and more, his
+affections from the dead to those
+around him, especially to Blanche and
+myself. He let it be seen that he
+looked on me now as his lawful successor&mdash;as
+the future supporter of his
+name&mdash;he was fond of confiding to
+me all his little plans, and consulting
+me on them. He would walk with me
+around his domains, (of which I shall
+say more hereafter,)&mdash;point out, from
+every eminence we climbed, where the
+broad lands which his forefathers owned
+stretched away to the horizon; unfold
+with tender hand the mouldering pedigree,
+and rest lingeringly on those of his
+ancestors who had held martial post,
+or had died on the field. There was
+a crusader who had followed Richard
+to Ascalon; there was a knight who
+had fought at Agincourt; there was a
+cavalier (whose picture was still extant,
+with fair lovelocks) who had
+fallen at Worcester&mdash;no doubt the
+same who had cooled his son in that
+well which the son devoted to more
+agreeable associations. But of all these
+worthies there was none whom my
+uncle, perhaps from the spirit of contradiction,
+valued like that apocryphal
+Sir William: and why?&mdash;because,
+when the apostate Stanley
+turned the fortunes of the field at
+Bosworth, and when that cry of despair&mdash;"Treason,
+treason!" burst
+from the lips of the last Plantagenet,
+"amongst the faithless,"
+this true soldier "faithful found!"
+had fallen in that lion-rush which
+Richard made at his foe. "Your
+father tells me that Richard was a
+murderer and usurper," quoth my
+uncle. "Sir, that might be true or not;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+but it was not on the field of battle
+that his followers were to reason on
+the character of the master who
+trusted them, especially when a legion
+of foreign hirelings stood opposed to
+them. I would not have descended
+from that turncoat Stanley to be lord of
+all the lands the Earls of Derby can
+boast of. Sir, in loyalty, men fight
+and die for a grand principle, and a
+lofty passion; and this brave Sir
+William was paying back to the last
+Plantagenet the benefits he had received
+from the first!"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet it may be doubted," said
+I maliciously, "whether William Caxton
+the printer did not&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Plague, pestilence, and fire seize
+William Caxton the printer, and his
+invention too!" cried my uncle barbarously.
+"When there were only a
+few books, at least they were good
+ones; and now they are so plentiful,
+all they do is to confound the judgment,
+unsettle the reason, drive the
+good books out of cultivation, and
+draw a ploughshare of innovation
+over every ancient landmark; seduce
+the women, womanize the men, upset
+states, thrones, and churches; rear a
+race of chattering, conceited, coxcombs,
+who can always find books in
+plenty to excuse them from doing
+their duty; make the poor discontented,
+the rich crotchety and whimsical,
+refine away the stout old
+virtues into quibbles and sentiments!
+All imagination formerly was expended
+in noble action, adventure,
+enterprise, high deeds and aspirations;
+now a man can but be imaginative
+by feeding on the false excitement
+of passions he never felt,
+dangers he never shared; and he fritters
+away all there is of life to spare in
+him upon the fictitious love-sorrows of
+Bond Street and St James's. Sir,
+chivalry ceased when the press rose!
+And to fasten upon me, as a forefather,
+out of all men who have ever lived
+and sinned, the very man who has
+most destroyed what I most valued&mdash;who,
+by the Lord! with his cursed invention
+has wellnigh got rid of respect
+for forefathers altogether&mdash;is a cruelty
+of which my brother had never been
+capable, if that printer's devil had not
+got hold of him!"</p>
+
+<p>That a man in this blessed nineteenth
+century should be such a
+Vandal! and that my uncle Roland
+should talk in a strain that Totila
+would have been ashamed of, within
+so short a time after my father's
+scientific and erudite oration on the
+Hygeiana of Books, was enough to
+make one despair of the progress of
+intellect and the perfectibility of our
+species. And I have no manner of
+doubt that, all the while, my uncle
+had a brace of books in his pockets,
+Robert Hall one of them! In truth,
+he had talked himself into a passion,
+and did not know what nonsense
+he was saying, poor man. But
+this explosion of Captain Roland's
+has shattered the thread of my matter.
+Pouff! I must take breath and
+begin again!</p>
+
+<p>Yes, in spite of my sauciness, the
+old soldier evidently took to me more
+and more. And, besides our critical
+examination of the property
+and the pedigree, he carried me
+with him on long excursions to distant
+villages, where some memorial of
+a defunct Caxton, a coat of arms, or
+an epitaph on a tombstone, might be
+still seen. And he made me pore
+over topographical works and county
+histories, (forgetful, Goth that he
+was, that for those very authorities
+he was indebted to the repudiated
+printer!) to find some anecdote
+of his beloved dead! In truth,
+the county for miles round bore
+the <em>vestigia</em> of those old Caxtons;
+their handwriting was on many a
+broken wall. And, obscure as they
+all were, compared to that great
+operative of the Sanctuary at Westminster,
+whom my father clung to&mdash;still,
+that the yesterdays that had
+lighted them the way to dusty death
+had cast no glare on dishonoured
+scutcheons seemed clear, from the
+popular respect and traditional affection
+in which I found that the name
+was still held in hamlet and homestead.
+It was pleasant to see the
+veneration with which this small
+hidalgo of some three hundred a-year
+was held, and the patriarchal
+affection with which he returned it.
+Roland was a man who would walk
+into a cottage, rest his cork leg on
+the hearth, and talk for the hour
+together upon all that lay nearest to
+the hearts of the owners. There is a
+peculiar spirit of aristocracy amongst<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+agricultural peasants: they like old
+names and families; they identify
+themselves with the honours of a
+house, as if of its clan. They do not
+care so much for wealth as townsfolk
+and the middle class do; they have a
+pity, but a respectful one, for wellborn
+poverty. And then this Roland,
+too&mdash;who would go and dine in a
+cook shop, and receive change for a
+shilling, and shun the ruinous luxury
+of a hack cabriolet&mdash;could be positively
+extravagant in his liberalities
+to those around him. He was altogether
+another being in his paternal
+acres. The shabby-genteel, half-pay
+captain, lost in the whirl of London,
+here luxuriated into a dignified case
+of manner that Chesterfield might
+have admired. And, if to please is
+the true sign of politeness, I wish you
+could have seen the faces that smiled
+upon Captain Roland, as he walked
+down the village, nodding from side
+to side.</p>
+
+<p>One day a frank, hearty, old
+woman, who had known Roland as a
+boy, seeing him lean on my arm,
+stopped us, as she said bluffly, to
+take a "geud luik" at me.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately I was stalwart enough
+to pass muster, even in the eyes of
+a Cumberland matron; and, after a
+compliment at which Roland seemed
+much pleased, she said to me, but
+pointing to the Captain&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hegh, sir, now you ha the bra
+time before you; you maun een try
+and be as geud as <em>he</em>. And if life
+last, ye wull too&mdash;for there never
+waur a bad ane of that stock. Wi'
+heads kindly stup'd to the least, and
+lifted manfu' oop to the heighest&mdash;that
+ye all war' sin ye came from the Ark.
+Blessins on the ould name&mdash;though
+little pelf goes with it&mdash;it sounds on
+the peur man's ear like a bit o'
+gould!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not see now," said Roland,
+as we turned away, "what we owe to a
+name, and what to our forefathers?&mdash;do
+you not see why the remotest ancestor
+has a right to our respect and
+consideration&mdash;for he was a parent?
+'Honour your parents'&mdash;the law
+does not say, 'Honour your children!'
+If a child disgrace us, and the dead,
+and the sanctity of this great heritage
+of their virtues&mdash;<em>the name</em>;&mdash;if he
+does&mdash;" Roland stopped short, and
+added fervently, "But you are my
+heir now&mdash;I have no fear! What
+matters one foolish old man's sorrow?&mdash;the
+name, that property
+of generations, is saved, thank
+Heaven&mdash;the name!"</p>
+
+<p>Now the riddle was solved, and
+I understood why, amidst all his natural
+grief for a son's loss, that proud
+father was consoled. For he was
+less himself a father than a son&mdash;son
+to the long dead. From every grave,
+where a progenitor slept, he had
+heard a parent's voice. He could bear
+to be bereaved, if the forefathers were
+not dishonoured. Roland was more
+than half a Roman&mdash;the son might
+still cling to his household affections,
+but the <em>lares</em> were a part of his
+religion.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER L.</h3>
+
+<p>But I ought to be hard at work,
+preparing myself for Cambridge. The
+deuce!&mdash;how can I? The point in
+academical education on which I require
+most preparation is Greek composition.
+I come to my father, who,
+one might think, was at home enough
+in this. But rare indeed is it to find
+a great scholar who is a good teacher.</p>
+
+<p>My dear father! if one is content to
+take you in your own way, there never
+was a more admirable instructor for
+the heart, the head, the principles,
+or the tastes&mdash;in your own way, when
+you have discovered that there is some
+one sore to be healed&mdash;one defect to
+be repaired; and you have rubbed
+your spectacles, and got your hand
+fairly into that recess between your
+frill and your waistcoat. But to go
+to you, cut and dry, monotonously,
+regularly&mdash;book and exercise in hand&mdash;to
+see the mournful patience with
+which you tear yourself from that
+great volume of Cardan in the very
+honeymoon of possession&mdash;and then
+to note those mild eyebrows gradually
+distend themselves into perplexed diagonals,
+over some false quantity or
+some barbarous collocation&mdash;till there
+steal forth that horrible "Papæ!"
+which means more on your lips than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+I am sure it ever did when Latin was
+a live language, and "Papæ!" a natural
+and unpedantic ejaculation!&mdash;no,
+I would sooner blunder through the
+dark by myself a thousand times, than
+light my rush-light at the lamp of that
+Phlegethonian "Papæ!"</p>
+
+<p>And then my father would wisely
+and kindly, but wondrous slowly,
+erase three-fourths of one's pet verses,
+and intercalate others that one saw
+were exquisite, but could not exactly
+see why. And then one asked why;
+and my father shook his head in despair,
+and said&mdash;"But you ought to
+<em>feel</em> why!"</p>
+
+<p>In short, scholarship to him was
+like poetry: he could no more teach
+it you than Pindar could have taught
+you how to make an ode. You
+breathed the aroma, but you could
+no more seize and analyse it, than,
+with the opening of your naked hand,
+you could carry off the scent of a rose.
+I soon left my father in peace to Cardan,
+and to the Great Book, which
+last, by the way, advanced but slowly.
+For Uncle Jack had now insisted on
+its being published in quarto, with
+illustrative plates; and those plates
+took an immense time, and were to
+cost an immense sum&mdash;but that cost
+was the affair of the Anti-Publisher
+Society. But how can I settle to work
+by myself? No sooner have I got
+into my room&mdash;<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">penitus ab orbe divisus</i>,
+as I rashly think&mdash;than there is a tap
+at the door. Now, it is my mother,
+who is benevolently engaged upon
+making curtains to all the windows,
+(a trifling superfluity that Bolt had
+forgotten or disdained,) and who wants
+to know how the draperies are fashioned
+at Mr Trevanion's: a pretence
+to have me near her, and see
+with her own eyes that I am not
+fretting;&mdash;the moment she hears I
+have shut myself up in my room, she
+is sure that it is for sorrow. Now
+it is Bolt, who is making book-shelves
+for my father, and desires to
+consult me at every turn, especially
+as I have given him a Gothic design,
+which pleases him hugely. Now it is
+Blanche, whom, in an evil hour, I
+undertook to teach to draw, and who
+comes in on tiptoe, vowing she'll not
+disturb me, and sits so quiet that she
+fidgets me out of all patience. Now,
+and much more often, it is the Captain,
+who wants me to walk, to ride,
+to fish. And, by St Hubert! (saint
+of the chase,) bright August comes&mdash;and
+there is moor-game on those
+barren wolds&mdash;and my uncle has
+given me the gun he shot with at
+my age&mdash;single-barrelled, flint lock&mdash;but
+you would not have laughed at it
+if you had seen the strange feats it
+did in Roland's hands&mdash;while in mine,
+I could always lay the blame on the
+flint lock! Time, in short, passed
+rapidly; and if Roland and I had
+our dark hours, we chased them
+away before they could settle&mdash;shot
+them on the wing as they got up.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, though the immediate
+scenery around my uncle's was so
+bleak and desolate, the country within
+a few miles was so full of objects of
+interest&mdash;of landscapes so poetically
+grand or lovely; and occasionally we
+coaxed my father from the Cardan,
+and spent whole days by the margin
+of some glorious lake.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst these excursions, I made
+one by myself to that house in which
+my father had known the bliss and
+the pangs of that stern first love that
+still left its scars fresh on my own
+memory. The house, large and imposing,
+was shut up&mdash;the Trevanions
+had not been there for years&mdash;the
+pleasure-grounds had been contracted
+into the smallest possible space. There
+was no positive decay or ruin&mdash;that
+Trevanion would never have allowed;
+but there was the dreary look of absenteeship
+everywhere. I penetrated
+into the house with the help of my
+card and half-a-crown. I saw that
+memorable boudoir&mdash;I could fancy the
+very spot in which my father had
+heard the sentence that had changed
+the current of his life. And when I
+returned home, I looked with new
+tenderness on my father's placid brow&mdash;and
+blessed anew that tender helpmate,
+who, in her patient love, had
+chased from it every shadow.</p>
+
+<p>I had received one letter from Vivian
+a few days after our arrival. It
+had been redirected from my father's
+house, at which I had given him my
+address. It was short, but seemed
+cheerful. He said, that he believed
+he had at last hit on the right way,
+and should keep to it&mdash;that he and
+the world were better friends than
+they had been&mdash;and that the only way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+to keep friends with the world was to
+treat it as a tamed tiger, and have
+one hand on a crow-bar while one
+fondled the beast with the other. He
+enclosed me a bank-note which somewhat
+more than covered his debt to
+me, and bade me pay him the surplus
+when he should claim it as a millionnaire.
+He gave me no address in his
+letter, but it bore the post-mark of
+Godalming. I had the impertinent
+curiosity to look into an old topographical
+work upon Surrey, and in a
+supplemental itinerary I found this
+passage, "To the left of the beech-wood,
+three miles from Godalming,
+you catch a glimpse of the elegant
+seat of Francis Vivian, Esq." To
+judge by the date of the work, the
+said Francis Vivian might be the
+grandfather of my friend, his namesake.
+There could no longer be any
+doubt as to the parentage of this prodigal
+son.</p>
+
+<p>The long vacation was now nearly
+over, and all his guests were to leave
+the poor Captain. In fact, we had
+made a long trespass on his hospitality.
+It was settled that I was to
+accompany my father and mother to
+their long-neglected <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">penates</i>, and start
+thence for Cambridge.</p>
+
+<p>Our parting was sorrowful&mdash;even
+Mrs Primmins wept as she shook
+hands with Bolt. But Bolt, an old
+soldier, was of course a lady's man.
+The brothers did not shake hands
+only&mdash;they fondly embraced, as
+brothers of that time of life rarely do
+now-a-days, except on the stage. And
+Blanche, with one arm round my
+mother's neck, and one round mine,
+sobbed in my ear,&mdash;"But I will be
+your little wife, I will." Finally, the
+fly-coach once more received us all&mdash;all
+but poor Blanche, and we looked
+round and missed her.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER LI.</h3>
+
+<p>Alma Mater! Alma Mater! New-fashioned
+folks, with their large
+theories of education, may find fault
+with thee. But a true Spartan
+mother thou art&mdash;hard and stern as
+the old matron who bricked up her
+son Pausanias, bringing the first
+stone to immure him; hard and
+stern, I say, to the worthless, but
+full of majestic tenderness to the
+worthy.</p>
+
+<p>For a young man to go up to Cambridge
+(I say nothing of Oxford,
+knowing nothing thereof) merely as
+routine work, to lounge through three
+years to a degree among the �ι πολλοι&mdash;for
+such an one, Oxford Street herself,
+whom the immortal Opium-eater hath
+so direly apostrophised, is not a more
+careless and stony-hearted mother.
+But for him who will read, who will
+work, who will seize the rare advantages
+proffered, who will select his
+friends judiciously&mdash;yea, out of that
+vast ferment of young idea in its lusty
+vigour, choose the good and reject
+the bad&mdash;there is plenty to make those
+three years rich with fruit imperishable&mdash;three
+years nobly spent, even
+though one must pass over the Ass's
+Bridge to get into the Temple of
+Honour.</p>
+
+<p>Important changes in the Academical
+system have been recently announced,
+and honours are henceforth
+to be accorded to the successful disciples
+in moral and natural sciences.
+By the side of the old throne of
+Mathesis, they have placed two very
+useful <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fauteuils à la Voltaire</i>. I
+have no objection; but, in those three
+years of life, it is not so much the thing
+learned, as the steady perseverance in
+learning something that is excellent.</p>
+
+<p>It was fortunate, in one respect, for
+me that I had seen a little of the real
+world&mdash;the metropolitan, before I
+came to that mimic one&mdash;the cloistral.
+For what were called pleasures in the
+last, and which might have allured
+me, had I come fresh from school,
+had no charm for me now. Hard
+drinking and high play, a certain
+mixture of coarseness and extravagance,
+made the fashion among the
+idle when I was at the university <em>sub
+consule Planco</em>&mdash;when Wordsworth
+was master of Trinity: it may be
+altered now.</p>
+
+<p>But I had already outlived such
+temptations, and so, naturally, I was
+thrown out of the society of the idle,
+and somewhat into that of the laborious.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Still, to speak frankly, I had no
+longer the old pleasure in books. If
+my acquaintance with the great world
+had destroyed the temptation to puerile
+excesses, it had also increased my
+constitutional tendency to practical
+action. And, alas! in spite of all the
+benefit I had derived from Robert
+Hall, there were times when memory
+was so poignant that I had no choice
+but to rush from the lonely room,
+haunted by tempting phantoms too
+dangerously fair, and sober down the
+fever of the heart by some violent
+bodily fatigue. The ardour which
+belongs to early youth, and which it
+best dedicates to knowledge, had
+been charmed prematurely to shrines
+less severely sacred. Therefore,
+though I laboured, it was with that
+full <em>sense of labour</em> which (as I found
+at a much later period of life) the
+truly triumphant student never knows.
+Learning&mdash;that marble image&mdash;warms
+into life, not at the toil of the chisel,
+but the worship of the sculptor. The
+mechanical workman finds but the
+voiceless stone.</p>
+
+<p>At my uncle's, such a thing as a
+newspaper rarely made its appearance.
+At Cambridge, even among
+reading men, the newspapers had
+their due importance. Politics ran
+high; and I had not been three days
+at Cambridge before I heard Trevanion's
+name. Newspapers, therefore,
+had their charms for me. Trevanion's
+prophecy about himself
+seemed about to be fulfilled. There
+were rumours of changes in the
+cabinet. Trevanion's name was
+bandied to and fro, struck from praise
+to blame, high and low, as a shuttlecock.
+Still the changes were not
+made, and the cabinet held firm.
+Not a word in the <cite>Morning Post</cite>,
+under the head of <em>fashionable intelligence</em>,
+as to rumours that would have
+agitated me more than the rise and
+fall of governments&mdash;no hint of "the
+speedy nuptials of the daughter and
+sole heiress of a distinguished and
+wealthy commoner:" only now and
+then, in enumerating the circle of
+brilliant guests at the house of
+some party chief, I gulped back the
+heart that rushed to my lips, when
+I saw the names of Lady Ellinor and
+Miss Trevanion.</p>
+
+<p>But amongst all that prolific
+progeny of the periodical press&mdash;remote
+offspring of my great namesake
+and ancestor, (for I hold the
+faith of my father,)&mdash;where was
+the <cite>Literary Times</cite>?&mdash;what had
+so long retarded its promised blossoms?
+Not a leaf in the shape of
+advertisements had yet emerged from
+its mother earth. I hoped from my
+heart that the whole thing was abandoned,
+and would not mention it in
+my letters home, lest I should revive
+the mere idea of it. But, in default
+of the <cite>Literary Times</cite>, there did appear
+a new journal, a daily journal
+too; a tall, slender, and meagre stripling,
+with a vast head, by way of prospectus,
+which protruded itself for three
+weeks successively at the top of the
+leading article;&mdash;with a fine and subtle
+body of paragraphs;&mdash;and the smallest
+legs, in the way of advertisements,
+that any poor newspaper ever stood
+upon! And yet this attenuated journal
+had a plump and plethoric title,
+a title that smacked of turtle and
+venison; an aldermanic, portly, grandiose,
+Falstaffian title&mdash;it was called
+<span class="smcap">The Capitalist</span>. And all those
+fine subtle paragraphs were larded
+out with receipts how to make money.
+There was an El Dorado in every sentence.
+To believe that paper, you
+would think no man had ever yet found
+a proper return for his pounds, shillings,
+and pence. You would have
+turned up your nose at twenty per
+cent. There was a great deal about
+Ireland&mdash;not her wrongs, thank Heaven!
+but her fisheries: a long inquiry
+what had become of the pearls for
+which Britain was once so famous: a
+learned disquisition upon certain lost
+gold mines now happily rediscovered:
+a very ingenious proposition to turn
+London smoke into manure, by a new
+chemical process: recommendations
+to the poor to hatch chickens in ovens
+like the ancient Egyptians: agricultural
+schemes for sowing the waste
+lands in England with onions, upon
+the system adopted near Bedford, net
+produce one hundred pounds an acre.
+In short, according to that paper,
+every rood of ground might well
+maintain its man, and every shilling
+be like Hobson's money-bag, "the
+fruitful parent of a hundred more."
+For three days, at the newspaper
+room of the Union Club, men talked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+of this journal: some pished, some
+sneered, some wondered; till an ill-natured
+mathematician, who had just
+taken his degree, and had spare time
+on his hands, sent a long letter to the
+<cite>Morning Chronicle</cite>, showing up more
+blunders, in some article to which the
+editor of <cite>The Capitalist</cite> had specially
+invited attention, (unlucky dog!) than
+would have paved the whole island of
+Laputa. After that time, not a soul
+read <cite>The Capitalist</cite>. How long it
+dragged on its existence I know not;
+but it certainly did not die of a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">maladie
+de langueur</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Little thought I, when I joined in
+the laugh against <cite>The Capitalist</cite>,
+that I ought rather to have followed it
+to its grave, in black crape and weepers,&mdash;unfeeling
+wretch that I was!
+But, like a poet, O <cite>Capitalist</cite>! thou
+wert not discovered, and appreciated,
+and prized, and mourned, till thou
+wert dead and buried, and the bill
+came in for thy monument!</p>
+
+<p>The first term of my college life
+was just expiring, when I received a
+letter from my mother, so agitated,
+so alarming, at first reading so unintelligible,
+that I could only see that
+some great misfortune had befallen
+us; and I stopped short and dropped
+on my knees, to pray for the life and
+health of those whom that misfortune
+more specially seemed to menace; and
+then&mdash;and then, towards the end of
+the last blurred sentence&mdash;read twice,
+thrice, over&mdash;I could cry, "Thank
+Heaven, thank Heaven! it is only,
+then, money after all!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h2>STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is a term of very wide application,
+this of statistics&mdash;extending to
+everything in the state of a country
+subject to variation either from the
+energies and fancies of men, or from the
+operations of nature, in so far as these,
+or the knowledge of them, has any
+tendency to occasion change in the
+condition of the country. Its elements
+must be either changeable in
+themselves, or the cause of change;
+because the use of the whole matter
+is to direct men what to do for their
+advantage, moral or physical&mdash;by
+legislation, when the case is of sufficient
+magnitude&mdash;or otherwise by the
+wisdom and enterprise of individuals.</p>
+
+<p>Governments, it is plain, must
+have the greatest interest in possessing
+knowledge of this sort; but they
+have not been the first to engage
+very earnestly in obtaining it. It
+would seem that, in all countries, the
+first very noticeable efforts in this
+way have been made by individuals.</p>
+
+<p>In this country we have now from
+government more and better statistics
+than from any other source; for
+besides the decennial census, there is
+the yearly produce in this way of
+Crown Commissions and of Parliamentary
+Committees; and, moreover,
+there is the late institution of a statistical
+department in connexion with
+the Board of Trade, for arranging,
+digesting, and rendering more accessible
+all matter of this kind collected,
+from time to time, by the different
+branches of the administration. But
+before statistical knowledge became
+the object of much care to the government
+of this country, it had been
+well cultivated by individuals. So in
+Germany statistics first took a scientific
+form in the works of an individual
+about the middle of the last century:
+and in France, the unfinished <cite>Mémoires
+des Intendants</cite>, prepared on the
+order of the king, were scarcely an
+exception, since meant for the private
+instruction of the young prince. But
+without attaching undue importance
+to the fact of mere precedence, it may
+be said that, considering the chief uses
+of this kind of knowledge, it has
+received more contributions from
+individuals than could have been expected.</p>
+
+<p>This admits of being easily explained.
+It has been well said that,
+while history is a sort of current statistics,
+statistics are a sort of stationary
+history. The one has therefore much
+the same invitations to mere literary
+taste as the other; and if the subject<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+be not so generally engaging, the fancy
+way be as strong, and produce as
+pure a devotion to statistics as there
+ever is to history. More than this,
+the statist may care far less for his
+subject than its uses,&mdash;that is, he may
+choose to undergo the toil of researches
+only recommended by the chance of
+their ministering to the better guidance
+of some part of public policy, and
+therefore to the public good. The impulse
+is then not literary; nor is it
+legislative, for the power is wanting;
+it is simply patriotic, for so it must
+be considered, even when, in the words
+of Mr M'Culloch, the object is only
+"to bring under the public view the
+deficiencies in statistical information,
+and so to contribute to the advancement
+of the science."</p>
+
+<p>This public nature of the aim of
+statistical works, and the unlikelihood
+of their authors choosing that medium
+to set forth anything supposed worthy
+of notice in the figure of their own
+genius, seem to have been recognised,
+except in rare instances, as giving to
+works of this kind a title to be well
+received, and to have their faults very
+gently remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it might be expected that
+the statistics of individuals should
+have a more limited range than those
+of governments; that they should
+refer to districts of less extent; and
+to the state of the country in fewer of
+its aspects. But the case is somewhat
+different. The statistics of individuals
+are often more national than local,
+and generally consist of many branches
+presented in some connexion; while
+those of governments are commonly
+confined to the single department on
+which some question of policy may
+chance for the time to have fixed
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>On the occasion mentioned, the inquiries
+instituted in France were not
+so confined, but embraced all the
+points of chief interest in the state of
+the country. In England, nothing
+similar has been attempted; although,
+some years ago, it is known that a
+proposal to institute a general survey
+of Ireland&mdash;on the plan, we believe,
+of the Ordnance Survey of the parish
+of Templemore&mdash;was for some time
+under consideration of the government.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the instances of
+individual enterprise in this way to a
+national extent are numerous, both
+at home and abroad. Among the
+latter, Aucherwall gives the first example,
+and Peuchet probably the
+best; both treating of the country
+not in parts but as a whole,&mdash;not in
+one respect but in many. Of the
+same sort are the excellent statistical
+works of Colquhoun, M'Culloch,
+Porter, and others, relating to the
+British empire, and directed to many
+aspects of its condition. To these
+we add the <cite>Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>,&mdash;occupied
+with as many or
+more matters of inquiry, but not so
+properly national, since viewing not
+the country collectively, but its parochial
+divisions in succession.</p>
+
+<p>One advantage belongs to the collection
+of statistics upon many points,
+which is not found in those that are
+limited to one. It is remarked by
+Schlozer in his <cite>Theorie der Statistik</cite>,
+that "there are many facts seemingly
+of no value, but which become important
+as soon as you combine them
+with other facts, it may be of quite
+another class. The affinities subsisting
+among these facts are discovered
+by the talent and genius of
+the statist; and the more various the
+knowledge he possesses, with so much
+the more success he will perform this
+last and crowning part of his task."
+The observation need not be confined
+to facts apparently unimportant: for
+even those, whose importance is at
+once perceived, may acquire a new
+value from a skilful collation. In
+either case, there seems a necessity
+for remitting the detached statistics
+collected by government to some
+such department as that in connexion
+with the Board of Trade; otherwise,
+the works of individual statists must
+continue to afford the only opportunity
+of tracing the latent relations
+of one branch of statistics to
+another.</p>
+
+<p>The individual, however, who attempts
+so much, is in hazard of
+attempting more than any individual
+can well perform. For, besides this,
+he has to make another effort quite
+distinct&mdash;in the investigation of facts.
+All the needed scientific knowledge he
+may possess; but the same sufficiency
+of local or topographical knowledge is
+not supposable. The work so produced,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+therefore, cannot easily avoid
+the defects, either of error in the
+details of some branch, of unequal
+development of the parts, or of a
+superficial treatment of the whole.
+Against these dangers some writers
+have had recourse to assistance, inviting
+contributions from others favoured
+with better means of information
+than themselves; and to them
+attributing, in so far as they assisted,
+the entire merit and responsibility of
+the work.</p>
+
+<p>This transference of responsibility is
+warranted by the necessity of the
+case&mdash;but it is unusual; and as it
+scarcely occurs except in works of the
+kind in question, it may happen that
+even a professing judge of such works,
+if the habit of attention be not good,
+may entirely overlook the circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>In the <cite>Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>,
+the obligation to individual contributions
+has been carried to the
+greatest extent; indeed, it is simply a
+collection of such contributions, and
+nothing more. This part of the plan
+was necessitated by another, in which
+the work is equally peculiar&mdash;namely,
+the distinct treatment of smaller divisions
+of the country, than have been
+taken up in any other work of the
+kind, having an entire country for
+its object. To obtain a body of parochial
+statistics, it was necessary to
+have recourse to persons well acquainted
+with the bounds, and intelligent,
+at the same time, upon the various
+subjects of inquiry. But to find
+such in nine hundred parishes would,
+of itself, have required much of that
+local knowledge, the want of which
+was the occasion of the search&mdash;had
+there not been a class or order of men
+among whom the desired qualification,
+in many points, might be supposed to
+be pretty generally diffused; and from
+whose favour to a project of public
+usefulness much aid might be expected.
+It was in this manner that the
+co-operation of the parochial clergy
+came to be suggested.</p>
+
+<p>The <cite>Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>
+was originated, promoted, and superintended
+by the late Sir John Sinclair.
+The authors of such works, as one of
+the best of them remarks, should be
+careful to explain their motives in
+undertaking it&mdash;we presume, because
+undertakings of the kind are felt to
+be scarcely an affair of individuals.
+In this instance, a desire to promote
+the public good was at once professed
+and accredited by many other acts
+apparently inspired by the same sentiment.
+The devotion of Sir John
+Sinclair's life in that direction was
+complete, and the example uncommon.
+In this a late reviewer perceives
+nothing more than a restless pursuit of
+plans of no further interest to himself
+than as they bore the inscription of
+his own name. But whenever public
+spirit is professed, and by anything
+like useful acts attested, our faith, we
+think, should be more generous. On
+such occasions, if on any, it is right
+to waive all speculation upon private
+motives, and to presume the best&mdash;for
+reasons so well understood in
+general that they do not need to be
+explained. But if genius, with a
+bent to that sort of penetration, must
+have its freedom, we do demand that
+some token should appear of a belief
+in the possibility of the virtue which
+is denied.</p>
+
+<p>It does not improve the grace of
+any such judgments that they are
+passed fifty years after the occasion;
+for, in the meantime, the work may
+have acquired merits which could not
+belong to it at first:&mdash;and so it has
+happened with the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>
+of Sir John Sinclair. Results may
+be fairly ascribed to that performance
+which were not intended nor
+foreseen, and which seem to have come
+from its very defects, as well as from
+the defects which it revealed in the
+condition of the country, and in the
+means of ascertaining what the condition
+of the country was. Its population-statistics
+were extremely imperfect;
+the census followed in a very
+few years. Its scanty and unequal
+notices of agriculture suggested the
+project of the County Reports; and
+to these succeeded the <cite>General Report
+of Scotland</cite>&mdash;a work still useful, and
+of the first authority in much that
+relates to the agriculture and other
+industry of the country. To take advantage
+of those capabilities which
+the statistical accounts had shown his
+country to possess, Sir John Sinclair
+originated the Agricultural Society.
+All of those things, and more, appear
+to have resulted from the <i>Statistical Account</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+They are honours that have
+arisen to it in the course of time, and
+may be fairly permitted to mitigate
+the notice and recollection of its
+faults.</p>
+
+<p>After the lapse of fifty years, Scotland
+had ceased to be the country represented
+in the old <cite>Statistical Account</cite>;
+for the greater part of what is proper
+to such a work is, as we have said,
+changeable and changing. It contained
+not a little, however, which
+remained as true and as interesting as
+at first: the topography, the physical
+characters, the civil divisions of the
+country were the same; all that had
+been said of its history, whether local
+or general, might be said again as seasonably
+as before. It occurred, then,
+to those to whom the author had presented
+the right of this work, to attempt
+to restore it in those parts which
+time had rendered useless, preserving
+those which were under no disadvantage
+from that cause. This, as we
+learn, was the plain, unambitious intention
+of the <cite>New Statistical Account
+of Scotland</cite>. It was projected and
+carried on during ten years by a Society,
+whose object it is to afford aid,
+where aid is needed, in the education
+of the children of the clergy of the
+Church of Scotland. Nothing could
+be more foreign to that object than to
+engage in a work of national statistics;
+nothing more natural than that, in
+their relation to the clergy, and with
+their interest in the first work, they
+should propose to renew it in the manner
+mentioned. A society expressly formed
+for statistical purposes, and not restrained
+like the Society for the Sons
+and Daughters of the Clergy, would probably
+have proposed something different&mdash;something
+more new; it might
+have been expected to produce something
+more excellent&mdash;though, even in
+that case, the demand of excellence
+would have been limited by the consideration,
+that the means of completely
+investigating the statistics of
+a country are not at the command of
+any statistical society that exists. A
+modernisation, so to speak, of the first
+work appears to have been the idea of
+the second.</p>
+
+<p>It has been executed, however, in
+the freest style, and scarcely admitted,
+indeed, of being accomplished at
+all in any other manner. In such
+cases, it is seldom that the adaptation
+is effected by mere numerical
+changes; the whole statement, in form,
+manner, and substance, behoves to be
+remodelled. Then, certain parts of
+the original may have been deficient,
+and become more evidently so by the
+changes that have since ensued in the
+state of the object: here the task is
+less one of correction than of supplement.
+For example, the very interesting
+and full accounts of mining and
+manufacturing industry which abound
+in the new work are nearly peculiar
+to it, and have scarcely an example in
+the old. One entire section of the
+latter, that of natural history, has been
+developed to an extent not attempted
+in the former, nor indeed in any other
+statistical work. These are rather
+noticeable licenses, on the supposition
+of the aim being as moderate as professed,
+and they go far to form a new
+and independent work&mdash;having nothing
+in common with the first, except the
+parochial divisions and the obligation
+to the clergy, as respects the plan; and
+as respects the matter, only the small
+part of it which is historical, and
+therefore not obsolete.</p>
+
+<p>We observe, accordingly, that the
+society who promoted the new work
+have put it forward as taking some
+things from the old, for which they
+are not responsible, but as containing
+far more which must form a new and
+separate character for itself. In both
+respects, we think they have viewed
+the work with a proper reference to
+the conditions under which it was produced.</p>
+
+<p>In other points, the new Account has
+improved upon the old, and might be
+expected to do so. It has more matter,
+by a third part, neither less suited
+to the place, nor more diffuse in the
+statement; and, as befits a work of
+reference, the arrangement is more
+orderly and more uniform. It is, on
+the whole, more carefully and better
+written, and shows, on the part of the
+reverend contributors, a remarkable
+advance in the many sorts of knowledge
+requisite to the task. If the
+comparison were pursued further, it
+might be said that some contributions
+to the first are not surpassed in the
+value of what they contain; while,
+from the greater novelty of the task
+at that time, as well as from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+greater freedom of the method, they
+are somewhat fresher and more genial
+in manner. The later work, if fuller,
+more exact, more statistical throughout,
+possesses that advantage at the
+cost of appearing sometimes more
+like a collection of returns in answer
+to submitted points of inquiry,&mdash;a character,
+however, by no means unsuitable
+to a compilation of the kind. In
+all other points a decided superiority
+must be attributed to the new Account.</p>
+
+<p>Our remarks at this time shall be
+confined to the plan of the new Account,
+and to the general description
+of its contents.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>The chief feature of the plan is the
+distinct treatment of each parish&mdash;producing
+a body neither of county nor
+of national, but merely of parochial
+statistics. This was the design, and
+there is much to recommend it. It
+is the last thing that can take the
+aspect of a fault in statistics, to view
+the matter in very minute portions;
+for thus, and thus only, it is possible to
+arrive at an accurate knowledge of
+the whole. There can be no good
+county statistics which do not suppose
+inquiries limited, at first, to lesser
+divisions of the country, and which do
+not express the sum of particulars
+taken from subdivisions that can
+hardly proceed too far. If such minor
+surveys do not come before the public,
+they are presumptively carried on in
+private. But, in the latter case, they
+are the more apt to be superficial, as
+they can be so with the less chance
+of being noticed; they are apt to
+take aid from mere computation of
+averages; they are apt, also, to result
+in that vague description which is the
+master-vice of statistics. "In this
+town, there are manufactures which
+employ <em>many</em> hands; in this district,
+<em>vast</em> quantities of silk are produced.
+These," says Schlozer, "are pet
+phrases of tourists, who would say
+something, when they know nothing;
+but they are not the language of
+statistics." The parochial method
+stands, then, on two good grounds: it
+is inevitable either in an open or a
+latent form; and it favours the collection
+of sufficient data for those specific
+enumerations which are the true
+worth and the characteristic grace of
+this branch of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>This plan, however, has some disadvantages;
+in referring to which we
+shall find occasion to bring to view
+some of the proper merits of the work.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, a work on this
+plan is inevitably voluminous. The
+territorial divisions submitted to distinct
+treatment are about nine hundred
+in number, and the matter is
+still further augmented by the occasional
+assignment to different hands
+of different parts of the survey of a
+single parish. In proportion to the
+descent of the details, is the bulk of
+the production; which we suppose to be
+an evil in the same measure in which it
+exceeds the necessity of the case. Now
+the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite> is at once
+seen to contain not a little matter of
+merely local interest, and of the
+smallest value considered as pertaining
+to a body of national statistics;
+and here, if anywhere, it is apt to be
+regarded as at fault. It is right, however,
+to recollect the privilege of every
+work to be judged according to the
+conditions of the species to which it
+belongs. The present is not set
+forth as a statistical account of Scotland,
+but as a collection of the statistical
+accounts of all the parishes in
+Scotland; for this, we perceive, is
+not merely implied in the plan of the
+work, but is declared in the prospectus,
+where the hope is expressed that, by
+exhibiting the actual state of the
+parishes, with whatever is therein
+amiss, it may lead to parochial improvements.
+It does not appear, therefore,
+to have been from any miscalculation
+of their worth, that matters of
+merely local interest have been so
+liberally admitted; and, all things
+considered, more of that nature might
+have been expected. Let us quote
+again from the best theory of statistics
+that has ever been produced. "An
+object may be deserving of remark in
+the description of some particular
+portion of a country, and at the same
+time have no claim to notice in any
+general account of that country at
+large. In the former case, the rivulet
+is not to be omitted; in the latter,
+any allusion to it would be a defect,
+for it would be matter of unnecessary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+and trifling detail."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> It is recorded,
+in the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>,
+that "Will-o'-wisp had never appeared
+in the parish of South Uist
+previous to the year 1812." Nothing,
+in a national point of view, can be
+conceived more insignificant than this
+fact; but, taken in connexion with a
+notable superstition in that district,
+its local importance appears.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> To
+the credit of this method, it may be
+noticed, that the accounts which are
+most parochial are, at the same time,
+among those which have been drawn
+up with the most general intelligence;
+and, this being the case, it is not a
+strange wish that the accounts, in
+general, had been somewhat more
+parochial than they are.</p>
+
+<p>On this plan, it is certain there is
+a risk of much repetition, many
+parishes having some common characterists
+which, in place of being
+recounted for each, might be stated
+once for all. How far does the
+<cite>Statistical Account</cite> offend in this manner?
+It is true that, where the same
+facts occur in many parishes, a single
+statement might suffice; though this
+might be at the cost of violating the
+plan which for the whole it might be
+fittest to adopt, upon consideration
+that the like resemblance is not found
+among the greater number of the
+parishes. But it is remarkable, how
+seldom different parishes have all the
+similarity requisite for such a common
+description; for, in statistics, a difference
+in mere number or quantity is
+a vital difference, and expresses
+essentially different facts. Many
+parishes have the same articles of produce;
+while no two produce exactly the
+same quantities. A very short distance
+often brings to view considerable
+varieties in climate, soil, and other
+physical qualities of a country. Now,
+considering that the object of this
+work is to present the parishes in their
+distinguishing, as well as in their
+common features, we do not see much
+sameness in the substance of the details
+which could have been avoided.
+A sameness there is; but more in
+form than in substance&mdash;each account
+delivering its matter under the same
+general heads, recurring in all cases
+in exactly the same order. This is
+convenient when the book is used for
+reference; it may be wearisome to
+one who reads only for amusement: it is
+monotonous; but who looks for any
+"soul of harmony" in such a quarter?
+We repeat, it is not attended, on the
+whole, with much importunate reappearance
+of the same facts, and
+cannot seem to be so, except to a very
+careless or distempered eye. But if,
+perchance, there may be some facts
+much alike in several parishes, this
+itself is an unusual fact, and we should
+not object to its coming out in the
+usual way of each parish speaking for
+itself; in which case, there is always
+a chance of some variety in the description,
+from the same thing presenting
+itself to different persons
+under different aspects. But, on the
+whole, we think there is less repetition
+in these accounts, and indeed less
+occasion for it, than might at first
+sight be supposed.</p>
+
+<p>There is another obvious tendency
+to imperfection in the plan of parochial
+accounts. Their first, but not
+their sole object, is to describe the
+parishes; it is certainly meant that
+they should furnish, at the same
+time, the grounds of statistical computation
+for the whole country.
+This is the natural complement and
+the proper conclusion to a work of
+parish statistics. It is, however, a
+part of the plan which, not being quite
+necessary, and requiring a fresh effort
+at the last, is apt to be omitted. It
+was not till twenty-five years after
+the publication of the old Account that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+Sir John Sinclair at length produced
+his <em>Analysis of the Statistical Account
+of Scotland considered as one District</em>.
+It came too late. A similar analysis
+or summary appears to have been at
+first intended for the new Account:
+and we regret that this part of the
+design was, by force of circumstances,
+not carried into effect.
+One use of it would have been to
+evince that parochial statistics do not
+assume the character of national;
+while yet, for even national statistics,
+they furnish the most proper foundation.
+To pass at once, however, from
+parochial to national statistics would
+have been too great a step; there is
+an intermediate stage, at which the new
+Account would certainly have paused,
+though it had designed to proceed
+farther; and at which, without that
+design, it has here rested; presenting
+the statistics of each county in a summary
+of the more important particulars
+concerning the included parishes;
+but making no nearer approach to any
+general computations for the country
+at large.</p>
+
+<p>The method of proceeding from
+parishes to counties suggests that
+other plan for the entire work, which
+would have followed the opposite
+course&mdash;the plan that would have
+begun with counties, and given County,
+not Parochial reports. Somewhat in
+this fashion has been formed the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Géographie
+Départementale</i> of France, now
+in course of publication, in which the
+whole matter is rigorously subjected
+to as skilful an arrangement as has
+ever been devised for matters of the
+kind. It is plain, however, that greater
+difficulty and more expense would have
+attended the construction of the Scotch
+work on that scheme, than private
+parties could have undertaken; and
+even the example of the French work
+does not show that, for the compacter
+method thus obtained, there might not
+have been a sacrifice of much that is
+valuable in detail.</p>
+
+<p>It may be added, that when parishes
+are well described, and a county or
+more general summary succeeds, we
+ask no more; a work like this has
+then accomplished its object, and what
+remains must be sought for elsewhere.
+What remains is this&mdash;to interpret
+the statistics thus laid down, for they
+are often very far from interpreting
+themselves; to ascertain, by analysis
+or combination of their different parts,
+what they signify in regard to the condition
+of the country. Thus, betwixt
+the rate of wages and the habits of a
+people&mdash;the prevailing occupations
+and the rate of mortality&mdash;the description
+of industry and the amount of
+pauperism&mdash;there are relations which
+it is exceedingly important to remark.
+But if a statistical account simply
+notes the kind, number, or quantity of
+each of these particulars, it performs
+its part,&mdash;no matter how blindly, how
+unconsciously of the relation that subsists
+betwixt them, this may be done.
+The rest is so different a work, that it
+must be left to other hands. It is not
+to be forgotten, that, for bringing out
+the more latent truths of statistics in
+the manner mentioned, a work like
+this is merely <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pour servir</i>; and, keeping
+that in view, our prepossessions
+are all in favour of abundance and
+minuteness of detail.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, a work made up of contributions
+from nine hundred individuals
+must be of unequal merit, according
+to the different measures of intelligence
+or care, and according to the feeling
+with which a task of that nature may
+happen to have been undertaken. A
+slight inspection, accordingly, discovers
+that it is the character of the
+writer, more than of the parish, that
+determines the length and interest of
+any one of these reports. This is an
+imperfection, and something more&mdash;for
+it makes one part of the book, by implication,
+reveal the defects of another. A
+few years ago, when a Crown commission
+considered a project for a general
+survey and statistical report of Ireland,
+their attention was much attracted to
+the <cite>New Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>;
+and, in their report, they notice,
+in the course of a very fair estimate,
+this inequality as the main disadvantage
+of the plan. It is, however, inevitable,
+except upon a scheme which,
+from the expense attending it, would
+have hindered the existence of the
+Scottish work, and which appears
+to have prevented or postponed the
+Irish. From a single author, something
+like proportion might be expected
+in the parts of such a compilation;
+but to that perfection a work like the
+<cite>Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>, with
+its hundreds of avowed responsible,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+and therefore uncontrolled authors,
+could not pretend. For this reason,
+it is the more proper to follow a rule
+of judgment which, in any case, is a
+good one:&mdash;to estimate the general
+character of the work with a lively
+recollection of its merits; and to be
+much upon our guard against the
+mean instinct of looking only to the
+weaker and more peccant parts of it.</p>
+
+<p>Passing from the plan to the matter
+of the work, we now ask, whether all
+that it contains is properly statistical,
+and whether it contains all of any
+consequence that falls under that description.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing, we suppose, is alien to
+this branch of knowledge that tends,
+in however little, to show the state of
+a country&mdash;social, political, moral&mdash;or
+even physical.</p>
+
+<p>But this last, comprising somewhat
+of geography and natural history,
+some writers would remove entirely
+from the sphere of statistics. Among
+these is Peuchet, in his work before
+mentioned&mdash;who gives as the reason
+of the exclusion, that, in any analysis
+of the wealth or power of a state,
+neither its geography nor natural history
+ever come into view: a fact rather
+hastily assumed. The parallel work
+for this country, by Mr. M'Culloch,
+while it follows Peuchet's method in
+much, leaves it in this instance, admitting
+various branches of natural
+history to ample consideration. It is
+true that trespass on the proper
+ground of statistics has been so common
+an offence, that writers have been
+careful to mark those cases in which
+no title exists. Thus Schlozer, looking
+to the intrusions that come from
+the quarter we refer to, is averse to
+all imaginative descriptions of the
+physical aspect of a country, but does
+not prohibit natural history. Hogel,
+who also writes well upon the theory
+of statistics,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> is more explicit&mdash;admitting
+that natural history may encroach
+too far, but asserting that its
+several branches may be received to
+a certain extent. "Whatever, in
+the physical nature of a country, has
+any influence upon the life, occupations,
+or manners of the people, pertains
+to statistics; by all means,
+therefore, in any body of statistics, let
+us have as much of mineralogy, hydrology,
+botany, geology, meteorology,
+as has any bearing upon the condition
+of the people." All of these subjects
+have been allowed to enter largely
+into the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>They form a feature of that work
+which scarcely belonged to the old
+Account, and which is new, indeed, to
+parochial statistics. Investigations
+of natural history have usually been
+carried on with reference to other
+bounds than those of parishes; but,
+when confined to parishes, it is remarkable
+how much this has been at
+once for the advantage of the science,
+and for the enhancement of any interest
+in these territorial divisions by
+the picturesque mixture of natural
+objects with the works and pursuits of
+men. More of this parochial treatment
+of natural history we may possibly
+have hereafter, upon the suggestion of
+the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>For the abundant favour which the
+work has shown to the whole subject
+of natural history, reasons are not
+wanting. One portion of that matter
+has obviously the quality that designates
+for statistical treatment,&mdash;comprising,
+for example, mines, whether
+wrought or unwrought; animals, profitable
+or destructive; plants, in all
+their variety of uses: the connexion
+of which with the wealth and industry
+of the country is at once apparent.
+The same connexion exists for another
+class of objects; but not so obviously.
+For example, there is a detailed
+account of the flowering periods of a
+variety of plants in one parish; the
+pertinence of which is not perceived,
+until it is mentioned that, in the same
+neighbourhood, there are two populous
+and well-frequented watering-places,
+which owe their prosperity to the qualities
+of the climate: there the trade
+of the locality connects itself with the
+early honours of the hepaticas. A
+third class of facts, and not the least
+in amount, is not qualified by any relation
+they are known to possess to
+the social condition of the country;
+but then they belong to a body of
+facts, some of which have that relation;
+and the same may be established
+for them hereafter. Still, it
+may be said that the matter, if appropriate,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+behoves to be presented in a
+statistical, not in a scientific form.
+But this, perhaps, is to interpret too
+strictly the laws of statistical writing,
+which do not seem to forbid the predominance
+of a scientific interest in
+the description, when the matter fairly
+belongs to the province of statistics.
+And if any license at all may be
+allowed in works of so severe a character,
+it is precisely here where that is least
+unbefitting. It is not among the faults
+of the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>, but
+rather among its most interesting features,
+that the mineral resources of the
+country are so often described with all
+the skill and passion of the mineralogist,
+forgetting for the moment everything
+but the phenomena of nature.</p>
+
+<p>Under the head of Natural History,
+we have many instances of the landscape
+painting proscribed by Schlozer.
+But it is remarked, that the same
+authority, when adverting to another
+matter, lays down a principle of admission
+which is equally applicable
+here. "Antiquities," he observes,
+"become a proper subject of statistics
+in such a case as that of Rome,
+where a large amount of money was
+at one time annually expended by the
+strangers who came to form their
+taste, or to indulge their curiosity,
+upon the remains of ancient art." In
+like manner, if there are places in
+Scotland that profit economically by
+the attractions of their natural beauty,
+we do not see that there is any obligation
+to be silent upon the cause, by
+reason merely of the seeming dissonance
+betwixt an imaginative description
+and the austere account of statistics.
+Other and better apologies
+might be offered; and, on the whole, we
+are not satisfied that, in this respect,
+any less indulgence of the gentler
+vein would have been attended with
+advantage to the work.</p>
+
+<p>On these grounds it appears to have
+been, that so much scope is allowed to
+the whole subject of natural history.
+But if too much, the fault has been
+redeemed by the frequent excellence
+of what is put forth on that head.
+Here the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite> passes
+expectation; and to it we may attribute
+much of the increased interest
+that has lately attached to that branch
+of knowledge in Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>Another thing of questionable connexion
+with statistics is history, which
+imports a reference to the past;
+whereas, as the name declares, statistics
+contemplates but the present,
+and can look neither backward nor forward,
+without trenching upon other
+provinces. Many excellent statistical
+works, accordingly, have allowed no
+place to history at all; and the writers
+before cited, on the theory of the subject,
+concur in excluding it. Hogel is
+most explicit. "Statistics never go
+beyond the circle of the present in
+their representations of the condition
+of a country: they are like painting&mdash;they
+fix upon a single point of time;
+and the facts which they select are
+those which come last in the series,
+though the series they belong to may
+extend backwards for ages. All that
+went before rests on testimony, and
+is therefore beyond the sphere of statistics,
+whose grounds are in actual
+observation. There is no limit to the
+number of facts with which statistics
+have to do, provided they are co-existing
+facts, and do not present
+themselves in succession: facts, and
+not their causes, are the proper matter
+of statistics; and they must be facts
+of the present time." This doctrine, in
+which there seems nothing in the main
+amiss, if strictly applied to the work under
+consideration, cancels a large part
+of it. But against that consequence we
+can suppose it to be pleaded&mdash;First, that
+for relief from a continuity of details
+somewhat arid to many readers, the
+work borrows something from a neighbouring
+branch of knowledge, and so
+far, of purpose, drops its statistical
+character&mdash;the more allowably, as in
+this way no harm ensues to the statistical
+character of the rest. And
+next&mdash;that all the history of a place
+has not equally little to do with its present
+state; for past events are often,
+casually or otherwise, related to the
+present, and so become a fair subject
+of retrospect, unless restraints are to
+be imposed on this branch of knowledge
+which are unknown to any other.
+The fault, in this instance, is at least
+not so great, as where no discoverable
+relation exists. It may be worth
+while, then, to observe how far the
+historical matter of the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>
+does show any connexion of the
+sort in question.</p>
+
+<p>It includes, under the head of history,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+various classes of particulars.
+1. The parish has been the scene of
+some event remarkable in the history
+of the country. Of this, perhaps, distinct
+traces remain, not in memory
+alone, but in some local custom or
+institution. But the most common
+case is, that, as the range extends to
+the remotest periods, all influence or
+effect of the event has ceased, and the
+interest of its recital is purely historical.
+Here the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>
+transgresses one rule of such a work
+by the admission of such matter, and
+asks, as we perceive it does ask in the
+prospectus, liberty to do so on one of
+the grounds above suggested.</p>
+
+<p>2. The same apology is required
+for the antiquities, that form a large
+section under this head. These have
+sometimes perceptibly the connexion
+that gives the title we desire; a connexion,
+perhaps, no more than perceptible.
+Thus, in reference to the
+round hill in the parish of Tarbolton,
+on which the god Thor was anciently
+worshipped, we are told that, "on the
+evening before the June fair, a piece
+of fuel is still demanded at each house,
+and invariably given, even by the poorest
+inhabitant," in order to celebrate
+the form of the same superstitious rite
+which has been annually performed on
+that hill for many centuries. The
+famous Pictish tower at Abernethy is
+said to be used "for civil purposes
+connected with the burgh." In these
+cases it is seen how very slight is the
+qualifying circumstance; but it is still
+more so for much the greater number
+of particulars of this kind which the
+book contains&mdash;such as ancient coins,
+ancient armour, barrows, standing-stones,
+camps, or moat hills: all of
+which particularly belong to archæology,
+and obtain a place here simply by
+favour. Indeed, no part of the work
+adheres to it so loosely as this of antiquities.
+Their objects live as curiosities;
+but, to all intents that can
+recommend them to the notice of statistics,
+they are dead, "and to be so
+extant is but a fallacy in duration."</p>
+
+<p>If this portion of the matter be the
+least appropriate, it is, at the same
+time, not the least difficult to handle;
+for uncertainty besets a very great
+part of it, and nothing more tries the
+reach of knowledge than conjecture.
+Besides, the knowledge here requisite
+implies both taste and opportunities
+for its cultivation,&mdash;which may belong
+to individuals, but which cannot
+be attributed to an entire profession,
+spread over all parts of the country,
+and designated to very different
+studies. If antiquities could be considered
+as a main part of statistics,
+it is, assuredly, not to the clergy
+we should look for a statistical
+account; nor indeed to any other
+body, however learned, if it be not
+the Society of Antiquaries. The
+clergyman who honours his profession
+with the greatest amount of appropriate
+learning, may in this particular
+know but little; and if we do not, on
+that account, the less value him, it is
+assuredly not from undervaluing in
+the slightest degree a very interesting
+branch of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>In these circumstances, the reasons
+for allowing to antiquities so much of
+this compilation appear to have been,&mdash;the
+compelling example of the old Account,
+the occasional aptness of the
+matter, and the effect of such a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mélange</i>
+upon the mass of details that form the
+body of the work. But a better apology
+remains; and it may be extended
+to what is said of the remarkable
+events of history. We are warranted
+in saying, that the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>
+has contributed much to the
+history and antiquities of Scotland,&mdash;evincing
+on these subjects a frequent
+novelty and fulness of knowledge far
+surpassing what either the design or
+the apparatus of the undertaking gave
+any title to expect.</p>
+
+<p>Of one fault, in particular, there
+is no appearance in the archæology of
+this work. Nowhere is there any
+sign of an idiosyncracy which is not
+without example&mdash;that of professing
+to speak of statistics, and yet speaking
+of nothing but antiquities; as if these,
+which are saved with so much difficulty
+from the charge of being wholly
+out of place, were the pith and marrow,
+the most vital part of any body
+of statistics. This is a small merit,
+but it is allied to a greater. Throughout
+these volumes, there is no tendency
+to discuss such futile questions
+as have sometimes lowered the credit
+of antiquarian pursuits. We have
+seen it solemnly inquired, whether
+Æneas, upon landing in Italy, touched
+the soil with the right or with the left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+foot foremost; whether Karl Haco
+was in person present at the sacrifice
+of his son; whether a faded inscription
+upon the walls of an old church be of
+this import or that&mdash;in either case the
+interest having so little to support it
+in the significance of the record that
+it can scarce be imagined to exist at
+all, except as it may centre in the
+mere truth of the deciphering. Nothing
+of this doting, degenerate character,
+repudiated by all antiquaries,
+occurs in the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>: if it
+did, the sum of all the errors in names,
+dates, and other things, inevitably incident
+to so vast a variety of details,
+would not have been an equal blemish.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that neither history
+nor antiquities will find a place in any
+future statistics of Scotland. Not that
+they have been enough examined either
+in that connexion, or elsewhere; but it
+is now common to make them the subject
+of separate, independent essays&mdash;the
+most proper form for the delivery of
+anything that pertains to such matters.
+The good service done in this department,
+by both of these Accounts, now
+falls to be performed by such works as
+the "Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities
+of Scotland,"<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> which have this
+for their single object; and the presumption
+is only fair, that some further
+light on such matters may be contributed
+by the "Parochiale Scoticanum,"
+lately announced as in the
+course of preparation<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>&mdash;though our
+expectations would not have been at
+all lessened by a somewhat less magnificent
+promise than that "every man
+in Scotland may be enabled to ascertain,
+with some precision, the first
+footing and <em>gradual progress of Christianity</em>
+in his own district and neighbourhood."</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be supposed, however,
+that some other topics which regularly
+appear in this New Account, under the
+head of history, will ever drop from
+any work of parochial statistics. We
+refer to what may be termed Parish
+History, as distinct from what belongs
+to the history of the country,&mdash;notices
+of distinguished individuals and of
+ancient families, changes of property,
+territorial improvements, variations in
+the social state of the people. No
+part of a book is more novel, or, to a
+proper curiosity, more interesting;
+and no indication is needed of the fair
+incidence of such matters to a work of
+this description.</p>
+
+<p>If the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>
+contains, then, some particulars not
+quite proper to the professed object,
+the excess appears to be on the whole
+venial. But it may still be asked,
+whether any important and proper
+matters appear to have been omitted.</p>
+
+<p>Now, considering how many things
+of nature, art, institutions, and industry
+pertain to statistics, we do
+not expect any compilation to embrace
+all, or to treat completely of all such
+things as it does embrace,&mdash;we expect
+imperfection in the details.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, it is seen that some
+subjects well described in some accounts,
+are either not at all, or not so
+fully, taken up in others; while yet
+the occasion may be much the same.
+The climate of some districts, for
+instance, is well illustrated by careful
+observations from the rain-gage and
+thermometer; in some parishes we
+are informed of the size of the agricultural
+possessions, the number of
+ploughs, the rent of land; in some,
+manufactories, mines, and other kinds
+of industry, are viewed in all their
+aspects. But, for other districts or
+parishes, reports on these subjects are
+wanting; and the disadvantage is, not
+merely that such desirable information
+is not given for such places, but that
+the means are not furnished of making
+any general computations for the
+whole country. It is plain there have
+been special reasons for the less satisfactory
+representation of particular
+parishes in these respects: but for
+all such faults, both of omission and
+imperfection, we understand the <cite>New
+Statistical Account</cite> to have one general
+apology; which is this.</p>
+
+<p>Two distinct efforts are requisite to
+the preparation of a comprehensive
+work of statistics. There is first, the
+investigation of facts; and next, the
+task of arranging and presenting them
+in the report. One of the theorists
+before-mentioned, views it as a necessary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+division of labour, that both
+things should not be attempted by one
+and the same party,&mdash;especially as the
+first, when the subjects are numerous,
+is not to be accomplished but by the
+assistance of many hands&mdash;all of
+which, as he observes, must be at
+once skilful and suitably rewarded.
+Now, here, the task of inquiring and
+reporting was not divided; the whole
+of it was placed, by the necessities of
+the case, in the hands of the reverend
+contributors. But, as no private
+society had the means or authority to
+investigate the facts completely, it is
+urged that the defects to which we
+have alluded, were for the most part
+inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>We believe it; and, recognising
+how much the clergy had thus to do,
+which could only be done completely
+by the government, we only advert to
+the sources of information to which
+they could have recourse.</p>
+
+<p><em>Public documents</em> seem to have been
+consulted, when information of a later
+date could not be had,&mdash;and chiefly
+the parliamentary reports on population,
+crime, education, and municipal
+affairs, from which the parish accounts
+appear to have been supplemented
+with whatever was necessary to the
+completion of the county summaries.
+Much has also been derived from the
+reports of Societies, Boards, and mercantile
+companies; of this there is
+evidence in the account of every considerable
+town.</p>
+
+<p><em>Public records</em> appear also to have
+been examined, and chiefly the parish
+registers. Every parish has a record
+of the transactions of its kirk-session,&mdash;sometimes
+extending to distant
+periods. Extracts from these occasionally
+show, in a clear light, the
+state and manners of the country in
+former times; more of which authentic
+illustration we could have wished,
+and more the same sources might
+possibly have supplied. Most parishes
+have also records of births or
+baptisms, marriages and deaths.
+From these, and these only, this
+work could derive the elements of its
+important section of vital statistics;
+but how far were they fitted to serve
+that purpose? It is certain that
+they nowhere form a complete register
+of these occurrences, and
+that for the most part they are
+very defective. Baptisms appear to
+have been entered, in the parish register,
+regularly till the year 1783,
+when the imposition of a small tax
+first broke the custom of registration;
+and, when that tax was removed,
+dissenting bodies were unwilling to
+resume the practice. The proportion
+of registered baptisms to births, for
+instance, is at the present time not
+more than one fourth in Edinburgh,
+and one third in Glasgow. The
+marriage register is also unavailable
+to statistical purposes, by reason of
+the practice of double enrolment&mdash;in
+the parish of each party. In many
+parishes no record of burials exists:
+in others, those of paupers are omitted.
+In short, there is scarcely a country
+in Europe that does not, by proper
+arrangements, furnish better information
+on these important points; and
+no industry of individuals can remedy
+that defect. It is therefore among
+the postulates of a work like this,
+for Scotland, that its vital statistics
+should be imperfect.</p>
+
+<p><em>Books</em> relating to the history, civil
+or natural, the institutions or manners
+of the country, have in many instances
+been well consulted; in some, not at
+all; but probably as much from want
+of opportunity as from any other
+cause.</p>
+
+<p>Still much occasion for inquiry remained
+after all the use that could be
+made of reports, registers, and books.
+Much of what related to the institutions
+of Religion, education, and the
+poor, might be supposed to come
+readily to hand, the clergy themselves
+being most conversant with such
+matters. But they appear to have
+charged themselves with the toil of
+very different investigations. Some
+have been at the pains to ascertain
+the amount and occupations of the
+population, betwixt the decennial
+terms of the parliamentary census.
+Few have omitted to state, in connexion
+with the agriculture of the
+parish, the quantities of land under
+tillage or under wood, in pasture or
+in moor, and the amount respectively
+of the different kinds of produce&mdash;facts
+that imply not a little correspondence
+with land-owners and land-occupiers,
+and much industry in the collation of
+returns. They have had recourse, frequently,
+to mineralogists, botanists,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+overseers of mining and manufacturing
+works, whose contributions are of as
+much value as the fullest and ripest
+knowledge can give. Picture-galleries
+are sometimes described by their
+owners; family papers occasionally
+disclose facts of some interest in
+the history of the country. Throughout
+the work there are signs not to be
+mistaken, of much private and unwonted
+inquiry on the part of the
+reverend authors, to do, in a creditable
+way, a work that, from the
+nature of it, ought to have been
+apportioned to at least two different
+parties.</p>
+
+<p>The defects which remain only
+suggest to us the hope which was
+thus expressed in similar circumstances,
+that "the circulation of this
+work, by bringing the deficiencies
+in the means of statistical information
+under the public view, and
+drawing attention to them, may,
+in this respect, also contribute to the
+advancement of the science." It is
+implied, of course, that the work, to
+be useful in this indirect way, must
+have merits of another kind. On
+these the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite> may
+stand. No other book affords the
+same insight into the various natural
+resources of the country; none describes
+so well, and so skilfully, the
+most considerable branches of industry,
+and the methods of conducting
+them; none has brought together the
+same variety of statistics, with the
+same ample means of speculating upon
+their mutual relations. It is still
+more remarkable, that such a work,
+embracing, as it does, so much beyond
+the usual sphere of their observation,
+should proceed from the clergy; but
+the explanation is, that the position
+and character of that body open to
+them the best means of information
+on many subjects with which they are
+themselves not at all conversant.
+They have produced here a work,
+which, as a collection of parochial
+statistics, stands alone, without
+either rival or resemblance in any
+other country, representing the state
+of Scotland, at the period to which
+it refers, in all its aspects, and so
+affording the means of a definite
+comparison between the past and the
+present, such as, in all cases, it is
+at once natural and profitable to
+make. A peculiar interest arises from
+the unusual diversity of the matter,
+and the familiarity of the writers with
+the bounds which they describe. It
+is a useful work, and will continue
+long to be so, in as many ways as it
+throws light upon the condition of the
+country&mdash;and, not least, in the local
+improvements to which its suggestions
+may give rise. But, if its uses were less
+than they are, it would still leave an
+impression of respect for the general
+intelligence and the readiness to employ
+their opportunities for the public
+good, which its authors have known
+to unite with exemplary devotion to
+the duties of their calling.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART.</h2>
+<blockquote>
+<p><cite>The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art.</cite> By Mrs <span class="smcap">Jameson</span>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>We are of the belief that art without
+poetry is worthless&mdash;dead, and
+deadening; or, if it have vitality,
+there is no music in its speech&mdash;no
+command in its beauty. We treat it
+with a kind of contempt, and make
+apology for the pleasure it has afforded.
+<cite>Sacred and Legendary Art!</cite>
+How different&mdash;how precious&mdash;how
+life-bestowing! The material and immaterial
+world linked, as it were, together
+by a new sympathy, working
+out a tissue of beautiful ideas from the
+golden threads of a Divine revelation!
+By <cite>Sacred and Legendary Art</cite> is
+meant the treatment of religions subjects,
+commencing with the Old Testament,
+and terminating in traditionary
+tales and legends. It is from the
+latter that the old painters have, for
+the most part, taken that rich poetry,
+which, glowing on the canvass, shows,
+even amidst the wild errors of fable, a
+truth of sentiment belonging to a
+purer faith.</p>
+
+<p>By the Protestant mind, nursed,
+perhaps, in an undue contempt of histories
+of saints and martyrs of the
+Romish Church, the treasures of art
+of the best period are rarely understood,
+and still more rarely felt, in the
+spirit in which they were conceived.
+Those for whom they were painted
+needed no cold inquiry into the subjects.
+They accepted them as things
+universally known and religiously to
+be received, with a veneration which
+we but little comprehend. With them
+pictures and statues were among their
+sacred things, and, together with
+architecture, spoke and taught with
+an authority that books, which then
+were rare in the people's hands, have
+since scarcely ever obtained. Men of
+genius felt this respect paid to their
+works, if denied too often to themselves;
+and thus to their own devotion
+was added a kind of ministerial
+importance. Their work became a
+duty, and was very frequently prosecuted
+as such by the inmates of monasteries.
+Besides their works on a
+large scale, upon the walls and in their
+cloisters, the ornamenting and illustrating
+missals embodied a religious
+feeling, if in some degree peculiar to
+the condition of the workers, of a vital
+form and beauty. Treasures of this
+kind there are beyond number; but
+they have been hidden treasures for
+ages. A Protestant contempt for their
+legends has persecuted, with long hatred,
+and subsequent long indifference,
+the art which glorified them. And now
+that we awake from this dull state, and
+begin to estimate the poetry of religious
+art, we stand before the noblest
+productions amazed and ignorant, and
+looking for interpreters, and lose the
+opportunity of enjoyment in the inquiry.
+Art is too valuable for all it
+gives, to allow this entire ignorance
+of the subjects of its favourite treatment.
+If, for the better understanding
+of heathen art, an acquaintance with
+classical literature is thought to be a
+worthy attainment, the excellence of
+what we may term Christian art surely
+renders it of importance that we should
+know something about the subjects of
+which it treats. The inquiry will repay
+us also in other respects, as well as
+with regard to taste. If we would
+know ourselves, it is well to see the
+workings of the human mind, under its
+every phase, its every condition. And
+in such a study we shall be gratified,
+perhaps unexpectedly, to find the good
+and the beautiful still shining through
+the obscurity of many errors, predominant
+and influential upon our own
+hearts, and scarcely wish the fabulous
+altogether removed from the minds of
+those who receive it in devotion, lest
+great truth in feeling be removed also.
+Indeed, the legends themselves are
+mostly harmless, and, even as they
+become discredited, may be interpreted
+as not unprofitable allegories. Had
+we not, in a Puritanic zeal, discarded
+art with an iconoclast persecution,
+<cite>The Pilgrim's Progress</cite> had long ere
+this been a "golden legend" for the
+people, and spoken to them in worthy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+illustration; nor would they have
+been religiously or morally the worse
+had they been imbued with a thorough
+taste for the graceful, the beautiful,
+and the sublime, which it is in the
+power of well cultivated art to convey
+to every willing recipient. It is a great
+mistake of a portion of the religious
+world to look upon ornament as a sin
+or a superstition. Religion is not a
+bare and unadorned thing, nor can it
+be so received without debasing, without
+making too low and mean the worshipper
+for the worship. The "wedding
+garment" was not the every-day
+wear. The poorest must not, of a
+choice, appear in rags before the throne
+of Him who is clothed in glory, nor
+with less respect of their own person
+than they would use in the presence of
+their betters. It was originally of
+God's doing, command, and dictation,
+to sanctify the beautiful in art, by
+making his worship a subject for all
+embellishment. For such a purport
+were the minute directions for the
+building of His temple. And yet how
+many "religious" of our day contradict
+this feeling, which seems to come
+to us, not only by a natural instinct,
+but with the authority of a command!
+It is a deteriorated worship that prefers
+four bare, unadorned, whitened
+walls of a mean conventicle to the
+lofty and arched majesty and profuse
+enrichment of a Gothic minster. We
+want every aid to lift every sense
+above our daily grovelling cares, and
+ought to feel that we are acceptable
+and invited guests in a house far too
+great, spacious, and magnificent for
+ourselves alone. Even our humility
+should be sublime, as all true worship
+is, for we would fain lift it up as an
+offering to the Heaven of heavens. It
+has its aspect towards Him who deigns
+to receive, together with consciousness
+of the lowliness of him that offers.
+It is good that the eye and the ear
+should see and hear other sounds and
+sights than concern things, not only of
+time, but of that poor portion of it
+which hems in our daily wants and
+businesses. Beauty and music are of
+and for eternity, and will never die;
+and in our perception of them we
+make ourselves a part of all that is
+undying. These are senses that the
+spiritualised body will not lose. Their
+cultivation is a thing for ever; we
+are now even here the greater for
+their possession in their human perfection.
+The wondrous pile so elaborately
+finished; the choral service,
+the pealing organ, and the low
+voice of prayer, and, it may be, angel
+forms and beatified saints in richly-painted
+windows:&mdash;we do not believe
+all this to be solely of man's invention,
+but of inspiration; how given we
+ask not, seeing what is, and acknowledging
+a greatness around us far
+greater than ourselves, and lifting up
+the full mind to a magnitude emulous
+of angelic stature. Yes&mdash;poetic genius
+is a high gift, by which the gifted
+make discoveries, and show high and
+great truths, and present them, palpable
+and visible, before the world&mdash;by
+architecture, by painting, by sculpture,
+by music&mdash;rendering religion itself
+more holy by the inspiration
+of its service. Take a man out of
+his common, so to speak, irreverent
+habit, and place him here to live for
+a few moments in this religious atmosphere&mdash;how
+unlike is he to himself,
+and how conscious of this self-unlikeness!
+Would that our cathedrals were
+open at all times! Even when there
+is no service, though that might be
+more frequent, there would be much
+good communing with a man's own
+heart, when, turning away for a while
+from worldly troubles and speculations,
+in midst of that great solemn monument,
+erected to his Maker's praise,
+and with the dead under his feet&mdash;the
+dead who as busily walked the streets
+and ways he has just left&mdash;he would
+weigh the character of his doings,
+and in a sanctified place breathe a
+prayer for direction. Nor would it
+be amiss that he should be led to contemplate
+the "storied pane" and religious
+emblems which abound; he will
+not fail, in the end, to sympathise with
+the sentiment even where he bows not
+to the legend. He may know the fact
+that there have been saints and martyrs&mdash;that
+faith, hope, and charity
+are realities&mdash;that patience and love
+may be here best learnt to be practised
+in the world without.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious that the saints, those
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Dii minores</i>, to whom so many of our
+churches are dedicated, still retain
+their holding. Beyond the evangelists
+and the apostles, little do the
+people know of the other many saints<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+while they enter the churches that
+bear their names. Few of a congregation,
+we suspect, could give much
+account of St Pancras, St Margaret,
+St Werburgh, St Dunstan, St Clement,
+nor even of St George, but that
+he is pictured slaying a dragon, and is
+the patron saint of England. Yet
+were they once "household gods" in
+the land. It is a curious speculation
+this of patron saints, and how every
+family and person had his own. There
+is a great fondness in this old personal
+attachment of his own angel to every
+man. That notion preceded Christianity,
+and was easily engrafted upon
+it: and the angel that attended from
+the birth was but supplanted by some
+holy dead whom the Church canonised.
+And a corrupt church humoured the
+superstition, and attached miracles to
+relics; and thus, as of old, these came,
+in latter times, to be "gods many."
+And what were these but over again
+the thirty thousand deities who, Hesiod
+said, inhabited the earth, and
+were guardians of men? Yet, it must
+be confessed, there has been a popular
+purification of them. They are not
+the panders to vice that infested the
+morals of the heathen world.</p>
+
+<p>But how came the heathen world
+by them? Did they invent, or where
+find them? And how came their characteristics
+to be so universal, in all
+countries differing rather in name than
+personality? The most intellectually-gifted
+people under the sun, the ancient
+Greeks, give nowhere any rational
+account how they came by the gods
+they worshipped. They take them
+as personifications from their poets.
+There is the theogony of Hesiod, and
+the gods as Homer paints them. They
+have called forth the glory of art; and
+wonderful were the periods that
+stamped on earth their statues, as
+if all men's intellect had been
+tasked to the work, that they should
+leave a mark and memorial of beauty
+than which no age hereafter should
+show a greater. We acknowledge the
+perfection in the remains that are
+left to us. Greek art stills sways the
+mind of every country&mdash;all the world
+mistrusts every attempt in a contrary
+direction. The excellence of Greek
+sculpture is reflected back again upon
+Greek fable, the heathen mythology
+from which it was taken; and perhaps
+a greater partiality is bestowed upon
+that than it deserves,&mdash;at least, we may
+say so in comparison with any other.
+We must be cautious how we take the
+excellence of art for the excellence of
+its subject. The Greeks were formed
+for art beyond every other people; had
+their creed been hideous&mdash;and indeed
+it was obscene&mdash;they would have
+adorned it with every beauty of ideal
+form. And this is worthy of note
+here, that their poetry in art was infinitely
+more beautiful than their
+written poetry. Their sculptors, and
+perhaps their painters, of whom we
+are not entitled to speak but by conjecture,
+and from the opinions formed
+by no bad judges of their day, did aim
+at the portraying a kind of divine
+humanity. If their sculptured deities
+have not a holy repose, they are singularly
+freed from display of human
+passions; whereas, in their poetry, it is
+rarely that even decent repose is
+allowed them; they are generally too
+active, without dignity, and without
+respect to the moral code of a not
+very scrupulous age. Yet have these
+very heathen gods, even as their historians
+the poets paint them&mdash;for it
+would disgrace them to speak of their
+biographers&mdash;a trace of a better origin
+than we can gather out of the whimsical
+theogony. There are some particulars
+in the heathen mythology that
+point to a visible track in the strange
+road of history. Much we know was
+had from Egypt; more, probably, came
+with the Cadmean letters from
+Ph&oelig;nicia&mdash;a name including Palestine
+itself. Inventions went only to corruptions&mdash;the
+original of all creeds of
+divinity is from revelation. We may
+not be required to point out the direct
+road nor the resting-places of this
+"<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">santa casa</i>," holding all the gods of
+Greece, so beautiful in their personal
+portraiture, that we love to gaze with
+the feeling of Schiller, though their
+histories will not bear the scrutiny:
+but it will suffice to note some similitudes
+that cannot be accidental.
+Somehow or other, both the historic
+and prophetic writings of the Bible,
+or narratives from them, had reached
+Greece as well as other distant lands.
+The Greeks had, at a very early period,
+embodied in their myths even the personal
+characters as shown in those
+writings. Let us, for example, without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+referring to their Zeus in a particular
+manner, find in the Hermes or
+Mercury of the Greeks the identity
+with Moses. What are the characteristics
+of both? If Moses descended
+from the Mount with the commands
+of God, and was emphatically God's
+messenger, so was Hermes the messenger
+from Olympus: his chief office
+was that of messenger. If Moses is
+known as the slayer of the Egyptian,
+so is Hermes, (and so is he more frequently
+called in Homer,) Α�γειφοντης,
+the slayer of Argus, the overseer of a
+hundred eyes. Moses conducted
+through the wilderness to the Jordan
+those who died and reached not the
+promised land; nor did he pass the
+Jordan. So was Hermes the conductor of
+the dead, delivering them
+over to Charon, (and here note the
+resemblance of name with Aaron, the
+associate of Moses); nor was he to
+pass to the Elysian fields.</p>
+
+<p>Then the rod, the serpents,&mdash;the
+Caduceus of Hermes, with the serpents
+twining round the rod. The
+appearance of Moses, and the shining
+from his head, as it is commonly
+figured, is again represented in the
+winged cap of Hermes. There are
+other minute circumstances, especially
+some noted in the hymn of Hermes,
+ascribed to Homer, which we forbear
+to enumerate, thinking the coincidences
+already mentioned are sufficiently
+striking.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, the idea of the serpent
+of the Greek mythology, whence
+did it come, and the slaying of it by
+the son of Zeus&mdash;and its very name,
+the Python, the serpent of corruption?
+And in that sense it has been carried
+down to this day as an emblem in
+Christian art. But, to go back a
+moment, this departure of the Israelites
+from Egypt, is there no notice of
+it in Homer? We think there is a
+hint which indicates a knowledge of
+at least a part of that history&mdash;the
+previous slavery, the being put to
+work, and the after-readiness of the
+Egyptians to be "spoiled." Ulysses,
+giving a false account of himself, if
+we remember rightly, to Eumæus,
+says he came from Egypt, where he
+had been a merchant, that the king
+of that country seized him and all his
+men, whom <em>he put to work</em>, but that
+at length he found favour, and was
+allowed to depart with his people;
+adding that he collected much property
+from the people of Egypt, "for all of
+them gave."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">"Πολλὰ αγει�α,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Χ�ηματ' Αἰγυπτίους ἄνδ�ας, διδοσαν γα� ἄπαντες."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We do not mean to lay any great stress
+upon this quotation, and but think at
+least that it shows a characteristic of
+the Egyptians as narrated by Moses;
+and never having met with any allusion
+to it, nor indeed to our parallel between
+Moses and Hermes, which it may seem
+to support, we have thought it worthy
+this brief notice.</p>
+
+<p>We fancy we trace the history of
+the cause of the fall of man, in the
+eating of the pomegranate seed which
+doomed Proserpine to half an existence
+in the infernal regions. Can
+there be anything more striking than
+the Prometheus Bound of Æschylus?
+Whence could such a notion come,
+that a man-god would, for his love to
+mankind, (for bringing down fire from
+heaven,) suffer agonies, nailed not
+upon a cross indeed, but on a rock,
+and, in the description, crucified? "It
+is, after a manner," says Mr Swayne,
+who has with great power translated
+this strange play of Æschylus, "a
+Christian poem by a pagan author,
+foreshadowing the opposition and reconciliation
+of Divine justice and Divine
+love. Whence the sublime conception
+of the subject of this drama could
+have been obtained, it is useless to
+speculate. Some even suppose that
+its author must have been acquainted
+with the old Hebrew prophets."</p>
+
+<p>Even the introduction of Io in the
+tale is suggestive&mdash;the virgin-mother
+who was so strangely to conceive
+(and this too given in a prophecy)
+miraculously.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Jove at length shall give thee back thy mind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With one light touch of his unquailing hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, from that fertilising touch, a son<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall call thee mother."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Her whom Prometheus thus addresses,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"In that the son shall overmatch the sire."<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&mdash;"Of thine own stem the strong one shall be born."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then again Sampson passes into the
+Egyptian or Tyrian Hercules, to lose
+his life by another Delilah in Dejaneira.
+Whence the prophetic Sybils, whence
+and what the Eleusinian mysteries?
+and that strange glimpse of them in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+the significant passage of the Alcestis,
+where the restored from the dead must
+abstain from speech till the third day&mdash;the
+duration of her consecration to
+Hades!</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ὁύπω δέμις σοι τησδε π�οσφωνηματων,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Κλύειν, π�ίν ἄν θεωισι τοῖσι νε�τέ�οις<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Αφαγνῖσηται, καὶτ�ίτον μολῃ φαος."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We might enter largely into the
+mysteries of heathen mythology, and
+discover strange coincidences and resemblances,
+but it would take us too
+wide from our present subject. Our
+present purpose is to show that we
+are apt to attribute too much to the
+Grecian fable, when we ascribe to it
+all the beauty which Grecian art has
+elaborated from it. For, in fact, the
+origin of that fabulous poetry is beyond
+them in far-off time; and by
+them how corrupted, shorn of its real
+grandeur, and at once magnificent
+and lovely beauty! How much more,
+then, is it ours than theirs, as it is deducible
+from that high revelation
+which is part of the Christian religion.
+We overlook, in the excellence
+of Grecian art, the far better
+materials for all art, which we in our
+religion possess, and have ever possessed.
+With the Greeks it was an
+instinct to love the beautiful, sensual
+and intellectual: it was a part of their
+nature to discover it or to create it.
+They would have fabricated it out of
+any materials; and deteriorated, indeed,
+were those which came to their
+hands. And even this excess of their
+love, at least in their poets, made the
+sensuous to overcome the intellectual;
+but the far higher than intellectual&mdash;the
+celestial, the spiritual&mdash;they had
+not: their highest reach in the moral
+sense was a sublime pride: they had
+no conception of a sublime humility.
+Their highest divinity was how much
+lower than the lowest order of angels
+that wait around the heavenly throne
+and adore,&mdash;low as is their Olympus,
+where they placed their Zeus and all
+his band, to the Christian "heaven
+of heavens," which yet cannot contain
+the universal Maker. It is bad taste,
+indeed, in us, as some do, to give them
+the palm of the possession of a better
+field&mdash;poetic field for the exercise of
+art. "Christian and Legendary art"
+has a principle which no other art
+could have, and which theirs certainly
+had not; they were sensuous from a
+necessity of their nature, lacking this
+principle. We ought to ascribe all
+which they have left us to their skill,
+their genius: wonderful it was, and
+wonderful things did it perform; but,
+after all, we admire more than we
+love. Their divine was but a grand
+and stern repose; their loveliness, but
+the perfection of the human form.
+And so great were they in this their
+genius, that the monuments of heathen
+art are beyond the heathen creed;
+for in those the unsensuous prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>Let us suppose the gift of their genius
+to have been delayed to the Christian
+era&mdash;as poetical subjects, their
+whole mythology would have been set
+aside for a far better adoption; and
+we should be now universally acknowledging
+how lovely and how great, how
+full and bountiful, for poetry and for
+art, are the ever-flowing fountains,
+gushing in life, giving exuberance
+from that high mount, to the sight of
+which Pindus cannot lift its head, nor
+show its poor Castalian rills. The
+"gods of Greece," the far-famed
+"gods of Greece," what are they to
+the hierarchy of heaven&mdash;angels and
+archangels, and all the host&mdash;powers,
+dominions, hailing the admission to
+the blissful regions of saints spiritualised,
+and after death to die no more&mdash;glorified?
+What loveliness is like
+that of throned chastity? Graces and
+Muses in their perfectness of marbled
+beauty&mdash;what are they to faith, hope,
+and charity, and the veiled virtues
+that like our angels shroud themselves?
+When these became subjects for our
+Christian art, then was true expression
+first invented in drapery. "Christian
+and legendary art" is not denied the
+nude; but no other has so made
+drapery a living, speaking poetry.
+There is a dignity, a grace, a sweetness,
+in the drapery of mediæval
+sculpture, that equally commands our
+admiration, and more our reverence
+and our love, than ancient statues,
+draped or nude. And this is the expression
+of Scripture poetry&mdash;the represented
+language, the "clothing
+with power," the "garment of
+righteousness." We often loiter about
+our old cathedrals, and look up with
+wonder at the mutilated remains as a
+new type of beauty, beaming through
+the obscurity of the so-called dark
+ages. Lovers of art, as we profess to
+be, in all its forms, we profess without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+hesitation that we would not exchange
+these&mdash;that is, lose them as
+never to have existed&mdash;for all that
+Grecian art has left us. Even now,
+what power have we to restore these
+specimens of expressive workmanship,
+broken and mutilated as they have been
+by a low and misbegotten zeal? We
+maintain further, generally, that the
+works of "Christian and legendary
+art," in painting, sculpture, and architecture,
+are as infinitely superior to
+the works of all Grecian antiquity, as is
+the source of their inspiration higher
+and purer: we are, too, astonished at
+the perfect agreement of the one with
+the other, showing one mind, one
+spirit&mdash;devotion. We strongly insist
+upon this, that there has been a far
+higher character and equal power in
+Christian art compared with heathen.
+It ought to be so, and it is so. It has
+been too long set aside in the world's
+opinion (often temporary and ill-formed)
+to establish the inferior.
+This country, in particular, has yielded
+a cold neglect of these beautiful things,
+in shameful and indolent compliance
+with the mean, tasteless, degrading
+Puritanism, that mutilated and would
+have destroyed them utterly if it
+could, as it would have treated every
+and all the beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>Even at the first rise of this Christian
+art, the superiority of the principle
+which moved the artists was visible
+through their defect of knowledge
+of art, as art. The devotional spirit
+is evident; a sense of purity, that
+spiritualised humanity with its heavenly
+brightness, dims the imperfections
+of style, casting out of observation
+minor and uncouth parts. Often,
+in the incongruous presence of things
+vulgar in detail of habit and manners,
+an angelic sentiment stands embodied,
+pure and untouched, as if the artist,
+when he came to that, felt holy ground,
+and took his shoes from off his feet.
+It was not long before the art was
+equal to the whole work. There are
+productions of even an early time
+that are yet unequalled, and, for
+power over the heart and the judgment,
+are much above comparison with any
+preceding works of boasted antiquity.</p>
+
+<p>Take only the full embodying of all
+angelic nature: what is there like to
+it out of Christian art? How unlike
+the cold personifications of "Victories"
+winged,&mdash;though even these
+were borrowed,&mdash;are the ministering
+and adoring angels of our art&mdash;now
+bringing celestial paradise down to
+saints on earth, and now accompanying
+them, and worshipping with them,
+in their upward way, amid the receding
+and glorious clouds of heaven!
+Look at the sepulchral monuments of
+Grecian art&mdash;the frigid mysteries, the
+abhorrent ghost, yet too corporeal,
+shrinking from Lethé; and the dismal
+boat&mdash;the unpromising, unpitying
+aspect of Charon: then turn to some
+of the sublime Christian monuments
+of art, that speak so differently of
+that death&mdash;the Coronation of the
+Virgin, the Ascension of Saints. The
+dismal and the doleful earth has
+vanished&mdash;choirs of angels rush to
+welcome and to support the beatified,
+the released: death is no more, but
+life breathing no atmosphere of earth,
+but all freshness, and all joy, and all
+music; the now changed body glowing,
+like an increasing light, into its
+spirituality of form and beauty, and
+thrilling with</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"That undisturbed song of pure consent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To Him that sits thereon;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With saintly shout and solemn jubilee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Where the bright seraphim, in burning row,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the cherubic host, in thousand choirs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With those just spirits that wear victorious palms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Hymns devout and holy psalms<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Singing everlastingly."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">Then shall we doubt, and not dare to
+pronounce the superior capabilities of
+Christian art, arising out of its subject&mdash;poetry?
+We prefer, as a great poetic
+conception, Raffaelle's Archangel,
+Michael, with his victorious foot upon
+his prostrate adversary, to the far-famed
+Apollo Belvidere, who has
+slain his Python; and his St Margaret,
+in her sweet, her innocent, and clothed
+grace, to that perfect model of woman's
+form, the Venus de Medici.
+Not that we venture a careless or
+misgiving thought of the perfectness
+of those great antique works: their
+perfectness was according to their
+purpose. Higher purposes make a
+higher perfectness. Nor would we
+have them viewed irreverently; for
+even in them, and the genius that
+produced them, the Creator, as in
+"times past, left not Himself without
+witness." In showing forth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+the glory of the human form, they
+show forth the glory of Him who
+made it&mdash;who is thus glorified in the
+witnesses; and so we accept and love
+them. But to a certain degree they
+must stand dethroned&mdash;their influence
+faded. Lowly unassuming virtues&mdash;virtues
+of the soul, far greater
+in their humility, in the sacred poetry
+of our Christian faith, shine like
+stars, even in their smallness, on the
+dark night of our humanity; and they
+are to take their places in the celestial
+of art; and we feel that it is His will,
+who, as the hymn of the blessed
+Virgin&mdash;that type of all these united
+virtues&mdash;declares, "hath put down
+the mighty from their seat, and hath
+exalted the humble and meek."</p>
+
+<p>We trust yet to see sacred art
+resumed; for the more we consider
+its poetry, the more inexhaustible
+appears the mine. Nor do we require
+to search and gather in the field of
+fabulous legends; though in a poetic
+view, and for their intention, and resumed
+merely as a fabulous allegory,
+they are not to be set aside. But
+sure we are that, whatever can move
+the heart, can excite to the greatest
+degree our pity, our love, or convey
+the greatest delight through scenes
+for which the term beautiful is but a
+poor describer, and personages for
+whose magnificence languages have
+no name&mdash;all is within the volume
+and the history of our suffering and
+triumphant religion.</p>
+
+<p>Would that we could stir but one
+of our painters to this, which should
+be his great business! Genius is
+bestowed for no selfish gratification,
+but for service, and for a "witness,"
+to bear which let the gifted offer only
+a willing heart, and his lamp will not
+be suffered to go out for lack of oil.
+Why is the tenderness of Mr Eastlake's
+pencil in abeyance? That
+portion of the sacred history which
+commences with his "Christ weeping
+over Jerusalem," might well be continued
+in a series. Even still more
+power has he shown in the creative
+and symbolic, as exemplified in his
+poetic conception of Virtue from
+Milton&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"She can teach you how to climb<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Higher than the sphery chime;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Or if Virtue feeble were,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Heaven itself would stoop to her."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>If we believe genius to be an inspiring
+spirit, we may contemplate it
+hereafter as an accusing angel. With
+such a paradise of subjects before
+them, why do so many of our painters
+run to the kennel and the stable, or
+plunge their pencils into the gaudy
+hues of meretricious enticement? We
+do verily believe that the world is
+waiting for better things. It is taking
+a greater interest in higher subjects,
+and those of a pure sentiment. It is
+that our artists are behind the feeling,
+and not, as they should be, in the advance.
+It is a great fact that there
+is such a growing feeling. The resumption
+of sacred art in Germany is
+not without its effect, and is making
+its way here in prints. Most of these
+are from the Aller Heiligen Kapelle
+at Munich, the result of the taste of
+at least one crowned head in Europe,
+who, with more limited means and
+power, has set an example of a better
+patronage, which would have well
+become Courts of greater splendour,
+and more imperial influence. Must
+it be asked what our own artists&mdash;the
+Academy, with all its staff&mdash;are
+doing?</p>
+
+<p>We must stay our hand; for we
+took up the pen to notice the two
+volumes just published of Mrs Jameson's
+<cite>Sacred and Legendary Art</cite>.
+They have excited, in the reading, an
+enthusiastic pleasure, and led the
+fancy wandering in the delightful
+fields sanctified by heavenly sunshine,
+and trod by sainted feet; and, like a
+traveller in a desert, having found an
+oasis, we feel loath to leave it, and
+would fain linger and drink again of
+its refreshing springs. These volumes
+have reached us most seasonably, at a
+period of the year when the mind is
+more especially directed to contemplate
+the main subjects of which they
+treat, and to anticipate only by days
+the vision of joy and glory which will
+be scripturally put before us&mdash;to see
+the Virgin Mother and the Holy
+Babe&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"And all about the courtly stable,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Bright harness'd angels sit in order serviceable."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Mrs Jameson disclaims in this
+work any other object than the poetry
+of Sacred and Legendary Art; and to
+enable those who are, or wish to be,
+conversant with the innumerable
+productions of Italian and other
+schools, in an artistic view, likewise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+at once to know the subjects
+upon which they treat. Even as a
+handbook, therefore, these volumes
+are valuable. Much of the early
+painting was symbolical. Ignorance
+of the symbols rejects the sentiment,
+or at least the intention, and at the
+same time makes what is only quaint
+appear absurd.</p>
+
+<p>"The first volume contains the legends
+of the Scripture personages, and
+the primitive fathers. The second
+volume contains those sainted personages
+who lived, or are supposed to
+have lived, in the first ages of Christianity,
+and whose real history,
+founded on fact or tradition, has been
+so disguised by poetical embroidery,
+that they have in some sort the air of
+ideal beings." Possibly this poetical
+disguise is favourable upon the whole
+to art, but it renders a key necessary,
+and that Mrs Jameson has supplied&mdash;not
+pretending, however, to more than
+a selection of the most interesting;
+and, what is extremely valuable, there
+are marginal references to pictures,
+and in what places they are to be met
+with, and by whom painted, of the
+subjects given in the text, and of the
+view the artists had in so painting
+them. The emblems are amply noted
+with their meanings; and even the
+significance of colours, which has been
+so commonly overlooked, and is yet so
+important for the comprehension of
+the full subject of a picture, is clearly
+laid down. It is well said:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"All the productions of art, from the
+time it has been directed and developed
+by the Christian influences, may be regarded
+under three different aspects:&mdash;1st,
+The purely religious aspect, which
+belongs to one mode of faith; 2d, The
+poetical aspect, which belongs to all;
+3d, The artistic, which is the individual
+point of view, and has reference only to
+the action of the intellect on the means
+and material employed. There is a pleasure,
+an intense pleasure, merely in the
+consideration of art, as art; in the faculties
+of comparison and nice discrimination
+brought to bear on objects of beauty;
+in the exercise of a cultivated and refined
+taste on the productions of mind in any
+form whatever. But a threefold, or rather
+a thousandfold, pleasure is theirs,
+who to a sense of the poetical unite a
+sympathy with the spiritual in art, and
+who combine with a delicacy of perception
+and technical knowledge, more elevated
+sources of pleasure, more variety of
+association, habits of more excursive
+thought. Let none imagine, however,
+that in placing before the uninitiated
+these unpretending volumes, I assume any
+such superiority as is here implied. Like
+a child that has sprang on a little way
+before its playmates, and caught a glimpse
+through an opening portal of some varied
+Eden within, all gay with flowers, and
+musical with birds, and haunted by divine
+shapes which beckon forward, and,
+after one rapturous survey, runs back and
+catches its companions by the hand, and
+hurries them forwards to share the new-found
+pleasure, the yet unexplored region
+of delight: even so it is with me: I am on
+the outside, not the inside, of the door I
+open."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This is a happy introduction to that
+which immediately follows of angels
+and archangels.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Jameson has so managed to
+open the door as to frame in her subject
+to the best advantage; and the
+reader is willing to stand for a moment
+with her to gaze upon the inward
+brightness of the garden, ere he ventures
+in to see what is around and
+what is above. It is on the first
+downward step that we stand breathless
+with Aladdin, and feel the influence
+of the first&mdash;the partial and
+framed-in picture&mdash;glowing in the unearthly
+illumination of its magical
+creation.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing more interesting
+than these few pages upon angels.
+The information we receive is very
+curious. It is beautiful poetry to see
+orders, and degrees, and ministrations
+various, types of an embodied, a ministering
+church here, and ordained,
+together with the saints of earth,
+to make one glorified triumphant
+church hereafter. Without entering
+upon the theological question, as to
+the extension and mystification of the
+ideas of angels after the Captivity,
+(yet we think it might be shown that
+there was originally no Chaldaic belief
+on the subject not taken, first or last,
+from the Jews themselves,) it may
+not be unworthy of remark, that the
+word "angel," signifying messenger,
+could scarcely with propriety have
+been at the first applied to Satan, the
+deceiving serpent, until, in the after-development
+of the history of the
+human race, the ministering offices
+gave the general title, which, when
+established, included all who had not
+"kept their first estate." Nor do we
+think, with Mrs Jameson, that Chaldea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+had anything to do with the introduction
+of the worship of angels into
+the Christian church. The "gods
+many" of the heathen countries in
+which Christianity established itself,
+will sufficiently account for the readiness
+of the people to transfer the multifarious
+worship to which they had
+been accustomed to names more suitable
+to the new religion. It is with
+the poetical development we have
+here to do; and what ground is there
+for that full development in the New
+Testament, wherein they are represented
+as "countless&mdash;as superior to all
+human wants and weaknesses&mdash;as deputed
+messengers of God? They rejoice
+over the repentant sinner; they
+take deep interest in the mission of
+Christ; they are present with those
+who pray; they bear the souls of the just
+to heaven; they minister to Christ
+on earth, and will be present at his
+second coming." From such authority,
+from such a sacred theatre of
+scenes and celestial personages, arose
+the beautiful, the magnificent visions
+of the workers of sacred art. Heresy,
+however, reached it, as might have
+been expected; and the agency of
+angels, in the creation of the world and
+of man, has been represented, to the
+deterioration of its great poetry.
+From the beginning of the fourteenth
+century, a great change seems to have
+taken place in the representation of
+the angel with reference to the Virgin:
+the feeling is changed; "the veneration
+paid to the Virgin demanded
+another treatment. She becomes not
+merely the principal person, but the
+superior being; she is the 'regina
+angelorum,' and the angel bows to
+her, or kneels before her, as to a
+queen. Thus, in the famous altar-piece
+at Cologne, the angel kneels;
+he bears the sceptre, and also a sealed
+roll, as if he were a celestial ambassador
+delivering his credentials. About
+the same period we sometimes see the
+angel merely with his hands folded
+over his breast, and his head inclined,
+delivering his message as if to a superior
+being."</p>
+
+<p>It is a great merit in this work of
+Mrs Jameson's, that we are not only
+referred to the most curious and to
+the best specimens of art, but have
+likewise beautiful woodcuts, and
+some etchings admirably executed by
+Mrs Jameson's own hand in illustration.
+There is a greatness in the
+simplicity of Blake's angels: "The
+morning stars sang together, and all
+the sons of God shouted for joy."
+Poor Blake! Yet why say poor? he
+was happy in his visions&mdash;a little before
+his time, and one of whom the
+world (of art) in his day were not
+worthy: though, with a wild extravagance
+of fancy, his creations were
+his faith, often great, and always
+gentle. Exquisitely beautiful are the
+"angels of the planets" from Raffaelle,
+and copied by Mrs Jameson from
+Gruner's engravings of the frescoes
+of the Capella Chigiana. That great
+painter of mystery, Rembrandt, whom
+the mere lovers of form would have
+mistakenly thought it a profanation to
+commission with an angelic subject, is
+justly appreciated. A perfect master
+of light, and of darkness, and of colour,
+it mattered not what were the
+forms, so that they were unearthly,
+that plunged into or broke through
+his luminous or opaque. Of the picture
+in the Louvre it is thus remarked:
+"Miraculous for true and
+spirited expression, and for the action
+of the soaring angel, who parts the
+clouds and strikes through the air like
+a strong swimmer through the waves
+of the sea." Strange&mdash;but so it is&mdash;we
+cannot conceive an alteration of
+his pictures, all parts so agree. Attention
+to the more beautiful in form
+would have appeared to him a mistrust
+in his great gift of colour and
+chiaroscuro; and, stranger still, that
+without, and seemingly in a marked
+defiance of mere beauty, he is, we
+would almost say never, vulgar, never
+misses the intended sentiment, nor
+fails where it is of tenderness, even of
+feminine tenderness, for which, if he
+does not give beauty, he gives its
+equivalent in the fulness of the feeling.
+We instance his Salutation&mdash;Elizabeth
+and the Virgin Mary. There is
+something terrifically grand in the
+crouching angel in the Campo Santo,&mdash;not
+in the form, nor in the face, which
+is mostly hid, but in the conception of
+the attitude of horror with which he
+beholds the awful scene. It is from
+the Last Judgment of Orcagua in
+the Campo Santo. We must not
+speak of Rubens as a painter of angels;
+and, for real angelic expression,
+perhaps the earlier painters are the
+best. It is surprising that Mrs Jameson,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+from whose refined taste, and
+from whose sense of the beautiful
+and the graceful in their highest qualities,
+we should have expected another
+judgment, could have ventured to
+name together Raffaelle and Murillo
+as angel painters. It is true, in speaking
+of the Visit to Abraham, she
+admits that the painter has set aside
+the angelic and mystic character, and
+merely represented three young men
+travellers; but she generally, throughout
+these volumes, speaks of that
+favourite Spaniard in terms of the
+highest admiration,&mdash;terms, as we
+think, little merited. The angels in the
+Sutherland Collection are as vulgar
+figures as can well be, and quite antagonistic
+in feeling to a heavenly mission.
+We confess that we dislike
+almost all the pictures by this so much
+esteemed master: their artistic manner
+is to us uncertain and unpleasing,&mdash;disagreeable
+in colour, deficient in
+grace. We often wonder at the excess
+of present admiration. We look upon
+his vulgarity in scriptural subjects as
+quite profane. His highest power was
+in a peasant gentleness; he could not
+embody a sacred feeling: yet thus is
+he praised for a performance beyond
+his power:&mdash;"St Andrew is suspended
+on the high cross, formed not of
+planks, but of the trunks of trees laid
+transversely. He is bound with cords,
+undraped, except by a linen cloth,
+his silver hair and beard loosely
+streaming on the air, his aged countenance
+illuminated by a heavenly
+transport, as he looks up to the opening
+skies, whence two angels, of really
+celestial beauty, like almost all Murillo's
+angels, descend with the crown
+and palm." The angels of Correggio
+are certainly peculiar: they are not
+quite celestial, but perhaps are sympathetically
+more lovely from their
+touch of humanity; they are ever
+pure. Those in the Ascension of the
+the Virgin, in the Cupola at Parma,
+seem to be rather adopted angels
+than of the "first estate;" for they
+are of several ages, and, if we mistake
+not, many of them are feminine, and,
+we suspect, are meant really to represent
+the loveliest of earth beatified,
+adopted into the heavenly choir.
+Those who have seen Signor Toschi's
+fine drawings of the Parma frescoes,
+(now in progress of engraving), will
+readily give assent to this impression.
+We remember this feeling crossing our
+mind, and as it were lightly touching
+the heart with angelic wings&mdash;if we
+have lost a daughter of that sweet
+age, let us fondly see her there. We
+cannot forbear quoting the passage
+upon the angels of Titian:&mdash;"And
+Titian's angels impress me in a similar
+manner: I mean those in the
+glorious Assumption at Venice, with
+their childish forms and features, but
+an expression caught from beholding
+the face of 'our Father which is in
+heaven:' it is glorified infancy. I
+remember standing before this picture,
+contemplating those lovely spirits one
+after another, until a thrill came over
+me, like that which I felt when Mendelssohn
+played the organ: I became
+music while I listened. The face of
+one of those angels is to the face of a
+child, just what that of the Virgin, in
+the same picture, is, compared with
+the fairest daughter of earth. It is
+not here superiority of beauty, but
+mind, and music, and love, kneaded
+together, as it were, into form and
+colour." This is very eloquent, but it
+was not <em>the thought</em> which supplied
+that ill word "kneaded."</p>
+
+<p>It is remarked by Mrs Jameson, as
+a singular fact, that neither Leonardo
+da Vinci, nor Michael Angelo, nor
+Raffaelle, have given representations
+of the Four Evangelists. In very
+early art they are mostly symbolised,
+and sometimes oddly and uncouthly;
+and even so by Angelico da Fiesole.
+In Greek art, the Tetramorph, or
+union of the four attributes in one
+figure, is seen winged. "The Tetramorph,
+in Western art, in some instances
+became monstrous, instead of
+mystic and poetical." The animal
+symbols of the Evangelists, however
+familiarised in the eyes of the people,
+and therefore sanctioned to their feeling,
+required the greatest judgment to
+bring within the poetic of art. We
+must look also to the most mysterious
+subjects for the elucidation, such as
+Raffaelle's Vision of Ezekiel. There
+we view in the symbols a great prophetic,
+subservient to the creating and
+redeeming power, set forth and coming
+out of that blaze of the clouds of
+heaven that surround the sublime
+Majesty.</p>
+
+<p>The earlier painters were fond of
+representing everything symbolically:
+hence the twelve apostles are so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+treated. In the descending scale, to
+the naturalists, the mystic poetry was
+reduced to its lowest element. The set
+of the apostles by Agostino Caracci,
+though, as Mrs Jameson observes,
+famous as works of art, are condemned
+as absolutely vulgar. "St John is
+drinking out of a cup, an idea which
+might strike some people as picturesque,
+but it is in vile taste. It is
+about the eighth century that the keys
+first appear in the hand of St Peter.
+In the old churches at Ravenna, it is
+remarked, St Peter and St Paul do not
+often appear." Ravenna, in the fifth
+century, did not look to Rome for her
+saints.</p>
+
+<p>After his martyrdom, St Paul was,
+it is said, buried in the spot where
+was erected the magnificent church
+known as St Paolo fuorè-le mura. "I
+saw the church a few months before
+it was consumed by fire in 1823. I
+saw it again in 1847, when the restoration
+was far advanced. Its cold magnificence,
+compared with the impressions
+left by the former structure, rich
+with inestimable remains of ancient
+art, and venerable from a thousand
+associations, saddened and chilled me."
+We well remember visiting this noble
+church in 1816. A singular coincidence
+of fact and prophecy has imprinted
+this visit on our memory.
+Those who have seen it before it was
+burnt down, must remember the series
+of portraits of popes, and that there
+was room but for one more. We
+looked to the vacant place, as directed
+by our cicerone, whilst he told us
+that there was a prophecy concerning
+it to this effect, that when that space
+was filled up there would be no more
+popes. The prophecy was fulfilled,
+at least with regard to that church,
+for it was burnt down after that vacant
+space had been occupied by the papal
+portrait.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of the Last Supper is
+treated of in a separate chapter.
+There has been a fresco lately discovered
+at Florence, in the refectory
+of Saint Onofrio, said to have been
+painted by Raffaelle in his twenty-third
+year. Some have thought it to
+be the work of Neri de Bicci. Mrs
+Jameson, without hesitation, pronounces
+it to be by Raffaelle, "full of
+sentiment and grace, but deficient, it
+appears to me, in that depth and
+discrimination of character displayed
+in his later works. It is evident that
+he had studied Giotto's fresco in the
+neighbouring Santa Croce. The arrangement
+is nearly the same." All
+the apostles have glories, but that
+round the head of Judas is smaller
+than the others. Does the prejudice
+against thirteen at table arise from
+this betrayal by Judas, or from the
+legend of St Gregory, who, when a
+monk in the monastery of St Andrew,
+was so charitable, that at length, having
+nothing else to bestow, he gave
+to an old beggar a silver porringer
+which had belonged to his mother?
+When pope, it was his custom to
+entertain twelve poor men. On one
+occasion he observed thirteen, and
+remonstrated with his steward, who,
+counting the guests, could see no more
+than twelve. After removal from the
+table, St Gregory called the unbidden
+guest, thus visible, like the ghost of
+Banquo, to the master of the feast
+only. The old man, on being questioned,
+declared himself to be the old
+beggar to whom the silver porringer
+had been given, adding, "But my
+name is Wonderful, and through me
+thou shalt obtain whatever thou shalt
+ask of God." There is a famous fresco
+on this subject by Paul Veronese, in
+which the stranger is represented to
+be our Saviour. To entertain even
+angels unknowingly, and at convivial
+entertainments, and visible perhaps
+but to one, as a messenger of good or
+of evil, would be little congenial with
+the purport of such meetings.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Jameson objects to the introduction
+of dogs in such a subject
+as the Last Supper, but remarks
+that it is supposed to show that
+the supper is over, and the paschal
+lamb eaten. It is so common that
+we should rather refer it to a more
+evident and more important signification,
+to show that this institution
+was not for the Jews only, and alluding
+to the passage showing that "dogs
+eat of the crumbs which fell from their
+masters' table." The large dogs,
+however, of Paul Veronese, gnawing
+bones, do not with propriety represent
+the passage; for there is reason to
+believe that the word "crumbs" describes
+the small pet dogs, which its
+was the fashion for the rich to carry
+about with them. The early painters
+introduced Satan in person tempting
+Judas. When Baroccio, with little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+taste, adopted the same treatment,
+the pope, Clement VIII., ordered the
+figure to be obliterated&mdash;"Che non gli
+piaceva il demonio si dimésticasse
+tanto con Gesu Christo." We know
+not where Mrs Jameson has found the
+anecdote which relates that Andrea
+del Castagno, called the Infamous,
+after he had assassinated Dominico
+his friend, who had intrusted him with
+Van Eyck's secret, painted his own
+portrait in the character of Judas, from
+remorse of conscience. We are not
+sure of the story at all respecting
+Andrea del Castagno: there may be
+other grounds for doubting it, but this
+anecdote, if true to the fact, would
+rather indicate insanity than guilt.
+The farther we advance in the history
+and practice of art, the more we find
+it suffering in sentiment from the infusion
+of the classical. In the Pitti
+Palace is a picture by Vasari of St
+Jerome as a penitent, in which he has
+introduced Venus and cupids, one of
+whom is taking aim at the saint. It
+is true that, as we proceed, legends
+crowd in upon us, and the painters
+find rather scope for fancy than subjects
+for faith and resting-places for
+devotion. Art, ever fond of female
+forms, readily seized upon the legends
+of Mary Magdalene. Her penitence
+has ever been a favourite subject, and
+has given opportunity for the introduction
+of grand landscape backgrounds
+in the lonely solitudes and
+wildernesses of a rocky desert. The
+individuality of the characters of
+Mary and Martha in Scripture history
+was too striking not to be taken advantage
+of by painters. There is a
+legend of an Egyptian penitent Mary,
+anterior to that of Mary Magdalene,
+which is curious. Whether this was
+another Mary or not, she is represented
+as a female anchoret; and we
+are reminded thereby of the double
+story of Helen of Troy, whom a real
+or fabulous history has deposited in
+Egypt, while the great poet of the
+Iliad has introduced her as so visible
+and palpable an agent in the Trojan
+war, and not without a touch of penitence,
+not quite characteristic of that
+age. Accounts say that it was her
+double, or eidolon, which figured at
+Troy.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Jameson makes a good conjecture
+with regard to the famous
+picture by Leonardo da Vinci, known
+as Modesty and Vanity, and that it is
+Mary Magdalene rebuked by her sister
+Martha for vanity and luxury, which
+exactly corresponds with the legend
+respecting her. We cannot forbear
+quoting the following eloquent passage:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"On reviewing generally the infinite
+variety which has been given to these
+favourite subjects, the life and penance of
+the Magdalene, I must end where I began.
+In how few instances has the result
+been satisfactory to mind, or heart, or
+soul, or sense! Many have well represented
+the particular situation, the appropriate
+sentiment, the sorrow, the hope, the
+devotion; but who has given us the
+<em>character</em>? A noble creature, with strong
+sympathies and a strong will, with powerful
+faculties of every kind, working for
+good or evil. Such a woman Mary Magdalene
+must have been, even in her humiliation;
+and the feeble, girlish, commonplace,
+and even vulgar women, who
+appear to have been usually selected as
+models by the artists, turned into Magdalenes
+by throwing up their eyes and
+letting down their hair, ill represent the
+enthusiastic convert, or the majestic patroness!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The second volume commences with
+the patron saints of Christendom.
+These were delightful fables in the
+credulous age of first youth, when
+feeling was a greater truth than fact;
+and we confess that we read these
+legends now with some regret at our
+abated faith, which we would not
+even "now have shaken in the chivalric
+characters of the seven champions
+of Christendom."</p>
+
+<p>The Romish Church (we say not
+the Catholic, as Mrs Jameson so frequently
+improperly terms <em>her</em>) readily
+acted that part, to the people at large,
+which nurses assume for the amusement
+of their children; and in both
+cases, the more improbable the story the
+greater the fascination; and the people,
+like children, are more credulous than
+critical. Had we not known in our
+own times, and nearly at the present
+day, stories as absurd as any in these
+legends, gravely asserted, circulated,
+and credited, and maintained by men
+of responsible station and education&mdash;to
+instance only the garment of Treves&mdash;we
+should have pronounced the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">aurea
+legenda</i> to have been a creation of
+the fancy, arising, not without their
+illumination, from the fogs and fens of
+the Middle Ages, adapted solely for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+minds of that period. But the sanction
+of them by the Church of Rome
+leads us to view them as <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ignes fatui</i> of
+another character, meant to amuse
+and to bewilder. We must even think
+it possible now for people to be
+brought to believe such a story as
+this:&mdash;"It is related that a certain
+man, who was afflicted with a cancer
+in his leg, went to perform his devotions
+in the church of St Cosmo and
+St Damian at Rome, and he prayed
+most earnestly that these beneficent
+saints would be pleased to aid him.
+When he had prayed, a deep sleep fell
+upon him. Then he beheld St Cosmo
+and St Damian, who stood beside
+him; and one carried a box of ointment,
+the other a sharp knife. And
+one said, 'What shall we do to replace
+this diseased leg, when we have cut it
+off?' And the other replied, 'There
+is a Moor who has been buried just
+now in San Pietro in Vincolo; let us
+take his leg for the purpose!' Then
+they brought the leg of the dead man,
+and with it they replaced the leg of
+the sick man&mdash;anointing it with celestial
+ointment, so that he remained
+whole. When he awoke, he almost
+doubted whether it could be himself;
+but his neighbours, seeing that he was
+healed, looked into the tomb of the
+Moor, and found that there had been an
+exchange of legs; and thus the truth
+of this great miracle was proved to all
+beholders." It is, however, rather a
+hazardous demand upon credulity to
+serve up again the feast of Thyestes,
+cooked in a caldron of even more
+miraculous efficacy than Medea's. Such
+is the stupendous power of St Nicholas:&mdash;"As
+he was travelling through
+his diocese, to visit and comfort his
+people, he lodged in the house of a
+certain host, who was a son of Satan.
+This man, in the scarcity of provisions,
+was accustomed to steal little children,
+whom he murdered, and served up
+their limbs as meat to his guests. On
+the arrival of the Bishop and his retinue,
+he had the audacity to serve up
+the dismembered limbs of these unhappy
+children before the man of God,
+who had no sooner cast his eyes on
+them than he was aware of the fraud.
+He reproached the host with his
+abominable crime; and, going to the
+tub where their remains were salted
+down, he made over them the sign of
+the cross, and they rose up whole and
+well. The people who witnessed this
+great wonder were struck with astonishment;
+and the three children,
+who were the sons of a poor widow,
+were restored to their weeping mother."</p>
+
+<p>But what shall we say to an entire
+new saint of a modern day, who has
+already found his way to Venice,
+Bologna, and Lombardy,&mdash;even to
+Tuscany and Paris, not only in pictures
+and statues, but even in chapels
+dedicated to her? The reader may be
+curious to know something of a saint
+of this century. In the year 1802 the
+skeleton of a young female was discovered
+in some excavations in the
+catacomb of Priscilla at Rome; the
+remains of an inscription were, "Lumena
+Pax Te Cum Tri." A priest in
+the train of a Neapolitan prelate,
+who was sent to congratulate Pius
+VII. on his return from France, begged
+some relics. The newly-discovered
+treasure was given to him, and the
+inscription thus translated&mdash;"Filomena,
+rest in peace." "Another
+priest, whose name is suppressed <em>because
+of his great humility</em>, was favoured
+by a vision in the broad noonday,
+in which he beheld the glorious
+virgin Filomena, who was pleased to
+reveal to him that she had suffered
+death for preferring the Christian
+faith, and her vow of chastity, to the
+addresses of the emperor, who wished
+to make her his wife. This vision
+leaving much of her history obscure,
+a certain young artist, whose name is
+also suppressed&mdash;perhaps because of
+his great humility&mdash;was informed in a
+vision that the emperor alluded to was
+Diocletian; and at the same time the
+torments and persecutions suffered by
+the Christian virgin Filomena, as well
+as her wonderful constancy, were also
+revealed to him. There were some
+difficulties in the way of the Emperor
+Diocletian, which inclines the writer of
+the <em>historical</em> account to adopt the
+opinion that the young artist in his
+vision <em>may</em> have made a mistake, and
+that the emperor may have been his
+colleague, Maximian. The facts,
+however, now admitted of no doubt;
+and the relics were carried by the priest
+Francesco da Lucia to Naples; they
+were inclosed in a case of wood, resembling
+in form the human body.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+This figure was habited in a petticoat
+of white satin, and over it a crimson
+tunic, after the Greek fashion; the
+face was painted to represent nature;
+a garland of flowers was placed on the
+head, and in the hands a lily and a
+javelin&mdash;with the point reversed, to
+express her purity and her martyrdom;
+then she was laid in a half sitting posture
+in a sarcophagus, of which the
+sides were glass; and after lying for
+some time in state, in the chapel of the
+Torres family in the Church of Saint
+Angiolo, she was carried in procession
+to Magnano, a little town about twenty
+miles from Naples, amid the acclamations
+of the people, working many and
+surprising miracles by the way. Such
+is the legend of St Filomena, and such
+the authority on which she has become,
+within the last twenty years,
+one of the most fashionable saints in
+Italy. Jewels to the value of many
+thousand crowns have been offered at
+her shrine, and solemnly placed round
+the neck of her image, or suspended
+to her girdle."</p>
+
+<p>We dare not in candour charge the
+Romanists with being the only fabricators
+or receivers of such goods, remembering
+our own Saint Joanna,
+and Huntingdon's Autobiography.
+There are <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">aurea legenda</i> in a certain
+class of our sectarian literature,
+presenting a large list of claimants of
+very high pretensions to saintship,
+only waiting for power and an established
+authority to be canonised.</p>
+
+<p>It is not surprising, as the world is&mdash;working
+often in the dark places of
+ignorance&mdash;if a few glossy threads of a
+coarser material, and deteriorating
+quality, be taken up by no wilful mistake,
+and be interwoven into the true
+golden tissue. Nevertheless the
+mantle may be still beautiful, and fit
+a Christian to wear and walk in not
+unbecomingly. There are worse things
+than religious superstition, whose badness
+is of degrees. In the minds of
+all nations and people there is a
+vacuum for the craving appetite of
+credulity to fill. The great interests
+of life lie in politics and religion.
+There are bigots in both: but we look
+upon a little superstition on the one
+point as far safer than upon the other,
+especially in modern times; whereas
+political bigotry, however often duped,
+is credulous still, and becomes hating
+and ferocious. We fear even the
+legends are losing their authority in
+the Roman States, whose history may
+yet have to be filled with far worse
+tales. A generous, though we deem
+it a mistaken feeling, has induced Mrs
+Jameson to make what we would
+almost venture to call the only mistake
+in her volumes: the following
+passage is certainly not in good taste,
+quite out of the intention of her book,
+and very unfortunately timed&mdash;"But
+Peter is certainly the democratical
+apostle <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">par excellence</i>, and his representative
+in our time seems to have
+awakened to a consciousness of this
+truth, and to have thrown himself&mdash;as
+St Peter would most certainly have
+done, were he living&mdash;on the side of
+the people and of freedom." A democratical
+successor to St Peter! He is,
+then, the first of that character. With
+him the "side of freedom" seems to
+have been the inside of his prison,
+and his "side of the people" a precipitate
+flight from contact with them
+in their liberty&mdash;and for his tiara the
+disguise of a valet. We more than
+pardon Mrs Jameson&mdash;we love the
+virtue that gives rise to her error; for
+it is peculiarly the nature of woman
+to be credulous, and to be deceived.
+We admire, and more than admire,
+women equally well, whether they are
+right or wrong in politics: these are the
+business of men, for they have to do with
+the sword, and are out of the tenderer
+impulses of woman. But we are
+amused when we find grave strong
+men in the same predicament of ill
+conjectures. We smile as we remember
+a certain dedication "To Pio
+Nono," which by its simple grandeur
+and magnificent beauty will live
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">splendide mendax</i> to excuse its
+prophetic inaccuracy. It is not wise
+to foretell events to happen whilst we
+live. Take a "long range," or a
+studied ambiguity that will fit either
+way. The example of Dr Primrose
+may be followed with advantage, who
+in every case of domestic doubt and
+difficulty concluded the matter thus&mdash;"I
+wish it may turn out well this day
+six months;" by which, in his simple
+family, he attained the character of a
+true prophet.</p>
+
+<p>We fear we are losing sight of the
+"Poetry of Sacred and Legendary
+Art," and gladly turn from the thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+of what is to be, to those beautiful personified
+ideas of the past, whether
+fabulous or historical, in which we are
+ready to take Mrs Jameson as our
+willing and sure guide. The four
+virgin patronesses and the female
+martyrs are favourite subjects, which
+she enters into with more than her
+usual spirit and feeling. These two
+have chiefly engaged and fascinated
+the genius of the painters of the best
+period, and will ever interest the world
+of taste by their sentiment, as well as
+by their grace of form and beauty, and
+why not say improved them too? The
+really beautiful is always true. It is
+not amiss that we should be continually
+reminded, or, as Mrs Jameson
+better expresses it&mdash;"It is not a thing
+to be set aside or forgotten, that generous
+men and meek women, strong in
+the strength, and elevated by the sacrifice
+of a Redeemer, did suffer, did
+endure, did triumph for the truth's
+sake; did leave us an example which
+ought to make our hearts glow within
+us." The memory of Christian heroism
+should never be lost sight of in a
+Christian country, and we earnestly
+recommend this part of Mrs Jameson's
+volumes to the attention of our painters:
+they will find not unfrequent
+instances of fine subjects yet untouched,
+which may sanctify art, and dignify
+the profession by making it the teacher
+of a purer taste&mdash;not that true genius
+will ever lack materials, for materials
+are but suggestive to an innate inventive
+power. It is curious that the
+authoress should not yet have satisfied
+our expectation with regard to the
+legends of the Virgin. Whatever the
+motive of her forbearance, we hope
+this subject will take the lead in the
+promised third volume, which is to
+treat of the legends of the monastic
+orders, considered, as she cautiously
+observes, "merely in their connexion
+with the development of the fine arts
+in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."</p>
+
+<p>The numerous pictures in Italy
+which represent parts of the legends
+of the Virgin render this work incomplete
+without a full development of the
+subject. If her forbearance arises
+from a fear that at this particular time,
+when mariolatry is dreaded by a large
+portion of the religious world, we
+would remind her that the Virgin
+Mother is still "the blessed" of our
+own church.</p>
+
+<p>It is a question if the list of sainted
+martyrs in repute has not been left to
+the arbitrament of the painters; for
+we find many deposed, and the adopted
+favourites of art not found in the
+early list, as represented in their processions.
+We find a Saint Reparata,
+after having been the patroness saint
+of Florence for six hundred years,
+deposed, and the city placed under
+the tutelage of the Virgin and St John
+the Baptist.</p>
+
+<p>Yet these were early times for the
+influence of art; but, at a period when
+pictures were thought to have a kind
+of miraculous power, it is not improbable
+that some potent work of art
+representing the Virgin and St John
+may have caused the new devotional
+dedication&mdash;as was the case in modern
+times, when the imaged Madonna
+de los Dolores was appointed
+general-in-chief of the Carlist
+army. Painters were what the
+poets had been&mdash;<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Vates sacri</i>. Events
+and the memory of saints may have
+perished, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Carent quia vate sacro</i>. We
+wish our own painters were more fully
+sensible of the power of art to perpetuate,
+and that it is its province to
+teach. With us it has been too long
+disconnected with our religion. It
+will be a glorious day for art, and for
+the people that shall witness the reunion.</p>
+
+<p>In taking leave of these two fascinating
+volumes, we do so with the
+less regret, knowing that they will
+be often in our hands, as most valuable
+for instant reference. No one
+who wishes to know the subjects and
+feel the sentiment of the finest works
+in the world, will think of going
+abroad without Mrs Jameson's book.
+We must again thank her for the
+beautiful woodcuts and etchings; the
+latter, in particular, are lightly and
+gracefully executed, we presume
+mostly (to speak technically) in dry
+point. Mrs Jameson writes as an enthusiast,
+her feeling flows from her
+pen. Her style is fascinating to a
+degree, forcible and graceful; but
+there is no mistaking its character&mdash;feminine.
+We know no other
+hand that could so happily have set
+forth the <cite>Poetry of Sacred and Legendary
+Art</cite>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS.</h2>
+
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <em>December 1848</em>.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Year of Constitutions</span> is
+drawing to its end, to be succeeded, I
+doubt not, by the Year of Substitutions.
+I am sorry, my Basil, that
+you do not quite agree with me as to
+the issue of all this in France; but I
+am sure you will not dispute my opinion
+that this year's work is good for
+nothing, so far as it has attempted
+construction, instead of fulfilling its
+mission by overthrow. Its great
+folly has been the constitution-fever,
+which has amounted to a pestilence.
+When mushrooms grow to be oaks,
+then shall such constitutions as this
+year has bred, stand a chance of outliving
+their authors. Will men learn
+nothing from the past? How can
+they act over such rotten farces,&mdash;make
+themselves such fools!</p>
+
+<p>You admit the difference, which I
+endeavoured to show you, between
+the American constitution and that of
+any conceivable constitution which
+may be cooked up for an old European
+state. I am glad if I have directed
+your attention, accordingly, to the
+great mistake of France. She supposes
+that a feeble, and debauched old
+gentleman can boil himself in the
+revolutionary kettle, and emerge in
+all the tender and enviable freshness
+of the babe just severed from the maternal
+mould. Politicians have committed
+a blunder in not allowing the
+natural, and hence legitimate, origin
+of the American constitution in that
+of its British parent. They have thus
+favoured the theory that a tolerably
+permanent constitution can be drafted
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">a priori</i>, and imposed upon a state.
+This is the absurdity that makes revolutions.
+If the silly French, instead
+of reading De Tocqueville, would
+study each for himself the history of
+our constitution, and see how gradually
+it grew to be our constitution,
+before pen was put to paper to draft
+it, they might perhaps stop their
+abortive nonsense in time, to save
+what they can of their national character
+from the eternal contempt of
+mankind.</p>
+
+<p>But you cannot think the French
+will find so fair a destiny as a Restoration!
+Tell me, in what French
+party, at present existing, there is
+any inherent strength, save in that of
+the legitimists? Other parties are
+mere factions; but the legitimists
+have got a seminal principle among
+them, which dies very hard, and of
+which the nature is to sprout and
+make roots, and then show itself. I
+am no admirer of the Bourbons:
+their intrigues with Jesuitism have
+been their curse, and are the worst
+obstacle to their regaining a hold on
+the sympathies of freemen. The
+reactionary party have in vain endeavoured
+to overcome it for fifty
+years. Yet there is such tenacity of
+life in legitimacy, that it seems to
+me destined to outlive all opposition,
+and to succeed by necessity. The
+rapid developments of this memorable
+year strengthen the probability of my
+prediction. Revolutionism is spasmodic,
+but not so long in dying as it
+used to be. I cannot but think this
+year has done more for a permanent
+restoration of the Bourbons than any
+year since Louis XVI. ascended the
+scaffold. In this respect the Barricades
+of 1848 may tell more impressively
+on history than the Allies of
+1814, or even the carnage of Waterloo.</p>
+
+<p>Why should I be ashamed of my
+theory, when everything, so far, has
+gone as I supposed it would, only a
+hundred times more rapidly than any
+body could have thought possible?
+What must be the residue of a series
+which thus far has tended but one
+way?&mdash;what say you of the Bartholomew-butchery
+in June?&mdash;what of Lamartine's
+fall?&mdash;what of the dictatorship
+of Cavaignac? If things have
+gone as seems probable, Louis Napoleon
+is president of the republic. If
+so, what is the instinct which has thus
+called him into power? The hereditary
+principle is abolished on paper,
+and instantly recognised by the first
+popular act done under the new constitution!
+But, for all we can tell in
+America, things may have taken
+another turn. Is Cavaignac elected?
+Then a military master is put over
+the republic, who can <em>Cromwellise</em> the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+Assembly, and <em>Monk</em> the state, as
+soon as he chooses. The republic
+has given itself the form of a dictatorship,
+and demonstrated that it
+does not exist, except on paper.
+Has there been an insurrection?
+Then the republic is dead already.
+But I shall assume that Louis has
+succeeded: then it is virtually an
+hereditary empire. To be sure, instinct
+has for once failed to know
+"the true prince,"&mdash;has accorded, to
+the mere shadow of a usurper, what,
+in a more substantial form, is due to
+the heir of France; but long-suspended
+animation must make a mistake
+or two in coming to life again.
+The events of the year have been all
+favourable to a restoration, because
+they have crushed a thousand other
+plans and plottings for the sovereignty,
+and because they must have
+forced upon at least as many theorists
+the grand practical conclusion, that
+there is to be no rational liberty in
+France until she returns to first principles,
+and finds the repose which old
+nations can only know under their
+legitimate kings.</p>
+
+<p>I am ashamed of you for more
+than hinting that legitimacy must be
+given up, as far as kings are concerned.
+Alas! Diogenes must light
+his lantern, and hunt through England
+for a Tory! You are bewhigged,
+indeed, if you give it up that George
+III. was a legitimate king, and that
+his grand-daughter is to you what no
+other person alive can possibly be,&mdash;your
+true and hereditary sovereign
+lady! Must I, a republican, say this
+to an English monarchist, who votes
+himself a conservative, and who is
+the son of a sturdy old English Tory?
+Is there no virtue extant, that even
+you allow yourself to be flippant
+about "the divinity that hedges
+kings," and to trifle with suggestions
+which your immortal ancestor, who
+fell at Prestonpans, would have
+drummed out of doors with poker and
+tongs? Why, even I, who have a
+right to be whatever I choose, by
+way of amateur allegiance, and who
+have always found myself a Jacobite
+whenever the talk has been against
+the White Rose&mdash;even I, in sober
+earnest, yield the point, that George
+I. was a legitimate sovereign, and
+that Charlie was a bit of a rebel.
+Those stupid Dutchmen! it makes
+me mad to say as much for them;
+but I love Old England too well to
+own that she bore with such sovereigns
+on any lower grounds than
+that of their right to reign.</p>
+
+<p>I am sorry you give in to the silly
+cant of revolutionists, and confess
+yourself posed with their challenge.
+What if they do insist upon a definition?
+Are you bound to keep your
+heart from beating till you can tell
+why it throbs over a page of Shakspeare's
+Richard II., and bounces,
+in precisely an opposite manner, over
+Carlyle's Cromwell? Am I going to
+let a Whig choke me with a dictionary,
+because it contains no explanation
+of my good old-fashioned
+word? Let him, with his "Useful
+Knowledge Society" information, give
+me an explanation of the magnetic
+needle, or tell me why it turns to the
+pole, and not to the antipodes? The
+fellow will recollect some twopenny
+picture of the compass, and retail me
+half a column of the Penny Magazine
+about the mysteries of nature. And
+what if I talk as sensibly from nature
+in my own heart, and tell the stereotype
+philosopher that I am conscious
+of an ennobling affection, which honest
+men never lack, and which God Almighty
+has made a faculty of the
+human soul to dignify subordination;
+and that loyalty has no lode-star but
+legitimacy? At least, my dear
+Whigo-Tory, you must allow, I should
+succeed in answering a fool according
+to his folly. But I claim more: I
+have defined legitimacy when I say it
+is the home of loyalty.</p>
+
+<p>I have amused myself during the
+summer with some study of the history
+of reaction in France, and flatter
+myself that I have discovered the
+secret of its failure, and the great distinction
+between its spirit and that of
+English Conservatism. But this by
+the way; for I was going to say that
+I have found, in the writings of one
+of the chief of the reactionary party,
+some very sensible hints upon the
+subject I am discussing with you.
+Though in many respects a dangerous
+teacher, and, I fear, a little jesuitical
+in practice as well as in
+theory, I have been surprised to find
+the Count de Maistre willing "to be
+as <em>his master</em>" on this point, and to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+rest legitimacy very nearly on the
+sober principles of Burke. He is far
+from the extravagances of Sir Robert
+Filmer, though he often expresses, in
+a startling form, the temperate views
+of English Anti-Jacobins. Thus he
+says, with evident relish of its smart
+severity, <em>the people will always accept
+their masters, and will never choose
+them</em>. Strongly and unpalatably put,
+but most coincident with history, and
+not to be disputed by any admirer of
+the glorious Revolution of 1688! I
+suspect the Frenchman made his aphorism
+without stopping to ask whether
+it suited any other case. But Burke
+has virtually said the same thing in
+his reply to the Old Jewry doctrine
+of 1789, in which he so forcibly urges
+the fact, that the settlement of the
+crown upon William and the Georges
+"was not properly <em>a choice</em>, ...
+but an act of necessity, in the strictest
+moral sense in which necessity can
+be taken." Mary and the Hanoverians,
+then, were acknowledged by the
+nation, in spite of itself, as legitimate
+sovereigns; and even William was
+smuggled into the acknowledgment as
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">quasi</i>-legitimate. It is the clear, reasonable,
+and truly English doctrine of
+Burke, that <em>the constitution of a country
+makes its legitimate kings</em>; and that
+the princes of the House of Brunswick,
+coming to the crown according to constitutional
+law, at the date of their
+respective accessions, were as legitimate
+as King James before he broke
+his coronation oaths, and abdicated,
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ipso facto</i>, his crown and hereditary
+rights. But De Maistre talks more
+like the schoolmen, though he comes
+to the same practical results. Constitutions,
+the native growth of their
+respective countries, he would argue,
+are the ordinance of <span class="smcap">God</span>; and kings,
+though not the subjects of their
+people, are bound to do homage to
+them, as, in a sense, divine. Legitimacy,
+therefore, is the resultant of
+hereditary majesty and constitutional
+designation; it being always understood
+that constitutional laws are
+never written till after they become
+such by national necessities, which are
+divine providences. Apply this to
+1688. The Bill of Rights was an
+unwritten part of the constitution
+even when James was crowned; and
+so was the principle, that the king
+must not be a Papist, at least in the
+government of his realms. Such, if I
+may so speak, was the Salic law of
+England, by which his public and
+political Popery stripped him of his
+right to the throne. It was the same
+principle that invested the House of
+Brunswick with a legitimacy which
+the heart of the nation did not hesitate
+to recognise, in spite of unfeigned
+disgust with the prince in whom the
+succession was established. To throw
+the proposition into the abstract&mdash;there
+can be no legitimacy without
+hereditary majesty, but that member
+of a royal line is the legitimate king
+in whom concur all the elements of
+<em>constitutional designation</em>. If the
+phrase be new, the idea is as old as
+empire. I mean that constitutional
+power which, without reference to
+national choice or personal popularity,
+selects the true heir of the throne,
+among the descendants of its ancient
+possessors, on fixed principles of national
+law. Thus, in Portugal, the
+constitution sets aside an idiot heir-apparent
+for a cadet of the same
+family, or, if need be, for a collateral
+relative; while, in France, it proclaims
+the line of a king extinct in his
+female heir, and ascends, perhaps, to
+a remote ancestor for a trace of his
+rightful successor. It is a principle
+essentially the same which, in England,
+pronounces a Popish prince as
+devoid of hereditary right to the crown,
+as a bastard, or the child of a private
+marriage; and by which the hereditary
+blood, shut off from its natural
+course, immediately opens some auxiliary
+channel, and widens it into the
+main artery of succession, with all the
+precision of similar resources in physical
+nature. With such an argument,
+if I understand him, the Count de
+Maistre would put you to the blush
+for sneering <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">sub rosâ</i> at the legitimacy
+of your Sovereign. I wish his principles
+were always as capable of being
+put to the proof, without any absurdity
+in the reduction. Hereditary
+majesty is the only material of which
+constitutions make sovereigns; and
+that, too, deserves a word in the light
+which this sage Piedmontese Mentor
+of France has endeavoured to throw
+on the subject. It is interesting in
+the present dilemma of France, which
+stands like the ass between two haystacks&mdash;rejecting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+one dynasty, but not
+yet choosing another. I am a republican,
+you know, holding that my
+loyalty is due to the constitution of
+my own country; and yet I subscribe
+to the doctrine that this idea of <em>majesty</em>
+is a reality, and that, confess it
+or not, even republicans feel its reality.
+<em>The king's name is a tower of strength</em>;
+and inspiration has said to sovereign
+princes, with a pregnant and monitory
+meaning&mdash;<em>ye are gods</em>. This is not
+the fawning of courts, but the admonition
+of Him who invests them with
+His sword of avenging justice, and
+gives them, age after age, the natural
+homage of their fellow-men. Not
+that I would flatter monarchs: I see
+that they <em>die like men</em>, and, what is
+worse, live, very often, like fools, if not
+like beasts. Yet I am sure that they
+have something about them which is
+personally theirs, and cannot be given
+to others, and which is as real a thing
+as any other possession. <span class="smcap">God</span> has
+endowed them with history, and they
+are the living links which connect
+nations with their origin, and the
+men of the passing age with bygone
+generations. Reason about it as we
+may, it is impossible not to look with
+natural reverence on the breathing monuments
+of venerable antiquity. For
+a Guelph, indeed, I cannot get up any
+false or romantic enthusiasm; and
+yet I find it quite as impossible not
+to feel that the house of Guelph entitles
+its royal members to a degree
+of consideration which is the ordinance
+of Heaven. For how many
+ages has that house been a great reality,
+casting its shadow over Europe,
+and stretching it over the world, and
+as absolutely affecting the destinies of
+men as the geographical barriers and
+highways of nations! The Alps and
+the Oceans are morally, as well as
+naturally, majestic; and a moral
+majesty like theirs attaches to a line
+of princes which has stood the storms
+of centuries like them, and like them
+has been always a bulwark or a bond
+between races and generations. Like
+the solemnity of mountains is the
+hereditary majesty of a family, of
+which the origin is veiled in the
+twilight of history, but which is always
+seen above the surface of cotemporary
+events, a crowned and sceptred thing
+that never dies, but perpetuates, from
+generation to generation, a still increasing
+emotion of sublimity and
+awe, which all men feel, and none can
+fully understand. There are many
+women in England who, for personal
+qualities and graces, would as well
+become the throne as she whom you so
+loyally entitle "Our Sovereign Lady."
+Why is it that no election, nor any
+imaginable possession of her place,
+could commend the proudest or the
+best of them to the homage of the
+nation's heart? Such a one might
+wear the robes, and glitter like a star,
+outshining the regalia, and might
+walk like Juno; but not a voice would
+cry <em>God save her!</em>&mdash;while there is a
+glory, not to be mistaken, which invests
+the daughter of ancient sovereigns,
+even when she is recognised,
+against her will, in the costume of
+travel, or when she shows herself
+among her people, and treads the
+heather in a trim little bonnet and
+a Highland plaid. Why is it that ten
+thousand feel a thrill when her figure
+is seen descending from the wooden
+walls of her empire, and alighting
+upon some long unvisited portion of
+its soil? It is not the same emotion
+which would be inspired by the landing
+of Wellington. Then the roaring of
+cannon and the waving of ensigns
+would appear to be a tribute rendered
+to the hero by a grateful country; but
+when her Majesty touches the shore,
+she seems herself to wake the thunders
+and to bow the banners which announce
+her coming. The pomp is all
+her own, and differs from the tributary
+pageant, as the nod of Jove is different
+from the acclamation of Stentor.
+Even I, who "owe her no subscription,"
+can well conceive what a true
+Briton cannot help but feel, when,
+with an ennobling loyalty, he beholds
+in her the concentrated blood of famous
+kings, and the propagated soul of
+mighty monarchs; and when he calls
+to mind, at the same moment, the
+thousand strange events and glorious
+histories which have their august
+and venerable issue in Victoria, his
+queen.</p>
+
+<p>But you will bring me back to my
+main business, by asking&mdash;who, then,
+was the legitimate king of France at
+the beginning of this year? The King
+of the Barricades was not lacking in
+hereditary majesty, and you will make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+out a case of <em>constitutional designation</em>,
+by a parallel between England in
+1688, and France in 1830. If you do
+so, you will greatly wrong your country.
+The loyalty of England settled
+in the house of Brunswick, and would
+have been even less tried if there had
+been a continuance of the house of
+Orange; but no French loyalist could
+ever be reconciled to the dynasty of
+Orleans. And why? It was not the
+natural constitution of France, but the
+mere blunder of a mob, that selected
+Louis Philippe as the king of the
+French. It was an election, as the
+accession of William and Mary was
+not: it was a choice, and not a necessity&mdash;the
+mere caprice of the hour,
+and in no sense the rational designation
+of law. Did ever his Barricade
+Majesty himself, in all his dreams of
+a dynasty, pretend that any unalterable
+principle, or fundamental law of
+France, had turned the tide of succession
+from the heir-presumptive of
+Charles X., and forced heralds upon
+the backward trail of genealogy,
+till they could again descend, and so
+find the hereditary king of the French
+in the son of Egalité? Louis Philippe
+was not legitimate, in any reasonable
+sense of the word; and, could he have
+made such men as Chateaubriand regard
+him as other than a usurper, he
+would not be at Claremont now.
+That splendid Frenchman uttered the
+voice of a smothered, but not extinguished,
+constitution, when he closed
+his political life in 1830, by saying to
+the Duchess de Berry&mdash;"<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Madame, votre
+fils est mon roi.</i>" He lived to see the
+secret heart of thousands of his countrymen
+repeating his memorable
+words, and died not till Providence
+itself had overturned the rival throne,
+and directed every eye in hope, or in
+alarm, to the only prince in Europe
+who could claim to be their king.</p>
+
+<p>I care very little what may be the
+personal qualifications of Henry of
+Bordeaux; it seems to me that he
+is destined to reign upon the throne
+of his ancestors&mdash;and God grant he
+may do it in such wise as shall make
+amends for all that France has suffered,
+by reason of his ancestors, since
+France had a Henry for her king before!
+The prestige of sovereignty is
+his; and while he lives, no republic
+can be lasting; no government, save
+his, can insure the peace which the
+state of Europe so imperatively demands.
+If "experience has taught
+England that in no other course or
+method than that of an hereditary
+crown her liberties can be regularly
+perpetuated and preserved sacred,"<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>&mdash;why
+should not an experience, a
+thousandfold severer, teach France
+the same lesson? It has already been
+taught them by a genius which France
+cannot despise, and to whose oracular
+voice she is now forced to listen, because
+it issues from his fresh grave!
+"Legitimacy is the very life of
+France. Invent, calculate, combine
+all sorts of illegitimate governments,
+you will find nothing else possible as
+the result, nothing which gives any
+promise of duration, of tolerable existence
+during a course of years, or even
+through several months. Legitimacy
+is, in Europe, the sanctuary in which
+alone reposes that sovereignty by
+which states subsist." So I endeavour
+to render the eloquent sentence of
+Chateaubriand;<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and though, since he
+wrote it, a score of years have passed,
+it is stronger now than ever&mdash;for what
+was then his prophecy is already the
+deplorable history of his country.
+Had ever a country such a history,
+without learning more in a year than
+France has gained from a miserable
+half-century?</p>
+
+<p>Just so long as France has been
+busy with experiments, in the insane
+effort to separate her future from her
+past, just so long have all her labours
+to lay a new foundation been miserable
+failures, covering her, in the eyes
+of the world, with shame and infamy.
+What has been wanting all the time?
+I grant that the first want has been
+a national conscience&mdash;a sense of religion
+and of duty. But I mean, what
+has been wanting to the successive
+administrations and governments?
+Certainly not splendour and personal
+dignity, for the Imperial government
+had both; and the King of the Barricades
+made himself to be acknowledged
+and feared as one who bore not
+the sword in vain. But the prestige
+of legitimacy was wanting; and that
+want has been the downfall of everything
+that has been tried. You will
+ask, what was the downfall of Charles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+X? The answer is, that it was
+not a downfall further than concerned
+himself; for everybody feels
+that the Bourbon claim survives, while
+every other has been forced to yield
+to destiny and retribution. How is
+it that legitimacy makes itself felt
+after years of exile and obscurity? Is
+it not that instinct of loyalty which
+cannot be duped or diverted, and
+which detects and detests all shams?
+Is it not the instinct which constitution-makers
+have endeavoured to appease
+by pageants and by names, but which
+has continually revolted against the
+emptiness of both? The existence of
+that instinct has been perpetually exposed
+by miserable attempts to satisfy
+its demands with outside show and
+splendid impositions. The French
+cannot even go to work, under their
+present republic, as we do in America.
+The common-sense of our people
+teaches them that a republican government
+is a mere matter of business,
+which must make no pretences to splendour;
+and hence, the constitution once
+settled, the president is elected and
+sworn-in with no nonsense or parade;
+and Mr Cincinnatus Polk sits down
+in the White House, and sends every
+man about his business. A young
+country has as yet but the instincts of
+infancy; there is as yet nothing to
+satisfy but the craving for nourishment,
+and the demand for large room.
+But it is not so where nations are full-grown.
+<em>Can a maid forget her ornaments,
+or a bride her attire?</em> Can
+France forget that she had once a
+court and a throne that dazzled the
+world? No! says every craftsman of
+the revolution; and therefore our
+republic, too, must be splendid and
+imperial! So, instead of going to work
+as if their new constitution were a
+reality, there must be a fète of inauguration.
+In the same conviction, Napoleon
+is nominated for the presidency,
+because he has a name; and he immediately
+withdraws from vulgar
+eyes, to keep his "presence like a
+robe pontifical," against the investiture.
+Oh, for some Yankee farmer
+to look on and laugh! It would not
+take him long to <em>calculate</em> the end of
+such a republic. Jonathan can understand
+a queen, and would stare at a
+coronation in sober earnest, convinced
+that it had a meaning&mdash;at least, in
+England! But a republic of kettle-drums
+and trumpets will never do with
+him; and if he were favoured with an
+interview with the pompous aspirant
+to the French presidency, it would
+probably end in his telling Louis Napoleon
+the homely truth&mdash;that he has
+nothing to be proud of, and had better
+eat and drink like other folk, and
+"define his position" as a candidate,
+if he don't want to find himself <em>used-up</em>,
+and sent on a long voyage up
+Salt River; which, you may not
+know, my Basil, is a Stygian stream,
+and the ancients called it Lethe. So
+much, then, for the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ultima ratio</i> of
+illegitimate governments&mdash;the attempt
+to satisfy the demand for national
+dignity by pageants and by names,
+and to drown the outcries of natural
+discontent by the sounding of brass
+and the tinkling of cymbals.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did the sage Piedmontese
+foretell it all, like a Cassandra. "Man
+is prohibited," said that admirable
+Mentor, "from giving great names to
+things of which he is the author, and
+which he thinks great; but if he has
+proceeded legitimately, the vulgar
+names of things will be rendered illustrious,
+and become grand." How
+specially does England answer to the
+latter half of this maxim! and who
+can read the former without seeing
+France, in her fool's-cap, before his
+mental eye? De Maistre himself has
+instanced the revolutionary follies of
+Paris, and lashed them with unsparing
+severity. Whatever is national in
+England seems to have grown up, like
+her oaks, from deep and strong roots,
+and to stand, like them, immovable,
+They make their own associations,
+and dignify their own names. Everything
+is home-born, natural, and real.
+The Garter, the Wool-sack, Hyde
+Park, Epsom and Ascot&mdash;these things
+in France would be the <em>Legion of
+Honour</em>, the <em>Curule-chair</em>, the <em>Elysian
+fields</em>, the <em>Olympic games</em>! The veritable
+attempt was made to reinstitute,
+in the Champ-de-Mars, the sports of
+antiquity; and they received the
+pompous name of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les jeux Olympiques</i>.
+De Maistre ridicules their nothingness,
+and adds that, when he saw a building
+erected and called the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Odéon</i>, he was
+sure that music was in its decline,
+and that the place would shortly be to
+let. In like manner, he says of the
+motto of Rousseau, with intense <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">naïvete</i>,
+"Does any man dare to write<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+under his own portrait, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">vitam impendere
+vero</i>? You may wager, without further
+information, fearlessly, that it is
+the likeness of a liar." How quick
+the human heart perceives what is
+thus put into words by a philosopher!
+It is in vain for France to think of
+covering her nakedness with a showy
+veil. The Empire was a glittering
+gauze, but how transparent! They
+saw one called Emperor and a second
+Charlemagne; and the Pope himself
+was there to give him a crown. But
+it was a meagre cheat. Poor Josephine
+never looked ridiculous before, but
+then she acted nonsense. The imperial
+robes were gorgeous, but they
+meant nothing on the Citizen Buonaparte.
+Everybody saw behind the
+scenes. They detected Talma in the
+strut of Napoleon; they pointed at
+the wires that moved the hands and
+eyes of the Pope. All stage-effect,
+machinery, and pasteboard. The imperial
+court was all what children call
+<em>make-believe</em>: it vanished like the
+sport of children.</p>
+
+<p>The great feast of fraternity, last
+spring, was, on de Maistre's principles,
+the natural harbinger of that fraternal
+massacre in June; and the ineffectual
+attempt to be festive over the
+late inauguration of the constitution,
+has but one redeeming feature to prevent
+a corresponding augury of disaster.
+Its miserable failure makes it
+possible that the constitution will survive
+its anniversary. Then there will
+be a demonstration, at any rate, and
+then the thing will be superannuated.
+Since 1790, there has been no end to
+such glorifications; each chased and
+huzza'd, in turn, by a nation of full-grown
+children, and all hollow and
+transient as bubbles. Perpetual beginnings,
+every one warranted to be
+<em>no failure this time</em>, and each going
+out in a stench. What continual
+<i lang="frla" xml:lang="fr">Champs-de-Mars</i> and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Champs-de-Mai</i>!
+what wavings of new flags, and
+scattering of fresh flowers! and all
+ending in confessed failure, and beginning
+the same thing over again! "Nothing
+great has great beginnings"&mdash;says
+Mentor again. "History shows no
+exception to this rule. <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Crescit occulto
+velut arbor ævo</i>,&mdash;this is the immortal
+device of every great institution."</p>
+
+<p>Legitimacy never makes such mistakes,
+except when permitted by <span class="smcap">God</span>,
+to accomplish its own temporary
+abasement. It needs not to support
+itself by tricks and shams. It has a
+creative power which dignifies everything
+it touches; which often turns
+its own occasions into festivals, but
+makes no festivals on purpose to
+dignify itself. When Henry V. is
+crowned at Rheims, or at Notre-Dame,
+he will not send over the Alps
+for <i lang="it" xml:lang="it">Pio Nono</i>, nor consult <i>Savans</i> to
+learn how Cæsar should be attired
+that day. That youth may safely
+dispense with all superfluous pageantry,
+for he is not <em>new Charlemagne</em>,
+but <em>old Charlemagne</em>. The blood of
+the Carlovingians has come down to
+him from Isabella of Hainault, through
+St Louis and Henry IV. Chateaubriand
+should not have forgotten
+this, when (speaking of this prince's
+unfortunate father, the Duke de
+Berry) he enthusiastically sketched a
+thousand years of Capetian glory,
+and cried&mdash;"<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">He bien! la revolution a
+livré tout cela au couteau de Louvel</i>."
+Another revolution has thus far relegated
+the same substantial dignity
+to exile and obscurity, as if France
+could afford to lose its past, and begin
+again, as an infant of days. But
+besides the evident tendency of things
+to reaction, there is something about
+the legitimate king of France which
+looks like destiny. He was announced
+to the kingdom by the dying lips of
+his murdered sire, while yet unborn,
+as if the fate of empire depended on
+his birth. <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ménagez-vous, pour l'enfant
+que vous portez dans votre sein</i>," said
+the unhappy man to his duchess, and
+the group of bystanders was startled!
+It was the first that France heard of
+Henry the Fifth, and it seemed to inspire
+Chateaubriand with the spirit
+of prophecy, and he eloquently remarks
+upon it as a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">dernière espérance</i>.
+"The dying prince," he says, "seemed
+to bear with him a whole monarchy,
+and at the same moment to announce
+another. Oh <span class="smcap">God</span>! and is our salvation
+to spring out of our ruin? Has
+the cruel death of a son of France
+been ordained in anger, or in mercy?
+is it <em>a final restoration of the legitimate
+throne, or the downfall of the empire
+of Clovis</em>?" This grand question now
+hangs in suspense: but, as I said,
+Chateaubriand must have taken courage
+before he died, and inwardly
+answered it favourably. That great
+writer seems to have felt beforehand,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+for his countrymen, the loyalty to
+which they will probably return. To
+the prince he stood as a sort of sponsor
+for the future. When the royal
+babe was baptised, he presented
+water from the Jordan, in which the
+last hope of legitimacy received the
+name of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Dieu-donné</i>: when Charles
+the Tenth was dethroned, he stood
+up for the young king, and consented
+to fall with his exclusion; and the
+last years of France's greatest genius
+were a consistent confessorship for
+that legitimacy with which he believed
+the prosperity of his country
+indissolubly bound. Now, I should
+like to ask a French republican&mdash;if I
+could find a sane one,&mdash;what would
+you wish to do with Henry of Bordeaux?
+Would you wish this heir
+of your old histories to renounce his
+birth-right, declare legitimacy an imposition,
+and undertake to settle
+down in Paris as one of the people?
+Why not, if you are all republicans,
+and see no more in a prince than in a
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">gamin</i>? Why should not this Henry
+Capet throw up his cap for the constitution,
+and stick up a tradesman's
+sign in the Place de la Revolution, as
+"Henry Capet, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">parfumeur</i>?" Why
+not let him hire a shop in the lower
+stories of the Palais Royal and teach
+the Parisians better manners than to
+cut off his head, by devoting himself
+to shaving their beards? Everybody
+knows the reason why not; and that
+reason shows the reality of legitimacy.
+Night and day such a shop would be
+mobbed by friends and foes alike.
+Go where he might, the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">parfumeur</i>
+would be pointed at by fingers, and
+aimed at by <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">lorgnettes</i>, and bored to
+death by a rabble of starers, who
+would insist upon it that he was the
+hereditary lord of France. Mankind
+cannot free themselves from such impressions,
+and, what is more conclusive,
+princes cannot free themselves
+from the impressions of mankind, or
+undertake to live like other men, as
+if history and genealogy were not
+facts. For weal or for woe, they are
+as unchangeable as the leopard with
+his spots. Let Henry Capet come to
+America, and try to be a republican
+with us. Our very wild-cats would
+assert their inalienable right to "look at
+a king," and he would certainly be torn
+to pieces by good-natured curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious to see the natural
+instinct amusing itself, for the present,
+with such a mere <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">nominis umbra</i> as
+Louis Napoleon. In some way or
+other the hereditary <em>prestige</em> must be
+created; nothing less is satisfactory,
+and the "imperial fetishism" will
+answer very well till something more
+substantial is found necessary. Richard
+Cromwell was necessary to Charles
+II., and so is Louis Napoleon to
+Henry V. Napoleon still seems capable
+of giving France a dynasty; this
+possibility will be soon extinguished
+by the incapability of his representative.
+Louis will reign long enough
+to exhibit that recompense to Josephine,
+in the person of her grandson,
+which heaven delights to allot to a
+repudiated wife; and then, for his
+own sake, he will be called <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">coquin</i>
+and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">poltron</i>. Napoleon will take his
+historical position as an individual,
+having no remaining hold on France;
+and the imperial fetishism will be
+ignominiously extinguished. Richard
+Cromwell made a very decent old
+English gentleman, and Louis Napoleon
+may perhaps end his days as
+respectably, in some out-of-the-way
+corner of Corsica. Let me again
+quote the French Mentor. He says,
+"There never has existed a royal
+family to whom a plebeian origin could
+be assigned. Men may say, if Richard
+Cromwell had possessed the genius of
+his father, he would have fixed the
+protectorate in his family; which is
+precisely the same thing as to say&mdash;if
+this family had not ceased to reign,
+it would reign still." Here is the
+formula that will suit the case of Louis
+Napoleon; but future historians will
+moralise upon the manner in which
+Napoleon himself worked out his
+own destruction. For the sake of a
+dynasty, he puts away poor Josephine.
+The King of Rome is born to him, but
+his throne is taken. The royal youth
+perishes in early manhood, and men
+find Napoleon's only representative
+in the issue of the repudiated wife.
+Her grandson comes to power, and
+holds it long enough to make men
+say&mdash;how much better it might have
+been with Napoleon had he kept his
+faith to Josephine, and contentedly
+taken as his heir the child in whom
+Providence has revealed at last his
+only chance of continuing his family
+on a throne! It makes one thing of
+Scripture, "Yet ye say wherefore?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+because the Lord hath been witness
+between thee and the wife of thy
+youth, against whom thou hast dealt
+treacherously; ... therefore take
+heed to your spirit, and let none deal
+treacherously against the wife of his
+youth, for the Lord, the <span class="smcap">God</span> of Israel,
+saith that he hateth putting away."</p>
+
+<p>A traveller from the south of France
+says that he saw everywhere the portrait
+of Henry V. Besides the mysterious
+hold which legitimacy keeps upon
+the vulgar and the polite alike, there
+are associations with it which operate
+on all classes of men. Tradesmen and
+manufacturers are for legitimacy, because
+they love peace, and want to
+make money. The <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">roturiers</i> sooner
+or later learn the misery of mobs, and
+the love of change makes them willing
+to welcome home the king, especially
+as they mistake their own hearts, and
+flatter themselves that their sudden
+loyalty is proof of remaining virtue.
+Then the profligate and abandoned,
+they want a monarchy, in hopes of
+another riot in the palace. It may
+be doubted whether the <em>blouses</em> can
+be permanently contented without a
+king to curse. The national anthem
+cannot be sung with any spirit, unless
+there be a monarch who can be
+imagined to hear all its imprecations
+against tyrants: in fact, the king
+must come back, if only to make sense
+of the Marseilles Hymn.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Que veut cette horde d'esclaves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">De traîtres, de rois conjurés?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ces fers, dès long-tems préparés?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">What imaginable sense is there in
+singing these red-hot verses at a feast
+of fraternity, and in honour of the full
+possession of absolute liberty? Then,
+where is the sport of clubs, and the
+excitement of conspiracies, if there's
+no king to execrate within locked
+doors? Is Paris to have no more of
+those nice little <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">émeutes</i>? What's to
+be done with the genius that delights
+in infernal machines? Who's to be
+fired at in a glass coach? Everybody
+knows that Cavaignacs and Lamartines
+are small game for such sport.
+Your true assassin must have, at least,
+a duke of the blood. These are considerations
+which must have their
+weight in deciding upon probabilities;
+though, for one, I am not sure but
+France is doomed, by retributive
+justice, to be thus the Tantalus of
+nations, steeped to the neck in liberty,
+but forbidden to drink, with kings
+hanging over them to provoke the eye,
+and yet escaping the hand.</p>
+
+<p>In 1796 de Maistre published his
+<cite>Considérations sur la France</cite>. They
+deserve to be reproduced for the present
+age. Nothing can surpass the
+cool contempt of the philosophical
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">réactionnaire</i>, or the confidence with
+which, from his knowledge of the past,
+he pronounces oracles for the future.
+Do you ask how Henry V. is to recover
+his rights? In ten thousand
+imaginable ways. See what Cavaignac
+might have done last July, had
+the time been ripe for another Monk!
+There's but one way to keep legitimacy
+out; it comes in as water enters
+a leaky ship, oozing through seams,
+and gushing through cracks, where
+nobody dreamed of such a thing. As
+long as even a tolerable pretender
+survives, a popular government must
+be kept in perpetual alarm. But you
+shall hear the Count, my Basil! Let
+me give you a free translation.</p>
+
+<p>"In speculating about counter-revolutions,
+we often fall into the mistake
+of taking it for granted that such
+reactions can only be the result of
+popular deliberation. <em>The people won't
+allow it</em>, it is said; <em>they will never consent;
+it is against the popular feeling</em>.
+Ah! is it possible? The people just
+go for nothing in such affairs; at most
+they are a passive instrument. Four
+or five persons may give France a
+king. It shall be announced to the
+provinces that the king is restored:
+up go their hats, and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vive le roi</i>!
+Even in Paris, the inhabitants, save
+a score or so, shall know nothing of
+it till they wake up some morning and
+learn that they have a king. '<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Est-il
+possible?</i>' will be the cry: '<em>how very
+singular! What street will he pass
+through? Let's engage a window in
+good time, there'll be such a horrid
+crowd!</em>' I tell you the people will
+have nothing more to do with re-establishing
+the monarchy, than they
+have had in establishing the revolutionary
+government!... At the
+first blush one would say, undoubtedly,
+that the previous consent of the French
+is necessary to the restoration; but
+nothing is more absurd. Come, we'll
+crop theory, and imagine certain
+facts.</p>
+
+<p>"A courier passes through Bordeaux,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+Nantes, Lyons, and so <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en route</i>,
+telling everybody that the king is
+proclaimed at Paris; that a certain
+party has seized the reins, and has
+declared that it holds the government
+only in the king's name, having despatched
+an express for his majesty,
+who is expected every minute, and
+that every one mounts the white
+cockade. Rumour catches up the
+story, and adds a thousand imposing
+details. What next? To give the republic
+the fairest chance, let us suppose
+it to have the favour of a majority,
+and to be defended by republican
+troops. At first these troops shall
+bluster very loudly; but dinner-time
+will come; the fellows must eat,
+and away goes their fidelity to a
+cause that no longer promises rations,
+to say nothing of pay. Then
+your discontented captains and lieutenants,
+knowing that they have nothing
+to lose, begin to consider how
+easily they can make something of
+themselves, by being the first to set
+up <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vive-le-roi</i>! Each one begins to
+draw his own portrait, most bewitchingly
+coloured; looking down in scorn
+on the republican officers who so lately
+knocked him about with contempt;
+his breast blazing with decorations,
+and his name displayed as that of an
+officer of His Most Christian Majesty!
+Ideas so single and natural will work
+in the brains of such a class of persons:
+they all think them over; every one
+knows what his neighbour thinks, and
+they all eye one another suspiciously.
+Fear and distrust follow first, and
+then jealousy and coolness. The common
+soldier, no longer inspired by his
+commander, is still more discouraged;
+and, as if by witchcraft, the bonds of
+discipline all at once receive an incomprehensible
+blow, and are instantly
+dissolved. One begins to
+hope for the speedy arrival of his
+majesty's paymaster; another takes
+the favourable opportunity to desert
+and see his wife. There's no
+head, no tail, and no more any such
+thing as trying to hold together.</p>
+
+<p>"The affair takes another turn with
+the populace. They push about
+hither and thither, knocking one another
+out of breath, and asking all sorts
+of questions; no one knows what he
+wants; hours are wasted in hesitation,
+and every minute does the business.
+Daring is everywhere confronted by
+caution; the old man lacks decision,
+the lad spoils all by indiscretion; and
+the case stands thus,&mdash;one may get
+into trouble by resisting, but he that
+keeps quiet may be rewarded, and
+will certainly get off without damage.
+As for making a demonstration&mdash;where
+is the means? Who are the
+leaders? Whom can ye trust? There's
+no danger in keeping still; the least
+motion may get one into trouble.
+Next day comes news&mdash;<em>such a town
+has opened its gates</em>. Another inducement
+to hold back! Soon this news
+turns out to be a lie; but it has been
+believed long enough to determine
+two other towns, who, supposing that
+they only follow such example, present
+themselves at the gates of the first
+town to offer their submission. This
+town had never dreamed of such a
+thing; but, seeing such an example,
+resolves to fall in with it. Soon it
+flies about that Monsieur the mayor
+has presented to his majesty the keys
+of his good city of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quelquechose</i>, and
+was the first officer who had the honour
+to receive him within a garrison
+of his kingdom. His Majesty&mdash;of
+course&mdash;made him a marshal of France
+on the spot. Oh! enviable brevet!
+an immortal name, and a scutcheon
+everlastingly blooming with <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fleurs-de-lis</i>!
+The royalist tide fills up every
+moment, and soon carries all before it.
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vive-le-roi!</i> shouts out long-smothered
+loyalty, overwhelmed with transports:
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vive-le-roi!</i> chokes out hypocritical
+democracy, frantic with terror. No
+matter! there's but one cry; and his
+Majesty is crowned, and <em>has all the
+royal makings of a king</em>. This is the
+way counter-revolutions come about.
+God having reserved to himself the
+formation of sovereignties, lets us learn
+the fact, from observing that He never
+commits to the multitude the choice
+of its masters. He only employs them,
+in those grand movements which decide
+the fate of empires, as passive
+instruments. Never do they get what
+they want: they always take; they
+never choose. There is, if one may
+so speak, an <em>artifice</em> of Providence, by
+which the means which a people take
+to gain a certain object, are precisely
+those which Providence employs to
+put it from them. Thus, thinking to
+abase the aristocracy by hurrahing for
+Cæsar, the Romans got themselves
+masters. It is just so with all popular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+insurrections. In the French
+revolution the people have been perpetually
+handcuffed, outraged, betrayed,
+and torn to pieces by factions;
+and factions themselves, at the mercy
+of each other, have only risen to take
+their turn in being dashed to atoms.
+To know in what the revolution will
+probably end, find first in what points
+all the revolutionary factions are
+agreed. Do they unite in hating
+Christianity and monarchy? Very
+well! The end will be, that both will
+be the more firmly established in the
+earth."</p>
+
+<p>Cool, certainly; is it not, my Basil?
+The legitimists are the only Frenchmen
+who can keep cool, and bide their
+time. Chateaubriand has observed,
+in the same spirit, that there is a
+hidden power which often makes war
+with powers that are visible, and that
+a secret government was always following
+close upon the heels of the
+public governments that succeeded
+each other between the murder of
+Louis XVI. and the restoration of
+the Bourbons. This hidden power he
+calls the eternal reason of things; the
+justice of <span class="smcap">God</span>, which interferes in
+human affairs just in proportion as
+men endeavour to banish and drive it
+from them. It is evident that the
+whole force of de Maistre's prophecy
+was owing to his religious confidence
+in this divine interference.
+He wrote in 1796. That year the
+career of Napoleon began at Montenotte;
+and, for eighteen years succeeding,
+every day seemed to make
+it less and less probable that his predictions
+could be verified. The
+Bourbon star was lost in the sun of
+Austerlitz. The Republic itself was
+forgotten; the Pope inaugurated the
+Empire; Austria gave him a princess,
+to be the mould of a dynasty, and the
+source of a new legitimacy. France
+was peopled with a generation that
+never knew the Bourbons, and which
+was dazzled with the genius of Napoleon,
+and the splendour of his imperial
+government. But the time came
+for this <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">puissance occulte, cette justice
+du ciel</i>! When the Allies entered
+Paris in 1814, it was suggested to
+Napoleon that the Bourbons would
+be restored; and, with all his sagacity,
+he made the very mistake which de
+Maistre had foreshown, and said, in
+almost his very words&mdash;"Never!
+nine-tenths of the people are irreconcilably
+against it!" One can almost
+hear what might have been the Count's
+reply&mdash;"<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quelle pitié! le peuple n'est
+pour rien dans les revolutions. Quatre
+ou cinq personnes, peut-être, donneront
+un roi à la France.</i>" What could
+Talleyrand tell about that? The
+facts were, that in four days the
+Bourbons were all the rage! The
+Place Vendôme could hardly hold the
+mob that raved about Napoleon's
+statue; and, with ropes and pulleys,
+they were straining every sinew to
+drag it to the ground, when it was
+taken under the protection of Alexander!<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>
+What next? In terror for
+his very life, this Napoleon flies to
+Frejus, now sneaking out of a back-window,
+and now riding post, as a
+common courier, actually saving himself
+by wearing the white cockade
+over his raging breast, and all the
+time cursing his dear French to Tartarus!
+A British vessel gives him his
+only asylum, and the salute he receives
+from a generous enemy is all
+that reminds him what he once had
+been in France. Meantime these detested
+Bourbons are welcomed home
+again, with De Maistre's own varieties
+of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vive-le-roi</i>! The Duke d'Angouleme,
+advancing to the capital, sees
+the silver lilies dancing above the
+spires of Bordeaux: the Count
+d'Artois hails the same tokens at
+Nancy: not captains and lieutenants,
+but generals and marshals, rush to
+receive His Most Christian Majesty;
+and the successor of the butchered
+Louis XVI. comes to his palace, after
+an exile of twenty years, with the
+title of Louis the Desired! Nor are
+subsequent events anything more
+than the swinging of a pendulum,
+which must eventually subside into a
+plummet. If the first disaster of Napoleon,
+in the fulness of his strength,
+could make France welcome her legitimacy
+in 1814, why should not the
+imbecility of the mere shadow of his
+name produce a stronger revulsion
+before this century gains its meridian?
+There is a residuary fulfilment of de
+Maistre's augury, which remains to
+the Bourbons, when all of Napoleon
+that survives has found its ignominious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+extinction. Then will the ripe
+fruit fall into the lap of one who, if
+he is wise, will make the French forget
+his kindred with the fourteenth
+and fifteenth Louises, and remember
+only that Henry of Bordeaux has
+before him the example of Henry of
+Navarre.</p>
+
+<p>There is, indeed, another conceivable
+end. <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">C'est l'arrêt que le ciel prononce
+enfin contre les peuples sans
+jugement, et rebelles à l'expérience.</i><a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>
+If France does not soon come back to
+reason, we shall be forced to think
+her given up of <span class="smcap">God</span>, to become such
+a country as Germany, or perhaps as
+miserable as Spain. But we must
+not be too hasty in coming to conclusions
+so deplorable. Let the republic
+have its day. It will work its
+own cure; for the chastisement of
+France must be the curse of ancient
+Judah. "The people shall be oppressed,
+every one by another, and
+everyone by his neighbour; the child
+shall behave himself proudly against
+the ancient, and the base against the
+honourable." For the mob of Paris,
+who got drunk with riot, and must
+grow sober with headache; for the
+blousemen and the boys who have
+pulled a house upon their head, and
+now maul each other in painful efforts
+to get from under the ruins; and for
+the miserable <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">philosophes</i> who see, in
+the charming state of their country,
+the fruit of their own atheistic theories;
+for all these it is but retribution.
+They needed government; they resolved
+on license: <span class="smcap">God</span> has sent them
+despotism in its worst form. One
+pities Paris, but feels that it is just.
+My emotions are very different when
+I think of what were once "the pleasant
+villages of France." Miserable
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">campagnards</i>! There are thousands
+of them, besides the poor souls starving
+in provincial towns, who curse
+the republic in their hearts; and,
+from Normandy to Provence and
+Languedoc, there are millions of such
+Frenchmen, who care nothing for
+dynasties, or fraternities, or democracy,
+but only pray the good Lord to
+give peace in their time, that they
+may sit under their own vine, and
+earn and eat their daily bread. For
+them&mdash;may <span class="smcap">God</span> pity them!&mdash;what a
+life Dame Paris leads them! If, with
+the simplicity of rustics, they were
+for a moment disposed to be merry
+last February&mdash;when they heard that
+thereafter loaves and fishes were to
+fling themselves upon every table, for
+the mere pleasure of being devoured&mdash;how
+bitterly the simpletons are undeceived!
+Their present notions of
+fraternity and equality they get from
+hunger and from rags. It is not now
+in France as in the days of Henry
+IV., when every peasant had a pullet
+in the pot for his Sunday dinner.
+That was despotism. It is liberty
+now&mdash;liberty to starve. There is no
+more oppression, for the very looms
+refuse to work, and water-wheels
+stand still; and the vines go gadding
+and unpruned, and the grape disdains
+to be trampled in the wine-vat. Yes&mdash;and
+the old <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">paysan</i> and his sprightly
+dame, who used to drive dull care
+away in the sunshine&mdash;she, with her
+shaking foot and head, and he with
+his fiddle and his bow, they have
+liberty to the full; for their seven
+sons, who were earning food for them
+in the sweat of their brow, have come
+home to the old cabin, ragged and
+unpaid; and they lounge about in
+hungry idleness, longing for war, but
+only because war would provide them
+with a biscuit or a bullet. What care
+they for glory, or for constitutions?
+They ask for bread, and their teeth
+are ground with gravel-stones. Let
+England look and learn. If she has
+troubles, let her see how easily troubles
+may be invested at compound interest,
+with the certainty of dividends for
+years to come. Is hard thrift in a
+kingdom so bad as starvation in a
+democracy? And whether is it better
+to wear out honestly, in this work-day
+world, as good and quiet subjects;
+or to be thrust out of it, kicking and
+cursing, behind a barricade of cabs
+and paving-stones, in the name of
+equality? These are the common-sense
+questions, that every English
+labourer should be made to feel and
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>It provokes me, Basil, that my letter
+may be superannuated while it is
+travelling in the steamer! The
+changes of democracy are more frequent
+than the revolutions of a paddle-wheel.
+Adieu. Yours,</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Ernest.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO.</h2>
+<blockquote>
+<p><cite>Dalmatia and Montenegro.</cite> By Sir <span class="smcap">J. Gardner Wilkinson</span>. London: Murray.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>It is really astonishing that our
+want of information respecting Dalmatia,
+and its neighbourhood, has not
+long ago been supplied. It is by no
+means easy, now-a-days, to hit upon
+a line of country that may afford subject-matter
+for acceptable illustration.
+Travellers are so numerous, and
+authorship is so generally affected,
+that the best part of Europe has been
+described over and over again. You
+may get from Mr Murray a handbook
+for almost any place you will.
+Manners and customs, roads, inns,
+things to be suffered, and notabilities
+to be visited&mdash;in short, all the probable
+contingencies of travel between
+this and the Vistula, are already noted
+and set down. We take it upon ourselves
+to say, that it is one of the most
+difficult things in life to realise the
+sense of desolation and unwontedness
+that are poetic characteristics of the
+traveller. How can a man feel himself
+strange to any place where he is
+so thoroughly up to usages that no
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">locandière</i> can cheat him to the amount
+of a <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">zwanziger</i>? And, thanks to the
+books written, it is a man's own fault
+if he wend almost anywhither except
+thus μύστης γενόμενος.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, European travelling is
+pretty nearly reduced to the work
+of verification. Events are according
+to prescription; and there remains
+very little room for the play of
+an exploring spirit. The grand thing
+to be explored is a matter pysychological
+rather than material; it is to
+prove experimentally what are the
+emotions that a generous mind experiences,
+when vividly acted upon by
+association with the world of past
+existences. Beyond doubt, this is the
+highest range of intellectual enjoyment;
+and to its province may be
+referred much that at first sight would
+appear to be heterogeneous, as, for instance,
+delights purely scientific. But
+at any rate, we must all agree that the
+main privilege of a traveller is, that
+he is enabled to test the force of this
+power of association. It is an enjoyment
+to be known only by experiment.
+No power of description can
+give a man to understand what is the
+sensation of gazing on the Acropolis,
+or of standing within Ἁγία Σοφία. It
+is as another sense, called into existence
+by the occasion of exercise.</p>
+
+<p>To any but the uncommonly well
+read, there has hitherto been meagre
+entertainment in travelling among the
+Slavonian borderers on the Adriatic.
+It has been impossible to realise on
+their subject these high pleasures of
+association, because so little has been
+known of the facts of their history;
+rather should we perhaps say, that, of
+what has been known, so little has
+been generally accessible. But we
+are happy to find that the right sort
+o' "chiel has been amang them, takin'
+notes." The way is now open; and
+henceforth it will be easy to follow
+with profit. The book which Sir
+Gardner Wilkinson has given us
+seems to be exactly the thing which
+was wanted; and certainly the use
+of it will enable a man to travel in
+Dalmatia as a rational creature should.
+No mere dotter down of events could
+have passed through the course of
+this country without producing a
+document of considerable value. The
+widespread family of which its inhabitants
+are a branch have been intimately
+mixed up with the history of the
+Empire and of Christendom; and now
+again we behold them playing a conspicuous
+part in European politics. Modern
+Panslavism deepens the interest to
+be felt in this family, and quickens the
+anxiety to know what they are doing
+and thinking now, as well as what
+they have done in days of old. In
+the present volumes we have, besides
+the memoranda of things existing, a
+compendium of Slavonian history and
+antiquities, and an exhibition of the
+degree in which the race have been mixed
+up with European history. Besides
+this, an account is given of their more
+domestic traditions, of which monuments
+survive; and it must be a man's
+own fault if, having this book with
+him, he miss extracting the utmost
+of profit from a visit to the country.</p>
+
+<p>In one way, we can surely prophesy
+that this book will prove the means
+of bringing to us increase of lore from
+out of that land of which it treats.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+It will naturally be taken on board
+every yacht that, when next summer
+shall open skies and seas, may find its
+way into the Mediterranean. Among
+these birds of passage, it can scarcely be
+but that some one will shape its course
+for this land of adventure, thus, as it
+were, newly laid open. It is a little, a
+very little out of the direct track, in
+which these summer craft are apt to be
+found, plentiful as butterflies. They
+may rest assured that in no place,
+from the Pillars of Hercules to the
+Pharos of Alexandria, can they hope
+to find such provision of entertainment.
+The stories they may thence
+bring will really be worth something&mdash;a
+value much higher than we can vote
+ascribable to much that we hear of
+the well-frequented shores of the
+French lake.</p>
+
+<p>We prophesy, also, that an inspiriting
+effect will be produced on men
+better qualified even than the yachtsmen
+for the work of travel&mdash;we
+mean on the gallant officers who garrison
+the island of Corfu. They
+occupy a station so exactly calculated
+to facilitate excursions in the desirable
+direction, that it will be too bad
+if some of them do not start this
+very next spring. We do not recommend
+the Adriatic in winter time, and
+so give them a few months' grace,
+just to keep clear of the Bora. Let
+them, as soon as possible after the
+equinox, avail themselves of one of
+those gaps which will be occurring in
+the best-regulated garrison life.
+Times will come round when duty
+makes no exaction, and when the
+indigenous resources of the island
+afford no amusement. Should such
+occasion have place out of the shooting
+months&mdash;or when, haply, some
+row with the Albanians has placed
+Butrinto under interdict&mdash;woful are
+the straits to which our ardent young
+fellow-countrymen are reduced. A
+ride to the Garoona pass, or a lounge
+into Carabots; or, to come to the
+worst, an hour or two's <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">flané</i> round
+old Schulenberg's statue, are well in
+their way, but cannot please for ever.
+All these things considered, it is, we
+say, but likely that we shall reap
+some substantial benefit from the
+leisure of our military friends, so
+soon as their literary researches shall
+have carried them into the enjoyment
+of this book. Dalmatia is almost
+before their very eyes. If hitherto
+they have not drifted thither, under
+the combined influences of a long
+leave and an uncertain purpose, it is
+because they have not been in a condition
+to prosecute researches. We
+must not blame them for their past
+neglect, any more than we blame the
+idleness of him who lacks the implements
+of work. Give a man tools, and
+then, if he work not, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">monstrare digito</i>.
+Henceforth they must be regarded as
+thoroughly equipped, and without excuse.
+Let us hope that some two or
+three may be roused to action on the
+very next opportunity&mdash;that is to say,
+on the very next occasion of leave.
+Let us hope that, instead of sloping
+away to Paxo, or Santa Maura, they
+may shape their course through the
+North Channel, and begin, if they
+please, by exploring the Bocca di
+Cattaro.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Gardner speaks of difficulties
+and vexatious delays interposed between
+the traveller and his purpose
+by the Austrian authorities. These
+scrutineers of passports seem to grow
+worse; and with them bad has long
+been the best. We used to think
+that the palm of pettifogging was
+fairly due to the officials of his Hellenic
+majesty. It was bad enough,
+we always thought, to be kept waiting
+and watching for a license to move
+from the Piræus to Lutraki, by steam;
+but we confess that Sir Gardner
+makes out a case, or rather several
+cases, that beat our experience hollow.
+We should like to commit the
+passport system to the verdict to be
+pronounced by common-sense after
+perusal of the two or three pages he
+has written on this subject. But common-sense
+must be far from us, or the
+mob would not be raving for liberty
+while still tolerant of passports.</p>
+
+<p>There is another point in respect of
+which a change for the worse appears
+to have taken place, and that is in
+the important point of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">bienveillance</i>
+towards English travellers. We learn
+that, at present, Austrian officers are
+shy of English companionship; and
+that it is even enjoined on them authoritatively
+that they avoid intimacy
+with stragglers from Corfu. The
+reason assignable is found in the late
+sad and absurd conspiracy hatched in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+that island&mdash;a conspiracy which would
+have been utterly ridiculous, had it
+not in the event proved so melancholy.
+It will freely be admitted that
+the English would deserve to be sent,
+as they are, to Coventry, were it fact
+that the insane project of the young
+Bandieras had found English partisans,
+and that such partisanship had
+been winked at by the authorities.
+But the real state of the case is exactly
+contrary to this supposition.
+Humanity must needs have mourned
+over the cutting off of the young men,
+and the sorrow of their father, the
+gallant old admiral. But common-sense
+must have condemned the undertaking
+as utterly absurd and mischievous.
+It is a pity that any
+misunderstanding should be permitted
+to qualify the good feeling towards us,
+for which the Austrians have been
+remarkable. This good feeling has
+been observable eminently among
+their naval officers, who have got up
+a strong fellowship with us, ever
+since they were associated with our
+fleet in the operations on the coast of
+Syria. That particular service has done
+much towards the exalting of them in
+their own estimation; and, of course,
+the increase of friendship for us has
+been in the direct proportion of the
+lift given to them. The Austrian
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">militaires</i>, also, used to be a very good
+set of fellows, and only too happy to
+be civil to an Englishman. At their
+dull stations an arrival is an event,
+and any considerable accession of
+visitors occasions quite a jubilee.
+These gentlemen, however, cannot
+have among them much of the spirit
+of enterprise, or they would take
+more trouble than they do to learn
+something of the condition of their
+neighbours. They will complain
+freely of the dulness of the place of
+their location, but at the same time
+will evince little interest in the condition
+of the world beyond their immediate
+ken. Many of them who
+live almost within hail of the Montenegrini,
+have never been at the
+trouble of ascending the mountains.
+Nothing seems to astonish them more
+than the erratic disposition which
+leads men in quest of adventure;
+they cannot conceive such an idea as
+that of volunteering for a cruise. Yachts
+puzzle them: the owners must be
+sailors. Of any military officers who
+may chance to visit them in yachts,
+they cannot conceive otherwise than
+that they belong to the marine.
+Nevertheless they are, or used to be,
+kind and hospitable; and would treat
+you well, although they could not
+quite make you out.</p>
+
+<p>That this country is a neglected
+portion of the Austrian empire is very
+evident. The officials sigh under the
+very endearments of office. The
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">sanità</i> man, who comes off to greet
+your arrival, will tell you how insufferably
+dull it is living in the Bocca,&mdash;and
+how he longs to be removed
+anywhither. Place, people, climate,
+all will be condemned. Yet, to a
+stranger, many of the localities seem
+exquisitely beautiful. The same cause
+seems to mar enjoyment here that
+spoils the beauty of our own Norfolk
+Island. The Austrian residents regard
+themselves as being in a state of
+banishment, and take up their abode
+only by constraint: the constraint, that
+is to say, of mammon. By the government,
+its possessions in this quarter
+have been neglected in a manner most
+impolitic. The value of this strip of
+coast to an empire almost entirely
+inland, yet wishing to foster trade,
+and to possess a navy, is obvious.
+Yet even the plainest use of it they
+seem, till lately, to have missed.
+Promiscuous conscriptions were the
+order of the day, and men born sailors
+were enrolled in the levies for the
+army. Of course they were miserable
+and discontented, and the public service
+suffered by the use of these unfit
+instruments. Recently it seems that
+a change has been made in this
+respect, and we doubt not that the
+navy has consequently been greatly
+improved. But many glaring instances
+of neglect in the administration of
+the affairs of the country continue to
+astonish beholders, and to prove that
+the paternal government is not awake
+to its own interests.</p>
+
+<p>But of all objections to be made
+to the wisdom of the government,
+the strongest may be grounded on
+the condition of the agricultural population
+in various parts of Dalmatia.
+Nothing is done to improve their knowledge
+of the primary art of civilisation.
+Their implements of husbandry
+are described as being on a par with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+those used by the unenlightened inhabitants
+of Asia Minor. The waggons
+to be encountered in the neighbourhood
+of Knin are referable to
+the same date in the progress of invention,
+as are the conveniences in
+vogue in the plains about Mount Ida.
+The mode of tillage is like that followed
+in the remote provinces of
+Turkey; the ploughs of the rustic
+population are often inferior to those
+to be seen in the neighbouring Turkish
+provinces. Lastly&mdash;most incredible
+of all!&mdash;we learn that there is not to
+be found in the whole district of the
+Narenta such a thing as a mill,
+wherein to grind their corn. Will it
+be believed that the rustics have to
+send all the corn they grow into
+the neighbouring province of Herzegovina
+to be ground? The inconvenience
+of such an arrangement
+may easily be conceived. Their best
+of the bargain&mdash;<em>i. e.</em> the being obliged
+to seek from across the frontier all
+the flour they want&mdash;is bad enough,
+and must be sufficiently expensive;
+but their predicament is apt to be
+much worse than this. In that
+part of the world, people are subject
+to stoppages of intercommunication.
+The plague may break out in the
+Turkish province, and thus a strict
+quarantine be established, to the interdiction
+even of provisions that
+generally pass unsuspected; or the
+country may be flooded, and the ways
+impassable. What are the poor people
+to do then for flour? Why, the
+only thing they can do is, to send their
+corn to their nearest neighbours possessed
+of mills&mdash;that is to say, to
+Salona, or to Imoschi. As these places
+are distant, the one about thirty-five
+miles, and the other about seventy
+miles, we may fancy how serious must
+be the pressure of this necessity.
+The ordinary expense of grinding
+their corn is stated to be about 13
+per cent. What it must be when the
+seventy miles' carriage of their produce
+is an item in the calculation, we
+are left to conjecture. Now these
+poor folks are not to be blamed&mdash;they
+have no funds to enable them to build
+mills; but that they are left to themselves
+in this inability is a reproach
+to the government under which they
+live. This inconvenience so intimately
+affects their social wellbeing,
+that we cannot put faith in the benevolence
+of the rulers who allow them
+to remain so destitute.</p>
+
+<p>Despite, however, of the disadvantages
+under which the people of Dalmatia
+labour, it will be seen that
+pictures chiefly pleasurable are to be
+met by him who shall travel amongst
+them. Their honest nature seems to
+comprise within itself some compensating
+principle, which makes amends
+for the damage of circumstances. The
+Morlacci, especially, seem to be a
+simple, hardy set, of whom one cannot
+read without pleasure. These are the
+rustic inhabitants of the agricultural
+districts, who eschew the great towns.
+They made their entry into the roll
+of the peasantry of Dalmatia at a
+comparatively late date. The first
+notice of them, we are told, is about
+the middle of the fourteenth century.
+After that time they began to retire
+with their families from Bosnia, as
+the Turks made advances into the
+country. They are of the same Slavonic
+family as the Croatians; though
+their hardy manner of life, and the
+purity of the air in which they have
+dwelt, on the mountains, have co-operated
+to confer on them superiority of
+personal appearance, and of physical
+condition. On a general estimate of
+the people of the land, and of their
+mode of receiving strangers, we
+are disposed to rank highly their
+claims to the title of hospitable and
+honest.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Gardner Wilkinson certainly
+travelled amongst them most effectually.
+North, south, east, and west,
+he intersected the country. One part
+of his travels possesses especial interest,
+because, so far as we know, no
+denizen of civilised Christendom has
+ever before been so completely over
+the ground. We refer to his expedition
+into, and through the territory of the
+Montenegrini. Others&mdash;some few
+only, but still some others&mdash;have been
+far enough to get a peep at these
+wild children of the mountains; and
+more than once of late years, Maga
+has given notices concerning them:<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+but only scanty knowledge of their
+domestic condition has been attainable.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+Sir Gardner went right through their
+country to the Turkish border, and
+tarried amongst them long enough to
+form pretty accurate notions of their
+state.
+.
+In the account of our author's first
+journey, no serious stop is made till we
+come alongside of the island of Veglia:
+apropos to the passage by which, we
+have given to us, at some length, an
+interesting extract from the report of
+a Venetian commissioner sent to the
+island, in 1481, to inquire into its
+state. Of this document we will say
+no more than that it is exceedingly
+curious, and will well reward the pains
+of reading. A passing notice is given
+to Segna, situated on the mainland,
+near Veglia, for the memory's sake of
+those desperate villains the Uscocs, to
+whom it belonged of old. A good
+deal of their history is given in the
+last chapter of the second volume,
+which serves as a documentary appendix
+to the work. Everything necessary
+to beget interest in the islands
+scattered hereaway is told; but we
+pass them by, and are brought to Zara.
+What of antiquities is here discoverable
+is rooted out for our benefit, but
+not much remains. The most interesting
+relic in the place, to our mind,
+is the inscription recording the victory
+of Lepanto. As Zara is the capital
+of Dalmatia, occasion is taken, while
+speaking of the city, to give some
+account of the government of the
+province, and of the general condition
+of the people.</p>
+
+<p>An incident mentioned by Sir Gardner
+displays, in a painful light, the kind
+of feeling entertained by the Austrian
+government towards these its subjects,
+and permitted by its officials to find
+expression before the natives. We
+cannot take it as a case of isolated
+insolence: because men in responsible
+situations, especially where the social
+system comprises an indefinite supply
+of spies, do not ostentatiously commit
+themselves, unless they have a foregone
+conviction, that what they say
+is according to the authorised tone.
+Men under inspection of the higher
+powers do not put themselves out of
+their way to make a display of bitterness,
+unless they think thereby to conciliate
+the good-will of their superiors.
+This is the incident in question: On
+a certain occasion, the conversation
+happened to turn on the subject of a
+then recent disturbance in a Dalmatian
+town. The soldiery and the
+people had quarrelled, and in the
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">émeute</i> two of the soldiers had been
+killed. On these data forth spake a
+Jack in office. He knew not, nor did
+he care to know, how many of the
+peasants had fallen, nor does he appear
+to have entered at all curiously
+into the question of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">casus belli</i>. He
+simply recommended, as the disturbance
+had taken place, and as the actual
+perpetrators of the violence were not
+forthcoming, that the whole population
+of the town should be "decimated
+and shot." "The butchery of any
+number of Dalmatians," says our author,
+"was thought a fit way of remedying
+the incapacity of the police."
+One would hardly imagine that this
+counsel could have been met by the
+applauses of persons holding official
+situations; but so, we are assured, it
+was in fact received. This manifestation
+of feeling is a sort of thing
+which, when emanating from a group
+of merely private individuals, may be
+disregarded. Idle people will talk, and
+their hard words will break no bones.
+But the hard words of the ministers of
+government do break bones; and
+such words must be accepted as
+serious indications of subsistent evil.
+Such receipts for keeping people in
+peace and quietness are consistent
+enough with the genius of their neighbours
+the Turks. Retrenchment of
+heads, and of causes of complaint, are
+to their apprehension one and the same
+thing&mdash;πολλων ὀνομάτων, μο�φὴ μία.
+We know this, and expect it. It is
+not so very long ago since the Capitan
+Pasha gave the word to heave
+the officer of the watch overboard,
+because his ship missed stays in going
+about in the Black Sea. But the
+Austrians are civilised and Christian;
+we expect better things of them, and
+can but mourn over their misapprehension
+of the true principles of
+polity. The Englishman who stood
+by rebuked the promoters of these
+atrocious sentiments, and for this act
+of championship he was subsequently
+thanked by the Dalmatians who
+were present. They could not have
+ventured to undertake their own defence,
+but must have listened in
+silence to this outrageous language.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+Our author doubts not that this exhibition
+of simple humanity on his part,
+had the effect of causing him to be
+forthwith placed under the surveillance
+of the police; and that such a
+consequence should be so very likely
+to follow the honest expression of a
+common-sense opinion in society is a
+fact that shows clearly enough how
+<em>unsound</em> that state of things must be.
+Assuredly one of the best effects of
+intercourse with civilised nations is,
+that we thereby become enabled to
+institute a comparison between their
+social condition and our own. Even
+those unhappy Chartists, who lately
+have acquired the habit of addressing
+one another as "brother slaves,"
+would learn to value British freedom,
+if they knew something of the social
+condition of their European brethren:
+they would see some difference between
+the security of their own hours
+of relaxation, and the degree in which
+a man's freedom in Austria is invaded
+by the espionage of the police.</p>
+
+<p>From Zara the course of the narrative
+takes us to Sebenico, a town
+situated on the inner side of the lake
+or bay into which the waters of the
+Kerka debouch. It is one of the
+coaling stations of the steamer; and,
+when the time of arrival will allow
+such concession, the passengers are
+permitted to take a trip in a four-oared
+boat, to visit the falls of the
+Kerka. Here the costume of the
+women is noticed as being singularly
+graceful. In coasting along from
+Sebenico to Spalato, the headland of
+la Planca is remarkable. Near it is
+a little church which is famous in
+local chronicle for having once upon
+a time served as a trap, wherein an
+ass caught a wolf. How this marvellous
+feat was accomplished, we will
+not just now stop to tell, but must
+refer the curious to the book itself.
+This point is also remarkable, because
+here begins abruptly a change in the
+climate. Some plants unknown to
+the northward begin to appear; and
+henceforward, to one proceeding
+southward, the dreaded Scirocco will
+be a more frequent infliction. To
+the southward of la Planca, this
+objectionable wind is constantly blowing;
+and at Spalato, we are told, it
+assumes for its allowance 100 days
+out of the 365. Apropos to the Scirocco,
+we have an episode on <em>anemology</em>,
+and are taught how the old
+Greeks and Romans used to box the
+compass&mdash;at least how they would
+have done so, had they had compasses
+to box. In the distance, to
+the south of the promontory of la
+Planca, is the island of Lissa, famous
+in modern history for Sir William
+Hoste's action in 1811. "Such an
+action," says James, "stands unrivalled
+in the annals of the naval
+history of Great Britain, or that of
+any other country, from the great
+disproportion in numerical force, as
+well as the beauty and address of its
+man&oelig;uvres; it stands surpassed by
+none in the spirit and enterprise with
+which it was encountered, and carried
+through to a successful issue."
+There is not much risk in making this
+assertion, when we consider that on
+that occasion the French squadron
+consisted of four forty-gun frigates,
+two of a smaller class, a sixteen-gun
+corvette, a ten-gun schooner, one six-gun
+xebec, and two gunboats; and
+that the English squadron was of
+three frigates, and one twenty-two
+gunship. Lissa was also famous in
+the time of the Romans, being then
+called Issa. We have a notice of its
+history, and then pass on to Bua,
+and so to Spalato.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning Spalato details are given,
+as might be expected, at some length.
+Much is told us of its past and present
+condition; in fact, there is presented
+to us a very sufficient assemblage of
+<em>indicia</em> concerning it. We recommend
+any one who wishes to enjoy a
+visit to Spalato to take with him this
+book, and chapter 13th of Gibbon.
+The extract from Porphyrogenitus,
+given by Gibbon, tells us what the
+palace of Diocletian was; and Sir
+Gardner Wilkinson tells us what it is
+now, and what has been its history.
+Besides verbal description, his pencil
+affords some apt illustrations of the
+actual condition of the buildings. We
+see by these, and by his account, that
+the treasures of Spalatine architecture
+have been obscured by the building
+up of modern edifices on their sites.
+"The stranger," he says, "is shocked
+to see windows of houses through the
+arches of the court, intercolumniations
+filled up with petty shops, and the
+peristyle of the great temple masked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+by modern houses." Doubtless, many
+a precious relic has been appropriated
+by modern barbarians to common
+uses, and so perished out of sight. But
+with joy we learn that the government
+has taken measures to prevent the
+continuance of such destruction, and
+that the remaining monuments are
+safe, however they may be mixed up
+with the houses and shops of the present
+generation. We are told that,
+under the care of the present director
+of antiquarian researches, there is good
+reason to hope that the collection at
+Spalato may become truly valuable.
+The high character of Professor
+Carrara is a sure warrant that all will
+be done which is within scope of the
+means afforded. But as the government
+allowance for excavations at
+Salona is only £80 yearly, we cannot
+think that the work is likely to
+proceed rapidly. While we condemn
+as barbarous this carelessness on the
+part of the Austrians, we must bear in
+mind that we are open to a retort of
+the censure. We neglect altogether
+the remains of Samos in Cephalonia,
+and nothing at all is allowed for the
+expense of operations there; yet
+these remains are very extensive, and
+there is every reason to believe that
+their actual condition would amply repay
+a diligent search.</p>
+
+<p>We must stop here a moment to
+congratulate Sir Gardner, on his rencontre
+with the sphinx.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A captive when he gazes on the light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">and so forth, are the only people who
+may venture to talk of Sir Gardner's
+delight at the sight of a sphinx, or a
+mummy. With great gusto he gives
+the description of the black granite
+sphinx, in the court of the palace, near
+the vestibule; and in the drawing
+which he has made of the same court,
+the sphinx is conspicuous.</p>
+
+<p>From Spalato to Salona, is a distance
+of some three miles and a half,
+by a good carriage-road. This road
+crosses the Jader, or Il Giadro&mdash;a
+stream so famous for its trout, that it
+has been thought necessary seriously
+to prove that it was <em>not</em> for the sake
+of these&mdash;not in order that of them he
+might eat his <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">soûl</i> in peace and
+quietness&mdash;that Diocletian retired from
+the command of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Salona is rich in antiquarian remains,
+though nothing is extant to
+redeem from improbability the testimony
+of Porphyrogenitus, that Salona
+was half the size of Constantinople. Of
+its origin no record exists, nor is
+much known of its history till the time
+of Julius Cæsar. Subsequently to that
+era it was subject to various fortunes,
+and bore various titles. At last, in
+Christian times it became a Bishop's
+see, and was occupied by 61 bishops
+in succession. Diocletian was its
+great embellisher and almost rebuilder.
+Later in the day, we find that it was
+from Salona that Belisarius set out in
+544, when recalled to the command of
+the army of Justinian, and intrusted
+with the conduct of the war against
+Totila. The town remained populous
+and fortified, till destroyed by the
+Avars in 639. These ferocious barbarians
+having established themselves
+in Clissa, the terror of their propinquity
+scared away the Salonitans. The
+terrified inhabitants, after a short and
+ineffectual resistance, fled to the
+islands. The town was pillaged and
+burnt, and from that time Salona has
+been deserted and in ruins.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"With these historical facts before us,
+it is interesting to observe the present
+state of the place, which affords many
+illustrations of past events. The positions
+of its defences, repaired at various times,
+may be traced: an inscription lately discovered
+by Professor Carrara, shows that
+its walls and towers were repaired by
+Valentinian II., and Theodosius; and the
+ditch of Constantianus is distinctly seen
+on the north side. Here and there, it has
+been filled up with earth and cultivated;
+but its position cannot be mistaken, and
+in places its original breadth may be
+ascertained. A very small portion of the
+wall remains on the east side, and nearly
+all traces of it are lost towards the river:
+but the northern portion is well preserved,
+and the triangular front, or salient
+angle of many of its towers, may be
+traced.</p>
+
+<p>"In the western part of the town are
+the theatre, and what is called the amphitheatre.
+Of the former, some portion of
+the proscenium remains, as well as the
+solid tiers of arches, built of square
+stone, with bevelled edges, about 6&frac14; feet
+diameter, and 10 feet apart."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We have a good description of the
+annual fair of Salona. The description
+will be suggestive of picturesque<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+recollections to those who have seen
+the open air festivities celebrated by
+the orthodox&mdash;<em>i. e.</em> by the children of
+the Greek Church, about Easter time.
+We can take it upon ourselves to recommend
+highly the lambs, wont to be
+roasted whole on these occasions.
+The culinary apparatus is rude&mdash;consisting
+merely of a few sticks for a fire,
+and another stick to be used as a spit&mdash;but
+the result of their operations is
+most satisfactory.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"All Spalato is of course at the fair;
+and the road to Salona is thronged with
+carriages of every description, horsemen,
+and pedestrians. The mixture of the
+men's hats, red caps, and turbans, and
+the bonnets and Frank dresses of the
+Spalatine ladies, contrasted with the
+costume of the country women, presents
+one of the most singular sights to be soon
+in Europe, and to a stranger the language
+adds in no small degree to the novelty.
+Some business is done as well as pleasure;
+and a great number of cattle, sheep, and
+pigs are bought and sold&mdash;as well as
+various stuffs, trinkets, and the usual
+goods exhibited at fairs. Long before
+mid-day, the groups of peasants have
+thronged the road, not to say street, of
+Salona; some attend the small church,
+picturesquely placed upon a green, surrounded
+by the small streams of the
+Giadro, and shaded with trees; while
+others rove about, seeking their friends,
+looking at, and looked at by strangers, as
+they pass; and all are intent on the
+amusements of the day, and the prospect
+of a feast.</p>
+
+<p>"Eating and drinking soon begin. On
+all sides sheep are seen roasting whole on
+wooden spits, in the open air; and an
+entire flock is speedily converted into
+mutton. Small knots of hungry friends
+are formed in every direction: some
+seated on a bank beneath the trees,
+others in as many houses as will hold
+them; some on grass by the road-side,
+regardless of sun and dust&mdash;and a few
+quiet families have boats prepared for
+their reception.</p>
+
+<p>"In the mean time, the hat-wearing
+townspeople from Spalato and other places,
+as they pace up and down, bowing to an
+occasional acquaintance, view with complacent
+pity the primitive recreations of
+the simple peasantry; and arm-in-arm,
+civilisation, with its propriety and affectation,
+is here strangely contrasted with
+the hearty laugh of the unrefined Morlacchi."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We do not know the country where
+men will meet together and eat without
+drinking also: at the al-fresco
+entertainments of this kind which we
+have seen, the kegs of wine have ever
+been in goodly proportion to the spitted
+lambs. And wherever a mob of men
+set to drinking together, they will most
+assuredly take to fighting. The rows
+at this fair used to be considerable;
+and, considering that more wine is
+said to be consumed here on this one
+day than during the whole of the rest
+of the year, we cannot be surprised
+that fights should come off worthy of
+Donnybrook. At present, better order
+is preserved than of old, because these
+rows have been so excessive that they
+have enforced the attendance of the
+police.</p>
+
+<p>At this fair is to be seen the picturesque
+<em>collo</em> dance of the Morlacchi,
+of which our author affords a capital
+pencil-sketch, as well as the following
+description:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"It sometimes begins before dinner,
+but is kept up with greater spirit afterwards.
+They call it <em>collo</em>, from being,
+like most of their national dances, in a
+circle. A man generally has one partner,
+sometimes two, but always at his right
+side. In dancing, he takes her right
+hand with his, while she supports herself
+by holding his girdle with her left; and
+when he has two partners, the one nearest
+him holds in her right hand that of her
+companion, who, with her left, takes the
+right hand of the man; and each set
+dances forward in a line round the circle.
+The step is rude, as in most of the Slavonic
+dances, including the polka and the
+<em>radovatschka</em>; and the music, which is
+primitive, is confined to a three-stringed
+violin."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Dancing for dancing's sake, is what
+enters into no Englishman's category
+of the enjoyable, nor into many an
+Englishwoman's either, we should
+think, after the passage out of her
+teens; but that it is, in sober earnest,
+an enjoyment to many people under
+the sun, there is no doubt. Surely
+there is something wonderful in the
+faculty of finding pleasure in the elephantine
+man&oelig;uvres of the <em>romaika</em>,
+or in the still more clumsy gyrations
+of a <i>palicari's</i> performance. The <i>collo</i>
+we readily believe to be a picturesque
+dance: but such qualification is not
+the general condition on which the
+people of a nation accept dances as
+national. Most of these exhibitions
+in Greece and Eastern Europe must be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+condemned as graceless and unmeaning:
+as an exhibition of earnest tomfoolery,
+they may be accepted as wonderful;
+and, at all events, may safely
+be pronounced co-excellent with the
+music that inspires them.</p>
+
+<p>In passing from Salona to Traü, a
+distance of about thirteen miles and a
+half to the westward, the traveller
+passes by several of the villages called
+Castelli. The name has been given
+them from the circumstance of their
+having been built near to, and under
+the protection of, the castles which,
+in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
+were constructed here by some of the
+nobles.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"The land was granted to them by the
+Venetians, on condition of their erecting
+places of refuge for the peasants during
+the wars with the Turks. A body of
+armed men lived within them, and, on
+the approach of danger, the flocks and
+herds were protected beneath the walls;
+and, at harvest time, the peasantry had a
+place of security for their crops within
+range of the castle guns."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The rights of lordship over the villages,
+which used to be exercised by
+the nobles in virtue of the protection
+afforded, have nearly all fallen into
+disuse. The only relic of feudalism
+that seems to survive is found at Castel
+Cambio, over which two nobles still
+possess certain rights. One of these
+was the hospitable host of Sir Gardner,
+and his friend Professor Carrara, on
+their passage to and from Traü.</p>
+
+<p>A fact connected with the peculiarity
+of the position of this town
+is, we think, well worthy of notice,
+and deservedly recorded by our author.
+The town stands partly on a
+peninsula, and partly on the island
+of Bua. A fosse, cut across the
+narrow neck of the peninsula, has
+completed its isolation. This ditch
+has proved, on occasion, the most
+effectual of fortifications to the Traürines.
+They were, in 1241, besieged
+by the Tartars in pursuit of King
+Bela IV., who had fled hither before
+them. These impetuous assailants
+were unable to pass the ditch; and,
+having waited on the other side till
+food and forage were exhausted, they
+were obliged to retire. One cannot
+read this story without thinking of the
+account that Sir Francis Head gives
+of the La Plata Indians, whose habits
+of warfare are in many respects so exactly
+akin to those of the Tartars.
+These terrific horsemen would be
+scarcely resistible by their less robust
+enemies, save for their inability to cross
+anything in the shape of a ditch. Out
+of the saddle they can do nothing,
+and their horses will not leap; so that,
+if you wish to be safe from their inroads,
+you have but to surround your
+dwellings with a moderate trench.
+And very striking is the story that
+Sir Francis Head tells of the handful
+of men who, under such protection,
+held out successfully against a host of
+Indians. Traü, however, has been
+elaborately fortified in European fashion,
+though now the works are neglected,
+as being a useless precaution
+against dangers no longer existent.
+It has also a fine old cathedral, and
+some pictures of pretension.</p>
+
+<p>After a brief notice of the islands of
+Brazza and Solta&mdash;a notice, however,
+sufficient for all useful purposes&mdash;we
+pass on to the picturesque neighbourhood
+of the falls of the Kerka. Sir
+Gardner speaks of the delay to which
+the passage by boat from Sebenico to
+Scardona is subject, but does not exactly
+complain of it. In fact, we can
+easily understand that, for the sake of
+the passenger, it is expedient that
+some authoritative note should be
+taken of his departure under charge
+of the particular boatmen who undertake
+his convoy. We never did ascend
+to Kerka, but from what we have
+seen of the class of men under whose
+guidance the expedition has to be performed,
+we are disposed to vote the
+caution of the police to be anything but
+superfluous. Every now and then one
+hears dreadful stories of the atrocities
+of boatmen in convenient parts of the
+Mediterranean; and there is good
+reason to be thankful that the Austrians
+think it worth while to be so
+careful of strangers.</p>
+
+<p>The people about Sebenico, through
+whose lands the course of the lake
+leads, are spoken of as not paying
+much attention to agriculture or to
+their fisheries; but it seems that they
+are sedulously bent on raising grapes,
+and neglect no patch of ground at all
+likely to be available for this purpose.
+The lake of Scardona is considerably
+larger than that of Sebenico. On the
+shore here the Romans had a settlement,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+of which scarcely any remains
+are perceptible. They are, however,
+remarkable as affording a manifest
+proof of the rise of the level of the
+lake, for some of them are under
+water.</p>
+
+<p>Scardona, we are told, does not occupy
+the site of the old Scardon,
+which was a place of considerable importance
+under the empire. Some have
+even imagined that the old city stood
+on the opposite bank of the river.
+The town at present is small, but well
+furnished for the convenience of strangers.
+It boasts an inn, at which Sir
+Gardner put up for one night. He
+then proceeded to the falls, which are
+distant from the inn a three-quarters-of-an-hour
+journey. As he intended
+to ascend the river above the falls, he
+had to send to the monks of Vissovaz
+to ask for a boat, and they readily
+complied with his request. The falls
+do not seem to have been full on
+the occasion of this visit&mdash;but, when
+full, the effect must be striking. They
+are divided into two parts, and their
+picturesque effect is greatly enhanced
+by the surrounding scenery.</p>
+
+<p>At a distance of a few minutes' walk
+up the river, above the falls, the boat
+was waiting to transport Sir Gardner
+to the convent of Vissovaz. It is to
+this fraternity that we have before
+alluded, as being the sole mill-owners
+on the Kerka. Their convent must
+indeed be beautifully situated, and
+we can quite enter into the eulogium
+bestowed on it. The fathers are of
+the Franciscan order. The name of
+Vissovaz is of curious allusion; and
+as probably few of our courteous
+readers will be the worse for a little
+help in the matter of Slavonian etymology,
+we may as well tell them
+that its import is "the place of hanging."
+Not a very complimentary or
+well-omened name, certainly, we would
+think at first sight; but we see that
+it is so when we learn that the allusion
+is to the martyrdom of two
+priests, who were hanged here by the
+Turkish governor of Scardona. By
+the record left of the event, we cannot
+see that the death of these unfortunate
+victims was in any sense martyrdom:
+they were cruelly and unjustly
+put to death, but for a cause
+entirely worldly. However, they
+were Christians, and their murderers
+were Turks; and this has been enough
+to constitute a claim to canonisation
+in more places than at Vissovaz.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Gardner arrived at the picturesque,
+red-tiled convent in time for
+dinner; but as the day happened to
+be a fast, the fare provided was not
+sufficiently tempting to induce a
+wish to stay. He therefore was
+preparing, with many thanks, to
+take his leave of the good fathers,
+and proceed on his journey, when
+he found himself brought up by
+an unexpected difficulty. He was
+informed that he could not proceed
+except by favour of the monks of the
+Greek convent of St Archangelo, another
+religious house still farther up
+the stream. His hospitable entertainers
+readily volunteered to send
+in quest of the requisite assistance.
+These are the conditions of travelling,
+because there are no carriages for hire
+hereaway, nor any boats to let. The
+Franciscans had volunteered to do
+what, when it came to the point, was
+found to be rather an awkward thing.
+No great cordiality subsists generally
+between the Latins and the orthodox.
+Each charges the other with destructive
+heresy; and doubtless both of
+these great branches of the church
+esteem a Protestant safe, by comparison
+with the arch-heretics that they
+each see the other to be. Thus, though
+dwelling on the confines of Christendom,
+and in a solitude that might
+have rendered them neighbourly, we
+find that very little intercourse takes
+place between the two religious establishments.
+Accordingly, the writing
+of the letter was found to be no easy
+affair; and their guest saw them lay
+their heads together in consultation,
+after a fashion that boded ill for the
+prospects of his journey. They confessed
+themselves to be in a fix; and
+were afraid of exposing themselves to
+some affront if, contrary to their wont,
+they should open a communication
+with the Greeks, asking of them a
+favour.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"'Did you ever go as far as the convent?'
+said an old father to a more
+restless and locomotive Franciscan, and
+a negative answer seemed to put an end
+to the incipient letter; when one of the
+party suggested that those Greeks had
+shown themselves very civil on some occasion,
+and the writer of the epistle once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+more resumed his spectacles and his pen.
+'They are,' he observed, 'after all, like ourselves,
+and must be glad to see a stranger
+who comes from afar; and besides, our
+letter may have the effect of commencing a
+friendly intercourse with them, which we
+may have no reason to regret.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This very sensible hint of the Franciscan
+philosopher was happily acted
+out. The letter was sent, and in due
+course of time&mdash;<em>i. e.</em> in time for a start
+next morning&mdash;an answer arrived from
+the Archimandrite. It was to welcome
+the stranger to their hospitality, and
+to inform him that a boat awaited
+him at the falls. As the issue on
+the first intention was so favourable,
+let us hope that the other good results
+anticipated from the sending of
+the letter will have been by this time
+realised. At all events, Sir Gardner
+may congratulate himself on having
+afforded occasion for the opening of
+personal as well as epistolary communication
+between the convents, as one
+of the Franciscans accompanied him
+in the expedition to St Archangelo.</p>
+
+<p>Much praise is bestowed on the
+beauty of the Kerka, and the view of
+the Falls of Roncislap is especially
+distinguished. Sir Gardner praises it
+in artistic language; and we may be
+allowed to regret that he has not
+added a sketch of this scene to the
+views with which his book is embellished.
+The waters of the Kerka
+possess a petrifying quality that is
+common in Dalmatia. Much of the rock
+has been formed under the water, and
+must present a singular appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Near the Falls of Roncislap a depôt
+for coal has been established, that, by
+all accounts, would seem to be anything
+but a good speculation. We
+mention it merely for the sake of a
+good story that hangs by it. It
+seems that the Austrian Lloyds' Company
+patronise this coal because it is
+cheap. It is one reason, certainly,
+for buying it; but, as the coal will not
+burn, we may doubt their wisdom.
+We do not wish to spoil the market
+of the Company of Dernis, but we
+agree with Sir Gardner, that there are
+reasonable objections to the using of
+food for the furnaces that will get up
+no steam, and must be taken on board
+in such quantities, as to lumber up
+the decks. Besides this, hear how it
+goes on when it does burn:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"It has also the effect of causing much
+smoke, and the large flakes of soot that
+fall from the chimney upon the awning
+actually burn holes in it, till it looks like
+a sail riddled with grape-shot; and I remember
+one day seeing the awning on
+fire from one of these showers of soot;
+when the captain calmly ordered it to be
+put out, as if it had been a common occurrence."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"A Russian consul,"&mdash;this is the
+story:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"A Russian consul, who happened to
+be on board, and who was not much accustomed
+to the smoky doings of steamers,
+seemed to be deeply impressed with the
+inconvenience of the falling flakes of soot.
+His voice had rarely been heard during
+the voyage, and he appeared to shun
+communication with his fellow-passengers;
+when one afternoon, the awning
+not being up, he burst forth with these
+startling remarks, uttered with a broad
+Slavonian accent,&mdash;'<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Que ces baateaux à
+vapeur sont sales! Par suite de maaladie,
+il y a dix ans que je ne me zuis paas lavré,
+mais maintenant j'ai zenti le bezoin de me
+lavver, et je me zuis lavvé!!</i>'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This must have been a Russian of
+the old school.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the convent of St Archangelo,
+they had every reason to be
+content with their hospitable reception.
+The Archimandrite is praised
+as being gentlemanlike, and of mien
+as though educated in a European
+capital. This is a very unusual characteristic
+of any Greek ecclesiastic,
+and what we could predicate of but
+one or two out of the numbers that
+we have seen. Greek priests of any
+kind are bad enough, but those living
+in convents seem generally to go on
+the principle of the Russian consul
+just mentioned, and might fitly be
+invited to associate with him. All
+honour, then, to Stefano Knezovich,
+and may his example be abundantly
+followed among his brethren!</p>
+
+<p>There was not much in the Greek
+convent to induce a long visit; so the
+next morning Sir Gardner pushed on
+to Kistagne, in his progress through
+the country. Here he was again the
+victim of letter-writing, but in a different
+way. The sirdar of Kistagne
+took offence at the tone of the letter
+sent to him by the Archimandrite, ordering
+horses for the next morning;
+and the luckless traveller was consequently
+left in the lurch. However,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+the monk did his best to make up for
+the deficiency. He lent him his own
+horse, and had his baggage conveyed
+by some peasants&mdash;an excellent arrangement,
+saving that the porters
+were <em>female</em> peasants. This is a sort
+of thing that sadly shocks our sense
+of decorum, but which many folks
+besides the Dalmatians take as a
+matter of course. Sir Gardner says
+that the custom of assigning the heavy
+burden to the women is prevalent
+among the Montenegrini; it is so also
+among the Albanians; and to a most
+atrocious extent in the Peloponnesus.
+In this particular case, they were well
+off to get the job; it was to exchange
+their task of carrying heavy loads of
+water up the hill for that of shouldering
+his light <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">impedimenta</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at Kistagne, he found the
+sirdar, who had been so disobliging
+at a distance, much improved on acquaintance,
+and from him he received
+all requisite assistance for the prosecution
+of his journey to Knin; and by
+him was guided in his visit to the
+Roman arches, which point out the
+site of the ancient city of Burnum.</p>
+
+<p>Knin is still a place of considerable
+strength, and has been once upon a
+time still stronger. It is identified
+with the ancient Arduba. The marshy
+character of the ground in its immediate
+neighbourhood renders it an unhealthy
+place of abode; but this evil
+is easily removable by a moderate attention
+to drainage. Not very far
+from Knin, but over the Turkish border,
+on the other side of Mount
+Gniath, is supposed to be situated the
+gold mine that of old conferred on
+Dalmatia the title of auriferous. The
+mine is said to exist here; but so
+much mystery is observed on its subject
+by the Turks that nothing certain
+can be affirmed of it. From Verlicca,
+to Sign we pass as quickly as may be,
+merely noticing that there is another
+convent to be visited <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en route</i>, and
+that we have the opportunity of putting
+up at the Han, as Sir Gardner
+did. These people certainly have admitted
+a great many Turkish words
+into their vocabulary: we have <em>Sirdar</em>,
+and <em>Han</em>, and <em>Arambasha</em>&mdash;to say
+nothing of others. At last we come
+to <em>Sign</em>; and, touching this place, we
+must give an extract from the book.
+An annual tilting festival has been
+established here, in commemoration of
+the brave defence maintained in 1715,
+against the Pasha of Bosnia with
+forty thousand men.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"The privilege of tilting is confined to
+natives of Sign, and its territory. Every
+one is required to appear dressed in the
+ancient costume, with the Tartar cap,
+called kalpak, surmounted by a white
+heron's plume, or with flowers interlaced
+in it. He is to wear a sword, to carry a
+lance, and to be mounted on a good horse
+richly caparisoned."</p>
+
+<p>"The opening of the <em>giostra</em> is in this
+manner: The <em>footmen</em>, richly dressed and
+armed, advance two by two before the cavaliers.
+In the usual annual exhibitions
+each cavalier has one <em>footman</em>; and on extraordinary
+occasions, besides the footman,
+he has a <em>padrino</em> well mounted and equipped.
+After the <em>footmen</em> come three persons
+in line&mdash;one carrying a shield, and the other
+two by his side bearing a sort of ancient
+club; then a fair <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">manège</i> horse, led by
+the hand, with large housings and complete
+trappings, richly ornamented, followed
+by two cavaliers&mdash;one the adjutant,
+the other the ensign-bearer. Next comes
+the <i>Maestro-di-Campo</i>, accompanied by
+the two <em>jousters</em>, and followed by all the
+others, marching two and two. The rear of
+the procession is brought up by the <i>Chiauss</i>,
+who rides alone, and whose duty it is to
+maintain order during the ceremony."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We have a description of a fair at
+Sign that is almost as suggestive of
+the picturesque as was the account of
+similar doings at Salona. Sir Gardner
+shall give his own account of his departure
+from the town.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"In the midst of the bustle and business
+going on at Sign, I found some difficulty
+in getting horses to take me on to
+Spalato; but a letter to the Sirdar removed
+every impediment, and, after a
+few hours' delay, the animals being
+brought out, I prepared to start from the
+not very splendid inn.' 'Can you ride
+in that?' asked the ostler, pointing to a
+huge Turkish saddle that nearly concealed
+the whole animal, with stirrups that
+might pass for a pair of coal scuttles;
+and finding that I was accustomed to the
+use as well as sight of that un-European
+horse-furniture, he seemed well satisfied&mdash;observing,
+at the same time, that it was
+fortunate, as there was no other to be
+had.... I was glad to take what
+I could get, and my only question in return
+was, whether the horse could trot;
+which being settled, I posted off, leaving
+my guide and baggage to come after me&mdash;for,
+thanks to the Austrian police, there
+is no fear of robbers appropriating a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+portmanteau in Dalmatia: the interesting
+days of adventure and the Haiduk
+banditti have passed, and the Morlacchi
+have ceased to covet, or at least to take
+other men's goods."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>And now we make a resolute halt,
+and determine to pass <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">sub silentio</i> all
+that intervenes between this part of
+the book and the coming into the
+country of the Montenegrini. Unless
+we act thus discreetly, we shall never
+contrive to compress all we have to
+say into due limits; and even now we
+hardly know how this desirable result
+is to be effected. What we thus
+leave as fallow-ground for the reader
+will yield to his research a history of
+the coast and islands between Spalato
+and Cattaro. The notice of Ragusa
+is especially and deservedly full, and
+presents an admirable condensation of
+Ragusan history.</p>
+
+<p>But it is high time for us to get
+amongst the children of the Black
+Mountain. Among things excellent
+it is permitted to institute comparison
+without disparagement to any of
+them: and, in virtue of this license,
+we are free to say that this part of
+Sir Gardner's book shines forth as
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">inter minora sidera</i>. The subject itself
+is of deep intrinsic interest; and he
+has treated it as we well knew that
+he would. A picture is given of the
+actual condition of a scion of the
+Christian stock that must astonish
+those who, by this book, first learn to
+think of the Montenegrini; and must
+delight those who, having heard somewhat
+of them, or haply even paid them
+a flying visit, have looked in vain for
+some accurate statement of detail to
+help out their personal observations.</p>
+
+<p>The Montenegrini are descended from
+the old Servian stock, and still look to
+modern Servia with affection, as to
+their mother country. Thither also we
+find them, by Sir Gardner's account,
+retiring, when forced by poverty to
+emigrate from their own territory.
+Among them the Slavonian language
+is preserved in unusual purity. The
+present population is about 100,000;
+and the number of fighting men
+amounts to 20,000&mdash;a number which,
+on occasion of need, would be greatly
+augmented by the calling out of the
+veterans. In fact every individual
+man of the nation, whose arm has
+power to wield a weapon, is a warrior;
+and the very women are ready to assist
+in defence. On the Turkish border,
+as is well known, a constant
+system of bloody reprisals is going
+on; and the endeavours of the Vladika
+to reduce their hostilities to
+civilised fashion have hitherto failed
+of success. They are sustained at
+the highest pitch of confident daring
+by the successful war which they
+have so long been able to carry on
+against their powerful neighbours.
+One is glad of the opportunity of
+giving, on the authority of Sir Gardner,
+some of the stories of their prowess;
+for to retail, without the authority
+of some such <em>padrino</em>, the tales
+current in Cattaro, would be to win the
+reputation of talking like Mendez Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>In judging the Montenegrini, we
+should give charitable consideration
+to their circumstances. War is a
+system of violence; and with them,
+unhappily, war is a permanent condition
+of existence. The treachery
+and cruelty of the Turks&mdash;are these
+such recent developments that we need
+make any doubt of them?&mdash;have
+worked out cruel consequences in the
+character of the Montenegrini. They
+believe a Turk to be utterly without
+honesty and good faith&mdash;one with
+whom it is impossible to hold terms&mdash;and
+such, probably, is about the right
+estimate of some of their Turkish neighbours.
+Who, for instance, that knows
+anything about them, has any other
+opinion of the Albanians? Are
+Kaffirs much more hopeless subjects?
+The Montenegrini are far from the
+commission of the horrid cruelties
+that are of everyday occurrence among
+the Albanians. Their imperfect appreciation
+of Christianity allows them
+to behold in revenge a virtue; and
+hence the acts of violence which are
+quoted to their dispraise. Their marauding
+expeditions are but according
+to the usages of war; and if they
+sometimes break through the restrictions
+of a truce, it would seem to be
+because they really do not understand
+what a truce is. We think
+that a very apt apology for the
+Montenegrini is found in the speech of
+a German traveller quoted by Sir
+Gardner. He had been mentioning
+several occurrences of English and
+Scotch history, and spoke in allusion
+to them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"'What think you,' he observed, 'of
+the state of society in those times? Were
+the border forays of the English and
+Scotch more excusable than those of the
+Montenegrins? And how much more
+natural is the unforgiving hatred of the
+Montenegrins against the Turks, the
+enemies of their country, and their faith,
+than the relentless strife of Highland
+clans, with those of their own race and
+religion! Has not many an old castle in
+other parts of Europe, witnessed scenes
+as bad as any enacted by this people?
+I do not wish to exculpate the Montenegrins;
+but theirs is still a dark age,
+and some allowance must be made for
+their uncivilised condition.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The character of the present Vladika
+affords good hope that an improvement
+will take place among the
+people; for he evidently has devoted
+all his energies to their amelioration.
+Sir Gardner entered their territory,
+by what we believe to be the only
+route&mdash;that is to say from Cattaro&mdash;whence
+he took letters of introduction
+from the Austrian governor to
+the Vladika.</p>
+
+<p>We shall best illustrate the condition
+of the Montenegrini by quoting
+some of Sir Gardner's accounts.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"Four Montenegrins, and their sister,
+aged twenty-one, going on a pilgrimage
+to the shrine of St Basilio, were waylaid
+by seven Turks, in a rocky defile, so
+narrow that they could only thread it
+one by one; and hardly had they entered
+between the precipices that bordered it
+on either side, when an unexpected discharge
+of fire-arms killed one brother,
+and desperately wounded another. To
+retrace their steps was impossible without
+meeting certain and shameful death,
+since to turn their backs would give their
+enemy the opportunity of destroying
+them at pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"The two who were unhurt, therefore,
+advanced and returned the fire, killing
+two Turks&mdash;while the wounded one,
+supporting himself against a rock, fired
+also, and mortally injured two others,
+but was killed himself in the act. His
+sister, taking his gun, loaded and fired
+simultaneously with her two brothers,
+but, at the same instant, one of them
+dropped down dead. The two surviving
+Turks then rushed furiously at the only
+remaining Montenegrin&mdash;who, however,
+laid open the skull of one of them with
+his yatagan, before receiving his own
+death-blow. The hapless sister, who had
+all this time kept up a constant fire,
+stood for an instant irresolute; when
+suddenly assuming an air of terror and
+supplication, she entreated for mercy;
+but the Turk, enraged at the death of
+his companions, was brutal enough to
+take advantage of the unhappy girl's
+agony, and only promised her life at the
+price of her honour. Hesitating at first,
+she pretended to listen to the villain's
+proposal; but no sooner did she see him
+thrown off his guard, than she buried in
+his body the knife she carried at her
+girdle. Although mortally wounded, the
+Turk endeavoured to make the most of
+his failing strength, and plucking the
+dagger from his side, staggered towards
+the courageous girl,&mdash;who, driven to
+despair, threw herself on the relentless
+foe, and with superhuman energy hurled
+him down the neighbouring precipice, at
+the very moment when some shepherds,
+attracted by the continued firing,
+arrived just too late for the rescue."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Fancy the tone that must be given
+to their lives by the constant necessity
+of being ready for encounters
+such as this. They never lay aside
+their arms; but in the field, or by the
+wayside, are armed and alert. One
+hand may be allowed to the implement
+of tillage, but the other must be
+reserved for the weapon of defence.</p>
+
+<p>On many occasions, Montenegrin
+courage has prevailed against odds
+far greater than in the above case&mdash;indeed
+such odds as, but for authentication
+of facts, would be incredible.
+In the year 1840, "seventy Montenegrins,
+in the open field, withstood the
+attack of several thousand Turks;
+and having made breastworks with the
+bodies of their fallen foes, maintained
+the unequal conflict till night; when
+forty who survived forced their way
+through the hostile army, and escaped
+with their lives." Another astonishing
+achievement was the successful defence
+of a house held by seven-and-twenty
+Montenegrins, against a body of about
+six thousand Albanians. Of this last
+action, trophies are preserved by the
+Vladika in his palace at Tzetinié, and
+there Sir Gardner saw them.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot wonder that the effect
+on their minds of these astonishing
+successes, should be an unbounded
+confidence in their superiority over
+the Turks. Sir Gardner Wilkinson
+found them impressed with the idea,
+that bread and arms were the only
+needful requisites to enable them to
+drive the Turks out of Albania and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+Herzegovina. It seems certain that,
+in their rencontres With these enemies,
+they dismiss all ordinary considerations
+of prudence. The spirit
+of their feeling with regard to the
+Turks is thus portrayed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"It is not the courage, but the cruelty
+of the Turks which inspires him (the
+Montenegrin) with hatred; and the sufferings
+inflicted upon his country by their
+inroads makes him look upon them with
+feelings of ferocious vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>"These savage sentiments are kept
+alive by the barbarous custom, adopted
+by both parties, of cutting off the heads
+of the wounded and the dead; the consequences
+of which are destructive of all
+the conditions of fair warfare, and preclude
+the possibility of peace. The bitter
+remembrance of the past is constantly
+revived by the horrors of the present;
+and the love of revenge, which strongly
+marks the character of the Montenegrin,
+makes him insensible to reason or justice,
+and places the Turks, in his opinion, out
+of the pale of human beings. He dreams
+only of vengeance; he cares little for the
+means employed, and the man who
+should make any excuse for not persecuting
+those enemies of his country and
+his faith, would be treated with ignominy
+and contempt. Even the sanctity of a
+truce is not always sufficient to restrain
+him; and the hatred of the Turk is paramount
+to all ordinary considerations of
+honour or humanity."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This cutting off of heads is not
+peculiar to the Montenegrins. The
+Turks are, in this respect, just as bad,
+and Sir Gardner found, on the occasion
+of his visit to Mostar, that, in
+point of this barbarism, there is not a
+pin to choose between them. The
+Turks, however, exceed in cruelty.
+It appears, on the evidence of the
+letter of the Vladika, given in the
+second volume, that they (the Turks)
+impale men alive; whereas the Montenegrins
+are chargeable with no
+wanton cruelty. Indeed, they do not
+restrict the performance of this operation
+to the case of enemies; but, as
+an act of friendship, decapitate any
+comrade who may so be wounded in
+action as to have no other means of
+avoiding capture by the enemy. "You
+are very brave," said a well-meaning
+Montenegrin to a portly Russian officer,
+who was unable to keep up with
+his detachment in its retreat,&mdash;"you
+are very brave, <em>and must wish that I
+should cut off your head</em>: say a prayer,
+and make the sign of the cross."</p>
+
+<p>Life, passed amidst every hardship,
+and threatened by constant and deadly
+peril, ought, we suppose, according to
+all rule, to be short in duration. But
+we find that these people are remarkable
+for longevity. A family is mentioned,
+in one of the villages, which
+reckoned six generations, there and
+then extant. The head of the family
+was a great-great-great-grandfather.</p>
+
+<p>The Vladika received his visitor
+most courteously, as he always does
+those who have the privilege of being
+presented to him. He afforded to Sir
+Gardner every facility for seeing the
+country, and engaged his secretary to
+draw up for him a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">précis</i> of Montenegrin
+history. We will condense
+some of its more important facts.
+The supremacy in things spiritual and
+temporal has not been very long
+vested, as it at present is, in the person
+of the Vladika. The two chieftain-ships
+were of old distinct, and the
+figment of a separate temporal authority
+was continued till comparatively
+lately: the year 1832 is mentioned
+as the epoch at which the office of
+civil chief was definitely suppressed.
+The present family (Petrovich) have
+possessed the dignity of the Vladikate
+since the close of the seventeenth
+century. The reigning Vladika&mdash;this
+man of magnificent presentment&mdash;this
+brave, intellectual, and athletic
+ruler of an indomitable race&mdash;is
+nephew of the late Vladika, who has
+been canonised, although but few
+years have passed since his death.
+The prince-bishop is not theoretically
+absolute in power, as the form of a
+republic is kept up: the general
+assembly has the right of deliberation,
+under the presidency of the Vladika.
+But this restriction of power is
+pretty nearly nominal only: we give
+Sir Gardner's account of the native
+Diet.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"In a semicircular recess, formed by
+the rocks on one side of the plain of
+Tzetinié, and about half a mile to the
+southward of the town, is a level piece of
+grass land, with a thicket of low poplar
+trees. Here the diet is held, from which
+the spot has received the name of <i>mali
+sbor</i> (the small assembly.) When any
+matter is to be discussed, the people meet
+in this their Runimede, or 'meadow of
+council,' and partly on the level space,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+partly on the rocks, receive from the
+Vladika notice of the question proposed.
+The duration of the discussion is limited
+to a certain time, at the expiration
+of which the assembly is expected to
+come to a decision; and when the
+monastery bell orders silence, notwithstanding
+the most animated discussion, it
+is instantly restored. The Metropolitan
+asks again what is their decision, and
+whether they agree to his proposal or not.
+The answer is always the same: '<i lang="cs" xml:lang="cs">Budi
+po to oyema, Vladika</i>,'&mdash;'Let it be as
+thou wishest, Vladika.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Montenegro first secured its independence
+about a generation or two
+before the time of the famous Scanderbeg,
+on the breaking up of the
+kingdom of Servia. Since that time
+they have constantly been subject to
+the inroads of the Turks, who, claiming
+them as tributaries, have continued
+to invade their country every now
+and then with savage cruelty. More
+than once they have carried fire and
+sword to Tzetinié, but have never
+been able to hold their ground. The
+Montenegrins sought the protection of
+Russia in the time of Peter the Great,
+and still continue to be subsidised by
+Russia. At the desire of Peter, they
+invaded the Turkish territory, and
+were subjected to reprisals on a grand
+scale. At one time 60,000 Turks, at
+another 120,000, broke into Montenegro.
+The first invasion was
+gloriously repulsed; but the second,
+combining treachery with violence,
+was successful. Great damage was
+done to the country; but the invaders
+were at last obliged to quit, on the
+breaking out of war between Turkey
+and Venice. The Montenegrins then
+returned to their desolate homes, and
+have since been unintermitting in
+their diligence to pay off old scores.
+They co-operated with the Austrians
+and Russians, when they had the
+opportunity of such assistance; and
+when they stood alone, they did so
+nobly and bravely. The last great
+expedition of the Turks was in the
+time of the late Vladika. The Pasha
+of Scutari, with an enormous force,
+invaded the country; and the result
+of the expedition was that 30,000
+Turks were killed, and among them
+the Pasha of Albania, whose head
+now serves as a trophy of victory to
+decorate Tzetinié.</p>
+
+<p>The capital of the Vladika, has
+been described before&mdash;for instance, in
+the pages of this Magazine; so, with
+one brief extract concerning it, we
+will follow Sir Gardner in his progress
+through the country.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"On a rock immediately above the
+convent is a round tower pierced with
+embrasures, but without cannon, on which
+I counted the heads of twenty Turks
+fixed upon stakes round the parapet&mdash;the
+trophies of Montenegrin victory; and below,
+scattered upon the rock, were the
+fragments of other skulls, which had fallen
+to pieces by time,&mdash;a strange spectacle in
+a Christian country, in Europe, and in the
+immediate vicinity of a convent and a
+bishop's palace!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>And, as we said before, when he
+got to Mostar, in Herzegovina, he
+found a spectacle of the same shocking
+kind. He did allow his horror at
+this sight to evaporate ineffectually;
+but in earnest tried to interpose his
+good offices to prevent a continuance
+of these doings. He talked to the two
+people mainly concerned&mdash;<em>i. e.</em> to the
+Vizir of Herzegovina, and to the Vladika.
+He also, at Constantinople,
+endeavoured to effect the making of
+an appeal to the highest Turkish authority.
+His correspondence with the
+Vladika on the subject is evidence of
+his zeal; but no positive good seems
+to have been the result of his intercession.</p>
+
+<p>The road leading from the capital
+to Ostrok is described as being very
+bad at first, and bad beyond description
+as it recedes from the capital.
+The Vladika kindly sent with Sir
+Gardner one of his guards and an interpreter.
+The party passed by several
+villages, and arrived at Mishke,
+the principal village of the Cevo district,
+where they put up for the night
+at the house of the principal senator
+of the province. Here some amusement
+was afforded by Sir Gardner's
+proceeding to sketch the domestic
+party.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the evening a scene
+occurred, which sets forth their social
+condition as graphically as the artist's
+pencil has their personal appearance.
+A party of friends came in to have a
+quiet pipe, and to plan a foray over
+the border.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"On inquiry, I found the expedition
+was to take place immediately. "Is there
+not," I asked, "a truce at this moment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+between you and the Turks of Herzegovina?"
+They laughed, and seemed
+much amused at my scruples. "We
+don't mind that," said a stern swarthy
+man, taking his pipe from his mouth, and
+shaking his head to and fro; "they are
+Turks"&mdash;and all agreed that the Turks
+were fair game. "Besides," they said,
+"it is only to be a plundering excursion;"
+and they evidently considered that any
+one refusing to join in a marauding expedition
+into Turkey, at any time, or in an
+open attack during a war, would be unworthy
+the name of a brave man. They
+seemed to treat the matter like boys in "the
+good old times," who robbed orchards;
+the courage it showed being in proportion
+to the risk, and scruples of conscience
+were laughed at as a want of spirit."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In a freshly-decapitated head, affixed
+to a stake at Mostar, he shortly
+afterwards recognised the features of
+one of these very men.</p>
+
+<p>On the next day he proceeded to
+Ostrok, and found occasion to admire
+the scenery by the way, especially the
+vale of Oranido, distant from Mishke
+about four hours. From the vale of
+Oranido to Ostrok is a journey of
+about the same time. At Ostrok he
+underwent a grand reception, and
+fully won the hearts of his new friends
+by proposing a ride to the Turkish
+frontier, and affording them by the
+way an exhibition of Memlook riding.
+On the frontier is constantly maintained
+a guard of Montenegrins, to give
+timely warning of any suspicious
+movement among the Turks; and so
+well do they execute this office that
+no Turk can approach the border
+without being shot at. Near this
+border it was that, some little time
+ago, in 1843, an affair took place
+which does not tell well for the Montenegrini;
+and which seems for the present
+to preclude hope of amicable arrangement
+with the Turks. A deputation
+of twenty-two Turks, returning
+from Ostrok, were attacked by the
+people, and nine of them killed. This
+breach of faith is, to their minds,
+excused by the suspicion of meditated
+treachery on the part of the Turks.
+But it is a sad affair; and the only
+circumstance which goes in mitigation
+of its guilt is, that the Vladika
+took precautions against its occurrence.
+He sent an armed guard to
+protect the deputation, but their defence
+proved insufficient.</p>
+
+<p>The Archimandrite of Ostrok is the
+person who holds the place of second
+dignity in the government. He ranks
+next to the Vladika; and we are glad
+to find, by Sir Gardner's account, that
+he cordially co-operates with the Vladika
+in his plans of amelioration. Here
+also was met the celebrated priest and
+warrior, Ivan Knezovich, or Popé Yovan&mdash;a
+man who, in this nation of
+brave men, is renowned as the bravest.
+There are two convents at Ostrok, of
+which one fulfils also the function of
+powder magazine and store depot. Its
+position is very remarkable; and certainly
+it does bear a strong family
+likeness to Megaspelion. The same
+quality of not being within reach of
+any missile from above belongs to both
+of them, and has proved the saving of
+both.</p>
+
+<p>The return to Tzetinié was by a
+different route, which took Sir Gardner
+within near view of the northern
+end of the lake of Scutari. The island
+of Vranina, situated at this extremity
+of the lake, is likely to afford the next
+ostensible ground for an outbreak. It
+belonged to Montenegro, but, a few
+years ago, was treacherously seized
+by the Albanians, who effected a surprise
+in time of peace. Remonstrances
+and hard blows have equally
+failed to promote a restoration, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">et adhuc
+sub judice lis est</i>. Throughout the
+course of his journey, Sir Gardner experienced
+much and genuine kindness
+from the rude people of the country;
+they brought him presents of such
+things as they had to offer, and would
+accept no compensation. When at last
+he bade them farewell, and returned
+to the haunts of civilisation, it was
+evidently with kindly recollections of
+them, and with the best of good-will
+towards them. He was able to give
+a satisfactory account of his impressions
+to the Vladika, who inquired
+thus,&mdash;"What do you think of the
+people? Do they appear to you the
+assassins and barbarians some people
+pretend to consider them? I hope you
+found them all well-behaved and civil&mdash;they
+are poor, but that does not
+prevent their being hospitable and
+generous."</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>MODERN BIOGRAPHY.</h2>
+
+<h3>BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL.</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p><cite>Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell.</cite> Edited by <span class="smcap">William Beattie, M.D.</span>, one of
+his Executors. 3 vols. London: Moxon, 1849.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The ancients, who lived beyond
+the reach of the fangs and feelers of
+the printing press, had, in one respect,
+a decided advantage over us unlucky
+moderns. They were not beset by
+the terrors of biography. No hideous
+suspicion that, after he was dead and
+gone&mdash;after the wine had been poured
+upon the hissing embers of the pyre,
+and the ashes consigned, by the hands
+of weeping friends, to the oblivion of
+the funereal urn&mdash;some industrious
+gossip of his acquaintance would incontinently
+sit down to the task of
+laborious compilation and collection
+of his literary scraps, ever crossed,
+like a sullen shadow, the imagination
+of the Greek or the Latin poet. Homer,
+though Arctinus was his near relative,
+could unbosom himself without
+the fear of having his frailties posthumously
+exposed, or his amours
+blazoned to the world. Lucius Varius
+and Plotius Tucca, the literary executors
+of Virgil, never dreamed of
+applying to Pollio for the I O Us
+which he doubtless held in the handwriting
+of the Mantuan bard, or to
+Horace for the confidential notes
+suggestive of Falernian inspiration.
+Socrates, indeed, has found a liberal
+reporter in Plato; but this is a pardonable
+exception. The son of Sophroniscus
+did not write; and therefore
+it was incumbent on his pupil to
+preserve for posterity the fragments of
+his oral wisdom. The ancient authors
+rested their reputation upon their published
+works alone. They knew, what
+we seem to forget, that the poet,
+apart from his genius, is but an ordinary
+man, and, in many cases, has
+received, along with that gift, a larger
+share of propensities and weaknesses
+than his fellow-mortals. Therefore
+it was that they insisted upon that
+right of domestic privacy which is
+common to us all. The poet, in his
+public capacity as an author, held
+himself responsible for what he wrote;
+but he had no idea of allowing the
+whole world to walk into his house,
+open his desk, read his love-letters,
+and criticise the state of his finances.
+Had Varius and Tucca acted on the
+modern system, the ghost of Virgil
+would have haunted them on their
+death-beds. Only think what a legacy
+might have been ours if these
+respectable gentlemen had written to
+Cremona for anecdotes of the poet
+while at school! No doubt, in some
+private nook of the old farm-house at
+Andes, there were treasured up,
+through the infinite love of the mother,
+tablets scratched over with
+verses, composed by young Master
+Maro at the precocious age of ten.
+We may, to a certainty, calculate&mdash;for
+maternal fondness always has been
+the same, and Virgil was an only
+child&mdash;that, in that emporium, themes
+upon such topics as "Virtus est sola
+nobilitas" were religiously treasured,
+along with other memorials of the
+dear, dear boy who had gone to college
+at Naples. Modern Varius would
+remorselessly have printed these:
+ancient Tucca was more discreet.
+Then what say you to the college
+career? Would it not be a nice thing
+to have all the squibs and feuds, the
+rows and rackettings of the jovial
+student preserved to us precisely as
+they were penned, projected, and
+perpetrated? Have we not lost a great
+deal in being defrauded of an account
+of the manner in which he singed the
+wig of his drunken old tutor, Parthenius
+Nicenus, or the scandalously
+late hours which he kept in company
+with his especial chums? Then comes
+the period, darkly hinted at by Donatus,
+during which he was, somehow
+or other, connected with the imperial
+stable; that is, we presume, upon the
+turf. What would we not give for
+a sight of Virgil's betting-book! Did
+he back the field, or did he take
+the odds on the Emperor's bay
+mare, Alma Venus Genetrix? How
+stood he with the legs? What sort
+of reputation did he maintain in
+the ring of the Roman Tattersall?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+Was he ever posted as a defaulter?
+Tucca! you should have told us
+this. Then, when sobered down, and
+in high favour with the court, where
+is the private correspondence between
+him and Mæcenas, the President of
+the Roman Agricultural Society,
+touching the compilation of the
+Georgics? The excellent Equestrian,
+we know, wanted Virgil to construct
+a poem, such as Thomas Tusser afterwards
+wrote, under the title of a "<cite>Hondreth
+Good Points of Husbandrie</cite>,"
+and, doubtless, waxed warm in his
+letters about draining, manure, and
+mangel-wurzel. What sacrifice would
+we not make to place that correspondence
+in the hands of Henry Stephens!
+How the author of the <cite>Book of the
+Farm</cite> would revel in his exposure of
+the crude theories of the Minister of
+the Interior! What a formidable
+phalanx of facts would he oppose to
+Mæcenas' misconceptions of guano!
+Through the sensitive delicacy of his
+executors, we have lost the record of
+Virgil's repeated larks with Horace:
+the pleasant little supper-parties celebrated
+at the villa of that dissipated
+rogue Tibullus, have passed from the
+memory of mankind. We know
+nothing of the state of his finances,
+for they have not thought fit to publish
+his banking-account with the
+firm of Lollius, Spuræna, and Company.
+Their duty, as they fondly
+believed, was fulfilled, when they gave
+to the world the glorious but unfinished
+Æneid.</p>
+
+<p>Under the modern system, we constantly
+ask ourselves whether it is
+wise to wish for greatness, and
+whether total oblivion is not preferable
+to fame, with the penalty of
+exposure annexed. We shudder at
+the thoughts of putting out a book,
+not from fear of anything that the
+critics can do, but lest it should take
+with the public, and expose us to the
+danger of a posthumous biography.
+Were we to awake some fine morning,
+and find ourselves famous, our
+peace of mind would be gone for ever.
+Mercy on us! what a quantity of
+foolish letters have we not written
+during the days of our youth, under the
+confident impression that, when read,
+they would be immediately committed
+to the flames. Madrigals innumerable
+recur to our memory; and, if these
+were published, there would be no rest
+for us in the grave! If any misguided
+critic should say of us, "The works
+of this author are destined to descend
+to posterity," our response would be
+a hollow groan. If convinced that
+our biography would be attempted,
+from that hour the friend of our bosom
+would appear in the light of a base
+and ignominious spy. How durst we
+ever unbosom ourselves to him, when,
+for aught we know, the wretch may
+be treasuring up our casual remarks
+over the fifth tumbler, for immediate
+registration at home? Constitutionally
+we are not hard-hearted; but,
+were we so situated, we own that the
+intimation of the decease of each early
+acquaintance would be rather a relief
+than otherwise. Tom, our intimate
+fellow-student at college, dies. We
+may be sorry for the family of Thomas,
+but we soon wipe away the natural
+drops, discovering that there is balm
+in Gilead. We used to write him
+letters, detailing minutely our inward
+emotions at the time we were distractedly
+in love with Jemima Higginbotham;
+and Tom, who was always
+a methodical dog, has no doubt docqueted
+them as received. Tom's heirs
+will doubtless be too keen upon the
+scent of valuables, to care one farthing
+for rhapsodising: therefore, unless
+they are sent to the snuff-merchant,
+or disseminated as autographs, our
+epistles run a fair chance of perishing
+by the flames, and one evidence of
+our weakness is removed. A member
+of the club meets us in George Street,
+and, with a rueful longitude of countenance,
+asks us if we have heard of
+the death of poor Harry? To the
+eternal disgrace of human nature, be
+it recorded, that our heart leaps up
+within us like a foot-ball, as we hypocritically
+have recourse to our cambric.
+Harry knew a great deal too
+much about our private history just
+before we joined the Yeomanry, and
+could have told some stories, little
+flattering to our posthumous renown.</p>
+
+<p>Are we not right, then, in holding
+that, under the present system, celebrity
+is a thing to be eschewed?
+Why is it that we are so chary of
+receiving certain Down-Easters, so
+different from the real American
+gentlemen whom it is our good fortune
+to know? Simply because Silas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+Fixings will take down your whole
+conversation in black and white, deliberately
+alter it to suit his private
+purposes, and Transatlantically retail
+it as a specimen of your life and
+opinions. And is it not a still more
+horrible idea that a Silas may be perpetually
+watching you in the shape
+of a pretended friend? If the man
+would at once declare his intention,
+you might be comparatively at ease.
+Even in that case you never could
+love him more, for the confession implies
+a disgusting determination of
+outliving you, or rather a hint that
+your health is not remarkably robust,
+which would irritate the meekest of
+mankind. But you might be enabled,
+through a strong effort, to repress
+the outward exhibition of your wrath;
+and, if high religious principle should
+deter you from mixing strychnia or
+prussic acid with the wine of your
+volunteering executor, you may at
+least contrive to blind him by cautiously
+maintaining your guard.
+Were we placed in such a trying
+position, we should utter, before our
+intending Boswell, nothing save sentiments
+which might have flowed from
+the lips of the Venerable Bede. What
+letters, full of morality and high feeling,
+would we not indite! Not an invitation
+to dinner&mdash;not an acceptance of
+a tea and turn-out, but should be
+flavoured with some wholesome apothegm.
+Thus we should strive,
+through our later correspondence, to
+efface the memory of the earlier,
+which it is impossible to recall,&mdash;not
+without a hope that we might throw
+upon it, if posthumously produced, a
+tolerable imputation of forgery.</p>
+
+<p>In these times, we repeat, no man
+of the least mark or likelihood is safe.
+The waiter with the bandy-legs, who
+hands round the negus-tray at a
+blue-stocking coterie, is in all probability
+a leading contributor to a fifth-rate
+periodical; and, in a few days
+after you have been rash enough
+to accept the insidious beverage,
+M'Tavish will be correcting the proof
+of an article in which your appearance
+and conversation are described.
+Distrust the gentleman in the plush
+terminations; he, too, is a penny-a-liner,
+and keeps a commonplace-book
+in the pantry. Better give up writing
+at once than live in such a perpetual
+state of bondage. What
+amount of present fame can recompense
+you for being shown up as a
+noodle, or worse, to your children's
+children? Nay, recollect this, that
+you are implicating your personal,
+and, perhaps, most innocent friends.
+Bob accompanies you home from an
+insurance society dinner, where the
+champagne has been rather superabundant,
+and, next morning, you, as
+a bit of fun, write to the President
+that the watchman had picked up
+Bob in a state of helpless inebriety
+from the kennel. The President, after
+the manner of the Fogies, duly docquets
+your note with name and date, and
+puts it up with a parcel of others,
+secured by red tape. You die. Your
+literary executor writes to the President,
+stating his biographical intentions,
+and requesting all documents
+that may tend to throw light upon
+your personal history. Preses, in
+deep ecstasy at the idea of seeing his
+name in print as the recipient of your
+epistolary favours, immediately transmits
+the packet; and the consequence
+is, that Robert is most unjustly
+handed down to posterity in the
+character of a habitual drunkard,
+although it is a fact that a more
+abstinent creature never went home
+to his wife at ten. If you are an
+author, and your spouse is ailing,
+don't give the details to your intimate
+friend, if you would not wish to publish
+them to the world. Drop all
+correspondence, if you are wise, and
+have any ambition to stand well in
+the eyes of the coming generation.
+Let your conversation be as curt as
+a Quaker's, and select no one for a
+friend, unless you have the meanest
+possible opinion of his capacity.
+Even in that case you are hardly
+secure. Perhaps the best mode of
+combining philanthropy, society, and
+safety, is to have nobody in the
+house, save an old woman who is so
+utterly deaf that you must order
+your dinner by pantomime.</p>
+
+<p>One mode of escape suggests itself,
+and we do not hesitate to recommend it.
+Let every man who underlies the terror
+of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">peine forte et dure</i>, compile his
+own autobiography at the ripe age of
+forty-five. Few people, in this country,
+begin to establish a permanent
+reputation before thirty; and we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+allow them fifteen years to complete
+it. Now, supposing your existence
+should be protracted to seventy, here
+are clear five-and-twenty years remaining,
+which may be profitably employed
+in autobiography, by which
+means you secure three vast advantages.
+In the first place, you can
+deal with your own earlier history
+as you please, and provide against
+the subsequent production of inconvenient
+documents. In the second place,
+you defeat the intentions of your excellent
+friend and gossip, who will
+hardly venture to start his volumes in
+competition with your own. In the third
+place, you leave an additional copyright
+as a legacy to your children, and
+are not haunted in your last moments
+by the agonising thought that a stranger
+in name and blood is preparing to
+make money by your decease. It is,
+of course, unnecessary to say one word
+regarding the general tone of your
+memoirs. If you cannot contrive to
+block out such a fancy portrait of
+your intellectual self as shall throw all
+others into the shade, you may walk
+on fearlessly through life, for your biography
+never will be attempted.
+Goethe, the most accomplished literary
+fox of our age, perfectly understood
+the value of these maxims, and forestalled
+his friends, by telling his own
+story in time. The consequence is,
+that his memory has escaped unharmed.
+Little Eckermann, his amanuensis
+in extreme old age, did indeed
+contrive to deliver himself of a small
+Boswellian volume; but this publication,
+bearing reference merely to the
+dicta of Goethe at a safe period of
+life, could not injure the departed poet.
+The repetition of the early history,
+and the publication of the early documents,
+are the points to be especially
+guarded.</p>
+
+<p>We beg that these remarks may be
+considered, not as strictures upon any
+individual example, but as bearing
+upon the general style of modern biography.
+This is a gossiping world,
+in which great men are the exceptions;
+and when one of these ceases
+to exist, the public becomes clamorous
+to learn the whole minutiæ of his private
+life. That is a depraved taste, and
+one which ought not to be gratified.
+The author is to be judged by the works
+which he voluntarily surrenders to the
+public, not by the tenor of his private
+history, which ought not to be irreverently
+exposed. Thus, in compiling
+the life of a poet, we maintain that a
+literary executor has purely a literary
+function to perform. Out of the mass
+of materials which he may fortuitously
+collect, his duty is to select such portions
+as may illustrate the public
+doings of the man: he may, without
+transgressing the boundaries of propriety,
+inform us of the circumstances
+which suggested the idea of any particular
+work, the difficulties which
+were overcome by the author in the
+course of its composition, and even
+exhibit the correspondence relative
+thereto. These are matters of literary
+history which we may ask for,
+and obtain, without any breach of the
+conventional rules of society. Whatever
+refers to public life is public, and
+may be printed: whatever refers solely
+to domestic existence is private, and
+ought to be held sacred. A very
+little reflection, we think, will demonstrate
+the propriety of this distinction.
+If we have a dear and valued friend,
+to whom, in the hours of adversity or
+of joy, we are wont to communicate
+the thoughts which lie at the bottom
+of our soul, we write to him in the
+full conviction that he will regard these
+letters as addressed to himself alone.
+We do not insult him, nor wrong the
+holy attributes of friendship so much,
+as to warn him against communicating
+our thoughts to any one else in
+the world. We never dream that he
+will do so, else assuredly those letters
+never would have been written. If
+we were to discover that we had so
+grievously erred as to repose confidence
+in a person who, the moment
+he received a letter penned in a paroxysm
+of emotion and revealing a
+secret of our existence, was capable
+of exhibiting it to the circle of his
+acquaintance, of a surety he should
+never more be troubled with any of
+our correspondence. Would any man
+dare to print such documents during
+the life of the writer? We need not
+pause for a reply: there can be but
+one. And <em>why</em> is this? Because
+these communications bear on their
+face the stamp of the strictest privacy&mdash;because
+they were addressed to,
+and meant for the eye of but one
+human being in the universe&mdash;because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+they betray the emotions of a soul
+which asks sympathy from a friend,
+with only less reverence than it implores
+comfort from its God! Does
+death, then, free the friend and the
+confidant from all restraint? If the
+knowledge that his secret had been
+divulged, his agonies exposed, his
+weaknesses surrendered to the vulgar
+gaze, could have pained the living
+man&mdash;is nothing due to his memory,
+now that he is laid beneath the turf,
+now that his voice can never more be
+raised to upbraid a violated confidence?
+Many modern biographers,
+we regret to say, do not appear to be
+influenced by any such consideration.
+They never seem to have asked themselves
+the question&mdash;Would my friend,
+if he had been compiling his own memoirs,
+have inserted such a letter for
+publication&mdash;does it not refer to a
+matter eminently private and personal,
+and never to be communicated to the
+world? Instead of applying this test,
+they print everything, and rather
+plume themselves on their impartiality
+in suppressing nothing. They thus
+exhibit the life not only of the author
+but of the man. Literary and personal
+history are blended together.
+The senator is not only exhibited in
+the House of Commons, but we are
+courteously invited to attend at the
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">accouchement</i> of his wife.</p>
+
+<p>What title has any of us, in the
+abstract, to write the private history
+of his next-door neighbour? Be he
+poet, lawyer, physician, or divine, his
+private sayings and doings are his property,
+not that of a gaping and curious
+public. No man dares to say to another,
+"Come, my good fellow! it is full
+time that the world should know a
+little about your domestic concerns.
+I have been keeping a sort of note-book
+of your proceedings ever since
+we were at school together, and I intend
+to make a few pounds by exhibiting
+you in your true colours.
+You recollect when you were in love
+with old Tomnoddy's daughter? I
+have written a capital account of your
+interview with her that fine forenoon
+in the Botanical Gardens! True,
+she jilted you, and went off with
+young Heavystern of the Dragoons,
+but the public won't relish the scene a
+bit the less on that account. Then I
+have got some letters of yours from
+our mutual friend Fitzjaw. How very
+hard-up you must have been at the
+time when you supplicated him for
+twenty pounds to keep you out of jail!
+You were rather severe, the other day
+when I met you at dinner, upon your
+professional brother Jenkinson; but I
+daresay that what you said was all
+very true, so I shall publish that likewise.
+By the way&mdash;how is your
+wife? She had a lot of money, had
+she not? At all events people say
+so, and it is shrewdly surmised that
+you did not marry her for her beauty.
+I don't mean to say that <em>I</em> think so,
+but such is the <em>on dit</em>, and I have set
+it down accordingly in my journal.
+Do, pray, tell me about that quarrel
+between you and your mother-in-law!
+Is it true that she threw a
+joint-stool at your head? How our
+friends will roar when they see
+the details in print!" Is the case
+less flagrant if the manuscript is
+not sent to press, until our neighbour
+is deposited in his coffin? We cannot
+perceive the difference. If the
+feelings of living people are to be
+taken as the criterion, only one of the
+domestic actors is removed from the
+stage of existence. Old Tomnoddy
+still lives, and may not be abundantly
+gratified at the fact of his daughter's
+infidelity and elopement being proclaimed.
+The intimation of the
+garden scene, hitherto unknown to
+Heavystern, may fill his warlike
+bosom with jealousy, and ultimately
+occasion a separation. Fitzjaw can
+hardly complain, but he will be very
+furious at finding his refusal to accommodate
+a friend appended to the supplicating
+letter. Jenkinson is only
+sorry that the libeller is dead, otherwise
+he would have treated him to an
+action in the Jury Court. The widow
+believes that she was made a bride
+solely for the sake of her Californian
+attractions, and reviles the memory
+of her spouse. As for the mother-in-law,
+now gradually dwindling into
+dotage, her feelings are perhaps of no
+great consequence to any human
+being. Nevertheless, when the obnoxious
+paragraph in the Memoirs is
+read to her by a shrill female companion,
+nature makes a temporary
+rally, her withered frame shakes with
+agitation, and she finally falls backward
+in a fit of hopeless paralysis.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Such is a feeble picture of the results
+that might ensue from private
+biography, were we all permitted,
+without reservation, to parade the
+lives and domestic circumstances of
+our neighbours to a greedy and gloating
+world. Not but that, if our
+neighbour has been a man of sufficient
+distinction to deserve commemoration,
+we may gracefully and skilfully narrate
+all of him that is worth the knowing.
+We may point to his public actions,
+expatiate on his achievements,
+and recount the manner in which he
+gained his intellectual renown; but further
+we ought not to go. The confidences
+of the dead should be as sacred
+as those of the living. And here we
+may observe, that there are other
+parties quite as much to blame as the
+biographers in question. We allude
+to the friends of the deceased, who
+have unscrupulously furnished them
+with materials. Is it not the fact
+that in very many cases they have
+divulged letters which, during the
+writer's lifetime, they would have
+withheld from the nearest and dearest
+of their kindred? In many such
+letters there occur observations and
+reflections upon living characters, not
+written in malice, but still such as
+were never intended to meet the eyes
+of the parties criticised; and these
+are forthwith published, as racy passages,
+likely to gratify the appetite of
+a coarse, vulgar, and inordinate curiosity.
+Even this is not the worst.
+Survivors may grieve to learn that
+the friend whom they loved was capable
+of ridiculing or misrepresenting
+them in secret, and his memory may
+suffer in their estimation; but, put
+the case of detailed private conversations,
+which are constantly foisted
+into modern biographies, and we shall
+immediately discover that the inevitable
+tendency is to engender dislikes
+among living parties. Let us suppose
+that three men, all of them professional
+authors, meet at a dinner
+party. The conversation is very lively,
+takes a literary turn, and the three
+gentlemen, with that sportive freedom
+which is very common in a society
+where no treachery is apprehended,
+pass some rather poignant strictures
+upon the writings or habits of their
+contemporaries. One of them either
+keeps a journal, or is in the habit of
+writing, for the amusement of a confidential
+friend at a distance, any
+literary gossip which may be current,
+and he commits to paper the heads of
+the recent dialogue. He dies, and his
+literary executor immediately pounces
+upon the document, and, to the confusion
+of the two living critics, prints it.
+Every literary brother whom they have
+noticed is of course their enemy for life.</p>
+
+<p>If, in private society, a snob is discovered
+retailing conversations, he is
+forthwith cut without compunction.
+He reads his detection in the calm,
+cold scorn of your eye; and, referring
+to the mirror of his own dim and dirty
+conscience, beholds the reflection of a
+hound. The biographer seems to consider
+himself exempt from such social
+secresy. He shelters himself under
+the plea that the public are so deeply
+interested, that they must not be deprived
+of any memorandum, anecdote,
+or jotting, told, written, or detailed
+by the gifted subject of their memoirs.
+Therefore it is not a prudent thing to
+be familiar with a man of genius. He
+may not betray your confidence, but
+you can hardly trust to the tender
+mercies of his chronicler.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Such are our deliberate views upon
+the subject of biography, and we
+state them altogether independent of
+the three bulky volumes which are
+now lying before us for review.</p>
+
+<p>We cordially admit that it was right
+and proper that a life of Campbell
+should be written. Although he did
+not occupy the same commanding
+position as others of his renowned
+contemporaries&mdash;although his writings
+have not, like those of Scott,
+Byron, and Southey, contributed
+powerfully to give a tone and idiosyncrasy
+to the general literature of
+the age&mdash;Campbell was nevertheless
+a man of rich genius, and a poet of
+remarkable accomplishment. It would
+not be easy to select, from the works
+of any other writer of our time, so
+many brilliant and polished gems,
+without flaw or imperfection, as are
+to be found amongst his minor poems.
+Criticism, in dealing with these exquisite
+lyrics, is at fault. If sometimes
+the suspicion of a certain effeminacy
+haunts us, we have but to turn
+the page, and we arrive at some magnificent,
+bold, and trumpet-toned ditty,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+appealing directly from the heart of
+the poet to the imagination of his
+audience, and proving, beyond all
+contest, that power was his glorious
+attribute. True, he was unequal;
+and towards the latter part of his career,
+exhibited a marked failing in the
+qualities which originally secured his
+renown. It is almost impossible to
+believe that the <cite>Pilgrim of Glencoe</cite>,
+or even <cite>Theodric</cite>, was composed by
+the author of the <cite>Pleasures of Hope</cite>
+or <cite>Gertrude</cite>; and if you place the
+<cite>Ritter Bann</cite> beside <cite>Hohenlinden</cite> or the
+<cite>Battle of the Baltic</cite>, you cannot fail to
+be struck with the singular diminution
+of power. Campbell started
+from a high point&mdash;walked for some
+time along level or undulating ground&mdash;and
+then began rapidly to descend.
+This is not, as some idle critics have
+maintained, the common course of
+genius. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare,
+Milton, Dryden, Scott, Byron,
+and Wordsworth, are remarkable instances
+to the contrary. Whatever
+may have been the promise of their
+youth, their matured performances,
+eclipsing their earlier efforts, show
+us that genius is capable of almost
+boundless cultivation, and that the
+fire of the poet does not cease to
+burn less brightly within him, because
+the sable of his hair is streaked
+with gray, or the furrows deepening
+on his brow. Sir Walter Scott was
+upwards of thirty before he began to
+compose in earnest: after thirty,
+Campbell wrote scarcely anything
+which has added permanently to his
+reputation. Extreme sensitiveness,
+an over-strained and fastidious desire
+of polishing, and sometimes
+the pressure of outward circumstances,
+may have combined to damp
+his early ardour. He evidently was
+deficient in that resolute pertinacity
+of labour, through which alone
+great results can be achieved. He
+allowed the best years of his life to be
+frittered away, in pursuits which
+could not secure to him either additional
+fame, or the more substantial
+rewards of fortune: and, though far
+from being actually idle, he was only
+indolently active. Campbell wanted
+an object in life. Thus, though gifted
+with powers which, directed towards
+one point, were capable of the highest
+concentration, we find him scattering
+these in the most desultory and careless
+manner; and surrendering scheme
+after scheme, without making the
+vigorous effort which was necessary
+to secure their completion. This is a
+fault by no means uncommon in literature,
+but one which is highly dangerous.
+No work requiring great
+mental exertion should be undertaken
+rashly, for the enthusiasm which has
+prompted it rapidly subsides, the
+labour becomes distasteful to the writer,
+and unless he can bend himself
+to his task with the most dogged
+perseverance, and a determination to
+vanquish all obstacles, the result will
+be a fragment or a failure. Of this we
+find two notable instances recorded
+in the book before us. Twice in his
+life had Campbell meditated the construction
+of a great poem, and twice
+did he relinquish the task. Of the
+<cite>Queen of the North</cite> but a few lines
+remain: of his favourite projected
+epic on the subject of Wallace,
+nothing. Elegant trifles, sportive
+verses, and playful epigrams were,
+for many years, the last fruits of that
+genius which had dictated the <cite>Pleasures
+of Hope</cite>, and rejoiced the mariners
+of England with a ballad worthy
+of the theme. And yet, so powerful
+is early association&mdash;so universal was
+the recognition of the transcendant
+genius of the boy, that when Campbell
+sank into the grave, there was
+lamentation as though a great poet
+had been stricken down in his prime,
+and all men felt that a brilliant light
+had gone out among the luminaries
+of the age. Therefore it was seemly
+that his memory should receive that
+homage which has been rendered to
+others less deserving of it, and that
+his public career, at least, should be
+traced and given to the world.</p>
+
+<p>It was Campbell's own wish that
+Dr Beattie should undertake his biography.
+Few perhaps knew the motives
+which led to this selection; for
+the assiduity, care, and filial attachment,
+bestowed for years by the
+warm-hearted physician upon the
+poet, was as unostentatious as it was
+honourable and devoted. Not from
+the pages of this biography can the
+reader form an adequate idea of the
+extent and value of such disinterested
+friendship: indeed it is not too much
+to say, that the rare and exemplary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+kindness of Dr Beattie was the chief
+consolation of Campbell during the
+later period of his existence. It
+was therefore natural that the dying
+poet should have confided this trust
+to one of whose affection he was
+assured by so many rare and signal
+proofs; and it is with a kindly feeling
+to the author that we now approach
+the consideration of the literary merits
+of the book.</p>
+
+<p>The admiration of Dr Beattie for
+the genius of Campbell has in some
+respects led him astray. It is easy to
+see at a glance that his measure of
+admiration is not of an ordinary kind,
+but so excessive as to lead him beyond
+all limit. He seems to have
+regarded Campbell not merely as a
+great poet, but as the great poet of the
+age; and he is unwilling, æsthetically,
+to admit any material diminution of
+his powers. He still clings with a
+certain faith to <em>Theodric</em>; and declines
+to perceive any palpable failure even
+in the <cite>Pilgrim of Glencoe</cite>. Verses
+and fragments which, to the casual
+reader, convey anything but the impression
+of excellence, are liberally
+distributed throughout the pages of the
+third volume, and commented on with
+evident rapture. He seems to think
+that, in the case of his author, it may
+be said, "<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Nihil tetigit quod non
+ornavit</i>;" and accordingly he is slow
+to suppress, even where suppression
+would have been of positive advantage.
+In short, he is too full of his
+subject to do it justice. In the hands
+of a skilful and less biassed artisan,
+the materials which occupy these
+three volumes, extending to nearly
+fourteen hundred pages of print, might
+have been condensed into one highly
+interesting and popular volume. We
+should not then, it is true, have been
+favoured with specimens of Campbell's
+college exercises, with the
+voluminous chronicles of his family,
+with verses written at the age of eleven,
+or with correspondence purely
+domestic; but we firmly believe
+that the reading public would have
+been grateful to Dr Beattie, had he
+omitted a great deal of matter connected
+with the poet's earlier career,
+which is of no interest whatever. The
+Campbells of Kirnan were, we doubt
+not, a highly respectable sept, and performed
+their duty as kirk-elders for
+many generations blamelessly in the
+parish of Glassary. But it was not
+necessary on that account to trace
+their descent from the Black Knight Of
+Lochawe, or to give the particular
+history of the family for more than a
+century and a half. Gillespic-le-Camile
+may have been a fine fellow in
+his day; but we utterly deny, in the
+teeth of all the Campbells and Kembles
+in the world, that he had a drop
+of Norman blood in his veins. It is
+curious to find the poet, at a subsequent
+period, engaged in a correspondence,
+as to the common ancestor of
+these names, with one of the Kembles,
+who, as Mrs Butler somewhere triumphantly
+avers, were descended from
+the lords of Campo-bello. Where
+that favoured region may be, we know
+not; but this we know, that in Gaelic
+<i lang="gv" xml:lang="gv">Cambeul</i> signifies <em>wry-mouth</em>, and
+hence, as is the custom with primitive
+nations, the origin of the name. And
+let not the sons of Diarmid be offended
+at this, or esteem their glories
+less, since the gallant Camerons owe
+their name to a similar conformation
+of the nose, and the Douglases to
+their dark complexion. Having put
+this little matter of family etymology
+right, let us return to Dr Beattie.</p>
+
+<p>The first volume, we maintain, is
+terribly overloaded by trivial details,
+and specimens of the kind to which
+we have alluded. We need not enter
+into these, except in so far as to state
+that Thomas Campbell was the youngest
+child of most respectable parents:
+that his father, having been unfortunate
+in business, was so reduced in
+circumstances, that, whilst attending
+Glasgow College, the young student
+was compelled to have recourse to
+teaching; that he acquitted himself
+admirably, and to the satisfaction of
+all his professors in the literary
+classes; and that, for one vacation at
+least, he resided as private tutor to a
+family in the island of Mull. He
+was then about eighteen, and had
+already exhibited symptoms of a rare
+poetical talent, particularly in translations
+from the Greek. Dr Beattie's
+zeal as a biographer may be gathered
+from the following statement:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I applied last year to the Rev.
+Dr M'Arthur, of Kilninian in Mull,
+requesting him to favour me with such
+traditional particulars regarding the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+poet as might still be current among
+the old inhabitants; but I regret to
+say that nothing of interest has resulted.
+'In the course of my inquiries,'
+he says, 'I have met with
+only two individuals who had seen
+Mr Campbell while he was in Mull,
+and the amount of their information
+is merely that he was <em>a very pretty
+young man</em>. Those who must have
+been personally acquainted with him
+in this country, have, like himself,
+descended into the tomb; so that no
+authentic anecdotes of him can now
+be procured in this quarter.'"</p>
+
+<p>There is a simplicity in this which
+has amused us greatly. Campbell, in
+those days, was conspicuous for nothing&mdash;at
+least, for no accomplishment
+which could be appreciated in
+that distant island. In all probability
+two-thirds of the inhabitants of the
+parish were Campbells, who expired
+in utter ignorance of the art of writing
+their names; so that to ask for literary
+anecdotes, at the distance of half a
+century, was rather a work of supererogation.</p>
+
+<p>For two years more, Campbell led
+a life of great uncertainty. He was
+naturally averse to the drudgery of
+teaching&mdash;an employment which never
+can be congenial to a poetical and
+creative nature. He had no decided
+predilection for any of the learned professions;
+for though he alternately
+betook himself to the study of law,
+physic, and divinity, it was hardly
+with a serious purpose. He visited
+Edinburgh in search of literary employment,
+was for some time a clerk
+in a writer's office, and, through the
+kindness of the late Dr Anderson,
+editor of a collection of the British
+poets,&mdash;a man who was ever eager to
+acknowledge and encourage genius,&mdash;he
+received his first introduction to a
+bookselling firm. From them he received
+some little employment, but
+not of a nature suited to his taste;
+and we soon afterwards find him in
+Glasgow, meditating the establishment
+of a magazine&mdash;a scheme which
+proved utterly abortive.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, however, he had
+not been idle. At the age of twenty
+the poetical instinct is active, and,
+even though no audience can be found,
+the muse will force its way. Campbell
+had already translated two plays
+of Æschylus and Euripides&mdash;an exercise
+which no doubt developed largely
+his powers of versification&mdash;and, further,
+had begun to compose original
+lyric verses. In the foreign edition of
+his works, there is inserted a poem
+called the Dirge of Wallace, written
+about this period, which, with a very
+little concentration, might have been
+rendered as perfect as any of his later
+compositions. In spirit and energy it
+is assuredly inferior to none of them.
+"But," says Dr Beattie, "the fastidious
+author, who thought it too
+rhapsodical, never bestowed a careful
+revision upon it, and persisted in excluding
+it from all the London editions."
+We hope to see it restored
+to its proper place in the next: in
+the mean time we select the following
+noble stanzas:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"They lighted the tapers at dead of night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And chaunted their holiest hymn:<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But her brow and her bosom were damp with affright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Her eye was all sleepless and dim!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the Lady of Ellerslie wept for her lord,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">When a death-watch beat in her lonely room,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">When her curtain had shook of its own accord,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the raven had flapped at her window board,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">To tell of her warrior's doom.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Now sing ye the death-song, and loudly pray<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">For the soul of my knight so dear!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And call me a widow this wretched day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Since the warning of <span class="smcap">God</span> is here.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">For a nightmare rests on my strangled sleep;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">The lord of my bosom is doomed to die!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">His valorous heart they have wounded deep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the blood-red tears shall his country weep<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">For Wallace of Ellerslie!'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Yet knew not his country, that ominous hour&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Ere the loud matin-bell was rung&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">That the trumpet of death, from an English tower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Had the dirge of her champion sung.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">When his dungeon-light looked dim and red<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">On the highborn blood of a martyr slain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">No anthem was sung at his lowly death-bed&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">No weeping was there when <em>his</em> bosom bled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And is heart was rent in twain.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Oh! it was not thus when his ashen spear<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Was true to that knight forlorn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And hosts of a thousand wore scattered like deer<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">At the blast of a hunter's horn;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1"><em>When he strode o'er the wreck of each well-fought field,</em><br /></span>
+<span class="i3"><em>With the yellow-haired chiefs of his native land;</em><br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+<span class="i1"><em>For his lance was not shivered on helmet or shield,</em><br /></span>
+<span class="i1"><em>And the sword that was fit for archangel to wield</em><br /></span>
+<span class="i3"><em>Was light in his terrible hand!</em><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Yet, bleeding and bound, though the Wallace wight<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">For his long-loved country die,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The bugle ne'er sung to a braver knight<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Than William of Ellerslie!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But the day of his triumphs shall never depart;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">His head, unentombed, shall with glory be palmed&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">From its blood-streaming altar his spirit shall start;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Though the raven has fed on his mouldering heart,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">A nobler was never embalmed!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Nothing can be finer than the lines
+we have quoted in Italics, nor perhaps
+did Campbell himself ever match
+them. Local reputations are dearly
+cherished in the west of Scotland, and
+even at this early period our poet was
+denominated "the Pope of Glasgow."</p>
+
+<p>Again Campbell migrated to Edinburgh,
+but still with no fixed determination
+as to the choice of a profession:
+his intention was to attend the
+public lectures at the University, and
+also to push his connexion with the
+booksellers, so as to obtain the means
+of livelihood. Failing this last resource,
+he contemplated removing to America,
+in which country his eldest brother
+was permanently settled. Fortunately
+for himself, he now made the
+acquaintance of several young men
+who were destined afterwards to
+attract the public observation, and to
+win great names in different branches
+of literature. Among these were
+Scott, Brougham, Leyden, Jeffrey,
+Dr Thomas Brown, and Grahame, the
+author of <cite>The Sabbath</cite>. Mr John
+Richardson, who had the good fortune
+to remain through life the intimate
+friend both of Scott and Campbell,
+was also, at this early period, the
+chosen companion of the latter, and
+contributed much, by his judicious
+counsels and criticisms, to nerve the
+poet for that successful effort which,
+shortly afterwards, took the world of
+letters by storm. Dr Anderson also
+continued his literary superintendence,
+and anxiously watched over the progress
+of the new poem upon which
+Campbell was now engaged. At
+length, in 1799, the <cite>Pleasures of
+Hope</cite> appeared.</p>
+
+<p>Rarely has any volume of poetry
+met with such rapid success. Campbell
+had few living rivals of established
+reputation to contend with; and the
+freshness of his thought, the extreme
+sweetness of his numbers, and the
+fine taste which pervaded the whole
+composition, fell like magic on the ear
+of the public, and won their immediate
+approbation. It is true that, as a
+speculation, this volume did not prove
+remarkably lucrative to the author:
+he had disposed of the copyright
+before publication for a sum of sixty
+pounds, but, through the liberality of
+the publishers, he received for some
+years a further sum on the issue of
+each edition. The book was certainly
+worth a great deal more; but many
+an author would be glad to surrender
+all claim for profit on his first adventure,
+could he be assured of such
+valuable popularity as Campbell now
+acquired. He presently became a
+lion in Edinburgh society; and, what
+was far better, he secured the countenance
+and friendship of such men as
+Dugald Stewart, Henry Mackenzie,
+Dr Gregory, the Rev. Archibald Alison,
+and Telford, the celebrated engineer.
+It is pleasant to know that
+the friendships so formed were interrupted
+only by death.</p>
+
+<p>Campbell had now, to use a common
+but familiar phrase, the ball at
+his foot, but never did there live a
+man less capable of appreciating opportunity.
+At an age when most
+young men are students, he had won
+fame&mdash;fame, too, in such measure and
+of such a kind as secured him
+against reaction, or the possibility of
+a speedy neglect following upon so
+rapid a success. Had he deliberately
+followed up his advantage with anything
+like ordinary diligence, fortune
+as well as fame would have been his
+immediate reward. Like Aladdin, he
+was in possession of a talisman which
+could open to him the cavern in which
+a still greater treasure was contained;
+but he shrunk from the labour which
+was indispensable for the effort. He
+either could not or would not summon
+up sufficient resolution to betake himself
+to a new task; but, under the
+pretext of improving his mind by
+travel, gave way to his erratic propensities,
+and departed for the Continent
+with a slender purse, and, as
+usual, no fixity of purpose.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We confess that the portion of his
+correspondence which relates to this
+expedition does not appear to us remarkably
+interesting. He resided
+chiefly at Ratisbon, where his time
+appears to have been tolerably equally
+divided between writing lyrics for the
+<cite>Morning Chronicle</cite>, then under the
+superintendence of Mr Perry, and
+squabbling with the monks of the
+Scottish Convent of Saint James.
+Some of his best minor poems were
+composed at this period; but it will
+be easily comprehended that, from the
+style of their publication in a fugitive
+form, they could add but little at the
+time to his reputation, and certainly
+they did not materially improve his
+finances. With a contemplated poem
+of some magnitude&mdash;the <cite>Queen of the
+North</cite>&mdash;he made little progress; and,
+upon the whole, this year was spent
+uncomfortably. After his return to
+Britain, he resided for some time in
+Edinburgh and London, mixing in the
+best and most cultivated society, but
+sorely straitened in circumstances,
+which, nevertheless, he had not the
+courage or the patience to improve.</p>
+
+<p>A quarto edition of the <cite>Pleasures</cite>,
+printed by subscription for his own
+benefit, at length put him in funds,
+and probably tempted him to marry.
+Then came the real cares of life,&mdash;an
+increased establishment, an increasing
+family: new mouths to provide for,
+and no settled mode of livelihood.
+Of all literary men, Campbell was
+least calculated, both by habit and
+inclination, to pursue a profession
+which, with many temptations, was
+then, and is still, precarious. He was
+not, like Scott, a man of business habits
+and unflagging industry. His impulses
+to write were short, and his
+fastidiousness interfered with his impulse.
+Booksellers were slow in offering
+him employment, for they could
+not depend on his punctuality. Those
+who have frequent dealings with the
+trade know how much depends upon
+the observance of this excellent virtue;
+but Campbell never could be brought
+to appreciate its full value. The
+printing-press had difficulty in keeping
+pace with the pen of Scott: to
+wait for that of Campbell was equivalent
+to a cessation of labour. Therefore
+it is not surprising that, about
+this period, most of his negotiations
+failed. Proposals for an edition of
+the British Poets, a large and expensive
+work, to be executed jointly by
+Scott and Campbell, fell to the ground:
+and the bard of Hope gave vent to his
+feelings by execrating the phalanx of
+the Row.</p>
+
+<p>At the very moment when his prospects
+appeared to be shrouded in the
+deepest gloom, Campbell received intimation
+that he had been placed on
+the pension-list as an annuitant of
+£200. Never was the royal bounty
+more seasonably extended; and this
+high recognition of his genius seems
+for a time to have inspired him with
+new energy. He commenced the compilation
+of the <cite>Specimens of British
+Poets</cite>; but his indolent habits
+overcame him, and the work was not
+given to the public until <em>thirteen years</em>
+after it was undertaken. No wonder
+that the booksellers were chary of
+staking their capital on the faith of
+his promised performances!</p>
+
+<p>Ten years after the publication of
+the <cite>Pleasures of Hope</cite>, <cite>Gertrude of
+Wyoming</cite> appeared. That exquisite
+little poem demonstrated, in the most
+conclusive manner, that the author's
+poetical powers were not exhausted by
+his earlier effort, and the same volume
+contained the noblest of his immortal
+lyrics. Campbell was now at the
+highest point of his renown. Critics
+may compare together the longer
+poems, and, according as their taste
+leans towards the didactic or the
+descriptive form of composition, may
+differ in awarding the palm of excellence,
+but there can be but one opinion
+as to the lyrical poetry. In this respect
+Campbell stands alone among
+his contemporaries, and since then he
+has never been surpassed. <cite>Lochiel's
+Warning</cite> and the <em>Battle of the Baltic</em>
+were among the pieces then published;
+and it would be difficult, out of the
+whole mass of British poetry, to select
+two specimens, by the same author,
+which may fairly rank with these.</p>
+
+<p>A new literary field was shortly
+after this opened to Campbell. He was
+engaged to deliver a course of lectures
+on poetry at the Royal Institution of
+London, and the scheme proved not
+only successful but lucrative. In after
+years he lectured repeatedly on the
+belles lettres at Liverpool, Birmingham,
+and other places, and the celebrity of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+his name always commanded a crowd of
+listeners. We learn from Dr Beattie,
+that at two periods of his life it was proposed
+to bring him forward as a candidate,
+either for the chair of Rhetoric
+or that of History in the University of
+Edinburgh; but he seems to have
+recoiled from the idea of the labour
+necessary for the preparation of a
+thorough academical course, a task
+which his extreme natural fastidiousness
+would doubtless have rendered
+doubly irksome. Several more years,
+a portion of which time was spent on
+the Continent, passed over without any
+remarkable result, until, at the age of
+forty-three, Campbell entered upon
+the duties of the editorship of the <em>New
+Monthly Magazine</em>.</p>
+
+<p>He held this situation for ten years,
+and resigned it, according to his own
+account, "because it was utterly impossible
+to continue the editor without
+interminable scrapes, together with a
+law-suit now and then." In the interim,
+however, certain important
+events had taken place. In the first
+place, he had published <em>Theodric</em>&mdash;a
+poem which, in spite of a most laudatory
+critique in the <em>Edinburgh Review</em>,
+left a painful impression on the public
+mind, and was generally considered
+as a symptom either that the rich
+mine of poesy was worked out, or
+that the genius of the author had
+been employed in a wrong direction.
+In the second place, he took an active
+share in the foundation of the London
+University. He appears, indeed, to
+have been the originator of the scheme,
+and to have managed the preliminary
+details with more than common skill
+and prudence. It was mainly through
+his exertions that it did not assume
+the aspect of a mere sectarian institution,
+bigoted in its principles and
+circumscribed in its sphere of utility.
+Shortly after this academical experiment,
+he was elected Lord Rector of
+the Glasgow University. Whatever
+abstract value may be attached to
+such an honour&mdash;and we are aware
+that very conflicting opinions have
+been expressed upon the point&mdash;this
+distinction was one of the most gratifying
+of all the tributes which were
+ever rendered to Campbell. He found
+himself preferred, by the students of
+that university where his first aspirations
+after fame had been roused, to
+one of the first orators and statesmen
+of the age; and his warm heart overflowed
+with delight at the kindly compliment.
+He resolved not to accept
+the office as a mere sinecure, but
+strictly to perform those duties which
+were prescribed by ancient statute, but
+which had fallen into abeyance by the
+carelessness of nominal Rectors. He
+entered as warmly into the feelings,
+and as cordially supported the interests
+of the students, as if the academical
+red gown of Glasgow had been still
+fresh upon his shoulders; and such
+being the case, it is not surprising
+that he was almost adored by his
+youthful constituents. This portion
+of the memoirs is very interesting: it
+displays the character of Campbell in
+a most amiable light; and the coldest
+reader cannot fail to peruse with pleasure
+the records of an ovation so
+truly gratifying to the sensibilities of
+the kind and affectionate poet. For
+three years, during which unusual
+period he held the office, his correspondence
+with the students never
+flagged; and it may be doubted whether
+the university ever possessed a better
+Rector.</p>
+
+<p>In 1831 he took up the Polish cause,
+and founded an association in London,
+which for many years was the main
+support of the unfortunate exiles who
+sought refuge in Britain. The public
+sympathy was at that time largely excited
+in their favour, not only by the gallant
+struggle which they had made for
+regaining their ancient independence,
+but from the subsequent severities perpetrated
+by the Russian government.
+Campbell, from his earliest years, had
+denounced the unprincipled partition
+of Poland; he watched the progress
+of the revolution with an anxiety
+almost amounting to fanaticism; and
+when the outbreak was at last put
+down by the strong hand of power,
+his passion exceeded all bounds. Day
+and night his thoughts were of Poland
+only: in his correspondence he hardly
+touched upon any other theme; and,
+carried away by his zeal to serve the
+exiles, he neglected his usual avocations.
+The mind of Campbell was
+naturally of an impulsive cast: but
+the fits were rather violent than enduring.
+This psychological tendency
+was, perhaps, his most serious misfortune,
+since it invariably prevented<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+him from maturing the most important
+projects he conceived. Unless
+the scheme was such as could be executed
+with rapidity, he was apt to halt
+in the progress.</p>
+
+<p>He next became engaged in a new
+magazine speculation&mdash;<em>The Metropolitan</em>&mdash;which,
+instead of turning
+out, as he anticipated, a mine of
+wealth, very nearly involved him in
+serious pecuniary responsibility. After
+this, his public career gradually became
+less marked. The last poem
+which he published, <em>The Pilgrim of
+Glencoe</em>, exhibited few symptoms of
+the fire and energy conspicuous in his
+early efforts. "This work," says Dr
+Beattie, "in one or two instances was
+very favourably reviewed&mdash;in others,
+the tone of criticism was cold and
+austere; but neither praise nor censure
+could induce the public to judge
+for themselves; and silence, more fatal
+in such cases than censure, took the
+poem for a time under her wing. The
+poet himself expressed little surprise
+at the apathy with which his new
+volume had been received; but whatever
+indifference he felt for the influence
+it might have upon his reputation,
+he could not feel indifferent to
+the more immediate effect which a
+tardy or greatly diminished sale must
+have upon his prospects as a householder.
+'A new poem from the pen
+of Campbell,' he was told, 'was as good
+as a bill at sight;' but, from some
+error in the drawing, as it turned out,
+it was not negotiable; and the expenses
+into which he had been led, by
+trusting too much to popular favour,
+were now to be defrayed from other
+sources." It ought, however, to be
+remarked, that he had now arrived at
+his great climacteric. He was sixty-four
+years of age, and his constitution,
+never very robust, began to exhibit
+symptoms of decay. Dr Beattie, who
+had long watched him with affectionate
+solicitude, in the double character
+of physician and friend, thus notes his
+observation of the change. "At the
+breakfast or dinner table&mdash;particularly
+when surrounded by old friends&mdash;he
+was generally animated, full of anecdote,
+and always projecting new
+schemes of benevolence. But still
+there was a visible change in his conversation:
+it seemed to flow less freely;
+it required an effort to support it; and
+on topics in which he once felt a keen
+interest, he now said but little, or remained
+silent and thoughtful. The
+change in his outward appearance was
+still more observable; he walked with
+a feeble step, complained of constant
+chilliness; while his countenance, unless
+when he entered into conversation,
+was strongly marked with an expression
+of languor and anxiety. The
+sparkling intelligence that once animated
+his features was greatly obscured;
+he quoted his favourite authors
+with hesitation&mdash;because, he told me,
+he often could not recollect their
+names."</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of his life was spent
+in comparative seclusion. Long before
+this period he was left a solitary
+man. His wife, whom he loved with
+deep and enduring affection, was taken
+away&mdash;one of his sons died in childhood,
+and the other was stricken with
+a malady which proved incurable.
+But the kind offices of a nephew and
+niece, and the attentions of many
+friends, amongst whom Dr Beattie
+will always be remembered as the
+chief, soothed the last days of the
+poet, and supplied those duties which
+could not be rendered by dearer hands.
+He expired at Boulogne, on 15th
+June 1844, his age being sixty-seven,
+and his body was worthily interred in
+Westminster Abbey, with the honours
+of a public funeral.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"Never," says Beattie, "since the
+death of Addison, it was remarked, had
+the obsequies of any literary man been attended
+by circumstances more honourable
+to the national feeling, and more expressive
+of cordial respect and homage, than
+those of Thomas Campbell.</p>
+
+<p>"Soon after noon, the procession began
+to move from the Jerusalem Chamber to
+Poet's Corner, and in a few minutes
+passed slowly down the long lofty aisle&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Through breathing statues, then unheeded things;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through rows of warriors, and through walks of kings.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">On each side the pillared avenues were
+lined with spectators, all watching the
+solemn pageant in reverential silence, and
+mostly in deep mourning. The Rev.
+Henry Milman, himself an eminent poet,
+headed the procession; while the service
+for the dead, answered by the deep-toned
+organ, in sounds like distant thunder,
+produced an effect of indescribable solemnity.
+One only feeling seemed to pervade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+the assembled spectators, and was
+visible on every face&mdash;a desire to express
+their sympathy in a manner suitable to
+the occasion. He who had celebrated
+the glory and enjoyed the favour of his
+country for more than forty years, had
+come at last to take his appointed chamber
+in the Hall of Death&mdash;to mingle ashes
+with those illustrious predecessors, who,
+by steep and difficult paths, had attained
+a lofty eminence in her literature, and
+made a lasting impression on the national
+heart."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We observe that Dr Beattie has,
+very properly, passed over with little
+notice certain statements, emanating
+from persons who styled themselves
+the friends of Campbell, regarding his
+habits of life during the latter portion
+of his years. It is a misfortune incidental
+to almost all men of genius,
+that they are surrounded by a fry of
+small literary adulators, who, in order
+to magnify themselves, make a practice
+of reporting every circumstance,
+however trivial, which falls under
+their observation, and who are not
+always very scrupulous in adhering to
+the truth. Campbell, who had the
+full poetical share of vanity in his
+composition, was peculiarly liable to
+the attacks of such insidious worshippers,
+and was not sufficiently careful
+in the selection of his associates.
+Hence imputations, not involving any
+question of honour or morality, but
+implying frailty to a considerable degree,
+have been openly hazarded by
+some who, in their own persons, are
+no patterns of the cardinal virtues.
+Such statements do no honour either
+to the heart or the judgment of those
+who devised them: nor would we have
+even touched upon the subject, save
+to reprobate, in the strongest manner,
+these breaches of domestic privacy,
+and of ill-judged and unmerited confidence.</p>
+
+<p>A good deal of the correspondence
+printed in these volumes is of a trifling
+nature, and interferes materially with
+the conciseness of the biography. We
+do not mean to say that anything
+objectionable has been included, but
+there are too many notes and epistles
+upon familiar topics, which neither
+illustrate the peculiar tone of Campbell's
+mind, nor throw any light whatever
+upon his poetical history. But
+the correspondence with his own family
+is highly interesting. Nowhere
+does Campbell appear in a higher and
+more estimable point of view, than in
+the character of son and brother.
+Even in the hours of his darkest adversity,
+we find him sharing his small
+and precarious gains with his mother
+and sisters; and they were in an equal
+degree the participators of his better
+fortunes. His fondness and consideration
+for his wife and children are
+most conspicuous; and many of his
+letters regarding his boy, when "the
+dark shadow" had passed across his
+mind, are extremely affecting. Those
+who have a taste for the modern style
+of maundering about children, and the
+perverted pictures of infancy so common
+in our social literature, may not,
+perhaps, see much to admire in the
+following extract from a letter by
+Campbell, announcing the birth of his
+eldest child: to us it appears a pure
+and exquisite picture:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"This little gentleman all this while
+looked to be so proud of his new station in
+society, that he held up his blue eyes and
+placid little face with perfect indifference
+to what people about him felt or thought.
+Our first interview was when he lay in
+his little crib, in the midst of white muslin
+and dainty lace, prepared by Matilda's
+hands, long before the stranger's arrival.
+I verily believe, in spite of my partiality,
+that lovelier babe was never smiled upon
+by the light of heaven. He was breathing
+sweetly in his first sleep. I durst
+not waken him, but ventured to give him
+one kiss. He gave a faint murmur, and
+opened his little azure lights. Since that
+time he has continued to grow in grace
+and stature. I can take him in my arms;
+but still his good nature and his beauty
+are but provocatives to the affection
+which one must not indulge: he cannot
+bear to be hugged, he cannot yet stand a
+worrying. Oh! that I were sure he
+would live to the days when I could take
+him on my knee, and feel the strong
+plumpness of childhood waxing into vigorous
+youth. My poor boy! shall I have
+the ecstasy to teach him thoughts and
+knowledge, and reciprocity of love to me?
+It is bold to venture into futurity so far!
+at present his lovely little face is a comfort
+to me; his lips breathe that fragrance
+which it is one of the loveliest kindnesses
+of Nature that she has given to infants&mdash;a
+sweetness of smell more delightful than
+all the treasures of Arabia. What adorable
+beauties of God and Nature's bounty
+we live in without knowing! How few
+have ever seemed to think an infant beautiful!
+But to me there seems to be a beauty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+in the earliest dawn of infancy which is
+not inferior to the attractions of childhood,
+especially when they sleep. Their
+looks excite a more tender train of emotions.
+It is like the tremulous anxiety
+which we feel for a candle new lighted,
+which we dread going out."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The sensibility, too, which he uniformly
+exhibited towards those who
+had shown him kindness, especially
+his older and earlier friends, is exceedingly
+pleasing. In writing to or
+speaking of the Rev. Archibald Alison
+and Dugald Stewart, his tone is one
+of heartfelt, and almost filial, affection
+and reverence; and amongst all the
+benevolent actions performed by those
+great and good men, there were few
+to which they could revert with more
+pleasure than to their seasonable patronage
+of the young and sanguine
+poet. With his literary contemporaries,
+also, he lived upon good terms,&mdash;a
+circumstance rather remarkable, for
+Campbell, notwithstanding his good-nature,
+was sufficiently touchy, and
+keenly alive to satire or hostile criticism.
+Excepting an early quarrel
+with John Leyden, on the score of
+some reported misrepresentation, a
+temporary feud with Moore, which
+was speedily reconciled, and a short
+and unacrimonious disruption from
+Bowles, we are not aware that he
+ever differed with any of his gifted
+brethren. He was upon the best
+terms with Scott; and Dr Beattie has
+given us several valuable specimens
+of their mutual correspondence. With
+Rogers he was intimate to the last:
+and even the sarcastic and dangerous
+Byron always mentioned him with
+expressions of regard. Let us add,
+moreover, that, whenever he had the
+power, he was ready, even in instances
+where his own interest might have
+counselled otherwise, to lend a helping
+hand to others who were struggling
+for literary reputation. This generous
+impulse was sometimes carried so far
+as to injure him in his editorial capacity;
+for, although fastidious to a degree
+as to the quality of his own
+writings, it was always with a sore
+heart that he shut the door in the
+face of a needy contributor.</p>
+
+<p>The querulousness with which Campbell
+complains throughout, of the cruel
+treatment which he met with at the
+hands of the publishers, would be
+amusing if it were not at the same
+time most unjust. He acknowledges,
+in a letter written to Mr Richardson,
+so late as 1812, that the sale of his
+poems, for a series of years before, had
+yielded him, on an average, £500 per
+annum: not a bad annuity, we think,
+as the proceeds of a couple of volumes!
+We happen to know, moreover, that
+by the first publication of <em>Gertrude</em>
+Campbell made upwards of a thousand
+pounds; and, unless we are grievously
+misinformed, he received from Mr Murray,
+for the copyright of the <em>Specimens</em>,
+a similar sum, being double
+the amount contracted for. We have
+already mentioned the publication of
+a subscription edition of the <em>Pleasures
+of Hope</em>, "which," says Dr Beattie,
+"with great liberality on the part of the
+publishers, was to be brought out for
+his own exclusive benefit." We should
+not have alluded to these matters,
+which, however, we believe, are no
+secrets, but for the publication by Dr
+Beattie of some very absurd expressions
+used and reiterated by Campbell.
+Such phrases as the following constantly
+occur: "They are the greatest
+ravens on earth with whom we have to
+deal&mdash;liberal enough as booksellers go&mdash;but
+still, you know, ravens, croakers,
+suckers of innocent blood, and living
+men's brains." Nor, in the opinion
+of Campbell, were these outrages confined
+merely to the living subjects, for
+he says, in reference to the older
+tenants of Parnassus, "Poor Bards!
+you are all ill used, even after death,
+by those who have lived upon your
+brains. And now, having scooped
+out those brains, they drink out of
+them, like Vandals out of the skulls
+of the severed and slain, served up by
+a Gothic Ganymede!" Further, in
+speaking of Napoleon, he says, " Perhaps
+in my feelings towards the Gallic
+usurper there may be some personal
+bias; for I must confess that, ever
+since he shot the bookseller in Germany,
+I have had a warm side to him.
+It was sacrificing an offering, by the
+hand of genius, to the manes of the
+victims immolated by the trade; and
+I only wish we had Nap here for a
+short time, to cut out a few of our own
+cormorants." The fact is, that so far
+from Campbell being ill-used by the
+trade, they behaved towards him with
+uncommon liberality. It is true that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+in several instances, they hesitated in
+making high terms for work not yet
+commenced, with a man who was notoriously
+deficient in punctuality and
+perseverance; nor are they to be
+blamed, when we consider the number
+of his schemes, and the very few instances
+in which these were brought
+to maturity.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, then, though we
+cannot bestow unqualified praise upon
+Dr Beattie, for the manner in which
+he has compiled these volumes, we
+shall state that we have passed no
+unprofitable hours in their perusal.
+We rise from them with full appreciation
+of the many excellent points
+in the poet's character, with an augmented
+regard for his memory on
+account of the virtues so eminently
+displayed, and with no lessened reverence
+for the man in consequence of
+the admitted foibles from which none
+of the human family are exempt.
+The book may be practically useful to
+those who aspire to literary eminence,
+and who are apt to rely too confidently
+and implicitly on the powers
+with which they are naturally gifted.
+So long as Campbell was under restraint&mdash;so
+long as he was subjected
+to the wholesome discipline of the
+University, and forced into the race of
+emulation, we find that his genius
+was largely and rapidly developed.
+He was not a mere philological scholar,
+though his attainments in Greek might
+have put many a pedant to the blush;
+but he improved his sense of beauty
+and his taste by the contemplation of
+the Attic flowers; and, without injuring
+his style by any affectation
+of antiquity unsuited to the tone of
+his age, he adorned it by many of the
+graces which are presented by the
+ancient models. At Glasgow he
+worked hard and won merited honours.
+But afterwards, by abandoning
+himself to a desultory course of study
+and of composition, by never acting
+upon the wise and sure plan of keeping
+one object only steadily in view,
+and persevering in spite of all difficulties
+until that point was attained,&mdash;he
+failed in realising the high expectations
+which were justified by his
+early promise. As it is, Campbell's
+name is ranked high in the roll
+of the British poets; but assuredly
+he would have occupied a still more
+exalted place, and also have avoided
+much of that anxiety which at times
+clouded his existence, if he had used
+his fine natural gifts with but a
+portion of the energy and determination
+of his great compatriot, Scott.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion let us remark, that
+however Dr Beattie may have erred
+on the side of prolixity, by including
+in the compass of the memoirs some
+trifling and irrelevant matter, he is
+more than concise whenever it is
+necessary to allude to his own relationship
+with Campbell. He has
+made no parade whatever of his intimacy
+with the poet; and no stranger,
+in perusing these volumes, could discover
+that to Beattie Campbell was
+substantially indebted for many disinterested
+acts of friendship, which
+contributed largely to the comfort of
+his declining years. This modesty is
+a rare feature in modern biography;
+and, when it does occur so remarkably
+as here, we are bound to mention
+it with special honour.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>All over Europe, of late, we have
+been hearing a great deal of universities
+and students. The trencher-cap
+has claimed a right to take its part in
+the movements which make or mar
+the destinies of nations, by the side
+of plumed casque and priestly tiara.
+Whether it was the beer of the
+German burschen that "decocted
+their cold blood to such valiant heat,"
+or whether their practice in make-believe
+duels had imparted a savage
+appetite for foeman's blood in some
+more genuine combat, or whether
+Fichte's metaphysics had fairly muddled
+their brains into delirium, certain
+it is that they have, wheresoever
+they could find an opportunity, been
+foremost in the cause of demolition
+and disorder, vied with and encouraged
+the lowest of the rabble in
+lawless aggressions, exulted in the
+glow of blazing houses, and cried
+havoc to rapine and murder.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious that, while all this has
+been going on in Europe, the attention
+of the public should have been so
+much occupied by the condition of our
+English universities. Still more curious
+is it, perhaps, that so large a
+portion of the attention thus directed
+should have assumed an objurgatory
+tone, as if Oxford and Cambridge
+were not duly performing their functions,
+as if they were of a character
+suited only to bygone ages, as if, in
+short, they were doing nothing. True
+enough, in one sense, they were
+"doing nothing." There was no
+academical legion formed&mdash;none, at
+least, that we heard of&mdash;in Christchurch
+Meadows or Trinity Walks;
+no body of sympathising students
+marched to London, with the view of
+taking part in the democratic exhibitions
+of the 10th of April. If Cuffey
+is to be President of the British Republic,
+he must search for the body-guard
+of democracy elsewhere than on
+the banks of the Cam and the Isis.
+No doubt this excellent result is attributable,
+in a great measure, to the
+loyalty of the professional and middle
+classes, from which our university
+students principally spring. Their
+feelings will naturally be akin to those
+of their relations and friends. But
+when, in so many other instances, we
+see the academic population taking
+the lead in the work of revolution,
+beyond any spirit which exists among
+their kindred, and urged on by a
+democratic madness of purely academic
+growth, we cannot help holding
+that some credit on behalf of the loyalty
+of English students is due to the
+institutions by the influence of which
+they are surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>We are inclined to think that the
+public have not been sufficiently alive
+to this not unimportant difference
+between Oxford and Heidelberg&mdash;Cambridge
+and Vienna. Certes, but
+little account was taken of the peaceful
+bearing of our academic population.
+On the contrary, much supercilious
+wordiness has been lavished,
+more or less to the discredit of cap
+and gown, by portions of the London
+press in the lead, and, as a necessary
+consequence, by provincial journalists
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ad libitum</i>. This talk, current now
+for some years, was all concentrated
+and endued with new vigour by a
+movement of the University of Cambridge
+itself. The people who stop
+your way by talking of "progress,"
+and deal out dark rhodomontade on
+the subject of "enlightenment," were
+all set agog by what they thought
+a symptom of capitulation in the
+strongholds of the Ancient. All our
+old imbecile friends, the cant phrases
+of twenty and thirty years ago, started
+up as fresh as paint, ready to go
+through all the handling they had before
+endured. We heard of, "keeping
+alive ancient prejudices," "cleaving
+pertinaciously to obsolete forms,"
+"following a monastic rule," "forgetting
+the world outside their college
+walls," and multifarious twaddle of this
+sort, till the Pope fled from Rome,
+or some other little revolution occurred
+to withdraw the attention of the public
+from this set of phrases to another,
+no doubt not less forcible and original.
+Others, again, took a friendly tone and
+spoke apologetically: it was a great
+thing to get any move at all from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+university: those who took the lead
+in her management were not men who
+mixed with the world at large, and
+allowance must be made if they did
+not altogether march with the times.
+"The world at large" is an expression
+of very doubtful import: "all
+think their little set mankind:" but
+when the resident fellows of colleges
+are charged with not duly mixing with
+the world at large, we cannot help
+thinking that those who use the phrase
+are ignoring the existence of the Didcot
+Junction and Eastern Counties
+Railway, and borrowing their ideas of
+academic life from the time when
+Hobson travelled "betwixt Cambridge
+and the Bull." As far as our
+observation goes, we should say that
+there is no class of persons who have
+better opportunities of taking an extended
+view of different phases of
+social being, or who are more disposed
+to take advantage of those opportunities.
+A fellow of a college is not
+engaged much more than half the year
+in university business; for four months,
+at the very least, he generally has it
+in his power to expatiate where he
+will, from May Fair to Mesopotamia;
+he has no household ties to detain him,
+and if he does not rub off the lexicographic
+rust, and the mathematical
+mouldiness, which he may have contracted
+during his labours of the term,
+he must be possessed of a local attachment
+almost vegetable: some few
+instances of which secluded existence
+still linger in quiet nooks of our halls
+and colleges, but which are no more
+the types of their class than Parson
+Trulliber is a representative of the
+country clergy, or the stage Diggory
+of the English yeoman. But the self-complacency
+of Cockneyism is the
+most unshaken thing in this revolutionary
+age. It is perfectly ready to
+lecture the parson on the teaching of
+Greek, or the Yorkshire farmer on the
+fattening of bullocks. All the distributive
+machinery in the world does
+not diminish, it would seem, the absorption
+of intelligence by the Ward of
+Cheap.</p>
+
+<p>We are not, however, surprised that
+the conclusions, on which we have remarked,
+should be those arrived at by
+the large class of small observers
+whose phraseology we have quoted.
+The bustling man of business, who
+takes his day-ticket to Oxford or
+Cambridge, is of course struck by seeing
+a number of usages, for the original
+of which, if he inquire, he is
+referred back to hoar mediæval times&mdash;times
+which his Cockney guides dispose
+of by some such phrase as crass
+ignorance, or feudal barbarism. He
+is naturally surprised at such things;
+he never saw anything like it before;
+they don't do so in Mincing Lane, or
+even in Gower Street. He can hardly
+be expected to view these matters in
+their relation to the system of which
+they form a part; he can hardly be
+expected to realise in them the symbols
+through which the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">genius loci</i>
+finds an utterance and exerts an
+agency; and so he goes smiling home
+in his railway carriage, and perhaps
+buys a number of <cite>Punch</cite> by the way,
+and thinks that there is more practical
+wisdom in that periodical than is embodied
+in the great monuments of
+William of Wykeham or Lady Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, while we rebut these
+vague general charges of a blind impassibility
+to the influences of the
+time, we are far from denying that a
+tendency to cling to ancient ideas and
+observances is a characteristic of the
+universities. This tendency is a property
+of all corporate institutions,
+and is commonly the reason of their
+foundation. They are to perpetuate
+to a future time a feeling or design of
+the present; to form a nucleus, round
+which the thoughts and principles of
+one age congregate, and are thus
+handed down to another in a preserved
+and crystallised form. Changes of
+ideas pass upon them of necessity,
+through the individual liability of
+their constituent members to be
+affected by the current of the passing
+time; but these changes take place
+rather by a gradual fusion of the old
+into the new, than by those sudden
+transitions to which the popular and
+prevailing opinions are so often subjected.
+And it may fairly be supposed
+that, by means of this property,
+corporations are more likely to adopt
+and amalgamate into their framework
+that which is most permanent and
+genuine, out of all that the ever-changing
+tide of time casts upon the
+shore.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, too, this tenacity of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+bygone will more naturally be found
+to be a characteristic of the universities,
+than of other corporations. The
+spots which they occupy are holy
+ground, fraught with historic memories
+of the great and wise of former
+days. The <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">genius loci</i> is a mighty
+advocate in behalf of antiquity:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"As the ghost of Homer clings<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Round Scamander's wasting springs;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">As divinest Shakspeare's might<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Fills Avon and the world with light;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">&mdash;so we may not well pass unaffected
+by the congregation of priest, and
+poet, and sage, whose recollections
+consecrate the banks of our academic
+rivers. As we go beneath "Bacon's
+mansion," or about Milton's mulberry
+tree; as we kneel where Newton
+knelt, or dine in halls where the portraits
+of Erasmus, and Fisher, and
+Taylor, look down upon us,&mdash;these are
+not times and places for the dogmatism
+and arrogance of "the nineteenth
+century"&mdash;for bragging of our advance
+and illumination, or sneering at "the
+good old times." This is in accordance
+with the law of our nature; but
+these recollections, and the lessons
+which they teach, are not, if rightly
+laid hold of, such as to induce a mere
+blind attachment to the skeletons of
+dead notions and practices. And
+although it may, perhaps must, happen
+that, at any given time, there may
+be found relics adhering to the system,
+whose vitality and meaning have been
+withdrawn by time, and left them
+dry and sapless, yet we will venture
+to assert that, if a dogged adherence
+to antiquated forms could fairly be
+charged on the universities, they could
+never have maintained their ground
+amidst the mighty historical transmutations
+that have passed over their heads.
+Civil wars and popular tumults have
+raged around them; the throne has
+yielded to violence and to intrigue;
+the Church has admitted modifications,
+both of her doctrine and her discipline;
+and, more than all, the still
+more important, though silent and
+gradual changes&mdash;changes to which
+the striking and salient events of
+history are but the indexes and visible
+signs&mdash;changes of thought and rule of
+action&mdash;have risen and sunk, and
+ebbed and flowed, and still these stable
+monuments of the piety and munificence
+of men whose names are almost
+unknown, remain unshorn of their
+ancient vigour, and intimately entwined
+with our social system.</p>
+
+<p>But it is time that we should come
+to particulars, and make known to
+our readers, as briefly as we can, the
+nature of the alterations recently introduced
+at Cambridge, which have
+called forth so much objurgatory commendation
+from quarters, which were
+commonly considered to entertain
+tolerably destructive views in regard
+to the universities. We say objurgatory
+commendation, because the faint
+praise of a "move in the right direction"
+was generally more or less coupled
+with vigorous denunciation of the antiquated
+obstinacy which had so long
+kept in the wrong. And here we
+must premise the statement of certain
+qualities of the age in which we live,
+which will have fallen under the
+notice of all observers. Perhaps
+the most distinguishing feature of our
+time is the principle which forms
+the life and soul of retail trade&mdash;the
+principle which sets men to
+busy themselves about small and
+immediate returns for outlay; which
+looks more to the gains across the
+counter, than to the advantage which
+is general, or distant, or future. In a
+word, <em>practicality</em> is the ruling passion
+of our day. As might have been expected,
+education, among other things,
+has been subjected to this huckstering
+test. People have asked, what is the
+market value of this or that branch
+of learning? Will it get a boy on in
+the world? Will it enable him to
+provide for himself soon? Will the
+returns for the expenditure I am
+going to make be quick and certain?
+Cowper represents the father of a son
+intended for the church as speculating
+on his young hopeful's prospects after
+the following fashion:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Let reverend churls his ignorance rebuke,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Who starve upon a dog's-eared Pentateuch,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The parson knows enough who knows a duke."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">In these days the acquaintance of a
+duke is not of the same relative value
+as it was when Cowper wrote; but
+this sort of worldly-wise calculation
+is more prevalent than ever, and the
+cry of the largest class of the public
+is&mdash;give us such knowledge as will <em>pay</em>.
+Those who took this commercial view
+of education derived no small encouragement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+from the circumstance that
+Prince Albert, the learned field-marshal,
+and warlike chancellor of Cambridge
+University, had interfered
+to promote the culture of modern
+languages in these venerable precincts
+of Eton, where for many a
+year Henry's holy shade had watched
+the growth of an education of less obvious
+utility. How was young Thomas
+or William "the better off" for
+being able to con "the tale of Troy divine?"
+But teach him to mince a little
+French, simper a little Italian, snarl a
+little German, and there he is at once
+accomplished for an <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">attaché</i>, a correspondent,
+or a bagman&mdash;profitable
+walks of life all of them. And the same
+notions mounted still higher in the ascendant,
+when the senate of the University
+of Cambridge apparently evinced
+a desire to examine the requirements
+of that body by the same standard.</p>
+
+<p>The first step of this kind was taken
+about three years ago. Most of our
+readers are aware that, at Cambridge,
+those candidates for a degree who do
+not aspire to honours are said to go
+out in the <em>poll</em>; this being the abbreviated
+term to denote those who were
+classically designated �ι πολλοι. Now
+the qualifications required for attaining
+this poll degree consisted of an
+acquaintance with a part of Homer,
+a part of Virgil, a part of the Greek
+Testament, and Paley's <cite>Evidences of
+Christianity</cite>, over and above the mathematics,
+of which we shall speak
+presently. By what curious infelicity
+the recondite, and, in many particulars,
+inexplicable language of Homer
+has been so commonly selected for
+beginners in Greek at school, and,
+as in this case, for those who were not
+expected to appear as accomplished
+scholars&mdash;we need not here stop to
+inquire. Suffice it to say that the
+university, in this initial reform,
+ousted Homer and Virgil from the
+course, and supplied their places with
+a Latin and Greek author, to be varied
+in each successive year. This was
+decidedly an improvement, at least as
+regards Homer, for the reason we have
+alluded to above. Perhaps a better
+innovation would have been to have
+followed the Oxford system, and allowed
+to the student a choice of his
+author. But it is a great misfortune
+that the university, in recasting this
+course, did not substitute a work of
+some one of the logical or philosophical
+authors current in the English
+language, for the shallow and plausible
+book of Paley's above mentioned&mdash;with
+regard to which it would be
+difficult to say whether it is worse
+chosen as a model of reasoning, or as
+a proof of Christian facts.</p>
+
+<p>The mathematical portion of this
+course consisted of Euclid, algebra,
+and trigonometry, the student being
+thus trained in the model processes of
+pure mathematical reasoning left us
+by the first, and also brought acquainted
+with the elementary operations
+of analysis. As a matter of
+mental training, the most valuable
+portion of this curriculum was the
+knowledge acquired of the geometrical
+processes employed by Euclid, as
+familiarising the mind of the student
+with the severest forms of reasoning,
+and the steps whereby indubitable
+verity is attained. This portion, however,
+was most especially selected for
+curtailment by the reforms to which
+we are alluding. In the stead of the
+requirements thus displaced, a motley
+amount of elementary propositions
+in statics, dynamics, and hydrostatics,
+were substituted&mdash;useful information
+enough as instances of the simpler
+applications of the analytical machinery
+of mathematics, but comparatively
+worthless as an exercise of the
+mind. Country clergymen, whose
+forgotten mathematics loomed grandly
+on their minds through the mist of
+years, were confounded with disappointment
+at beholding their sons, in
+whom they expected to find philosophers,
+return to them with an examination
+paper, apparently rather calculated
+to unfold the mysteries of engineering,
+well-sinking, and carpentering.</p>
+
+<p>This object&mdash;the practicability and
+immediate utility of the studies pursued,
+in preference to the superiority
+of mental training derivable from
+them&mdash;seems to be simply that which
+has dictated the recent innovations of
+1848. The principle which entered
+into both measures may easily be
+traced in the prevalent phases of
+literature and science throughout the
+public at large. A few years ago,
+every one fancied himself a philosopher.
+Little volumes, cabinet cyclopædias
+and the like, swarmed on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+booksellers' shelves, containing a
+string of disjointed and bald scientific
+facts, involving no truth and expressive
+of no law, but more or less
+adroitly arranged under several heads,
+with a <em>savant</em> air. The man of business&mdash;the
+apprentice&mdash;the boarding-school
+miss&mdash;took it into their heads
+that a royal road was thus opened to
+all branches of useful and entertaining
+knowledge,&mdash;that the acquirements of
+Bacon were "in this wonderful age"
+brought within the reach of every one
+who had an occasional hour or two in
+the day to spare from more mechanical
+employments; and that the progress
+from ignorance to philosophy was as
+much facilitated by these little-book
+contrivances, as the journey from London
+to Birmingham, by the rushing
+railway-train, was an advance upon
+the week's toil of our forefathers in
+accomplishing the same space. Much
+of this mania for desultory knowledge
+has evaporated, but its influences are
+still distinctly to be traced among us.
+It is not surprising that those influences
+should in some measure have
+affected the universities. In accordance
+with the popular notions afloat,
+the Cambridge legislators followed up
+the alteration which we have been
+describing by the adoption of their
+recent measures, by which they
+effected an extension of their field of
+"honours" similar to that which they
+had already accomplished in the qualifications
+for the ordinary degree.
+To the old "triposes," or classes of
+honours in mathematics and classics,
+they have now added two more&mdash;namely,
+one in moral sciences and
+one in natural sciences.</p>
+
+<p>Before, however, we offer any conjectures
+as to the probable effect of
+these yet untried changes, we must
+remind our readers of a certain characteristic
+of the Cambridge system,
+which is important in estimating the
+internal relations of the late reforms.
+The academic life of Cambridge circulates
+through two concurrent systems,
+which we may term the university
+and the collegiate system.
+The university is one corporation, and
+each individual college is altogether
+another. The union between the two
+systems might be dissolved without
+difficulty. If the university were to
+abandon her ancient seat, and take
+up some new abode, as she did for a
+time at Northampton some centuries
+ago, the colleges might still remain
+as places of education, with but little
+modification of their present character.
+The older system&mdash;the university&mdash;has
+had its functions gradually
+absorbed in a great measure by the
+collegiate. The earliest form in which
+Cambridge appears, dimly seen in
+hoar antiquity, is that of a congregation
+of students, commonly living
+together for mutual convenience in
+hostels, governed by a code of statutes,
+and endowed with the privilege of
+granting degrees. Then came the
+founders of colleges, with their noble
+endowments, and reared edifices, in
+which societies of these students
+should live together under a common
+rule, and form distinct corporations
+by themselves, for purposes connected
+with, and auxiliary to, those of the
+university. The latter body has from
+time immemorial matriculated only
+those who were already members of
+some one or other of the colleges; but
+there probably was a time at which a
+student in the university was not
+necessarily a member of any college,
+until by degrees these foundations
+absorbed into their composition the
+whole of the academic population.
+By-and-by, the principal part of the
+functions of teaching also lapsed into
+the hands of the colleges. In the old
+times, the university discharged this
+duty by means of the public readings
+or lectures by the newly admitted
+masters of arts, (termed <em>regents</em>,) and
+by the keeping of acts and opponencies&mdash;being
+certain <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vivâ voce</i> disputations&mdash;by
+the students. To this system,
+comprehending the main studies of
+the place, was superadded, by individual
+endowment or royal beneficence,
+the collateral information on
+special subjects given by the professors.
+The colleges were altogether
+subsidiary to this mode of instruction&mdash;the
+practice being that every student
+who enrolled himself in the ranks of
+a particular college, must do so under
+the charge of some one of the fellows
+of the college, who became a kind of
+private tutor to him. Hence arose
+college tutors; and as their lectures,
+given in each separate college, were
+found to be the most efficient aids in
+prosecuting the university studies, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+readings of the masters of arts gradually
+fell altogether into disuse, and
+the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vivâ voce</i> exercises of the students
+have nearly done so.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly, along with the transfer of
+the functions of lecturing from the
+university regents to the college tutors,
+the professorial chairs may also have
+declined in importance as an element
+of the academic education. But, as we
+have before seen, these were never the
+main vehicle for the dispensation of
+knowledge on the part of the university.
+Nevertheless, we suspect that
+one object of the recently erected triposes
+is to revive the importance of
+the professors' lectures in the university
+course. For it is now required
+that every one who presents himself
+as a candidate for the ordinary or <em>poll</em>
+degree, shall have attended the lectures
+of some one of the professors at
+his individual choice; and these lectures
+will, moreover, be necessary
+guides in the studies required of those
+who aim at the honours of the new
+triposes. It seems clear, therefore,
+that the devisers of the scheme had it
+in contemplation, through the medium
+of their changes, to fill the class-rooms
+of the professors, and so far to assimilate
+the modern system to the ancient,
+by bringing the university instruction
+into more active play. We are disposed
+to question the wisdom of these
+proceedings. Until now, the university
+and the colleges had apportioned
+their several functions, by assigning
+to the latter the duty of imparting proficiency
+in the studies cultivated; to
+the former, that of testing proficiency
+attained. The two systems had
+thus harmonised, as we believe, in
+conformity with the requirements of
+the age by lapse of time; and if it
+was deemed desirable to disturb this
+arrangement, and restore the faculty
+of teaching to the university, this
+should rather have been done, we
+think, by reviving the system of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vivâ
+voce</i> disputations, now altogether disused
+except in the progress to a degree
+in law, physic, or divinity; but which
+would form, under proper regulations,
+an important adjunct to the ordinary
+course, by cultivating a decision, a
+readiness, and an ingenuity in reasoning,
+which are comparatively left dormant
+by a written examination. Again,
+it is, as we consider, altogether a mistake
+to suppose that the primary end
+of a professorial existence is to deliver
+lectures. The endowment of a professorship
+is rather, as we take it, to
+enable the holder of it to give up his
+time to the particular science to which
+he is devoted; and it is by no means
+necessary, especially in these days,
+when words are so easily winged by
+the printer's devil, that the results of
+his labours should be given forth by
+oral lectures. At the same time, when
+his subject, and his manner of treating
+it, were such as to command interest,
+he was at no loss for an audience. The
+professorships, however, being mostly
+established for the purpose of aiding
+the pursuit of the inductive sciences,
+side by side with the severer studies of
+the university, fell under the patronage
+of the spirit of the age. Whether
+the sciences, for the promotion of
+which they were founded, will be
+materially advanced by this sort of
+"protection," remains to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>It is likely enough, we think, that
+some confusion may arise from this
+revival of the lecturing powers of the
+university. This, however, will be
+easily obviated in practice, as the two
+systems have never, so far as we are
+aware, manifested anything like a
+mutual antagonism or jealousy of each
+other. A greater practical difficulty is
+one which appears to be left untouched
+by the new regime. We allude to
+the growing plan of instruction by
+private tutors&mdash;a calling which has
+sprang up, in the strictest principles of
+demand and supply, to meet the eagerness
+for external aid which has been
+induced by the great competition for
+university honours. The existence
+and increasing importance of the class
+of private tutors has been decried as an
+evil; and it, no doubt, enhances considerably
+the expenses attendant on a
+college education. But, after all, this
+is only part and parcel of the lot which
+has fallen to us in these latter days
+of merry England. There are so
+many of us, and we keep so constantly
+adding to our numbers, that
+we must not be surprised at more
+pushing and contrivance being required
+to realise a livelihood than heretofore;
+and as the end to be attained increases
+in its relative importance, the outlay
+attendant on its attainment will, in the
+ordinary course of things, be augmented<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+also. It is not our intention,
+however, to discuss at this time the
+merits or demerits of the private-tutor
+system; it suffices for our purpose to
+notice it as the reappearance, in another
+form, of the old functions of instruction,
+as lodged in the hands of the
+university regents. As the collegiate
+system gradually supplanted that
+pristine form, so the office of the
+private tutors is, to a certain extent,
+supplanting the collegiate system.
+These instructors are likely, as we before
+said, to occupy, under the new
+rules, much the same place as they
+held under the old; and indeed it
+appears that, whether desirable or not,
+it would be extremely difficult to get
+rid of them; at all events the colleges,
+being now trenched upon by the
+university professors on the one
+hand, and by the private tutors on
+the other, must exert themselves to
+ascertain their proper functions, and
+to fulfil them with zeal and energy.</p>
+
+<p>As for the new triposes themselves,
+it may be doubted whether the name
+given to them is not the most unfortunate
+part of them. The common
+name of Tripos looks like a confusion
+of ideas on the part of the university
+itself, and a want of discrimination
+between its old studies and its new.
+At first, probably, the recent triposes
+will be comparatively neglected, and
+on that ground alone it is both misjudging
+and unfair to include in the
+same category of "honours" and
+"tripos," classes which are respectively
+the subject of ardent competition
+and of none at all. But supposing
+that the new classes attracted
+their fair share of competitors, it
+would still be a grievous fault in the
+university to hold out to the world
+so false an estimate of the vehicle of
+mental training, as it would appear
+to do by placing on a par the new
+studies and the old&mdash;by assuming, or
+seeming to assume, that ratiocinative
+thought may be as well employed
+about the fallacies of Mr Ricardo, as
+the exact reasoning and indubitable
+verities of Euclid and Newton; or
+that the faculties of discrimination
+and speculation may be unfolded by
+the "getting up" of botanical or
+chemical nomenclature, not less than
+by the new world of thought opened
+through the authors of Greece and
+Rome. We must, however, confess
+that we are now taking the most
+unfavourable view of the matter.
+With respect, indeed, to the natural
+sciences' tripos, we cannot help being
+fully of opinion, that it should have
+been distinctly recognised as subsidiary
+to the main vehicles of education
+adopted at Cambridge. But the
+moral sciences' tripos furnishes, if
+properly constructed, an excellent
+means for training thought. It is a
+great misfortune that the study of
+Aristotle has been suffered at Cambridge
+to fall almost into desuetude:
+we speak of the philosophical study
+of his works in contradistinction to
+the philological. The former is
+maintained at Oxford with great
+success; thus combining, with Oxford
+scholarship, a training of the reasoning
+powers which is almost an equivalent
+for the mathematical studies
+of her sister university. Moreover,
+the literature of Great Britain boasts
+of a band of moral philosophers far
+greater than any other modern nation
+can produce. The works of Butler,
+Cudworth, Berkeley, Hume, Reid,
+and Stewart, with many others, form
+a group of authorities worthy of the
+groves of Academus. The metaphysics
+of Locke&mdash;we should rather
+say, the wall which Locke has built
+up between the English mind and the
+science of metaphysics&mdash;has too long
+prevented the moral reasoners of this
+country from duly availing themselves
+of the treasures at their command.
+Under the guidance of such lights as
+those we have enumerated, we may
+hope to see a school of metaphysical
+thinkers arise in England, whose exertions
+may dissipate the mist of
+half-thought in which Teutonic speculation
+has involved the science of its
+choice. If, however, the tap-root of
+our metaphysical thought is to be cut
+through by the study of the plausibilities
+of Locke and Paley, (no very
+unlikely issue, we should fear, at least
+under present circumstances,) then
+this moral sciences' tripos also is one
+of those things which had better never
+have been.</p>
+
+<p>We repeat that Cambridge has incurred
+great blame, if she has allowed
+herself to mislead, or to seem to mislead,
+the popular mind on these matters.
+The more talkative portion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+the public, and the newspapers which
+commonly represent that more talkative
+portion, have evidently been inclined
+to interpret this movement of
+Cambridge as an indication of a most
+utilitarian system of education coming
+to supplant the old rules. They
+anticipate all sorts of civil engineering,
+butterfly-dissecting, light geology,
+and a whole Babel of modern languages,
+to be victoriously let loose on
+the home where for many a century
+Wisdom has sat with the scroll of Plato
+on her knee, and Science has unravelled
+the wizard lore of fluxion and equation.
+The senate of Cambridge is
+egregiously mistaken if it supposes
+that it will win over to its body the
+students of these popular branches of
+knowledge, by following the dictation
+of the popular taste. Those who want
+to be civil engineers will not come to
+a university to learn their art. They
+will follow Brunel and Stephenson,
+and see how the work is actually done
+in practice; and those who do so will
+soon prove themselves far superior,
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">quoad</i> civil engineering, to the Cambridge-bred
+theorist. In like manner,
+a month's flirtation in Paris,
+or a few games at <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">écarté</i> with a
+German baron, will teach the student
+of modern languages more French
+or German than all the philologists
+of Oxford, Cambridge, or Eton can
+impart in a year.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+"Quam quisque nôrit artem, in hâc se exerceat."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noind">If the public have mistaken the functions
+of the university, it is the more
+incumbent on her to assert them correctly.
+Nor is the outcry less groundless,
+that the universities have failed
+to furnish the best men in law
+and medicine. With regard to the
+law, certain gentlemen were even cited
+by name, in leading articles of newspapers,
+as types of the class of men
+who were now taking the lead at the
+bar, and representing an altogether
+different school from that trained at
+the universities. The fact of the university
+men being supplanted, or being
+likely to be supplanted, at the bar,
+may admit of considerable question.
+But it is not, after all, the question
+by which the universities are to be
+judged. They do not undertake to
+make men great lawyers or skilful
+physicians; this, where it does belong
+to their functions, is a collateral duty,
+and not the main object of their training.
+That object is distinctly avowed
+in their own formularies. That noble
+clause in the "bidding prayer" will attach
+itself to the memories of most of
+those who have heard it:</p>
+
+<p>"<em>And that there never may be wanting
+a supply of persons duly qualified
+to serve God, both in Church and State</em>,
+let us pray for a blessing on all seminaries
+of sound learning and religious
+education, particularly the universities
+of this realm."</p>
+
+<p>A higher end to be attained, perhaps,
+than that of merely qualifying
+the student to "get on in the world."
+His university education is not so
+much to enable him to attain those
+eminent stations which are the prizes
+of ability and industry, as to fit him to
+adorn and fill worthily those stations
+when he has attained them. In truth,
+we think it is not desirable, any more
+than necessary, that a degree should
+be an essential opening to the bar, the
+profession of medicine, or even the
+Church. The university is injured by
+being too much regarded as a step to
+be got over with the view of reaching
+some ulterior end.</p>
+
+<p>We dwell on this point with the
+more interest, because we are satisfied
+that a still greater responsibility
+rests with the universities, to guard
+the fountains of knowledge pure and
+unsullied, in those days of professed
+knowledge, than in the so-called dark
+ages. Our day is rich in the knowledge
+of <em>facts</em>; there were many <em>truths</em>
+influencing those men of the times
+we please to call dark, which we have
+ignored or forgotten. The general
+demand for information&mdash;for this
+knowledge of facts&mdash;has made it a
+marketable commodity, a subject of
+commercial speculation; consequently,
+a vast deal that is shallow and desultory,
+a vast deal, too, that is counterfeit
+and fraudulent, is abroad, made
+up for the market, and circulates
+among multitudes who are incapable
+of separating the grain from the chaff.
+It is therefore, we repeat, even more
+important that the sources of learning
+should be guarded from contamination,
+now that the antagonistic principles
+are the knowledge of truth and the
+subserviency to falsehood, than when,
+at the revival of literature, the struggle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+was between knowledge and ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>We would have the universities remember
+that it is their best policy as
+corporations, as well as a duty they
+owe to those great medieval spirits
+who planted them where they stand,
+to own a better principle than that
+which would lead them to succumb to
+what is called popular opinion&mdash;in other
+words, the floating fallacy of the day&mdash;and
+aim at producing the shallow
+party leaders and favourite writers of
+the passing moment. They cannot
+control the frothy surface and the
+deep under-current at the same time.
+It would be a sacrifice to expediency
+which, after all, would not serve their
+turn. There are institutions which
+will do that work, and which will beat
+them in the race. Let all such take
+their own course.</p>
+
+<p>"Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his
+hoggish kinde:" let Stinkomalee train
+the statesmen for the League and the
+jokers for <cite>Punch</cite>,&mdash;but Oxford and
+Cambridge have other rôles.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, we are told there is a new
+aristocracy rising in England, and that
+the English universities are gaining no
+hold upon the coming generation of
+"chiefs of industry." It would be far
+better for our social condition that
+these same chiefs of industry should
+be educated men, and should pass
+through a training which might tend
+to neutralise the power of the mercantile
+iron in entering into their soul.
+But at present the race to be rich is
+so strong and hardly contested, that
+this class is hardly likely, in general,
+to devote their scions to academical
+studies of any description; and the
+merchant or manufacturer who came
+from the banks of Isis or Cam, at the
+age of twenty-one, to the Exchange
+or the Cloth-hall, would find himself
+starting under a most heavy disadvantage
+as compared with his neighbour
+of the same age, who had spent
+the last three or four years in a counting-house.
+The reason that this class
+is not commonly trained in the national
+seminaries, is to be sought in the
+habit and requirements of the class,
+and not in the nature of the education
+afforded them.</p>
+
+<p>We have spoken chiefly of Cambridge,
+because Cambridge has put
+herself forward as the representative
+of a system of so-called university reform&mdash;of
+a certain movement in the
+direction of that principle which would
+accommodate the education of our
+higher classes to the caprice of a popular
+cry or cant phrase. We care not
+so much whether that movement in
+itself be advantageous or the reverse:
+it is against the principles supposed
+to be involved in it that we protest.
+The report goes, that changes of some
+kind or other are contemplated at
+Oxford also. If these changes be
+made, we trust that they will not be
+devised in deference to the noisier
+portion of the public, or to that fondness
+for short-cuts to knowledge,
+which fritters away the energies of the
+rising man in the collection of desultory
+facts, and the dependence upon
+shallow plausibilities. The Scottish
+universities, too, are likely to be put
+to the test in the same manner as their
+sisters of the Southern kingdom; and
+the questions raised cannot be uninteresting
+to them.</p>
+
+<p>Nor, indeed, can the whole nation
+be otherwise than deeply concerned
+in this matter; and we are not surprised,
+at the interest which has been excited
+by the recent alterations at Cambridge,
+though not measures in themselves
+of any great importance. While
+we have contended for a higher ground
+on the part of the universities than
+that of merely finding such knowledge
+as is required by the popular taste,
+and happens to be most current in
+the market, and have called upon
+them to lead the public mind in these
+matters, we need hardly say that we
+must not be understood as failing to
+see the necessity of those institutions
+closely observing the shifting relations
+of our social equilibrium, and adapting
+their policy by judicious change, if
+need be, to the circumstances in which
+they find themselves. We might
+perhaps adduce the altered position of
+the Church with respect to the nation
+at large, as an instance of these
+changes. We have before hinted
+that the universities have, as we
+think, in some degree aimed at being
+too exclusively the training-schools
+of the clergy; and this circumstance,
+in our judgment, so far as England is
+concerned, has both narrowed the
+operations of the Church and the
+influence of the universities. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+Church and European civilisation&mdash;the
+latter having grown up under the
+tutelage of the former&mdash;stand no
+longer in the relation of nurse and
+bantling, though Heaven forbid that
+they should ever be other than firm
+friends and allies! But the Church
+is no longer the exclusive teacher of
+the world: mankind are in a great
+measure taught by books. Viewing
+the clergy not in respect of their
+sacerdotal functions, but as the instructors
+of mankind, we find their
+office shared by a motley crowd of
+authors, pamphleteers, newspaper
+editors, magazine contributors, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">quales
+nos vel Cluvienus</i>. It is incumbent,
+then, on the universities to consider
+how they may bring within the sphere
+of that control which they exercised
+in old times over the clergy, this
+mixed multitude of public instructors;
+how they may become not
+merely the schools of the clerical
+order, but also the nurseries of a future
+caste of literary men, who are to bear
+their part with that order in the coming
+development of human thought.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h2>THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN.</h2>
+
+<h3>BY DELTA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>[Making all allowances for the many over-coloured pictures, nay, often
+onesided statements of such apologetic chroniclers as Knox, Melville,
+Calderwood, and Row, it is yet difficult to divest the mind of a strong
+leaning towards the old Presbyterians and champions of the Covenant&mdash;probably
+because we believe them to have been sincere, and know
+them to have been persecuted and oppressed. Nevertheless, the liking
+is as often allied to sympathy as to approbation; for a sifting of motives
+exhibits, in but too many instances, a sad commixture of the chaff of
+selfishness with the grain of principle&mdash;an exhibition of the over and over
+again played game, by which the gullible many are made the tools of the
+crafty and designing few. Be it allowed that, both in their preachings from
+the pulpit and their teachings by example, the Covenanters frequently proceeded
+more in the spirit of fanaticism than of sober religious feeling; and
+that, in their antagonistic ardour, they did not hesitate to carry the persecutions
+of which they themselves so justly complained into the camp of the
+adversary&mdash;sacrificing in their mistaken zeal even the ennobling arts of architecture,
+sculpture, and painting, as adjuncts of idol-worship&mdash;still it is to be
+remembered, that the aggression emanated not from them; and that the rights
+they contended for were the most sacred and invaluable that man can possess&mdash;the
+freedom of worshipping God according to the dictates of conscience.
+They sincerely believed that the principles which they maintained were right:
+and their adherence to these with unalterable constancy, through good report
+and through bad report; in the hour of privation and suffering, of danger and
+death; in the silence of the prison-cell, not less than in the excitement of the
+battle-field; by the blood-stained hearth, on the scaffold, and at the stake,&mdash;forms
+a noble chapter in the history of the human mind&mdash;of man as an
+accountable creature.</p>
+
+<p>Be it remembered, also, that these religious persecutions were not mere
+things of a day, but were continued through at least three entire generations.
+They extended from the accession of James VI. to the English throne, (<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">testibus</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+the rhymes of Sir David Lyndsay, and the classic prose of Buchanan,)
+down to the Revolution of 1688&mdash;almost a century, during which many thousands
+tyrannically perished, without in the least degree loosening that tenacity
+of purpose, or subduing that <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">perfervidum ingenium</i>, which, according to
+Thuanus, have been national characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>As in almost all similar cases, the cause of the Covenanters, so strenuously
+and unflinchingly maintained, ultimately resulted in the victory of Protestantism&mdash;that
+victory, the fruits of which we have seemed of late years so readily
+inclined to throw away; and, in its rural districts more especially, of nothing
+are the people more justly proud than</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">&mdash;&mdash;"the tales<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of persecution and the Covenant,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">So says Wordsworth. These traditions have been emblazoned by the pens
+of Scott, M'Crie, Galt, Hogg, Wilson, Grahame, and Pollok, and by the
+pencils of Wilkie, Harvey, and Duncan,&mdash;each regarding them with the eye
+of his peculiar genius.</p>
+
+<p>In reference to the following stanzas, it should be remembered that, during
+the holding of their conventicles,&mdash;which frequently, in the more troublous
+times, took place amid mountain solitudes, and during the night,&mdash;a sentinel
+was stationed on some commanding height in the neighbourhood, to give warning
+of the approach of danger.]</p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">I.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ho! plaided watcher of the hill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">What of the night?&mdash;what of the night?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The winds are lown, the woods are still,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The countless stars are sparkling bright;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From out this heathery moorland glen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">By the shy wild-fowl only trod,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We raise our hymn, unheard of men,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To Thee&mdash;an omnipresent God!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">II.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Jehovah! though no sign appear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through earth our aimless path to lead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We know, we feel Thee ever near,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A present help in time of need&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Near, as when, pointing out the way,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For ever in thy people's sight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A pillared wreath of smoke by day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Which turned to fiery flame at night!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">III.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Whence came the summons forth to go?&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From Thee awoke the warning sound!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Out to your tents, O Israel! Lo!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The heathen's warfare girds thee round.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">&nbsp;</a></span>
+<span class="i0">Sons of the faithful! up&mdash;away!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The lamb must of the wolf beware;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The falcon seeks the dove for prey;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The fowler spreads his cunning snare!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">IV.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Day set in gold; 'twas peace around&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'Twas seeming peace by field and flood:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We woke, and on our lintels found<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The cross of wrath&mdash;the mark of blood.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lord! in thy cause we mocked at fears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We scorned the ungodly's threatening words&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beat out our pruning-hooks to spears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And turned our ploughshares into swords!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">V.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Degenerate Scotland! days have been<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy soil when only freemen trod&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When mountain-crag and valley green<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Poured forth the loud acclaim to God!&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fire which liberty imparts,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Refulgent in each patriot eye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, graven on a nation's hearts,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2"><em>The Word</em>&mdash;for which we stand or die!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">VI.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Unholy change! The scorner's chair<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is now the seat of those who rule;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tortures, and bonds, and death, the share<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of all except the tyrant's tool.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That faith in which our fathers breathed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And had their life, for which they died&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That priceless heirloom they bequeathed<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Their sons&mdash;our impious foes deride!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">VII.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">So We have left our homes behind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And We have belted on the sword,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And We in solemn league have joined,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yea! covenanted with the Lord,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Never to seek those homes again,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Never to give the sword its sheath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Until our rights of faith remain<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Unfettered as the air we breathe!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">VIII.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Thou, who rulest above the sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Begirt about with starry thrones,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Cast from the Heaven of Heavens thine eye<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Down on our wives and little ones&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From Hallelujahs surging round,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Oh! for a moment turn thine ear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The widow prostrate on the ground,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The famished orphan's cries to hear!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">&nbsp;</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="p2">IX.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And Thou wilt hear! it cannot be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That Thou wilt list the raven's brood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When from their nest they scream to Thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And in due season send them food;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It cannot be that Thou wilt weave<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The lily such superb array,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet unfed, unsheltered, leave<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy children&mdash;as if less than they!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">X.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We have no hearths&mdash;the ashes lie<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In blackness where they brightly shone;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We have no homes&mdash;the desert sky<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Our covering, earth our couch alone:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We have no heritage&mdash;depriven<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of these, we ask not such on earth;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our hearts are sealed; we seek in heaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For heritage, and home, and hearth!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">XI.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Salem, city of the saint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And holy men made perfect! We<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pant for thy gates, our spirits faint<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy glorious golden streets to see;&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To mark the rapture that inspires<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The ransomed, and redeemed by grace;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To listen to the seraphs' lyres,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And meet the angels face to face!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">XII.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Father in Heaven! we turn not back,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Though briers and thorns choke up the path;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rather the tortures of the rack,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Than tread the winepress of Thy wrath.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let thunders crash, let torrents shower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Let whirlwinds churn the howling sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What is the turmoil of an hour,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To an eternal calm with Thee?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h2>THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The debates in the Cortes, and the
+increasing development of the civil war
+in Catalonia, have again called attention
+to the affairs of Spain. Three
+months ago we glanced at the state
+of that country, briefly and broadly
+sketching its political history since the
+royal marriages. The quarter of a
+year that has since elapsed has been a
+busy one in Spain. Two things have
+been clearly proved: first, that the
+Carlist insurrection is a very different
+affair from the paltry gathering of banditti,
+as which the Moderados and their
+newspapers so long persisted in depicting
+it; and, secondly, that the
+Madrid government are heartily
+repentant of their unceremonious
+dismissal of a British ambassador.
+Christina and her Camarilla scarcely
+know which most deeply to deplore&mdash;the
+intrusion of Cabrera or the expulsion
+of Bulwer.</p>
+
+<p>In Catalonia, we have a striking
+example of what may be accomplished,
+under most unfavourable
+circumstances, by one man's energy
+and talent. Nine months ago there
+was not a single company of Carlist
+soldiers in the field. A few irregular
+bands, insignificant in numbers, without
+uniform and imperfectly armed,
+roamed in the mountains, fearing to
+enter the plain, hunted down like
+wolves, and punished as malefactors
+when captured. To persons ignorant
+how great was the difference made by
+the fall of Louis Philippe in the
+chances of the Spanish Carlists, the
+cause of these never appeared more
+hopeless than in the spring of 1848.
+Suddenly a man, who for seven years
+had basked in the orange groves of
+Hyères, and listlessly lingered in the
+mountain solitudes of Auvergne,&mdash;reposing
+his body, scarred and weary
+from many a desperate combat, and
+recruiting his health, impaired by
+exertion and hardship&mdash;crossed the
+Pyrenees, and appeared upon the
+scene of his former exploits. The
+news of his arrival spread fast, but for
+a time found few believers. Cabrera,
+said the incredulous, who evacuated
+Spain at the head of ten thousand
+hardy and well-armed soldiers, because
+he would not condescend to a
+guerilla warfare, after having held
+towns and fortresses, and won pitched
+battles in the field&mdash;Cabrera would
+never re-enter the country to take
+command of a few hundred scattered
+adventurers. Others denied his presence,
+because he had not immediately
+signalised it by some dashing
+feat, worthy the conqueror of Morella
+and Maella. Various reports were
+circulated by those interested to discredit
+the arrival of the redoubted
+chief. He was ill, they said; he had
+never entered Spain or dreamed of so
+doing; he had come to Catalonia,
+others admitted, but was so disgusted
+at the scanty resources of his party,
+at the few men in the field, at the
+lack of arms, money, organisation,&mdash;of
+everything, in short, necessary for the
+prosecution of a war,&mdash;that he cursed
+the lying representations which had
+lured him from retirement, and was
+again upon the wing for France. The
+truth was in none of these statements.
+If Cabrera sounded a retreat in 1840,
+when ten thousand warlike and devoted
+followers were still at his orders,
+it was because the Carlist <em>prestige</em> was
+gone for a time, the country was
+exhausted by war, anarchy reigned in
+the camp, and he himself was prostrated
+by sickness. In seven years, circumstances
+had entirely changed; the
+country, galled by misgovernment and
+oppression, was ripe for insurrection;
+the intermeddling of foreign powers
+was no longer to be apprehended; and
+Cabrera emerged from his retirement,
+not expecting to find an army, or
+money, or organisation, but prepared
+to create all three. In various ingenious
+and impenetrable disguises
+he moved rapidly about eastern Spain;
+fearlessly entering the towns, visiting
+his old partisans, and reviving their
+dormant zeal by ardent and confident
+speech; giving fresh spirit to the
+timid, shaming the apathetic, and
+enlisting recruits. His unremitting
+efforts were crowned with success.
+Numbers of his former followers rallied
+round him; secret adherents of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+cause contributed funds; arms and
+equipments, purchased in France and
+England, safely arrived; officers of
+rank and talent, distinguished in former
+wars, raised their banners and
+mustered companies and even battalions;
+and soon Cabrera was strong
+enough to traverse Catalonia in all
+directions, and to collect from the inhabitants
+regular contributions, in
+almost every instance willingly paid,
+and gathered often within cannon-shot
+of the enemy's forts. He seemed
+ubiquitous. He was heard of everywhere,
+but more rarely seen, at least
+in his own character. In various assumed
+ones, not unfrequently in the
+garb of a priest, he accompanied small
+detachments sent to collect imposts;
+doing subaltern's rather than general's
+duty, ascertaining by personal observation
+the temper and disposition of
+the peasantry, and making himself
+known when a point was to be gained
+by the influence of his name and presence.
+His prodigious activity and
+perseverance wrought miracles in a
+country where those qualities by no
+means abound. Doubtless he has
+been well seconded, but his has been
+the master-spirit. The result of his
+exertions is best shown by a statement
+of the present Carlist strength
+in Catalonia. We have already
+mentioned what it was eight or nine
+months ago&mdash;a few hundred men,
+half-armed and ill disciplined, wandering
+amongst ravines and precipices.
+At the close of 1848, the Moderado
+papers, without means of obtaining
+correct information, estimated
+the Carlist army in Catalonia at 8000
+men. The Carlists themselves, whose
+present policy is rather to under-state
+their strength, admitted 10,000.
+Their real numbers&mdash;and the accuracy
+of these statistics may be relied upon&mdash;are
+12,000 bayonets and sabres,
+exclusive of small guerilla parties,
+known as <i>volantes</i>, and other irregulars.
+A large proportion of the 12,000 are
+old soldiers, who served in the last
+war; and all are well armed, equipped,
+and disciplined, and superior to their
+opponents in power of endurance, and
+of effecting those tremendous marches
+for which Spanish troops are celebrated.
+Regularly rationed and supplied
+with tobacco, they wait cheerfully till
+the military chest is in condition to
+disburse arrears. The curious in costume
+may like to hear something of
+their appearance. The brigade under
+the immediate orders of Cabrera wears
+a green uniform with black facings:
+Ramonet's men have dark blue jackets;
+there is a corps clothed <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">à l'Anglaise</i>, in
+scarlet coats and blue continuations,
+which is known as Count Montemolin's
+own regiment. The old <em>boina</em> or
+flat cap, and a sort of light, low-crowned
+shako, such as is worn by the
+French in Africa, compose the convenient
+and appropriate head-dress.
+With the important arms of artillery
+and cavalry, in which armies raised as
+this one has been are apt to be deficient,
+Cabrera is well provided. A
+number of guns were buried and otherwise
+concealed in Spain ever since the
+last war, and others have been procured
+from France. As to cavalry,
+the want of which was so frequently
+and severely felt by the Carlists during
+the former struggle, the Christinos will
+be surprised, one of these days, to find
+how formidable a body of dragoons
+their opponents can bring into the
+field, although at the present moment
+they have but few squadrons under
+arms. Nearly four thousand horses
+are distributed in various country districts,
+comfortably housed in farm and
+convent stables, and divided amongst
+the inhabitants by twos and threes.
+They are well cared for, and kept in
+good condition, ready to muster and
+march whenever required.</p>
+
+<p>What the Catalonian Carlists are
+now most in want of, is a centre of
+operations, a strong fortress&mdash;a Morella
+or a Berga&mdash;whither to retreat and
+recruit when necessary. That Cabrera
+feels this want is evident from the
+various attempts he has made to surprise
+fortified towns, with a view to
+hold them against the Christinos.
+Hitherto these attempts have been
+unsuccessful, but we may be prepared
+to hear any day of his having made
+one with a different result.</p>
+
+<p>When the general tranquillity of
+Europe brought Spanish dissensions
+into relief, a vast deal of romance was
+written in France, Spain, and England,
+in the guise of memoirs of
+Cabrera, and of other distinguished
+leaders of the civil war, and not a
+little was swallowed by the simple as
+historical fact. We remember to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+have seen the Convention of Bergara
+accounted for in print by a game at
+cards between Espartero and Maroto,
+who, both being represented as desperate
+gamblers, met at night at a
+lone farm-house between their respective
+lines, and played for the crown
+of Spain. Espartero won; and Maroto,
+more loyal as a gamester than to his
+king, brought over his army to the
+queen. This marvellous tale, although
+not exactly vouched for in the
+original English, was gravely translated
+in French periodicals; and the
+chances are that a portion of the
+French nation believe to the present
+hour that Isabella owes her crown to
+a lucky hit at <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">monté</i>. Fables equally
+preposterous have been circulated
+about Cabrera. Of his personal appearance,
+especially, the most absurd
+accounts have been published; and
+type and graver have furnished so many
+fantastical and imaginary portraits of
+him, that one from the life may have
+its interest. Ramon Cabrera is
+about five feet eight inches in height,
+square built, muscular, and active.
+He is rather round-shouldered; his
+hair is abundant and very black; his
+grayish-brown eyes must be admitted,
+even by his admirers, to have a cruel
+expression. His complexion is tawny,
+his nose aquiline; he has nothing remarkable
+or striking in his appearance,
+and is neither ugly nor handsome,
+but of the two may be accounted
+rather good-looking than otherwise.
+He has neither an assassin-scowl nor
+an expression like a bilious hyena,
+nor any other of the little physiognomical
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">agrémens</i> with which imaginative
+painters have so frequently embellished
+his countenance. His character,
+as well as his face, has suffered from
+misrepresentation. He has been depicted
+as a Nero on a small scale,
+dividing his time between fiddling
+and massacre. There is some exaggeration
+in the statement. Unquestionably
+he is neither mild nor merciful;
+he has shed much blood, and has
+been guilty of divers acts of cruelty,
+but more of these have been attributed
+to him than he ever committed. His
+mother's death by Christino bullets
+inspired him with a burning desire of
+revenge. The system of reprisals, so
+largely adopted by both sides, during
+the late civil war in Spain, will account
+for many of his atrocities, although
+it may hardly be held to
+justify them. But in the present contest
+he has hitherto gone upon a
+totally different plan. Mercy and
+humanity seem to be his device, as
+they are undoubtedly his best policy.
+His aim is to win followers, by clemency
+and conciliation, instead of
+compelling them by intimidation and
+cruelty. There is as yet no authenticated
+account of an execution occurring
+by his order. One man was
+shot at Vich by the troops blockading
+the place; but he was known as a spy,
+and was twice warned not to enter the
+town. He pretended to retire, made
+a circuit, tried another entrance, and
+met his death. As to Cabrera's having
+shot four or five officers for a plot
+against his life, as was recently reported
+in Spanish papers, and repeated
+by English ones, the tale is unconfirmed,
+and has every appearance of
+a fabrication. There is no doubt he
+finds it necessary to keep a tight hand
+over his subordinates, especially in
+presence of the recent defection of
+some of their number, whose treachery,
+however, is not likely to be very
+advantageous to the Christinos.
+The troops whom Pozas, Pons,
+Monserrat, and the other renegade
+chiefs induced to accompany
+them, have for the most part returned
+to their banners, and the queen
+has gained nothing but a few very
+untrustworthy officers. These, by
+one of the conditions of their desertion,
+her generals are compelled to employ,
+thus creating much discontent among
+those officers of the Christino army
+over whose heads the traitors are placed.
+The principal traitor, General Miguel
+Pons, better known as Bep-al-Oli, has
+been known as a Carlist ever since the
+rising in Catalonia in 1827, when he was
+captured by the famous Count d'Espagne,
+and was condemned to the galleys,
+as was his brother Antonio Pons,
+one of those whom Cabrera was lately
+falsely reported to have shot. After
+the death of Ferdinand, both brothers
+served under their former persecutor,
+who thought to extinguish their resentment
+by good treatment and promotion,
+in spite of which precaution
+a share in his assassination is pretty
+generally attributed to Antonio Pons.
+Bep-al-Oli is Catalan for Joseph-in-oil,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+or Oily Joe, a slippery cognomen,
+which his recent change of sides
+seems to justify. Still he is a model
+of consistency compared to many
+Spanish officers, who have changed
+sides half-a-dozen times in the last
+fifteen years. And, indeed, after
+one-and-twenty years' stanch and
+active Carlism, the sincerity of Bep's
+conversion may perhaps be considered
+dubious. It would be no way surprising
+if he were to return to his
+first love, carrying with him, of
+course, the large sum for which he
+was bought. Another chief, Monserrat,
+passed over to the Christinos
+with two or three companions, and
+the very next week he had the misfortune
+to fall asleep, whereupon the
+better half of his band took advantage
+of his slumbers to go back to their
+colours, much comforted by the
+gratuities they had received for changing
+sides. When Monserrat awoke,
+he was furious at this defection, and
+instantly pursued his stray sheep.
+Not having been heard of since, it is
+not unlikely he may ultimately have
+followed their example. Of course,
+money is the means employed to
+seduce these fickle partisans. They
+are all bought at their own price,
+which rate is generally so high as to
+preclude profit. The cash-keepers at
+Madrid will soon get tired of such
+purchases. The regular expenses of
+the war are enormous, without squandering
+thousands for a few days' use
+of men who cannot be depended upon.
+It is notorious that immense offers
+were made to Cabrera to induce him
+to abandon the cause of Charles VI.,
+of which he is the life and soul. Gold,
+titles, rank, governorships, have been
+in turn and together paraded before
+him, but in vain. <em>He</em> would indeed
+be worth buying, at almost any
+price; for he could not be replaced,
+and his loss would be a death-blow
+to the Carlist cause. Knowing
+this, and finding him incorruptible,
+it were not surprising if certain unscrupulous
+persons at Madrid sought
+other means of removing him from
+the scene. Cabrera, aware of the
+great importance of his life, very
+prudently takes his precautions. He
+has done so, to some extent, at
+various periods of his career. During
+the early portion of his exile in
+France, when that country, especially
+its southern provinces, swarmed with
+Spanish emigrants, many of whom
+had deep motives for hating him&mdash;whilst
+others, needy and starving,
+and inured to crime and bloodshed,
+might have been tempted to knife him
+for the contents of his pockets&mdash;the
+refugee chief wore a shirt of mail beneath
+his sheepskin jacket. He had
+also a celebrated pair of leathern
+trousers, which were generally believed
+to have a metallic lining.
+And, at the present time, report says
+that his head is the only vulnerable
+part of his person.</p>
+
+<p>In presence of their Catalonian
+anxieties, of Cabrera's rapidly increasing
+strength, and of the impotence
+of Christino generals, who
+start for the insurgent districts with
+premature vaunts of their triumphs,
+and return to Madrid, baffled and
+crestfallen, to wrangle in the senate
+and divulge state secrets&mdash;the Narvaez
+government is secretly most
+anxious to make up its differences
+with England. This anxiety has been
+made sufficiently manifest by the
+recent discussions in the Cortes.
+Notwithstanding his assumed indifference
+and vain-glorious self-gratulation,
+the Duke of Valencia would
+gladly give a year's salary, perquisites,
+and plunder, to recall the impolitic act
+by which a British envoy was expelled
+the Spanish capital. Señor
+Cortina, the Progresista deputy, after
+denying that there were sufficient
+grounds for Sir Henry Bulwer's dismissal,
+and lamenting the rupture
+that has been its consequence, politely
+advised Narvaez to resign office, as
+almost the only means of repairing
+the dangerous breach. The recommendation,
+of course, was purely
+ironical. General Narvaez is the
+last man to play the Curtius, and
+plunge, for his country's sake, into the
+gulf of political extinction. In his
+scale of patriotism, the good of Spain
+is secondary to the advantage of
+Ramon Narvaez. We can imagine
+the broad grins of the Opposition, and
+the suppressed titter of his own
+friends, upon his having the face to
+declare, that, when the French Revolution
+broke out, he was actually
+planning a transfer of the reins of
+government into the hands of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+Progresistas. The bad example of
+democratic France frustrated his disinterested
+designs, changed his benevolent
+intentions, and compelled him
+to transport and imprison, by wholesale,
+the very men towards whom, a
+few weeks previously, he was so magnanimously
+disposed. Returns of
+more than fifteen hundred persons,
+thus arbitrarily torn from their homes
+and families, were moved for early in
+the session; but only the names were
+granted, the charges against them
+being kept secret, in order not to give
+the lie to the ministerial assertion
+that but a small minority were condemned
+for political offences. As to
+the dispute with England, although
+Narvaez' pride will not suffer him to
+admit his blunder and his regrets,
+many of his party make no secret of
+their desire for a reconciliation at any
+price; fondly believing, perhaps, that
+it would be followed, upon the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">amantium
+iræ</i> principle, by warmer love
+and closer union than before. The
+slumbers of these <i>ojalatero</i> politicians
+are haunted by sweet visions of a
+British steam-flotilla cruising off the
+Catalonian coast, of Carlist supplies
+intercepted, of British batteries mounted
+on the shores of Spain, and manned
+by British marines&mdash;the sight of
+whose red jackets might serve, at a
+pinch, to bolster up the wavering
+courage of a Christino division&mdash;and
+of English commodores and artillery-colonels
+supplying such deficient
+gentlemen as Messrs Cordova and
+Concha with the military skill which,
+in Spain, is by no means an indispensable
+qualification for a lieutenant-general's
+commission. Doubtless, if the
+alliance between Lord Palmerston and
+Queen Christina had continued, we
+should have had something of this
+sort, some more petty intermeddling
+and minute military operations, consumptive
+of English stores, and discreditable
+to English reputation. As
+it is, there seems a chance of the
+quarrel being fairly fought out; of
+the Spaniards being permitted to
+settle amongst themselves a question
+which concerns themselves alone. If
+the Carlists get the better of the
+struggle, (and it were unsafe to give
+long odds against them,) it is undeniable
+that they began with small resources,
+and that their triumph will
+have been achieved by their own
+unaided pluck and perseverance.</p>
+
+<p>Puzzled how to make his peace
+with England, without too great mortification
+to his vanity and too great
+sacrifice of what he calls his dignity,
+Narvaez falls back upon France, and
+does his best to curry favour there by
+a fulsome acknowledgment of the
+evils averted from Spain by the
+friendly offices of Messrs Lamartine
+and Bastide, and of "the illustrious
+General Cavaignac." The fact is,
+that during the first six months of the
+republic, nobody in France had leisure
+to give a thought to Spain, and Carlists
+and Progresistas were allowed
+to concert plans and make purchases
+in France without the slightest molestation.
+At last, General Cavaignac,
+worried by Sotomayor&mdash;and partly,
+perhaps, through sympathy with his
+brother-dictator, Narvaez&mdash;sent to
+the frontier one Lebrière, a sort of
+thieftaker or political Vidocq, who
+already had been similarly employed
+by Louis Philippe. This man was to
+stir up the authorities and thwart the
+Carlists, and at first he did hamper
+the latter a little; but whether it was
+that he was worse paid than on his
+former mission&mdash;Cavaignac's interest
+in the affair being less personal than
+that of the King of the French&mdash;or
+that some other reason relaxed his
+activity, he did not long prove efficient.
+Then came the elections, and
+the success of Louis Napoleon was
+unwelcome intelligence to the Madrid
+government&mdash;it being feared that old
+friendship might dispose him to favour
+Count Montemolin as far as lay in his
+power: whereupon&mdash;the influence of
+woman being a lever not unnaturally
+resorted to by a party which owes its
+rise mainly to bedchamber intrigue
+and to the patronage of Madame
+Muñoz&mdash;the notable discovery was
+made that the Duchess of Valencia (a
+Frenchwoman by birth) is a connexion
+of the Buonaparte family, and
+her Grace was forthwith despatched
+to Paris to exercise her coquetries and
+fascinations upon her far-off cousin,
+and to intrigue, in concert with the
+Duke of Sotomayor, for the benefit
+of her husband's government. The
+result of her mission is not yet apparent.
+Putting all direct intervention
+completely out of the question, France<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+has still a vast deal in her power in
+all cases of insurrection in the northern
+and eastern provinces of Spain.
+A sharp look-out on the frontier,
+seizure of arms destined for the insurgents,
+and the removal of Spanish
+refugees to remote parts of France,
+are measures that would greatly harass
+and impede Carlist operations; much
+less so now, however, than three or
+four months ago. Most of the emigrants
+have now entered Spain; and
+horses and arms&mdash;the latter in large
+numbers&mdash;have crossed the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the middle of January, the
+Montemolinist insurrection was confined
+to Catalonia, where alone the
+insurgents were numerous and organised.
+This apparent inactivity in
+other districts, where a rising might
+be expected, was to be attributed to
+the season. The quantity of snow
+that had fallen in the northern provinces
+was a clog upon military operations.
+About the middle of the
+month, a thousand men, including three
+hundred cavalry, made their appearance
+in Navarre, headed by Colonel
+Montero, an old and experienced officer
+of the peninsular war, who served on the
+staff so far back as the battle of Baylen.
+This force is to serve as a nucleus.
+The conscription for 1849 has been
+anticipated; that is to say, the young
+soldiers who should have joined their
+colours at the end of the year, are
+called for at its commencement; and
+it is expected that many of these conscripts,
+discontented at the premature
+summons, will prefer joining the Carlists.
+When the weather clears, it is
+confidently anticipated that two or
+three thousand hardy recruits will
+make the valleys of Biscay and Navarre
+ring once more with their Basque
+war-cries, headed by men whose
+names will astonish those who still
+discredit the virtual union of Carlists
+and Progresistas.</p>
+
+<p>The masses of troops sent into
+Catalonia have as yet effected literally
+nothing, not having been able to prevent
+the enemy even from recruiting
+and organising. General Cordova
+made a military promenade, lost a few
+hundred men&mdash;slain or taken prisoners
+with their brigadier at their head&mdash;and
+resigned the command. He has
+been succeeded by Concha, a somewhat
+better soldier than Cordova, who
+was never anything but a parade
+butterfly of the very shallowest capacity.
+Concha has as yet done little more
+than his predecessor, (his reported
+victory over Cabrera between Vich
+and St Hippolito was a barefaced invention,
+without a shadow of foundation,)
+although his force is larger than Cordova's
+was, and his promises of what
+he <em>would</em> do have been all along most
+magnificent. Already there has been
+talk of his resignation, which doubtless
+will soon occur, and Villalonga is
+spoken of to succeed him. This general,
+lately created Marquis of the Maestrazgo
+for his cruelty and oppression
+of the peasantry in that district, will
+hardly win his dukedom in Catalonia,
+although dukedoms in Spain are now to
+be had almost for the asking. Indeed,
+they have become so common that,
+the other day, General Narvaez,
+Duke of Valencia, anxious for distinction
+from the vulgar herd, was about
+to create himself prince; but having
+unfortunately selected Concord for his
+intended title, and the accounts from
+Catalonia being just then anything
+but peaceable, he was fain to postpone
+his promotion till it should be more
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">de circonstance</i>. The Prince of Concord
+would be a worthy successor to
+the Prince of the Peace. Spain was
+once proud of her nobility and choice
+of her titles. Alas! how changed are
+the times! What a pretty list of
+grandees and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">titulos de Castilla</i> the
+Spanish peerage now exhibits! Mr
+Sotomayor, the other day a bookseller's
+clerk, then sub-secretary in a
+ministry, then understrapper to Gonzales
+Bravo, now duke and ambassador
+at Paris! What a successor
+to the princely and magnificent envoys
+of a Philip and a Charles!
+And Mr Sartorius, lately a petty
+jobber on the Madrid Bolsa, is now
+Count of St Louis, secretary of state,
+&amp;c.! When the Legion of Honour
+was prostituted in France by lavish
+and indiscriminate distribution, and
+by conversion into an electioneering
+bribe and a means of corruption, many
+old soldiers, who had won their cross
+upon the battle-fields of the Empire,
+had the date of its bestowal affixed
+in silver figures to their red ribbon.
+The old nobility of Spain must soon
+resort to a similar plan, and sign their
+date of creation after their names, if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+they would be distinguished from the
+horde of disreputable adventurers on
+whom titles have of late years been
+infamously squandered.</p>
+
+<p>When the Madrid government has
+performed its promise, so often repeated
+during the last six months, of
+extinguishing the Carlists and restoring
+peace to Spain, we hope those ill-treated
+gentlemen in the city of London,
+who, from time to time, draw up
+a respectful representation to General
+Narvaez on the subject of Spanish
+debts&mdash;a representation which that
+officer blandly receives, and takes an
+early opportunity of forgetting&mdash;will
+pluck up courage and sternly urge the
+Duke of Valencia and the finance
+minister of the day to apply to the
+liquidation of Spanish bondholders'
+claims a part, at least, of the resources
+now expended on military operations.
+Forty-five millions of reals, about
+half-a-million of pounds sterling, are
+now, we are credibly informed, the
+monthly expenditure of the war department
+of Spain. That this is
+squeezed out of the country, by some
+means or other, is manifest, since nobody
+now lends money to Spain. A
+very large part of this very considerable
+sum being expended in Catalonia,
+goes into the pockets of the inhabitants
+of that province, who pay it
+over to the Carlists in the shape of
+contributions, and still make a profit
+by the transaction&mdash;so that they are
+in no hurry to finish the war; and
+Catalonia presents at this moment
+the singular spectacle of two contending
+armies paid out of the same military
+chest. But Spain is the country
+of anomalies; and nothing in the conduct
+of Spaniards will ever surprise us,
+until we find them, by some extraordinary
+chance, conducting their affairs
+according to the rules of common
+sense and the dictates of ordinary
+prudence.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center space-above"><em>Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.</em></p>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "Amongst the Caucasian tribes, the interest of Europe has attached itself
+especially to the Circassians, because they are regarded (in Urquhart's words) 'as
+the only people, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, ever ready to revenge an
+injury and retort a menace proceeding from the Czar of the Muscovites.' Urquhart's
+opinion, which is shared by the great majority of the European public, is not
+quite correct, the Circassians not being the only combatants against Russia. Indeed
+it so happens that, for the last four years, they have kept tolerably quiet in their
+mountains, contenting themselves with small forays into the Cossack country on the
+Kuban; whilst the warlike Tshetshens in the eastern Caucasus, their chief, Chamyl,
+at their head, have given the Russian army much more to do. But, in the absence of
+official intelligence, and of regular newspaper information concerning the events of
+the war, people in Europe have got accustomed to admire and praise the Circassians
+as the only defenders of Caucasian freedom against Russian aggression; and
+even in St Petersburg the intelligent public hold the famous Chamyl to be chief
+of the Circassians, with whom he has nothing whatever to do."&mdash;<cite>Der Kaukasus</cite>,
+&amp;c., vol. ii. p. 22-3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> "It must be admitted that Russian officers are second to those of no other nation,
+in thirst for distinction, and in honourable ambition, to awaken and stimulate which,
+innumerable means are employed. In no other army are the rewards for those officers
+who distinguish themselves in the field of so many kinds, and so lavishly dealt
+out. There are all manner of medals and marks for good service&mdash;crosses and stars of
+Saints George, Stanislaus, Vladimir, Andrew, Anna, and other holy personages; some
+with crowns, some with diamonds, peculiar distinctions on the epaulets and uniforms,
+&amp;c. &amp;c. I was once in a distinguished society, composed almost entirely of officers
+of the army of the Caucasus. Not finding very much amusement, I had the patience to
+count all the orders and decorations in the room, and found that upon the breasts of
+the thirty-five military guests, there glittered more than two hundred stars, crosses,
+and medals; on some of the generals' coats were more orders than buttons. As it
+usually happens, the desire for these distinctions increases with their possession.
+The Russian who has obtained a medal leaves no stone unturned to get a knight's
+cross, and when the cross is at his button-hole, he is ravenous for the glittering star,
+and ready to make any sacrifice to obtain it."&mdash;<cite>Der Kaukasus</cite>, &amp;c., vol. ii. p. 98.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The reference in this instance is more particularly to the land of the Ubiches
+and Tchigetes, two tribes that abide south of Circassia Proper, and whose language
+differs from those of the Circassians and Abchasians, their neighbours to the
+north and south. The general medium of conversation amongst the various Caucasian
+tribes is the Turkish-Tartar dialect, current amongst most of the dwellers on the
+shores of the Black and Caspian Seas.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Longworth's <cite>Circassia</cite>, vol. i. p. 1589.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This certainly cannot be said of Cumberland generally, one of the most beautiful
+counties in Great Britain. But the immediate district to which Mr Caxton's exclamation
+refers; if not ugly, is at least savage, bare, and rude.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <cite>The New statistical Account of Scotland.</cite> In 15 vols. Edinburgh, 1845.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Schlozer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> "It is said that a woman in Benbecula went at night to the Sandbanks, to dig
+for some roe used for dyeing a red colour, against her husband's will; that, when
+she left her house, she said with an oath she would bring some of it home, though
+she knew there was a regulation by the factor and magistrates, prohibiting people
+to use it or dig for it, by reason that the sandbanks, upon being excavated, would be
+blown away with the wind. The woman never returned home, nor was her body
+ever found. It was shortly thereafter that the meteor was first seen; and it is said
+that it is the ghost of the unfortunate and profane woman that appears in this shape."&mdash;<cite>New
+Statistical Account</cite>, "Inverness," p. 184.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Hogel</span>, <cite>Entwurf zur Theorie der Statistik</cite>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <cite>The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland.</cite> Illustrated by <span class="smcap">R. W.
+Billings</span>, and <span class="smcap">William Burn</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Prospectus <cite>Parochiale Scoticanum</cite>, now editing by <span class="smcap">Cosmo Innes</span>, Esq., Advocate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Burke.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <cite>Memoires sur le Duc de Berry.</cite></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Alison.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Chateaubriand.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See <cite>Blackwood's Magazine</cite>, for January 1845, and for October 1846</p></div></div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="tn"><h3>Transcriber's note:</h3>
+<p>Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed.</p>
+
+<p>Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where the missing quote should be placed.</p>
+
+<p>The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44344 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #44344 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44344)
diff --git a/old/44344-0.txt b/old/44344-0.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 65,
+No. 400, February, 1849, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 65, No. 400, February, 1849
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: December 4, 2013 [EBook #44344]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, FEB 1849 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Library of Early Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+  NO. CCCC.      FEBRUARY, 1849.      VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS,                          129
+
+  THE CAXTONS. PART X.,                               147
+
+  STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND,                   162
+
+  THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART,             175
+
+  AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS,          190
+
+  DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO,                            202
+
+  MODERN BIOGRAPHY.--BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL,      219
+
+  THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS,         235
+
+  THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN. BY DELTA,              244
+
+  THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA,                          248
+
+
+  EDINBURGH:
+  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET:
+  AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
+
+  _To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._
+
+  SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+  PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+  NO. CCCC.       FEBRUARY, 1849.       VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS.
+
+     _Der Kaukasus und das Land der Kosaken in den Jahren 1843 bis
+     1846._ Von MORITZ WAGNER. 2 vols. Dresden und Leipzig, 1848.
+
+
+A handful of men, frugal, hardy, and valiant, successfully defending
+their barren mountains and dearly-won independence against the
+reiterated assaults of a mighty neighbour, offer, apart from
+political considerations, a deeply interesting spectacle. When, upon
+a map of the world's eastern hemisphere, we behold, not far from its
+centre, on the confines of barbarism and civilisation, a spot, black
+with mountains, and marked "Circassia;" when we contrast this petty
+nook with the vast territory stretching from the Black Sea to the
+Northern Ocean, from the Baltic to Behring's Straits, we admire and
+wonder at the inflexible resolution and determined gallantry that
+have so long borne up against the aggressive ambition, iron will,
+and immense resources of a czar. Sixty millions against six hundred
+thousand--a hundred to one, a whole squadron against a single
+cavalier, a colossus opposed to a pigmy--these are the odds at
+issue. It seems impossible that such a contest can long endure. Yet
+it has lasted twenty years, and still the dwarf resists subjugation,
+and contrives, at intervals, to inflict severe punishment upon his
+gigantic adversary. There is something strangely exciting in the
+contemplation of so brave a struggle. Its interest is far superior
+to that of any of the "little wars" in which Europe, since 1815,
+has evaporated her superabundant pugnacity. African raids and
+Spanish skirmishes are pale affairs contrasted with the dashing
+onslaughts of the intrepid Circassians. And, in other respects than
+its heroism, this contest merits attention. As an important section
+of the huge mountain-dyke, opposed by nature to the south-eastern
+extension of the Russian empire, Circassia is not to be overlooked.
+On the rugged peaks and in the deep valleys of the Caucasus, her
+fearless warriors stand, the vedettes of southern Asia, a living
+barrier to the forward flight of the double eagle.
+
+Matters of pressing interest, nearer home, have diverted public
+attention from the warlike Circassians, whose independent spirit and
+unflinching bravery deserves better than even temporary oblivion.
+Not in our day only have they distinguished themselves in freedom's
+fight. Surrounded by powerful and encroaching potentates, their
+history, for the last five hundred years, records constant struggles
+against oppression. Often conquered, they never were fully subdued.
+Their obscure chronicles are illumined by flashes of patriotism
+and heroic courage. Early in the fifteenth century, they conquered
+their freedom from the Georgian yoke. Then came long wars with the
+Tartars, who could hardly, perhaps, be considered the aggressors,
+the Circassians having overstepped their mountain limits, and spread
+over the plains adjacent to the Sea of Azov. In 1555, the Russian
+grand-duke, Ivan Vasilivitch, pressed forward to Tarki upon the
+Caspian, where he placed a garrison. A Circassian tribe submitted
+to him; he married the daughter of one of their princes, and
+assisted them against the Tartars. But after a while the Russians
+withdrew their succour; and the Circassians, driven back to the
+river Kuban, their natural boundary to the north-west, paid tribute
+to the Tartars, till the commencement of the eighteenth century,
+when a decisive victory liberated them. Meanwhile Russia strode
+steadily southwards, reached the Kuban in the west, whilst, in the
+east, Tarki and Derbent fell, in 1722, into the hands of Peter
+the Great. The fort of Swiatoi-Krest, built by the conqueror, was
+soon afterwards retaken by a swarm of fanatical mountaineers from
+the eastern Caucasus. It is now about seventy years since Russian
+and Circassian first crossed swords in serious warfare. A fanatic
+dervise, who called himself Sheikh Mansour, preached a religious war
+against the Muscovites; but, although followed with enthusiasm, his
+success was not great, and at last he was captured and sent prisoner
+into the interior of Russia. With his fall the furious zeal of the
+Caucasians subsided for a while. But the Turks, who viewed Circassia
+as their main bulwark against the rapidly increasing power of their
+dangerous northern neighbour, made friends of the mountaineers, and
+stirred them up against Russia. The fortified town of Anapa, on the
+north-west coast of Circassia, became the focus of the intercourse
+between the Porte and its new allies. The creed of Mahomet was
+actively propagated amongst the Circassians, whose relations with
+Turkey grew more and more intimate, and in the year 1824 several
+tribes took oath of allegiance to the sultan. In 1829, during the
+war between Russia and Turkey, Anapa, which had more than once
+changed hands in the course of previous contests, was taken by the
+former power, to whom, by the treaty of Adrianople, its possession,
+and that of the other Turkish posts on the same coast, was finally
+conceded. Hence the chief claim of Russia upon Circassia--although
+Circassia had never belonged to the Turks, nor been occupied by
+them; and from that period dates the war that has elicited from
+Russia so great a display of force against an apparently feeble, but
+in reality formidable antagonist--an antagonist who has hitherto
+baffled her best generals, and picked troops, and most skilful
+strategists.
+
+The tribes of the Caucasus may be comprehended, for the sake of
+simplicity, under two denominations: the Tcherkesses or Circassians,
+in the west, and the Tshetshens in the east. In loose newspaper
+statements, and in the garbled reports of the war which remote
+position, Russian jealousy, and the peculiarly inaccessible
+character of the Caucasians, suffer to reach us, even this broad
+distinction is frequently disregarded.[1] It is nevertheless
+important, at least in a physiological point of view; and, even
+as regards the resistance offered to Russia, there are differences
+between the Eastern and the Western Caucasians. The military tactics
+of both are much alike, but the character of the war varies. On
+the banks of the Kuban, and on the Euxine shores, the strife has
+never been so desperate, and so dangerous for the Russians, as
+in Daghestan, Lesghistan, and the land of the Tshetshens. The
+Abchasians, Mingrelians, and other Circassian tribes, dwelling on
+the southern slopes of Caucasus, and on the margin of the Black Sea,
+are of more peaceable and passive character than their brethren
+to the North and East. The Tshetshens, by far the most warlike
+and enterprising of the Caucasians, have had the ablest leaders,
+and have at all times been stimulated by fierce religious zeal.
+As far back as 1745, Russian missionaries were sent to the tribe
+of the Osseti, who had relapsed from Christianity to the heathen
+creed of their forefathers. Every Osset who presented himself at
+the baptismal font received a silver cross and a new shirt. The
+bait brought thousands of the mountaineers to the Russian priests,
+who contented themselves with the outward and visible sign of
+conversion. These propagandist attempts enraged the Mahomedan
+tribes, and then it was that they thronged around Sheikh Mansour,
+as they have done in our day (in 1830) around that strange fanatic
+Chasi-Mollah, when in his turn he preached a holy war against the
+Russian. In the latter year, General Paskewitch had just been
+called away to Poland, and his successor, Baron Rosen, found all
+Daghestan in an uproar. He immediately opened the campaign, but met
+a strenuous resistance, and suffered heavy loss. The defence of the
+village of Hermentschuk, held against him, in the year 1832, by
+3000 Tshetshens, was an extraordinary example of heroism. When the
+Russian infantry forced their way into the place with the bayonet, a
+portion of the garrison shut themselves up in a fortified house, and
+made it good against overwhelming numbers, singing passages from the
+Koran amidst a storm of bombs and grapeshot. At last the building
+took fire, and its undaunted defenders, the sacred verses still
+upon their lips, found death in the flames. In an equally desperate
+defence of the fortified village of Himri, Chasi-Mollah met his
+death, falling in the very breach, bleeding from many wounds. The
+chief who succeeded him was less venerated and less energetic,
+and for a few years the Tshetshens remained tolerably quiet, but
+without a thought of submission. Nevertheless the Russians flattered
+themselves that the worst was past; that the death of the mad
+dervish was an irreparable loss to the mountaineers. They were
+mistaken. Out of his most ardent adherents Chasi-Mollah had formed a
+sort of sacred band, whom he called Murides, gloomy fanatics, half
+warriors, half priests. They composed his body-guard, were unwearied
+in preaching up the fight for the Prophet's faith, and in battle
+devoted themselves to death with a heroism that has never been
+surpassed. From these, within a short time of their first leader's
+death, Chamyl, the present renowned chief of the Tshetshens, soon
+stood forth pre-eminent, and the Murides followed him to the field
+with the same enthusiasm and valour they had shown under his
+predecessor. He did not prove less worthy of guiding them; and the
+Russians were compelled to confess, that it was easier for the
+Tshetshens to find an able leader than for them to find a general
+able to beat him. And victories over the restless and enterprising
+Caucasians were of little profit, even when obtained. For the most
+part, they only served to fill the Russian hospitals, and to procure
+the officers those ribbons and distinctions they so greedily covet,
+and which, in that service, are so liberally bestowed.[2] Thus,
+in 1845, Count Woronzoff made a most daring expedition into the
+heart of Daghestan. He found the villages empty and in flames,
+lost three thousand men, amongst them many brave and valuable
+officers, and marched back again, strewing the path with wounded,
+for whom the means of transport (the horses of the Cossack cavalry)
+were quite insufficient. With great difficulty, and protected by
+a column that went out to meet them, the Russians regained their
+lines, harassed to the last by the fierce Caucasians. This affair
+was called a victory, and Count Woronzoff was made a prince. Two
+more such victories would have reduced his expeditionary column to
+a single battalion. Chamyl, who had cannonaded the Russians with
+their own artillery, captured in former actions, possibly considered
+himself equally entitled to triumph, as he slowly retreated, after
+following up the foe nearly to the gates of their fortresses, into
+the recesses of his native valleys.
+
+  [1] "Amongst the Caucasian tribes, the interest of Europe has
+  attached itself especially to the Circassians, because they are
+  regarded (in Urquhart's words) 'as the only people, from the
+  Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, ever ready to revenge an injury
+  and retort a menace proceeding from the Czar of the Muscovites.'
+  Urquhart's opinion, which is shared by the great majority of the
+  European public, is not quite correct, the Circassians not being
+  the only combatants against Russia. Indeed it so happens that,
+  for the last four years, they have kept tolerably quiet in their
+  mountains, contenting themselves with small forays into the Cossack
+  country on the Kuban; whilst the warlike Tshetshens in the eastern
+  Caucasus, their chief, Chamyl, at their head, have given the Russian
+  army much more to do. But, in the absence of official intelligence,
+  and of regular newspaper information concerning the events of the
+  war, people in Europe have got accustomed to admire and praise the
+  Circassians as the only defenders of Caucasian freedom against
+  Russian aggression; and even in St Petersburg the intelligent public
+  hold the famous Chamyl to be chief of the Circassians, with whom he
+  has nothing whatever to do."--_Der Kaukasus_, &c., vol. ii. p. 22-3.
+
+  [2] "It must be admitted that Russian officers are second to those
+  of no other nation, in thirst for distinction, and in honourable
+  ambition, to awaken and stimulate which, innumerable means are
+  employed. In no other army are the rewards for those officers
+  who distinguish themselves in the field of so many kinds, and so
+  lavishly dealt out. There are all manner of medals and marks for
+  good service--crosses and stars of Saints George, Stanislaus,
+  Vladimir, Andrew, Anna, and other holy personages; some with crowns,
+  some with diamonds, peculiar distinctions on the epaulets and
+  uniforms, &c. &c. I was once in a distinguished society, composed
+  almost entirely of officers of the army of the Caucasus. Not finding
+  very much amusement, I had the patience to count all the orders and
+  decorations in the room, and found that upon the breasts of the
+  thirty-five military guests, there glittered more than two hundred
+  stars, crosses, and medals; on some of the generals' coats were
+  more orders than buttons. As it usually happens, the desire for
+  these distinctions increases with their possession. The Russian who
+  has obtained a medal leaves no stone unturned to get a knight's
+  cross, and when the cross is at his button-hole, he is ravenous
+  for the glittering star, and ready to make any sacrifice to obtain
+  it."--_Der Kaukasus_, &c., vol. ii. p. 98.
+
+The interior of Circassia is still an unknown land. The
+investigations of Messrs Bell, Longworth, Stewart, and others,
+who of late years have visited and written about the country,
+were confined to small districts, and cramped by the jealousy of
+the natives. Mr Bell, who made the longest residence, was treated
+more like a prisoner than a guest. Other foreigners find a worse
+reception still. Even the Poles, who desert from the Russian army,
+are made slaves of by the Circassians, and so severely treated
+that they are often glad to return to their colours, and endure
+the flogging that there awaits them. The only European who, having
+penetrated into the interior, has again seen his own country, is
+the Russian Baron Turnau, an aide-de-camp of General Gurko; but
+the circumstances of his abode in Circassia were too painful and
+peculiar to allow opportunity for observation. They are well told by
+Dr Wagner.
+
+     "By the Emperor's command, Russian officers acquainted with
+     the language are sent, from time to time, as spies into
+     Circassia,[3]--partly to make topographical surveys of
+     districts previously unknown; partly to ascertain the numbers,
+     mode of life, and disposition of those tribes with whom no
+     intercourse is kept up. These missions are extremely dangerous,
+     and seldom succeed. Shortly before my arrival at Terek, four
+     Russian staff-officers were sent as spies to various parts of
+     Lesghistan. They assumed the Caucasian garb, and were attended
+     by natives in Russian pay. Only one of them ever returned;
+     the three others were recognised and murdered. Baron Turnau
+     prepared himself long beforehand for his dangerous mission.
+     He gave his complexion a brownish tint, and to his beard the
+     form affected by the aborigines. He also tried to learn the
+     language of the Ubiches, but, finding the harsh pronunciation
+     of certain words quite unattainable, he agreed with his guide
+     to pass for deaf and dumb during his stay in the country.
+     In this guise he set out upon his perilous journey, and for
+     several days wandered undetected from tribe to tribe. But one
+     of the _works_ (nobles) under whose roof he passed a night,
+     conceived suspicions, and threatened the guide, who betrayed his
+     employer's secret. The baron was kept prisoner, and the Ubiches
+     demanded a cap-full of silver for his ransom from the Russian
+     commandant of Fort Ardler. When this officer declared himself
+     ready to pay, they increased their demand to a bushel of silver
+     rubles. The commandant referred the matter to Baron Rosen, then
+     commander-in-chief of the army of the Caucasus; the baron
+     reported it to St Petersburg, and the Emperor consented to pay
+     the heavy ransom. But Rosen represented it to him as more for
+     the Russian interest to leave Turnau for a while in the hands of
+     the Ubiches; for, in the first place, the payment of so large a
+     sum was a bad precedent, likely to encourage the mountaineers to
+     renew the extortion, instead of contenting themselves, as they
+     previously had done, with a few hundred rubles; and, secondly,
+     as a prisoner, Baron Turnau would perhaps have opportunities of
+     gathering valuable information concerning a country and people
+     of whom little or nothing was known. The unfortunate young
+     officer was cruelly sacrificed to these considerations, and
+     passed a long winter in terrible captivity, tortured by frost
+     and hunger, compelled, as a slave, to the severest labour, and
+     often greatly ill-treated. Several attempts at flight failed;
+     and at last the chief, in whose hands he was, confined him in a
+     cage half-buried in the ground, and withal so narrow that its
+     inmate could neither stand upright nor lie at length."
+
+  [3] The reference in this instance is more particularly to the
+  land of the Ubiches and Tchigetes, two tribes that abide south of
+  Circassia Proper, and whose language differs from those of the
+  Circassians and Abchasians, their neighbours to the north and south.
+  The general medium of conversation amongst the various Caucasian
+  tribes is the Turkish-Tartar dialect, current amongst most of the
+  dwellers on the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas.
+
+Thus immured, a prey to painful maladies, his clothes rotting on
+his emaciated limbs, the unhappy man moaned through his long and
+sleepless nights, and gave up hope of rescue. No tender-hearted
+Circassian maiden brought to him, as to the hero of Pushkin's
+well-known Caucasian poem, deliverance and love. Such luck had been
+that of more than one Russian captive; but poor Turnau, in his
+state of filth and squalor, was no very seductive object. He might
+have pined away his life in his cage, before Baron Rosen, or his
+paternal majesty the Czar, had recalled his fate to mind, but for
+an injury done by his merciless master to one of his domestics, who
+vowed revenge. Watching his opportunity, this servant, one day that
+the rest of the household were absent, murdered his lord, released
+the prisoner, tied him with thongs upon his saddle, upon which the
+baron, covered with sores and exhausted by illness, was unable to
+support himself, and galloped with him towards the frontier. In one
+day they rode eighty _versts_, (about fifty-four English miles,)
+outstripped pursuers, and reached Fort Ardler. The accounts given
+by Baron Turnau of the land of his captivity could be but slight:
+he had seen little beyond his place of confinement. What he did
+relate was not very encouraging to Russian invasion. He depicted
+the country as one mass of rock and precipice, partially clothed
+with vast tracts of aboriginal forest, broken by deep ravines and
+mountain torrents, and surmounted by the huge ice-clad pinnacles of
+the loftiest Caucasian ridge. The villages, some of which nestle in
+the deep recesses of the woods, whilst others are perched upon steep
+crags and on the brink of giddy precipices, are universally of most
+difficult access.
+
+Dr Wagner, whose extremely amusing book forms the text of this
+article, has never been in Circassia, although he gives us more
+information about it, of the sort we want, than any traveller in
+that singular land whose writings have come under our notice.
+His wanderings were under Russian guidance and escort. During
+them, he skirted the hostile territory on more than one side;
+occasionally setting a foot across the border, to the alarm of
+his Cossacks, whose dread by day and dreams by night were of
+Circassian ambuscades; he has lingered at the base of Caucasus, and
+has traversed its ranges--without, however, deeming it necessary
+to penetrate into those remote valleys, where foreigners find
+dubious welcome, and whence they are not always sure of exit. He
+has mixed much with Circassians, if he has not actually dwelt in
+their villages. It were tedious and unnecessary to detail his
+exact itinerary. He has not printed his entire journal--according
+to the lazy and egotistical practice of many travellers--but has
+taken the trouble to condense it. The essence is full of variety,
+anecdote and adventure, and gives a clear insight into the nature
+of the war. Professedly a man of science, an antiquary and a
+naturalist, Dr Wagner has evidently a secret hankering after matters
+military. He loves the sound of the drum, and willingly directs
+his scientific researches to countries where he is likely to smell
+powder. We had heard of him in the Atlas mountains, and at the
+siege of Constantina, before we met him risking his neck along the
+banks of the Kuban, and across the wild steppes of the Caucasus.
+He has travelled much in the East, and prepared himself for his
+Caucasian trip by a long stay in Turkey and in Southern Russia.
+Well introduced, he derived from distinguished Russian generals,
+intelligent civilians, and Circassian chiefs, particulars of the war
+more authentic than are to be obtained either from St Petersburg
+bulletins, or from the ordinary trans-Caucasian correspondents of
+German and other newspapers, many of whom are in the pay of Russia.
+His African reminiscences proved of great value. The officers of the
+army of Caucasus take the strongest interest in the contest between
+French and Arabs, finding in it, doubtless, points of similitude
+with the war in which they themselves are engaged. Amongst these
+officers he met, besides Russians and Germans, several naturalised
+Poles and Frenchmen, Flemings and Spaniards, who gave in exchange
+for his tales of razzias and Bedouins, details of Circassian warfare
+which he highly prized, as likely to be more impartial than the
+accounts afforded by the native Russians. His own journey to the
+Caucasus took place in 1843; but a subsequent correspondence with
+well-informed friends, on both sides the Caucasian range, enabled
+him to bring down his sketch of the struggle to the year 1846.
+
+Many English writers on Circassia have been accused of an undue
+preference for the mountaineers, of exaggerating their good
+qualities, and of elevating them by invidious contrasts with the
+Russians. There is no ground for suspecting a German of such
+partiality; and Dr Wagner, whilst lauding the heroic valour and
+independent spirit of the Circassians--qualities which Russian
+authors have themselves admitted and extolled--does not forget
+to do justice to his Muscovite and Cossack friends, to whom he
+devotes a considerable portion of his book, many of his details
+concerning them being extremely novel and curious. He carefully
+studied both Cossacks and Circassians, living amongst the former
+and meeting thousands of the latter, who go and come freely upon
+Russian territory. At Ekaterinodar, the capital of the Tchernamortsy
+Cossacks, the Friday's market swarmed with Circassians. In Turkey,
+and elsewhere, Dr Wagner had met many individuals of that nation,
+but this was the first time he beheld them in crowds. He describes
+them as very handsome men, with black beards, aquiline noses, and
+flashing black eyes. He was struck with their lofty mien, and
+attributes it to their mental energy, and to a consciousness of
+physical strength and beauty.
+
+     "This superiority of the pure Circassian blood does not belie
+     itself under Russian discipline, any more than it does in
+     Mahometan lands, where, as Mamelukes in Cairo, and as pashas in
+     Stamboul, the sons of Caucasus have ever played a prominent and
+     distinguished part. The Turk, who by certain imposing qualities
+     awes all other Orientals, tacitly recognises the superiority of
+     the Circassian _ousden_, or noble. The Emperor Nicholas, who
+     preserves so rigid a discipline in the various corps of his
+     vast army, shows himself extraordinarily considerate towards
+     the Circassian squadrons of his guard. Persons well versed
+     in the military chronicles of St Petersburg relate many a
+     characteristic trait, proving the bold stubborn spirit of these
+     Caucasian men to be still unbroken, and showing how it more
+     than once has so imposed upon the emperor, and even upon the
+     grand-duke Michael, reputed the strictest disciplinarian in
+     Russia, that they have shut their eyes even to open mutiny. At a
+     review, where the Caucasian cavalry formally refused obedience,
+     the emperor contented himself with sending a courteous reproof
+     by General Benkendorf. Beside the coarse common Russians, the
+     Circassian looks like an eagle amidst a flock of bustards. Even
+     capital crimes are not visited upon Circassians with the same
+     severity as upon the other subjects of the emperor. A Circassian
+     who had struck his dagger into the heart of a hackney-coachman
+     at St Petersburg, in requital of an insolent overcharge, was
+     merely sent back to the Caucasus. For a like offence a Russian
+     might reckon upon the knout, and upon banishment for life to the
+     Siberian mines.
+
+     "Amongst the Circassians at Ekaterinodar, a _work_, or noble,
+     of the Shapsookian tribe, was particularly remarkable for his
+     beauty and dignity. None of the picturesque figures of Arabs
+     and Moors furnished me by my African recollections, could bear
+     comparison with this Caucasian eagle. I afterwards saw, in
+     Mingrelia, a more ideal mould of feature, resembling the antique
+     Apollo type: but there the expression was too effeminate; the
+     heroic head of the dweller on the Kuban pleased me better. I
+     stood a good while before the Shapsookian, as if fettered to the
+     ground, so extraordinary was the effect of his striking beauty.
+     What a study, I thought, for a German painter, who would in vain
+     seek such models in Rome; or for a Vernet, whose Arabian groups
+     prove the great power of his pencil! The Arabs, rather priestly
+     than knightly in their aspect, produce far less effect upon
+     the large Algerine pictures at Versailles than the Circassian
+     warrior would do in a battle-piece by such masters as Vernet or
+     Peter Hess. The Shapsook chief at Ekaterinodar seemed conscious
+     of his magnificent appearance. With proud mien, and that light
+     half-gliding gait observable in most Caucasians, he sauntered
+     amongst the groups of Cossacks upon the market-place, casting
+     glances of profoundest scorn upon their clumsy sheepskin-wrapped
+     figures. His slender form and small foot, the grace and elegance
+     of his person and carriage, the richness of his costume and
+     beauty of his weapons, contrasted most advantageously with
+     the muscular but somewhat thickset figures, and with the ugly
+     woolly winter dress of the Tchernamortsies. By help of a Cossack
+     I made his acquaintance, and got into conversation. His name
+     was Chora-Beg, and he dwelt at a hamlet thirty versts south of
+     Ekaterinodar."
+
+Chora-Beg wondered greatly that his new acquaintance was neither
+Russian nor English. He had heard vaguely that there was a third
+Christian nation, which, under Sultan Bunapart, had made war upon
+the Padisha of the Russians, but he had no notion of such a people
+as the Germans. He greatly admired Dr Wagner's rifle, but rather
+doubted its carrying farther than a smooth bore, and allowed free
+inspection of his own arms, consisting of pistols and dagger, and of
+the famous _shaska_--a long heavy cavalry sabre, slightly curved,
+with hilt of silver and ivory. At the doctor's request he drew this
+weapon from the scabbard, and cut twice or thrice at the empty air,
+his dark eyes flashing as he did so. "How many Russians has that
+sabre sent to their account?" asked the inquisitive Doctor. The
+Circassian's intelligent countenance assumed an expression hard to
+interpret, but in which his interlocutor thought he distinguished a
+gleam of scorn, and a shade of suspicion. "It was long," he replied,
+"since his tribe had taken the field against the Russians. Since
+the deaf general (Sass) had left the land of the Cossacks, peace
+had reigned between Muscovite and Shapsookian. Individuals of his
+tribe had certainly been known to join bands from the mountains, and
+to cross the Kuban with arms in hand." And as Chora-Beg spoke, the
+expression of his proud eye belied his pacific pretensions.
+
+The general Sass above-named commanded for several years on
+the line of the Kuban, and is the only Russian general who has
+understood the mountain warfare, and proved himself a match for
+the Circassians at their own game of ambuscades and surprises. His
+tactics were those of the Spanish guerilla leaders. Lavish in his
+payment of spies, he was always accurately informed of the musters
+and projects of the Circassians; whilst he kept his own plans so
+secret, that his personal staff often knew nothing of an intended
+expedition until the call to "boot and saddle" sounded. His raids
+were accomplished, under guidance of his well-paid scouts, with
+such rapidity and local knowledge that the mountaineers rarely had
+time to assemble in force, pursue the retiring column, and revenge
+their burnt vilages and ravished cattle. But one day the report
+spread on the lines of the Kuban that the general was dangerously
+ill; shortly afterwards it became known that the physicians had
+given him up; and finally his death was announced, and bewailed by
+the whole army of the Caucasus. The consternation of the Cossacks,
+accustomed, under his command, to victory and rich booty, was as
+great as the exultation of the mountaineers. Hundreds of these
+visited the Russian territory, to witness the interment of their
+dreaded foe. A magnificent coffin, with the general's cocked hat
+and decorations laid upon it, was deposited in the earth amidst
+the mournful sounds of minute guns and muffled drums. With joyful
+hearts the Circassians returned to their mountains, to tell what
+they had seen, and to congratulate each other at the prospect of
+tranquillity for themselves, and safety to their flocks and herds.
+But upon the second night after Sass's funeral, a strong Russian
+column crossed the Kuban, and the dead general suddenly appeared
+at the head of his trusty lancers, who greeted with wild hurrahs
+their leader's resurrection. Several large _auls_ (villages) whose
+inhabitants were sound asleep, unsuspicious of surprise, were
+destroyed, vast droves of cattle were carried off, and a host of
+prisoners made. This ingenious and successful stratagem is still
+cited with admiration on the banks of the Kuban. Notwithstanding
+his able generalship, Sass was removed from his command when in
+full career of success. All his military services could not shield
+him from the consequences of St Petersburg intrigues and trumped-up
+accusations. None of his successors have equalled him. General
+Willaminoff was a man of big words rather than of great deeds. In
+his bombastic and blasphemous proclamation of the 28th May 1837, he
+informed the Circassians that "If the heavens should fall, Russia
+could prop them with her bayonets;" following up this startling
+assertion with the declaration that "there are but two powers in
+existence--God in heaven, and the emperor upon earth!"[4] The
+Circassians laughed at this rhodomontade, and returned a firm and
+becoming answer. There were but few of them, they said--but, with
+God's blessing, they would hold their own, and fight to the very
+last man: and to prove themselves as good as their word, they soon
+afterwards made fierce assaults upon the line of forts built by the
+Russians upon the shores of the Black Sea. In 1840 four of these
+were taken, but the triumph cost the victors so much blood as to
+disgust them for some time with attacking stone walls, behind which
+the Russians, perhaps the best defensive combatants in the world,
+fight like lions. Indeed, the Circassians would hardly have proved
+victorious, had not the garrisons been enfeebled by disease. During
+the five winter months, the rations of the troops employed upon
+this service are usually salt, and the consequences are scurvy and
+fever. Informed by Polish deserters of the bad condition of the
+garrisons, the Circassians held a great council in the mountains,
+and it was decided to take the forts with the sabre, without
+firing a shot. It is an old Caucasian custom, that, upon suchlike
+perilous undertakings, a chosen band of enthusiastic warrors devote
+themselves to death, binding themselves by a solemn oath not to
+turn their backs upon the enemy. Ever in the van, their example
+gives courage to the timid; and their friends are bound in honour
+to revenge their death. With these fanatics have the Circassian and
+Tshetshen chiefs achieved their greatest victories over the Russians.
+
+  [4] Longworth's _Circassia_, vol. i. p. 1589.
+
+When it was decided to attack the forts, several hundred
+Shapsookians, including gray-haired old men and youths of tender
+age, swore to conquer or to die. They kept their word. At the fort
+of Michailoff, which made the most obstinate defence, the ditch was
+filled with their corpses. The conduct of the garrison was truly
+heroic. Of five hundred men, only one third were fit for duty;
+the others were in hospital, or on the sick-list. But no sooner
+did the Circassian war-cry rend the air than the sufferers forgot
+their pains; the fever-stricken left their beds, and crawled to
+the walls. Their commandant called upon them to shed their last
+drop of blood for their emperor; their old _papa_ exhorted them, as
+Christians, to fight to the death against the unbelieving horde. But
+numbers prevailed: after a valiant defence, the Russians retreated,
+fighting, to the innermost enclosures of the fortress. Their chief
+demanded a volunteer to blow up the fort when farther resistance
+should become impossible. A soldier stepped forward, took a lighted
+match, and entered the powder magazine. The last defences were
+stormed, the Circassians shouted victory. Then came the explosion.
+Most of the buildings were overthrown, and hundreds of maimed
+carcases scattered in all directions. Eleven Russians escaped with
+life, were dragged off to the mountains, and subsequently ransomed,
+and from them the details of this bloody fight were obtained.
+
+The capture of these forts spread discouragement and consternation
+in the ranks of the Russian army. The emperor was furious, and
+General Rajewski, then commander-in-chief on the Circassian
+frontier, was superseded. This officer, who at the tender age of
+twelve was present with his father at the battle of Borodino, and
+who has since distinguished himself in the Turkish and Persian
+wars, was reputed an able general, but was reproached with sleeping
+too much, and with being too fond of botany. His enemies went
+so far as to accuse him of making military expeditions into the
+mountains, with the sole view of adding rare Caucasian plants to his
+_herbarium_, and of procuring seeds for his garden. General Aurep,
+who succeeded him, undertook little beyond reconnoissances, always
+attended with very heavy loss; and the Circassians remained upon the
+defensive until the year 1843, when the example of the Tshetshens,
+who about that time obtained signal advantages over the Russians,
+roused the martial ardour of the chivalrous Circassians, and spurred
+them to fresh hostilities. But the war at the western extremity of
+Caucasus never assumed the importance of that in Daghestan and the
+country of the Tshetshens.
+
+From the straits of Zabache to the frontier of Guria, the Russians
+possess seventeen _Kreposts_, or fortified posts, only a few of
+which deserve the name of regular fortresses, or could resist a
+regular army provided with artillery. To mountaineers, however,
+whose sole weapons are shaska and musket, even earthen parapets
+and shallow ditches are serious obstacles when well manned and
+resolutely defended. The object of erecting this line of forts was
+to cut off the communication by sea between Turkey and the Caucasian
+tribes. It was thought that, when the import of arms and munitions
+of war from Turkey was thus checked, the independent mountain
+tribes would soon be subjugated. The hope was not realised, and the
+expensive maintenance of 15,000 to 20,000 men in the fortresses of
+the Black Sea has but little improved the position of the Russians
+in the Caucasus. The Caucasians have never lacked arms, and with
+money they can always get powder, even from the Cossacks of the
+Kuban. In another respect, however, these forts have done them
+much harm, and thence it arises that, since their erection, and
+the cession of Anapa to Russia, the war has assumed so bitter a
+character. So long as Anapa was Turkish, the export of slaves, and
+the import of powder, found no hindrance. The needy Circassian
+noble, whose rude mountains supply him but sparingly with daily
+bread, obtained, by the sale of slaves, means of satisfying his
+warlike and ostentatious tastes--of procuring rich clothes, costly
+weapons, and ammunition for war and for the chase. In a moral point
+of view, all slave traffic is of course odious and reprehensible,
+but that of Circassia differed from other commerce of the kind,
+in so far that all parties were benefited by, and consenting to,
+the contract. The Turks obtained from Caucasus handsomer and
+healthier wives than those born in the harem; and the Circassian
+beauties were delighted to exchange the poverty and toil of their
+father's mountain huts for the luxurious _farniente_ of the
+seraglio, of whose wonders and delights their ears were regaled,
+from childhood upwards, with the most glowing descriptions. The
+trade, although greatly impeded and very hazardous, still goes on.
+Small Turkish craft creep up to the coast, cautiously evading the
+Russian cruisers, enter creeks and inlets, and are dragged by the
+Circassians high and dry upon the beach, there to remain till the
+negotiation for their live cargo is completed, an operation that
+generally takes a few weeks. The women sold are the daughters of
+serfs and freedmen: rarely does a _work_ consent to dispose of
+his sister or daughter, although the case does sometimes occur.
+But, whilst the sale goes on, the slave-ships are anything but
+secure. It is a small matter to have escaped the Russian frigates
+and steamers. Each of the Kreposts possesses a little squadron of
+row-boats, manned with Cossacks, who pull along the coast in search
+of Turkish vessels. If they detect one, they land in the night, and
+endeavour to set fire to it, before the mountaineers can come to
+the assistance of the crew. The Turks, who live in profound terror
+of these Cossack coast-guards, resort to every possible expedient
+to escape their observation; often covering their vessels with dry
+leaves and boughs, and tying fir branches to the masts, that the
+scouts may take them for trees. If they are captured at sea by the
+cruisers, the crew are sent to hard labour in Siberia, and the
+Circassian girls are married to Cossacks, or divided as handmaidens
+amongst the Russian staff officers. From thirty to forty slaves
+compose the usual cargo of each of these vessels, which are so
+small that the poor creatures are packed almost like herrings in
+a barrel. But they patiently endure the misery of the voyage, in
+anticipation of the honeyed existence of the harem. It is calculated
+that one vessel out of six is taken or lost. In the winter of
+1843-4, eight-and-twenty ships left the coast of Asia Minor for that
+of Caucasia. Twenty-three safely returned, three were burned by the
+Russians, and two swallowed by the waves.
+
+A Turkish captain at Sinope told Dr Wagner the following interesting
+anecdote, illustrating Circassian hatred of the Russians:--"A
+few years ago a slave-ship sprang a leak out at sea, just as a
+Russian steamer passed in the distance. The Turkish slave-dealer,
+who preferred even the chill blasts of Siberia to a grave in deep
+water, made signals of distress, and the steamer came up in time
+to rescue the ship and its living cargo from destruction. But so
+deeply is hatred of Russia implanted in every Circassian heart, that
+the spirit of the girls revolted at the thought of becoming the
+helpmates of gray-coated soldiers, instead of sharing the sumptuous
+couch of a Turkish pasha. They had bid adieu to their native
+mountains with little emotion, but as the Russian ship approached
+they set up terrible and despairing screams. Some sprang headlong
+into the sea; others drove their knives into their hearts:--to
+these heroines death was preferable to the bridal-bed of a detested
+Muscovite. The survivors were taken to Anapa, and married to
+Cossacks, or given to officers as servants." Nearly every Austrian
+or Turkish steamboat that makes, in the winter months, the voyage
+from Trebizond to Constantinople, has a number of Circassian girls
+on board. Dr Wagner made the passage in an Austrian steamer with
+several dozens of these willing slaves, chiefly mere children,
+twelve or thirteen years old, with interesting countenances and
+dark wild eyes, but very pale and thin--with the exception of
+two, who were some years older, far better dressed, and carefully
+veiled. To this favoured pair the slave-dealer paid particular
+attention, and frequently brought them coffee. Dr Wagner got into
+conversation with this man, who was richly dressed in furs and
+silks, and who, despite his vile profession, had the manners of
+a gentleman. The two coffee-drinkers were daughters of noblemen,
+he said, with fine rosy cheeks, and in better condition than the
+others, consequently worth more money at Constantinople. For the
+handsomest he hoped to obtain 30,000 piastres, and for the other
+20,000--about £250 and £170. The herd of young creatures he spoke of
+with contempt, and should think himself lucky to get 2000 piastres
+for them all round. He further informed the doctor that, although
+the slave-trade was more dangerous and difficult since the Russian
+occupation of the Caucasian coast, it was also far more profitable.
+Formerly, when Greek and Armenian women were brought in crowds to
+the Constantinople market, the most beautiful Circassians were
+not worth more than 10,000 piastres; but now a rosy, well-fed,
+fifteen-year-old slave is hardly to be had under 40,000 piastres.
+
+The Tshetshen successes, already referred to as having at the close
+of 1842 stirred into flame and action, by the force of example,
+the smouldering but still ardent embers of Circassian hatred to
+Russia, are described with remarkable spirit by Dr Wagner, in the
+chapter entitled "Caucasian War-Scenes,"--episodes taken down by him
+from the lips of eye-witnesses, and of sharers in the sanguinary
+conflicts described. This graphic chapter at once familiarises the
+reader with the Caucasian war, with which he thenceforward feels
+as well acquainted as with our wars in India, the French contest
+in Africa, or with any other series of combats, of whose nature
+and progress minute information has been regularly received. The
+first event described is the storming of Aculcho, in the summer
+of 1839. It is always a great point with guerilla generals, and
+with leaders of mountain warfare, to have a centre of operations--a
+strong post, whither they can retreat after a reverse, with the
+confidence that the enemy will hesitate before attacking them there.
+In Spain, Cabrera had Morella, the Count d'Espagne had Berga, the
+Navarrese viewed Estella as their citadel. In the eastern Caucasus,
+Chasi-Mollah had Himri, and preferred falling in its defence to
+abandoning his stronghold; his successor, Chamyl, who surpasses him
+in talent for war and organisation, established his headquarters
+at Aculcho, a sort of eagle's nest on the river Koisu, whither his
+escorts brought him intelligence of each movement of Russian troops,
+and whence he swooped, like the bird whose eyrie he occupied, upon
+the convoys traversing the steppe of the Terek. Here he planned
+expeditions and surprises, and kept a store of arms and ammunition;
+and this fort General Grabbe, who commanded in 1839 the Russian
+forces in eastern Caucasus, and who was always a strong advocate
+of the offensive system, obtained permission from St Petersburg to
+attack. General Golowin, commander-in-chief of the whole army of
+the Caucasus, and then resident at Teflis, approved the enterprise,
+whose ultimate results cost both generals their command. The taking
+of Aculcho itself was of little moment; there was no intention of
+placing a Russian garrison there; but the double end to be obtained
+was to capture Chamyl, and to intimidate the Tshetshens, by proving
+to them that no part of their mountains, however difficult of access
+and bravely defended, was beyond the reach of Russian valour and
+resources. Their submission, at least nominal and temporary, was the
+result hoped for.
+
+Nature has done much for the fortification of Aculcho. Imagine
+a hill of sand-stone, nearly surrounded by a loop of the river
+Koisu--a miniature peninsula, in short, connected with the continent
+by a narrow neck of land--provided with three natural terraces,
+accessible only by a small rocky path, whose entrance is fortified
+and defended by 500 resolute Tshetshen warriors. A few artificial
+parapets and intrenchments, some stone huts, and several excavations
+in the sand rock, where the besieged found shelter from shot and
+shell, complete the picture of the place before which Grabbe and his
+column sat down. At first they hoped to reduce it by artillery, and
+bombs and congreve rockets were poured upon the fortress, destroying
+huts and parapets, but doing little harm to the Tshetshens, who lay
+close as conies in their burrows, and watched their opportunity to
+send well-aimed bullets into the Russian camp. From time to time,
+one of the fanatical Murides, of whom the garrison was chiefly
+composed, impatient that the foe delayed an assault, rushed headlong
+down from the rock, his shaska in his right hand, his pistol in his
+left, his dagger between his teeth; causing a momentary panic among
+the Cossacks, who were prepared for the whistling of bullets, but
+not for the sudden appearance of a foaming demon armed _cap-à-pie_,
+who generally, before they could use their bayonets, avenged in
+advance his own certain death by the slaughter of several of his
+foes, whilst his comrades on the rock applauded and rejoiced at
+the heroic self-sacrifice. The first attempt to storm was costly
+to the besiegers. Of fifteen hundred men who ascended the narrow
+path, only a hundred and fifty survived. The Tshetshens maintained
+such a well-directed platoon fire, that not a Russian set foot on
+the second terrace. The foremost men, mown down by the bullets
+of the besieged, fell back upon their comrades, and precipitated
+them from the rock. General Grabbe, undismayed by his heavy loss,
+ordered a second and a third assault; the three cost two thousand
+men, but the lower and middle terraces were taken. The defence
+of the upper one was desperate, and the Russians might have been
+compelled to turn the siege into a blockade, but for the imprudence
+of some of the garrison, who, anxious to ascertain the proceedings
+of the enemy's engineers--then hard at work at a mine under the
+hill--ventured too far from their defences, and were attacked by a
+Russian battalion. The Tshetshens fled; but, swift of foot though
+they were, the most active of the Russians attained the topmost
+terrace with them. A hand-to-hand fight ensued, more battalions
+came up, and Aculcho was taken. The victors, furious at their
+losses, and at the long resistance opposed to them, (this was the
+22d August,) raged like tigers amongst the unfortunate little band
+of mountaineers; some Tshetshen women, who took up arms at this
+last extremity, were slaughtered with their husbands. At last the
+bloody work was apparently at an end, and search ensued amongst the
+dead for the body of Chamyl. It was nowhere to be found. At last
+the discovery was made that a few of the garrison had taken refuge
+in holes in the side of the rock, looking over the river. No path
+led to these cavities; the only way to get at them was to lower
+men by ropes from the crag above. In this manner the surviving
+Tshetshens were attacked; quarter was neither asked nor given.
+The hole in which Chamyl himself was hidden held out the longest.
+Escape seemed, however, impossible; the rock was surrounded; the
+banks of the river were lined with soldiers; Grabbe's main object
+was the capture of Chamyl. At this critical moment the handful of
+Tshetshens still alive gave an example of heroic devotion. They knew
+that their leader's death would be a heavy loss to their country,
+and they resolved to sacrifice themselves to save him. With a few
+beams and planks, that chanced to be in the cave, they constructed
+a sort of raft. This they launched upon the Koisu, and floated with
+it down the stream, amidst a storm of Russian lead. The Russian
+general doubted not that Chamyl was on the raft, and ordered every
+exertion to kill or take him. Whilst the Cossacks spurred their
+horses into the river, and the infantry hurried along the bank,
+following the raft, a man sprang out of the hole into the Koisu,
+swam vigorously across the stream, landed at an unguarded spot, and
+gained the mountains unhurt. This man was Chamyl, who alone escaped
+with life from the bloody rock of Aculcho. His deliverance passed
+for miraculous amongst the enthusiastic mountaineers, with whom
+his influence, from that day forward, increased tenfold. Grabbe
+was furious; Chamyl's head was worth more than the heads of all
+the garrison: three thousand Russians had been sacrificed for the
+possession of a crag not worth the keeping.
+
+After the fall of Aculcho, Chamyl's head-quarters were at the
+village of Dargo, in the mountain region south of the Russian fort
+of Girselaul, and thence he carried on the war with great vigour,
+surprising fortified posts, cutting off convoys, and sweeping the
+plain with his horsemen. Generals Grabbe and Golowin could not
+agree about the mode of operations. The former was for taking
+the offensive; the latter advocated the defensive and blockade
+system. Grabbe went to St Petersburg to plead in person for his
+plan, obtained a favourable hearing, and the emperor sent Prince
+Tchernicheff, the minister at war, to visit both flanks of the
+Caucasus. Before the prince reached the left wing of the line
+of operations, Grabbe resolved to surprise him with a brilliant
+achievement; and on the 29th May 1842, he marched from Girselaul
+with thirteen battalions, a small escort of mounted Cossacks, and a
+train of mountain artillery, to attack Dargo. The route was through
+forests, and along paths tangled with wild flowers and creeping
+plants, through which the heavy Russian infantry, encumbered with
+eight days' rations and sixty rounds of ball-cartridge, made but
+slow and painful progress. The first day's march was accomplished
+without fighting; only here and there the slender active form of
+a mountaineer was descried, as he peered between the trees at the
+long column of bayonets, and vanished as soon as he was observed.
+After midnight the dance began. The troops had eaten their rations,
+and were comfortably bivouacked, when they were assailed by a sharp
+fire from an invisible foe, to which they replied in the direction
+of the flashes. This skirmishing lasted all night; few were killed
+on either side, but the whole Russian division were deprived of
+sleep, and wearied for the next day's march. At daybreak the enemy
+retired; but at noon, when passing through a forest defile, the
+column was again assailed, and soon the horses, and a few light
+carts accompanying it, were insufficient to convey the wounded.
+The staff urged the general to retrace his steps, but Grabbe was
+bent on welcoming Tchernicheff with a triumphant bulletin. Another
+sleepless bivouac--another fagging day, more skirmishing. At last,
+when within sight of the fortified village of Dargo, the loss of
+the column was so heavy, and its situation so critical, that a
+retreat was ordered. The daring and fury of the Tshetshens now knew
+no bounds; they assailed the troops sabre in hand, captured baggage
+and wounded, and at night prowled round the camp, like wolves round
+a dying soldier. On the 1st June, the fight recommenced. The valour
+displayed by the mountaineers was admitted by the Russians to be
+extraordinary, as was also their skill in wielding the terrible
+shaska. They made a fierce attack on the centre of the column--cut
+down the artillery-men and captured six guns. The Russians, who
+throughout the whole of this trying expedition did their duty
+as good and brave soldiers, were furious at the loss of their
+artillery, and by a desperate charge retook five pieces, the sixth
+being relinquished only because its carriage was broken. Upon the
+last day of the retreat, Chamyl came up with his horsemen. Had he
+been able to get these together two days sooner, it is doubtful
+whether any portion of the column would have escaped. As it was,
+the Russians lost nearly two thousand men; the weary and dispirited
+survivors re-entering Girselaul with downcast mien. Preparations
+had been made to celebrate their triumph, and, to add to their
+general's mortification, Tchernicheff was awaiting their arrival. On
+the prince's return to St Petersburg, both Grabbe and Golowin were
+removed from their commands.
+
+Against this same Tshetshen fortress of Dargo, Count Woronzoff's
+expedition (already referred to) was made, in July 1845. A capital
+account of the affair is given in a letter from a Russian officer
+engaged, printed in Dr Wagner's book. Dargo had become an important
+place. Chamyl had established large stores there, and had built
+a mosque, to which came pilgrims from the remotest villages of
+Daghestan and Lesghistan, partly to pray, partly to see the dreaded
+chief--equally renowned as warrior and priest--and to give him
+information concerning the state of the country, and the movements
+of the Russians. Less vigorously opposed than Grabbe, and his
+measures better taken, Woronzoff reached Dargo with moderate loss.
+"The village," says the Russian officer: "was situated on the slope
+of a mountain, at the brink of a ravine, and consisted of sixty
+to seventy small stone-houses, and of a few larger buildings,
+where the stones were joined with mortar, instead of being merely
+superimposed, as is usually the case in Caucasian dwellings. One
+of these buildings had several irregular towers, of some apparent
+antiquity. When we approached, a thick smoke burst from them. Chamyl
+had ordered everything to be set on fire that could not be carried
+away. One must confess that, in this fierce determination of the
+enemy to refuse submission--to defend, foot by foot, the territory
+of his forefathers, and to leave to the Russians no other trophies
+than ashes and smoking ruins--there is a certain wild grandeur which
+extorts admiration, even though the hostile chief be no better
+than a fanatical barbarian." This reminds us of the words of the
+Circassian chief Mansour:--"When Turkey and England abandon us," he
+said, to Bell of the 'Vixen,'--"when all our powers of resistance
+are exhausted, we will burn our houses,and our goods, strangle our
+wives and our children, and retreat to our highest rocks, there to
+die, fighting to the very last man." "The greatest difficulty,"
+said General Neidhardt to Dr Wagner, who was a frequent visitor
+at the house of that distinguished officer, "with which we have
+to contend, is the unappeasable, deep-rooted, ineradicable hatred
+cherished by all the mountaineers against the Russians. For this
+we know no cure; every form of severity and of kindness has been
+tried in turn, with equal ill-success." Valour and patriotism are
+nearly the only good qualities the Caucasians can boast. They are
+cruel, and for the most part faithless, especially the Tshetshens,
+and Dr Wagner warns us against crediting the exaggerated accounts
+frequently given of their many virtues. The Circassians are said
+to respect their plighted word, but there are many exceptions.
+General Neidhardt told Dr Wagner an anecdote of a Circassian, who
+presented himself before the commandant of one of the Black Sea
+fortresses, and offered to communicate most important intelligence,
+on condition of a certain reward. The reward was promised. Then
+said the Circassian,--"To-morrow after sunset, your fort will be
+assailed by thousands of my countrymen." The informer was retained,
+whilst Cossacks and riflemen were sent out, and it proved that he
+had spoken the truth. The enemy, finding the garrison on their
+guard, retired after a short skirmish. The Circassian received his
+recompense, which he took without a word of thanks, and left the
+fortress. Without the walls, he met an unarmed soldier; hatred of
+the Russians, and thirst of blood, again got the ascendency: he shot
+the soldier dead, and scampered off to the mountains.
+
+Chamyl did not long remain indebted to the Russians for their visit
+to Dargo. His reputation of sanctity and valour enabled him to unite
+under his orders many tribes habitually hostile to each other, and
+which previously had fought each "on its own hook." Of these tribes
+he formed a powerful league; and in May 1846 he burst into Cabardia
+at the head of twenty thousand mountaineers, four thousand of whom
+were horsemen. Formidable though this force was, the venture was one
+of extreme temerity. He left behind him a double line of Russian
+camps and forts, and two rivers, then at the flood, and difficult
+to pass. With an undisciplined and heterogeneous army, without
+artillery or regular commissariat, this daring chief threw himself
+into a flat country, unfavourable to guerilla warfare; slipping
+through the Russian posts, marching more than four hundred miles,
+and utterly disregarding the danger he was in from a well-equipped
+army of upwards of seventy thousand men, to say nothing of the
+numerous military population of the Cossack settlements on the
+Terek and Sundscha, and of the fact that the Cabardians, long
+submissive to Russia, were more likely to arm in defence of their
+rulers than to favour the mountaineers. Shepherds and dwellers in
+the plain, and far less warlike than the other Circassian tribes,
+they never were able to make head against the Russians; and had
+remained indifferent to all the incentives of Tshetshen fanatics
+and propagandists. For years past, Chamyl had threatened them with
+a visit; but nevertheless, his sudden appearance greatly surprised
+and confounded both them and the Russian general, who had just
+concentrated all his movable columns, with a view to an expedition,
+relying overmuch upon his lines of forts and blockhouses. The
+Tshetshen raid was more daring, and at least as successful, as
+Abd-el-Kader's celebrated foray in the Metidja, in the year 1839.
+Chamyl addressed to the Cabardians a thundering proclamation, full
+of quotations from the Koran, and denouncing vengeance on them if
+they did not flock to the banner of the Prophet. The unlucky keepers
+of sheep found themselves between the devil and the deep sea. From
+terror rather than sympathy, a large number of villages declared
+for Chamyl, whose wild hordes burned and plundered the property of
+all who adhered to the Russians; leaving, like a swarm of locusts,
+desolation in their track. When the Cossacks began to gather, and
+the Russian generals to manœuvre, Chamyl, who knew he could not
+contend in the plain with disciplined and superior forces, and whose
+retreat by the road he came was already cut off, traversed Great and
+Little Cabardia, burning and destroying as he went; dashed through
+the Cossack colonies to the south of Ekaterinograd, and regained
+his mountains in safety--dragging with him booty, prisoners, and
+Cabardian recruits. These latter, who had joined through fear of
+Chamyl, remained with him through fear of the Russians. By this
+foray, whose apparent great rashness was justified by its complete
+success, Chamyl enriched his people, strengthened his army, and
+greatly weakened the confidence of the tribes of the plain in the
+efficacy of Russian protection. As usual, in cases of disaster, the
+Russians kept the affair as quiet as they could; but the truth could
+not be concealed from those most concerned, and murmurs of dismay
+ran along the exposed line fringing the Muscovite and Circassian
+territories.
+
+The Russian army of the Caucasus reckoned, in 1843, about eighty
+thousand men, exclusive of thirty-five thousand who had little to
+do with the war, but were more especially employed in watching the
+extensive line of Turkish and Persian frontier, and in endeavouring
+to exclude contraband goods and Asiatic epidemics. But the severe
+fighting that occurred in 1842 and 1843, showed the necessity
+of an increase of force. Subsequent events have not admitted of
+a reduction in the Caucasian establishment; and we are probably
+very near the mark, in estimating the troops occupying the various
+forts and camps on the Black Sea, and the lines of the rivers,
+(Terek, Kuban, Koisu, &c.,) at about one hundred thousand men--not
+at all too many to guard so extensive a line, against so active
+and enterprising a foe. The Russian ranks are constantly thinned
+by destructive fevers, which, in bad years, have been known to
+carry off as much as a sixth of the Caucasian army. At a review
+at Vladikawkas, Dr Wagner was struck by the powerful build of the
+Russian foot-soldiers--broad-shouldered, broad-faced Slavonians,
+with enormous mustaches, drilled to automatical perfection. In point
+of bone and limb, every man of them was a grenadier. In a bayonet
+charge, such infantry are formidable opponents. Ségur mentions that,
+on the battle-field of Borodino, the nation of the stripped bodies
+was easily known--the muscle and size of the Russians contrasting
+with the slighter frames of French and Germans. "You may kill the
+Russians, but you will hardly make them run," was a saying of
+Frederick the Great; and certainly Seidlitz, who scattered the
+French so briskly at Rossbach, had to sweat blood before he overcame
+the Russians at Zorndorf. Those survivors of Napoleon's famous Guard
+who fought in the drawn battle of Eylau, will bear witness to the
+stubborn resistance and bull-dog qualities of the Muscovite. But
+the grenadier stature, and the immobility under fire--admirable
+qualities on a plain, and against regular troops--avail little in
+the Caucasus. The burly Russian pants and perspires up the hills,
+which the light-footed chamois-like Circassians and Tshetshens
+ascend at a run. The mountaineers understand their advantages,
+and decline standing still in the plain to be charged by a line
+of bayonets. They dance round the heavy Russian, who, with his
+well-stuffed knapsack and long greatcoat, can barely turn on his
+heel fast enough to face them. They catch him out skirmishing, and
+slaughter him in detail. "One might suppose," said a foreigner in
+the Russian service to Dr Wagner, "that the musket and bayonet of
+the Russian soldier would be too much, in single combat, for the
+sabre and dagger of the Tshetshen. The contrary is the case. Amongst
+the dead, slain in hand-to-hand encounter, there are usually a third
+more Russians than Caucasians. Strange to say, too, the Russian
+soldier, who in the serried ranks of his battalion meets death with
+wonderful firmness, and who has shown the utmost valour in contests
+with European, Turkish, and Persian armies, often betrays timidity
+in the Caucasian war, and retreats from the outposts to the column,
+in spite of the heavy punishment he thereby incurs. I myself was
+exposed, during the murderous fight near Ischkeri (Dargo,) in 1842,
+to considerable danger, because, having gone to the assistance of a
+skirmisher, who was sharply engaged with a Tshetshen, the skirmisher
+ran, leaving me to fight it out alone." This shyness of Russian
+soldiers in single fight and irregular warfare, is not inexplicable.
+They have no chance of promotion, no honourable stimulus: food and
+brandy, discipline and dread of the lash, convert them from serfs
+into soldiers. As bits of a machine, they are admirable when united,
+but asunder they are mere screws and bolts. Fanatic zeal, bitter
+hatred, and thirst of blood, animate the Caucasian, who, trained to
+arms from his boyhood, and ignorant of drill, relies only upon his
+keen shaska, and upon the Prophet's protection.
+
+Presuming Dr Wagner's statement of Russian rations to be correct,
+it is a puzzle how the soldier preserves the condition of his thews
+and sinews. The daily allowance consists of three pounds of bread,
+black as a coal; a water-soup, in which three pounds of bacon are
+cut up for every two hundred and fifty men; a ration of _wodka_,
+or bad brandy, and once a-week a small piece of meat. The pay is
+nine rubles a-year, (about one-third of a penny _per diem_,) out of
+which the unfortunate private has to purchase his stock, cap, soap,
+blacking, salt, &c., &c. Any surplus he is allowed to expend upon
+his amusement. "Our soldiers are obliged to steal a little," said a
+German officer in the Russian service to Dr Wagner; "their pay will
+not purchase soap and blacking; and if their shirts are not clean,
+and their shoes polished, the stick is their portion." "Stealing a
+little," in one way or other, is no uncommon practice in Russia,
+even amongst more highly placed personages than the soldiers.
+Officials of all kinds, both civil and military, particularly those
+of the middle and lower ranks, are prone to peculation. Dr Wagner
+was deafened with the complaints that from all sides met his ear.
+"Ah! if the emperor knew it!" was the usual cry. The subjects of
+Nicholas have strong faith in his justice. It is well remembered
+in the Caucasus, especially by the army, how one day, at Teflis,
+the emperor, upon parade, in full view of mob and soldiers, tore,
+with his own hand, the golden insignia of a general's rank from the
+coat of Prince Dadian, denounced to him as enriching himself at his
+men's expense. For several years afterwards, the prince carried the
+musket, and wore the coarse gray coat of a private sentinel. The
+officers pitied him, although his condemnation was just. "_Il faut
+profiter d'une bonne place_," is their current maxim. The soldiers
+rejoiced; but in secret; for such rejoicings are not always safe.
+A sentence often recoils unpleasantly upon the accuser. Dr Wagner
+gives sundry examples. A major in Sewastopol fell in love with a
+sergeant's wife; and as she disregarded his addresses, he persecuted
+her and her husband at every opportunity. In despair, the sergeant
+at last complained to the general commanding. He was listened to;
+an investigation ensued; the major was superseded; and from his
+successor the sergeant received five hundred lashes, under pretence
+of his having left his regiment without permission when he went to
+lodge his charge. Corporal punishment, of frequent application, at
+the mere caprice of their superiors, to Russian serfs and soldiers,
+is inflicted with sticks or rods, the knout being reserved for
+very grave offences, such as murder, rebellion, &c., and preceding
+banishment to Siberia, should the sufferer survive. Dr Wagner's
+description of this dreadful punishment is horribly vivid. Few
+criminals are sentenced to more than twenty-five lashes, and less
+than twenty often kill. Running the gauntlet through three thousand
+men is the usual punishment of deserters; and this would usually be
+a sentence of death but for the compassion of the officers, who hint
+to their companies to strike lightly. If the sufferer faints, and
+is declared by the surgeon unable to receive all his punishment, he
+gets the remainder at some future time. "Take him down" is a phrase
+unknown in the Russian service, until the offender has received the
+last lash of his sentence.
+
+Severity is doubtless necessary in an army composed like that of
+Russia. Two-thirds of the soldiers are serfs, whose masters, being
+allowed to send what men they please--so long as they make up their
+quota--naturally contribute the greatest scamps and idlers upon
+their estates. The army in Russia is what the galleys are in France,
+and the hulks in England--a punishment for an infinity of offences.
+An official embezzles funds--to the army with him; a Jew is caught
+smuggling--off with him to the ranks; a Tartar cattle-stealer, a
+vagrant gipsy, an Armenian trader convicted of fraud, a Petersburg
+coachman who has run over a pedestrian--all food for powder--gray
+coats and bayonets for them all. Jews abound in the Russian army,
+being subjected to a severe conscription in Poland and southern
+Russia. They submit with exemplary patience to the hardships of the
+service, and to the taunts of their Russian comrades. Poles are of
+course numerous in the ranks, but they are less enduring than the
+Israelite, and often desert to the Circassians, who make them work
+as servants, or sell them as slaves to the Turks. No race are too
+unmilitary in their nature to be ground into soldiers by the mill
+of Russian discipline. Besides Jews, gipsies and Armenians figure
+on the muster-roll. It must have been a queer day for the ragged
+Zingaro, when the Russian sergeant first stepped into his smoky
+tent, bade him clip his elf locks, wash his grimy countenance, and
+follow to the field. For him the pomp of war had no seductions; he
+would far rather have stuck to his den and vermin, and to his meal
+of roast rats and hedgehogs. But military discipline works miracles.
+The slouching filthy vagabond of yesterday now stands erect as if
+he had swallowed his ramrod, his shoes a brilliant jet, his buttons
+sparkling in the sun--a soldier from toe to top-knot.
+
+The right bank of the Kuban, from the Sea of Azov to the mouth
+of the Laba, (a tributary of the former stream,) is peopled with
+Tchernamortsy Cossacks, who furnish ten regiments, each of a
+thousand horsemen, for the defence of their lands and families.
+These cavalry carry a musket, slung on the back, and a long
+red lance: their dress is a sheepskin jacket, except on state
+occasions, when they sport uniform. They are much less feared by
+the Circassians than are the Cossacks of the Line, who wear the
+Circassian dress, carry sabres instead of lances, and are more
+valiant, active and skilful, than their Tchernamortsy neighbours.
+The Cossacks of the Caucasian Line dwell on the banks of the Kuban
+and Terek, form a military colony of about fifty thousand souls,
+and keep six thousand horsemen ready for the field. There is a
+mixture of Circassian blood in their veins, and they are first-rate
+fighting men. Their villages are exposed to frequent attacks from
+the mountaineers; but when these are not exceedingly rapid in
+collecting their booty, and effecting their retreat, the Cossacks
+assemble, and a desperate fight ensues. When the combatants are
+numerically matched, the equality of arms, horses, and skill renders
+the issue very doubtful. The Tchernamortsies and Don Cossacks are
+less able to cope with the Circassians. In a _mêlée_ their lances
+are inferior to the shaska. The rival claims of lance and sabre
+have often been discussed; many trials of their respective merits
+have been made in English, French, and German riding-schools; and
+much ink has been shed on the subject. Unquestionably the lance has
+done good service, and in certain circumstances is a terrible arm.
+"At the battle of Dresden," Marshal Marmont tells us, "the Austrian
+infantry were repeatedly assailed by the French cuirassiers,
+whom they as often beat back, although the rain prevented their
+firing, and the bayonet was their sole defence. But fifty lancers
+of Latour-Maubourg's escort at once broke their ranks." Had the
+cuirassiers had lances, their first charge, Marmont plausibly enough
+asserts, would have sufficed. This leads to another question, often
+mooted--whether the lance be properly a light or a heavy cavalry
+weapon. When used to break infantry, weight of man and horse might
+be an advantage; but in pursuit, where--especially in rugged and
+mountainous countries--the lance is found particularly useful, the
+preference is obviously for the swift steed and light cavalier.
+In the irregular cavalry combats on the Caucasian line, the sabre
+carries the day. Unless the Don Cossack's first lance-thrust settles
+his adversary, (which is rarely the case,) the next instant the
+adroit Circassian is within his guard, and then the betting is ten
+to one on Caucasus. Moreover, the Don Cossacks, brought from afar to
+wage a perilous and profitless war, are unwilling combatants. They
+find blows more plentiful than booty, and approve themselves arrant
+thieves and shy fighters. Relieved every two or three years, they
+have scarcely time to get broken in to the peculiar mode of warfare.
+The Cossacks of the Line are the flower of the hundred thousand wild
+warriors scattered over the steppes of Southern Russia, and ready,
+at one man's word, to vault into the saddle. Their gallant feats
+are numerous. In 1843, during Dr Wagner's visit, three thousand
+Circassians dashed across the Kuban, near the fortified village of
+Ustlaba. A dense fog hid them from the Russian vedettes. Suddenly
+fifty Cossacks of the Line, the escort of a gun, found themselves
+face to face with the mountaineers. The mist was so thick that the
+horses' heads almost touched before either party perceived the
+other. Flight was impossible, but the Cossacks fought like fiends.
+Forty-seven met a soldier's death; only three were captured,
+and accompanied the cannon across the river, by which road the
+Circassians at once retreated, having taken the brave detachment for
+the advanced guard of a strong force.
+
+The word Kasak, Kosak, or Kossack, variously interpreted by Klaproth
+and other etymologists as robber, volunteer, daredevil, &c., conveys
+to civilised ears rude and inelegant associations. Paris has not
+yet forgotten the uncouth hordes, wrapped in sheepskins and overrun
+with vermin, who, in the hour of her humiliation, startled her
+streets, and made her dandies shriek for their smelling-bottles.
+Not that Paris saw the worst of them. Some of the Uralian bears,
+centaurs of the steppes, Calibans on horseback, were never allowed
+to pass the Russian frontier. Their emperor appreciated their good
+qualities, but left them at home. Since then, a change has occured.
+Civilisation has made huge strides north-eastward. Near Fanagoria,
+Dr Wagner passed a pleasant evening with a Cossack officer, a prime
+fellow, with all unquenchable thirst for toddy, and an inexhaustible
+store of information. He had made the campaigns against the French;
+had evidently been bred a savage, or little better; but had
+acquired, during his long military career, knowledge of the world
+and a certain degree of polish. Amongst other interesting matters,
+he gave a sketch of his grandfather, a bloodthirsty old warrior
+and image-worshipper, the scourge of his Nogay neighbours, and a
+great slayer of the Turk; who in 1812, at the mature age of ninety,
+had responded to Czar Alexander's summons to fight for "faith and
+fatherland," and had taken the field under Platoff, at the head of
+thirteen sons and threescore grandsons. Whilst the Cossack major
+told the history of the "Demon of the Steppes," as his ferocious
+ancestor was called, his son, a gay lieutenant in the Cossacks of
+the Guard, entered the apartment. This young gentleman, slender,
+handsome, with well-cut uniform, graceful manners, and well-waxed
+mustaches, declined the punch, "having got used at St Petersburg
+to tea and champagne." He brought intelligence of promotions
+and decorations, of high play at Tcherkask, (the capital of the
+Don-Cossacks' country,) and of the establishment at Toganrog of
+a French _restaurateur_, who retailed _Veuve Clicquot's_ genuine
+champagne at four silver rubles a bottle. He was fascinated by
+the French actresses at St Petersburg, and enthusiastic in praise
+of Taglioni, then displaying her legs and graces in the Russian
+metropolis. Dr Wagner left the symposium with a vivid impression of
+the contrast between the bearded barbarian of 1812 and the dapper
+guardsman of thirty years later; and with the full conviction that
+the next Russian emperor who makes an inroad into civilised Europe,
+will have no occasion to be ashamed of his Cossacks, even though his
+route should lead him to the polite capital of the French republic.
+
+
+
+
+THE CAXTONS.--PART X.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+My uncle's conjecture as to the parentage of Francis Vivian seemed
+to me a positive discovery. Nothing more likely than that this
+wilful boy had formed some headstrong attachment which no father
+would sanction, and so, thwarted and irritated, thrown himself on
+the world. Such an explanation was the more agreeable to me, as it
+cleared up all that had appeared more discreditable in the mystery
+that surrounded Vivian. I could never bear to think that he had done
+anything mean and criminal, however I might believe he had been rash
+and faulty. It was natural that the unfriended wanderer should have
+been thrown into a society, the equivocal character of which had
+failed to revolt the audacity of an inquisitive mind and adventurous
+temper; but it was natural, also, that the habits of gentle birth,
+and that silent education which English gentlemen commonly receive
+from their very cradle, should have preserved his honour, at least,
+intact through all. Certainly the pride, the notions, the very
+faults of the wellborn had remained in full force--why not the
+better qualities, however smothered for the time? I felt thankful
+for the thought that Vivian was returning to an element in which he
+might repurify his mind,--refit himself for that sphere to which he
+belonged;--thankful that we might yet meet, and our present half
+intimacy mature, perhaps, into healthful friendship.
+
+It was with such thoughts that I took up my hat the next morning
+to seek Vivian, and judge if we had gained the right clue, when we
+were startled by what was a rare sound at our door--the postman's
+knock. My father was at the Museum; my mother in high conference, or
+close preparation for our approaching departure, with Mrs Primmins;
+Roland, I, and Blanche had the room to ourselves.
+
+"The letter is not for me," said Pisistratus.
+
+"Nor for me, I am sure," said the Captain, when the servant entered
+and confuted him--for the letter was for him. He took it up
+wonderingly and suspiciously, as Glumdalclitch took up Gulliver, or
+as (if naturalists) we take up an unknown creature, that we are not
+quite sure will not bite and sting us. Ah! it has stung or bit you,
+Captain Roland! for you start and change colour--you suppress a cry
+as you break the seal--you breathe hard as you read--and the letter
+seems short--but it takes time in the reading, for you go over it
+again and again. Then you fold it up--crumple it--thrust it into
+your breast pocket--and look round like a man waking from a dream.
+Is it a dream of pain, or of pleasure? Verily, I cannot guess, for
+nothing is on that eagle face either of pain or pleasure, but rather
+of fear, agitation, bewilderment. Yet the eyes are bright, too, and
+there is a smile on that iron lip.
+
+My uncle looked round, I say, and called hastily for his cane and
+his hat, and then began buttoning his coat across his broad breast,
+though the day was hot enough to have unbuttoned every breast in the
+tropics.
+
+"You are not going out, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"But are you strong enough yet? Let me go with you?"
+
+"No, sir; no. Blanche, come here." He took the child in his arms,
+surveyed her wistfully, and kissed her. "You have never given me
+pain, Blanche: say, 'God bless and prosper you, father!'"
+
+"God bless and prosper my dear, dear papa!" said Blanche, putting
+her little hands together, as if in prayer.
+
+"There--that should bring me luck, Blanche," said the Captain,
+gaily, and setting her down. Then seizing his cane from the servant,
+and putting on his hat with a determined air, he walked stoutly
+forth; and I saw him, from the window, march along the streets as
+cheerfully as if he had been besieging Badajoz.
+
+"God prosper thee, too!" said I, involuntarily.
+
+And Blanche took hold of my hand, and said in her prettiest way,
+(and her pretty ways were many), "I wish you would come with us,
+cousin Sisty, and help me to love papa. Poor papa! he wants us
+both--he wants all the love we can give him!"
+
+"That he does, my dear Blanche; and I think it a great mistake that
+we don't all live together. Your papa ought not to go to that tower
+of his, at the world's end, but come to our snug, pretty house, with
+a garden full of flowers, for you to be Queen of the May--from May
+to November;--to say nothing of a duck that is more sagacious than
+any creature in the Fables I gave you the other day."
+
+Blanche laughed and clapped her hands--"Oh, that would be so nice!
+but,"--and she stopped gravely, and added, "but then, you see, there
+would not be the tower to love papa; and I am sure that the tower
+must love him very much, for he loves it dearly."
+
+It was my turn to laugh now. "I see how it is, you little witch,"
+said I; "you would coax us to come and live with you and the owls!
+With all my heart, so far as I am concerned."
+
+"Sisty," said Blanche, with an appalling solemnity on her face, "do
+you know what I've been thinking?"
+
+"Not I, miss--what?--something very deep, I can see--very horrible,
+indeed, I fear, you look so serious."
+
+"Why, I've been thinking," continued Blanche, not relaxing a muscle,
+and without the least bit of a blush--"I've been thinking that
+I'll be your little wife; and then, of course, we shall all live
+together."
+
+Blanche did not blush, but I did. "Ask me that ten years hence,
+if you dare, you impudent little thing; and now, run away to Mrs
+Primmins, and tell her to keep you out of mischief, for I must say
+good-morning."
+
+But Blanche did not run away, and her dignity seemed exceedingly
+hurt at my mode of taking her alarming proposition, for she retired
+into a corner pouting, and sate down with great majesty. So there
+I left her, and went my way to Vivian. He was out; but, seeing
+books on his table, and having nothing to do, I resolved to wait
+for his return. I had enough of my father in me to turn at once to
+the books for company; and, by the side of some graver works which
+I had recommended, I found certain novels in French, that Vivian
+had got from a circulating library. I had a curiosity to read
+these--for, except the old classic novels of France, this mighty
+branch of its popular literature was then new to me. I soon got
+interested, but what an interest!--the interest that a nightmare
+might excite, if one caught it out of one's sleep, and set to work
+to examine it. By the side of what dazzling shrewdness, what deep
+knowledge of those holes and corners in the human system, of which
+Goethe must have spoken when he said somewhere--(if I recollect
+right, and don't misquote him, which I'll not answer for)--"There
+is something in every man's heart which, if we could know, would
+make us hate him,"--by the side of all this, and of much more that
+showed prodigious boldness and energy of intellect, what strange
+exaggeration--what mock nobility of sentiment--what inconceivable
+perversion of reasoning--what damnable demoralisation! I hate the
+cant of charging works of fiction with the accusation--often unjust
+and shallow--that they interest us in vice, or palliate crime,
+because the author truly shows what virtues may entangle themselves
+with vices; or commands our compassion, and awes our pride, by
+teaching us how men deceive and bewitch themselves into guilt. Such
+painting belongs to the dark truth of all tragedy, from Sophocles to
+Shakspeare. No; this is not what shocked me in those books--it was
+not the interesting me in vice, for I felt no interest in it at all;
+it was the insisting that vice is something uncommonly noble--it
+was the portrait of some coldblooded adultress, whom the author or
+authoress chooses to call _pauvre Ange!_ (poor angel!);--it was some
+scoundrel who dupes, cheats, and murders under cover of a duel, in
+which he is a second St George; who does not instruct us by showing
+through what metaphysical process he became a scoundrel, but who
+is continually forced upon us as a very favourable specimen of
+mankind;--it was the view of society altogether, painted in colours
+so hideous that, if true, instead of a revolution, it would draw
+down a deluge;--it was the hatred, carefully instilled, of the
+poor against the rich--it was the war breathed between class and
+class--it was that envy of all superiorities, which loves to show
+itself by allowing virtue only to a blouse, and asserting that a
+man must be a rogue if he belong to that rank of society in which,
+from the very gifts of education, from the necessary associations
+of circumstances, roguery is the last thing probable or natural.
+It was all this, and things a thousand times worse, that set my
+head in a whirl, as hour after hour slipped on, and I still gazed,
+spell-bound, on these Chimeras and Typhons--these symbols of the
+Destroying Principle. "Poor Vivian!" said I, as I rose at last,
+"if thou readest these books with pleasure, or from habit, no
+wonder that thou seemest to me so obtuse about right and wrong,
+and to have a great cavity where thy brain should have the bump of
+'conscientiousness' in full salience!"
+
+Nevertheless, to do those demoniacs justice, I had got through
+time imperceptibly by their pestilent help; and I was startled to
+see, by my watch, how late it was. I had just resolved to leave
+a line, fixing an appointment for the morrow, and so depart,
+when I heard Vivian's knock--a knock that had great character
+in it--haughty, impatient, irregular; not a neat, symmetrical,
+harmonious, unpretending knock, but a knock that seemed to set the
+whole house and street at defiance: it was a knock bullying--a
+knock ostentatious--a knock irritating and offensive--"impiger" and
+"iracundus."
+
+But the step that came up the stairs did not suit the knock: it was
+a step light, yet firm--slow, yet elastic.
+
+The maid-servant who had opened the door had, no doubt, informed
+Vivian of my visit, for he did not seem surprised to see me; but he
+cast that hurried, suspicious look round the room which a man is apt
+to cast when he has left his papers about, and finds some idler,
+on whose trustworthiness he by no means depends, seated in the
+midst of the unguarded secrets. The look was not flattering; but my
+conscience was so unreproachful that I laid all the blame upon the
+general suspiciousness of Vivian's character.
+
+"Three hours, at least, have I been here!" said I, maliciously.
+
+"Three hours!"--again the look.
+
+"And this is the worst secret I have discovered,"--and I pointed to
+those literary Manicheans.
+
+"Oh!" said he carelessly, "French novels!--I don't wonder you stayed
+so long. I can't read your English novels--flat and insipid: there
+are truth and life here."
+
+"Truth and life!" cried I, every hair on my head erect with
+astonishment--"then hurrah for falsehood and death!"
+
+"They don't please you; no accounting for tastes."
+
+"I beg your pardon--I account for yours, if you really take for
+truth and life monsters so nefast and flagitious. For heaven's
+sake, my dear fellow, don't suppose that any man could get on in
+England--get anywhere but to the Old Bailey or Norfolk Island, if he
+squared his conduct to such topsy-turvy notions of the world as I
+find here."
+
+"How many years are you my senior," asked Vivian sneeringly, "that
+you should play the mentor, and correct my ignorance of the world?"
+
+"Vivian, it is not age and experience that speak here, it is
+something far wiser than they--the instinct of a man's heart, and a
+gentleman's honour."
+
+"Well, well," said Vivian, rather discomposed, "let the poor books
+alone; you know my creed--that books influence us little one way or
+the other."
+
+"By the great Egyptian library, and the soul of Diodorus, I wish you
+could hear my father upon that point! Come," added I, with sublime
+compassion--"come, it is not too late--do let me introduce you to
+my father. I will consent to read French novels all my life, if a
+single chat with Austin Caxton does not send you home with a happier
+face and a lighter heart. Come, let me take you back to dine with us
+to-day."
+
+"I cannot," said Vivian with some confusion--"I cannot, for this day
+I leave London. Some other time perhaps--for," he added, but not
+heartily, "we may meet again."
+
+"I hope so," said I, wringing his hand, "and that is likely,--since,
+in spite of yourself, I have guessed your secret--your birth and
+parentage."
+
+"How!" cried Vivian, turning pale, and gnawing his lip--"what do
+you mean?--speak."
+
+"Well, then, are you not the lost, runaway son of Colonel Vivian?
+Come, say the truth; let us be confidants."
+
+Vivian threw off a succession of his abrupt sighs; and then, seating
+himself, leant his face on the table, confused, no doubt, to find
+himself discovered.
+
+"You are near the mark," said he at last, "but do not ask me farther
+yet. Some day," he cried impetuously, and springing suddenly to his
+feet--"some day you shall know all: yes; some day, if I live, when
+that name shall be high in the world; yes, when the world is at my
+feet!" He stretched his right hand as if to grasp the space, and his
+whole face was lighted with a fierce enthusiasm. The glow died away,
+and with a slight return of his scornful smile, he said--"Dreams
+yet; dreams! And now, look at this paper." And he drew out a
+memorandum, scrawled over with figures.
+
+"This, I think, is my pecuniary debt to you; in a few days, I shall
+discharge it. Give me your address."
+
+"Oh!" said I, pained, "can you speak to me of money, Vivian?"
+
+"It is one of those instincts of honour you cite so often," answered
+he, colouring. "Pardon me."
+
+"That is my address," said I, stooping to write, to conceal my
+wounded feelings. "You will avail yourself of it, I hope, often, and
+tell me that you are well and happy."
+
+"When I am happy, you shall know."
+
+"You do not require any introduction to Trevanion?"
+
+Vivian hesitated: "No, I think not. If ever I do, I will write for
+it."
+
+I took up my hat, and was about to go--for I was still chilled and
+mortified--when, as if by an irresistible impulse, Vivian came to me
+hastily, flung his arms round my neck, and kissed me as a boy kisses
+his brother.
+
+"Bear with me!" he cried in a faltering voice: "I did not think to
+love any one as you have made me love you, though sadly against the
+grain. If you are not my good angel, it is that nature and habit are
+too strong for you. Certainly, some day we shall meet again. I shall
+have time, in the meanwhile, to see if the world can be indeed 'mine
+oyster, which I with sword can open.' I would be _aut Cæsar aut
+nullus_! Very little other Latin know I to quote from! If Cæsar, men
+will forgive me all the means to the end; if _nullus_, London has a
+river, and in every street one may buy a cord!"
+
+"Vivian! Vivian!"
+
+"Now go, my dear friend, while my heart is softened--go, before I
+shock you with some return of the native Adam. Go--go!"
+
+And taking me gently by the arm, Francis Vivian drew me from the
+room, and, re-entering, locked his door.
+
+Ah! if I could have left him Robert Hall, instead of those execrable
+Typhons! But would that medicine have suited his case, or must grim
+Experience write sterner recipes with her iron hand?
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+When I got back, just in time for dinner, Roland had not returned,
+nor did he return till late in the evening. All our eyes were
+directed towards him, as we rose with one accord to give him
+welcome; but his face was like a mask--it was locked, and rigid, and
+unreadable.
+
+Shutting the door carefully after him, he came to the hearth, stood
+on it, upright and calm, for a few moments, and then asked--
+
+"Has Blanche gone to bed?"
+
+"Yes," said my mother, "but not to sleep, I am sure; she made me
+promise to tell her when you came back."
+
+Roland's brow relaxed.
+
+"To-morrow, sister," said he slowly, "will you see that she has the
+proper mourning made for her? My son is dead."
+
+"Dead!" we cried with one voice, and surrounding him with one
+impulse.
+
+"Dead! impossible--you could not say it so calmly. Dead!--how do you
+know? You may be deceived. Who told you?--why do you think so?"
+
+"I have seen his remains," said my uncle, with the same gloomy calm.
+"We will all mourn for him. Pisistratus, you are heir to my name
+now, as to your father's. Good-night; excuse me, all--all you dear
+and kind ones; I am worn out."
+
+Roland lighted his candle and went away, leaving us thunderstruck;
+but he came back again--looked round--took up his book, open in
+the favourite passage--nodded again, and again vanished. We looked
+at each other, as if we had seen a ghost. Then my father rose and
+went out of the room, and remained in Roland's till the night was
+wellnigh gone. We sat up--my mother and I--till he returned. His
+benign face looked profoundly sad.
+
+"How is it, sir Can you tell us more?"
+
+My father shook his head.
+
+"Roland prays that you may preserve the same forbearance you have
+shown hitherto, and never mention his son's name to him. Peace be to
+the living, as to the dead. Kitty, this changes our plans; we must
+all go to Cumberland--we cannot leave Roland thus!"
+
+"Poor, poor Roland!" said my mother, through her tears. "And to
+think that father and son were not reconciled. But Roland forgives
+him now--oh, yes! _now!_"
+
+"It is not Roland we can censure," said my father, almost fiercely;
+"it is--but enough. We must hurry out of town as soon as we can:
+Roland will recover in the native air of his old ruins."
+
+We went up to bed mournfully.
+
+"And so," thought I, "ends one grand object of my life!--I had hoped
+to have brought those two together. But, alas! what peacemaker like
+the grave!"
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+My uncle did not leave his room for three days, but he was much
+closeted with a lawyer; and my father dropped some words which
+seemed to imply that the deceased had incurred debts, and that the
+poor Captain was making some charge on his small property. As Roland
+had said that he had seen the remains of his son, I took it at first
+for granted that we should attend a funeral, but no word of this was
+said. On the fourth day, Roland, in deep mourning, entered a hackney
+coach with the lawyer, and was absent about two hours. I did not
+doubt that he had thus quietly fulfilled the last mournful offices.
+On his return, he shut himself up again for the rest of the day,
+and would not see even my father. But the next morning he made his
+appearance as usual, and I even thought that he seemed more cheerful
+than I had yet known him--whether he played a part, or whether the
+worst was now over, and the grave was less cruel than uncertainty.
+On the following day, we all set out for Cumberland.
+
+In the interval, Uncle Jack had been almost constantly at the house,
+and, to do him justice, he had seemed unaffectedly shocked at the
+calamity that had befallen Roland. There was, indeed, no want of
+heart in Uncle Jack, whenever you went straight at it; but it was
+hard to find if you took a circuitous route towards it through the
+pockets. The worthy speculator had indeed much business to transact
+with my father before we left town. The _Anti-Publisher Society_
+had been set up, and it was through the obstetric aid of that
+fraternity that the Great Book was to be ushered into the world. The
+new journal, the _Literary Times_, was also far advanced--not yet
+out, but my father was fairly in for it. There were preparations for
+its debut on a vast scale, and two or three gentlemen in black--one
+of whom looked like a lawyer, and another like a printer, and a
+third uncommonly like a Jew--called twice, with papers of a very
+formidable aspect. All these preliminaries settled, the last thing
+I heard Uncle Jack say, with a slap on my father's back, was, "Fame
+and fortune both made now!--you may go to sleep in safety, for you
+leave me wide awake. Jack Tibbets never sleeps!"
+
+I had thought it strange that, since my abrupt exodus from
+Trevanion's house, no notice had been taken of any of us by himself
+or Lady Ellinor. But on the very eve of our departure, came a kind
+note from Trevanion to me, dated from his favourite country seat,
+(accompanied by a present of some rare books to my father,) in which
+he said briefly that there had been illness in his family, which had
+obliged him to leave town for a change of air, but that Lady Ellinor
+expected to call on my mother the next week. He had found amongst
+his books some curious works of the Middle Ages, amongst others a
+complete set of Cardan, which he knew my father would like to have,
+and so sent them. There was no allusion to what had passed between
+us.
+
+In reply to this note, after due thanks on my father's part, who
+seized upon the Cardan (Lyons edition, 1663, ten volumes folio) as
+a silkworm does upon a mulberry leaf, I expressed our joint regrets
+that there was no hope of our seeing Lady Ellinor, as we were just
+leaving town. I should have added something on the loss my uncle had
+sustained, but my father thought that, since Roland shrank from any
+mention of his son, even by his nearest kindred, it would be his
+obvious wish not to parade his affliction beyond that circle.
+
+And there had been illness in Trevanion's family! On whom had it
+fallen? I could not rest satisfied with that general expression, and
+I took my answer myself to Trevanion's house, instead of sending it
+by the post. In reply to my inquiries, the porter said that all the
+family were expected at the end of the week; that he had heard both
+Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion had been rather poorly, but that
+they were now better. I left my note, with orders to forward it; and
+my wounds bled afresh as I came away.
+
+We had the whole coach to ourselves in our journey, and a silent
+journey it was, till we arrived at a little town about eight miles
+from my uncle's residence, to which we could only get through a
+cross-road. My uncle insisted on preceding us that night, and,
+though he had written, before we started, to announce our coming, he
+was fidgety lest the poor tower should not make the best figure it
+could;--so he went alone, and we took our ease at our inn.
+
+Betimes the next day we hired a fly-coach--for a chaise could never
+have held us and my father's books--and jogged through a labyrinth
+of villanous lanes, which no Marshal Wade had ever reformed from
+their primal chaos. But poor Mrs Primmins and the canary-bird
+alone seemed sensible of the jolts; the former, who sate opposite
+to us, wedged amidst a medley of packages, all marked "care, to
+be kept top uppermost," (why I know not, for they were but books,
+and whether they lay top or bottom it could not materially affect
+their value,)--the former, I say, contrived to extend her arms over
+those _disjecta membra_, and, griping a window-sill with the right
+hand, and a window-sill with the left, kept her seat rampant, like
+the split eagle of the Austrian Empire--in fact it would be well,
+now-a-days, if the split eagle were as firm as Mrs Primmins! As for
+the canary, it never failed to respond, by an astonished chirp, to
+every "Gracious me!" and "Lord save us!" which the delve into a rut,
+or the bump out of it, sent forth from Mrs Primmins's lips, with all
+the emphatic dolor of thἂe "Ἂῖ, ἂῖ" in a Greek chorus.
+
+But my father, with his broad hat over his brows, was in deep
+thought. The scenes of his youth were rising before him, and his
+memory went, smooth as a spirit's wing, over delve and bump. And
+my mother, who sat next him, had her arm on his shoulder, and was
+watching his face jealously. Did she think that, in that thoughtful
+face, there was regret for the old love? Blanche, who had been
+very sad, and had wept much and quietly since they put on her the
+mourning, and told her that she had no brother, (though she had no
+remembrance of the lost), began now to evince infantine curiosity
+and eagerness to catch the first peep of her father's beloved tower.
+And Blanche sat on my knee, and I shared her impatience. At last
+there came in view a church spire--a church--a plain square building
+near it, the parsonage, (my father's old home)--a long straggling
+street of cottages and rude shops, with a better kind of house here
+and there--and in the hinder ground, a gray deformed mass of wall
+and ruin, placed on one of those eminences on which the Danes loved
+to pitch camp or build fort, with one high, rude, Anglo-Norman tower
+rising from the midst. Few trees were round it, and those either
+poplars or firs, save, as we approached, one mighty oak--integral
+and unscathed. The road now wound behind the parsonage, and up a
+steep ascent. Such a road!--the whole parish ought to have been
+flogged for it! If I had sent up a road like that, even on a map, to
+Dr Herman, I should not have sat down in comfort for a week to come!
+
+The fly-coach came to a full stop.
+
+"Let us get out," cried I, opening the door and springing to the
+ground to set the example.
+
+Blanche followed, and my respected parents came next. But when Mrs
+Primmins was about to heave herself into movement,
+
+"_Papæ!_" said my father. "I think, Mrs Primmins, you must remain
+in, to keep the books steady."
+
+"Lord love you!" cried Mrs Primmins, aghast.
+
+"The subtraction of such a mass, or _moles_--supple and elastic
+as all flesh is, and fitting into the hard corners of the inert
+matter--such a subtraction, Mrs Primmins, would leave a vacuum which
+no natural system, certainly no artificial organisation, could
+sustain. There would be a regular dance of atoms, Mrs Primmins; my
+books would fly here, there, on the floor, out of the window!
+
+  "_Corporis officium est quoniam omnia deorsum._"
+
+The business of a body like yours, Mrs Primmins, is to press all
+things down--to keep them tight, as you will know one of these
+days--that is, if you will do me the favour to read Lucretius,
+and master that material philosophy, of which I may say, without
+flattery, my dear Mrs Primmins, that you are a living illustration."
+
+These, the first words my father had spoken since we set out
+from the inn, seemed to assure my mother that she need have no
+apprehension as to the character of his thoughts, for her brow
+cleared, and she said, laughing,
+
+"Only look at poor Primmins, and then at that hill!"
+
+"You may subtract Primmins, if you will be answerable for the
+remnant, Kitty. Only, I warn you that it is against all the laws of
+physics."
+
+So saying, he sprang lightly forward, and, taking hold of my arm,
+paused and looked round, and drew the loud free breath with which we
+draw native air.
+
+"And yet," said my father, after that grateful and affectionate
+inspiration--"and yet, it must be owned, that a more ugly country
+one cannot see out of Cambridgeshire."[5]
+
+  [5] This certainly cannot be said of Cumberland generally, one of
+  the most beautiful counties in Great Britain. But the immediate
+  district to which Mr Caxton's exclamation refers; if not ugly, is at
+  least savage, bare, and rude.
+
+"Nay," said I, "it is bold and large, it has a beauty of its own.
+Those immense, undulating, uncultivated, treeless tracks have
+surely their charm of wildness and solitude! And how they suit the
+character of the ruin! All is feudal there: I understand Roland
+better now."
+
+"I hope in heaven Cardan will come to no harm!" cried my father; "he
+is very handsomely bound; and he fitted beautifully just into the
+fleshiest part of that fidgety Primmins."
+
+Blanche, meanwhile, had run far before us, and I followed fast.
+There were still the remains of that deep trench (surrounding the
+ruins on three sides, leaving a ragged hill-top at the fourth) which
+made the favourite fortification of all the Teutonic tribes. A
+causeway, raised on brick arches, now, however, supplied the place
+of the drawbridge, and the outer gate was but a mass of picturesque
+ruin. Entering into the courtyard or bailey, the old castle mound,
+from which justice had been dispensed, was in full view, rising
+higher than the broken walls around it, and partially overgrown with
+brambles. And there stood, comparatively whole, the tower or keep,
+and from its portals emerged the veteran owner.
+
+His ancestors might have received us in more state, but certainly
+they could not have given us a warmer greeting. In fact, in his
+own domain, Roland appeared another man. His stiffness, which
+was a little repulsive to those who did not understand it, was
+all gone. He seemed less proud, precisely because he and his
+pride, on that ground, were on good terms with each other. How
+gallantly he extended--not his arm, in our modern Jack-and-Jill
+sort of fashion--but his right hand, to my mother; how carefully
+he led her over "brake, bush, and scaur," through the low vaulted
+door, where a tall servant, who, it was easy to see, had been a
+soldier--in the precise livery, no doubt, warranted by the heraldic
+colours, (his stockings were red!)--stood upright as a sentry.
+And, coming into the hall, it looked absolutely cheerful--it took
+us by surprise. There was a great fire-place, and, though it was
+still summer, a great fire! It did not seem a bit too much, for
+the walls were stone, the lofty roof open to the rafters, while
+the windows were small and narrow, and so high and so deep sunk
+that one seemed in a vault. Nevertheless, I say the room looked
+sociable and cheerful--thanks principally to the fire, and partly
+to a very ingenious medley of old tapestry at one end, and matting
+at the other, fastened to the lower part of the walls, seconded
+by an arrangement of furniture which did credit to my uncle's
+taste for the Picturesque. After we had looked about and admired
+to our hearts' content, Roland took us--not up one of those noble
+staircases you see in the later manorial residences--but a little
+winding stone stair, into the rooms he had appropriated to his
+guests. There was first a small chamber, which he called my father's
+study--in truth, it would have done for any philosopher or saint who
+wished to shut out the world--and might have passed for the interior
+of such a column as Stylites inhabited; for you must have climbed a
+ladder to have looked out of the window, and then the vision of no
+short-sighted man could have got over the interval in the wall made
+by the narrow casement, which, after all, gave no other prospect
+than a Cumberland sky, with an occasional rook in it. But my father,
+I think I have said before, did not much care for scenery, and he
+looked round with great satisfaction upon the retreat assigned him.
+
+"We can knock up shelves for your books in no time," said my uncle,
+rubbing his hands.
+
+"It would be a charity," quoth my father, "for they have been very
+long in a recumbent position, and would like to stretch themselves,
+poor things. My dear Roland, this room is made for books--so round
+and so deep. I shall sit here like Truth in a well."
+
+"And there is a room for you, sister, just out of it," said my
+uncle, opening a little low prison-like door into a charming room,
+for its window was low, and it had an iron balcony; "and out of that
+is the bed-room. For you, Pisistratus, my boy, I am afraid that it
+is soldier's quarters, indeed, with which you will have to put up.
+But never mind; in a day or two we shall make all worthy a general
+of your illustrious name--for he was a great general, Pisistratus
+the First--was he not, brother?"
+
+"All tyrants are," said my father: "the knack of soldiering is
+indispensable to them."
+
+"Oh, you may say what you please here!" said Roland, in high
+good humour, as he drew me down stairs, still apologising for my
+quarters, and so earnestly that I made up my mind that I was to be
+put into an _oubliette_. Nor were my suspicions much dispelled on
+seeing that we had to leave the keep, and pick our way into what
+seemed to me a mere heap of rubbish, on the dexter side of the
+court. But I was agreeably surprised to find, amidst these wrecks,
+a room with a noble casement commanding the whole country, and
+placed immediately over a plot of ground cultivated as a garden.
+The furniture was ample, though homely; the floors and walls well
+matted; and, altogether, despite the inconvenience of having to
+cross the courtyard to get to the rest of the house, and being
+wholly without the modern luxury of a bell, I thought that I could
+not be better lodged.
+
+"But this is a perfect bower, my dear uncle! Depend on it, it was
+the bower-chamber of the Dames de Caxton--heaven rest them!"
+
+"No," said my uncle, gravely; "I suspect it must have been the
+chaplain's room, for the chapel was to the right of you. An earlier
+chapel, indeed, formerly existed in the keep tower--for, indeed, it
+is scarcely a true keep without chapel, well, and hall. I can show
+you part of the roof of the first, and the two last are entire; the
+well is very curious, formed in the substance of the wall at one
+angle of the hall. In Charles the First's time, our ancestor lowered
+his only son down in a bucket, and kept him there six hours, while
+a Malignant mob was storming the tower. I need not say that our
+ancestor himself scorned to hide from such a rabble, for _he_ was a
+grown man. The boy lived to be a sad spendthrift, and used the well
+for cooling his wine. He drank up a great many good acres."
+
+"I should scratch him out of the pedigree, if I were you. But,
+pray, have you not discovered the proper chamber of that great Sir
+William, about whom my father is so shamefully sceptical?"
+
+"To tell you a secret," answered the Captain, giving me a sly poke
+in the ribs, "I have put your father into it! There are the initial
+letters W. C. let into the cusp of the York rose, and the date,
+three years before the battle of Bosworth, over the chimneypiece."
+
+I could not help joining my uncle's grim low laugh at this
+characteristic pleasantry; and after I had complimented him on so
+judicious a mode of proving his point, I asked him how he could
+possibly have contrived to fit up the ruin so well, especially as he
+had scarcely visited it since his purchase.
+
+"Why," said he, "about twelve years ago, that poor fellow you
+now see as my servant, and who is gardener, bailiff, seneschal,
+butler, and anything else you can put him to, was sent out of the
+army on the invalid list. So I placed him here; and as he is a
+capital carpenter, and has had a very fair education, I told him
+what I wanted, and put by a small sum every year for repairs and
+furnishing. It is astonishing how little it cost me, for Bolt,
+poor fellow, (that is his name,) caught the right spirit of the
+thing, and most of the furniture, (which you see is ancient and
+suitable,) he picked up at different cottages and farmhouses in the
+neighbourhood. As it is, however, we have plenty more rooms here and
+there--only, of late," continued my uncle, slightly changing colour,
+"I had no money to spare. But come," he resumed, with an evident
+effort--"come and see my barrack: it is on the other side of the
+hall, and made out of what no doubt were the butteries."
+
+We reached the yard, and found the fly-coach had just crawled to
+the door. My father's head was buried deep in the vehicle,--he was
+gathering up his packages, and sending out, oracle-like, various
+muttered objurgations and anathemas upon Mrs Primmins and her
+vacuum; which Mrs Primmins, standing by, and making a lap with her
+apron to receive the packages and anathemas simultaneously, bore
+with the mildness of an angel, lifting up her eyes to heaven and
+murmuring something about "poor old bones." Though, as for Mrs
+Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years, and you
+might as soon have found a Plesiosaurus in the fat lands of Romney
+Marsh as a bone amidst those layers of flesh in which my poor father
+thought he had so carefully cottoned up his Cardan.
+
+Leaving these parties to adjust matters between them, we stepped
+under the low doorway, and entered Rowland's room. Oh, certainly
+Bolt _had_ caught the spirit of the thing!--certainly he had
+penetrated down even to the very pathos that lay within the deeps
+of Roland's character. Buffon says "the style is the man;" there,
+the room was the man. That nameless, inexpressible, soldier-like,
+methodical neatness which belonged to Roland--that was the first
+thing that struck one--that was the general character of the whole.
+Then, in details, there, in stout oak shelves, were the books on
+which my father loved to jest his more imaginative brother,--there
+they were, Froissart, Barante, Joinville, the _Mort d'Arthur_,
+_Amadis of Gaul_, Spenser's _Fairy Queen_, a noble copy of Strutt's
+_Horda_, Mallet's _Northern Antiquities_, Percy's _Reliques_, Pope's
+_Homer_, books on gunnery, archery, hawking, fortification--old
+chivalry and modern war together cheek by jowl.
+
+Old chivalry and modern war!--look to that tilting helmet with
+the tall Caxton crest, and look to that trophy near it, a French
+cuirass--and that old banner (a knight's pennon) surmounting those
+crossed bayonets. And over the chimneypiece there--bright, clean,
+and, I warrant you, dusted daily--are Roland's own sword, his
+holsters, and pistols, yea, the saddle, pierced and lacerated, from
+which he had reeled when that leg----I gasped--I felt it all at a
+glance, and I stole softly to the spot, and, had Roland not been
+there, I could have kissed that sword as reverently as if it had
+been a Bayard's or a Sidney's.
+
+My uncle was too modest to guess my emotion; he rather thought I
+had turned my face to conceal a smile at his vanity, and said, in
+a deprecating tone of apology--"It was all Bolt's doing, foolish
+fellow."
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+Our host regaled us with a hospitality that notably contrasted his
+economical thrifty habits in London. To be sure, Bolt had caught the
+great pike which headed the feast; and Bolt, no doubt, had helped
+to rear those fine chickens _ab ovo_; Bolt, I have no doubt, made
+that excellent Spanish omelette; and for the rest, the products of
+the sheepwalk and the garden came in as volunteer auxiliaries--very
+different from the mercenary recruits by which those metropolitan
+_Condottieri_, the butcher and green-grocer, hasten the ruin of that
+melancholy commonwealth called "genteel poverty."
+
+Our evening passed cheerfully; and Roland, contrary to his custom,
+was talker in chief. It was eleven o'clock before Bolt appeared with
+a lantern to conduct me through the court-yard to my dormitory,
+among the ruins--a ceremony which, every night, shine or dark, he
+insisted upon punctiliously performing.
+
+It was long before I could sleep--before I could believe that but
+so few days had elapsed since Roland heard of his son's death--that
+son whose fate had so long tortured him; and yet, never had Roland
+appeared so free from sorrow! Was it natural--was it effort? Several
+days passed before I could answer that question, and then not wholly
+to my satisfaction. Effort there was, or rather resolute systematic
+determination. At moments Roland's head drooped, his brows met, and
+the whole man seemed to sink. Yet these were only moments; he would
+rouse himself up like a dozing charger at the sound of a trumpet,
+and shake off the creeping weight. But, whether from the vigour of
+his determination, or from some aid in other trains of reflection, I
+could not but perceive that Roland's sadness really was less grave
+and bitter than it had been, or than it was natural to suppose. He
+seemed to transfer, daily more and more, his affections from the
+dead to those around him, especially to Blanche and myself. He let
+it be seen that he looked on me now as his lawful successor--as the
+future supporter of his name--he was fond of confiding to me all
+his little plans, and consulting me on them. He would walk with me
+around his domains, (of which I shall say more hereafter,)--point
+out, from every eminence we climbed, where the broad lands which
+his forefathers owned stretched away to the horizon; unfold with
+tender hand the mouldering pedigree, and rest lingeringly on those
+of his ancestors who had held martial post, or had died on the
+field. There was a crusader who had followed Richard to Ascalon;
+there was a knight who had fought at Agincourt; there was a cavalier
+(whose picture was still extant, with fair lovelocks) who had fallen
+at Worcester--no doubt the same who had cooled his son in that
+well which the son devoted to more agreeable associations. But of
+all these worthies there was none whom my uncle, perhaps from the
+spirit of contradiction, valued like that apocryphal Sir William:
+and why?--because, when the apostate Stanley turned the fortunes
+of the field at Bosworth, and when that cry of despair--"Treason,
+treason!" burst from the lips of the last Plantagenet, "amongst
+the faithless," this true soldier "faithful found!" had fallen in
+that lion-rush which Richard made at his foe. "Your father tells
+me that Richard was a murderer and usurper," quoth my uncle. "Sir,
+that might be true or not; but it was not on the field of battle
+that his followers were to reason on the character of the master
+who trusted them, especially when a legion of foreign hirelings
+stood opposed to them. I would not have descended from that turncoat
+Stanley to be lord of all the lands the Earls of Derby can boast
+of. Sir, in loyalty, men fight and die for a grand principle, and
+a lofty passion; and this brave Sir William was paying back to the
+last Plantagenet the benefits he had received from the first!"
+
+"And yet it may be doubted," said I maliciously, "whether William
+Caxton the printer did not--"
+
+"Plague, pestilence, and fire seize William Caxton the printer, and
+his invention too!" cried my uncle barbarously. "When there were
+only a few books, at least they were good ones; and now they are
+so plentiful, all they do is to confound the judgment, unsettle
+the reason, drive the good books out of cultivation, and draw a
+ploughshare of innovation over every ancient landmark; seduce the
+women, womanize the men, upset states, thrones, and churches; rear
+a race of chattering, conceited, coxcombs, who can always find
+books in plenty to excuse them from doing their duty; make the poor
+discontented, the rich crotchety and whimsical, refine away the
+stout old virtues into quibbles and sentiments! All imagination
+formerly was expended in noble action, adventure, enterprise, high
+deeds and aspirations; now a man can but be imaginative by feeding
+on the false excitement of passions he never felt, dangers he never
+shared; and he fritters away all there is of life to spare in him
+upon the fictitious love-sorrows of Bond Street and St James's.
+Sir, chivalry ceased when the press rose! And to fasten upon me, as
+a forefather, out of all men who have ever lived and sinned, the
+very man who has most destroyed what I most valued--who, by the
+Lord! with his cursed invention has wellnigh got rid of respect for
+forefathers altogether--is a cruelty of which my brother had never
+been capable, if that printer's devil had not got hold of him!"
+
+That a man in this blessed nineteenth century should be such a
+Vandal! and that my uncle Roland should talk in a strain that
+Totila would have been ashamed of, within so short a time after my
+father's scientific and erudite oration on the Hygeiana of Books,
+was enough to make one despair of the progress of intellect and the
+perfectibility of our species. And I have no manner of doubt that,
+all the while, my uncle had a brace of books in his pockets, Robert
+Hall one of them! In truth, he had talked himself into a passion,
+and did not know what nonsense he was saying, poor man. But this
+explosion of Captain Roland's has shattered the thread of my matter.
+Pouff! I must take breath and begin again!
+
+Yes, in spite of my sauciness, the old soldier evidently took to me
+more and more. And, besides our critical examination of the property
+and the pedigree, he carried me with him on long excursions to
+distant villages, where some memorial of a defunct Caxton, a coat of
+arms, or an epitaph on a tombstone, might be still seen. And he made
+me pore over topographical works and county histories, (forgetful,
+Goth that he was, that for those very authorities he was indebted
+to the repudiated printer!) to find some anecdote of his beloved
+dead! In truth, the county for miles round bore the _vestigia_ of
+those old Caxtons; their handwriting was on many a broken wall.
+And, obscure as they all were, compared to that great operative
+of the Sanctuary at Westminster, whom my father clung to--still,
+that the yesterdays that had lighted them the way to dusty death
+had cast no glare on dishonoured scutcheons seemed clear, from the
+popular respect and traditional affection in which I found that
+the name was still held in hamlet and homestead. It was pleasant
+to see the veneration with which this small hidalgo of some three
+hundred a-year was held, and the patriarchal affection with which
+he returned it. Roland was a man who would walk into a cottage,
+rest his cork leg on the hearth, and talk for the hour together
+upon all that lay nearest to the hearts of the owners. There is
+a peculiar spirit of aristocracy amongst agricultural peasants:
+they like old names and families; they identify themselves with the
+honours of a house, as if of its clan. They do not care so much for
+wealth as townsfolk and the middle class do; they have a pity, but a
+respectful one, for wellborn poverty. And then this Roland, too--who
+would go and dine in a cook shop, and receive change for a shilling,
+and shun the ruinous luxury of a hack cabriolet--could be positively
+extravagant in his liberalities to those around him. He was
+altogether another being in his paternal acres. The shabby-genteel,
+half-pay captain, lost in the whirl of London, here luxuriated into
+a dignified case of manner that Chesterfield might have admired.
+And, if to please is the true sign of politeness, I wish you could
+have seen the faces that smiled upon Captain Roland, as he walked
+down the village, nodding from side to side.
+
+One day a frank, hearty, old woman, who had known Roland as a boy,
+seeing him lean on my arm, stopped us, as she said bluffly, to take
+a "geud luik" at me.
+
+Fortunately I was stalwart enough to pass muster, even in the eyes
+of a Cumberland matron; and, after a compliment at which Roland
+seemed much pleased, she said to me, but pointing to the Captain--
+
+"Hegh, sir, now you ha the bra time before you; you maun een try and
+be as geud as _he_. And if life last, ye wull too--for there never
+waur a bad ane of that stock. Wi' heads kindly stup'd to the least,
+and lifted manfu' oop to the heighest--that ye all war' sin ye came
+from the Ark. Blessins on the ould name--though little pelf goes
+with it--it sounds on the peur man's ear like a bit o' gould!"
+
+"Do you not see now," said Roland, as we turned away, "what we owe
+to a name, and what to our forefathers?--do you not see why the
+remotest ancestor has a right to our respect and consideration--for
+he was a parent? 'Honour your parents'--the law does not say,
+'Honour your children!' If a child disgrace us, and the dead,
+and the sanctity of this great heritage of their virtues--_the
+name_;--if he does--" Roland stopped short, and added fervently,
+"But you are my heir now--I have no fear! What matters one foolish
+old man's sorrow?--the name, that property of generations, is saved,
+thank Heaven--the name!"
+
+Now the riddle was solved, and I understood why, amidst all his
+natural grief for a son's loss, that proud father was consoled.
+For he was less himself a father than a son--son to the long dead.
+From every grave, where a progenitor slept, he had heard a parent's
+voice. He could bear to be bereaved, if the forefathers were not
+dishonoured. Roland was more than half a Roman--the son might still
+cling to his household affections, but the _lares_ were a part of
+his religion.
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+But I ought to be hard at work, preparing myself for Cambridge. The
+deuce!--how can I? The point in academical education on which I
+require most preparation is Greek composition. I come to my father,
+who, one might think, was at home enough in this. But rare indeed is
+it to find a great scholar who is a good teacher.
+
+My dear father! if one is content to take you in your own way,
+there never was a more admirable instructor for the heart, the
+head, the principles, or the tastes--in your own way, when you have
+discovered that there is some one sore to be healed--one defect
+to be repaired; and you have rubbed your spectacles, and got your
+hand fairly into that recess between your frill and your waistcoat.
+But to go to you, cut and dry, monotonously, regularly--book and
+exercise in hand--to see the mournful patience with which you tear
+yourself from that great volume of Cardan in the very honeymoon of
+possession--and then to note those mild eyebrows gradually distend
+themselves into perplexed diagonals, over some false quantity or
+some barbarous collocation--till there steal forth that horrible
+"Papæ!" which means more on your lips than I am sure it ever did
+when Latin was a live language, and "Papæ!" a natural and unpedantic
+ejaculation!--no, I would sooner blunder through the dark by myself
+a thousand times, than light my rush-light at the lamp of that
+Phlegethonian "Papæ!"
+
+And then my father would wisely and kindly, but wondrous slowly,
+erase three-fourths of one's pet verses, and intercalate others that
+one saw were exquisite, but could not exactly see why. And then one
+asked why; and my father shook his head in despair, and said--"But
+you ought to _feel_ why!"
+
+In short, scholarship to him was like poetry: he could no more teach
+it you than Pindar could have taught you how to make an ode. You
+breathed the aroma, but you could no more seize and analyse it,
+than, with the opening of your naked hand, you could carry off the
+scent of a rose. I soon left my father in peace to Cardan, and to
+the Great Book, which last, by the way, advanced but slowly. For
+Uncle Jack had now insisted on its being published in quarto, with
+illustrative plates; and those plates took an immense time, and
+were to cost an immense sum--but that cost was the affair of the
+Anti-Publisher Society. But how can I settle to work by myself?
+No sooner have I got into my room--_penitus ab orbe divisus_, as
+I rashly think--than there is a tap at the door. Now, it is my
+mother, who is benevolently engaged upon making curtains to all
+the windows, (a trifling superfluity that Bolt had forgotten or
+disdained,) and who wants to know how the draperies are fashioned
+at Mr Trevanion's: a pretence to have me near her, and see with her
+own eyes that I am not fretting;--the moment she hears I have shut
+myself up in my room, she is sure that it is for sorrow. Now it
+is Bolt, who is making book-shelves for my father, and desires to
+consult me at every turn, especially as I have given him a Gothic
+design, which pleases him hugely. Now it is Blanche, whom, in an
+evil hour, I undertook to teach to draw, and who comes in on tiptoe,
+vowing she'll not disturb me, and sits so quiet that she fidgets me
+out of all patience. Now, and much more often, it is the Captain,
+who wants me to walk, to ride, to fish. And, by St Hubert! (saint
+of the chase,) bright August comes--and there is moor-game on those
+barren wolds--and my uncle has given me the gun he shot with at my
+age--single-barrelled, flint lock--but you would not have laughed at
+it if you had seen the strange feats it did in Roland's hands--while
+in mine, I could always lay the blame on the flint lock! Time, in
+short, passed rapidly; and if Roland and I had our dark hours, we
+chased them away before they could settle--shot them on the wing as
+they got up.
+
+Then, too, though the immediate scenery around my uncle's was so
+bleak and desolate, the country within a few miles was so full of
+objects of interest--of landscapes so poetically grand or lovely;
+and occasionally we coaxed my father from the Cardan, and spent
+whole days by the margin of some glorious lake.
+
+Amongst these excursions, I made one by myself to that house in
+which my father had known the bliss and the pangs of that stern
+first love that still left its scars fresh on my own memory. The
+house, large and imposing, was shut up--the Trevanions had not been
+there for years--the pleasure-grounds had been contracted into the
+smallest possible space. There was no positive decay or ruin--that
+Trevanion would never have allowed; but there was the dreary look of
+absenteeship everywhere. I penetrated into the house with the help
+of my card and half-a-crown. I saw that memorable boudoir--I could
+fancy the very spot in which my father had heard the sentence that
+had changed the current of his life. And when I returned home, I
+looked with new tenderness on my father's placid brow--and blessed
+anew that tender helpmate, who, in her patient love, had chased from
+it every shadow.
+
+I had received one letter from Vivian a few days after our arrival.
+It had been redirected from my father's house, at which I had given
+him my address. It was short, but seemed cheerful. He said, that
+he believed he had at last hit on the right way, and should keep
+to it--that he and the world were better friends than they had
+been--and that the only way to keep friends with the world was to
+treat it as a tamed tiger, and have one hand on a crow-bar while one
+fondled the beast with the other. He enclosed me a bank-note which
+somewhat more than covered his debt to me, and bade me pay him the
+surplus when he should claim it as a millionnaire. He gave me no
+address in his letter, but it bore the post-mark of Godalming. I had
+the impertinent curiosity to look into an old topographical work
+upon Surrey, and in a supplemental itinerary I found this passage,
+"To the left of the beech-wood, three miles from Godalming, you
+catch a glimpse of the elegant seat of Francis Vivian, Esq." To
+judge by the date of the work, the said Francis Vivian might be the
+grandfather of my friend, his namesake. There could no longer be any
+doubt as to the parentage of this prodigal son.
+
+The long vacation was now nearly over, and all his guests were to
+leave the poor Captain. In fact, we had made a long trespass on
+his hospitality. It was settled that I was to accompany my father
+and mother to their long-neglected _penates_, and start thence for
+Cambridge.
+
+Our parting was sorrowful--even Mrs Primmins wept as she shook hands
+with Bolt. But Bolt, an old soldier, was of course a lady's man. The
+brothers did not shake hands only--they fondly embraced, as brothers
+of that time of life rarely do now-a-days, except on the stage.
+And Blanche, with one arm round my mother's neck, and one round
+mine, sobbed in my ear,--"But I will be your little wife, I will."
+Finally, the fly-coach once more received us all--all but poor
+Blanche, and we looked round and missed her.
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+Alma Mater! Alma Mater! New-fashioned folks, with their large
+theories of education, may find fault with thee. But a true Spartan
+mother thou art--hard and stern as the old matron who bricked up
+her son Pausanias, bringing the first stone to immure him; hard and
+stern, I say, to the worthless, but full of majestic tenderness to
+the worthy.
+
+For a young man to go up to Cambridge (I say nothing of Oxford,
+knowing nothing thereof) merely as routine work, to lounge through
+three years to a degree among the �ι πολλοι--for such an one,
+Oxford Street herself, whom the immortal Opium-eater hath so direly
+apostrophised, is not a more careless and stony-hearted mother.
+But for him who will read, who will work, who will seize the rare
+advantages proffered, who will select his friends judiciously--yea,
+out of that vast ferment of young idea in its lusty vigour, choose
+the good and reject the bad--there is plenty to make those three
+years rich with fruit imperishable--three years nobly spent, even
+though one must pass over the Ass's Bridge to get into the Temple of
+Honour.
+
+Important changes in the Academical system have been recently
+announced, and honours are henceforth to be accorded to the
+successful disciples in moral and natural sciences. By the side
+of the old throne of Mathesis, they have placed two very useful
+_fauteuils à la Voltaire_. I have no objection; but, in those three
+years of life, it is not so much the thing learned, as the steady
+perseverance in learning something that is excellent.
+
+It was fortunate, in one respect, for me that I had seen a little
+of the real world--the metropolitan, before I came to that mimic
+one--the cloistral. For what were called pleasures in the last, and
+which might have allured me, had I come fresh from school, had no
+charm for me now. Hard drinking and high play, a certain mixture of
+coarseness and extravagance, made the fashion among the idle when
+I was at the university _sub consule Planco_--when Wordsworth was
+master of Trinity: it may be altered now.
+
+But I had already outlived such temptations, and so, naturally, I
+was thrown out of the society of the idle, and somewhat into that of
+the laborious.
+
+Still, to speak frankly, I had no longer the old pleasure in
+books. If my acquaintance with the great world had destroyed
+the temptation to puerile excesses, it had also increased my
+constitutional tendency to practical action. And, alas! in spite
+of all the benefit I had derived from Robert Hall, there were
+times when memory was so poignant that I had no choice but to rush
+from the lonely room, haunted by tempting phantoms too dangerously
+fair, and sober down the fever of the heart by some violent bodily
+fatigue. The ardour which belongs to early youth, and which it best
+dedicates to knowledge, had been charmed prematurely to shrines less
+severely sacred. Therefore, though I laboured, it was with that
+full _sense of labour_ which (as I found at a much later period
+of life) the truly triumphant student never knows. Learning--that
+marble image--warms into life, not at the toil of the chisel, but
+the worship of the sculptor. The mechanical workman finds but the
+voiceless stone.
+
+At my uncle's, such a thing as a newspaper rarely made its
+appearance. At Cambridge, even among reading men, the newspapers
+had their due importance. Politics ran high; and I had not been
+three days at Cambridge before I heard Trevanion's name. Newspapers,
+therefore, had their charms for me. Trevanion's prophecy about
+himself seemed about to be fulfilled. There were rumours of changes
+in the cabinet. Trevanion's name was bandied to and fro, struck
+from praise to blame, high and low, as a shuttlecock. Still the
+changes were not made, and the cabinet held firm. Not a word in the
+_Morning Post_, under the head of _fashionable intelligence_, as to
+rumours that would have agitated me more than the rise and fall of
+governments--no hint of "the speedy nuptials of the daughter and
+sole heiress of a distinguished and wealthy commoner:" only now and
+then, in enumerating the circle of brilliant guests at the house of
+some party chief, I gulped back the heart that rushed to my lips,
+when I saw the names of Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion.
+
+But amongst all that prolific progeny of the periodical
+press--remote offspring of my great namesake and ancestor, (for I
+hold the faith of my father,)--where was the _Literary Times_?--what
+had so long retarded its promised blossoms? Not a leaf in the shape
+of advertisements had yet emerged from its mother earth. I hoped
+from my heart that the whole thing was abandoned, and would not
+mention it in my letters home, lest I should revive the mere idea of
+it. But, in default of the _Literary Times_, there did appear a new
+journal, a daily journal too; a tall, slender, and meagre stripling,
+with a vast head, by way of prospectus, which protruded itself for
+three weeks successively at the top of the leading article;--with
+a fine and subtle body of paragraphs;--and the smallest legs, in
+the way of advertisements, that any poor newspaper ever stood upon!
+And yet this attenuated journal had a plump and plethoric title, a
+title that smacked of turtle and venison; an aldermanic, portly,
+grandiose, Falstaffian title--it was called THE CAPITALIST. And all
+those fine subtle paragraphs were larded out with receipts how to
+make money. There was an El Dorado in every sentence. To believe
+that paper, you would think no man had ever yet found a proper
+return for his pounds, shillings, and pence. You would have turned
+up your nose at twenty per cent. There was a great deal about
+Ireland--not her wrongs, thank Heaven! but her fisheries: a long
+inquiry what had become of the pearls for which Britain was once
+so famous: a learned disquisition upon certain lost gold mines now
+happily rediscovered: a very ingenious proposition to turn London
+smoke into manure, by a new chemical process: recommendations to
+the poor to hatch chickens in ovens like the ancient Egyptians:
+agricultural schemes for sowing the waste lands in England with
+onions, upon the system adopted near Bedford, net produce one
+hundred pounds an acre. In short, according to that paper, every
+rood of ground might well maintain its man, and every shilling be
+like Hobson's money-bag, "the fruitful parent of a hundred more."
+For three days, at the newspaper room of the Union Club, men talked
+of this journal: some pished, some sneered, some wondered; till
+an ill-natured mathematician, who had just taken his degree, and
+had spare time on his hands, sent a long letter to the _Morning
+Chronicle_, showing up more blunders, in some article to which the
+editor of _The Capitalist_ had specially invited attention, (unlucky
+dog!) than would have paved the whole island of Laputa. After that
+time, not a soul read _The Capitalist_. How long it dragged on its
+existence I know not; but it certainly did not die of a _maladie de
+langueur_.
+
+Little thought I, when I joined in the laugh against _The
+Capitalist_, that I ought rather to have followed it to its grave,
+in black crape and weepers,--unfeeling wretch that I was! But, like
+a poet, O _Capitalist_! thou wert not discovered, and appreciated,
+and prized, and mourned, till thou wert dead and buried, and the
+bill came in for thy monument!
+
+The first term of my college life was just expiring, when I received
+a letter from my mother, so agitated, so alarming, at first reading
+so unintelligible, that I could only see that some great misfortune
+had befallen us; and I stopped short and dropped on my knees, to
+pray for the life and health of those whom that misfortune more
+specially seemed to menace; and then--and then, towards the end of
+the last blurred sentence--read twice, thrice, over--I could cry,
+"Thank Heaven, thank Heaven! it is only, then, money after all!"
+
+
+
+
+STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND.
+
+
+It is a term of very wide application, this of statistics--extending
+to everything in the state of a country subject to variation either
+from the energies and fancies of men, or from the operations of
+nature, in so far as these, or the knowledge of them, has any
+tendency to occasion change in the condition of the country. Its
+elements must be either changeable in themselves, or the cause of
+change; because the use of the whole matter is to direct men what
+to do for their advantage, moral or physical--by legislation, when
+the case is of sufficient magnitude--or otherwise by the wisdom and
+enterprise of individuals.
+
+Governments, it is plain, must have the greatest interest in
+possessing knowledge of this sort; but they have not been the first
+to engage very earnestly in obtaining it. It would seem that, in all
+countries, the first very noticeable efforts in this way have been
+made by individuals.
+
+In this country we have now from government more and better
+statistics than from any other source; for besides the decennial
+census, there is the yearly produce in this way of Crown Commissions
+and of Parliamentary Committees; and, moreover, there is the late
+institution of a statistical department in connexion with the Board
+of Trade, for arranging, digesting, and rendering more accessible
+all matter of this kind collected, from time to time, by the
+different branches of the administration. But before statistical
+knowledge became the object of much care to the government of
+this country, it had been well cultivated by individuals. So in
+Germany statistics first took a scientific form in the works of an
+individual about the middle of the last century: and in France,
+the unfinished _Mémoires des Intendants_, prepared on the order
+of the king, were scarcely an exception, since meant for the
+private instruction of the young prince. But without attaching
+undue importance to the fact of mere precedence, it may be said
+that, considering the chief uses of this kind of knowledge, it has
+received more contributions from individuals than could have been
+expected.
+
+This admits of being easily explained. It has been well said
+that, while history is a sort of current statistics, statistics
+are a sort of stationary history. The one has therefore much the
+same invitations to mere literary taste as the other; and if the
+subject be not so generally engaging, the fancy way be as strong,
+and produce as pure a devotion to statistics as there ever is to
+history. More than this, the statist may care far less for his
+subject than its uses,--that is, he may choose to undergo the toil
+of researches only recommended by the chance of their ministering
+to the better guidance of some part of public policy, and therefore
+to the public good. The impulse is then not literary; nor is it
+legislative, for the power is wanting; it is simply patriotic, for
+so it must be considered, even when, in the words of Mr M'Culloch,
+the object is only "to bring under the public view the deficiencies
+in statistical information, and so to contribute to the advancement
+of the science."
+
+This public nature of the aim of statistical works, and the
+unlikelihood of their authors choosing that medium to set forth
+anything supposed worthy of notice in the figure of their own
+genius, seem to have been recognised, except in rare instances, as
+giving to works of this kind a title to be well received, and to
+have their faults very gently remarked.
+
+Again, it might be expected that the statistics of individuals
+should have a more limited range than those of governments; that
+they should refer to districts of less extent; and to the state
+of the country in fewer of its aspects. But the case is somewhat
+different. The statistics of individuals are often more national
+than local, and generally consist of many branches presented in some
+connexion; while those of governments are commonly confined to the
+single department on which some question of policy may chance for
+the time to have fixed attention.
+
+On the occasion mentioned, the inquiries instituted in France were
+not so confined, but embraced all the points of chief interest in
+the state of the country. In England, nothing similar has been
+attempted; although, some years ago, it is known that a proposal to
+institute a general survey of Ireland--on the plan, we believe, of
+the Ordnance Survey of the parish of Templemore--was for some time
+under consideration of the government.
+
+On the other hand, the instances of individual enterprise in this
+way to a national extent are numerous, both at home and abroad.
+Among the latter, Aucherwall gives the first example, and Peuchet
+probably the best; both treating of the country not in parts but
+as a whole,--not in one respect but in many. Of the same sort are
+the excellent statistical works of Colquhoun, M'Culloch, Porter,
+and others, relating to the British empire, and directed to many
+aspects of its condition. To these we add the _Statistical Account
+of Scotland_,--occupied with as many or more matters of inquiry,
+but not so properly national, since viewing not the country
+collectively, but its parochial divisions in succession.
+
+One advantage belongs to the collection of statistics upon many
+points, which is not found in those that are limited to one. It is
+remarked by Schlozer in his _Theorie der Statistik_, that "there
+are many facts seemingly of no value, but which become important
+as soon as you combine them with other facts, it may be of quite
+another class. The affinities subsisting among these facts are
+discovered by the talent and genius of the statist; and the more
+various the knowledge he possesses, with so much the more success
+he will perform this last and crowning part of his task." The
+observation need not be confined to facts apparently unimportant:
+for even those, whose importance is at once perceived, may acquire
+a new value from a skilful collation. In either case, there seems
+a necessity for remitting the detached statistics collected by
+government to some such department as that in connexion with the
+Board of Trade; otherwise, the works of individual statists must
+continue to afford the only opportunity of tracing the latent
+relations of one branch of statistics to another.
+
+The individual, however, who attempts so much, is in hazard
+of attempting more than any individual can well perform. For,
+besides this, he has to make another effort quite distinct--in the
+investigation of facts. All the needed scientific knowledge he
+may possess; but the same sufficiency of local or topographical
+knowledge is not supposable. The work so produced, therefore,
+cannot easily avoid the defects, either of error in the details
+of some branch, of unequal development of the parts, or of a
+superficial treatment of the whole. Against these dangers some
+writers have had recourse to assistance, inviting contributions from
+others favoured with better means of information than themselves;
+and to them attributing, in so far as they assisted, the entire
+merit and responsibility of the work.
+
+This transference of responsibility is warranted by the necessity
+of the case--but it is unusual; and as it scarcely occurs except in
+works of the kind in question, it may happen that even a professing
+judge of such works, if the habit of attention be not good, may
+entirely overlook the circumstance.
+
+In the _Statistical Account of Scotland_, the obligation to
+individual contributions has been carried to the greatest extent;
+indeed, it is simply a collection of such contributions, and nothing
+more. This part of the plan was necessitated by another, in which
+the work is equally peculiar--namely, the distinct treatment of
+smaller divisions of the country, than have been taken up in any
+other work of the kind, having an entire country for its object.
+To obtain a body of parochial statistics, it was necessary to
+have recourse to persons well acquainted with the bounds, and
+intelligent, at the same time, upon the various subjects of inquiry.
+But to find such in nine hundred parishes would, of itself, have
+required much of that local knowledge, the want of which was the
+occasion of the search--had there not been a class or order of men
+among whom the desired qualification, in many points, might be
+supposed to be pretty generally diffused; and from whose favour to a
+project of public usefulness much aid might be expected. It was in
+this manner that the co-operation of the parochial clergy came to be
+suggested.
+
+The _Statistical Account of Scotland_ was originated, promoted,
+and superintended by the late Sir John Sinclair. The authors of
+such works, as one of the best of them remarks, should be careful
+to explain their motives in undertaking it--we presume, because
+undertakings of the kind are felt to be scarcely an affair of
+individuals. In this instance, a desire to promote the public good
+was at once professed and accredited by many other acts apparently
+inspired by the same sentiment. The devotion of Sir John Sinclair's
+life in that direction was complete, and the example uncommon.
+In this a late reviewer perceives nothing more than a restless
+pursuit of plans of no further interest to himself than as they
+bore the inscription of his own name. But whenever public spirit is
+professed, and by anything like useful acts attested, our faith, we
+think, should be more generous. On such occasions, if on any, it is
+right to waive all speculation upon private motives, and to presume
+the best--for reasons so well understood in general that they do
+not need to be explained. But if genius, with a bent to that sort
+of penetration, must have its freedom, we do demand that some token
+should appear of a belief in the possibility of the virtue which is
+denied.
+
+It does not improve the grace of any such judgments that they are
+passed fifty years after the occasion; for, in the meantime, the
+work may have acquired merits which could not belong to it at
+first:--and so it has happened with the _Statistical Account_ of Sir
+John Sinclair. Results may be fairly ascribed to that performance
+which were not intended nor foreseen, and which seem to have come
+from its very defects, as well as from the defects which it revealed
+in the condition of the country, and in the means of ascertaining
+what the condition of the country was. Its population-statistics
+were extremely imperfect; the census followed in a very few years.
+Its scanty and unequal notices of agriculture suggested the project
+of the County Reports; and to these succeeded the _General Report of
+Scotland_--a work still useful, and of the first authority in much
+that relates to the agriculture and other industry of the country.
+To take advantage of those capabilities which the statistical
+accounts had shown his country to possess, Sir John Sinclair
+originated the Agricultural Society. All of those things, and more,
+appear to have resulted from the _Statistical Account_. They
+are honours that have arisen to it in the course of time, and may
+be fairly permitted to mitigate the notice and recollection of its
+faults.
+
+After the lapse of fifty years, Scotland had ceased to be the
+country represented in the old _Statistical Account_; for the
+greater part of what is proper to such a work is, as we have said,
+changeable and changing. It contained not a little, however, which
+remained as true and as interesting as at first: the topography,
+the physical characters, the civil divisions of the country were
+the same; all that had been said of its history, whether local or
+general, might be said again as seasonably as before. It occurred,
+then, to those to whom the author had presented the right of this
+work, to attempt to restore it in those parts which time had
+rendered useless, preserving those which were under no disadvantage
+from that cause. This, as we learn, was the plain, unambitious
+intention of the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_. It was
+projected and carried on during ten years by a Society, whose object
+it is to afford aid, where aid is needed, in the education of the
+children of the clergy of the Church of Scotland. Nothing could be
+more foreign to that object than to engage in a work of national
+statistics; nothing more natural than that, in their relation to
+the clergy, and with their interest in the first work, they should
+propose to renew it in the manner mentioned. A society expressly
+formed for statistical purposes, and not restrained like the Society
+for the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy, would probably have
+proposed something different--something more new; it might have
+been expected to produce something more excellent--though, even
+in that case, the demand of excellence would have been limited by
+the consideration, that the means of completely investigating the
+statistics of a country are not at the command of any statistical
+society that exists. A modernisation, so to speak, of the first work
+appears to have been the idea of the second.
+
+It has been executed, however, in the freest style, and scarcely
+admitted, indeed, of being accomplished at all in any other manner.
+In such cases, it is seldom that the adaptation is effected by
+mere numerical changes; the whole statement, in form, manner, and
+substance, behoves to be remodelled. Then, certain parts of the
+original may have been deficient, and become more evidently so by
+the changes that have since ensued in the state of the object: here
+the task is less one of correction than of supplement. For example,
+the very interesting and full accounts of mining and manufacturing
+industry which abound in the new work are nearly peculiar to it,
+and have scarcely an example in the old. One entire section of the
+latter, that of natural history, has been developed to an extent
+not attempted in the former, nor indeed in any other statistical
+work. These are rather noticeable licenses, on the supposition of
+the aim being as moderate as professed, and they go far to form a
+new and independent work--having nothing in common with the first,
+except the parochial divisions and the obligation to the clergy, as
+respects the plan; and as respects the matter, only the small part
+of it which is historical, and therefore not obsolete.
+
+We observe, accordingly, that the society who promoted the new work
+have put it forward as taking some things from the old, for which
+they are not responsible, but as containing far more which must form
+a new and separate character for itself. In both respects, we think
+they have viewed the work with a proper reference to the conditions
+under which it was produced.
+
+In other points, the new Account has improved upon the old, and
+might be expected to do so. It has more matter, by a third part,
+neither less suited to the place, nor more diffuse in the statement;
+and, as befits a work of reference, the arrangement is more orderly
+and more uniform. It is, on the whole, more carefully and better
+written, and shows, on the part of the reverend contributors, a
+remarkable advance in the many sorts of knowledge requisite to the
+task. If the comparison were pursued further, it might be said that
+some contributions to the first are not surpassed in the value of
+what they contain; while, from the greater novelty of the task at
+that time, as well as from the greater freedom of the method, they
+are somewhat fresher and more genial in manner. The later work, if
+fuller, more exact, more statistical throughout, possesses that
+advantage at the cost of appearing sometimes more like a collection
+of returns in answer to submitted points of inquiry,--a character,
+however, by no means unsuitable to a compilation of the kind. In all
+other points a decided superiority must be attributed to the new
+Account.
+
+Our remarks at this time shall be confined to the plan of the new
+Account, and to the general description of its contents.[6]
+
+  [6] _The New statistical Account of Scotland._ In 15 vols.
+  Edinburgh, 1845.
+
+The chief feature of the plan is the distinct treatment of each
+parish--producing a body neither of county nor of national, but
+merely of parochial statistics. This was the design, and there
+is much to recommend it. It is the last thing that can take the
+aspect of a fault in statistics, to view the matter in very minute
+portions; for thus, and thus only, it is possible to arrive at
+an accurate knowledge of the whole. There can be no good county
+statistics which do not suppose inquiries limited, at first, to
+lesser divisions of the country, and which do not express the sum
+of particulars taken from subdivisions that can hardly proceed too
+far. If such minor surveys do not come before the public, they are
+presumptively carried on in private. But, in the latter case, they
+are the more apt to be superficial, as they can be so with the
+less chance of being noticed; they are apt to take aid from mere
+computation of averages; they are apt, also, to result in that vague
+description which is the master-vice of statistics. "In this town,
+there are manufactures which employ _many_ hands; in this district,
+_vast_ quantities of silk are produced. These," says Schlozer, "are
+pet phrases of tourists, who would say something, when they know
+nothing; but they are not the language of statistics." The parochial
+method stands, then, on two good grounds: it is inevitable either
+in an open or a latent form; and it favours the collection of
+sufficient data for those specific enumerations which are the true
+worth and the characteristic grace of this branch of knowledge.
+
+This plan, however, has some disadvantages; in referring to which we
+shall find occasion to bring to view some of the proper merits of
+the work.
+
+In the first place, a work on this plan is inevitably voluminous.
+The territorial divisions submitted to distinct treatment are about
+nine hundred in number, and the matter is still further augmented by
+the occasional assignment to different hands of different parts of
+the survey of a single parish. In proportion to the descent of the
+details, is the bulk of the production; which we suppose to be an
+evil in the same measure in which it exceeds the necessity of the
+case. Now the _New Statistical Account_ is at once seen to contain
+not a little matter of merely local interest, and of the smallest
+value considered as pertaining to a body of national statistics;
+and here, if anywhere, it is apt to be regarded as at fault. It
+is right, however, to recollect the privilege of every work to
+be judged according to the conditions of the species to which it
+belongs. The present is not set forth as a statistical account of
+Scotland, but as a collection of the statistical accounts of all the
+parishes in Scotland; for this, we perceive, is not merely implied
+in the plan of the work, but is declared in the prospectus, where
+the hope is expressed that, by exhibiting the actual state of the
+parishes, with whatever is therein amiss, it may lead to parochial
+improvements. It does not appear, therefore, to have been from any
+miscalculation of their worth, that matters of merely local interest
+have been so liberally admitted; and, all things considered, more of
+that nature might have been expected. Let us quote again from the
+best theory of statistics that has ever been produced. "An object
+may be deserving of remark in the description of some particular
+portion of a country, and at the same time have no claim to notice
+in any general account of that country at large. In the former
+case, the rivulet is not to be omitted; in the latter, any allusion
+to it would be a defect, for it would be matter of unnecessary
+and trifling detail."[7] It is recorded, in the _New Statistical
+Account_, that "Will-o'-wisp had never appeared in the parish of
+South Uist previous to the year 1812." Nothing, in a national point
+of view, can be conceived more insignificant than this fact; but,
+taken in connexion with a notable superstition in that district, its
+local importance appears.[8] To the credit of this method, it may be
+noticed, that the accounts which are most parochial are, at the same
+time, among those which have been drawn up with the most general
+intelligence; and, this being the case, it is not a strange wish
+that the accounts, in general, had been somewhat more parochial than
+they are.
+
+  [7] Schlozer.
+
+  [8] "It is said that a woman in Benbecula went at night to the
+  Sandbanks, to dig for some roe used for dyeing a red colour,
+  against her husband's will; that, when she left her house, she
+  said with an oath she would bring some of it home, though she knew
+  there was a regulation by the factor and magistrates, prohibiting
+  people to use it or dig for it, by reason that the sandbanks, upon
+  being excavated, would be blown away with the wind. The woman
+  never returned home, nor was her body ever found. It was shortly
+  thereafter that the meteor was first seen; and it is said that it is
+  the ghost of the unfortunate and profane woman that appears in this
+  shape."--_New Statistical Account_, "Inverness," p. 184.
+
+On this plan, it is certain there is a risk of much repetition, many
+parishes having some common characterists which, in place of being
+recounted for each, might be stated once for all. How far does the
+_Statistical Account_ offend in this manner? It is true that, where
+the same facts occur in many parishes, a single statement might
+suffice; though this might be at the cost of violating the plan
+which for the whole it might be fittest to adopt, upon consideration
+that the like resemblance is not found among the greater number of
+the parishes. But it is remarkable, how seldom different parishes
+have all the similarity requisite for such a common description;
+for, in statistics, a difference in mere number or quantity is
+a vital difference, and expresses essentially different facts.
+Many parishes have the same articles of produce; while no two
+produce exactly the same quantities. A very short distance often
+brings to view considerable varieties in climate, soil, and other
+physical qualities of a country. Now, considering that the object
+of this work is to present the parishes in their distinguishing,
+as well as in their common features, we do not see much sameness
+in the substance of the details which could have been avoided. A
+sameness there is; but more in form than in substance--each account
+delivering its matter under the same general heads, recurring in
+all cases in exactly the same order. This is convenient when the
+book is used for reference; it may be wearisome to one who reads
+only for amusement: it is monotonous; but who looks for any "soul of
+harmony" in such a quarter? We repeat, it is not attended, on the
+whole, with much importunate reappearance of the same facts, and
+cannot seem to be so, except to a very careless or distempered eye.
+But if, perchance, there may be some facts much alike in several
+parishes, this itself is an unusual fact, and we should not object
+to its coming out in the usual way of each parish speaking for
+itself; in which case, there is always a chance of some variety in
+the description, from the same thing presenting itself to different
+persons under different aspects. But, on the whole, we think there
+is less repetition in these accounts, and indeed less occasion for
+it, than might at first sight be supposed.
+
+There is another obvious tendency to imperfection in the plan of
+parochial accounts. Their first, but not their sole object, is
+to describe the parishes; it is certainly meant that they should
+furnish, at the same time, the grounds of statistical computation
+for the whole country. This is the natural complement and the
+proper conclusion to a work of parish statistics. It is, however,
+a part of the plan which, not being quite necessary, and requiring
+a fresh effort at the last, is apt to be omitted. It was not till
+twenty-five years after the publication of the old Account that Sir
+John Sinclair at length produced his _Analysis of the Statistical
+Account of Scotland considered as one District_. It came too late. A
+similar analysis or summary appears to have been at first intended
+for the new Account: and we regret that this part of the design was,
+by force of circumstances, not carried into effect. One use of it
+would have been to evince that parochial statistics do not assume
+the character of national; while yet, for even national statistics,
+they furnish the most proper foundation. To pass at once, however,
+from parochial to national statistics would have been too great a
+step; there is an intermediate stage, at which the new Account would
+certainly have paused, though it had designed to proceed farther;
+and at which, without that design, it has here rested; presenting
+the statistics of each county in a summary of the more important
+particulars concerning the included parishes; but making no nearer
+approach to any general computations for the country at large.
+
+The method of proceeding from parishes to counties suggests that
+other plan for the entire work, which would have followed the
+opposite course--the plan that would have begun with counties, and
+given County, not Parochial reports. Somewhat in this fashion has
+been formed the _Géographie Départementale_ of France, now in course
+of publication, in which the whole matter is rigorously subjected
+to as skilful an arrangement as has ever been devised for matters
+of the kind. It is plain, however, that greater difficulty and more
+expense would have attended the construction of the Scotch work on
+that scheme, than private parties could have undertaken; and even
+the example of the French work does not show that, for the compacter
+method thus obtained, there might not have been a sacrifice of much
+that is valuable in detail.
+
+It may be added, that when parishes are well described, and a county
+or more general summary succeeds, we ask no more; a work like this
+has then accomplished its object, and what remains must be sought
+for elsewhere. What remains is this--to interpret the statistics
+thus laid down, for they are often very far from interpreting
+themselves; to ascertain, by analysis or combination of their
+different parts, what they signify in regard to the condition of
+the country. Thus, betwixt the rate of wages and the habits of a
+people--the prevailing occupations and the rate of mortality--the
+description of industry and the amount of pauperism--there are
+relations which it is exceedingly important to remark. But if a
+statistical account simply notes the kind, number, or quantity of
+each of these particulars, it performs its part,--no matter how
+blindly, how unconsciously of the relation that subsists betwixt
+them, this may be done. The rest is so different a work, that it
+must be left to other hands. It is not to be forgotten, that, for
+bringing out the more latent truths of statistics in the manner
+mentioned, a work like this is merely _pour servir_; and, keeping
+that in view, our prepossessions are all in favour of abundance and
+minuteness of detail.
+
+Lastly, a work made up of contributions from nine hundred
+individuals must be of unequal merit, according to the different
+measures of intelligence or care, and according to the feeling with
+which a task of that nature may happen to have been undertaken. A
+slight inspection, accordingly, discovers that it is the character
+of the writer, more than of the parish, that determines the length
+and interest of any one of these reports. This is an imperfection,
+and something more--for it makes one part of the book, by
+implication, reveal the defects of another. A few years ago, when
+a Crown commission considered a project for a general survey and
+statistical report of Ireland, their attention was much attracted
+to the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_; and, in their report,
+they notice, in the course of a very fair estimate, this inequality
+as the main disadvantage of the plan. It is, however, inevitable,
+except upon a scheme which, from the expense attending it, would
+have hindered the existence of the Scottish work, and which appears
+to have prevented or postponed the Irish. From a single author,
+something like proportion might be expected in the parts of such a
+compilation; but to that perfection a work like the _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_, with its hundreds of avowed responsible, and
+therefore uncontrolled authors, could not pretend. For this reason,
+it is the more proper to follow a rule of judgment which, in any
+case, is a good one:--to estimate the general character of the work
+with a lively recollection of its merits; and to be much upon our
+guard against the mean instinct of looking only to the weaker and
+more peccant parts of it.
+
+Passing from the plan to the matter of the work, we now ask, whether
+all that it contains is properly statistical, and whether it
+contains all of any consequence that falls under that description.
+
+Nothing, we suppose, is alien to this branch of knowledge that
+tends, in however little, to show the state of a country--social,
+political, moral--or even physical.
+
+But this last, comprising somewhat of geography and natural history,
+some writers would remove entirely from the sphere of statistics.
+Among these is Peuchet, in his work before mentioned--who gives as
+the reason of the exclusion, that, in any analysis of the wealth or
+power of a state, neither its geography nor natural history ever
+come into view: a fact rather hastily assumed. The parallel work for
+this country, by Mr. M'Culloch, while it follows Peuchet's method
+in much, leaves it in this instance, admitting various branches of
+natural history to ample consideration. It is true that trespass
+on the proper ground of statistics has been so common an offence,
+that writers have been careful to mark those cases in which no title
+exists. Thus Schlozer, looking to the intrusions that come from
+the quarter we refer to, is averse to all imaginative descriptions
+of the physical aspect of a country, but does not prohibit
+natural history. Hogel, who also writes well upon the theory of
+statistics,[9] is more explicit--admitting that natural history may
+encroach too far, but asserting that its several branches may be
+received to a certain extent. "Whatever, in the physical nature of a
+country, has any influence upon the life, occupations, or manners of
+the people, pertains to statistics; by all means, therefore, in any
+body of statistics, let us have as much of mineralogy, hydrology,
+botany, geology, meteorology, as has any bearing upon the condition
+of the people." All of these subjects have been allowed to enter
+largely into the _New Statistical Account_.
+
+  [9] HOGEL, _Entwurf zur Theorie der Statistik_.
+
+They form a feature of that work which scarcely belonged to the
+old Account, and which is new, indeed, to parochial statistics.
+Investigations of natural history have usually been carried on with
+reference to other bounds than those of parishes; but, when confined
+to parishes, it is remarkable how much this has been at once for the
+advantage of the science, and for the enhancement of any interest in
+these territorial divisions by the picturesque mixture of natural
+objects with the works and pursuits of men. More of this parochial
+treatment of natural history we may possibly have hereafter, upon
+the suggestion of the _Statistical Account_.
+
+For the abundant favour which the work has shown to the whole
+subject of natural history, reasons are not wanting. One portion
+of that matter has obviously the quality that designates for
+statistical treatment,--comprising, for example, mines, whether
+wrought or unwrought; animals, profitable or destructive; plants, in
+all their variety of uses: the connexion of which with the wealth
+and industry of the country is at once apparent. The same connexion
+exists for another class of objects; but not so obviously. For
+example, there is a detailed account of the flowering periods of
+a variety of plants in one parish; the pertinence of which is not
+perceived, until it is mentioned that, in the same neighbourhood,
+there are two populous and well-frequented watering-places, which
+owe their prosperity to the qualities of the climate: there the
+trade of the locality connects itself with the early honours of the
+hepaticas. A third class of facts, and not the least in amount,
+is not qualified by any relation they are known to possess to the
+social condition of the country; but then they belong to a body
+of facts, some of which have that relation; and the same may be
+established for them hereafter. Still, it may be said that the
+matter, if appropriate, behoves to be presented in a statistical,
+not in a scientific form. But this, perhaps, is to interpret too
+strictly the laws of statistical writing, which do not seem to
+forbid the predominance of a scientific interest in the description,
+when the matter fairly belongs to the province of statistics. And if
+any license at all may be allowed in works of so severe a character,
+it is precisely here where that is least unbefitting. It is not
+among the faults of the _New Statistical Account_, but rather among
+its most interesting features, that the mineral resources of the
+country are so often described with all the skill and passion of the
+mineralogist, forgetting for the moment everything but the phenomena
+of nature.
+
+Under the head of Natural History, we have many instances of the
+landscape painting proscribed by Schlozer. But it is remarked,
+that the same authority, when adverting to another matter, lays
+down a principle of admission which is equally applicable here.
+"Antiquities," he observes, "become a proper subject of statistics
+in such a case as that of Rome, where a large amount of money was at
+one time annually expended by the strangers who came to form their
+taste, or to indulge their curiosity, upon the remains of ancient
+art." In like manner, if there are places in Scotland that profit
+economically by the attractions of their natural beauty, we do
+not see that there is any obligation to be silent upon the cause,
+by reason merely of the seeming dissonance betwixt an imaginative
+description and the austere account of statistics. Other and better
+apologies might be offered; and, on the whole, we are not satisfied
+that, in this respect, any less indulgence of the gentler vein would
+have been attended with advantage to the work.
+
+On these grounds it appears to have been, that so much scope is
+allowed to the whole subject of natural history. But if too much,
+the fault has been redeemed by the frequent excellence of what is
+put forth on that head. Here the _New Statistical Account_ passes
+expectation; and to it we may attribute much of the increased
+interest that has lately attached to that branch of knowledge in
+Scotland.
+
+Another thing of questionable connexion with statistics is
+history, which imports a reference to the past; whereas, as the
+name declares, statistics contemplates but the present, and can
+look neither backward nor forward, without trenching upon other
+provinces. Many excellent statistical works, accordingly, have
+allowed no place to history at all; and the writers before cited,
+on the theory of the subject, concur in excluding it. Hogel is most
+explicit. "Statistics never go beyond the circle of the present
+in their representations of the condition of a country: they are
+like painting--they fix upon a single point of time; and the facts
+which they select are those which come last in the series, though
+the series they belong to may extend backwards for ages. All that
+went before rests on testimony, and is therefore beyond the sphere
+of statistics, whose grounds are in actual observation. There is
+no limit to the number of facts with which statistics have to do,
+provided they are co-existing facts, and do not present themselves
+in succession: facts, and not their causes, are the proper matter
+of statistics; and they must be facts of the present time." This
+doctrine, in which there seems nothing in the main amiss, if
+strictly applied to the work under consideration, cancels a large
+part of it. But against that consequence we can suppose it to
+be pleaded--First, that for relief from a continuity of details
+somewhat arid to many readers, the work borrows something from a
+neighbouring branch of knowledge, and so far, of purpose, drops its
+statistical character--the more allowably, as in this way no harm
+ensues to the statistical character of the rest. And next--that
+all the history of a place has not equally little to do with its
+present state; for past events are often, casually or otherwise,
+related to the present, and so become a fair subject of retrospect,
+unless restraints are to be imposed on this branch of knowledge
+which are unknown to any other. The fault, in this instance, is at
+least not so great, as where no discoverable relation exists. It
+may be worth while, then, to observe how far the historical matter
+of the _Statistical Account_ does show any connexion of the sort in
+question.
+
+It includes, under the head of history, various classes of
+particulars. 1. The parish has been the scene of some event
+remarkable in the history of the country. Of this, perhaps, distinct
+traces remain, not in memory alone, but in some local custom or
+institution. But the most common case is, that, as the range extends
+to the remotest periods, all influence or effect of the event has
+ceased, and the interest of its recital is purely historical. Here
+the _Statistical Account_ transgresses one rule of such a work by
+the admission of such matter, and asks, as we perceive it does ask
+in the prospectus, liberty to do so on one of the grounds above
+suggested.
+
+2. The same apology is required for the antiquities, that form a
+large section under this head. These have sometimes perceptibly the
+connexion that gives the title we desire; a connexion, perhaps, no
+more than perceptible. Thus, in reference to the round hill in the
+parish of Tarbolton, on which the god Thor was anciently worshipped,
+we are told that, "on the evening before the June fair, a piece of
+fuel is still demanded at each house, and invariably given, even by
+the poorest inhabitant," in order to celebrate the form of the same
+superstitious rite which has been annually performed on that hill
+for many centuries. The famous Pictish tower at Abernethy is said
+to be used "for civil purposes connected with the burgh." In these
+cases it is seen how very slight is the qualifying circumstance; but
+it is still more so for much the greater number of particulars of
+this kind which the book contains--such as ancient coins, ancient
+armour, barrows, standing-stones, camps, or moat hills: all of which
+particularly belong to archæology, and obtain a place here simply
+by favour. Indeed, no part of the work adheres to it so loosely as
+this of antiquities. Their objects live as curiosities; but, to all
+intents that can recommend them to the notice of statistics, they
+are dead, "and to be so extant is but a fallacy in duration."
+
+If this portion of the matter be the least appropriate, it is, at
+the same time, not the least difficult to handle; for uncertainty
+besets a very great part of it, and nothing more tries the reach of
+knowledge than conjecture. Besides, the knowledge here requisite
+implies both taste and opportunities for its cultivation,--which may
+belong to individuals, but which cannot be attributed to an entire
+profession, spread over all parts of the country, and designated
+to very different studies. If antiquities could be considered as
+a main part of statistics, it is, assuredly, not to the clergy we
+should look for a statistical account; nor indeed to any other
+body, however learned, if it be not the Society of Antiquaries. The
+clergyman who honours his profession with the greatest amount of
+appropriate learning, may in this particular know but little; and if
+we do not, on that account, the less value him, it is assuredly not
+from undervaluing in the slightest degree a very interesting branch
+of knowledge.
+
+In these circumstances, the reasons for allowing to antiquities
+so much of this compilation appear to have been,--the compelling
+example of the old Account, the occasional aptness of the matter,
+and the effect of such a _mélange_ upon the mass of details that
+form the body of the work. But a better apology remains; and
+it may be extended to what is said of the remarkable events of
+history. We are warranted in saying, that the _New Statistical
+Account_ has contributed much to the history and antiquities of
+Scotland,--evincing on these subjects a frequent novelty and fulness
+of knowledge far surpassing what either the design or the apparatus
+of the undertaking gave any title to expect.
+
+Of one fault, in particular, there is no appearance in the
+archæology of this work. Nowhere is there any sign of an
+idiosyncracy which is not without example--that of professing to
+speak of statistics, and yet speaking of nothing but antiquities;
+as if these, which are saved with so much difficulty from the
+charge of being wholly out of place, were the pith and marrow, the
+most vital part of any body of statistics. This is a small merit,
+but it is allied to a greater. Throughout these volumes, there is
+no tendency to discuss such futile questions as have sometimes
+lowered the credit of antiquarian pursuits. We have seen it solemnly
+inquired, whether Æneas, upon landing in Italy, touched the soil
+with the right or with the left foot foremost; whether Karl Haco
+was in person present at the sacrifice of his son; whether a faded
+inscription upon the walls of an old church be of this import or
+that--in either case the interest having so little to support it
+in the significance of the record that it can scarce be imagined
+to exist at all, except as it may centre in the mere truth of
+the deciphering. Nothing of this doting, degenerate character,
+repudiated by all antiquaries, occurs in the _Statistical Account_:
+if it did, the sum of all the errors in names, dates, and other
+things, inevitably incident to so vast a variety of details, would
+not have been an equal blemish.
+
+It is probable that neither history nor antiquities will find a
+place in any future statistics of Scotland. Not that they have
+been enough examined either in that connexion, or elsewhere; but
+it is now common to make them the subject of separate, independent
+essays--the most proper form for the delivery of anything that
+pertains to such matters. The good service done in this department,
+by both of these Accounts, now falls to be performed by such works
+as the "Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland,"[10]
+which have this for their single object; and the presumption is only
+fair, that some further light on such matters may be contributed by
+the "Parochiale Scoticanum," lately announced as in the course of
+preparation[11]--though our expectations would not have been at all
+lessened by a somewhat less magnificent promise than that "every
+man in Scotland may be enabled to ascertain, with some precision,
+the first footing and _gradual progress of Christianity_ in his own
+district and neighbourhood."
+
+  [10] _The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland._
+  Illustrated by R. W. BILLINGS, and WILLIAM BURN.
+
+  [11] Prospectus _Parochiale Scoticanum_, now editing by COSMO INNES,
+  Esq., Advocate.
+
+It is not to be supposed, however, that some other topics which
+regularly appear in this New Account, under the head of history,
+will ever drop from any work of parochial statistics. We refer to
+what may be termed Parish History, as distinct from what belongs to
+the history of the country,--notices of distinguished individuals
+and of ancient families, changes of property, territorial
+improvements, variations in the social state of the people. No
+part of a book is more novel, or, to a proper curiosity, more
+interesting; and no indication is needed of the fair incidence of
+such matters to a work of this description.
+
+If the _New Statistical Account_ contains, then, some particulars
+not quite proper to the professed object, the excess appears to
+be on the whole venial. But it may still be asked, whether any
+important and proper matters appear to have been omitted.
+
+Now, considering how many things of nature, art, institutions, and
+industry pertain to statistics, we do not expect any compilation to
+embrace all, or to treat completely of all such things as it does
+embrace,--we expect imperfection in the details.
+
+Accordingly, it is seen that some subjects well described in some
+accounts, are either not at all, or not so fully, taken up in
+others; while yet the occasion may be much the same. The climate
+of some districts, for instance, is well illustrated by careful
+observations from the rain-gage and thermometer; in some parishes we
+are informed of the size of the agricultural possessions, the number
+of ploughs, the rent of land; in some, manufactories, mines, and
+other kinds of industry, are viewed in all their aspects. But, for
+other districts or parishes, reports on these subjects are wanting;
+and the disadvantage is, not merely that such desirable information
+is not given for such places, but that the means are not furnished
+of making any general computations for the whole country. It is
+plain there have been special reasons for the less satisfactory
+representation of particular parishes in these respects: but for all
+such faults, both of omission and imperfection, we understand the
+_New Statistical Account_ to have one general apology; which is this.
+
+Two distinct efforts are requisite to the preparation of a
+comprehensive work of statistics. There is first, the investigation
+of facts; and next, the task of arranging and presenting them in
+the report. One of the theorists before-mentioned, views it as
+a necessary division of labour, that both things should not be
+attempted by one and the same party,--especially as the first, when
+the subjects are numerous, is not to be accomplished but by the
+assistance of many hands--all of which, as he observes, must be at
+once skilful and suitably rewarded. Now, here, the task of inquiring
+and reporting was not divided; the whole of it was placed, by the
+necessities of the case, in the hands of the reverend contributors.
+But, as no private society had the means or authority to investigate
+the facts completely, it is urged that the defects to which we have
+alluded, were for the most part inevitable.
+
+We believe it; and, recognising how much the clergy had thus to
+do, which could only be done completely by the government, we only
+advert to the sources of information to which they could have
+recourse.
+
+_Public documents_ seem to have been consulted, when information
+of a later date could not be had,--and chiefly the parliamentary
+reports on population, crime, education, and municipal affairs, from
+which the parish accounts appear to have been supplemented with
+whatever was necessary to the completion of the county summaries.
+Much has also been derived from the reports of Societies, Boards,
+and mercantile companies; of this there is evidence in the account
+of every considerable town.
+
+_Public records_ appear also to have been examined, and chiefly the
+parish registers. Every parish has a record of the transactions of
+its kirk-session,--sometimes extending to distant periods. Extracts
+from these occasionally show, in a clear light, the state and
+manners of the country in former times; more of which authentic
+illustration we could have wished, and more the same sources
+might possibly have supplied. Most parishes have also records of
+births or baptisms, marriages and deaths. From these, and these
+only, this work could derive the elements of its important section
+of vital statistics; but how far were they fitted to serve that
+purpose? It is certain that they nowhere form a complete register
+of these occurrences, and that for the most part they are very
+defective. Baptisms appear to have been entered, in the parish
+register, regularly till the year 1783, when the imposition of
+a small tax first broke the custom of registration; and, when
+that tax was removed, dissenting bodies were unwilling to resume
+the practice. The proportion of registered baptisms to births,
+for instance, is at the present time not more than one fourth in
+Edinburgh, and one third in Glasgow. The marriage register is also
+unavailable to statistical purposes, by reason of the practice of
+double enrolment--in the parish of each party. In many parishes no
+record of burials exists: in others, those of paupers are omitted.
+In short, there is scarcely a country in Europe that does not, by
+proper arrangements, furnish better information on these important
+points; and no industry of individuals can remedy that defect. It is
+therefore among the postulates of a work like this, for Scotland,
+that its vital statistics should be imperfect.
+
+_Books_ relating to the history, civil or natural, the institutions
+or manners of the country, have in many instances been well
+consulted; in some, not at all; but probably as much from want of
+opportunity as from any other cause.
+
+Still much occasion for inquiry remained after all the use that
+could be made of reports, registers, and books. Much of what related
+to the institutions of Religion, education, and the poor, might
+be supposed to come readily to hand, the clergy themselves being
+most conversant with such matters. But they appear to have charged
+themselves with the toil of very different investigations. Some
+have been at the pains to ascertain the amount and occupations of
+the population, betwixt the decennial terms of the parliamentary
+census. Few have omitted to state, in connexion with the agriculture
+of the parish, the quantities of land under tillage or under wood,
+in pasture or in moor, and the amount respectively of the different
+kinds of produce--facts that imply not a little correspondence with
+land-owners and land-occupiers, and much industry in the collation
+of returns. They have had recourse, frequently, to mineralogists,
+botanists, overseers of mining and manufacturing works, whose
+contributions are of as much value as the fullest and ripest
+knowledge can give. Picture-galleries are sometimes described by
+their owners; family papers occasionally disclose facts of some
+interest in the history of the country. Throughout the work there
+are signs not to be mistaken, of much private and unwonted inquiry
+on the part of the reverend authors, to do, in a creditable way, a
+work that, from the nature of it, ought to have been apportioned to
+at least two different parties.
+
+The defects which remain only suggest to us the hope which was thus
+expressed in similar circumstances, that "the circulation of this
+work, by bringing the deficiencies in the means of statistical
+information under the public view, and drawing attention to them,
+may, in this respect, also contribute to the advancement of the
+science." It is implied, of course, that the work, to be useful
+in this indirect way, must have merits of another kind. On these
+the _New Statistical Account_ may stand. No other book affords the
+same insight into the various natural resources of the country;
+none describes so well, and so skilfully, the most considerable
+branches of industry, and the methods of conducting them; none has
+brought together the same variety of statistics, with the same
+ample means of speculating upon their mutual relations. It is still
+more remarkable, that such a work, embracing, as it does, so much
+beyond the usual sphere of their observation, should proceed from
+the clergy; but the explanation is, that the position and character
+of that body open to them the best means of information on many
+subjects with which they are themselves not at all conversant. They
+have produced here a work, which, as a collection of parochial
+statistics, stands alone, without either rival or resemblance in any
+other country, representing the state of Scotland, at the period to
+which it refers, in all its aspects, and so affording the means of
+a definite comparison between the past and the present, such as, in
+all cases, it is at once natural and profitable to make. A peculiar
+interest arises from the unusual diversity of the matter, and the
+familiarity of the writers with the bounds which they describe.
+It is a useful work, and will continue long to be so, in as many
+ways as it throws light upon the condition of the country--and,
+not least, in the local improvements to which its suggestions may
+give rise. But, if its uses were less than they are, it would still
+leave an impression of respect for the general intelligence and the
+readiness to employ their opportunities for the public good, which
+its authors have known to unite with exemplary devotion to the
+duties of their calling.
+
+
+
+
+THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART.
+
+     _The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art._ By Mrs JAMESON.
+
+
+We are of the belief that art without poetry is worthless--dead,
+and deadening; or, if it have vitality, there is no music in its
+speech--no command in its beauty. We treat it with a kind of
+contempt, and make apology for the pleasure it has afforded. _Sacred
+and Legendary Art!_ How different--how precious--how life-bestowing!
+The material and immaterial world linked, as it were, together by
+a new sympathy, working out a tissue of beautiful ideas from the
+golden threads of a Divine revelation! By _Sacred and Legendary Art_
+is meant the treatment of religions subjects, commencing with the
+Old Testament, and terminating in traditionary tales and legends. It
+is from the latter that the old painters have, for the most part,
+taken that rich poetry, which, glowing on the canvass, shows, even
+amidst the wild errors of fable, a truth of sentiment belonging to a
+purer faith.
+
+By the Protestant mind, nursed, perhaps, in an undue contempt of
+histories of saints and martyrs of the Romish Church, the treasures
+of art of the best period are rarely understood, and still more
+rarely felt, in the spirit in which they were conceived. Those for
+whom they were painted needed no cold inquiry into the subjects.
+They accepted them as things universally known and religiously to
+be received, with a veneration which we but little comprehend. With
+them pictures and statues were among their sacred things, and,
+together with architecture, spoke and taught with an authority
+that books, which then were rare in the people's hands, have since
+scarcely ever obtained. Men of genius felt this respect paid to
+their works, if denied too often to themselves; and thus to their
+own devotion was added a kind of ministerial importance. Their work
+became a duty, and was very frequently prosecuted as such by the
+inmates of monasteries. Besides their works on a large scale, upon
+the walls and in their cloisters, the ornamenting and illustrating
+missals embodied a religious feeling, if in some degree peculiar to
+the condition of the workers, of a vital form and beauty. Treasures
+of this kind there are beyond number; but they have been hidden
+treasures for ages. A Protestant contempt for their legends has
+persecuted, with long hatred, and subsequent long indifference,
+the art which glorified them. And now that we awake from this dull
+state, and begin to estimate the poetry of religious art, we stand
+before the noblest productions amazed and ignorant, and looking
+for interpreters, and lose the opportunity of enjoyment in the
+inquiry. Art is too valuable for all it gives, to allow this entire
+ignorance of the subjects of its favourite treatment. If, for the
+better understanding of heathen art, an acquaintance with classical
+literature is thought to be a worthy attainment, the excellence of
+what we may term Christian art surely renders it of importance that
+we should know something about the subjects of which it treats. The
+inquiry will repay us also in other respects, as well as with regard
+to taste. If we would know ourselves, it is well to see the workings
+of the human mind, under its every phase, its every condition. And
+in such a study we shall be gratified, perhaps unexpectedly, to find
+the good and the beautiful still shining through the obscurity of
+many errors, predominant and influential upon our own hearts, and
+scarcely wish the fabulous altogether removed from the minds of
+those who receive it in devotion, lest great truth in feeling be
+removed also. Indeed, the legends themselves are mostly harmless,
+and, even as they become discredited, may be interpreted as not
+unprofitable allegories. Had we not, in a Puritanic zeal, discarded
+art with an iconoclast persecution, _The Pilgrim's Progress_ had
+long ere this been a "golden legend" for the people, and spoken to
+them in worthy illustration; nor would they have been religiously
+or morally the worse had they been imbued with a thorough taste for
+the graceful, the beautiful, and the sublime, which it is in the
+power of well cultivated art to convey to every willing recipient.
+It is a great mistake of a portion of the religious world to look
+upon ornament as a sin or a superstition. Religion is not a bare and
+unadorned thing, nor can it be so received without debasing, without
+making too low and mean the worshipper for the worship. The "wedding
+garment" was not the every-day wear. The poorest must not, of a
+choice, appear in rags before the throne of Him who is clothed in
+glory, nor with less respect of their own person than they would use
+in the presence of their betters. It was originally of God's doing,
+command, and dictation, to sanctify the beautiful in art, by making
+his worship a subject for all embellishment. For such a purport
+were the minute directions for the building of His temple. And yet
+how many "religious" of our day contradict this feeling, which
+seems to come to us, not only by a natural instinct, but with the
+authority of a command! It is a deteriorated worship that prefers
+four bare, unadorned, whitened walls of a mean conventicle to the
+lofty and arched majesty and profuse enrichment of a Gothic minster.
+We want every aid to lift every sense above our daily grovelling
+cares, and ought to feel that we are acceptable and invited guests
+in a house far too great, spacious, and magnificent for ourselves
+alone. Even our humility should be sublime, as all true worship
+is, for we would fain lift it up as an offering to the Heaven of
+heavens. It has its aspect towards Him who deigns to receive,
+together with consciousness of the lowliness of him that offers. It
+is good that the eye and the ear should see and hear other sounds
+and sights than concern things, not only of time, but of that poor
+portion of it which hems in our daily wants and businesses. Beauty
+and music are of and for eternity, and will never die; and in our
+perception of them we make ourselves a part of all that is undying.
+These are senses that the spiritualised body will not lose. Their
+cultivation is a thing for ever; we are now even here the greater
+for their possession in their human perfection. The wondrous pile
+so elaborately finished; the choral service, the pealing organ, and
+the low voice of prayer, and, it may be, angel forms and beatified
+saints in richly-painted windows:--we do not believe all this to be
+solely of man's invention, but of inspiration; how given we ask not,
+seeing what is, and acknowledging a greatness around us far greater
+than ourselves, and lifting up the full mind to a magnitude emulous
+of angelic stature. Yes--poetic genius is a high gift, by which the
+gifted make discoveries, and show high and great truths, and present
+them, palpable and visible, before the world--by architecture,
+by painting, by sculpture, by music--rendering religion itself
+more holy by the inspiration of its service. Take a man out of
+his common, so to speak, irreverent habit, and place him here to
+live for a few moments in this religious atmosphere--how unlike is
+he to himself, and how conscious of this self-unlikeness! Would
+that our cathedrals were open at all times! Even when there is no
+service, though that might be more frequent, there would be much
+good communing with a man's own heart, when, turning away for a
+while from worldly troubles and speculations, in midst of that great
+solemn monument, erected to his Maker's praise, and with the dead
+under his feet--the dead who as busily walked the streets and ways
+he has just left--he would weigh the character of his doings, and in
+a sanctified place breathe a prayer for direction. Nor would it be
+amiss that he should be led to contemplate the "storied pane" and
+religious emblems which abound; he will not fail, in the end, to
+sympathise with the sentiment even where he bows not to the legend.
+He may know the fact that there have been saints and martyrs--that
+faith, hope, and charity are realities--that patience and love may
+be here best learnt to be practised in the world without.
+
+It is curious that the saints, those _Dii minores_, to whom so many
+of our churches are dedicated, still retain their holding. Beyond
+the evangelists and the apostles, little do the people know of the
+other many saints while they enter the churches that bear their
+names. Few of a congregation, we suspect, could give much account of
+St Pancras, St Margaret, St Werburgh, St Dunstan, St Clement, nor
+even of St George, but that he is pictured slaying a dragon, and is
+the patron saint of England. Yet were they once "household gods" in
+the land. It is a curious speculation this of patron saints, and
+how every family and person had his own. There is a great fondness
+in this old personal attachment of his own angel to every man. That
+notion preceded Christianity, and was easily engrafted upon it: and
+the angel that attended from the birth was but supplanted by some
+holy dead whom the Church canonised. And a corrupt church humoured
+the superstition, and attached miracles to relics; and thus, as
+of old, these came, in latter times, to be "gods many." And what
+were these but over again the thirty thousand deities who, Hesiod
+said, inhabited the earth, and were guardians of men? Yet, it must
+be confessed, there has been a popular purification of them. They
+are not the panders to vice that infested the morals of the heathen
+world.
+
+But how came the heathen world by them? Did they invent, or where
+find them? And how came their characteristics to be so universal, in
+all countries differing rather in name than personality? The most
+intellectually-gifted people under the sun, the ancient Greeks,
+give nowhere any rational account how they came by the gods they
+worshipped. They take them as personifications from their poets.
+There is the theogony of Hesiod, and the gods as Homer paints
+them. They have called forth the glory of art; and wonderful were
+the periods that stamped on earth their statues, as if all men's
+intellect had been tasked to the work, that they should leave a
+mark and memorial of beauty than which no age hereafter should show
+a greater. We acknowledge the perfection in the remains that are
+left to us. Greek art stills sways the mind of every country--all
+the world mistrusts every attempt in a contrary direction. The
+excellence of Greek sculpture is reflected back again upon Greek
+fable, the heathen mythology from which it was taken; and perhaps
+a greater partiality is bestowed upon that than it deserves,--at
+least, we may say so in comparison with any other. We must be
+cautious how we take the excellence of art for the excellence of its
+subject. The Greeks were formed for art beyond every other people;
+had their creed been hideous--and indeed it was obscene--they would
+have adorned it with every beauty of ideal form. And this is worthy
+of note here, that their poetry in art was infinitely more beautiful
+than their written poetry. Their sculptors, and perhaps their
+painters, of whom we are not entitled to speak but by conjecture,
+and from the opinions formed by no bad judges of their day, did aim
+at the portraying a kind of divine humanity. If their sculptured
+deities have not a holy repose, they are singularly freed from
+display of human passions; whereas, in their poetry, it is rarely
+that even decent repose is allowed them; they are generally too
+active, without dignity, and without respect to the moral code of a
+not very scrupulous age. Yet have these very heathen gods, even as
+their historians the poets paint them--for it would disgrace them
+to speak of their biographers--a trace of a better origin than we
+can gather out of the whimsical theogony. There are some particulars
+in the heathen mythology that point to a visible track in the
+strange road of history. Much we know was had from Egypt; more,
+probably, came with the Cadmean letters from Phœnicia--a name
+including Palestine itself. Inventions went only to corruptions--the
+original of all creeds of divinity is from revelation. We may not
+be required to point out the direct road nor the resting-places of
+this "_santa casa_," holding all the gods of Greece, so beautiful in
+their personal portraiture, that we love to gaze with the feeling
+of Schiller, though their histories will not bear the scrutiny: but
+it will suffice to note some similitudes that cannot be accidental.
+Somehow or other, both the historic and prophetic writings of the
+Bible, or narratives from them, had reached Greece as well as other
+distant lands. The Greeks had, at a very early period, embodied
+in their myths even the personal characters as shown in those
+writings. Let us, for example, without referring to their Zeus in
+a particular manner, find in the Hermes or Mercury of the Greeks
+the identity with Moses. What are the characteristics of both? If
+Moses descended from the Mount with the commands of God, and was
+emphatically God's messenger, so was Hermes the messenger from
+Olympus: his chief office was that of messenger. If Moses is known
+as the slayer of the Egyptian, so is Hermes, (and so is he more
+frequently called in Homer,) Α�γειφοντης, the slayer of Argus, the
+overseer of a hundred eyes. Moses conducted through the wilderness
+to the Jordan those who died and reached not the promised land; nor
+did he pass the Jordan. So was Hermes the conductor of the dead,
+delivering them over to Charon, (and here note the resemblance of
+name with Aaron, the associate of Moses); nor was he to pass to the
+Elysian fields.
+
+Then the rod, the serpents,--the Caduceus of Hermes, with the
+serpents twining round the rod. The appearance of Moses, and
+the shining from his head, as it is commonly figured, is again
+represented in the winged cap of Hermes. There are other minute
+circumstances, especially some noted in the hymn of Hermes, ascribed
+to Homer, which we forbear to enumerate, thinking the coincidences
+already mentioned are sufficiently striking.
+
+Then, again, the idea of the serpent of the Greek mythology, whence
+did it come, and the slaying of it by the son of Zeus--and its very
+name, the Python, the serpent of corruption? And in that sense it
+has been carried down to this day as an emblem in Christian art.
+But, to go back a moment, this departure of the Israelites from
+Egypt, is there no notice of it in Homer? We think there is a hint
+which indicates a knowledge of at least a part of that history--the
+previous slavery, the being put to work, and the after-readiness of
+the Egyptians to be "spoiled." Ulysses, giving a false account of
+himself, if we remember rightly, to Eumæus, says he came from Egypt,
+where he had been a merchant, that the king of that country seized
+him and all his men, whom _he put to work_, but that at length he
+found favour, and was allowed to depart with his people; adding that
+he collected much property from the people of Egypt, "for all of
+them gave."
+
+    "Πολλὰ αγει�α,
+     Χ�ηματ' Αἰγυπτίους ἄνδ�ας, διδοσαν γα� ἄπαντες."
+
+We do not mean to lay any great stress upon this quotation, and but
+think at least that it shows a characteristic of the Egyptians as
+narrated by Moses; and never having met with any allusion to it, nor
+indeed to our parallel between Moses and Hermes, which it may seem
+to support, we have thought it worthy this brief notice.
+
+We fancy we trace the history of the cause of the fall of man, in
+the eating of the pomegranate seed which doomed Proserpine to half
+an existence in the infernal regions. Can there be anything more
+striking than the Prometheus Bound of Æschylus? Whence could such
+a notion come, that a man-god would, for his love to mankind, (for
+bringing down fire from heaven,) suffer agonies, nailed not upon a
+cross indeed, but on a rock, and, in the description, crucified?
+"It is, after a manner," says Mr Swayne, who has with great power
+translated this strange play of Æschylus, "a Christian poem by a
+pagan author, foreshadowing the opposition and reconciliation of
+Divine justice and Divine love. Whence the sublime conception of
+the subject of this drama could have been obtained, it is useless
+to speculate. Some even suppose that its author must have been
+acquainted with the old Hebrew prophets."
+
+Even the introduction of Io in the tale is suggestive--the
+virgin-mother who was so strangely to conceive (and this too given
+in a prophecy) miraculously.
+
+    "Jove at length shall give thee back thy mind,
+    With one light touch of his unquailing hand,
+    And, from that fertilising touch, a son
+    Shall call thee mother."
+
+Her whom Prometheus thus addresses,--
+
+      "In that the son shall overmatch the sire."
+    --"Of thine own stem the strong one shall be born."
+
+Then again Sampson passes into the Egyptian or Tyrian Hercules, to
+lose his life by another Delilah in Dejaneira. Whence the prophetic
+Sybils, whence and what the Eleusinian mysteries? and that strange
+glimpse of them in the significant passage of the Alcestis, where
+the restored from the dead must abstain from speech till the third
+day--the duration of her consecration to Hades!
+
+    Ὁύπω δέμις σοι τησδε π�οσφωνηματων,
+    Κλύειν, π�ίν ἄν θεωισι τοῖσι νε�τέ�οις
+    Αφαγνῖσηται, καὶτ�ίτον μολῃ φαος.
+
+We might enter largely into the mysteries of heathen mythology, and
+discover strange coincidences and resemblances, but it would take us
+too wide from our present subject. Our present purpose is to show
+that we are apt to attribute too much to the Grecian fable, when
+we ascribe to it all the beauty which Grecian art has elaborated
+from it. For, in fact, the origin of that fabulous poetry is beyond
+them in far-off time; and by them how corrupted, shorn of its real
+grandeur, and at once magnificent and lovely beauty! How much more,
+then, is it ours than theirs, as it is deducible from that high
+revelation which is part of the Christian religion. We overlook,
+in the excellence of Grecian art, the far better materials for all
+art, which we in our religion possess, and have ever possessed.
+With the Greeks it was an instinct to love the beautiful, sensual
+and intellectual: it was a part of their nature to discover it or
+to create it. They would have fabricated it out of any materials;
+and deteriorated, indeed, were those which came to their hands.
+And even this excess of their love, at least in their poets, made
+the sensuous to overcome the intellectual; but the far higher than
+intellectual--the celestial, the spiritual--they had not: their
+highest reach in the moral sense was a sublime pride: they had no
+conception of a sublime humility. Their highest divinity was how
+much lower than the lowest order of angels that wait around the
+heavenly throne and adore,--low as is their Olympus, where they
+placed their Zeus and all his band, to the Christian "heaven of
+heavens," which yet cannot contain the universal Maker. It is bad
+taste, indeed, in us, as some do, to give them the palm of the
+possession of a better field--poetic field for the exercise of art.
+"Christian and Legendary art" has a principle which no other art
+could have, and which theirs certainly had not; they were sensuous
+from a necessity of their nature, lacking this principle. We ought
+to ascribe all which they have left us to their skill, their genius:
+wonderful it was, and wonderful things did it perform; but, after
+all, we admire more than we love. Their divine was but a grand
+and stern repose; their loveliness, but the perfection of the
+human form. And so great were they in this their genius, that the
+monuments of heathen art are beyond the heathen creed; for in those
+the unsensuous prevailed.
+
+Let us suppose the gift of their genius to have been delayed to
+the Christian era--as poetical subjects, their whole mythology
+would have been set aside for a far better adoption; and we should
+be now universally acknowledging how lovely and how great, how
+full and bountiful, for poetry and for art, are the ever-flowing
+fountains, gushing in life, giving exuberance from that high mount,
+to the sight of which Pindus cannot lift its head, nor show its
+poor Castalian rills. The "gods of Greece," the far-famed "gods
+of Greece," what are they to the hierarchy of heaven--angels and
+archangels, and all the host--powers, dominions, hailing the
+admission to the blissful regions of saints spiritualised, and after
+death to die no more--glorified? What loveliness is like that of
+throned chastity? Graces and Muses in their perfectness of marbled
+beauty--what are they to faith, hope, and charity, and the veiled
+virtues that like our angels shroud themselves? When these became
+subjects for our Christian art, then was true expression first
+invented in drapery. "Christian and legendary art" is not denied
+the nude; but no other has so made drapery a living, speaking
+poetry. There is a dignity, a grace, a sweetness, in the drapery of
+mediæval sculpture, that equally commands our admiration, and more
+our reverence and our love, than ancient statues, draped or nude.
+And this is the expression of Scripture poetry--the represented
+language, the "clothing with power," the "garment of righteousness."
+We often loiter about our old cathedrals, and look up with wonder
+at the mutilated remains as a new type of beauty, beaming through
+the obscurity of the so-called dark ages. Lovers of art, as we
+profess to be, in all its forms, we profess without hesitation
+that we would not exchange these--that is, lose them as never to
+have existed--for all that Grecian art has left us. Even now, what
+power have we to restore these specimens of expressive workmanship,
+broken and mutilated as they have been by a low and misbegotten
+zeal? We maintain further, generally, that the works of "Christian
+and legendary art," in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are
+as infinitely superior to the works of all Grecian antiquity, as
+is the source of their inspiration higher and purer: we are, too,
+astonished at the perfect agreement of the one with the other,
+showing one mind, one spirit--devotion. We strongly insist upon
+this, that there has been a far higher character and equal power in
+Christian art compared with heathen. It ought to be so, and it is
+so. It has been too long set aside in the world's opinion (often
+temporary and ill-formed) to establish the inferior. This country,
+in particular, has yielded a cold neglect of these beautiful things,
+in shameful and indolent compliance with the mean, tasteless,
+degrading Puritanism, that mutilated and would have destroyed them
+utterly if it could, as it would have treated every and all the
+beautiful.
+
+Even at the first rise of this Christian art, the superiority of
+the principle which moved the artists was visible through their
+defect of knowledge of art, as art. The devotional spirit is
+evident; a sense of purity, that spiritualised humanity with its
+heavenly brightness, dims the imperfections of style, casting out
+of observation minor and uncouth parts. Often, in the incongruous
+presence of things vulgar in detail of habit and manners, an angelic
+sentiment stands embodied, pure and untouched, as if the artist,
+when he came to that, felt holy ground, and took his shoes from off
+his feet. It was not long before the art was equal to the whole
+work. There are productions of even an early time that are yet
+unequalled, and, for power over the heart and the judgment, are much
+above comparison with any preceding works of boasted antiquity.
+
+Take only the full embodying of all angelic nature: what is
+there like to it out of Christian art? How unlike the cold
+personifications of "Victories" winged,--though even these were
+borrowed,--are the ministering and adoring angels of our art--now
+bringing celestial paradise down to saints on earth, and now
+accompanying them, and worshipping with them, in their upward
+way, amid the receding and glorious clouds of heaven! Look at the
+sepulchral monuments of Grecian art--the frigid mysteries, the
+abhorrent ghost, yet too corporeal, shrinking from Lethé; and
+the dismal boat--the unpromising, unpitying aspect of Charon:
+then turn to some of the sublime Christian monuments of art, that
+speak so differently of that death--the Coronation of the Virgin,
+the Ascension of Saints. The dismal and the doleful earth has
+vanished--choirs of angels rush to welcome and to support the
+beatified, the released: death is no more, but life breathing no
+atmosphere of earth, but all freshness, and all joy, and all music;
+the now changed body glowing, like an increasing light, into its
+spirituality of form and beauty, and thrilling with
+
+    "That undisturbed song of pure consent,
+     Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne
+     To Him that sits thereon;
+     With saintly shout and solemn jubilee,
+     Where the bright seraphim, in burning row,
+     Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow;
+     And the cherubic host, in thousand choirs,
+     Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,
+     With those just spirits that wear victorious palms,
+     Hymns devout and holy psalms
+     Singing everlastingly."
+
+Then shall we doubt, and not dare to pronounce the superior
+capabilities of Christian art, arising out of its subject--poetry?
+We prefer, as a great poetic conception, Raffaelle's Archangel,
+Michael, with his victorious foot upon his prostrate adversary,
+to the far-famed Apollo Belvidere, who has slain his Python; and
+his St Margaret, in her sweet, her innocent, and clothed grace,
+to that perfect model of woman's form, the Venus de Medici. Not
+that we venture a careless or misgiving thought of the perfectness
+of those great antique works: their perfectness was according to
+their purpose. Higher purposes make a higher perfectness. Nor
+would we have them viewed irreverently; for even in them, and the
+genius that produced them, the Creator, as in "times past, left
+not Himself without witness." In showing forth the glory of the
+human form, they show forth the glory of Him who made it--who is
+thus glorified in the witnesses; and so we accept and love them.
+But to a certain degree they must stand dethroned--their influence
+faded. Lowly unassuming virtues--virtues of the soul, far greater
+in their humility, in the sacred poetry of our Christian faith,
+shine like stars, even in their smallness, on the dark night of our
+humanity; and they are to take their places in the celestial of art;
+and we feel that it is His will, who, as the hymn of the blessed
+Virgin--that type of all these united virtues--declares, "hath put
+down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and
+meek."
+
+We trust yet to see sacred art resumed; for the more we consider its
+poetry, the more inexhaustible appears the mine. Nor do we require
+to search and gather in the field of fabulous legends; though in
+a poetic view, and for their intention, and resumed merely as a
+fabulous allegory, they are not to be set aside. But sure we are
+that, whatever can move the heart, can excite to the greatest degree
+our pity, our love, or convey the greatest delight through scenes
+for which the term beautiful is but a poor describer, and personages
+for whose magnificence languages have no name--all is within the
+volume and the history of our suffering and triumphant religion.
+
+Would that we could stir but one of our painters to this, which
+should be his great business! Genius is bestowed for no selfish
+gratification, but for service, and for a "witness," to bear which
+let the gifted offer only a willing heart, and his lamp will not
+be suffered to go out for lack of oil. Why is the tenderness of Mr
+Eastlake's pencil in abeyance? That portion of the sacred history
+which commences with his "Christ weeping over Jerusalem," might well
+be continued in a series. Even still more power has he shown in the
+creative and symbolic, as exemplified in his poetic conception of
+Virtue from Milton--
+
+    "She can teach you how to climb
+     Higher than the sphery chime;
+     Or if Virtue feeble were,
+     Heaven itself would stoop to her."
+
+If we believe genius to be an inspiring spirit, we may contemplate
+it hereafter as an accusing angel. With such a paradise of subjects
+before them, why do so many of our painters run to the kennel
+and the stable, or plunge their pencils into the gaudy hues of
+meretricious enticement? We do verily believe that the world is
+waiting for better things. It is taking a greater interest in higher
+subjects, and those of a pure sentiment. It is that our artists are
+behind the feeling, and not, as they should be, in the advance. It
+is a great fact that there is such a growing feeling. The resumption
+of sacred art in Germany is not without its effect, and is making
+its way here in prints. Most of these are from the Aller Heiligen
+Kapelle at Munich, the result of the taste of at least one crowned
+head in Europe, who, with more limited means and power, has set an
+example of a better patronage, which would have well become Courts
+of greater splendour, and more imperial influence. Must it be asked
+what our own artists--the Academy, with all its staff--are doing?
+
+We must stay our hand; for we took up the pen to notice the two
+volumes just published of Mrs Jameson's _Sacred and Legendary Art_.
+They have excited, in the reading, an enthusiastic pleasure, and led
+the fancy wandering in the delightful fields sanctified by heavenly
+sunshine, and trod by sainted feet; and, like a traveller in a
+desert, having found an oasis, we feel loath to leave it, and would
+fain linger and drink again of its refreshing springs. These volumes
+have reached us most seasonably, at a period of the year when the
+mind is more especially directed to contemplate the main subjects
+of which they treat, and to anticipate only by days the vision of
+joy and glory which will be scripturally put before us--to see the
+Virgin Mother and the Holy Babe--
+
+    "And all about the courtly stable,
+     Bright harness'd angels sit in order serviceable."
+
+Mrs Jameson disclaims in this work any other object than the poetry
+of Sacred and Legendary Art; and to enable those who are, or wish to
+be, conversant with the innumerable productions of Italian and other
+schools, in an artistic view, likewise at once to know the subjects
+upon which they treat. Even as a handbook, therefore, these volumes
+are valuable. Much of the early painting was symbolical. Ignorance
+of the symbols rejects the sentiment, or at least the intention, and
+at the same time makes what is only quaint appear absurd.
+
+"The first volume contains the legends of the Scripture personages,
+and the primitive fathers. The second volume contains those sainted
+personages who lived, or are supposed to have lived, in the first
+ages of Christianity, and whose real history, founded on fact or
+tradition, has been so disguised by poetical embroidery, that they
+have in some sort the air of ideal beings." Possibly this poetical
+disguise is favourable upon the whole to art, but it renders a
+key necessary, and that Mrs Jameson has supplied--not pretending,
+however, to more than a selection of the most interesting; and, what
+is extremely valuable, there are marginal references to pictures,
+and in what places they are to be met with, and by whom painted, of
+the subjects given in the text, and of the view the artists had in
+so painting them. The emblems are amply noted with their meanings;
+and even the significance of colours, which has been so commonly
+overlooked, and is yet so important for the comprehension of the
+full subject of a picture, is clearly laid down. It is well said:
+
+     "All the productions of art, from the time it has been directed
+     and developed by the Christian influences, may be regarded
+     under three different aspects:--1st, The purely religious
+     aspect, which belongs to one mode of faith; 2d, The poetical
+     aspect, which belongs to all; 3d, The artistic, which is the
+     individual point of view, and has reference only to the action
+     of the intellect on the means and material employed. There is
+     a pleasure, an intense pleasure, merely in the consideration
+     of art, as art; in the faculties of comparison and nice
+     discrimination brought to bear on objects of beauty; in the
+     exercise of a cultivated and refined taste on the productions
+     of mind in any form whatever. But a threefold, or rather a
+     thousandfold, pleasure is theirs, who to a sense of the poetical
+     unite a sympathy with the spiritual in art, and who combine with
+     a delicacy of perception and technical knowledge, more elevated
+     sources of pleasure, more variety of association, habits of more
+     excursive thought. Let none imagine, however, that in placing
+     before the uninitiated these unpretending volumes, I assume
+     any such superiority as is here implied. Like a child that
+     has sprang on a little way before its playmates, and caught a
+     glimpse through an opening portal of some varied Eden within,
+     all gay with flowers, and musical with birds, and haunted by
+     divine shapes which beckon forward, and, after one rapturous
+     survey, runs back and catches its companions by the hand, and
+     hurries them forwards to share the new-found pleasure, the yet
+     unexplored region of delight: even so it is with me: I am on the
+     outside, not the inside, of the door I open."
+
+This is a happy introduction to that which immediately follows of
+angels and archangels.
+
+Mrs Jameson has so managed to open the door as to frame in her
+subject to the best advantage; and the reader is willing to stand
+for a moment with her to gaze upon the inward brightness of the
+garden, ere he ventures in to see what is around and what is
+above. It is on the first downward step that we stand breathless
+with Aladdin, and feel the influence of the first--the partial and
+framed-in picture--glowing in the unearthly illumination of its
+magical creation.
+
+There is nothing more interesting than these few pages upon angels.
+The information we receive is very curious. It is beautiful poetry
+to see orders, and degrees, and ministrations various, types of
+an embodied, a ministering church here, and ordained, together
+with the saints of earth, to make one glorified triumphant church
+hereafter. Without entering upon the theological question, as to
+the extension and mystification of the ideas of angels after the
+Captivity, (yet we think it might be shown that there was originally
+no Chaldaic belief on the subject not taken, first or last, from the
+Jews themselves,) it may not be unworthy of remark, that the word
+"angel," signifying messenger, could scarcely with propriety have
+been at the first applied to Satan, the deceiving serpent, until,
+in the after-development of the history of the human race, the
+ministering offices gave the general title, which, when established,
+included all who had not "kept their first estate." Nor do we
+think, with Mrs Jameson, that Chaldea had anything to do with the
+introduction of the worship of angels into the Christian church.
+The "gods many" of the heathen countries in which Christianity
+established itself, will sufficiently account for the readiness of
+the people to transfer the multifarious worship to which they had
+been accustomed to names more suitable to the new religion. It is
+with the poetical development we have here to do; and what ground
+is there for that full development in the New Testament, wherein
+they are represented as "countless--as superior to all human wants
+and weaknesses--as deputed messengers of God? They rejoice over
+the repentant sinner; they take deep interest in the mission of
+Christ; they are present with those who pray; they bear the souls
+of the just to heaven; they minister to Christ on earth, and will
+be present at his second coming." From such authority, from such
+a sacred theatre of scenes and celestial personages, arose the
+beautiful, the magnificent visions of the workers of sacred art.
+Heresy, however, reached it, as might have been expected; and the
+agency of angels, in the creation of the world and of man, has been
+represented, to the deterioration of its great poetry. From the
+beginning of the fourteenth century, a great change seems to have
+taken place in the representation of the angel with reference to the
+Virgin: the feeling is changed; "the veneration paid to the Virgin
+demanded another treatment. She becomes not merely the principal
+person, but the superior being; she is the 'regina angelorum,' and
+the angel bows to her, or kneels before her, as to a queen. Thus,
+in the famous altar-piece at Cologne, the angel kneels; he bears
+the sceptre, and also a sealed roll, as if he were a celestial
+ambassador delivering his credentials. About the same period we
+sometimes see the angel merely with his hands folded over his
+breast, and his head inclined, delivering his message as if to a
+superior being."
+
+It is a great merit in this work of Mrs Jameson's, that we are not
+only referred to the most curious and to the best specimens of art,
+but have likewise beautiful woodcuts, and some etchings admirably
+executed by Mrs Jameson's own hand in illustration. There is a
+greatness in the simplicity of Blake's angels: "The morning stars
+sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Poor Blake!
+Yet why say poor? he was happy in his visions--a little before his
+time, and one of whom the world (of art) in his day were not worthy:
+though, with a wild extravagance of fancy, his creations were his
+faith, often great, and always gentle. Exquisitely beautiful are the
+"angels of the planets" from Raffaelle, and copied by Mrs Jameson
+from Gruner's engravings of the frescoes of the Capella Chigiana.
+That great painter of mystery, Rembrandt, whom the mere lovers of
+form would have mistakenly thought it a profanation to commission
+with an angelic subject, is justly appreciated. A perfect master
+of light, and of darkness, and of colour, it mattered not what
+were the forms, so that they were unearthly, that plunged into or
+broke through his luminous or opaque. Of the picture in the Louvre
+it is thus remarked: "Miraculous for true and spirited expression,
+and for the action of the soaring angel, who parts the clouds and
+strikes through the air like a strong swimmer through the waves of
+the sea." Strange--but so it is--we cannot conceive an alteration of
+his pictures, all parts so agree. Attention to the more beautiful
+in form would have appeared to him a mistrust in his great gift
+of colour and chiaroscuro; and, stranger still, that without, and
+seemingly in a marked defiance of mere beauty, he is, we would
+almost say never, vulgar, never misses the intended sentiment,
+nor fails where it is of tenderness, even of feminine tenderness,
+for which, if he does not give beauty, he gives its equivalent in
+the fulness of the feeling. We instance his Salutation--Elizabeth
+and the Virgin Mary. There is something terrifically grand in the
+crouching angel in the Campo Santo,--not in the form, nor in the
+face, which is mostly hid, but in the conception of the attitude
+of horror with which he beholds the awful scene. It is from the
+Last Judgment of Orcagua in the Campo Santo. We must not speak of
+Rubens as a painter of angels; and, for real angelic expression,
+perhaps the earlier painters are the best. It is surprising that
+Mrs Jameson, from whose refined taste, and from whose sense of the
+beautiful and the graceful in their highest qualities, we should
+have expected another judgment, could have ventured to name together
+Raffaelle and Murillo as angel painters. It is true, in speaking of
+the Visit to Abraham, she admits that the painter has set aside the
+angelic and mystic character, and merely represented three young men
+travellers; but she generally, throughout these volumes, speaks of
+that favourite Spaniard in terms of the highest admiration,--terms,
+as we think, little merited. The angels in the Sutherland Collection
+are as vulgar figures as can well be, and quite antagonistic in
+feeling to a heavenly mission. We confess that we dislike almost
+all the pictures by this so much esteemed master: their artistic
+manner is to us uncertain and unpleasing,--disagreeable in colour,
+deficient in grace. We often wonder at the excess of present
+admiration. We look upon his vulgarity in scriptural subjects as
+quite profane. His highest power was in a peasant gentleness; he
+could not embody a sacred feeling: yet thus is he praised for a
+performance beyond his power:--"St Andrew is suspended on the
+high cross, formed not of planks, but of the trunks of trees laid
+transversely. He is bound with cords, undraped, except by a linen
+cloth, his silver hair and beard loosely streaming on the air, his
+aged countenance illuminated by a heavenly transport, as he looks up
+to the opening skies, whence two angels, of really celestial beauty,
+like almost all Murillo's angels, descend with the crown and palm."
+The angels of Correggio are certainly peculiar: they are not quite
+celestial, but perhaps are sympathetically more lovely from their
+touch of humanity; they are ever pure. Those in the Ascension of
+the the Virgin, in the Cupola at Parma, seem to be rather adopted
+angels than of the "first estate;" for they are of several ages,
+and, if we mistake not, many of them are feminine, and, we suspect,
+are meant really to represent the loveliest of earth beatified,
+adopted into the heavenly choir. Those who have seen Signor Toschi's
+fine drawings of the Parma frescoes, (now in progress of engraving),
+will readily give assent to this impression. We remember this
+feeling crossing our mind, and as it were lightly touching the
+heart with angelic wings--if we have lost a daughter of that sweet
+age, let us fondly see her there. We cannot forbear quoting the
+passage upon the angels of Titian:--"And Titian's angels impress
+me in a similar manner: I mean those in the glorious Assumption at
+Venice, with their childish forms and features, but an expression
+caught from beholding the face of 'our Father which is in heaven:'
+it is glorified infancy. I remember standing before this picture,
+contemplating those lovely spirits one after another, until a thrill
+came over me, like that which I felt when Mendelssohn played the
+organ: I became music while I listened. The face of one of those
+angels is to the face of a child, just what that of the Virgin, in
+the same picture, is, compared with the fairest daughter of earth.
+It is not here superiority of beauty, but mind, and music, and love,
+kneaded together, as it were, into form and colour." This is very
+eloquent, but it was not _the thought_ which supplied that ill word
+"kneaded."
+
+It is remarked by Mrs Jameson, as a singular fact, that neither
+Leonardo da Vinci, nor Michael Angelo, nor Raffaelle, have given
+representations of the Four Evangelists. In very early art they are
+mostly symbolised, and sometimes oddly and uncouthly; and even so
+by Angelico da Fiesole. In Greek art, the Tetramorph, or union of
+the four attributes in one figure, is seen winged. "The Tetramorph,
+in Western art, in some instances became monstrous, instead of
+mystic and poetical." The animal symbols of the Evangelists, however
+familiarised in the eyes of the people, and therefore sanctioned to
+their feeling, required the greatest judgment to bring within the
+poetic of art. We must look also to the most mysterious subjects for
+the elucidation, such as Raffaelle's Vision of Ezekiel. There we
+view in the symbols a great prophetic, subservient to the creating
+and redeeming power, set forth and coming out of that blaze of the
+clouds of heaven that surround the sublime Majesty.
+
+The earlier painters were fond of representing everything
+symbolically: hence the twelve apostles are so treated. In the
+descending scale, to the naturalists, the mystic poetry was reduced
+to its lowest element. The set of the apostles by Agostino Caracci,
+though, as Mrs Jameson observes, famous as works of art, are
+condemned as absolutely vulgar. "St John is drinking out of a cup,
+an idea which might strike some people as picturesque, but it is
+in vile taste. It is about the eighth century that the keys first
+appear in the hand of St Peter. In the old churches at Ravenna, it
+is remarked, St Peter and St Paul do not often appear." Ravenna, in
+the fifth century, did not look to Rome for her saints.
+
+After his martyrdom, St Paul was, it is said, buried in the spot
+where was erected the magnificent church known as St Paolo fuorè-le
+mura. "I saw the church a few months before it was consumed by
+fire in 1823. I saw it again in 1847, when the restoration was far
+advanced. Its cold magnificence, compared with the impressions left
+by the former structure, rich with inestimable remains of ancient
+art, and venerable from a thousand associations, saddened and
+chilled me." We well remember visiting this noble church in 1816. A
+singular coincidence of fact and prophecy has imprinted this visit
+on our memory. Those who have seen it before it was burnt down, must
+remember the series of portraits of popes, and that there was room
+but for one more. We looked to the vacant place, as directed by our
+cicerone, whilst he told us that there was a prophecy concerning it
+to this effect, that when that space was filled up there would be
+no more popes. The prophecy was fulfilled, at least with regard to
+that church, for it was burnt down after that vacant space had been
+occupied by the papal portrait.
+
+The subject of the Last Supper is treated of in a separate chapter.
+There has been a fresco lately discovered at Florence, in the
+refectory of Saint Onofrio, said to have been painted by Raffaelle
+in his twenty-third year. Some have thought it to be the work of
+Neri de Bicci. Mrs Jameson, without hesitation, pronounces it to
+be by Raffaelle, "full of sentiment and grace, but deficient,
+it appears to me, in that depth and discrimination of character
+displayed in his later works. It is evident that he had studied
+Giotto's fresco in the neighbouring Santa Croce. The arrangement
+is nearly the same." All the apostles have glories, but that round
+the head of Judas is smaller than the others. Does the prejudice
+against thirteen at table arise from this betrayal by Judas, or
+from the legend of St Gregory, who, when a monk in the monastery
+of St Andrew, was so charitable, that at length, having nothing
+else to bestow, he gave to an old beggar a silver porringer which
+had belonged to his mother? When pope, it was his custom to
+entertain twelve poor men. On one occasion he observed thirteen,
+and remonstrated with his steward, who, counting the guests, could
+see no more than twelve. After removal from the table, St Gregory
+called the unbidden guest, thus visible, like the ghost of Banquo,
+to the master of the feast only. The old man, on being questioned,
+declared himself to be the old beggar to whom the silver porringer
+had been given, adding, "But my name is Wonderful, and through me
+thou shalt obtain whatever thou shalt ask of God." There is a famous
+fresco on this subject by Paul Veronese, in which the stranger is
+represented to be our Saviour. To entertain even angels unknowingly,
+and at convivial entertainments, and visible perhaps but to one, as
+a messenger of good or of evil, would be little congenial with the
+purport of such meetings.
+
+Mrs Jameson objects to the introduction of dogs in such a subject
+as the Last Supper, but remarks that it is supposed to show that
+the supper is over, and the paschal lamb eaten. It is so common
+that we should rather refer it to a more evident and more important
+signification, to show that this institution was not for the Jews
+only, and alluding to the passage showing that "dogs eat of the
+crumbs which fell from their masters' table." The large dogs,
+however, of Paul Veronese, gnawing bones, do not with propriety
+represent the passage; for there is reason to believe that the word
+"crumbs" describes the small pet dogs, which its was the fashion for
+the rich to carry about with them. The early painters introduced
+Satan in person tempting Judas. When Baroccio, with little taste,
+adopted the same treatment, the pope, Clement VIII., ordered the
+figure to be obliterated--"Che non gli piaceva il demonio si
+dimésticasse tanto con Gesu Christo." We know not where Mrs Jameson
+has found the anecdote which relates that Andrea del Castagno,
+called the Infamous, after he had assassinated Dominico his friend,
+who had intrusted him with Van Eyck's secret, painted his own
+portrait in the character of Judas, from remorse of conscience. We
+are not sure of the story at all respecting Andrea del Castagno:
+there may be other grounds for doubting it, but this anecdote, if
+true to the fact, would rather indicate insanity than guilt. The
+farther we advance in the history and practice of art, the more we
+find it suffering in sentiment from the infusion of the classical.
+In the Pitti Palace is a picture by Vasari of St Jerome as a
+penitent, in which he has introduced Venus and cupids, one of whom
+is taking aim at the saint. It is true that, as we proceed, legends
+crowd in upon us, and the painters find rather scope for fancy than
+subjects for faith and resting-places for devotion. Art, ever fond
+of female forms, readily seized upon the legends of Mary Magdalene.
+Her penitence has ever been a favourite subject, and has given
+opportunity for the introduction of grand landscape backgrounds
+in the lonely solitudes and wildernesses of a rocky desert. The
+individuality of the characters of Mary and Martha in Scripture
+history was too striking not to be taken advantage of by painters.
+There is a legend of an Egyptian penitent Mary, anterior to that
+of Mary Magdalene, which is curious. Whether this was another
+Mary or not, she is represented as a female anchoret; and we are
+reminded thereby of the double story of Helen of Troy, whom a real
+or fabulous history has deposited in Egypt, while the great poet of
+the Iliad has introduced her as so visible and palpable an agent
+in the Trojan war, and not without a touch of penitence, not quite
+characteristic of that age. Accounts say that it was her double, or
+eidolon, which figured at Troy.
+
+Mrs Jameson makes a good conjecture with regard to the famous
+picture by Leonardo da Vinci, known as Modesty and Vanity, and that
+it is Mary Magdalene rebuked by her sister Martha for vanity and
+luxury, which exactly corresponds with the legend respecting her. We
+cannot forbear quoting the following eloquent passage:--
+
+     "On reviewing generally the infinite variety which has been
+     given to these favourite subjects, the life and penance of the
+     Magdalene, I must end where I began. In how few instances has
+     the result been satisfactory to mind, or heart, or soul, or
+     sense! Many have well represented the particular situation,
+     the appropriate sentiment, the sorrow, the hope, the devotion;
+     but who has given us the _character_? A noble creature, with
+     strong sympathies and a strong will, with powerful faculties
+     of every kind, working for good or evil. Such a woman Mary
+     Magdalene must have been, even in her humiliation; and the
+     feeble, girlish, commonplace, and even vulgar women, who appear
+     to have been usually selected as models by the artists, turned
+     into Magdalenes by throwing up their eyes and letting down their
+     hair, ill represent the enthusiastic convert, or the majestic
+     patroness!"
+
+The second volume commences with the patron saints of Christendom.
+These were delightful fables in the credulous age of first youth,
+when feeling was a greater truth than fact; and we confess that we
+read these legends now with some regret at our abated faith, which
+we would not even "now have shaken in the chivalric characters of
+the seven champions of Christendom."
+
+The Romish Church (we say not the Catholic, as Mrs Jameson so
+frequently improperly terms _her_) readily acted that part, to
+the people at large, which nurses assume for the amusement of
+their children; and in both cases, the more improbable the story
+the greater the fascination; and the people, like children, are
+more credulous than critical. Had we not known in our own times,
+and nearly at the present day, stories as absurd as any in these
+legends, gravely asserted, circulated, and credited, and maintained
+by men of responsible station and education--to instance only the
+garment of Treves--we should have pronounced the _aurea legenda_
+to have been a creation of the fancy, arising, not without their
+illumination, from the fogs and fens of the Middle Ages, adapted
+solely for minds of that period. But the sanction of them by the
+Church of Rome leads us to view them as _ignes fatui_ of another
+character, meant to amuse and to bewilder. We must even think it
+possible now for people to be brought to believe such a story as
+this:--"It is related that a certain man, who was afflicted with a
+cancer in his leg, went to perform his devotions in the church of
+St Cosmo and St Damian at Rome, and he prayed most earnestly that
+these beneficent saints would be pleased to aid him. When he had
+prayed, a deep sleep fell upon him. Then he beheld St Cosmo and St
+Damian, who stood beside him; and one carried a box of ointment,
+the other a sharp knife. And one said, 'What shall we do to replace
+this diseased leg, when we have cut it off?' And the other replied,
+'There is a Moor who has been buried just now in San Pietro in
+Vincolo; let us take his leg for the purpose!' Then they brought
+the leg of the dead man, and with it they replaced the leg of the
+sick man--anointing it with celestial ointment, so that he remained
+whole. When he awoke, he almost doubted whether it could be himself;
+but his neighbours, seeing that he was healed, looked into the tomb
+of the Moor, and found that there had been an exchange of legs; and
+thus the truth of this great miracle was proved to all beholders."
+It is, however, rather a hazardous demand upon credulity to serve
+up again the feast of Thyestes, cooked in a caldron of even more
+miraculous efficacy than Medea's. Such is the stupendous power of
+St Nicholas:--"As he was travelling through his diocese, to visit
+and comfort his people, he lodged in the house of a certain host,
+who was a son of Satan. This man, in the scarcity of provisions, was
+accustomed to steal little children, whom he murdered, and served up
+their limbs as meat to his guests. On the arrival of the Bishop and
+his retinue, he had the audacity to serve up the dismembered limbs
+of these unhappy children before the man of God, who had no sooner
+cast his eyes on them than he was aware of the fraud. He reproached
+the host with his abominable crime; and, going to the tub where
+their remains were salted down, he made over them the sign of the
+cross, and they rose up whole and well. The people who witnessed
+this great wonder were struck with astonishment; and the three
+children, who were the sons of a poor widow, were restored to their
+weeping mother."
+
+But what shall we say to an entire new saint of a modern day, who
+has already found his way to Venice, Bologna, and Lombardy,--even
+to Tuscany and Paris, not only in pictures and statues, but even
+in chapels dedicated to her? The reader may be curious to know
+something of a saint of this century. In the year 1802 the skeleton
+of a young female was discovered in some excavations in the catacomb
+of Priscilla at Rome; the remains of an inscription were, "Lumena
+Pax Te Cum Tri." A priest in the train of a Neapolitan prelate, who
+was sent to congratulate Pius VII. on his return from France, begged
+some relics. The newly-discovered treasure was given to him, and the
+inscription thus translated--"Filomena, rest in peace." "Another
+priest, whose name is suppressed _because of his great humility_,
+was favoured by a vision in the broad noonday, in which he beheld
+the glorious virgin Filomena, who was pleased to reveal to him that
+she had suffered death for preferring the Christian faith, and her
+vow of chastity, to the addresses of the emperor, who wished to make
+her his wife. This vision leaving much of her history obscure, a
+certain young artist, whose name is also suppressed--perhaps because
+of his great humility--was informed in a vision that the emperor
+alluded to was Diocletian; and at the same time the torments and
+persecutions suffered by the Christian virgin Filomena, as well as
+her wonderful constancy, were also revealed to him. There were some
+difficulties in the way of the Emperor Diocletian, which inclines
+the writer of the _historical_ account to adopt the opinion that
+the young artist in his vision _may_ have made a mistake, and that
+the emperor may have been his colleague, Maximian. The facts,
+however, now admitted of no doubt; and the relics were carried by
+the priest Francesco da Lucia to Naples; they were inclosed in a
+case of wood, resembling in form the human body. This figure was
+habited in a petticoat of white satin, and over it a crimson tunic,
+after the Greek fashion; the face was painted to represent nature;
+a garland of flowers was placed on the head, and in the hands a
+lily and a javelin--with the point reversed, to express her purity
+and her martyrdom; then she was laid in a half sitting posture in a
+sarcophagus, of which the sides were glass; and after lying for some
+time in state, in the chapel of the Torres family in the Church of
+Saint Angiolo, she was carried in procession to Magnano, a little
+town about twenty miles from Naples, amid the acclamations of the
+people, working many and surprising miracles by the way. Such is
+the legend of St Filomena, and such the authority on which she has
+become, within the last twenty years, one of the most fashionable
+saints in Italy. Jewels to the value of many thousand crowns have
+been offered at her shrine, and solemnly placed round the neck of
+her image, or suspended to her girdle."
+
+We dare not in candour charge the Romanists with being the only
+fabricators or receivers of such goods, remembering our own Saint
+Joanna, and Huntingdon's Autobiography. There are _aurea legenda_ in
+a certain class of our sectarian literature, presenting a large list
+of claimants of very high pretensions to saintship, only waiting for
+power and an established authority to be canonised.
+
+It is not surprising, as the world is--working often in the dark
+places of ignorance--if a few glossy threads of a coarser material,
+and deteriorating quality, be taken up by no wilful mistake, and
+be interwoven into the true golden tissue. Nevertheless the mantle
+may be still beautiful, and fit a Christian to wear and walk in not
+unbecomingly. There are worse things than religious superstition,
+whose badness is of degrees. In the minds of all nations and people
+there is a vacuum for the craving appetite of credulity to fill.
+The great interests of life lie in politics and religion. There
+are bigots in both: but we look upon a little superstition on the
+one point as far safer than upon the other, especially in modern
+times; whereas political bigotry, however often duped, is credulous
+still, and becomes hating and ferocious. We fear even the legends
+are losing their authority in the Roman States, whose history may
+yet have to be filled with far worse tales. A generous, though we
+deem it a mistaken feeling, has induced Mrs Jameson to make what
+we would almost venture to call the only mistake in her volumes:
+the following passage is certainly not in good taste, quite out of
+the intention of her book, and very unfortunately timed--"But Peter
+is certainly the democratical apostle _par excellence_, and his
+representative in our time seems to have awakened to a consciousness
+of this truth, and to have thrown himself--as St Peter would most
+certainly have done, were he living--on the side of the people and
+of freedom." A democratical successor to St Peter! He is, then, the
+first of that character. With him the "side of freedom" seems to
+have been the inside of his prison, and his "side of the people"
+a precipitate flight from contact with them in their liberty--and
+for his tiara the disguise of a valet. We more than pardon Mrs
+Jameson--we love the virtue that gives rise to her error; for it is
+peculiarly the nature of woman to be credulous, and to be deceived.
+We admire, and more than admire, women equally well, whether they
+are right or wrong in politics: these are the business of men,
+for they have to do with the sword, and are out of the tenderer
+impulses of woman. But we are amused when we find grave strong men
+in the same predicament of ill conjectures. We smile as we remember
+a certain dedication "To Pio Nono," which by its simple grandeur
+and magnificent beauty will live _splendide mendax_ to excuse its
+prophetic inaccuracy. It is not wise to foretell events to happen
+whilst we live. Take a "long range," or a studied ambiguity that
+will fit either way. The example of Dr Primrose may be followed
+with advantage, who in every case of domestic doubt and difficulty
+concluded the matter thus--"I wish it may turn out well this day six
+months;" by which, in his simple family, he attained the character
+of a true prophet.
+
+We fear we are losing sight of the "Poetry of Sacred and Legendary
+Art," and gladly turn from the thought of what is to be, to
+those beautiful personified ideas of the past, whether fabulous
+or historical, in which we are ready to take Mrs Jameson as our
+willing and sure guide. The four virgin patronesses and the female
+martyrs are favourite subjects, which she enters into with more
+than her usual spirit and feeling. These two have chiefly engaged
+and fascinated the genius of the painters of the best period, and
+will ever interest the world of taste by their sentiment, as well
+as by their grace of form and beauty, and why not say improved them
+too? The really beautiful is always true. It is not amiss that we
+should be continually reminded, or, as Mrs Jameson better expresses
+it--"It is not a thing to be set aside or forgotten, that generous
+men and meek women, strong in the strength, and elevated by the
+sacrifice of a Redeemer, did suffer, did endure, did triumph for
+the truth's sake; did leave us an example which ought to make our
+hearts glow within us." The memory of Christian heroism should
+never be lost sight of in a Christian country, and we earnestly
+recommend this part of Mrs Jameson's volumes to the attention of our
+painters: they will find not unfrequent instances of fine subjects
+yet untouched, which may sanctify art, and dignify the profession by
+making it the teacher of a purer taste--not that true genius will
+ever lack materials, for materials are but suggestive to an innate
+inventive power. It is curious that the authoress should not yet
+have satisfied our expectation with regard to the legends of the
+Virgin. Whatever the motive of her forbearance, we hope this subject
+will take the lead in the promised third volume, which is to treat
+of the legends of the monastic orders, considered, as she cautiously
+observes, "merely in their connexion with the development of the
+fine arts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."
+
+The numerous pictures in Italy which represent parts of the legends
+of the Virgin render this work incomplete without a full development
+of the subject. If her forbearance arises from a fear that at this
+particular time, when mariolatry is dreaded by a large portion of
+the religious world, we would remind her that the Virgin Mother is
+still "the blessed" of our own church.
+
+It is a question if the list of sainted martyrs in repute has not
+been left to the arbitrament of the painters; for we find many
+deposed, and the adopted favourites of art not found in the early
+list, as represented in their processions. We find a Saint Reparata,
+after having been the patroness saint of Florence for six hundred
+years, deposed, and the city placed under the tutelage of the Virgin
+and St John the Baptist.
+
+Yet these were early times for the influence of art; but, at a
+period when pictures were thought to have a kind of miraculous
+power, it is not improbable that some potent work of art
+representing the Virgin and St John may have caused the new
+devotional dedication--as was the case in modern times, when the
+imaged Madonna de los Dolores was appointed general-in-chief of the
+Carlist army. Painters were what the poets had been--_Vates sacri_.
+Events and the memory of saints may have perished, _Carent quia vate
+sacro_. We wish our own painters were more fully sensible of the
+power of art to perpetuate, and that it is its province to teach.
+With us it has been too long disconnected with our religion. It will
+be a glorious day for art, and for the people that shall witness the
+reunion.
+
+In taking leave of these two fascinating volumes, we do so with
+the less regret, knowing that they will be often in our hands, as
+most valuable for instant reference. No one who wishes to know the
+subjects and feel the sentiment of the finest works in the world,
+will think of going abroad without Mrs Jameson's book. We must again
+thank her for the beautiful woodcuts and etchings; the latter, in
+particular, are lightly and gracefully executed, we presume mostly
+(to speak technically) in dry point. Mrs Jameson writes as an
+enthusiast, her feeling flows from her pen. Her style is fascinating
+to a degree, forcible and graceful; but there is no mistaking its
+character--feminine. We know no other hand that could so happily
+have set forth the _Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art_.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS.
+
+
+  BOSTON, _December 1848_.
+
+THE YEAR OF CONSTITUTIONS is drawing to its end, to be succeeded,
+I doubt not, by the Year of Substitutions. I am sorry, my Basil,
+that you do not quite agree with me as to the issue of all this
+in France; but I am sure you will not dispute my opinion that
+this year's work is good for nothing, so far as it has attempted
+construction, instead of fulfilling its mission by overthrow. Its
+great folly has been the constitution-fever, which has amounted
+to a pestilence. When mushrooms grow to be oaks, then shall such
+constitutions as this year has bred, stand a chance of outliving
+their authors. Will men learn nothing from the past? How can they
+act over such rotten farces,--make themselves such fools!
+
+You admit the difference, which I endeavoured to show you, between
+the American constitution and that of any conceivable constitution
+which may be cooked up for an old European state. I am glad if I
+have directed your attention, accordingly, to the great mistake of
+France. She supposes that a feeble, and debauched old gentleman
+can boil himself in the revolutionary kettle, and emerge in all
+the tender and enviable freshness of the babe just severed from
+the maternal mould. Politicians have committed a blunder in not
+allowing the natural, and hence legitimate, origin of the American
+constitution in that of its British parent. They have thus favoured
+the theory that a tolerably permanent constitution can be drafted _a
+priori_, and imposed upon a state. This is the absurdity that makes
+revolutions. If the silly French, instead of reading De Tocqueville,
+would study each for himself the history of our constitution, and
+see how gradually it grew to be our constitution, before pen was
+put to paper to draft it, they might perhaps stop their abortive
+nonsense in time, to save what they can of their national character
+from the eternal contempt of mankind.
+
+But you cannot think the French will find so fair a destiny as a
+Restoration! Tell me, in what French party, at present existing,
+there is any inherent strength, save in that of the legitimists?
+Other parties are mere factions; but the legitimists have got a
+seminal principle among them, which dies very hard, and of which
+the nature is to sprout and make roots, and then show itself. I am
+no admirer of the Bourbons: their intrigues with Jesuitism have
+been their curse, and are the worst obstacle to their regaining
+a hold on the sympathies of freemen. The reactionary party have
+in vain endeavoured to overcome it for fifty years. Yet there is
+such tenacity of life in legitimacy, that it seems to me destined
+to outlive all opposition, and to succeed by necessity. The rapid
+developments of this memorable year strengthen the probability of
+my prediction. Revolutionism is spasmodic, but not so long in dying
+as it used to be. I cannot but think this year has done more for a
+permanent restoration of the Bourbons than any year since Louis XVI.
+ascended the scaffold. In this respect the Barricades of 1848 may
+tell more impressively on history than the Allies of 1814, or even
+the carnage of Waterloo.
+
+Why should I be ashamed of my theory, when everything, so far, has
+gone as I supposed it would, only a hundred times more rapidly than
+any body could have thought possible? What must be the residue of
+a series which thus far has tended but one way?--what say you of
+the Bartholomew-butchery in June?--what of Lamartine's fall?--what
+of the dictatorship of Cavaignac? If things have gone as seems
+probable, Louis Napoleon is president of the republic. If so, what
+is the instinct which has thus called him into power? The hereditary
+principle is abolished on paper, and instantly recognised by the
+first popular act done under the new constitution! But, for all
+we can tell in America, things may have taken another turn. Is
+Cavaignac elected? Then a military master is put over the republic,
+who can _Cromwellise_ the Assembly, and _Monk_ the state, as
+soon as he chooses. The republic has given itself the form of a
+dictatorship, and demonstrated that it does not exist, except on
+paper. Has there been an insurrection? Then the republic is dead
+already. But I shall assume that Louis has succeeded: then it is
+virtually an hereditary empire. To be sure, instinct has for once
+failed to know "the true prince,"--has accorded, to the mere shadow
+of a usurper, what, in a more substantial form, is due to the heir
+of France; but long-suspended animation must make a mistake or
+two in coming to life again. The events of the year have been all
+favourable to a restoration, because they have crushed a thousand
+other plans and plottings for the sovereignty, and because they must
+have forced upon at least as many theorists the grand practical
+conclusion, that there is to be no rational liberty in France until
+she returns to first principles, and finds the repose which old
+nations can only know under their legitimate kings.
+
+I am ashamed of you for more than hinting that legitimacy must be
+given up, as far as kings are concerned. Alas! Diogenes must light
+his lantern, and hunt through England for a Tory! You are bewhigged,
+indeed, if you give it up that George III. was a legitimate king,
+and that his grand-daughter is to you what no other person alive
+can possibly be,--your true and hereditary sovereign lady! Must I,
+a republican, say this to an English monarchist, who votes himself
+a conservative, and who is the son of a sturdy old English Tory?
+Is there no virtue extant, that even you allow yourself to be
+flippant about "the divinity that hedges kings," and to trifle with
+suggestions which your immortal ancestor, who fell at Prestonpans,
+would have drummed out of doors with poker and tongs? Why, even
+I, who have a right to be whatever I choose, by way of amateur
+allegiance, and who have always found myself a Jacobite whenever
+the talk has been against the White Rose--even I, in sober earnest,
+yield the point, that George I. was a legitimate sovereign, and that
+Charlie was a bit of a rebel. Those stupid Dutchmen! it makes me
+mad to say as much for them; but I love Old England too well to own
+that she bore with such sovereigns on any lower grounds than that of
+their right to reign.
+
+I am sorry you give in to the silly cant of revolutionists, and
+confess yourself posed with their challenge. What if they do insist
+upon a definition? Are you bound to keep your heart from beating
+till you can tell why it throbs over a page of Shakspeare's Richard
+II., and bounces, in precisely an opposite manner, over Carlyle's
+Cromwell? Am I going to let a Whig choke me with a dictionary,
+because it contains no explanation of my good old-fashioned word?
+Let him, with his "Useful Knowledge Society" information, give me
+an explanation of the magnetic needle, or tell me why it turns to
+the pole, and not to the antipodes? The fellow will recollect some
+twopenny picture of the compass, and retail me half a column of the
+Penny Magazine about the mysteries of nature. And what if I talk
+as sensibly from nature in my own heart, and tell the stereotype
+philosopher that I am conscious of an ennobling affection, which
+honest men never lack, and which God Almighty has made a faculty of
+the human soul to dignify subordination; and that loyalty has no
+lode-star but legitimacy? At least, my dear Whigo-Tory, you must
+allow, I should succeed in answering a fool according to his folly.
+But I claim more: I have defined legitimacy when I say it is the
+home of loyalty.
+
+I have amused myself during the summer with some study of the
+history of reaction in France, and flatter myself that I have
+discovered the secret of its failure, and the great distinction
+between its spirit and that of English Conservatism. But this by
+the way; for I was going to say that I have found, in the writings
+of one of the chief of the reactionary party, some very sensible
+hints upon the subject I am discussing with you. Though in many
+respects a dangerous teacher, and, I fear, a little jesuitical in
+practice as well as in theory, I have been surprised to find the
+Count de Maistre willing "to be as _his master_" on this point, and
+to rest legitimacy very nearly on the sober principles of Burke.
+He is far from the extravagances of Sir Robert Filmer, though
+he often expresses, in a startling form, the temperate views of
+English Anti-Jacobins. Thus he says, with evident relish of its
+smart severity, _the people will always accept their masters, and
+will never choose them_. Strongly and unpalatably put, but most
+coincident with history, and not to be disputed by any admirer
+of the glorious Revolution of 1688! I suspect the Frenchman made
+his aphorism without stopping to ask whether it suited any other
+case. But Burke has virtually said the same thing in his reply
+to the Old Jewry doctrine of 1789, in which he so forcibly urges
+the fact, that the settlement of the crown upon William and the
+Georges "was not properly _a choice_, ... but an act of necessity,
+in the strictest moral sense in which necessity can be taken."
+Mary and the Hanoverians, then, were acknowledged by the nation,
+in spite of itself, as legitimate sovereigns; and even William was
+smuggled into the acknowledgment as _quasi_-legitimate. It is the
+clear, reasonable, and truly English doctrine of Burke, that _the
+constitution of a country makes its legitimate kings_; and that the
+princes of the House of Brunswick, coming to the crown according to
+constitutional law, at the date of their respective accessions, were
+as legitimate as King James before he broke his coronation oaths,
+and abdicated, _ipso facto_, his crown and hereditary rights. But
+De Maistre talks more like the schoolmen, though he comes to the
+same practical results. Constitutions, the native growth of their
+respective countries, he would argue, are the ordinance of GOD; and
+kings, though not the subjects of their people, are bound to do
+homage to them, as, in a sense, divine. Legitimacy, therefore, is
+the resultant of hereditary majesty and constitutional designation;
+it being always understood that constitutional laws are never
+written till after they become such by national necessities, which
+are divine providences. Apply this to 1688. The Bill of Rights was
+an unwritten part of the constitution even when James was crowned;
+and so was the principle, that the king must not be a Papist, at
+least in the government of his realms. Such, if I may so speak,
+was the Salic law of England, by which his public and political
+Popery stripped him of his right to the throne. It was the same
+principle that invested the House of Brunswick with a legitimacy
+which the heart of the nation did not hesitate to recognise, in
+spite of unfeigned disgust with the prince in whom the succession
+was established. To throw the proposition into the abstract--there
+can be no legitimacy without hereditary majesty, but that member
+of a royal line is the legitimate king in whom concur all the
+elements of _constitutional designation_. If the phrase be new,
+the idea is as old as empire. I mean that constitutional power
+which, without reference to national choice or personal popularity,
+selects the true heir of the throne, among the descendants of its
+ancient possessors, on fixed principles of national law. Thus,
+in Portugal, the constitution sets aside an idiot heir-apparent
+for a cadet of the same family, or, if need be, for a collateral
+relative; while, in France, it proclaims the line of a king extinct
+in his female heir, and ascends, perhaps, to a remote ancestor for
+a trace of his rightful successor. It is a principle essentially
+the same which, in England, pronounces a Popish prince as devoid
+of hereditary right to the crown, as a bastard, or the child of a
+private marriage; and by which the hereditary blood, shut off from
+its natural course, immediately opens some auxiliary channel, and
+widens it into the main artery of succession, with all the precision
+of similar resources in physical nature. With such an argument, if
+I understand him, the Count de Maistre would put you to the blush
+for sneering _sub rosâ_ at the legitimacy of your Sovereign. I wish
+his principles were always as capable of being put to the proof,
+without any absurdity in the reduction. Hereditary majesty is the
+only material of which constitutions make sovereigns; and that, too,
+deserves a word in the light which this sage Piedmontese Mentor of
+France has endeavoured to throw on the subject. It is interesting
+in the present dilemma of France, which stands like the ass between
+two haystacks--rejecting one dynasty, but not yet choosing another.
+I am a republican, you know, holding that my loyalty is due to the
+constitution of my own country; and yet I subscribe to the doctrine
+that this idea of _majesty_ is a reality, and that, confess it
+or not, even republicans feel its reality. _The king's name is a
+tower of strength_; and inspiration has said to sovereign princes,
+with a pregnant and monitory meaning--_ye are gods_. This is not
+the fawning of courts, but the admonition of Him who invests them
+with His sword of avenging justice, and gives them, age after age,
+the natural homage of their fellow-men. Not that I would flatter
+monarchs: I see that they _die like men_, and, what is worse, live,
+very often, like fools, if not like beasts. Yet I am sure that they
+have something about them which is personally theirs, and cannot
+be given to others, and which is as real a thing as any other
+possession. GOD has endowed them with history, and they are the
+living links which connect nations with their origin, and the men of
+the passing age with bygone generations. Reason about it as we may,
+it is impossible not to look with natural reverence on the breathing
+monuments of venerable antiquity. For a Guelph, indeed, I cannot
+get up any false or romantic enthusiasm; and yet I find it quite
+as impossible not to feel that the house of Guelph entitles its
+royal members to a degree of consideration which is the ordinance
+of Heaven. For how many ages has that house been a great reality,
+casting its shadow over Europe, and stretching it over the world,
+and as absolutely affecting the destinies of men as the geographical
+barriers and highways of nations! The Alps and the Oceans are
+morally, as well as naturally, majestic; and a moral majesty like
+theirs attaches to a line of princes which has stood the storms of
+centuries like them, and like them has been always a bulwark or a
+bond between races and generations. Like the solemnity of mountains
+is the hereditary majesty of a family, of which the origin is
+veiled in the twilight of history, but which is always seen above
+the surface of cotemporary events, a crowned and sceptred thing
+that never dies, but perpetuates, from generation to generation, a
+still increasing emotion of sublimity and awe, which all men feel,
+and none can fully understand. There are many women in England who,
+for personal qualities and graces, would as well become the throne
+as she whom you so loyally entitle "Our Sovereign Lady." Why is
+it that no election, nor any imaginable possession of her place,
+could commend the proudest or the best of them to the homage of the
+nation's heart? Such a one might wear the robes, and glitter like
+a star, outshining the regalia, and might walk like Juno; but not
+a voice would cry _God save her!_--while there is a glory, not to
+be mistaken, which invests the daughter of ancient sovereigns, even
+when she is recognised, against her will, in the costume of travel,
+or when she shows herself among her people, and treads the heather
+in a trim little bonnet and a Highland plaid. Why is it that ten
+thousand feel a thrill when her figure is seen descending from the
+wooden walls of her empire, and alighting upon some long unvisited
+portion of its soil? It is not the same emotion which would be
+inspired by the landing of Wellington. Then the roaring of cannon
+and the waving of ensigns would appear to be a tribute rendered to
+the hero by a grateful country; but when her Majesty touches the
+shore, she seems herself to wake the thunders and to bow the banners
+which announce her coming. The pomp is all her own, and differs from
+the tributary pageant, as the nod of Jove is different from the
+acclamation of Stentor. Even I, who "owe her no subscription," can
+well conceive what a true Briton cannot help but feel, when, with
+an ennobling loyalty, he beholds in her the concentrated blood of
+famous kings, and the propagated soul of mighty monarchs; and when
+he calls to mind, at the same moment, the thousand strange events
+and glorious histories which have their august and venerable issue
+in Victoria, his queen.
+
+But you will bring me back to my main business, by asking--who,
+then, was the legitimate king of France at the beginning of this
+year? The King of the Barricades was not lacking in hereditary
+majesty, and you will make out a case of _constitutional
+designation_, by a parallel between England in 1688, and France
+in 1830. If you do so, you will greatly wrong your country. The
+loyalty of England settled in the house of Brunswick, and would have
+been even less tried if there had been a continuance of the house
+of Orange; but no French loyalist could ever be reconciled to the
+dynasty of Orleans. And why? It was not the natural constitution of
+France, but the mere blunder of a mob, that selected Louis Philippe
+as the king of the French. It was an election, as the accession of
+William and Mary was not: it was a choice, and not a necessity--the
+mere caprice of the hour, and in no sense the rational designation
+of law. Did ever his Barricade Majesty himself, in all his dreams of
+a dynasty, pretend that any unalterable principle, or fundamental
+law of France, had turned the tide of succession from the
+heir-presumptive of Charles X., and forced heralds upon the backward
+trail of genealogy, till they could again descend, and so find the
+hereditary king of the French in the son of Egalité? Louis Philippe
+was not legitimate, in any reasonable sense of the word; and,
+could he have made such men as Chateaubriand regard him as other
+than a usurper, he would not be at Claremont now. That splendid
+Frenchman uttered the voice of a smothered, but not extinguished,
+constitution, when he closed his political life in 1830, by saying
+to the Duchess de Berry--"_Madame, votre fils est mon roi._" He
+lived to see the secret heart of thousands of his countrymen
+repeating his memorable words, and died not till Providence itself
+had overturned the rival throne, and directed every eye in hope, or
+in alarm, to the only prince in Europe who could claim to be their
+king.
+
+I care very little what may be the personal qualifications of Henry
+of Bordeaux; it seems to me that he is destined to reign upon the
+throne of his ancestors--and God grant he may do it in such wise as
+shall make amends for all that France has suffered, by reason of
+his ancestors, since France had a Henry for her king before! The
+prestige of sovereignty is his; and while he lives, no republic can
+be lasting; no government, save his, can insure the peace which
+the state of Europe so imperatively demands. If "experience has
+taught England that in no other course or method than that of an
+hereditary crown her liberties can be regularly perpetuated and
+preserved sacred,"[12]--why should not an experience, a thousandfold
+severer, teach France the same lesson? It has already been taught
+them by a genius which France cannot despise, and to whose oracular
+voice she is now forced to listen, because it issues from his fresh
+grave! "Legitimacy is the very life of France. Invent, calculate,
+combine all sorts of illegitimate governments, you will find nothing
+else possible as the result, nothing which gives any promise of
+duration, of tolerable existence during a course of years, or even
+through several months. Legitimacy is, in Europe, the sanctuary in
+which alone reposes that sovereignty by which states subsist." So
+I endeavour to render the eloquent sentence of Chateaubriand;[13]
+and though, since he wrote it, a score of years have passed, it is
+stronger now than ever--for what was then his prophecy is already
+the deplorable history of his country. Had ever a country such a
+history, without learning more in a year than France has gained from
+a miserable half-century?
+
+  [12] BURKE.
+
+  [13] _Memoires sur le Duc de Berry._
+
+Just so long as France has been busy with experiments, in the insane
+effort to separate her future from her past, just so long have
+all her labours to lay a new foundation been miserable failures,
+covering her, in the eyes of the world, with shame and infamy. What
+has been wanting all the time? I grant that the first want has
+been a national conscience--a sense of religion and of duty. But I
+mean, what has been wanting to the successive administrations and
+governments? Certainly not splendour and personal dignity, for the
+Imperial government had both; and the King of the Barricades made
+himself to be acknowledged and feared as one who bore not the sword
+in vain. But the prestige of legitimacy was wanting; and that want
+has been the downfall of everything that has been tried. You will
+ask, what was the downfall of Charles X? The answer is, that it was
+not a downfall further than concerned himself; for everybody feels
+that the Bourbon claim survives, while every other has been forced
+to yield to destiny and retribution. How is it that legitimacy
+makes itself felt after years of exile and obscurity? Is it not
+that instinct of loyalty which cannot be duped or diverted, and
+which detects and detests all shams? Is it not the instinct which
+constitution-makers have endeavoured to appease by pageants and by
+names, but which has continually revolted against the emptiness of
+both? The existence of that instinct has been perpetually exposed
+by miserable attempts to satisfy its demands with outside show and
+splendid impositions. The French cannot even go to work, under their
+present republic, as we do in America. The common-sense of our
+people teaches them that a republican government is a mere matter
+of business, which must make no pretences to splendour; and hence,
+the constitution once settled, the president is elected and sworn-in
+with no nonsense or parade; and Mr Cincinnatus Polk sits down in the
+White House, and sends every man about his business. A young country
+has as yet but the instincts of infancy; there is as yet nothing to
+satisfy but the craving for nourishment, and the demand for large
+room. But it is not so where nations are full-grown. _Can a maid
+forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?_ Can France forget
+that she had once a court and a throne that dazzled the world? No!
+says every craftsman of the revolution; and therefore our republic,
+too, must be splendid and imperial! So, instead of going to work as
+if their new constitution were a reality, there must be a fète of
+inauguration. In the same conviction, Napoleon is nominated for the
+presidency, because he has a name; and he immediately withdraws from
+vulgar eyes, to keep his "presence like a robe pontifical," against
+the investiture. Oh, for some Yankee farmer to look on and laugh! It
+would not take him long to _calculate_ the end of such a republic.
+Jonathan can understand a queen, and would stare at a coronation
+in sober earnest, convinced that it had a meaning--at least, in
+England! But a republic of kettle-drums and trumpets will never do
+with him; and if he were favoured with an interview with the pompous
+aspirant to the French presidency, it would probably end in his
+telling Louis Napoleon the homely truth--that he has nothing to be
+proud of, and had better eat and drink like other folk, and "define
+his position" as a candidate, if he don't want to find himself
+_used-up_, and sent on a long voyage up Salt River; which, you may
+not know, my Basil, is a Stygian stream, and the ancients called
+it Lethe. So much, then, for the _ultima ratio_ of illegitimate
+governments--the attempt to satisfy the demand for national dignity
+by pageants and by names, and to drown the outcries of natural
+discontent by the sounding of brass and the tinkling of cymbals.
+
+In vain did the sage Piedmontese foretell it all, like a Cassandra.
+"Man is prohibited," said that admirable Mentor, "from giving
+great names to things of which he is the author, and which he
+thinks great; but if he has proceeded legitimately, the vulgar
+names of things will be rendered illustrious, and become grand."
+How specially does England answer to the latter half of this
+maxim! and who can read the former without seeing France, in her
+fool's-cap, before his mental eye? De Maistre himself has instanced
+the revolutionary follies of Paris, and lashed them with unsparing
+severity. Whatever is national in England seems to have grown up,
+like her oaks, from deep and strong roots, and to stand, like them,
+immovable, They make their own associations, and dignify their own
+names. Everything is home-born, natural, and real. The Garter, the
+Wool-sack, Hyde Park, Epsom and Ascot--these things in France would
+be the _Legion of Honour_, the _Curule-chair_, the _Elysian fields_,
+the _Olympic games_! The veritable attempt was made to reinstitute,
+in the Champ-de-Mars, the sports of antiquity; and they received
+the pompous name of _Les jeux Olympiques_. De Maistre ridicules
+their nothingness, and adds that, when he saw a building erected
+and called the _Odéon_, he was sure that music was in its decline,
+and that the place would shortly be to let. In like manner, he says
+of the motto of Rousseau, with intense _naïvete_, "Does any man
+dare to write under his own portrait, _vitam impendere vero_? You
+may wager, without further information, fearlessly, that it is the
+likeness of a liar." How quick the human heart perceives what is
+thus put into words by a philosopher! It is in vain for France to
+think of covering her nakedness with a showy veil. The Empire was a
+glittering gauze, but how transparent! They saw one called Emperor
+and a second Charlemagne; and the Pope himself was there to give
+him a crown. But it was a meagre cheat. Poor Josephine never looked
+ridiculous before, but then she acted nonsense. The imperial robes
+were gorgeous, but they meant nothing on the Citizen Buonaparte.
+Everybody saw behind the scenes. They detected Talma in the strut of
+Napoleon; they pointed at the wires that moved the hands and eyes of
+the Pope. All stage-effect, machinery, and pasteboard. The imperial
+court was all what children call _make-believe_: it vanished like
+the sport of children.
+
+The great feast of fraternity, last spring, was, on de Maistre's
+principles, the natural harbinger of that fraternal massacre in
+June; and the ineffectual attempt to be festive over the late
+inauguration of the constitution, has but one redeeming feature
+to prevent a corresponding augury of disaster. Its miserable
+failure makes it possible that the constitution will survive its
+anniversary. Then there will be a demonstration, at any rate, and
+then the thing will be superannuated. Since 1790, there has been
+no end to such glorifications; each chased and huzza'd, in turn,
+by a nation of full-grown children, and all hollow and transient
+as bubbles. Perpetual beginnings, every one warranted to be _no
+failure this time_, and each going out in a stench. What continual
+_Champs-de-Mars_ and _Champs-de-Mai_! what wavings of new flags, and
+scattering of fresh flowers! and all ending in confessed failure,
+and beginning the same thing over again! "Nothing great has great
+beginnings"--says Mentor again. "History shows no exception to this
+rule. _Crescit occulto velut arbor ævo_,--this is the immortal
+device of every great institution."
+
+Legitimacy never makes such mistakes, except when permitted by GOD,
+to accomplish its own temporary abasement. It needs not to support
+itself by tricks and shams. It has a creative power which dignifies
+everything it touches; which often turns its own occasions into
+festivals, but makes no festivals on purpose to dignify itself. When
+Henry V. is crowned at Rheims, or at Notre-Dame, he will not send
+over the Alps for _Pio Nono_, nor consult _Savans_ to learn how
+Cæsar should be attired that day. That youth may safely dispense
+with all superfluous pageantry, for he is not _new Charlemagne_,
+but _old Charlemagne_. The blood of the Carlovingians has come down
+to him from Isabella of Hainault, through St Louis and Henry IV.
+Chateaubriand should not have forgotten this, when (speaking of this
+prince's unfortunate father, the Duke de Berry) he enthusiastically
+sketched a thousand years of Capetian glory, and cried--"_He bien!
+la revolution a livré tout cela au couteau de Louvel_." Another
+revolution has thus far relegated the same substantial dignity to
+exile and obscurity, as if France could afford to lose its past, and
+begin again, as an infant of days. But besides the evident tendency
+of things to reaction, there is something about the legitimate
+king of France which looks like destiny. He was announced to the
+kingdom by the dying lips of his murdered sire, while yet unborn, as
+if the fate of empire depended on his birth. "_Ménagez-vous, pour
+l'enfant que vous portez dans votre sein_," said the unhappy man to
+his duchess, and the group of bystanders was startled! It was the
+first that France heard of Henry the Fifth, and it seemed to inspire
+Chateaubriand with the spirit of prophecy, and he eloquently remarks
+upon it as a _dernière espérance_. "The dying prince," he says,
+"seemed to bear with him a whole monarchy, and at the same moment to
+announce another. Oh GOD! and is our salvation to spring out of our
+ruin? Has the cruel death of a son of France been ordained in anger,
+or in mercy? is it _a final restoration of the legitimate throne,
+or the downfall of the empire of Clovis_?" This grand question now
+hangs in suspense: but, as I said, Chateaubriand must have taken
+courage before he died, and inwardly answered it favourably. That
+great writer seems to have felt beforehand, for his countrymen,
+the loyalty to which they will probably return. To the prince he
+stood as a sort of sponsor for the future. When the royal babe was
+baptised, he presented water from the Jordan, in which the last hope
+of legitimacy received the name of _Dieu-donné_: when Charles the
+Tenth was dethroned, he stood up for the young king, and consented
+to fall with his exclusion; and the last years of France's greatest
+genius were a consistent confessorship for that legitimacy with
+which he believed the prosperity of his country indissolubly bound.
+Now, I should like to ask a French republican--if I could find
+a sane one,--what would you wish to do with Henry of Bordeaux?
+Would you wish this heir of your old histories to renounce his
+birth-right, declare legitimacy an imposition, and undertake to
+settle down in Paris as one of the people? Why not, if you are all
+republicans, and see no more in a prince than in a _gamin_? Why
+should not this Henry Capet throw up his cap for the constitution,
+and stick up a tradesman's sign in the Place de la Revolution, as
+"Henry Capet, _parfumeur_?" Why not let him hire a shop in the lower
+stories of the Palais Royal and teach the Parisians better manners
+than to cut off his head, by devoting himself to shaving their
+beards? Everybody knows the reason why not; and that reason shows
+the reality of legitimacy. Night and day such a shop would be mobbed
+by friends and foes alike. Go where he might, the _parfumeur_ would
+be pointed at by fingers, and aimed at by _lorgnettes_, and bored to
+death by a rabble of starers, who would insist upon it that he was
+the hereditary lord of France. Mankind cannot free themselves from
+such impressions, and, what is more conclusive, princes cannot free
+themselves from the impressions of mankind, or undertake to live
+like other men, as if history and genealogy were not facts. For weal
+or for woe, they are as unchangeable as the leopard with his spots.
+Let Henry Capet come to America, and try to be a republican with us.
+Our very wild-cats would assert their inalienable right to "look at
+a king," and he would certainly be torn to pieces by good-natured
+curiosity.
+
+It is curious to see the natural instinct amusing itself, for
+the present, with such a mere _nominis umbra_ as Louis Napoleon.
+In some way or other the hereditary _prestige_ must be created;
+nothing less is satisfactory, and the "imperial fetishism" will
+answer very well till something more substantial is found necessary.
+Richard Cromwell was necessary to Charles II., and so is Louis
+Napoleon to Henry V. Napoleon still seems capable of giving France
+a dynasty; this possibility will be soon extinguished by the
+incapability of his representative. Louis will reign long enough
+to exhibit that recompense to Josephine, in the person of her
+grandson, which heaven delights to allot to a repudiated wife; and
+then, for his own sake, he will be called _coquin_ and _poltron_.
+Napoleon will take his historical position as an individual, having
+no remaining hold on France; and the imperial fetishism will be
+ignominiously extinguished. Richard Cromwell made a very decent old
+English gentleman, and Louis Napoleon may perhaps end his days as
+respectably, in some out-of-the-way corner of Corsica. Let me again
+quote the French Mentor. He says, "There never has existed a royal
+family to whom a plebeian origin could be assigned. Men may say, if
+Richard Cromwell had possessed the genius of his father, he would
+have fixed the protectorate in his family; which is precisely the
+same thing as to say--if this family had not ceased to reign, it
+would reign still." Here is the formula that will suit the case of
+Louis Napoleon; but future historians will moralise upon the manner
+in which Napoleon himself worked out his own destruction. For the
+sake of a dynasty, he puts away poor Josephine. The King of Rome is
+born to him, but his throne is taken. The royal youth perishes in
+early manhood, and men find Napoleon's only representative in the
+issue of the repudiated wife. Her grandson comes to power, and holds
+it long enough to make men say--how much better it might have been
+with Napoleon had he kept his faith to Josephine, and contentedly
+taken as his heir the child in whom Providence has revealed at last
+his only chance of continuing his family on a throne! It makes one
+thing of Scripture, "Yet ye say wherefore? because the Lord hath
+been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom
+thou hast dealt treacherously; ... therefore take heed to your
+spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his
+youth, for the Lord, the GOD of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
+away."
+
+A traveller from the south of France says that he saw everywhere
+the portrait of Henry V. Besides the mysterious hold which
+legitimacy keeps upon the vulgar and the polite alike, there are
+associations with it which operate on all classes of men. Tradesmen
+and manufacturers are for legitimacy, because they love peace, and
+want to make money. The _roturiers_ sooner or later learn the misery
+of mobs, and the love of change makes them willing to welcome home
+the king, especially as they mistake their own hearts, and flatter
+themselves that their sudden loyalty is proof of remaining virtue.
+Then the profligate and abandoned, they want a monarchy, in hopes of
+another riot in the palace. It may be doubted whether the _blouses_
+can be permanently contented without a king to curse. The national
+anthem cannot be sung with any spirit, unless there be a monarch
+who can be imagined to hear all its imprecations against tyrants:
+in fact, the king must come back, if only to make sense of the
+Marseilles Hymn.
+
+    Que veut cette horde d'esclaves,
+      De traîtres, de rois conjurés?
+    Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,
+      Ces fers, dès long-tems préparés?
+
+What imaginable sense is there in singing these red-hot verses
+at a feast of fraternity, and in honour of the full possession
+of absolute liberty? Then, where is the sport of clubs, and the
+excitement of conspiracies, if there's no king to execrate within
+locked doors? Is Paris to have no more of those nice little
+_émeutes_? What's to be done with the genius that delights in
+infernal machines? Who's to be fired at in a glass coach? Everybody
+knows that Cavaignacs and Lamartines are small game for such sport.
+Your true assassin must have, at least, a duke of the blood. These
+are considerations which must have their weight in deciding upon
+probabilities; though, for one, I am not sure but France is doomed,
+by retributive justice, to be thus the Tantalus of nations, steeped
+to the neck in liberty, but forbidden to drink, with kings hanging
+over them to provoke the eye, and yet escaping the hand.
+
+In 1796 de Maistre published his _Considérations sur la France_.
+They deserve to be reproduced for the present age. Nothing can
+surpass the cool contempt of the philosophical _réactionnaire_,
+or the confidence with which, from his knowledge of the past, he
+pronounces oracles for the future. Do you ask how Henry V. is to
+recover his rights? In ten thousand imaginable ways. See what
+Cavaignac might have done last July, had the time been ripe for
+another Monk! There's but one way to keep legitimacy out; it comes
+in as water enters a leaky ship, oozing through seams, and gushing
+through cracks, where nobody dreamed of such a thing. As long as
+even a tolerable pretender survives, a popular government must be
+kept in perpetual alarm. But you shall hear the Count, my Basil! Let
+me give you a free translation.
+
+"In speculating about counter-revolutions, we often fall into the
+mistake of taking it for granted that such reactions can only be the
+result of popular deliberation. _The people won't allow it_, it is
+said; _they will never consent; it is against the popular feeling_.
+Ah! is it possible? The people just go for nothing in such affairs;
+at most they are a passive instrument. Four or five persons may give
+France a king. It shall be announced to the provinces that the king
+is restored: up go their hats, and _vive le roi_! Even in Paris,
+the inhabitants, save a score or so, shall know nothing of it till
+they wake up some morning and learn that they have a king. '_Est-il
+possible?_' will be the cry: '_how very singular! What street will
+he pass through? Let's engage a window in good time, there'll be
+such a horrid crowd!_' I tell you the people will have nothing more
+to do with re-establishing the monarchy, than they have had in
+establishing the revolutionary government!... At the first blush
+one would say, undoubtedly, that the previous consent of the French
+is necessary to the restoration; but nothing is more absurd. Come,
+we'll crop theory, and imagine certain facts.
+
+"A courier passes through Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyons, and so _en
+route_, telling everybody that the king is proclaimed at Paris; that
+a certain party has seized the reins, and has declared that it holds
+the government only in the king's name, having despatched an express
+for his majesty, who is expected every minute, and that every one
+mounts the white cockade. Rumour catches up the story, and adds
+a thousand imposing details. What next? To give the republic the
+fairest chance, let us suppose it to have the favour of a majority,
+and to be defended by republican troops. At first these troops shall
+bluster very loudly; but dinner-time will come; the fellows must
+eat, and away goes their fidelity to a cause that no longer promises
+rations, to say nothing of pay. Then your discontented captains
+and lieutenants, knowing that they have nothing to lose, begin to
+consider how easily they can make something of themselves, by being
+the first to set up _Vive-le-roi_! Each one begins to draw his own
+portrait, most bewitchingly coloured; looking down in scorn on the
+republican officers who so lately knocked him about with contempt;
+his breast blazing with decorations, and his name displayed as that
+of an officer of His Most Christian Majesty! Ideas so single and
+natural will work in the brains of such a class of persons: they
+all think them over; every one knows what his neighbour thinks, and
+they all eye one another suspiciously. Fear and distrust follow
+first, and then jealousy and coolness. The common soldier, no
+longer inspired by his commander, is still more discouraged; and,
+as if by witchcraft, the bonds of discipline all at once receive
+an incomprehensible blow, and are instantly dissolved. One begins
+to hope for the speedy arrival of his majesty's paymaster; another
+takes the favourable opportunity to desert and see his wife. There's
+no head, no tail, and no more any such thing as trying to hold
+together.
+
+"The affair takes another turn with the populace. They push about
+hither and thither, knocking one another out of breath, and asking
+all sorts of questions; no one knows what he wants; hours are
+wasted in hesitation, and every minute does the business. Daring
+is everywhere confronted by caution; the old man lacks decision,
+the lad spoils all by indiscretion; and the case stands thus,--one
+may get into trouble by resisting, but he that keeps quiet may be
+rewarded, and will certainly get off without damage. As for making
+a demonstration--where is the means? Who are the leaders? Whom can
+ye trust? There's no danger in keeping still; the least motion may
+get one into trouble. Next day comes news--_such a town has opened
+its gates_. Another inducement to hold back! Soon this news turns
+out to be a lie; but it has been believed long enough to determine
+two other towns, who, supposing that they only follow such example,
+present themselves at the gates of the first town to offer their
+submission. This town had never dreamed of such a thing; but, seeing
+such an example, resolves to fall in with it. Soon it flies about
+that Monsieur the mayor has presented to his majesty the keys of
+his good city of _Quelquechose_, and was the first officer who had
+the honour to receive him within a garrison of his kingdom. His
+Majesty--of course--made him a marshal of France on the spot. Oh!
+enviable brevet! an immortal name, and a scutcheon everlastingly
+blooming with _fleurs-de-lis_! The royalist tide fills up every
+moment, and soon carries all before it. _Vive-le-roi!_ shouts out
+long-smothered loyalty, overwhelmed with transports: _Vive-le-roi!_
+chokes out hypocritical democracy, frantic with terror. No matter!
+there's but one cry; and his Majesty is crowned, and _has all the
+royal makings of a king_. This is the way counter-revolutions
+come about. God having reserved to himself the formation of
+sovereignties, lets us learn the fact, from observing that He never
+commits to the multitude the choice of its masters. He only employs
+them, in those grand movements which decide the fate of empires,
+as passive instruments. Never do they get what they want: they
+always take; they never choose. There is, if one may so speak, an
+_artifice_ of Providence, by which the means which a people take to
+gain a certain object, are precisely those which Providence employs
+to put it from them. Thus, thinking to abase the aristocracy by
+hurrahing for Cæsar, the Romans got themselves masters. It is just
+so with all popular insurrections. In the French revolution the
+people have been perpetually handcuffed, outraged, betrayed, and
+torn to pieces by factions; and factions themselves, at the mercy of
+each other, have only risen to take their turn in being dashed to
+atoms. To know in what the revolution will probably end, find first
+in what points all the revolutionary factions are agreed. Do they
+unite in hating Christianity and monarchy? Very well! The end will
+be, that both will be the more firmly established in the earth."
+
+Cool, certainly; is it not, my Basil? The legitimists are the only
+Frenchmen who can keep cool, and bide their time. Chateaubriand
+has observed, in the same spirit, that there is a hidden power
+which often makes war with powers that are visible, and that a
+secret government was always following close upon the heels of the
+public governments that succeeded each other between the murder of
+Louis XVI. and the restoration of the Bourbons. This hidden power
+he calls the eternal reason of things; the justice of GOD, which
+interferes in human affairs just in proportion as men endeavour to
+banish and drive it from them. It is evident that the whole force
+of de Maistre's prophecy was owing to his religious confidence
+in this divine interference. He wrote in 1796. That year the
+career of Napoleon began at Montenotte; and, for eighteen years
+succeeding, every day seemed to make it less and less probable
+that his predictions could be verified. The Bourbon star was lost
+in the sun of Austerlitz. The Republic itself was forgotten; the
+Pope inaugurated the Empire; Austria gave him a princess, to be the
+mould of a dynasty, and the source of a new legitimacy. France was
+peopled with a generation that never knew the Bourbons, and which
+was dazzled with the genius of Napoleon, and the splendour of his
+imperial government. But the time came for this _puissance occulte,
+cette justice du ciel_! When the Allies entered Paris in 1814, it
+was suggested to Napoleon that the Bourbons would be restored; and,
+with all his sagacity, he made the very mistake which de Maistre had
+foreshown, and said, in almost his very words--"Never! nine-tenths
+of the people are irreconcilably against it!" One can almost hear
+what might have been the Count's reply--"_Quelle pitié! le peuple
+n'est pour rien dans les revolutions. Quatre ou cinq personnes,
+peut-être, donneront un roi à la France._" What could Talleyrand
+tell about that? The facts were, that in four days the Bourbons
+were all the rage! The Place Vendôme could hardly hold the mob that
+raved about Napoleon's statue; and, with ropes and pulleys, they
+were straining every sinew to drag it to the ground, when it was
+taken under the protection of Alexander![14] What next? In terror
+for his very life, this Napoleon flies to Frejus, now sneaking out
+of a back-window, and now riding post, as a common courier, actually
+saving himself by wearing the white cockade over his raging breast,
+and all the time cursing his dear French to Tartarus! A British
+vessel gives him his only asylum, and the salute he receives from
+a generous enemy is all that reminds him what he once had been
+in France. Meantime these detested Bourbons are welcomed home
+again, with De Maistre's own varieties of _Vive-le-roi_! The Duke
+d'Angouleme, advancing to the capital, sees the silver lilies
+dancing above the spires of Bordeaux: the Count d'Artois hails the
+same tokens at Nancy: not captains and lieutenants, but generals
+and marshals, rush to receive His Most Christian Majesty; and the
+successor of the butchered Louis XVI. comes to his palace, after an
+exile of twenty years, with the title of Louis the Desired! Nor are
+subsequent events anything more than the swinging of a pendulum,
+which must eventually subside into a plummet. If the first disaster
+of Napoleon, in the fulness of his strength, could make France
+welcome her legitimacy in 1814, why should not the imbecility of
+the mere shadow of his name produce a stronger revulsion before
+this century gains its meridian? There is a residuary fulfilment
+of de Maistre's augury, which remains to the Bourbons, when all of
+Napoleon that survives has found its ignominious extinction. Then
+will the ripe fruit fall into the lap of one who, if he is wise,
+will make the French forget his kindred with the fourteenth and
+fifteenth Louises, and remember only that Henry of Bordeaux has
+before him the example of Henry of Navarre.
+
+  [14] ALISON.
+
+There is, indeed, another conceivable end. _C'est l'arrêt que le
+ciel prononce enfin contre les peuples sans jugement, et rebelles
+à l'expérience._[15] If France does not soon come back to reason,
+we shall be forced to think her given up of GOD, to become such
+a country as Germany, or perhaps as miserable as Spain. But we
+must not be too hasty in coming to conclusions so deplorable. Let
+the republic have its day. It will work its own cure; for the
+chastisement of France must be the curse of ancient Judah. "The
+people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and everyone by
+his neighbour; the child shall behave himself proudly against the
+ancient, and the base against the honourable." For the mob of Paris,
+who got drunk with riot, and must grow sober with headache; for the
+blousemen and the boys who have pulled a house upon their head,
+and now maul each other in painful efforts to get from under the
+ruins; and for the miserable _philosophes_ who see, in the charming
+state of their country, the fruit of their own atheistic theories;
+for all these it is but retribution. They needed government; they
+resolved on license: GOD has sent them despotism in its worst form.
+One pities Paris, but feels that it is just. My emotions are very
+different when I think of what were once "the pleasant villages
+of France." Miserable _campagnards_! There are thousands of them,
+besides the poor souls starving in provincial towns, who curse
+the republic in their hearts; and, from Normandy to Provence and
+Languedoc, there are millions of such Frenchmen, who care nothing
+for dynasties, or fraternities, or democracy, but only pray the
+good Lord to give peace in their time, that they may sit under
+their own vine, and earn and eat their daily bread. For them--may
+GOD pity them!--what a life Dame Paris leads them! If, with the
+simplicity of rustics, they were for a moment disposed to be merry
+last February--when they heard that thereafter loaves and fishes
+were to fling themselves upon every table, for the mere pleasure of
+being devoured--how bitterly the simpletons are undeceived! Their
+present notions of fraternity and equality they get from hunger
+and from rags. It is not now in France as in the days of Henry
+IV., when every peasant had a pullet in the pot for his Sunday
+dinner. That was despotism. It is liberty now--liberty to starve.
+There is no more oppression, for the very looms refuse to work, and
+water-wheels stand still; and the vines go gadding and unpruned,
+and the grape disdains to be trampled in the wine-vat. Yes--and the
+old _paysan_ and his sprightly dame, who used to drive dull care
+away in the sunshine--she, with her shaking foot and head, and he
+with his fiddle and his bow, they have liberty to the full; for
+their seven sons, who were earning food for them in the sweat of
+their brow, have come home to the old cabin, ragged and unpaid; and
+they lounge about in hungry idleness, longing for war, but only
+because war would provide them with a biscuit or a bullet. What
+care they for glory, or for constitutions? They ask for bread, and
+their teeth are ground with gravel-stones. Let England look and
+learn. If she has troubles, let her see how easily troubles may be
+invested at compound interest, with the certainty of dividends for
+years to come. Is hard thrift in a kingdom so bad as starvation
+in a democracy? And whether is it better to wear out honestly, in
+this work-day world, as good and quiet subjects; or to be thrust
+out of it, kicking and cursing, behind a barricade of cabs and
+paving-stones, in the name of equality? These are the common-sense
+questions, that every English labourer should be made to feel and
+answer.
+
+  [15] CHATEAUBRIAND.
+
+It provokes me, Basil, that my letter may be superannuated while
+it is travelling in the steamer! The changes of democracy are more
+frequent than the revolutions of a paddle-wheel. Adieu. Yours,
+
+  ERNEST.
+
+
+
+
+DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO.
+
+     _Dalmatia and Montenegro._ By Sir J. GARDNER WILKINSON. London:
+     Murray.
+
+
+It is really astonishing that our want of information respecting
+Dalmatia, and its neighbourhood, has not long ago been supplied. It
+is by no means easy, now-a-days, to hit upon a line of country that
+may afford subject-matter for acceptable illustration. Travellers
+are so numerous, and authorship is so generally affected, that the
+best part of Europe has been described over and over again. You may
+get from Mr Murray a handbook for almost any place you will. Manners
+and customs, roads, inns, things to be suffered, and notabilities
+to be visited--in short, all the probable contingencies of travel
+between this and the Vistula, are already noted and set down. We
+take it upon ourselves to say, that it is one of the most difficult
+things in life to realise the sense of desolation and unwontedness
+that are poetic characteristics of the traveller. How can a man feel
+himself strange to any place where he is so thoroughly up to usages
+that no _locandière_ can cheat him to the amount of a _zwanziger_?
+And, thanks to the books written, it is a man's own fault if he
+wend almost anywhither except thus μύστης γενόμενος.
+
+In truth, European travelling is pretty nearly reduced to the work
+of verification. Events are according to prescription; and there
+remains very little room for the play of an exploring spirit. The
+grand thing to be explored is a matter pysychological rather than
+material; it is to prove experimentally what are the emotions that
+a generous mind experiences, when vividly acted upon by association
+with the world of past existences. Beyond doubt, this is the highest
+range of intellectual enjoyment; and to its province may be referred
+much that at first sight would appear to be heterogeneous, as, for
+instance, delights purely scientific. But at any rate, we must all
+agree that the main privilege of a traveller is, that he is enabled
+to test the force of this power of association. It is an enjoyment
+to be known only by experiment. No power of description can give a
+man to understand what is the sensation of gazing on the Acropolis,
+or of standing within Ἁγία Σοφία. It is as another sense, called into
+existence by the occasion of exercise.
+
+To any but the uncommonly well read, there has hitherto been meagre
+entertainment in travelling among the Slavonian borderers on the
+Adriatic. It has been impossible to realise on their subject these
+high pleasures of association, because so little has been known of
+the facts of their history; rather should we perhaps say, that,
+of what has been known, so little has been generally accessible.
+But we are happy to find that the right sort o' "chiel has been
+amang them, takin' notes." The way is now open; and henceforth it
+will be easy to follow with profit. The book which Sir Gardner
+Wilkinson has given us seems to be exactly the thing which was
+wanted; and certainly the use of it will enable a man to travel
+in Dalmatia as a rational creature should. No mere dotter down of
+events could have passed through the course of this country without
+producing a document of considerable value. The widespread family
+of which its inhabitants are a branch have been intimately mixed up
+with the history of the Empire and of Christendom; and now again
+we behold them playing a conspicuous part in European politics.
+Modern Panslavism deepens the interest to be felt in this family,
+and quickens the anxiety to know what they are doing and thinking
+now, as well as what they have done in days of old. In the present
+volumes we have, besides the memoranda of things existing, a
+compendium of Slavonian history and antiquities, and an exhibition
+of the degree in which the race have been mixed up with European
+history. Besides this, an account is given of their more domestic
+traditions, of which monuments survive; and it must be a man's own
+fault if, having this book with him, he miss extracting the utmost
+of profit from a visit to the country.
+
+In one way, we can surely prophesy that this book will prove the
+means of bringing to us increase of lore from out of that land of
+which it treats. It will naturally be taken on board every yacht
+that, when next summer shall open skies and seas, may find its
+way into the Mediterranean. Among these birds of passage, it can
+scarcely be but that some one will shape its course for this land of
+adventure, thus, as it were, newly laid open. It is a little, a very
+little out of the direct track, in which these summer craft are apt
+to be found, plentiful as butterflies. They may rest assured that in
+no place, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pharos of Alexandria,
+can they hope to find such provision of entertainment. The stories
+they may thence bring will really be worth something--a value much
+higher than we can vote ascribable to much that we hear of the
+well-frequented shores of the French lake.
+
+We prophesy, also, that an inspiriting effect will be produced
+on men better qualified even than the yachtsmen for the work of
+travel--we mean on the gallant officers who garrison the island of
+Corfu. They occupy a station so exactly calculated to facilitate
+excursions in the desirable direction, that it will be too bad if
+some of them do not start this very next spring. We do not recommend
+the Adriatic in winter time, and so give them a few months' grace,
+just to keep clear of the Bora. Let them, as soon as possible after
+the equinox, avail themselves of one of those gaps which will be
+occurring in the best-regulated garrison life. Times will come round
+when duty makes no exaction, and when the indigenous resources of
+the island afford no amusement. Should such occasion have place out
+of the shooting months--or when, haply, some row with the Albanians
+has placed Butrinto under interdict--woful are the straits to which
+our ardent young fellow-countrymen are reduced. A ride to the
+Garoona pass, or a lounge into Carabots; or, to come to the worst,
+an hour or two's _flané_ round old Schulenberg's statue, are well in
+their way, but cannot please for ever. All these things considered,
+it is, we say, but likely that we shall reap some substantial
+benefit from the leisure of our military friends, so soon as their
+literary researches shall have carried them into the enjoyment of
+this book. Dalmatia is almost before their very eyes. If hitherto
+they have not drifted thither, under the combined influences of a
+long leave and an uncertain purpose, it is because they have not
+been in a condition to prosecute researches. We must not blame them
+for their past neglect, any more than we blame the idleness of him
+who lacks the implements of work. Give a man tools, and then, if he
+work not, _monstrare digito_. Henceforth they must be regarded as
+thoroughly equipped, and without excuse. Let us hope that some two
+or three may be roused to action on the very next opportunity--that
+is to say, on the very next occasion of leave. Let us hope that,
+instead of sloping away to Paxo, or Santa Maura, they may shape
+their course through the North Channel, and begin, if they please,
+by exploring the Bocca di Cattaro.
+
+Sir Gardner speaks of difficulties and vexatious delays interposed
+between the traveller and his purpose by the Austrian authorities.
+These scrutineers of passports seem to grow worse; and with them
+bad has long been the best. We used to think that the palm of
+pettifogging was fairly due to the officials of his Hellenic
+majesty. It was bad enough, we always thought, to be kept waiting
+and watching for a license to move from the Piræus to Lutraki, by
+steam; but we confess that Sir Gardner makes out a case, or rather
+several cases, that beat our experience hollow. We should like
+to commit the passport system to the verdict to be pronounced by
+common-sense after perusal of the two or three pages he has written
+on this subject. But common-sense must be far from us, or the mob
+would not be raving for liberty while still tolerant of passports.
+
+There is another point in respect of which a change for the worse
+appears to have taken place, and that is in the important point
+of _bienveillance_ towards English travellers. We learn that, at
+present, Austrian officers are shy of English companionship; and
+that it is even enjoined on them authoritatively that they avoid
+intimacy with stragglers from Corfu. The reason assignable is found
+in the late sad and absurd conspiracy hatched in that island--a
+conspiracy which would have been utterly ridiculous, had it not in
+the event proved so melancholy. It will freely be admitted that
+the English would deserve to be sent, as they are, to Coventry,
+were it fact that the insane project of the young Bandieras had
+found English partisans, and that such partisanship had been winked
+at by the authorities. But the real state of the case is exactly
+contrary to this supposition. Humanity must needs have mourned over
+the cutting off of the young men, and the sorrow of their father,
+the gallant old admiral. But common-sense must have condemned the
+undertaking as utterly absurd and mischievous. It is a pity that any
+misunderstanding should be permitted to qualify the good feeling
+towards us, for which the Austrians have been remarkable. This good
+feeling has been observable eminently among their naval officers,
+who have got up a strong fellowship with us, ever since they were
+associated with our fleet in the operations on the coast of Syria.
+That particular service has done much towards the exalting of them
+in their own estimation; and, of course, the increase of friendship
+for us has been in the direct proportion of the lift given to
+them. The Austrian _militaires_, also, used to be a very good set
+of fellows, and only too happy to be civil to an Englishman. At
+their dull stations an arrival is an event, and any considerable
+accession of visitors occasions quite a jubilee. These gentlemen,
+however, cannot have among them much of the spirit of enterprise,
+or they would take more trouble than they do to learn something of
+the condition of their neighbours. They will complain freely of
+the dulness of the place of their location, but at the same time
+will evince little interest in the condition of the world beyond
+their immediate ken. Many of them who live almost within hail of
+the Montenegrini, have never been at the trouble of ascending the
+mountains. Nothing seems to astonish them more than the erratic
+disposition which leads men in quest of adventure; they cannot
+conceive such an idea as that of volunteering for a cruise. Yachts
+puzzle them: the owners must be sailors. Of any military officers
+who may chance to visit them in yachts, they cannot conceive
+otherwise than that they belong to the marine. Nevertheless they
+are, or used to be, kind and hospitable; and would treat you well,
+although they could not quite make you out.
+
+That this country is a neglected portion of the Austrian empire
+is very evident. The officials sigh under the very endearments of
+office. The _sanità_ man, who comes off to greet your arrival, will
+tell you how insufferably dull it is living in the Bocca,--and how
+he longs to be removed anywhither. Place, people, climate, all
+will be condemned. Yet, to a stranger, many of the localities seem
+exquisitely beautiful. The same cause seems to mar enjoyment here
+that spoils the beauty of our own Norfolk Island. The Austrian
+residents regard themselves as being in a state of banishment,
+and take up their abode only by constraint: the constraint, that
+is to say, of mammon. By the government, its possessions in this
+quarter have been neglected in a manner most impolitic. The value
+of this strip of coast to an empire almost entirely inland, yet
+wishing to foster trade, and to possess a navy, is obvious. Yet
+even the plainest use of it they seem, till lately, to have missed.
+Promiscuous conscriptions were the order of the day, and men born
+sailors were enrolled in the levies for the army. Of course they
+were miserable and discontented, and the public service suffered by
+the use of these unfit instruments. Recently it seems that a change
+has been made in this respect, and we doubt not that the navy has
+consequently been greatly improved. But many glaring instances of
+neglect in the administration of the affairs of the country continue
+to astonish beholders, and to prove that the paternal government is
+not awake to its own interests.
+
+But of all objections to be made to the wisdom of the government,
+the strongest may be grounded on the condition of the agricultural
+population in various parts of Dalmatia. Nothing is done to improve
+their knowledge of the primary art of civilisation. Their implements
+of husbandry are described as being on a par with those used by
+the unenlightened inhabitants of Asia Minor. The waggons to be
+encountered in the neighbourhood of Knin are referable to the same
+date in the progress of invention, as are the conveniences in vogue
+in the plains about Mount Ida. The mode of tillage is like that
+followed in the remote provinces of Turkey; the ploughs of the
+rustic population are often inferior to those to be seen in the
+neighbouring Turkish provinces. Lastly--most incredible of all!--we
+learn that there is not to be found in the whole district of the
+Narenta such a thing as a mill, wherein to grind their corn. Will
+it be believed that the rustics have to send all the corn they grow
+into the neighbouring province of Herzegovina to be ground? The
+inconvenience of such an arrangement may easily be conceived. Their
+best of the bargain--_i. e._ the being obliged to seek from across
+the frontier all the flour they want--is bad enough, and must be
+sufficiently expensive; but their predicament is apt to be much
+worse than this. In that part of the world, people are subject to
+stoppages of intercommunication. The plague may break out in the
+Turkish province, and thus a strict quarantine be established, to
+the interdiction even of provisions that generally pass unsuspected;
+or the country may be flooded, and the ways impassable. What are
+the poor people to do then for flour? Why, the only thing they can
+do is, to send their corn to their nearest neighbours possessed of
+mills--that is to say, to Salona, or to Imoschi. As these places
+are distant, the one about thirty-five miles, and the other about
+seventy miles, we may fancy how serious must be the pressure of this
+necessity. The ordinary expense of grinding their corn is stated
+to be about 13 per cent. What it must be when the seventy miles'
+carriage of their produce is an item in the calculation, we are left
+to conjecture. Now these poor folks are not to be blamed--they have
+no funds to enable them to build mills; but that they are left to
+themselves in this inability is a reproach to the government under
+which they live. This inconvenience so intimately affects their
+social wellbeing, that we cannot put faith in the benevolence of the
+rulers who allow them to remain so destitute.
+
+Despite, however, of the disadvantages under which the people of
+Dalmatia labour, it will be seen that pictures chiefly pleasurable
+are to be met by him who shall travel amongst them. Their honest
+nature seems to comprise within itself some compensating principle,
+which makes amends for the damage of circumstances. The Morlacci,
+especially, seem to be a simple, hardy set, of whom one cannot
+read without pleasure. These are the rustic inhabitants of the
+agricultural districts, who eschew the great towns. They made their
+entry into the roll of the peasantry of Dalmatia at a comparatively
+late date. The first notice of them, we are told, is about the
+middle of the fourteenth century. After that time they began to
+retire with their families from Bosnia, as the Turks made advances
+into the country. They are of the same Slavonic family as the
+Croatians; though their hardy manner of life, and the purity of the
+air in which they have dwelt, on the mountains, have co-operated to
+confer on them superiority of personal appearance, and of physical
+condition. On a general estimate of the people of the land, and of
+their mode of receiving strangers, we are disposed to rank highly
+their claims to the title of hospitable and honest.
+
+Sir Gardner Wilkinson certainly travelled amongst them most
+effectually. North, south, east, and west, he intersected the
+country. One part of his travels possesses especial interest,
+because, so far as we know, no denizen of civilised Christendom has
+ever before been so completely over the ground. We refer to his
+expedition into, and through the territory of the Montenegrini.
+Others--some few only, but still some others--have been far enough
+to get a peep at these wild children of the mountains; and more than
+once of late years, Maga has given notices concerning them:[16]
+but only scanty knowledge of their domestic condition has been
+attainable. Sir Gardner went right through their country to the
+Turkish border, and tarried amongst them long enough to form pretty
+accurate notions of their state.
+
+  [16] See _Blackwood's Magazine_, for January 1845, and for October
+  1846.
+
+In the account of our author's first journey, no serious stop is
+made till we come alongside of the island of Veglia: apropos to
+the passage by which, we have given to us, at some length, an
+interesting extract from the report of a Venetian commissioner sent
+to the island, in 1481, to inquire into its state. Of this document
+we will say no more than that it is exceedingly curious, and will
+well reward the pains of reading. A passing notice is given to
+Segna, situated on the mainland, near Veglia, for the memory's sake
+of those desperate villains the Uscocs, to whom it belonged of old.
+A good deal of their history is given in the last chapter of the
+second volume, which serves as a documentary appendix to the work.
+Everything necessary to beget interest in the islands scattered
+hereaway is told; but we pass them by, and are brought to Zara. What
+of antiquities is here discoverable is rooted out for our benefit,
+but not much remains. The most interesting relic in the place, to
+our mind, is the inscription recording the victory of Lepanto. As
+Zara is the capital of Dalmatia, occasion is taken, while speaking
+of the city, to give some account of the government of the province,
+and of the general condition of the people.
+
+An incident mentioned by Sir Gardner displays, in a painful
+light, the kind of feeling entertained by the Austrian government
+towards these its subjects, and permitted by its officials to
+find expression before the natives. We cannot take it as a case
+of isolated insolence: because men in responsible situations,
+especially where the social system comprises an indefinite supply
+of spies, do not ostentatiously commit themselves, unless they
+have a foregone conviction, that what they say is according to
+the authorised tone. Men under inspection of the higher powers
+do not put themselves out of their way to make a display of
+bitterness, unless they think thereby to conciliate the good-will
+of their superiors. This is the incident in question: On a certain
+occasion, the conversation happened to turn on the subject of a
+then recent disturbance in a Dalmatian town. The soldiery and the
+people had quarrelled, and in the _émeute_ two of the soldiers
+had been killed. On these data forth spake a Jack in office. He
+knew not, nor did he care to know, how many of the peasants had
+fallen, nor does he appear to have entered at all curiously into
+the question of the _casus belli_. He simply recommended, as the
+disturbance had taken place, and as the actual perpetrators of
+the violence were not forthcoming, that the whole population of
+the town should be "decimated and shot." "The butchery of any
+number of Dalmatians," says our author, "was thought a fit way of
+remedying the incapacity of the police." One would hardly imagine
+that this counsel could have been met by the applauses of persons
+holding official situations; but so, we are assured, it was in fact
+received. This manifestation of feeling is a sort of thing which,
+when emanating from a group of merely private individuals, may be
+disregarded. Idle people will talk, and their hard words will break
+no bones. But the hard words of the ministers of government do
+break bones; and such words must be accepted as serious indications
+of subsistent evil. Such receipts for keeping people in peace and
+quietness are consistent enough with the genius of their neighbours
+the Turks. Retrenchment of heads, and of causes of complaint, are to
+their apprehension one and the same thing--πολλων ὀνομάτων, μο�φὴ
+μία. We know this, and expect it. It is not so very long ago since
+the Capitan Pasha gave the word to heave the officer of the watch
+overboard, because his ship missed stays in going about in the
+Black Sea. But the Austrians are civilised and Christian; we expect
+better things of them, and can but mourn over their misapprehension
+of the true principles of polity. The Englishman who stood by
+rebuked the promoters of these atrocious sentiments, and for this
+act of championship he was subsequently thanked by the Dalmatians
+who were present. They could not have ventured to undertake their
+own defence, but must have listened in silence to this outrageous
+language. Our author doubts not that this exhibition of simple
+humanity on his part, had the effect of causing him to be forthwith
+placed under the surveillance of the police; and that such a
+consequence should be so very likely to follow the honest expression
+of a common-sense opinion in society is a fact that shows clearly
+enough how _unsound_ that state of things must be. Assuredly one
+of the best effects of intercourse with civilised nations is,
+that we thereby become enabled to institute a comparison between
+their social condition and our own. Even those unhappy Chartists,
+who lately have acquired the habit of addressing one another as
+"brother slaves," would learn to value British freedom, if they knew
+something of the social condition of their European brethren: they
+would see some difference between the security of their own hours of
+relaxation, and the degree in which a man's freedom in Austria is
+invaded by the espionage of the police.
+
+From Zara the course of the narrative takes us to Sebenico, a town
+situated on the inner side of the lake or bay into which the waters
+of the Kerka debouch. It is one of the coaling stations of the
+steamer; and, when the time of arrival will allow such concession,
+the passengers are permitted to take a trip in a four-oared boat,
+to visit the falls of the Kerka. Here the costume of the women
+is noticed as being singularly graceful. In coasting along from
+Sebenico to Spalato, the headland of la Planca is remarkable. Near
+it is a little church which is famous in local chronicle for having
+once upon a time served as a trap, wherein an ass caught a wolf. How
+this marvellous feat was accomplished, we will not just now stop
+to tell, but must refer the curious to the book itself. This point
+is also remarkable, because here begins abruptly a change in the
+climate. Some plants unknown to the northward begin to appear; and
+henceforward, to one proceeding southward, the dreaded Scirocco will
+be a more frequent infliction. To the southward of la Planca, this
+objectionable wind is constantly blowing; and at Spalato, we are
+told, it assumes for its allowance 100 days out of the 365. Apropos
+to the Scirocco, we have an episode on _anemology_, and are taught
+how the old Greeks and Romans used to box the compass--at least
+how they would have done so, had they had compasses to box. In the
+distance, to the south of the promontory of la Planca, is the island
+of Lissa, famous in modern history for Sir William Hoste's action
+in 1811. "Such an action," says James, "stands unrivalled in the
+annals of the naval history of Great Britain, or that of any other
+country, from the great disproportion in numerical force, as well
+as the beauty and address of its manœuvres; it stands surpassed
+by none in the spirit and enterprise with which it was encountered,
+and carried through to a successful issue." There is not much risk
+in making this assertion, when we consider that on that occasion
+the French squadron consisted of four forty-gun frigates, two of
+a smaller class, a sixteen-gun corvette, a ten-gun schooner, one
+six-gun xebec, and two gunboats; and that the English squadron was
+of three frigates, and one twenty-two gunship. Lissa was also famous
+in the time of the Romans, being then called Issa. We have a notice
+of its history, and then pass on to Bua, and so to Spalato.
+
+Concerning Spalato details are given, as might be expected, at
+some length. Much is told us of its past and present condition;
+in fact, there is presented to us a very sufficient assemblage of
+_indicia_ concerning it. We recommend any one who wishes to enjoy
+a visit to Spalato to take with him this book, and chapter 13th of
+Gibbon. The extract from Porphyrogenitus, given by Gibbon, tells us
+what the palace of Diocletian was; and Sir Gardner Wilkinson tells
+us what it is now, and what has been its history. Besides verbal
+description, his pencil affords some apt illustrations of the actual
+condition of the buildings. We see by these, and by his account,
+that the treasures of Spalatine architecture have been obscured by
+the building up of modern edifices on their sites. "The stranger,"
+he says, "is shocked to see windows of houses through the arches of
+the court, intercolumniations filled up with petty shops, and the
+peristyle of the great temple masked by modern houses." Doubtless,
+many a precious relic has been appropriated by modern barbarians to
+common uses, and so perished out of sight. But with joy we learn
+that the government has taken measures to prevent the continuance of
+such destruction, and that the remaining monuments are safe, however
+they may be mixed up with the houses and shops of the present
+generation. We are told that, under the care of the present director
+of antiquarian researches, there is good reason to hope that the
+collection at Spalato may become truly valuable. The high character
+of Professor Carrara is a sure warrant that all will be done which
+is within scope of the means afforded. But as the government
+allowance for excavations at Salona is only £80 yearly, we cannot
+think that the work is likely to proceed rapidly. While we condemn
+as barbarous this carelessness on the part of the Austrians, we must
+bear in mind that we are open to a retort of the censure. We neglect
+altogether the remains of Samos in Cephalonia, and nothing at all
+is allowed for the expense of operations there; yet these remains
+are very extensive, and there is every reason to believe that their
+actual condition would amply repay a diligent search.
+
+We must stop here a moment to congratulate Sir Gardner, on his
+rencontre with the sphinx.
+
+    "A captive when he gazes on the light,
+     A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,"
+
+and so forth, are the only people who may venture to talk of Sir
+Gardner's delight at the sight of a sphinx, or a mummy. With great
+gusto he gives the description of the black granite sphinx, in the
+court of the palace, near the vestibule; and in the drawing which he
+has made of the same court, the sphinx is conspicuous.
+
+From Spalato to Salona, is a distance of some three miles and a
+half, by a good carriage-road. This road crosses the Jader, or Il
+Giadro--a stream so famous for its trout, that it has been thought
+necessary seriously to prove that it was _not_ for the sake of
+these--not in order that of them he might eat his _soûl_ in peace
+and quietness--that Diocletian retired from the command of the world.
+
+Salona is rich in antiquarian remains, though nothing is extant
+to redeem from improbability the testimony of Porphyrogenitus,
+that Salona was half the size of Constantinople. Of its origin no
+record exists, nor is much known of its history till the time of
+Julius Cæsar. Subsequently to that era it was subject to various
+fortunes, and bore various titles. At last, in Christian times it
+became a Bishop's see, and was occupied by 61 bishops in succession.
+Diocletian was its great embellisher and almost rebuilder. Later
+in the day, we find that it was from Salona that Belisarius set
+out in 544, when recalled to the command of the army of Justinian,
+and intrusted with the conduct of the war against Totila. The town
+remained populous and fortified, till destroyed by the Avars in 639.
+These ferocious barbarians having established themselves in Clissa,
+the terror of their propinquity scared away the Salonitans. The
+terrified inhabitants, after a short and ineffectual resistance,
+fled to the islands. The town was pillaged and burnt, and from that
+time Salona has been deserted and in ruins.
+
+     "With these historical facts before us, it is interesting to
+     observe the present state of the place, which affords many
+     illustrations of past events. The positions of its defences,
+     repaired at various times, may be traced: an inscription lately
+     discovered by Professor Carrara, shows that its walls and towers
+     were repaired by Valentinian II., and Theodosius; and the ditch
+     of Constantianus is distinctly seen on the north side. Here and
+     there, it has been filled up with earth and cultivated; but its
+     position cannot be mistaken, and in places its original breadth
+     may be ascertained. A very small portion of the wall remains
+     on the east side, and nearly all traces of it are lost towards
+     the river: but the northern portion is well preserved, and the
+     triangular front, or salient angle of many of its towers, may be
+     traced.
+
+     "In the western part of the town are the theatre, and what is
+     called the amphitheatre. Of the former, some portion of the
+     proscenium remains, as well as the solid tiers of arches, built
+     of square stone, with bevelled edges, about 6-1/4 feet diameter,
+     and 10 feet apart."
+
+We have a good description of the annual fair of Salona. The
+description will be suggestive of picturesque recollections to
+those who have seen the open air festivities celebrated by the
+orthodox--_i. e._ by the children of the Greek Church, about Easter
+time. We can take it upon ourselves to recommend highly the lambs,
+wont to be roasted whole on these occasions. The culinary apparatus
+is rude--consisting merely of a few sticks for a fire, and another
+stick to be used as a spit--but the result of their operations is
+most satisfactory.
+
+     "All Spalato is of course at the fair; and the road to Salona
+     is thronged with carriages of every description, horsemen,
+     and pedestrians. The mixture of the men's hats, red caps, and
+     turbans, and the bonnets and Frank dresses of the Spalatine
+     ladies, contrasted with the costume of the country women,
+     presents one of the most singular sights to be soon in Europe,
+     and to a stranger the language adds in no small degree to the
+     novelty. Some business is done as well as pleasure; and a great
+     number of cattle, sheep, and pigs are bought and sold--as well
+     as various stuffs, trinkets, and the usual goods exhibited at
+     fairs. Long before mid-day, the groups of peasants have thronged
+     the road, not to say street, of Salona; some attend the small
+     church, picturesquely placed upon a green, surrounded by the
+     small streams of the Giadro, and shaded with trees; while others
+     rove about, seeking their friends, looking at, and looked at by
+     strangers, as they pass; and all are intent on the amusements of
+     the day, and the prospect of a feast.
+
+     "Eating and drinking soon begin. On all sides sheep are seen
+     roasting whole on wooden spits, in the open air; and an entire
+     flock is speedily converted into mutton. Small knots of hungry
+     friends are formed in every direction: some seated on a bank
+     beneath the trees, others in as many houses as will hold them;
+     some on grass by the road-side, regardless of sun and dust--and
+     a few quiet families have boats prepared for their reception.
+
+     "In the mean time, the hat-wearing townspeople from Spalato
+     and other places, as they pace up and down, bowing to an
+     occasional acquaintance, view with complacent pity the
+     primitive recreations of the simple peasantry; and arm-in-arm,
+     civilisation, with its propriety and affectation, is here
+     strangely contrasted with the hearty laugh of the unrefined
+     Morlacchi."
+
+We do not know the country where men will meet together and eat
+without drinking also: at the al-fresco entertainments of this
+kind which we have seen, the kegs of wine have ever been in goodly
+proportion to the spitted lambs. And wherever a mob of men set to
+drinking together, they will most assuredly take to fighting. The
+rows at this fair used to be considerable; and, considering that
+more wine is said to be consumed here on this one day than during
+the whole of the rest of the year, we cannot be surprised that
+fights should come off worthy of Donnybrook. At present, better
+order is preserved than of old, because these rows have been so
+excessive that they have enforced the attendance of the police.
+
+At this fair is to be seen the picturesque _collo_ dance of the
+Morlacchi, of which our author affords a capital pencil-sketch, as
+well as the following description:--
+
+     "It sometimes begins before dinner, but is kept up with greater
+     spirit afterwards. They call it _collo_, from being, like most
+     of their national dances, in a circle. A man generally has
+     one partner, sometimes two, but always at his right side. In
+     dancing, he takes her right hand with his, while she supports
+     herself by holding his girdle with her left; and when he has two
+     partners, the one nearest him holds in her right hand that of
+     her companion, who, with her left, takes the right hand of the
+     man; and each set dances forward in a line round the circle. The
+     step is rude, as in most of the Slavonic dances, including the
+     polka and the _radovatschka_; and the music, which is primitive,
+     is confined to a three-stringed violin."
+
+Dancing for dancing's sake, is what enters into no Englishman's
+category of the enjoyable, nor into many an Englishwoman's either,
+we should think, after the passage out of her teens; but that it is,
+in sober earnest, an enjoyment to many people under the sun, there
+is no doubt. Surely there is something wonderful in the faculty of
+finding pleasure in the elephantine manœuvres of the _romaika_,
+or in the still more clumsy gyrations of a _palicari's_ performance.
+The _collo_ we readily believe to be a picturesque dance: but such
+qualification is not the general condition on which the people
+of a nation accept dances as national. Most of these exhibitions
+in Greece and Eastern Europe must be condemned as graceless and
+unmeaning: as an exhibition of earnest tomfoolery, they may be
+accepted as wonderful; and, at all events, may safely be pronounced
+co-excellent with the music that inspires them.
+
+In passing from Salona to Traü, a distance of about thirteen miles
+and a half to the westward, the traveller passes by several of the
+villages called Castelli. The name has been given them from the
+circumstance of their having been built near to, and under the
+protection of, the castles which, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries, were constructed here by some of the nobles.
+
+     "The land was granted to them by the Venetians, on condition
+     of their erecting places of refuge for the peasants during the
+     wars with the Turks. A body of armed men lived within them, and,
+     on the approach of danger, the flocks and herds were protected
+     beneath the walls; and, at harvest time, the peasantry had a
+     place of security for their crops within range of the castle
+     guns."
+
+The rights of lordship over the villages, which used to be exercised
+by the nobles in virtue of the protection afforded, have nearly
+all fallen into disuse. The only relic of feudalism that seems to
+survive is found at Castel Cambio, over which two nobles still
+possess certain rights. One of these was the hospitable host of Sir
+Gardner, and his friend Professor Carrara, on their passage to and
+from Traü.
+
+A fact connected with the peculiarity of the position of this town
+is, we think, well worthy of notice, and deservedly recorded by our
+author. The town stands partly on a peninsula, and partly on the
+island of Bua. A fosse, cut across the narrow neck of the peninsula,
+has completed its isolation. This ditch has proved, on occasion, the
+most effectual of fortifications to the Traürines. They were, in
+1241, besieged by the Tartars in pursuit of King Bela IV., who had
+fled hither before them. These impetuous assailants were unable to
+pass the ditch; and, having waited on the other side till food and
+forage were exhausted, they were obliged to retire. One cannot read
+this story without thinking of the account that Sir Francis Head
+gives of the La Plata Indians, whose habits of warfare are in many
+respects so exactly akin to those of the Tartars. These terrific
+horsemen would be scarcely resistible by their less robust enemies,
+save for their inability to cross anything in the shape of a ditch.
+Out of the saddle they can do nothing, and their horses will not
+leap; so that, if you wish to be safe from their inroads, you have
+but to surround your dwellings with a moderate trench. And very
+striking is the story that Sir Francis Head tells of the handful
+of men who, under such protection, held out successfully against a
+host of Indians. Traü, however, has been elaborately fortified in
+European fashion, though now the works are neglected, as being a
+useless precaution against dangers no longer existent. It has also a
+fine old cathedral, and some pictures of pretension.
+
+After a brief notice of the islands of Brazza and Solta--a notice,
+however, sufficient for all useful purposes--we pass on to the
+picturesque neighbourhood of the falls of the Kerka. Sir Gardner
+speaks of the delay to which the passage by boat from Sebenico to
+Scardona is subject, but does not exactly complain of it. In fact,
+we can easily understand that, for the sake of the passenger, it
+is expedient that some authoritative note should be taken of his
+departure under charge of the particular boatmen who undertake his
+convoy. We never did ascend to Kerka, but from what we have seen
+of the class of men under whose guidance the expedition has to be
+performed, we are disposed to vote the caution of the police to be
+anything but superfluous. Every now and then one hears dreadful
+stories of the atrocities of boatmen in convenient parts of the
+Mediterranean; and there is good reason to be thankful that the
+Austrians think it worth while to be so careful of strangers.
+
+The people about Sebenico, through whose lands the course of
+the lake leads, are spoken of as not paying much attention to
+agriculture or to their fisheries; but it seems that they are
+sedulously bent on raising grapes, and neglect no patch of ground at
+all likely to be available for this purpose. The lake of Scardona
+is considerably larger than that of Sebenico. On the shore here
+the Romans had a settlement, of which scarcely any remains are
+perceptible. They are, however, remarkable as affording a manifest
+proof of the rise of the level of the lake, for some of them are
+under water.
+
+Scardona, we are told, does not occupy the site of the old Scardon,
+which was a place of considerable importance under the empire. Some
+have even imagined that the old city stood on the opposite bank of
+the river. The town at present is small, but well furnished for the
+convenience of strangers. It boasts an inn, at which Sir Gardner put
+up for one night. He then proceeded to the falls, which are distant
+from the inn a three-quarters-of-an-hour journey. As he intended
+to ascend the river above the falls, he had to send to the monks
+of Vissovaz to ask for a boat, and they readily complied with his
+request. The falls do not seem to have been full on the occasion
+of this visit--but, when full, the effect must be striking. They
+are divided into two parts, and their picturesque effect is greatly
+enhanced by the surrounding scenery.
+
+At a distance of a few minutes' walk up the river, above the falls,
+the boat was waiting to transport Sir Gardner to the convent of
+Vissovaz. It is to this fraternity that we have before alluded, as
+being the sole mill-owners on the Kerka. Their convent must indeed
+be beautifully situated, and we can quite enter into the eulogium
+bestowed on it. The fathers are of the Franciscan order. The name
+of Vissovaz is of curious allusion; and as probably few of our
+courteous readers will be the worse for a little help in the matter
+of Slavonian etymology, we may as well tell them that its import
+is "the place of hanging." Not a very complimentary or well-omened
+name, certainly, we would think at first sight; but we see that it
+is so when we learn that the allusion is to the martyrdom of two
+priests, who were hanged here by the Turkish governor of Scardona.
+By the record left of the event, we cannot see that the death of
+these unfortunate victims was in any sense martyrdom: they were
+cruelly and unjustly put to death, but for a cause entirely worldly.
+However, they were Christians, and their murderers were Turks; and
+this has been enough to constitute a claim to canonisation in more
+places than at Vissovaz.
+
+Sir Gardner arrived at the picturesque, red-tiled convent in time
+for dinner; but as the day happened to be a fast, the fare provided
+was not sufficiently tempting to induce a wish to stay. He therefore
+was preparing, with many thanks, to take his leave of the good
+fathers, and proceed on his journey, when he found himself brought
+up by an unexpected difficulty. He was informed that he could not
+proceed except by favour of the monks of the Greek convent of St
+Archangelo, another religious house still farther up the stream.
+His hospitable entertainers readily volunteered to send in quest of
+the requisite assistance. These are the conditions of travelling,
+because there are no carriages for hire hereaway, nor any boats
+to let. The Franciscans had volunteered to do what, when it came
+to the point, was found to be rather an awkward thing. No great
+cordiality subsists generally between the Latins and the orthodox.
+Each charges the other with destructive heresy; and doubtless both
+of these great branches of the church esteem a Protestant safe,
+by comparison with the arch-heretics that they each see the other
+to be. Thus, though dwelling on the confines of Christendom, and
+in a solitude that might have rendered them neighbourly, we find
+that very little intercourse takes place between the two religious
+establishments. Accordingly, the writing of the letter was found to
+be no easy affair; and their guest saw them lay their heads together
+in consultation, after a fashion that boded ill for the prospects
+of his journey. They confessed themselves to be in a fix; and were
+afraid of exposing themselves to some affront if, contrary to their
+wont, they should open a communication with the Greeks, asking of
+them a favour.
+
+     "'Did you ever go as far as the convent?' said an old father
+     to a more restless and locomotive Franciscan, and a negative
+     answer seemed to put an end to the incipient letter; when one of
+     the party suggested that those Greeks had shown themselves very
+     civil on some occasion, and the writer of the epistle once more
+     resumed his spectacles and his pen. 'They are,' he observed,
+     'after all, like ourselves, and must be glad to see a stranger
+     who comes from afar; and besides, our letter may have the effect
+     of commencing a friendly intercourse with them, which we may
+     have no reason to regret.'"
+
+This very sensible hint of the Franciscan philosopher was happily
+acted out. The letter was sent, and in due course of time--_i.
+e._ in time for a start next morning--an answer arrived from the
+Archimandrite. It was to welcome the stranger to their hospitality,
+and to inform him that a boat awaited him at the falls. As the
+issue on the first intention was so favourable, let us hope that
+the other good results anticipated from the sending of the letter
+will have been by this time realised. At all events, Sir Gardner may
+congratulate himself on having afforded occasion for the opening of
+personal as well as epistolary communication between the convents,
+as one of the Franciscans accompanied him in the expedition to St
+Archangelo.
+
+Much praise is bestowed on the beauty of the Kerka, and the view
+of the Falls of Roncislap is especially distinguished. Sir Gardner
+praises it in artistic language; and we may be allowed to regret
+that he has not added a sketch of this scene to the views with
+which his book is embellished. The waters of the Kerka possess a
+petrifying quality that is common in Dalmatia. Much of the rock has
+been formed under the water, and must present a singular appearance.
+
+Near the Falls of Roncislap a depôt for coal has been established,
+that, by all accounts, would seem to be anything but a good
+speculation. We mention it merely for the sake of a good story that
+hangs by it. It seems that the Austrian Lloyds' Company patronise
+this coal because it is cheap. It is one reason, certainly, for
+buying it; but, as the coal will not burn, we may doubt their
+wisdom. We do not wish to spoil the market of the Company of Dernis,
+but we agree with Sir Gardner, that there are reasonable objections
+to the using of food for the furnaces that will get up no steam,
+and must be taken on board in such quantities, as to lumber up the
+decks. Besides this, hear how it goes on when it does burn:--
+
+     "It has also the effect of causing much smoke, and the large
+     flakes of soot that fall from the chimney upon the awning
+     actually burn holes in it, till it looks like a sail riddled
+     with grape-shot; and I remember one day seeing the awning on
+     fire from one of these showers of soot; when the captain calmly
+     ordered it to be put out, as if it had been a common occurrence."
+
+"A Russian consul,"--this is the story:--
+
+     "A Russian consul, who happened to be on board, and who was not
+     much accustomed to the smoky doings of steamers, seemed to be
+     deeply impressed with the inconvenience of the falling flakes
+     of soot. His voice had rarely been heard during the voyage, and
+     he appeared to shun communication with his fellow-passengers;
+     when one afternoon, the awning not being up, he burst forth
+     with these startling remarks, uttered with a broad Slavonian
+     accent,--'_Que ces baateaux à vapeur sont sales! Par suite de
+     maaladie, il y a dix ans que je ne me zuis paas lavré, mais
+     maintenant j'ai zenti le bezoin de me lavver, et je me zuis
+     lavvé!!_'"
+
+This must have been a Russian of the old school.
+
+Arrived at the convent of St Archangelo, they had every reason to
+be content with their hospitable reception. The Archimandrite is
+praised as being gentlemanlike, and of mien as though educated in
+a European capital. This is a very unusual characteristic of any
+Greek ecclesiastic, and what we could predicate of but one or two
+out of the numbers that we have seen. Greek priests of any kind
+are bad enough, but those living in convents seem generally to go
+on the principle of the Russian consul just mentioned, and might
+fitly be invited to associate with him. All honour, then, to Stefano
+Knezovich, and may his example be abundantly followed among his
+brethren!
+
+There was not much in the Greek convent to induce a long visit; so
+the next morning Sir Gardner pushed on to Kistagne, in his progress
+through the country. Here he was again the victim of letter-writing,
+but in a different way. The sirdar of Kistagne took offence at the
+tone of the letter sent to him by the Archimandrite, ordering horses
+for the next morning; and the luckless traveller was consequently
+left in the lurch. However, the monk did his best to make up for
+the deficiency. He lent him his own horse, and had his baggage
+conveyed by some peasants--an excellent arrangement, saving that
+the porters were _female_ peasants. This is a sort of thing that
+sadly shocks our sense of decorum, but which many folks besides
+the Dalmatians take as a matter of course. Sir Gardner says that
+the custom of assigning the heavy burden to the women is prevalent
+among the Montenegrini; it is so also among the Albanians; and to a
+most atrocious extent in the Peloponnesus. In this particular case,
+they were well off to get the job; it was to exchange their task of
+carrying heavy loads of water up the hill for that of shouldering
+his light _impedimenta_.
+
+Arrived at Kistagne, he found the sirdar, who had been so
+disobliging at a distance, much improved on acquaintance, and from
+him he received all requisite assistance for the prosecution of his
+journey to Knin; and by him was guided in his visit to the Roman
+arches, which point out the site of the ancient city of Burnum.
+
+Knin is still a place of considerable strength, and has been once
+upon a time still stronger. It is identified with the ancient
+Arduba. The marshy character of the ground in its immediate
+neighbourhood renders it an unhealthy place of abode; but this evil
+is easily removable by a moderate attention to drainage. Not very
+far from Knin, but over the Turkish border, on the other side of
+Mount Gniath, is supposed to be situated the gold mine that of old
+conferred on Dalmatia the title of auriferous. The mine is said to
+exist here; but so much mystery is observed on its subject by the
+Turks that nothing certain can be affirmed of it. From Verlicca,
+to Sign we pass as quickly as may be, merely noticing that there
+is another convent to be visited _en route_, and that we have the
+opportunity of putting up at the Han, as Sir Gardner did. These
+people certainly have admitted a great many Turkish words into their
+vocabulary: we have _Sirdar_, and _Han_, and _Arambasha_--to say
+nothing of others. At last we come to _Sign_; and, touching this
+place, we must give an extract from the book. An annual tilting
+festival has been established here, in commemoration of the brave
+defence maintained in 1715, against the Pasha of Bosnia with forty
+thousand men.
+
+     "The privilege of tilting is confined to natives of Sign, and
+     its territory. Every one is required to appear dressed in the
+     ancient costume, with the Tartar cap, called kalpak, surmounted
+     by a white heron's plume, or with flowers interlaced in it. He
+     is to wear a sword, to carry a lance, and to be mounted on a
+     good horse richly caparisoned."
+
+     "The opening of the _giostra_ is in this manner: The _footmen_,
+     richly dressed and armed, advance two by two before the
+     cavaliers. In the usual annual exhibitions each cavalier has
+     one _footman_; and on extraordinary occasions, besides the
+     footman, he has a _padrino_ well mounted and equipped. After the
+     _footmen_ come three persons in line--one carrying a shield,
+     and the other two by his side bearing a sort of ancient club;
+     then a fair _manège_ horse, led by the hand, with large housings
+     and complete trappings, richly ornamented, followed by two
+     cavaliers--one the adjutant, the other the ensign-bearer. Next
+     comes the _Maestro-di-Campo_, accompanied by the two _jousters_,
+     and followed by all the others, marching two and two. The
+     rear of the procession is brought up by the _Chiauss_, who
+     rides alone, and whose duty it is to maintain order during the
+     ceremony."
+
+We have a description of a fair at Sign that is almost as suggestive
+of the picturesque as was the account of similar doings at Salona.
+Sir Gardner shall give his own account of his departure from the
+town.
+
+     "In the midst of the bustle and business going on at Sign,
+     I found some difficulty in getting horses to take me on to
+     Spalato; but a letter to the Sirdar removed every impediment,
+     and, after a few hours' delay, the animals being brought out,
+     I prepared to start from the not very splendid inn.' 'Can you
+     ride in that?' asked the ostler, pointing to a huge Turkish
+     saddle that nearly concealed the whole animal, with stirrups
+     that might pass for a pair of coal scuttles; and finding that I
+     was accustomed to the use as well as sight of that un-European
+     horse-furniture, he seemed well satisfied--observing, at the
+     same time, that it was fortunate, as there was no other to
+     be had.... I was glad to take what I could get, and my only
+     question in return was, whether the horse could trot; which
+     being settled, I posted off, leaving my guide and baggage to
+     come after me--for, thanks to the Austrian police, there is
+     no fear of robbers appropriating a portmanteau in Dalmatia:
+     the interesting days of adventure and the Haiduk banditti have
+     passed, and the Morlacchi have ceased to covet, or at least to
+     take other men's goods."
+
+And now we make a resolute halt, and determine to pass _sub
+silentio_ all that intervenes between this part of the book and the
+coming into the country of the Montenegrini. Unless we act thus
+discreetly, we shall never contrive to compress all we have to say
+into due limits; and even now we hardly know how this desirable
+result is to be effected. What we thus leave as fallow-ground
+for the reader will yield to his research a history of the coast
+and islands between Spalato and Cattaro. The notice of Ragusa
+is especially and deservedly full, and presents an admirable
+condensation of Ragusan history.
+
+But it is high time for us to get amongst the children of the Black
+Mountain. Among things excellent it is permitted to institute
+comparison without disparagement to any of them: and, in virtue of
+this license, we are free to say that this part of Sir Gardner's
+book shines forth as _inter minora sidera_. The subject itself is
+of deep intrinsic interest; and he has treated it as we well knew
+that he would. A picture is given of the actual condition of a scion
+of the Christian stock that must astonish those who, by this book,
+first learn to think of the Montenegrini; and must delight those
+who, having heard somewhat of them, or haply even paid them a flying
+visit, have looked in vain for some accurate statement of detail to
+help out their personal observations.
+
+The Montenegrini are descended from the old Servian stock, and still
+look to modern Servia with affection, as to their mother country.
+Thither also we find them, by Sir Gardner's account, retiring,
+when forced by poverty to emigrate from their own territory. Among
+them the Slavonian language is preserved in unusual purity. The
+present population is about 100,000; and the number of fighting men
+amounts to 20,000--a number which, on occasion of need, would be
+greatly augmented by the calling out of the veterans. In fact every
+individual man of the nation, whose arm has power to wield a weapon,
+is a warrior; and the very women are ready to assist in defence. On
+the Turkish border, as is well known, a constant system of bloody
+reprisals is going on; and the endeavours of the Vladika to reduce
+their hostilities to civilised fashion have hitherto failed of
+success. They are sustained at the highest pitch of confident daring
+by the successful war which they have so long been able to carry on
+against their powerful neighbours. One is glad of the opportunity
+of giving, on the authority of Sir Gardner, some of the stories
+of their prowess; for to retail, without the authority of some
+such _padrino_, the tales current in Cattaro, would be to win the
+reputation of talking like Mendez Pinto.
+
+In judging the Montenegrini, we should give charitable consideration
+to their circumstances. War is a system of violence; and with them,
+unhappily, war is a permanent condition of existence. The treachery
+and cruelty of the Turks--are these such recent developments that we
+need make any doubt of them?--have worked out cruel consequences in
+the character of the Montenegrini. They believe a Turk to be utterly
+without honesty and good faith--one with whom it is impossible to
+hold terms--and such, probably, is about the right estimate of some
+of their Turkish neighbours. Who, for instance, that knows anything
+about them, has any other opinion of the Albanians? Are Kaffirs much
+more hopeless subjects? The Montenegrini are far from the commission
+of the horrid cruelties that are of everyday occurrence among the
+Albanians. Their imperfect appreciation of Christianity allows them
+to behold in revenge a virtue; and hence the acts of violence which
+are quoted to their dispraise. Their marauding expeditions are but
+according to the usages of war; and if they sometimes break through
+the restrictions of a truce, it would seem to be because they really
+do not understand what a truce is. We think that a very apt apology
+for the Montenegrini is found in the speech of a German traveller
+quoted by Sir Gardner. He had been mentioning several occurrences of
+English and Scotch history, and spoke in allusion to them.
+
+     "'What think you,' he observed, 'of the state of society in
+     those times? Were the border forays of the English and Scotch
+     more excusable than those of the Montenegrins? And how much more
+     natural is the unforgiving hatred of the Montenegrins against
+     the Turks, the enemies of their country, and their faith, than
+     the relentless strife of Highland clans, with those of their own
+     race and religion! Has not many an old castle in other parts of
+     Europe, witnessed scenes as bad as any enacted by this people? I
+     do not wish to exculpate the Montenegrins; but theirs is still a
+     dark age, and some allowance must be made for their uncivilised
+     condition.'"
+
+The character of the present Vladika affords good hope that an
+improvement will take place among the people; for he evidently has
+devoted all his energies to their amelioration. Sir Gardner entered
+their territory, by what we believe to be the only route--that is to
+say from Cattaro--whence he took letters of introduction from the
+Austrian governor to the Vladika.
+
+We shall best illustrate the condition of the Montenegrini by
+quoting some of Sir Gardner's accounts.
+
+     "Four Montenegrins, and their sister, aged twenty-one, going
+     on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Basilio, were waylaid by
+     seven Turks, in a rocky defile, so narrow that they could only
+     thread it one by one; and hardly had they entered between the
+     precipices that bordered it on either side, when an unexpected
+     discharge of fire-arms killed one brother, and desperately
+     wounded another. To retrace their steps was impossible without
+     meeting certain and shameful death, since to turn their backs
+     would give their enemy the opportunity of destroying them at
+     pleasure.
+
+     "The two who were unhurt, therefore, advanced and returned the
+     fire, killing two Turks--while the wounded one, supporting
+     himself against a rock, fired also, and mortally injured two
+     others, but was killed himself in the act. His sister, taking
+     his gun, loaded and fired simultaneously with her two brothers,
+     but, at the same instant, one of them dropped down dead. The
+     two surviving Turks then rushed furiously at the only remaining
+     Montenegrin--who, however, laid open the skull of one of them
+     with his yatagan, before receiving his own death-blow. The
+     hapless sister, who had all this time kept up a constant fire,
+     stood for an instant irresolute; when suddenly assuming an air
+     of terror and supplication, she entreated for mercy; but the
+     Turk, enraged at the death of his companions, was brutal enough
+     to take advantage of the unhappy girl's agony, and only promised
+     her life at the price of her honour. Hesitating at first, she
+     pretended to listen to the villain's proposal; but no sooner did
+     she see him thrown off his guard, than she buried in his body
+     the knife she carried at her girdle. Although mortally wounded,
+     the Turk endeavoured to make the most of his failing strength,
+     and plucking the dagger from his side, staggered towards the
+     courageous girl,--who, driven to despair, threw herself on the
+     relentless foe, and with superhuman energy hurled him down the
+     neighbouring precipice, at the very moment when some shepherds,
+     attracted by the continued firing, arrived just too late for the
+     rescue."
+
+Fancy the tone that must be given to their lives by the constant
+necessity of being ready for encounters such as this. They never lay
+aside their arms; but in the field, or by the wayside, are armed and
+alert. One hand may be allowed to the implement of tillage, but the
+other must be reserved for the weapon of defence.
+
+On many occasions, Montenegrin courage has prevailed against odds
+far greater than in the above case--indeed such odds as, but for
+authentication of facts, would be incredible. In the year 1840,
+"seventy Montenegrins, in the open field, withstood the attack of
+several thousand Turks; and having made breastworks with the bodies
+of their fallen foes, maintained the unequal conflict till night;
+when forty who survived forced their way through the hostile army,
+and escaped with their lives." Another astonishing achievement
+was the successful defence of a house held by seven-and-twenty
+Montenegrins, against a body of about six thousand Albanians. Of
+this last action, trophies are preserved by the Vladika in his
+palace at Tzetinié, and there Sir Gardner saw them.
+
+We cannot wonder that the effect on their minds of these astonishing
+successes, should be an unbounded confidence in their superiority
+over the Turks. Sir Gardner Wilkinson found them impressed with the
+idea, that bread and arms were the only needful requisites to enable
+them to drive the Turks out of Albania and Herzegovina. It seems
+certain that, in their rencontres With these enemies, they dismiss
+all ordinary considerations of prudence. The spirit of their feeling
+with regard to the Turks is thus portrayed:--
+
+     "It is not the courage, but the cruelty of the Turks which
+     inspires him (the Montenegrin) with hatred; and the sufferings
+     inflicted upon his country by their inroads makes him look upon
+     them with feelings of ferocious vengeance.
+
+     "These savage sentiments are kept alive by the barbarous custom,
+     adopted by both parties, of cutting off the heads of the wounded
+     and the dead; the consequences of which are destructive of all
+     the conditions of fair warfare, and preclude the possibility
+     of peace. The bitter remembrance of the past is constantly
+     revived by the horrors of the present; and the love of revenge,
+     which strongly marks the character of the Montenegrin, makes
+     him insensible to reason or justice, and places the Turks, in
+     his opinion, out of the pale of human beings. He dreams only of
+     vengeance; he cares little for the means employed, and the man
+     who should make any excuse for not persecuting those enemies of
+     his country and his faith, would be treated with ignominy and
+     contempt. Even the sanctity of a truce is not always sufficient
+     to restrain him; and the hatred of the Turk is paramount to all
+     ordinary considerations of honour or humanity."
+
+This cutting off of heads is not peculiar to the Montenegrins.
+The Turks are, in this respect, just as bad, and Sir Gardner
+found, on the occasion of his visit to Mostar, that, in point of
+this barbarism, there is not a pin to choose between them. The
+Turks, however, exceed in cruelty. It appears, on the evidence
+of the letter of the Vladika, given in the second volume, that
+they (the Turks) impale men alive; whereas the Montenegrins are
+chargeable with no wanton cruelty. Indeed, they do not restrict the
+performance of this operation to the case of enemies; but, as an
+act of friendship, decapitate any comrade who may so be wounded in
+action as to have no other means of avoiding capture by the enemy.
+"You are very brave," said a well-meaning Montenegrin to a portly
+Russian officer, who was unable to keep up with his detachment in
+its retreat,--"you are very brave, _and must wish that I should cut
+off your head_: say a prayer, and make the sign of the cross."
+
+Life, passed amidst every hardship, and threatened by constant
+and deadly peril, ought, we suppose, according to all rule, to be
+short in duration. But we find that these people are remarkable for
+longevity. A family is mentioned, in one of the villages, which
+reckoned six generations, there and then extant. The head of the
+family was a great-great-great-grandfather.
+
+The Vladika received his visitor most courteously, as he always
+does those who have the privilege of being presented to him. He
+afforded to Sir Gardner every facility for seeing the country, and
+engaged his secretary to draw up for him a _précis_ of Montenegrin
+history. We will condense some of its more important facts. The
+supremacy in things spiritual and temporal has not been very long
+vested, as it at present is, in the person of the Vladika. The two
+chieftain-ships were of old distinct, and the figment of a separate
+temporal authority was continued till comparatively lately: the
+year 1832 is mentioned as the epoch at which the office of civil
+chief was definitely suppressed. The present family (Petrovich)
+have possessed the dignity of the Vladikate since the close of the
+seventeenth century. The reigning Vladika--this man of magnificent
+presentment--this brave, intellectual, and athletic ruler of an
+indomitable race--is nephew of the late Vladika, who has been
+canonised, although but few years have passed since his death.
+The prince-bishop is not theoretically absolute in power, as the
+form of a republic is kept up: the general assembly has the right
+of deliberation, under the presidency of the Vladika. But this
+restriction of power is pretty nearly nominal only: we give Sir
+Gardner's account of the native Diet.
+
+     "In a semicircular recess, formed by the rocks on one side of
+     the plain of Tzetinié, and about half a mile to the southward
+     of the town, is a level piece of grass land, with a thicket of
+     low poplar trees. Here the diet is held, from which the spot
+     has received the name of _mali sbor_ (the small assembly.)
+     When any matter is to be discussed, the people meet in this
+     their Runimede, or 'meadow of council,' and partly on the level
+     space, partly on the rocks, receive from the Vladika notice of
+     the question proposed. The duration of the discussion is limited
+     to a certain time, at the expiration of which the assembly is
+     expected to come to a decision; and when the monastery bell
+     orders silence, notwithstanding the most animated discussion, it
+     is instantly restored. The Metropolitan asks again what is their
+     decision, and whether they agree to his proposal or not. The
+     answer is always the same: '_Budi po to oyema, Vladika_,'--'Let
+     it be as thou wishest, Vladika.'"
+
+Montenegro first secured its independence about a generation or
+two before the time of the famous Scanderbeg, on the breaking up
+of the kingdom of Servia. Since that time they have constantly
+been subject to the inroads of the Turks, who, claiming them as
+tributaries, have continued to invade their country every now and
+then with savage cruelty. More than once they have carried fire and
+sword to Tzetinié, but have never been able to hold their ground.
+The Montenegrins sought the protection of Russia in the time of
+Peter the Great, and still continue to be subsidised by Russia. At
+the desire of Peter, they invaded the Turkish territory, and were
+subjected to reprisals on a grand scale. At one time 60,000 Turks,
+at another 120,000, broke into Montenegro. The first invasion was
+gloriously repulsed; but the second, combining treachery with
+violence, was successful. Great damage was done to the country; but
+the invaders were at last obliged to quit, on the breaking out of
+war between Turkey and Venice. The Montenegrins then returned to
+their desolate homes, and have since been unintermitting in their
+diligence to pay off old scores. They co-operated with the Austrians
+and Russians, when they had the opportunity of such assistance; and
+when they stood alone, they did so nobly and bravely. The last great
+expedition of the Turks was in the time of the late Vladika. The
+Pasha of Scutari, with an enormous force, invaded the country; and
+the result of the expedition was that 30,000 Turks were killed, and
+among them the Pasha of Albania, whose head now serves as a trophy
+of victory to decorate Tzetinié.
+
+The capital of the Vladika, has been described before--for instance,
+in the pages of this Magazine; so, with one brief extract concerning
+it, we will follow Sir Gardner in his progress through the country.
+
+     "On a rock immediately above the convent is a round tower
+     pierced with embrasures, but without cannon, on which I
+     counted the heads of twenty Turks fixed upon stakes round
+     the parapet--the trophies of Montenegrin victory; and below,
+     scattered upon the rock, were the fragments of other skulls,
+     which had fallen to pieces by time,--a strange spectacle in a
+     Christian country, in Europe, and in the immediate vicinity of a
+     convent and a bishop's palace!"
+
+And, as we said before, when he got to Mostar, in Herzegovina, he
+found a spectacle of the same shocking kind. He did allow his horror
+at this sight to evaporate ineffectually; but in earnest tried to
+interpose his good offices to prevent a continuance of these doings.
+He talked to the two people mainly concerned--_i. e._ to the Vizir
+of Herzegovina, and to the Vladika. He also, at Constantinople,
+endeavoured to effect the making of an appeal to the highest Turkish
+authority. His correspondence with the Vladika on the subject is
+evidence of his zeal; but no positive good seems to have been the
+result of his intercession.
+
+The road leading from the capital to Ostrok is described as being
+very bad at first, and bad beyond description as it recedes from
+the capital. The Vladika kindly sent with Sir Gardner one of his
+guards and an interpreter. The party passed by several villages, and
+arrived at Mishke, the principal village of the Cevo district, where
+they put up for the night at the house of the principal senator of
+the province. Here some amusement was afforded by Sir Gardner's
+proceeding to sketch the domestic party.
+
+In the course of the evening a scene occurred, which sets forth
+their social condition as graphically as the artist's pencil has
+their personal appearance. A party of friends came in to have a
+quiet pipe, and to plan a foray over the border.
+
+     "On inquiry, I found the expedition was to take place
+     immediately. "Is there not," I asked, "a truce at this moment
+     between you and the Turks of Herzegovina?" They laughed, and
+     seemed much amused at my scruples. "We don't mind that," said a
+     stern swarthy man, taking his pipe from his mouth, and shaking
+     his head to and fro; "they are Turks"--and all agreed that the
+     Turks were fair game. "Besides," they said, "it is only to be a
+     plundering excursion;" and they evidently considered that any
+     one refusing to join in a marauding expedition into Turkey, at
+     any time, or in an open attack during a war, would be unworthy
+     the name of a brave man. They seemed to treat the matter like
+     boys in "the good old times," who robbed orchards; the courage
+     it showed being in proportion to the risk, and scruples of
+     conscience were laughed at as a want of spirit."
+
+In a freshly-decapitated head, affixed to a stake at Mostar, he
+shortly afterwards recognised the features of one of these very men.
+
+On the next day he proceeded to Ostrok, and found occasion to
+admire the scenery by the way, especially the vale of Oranido,
+distant from Mishke about four hours. From the vale of Oranido to
+Ostrok is a journey of about the same time. At Ostrok he underwent
+a grand reception, and fully won the hearts of his new friends by
+proposing a ride to the Turkish frontier, and affording them by the
+way an exhibition of Memlook riding. On the frontier is constantly
+maintained a guard of Montenegrins, to give timely warning of any
+suspicious movement among the Turks; and so well do they execute
+this office that no Turk can approach the border without being shot
+at. Near this border it was that, some little time ago, in 1843, an
+affair took place which does not tell well for the Montenegrini; and
+which seems for the present to preclude hope of amicable arrangement
+with the Turks. A deputation of twenty-two Turks, returning from
+Ostrok, were attacked by the people, and nine of them killed.
+This breach of faith is, to their minds, excused by the suspicion
+of meditated treachery on the part of the Turks. But it is a sad
+affair; and the only circumstance which goes in mitigation of its
+guilt is, that the Vladika took precautions against its occurrence.
+He sent an armed guard to protect the deputation, but their defence
+proved insufficient.
+
+The Archimandrite of Ostrok is the person who holds the place of
+second dignity in the government. He ranks next to the Vladika; and
+we are glad to find, by Sir Gardner's account, that he cordially
+co-operates with the Vladika in his plans of amelioration. Here also
+was met the celebrated priest and warrior, Ivan Knezovich, or Popé
+Yovan--a man who, in this nation of brave men, is renowned as the
+bravest. There are two convents at Ostrok, of which one fulfils also
+the function of powder magazine and store depot. Its position is
+very remarkable; and certainly it does bear a strong family likeness
+to Megaspelion. The same quality of not being within reach of any
+missile from above belongs to both of them, and has proved the
+saving of both.
+
+The return to Tzetinié was by a different route, which took Sir
+Gardner within near view of the northern end of the lake of Scutari.
+The island of Vranina, situated at this extremity of the lake, is
+likely to afford the next ostensible ground for an outbreak. It
+belonged to Montenegro, but, a few years ago, was treacherously
+seized by the Albanians, who effected a surprise in time of peace.
+Remonstrances and hard blows have equally failed to promote a
+restoration, _et adhuc sub judice lis est_. Throughout the course
+of his journey, Sir Gardner experienced much and genuine kindness
+from the rude people of the country; they brought him presents of
+such things as they had to offer, and would accept no compensation.
+When at last he bade them farewell, and returned to the haunts of
+civilisation, it was evidently with kindly recollections of them,
+and with the best of good-will towards them. He was able to give a
+satisfactory account of his impressions to the Vladika, who inquired
+thus,--"What do you think of the people? Do they appear to you the
+assassins and barbarians some people pretend to consider them? I
+hope you found them all well-behaved and civil--they are poor, but
+that does not prevent their being hospitable and generous."
+
+
+
+
+MODERN BIOGRAPHY.
+
+BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL.
+
+     _Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell._ Edited by WILLIAM
+     BEATTIE, M.D., one of his Executors. 3 vols. London: Moxon, 1849.
+
+
+The ancients, who lived beyond the reach of the fangs and feelers of
+the printing press, had, in one respect, a decided advantage over us
+unlucky moderns. They were not beset by the terrors of biography.
+No hideous suspicion that, after he was dead and gone--after the
+wine had been poured upon the hissing embers of the pyre, and the
+ashes consigned, by the hands of weeping friends, to the oblivion
+of the funereal urn--some industrious gossip of his acquaintance
+would incontinently sit down to the task of laborious compilation
+and collection of his literary scraps, ever crossed, like a sullen
+shadow, the imagination of the Greek or the Latin poet. Homer,
+though Arctinus was his near relative, could unbosom himself without
+the fear of having his frailties posthumously exposed, or his amours
+blazoned to the world. Lucius Varius and Plotius Tucca, the literary
+executors of Virgil, never dreamed of applying to Pollio for the I O
+Us which he doubtless held in the handwriting of the Mantuan bard,
+or to Horace for the confidential notes suggestive of Falernian
+inspiration. Socrates, indeed, has found a liberal reporter in
+Plato; but this is a pardonable exception. The son of Sophroniscus
+did not write; and therefore it was incumbent on his pupil to
+preserve for posterity the fragments of his oral wisdom. The ancient
+authors rested their reputation upon their published works alone.
+They knew, what we seem to forget, that the poet, apart from his
+genius, is but an ordinary man, and, in many cases, has received,
+along with that gift, a larger share of propensities and weaknesses
+than his fellow-mortals. Therefore it was that they insisted upon
+that right of domestic privacy which is common to us all. The poet,
+in his public capacity as an author, held himself responsible for
+what he wrote; but he had no idea of allowing the whole world to
+walk into his house, open his desk, read his love-letters, and
+criticise the state of his finances. Had Varius and Tucca acted on
+the modern system, the ghost of Virgil would have haunted them on
+their death-beds. Only think what a legacy might have been ours if
+these respectable gentlemen had written to Cremona for anecdotes of
+the poet while at school! No doubt, in some private nook of the old
+farm-house at Andes, there were treasured up, through the infinite
+love of the mother, tablets scratched over with verses, composed
+by young Master Maro at the precocious age of ten. We may, to a
+certainty, calculate--for maternal fondness always has been the
+same, and Virgil was an only child--that, in that emporium, themes
+upon such topics as "Virtus est sola nobilitas" were religiously
+treasured, along with other memorials of the dear, dear boy who
+had gone to college at Naples. Modern Varius would remorselessly
+have printed these: ancient Tucca was more discreet. Then what say
+you to the college career? Would it not be a nice thing to have
+all the squibs and feuds, the rows and rackettings of the jovial
+student preserved to us precisely as they were penned, projected,
+and perpetrated? Have we not lost a great deal in being defrauded of
+an account of the manner in which he singed the wig of his drunken
+old tutor, Parthenius Nicenus, or the scandalously late hours which
+he kept in company with his especial chums? Then comes the period,
+darkly hinted at by Donatus, during which he was, somehow or other,
+connected with the imperial stable; that is, we presume, upon the
+turf. What would we not give for a sight of Virgil's betting-book!
+Did he back the field, or did he take the odds on the Emperor's bay
+mare, Alma Venus Genetrix? How stood he with the legs? What sort of
+reputation did he maintain in the ring of the Roman Tattersall? Was
+he ever posted as a defaulter? Tucca! you should have told us this.
+Then, when sobered down, and in high favour with the court, where is
+the private correspondence between him and Mæcenas, the President
+of the Roman Agricultural Society, touching the compilation of
+the Georgics? The excellent Equestrian, we know, wanted Virgil to
+construct a poem, such as Thomas Tusser afterwards wrote, under the
+title of a "_Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie_," and, doubtless,
+waxed warm in his letters about draining, manure, and mangel-wurzel.
+What sacrifice would we not make to place that correspondence in the
+hands of Henry Stephens! How the author of the _Book of the Farm_
+would revel in his exposure of the crude theories of the Minister
+of the Interior! What a formidable phalanx of facts would he oppose
+to Mæcenas' misconceptions of guano! Through the sensitive delicacy
+of his executors, we have lost the record of Virgil's repeated
+larks with Horace: the pleasant little supper-parties celebrated at
+the villa of that dissipated rogue Tibullus, have passed from the
+memory of mankind. We know nothing of the state of his finances, for
+they have not thought fit to publish his banking-account with the
+firm of Lollius, Spuræna, and Company. Their duty, as they fondly
+believed, was fulfilled, when they gave to the world the glorious
+but unfinished Æneid.
+
+Under the modern system, we constantly ask ourselves whether it
+is wise to wish for greatness, and whether total oblivion is not
+preferable to fame, with the penalty of exposure annexed. We shudder
+at the thoughts of putting out a book, not from fear of anything
+that the critics can do, but lest it should take with the public,
+and expose us to the danger of a posthumous biography. Were we
+to awake some fine morning, and find ourselves famous, our peace
+of mind would be gone for ever. Mercy on us! what a quantity of
+foolish letters have we not written during the days of our youth,
+under the confident impression that, when read, they would be
+immediately committed to the flames. Madrigals innumerable recur to
+our memory; and, if these were published, there would be no rest
+for us in the grave! If any misguided critic should say of us, "The
+works of this author are destined to descend to posterity," our
+response would be a hollow groan. If convinced that our biography
+would be attempted, from that hour the friend of our bosom would
+appear in the light of a base and ignominious spy. How durst we
+ever unbosom ourselves to him, when, for aught we know, the wretch
+may be treasuring up our casual remarks over the fifth tumbler,
+for immediate registration at home? Constitutionally we are not
+hard-hearted; but, were we so situated, we own that the intimation
+of the decease of each early acquaintance would be rather a relief
+than otherwise. Tom, our intimate fellow-student at college, dies.
+We may be sorry for the family of Thomas, but we soon wipe away the
+natural drops, discovering that there is balm in Gilead. We used to
+write him letters, detailing minutely our inward emotions at the
+time we were distractedly in love with Jemima Higginbotham; and Tom,
+who was always a methodical dog, has no doubt docqueted them as
+received. Tom's heirs will doubtless be too keen upon the scent of
+valuables, to care one farthing for rhapsodising: therefore, unless
+they are sent to the snuff-merchant, or disseminated as autographs,
+our epistles run a fair chance of perishing by the flames, and one
+evidence of our weakness is removed. A member of the club meets
+us in George Street, and, with a rueful longitude of countenance,
+asks us if we have heard of the death of poor Harry? To the eternal
+disgrace of human nature, be it recorded, that our heart leaps up
+within us like a foot-ball, as we hypocritically have recourse to
+our cambric. Harry knew a great deal too much about our private
+history just before we joined the Yeomanry, and could have told some
+stories, little flattering to our posthumous renown.
+
+Are we not right, then, in holding that, under the present system,
+celebrity is a thing to be eschewed? Why is it that we are so chary
+of receiving certain Down-Easters, so different from the real
+American gentlemen whom it is our good fortune to know? Simply
+because Silas Fixings will take down your whole conversation
+in black and white, deliberately alter it to suit his private
+purposes, and Transatlantically retail it as a specimen of your
+life and opinions. And is it not a still more horrible idea that a
+Silas may be perpetually watching you in the shape of a pretended
+friend? If the man would at once declare his intention, you might
+be comparatively at ease. Even in that case you never could love
+him more, for the confession implies a disgusting determination of
+outliving you, or rather a hint that your health is not remarkably
+robust, which would irritate the meekest of mankind. But you
+might be enabled, through a strong effort, to repress the outward
+exhibition of your wrath; and, if high religious principle should
+deter you from mixing strychnia or prussic acid with the wine of
+your volunteering executor, you may at least contrive to blind
+him by cautiously maintaining your guard. Were we placed in such
+a trying position, we should utter, before our intending Boswell,
+nothing save sentiments which might have flowed from the lips of the
+Venerable Bede. What letters, full of morality and high feeling,
+would we not indite! Not an invitation to dinner--not an acceptance
+of a tea and turn-out, but should be flavoured with some wholesome
+apothegm. Thus we should strive, through our later correspondence,
+to efface the memory of the earlier, which it is impossible to
+recall,--not without a hope that we might throw upon it, if
+posthumously produced, a tolerable imputation of forgery.
+
+In these times, we repeat, no man of the least mark or likelihood
+is safe. The waiter with the bandy-legs, who hands round the
+negus-tray at a blue-stocking coterie, is in all probability a
+leading contributor to a fifth-rate periodical; and, in a few days
+after you have been rash enough to accept the insidious beverage,
+M'Tavish will be correcting the proof of an article in which your
+appearance and conversation are described. Distrust the gentleman
+in the plush terminations; he, too, is a penny-a-liner, and keeps
+a commonplace-book in the pantry. Better give up writing at once
+than live in such a perpetual state of bondage. What amount of
+present fame can recompense you for being shown up as a noodle, or
+worse, to your children's children? Nay, recollect this, that you
+are implicating your personal, and, perhaps, most innocent friends.
+Bob accompanies you home from an insurance society dinner, where
+the champagne has been rather superabundant, and, next morning,
+you, as a bit of fun, write to the President that the watchman had
+picked up Bob in a state of helpless inebriety from the kennel.
+The President, after the manner of the Fogies, duly docquets your
+note with name and date, and puts it up with a parcel of others,
+secured by red tape. You die. Your literary executor writes to the
+President, stating his biographical intentions, and requesting all
+documents that may tend to throw light upon your personal history.
+Preses, in deep ecstasy at the idea of seeing his name in print as
+the recipient of your epistolary favours, immediately transmits the
+packet; and the consequence is, that Robert is most unjustly handed
+down to posterity in the character of a habitual drunkard, although
+it is a fact that a more abstinent creature never went home to his
+wife at ten. If you are an author, and your spouse is ailing, don't
+give the details to your intimate friend, if you would not wish
+to publish them to the world. Drop all correspondence, if you are
+wise, and have any ambition to stand well in the eyes of the coming
+generation. Let your conversation be as curt as a Quaker's, and
+select no one for a friend, unless you have the meanest possible
+opinion of his capacity. Even in that case you are hardly secure.
+Perhaps the best mode of combining philanthropy, society, and
+safety, is to have nobody in the house, save an old woman who is so
+utterly deaf that you must order your dinner by pantomime.
+
+One mode of escape suggests itself, and we do not hesitate to
+recommend it. Let every man who underlies the terror of the _peine
+forte et dure_, compile his own autobiography at the ripe age of
+forty-five. Few people, in this country, begin to establish a
+permanent reputation before thirty; and we allow them fifteen years
+to complete it. Now, supposing your existence should be protracted
+to seventy, here are clear five-and-twenty years remaining, which
+may be profitably employed in autobiography, by which means you
+secure three vast advantages. In the first place, you can deal
+with your own earlier history as you please, and provide against
+the subsequent production of inconvenient documents. In the second
+place, you defeat the intentions of your excellent friend and
+gossip, who will hardly venture to start his volumes in competition
+with your own. In the third place, you leave an additional copyright
+as a legacy to your children, and are not haunted in your last
+moments by the agonising thought that a stranger in name and blood
+is preparing to make money by your decease. It is, of course,
+unnecessary to say one word regarding the general tone of your
+memoirs. If you cannot contrive to block out such a fancy portrait
+of your intellectual self as shall throw all others into the shade,
+you may walk on fearlessly through life, for your biography never
+will be attempted. Goethe, the most accomplished literary fox of our
+age, perfectly understood the value of these maxims, and forestalled
+his friends, by telling his own story in time. The consequence
+is, that his memory has escaped unharmed. Little Eckermann, his
+amanuensis in extreme old age, did indeed contrive to deliver
+himself of a small Boswellian volume; but this publication, bearing
+reference merely to the dicta of Goethe at a safe period of life,
+could not injure the departed poet. The repetition of the early
+history, and the publication of the early documents, are the points
+to be especially guarded.
+
+We beg that these remarks may be considered, not as strictures upon
+any individual example, but as bearing upon the general style of
+modern biography. This is a gossiping world, in which great men are
+the exceptions; and when one of these ceases to exist, the public
+becomes clamorous to learn the whole minutiæ of his private life.
+That is a depraved taste, and one which ought not to be gratified.
+The author is to be judged by the works which he voluntarily
+surrenders to the public, not by the tenor of his private history,
+which ought not to be irreverently exposed. Thus, in compiling the
+life of a poet, we maintain that a literary executor has purely a
+literary function to perform. Out of the mass of materials which
+he may fortuitously collect, his duty is to select such portions
+as may illustrate the public doings of the man: he may, without
+transgressing the boundaries of propriety, inform us of the
+circumstances which suggested the idea of any particular work,
+the difficulties which were overcome by the author in the course
+of its composition, and even exhibit the correspondence relative
+thereto. These are matters of literary history which we may ask
+for, and obtain, without any breach of the conventional rules of
+society. Whatever refers to public life is public, and may be
+printed: whatever refers solely to domestic existence is private,
+and ought to be held sacred. A very little reflection, we think,
+will demonstrate the propriety of this distinction. If we have
+a dear and valued friend, to whom, in the hours of adversity or
+of joy, we are wont to communicate the thoughts which lie at the
+bottom of our soul, we write to him in the full conviction that he
+will regard these letters as addressed to himself alone. We do not
+insult him, nor wrong the holy attributes of friendship so much, as
+to warn him against communicating our thoughts to any one else in
+the world. We never dream that he will do so, else assuredly those
+letters never would have been written. If we were to discover that
+we had so grievously erred as to repose confidence in a person who,
+the moment he received a letter penned in a paroxysm of emotion
+and revealing a secret of our existence, was capable of exhibiting
+it to the circle of his acquaintance, of a surety he should never
+more be troubled with any of our correspondence. Would any man dare
+to print such documents during the life of the writer? We need not
+pause for a reply: there can be but one. And _why_ is this? Because
+these communications bear on their face the stamp of the strictest
+privacy--because they were addressed to, and meant for the eye
+of but one human being in the universe--because they betray the
+emotions of a soul which asks sympathy from a friend, with only
+less reverence than it implores comfort from its God! Does death,
+then, free the friend and the confidant from all restraint? If the
+knowledge that his secret had been divulged, his agonies exposed,
+his weaknesses surrendered to the vulgar gaze, could have pained
+the living man--is nothing due to his memory, now that he is laid
+beneath the turf, now that his voice can never more be raised to
+upbraid a violated confidence? Many modern biographers, we regret
+to say, do not appear to be influenced by any such consideration.
+They never seem to have asked themselves the question--Would my
+friend, if he had been compiling his own memoirs, have inserted such
+a letter for publication--does it not refer to a matter eminently
+private and personal, and never to be communicated to the world?
+Instead of applying this test, they print everything, and rather
+plume themselves on their impartiality in suppressing nothing.
+They thus exhibit the life not only of the author but of the man.
+Literary and personal history are blended together. The senator is
+not only exhibited in the House of Commons, but we are courteously
+invited to attend at the _accouchement_ of his wife.
+
+What title has any of us, in the abstract, to write the private
+history of his next-door neighbour? Be he poet, lawyer, physician,
+or divine, his private sayings and doings are his property, not that
+of a gaping and curious public. No man dares to say to another,
+"Come, my good fellow! it is full time that the world should know a
+little about your domestic concerns. I have been keeping a sort of
+note-book of your proceedings ever since we were at school together,
+and I intend to make a few pounds by exhibiting you in your true
+colours. You recollect when you were in love with old Tomnoddy's
+daughter? I have written a capital account of your interview with
+her that fine forenoon in the Botanical Gardens! True, she jilted
+you, and went off with young Heavystern of the Dragoons, but the
+public won't relish the scene a bit the less on that account. Then I
+have got some letters of yours from our mutual friend Fitzjaw. How
+very hard-up you must have been at the time when you supplicated him
+for twenty pounds to keep you out of jail! You were rather severe,
+the other day when I met you at dinner, upon your professional
+brother Jenkinson; but I daresay that what you said was all very
+true, so I shall publish that likewise. By the way--how is your
+wife? She had a lot of money, had she not? At all events people say
+so, and it is shrewdly surmised that you did not marry her for her
+beauty. I don't mean to say that _I_ think so, but such is the _on
+dit_, and I have set it down accordingly in my journal. Do, pray,
+tell me about that quarrel between you and your mother-in-law! Is
+it true that she threw a joint-stool at your head? How our friends
+will roar when they see the details in print!" Is the case less
+flagrant if the manuscript is not sent to press, until our neighbour
+is deposited in his coffin? We cannot perceive the difference. If
+the feelings of living people are to be taken as the criterion, only
+one of the domestic actors is removed from the stage of existence.
+Old Tomnoddy still lives, and may not be abundantly gratified at the
+fact of his daughter's infidelity and elopement being proclaimed.
+The intimation of the garden scene, hitherto unknown to Heavystern,
+may fill his warlike bosom with jealousy, and ultimately occasion
+a separation. Fitzjaw can hardly complain, but he will be very
+furious at finding his refusal to accommodate a friend appended to
+the supplicating letter. Jenkinson is only sorry that the libeller
+is dead, otherwise he would have treated him to an action in the
+Jury Court. The widow believes that she was made a bride solely for
+the sake of her Californian attractions, and reviles the memory
+of her spouse. As for the mother-in-law, now gradually dwindling
+into dotage, her feelings are perhaps of no great consequence to
+any human being. Nevertheless, when the obnoxious paragraph in the
+Memoirs is read to her by a shrill female companion, nature makes a
+temporary rally, her withered frame shakes with agitation, and she
+finally falls backward in a fit of hopeless paralysis.
+
+Such is a feeble picture of the results that might ensue from
+private biography, were we all permitted, without reservation, to
+parade the lives and domestic circumstances of our neighbours to
+a greedy and gloating world. Not but that, if our neighbour has
+been a man of sufficient distinction to deserve commemoration,
+we may gracefully and skilfully narrate all of him that is worth
+the knowing. We may point to his public actions, expatiate on
+his achievements, and recount the manner in which he gained his
+intellectual renown; but further we ought not to go. The confidences
+of the dead should be as sacred as those of the living. And here we
+may observe, that there are other parties quite as much to blame
+as the biographers in question. We allude to the friends of the
+deceased, who have unscrupulously furnished them with materials. Is
+it not the fact that in very many cases they have divulged letters
+which, during the writer's lifetime, they would have withheld from
+the nearest and dearest of their kindred? In many such letters
+there occur observations and reflections upon living characters,
+not written in malice, but still such as were never intended to
+meet the eyes of the parties criticised; and these are forthwith
+published, as racy passages, likely to gratify the appetite of a
+coarse, vulgar, and inordinate curiosity. Even this is not the
+worst. Survivors may grieve to learn that the friend whom they
+loved was capable of ridiculing or misrepresenting them in secret,
+and his memory may suffer in their estimation; but, put the case
+of detailed private conversations, which are constantly foisted
+into modern biographies, and we shall immediately discover that the
+inevitable tendency is to engender dislikes among living parties.
+Let us suppose that three men, all of them professional authors,
+meet at a dinner party. The conversation is very lively, takes a
+literary turn, and the three gentlemen, with that sportive freedom
+which is very common in a society where no treachery is apprehended,
+pass some rather poignant strictures upon the writings or habits of
+their contemporaries. One of them either keeps a journal, or is in
+the habit of writing, for the amusement of a confidential friend
+at a distance, any literary gossip which may be current, and he
+commits to paper the heads of the recent dialogue. He dies, and his
+literary executor immediately pounces upon the document, and, to
+the confusion of the two living critics, prints it. Every literary
+brother whom they have noticed is of course their enemy for life.
+
+If, in private society, a snob is discovered retailing
+conversations, he is forthwith cut without compunction. He reads his
+detection in the calm, cold scorn of your eye; and, referring to the
+mirror of his own dim and dirty conscience, beholds the reflection
+of a hound. The biographer seems to consider himself exempt from
+such social secresy. He shelters himself under the plea that the
+public are so deeply interested, that they must not be deprived of
+any memorandum, anecdote, or jotting, told, written, or detailed by
+the gifted subject of their memoirs. Therefore it is not a prudent
+thing to be familiar with a man of genius. He may not betray your
+confidence, but you can hardly trust to the tender mercies of his
+chronicler.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such are our deliberate views upon the subject of biography, and we
+state them altogether independent of the three bulky volumes which
+are now lying before us for review.
+
+We cordially admit that it was right and proper that a life of Campbell
+should be written. Although he did not occupy the same commanding
+position as others of his renowned contemporaries--although his
+writings have not, like those of Scott, Byron, and Southey,
+contributed powerfully to give a tone and idiosyncrasy to the
+general literature of the age--Campbell was nevertheless a man of
+rich genius, and a poet of remarkable accomplishment. It would not
+be easy to select, from the works of any other writer of our time,
+so many brilliant and polished gems, without flaw or imperfection,
+as are to be found amongst his minor poems. Criticism, in dealing
+with these exquisite lyrics, is at fault. If sometimes the suspicion
+of a certain effeminacy haunts us, we have but to turn the page,
+and we arrive at some magnificent, bold, and trumpet-toned ditty,
+appealing directly from the heart of the poet to the imagination of
+his audience, and proving, beyond all contest, that power was his
+glorious attribute. True, he was unequal; and towards the latter
+part of his career, exhibited a marked failing in the qualities
+which originally secured his renown. It is almost impossible to
+believe that the _Pilgrim of Glencoe_, or even _Theodric_, was
+composed by the author of the _Pleasures of Hope_ or _Gertrude_; and
+if you place the _Ritter Bann_ beside _Hohenlinden_ or the _Battle
+of the Baltic_, you cannot fail to be struck with the singular
+diminution of power. Campbell started from a high point--walked for
+some time along level or undulating ground--and then began rapidly
+to descend. This is not, as some idle critics have maintained, the
+common course of genius. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton,
+Dryden, Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth, are remarkable instances to
+the contrary. Whatever may have been the promise of their youth,
+their matured performances, eclipsing their earlier efforts, show us
+that genius is capable of almost boundless cultivation, and that the
+fire of the poet does not cease to burn less brightly within him,
+because the sable of his hair is streaked with gray, or the furrows
+deepening on his brow. Sir Walter Scott was upwards of thirty
+before he began to compose in earnest: after thirty, Campbell wrote
+scarcely anything which has added permanently to his reputation.
+Extreme sensitiveness, an over-strained and fastidious desire of
+polishing, and sometimes the pressure of outward circumstances, may
+have combined to damp his early ardour. He evidently was deficient
+in that resolute pertinacity of labour, through which alone great
+results can be achieved. He allowed the best years of his life to
+be frittered away, in pursuits which could not secure to him either
+additional fame, or the more substantial rewards of fortune: and,
+though far from being actually idle, he was only indolently active.
+Campbell wanted an object in life. Thus, though gifted with powers
+which, directed towards one point, were capable of the highest
+concentration, we find him scattering these in the most desultory
+and careless manner; and surrendering scheme after scheme, without
+making the vigorous effort which was necessary to secure their
+completion. This is a fault by no means uncommon in literature,
+but one which is highly dangerous. No work requiring great mental
+exertion should be undertaken rashly, for the enthusiasm which
+has prompted it rapidly subsides, the labour becomes distasteful
+to the writer, and unless he can bend himself to his task with
+the most dogged perseverance, and a determination to vanquish all
+obstacles, the result will be a fragment or a failure. Of this we
+find two notable instances recorded in the book before us. Twice
+in his life had Campbell meditated the construction of a great
+poem, and twice did he relinquish the task. Of the _Queen of the
+North_ but a few lines remain: of his favourite projected epic on
+the subject of Wallace, nothing. Elegant trifles, sportive verses,
+and playful epigrams were, for many years, the last fruits of that
+genius which had dictated the _Pleasures of Hope_, and rejoiced the
+mariners of England with a ballad worthy of the theme. And yet, so
+powerful is early association--so universal was the recognition of
+the transcendant genius of the boy, that when Campbell sank into
+the grave, there was lamentation as though a great poet had been
+stricken down in his prime, and all men felt that a brilliant light
+had gone out among the luminaries of the age. Therefore it was
+seemly that his memory should receive that homage which has been
+rendered to others less deserving of it, and that his public career,
+at least, should be traced and given to the world.
+
+It was Campbell's own wish that Dr Beattie should undertake his
+biography. Few perhaps knew the motives which led to this selection;
+for the assiduity, care, and filial attachment, bestowed for years
+by the warm-hearted physician upon the poet, was as unostentatious
+as it was honourable and devoted. Not from the pages of this
+biography can the reader form an adequate idea of the extent and
+value of such disinterested friendship: indeed it is not too much
+to say, that the rare and exemplary kindness of Dr Beattie was
+the chief consolation of Campbell during the later period of his
+existence. It was therefore natural that the dying poet should have
+confided this trust to one of whose affection he was assured by so
+many rare and signal proofs; and it is with a kindly feeling to the
+author that we now approach the consideration of the literary merits
+of the book.
+
+The admiration of Dr Beattie for the genius of Campbell has in some
+respects led him astray. It is easy to see at a glance that his
+measure of admiration is not of an ordinary kind, but so excessive
+as to lead him beyond all limit. He seems to have regarded Campbell
+not merely as a great poet, but as the great poet of the age; and
+he is unwilling, æsthetically, to admit any material diminution of
+his powers. He still clings with a certain faith to _Theodric_; and
+declines to perceive any palpable failure even in the _Pilgrim of
+Glencoe_. Verses and fragments which, to the casual reader, convey
+anything but the impression of excellence, are liberally distributed
+throughout the pages of the third volume, and commented on with
+evident rapture. He seems to think that, in the case of his author,
+it may be said, "_Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit_;" and accordingly
+he is slow to suppress, even where suppression would have been of
+positive advantage. In short, he is too full of his subject to do
+it justice. In the hands of a skilful and less biassed artisan, the
+materials which occupy these three volumes, extending to nearly
+fourteen hundred pages of print, might have been condensed into
+one highly interesting and popular volume. We should not then, it
+is true, have been favoured with specimens of Campbell's college
+exercises, with the voluminous chronicles of his family, with
+verses written at the age of eleven, or with correspondence purely
+domestic; but we firmly believe that the reading public would have
+been grateful to Dr Beattie, had he omitted a great deal of matter
+connected with the poet's earlier career, which is of no interest
+whatever. The Campbells of Kirnan were, we doubt not, a highly
+respectable sept, and performed their duty as kirk-elders for many
+generations blamelessly in the parish of Glassary. But it was not
+necessary on that account to trace their descent from the Black
+Knight Of Lochawe, or to give the particular history of the family
+for more than a century and a half. Gillespic-le-Camile may have
+been a fine fellow in his day; but we utterly deny, in the teeth
+of all the Campbells and Kembles in the world, that he had a drop
+of Norman blood in his veins. It is curious to find the poet, at a
+subsequent period, engaged in a correspondence, as to the common
+ancestor of these names, with one of the Kembles, who, as Mrs Butler
+somewhere triumphantly avers, were descended from the lords of
+Campo-bello. Where that favoured region may be, we know not; but
+this we know, that in Gaelic _Cambeul_ signifies _wry-mouth_, and
+hence, as is the custom with primitive nations, the origin of the
+name. And let not the sons of Diarmid be offended at this, or esteem
+their glories less, since the gallant Camerons owe their name to a
+similar conformation of the nose, and the Douglases to their dark
+complexion. Having put this little matter of family etymology right,
+let us return to Dr Beattie.
+
+The first volume, we maintain, is terribly overloaded by trivial
+details, and specimens of the kind to which we have alluded. We
+need not enter into these, except in so far as to state that Thomas
+Campbell was the youngest child of most respectable parents: that
+his father, having been unfortunate in business, was so reduced
+in circumstances, that, whilst attending Glasgow College, the
+young student was compelled to have recourse to teaching; that he
+acquitted himself admirably, and to the satisfaction of all his
+professors in the literary classes; and that, for one vacation at
+least, he resided as private tutor to a family in the island of
+Mull. He was then about eighteen, and had already exhibited symptoms
+of a rare poetical talent, particularly in translations from the
+Greek. Dr Beattie's zeal as a biographer may be gathered from the
+following statement:--
+
+"I applied last year to the Rev. Dr M'Arthur, of Kilninian in Mull,
+requesting him to favour me with such traditional particulars
+regarding the poet as might still be current among the old
+inhabitants; but I regret to say that nothing of interest has
+resulted. 'In the course of my inquiries,' he says, 'I have met with
+only two individuals who had seen Mr Campbell while he was in Mull,
+and the amount of their information is merely that he was _a very
+pretty young man_. Those who must have been personally acquainted
+with him in this country, have, like himself, descended into the
+tomb; so that no authentic anecdotes of him can now be procured in
+this quarter.'"
+
+There is a simplicity in this which has amused us greatly. Campbell,
+in those days, was conspicuous for nothing--at least, for no
+accomplishment which could be appreciated in that distant island.
+In all probability two-thirds of the inhabitants of the parish were
+Campbells, who expired in utter ignorance of the art of writing
+their names; so that to ask for literary anecdotes, at the distance
+of half a century, was rather a work of supererogation.
+
+For two years more, Campbell led a life of great uncertainty. He was
+naturally averse to the drudgery of teaching--an employment which
+never can be congenial to a poetical and creative nature. He had no
+decided predilection for any of the learned professions; for though
+he alternately betook himself to the study of law, physic, and
+divinity, it was hardly with a serious purpose. He visited Edinburgh
+in search of literary employment, was for some time a clerk in a
+writer's office, and, through the kindness of the late Dr Anderson,
+editor of a collection of the British poets,--a man who was ever
+eager to acknowledge and encourage genius,--he received his first
+introduction to a bookselling firm. From them he received some
+little employment, but not of a nature suited to his taste; and we
+soon afterwards find him in Glasgow, meditating the establishment of
+a magazine--a scheme which proved utterly abortive.
+
+In the mean time, however, he had not been idle. At the age of
+twenty the poetical instinct is active, and, even though no audience
+can be found, the muse will force its way. Campbell had already
+translated two plays of Æschylus and Euripides--an exercise which
+no doubt developed largely his powers of versification--and,
+further, had begun to compose original lyric verses. In the foreign
+edition of his works, there is inserted a poem called the Dirge
+of Wallace, written about this period, which, with a very little
+concentration, might have been rendered as perfect as any of his
+later compositions. In spirit and energy it is assuredly inferior to
+none of them. "But," says Dr Beattie, "the fastidious author, who
+thought it too rhapsodical, never bestowed a careful revision upon
+it, and persisted in excluding it from all the London editions." We
+hope to see it restored to its proper place in the next: in the mean
+time we select the following noble stanzas:--
+
+    "They lighted the tapers at dead of night,
+       And chaunted their holiest hymn:
+     But her brow and her bosom were damp with affright,
+       Her eye was all sleepless and dim!
+     And the Lady of Ellerslie wept for her lord,
+       When a death-watch beat in her lonely room,
+     When her curtain had shook of its own accord,
+     And the raven had flapped at her window board,
+       To tell of her warrior's doom.
+
+    "'Now sing ye the death-song, and loudly pray
+       For the soul of my knight so dear!
+     And call me a widow this wretched day,
+       Since the warning of GOD is here.
+     For a nightmare rests on my strangled sleep;
+       The lord of my bosom is doomed to die!
+     His valorous heart they have wounded deep,
+     And the blood-red tears shall his country weep
+       For Wallace of Ellerslie!'
+
+    "Yet knew not his country, that ominous hour--
+       Ere the loud matin-bell was rung--
+     That the trumpet of death, from an English tower,
+       Had the dirge of her champion sung.
+     When his dungeon-light looked dim and red
+       On the highborn blood of a martyr slain,
+     No anthem was sung at his lowly death-bed--
+     No weeping was there when _his_ bosom bled,
+       And is heart was rent in twain.
+
+    "Oh! it was not thus when his ashen spear
+       Was true to that knight forlorn,
+     And hosts of a thousand wore scattered like deer
+       At the blast of a hunter's horn;
+     _When he strode o'er the wreck of each well-fought field,
+       With the yellow-haired chiefs of his native land;_
+     _For his lance was not shivered on helmet or shield,
+     And the sword that was fit for archangel to wield
+       Was light in his terrible hand!_
+
+    "Yet, bleeding and bound, though the Wallace wight
+       For his long-loved country die,
+     The bugle ne'er sung to a braver knight
+       Than William of Ellerslie!
+     But the day of his triumphs shall never depart;
+       His head, unentombed, shall with glory be palmed--
+     From its blood-streaming altar his spirit shall start;
+     Though the raven has fed on his mouldering heart,
+       A nobler was never embalmed!"
+
+Nothing can be finer than the lines we have quoted in Italics, nor
+perhaps did Campbell himself ever match them. Local reputations are
+dearly cherished in the west of Scotland, and even at this early
+period our poet was denominated "the Pope of Glasgow."
+
+Again Campbell migrated to Edinburgh, but still with no fixed
+determination as to the choice of a profession: his intention was
+to attend the public lectures at the University, and also to push
+his connexion with the booksellers, so as to obtain the means of
+livelihood. Failing this last resource, he contemplated removing
+to America, in which country his eldest brother was permanently
+settled. Fortunately for himself, he now made the acquaintance
+of several young men who were destined afterwards to attract the
+public observation, and to win great names in different branches
+of literature. Among these were Scott, Brougham, Leyden, Jeffrey,
+Dr Thomas Brown, and Grahame, the author of _The Sabbath_. Mr
+John Richardson, who had the good fortune to remain through life
+the intimate friend both of Scott and Campbell, was also, at this
+early period, the chosen companion of the latter, and contributed
+much, by his judicious counsels and criticisms, to nerve the poet
+for that successful effort which, shortly afterwards, took the
+world of letters by storm. Dr Anderson also continued his literary
+superintendence, and anxiously watched over the progress of the new
+poem upon which Campbell was now engaged. At length, in 1799, the
+_Pleasures of Hope_ appeared.
+
+Rarely has any volume of poetry met with such rapid success.
+Campbell had few living rivals of established reputation to contend
+with; and the freshness of his thought, the extreme sweetness of his
+numbers, and the fine taste which pervaded the whole composition,
+fell like magic on the ear of the public, and won their immediate
+approbation. It is true that, as a speculation, this volume did
+not prove remarkably lucrative to the author: he had disposed of
+the copyright before publication for a sum of sixty pounds, but,
+through the liberality of the publishers, he received for some
+years a further sum on the issue of each edition. The book was
+certainly worth a great deal more; but many an author would be glad
+to surrender all claim for profit on his first adventure, could he
+be assured of such valuable popularity as Campbell now acquired.
+He presently became a lion in Edinburgh society; and, what was far
+better, he secured the countenance and friendship of such men as
+Dugald Stewart, Henry Mackenzie, Dr Gregory, the Rev. Archibald
+Alison, and Telford, the celebrated engineer. It is pleasant to know
+that the friendships so formed were interrupted only by death.
+
+Campbell had now, to use a common but familiar phrase, the
+ball at his foot, but never did there live a man less capable
+of appreciating opportunity. At an age when most young men are
+students, he had won fame--fame, too, in such measure and of such a
+kind as secured him against reaction, or the possibility of a speedy
+neglect following upon so rapid a success. Had he deliberately
+followed up his advantage with anything like ordinary diligence,
+fortune as well as fame would have been his immediate reward. Like
+Aladdin, he was in possession of a talisman which could open to him
+the cavern in which a still greater treasure was contained; but he
+shrunk from the labour which was indispensable for the effort. He
+either could not or would not summon up sufficient resolution to
+betake himself to a new task; but, under the pretext of improving
+his mind by travel, gave way to his erratic propensities, and
+departed for the Continent with a slender purse, and, as usual, no
+fixity of purpose.
+
+We confess that the portion of his correspondence which relates
+to this expedition does not appear to us remarkably interesting.
+He resided chiefly at Ratisbon, where his time appears to have
+been tolerably equally divided between writing lyrics for the
+_Morning Chronicle_, then under the superintendence of Mr
+Perry, and squabbling with the monks of the Scottish Convent of
+Saint James. Some of his best minor poems were composed at this
+period; but it will be easily comprehended that, from the style
+of their publication in a fugitive form, they could add but
+little at the time to his reputation, and certainly they did not
+materially improve his finances. With a contemplated poem of some
+magnitude--the _Queen of the North_--he made little progress; and,
+upon the whole, this year was spent uncomfortably. After his return
+to Britain, he resided for some time in Edinburgh and London, mixing
+in the best and most cultivated society, but sorely straitened in
+circumstances, which, nevertheless, he had not the courage or the
+patience to improve.
+
+A quarto edition of the _Pleasures_, printed by subscription for
+his own benefit, at length put him in funds, and probably tempted
+him to marry. Then came the real cares of life,--an increased
+establishment, an increasing family: new mouths to provide for,
+and no settled mode of livelihood. Of all literary men, Campbell
+was least calculated, both by habit and inclination, to pursue a
+profession which, with many temptations, was then, and is still,
+precarious. He was not, like Scott, a man of business habits and
+unflagging industry. His impulses to write were short, and his
+fastidiousness interfered with his impulse. Booksellers were slow
+in offering him employment, for they could not depend on his
+punctuality. Those who have frequent dealings with the trade know
+how much depends upon the observance of this excellent virtue;
+but Campbell never could be brought to appreciate its full value.
+The printing-press had difficulty in keeping pace with the pen of
+Scott: to wait for that of Campbell was equivalent to a cessation of
+labour. Therefore it is not surprising that, about this period, most
+of his negotiations failed. Proposals for an edition of the British
+Poets, a large and expensive work, to be executed jointly by Scott
+and Campbell, fell to the ground: and the bard of Hope gave vent to
+his feelings by execrating the phalanx of the Row.
+
+At the very moment when his prospects appeared to be shrouded in
+the deepest gloom, Campbell received intimation that he had been
+placed on the pension-list as an annuitant of £200. Never was the
+royal bounty more seasonably extended; and this high recognition of
+his genius seems for a time to have inspired him with new energy.
+He commenced the compilation of the _Specimens of British Poets_;
+but his indolent habits overcame him, and the work was not given to
+the public until _thirteen years_ after it was undertaken. No wonder
+that the booksellers were chary of staking their capital on the
+faith of his promised performances!
+
+Ten years after the publication of the _Pleasures of Hope_,
+_Gertrude of Wyoming_ appeared. That exquisite little poem
+demonstrated, in the most conclusive manner, that the author's
+poetical powers were not exhausted by his earlier effort, and the
+same volume contained the noblest of his immortal lyrics. Campbell
+was now at the highest point of his renown. Critics may compare
+together the longer poems, and, according as their taste leans
+towards the didactic or the descriptive form of composition, may
+differ in awarding the palm of excellence, but there can be but one
+opinion as to the lyrical poetry. In this respect Campbell stands
+alone among his contemporaries, and since then he has never been
+surpassed. _Lochiel's Warning_ and the _Battle of the Baltic_ were
+among the pieces then published; and it would be difficult, out of
+the whole mass of British poetry, to select two specimens, by the
+same author, which may fairly rank with these.
+
+A new literary field was shortly after this opened to Campbell.
+He was engaged to deliver a course of lectures on poetry at the
+Royal Institution of London, and the scheme proved not only
+successful but lucrative. In after years he lectured repeatedly on
+the belles lettres at Liverpool, Birmingham, and other places, and
+the celebrity of his name always commanded a crowd of listeners.
+We learn from Dr Beattie, that at two periods of his life it was
+proposed to bring him forward as a candidate, either for the chair
+of Rhetoric or that of History in the University of Edinburgh; but
+he seems to have recoiled from the idea of the labour necessary for
+the preparation of a thorough academical course, a task which his
+extreme natural fastidiousness would doubtless have rendered doubly
+irksome. Several more years, a portion of which time was spent on
+the Continent, passed over without any remarkable result, until,
+at the age of forty-three, Campbell entered upon the duties of the
+editorship of the _New Monthly Magazine_.
+
+He held this situation for ten years, and resigned it, according
+to his own account, "because it was utterly impossible to continue
+the editor without interminable scrapes, together with a law-suit
+now and then." In the interim, however, certain important events
+had taken place. In the first place, he had published _Theodric_--a
+poem which, in spite of a most laudatory critique in the _Edinburgh
+Review_, left a painful impression on the public mind, and was
+generally considered as a symptom either that the rich mine of poesy
+was worked out, or that the genius of the author had been employed
+in a wrong direction. In the second place, he took an active share
+in the foundation of the London University. He appears, indeed,
+to have been the originator of the scheme, and to have managed
+the preliminary details with more than common skill and prudence.
+It was mainly through his exertions that it did not assume the
+aspect of a mere sectarian institution, bigoted in its principles
+and circumscribed in its sphere of utility. Shortly after this
+academical experiment, he was elected Lord Rector of the Glasgow
+University. Whatever abstract value may be attached to such an
+honour--and we are aware that very conflicting opinions have been
+expressed upon the point--this distinction was one of the most
+gratifying of all the tributes which were ever rendered to Campbell.
+He found himself preferred, by the students of that university
+where his first aspirations after fame had been roused, to one of
+the first orators and statesmen of the age; and his warm heart
+overflowed with delight at the kindly compliment. He resolved not
+to accept the office as a mere sinecure, but strictly to perform
+those duties which were prescribed by ancient statute, but which
+had fallen into abeyance by the carelessness of nominal Rectors.
+He entered as warmly into the feelings, and as cordially supported
+the interests of the students, as if the academical red gown of
+Glasgow had been still fresh upon his shoulders; and such being the
+case, it is not surprising that he was almost adored by his youthful
+constituents. This portion of the memoirs is very interesting: it
+displays the character of Campbell in a most amiable light; and the
+coldest reader cannot fail to peruse with pleasure the records of
+an ovation so truly gratifying to the sensibilities of the kind and
+affectionate poet. For three years, during which unusual period he
+held the office, his correspondence with the students never flagged;
+and it may be doubted whether the university ever possessed a better
+Rector.
+
+In 1831 he took up the Polish cause, and founded an association
+in London, which for many years was the main support of the
+unfortunate exiles who sought refuge in Britain. The public sympathy
+was at that time largely excited in their favour, not only by the
+gallant struggle which they had made for regaining their ancient
+independence, but from the subsequent severities perpetrated by the
+Russian government. Campbell, from his earliest years, had denounced
+the unprincipled partition of Poland; he watched the progress of
+the revolution with an anxiety almost amounting to fanaticism; and
+when the outbreak was at last put down by the strong hand of power,
+his passion exceeded all bounds. Day and night his thoughts were
+of Poland only: in his correspondence he hardly touched upon any
+other theme; and, carried away by his zeal to serve the exiles, he
+neglected his usual avocations. The mind of Campbell was naturally
+of an impulsive cast: but the fits were rather violent than
+enduring. This psychological tendency was, perhaps, his most serious
+misfortune, since it invariably prevented him from maturing the
+most important projects he conceived. Unless the scheme was such as
+could be executed with rapidity, he was apt to halt in the progress.
+
+He next became engaged in a new magazine speculation--_The
+Metropolitan_--which, instead of turning out, as he anticipated,
+a mine of wealth, very nearly involved him in serious pecuniary
+responsibility. After this, his public career gradually became
+less marked. The last poem which he published, _The Pilgrim of
+Glencoe_, exhibited few symptoms of the fire and energy conspicuous
+in his early efforts. "This work," says Dr Beattie, "in one or
+two instances was very favourably reviewed--in others, the tone
+of criticism was cold and austere; but neither praise nor censure
+could induce the public to judge for themselves; and silence, more
+fatal in such cases than censure, took the poem for a time under her
+wing. The poet himself expressed little surprise at the apathy with
+which his new volume had been received; but whatever indifference
+he felt for the influence it might have upon his reputation, he
+could not feel indifferent to the more immediate effect which a
+tardy or greatly diminished sale must have upon his prospects as a
+householder. 'A new poem from the pen of Campbell,' he was told,
+'was as good as a bill at sight;' but, from some error in the
+drawing, as it turned out, it was not negotiable; and the expenses
+into which he had been led, by trusting too much to popular favour,
+were now to be defrayed from other sources." It ought, however,
+to be remarked, that he had now arrived at his great climacteric.
+He was sixty-four years of age, and his constitution, never very
+robust, began to exhibit symptoms of decay. Dr Beattie, who had long
+watched him with affectionate solicitude, in the double character
+of physician and friend, thus notes his observation of the change.
+"At the breakfast or dinner table--particularly when surrounded
+by old friends--he was generally animated, full of anecdote, and
+always projecting new schemes of benevolence. But still there was a
+visible change in his conversation: it seemed to flow less freely;
+it required an effort to support it; and on topics in which he once
+felt a keen interest, he now said but little, or remained silent
+and thoughtful. The change in his outward appearance was still more
+observable; he walked with a feeble step, complained of constant
+chilliness; while his countenance, unless when he entered into
+conversation, was strongly marked with an expression of languor
+and anxiety. The sparkling intelligence that once animated his
+features was greatly obscured; he quoted his favourite authors with
+hesitation--because, he told me, he often could not recollect their
+names."
+
+The remainder of his life was spent in comparative seclusion. Long
+before this period he was left a solitary man. His wife, whom he
+loved with deep and enduring affection, was taken away--one of his
+sons died in childhood, and the other was stricken with a malady
+which proved incurable. But the kind offices of a nephew and niece,
+and the attentions of many friends, amongst whom Dr Beattie will
+always be remembered as the chief, soothed the last days of the
+poet, and supplied those duties which could not be rendered by
+dearer hands. He expired at Boulogne, on 15th June 1844, his age
+being sixty-seven, and his body was worthily interred in Westminster
+Abbey, with the honours of a public funeral.
+
+     "Never," says Beattie, "since the death of Addison, it was
+     remarked, had the obsequies of any literary man been attended by
+     circumstances more honourable to the national feeling, and more
+     expressive of cordial respect and homage, than those of Thomas
+     Campbell.
+
+     "Soon after noon, the procession began to move from the
+     Jerusalem Chamber to Poet's Corner, and in a few minutes passed
+     slowly down the long lofty aisle--
+
+    'Through breathing statues, then unheeded things;
+    Through rows of warriors, and through walks of kings.'
+
+     On each side the pillared avenues were lined with spectators,
+     all watching the solemn pageant in reverential silence, and
+     mostly in deep mourning. The Rev. Henry Milman, himself an
+     eminent poet, headed the procession; while the service for the
+     dead, answered by the deep-toned organ, in sounds like distant
+     thunder, produced an effect of indescribable solemnity. One only
+     feeling seemed to pervade the assembled spectators, and was
+     visible on every face--a desire to express their sympathy in a
+     manner suitable to the occasion. He who had celebrated the glory
+     and enjoyed the favour of his country for more than forty years,
+     had come at last to take his appointed chamber in the Hall of
+     Death--to mingle ashes with those illustrious predecessors, who,
+     by steep and difficult paths, had attained a lofty eminence in
+     her literature, and made a lasting impression on the national
+     heart."
+
+We observe that Dr Beattie has, very properly, passed over with
+little notice certain statements, emanating from persons who
+styled themselves the friends of Campbell, regarding his habits of
+life during the latter portion of his years. It is a misfortune
+incidental to almost all men of genius, that they are surrounded
+by a fry of small literary adulators, who, in order to magnify
+themselves, make a practice of reporting every circumstance, however
+trivial, which falls under their observation, and who are not always
+very scrupulous in adhering to the truth. Campbell, who had the
+full poetical share of vanity in his composition, was peculiarly
+liable to the attacks of such insidious worshippers, and was not
+sufficiently careful in the selection of his associates. Hence
+imputations, not involving any question of honour or morality, but
+implying frailty to a considerable degree, have been openly hazarded
+by some who, in their own persons, are no patterns of the cardinal
+virtues. Such statements do no honour either to the heart or the
+judgment of those who devised them: nor would we have even touched
+upon the subject, save to reprobate, in the strongest manner, these
+breaches of domestic privacy, and of ill-judged and unmerited
+confidence.
+
+A good deal of the correspondence printed in these volumes is of a
+trifling nature, and interferes materially with the conciseness of
+the biography. We do not mean to say that anything objectionable
+has been included, but there are too many notes and epistles upon
+familiar topics, which neither illustrate the peculiar tone of
+Campbell's mind, nor throw any light whatever upon his poetical
+history. But the correspondence with his own family is highly
+interesting. Nowhere does Campbell appear in a higher and more
+estimable point of view, than in the character of son and brother.
+Even in the hours of his darkest adversity, we find him sharing his
+small and precarious gains with his mother and sisters; and they
+were in an equal degree the participators of his better fortunes.
+His fondness and consideration for his wife and children are most
+conspicuous; and many of his letters regarding his boy, when "the
+dark shadow" had passed across his mind, are extremely affecting.
+Those who have a taste for the modern style of maundering about
+children, and the perverted pictures of infancy so common in our
+social literature, may not, perhaps, see much to admire in the
+following extract from a letter by Campbell, announcing the birth of
+his eldest child: to us it appears a pure and exquisite picture:--
+
+     "This little gentleman all this while looked to be so proud of
+     his new station in society, that he held up his blue eyes and
+     placid little face with perfect indifference to what people
+     about him felt or thought. Our first interview was when he lay
+     in his little crib, in the midst of white muslin and dainty
+     lace, prepared by Matilda's hands, long before the stranger's
+     arrival. I verily believe, in spite of my partiality, that
+     lovelier babe was never smiled upon by the light of heaven. He
+     was breathing sweetly in his first sleep. I durst not waken him,
+     but ventured to give him one kiss. He gave a faint murmur, and
+     opened his little azure lights. Since that time he has continued
+     to grow in grace and stature. I can take him in my arms; but
+     still his good nature and his beauty are but provocatives to
+     the affection which one must not indulge: he cannot bear to
+     be hugged, he cannot yet stand a worrying. Oh! that I were
+     sure he would live to the days when I could take him on my
+     knee, and feel the strong plumpness of childhood waxing into
+     vigorous youth. My poor boy! shall I have the ecstasy to teach
+     him thoughts and knowledge, and reciprocity of love to me? It
+     is bold to venture into futurity so far! at present his lovely
+     little face is a comfort to me; his lips breathe that fragrance
+     which it is one of the loveliest kindnesses of Nature that she
+     has given to infants--a sweetness of smell more delightful than
+     all the treasures of Arabia. What adorable beauties of God and
+     Nature's bounty we live in without knowing! How few have ever
+     seemed to think an infant beautiful! But to me there seems to be
+     a beauty in the earliest dawn of infancy which is not inferior
+     to the attractions of childhood, especially when they sleep.
+     Their looks excite a more tender train of emotions. It is like
+     the tremulous anxiety which we feel for a candle new lighted,
+     which we dread going out."
+
+The sensibility, too, which he uniformly exhibited towards those
+who had shown him kindness, especially his older and earlier
+friends, is exceedingly pleasing. In writing to or speaking of
+the Rev. Archibald Alison and Dugald Stewart, his tone is one of
+heartfelt, and almost filial, affection and reverence; and amongst
+all the benevolent actions performed by those great and good men,
+there were few to which they could revert with more pleasure than
+to their seasonable patronage of the young and sanguine poet. With
+his literary contemporaries, also, he lived upon good terms,--a
+circumstance rather remarkable, for Campbell, notwithstanding his
+good-nature, was sufficiently touchy, and keenly alive to satire or
+hostile criticism. Excepting an early quarrel with John Leyden, on
+the score of some reported misrepresentation, a temporary feud with
+Moore, which was speedily reconciled, and a short and unacrimonious
+disruption from Bowles, we are not aware that he ever differed with
+any of his gifted brethren. He was upon the best terms with Scott;
+and Dr Beattie has given us several valuable specimens of their
+mutual correspondence. With Rogers he was intimate to the last: and
+even the sarcastic and dangerous Byron always mentioned him with
+expressions of regard. Let us add, moreover, that, whenever he had
+the power, he was ready, even in instances where his own interest
+might have counselled otherwise, to lend a helping hand to others
+who were struggling for literary reputation. This generous impulse
+was sometimes carried so far as to injure him in his editorial
+capacity; for, although fastidious to a degree as to the quality of
+his own writings, it was always with a sore heart that he shut the
+door in the face of a needy contributor.
+
+The querulousness with which Campbell complains throughout, of the
+cruel treatment which he met with at the hands of the publishers,
+would be amusing if it were not at the same time most unjust. He
+acknowledges, in a letter written to Mr Richardson, so late as
+1812, that the sale of his poems, for a series of years before, had
+yielded him, on an average, £500 per annum: not a bad annuity, we
+think, as the proceeds of a couple of volumes! We happen to know,
+moreover, that by the first publication of _Gertrude_ Campbell
+made upwards of a thousand pounds; and, unless we are grievously
+misinformed, he received from Mr Murray, for the copyright of the
+_Specimens_, a similar sum, being double the amount contracted for.
+We have already mentioned the publication of a subscription edition
+of the _Pleasures of Hope_, "which," says Dr Beattie, "with great
+liberality on the part of the publishers, was to be brought out for
+his own exclusive benefit." We should not have alluded to these
+matters, which, however, we believe, are no secrets, but for the
+publication by Dr Beattie of some very absurd expressions used and
+reiterated by Campbell. Such phrases as the following constantly
+occur: "They are the greatest ravens on earth with whom we have to
+deal--liberal enough as booksellers go--but still, you know, ravens,
+croakers, suckers of innocent blood, and living men's brains." Nor,
+in the opinion of Campbell, were these outrages confined merely to
+the living subjects, for he says, in reference to the older tenants
+of Parnassus, "Poor Bards! you are all ill used, even after death,
+by those who have lived upon your brains. And now, having scooped
+out those brains, they drink out of them, like Vandals out of the
+skulls of the severed and slain, served up by a Gothic Ganymede!"
+Further, in speaking of Napoleon, he says, " Perhaps in my feelings
+towards the Gallic usurper there may be some personal bias; for I
+must confess that, ever since he shot the bookseller in Germany,
+I have had a warm side to him. It was sacrificing an offering, by
+the hand of genius, to the manes of the victims immolated by the
+trade; and I only wish we had Nap here for a short time, to cut out
+a few of our own cormorants." The fact is, that so far from Campbell
+being ill-used by the trade, they behaved towards him with uncommon
+liberality. It is true that, in several instances, they hesitated
+in making high terms for work not yet commenced, with a man who was
+notoriously deficient in punctuality and perseverance; nor are they
+to be blamed, when we consider the number of his schemes, and the
+very few instances in which these were brought to maturity.
+
+On the whole, then, though we cannot bestow unqualified praise upon
+Dr Beattie, for the manner in which he has compiled these volumes,
+we shall state that we have passed no unprofitable hours in their
+perusal. We rise from them with full appreciation of the many
+excellent points in the poet's character, with an augmented regard
+for his memory on account of the virtues so eminently displayed,
+and with no lessened reverence for the man in consequence of the
+admitted foibles from which none of the human family are exempt.
+The book may be practically useful to those who aspire to literary
+eminence, and who are apt to rely too confidently and implicitly on
+the powers with which they are naturally gifted. So long as Campbell
+was under restraint--so long as he was subjected to the wholesome
+discipline of the University, and forced into the race of emulation,
+we find that his genius was largely and rapidly developed. He was
+not a mere philological scholar, though his attainments in Greek
+might have put many a pedant to the blush; but he improved his sense
+of beauty and his taste by the contemplation of the Attic flowers;
+and, without injuring his style by any affectation of antiquity
+unsuited to the tone of his age, he adorned it by many of the graces
+which are presented by the ancient models. At Glasgow he worked hard
+and won merited honours. But afterwards, by abandoning himself to a
+desultory course of study and of composition, by never acting upon
+the wise and sure plan of keeping one object only steadily in view,
+and persevering in spite of all difficulties until that point was
+attained,--he failed in realising the high expectations which were
+justified by his early promise. As it is, Campbell's name is ranked
+high in the roll of the British poets; but assuredly he would have
+occupied a still more exalted place, and also have avoided much
+of that anxiety which at times clouded his existence, if he had
+used his fine natural gifts with but a portion of the energy and
+determination of his great compatriot, Scott.
+
+In conclusion let us remark, that however Dr Beattie may have
+erred on the side of prolixity, by including in the compass of the
+memoirs some trifling and irrelevant matter, he is more than concise
+whenever it is necessary to allude to his own relationship with
+Campbell. He has made no parade whatever of his intimacy with the
+poet; and no stranger, in perusing these volumes, could discover
+that to Beattie Campbell was substantially indebted for many
+disinterested acts of friendship, which contributed largely to the
+comfort of his declining years. This modesty is a rare feature in
+modern biography; and, when it does occur so remarkably as here, we
+are bound to mention it with special honour.
+
+
+
+
+THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS.
+
+
+All over Europe, of late, we have been hearing a great deal of
+universities and students. The trencher-cap has claimed a right to
+take its part in the movements which make or mar the destinies of
+nations, by the side of plumed casque and priestly tiara. Whether it
+was the beer of the German burschen that "decocted their cold blood
+to such valiant heat," or whether their practice in make-believe
+duels had imparted a savage appetite for foeman's blood in some
+more genuine combat, or whether Fichte's metaphysics had fairly
+muddled their brains into delirium, certain it is that they have,
+wheresoever they could find an opportunity, been foremost in the
+cause of demolition and disorder, vied with and encouraged the
+lowest of the rabble in lawless aggressions, exulted in the glow of
+blazing houses, and cried havoc to rapine and murder.
+
+It is curious that, while all this has been going on in Europe, the
+attention of the public should have been so much occupied by the
+condition of our English universities. Still more curious is it,
+perhaps, that so large a portion of the attention thus directed
+should have assumed an objurgatory tone, as if Oxford and Cambridge
+were not duly performing their functions, as if they were of a
+character suited only to bygone ages, as if, in short, they were
+doing nothing. True enough, in one sense, they were "doing nothing."
+There was no academical legion formed--none, at least, that we
+heard of--in Christchurch Meadows or Trinity Walks; no body of
+sympathising students marched to London, with the view of taking
+part in the democratic exhibitions of the 10th of April. If Cuffey
+is to be President of the British Republic, he must search for the
+body-guard of democracy elsewhere than on the banks of the Cam and
+the Isis. No doubt this excellent result is attributable, in a great
+measure, to the loyalty of the professional and middle classes, from
+which our university students principally spring. Their feelings
+will naturally be akin to those of their relations and friends. But
+when, in so many other instances, we see the academic population
+taking the lead in the work of revolution, beyond any spirit which
+exists among their kindred, and urged on by a democratic madness of
+purely academic growth, we cannot help holding that some credit on
+behalf of the loyalty of English students is due to the institutions
+by the influence of which they are surrounded.
+
+We are inclined to think that the public have not been sufficiently
+alive to this not unimportant difference between Oxford and
+Heidelberg--Cambridge and Vienna. Certes, but little account was
+taken of the peaceful bearing of our academic population. On the
+contrary, much supercilious wordiness has been lavished, more or
+less to the discredit of cap and gown, by portions of the London
+press in the lead, and, as a necessary consequence, by provincial
+journalists _ad libitum_. This talk, current now for some years,
+was all concentrated and endued with new vigour by a movement of
+the University of Cambridge itself. The people who stop your way
+by talking of "progress," and deal out dark rhodomontade on the
+subject of "enlightenment," were all set agog by what they thought
+a symptom of capitulation in the strongholds of the Ancient. All
+our old imbecile friends, the cant phrases of twenty and thirty
+years ago, started up as fresh as paint, ready to go through all
+the handling they had before endured. We heard of, "keeping alive
+ancient prejudices," "cleaving pertinaciously to obsolete forms,"
+"following a monastic rule," "forgetting the world outside their
+college walls," and multifarious twaddle of this sort, till the
+Pope fled from Rome, or some other little revolution occurred to
+withdraw the attention of the public from this set of phrases to
+another, no doubt not less forcible and original. Others, again,
+took a friendly tone and spoke apologetically: it was a great thing
+to get any move at all from the university: those who took the lead
+in her management were not men who mixed with the world at large,
+and allowance must be made if they did not altogether march with
+the times. "The world at large" is an expression of very doubtful
+import: "all think their little set mankind:" but when the resident
+fellows of colleges are charged with not duly mixing with the world
+at large, we cannot help thinking that those who use the phrase are
+ignoring the existence of the Didcot Junction and Eastern Counties
+Railway, and borrowing their ideas of academic life from the time
+when Hobson travelled "betwixt Cambridge and the Bull." As far
+as our observation goes, we should say that there is no class of
+persons who have better opportunities of taking an extended view
+of different phases of social being, or who are more disposed to
+take advantage of those opportunities. A fellow of a college is not
+engaged much more than half the year in university business; for
+four months, at the very least, he generally has it in his power
+to expatiate where he will, from May Fair to Mesopotamia; he has
+no household ties to detain him, and if he does not rub off the
+lexicographic rust, and the mathematical mouldiness, which he may
+have contracted during his labours of the term, he must be possessed
+of a local attachment almost vegetable: some few instances of
+which secluded existence still linger in quiet nooks of our halls
+and colleges, but which are no more the types of their class than
+Parson Trulliber is a representative of the country clergy, or the
+stage Diggory of the English yeoman. But the self-complacency of
+Cockneyism is the most unshaken thing in this revolutionary age.
+It is perfectly ready to lecture the parson on the teaching of
+Greek, or the Yorkshire farmer on the fattening of bullocks. All
+the distributive machinery in the world does not diminish, it would
+seem, the absorption of intelligence by the Ward of Cheap.
+
+We are not, however, surprised that the conclusions, on which we
+have remarked, should be those arrived at by the large class of
+small observers whose phraseology we have quoted. The bustling man
+of business, who takes his day-ticket to Oxford or Cambridge, is
+of course struck by seeing a number of usages, for the original
+of which, if he inquire, he is referred back to hoar mediæval
+times--times which his Cockney guides dispose of by some such phrase
+as crass ignorance, or feudal barbarism. He is naturally surprised
+at such things; he never saw anything like it before; they don't
+do so in Mincing Lane, or even in Gower Street. He can hardly be
+expected to view these matters in their relation to the system of
+which they form a part; he can hardly be expected to realise in
+them the symbols through which the _genius loci_ finds an utterance
+and exerts an agency; and so he goes smiling home in his railway
+carriage, and perhaps buys a number of _Punch_ by the way, and
+thinks that there is more practical wisdom in that periodical than
+is embodied in the great monuments of William of Wykeham or Lady
+Margaret.
+
+Nevertheless, while we rebut these vague general charges of a blind
+impassibility to the influences of the time, we are far from denying
+that a tendency to cling to ancient ideas and observances is a
+characteristic of the universities. This tendency is a property of
+all corporate institutions, and is commonly the reason of their
+foundation. They are to perpetuate to a future time a feeling or
+design of the present; to form a nucleus, round which the thoughts
+and principles of one age congregate, and are thus handed down to
+another in a preserved and crystallised form. Changes of ideas pass
+upon them of necessity, through the individual liability of their
+constituent members to be affected by the current of the passing
+time; but these changes take place rather by a gradual fusion of
+the old into the new, than by those sudden transitions to which the
+popular and prevailing opinions are so often subjected. And it may
+fairly be supposed that, by means of this property, corporations are
+more likely to adopt and amalgamate into their framework that which
+is most permanent and genuine, out of all that the ever-changing
+tide of time casts upon the shore.
+
+Perhaps, too, this tenacity of the bygone will more naturally be
+found to be a characteristic of the universities, than of other
+corporations. The spots which they occupy are holy ground, fraught
+with historic memories of the great and wise of former days. The
+_genius loci_ is a mighty advocate in behalf of antiquity:--
+
+    "As the ghost of Homer clings
+     Round Scamander's wasting springs;
+     As divinest Shakspeare's might
+     Fills Avon and the world with light;"
+
+--so we may not well pass unaffected by the congregation of priest,
+and poet, and sage, whose recollections consecrate the banks of
+our academic rivers. As we go beneath "Bacon's mansion," or about
+Milton's mulberry tree; as we kneel where Newton knelt, or dine in
+halls where the portraits of Erasmus, and Fisher, and Taylor, look
+down upon us,--these are not times and places for the dogmatism and
+arrogance of "the nineteenth century"--for bragging of our advance
+and illumination, or sneering at "the good old times." This is in
+accordance with the law of our nature; but these recollections, and
+the lessons which they teach, are not, if rightly laid hold of,
+such as to induce a mere blind attachment to the skeletons of dead
+notions and practices. And although it may, perhaps must, happen
+that, at any given time, there may be found relics adhering to the
+system, whose vitality and meaning have been withdrawn by time,
+and left them dry and sapless, yet we will venture to assert that,
+if a dogged adherence to antiquated forms could fairly be charged
+on the universities, they could never have maintained their ground
+amidst the mighty historical transmutations that have passed over
+their heads. Civil wars and popular tumults have raged around them;
+the throne has yielded to violence and to intrigue; the Church has
+admitted modifications, both of her doctrine and her discipline;
+and, more than all, the still more important, though silent and
+gradual changes--changes to which the striking and salient events of
+history are but the indexes and visible signs--changes of thought
+and rule of action--have risen and sunk, and ebbed and flowed, and
+still these stable monuments of the piety and munificence of men
+whose names are almost unknown, remain unshorn of their ancient
+vigour, and intimately entwined with our social system.
+
+But it is time that we should come to particulars, and make known
+to our readers, as briefly as we can, the nature of the alterations
+recently introduced at Cambridge, which have called forth so
+much objurgatory commendation from quarters, which were commonly
+considered to entertain tolerably destructive views in regard to the
+universities. We say objurgatory commendation, because the faint
+praise of a "move in the right direction" was generally more or
+less coupled with vigorous denunciation of the antiquated obstinacy
+which had so long kept in the wrong. And here we must premise the
+statement of certain qualities of the age in which we live, which
+will have fallen under the notice of all observers. Perhaps the most
+distinguishing feature of our time is the principle which forms the
+life and soul of retail trade--the principle which sets men to busy
+themselves about small and immediate returns for outlay; which looks
+more to the gains across the counter, than to the advantage which
+is general, or distant, or future. In a word, _practicality_ is the
+ruling passion of our day. As might have been expected, education,
+among other things, has been subjected to this huckstering test.
+People have asked, what is the market value of this or that branch
+of learning? Will it get a boy on in the world? Will it enable him
+to provide for himself soon? Will the returns for the expenditure
+I am going to make be quick and certain? Cowper represents the
+father of a son intended for the church as speculating on his young
+hopeful's prospects after the following fashion:--
+
+    "Let reverend churls his ignorance rebuke,
+     Who starve upon a dog's-eared Pentateuch,
+     The parson knows enough who knows a duke."
+
+In these days the acquaintance of a duke is not of the same relative
+value as it was when Cowper wrote; but this sort of worldly-wise
+calculation is more prevalent than ever, and the cry of the largest
+class of the public is--give us such knowledge as will _pay_.
+Those who took this commercial view of education derived no small
+encouragement from the circumstance that Prince Albert, the learned
+field-marshal, and warlike chancellor of Cambridge University,
+had interfered to promote the culture of modern languages in
+these venerable precincts of Eton, where for many a year Henry's
+holy shade had watched the growth of an education of less obvious
+utility. How was young Thomas or William "the better off" for being
+able to con "the tale of Troy divine?" But teach him to mince a
+little French, simper a little Italian, snarl a little German, and
+there he is at once accomplished for an _attaché_, a correspondent,
+or a bagman--profitable walks of life all of them. And the same
+notions mounted still higher in the ascendant, when the senate of
+the University of Cambridge apparently evinced a desire to examine
+the requirements of that body by the same standard.
+
+The first step of this kind was taken about three years ago. Most
+of our readers are aware that, at Cambridge, those candidates
+for a degree who do not aspire to honours are said to go out in
+the _poll_; this being the abbreviated term to denote those who
+were classically designated �ι πολλοι. Now the qualifications
+required for attaining this poll degree consisted of an acquaintance
+with a part of Homer, a part of Virgil, a part of the Greek
+Testament, and Paley's _Evidences of Christianity_, over and
+above the mathematics, of which we shall speak presently. By
+what curious infelicity the recondite, and, in many particulars,
+inexplicable language of Homer has been so commonly selected for
+beginners in Greek at school, and, as in this case, for those who
+were not expected to appear as accomplished scholars--we need not
+here stop to inquire. Suffice it to say that the university, in
+this initial reform, ousted Homer and Virgil from the course, and
+supplied their places with a Latin and Greek author, to be varied
+in each successive year. This was decidedly an improvement, at
+least as regards Homer, for the reason we have alluded to above.
+Perhaps a better innovation would have been to have followed the
+Oxford system, and allowed to the student a choice of his author.
+But it is a great misfortune that the university, in recasting
+this course, did not substitute a work of some one of the logical
+or philosophical authors current in the English language, for the
+shallow and plausible book of Paley's above mentioned--with regard
+to which it would be difficult to say whether it is worse chosen as
+a model of reasoning, or as a proof of Christian facts.
+
+The mathematical portion of this course consisted of Euclid,
+algebra, and trigonometry, the student being thus trained in the
+model processes of pure mathematical reasoning left us by the
+first, and also brought acquainted with the elementary operations
+of analysis. As a matter of mental training, the most valuable
+portion of this curriculum was the knowledge acquired of the
+geometrical processes employed by Euclid, as familiarising the mind
+of the student with the severest forms of reasoning, and the steps
+whereby indubitable verity is attained. This portion, however, was
+most especially selected for curtailment by the reforms to which
+we are alluding. In the stead of the requirements thus displaced,
+a motley amount of elementary propositions in statics, dynamics,
+and hydrostatics, were substituted--useful information enough as
+instances of the simpler applications of the analytical machinery
+of mathematics, but comparatively worthless as an exercise of
+the mind. Country clergymen, whose forgotten mathematics loomed
+grandly on their minds through the mist of years, were confounded
+with disappointment at beholding their sons, in whom they expected
+to find philosophers, return to them with an examination paper,
+apparently rather calculated to unfold the mysteries of engineering,
+well-sinking, and carpentering.
+
+This object--the practicability and immediate utility of the studies
+pursued, in preference to the superiority of mental training
+derivable from them--seems to be simply that which has dictated
+the recent innovations of 1848. The principle which entered into
+both measures may easily be traced in the prevalent phases of
+literature and science throughout the public at large. A few years
+ago, every one fancied himself a philosopher. Little volumes,
+cabinet cyclopædias and the like, swarmed on the booksellers'
+shelves, containing a string of disjointed and bald scientific
+facts, involving no truth and expressive of no law, but more or less
+adroitly arranged under several heads, with a _savant_ air. The
+man of business--the apprentice--the boarding-school miss--took it
+into their heads that a royal road was thus opened to all branches
+of useful and entertaining knowledge,--that the acquirements of
+Bacon were "in this wonderful age" brought within the reach of
+every one who had an occasional hour or two in the day to spare
+from more mechanical employments; and that the progress from
+ignorance to philosophy was as much facilitated by these little-book
+contrivances, as the journey from London to Birmingham, by the
+rushing railway-train, was an advance upon the week's toil of our
+forefathers in accomplishing the same space. Much of this mania for
+desultory knowledge has evaporated, but its influences are still
+distinctly to be traced among us. It is not surprising that those
+influences should in some measure have affected the universities.
+In accordance with the popular notions afloat, the Cambridge
+legislators followed up the alteration which we have been describing
+by the adoption of their recent measures, by which they effected an
+extension of their field of "honours" similar to that which they
+had already accomplished in the qualifications for the ordinary
+degree. To the old "triposes," or classes of honours in mathematics
+and classics, they have now added two more--namely, one in moral
+sciences and one in natural sciences.
+
+Before, however, we offer any conjectures as to the probable
+effect of these yet untried changes, we must remind our readers
+of a certain characteristic of the Cambridge system, which is
+important in estimating the internal relations of the late reforms.
+The academic life of Cambridge circulates through two concurrent
+systems, which we may term the university and the collegiate system.
+The university is one corporation, and each individual college is
+altogether another. The union between the two systems might be
+dissolved without difficulty. If the university were to abandon
+her ancient seat, and take up some new abode, as she did for a
+time at Northampton some centuries ago, the colleges might still
+remain as places of education, with but little modification of their
+present character. The older system--the university--has had its
+functions gradually absorbed in a great measure by the collegiate.
+The earliest form in which Cambridge appears, dimly seen in hoar
+antiquity, is that of a congregation of students, commonly living
+together for mutual convenience in hostels, governed by a code
+of statutes, and endowed with the privilege of granting degrees.
+Then came the founders of colleges, with their noble endowments,
+and reared edifices, in which societies of these students should
+live together under a common rule, and form distinct corporations
+by themselves, for purposes connected with, and auxiliary to,
+those of the university. The latter body has from time immemorial
+matriculated only those who were already members of some one or
+other of the colleges; but there probably was a time at which a
+student in the university was not necessarily a member of any
+college, until by degrees these foundations absorbed into their
+composition the whole of the academic population. By-and-by, the
+principal part of the functions of teaching also lapsed into the
+hands of the colleges. In the old times, the university discharged
+this duty by means of the public readings or lectures by the newly
+admitted masters of arts, (termed _regents_,) and by the keeping of
+acts and opponencies--being certain _vivâ voce_ disputations--by
+the students. To this system, comprehending the main studies of the
+place, was superadded, by individual endowment or royal beneficence,
+the collateral information on special subjects given by the
+professors. The colleges were altogether subsidiary to this mode
+of instruction--the practice being that every student who enrolled
+himself in the ranks of a particular college, must do so under the
+charge of some one of the fellows of the college, who became a kind
+of private tutor to him. Hence arose college tutors; and as their
+lectures, given in each separate college, were found to be the most
+efficient aids in prosecuting the university studies, the readings
+of the masters of arts gradually fell altogether into disuse, and
+the _vivâ voce_ exercises of the students have nearly done so.
+
+Possibly, along with the transfer of the functions of lecturing
+from the university regents to the college tutors, the professorial
+chairs may also have declined in importance as an element of
+the academic education. But, as we have before seen, these were
+never the main vehicle for the dispensation of knowledge on the
+part of the university. Nevertheless, we suspect that one object
+of the recently erected triposes is to revive the importance of
+the professors' lectures in the university course. For it is now
+required that every one who presents himself as a candidate for the
+ordinary or _poll_ degree, shall have attended the lectures of some
+one of the professors at his individual choice; and these lectures
+will, moreover, be necessary guides in the studies required of
+those who aim at the honours of the new triposes. It seems clear,
+therefore, that the devisers of the scheme had it in contemplation,
+through the medium of their changes, to fill the class-rooms of
+the professors, and so far to assimilate the modern system to the
+ancient, by bringing the university instruction into more active
+play. We are disposed to question the wisdom of these proceedings.
+Until now, the university and the colleges had apportioned their
+several functions, by assigning to the latter the duty of imparting
+proficiency in the studies cultivated; to the former, that of
+testing proficiency attained. The two systems had thus harmonised,
+as we believe, in conformity with the requirements of the age by
+lapse of time; and if it was deemed desirable to disturb this
+arrangement, and restore the faculty of teaching to the university,
+this should rather have been done, we think, by reviving the system
+of _vivâ voce_ disputations, now altogether disused except in the
+progress to a degree in law, physic, or divinity; but which would
+form, under proper regulations, an important adjunct to the ordinary
+course, by cultivating a decision, a readiness, and an ingenuity
+in reasoning, which are comparatively left dormant by a written
+examination. Again, it is, as we consider, altogether a mistake
+to suppose that the primary end of a professorial existence is to
+deliver lectures. The endowment of a professorship is rather, as
+we take it, to enable the holder of it to give up his time to the
+particular science to which he is devoted; and it is by no means
+necessary, especially in these days, when words are so easily winged
+by the printer's devil, that the results of his labours should be
+given forth by oral lectures. At the same time, when his subject,
+and his manner of treating it, were such as to command interest,
+he was at no loss for an audience. The professorships, however,
+being mostly established for the purpose of aiding the pursuit of
+the inductive sciences, side by side with the severer studies of
+the university, fell under the patronage of the spirit of the age.
+Whether the sciences, for the promotion of which they were founded,
+will be materially advanced by this sort of "protection," remains to
+be seen.
+
+It is likely enough, we think, that some confusion may arise from
+this revival of the lecturing powers of the university. This,
+however, will be easily obviated in practice, as the two systems
+have never, so far as we are aware, manifested anything like a
+mutual antagonism or jealousy of each other. A greater practical
+difficulty is one which appears to be left untouched by the new
+regime. We allude to the growing plan of instruction by private
+tutors--a calling which has sprang up, in the strictest principles
+of demand and supply, to meet the eagerness for external aid which
+has been induced by the great competition for university honours.
+The existence and increasing importance of the class of private
+tutors has been decried as an evil; and it, no doubt, enhances
+considerably the expenses attendant on a college education. But,
+after all, this is only part and parcel of the lot which has fallen
+to us in these latter days of merry England. There are so many of
+us, and we keep so constantly adding to our numbers, that we must
+not be surprised at more pushing and contrivance being required to
+realise a livelihood than heretofore; and as the end to be attained
+increases in its relative importance, the outlay attendant on its
+attainment will, in the ordinary course of things, be augmented
+also. It is not our intention, however, to discuss at this time
+the merits or demerits of the private-tutor system; it suffices
+for our purpose to notice it as the reappearance, in another form,
+of the old functions of instruction, as lodged in the hands of the
+university regents. As the collegiate system gradually supplanted
+that pristine form, so the office of the private tutors is, to a
+certain extent, supplanting the collegiate system. These instructors
+are likely, as we before said, to occupy, under the new rules, much
+the same place as they held under the old; and indeed it appears
+that, whether desirable or not, it would be extremely difficult to
+get rid of them; at all events the colleges, being now trenched upon
+by the university professors on the one hand, and by the private
+tutors on the other, must exert themselves to ascertain their proper
+functions, and to fulfil them with zeal and energy.
+
+As for the new triposes themselves, it may be doubted whether the
+name given to them is not the most unfortunate part of them. The
+common name of Tripos looks like a confusion of ideas on the part
+of the university itself, and a want of discrimination between its
+old studies and its new. At first, probably, the recent triposes
+will be comparatively neglected, and on that ground alone it is both
+misjudging and unfair to include in the same category of "honours"
+and "tripos," classes which are respectively the subject of ardent
+competition and of none at all. But supposing that the new classes
+attracted their fair share of competitors, it would still be a
+grievous fault in the university to hold out to the world so false
+an estimate of the vehicle of mental training, as it would appear
+to do by placing on a par the new studies and the old--by assuming,
+or seeming to assume, that ratiocinative thought may be as well
+employed about the fallacies of Mr Ricardo, as the exact reasoning
+and indubitable verities of Euclid and Newton; or that the faculties
+of discrimination and speculation may be unfolded by the "getting
+up" of botanical or chemical nomenclature, not less than by the new
+world of thought opened through the authors of Greece and Rome. We
+must, however, confess that we are now taking the most unfavourable
+view of the matter. With respect, indeed, to the natural sciences'
+tripos, we cannot help being fully of opinion, that it should have
+been distinctly recognised as subsidiary to the main vehicles of
+education adopted at Cambridge. But the moral sciences' tripos
+furnishes, if properly constructed, an excellent means for training
+thought. It is a great misfortune that the study of Aristotle has
+been suffered at Cambridge to fall almost into desuetude: we speak
+of the philosophical study of his works in contradistinction to
+the philological. The former is maintained at Oxford with great
+success; thus combining, with Oxford scholarship, a training of the
+reasoning powers which is almost an equivalent for the mathematical
+studies of her sister university. Moreover, the literature of Great
+Britain boasts of a band of moral philosophers far greater than any
+other modern nation can produce. The works of Butler, Cudworth,
+Berkeley, Hume, Reid, and Stewart, with many others, form a group
+of authorities worthy of the groves of Academus. The metaphysics
+of Locke--we should rather say, the wall which Locke has built
+up between the English mind and the science of metaphysics--has
+too long prevented the moral reasoners of this country from duly
+availing themselves of the treasures at their command. Under the
+guidance of such lights as those we have enumerated, we may hope
+to see a school of metaphysical thinkers arise in England, whose
+exertions may dissipate the mist of half-thought in which Teutonic
+speculation has involved the science of its choice. If, however, the
+tap-root of our metaphysical thought is to be cut through by the
+study of the plausibilities of Locke and Paley, (no very unlikely
+issue, we should fear, at least under present circumstances,) then
+this moral sciences' tripos also is one of those things which had
+better never have been.
+
+We repeat that Cambridge has incurred great blame, if she has
+allowed herself to mislead, or to seem to mislead, the popular
+mind on these matters. The more talkative portion of the public,
+and the newspapers which commonly represent that more talkative
+portion, have evidently been inclined to interpret this movement of
+Cambridge as an indication of a most utilitarian system of education
+coming to supplant the old rules. They anticipate all sorts of
+civil engineering, butterfly-dissecting, light geology, and a whole
+Babel of modern languages, to be victoriously let loose on the home
+where for many a century Wisdom has sat with the scroll of Plato
+on her knee, and Science has unravelled the wizard lore of fluxion
+and equation. The senate of Cambridge is egregiously mistaken if it
+supposes that it will win over to its body the students of these
+popular branches of knowledge, by following the dictation of the
+popular taste. Those who want to be civil engineers will not come
+to a university to learn their art. They will follow Brunel and
+Stephenson, and see how the work is actually done in practice; and
+those who do so will soon prove themselves far superior, _quoad_
+civil engineering, to the Cambridge-bred theorist. In like manner,
+a month's flirtation in Paris, or a few games at _écarté_ with a
+German baron, will teach the student of modern languages more French
+or German than all the philologists of Oxford, Cambridge, or Eton
+can impart in a year.
+
+  "Quam quisque nôrit artem, in hâc se exerceat."
+
+If the public have mistaken the functions of the university, it
+is the more incumbent on her to assert them correctly. Nor is
+the outcry less groundless, that the universities have failed to
+furnish the best men in law and medicine. With regard to the law,
+certain gentlemen were even cited by name, in leading articles of
+newspapers, as types of the class of men who were now taking the
+lead at the bar, and representing an altogether different school
+from that trained at the universities. The fact of the university
+men being supplanted, or being likely to be supplanted, at the bar,
+may admit of considerable question. But it is not, after all, the
+question by which the universities are to be judged. They do not
+undertake to make men great lawyers or skilful physicians; this,
+where it does belong to their functions, is a collateral duty, and
+not the main object of their training. That object is distinctly
+avowed in their own formularies. That noble clause in the "bidding
+prayer" will attach itself to the memories of most of those who have
+heard it:
+
+"_And that there never may be wanting a supply of persons duly
+qualified to serve God, both in Church and State_, let us pray
+for a blessing on all seminaries of sound learning and religious
+education, particularly the universities of this realm."
+
+A higher end to be attained, perhaps, than that of merely qualifying
+the student to "get on in the world." His university education is
+not so much to enable him to attain those eminent stations which
+are the prizes of ability and industry, as to fit him to adorn and
+fill worthily those stations when he has attained them. In truth,
+we think it is not desirable, any more than necessary, that a
+degree should be an essential opening to the bar, the profession of
+medicine, or even the Church. The university is injured by being too
+much regarded as a step to be got over with the view of reaching
+some ulterior end.
+
+We dwell on this point with the more interest, because we are
+satisfied that a still greater responsibility rests with the
+universities, to guard the fountains of knowledge pure and
+unsullied, in those days of professed knowledge, than in the
+so-called dark ages. Our day is rich in the knowledge of _facts_;
+there were many _truths_ influencing those men of the times we
+please to call dark, which we have ignored or forgotten. The general
+demand for information--for this knowledge of facts--has made
+it a marketable commodity, a subject of commercial speculation;
+consequently, a vast deal that is shallow and desultory, a vast
+deal, too, that is counterfeit and fraudulent, is abroad, made up
+for the market, and circulates among multitudes who are incapable
+of separating the grain from the chaff. It is therefore, we repeat,
+even more important that the sources of learning should be guarded
+from contamination, now that the antagonistic principles are the
+knowledge of truth and the subserviency to falsehood, than when, at
+the revival of literature, the struggle was between knowledge and
+ignorance.
+
+We would have the universities remember that it is their best policy
+as corporations, as well as a duty they owe to those great medieval
+spirits who planted them where they stand, to own a better principle
+than that which would lead them to succumb to what is called popular
+opinion--in other words, the floating fallacy of the day--and aim
+at producing the shallow party leaders and favourite writers of
+the passing moment. They cannot control the frothy surface and the
+deep under-current at the same time. It would be a sacrifice to
+expediency which, after all, would not serve their turn. There are
+institutions which will do that work, and which will beat them in
+the race. Let all such take their own course.
+
+"Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his hoggish kinde:" let Stinkomalee
+train the statesmen for the League and the jokers for _Punch_,--but
+Oxford and Cambridge have other rôles.
+
+It is true, we are told there is a new aristocracy rising in
+England, and that the English universities are gaining no hold
+upon the coming generation of "chiefs of industry." It would be
+far better for our social condition that these same chiefs of
+industry should be educated men, and should pass through a training
+which might tend to neutralise the power of the mercantile iron in
+entering into their soul. But at present the race to be rich is
+so strong and hardly contested, that this class is hardly likely,
+in general, to devote their scions to academical studies of any
+description; and the merchant or manufacturer who came from the
+banks of Isis or Cam, at the age of twenty-one, to the Exchange
+or the Cloth-hall, would find himself starting under a most heavy
+disadvantage as compared with his neighbour of the same age, who had
+spent the last three or four years in a counting-house. The reason
+that this class is not commonly trained in the national seminaries,
+is to be sought in the habit and requirements of the class, and not
+in the nature of the education afforded them.
+
+We have spoken chiefly of Cambridge, because Cambridge has put
+herself forward as the representative of a system of so-called
+university reform--of a certain movement in the direction of that
+principle which would accommodate the education of our higher
+classes to the caprice of a popular cry or cant phrase. We care
+not so much whether that movement in itself be advantageous or the
+reverse: it is against the principles supposed to be involved in it
+that we protest. The report goes, that changes of some kind or other
+are contemplated at Oxford also. If these changes be made, we trust
+that they will not be devised in deference to the noisier portion of
+the public, or to that fondness for short-cuts to knowledge, which
+fritters away the energies of the rising man in the collection of
+desultory facts, and the dependence upon shallow plausibilities.
+The Scottish universities, too, are likely to be put to the test in
+the same manner as their sisters of the Southern kingdom; and the
+questions raised cannot be uninteresting to them.
+
+Nor, indeed, can the whole nation be otherwise than deeply concerned
+in this matter; and we are not surprised, at the interest which
+has been excited by the recent alterations at Cambridge, though
+not measures in themselves of any great importance. While we have
+contended for a higher ground on the part of the universities
+than that of merely finding such knowledge as is required by the
+popular taste, and happens to be most current in the market, and
+have called upon them to lead the public mind in these matters,
+we need hardly say that we must not be understood as failing to
+see the necessity of those institutions closely observing the
+shifting relations of our social equilibrium, and adapting their
+policy by judicious change, if need be, to the circumstances in
+which they find themselves. We might perhaps adduce the altered
+position of the Church with respect to the nation at large, as
+an instance of these changes. We have before hinted that the
+universities have, as we think, in some degree aimed at being
+too exclusively the training-schools of the clergy; and this
+circumstance, in our judgment, so far as England is concerned, has
+both narrowed the operations of the Church and the influence of the
+universities. The Church and European civilisation--the latter
+having grown up under the tutelage of the former--stand no longer
+in the relation of nurse and bantling, though Heaven forbid that
+they should ever be other than firm friends and allies! But the
+Church is no longer the exclusive teacher of the world: mankind
+are in a great measure taught by books. Viewing the clergy not in
+respect of their sacerdotal functions, but as the instructors of
+mankind, we find their office shared by a motley crowd of authors,
+pamphleteers, newspaper editors, magazine contributors, _quales
+nos vel Cluvienus_. It is incumbent, then, on the universities to
+consider how they may bring within the sphere of that control which
+they exercised in old times over the clergy, this mixed multitude
+of public instructors; how they may become not merely the schools
+of the clerical order, but also the nurseries of a future caste of
+literary men, who are to bear their part with that order in the
+coming development of human thought.
+
+
+
+
+THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN.
+
+BY DELTA.
+
+
+[Making all allowances for the many over-coloured pictures, nay,
+often onesided statements of such apologetic chroniclers as Knox,
+Melville, Calderwood, and Row, it is yet difficult to divest the
+mind of a strong leaning towards the old Presbyterians and champions
+of the Covenant--probably because we believe them to have been
+sincere, and know them to have been persecuted and oppressed.
+Nevertheless, the liking is as often allied to sympathy as to
+approbation; for a sifting of motives exhibits, in but too many
+instances, a sad commixture of the chaff of selfishness with the
+grain of principle--an exhibition of the over and over again played
+game, by which the gullible many are made the tools of the crafty
+and designing few. Be it allowed that, both in their preachings
+from the pulpit and their teachings by example, the Covenanters
+frequently proceeded more in the spirit of fanaticism than of sober
+religious feeling; and that, in their antagonistic ardour, they did
+not hesitate to carry the persecutions of which they themselves
+so justly complained into the camp of the adversary--sacrificing
+in their mistaken zeal even the ennobling arts of architecture,
+sculpture, and painting, as adjuncts of idol-worship--still it is to
+be remembered, that the aggression emanated not from them; and that
+the rights they contended for were the most sacred and invaluable
+that man can possess--the freedom of worshipping God according
+to the dictates of conscience. They sincerely believed that the
+principles which they maintained were right: and their adherence to
+these with unalterable constancy, through good report and through
+bad report; in the hour of privation and suffering, of danger and
+death; in the silence of the prison-cell, not less than in the
+excitement of the battle-field; by the blood-stained hearth, on the
+scaffold, and at the stake,--forms a noble chapter in the history of
+the human mind--of man as an accountable creature.
+
+Be it remembered, also, that these religious persecutions were not
+mere things of a day, but were continued through at least three
+entire generations. They extended from the accession of James VI. to
+the English throne, (_testibus_ the rhymes of Sir David Lyndsay,
+and the classic prose of Buchanan,) down to the Revolution of
+1688--almost a century, during which many thousands tyrannically
+perished, without in the least degree loosening that tenacity of
+purpose, or subduing that _perfervidum ingenium_, which, according
+to Thuanus, have been national characteristics.
+
+As in almost all similar cases, the cause of the Covenanters, so
+strenuously and unflinchingly maintained, ultimately resulted in
+the victory of Protestantism--that victory, the fruits of which we
+have seemed of late years so readily inclined to throw away; and, in
+its rural districts more especially, of nothing are the people more
+justly proud than
+
+                        ----"the tales
+    Of persecution and the Covenant,
+    Whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour."
+
+So says Wordsworth. These traditions have been emblazoned by the
+pens of Scott, M'Crie, Galt, Hogg, Wilson, Grahame, and Pollok, and
+by the pencils of Wilkie, Harvey, and Duncan,--each regarding them
+with the eye of his peculiar genius.
+
+In reference to the following stanzas, it should be remembered that,
+during the holding of their conventicles,--which frequently, in the
+more troublous times, took place amid mountain solitudes, and during
+the night,--a sentinel was stationed on some commanding height in
+the neighbourhood, to give warning of the approach of danger.]
+
+
+I.
+
+    Ho! plaided watcher of the hill,
+      What of the night?--what of the night?
+    The winds are lown, the woods are still,
+      The countless stars are sparkling bright;
+    From out this heathery moorland glen,
+      By the shy wild-fowl only trod,
+    We raise our hymn, unheard of men,
+      To Thee--an omnipresent God!
+
+
+II.
+
+    Jehovah! though no sign appear,
+      Through earth our aimless path to lead,
+    We know, we feel Thee ever near,
+      A present help in time of need--
+    Near, as when, pointing out the way,
+      For ever in thy people's sight,
+    A pillared wreath of smoke by day,
+      Which turned to fiery flame at night!
+
+
+III.
+
+    Whence came the summons forth to go?--
+      From Thee awoke the warning sound!
+    "Out to your tents, O Israel! Lo!
+      The heathen's warfare girds thee round.
+    Sons of the faithful! up--away!
+      The lamb must of the wolf beware;
+    The falcon seeks the dove for prey;
+      The fowler spreads his cunning snare!"
+
+
+IV.
+
+    Day set in gold; 'twas peace around--
+      'Twas seeming peace by field and flood:
+    We woke, and on our lintels found
+      The cross of wrath--the mark of blood.
+    Lord! in thy cause we mocked at fears,
+      We scorned the ungodly's threatening words--
+    Beat out our pruning-hooks to spears,
+      And turned our ploughshares into swords!
+
+
+V.
+
+    Degenerate Scotland! days have been
+      Thy soil when only freemen trod--
+    When mountain-crag and valley green
+      Poured forth the loud acclaim to God!--
+    The fire which liberty imparts,
+      Refulgent in each patriot eye,
+    And, graven on a nation's hearts,
+      _The Word_--for which we stand or die!
+
+
+VI.
+
+    Unholy change! The scorner's chair
+      Is now the seat of those who rule;
+    Tortures, and bonds, and death, the share
+      Of all except the tyrant's tool.
+    That faith in which our fathers breathed,
+      And had their life, for which they died--
+    That priceless heirloom they bequeathed
+      Their sons--our impious foes deride!
+
+
+VII.
+
+    So We have left our homes behind,
+      And We have belted on the sword,
+    And We in solemn league have joined,
+      Yea! covenanted with the Lord,
+    Never to seek those homes again,
+      Never to give the sword its sheath,
+    Until our rights of faith remain
+      Unfettered as the air we breathe!
+
+
+VIII.
+
+    O Thou, who rulest above the sky,
+      Begirt about with starry thrones,
+    Cast from the Heaven of Heavens thine eye
+      Down on our wives and little ones--
+    From Hallelujahs surging round,
+      Oh! for a moment turn thine ear,
+    The widow prostrate on the ground,
+      The famished orphan's cries to hear!
+
+
+IX.
+
+    And Thou wilt hear! it cannot be,
+      That Thou wilt list the raven's brood,
+    When from their nest they scream to Thee,
+      And in due season send them food;
+    It cannot be that Thou wilt weave
+      The lily such superb array,
+    And yet unfed, unsheltered, leave
+      Thy children--as if less than they!
+
+
+X.
+
+    We have no hearths--the ashes lie
+      In blackness where they brightly shone;
+    We have no homes--the desert sky
+      Our covering, earth our couch alone:
+    We have no heritage--depriven
+      Of these, we ask not such on earth;
+    Our hearts are sealed; we seek in heaven,
+      For heritage, and home, and hearth!
+
+
+XI.
+
+    O Salem, city of the saint,
+      And holy men made perfect! We
+    Pant for thy gates, our spirits faint
+      Thy glorious golden streets to see;--
+    To mark the rapture that inspires
+      The ransomed, and redeemed by grace;
+    To listen to the seraphs' lyres,
+      And meet the angels face to face!
+
+
+XII.
+
+    Father in Heaven! we turn not back,
+      Though briers and thorns choke up the path;
+    Rather the tortures of the rack,
+      Than tread the winepress of Thy wrath.
+    Let thunders crash, let torrents shower,
+      Let whirlwinds churn the howling sea,
+    What is the turmoil of an hour,
+      To an eternal calm with Thee?
+
+
+
+
+THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA.
+
+
+The debates in the Cortes, and the increasing development of the
+civil war in Catalonia, have again called attention to the affairs
+of Spain. Three months ago we glanced at the state of that country,
+briefly and broadly sketching its political history since the royal
+marriages. The quarter of a year that has since elapsed has been a
+busy one in Spain. Two things have been clearly proved: first, that
+the Carlist insurrection is a very different affair from the paltry
+gathering of banditti, as which the Moderados and their newspapers
+so long persisted in depicting it; and, secondly, that the Madrid
+government are heartily repentant of their unceremonious dismissal
+of a British ambassador. Christina and her Camarilla scarcely know
+which most deeply to deplore--the intrusion of Cabrera or the
+expulsion of Bulwer.
+
+In Catalonia, we have a striking example of what may be
+accomplished, under most unfavourable circumstances, by one man's
+energy and talent. Nine months ago there was not a single company of
+Carlist soldiers in the field. A few irregular bands, insignificant
+in numbers, without uniform and imperfectly armed, roamed in the
+mountains, fearing to enter the plain, hunted down like wolves,
+and punished as malefactors when captured. To persons ignorant
+how great was the difference made by the fall of Louis Philippe
+in the chances of the Spanish Carlists, the cause of these never
+appeared more hopeless than in the spring of 1848. Suddenly a man,
+who for seven years had basked in the orange groves of Hyères, and
+listlessly lingered in the mountain solitudes of Auvergne,--reposing
+his body, scarred and weary from many a desperate combat, and
+recruiting his health, impaired by exertion and hardship--crossed
+the Pyrenees, and appeared upon the scene of his former exploits.
+The news of his arrival spread fast, but for a time found few
+believers. Cabrera, said the incredulous, who evacuated Spain at
+the head of ten thousand hardy and well-armed soldiers, because
+he would not condescend to a guerilla warfare, after having held
+towns and fortresses, and won pitched battles in the field--Cabrera
+would never re-enter the country to take command of a few hundred
+scattered adventurers. Others denied his presence, because he had
+not immediately signalised it by some dashing feat, worthy the
+conqueror of Morella and Maella. Various reports were circulated by
+those interested to discredit the arrival of the redoubted chief.
+He was ill, they said; he had never entered Spain or dreamed of
+so doing; he had come to Catalonia, others admitted, but was so
+disgusted at the scanty resources of his party, at the few men in
+the field, at the lack of arms, money, organisation,--of everything,
+in short, necessary for the prosecution of a war,--that he cursed
+the lying representations which had lured him from retirement, and
+was again upon the wing for France. The truth was in none of these
+statements. If Cabrera sounded a retreat in 1840, when ten thousand
+warlike and devoted followers were still at his orders, it was
+because the Carlist _prestige_ was gone for a time, the country was
+exhausted by war, anarchy reigned in the camp, and he himself was
+prostrated by sickness. In seven years, circumstances had entirely
+changed; the country, galled by misgovernment and oppression, was
+ripe for insurrection; the intermeddling of foreign powers was no
+longer to be apprehended; and Cabrera emerged from his retirement,
+not expecting to find an army, or money, or organisation, but
+prepared to create all three. In various ingenious and impenetrable
+disguises he moved rapidly about eastern Spain; fearlessly
+entering the towns, visiting his old partisans, and reviving their
+dormant zeal by ardent and confident speech; giving fresh spirit
+to the timid, shaming the apathetic, and enlisting recruits. His
+unremitting efforts were crowned with success. Numbers of his
+former followers rallied round him; secret adherents of the cause
+contributed funds; arms and equipments, purchased in France and
+England, safely arrived; officers of rank and talent, distinguished
+in former wars, raised their banners and mustered companies and even
+battalions; and soon Cabrera was strong enough to traverse Catalonia
+in all directions, and to collect from the inhabitants regular
+contributions, in almost every instance willingly paid, and gathered
+often within cannon-shot of the enemy's forts. He seemed ubiquitous.
+He was heard of everywhere, but more rarely seen, at least in
+his own character. In various assumed ones, not unfrequently in
+the garb of a priest, he accompanied small detachments sent to
+collect imposts; doing subaltern's rather than general's duty,
+ascertaining by personal observation the temper and disposition
+of the peasantry, and making himself known when a point was to be
+gained by the influence of his name and presence. His prodigious
+activity and perseverance wrought miracles in a country where those
+qualities by no means abound. Doubtless he has been well seconded,
+but his has been the master-spirit. The result of his exertions
+is best shown by a statement of the present Carlist strength in
+Catalonia. We have already mentioned what it was eight or nine
+months ago--a few hundred men, half-armed and ill disciplined,
+wandering amongst ravines and precipices. At the close of 1848, the
+Moderado papers, without means of obtaining correct information,
+estimated the Carlist army in Catalonia at 8000 men. The Carlists
+themselves, whose present policy is rather to under-state their
+strength, admitted 10,000. Their real numbers--and the accuracy of
+these statistics may be relied upon--are 12,000 bayonets and sabres,
+exclusive of small guerilla parties, known as _volantes_, and other
+irregulars. A large proportion of the 12,000 are old soldiers,
+who served in the last war; and all are well armed, equipped, and
+disciplined, and superior to their opponents in power of endurance,
+and of effecting those tremendous marches for which Spanish troops
+are celebrated. Regularly rationed and supplied with tobacco, they
+wait cheerfully till the military chest is in condition to disburse
+arrears. The curious in costume may like to hear something of their
+appearance. The brigade under the immediate orders of Cabrera
+wears a green uniform with black facings: Ramonet's men have dark
+blue jackets; there is a corps clothed _à l'Anglaise_, in scarlet
+coats and blue continuations, which is known as Count Montemolin's
+own regiment. The old _boina_ or flat cap, and a sort of light,
+low-crowned shako, such as is worn by the French in Africa, compose
+the convenient and appropriate head-dress. With the important arms
+of artillery and cavalry, in which armies raised as this one has
+been are apt to be deficient, Cabrera is well provided. A number
+of guns were buried and otherwise concealed in Spain ever since
+the last war, and others have been procured from France. As to
+cavalry, the want of which was so frequently and severely felt by
+the Carlists during the former struggle, the Christinos will be
+surprised, one of these days, to find how formidable a body of
+dragoons their opponents can bring into the field, although at
+the present moment they have but few squadrons under arms. Nearly
+four thousand horses are distributed in various country districts,
+comfortably housed in farm and convent stables, and divided amongst
+the inhabitants by twos and threes. They are well cared for, and
+kept in good condition, ready to muster and march whenever required.
+
+What the Catalonian Carlists are now most in want of, is a centre
+of operations, a strong fortress--a Morella or a Berga--whither to
+retreat and recruit when necessary. That Cabrera feels this want is
+evident from the various attempts he has made to surprise fortified
+towns, with a view to hold them against the Christinos. Hitherto
+these attempts have been unsuccessful, but we may be prepared to
+hear any day of his having made one with a different result.
+
+When the general tranquillity of Europe brought Spanish dissensions
+into relief, a vast deal of romance was written in France, Spain,
+and England, in the guise of memoirs of Cabrera, and of other
+distinguished leaders of the civil war, and not a little was
+swallowed by the simple as historical fact. We remember to have
+seen the Convention of Bergara accounted for in print by a game at
+cards between Espartero and Maroto, who, both being represented as
+desperate gamblers, met at night at a lone farm-house between their
+respective lines, and played for the crown of Spain. Espartero won;
+and Maroto, more loyal as a gamester than to his king, brought
+over his army to the queen. This marvellous tale, although not
+exactly vouched for in the original English, was gravely translated
+in French periodicals; and the chances are that a portion of the
+French nation believe to the present hour that Isabella owes her
+crown to a lucky hit at _monté_. Fables equally preposterous
+have been circulated about Cabrera. Of his personal appearance,
+especially, the most absurd accounts have been published; and
+type and graver have furnished so many fantastical and imaginary
+portraits of him, that one from the life may have its interest.
+Ramon Cabrera is about five feet eight inches in height, square
+built, muscular, and active. He is rather round-shouldered; his
+hair is abundant and very black; his grayish-brown eyes must be
+admitted, even by his admirers, to have a cruel expression. His
+complexion is tawny, his nose aquiline; he has nothing remarkable
+or striking in his appearance, and is neither ugly nor handsome,
+but of the two may be accounted rather good-looking than otherwise.
+He has neither an assassin-scowl nor an expression like a bilious
+hyena, nor any other of the little physiognomical _agrémens_ with
+which imaginative painters have so frequently embellished his
+countenance. His character, as well as his face, has suffered
+from misrepresentation. He has been depicted as a Nero on a small
+scale, dividing his time between fiddling and massacre. There is
+some exaggeration in the statement. Unquestionably he is neither
+mild nor merciful; he has shed much blood, and has been guilty of
+divers acts of cruelty, but more of these have been attributed
+to him than he ever committed. His mother's death by Christino
+bullets inspired him with a burning desire of revenge. The system of
+reprisals, so largely adopted by both sides, during the late civil
+war in Spain, will account for many of his atrocities, although it
+may hardly be held to justify them. But in the present contest he
+has hitherto gone upon a totally different plan. Mercy and humanity
+seem to be his device, as they are undoubtedly his best policy.
+His aim is to win followers, by clemency and conciliation, instead
+of compelling them by intimidation and cruelty. There is as yet no
+authenticated account of an execution occurring by his order. One
+man was shot at Vich by the troops blockading the place; but he
+was known as a spy, and was twice warned not to enter the town. He
+pretended to retire, made a circuit, tried another entrance, and
+met his death. As to Cabrera's having shot four or five officers
+for a plot against his life, as was recently reported in Spanish
+papers, and repeated by English ones, the tale is unconfirmed, and
+has every appearance of a fabrication. There is no doubt he finds
+it necessary to keep a tight hand over his subordinates, especially
+in presence of the recent defection of some of their number, whose
+treachery, however, is not likely to be very advantageous to the
+Christinos. The troops whom Pozas, Pons, Monserrat, and the other
+renegade chiefs induced to accompany them, have for the most part
+returned to their banners, and the queen has gained nothing but a
+few very untrustworthy officers. These, by one of the conditions
+of their desertion, her generals are compelled to employ, thus
+creating much discontent among those officers of the Christino army
+over whose heads the traitors are placed. The principal traitor,
+General Miguel Pons, better known as Bep-al-Oli, has been known
+as a Carlist ever since the rising in Catalonia in 1827, when he
+was captured by the famous Count d'Espagne, and was condemned to
+the galleys, as was his brother Antonio Pons, one of those whom
+Cabrera was lately falsely reported to have shot. After the death
+of Ferdinand, both brothers served under their former persecutor,
+who thought to extinguish their resentment by good treatment and
+promotion, in spite of which precaution a share in his assassination
+is pretty generally attributed to Antonio Pons. Bep-al-Oli is
+Catalan for Joseph-in-oil, or Oily Joe, a slippery cognomen, which
+his recent change of sides seems to justify. Still he is a model
+of consistency compared to many Spanish officers, who have changed
+sides half-a-dozen times in the last fifteen years. And, indeed,
+after one-and-twenty years' stanch and active Carlism, the sincerity
+of Bep's conversion may perhaps be considered dubious. It would be
+no way surprising if he were to return to his first love, carrying
+with him, of course, the large sum for which he was bought. Another
+chief, Monserrat, passed over to the Christinos with two or three
+companions, and the very next week he had the misfortune to fall
+asleep, whereupon the better half of his band took advantage of
+his slumbers to go back to their colours, much comforted by the
+gratuities they had received for changing sides. When Monserrat
+awoke, he was furious at this defection, and instantly pursued his
+stray sheep. Not having been heard of since, it is not unlikely he
+may ultimately have followed their example. Of course, money is
+the means employed to seduce these fickle partisans. They are all
+bought at their own price, which rate is generally so high as to
+preclude profit. The cash-keepers at Madrid will soon get tired
+of such purchases. The regular expenses of the war are enormous,
+without squandering thousands for a few days' use of men who cannot
+be depended upon. It is notorious that immense offers were made to
+Cabrera to induce him to abandon the cause of Charles VI., of which
+he is the life and soul. Gold, titles, rank, governorships, have
+been in turn and together paraded before him, but in vain. _He_
+would indeed be worth buying, at almost any price; for he could
+not be replaced, and his loss would be a death-blow to the Carlist
+cause. Knowing this, and finding him incorruptible, it were not
+surprising if certain unscrupulous persons at Madrid sought other
+means of removing him from the scene. Cabrera, aware of the great
+importance of his life, very prudently takes his precautions. He
+has done so, to some extent, at various periods of his career.
+During the early portion of his exile in France, when that country,
+especially its southern provinces, swarmed with Spanish emigrants,
+many of whom had deep motives for hating him--whilst others, needy
+and starving, and inured to crime and bloodshed, might have been
+tempted to knife him for the contents of his pockets--the refugee
+chief wore a shirt of mail beneath his sheepskin jacket. He had
+also a celebrated pair of leathern trousers, which were generally
+believed to have a metallic lining. And, at the present time, report
+says that his head is the only vulnerable part of his person.
+
+In presence of their Catalonian anxieties, of Cabrera's rapidly
+increasing strength, and of the impotence of Christino generals, who
+start for the insurgent districts with premature vaunts of their
+triumphs, and return to Madrid, baffled and crestfallen, to wrangle
+in the senate and divulge state secrets--the Narvaez government
+is secretly most anxious to make up its differences with England.
+This anxiety has been made sufficiently manifest by the recent
+discussions in the Cortes. Notwithstanding his assumed indifference
+and vain-glorious self-gratulation, the Duke of Valencia would
+gladly give a year's salary, perquisites, and plunder, to recall
+the impolitic act by which a British envoy was expelled the Spanish
+capital. Señor Cortina, the Progresista deputy, after denying that
+there were sufficient grounds for Sir Henry Bulwer's dismissal,
+and lamenting the rupture that has been its consequence, politely
+advised Narvaez to resign office, as almost the only means of
+repairing the dangerous breach. The recommendation, of course,
+was purely ironical. General Narvaez is the last man to play the
+Curtius, and plunge, for his country's sake, into the gulf of
+political extinction. In his scale of patriotism, the good of Spain
+is secondary to the advantage of Ramon Narvaez. We can imagine the
+broad grins of the Opposition, and the suppressed titter of his own
+friends, upon his having the face to declare, that, when the French
+Revolution broke out, he was actually planning a transfer of the
+reins of government into the hands of the Progresistas. The bad
+example of democratic France frustrated his disinterested designs,
+changed his benevolent intentions, and compelled him to transport
+and imprison, by wholesale, the very men towards whom, a few weeks
+previously, he was so magnanimously disposed. Returns of more than
+fifteen hundred persons, thus arbitrarily torn from their homes and
+families, were moved for early in the session; but only the names
+were granted, the charges against them being kept secret, in order
+not to give the lie to the ministerial assertion that but a small
+minority were condemned for political offences. As to the dispute
+with England, although Narvaez' pride will not suffer him to admit
+his blunder and his regrets, many of his party make no secret of
+their desire for a reconciliation at any price; fondly believing,
+perhaps, that it would be followed, upon the _amantium iræ_
+principle, by warmer love and closer union than before. The slumbers
+of these _ojalatero_ politicians are haunted by sweet visions of a
+British steam-flotilla cruising off the Catalonian coast, of Carlist
+supplies intercepted, of British batteries mounted on the shores of
+Spain, and manned by British marines--the sight of whose red jackets
+might serve, at a pinch, to bolster up the wavering courage of a
+Christino division--and of English commodores and artillery-colonels
+supplying such deficient gentlemen as Messrs Cordova and Concha with
+the military skill which, in Spain, is by no means an indispensable
+qualification for a lieutenant-general's commission. Doubtless,
+if the alliance between Lord Palmerston and Queen Christina had
+continued, we should have had something of this sort, some more
+petty intermeddling and minute military operations, consumptive of
+English stores, and discreditable to English reputation. As it is,
+there seems a chance of the quarrel being fairly fought out; of the
+Spaniards being permitted to settle amongst themselves a question
+which concerns themselves alone. If the Carlists get the better of
+the struggle, (and it were unsafe to give long odds against them,)
+it is undeniable that they began with small resources, and that
+their triumph will have been achieved by their own unaided pluck and
+perseverance.
+
+Puzzled how to make his peace with England, without too great
+mortification to his vanity and too great sacrifice of what he
+calls his dignity, Narvaez falls back upon France, and does his
+best to curry favour there by a fulsome acknowledgment of the evils
+averted from Spain by the friendly offices of Messrs Lamartine
+and Bastide, and of "the illustrious General Cavaignac." The fact
+is, that during the first six months of the republic, nobody in
+France had leisure to give a thought to Spain, and Carlists and
+Progresistas were allowed to concert plans and make purchases
+in France without the slightest molestation. At last, General
+Cavaignac, worried by Sotomayor--and partly, perhaps, through
+sympathy with his brother-dictator, Narvaez--sent to the frontier
+one Lebrière, a sort of thieftaker or political Vidocq, who already
+had been similarly employed by Louis Philippe. This man was to
+stir up the authorities and thwart the Carlists, and at first he
+did hamper the latter a little; but whether it was that he was
+worse paid than on his former mission--Cavaignac's interest in the
+affair being less personal than that of the King of the French--or
+that some other reason relaxed his activity, he did not long prove
+efficient. Then came the elections, and the success of Louis
+Napoleon was unwelcome intelligence to the Madrid government--it
+being feared that old friendship might dispose him to favour Count
+Montemolin as far as lay in his power: whereupon--the influence of
+woman being a lever not unnaturally resorted to by a party which
+owes its rise mainly to bedchamber intrigue and to the patronage of
+Madame Muñoz--the notable discovery was made that the Duchess of
+Valencia (a Frenchwoman by birth) is a connexion of the Buonaparte
+family, and her Grace was forthwith despatched to Paris to exercise
+her coquetries and fascinations upon her far-off cousin, and to
+intrigue, in concert with the Duke of Sotomayor, for the benefit
+of her husband's government. The result of her mission is not yet
+apparent. Putting all direct intervention completely out of the
+question, France has still a vast deal in her power in all cases
+of insurrection in the northern and eastern provinces of Spain. A
+sharp look-out on the frontier, seizure of arms destined for the
+insurgents, and the removal of Spanish refugees to remote parts of
+France, are measures that would greatly harass and impede Carlist
+operations; much less so now, however, than three or four months
+ago. Most of the emigrants have now entered Spain; and horses and
+arms--the latter in large numbers--have crossed the frontier.
+
+Up to the middle of January, the Montemolinist insurrection was
+confined to Catalonia, where alone the insurgents were numerous
+and organised. This apparent inactivity in other districts, where
+a rising might be expected, was to be attributed to the season.
+The quantity of snow that had fallen in the northern provinces was
+a clog upon military operations. About the middle of the month, a
+thousand men, including three hundred cavalry, made their appearance
+in Navarre, headed by Colonel Montero, an old and experienced
+officer of the peninsular war, who served on the staff so far back
+as the battle of Baylen. This force is to serve as a nucleus. The
+conscription for 1849 has been anticipated; that is to say, the
+young soldiers who should have joined their colours at the end of
+the year, are called for at its commencement; and it is expected
+that many of these conscripts, discontented at the premature
+summons, will prefer joining the Carlists. When the weather clears,
+it is confidently anticipated that two or three thousand hardy
+recruits will make the valleys of Biscay and Navarre ring once
+more with their Basque war-cries, headed by men whose names will
+astonish those who still discredit the virtual union of Carlists and
+Progresistas.
+
+The masses of troops sent into Catalonia have as yet effected
+literally nothing, not having been able to prevent the enemy even
+from recruiting and organising. General Cordova made a military
+promenade, lost a few hundred men--slain or taken prisoners with
+their brigadier at their head--and resigned the command. He has been
+succeeded by Concha, a somewhat better soldier than Cordova, who
+was never anything but a parade butterfly of the very shallowest
+capacity. Concha has as yet done little more than his predecessor,
+(his reported victory over Cabrera between Vich and St Hippolito was
+a barefaced invention, without a shadow of foundation,) although
+his force is larger than Cordova's was, and his promises of what
+he _would_ do have been all along most magnificent. Already there
+has been talk of his resignation, which doubtless will soon occur,
+and Villalonga is spoken of to succeed him. This general, lately
+created Marquis of the Maestrazgo for his cruelty and oppression
+of the peasantry in that district, will hardly win his dukedom in
+Catalonia, although dukedoms in Spain are now to be had almost for
+the asking. Indeed, they have become so common that, the other day,
+General Narvaez, Duke of Valencia, anxious for distinction from
+the vulgar herd, was about to create himself prince; but having
+unfortunately selected Concord for his intended title, and the
+accounts from Catalonia being just then anything but peaceable,
+he was fain to postpone his promotion till it should be more _de
+circonstance_. The Prince of Concord would be a worthy successor to
+the Prince of the Peace. Spain was once proud of her nobility and
+choice of her titles. Alas! how changed are the times! What a pretty
+list of grandees and _titulos de Castilla_ the Spanish peerage now
+exhibits! Mr Sotomayor, the other day a bookseller's clerk, then
+sub-secretary in a ministry, then understrapper to Gonzales Bravo,
+now duke and ambassador at Paris! What a successor to the princely
+and magnificent envoys of a Philip and a Charles! And Mr Sartorius,
+lately a petty jobber on the Madrid Bolsa, is now Count of St Louis,
+secretary of state, &c.! When the Legion of Honour was prostituted
+in France by lavish and indiscriminate distribution, and by
+conversion into an electioneering bribe and a means of corruption,
+many old soldiers, who had won their cross upon the battle-fields of
+the Empire, had the date of its bestowal affixed in silver figures
+to their red ribbon. The old nobility of Spain must soon resort to
+a similar plan, and sign their date of creation after their names,
+if they would be distinguished from the horde of disreputable
+adventurers on whom titles have of late years been infamously
+squandered.
+
+When the Madrid government has performed its promise, so often
+repeated during the last six months, of extinguishing the Carlists
+and restoring peace to Spain, we hope those ill-treated gentlemen
+in the city of London, who, from time to time, draw up a respectful
+representation to General Narvaez on the subject of Spanish
+debts--a representation which that officer blandly receives, and
+takes an early opportunity of forgetting--will pluck up courage
+and sternly urge the Duke of Valencia and the finance minister
+of the day to apply to the liquidation of Spanish bondholders'
+claims a part, at least, of the resources now expended on military
+operations. Forty-five millions of reals, about half-a-million of
+pounds sterling, are now, we are credibly informed, the monthly
+expenditure of the war department of Spain. That this is squeezed
+out of the country, by some means or other, is manifest, since
+nobody now lends money to Spain. A very large part of this very
+considerable sum being expended in Catalonia, goes into the pockets
+of the inhabitants of that province, who pay it over to the Carlists
+in the shape of contributions, and still make a profit by the
+transaction--so that they are in no hurry to finish the war; and
+Catalonia presents at this moment the singular spectacle of two
+contending armies paid out of the same military chest. But Spain is
+the country of anomalies; and nothing in the conduct of Spaniards
+will ever surprise us, until we find them, by some extraordinary
+chance, conducting their affairs according to the rules of common
+sense and the dictates of ordinary prudence.
+
+
+_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as
+printed.
+
+Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where
+the missing quote should be placed.
+
+The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the
+transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
+65, No. 400, February, 1849, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, FEB 1849 ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 65,
+No. 400, February, 1849, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 65, No. 400, February, 1849
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: December 4, 2013 [EBook #44344]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, FEB 1849 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Library of Early Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+Text enclosed by plus signs indicates Greek transliteration
+(+Aî, aî+).
+
+Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+  NO. CCCC.      FEBRUARY, 1849.      VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS,                          129
+
+  THE CAXTONS. PART X.,                               147
+
+  STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND,                   162
+
+  THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART,             175
+
+  AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS,          190
+
+  DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO,                            202
+
+  MODERN BIOGRAPHY.--BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL,      219
+
+  THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS,         235
+
+  THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN. BY DELTA,              244
+
+  THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA,                          248
+
+
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+
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+
+  PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+  NO. CCCC.       FEBRUARY, 1849.       VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS.
+
+     _Der Kaukasus und das Land der Kosaken in den Jahren 1843 bis
+     1846._ Von MORITZ WAGNER. 2 vols. Dresden und Leipzig, 1848.
+
+
+A handful of men, frugal, hardy, and valiant, successfully defending
+their barren mountains and dearly-won independence against the
+reiterated assaults of a mighty neighbour, offer, apart from
+political considerations, a deeply interesting spectacle. When, upon
+a map of the world's eastern hemisphere, we behold, not far from its
+centre, on the confines of barbarism and civilisation, a spot, black
+with mountains, and marked "Circassia;" when we contrast this petty
+nook with the vast territory stretching from the Black Sea to the
+Northern Ocean, from the Baltic to Behring's Straits, we admire and
+wonder at the inflexible resolution and determined gallantry that
+have so long borne up against the aggressive ambition, iron will,
+and immense resources of a czar. Sixty millions against six hundred
+thousand--a hundred to one, a whole squadron against a single
+cavalier, a colossus opposed to a pigmy--these are the odds at
+issue. It seems impossible that such a contest can long endure. Yet
+it has lasted twenty years, and still the dwarf resists subjugation,
+and contrives, at intervals, to inflict severe punishment upon his
+gigantic adversary. There is something strangely exciting in the
+contemplation of so brave a struggle. Its interest is far superior
+to that of any of the "little wars" in which Europe, since 1815,
+has evaporated her superabundant pugnacity. African raids and
+Spanish skirmishes are pale affairs contrasted with the dashing
+onslaughts of the intrepid Circassians. And, in other respects than
+its heroism, this contest merits attention. As an important section
+of the huge mountain-dyke, opposed by nature to the south-eastern
+extension of the Russian empire, Circassia is not to be overlooked.
+On the rugged peaks and in the deep valleys of the Caucasus, her
+fearless warriors stand, the vedettes of southern Asia, a living
+barrier to the forward flight of the double eagle.
+
+Matters of pressing interest, nearer home, have diverted public
+attention from the warlike Circassians, whose independent spirit and
+unflinching bravery deserves better than even temporary oblivion.
+Not in our day only have they distinguished themselves in freedom's
+fight. Surrounded by powerful and encroaching potentates, their
+history, for the last five hundred years, records constant struggles
+against oppression. Often conquered, they never were fully subdued.
+Their obscure chronicles are illumined by flashes of patriotism
+and heroic courage. Early in the fifteenth century, they conquered
+their freedom from the Georgian yoke. Then came long wars with the
+Tartars, who could hardly, perhaps, be considered the aggressors,
+the Circassians having overstepped their mountain limits, and spread
+over the plains adjacent to the Sea of Azov. In 1555, the Russian
+grand-duke, Ivan Vasilivitch, pressed forward to Tarki upon the
+Caspian, where he placed a garrison. A Circassian tribe submitted
+to him; he married the daughter of one of their princes, and
+assisted them against the Tartars. But after a while the Russians
+withdrew their succour; and the Circassians, driven back to the
+river Kuban, their natural boundary to the north-west, paid tribute
+to the Tartars, till the commencement of the eighteenth century,
+when a decisive victory liberated them. Meanwhile Russia strode
+steadily southwards, reached the Kuban in the west, whilst, in the
+east, Tarki and Derbent fell, in 1722, into the hands of Peter
+the Great. The fort of Swiatoi-Krest, built by the conqueror, was
+soon afterwards retaken by a swarm of fanatical mountaineers from
+the eastern Caucasus. It is now about seventy years since Russian
+and Circassian first crossed swords in serious warfare. A fanatic
+dervise, who called himself Sheikh Mansour, preached a religious war
+against the Muscovites; but, although followed with enthusiasm, his
+success was not great, and at last he was captured and sent prisoner
+into the interior of Russia. With his fall the furious zeal of the
+Caucasians subsided for a while. But the Turks, who viewed Circassia
+as their main bulwark against the rapidly increasing power of their
+dangerous northern neighbour, made friends of the mountaineers, and
+stirred them up against Russia. The fortified town of Anapa, on the
+north-west coast of Circassia, became the focus of the intercourse
+between the Porte and its new allies. The creed of Mahomet was
+actively propagated amongst the Circassians, whose relations with
+Turkey grew more and more intimate, and in the year 1824 several
+tribes took oath of allegiance to the sultan. In 1829, during the
+war between Russia and Turkey, Anapa, which had more than once
+changed hands in the course of previous contests, was taken by the
+former power, to whom, by the treaty of Adrianople, its possession,
+and that of the other Turkish posts on the same coast, was finally
+conceded. Hence the chief claim of Russia upon Circassia--although
+Circassia had never belonged to the Turks, nor been occupied by
+them; and from that period dates the war that has elicited from
+Russia so great a display of force against an apparently feeble, but
+in reality formidable antagonist--an antagonist who has hitherto
+baffled her best generals, and picked troops, and most skilful
+strategists.
+
+The tribes of the Caucasus may be comprehended, for the sake of
+simplicity, under two denominations: the Tcherkesses or Circassians,
+in the west, and the Tshetshens in the east. In loose newspaper
+statements, and in the garbled reports of the war which remote
+position, Russian jealousy, and the peculiarly inaccessible
+character of the Caucasians, suffer to reach us, even this broad
+distinction is frequently disregarded.[1] It is nevertheless
+important, at least in a physiological point of view; and, even
+as regards the resistance offered to Russia, there are differences
+between the Eastern and the Western Caucasians. The military tactics
+of both are much alike, but the character of the war varies. On
+the banks of the Kuban, and on the Euxine shores, the strife has
+never been so desperate, and so dangerous for the Russians, as
+in Daghestan, Lesghistan, and the land of the Tshetshens. The
+Abchasians, Mingrelians, and other Circassian tribes, dwelling on
+the southern slopes of Caucasus, and on the margin of the Black Sea,
+are of more peaceable and passive character than their brethren
+to the North and East. The Tshetshens, by far the most warlike
+and enterprising of the Caucasians, have had the ablest leaders,
+and have at all times been stimulated by fierce religious zeal.
+As far back as 1745, Russian missionaries were sent to the tribe
+of the Osseti, who had relapsed from Christianity to the heathen
+creed of their forefathers. Every Osset who presented himself at
+the baptismal font received a silver cross and a new shirt. The
+bait brought thousands of the mountaineers to the Russian priests,
+who contented themselves with the outward and visible sign of
+conversion. These propagandist attempts enraged the Mahomedan
+tribes, and then it was that they thronged around Sheikh Mansour,
+as they have done in our day (in 1830) around that strange fanatic
+Chasi-Mollah, when in his turn he preached a holy war against the
+Russian. In the latter year, General Paskewitch had just been
+called away to Poland, and his successor, Baron Rosen, found all
+Daghestan in an uproar. He immediately opened the campaign, but met
+a strenuous resistance, and suffered heavy loss. The defence of the
+village of Hermentschuk, held against him, in the year 1832, by
+3000 Tshetshens, was an extraordinary example of heroism. When the
+Russian infantry forced their way into the place with the bayonet, a
+portion of the garrison shut themselves up in a fortified house, and
+made it good against overwhelming numbers, singing passages from the
+Koran amidst a storm of bombs and grapeshot. At last the building
+took fire, and its undaunted defenders, the sacred verses still
+upon their lips, found death in the flames. In an equally desperate
+defence of the fortified village of Himri, Chasi-Mollah met his
+death, falling in the very breach, bleeding from many wounds. The
+chief who succeeded him was less venerated and less energetic,
+and for a few years the Tshetshens remained tolerably quiet, but
+without a thought of submission. Nevertheless the Russians flattered
+themselves that the worst was past; that the death of the mad
+dervish was an irreparable loss to the mountaineers. They were
+mistaken. Out of his most ardent adherents Chasi-Mollah had formed a
+sort of sacred band, whom he called Murides, gloomy fanatics, half
+warriors, half priests. They composed his body-guard, were unwearied
+in preaching up the fight for the Prophet's faith, and in battle
+devoted themselves to death with a heroism that has never been
+surpassed. From these, within a short time of their first leader's
+death, Chamyl, the present renowned chief of the Tshetshens, soon
+stood forth pre-eminent, and the Murides followed him to the field
+with the same enthusiasm and valour they had shown under his
+predecessor. He did not prove less worthy of guiding them; and the
+Russians were compelled to confess, that it was easier for the
+Tshetshens to find an able leader than for them to find a general
+able to beat him. And victories over the restless and enterprising
+Caucasians were of little profit, even when obtained. For the most
+part, they only served to fill the Russian hospitals, and to procure
+the officers those ribbons and distinctions they so greedily covet,
+and which, in that service, are so liberally bestowed.[2] Thus,
+in 1845, Count Woronzoff made a most daring expedition into the
+heart of Daghestan. He found the villages empty and in flames,
+lost three thousand men, amongst them many brave and valuable
+officers, and marched back again, strewing the path with wounded,
+for whom the means of transport (the horses of the Cossack cavalry)
+were quite insufficient. With great difficulty, and protected by
+a column that went out to meet them, the Russians regained their
+lines, harassed to the last by the fierce Caucasians. This affair
+was called a victory, and Count Woronzoff was made a prince. Two
+more such victories would have reduced his expeditionary column to
+a single battalion. Chamyl, who had cannonaded the Russians with
+their own artillery, captured in former actions, possibly considered
+himself equally entitled to triumph, as he slowly retreated, after
+following up the foe nearly to the gates of their fortresses, into
+the recesses of his native valleys.
+
+  [1] "Amongst the Caucasian tribes, the interest of Europe has
+  attached itself especially to the Circassians, because they are
+  regarded (in Urquhart's words) 'as the only people, from the
+  Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, ever ready to revenge an injury
+  and retort a menace proceeding from the Czar of the Muscovites.'
+  Urquhart's opinion, which is shared by the great majority of the
+  European public, is not quite correct, the Circassians not being
+  the only combatants against Russia. Indeed it so happens that,
+  for the last four years, they have kept tolerably quiet in their
+  mountains, contenting themselves with small forays into the Cossack
+  country on the Kuban; whilst the warlike Tshetshens in the eastern
+  Caucasus, their chief, Chamyl, at their head, have given the Russian
+  army much more to do. But, in the absence of official intelligence,
+  and of regular newspaper information concerning the events of the
+  war, people in Europe have got accustomed to admire and praise the
+  Circassians as the only defenders of Caucasian freedom against
+  Russian aggression; and even in St Petersburg the intelligent public
+  hold the famous Chamyl to be chief of the Circassians, with whom he
+  has nothing whatever to do."--_Der Kaukasus_, &c., vol. ii. p. 22-3.
+
+  [2] "It must be admitted that Russian officers are second to those
+  of no other nation, in thirst for distinction, and in honourable
+  ambition, to awaken and stimulate which, innumerable means are
+  employed. In no other army are the rewards for those officers
+  who distinguish themselves in the field of so many kinds, and so
+  lavishly dealt out. There are all manner of medals and marks for
+  good service--crosses and stars of Saints George, Stanislaus,
+  Vladimir, Andrew, Anna, and other holy personages; some with crowns,
+  some with diamonds, peculiar distinctions on the epaulets and
+  uniforms, &c. &c. I was once in a distinguished society, composed
+  almost entirely of officers of the army of the Caucasus. Not finding
+  very much amusement, I had the patience to count all the orders and
+  decorations in the room, and found that upon the breasts of the
+  thirty-five military guests, there glittered more than two hundred
+  stars, crosses, and medals; on some of the generals' coats were
+  more orders than buttons. As it usually happens, the desire for
+  these distinctions increases with their possession. The Russian who
+  has obtained a medal leaves no stone unturned to get a knight's
+  cross, and when the cross is at his button-hole, he is ravenous
+  for the glittering star, and ready to make any sacrifice to obtain
+  it."--_Der Kaukasus_, &c., vol. ii. p. 98.
+
+The interior of Circassia is still an unknown land. The
+investigations of Messrs Bell, Longworth, Stewart, and others,
+who of late years have visited and written about the country,
+were confined to small districts, and cramped by the jealousy of
+the natives. Mr Bell, who made the longest residence, was treated
+more like a prisoner than a guest. Other foreigners find a worse
+reception still. Even the Poles, who desert from the Russian army,
+are made slaves of by the Circassians, and so severely treated
+that they are often glad to return to their colours, and endure
+the flogging that there awaits them. The only European who, having
+penetrated into the interior, has again seen his own country, is
+the Russian Baron Turnau, an aide-de-camp of General Gurko; but
+the circumstances of his abode in Circassia were too painful and
+peculiar to allow opportunity for observation. They are well told by
+Dr Wagner.
+
+     "By the Emperor's command, Russian officers acquainted with
+     the language are sent, from time to time, as spies into
+     Circassia,[3]--partly to make topographical surveys of
+     districts previously unknown; partly to ascertain the numbers,
+     mode of life, and disposition of those tribes with whom no
+     intercourse is kept up. These missions are extremely dangerous,
+     and seldom succeed. Shortly before my arrival at Terek, four
+     Russian staff-officers were sent as spies to various parts of
+     Lesghistan. They assumed the Caucasian garb, and were attended
+     by natives in Russian pay. Only one of them ever returned;
+     the three others were recognised and murdered. Baron Turnau
+     prepared himself long beforehand for his dangerous mission.
+     He gave his complexion a brownish tint, and to his beard the
+     form affected by the aborigines. He also tried to learn the
+     language of the Ubiches, but, finding the harsh pronunciation
+     of certain words quite unattainable, he agreed with his guide
+     to pass for deaf and dumb during his stay in the country.
+     In this guise he set out upon his perilous journey, and for
+     several days wandered undetected from tribe to tribe. But one
+     of the _works_ (nobles) under whose roof he passed a night,
+     conceived suspicions, and threatened the guide, who betrayed his
+     employer's secret. The baron was kept prisoner, and the Ubiches
+     demanded a cap-full of silver for his ransom from the Russian
+     commandant of Fort Ardler. When this officer declared himself
+     ready to pay, they increased their demand to a bushel of silver
+     rubles. The commandant referred the matter to Baron Rosen, then
+     commander-in-chief of the army of the Caucasus; the baron
+     reported it to St Petersburg, and the Emperor consented to pay
+     the heavy ransom. But Rosen represented it to him as more for
+     the Russian interest to leave Turnau for a while in the hands of
+     the Ubiches; for, in the first place, the payment of so large a
+     sum was a bad precedent, likely to encourage the mountaineers to
+     renew the extortion, instead of contenting themselves, as they
+     previously had done, with a few hundred rubles; and, secondly,
+     as a prisoner, Baron Turnau would perhaps have opportunities of
+     gathering valuable information concerning a country and people
+     of whom little or nothing was known. The unfortunate young
+     officer was cruelly sacrificed to these considerations, and
+     passed a long winter in terrible captivity, tortured by frost
+     and hunger, compelled, as a slave, to the severest labour, and
+     often greatly ill-treated. Several attempts at flight failed;
+     and at last the chief, in whose hands he was, confined him in a
+     cage half-buried in the ground, and withal so narrow that its
+     inmate could neither stand upright nor lie at length."
+
+  [3] The reference in this instance is more particularly to the
+  land of the Ubiches and Tchigetes, two tribes that abide south of
+  Circassia Proper, and whose language differs from those of the
+  Circassians and Abchasians, their neighbours to the north and south.
+  The general medium of conversation amongst the various Caucasian
+  tribes is the Turkish-Tartar dialect, current amongst most of the
+  dwellers on the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas.
+
+Thus immured, a prey to painful maladies, his clothes rotting on
+his emaciated limbs, the unhappy man moaned through his long and
+sleepless nights, and gave up hope of rescue. No tender-hearted
+Circassian maiden brought to him, as to the hero of Pushkin's
+well-known Caucasian poem, deliverance and love. Such luck had been
+that of more than one Russian captive; but poor Turnau, in his
+state of filth and squalor, was no very seductive object. He might
+have pined away his life in his cage, before Baron Rosen, or his
+paternal majesty the Czar, had recalled his fate to mind, but for
+an injury done by his merciless master to one of his domestics, who
+vowed revenge. Watching his opportunity, this servant, one day that
+the rest of the household were absent, murdered his lord, released
+the prisoner, tied him with thongs upon his saddle, upon which the
+baron, covered with sores and exhausted by illness, was unable to
+support himself, and galloped with him towards the frontier. In one
+day they rode eighty _versts_, (about fifty-four English miles,)
+outstripped pursuers, and reached Fort Ardler. The accounts given
+by Baron Turnau of the land of his captivity could be but slight:
+he had seen little beyond his place of confinement. What he did
+relate was not very encouraging to Russian invasion. He depicted
+the country as one mass of rock and precipice, partially clothed
+with vast tracts of aboriginal forest, broken by deep ravines and
+mountain torrents, and surmounted by the huge ice-clad pinnacles of
+the loftiest Caucasian ridge. The villages, some of which nestle in
+the deep recesses of the woods, whilst others are perched upon steep
+crags and on the brink of giddy precipices, are universally of most
+difficult access.
+
+Dr Wagner, whose extremely amusing book forms the text of this
+article, has never been in Circassia, although he gives us more
+information about it, of the sort we want, than any traveller in
+that singular land whose writings have come under our notice.
+His wanderings were under Russian guidance and escort. During
+them, he skirted the hostile territory on more than one side;
+occasionally setting a foot across the border, to the alarm of
+his Cossacks, whose dread by day and dreams by night were of
+Circassian ambuscades; he has lingered at the base of Caucasus, and
+has traversed its ranges--without, however, deeming it necessary
+to penetrate into those remote valleys, where foreigners find
+dubious welcome, and whence they are not always sure of exit. He
+has mixed much with Circassians, if he has not actually dwelt in
+their villages. It were tedious and unnecessary to detail his
+exact itinerary. He has not printed his entire journal--according
+to the lazy and egotistical practice of many travellers--but has
+taken the trouble to condense it. The essence is full of variety,
+anecdote and adventure, and gives a clear insight into the nature
+of the war. Professedly a man of science, an antiquary and a
+naturalist, Dr Wagner has evidently a secret hankering after matters
+military. He loves the sound of the drum, and willingly directs
+his scientific researches to countries where he is likely to smell
+powder. We had heard of him in the Atlas mountains, and at the
+siege of Constantina, before we met him risking his neck along the
+banks of the Kuban, and across the wild steppes of the Caucasus.
+He has travelled much in the East, and prepared himself for his
+Caucasian trip by a long stay in Turkey and in Southern Russia.
+Well introduced, he derived from distinguished Russian generals,
+intelligent civilians, and Circassian chiefs, particulars of the war
+more authentic than are to be obtained either from St Petersburg
+bulletins, or from the ordinary trans-Caucasian correspondents of
+German and other newspapers, many of whom are in the pay of Russia.
+His African reminiscences proved of great value. The officers of the
+army of Caucasus take the strongest interest in the contest between
+French and Arabs, finding in it, doubtless, points of similitude
+with the war in which they themselves are engaged. Amongst these
+officers he met, besides Russians and Germans, several naturalised
+Poles and Frenchmen, Flemings and Spaniards, who gave in exchange
+for his tales of razzias and Bedouins, details of Circassian warfare
+which he highly prized, as likely to be more impartial than the
+accounts afforded by the native Russians. His own journey to the
+Caucasus took place in 1843; but a subsequent correspondence with
+well-informed friends, on both sides the Caucasian range, enabled
+him to bring down his sketch of the struggle to the year 1846.
+
+Many English writers on Circassia have been accused of an undue
+preference for the mountaineers, of exaggerating their good
+qualities, and of elevating them by invidious contrasts with the
+Russians. There is no ground for suspecting a German of such
+partiality; and Dr Wagner, whilst lauding the heroic valour and
+independent spirit of the Circassians--qualities which Russian
+authors have themselves admitted and extolled--does not forget
+to do justice to his Muscovite and Cossack friends, to whom he
+devotes a considerable portion of his book, many of his details
+concerning them being extremely novel and curious. He carefully
+studied both Cossacks and Circassians, living amongst the former
+and meeting thousands of the latter, who go and come freely upon
+Russian territory. At Ekaterinodar, the capital of the Tchernamortsy
+Cossacks, the Friday's market swarmed with Circassians. In Turkey,
+and elsewhere, Dr Wagner had met many individuals of that nation,
+but this was the first time he beheld them in crowds. He describes
+them as very handsome men, with black beards, aquiline noses, and
+flashing black eyes. He was struck with their lofty mien, and
+attributes it to their mental energy, and to a consciousness of
+physical strength and beauty.
+
+     "This superiority of the pure Circassian blood does not belie
+     itself under Russian discipline, any more than it does in
+     Mahometan lands, where, as Mamelukes in Cairo, and as pashas in
+     Stamboul, the sons of Caucasus have ever played a prominent and
+     distinguished part. The Turk, who by certain imposing qualities
+     awes all other Orientals, tacitly recognises the superiority of
+     the Circassian _ousden_, or noble. The Emperor Nicholas, who
+     preserves so rigid a discipline in the various corps of his
+     vast army, shows himself extraordinarily considerate towards
+     the Circassian squadrons of his guard. Persons well versed
+     in the military chronicles of St Petersburg relate many a
+     characteristic trait, proving the bold stubborn spirit of these
+     Caucasian men to be still unbroken, and showing how it more
+     than once has so imposed upon the emperor, and even upon the
+     grand-duke Michael, reputed the strictest disciplinarian in
+     Russia, that they have shut their eyes even to open mutiny. At a
+     review, where the Caucasian cavalry formally refused obedience,
+     the emperor contented himself with sending a courteous reproof
+     by General Benkendorf. Beside the coarse common Russians, the
+     Circassian looks like an eagle amidst a flock of bustards. Even
+     capital crimes are not visited upon Circassians with the same
+     severity as upon the other subjects of the emperor. A Circassian
+     who had struck his dagger into the heart of a hackney-coachman
+     at St Petersburg, in requital of an insolent overcharge, was
+     merely sent back to the Caucasus. For a like offence a Russian
+     might reckon upon the knout, and upon banishment for life to the
+     Siberian mines.
+
+     "Amongst the Circassians at Ekaterinodar, a _work_, or noble,
+     of the Shapsookian tribe, was particularly remarkable for his
+     beauty and dignity. None of the picturesque figures of Arabs
+     and Moors furnished me by my African recollections, could bear
+     comparison with this Caucasian eagle. I afterwards saw, in
+     Mingrelia, a more ideal mould of feature, resembling the antique
+     Apollo type: but there the expression was too effeminate; the
+     heroic head of the dweller on the Kuban pleased me better. I
+     stood a good while before the Shapsookian, as if fettered to the
+     ground, so extraordinary was the effect of his striking beauty.
+     What a study, I thought, for a German painter, who would in vain
+     seek such models in Rome; or for a Vernet, whose Arabian groups
+     prove the great power of his pencil! The Arabs, rather priestly
+     than knightly in their aspect, produce far less effect upon
+     the large Algerine pictures at Versailles than the Circassian
+     warrior would do in a battle-piece by such masters as Vernet or
+     Peter Hess. The Shapsook chief at Ekaterinodar seemed conscious
+     of his magnificent appearance. With proud mien, and that light
+     half-gliding gait observable in most Caucasians, he sauntered
+     amongst the groups of Cossacks upon the market-place, casting
+     glances of profoundest scorn upon their clumsy sheepskin-wrapped
+     figures. His slender form and small foot, the grace and elegance
+     of his person and carriage, the richness of his costume and
+     beauty of his weapons, contrasted most advantageously with
+     the muscular but somewhat thickset figures, and with the ugly
+     woolly winter dress of the Tchernamortsies. By help of a Cossack
+     I made his acquaintance, and got into conversation. His name
+     was Chora-Beg, and he dwelt at a hamlet thirty versts south of
+     Ekaterinodar."
+
+Chora-Beg wondered greatly that his new acquaintance was neither
+Russian nor English. He had heard vaguely that there was a third
+Christian nation, which, under Sultan Bunapart, had made war upon
+the Padisha of the Russians, but he had no notion of such a people
+as the Germans. He greatly admired Dr Wagner's rifle, but rather
+doubted its carrying farther than a smooth bore, and allowed free
+inspection of his own arms, consisting of pistols and dagger, and of
+the famous _shaska_--a long heavy cavalry sabre, slightly curved,
+with hilt of silver and ivory. At the doctor's request he drew this
+weapon from the scabbard, and cut twice or thrice at the empty air,
+his dark eyes flashing as he did so. "How many Russians has that
+sabre sent to their account?" asked the inquisitive Doctor. The
+Circassian's intelligent countenance assumed an expression hard to
+interpret, but in which his interlocutor thought he distinguished a
+gleam of scorn, and a shade of suspicion. "It was long," he replied,
+"since his tribe had taken the field against the Russians. Since
+the deaf general (Sass) had left the land of the Cossacks, peace
+had reigned between Muscovite and Shapsookian. Individuals of his
+tribe had certainly been known to join bands from the mountains, and
+to cross the Kuban with arms in hand." And as Chora-Beg spoke, the
+expression of his proud eye belied his pacific pretensions.
+
+The general Sass above-named commanded for several years on
+the line of the Kuban, and is the only Russian general who has
+understood the mountain warfare, and proved himself a match for
+the Circassians at their own game of ambuscades and surprises. His
+tactics were those of the Spanish guerilla leaders. Lavish in his
+payment of spies, he was always accurately informed of the musters
+and projects of the Circassians; whilst he kept his own plans so
+secret, that his personal staff often knew nothing of an intended
+expedition until the call to "boot and saddle" sounded. His raids
+were accomplished, under guidance of his well-paid scouts, with
+such rapidity and local knowledge that the mountaineers rarely had
+time to assemble in force, pursue the retiring column, and revenge
+their burnt vilages and ravished cattle. But one day the report
+spread on the lines of the Kuban that the general was dangerously
+ill; shortly afterwards it became known that the physicians had
+given him up; and finally his death was announced, and bewailed by
+the whole army of the Caucasus. The consternation of the Cossacks,
+accustomed, under his command, to victory and rich booty, was as
+great as the exultation of the mountaineers. Hundreds of these
+visited the Russian territory, to witness the interment of their
+dreaded foe. A magnificent coffin, with the general's cocked hat
+and decorations laid upon it, was deposited in the earth amidst
+the mournful sounds of minute guns and muffled drums. With joyful
+hearts the Circassians returned to their mountains, to tell what
+they had seen, and to congratulate each other at the prospect of
+tranquillity for themselves, and safety to their flocks and herds.
+But upon the second night after Sass's funeral, a strong Russian
+column crossed the Kuban, and the dead general suddenly appeared
+at the head of his trusty lancers, who greeted with wild hurrahs
+their leader's resurrection. Several large _auls_ (villages) whose
+inhabitants were sound asleep, unsuspicious of surprise, were
+destroyed, vast droves of cattle were carried off, and a host of
+prisoners made. This ingenious and successful stratagem is still
+cited with admiration on the banks of the Kuban. Notwithstanding
+his able generalship, Sass was removed from his command when in
+full career of success. All his military services could not shield
+him from the consequences of St Petersburg intrigues and trumped-up
+accusations. None of his successors have equalled him. General
+Willaminoff was a man of big words rather than of great deeds. In
+his bombastic and blasphemous proclamation of the 28th May 1837, he
+informed the Circassians that "If the heavens should fall, Russia
+could prop them with her bayonets;" following up this startling
+assertion with the declaration that "there are but two powers in
+existence--God in heaven, and the emperor upon earth!"[4] The
+Circassians laughed at this rhodomontade, and returned a firm and
+becoming answer. There were but few of them, they said--but, with
+God's blessing, they would hold their own, and fight to the very
+last man: and to prove themselves as good as their word, they soon
+afterwards made fierce assaults upon the line of forts built by the
+Russians upon the shores of the Black Sea. In 1840 four of these
+were taken, but the triumph cost the victors so much blood as to
+disgust them for some time with attacking stone walls, behind which
+the Russians, perhaps the best defensive combatants in the world,
+fight like lions. Indeed, the Circassians would hardly have proved
+victorious, had not the garrisons been enfeebled by disease. During
+the five winter months, the rations of the troops employed upon
+this service are usually salt, and the consequences are scurvy and
+fever. Informed by Polish deserters of the bad condition of the
+garrisons, the Circassians held a great council in the mountains,
+and it was decided to take the forts with the sabre, without
+firing a shot. It is an old Caucasian custom, that, upon suchlike
+perilous undertakings, a chosen band of enthusiastic warrors devote
+themselves to death, binding themselves by a solemn oath not to
+turn their backs upon the enemy. Ever in the van, their example
+gives courage to the timid; and their friends are bound in honour
+to revenge their death. With these fanatics have the Circassian and
+Tshetshen chiefs achieved their greatest victories over the Russians.
+
+  [4] Longworth's _Circassia_, vol. i. p. 1589.
+
+When it was decided to attack the forts, several hundred
+Shapsookians, including gray-haired old men and youths of tender
+age, swore to conquer or to die. They kept their word. At the fort
+of Michailoff, which made the most obstinate defence, the ditch was
+filled with their corpses. The conduct of the garrison was truly
+heroic. Of five hundred men, only one third were fit for duty;
+the others were in hospital, or on the sick-list. But no sooner
+did the Circassian war-cry rend the air than the sufferers forgot
+their pains; the fever-stricken left their beds, and crawled to
+the walls. Their commandant called upon them to shed their last
+drop of blood for their emperor; their old _papa_ exhorted them, as
+Christians, to fight to the death against the unbelieving horde. But
+numbers prevailed: after a valiant defence, the Russians retreated,
+fighting, to the innermost enclosures of the fortress. Their chief
+demanded a volunteer to blow up the fort when farther resistance
+should become impossible. A soldier stepped forward, took a lighted
+match, and entered the powder magazine. The last defences were
+stormed, the Circassians shouted victory. Then came the explosion.
+Most of the buildings were overthrown, and hundreds of maimed
+carcases scattered in all directions. Eleven Russians escaped with
+life, were dragged off to the mountains, and subsequently ransomed,
+and from them the details of this bloody fight were obtained.
+
+The capture of these forts spread discouragement and consternation
+in the ranks of the Russian army. The emperor was furious, and
+General Rajewski, then commander-in-chief on the Circassian
+frontier, was superseded. This officer, who at the tender age of
+twelve was present with his father at the battle of Borodino, and
+who has since distinguished himself in the Turkish and Persian
+wars, was reputed an able general, but was reproached with sleeping
+too much, and with being too fond of botany. His enemies went
+so far as to accuse him of making military expeditions into the
+mountains, with the sole view of adding rare Caucasian plants to his
+_herbarium_, and of procuring seeds for his garden. General Aurep,
+who succeeded him, undertook little beyond reconnoissances, always
+attended with very heavy loss; and the Circassians remained upon the
+defensive until the year 1843, when the example of the Tshetshens,
+who about that time obtained signal advantages over the Russians,
+roused the martial ardour of the chivalrous Circassians, and spurred
+them to fresh hostilities. But the war at the western extremity of
+Caucasus never assumed the importance of that in Daghestan and the
+country of the Tshetshens.
+
+From the straits of Zabache to the frontier of Guria, the Russians
+possess seventeen _Kreposts_, or fortified posts, only a few of
+which deserve the name of regular fortresses, or could resist a
+regular army provided with artillery. To mountaineers, however,
+whose sole weapons are shaska and musket, even earthen parapets
+and shallow ditches are serious obstacles when well manned and
+resolutely defended. The object of erecting this line of forts was
+to cut off the communication by sea between Turkey and the Caucasian
+tribes. It was thought that, when the import of arms and munitions
+of war from Turkey was thus checked, the independent mountain
+tribes would soon be subjugated. The hope was not realised, and the
+expensive maintenance of 15,000 to 20,000 men in the fortresses of
+the Black Sea has but little improved the position of the Russians
+in the Caucasus. The Caucasians have never lacked arms, and with
+money they can always get powder, even from the Cossacks of the
+Kuban. In another respect, however, these forts have done them
+much harm, and thence it arises that, since their erection, and
+the cession of Anapa to Russia, the war has assumed so bitter a
+character. So long as Anapa was Turkish, the export of slaves, and
+the import of powder, found no hindrance. The needy Circassian
+noble, whose rude mountains supply him but sparingly with daily
+bread, obtained, by the sale of slaves, means of satisfying his
+warlike and ostentatious tastes--of procuring rich clothes, costly
+weapons, and ammunition for war and for the chase. In a moral point
+of view, all slave traffic is of course odious and reprehensible,
+but that of Circassia differed from other commerce of the kind,
+in so far that all parties were benefited by, and consenting to,
+the contract. The Turks obtained from Caucasus handsomer and
+healthier wives than those born in the harem; and the Circassian
+beauties were delighted to exchange the poverty and toil of their
+father's mountain huts for the luxurious _farniente_ of the
+seraglio, of whose wonders and delights their ears were regaled,
+from childhood upwards, with the most glowing descriptions. The
+trade, although greatly impeded and very hazardous, still goes on.
+Small Turkish craft creep up to the coast, cautiously evading the
+Russian cruisers, enter creeks and inlets, and are dragged by the
+Circassians high and dry upon the beach, there to remain till the
+negotiation for their live cargo is completed, an operation that
+generally takes a few weeks. The women sold are the daughters of
+serfs and freedmen: rarely does a _work_ consent to dispose of
+his sister or daughter, although the case does sometimes occur.
+But, whilst the sale goes on, the slave-ships are anything but
+secure. It is a small matter to have escaped the Russian frigates
+and steamers. Each of the Kreposts possesses a little squadron of
+row-boats, manned with Cossacks, who pull along the coast in search
+of Turkish vessels. If they detect one, they land in the night, and
+endeavour to set fire to it, before the mountaineers can come to
+the assistance of the crew. The Turks, who live in profound terror
+of these Cossack coast-guards, resort to every possible expedient
+to escape their observation; often covering their vessels with dry
+leaves and boughs, and tying fir branches to the masts, that the
+scouts may take them for trees. If they are captured at sea by the
+cruisers, the crew are sent to hard labour in Siberia, and the
+Circassian girls are married to Cossacks, or divided as handmaidens
+amongst the Russian staff officers. From thirty to forty slaves
+compose the usual cargo of each of these vessels, which are so
+small that the poor creatures are packed almost like herrings in
+a barrel. But they patiently endure the misery of the voyage, in
+anticipation of the honeyed existence of the harem. It is calculated
+that one vessel out of six is taken or lost. In the winter of
+1843-4, eight-and-twenty ships left the coast of Asia Minor for that
+of Caucasia. Twenty-three safely returned, three were burned by the
+Russians, and two swallowed by the waves.
+
+A Turkish captain at Sinope told Dr Wagner the following interesting
+anecdote, illustrating Circassian hatred of the Russians:--"A
+few years ago a slave-ship sprang a leak out at sea, just as a
+Russian steamer passed in the distance. The Turkish slave-dealer,
+who preferred even the chill blasts of Siberia to a grave in deep
+water, made signals of distress, and the steamer came up in time
+to rescue the ship and its living cargo from destruction. But so
+deeply is hatred of Russia implanted in every Circassian heart, that
+the spirit of the girls revolted at the thought of becoming the
+helpmates of gray-coated soldiers, instead of sharing the sumptuous
+couch of a Turkish pasha. They had bid adieu to their native
+mountains with little emotion, but as the Russian ship approached
+they set up terrible and despairing screams. Some sprang headlong
+into the sea; others drove their knives into their hearts:--to
+these heroines death was preferable to the bridal-bed of a detested
+Muscovite. The survivors were taken to Anapa, and married to
+Cossacks, or given to officers as servants." Nearly every Austrian
+or Turkish steamboat that makes, in the winter months, the voyage
+from Trebizond to Constantinople, has a number of Circassian girls
+on board. Dr Wagner made the passage in an Austrian steamer with
+several dozens of these willing slaves, chiefly mere children,
+twelve or thirteen years old, with interesting countenances and
+dark wild eyes, but very pale and thin--with the exception of
+two, who were some years older, far better dressed, and carefully
+veiled. To this favoured pair the slave-dealer paid particular
+attention, and frequently brought them coffee. Dr Wagner got into
+conversation with this man, who was richly dressed in furs and
+silks, and who, despite his vile profession, had the manners of
+a gentleman. The two coffee-drinkers were daughters of noblemen,
+he said, with fine rosy cheeks, and in better condition than the
+others, consequently worth more money at Constantinople. For the
+handsomest he hoped to obtain 30,000 piastres, and for the other
+20,000--about £250 and £170. The herd of young creatures he spoke of
+with contempt, and should think himself lucky to get 2000 piastres
+for them all round. He further informed the doctor that, although
+the slave-trade was more dangerous and difficult since the Russian
+occupation of the Caucasian coast, it was also far more profitable.
+Formerly, when Greek and Armenian women were brought in crowds to
+the Constantinople market, the most beautiful Circassians were
+not worth more than 10,000 piastres; but now a rosy, well-fed,
+fifteen-year-old slave is hardly to be had under 40,000 piastres.
+
+The Tshetshen successes, already referred to as having at the close
+of 1842 stirred into flame and action, by the force of example,
+the smouldering but still ardent embers of Circassian hatred to
+Russia, are described with remarkable spirit by Dr Wagner, in the
+chapter entitled "Caucasian War-Scenes,"--episodes taken down by him
+from the lips of eye-witnesses, and of sharers in the sanguinary
+conflicts described. This graphic chapter at once familiarises the
+reader with the Caucasian war, with which he thenceforward feels
+as well acquainted as with our wars in India, the French contest
+in Africa, or with any other series of combats, of whose nature
+and progress minute information has been regularly received. The
+first event described is the storming of Aculcho, in the summer
+of 1839. It is always a great point with guerilla generals, and
+with leaders of mountain warfare, to have a centre of operations--a
+strong post, whither they can retreat after a reverse, with the
+confidence that the enemy will hesitate before attacking them there.
+In Spain, Cabrera had Morella, the Count d'Espagne had Berga, the
+Navarrese viewed Estella as their citadel. In the eastern Caucasus,
+Chasi-Mollah had Himri, and preferred falling in its defence to
+abandoning his stronghold; his successor, Chamyl, who surpasses him
+in talent for war and organisation, established his headquarters
+at Aculcho, a sort of eagle's nest on the river Koisu, whither his
+escorts brought him intelligence of each movement of Russian troops,
+and whence he swooped, like the bird whose eyrie he occupied, upon
+the convoys traversing the steppe of the Terek. Here he planned
+expeditions and surprises, and kept a store of arms and ammunition;
+and this fort General Grabbe, who commanded in 1839 the Russian
+forces in eastern Caucasus, and who was always a strong advocate
+of the offensive system, obtained permission from St Petersburg to
+attack. General Golowin, commander-in-chief of the whole army of
+the Caucasus, and then resident at Teflis, approved the enterprise,
+whose ultimate results cost both generals their command. The taking
+of Aculcho itself was of little moment; there was no intention of
+placing a Russian garrison there; but the double end to be obtained
+was to capture Chamyl, and to intimidate the Tshetshens, by proving
+to them that no part of their mountains, however difficult of access
+and bravely defended, was beyond the reach of Russian valour and
+resources. Their submission, at least nominal and temporary, was the
+result hoped for.
+
+Nature has done much for the fortification of Aculcho. Imagine
+a hill of sand-stone, nearly surrounded by a loop of the river
+Koisu--a miniature peninsula, in short, connected with the continent
+by a narrow neck of land--provided with three natural terraces,
+accessible only by a small rocky path, whose entrance is fortified
+and defended by 500 resolute Tshetshen warriors. A few artificial
+parapets and intrenchments, some stone huts, and several excavations
+in the sand rock, where the besieged found shelter from shot and
+shell, complete the picture of the place before which Grabbe and his
+column sat down. At first they hoped to reduce it by artillery, and
+bombs and congreve rockets were poured upon the fortress, destroying
+huts and parapets, but doing little harm to the Tshetshens, who lay
+close as conies in their burrows, and watched their opportunity to
+send well-aimed bullets into the Russian camp. From time to time,
+one of the fanatical Murides, of whom the garrison was chiefly
+composed, impatient that the foe delayed an assault, rushed headlong
+down from the rock, his shaska in his right hand, his pistol in his
+left, his dagger between his teeth; causing a momentary panic among
+the Cossacks, who were prepared for the whistling of bullets, but
+not for the sudden appearance of a foaming demon armed _cap-à-pie_,
+who generally, before they could use their bayonets, avenged in
+advance his own certain death by the slaughter of several of his
+foes, whilst his comrades on the rock applauded and rejoiced at
+the heroic self-sacrifice. The first attempt to storm was costly
+to the besiegers. Of fifteen hundred men who ascended the narrow
+path, only a hundred and fifty survived. The Tshetshens maintained
+such a well-directed platoon fire, that not a Russian set foot on
+the second terrace. The foremost men, mown down by the bullets
+of the besieged, fell back upon their comrades, and precipitated
+them from the rock. General Grabbe, undismayed by his heavy loss,
+ordered a second and a third assault; the three cost two thousand
+men, but the lower and middle terraces were taken. The defence
+of the upper one was desperate, and the Russians might have been
+compelled to turn the siege into a blockade, but for the imprudence
+of some of the garrison, who, anxious to ascertain the proceedings
+of the enemy's engineers--then hard at work at a mine under the
+hill--ventured too far from their defences, and were attacked by a
+Russian battalion. The Tshetshens fled; but, swift of foot though
+they were, the most active of the Russians attained the topmost
+terrace with them. A hand-to-hand fight ensued, more battalions
+came up, and Aculcho was taken. The victors, furious at their
+losses, and at the long resistance opposed to them, (this was the
+22d August,) raged like tigers amongst the unfortunate little band
+of mountaineers; some Tshetshen women, who took up arms at this
+last extremity, were slaughtered with their husbands. At last the
+bloody work was apparently at an end, and search ensued amongst the
+dead for the body of Chamyl. It was nowhere to be found. At last
+the discovery was made that a few of the garrison had taken refuge
+in holes in the side of the rock, looking over the river. No path
+led to these cavities; the only way to get at them was to lower
+men by ropes from the crag above. In this manner the surviving
+Tshetshens were attacked; quarter was neither asked nor given.
+The hole in which Chamyl himself was hidden held out the longest.
+Escape seemed, however, impossible; the rock was surrounded; the
+banks of the river were lined with soldiers; Grabbe's main object
+was the capture of Chamyl. At this critical moment the handful of
+Tshetshens still alive gave an example of heroic devotion. They knew
+that their leader's death would be a heavy loss to their country,
+and they resolved to sacrifice themselves to save him. With a few
+beams and planks, that chanced to be in the cave, they constructed
+a sort of raft. This they launched upon the Koisu, and floated with
+it down the stream, amidst a storm of Russian lead. The Russian
+general doubted not that Chamyl was on the raft, and ordered every
+exertion to kill or take him. Whilst the Cossacks spurred their
+horses into the river, and the infantry hurried along the bank,
+following the raft, a man sprang out of the hole into the Koisu,
+swam vigorously across the stream, landed at an unguarded spot, and
+gained the mountains unhurt. This man was Chamyl, who alone escaped
+with life from the bloody rock of Aculcho. His deliverance passed
+for miraculous amongst the enthusiastic mountaineers, with whom
+his influence, from that day forward, increased tenfold. Grabbe
+was furious; Chamyl's head was worth more than the heads of all
+the garrison: three thousand Russians had been sacrificed for the
+possession of a crag not worth the keeping.
+
+After the fall of Aculcho, Chamyl's head-quarters were at the
+village of Dargo, in the mountain region south of the Russian fort
+of Girselaul, and thence he carried on the war with great vigour,
+surprising fortified posts, cutting off convoys, and sweeping the
+plain with his horsemen. Generals Grabbe and Golowin could not
+agree about the mode of operations. The former was for taking
+the offensive; the latter advocated the defensive and blockade
+system. Grabbe went to St Petersburg to plead in person for his
+plan, obtained a favourable hearing, and the emperor sent Prince
+Tchernicheff, the minister at war, to visit both flanks of the
+Caucasus. Before the prince reached the left wing of the line
+of operations, Grabbe resolved to surprise him with a brilliant
+achievement; and on the 29th May 1842, he marched from Girselaul
+with thirteen battalions, a small escort of mounted Cossacks, and a
+train of mountain artillery, to attack Dargo. The route was through
+forests, and along paths tangled with wild flowers and creeping
+plants, through which the heavy Russian infantry, encumbered with
+eight days' rations and sixty rounds of ball-cartridge, made but
+slow and painful progress. The first day's march was accomplished
+without fighting; only here and there the slender active form of
+a mountaineer was descried, as he peered between the trees at the
+long column of bayonets, and vanished as soon as he was observed.
+After midnight the dance began. The troops had eaten their rations,
+and were comfortably bivouacked, when they were assailed by a sharp
+fire from an invisible foe, to which they replied in the direction
+of the flashes. This skirmishing lasted all night; few were killed
+on either side, but the whole Russian division were deprived of
+sleep, and wearied for the next day's march. At daybreak the enemy
+retired; but at noon, when passing through a forest defile, the
+column was again assailed, and soon the horses, and a few light
+carts accompanying it, were insufficient to convey the wounded.
+The staff urged the general to retrace his steps, but Grabbe was
+bent on welcoming Tchernicheff with a triumphant bulletin. Another
+sleepless bivouac--another fagging day, more skirmishing. At last,
+when within sight of the fortified village of Dargo, the loss of
+the column was so heavy, and its situation so critical, that a
+retreat was ordered. The daring and fury of the Tshetshens now knew
+no bounds; they assailed the troops sabre in hand, captured baggage
+and wounded, and at night prowled round the camp, like wolves round
+a dying soldier. On the 1st June, the fight recommenced. The valour
+displayed by the mountaineers was admitted by the Russians to be
+extraordinary, as was also their skill in wielding the terrible
+shaska. They made a fierce attack on the centre of the column--cut
+down the artillery-men and captured six guns. The Russians, who
+throughout the whole of this trying expedition did their duty
+as good and brave soldiers, were furious at the loss of their
+artillery, and by a desperate charge retook five pieces, the sixth
+being relinquished only because its carriage was broken. Upon the
+last day of the retreat, Chamyl came up with his horsemen. Had he
+been able to get these together two days sooner, it is doubtful
+whether any portion of the column would have escaped. As it was,
+the Russians lost nearly two thousand men; the weary and dispirited
+survivors re-entering Girselaul with downcast mien. Preparations
+had been made to celebrate their triumph, and, to add to their
+general's mortification, Tchernicheff was awaiting their arrival. On
+the prince's return to St Petersburg, both Grabbe and Golowin were
+removed from their commands.
+
+Against this same Tshetshen fortress of Dargo, Count Woronzoff's
+expedition (already referred to) was made, in July 1845. A capital
+account of the affair is given in a letter from a Russian officer
+engaged, printed in Dr Wagner's book. Dargo had become an important
+place. Chamyl had established large stores there, and had built
+a mosque, to which came pilgrims from the remotest villages of
+Daghestan and Lesghistan, partly to pray, partly to see the dreaded
+chief--equally renowned as warrior and priest--and to give him
+information concerning the state of the country, and the movements
+of the Russians. Less vigorously opposed than Grabbe, and his
+measures better taken, Woronzoff reached Dargo with moderate loss.
+"The village," says the Russian officer: "was situated on the slope
+of a mountain, at the brink of a ravine, and consisted of sixty
+to seventy small stone-houses, and of a few larger buildings,
+where the stones were joined with mortar, instead of being merely
+superimposed, as is usually the case in Caucasian dwellings. One
+of these buildings had several irregular towers, of some apparent
+antiquity. When we approached, a thick smoke burst from them. Chamyl
+had ordered everything to be set on fire that could not be carried
+away. One must confess that, in this fierce determination of the
+enemy to refuse submission--to defend, foot by foot, the territory
+of his forefathers, and to leave to the Russians no other trophies
+than ashes and smoking ruins--there is a certain wild grandeur which
+extorts admiration, even though the hostile chief be no better
+than a fanatical barbarian." This reminds us of the words of the
+Circassian chief Mansour:--"When Turkey and England abandon us," he
+said, to Bell of the 'Vixen,'--"when all our powers of resistance
+are exhausted, we will burn our houses,and our goods, strangle our
+wives and our children, and retreat to our highest rocks, there to
+die, fighting to the very last man." "The greatest difficulty,"
+said General Neidhardt to Dr Wagner, who was a frequent visitor
+at the house of that distinguished officer, "with which we have
+to contend, is the unappeasable, deep-rooted, ineradicable hatred
+cherished by all the mountaineers against the Russians. For this
+we know no cure; every form of severity and of kindness has been
+tried in turn, with equal ill-success." Valour and patriotism are
+nearly the only good qualities the Caucasians can boast. They are
+cruel, and for the most part faithless, especially the Tshetshens,
+and Dr Wagner warns us against crediting the exaggerated accounts
+frequently given of their many virtues. The Circassians are said
+to respect their plighted word, but there are many exceptions.
+General Neidhardt told Dr Wagner an anecdote of a Circassian, who
+presented himself before the commandant of one of the Black Sea
+fortresses, and offered to communicate most important intelligence,
+on condition of a certain reward. The reward was promised. Then
+said the Circassian,--"To-morrow after sunset, your fort will be
+assailed by thousands of my countrymen." The informer was retained,
+whilst Cossacks and riflemen were sent out, and it proved that he
+had spoken the truth. The enemy, finding the garrison on their
+guard, retired after a short skirmish. The Circassian received his
+recompense, which he took without a word of thanks, and left the
+fortress. Without the walls, he met an unarmed soldier; hatred of
+the Russians, and thirst of blood, again got the ascendency: he shot
+the soldier dead, and scampered off to the mountains.
+
+Chamyl did not long remain indebted to the Russians for their visit
+to Dargo. His reputation of sanctity and valour enabled him to unite
+under his orders many tribes habitually hostile to each other, and
+which previously had fought each "on its own hook." Of these tribes
+he formed a powerful league; and in May 1846 he burst into Cabardia
+at the head of twenty thousand mountaineers, four thousand of whom
+were horsemen. Formidable though this force was, the venture was one
+of extreme temerity. He left behind him a double line of Russian
+camps and forts, and two rivers, then at the flood, and difficult
+to pass. With an undisciplined and heterogeneous army, without
+artillery or regular commissariat, this daring chief threw himself
+into a flat country, unfavourable to guerilla warfare; slipping
+through the Russian posts, marching more than four hundred miles,
+and utterly disregarding the danger he was in from a well-equipped
+army of upwards of seventy thousand men, to say nothing of the
+numerous military population of the Cossack settlements on the
+Terek and Sundscha, and of the fact that the Cabardians, long
+submissive to Russia, were more likely to arm in defence of their
+rulers than to favour the mountaineers. Shepherds and dwellers in
+the plain, and far less warlike than the other Circassian tribes,
+they never were able to make head against the Russians; and had
+remained indifferent to all the incentives of Tshetshen fanatics
+and propagandists. For years past, Chamyl had threatened them with
+a visit; but nevertheless, his sudden appearance greatly surprised
+and confounded both them and the Russian general, who had just
+concentrated all his movable columns, with a view to an expedition,
+relying overmuch upon his lines of forts and blockhouses. The
+Tshetshen raid was more daring, and at least as successful, as
+Abd-el-Kader's celebrated foray in the Metidja, in the year 1839.
+Chamyl addressed to the Cabardians a thundering proclamation, full
+of quotations from the Koran, and denouncing vengeance on them if
+they did not flock to the banner of the Prophet. The unlucky keepers
+of sheep found themselves between the devil and the deep sea. From
+terror rather than sympathy, a large number of villages declared
+for Chamyl, whose wild hordes burned and plundered the property of
+all who adhered to the Russians; leaving, like a swarm of locusts,
+desolation in their track. When the Cossacks began to gather, and
+the Russian generals to manoeuvre, Chamyl, who knew he could not
+contend in the plain with disciplined and superior forces, and whose
+retreat by the road he came was already cut off, traversed Great and
+Little Cabardia, burning and destroying as he went; dashed through
+the Cossack colonies to the south of Ekaterinograd, and regained
+his mountains in safety--dragging with him booty, prisoners, and
+Cabardian recruits. These latter, who had joined through fear of
+Chamyl, remained with him through fear of the Russians. By this
+foray, whose apparent great rashness was justified by its complete
+success, Chamyl enriched his people, strengthened his army, and
+greatly weakened the confidence of the tribes of the plain in the
+efficacy of Russian protection. As usual, in cases of disaster, the
+Russians kept the affair as quiet as they could; but the truth could
+not be concealed from those most concerned, and murmurs of dismay
+ran along the exposed line fringing the Muscovite and Circassian
+territories.
+
+The Russian army of the Caucasus reckoned, in 1843, about eighty
+thousand men, exclusive of thirty-five thousand who had little to
+do with the war, but were more especially employed in watching the
+extensive line of Turkish and Persian frontier, and in endeavouring
+to exclude contraband goods and Asiatic epidemics. But the severe
+fighting that occurred in 1842 and 1843, showed the necessity
+of an increase of force. Subsequent events have not admitted of
+a reduction in the Caucasian establishment; and we are probably
+very near the mark, in estimating the troops occupying the various
+forts and camps on the Black Sea, and the lines of the rivers,
+(Terek, Kuban, Koisu, &c.,) at about one hundred thousand men--not
+at all too many to guard so extensive a line, against so active
+and enterprising a foe. The Russian ranks are constantly thinned
+by destructive fevers, which, in bad years, have been known to
+carry off as much as a sixth of the Caucasian army. At a review
+at Vladikawkas, Dr Wagner was struck by the powerful build of the
+Russian foot-soldiers--broad-shouldered, broad-faced Slavonians,
+with enormous mustaches, drilled to automatical perfection. In point
+of bone and limb, every man of them was a grenadier. In a bayonet
+charge, such infantry are formidable opponents. Ségur mentions that,
+on the battle-field of Borodino, the nation of the stripped bodies
+was easily known--the muscle and size of the Russians contrasting
+with the slighter frames of French and Germans. "You may kill the
+Russians, but you will hardly make them run," was a saying of
+Frederick the Great; and certainly Seidlitz, who scattered the
+French so briskly at Rossbach, had to sweat blood before he overcame
+the Russians at Zorndorf. Those survivors of Napoleon's famous Guard
+who fought in the drawn battle of Eylau, will bear witness to the
+stubborn resistance and bull-dog qualities of the Muscovite. But
+the grenadier stature, and the immobility under fire--admirable
+qualities on a plain, and against regular troops--avail little in
+the Caucasus. The burly Russian pants and perspires up the hills,
+which the light-footed chamois-like Circassians and Tshetshens
+ascend at a run. The mountaineers understand their advantages,
+and decline standing still in the plain to be charged by a line
+of bayonets. They dance round the heavy Russian, who, with his
+well-stuffed knapsack and long greatcoat, can barely turn on his
+heel fast enough to face them. They catch him out skirmishing, and
+slaughter him in detail. "One might suppose," said a foreigner in
+the Russian service to Dr Wagner, "that the musket and bayonet of
+the Russian soldier would be too much, in single combat, for the
+sabre and dagger of the Tshetshen. The contrary is the case. Amongst
+the dead, slain in hand-to-hand encounter, there are usually a third
+more Russians than Caucasians. Strange to say, too, the Russian
+soldier, who in the serried ranks of his battalion meets death with
+wonderful firmness, and who has shown the utmost valour in contests
+with European, Turkish, and Persian armies, often betrays timidity
+in the Caucasian war, and retreats from the outposts to the column,
+in spite of the heavy punishment he thereby incurs. I myself was
+exposed, during the murderous fight near Ischkeri (Dargo,) in 1842,
+to considerable danger, because, having gone to the assistance of a
+skirmisher, who was sharply engaged with a Tshetshen, the skirmisher
+ran, leaving me to fight it out alone." This shyness of Russian
+soldiers in single fight and irregular warfare, is not inexplicable.
+They have no chance of promotion, no honourable stimulus: food and
+brandy, discipline and dread of the lash, convert them from serfs
+into soldiers. As bits of a machine, they are admirable when united,
+but asunder they are mere screws and bolts. Fanatic zeal, bitter
+hatred, and thirst of blood, animate the Caucasian, who, trained to
+arms from his boyhood, and ignorant of drill, relies only upon his
+keen shaska, and upon the Prophet's protection.
+
+Presuming Dr Wagner's statement of Russian rations to be correct,
+it is a puzzle how the soldier preserves the condition of his thews
+and sinews. The daily allowance consists of three pounds of bread,
+black as a coal; a water-soup, in which three pounds of bacon are
+cut up for every two hundred and fifty men; a ration of _wodka_,
+or bad brandy, and once a-week a small piece of meat. The pay is
+nine rubles a-year, (about one-third of a penny _per diem_,) out of
+which the unfortunate private has to purchase his stock, cap, soap,
+blacking, salt, &c., &c. Any surplus he is allowed to expend upon
+his amusement. "Our soldiers are obliged to steal a little," said a
+German officer in the Russian service to Dr Wagner; "their pay will
+not purchase soap and blacking; and if their shirts are not clean,
+and their shoes polished, the stick is their portion." "Stealing a
+little," in one way or other, is no uncommon practice in Russia,
+even amongst more highly placed personages than the soldiers.
+Officials of all kinds, both civil and military, particularly those
+of the middle and lower ranks, are prone to peculation. Dr Wagner
+was deafened with the complaints that from all sides met his ear.
+"Ah! if the emperor knew it!" was the usual cry. The subjects of
+Nicholas have strong faith in his justice. It is well remembered
+in the Caucasus, especially by the army, how one day, at Teflis,
+the emperor, upon parade, in full view of mob and soldiers, tore,
+with his own hand, the golden insignia of a general's rank from the
+coat of Prince Dadian, denounced to him as enriching himself at his
+men's expense. For several years afterwards, the prince carried the
+musket, and wore the coarse gray coat of a private sentinel. The
+officers pitied him, although his condemnation was just. "_Il faut
+profiter d'une bonne place_," is their current maxim. The soldiers
+rejoiced; but in secret; for such rejoicings are not always safe.
+A sentence often recoils unpleasantly upon the accuser. Dr Wagner
+gives sundry examples. A major in Sewastopol fell in love with a
+sergeant's wife; and as she disregarded his addresses, he persecuted
+her and her husband at every opportunity. In despair, the sergeant
+at last complained to the general commanding. He was listened to;
+an investigation ensued; the major was superseded; and from his
+successor the sergeant received five hundred lashes, under pretence
+of his having left his regiment without permission when he went to
+lodge his charge. Corporal punishment, of frequent application, at
+the mere caprice of their superiors, to Russian serfs and soldiers,
+is inflicted with sticks or rods, the knout being reserved for
+very grave offences, such as murder, rebellion, &c., and preceding
+banishment to Siberia, should the sufferer survive. Dr Wagner's
+description of this dreadful punishment is horribly vivid. Few
+criminals are sentenced to more than twenty-five lashes, and less
+than twenty often kill. Running the gauntlet through three thousand
+men is the usual punishment of deserters; and this would usually be
+a sentence of death but for the compassion of the officers, who hint
+to their companies to strike lightly. If the sufferer faints, and
+is declared by the surgeon unable to receive all his punishment, he
+gets the remainder at some future time. "Take him down" is a phrase
+unknown in the Russian service, until the offender has received the
+last lash of his sentence.
+
+Severity is doubtless necessary in an army composed like that of
+Russia. Two-thirds of the soldiers are serfs, whose masters, being
+allowed to send what men they please--so long as they make up their
+quota--naturally contribute the greatest scamps and idlers upon
+their estates. The army in Russia is what the galleys are in France,
+and the hulks in England--a punishment for an infinity of offences.
+An official embezzles funds--to the army with him; a Jew is caught
+smuggling--off with him to the ranks; a Tartar cattle-stealer, a
+vagrant gipsy, an Armenian trader convicted of fraud, a Petersburg
+coachman who has run over a pedestrian--all food for powder--gray
+coats and bayonets for them all. Jews abound in the Russian army,
+being subjected to a severe conscription in Poland and southern
+Russia. They submit with exemplary patience to the hardships of the
+service, and to the taunts of their Russian comrades. Poles are of
+course numerous in the ranks, but they are less enduring than the
+Israelite, and often desert to the Circassians, who make them work
+as servants, or sell them as slaves to the Turks. No race are too
+unmilitary in their nature to be ground into soldiers by the mill
+of Russian discipline. Besides Jews, gipsies and Armenians figure
+on the muster-roll. It must have been a queer day for the ragged
+Zingaro, when the Russian sergeant first stepped into his smoky
+tent, bade him clip his elf locks, wash his grimy countenance, and
+follow to the field. For him the pomp of war had no seductions; he
+would far rather have stuck to his den and vermin, and to his meal
+of roast rats and hedgehogs. But military discipline works miracles.
+The slouching filthy vagabond of yesterday now stands erect as if
+he had swallowed his ramrod, his shoes a brilliant jet, his buttons
+sparkling in the sun--a soldier from toe to top-knot.
+
+The right bank of the Kuban, from the Sea of Azov to the mouth
+of the Laba, (a tributary of the former stream,) is peopled with
+Tchernamortsy Cossacks, who furnish ten regiments, each of a
+thousand horsemen, for the defence of their lands and families.
+These cavalry carry a musket, slung on the back, and a long
+red lance: their dress is a sheepskin jacket, except on state
+occasions, when they sport uniform. They are much less feared by
+the Circassians than are the Cossacks of the Line, who wear the
+Circassian dress, carry sabres instead of lances, and are more
+valiant, active and skilful, than their Tchernamortsy neighbours.
+The Cossacks of the Caucasian Line dwell on the banks of the Kuban
+and Terek, form a military colony of about fifty thousand souls,
+and keep six thousand horsemen ready for the field. There is a
+mixture of Circassian blood in their veins, and they are first-rate
+fighting men. Their villages are exposed to frequent attacks from
+the mountaineers; but when these are not exceedingly rapid in
+collecting their booty, and effecting their retreat, the Cossacks
+assemble, and a desperate fight ensues. When the combatants are
+numerically matched, the equality of arms, horses, and skill renders
+the issue very doubtful. The Tchernamortsies and Don Cossacks are
+less able to cope with the Circassians. In a _mêlée_ their lances
+are inferior to the shaska. The rival claims of lance and sabre
+have often been discussed; many trials of their respective merits
+have been made in English, French, and German riding-schools; and
+much ink has been shed on the subject. Unquestionably the lance has
+done good service, and in certain circumstances is a terrible arm.
+"At the battle of Dresden," Marshal Marmont tells us, "the Austrian
+infantry were repeatedly assailed by the French cuirassiers,
+whom they as often beat back, although the rain prevented their
+firing, and the bayonet was their sole defence. But fifty lancers
+of Latour-Maubourg's escort at once broke their ranks." Had the
+cuirassiers had lances, their first charge, Marmont plausibly enough
+asserts, would have sufficed. This leads to another question, often
+mooted--whether the lance be properly a light or a heavy cavalry
+weapon. When used to break infantry, weight of man and horse might
+be an advantage; but in pursuit, where--especially in rugged and
+mountainous countries--the lance is found particularly useful, the
+preference is obviously for the swift steed and light cavalier.
+In the irregular cavalry combats on the Caucasian line, the sabre
+carries the day. Unless the Don Cossack's first lance-thrust settles
+his adversary, (which is rarely the case,) the next instant the
+adroit Circassian is within his guard, and then the betting is ten
+to one on Caucasus. Moreover, the Don Cossacks, brought from afar to
+wage a perilous and profitless war, are unwilling combatants. They
+find blows more plentiful than booty, and approve themselves arrant
+thieves and shy fighters. Relieved every two or three years, they
+have scarcely time to get broken in to the peculiar mode of warfare.
+The Cossacks of the Line are the flower of the hundred thousand wild
+warriors scattered over the steppes of Southern Russia, and ready,
+at one man's word, to vault into the saddle. Their gallant feats
+are numerous. In 1843, during Dr Wagner's visit, three thousand
+Circassians dashed across the Kuban, near the fortified village of
+Ustlaba. A dense fog hid them from the Russian vedettes. Suddenly
+fifty Cossacks of the Line, the escort of a gun, found themselves
+face to face with the mountaineers. The mist was so thick that the
+horses' heads almost touched before either party perceived the
+other. Flight was impossible, but the Cossacks fought like fiends.
+Forty-seven met a soldier's death; only three were captured,
+and accompanied the cannon across the river, by which road the
+Circassians at once retreated, having taken the brave detachment for
+the advanced guard of a strong force.
+
+The word Kasak, Kosak, or Kossack, variously interpreted by Klaproth
+and other etymologists as robber, volunteer, daredevil, &c., conveys
+to civilised ears rude and inelegant associations. Paris has not
+yet forgotten the uncouth hordes, wrapped in sheepskins and overrun
+with vermin, who, in the hour of her humiliation, startled her
+streets, and made her dandies shriek for their smelling-bottles.
+Not that Paris saw the worst of them. Some of the Uralian bears,
+centaurs of the steppes, Calibans on horseback, were never allowed
+to pass the Russian frontier. Their emperor appreciated their good
+qualities, but left them at home. Since then, a change has occured.
+Civilisation has made huge strides north-eastward. Near Fanagoria,
+Dr Wagner passed a pleasant evening with a Cossack officer, a prime
+fellow, with all unquenchable thirst for toddy, and an inexhaustible
+store of information. He had made the campaigns against the French;
+had evidently been bred a savage, or little better; but had
+acquired, during his long military career, knowledge of the world
+and a certain degree of polish. Amongst other interesting matters,
+he gave a sketch of his grandfather, a bloodthirsty old warrior
+and image-worshipper, the scourge of his Nogay neighbours, and a
+great slayer of the Turk; who in 1812, at the mature age of ninety,
+had responded to Czar Alexander's summons to fight for "faith and
+fatherland," and had taken the field under Platoff, at the head of
+thirteen sons and threescore grandsons. Whilst the Cossack major
+told the history of the "Demon of the Steppes," as his ferocious
+ancestor was called, his son, a gay lieutenant in the Cossacks of
+the Guard, entered the apartment. This young gentleman, slender,
+handsome, with well-cut uniform, graceful manners, and well-waxed
+mustaches, declined the punch, "having got used at St Petersburg
+to tea and champagne." He brought intelligence of promotions
+and decorations, of high play at Tcherkask, (the capital of the
+Don-Cossacks' country,) and of the establishment at Toganrog of
+a French _restaurateur_, who retailed _Veuve Clicquot's_ genuine
+champagne at four silver rubles a bottle. He was fascinated by
+the French actresses at St Petersburg, and enthusiastic in praise
+of Taglioni, then displaying her legs and graces in the Russian
+metropolis. Dr Wagner left the symposium with a vivid impression of
+the contrast between the bearded barbarian of 1812 and the dapper
+guardsman of thirty years later; and with the full conviction that
+the next Russian emperor who makes an inroad into civilised Europe,
+will have no occasion to be ashamed of his Cossacks, even though his
+route should lead him to the polite capital of the French republic.
+
+
+
+
+THE CAXTONS.--PART X.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+My uncle's conjecture as to the parentage of Francis Vivian seemed
+to me a positive discovery. Nothing more likely than that this
+wilful boy had formed some headstrong attachment which no father
+would sanction, and so, thwarted and irritated, thrown himself on
+the world. Such an explanation was the more agreeable to me, as it
+cleared up all that had appeared more discreditable in the mystery
+that surrounded Vivian. I could never bear to think that he had done
+anything mean and criminal, however I might believe he had been rash
+and faulty. It was natural that the unfriended wanderer should have
+been thrown into a society, the equivocal character of which had
+failed to revolt the audacity of an inquisitive mind and adventurous
+temper; but it was natural, also, that the habits of gentle birth,
+and that silent education which English gentlemen commonly receive
+from their very cradle, should have preserved his honour, at least,
+intact through all. Certainly the pride, the notions, the very
+faults of the wellborn had remained in full force--why not the
+better qualities, however smothered for the time? I felt thankful
+for the thought that Vivian was returning to an element in which he
+might repurify his mind,--refit himself for that sphere to which he
+belonged;--thankful that we might yet meet, and our present half
+intimacy mature, perhaps, into healthful friendship.
+
+It was with such thoughts that I took up my hat the next morning
+to seek Vivian, and judge if we had gained the right clue, when we
+were startled by what was a rare sound at our door--the postman's
+knock. My father was at the Museum; my mother in high conference, or
+close preparation for our approaching departure, with Mrs Primmins;
+Roland, I, and Blanche had the room to ourselves.
+
+"The letter is not for me," said Pisistratus.
+
+"Nor for me, I am sure," said the Captain, when the servant entered
+and confuted him--for the letter was for him. He took it up
+wonderingly and suspiciously, as Glumdalclitch took up Gulliver, or
+as (if naturalists) we take up an unknown creature, that we are not
+quite sure will not bite and sting us. Ah! it has stung or bit you,
+Captain Roland! for you start and change colour--you suppress a cry
+as you break the seal--you breathe hard as you read--and the letter
+seems short--but it takes time in the reading, for you go over it
+again and again. Then you fold it up--crumple it--thrust it into
+your breast pocket--and look round like a man waking from a dream.
+Is it a dream of pain, or of pleasure? Verily, I cannot guess, for
+nothing is on that eagle face either of pain or pleasure, but rather
+of fear, agitation, bewilderment. Yet the eyes are bright, too, and
+there is a smile on that iron lip.
+
+My uncle looked round, I say, and called hastily for his cane and
+his hat, and then began buttoning his coat across his broad breast,
+though the day was hot enough to have unbuttoned every breast in the
+tropics.
+
+"You are not going out, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"But are you strong enough yet? Let me go with you?"
+
+"No, sir; no. Blanche, come here." He took the child in his arms,
+surveyed her wistfully, and kissed her. "You have never given me
+pain, Blanche: say, 'God bless and prosper you, father!'"
+
+"God bless and prosper my dear, dear papa!" said Blanche, putting
+her little hands together, as if in prayer.
+
+"There--that should bring me luck, Blanche," said the Captain,
+gaily, and setting her down. Then seizing his cane from the servant,
+and putting on his hat with a determined air, he walked stoutly
+forth; and I saw him, from the window, march along the streets as
+cheerfully as if he had been besieging Badajoz.
+
+"God prosper thee, too!" said I, involuntarily.
+
+And Blanche took hold of my hand, and said in her prettiest way,
+(and her pretty ways were many), "I wish you would come with us,
+cousin Sisty, and help me to love papa. Poor papa! he wants us
+both--he wants all the love we can give him!"
+
+"That he does, my dear Blanche; and I think it a great mistake that
+we don't all live together. Your papa ought not to go to that tower
+of his, at the world's end, but come to our snug, pretty house, with
+a garden full of flowers, for you to be Queen of the May--from May
+to November;--to say nothing of a duck that is more sagacious than
+any creature in the Fables I gave you the other day."
+
+Blanche laughed and clapped her hands--"Oh, that would be so nice!
+but,"--and she stopped gravely, and added, "but then, you see, there
+would not be the tower to love papa; and I am sure that the tower
+must love him very much, for he loves it dearly."
+
+It was my turn to laugh now. "I see how it is, you little witch,"
+said I; "you would coax us to come and live with you and the owls!
+With all my heart, so far as I am concerned."
+
+"Sisty," said Blanche, with an appalling solemnity on her face, "do
+you know what I've been thinking?"
+
+"Not I, miss--what?--something very deep, I can see--very horrible,
+indeed, I fear, you look so serious."
+
+"Why, I've been thinking," continued Blanche, not relaxing a muscle,
+and without the least bit of a blush--"I've been thinking that
+I'll be your little wife; and then, of course, we shall all live
+together."
+
+Blanche did not blush, but I did. "Ask me that ten years hence,
+if you dare, you impudent little thing; and now, run away to Mrs
+Primmins, and tell her to keep you out of mischief, for I must say
+good-morning."
+
+But Blanche did not run away, and her dignity seemed exceedingly
+hurt at my mode of taking her alarming proposition, for she retired
+into a corner pouting, and sate down with great majesty. So there
+I left her, and went my way to Vivian. He was out; but, seeing
+books on his table, and having nothing to do, I resolved to wait
+for his return. I had enough of my father in me to turn at once to
+the books for company; and, by the side of some graver works which
+I had recommended, I found certain novels in French, that Vivian
+had got from a circulating library. I had a curiosity to read
+these--for, except the old classic novels of France, this mighty
+branch of its popular literature was then new to me. I soon got
+interested, but what an interest!--the interest that a nightmare
+might excite, if one caught it out of one's sleep, and set to work
+to examine it. By the side of what dazzling shrewdness, what deep
+knowledge of those holes and corners in the human system, of which
+Goethe must have spoken when he said somewhere--(if I recollect
+right, and don't misquote him, which I'll not answer for)--"There
+is something in every man's heart which, if we could know, would
+make us hate him,"--by the side of all this, and of much more that
+showed prodigious boldness and energy of intellect, what strange
+exaggeration--what mock nobility of sentiment--what inconceivable
+perversion of reasoning--what damnable demoralisation! I hate the
+cant of charging works of fiction with the accusation--often unjust
+and shallow--that they interest us in vice, or palliate crime,
+because the author truly shows what virtues may entangle themselves
+with vices; or commands our compassion, and awes our pride, by
+teaching us how men deceive and bewitch themselves into guilt. Such
+painting belongs to the dark truth of all tragedy, from Sophocles to
+Shakspeare. No; this is not what shocked me in those books--it was
+not the interesting me in vice, for I felt no interest in it at all;
+it was the insisting that vice is something uncommonly noble--it
+was the portrait of some coldblooded adultress, whom the author or
+authoress chooses to call _pauvre Ange!_ (poor angel!);--it was some
+scoundrel who dupes, cheats, and murders under cover of a duel, in
+which he is a second St George; who does not instruct us by showing
+through what metaphysical process he became a scoundrel, but who
+is continually forced upon us as a very favourable specimen of
+mankind;--it was the view of society altogether, painted in colours
+so hideous that, if true, instead of a revolution, it would draw
+down a deluge;--it was the hatred, carefully instilled, of the
+poor against the rich--it was the war breathed between class and
+class--it was that envy of all superiorities, which loves to show
+itself by allowing virtue only to a blouse, and asserting that a
+man must be a rogue if he belong to that rank of society in which,
+from the very gifts of education, from the necessary associations
+of circumstances, roguery is the last thing probable or natural.
+It was all this, and things a thousand times worse, that set my
+head in a whirl, as hour after hour slipped on, and I still gazed,
+spell-bound, on these Chimeras and Typhons--these symbols of the
+Destroying Principle. "Poor Vivian!" said I, as I rose at last,
+"if thou readest these books with pleasure, or from habit, no
+wonder that thou seemest to me so obtuse about right and wrong,
+and to have a great cavity where thy brain should have the bump of
+'conscientiousness' in full salience!"
+
+Nevertheless, to do those demoniacs justice, I had got through
+time imperceptibly by their pestilent help; and I was startled to
+see, by my watch, how late it was. I had just resolved to leave
+a line, fixing an appointment for the morrow, and so depart,
+when I heard Vivian's knock--a knock that had great character
+in it--haughty, impatient, irregular; not a neat, symmetrical,
+harmonious, unpretending knock, but a knock that seemed to set the
+whole house and street at defiance: it was a knock bullying--a
+knock ostentatious--a knock irritating and offensive--"impiger" and
+"iracundus."
+
+But the step that came up the stairs did not suit the knock: it was
+a step light, yet firm--slow, yet elastic.
+
+The maid-servant who had opened the door had, no doubt, informed
+Vivian of my visit, for he did not seem surprised to see me; but he
+cast that hurried, suspicious look round the room which a man is apt
+to cast when he has left his papers about, and finds some idler,
+on whose trustworthiness he by no means depends, seated in the
+midst of the unguarded secrets. The look was not flattering; but my
+conscience was so unreproachful that I laid all the blame upon the
+general suspiciousness of Vivian's character.
+
+"Three hours, at least, have I been here!" said I, maliciously.
+
+"Three hours!"--again the look.
+
+"And this is the worst secret I have discovered,"--and I pointed to
+those literary Manicheans.
+
+"Oh!" said he carelessly, "French novels!--I don't wonder you stayed
+so long. I can't read your English novels--flat and insipid: there
+are truth and life here."
+
+"Truth and life!" cried I, every hair on my head erect with
+astonishment--"then hurrah for falsehood and death!"
+
+"They don't please you; no accounting for tastes."
+
+"I beg your pardon--I account for yours, if you really take for
+truth and life monsters so nefast and flagitious. For heaven's
+sake, my dear fellow, don't suppose that any man could get on in
+England--get anywhere but to the Old Bailey or Norfolk Island, if he
+squared his conduct to such topsy-turvy notions of the world as I
+find here."
+
+"How many years are you my senior," asked Vivian sneeringly, "that
+you should play the mentor, and correct my ignorance of the world?"
+
+"Vivian, it is not age and experience that speak here, it is
+something far wiser than they--the instinct of a man's heart, and a
+gentleman's honour."
+
+"Well, well," said Vivian, rather discomposed, "let the poor books
+alone; you know my creed--that books influence us little one way or
+the other."
+
+"By the great Egyptian library, and the soul of Diodorus, I wish you
+could hear my father upon that point! Come," added I, with sublime
+compassion--"come, it is not too late--do let me introduce you to
+my father. I will consent to read French novels all my life, if a
+single chat with Austin Caxton does not send you home with a happier
+face and a lighter heart. Come, let me take you back to dine with us
+to-day."
+
+"I cannot," said Vivian with some confusion--"I cannot, for this day
+I leave London. Some other time perhaps--for," he added, but not
+heartily, "we may meet again."
+
+"I hope so," said I, wringing his hand, "and that is likely,--since,
+in spite of yourself, I have guessed your secret--your birth and
+parentage."
+
+"How!" cried Vivian, turning pale, and gnawing his lip--"what do
+you mean?--speak."
+
+"Well, then, are you not the lost, runaway son of Colonel Vivian?
+Come, say the truth; let us be confidants."
+
+Vivian threw off a succession of his abrupt sighs; and then, seating
+himself, leant his face on the table, confused, no doubt, to find
+himself discovered.
+
+"You are near the mark," said he at last, "but do not ask me farther
+yet. Some day," he cried impetuously, and springing suddenly to his
+feet--"some day you shall know all: yes; some day, if I live, when
+that name shall be high in the world; yes, when the world is at my
+feet!" He stretched his right hand as if to grasp the space, and his
+whole face was lighted with a fierce enthusiasm. The glow died away,
+and with a slight return of his scornful smile, he said--"Dreams
+yet; dreams! And now, look at this paper." And he drew out a
+memorandum, scrawled over with figures.
+
+"This, I think, is my pecuniary debt to you; in a few days, I shall
+discharge it. Give me your address."
+
+"Oh!" said I, pained, "can you speak to me of money, Vivian?"
+
+"It is one of those instincts of honour you cite so often," answered
+he, colouring. "Pardon me."
+
+"That is my address," said I, stooping to write, to conceal my
+wounded feelings. "You will avail yourself of it, I hope, often, and
+tell me that you are well and happy."
+
+"When I am happy, you shall know."
+
+"You do not require any introduction to Trevanion?"
+
+Vivian hesitated: "No, I think not. If ever I do, I will write for
+it."
+
+I took up my hat, and was about to go--for I was still chilled and
+mortified--when, as if by an irresistible impulse, Vivian came to me
+hastily, flung his arms round my neck, and kissed me as a boy kisses
+his brother.
+
+"Bear with me!" he cried in a faltering voice: "I did not think to
+love any one as you have made me love you, though sadly against the
+grain. If you are not my good angel, it is that nature and habit are
+too strong for you. Certainly, some day we shall meet again. I shall
+have time, in the meanwhile, to see if the world can be indeed 'mine
+oyster, which I with sword can open.' I would be _aut Cæsar aut
+nullus_! Very little other Latin know I to quote from! If Cæsar, men
+will forgive me all the means to the end; if _nullus_, London has a
+river, and in every street one may buy a cord!"
+
+"Vivian! Vivian!"
+
+"Now go, my dear friend, while my heart is softened--go, before I
+shock you with some return of the native Adam. Go--go!"
+
+And taking me gently by the arm, Francis Vivian drew me from the
+room, and, re-entering, locked his door.
+
+Ah! if I could have left him Robert Hall, instead of those execrable
+Typhons! But would that medicine have suited his case, or must grim
+Experience write sterner recipes with her iron hand?
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+When I got back, just in time for dinner, Roland had not returned,
+nor did he return till late in the evening. All our eyes were
+directed towards him, as we rose with one accord to give him
+welcome; but his face was like a mask--it was locked, and rigid, and
+unreadable.
+
+Shutting the door carefully after him, he came to the hearth, stood
+on it, upright and calm, for a few moments, and then asked--
+
+"Has Blanche gone to bed?"
+
+"Yes," said my mother, "but not to sleep, I am sure; she made me
+promise to tell her when you came back."
+
+Roland's brow relaxed.
+
+"To-morrow, sister," said he slowly, "will you see that she has the
+proper mourning made for her? My son is dead."
+
+"Dead!" we cried with one voice, and surrounding him with one
+impulse.
+
+"Dead! impossible--you could not say it so calmly. Dead!--how do you
+know? You may be deceived. Who told you?--why do you think so?"
+
+"I have seen his remains," said my uncle, with the same gloomy calm.
+"We will all mourn for him. Pisistratus, you are heir to my name
+now, as to your father's. Good-night; excuse me, all--all you dear
+and kind ones; I am worn out."
+
+Roland lighted his candle and went away, leaving us thunderstruck;
+but he came back again--looked round--took up his book, open in
+the favourite passage--nodded again, and again vanished. We looked
+at each other, as if we had seen a ghost. Then my father rose and
+went out of the room, and remained in Roland's till the night was
+wellnigh gone. We sat up--my mother and I--till he returned. His
+benign face looked profoundly sad.
+
+"How is it, sir Can you tell us more?"
+
+My father shook his head.
+
+"Roland prays that you may preserve the same forbearance you have
+shown hitherto, and never mention his son's name to him. Peace be to
+the living, as to the dead. Kitty, this changes our plans; we must
+all go to Cumberland--we cannot leave Roland thus!"
+
+"Poor, poor Roland!" said my mother, through her tears. "And to
+think that father and son were not reconciled. But Roland forgives
+him now--oh, yes! _now!_"
+
+"It is not Roland we can censure," said my father, almost fiercely;
+"it is--but enough. We must hurry out of town as soon as we can:
+Roland will recover in the native air of his old ruins."
+
+We went up to bed mournfully.
+
+"And so," thought I, "ends one grand object of my life!--I had hoped
+to have brought those two together. But, alas! what peacemaker like
+the grave!"
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+My uncle did not leave his room for three days, but he was much
+closeted with a lawyer; and my father dropped some words which
+seemed to imply that the deceased had incurred debts, and that the
+poor Captain was making some charge on his small property. As Roland
+had said that he had seen the remains of his son, I took it at first
+for granted that we should attend a funeral, but no word of this was
+said. On the fourth day, Roland, in deep mourning, entered a hackney
+coach with the lawyer, and was absent about two hours. I did not
+doubt that he had thus quietly fulfilled the last mournful offices.
+On his return, he shut himself up again for the rest of the day,
+and would not see even my father. But the next morning he made his
+appearance as usual, and I even thought that he seemed more cheerful
+than I had yet known him--whether he played a part, or whether the
+worst was now over, and the grave was less cruel than uncertainty.
+On the following day, we all set out for Cumberland.
+
+In the interval, Uncle Jack had been almost constantly at the house,
+and, to do him justice, he had seemed unaffectedly shocked at the
+calamity that had befallen Roland. There was, indeed, no want of
+heart in Uncle Jack, whenever you went straight at it; but it was
+hard to find if you took a circuitous route towards it through the
+pockets. The worthy speculator had indeed much business to transact
+with my father before we left town. The _Anti-Publisher Society_
+had been set up, and it was through the obstetric aid of that
+fraternity that the Great Book was to be ushered into the world. The
+new journal, the _Literary Times_, was also far advanced--not yet
+out, but my father was fairly in for it. There were preparations for
+its debut on a vast scale, and two or three gentlemen in black--one
+of whom looked like a lawyer, and another like a printer, and a
+third uncommonly like a Jew--called twice, with papers of a very
+formidable aspect. All these preliminaries settled, the last thing
+I heard Uncle Jack say, with a slap on my father's back, was, "Fame
+and fortune both made now!--you may go to sleep in safety, for you
+leave me wide awake. Jack Tibbets never sleeps!"
+
+I had thought it strange that, since my abrupt exodus from
+Trevanion's house, no notice had been taken of any of us by himself
+or Lady Ellinor. But on the very eve of our departure, came a kind
+note from Trevanion to me, dated from his favourite country seat,
+(accompanied by a present of some rare books to my father,) in which
+he said briefly that there had been illness in his family, which had
+obliged him to leave town for a change of air, but that Lady Ellinor
+expected to call on my mother the next week. He had found amongst
+his books some curious works of the Middle Ages, amongst others a
+complete set of Cardan, which he knew my father would like to have,
+and so sent them. There was no allusion to what had passed between
+us.
+
+In reply to this note, after due thanks on my father's part, who
+seized upon the Cardan (Lyons edition, 1663, ten volumes folio) as
+a silkworm does upon a mulberry leaf, I expressed our joint regrets
+that there was no hope of our seeing Lady Ellinor, as we were just
+leaving town. I should have added something on the loss my uncle had
+sustained, but my father thought that, since Roland shrank from any
+mention of his son, even by his nearest kindred, it would be his
+obvious wish not to parade his affliction beyond that circle.
+
+And there had been illness in Trevanion's family! On whom had it
+fallen? I could not rest satisfied with that general expression, and
+I took my answer myself to Trevanion's house, instead of sending it
+by the post. In reply to my inquiries, the porter said that all the
+family were expected at the end of the week; that he had heard both
+Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion had been rather poorly, but that
+they were now better. I left my note, with orders to forward it; and
+my wounds bled afresh as I came away.
+
+We had the whole coach to ourselves in our journey, and a silent
+journey it was, till we arrived at a little town about eight miles
+from my uncle's residence, to which we could only get through a
+cross-road. My uncle insisted on preceding us that night, and,
+though he had written, before we started, to announce our coming, he
+was fidgety lest the poor tower should not make the best figure it
+could;--so he went alone, and we took our ease at our inn.
+
+Betimes the next day we hired a fly-coach--for a chaise could never
+have held us and my father's books--and jogged through a labyrinth
+of villanous lanes, which no Marshal Wade had ever reformed from
+their primal chaos. But poor Mrs Primmins and the canary-bird
+alone seemed sensible of the jolts; the former, who sate opposite
+to us, wedged amidst a medley of packages, all marked "care, to
+be kept top uppermost," (why I know not, for they were but books,
+and whether they lay top or bottom it could not materially affect
+their value,)--the former, I say, contrived to extend her arms over
+those _disjecta membra_, and, griping a window-sill with the right
+hand, and a window-sill with the left, kept her seat rampant, like
+the split eagle of the Austrian Empire--in fact it would be well,
+now-a-days, if the split eagle were as firm as Mrs Primmins! As for
+the canary, it never failed to respond, by an astonished chirp, to
+every "Gracious me!" and "Lord save us!" which the delve into a rut,
+or the bump out of it, sent forth from Mrs Primmins's lips, with all
+the emphatic dolor of the "+Aî, aî+ in a Greek chorus.
+
+But my father, with his broad hat over his brows, was in deep
+thought. The scenes of his youth were rising before him, and his
+memory went, smooth as a spirit's wing, over delve and bump. And
+my mother, who sat next him, had her arm on his shoulder, and was
+watching his face jealously. Did she think that, in that thoughtful
+face, there was regret for the old love? Blanche, who had been
+very sad, and had wept much and quietly since they put on her the
+mourning, and told her that she had no brother, (though she had no
+remembrance of the lost), began now to evince infantine curiosity
+and eagerness to catch the first peep of her father's beloved tower.
+And Blanche sat on my knee, and I shared her impatience. At last
+there came in view a church spire--a church--a plain square building
+near it, the parsonage, (my father's old home)--a long straggling
+street of cottages and rude shops, with a better kind of house here
+and there--and in the hinder ground, a gray deformed mass of wall
+and ruin, placed on one of those eminences on which the Danes loved
+to pitch camp or build fort, with one high, rude, Anglo-Norman tower
+rising from the midst. Few trees were round it, and those either
+poplars or firs, save, as we approached, one mighty oak--integral
+and unscathed. The road now wound behind the parsonage, and up a
+steep ascent. Such a road!--the whole parish ought to have been
+flogged for it! If I had sent up a road like that, even on a map, to
+Dr Herman, I should not have sat down in comfort for a week to come!
+
+The fly-coach came to a full stop.
+
+"Let us get out," cried I, opening the door and springing to the
+ground to set the example.
+
+Blanche followed, and my respected parents came next. But when Mrs
+Primmins was about to heave herself into movement,
+
+"_Papæ!_" said my father. "I think, Mrs Primmins, you must remain
+in, to keep the books steady."
+
+"Lord love you!" cried Mrs Primmins, aghast.
+
+"The subtraction of such a mass, or _moles_--supple and elastic
+as all flesh is, and fitting into the hard corners of the inert
+matter--such a subtraction, Mrs Primmins, would leave a vacuum which
+no natural system, certainly no artificial organisation, could
+sustain. There would be a regular dance of atoms, Mrs Primmins; my
+books would fly here, there, on the floor, out of the window!
+
+  "_Corporis officium est quoniam omnia deorsum._"
+
+The business of a body like yours, Mrs Primmins, is to press all
+things down--to keep them tight, as you will know one of these
+days--that is, if you will do me the favour to read Lucretius,
+and master that material philosophy, of which I may say, without
+flattery, my dear Mrs Primmins, that you are a living illustration."
+
+These, the first words my father had spoken since we set out
+from the inn, seemed to assure my mother that she need have no
+apprehension as to the character of his thoughts, for her brow
+cleared, and she said, laughing,
+
+"Only look at poor Primmins, and then at that hill!"
+
+"You may subtract Primmins, if you will be answerable for the
+remnant, Kitty. Only, I warn you that it is against all the laws of
+physics."
+
+So saying, he sprang lightly forward, and, taking hold of my arm,
+paused and looked round, and drew the loud free breath with which we
+draw native air.
+
+"And yet," said my father, after that grateful and affectionate
+inspiration--"and yet, it must be owned, that a more ugly country
+one cannot see out of Cambridgeshire."[5]
+
+  [5] This certainly cannot be said of Cumberland generally, one of
+  the most beautiful counties in Great Britain. But the immediate
+  district to which Mr Caxton's exclamation refers; if not ugly, is at
+  least savage, bare, and rude.
+
+"Nay," said I, "it is bold and large, it has a beauty of its own.
+Those immense, undulating, uncultivated, treeless tracks have
+surely their charm of wildness and solitude! And how they suit the
+character of the ruin! All is feudal there: I understand Roland
+better now."
+
+"I hope in heaven Cardan will come to no harm!" cried my father; "he
+is very handsomely bound; and he fitted beautifully just into the
+fleshiest part of that fidgety Primmins."
+
+Blanche, meanwhile, had run far before us, and I followed fast.
+There were still the remains of that deep trench (surrounding the
+ruins on three sides, leaving a ragged hill-top at the fourth) which
+made the favourite fortification of all the Teutonic tribes. A
+causeway, raised on brick arches, now, however, supplied the place
+of the drawbridge, and the outer gate was but a mass of picturesque
+ruin. Entering into the courtyard or bailey, the old castle mound,
+from which justice had been dispensed, was in full view, rising
+higher than the broken walls around it, and partially overgrown with
+brambles. And there stood, comparatively whole, the tower or keep,
+and from its portals emerged the veteran owner.
+
+His ancestors might have received us in more state, but certainly
+they could not have given us a warmer greeting. In fact, in his
+own domain, Roland appeared another man. His stiffness, which
+was a little repulsive to those who did not understand it, was
+all gone. He seemed less proud, precisely because he and his
+pride, on that ground, were on good terms with each other. How
+gallantly he extended--not his arm, in our modern Jack-and-Jill
+sort of fashion--but his right hand, to my mother; how carefully
+he led her over "brake, bush, and scaur," through the low vaulted
+door, where a tall servant, who, it was easy to see, had been a
+soldier--in the precise livery, no doubt, warranted by the heraldic
+colours, (his stockings were red!)--stood upright as a sentry.
+And, coming into the hall, it looked absolutely cheerful--it took
+us by surprise. There was a great fire-place, and, though it was
+still summer, a great fire! It did not seem a bit too much, for
+the walls were stone, the lofty roof open to the rafters, while
+the windows were small and narrow, and so high and so deep sunk
+that one seemed in a vault. Nevertheless, I say the room looked
+sociable and cheerful--thanks principally to the fire, and partly
+to a very ingenious medley of old tapestry at one end, and matting
+at the other, fastened to the lower part of the walls, seconded
+by an arrangement of furniture which did credit to my uncle's
+taste for the Picturesque. After we had looked about and admired
+to our hearts' content, Roland took us--not up one of those noble
+staircases you see in the later manorial residences--but a little
+winding stone stair, into the rooms he had appropriated to his
+guests. There was first a small chamber, which he called my father's
+study--in truth, it would have done for any philosopher or saint who
+wished to shut out the world--and might have passed for the interior
+of such a column as Stylites inhabited; for you must have climbed a
+ladder to have looked out of the window, and then the vision of no
+short-sighted man could have got over the interval in the wall made
+by the narrow casement, which, after all, gave no other prospect
+than a Cumberland sky, with an occasional rook in it. But my father,
+I think I have said before, did not much care for scenery, and he
+looked round with great satisfaction upon the retreat assigned him.
+
+"We can knock up shelves for your books in no time," said my uncle,
+rubbing his hands.
+
+"It would be a charity," quoth my father, "for they have been very
+long in a recumbent position, and would like to stretch themselves,
+poor things. My dear Roland, this room is made for books--so round
+and so deep. I shall sit here like Truth in a well."
+
+"And there is a room for you, sister, just out of it," said my
+uncle, opening a little low prison-like door into a charming room,
+for its window was low, and it had an iron balcony; "and out of that
+is the bed-room. For you, Pisistratus, my boy, I am afraid that it
+is soldier's quarters, indeed, with which you will have to put up.
+But never mind; in a day or two we shall make all worthy a general
+of your illustrious name--for he was a great general, Pisistratus
+the First--was he not, brother?"
+
+"All tyrants are," said my father: "the knack of soldiering is
+indispensable to them."
+
+"Oh, you may say what you please here!" said Roland, in high
+good humour, as he drew me down stairs, still apologising for my
+quarters, and so earnestly that I made up my mind that I was to be
+put into an _oubliette_. Nor were my suspicions much dispelled on
+seeing that we had to leave the keep, and pick our way into what
+seemed to me a mere heap of rubbish, on the dexter side of the
+court. But I was agreeably surprised to find, amidst these wrecks,
+a room with a noble casement commanding the whole country, and
+placed immediately over a plot of ground cultivated as a garden.
+The furniture was ample, though homely; the floors and walls well
+matted; and, altogether, despite the inconvenience of having to
+cross the courtyard to get to the rest of the house, and being
+wholly without the modern luxury of a bell, I thought that I could
+not be better lodged.
+
+"But this is a perfect bower, my dear uncle! Depend on it, it was
+the bower-chamber of the Dames de Caxton--heaven rest them!"
+
+"No," said my uncle, gravely; "I suspect it must have been the
+chaplain's room, for the chapel was to the right of you. An earlier
+chapel, indeed, formerly existed in the keep tower--for, indeed, it
+is scarcely a true keep without chapel, well, and hall. I can show
+you part of the roof of the first, and the two last are entire; the
+well is very curious, formed in the substance of the wall at one
+angle of the hall. In Charles the First's time, our ancestor lowered
+his only son down in a bucket, and kept him there six hours, while
+a Malignant mob was storming the tower. I need not say that our
+ancestor himself scorned to hide from such a rabble, for _he_ was a
+grown man. The boy lived to be a sad spendthrift, and used the well
+for cooling his wine. He drank up a great many good acres."
+
+"I should scratch him out of the pedigree, if I were you. But,
+pray, have you not discovered the proper chamber of that great Sir
+William, about whom my father is so shamefully sceptical?"
+
+"To tell you a secret," answered the Captain, giving me a sly poke
+in the ribs, "I have put your father into it! There are the initial
+letters W. C. let into the cusp of the York rose, and the date,
+three years before the battle of Bosworth, over the chimneypiece."
+
+I could not help joining my uncle's grim low laugh at this
+characteristic pleasantry; and after I had complimented him on so
+judicious a mode of proving his point, I asked him how he could
+possibly have contrived to fit up the ruin so well, especially as he
+had scarcely visited it since his purchase.
+
+"Why," said he, "about twelve years ago, that poor fellow you
+now see as my servant, and who is gardener, bailiff, seneschal,
+butler, and anything else you can put him to, was sent out of the
+army on the invalid list. So I placed him here; and as he is a
+capital carpenter, and has had a very fair education, I told him
+what I wanted, and put by a small sum every year for repairs and
+furnishing. It is astonishing how little it cost me, for Bolt,
+poor fellow, (that is his name,) caught the right spirit of the
+thing, and most of the furniture, (which you see is ancient and
+suitable,) he picked up at different cottages and farmhouses in the
+neighbourhood. As it is, however, we have plenty more rooms here and
+there--only, of late," continued my uncle, slightly changing colour,
+"I had no money to spare. But come," he resumed, with an evident
+effort--"come and see my barrack: it is on the other side of the
+hall, and made out of what no doubt were the butteries."
+
+We reached the yard, and found the fly-coach had just crawled to
+the door. My father's head was buried deep in the vehicle,--he was
+gathering up his packages, and sending out, oracle-like, various
+muttered objurgations and anathemas upon Mrs Primmins and her
+vacuum; which Mrs Primmins, standing by, and making a lap with her
+apron to receive the packages and anathemas simultaneously, bore
+with the mildness of an angel, lifting up her eyes to heaven and
+murmuring something about "poor old bones." Though, as for Mrs
+Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years, and you
+might as soon have found a Plesiosaurus in the fat lands of Romney
+Marsh as a bone amidst those layers of flesh in which my poor father
+thought he had so carefully cottoned up his Cardan.
+
+Leaving these parties to adjust matters between them, we stepped
+under the low doorway, and entered Rowland's room. Oh, certainly
+Bolt _had_ caught the spirit of the thing!--certainly he had
+penetrated down even to the very pathos that lay within the deeps
+of Roland's character. Buffon says "the style is the man;" there,
+the room was the man. That nameless, inexpressible, soldier-like,
+methodical neatness which belonged to Roland--that was the first
+thing that struck one--that was the general character of the whole.
+Then, in details, there, in stout oak shelves, were the books on
+which my father loved to jest his more imaginative brother,--there
+they were, Froissart, Barante, Joinville, the _Mort d'Arthur_,
+_Amadis of Gaul_, Spenser's _Fairy Queen_, a noble copy of Strutt's
+_Horda_, Mallet's _Northern Antiquities_, Percy's _Reliques_, Pope's
+_Homer_, books on gunnery, archery, hawking, fortification--old
+chivalry and modern war together cheek by jowl.
+
+Old chivalry and modern war!--look to that tilting helmet with
+the tall Caxton crest, and look to that trophy near it, a French
+cuirass--and that old banner (a knight's pennon) surmounting those
+crossed bayonets. And over the chimneypiece there--bright, clean,
+and, I warrant you, dusted daily--are Roland's own sword, his
+holsters, and pistols, yea, the saddle, pierced and lacerated, from
+which he had reeled when that leg----I gasped--I felt it all at a
+glance, and I stole softly to the spot, and, had Roland not been
+there, I could have kissed that sword as reverently as if it had
+been a Bayard's or a Sidney's.
+
+My uncle was too modest to guess my emotion; he rather thought I
+had turned my face to conceal a smile at his vanity, and said, in
+a deprecating tone of apology--"It was all Bolt's doing, foolish
+fellow."
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+Our host regaled us with a hospitality that notably contrasted his
+economical thrifty habits in London. To be sure, Bolt had caught the
+great pike which headed the feast; and Bolt, no doubt, had helped
+to rear those fine chickens _ab ovo_; Bolt, I have no doubt, made
+that excellent Spanish omelette; and for the rest, the products of
+the sheepwalk and the garden came in as volunteer auxiliaries--very
+different from the mercenary recruits by which those metropolitan
+_Condottieri_, the butcher and green-grocer, hasten the ruin of that
+melancholy commonwealth called "genteel poverty."
+
+Our evening passed cheerfully; and Roland, contrary to his custom,
+was talker in chief. It was eleven o'clock before Bolt appeared with
+a lantern to conduct me through the court-yard to my dormitory,
+among the ruins--a ceremony which, every night, shine or dark, he
+insisted upon punctiliously performing.
+
+It was long before I could sleep--before I could believe that but
+so few days had elapsed since Roland heard of his son's death--that
+son whose fate had so long tortured him; and yet, never had Roland
+appeared so free from sorrow! Was it natural--was it effort? Several
+days passed before I could answer that question, and then not wholly
+to my satisfaction. Effort there was, or rather resolute systematic
+determination. At moments Roland's head drooped, his brows met, and
+the whole man seemed to sink. Yet these were only moments; he would
+rouse himself up like a dozing charger at the sound of a trumpet,
+and shake off the creeping weight. But, whether from the vigour of
+his determination, or from some aid in other trains of reflection, I
+could not but perceive that Roland's sadness really was less grave
+and bitter than it had been, or than it was natural to suppose. He
+seemed to transfer, daily more and more, his affections from the
+dead to those around him, especially to Blanche and myself. He let
+it be seen that he looked on me now as his lawful successor--as the
+future supporter of his name--he was fond of confiding to me all
+his little plans, and consulting me on them. He would walk with me
+around his domains, (of which I shall say more hereafter,)--point
+out, from every eminence we climbed, where the broad lands which
+his forefathers owned stretched away to the horizon; unfold with
+tender hand the mouldering pedigree, and rest lingeringly on those
+of his ancestors who had held martial post, or had died on the
+field. There was a crusader who had followed Richard to Ascalon;
+there was a knight who had fought at Agincourt; there was a cavalier
+(whose picture was still extant, with fair lovelocks) who had fallen
+at Worcester--no doubt the same who had cooled his son in that
+well which the son devoted to more agreeable associations. But of
+all these worthies there was none whom my uncle, perhaps from the
+spirit of contradiction, valued like that apocryphal Sir William:
+and why?--because, when the apostate Stanley turned the fortunes
+of the field at Bosworth, and when that cry of despair--"Treason,
+treason!" burst from the lips of the last Plantagenet, "amongst
+the faithless," this true soldier "faithful found!" had fallen in
+that lion-rush which Richard made at his foe. "Your father tells
+me that Richard was a murderer and usurper," quoth my uncle. "Sir,
+that might be true or not; but it was not on the field of battle
+that his followers were to reason on the character of the master
+who trusted them, especially when a legion of foreign hirelings
+stood opposed to them. I would not have descended from that turncoat
+Stanley to be lord of all the lands the Earls of Derby can boast
+of. Sir, in loyalty, men fight and die for a grand principle, and
+a lofty passion; and this brave Sir William was paying back to the
+last Plantagenet the benefits he had received from the first!"
+
+"And yet it may be doubted," said I maliciously, "whether William
+Caxton the printer did not--"
+
+"Plague, pestilence, and fire seize William Caxton the printer, and
+his invention too!" cried my uncle barbarously. "When there were
+only a few books, at least they were good ones; and now they are
+so plentiful, all they do is to confound the judgment, unsettle
+the reason, drive the good books out of cultivation, and draw a
+ploughshare of innovation over every ancient landmark; seduce the
+women, womanize the men, upset states, thrones, and churches; rear
+a race of chattering, conceited, coxcombs, who can always find
+books in plenty to excuse them from doing their duty; make the poor
+discontented, the rich crotchety and whimsical, refine away the
+stout old virtues into quibbles and sentiments! All imagination
+formerly was expended in noble action, adventure, enterprise, high
+deeds and aspirations; now a man can but be imaginative by feeding
+on the false excitement of passions he never felt, dangers he never
+shared; and he fritters away all there is of life to spare in him
+upon the fictitious love-sorrows of Bond Street and St James's.
+Sir, chivalry ceased when the press rose! And to fasten upon me, as
+a forefather, out of all men who have ever lived and sinned, the
+very man who has most destroyed what I most valued--who, by the
+Lord! with his cursed invention has wellnigh got rid of respect for
+forefathers altogether--is a cruelty of which my brother had never
+been capable, if that printer's devil had not got hold of him!"
+
+That a man in this blessed nineteenth century should be such a
+Vandal! and that my uncle Roland should talk in a strain that
+Totila would have been ashamed of, within so short a time after my
+father's scientific and erudite oration on the Hygeiana of Books,
+was enough to make one despair of the progress of intellect and the
+perfectibility of our species. And I have no manner of doubt that,
+all the while, my uncle had a brace of books in his pockets, Robert
+Hall one of them! In truth, he had talked himself into a passion,
+and did not know what nonsense he was saying, poor man. But this
+explosion of Captain Roland's has shattered the thread of my matter.
+Pouff! I must take breath and begin again!
+
+Yes, in spite of my sauciness, the old soldier evidently took to me
+more and more. And, besides our critical examination of the property
+and the pedigree, he carried me with him on long excursions to
+distant villages, where some memorial of a defunct Caxton, a coat of
+arms, or an epitaph on a tombstone, might be still seen. And he made
+me pore over topographical works and county histories, (forgetful,
+Goth that he was, that for those very authorities he was indebted
+to the repudiated printer!) to find some anecdote of his beloved
+dead! In truth, the county for miles round bore the _vestigia_ of
+those old Caxtons; their handwriting was on many a broken wall.
+And, obscure as they all were, compared to that great operative
+of the Sanctuary at Westminster, whom my father clung to--still,
+that the yesterdays that had lighted them the way to dusty death
+had cast no glare on dishonoured scutcheons seemed clear, from the
+popular respect and traditional affection in which I found that
+the name was still held in hamlet and homestead. It was pleasant
+to see the veneration with which this small hidalgo of some three
+hundred a-year was held, and the patriarchal affection with which
+he returned it. Roland was a man who would walk into a cottage,
+rest his cork leg on the hearth, and talk for the hour together
+upon all that lay nearest to the hearts of the owners. There is
+a peculiar spirit of aristocracy amongst agricultural peasants:
+they like old names and families; they identify themselves with the
+honours of a house, as if of its clan. They do not care so much for
+wealth as townsfolk and the middle class do; they have a pity, but a
+respectful one, for wellborn poverty. And then this Roland, too--who
+would go and dine in a cook shop, and receive change for a shilling,
+and shun the ruinous luxury of a hack cabriolet--could be positively
+extravagant in his liberalities to those around him. He was
+altogether another being in his paternal acres. The shabby-genteel,
+half-pay captain, lost in the whirl of London, here luxuriated into
+a dignified case of manner that Chesterfield might have admired.
+And, if to please is the true sign of politeness, I wish you could
+have seen the faces that smiled upon Captain Roland, as he walked
+down the village, nodding from side to side.
+
+One day a frank, hearty, old woman, who had known Roland as a boy,
+seeing him lean on my arm, stopped us, as she said bluffly, to take
+a "geud luik" at me.
+
+Fortunately I was stalwart enough to pass muster, even in the eyes
+of a Cumberland matron; and, after a compliment at which Roland
+seemed much pleased, she said to me, but pointing to the Captain--
+
+"Hegh, sir, now you ha the bra time before you; you maun een try and
+be as geud as _he_. And if life last, ye wull too--for there never
+waur a bad ane of that stock. Wi' heads kindly stup'd to the least,
+and lifted manfu' oop to the heighest--that ye all war' sin ye came
+from the Ark. Blessins on the ould name--though little pelf goes
+with it--it sounds on the peur man's ear like a bit o' gould!"
+
+"Do you not see now," said Roland, as we turned away, "what we owe
+to a name, and what to our forefathers?--do you not see why the
+remotest ancestor has a right to our respect and consideration--for
+he was a parent? 'Honour your parents'--the law does not say,
+'Honour your children!' If a child disgrace us, and the dead,
+and the sanctity of this great heritage of their virtues--_the
+name_;--if he does--" Roland stopped short, and added fervently,
+"But you are my heir now--I have no fear! What matters one foolish
+old man's sorrow?--the name, that property of generations, is saved,
+thank Heaven--the name!"
+
+Now the riddle was solved, and I understood why, amidst all his
+natural grief for a son's loss, that proud father was consoled.
+For he was less himself a father than a son--son to the long dead.
+From every grave, where a progenitor slept, he had heard a parent's
+voice. He could bear to be bereaved, if the forefathers were not
+dishonoured. Roland was more than half a Roman--the son might still
+cling to his household affections, but the _lares_ were a part of
+his religion.
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+But I ought to be hard at work, preparing myself for Cambridge. The
+deuce!--how can I? The point in academical education on which I
+require most preparation is Greek composition. I come to my father,
+who, one might think, was at home enough in this. But rare indeed is
+it to find a great scholar who is a good teacher.
+
+My dear father! if one is content to take you in your own way,
+there never was a more admirable instructor for the heart, the
+head, the principles, or the tastes--in your own way, when you have
+discovered that there is some one sore to be healed--one defect
+to be repaired; and you have rubbed your spectacles, and got your
+hand fairly into that recess between your frill and your waistcoat.
+But to go to you, cut and dry, monotonously, regularly--book and
+exercise in hand--to see the mournful patience with which you tear
+yourself from that great volume of Cardan in the very honeymoon of
+possession--and then to note those mild eyebrows gradually distend
+themselves into perplexed diagonals, over some false quantity or
+some barbarous collocation--till there steal forth that horrible
+"Papæ!" which means more on your lips than I am sure it ever did
+when Latin was a live language, and "Papæ!" a natural and unpedantic
+ejaculation!--no, I would sooner blunder through the dark by myself
+a thousand times, than light my rush-light at the lamp of that
+Phlegethonian "Papæ!"
+
+And then my father would wisely and kindly, but wondrous slowly,
+erase three-fourths of one's pet verses, and intercalate others that
+one saw were exquisite, but could not exactly see why. And then one
+asked why; and my father shook his head in despair, and said--"But
+you ought to _feel_ why!"
+
+In short, scholarship to him was like poetry: he could no more teach
+it you than Pindar could have taught you how to make an ode. You
+breathed the aroma, but you could no more seize and analyse it,
+than, with the opening of your naked hand, you could carry off the
+scent of a rose. I soon left my father in peace to Cardan, and to
+the Great Book, which last, by the way, advanced but slowly. For
+Uncle Jack had now insisted on its being published in quarto, with
+illustrative plates; and those plates took an immense time, and
+were to cost an immense sum--but that cost was the affair of the
+Anti-Publisher Society. But how can I settle to work by myself?
+No sooner have I got into my room--_penitus ab orbe divisus_, as
+I rashly think--than there is a tap at the door. Now, it is my
+mother, who is benevolently engaged upon making curtains to all
+the windows, (a trifling superfluity that Bolt had forgotten or
+disdained,) and who wants to know how the draperies are fashioned
+at Mr Trevanion's: a pretence to have me near her, and see with her
+own eyes that I am not fretting;--the moment she hears I have shut
+myself up in my room, she is sure that it is for sorrow. Now it
+is Bolt, who is making book-shelves for my father, and desires to
+consult me at every turn, especially as I have given him a Gothic
+design, which pleases him hugely. Now it is Blanche, whom, in an
+evil hour, I undertook to teach to draw, and who comes in on tiptoe,
+vowing she'll not disturb me, and sits so quiet that she fidgets me
+out of all patience. Now, and much more often, it is the Captain,
+who wants me to walk, to ride, to fish. And, by St Hubert! (saint
+of the chase,) bright August comes--and there is moor-game on those
+barren wolds--and my uncle has given me the gun he shot with at my
+age--single-barrelled, flint lock--but you would not have laughed at
+it if you had seen the strange feats it did in Roland's hands--while
+in mine, I could always lay the blame on the flint lock! Time, in
+short, passed rapidly; and if Roland and I had our dark hours, we
+chased them away before they could settle--shot them on the wing as
+they got up.
+
+Then, too, though the immediate scenery around my uncle's was so
+bleak and desolate, the country within a few miles was so full of
+objects of interest--of landscapes so poetically grand or lovely;
+and occasionally we coaxed my father from the Cardan, and spent
+whole days by the margin of some glorious lake.
+
+Amongst these excursions, I made one by myself to that house in
+which my father had known the bliss and the pangs of that stern
+first love that still left its scars fresh on my own memory. The
+house, large and imposing, was shut up--the Trevanions had not been
+there for years--the pleasure-grounds had been contracted into the
+smallest possible space. There was no positive decay or ruin--that
+Trevanion would never have allowed; but there was the dreary look of
+absenteeship everywhere. I penetrated into the house with the help
+of my card and half-a-crown. I saw that memorable boudoir--I could
+fancy the very spot in which my father had heard the sentence that
+had changed the current of his life. And when I returned home, I
+looked with new tenderness on my father's placid brow--and blessed
+anew that tender helpmate, who, in her patient love, had chased from
+it every shadow.
+
+I had received one letter from Vivian a few days after our arrival.
+It had been redirected from my father's house, at which I had given
+him my address. It was short, but seemed cheerful. He said, that
+he believed he had at last hit on the right way, and should keep
+to it--that he and the world were better friends than they had
+been--and that the only way to keep friends with the world was to
+treat it as a tamed tiger, and have one hand on a crow-bar while one
+fondled the beast with the other. He enclosed me a bank-note which
+somewhat more than covered his debt to me, and bade me pay him the
+surplus when he should claim it as a millionnaire. He gave me no
+address in his letter, but it bore the post-mark of Godalming. I had
+the impertinent curiosity to look into an old topographical work
+upon Surrey, and in a supplemental itinerary I found this passage,
+"To the left of the beech-wood, three miles from Godalming, you
+catch a glimpse of the elegant seat of Francis Vivian, Esq." To
+judge by the date of the work, the said Francis Vivian might be the
+grandfather of my friend, his namesake. There could no longer be any
+doubt as to the parentage of this prodigal son.
+
+The long vacation was now nearly over, and all his guests were to
+leave the poor Captain. In fact, we had made a long trespass on
+his hospitality. It was settled that I was to accompany my father
+and mother to their long-neglected _penates_, and start thence for
+Cambridge.
+
+Our parting was sorrowful--even Mrs Primmins wept as she shook hands
+with Bolt. But Bolt, an old soldier, was of course a lady's man. The
+brothers did not shake hands only--they fondly embraced, as brothers
+of that time of life rarely do now-a-days, except on the stage.
+And Blanche, with one arm round my mother's neck, and one round
+mine, sobbed in my ear,--"But I will be your little wife, I will."
+Finally, the fly-coach once more received us all--all but poor
+Blanche, and we looked round and missed her.
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+Alma Mater! Alma Mater! New-fashioned folks, with their large
+theories of education, may find fault with thee. But a true Spartan
+mother thou art--hard and stern as the old matron who bricked up
+her son Pausanias, bringing the first stone to immure him; hard and
+stern, I say, to the worthless, but full of majestic tenderness to
+the worthy.
+
+For a young man to go up to Cambridge (I say nothing of Oxford,
+knowing nothing thereof) merely as routine work, to lounge through
+three years to a degree among the +hoi polloi+--for such an one,
+Oxford Street herself, whom the immortal Opium-eater hath so direly
+apostrophised, is not a more careless and stony-hearted mother.
+But for him who will read, who will work, who will seize the rare
+advantages proffered, who will select his friends judiciously--yea,
+out of that vast ferment of young idea in its lusty vigour, choose
+the good and reject the bad--there is plenty to make those three
+years rich with fruit imperishable--three years nobly spent, even
+though one must pass over the Ass's Bridge to get into the Temple of
+Honour.
+
+Important changes in the Academical system have been recently
+announced, and honours are henceforth to be accorded to the
+successful disciples in moral and natural sciences. By the side
+of the old throne of Mathesis, they have placed two very useful
+_fauteuils à la Voltaire_. I have no objection; but, in those three
+years of life, it is not so much the thing learned, as the steady
+perseverance in learning something that is excellent.
+
+It was fortunate, in one respect, for me that I had seen a little
+of the real world--the metropolitan, before I came to that mimic
+one--the cloistral. For what were called pleasures in the last, and
+which might have allured me, had I come fresh from school, had no
+charm for me now. Hard drinking and high play, a certain mixture of
+coarseness and extravagance, made the fashion among the idle when
+I was at the university _sub consule Planco_--when Wordsworth was
+master of Trinity: it may be altered now.
+
+But I had already outlived such temptations, and so, naturally, I
+was thrown out of the society of the idle, and somewhat into that of
+the laborious.
+
+Still, to speak frankly, I had no longer the old pleasure in
+books. If my acquaintance with the great world had destroyed
+the temptation to puerile excesses, it had also increased my
+constitutional tendency to practical action. And, alas! in spite
+of all the benefit I had derived from Robert Hall, there were
+times when memory was so poignant that I had no choice but to rush
+from the lonely room, haunted by tempting phantoms too dangerously
+fair, and sober down the fever of the heart by some violent bodily
+fatigue. The ardour which belongs to early youth, and which it best
+dedicates to knowledge, had been charmed prematurely to shrines less
+severely sacred. Therefore, though I laboured, it was with that
+full _sense of labour_ which (as I found at a much later period
+of life) the truly triumphant student never knows. Learning--that
+marble image--warms into life, not at the toil of the chisel, but
+the worship of the sculptor. The mechanical workman finds but the
+voiceless stone.
+
+At my uncle's, such a thing as a newspaper rarely made its
+appearance. At Cambridge, even among reading men, the newspapers
+had their due importance. Politics ran high; and I had not been
+three days at Cambridge before I heard Trevanion's name. Newspapers,
+therefore, had their charms for me. Trevanion's prophecy about
+himself seemed about to be fulfilled. There were rumours of changes
+in the cabinet. Trevanion's name was bandied to and fro, struck
+from praise to blame, high and low, as a shuttlecock. Still the
+changes were not made, and the cabinet held firm. Not a word in the
+_Morning Post_, under the head of _fashionable intelligence_, as to
+rumours that would have agitated me more than the rise and fall of
+governments--no hint of "the speedy nuptials of the daughter and
+sole heiress of a distinguished and wealthy commoner:" only now and
+then, in enumerating the circle of brilliant guests at the house of
+some party chief, I gulped back the heart that rushed to my lips,
+when I saw the names of Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion.
+
+But amongst all that prolific progeny of the periodical
+press--remote offspring of my great namesake and ancestor, (for I
+hold the faith of my father,)--where was the _Literary Times_?--what
+had so long retarded its promised blossoms? Not a leaf in the shape
+of advertisements had yet emerged from its mother earth. I hoped
+from my heart that the whole thing was abandoned, and would not
+mention it in my letters home, lest I should revive the mere idea of
+it. But, in default of the _Literary Times_, there did appear a new
+journal, a daily journal too; a tall, slender, and meagre stripling,
+with a vast head, by way of prospectus, which protruded itself for
+three weeks successively at the top of the leading article;--with
+a fine and subtle body of paragraphs;--and the smallest legs, in
+the way of advertisements, that any poor newspaper ever stood upon!
+And yet this attenuated journal had a plump and plethoric title, a
+title that smacked of turtle and venison; an aldermanic, portly,
+grandiose, Falstaffian title--it was called THE CAPITALIST. And all
+those fine subtle paragraphs were larded out with receipts how to
+make money. There was an El Dorado in every sentence. To believe
+that paper, you would think no man had ever yet found a proper
+return for his pounds, shillings, and pence. You would have turned
+up your nose at twenty per cent. There was a great deal about
+Ireland--not her wrongs, thank Heaven! but her fisheries: a long
+inquiry what had become of the pearls for which Britain was once
+so famous: a learned disquisition upon certain lost gold mines now
+happily rediscovered: a very ingenious proposition to turn London
+smoke into manure, by a new chemical process: recommendations to
+the poor to hatch chickens in ovens like the ancient Egyptians:
+agricultural schemes for sowing the waste lands in England with
+onions, upon the system adopted near Bedford, net produce one
+hundred pounds an acre. In short, according to that paper, every
+rood of ground might well maintain its man, and every shilling be
+like Hobson's money-bag, "the fruitful parent of a hundred more."
+For three days, at the newspaper room of the Union Club, men talked
+of this journal: some pished, some sneered, some wondered; till
+an ill-natured mathematician, who had just taken his degree, and
+had spare time on his hands, sent a long letter to the _Morning
+Chronicle_, showing up more blunders, in some article to which the
+editor of _The Capitalist_ had specially invited attention, (unlucky
+dog!) than would have paved the whole island of Laputa. After that
+time, not a soul read _The Capitalist_. How long it dragged on its
+existence I know not; but it certainly did not die of a _maladie de
+langueur_.
+
+Little thought I, when I joined in the laugh against _The
+Capitalist_, that I ought rather to have followed it to its grave,
+in black crape and weepers,--unfeeling wretch that I was! But, like
+a poet, O _Capitalist_! thou wert not discovered, and appreciated,
+and prized, and mourned, till thou wert dead and buried, and the
+bill came in for thy monument!
+
+The first term of my college life was just expiring, when I received
+a letter from my mother, so agitated, so alarming, at first reading
+so unintelligible, that I could only see that some great misfortune
+had befallen us; and I stopped short and dropped on my knees, to
+pray for the life and health of those whom that misfortune more
+specially seemed to menace; and then--and then, towards the end of
+the last blurred sentence--read twice, thrice, over--I could cry,
+"Thank Heaven, thank Heaven! it is only, then, money after all!"
+
+
+
+
+STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND.
+
+
+It is a term of very wide application, this of statistics--extending
+to everything in the state of a country subject to variation either
+from the energies and fancies of men, or from the operations of
+nature, in so far as these, or the knowledge of them, has any
+tendency to occasion change in the condition of the country. Its
+elements must be either changeable in themselves, or the cause of
+change; because the use of the whole matter is to direct men what
+to do for their advantage, moral or physical--by legislation, when
+the case is of sufficient magnitude--or otherwise by the wisdom and
+enterprise of individuals.
+
+Governments, it is plain, must have the greatest interest in
+possessing knowledge of this sort; but they have not been the first
+to engage very earnestly in obtaining it. It would seem that, in all
+countries, the first very noticeable efforts in this way have been
+made by individuals.
+
+In this country we have now from government more and better
+statistics than from any other source; for besides the decennial
+census, there is the yearly produce in this way of Crown Commissions
+and of Parliamentary Committees; and, moreover, there is the late
+institution of a statistical department in connexion with the Board
+of Trade, for arranging, digesting, and rendering more accessible
+all matter of this kind collected, from time to time, by the
+different branches of the administration. But before statistical
+knowledge became the object of much care to the government of
+this country, it had been well cultivated by individuals. So in
+Germany statistics first took a scientific form in the works of an
+individual about the middle of the last century: and in France,
+the unfinished _Mémoires des Intendants_, prepared on the order
+of the king, were scarcely an exception, since meant for the
+private instruction of the young prince. But without attaching
+undue importance to the fact of mere precedence, it may be said
+that, considering the chief uses of this kind of knowledge, it has
+received more contributions from individuals than could have been
+expected.
+
+This admits of being easily explained. It has been well said
+that, while history is a sort of current statistics, statistics
+are a sort of stationary history. The one has therefore much the
+same invitations to mere literary taste as the other; and if the
+subject be not so generally engaging, the fancy way be as strong,
+and produce as pure a devotion to statistics as there ever is to
+history. More than this, the statist may care far less for his
+subject than its uses,--that is, he may choose to undergo the toil
+of researches only recommended by the chance of their ministering
+to the better guidance of some part of public policy, and therefore
+to the public good. The impulse is then not literary; nor is it
+legislative, for the power is wanting; it is simply patriotic, for
+so it must be considered, even when, in the words of Mr M'Culloch,
+the object is only "to bring under the public view the deficiencies
+in statistical information, and so to contribute to the advancement
+of the science."
+
+This public nature of the aim of statistical works, and the
+unlikelihood of their authors choosing that medium to set forth
+anything supposed worthy of notice in the figure of their own
+genius, seem to have been recognised, except in rare instances, as
+giving to works of this kind a title to be well received, and to
+have their faults very gently remarked.
+
+Again, it might be expected that the statistics of individuals
+should have a more limited range than those of governments; that
+they should refer to districts of less extent; and to the state
+of the country in fewer of its aspects. But the case is somewhat
+different. The statistics of individuals are often more national
+than local, and generally consist of many branches presented in some
+connexion; while those of governments are commonly confined to the
+single department on which some question of policy may chance for
+the time to have fixed attention.
+
+On the occasion mentioned, the inquiries instituted in France were
+not so confined, but embraced all the points of chief interest in
+the state of the country. In England, nothing similar has been
+attempted; although, some years ago, it is known that a proposal to
+institute a general survey of Ireland--on the plan, we believe, of
+the Ordnance Survey of the parish of Templemore--was for some time
+under consideration of the government.
+
+On the other hand, the instances of individual enterprise in this
+way to a national extent are numerous, both at home and abroad.
+Among the latter, Aucherwall gives the first example, and Peuchet
+probably the best; both treating of the country not in parts but
+as a whole,--not in one respect but in many. Of the same sort are
+the excellent statistical works of Colquhoun, M'Culloch, Porter,
+and others, relating to the British empire, and directed to many
+aspects of its condition. To these we add the _Statistical Account
+of Scotland_,--occupied with as many or more matters of inquiry,
+but not so properly national, since viewing not the country
+collectively, but its parochial divisions in succession.
+
+One advantage belongs to the collection of statistics upon many
+points, which is not found in those that are limited to one. It is
+remarked by Schlozer in his _Theorie der Statistik_, that "there
+are many facts seemingly of no value, but which become important
+as soon as you combine them with other facts, it may be of quite
+another class. The affinities subsisting among these facts are
+discovered by the talent and genius of the statist; and the more
+various the knowledge he possesses, with so much the more success
+he will perform this last and crowning part of his task." The
+observation need not be confined to facts apparently unimportant:
+for even those, whose importance is at once perceived, may acquire
+a new value from a skilful collation. In either case, there seems
+a necessity for remitting the detached statistics collected by
+government to some such department as that in connexion with the
+Board of Trade; otherwise, the works of individual statists must
+continue to afford the only opportunity of tracing the latent
+relations of one branch of statistics to another.
+
+The individual, however, who attempts so much, is in hazard
+of attempting more than any individual can well perform. For,
+besides this, he has to make another effort quite distinct--in the
+investigation of facts. All the needed scientific knowledge he
+may possess; but the same sufficiency of local or topographical
+knowledge is not supposable. The work so produced, therefore,
+cannot easily avoid the defects, either of error in the details
+of some branch, of unequal development of the parts, or of a
+superficial treatment of the whole. Against these dangers some
+writers have had recourse to assistance, inviting contributions from
+others favoured with better means of information than themselves;
+and to them attributing, in so far as they assisted, the entire
+merit and responsibility of the work.
+
+This transference of responsibility is warranted by the necessity
+of the case--but it is unusual; and as it scarcely occurs except in
+works of the kind in question, it may happen that even a professing
+judge of such works, if the habit of attention be not good, may
+entirely overlook the circumstance.
+
+In the _Statistical Account of Scotland_, the obligation to
+individual contributions has been carried to the greatest extent;
+indeed, it is simply a collection of such contributions, and nothing
+more. This part of the plan was necessitated by another, in which
+the work is equally peculiar--namely, the distinct treatment of
+smaller divisions of the country, than have been taken up in any
+other work of the kind, having an entire country for its object.
+To obtain a body of parochial statistics, it was necessary to
+have recourse to persons well acquainted with the bounds, and
+intelligent, at the same time, upon the various subjects of inquiry.
+But to find such in nine hundred parishes would, of itself, have
+required much of that local knowledge, the want of which was the
+occasion of the search--had there not been a class or order of men
+among whom the desired qualification, in many points, might be
+supposed to be pretty generally diffused; and from whose favour to a
+project of public usefulness much aid might be expected. It was in
+this manner that the co-operation of the parochial clergy came to be
+suggested.
+
+The _Statistical Account of Scotland_ was originated, promoted,
+and superintended by the late Sir John Sinclair. The authors of
+such works, as one of the best of them remarks, should be careful
+to explain their motives in undertaking it--we presume, because
+undertakings of the kind are felt to be scarcely an affair of
+individuals. In this instance, a desire to promote the public good
+was at once professed and accredited by many other acts apparently
+inspired by the same sentiment. The devotion of Sir John Sinclair's
+life in that direction was complete, and the example uncommon.
+In this a late reviewer perceives nothing more than a restless
+pursuit of plans of no further interest to himself than as they
+bore the inscription of his own name. But whenever public spirit is
+professed, and by anything like useful acts attested, our faith, we
+think, should be more generous. On such occasions, if on any, it is
+right to waive all speculation upon private motives, and to presume
+the best--for reasons so well understood in general that they do
+not need to be explained. But if genius, with a bent to that sort
+of penetration, must have its freedom, we do demand that some token
+should appear of a belief in the possibility of the virtue which is
+denied.
+
+It does not improve the grace of any such judgments that they are
+passed fifty years after the occasion; for, in the meantime, the
+work may have acquired merits which could not belong to it at
+first:--and so it has happened with the _Statistical Account_ of Sir
+John Sinclair. Results may be fairly ascribed to that performance
+which were not intended nor foreseen, and which seem to have come
+from its very defects, as well as from the defects which it revealed
+in the condition of the country, and in the means of ascertaining
+what the condition of the country was. Its population-statistics
+were extremely imperfect; the census followed in a very few years.
+Its scanty and unequal notices of agriculture suggested the project
+of the County Reports; and to these succeeded the _General Report of
+Scotland_--a work still useful, and of the first authority in much
+that relates to the agriculture and other industry of the country.
+To take advantage of those capabilities which the statistical
+accounts had shown his country to possess, Sir John Sinclair
+originated the Agricultural Society. All of those things, and more,
+appear to have resulted from the _Statistical Account_. They
+are honours that have arisen to it in the course of time, and may
+be fairly permitted to mitigate the notice and recollection of its
+faults.
+
+After the lapse of fifty years, Scotland had ceased to be the
+country represented in the old _Statistical Account_; for the
+greater part of what is proper to such a work is, as we have said,
+changeable and changing. It contained not a little, however, which
+remained as true and as interesting as at first: the topography,
+the physical characters, the civil divisions of the country were
+the same; all that had been said of its history, whether local or
+general, might be said again as seasonably as before. It occurred,
+then, to those to whom the author had presented the right of this
+work, to attempt to restore it in those parts which time had
+rendered useless, preserving those which were under no disadvantage
+from that cause. This, as we learn, was the plain, unambitious
+intention of the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_. It was
+projected and carried on during ten years by a Society, whose object
+it is to afford aid, where aid is needed, in the education of the
+children of the clergy of the Church of Scotland. Nothing could be
+more foreign to that object than to engage in a work of national
+statistics; nothing more natural than that, in their relation to
+the clergy, and with their interest in the first work, they should
+propose to renew it in the manner mentioned. A society expressly
+formed for statistical purposes, and not restrained like the Society
+for the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy, would probably have
+proposed something different--something more new; it might have
+been expected to produce something more excellent--though, even
+in that case, the demand of excellence would have been limited by
+the consideration, that the means of completely investigating the
+statistics of a country are not at the command of any statistical
+society that exists. A modernisation, so to speak, of the first work
+appears to have been the idea of the second.
+
+It has been executed, however, in the freest style, and scarcely
+admitted, indeed, of being accomplished at all in any other manner.
+In such cases, it is seldom that the adaptation is effected by
+mere numerical changes; the whole statement, in form, manner, and
+substance, behoves to be remodelled. Then, certain parts of the
+original may have been deficient, and become more evidently so by
+the changes that have since ensued in the state of the object: here
+the task is less one of correction than of supplement. For example,
+the very interesting and full accounts of mining and manufacturing
+industry which abound in the new work are nearly peculiar to it,
+and have scarcely an example in the old. One entire section of the
+latter, that of natural history, has been developed to an extent
+not attempted in the former, nor indeed in any other statistical
+work. These are rather noticeable licenses, on the supposition of
+the aim being as moderate as professed, and they go far to form a
+new and independent work--having nothing in common with the first,
+except the parochial divisions and the obligation to the clergy, as
+respects the plan; and as respects the matter, only the small part
+of it which is historical, and therefore not obsolete.
+
+We observe, accordingly, that the society who promoted the new work
+have put it forward as taking some things from the old, for which
+they are not responsible, but as containing far more which must form
+a new and separate character for itself. In both respects, we think
+they have viewed the work with a proper reference to the conditions
+under which it was produced.
+
+In other points, the new Account has improved upon the old, and
+might be expected to do so. It has more matter, by a third part,
+neither less suited to the place, nor more diffuse in the statement;
+and, as befits a work of reference, the arrangement is more orderly
+and more uniform. It is, on the whole, more carefully and better
+written, and shows, on the part of the reverend contributors, a
+remarkable advance in the many sorts of knowledge requisite to the
+task. If the comparison were pursued further, it might be said that
+some contributions to the first are not surpassed in the value of
+what they contain; while, from the greater novelty of the task at
+that time, as well as from the greater freedom of the method, they
+are somewhat fresher and more genial in manner. The later work, if
+fuller, more exact, more statistical throughout, possesses that
+advantage at the cost of appearing sometimes more like a collection
+of returns in answer to submitted points of inquiry,--a character,
+however, by no means unsuitable to a compilation of the kind. In all
+other points a decided superiority must be attributed to the new
+Account.
+
+Our remarks at this time shall be confined to the plan of the new
+Account, and to the general description of its contents.[6]
+
+  [6] _The New statistical Account of Scotland._ In 15 vols.
+  Edinburgh, 1845.
+
+The chief feature of the plan is the distinct treatment of each
+parish--producing a body neither of county nor of national, but
+merely of parochial statistics. This was the design, and there
+is much to recommend it. It is the last thing that can take the
+aspect of a fault in statistics, to view the matter in very minute
+portions; for thus, and thus only, it is possible to arrive at
+an accurate knowledge of the whole. There can be no good county
+statistics which do not suppose inquiries limited, at first, to
+lesser divisions of the country, and which do not express the sum
+of particulars taken from subdivisions that can hardly proceed too
+far. If such minor surveys do not come before the public, they are
+presumptively carried on in private. But, in the latter case, they
+are the more apt to be superficial, as they can be so with the
+less chance of being noticed; they are apt to take aid from mere
+computation of averages; they are apt, also, to result in that vague
+description which is the master-vice of statistics. "In this town,
+there are manufactures which employ _many_ hands; in this district,
+_vast_ quantities of silk are produced. These," says Schlozer, "are
+pet phrases of tourists, who would say something, when they know
+nothing; but they are not the language of statistics." The parochial
+method stands, then, on two good grounds: it is inevitable either
+in an open or a latent form; and it favours the collection of
+sufficient data for those specific enumerations which are the true
+worth and the characteristic grace of this branch of knowledge.
+
+This plan, however, has some disadvantages; in referring to which we
+shall find occasion to bring to view some of the proper merits of
+the work.
+
+In the first place, a work on this plan is inevitably voluminous.
+The territorial divisions submitted to distinct treatment are about
+nine hundred in number, and the matter is still further augmented by
+the occasional assignment to different hands of different parts of
+the survey of a single parish. In proportion to the descent of the
+details, is the bulk of the production; which we suppose to be an
+evil in the same measure in which it exceeds the necessity of the
+case. Now the _New Statistical Account_ is at once seen to contain
+not a little matter of merely local interest, and of the smallest
+value considered as pertaining to a body of national statistics;
+and here, if anywhere, it is apt to be regarded as at fault. It
+is right, however, to recollect the privilege of every work to
+be judged according to the conditions of the species to which it
+belongs. The present is not set forth as a statistical account of
+Scotland, but as a collection of the statistical accounts of all the
+parishes in Scotland; for this, we perceive, is not merely implied
+in the plan of the work, but is declared in the prospectus, where
+the hope is expressed that, by exhibiting the actual state of the
+parishes, with whatever is therein amiss, it may lead to parochial
+improvements. It does not appear, therefore, to have been from any
+miscalculation of their worth, that matters of merely local interest
+have been so liberally admitted; and, all things considered, more of
+that nature might have been expected. Let us quote again from the
+best theory of statistics that has ever been produced. "An object
+may be deserving of remark in the description of some particular
+portion of a country, and at the same time have no claim to notice
+in any general account of that country at large. In the former
+case, the rivulet is not to be omitted; in the latter, any allusion
+to it would be a defect, for it would be matter of unnecessary
+and trifling detail."[7] It is recorded, in the _New Statistical
+Account_, that "Will-o'-wisp had never appeared in the parish of
+South Uist previous to the year 1812." Nothing, in a national point
+of view, can be conceived more insignificant than this fact; but,
+taken in connexion with a notable superstition in that district, its
+local importance appears.[8] To the credit of this method, it may be
+noticed, that the accounts which are most parochial are, at the same
+time, among those which have been drawn up with the most general
+intelligence; and, this being the case, it is not a strange wish
+that the accounts, in general, had been somewhat more parochial than
+they are.
+
+  [7] Schlozer.
+
+  [8] "It is said that a woman in Benbecula went at night to the
+  Sandbanks, to dig for some roe used for dyeing a red colour,
+  against her husband's will; that, when she left her house, she
+  said with an oath she would bring some of it home, though she knew
+  there was a regulation by the factor and magistrates, prohibiting
+  people to use it or dig for it, by reason that the sandbanks, upon
+  being excavated, would be blown away with the wind. The woman
+  never returned home, nor was her body ever found. It was shortly
+  thereafter that the meteor was first seen; and it is said that it is
+  the ghost of the unfortunate and profane woman that appears in this
+  shape."--_New Statistical Account_, "Inverness," p. 184.
+
+On this plan, it is certain there is a risk of much repetition, many
+parishes having some common characterists which, in place of being
+recounted for each, might be stated once for all. How far does the
+_Statistical Account_ offend in this manner? It is true that, where
+the same facts occur in many parishes, a single statement might
+suffice; though this might be at the cost of violating the plan
+which for the whole it might be fittest to adopt, upon consideration
+that the like resemblance is not found among the greater number of
+the parishes. But it is remarkable, how seldom different parishes
+have all the similarity requisite for such a common description;
+for, in statistics, a difference in mere number or quantity is
+a vital difference, and expresses essentially different facts.
+Many parishes have the same articles of produce; while no two
+produce exactly the same quantities. A very short distance often
+brings to view considerable varieties in climate, soil, and other
+physical qualities of a country. Now, considering that the object
+of this work is to present the parishes in their distinguishing,
+as well as in their common features, we do not see much sameness
+in the substance of the details which could have been avoided. A
+sameness there is; but more in form than in substance--each account
+delivering its matter under the same general heads, recurring in
+all cases in exactly the same order. This is convenient when the
+book is used for reference; it may be wearisome to one who reads
+only for amusement: it is monotonous; but who looks for any "soul of
+harmony" in such a quarter? We repeat, it is not attended, on the
+whole, with much importunate reappearance of the same facts, and
+cannot seem to be so, except to a very careless or distempered eye.
+But if, perchance, there may be some facts much alike in several
+parishes, this itself is an unusual fact, and we should not object
+to its coming out in the usual way of each parish speaking for
+itself; in which case, there is always a chance of some variety in
+the description, from the same thing presenting itself to different
+persons under different aspects. But, on the whole, we think there
+is less repetition in these accounts, and indeed less occasion for
+it, than might at first sight be supposed.
+
+There is another obvious tendency to imperfection in the plan of
+parochial accounts. Their first, but not their sole object, is
+to describe the parishes; it is certainly meant that they should
+furnish, at the same time, the grounds of statistical computation
+for the whole country. This is the natural complement and the
+proper conclusion to a work of parish statistics. It is, however,
+a part of the plan which, not being quite necessary, and requiring
+a fresh effort at the last, is apt to be omitted. It was not till
+twenty-five years after the publication of the old Account that Sir
+John Sinclair at length produced his _Analysis of the Statistical
+Account of Scotland considered as one District_. It came too late. A
+similar analysis or summary appears to have been at first intended
+for the new Account: and we regret that this part of the design was,
+by force of circumstances, not carried into effect. One use of it
+would have been to evince that parochial statistics do not assume
+the character of national; while yet, for even national statistics,
+they furnish the most proper foundation. To pass at once, however,
+from parochial to national statistics would have been too great a
+step; there is an intermediate stage, at which the new Account would
+certainly have paused, though it had designed to proceed farther;
+and at which, without that design, it has here rested; presenting
+the statistics of each county in a summary of the more important
+particulars concerning the included parishes; but making no nearer
+approach to any general computations for the country at large.
+
+The method of proceeding from parishes to counties suggests that
+other plan for the entire work, which would have followed the
+opposite course--the plan that would have begun with counties, and
+given County, not Parochial reports. Somewhat in this fashion has
+been formed the _Géographie Départementale_ of France, now in course
+of publication, in which the whole matter is rigorously subjected
+to as skilful an arrangement as has ever been devised for matters
+of the kind. It is plain, however, that greater difficulty and more
+expense would have attended the construction of the Scotch work on
+that scheme, than private parties could have undertaken; and even
+the example of the French work does not show that, for the compacter
+method thus obtained, there might not have been a sacrifice of much
+that is valuable in detail.
+
+It may be added, that when parishes are well described, and a county
+or more general summary succeeds, we ask no more; a work like this
+has then accomplished its object, and what remains must be sought
+for elsewhere. What remains is this--to interpret the statistics
+thus laid down, for they are often very far from interpreting
+themselves; to ascertain, by analysis or combination of their
+different parts, what they signify in regard to the condition of
+the country. Thus, betwixt the rate of wages and the habits of a
+people--the prevailing occupations and the rate of mortality--the
+description of industry and the amount of pauperism--there are
+relations which it is exceedingly important to remark. But if a
+statistical account simply notes the kind, number, or quantity of
+each of these particulars, it performs its part,--no matter how
+blindly, how unconsciously of the relation that subsists betwixt
+them, this may be done. The rest is so different a work, that it
+must be left to other hands. It is not to be forgotten, that, for
+bringing out the more latent truths of statistics in the manner
+mentioned, a work like this is merely _pour servir_; and, keeping
+that in view, our prepossessions are all in favour of abundance and
+minuteness of detail.
+
+Lastly, a work made up of contributions from nine hundred
+individuals must be of unequal merit, according to the different
+measures of intelligence or care, and according to the feeling with
+which a task of that nature may happen to have been undertaken. A
+slight inspection, accordingly, discovers that it is the character
+of the writer, more than of the parish, that determines the length
+and interest of any one of these reports. This is an imperfection,
+and something more--for it makes one part of the book, by
+implication, reveal the defects of another. A few years ago, when
+a Crown commission considered a project for a general survey and
+statistical report of Ireland, their attention was much attracted
+to the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_; and, in their report,
+they notice, in the course of a very fair estimate, this inequality
+as the main disadvantage of the plan. It is, however, inevitable,
+except upon a scheme which, from the expense attending it, would
+have hindered the existence of the Scottish work, and which appears
+to have prevented or postponed the Irish. From a single author,
+something like proportion might be expected in the parts of such a
+compilation; but to that perfection a work like the _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_, with its hundreds of avowed responsible, and
+therefore uncontrolled authors, could not pretend. For this reason,
+it is the more proper to follow a rule of judgment which, in any
+case, is a good one:--to estimate the general character of the work
+with a lively recollection of its merits; and to be much upon our
+guard against the mean instinct of looking only to the weaker and
+more peccant parts of it.
+
+Passing from the plan to the matter of the work, we now ask, whether
+all that it contains is properly statistical, and whether it
+contains all of any consequence that falls under that description.
+
+Nothing, we suppose, is alien to this branch of knowledge that
+tends, in however little, to show the state of a country--social,
+political, moral--or even physical.
+
+But this last, comprising somewhat of geography and natural history,
+some writers would remove entirely from the sphere of statistics.
+Among these is Peuchet, in his work before mentioned--who gives as
+the reason of the exclusion, that, in any analysis of the wealth or
+power of a state, neither its geography nor natural history ever
+come into view: a fact rather hastily assumed. The parallel work for
+this country, by Mr. M'Culloch, while it follows Peuchet's method
+in much, leaves it in this instance, admitting various branches of
+natural history to ample consideration. It is true that trespass
+on the proper ground of statistics has been so common an offence,
+that writers have been careful to mark those cases in which no title
+exists. Thus Schlozer, looking to the intrusions that come from
+the quarter we refer to, is averse to all imaginative descriptions
+of the physical aspect of a country, but does not prohibit
+natural history. Hogel, who also writes well upon the theory of
+statistics,[9] is more explicit--admitting that natural history may
+encroach too far, but asserting that its several branches may be
+received to a certain extent. "Whatever, in the physical nature of a
+country, has any influence upon the life, occupations, or manners of
+the people, pertains to statistics; by all means, therefore, in any
+body of statistics, let us have as much of mineralogy, hydrology,
+botany, geology, meteorology, as has any bearing upon the condition
+of the people." All of these subjects have been allowed to enter
+largely into the _New Statistical Account_.
+
+  [9] HOGEL, _Entwurf zur Theorie der Statistik_.
+
+They form a feature of that work which scarcely belonged to the
+old Account, and which is new, indeed, to parochial statistics.
+Investigations of natural history have usually been carried on with
+reference to other bounds than those of parishes; but, when confined
+to parishes, it is remarkable how much this has been at once for the
+advantage of the science, and for the enhancement of any interest in
+these territorial divisions by the picturesque mixture of natural
+objects with the works and pursuits of men. More of this parochial
+treatment of natural history we may possibly have hereafter, upon
+the suggestion of the _Statistical Account_.
+
+For the abundant favour which the work has shown to the whole
+subject of natural history, reasons are not wanting. One portion
+of that matter has obviously the quality that designates for
+statistical treatment,--comprising, for example, mines, whether
+wrought or unwrought; animals, profitable or destructive; plants, in
+all their variety of uses: the connexion of which with the wealth
+and industry of the country is at once apparent. The same connexion
+exists for another class of objects; but not so obviously. For
+example, there is a detailed account of the flowering periods of
+a variety of plants in one parish; the pertinence of which is not
+perceived, until it is mentioned that, in the same neighbourhood,
+there are two populous and well-frequented watering-places, which
+owe their prosperity to the qualities of the climate: there the
+trade of the locality connects itself with the early honours of the
+hepaticas. A third class of facts, and not the least in amount,
+is not qualified by any relation they are known to possess to the
+social condition of the country; but then they belong to a body
+of facts, some of which have that relation; and the same may be
+established for them hereafter. Still, it may be said that the
+matter, if appropriate, behoves to be presented in a statistical,
+not in a scientific form. But this, perhaps, is to interpret too
+strictly the laws of statistical writing, which do not seem to
+forbid the predominance of a scientific interest in the description,
+when the matter fairly belongs to the province of statistics. And if
+any license at all may be allowed in works of so severe a character,
+it is precisely here where that is least unbefitting. It is not
+among the faults of the _New Statistical Account_, but rather among
+its most interesting features, that the mineral resources of the
+country are so often described with all the skill and passion of the
+mineralogist, forgetting for the moment everything but the phenomena
+of nature.
+
+Under the head of Natural History, we have many instances of the
+landscape painting proscribed by Schlozer. But it is remarked,
+that the same authority, when adverting to another matter, lays
+down a principle of admission which is equally applicable here.
+"Antiquities," he observes, "become a proper subject of statistics
+in such a case as that of Rome, where a large amount of money was at
+one time annually expended by the strangers who came to form their
+taste, or to indulge their curiosity, upon the remains of ancient
+art." In like manner, if there are places in Scotland that profit
+economically by the attractions of their natural beauty, we do
+not see that there is any obligation to be silent upon the cause,
+by reason merely of the seeming dissonance betwixt an imaginative
+description and the austere account of statistics. Other and better
+apologies might be offered; and, on the whole, we are not satisfied
+that, in this respect, any less indulgence of the gentler vein would
+have been attended with advantage to the work.
+
+On these grounds it appears to have been, that so much scope is
+allowed to the whole subject of natural history. But if too much,
+the fault has been redeemed by the frequent excellence of what is
+put forth on that head. Here the _New Statistical Account_ passes
+expectation; and to it we may attribute much of the increased
+interest that has lately attached to that branch of knowledge in
+Scotland.
+
+Another thing of questionable connexion with statistics is
+history, which imports a reference to the past; whereas, as the
+name declares, statistics contemplates but the present, and can
+look neither backward nor forward, without trenching upon other
+provinces. Many excellent statistical works, accordingly, have
+allowed no place to history at all; and the writers before cited,
+on the theory of the subject, concur in excluding it. Hogel is most
+explicit. "Statistics never go beyond the circle of the present
+in their representations of the condition of a country: they are
+like painting--they fix upon a single point of time; and the facts
+which they select are those which come last in the series, though
+the series they belong to may extend backwards for ages. All that
+went before rests on testimony, and is therefore beyond the sphere
+of statistics, whose grounds are in actual observation. There is
+no limit to the number of facts with which statistics have to do,
+provided they are co-existing facts, and do not present themselves
+in succession: facts, and not their causes, are the proper matter
+of statistics; and they must be facts of the present time." This
+doctrine, in which there seems nothing in the main amiss, if
+strictly applied to the work under consideration, cancels a large
+part of it. But against that consequence we can suppose it to
+be pleaded--First, that for relief from a continuity of details
+somewhat arid to many readers, the work borrows something from a
+neighbouring branch of knowledge, and so far, of purpose, drops its
+statistical character--the more allowably, as in this way no harm
+ensues to the statistical character of the rest. And next--that
+all the history of a place has not equally little to do with its
+present state; for past events are often, casually or otherwise,
+related to the present, and so become a fair subject of retrospect,
+unless restraints are to be imposed on this branch of knowledge
+which are unknown to any other. The fault, in this instance, is at
+least not so great, as where no discoverable relation exists. It
+may be worth while, then, to observe how far the historical matter
+of the _Statistical Account_ does show any connexion of the sort in
+question.
+
+It includes, under the head of history, various classes of
+particulars. 1. The parish has been the scene of some event
+remarkable in the history of the country. Of this, perhaps, distinct
+traces remain, not in memory alone, but in some local custom or
+institution. But the most common case is, that, as the range extends
+to the remotest periods, all influence or effect of the event has
+ceased, and the interest of its recital is purely historical. Here
+the _Statistical Account_ transgresses one rule of such a work by
+the admission of such matter, and asks, as we perceive it does ask
+in the prospectus, liberty to do so on one of the grounds above
+suggested.
+
+2. The same apology is required for the antiquities, that form a
+large section under this head. These have sometimes perceptibly the
+connexion that gives the title we desire; a connexion, perhaps, no
+more than perceptible. Thus, in reference to the round hill in the
+parish of Tarbolton, on which the god Thor was anciently worshipped,
+we are told that, "on the evening before the June fair, a piece of
+fuel is still demanded at each house, and invariably given, even by
+the poorest inhabitant," in order to celebrate the form of the same
+superstitious rite which has been annually performed on that hill
+for many centuries. The famous Pictish tower at Abernethy is said
+to be used "for civil purposes connected with the burgh." In these
+cases it is seen how very slight is the qualifying circumstance; but
+it is still more so for much the greater number of particulars of
+this kind which the book contains--such as ancient coins, ancient
+armour, barrows, standing-stones, camps, or moat hills: all of which
+particularly belong to archæology, and obtain a place here simply
+by favour. Indeed, no part of the work adheres to it so loosely as
+this of antiquities. Their objects live as curiosities; but, to all
+intents that can recommend them to the notice of statistics, they
+are dead, "and to be so extant is but a fallacy in duration."
+
+If this portion of the matter be the least appropriate, it is, at
+the same time, not the least difficult to handle; for uncertainty
+besets a very great part of it, and nothing more tries the reach of
+knowledge than conjecture. Besides, the knowledge here requisite
+implies both taste and opportunities for its cultivation,--which may
+belong to individuals, but which cannot be attributed to an entire
+profession, spread over all parts of the country, and designated
+to very different studies. If antiquities could be considered as
+a main part of statistics, it is, assuredly, not to the clergy we
+should look for a statistical account; nor indeed to any other
+body, however learned, if it be not the Society of Antiquaries. The
+clergyman who honours his profession with the greatest amount of
+appropriate learning, may in this particular know but little; and if
+we do not, on that account, the less value him, it is assuredly not
+from undervaluing in the slightest degree a very interesting branch
+of knowledge.
+
+In these circumstances, the reasons for allowing to antiquities
+so much of this compilation appear to have been,--the compelling
+example of the old Account, the occasional aptness of the matter,
+and the effect of such a _mélange_ upon the mass of details that
+form the body of the work. But a better apology remains; and
+it may be extended to what is said of the remarkable events of
+history. We are warranted in saying, that the _New Statistical
+Account_ has contributed much to the history and antiquities of
+Scotland,--evincing on these subjects a frequent novelty and fulness
+of knowledge far surpassing what either the design or the apparatus
+of the undertaking gave any title to expect.
+
+Of one fault, in particular, there is no appearance in the
+archæology of this work. Nowhere is there any sign of an
+idiosyncracy which is not without example--that of professing to
+speak of statistics, and yet speaking of nothing but antiquities;
+as if these, which are saved with so much difficulty from the
+charge of being wholly out of place, were the pith and marrow, the
+most vital part of any body of statistics. This is a small merit,
+but it is allied to a greater. Throughout these volumes, there is
+no tendency to discuss such futile questions as have sometimes
+lowered the credit of antiquarian pursuits. We have seen it solemnly
+inquired, whether Æneas, upon landing in Italy, touched the soil
+with the right or with the left foot foremost; whether Karl Haco
+was in person present at the sacrifice of his son; whether a faded
+inscription upon the walls of an old church be of this import or
+that--in either case the interest having so little to support it
+in the significance of the record that it can scarce be imagined
+to exist at all, except as it may centre in the mere truth of
+the deciphering. Nothing of this doting, degenerate character,
+repudiated by all antiquaries, occurs in the _Statistical Account_:
+if it did, the sum of all the errors in names, dates, and other
+things, inevitably incident to so vast a variety of details, would
+not have been an equal blemish.
+
+It is probable that neither history nor antiquities will find a
+place in any future statistics of Scotland. Not that they have
+been enough examined either in that connexion, or elsewhere; but
+it is now common to make them the subject of separate, independent
+essays--the most proper form for the delivery of anything that
+pertains to such matters. The good service done in this department,
+by both of these Accounts, now falls to be performed by such works
+as the "Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland,"[10]
+which have this for their single object; and the presumption is only
+fair, that some further light on such matters may be contributed by
+the "Parochiale Scoticanum," lately announced as in the course of
+preparation[11]--though our expectations would not have been at all
+lessened by a somewhat less magnificent promise than that "every
+man in Scotland may be enabled to ascertain, with some precision,
+the first footing and _gradual progress of Christianity_ in his own
+district and neighbourhood."
+
+  [10] _The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland._
+  Illustrated by R. W. BILLINGS, and WILLIAM BURN.
+
+  [11] Prospectus _Parochiale Scoticanum_, now editing by COSMO INNES,
+  Esq., Advocate.
+
+It is not to be supposed, however, that some other topics which
+regularly appear in this New Account, under the head of history,
+will ever drop from any work of parochial statistics. We refer to
+what may be termed Parish History, as distinct from what belongs to
+the history of the country,--notices of distinguished individuals
+and of ancient families, changes of property, territorial
+improvements, variations in the social state of the people. No
+part of a book is more novel, or, to a proper curiosity, more
+interesting; and no indication is needed of the fair incidence of
+such matters to a work of this description.
+
+If the _New Statistical Account_ contains, then, some particulars
+not quite proper to the professed object, the excess appears to
+be on the whole venial. But it may still be asked, whether any
+important and proper matters appear to have been omitted.
+
+Now, considering how many things of nature, art, institutions, and
+industry pertain to statistics, we do not expect any compilation to
+embrace all, or to treat completely of all such things as it does
+embrace,--we expect imperfection in the details.
+
+Accordingly, it is seen that some subjects well described in some
+accounts, are either not at all, or not so fully, taken up in
+others; while yet the occasion may be much the same. The climate
+of some districts, for instance, is well illustrated by careful
+observations from the rain-gage and thermometer; in some parishes we
+are informed of the size of the agricultural possessions, the number
+of ploughs, the rent of land; in some, manufactories, mines, and
+other kinds of industry, are viewed in all their aspects. But, for
+other districts or parishes, reports on these subjects are wanting;
+and the disadvantage is, not merely that such desirable information
+is not given for such places, but that the means are not furnished
+of making any general computations for the whole country. It is
+plain there have been special reasons for the less satisfactory
+representation of particular parishes in these respects: but for all
+such faults, both of omission and imperfection, we understand the
+_New Statistical Account_ to have one general apology; which is this.
+
+Two distinct efforts are requisite to the preparation of a
+comprehensive work of statistics. There is first, the investigation
+of facts; and next, the task of arranging and presenting them in
+the report. One of the theorists before-mentioned, views it as
+a necessary division of labour, that both things should not be
+attempted by one and the same party,--especially as the first, when
+the subjects are numerous, is not to be accomplished but by the
+assistance of many hands--all of which, as he observes, must be at
+once skilful and suitably rewarded. Now, here, the task of inquiring
+and reporting was not divided; the whole of it was placed, by the
+necessities of the case, in the hands of the reverend contributors.
+But, as no private society had the means or authority to investigate
+the facts completely, it is urged that the defects to which we have
+alluded, were for the most part inevitable.
+
+We believe it; and, recognising how much the clergy had thus to
+do, which could only be done completely by the government, we only
+advert to the sources of information to which they could have
+recourse.
+
+_Public documents_ seem to have been consulted, when information
+of a later date could not be had,--and chiefly the parliamentary
+reports on population, crime, education, and municipal affairs, from
+which the parish accounts appear to have been supplemented with
+whatever was necessary to the completion of the county summaries.
+Much has also been derived from the reports of Societies, Boards,
+and mercantile companies; of this there is evidence in the account
+of every considerable town.
+
+_Public records_ appear also to have been examined, and chiefly the
+parish registers. Every parish has a record of the transactions of
+its kirk-session,--sometimes extending to distant periods. Extracts
+from these occasionally show, in a clear light, the state and
+manners of the country in former times; more of which authentic
+illustration we could have wished, and more the same sources
+might possibly have supplied. Most parishes have also records of
+births or baptisms, marriages and deaths. From these, and these
+only, this work could derive the elements of its important section
+of vital statistics; but how far were they fitted to serve that
+purpose? It is certain that they nowhere form a complete register
+of these occurrences, and that for the most part they are very
+defective. Baptisms appear to have been entered, in the parish
+register, regularly till the year 1783, when the imposition of
+a small tax first broke the custom of registration; and, when
+that tax was removed, dissenting bodies were unwilling to resume
+the practice. The proportion of registered baptisms to births,
+for instance, is at the present time not more than one fourth in
+Edinburgh, and one third in Glasgow. The marriage register is also
+unavailable to statistical purposes, by reason of the practice of
+double enrolment--in the parish of each party. In many parishes no
+record of burials exists: in others, those of paupers are omitted.
+In short, there is scarcely a country in Europe that does not, by
+proper arrangements, furnish better information on these important
+points; and no industry of individuals can remedy that defect. It is
+therefore among the postulates of a work like this, for Scotland,
+that its vital statistics should be imperfect.
+
+_Books_ relating to the history, civil or natural, the institutions
+or manners of the country, have in many instances been well
+consulted; in some, not at all; but probably as much from want of
+opportunity as from any other cause.
+
+Still much occasion for inquiry remained after all the use that
+could be made of reports, registers, and books. Much of what related
+to the institutions of Religion, education, and the poor, might
+be supposed to come readily to hand, the clergy themselves being
+most conversant with such matters. But they appear to have charged
+themselves with the toil of very different investigations. Some
+have been at the pains to ascertain the amount and occupations of
+the population, betwixt the decennial terms of the parliamentary
+census. Few have omitted to state, in connexion with the agriculture
+of the parish, the quantities of land under tillage or under wood,
+in pasture or in moor, and the amount respectively of the different
+kinds of produce--facts that imply not a little correspondence with
+land-owners and land-occupiers, and much industry in the collation
+of returns. They have had recourse, frequently, to mineralogists,
+botanists, overseers of mining and manufacturing works, whose
+contributions are of as much value as the fullest and ripest
+knowledge can give. Picture-galleries are sometimes described by
+their owners; family papers occasionally disclose facts of some
+interest in the history of the country. Throughout the work there
+are signs not to be mistaken, of much private and unwonted inquiry
+on the part of the reverend authors, to do, in a creditable way, a
+work that, from the nature of it, ought to have been apportioned to
+at least two different parties.
+
+The defects which remain only suggest to us the hope which was thus
+expressed in similar circumstances, that "the circulation of this
+work, by bringing the deficiencies in the means of statistical
+information under the public view, and drawing attention to them,
+may, in this respect, also contribute to the advancement of the
+science." It is implied, of course, that the work, to be useful
+in this indirect way, must have merits of another kind. On these
+the _New Statistical Account_ may stand. No other book affords the
+same insight into the various natural resources of the country;
+none describes so well, and so skilfully, the most considerable
+branches of industry, and the methods of conducting them; none has
+brought together the same variety of statistics, with the same
+ample means of speculating upon their mutual relations. It is still
+more remarkable, that such a work, embracing, as it does, so much
+beyond the usual sphere of their observation, should proceed from
+the clergy; but the explanation is, that the position and character
+of that body open to them the best means of information on many
+subjects with which they are themselves not at all conversant. They
+have produced here a work, which, as a collection of parochial
+statistics, stands alone, without either rival or resemblance in any
+other country, representing the state of Scotland, at the period to
+which it refers, in all its aspects, and so affording the means of
+a definite comparison between the past and the present, such as, in
+all cases, it is at once natural and profitable to make. A peculiar
+interest arises from the unusual diversity of the matter, and the
+familiarity of the writers with the bounds which they describe.
+It is a useful work, and will continue long to be so, in as many
+ways as it throws light upon the condition of the country--and,
+not least, in the local improvements to which its suggestions may
+give rise. But, if its uses were less than they are, it would still
+leave an impression of respect for the general intelligence and the
+readiness to employ their opportunities for the public good, which
+its authors have known to unite with exemplary devotion to the
+duties of their calling.
+
+
+
+
+THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART.
+
+     _The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art._ By Mrs JAMESON.
+
+
+We are of the belief that art without poetry is worthless--dead,
+and deadening; or, if it have vitality, there is no music in its
+speech--no command in its beauty. We treat it with a kind of
+contempt, and make apology for the pleasure it has afforded. _Sacred
+and Legendary Art!_ How different--how precious--how life-bestowing!
+The material and immaterial world linked, as it were, together by
+a new sympathy, working out a tissue of beautiful ideas from the
+golden threads of a Divine revelation! By _Sacred and Legendary Art_
+is meant the treatment of religions subjects, commencing with the
+Old Testament, and terminating in traditionary tales and legends. It
+is from the latter that the old painters have, for the most part,
+taken that rich poetry, which, glowing on the canvass, shows, even
+amidst the wild errors of fable, a truth of sentiment belonging to a
+purer faith.
+
+By the Protestant mind, nursed, perhaps, in an undue contempt of
+histories of saints and martyrs of the Romish Church, the treasures
+of art of the best period are rarely understood, and still more
+rarely felt, in the spirit in which they were conceived. Those for
+whom they were painted needed no cold inquiry into the subjects.
+They accepted them as things universally known and religiously to
+be received, with a veneration which we but little comprehend. With
+them pictures and statues were among their sacred things, and,
+together with architecture, spoke and taught with an authority
+that books, which then were rare in the people's hands, have since
+scarcely ever obtained. Men of genius felt this respect paid to
+their works, if denied too often to themselves; and thus to their
+own devotion was added a kind of ministerial importance. Their work
+became a duty, and was very frequently prosecuted as such by the
+inmates of monasteries. Besides their works on a large scale, upon
+the walls and in their cloisters, the ornamenting and illustrating
+missals embodied a religious feeling, if in some degree peculiar to
+the condition of the workers, of a vital form and beauty. Treasures
+of this kind there are beyond number; but they have been hidden
+treasures for ages. A Protestant contempt for their legends has
+persecuted, with long hatred, and subsequent long indifference,
+the art which glorified them. And now that we awake from this dull
+state, and begin to estimate the poetry of religious art, we stand
+before the noblest productions amazed and ignorant, and looking
+for interpreters, and lose the opportunity of enjoyment in the
+inquiry. Art is too valuable for all it gives, to allow this entire
+ignorance of the subjects of its favourite treatment. If, for the
+better understanding of heathen art, an acquaintance with classical
+literature is thought to be a worthy attainment, the excellence of
+what we may term Christian art surely renders it of importance that
+we should know something about the subjects of which it treats. The
+inquiry will repay us also in other respects, as well as with regard
+to taste. If we would know ourselves, it is well to see the workings
+of the human mind, under its every phase, its every condition. And
+in such a study we shall be gratified, perhaps unexpectedly, to find
+the good and the beautiful still shining through the obscurity of
+many errors, predominant and influential upon our own hearts, and
+scarcely wish the fabulous altogether removed from the minds of
+those who receive it in devotion, lest great truth in feeling be
+removed also. Indeed, the legends themselves are mostly harmless,
+and, even as they become discredited, may be interpreted as not
+unprofitable allegories. Had we not, in a Puritanic zeal, discarded
+art with an iconoclast persecution, _The Pilgrim's Progress_ had
+long ere this been a "golden legend" for the people, and spoken to
+them in worthy illustration; nor would they have been religiously
+or morally the worse had they been imbued with a thorough taste for
+the graceful, the beautiful, and the sublime, which it is in the
+power of well cultivated art to convey to every willing recipient.
+It is a great mistake of a portion of the religious world to look
+upon ornament as a sin or a superstition. Religion is not a bare and
+unadorned thing, nor can it be so received without debasing, without
+making too low and mean the worshipper for the worship. The "wedding
+garment" was not the every-day wear. The poorest must not, of a
+choice, appear in rags before the throne of Him who is clothed in
+glory, nor with less respect of their own person than they would use
+in the presence of their betters. It was originally of God's doing,
+command, and dictation, to sanctify the beautiful in art, by making
+his worship a subject for all embellishment. For such a purport
+were the minute directions for the building of His temple. And yet
+how many "religious" of our day contradict this feeling, which
+seems to come to us, not only by a natural instinct, but with the
+authority of a command! It is a deteriorated worship that prefers
+four bare, unadorned, whitened walls of a mean conventicle to the
+lofty and arched majesty and profuse enrichment of a Gothic minster.
+We want every aid to lift every sense above our daily grovelling
+cares, and ought to feel that we are acceptable and invited guests
+in a house far too great, spacious, and magnificent for ourselves
+alone. Even our humility should be sublime, as all true worship
+is, for we would fain lift it up as an offering to the Heaven of
+heavens. It has its aspect towards Him who deigns to receive,
+together with consciousness of the lowliness of him that offers. It
+is good that the eye and the ear should see and hear other sounds
+and sights than concern things, not only of time, but of that poor
+portion of it which hems in our daily wants and businesses. Beauty
+and music are of and for eternity, and will never die; and in our
+perception of them we make ourselves a part of all that is undying.
+These are senses that the spiritualised body will not lose. Their
+cultivation is a thing for ever; we are now even here the greater
+for their possession in their human perfection. The wondrous pile
+so elaborately finished; the choral service, the pealing organ, and
+the low voice of prayer, and, it may be, angel forms and beatified
+saints in richly-painted windows:--we do not believe all this to be
+solely of man's invention, but of inspiration; how given we ask not,
+seeing what is, and acknowledging a greatness around us far greater
+than ourselves, and lifting up the full mind to a magnitude emulous
+of angelic stature. Yes--poetic genius is a high gift, by which the
+gifted make discoveries, and show high and great truths, and present
+them, palpable and visible, before the world--by architecture,
+by painting, by sculpture, by music--rendering religion itself
+more holy by the inspiration of its service. Take a man out of
+his common, so to speak, irreverent habit, and place him here to
+live for a few moments in this religious atmosphere--how unlike is
+he to himself, and how conscious of this self-unlikeness! Would
+that our cathedrals were open at all times! Even when there is no
+service, though that might be more frequent, there would be much
+good communing with a man's own heart, when, turning away for a
+while from worldly troubles and speculations, in midst of that great
+solemn monument, erected to his Maker's praise, and with the dead
+under his feet--the dead who as busily walked the streets and ways
+he has just left--he would weigh the character of his doings, and in
+a sanctified place breathe a prayer for direction. Nor would it be
+amiss that he should be led to contemplate the "storied pane" and
+religious emblems which abound; he will not fail, in the end, to
+sympathise with the sentiment even where he bows not to the legend.
+He may know the fact that there have been saints and martyrs--that
+faith, hope, and charity are realities--that patience and love may
+be here best learnt to be practised in the world without.
+
+It is curious that the saints, those _Dii minores_, to whom so many
+of our churches are dedicated, still retain their holding. Beyond
+the evangelists and the apostles, little do the people know of the
+other many saints while they enter the churches that bear their
+names. Few of a congregation, we suspect, could give much account of
+St Pancras, St Margaret, St Werburgh, St Dunstan, St Clement, nor
+even of St George, but that he is pictured slaying a dragon, and is
+the patron saint of England. Yet were they once "household gods" in
+the land. It is a curious speculation this of patron saints, and
+how every family and person had his own. There is a great fondness
+in this old personal attachment of his own angel to every man. That
+notion preceded Christianity, and was easily engrafted upon it: and
+the angel that attended from the birth was but supplanted by some
+holy dead whom the Church canonised. And a corrupt church humoured
+the superstition, and attached miracles to relics; and thus, as
+of old, these came, in latter times, to be "gods many." And what
+were these but over again the thirty thousand deities who, Hesiod
+said, inhabited the earth, and were guardians of men? Yet, it must
+be confessed, there has been a popular purification of them. They
+are not the panders to vice that infested the morals of the heathen
+world.
+
+But how came the heathen world by them? Did they invent, or where
+find them? And how came their characteristics to be so universal, in
+all countries differing rather in name than personality? The most
+intellectually-gifted people under the sun, the ancient Greeks,
+give nowhere any rational account how they came by the gods they
+worshipped. They take them as personifications from their poets.
+There is the theogony of Hesiod, and the gods as Homer paints
+them. They have called forth the glory of art; and wonderful were
+the periods that stamped on earth their statues, as if all men's
+intellect had been tasked to the work, that they should leave a
+mark and memorial of beauty than which no age hereafter should show
+a greater. We acknowledge the perfection in the remains that are
+left to us. Greek art stills sways the mind of every country--all
+the world mistrusts every attempt in a contrary direction. The
+excellence of Greek sculpture is reflected back again upon Greek
+fable, the heathen mythology from which it was taken; and perhaps
+a greater partiality is bestowed upon that than it deserves,--at
+least, we may say so in comparison with any other. We must be
+cautious how we take the excellence of art for the excellence of its
+subject. The Greeks were formed for art beyond every other people;
+had their creed been hideous--and indeed it was obscene--they would
+have adorned it with every beauty of ideal form. And this is worthy
+of note here, that their poetry in art was infinitely more beautiful
+than their written poetry. Their sculptors, and perhaps their
+painters, of whom we are not entitled to speak but by conjecture,
+and from the opinions formed by no bad judges of their day, did aim
+at the portraying a kind of divine humanity. If their sculptured
+deities have not a holy repose, they are singularly freed from
+display of human passions; whereas, in their poetry, it is rarely
+that even decent repose is allowed them; they are generally too
+active, without dignity, and without respect to the moral code of a
+not very scrupulous age. Yet have these very heathen gods, even as
+their historians the poets paint them--for it would disgrace them
+to speak of their biographers--a trace of a better origin than we
+can gather out of the whimsical theogony. There are some particulars
+in the heathen mythology that point to a visible track in the
+strange road of history. Much we know was had from Egypt; more,
+probably, came with the Cadmean letters from Phoenicia--a name
+including Palestine itself. Inventions went only to corruptions--the
+original of all creeds of divinity is from revelation. We may not
+be required to point out the direct road nor the resting-places of
+this "_santa casa_," holding all the gods of Greece, so beautiful in
+their personal portraiture, that we love to gaze with the feeling
+of Schiller, though their histories will not bear the scrutiny: but
+it will suffice to note some similitudes that cannot be accidental.
+Somehow or other, both the historic and prophetic writings of the
+Bible, or narratives from them, had reached Greece as well as other
+distant lands. The Greeks had, at a very early period, embodied
+in their myths even the personal characters as shown in those
+writings. Let us, for example, without referring to their Zeus in
+a particular manner, find in the Hermes or Mercury of the Greeks
+the identity with Moses. What are the characteristics of both? If
+Moses descended from the Mount with the commands of God, and was
+emphatically God's messenger, so was Hermes the messenger from
+Olympus: his chief office was that of messenger. If Moses is known
+as the slayer of the Egyptian, so is Hermes, (and so is he more
+frequently called in Homer,) +Argeiphontês+, the slayer of Argus,
+the overseer of a hundred eyes. Moses conducted through the
+wilderness to the Jordan those who died and reached not the promised
+land; nor did he pass the Jordan. So was Hermes the conductor of the
+dead, delivering them over to Charon, (and here note the resemblance
+of name with Aaron, the associate of Moses); nor was he to pass to
+the Elysian fields.
+
+Then the rod, the serpents,--the Caduceus of Hermes, with the
+serpents twining round the rod. The appearance of Moses, and
+the shining from his head, as it is commonly figured, is again
+represented in the winged cap of Hermes. There are other minute
+circumstances, especially some noted in the hymn of Hermes, ascribed
+to Homer, which we forbear to enumerate, thinking the coincidences
+already mentioned are sufficiently striking.
+
+Then, again, the idea of the serpent of the Greek mythology, whence
+did it come, and the slaying of it by the son of Zeus--and its very
+name, the Python, the serpent of corruption? And in that sense it
+has been carried down to this day as an emblem in Christian art.
+But, to go back a moment, this departure of the Israelites from
+Egypt, is there no notice of it in Homer? We think there is a hint
+which indicates a knowledge of at least a part of that history--the
+previous slavery, the being put to work, and the after-readiness of
+the Egyptians to be "spoiled." Ulysses, giving a false account of
+himself, if we remember rightly, to Eumæus, says he came from Egypt,
+where he had been a merchant, that the king of that country seized
+him and all his men, whom _he put to work_, but that at length he
+found favour, and was allowed to depart with his people; adding that
+he collected much property from the people of Egypt, "for all of
+them gave."
+
+                     +"Polla ageira,
+    Chrêmat' an' Aigyptious andras, didosan gar apantes."
+
+We do not mean to lay any great stress upon this quotation, and but
+think at least that it shows a characteristic of the Egyptians as
+narrated by Moses; and never having met with any allusion to it, nor
+indeed to our parallel between Moses and Hermes, which it may seem
+to support, we have thought it worthy this brief notice.
+
+We fancy we trace the history of the cause of the fall of man, in
+the eating of the pomegranate seed which doomed Proserpine to half
+an existence in the infernal regions. Can there be anything more
+striking than the Prometheus Bound of Æschylus? Whence could such
+a notion come, that a man-god would, for his love to mankind, (for
+bringing down fire from heaven,) suffer agonies, nailed not upon a
+cross indeed, but on a rock, and, in the description, crucified?
+"It is, after a manner," says Mr Swayne, who has with great power
+translated this strange play of Æschylus, "a Christian poem by a
+pagan author, foreshadowing the opposition and reconciliation of
+Divine justice and Divine love. Whence the sublime conception of
+the subject of this drama could have been obtained, it is useless
+to speculate. Some even suppose that its author must have been
+acquainted with the old Hebrew prophets."
+
+Even the introduction of Io in the tale is suggestive--the
+virgin-mother who was so strangely to conceive (and this too given
+in a prophecy) miraculously.
+
+    "Jove at length shall give thee back thy mind,
+    With one light touch of his unquailing hand,
+    And, from that fertilising touch, a son
+    Shall call thee mother."
+
+Her whom Prometheus thus addresses,--
+
+      "In that the son shall overmatch the sire."
+    --"Of thine own stem the strong one shall be born."
+
+Then again Sampson passes into the Egyptian or Tyrian Hercules, to
+lose his life by another Delilah in Dejaneira. Whence the prophetic
+Sybils, whence and what the Eleusinian mysteries? and that strange
+glimpse of them in the significant passage of the Alcestis, where
+the restored from the dead must abstain from speech till the third
+day--the duration of her consecration to Hades!
+
+    "+Houpô demis soi têsde prosphônêmatôn,
+     Kluein, prin an theoisi toisi nerterois
+     Aphagnisêtai, kai triton molê phaos.+"
+
+We might enter largely into the mysteries of heathen mythology, and
+discover strange coincidences and resemblances, but it would take us
+too wide from our present subject. Our present purpose is to show
+that we are apt to attribute too much to the Grecian fable, when
+we ascribe to it all the beauty which Grecian art has elaborated
+from it. For, in fact, the origin of that fabulous poetry is beyond
+them in far-off time; and by them how corrupted, shorn of its real
+grandeur, and at once magnificent and lovely beauty! How much more,
+then, is it ours than theirs, as it is deducible from that high
+revelation which is part of the Christian religion. We overlook,
+in the excellence of Grecian art, the far better materials for all
+art, which we in our religion possess, and have ever possessed.
+With the Greeks it was an instinct to love the beautiful, sensual
+and intellectual: it was a part of their nature to discover it or
+to create it. They would have fabricated it out of any materials;
+and deteriorated, indeed, were those which came to their hands.
+And even this excess of their love, at least in their poets, made
+the sensuous to overcome the intellectual; but the far higher than
+intellectual--the celestial, the spiritual--they had not: their
+highest reach in the moral sense was a sublime pride: they had no
+conception of a sublime humility. Their highest divinity was how
+much lower than the lowest order of angels that wait around the
+heavenly throne and adore,--low as is their Olympus, where they
+placed their Zeus and all his band, to the Christian "heaven of
+heavens," which yet cannot contain the universal Maker. It is bad
+taste, indeed, in us, as some do, to give them the palm of the
+possession of a better field--poetic field for the exercise of art.
+"Christian and Legendary art" has a principle which no other art
+could have, and which theirs certainly had not; they were sensuous
+from a necessity of their nature, lacking this principle. We ought
+to ascribe all which they have left us to their skill, their genius:
+wonderful it was, and wonderful things did it perform; but, after
+all, we admire more than we love. Their divine was but a grand
+and stern repose; their loveliness, but the perfection of the
+human form. And so great were they in this their genius, that the
+monuments of heathen art are beyond the heathen creed; for in those
+the unsensuous prevailed.
+
+Let us suppose the gift of their genius to have been delayed to
+the Christian era--as poetical subjects, their whole mythology
+would have been set aside for a far better adoption; and we should
+be now universally acknowledging how lovely and how great, how
+full and bountiful, for poetry and for art, are the ever-flowing
+fountains, gushing in life, giving exuberance from that high mount,
+to the sight of which Pindus cannot lift its head, nor show its
+poor Castalian rills. The "gods of Greece," the far-famed "gods
+of Greece," what are they to the hierarchy of heaven--angels and
+archangels, and all the host--powers, dominions, hailing the
+admission to the blissful regions of saints spiritualised, and after
+death to die no more--glorified? What loveliness is like that of
+throned chastity? Graces and Muses in their perfectness of marbled
+beauty--what are they to faith, hope, and charity, and the veiled
+virtues that like our angels shroud themselves? When these became
+subjects for our Christian art, then was true expression first
+invented in drapery. "Christian and legendary art" is not denied
+the nude; but no other has so made drapery a living, speaking
+poetry. There is a dignity, a grace, a sweetness, in the drapery of
+mediæval sculpture, that equally commands our admiration, and more
+our reverence and our love, than ancient statues, draped or nude.
+And this is the expression of Scripture poetry--the represented
+language, the "clothing with power," the "garment of righteousness."
+We often loiter about our old cathedrals, and look up with wonder
+at the mutilated remains as a new type of beauty, beaming through
+the obscurity of the so-called dark ages. Lovers of art, as we
+profess to be, in all its forms, we profess without hesitation
+that we would not exchange these--that is, lose them as never to
+have existed--for all that Grecian art has left us. Even now, what
+power have we to restore these specimens of expressive workmanship,
+broken and mutilated as they have been by a low and misbegotten
+zeal? We maintain further, generally, that the works of "Christian
+and legendary art," in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are
+as infinitely superior to the works of all Grecian antiquity, as
+is the source of their inspiration higher and purer: we are, too,
+astonished at the perfect agreement of the one with the other,
+showing one mind, one spirit--devotion. We strongly insist upon
+this, that there has been a far higher character and equal power in
+Christian art compared with heathen. It ought to be so, and it is
+so. It has been too long set aside in the world's opinion (often
+temporary and ill-formed) to establish the inferior. This country,
+in particular, has yielded a cold neglect of these beautiful things,
+in shameful and indolent compliance with the mean, tasteless,
+degrading Puritanism, that mutilated and would have destroyed them
+utterly if it could, as it would have treated every and all the
+beautiful.
+
+Even at the first rise of this Christian art, the superiority of
+the principle which moved the artists was visible through their
+defect of knowledge of art, as art. The devotional spirit is
+evident; a sense of purity, that spiritualised humanity with its
+heavenly brightness, dims the imperfections of style, casting out
+of observation minor and uncouth parts. Often, in the incongruous
+presence of things vulgar in detail of habit and manners, an angelic
+sentiment stands embodied, pure and untouched, as if the artist,
+when he came to that, felt holy ground, and took his shoes from off
+his feet. It was not long before the art was equal to the whole
+work. There are productions of even an early time that are yet
+unequalled, and, for power over the heart and the judgment, are much
+above comparison with any preceding works of boasted antiquity.
+
+Take only the full embodying of all angelic nature: what is
+there like to it out of Christian art? How unlike the cold
+personifications of "Victories" winged,--though even these were
+borrowed,--are the ministering and adoring angels of our art--now
+bringing celestial paradise down to saints on earth, and now
+accompanying them, and worshipping with them, in their upward
+way, amid the receding and glorious clouds of heaven! Look at the
+sepulchral monuments of Grecian art--the frigid mysteries, the
+abhorrent ghost, yet too corporeal, shrinking from Lethé; and
+the dismal boat--the unpromising, unpitying aspect of Charon:
+then turn to some of the sublime Christian monuments of art, that
+speak so differently of that death--the Coronation of the Virgin,
+the Ascension of Saints. The dismal and the doleful earth has
+vanished--choirs of angels rush to welcome and to support the
+beatified, the released: death is no more, but life breathing no
+atmosphere of earth, but all freshness, and all joy, and all music;
+the now changed body glowing, like an increasing light, into its
+spirituality of form and beauty, and thrilling with
+
+    "That undisturbed song of pure consent,
+     Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne
+     To Him that sits thereon;
+     With saintly shout and solemn jubilee,
+     Where the bright seraphim, in burning row,
+     Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow;
+     And the cherubic host, in thousand choirs,
+     Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,
+     With those just spirits that wear victorious palms,
+     Hymns devout and holy psalms
+     Singing everlastingly."
+
+Then shall we doubt, and not dare to pronounce the superior
+capabilities of Christian art, arising out of its subject--poetry?
+We prefer, as a great poetic conception, Raffaelle's Archangel,
+Michael, with his victorious foot upon his prostrate adversary,
+to the far-famed Apollo Belvidere, who has slain his Python; and
+his St Margaret, in her sweet, her innocent, and clothed grace,
+to that perfect model of woman's form, the Venus de Medici. Not
+that we venture a careless or misgiving thought of the perfectness
+of those great antique works: their perfectness was according to
+their purpose. Higher purposes make a higher perfectness. Nor
+would we have them viewed irreverently; for even in them, and the
+genius that produced them, the Creator, as in "times past, left
+not Himself without witness." In showing forth the glory of the
+human form, they show forth the glory of Him who made it--who is
+thus glorified in the witnesses; and so we accept and love them.
+But to a certain degree they must stand dethroned--their influence
+faded. Lowly unassuming virtues--virtues of the soul, far greater
+in their humility, in the sacred poetry of our Christian faith,
+shine like stars, even in their smallness, on the dark night of our
+humanity; and they are to take their places in the celestial of art;
+and we feel that it is His will, who, as the hymn of the blessed
+Virgin--that type of all these united virtues--declares, "hath put
+down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and
+meek."
+
+We trust yet to see sacred art resumed; for the more we consider its
+poetry, the more inexhaustible appears the mine. Nor do we require
+to search and gather in the field of fabulous legends; though in
+a poetic view, and for their intention, and resumed merely as a
+fabulous allegory, they are not to be set aside. But sure we are
+that, whatever can move the heart, can excite to the greatest degree
+our pity, our love, or convey the greatest delight through scenes
+for which the term beautiful is but a poor describer, and personages
+for whose magnificence languages have no name--all is within the
+volume and the history of our suffering and triumphant religion.
+
+Would that we could stir but one of our painters to this, which
+should be his great business! Genius is bestowed for no selfish
+gratification, but for service, and for a "witness," to bear which
+let the gifted offer only a willing heart, and his lamp will not
+be suffered to go out for lack of oil. Why is the tenderness of Mr
+Eastlake's pencil in abeyance? That portion of the sacred history
+which commences with his "Christ weeping over Jerusalem," might well
+be continued in a series. Even still more power has he shown in the
+creative and symbolic, as exemplified in his poetic conception of
+Virtue from Milton--
+
+    "She can teach you how to climb
+     Higher than the sphery chime;
+     Or if Virtue feeble were,
+     Heaven itself would stoop to her."
+
+If we believe genius to be an inspiring spirit, we may contemplate
+it hereafter as an accusing angel. With such a paradise of subjects
+before them, why do so many of our painters run to the kennel
+and the stable, or plunge their pencils into the gaudy hues of
+meretricious enticement? We do verily believe that the world is
+waiting for better things. It is taking a greater interest in higher
+subjects, and those of a pure sentiment. It is that our artists are
+behind the feeling, and not, as they should be, in the advance. It
+is a great fact that there is such a growing feeling. The resumption
+of sacred art in Germany is not without its effect, and is making
+its way here in prints. Most of these are from the Aller Heiligen
+Kapelle at Munich, the result of the taste of at least one crowned
+head in Europe, who, with more limited means and power, has set an
+example of a better patronage, which would have well become Courts
+of greater splendour, and more imperial influence. Must it be asked
+what our own artists--the Academy, with all its staff--are doing?
+
+We must stay our hand; for we took up the pen to notice the two
+volumes just published of Mrs Jameson's _Sacred and Legendary Art_.
+They have excited, in the reading, an enthusiastic pleasure, and led
+the fancy wandering in the delightful fields sanctified by heavenly
+sunshine, and trod by sainted feet; and, like a traveller in a
+desert, having found an oasis, we feel loath to leave it, and would
+fain linger and drink again of its refreshing springs. These volumes
+have reached us most seasonably, at a period of the year when the
+mind is more especially directed to contemplate the main subjects
+of which they treat, and to anticipate only by days the vision of
+joy and glory which will be scripturally put before us--to see the
+Virgin Mother and the Holy Babe--
+
+    "And all about the courtly stable,
+     Bright harness'd angels sit in order serviceable."
+
+Mrs Jameson disclaims in this work any other object than the poetry
+of Sacred and Legendary Art; and to enable those who are, or wish to
+be, conversant with the innumerable productions of Italian and other
+schools, in an artistic view, likewise at once to know the subjects
+upon which they treat. Even as a handbook, therefore, these volumes
+are valuable. Much of the early painting was symbolical. Ignorance
+of the symbols rejects the sentiment, or at least the intention, and
+at the same time makes what is only quaint appear absurd.
+
+"The first volume contains the legends of the Scripture personages,
+and the primitive fathers. The second volume contains those sainted
+personages who lived, or are supposed to have lived, in the first
+ages of Christianity, and whose real history, founded on fact or
+tradition, has been so disguised by poetical embroidery, that they
+have in some sort the air of ideal beings." Possibly this poetical
+disguise is favourable upon the whole to art, but it renders a
+key necessary, and that Mrs Jameson has supplied--not pretending,
+however, to more than a selection of the most interesting; and, what
+is extremely valuable, there are marginal references to pictures,
+and in what places they are to be met with, and by whom painted, of
+the subjects given in the text, and of the view the artists had in
+so painting them. The emblems are amply noted with their meanings;
+and even the significance of colours, which has been so commonly
+overlooked, and is yet so important for the comprehension of the
+full subject of a picture, is clearly laid down. It is well said:
+
+     "All the productions of art, from the time it has been directed
+     and developed by the Christian influences, may be regarded
+     under three different aspects:--1st, The purely religious
+     aspect, which belongs to one mode of faith; 2d, The poetical
+     aspect, which belongs to all; 3d, The artistic, which is the
+     individual point of view, and has reference only to the action
+     of the intellect on the means and material employed. There is
+     a pleasure, an intense pleasure, merely in the consideration
+     of art, as art; in the faculties of comparison and nice
+     discrimination brought to bear on objects of beauty; in the
+     exercise of a cultivated and refined taste on the productions
+     of mind in any form whatever. But a threefold, or rather a
+     thousandfold, pleasure is theirs, who to a sense of the poetical
+     unite a sympathy with the spiritual in art, and who combine with
+     a delicacy of perception and technical knowledge, more elevated
+     sources of pleasure, more variety of association, habits of more
+     excursive thought. Let none imagine, however, that in placing
+     before the uninitiated these unpretending volumes, I assume
+     any such superiority as is here implied. Like a child that
+     has sprang on a little way before its playmates, and caught a
+     glimpse through an opening portal of some varied Eden within,
+     all gay with flowers, and musical with birds, and haunted by
+     divine shapes which beckon forward, and, after one rapturous
+     survey, runs back and catches its companions by the hand, and
+     hurries them forwards to share the new-found pleasure, the yet
+     unexplored region of delight: even so it is with me: I am on the
+     outside, not the inside, of the door I open."
+
+This is a happy introduction to that which immediately follows of
+angels and archangels.
+
+Mrs Jameson has so managed to open the door as to frame in her
+subject to the best advantage; and the reader is willing to stand
+for a moment with her to gaze upon the inward brightness of the
+garden, ere he ventures in to see what is around and what is
+above. It is on the first downward step that we stand breathless
+with Aladdin, and feel the influence of the first--the partial and
+framed-in picture--glowing in the unearthly illumination of its
+magical creation.
+
+There is nothing more interesting than these few pages upon angels.
+The information we receive is very curious. It is beautiful poetry
+to see orders, and degrees, and ministrations various, types of
+an embodied, a ministering church here, and ordained, together
+with the saints of earth, to make one glorified triumphant church
+hereafter. Without entering upon the theological question, as to
+the extension and mystification of the ideas of angels after the
+Captivity, (yet we think it might be shown that there was originally
+no Chaldaic belief on the subject not taken, first or last, from the
+Jews themselves,) it may not be unworthy of remark, that the word
+"angel," signifying messenger, could scarcely with propriety have
+been at the first applied to Satan, the deceiving serpent, until,
+in the after-development of the history of the human race, the
+ministering offices gave the general title, which, when established,
+included all who had not "kept their first estate." Nor do we
+think, with Mrs Jameson, that Chaldea had anything to do with the
+introduction of the worship of angels into the Christian church.
+The "gods many" of the heathen countries in which Christianity
+established itself, will sufficiently account for the readiness of
+the people to transfer the multifarious worship to which they had
+been accustomed to names more suitable to the new religion. It is
+with the poetical development we have here to do; and what ground
+is there for that full development in the New Testament, wherein
+they are represented as "countless--as superior to all human wants
+and weaknesses--as deputed messengers of God? They rejoice over
+the repentant sinner; they take deep interest in the mission of
+Christ; they are present with those who pray; they bear the souls
+of the just to heaven; they minister to Christ on earth, and will
+be present at his second coming." From such authority, from such
+a sacred theatre of scenes and celestial personages, arose the
+beautiful, the magnificent visions of the workers of sacred art.
+Heresy, however, reached it, as might have been expected; and the
+agency of angels, in the creation of the world and of man, has been
+represented, to the deterioration of its great poetry. From the
+beginning of the fourteenth century, a great change seems to have
+taken place in the representation of the angel with reference to the
+Virgin: the feeling is changed; "the veneration paid to the Virgin
+demanded another treatment. She becomes not merely the principal
+person, but the superior being; she is the 'regina angelorum,' and
+the angel bows to her, or kneels before her, as to a queen. Thus,
+in the famous altar-piece at Cologne, the angel kneels; he bears
+the sceptre, and also a sealed roll, as if he were a celestial
+ambassador delivering his credentials. About the same period we
+sometimes see the angel merely with his hands folded over his
+breast, and his head inclined, delivering his message as if to a
+superior being."
+
+It is a great merit in this work of Mrs Jameson's, that we are not
+only referred to the most curious and to the best specimens of art,
+but have likewise beautiful woodcuts, and some etchings admirably
+executed by Mrs Jameson's own hand in illustration. There is a
+greatness in the simplicity of Blake's angels: "The morning stars
+sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Poor Blake!
+Yet why say poor? he was happy in his visions--a little before his
+time, and one of whom the world (of art) in his day were not worthy:
+though, with a wild extravagance of fancy, his creations were his
+faith, often great, and always gentle. Exquisitely beautiful are the
+"angels of the planets" from Raffaelle, and copied by Mrs Jameson
+from Gruner's engravings of the frescoes of the Capella Chigiana.
+That great painter of mystery, Rembrandt, whom the mere lovers of
+form would have mistakenly thought it a profanation to commission
+with an angelic subject, is justly appreciated. A perfect master
+of light, and of darkness, and of colour, it mattered not what
+were the forms, so that they were unearthly, that plunged into or
+broke through his luminous or opaque. Of the picture in the Louvre
+it is thus remarked: "Miraculous for true and spirited expression,
+and for the action of the soaring angel, who parts the clouds and
+strikes through the air like a strong swimmer through the waves of
+the sea." Strange--but so it is--we cannot conceive an alteration of
+his pictures, all parts so agree. Attention to the more beautiful
+in form would have appeared to him a mistrust in his great gift
+of colour and chiaroscuro; and, stranger still, that without, and
+seemingly in a marked defiance of mere beauty, he is, we would
+almost say never, vulgar, never misses the intended sentiment,
+nor fails where it is of tenderness, even of feminine tenderness,
+for which, if he does not give beauty, he gives its equivalent in
+the fulness of the feeling. We instance his Salutation--Elizabeth
+and the Virgin Mary. There is something terrifically grand in the
+crouching angel in the Campo Santo,--not in the form, nor in the
+face, which is mostly hid, but in the conception of the attitude
+of horror with which he beholds the awful scene. It is from the
+Last Judgment of Orcagua in the Campo Santo. We must not speak of
+Rubens as a painter of angels; and, for real angelic expression,
+perhaps the earlier painters are the best. It is surprising that
+Mrs Jameson, from whose refined taste, and from whose sense of the
+beautiful and the graceful in their highest qualities, we should
+have expected another judgment, could have ventured to name together
+Raffaelle and Murillo as angel painters. It is true, in speaking of
+the Visit to Abraham, she admits that the painter has set aside the
+angelic and mystic character, and merely represented three young men
+travellers; but she generally, throughout these volumes, speaks of
+that favourite Spaniard in terms of the highest admiration,--terms,
+as we think, little merited. The angels in the Sutherland Collection
+are as vulgar figures as can well be, and quite antagonistic in
+feeling to a heavenly mission. We confess that we dislike almost
+all the pictures by this so much esteemed master: their artistic
+manner is to us uncertain and unpleasing,--disagreeable in colour,
+deficient in grace. We often wonder at the excess of present
+admiration. We look upon his vulgarity in scriptural subjects as
+quite profane. His highest power was in a peasant gentleness; he
+could not embody a sacred feeling: yet thus is he praised for a
+performance beyond his power:--"St Andrew is suspended on the
+high cross, formed not of planks, but of the trunks of trees laid
+transversely. He is bound with cords, undraped, except by a linen
+cloth, his silver hair and beard loosely streaming on the air, his
+aged countenance illuminated by a heavenly transport, as he looks up
+to the opening skies, whence two angels, of really celestial beauty,
+like almost all Murillo's angels, descend with the crown and palm."
+The angels of Correggio are certainly peculiar: they are not quite
+celestial, but perhaps are sympathetically more lovely from their
+touch of humanity; they are ever pure. Those in the Ascension of
+the the Virgin, in the Cupola at Parma, seem to be rather adopted
+angels than of the "first estate;" for they are of several ages,
+and, if we mistake not, many of them are feminine, and, we suspect,
+are meant really to represent the loveliest of earth beatified,
+adopted into the heavenly choir. Those who have seen Signor Toschi's
+fine drawings of the Parma frescoes, (now in progress of engraving),
+will readily give assent to this impression. We remember this
+feeling crossing our mind, and as it were lightly touching the
+heart with angelic wings--if we have lost a daughter of that sweet
+age, let us fondly see her there. We cannot forbear quoting the
+passage upon the angels of Titian:--"And Titian's angels impress
+me in a similar manner: I mean those in the glorious Assumption at
+Venice, with their childish forms and features, but an expression
+caught from beholding the face of 'our Father which is in heaven:'
+it is glorified infancy. I remember standing before this picture,
+contemplating those lovely spirits one after another, until a thrill
+came over me, like that which I felt when Mendelssohn played the
+organ: I became music while I listened. The face of one of those
+angels is to the face of a child, just what that of the Virgin, in
+the same picture, is, compared with the fairest daughter of earth.
+It is not here superiority of beauty, but mind, and music, and love,
+kneaded together, as it were, into form and colour." This is very
+eloquent, but it was not _the thought_ which supplied that ill word
+"kneaded."
+
+It is remarked by Mrs Jameson, as a singular fact, that neither
+Leonardo da Vinci, nor Michael Angelo, nor Raffaelle, have given
+representations of the Four Evangelists. In very early art they are
+mostly symbolised, and sometimes oddly and uncouthly; and even so
+by Angelico da Fiesole. In Greek art, the Tetramorph, or union of
+the four attributes in one figure, is seen winged. "The Tetramorph,
+in Western art, in some instances became monstrous, instead of
+mystic and poetical." The animal symbols of the Evangelists, however
+familiarised in the eyes of the people, and therefore sanctioned to
+their feeling, required the greatest judgment to bring within the
+poetic of art. We must look also to the most mysterious subjects for
+the elucidation, such as Raffaelle's Vision of Ezekiel. There we
+view in the symbols a great prophetic, subservient to the creating
+and redeeming power, set forth and coming out of that blaze of the
+clouds of heaven that surround the sublime Majesty.
+
+The earlier painters were fond of representing everything
+symbolically: hence the twelve apostles are so treated. In the
+descending scale, to the naturalists, the mystic poetry was reduced
+to its lowest element. The set of the apostles by Agostino Caracci,
+though, as Mrs Jameson observes, famous as works of art, are
+condemned as absolutely vulgar. "St John is drinking out of a cup,
+an idea which might strike some people as picturesque, but it is
+in vile taste. It is about the eighth century that the keys first
+appear in the hand of St Peter. In the old churches at Ravenna, it
+is remarked, St Peter and St Paul do not often appear." Ravenna, in
+the fifth century, did not look to Rome for her saints.
+
+After his martyrdom, St Paul was, it is said, buried in the spot
+where was erected the magnificent church known as St Paolo fuorè-le
+mura. "I saw the church a few months before it was consumed by
+fire in 1823. I saw it again in 1847, when the restoration was far
+advanced. Its cold magnificence, compared with the impressions left
+by the former structure, rich with inestimable remains of ancient
+art, and venerable from a thousand associations, saddened and
+chilled me." We well remember visiting this noble church in 1816. A
+singular coincidence of fact and prophecy has imprinted this visit
+on our memory. Those who have seen it before it was burnt down, must
+remember the series of portraits of popes, and that there was room
+but for one more. We looked to the vacant place, as directed by our
+cicerone, whilst he told us that there was a prophecy concerning it
+to this effect, that when that space was filled up there would be
+no more popes. The prophecy was fulfilled, at least with regard to
+that church, for it was burnt down after that vacant space had been
+occupied by the papal portrait.
+
+The subject of the Last Supper is treated of in a separate chapter.
+There has been a fresco lately discovered at Florence, in the
+refectory of Saint Onofrio, said to have been painted by Raffaelle
+in his twenty-third year. Some have thought it to be the work of
+Neri de Bicci. Mrs Jameson, without hesitation, pronounces it to
+be by Raffaelle, "full of sentiment and grace, but deficient,
+it appears to me, in that depth and discrimination of character
+displayed in his later works. It is evident that he had studied
+Giotto's fresco in the neighbouring Santa Croce. The arrangement
+is nearly the same." All the apostles have glories, but that round
+the head of Judas is smaller than the others. Does the prejudice
+against thirteen at table arise from this betrayal by Judas, or
+from the legend of St Gregory, who, when a monk in the monastery
+of St Andrew, was so charitable, that at length, having nothing
+else to bestow, he gave to an old beggar a silver porringer which
+had belonged to his mother? When pope, it was his custom to
+entertain twelve poor men. On one occasion he observed thirteen,
+and remonstrated with his steward, who, counting the guests, could
+see no more than twelve. After removal from the table, St Gregory
+called the unbidden guest, thus visible, like the ghost of Banquo,
+to the master of the feast only. The old man, on being questioned,
+declared himself to be the old beggar to whom the silver porringer
+had been given, adding, "But my name is Wonderful, and through me
+thou shalt obtain whatever thou shalt ask of God." There is a famous
+fresco on this subject by Paul Veronese, in which the stranger is
+represented to be our Saviour. To entertain even angels unknowingly,
+and at convivial entertainments, and visible perhaps but to one, as
+a messenger of good or of evil, would be little congenial with the
+purport of such meetings.
+
+Mrs Jameson objects to the introduction of dogs in such a subject
+as the Last Supper, but remarks that it is supposed to show that
+the supper is over, and the paschal lamb eaten. It is so common
+that we should rather refer it to a more evident and more important
+signification, to show that this institution was not for the Jews
+only, and alluding to the passage showing that "dogs eat of the
+crumbs which fell from their masters' table." The large dogs,
+however, of Paul Veronese, gnawing bones, do not with propriety
+represent the passage; for there is reason to believe that the word
+"crumbs" describes the small pet dogs, which its was the fashion for
+the rich to carry about with them. The early painters introduced
+Satan in person tempting Judas. When Baroccio, with little taste,
+adopted the same treatment, the pope, Clement VIII., ordered the
+figure to be obliterated--"Che non gli piaceva il demonio si
+dimésticasse tanto con Gesu Christo." We know not where Mrs Jameson
+has found the anecdote which relates that Andrea del Castagno,
+called the Infamous, after he had assassinated Dominico his friend,
+who had intrusted him with Van Eyck's secret, painted his own
+portrait in the character of Judas, from remorse of conscience. We
+are not sure of the story at all respecting Andrea del Castagno:
+there may be other grounds for doubting it, but this anecdote, if
+true to the fact, would rather indicate insanity than guilt. The
+farther we advance in the history and practice of art, the more we
+find it suffering in sentiment from the infusion of the classical.
+In the Pitti Palace is a picture by Vasari of St Jerome as a
+penitent, in which he has introduced Venus and cupids, one of whom
+is taking aim at the saint. It is true that, as we proceed, legends
+crowd in upon us, and the painters find rather scope for fancy than
+subjects for faith and resting-places for devotion. Art, ever fond
+of female forms, readily seized upon the legends of Mary Magdalene.
+Her penitence has ever been a favourite subject, and has given
+opportunity for the introduction of grand landscape backgrounds
+in the lonely solitudes and wildernesses of a rocky desert. The
+individuality of the characters of Mary and Martha in Scripture
+history was too striking not to be taken advantage of by painters.
+There is a legend of an Egyptian penitent Mary, anterior to that
+of Mary Magdalene, which is curious. Whether this was another
+Mary or not, she is represented as a female anchoret; and we are
+reminded thereby of the double story of Helen of Troy, whom a real
+or fabulous history has deposited in Egypt, while the great poet of
+the Iliad has introduced her as so visible and palpable an agent
+in the Trojan war, and not without a touch of penitence, not quite
+characteristic of that age. Accounts say that it was her double, or
+eidolon, which figured at Troy.
+
+Mrs Jameson makes a good conjecture with regard to the famous
+picture by Leonardo da Vinci, known as Modesty and Vanity, and that
+it is Mary Magdalene rebuked by her sister Martha for vanity and
+luxury, which exactly corresponds with the legend respecting her. We
+cannot forbear quoting the following eloquent passage:--
+
+     "On reviewing generally the infinite variety which has been
+     given to these favourite subjects, the life and penance of the
+     Magdalene, I must end where I began. In how few instances has
+     the result been satisfactory to mind, or heart, or soul, or
+     sense! Many have well represented the particular situation,
+     the appropriate sentiment, the sorrow, the hope, the devotion;
+     but who has given us the _character_? A noble creature, with
+     strong sympathies and a strong will, with powerful faculties
+     of every kind, working for good or evil. Such a woman Mary
+     Magdalene must have been, even in her humiliation; and the
+     feeble, girlish, commonplace, and even vulgar women, who appear
+     to have been usually selected as models by the artists, turned
+     into Magdalenes by throwing up their eyes and letting down their
+     hair, ill represent the enthusiastic convert, or the majestic
+     patroness!"
+
+The second volume commences with the patron saints of Christendom.
+These were delightful fables in the credulous age of first youth,
+when feeling was a greater truth than fact; and we confess that we
+read these legends now with some regret at our abated faith, which
+we would not even "now have shaken in the chivalric characters of
+the seven champions of Christendom."
+
+The Romish Church (we say not the Catholic, as Mrs Jameson so
+frequently improperly terms _her_) readily acted that part, to
+the people at large, which nurses assume for the amusement of
+their children; and in both cases, the more improbable the story
+the greater the fascination; and the people, like children, are
+more credulous than critical. Had we not known in our own times,
+and nearly at the present day, stories as absurd as any in these
+legends, gravely asserted, circulated, and credited, and maintained
+by men of responsible station and education--to instance only the
+garment of Treves--we should have pronounced the _aurea legenda_
+to have been a creation of the fancy, arising, not without their
+illumination, from the fogs and fens of the Middle Ages, adapted
+solely for minds of that period. But the sanction of them by the
+Church of Rome leads us to view them as _ignes fatui_ of another
+character, meant to amuse and to bewilder. We must even think it
+possible now for people to be brought to believe such a story as
+this:--"It is related that a certain man, who was afflicted with a
+cancer in his leg, went to perform his devotions in the church of
+St Cosmo and St Damian at Rome, and he prayed most earnestly that
+these beneficent saints would be pleased to aid him. When he had
+prayed, a deep sleep fell upon him. Then he beheld St Cosmo and St
+Damian, who stood beside him; and one carried a box of ointment,
+the other a sharp knife. And one said, 'What shall we do to replace
+this diseased leg, when we have cut it off?' And the other replied,
+'There is a Moor who has been buried just now in San Pietro in
+Vincolo; let us take his leg for the purpose!' Then they brought
+the leg of the dead man, and with it they replaced the leg of the
+sick man--anointing it with celestial ointment, so that he remained
+whole. When he awoke, he almost doubted whether it could be himself;
+but his neighbours, seeing that he was healed, looked into the tomb
+of the Moor, and found that there had been an exchange of legs; and
+thus the truth of this great miracle was proved to all beholders."
+It is, however, rather a hazardous demand upon credulity to serve
+up again the feast of Thyestes, cooked in a caldron of even more
+miraculous efficacy than Medea's. Such is the stupendous power of
+St Nicholas:--"As he was travelling through his diocese, to visit
+and comfort his people, he lodged in the house of a certain host,
+who was a son of Satan. This man, in the scarcity of provisions, was
+accustomed to steal little children, whom he murdered, and served up
+their limbs as meat to his guests. On the arrival of the Bishop and
+his retinue, he had the audacity to serve up the dismembered limbs
+of these unhappy children before the man of God, who had no sooner
+cast his eyes on them than he was aware of the fraud. He reproached
+the host with his abominable crime; and, going to the tub where
+their remains were salted down, he made over them the sign of the
+cross, and they rose up whole and well. The people who witnessed
+this great wonder were struck with astonishment; and the three
+children, who were the sons of a poor widow, were restored to their
+weeping mother."
+
+But what shall we say to an entire new saint of a modern day, who
+has already found his way to Venice, Bologna, and Lombardy,--even
+to Tuscany and Paris, not only in pictures and statues, but even
+in chapels dedicated to her? The reader may be curious to know
+something of a saint of this century. In the year 1802 the skeleton
+of a young female was discovered in some excavations in the catacomb
+of Priscilla at Rome; the remains of an inscription were, "Lumena
+Pax Te Cum Tri." A priest in the train of a Neapolitan prelate, who
+was sent to congratulate Pius VII. on his return from France, begged
+some relics. The newly-discovered treasure was given to him, and the
+inscription thus translated--"Filomena, rest in peace." "Another
+priest, whose name is suppressed _because of his great humility_,
+was favoured by a vision in the broad noonday, in which he beheld
+the glorious virgin Filomena, who was pleased to reveal to him that
+she had suffered death for preferring the Christian faith, and her
+vow of chastity, to the addresses of the emperor, who wished to make
+her his wife. This vision leaving much of her history obscure, a
+certain young artist, whose name is also suppressed--perhaps because
+of his great humility--was informed in a vision that the emperor
+alluded to was Diocletian; and at the same time the torments and
+persecutions suffered by the Christian virgin Filomena, as well as
+her wonderful constancy, were also revealed to him. There were some
+difficulties in the way of the Emperor Diocletian, which inclines
+the writer of the _historical_ account to adopt the opinion that
+the young artist in his vision _may_ have made a mistake, and that
+the emperor may have been his colleague, Maximian. The facts,
+however, now admitted of no doubt; and the relics were carried by
+the priest Francesco da Lucia to Naples; they were inclosed in a
+case of wood, resembling in form the human body. This figure was
+habited in a petticoat of white satin, and over it a crimson tunic,
+after the Greek fashion; the face was painted to represent nature;
+a garland of flowers was placed on the head, and in the hands a
+lily and a javelin--with the point reversed, to express her purity
+and her martyrdom; then she was laid in a half sitting posture in a
+sarcophagus, of which the sides were glass; and after lying for some
+time in state, in the chapel of the Torres family in the Church of
+Saint Angiolo, she was carried in procession to Magnano, a little
+town about twenty miles from Naples, amid the acclamations of the
+people, working many and surprising miracles by the way. Such is
+the legend of St Filomena, and such the authority on which she has
+become, within the last twenty years, one of the most fashionable
+saints in Italy. Jewels to the value of many thousand crowns have
+been offered at her shrine, and solemnly placed round the neck of
+her image, or suspended to her girdle."
+
+We dare not in candour charge the Romanists with being the only
+fabricators or receivers of such goods, remembering our own Saint
+Joanna, and Huntingdon's Autobiography. There are _aurea legenda_ in
+a certain class of our sectarian literature, presenting a large list
+of claimants of very high pretensions to saintship, only waiting for
+power and an established authority to be canonised.
+
+It is not surprising, as the world is--working often in the dark
+places of ignorance--if a few glossy threads of a coarser material,
+and deteriorating quality, be taken up by no wilful mistake, and
+be interwoven into the true golden tissue. Nevertheless the mantle
+may be still beautiful, and fit a Christian to wear and walk in not
+unbecomingly. There are worse things than religious superstition,
+whose badness is of degrees. In the minds of all nations and people
+there is a vacuum for the craving appetite of credulity to fill.
+The great interests of life lie in politics and religion. There
+are bigots in both: but we look upon a little superstition on the
+one point as far safer than upon the other, especially in modern
+times; whereas political bigotry, however often duped, is credulous
+still, and becomes hating and ferocious. We fear even the legends
+are losing their authority in the Roman States, whose history may
+yet have to be filled with far worse tales. A generous, though we
+deem it a mistaken feeling, has induced Mrs Jameson to make what
+we would almost venture to call the only mistake in her volumes:
+the following passage is certainly not in good taste, quite out of
+the intention of her book, and very unfortunately timed--"But Peter
+is certainly the democratical apostle _par excellence_, and his
+representative in our time seems to have awakened to a consciousness
+of this truth, and to have thrown himself--as St Peter would most
+certainly have done, were he living--on the side of the people and
+of freedom." A democratical successor to St Peter! He is, then, the
+first of that character. With him the "side of freedom" seems to
+have been the inside of his prison, and his "side of the people"
+a precipitate flight from contact with them in their liberty--and
+for his tiara the disguise of a valet. We more than pardon Mrs
+Jameson--we love the virtue that gives rise to her error; for it is
+peculiarly the nature of woman to be credulous, and to be deceived.
+We admire, and more than admire, women equally well, whether they
+are right or wrong in politics: these are the business of men,
+for they have to do with the sword, and are out of the tenderer
+impulses of woman. But we are amused when we find grave strong men
+in the same predicament of ill conjectures. We smile as we remember
+a certain dedication "To Pio Nono," which by its simple grandeur
+and magnificent beauty will live _splendide mendax_ to excuse its
+prophetic inaccuracy. It is not wise to foretell events to happen
+whilst we live. Take a "long range," or a studied ambiguity that
+will fit either way. The example of Dr Primrose may be followed
+with advantage, who in every case of domestic doubt and difficulty
+concluded the matter thus--"I wish it may turn out well this day six
+months;" by which, in his simple family, he attained the character
+of a true prophet.
+
+We fear we are losing sight of the "Poetry of Sacred and Legendary
+Art," and gladly turn from the thought of what is to be, to
+those beautiful personified ideas of the past, whether fabulous
+or historical, in which we are ready to take Mrs Jameson as our
+willing and sure guide. The four virgin patronesses and the female
+martyrs are favourite subjects, which she enters into with more
+than her usual spirit and feeling. These two have chiefly engaged
+and fascinated the genius of the painters of the best period, and
+will ever interest the world of taste by their sentiment, as well
+as by their grace of form and beauty, and why not say improved them
+too? The really beautiful is always true. It is not amiss that we
+should be continually reminded, or, as Mrs Jameson better expresses
+it--"It is not a thing to be set aside or forgotten, that generous
+men and meek women, strong in the strength, and elevated by the
+sacrifice of a Redeemer, did suffer, did endure, did triumph for
+the truth's sake; did leave us an example which ought to make our
+hearts glow within us." The memory of Christian heroism should
+never be lost sight of in a Christian country, and we earnestly
+recommend this part of Mrs Jameson's volumes to the attention of our
+painters: they will find not unfrequent instances of fine subjects
+yet untouched, which may sanctify art, and dignify the profession by
+making it the teacher of a purer taste--not that true genius will
+ever lack materials, for materials are but suggestive to an innate
+inventive power. It is curious that the authoress should not yet
+have satisfied our expectation with regard to the legends of the
+Virgin. Whatever the motive of her forbearance, we hope this subject
+will take the lead in the promised third volume, which is to treat
+of the legends of the monastic orders, considered, as she cautiously
+observes, "merely in their connexion with the development of the
+fine arts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."
+
+The numerous pictures in Italy which represent parts of the legends
+of the Virgin render this work incomplete without a full development
+of the subject. If her forbearance arises from a fear that at this
+particular time, when mariolatry is dreaded by a large portion of
+the religious world, we would remind her that the Virgin Mother is
+still "the blessed" of our own church.
+
+It is a question if the list of sainted martyrs in repute has not
+been left to the arbitrament of the painters; for we find many
+deposed, and the adopted favourites of art not found in the early
+list, as represented in their processions. We find a Saint Reparata,
+after having been the patroness saint of Florence for six hundred
+years, deposed, and the city placed under the tutelage of the Virgin
+and St John the Baptist.
+
+Yet these were early times for the influence of art; but, at a
+period when pictures were thought to have a kind of miraculous
+power, it is not improbable that some potent work of art
+representing the Virgin and St John may have caused the new
+devotional dedication--as was the case in modern times, when the
+imaged Madonna de los Dolores was appointed general-in-chief of the
+Carlist army. Painters were what the poets had been--_Vates sacri_.
+Events and the memory of saints may have perished, _Carent quia vate
+sacro_. We wish our own painters were more fully sensible of the
+power of art to perpetuate, and that it is its province to teach.
+With us it has been too long disconnected with our religion. It will
+be a glorious day for art, and for the people that shall witness the
+reunion.
+
+In taking leave of these two fascinating volumes, we do so with
+the less regret, knowing that they will be often in our hands, as
+most valuable for instant reference. No one who wishes to know the
+subjects and feel the sentiment of the finest works in the world,
+will think of going abroad without Mrs Jameson's book. We must again
+thank her for the beautiful woodcuts and etchings; the latter, in
+particular, are lightly and gracefully executed, we presume mostly
+(to speak technically) in dry point. Mrs Jameson writes as an
+enthusiast, her feeling flows from her pen. Her style is fascinating
+to a degree, forcible and graceful; but there is no mistaking its
+character--feminine. We know no other hand that could so happily
+have set forth the _Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art_.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS.
+
+
+  BOSTON, _December 1848_.
+
+THE YEAR OF CONSTITUTIONS is drawing to its end, to be succeeded,
+I doubt not, by the Year of Substitutions. I am sorry, my Basil,
+that you do not quite agree with me as to the issue of all this
+in France; but I am sure you will not dispute my opinion that
+this year's work is good for nothing, so far as it has attempted
+construction, instead of fulfilling its mission by overthrow. Its
+great folly has been the constitution-fever, which has amounted
+to a pestilence. When mushrooms grow to be oaks, then shall such
+constitutions as this year has bred, stand a chance of outliving
+their authors. Will men learn nothing from the past? How can they
+act over such rotten farces,--make themselves such fools!
+
+You admit the difference, which I endeavoured to show you, between
+the American constitution and that of any conceivable constitution
+which may be cooked up for an old European state. I am glad if I
+have directed your attention, accordingly, to the great mistake of
+France. She supposes that a feeble, and debauched old gentleman
+can boil himself in the revolutionary kettle, and emerge in all
+the tender and enviable freshness of the babe just severed from
+the maternal mould. Politicians have committed a blunder in not
+allowing the natural, and hence legitimate, origin of the American
+constitution in that of its British parent. They have thus favoured
+the theory that a tolerably permanent constitution can be drafted _a
+priori_, and imposed upon a state. This is the absurdity that makes
+revolutions. If the silly French, instead of reading De Tocqueville,
+would study each for himself the history of our constitution, and
+see how gradually it grew to be our constitution, before pen was
+put to paper to draft it, they might perhaps stop their abortive
+nonsense in time, to save what they can of their national character
+from the eternal contempt of mankind.
+
+But you cannot think the French will find so fair a destiny as a
+Restoration! Tell me, in what French party, at present existing,
+there is any inherent strength, save in that of the legitimists?
+Other parties are mere factions; but the legitimists have got a
+seminal principle among them, which dies very hard, and of which
+the nature is to sprout and make roots, and then show itself. I am
+no admirer of the Bourbons: their intrigues with Jesuitism have
+been their curse, and are the worst obstacle to their regaining
+a hold on the sympathies of freemen. The reactionary party have
+in vain endeavoured to overcome it for fifty years. Yet there is
+such tenacity of life in legitimacy, that it seems to me destined
+to outlive all opposition, and to succeed by necessity. The rapid
+developments of this memorable year strengthen the probability of
+my prediction. Revolutionism is spasmodic, but not so long in dying
+as it used to be. I cannot but think this year has done more for a
+permanent restoration of the Bourbons than any year since Louis XVI.
+ascended the scaffold. In this respect the Barricades of 1848 may
+tell more impressively on history than the Allies of 1814, or even
+the carnage of Waterloo.
+
+Why should I be ashamed of my theory, when everything, so far, has
+gone as I supposed it would, only a hundred times more rapidly than
+any body could have thought possible? What must be the residue of
+a series which thus far has tended but one way?--what say you of
+the Bartholomew-butchery in June?--what of Lamartine's fall?--what
+of the dictatorship of Cavaignac? If things have gone as seems
+probable, Louis Napoleon is president of the republic. If so, what
+is the instinct which has thus called him into power? The hereditary
+principle is abolished on paper, and instantly recognised by the
+first popular act done under the new constitution! But, for all
+we can tell in America, things may have taken another turn. Is
+Cavaignac elected? Then a military master is put over the republic,
+who can _Cromwellise_ the Assembly, and _Monk_ the state, as
+soon as he chooses. The republic has given itself the form of a
+dictatorship, and demonstrated that it does not exist, except on
+paper. Has there been an insurrection? Then the republic is dead
+already. But I shall assume that Louis has succeeded: then it is
+virtually an hereditary empire. To be sure, instinct has for once
+failed to know "the true prince,"--has accorded, to the mere shadow
+of a usurper, what, in a more substantial form, is due to the heir
+of France; but long-suspended animation must make a mistake or
+two in coming to life again. The events of the year have been all
+favourable to a restoration, because they have crushed a thousand
+other plans and plottings for the sovereignty, and because they must
+have forced upon at least as many theorists the grand practical
+conclusion, that there is to be no rational liberty in France until
+she returns to first principles, and finds the repose which old
+nations can only know under their legitimate kings.
+
+I am ashamed of you for more than hinting that legitimacy must be
+given up, as far as kings are concerned. Alas! Diogenes must light
+his lantern, and hunt through England for a Tory! You are bewhigged,
+indeed, if you give it up that George III. was a legitimate king,
+and that his grand-daughter is to you what no other person alive
+can possibly be,--your true and hereditary sovereign lady! Must I,
+a republican, say this to an English monarchist, who votes himself
+a conservative, and who is the son of a sturdy old English Tory?
+Is there no virtue extant, that even you allow yourself to be
+flippant about "the divinity that hedges kings," and to trifle with
+suggestions which your immortal ancestor, who fell at Prestonpans,
+would have drummed out of doors with poker and tongs? Why, even
+I, who have a right to be whatever I choose, by way of amateur
+allegiance, and who have always found myself a Jacobite whenever
+the talk has been against the White Rose--even I, in sober earnest,
+yield the point, that George I. was a legitimate sovereign, and that
+Charlie was a bit of a rebel. Those stupid Dutchmen! it makes me
+mad to say as much for them; but I love Old England too well to own
+that she bore with such sovereigns on any lower grounds than that of
+their right to reign.
+
+I am sorry you give in to the silly cant of revolutionists, and
+confess yourself posed with their challenge. What if they do insist
+upon a definition? Are you bound to keep your heart from beating
+till you can tell why it throbs over a page of Shakspeare's Richard
+II., and bounces, in precisely an opposite manner, over Carlyle's
+Cromwell? Am I going to let a Whig choke me with a dictionary,
+because it contains no explanation of my good old-fashioned word?
+Let him, with his "Useful Knowledge Society" information, give me
+an explanation of the magnetic needle, or tell me why it turns to
+the pole, and not to the antipodes? The fellow will recollect some
+twopenny picture of the compass, and retail me half a column of the
+Penny Magazine about the mysteries of nature. And what if I talk
+as sensibly from nature in my own heart, and tell the stereotype
+philosopher that I am conscious of an ennobling affection, which
+honest men never lack, and which God Almighty has made a faculty of
+the human soul to dignify subordination; and that loyalty has no
+lode-star but legitimacy? At least, my dear Whigo-Tory, you must
+allow, I should succeed in answering a fool according to his folly.
+But I claim more: I have defined legitimacy when I say it is the
+home of loyalty.
+
+I have amused myself during the summer with some study of the
+history of reaction in France, and flatter myself that I have
+discovered the secret of its failure, and the great distinction
+between its spirit and that of English Conservatism. But this by
+the way; for I was going to say that I have found, in the writings
+of one of the chief of the reactionary party, some very sensible
+hints upon the subject I am discussing with you. Though in many
+respects a dangerous teacher, and, I fear, a little jesuitical in
+practice as well as in theory, I have been surprised to find the
+Count de Maistre willing "to be as _his master_" on this point, and
+to rest legitimacy very nearly on the sober principles of Burke.
+He is far from the extravagances of Sir Robert Filmer, though
+he often expresses, in a startling form, the temperate views of
+English Anti-Jacobins. Thus he says, with evident relish of its
+smart severity, _the people will always accept their masters, and
+will never choose them_. Strongly and unpalatably put, but most
+coincident with history, and not to be disputed by any admirer
+of the glorious Revolution of 1688! I suspect the Frenchman made
+his aphorism without stopping to ask whether it suited any other
+case. But Burke has virtually said the same thing in his reply
+to the Old Jewry doctrine of 1789, in which he so forcibly urges
+the fact, that the settlement of the crown upon William and the
+Georges "was not properly _a choice_, ... but an act of necessity,
+in the strictest moral sense in which necessity can be taken."
+Mary and the Hanoverians, then, were acknowledged by the nation,
+in spite of itself, as legitimate sovereigns; and even William was
+smuggled into the acknowledgment as _quasi_-legitimate. It is the
+clear, reasonable, and truly English doctrine of Burke, that _the
+constitution of a country makes its legitimate kings_; and that the
+princes of the House of Brunswick, coming to the crown according to
+constitutional law, at the date of their respective accessions, were
+as legitimate as King James before he broke his coronation oaths,
+and abdicated, _ipso facto_, his crown and hereditary rights. But
+De Maistre talks more like the schoolmen, though he comes to the
+same practical results. Constitutions, the native growth of their
+respective countries, he would argue, are the ordinance of GOD; and
+kings, though not the subjects of their people, are bound to do
+homage to them, as, in a sense, divine. Legitimacy, therefore, is
+the resultant of hereditary majesty and constitutional designation;
+it being always understood that constitutional laws are never
+written till after they become such by national necessities, which
+are divine providences. Apply this to 1688. The Bill of Rights was
+an unwritten part of the constitution even when James was crowned;
+and so was the principle, that the king must not be a Papist, at
+least in the government of his realms. Such, if I may so speak,
+was the Salic law of England, by which his public and political
+Popery stripped him of his right to the throne. It was the same
+principle that invested the House of Brunswick with a legitimacy
+which the heart of the nation did not hesitate to recognise, in
+spite of unfeigned disgust with the prince in whom the succession
+was established. To throw the proposition into the abstract--there
+can be no legitimacy without hereditary majesty, but that member
+of a royal line is the legitimate king in whom concur all the
+elements of _constitutional designation_. If the phrase be new,
+the idea is as old as empire. I mean that constitutional power
+which, without reference to national choice or personal popularity,
+selects the true heir of the throne, among the descendants of its
+ancient possessors, on fixed principles of national law. Thus,
+in Portugal, the constitution sets aside an idiot heir-apparent
+for a cadet of the same family, or, if need be, for a collateral
+relative; while, in France, it proclaims the line of a king extinct
+in his female heir, and ascends, perhaps, to a remote ancestor for
+a trace of his rightful successor. It is a principle essentially
+the same which, in England, pronounces a Popish prince as devoid
+of hereditary right to the crown, as a bastard, or the child of a
+private marriage; and by which the hereditary blood, shut off from
+its natural course, immediately opens some auxiliary channel, and
+widens it into the main artery of succession, with all the precision
+of similar resources in physical nature. With such an argument, if
+I understand him, the Count de Maistre would put you to the blush
+for sneering _sub rosâ_ at the legitimacy of your Sovereign. I wish
+his principles were always as capable of being put to the proof,
+without any absurdity in the reduction. Hereditary majesty is the
+only material of which constitutions make sovereigns; and that, too,
+deserves a word in the light which this sage Piedmontese Mentor of
+France has endeavoured to throw on the subject. It is interesting
+in the present dilemma of France, which stands like the ass between
+two haystacks--rejecting one dynasty, but not yet choosing another.
+I am a republican, you know, holding that my loyalty is due to the
+constitution of my own country; and yet I subscribe to the doctrine
+that this idea of _majesty_ is a reality, and that, confess it
+or not, even republicans feel its reality. _The king's name is a
+tower of strength_; and inspiration has said to sovereign princes,
+with a pregnant and monitory meaning--_ye are gods_. This is not
+the fawning of courts, but the admonition of Him who invests them
+with His sword of avenging justice, and gives them, age after age,
+the natural homage of their fellow-men. Not that I would flatter
+monarchs: I see that they _die like men_, and, what is worse, live,
+very often, like fools, if not like beasts. Yet I am sure that they
+have something about them which is personally theirs, and cannot
+be given to others, and which is as real a thing as any other
+possession. GOD has endowed them with history, and they are the
+living links which connect nations with their origin, and the men of
+the passing age with bygone generations. Reason about it as we may,
+it is impossible not to look with natural reverence on the breathing
+monuments of venerable antiquity. For a Guelph, indeed, I cannot
+get up any false or romantic enthusiasm; and yet I find it quite
+as impossible not to feel that the house of Guelph entitles its
+royal members to a degree of consideration which is the ordinance
+of Heaven. For how many ages has that house been a great reality,
+casting its shadow over Europe, and stretching it over the world,
+and as absolutely affecting the destinies of men as the geographical
+barriers and highways of nations! The Alps and the Oceans are
+morally, as well as naturally, majestic; and a moral majesty like
+theirs attaches to a line of princes which has stood the storms of
+centuries like them, and like them has been always a bulwark or a
+bond between races and generations. Like the solemnity of mountains
+is the hereditary majesty of a family, of which the origin is
+veiled in the twilight of history, but which is always seen above
+the surface of cotemporary events, a crowned and sceptred thing
+that never dies, but perpetuates, from generation to generation, a
+still increasing emotion of sublimity and awe, which all men feel,
+and none can fully understand. There are many women in England who,
+for personal qualities and graces, would as well become the throne
+as she whom you so loyally entitle "Our Sovereign Lady." Why is
+it that no election, nor any imaginable possession of her place,
+could commend the proudest or the best of them to the homage of the
+nation's heart? Such a one might wear the robes, and glitter like
+a star, outshining the regalia, and might walk like Juno; but not
+a voice would cry _God save her!_--while there is a glory, not to
+be mistaken, which invests the daughter of ancient sovereigns, even
+when she is recognised, against her will, in the costume of travel,
+or when she shows herself among her people, and treads the heather
+in a trim little bonnet and a Highland plaid. Why is it that ten
+thousand feel a thrill when her figure is seen descending from the
+wooden walls of her empire, and alighting upon some long unvisited
+portion of its soil? It is not the same emotion which would be
+inspired by the landing of Wellington. Then the roaring of cannon
+and the waving of ensigns would appear to be a tribute rendered to
+the hero by a grateful country; but when her Majesty touches the
+shore, she seems herself to wake the thunders and to bow the banners
+which announce her coming. The pomp is all her own, and differs from
+the tributary pageant, as the nod of Jove is different from the
+acclamation of Stentor. Even I, who "owe her no subscription," can
+well conceive what a true Briton cannot help but feel, when, with
+an ennobling loyalty, he beholds in her the concentrated blood of
+famous kings, and the propagated soul of mighty monarchs; and when
+he calls to mind, at the same moment, the thousand strange events
+and glorious histories which have their august and venerable issue
+in Victoria, his queen.
+
+But you will bring me back to my main business, by asking--who,
+then, was the legitimate king of France at the beginning of this
+year? The King of the Barricades was not lacking in hereditary
+majesty, and you will make out a case of _constitutional
+designation_, by a parallel between England in 1688, and France
+in 1830. If you do so, you will greatly wrong your country. The
+loyalty of England settled in the house of Brunswick, and would have
+been even less tried if there had been a continuance of the house
+of Orange; but no French loyalist could ever be reconciled to the
+dynasty of Orleans. And why? It was not the natural constitution of
+France, but the mere blunder of a mob, that selected Louis Philippe
+as the king of the French. It was an election, as the accession of
+William and Mary was not: it was a choice, and not a necessity--the
+mere caprice of the hour, and in no sense the rational designation
+of law. Did ever his Barricade Majesty himself, in all his dreams of
+a dynasty, pretend that any unalterable principle, or fundamental
+law of France, had turned the tide of succession from the
+heir-presumptive of Charles X., and forced heralds upon the backward
+trail of genealogy, till they could again descend, and so find the
+hereditary king of the French in the son of Egalité? Louis Philippe
+was not legitimate, in any reasonable sense of the word; and,
+could he have made such men as Chateaubriand regard him as other
+than a usurper, he would not be at Claremont now. That splendid
+Frenchman uttered the voice of a smothered, but not extinguished,
+constitution, when he closed his political life in 1830, by saying
+to the Duchess de Berry--"_Madame, votre fils est mon roi._" He
+lived to see the secret heart of thousands of his countrymen
+repeating his memorable words, and died not till Providence itself
+had overturned the rival throne, and directed every eye in hope, or
+in alarm, to the only prince in Europe who could claim to be their
+king.
+
+I care very little what may be the personal qualifications of Henry
+of Bordeaux; it seems to me that he is destined to reign upon the
+throne of his ancestors--and God grant he may do it in such wise as
+shall make amends for all that France has suffered, by reason of
+his ancestors, since France had a Henry for her king before! The
+prestige of sovereignty is his; and while he lives, no republic can
+be lasting; no government, save his, can insure the peace which
+the state of Europe so imperatively demands. If "experience has
+taught England that in no other course or method than that of an
+hereditary crown her liberties can be regularly perpetuated and
+preserved sacred,"[12]--why should not an experience, a thousandfold
+severer, teach France the same lesson? It has already been taught
+them by a genius which France cannot despise, and to whose oracular
+voice she is now forced to listen, because it issues from his fresh
+grave! "Legitimacy is the very life of France. Invent, calculate,
+combine all sorts of illegitimate governments, you will find nothing
+else possible as the result, nothing which gives any promise of
+duration, of tolerable existence during a course of years, or even
+through several months. Legitimacy is, in Europe, the sanctuary in
+which alone reposes that sovereignty by which states subsist." So
+I endeavour to render the eloquent sentence of Chateaubriand;[13]
+and though, since he wrote it, a score of years have passed, it is
+stronger now than ever--for what was then his prophecy is already
+the deplorable history of his country. Had ever a country such a
+history, without learning more in a year than France has gained from
+a miserable half-century?
+
+  [12] BURKE.
+
+  [13] _Memoires sur le Duc de Berry._
+
+Just so long as France has been busy with experiments, in the insane
+effort to separate her future from her past, just so long have
+all her labours to lay a new foundation been miserable failures,
+covering her, in the eyes of the world, with shame and infamy. What
+has been wanting all the time? I grant that the first want has
+been a national conscience--a sense of religion and of duty. But I
+mean, what has been wanting to the successive administrations and
+governments? Certainly not splendour and personal dignity, for the
+Imperial government had both; and the King of the Barricades made
+himself to be acknowledged and feared as one who bore not the sword
+in vain. But the prestige of legitimacy was wanting; and that want
+has been the downfall of everything that has been tried. You will
+ask, what was the downfall of Charles X? The answer is, that it was
+not a downfall further than concerned himself; for everybody feels
+that the Bourbon claim survives, while every other has been forced
+to yield to destiny and retribution. How is it that legitimacy
+makes itself felt after years of exile and obscurity? Is it not
+that instinct of loyalty which cannot be duped or diverted, and
+which detects and detests all shams? Is it not the instinct which
+constitution-makers have endeavoured to appease by pageants and by
+names, but which has continually revolted against the emptiness of
+both? The existence of that instinct has been perpetually exposed
+by miserable attempts to satisfy its demands with outside show and
+splendid impositions. The French cannot even go to work, under their
+present republic, as we do in America. The common-sense of our
+people teaches them that a republican government is a mere matter
+of business, which must make no pretences to splendour; and hence,
+the constitution once settled, the president is elected and sworn-in
+with no nonsense or parade; and Mr Cincinnatus Polk sits down in the
+White House, and sends every man about his business. A young country
+has as yet but the instincts of infancy; there is as yet nothing to
+satisfy but the craving for nourishment, and the demand for large
+room. But it is not so where nations are full-grown. _Can a maid
+forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?_ Can France forget
+that she had once a court and a throne that dazzled the world? No!
+says every craftsman of the revolution; and therefore our republic,
+too, must be splendid and imperial! So, instead of going to work as
+if their new constitution were a reality, there must be a fète of
+inauguration. In the same conviction, Napoleon is nominated for the
+presidency, because he has a name; and he immediately withdraws from
+vulgar eyes, to keep his "presence like a robe pontifical," against
+the investiture. Oh, for some Yankee farmer to look on and laugh! It
+would not take him long to _calculate_ the end of such a republic.
+Jonathan can understand a queen, and would stare at a coronation
+in sober earnest, convinced that it had a meaning--at least, in
+England! But a republic of kettle-drums and trumpets will never do
+with him; and if he were favoured with an interview with the pompous
+aspirant to the French presidency, it would probably end in his
+telling Louis Napoleon the homely truth--that he has nothing to be
+proud of, and had better eat and drink like other folk, and "define
+his position" as a candidate, if he don't want to find himself
+_used-up_, and sent on a long voyage up Salt River; which, you may
+not know, my Basil, is a Stygian stream, and the ancients called
+it Lethe. So much, then, for the _ultima ratio_ of illegitimate
+governments--the attempt to satisfy the demand for national dignity
+by pageants and by names, and to drown the outcries of natural
+discontent by the sounding of brass and the tinkling of cymbals.
+
+In vain did the sage Piedmontese foretell it all, like a Cassandra.
+"Man is prohibited," said that admirable Mentor, "from giving
+great names to things of which he is the author, and which he
+thinks great; but if he has proceeded legitimately, the vulgar
+names of things will be rendered illustrious, and become grand."
+How specially does England answer to the latter half of this
+maxim! and who can read the former without seeing France, in her
+fool's-cap, before his mental eye? De Maistre himself has instanced
+the revolutionary follies of Paris, and lashed them with unsparing
+severity. Whatever is national in England seems to have grown up,
+like her oaks, from deep and strong roots, and to stand, like them,
+immovable, They make their own associations, and dignify their own
+names. Everything is home-born, natural, and real. The Garter, the
+Wool-sack, Hyde Park, Epsom and Ascot--these things in France would
+be the _Legion of Honour_, the _Curule-chair_, the _Elysian fields_,
+the _Olympic games_! The veritable attempt was made to reinstitute,
+in the Champ-de-Mars, the sports of antiquity; and they received
+the pompous name of _Les jeux Olympiques_. De Maistre ridicules
+their nothingness, and adds that, when he saw a building erected
+and called the _Odéon_, he was sure that music was in its decline,
+and that the place would shortly be to let. In like manner, he says
+of the motto of Rousseau, with intense _naïvete_, "Does any man
+dare to write under his own portrait, _vitam impendere vero_? You
+may wager, without further information, fearlessly, that it is the
+likeness of a liar." How quick the human heart perceives what is
+thus put into words by a philosopher! It is in vain for France to
+think of covering her nakedness with a showy veil. The Empire was a
+glittering gauze, but how transparent! They saw one called Emperor
+and a second Charlemagne; and the Pope himself was there to give
+him a crown. But it was a meagre cheat. Poor Josephine never looked
+ridiculous before, but then she acted nonsense. The imperial robes
+were gorgeous, but they meant nothing on the Citizen Buonaparte.
+Everybody saw behind the scenes. They detected Talma in the strut of
+Napoleon; they pointed at the wires that moved the hands and eyes of
+the Pope. All stage-effect, machinery, and pasteboard. The imperial
+court was all what children call _make-believe_: it vanished like
+the sport of children.
+
+The great feast of fraternity, last spring, was, on de Maistre's
+principles, the natural harbinger of that fraternal massacre in
+June; and the ineffectual attempt to be festive over the late
+inauguration of the constitution, has but one redeeming feature
+to prevent a corresponding augury of disaster. Its miserable
+failure makes it possible that the constitution will survive its
+anniversary. Then there will be a demonstration, at any rate, and
+then the thing will be superannuated. Since 1790, there has been
+no end to such glorifications; each chased and huzza'd, in turn,
+by a nation of full-grown children, and all hollow and transient
+as bubbles. Perpetual beginnings, every one warranted to be _no
+failure this time_, and each going out in a stench. What continual
+_Champs-de-Mars_ and _Champs-de-Mai_! what wavings of new flags, and
+scattering of fresh flowers! and all ending in confessed failure,
+and beginning the same thing over again! "Nothing great has great
+beginnings"--says Mentor again. "History shows no exception to this
+rule. _Crescit occulto velut arbor ævo_,--this is the immortal
+device of every great institution."
+
+Legitimacy never makes such mistakes, except when permitted by GOD,
+to accomplish its own temporary abasement. It needs not to support
+itself by tricks and shams. It has a creative power which dignifies
+everything it touches; which often turns its own occasions into
+festivals, but makes no festivals on purpose to dignify itself. When
+Henry V. is crowned at Rheims, or at Notre-Dame, he will not send
+over the Alps for _Pio Nono_, nor consult _Savans_ to learn how
+Cæsar should be attired that day. That youth may safely dispense
+with all superfluous pageantry, for he is not _new Charlemagne_,
+but _old Charlemagne_. The blood of the Carlovingians has come down
+to him from Isabella of Hainault, through St Louis and Henry IV.
+Chateaubriand should not have forgotten this, when (speaking of this
+prince's unfortunate father, the Duke de Berry) he enthusiastically
+sketched a thousand years of Capetian glory, and cried--"_He bien!
+la revolution a livré tout cela au couteau de Louvel_." Another
+revolution has thus far relegated the same substantial dignity to
+exile and obscurity, as if France could afford to lose its past, and
+begin again, as an infant of days. But besides the evident tendency
+of things to reaction, there is something about the legitimate
+king of France which looks like destiny. He was announced to the
+kingdom by the dying lips of his murdered sire, while yet unborn, as
+if the fate of empire depended on his birth. "_Ménagez-vous, pour
+l'enfant que vous portez dans votre sein_," said the unhappy man to
+his duchess, and the group of bystanders was startled! It was the
+first that France heard of Henry the Fifth, and it seemed to inspire
+Chateaubriand with the spirit of prophecy, and he eloquently remarks
+upon it as a _dernière espérance_. "The dying prince," he says,
+"seemed to bear with him a whole monarchy, and at the same moment to
+announce another. Oh GOD! and is our salvation to spring out of our
+ruin? Has the cruel death of a son of France been ordained in anger,
+or in mercy? is it _a final restoration of the legitimate throne,
+or the downfall of the empire of Clovis_?" This grand question now
+hangs in suspense: but, as I said, Chateaubriand must have taken
+courage before he died, and inwardly answered it favourably. That
+great writer seems to have felt beforehand, for his countrymen,
+the loyalty to which they will probably return. To the prince he
+stood as a sort of sponsor for the future. When the royal babe was
+baptised, he presented water from the Jordan, in which the last hope
+of legitimacy received the name of _Dieu-donné_: when Charles the
+Tenth was dethroned, he stood up for the young king, and consented
+to fall with his exclusion; and the last years of France's greatest
+genius were a consistent confessorship for that legitimacy with
+which he believed the prosperity of his country indissolubly bound.
+Now, I should like to ask a French republican--if I could find
+a sane one,--what would you wish to do with Henry of Bordeaux?
+Would you wish this heir of your old histories to renounce his
+birth-right, declare legitimacy an imposition, and undertake to
+settle down in Paris as one of the people? Why not, if you are all
+republicans, and see no more in a prince than in a _gamin_? Why
+should not this Henry Capet throw up his cap for the constitution,
+and stick up a tradesman's sign in the Place de la Revolution, as
+"Henry Capet, _parfumeur_?" Why not let him hire a shop in the lower
+stories of the Palais Royal and teach the Parisians better manners
+than to cut off his head, by devoting himself to shaving their
+beards? Everybody knows the reason why not; and that reason shows
+the reality of legitimacy. Night and day such a shop would be mobbed
+by friends and foes alike. Go where he might, the _parfumeur_ would
+be pointed at by fingers, and aimed at by _lorgnettes_, and bored to
+death by a rabble of starers, who would insist upon it that he was
+the hereditary lord of France. Mankind cannot free themselves from
+such impressions, and, what is more conclusive, princes cannot free
+themselves from the impressions of mankind, or undertake to live
+like other men, as if history and genealogy were not facts. For weal
+or for woe, they are as unchangeable as the leopard with his spots.
+Let Henry Capet come to America, and try to be a republican with us.
+Our very wild-cats would assert their inalienable right to "look at
+a king," and he would certainly be torn to pieces by good-natured
+curiosity.
+
+It is curious to see the natural instinct amusing itself, for
+the present, with such a mere _nominis umbra_ as Louis Napoleon.
+In some way or other the hereditary _prestige_ must be created;
+nothing less is satisfactory, and the "imperial fetishism" will
+answer very well till something more substantial is found necessary.
+Richard Cromwell was necessary to Charles II., and so is Louis
+Napoleon to Henry V. Napoleon still seems capable of giving France
+a dynasty; this possibility will be soon extinguished by the
+incapability of his representative. Louis will reign long enough
+to exhibit that recompense to Josephine, in the person of her
+grandson, which heaven delights to allot to a repudiated wife; and
+then, for his own sake, he will be called _coquin_ and _poltron_.
+Napoleon will take his historical position as an individual, having
+no remaining hold on France; and the imperial fetishism will be
+ignominiously extinguished. Richard Cromwell made a very decent old
+English gentleman, and Louis Napoleon may perhaps end his days as
+respectably, in some out-of-the-way corner of Corsica. Let me again
+quote the French Mentor. He says, "There never has existed a royal
+family to whom a plebeian origin could be assigned. Men may say, if
+Richard Cromwell had possessed the genius of his father, he would
+have fixed the protectorate in his family; which is precisely the
+same thing as to say--if this family had not ceased to reign, it
+would reign still." Here is the formula that will suit the case of
+Louis Napoleon; but future historians will moralise upon the manner
+in which Napoleon himself worked out his own destruction. For the
+sake of a dynasty, he puts away poor Josephine. The King of Rome is
+born to him, but his throne is taken. The royal youth perishes in
+early manhood, and men find Napoleon's only representative in the
+issue of the repudiated wife. Her grandson comes to power, and holds
+it long enough to make men say--how much better it might have been
+with Napoleon had he kept his faith to Josephine, and contentedly
+taken as his heir the child in whom Providence has revealed at last
+his only chance of continuing his family on a throne! It makes one
+thing of Scripture, "Yet ye say wherefore? because the Lord hath
+been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom
+thou hast dealt treacherously; ... therefore take heed to your
+spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his
+youth, for the Lord, the GOD of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
+away."
+
+A traveller from the south of France says that he saw everywhere
+the portrait of Henry V. Besides the mysterious hold which
+legitimacy keeps upon the vulgar and the polite alike, there are
+associations with it which operate on all classes of men. Tradesmen
+and manufacturers are for legitimacy, because they love peace, and
+want to make money. The _roturiers_ sooner or later learn the misery
+of mobs, and the love of change makes them willing to welcome home
+the king, especially as they mistake their own hearts, and flatter
+themselves that their sudden loyalty is proof of remaining virtue.
+Then the profligate and abandoned, they want a monarchy, in hopes of
+another riot in the palace. It may be doubted whether the _blouses_
+can be permanently contented without a king to curse. The national
+anthem cannot be sung with any spirit, unless there be a monarch
+who can be imagined to hear all its imprecations against tyrants:
+in fact, the king must come back, if only to make sense of the
+Marseilles Hymn.
+
+    Que veut cette horde d'esclaves,
+      De traîtres, de rois conjurés?
+    Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,
+      Ces fers, dès long-tems préparés?
+
+What imaginable sense is there in singing these red-hot verses
+at a feast of fraternity, and in honour of the full possession
+of absolute liberty? Then, where is the sport of clubs, and the
+excitement of conspiracies, if there's no king to execrate within
+locked doors? Is Paris to have no more of those nice little
+_émeutes_? What's to be done with the genius that delights in
+infernal machines? Who's to be fired at in a glass coach? Everybody
+knows that Cavaignacs and Lamartines are small game for such sport.
+Your true assassin must have, at least, a duke of the blood. These
+are considerations which must have their weight in deciding upon
+probabilities; though, for one, I am not sure but France is doomed,
+by retributive justice, to be thus the Tantalus of nations, steeped
+to the neck in liberty, but forbidden to drink, with kings hanging
+over them to provoke the eye, and yet escaping the hand.
+
+In 1796 de Maistre published his _Considérations sur la France_.
+They deserve to be reproduced for the present age. Nothing can
+surpass the cool contempt of the philosophical _réactionnaire_,
+or the confidence with which, from his knowledge of the past, he
+pronounces oracles for the future. Do you ask how Henry V. is to
+recover his rights? In ten thousand imaginable ways. See what
+Cavaignac might have done last July, had the time been ripe for
+another Monk! There's but one way to keep legitimacy out; it comes
+in as water enters a leaky ship, oozing through seams, and gushing
+through cracks, where nobody dreamed of such a thing. As long as
+even a tolerable pretender survives, a popular government must be
+kept in perpetual alarm. But you shall hear the Count, my Basil! Let
+me give you a free translation.
+
+"In speculating about counter-revolutions, we often fall into the
+mistake of taking it for granted that such reactions can only be the
+result of popular deliberation. _The people won't allow it_, it is
+said; _they will never consent; it is against the popular feeling_.
+Ah! is it possible? The people just go for nothing in such affairs;
+at most they are a passive instrument. Four or five persons may give
+France a king. It shall be announced to the provinces that the king
+is restored: up go their hats, and _vive le roi_! Even in Paris,
+the inhabitants, save a score or so, shall know nothing of it till
+they wake up some morning and learn that they have a king. '_Est-il
+possible?_' will be the cry: '_how very singular! What street will
+he pass through? Let's engage a window in good time, there'll be
+such a horrid crowd!_' I tell you the people will have nothing more
+to do with re-establishing the monarchy, than they have had in
+establishing the revolutionary government!... At the first blush
+one would say, undoubtedly, that the previous consent of the French
+is necessary to the restoration; but nothing is more absurd. Come,
+we'll crop theory, and imagine certain facts.
+
+"A courier passes through Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyons, and so _en
+route_, telling everybody that the king is proclaimed at Paris; that
+a certain party has seized the reins, and has declared that it holds
+the government only in the king's name, having despatched an express
+for his majesty, who is expected every minute, and that every one
+mounts the white cockade. Rumour catches up the story, and adds
+a thousand imposing details. What next? To give the republic the
+fairest chance, let us suppose it to have the favour of a majority,
+and to be defended by republican troops. At first these troops shall
+bluster very loudly; but dinner-time will come; the fellows must
+eat, and away goes their fidelity to a cause that no longer promises
+rations, to say nothing of pay. Then your discontented captains
+and lieutenants, knowing that they have nothing to lose, begin to
+consider how easily they can make something of themselves, by being
+the first to set up _Vive-le-roi_! Each one begins to draw his own
+portrait, most bewitchingly coloured; looking down in scorn on the
+republican officers who so lately knocked him about with contempt;
+his breast blazing with decorations, and his name displayed as that
+of an officer of His Most Christian Majesty! Ideas so single and
+natural will work in the brains of such a class of persons: they
+all think them over; every one knows what his neighbour thinks, and
+they all eye one another suspiciously. Fear and distrust follow
+first, and then jealousy and coolness. The common soldier, no
+longer inspired by his commander, is still more discouraged; and,
+as if by witchcraft, the bonds of discipline all at once receive
+an incomprehensible blow, and are instantly dissolved. One begins
+to hope for the speedy arrival of his majesty's paymaster; another
+takes the favourable opportunity to desert and see his wife. There's
+no head, no tail, and no more any such thing as trying to hold
+together.
+
+"The affair takes another turn with the populace. They push about
+hither and thither, knocking one another out of breath, and asking
+all sorts of questions; no one knows what he wants; hours are
+wasted in hesitation, and every minute does the business. Daring
+is everywhere confronted by caution; the old man lacks decision,
+the lad spoils all by indiscretion; and the case stands thus,--one
+may get into trouble by resisting, but he that keeps quiet may be
+rewarded, and will certainly get off without damage. As for making
+a demonstration--where is the means? Who are the leaders? Whom can
+ye trust? There's no danger in keeping still; the least motion may
+get one into trouble. Next day comes news--_such a town has opened
+its gates_. Another inducement to hold back! Soon this news turns
+out to be a lie; but it has been believed long enough to determine
+two other towns, who, supposing that they only follow such example,
+present themselves at the gates of the first town to offer their
+submission. This town had never dreamed of such a thing; but, seeing
+such an example, resolves to fall in with it. Soon it flies about
+that Monsieur the mayor has presented to his majesty the keys of
+his good city of _Quelquechose_, and was the first officer who had
+the honour to receive him within a garrison of his kingdom. His
+Majesty--of course--made him a marshal of France on the spot. Oh!
+enviable brevet! an immortal name, and a scutcheon everlastingly
+blooming with _fleurs-de-lis_! The royalist tide fills up every
+moment, and soon carries all before it. _Vive-le-roi!_ shouts out
+long-smothered loyalty, overwhelmed with transports: _Vive-le-roi!_
+chokes out hypocritical democracy, frantic with terror. No matter!
+there's but one cry; and his Majesty is crowned, and _has all the
+royal makings of a king_. This is the way counter-revolutions
+come about. God having reserved to himself the formation of
+sovereignties, lets us learn the fact, from observing that He never
+commits to the multitude the choice of its masters. He only employs
+them, in those grand movements which decide the fate of empires,
+as passive instruments. Never do they get what they want: they
+always take; they never choose. There is, if one may so speak, an
+_artifice_ of Providence, by which the means which a people take to
+gain a certain object, are precisely those which Providence employs
+to put it from them. Thus, thinking to abase the aristocracy by
+hurrahing for Cæsar, the Romans got themselves masters. It is just
+so with all popular insurrections. In the French revolution the
+people have been perpetually handcuffed, outraged, betrayed, and
+torn to pieces by factions; and factions themselves, at the mercy of
+each other, have only risen to take their turn in being dashed to
+atoms. To know in what the revolution will probably end, find first
+in what points all the revolutionary factions are agreed. Do they
+unite in hating Christianity and monarchy? Very well! The end will
+be, that both will be the more firmly established in the earth."
+
+Cool, certainly; is it not, my Basil? The legitimists are the only
+Frenchmen who can keep cool, and bide their time. Chateaubriand
+has observed, in the same spirit, that there is a hidden power
+which often makes war with powers that are visible, and that a
+secret government was always following close upon the heels of the
+public governments that succeeded each other between the murder of
+Louis XVI. and the restoration of the Bourbons. This hidden power
+he calls the eternal reason of things; the justice of GOD, which
+interferes in human affairs just in proportion as men endeavour to
+banish and drive it from them. It is evident that the whole force
+of de Maistre's prophecy was owing to his religious confidence
+in this divine interference. He wrote in 1796. That year the
+career of Napoleon began at Montenotte; and, for eighteen years
+succeeding, every day seemed to make it less and less probable
+that his predictions could be verified. The Bourbon star was lost
+in the sun of Austerlitz. The Republic itself was forgotten; the
+Pope inaugurated the Empire; Austria gave him a princess, to be the
+mould of a dynasty, and the source of a new legitimacy. France was
+peopled with a generation that never knew the Bourbons, and which
+was dazzled with the genius of Napoleon, and the splendour of his
+imperial government. But the time came for this _puissance occulte,
+cette justice du ciel_! When the Allies entered Paris in 1814, it
+was suggested to Napoleon that the Bourbons would be restored; and,
+with all his sagacity, he made the very mistake which de Maistre had
+foreshown, and said, in almost his very words--"Never! nine-tenths
+of the people are irreconcilably against it!" One can almost hear
+what might have been the Count's reply--"_Quelle pitié! le peuple
+n'est pour rien dans les revolutions. Quatre ou cinq personnes,
+peut-être, donneront un roi à la France._" What could Talleyrand
+tell about that? The facts were, that in four days the Bourbons
+were all the rage! The Place Vendôme could hardly hold the mob that
+raved about Napoleon's statue; and, with ropes and pulleys, they
+were straining every sinew to drag it to the ground, when it was
+taken under the protection of Alexander![14] What next? In terror
+for his very life, this Napoleon flies to Frejus, now sneaking out
+of a back-window, and now riding post, as a common courier, actually
+saving himself by wearing the white cockade over his raging breast,
+and all the time cursing his dear French to Tartarus! A British
+vessel gives him his only asylum, and the salute he receives from
+a generous enemy is all that reminds him what he once had been
+in France. Meantime these detested Bourbons are welcomed home
+again, with De Maistre's own varieties of _Vive-le-roi_! The Duke
+d'Angouleme, advancing to the capital, sees the silver lilies
+dancing above the spires of Bordeaux: the Count d'Artois hails the
+same tokens at Nancy: not captains and lieutenants, but generals
+and marshals, rush to receive His Most Christian Majesty; and the
+successor of the butchered Louis XVI. comes to his palace, after an
+exile of twenty years, with the title of Louis the Desired! Nor are
+subsequent events anything more than the swinging of a pendulum,
+which must eventually subside into a plummet. If the first disaster
+of Napoleon, in the fulness of his strength, could make France
+welcome her legitimacy in 1814, why should not the imbecility of
+the mere shadow of his name produce a stronger revulsion before
+this century gains its meridian? There is a residuary fulfilment
+of de Maistre's augury, which remains to the Bourbons, when all of
+Napoleon that survives has found its ignominious extinction. Then
+will the ripe fruit fall into the lap of one who, if he is wise,
+will make the French forget his kindred with the fourteenth and
+fifteenth Louises, and remember only that Henry of Bordeaux has
+before him the example of Henry of Navarre.
+
+  [14] ALISON.
+
+There is, indeed, another conceivable end. _C'est l'arrêt que le
+ciel prononce enfin contre les peuples sans jugement, et rebelles
+à l'expérience._[15] If France does not soon come back to reason,
+we shall be forced to think her given up of GOD, to become such
+a country as Germany, or perhaps as miserable as Spain. But we
+must not be too hasty in coming to conclusions so deplorable. Let
+the republic have its day. It will work its own cure; for the
+chastisement of France must be the curse of ancient Judah. "The
+people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and everyone by
+his neighbour; the child shall behave himself proudly against the
+ancient, and the base against the honourable." For the mob of Paris,
+who got drunk with riot, and must grow sober with headache; for the
+blousemen and the boys who have pulled a house upon their head,
+and now maul each other in painful efforts to get from under the
+ruins; and for the miserable _philosophes_ who see, in the charming
+state of their country, the fruit of their own atheistic theories;
+for all these it is but retribution. They needed government; they
+resolved on license: GOD has sent them despotism in its worst form.
+One pities Paris, but feels that it is just. My emotions are very
+different when I think of what were once "the pleasant villages
+of France." Miserable _campagnards_! There are thousands of them,
+besides the poor souls starving in provincial towns, who curse
+the republic in their hearts; and, from Normandy to Provence and
+Languedoc, there are millions of such Frenchmen, who care nothing
+for dynasties, or fraternities, or democracy, but only pray the
+good Lord to give peace in their time, that they may sit under
+their own vine, and earn and eat their daily bread. For them--may
+GOD pity them!--what a life Dame Paris leads them! If, with the
+simplicity of rustics, they were for a moment disposed to be merry
+last February--when they heard that thereafter loaves and fishes
+were to fling themselves upon every table, for the mere pleasure of
+being devoured--how bitterly the simpletons are undeceived! Their
+present notions of fraternity and equality they get from hunger
+and from rags. It is not now in France as in the days of Henry
+IV., when every peasant had a pullet in the pot for his Sunday
+dinner. That was despotism. It is liberty now--liberty to starve.
+There is no more oppression, for the very looms refuse to work, and
+water-wheels stand still; and the vines go gadding and unpruned,
+and the grape disdains to be trampled in the wine-vat. Yes--and the
+old _paysan_ and his sprightly dame, who used to drive dull care
+away in the sunshine--she, with her shaking foot and head, and he
+with his fiddle and his bow, they have liberty to the full; for
+their seven sons, who were earning food for them in the sweat of
+their brow, have come home to the old cabin, ragged and unpaid; and
+they lounge about in hungry idleness, longing for war, but only
+because war would provide them with a biscuit or a bullet. What
+care they for glory, or for constitutions? They ask for bread, and
+their teeth are ground with gravel-stones. Let England look and
+learn. If she has troubles, let her see how easily troubles may be
+invested at compound interest, with the certainty of dividends for
+years to come. Is hard thrift in a kingdom so bad as starvation
+in a democracy? And whether is it better to wear out honestly, in
+this work-day world, as good and quiet subjects; or to be thrust
+out of it, kicking and cursing, behind a barricade of cabs and
+paving-stones, in the name of equality? These are the common-sense
+questions, that every English labourer should be made to feel and
+answer.
+
+  [15] CHATEAUBRIAND.
+
+It provokes me, Basil, that my letter may be superannuated while
+it is travelling in the steamer! The changes of democracy are more
+frequent than the revolutions of a paddle-wheel. Adieu. Yours,
+
+  ERNEST.
+
+
+
+
+DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO.
+
+     _Dalmatia and Montenegro._ By Sir J. GARDNER WILKINSON. London:
+     Murray.
+
+
+It is really astonishing that our want of information respecting
+Dalmatia, and its neighbourhood, has not long ago been supplied. It
+is by no means easy, now-a-days, to hit upon a line of country that
+may afford subject-matter for acceptable illustration. Travellers
+are so numerous, and authorship is so generally affected, that the
+best part of Europe has been described over and over again. You may
+get from Mr Murray a handbook for almost any place you will. Manners
+and customs, roads, inns, things to be suffered, and notabilities
+to be visited--in short, all the probable contingencies of travel
+between this and the Vistula, are already noted and set down. We
+take it upon ourselves to say, that it is one of the most difficult
+things in life to realise the sense of desolation and unwontedness
+that are poetic characteristics of the traveller. How can a man feel
+himself strange to any place where he is so thoroughly up to usages
+that no _locandière_ can cheat him to the amount of a _zwanziger_?
+And, thanks to the books written, it is a man's own fault if he
+wend almost anywhither except thus +mustês genomenos+.
+
+In truth, European travelling is pretty nearly reduced to the work
+of verification. Events are according to prescription; and there
+remains very little room for the play of an exploring spirit. The
+grand thing to be explored is a matter pysychological rather than
+material; it is to prove experimentally what are the emotions that
+a generous mind experiences, when vividly acted upon by association
+with the world of past existences. Beyond doubt, this is the highest
+range of intellectual enjoyment; and to its province may be referred
+much that at first sight would appear to be heterogeneous, as, for
+instance, delights purely scientific. But at any rate, we must all
+agree that the main privilege of a traveller is, that he is enabled
+to test the force of this power of association. It is an enjoyment
+to be known only by experiment. No power of description can give a
+man to understand what is the sensation of gazing on the Acropolis,
+or of standing within +Hagia Sophia+. It is as another sense, called
+into existence by the occasion of exercise.
+
+To any but the uncommonly well read, there has hitherto been meagre
+entertainment in travelling among the Slavonian borderers on the
+Adriatic. It has been impossible to realise on their subject these
+high pleasures of association, because so little has been known of
+the facts of their history; rather should we perhaps say, that,
+of what has been known, so little has been generally accessible.
+But we are happy to find that the right sort o' "chiel has been
+amang them, takin' notes." The way is now open; and henceforth it
+will be easy to follow with profit. The book which Sir Gardner
+Wilkinson has given us seems to be exactly the thing which was
+wanted; and certainly the use of it will enable a man to travel
+in Dalmatia as a rational creature should. No mere dotter down of
+events could have passed through the course of this country without
+producing a document of considerable value. The widespread family
+of which its inhabitants are a branch have been intimately mixed up
+with the history of the Empire and of Christendom; and now again
+we behold them playing a conspicuous part in European politics.
+Modern Panslavism deepens the interest to be felt in this family,
+and quickens the anxiety to know what they are doing and thinking
+now, as well as what they have done in days of old. In the present
+volumes we have, besides the memoranda of things existing, a
+compendium of Slavonian history and antiquities, and an exhibition
+of the degree in which the race have been mixed up with European
+history. Besides this, an account is given of their more domestic
+traditions, of which monuments survive; and it must be a man's own
+fault if, having this book with him, he miss extracting the utmost
+of profit from a visit to the country.
+
+In one way, we can surely prophesy that this book will prove the
+means of bringing to us increase of lore from out of that land of
+which it treats. It will naturally be taken on board every yacht
+that, when next summer shall open skies and seas, may find its
+way into the Mediterranean. Among these birds of passage, it can
+scarcely be but that some one will shape its course for this land of
+adventure, thus, as it were, newly laid open. It is a little, a very
+little out of the direct track, in which these summer craft are apt
+to be found, plentiful as butterflies. They may rest assured that in
+no place, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pharos of Alexandria,
+can they hope to find such provision of entertainment. The stories
+they may thence bring will really be worth something--a value much
+higher than we can vote ascribable to much that we hear of the
+well-frequented shores of the French lake.
+
+We prophesy, also, that an inspiriting effect will be produced
+on men better qualified even than the yachtsmen for the work of
+travel--we mean on the gallant officers who garrison the island of
+Corfu. They occupy a station so exactly calculated to facilitate
+excursions in the desirable direction, that it will be too bad if
+some of them do not start this very next spring. We do not recommend
+the Adriatic in winter time, and so give them a few months' grace,
+just to keep clear of the Bora. Let them, as soon as possible after
+the equinox, avail themselves of one of those gaps which will be
+occurring in the best-regulated garrison life. Times will come round
+when duty makes no exaction, and when the indigenous resources of
+the island afford no amusement. Should such occasion have place out
+of the shooting months--or when, haply, some row with the Albanians
+has placed Butrinto under interdict--woful are the straits to which
+our ardent young fellow-countrymen are reduced. A ride to the
+Garoona pass, or a lounge into Carabots; or, to come to the worst,
+an hour or two's _flané_ round old Schulenberg's statue, are well in
+their way, but cannot please for ever. All these things considered,
+it is, we say, but likely that we shall reap some substantial
+benefit from the leisure of our military friends, so soon as their
+literary researches shall have carried them into the enjoyment of
+this book. Dalmatia is almost before their very eyes. If hitherto
+they have not drifted thither, under the combined influences of a
+long leave and an uncertain purpose, it is because they have not
+been in a condition to prosecute researches. We must not blame them
+for their past neglect, any more than we blame the idleness of him
+who lacks the implements of work. Give a man tools, and then, if he
+work not, _monstrare digito_. Henceforth they must be regarded as
+thoroughly equipped, and without excuse. Let us hope that some two
+or three may be roused to action on the very next opportunity--that
+is to say, on the very next occasion of leave. Let us hope that,
+instead of sloping away to Paxo, or Santa Maura, they may shape
+their course through the North Channel, and begin, if they please,
+by exploring the Bocca di Cattaro.
+
+Sir Gardner speaks of difficulties and vexatious delays interposed
+between the traveller and his purpose by the Austrian authorities.
+These scrutineers of passports seem to grow worse; and with them
+bad has long been the best. We used to think that the palm of
+pettifogging was fairly due to the officials of his Hellenic
+majesty. It was bad enough, we always thought, to be kept waiting
+and watching for a license to move from the Piræus to Lutraki, by
+steam; but we confess that Sir Gardner makes out a case, or rather
+several cases, that beat our experience hollow. We should like
+to commit the passport system to the verdict to be pronounced by
+common-sense after perusal of the two or three pages he has written
+on this subject. But common-sense must be far from us, or the mob
+would not be raving for liberty while still tolerant of passports.
+
+There is another point in respect of which a change for the worse
+appears to have taken place, and that is in the important point
+of _bienveillance_ towards English travellers. We learn that, at
+present, Austrian officers are shy of English companionship; and
+that it is even enjoined on them authoritatively that they avoid
+intimacy with stragglers from Corfu. The reason assignable is found
+in the late sad and absurd conspiracy hatched in that island--a
+conspiracy which would have been utterly ridiculous, had it not in
+the event proved so melancholy. It will freely be admitted that
+the English would deserve to be sent, as they are, to Coventry,
+were it fact that the insane project of the young Bandieras had
+found English partisans, and that such partisanship had been winked
+at by the authorities. But the real state of the case is exactly
+contrary to this supposition. Humanity must needs have mourned over
+the cutting off of the young men, and the sorrow of their father,
+the gallant old admiral. But common-sense must have condemned the
+undertaking as utterly absurd and mischievous. It is a pity that any
+misunderstanding should be permitted to qualify the good feeling
+towards us, for which the Austrians have been remarkable. This good
+feeling has been observable eminently among their naval officers,
+who have got up a strong fellowship with us, ever since they were
+associated with our fleet in the operations on the coast of Syria.
+That particular service has done much towards the exalting of them
+in their own estimation; and, of course, the increase of friendship
+for us has been in the direct proportion of the lift given to
+them. The Austrian _militaires_, also, used to be a very good set
+of fellows, and only too happy to be civil to an Englishman. At
+their dull stations an arrival is an event, and any considerable
+accession of visitors occasions quite a jubilee. These gentlemen,
+however, cannot have among them much of the spirit of enterprise,
+or they would take more trouble than they do to learn something of
+the condition of their neighbours. They will complain freely of
+the dulness of the place of their location, but at the same time
+will evince little interest in the condition of the world beyond
+their immediate ken. Many of them who live almost within hail of
+the Montenegrini, have never been at the trouble of ascending the
+mountains. Nothing seems to astonish them more than the erratic
+disposition which leads men in quest of adventure; they cannot
+conceive such an idea as that of volunteering for a cruise. Yachts
+puzzle them: the owners must be sailors. Of any military officers
+who may chance to visit them in yachts, they cannot conceive
+otherwise than that they belong to the marine. Nevertheless they
+are, or used to be, kind and hospitable; and would treat you well,
+although they could not quite make you out.
+
+That this country is a neglected portion of the Austrian empire
+is very evident. The officials sigh under the very endearments of
+office. The _sanità_ man, who comes off to greet your arrival, will
+tell you how insufferably dull it is living in the Bocca,--and how
+he longs to be removed anywhither. Place, people, climate, all
+will be condemned. Yet, to a stranger, many of the localities seem
+exquisitely beautiful. The same cause seems to mar enjoyment here
+that spoils the beauty of our own Norfolk Island. The Austrian
+residents regard themselves as being in a state of banishment,
+and take up their abode only by constraint: the constraint, that
+is to say, of mammon. By the government, its possessions in this
+quarter have been neglected in a manner most impolitic. The value
+of this strip of coast to an empire almost entirely inland, yet
+wishing to foster trade, and to possess a navy, is obvious. Yet
+even the plainest use of it they seem, till lately, to have missed.
+Promiscuous conscriptions were the order of the day, and men born
+sailors were enrolled in the levies for the army. Of course they
+were miserable and discontented, and the public service suffered by
+the use of these unfit instruments. Recently it seems that a change
+has been made in this respect, and we doubt not that the navy has
+consequently been greatly improved. But many glaring instances of
+neglect in the administration of the affairs of the country continue
+to astonish beholders, and to prove that the paternal government is
+not awake to its own interests.
+
+But of all objections to be made to the wisdom of the government,
+the strongest may be grounded on the condition of the agricultural
+population in various parts of Dalmatia. Nothing is done to improve
+their knowledge of the primary art of civilisation. Their implements
+of husbandry are described as being on a par with those used by
+the unenlightened inhabitants of Asia Minor. The waggons to be
+encountered in the neighbourhood of Knin are referable to the same
+date in the progress of invention, as are the conveniences in vogue
+in the plains about Mount Ida. The mode of tillage is like that
+followed in the remote provinces of Turkey; the ploughs of the
+rustic population are often inferior to those to be seen in the
+neighbouring Turkish provinces. Lastly--most incredible of all!--we
+learn that there is not to be found in the whole district of the
+Narenta such a thing as a mill, wherein to grind their corn. Will
+it be believed that the rustics have to send all the corn they grow
+into the neighbouring province of Herzegovina to be ground? The
+inconvenience of such an arrangement may easily be conceived. Their
+best of the bargain--_i. e._ the being obliged to seek from across
+the frontier all the flour they want--is bad enough, and must be
+sufficiently expensive; but their predicament is apt to be much
+worse than this. In that part of the world, people are subject to
+stoppages of intercommunication. The plague may break out in the
+Turkish province, and thus a strict quarantine be established, to
+the interdiction even of provisions that generally pass unsuspected;
+or the country may be flooded, and the ways impassable. What are
+the poor people to do then for flour? Why, the only thing they can
+do is, to send their corn to their nearest neighbours possessed of
+mills--that is to say, to Salona, or to Imoschi. As these places
+are distant, the one about thirty-five miles, and the other about
+seventy miles, we may fancy how serious must be the pressure of this
+necessity. The ordinary expense of grinding their corn is stated
+to be about 13 per cent. What it must be when the seventy miles'
+carriage of their produce is an item in the calculation, we are left
+to conjecture. Now these poor folks are not to be blamed--they have
+no funds to enable them to build mills; but that they are left to
+themselves in this inability is a reproach to the government under
+which they live. This inconvenience so intimately affects their
+social wellbeing, that we cannot put faith in the benevolence of the
+rulers who allow them to remain so destitute.
+
+Despite, however, of the disadvantages under which the people of
+Dalmatia labour, it will be seen that pictures chiefly pleasurable
+are to be met by him who shall travel amongst them. Their honest
+nature seems to comprise within itself some compensating principle,
+which makes amends for the damage of circumstances. The Morlacci,
+especially, seem to be a simple, hardy set, of whom one cannot
+read without pleasure. These are the rustic inhabitants of the
+agricultural districts, who eschew the great towns. They made their
+entry into the roll of the peasantry of Dalmatia at a comparatively
+late date. The first notice of them, we are told, is about the
+middle of the fourteenth century. After that time they began to
+retire with their families from Bosnia, as the Turks made advances
+into the country. They are of the same Slavonic family as the
+Croatians; though their hardy manner of life, and the purity of the
+air in which they have dwelt, on the mountains, have co-operated to
+confer on them superiority of personal appearance, and of physical
+condition. On a general estimate of the people of the land, and of
+their mode of receiving strangers, we are disposed to rank highly
+their claims to the title of hospitable and honest.
+
+Sir Gardner Wilkinson certainly travelled amongst them most
+effectually. North, south, east, and west, he intersected the
+country. One part of his travels possesses especial interest,
+because, so far as we know, no denizen of civilised Christendom has
+ever before been so completely over the ground. We refer to his
+expedition into, and through the territory of the Montenegrini.
+Others--some few only, but still some others--have been far enough
+to get a peep at these wild children of the mountains; and more than
+once of late years, Maga has given notices concerning them:[16]
+but only scanty knowledge of their domestic condition has been
+attainable. Sir Gardner went right through their country to the
+Turkish border, and tarried amongst them long enough to form pretty
+accurate notions of their state.
+
+  [16] See _Blackwood's Magazine_, for January 1845, and for October
+  1846.
+
+In the account of our author's first journey, no serious stop is
+made till we come alongside of the island of Veglia: apropos to
+the passage by which, we have given to us, at some length, an
+interesting extract from the report of a Venetian commissioner sent
+to the island, in 1481, to inquire into its state. Of this document
+we will say no more than that it is exceedingly curious, and will
+well reward the pains of reading. A passing notice is given to
+Segna, situated on the mainland, near Veglia, for the memory's sake
+of those desperate villains the Uscocs, to whom it belonged of old.
+A good deal of their history is given in the last chapter of the
+second volume, which serves as a documentary appendix to the work.
+Everything necessary to beget interest in the islands scattered
+hereaway is told; but we pass them by, and are brought to Zara. What
+of antiquities is here discoverable is rooted out for our benefit,
+but not much remains. The most interesting relic in the place, to
+our mind, is the inscription recording the victory of Lepanto. As
+Zara is the capital of Dalmatia, occasion is taken, while speaking
+of the city, to give some account of the government of the province,
+and of the general condition of the people.
+
+An incident mentioned by Sir Gardner displays, in a painful
+light, the kind of feeling entertained by the Austrian government
+towards these its subjects, and permitted by its officials to
+find expression before the natives. We cannot take it as a case
+of isolated insolence: because men in responsible situations,
+especially where the social system comprises an indefinite supply
+of spies, do not ostentatiously commit themselves, unless they
+have a foregone conviction, that what they say is according to
+the authorised tone. Men under inspection of the higher powers
+do not put themselves out of their way to make a display of
+bitterness, unless they think thereby to conciliate the good-will
+of their superiors. This is the incident in question: On a certain
+occasion, the conversation happened to turn on the subject of a
+then recent disturbance in a Dalmatian town. The soldiery and the
+people had quarrelled, and in the _émeute_ two of the soldiers
+had been killed. On these data forth spake a Jack in office. He
+knew not, nor did he care to know, how many of the peasants had
+fallen, nor does he appear to have entered at all curiously into
+the question of the _casus belli_. He simply recommended, as the
+disturbance had taken place, and as the actual perpetrators of
+the violence were not forthcoming, that the whole population of
+the town should be "decimated and shot." "The butchery of any
+number of Dalmatians," says our author, "was thought a fit way of
+remedying the incapacity of the police." One would hardly imagine
+that this counsel could have been met by the applauses of persons
+holding official situations; but so, we are assured, it was in fact
+received. This manifestation of feeling is a sort of thing which,
+when emanating from a group of merely private individuals, may be
+disregarded. Idle people will talk, and their hard words will break
+no bones. But the hard words of the ministers of government do
+break bones; and such words must be accepted as serious indications
+of subsistent evil. Such receipts for keeping people in peace and
+quietness are consistent enough with the genius of their neighbours
+the Turks. Retrenchment of heads, and of causes of complaint, are to
+their apprehension one and the same thing-+pollôn onomatôn, morphê
+mia+. We know this, and expect it. It is not so very long ago since
+the Capitan Pasha gave the word to heave the officer of the watch
+overboard, because his ship missed stays in going about in the
+Black Sea. But the Austrians are civilised and Christian; we expect
+better things of them, and can but mourn over their misapprehension
+of the true principles of polity. The Englishman who stood by
+rebuked the promoters of these atrocious sentiments, and for this
+act of championship he was subsequently thanked by the Dalmatians
+who were present. They could not have ventured to undertake their
+own defence, but must have listened in silence to this outrageous
+language. Our author doubts not that this exhibition of simple
+humanity on his part, had the effect of causing him to be forthwith
+placed under the surveillance of the police; and that such a
+consequence should be so very likely to follow the honest expression
+of a common-sense opinion in society is a fact that shows clearly
+enough how _unsound_ that state of things must be. Assuredly one
+of the best effects of intercourse with civilised nations is,
+that we thereby become enabled to institute a comparison between
+their social condition and our own. Even those unhappy Chartists,
+who lately have acquired the habit of addressing one another as
+"brother slaves," would learn to value British freedom, if they knew
+something of the social condition of their European brethren: they
+would see some difference between the security of their own hours of
+relaxation, and the degree in which a man's freedom in Austria is
+invaded by the espionage of the police.
+
+From Zara the course of the narrative takes us to Sebenico, a town
+situated on the inner side of the lake or bay into which the waters
+of the Kerka debouch. It is one of the coaling stations of the
+steamer; and, when the time of arrival will allow such concession,
+the passengers are permitted to take a trip in a four-oared boat,
+to visit the falls of the Kerka. Here the costume of the women
+is noticed as being singularly graceful. In coasting along from
+Sebenico to Spalato, the headland of la Planca is remarkable. Near
+it is a little church which is famous in local chronicle for having
+once upon a time served as a trap, wherein an ass caught a wolf. How
+this marvellous feat was accomplished, we will not just now stop
+to tell, but must refer the curious to the book itself. This point
+is also remarkable, because here begins abruptly a change in the
+climate. Some plants unknown to the northward begin to appear; and
+henceforward, to one proceeding southward, the dreaded Scirocco will
+be a more frequent infliction. To the southward of la Planca, this
+objectionable wind is constantly blowing; and at Spalato, we are
+told, it assumes for its allowance 100 days out of the 365. Apropos
+to the Scirocco, we have an episode on _anemology_, and are taught
+how the old Greeks and Romans used to box the compass--at least
+how they would have done so, had they had compasses to box. In the
+distance, to the south of the promontory of la Planca, is the island
+of Lissa, famous in modern history for Sir William Hoste's action
+in 1811. "Such an action," says James, "stands unrivalled in the
+annals of the naval history of Great Britain, or that of any other
+country, from the great disproportion in numerical force, as well
+as the beauty and address of its manoeuvres; it stands surpassed
+by none in the spirit and enterprise with which it was encountered,
+and carried through to a successful issue." There is not much risk
+in making this assertion, when we consider that on that occasion
+the French squadron consisted of four forty-gun frigates, two of
+a smaller class, a sixteen-gun corvette, a ten-gun schooner, one
+six-gun xebec, and two gunboats; and that the English squadron was
+of three frigates, and one twenty-two gunship. Lissa was also famous
+in the time of the Romans, being then called Issa. We have a notice
+of its history, and then pass on to Bua, and so to Spalato.
+
+Concerning Spalato details are given, as might be expected, at
+some length. Much is told us of its past and present condition;
+in fact, there is presented to us a very sufficient assemblage of
+_indicia_ concerning it. We recommend any one who wishes to enjoy
+a visit to Spalato to take with him this book, and chapter 13th of
+Gibbon. The extract from Porphyrogenitus, given by Gibbon, tells us
+what the palace of Diocletian was; and Sir Gardner Wilkinson tells
+us what it is now, and what has been its history. Besides verbal
+description, his pencil affords some apt illustrations of the actual
+condition of the buildings. We see by these, and by his account,
+that the treasures of Spalatine architecture have been obscured by
+the building up of modern edifices on their sites. "The stranger,"
+he says, "is shocked to see windows of houses through the arches of
+the court, intercolumniations filled up with petty shops, and the
+peristyle of the great temple masked by modern houses." Doubtless,
+many a precious relic has been appropriated by modern barbarians to
+common uses, and so perished out of sight. But with joy we learn
+that the government has taken measures to prevent the continuance of
+such destruction, and that the remaining monuments are safe, however
+they may be mixed up with the houses and shops of the present
+generation. We are told that, under the care of the present director
+of antiquarian researches, there is good reason to hope that the
+collection at Spalato may become truly valuable. The high character
+of Professor Carrara is a sure warrant that all will be done which
+is within scope of the means afforded. But as the government
+allowance for excavations at Salona is only £80 yearly, we cannot
+think that the work is likely to proceed rapidly. While we condemn
+as barbarous this carelessness on the part of the Austrians, we must
+bear in mind that we are open to a retort of the censure. We neglect
+altogether the remains of Samos in Cephalonia, and nothing at all
+is allowed for the expense of operations there; yet these remains
+are very extensive, and there is every reason to believe that their
+actual condition would amply repay a diligent search.
+
+We must stop here a moment to congratulate Sir Gardner, on his
+rencontre with the sphinx.
+
+    "A captive when he gazes on the light,
+     A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,"
+
+and so forth, are the only people who may venture to talk of Sir
+Gardner's delight at the sight of a sphinx, or a mummy. With great
+gusto he gives the description of the black granite sphinx, in the
+court of the palace, near the vestibule; and in the drawing which he
+has made of the same court, the sphinx is conspicuous.
+
+From Spalato to Salona, is a distance of some three miles and a
+half, by a good carriage-road. This road crosses the Jader, or Il
+Giadro--a stream so famous for its trout, that it has been thought
+necessary seriously to prove that it was _not_ for the sake of
+these--not in order that of them he might eat his _soûl_ in peace
+and quietness--that Diocletian retired from the command of the world.
+
+Salona is rich in antiquarian remains, though nothing is extant
+to redeem from improbability the testimony of Porphyrogenitus,
+that Salona was half the size of Constantinople. Of its origin no
+record exists, nor is much known of its history till the time of
+Julius Cæsar. Subsequently to that era it was subject to various
+fortunes, and bore various titles. At last, in Christian times it
+became a Bishop's see, and was occupied by 61 bishops in succession.
+Diocletian was its great embellisher and almost rebuilder. Later
+in the day, we find that it was from Salona that Belisarius set
+out in 544, when recalled to the command of the army of Justinian,
+and intrusted with the conduct of the war against Totila. The town
+remained populous and fortified, till destroyed by the Avars in 639.
+These ferocious barbarians having established themselves in Clissa,
+the terror of their propinquity scared away the Salonitans. The
+terrified inhabitants, after a short and ineffectual resistance,
+fled to the islands. The town was pillaged and burnt, and from that
+time Salona has been deserted and in ruins.
+
+     "With these historical facts before us, it is interesting to
+     observe the present state of the place, which affords many
+     illustrations of past events. The positions of its defences,
+     repaired at various times, may be traced: an inscription lately
+     discovered by Professor Carrara, shows that its walls and towers
+     were repaired by Valentinian II., and Theodosius; and the ditch
+     of Constantianus is distinctly seen on the north side. Here and
+     there, it has been filled up with earth and cultivated; but its
+     position cannot be mistaken, and in places its original breadth
+     may be ascertained. A very small portion of the wall remains
+     on the east side, and nearly all traces of it are lost towards
+     the river: but the northern portion is well preserved, and the
+     triangular front, or salient angle of many of its towers, may be
+     traced.
+
+     "In the western part of the town are the theatre, and what is
+     called the amphitheatre. Of the former, some portion of the
+     proscenium remains, as well as the solid tiers of arches, built
+     of square stone, with bevelled edges, about 6-1/4 feet diameter,
+     and 10 feet apart."
+
+We have a good description of the annual fair of Salona. The
+description will be suggestive of picturesque recollections to
+those who have seen the open air festivities celebrated by the
+orthodox--_i. e._ by the children of the Greek Church, about Easter
+time. We can take it upon ourselves to recommend highly the lambs,
+wont to be roasted whole on these occasions. The culinary apparatus
+is rude--consisting merely of a few sticks for a fire, and another
+stick to be used as a spit--but the result of their operations is
+most satisfactory.
+
+     "All Spalato is of course at the fair; and the road to Salona
+     is thronged with carriages of every description, horsemen,
+     and pedestrians. The mixture of the men's hats, red caps, and
+     turbans, and the bonnets and Frank dresses of the Spalatine
+     ladies, contrasted with the costume of the country women,
+     presents one of the most singular sights to be soon in Europe,
+     and to a stranger the language adds in no small degree to the
+     novelty. Some business is done as well as pleasure; and a great
+     number of cattle, sheep, and pigs are bought and sold--as well
+     as various stuffs, trinkets, and the usual goods exhibited at
+     fairs. Long before mid-day, the groups of peasants have thronged
+     the road, not to say street, of Salona; some attend the small
+     church, picturesquely placed upon a green, surrounded by the
+     small streams of the Giadro, and shaded with trees; while others
+     rove about, seeking their friends, looking at, and looked at by
+     strangers, as they pass; and all are intent on the amusements of
+     the day, and the prospect of a feast.
+
+     "Eating and drinking soon begin. On all sides sheep are seen
+     roasting whole on wooden spits, in the open air; and an entire
+     flock is speedily converted into mutton. Small knots of hungry
+     friends are formed in every direction: some seated on a bank
+     beneath the trees, others in as many houses as will hold them;
+     some on grass by the road-side, regardless of sun and dust--and
+     a few quiet families have boats prepared for their reception.
+
+     "In the mean time, the hat-wearing townspeople from Spalato
+     and other places, as they pace up and down, bowing to an
+     occasional acquaintance, view with complacent pity the
+     primitive recreations of the simple peasantry; and arm-in-arm,
+     civilisation, with its propriety and affectation, is here
+     strangely contrasted with the hearty laugh of the unrefined
+     Morlacchi."
+
+We do not know the country where men will meet together and eat
+without drinking also: at the al-fresco entertainments of this
+kind which we have seen, the kegs of wine have ever been in goodly
+proportion to the spitted lambs. And wherever a mob of men set to
+drinking together, they will most assuredly take to fighting. The
+rows at this fair used to be considerable; and, considering that
+more wine is said to be consumed here on this one day than during
+the whole of the rest of the year, we cannot be surprised that
+fights should come off worthy of Donnybrook. At present, better
+order is preserved than of old, because these rows have been so
+excessive that they have enforced the attendance of the police.
+
+At this fair is to be seen the picturesque _collo_ dance of the
+Morlacchi, of which our author affords a capital pencil-sketch, as
+well as the following description:--
+
+     "It sometimes begins before dinner, but is kept up with greater
+     spirit afterwards. They call it _collo_, from being, like most
+     of their national dances, in a circle. A man generally has
+     one partner, sometimes two, but always at his right side. In
+     dancing, he takes her right hand with his, while she supports
+     herself by holding his girdle with her left; and when he has two
+     partners, the one nearest him holds in her right hand that of
+     her companion, who, with her left, takes the right hand of the
+     man; and each set dances forward in a line round the circle. The
+     step is rude, as in most of the Slavonic dances, including the
+     polka and the _radovatschka_; and the music, which is primitive,
+     is confined to a three-stringed violin."
+
+Dancing for dancing's sake, is what enters into no Englishman's
+category of the enjoyable, nor into many an Englishwoman's either,
+we should think, after the passage out of her teens; but that it is,
+in sober earnest, an enjoyment to many people under the sun, there
+is no doubt. Surely there is something wonderful in the faculty of
+finding pleasure in the elephantine manoeuvres of the _romaika_,
+or in the still more clumsy gyrations of a _palicari's_ performance.
+The _collo_ we readily believe to be a picturesque dance: but such
+qualification is not the general condition on which the people
+of a nation accept dances as national. Most of these exhibitions
+in Greece and Eastern Europe must be condemned as graceless and
+unmeaning: as an exhibition of earnest tomfoolery, they may be
+accepted as wonderful; and, at all events, may safely be pronounced
+co-excellent with the music that inspires them.
+
+In passing from Salona to Traü, a distance of about thirteen miles
+and a half to the westward, the traveller passes by several of the
+villages called Castelli. The name has been given them from the
+circumstance of their having been built near to, and under the
+protection of, the castles which, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries, were constructed here by some of the nobles.
+
+     "The land was granted to them by the Venetians, on condition
+     of their erecting places of refuge for the peasants during the
+     wars with the Turks. A body of armed men lived within them, and,
+     on the approach of danger, the flocks and herds were protected
+     beneath the walls; and, at harvest time, the peasantry had a
+     place of security for their crops within range of the castle
+     guns."
+
+The rights of lordship over the villages, which used to be exercised
+by the nobles in virtue of the protection afforded, have nearly
+all fallen into disuse. The only relic of feudalism that seems to
+survive is found at Castel Cambio, over which two nobles still
+possess certain rights. One of these was the hospitable host of Sir
+Gardner, and his friend Professor Carrara, on their passage to and
+from Traü.
+
+A fact connected with the peculiarity of the position of this town
+is, we think, well worthy of notice, and deservedly recorded by our
+author. The town stands partly on a peninsula, and partly on the
+island of Bua. A fosse, cut across the narrow neck of the peninsula,
+has completed its isolation. This ditch has proved, on occasion, the
+most effectual of fortifications to the Traürines. They were, in
+1241, besieged by the Tartars in pursuit of King Bela IV., who had
+fled hither before them. These impetuous assailants were unable to
+pass the ditch; and, having waited on the other side till food and
+forage were exhausted, they were obliged to retire. One cannot read
+this story without thinking of the account that Sir Francis Head
+gives of the La Plata Indians, whose habits of warfare are in many
+respects so exactly akin to those of the Tartars. These terrific
+horsemen would be scarcely resistible by their less robust enemies,
+save for their inability to cross anything in the shape of a ditch.
+Out of the saddle they can do nothing, and their horses will not
+leap; so that, if you wish to be safe from their inroads, you have
+but to surround your dwellings with a moderate trench. And very
+striking is the story that Sir Francis Head tells of the handful
+of men who, under such protection, held out successfully against a
+host of Indians. Traü, however, has been elaborately fortified in
+European fashion, though now the works are neglected, as being a
+useless precaution against dangers no longer existent. It has also a
+fine old cathedral, and some pictures of pretension.
+
+After a brief notice of the islands of Brazza and Solta--a notice,
+however, sufficient for all useful purposes--we pass on to the
+picturesque neighbourhood of the falls of the Kerka. Sir Gardner
+speaks of the delay to which the passage by boat from Sebenico to
+Scardona is subject, but does not exactly complain of it. In fact,
+we can easily understand that, for the sake of the passenger, it
+is expedient that some authoritative note should be taken of his
+departure under charge of the particular boatmen who undertake his
+convoy. We never did ascend to Kerka, but from what we have seen
+of the class of men under whose guidance the expedition has to be
+performed, we are disposed to vote the caution of the police to be
+anything but superfluous. Every now and then one hears dreadful
+stories of the atrocities of boatmen in convenient parts of the
+Mediterranean; and there is good reason to be thankful that the
+Austrians think it worth while to be so careful of strangers.
+
+The people about Sebenico, through whose lands the course of
+the lake leads, are spoken of as not paying much attention to
+agriculture or to their fisheries; but it seems that they are
+sedulously bent on raising grapes, and neglect no patch of ground at
+all likely to be available for this purpose. The lake of Scardona
+is considerably larger than that of Sebenico. On the shore here
+the Romans had a settlement, of which scarcely any remains are
+perceptible. They are, however, remarkable as affording a manifest
+proof of the rise of the level of the lake, for some of them are
+under water.
+
+Scardona, we are told, does not occupy the site of the old Scardon,
+which was a place of considerable importance under the empire. Some
+have even imagined that the old city stood on the opposite bank of
+the river. The town at present is small, but well furnished for the
+convenience of strangers. It boasts an inn, at which Sir Gardner put
+up for one night. He then proceeded to the falls, which are distant
+from the inn a three-quarters-of-an-hour journey. As he intended
+to ascend the river above the falls, he had to send to the monks
+of Vissovaz to ask for a boat, and they readily complied with his
+request. The falls do not seem to have been full on the occasion
+of this visit--but, when full, the effect must be striking. They
+are divided into two parts, and their picturesque effect is greatly
+enhanced by the surrounding scenery.
+
+At a distance of a few minutes' walk up the river, above the falls,
+the boat was waiting to transport Sir Gardner to the convent of
+Vissovaz. It is to this fraternity that we have before alluded, as
+being the sole mill-owners on the Kerka. Their convent must indeed
+be beautifully situated, and we can quite enter into the eulogium
+bestowed on it. The fathers are of the Franciscan order. The name
+of Vissovaz is of curious allusion; and as probably few of our
+courteous readers will be the worse for a little help in the matter
+of Slavonian etymology, we may as well tell them that its import
+is "the place of hanging." Not a very complimentary or well-omened
+name, certainly, we would think at first sight; but we see that it
+is so when we learn that the allusion is to the martyrdom of two
+priests, who were hanged here by the Turkish governor of Scardona.
+By the record left of the event, we cannot see that the death of
+these unfortunate victims was in any sense martyrdom: they were
+cruelly and unjustly put to death, but for a cause entirely worldly.
+However, they were Christians, and their murderers were Turks; and
+this has been enough to constitute a claim to canonisation in more
+places than at Vissovaz.
+
+Sir Gardner arrived at the picturesque, red-tiled convent in time
+for dinner; but as the day happened to be a fast, the fare provided
+was not sufficiently tempting to induce a wish to stay. He therefore
+was preparing, with many thanks, to take his leave of the good
+fathers, and proceed on his journey, when he found himself brought
+up by an unexpected difficulty. He was informed that he could not
+proceed except by favour of the monks of the Greek convent of St
+Archangelo, another religious house still farther up the stream.
+His hospitable entertainers readily volunteered to send in quest of
+the requisite assistance. These are the conditions of travelling,
+because there are no carriages for hire hereaway, nor any boats
+to let. The Franciscans had volunteered to do what, when it came
+to the point, was found to be rather an awkward thing. No great
+cordiality subsists generally between the Latins and the orthodox.
+Each charges the other with destructive heresy; and doubtless both
+of these great branches of the church esteem a Protestant safe,
+by comparison with the arch-heretics that they each see the other
+to be. Thus, though dwelling on the confines of Christendom, and
+in a solitude that might have rendered them neighbourly, we find
+that very little intercourse takes place between the two religious
+establishments. Accordingly, the writing of the letter was found to
+be no easy affair; and their guest saw them lay their heads together
+in consultation, after a fashion that boded ill for the prospects
+of his journey. They confessed themselves to be in a fix; and were
+afraid of exposing themselves to some affront if, contrary to their
+wont, they should open a communication with the Greeks, asking of
+them a favour.
+
+     "'Did you ever go as far as the convent?' said an old father
+     to a more restless and locomotive Franciscan, and a negative
+     answer seemed to put an end to the incipient letter; when one of
+     the party suggested that those Greeks had shown themselves very
+     civil on some occasion, and the writer of the epistle once more
+     resumed his spectacles and his pen. 'They are,' he observed,
+     'after all, like ourselves, and must be glad to see a stranger
+     who comes from afar; and besides, our letter may have the effect
+     of commencing a friendly intercourse with them, which we may
+     have no reason to regret.'"
+
+This very sensible hint of the Franciscan philosopher was happily
+acted out. The letter was sent, and in due course of time--_i.
+e._ in time for a start next morning--an answer arrived from the
+Archimandrite. It was to welcome the stranger to their hospitality,
+and to inform him that a boat awaited him at the falls. As the
+issue on the first intention was so favourable, let us hope that
+the other good results anticipated from the sending of the letter
+will have been by this time realised. At all events, Sir Gardner may
+congratulate himself on having afforded occasion for the opening of
+personal as well as epistolary communication between the convents,
+as one of the Franciscans accompanied him in the expedition to St
+Archangelo.
+
+Much praise is bestowed on the beauty of the Kerka, and the view
+of the Falls of Roncislap is especially distinguished. Sir Gardner
+praises it in artistic language; and we may be allowed to regret
+that he has not added a sketch of this scene to the views with
+which his book is embellished. The waters of the Kerka possess a
+petrifying quality that is common in Dalmatia. Much of the rock has
+been formed under the water, and must present a singular appearance.
+
+Near the Falls of Roncislap a depôt for coal has been established,
+that, by all accounts, would seem to be anything but a good
+speculation. We mention it merely for the sake of a good story that
+hangs by it. It seems that the Austrian Lloyds' Company patronise
+this coal because it is cheap. It is one reason, certainly, for
+buying it; but, as the coal will not burn, we may doubt their
+wisdom. We do not wish to spoil the market of the Company of Dernis,
+but we agree with Sir Gardner, that there are reasonable objections
+to the using of food for the furnaces that will get up no steam,
+and must be taken on board in such quantities, as to lumber up the
+decks. Besides this, hear how it goes on when it does burn:--
+
+     "It has also the effect of causing much smoke, and the large
+     flakes of soot that fall from the chimney upon the awning
+     actually burn holes in it, till it looks like a sail riddled
+     with grape-shot; and I remember one day seeing the awning on
+     fire from one of these showers of soot; when the captain calmly
+     ordered it to be put out, as if it had been a common occurrence."
+
+"A Russian consul,"--this is the story:--
+
+     "A Russian consul, who happened to be on board, and who was not
+     much accustomed to the smoky doings of steamers, seemed to be
+     deeply impressed with the inconvenience of the falling flakes
+     of soot. His voice had rarely been heard during the voyage, and
+     he appeared to shun communication with his fellow-passengers;
+     when one afternoon, the awning not being up, he burst forth
+     with these startling remarks, uttered with a broad Slavonian
+     accent,--'_Que ces baateaux à vapeur sont sales! Par suite de
+     maaladie, il y a dix ans que je ne me zuis paas lavré, mais
+     maintenant j'ai zenti le bezoin de me lavver, et je me zuis
+     lavvé!!_'"
+
+This must have been a Russian of the old school.
+
+Arrived at the convent of St Archangelo, they had every reason to
+be content with their hospitable reception. The Archimandrite is
+praised as being gentlemanlike, and of mien as though educated in
+a European capital. This is a very unusual characteristic of any
+Greek ecclesiastic, and what we could predicate of but one or two
+out of the numbers that we have seen. Greek priests of any kind
+are bad enough, but those living in convents seem generally to go
+on the principle of the Russian consul just mentioned, and might
+fitly be invited to associate with him. All honour, then, to Stefano
+Knezovich, and may his example be abundantly followed among his
+brethren!
+
+There was not much in the Greek convent to induce a long visit; so
+the next morning Sir Gardner pushed on to Kistagne, in his progress
+through the country. Here he was again the victim of letter-writing,
+but in a different way. The sirdar of Kistagne took offence at the
+tone of the letter sent to him by the Archimandrite, ordering horses
+for the next morning; and the luckless traveller was consequently
+left in the lurch. However, the monk did his best to make up for
+the deficiency. He lent him his own horse, and had his baggage
+conveyed by some peasants--an excellent arrangement, saving that
+the porters were _female_ peasants. This is a sort of thing that
+sadly shocks our sense of decorum, but which many folks besides
+the Dalmatians take as a matter of course. Sir Gardner says that
+the custom of assigning the heavy burden to the women is prevalent
+among the Montenegrini; it is so also among the Albanians; and to a
+most atrocious extent in the Peloponnesus. In this particular case,
+they were well off to get the job; it was to exchange their task of
+carrying heavy loads of water up the hill for that of shouldering
+his light _impedimenta_.
+
+Arrived at Kistagne, he found the sirdar, who had been so
+disobliging at a distance, much improved on acquaintance, and from
+him he received all requisite assistance for the prosecution of his
+journey to Knin; and by him was guided in his visit to the Roman
+arches, which point out the site of the ancient city of Burnum.
+
+Knin is still a place of considerable strength, and has been once
+upon a time still stronger. It is identified with the ancient
+Arduba. The marshy character of the ground in its immediate
+neighbourhood renders it an unhealthy place of abode; but this evil
+is easily removable by a moderate attention to drainage. Not very
+far from Knin, but over the Turkish border, on the other side of
+Mount Gniath, is supposed to be situated the gold mine that of old
+conferred on Dalmatia the title of auriferous. The mine is said to
+exist here; but so much mystery is observed on its subject by the
+Turks that nothing certain can be affirmed of it. From Verlicca,
+to Sign we pass as quickly as may be, merely noticing that there
+is another convent to be visited _en route_, and that we have the
+opportunity of putting up at the Han, as Sir Gardner did. These
+people certainly have admitted a great many Turkish words into their
+vocabulary: we have _Sirdar_, and _Han_, and _Arambasha_--to say
+nothing of others. At last we come to _Sign_; and, touching this
+place, we must give an extract from the book. An annual tilting
+festival has been established here, in commemoration of the brave
+defence maintained in 1715, against the Pasha of Bosnia with forty
+thousand men.
+
+     "The privilege of tilting is confined to natives of Sign, and
+     its territory. Every one is required to appear dressed in the
+     ancient costume, with the Tartar cap, called kalpak, surmounted
+     by a white heron's plume, or with flowers interlaced in it. He
+     is to wear a sword, to carry a lance, and to be mounted on a
+     good horse richly caparisoned."
+
+     "The opening of the _giostra_ is in this manner: The _footmen_,
+     richly dressed and armed, advance two by two before the
+     cavaliers. In the usual annual exhibitions each cavalier has
+     one _footman_; and on extraordinary occasions, besides the
+     footman, he has a _padrino_ well mounted and equipped. After the
+     _footmen_ come three persons in line--one carrying a shield,
+     and the other two by his side bearing a sort of ancient club;
+     then a fair _manège_ horse, led by the hand, with large housings
+     and complete trappings, richly ornamented, followed by two
+     cavaliers--one the adjutant, the other the ensign-bearer. Next
+     comes the _Maestro-di-Campo_, accompanied by the two _jousters_,
+     and followed by all the others, marching two and two. The
+     rear of the procession is brought up by the _Chiauss_, who
+     rides alone, and whose duty it is to maintain order during the
+     ceremony."
+
+We have a description of a fair at Sign that is almost as suggestive
+of the picturesque as was the account of similar doings at Salona.
+Sir Gardner shall give his own account of his departure from the
+town.
+
+     "In the midst of the bustle and business going on at Sign,
+     I found some difficulty in getting horses to take me on to
+     Spalato; but a letter to the Sirdar removed every impediment,
+     and, after a few hours' delay, the animals being brought out,
+     I prepared to start from the not very splendid inn.' 'Can you
+     ride in that?' asked the ostler, pointing to a huge Turkish
+     saddle that nearly concealed the whole animal, with stirrups
+     that might pass for a pair of coal scuttles; and finding that I
+     was accustomed to the use as well as sight of that un-European
+     horse-furniture, he seemed well satisfied--observing, at the
+     same time, that it was fortunate, as there was no other to
+     be had.... I was glad to take what I could get, and my only
+     question in return was, whether the horse could trot; which
+     being settled, I posted off, leaving my guide and baggage to
+     come after me--for, thanks to the Austrian police, there is
+     no fear of robbers appropriating a portmanteau in Dalmatia:
+     the interesting days of adventure and the Haiduk banditti have
+     passed, and the Morlacchi have ceased to covet, or at least to
+     take other men's goods."
+
+And now we make a resolute halt, and determine to pass _sub
+silentio_ all that intervenes between this part of the book and the
+coming into the country of the Montenegrini. Unless we act thus
+discreetly, we shall never contrive to compress all we have to say
+into due limits; and even now we hardly know how this desirable
+result is to be effected. What we thus leave as fallow-ground
+for the reader will yield to his research a history of the coast
+and islands between Spalato and Cattaro. The notice of Ragusa
+is especially and deservedly full, and presents an admirable
+condensation of Ragusan history.
+
+But it is high time for us to get amongst the children of the Black
+Mountain. Among things excellent it is permitted to institute
+comparison without disparagement to any of them: and, in virtue of
+this license, we are free to say that this part of Sir Gardner's
+book shines forth as _inter minora sidera_. The subject itself is
+of deep intrinsic interest; and he has treated it as we well knew
+that he would. A picture is given of the actual condition of a scion
+of the Christian stock that must astonish those who, by this book,
+first learn to think of the Montenegrini; and must delight those
+who, having heard somewhat of them, or haply even paid them a flying
+visit, have looked in vain for some accurate statement of detail to
+help out their personal observations.
+
+The Montenegrini are descended from the old Servian stock, and still
+look to modern Servia with affection, as to their mother country.
+Thither also we find them, by Sir Gardner's account, retiring,
+when forced by poverty to emigrate from their own territory. Among
+them the Slavonian language is preserved in unusual purity. The
+present population is about 100,000; and the number of fighting men
+amounts to 20,000--a number which, on occasion of need, would be
+greatly augmented by the calling out of the veterans. In fact every
+individual man of the nation, whose arm has power to wield a weapon,
+is a warrior; and the very women are ready to assist in defence. On
+the Turkish border, as is well known, a constant system of bloody
+reprisals is going on; and the endeavours of the Vladika to reduce
+their hostilities to civilised fashion have hitherto failed of
+success. They are sustained at the highest pitch of confident daring
+by the successful war which they have so long been able to carry on
+against their powerful neighbours. One is glad of the opportunity
+of giving, on the authority of Sir Gardner, some of the stories
+of their prowess; for to retail, without the authority of some
+such _padrino_, the tales current in Cattaro, would be to win the
+reputation of talking like Mendez Pinto.
+
+In judging the Montenegrini, we should give charitable consideration
+to their circumstances. War is a system of violence; and with them,
+unhappily, war is a permanent condition of existence. The treachery
+and cruelty of the Turks--are these such recent developments that we
+need make any doubt of them?--have worked out cruel consequences in
+the character of the Montenegrini. They believe a Turk to be utterly
+without honesty and good faith--one with whom it is impossible to
+hold terms--and such, probably, is about the right estimate of some
+of their Turkish neighbours. Who, for instance, that knows anything
+about them, has any other opinion of the Albanians? Are Kaffirs much
+more hopeless subjects? The Montenegrini are far from the commission
+of the horrid cruelties that are of everyday occurrence among the
+Albanians. Their imperfect appreciation of Christianity allows them
+to behold in revenge a virtue; and hence the acts of violence which
+are quoted to their dispraise. Their marauding expeditions are but
+according to the usages of war; and if they sometimes break through
+the restrictions of a truce, it would seem to be because they really
+do not understand what a truce is. We think that a very apt apology
+for the Montenegrini is found in the speech of a German traveller
+quoted by Sir Gardner. He had been mentioning several occurrences of
+English and Scotch history, and spoke in allusion to them.
+
+     "'What think you,' he observed, 'of the state of society in
+     those times? Were the border forays of the English and Scotch
+     more excusable than those of the Montenegrins? And how much more
+     natural is the unforgiving hatred of the Montenegrins against
+     the Turks, the enemies of their country, and their faith, than
+     the relentless strife of Highland clans, with those of their own
+     race and religion! Has not many an old castle in other parts of
+     Europe, witnessed scenes as bad as any enacted by this people? I
+     do not wish to exculpate the Montenegrins; but theirs is still a
+     dark age, and some allowance must be made for their uncivilised
+     condition.'"
+
+The character of the present Vladika affords good hope that an
+improvement will take place among the people; for he evidently has
+devoted all his energies to their amelioration. Sir Gardner entered
+their territory, by what we believe to be the only route--that is to
+say from Cattaro--whence he took letters of introduction from the
+Austrian governor to the Vladika.
+
+We shall best illustrate the condition of the Montenegrini by
+quoting some of Sir Gardner's accounts.
+
+     "Four Montenegrins, and their sister, aged twenty-one, going
+     on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Basilio, were waylaid by
+     seven Turks, in a rocky defile, so narrow that they could only
+     thread it one by one; and hardly had they entered between the
+     precipices that bordered it on either side, when an unexpected
+     discharge of fire-arms killed one brother, and desperately
+     wounded another. To retrace their steps was impossible without
+     meeting certain and shameful death, since to turn their backs
+     would give their enemy the opportunity of destroying them at
+     pleasure.
+
+     "The two who were unhurt, therefore, advanced and returned the
+     fire, killing two Turks--while the wounded one, supporting
+     himself against a rock, fired also, and mortally injured two
+     others, but was killed himself in the act. His sister, taking
+     his gun, loaded and fired simultaneously with her two brothers,
+     but, at the same instant, one of them dropped down dead. The
+     two surviving Turks then rushed furiously at the only remaining
+     Montenegrin--who, however, laid open the skull of one of them
+     with his yatagan, before receiving his own death-blow. The
+     hapless sister, who had all this time kept up a constant fire,
+     stood for an instant irresolute; when suddenly assuming an air
+     of terror and supplication, she entreated for mercy; but the
+     Turk, enraged at the death of his companions, was brutal enough
+     to take advantage of the unhappy girl's agony, and only promised
+     her life at the price of her honour. Hesitating at first, she
+     pretended to listen to the villain's proposal; but no sooner did
+     she see him thrown off his guard, than she buried in his body
+     the knife she carried at her girdle. Although mortally wounded,
+     the Turk endeavoured to make the most of his failing strength,
+     and plucking the dagger from his side, staggered towards the
+     courageous girl,--who, driven to despair, threw herself on the
+     relentless foe, and with superhuman energy hurled him down the
+     neighbouring precipice, at the very moment when some shepherds,
+     attracted by the continued firing, arrived just too late for the
+     rescue."
+
+Fancy the tone that must be given to their lives by the constant
+necessity of being ready for encounters such as this. They never lay
+aside their arms; but in the field, or by the wayside, are armed and
+alert. One hand may be allowed to the implement of tillage, but the
+other must be reserved for the weapon of defence.
+
+On many occasions, Montenegrin courage has prevailed against odds
+far greater than in the above case--indeed such odds as, but for
+authentication of facts, would be incredible. In the year 1840,
+"seventy Montenegrins, in the open field, withstood the attack of
+several thousand Turks; and having made breastworks with the bodies
+of their fallen foes, maintained the unequal conflict till night;
+when forty who survived forced their way through the hostile army,
+and escaped with their lives." Another astonishing achievement
+was the successful defence of a house held by seven-and-twenty
+Montenegrins, against a body of about six thousand Albanians. Of
+this last action, trophies are preserved by the Vladika in his
+palace at Tzetinié, and there Sir Gardner saw them.
+
+We cannot wonder that the effect on their minds of these astonishing
+successes, should be an unbounded confidence in their superiority
+over the Turks. Sir Gardner Wilkinson found them impressed with the
+idea, that bread and arms were the only needful requisites to enable
+them to drive the Turks out of Albania and Herzegovina. It seems
+certain that, in their rencontres With these enemies, they dismiss
+all ordinary considerations of prudence. The spirit of their feeling
+with regard to the Turks is thus portrayed:--
+
+     "It is not the courage, but the cruelty of the Turks which
+     inspires him (the Montenegrin) with hatred; and the sufferings
+     inflicted upon his country by their inroads makes him look upon
+     them with feelings of ferocious vengeance.
+
+     "These savage sentiments are kept alive by the barbarous custom,
+     adopted by both parties, of cutting off the heads of the wounded
+     and the dead; the consequences of which are destructive of all
+     the conditions of fair warfare, and preclude the possibility
+     of peace. The bitter remembrance of the past is constantly
+     revived by the horrors of the present; and the love of revenge,
+     which strongly marks the character of the Montenegrin, makes
+     him insensible to reason or justice, and places the Turks, in
+     his opinion, out of the pale of human beings. He dreams only of
+     vengeance; he cares little for the means employed, and the man
+     who should make any excuse for not persecuting those enemies of
+     his country and his faith, would be treated with ignominy and
+     contempt. Even the sanctity of a truce is not always sufficient
+     to restrain him; and the hatred of the Turk is paramount to all
+     ordinary considerations of honour or humanity."
+
+This cutting off of heads is not peculiar to the Montenegrins.
+The Turks are, in this respect, just as bad, and Sir Gardner
+found, on the occasion of his visit to Mostar, that, in point of
+this barbarism, there is not a pin to choose between them. The
+Turks, however, exceed in cruelty. It appears, on the evidence
+of the letter of the Vladika, given in the second volume, that
+they (the Turks) impale men alive; whereas the Montenegrins are
+chargeable with no wanton cruelty. Indeed, they do not restrict the
+performance of this operation to the case of enemies; but, as an
+act of friendship, decapitate any comrade who may so be wounded in
+action as to have no other means of avoiding capture by the enemy.
+"You are very brave," said a well-meaning Montenegrin to a portly
+Russian officer, who was unable to keep up with his detachment in
+its retreat,--"you are very brave, _and must wish that I should cut
+off your head_: say a prayer, and make the sign of the cross."
+
+Life, passed amidst every hardship, and threatened by constant
+and deadly peril, ought, we suppose, according to all rule, to be
+short in duration. But we find that these people are remarkable for
+longevity. A family is mentioned, in one of the villages, which
+reckoned six generations, there and then extant. The head of the
+family was a great-great-great-grandfather.
+
+The Vladika received his visitor most courteously, as he always
+does those who have the privilege of being presented to him. He
+afforded to Sir Gardner every facility for seeing the country, and
+engaged his secretary to draw up for him a _précis_ of Montenegrin
+history. We will condense some of its more important facts. The
+supremacy in things spiritual and temporal has not been very long
+vested, as it at present is, in the person of the Vladika. The two
+chieftain-ships were of old distinct, and the figment of a separate
+temporal authority was continued till comparatively lately: the
+year 1832 is mentioned as the epoch at which the office of civil
+chief was definitely suppressed. The present family (Petrovich)
+have possessed the dignity of the Vladikate since the close of the
+seventeenth century. The reigning Vladika--this man of magnificent
+presentment--this brave, intellectual, and athletic ruler of an
+indomitable race--is nephew of the late Vladika, who has been
+canonised, although but few years have passed since his death.
+The prince-bishop is not theoretically absolute in power, as the
+form of a republic is kept up: the general assembly has the right
+of deliberation, under the presidency of the Vladika. But this
+restriction of power is pretty nearly nominal only: we give Sir
+Gardner's account of the native Diet.
+
+     "In a semicircular recess, formed by the rocks on one side of
+     the plain of Tzetinié, and about half a mile to the southward
+     of the town, is a level piece of grass land, with a thicket of
+     low poplar trees. Here the diet is held, from which the spot
+     has received the name of _mali sbor_ (the small assembly.)
+     When any matter is to be discussed, the people meet in this
+     their Runimede, or 'meadow of council,' and partly on the level
+     space, partly on the rocks, receive from the Vladika notice of
+     the question proposed. The duration of the discussion is limited
+     to a certain time, at the expiration of which the assembly is
+     expected to come to a decision; and when the monastery bell
+     orders silence, notwithstanding the most animated discussion, it
+     is instantly restored. The Metropolitan asks again what is their
+     decision, and whether they agree to his proposal or not. The
+     answer is always the same: '_Budi po to oyema, Vladika_,'--'Let
+     it be as thou wishest, Vladika.'"
+
+Montenegro first secured its independence about a generation or
+two before the time of the famous Scanderbeg, on the breaking up
+of the kingdom of Servia. Since that time they have constantly
+been subject to the inroads of the Turks, who, claiming them as
+tributaries, have continued to invade their country every now and
+then with savage cruelty. More than once they have carried fire and
+sword to Tzetinié, but have never been able to hold their ground.
+The Montenegrins sought the protection of Russia in the time of
+Peter the Great, and still continue to be subsidised by Russia. At
+the desire of Peter, they invaded the Turkish territory, and were
+subjected to reprisals on a grand scale. At one time 60,000 Turks,
+at another 120,000, broke into Montenegro. The first invasion was
+gloriously repulsed; but the second, combining treachery with
+violence, was successful. Great damage was done to the country; but
+the invaders were at last obliged to quit, on the breaking out of
+war between Turkey and Venice. The Montenegrins then returned to
+their desolate homes, and have since been unintermitting in their
+diligence to pay off old scores. They co-operated with the Austrians
+and Russians, when they had the opportunity of such assistance; and
+when they stood alone, they did so nobly and bravely. The last great
+expedition of the Turks was in the time of the late Vladika. The
+Pasha of Scutari, with an enormous force, invaded the country; and
+the result of the expedition was that 30,000 Turks were killed, and
+among them the Pasha of Albania, whose head now serves as a trophy
+of victory to decorate Tzetinié.
+
+The capital of the Vladika, has been described before--for instance,
+in the pages of this Magazine; so, with one brief extract concerning
+it, we will follow Sir Gardner in his progress through the country.
+
+     "On a rock immediately above the convent is a round tower
+     pierced with embrasures, but without cannon, on which I
+     counted the heads of twenty Turks fixed upon stakes round
+     the parapet--the trophies of Montenegrin victory; and below,
+     scattered upon the rock, were the fragments of other skulls,
+     which had fallen to pieces by time,--a strange spectacle in a
+     Christian country, in Europe, and in the immediate vicinity of a
+     convent and a bishop's palace!"
+
+And, as we said before, when he got to Mostar, in Herzegovina, he
+found a spectacle of the same shocking kind. He did allow his horror
+at this sight to evaporate ineffectually; but in earnest tried to
+interpose his good offices to prevent a continuance of these doings.
+He talked to the two people mainly concerned--_i. e._ to the Vizir
+of Herzegovina, and to the Vladika. He also, at Constantinople,
+endeavoured to effect the making of an appeal to the highest Turkish
+authority. His correspondence with the Vladika on the subject is
+evidence of his zeal; but no positive good seems to have been the
+result of his intercession.
+
+The road leading from the capital to Ostrok is described as being
+very bad at first, and bad beyond description as it recedes from
+the capital. The Vladika kindly sent with Sir Gardner one of his
+guards and an interpreter. The party passed by several villages, and
+arrived at Mishke, the principal village of the Cevo district, where
+they put up for the night at the house of the principal senator of
+the province. Here some amusement was afforded by Sir Gardner's
+proceeding to sketch the domestic party.
+
+In the course of the evening a scene occurred, which sets forth
+their social condition as graphically as the artist's pencil has
+their personal appearance. A party of friends came in to have a
+quiet pipe, and to plan a foray over the border.
+
+     "On inquiry, I found the expedition was to take place
+     immediately. "Is there not," I asked, "a truce at this moment
+     between you and the Turks of Herzegovina?" They laughed, and
+     seemed much amused at my scruples. "We don't mind that," said a
+     stern swarthy man, taking his pipe from his mouth, and shaking
+     his head to and fro; "they are Turks"--and all agreed that the
+     Turks were fair game. "Besides," they said, "it is only to be a
+     plundering excursion;" and they evidently considered that any
+     one refusing to join in a marauding expedition into Turkey, at
+     any time, or in an open attack during a war, would be unworthy
+     the name of a brave man. They seemed to treat the matter like
+     boys in "the good old times," who robbed orchards; the courage
+     it showed being in proportion to the risk, and scruples of
+     conscience were laughed at as a want of spirit."
+
+In a freshly-decapitated head, affixed to a stake at Mostar, he
+shortly afterwards recognised the features of one of these very men.
+
+On the next day he proceeded to Ostrok, and found occasion to
+admire the scenery by the way, especially the vale of Oranido,
+distant from Mishke about four hours. From the vale of Oranido to
+Ostrok is a journey of about the same time. At Ostrok he underwent
+a grand reception, and fully won the hearts of his new friends by
+proposing a ride to the Turkish frontier, and affording them by the
+way an exhibition of Memlook riding. On the frontier is constantly
+maintained a guard of Montenegrins, to give timely warning of any
+suspicious movement among the Turks; and so well do they execute
+this office that no Turk can approach the border without being shot
+at. Near this border it was that, some little time ago, in 1843, an
+affair took place which does not tell well for the Montenegrini; and
+which seems for the present to preclude hope of amicable arrangement
+with the Turks. A deputation of twenty-two Turks, returning from
+Ostrok, were attacked by the people, and nine of them killed.
+This breach of faith is, to their minds, excused by the suspicion
+of meditated treachery on the part of the Turks. But it is a sad
+affair; and the only circumstance which goes in mitigation of its
+guilt is, that the Vladika took precautions against its occurrence.
+He sent an armed guard to protect the deputation, but their defence
+proved insufficient.
+
+The Archimandrite of Ostrok is the person who holds the place of
+second dignity in the government. He ranks next to the Vladika; and
+we are glad to find, by Sir Gardner's account, that he cordially
+co-operates with the Vladika in his plans of amelioration. Here also
+was met the celebrated priest and warrior, Ivan Knezovich, or Popé
+Yovan--a man who, in this nation of brave men, is renowned as the
+bravest. There are two convents at Ostrok, of which one fulfils also
+the function of powder magazine and store depot. Its position is
+very remarkable; and certainly it does bear a strong family likeness
+to Megaspelion. The same quality of not being within reach of any
+missile from above belongs to both of them, and has proved the
+saving of both.
+
+The return to Tzetinié was by a different route, which took Sir
+Gardner within near view of the northern end of the lake of Scutari.
+The island of Vranina, situated at this extremity of the lake, is
+likely to afford the next ostensible ground for an outbreak. It
+belonged to Montenegro, but, a few years ago, was treacherously
+seized by the Albanians, who effected a surprise in time of peace.
+Remonstrances and hard blows have equally failed to promote a
+restoration, _et adhuc sub judice lis est_. Throughout the course
+of his journey, Sir Gardner experienced much and genuine kindness
+from the rude people of the country; they brought him presents of
+such things as they had to offer, and would accept no compensation.
+When at last he bade them farewell, and returned to the haunts of
+civilisation, it was evidently with kindly recollections of them,
+and with the best of good-will towards them. He was able to give a
+satisfactory account of his impressions to the Vladika, who inquired
+thus,--"What do you think of the people? Do they appear to you the
+assassins and barbarians some people pretend to consider them? I
+hope you found them all well-behaved and civil--they are poor, but
+that does not prevent their being hospitable and generous."
+
+
+
+
+MODERN BIOGRAPHY.
+
+BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL.
+
+     _Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell._ Edited by WILLIAM
+     BEATTIE, M.D., one of his Executors. 3 vols. London: Moxon, 1849.
+
+
+The ancients, who lived beyond the reach of the fangs and feelers of
+the printing press, had, in one respect, a decided advantage over us
+unlucky moderns. They were not beset by the terrors of biography.
+No hideous suspicion that, after he was dead and gone--after the
+wine had been poured upon the hissing embers of the pyre, and the
+ashes consigned, by the hands of weeping friends, to the oblivion
+of the funereal urn--some industrious gossip of his acquaintance
+would incontinently sit down to the task of laborious compilation
+and collection of his literary scraps, ever crossed, like a sullen
+shadow, the imagination of the Greek or the Latin poet. Homer,
+though Arctinus was his near relative, could unbosom himself without
+the fear of having his frailties posthumously exposed, or his amours
+blazoned to the world. Lucius Varius and Plotius Tucca, the literary
+executors of Virgil, never dreamed of applying to Pollio for the I O
+Us which he doubtless held in the handwriting of the Mantuan bard,
+or to Horace for the confidential notes suggestive of Falernian
+inspiration. Socrates, indeed, has found a liberal reporter in
+Plato; but this is a pardonable exception. The son of Sophroniscus
+did not write; and therefore it was incumbent on his pupil to
+preserve for posterity the fragments of his oral wisdom. The ancient
+authors rested their reputation upon their published works alone.
+They knew, what we seem to forget, that the poet, apart from his
+genius, is but an ordinary man, and, in many cases, has received,
+along with that gift, a larger share of propensities and weaknesses
+than his fellow-mortals. Therefore it was that they insisted upon
+that right of domestic privacy which is common to us all. The poet,
+in his public capacity as an author, held himself responsible for
+what he wrote; but he had no idea of allowing the whole world to
+walk into his house, open his desk, read his love-letters, and
+criticise the state of his finances. Had Varius and Tucca acted on
+the modern system, the ghost of Virgil would have haunted them on
+their death-beds. Only think what a legacy might have been ours if
+these respectable gentlemen had written to Cremona for anecdotes of
+the poet while at school! No doubt, in some private nook of the old
+farm-house at Andes, there were treasured up, through the infinite
+love of the mother, tablets scratched over with verses, composed
+by young Master Maro at the precocious age of ten. We may, to a
+certainty, calculate--for maternal fondness always has been the
+same, and Virgil was an only child--that, in that emporium, themes
+upon such topics as "Virtus est sola nobilitas" were religiously
+treasured, along with other memorials of the dear, dear boy who
+had gone to college at Naples. Modern Varius would remorselessly
+have printed these: ancient Tucca was more discreet. Then what say
+you to the college career? Would it not be a nice thing to have
+all the squibs and feuds, the rows and rackettings of the jovial
+student preserved to us precisely as they were penned, projected,
+and perpetrated? Have we not lost a great deal in being defrauded of
+an account of the manner in which he singed the wig of his drunken
+old tutor, Parthenius Nicenus, or the scandalously late hours which
+he kept in company with his especial chums? Then comes the period,
+darkly hinted at by Donatus, during which he was, somehow or other,
+connected with the imperial stable; that is, we presume, upon the
+turf. What would we not give for a sight of Virgil's betting-book!
+Did he back the field, or did he take the odds on the Emperor's bay
+mare, Alma Venus Genetrix? How stood he with the legs? What sort of
+reputation did he maintain in the ring of the Roman Tattersall? Was
+he ever posted as a defaulter? Tucca! you should have told us this.
+Then, when sobered down, and in high favour with the court, where is
+the private correspondence between him and Mæcenas, the President
+of the Roman Agricultural Society, touching the compilation of
+the Georgics? The excellent Equestrian, we know, wanted Virgil to
+construct a poem, such as Thomas Tusser afterwards wrote, under the
+title of a "_Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie_," and, doubtless,
+waxed warm in his letters about draining, manure, and mangel-wurzel.
+What sacrifice would we not make to place that correspondence in the
+hands of Henry Stephens! How the author of the _Book of the Farm_
+would revel in his exposure of the crude theories of the Minister
+of the Interior! What a formidable phalanx of facts would he oppose
+to Mæcenas' misconceptions of guano! Through the sensitive delicacy
+of his executors, we have lost the record of Virgil's repeated
+larks with Horace: the pleasant little supper-parties celebrated at
+the villa of that dissipated rogue Tibullus, have passed from the
+memory of mankind. We know nothing of the state of his finances, for
+they have not thought fit to publish his banking-account with the
+firm of Lollius, Spuræna, and Company. Their duty, as they fondly
+believed, was fulfilled, when they gave to the world the glorious
+but unfinished Æneid.
+
+Under the modern system, we constantly ask ourselves whether it
+is wise to wish for greatness, and whether total oblivion is not
+preferable to fame, with the penalty of exposure annexed. We shudder
+at the thoughts of putting out a book, not from fear of anything
+that the critics can do, but lest it should take with the public,
+and expose us to the danger of a posthumous biography. Were we
+to awake some fine morning, and find ourselves famous, our peace
+of mind would be gone for ever. Mercy on us! what a quantity of
+foolish letters have we not written during the days of our youth,
+under the confident impression that, when read, they would be
+immediately committed to the flames. Madrigals innumerable recur to
+our memory; and, if these were published, there would be no rest
+for us in the grave! If any misguided critic should say of us, "The
+works of this author are destined to descend to posterity," our
+response would be a hollow groan. If convinced that our biography
+would be attempted, from that hour the friend of our bosom would
+appear in the light of a base and ignominious spy. How durst we
+ever unbosom ourselves to him, when, for aught we know, the wretch
+may be treasuring up our casual remarks over the fifth tumbler,
+for immediate registration at home? Constitutionally we are not
+hard-hearted; but, were we so situated, we own that the intimation
+of the decease of each early acquaintance would be rather a relief
+than otherwise. Tom, our intimate fellow-student at college, dies.
+We may be sorry for the family of Thomas, but we soon wipe away the
+natural drops, discovering that there is balm in Gilead. We used to
+write him letters, detailing minutely our inward emotions at the
+time we were distractedly in love with Jemima Higginbotham; and Tom,
+who was always a methodical dog, has no doubt docqueted them as
+received. Tom's heirs will doubtless be too keen upon the scent of
+valuables, to care one farthing for rhapsodising: therefore, unless
+they are sent to the snuff-merchant, or disseminated as autographs,
+our epistles run a fair chance of perishing by the flames, and one
+evidence of our weakness is removed. A member of the club meets
+us in George Street, and, with a rueful longitude of countenance,
+asks us if we have heard of the death of poor Harry? To the eternal
+disgrace of human nature, be it recorded, that our heart leaps up
+within us like a foot-ball, as we hypocritically have recourse to
+our cambric. Harry knew a great deal too much about our private
+history just before we joined the Yeomanry, and could have told some
+stories, little flattering to our posthumous renown.
+
+Are we not right, then, in holding that, under the present system,
+celebrity is a thing to be eschewed? Why is it that we are so chary
+of receiving certain Down-Easters, so different from the real
+American gentlemen whom it is our good fortune to know? Simply
+because Silas Fixings will take down your whole conversation
+in black and white, deliberately alter it to suit his private
+purposes, and Transatlantically retail it as a specimen of your
+life and opinions. And is it not a still more horrible idea that a
+Silas may be perpetually watching you in the shape of a pretended
+friend? If the man would at once declare his intention, you might
+be comparatively at ease. Even in that case you never could love
+him more, for the confession implies a disgusting determination of
+outliving you, or rather a hint that your health is not remarkably
+robust, which would irritate the meekest of mankind. But you
+might be enabled, through a strong effort, to repress the outward
+exhibition of your wrath; and, if high religious principle should
+deter you from mixing strychnia or prussic acid with the wine of
+your volunteering executor, you may at least contrive to blind
+him by cautiously maintaining your guard. Were we placed in such
+a trying position, we should utter, before our intending Boswell,
+nothing save sentiments which might have flowed from the lips of the
+Venerable Bede. What letters, full of morality and high feeling,
+would we not indite! Not an invitation to dinner--not an acceptance
+of a tea and turn-out, but should be flavoured with some wholesome
+apothegm. Thus we should strive, through our later correspondence,
+to efface the memory of the earlier, which it is impossible to
+recall,--not without a hope that we might throw upon it, if
+posthumously produced, a tolerable imputation of forgery.
+
+In these times, we repeat, no man of the least mark or likelihood
+is safe. The waiter with the bandy-legs, who hands round the
+negus-tray at a blue-stocking coterie, is in all probability a
+leading contributor to a fifth-rate periodical; and, in a few days
+after you have been rash enough to accept the insidious beverage,
+M'Tavish will be correcting the proof of an article in which your
+appearance and conversation are described. Distrust the gentleman
+in the plush terminations; he, too, is a penny-a-liner, and keeps
+a commonplace-book in the pantry. Better give up writing at once
+than live in such a perpetual state of bondage. What amount of
+present fame can recompense you for being shown up as a noodle, or
+worse, to your children's children? Nay, recollect this, that you
+are implicating your personal, and, perhaps, most innocent friends.
+Bob accompanies you home from an insurance society dinner, where
+the champagne has been rather superabundant, and, next morning,
+you, as a bit of fun, write to the President that the watchman had
+picked up Bob in a state of helpless inebriety from the kennel.
+The President, after the manner of the Fogies, duly docquets your
+note with name and date, and puts it up with a parcel of others,
+secured by red tape. You die. Your literary executor writes to the
+President, stating his biographical intentions, and requesting all
+documents that may tend to throw light upon your personal history.
+Preses, in deep ecstasy at the idea of seeing his name in print as
+the recipient of your epistolary favours, immediately transmits the
+packet; and the consequence is, that Robert is most unjustly handed
+down to posterity in the character of a habitual drunkard, although
+it is a fact that a more abstinent creature never went home to his
+wife at ten. If you are an author, and your spouse is ailing, don't
+give the details to your intimate friend, if you would not wish
+to publish them to the world. Drop all correspondence, if you are
+wise, and have any ambition to stand well in the eyes of the coming
+generation. Let your conversation be as curt as a Quaker's, and
+select no one for a friend, unless you have the meanest possible
+opinion of his capacity. Even in that case you are hardly secure.
+Perhaps the best mode of combining philanthropy, society, and
+safety, is to have nobody in the house, save an old woman who is so
+utterly deaf that you must order your dinner by pantomime.
+
+One mode of escape suggests itself, and we do not hesitate to
+recommend it. Let every man who underlies the terror of the _peine
+forte et dure_, compile his own autobiography at the ripe age of
+forty-five. Few people, in this country, begin to establish a
+permanent reputation before thirty; and we allow them fifteen years
+to complete it. Now, supposing your existence should be protracted
+to seventy, here are clear five-and-twenty years remaining, which
+may be profitably employed in autobiography, by which means you
+secure three vast advantages. In the first place, you can deal
+with your own earlier history as you please, and provide against
+the subsequent production of inconvenient documents. In the second
+place, you defeat the intentions of your excellent friend and
+gossip, who will hardly venture to start his volumes in competition
+with your own. In the third place, you leave an additional copyright
+as a legacy to your children, and are not haunted in your last
+moments by the agonising thought that a stranger in name and blood
+is preparing to make money by your decease. It is, of course,
+unnecessary to say one word regarding the general tone of your
+memoirs. If you cannot contrive to block out such a fancy portrait
+of your intellectual self as shall throw all others into the shade,
+you may walk on fearlessly through life, for your biography never
+will be attempted. Goethe, the most accomplished literary fox of our
+age, perfectly understood the value of these maxims, and forestalled
+his friends, by telling his own story in time. The consequence
+is, that his memory has escaped unharmed. Little Eckermann, his
+amanuensis in extreme old age, did indeed contrive to deliver
+himself of a small Boswellian volume; but this publication, bearing
+reference merely to the dicta of Goethe at a safe period of life,
+could not injure the departed poet. The repetition of the early
+history, and the publication of the early documents, are the points
+to be especially guarded.
+
+We beg that these remarks may be considered, not as strictures upon
+any individual example, but as bearing upon the general style of
+modern biography. This is a gossiping world, in which great men are
+the exceptions; and when one of these ceases to exist, the public
+becomes clamorous to learn the whole minutiæ of his private life.
+That is a depraved taste, and one which ought not to be gratified.
+The author is to be judged by the works which he voluntarily
+surrenders to the public, not by the tenor of his private history,
+which ought not to be irreverently exposed. Thus, in compiling the
+life of a poet, we maintain that a literary executor has purely a
+literary function to perform. Out of the mass of materials which
+he may fortuitously collect, his duty is to select such portions
+as may illustrate the public doings of the man: he may, without
+transgressing the boundaries of propriety, inform us of the
+circumstances which suggested the idea of any particular work,
+the difficulties which were overcome by the author in the course
+of its composition, and even exhibit the correspondence relative
+thereto. These are matters of literary history which we may ask
+for, and obtain, without any breach of the conventional rules of
+society. Whatever refers to public life is public, and may be
+printed: whatever refers solely to domestic existence is private,
+and ought to be held sacred. A very little reflection, we think,
+will demonstrate the propriety of this distinction. If we have
+a dear and valued friend, to whom, in the hours of adversity or
+of joy, we are wont to communicate the thoughts which lie at the
+bottom of our soul, we write to him in the full conviction that he
+will regard these letters as addressed to himself alone. We do not
+insult him, nor wrong the holy attributes of friendship so much, as
+to warn him against communicating our thoughts to any one else in
+the world. We never dream that he will do so, else assuredly those
+letters never would have been written. If we were to discover that
+we had so grievously erred as to repose confidence in a person who,
+the moment he received a letter penned in a paroxysm of emotion
+and revealing a secret of our existence, was capable of exhibiting
+it to the circle of his acquaintance, of a surety he should never
+more be troubled with any of our correspondence. Would any man dare
+to print such documents during the life of the writer? We need not
+pause for a reply: there can be but one. And _why_ is this? Because
+these communications bear on their face the stamp of the strictest
+privacy--because they were addressed to, and meant for the eye
+of but one human being in the universe--because they betray the
+emotions of a soul which asks sympathy from a friend, with only
+less reverence than it implores comfort from its God! Does death,
+then, free the friend and the confidant from all restraint? If the
+knowledge that his secret had been divulged, his agonies exposed,
+his weaknesses surrendered to the vulgar gaze, could have pained
+the living man--is nothing due to his memory, now that he is laid
+beneath the turf, now that his voice can never more be raised to
+upbraid a violated confidence? Many modern biographers, we regret
+to say, do not appear to be influenced by any such consideration.
+They never seem to have asked themselves the question--Would my
+friend, if he had been compiling his own memoirs, have inserted such
+a letter for publication--does it not refer to a matter eminently
+private and personal, and never to be communicated to the world?
+Instead of applying this test, they print everything, and rather
+plume themselves on their impartiality in suppressing nothing.
+They thus exhibit the life not only of the author but of the man.
+Literary and personal history are blended together. The senator is
+not only exhibited in the House of Commons, but we are courteously
+invited to attend at the _accouchement_ of his wife.
+
+What title has any of us, in the abstract, to write the private
+history of his next-door neighbour? Be he poet, lawyer, physician,
+or divine, his private sayings and doings are his property, not that
+of a gaping and curious public. No man dares to say to another,
+"Come, my good fellow! it is full time that the world should know a
+little about your domestic concerns. I have been keeping a sort of
+note-book of your proceedings ever since we were at school together,
+and I intend to make a few pounds by exhibiting you in your true
+colours. You recollect when you were in love with old Tomnoddy's
+daughter? I have written a capital account of your interview with
+her that fine forenoon in the Botanical Gardens! True, she jilted
+you, and went off with young Heavystern of the Dragoons, but the
+public won't relish the scene a bit the less on that account. Then I
+have got some letters of yours from our mutual friend Fitzjaw. How
+very hard-up you must have been at the time when you supplicated him
+for twenty pounds to keep you out of jail! You were rather severe,
+the other day when I met you at dinner, upon your professional
+brother Jenkinson; but I daresay that what you said was all very
+true, so I shall publish that likewise. By the way--how is your
+wife? She had a lot of money, had she not? At all events people say
+so, and it is shrewdly surmised that you did not marry her for her
+beauty. I don't mean to say that _I_ think so, but such is the _on
+dit_, and I have set it down accordingly in my journal. Do, pray,
+tell me about that quarrel between you and your mother-in-law! Is
+it true that she threw a joint-stool at your head? How our friends
+will roar when they see the details in print!" Is the case less
+flagrant if the manuscript is not sent to press, until our neighbour
+is deposited in his coffin? We cannot perceive the difference. If
+the feelings of living people are to be taken as the criterion, only
+one of the domestic actors is removed from the stage of existence.
+Old Tomnoddy still lives, and may not be abundantly gratified at the
+fact of his daughter's infidelity and elopement being proclaimed.
+The intimation of the garden scene, hitherto unknown to Heavystern,
+may fill his warlike bosom with jealousy, and ultimately occasion
+a separation. Fitzjaw can hardly complain, but he will be very
+furious at finding his refusal to accommodate a friend appended to
+the supplicating letter. Jenkinson is only sorry that the libeller
+is dead, otherwise he would have treated him to an action in the
+Jury Court. The widow believes that she was made a bride solely for
+the sake of her Californian attractions, and reviles the memory
+of her spouse. As for the mother-in-law, now gradually dwindling
+into dotage, her feelings are perhaps of no great consequence to
+any human being. Nevertheless, when the obnoxious paragraph in the
+Memoirs is read to her by a shrill female companion, nature makes a
+temporary rally, her withered frame shakes with agitation, and she
+finally falls backward in a fit of hopeless paralysis.
+
+Such is a feeble picture of the results that might ensue from
+private biography, were we all permitted, without reservation, to
+parade the lives and domestic circumstances of our neighbours to
+a greedy and gloating world. Not but that, if our neighbour has
+been a man of sufficient distinction to deserve commemoration,
+we may gracefully and skilfully narrate all of him that is worth
+the knowing. We may point to his public actions, expatiate on
+his achievements, and recount the manner in which he gained his
+intellectual renown; but further we ought not to go. The confidences
+of the dead should be as sacred as those of the living. And here we
+may observe, that there are other parties quite as much to blame
+as the biographers in question. We allude to the friends of the
+deceased, who have unscrupulously furnished them with materials. Is
+it not the fact that in very many cases they have divulged letters
+which, during the writer's lifetime, they would have withheld from
+the nearest and dearest of their kindred? In many such letters
+there occur observations and reflections upon living characters,
+not written in malice, but still such as were never intended to
+meet the eyes of the parties criticised; and these are forthwith
+published, as racy passages, likely to gratify the appetite of a
+coarse, vulgar, and inordinate curiosity. Even this is not the
+worst. Survivors may grieve to learn that the friend whom they
+loved was capable of ridiculing or misrepresenting them in secret,
+and his memory may suffer in their estimation; but, put the case
+of detailed private conversations, which are constantly foisted
+into modern biographies, and we shall immediately discover that the
+inevitable tendency is to engender dislikes among living parties.
+Let us suppose that three men, all of them professional authors,
+meet at a dinner party. The conversation is very lively, takes a
+literary turn, and the three gentlemen, with that sportive freedom
+which is very common in a society where no treachery is apprehended,
+pass some rather poignant strictures upon the writings or habits of
+their contemporaries. One of them either keeps a journal, or is in
+the habit of writing, for the amusement of a confidential friend
+at a distance, any literary gossip which may be current, and he
+commits to paper the heads of the recent dialogue. He dies, and his
+literary executor immediately pounces upon the document, and, to
+the confusion of the two living critics, prints it. Every literary
+brother whom they have noticed is of course their enemy for life.
+
+If, in private society, a snob is discovered retailing
+conversations, he is forthwith cut without compunction. He reads his
+detection in the calm, cold scorn of your eye; and, referring to the
+mirror of his own dim and dirty conscience, beholds the reflection
+of a hound. The biographer seems to consider himself exempt from
+such social secresy. He shelters himself under the plea that the
+public are so deeply interested, that they must not be deprived of
+any memorandum, anecdote, or jotting, told, written, or detailed by
+the gifted subject of their memoirs. Therefore it is not a prudent
+thing to be familiar with a man of genius. He may not betray your
+confidence, but you can hardly trust to the tender mercies of his
+chronicler.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such are our deliberate views upon the subject of biography, and we
+state them altogether independent of the three bulky volumes which
+are now lying before us for review.
+
+We cordially admit that it was right and proper that a life of Campbell
+should be written. Although he did not occupy the same commanding
+position as others of his renowned contemporaries--although his
+writings have not, like those of Scott, Byron, and Southey,
+contributed powerfully to give a tone and idiosyncrasy to the
+general literature of the age--Campbell was nevertheless a man of
+rich genius, and a poet of remarkable accomplishment. It would not
+be easy to select, from the works of any other writer of our time,
+so many brilliant and polished gems, without flaw or imperfection,
+as are to be found amongst his minor poems. Criticism, in dealing
+with these exquisite lyrics, is at fault. If sometimes the suspicion
+of a certain effeminacy haunts us, we have but to turn the page,
+and we arrive at some magnificent, bold, and trumpet-toned ditty,
+appealing directly from the heart of the poet to the imagination of
+his audience, and proving, beyond all contest, that power was his
+glorious attribute. True, he was unequal; and towards the latter
+part of his career, exhibited a marked failing in the qualities
+which originally secured his renown. It is almost impossible to
+believe that the _Pilgrim of Glencoe_, or even _Theodric_, was
+composed by the author of the _Pleasures of Hope_ or _Gertrude_; and
+if you place the _Ritter Bann_ beside _Hohenlinden_ or the _Battle
+of the Baltic_, you cannot fail to be struck with the singular
+diminution of power. Campbell started from a high point--walked for
+some time along level or undulating ground--and then began rapidly
+to descend. This is not, as some idle critics have maintained, the
+common course of genius. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton,
+Dryden, Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth, are remarkable instances to
+the contrary. Whatever may have been the promise of their youth,
+their matured performances, eclipsing their earlier efforts, show us
+that genius is capable of almost boundless cultivation, and that the
+fire of the poet does not cease to burn less brightly within him,
+because the sable of his hair is streaked with gray, or the furrows
+deepening on his brow. Sir Walter Scott was upwards of thirty
+before he began to compose in earnest: after thirty, Campbell wrote
+scarcely anything which has added permanently to his reputation.
+Extreme sensitiveness, an over-strained and fastidious desire of
+polishing, and sometimes the pressure of outward circumstances, may
+have combined to damp his early ardour. He evidently was deficient
+in that resolute pertinacity of labour, through which alone great
+results can be achieved. He allowed the best years of his life to
+be frittered away, in pursuits which could not secure to him either
+additional fame, or the more substantial rewards of fortune: and,
+though far from being actually idle, he was only indolently active.
+Campbell wanted an object in life. Thus, though gifted with powers
+which, directed towards one point, were capable of the highest
+concentration, we find him scattering these in the most desultory
+and careless manner; and surrendering scheme after scheme, without
+making the vigorous effort which was necessary to secure their
+completion. This is a fault by no means uncommon in literature,
+but one which is highly dangerous. No work requiring great mental
+exertion should be undertaken rashly, for the enthusiasm which
+has prompted it rapidly subsides, the labour becomes distasteful
+to the writer, and unless he can bend himself to his task with
+the most dogged perseverance, and a determination to vanquish all
+obstacles, the result will be a fragment or a failure. Of this we
+find two notable instances recorded in the book before us. Twice
+in his life had Campbell meditated the construction of a great
+poem, and twice did he relinquish the task. Of the _Queen of the
+North_ but a few lines remain: of his favourite projected epic on
+the subject of Wallace, nothing. Elegant trifles, sportive verses,
+and playful epigrams were, for many years, the last fruits of that
+genius which had dictated the _Pleasures of Hope_, and rejoiced the
+mariners of England with a ballad worthy of the theme. And yet, so
+powerful is early association--so universal was the recognition of
+the transcendant genius of the boy, that when Campbell sank into
+the grave, there was lamentation as though a great poet had been
+stricken down in his prime, and all men felt that a brilliant light
+had gone out among the luminaries of the age. Therefore it was
+seemly that his memory should receive that homage which has been
+rendered to others less deserving of it, and that his public career,
+at least, should be traced and given to the world.
+
+It was Campbell's own wish that Dr Beattie should undertake his
+biography. Few perhaps knew the motives which led to this selection;
+for the assiduity, care, and filial attachment, bestowed for years
+by the warm-hearted physician upon the poet, was as unostentatious
+as it was honourable and devoted. Not from the pages of this
+biography can the reader form an adequate idea of the extent and
+value of such disinterested friendship: indeed it is not too much
+to say, that the rare and exemplary kindness of Dr Beattie was
+the chief consolation of Campbell during the later period of his
+existence. It was therefore natural that the dying poet should have
+confided this trust to one of whose affection he was assured by so
+many rare and signal proofs; and it is with a kindly feeling to the
+author that we now approach the consideration of the literary merits
+of the book.
+
+The admiration of Dr Beattie for the genius of Campbell has in some
+respects led him astray. It is easy to see at a glance that his
+measure of admiration is not of an ordinary kind, but so excessive
+as to lead him beyond all limit. He seems to have regarded Campbell
+not merely as a great poet, but as the great poet of the age; and
+he is unwilling, æsthetically, to admit any material diminution of
+his powers. He still clings with a certain faith to _Theodric_; and
+declines to perceive any palpable failure even in the _Pilgrim of
+Glencoe_. Verses and fragments which, to the casual reader, convey
+anything but the impression of excellence, are liberally distributed
+throughout the pages of the third volume, and commented on with
+evident rapture. He seems to think that, in the case of his author,
+it may be said, "_Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit_;" and accordingly
+he is slow to suppress, even where suppression would have been of
+positive advantage. In short, he is too full of his subject to do
+it justice. In the hands of a skilful and less biassed artisan, the
+materials which occupy these three volumes, extending to nearly
+fourteen hundred pages of print, might have been condensed into
+one highly interesting and popular volume. We should not then, it
+is true, have been favoured with specimens of Campbell's college
+exercises, with the voluminous chronicles of his family, with
+verses written at the age of eleven, or with correspondence purely
+domestic; but we firmly believe that the reading public would have
+been grateful to Dr Beattie, had he omitted a great deal of matter
+connected with the poet's earlier career, which is of no interest
+whatever. The Campbells of Kirnan were, we doubt not, a highly
+respectable sept, and performed their duty as kirk-elders for many
+generations blamelessly in the parish of Glassary. But it was not
+necessary on that account to trace their descent from the Black
+Knight Of Lochawe, or to give the particular history of the family
+for more than a century and a half. Gillespic-le-Camile may have
+been a fine fellow in his day; but we utterly deny, in the teeth
+of all the Campbells and Kembles in the world, that he had a drop
+of Norman blood in his veins. It is curious to find the poet, at a
+subsequent period, engaged in a correspondence, as to the common
+ancestor of these names, with one of the Kembles, who, as Mrs Butler
+somewhere triumphantly avers, were descended from the lords of
+Campo-bello. Where that favoured region may be, we know not; but
+this we know, that in Gaelic _Cambeul_ signifies _wry-mouth_, and
+hence, as is the custom with primitive nations, the origin of the
+name. And let not the sons of Diarmid be offended at this, or esteem
+their glories less, since the gallant Camerons owe their name to a
+similar conformation of the nose, and the Douglases to their dark
+complexion. Having put this little matter of family etymology right,
+let us return to Dr Beattie.
+
+The first volume, we maintain, is terribly overloaded by trivial
+details, and specimens of the kind to which we have alluded. We
+need not enter into these, except in so far as to state that Thomas
+Campbell was the youngest child of most respectable parents: that
+his father, having been unfortunate in business, was so reduced
+in circumstances, that, whilst attending Glasgow College, the
+young student was compelled to have recourse to teaching; that he
+acquitted himself admirably, and to the satisfaction of all his
+professors in the literary classes; and that, for one vacation at
+least, he resided as private tutor to a family in the island of
+Mull. He was then about eighteen, and had already exhibited symptoms
+of a rare poetical talent, particularly in translations from the
+Greek. Dr Beattie's zeal as a biographer may be gathered from the
+following statement:--
+
+"I applied last year to the Rev. Dr M'Arthur, of Kilninian in Mull,
+requesting him to favour me with such traditional particulars
+regarding the poet as might still be current among the old
+inhabitants; but I regret to say that nothing of interest has
+resulted. 'In the course of my inquiries,' he says, 'I have met with
+only two individuals who had seen Mr Campbell while he was in Mull,
+and the amount of their information is merely that he was _a very
+pretty young man_. Those who must have been personally acquainted
+with him in this country, have, like himself, descended into the
+tomb; so that no authentic anecdotes of him can now be procured in
+this quarter.'"
+
+There is a simplicity in this which has amused us greatly. Campbell,
+in those days, was conspicuous for nothing--at least, for no
+accomplishment which could be appreciated in that distant island.
+In all probability two-thirds of the inhabitants of the parish were
+Campbells, who expired in utter ignorance of the art of writing
+their names; so that to ask for literary anecdotes, at the distance
+of half a century, was rather a work of supererogation.
+
+For two years more, Campbell led a life of great uncertainty. He was
+naturally averse to the drudgery of teaching--an employment which
+never can be congenial to a poetical and creative nature. He had no
+decided predilection for any of the learned professions; for though
+he alternately betook himself to the study of law, physic, and
+divinity, it was hardly with a serious purpose. He visited Edinburgh
+in search of literary employment, was for some time a clerk in a
+writer's office, and, through the kindness of the late Dr Anderson,
+editor of a collection of the British poets,--a man who was ever
+eager to acknowledge and encourage genius,--he received his first
+introduction to a bookselling firm. From them he received some
+little employment, but not of a nature suited to his taste; and we
+soon afterwards find him in Glasgow, meditating the establishment of
+a magazine--a scheme which proved utterly abortive.
+
+In the mean time, however, he had not been idle. At the age of
+twenty the poetical instinct is active, and, even though no audience
+can be found, the muse will force its way. Campbell had already
+translated two plays of Æschylus and Euripides--an exercise which
+no doubt developed largely his powers of versification--and,
+further, had begun to compose original lyric verses. In the foreign
+edition of his works, there is inserted a poem called the Dirge
+of Wallace, written about this period, which, with a very little
+concentration, might have been rendered as perfect as any of his
+later compositions. In spirit and energy it is assuredly inferior to
+none of them. "But," says Dr Beattie, "the fastidious author, who
+thought it too rhapsodical, never bestowed a careful revision upon
+it, and persisted in excluding it from all the London editions." We
+hope to see it restored to its proper place in the next: in the mean
+time we select the following noble stanzas:--
+
+    "They lighted the tapers at dead of night,
+       And chaunted their holiest hymn:
+     But her brow and her bosom were damp with affright,
+       Her eye was all sleepless and dim!
+     And the Lady of Ellerslie wept for her lord,
+       When a death-watch beat in her lonely room,
+     When her curtain had shook of its own accord,
+     And the raven had flapped at her window board,
+       To tell of her warrior's doom.
+
+    "'Now sing ye the death-song, and loudly pray
+       For the soul of my knight so dear!
+     And call me a widow this wretched day,
+       Since the warning of GOD is here.
+     For a nightmare rests on my strangled sleep;
+       The lord of my bosom is doomed to die!
+     His valorous heart they have wounded deep,
+     And the blood-red tears shall his country weep
+       For Wallace of Ellerslie!'
+
+    "Yet knew not his country, that ominous hour--
+       Ere the loud matin-bell was rung--
+     That the trumpet of death, from an English tower,
+       Had the dirge of her champion sung.
+     When his dungeon-light looked dim and red
+       On the highborn blood of a martyr slain,
+     No anthem was sung at his lowly death-bed--
+     No weeping was there when _his_ bosom bled,
+       And is heart was rent in twain.
+
+    "Oh! it was not thus when his ashen spear
+       Was true to that knight forlorn,
+     And hosts of a thousand wore scattered like deer
+       At the blast of a hunter's horn;
+     _When he strode o'er the wreck of each well-fought field,
+       With the yellow-haired chiefs of his native land;_
+     _For his lance was not shivered on helmet or shield,
+     And the sword that was fit for archangel to wield
+       Was light in his terrible hand!_
+
+    "Yet, bleeding and bound, though the Wallace wight
+       For his long-loved country die,
+     The bugle ne'er sung to a braver knight
+       Than William of Ellerslie!
+     But the day of his triumphs shall never depart;
+       His head, unentombed, shall with glory be palmed--
+     From its blood-streaming altar his spirit shall start;
+     Though the raven has fed on his mouldering heart,
+       A nobler was never embalmed!"
+
+Nothing can be finer than the lines we have quoted in Italics, nor
+perhaps did Campbell himself ever match them. Local reputations are
+dearly cherished in the west of Scotland, and even at this early
+period our poet was denominated "the Pope of Glasgow."
+
+Again Campbell migrated to Edinburgh, but still with no fixed
+determination as to the choice of a profession: his intention was
+to attend the public lectures at the University, and also to push
+his connexion with the booksellers, so as to obtain the means of
+livelihood. Failing this last resource, he contemplated removing
+to America, in which country his eldest brother was permanently
+settled. Fortunately for himself, he now made the acquaintance
+of several young men who were destined afterwards to attract the
+public observation, and to win great names in different branches
+of literature. Among these were Scott, Brougham, Leyden, Jeffrey,
+Dr Thomas Brown, and Grahame, the author of _The Sabbath_. Mr
+John Richardson, who had the good fortune to remain through life
+the intimate friend both of Scott and Campbell, was also, at this
+early period, the chosen companion of the latter, and contributed
+much, by his judicious counsels and criticisms, to nerve the poet
+for that successful effort which, shortly afterwards, took the
+world of letters by storm. Dr Anderson also continued his literary
+superintendence, and anxiously watched over the progress of the new
+poem upon which Campbell was now engaged. At length, in 1799, the
+_Pleasures of Hope_ appeared.
+
+Rarely has any volume of poetry met with such rapid success.
+Campbell had few living rivals of established reputation to contend
+with; and the freshness of his thought, the extreme sweetness of his
+numbers, and the fine taste which pervaded the whole composition,
+fell like magic on the ear of the public, and won their immediate
+approbation. It is true that, as a speculation, this volume did
+not prove remarkably lucrative to the author: he had disposed of
+the copyright before publication for a sum of sixty pounds, but,
+through the liberality of the publishers, he received for some
+years a further sum on the issue of each edition. The book was
+certainly worth a great deal more; but many an author would be glad
+to surrender all claim for profit on his first adventure, could he
+be assured of such valuable popularity as Campbell now acquired.
+He presently became a lion in Edinburgh society; and, what was far
+better, he secured the countenance and friendship of such men as
+Dugald Stewart, Henry Mackenzie, Dr Gregory, the Rev. Archibald
+Alison, and Telford, the celebrated engineer. It is pleasant to know
+that the friendships so formed were interrupted only by death.
+
+Campbell had now, to use a common but familiar phrase, the
+ball at his foot, but never did there live a man less capable
+of appreciating opportunity. At an age when most young men are
+students, he had won fame--fame, too, in such measure and of such a
+kind as secured him against reaction, or the possibility of a speedy
+neglect following upon so rapid a success. Had he deliberately
+followed up his advantage with anything like ordinary diligence,
+fortune as well as fame would have been his immediate reward. Like
+Aladdin, he was in possession of a talisman which could open to him
+the cavern in which a still greater treasure was contained; but he
+shrunk from the labour which was indispensable for the effort. He
+either could not or would not summon up sufficient resolution to
+betake himself to a new task; but, under the pretext of improving
+his mind by travel, gave way to his erratic propensities, and
+departed for the Continent with a slender purse, and, as usual, no
+fixity of purpose.
+
+We confess that the portion of his correspondence which relates
+to this expedition does not appear to us remarkably interesting.
+He resided chiefly at Ratisbon, where his time appears to have
+been tolerably equally divided between writing lyrics for the
+_Morning Chronicle_, then under the superintendence of Mr
+Perry, and squabbling with the monks of the Scottish Convent of
+Saint James. Some of his best minor poems were composed at this
+period; but it will be easily comprehended that, from the style
+of their publication in a fugitive form, they could add but
+little at the time to his reputation, and certainly they did not
+materially improve his finances. With a contemplated poem of some
+magnitude--the _Queen of the North_--he made little progress; and,
+upon the whole, this year was spent uncomfortably. After his return
+to Britain, he resided for some time in Edinburgh and London, mixing
+in the best and most cultivated society, but sorely straitened in
+circumstances, which, nevertheless, he had not the courage or the
+patience to improve.
+
+A quarto edition of the _Pleasures_, printed by subscription for
+his own benefit, at length put him in funds, and probably tempted
+him to marry. Then came the real cares of life,--an increased
+establishment, an increasing family: new mouths to provide for,
+and no settled mode of livelihood. Of all literary men, Campbell
+was least calculated, both by habit and inclination, to pursue a
+profession which, with many temptations, was then, and is still,
+precarious. He was not, like Scott, a man of business habits and
+unflagging industry. His impulses to write were short, and his
+fastidiousness interfered with his impulse. Booksellers were slow
+in offering him employment, for they could not depend on his
+punctuality. Those who have frequent dealings with the trade know
+how much depends upon the observance of this excellent virtue;
+but Campbell never could be brought to appreciate its full value.
+The printing-press had difficulty in keeping pace with the pen of
+Scott: to wait for that of Campbell was equivalent to a cessation of
+labour. Therefore it is not surprising that, about this period, most
+of his negotiations failed. Proposals for an edition of the British
+Poets, a large and expensive work, to be executed jointly by Scott
+and Campbell, fell to the ground: and the bard of Hope gave vent to
+his feelings by execrating the phalanx of the Row.
+
+At the very moment when his prospects appeared to be shrouded in
+the deepest gloom, Campbell received intimation that he had been
+placed on the pension-list as an annuitant of £200. Never was the
+royal bounty more seasonably extended; and this high recognition of
+his genius seems for a time to have inspired him with new energy.
+He commenced the compilation of the _Specimens of British Poets_;
+but his indolent habits overcame him, and the work was not given to
+the public until _thirteen years_ after it was undertaken. No wonder
+that the booksellers were chary of staking their capital on the
+faith of his promised performances!
+
+Ten years after the publication of the _Pleasures of Hope_,
+_Gertrude of Wyoming_ appeared. That exquisite little poem
+demonstrated, in the most conclusive manner, that the author's
+poetical powers were not exhausted by his earlier effort, and the
+same volume contained the noblest of his immortal lyrics. Campbell
+was now at the highest point of his renown. Critics may compare
+together the longer poems, and, according as their taste leans
+towards the didactic or the descriptive form of composition, may
+differ in awarding the palm of excellence, but there can be but one
+opinion as to the lyrical poetry. In this respect Campbell stands
+alone among his contemporaries, and since then he has never been
+surpassed. _Lochiel's Warning_ and the _Battle of the Baltic_ were
+among the pieces then published; and it would be difficult, out of
+the whole mass of British poetry, to select two specimens, by the
+same author, which may fairly rank with these.
+
+A new literary field was shortly after this opened to Campbell.
+He was engaged to deliver a course of lectures on poetry at the
+Royal Institution of London, and the scheme proved not only
+successful but lucrative. In after years he lectured repeatedly on
+the belles lettres at Liverpool, Birmingham, and other places, and
+the celebrity of his name always commanded a crowd of listeners.
+We learn from Dr Beattie, that at two periods of his life it was
+proposed to bring him forward as a candidate, either for the chair
+of Rhetoric or that of History in the University of Edinburgh; but
+he seems to have recoiled from the idea of the labour necessary for
+the preparation of a thorough academical course, a task which his
+extreme natural fastidiousness would doubtless have rendered doubly
+irksome. Several more years, a portion of which time was spent on
+the Continent, passed over without any remarkable result, until,
+at the age of forty-three, Campbell entered upon the duties of the
+editorship of the _New Monthly Magazine_.
+
+He held this situation for ten years, and resigned it, according
+to his own account, "because it was utterly impossible to continue
+the editor without interminable scrapes, together with a law-suit
+now and then." In the interim, however, certain important events
+had taken place. In the first place, he had published _Theodric_--a
+poem which, in spite of a most laudatory critique in the _Edinburgh
+Review_, left a painful impression on the public mind, and was
+generally considered as a symptom either that the rich mine of poesy
+was worked out, or that the genius of the author had been employed
+in a wrong direction. In the second place, he took an active share
+in the foundation of the London University. He appears, indeed,
+to have been the originator of the scheme, and to have managed
+the preliminary details with more than common skill and prudence.
+It was mainly through his exertions that it did not assume the
+aspect of a mere sectarian institution, bigoted in its principles
+and circumscribed in its sphere of utility. Shortly after this
+academical experiment, he was elected Lord Rector of the Glasgow
+University. Whatever abstract value may be attached to such an
+honour--and we are aware that very conflicting opinions have been
+expressed upon the point--this distinction was one of the most
+gratifying of all the tributes which were ever rendered to Campbell.
+He found himself preferred, by the students of that university
+where his first aspirations after fame had been roused, to one of
+the first orators and statesmen of the age; and his warm heart
+overflowed with delight at the kindly compliment. He resolved not
+to accept the office as a mere sinecure, but strictly to perform
+those duties which were prescribed by ancient statute, but which
+had fallen into abeyance by the carelessness of nominal Rectors.
+He entered as warmly into the feelings, and as cordially supported
+the interests of the students, as if the academical red gown of
+Glasgow had been still fresh upon his shoulders; and such being the
+case, it is not surprising that he was almost adored by his youthful
+constituents. This portion of the memoirs is very interesting: it
+displays the character of Campbell in a most amiable light; and the
+coldest reader cannot fail to peruse with pleasure the records of
+an ovation so truly gratifying to the sensibilities of the kind and
+affectionate poet. For three years, during which unusual period he
+held the office, his correspondence with the students never flagged;
+and it may be doubted whether the university ever possessed a better
+Rector.
+
+In 1831 he took up the Polish cause, and founded an association
+in London, which for many years was the main support of the
+unfortunate exiles who sought refuge in Britain. The public sympathy
+was at that time largely excited in their favour, not only by the
+gallant struggle which they had made for regaining their ancient
+independence, but from the subsequent severities perpetrated by the
+Russian government. Campbell, from his earliest years, had denounced
+the unprincipled partition of Poland; he watched the progress of
+the revolution with an anxiety almost amounting to fanaticism; and
+when the outbreak was at last put down by the strong hand of power,
+his passion exceeded all bounds. Day and night his thoughts were
+of Poland only: in his correspondence he hardly touched upon any
+other theme; and, carried away by his zeal to serve the exiles, he
+neglected his usual avocations. The mind of Campbell was naturally
+of an impulsive cast: but the fits were rather violent than
+enduring. This psychological tendency was, perhaps, his most serious
+misfortune, since it invariably prevented him from maturing the
+most important projects he conceived. Unless the scheme was such as
+could be executed with rapidity, he was apt to halt in the progress.
+
+He next became engaged in a new magazine speculation--_The
+Metropolitan_--which, instead of turning out, as he anticipated,
+a mine of wealth, very nearly involved him in serious pecuniary
+responsibility. After this, his public career gradually became
+less marked. The last poem which he published, _The Pilgrim of
+Glencoe_, exhibited few symptoms of the fire and energy conspicuous
+in his early efforts. "This work," says Dr Beattie, "in one or
+two instances was very favourably reviewed--in others, the tone
+of criticism was cold and austere; but neither praise nor censure
+could induce the public to judge for themselves; and silence, more
+fatal in such cases than censure, took the poem for a time under her
+wing. The poet himself expressed little surprise at the apathy with
+which his new volume had been received; but whatever indifference
+he felt for the influence it might have upon his reputation, he
+could not feel indifferent to the more immediate effect which a
+tardy or greatly diminished sale must have upon his prospects as a
+householder. 'A new poem from the pen of Campbell,' he was told,
+'was as good as a bill at sight;' but, from some error in the
+drawing, as it turned out, it was not negotiable; and the expenses
+into which he had been led, by trusting too much to popular favour,
+were now to be defrayed from other sources." It ought, however,
+to be remarked, that he had now arrived at his great climacteric.
+He was sixty-four years of age, and his constitution, never very
+robust, began to exhibit symptoms of decay. Dr Beattie, who had long
+watched him with affectionate solicitude, in the double character
+of physician and friend, thus notes his observation of the change.
+"At the breakfast or dinner table--particularly when surrounded
+by old friends--he was generally animated, full of anecdote, and
+always projecting new schemes of benevolence. But still there was a
+visible change in his conversation: it seemed to flow less freely;
+it required an effort to support it; and on topics in which he once
+felt a keen interest, he now said but little, or remained silent
+and thoughtful. The change in his outward appearance was still more
+observable; he walked with a feeble step, complained of constant
+chilliness; while his countenance, unless when he entered into
+conversation, was strongly marked with an expression of languor
+and anxiety. The sparkling intelligence that once animated his
+features was greatly obscured; he quoted his favourite authors with
+hesitation--because, he told me, he often could not recollect their
+names."
+
+The remainder of his life was spent in comparative seclusion. Long
+before this period he was left a solitary man. His wife, whom he
+loved with deep and enduring affection, was taken away--one of his
+sons died in childhood, and the other was stricken with a malady
+which proved incurable. But the kind offices of a nephew and niece,
+and the attentions of many friends, amongst whom Dr Beattie will
+always be remembered as the chief, soothed the last days of the
+poet, and supplied those duties which could not be rendered by
+dearer hands. He expired at Boulogne, on 15th June 1844, his age
+being sixty-seven, and his body was worthily interred in Westminster
+Abbey, with the honours of a public funeral.
+
+     "Never," says Beattie, "since the death of Addison, it was
+     remarked, had the obsequies of any literary man been attended by
+     circumstances more honourable to the national feeling, and more
+     expressive of cordial respect and homage, than those of Thomas
+     Campbell.
+
+     "Soon after noon, the procession began to move from the
+     Jerusalem Chamber to Poet's Corner, and in a few minutes passed
+     slowly down the long lofty aisle--
+
+    'Through breathing statues, then unheeded things;
+    Through rows of warriors, and through walks of kings.'
+
+     On each side the pillared avenues were lined with spectators,
+     all watching the solemn pageant in reverential silence, and
+     mostly in deep mourning. The Rev. Henry Milman, himself an
+     eminent poet, headed the procession; while the service for the
+     dead, answered by the deep-toned organ, in sounds like distant
+     thunder, produced an effect of indescribable solemnity. One only
+     feeling seemed to pervade the assembled spectators, and was
+     visible on every face--a desire to express their sympathy in a
+     manner suitable to the occasion. He who had celebrated the glory
+     and enjoyed the favour of his country for more than forty years,
+     had come at last to take his appointed chamber in the Hall of
+     Death--to mingle ashes with those illustrious predecessors, who,
+     by steep and difficult paths, had attained a lofty eminence in
+     her literature, and made a lasting impression on the national
+     heart."
+
+We observe that Dr Beattie has, very properly, passed over with
+little notice certain statements, emanating from persons who
+styled themselves the friends of Campbell, regarding his habits of
+life during the latter portion of his years. It is a misfortune
+incidental to almost all men of genius, that they are surrounded
+by a fry of small literary adulators, who, in order to magnify
+themselves, make a practice of reporting every circumstance, however
+trivial, which falls under their observation, and who are not always
+very scrupulous in adhering to the truth. Campbell, who had the
+full poetical share of vanity in his composition, was peculiarly
+liable to the attacks of such insidious worshippers, and was not
+sufficiently careful in the selection of his associates. Hence
+imputations, not involving any question of honour or morality, but
+implying frailty to a considerable degree, have been openly hazarded
+by some who, in their own persons, are no patterns of the cardinal
+virtues. Such statements do no honour either to the heart or the
+judgment of those who devised them: nor would we have even touched
+upon the subject, save to reprobate, in the strongest manner, these
+breaches of domestic privacy, and of ill-judged and unmerited
+confidence.
+
+A good deal of the correspondence printed in these volumes is of a
+trifling nature, and interferes materially with the conciseness of
+the biography. We do not mean to say that anything objectionable
+has been included, but there are too many notes and epistles upon
+familiar topics, which neither illustrate the peculiar tone of
+Campbell's mind, nor throw any light whatever upon his poetical
+history. But the correspondence with his own family is highly
+interesting. Nowhere does Campbell appear in a higher and more
+estimable point of view, than in the character of son and brother.
+Even in the hours of his darkest adversity, we find him sharing his
+small and precarious gains with his mother and sisters; and they
+were in an equal degree the participators of his better fortunes.
+His fondness and consideration for his wife and children are most
+conspicuous; and many of his letters regarding his boy, when "the
+dark shadow" had passed across his mind, are extremely affecting.
+Those who have a taste for the modern style of maundering about
+children, and the perverted pictures of infancy so common in our
+social literature, may not, perhaps, see much to admire in the
+following extract from a letter by Campbell, announcing the birth of
+his eldest child: to us it appears a pure and exquisite picture:--
+
+     "This little gentleman all this while looked to be so proud of
+     his new station in society, that he held up his blue eyes and
+     placid little face with perfect indifference to what people
+     about him felt or thought. Our first interview was when he lay
+     in his little crib, in the midst of white muslin and dainty
+     lace, prepared by Matilda's hands, long before the stranger's
+     arrival. I verily believe, in spite of my partiality, that
+     lovelier babe was never smiled upon by the light of heaven. He
+     was breathing sweetly in his first sleep. I durst not waken him,
+     but ventured to give him one kiss. He gave a faint murmur, and
+     opened his little azure lights. Since that time he has continued
+     to grow in grace and stature. I can take him in my arms; but
+     still his good nature and his beauty are but provocatives to
+     the affection which one must not indulge: he cannot bear to
+     be hugged, he cannot yet stand a worrying. Oh! that I were
+     sure he would live to the days when I could take him on my
+     knee, and feel the strong plumpness of childhood waxing into
+     vigorous youth. My poor boy! shall I have the ecstasy to teach
+     him thoughts and knowledge, and reciprocity of love to me? It
+     is bold to venture into futurity so far! at present his lovely
+     little face is a comfort to me; his lips breathe that fragrance
+     which it is one of the loveliest kindnesses of Nature that she
+     has given to infants--a sweetness of smell more delightful than
+     all the treasures of Arabia. What adorable beauties of God and
+     Nature's bounty we live in without knowing! How few have ever
+     seemed to think an infant beautiful! But to me there seems to be
+     a beauty in the earliest dawn of infancy which is not inferior
+     to the attractions of childhood, especially when they sleep.
+     Their looks excite a more tender train of emotions. It is like
+     the tremulous anxiety which we feel for a candle new lighted,
+     which we dread going out."
+
+The sensibility, too, which he uniformly exhibited towards those
+who had shown him kindness, especially his older and earlier
+friends, is exceedingly pleasing. In writing to or speaking of
+the Rev. Archibald Alison and Dugald Stewart, his tone is one of
+heartfelt, and almost filial, affection and reverence; and amongst
+all the benevolent actions performed by those great and good men,
+there were few to which they could revert with more pleasure than
+to their seasonable patronage of the young and sanguine poet. With
+his literary contemporaries, also, he lived upon good terms,--a
+circumstance rather remarkable, for Campbell, notwithstanding his
+good-nature, was sufficiently touchy, and keenly alive to satire or
+hostile criticism. Excepting an early quarrel with John Leyden, on
+the score of some reported misrepresentation, a temporary feud with
+Moore, which was speedily reconciled, and a short and unacrimonious
+disruption from Bowles, we are not aware that he ever differed with
+any of his gifted brethren. He was upon the best terms with Scott;
+and Dr Beattie has given us several valuable specimens of their
+mutual correspondence. With Rogers he was intimate to the last: and
+even the sarcastic and dangerous Byron always mentioned him with
+expressions of regard. Let us add, moreover, that, whenever he had
+the power, he was ready, even in instances where his own interest
+might have counselled otherwise, to lend a helping hand to others
+who were struggling for literary reputation. This generous impulse
+was sometimes carried so far as to injure him in his editorial
+capacity; for, although fastidious to a degree as to the quality of
+his own writings, it was always with a sore heart that he shut the
+door in the face of a needy contributor.
+
+The querulousness with which Campbell complains throughout, of the
+cruel treatment which he met with at the hands of the publishers,
+would be amusing if it were not at the same time most unjust. He
+acknowledges, in a letter written to Mr Richardson, so late as
+1812, that the sale of his poems, for a series of years before, had
+yielded him, on an average, £500 per annum: not a bad annuity, we
+think, as the proceeds of a couple of volumes! We happen to know,
+moreover, that by the first publication of _Gertrude_ Campbell
+made upwards of a thousand pounds; and, unless we are grievously
+misinformed, he received from Mr Murray, for the copyright of the
+_Specimens_, a similar sum, being double the amount contracted for.
+We have already mentioned the publication of a subscription edition
+of the _Pleasures of Hope_, "which," says Dr Beattie, "with great
+liberality on the part of the publishers, was to be brought out for
+his own exclusive benefit." We should not have alluded to these
+matters, which, however, we believe, are no secrets, but for the
+publication by Dr Beattie of some very absurd expressions used and
+reiterated by Campbell. Such phrases as the following constantly
+occur: "They are the greatest ravens on earth with whom we have to
+deal--liberal enough as booksellers go--but still, you know, ravens,
+croakers, suckers of innocent blood, and living men's brains." Nor,
+in the opinion of Campbell, were these outrages confined merely to
+the living subjects, for he says, in reference to the older tenants
+of Parnassus, "Poor Bards! you are all ill used, even after death,
+by those who have lived upon your brains. And now, having scooped
+out those brains, they drink out of them, like Vandals out of the
+skulls of the severed and slain, served up by a Gothic Ganymede!"
+Further, in speaking of Napoleon, he says, " Perhaps in my feelings
+towards the Gallic usurper there may be some personal bias; for I
+must confess that, ever since he shot the bookseller in Germany,
+I have had a warm side to him. It was sacrificing an offering, by
+the hand of genius, to the manes of the victims immolated by the
+trade; and I only wish we had Nap here for a short time, to cut out
+a few of our own cormorants." The fact is, that so far from Campbell
+being ill-used by the trade, they behaved towards him with uncommon
+liberality. It is true that, in several instances, they hesitated
+in making high terms for work not yet commenced, with a man who was
+notoriously deficient in punctuality and perseverance; nor are they
+to be blamed, when we consider the number of his schemes, and the
+very few instances in which these were brought to maturity.
+
+On the whole, then, though we cannot bestow unqualified praise upon
+Dr Beattie, for the manner in which he has compiled these volumes,
+we shall state that we have passed no unprofitable hours in their
+perusal. We rise from them with full appreciation of the many
+excellent points in the poet's character, with an augmented regard
+for his memory on account of the virtues so eminently displayed,
+and with no lessened reverence for the man in consequence of the
+admitted foibles from which none of the human family are exempt.
+The book may be practically useful to those who aspire to literary
+eminence, and who are apt to rely too confidently and implicitly on
+the powers with which they are naturally gifted. So long as Campbell
+was under restraint--so long as he was subjected to the wholesome
+discipline of the University, and forced into the race of emulation,
+we find that his genius was largely and rapidly developed. He was
+not a mere philological scholar, though his attainments in Greek
+might have put many a pedant to the blush; but he improved his sense
+of beauty and his taste by the contemplation of the Attic flowers;
+and, without injuring his style by any affectation of antiquity
+unsuited to the tone of his age, he adorned it by many of the graces
+which are presented by the ancient models. At Glasgow he worked hard
+and won merited honours. But afterwards, by abandoning himself to a
+desultory course of study and of composition, by never acting upon
+the wise and sure plan of keeping one object only steadily in view,
+and persevering in spite of all difficulties until that point was
+attained,--he failed in realising the high expectations which were
+justified by his early promise. As it is, Campbell's name is ranked
+high in the roll of the British poets; but assuredly he would have
+occupied a still more exalted place, and also have avoided much
+of that anxiety which at times clouded his existence, if he had
+used his fine natural gifts with but a portion of the energy and
+determination of his great compatriot, Scott.
+
+In conclusion let us remark, that however Dr Beattie may have
+erred on the side of prolixity, by including in the compass of the
+memoirs some trifling and irrelevant matter, he is more than concise
+whenever it is necessary to allude to his own relationship with
+Campbell. He has made no parade whatever of his intimacy with the
+poet; and no stranger, in perusing these volumes, could discover
+that to Beattie Campbell was substantially indebted for many
+disinterested acts of friendship, which contributed largely to the
+comfort of his declining years. This modesty is a rare feature in
+modern biography; and, when it does occur so remarkably as here, we
+are bound to mention it with special honour.
+
+
+
+
+THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS.
+
+
+All over Europe, of late, we have been hearing a great deal of
+universities and students. The trencher-cap has claimed a right to
+take its part in the movements which make or mar the destinies of
+nations, by the side of plumed casque and priestly tiara. Whether it
+was the beer of the German burschen that "decocted their cold blood
+to such valiant heat," or whether their practice in make-believe
+duels had imparted a savage appetite for foeman's blood in some
+more genuine combat, or whether Fichte's metaphysics had fairly
+muddled their brains into delirium, certain it is that they have,
+wheresoever they could find an opportunity, been foremost in the
+cause of demolition and disorder, vied with and encouraged the
+lowest of the rabble in lawless aggressions, exulted in the glow of
+blazing houses, and cried havoc to rapine and murder.
+
+It is curious that, while all this has been going on in Europe, the
+attention of the public should have been so much occupied by the
+condition of our English universities. Still more curious is it,
+perhaps, that so large a portion of the attention thus directed
+should have assumed an objurgatory tone, as if Oxford and Cambridge
+were not duly performing their functions, as if they were of a
+character suited only to bygone ages, as if, in short, they were
+doing nothing. True enough, in one sense, they were "doing nothing."
+There was no academical legion formed--none, at least, that we
+heard of--in Christchurch Meadows or Trinity Walks; no body of
+sympathising students marched to London, with the view of taking
+part in the democratic exhibitions of the 10th of April. If Cuffey
+is to be President of the British Republic, he must search for the
+body-guard of democracy elsewhere than on the banks of the Cam and
+the Isis. No doubt this excellent result is attributable, in a great
+measure, to the loyalty of the professional and middle classes, from
+which our university students principally spring. Their feelings
+will naturally be akin to those of their relations and friends. But
+when, in so many other instances, we see the academic population
+taking the lead in the work of revolution, beyond any spirit which
+exists among their kindred, and urged on by a democratic madness of
+purely academic growth, we cannot help holding that some credit on
+behalf of the loyalty of English students is due to the institutions
+by the influence of which they are surrounded.
+
+We are inclined to think that the public have not been sufficiently
+alive to this not unimportant difference between Oxford and
+Heidelberg--Cambridge and Vienna. Certes, but little account was
+taken of the peaceful bearing of our academic population. On the
+contrary, much supercilious wordiness has been lavished, more or
+less to the discredit of cap and gown, by portions of the London
+press in the lead, and, as a necessary consequence, by provincial
+journalists _ad libitum_. This talk, current now for some years,
+was all concentrated and endued with new vigour by a movement of
+the University of Cambridge itself. The people who stop your way
+by talking of "progress," and deal out dark rhodomontade on the
+subject of "enlightenment," were all set agog by what they thought
+a symptom of capitulation in the strongholds of the Ancient. All
+our old imbecile friends, the cant phrases of twenty and thirty
+years ago, started up as fresh as paint, ready to go through all
+the handling they had before endured. We heard of, "keeping alive
+ancient prejudices," "cleaving pertinaciously to obsolete forms,"
+"following a monastic rule," "forgetting the world outside their
+college walls," and multifarious twaddle of this sort, till the
+Pope fled from Rome, or some other little revolution occurred to
+withdraw the attention of the public from this set of phrases to
+another, no doubt not less forcible and original. Others, again,
+took a friendly tone and spoke apologetically: it was a great thing
+to get any move at all from the university: those who took the lead
+in her management were not men who mixed with the world at large,
+and allowance must be made if they did not altogether march with
+the times. "The world at large" is an expression of very doubtful
+import: "all think their little set mankind:" but when the resident
+fellows of colleges are charged with not duly mixing with the world
+at large, we cannot help thinking that those who use the phrase are
+ignoring the existence of the Didcot Junction and Eastern Counties
+Railway, and borrowing their ideas of academic life from the time
+when Hobson travelled "betwixt Cambridge and the Bull." As far
+as our observation goes, we should say that there is no class of
+persons who have better opportunities of taking an extended view
+of different phases of social being, or who are more disposed to
+take advantage of those opportunities. A fellow of a college is not
+engaged much more than half the year in university business; for
+four months, at the very least, he generally has it in his power
+to expatiate where he will, from May Fair to Mesopotamia; he has
+no household ties to detain him, and if he does not rub off the
+lexicographic rust, and the mathematical mouldiness, which he may
+have contracted during his labours of the term, he must be possessed
+of a local attachment almost vegetable: some few instances of
+which secluded existence still linger in quiet nooks of our halls
+and colleges, but which are no more the types of their class than
+Parson Trulliber is a representative of the country clergy, or the
+stage Diggory of the English yeoman. But the self-complacency of
+Cockneyism is the most unshaken thing in this revolutionary age.
+It is perfectly ready to lecture the parson on the teaching of
+Greek, or the Yorkshire farmer on the fattening of bullocks. All
+the distributive machinery in the world does not diminish, it would
+seem, the absorption of intelligence by the Ward of Cheap.
+
+We are not, however, surprised that the conclusions, on which we
+have remarked, should be those arrived at by the large class of
+small observers whose phraseology we have quoted. The bustling man
+of business, who takes his day-ticket to Oxford or Cambridge, is
+of course struck by seeing a number of usages, for the original
+of which, if he inquire, he is referred back to hoar mediæval
+times--times which his Cockney guides dispose of by some such phrase
+as crass ignorance, or feudal barbarism. He is naturally surprised
+at such things; he never saw anything like it before; they don't
+do so in Mincing Lane, or even in Gower Street. He can hardly be
+expected to view these matters in their relation to the system of
+which they form a part; he can hardly be expected to realise in
+them the symbols through which the _genius loci_ finds an utterance
+and exerts an agency; and so he goes smiling home in his railway
+carriage, and perhaps buys a number of _Punch_ by the way, and
+thinks that there is more practical wisdom in that periodical than
+is embodied in the great monuments of William of Wykeham or Lady
+Margaret.
+
+Nevertheless, while we rebut these vague general charges of a blind
+impassibility to the influences of the time, we are far from denying
+that a tendency to cling to ancient ideas and observances is a
+characteristic of the universities. This tendency is a property of
+all corporate institutions, and is commonly the reason of their
+foundation. They are to perpetuate to a future time a feeling or
+design of the present; to form a nucleus, round which the thoughts
+and principles of one age congregate, and are thus handed down to
+another in a preserved and crystallised form. Changes of ideas pass
+upon them of necessity, through the individual liability of their
+constituent members to be affected by the current of the passing
+time; but these changes take place rather by a gradual fusion of
+the old into the new, than by those sudden transitions to which the
+popular and prevailing opinions are so often subjected. And it may
+fairly be supposed that, by means of this property, corporations are
+more likely to adopt and amalgamate into their framework that which
+is most permanent and genuine, out of all that the ever-changing
+tide of time casts upon the shore.
+
+Perhaps, too, this tenacity of the bygone will more naturally be
+found to be a characteristic of the universities, than of other
+corporations. The spots which they occupy are holy ground, fraught
+with historic memories of the great and wise of former days. The
+_genius loci_ is a mighty advocate in behalf of antiquity:--
+
+    "As the ghost of Homer clings
+     Round Scamander's wasting springs;
+     As divinest Shakspeare's might
+     Fills Avon and the world with light;"
+
+--so we may not well pass unaffected by the congregation of priest,
+and poet, and sage, whose recollections consecrate the banks of
+our academic rivers. As we go beneath "Bacon's mansion," or about
+Milton's mulberry tree; as we kneel where Newton knelt, or dine in
+halls where the portraits of Erasmus, and Fisher, and Taylor, look
+down upon us,--these are not times and places for the dogmatism and
+arrogance of "the nineteenth century"--for bragging of our advance
+and illumination, or sneering at "the good old times." This is in
+accordance with the law of our nature; but these recollections, and
+the lessons which they teach, are not, if rightly laid hold of,
+such as to induce a mere blind attachment to the skeletons of dead
+notions and practices. And although it may, perhaps must, happen
+that, at any given time, there may be found relics adhering to the
+system, whose vitality and meaning have been withdrawn by time,
+and left them dry and sapless, yet we will venture to assert that,
+if a dogged adherence to antiquated forms could fairly be charged
+on the universities, they could never have maintained their ground
+amidst the mighty historical transmutations that have passed over
+their heads. Civil wars and popular tumults have raged around them;
+the throne has yielded to violence and to intrigue; the Church has
+admitted modifications, both of her doctrine and her discipline;
+and, more than all, the still more important, though silent and
+gradual changes--changes to which the striking and salient events of
+history are but the indexes and visible signs--changes of thought
+and rule of action--have risen and sunk, and ebbed and flowed, and
+still these stable monuments of the piety and munificence of men
+whose names are almost unknown, remain unshorn of their ancient
+vigour, and intimately entwined with our social system.
+
+But it is time that we should come to particulars, and make known
+to our readers, as briefly as we can, the nature of the alterations
+recently introduced at Cambridge, which have called forth so
+much objurgatory commendation from quarters, which were commonly
+considered to entertain tolerably destructive views in regard to the
+universities. We say objurgatory commendation, because the faint
+praise of a "move in the right direction" was generally more or
+less coupled with vigorous denunciation of the antiquated obstinacy
+which had so long kept in the wrong. And here we must premise the
+statement of certain qualities of the age in which we live, which
+will have fallen under the notice of all observers. Perhaps the most
+distinguishing feature of our time is the principle which forms the
+life and soul of retail trade--the principle which sets men to busy
+themselves about small and immediate returns for outlay; which looks
+more to the gains across the counter, than to the advantage which
+is general, or distant, or future. In a word, _practicality_ is the
+ruling passion of our day. As might have been expected, education,
+among other things, has been subjected to this huckstering test.
+People have asked, what is the market value of this or that branch
+of learning? Will it get a boy on in the world? Will it enable him
+to provide for himself soon? Will the returns for the expenditure
+I am going to make be quick and certain? Cowper represents the
+father of a son intended for the church as speculating on his young
+hopeful's prospects after the following fashion:--
+
+    "Let reverend churls his ignorance rebuke,
+     Who starve upon a dog's-eared Pentateuch,
+     The parson knows enough who knows a duke."
+
+In these days the acquaintance of a duke is not of the same relative
+value as it was when Cowper wrote; but this sort of worldly-wise
+calculation is more prevalent than ever, and the cry of the largest
+class of the public is--give us such knowledge as will _pay_.
+Those who took this commercial view of education derived no small
+encouragement from the circumstance that Prince Albert, the learned
+field-marshal, and warlike chancellor of Cambridge University,
+had interfered to promote the culture of modern languages in
+these venerable precincts of Eton, where for many a year Henry's
+holy shade had watched the growth of an education of less obvious
+utility. How was young Thomas or William "the better off" for being
+able to con "the tale of Troy divine?" But teach him to mince a
+little French, simper a little Italian, snarl a little German, and
+there he is at once accomplished for an _attaché_, a correspondent,
+or a bagman--profitable walks of life all of them. And the same
+notions mounted still higher in the ascendant, when the senate of
+the University of Cambridge apparently evinced a desire to examine
+the requirements of that body by the same standard.
+
+The first step of this kind was taken about three years ago. Most
+of our readers are aware that, at Cambridge, those candidates
+for a degree who do not aspire to honours are said to go out in
+the _poll_; this being the abbreviated term to denote those who were
+classically designated +hoi polloi+. Now the qualifications required
+for attaining this poll degree consisted of an acquaintance with a
+part of Homer, a part of Virgil, a part of the Greek Testament, and
+Paley's _Evidences of Christianity_, over and above the mathematics,
+of which we shall speak presently. By what curious infelicity the
+recondite, and, in many particulars, inexplicable language of Homer
+has been so commonly selected for beginners in Greek at school,
+and, as in this case, for those who were not expected to appear as
+accomplished scholars--we need not here stop to inquire. Suffice
+it to say that the university, in this initial reform, ousted
+Homer and Virgil from the course, and supplied their places with a
+Latin and Greek author, to be varied in each successive year. This
+was decidedly an improvement, at least as regards Homer, for the
+reason we have alluded to above. Perhaps a better innovation would
+have been to have followed the Oxford system, and allowed to the
+student a choice of his author. But it is a great misfortune that
+the university, in recasting this course, did not substitute a work
+of some one of the logical or philosophical authors current in the
+English language, for the shallow and plausible book of Paley's
+above mentioned--with regard to which it would be difficult to say
+whether it is worse chosen as a model of reasoning, or as a proof of
+Christian facts.
+
+The mathematical portion of this course consisted of Euclid,
+algebra, and trigonometry, the student being thus trained in the
+model processes of pure mathematical reasoning left us by the
+first, and also brought acquainted with the elementary operations
+of analysis. As a matter of mental training, the most valuable
+portion of this curriculum was the knowledge acquired of the
+geometrical processes employed by Euclid, as familiarising the mind
+of the student with the severest forms of reasoning, and the steps
+whereby indubitable verity is attained. This portion, however, was
+most especially selected for curtailment by the reforms to which
+we are alluding. In the stead of the requirements thus displaced,
+a motley amount of elementary propositions in statics, dynamics,
+and hydrostatics, were substituted--useful information enough as
+instances of the simpler applications of the analytical machinery
+of mathematics, but comparatively worthless as an exercise of
+the mind. Country clergymen, whose forgotten mathematics loomed
+grandly on their minds through the mist of years, were confounded
+with disappointment at beholding their sons, in whom they expected
+to find philosophers, return to them with an examination paper,
+apparently rather calculated to unfold the mysteries of engineering,
+well-sinking, and carpentering.
+
+This object--the practicability and immediate utility of the studies
+pursued, in preference to the superiority of mental training
+derivable from them--seems to be simply that which has dictated
+the recent innovations of 1848. The principle which entered into
+both measures may easily be traced in the prevalent phases of
+literature and science throughout the public at large. A few years
+ago, every one fancied himself a philosopher. Little volumes,
+cabinet cyclopædias and the like, swarmed on the booksellers'
+shelves, containing a string of disjointed and bald scientific
+facts, involving no truth and expressive of no law, but more or less
+adroitly arranged under several heads, with a _savant_ air. The
+man of business--the apprentice--the boarding-school miss--took it
+into their heads that a royal road was thus opened to all branches
+of useful and entertaining knowledge,--that the acquirements of
+Bacon were "in this wonderful age" brought within the reach of
+every one who had an occasional hour or two in the day to spare
+from more mechanical employments; and that the progress from
+ignorance to philosophy was as much facilitated by these little-book
+contrivances, as the journey from London to Birmingham, by the
+rushing railway-train, was an advance upon the week's toil of our
+forefathers in accomplishing the same space. Much of this mania for
+desultory knowledge has evaporated, but its influences are still
+distinctly to be traced among us. It is not surprising that those
+influences should in some measure have affected the universities.
+In accordance with the popular notions afloat, the Cambridge
+legislators followed up the alteration which we have been describing
+by the adoption of their recent measures, by which they effected an
+extension of their field of "honours" similar to that which they
+had already accomplished in the qualifications for the ordinary
+degree. To the old "triposes," or classes of honours in mathematics
+and classics, they have now added two more--namely, one in moral
+sciences and one in natural sciences.
+
+Before, however, we offer any conjectures as to the probable
+effect of these yet untried changes, we must remind our readers
+of a certain characteristic of the Cambridge system, which is
+important in estimating the internal relations of the late reforms.
+The academic life of Cambridge circulates through two concurrent
+systems, which we may term the university and the collegiate system.
+The university is one corporation, and each individual college is
+altogether another. The union between the two systems might be
+dissolved without difficulty. If the university were to abandon
+her ancient seat, and take up some new abode, as she did for a
+time at Northampton some centuries ago, the colleges might still
+remain as places of education, with but little modification of their
+present character. The older system--the university--has had its
+functions gradually absorbed in a great measure by the collegiate.
+The earliest form in which Cambridge appears, dimly seen in hoar
+antiquity, is that of a congregation of students, commonly living
+together for mutual convenience in hostels, governed by a code
+of statutes, and endowed with the privilege of granting degrees.
+Then came the founders of colleges, with their noble endowments,
+and reared edifices, in which societies of these students should
+live together under a common rule, and form distinct corporations
+by themselves, for purposes connected with, and auxiliary to,
+those of the university. The latter body has from time immemorial
+matriculated only those who were already members of some one or
+other of the colleges; but there probably was a time at which a
+student in the university was not necessarily a member of any
+college, until by degrees these foundations absorbed into their
+composition the whole of the academic population. By-and-by, the
+principal part of the functions of teaching also lapsed into the
+hands of the colleges. In the old times, the university discharged
+this duty by means of the public readings or lectures by the newly
+admitted masters of arts, (termed _regents_,) and by the keeping of
+acts and opponencies--being certain _vivâ voce_ disputations--by
+the students. To this system, comprehending the main studies of the
+place, was superadded, by individual endowment or royal beneficence,
+the collateral information on special subjects given by the
+professors. The colleges were altogether subsidiary to this mode
+of instruction--the practice being that every student who enrolled
+himself in the ranks of a particular college, must do so under the
+charge of some one of the fellows of the college, who became a kind
+of private tutor to him. Hence arose college tutors; and as their
+lectures, given in each separate college, were found to be the most
+efficient aids in prosecuting the university studies, the readings
+of the masters of arts gradually fell altogether into disuse, and
+the _vivâ voce_ exercises of the students have nearly done so.
+
+Possibly, along with the transfer of the functions of lecturing
+from the university regents to the college tutors, the professorial
+chairs may also have declined in importance as an element of
+the academic education. But, as we have before seen, these were
+never the main vehicle for the dispensation of knowledge on the
+part of the university. Nevertheless, we suspect that one object
+of the recently erected triposes is to revive the importance of
+the professors' lectures in the university course. For it is now
+required that every one who presents himself as a candidate for the
+ordinary or _poll_ degree, shall have attended the lectures of some
+one of the professors at his individual choice; and these lectures
+will, moreover, be necessary guides in the studies required of
+those who aim at the honours of the new triposes. It seems clear,
+therefore, that the devisers of the scheme had it in contemplation,
+through the medium of their changes, to fill the class-rooms of
+the professors, and so far to assimilate the modern system to the
+ancient, by bringing the university instruction into more active
+play. We are disposed to question the wisdom of these proceedings.
+Until now, the university and the colleges had apportioned their
+several functions, by assigning to the latter the duty of imparting
+proficiency in the studies cultivated; to the former, that of
+testing proficiency attained. The two systems had thus harmonised,
+as we believe, in conformity with the requirements of the age by
+lapse of time; and if it was deemed desirable to disturb this
+arrangement, and restore the faculty of teaching to the university,
+this should rather have been done, we think, by reviving the system
+of _vivâ voce_ disputations, now altogether disused except in the
+progress to a degree in law, physic, or divinity; but which would
+form, under proper regulations, an important adjunct to the ordinary
+course, by cultivating a decision, a readiness, and an ingenuity
+in reasoning, which are comparatively left dormant by a written
+examination. Again, it is, as we consider, altogether a mistake
+to suppose that the primary end of a professorial existence is to
+deliver lectures. The endowment of a professorship is rather, as
+we take it, to enable the holder of it to give up his time to the
+particular science to which he is devoted; and it is by no means
+necessary, especially in these days, when words are so easily winged
+by the printer's devil, that the results of his labours should be
+given forth by oral lectures. At the same time, when his subject,
+and his manner of treating it, were such as to command interest,
+he was at no loss for an audience. The professorships, however,
+being mostly established for the purpose of aiding the pursuit of
+the inductive sciences, side by side with the severer studies of
+the university, fell under the patronage of the spirit of the age.
+Whether the sciences, for the promotion of which they were founded,
+will be materially advanced by this sort of "protection," remains to
+be seen.
+
+It is likely enough, we think, that some confusion may arise from
+this revival of the lecturing powers of the university. This,
+however, will be easily obviated in practice, as the two systems
+have never, so far as we are aware, manifested anything like a
+mutual antagonism or jealousy of each other. A greater practical
+difficulty is one which appears to be left untouched by the new
+regime. We allude to the growing plan of instruction by private
+tutors--a calling which has sprang up, in the strictest principles
+of demand and supply, to meet the eagerness for external aid which
+has been induced by the great competition for university honours.
+The existence and increasing importance of the class of private
+tutors has been decried as an evil; and it, no doubt, enhances
+considerably the expenses attendant on a college education. But,
+after all, this is only part and parcel of the lot which has fallen
+to us in these latter days of merry England. There are so many of
+us, and we keep so constantly adding to our numbers, that we must
+not be surprised at more pushing and contrivance being required to
+realise a livelihood than heretofore; and as the end to be attained
+increases in its relative importance, the outlay attendant on its
+attainment will, in the ordinary course of things, be augmented
+also. It is not our intention, however, to discuss at this time
+the merits or demerits of the private-tutor system; it suffices
+for our purpose to notice it as the reappearance, in another form,
+of the old functions of instruction, as lodged in the hands of the
+university regents. As the collegiate system gradually supplanted
+that pristine form, so the office of the private tutors is, to a
+certain extent, supplanting the collegiate system. These instructors
+are likely, as we before said, to occupy, under the new rules, much
+the same place as they held under the old; and indeed it appears
+that, whether desirable or not, it would be extremely difficult to
+get rid of them; at all events the colleges, being now trenched upon
+by the university professors on the one hand, and by the private
+tutors on the other, must exert themselves to ascertain their proper
+functions, and to fulfil them with zeal and energy.
+
+As for the new triposes themselves, it may be doubted whether the
+name given to them is not the most unfortunate part of them. The
+common name of Tripos looks like a confusion of ideas on the part
+of the university itself, and a want of discrimination between its
+old studies and its new. At first, probably, the recent triposes
+will be comparatively neglected, and on that ground alone it is both
+misjudging and unfair to include in the same category of "honours"
+and "tripos," classes which are respectively the subject of ardent
+competition and of none at all. But supposing that the new classes
+attracted their fair share of competitors, it would still be a
+grievous fault in the university to hold out to the world so false
+an estimate of the vehicle of mental training, as it would appear
+to do by placing on a par the new studies and the old--by assuming,
+or seeming to assume, that ratiocinative thought may be as well
+employed about the fallacies of Mr Ricardo, as the exact reasoning
+and indubitable verities of Euclid and Newton; or that the faculties
+of discrimination and speculation may be unfolded by the "getting
+up" of botanical or chemical nomenclature, not less than by the new
+world of thought opened through the authors of Greece and Rome. We
+must, however, confess that we are now taking the most unfavourable
+view of the matter. With respect, indeed, to the natural sciences'
+tripos, we cannot help being fully of opinion, that it should have
+been distinctly recognised as subsidiary to the main vehicles of
+education adopted at Cambridge. But the moral sciences' tripos
+furnishes, if properly constructed, an excellent means for training
+thought. It is a great misfortune that the study of Aristotle has
+been suffered at Cambridge to fall almost into desuetude: we speak
+of the philosophical study of his works in contradistinction to
+the philological. The former is maintained at Oxford with great
+success; thus combining, with Oxford scholarship, a training of the
+reasoning powers which is almost an equivalent for the mathematical
+studies of her sister university. Moreover, the literature of Great
+Britain boasts of a band of moral philosophers far greater than any
+other modern nation can produce. The works of Butler, Cudworth,
+Berkeley, Hume, Reid, and Stewart, with many others, form a group
+of authorities worthy of the groves of Academus. The metaphysics
+of Locke--we should rather say, the wall which Locke has built
+up between the English mind and the science of metaphysics--has
+too long prevented the moral reasoners of this country from duly
+availing themselves of the treasures at their command. Under the
+guidance of such lights as those we have enumerated, we may hope
+to see a school of metaphysical thinkers arise in England, whose
+exertions may dissipate the mist of half-thought in which Teutonic
+speculation has involved the science of its choice. If, however, the
+tap-root of our metaphysical thought is to be cut through by the
+study of the plausibilities of Locke and Paley, (no very unlikely
+issue, we should fear, at least under present circumstances,) then
+this moral sciences' tripos also is one of those things which had
+better never have been.
+
+We repeat that Cambridge has incurred great blame, if she has
+allowed herself to mislead, or to seem to mislead, the popular
+mind on these matters. The more talkative portion of the public,
+and the newspapers which commonly represent that more talkative
+portion, have evidently been inclined to interpret this movement of
+Cambridge as an indication of a most utilitarian system of education
+coming to supplant the old rules. They anticipate all sorts of
+civil engineering, butterfly-dissecting, light geology, and a whole
+Babel of modern languages, to be victoriously let loose on the home
+where for many a century Wisdom has sat with the scroll of Plato
+on her knee, and Science has unravelled the wizard lore of fluxion
+and equation. The senate of Cambridge is egregiously mistaken if it
+supposes that it will win over to its body the students of these
+popular branches of knowledge, by following the dictation of the
+popular taste. Those who want to be civil engineers will not come
+to a university to learn their art. They will follow Brunel and
+Stephenson, and see how the work is actually done in practice; and
+those who do so will soon prove themselves far superior, _quoad_
+civil engineering, to the Cambridge-bred theorist. In like manner,
+a month's flirtation in Paris, or a few games at _écarté_ with a
+German baron, will teach the student of modern languages more French
+or German than all the philologists of Oxford, Cambridge, or Eton
+can impart in a year.
+
+  "Quam quisque nôrit artem, in hâc se exerceat."
+
+If the public have mistaken the functions of the university, it
+is the more incumbent on her to assert them correctly. Nor is
+the outcry less groundless, that the universities have failed to
+furnish the best men in law and medicine. With regard to the law,
+certain gentlemen were even cited by name, in leading articles of
+newspapers, as types of the class of men who were now taking the
+lead at the bar, and representing an altogether different school
+from that trained at the universities. The fact of the university
+men being supplanted, or being likely to be supplanted, at the bar,
+may admit of considerable question. But it is not, after all, the
+question by which the universities are to be judged. They do not
+undertake to make men great lawyers or skilful physicians; this,
+where it does belong to their functions, is a collateral duty, and
+not the main object of their training. That object is distinctly
+avowed in their own formularies. That noble clause in the "bidding
+prayer" will attach itself to the memories of most of those who have
+heard it:
+
+"_And that there never may be wanting a supply of persons duly
+qualified to serve God, both in Church and State_, let us pray
+for a blessing on all seminaries of sound learning and religious
+education, particularly the universities of this realm."
+
+A higher end to be attained, perhaps, than that of merely qualifying
+the student to "get on in the world." His university education is
+not so much to enable him to attain those eminent stations which
+are the prizes of ability and industry, as to fit him to adorn and
+fill worthily those stations when he has attained them. In truth,
+we think it is not desirable, any more than necessary, that a
+degree should be an essential opening to the bar, the profession of
+medicine, or even the Church. The university is injured by being too
+much regarded as a step to be got over with the view of reaching
+some ulterior end.
+
+We dwell on this point with the more interest, because we are
+satisfied that a still greater responsibility rests with the
+universities, to guard the fountains of knowledge pure and
+unsullied, in those days of professed knowledge, than in the
+so-called dark ages. Our day is rich in the knowledge of _facts_;
+there were many _truths_ influencing those men of the times we
+please to call dark, which we have ignored or forgotten. The general
+demand for information--for this knowledge of facts--has made
+it a marketable commodity, a subject of commercial speculation;
+consequently, a vast deal that is shallow and desultory, a vast
+deal, too, that is counterfeit and fraudulent, is abroad, made up
+for the market, and circulates among multitudes who are incapable
+of separating the grain from the chaff. It is therefore, we repeat,
+even more important that the sources of learning should be guarded
+from contamination, now that the antagonistic principles are the
+knowledge of truth and the subserviency to falsehood, than when, at
+the revival of literature, the struggle was between knowledge and
+ignorance.
+
+We would have the universities remember that it is their best policy
+as corporations, as well as a duty they owe to those great medieval
+spirits who planted them where they stand, to own a better principle
+than that which would lead them to succumb to what is called popular
+opinion--in other words, the floating fallacy of the day--and aim
+at producing the shallow party leaders and favourite writers of
+the passing moment. They cannot control the frothy surface and the
+deep under-current at the same time. It would be a sacrifice to
+expediency which, after all, would not serve their turn. There are
+institutions which will do that work, and which will beat them in
+the race. Let all such take their own course.
+
+"Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his hoggish kinde:" let Stinkomalee
+train the statesmen for the League and the jokers for _Punch_,--but
+Oxford and Cambridge have other rôles.
+
+It is true, we are told there is a new aristocracy rising in
+England, and that the English universities are gaining no hold
+upon the coming generation of "chiefs of industry." It would be
+far better for our social condition that these same chiefs of
+industry should be educated men, and should pass through a training
+which might tend to neutralise the power of the mercantile iron in
+entering into their soul. But at present the race to be rich is
+so strong and hardly contested, that this class is hardly likely,
+in general, to devote their scions to academical studies of any
+description; and the merchant or manufacturer who came from the
+banks of Isis or Cam, at the age of twenty-one, to the Exchange
+or the Cloth-hall, would find himself starting under a most heavy
+disadvantage as compared with his neighbour of the same age, who had
+spent the last three or four years in a counting-house. The reason
+that this class is not commonly trained in the national seminaries,
+is to be sought in the habit and requirements of the class, and not
+in the nature of the education afforded them.
+
+We have spoken chiefly of Cambridge, because Cambridge has put
+herself forward as the representative of a system of so-called
+university reform--of a certain movement in the direction of that
+principle which would accommodate the education of our higher
+classes to the caprice of a popular cry or cant phrase. We care
+not so much whether that movement in itself be advantageous or the
+reverse: it is against the principles supposed to be involved in it
+that we protest. The report goes, that changes of some kind or other
+are contemplated at Oxford also. If these changes be made, we trust
+that they will not be devised in deference to the noisier portion of
+the public, or to that fondness for short-cuts to knowledge, which
+fritters away the energies of the rising man in the collection of
+desultory facts, and the dependence upon shallow plausibilities.
+The Scottish universities, too, are likely to be put to the test in
+the same manner as their sisters of the Southern kingdom; and the
+questions raised cannot be uninteresting to them.
+
+Nor, indeed, can the whole nation be otherwise than deeply concerned
+in this matter; and we are not surprised, at the interest which
+has been excited by the recent alterations at Cambridge, though
+not measures in themselves of any great importance. While we have
+contended for a higher ground on the part of the universities
+than that of merely finding such knowledge as is required by the
+popular taste, and happens to be most current in the market, and
+have called upon them to lead the public mind in these matters,
+we need hardly say that we must not be understood as failing to
+see the necessity of those institutions closely observing the
+shifting relations of our social equilibrium, and adapting their
+policy by judicious change, if need be, to the circumstances in
+which they find themselves. We might perhaps adduce the altered
+position of the Church with respect to the nation at large, as
+an instance of these changes. We have before hinted that the
+universities have, as we think, in some degree aimed at being
+too exclusively the training-schools of the clergy; and this
+circumstance, in our judgment, so far as England is concerned, has
+both narrowed the operations of the Church and the influence of the
+universities. The Church and European civilisation--the latter
+having grown up under the tutelage of the former--stand no longer
+in the relation of nurse and bantling, though Heaven forbid that
+they should ever be other than firm friends and allies! But the
+Church is no longer the exclusive teacher of the world: mankind
+are in a great measure taught by books. Viewing the clergy not in
+respect of their sacerdotal functions, but as the instructors of
+mankind, we find their office shared by a motley crowd of authors,
+pamphleteers, newspaper editors, magazine contributors, _quales
+nos vel Cluvienus_. It is incumbent, then, on the universities to
+consider how they may bring within the sphere of that control which
+they exercised in old times over the clergy, this mixed multitude
+of public instructors; how they may become not merely the schools
+of the clerical order, but also the nurseries of a future caste of
+literary men, who are to bear their part with that order in the
+coming development of human thought.
+
+
+
+
+THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN.
+
+BY DELTA.
+
+
+[Making all allowances for the many over-coloured pictures, nay,
+often onesided statements of such apologetic chroniclers as Knox,
+Melville, Calderwood, and Row, it is yet difficult to divest the
+mind of a strong leaning towards the old Presbyterians and champions
+of the Covenant--probably because we believe them to have been
+sincere, and know them to have been persecuted and oppressed.
+Nevertheless, the liking is as often allied to sympathy as to
+approbation; for a sifting of motives exhibits, in but too many
+instances, a sad commixture of the chaff of selfishness with the
+grain of principle--an exhibition of the over and over again played
+game, by which the gullible many are made the tools of the crafty
+and designing few. Be it allowed that, both in their preachings
+from the pulpit and their teachings by example, the Covenanters
+frequently proceeded more in the spirit of fanaticism than of sober
+religious feeling; and that, in their antagonistic ardour, they did
+not hesitate to carry the persecutions of which they themselves
+so justly complained into the camp of the adversary--sacrificing
+in their mistaken zeal even the ennobling arts of architecture,
+sculpture, and painting, as adjuncts of idol-worship--still it is to
+be remembered, that the aggression emanated not from them; and that
+the rights they contended for were the most sacred and invaluable
+that man can possess--the freedom of worshipping God according
+to the dictates of conscience. They sincerely believed that the
+principles which they maintained were right: and their adherence to
+these with unalterable constancy, through good report and through
+bad report; in the hour of privation and suffering, of danger and
+death; in the silence of the prison-cell, not less than in the
+excitement of the battle-field; by the blood-stained hearth, on the
+scaffold, and at the stake,--forms a noble chapter in the history of
+the human mind--of man as an accountable creature.
+
+Be it remembered, also, that these religious persecutions were not
+mere things of a day, but were continued through at least three
+entire generations. They extended from the accession of James VI. to
+the English throne, (_testibus_ the rhymes of Sir David Lyndsay,
+and the classic prose of Buchanan,) down to the Revolution of
+1688--almost a century, during which many thousands tyrannically
+perished, without in the least degree loosening that tenacity of
+purpose, or subduing that _perfervidum ingenium_, which, according
+to Thuanus, have been national characteristics.
+
+As in almost all similar cases, the cause of the Covenanters, so
+strenuously and unflinchingly maintained, ultimately resulted in
+the victory of Protestantism--that victory, the fruits of which we
+have seemed of late years so readily inclined to throw away; and, in
+its rural districts more especially, of nothing are the people more
+justly proud than
+
+                        ----"the tales
+    Of persecution and the Covenant,
+    Whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour."
+
+So says Wordsworth. These traditions have been emblazoned by the
+pens of Scott, M'Crie, Galt, Hogg, Wilson, Grahame, and Pollok, and
+by the pencils of Wilkie, Harvey, and Duncan,--each regarding them
+with the eye of his peculiar genius.
+
+In reference to the following stanzas, it should be remembered that,
+during the holding of their conventicles,--which frequently, in the
+more troublous times, took place amid mountain solitudes, and during
+the night,--a sentinel was stationed on some commanding height in
+the neighbourhood, to give warning of the approach of danger.]
+
+
+I.
+
+    Ho! plaided watcher of the hill,
+      What of the night?--what of the night?
+    The winds are lown, the woods are still,
+      The countless stars are sparkling bright;
+    From out this heathery moorland glen,
+      By the shy wild-fowl only trod,
+    We raise our hymn, unheard of men,
+      To Thee--an omnipresent God!
+
+
+II.
+
+    Jehovah! though no sign appear,
+      Through earth our aimless path to lead,
+    We know, we feel Thee ever near,
+      A present help in time of need--
+    Near, as when, pointing out the way,
+      For ever in thy people's sight,
+    A pillared wreath of smoke by day,
+      Which turned to fiery flame at night!
+
+
+III.
+
+    Whence came the summons forth to go?--
+      From Thee awoke the warning sound!
+    "Out to your tents, O Israel! Lo!
+      The heathen's warfare girds thee round.
+    Sons of the faithful! up--away!
+      The lamb must of the wolf beware;
+    The falcon seeks the dove for prey;
+      The fowler spreads his cunning snare!"
+
+
+IV.
+
+    Day set in gold; 'twas peace around--
+      'Twas seeming peace by field and flood:
+    We woke, and on our lintels found
+      The cross of wrath--the mark of blood.
+    Lord! in thy cause we mocked at fears,
+      We scorned the ungodly's threatening words--
+    Beat out our pruning-hooks to spears,
+      And turned our ploughshares into swords!
+
+
+V.
+
+    Degenerate Scotland! days have been
+      Thy soil when only freemen trod--
+    When mountain-crag and valley green
+      Poured forth the loud acclaim to God!--
+    The fire which liberty imparts,
+      Refulgent in each patriot eye,
+    And, graven on a nation's hearts,
+      _The Word_--for which we stand or die!
+
+
+VI.
+
+    Unholy change! The scorner's chair
+      Is now the seat of those who rule;
+    Tortures, and bonds, and death, the share
+      Of all except the tyrant's tool.
+    That faith in which our fathers breathed,
+      And had their life, for which they died--
+    That priceless heirloom they bequeathed
+      Their sons--our impious foes deride!
+
+
+VII.
+
+    So We have left our homes behind,
+      And We have belted on the sword,
+    And We in solemn league have joined,
+      Yea! covenanted with the Lord,
+    Never to seek those homes again,
+      Never to give the sword its sheath,
+    Until our rights of faith remain
+      Unfettered as the air we breathe!
+
+
+VIII.
+
+    O Thou, who rulest above the sky,
+      Begirt about with starry thrones,
+    Cast from the Heaven of Heavens thine eye
+      Down on our wives and little ones--
+    From Hallelujahs surging round,
+      Oh! for a moment turn thine ear,
+    The widow prostrate on the ground,
+      The famished orphan's cries to hear!
+
+
+IX.
+
+    And Thou wilt hear! it cannot be,
+      That Thou wilt list the raven's brood,
+    When from their nest they scream to Thee,
+      And in due season send them food;
+    It cannot be that Thou wilt weave
+      The lily such superb array,
+    And yet unfed, unsheltered, leave
+      Thy children--as if less than they!
+
+
+X.
+
+    We have no hearths--the ashes lie
+      In blackness where they brightly shone;
+    We have no homes--the desert sky
+      Our covering, earth our couch alone:
+    We have no heritage--depriven
+      Of these, we ask not such on earth;
+    Our hearts are sealed; we seek in heaven,
+      For heritage, and home, and hearth!
+
+
+XI.
+
+    O Salem, city of the saint,
+      And holy men made perfect! We
+    Pant for thy gates, our spirits faint
+      Thy glorious golden streets to see;--
+    To mark the rapture that inspires
+      The ransomed, and redeemed by grace;
+    To listen to the seraphs' lyres,
+      And meet the angels face to face!
+
+
+XII.
+
+    Father in Heaven! we turn not back,
+      Though briers and thorns choke up the path;
+    Rather the tortures of the rack,
+      Than tread the winepress of Thy wrath.
+    Let thunders crash, let torrents shower,
+      Let whirlwinds churn the howling sea,
+    What is the turmoil of an hour,
+      To an eternal calm with Thee?
+
+
+
+
+THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA.
+
+
+The debates in the Cortes, and the increasing development of the
+civil war in Catalonia, have again called attention to the affairs
+of Spain. Three months ago we glanced at the state of that country,
+briefly and broadly sketching its political history since the royal
+marriages. The quarter of a year that has since elapsed has been a
+busy one in Spain. Two things have been clearly proved: first, that
+the Carlist insurrection is a very different affair from the paltry
+gathering of banditti, as which the Moderados and their newspapers
+so long persisted in depicting it; and, secondly, that the Madrid
+government are heartily repentant of their unceremonious dismissal
+of a British ambassador. Christina and her Camarilla scarcely know
+which most deeply to deplore--the intrusion of Cabrera or the
+expulsion of Bulwer.
+
+In Catalonia, we have a striking example of what may be
+accomplished, under most unfavourable circumstances, by one man's
+energy and talent. Nine months ago there was not a single company of
+Carlist soldiers in the field. A few irregular bands, insignificant
+in numbers, without uniform and imperfectly armed, roamed in the
+mountains, fearing to enter the plain, hunted down like wolves,
+and punished as malefactors when captured. To persons ignorant
+how great was the difference made by the fall of Louis Philippe
+in the chances of the Spanish Carlists, the cause of these never
+appeared more hopeless than in the spring of 1848. Suddenly a man,
+who for seven years had basked in the orange groves of Hyères, and
+listlessly lingered in the mountain solitudes of Auvergne,--reposing
+his body, scarred and weary from many a desperate combat, and
+recruiting his health, impaired by exertion and hardship--crossed
+the Pyrenees, and appeared upon the scene of his former exploits.
+The news of his arrival spread fast, but for a time found few
+believers. Cabrera, said the incredulous, who evacuated Spain at
+the head of ten thousand hardy and well-armed soldiers, because
+he would not condescend to a guerilla warfare, after having held
+towns and fortresses, and won pitched battles in the field--Cabrera
+would never re-enter the country to take command of a few hundred
+scattered adventurers. Others denied his presence, because he had
+not immediately signalised it by some dashing feat, worthy the
+conqueror of Morella and Maella. Various reports were circulated by
+those interested to discredit the arrival of the redoubted chief.
+He was ill, they said; he had never entered Spain or dreamed of
+so doing; he had come to Catalonia, others admitted, but was so
+disgusted at the scanty resources of his party, at the few men in
+the field, at the lack of arms, money, organisation,--of everything,
+in short, necessary for the prosecution of a war,--that he cursed
+the lying representations which had lured him from retirement, and
+was again upon the wing for France. The truth was in none of these
+statements. If Cabrera sounded a retreat in 1840, when ten thousand
+warlike and devoted followers were still at his orders, it was
+because the Carlist _prestige_ was gone for a time, the country was
+exhausted by war, anarchy reigned in the camp, and he himself was
+prostrated by sickness. In seven years, circumstances had entirely
+changed; the country, galled by misgovernment and oppression, was
+ripe for insurrection; the intermeddling of foreign powers was no
+longer to be apprehended; and Cabrera emerged from his retirement,
+not expecting to find an army, or money, or organisation, but
+prepared to create all three. In various ingenious and impenetrable
+disguises he moved rapidly about eastern Spain; fearlessly
+entering the towns, visiting his old partisans, and reviving their
+dormant zeal by ardent and confident speech; giving fresh spirit
+to the timid, shaming the apathetic, and enlisting recruits. His
+unremitting efforts were crowned with success. Numbers of his
+former followers rallied round him; secret adherents of the cause
+contributed funds; arms and equipments, purchased in France and
+England, safely arrived; officers of rank and talent, distinguished
+in former wars, raised their banners and mustered companies and even
+battalions; and soon Cabrera was strong enough to traverse Catalonia
+in all directions, and to collect from the inhabitants regular
+contributions, in almost every instance willingly paid, and gathered
+often within cannon-shot of the enemy's forts. He seemed ubiquitous.
+He was heard of everywhere, but more rarely seen, at least in
+his own character. In various assumed ones, not unfrequently in
+the garb of a priest, he accompanied small detachments sent to
+collect imposts; doing subaltern's rather than general's duty,
+ascertaining by personal observation the temper and disposition
+of the peasantry, and making himself known when a point was to be
+gained by the influence of his name and presence. His prodigious
+activity and perseverance wrought miracles in a country where those
+qualities by no means abound. Doubtless he has been well seconded,
+but his has been the master-spirit. The result of his exertions
+is best shown by a statement of the present Carlist strength in
+Catalonia. We have already mentioned what it was eight or nine
+months ago--a few hundred men, half-armed and ill disciplined,
+wandering amongst ravines and precipices. At the close of 1848, the
+Moderado papers, without means of obtaining correct information,
+estimated the Carlist army in Catalonia at 8000 men. The Carlists
+themselves, whose present policy is rather to under-state their
+strength, admitted 10,000. Their real numbers--and the accuracy of
+these statistics may be relied upon--are 12,000 bayonets and sabres,
+exclusive of small guerilla parties, known as _volantes_, and other
+irregulars. A large proportion of the 12,000 are old soldiers,
+who served in the last war; and all are well armed, equipped, and
+disciplined, and superior to their opponents in power of endurance,
+and of effecting those tremendous marches for which Spanish troops
+are celebrated. Regularly rationed and supplied with tobacco, they
+wait cheerfully till the military chest is in condition to disburse
+arrears. The curious in costume may like to hear something of their
+appearance. The brigade under the immediate orders of Cabrera
+wears a green uniform with black facings: Ramonet's men have dark
+blue jackets; there is a corps clothed _à l'Anglaise_, in scarlet
+coats and blue continuations, which is known as Count Montemolin's
+own regiment. The old _boina_ or flat cap, and a sort of light,
+low-crowned shako, such as is worn by the French in Africa, compose
+the convenient and appropriate head-dress. With the important arms
+of artillery and cavalry, in which armies raised as this one has
+been are apt to be deficient, Cabrera is well provided. A number
+of guns were buried and otherwise concealed in Spain ever since
+the last war, and others have been procured from France. As to
+cavalry, the want of which was so frequently and severely felt by
+the Carlists during the former struggle, the Christinos will be
+surprised, one of these days, to find how formidable a body of
+dragoons their opponents can bring into the field, although at
+the present moment they have but few squadrons under arms. Nearly
+four thousand horses are distributed in various country districts,
+comfortably housed in farm and convent stables, and divided amongst
+the inhabitants by twos and threes. They are well cared for, and
+kept in good condition, ready to muster and march whenever required.
+
+What the Catalonian Carlists are now most in want of, is a centre
+of operations, a strong fortress--a Morella or a Berga--whither to
+retreat and recruit when necessary. That Cabrera feels this want is
+evident from the various attempts he has made to surprise fortified
+towns, with a view to hold them against the Christinos. Hitherto
+these attempts have been unsuccessful, but we may be prepared to
+hear any day of his having made one with a different result.
+
+When the general tranquillity of Europe brought Spanish dissensions
+into relief, a vast deal of romance was written in France, Spain,
+and England, in the guise of memoirs of Cabrera, and of other
+distinguished leaders of the civil war, and not a little was
+swallowed by the simple as historical fact. We remember to have
+seen the Convention of Bergara accounted for in print by a game at
+cards between Espartero and Maroto, who, both being represented as
+desperate gamblers, met at night at a lone farm-house between their
+respective lines, and played for the crown of Spain. Espartero won;
+and Maroto, more loyal as a gamester than to his king, brought
+over his army to the queen. This marvellous tale, although not
+exactly vouched for in the original English, was gravely translated
+in French periodicals; and the chances are that a portion of the
+French nation believe to the present hour that Isabella owes her
+crown to a lucky hit at _monté_. Fables equally preposterous
+have been circulated about Cabrera. Of his personal appearance,
+especially, the most absurd accounts have been published; and
+type and graver have furnished so many fantastical and imaginary
+portraits of him, that one from the life may have its interest.
+Ramon Cabrera is about five feet eight inches in height, square
+built, muscular, and active. He is rather round-shouldered; his
+hair is abundant and very black; his grayish-brown eyes must be
+admitted, even by his admirers, to have a cruel expression. His
+complexion is tawny, his nose aquiline; he has nothing remarkable
+or striking in his appearance, and is neither ugly nor handsome,
+but of the two may be accounted rather good-looking than otherwise.
+He has neither an assassin-scowl nor an expression like a bilious
+hyena, nor any other of the little physiognomical _agrémens_ with
+which imaginative painters have so frequently embellished his
+countenance. His character, as well as his face, has suffered
+from misrepresentation. He has been depicted as a Nero on a small
+scale, dividing his time between fiddling and massacre. There is
+some exaggeration in the statement. Unquestionably he is neither
+mild nor merciful; he has shed much blood, and has been guilty of
+divers acts of cruelty, but more of these have been attributed
+to him than he ever committed. His mother's death by Christino
+bullets inspired him with a burning desire of revenge. The system of
+reprisals, so largely adopted by both sides, during the late civil
+war in Spain, will account for many of his atrocities, although it
+may hardly be held to justify them. But in the present contest he
+has hitherto gone upon a totally different plan. Mercy and humanity
+seem to be his device, as they are undoubtedly his best policy.
+His aim is to win followers, by clemency and conciliation, instead
+of compelling them by intimidation and cruelty. There is as yet no
+authenticated account of an execution occurring by his order. One
+man was shot at Vich by the troops blockading the place; but he
+was known as a spy, and was twice warned not to enter the town. He
+pretended to retire, made a circuit, tried another entrance, and
+met his death. As to Cabrera's having shot four or five officers
+for a plot against his life, as was recently reported in Spanish
+papers, and repeated by English ones, the tale is unconfirmed, and
+has every appearance of a fabrication. There is no doubt he finds
+it necessary to keep a tight hand over his subordinates, especially
+in presence of the recent defection of some of their number, whose
+treachery, however, is not likely to be very advantageous to the
+Christinos. The troops whom Pozas, Pons, Monserrat, and the other
+renegade chiefs induced to accompany them, have for the most part
+returned to their banners, and the queen has gained nothing but a
+few very untrustworthy officers. These, by one of the conditions
+of their desertion, her generals are compelled to employ, thus
+creating much discontent among those officers of the Christino army
+over whose heads the traitors are placed. The principal traitor,
+General Miguel Pons, better known as Bep-al-Oli, has been known
+as a Carlist ever since the rising in Catalonia in 1827, when he
+was captured by the famous Count d'Espagne, and was condemned to
+the galleys, as was his brother Antonio Pons, one of those whom
+Cabrera was lately falsely reported to have shot. After the death
+of Ferdinand, both brothers served under their former persecutor,
+who thought to extinguish their resentment by good treatment and
+promotion, in spite of which precaution a share in his assassination
+is pretty generally attributed to Antonio Pons. Bep-al-Oli is
+Catalan for Joseph-in-oil, or Oily Joe, a slippery cognomen, which
+his recent change of sides seems to justify. Still he is a model
+of consistency compared to many Spanish officers, who have changed
+sides half-a-dozen times in the last fifteen years. And, indeed,
+after one-and-twenty years' stanch and active Carlism, the sincerity
+of Bep's conversion may perhaps be considered dubious. It would be
+no way surprising if he were to return to his first love, carrying
+with him, of course, the large sum for which he was bought. Another
+chief, Monserrat, passed over to the Christinos with two or three
+companions, and the very next week he had the misfortune to fall
+asleep, whereupon the better half of his band took advantage of
+his slumbers to go back to their colours, much comforted by the
+gratuities they had received for changing sides. When Monserrat
+awoke, he was furious at this defection, and instantly pursued his
+stray sheep. Not having been heard of since, it is not unlikely he
+may ultimately have followed their example. Of course, money is
+the means employed to seduce these fickle partisans. They are all
+bought at their own price, which rate is generally so high as to
+preclude profit. The cash-keepers at Madrid will soon get tired
+of such purchases. The regular expenses of the war are enormous,
+without squandering thousands for a few days' use of men who cannot
+be depended upon. It is notorious that immense offers were made to
+Cabrera to induce him to abandon the cause of Charles VI., of which
+he is the life and soul. Gold, titles, rank, governorships, have
+been in turn and together paraded before him, but in vain. _He_
+would indeed be worth buying, at almost any price; for he could
+not be replaced, and his loss would be a death-blow to the Carlist
+cause. Knowing this, and finding him incorruptible, it were not
+surprising if certain unscrupulous persons at Madrid sought other
+means of removing him from the scene. Cabrera, aware of the great
+importance of his life, very prudently takes his precautions. He
+has done so, to some extent, at various periods of his career.
+During the early portion of his exile in France, when that country,
+especially its southern provinces, swarmed with Spanish emigrants,
+many of whom had deep motives for hating him--whilst others, needy
+and starving, and inured to crime and bloodshed, might have been
+tempted to knife him for the contents of his pockets--the refugee
+chief wore a shirt of mail beneath his sheepskin jacket. He had
+also a celebrated pair of leathern trousers, which were generally
+believed to have a metallic lining. And, at the present time, report
+says that his head is the only vulnerable part of his person.
+
+In presence of their Catalonian anxieties, of Cabrera's rapidly
+increasing strength, and of the impotence of Christino generals, who
+start for the insurgent districts with premature vaunts of their
+triumphs, and return to Madrid, baffled and crestfallen, to wrangle
+in the senate and divulge state secrets--the Narvaez government
+is secretly most anxious to make up its differences with England.
+This anxiety has been made sufficiently manifest by the recent
+discussions in the Cortes. Notwithstanding his assumed indifference
+and vain-glorious self-gratulation, the Duke of Valencia would
+gladly give a year's salary, perquisites, and plunder, to recall
+the impolitic act by which a British envoy was expelled the Spanish
+capital. Señor Cortina, the Progresista deputy, after denying that
+there were sufficient grounds for Sir Henry Bulwer's dismissal,
+and lamenting the rupture that has been its consequence, politely
+advised Narvaez to resign office, as almost the only means of
+repairing the dangerous breach. The recommendation, of course,
+was purely ironical. General Narvaez is the last man to play the
+Curtius, and plunge, for his country's sake, into the gulf of
+political extinction. In his scale of patriotism, the good of Spain
+is secondary to the advantage of Ramon Narvaez. We can imagine the
+broad grins of the Opposition, and the suppressed titter of his own
+friends, upon his having the face to declare, that, when the French
+Revolution broke out, he was actually planning a transfer of the
+reins of government into the hands of the Progresistas. The bad
+example of democratic France frustrated his disinterested designs,
+changed his benevolent intentions, and compelled him to transport
+and imprison, by wholesale, the very men towards whom, a few weeks
+previously, he was so magnanimously disposed. Returns of more than
+fifteen hundred persons, thus arbitrarily torn from their homes and
+families, were moved for early in the session; but only the names
+were granted, the charges against them being kept secret, in order
+not to give the lie to the ministerial assertion that but a small
+minority were condemned for political offences. As to the dispute
+with England, although Narvaez' pride will not suffer him to admit
+his blunder and his regrets, many of his party make no secret of
+their desire for a reconciliation at any price; fondly believing,
+perhaps, that it would be followed, upon the _amantium iræ_
+principle, by warmer love and closer union than before. The slumbers
+of these _ojalatero_ politicians are haunted by sweet visions of a
+British steam-flotilla cruising off the Catalonian coast, of Carlist
+supplies intercepted, of British batteries mounted on the shores of
+Spain, and manned by British marines--the sight of whose red jackets
+might serve, at a pinch, to bolster up the wavering courage of a
+Christino division--and of English commodores and artillery-colonels
+supplying such deficient gentlemen as Messrs Cordova and Concha with
+the military skill which, in Spain, is by no means an indispensable
+qualification for a lieutenant-general's commission. Doubtless,
+if the alliance between Lord Palmerston and Queen Christina had
+continued, we should have had something of this sort, some more
+petty intermeddling and minute military operations, consumptive of
+English stores, and discreditable to English reputation. As it is,
+there seems a chance of the quarrel being fairly fought out; of the
+Spaniards being permitted to settle amongst themselves a question
+which concerns themselves alone. If the Carlists get the better of
+the struggle, (and it were unsafe to give long odds against them,)
+it is undeniable that they began with small resources, and that
+their triumph will have been achieved by their own unaided pluck and
+perseverance.
+
+Puzzled how to make his peace with England, without too great
+mortification to his vanity and too great sacrifice of what he
+calls his dignity, Narvaez falls back upon France, and does his
+best to curry favour there by a fulsome acknowledgment of the evils
+averted from Spain by the friendly offices of Messrs Lamartine
+and Bastide, and of "the illustrious General Cavaignac." The fact
+is, that during the first six months of the republic, nobody in
+France had leisure to give a thought to Spain, and Carlists and
+Progresistas were allowed to concert plans and make purchases
+in France without the slightest molestation. At last, General
+Cavaignac, worried by Sotomayor--and partly, perhaps, through
+sympathy with his brother-dictator, Narvaez--sent to the frontier
+one Lebrière, a sort of thieftaker or political Vidocq, who already
+had been similarly employed by Louis Philippe. This man was to
+stir up the authorities and thwart the Carlists, and at first he
+did hamper the latter a little; but whether it was that he was
+worse paid than on his former mission--Cavaignac's interest in the
+affair being less personal than that of the King of the French--or
+that some other reason relaxed his activity, he did not long prove
+efficient. Then came the elections, and the success of Louis
+Napoleon was unwelcome intelligence to the Madrid government--it
+being feared that old friendship might dispose him to favour Count
+Montemolin as far as lay in his power: whereupon--the influence of
+woman being a lever not unnaturally resorted to by a party which
+owes its rise mainly to bedchamber intrigue and to the patronage of
+Madame Muñoz--the notable discovery was made that the Duchess of
+Valencia (a Frenchwoman by birth) is a connexion of the Buonaparte
+family, and her Grace was forthwith despatched to Paris to exercise
+her coquetries and fascinations upon her far-off cousin, and to
+intrigue, in concert with the Duke of Sotomayor, for the benefit
+of her husband's government. The result of her mission is not yet
+apparent. Putting all direct intervention completely out of the
+question, France has still a vast deal in her power in all cases
+of insurrection in the northern and eastern provinces of Spain. A
+sharp look-out on the frontier, seizure of arms destined for the
+insurgents, and the removal of Spanish refugees to remote parts of
+France, are measures that would greatly harass and impede Carlist
+operations; much less so now, however, than three or four months
+ago. Most of the emigrants have now entered Spain; and horses and
+arms--the latter in large numbers--have crossed the frontier.
+
+Up to the middle of January, the Montemolinist insurrection was
+confined to Catalonia, where alone the insurgents were numerous
+and organised. This apparent inactivity in other districts, where
+a rising might be expected, was to be attributed to the season.
+The quantity of snow that had fallen in the northern provinces was
+a clog upon military operations. About the middle of the month, a
+thousand men, including three hundred cavalry, made their appearance
+in Navarre, headed by Colonel Montero, an old and experienced
+officer of the peninsular war, who served on the staff so far back
+as the battle of Baylen. This force is to serve as a nucleus. The
+conscription for 1849 has been anticipated; that is to say, the
+young soldiers who should have joined their colours at the end of
+the year, are called for at its commencement; and it is expected
+that many of these conscripts, discontented at the premature
+summons, will prefer joining the Carlists. When the weather clears,
+it is confidently anticipated that two or three thousand hardy
+recruits will make the valleys of Biscay and Navarre ring once
+more with their Basque war-cries, headed by men whose names will
+astonish those who still discredit the virtual union of Carlists and
+Progresistas.
+
+The masses of troops sent into Catalonia have as yet effected
+literally nothing, not having been able to prevent the enemy even
+from recruiting and organising. General Cordova made a military
+promenade, lost a few hundred men--slain or taken prisoners with
+their brigadier at their head--and resigned the command. He has been
+succeeded by Concha, a somewhat better soldier than Cordova, who
+was never anything but a parade butterfly of the very shallowest
+capacity. Concha has as yet done little more than his predecessor,
+(his reported victory over Cabrera between Vich and St Hippolito was
+a barefaced invention, without a shadow of foundation,) although
+his force is larger than Cordova's was, and his promises of what
+he _would_ do have been all along most magnificent. Already there
+has been talk of his resignation, which doubtless will soon occur,
+and Villalonga is spoken of to succeed him. This general, lately
+created Marquis of the Maestrazgo for his cruelty and oppression
+of the peasantry in that district, will hardly win his dukedom in
+Catalonia, although dukedoms in Spain are now to be had almost for
+the asking. Indeed, they have become so common that, the other day,
+General Narvaez, Duke of Valencia, anxious for distinction from
+the vulgar herd, was about to create himself prince; but having
+unfortunately selected Concord for his intended title, and the
+accounts from Catalonia being just then anything but peaceable,
+he was fain to postpone his promotion till it should be more _de
+circonstance_. The Prince of Concord would be a worthy successor to
+the Prince of the Peace. Spain was once proud of her nobility and
+choice of her titles. Alas! how changed are the times! What a pretty
+list of grandees and _titulos de Castilla_ the Spanish peerage now
+exhibits! Mr Sotomayor, the other day a bookseller's clerk, then
+sub-secretary in a ministry, then understrapper to Gonzales Bravo,
+now duke and ambassador at Paris! What a successor to the princely
+and magnificent envoys of a Philip and a Charles! And Mr Sartorius,
+lately a petty jobber on the Madrid Bolsa, is now Count of St Louis,
+secretary of state, &c.! When the Legion of Honour was prostituted
+in France by lavish and indiscriminate distribution, and by
+conversion into an electioneering bribe and a means of corruption,
+many old soldiers, who had won their cross upon the battle-fields of
+the Empire, had the date of its bestowal affixed in silver figures
+to their red ribbon. The old nobility of Spain must soon resort to
+a similar plan, and sign their date of creation after their names,
+if they would be distinguished from the horde of disreputable
+adventurers on whom titles have of late years been infamously
+squandered.
+
+When the Madrid government has performed its promise, so often
+repeated during the last six months, of extinguishing the Carlists
+and restoring peace to Spain, we hope those ill-treated gentlemen
+in the city of London, who, from time to time, draw up a respectful
+representation to General Narvaez on the subject of Spanish
+debts--a representation which that officer blandly receives, and
+takes an early opportunity of forgetting--will pluck up courage
+and sternly urge the Duke of Valencia and the finance minister
+of the day to apply to the liquidation of Spanish bondholders'
+claims a part, at least, of the resources now expended on military
+operations. Forty-five millions of reals, about half-a-million of
+pounds sterling, are now, we are credibly informed, the monthly
+expenditure of the war department of Spain. That this is squeezed
+out of the country, by some means or other, is manifest, since
+nobody now lends money to Spain. A very large part of this very
+considerable sum being expended in Catalonia, goes into the pockets
+of the inhabitants of that province, who pay it over to the Carlists
+in the shape of contributions, and still make a profit by the
+transaction--so that they are in no hurry to finish the war; and
+Catalonia presents at this moment the singular spectacle of two
+contending armies paid out of the same military chest. But Spain is
+the country of anomalies; and nothing in the conduct of Spaniards
+will ever surprise us, until we find them, by some extraordinary
+chance, conducting their affairs according to the rules of common
+sense and the dictates of ordinary prudence.
+
+
+_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as
+printed.
+
+Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where
+the missing quote should be placed.
+
+The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the
+transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
+65, No. 400, February, 1849, by Various
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 65,
+No. 400, February, 1849, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 65, No. 400, February, 1849
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: December 4, 2013 [EBook #44344]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, FEB 1849 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Library of Early Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+
+
+<h1>BLACKWOOD'S<br />
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.<br /><br />
+
+
+<span class="s08"><span class="smcap">No.</span> CCCC.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;FEBRUARY, 1849.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Vol.</span> LXV.</span>
+</h1>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br />CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="contents">
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Caucasus and the Cossacks</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Caxtons. Part X.</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Statistical Accounts of Scotland</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">American Thoughts on European Revolutions</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Dalmatia and Montenegro</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Modern Biography.&mdash;Beattie's Life of Campbell</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The English Universities and their Reforms</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Covenanters' Night-Hymn. By Delta</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Carlists in Catalonia</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p class="center space-above">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center space-above"><big>EDINBURGH:</big></p>
+<p class="center">WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET:</p>
+<p class="center">AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed.</em></p>
+
+<p class="center">SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.</p>
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<p class="center"><small>PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.</small>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="center b15">BLACKWOOD'S<br />
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">No.</span> CCCC.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;FEBRUARY, 1849.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Vol.</span> LXV.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+<cite>Der Kaukasus und das Land der Kosaken in den Jahren 1843 bis 1846.</cite> Von
+<span class="smcap">Moritz Wagner</span>. 2 vols. Dresden und Leipzig, 1848.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>A handful of men, frugal, hardy,
+and valiant, successfully defending
+their barren mountains and dearly-won
+independence against the reiterated
+assaults of a mighty neighbour,
+offer, apart from political considerations,
+a deeply interesting spectacle.
+When, upon a map of the world's
+eastern hemisphere, we behold, not
+far from its centre, on the confines of
+barbarism and civilisation, a spot,
+black with mountains, and marked
+"Circassia;" when we contrast this
+petty nook with the vast territory
+stretching from the Black Sea to the
+Northern Ocean, from the Baltic to
+Behring's Straits, we admire and wonder
+at the inflexible resolution and
+determined gallantry that have so
+long borne up against the aggressive
+ambition, iron will, and immense resources
+of a czar. Sixty millions
+against six hundred thousand&mdash;a hundred
+to one, a whole squadron against
+a single cavalier, a colossus opposed
+to a pigmy&mdash;these are the odds at
+issue. It seems impossible that such
+a contest can long endure. Yet it
+has lasted twenty years, and still the
+dwarf resists subjugation, and contrives,
+at intervals, to inflict severe
+punishment upon his gigantic adversary.
+There is something strangely
+exciting in the contemplation of so
+brave a struggle. Its interest is far
+superior to that of any of the "little
+wars" in which Europe, since 1815,
+has evaporated her superabundant
+pugnacity. African raids and Spanish
+skirmishes are pale affairs contrasted
+with the dashing onslaughts of the
+intrepid Circassians. And, in other
+respects than its heroism, this contest
+merits attention. As an important
+section of the huge mountain-dyke,
+opposed by nature to the south-eastern
+extension of the Russian empire, Circassia
+is not to be overlooked. On
+the rugged peaks and in the deep valleys
+of the Caucasus, her fearless warriors
+stand, the vedettes of southern
+Asia, a living barrier to the forward
+flight of the double eagle.</p>
+
+<p>Matters of pressing interest, nearer
+home, have diverted public attention
+from the warlike Circassians, whose
+independent spirit and unflinching
+bravery deserves better than even
+temporary oblivion. Not in our day
+only have they distinguished themselves
+in freedom's fight. Surrounded
+by powerful and encroaching potentates,
+their history, for the last five
+hundred years, records constant
+struggles against oppression. Often
+conquered, they never were fully subdued.
+Their obscure chronicles are
+illumined by flashes of patriotism and
+heroic courage. Early in the fifteenth
+century, they conquered their freedom
+from the Georgian yoke. Then came
+long wars with the Tartars, who could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+hardly, perhaps, be considered the
+aggressors, the Circassians having
+overstepped their mountain limits,
+and spread over the plains adjacent
+to the Sea of Azov. In 1555, the
+Russian grand-duke, Ivan Vasilivitch,
+pressed forward to Tarki upon the
+Caspian, where he placed a garrison.
+A Circassian tribe submitted to him;
+he married the daughter of one of
+their princes, and assisted them
+against the Tartars. But after a
+while the Russians withdrew their
+succour; and the Circassians, driven
+back to the river Kuban, their natural
+boundary to the north-west, paid
+tribute to the Tartars, till the commencement
+of the eighteenth century,
+when a decisive victory liberated them.
+Meanwhile Russia strode steadily
+southwards, reached the Kuban in the
+west, whilst, in the east, Tarki and
+Derbent fell, in 1722, into the hands
+of Peter the Great. The fort of
+Swiatoi-Krest, built by the conqueror,
+was soon afterwards retaken by a
+swarm of fanatical mountaineers from
+the eastern Caucasus. It is now
+about seventy years since Russian
+and Circassian first crossed swords in
+serious warfare. A fanatic dervise,
+who called himself Sheikh Mansour,
+preached a religious war against the
+Muscovites; but, although followed
+with enthusiasm, his success was not
+great, and at last he was captured
+and sent prisoner into the interior of
+Russia. With his fall the furious
+zeal of the Caucasians subsided for a
+while. But the Turks, who viewed
+Circassia as their main bulwark
+against the rapidly increasing power
+of their dangerous northern neighbour,
+made friends of the mountaineers,
+and stirred them up against
+Russia. The fortified town of Anapa,
+on the north-west coast of Circassia,
+became the focus of the intercourse
+between the Porte and its new allies.
+The creed of Mahomet was actively
+propagated amongst the Circassians,
+whose relations with Turkey grew
+more and more intimate, and in the
+year 1824 several tribes took oath of
+allegiance to the sultan. In 1829,
+during the war between Russia and
+Turkey, Anapa, which had more than
+once changed hands in the course of
+previous contests, was taken by the
+former power, to whom, by the treaty
+of Adrianople, its possession, and that
+of the other Turkish posts on the same
+coast, was finally conceded. Hence
+the chief claim of Russia upon Circassia&mdash;although
+Circassia had never
+belonged to the Turks, nor been occupied
+by them; and from that period
+dates the war that has elicited from
+Russia so great a display of force
+against an apparently feeble, but in
+reality formidable antagonist&mdash;an
+antagonist who has hitherto baffled
+her best generals, and picked troops,
+and most skilful strategists.</p>
+
+<p>The tribes of the Caucasus may be
+comprehended, for the sake of simplicity,
+under two denominations:
+the Tcherkesses or Circassians, in
+the west, and the Tshetshens in the
+east. In loose newspaper statements,
+and in the garbled reports of the
+war which remote position, Russian
+jealousy, and the peculiarly inaccessible
+character of the Caucasians,
+suffer to reach us, even this broad
+distinction is frequently disregarded.[A]
+It is nevertheless important, at least
+in a physiological point of view;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+and, even as regards the resistance
+offered to Russia, there are differences
+between the Eastern and the
+Western Caucasians. The military
+tactics of both are much alike, but the
+character of the war varies. On the
+banks of the Kuban, and on the Euxine
+shores, the strife has never been
+so desperate, and so dangerous for the
+Russians, as in Daghestan, Lesghistan,
+and the land of the Tshetshens.
+The Abchasians, Mingrelians, and
+other Circassian tribes, dwelling on
+the southern slopes of Caucasus, and
+on the margin of the Black Sea, are
+of more peaceable and passive character
+than their brethren to the North
+and East. The Tshetshens, by far
+the most warlike and enterprising of
+the Caucasians, have had the ablest
+leaders, and have at all times been
+stimulated by fierce religious zeal. As
+far back as 1745, Russian missionaries
+were sent to the tribe of the Osseti,
+who had relapsed from Christianity
+to the heathen creed of their forefathers.
+Every Osset who presented
+himself at the baptismal font received
+a silver cross and a new shirt. The
+bait brought thousands of the mountaineers
+to the Russian priests, who
+contented themselves with the outward
+and visible sign of conversion. These
+propagandist attempts enraged the Mahomedan
+tribes, and then it was that
+they thronged around Sheikh Mansour,
+as they have done in our day (in 1830)
+around that strange fanatic Chasi-Mollah,
+when in his turn he preached a
+holy war against the Russian. In the
+latter year, General Paskewitch had
+just been called away to Poland, and
+his successor, Baron Rosen, found all
+Daghestan in an uproar. He immediately
+opened the campaign, but met
+a strenuous resistance, and suffered
+heavy loss. The defence of the village
+of Hermentschuk, held against him,
+in the year 1832, by 3000 Tshetshens,
+was an extraordinary example of heroism.
+When the Russian infantry
+forced their way into the place with
+the bayonet, a portion of the garrison
+shut themselves up in a fortified house,
+and made it good against overwhelming
+numbers, singing passages from
+the Koran amidst a storm of bombs and
+grapeshot. At last the building took
+fire, and its undaunted defenders, the
+sacred verses still upon their lips,
+found death in the flames. In an
+equally desperate defence of the fortified
+village of Himri, Chasi-Mollah
+met his death, falling in the very
+breach, bleeding from many wounds.
+The chief who succeeded him was less
+venerated and less energetic, and for
+a few years the Tshetshens remained
+tolerably quiet, but without a thought
+of submission. Nevertheless the Russians
+flattered themselves that the worst
+was past; that the death of the mad
+dervish was an irreparable loss to the
+mountaineers. They were mistaken.
+Out of his most ardent adherents Chasi-Mollah
+had formed a sort of sacred
+band, whom he called Murides, gloomy
+fanatics, half warriors, half priests.
+They composed his body-guard, were
+unwearied in preaching up the fight
+for the Prophet's faith, and in battle
+devoted themselves to death with a
+heroism that has never been surpassed.
+From these, within a short time of
+their first leader's death, Chamyl, the
+present renowned chief of the Tshetshens,
+soon stood forth pre-eminent,
+and the Murides followed him to the
+field with the same enthusiasm and
+valour they had shown under his predecessor.
+He did not prove less worthy
+of guiding them; and the Russians
+were compelled to confess, that
+it was easier for the Tshetshens to
+find an able leader than for them to
+find a general able to beat him. And
+victories over the restless and enterprising
+Caucasians were of little profit,
+even when obtained. For the
+most part, they only served to fill the
+Russian hospitals, and to procure the
+officers those ribbons and distinctions
+they so greedily covet, and which, in
+that service, are so liberally bestowed.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+Thus, in 1845, Count Woronzoff
+made a most daring expedition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+into the heart of Daghestan. He found
+the villages empty and in flames, lost
+three thousand men, amongst them
+many brave and valuable officers, and
+marched back again, strewing the path
+with wounded, for whom the means
+of transport (the horses of the Cossack
+cavalry) were quite insufficient. With
+great difficulty, and protected by a
+column that went out to meet them,
+the Russians regained their lines, harassed
+to the last by the fierce Caucasians.
+This affair was called a victory,
+and Count Woronzoff was made
+a prince. Two more such victories
+would have reduced his expeditionary
+column to a single battalion. Chamyl,
+who had cannonaded the Russians
+with their own artillery, captured in
+former actions, possibly considered
+himself equally entitled to triumph,
+as he slowly retreated, after following
+up the foe nearly to the gates of their
+fortresses, into the recesses of his native
+valleys.
+<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The interior of Circassia is still an
+unknown land. The investigations of
+Messrs Bell, Longworth, Stewart, and
+others, who of late years have visited
+and written about the country, were
+confined to small districts, and cramped
+by the jealousy of the natives. Mr
+Bell, who made the longest residence,
+was treated more like a prisoner than
+a guest. Other foreigners find a worse
+reception still. Even the Poles, who
+desert from the Russian army, are
+made slaves of by the Circassians, and
+so severely treated that they are often
+glad to return to their colours, and
+endure the flogging that there awaits
+them. The only European who,
+having penetrated into the interior,
+has again seen his own country, is the
+Russian Baron Turnau, an aide-de-camp
+of General Gurko; but the circumstances
+of his abode in Circassia
+were too painful and peculiar to allow
+opportunity for observation. They
+are well told by Dr Wagner.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"By the Emperor's command, Russian
+officers acquainted with the language are
+sent, from time to time, as spies into Circassia,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>&mdash;partly
+to make topographical
+surveys of districts previously unknown;
+partly to ascertain the numbers, mode
+of life, and disposition of those tribes
+with whom no intercourse is kept up.
+These missions are extremely dangerous,
+and seldom succeed. Shortly before
+my arrival at Terek, four Russian
+staff-officers were sent as spies to various
+parts of Lesghistan. They assumed
+the Caucasian garb, and were attended
+by natives in Russian pay. Only
+one of them ever returned; the three
+others were recognised and murdered.
+Baron Turnau prepared himself long
+beforehand for his dangerous mission. He
+gave his complexion a brownish tint, and
+to his beard the form affected by the aborigines.
+He also tried to learn the language
+of the Ubiches, but, finding the
+harsh pronunciation of certain words quite
+unattainable, he agreed with his guide to
+pass for deaf and dumb during his stay
+in the country. In this guise he set out
+upon his perilous journey, and for several
+days wandered undetected from tribe to
+tribe. But one of the <em>works</em> (nobles) under
+whose roof he passed a night, conceived
+suspicions, and threatened the
+guide, who betrayed his employer's secret.
+The baron was kept prisoner, and the
+Ubiches demanded a cap-full of silver for
+his ransom from the Russian commandant
+of Fort Ardler. When this officer
+declared himself ready to pay, they
+increased their demand to a bushel of
+silver rubles. The commandant referred
+the matter to Baron Rosen, then commander-in-chief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+of the army of the Caucasus;
+the baron reported it to St Petersburg,
+and the Emperor consented to pay
+the heavy ransom. But Rosen represented
+it to him as more for the Russian
+interest to leave Turnau for a while in
+the hands of the Ubiches; for, in the first
+place, the payment of so large a sum was
+a bad precedent, likely to encourage the
+mountaineers to renew the extortion, instead
+of contenting themselves, as they
+previously had done, with a few hundred
+rubles; and, secondly, as a prisoner,
+Baron Turnau would perhaps have opportunities
+of gathering valuable information
+concerning a country and people of whom
+little or nothing was known. The unfortunate
+young officer was cruelly sacrificed
+to these considerations, and passed a long
+winter in terrible captivity, tortured by
+frost and hunger, compelled, as a slave,
+to the severest labour, and often greatly
+ill-treated. Several attempts at flight
+failed; and at last the chief, in whose
+hands he was, confined him in a cage
+half-buried in the ground, and withal so
+narrow that its inmate could neither
+stand upright nor lie at length."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus immured, a prey to painful
+maladies, his clothes rotting on his
+emaciated limbs, the unhappy man
+moaned through his long and sleepless
+nights, and gave up hope of rescue.
+No tender-hearted Circassian maiden
+brought to him, as to the hero of
+Pushkin's well-known Caucasian
+poem, deliverance and love. Such
+luck had been that of more than one
+Russian captive; but poor Turnau, in
+his state of filth and squalor, was no
+very seductive object. He might have
+pined away his life in his cage, before
+Baron Rosen, or his paternal majesty
+the Czar, had recalled his fate to mind,
+but for an injury done by his merciless
+master to one of his domestics,
+who vowed revenge. Watching his
+opportunity, this servant, one day that
+the rest of the household were absent,
+murdered his lord, released the prisoner,
+tied him with thongs upon his
+saddle, upon which the baron, covered
+with sores and exhausted by illness,
+was unable to support himself, and
+galloped with him towards the frontier.
+In one day they rode eighty
+<em>versts</em>, (about fifty-four English miles,)
+outstripped pursuers, and reached
+Fort Ardler. The accounts given by
+Baron Turnau of the land of his captivity
+could be but slight: he had
+seen little beyond his place of confinement.
+What he did relate was not
+very encouraging to Russian invasion.
+He depicted the country as one mass
+of rock and precipice, partially clothed
+with vast tracts of aboriginal forest,
+broken by deep ravines and mountain
+torrents, and surmounted by the huge
+ice-clad pinnacles of the loftiest Caucasian
+ridge. The villages, some of
+which nestle in the deep recesses of
+the woods, whilst others are perched
+upon steep crags and on the brink of
+giddy precipices, are universally of
+most difficult access.</p>
+
+<p>Dr Wagner, whose extremely
+amusing book forms the text of this
+article, has never been in Circassia,
+although he gives us more information
+about it, of the sort we want,
+than any traveller in that singular
+land whose writings have come under
+our notice. His wanderings were
+under Russian guidance and escort.
+During them, he skirted the hostile
+territory on more than one side;
+occasionally setting a foot across the
+border, to the alarm of his Cossacks,
+whose dread by day and dreams
+by night were of Circassian ambuscades;
+he has lingered at the base
+of Caucasus, and has traversed its
+ranges&mdash;without, however, deeming it
+necessary to penetrate into those
+remote valleys, where foreigners find
+dubious welcome, and whence they are
+not always sure of exit. He has
+mixed much with Circassians, if he
+has not actually dwelt in their villages.
+It were tedious and unnecessary
+to detail his exact itinerary.
+He has not printed his entire journal&mdash;according
+to the lazy and egotistical
+practice of many travellers&mdash;but
+has taken the trouble to condense it.
+The essence is full of variety, anecdote
+and adventure, and gives a clear
+insight into the nature of the war.
+Professedly a man of science, an antiquary
+and a naturalist, Dr Wagner
+has evidently a secret hankering after
+matters military. He loves the sound
+of the drum, and willingly directs his
+scientific researches to countries where
+he is likely to smell powder. We
+had heard of him in the Atlas mountains,
+and at the siege of Constantina,
+before we met him risking his neck
+along the banks of the Kuban, and
+across the wild steppes of the Caucasus.
+He has travelled much in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+East, and prepared himself for his
+Caucasian trip by a long stay in
+Turkey and in Southern Russia.
+Well introduced, he derived from
+distinguished Russian generals, intelligent
+civilians, and Circassian chiefs,
+particulars of the war more authentic
+than are to be obtained either from
+St Petersburg bulletins, or from the
+ordinary trans-Caucasian correspondents
+of German and other newspapers,
+many of whom are in the pay
+of Russia. His African reminiscences
+proved of great value. The officers
+of the army of Caucasus take the
+strongest interest in the contest between
+French and Arabs, finding in
+it, doubtless, points of similitude with
+the war in which they themselves are
+engaged. Amongst these officers he
+met, besides Russians and Germans,
+several naturalised Poles and Frenchmen,
+Flemings and Spaniards, who
+gave in exchange for his tales of
+razzias and Bedouins, details of Circassian
+warfare which he highly
+prized, as likely to be more impartial
+than the accounts afforded by the
+native Russians. His own journey to
+the Caucasus took place in 1843; but
+a subsequent correspondence with
+well-informed friends, on both sides
+the Caucasian range, enabled him to
+bring down his sketch of the struggle
+to the year 1846.</p>
+
+<p>Many English writers on Circassia
+have been accused of an undue preference
+for the mountaineers, of exaggerating
+their good qualities, and of
+elevating them by invidious contrasts
+with the Russians. There is no
+ground for suspecting a German of
+such partiality; and Dr Wagner,
+whilst lauding the heroic valour and
+independent spirit of the Circassians&mdash;qualities
+which Russian authors
+have themselves admitted and extolled&mdash;does
+not forget to do justice to
+his Muscovite and Cossack friends,
+to whom he devotes a considerable
+portion of his book, many of his
+details concerning them being extremely
+novel and curious. He carefully
+studied both Cossacks and Circassians,
+living amongst the former
+and meeting thousands of the latter,
+who go and come freely upon Russian
+territory. At Ekaterinodar, the capital
+of the Tchernamortsy Cossacks,
+the Friday's market swarmed with
+Circassians. In Turkey, and elsewhere,
+Dr Wagner had met many
+individuals of that nation, but this
+was the first time he beheld them in
+crowds. He describes them as very
+handsome men, with black beards,
+aquiline noses, and flashing black
+eyes. He was struck with their lofty
+mien, and attributes it to their mental
+energy, and to a consciousness of
+physical strength and beauty.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"This superiority of the pure Circassian
+blood does not belie itself under
+Russian discipline, any more than it does
+in Mahometan lands, where, as Mamelukes
+in Cairo, and as pashas in Stamboul,
+the sons of Caucasus have ever
+played a prominent and distinguished
+part. The Turk, who by certain imposing
+qualities awes all other Orientals,
+tacitly recognises the superiority of the
+Circassian <i>ousden</i>, or noble. The Emperor
+Nicholas, who preserves so rigid a
+discipline in the various corps of his
+vast army, shows himself extraordinarily
+considerate towards the Circassian squadrons
+of his guard. Persons well versed
+in the military chronicles of St Petersburg
+relate many a characteristic trait,
+proving the bold stubborn spirit of these
+Caucasian men to be still unbroken, and
+showing how it more than once has so imposed
+upon the emperor, and even upon
+the grand-duke Michael, reputed the strictest
+disciplinarian in Russia, that they have
+shut their eyes even to open mutiny.
+At a review, where the Caucasian cavalry
+formally refused obedience, the emperor
+contented himself with sending a courteous
+reproof by General Benkendorf.
+Beside the coarse common Russians, the
+Circassian looks like an eagle amidst a
+flock of bustards. Even capital crimes
+are not visited upon Circassians with the
+same severity as upon the other subjects
+of the emperor. A Circassian who had
+struck his dagger into the heart of a
+hackney-coachman at St Petersburg, in
+requital of an insolent overcharge, was
+merely sent back to the Caucasus. For
+a like offence a Russian might reckon
+upon the knout, and upon banishment
+for life to the Siberian mines.</p>
+
+<p>"Amongst the Circassians at Ekaterinodar,
+a <em>work</em>, or noble, of the Shapsookian
+tribe, was particularly remarkable
+for his beauty and dignity. None
+of the picturesque figures of Arabs and
+Moors furnished me by my African recollections,
+could bear comparison with this
+Caucasian eagle. I afterwards saw, in
+Mingrelia, a more ideal mould of feature,
+resembling the antique Apollo type:
+but there the expression was too effeminate;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+the heroic head of the dweller on
+the Kuban pleased me better. I stood
+a good while before the Shapsookian, as
+if fettered to the ground, so extraordinary
+was the effect of his striking beauty.
+What a study, I thought, for a German
+painter, who would in vain seek such
+models in Rome; or for a Vernet, whose
+Arabian groups prove the great power of
+his pencil! The Arabs, rather priestly
+than knightly in their aspect, produce
+far less effect upon the large Algerine
+pictures at Versailles than the Circassian
+warrior would do in a battle-piece by
+such masters as Vernet or Peter Hess.
+The Shapsook chief at Ekaterinodar
+seemed conscious of his magnificent appearance.
+With proud mien, and that
+light half-gliding gait observable in
+most Caucasians, he sauntered amongst
+the groups of Cossacks upon the market-place,
+casting glances of profoundest
+scorn upon their clumsy sheepskin-wrapped
+figures. His slender form and
+small foot, the grace and elegance of his
+person and carriage, the richness of his
+costume and beauty of his weapons, contrasted
+most advantageously with the
+muscular but somewhat thickset figures,
+and with the ugly woolly winter dress of
+the Tchernamortsies. By help of a Cossack
+I made his acquaintance, and got
+into conversation. His name was Chora-Beg,
+and he dwelt at a hamlet thirty
+versts south of Ekaterinodar."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Chora-Beg wondered greatly that
+his new acquaintance was neither
+Russian nor English. He had heard
+vaguely that there was a third Christian
+nation, which, under Sultan
+Bunapart, had made war upon the
+Padisha of the Russians, but he had
+no notion of such a people as the
+Germans. He greatly admired Dr
+Wagner's rifle, but rather doubted its
+carrying farther than a smooth bore,
+and allowed free inspection of his own
+arms, consisting of pistols and dagger,
+and of the famous <i>shaska</i>&mdash;a long
+heavy cavalry sabre, slightly curved,
+with hilt of silver and ivory. At the
+doctor's request he drew this weapon
+from the scabbard, and cut twice or
+thrice at the empty air, his dark eyes
+flashing as he did so. "How many
+Russians has that sabre sent to their
+account?" asked the inquisitive Doctor.
+The Circassian's intelligent
+countenance assumed an expression
+hard to interpret, but in which his
+interlocutor thought he distinguished
+a gleam of scorn, and a shade of suspicion.
+"It was long," he replied,
+"since his tribe had taken the field
+against the Russians. Since the deaf
+general (Sass) had left the land of the
+Cossacks, peace had reigned between
+Muscovite and Shapsookian. Individuals
+of his tribe had certainly been
+known to join bands from the mountains,
+and to cross the Kuban with
+arms in hand." And as Chora-Beg
+spoke, the expression of his proud eye
+belied his pacific pretensions.</p>
+
+<p>The general Sass above-named
+commanded for several years on the
+line of the Kuban, and is the only
+Russian general who has understood
+the mountain warfare, and proved
+himself a match for the Circassians at
+their own game of ambuscades and
+surprises. His tactics were those of
+the Spanish guerilla leaders. Lavish
+in his payment of spies, he was always
+accurately informed of the musters
+and projects of the Circassians;
+whilst he kept his own plans so secret,
+that his personal staff often knew nothing
+of an intended expedition until
+the call to "boot and saddle" sounded.
+His raids were accomplished, under
+guidance of his well-paid scouts, with
+such rapidity and local knowledge that
+the mountaineers rarely had time to
+assemble in force, pursue the retiring
+column, and revenge their burnt vilages
+and ravished cattle. But one
+day the report spread on the lines of
+the Kuban that the general was dangerously
+ill; shortly afterwards it
+became known that the physicians
+had given him up; and finally his
+death was announced, and bewailed
+by the whole army of the Caucasus.
+The consternation of the Cossacks,
+accustomed, under his command, to
+victory and rich booty, was as great
+as the exultation of the mountaineers.
+Hundreds of these visited the Russian
+territory, to witness the interment of
+their dreaded foe. A magnificent
+coffin, with the general's cocked hat
+and decorations laid upon it, was deposited
+in the earth amidst the mournful
+sounds of minute guns and muffled
+drums. With joyful hearts the Circassians
+returned to their mountains,
+to tell what they had seen, and to congratulate
+each other at the prospect of
+tranquillity for themselves, and safety
+to their flocks and herds. But upon
+the second night after Sass's funeral,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+a strong Russian column crossed the
+Kuban, and the dead general suddenly
+appeared at the head of his trusty
+lancers, who greeted with wild hurrahs
+their leader's resurrection. Several
+large <i>auls</i> (villages) whose inhabitants
+were sound asleep, unsuspicious of
+surprise, were destroyed, vast droves
+of cattle were carried off, and a host
+of prisoners made. This ingenious
+and successful stratagem is still cited
+with admiration on the banks of the
+Kuban. Notwithstanding his able
+generalship, Sass was removed from
+his command when in full career of
+success. All his military services
+could not shield him from the consequences
+of St Petersburg intrigues and
+trumped-up accusations. None of his
+successors have equalled him. General
+Willaminoff was a man of big
+words rather than of great deeds. In
+his bombastic and blasphemous proclamation
+of the 28th May 1837, he
+informed the Circassians that "If the
+heavens should fall, Russia could prop
+them with her bayonets;" following
+up this startling assertion with the
+declaration that "there are but two
+powers in existence&mdash;God in heaven,
+and the emperor upon earth!"<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> The
+Circassians laughed at this rhodomontade,
+and returned a firm and becoming
+answer. There were but few of
+them, they said&mdash;but, with God's blessing,
+they would hold their own, and
+fight to the very last man: and to
+prove themselves as good as their
+word, they soon afterwards made
+fierce assaults upon the line of forts
+built by the Russians upon the shores
+of the Black Sea. In 1840 four of
+these were taken, but the triumph cost
+the victors so much blood as to disgust
+them for some time with attacking
+stone walls, behind which the Russians,
+perhaps the best defensive combatants
+in the world, fight like lions.
+Indeed, the Circassians would hardly
+have proved victorious, had not the
+garrisons been enfeebled by disease.
+During the five winter months, the rations
+of the troops employed upon this
+service are usually salt, and the consequences
+are scurvy and fever. Informed
+by Polish deserters of the bad
+condition of the garrisons, the Circassians
+held a great council in the
+mountains, and it was decided to take
+the forts with the sabre, without firing
+a shot. It is an old Caucasian custom,
+that, upon suchlike perilous undertakings,
+a chosen band of enthusiastic
+warrors devote themselves to
+death, binding themselves by a solemn
+oath not to turn their backs upon the
+enemy. Ever in the van, their example
+gives courage to the timid; and
+their friends are bound in honour to
+revenge their death. With these
+fanatics have the Circassian and
+Tshetshen chiefs achieved their greatest
+victories over the Russians.</p>
+
+<p>When it was decided to attack the
+forts, several hundred Shapsookians,
+including gray-haired old men and
+youths of tender age, swore to conquer
+or to die. They kept their word.
+At the fort of Michailoff, which made
+the most obstinate defence, the ditch
+was filled with their corpses. The
+conduct of the garrison was truly
+heroic. Of five hundred men, only
+one third were fit for duty; the others
+were in hospital, or on the sick-list.
+But no sooner did the Circassian war-cry
+rend the air than the sufferers
+forgot their pains; the fever-stricken
+left their beds, and crawled to the
+walls. Their commandant called upon
+them to shed their last drop of blood
+for their emperor; their old <em>papa</em> exhorted
+them, as Christians, to fight to
+the death against the unbelieving
+horde. But numbers prevailed: after
+a valiant defence, the Russians retreated,
+fighting, to the innermost
+enclosures of the fortress. Their chief
+demanded a volunteer to blow up the
+fort when farther resistance should
+become impossible. A soldier stepped
+forward, took a lighted match, and
+entered the powder magazine. The
+last defences were stormed, the Circassians
+shouted victory. Then came
+the explosion. Most of the buildings
+were overthrown, and hundreds of
+maimed carcases scattered in all directions.
+Eleven Russians escaped
+with life, were dragged off to the
+mountains, and subsequently ransomed,
+and from them the details of this
+bloody fight were obtained.</p>
+
+<p>The capture of these forts spread<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+discouragement and consternation in
+the ranks of the Russian army. The
+emperor was furious, and General
+Rajewski, then commander-in-chief on
+the Circassian frontier, was superseded.
+This officer, who at the tender
+age of twelve was present with
+his father at the battle of Borodino,
+and who has since distinguished himself
+in the Turkish and Persian wars,
+was reputed an able general, but was
+reproached with sleeping too much,
+and with being too fond of botany.
+His enemies went so far as to accuse
+him of making military expeditions
+into the mountains, with the sole view
+of adding rare Caucasian plants to his
+<em>herbarium</em>, and of procuring seeds for
+his garden. General Aurep, who succeeded
+him, undertook little beyond
+reconnoissances, always attended with
+very heavy loss; and the Circassians
+remained upon the defensive until the
+year 1843, when the example of the
+Tshetshens, who about that time
+obtained signal advantages over the
+Russians, roused the martial ardour
+of the chivalrous Circassians, and
+spurred them to fresh hostilities. But
+the war at the western extremity of
+Caucasus never assumed the importance
+of that in Daghestan and the
+country of the Tshetshens.</p>
+
+<p>From the straits of Zabache to the
+frontier of Guria, the Russians possess
+seventeen <em>Kreposts</em>, or fortified posts,
+only a few of which deserve the name
+of regular fortresses, or could resist a
+regular army provided with artillery.
+To mountaineers, however, whose sole
+weapons are shaska and musket, even
+earthen parapets and shallow ditches
+are serious obstacles when well manned
+and resolutely defended. The
+object of erecting this line of forts was
+to cut off the communication by sea
+between Turkey and the Caucasian
+tribes. It was thought that, when the
+import of arms and munitions of war
+from Turkey was thus checked, the
+independent mountain tribes would
+soon be subjugated. The hope was
+not realised, and the expensive maintenance
+of 15,000 to 20,000 men in
+the fortresses of the Black Sea has but
+little improved the position of the
+Russians in the Caucasus. The Caucasians
+have never lacked arms, and
+with money they can always get powder,
+even from the Cossacks of the
+Kuban. In another respect, however,
+these forts have done them much
+harm, and thence it arises that, since
+their erection, and the cession of
+Anapa to Russia, the war has assumed
+so bitter a character. So long as
+Anapa was Turkish, the export of
+slaves, and the import of powder,
+found no hindrance. The needy Circassian
+noble, whose rude mountains
+supply him but sparingly with daily
+bread, obtained, by the sale of slaves,
+means of satisfying his warlike and
+ostentatious tastes&mdash;of procuring rich
+clothes, costly weapons, and ammunition
+for war and for the chase. In a
+moral point of view, all slave traffic is
+of course odious and reprehensible, but
+that of Circassia differed from other
+commerce of the kind, in so far that
+all parties were benefited by, and
+consenting to, the contract. The
+Turks obtained from Caucasus handsomer
+and healthier wives than those
+born in the harem; and the Circassian
+beauties were delighted to exchange
+the poverty and toil of their father's
+mountain huts for the luxurious <em>farniente</em>
+of the seraglio, of whose wonders
+and delights their ears were regaled,
+from childhood upwards, with
+the most glowing descriptions. The
+trade, although greatly impeded and
+very hazardous, still goes on. Small
+Turkish craft creep up to the coast,
+cautiously evading the Russian cruisers,
+enter creeks and inlets, and are
+dragged by the Circassians high and
+dry upon the beach, there to remain
+till the negotiation for their live cargo
+is completed, an operation that generally
+takes a few weeks. The women
+sold are the daughters of serfs and
+freedmen: rarely does a <em>work</em> consent
+to dispose of his sister or daughter,
+although the case does sometimes
+occur. But, whilst the sale goes on,
+the slave-ships are anything but secure.
+It is a small matter to have escaped
+the Russian frigates and steamers.
+Each of the Kreposts possesses a little
+squadron of row-boats, manned with
+Cossacks, who pull along the coast in
+search of Turkish vessels. If they
+detect one, they land in the night, and
+endeavour to set fire to it, before the
+mountaineers can come to the assistance
+of the crew. The Turks, who
+live in profound terror of these Cossack
+coast-guards, resort to every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+possible expedient to escape their
+observation; often covering their vessels
+with dry leaves and boughs, and
+tying fir branches to the masts, that
+the scouts may take them for trees.
+If they are captured at sea by the
+cruisers, the crew are sent to hard
+labour in Siberia, and the Circassian
+girls are married to Cossacks, or
+divided as handmaidens amongst the
+Russian staff officers. From thirty
+to forty slaves compose the usual
+cargo of each of these vessels, which
+are so small that the poor creatures
+are packed almost like herrings in a
+barrel. But they patiently endure the
+misery of the voyage, in anticipation
+of the honeyed existence of the harem.
+It is calculated that one vessel out of
+six is taken or lost. In the winter
+of 1843-4, eight-and-twenty ships left
+the coast of Asia Minor for that of
+Caucasia. Twenty-three safely returned,
+three were burned by the
+Russians, and two swallowed by the
+waves.</p>
+
+<p>A Turkish captain at Sinope told
+Dr Wagner the following interesting
+anecdote, illustrating Circassian hatred
+of the Russians:&mdash;"A few years ago
+a slave-ship sprang a leak out at sea,
+just as a Russian steamer passed in
+the distance. The Turkish slave-dealer,
+who preferred even the chill
+blasts of Siberia to a grave in deep
+water, made signals of distress, and the
+steamer came up in time to rescue the
+ship and its living cargo from destruction.
+But so deeply is hatred of
+Russia implanted in every Circassian
+heart, that the spirit of the girls revolted
+at the thought of becoming the
+helpmates of gray-coated soldiers, instead
+of sharing the sumptuous couch
+of a Turkish pasha. They had bid
+adieu to their native mountains with
+little emotion, but as the Russian ship
+approached they set up terrible and
+despairing screams. Some sprang
+headlong into the sea; others drove
+their knives into their hearts:&mdash;to these
+heroines death was preferable to the
+bridal-bed of a detested Muscovite.
+The survivors were taken to Anapa,
+and married to Cossacks, or given to
+officers as servants." Nearly every
+Austrian or Turkish steamboat that
+makes, in the winter months, the voyage
+from Trebizond to Constantinople,
+has a number of Circassian girls on
+board. Dr Wagner made the passage
+in an Austrian steamer with several
+dozens of these willing slaves, chiefly
+mere children, twelve or thirteen years
+old, with interesting countenances and
+dark wild eyes, but very pale and thin&mdash;with
+the exception of two, who were
+some years older, far better dressed,
+and carefully veiled. To this favoured
+pair the slave-dealer paid particular
+attention, and frequently brought them
+coffee. Dr Wagner got into conversation
+with this man, who was richly
+dressed in furs and silks, and who,
+despite his vile profession, had the
+manners of a gentleman. The two
+coffee-drinkers were daughters of
+noblemen, he said, with fine rosy
+cheeks, and in better condition than
+the others, consequently worth more
+money at Constantinople. For the
+handsomest he hoped to obtain 30,000
+piastres, and for the other 20,000&mdash;about
+£250 and £170. The herd of
+young creatures he spoke of with contempt,
+and should think himself lucky
+to get 2000 piastres for them all round.
+He further informed the doctor that,
+although the slave-trade was more
+dangerous and difficult since the Russian
+occupation of the Caucasian coast,
+it was also far more profitable. Formerly,
+when Greek and Armenian
+women were brought in crowds to
+the Constantinople market, the most
+beautiful Circassians were not worth
+more than 10,000 piastres; but now
+a rosy, well-fed, fifteen-year-old slave
+is hardly to be had under 40,000
+piastres.</p>
+
+<p>The Tshetshen successes, already
+referred to as having at the close of
+1842 stirred into flame and action, by
+the force of example, the smouldering
+but still ardent embers of Circassian
+hatred to Russia, are described with
+remarkable spirit by Dr Wagner, in the
+chapter entitled "Caucasian War-Scenes,"&mdash;episodes
+taken down by him
+from the lips of eye-witnesses, and
+of sharers in the sanguinary conflicts
+described. This graphic chapter at
+once familiarises the reader with the
+Caucasian war, with which he thenceforward
+feels as well acquainted as
+with our wars in India, the French
+contest in Africa, or with any other
+series of combats, of whose nature
+and progress minute information has
+been regularly received. The first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+event described is the storming of
+Aculcho, in the summer of 1839. It
+is always a great point with guerilla
+generals, and with leaders of mountain
+warfare, to have a centre of operations&mdash;a
+strong post, whither they can
+retreat after a reverse, with the confidence
+that the enemy will hesitate before
+attacking them there. In Spain,
+Cabrera had Morella, the Count
+d'Espagne had Berga, the Navarrese
+viewed Estella as their citadel. In
+the eastern Caucasus, Chasi-Mollah
+had Himri, and preferred falling in its
+defence to abandoning his stronghold;
+his successor, Chamyl, who surpasses
+him in talent for war and organisation,
+established his headquarters at
+Aculcho, a sort of eagle's nest on the
+river Koisu, whither his escorts
+brought him intelligence of each movement
+of Russian troops, and whence
+he swooped, like the bird whose eyrie
+he occupied, upon the convoys traversing
+the steppe of the Terek.
+Here he planned expeditions and
+surprises, and kept a store of arms
+and ammunition; and this fort General
+Grabbe, who commanded in 1839 the
+Russian forces in eastern Caucasus,
+and who was always a strong advocate
+of the offensive system, obtained
+permission from St Petersburg to
+attack. General Golowin, commander-in-chief
+of the whole army of
+the Caucasus, and then resident at
+Teflis, approved the enterprise, whose
+ultimate results cost both generals
+their command. The taking of
+Aculcho itself was of little moment;
+there was no intention of placing a
+Russian garrison there; but the
+double end to be obtained was to
+capture Chamyl, and to intimidate
+the Tshetshens, by proving to them
+that no part of their mountains, however
+difficult of access and bravely
+defended, was beyond the reach of
+Russian valour and resources. Their
+submission, at least nominal and
+temporary, was the result hoped for.</p>
+
+<p>Nature has done much for the fortification
+of Aculcho. Imagine a hill
+of sand-stone, nearly surrounded by
+a loop of the river Koisu&mdash;a miniature
+peninsula, in short, connected
+with the continent by a narrow neck
+of land&mdash;provided with three natural
+terraces, accessible only by a small
+rocky path, whose entrance is fortified
+and defended by 500 resolute
+Tshetshen warriors. A few artificial
+parapets and intrenchments, some
+stone huts, and several excavations in
+the sand rock, where the besieged
+found shelter from shot and shell,
+complete the picture of the place
+before which Grabbe and his column
+sat down. At first they hoped to
+reduce it by artillery, and bombs and
+congreve rockets were poured upon
+the fortress, destroying huts and
+parapets, but doing little harm to the
+Tshetshens, who lay close as conies
+in their burrows, and watched their
+opportunity to send well-aimed bullets
+into the Russian camp. From time
+to time, one of the fanatical Murides,
+of whom the garrison was chiefly
+composed, impatient that the foe
+delayed an assault, rushed headlong
+down from the rock, his shaska in his
+right hand, his pistol in his left, his
+dagger between his teeth; causing a
+momentary panic among the Cossacks,
+who were prepared for the whistling
+of bullets, but not for the sudden
+appearance of a foaming demon armed
+<i>cap-à-pie</i>, who generally, before they
+could use their bayonets, avenged in
+advance his own certain death by the
+slaughter of several of his foes, whilst
+his comrades on the rock applauded
+and rejoiced at the heroic self-sacrifice.
+The first attempt to storm was
+costly to the besiegers. Of fifteen
+hundred men who ascended the narrow
+path, only a hundred and fifty
+survived. The Tshetshens maintained
+such a well-directed platoon fire, that
+not a Russian set foot on the second
+terrace. The foremost men, mown
+down by the bullets of the besieged,
+fell back upon their comrades, and
+precipitated them from the rock.
+General Grabbe, undismayed by his
+heavy loss, ordered a second and a
+third assault; the three cost two
+thousand men, but the lower and
+middle terraces were taken. The
+defence of the upper one was desperate,
+and the Russians might have
+been compelled to turn the siege into
+a blockade, but for the imprudence
+of some of the garrison, who, anxious
+to ascertain the proceedings of the
+enemy's engineers&mdash;then hard at
+work at a mine under the hill&mdash;ventured
+too far from their defences, and
+were attacked by a Russian battalion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+The Tshetshens fled; but, swift of foot
+though they were, the most active of
+the Russians attained the topmost
+terrace with them. A hand-to-hand
+fight ensued, more battalions came
+up, and Aculcho was taken. The
+victors, furious at their losses, and at
+the long resistance opposed to them,
+(this was the 22d August,) raged like
+tigers amongst the unfortunate little
+band of mountaineers; some Tshetshen
+women, who took up arms at
+this last extremity, were slaughtered
+with their husbands. At last the
+bloody work was apparently at an
+end, and search ensued amongst the
+dead for the body of Chamyl. It was
+nowhere to be found. At last the
+discovery was made that a few of the
+garrison had taken refuge in holes in
+the side of the rock, looking over the
+river. No path led to these cavities;
+the only way to get at them was to
+lower men by ropes from the crag
+above. In this manner the surviving
+Tshetshens were attacked; quarter
+was neither asked nor given. The
+hole in which Chamyl himself was
+hidden held out the longest. Escape
+seemed, however, impossible; the
+rock was surrounded; the banks of
+the river were lined with soldiers;
+Grabbe's main object was the capture
+of Chamyl. At this critical moment
+the handful of Tshetshens still alive
+gave an example of heroic devotion.
+They knew that their leader's death
+would be a heavy loss to their country,
+and they resolved to sacrifice themselves
+to save him. With a few
+beams and planks, that chanced to be
+in the cave, they constructed a sort
+of raft. This they launched upon the
+Koisu, and floated with it down the
+stream, amidst a storm of Russian
+lead. The Russian general doubted
+not that Chamyl was on the raft, and
+ordered every exertion to kill or take
+him. Whilst the Cossacks spurred
+their horses into the river, and the
+infantry hurried along the bank, following
+the raft, a man sprang out of
+the hole into the Koisu, swam vigorously
+across the stream, landed at an
+unguarded spot, and gained the
+mountains unhurt. This man was
+Chamyl, who alone escaped with life
+from the bloody rock of Aculcho.
+His deliverance passed for miraculous
+amongst the enthusiastic mountaineers,
+with whom his influence, from that
+day forward, increased tenfold.
+Grabbe was furious; Chamyl's head
+was worth more than the heads
+of all the garrison: three thousand
+Russians had been sacrificed for the
+possession of a crag not worth the
+keeping.</p>
+
+<p>After the fall of Aculcho, Chamyl's
+head-quarters were at the village of
+Dargo, in the mountain region south
+of the Russian fort of Girselaul, and
+thence he carried on the war with
+great vigour, surprising fortified posts,
+cutting off convoys, and sweeping the
+plain with his horsemen. Generals
+Grabbe and Golowin could not
+agree about the mode of operations.
+The former was for taking the offensive;
+the latter advocated the
+defensive and blockade system.
+Grabbe went to St Petersburg to
+plead in person for his plan, obtained
+a favourable hearing, and the emperor
+sent Prince Tchernicheff, the minister
+at war, to visit both flanks of the
+Caucasus. Before the prince reached
+the left wing of the line of operations,
+Grabbe resolved to surprise him with
+a brilliant achievement; and on the
+29th May 1842, he marched from
+Girselaul with thirteen battalions, a
+small escort of mounted Cossacks, and
+a train of mountain artillery, to attack
+Dargo. The route was through forests,
+and along paths tangled with wild
+flowers and creeping plants, through
+which the heavy Russian infantry,
+encumbered with eight days' rations
+and sixty rounds of ball-cartridge,
+made but slow and painful progress.
+The first day's march was accomplished
+without fighting; only here
+and there the slender active form of a
+mountaineer was descried, as he peered
+between the trees at the long column
+of bayonets, and vanished as soon
+as he was observed. After midnight
+the dance began. The troops had
+eaten their rations, and were comfortably
+bivouacked, when they were
+assailed by a sharp fire from an invisible
+foe, to which they replied in
+the direction of the flashes. This
+skirmishing lasted all night; few were
+killed on either side, but the whole
+Russian division were deprived of
+sleep, and wearied for the next day's
+march. At daybreak the enemy retired;
+but at noon, when passing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+through a forest defile, the column
+was again assailed, and soon the
+horses, and a few light carts accompanying
+it, were insufficient to convey
+the wounded. The staff urged the
+general to retrace his steps, but
+Grabbe was bent on welcoming
+Tchernicheff with a triumphant bulletin.
+Another sleepless bivouac&mdash;another
+fagging day, more skirmishing.
+At last, when within sight
+of the fortified village of Dargo,
+the loss of the column was so heavy,
+and its situation so critical, that
+a retreat was ordered. The daring
+and fury of the Tshetshens now
+knew no bounds; they assailed the
+troops sabre in hand, captured baggage
+and wounded, and at night
+prowled round the camp, like wolves
+round a dying soldier. On the 1st
+June, the fight recommenced. The
+valour displayed by the mountaineers
+was admitted by the Russians to be
+extraordinary, as was also their skill
+in wielding the terrible shaska. They
+made a fierce attack on the centre of
+the column&mdash;cut down the artillery-men
+and captured six guns. The
+Russians, who throughout the whole
+of this trying expedition did their
+duty as good and brave soldiers, were
+furious at the loss of their artillery,
+and by a desperate charge retook five
+pieces, the sixth being relinquished
+only because its carriage was broken.
+Upon the last day of the retreat,
+Chamyl came up with his horsemen.
+Had he been able to get these together
+two days sooner, it is doubtful whether
+any portion of the column would have
+escaped. As it was, the Russians
+lost nearly two thousand men; the
+weary and dispirited survivors re-entering
+Girselaul with downcast
+mien. Preparations had been made
+to celebrate their triumph, and, to
+add to their general's mortification,
+Tchernicheff was awaiting their arrival.
+On the prince's return to St
+Petersburg, both Grabbe and Golowin
+were removed from their commands.</p>
+
+<p>Against this same Tshetshen fortress
+of Dargo, Count Woronzoff's
+expedition (already referred to) was
+made, in July 1845. A capital account
+of the affair is given in a letter
+from a Russian officer engaged, printed
+in Dr Wagner's book. Dargo had
+become an important place. Chamyl
+had established large stores there,
+and had built a mosque, to which
+came pilgrims from the remotest villages
+of Daghestan and Lesghistan,
+partly to pray, partly to see the
+dreaded chief&mdash;equally renowned as
+warrior and priest&mdash;and to give him
+information concerning the state of
+the country, and the movements of the
+Russians. Less vigorously opposed
+than Grabbe, and his measures better
+taken, Woronzoff reached Dargo with
+moderate loss. "The village," says
+the Russian officer: "was situated
+on the slope of a mountain, at the
+brink of a ravine, and consisted of sixty
+to seventy small stone-houses, and of a
+few larger buildings, where the stones
+were joined with mortar, instead of being
+merely superimposed, as is usually
+the case in Caucasian dwellings. One
+of these buildings had several irregular
+towers, of some apparent antiquity.
+When we approached, a thick smoke
+burst from them. Chamyl had ordered
+everything to be set on fire
+that could not be carried away. One
+must confess that, in this fierce determination
+of the enemy to refuse submission&mdash;to
+defend, foot by foot, the
+territory of his forefathers, and to
+leave to the Russians no other trophies
+than ashes and smoking ruins&mdash;there
+is a certain wild grandeur which
+extorts admiration, even though the
+hostile chief be no better than a fanatical
+barbarian." This reminds us
+of the words of the Circassian chief
+Mansour:&mdash;"When Turkey and England
+abandon us," he said, to Bell of
+the 'Vixen,'&mdash;"when all our powers
+of resistance are exhausted, we will
+burn our houses,and our goods,
+strangle our wives and our children,
+and retreat to our highest rocks, there
+to die, fighting to the very last man."
+"The greatest difficulty," said General
+Neidhardt to Dr Wagner, who
+was a frequent visitor at the house of
+that distinguished officer, "with which
+we have to contend, is the unappeasable,
+deep-rooted, ineradicable hatred
+cherished by all the mountaineers
+against the Russians. For this we
+know no cure; every form of severity
+and of kindness has been tried in turn,
+with equal ill-success." Valour and
+patriotism are nearly the only good
+qualities the Caucasians can boast.
+They are cruel, and for the most part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+faithless, especially the Tshetshens,
+and Dr Wagner warns us against
+crediting the exaggerated accounts
+frequently given of their many virtues.
+The Circassians are said to
+respect their plighted word, but there
+are many exceptions. General Neidhardt
+told Dr Wagner an anecdote of
+a Circassian, who presented himself
+before the commandant of one of the
+Black Sea fortresses, and offered to
+communicate most important intelligence,
+on condition of a certain reward.
+The reward was promised.
+Then said the Circassian,&mdash;"To-morrow
+after sunset, your fort will be
+assailed by thousands of my countrymen."
+The informer was retained,
+whilst Cossacks and riflemen were sent
+out, and it proved that he had spoken
+the truth. The enemy, finding the
+garrison on their guard, retired after
+a short skirmish. The Circassian received
+his recompense, which he took
+without a word of thanks, and left the
+fortress. Without the walls, he met
+an unarmed soldier; hatred of the
+Russians, and thirst of blood, again
+got the ascendency: he shot the soldier
+dead, and scampered off to the
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Chamyl did not long remain indebted
+to the Russians for their visit
+to Dargo. His reputation of sanctity
+and valour enabled him to unite under
+his orders many tribes habitually hostile
+to each other, and which previously
+had fought each "on its own hook."
+Of these tribes he formed a powerful
+league; and in May 1846 he burst
+into Cabardia at the head of twenty
+thousand mountaineers, four thousand
+of whom were horsemen. Formidable
+though this force was, the venture was
+one of extreme temerity. He left behind
+him a double line of Russian
+camps and forts, and two rivers, then
+at the flood, and difficult to pass.
+With an undisciplined and heterogeneous
+army, without artillery or regular
+commissariat, this daring chief
+threw himself into a flat country, unfavourable
+to guerilla warfare; slipping
+through the Russian posts, marching
+more than four hundred miles, and
+utterly disregarding the danger he was
+in from a well-equipped army of upwards
+of seventy thousand men, to
+say nothing of the numerous military
+population of the Cossack settlements
+on the Terek and Sundscha, and of the
+fact that the Cabardians, long submissive
+to Russia, were more likely
+to arm in defence of their rulers than
+to favour the mountaineers. Shepherds
+and dwellers in the plain, and
+far less warlike than the other Circassian
+tribes, they never were able
+to make head against the Russians;
+and had remained indifferent to all
+the incentives of Tshetshen fanatics
+and propagandists. For years past,
+Chamyl had threatened them with a
+visit; but nevertheless, his sudden
+appearance greatly surprised and confounded
+both them and the Russian
+general, who had just concentrated all
+his movable columns, with a view to
+an expedition, relying overmuch upon
+his lines of forts and blockhouses.
+The Tshetshen raid was more daring,
+and at least as successful, as Abd-el-Kader's
+celebrated foray in the Metidja,
+in the year 1839. Chamyl addressed
+to the Cabardians a thundering
+proclamation, full of quotations from
+the Koran, and denouncing vengeance
+on them if they did not flock to the
+banner of the Prophet. The unlucky
+keepers of sheep found themselves between
+the devil and the deep sea.
+From terror rather than sympathy,
+a large number of villages declared for
+Chamyl, whose wild hordes burned
+and plundered the property of all who
+adhered to the Russians; leaving, like
+a swarm of locusts, desolation in their
+track. When the Cossacks began to
+gather, and the Russian generals to
+man&oelig;uvre, Chamyl, who knew he
+could not contend in the plain with
+disciplined and superior forces, and
+whose retreat by the road he came
+was already cut off, traversed Great
+and Little Cabardia, burning and destroying
+as he went; dashed through
+the Cossack colonies to the south of
+Ekaterinograd, and regained his mountains
+in safety&mdash;dragging with him
+booty, prisoners, and Cabardian recruits.
+These latter, who had joined
+through fear of Chamyl, remained
+with him through fear of the Russians.
+By this foray, whose apparent great
+rashness was justified by its complete
+success, Chamyl enriched his people,
+strengthened his army, and greatly
+weakened the confidence of the tribes
+of the plain in the efficacy of Russian
+protection. As usual, in cases of disaster,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+the Russians kept the affair as
+quiet as they could; but the truth
+could not be concealed from those
+most concerned, and murmurs of dismay
+ran along the exposed line fringing
+the Muscovite and Circassian territories.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian army of the Caucasus
+reckoned, in 1843, about eighty thousand
+men, exclusive of thirty-five
+thousand who had little to do with
+the war, but were more especially
+employed in watching the extensive
+line of Turkish and Persian frontier,
+and in endeavouring to exclude contraband
+goods and Asiatic epidemics.
+But the severe fighting that occurred
+in 1842 and 1843, showed the necessity
+of an increase of force. Subsequent
+events have not admitted of a
+reduction in the Caucasian establishment;
+and we are probably very near
+the mark, in estimating the troops
+occupying the various forts and camps
+on the Black Sea, and the lines of the
+rivers, (Terek, Kuban, Koisu, &amp;c.,)
+at about one hundred thousand men&mdash;not
+at all too many to guard so extensive
+a line, against so active and
+enterprising a foe. The Russian ranks
+are constantly thinned by destructive
+fevers, which, in bad years, have been
+known to carry off as much as a sixth
+of the Caucasian army. At a review
+at Vladikawkas, Dr Wagner was
+struck by the powerful build of the
+Russian foot-soldiers&mdash;broad-shouldered,
+broad-faced Slavonians, with
+enormous mustaches, drilled to automatical
+perfection. In point of bone
+and limb, every man of them was a
+grenadier. In a bayonet charge, such
+infantry are formidable opponents.
+Ségur mentions that, on the battle-field
+of Borodino, the nation of the
+stripped bodies was easily known&mdash;the
+muscle and size of the Russians
+contrasting with the slighter frames of
+French and Germans. "You may
+kill the Russians, but you will hardly
+make them run," was a saying of
+Frederick the Great; and certainly
+Seidlitz, who scattered the French so
+briskly at Rossbach, had to sweat
+blood before he overcame the Russians
+at Zorndorf. Those survivors of Napoleon's
+famous Guard who fought in
+the drawn battle of Eylau, will bear
+witness to the stubborn resistance and
+bull-dog qualities of the Muscovite.
+But the grenadier stature, and the immobility
+under fire&mdash;admirable qualities
+on a plain, and against regular
+troops&mdash;avail little in the Caucasus.
+The burly Russian pants and perspires
+up the hills, which the light-footed chamois-like
+Circassians and Tshetshens
+ascend at a run. The mountaineers
+understand their advantages, and decline
+standing still in the plain to be
+charged by a line of bayonets. They
+dance round the heavy Russian, who,
+with his well-stuffed knapsack and
+long greatcoat, can barely turn on
+his heel fast enough to face them.
+They catch him out skirmishing, and
+slaughter him in detail. "One might
+suppose," said a foreigner in the Russian
+service to Dr Wagner, "that the
+musket and bayonet of the Russian
+soldier would be too much, in single
+combat, for the sabre and dagger of
+the Tshetshen. The contrary is the
+case. Amongst the dead, slain in
+hand-to-hand encounter, there are
+usually a third more Russians than
+Caucasians. Strange to say, too, the
+Russian soldier, who in the serried
+ranks of his battalion meets death
+with wonderful firmness, and who has
+shown the utmost valour in contests
+with European, Turkish, and Persian
+armies, often betrays timidity in the
+Caucasian war, and retreats from the
+outposts to the column, in spite of the
+heavy punishment he thereby incurs.
+I myself was exposed, during the murderous
+fight near Ischkeri (Dargo,) in
+1842, to considerable danger, because,
+having gone to the assistance of a
+skirmisher, who was sharply engaged
+with a Tshetshen, the skirmisher ran,
+leaving me to fight it out alone."
+This shyness of Russian soldiers in
+single fight and irregular warfare, is
+not inexplicable. They have no
+chance of promotion, no honourable
+stimulus: food and brandy, discipline
+and dread of the lash, convert them
+from serfs into soldiers. As bits of a
+machine, they are admirable when
+united, but asunder they are mere
+screws and bolts. Fanatic zeal, bitter
+hatred, and thirst of blood, animate
+the Caucasian, who, trained to
+arms from his boyhood, and ignorant
+of drill, relies only upon his keen
+shaska, and upon the Prophet's protection.</p>
+
+<p>Presuming Dr Wagner's statement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+of Russian rations to be correct, it is
+a puzzle how the soldier preserves the
+condition of his thews and sinews.
+The daily allowance consists of three
+pounds of bread, black as a coal; a
+water-soup, in which three pounds of
+bacon are cut up for every two hundred
+and fifty men; a ration of <em>wodka</em>,
+or bad brandy, and once a-week a
+small piece of meat. The pay is nine
+rubles a-year, (about one-third of a
+penny <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">per diem</i>,) out of which the unfortunate
+private has to purchase his
+stock, cap, soap, blacking, salt, &amp;c., &amp;c.
+Any surplus he is allowed to expend
+upon his amusement. "Our soldiers
+are obliged to steal a little," said a
+German officer in the Russian service
+to Dr Wagner; "their pay will not
+purchase soap and blacking; and if
+their shirts are not clean, and their
+shoes polished, the stick is their portion."
+"Stealing a little," in one
+way or other, is no uncommon practice
+in Russia, even amongst more highly
+placed personages than the soldiers.
+Officials of all kinds, both civil and military,
+particularly those of the middle
+and lower ranks, are prone to peculation.
+Dr Wagner was deafened with
+the complaints that from all sides met
+his ear. "Ah! if the emperor knew
+it!" was the usual cry. The subjects
+of Nicholas have strong faith in his
+justice. It is well remembered in the
+Caucasus, especially by the army,
+how one day, at Teflis, the emperor,
+upon parade, in full view of mob and
+soldiers, tore, with his own hand, the
+golden insignia of a general's rank
+from the coat of Prince Dadian, denounced
+to him as enriching himself
+at his men's expense. For several
+years afterwards, the prince carried the
+musket, and wore the coarse gray coat
+of a private sentinel. The officers
+pitied him, although his condemnation
+was just. "<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Il faut profiter d'une
+bonne place</i>," is their current maxim.
+The soldiers rejoiced; but in secret;
+for such rejoicings are not always safe.
+A sentence often recoils unpleasantly
+upon the accuser. Dr Wagner gives
+sundry examples. A major in Sewastopol
+fell in love with a sergeant's
+wife; and as she disregarded his addresses,
+he persecuted her and her
+husband at every opportunity. In
+despair, the sergeant at last complained
+to the general commanding.
+He was listened to; an investigation
+ensued; the major was superseded;
+and from his successor the sergeant
+received five hundred lashes, under
+pretence of his having left his regiment
+without permission when he
+went to lodge his charge. Corporal
+punishment, of frequent application,
+at the mere caprice of their superiors,
+to Russian serfs and soldiers, is inflicted
+with sticks or rods, the knout
+being reserved for very grave offences,
+such as murder, rebellion, &amp;c., and
+preceding banishment to Siberia,
+should the sufferer survive. Dr
+Wagner's description of this dreadful
+punishment is horribly vivid. Few
+criminals are sentenced to more than
+twenty-five lashes, and less than
+twenty often kill. Running the gauntlet
+through three thousand men is the
+usual punishment of deserters; and
+this would usually be a sentence of
+death but for the compassion of the
+officers, who hint to their companies
+to strike lightly. If the sufferer
+faints, and is declared by the surgeon
+unable to receive all his punishment,
+he gets the remainder at some future
+time. "Take him down" is a phrase
+unknown in the Russian service, until
+the offender has received the last lash
+of his sentence.</p>
+
+<p>Severity is doubtless necessary in
+an army composed like that of Russia.
+Two-thirds of the soldiers are serfs,
+whose masters, being allowed to send
+what men they please&mdash;so long as
+they make up their quota&mdash;naturally
+contribute the greatest scamps and
+idlers upon their estates. The army
+in Russia is what the galleys are in
+France, and the hulks in England&mdash;a
+punishment for an infinity of offences.
+An official embezzles funds&mdash;to the
+army with him; a Jew is caught
+smuggling&mdash;off with him to the ranks;
+a Tartar cattle-stealer, a vagrant
+gipsy, an Armenian trader convicted
+of fraud, a Petersburg coachman who
+has run over a pedestrian&mdash;all food
+for powder&mdash;gray coats and bayonets
+for them all. Jews abound in the
+Russian army, being subjected to a
+severe conscription in Poland and
+southern Russia. They submit with
+exemplary patience to the hardships
+of the service, and to the taunts of
+their Russian comrades. Poles are of
+course numerous in the ranks, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+they are less enduring than the Israelite,
+and often desert to the Circassians,
+who make them work as servants, or
+sell them as slaves to the Turks. No
+race are too unmilitary in their nature
+to be ground into soldiers by the mill
+of Russian discipline. Besides Jews,
+gipsies and Armenians figure on the
+muster-roll. It must have been a
+queer day for the ragged Zingaro,
+when the Russian sergeant first stepped
+into his smoky tent, bade him
+clip his elf locks, wash his grimy
+countenance, and follow to the field.
+For him the pomp of war had no
+seductions; he would far rather have
+stuck to his den and vermin, and to
+his meal of roast rats and hedgehogs.
+But military discipline works miracles.
+The slouching filthy vagabond of yesterday
+now stands erect as if he had
+swallowed his ramrod, his shoes a
+brilliant jet, his buttons sparkling in
+the sun&mdash;a soldier from toe to top-knot.</p>
+
+<p>The right bank of the Kuban, from
+the Sea of Azov to the mouth of the
+Laba, (a tributary of the former
+stream,) is peopled with Tchernamortsy
+Cossacks, who furnish ten
+regiments, each of a thousand horsemen,
+for the defence of their lands
+and families. These cavalry carry a
+musket, slung on the back, and a long
+red lance: their dress is a sheepskin
+jacket, except on state occasions, when
+they sport uniform. They are much
+less feared by the Circassians than
+are the Cossacks of the Line, who
+wear the Circassian dress, carry sabres
+instead of lances, and are more valiant,
+active and skilful, than their
+Tchernamortsy neighbours. The Cossacks
+of the Caucasian Line dwell on
+the banks of the Kuban and Terek,
+form a military colony of about fifty
+thousand souls, and keep six thousand
+horsemen ready for the field. There
+is a mixture of Circassian blood in
+their veins, and they are first-rate
+fighting men. Their villages are exposed
+to frequent attacks from the
+mountaineers; but when these are not
+exceedingly rapid in collecting their
+booty, and effecting their retreat, the
+Cossacks assemble, and a desperate
+fight ensues. When the combatants
+are numerically matched, the equality
+of arms, horses, and skill renders the
+issue very doubtful. The Tchernamortsies
+and Don Cossacks are less
+able to cope with the Circassians. In
+a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mêlée</i> their lances are inferior to the
+shaska. The rival claims of lance
+and sabre have often been discussed;
+many trials of their respective merits
+have been made in English, French,
+and German riding-schools; and much
+ink has been shed on the subject.
+Unquestionably the lance has done
+good service, and in certain circumstances
+is a terrible arm. "At the
+battle of Dresden," Marshal Marmont
+tells us, "the Austrian infantry were
+repeatedly assailed by the French
+cuirassiers, whom they as often beat
+back, although the rain prevented
+their firing, and the bayonet was their
+sole defence. But fifty lancers of
+Latour-Maubourg's escort at once
+broke their ranks." Had the cuirassiers
+had lances, their first charge,
+Marmont plausibly enough asserts,
+would have sufficed. This leads to
+another question, often mooted&mdash;whether
+the lance be properly a light
+or a heavy cavalry weapon. When
+used to break infantry, weight of man
+and horse might be an advantage;
+but in pursuit, where&mdash;especially in
+rugged and mountainous countries&mdash;the
+lance is found particularly useful,
+the preference is obviously for the
+swift steed and light cavalier. In the
+irregular cavalry combats on the Caucasian
+line, the sabre carries the day.
+Unless the Don Cossack's first lance-thrust
+settles his adversary, (which is
+rarely the case,) the next instant the
+adroit Circassian is within his guard,
+and then the betting is ten to one on
+Caucasus. Moreover, the Don Cossacks,
+brought from afar to wage a
+perilous and profitless war, are unwilling
+combatants. They find blows
+more plentiful than booty, and approve
+themselves arrant thieves and shy
+fighters. Relieved every two or three
+years, they have scarcely time to get
+broken in to the peculiar mode of
+warfare. The Cossacks of the Line
+are the flower of the hundred thousand
+wild warriors scattered over
+the steppes of Southern Russia, and
+ready, at one man's word, to vault
+into the saddle. Their gallant feats
+are numerous. In 1843, during Dr
+Wagner's visit, three thousand Circassians
+dashed across the Kuban,
+near the fortified village of Ustlaba.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+A dense fog hid them from the Russian
+vedettes. Suddenly fifty Cossacks
+of the Line, the escort of a gun,
+found themselves face to face with the
+mountaineers. The mist was so thick
+that the horses' heads almost touched
+before either party perceived the other.
+Flight was impossible, but the Cossacks
+fought like fiends. Forty-seven
+met a soldier's death; only three were
+captured, and accompanied the cannon
+across the river, by which road
+the Circassians at once retreated,
+having taken the brave detachment
+for the advanced guard of a strong
+force.</p>
+
+<p>The word Kasak, Kosak, or Kossack,
+variously interpreted by Klaproth and
+other etymologists as robber, volunteer,
+daredevil, &amp;c., conveys to civilised
+ears rude and inelegant associations.
+Paris has not yet forgotten
+the uncouth hordes, wrapped in sheepskins
+and overrun with vermin, who,
+in the hour of her humiliation, startled
+her streets, and made her dandies
+shriek for their smelling-bottles. Not
+that Paris saw the worst of them.
+Some of the Uralian bears, centaurs of
+the steppes, Calibans on horseback,
+were never allowed to pass the Russian
+frontier. Their emperor appreciated
+their good qualities, but left them at
+home. Since then, a change has occured.
+Civilisation has made huge strides
+north-eastward. Near Fanagoria, Dr
+Wagner passed a pleasant evening
+with a Cossack officer, a prime fellow,
+with all unquenchable thirst for toddy,
+and an inexhaustible store of information.
+He had made the campaigns
+against the French; had evidently
+been bred a savage, or little better;
+but had acquired, during his long military
+career, knowledge of the world and
+a certain degree of polish. Amongst
+other interesting matters, he gave a
+sketch of his grandfather, a bloodthirsty
+old warrior and image-worshipper,
+the scourge of his Nogay
+neighbours, and a great slayer of the
+Turk; who in 1812, at the mature age
+of ninety, had responded to Czar
+Alexander's summons to fight for
+"faith and fatherland," and had
+taken the field under Platoff, at
+the head of thirteen sons and threescore
+grandsons. Whilst the Cossack
+major told the history of the "Demon
+of the Steppes," as his ferocious
+ancestor was called, his son, a gay
+lieutenant in the Cossacks of the Guard,
+entered the apartment. This young
+gentleman, slender, handsome, with
+well-cut uniform, graceful manners,
+and well-waxed mustaches, declined
+the punch, "having got used at St
+Petersburg to tea and champagne."
+He brought intelligence of promotions
+and decorations, of high play at Tcherkask,
+(the capital of the Don-Cossacks'
+country,) and of the establishment
+at Toganrog of a French <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">restaurateur</i>,
+who retailed <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Veuve Clicquot's</i>
+genuine champagne at four silver
+rubles a bottle. He was fascinated
+by the French actresses at St Petersburg,
+and enthusiastic in praise of
+Taglioni, then displaying her legs and
+graces in the Russian metropolis. Dr
+Wagner left the symposium with a
+vivid impression of the contrast between
+the bearded barbarian of 1812
+and the dapper guardsman of thirty
+years later; and with the full conviction
+that the next Russian emperor
+who makes an inroad into civilised
+Europe, will have no occasion to be
+ashamed of his Cossacks, even though
+his route should lead him to the polite
+capital of the French republic.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>THE CAXTONS.&mdash;PART X.</h2>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XLVI.</h3>
+
+<p>My uncle's conjecture as to the
+parentage of Francis Vivian seemed
+to me a positive discovery. Nothing
+more likely than that this wilful boy
+had formed some headstrong attachment
+which no father would sanction,
+and so, thwarted and irritated, thrown
+himself on the world. Such an explanation
+was the more agreeable to me,
+as it cleared up all that had appeared
+more discreditable in the mystery that
+surrounded Vivian. I could never
+bear to think that he had done anything
+mean and criminal, however I
+might believe he had been rash and
+faulty. It was natural that the unfriended
+wanderer should have been
+thrown into a society, the equivocal
+character of which had failed to revolt
+the audacity of an inquisitive mind
+and adventurous temper; but it
+was natural, also, that the habits
+of gentle birth, and that silent education
+which English gentlemen commonly
+receive from their very cradle,
+should have preserved his honour, at
+least, intact through all. Certainly
+the pride, the notions, the very faults
+of the wellborn had remained in full
+force&mdash;why not the better qualities,
+however smothered for the time? I felt
+thankful for the thought that Vivian
+was returning to an element in which he
+might repurify his mind,&mdash;refit himself
+for that sphere to which he belonged;&mdash;thankful
+that we might yet
+meet, and our present half intimacy
+mature, perhaps, into healthful friendship.</p>
+
+<p>It was with such thoughts that I
+took up my hat the next morning to
+seek Vivian, and judge if we had
+gained the right clue, when we were
+startled by what was a rare sound at
+our door&mdash;the postman's knock. My
+father was at the Museum; my mother
+in high conference, or close preparation
+for our approaching departure, with Mrs
+Primmins; Roland, I, and Blanche
+had the room to ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>"The letter is not for me," said
+Pisistratus.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor for me, I am sure," said the
+Captain, when the servant entered
+and confuted him&mdash;for the letter was
+for him. He took it up wonderingly
+and suspiciously, as Glumdalclitch
+took up Gulliver, or as (if naturalists)
+we take up an unknown creature, that
+we are not quite sure will not bite and
+sting us. Ah! it has stung or bit you,
+Captain Roland! for you start and
+change colour&mdash;you suppress a cry as
+you break the seal&mdash;you breathe hard
+as you read&mdash;and the letter seems
+short&mdash;but it takes time in the reading,
+for you go over it again and again.
+Then you fold it up&mdash;crumple it&mdash;thrust
+it into your breast pocket&mdash;and
+look round like a man waking from
+a dream. Is it a dream of pain, or of
+pleasure? Verily, I cannot guess, for
+nothing is on that eagle face either of
+pain or pleasure, but rather of fear,
+agitation, bewilderment. Yet the eyes
+are bright, too, and there is a smile on
+that iron lip.</p>
+
+<p>My uncle looked round, I say, and
+called hastily for his cane and his
+hat, and then began buttoning his coat
+across his broad breast, though the
+day was hot enough to have unbuttoned
+every breast in the tropics.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not going out, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But are you strong enough yet?
+Let me go with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; no. Blanche, come here."
+He took the child in his arms, surveyed
+her wistfully, and kissed her.
+"You have never given me pain,
+Blanche: say, 'God bless and prosper
+you, father!'"</p>
+
+<p>"God bless and prosper my dear,
+dear papa!" said Blanche, putting
+her little hands together, as if in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;that should bring me luck,
+Blanche," said the Captain, gaily, and
+setting her down. Then seizing his
+cane from the servant, and putting on
+his hat with a determined air, he
+walked stoutly forth; and I saw him,
+from the window, march along the
+streets as cheerfully as if he had been
+besieging Badajoz.</p>
+
+<p>"God prosper thee, too!" said I,
+involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p>And Blanche took hold of my hand,
+and said in her prettiest way, (and her
+pretty ways were many), "I wish you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+would come with us, cousin Sisty, and
+help me to love papa. Poor papa! he
+wants us both&mdash;he wants all the love
+we can give him!"</p>
+
+<p>"That he does, my dear Blanche;
+and I think it a great mistake that we
+don't all live together. Your papa
+ought not to go to that tower of his, at
+the world's end, but come to our
+snug, pretty house, with a garden full
+of flowers, for you to be Queen of the
+May&mdash;from May to November;&mdash;to
+say nothing of a duck that is more
+sagacious than any creature in the
+Fables I gave you the other day."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche laughed and clapped her
+hands&mdash;"Oh, that would be so nice!
+but,"&mdash;and she stopped gravely, and
+added, "but then, you see, there would
+not be the tower to love papa; and I
+am sure that the tower must love him
+very much, for he loves it dearly."</p>
+
+<p>It was my turn to laugh now. "I
+see how it is, you little witch," said I;
+"you would coax us to come and
+live with you and the owls! With all
+my heart, so far as I am concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"Sisty," said Blanche, with an
+appalling solemnity on her face, "do
+you know what I've been thinking?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not I, miss&mdash;what?&mdash;something
+very deep, I can see&mdash;very horrible,
+indeed, I fear, you look so serious."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I've been thinking," continued
+Blanche, not relaxing a muscle,
+and without the least bit of a blush&mdash;"I've
+been thinking that I'll be your
+little wife; and then, of course, we
+shall all live together."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche did not blush, but I did.
+"Ask me that ten years hence, if you
+dare, you impudent little thing; and
+now, run away to Mrs Primmins, and
+tell her to keep you out of mischief, for
+I must say good-morning."</p>
+
+<p>But Blanche did not run away, and
+her dignity seemed exceedingly hurt
+at my mode of taking her alarming
+proposition, for she retired into a corner
+pouting, and sate down with great
+majesty. So there I left her, and
+went my way to Vivian. He was out;
+but, seeing books on his table, and
+having nothing to do, I resolved to
+wait for his return. I had enough of
+my father in me to turn at once to the
+books for company; and, by the side of
+some graver works which I had recommended,
+I found certain novels in
+French, that Vivian had got from a
+circulating library. I had a curiosity
+to read these&mdash;for, except the old classic
+novels of France, this mighty branch
+of its popular literature was then
+new to me. I soon got interested, but
+what an interest!&mdash;the interest that a
+nightmare might excite, if one caught
+it out of one's sleep, and set to work
+to examine it. By the side of what
+dazzling shrewdness, what deep knowledge
+of those holes and corners in
+the human system, of which Goethe
+must have spoken when he said somewhere&mdash;(if
+I recollect right, and don't
+misquote him, which I'll not answer
+for)&mdash;"There is something in every
+man's heart which, if we could know,
+would make us hate him,"&mdash;by the
+side of all this, and of much more that
+showed prodigious boldness and energy
+of intellect, what strange exaggeration&mdash;what
+mock nobility of sentiment&mdash;what
+inconceivable perversion of
+reasoning&mdash;what damnable demoralisation!
+I hate the cant of charging
+works of fiction with the accusation&mdash;often
+unjust and shallow&mdash;that they
+interest us in vice, or palliate crime,
+because the author truly shows what
+virtues may entangle themselves with
+vices; or commands our compassion,
+and awes our pride, by teaching us
+how men deceive and bewitch themselves
+into guilt. Such painting belongs
+to the dark truth of all tragedy,
+from Sophocles to Shakspeare. No;
+this is not what shocked me in those
+books&mdash;it was not the interesting me in
+vice, for I felt no interest in it at all; it
+was the insisting that vice is something
+uncommonly noble&mdash;it was the portrait
+of some coldblooded adultress, whom
+the author or authoress chooses to call
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pauvre Ange!</i> (poor angel!);&mdash;it was
+some scoundrel who dupes, cheats,
+and murders under cover of a duel,
+in which he is a second St George; who
+does not instruct us by showing through
+what metaphysical process he became
+a scoundrel, but who is continually
+forced upon us as a very favourable
+specimen of mankind;&mdash;it was the view
+of society altogether, painted in colours
+so hideous that, if true, instead of
+a revolution, it would draw down
+a deluge;&mdash;it was the hatred, carefully
+instilled, of the poor against the
+rich&mdash;it was the war breathed between
+class and class&mdash;it was that envy of all
+superiorities, which loves to show itself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+by allowing virtue only to a blouse, and
+asserting that a man must be a rogue if
+he belong to that rank of society in
+which, from the very gifts of education,
+from the necessary associations
+of circumstances, roguery is
+the last thing probable or natural. It
+was all this, and things a thousand
+times worse, that set my head in a whirl,
+as hour after hour slipped on, and I
+still gazed, spell-bound, on these Chimeras
+and Typhons&mdash;these symbols
+of the Destroying Principle. "Poor
+Vivian!" said I, as I rose at last,
+"if thou readest these books with
+pleasure, or from habit, no wonder that
+thou seemest to me so obtuse about
+right and wrong, and to have a great
+cavity where thy brain should have
+the bump of 'conscientiousness' in
+full salience!"</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, to do those demoniacs
+justice, I had got through time imperceptibly
+by their pestilent help;
+and I was startled to see, by my watch,
+how late it was. I had just resolved to
+leave a line, fixing an appointment for
+the morrow, and so depart, when I
+heard Vivian's knock&mdash;a knock that
+had great character in it&mdash;haughty,
+impatient, irregular; not a neat, symmetrical,
+harmonious, unpretending
+knock, but a knock that seemed to
+set the whole house and street at defiance:
+it was a knock bullying&mdash;a
+knock ostentatious&mdash;a knock irritating
+and offensive&mdash;"impiger" and
+"iracundus."</p>
+
+<p>But the step that came up the stairs
+did not suit the knock: it was a step
+light, yet firm&mdash;slow, yet elastic.</p>
+
+<p>The maid-servant who had opened
+the door had, no doubt, informed
+Vivian of my visit, for he did not seem
+surprised to see me; but he cast that
+hurried, suspicious look round the
+room which a man is apt to cast
+when he has left his papers about, and
+finds some idler, on whose trustworthiness
+he by no means depends, seated
+in the midst of the unguarded secrets.
+The look was not flattering; but my
+conscience was so unreproachful that
+I laid all the blame upon the general
+suspiciousness of Vivian's character.</p>
+
+<p>"Three hours, at least, have I been
+here!" said I, maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Three hours!"&mdash;again the look.</p>
+
+<p>"And this is the worst secret I have
+discovered,"&mdash;and I pointed to those
+literary Manicheans.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said he carelessly, "French
+novels!&mdash;I don't wonder you stayed so
+long. I can't read your English
+novels&mdash;flat and insipid: there are
+truth and life here."</p>
+
+<p>"Truth and life!" cried I, every
+hair on my head erect with astonishment&mdash;"then
+hurrah for falsehood and
+death!"</p>
+
+<p>"They don't please you; no accounting
+for tastes."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon&mdash;I account for
+yours, if you really take for truth and
+life monsters so nefast and flagitious.
+For heaven's sake, my dear fellow,
+don't suppose that any man could get
+on in England&mdash;get anywhere but to
+the Old Bailey or Norfolk Island, if
+he squared his conduct to such topsy-turvy
+notions of the world as I find
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"How many years are you my
+senior," asked Vivian sneeringly,
+"that you should play the mentor,
+and correct my ignorance of the
+world?"</p>
+
+<p>"Vivian, it is not age and experience
+that speak here, it is something
+far wiser than they&mdash;the instinct of
+a man's heart, and a gentleman's
+honour."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said Vivian, rather
+discomposed, "let the poor books
+alone; you know my creed&mdash;that books
+influence us little one way or the
+other."</p>
+
+<p>"By the great Egyptian library,
+and the soul of Diodorus, I wish you
+could hear my father upon that point!
+Come," added I, with sublime compassion&mdash;"come,
+it is not too late&mdash;do
+let me introduce you to my father.
+I will consent to read French
+novels all my life, if a single chat with
+Austin Caxton does not send you
+home with a happier face and a lighter
+heart. Come, let me take you back
+to dine with us to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot," said Vivian with some
+confusion&mdash;"I cannot, for this day I
+leave London. Some other time perhaps&mdash;for,"
+he added, but not heartily,
+"we may meet again."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," said I, wringing his
+hand, "and that is likely,&mdash;since, in
+spite of yourself, I have guessed your
+secret&mdash;your birth and parentage."</p>
+
+<p>"How!" cried Vivian, turning pale,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+and gnawing his lip&mdash;"what do you
+mean?&mdash;speak."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, are you not the lost,
+runaway son of Colonel Vivian?
+Come, say the truth; let us be confidants."</p>
+
+<p>Vivian threw off a succession of his
+abrupt sighs; and then, seating himself,
+leant his face on the table, confused,
+no doubt, to find himself discovered.</p>
+
+<p>"You are near the mark," said he
+at last, "but do not ask me farther
+yet. Some day," he cried impetuously,
+and springing suddenly to his
+feet&mdash;"some day you shall know all:
+yes; some day, if I live, when that
+name shall be high in the world; yes,
+when the world is at my feet!" He
+stretched his right hand as if to grasp the
+space, and his whole face was lighted
+with a fierce enthusiasm. The glow
+died away, and with a slight return of
+his scornful smile, he said&mdash;"Dreams
+yet; dreams! And now, look at this
+paper." And he drew out a memorandum,
+scrawled over with figures.</p>
+
+<p>"This, I think, is my pecuniary
+debt to you; in a few days, I shall
+discharge it. Give me your address."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said I, pained, "can you
+speak to me of money, Vivian?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is one of those instincts of
+honour you cite so often," answered
+he, colouring. "Pardon me."</p>
+
+<p>"That is my address," said I,
+stooping to write, to conceal my
+wounded feelings. "You will avail
+yourself of it, I hope, often, and tell
+me that you are well and happy."</p>
+
+<p>"When I am happy, you shall
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not require any introduction
+to Trevanion?"</p>
+
+<p>Vivian hesitated: "No, I think not.
+If ever I do, I will write for it."</p>
+
+<p>I took up my hat, and was about to
+go&mdash;for I was still chilled and mortified&mdash;when,
+as if by an irresistible impulse,
+Vivian came to me hastily,
+flung his arms round my neck, and
+kissed me as a boy kisses his brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Bear with me!" he cried in a
+faltering voice: "I did not think to
+love any one as you have made me
+love you, though sadly against the
+grain. If you are not my good angel,
+it is that nature and habit are too
+strong for you. Certainly, some day
+we shall meet again. I shall have
+time, in the meanwhile, to see if the
+world can be indeed 'mine oyster,
+which I with sword can open.' I
+would be <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">aut Cæsar aut nullus</i>! Very
+little other Latin know I to quote
+from! If Cæsar, men will forgive me
+all the means to the end; if <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">nullus</i>,
+London has a river, and in every
+street one may buy a cord!"</p>
+
+<p>"Vivian! Vivian!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now go, my dear friend, while
+my heart is softened&mdash;go, before I
+shock you with some return of the
+native Adam. Go&mdash;go!"</p>
+
+<p>And taking me gently by the arm,
+Francis Vivian drew me from the
+room, and, re-entering, locked his
+door.</p>
+
+<p>Ah! if I could have left him Robert
+Hall, instead of those execrable Typhons!
+But would that medicine have
+suited his case, or must grim Experience
+write sterner recipes with her
+iron hand?</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XLVII.</h3>
+
+<p>When I got back, just in time for
+dinner, Roland had not returned, nor
+did he return till late in the evening.
+All our eyes were directed towards
+him, as we rose with one accord to
+give him welcome; but his face was
+like a mask&mdash;it was locked, and rigid,
+and unreadable.</p>
+
+<p>Shutting the door carefully after him,
+he came to the hearth, stood on it,
+upright and calm, for a few moments,
+and then asked&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Has Blanche gone to bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said my mother, "but not
+to sleep, I am sure; she made me
+promise to tell her when you came
+back."</p>
+
+<p>Roland's brow relaxed.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow, sister," said he slowly,
+"will you see that she has the proper
+mourning made for her? My son is
+dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!" we cried with one voice,
+and surrounding him with one impulse.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead! impossible&mdash;you could not
+say it so calmly. Dead!&mdash;how do
+you know? You may be deceived.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+Who told you?&mdash;why do you think
+so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen his remains," said
+my uncle, with the same gloomy
+calm. "We will all mourn for him.
+Pisistratus, you are heir to my name
+now, as to your father's. Good-night;
+excuse me, all&mdash;all you dear
+and kind ones; I am worn out."</p>
+
+<p>Roland lighted his candle and went
+away, leaving us thunderstruck; but
+he came back again&mdash;looked round&mdash;took
+up his book, open in the favourite
+passage&mdash;nodded again, and
+again vanished. We looked at each
+other, as if we had seen a ghost. Then
+my father rose and went out of the
+room, and remained in Roland's till
+the night was wellnigh gone. We
+sat up&mdash;my mother and I&mdash;till he returned.
+His benign face looked profoundly
+sad.</p>
+
+<p>"How is it, sir Can you tell us
+more?"</p>
+
+<p>My father shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Roland prays that you may preserve
+the same forbearance you have
+shown hitherto, and never mention his
+son's name to him. Peace be to the
+living, as to the dead. Kitty, this
+changes our plans; we must all go
+to Cumberland&mdash;we cannot leave Roland
+thus!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor, poor Roland!" said my
+mother, through her tears. "And to
+think that father and son were not
+reconciled. But Roland forgives him
+now&mdash;oh, yes! <em>now!</em>"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not Roland we can censure,"
+said my father, almost fiercely; "it
+is&mdash;but enough. We must hurry out
+of town as soon as we can: Roland
+will recover in the native air of his
+old ruins."</p>
+
+<p>We went up to bed mournfully.</p>
+
+<p>"And so," thought I, "ends one
+grand object of my life!&mdash;I had hoped
+to have brought those two together.
+But, alas! what peacemaker like the
+grave!"</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h3>
+
+<p>My uncle did not leave his room for
+three days, but he was much closeted
+with a lawyer; and my father dropped
+some words which seemed to imply that
+the deceased had incurred debts, and
+that the poor Captain was making
+some charge on his small property.
+As Roland had said that he had seen
+the remains of his son, I took it at
+first for granted that we should attend
+a funeral, but no word of this was
+said. On the fourth day, Roland, in
+deep mourning, entered a hackney
+coach with the lawyer, and was absent
+about two hours. I did not doubt
+that he had thus quietly fulfilled the
+last mournful offices. On his return,
+he shut himself up again for the rest
+of the day, and would not see even
+my father. But the next morning he
+made his appearance as usual, and I
+even thought that he seemed more
+cheerful than I had yet known him&mdash;whether
+he played a part, or whether
+the worst was now over, and the
+grave was less cruel than uncertainty.
+On the following day, we all set out
+for Cumberland.</p>
+
+<p>In the interval, Uncle Jack had
+been almost constantly at the house,
+and, to do him justice, he had seemed
+unaffectedly shocked at the calamity
+that had befallen Roland. There was,
+indeed, no want of heart in Uncle
+Jack, whenever you went straight at
+it; but it was hard to find if you took
+a circuitous route towards it through
+the pockets. The worthy speculator
+had indeed much business to transact
+with my father before we left town.
+The <em>Anti-Publisher Society</em> had been
+set up, and it was through the obstetric
+aid of that fraternity that the
+Great Book was to be ushered into
+the world. The new journal, the <cite>Literary
+Times</cite>, was also far advanced&mdash;not
+yet out, but my father was fairly
+in for it. There were preparations
+for its debut on a vast scale, and
+two or three gentlemen in black&mdash;one
+of whom looked like a lawyer, and
+another like a printer, and a third
+uncommonly like a Jew&mdash;called twice,
+with papers of a very formidable
+aspect. All these preliminaries settled,
+the last thing I heard Uncle Jack say,
+with a slap on my father's back, was,
+"Fame and fortune both made now!&mdash;you
+may go to sleep in safety, for
+you leave me wide awake. Jack Tibbets
+never sleeps!"</p>
+
+<p>I had thought it strange that, since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+my abrupt exodus from Trevanion's
+house, no notice had been taken of
+any of us by himself or Lady Ellinor.
+But on the very eve of our departure,
+came a kind note from Trevanion to
+me, dated from his favourite country
+seat, (accompanied by a present of
+some rare books to my father,) in
+which he said briefly that there had
+been illness in his family, which had
+obliged him to leave town for a change
+of air, but that Lady Ellinor expected
+to call on my mother the next week.
+He had found amongst his books some
+curious works of the Middle Ages,
+amongst others a complete set of
+Cardan, which he knew my father
+would like to have, and so sent them.
+There was no allusion to what had
+passed between us.</p>
+
+<p>In reply to this note, after due
+thanks on my father's part, who seized
+upon the Cardan (Lyons edition,
+1663, ten volumes folio) as a silkworm
+does upon a mulberry leaf, I expressed
+our joint regrets that there was
+no hope of our seeing Lady Ellinor,
+as we were just leaving town. I
+should have added something on the
+loss my uncle had sustained, but my
+father thought that, since Roland
+shrank from any mention of his
+son, even by his nearest kindred, it
+would be his obvious wish not to
+parade his affliction beyond that circle.</p>
+
+<p>And there had been illness in Trevanion's
+family! On whom had it
+fallen? I could not rest satisfied with
+that general expression, and I took my
+answer myself to Trevanion's house,
+instead of sending it by the post. In
+reply to my inquiries, the porter said
+that all the family were expected at
+the end of the week; that he had
+heard both Lady Ellinor and Miss
+Trevanion had been rather poorly, but
+that they were now better. I left my
+note, with orders to forward it; and
+my wounds bled afresh as I came
+away.</p>
+
+<p>We had the whole coach to ourselves
+in our journey, and a silent journey
+it was, till we arrived at a little town
+about eight miles from my uncle's residence,
+to which we could only get
+through a cross-road. My uncle insisted
+on preceding us that night, and,
+though he had written, before we started,
+to announce our coming, he was fidgety
+lest the poor tower should not make
+the best figure it could;&mdash;so he went
+alone, and we took our ease at our
+inn.</p>
+
+<p>Betimes the next day we hired a
+fly-coach&mdash;for a chaise could never
+have held us and my father's books&mdash;and
+jogged through a labyrinth of villanous
+lanes, which no Marshal Wade
+had ever reformed from their primal
+chaos. But poor Mrs Primmins and
+the canary-bird alone seemed sensible
+of the jolts; the former, who sate opposite
+to us, wedged amidst a medley
+of packages, all marked "care, to be
+kept top uppermost," (why I know
+not, for they were but books, and
+whether they lay top or bottom it
+could not materially affect their value,)&mdash;the
+former, I say, contrived to extend
+her arms over those <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">disjecta membra</i>,
+and, griping a window-sill with the
+right hand, and a window-sill with the
+left, kept her seat rampant, like the
+split eagle of the Austrian Empire&mdash;in
+fact it would be well, now-a-days,
+if the split eagle were as firm as Mrs
+Primmins! As for the canary, it never
+failed to respond, by an astonished
+chirp, to every "Gracious me!" and
+"Lord save us!" which the delve
+into a rut, or the bump out of it, sent
+forth from Mrs Primmins's lips, with
+all the emphatic dolor of thἂe "Ἂῖ, ἂῖ" in a Greek chorus.</p>
+
+<p>But my father, with his broad hat
+over his brows, was in deep thought.
+The scenes of his youth were rising
+before him, and his memory went,
+smooth as a spirit's wing, over delve
+and bump. And my mother, who
+sat next him, had her arm on his
+shoulder, and was watching his face
+jealously. Did she think that, in that
+thoughtful face, there was regret for
+the old love? Blanche, who had been
+very sad, and had wept much and
+quietly since they put on her the
+mourning, and told her that she had
+no brother, (though she had no remembrance
+of the lost), began now to
+evince infantine curiosity and eagerness
+to catch the first peep of her
+father's beloved tower. And Blanche
+sat on my knee, and I shared her impatience.
+At last there came in view
+a church spire&mdash;a church&mdash;a plain
+square building near it, the parsonage,
+(my father's old home)&mdash;a long
+straggling street of cottages and rude
+shops, with a better kind of house here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+and there&mdash;and in the hinder ground,
+a gray deformed mass of wall and
+ruin, placed on one of those eminences
+on which the Danes loved to pitch
+camp or build fort, with one high,
+rude, Anglo-Norman tower rising
+from the midst. Few trees were
+round it, and those either poplars or
+firs, save, as we approached, one
+mighty oak&mdash;integral and unscathed.
+The road now wound behind the parsonage,
+and up a steep ascent. Such a
+road!&mdash;the whole parish ought to have
+been flogged for it! If I had sent up
+a road like that, even on a map, to Dr
+Herman, I should not have sat down
+in comfort for a week to come!</p>
+
+<p>The fly-coach came to a full stop.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us get out," cried I, opening
+the door and springing to the ground
+to set the example.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche followed, and my respected
+parents came next. But when Mrs
+Primmins was about to heave herself
+into movement,</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Papæ!</em>" said my father. "I think,
+Mrs Primmins, you must remain in, to
+keep the books steady."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord love you!" cried Mrs Primmins,
+aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"The subtraction of such a mass, or
+<em>moles</em>&mdash;supple and elastic as all flesh
+is, and fitting into the hard corners of
+the inert matter&mdash;such a subtraction,
+Mrs Primmins, would leave a vacuum
+which no natural system, certainly no
+artificial organisation, could sustain.
+There would be a regular dance of
+atoms, Mrs Primmins; my books
+would fly here, there, on the floor, out
+of the window!</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+"<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Corporis officium est quoniam omnia deorsum.</i>"
+</p>
+
+<p class="noind">The business of a body like yours, Mrs
+Primmins, is to press all things down&mdash;to
+keep them tight, as you will know
+one of these days&mdash;that is, if you will
+do me the favour to read Lucretius,
+and master that material philosophy,
+of which I may say, without flattery,
+my dear Mrs Primmins, that you are
+a living illustration."</p>
+
+<p>These, the first words my father
+had spoken since we set out from the
+inn, seemed to assure my mother that
+she need have no apprehension as to
+the character of his thoughts, for her
+brow cleared, and she said, laughing,</p>
+
+<p>"Only look at poor Primmins, and
+then at that hill!"</p>
+
+<p>"You may subtract Primmins, if
+you will be answerable for the remnant,
+Kitty. Only, I warn you that
+it is against all the laws of physics."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he sprang lightly forward,
+and, taking hold of my arm,
+paused and looked round, and drew
+the loud free breath with which we
+draw native air.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet," said my father, after
+that grateful and affectionate inspiration&mdash;"and
+yet, it must be owned,
+that a more ugly country one cannot
+see out of Cambridgeshire."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Nay," said I, "it is bold and large,
+it has a beauty of its own. Those immense,
+undulating, uncultivated, treeless
+tracks have surely their charm of
+wildness and solitude! And how they
+suit the character of the ruin! All
+is feudal there: I understand Roland
+better now."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope in heaven Cardan will
+come to no harm!" cried my father;
+"he is very handsomely bound;
+and he fitted beautifully just into the
+fleshiest part of that fidgety Primmins."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche, meanwhile, had run far
+before us, and I followed fast. There
+were still the remains of that deep
+trench (surrounding the ruins on three
+sides, leaving a ragged hill-top at the
+fourth) which made the favourite fortification
+of all the Teutonic tribes. A
+causeway, raised on brick arches, now,
+however, supplied the place of the
+drawbridge, and the outer gate was
+but a mass of picturesque ruin. Entering
+into the courtyard or bailey, the old
+castle mound, from which justice had
+been dispensed, was in full view, rising
+higher than the broken walls
+around it, and partially overgrown
+with brambles. And there stood,
+comparatively whole, the tower or
+keep, and from its portals emerged
+the veteran owner.</p>
+
+<p>His ancestors might have received us
+in more state, but certainly they could
+not have given us a warmer greeting.
+In fact, in his own domain, Roland
+appeared another man. His stiffness,
+which was a little repulsive to those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+who did not understand it, was all
+gone. He seemed less proud, precisely
+because he and his pride, on
+that ground, were on good terms with
+each other. How gallantly he extended&mdash;not
+his arm, in our modern
+Jack-and-Jill sort of fashion&mdash;but
+his right hand, to my mother; how
+carefully he led her over "brake,
+bush, and scaur," through the low
+vaulted door, where a tall servant,
+who, it was easy to see, had been a
+soldier&mdash;in the precise livery, no doubt,
+warranted by the heraldic colours,
+(his stockings were red!)&mdash;stood upright
+as a sentry. And, coming into
+the hall, it looked absolutely cheerful&mdash;it
+took us by surprise. There was
+a great fire-place, and, though it was
+still summer, a great fire! It did not
+seem a bit too much, for the walls
+were stone, the lofty roof open to the
+rafters, while the windows were small
+and narrow, and so high and so deep
+sunk that one seemed in a vault.
+Nevertheless, I say the room looked
+sociable and cheerful&mdash;thanks principally
+to the fire, and partly to a
+very ingenious medley of old tapestry
+at one end, and matting at the other,
+fastened to the lower part of the walls,
+seconded by an arrangement of furniture
+which did credit to my uncle's
+taste for the Picturesque. After we
+had looked about and admired to our
+hearts' content, Roland took us&mdash;not
+up one of those noble staircases you
+see in the later manorial residences&mdash;but
+a little winding stone stair, into
+the rooms he had appropriated to his
+guests. There was first a small chamber,
+which he called my father's study&mdash;in
+truth, it would have done for any
+philosopher or saint who wished to
+shut out the world&mdash;and might have
+passed for the interior of such a column
+as Stylites inhabited; for you
+must have climbed a ladder to have
+looked out of the window, and then
+the vision of no short-sighted man
+could have got over the interval in the
+wall made by the narrow casement,
+which, after all, gave no other prospect
+than a Cumberland sky, with an occasional
+rook in it. But my father, I
+think I have said before, did not much
+care for scenery, and he looked round
+with great satisfaction upon the retreat
+assigned him.</p>
+
+<p>"We can knock up shelves for your
+books in no time," said my uncle,
+rubbing his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a charity," quoth my
+father, "for they have been very long
+in a recumbent position, and would
+like to stretch themselves, poor things.
+My dear Roland, this room is made
+for books&mdash;so round and so deep. I
+shall sit here like Truth in a well."</p>
+
+<p>"And there is a room for you, sister,
+just out of it," said my uncle, opening
+a little low prison-like door into a
+charming room, for its window was
+low, and it had an iron balcony; "and
+out of that is the bed-room. For you,
+Pisistratus, my boy, I am afraid that
+it is soldier's quarters, indeed, with
+which you will have to put up. But
+never mind; in a day or two we shall
+make all worthy a general of your
+illustrious name&mdash;for he was a great
+general, Pisistratus the First&mdash;was he
+not, brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"All tyrants are," said my father:
+"the knack of soldiering is indispensable
+to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you may say what you please
+here!" said Roland, in high good
+humour, as he drew me down stairs,
+still apologising for my quarters, and
+so earnestly that I made up my mind
+that I was to be put into an <em>oubliette</em>.
+Nor were my suspicions much dispelled
+on seeing that we had to leave
+the keep, and pick our way into what
+seemed to me a mere heap of rubbish,
+on the dexter side of the court. But
+I was agreeably surprised to find,
+amidst these wrecks, a room with a
+noble casement commanding the whole
+country, and placed immediately over
+a plot of ground cultivated as a garden.
+The furniture was ample, though
+homely; the floors and walls well
+matted; and, altogether, despite the
+inconvenience of having to cross the
+courtyard to get to the rest of the
+house, and being wholly without the
+modern luxury of a bell, I thought
+that I could not be better lodged.</p>
+
+<p>"But this is a perfect bower, my
+dear uncle! Depend on it, it was the
+bower-chamber of the Dames de Caxton&mdash;heaven
+rest them!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said my uncle, gravely; "I
+suspect it must have been the chaplain's
+room, for the chapel was to the
+right of you. An earlier chapel, indeed,
+formerly existed in the keep
+tower&mdash;for, indeed, it is scarcely a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+true keep without chapel, well, and
+hall. I can show you part of the roof
+of the first, and the two last are entire;
+the well is very curious, formed in the
+substance of the wall at one angle of
+the hall. In Charles the First's time,
+our ancestor lowered his only son down
+in a bucket, and kept him there six
+hours, while a Malignant mob was
+storming the tower. I need not say
+that our ancestor himself scorned to
+hide from such a rabble, for <em>he</em> was a
+grown man. The boy lived to be a
+sad spendthrift, and used the well for
+cooling his wine. He drank up a
+great many good acres."</p>
+
+<p>"I should scratch him out of the
+pedigree, if I were you. But, pray,
+have you not discovered the proper
+chamber of that great Sir William,
+about whom my father is so shamefully
+sceptical?"</p>
+
+<p>"To tell you a secret," answered
+the Captain, giving me a sly poke in
+the ribs, "I have put your father into
+it! There are the initial letters W. C.
+let into the cusp of the York rose, and
+the date, three years before the battle
+of Bosworth, over the chimneypiece."</p>
+
+<p>I could not help joining my uncle's
+grim low laugh at this characteristic
+pleasantry; and after I had complimented
+him on so judicious a mode of
+proving his point, I asked him how he
+could possibly have contrived to fit up
+the ruin so well, especially as he had
+scarcely visited it since his purchase.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said he, "about twelve
+years ago, that poor fellow you now
+see as my servant, and who is gardener,
+bailiff, seneschal, butler, and
+anything else you can put him to, was
+sent out of the army on the invalid
+list. So I placed him here; and as he
+is a capital carpenter, and has had a
+very fair education, I told him what I
+wanted, and put by a small sum every
+year for repairs and furnishing. It is
+astonishing how little it cost me, for
+Bolt, poor fellow, (that is his name,)
+caught the right spirit of the thing,
+and most of the furniture, (which
+you see is ancient and suitable,) he
+picked up at different cottages and
+farmhouses in the neighbourhood. As
+it is, however, we have plenty more
+rooms here and there&mdash;only, of late,"
+continued my uncle, slightly changing
+colour, "I had no money to
+spare. But come," he resumed, with
+an evident effort&mdash;"come and see my
+barrack: it is on the other side of the
+hall, and made out of what no doubt
+were the butteries."</p>
+
+<p>We reached the yard, and found
+the fly-coach had just crawled to the
+door. My father's head was buried deep
+in the vehicle,&mdash;he was gathering up his
+packages, and sending out, oracle-like,
+various muttered objurgations and
+anathemas upon Mrs Primmins and
+her vacuum; which Mrs Primmins,
+standing by, and making a lap with
+her apron to receive the packages and
+anathemas simultaneously, bore with
+the mildness of an angel, lifting up
+her eyes to heaven and murmuring
+something about "poor old bones."
+Though, as for Mrs Primmins's bones,
+they had been myths these twenty
+years, and you might as soon have
+found a Plesiosaurus in the fat lands
+of Romney Marsh as a bone amidst
+those layers of flesh in which my poor
+father thought he had so carefully
+cottoned up his Cardan.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving these parties to adjust
+matters between them, we stepped
+under the low doorway, and entered
+Rowland's room. Oh, certainly Bolt
+<em>had</em> caught the spirit of the thing!&mdash;certainly
+he had penetrated down even
+to the very pathos that lay within the
+deeps of Roland's character. Buffon
+says "the style is the man;" there,
+the room was the man. That nameless,
+inexpressible, soldier-like, methodical
+neatness which belonged to
+Roland&mdash;that was the first thing that
+struck one&mdash;that was the general character
+of the whole. Then, in details,
+there, in stout oak shelves, were the
+books on which my father loved to
+jest his more imaginative brother,&mdash;there
+they were, Froissart, Barante,
+Joinville, the <em>Mort d'Arthur</em>, <cite>Amadis
+of Gaul</cite>, Spenser's <cite>Fairy Queen</cite>, a
+noble copy of Strutt's <cite>Horda</cite>, Mallet's
+<cite>Northern Antiquities</cite>, Percy's <cite>Reliques</cite>,
+Pope's <cite>Homer</cite>, books on gunnery,
+archery, hawking, fortification&mdash;old
+chivalry and modern war together
+cheek by jowl.</p>
+
+<p>Old chivalry and modern war!&mdash;look
+to that tilting helmet with the
+tall Caxton crest, and look to that
+trophy near it, a French cuirass&mdash;and
+that old banner (a knight's pennon)
+surmounting those crossed bayonets.
+And over the chimneypiece there&mdash;bright,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+clean, and, I warrant you,
+dusted daily&mdash;are Roland's own
+sword, his holsters, and pistols, yea,
+the saddle, pierced and lacerated,
+from which he had reeled when that
+leg&mdash;&mdash;I gasped&mdash;I felt it all at
+a glance, and I stole softly to the
+spot, and, had Roland not been there,
+I could have kissed that sword as
+reverently as if it had been a Bayard's
+or a Sidney's.</p>
+
+<p>My uncle was too modest to guess
+my emotion; he rather thought I had
+turned my face to conceal a smile at
+his vanity, and said, in a deprecating
+tone of apology&mdash;"It was all Bolt's
+doing, foolish fellow."</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XLIX.</h3>
+
+<p>Our host regaled us with a hospitality
+that notably contrasted his
+economical thrifty habits in London.
+To be sure, Bolt had caught
+the great pike which headed the feast;
+and Bolt, no doubt, had helped to
+rear those fine chickens <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ab ovo</i>; Bolt,
+I have no doubt, made that excellent
+Spanish omelette; and for the rest,
+the products of the sheepwalk and the
+garden came in as volunteer auxiliaries&mdash;very
+different from the mercenary
+recruits by which those metropolitan
+<i lang="it" xml:lang="it">Condottieri</i>, the butcher and
+green-grocer, hasten the ruin of that
+melancholy commonwealth called
+"genteel poverty."</p>
+
+<p>Our evening passed cheerfully; and
+Roland, contrary to his custom, was
+talker in chief. It was eleven o'clock
+before Bolt appeared with a lantern
+to conduct me through the court-yard
+to my dormitory, among the ruins&mdash;a
+ceremony which, every night, shine or
+dark, he insisted upon punctiliously
+performing.</p>
+
+<p>It was long before I could sleep&mdash;before
+I could believe that but so few
+days had elapsed since Roland heard
+of his son's death&mdash;that son whose
+fate had so long tortured him; and
+yet, never had Roland appeared so
+free from sorrow! Was it natural&mdash;was
+it effort? Several days passed
+before I could answer that question,
+and then not wholly to my satisfaction.
+Effort there was, or rather resolute
+systematic determination. At
+moments Roland's head drooped, his
+brows met, and the whole man seemed
+to sink. Yet these were only moments;
+he would rouse himself up
+like a dozing charger at the sound of
+a trumpet, and shake off the creeping
+weight. But, whether from the
+vigour of his determination, or from
+some aid in other trains of reflection,
+I could not but perceive that Roland's
+sadness really was less grave and
+bitter than it had been, or than it was
+natural to suppose. He seemed to
+transfer, daily more and more, his
+affections from the dead to those
+around him, especially to Blanche and
+myself. He let it be seen that he
+looked on me now as his lawful successor&mdash;as
+the future supporter of his
+name&mdash;he was fond of confiding to
+me all his little plans, and consulting
+me on them. He would walk with me
+around his domains, (of which I shall
+say more hereafter,)&mdash;point out, from
+every eminence we climbed, where the
+broad lands which his forefathers owned
+stretched away to the horizon; unfold
+with tender hand the mouldering pedigree,
+and rest lingeringly on those of his
+ancestors who had held martial post,
+or had died on the field. There was
+a crusader who had followed Richard
+to Ascalon; there was a knight who
+had fought at Agincourt; there was a
+cavalier (whose picture was still extant,
+with fair lovelocks) who had
+fallen at Worcester&mdash;no doubt the
+same who had cooled his son in that
+well which the son devoted to more
+agreeable associations. But of all these
+worthies there was none whom my
+uncle, perhaps from the spirit of contradiction,
+valued like that apocryphal
+Sir William: and why?&mdash;because,
+when the apostate Stanley
+turned the fortunes of the field at
+Bosworth, and when that cry of despair&mdash;"Treason,
+treason!" burst
+from the lips of the last Plantagenet,
+"amongst the faithless,"
+this true soldier "faithful found!"
+had fallen in that lion-rush which
+Richard made at his foe. "Your
+father tells me that Richard was a
+murderer and usurper," quoth my
+uncle. "Sir, that might be true or not;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+but it was not on the field of battle
+that his followers were to reason on
+the character of the master who
+trusted them, especially when a legion
+of foreign hirelings stood opposed to
+them. I would not have descended
+from that turncoat Stanley to be lord of
+all the lands the Earls of Derby can
+boast of. Sir, in loyalty, men fight
+and die for a grand principle, and a
+lofty passion; and this brave Sir
+William was paying back to the last
+Plantagenet the benefits he had received
+from the first!"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet it may be doubted," said
+I maliciously, "whether William Caxton
+the printer did not&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Plague, pestilence, and fire seize
+William Caxton the printer, and his
+invention too!" cried my uncle barbarously.
+"When there were only a
+few books, at least they were good
+ones; and now they are so plentiful,
+all they do is to confound the judgment,
+unsettle the reason, drive the
+good books out of cultivation, and
+draw a ploughshare of innovation
+over every ancient landmark; seduce
+the women, womanize the men, upset
+states, thrones, and churches; rear a
+race of chattering, conceited, coxcombs,
+who can always find books in
+plenty to excuse them from doing
+their duty; make the poor discontented,
+the rich crotchety and whimsical,
+refine away the stout old
+virtues into quibbles and sentiments!
+All imagination formerly was expended
+in noble action, adventure,
+enterprise, high deeds and aspirations;
+now a man can but be imaginative
+by feeding on the false excitement
+of passions he never felt,
+dangers he never shared; and he fritters
+away all there is of life to spare in
+him upon the fictitious love-sorrows of
+Bond Street and St James's. Sir,
+chivalry ceased when the press rose!
+And to fasten upon me, as a forefather,
+out of all men who have ever lived
+and sinned, the very man who has
+most destroyed what I most valued&mdash;who,
+by the Lord! with his cursed invention
+has wellnigh got rid of respect
+for forefathers altogether&mdash;is a cruelty
+of which my brother had never been
+capable, if that printer's devil had not
+got hold of him!"</p>
+
+<p>That a man in this blessed nineteenth
+century should be such a
+Vandal! and that my uncle Roland
+should talk in a strain that Totila
+would have been ashamed of, within
+so short a time after my father's
+scientific and erudite oration on the
+Hygeiana of Books, was enough to
+make one despair of the progress of
+intellect and the perfectibility of our
+species. And I have no manner of
+doubt that, all the while, my uncle
+had a brace of books in his pockets,
+Robert Hall one of them! In truth,
+he had talked himself into a passion,
+and did not know what nonsense
+he was saying, poor man. But
+this explosion of Captain Roland's
+has shattered the thread of my matter.
+Pouff! I must take breath and
+begin again!</p>
+
+<p>Yes, in spite of my sauciness, the
+old soldier evidently took to me more
+and more. And, besides our critical
+examination of the property
+and the pedigree, he carried me
+with him on long excursions to distant
+villages, where some memorial of
+a defunct Caxton, a coat of arms, or
+an epitaph on a tombstone, might be
+still seen. And he made me pore
+over topographical works and county
+histories, (forgetful, Goth that he
+was, that for those very authorities
+he was indebted to the repudiated
+printer!) to find some anecdote
+of his beloved dead! In truth,
+the county for miles round bore
+the <em>vestigia</em> of those old Caxtons;
+their handwriting was on many a
+broken wall. And, obscure as they
+all were, compared to that great
+operative of the Sanctuary at Westminster,
+whom my father clung to&mdash;still,
+that the yesterdays that had
+lighted them the way to dusty death
+had cast no glare on dishonoured
+scutcheons seemed clear, from the
+popular respect and traditional affection
+in which I found that the name
+was still held in hamlet and homestead.
+It was pleasant to see the
+veneration with which this small
+hidalgo of some three hundred a-year
+was held, and the patriarchal
+affection with which he returned it.
+Roland was a man who would walk
+into a cottage, rest his cork leg on
+the hearth, and talk for the hour
+together upon all that lay nearest to
+the hearts of the owners. There is a
+peculiar spirit of aristocracy amongst<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+agricultural peasants: they like old
+names and families; they identify
+themselves with the honours of a
+house, as if of its clan. They do not
+care so much for wealth as townsfolk
+and the middle class do; they have a
+pity, but a respectful one, for wellborn
+poverty. And then this Roland,
+too&mdash;who would go and dine in a
+cook shop, and receive change for a
+shilling, and shun the ruinous luxury
+of a hack cabriolet&mdash;could be positively
+extravagant in his liberalities
+to those around him. He was altogether
+another being in his paternal
+acres. The shabby-genteel, half-pay
+captain, lost in the whirl of London,
+here luxuriated into a dignified case
+of manner that Chesterfield might
+have admired. And, if to please is
+the true sign of politeness, I wish you
+could have seen the faces that smiled
+upon Captain Roland, as he walked
+down the village, nodding from side
+to side.</p>
+
+<p>One day a frank, hearty, old
+woman, who had known Roland as a
+boy, seeing him lean on my arm,
+stopped us, as she said bluffly, to
+take a "geud luik" at me.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately I was stalwart enough
+to pass muster, even in the eyes of
+a Cumberland matron; and, after a
+compliment at which Roland seemed
+much pleased, she said to me, but
+pointing to the Captain&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hegh, sir, now you ha the bra
+time before you; you maun een try
+and be as geud as <em>he</em>. And if life
+last, ye wull too&mdash;for there never
+waur a bad ane of that stock. Wi'
+heads kindly stup'd to the least, and
+lifted manfu' oop to the heighest&mdash;that
+ye all war' sin ye came from the Ark.
+Blessins on the ould name&mdash;though
+little pelf goes with it&mdash;it sounds on
+the peur man's ear like a bit o'
+gould!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not see now," said Roland,
+as we turned away, "what we owe to a
+name, and what to our forefathers?&mdash;do
+you not see why the remotest ancestor
+has a right to our respect and
+consideration&mdash;for he was a parent?
+'Honour your parents'&mdash;the law
+does not say, 'Honour your children!'
+If a child disgrace us, and the dead,
+and the sanctity of this great heritage
+of their virtues&mdash;<em>the name</em>;&mdash;if he
+does&mdash;" Roland stopped short, and
+added fervently, "But you are my
+heir now&mdash;I have no fear! What
+matters one foolish old man's sorrow?&mdash;the
+name, that property
+of generations, is saved, thank
+Heaven&mdash;the name!"</p>
+
+<p>Now the riddle was solved, and
+I understood why, amidst all his natural
+grief for a son's loss, that proud
+father was consoled. For he was
+less himself a father than a son&mdash;son
+to the long dead. From every grave,
+where a progenitor slept, he had
+heard a parent's voice. He could bear
+to be bereaved, if the forefathers were
+not dishonoured. Roland was more
+than half a Roman&mdash;the son might
+still cling to his household affections,
+but the <em>lares</em> were a part of his
+religion.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER L.</h3>
+
+<p>But I ought to be hard at work,
+preparing myself for Cambridge. The
+deuce!&mdash;how can I? The point in
+academical education on which I require
+most preparation is Greek composition.
+I come to my father, who,
+one might think, was at home enough
+in this. But rare indeed is it to find
+a great scholar who is a good teacher.</p>
+
+<p>My dear father! if one is content to
+take you in your own way, there never
+was a more admirable instructor for
+the heart, the head, the principles,
+or the tastes&mdash;in your own way, when
+you have discovered that there is some
+one sore to be healed&mdash;one defect to
+be repaired; and you have rubbed
+your spectacles, and got your hand
+fairly into that recess between your
+frill and your waistcoat. But to go
+to you, cut and dry, monotonously,
+regularly&mdash;book and exercise in hand&mdash;to
+see the mournful patience with
+which you tear yourself from that
+great volume of Cardan in the very
+honeymoon of possession&mdash;and then
+to note those mild eyebrows gradually
+distend themselves into perplexed diagonals,
+over some false quantity or
+some barbarous collocation&mdash;till there
+steal forth that horrible "Papæ!"
+which means more on your lips than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+I am sure it ever did when Latin was
+a live language, and "Papæ!" a natural
+and unpedantic ejaculation!&mdash;no,
+I would sooner blunder through the
+dark by myself a thousand times, than
+light my rush-light at the lamp of that
+Phlegethonian "Papæ!"</p>
+
+<p>And then my father would wisely
+and kindly, but wondrous slowly,
+erase three-fourths of one's pet verses,
+and intercalate others that one saw
+were exquisite, but could not exactly
+see why. And then one asked why;
+and my father shook his head in despair,
+and said&mdash;"But you ought to
+<em>feel</em> why!"</p>
+
+<p>In short, scholarship to him was
+like poetry: he could no more teach
+it you than Pindar could have taught
+you how to make an ode. You
+breathed the aroma, but you could
+no more seize and analyse it, than,
+with the opening of your naked hand,
+you could carry off the scent of a rose.
+I soon left my father in peace to Cardan,
+and to the Great Book, which
+last, by the way, advanced but slowly.
+For Uncle Jack had now insisted on
+its being published in quarto, with
+illustrative plates; and those plates
+took an immense time, and were to
+cost an immense sum&mdash;but that cost
+was the affair of the Anti-Publisher
+Society. But how can I settle to work
+by myself? No sooner have I got
+into my room&mdash;<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">penitus ab orbe divisus</i>,
+as I rashly think&mdash;than there is a tap
+at the door. Now, it is my mother,
+who is benevolently engaged upon
+making curtains to all the windows,
+(a trifling superfluity that Bolt had
+forgotten or disdained,) and who wants
+to know how the draperies are fashioned
+at Mr Trevanion's: a pretence
+to have me near her, and see
+with her own eyes that I am not
+fretting;&mdash;the moment she hears I
+have shut myself up in my room, she
+is sure that it is for sorrow. Now
+it is Bolt, who is making book-shelves
+for my father, and desires to
+consult me at every turn, especially
+as I have given him a Gothic design,
+which pleases him hugely. Now it is
+Blanche, whom, in an evil hour, I
+undertook to teach to draw, and who
+comes in on tiptoe, vowing she'll not
+disturb me, and sits so quiet that she
+fidgets me out of all patience. Now,
+and much more often, it is the Captain,
+who wants me to walk, to ride,
+to fish. And, by St Hubert! (saint
+of the chase,) bright August comes&mdash;and
+there is moor-game on those
+barren wolds&mdash;and my uncle has
+given me the gun he shot with at
+my age&mdash;single-barrelled, flint lock&mdash;but
+you would not have laughed at it
+if you had seen the strange feats it
+did in Roland's hands&mdash;while in mine,
+I could always lay the blame on the
+flint lock! Time, in short, passed
+rapidly; and if Roland and I had
+our dark hours, we chased them
+away before they could settle&mdash;shot
+them on the wing as they got up.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, though the immediate
+scenery around my uncle's was so
+bleak and desolate, the country within
+a few miles was so full of objects of
+interest&mdash;of landscapes so poetically
+grand or lovely; and occasionally we
+coaxed my father from the Cardan,
+and spent whole days by the margin
+of some glorious lake.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst these excursions, I made
+one by myself to that house in which
+my father had known the bliss and
+the pangs of that stern first love that
+still left its scars fresh on my own
+memory. The house, large and imposing,
+was shut up&mdash;the Trevanions
+had not been there for years&mdash;the
+pleasure-grounds had been contracted
+into the smallest possible space. There
+was no positive decay or ruin&mdash;that
+Trevanion would never have allowed;
+but there was the dreary look of absenteeship
+everywhere. I penetrated
+into the house with the help of my
+card and half-a-crown. I saw that
+memorable boudoir&mdash;I could fancy the
+very spot in which my father had
+heard the sentence that had changed
+the current of his life. And when I
+returned home, I looked with new
+tenderness on my father's placid brow&mdash;and
+blessed anew that tender helpmate,
+who, in her patient love, had
+chased from it every shadow.</p>
+
+<p>I had received one letter from Vivian
+a few days after our arrival. It
+had been redirected from my father's
+house, at which I had given him my
+address. It was short, but seemed
+cheerful. He said, that he believed
+he had at last hit on the right way,
+and should keep to it&mdash;that he and
+the world were better friends than
+they had been&mdash;and that the only way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+to keep friends with the world was to
+treat it as a tamed tiger, and have
+one hand on a crow-bar while one
+fondled the beast with the other. He
+enclosed me a bank-note which somewhat
+more than covered his debt to
+me, and bade me pay him the surplus
+when he should claim it as a millionnaire.
+He gave me no address in his
+letter, but it bore the post-mark of
+Godalming. I had the impertinent
+curiosity to look into an old topographical
+work upon Surrey, and in a
+supplemental itinerary I found this
+passage, "To the left of the beech-wood,
+three miles from Godalming,
+you catch a glimpse of the elegant
+seat of Francis Vivian, Esq." To
+judge by the date of the work, the
+said Francis Vivian might be the
+grandfather of my friend, his namesake.
+There could no longer be any
+doubt as to the parentage of this prodigal
+son.</p>
+
+<p>The long vacation was now nearly
+over, and all his guests were to leave
+the poor Captain. In fact, we had
+made a long trespass on his hospitality.
+It was settled that I was to
+accompany my father and mother to
+their long-neglected <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">penates</i>, and start
+thence for Cambridge.</p>
+
+<p>Our parting was sorrowful&mdash;even
+Mrs Primmins wept as she shook
+hands with Bolt. But Bolt, an old
+soldier, was of course a lady's man.
+The brothers did not shake hands
+only&mdash;they fondly embraced, as
+brothers of that time of life rarely do
+now-a-days, except on the stage. And
+Blanche, with one arm round my
+mother's neck, and one round mine,
+sobbed in my ear,&mdash;"But I will be
+your little wife, I will." Finally, the
+fly-coach once more received us all&mdash;all
+but poor Blanche, and we looked
+round and missed her.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER LI.</h3>
+
+<p>Alma Mater! Alma Mater! New-fashioned
+folks, with their large
+theories of education, may find fault
+with thee. But a true Spartan
+mother thou art&mdash;hard and stern as
+the old matron who bricked up her
+son Pausanias, bringing the first
+stone to immure him; hard and
+stern, I say, to the worthless, but
+full of majestic tenderness to the
+worthy.</p>
+
+<p>For a young man to go up to Cambridge
+(I say nothing of Oxford,
+knowing nothing thereof) merely as
+routine work, to lounge through three
+years to a degree among the �ι πολλοι&mdash;for
+such an one, Oxford Street herself,
+whom the immortal Opium-eater hath
+so direly apostrophised, is not a more
+careless and stony-hearted mother.
+But for him who will read, who will
+work, who will seize the rare advantages
+proffered, who will select his
+friends judiciously&mdash;yea, out of that
+vast ferment of young idea in its lusty
+vigour, choose the good and reject
+the bad&mdash;there is plenty to make those
+three years rich with fruit imperishable&mdash;three
+years nobly spent, even
+though one must pass over the Ass's
+Bridge to get into the Temple of
+Honour.</p>
+
+<p>Important changes in the Academical
+system have been recently announced,
+and honours are henceforth
+to be accorded to the successful disciples
+in moral and natural sciences.
+By the side of the old throne of
+Mathesis, they have placed two very
+useful <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fauteuils à la Voltaire</i>. I
+have no objection; but, in those three
+years of life, it is not so much the thing
+learned, as the steady perseverance in
+learning something that is excellent.</p>
+
+<p>It was fortunate, in one respect, for
+me that I had seen a little of the real
+world&mdash;the metropolitan, before I
+came to that mimic one&mdash;the cloistral.
+For what were called pleasures in the
+last, and which might have allured
+me, had I come fresh from school,
+had no charm for me now. Hard
+drinking and high play, a certain
+mixture of coarseness and extravagance,
+made the fashion among the
+idle when I was at the university <em>sub
+consule Planco</em>&mdash;when Wordsworth
+was master of Trinity: it may be
+altered now.</p>
+
+<p>But I had already outlived such
+temptations, and so, naturally, I was
+thrown out of the society of the idle,
+and somewhat into that of the laborious.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Still, to speak frankly, I had no
+longer the old pleasure in books. If
+my acquaintance with the great world
+had destroyed the temptation to puerile
+excesses, it had also increased my
+constitutional tendency to practical
+action. And, alas! in spite of all the
+benefit I had derived from Robert
+Hall, there were times when memory
+was so poignant that I had no choice
+but to rush from the lonely room,
+haunted by tempting phantoms too
+dangerously fair, and sober down the
+fever of the heart by some violent
+bodily fatigue. The ardour which
+belongs to early youth, and which it
+best dedicates to knowledge, had
+been charmed prematurely to shrines
+less severely sacred. Therefore,
+though I laboured, it was with that
+full <em>sense of labour</em> which (as I found
+at a much later period of life) the
+truly triumphant student never knows.
+Learning&mdash;that marble image&mdash;warms
+into life, not at the toil of the chisel,
+but the worship of the sculptor. The
+mechanical workman finds but the
+voiceless stone.</p>
+
+<p>At my uncle's, such a thing as a
+newspaper rarely made its appearance.
+At Cambridge, even among
+reading men, the newspapers had
+their due importance. Politics ran
+high; and I had not been three days
+at Cambridge before I heard Trevanion's
+name. Newspapers, therefore,
+had their charms for me. Trevanion's
+prophecy about himself
+seemed about to be fulfilled. There
+were rumours of changes in the
+cabinet. Trevanion's name was
+bandied to and fro, struck from praise
+to blame, high and low, as a shuttlecock.
+Still the changes were not
+made, and the cabinet held firm.
+Not a word in the <cite>Morning Post</cite>,
+under the head of <em>fashionable intelligence</em>,
+as to rumours that would have
+agitated me more than the rise and
+fall of governments&mdash;no hint of "the
+speedy nuptials of the daughter and
+sole heiress of a distinguished and
+wealthy commoner:" only now and
+then, in enumerating the circle of
+brilliant guests at the house of
+some party chief, I gulped back the
+heart that rushed to my lips, when
+I saw the names of Lady Ellinor and
+Miss Trevanion.</p>
+
+<p>But amongst all that prolific
+progeny of the periodical press&mdash;remote
+offspring of my great namesake
+and ancestor, (for I hold the
+faith of my father,)&mdash;where was
+the <cite>Literary Times</cite>?&mdash;what had
+so long retarded its promised blossoms?
+Not a leaf in the shape of
+advertisements had yet emerged from
+its mother earth. I hoped from my
+heart that the whole thing was abandoned,
+and would not mention it in
+my letters home, lest I should revive
+the mere idea of it. But, in default
+of the <cite>Literary Times</cite>, there did appear
+a new journal, a daily journal
+too; a tall, slender, and meagre stripling,
+with a vast head, by way of prospectus,
+which protruded itself for three
+weeks successively at the top of the
+leading article;&mdash;with a fine and subtle
+body of paragraphs;&mdash;and the smallest
+legs, in the way of advertisements,
+that any poor newspaper ever stood
+upon! And yet this attenuated journal
+had a plump and plethoric title,
+a title that smacked of turtle and
+venison; an aldermanic, portly, grandiose,
+Falstaffian title&mdash;it was called
+<span class="smcap">The Capitalist</span>. And all those
+fine subtle paragraphs were larded
+out with receipts how to make money.
+There was an El Dorado in every sentence.
+To believe that paper, you
+would think no man had ever yet found
+a proper return for his pounds, shillings,
+and pence. You would have
+turned up your nose at twenty per
+cent. There was a great deal about
+Ireland&mdash;not her wrongs, thank Heaven!
+but her fisheries: a long inquiry
+what had become of the pearls for
+which Britain was once so famous: a
+learned disquisition upon certain lost
+gold mines now happily rediscovered:
+a very ingenious proposition to turn
+London smoke into manure, by a new
+chemical process: recommendations
+to the poor to hatch chickens in ovens
+like the ancient Egyptians: agricultural
+schemes for sowing the waste
+lands in England with onions, upon
+the system adopted near Bedford, net
+produce one hundred pounds an acre.
+In short, according to that paper,
+every rood of ground might well
+maintain its man, and every shilling
+be like Hobson's money-bag, "the
+fruitful parent of a hundred more."
+For three days, at the newspaper
+room of the Union Club, men talked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+of this journal: some pished, some
+sneered, some wondered; till an ill-natured
+mathematician, who had just
+taken his degree, and had spare time
+on his hands, sent a long letter to the
+<cite>Morning Chronicle</cite>, showing up more
+blunders, in some article to which the
+editor of <cite>The Capitalist</cite> had specially
+invited attention, (unlucky dog!) than
+would have paved the whole island of
+Laputa. After that time, not a soul
+read <cite>The Capitalist</cite>. How long it
+dragged on its existence I know not;
+but it certainly did not die of a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">maladie
+de langueur</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Little thought I, when I joined in
+the laugh against <cite>The Capitalist</cite>,
+that I ought rather to have followed it
+to its grave, in black crape and weepers,&mdash;unfeeling
+wretch that I was!
+But, like a poet, O <cite>Capitalist</cite>! thou
+wert not discovered, and appreciated,
+and prized, and mourned, till thou
+wert dead and buried, and the bill
+came in for thy monument!</p>
+
+<p>The first term of my college life
+was just expiring, when I received a
+letter from my mother, so agitated,
+so alarming, at first reading so unintelligible,
+that I could only see that
+some great misfortune had befallen
+us; and I stopped short and dropped
+on my knees, to pray for the life and
+health of those whom that misfortune
+more specially seemed to menace; and
+then&mdash;and then, towards the end of
+the last blurred sentence&mdash;read twice,
+thrice, over&mdash;I could cry, "Thank
+Heaven, thank Heaven! it is only,
+then, money after all!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h2>STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is a term of very wide application,
+this of statistics&mdash;extending to
+everything in the state of a country
+subject to variation either from the
+energies and fancies of men, or from the
+operations of nature, in so far as these,
+or the knowledge of them, has any
+tendency to occasion change in the
+condition of the country. Its elements
+must be either changeable in
+themselves, or the cause of change;
+because the use of the whole matter
+is to direct men what to do for their
+advantage, moral or physical&mdash;by
+legislation, when the case is of sufficient
+magnitude&mdash;or otherwise by the
+wisdom and enterprise of individuals.</p>
+
+<p>Governments, it is plain, must
+have the greatest interest in possessing
+knowledge of this sort; but they
+have not been the first to engage
+very earnestly in obtaining it. It
+would seem that, in all countries, the
+first very noticeable efforts in this
+way have been made by individuals.</p>
+
+<p>In this country we have now from
+government more and better statistics
+than from any other source; for
+besides the decennial census, there is
+the yearly produce in this way of
+Crown Commissions and of Parliamentary
+Committees; and, moreover,
+there is the late institution of a statistical
+department in connexion with
+the Board of Trade, for arranging,
+digesting, and rendering more accessible
+all matter of this kind collected,
+from time to time, by the different
+branches of the administration. But
+before statistical knowledge became
+the object of much care to the government
+of this country, it had been
+well cultivated by individuals. So in
+Germany statistics first took a scientific
+form in the works of an individual
+about the middle of the last century:
+and in France, the unfinished <cite>Mémoires
+des Intendants</cite>, prepared on the
+order of the king, were scarcely an
+exception, since meant for the private
+instruction of the young prince. But
+without attaching undue importance
+to the fact of mere precedence, it may
+be said that, considering the chief uses
+of this kind of knowledge, it has
+received more contributions from
+individuals than could have been expected.</p>
+
+<p>This admits of being easily explained.
+It has been well said that,
+while history is a sort of current statistics,
+statistics are a sort of stationary
+history. The one has therefore much
+the same invitations to mere literary
+taste as the other; and if the subject<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+be not so generally engaging, the fancy
+way be as strong, and produce as
+pure a devotion to statistics as there
+ever is to history. More than this,
+the statist may care far less for his
+subject than its uses,&mdash;that is, he may
+choose to undergo the toil of researches
+only recommended by the chance of
+their ministering to the better guidance
+of some part of public policy, and
+therefore to the public good. The impulse
+is then not literary; nor is it
+legislative, for the power is wanting;
+it is simply patriotic, for so it must
+be considered, even when, in the words
+of Mr M'Culloch, the object is only
+"to bring under the public view the
+deficiencies in statistical information,
+and so to contribute to the advancement
+of the science."</p>
+
+<p>This public nature of the aim of
+statistical works, and the unlikelihood
+of their authors choosing that medium
+to set forth anything supposed worthy
+of notice in the figure of their own
+genius, seem to have been recognised,
+except in rare instances, as giving to
+works of this kind a title to be well
+received, and to have their faults very
+gently remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it might be expected that
+the statistics of individuals should
+have a more limited range than those
+of governments; that they should
+refer to districts of less extent; and
+to the state of the country in fewer of
+its aspects. But the case is somewhat
+different. The statistics of individuals
+are often more national than local,
+and generally consist of many branches
+presented in some connexion; while
+those of governments are commonly
+confined to the single department on
+which some question of policy may
+chance for the time to have fixed
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>On the occasion mentioned, the inquiries
+instituted in France were not
+so confined, but embraced all the
+points of chief interest in the state of
+the country. In England, nothing
+similar has been attempted; although,
+some years ago, it is known that a
+proposal to institute a general survey
+of Ireland&mdash;on the plan, we believe,
+of the Ordnance Survey of the parish
+of Templemore&mdash;was for some time
+under consideration of the government.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the instances of
+individual enterprise in this way to a
+national extent are numerous, both
+at home and abroad. Among the
+latter, Aucherwall gives the first example,
+and Peuchet probably the
+best; both treating of the country
+not in parts but as a whole,&mdash;not in
+one respect but in many. Of the
+same sort are the excellent statistical
+works of Colquhoun, M'Culloch,
+Porter, and others, relating to the
+British empire, and directed to many
+aspects of its condition. To these
+we add the <cite>Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>,&mdash;occupied
+with as many or
+more matters of inquiry, but not so
+properly national, since viewing not
+the country collectively, but its parochial
+divisions in succession.</p>
+
+<p>One advantage belongs to the collection
+of statistics upon many points,
+which is not found in those that are
+limited to one. It is remarked by
+Schlozer in his <cite>Theorie der Statistik</cite>,
+that "there are many facts seemingly
+of no value, but which become important
+as soon as you combine them
+with other facts, it may be of quite
+another class. The affinities subsisting
+among these facts are discovered
+by the talent and genius of
+the statist; and the more various the
+knowledge he possesses, with so much
+the more success he will perform this
+last and crowning part of his task."
+The observation need not be confined
+to facts apparently unimportant: for
+even those, whose importance is at
+once perceived, may acquire a new
+value from a skilful collation. In
+either case, there seems a necessity
+for remitting the detached statistics
+collected by government to some
+such department as that in connexion
+with the Board of Trade; otherwise,
+the works of individual statists must
+continue to afford the only opportunity
+of tracing the latent relations
+of one branch of statistics to
+another.</p>
+
+<p>The individual, however, who attempts
+so much, is in hazard of
+attempting more than any individual
+can well perform. For, besides this,
+he has to make another effort quite
+distinct&mdash;in the investigation of facts.
+All the needed scientific knowledge he
+may possess; but the same sufficiency
+of local or topographical knowledge is
+not supposable. The work so produced,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+therefore, cannot easily avoid
+the defects, either of error in the
+details of some branch, of unequal
+development of the parts, or of a
+superficial treatment of the whole.
+Against these dangers some writers
+have had recourse to assistance, inviting
+contributions from others favoured
+with better means of information
+than themselves; and to them
+attributing, in so far as they assisted,
+the entire merit and responsibility of
+the work.</p>
+
+<p>This transference of responsibility is
+warranted by the necessity of the
+case&mdash;but it is unusual; and as it
+scarcely occurs except in works of the
+kind in question, it may happen that
+even a professing judge of such works,
+if the habit of attention be not good,
+may entirely overlook the circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>In the <cite>Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>,
+the obligation to individual contributions
+has been carried to the
+greatest extent; indeed, it is simply a
+collection of such contributions, and
+nothing more. This part of the plan
+was necessitated by another, in which
+the work is equally peculiar&mdash;namely,
+the distinct treatment of smaller divisions
+of the country, than have been
+taken up in any other work of the
+kind, having an entire country for
+its object. To obtain a body of parochial
+statistics, it was necessary to
+have recourse to persons well acquainted
+with the bounds, and intelligent,
+at the same time, upon the various
+subjects of inquiry. But to find
+such in nine hundred parishes would,
+of itself, have required much of that
+local knowledge, the want of which
+was the occasion of the search&mdash;had
+there not been a class or order of men
+among whom the desired qualification,
+in many points, might be supposed to
+be pretty generally diffused; and from
+whose favour to a project of public
+usefulness much aid might be expected.
+It was in this manner that the
+co-operation of the parochial clergy
+came to be suggested.</p>
+
+<p>The <cite>Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>
+was originated, promoted, and superintended
+by the late Sir John Sinclair.
+The authors of such works, as one of
+the best of them remarks, should be
+careful to explain their motives in
+undertaking it&mdash;we presume, because
+undertakings of the kind are felt to
+be scarcely an affair of individuals.
+In this instance, a desire to promote
+the public good was at once professed
+and accredited by many other acts
+apparently inspired by the same sentiment.
+The devotion of Sir John
+Sinclair's life in that direction was
+complete, and the example uncommon.
+In this a late reviewer perceives
+nothing more than a restless pursuit of
+plans of no further interest to himself
+than as they bore the inscription of
+his own name. But whenever public
+spirit is professed, and by anything
+like useful acts attested, our faith, we
+think, should be more generous. On
+such occasions, if on any, it is right
+to waive all speculation upon private
+motives, and to presume the best&mdash;for
+reasons so well understood in
+general that they do not need to be
+explained. But if genius, with a
+bent to that sort of penetration, must
+have its freedom, we do demand that
+some token should appear of a belief
+in the possibility of the virtue which
+is denied.</p>
+
+<p>It does not improve the grace of
+any such judgments that they are
+passed fifty years after the occasion;
+for, in the meantime, the work may
+have acquired merits which could not
+belong to it at first:&mdash;and so it has
+happened with the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>
+of Sir John Sinclair. Results may
+be fairly ascribed to that performance
+which were not intended nor
+foreseen, and which seem to have come
+from its very defects, as well as from
+the defects which it revealed in the
+condition of the country, and in the
+means of ascertaining what the condition
+of the country was. Its population-statistics
+were extremely imperfect;
+the census followed in a very
+few years. Its scanty and unequal
+notices of agriculture suggested the
+project of the County Reports; and
+to these succeeded the <cite>General Report
+of Scotland</cite>&mdash;a work still useful, and
+of the first authority in much that
+relates to the agriculture and other
+industry of the country. To take advantage
+of those capabilities which
+the statistical accounts had shown his
+country to possess, Sir John Sinclair
+originated the Agricultural Society.
+All of those things, and more, appear
+to have resulted from the <i>Statistical Account</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+They are honours that have
+arisen to it in the course of time, and
+may be fairly permitted to mitigate
+the notice and recollection of its
+faults.</p>
+
+<p>After the lapse of fifty years, Scotland
+had ceased to be the country represented
+in the old <cite>Statistical Account</cite>;
+for the greater part of what is proper
+to such a work is, as we have said,
+changeable and changing. It contained
+not a little, however, which
+remained as true and as interesting as
+at first: the topography, the physical
+characters, the civil divisions of the
+country were the same; all that had
+been said of its history, whether local
+or general, might be said again as seasonably
+as before. It occurred, then,
+to those to whom the author had presented
+the right of this work, to attempt
+to restore it in those parts which
+time had rendered useless, preserving
+those which were under no disadvantage
+from that cause. This, as we
+learn, was the plain, unambitious intention
+of the <cite>New Statistical Account
+of Scotland</cite>. It was projected and
+carried on during ten years by a Society,
+whose object it is to afford aid,
+where aid is needed, in the education
+of the children of the clergy of the
+Church of Scotland. Nothing could
+be more foreign to that object than to
+engage in a work of national statistics;
+nothing more natural than that, in
+their relation to the clergy, and with
+their interest in the first work, they
+should propose to renew it in the manner
+mentioned. A society expressly formed
+for statistical purposes, and not restrained
+like the Society for the Sons
+and Daughters of the Clergy, would probably
+have proposed something different&mdash;something
+more new; it might
+have been expected to produce something
+more excellent&mdash;though, even in
+that case, the demand of excellence
+would have been limited by the consideration,
+that the means of completely
+investigating the statistics of
+a country are not at the command of
+any statistical society that exists. A
+modernisation, so to speak, of the first
+work appears to have been the idea of
+the second.</p>
+
+<p>It has been executed, however, in
+the freest style, and scarcely admitted,
+indeed, of being accomplished at
+all in any other manner. In such
+cases, it is seldom that the adaptation
+is effected by mere numerical
+changes; the whole statement, in form,
+manner, and substance, behoves to be
+remodelled. Then, certain parts of
+the original may have been deficient,
+and become more evidently so by the
+changes that have since ensued in the
+state of the object: here the task is
+less one of correction than of supplement.
+For example, the very interesting
+and full accounts of mining and
+manufacturing industry which abound
+in the new work are nearly peculiar
+to it, and have scarcely an example in
+the old. One entire section of the
+latter, that of natural history, has been
+developed to an extent not attempted
+in the former, nor indeed in any other
+statistical work. These are rather
+noticeable licenses, on the supposition
+of the aim being as moderate as professed,
+and they go far to form a new
+and independent work&mdash;having nothing
+in common with the first, except the
+parochial divisions and the obligation
+to the clergy, as respects the plan; and
+as respects the matter, only the small
+part of it which is historical, and
+therefore not obsolete.</p>
+
+<p>We observe, accordingly, that the
+society who promoted the new work
+have put it forward as taking some
+things from the old, for which they
+are not responsible, but as containing
+far more which must form a new and
+separate character for itself. In both
+respects, we think they have viewed
+the work with a proper reference to
+the conditions under which it was produced.</p>
+
+<p>In other points, the new Account has
+improved upon the old, and might be
+expected to do so. It has more matter,
+by a third part, neither less suited
+to the place, nor more diffuse in the
+statement; and, as befits a work of
+reference, the arrangement is more
+orderly and more uniform. It is, on
+the whole, more carefully and better
+written, and shows, on the part of the
+reverend contributors, a remarkable
+advance in the many sorts of knowledge
+requisite to the task. If the
+comparison were pursued further, it
+might be said that some contributions
+to the first are not surpassed in the
+value of what they contain; while,
+from the greater novelty of the task
+at that time, as well as from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+greater freedom of the method, they
+are somewhat fresher and more genial
+in manner. The later work, if fuller,
+more exact, more statistical throughout,
+possesses that advantage at the
+cost of appearing sometimes more
+like a collection of returns in answer
+to submitted points of inquiry,&mdash;a character,
+however, by no means unsuitable
+to a compilation of the kind. In
+all other points a decided superiority
+must be attributed to the new Account.</p>
+
+<p>Our remarks at this time shall be
+confined to the plan of the new Account,
+and to the general description
+of its contents.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>The chief feature of the plan is the
+distinct treatment of each parish&mdash;producing
+a body neither of county nor
+of national, but merely of parochial
+statistics. This was the design, and
+there is much to recommend it. It
+is the last thing that can take the
+aspect of a fault in statistics, to view
+the matter in very minute portions;
+for thus, and thus only, it is possible to
+arrive at an accurate knowledge of
+the whole. There can be no good
+county statistics which do not suppose
+inquiries limited, at first, to lesser
+divisions of the country, and which do
+not express the sum of particulars
+taken from subdivisions that can
+hardly proceed too far. If such minor
+surveys do not come before the public,
+they are presumptively carried on in
+private. But, in the latter case, they
+are the more apt to be superficial, as
+they can be so with the less chance
+of being noticed; they are apt to
+take aid from mere computation of
+averages; they are apt, also, to result
+in that vague description which is the
+master-vice of statistics. "In this
+town, there are manufactures which
+employ <em>many</em> hands; in this district,
+<em>vast</em> quantities of silk are produced.
+These," says Schlozer, "are pet
+phrases of tourists, who would say
+something, when they know nothing;
+but they are not the language of
+statistics." The parochial method
+stands, then, on two good grounds: it
+is inevitable either in an open or a
+latent form; and it favours the collection
+of sufficient data for those specific
+enumerations which are the true
+worth and the characteristic grace of
+this branch of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>This plan, however, has some disadvantages;
+in referring to which we
+shall find occasion to bring to view
+some of the proper merits of the work.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, a work on this
+plan is inevitably voluminous. The
+territorial divisions submitted to distinct
+treatment are about nine hundred
+in number, and the matter is
+still further augmented by the occasional
+assignment to different hands
+of different parts of the survey of a
+single parish. In proportion to the
+descent of the details, is the bulk of
+the production; which we suppose to be
+an evil in the same measure in which it
+exceeds the necessity of the case. Now
+the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite> is at once
+seen to contain not a little matter of
+merely local interest, and of the
+smallest value considered as pertaining
+to a body of national statistics;
+and here, if anywhere, it is apt to be
+regarded as at fault. It is right, however,
+to recollect the privilege of every
+work to be judged according to the
+conditions of the species to which it
+belongs. The present is not set
+forth as a statistical account of Scotland,
+but as a collection of the statistical
+accounts of all the parishes in
+Scotland; for this, we perceive, is
+not merely implied in the plan of the
+work, but is declared in the prospectus,
+where the hope is expressed that, by
+exhibiting the actual state of the
+parishes, with whatever is therein
+amiss, it may lead to parochial improvements.
+It does not appear, therefore,
+to have been from any miscalculation
+of their worth, that matters of
+merely local interest have been so
+liberally admitted; and, all things
+considered, more of that nature might
+have been expected. Let us quote
+again from the best theory of statistics
+that has ever been produced. "An
+object may be deserving of remark in
+the description of some particular
+portion of a country, and at the same
+time have no claim to notice in any
+general account of that country at
+large. In the former case, the rivulet
+is not to be omitted; in the latter,
+any allusion to it would be a defect,
+for it would be matter of unnecessary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+and trifling detail."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> It is recorded,
+in the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>,
+that "Will-o'-wisp had never appeared
+in the parish of South Uist
+previous to the year 1812." Nothing,
+in a national point of view, can be
+conceived more insignificant than this
+fact; but, taken in connexion with a
+notable superstition in that district,
+its local importance appears.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> To
+the credit of this method, it may be
+noticed, that the accounts which are
+most parochial are, at the same time,
+among those which have been drawn
+up with the most general intelligence;
+and, this being the case, it is not a
+strange wish that the accounts, in
+general, had been somewhat more
+parochial than they are.</p>
+
+<p>On this plan, it is certain there is
+a risk of much repetition, many
+parishes having some common characterists
+which, in place of being
+recounted for each, might be stated
+once for all. How far does the
+<cite>Statistical Account</cite> offend in this manner?
+It is true that, where the same
+facts occur in many parishes, a single
+statement might suffice; though this
+might be at the cost of violating the
+plan which for the whole it might be
+fittest to adopt, upon consideration
+that the like resemblance is not found
+among the greater number of the
+parishes. But it is remarkable, how
+seldom different parishes have all the
+similarity requisite for such a common
+description; for, in statistics, a difference
+in mere number or quantity is
+a vital difference, and expresses
+essentially different facts. Many
+parishes have the same articles of produce;
+while no two produce exactly the
+same quantities. A very short distance
+often brings to view considerable
+varieties in climate, soil, and other
+physical qualities of a country. Now,
+considering that the object of this
+work is to present the parishes in their
+distinguishing, as well as in their
+common features, we do not see much
+sameness in the substance of the details
+which could have been avoided.
+A sameness there is; but more in
+form than in substance&mdash;each account
+delivering its matter under the same
+general heads, recurring in all cases
+in exactly the same order. This is
+convenient when the book is used for
+reference; it may be wearisome to
+one who reads only for amusement: it is
+monotonous; but who looks for any
+"soul of harmony" in such a quarter?
+We repeat, it is not attended, on the
+whole, with much importunate reappearance
+of the same facts, and
+cannot seem to be so, except to a very
+careless or distempered eye. But if,
+perchance, there may be some facts
+much alike in several parishes, this
+itself is an unusual fact, and we should
+not object to its coming out in the
+usual way of each parish speaking for
+itself; in which case, there is always
+a chance of some variety in the description,
+from the same thing presenting
+itself to different persons
+under different aspects. But, on the
+whole, we think there is less repetition
+in these accounts, and indeed less
+occasion for it, than might at first
+sight be supposed.</p>
+
+<p>There is another obvious tendency
+to imperfection in the plan of parochial
+accounts. Their first, but not
+their sole object, is to describe the
+parishes; it is certainly meant that
+they should furnish, at the same
+time, the grounds of statistical computation
+for the whole country.
+This is the natural complement and
+the proper conclusion to a work of
+parish statistics. It is, however, a
+part of the plan which, not being quite
+necessary, and requiring a fresh effort
+at the last, is apt to be omitted. It
+was not till twenty-five years after
+the publication of the old Account that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+Sir John Sinclair at length produced
+his <em>Analysis of the Statistical Account
+of Scotland considered as one District</em>.
+It came too late. A similar analysis
+or summary appears to have been at
+first intended for the new Account:
+and we regret that this part of the
+design was, by force of circumstances,
+not carried into effect.
+One use of it would have been to
+evince that parochial statistics do not
+assume the character of national;
+while yet, for even national statistics,
+they furnish the most proper foundation.
+To pass at once, however, from
+parochial to national statistics would
+have been too great a step; there is
+an intermediate stage, at which the new
+Account would certainly have paused,
+though it had designed to proceed
+farther; and at which, without that
+design, it has here rested; presenting
+the statistics of each county in a summary
+of the more important particulars
+concerning the included parishes;
+but making no nearer approach to any
+general computations for the country
+at large.</p>
+
+<p>The method of proceeding from
+parishes to counties suggests that
+other plan for the entire work, which
+would have followed the opposite
+course&mdash;the plan that would have
+begun with counties, and given County,
+not Parochial reports. Somewhat in
+this fashion has been formed the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Géographie
+Départementale</i> of France, now
+in course of publication, in which the
+whole matter is rigorously subjected
+to as skilful an arrangement as has
+ever been devised for matters of the
+kind. It is plain, however, that greater
+difficulty and more expense would have
+attended the construction of the Scotch
+work on that scheme, than private
+parties could have undertaken; and
+even the example of the French work
+does not show that, for the compacter
+method thus obtained, there might not
+have been a sacrifice of much that is
+valuable in detail.</p>
+
+<p>It may be added, that when parishes
+are well described, and a county or
+more general summary succeeds, we
+ask no more; a work like this has
+then accomplished its object, and what
+remains must be sought for elsewhere.
+What remains is this&mdash;to interpret
+the statistics thus laid down, for they
+are often very far from interpreting
+themselves; to ascertain, by analysis
+or combination of their different parts,
+what they signify in regard to the condition
+of the country. Thus, betwixt
+the rate of wages and the habits of a
+people&mdash;the prevailing occupations
+and the rate of mortality&mdash;the description
+of industry and the amount of
+pauperism&mdash;there are relations which
+it is exceedingly important to remark.
+But if a statistical account simply
+notes the kind, number, or quantity of
+each of these particulars, it performs
+its part,&mdash;no matter how blindly, how
+unconsciously of the relation that subsists
+betwixt them, this may be done.
+The rest is so different a work, that it
+must be left to other hands. It is not
+to be forgotten, that, for bringing out
+the more latent truths of statistics in
+the manner mentioned, a work like
+this is merely <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pour servir</i>; and, keeping
+that in view, our prepossessions
+are all in favour of abundance and
+minuteness of detail.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, a work made up of contributions
+from nine hundred individuals
+must be of unequal merit, according
+to the different measures of intelligence
+or care, and according to the feeling
+with which a task of that nature may
+happen to have been undertaken. A
+slight inspection, accordingly, discovers
+that it is the character of the
+writer, more than of the parish, that
+determines the length and interest of
+any one of these reports. This is an
+imperfection, and something more&mdash;for
+it makes one part of the book, by implication,
+reveal the defects of another. A
+few years ago, when a Crown commission
+considered a project for a general
+survey and statistical report of Ireland,
+their attention was much attracted to
+the <cite>New Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>;
+and, in their report, they notice,
+in the course of a very fair estimate,
+this inequality as the main disadvantage
+of the plan. It is, however, inevitable,
+except upon a scheme which,
+from the expense attending it, would
+have hindered the existence of the
+Scottish work, and which appears
+to have prevented or postponed the
+Irish. From a single author, something
+like proportion might be expected
+in the parts of such a compilation;
+but to that perfection a work like the
+<cite>Statistical Account of Scotland</cite>, with
+its hundreds of avowed responsible,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+and therefore uncontrolled authors,
+could not pretend. For this reason,
+it is the more proper to follow a rule
+of judgment which, in any case, is a
+good one:&mdash;to estimate the general
+character of the work with a lively
+recollection of its merits; and to be
+much upon our guard against the
+mean instinct of looking only to the
+weaker and more peccant parts of it.</p>
+
+<p>Passing from the plan to the matter
+of the work, we now ask, whether all
+that it contains is properly statistical,
+and whether it contains all of any
+consequence that falls under that description.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing, we suppose, is alien to
+this branch of knowledge that tends,
+in however little, to show the state of
+a country&mdash;social, political, moral&mdash;or
+even physical.</p>
+
+<p>But this last, comprising somewhat
+of geography and natural history,
+some writers would remove entirely
+from the sphere of statistics. Among
+these is Peuchet, in his work before
+mentioned&mdash;who gives as the reason
+of the exclusion, that, in any analysis
+of the wealth or power of a state,
+neither its geography nor natural history
+ever come into view: a fact rather
+hastily assumed. The parallel work
+for this country, by Mr. M'Culloch,
+while it follows Peuchet's method in
+much, leaves it in this instance, admitting
+various branches of natural
+history to ample consideration. It is
+true that trespass on the proper
+ground of statistics has been so common
+an offence, that writers have been
+careful to mark those cases in which
+no title exists. Thus Schlozer, looking
+to the intrusions that come from
+the quarter we refer to, is averse to
+all imaginative descriptions of the
+physical aspect of a country, but does
+not prohibit natural history. Hogel,
+who also writes well upon the theory
+of statistics,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> is more explicit&mdash;admitting
+that natural history may encroach
+too far, but asserting that its
+several branches may be received to
+a certain extent. "Whatever, in
+the physical nature of a country, has
+any influence upon the life, occupations,
+or manners of the people, pertains
+to statistics; by all means,
+therefore, in any body of statistics, let
+us have as much of mineralogy, hydrology,
+botany, geology, meteorology,
+as has any bearing upon the condition
+of the people." All of these subjects
+have been allowed to enter largely
+into the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>They form a feature of that work
+which scarcely belonged to the old
+Account, and which is new, indeed, to
+parochial statistics. Investigations
+of natural history have usually been
+carried on with reference to other
+bounds than those of parishes; but,
+when confined to parishes, it is remarkable
+how much this has been at
+once for the advantage of the science,
+and for the enhancement of any interest
+in these territorial divisions by
+the picturesque mixture of natural
+objects with the works and pursuits of
+men. More of this parochial treatment
+of natural history we may possibly
+have hereafter, upon the suggestion of
+the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>For the abundant favour which the
+work has shown to the whole subject
+of natural history, reasons are not
+wanting. One portion of that matter
+has obviously the quality that designates
+for statistical treatment,&mdash;comprising,
+for example, mines, whether
+wrought or unwrought; animals, profitable
+or destructive; plants, in all
+their variety of uses: the connexion
+of which with the wealth and industry
+of the country is at once apparent.
+The same connexion exists for another
+class of objects; but not so obviously.
+For example, there is a detailed
+account of the flowering periods of a
+variety of plants in one parish; the
+pertinence of which is not perceived,
+until it is mentioned that, in the same
+neighbourhood, there are two populous
+and well-frequented watering-places,
+which owe their prosperity to the qualities
+of the climate: there the trade
+of the locality connects itself with the
+early honours of the hepaticas. A
+third class of facts, and not the least
+in amount, is not qualified by any relation
+they are known to possess to
+the social condition of the country;
+but then they belong to a body of
+facts, some of which have that relation;
+and the same may be established
+for them hereafter. Still, it
+may be said that the matter, if appropriate,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+behoves to be presented in a
+statistical, not in a scientific form.
+But this, perhaps, is to interpret too
+strictly the laws of statistical writing,
+which do not seem to forbid the predominance
+of a scientific interest in
+the description, when the matter fairly
+belongs to the province of statistics.
+And if any license at all may be
+allowed in works of so severe a character,
+it is precisely here where that is least
+unbefitting. It is not among the faults
+of the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>, but
+rather among its most interesting features,
+that the mineral resources of the
+country are so often described with all
+the skill and passion of the mineralogist,
+forgetting for the moment everything
+but the phenomena of nature.</p>
+
+<p>Under the head of Natural History,
+we have many instances of the landscape
+painting proscribed by Schlozer.
+But it is remarked, that the same
+authority, when adverting to another
+matter, lays down a principle of admission
+which is equally applicable
+here. "Antiquities," he observes,
+"become a proper subject of statistics
+in such a case as that of Rome,
+where a large amount of money was
+at one time annually expended by the
+strangers who came to form their
+taste, or to indulge their curiosity,
+upon the remains of ancient art." In
+like manner, if there are places in
+Scotland that profit economically by
+the attractions of their natural beauty,
+we do not see that there is any obligation
+to be silent upon the cause, by
+reason merely of the seeming dissonance
+betwixt an imaginative description
+and the austere account of statistics.
+Other and better apologies
+might be offered; and, on the whole, we
+are not satisfied that, in this respect,
+any less indulgence of the gentler
+vein would have been attended with
+advantage to the work.</p>
+
+<p>On these grounds it appears to have
+been, that so much scope is allowed to
+the whole subject of natural history.
+But if too much, the fault has been
+redeemed by the frequent excellence
+of what is put forth on that head.
+Here the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite> passes
+expectation; and to it we may attribute
+much of the increased interest
+that has lately attached to that branch
+of knowledge in Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>Another thing of questionable connexion
+with statistics is history, which
+imports a reference to the past;
+whereas, as the name declares, statistics
+contemplates but the present,
+and can look neither backward nor forward,
+without trenching upon other
+provinces. Many excellent statistical
+works, accordingly, have allowed no
+place to history at all; and the writers
+before cited, on the theory of the subject,
+concur in excluding it. Hogel is
+most explicit. "Statistics never go
+beyond the circle of the present in
+their representations of the condition
+of a country: they are like painting&mdash;they
+fix upon a single point of time;
+and the facts which they select are
+those which come last in the series,
+though the series they belong to may
+extend backwards for ages. All that
+went before rests on testimony, and
+is therefore beyond the sphere of statistics,
+whose grounds are in actual
+observation. There is no limit to the
+number of facts with which statistics
+have to do, provided they are co-existing
+facts, and do not present
+themselves in succession: facts, and
+not their causes, are the proper matter
+of statistics; and they must be facts
+of the present time." This doctrine, in
+which there seems nothing in the main
+amiss, if strictly applied to the work under
+consideration, cancels a large part
+of it. But against that consequence we
+can suppose it to be pleaded&mdash;First, that
+for relief from a continuity of details
+somewhat arid to many readers, the
+work borrows something from a neighbouring
+branch of knowledge, and so
+far, of purpose, drops its statistical
+character&mdash;the more allowably, as in
+this way no harm ensues to the statistical
+character of the rest. And
+next&mdash;that all the history of a place
+has not equally little to do with its present
+state; for past events are often,
+casually or otherwise, related to the
+present, and so become a fair subject
+of retrospect, unless restraints are to
+be imposed on this branch of knowledge
+which are unknown to any other.
+The fault, in this instance, is at least
+not so great, as where no discoverable
+relation exists. It may be worth
+while, then, to observe how far the
+historical matter of the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>
+does show any connexion of the
+sort in question.</p>
+
+<p>It includes, under the head of history,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+various classes of particulars.
+1. The parish has been the scene of
+some event remarkable in the history
+of the country. Of this, perhaps, distinct
+traces remain, not in memory
+alone, but in some local custom or
+institution. But the most common
+case is, that, as the range extends to
+the remotest periods, all influence or
+effect of the event has ceased, and the
+interest of its recital is purely historical.
+Here the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>
+transgresses one rule of such a work
+by the admission of such matter, and
+asks, as we perceive it does ask in the
+prospectus, liberty to do so on one of
+the grounds above suggested.</p>
+
+<p>2. The same apology is required
+for the antiquities, that form a large
+section under this head. These have
+sometimes perceptibly the connexion
+that gives the title we desire; a connexion,
+perhaps, no more than perceptible.
+Thus, in reference to the
+round hill in the parish of Tarbolton,
+on which the god Thor was anciently
+worshipped, we are told that, "on the
+evening before the June fair, a piece
+of fuel is still demanded at each house,
+and invariably given, even by the poorest
+inhabitant," in order to celebrate
+the form of the same superstitious rite
+which has been annually performed on
+that hill for many centuries. The
+famous Pictish tower at Abernethy is
+said to be used "for civil purposes
+connected with the burgh." In these
+cases it is seen how very slight is the
+qualifying circumstance; but it is still
+more so for much the greater number
+of particulars of this kind which the
+book contains&mdash;such as ancient coins,
+ancient armour, barrows, standing-stones,
+camps, or moat hills: all of
+which particularly belong to archæology,
+and obtain a place here simply by
+favour. Indeed, no part of the work
+adheres to it so loosely as this of antiquities.
+Their objects live as curiosities;
+but, to all intents that can
+recommend them to the notice of statistics,
+they are dead, "and to be so
+extant is but a fallacy in duration."</p>
+
+<p>If this portion of the matter be the
+least appropriate, it is, at the same
+time, not the least difficult to handle;
+for uncertainty besets a very great
+part of it, and nothing more tries the
+reach of knowledge than conjecture.
+Besides, the knowledge here requisite
+implies both taste and opportunities
+for its cultivation,&mdash;which may belong
+to individuals, but which cannot
+be attributed to an entire profession,
+spread over all parts of the country,
+and designated to very different
+studies. If antiquities could be considered
+as a main part of statistics,
+it is, assuredly, not to the clergy
+we should look for a statistical
+account; nor indeed to any other
+body, however learned, if it be not
+the Society of Antiquaries. The
+clergyman who honours his profession
+with the greatest amount of appropriate
+learning, may in this particular
+know but little; and if we do not, on
+that account, the less value him, it is
+assuredly not from undervaluing in
+the slightest degree a very interesting
+branch of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>In these circumstances, the reasons
+for allowing to antiquities so much of
+this compilation appear to have been,&mdash;the
+compelling example of the old Account,
+the occasional aptness of the
+matter, and the effect of such a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">mélange</i>
+upon the mass of details that form the
+body of the work. But a better apology
+remains; and it may be extended
+to what is said of the remarkable
+events of history. We are warranted
+in saying, that the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>
+has contributed much to the
+history and antiquities of Scotland,&mdash;evincing
+on these subjects a frequent
+novelty and fulness of knowledge far
+surpassing what either the design or
+the apparatus of the undertaking gave
+any title to expect.</p>
+
+<p>Of one fault, in particular, there
+is no appearance in the archæology of
+this work. Nowhere is there any
+sign of an idiosyncracy which is not
+without example&mdash;that of professing
+to speak of statistics, and yet speaking
+of nothing but antiquities; as if these,
+which are saved with so much difficulty
+from the charge of being wholly
+out of place, were the pith and marrow,
+the most vital part of any body
+of statistics. This is a small merit,
+but it is allied to a greater. Throughout
+these volumes, there is no tendency
+to discuss such futile questions
+as have sometimes lowered the credit
+of antiquarian pursuits. We have
+seen it solemnly inquired, whether
+Æneas, upon landing in Italy, touched
+the soil with the right or with the left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+foot foremost; whether Karl Haco
+was in person present at the sacrifice
+of his son; whether a faded inscription
+upon the walls of an old church be of
+this import or that&mdash;in either case the
+interest having so little to support it
+in the significance of the record that
+it can scarce be imagined to exist at
+all, except as it may centre in the
+mere truth of the deciphering. Nothing
+of this doting, degenerate character,
+repudiated by all antiquaries,
+occurs in the <cite>Statistical Account</cite>: if it
+did, the sum of all the errors in names,
+dates, and other things, inevitably incident
+to so vast a variety of details,
+would not have been an equal blemish.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that neither history
+nor antiquities will find a place in any
+future statistics of Scotland. Not that
+they have been enough examined either
+in that connexion, or elsewhere; but it
+is now common to make them the subject
+of separate, independent essays&mdash;the
+most proper form for the delivery of
+anything that pertains to such matters.
+The good service done in this department,
+by both of these Accounts, now
+falls to be performed by such works as
+the "Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities
+of Scotland,"<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> which have this
+for their single object; and the presumption
+is only fair, that some further
+light on such matters may be contributed
+by the "Parochiale Scoticanum,"
+lately announced as in the
+course of preparation<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>&mdash;though our
+expectations would not have been at
+all lessened by a somewhat less magnificent
+promise than that "every man
+in Scotland may be enabled to ascertain,
+with some precision, the first
+footing and <em>gradual progress of Christianity</em>
+in his own district and neighbourhood."</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be supposed, however,
+that some other topics which regularly
+appear in this New Account, under the
+head of history, will ever drop from
+any work of parochial statistics. We
+refer to what may be termed Parish
+History, as distinct from what belongs
+to the history of the country,&mdash;notices
+of distinguished individuals and of
+ancient families, changes of property,
+territorial improvements, variations in
+the social state of the people. No
+part of a book is more novel, or, to a
+proper curiosity, more interesting;
+and no indication is needed of the fair
+incidence of such matters to a work of
+this description.</p>
+
+<p>If the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite>
+contains, then, some particulars not
+quite proper to the professed object,
+the excess appears to be on the whole
+venial. But it may still be asked,
+whether any important and proper
+matters appear to have been omitted.</p>
+
+<p>Now, considering how many things
+of nature, art, institutions, and industry
+pertain to statistics, we do
+not expect any compilation to embrace
+all, or to treat completely of all such
+things as it does embrace,&mdash;we expect
+imperfection in the details.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, it is seen that some
+subjects well described in some accounts,
+are either not at all, or not so
+fully, taken up in others; while yet
+the occasion may be much the same.
+The climate of some districts, for
+instance, is well illustrated by careful
+observations from the rain-gage and
+thermometer; in some parishes we
+are informed of the size of the agricultural
+possessions, the number of
+ploughs, the rent of land; in some,
+manufactories, mines, and other kinds
+of industry, are viewed in all their
+aspects. But, for other districts or
+parishes, reports on these subjects are
+wanting; and the disadvantage is, not
+merely that such desirable information
+is not given for such places, but that
+the means are not furnished of making
+any general computations for the
+whole country. It is plain there have
+been special reasons for the less satisfactory
+representation of particular
+parishes in these respects: but for
+all such faults, both of omission and
+imperfection, we understand the <cite>New
+Statistical Account</cite> to have one general
+apology; which is this.</p>
+
+<p>Two distinct efforts are requisite to
+the preparation of a comprehensive
+work of statistics. There is first, the
+investigation of facts; and next, the
+task of arranging and presenting them
+in the report. One of the theorists
+before-mentioned, views it as a necessary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+division of labour, that both
+things should not be attempted by one
+and the same party,&mdash;especially as the
+first, when the subjects are numerous,
+is not to be accomplished but by the
+assistance of many hands&mdash;all of
+which, as he observes, must be at
+once skilful and suitably rewarded.
+Now, here, the task of inquiring and
+reporting was not divided; the whole
+of it was placed, by the necessities of
+the case, in the hands of the reverend
+contributors. But, as no private
+society had the means or authority to
+investigate the facts completely, it is
+urged that the defects to which we
+have alluded, were for the most part
+inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>We believe it; and, recognising
+how much the clergy had thus to do,
+which could only be done completely
+by the government, we only advert to
+the sources of information to which
+they could have recourse.</p>
+
+<p><em>Public documents</em> seem to have been
+consulted, when information of a later
+date could not be had,&mdash;and chiefly
+the parliamentary reports on population,
+crime, education, and municipal
+affairs, from which the parish accounts
+appear to have been supplemented
+with whatever was necessary to the
+completion of the county summaries.
+Much has also been derived from the
+reports of Societies, Boards, and mercantile
+companies; of this there is
+evidence in the account of every considerable
+town.</p>
+
+<p><em>Public records</em> appear also to have
+been examined, and chiefly the parish
+registers. Every parish has a record
+of the transactions of its kirk-session,&mdash;sometimes
+extending to distant
+periods. Extracts from these occasionally
+show, in a clear light, the
+state and manners of the country in
+former times; more of which authentic
+illustration we could have wished,
+and more the same sources might
+possibly have supplied. Most parishes
+have also records of births or
+baptisms, marriages and deaths.
+From these, and these only, this
+work could derive the elements of its
+important section of vital statistics;
+but how far were they fitted to serve
+that purpose? It is certain that
+they nowhere form a complete register
+of these occurrences, and
+that for the most part they are
+very defective. Baptisms appear to
+have been entered, in the parish register,
+regularly till the year 1783,
+when the imposition of a small tax
+first broke the custom of registration;
+and, when that tax was removed,
+dissenting bodies were unwilling to
+resume the practice. The proportion
+of registered baptisms to births, for
+instance, is at the present time not
+more than one fourth in Edinburgh,
+and one third in Glasgow. The
+marriage register is also unavailable
+to statistical purposes, by reason of
+the practice of double enrolment&mdash;in
+the parish of each party. In many
+parishes no record of burials exists:
+in others, those of paupers are omitted.
+In short, there is scarcely a country
+in Europe that does not, by proper
+arrangements, furnish better information
+on these important points; and
+no industry of individuals can remedy
+that defect. It is therefore among
+the postulates of a work like this,
+for Scotland, that its vital statistics
+should be imperfect.</p>
+
+<p><em>Books</em> relating to the history, civil
+or natural, the institutions or manners
+of the country, have in many instances
+been well consulted; in some, not at
+all; but probably as much from want
+of opportunity as from any other
+cause.</p>
+
+<p>Still much occasion for inquiry remained
+after all the use that could be
+made of reports, registers, and books.
+Much of what related to the institutions
+of Religion, education, and the
+poor, might be supposed to come
+readily to hand, the clergy themselves
+being most conversant with such
+matters. But they appear to have
+charged themselves with the toil of
+very different investigations. Some
+have been at the pains to ascertain
+the amount and occupations of the
+population, betwixt the decennial
+terms of the parliamentary census.
+Few have omitted to state, in connexion
+with the agriculture of the
+parish, the quantities of land under
+tillage or under wood, in pasture or
+in moor, and the amount respectively
+of the different kinds of produce&mdash;facts
+that imply not a little correspondence
+with land-owners and land-occupiers,
+and much industry in the collation of
+returns. They have had recourse, frequently,
+to mineralogists, botanists,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+overseers of mining and manufacturing
+works, whose contributions are of as
+much value as the fullest and ripest
+knowledge can give. Picture-galleries
+are sometimes described by their
+owners; family papers occasionally
+disclose facts of some interest in
+the history of the country. Throughout
+the work there are signs not to be
+mistaken, of much private and unwonted
+inquiry on the part of the
+reverend authors, to do, in a creditable
+way, a work that, from the
+nature of it, ought to have been
+apportioned to at least two different
+parties.</p>
+
+<p>The defects which remain only
+suggest to us the hope which was
+thus expressed in similar circumstances,
+that "the circulation of this
+work, by bringing the deficiencies
+in the means of statistical information
+under the public view, and
+drawing attention to them, may,
+in this respect, also contribute to the
+advancement of the science." It is
+implied, of course, that the work, to
+be useful in this indirect way, must
+have merits of another kind. On
+these the <cite>New Statistical Account</cite> may
+stand. No other book affords the
+same insight into the various natural
+resources of the country; none describes
+so well, and so skilfully, the
+most considerable branches of industry,
+and the methods of conducting
+them; none has brought together the
+same variety of statistics, with the
+same ample means of speculating upon
+their mutual relations. It is still
+more remarkable, that such a work,
+embracing, as it does, so much beyond
+the usual sphere of their observation,
+should proceed from the clergy; but
+the explanation is, that the position
+and character of that body open to
+them the best means of information
+on many subjects with which they are
+themselves not at all conversant.
+They have produced here a work,
+which, as a collection of parochial
+statistics, stands alone, without
+either rival or resemblance in any
+other country, representing the state
+of Scotland, at the period to which
+it refers, in all its aspects, and so
+affording the means of a definite
+comparison between the past and the
+present, such as, in all cases, it is
+at once natural and profitable to
+make. A peculiar interest arises from
+the unusual diversity of the matter,
+and the familiarity of the writers with
+the bounds which they describe. It
+is a useful work, and will continue
+long to be so, in as many ways as it
+throws light upon the condition of the
+country&mdash;and, not least, in the local
+improvements to which its suggestions
+may give rise. But, if its uses were less
+than they are, it would still leave an
+impression of respect for the general
+intelligence and the readiness to employ
+their opportunities for the public
+good, which its authors have known
+to unite with exemplary devotion to
+the duties of their calling.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART.</h2>
+<blockquote>
+<p><cite>The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art.</cite> By Mrs <span class="smcap">Jameson</span>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>We are of the belief that art without
+poetry is worthless&mdash;dead, and
+deadening; or, if it have vitality,
+there is no music in its speech&mdash;no
+command in its beauty. We treat it
+with a kind of contempt, and make
+apology for the pleasure it has afforded.
+<cite>Sacred and Legendary Art!</cite>
+How different&mdash;how precious&mdash;how
+life-bestowing! The material and immaterial
+world linked, as it were, together
+by a new sympathy, working
+out a tissue of beautiful ideas from the
+golden threads of a Divine revelation!
+By <cite>Sacred and Legendary Art</cite> is
+meant the treatment of religions subjects,
+commencing with the Old Testament,
+and terminating in traditionary
+tales and legends. It is from the
+latter that the old painters have, for
+the most part, taken that rich poetry,
+which, glowing on the canvass, shows,
+even amidst the wild errors of fable, a
+truth of sentiment belonging to a
+purer faith.</p>
+
+<p>By the Protestant mind, nursed,
+perhaps, in an undue contempt of histories
+of saints and martyrs of the
+Romish Church, the treasures of art
+of the best period are rarely understood,
+and still more rarely felt, in the
+spirit in which they were conceived.
+Those for whom they were painted
+needed no cold inquiry into the subjects.
+They accepted them as things
+universally known and religiously to
+be received, with a veneration which
+we but little comprehend. With them
+pictures and statues were among their
+sacred things, and, together with
+architecture, spoke and taught with
+an authority that books, which then
+were rare in the people's hands, have
+since scarcely ever obtained. Men of
+genius felt this respect paid to their
+works, if denied too often to themselves;
+and thus to their own devotion
+was added a kind of ministerial
+importance. Their work became a
+duty, and was very frequently prosecuted
+as such by the inmates of monasteries.
+Besides their works on a
+large scale, upon the walls and in their
+cloisters, the ornamenting and illustrating
+missals embodied a religious
+feeling, if in some degree peculiar to
+the condition of the workers, of a vital
+form and beauty. Treasures of this
+kind there are beyond number; but
+they have been hidden treasures for
+ages. A Protestant contempt for their
+legends has persecuted, with long hatred,
+and subsequent long indifference,
+the art which glorified them. And now
+that we awake from this dull state, and
+begin to estimate the poetry of religious
+art, we stand before the noblest
+productions amazed and ignorant, and
+looking for interpreters, and lose the
+opportunity of enjoyment in the inquiry.
+Art is too valuable for all it
+gives, to allow this entire ignorance
+of the subjects of its favourite treatment.
+If, for the better understanding
+of heathen art, an acquaintance with
+classical literature is thought to be a
+worthy attainment, the excellence of
+what we may term Christian art surely
+renders it of importance that we should
+know something about the subjects of
+which it treats. The inquiry will repay
+us also in other respects, as well as
+with regard to taste. If we would
+know ourselves, it is well to see the
+workings of the human mind, under its
+every phase, its every condition. And
+in such a study we shall be gratified,
+perhaps unexpectedly, to find the good
+and the beautiful still shining through
+the obscurity of many errors, predominant
+and influential upon our own
+hearts, and scarcely wish the fabulous
+altogether removed from the minds of
+those who receive it in devotion, lest
+great truth in feeling be removed also.
+Indeed, the legends themselves are
+mostly harmless, and, even as they
+become discredited, may be interpreted
+as not unprofitable allegories. Had
+we not, in a Puritanic zeal, discarded
+art with an iconoclast persecution,
+<cite>The Pilgrim's Progress</cite> had long ere
+this been a "golden legend" for the
+people, and spoken to them in worthy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+illustration; nor would they have
+been religiously or morally the worse
+had they been imbued with a thorough
+taste for the graceful, the beautiful,
+and the sublime, which it is in the
+power of well cultivated art to convey
+to every willing recipient. It is a great
+mistake of a portion of the religious
+world to look upon ornament as a sin
+or a superstition. Religion is not a
+bare and unadorned thing, nor can it
+be so received without debasing, without
+making too low and mean the worshipper
+for the worship. The "wedding
+garment" was not the every-day
+wear. The poorest must not, of a
+choice, appear in rags before the throne
+of Him who is clothed in glory, nor
+with less respect of their own person
+than they would use in the presence of
+their betters. It was originally of
+God's doing, command, and dictation,
+to sanctify the beautiful in art, by
+making his worship a subject for all
+embellishment. For such a purport
+were the minute directions for the
+building of His temple. And yet how
+many "religious" of our day contradict
+this feeling, which seems to come
+to us, not only by a natural instinct,
+but with the authority of a command!
+It is a deteriorated worship that prefers
+four bare, unadorned, whitened
+walls of a mean conventicle to the
+lofty and arched majesty and profuse
+enrichment of a Gothic minster. We
+want every aid to lift every sense
+above our daily grovelling cares, and
+ought to feel that we are acceptable
+and invited guests in a house far too
+great, spacious, and magnificent for
+ourselves alone. Even our humility
+should be sublime, as all true worship
+is, for we would fain lift it up as an
+offering to the Heaven of heavens. It
+has its aspect towards Him who deigns
+to receive, together with consciousness
+of the lowliness of him that offers.
+It is good that the eye and the ear
+should see and hear other sounds and
+sights than concern things, not only of
+time, but of that poor portion of it
+which hems in our daily wants and
+businesses. Beauty and music are of
+and for eternity, and will never die;
+and in our perception of them we
+make ourselves a part of all that is
+undying. These are senses that the
+spiritualised body will not lose. Their
+cultivation is a thing for ever; we
+are now even here the greater for
+their possession in their human perfection.
+The wondrous pile so elaborately
+finished; the choral service,
+the pealing organ, and the low
+voice of prayer, and, it may be, angel
+forms and beatified saints in richly-painted
+windows:&mdash;we do not believe
+all this to be solely of man's invention,
+but of inspiration; how given we
+ask not, seeing what is, and acknowledging
+a greatness around us far
+greater than ourselves, and lifting up
+the full mind to a magnitude emulous
+of angelic stature. Yes&mdash;poetic genius
+is a high gift, by which the gifted
+make discoveries, and show high and
+great truths, and present them, palpable
+and visible, before the world&mdash;by
+architecture, by painting, by sculpture,
+by music&mdash;rendering religion itself
+more holy by the inspiration
+of its service. Take a man out of
+his common, so to speak, irreverent
+habit, and place him here to live for
+a few moments in this religious atmosphere&mdash;how
+unlike is he to himself,
+and how conscious of this self-unlikeness!
+Would that our cathedrals were
+open at all times! Even when there
+is no service, though that might be
+more frequent, there would be much
+good communing with a man's own
+heart, when, turning away for a while
+from worldly troubles and speculations,
+in midst of that great solemn monument,
+erected to his Maker's praise,
+and with the dead under his feet&mdash;the
+dead who as busily walked the streets
+and ways he has just left&mdash;he would
+weigh the character of his doings,
+and in a sanctified place breathe a
+prayer for direction. Nor would it
+be amiss that he should be led to contemplate
+the "storied pane" and religious
+emblems which abound; he will
+not fail, in the end, to sympathise with
+the sentiment even where he bows not
+to the legend. He may know the fact
+that there have been saints and martyrs&mdash;that
+faith, hope, and charity
+are realities&mdash;that patience and love
+may be here best learnt to be practised
+in the world without.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious that the saints, those
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Dii minores</i>, to whom so many of our
+churches are dedicated, still retain
+their holding. Beyond the evangelists
+and the apostles, little do the
+people know of the other many saints<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+while they enter the churches that
+bear their names. Few of a congregation,
+we suspect, could give much
+account of St Pancras, St Margaret,
+St Werburgh, St Dunstan, St Clement,
+nor even of St George, but that
+he is pictured slaying a dragon, and is
+the patron saint of England. Yet
+were they once "household gods" in
+the land. It is a curious speculation
+this of patron saints, and how every
+family and person had his own. There
+is a great fondness in this old personal
+attachment of his own angel to every
+man. That notion preceded Christianity,
+and was easily engrafted upon
+it: and the angel that attended from
+the birth was but supplanted by some
+holy dead whom the Church canonised.
+And a corrupt church humoured the
+superstition, and attached miracles to
+relics; and thus, as of old, these came,
+in latter times, to be "gods many."
+And what were these but over again
+the thirty thousand deities who, Hesiod
+said, inhabited the earth, and
+were guardians of men? Yet, it must
+be confessed, there has been a popular
+purification of them. They are not
+the panders to vice that infested the
+morals of the heathen world.</p>
+
+<p>But how came the heathen world
+by them? Did they invent, or where
+find them? And how came their characteristics
+to be so universal, in all
+countries differing rather in name than
+personality? The most intellectually-gifted
+people under the sun, the ancient
+Greeks, give nowhere any rational
+account how they came by the gods
+they worshipped. They take them
+as personifications from their poets.
+There is the theogony of Hesiod, and
+the gods as Homer paints them. They
+have called forth the glory of art; and
+wonderful were the periods that
+stamped on earth their statues, as
+if all men's intellect had been
+tasked to the work, that they should
+leave a mark and memorial of beauty
+than which no age hereafter should
+show a greater. We acknowledge the
+perfection in the remains that are
+left to us. Greek art stills sways the
+mind of every country&mdash;all the world
+mistrusts every attempt in a contrary
+direction. The excellence of Greek
+sculpture is reflected back again upon
+Greek fable, the heathen mythology
+from which it was taken; and perhaps
+a greater partiality is bestowed upon
+that than it deserves,&mdash;at least, we may
+say so in comparison with any other.
+We must be cautious how we take the
+excellence of art for the excellence of
+its subject. The Greeks were formed
+for art beyond every other people; had
+their creed been hideous&mdash;and indeed
+it was obscene&mdash;they would have
+adorned it with every beauty of ideal
+form. And this is worthy of note
+here, that their poetry in art was infinitely
+more beautiful than their
+written poetry. Their sculptors, and
+perhaps their painters, of whom we
+are not entitled to speak but by conjecture,
+and from the opinions formed
+by no bad judges of their day, did aim
+at the portraying a kind of divine
+humanity. If their sculptured deities
+have not a holy repose, they are singularly
+freed from display of human
+passions; whereas, in their poetry, it is
+rarely that even decent repose is
+allowed them; they are generally too
+active, without dignity, and without
+respect to the moral code of a not
+very scrupulous age. Yet have these
+very heathen gods, even as their historians
+the poets paint them&mdash;for it
+would disgrace them to speak of their
+biographers&mdash;a trace of a better origin
+than we can gather out of the whimsical
+theogony. There are some particulars
+in the heathen mythology that
+point to a visible track in the strange
+road of history. Much we know was
+had from Egypt; more, probably, came
+with the Cadmean letters from
+Ph&oelig;nicia&mdash;a name including Palestine
+itself. Inventions went only to corruptions&mdash;the
+original of all creeds of
+divinity is from revelation. We may
+not be required to point out the direct
+road nor the resting-places of this
+"<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">santa casa</i>," holding all the gods of
+Greece, so beautiful in their personal
+portraiture, that we love to gaze with
+the feeling of Schiller, though their
+histories will not bear the scrutiny:
+but it will suffice to note some similitudes
+that cannot be accidental.
+Somehow or other, both the historic
+and prophetic writings of the Bible,
+or narratives from them, had reached
+Greece as well as other distant lands.
+The Greeks had, at a very early period,
+embodied in their myths even the personal
+characters as shown in those
+writings. Let us, for example, without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+referring to their Zeus in a particular
+manner, find in the Hermes or
+Mercury of the Greeks the identity
+with Moses. What are the characteristics
+of both? If Moses descended
+from the Mount with the commands
+of God, and was emphatically God's
+messenger, so was Hermes the messenger
+from Olympus: his chief office
+was that of messenger. If Moses is
+known as the slayer of the Egyptian,
+so is Hermes, (and so is he more frequently
+called in Homer,) Α�γειφοντης,
+the slayer of Argus, the overseer of a
+hundred eyes. Moses conducted
+through the wilderness to the Jordan
+those who died and reached not the
+promised land; nor did he pass the
+Jordan. So was Hermes the conductor of
+the dead, delivering them
+over to Charon, (and here note the
+resemblance of name with Aaron, the
+associate of Moses); nor was he to
+pass to the Elysian fields.</p>
+
+<p>Then the rod, the serpents,&mdash;the
+Caduceus of Hermes, with the serpents
+twining round the rod. The
+appearance of Moses, and the shining
+from his head, as it is commonly
+figured, is again represented in the
+winged cap of Hermes. There are
+other minute circumstances, especially
+some noted in the hymn of Hermes,
+ascribed to Homer, which we forbear
+to enumerate, thinking the coincidences
+already mentioned are sufficiently
+striking.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, the idea of the serpent
+of the Greek mythology, whence
+did it come, and the slaying of it by
+the son of Zeus&mdash;and its very name,
+the Python, the serpent of corruption?
+And in that sense it has been carried
+down to this day as an emblem in
+Christian art. But, to go back a
+moment, this departure of the Israelites
+from Egypt, is there no notice of
+it in Homer? We think there is a
+hint which indicates a knowledge of
+at least a part of that history&mdash;the
+previous slavery, the being put to
+work, and the after-readiness of the
+Egyptians to be "spoiled." Ulysses,
+giving a false account of himself, if
+we remember rightly, to Eumæus,
+says he came from Egypt, where he
+had been a merchant, that the king
+of that country seized him and all his
+men, whom <em>he put to work</em>, but that
+at length he found favour, and was
+allowed to depart with his people;
+adding that he collected much property
+from the people of Egypt, "for all of
+them gave."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">"Πολλὰ αγει�α,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Χ�ηματ' Αἰγυπτίους ἄνδ�ας, διδοσαν γα� ἄπαντες."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We do not mean to lay any great stress
+upon this quotation, and but think at
+least that it shows a characteristic of
+the Egyptians as narrated by Moses;
+and never having met with any allusion
+to it, nor indeed to our parallel between
+Moses and Hermes, which it may seem
+to support, we have thought it worthy
+this brief notice.</p>
+
+<p>We fancy we trace the history of
+the cause of the fall of man, in the
+eating of the pomegranate seed which
+doomed Proserpine to half an existence
+in the infernal regions. Can
+there be anything more striking than
+the Prometheus Bound of Æschylus?
+Whence could such a notion come,
+that a man-god would, for his love to
+mankind, (for bringing down fire from
+heaven,) suffer agonies, nailed not
+upon a cross indeed, but on a rock,
+and, in the description, crucified? "It
+is, after a manner," says Mr Swayne,
+who has with great power translated
+this strange play of Æschylus, "a
+Christian poem by a pagan author,
+foreshadowing the opposition and reconciliation
+of Divine justice and Divine
+love. Whence the sublime conception
+of the subject of this drama could
+have been obtained, it is useless to
+speculate. Some even suppose that
+its author must have been acquainted
+with the old Hebrew prophets."</p>
+
+<p>Even the introduction of Io in the
+tale is suggestive&mdash;the virgin-mother
+who was so strangely to conceive
+(and this too given in a prophecy)
+miraculously.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Jove at length shall give thee back thy mind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With one light touch of his unquailing hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, from that fertilising touch, a son<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall call thee mother."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Her whom Prometheus thus addresses,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"In that the son shall overmatch the sire."<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&mdash;"Of thine own stem the strong one shall be born."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then again Sampson passes into the
+Egyptian or Tyrian Hercules, to lose
+his life by another Delilah in Dejaneira.
+Whence the prophetic Sybils, whence
+and what the Eleusinian mysteries?
+and that strange glimpse of them in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+the significant passage of the Alcestis,
+where the restored from the dead must
+abstain from speech till the third day&mdash;the
+duration of her consecration to
+Hades!</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ὁύπω δέμις σοι τησδε π�οσφωνηματων,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Κλύειν, π�ίν ἄν θεωισι τοῖσι νε�τέ�οις<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Αφαγνῖσηται, καὶτ�ίτον μολῃ φαος."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We might enter largely into the
+mysteries of heathen mythology, and
+discover strange coincidences and resemblances,
+but it would take us too
+wide from our present subject. Our
+present purpose is to show that we
+are apt to attribute too much to the
+Grecian fable, when we ascribe to it
+all the beauty which Grecian art has
+elaborated from it. For, in fact, the
+origin of that fabulous poetry is beyond
+them in far-off time; and by
+them how corrupted, shorn of its real
+grandeur, and at once magnificent
+and lovely beauty! How much more,
+then, is it ours than theirs, as it is deducible
+from that high revelation
+which is part of the Christian religion.
+We overlook, in the excellence
+of Grecian art, the far better
+materials for all art, which we in our
+religion possess, and have ever possessed.
+With the Greeks it was an
+instinct to love the beautiful, sensual
+and intellectual: it was a part of their
+nature to discover it or to create it.
+They would have fabricated it out of
+any materials; and deteriorated, indeed,
+were those which came to their
+hands. And even this excess of their
+love, at least in their poets, made the
+sensuous to overcome the intellectual;
+but the far higher than intellectual&mdash;the
+celestial, the spiritual&mdash;they had
+not: their highest reach in the moral
+sense was a sublime pride: they had
+no conception of a sublime humility.
+Their highest divinity was how much
+lower than the lowest order of angels
+that wait around the heavenly throne
+and adore,&mdash;low as is their Olympus,
+where they placed their Zeus and all
+his band, to the Christian "heaven
+of heavens," which yet cannot contain
+the universal Maker. It is bad taste,
+indeed, in us, as some do, to give them
+the palm of the possession of a better
+field&mdash;poetic field for the exercise of
+art. "Christian and Legendary art"
+has a principle which no other art
+could have, and which theirs certainly
+had not; they were sensuous from a
+necessity of their nature, lacking this
+principle. We ought to ascribe all
+which they have left us to their skill,
+their genius: wonderful it was, and
+wonderful things did it perform; but,
+after all, we admire more than we
+love. Their divine was but a grand
+and stern repose; their loveliness, but
+the perfection of the human form.
+And so great were they in this their
+genius, that the monuments of heathen
+art are beyond the heathen creed;
+for in those the unsensuous prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>Let us suppose the gift of their genius
+to have been delayed to the Christian
+era&mdash;as poetical subjects, their
+whole mythology would have been set
+aside for a far better adoption; and
+we should be now universally acknowledging
+how lovely and how great, how
+full and bountiful, for poetry and for
+art, are the ever-flowing fountains,
+gushing in life, giving exuberance
+from that high mount, to the sight of
+which Pindus cannot lift its head, nor
+show its poor Castalian rills. The
+"gods of Greece," the far-famed
+"gods of Greece," what are they to
+the hierarchy of heaven&mdash;angels and
+archangels, and all the host&mdash;powers,
+dominions, hailing the admission to
+the blissful regions of saints spiritualised,
+and after death to die no more&mdash;glorified?
+What loveliness is like
+that of throned chastity? Graces and
+Muses in their perfectness of marbled
+beauty&mdash;what are they to faith, hope,
+and charity, and the veiled virtues
+that like our angels shroud themselves?
+When these became subjects for our
+Christian art, then was true expression
+first invented in drapery. "Christian
+and legendary art" is not denied the
+nude; but no other has so made
+drapery a living, speaking poetry.
+There is a dignity, a grace, a sweetness,
+in the drapery of mediæval
+sculpture, that equally commands our
+admiration, and more our reverence
+and our love, than ancient statues,
+draped or nude. And this is the expression
+of Scripture poetry&mdash;the represented
+language, the "clothing
+with power," the "garment of
+righteousness." We often loiter about
+our old cathedrals, and look up with
+wonder at the mutilated remains as a
+new type of beauty, beaming through
+the obscurity of the so-called dark
+ages. Lovers of art, as we profess to
+be, in all its forms, we profess without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+hesitation that we would not exchange
+these&mdash;that is, lose them as
+never to have existed&mdash;for all that
+Grecian art has left us. Even now,
+what power have we to restore these
+specimens of expressive workmanship,
+broken and mutilated as they have been
+by a low and misbegotten zeal? We
+maintain further, generally, that the
+works of "Christian and legendary
+art," in painting, sculpture, and architecture,
+are as infinitely superior to
+the works of all Grecian antiquity, as is
+the source of their inspiration higher
+and purer: we are, too, astonished at
+the perfect agreement of the one with
+the other, showing one mind, one
+spirit&mdash;devotion. We strongly insist
+upon this, that there has been a far
+higher character and equal power in
+Christian art compared with heathen.
+It ought to be so, and it is so. It has
+been too long set aside in the world's
+opinion (often temporary and ill-formed)
+to establish the inferior.
+This country, in particular, has yielded
+a cold neglect of these beautiful things,
+in shameful and indolent compliance
+with the mean, tasteless, degrading
+Puritanism, that mutilated and would
+have destroyed them utterly if it
+could, as it would have treated every
+and all the beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>Even at the first rise of this Christian
+art, the superiority of the principle
+which moved the artists was visible
+through their defect of knowledge
+of art, as art. The devotional spirit
+is evident; a sense of purity, that
+spiritualised humanity with its heavenly
+brightness, dims the imperfections
+of style, casting out of observation
+minor and uncouth parts. Often,
+in the incongruous presence of things
+vulgar in detail of habit and manners,
+an angelic sentiment stands embodied,
+pure and untouched, as if the artist,
+when he came to that, felt holy ground,
+and took his shoes from off his feet.
+It was not long before the art was
+equal to the whole work. There are
+productions of even an early time
+that are yet unequalled, and, for
+power over the heart and the judgment,
+are much above comparison with any
+preceding works of boasted antiquity.</p>
+
+<p>Take only the full embodying of all
+angelic nature: what is there like to
+it out of Christian art? How unlike
+the cold personifications of "Victories"
+winged,&mdash;though even these
+were borrowed,&mdash;are the ministering
+and adoring angels of our art&mdash;now
+bringing celestial paradise down to
+saints on earth, and now accompanying
+them, and worshipping with them,
+in their upward way, amid the receding
+and glorious clouds of heaven!
+Look at the sepulchral monuments of
+Grecian art&mdash;the frigid mysteries, the
+abhorrent ghost, yet too corporeal,
+shrinking from Lethé; and the dismal
+boat&mdash;the unpromising, unpitying
+aspect of Charon: then turn to some
+of the sublime Christian monuments
+of art, that speak so differently of
+that death&mdash;the Coronation of the
+Virgin, the Ascension of Saints. The
+dismal and the doleful earth has
+vanished&mdash;choirs of angels rush to
+welcome and to support the beatified,
+the released: death is no more, but
+life breathing no atmosphere of earth,
+but all freshness, and all joy, and all
+music; the now changed body glowing,
+like an increasing light, into its
+spirituality of form and beauty, and
+thrilling with</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"That undisturbed song of pure consent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To Him that sits thereon;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With saintly shout and solemn jubilee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Where the bright seraphim, in burning row,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the cherubic host, in thousand choirs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With those just spirits that wear victorious palms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Hymns devout and holy psalms<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Singing everlastingly."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">Then shall we doubt, and not dare to
+pronounce the superior capabilities of
+Christian art, arising out of its subject&mdash;poetry?
+We prefer, as a great poetic
+conception, Raffaelle's Archangel,
+Michael, with his victorious foot upon
+his prostrate adversary, to the far-famed
+Apollo Belvidere, who has
+slain his Python; and his St Margaret,
+in her sweet, her innocent, and clothed
+grace, to that perfect model of woman's
+form, the Venus de Medici.
+Not that we venture a careless or
+misgiving thought of the perfectness
+of those great antique works: their
+perfectness was according to their
+purpose. Higher purposes make a
+higher perfectness. Nor would we
+have them viewed irreverently; for
+even in them, and the genius that
+produced them, the Creator, as in
+"times past, left not Himself without
+witness." In showing forth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+the glory of the human form, they
+show forth the glory of Him who
+made it&mdash;who is thus glorified in the
+witnesses; and so we accept and love
+them. But to a certain degree they
+must stand dethroned&mdash;their influence
+faded. Lowly unassuming virtues&mdash;virtues
+of the soul, far greater
+in their humility, in the sacred poetry
+of our Christian faith, shine like
+stars, even in their smallness, on the
+dark night of our humanity; and they
+are to take their places in the celestial
+of art; and we feel that it is His will,
+who, as the hymn of the blessed
+Virgin&mdash;that type of all these united
+virtues&mdash;declares, "hath put down
+the mighty from their seat, and hath
+exalted the humble and meek."</p>
+
+<p>We trust yet to see sacred art
+resumed; for the more we consider
+its poetry, the more inexhaustible
+appears the mine. Nor do we require
+to search and gather in the field of
+fabulous legends; though in a poetic
+view, and for their intention, and resumed
+merely as a fabulous allegory,
+they are not to be set aside. But
+sure we are that, whatever can move
+the heart, can excite to the greatest
+degree our pity, our love, or convey
+the greatest delight through scenes
+for which the term beautiful is but a
+poor describer, and personages for
+whose magnificence languages have
+no name&mdash;all is within the volume
+and the history of our suffering and
+triumphant religion.</p>
+
+<p>Would that we could stir but one
+of our painters to this, which should
+be his great business! Genius is
+bestowed for no selfish gratification,
+but for service, and for a "witness,"
+to bear which let the gifted offer only
+a willing heart, and his lamp will not
+be suffered to go out for lack of oil.
+Why is the tenderness of Mr Eastlake's
+pencil in abeyance? That
+portion of the sacred history which
+commences with his "Christ weeping
+over Jerusalem," might well be continued
+in a series. Even still more
+power has he shown in the creative
+and symbolic, as exemplified in his
+poetic conception of Virtue from
+Milton&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"She can teach you how to climb<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Higher than the sphery chime;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Or if Virtue feeble were,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Heaven itself would stoop to her."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>If we believe genius to be an inspiring
+spirit, we may contemplate it
+hereafter as an accusing angel. With
+such a paradise of subjects before
+them, why do so many of our painters
+run to the kennel and the stable, or
+plunge their pencils into the gaudy
+hues of meretricious enticement? We
+do verily believe that the world is
+waiting for better things. It is taking
+a greater interest in higher subjects,
+and those of a pure sentiment. It is
+that our artists are behind the feeling,
+and not, as they should be, in the advance.
+It is a great fact that there
+is such a growing feeling. The resumption
+of sacred art in Germany is
+not without its effect, and is making
+its way here in prints. Most of these
+are from the Aller Heiligen Kapelle
+at Munich, the result of the taste of
+at least one crowned head in Europe,
+who, with more limited means and
+power, has set an example of a better
+patronage, which would have well
+become Courts of greater splendour,
+and more imperial influence. Must
+it be asked what our own artists&mdash;the
+Academy, with all its staff&mdash;are
+doing?</p>
+
+<p>We must stay our hand; for we
+took up the pen to notice the two
+volumes just published of Mrs Jameson's
+<cite>Sacred and Legendary Art</cite>.
+They have excited, in the reading, an
+enthusiastic pleasure, and led the
+fancy wandering in the delightful
+fields sanctified by heavenly sunshine,
+and trod by sainted feet; and, like a
+traveller in a desert, having found an
+oasis, we feel loath to leave it, and
+would fain linger and drink again of
+its refreshing springs. These volumes
+have reached us most seasonably, at a
+period of the year when the mind is
+more especially directed to contemplate
+the main subjects of which they
+treat, and to anticipate only by days
+the vision of joy and glory which will
+be scripturally put before us&mdash;to see
+the Virgin Mother and the Holy
+Babe&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"And all about the courtly stable,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Bright harness'd angels sit in order serviceable."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Mrs Jameson disclaims in this
+work any other object than the poetry
+of Sacred and Legendary Art; and to
+enable those who are, or wish to be,
+conversant with the innumerable
+productions of Italian and other
+schools, in an artistic view, likewise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+at once to know the subjects
+upon which they treat. Even as a
+handbook, therefore, these volumes
+are valuable. Much of the early
+painting was symbolical. Ignorance
+of the symbols rejects the sentiment,
+or at least the intention, and at the
+same time makes what is only quaint
+appear absurd.</p>
+
+<p>"The first volume contains the legends
+of the Scripture personages, and
+the primitive fathers. The second
+volume contains those sainted personages
+who lived, or are supposed to
+have lived, in the first ages of Christianity,
+and whose real history,
+founded on fact or tradition, has been
+so disguised by poetical embroidery,
+that they have in some sort the air of
+ideal beings." Possibly this poetical
+disguise is favourable upon the whole
+to art, but it renders a key necessary,
+and that Mrs Jameson has supplied&mdash;not
+pretending, however, to more than
+a selection of the most interesting;
+and, what is extremely valuable, there
+are marginal references to pictures,
+and in what places they are to be met
+with, and by whom painted, of the
+subjects given in the text, and of the
+view the artists had in so painting
+them. The emblems are amply noted
+with their meanings; and even the
+significance of colours, which has been
+so commonly overlooked, and is yet so
+important for the comprehension of
+the full subject of a picture, is clearly
+laid down. It is well said:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"All the productions of art, from the
+time it has been directed and developed
+by the Christian influences, may be regarded
+under three different aspects:&mdash;1st,
+The purely religious aspect, which
+belongs to one mode of faith; 2d, The
+poetical aspect, which belongs to all;
+3d, The artistic, which is the individual
+point of view, and has reference only to
+the action of the intellect on the means
+and material employed. There is a pleasure,
+an intense pleasure, merely in the
+consideration of art, as art; in the faculties
+of comparison and nice discrimination
+brought to bear on objects of beauty;
+in the exercise of a cultivated and refined
+taste on the productions of mind in any
+form whatever. But a threefold, or rather
+a thousandfold, pleasure is theirs,
+who to a sense of the poetical unite a
+sympathy with the spiritual in art, and
+who combine with a delicacy of perception
+and technical knowledge, more elevated
+sources of pleasure, more variety of
+association, habits of more excursive
+thought. Let none imagine, however,
+that in placing before the uninitiated
+these unpretending volumes, I assume any
+such superiority as is here implied. Like
+a child that has sprang on a little way
+before its playmates, and caught a glimpse
+through an opening portal of some varied
+Eden within, all gay with flowers, and
+musical with birds, and haunted by divine
+shapes which beckon forward, and,
+after one rapturous survey, runs back and
+catches its companions by the hand, and
+hurries them forwards to share the new-found
+pleasure, the yet unexplored region
+of delight: even so it is with me: I am on
+the outside, not the inside, of the door I
+open."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This is a happy introduction to that
+which immediately follows of angels
+and archangels.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Jameson has so managed to
+open the door as to frame in her subject
+to the best advantage; and the
+reader is willing to stand for a moment
+with her to gaze upon the inward
+brightness of the garden, ere he ventures
+in to see what is around and
+what is above. It is on the first
+downward step that we stand breathless
+with Aladdin, and feel the influence
+of the first&mdash;the partial and
+framed-in picture&mdash;glowing in the unearthly
+illumination of its magical
+creation.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing more interesting
+than these few pages upon angels.
+The information we receive is very
+curious. It is beautiful poetry to see
+orders, and degrees, and ministrations
+various, types of an embodied, a ministering
+church here, and ordained,
+together with the saints of earth,
+to make one glorified triumphant
+church hereafter. Without entering
+upon the theological question, as to
+the extension and mystification of the
+ideas of angels after the Captivity,
+(yet we think it might be shown that
+there was originally no Chaldaic belief
+on the subject not taken, first or last,
+from the Jews themselves,) it may
+not be unworthy of remark, that the
+word "angel," signifying messenger,
+could scarcely with propriety have
+been at the first applied to Satan, the
+deceiving serpent, until, in the after-development
+of the history of the
+human race, the ministering offices
+gave the general title, which, when
+established, included all who had not
+"kept their first estate." Nor do we
+think, with Mrs Jameson, that Chaldea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+had anything to do with the introduction
+of the worship of angels into
+the Christian church. The "gods
+many" of the heathen countries in
+which Christianity established itself,
+will sufficiently account for the readiness
+of the people to transfer the multifarious
+worship to which they had
+been accustomed to names more suitable
+to the new religion. It is with
+the poetical development we have
+here to do; and what ground is there
+for that full development in the New
+Testament, wherein they are represented
+as "countless&mdash;as superior to all
+human wants and weaknesses&mdash;as deputed
+messengers of God? They rejoice
+over the repentant sinner; they
+take deep interest in the mission of
+Christ; they are present with those
+who pray; they bear the souls of the just
+to heaven; they minister to Christ
+on earth, and will be present at his
+second coming." From such authority,
+from such a sacred theatre of
+scenes and celestial personages, arose
+the beautiful, the magnificent visions
+of the workers of sacred art. Heresy,
+however, reached it, as might have
+been expected; and the agency of
+angels, in the creation of the world and
+of man, has been represented, to the
+deterioration of its great poetry.
+From the beginning of the fourteenth
+century, a great change seems to have
+taken place in the representation of
+the angel with reference to the Virgin:
+the feeling is changed; "the veneration
+paid to the Virgin demanded
+another treatment. She becomes not
+merely the principal person, but the
+superior being; she is the 'regina
+angelorum,' and the angel bows to
+her, or kneels before her, as to a
+queen. Thus, in the famous altar-piece
+at Cologne, the angel kneels;
+he bears the sceptre, and also a sealed
+roll, as if he were a celestial ambassador
+delivering his credentials. About
+the same period we sometimes see the
+angel merely with his hands folded
+over his breast, and his head inclined,
+delivering his message as if to a superior
+being."</p>
+
+<p>It is a great merit in this work of
+Mrs Jameson's, that we are not only
+referred to the most curious and to
+the best specimens of art, but have
+likewise beautiful woodcuts, and
+some etchings admirably executed by
+Mrs Jameson's own hand in illustration.
+There is a greatness in the
+simplicity of Blake's angels: "The
+morning stars sang together, and all
+the sons of God shouted for joy."
+Poor Blake! Yet why say poor? he
+was happy in his visions&mdash;a little before
+his time, and one of whom the
+world (of art) in his day were not
+worthy: though, with a wild extravagance
+of fancy, his creations were
+his faith, often great, and always
+gentle. Exquisitely beautiful are the
+"angels of the planets" from Raffaelle,
+and copied by Mrs Jameson from
+Gruner's engravings of the frescoes
+of the Capella Chigiana. That great
+painter of mystery, Rembrandt, whom
+the mere lovers of form would have
+mistakenly thought it a profanation to
+commission with an angelic subject, is
+justly appreciated. A perfect master
+of light, and of darkness, and of colour,
+it mattered not what were the
+forms, so that they were unearthly,
+that plunged into or broke through
+his luminous or opaque. Of the picture
+in the Louvre it is thus remarked:
+"Miraculous for true and
+spirited expression, and for the action
+of the soaring angel, who parts the
+clouds and strikes through the air like
+a strong swimmer through the waves
+of the sea." Strange&mdash;but so it is&mdash;we
+cannot conceive an alteration of
+his pictures, all parts so agree. Attention
+to the more beautiful in form
+would have appeared to him a mistrust
+in his great gift of colour and
+chiaroscuro; and, stranger still, that
+without, and seemingly in a marked
+defiance of mere beauty, he is, we
+would almost say never, vulgar, never
+misses the intended sentiment, nor
+fails where it is of tenderness, even of
+feminine tenderness, for which, if he
+does not give beauty, he gives its
+equivalent in the fulness of the feeling.
+We instance his Salutation&mdash;Elizabeth
+and the Virgin Mary. There is
+something terrifically grand in the
+crouching angel in the Campo Santo,&mdash;not
+in the form, nor in the face, which
+is mostly hid, but in the conception of
+the attitude of horror with which he
+beholds the awful scene. It is from
+the Last Judgment of Orcagua in
+the Campo Santo. We must not
+speak of Rubens as a painter of angels;
+and, for real angelic expression,
+perhaps the earlier painters are the
+best. It is surprising that Mrs Jameson,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+from whose refined taste, and
+from whose sense of the beautiful
+and the graceful in their highest qualities,
+we should have expected another
+judgment, could have ventured to
+name together Raffaelle and Murillo
+as angel painters. It is true, in speaking
+of the Visit to Abraham, she
+admits that the painter has set aside
+the angelic and mystic character, and
+merely represented three young men
+travellers; but she generally, throughout
+these volumes, speaks of that
+favourite Spaniard in terms of the
+highest admiration,&mdash;terms, as we
+think, little merited. The angels in the
+Sutherland Collection are as vulgar
+figures as can well be, and quite antagonistic
+in feeling to a heavenly mission.
+We confess that we dislike
+almost all the pictures by this so much
+esteemed master: their artistic manner
+is to us uncertain and unpleasing,&mdash;disagreeable
+in colour, deficient in
+grace. We often wonder at the excess
+of present admiration. We look upon
+his vulgarity in scriptural subjects as
+quite profane. His highest power was
+in a peasant gentleness; he could not
+embody a sacred feeling: yet thus is
+he praised for a performance beyond
+his power:&mdash;"St Andrew is suspended
+on the high cross, formed not of
+planks, but of the trunks of trees laid
+transversely. He is bound with cords,
+undraped, except by a linen cloth,
+his silver hair and beard loosely
+streaming on the air, his aged countenance
+illuminated by a heavenly
+transport, as he looks up to the opening
+skies, whence two angels, of really
+celestial beauty, like almost all Murillo's
+angels, descend with the crown
+and palm." The angels of Correggio
+are certainly peculiar: they are not
+quite celestial, but perhaps are sympathetically
+more lovely from their
+touch of humanity; they are ever
+pure. Those in the Ascension of the
+the Virgin, in the Cupola at Parma,
+seem to be rather adopted angels
+than of the "first estate;" for they
+are of several ages, and, if we mistake
+not, many of them are feminine, and,
+we suspect, are meant really to represent
+the loveliest of earth beatified,
+adopted into the heavenly choir.
+Those who have seen Signor Toschi's
+fine drawings of the Parma frescoes,
+(now in progress of engraving), will
+readily give assent to this impression.
+We remember this feeling crossing our
+mind, and as it were lightly touching
+the heart with angelic wings&mdash;if we
+have lost a daughter of that sweet
+age, let us fondly see her there. We
+cannot forbear quoting the passage
+upon the angels of Titian:&mdash;"And
+Titian's angels impress me in a similar
+manner: I mean those in the
+glorious Assumption at Venice, with
+their childish forms and features, but
+an expression caught from beholding
+the face of 'our Father which is in
+heaven:' it is glorified infancy. I
+remember standing before this picture,
+contemplating those lovely spirits one
+after another, until a thrill came over
+me, like that which I felt when Mendelssohn
+played the organ: I became
+music while I listened. The face of
+one of those angels is to the face of a
+child, just what that of the Virgin, in
+the same picture, is, compared with
+the fairest daughter of earth. It is
+not here superiority of beauty, but
+mind, and music, and love, kneaded
+together, as it were, into form and
+colour." This is very eloquent, but it
+was not <em>the thought</em> which supplied
+that ill word "kneaded."</p>
+
+<p>It is remarked by Mrs Jameson, as
+a singular fact, that neither Leonardo
+da Vinci, nor Michael Angelo, nor
+Raffaelle, have given representations
+of the Four Evangelists. In very
+early art they are mostly symbolised,
+and sometimes oddly and uncouthly;
+and even so by Angelico da Fiesole.
+In Greek art, the Tetramorph, or
+union of the four attributes in one
+figure, is seen winged. "The Tetramorph,
+in Western art, in some instances
+became monstrous, instead of
+mystic and poetical." The animal
+symbols of the Evangelists, however
+familiarised in the eyes of the people,
+and therefore sanctioned to their feeling,
+required the greatest judgment to
+bring within the poetic of art. We
+must look also to the most mysterious
+subjects for the elucidation, such as
+Raffaelle's Vision of Ezekiel. There
+we view in the symbols a great prophetic,
+subservient to the creating and
+redeeming power, set forth and coming
+out of that blaze of the clouds of
+heaven that surround the sublime
+Majesty.</p>
+
+<p>The earlier painters were fond of
+representing everything symbolically:
+hence the twelve apostles are so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+treated. In the descending scale, to
+the naturalists, the mystic poetry was
+reduced to its lowest element. The set
+of the apostles by Agostino Caracci,
+though, as Mrs Jameson observes,
+famous as works of art, are condemned
+as absolutely vulgar. "St John is
+drinking out of a cup, an idea which
+might strike some people as picturesque,
+but it is in vile taste. It is
+about the eighth century that the keys
+first appear in the hand of St Peter.
+In the old churches at Ravenna, it is
+remarked, St Peter and St Paul do not
+often appear." Ravenna, in the fifth
+century, did not look to Rome for her
+saints.</p>
+
+<p>After his martyrdom, St Paul was,
+it is said, buried in the spot where
+was erected the magnificent church
+known as St Paolo fuorè-le mura. "I
+saw the church a few months before
+it was consumed by fire in 1823. I
+saw it again in 1847, when the restoration
+was far advanced. Its cold magnificence,
+compared with the impressions
+left by the former structure, rich
+with inestimable remains of ancient
+art, and venerable from a thousand
+associations, saddened and chilled me."
+We well remember visiting this noble
+church in 1816. A singular coincidence
+of fact and prophecy has imprinted
+this visit on our memory.
+Those who have seen it before it was
+burnt down, must remember the series
+of portraits of popes, and that there
+was room but for one more. We
+looked to the vacant place, as directed
+by our cicerone, whilst he told us
+that there was a prophecy concerning
+it to this effect, that when that space
+was filled up there would be no more
+popes. The prophecy was fulfilled,
+at least with regard to that church,
+for it was burnt down after that vacant
+space had been occupied by the papal
+portrait.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of the Last Supper is
+treated of in a separate chapter.
+There has been a fresco lately discovered
+at Florence, in the refectory
+of Saint Onofrio, said to have been
+painted by Raffaelle in his twenty-third
+year. Some have thought it to
+be the work of Neri de Bicci. Mrs
+Jameson, without hesitation, pronounces
+it to be by Raffaelle, "full of
+sentiment and grace, but deficient, it
+appears to me, in that depth and
+discrimination of character displayed
+in his later works. It is evident that
+he had studied Giotto's fresco in the
+neighbouring Santa Croce. The arrangement
+is nearly the same." All
+the apostles have glories, but that
+round the head of Judas is smaller
+than the others. Does the prejudice
+against thirteen at table arise from
+this betrayal by Judas, or from the
+legend of St Gregory, who, when a
+monk in the monastery of St Andrew,
+was so charitable, that at length, having
+nothing else to bestow, he gave
+to an old beggar a silver porringer
+which had belonged to his mother?
+When pope, it was his custom to
+entertain twelve poor men. On one
+occasion he observed thirteen, and
+remonstrated with his steward, who,
+counting the guests, could see no more
+than twelve. After removal from the
+table, St Gregory called the unbidden
+guest, thus visible, like the ghost of
+Banquo, to the master of the feast
+only. The old man, on being questioned,
+declared himself to be the old
+beggar to whom the silver porringer
+had been given, adding, "But my
+name is Wonderful, and through me
+thou shalt obtain whatever thou shalt
+ask of God." There is a famous fresco
+on this subject by Paul Veronese, in
+which the stranger is represented to
+be our Saviour. To entertain even
+angels unknowingly, and at convivial
+entertainments, and visible perhaps
+but to one, as a messenger of good or
+of evil, would be little congenial with
+the purport of such meetings.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Jameson objects to the introduction
+of dogs in such a subject
+as the Last Supper, but remarks
+that it is supposed to show that
+the supper is over, and the paschal
+lamb eaten. It is so common that
+we should rather refer it to a more
+evident and more important signification,
+to show that this institution
+was not for the Jews only, and alluding
+to the passage showing that "dogs
+eat of the crumbs which fell from their
+masters' table." The large dogs,
+however, of Paul Veronese, gnawing
+bones, do not with propriety represent
+the passage; for there is reason to
+believe that the word "crumbs" describes
+the small pet dogs, which its
+was the fashion for the rich to carry
+about with them. The early painters
+introduced Satan in person tempting
+Judas. When Baroccio, with little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+taste, adopted the same treatment,
+the pope, Clement VIII., ordered the
+figure to be obliterated&mdash;"Che non gli
+piaceva il demonio si dimésticasse
+tanto con Gesu Christo." We know
+not where Mrs Jameson has found the
+anecdote which relates that Andrea
+del Castagno, called the Infamous,
+after he had assassinated Dominico
+his friend, who had intrusted him with
+Van Eyck's secret, painted his own
+portrait in the character of Judas, from
+remorse of conscience. We are not
+sure of the story at all respecting
+Andrea del Castagno: there may be
+other grounds for doubting it, but this
+anecdote, if true to the fact, would
+rather indicate insanity than guilt.
+The farther we advance in the history
+and practice of art, the more we find
+it suffering in sentiment from the infusion
+of the classical. In the Pitti
+Palace is a picture by Vasari of St
+Jerome as a penitent, in which he has
+introduced Venus and cupids, one of
+whom is taking aim at the saint. It
+is true that, as we proceed, legends
+crowd in upon us, and the painters
+find rather scope for fancy than subjects
+for faith and resting-places for
+devotion. Art, ever fond of female
+forms, readily seized upon the legends
+of Mary Magdalene. Her penitence
+has ever been a favourite subject, and
+has given opportunity for the introduction
+of grand landscape backgrounds
+in the lonely solitudes and
+wildernesses of a rocky desert. The
+individuality of the characters of
+Mary and Martha in Scripture history
+was too striking not to be taken advantage
+of by painters. There is a
+legend of an Egyptian penitent Mary,
+anterior to that of Mary Magdalene,
+which is curious. Whether this was
+another Mary or not, she is represented
+as a female anchoret; and we
+are reminded thereby of the double
+story of Helen of Troy, whom a real
+or fabulous history has deposited in
+Egypt, while the great poet of the
+Iliad has introduced her as so visible
+and palpable an agent in the Trojan
+war, and not without a touch of penitence,
+not quite characteristic of that
+age. Accounts say that it was her
+double, or eidolon, which figured at
+Troy.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Jameson makes a good conjecture
+with regard to the famous
+picture by Leonardo da Vinci, known
+as Modesty and Vanity, and that it is
+Mary Magdalene rebuked by her sister
+Martha for vanity and luxury, which
+exactly corresponds with the legend
+respecting her. We cannot forbear
+quoting the following eloquent passage:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"On reviewing generally the infinite
+variety which has been given to these
+favourite subjects, the life and penance of
+the Magdalene, I must end where I began.
+In how few instances has the result
+been satisfactory to mind, or heart, or
+soul, or sense! Many have well represented
+the particular situation, the appropriate
+sentiment, the sorrow, the hope, the
+devotion; but who has given us the
+<em>character</em>? A noble creature, with strong
+sympathies and a strong will, with powerful
+faculties of every kind, working for
+good or evil. Such a woman Mary Magdalene
+must have been, even in her humiliation;
+and the feeble, girlish, commonplace,
+and even vulgar women, who
+appear to have been usually selected as
+models by the artists, turned into Magdalenes
+by throwing up their eyes and
+letting down their hair, ill represent the
+enthusiastic convert, or the majestic patroness!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The second volume commences with
+the patron saints of Christendom.
+These were delightful fables in the
+credulous age of first youth, when
+feeling was a greater truth than fact;
+and we confess that we read these
+legends now with some regret at our
+abated faith, which we would not
+even "now have shaken in the chivalric
+characters of the seven champions
+of Christendom."</p>
+
+<p>The Romish Church (we say not
+the Catholic, as Mrs Jameson so frequently
+improperly terms <em>her</em>) readily
+acted that part, to the people at large,
+which nurses assume for the amusement
+of their children; and in both
+cases, the more improbable the story the
+greater the fascination; and the people,
+like children, are more credulous than
+critical. Had we not known in our
+own times, and nearly at the present
+day, stories as absurd as any in these
+legends, gravely asserted, circulated,
+and credited, and maintained by men
+of responsible station and education&mdash;to
+instance only the garment of Treves&mdash;we
+should have pronounced the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">aurea
+legenda</i> to have been a creation of
+the fancy, arising, not without their
+illumination, from the fogs and fens of
+the Middle Ages, adapted solely for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+minds of that period. But the sanction
+of them by the Church of Rome
+leads us to view them as <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ignes fatui</i> of
+another character, meant to amuse
+and to bewilder. We must even think
+it possible now for people to be
+brought to believe such a story as
+this:&mdash;"It is related that a certain
+man, who was afflicted with a cancer
+in his leg, went to perform his devotions
+in the church of St Cosmo and
+St Damian at Rome, and he prayed
+most earnestly that these beneficent
+saints would be pleased to aid him.
+When he had prayed, a deep sleep fell
+upon him. Then he beheld St Cosmo
+and St Damian, who stood beside
+him; and one carried a box of ointment,
+the other a sharp knife. And
+one said, 'What shall we do to replace
+this diseased leg, when we have cut it
+off?' And the other replied, 'There
+is a Moor who has been buried just
+now in San Pietro in Vincolo; let us
+take his leg for the purpose!' Then
+they brought the leg of the dead man,
+and with it they replaced the leg of
+the sick man&mdash;anointing it with celestial
+ointment, so that he remained
+whole. When he awoke, he almost
+doubted whether it could be himself;
+but his neighbours, seeing that he was
+healed, looked into the tomb of the
+Moor, and found that there had been an
+exchange of legs; and thus the truth
+of this great miracle was proved to all
+beholders." It is, however, rather a
+hazardous demand upon credulity to
+serve up again the feast of Thyestes,
+cooked in a caldron of even more
+miraculous efficacy than Medea's. Such
+is the stupendous power of St Nicholas:&mdash;"As
+he was travelling through
+his diocese, to visit and comfort his
+people, he lodged in the house of a
+certain host, who was a son of Satan.
+This man, in the scarcity of provisions,
+was accustomed to steal little children,
+whom he murdered, and served up
+their limbs as meat to his guests. On
+the arrival of the Bishop and his retinue,
+he had the audacity to serve up
+the dismembered limbs of these unhappy
+children before the man of God,
+who had no sooner cast his eyes on
+them than he was aware of the fraud.
+He reproached the host with his
+abominable crime; and, going to the
+tub where their remains were salted
+down, he made over them the sign of
+the cross, and they rose up whole and
+well. The people who witnessed this
+great wonder were struck with astonishment;
+and the three children,
+who were the sons of a poor widow,
+were restored to their weeping mother."</p>
+
+<p>But what shall we say to an entire
+new saint of a modern day, who has
+already found his way to Venice,
+Bologna, and Lombardy,&mdash;even to
+Tuscany and Paris, not only in pictures
+and statues, but even in chapels
+dedicated to her? The reader may be
+curious to know something of a saint
+of this century. In the year 1802 the
+skeleton of a young female was discovered
+in some excavations in the
+catacomb of Priscilla at Rome; the
+remains of an inscription were, "Lumena
+Pax Te Cum Tri." A priest in
+the train of a Neapolitan prelate,
+who was sent to congratulate Pius
+VII. on his return from France, begged
+some relics. The newly-discovered
+treasure was given to him, and the
+inscription thus translated&mdash;"Filomena,
+rest in peace." "Another
+priest, whose name is suppressed <em>because
+of his great humility</em>, was favoured
+by a vision in the broad noonday,
+in which he beheld the glorious
+virgin Filomena, who was pleased to
+reveal to him that she had suffered
+death for preferring the Christian
+faith, and her vow of chastity, to the
+addresses of the emperor, who wished
+to make her his wife. This vision
+leaving much of her history obscure,
+a certain young artist, whose name is
+also suppressed&mdash;perhaps because of
+his great humility&mdash;was informed in a
+vision that the emperor alluded to was
+Diocletian; and at the same time the
+torments and persecutions suffered by
+the Christian virgin Filomena, as well
+as her wonderful constancy, were also
+revealed to him. There were some
+difficulties in the way of the Emperor
+Diocletian, which inclines the writer of
+the <em>historical</em> account to adopt the
+opinion that the young artist in his
+vision <em>may</em> have made a mistake, and
+that the emperor may have been his
+colleague, Maximian. The facts,
+however, now admitted of no doubt;
+and the relics were carried by the priest
+Francesco da Lucia to Naples; they
+were inclosed in a case of wood, resembling
+in form the human body.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+This figure was habited in a petticoat
+of white satin, and over it a crimson
+tunic, after the Greek fashion; the
+face was painted to represent nature;
+a garland of flowers was placed on the
+head, and in the hands a lily and a
+javelin&mdash;with the point reversed, to
+express her purity and her martyrdom;
+then she was laid in a half sitting posture
+in a sarcophagus, of which the
+sides were glass; and after lying for
+some time in state, in the chapel of the
+Torres family in the Church of Saint
+Angiolo, she was carried in procession
+to Magnano, a little town about twenty
+miles from Naples, amid the acclamations
+of the people, working many and
+surprising miracles by the way. Such
+is the legend of St Filomena, and such
+the authority on which she has become,
+within the last twenty years,
+one of the most fashionable saints in
+Italy. Jewels to the value of many
+thousand crowns have been offered at
+her shrine, and solemnly placed round
+the neck of her image, or suspended
+to her girdle."</p>
+
+<p>We dare not in candour charge the
+Romanists with being the only fabricators
+or receivers of such goods, remembering
+our own Saint Joanna,
+and Huntingdon's Autobiography.
+There are <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">aurea legenda</i> in a certain
+class of our sectarian literature,
+presenting a large list of claimants of
+very high pretensions to saintship,
+only waiting for power and an established
+authority to be canonised.</p>
+
+<p>It is not surprising, as the world is&mdash;working
+often in the dark places of
+ignorance&mdash;if a few glossy threads of a
+coarser material, and deteriorating
+quality, be taken up by no wilful mistake,
+and be interwoven into the true
+golden tissue. Nevertheless the
+mantle may be still beautiful, and fit
+a Christian to wear and walk in not
+unbecomingly. There are worse things
+than religious superstition, whose badness
+is of degrees. In the minds of
+all nations and people there is a
+vacuum for the craving appetite of
+credulity to fill. The great interests
+of life lie in politics and religion.
+There are bigots in both: but we look
+upon a little superstition on the one
+point as far safer than upon the other,
+especially in modern times; whereas
+political bigotry, however often duped,
+is credulous still, and becomes hating
+and ferocious. We fear even the
+legends are losing their authority in
+the Roman States, whose history may
+yet have to be filled with far worse
+tales. A generous, though we deem
+it a mistaken feeling, has induced Mrs
+Jameson to make what we would
+almost venture to call the only mistake
+in her volumes: the following
+passage is certainly not in good taste,
+quite out of the intention of her book,
+and very unfortunately timed&mdash;"But
+Peter is certainly the democratical
+apostle <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">par excellence</i>, and his representative
+in our time seems to have
+awakened to a consciousness of this
+truth, and to have thrown himself&mdash;as
+St Peter would most certainly have
+done, were he living&mdash;on the side of
+the people and of freedom." A democratical
+successor to St Peter! He is,
+then, the first of that character. With
+him the "side of freedom" seems to
+have been the inside of his prison,
+and his "side of the people" a precipitate
+flight from contact with them
+in their liberty&mdash;and for his tiara the
+disguise of a valet. We more than
+pardon Mrs Jameson&mdash;we love the
+virtue that gives rise to her error; for
+it is peculiarly the nature of woman
+to be credulous, and to be deceived.
+We admire, and more than admire,
+women equally well, whether they are
+right or wrong in politics: these are the
+business of men, for they have to do with
+the sword, and are out of the tenderer
+impulses of woman. But we are
+amused when we find grave strong
+men in the same predicament of ill
+conjectures. We smile as we remember
+a certain dedication "To Pio
+Nono," which by its simple grandeur
+and magnificent beauty will live
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">splendide mendax</i> to excuse its
+prophetic inaccuracy. It is not wise
+to foretell events to happen whilst we
+live. Take a "long range," or a
+studied ambiguity that will fit either
+way. The example of Dr Primrose
+may be followed with advantage, who
+in every case of domestic doubt and
+difficulty concluded the matter thus&mdash;"I
+wish it may turn out well this day
+six months;" by which, in his simple
+family, he attained the character of a
+true prophet.</p>
+
+<p>We fear we are losing sight of the
+"Poetry of Sacred and Legendary
+Art," and gladly turn from the thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+of what is to be, to those beautiful personified
+ideas of the past, whether
+fabulous or historical, in which we are
+ready to take Mrs Jameson as our
+willing and sure guide. The four
+virgin patronesses and the female
+martyrs are favourite subjects, which
+she enters into with more than her
+usual spirit and feeling. These two
+have chiefly engaged and fascinated
+the genius of the painters of the best
+period, and will ever interest the world
+of taste by their sentiment, as well as
+by their grace of form and beauty, and
+why not say improved them too? The
+really beautiful is always true. It is
+not amiss that we should be continually
+reminded, or, as Mrs Jameson
+better expresses it&mdash;"It is not a thing
+to be set aside or forgotten, that generous
+men and meek women, strong in
+the strength, and elevated by the sacrifice
+of a Redeemer, did suffer, did
+endure, did triumph for the truth's
+sake; did leave us an example which
+ought to make our hearts glow within
+us." The memory of Christian heroism
+should never be lost sight of in a
+Christian country, and we earnestly
+recommend this part of Mrs Jameson's
+volumes to the attention of our painters:
+they will find not unfrequent
+instances of fine subjects yet untouched,
+which may sanctify art, and dignify
+the profession by making it the teacher
+of a purer taste&mdash;not that true genius
+will ever lack materials, for materials
+are but suggestive to an innate inventive
+power. It is curious that the
+authoress should not yet have satisfied
+our expectation with regard to the
+legends of the Virgin. Whatever the
+motive of her forbearance, we hope
+this subject will take the lead in the
+promised third volume, which is to
+treat of the legends of the monastic
+orders, considered, as she cautiously
+observes, "merely in their connexion
+with the development of the fine arts
+in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."</p>
+
+<p>The numerous pictures in Italy
+which represent parts of the legends
+of the Virgin render this work incomplete
+without a full development of the
+subject. If her forbearance arises
+from a fear that at this particular time,
+when mariolatry is dreaded by a large
+portion of the religious world, we
+would remind her that the Virgin
+Mother is still "the blessed" of our
+own church.</p>
+
+<p>It is a question if the list of sainted
+martyrs in repute has not been left to
+the arbitrament of the painters; for
+we find many deposed, and the adopted
+favourites of art not found in the
+early list, as represented in their processions.
+We find a Saint Reparata,
+after having been the patroness saint
+of Florence for six hundred years,
+deposed, and the city placed under
+the tutelage of the Virgin and St John
+the Baptist.</p>
+
+<p>Yet these were early times for the
+influence of art; but, at a period when
+pictures were thought to have a kind
+of miraculous power, it is not improbable
+that some potent work of art
+representing the Virgin and St John
+may have caused the new devotional
+dedication&mdash;as was the case in modern
+times, when the imaged Madonna
+de los Dolores was appointed
+general-in-chief of the Carlist
+army. Painters were what the
+poets had been&mdash;<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Vates sacri</i>. Events
+and the memory of saints may have
+perished, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Carent quia vate sacro</i>. We
+wish our own painters were more fully
+sensible of the power of art to perpetuate,
+and that it is its province to
+teach. With us it has been too long
+disconnected with our religion. It
+will be a glorious day for art, and for
+the people that shall witness the reunion.</p>
+
+<p>In taking leave of these two fascinating
+volumes, we do so with the
+less regret, knowing that they will
+be often in our hands, as most valuable
+for instant reference. No one
+who wishes to know the subjects and
+feel the sentiment of the finest works
+in the world, will think of going
+abroad without Mrs Jameson's book.
+We must again thank her for the
+beautiful woodcuts and etchings; the
+latter, in particular, are lightly and
+gracefully executed, we presume
+mostly (to speak technically) in dry
+point. Mrs Jameson writes as an enthusiast,
+her feeling flows from her
+pen. Her style is fascinating to a
+degree, forcible and graceful; but
+there is no mistaking its character&mdash;feminine.
+We know no other
+hand that could so happily have set
+forth the <cite>Poetry of Sacred and Legendary
+Art</cite>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS.</h2>
+
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <em>December 1848</em>.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Year of Constitutions</span> is
+drawing to its end, to be succeeded, I
+doubt not, by the Year of Substitutions.
+I am sorry, my Basil, that
+you do not quite agree with me as to
+the issue of all this in France; but I
+am sure you will not dispute my opinion
+that this year's work is good for
+nothing, so far as it has attempted
+construction, instead of fulfilling its
+mission by overthrow. Its great
+folly has been the constitution-fever,
+which has amounted to a pestilence.
+When mushrooms grow to be oaks,
+then shall such constitutions as this
+year has bred, stand a chance of outliving
+their authors. Will men learn
+nothing from the past? How can
+they act over such rotten farces,&mdash;make
+themselves such fools!</p>
+
+<p>You admit the difference, which I
+endeavoured to show you, between
+the American constitution and that of
+any conceivable constitution which
+may be cooked up for an old European
+state. I am glad if I have directed
+your attention, accordingly, to the
+great mistake of France. She supposes
+that a feeble, and debauched old
+gentleman can boil himself in the
+revolutionary kettle, and emerge in
+all the tender and enviable freshness
+of the babe just severed from the maternal
+mould. Politicians have committed
+a blunder in not allowing the
+natural, and hence legitimate, origin
+of the American constitution in that
+of its British parent. They have thus
+favoured the theory that a tolerably
+permanent constitution can be drafted
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">a priori</i>, and imposed upon a state.
+This is the absurdity that makes revolutions.
+If the silly French, instead
+of reading De Tocqueville, would
+study each for himself the history of
+our constitution, and see how gradually
+it grew to be our constitution,
+before pen was put to paper to draft
+it, they might perhaps stop their
+abortive nonsense in time, to save
+what they can of their national character
+from the eternal contempt of
+mankind.</p>
+
+<p>But you cannot think the French
+will find so fair a destiny as a Restoration!
+Tell me, in what French
+party, at present existing, there is
+any inherent strength, save in that of
+the legitimists? Other parties are
+mere factions; but the legitimists
+have got a seminal principle among
+them, which dies very hard, and of
+which the nature is to sprout and
+make roots, and then show itself. I
+am no admirer of the Bourbons:
+their intrigues with Jesuitism have
+been their curse, and are the worst
+obstacle to their regaining a hold on
+the sympathies of freemen. The
+reactionary party have in vain endeavoured
+to overcome it for fifty
+years. Yet there is such tenacity of
+life in legitimacy, that it seems to
+me destined to outlive all opposition,
+and to succeed by necessity. The
+rapid developments of this memorable
+year strengthen the probability of my
+prediction. Revolutionism is spasmodic,
+but not so long in dying as it
+used to be. I cannot but think this
+year has done more for a permanent
+restoration of the Bourbons than any
+year since Louis XVI. ascended the
+scaffold. In this respect the Barricades
+of 1848 may tell more impressively
+on history than the Allies of
+1814, or even the carnage of Waterloo.</p>
+
+<p>Why should I be ashamed of my
+theory, when everything, so far, has
+gone as I supposed it would, only a
+hundred times more rapidly than any
+body could have thought possible?
+What must be the residue of a series
+which thus far has tended but one
+way?&mdash;what say you of the Bartholomew-butchery
+in June?&mdash;what of Lamartine's
+fall?&mdash;what of the dictatorship
+of Cavaignac? If things have
+gone as seems probable, Louis Napoleon
+is president of the republic. If
+so, what is the instinct which has thus
+called him into power? The hereditary
+principle is abolished on paper,
+and instantly recognised by the first
+popular act done under the new constitution!
+But, for all we can tell in
+America, things may have taken
+another turn. Is Cavaignac elected?
+Then a military master is put over
+the republic, who can <em>Cromwellise</em> the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+Assembly, and <em>Monk</em> the state, as
+soon as he chooses. The republic
+has given itself the form of a dictatorship,
+and demonstrated that it
+does not exist, except on paper.
+Has there been an insurrection?
+Then the republic is dead already.
+But I shall assume that Louis has
+succeeded: then it is virtually an
+hereditary empire. To be sure, instinct
+has for once failed to know
+"the true prince,"&mdash;has accorded, to
+the mere shadow of a usurper, what,
+in a more substantial form, is due to
+the heir of France; but long-suspended
+animation must make a mistake
+or two in coming to life again.
+The events of the year have been all
+favourable to a restoration, because
+they have crushed a thousand other
+plans and plottings for the sovereignty,
+and because they must have
+forced upon at least as many theorists
+the grand practical conclusion, that
+there is to be no rational liberty in
+France until she returns to first principles,
+and finds the repose which old
+nations can only know under their
+legitimate kings.</p>
+
+<p>I am ashamed of you for more
+than hinting that legitimacy must be
+given up, as far as kings are concerned.
+Alas! Diogenes must light
+his lantern, and hunt through England
+for a Tory! You are bewhigged,
+indeed, if you give it up that George
+III. was a legitimate king, and that
+his grand-daughter is to you what no
+other person alive can possibly be,&mdash;your
+true and hereditary sovereign
+lady! Must I, a republican, say this
+to an English monarchist, who votes
+himself a conservative, and who is
+the son of a sturdy old English Tory?
+Is there no virtue extant, that even
+you allow yourself to be flippant
+about "the divinity that hedges
+kings," and to trifle with suggestions
+which your immortal ancestor, who
+fell at Prestonpans, would have
+drummed out of doors with poker and
+tongs? Why, even I, who have a
+right to be whatever I choose, by
+way of amateur allegiance, and who
+have always found myself a Jacobite
+whenever the talk has been against
+the White Rose&mdash;even I, in sober
+earnest, yield the point, that George
+I. was a legitimate sovereign, and
+that Charlie was a bit of a rebel.
+Those stupid Dutchmen! it makes
+me mad to say as much for them;
+but I love Old England too well to
+own that she bore with such sovereigns
+on any lower grounds than
+that of their right to reign.</p>
+
+<p>I am sorry you give in to the silly
+cant of revolutionists, and confess
+yourself posed with their challenge.
+What if they do insist upon a definition?
+Are you bound to keep your
+heart from beating till you can tell
+why it throbs over a page of Shakspeare's
+Richard II., and bounces,
+in precisely an opposite manner, over
+Carlyle's Cromwell? Am I going to
+let a Whig choke me with a dictionary,
+because it contains no explanation
+of my good old-fashioned
+word? Let him, with his "Useful
+Knowledge Society" information, give
+me an explanation of the magnetic
+needle, or tell me why it turns to the
+pole, and not to the antipodes? The
+fellow will recollect some twopenny
+picture of the compass, and retail me
+half a column of the Penny Magazine
+about the mysteries of nature. And
+what if I talk as sensibly from nature
+in my own heart, and tell the stereotype
+philosopher that I am conscious
+of an ennobling affection, which honest
+men never lack, and which God Almighty
+has made a faculty of the
+human soul to dignify subordination;
+and that loyalty has no lode-star but
+legitimacy? At least, my dear
+Whigo-Tory, you must allow, I should
+succeed in answering a fool according
+to his folly. But I claim more: I
+have defined legitimacy when I say it
+is the home of loyalty.</p>
+
+<p>I have amused myself during the
+summer with some study of the history
+of reaction in France, and flatter
+myself that I have discovered the
+secret of its failure, and the great distinction
+between its spirit and that of
+English Conservatism. But this by
+the way; for I was going to say that
+I have found, in the writings of one
+of the chief of the reactionary party,
+some very sensible hints upon the
+subject I am discussing with you.
+Though in many respects a dangerous
+teacher, and, I fear, a little jesuitical
+in practice as well as in
+theory, I have been surprised to find
+the Count de Maistre willing "to be
+as <em>his master</em>" on this point, and to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+rest legitimacy very nearly on the
+sober principles of Burke. He is far
+from the extravagances of Sir Robert
+Filmer, though he often expresses, in
+a startling form, the temperate views
+of English Anti-Jacobins. Thus he
+says, with evident relish of its smart
+severity, <em>the people will always accept
+their masters, and will never choose
+them</em>. Strongly and unpalatably put,
+but most coincident with history, and
+not to be disputed by any admirer of
+the glorious Revolution of 1688! I
+suspect the Frenchman made his aphorism
+without stopping to ask whether
+it suited any other case. But Burke
+has virtually said the same thing in
+his reply to the Old Jewry doctrine
+of 1789, in which he so forcibly urges
+the fact, that the settlement of the
+crown upon William and the Georges
+"was not properly <em>a choice</em>, ...
+but an act of necessity, in the strictest
+moral sense in which necessity can
+be taken." Mary and the Hanoverians,
+then, were acknowledged by the
+nation, in spite of itself, as legitimate
+sovereigns; and even William was
+smuggled into the acknowledgment as
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">quasi</i>-legitimate. It is the clear, reasonable,
+and truly English doctrine of
+Burke, that <em>the constitution of a country
+makes its legitimate kings</em>; and that
+the princes of the House of Brunswick,
+coming to the crown according to constitutional
+law, at the date of their
+respective accessions, were as legitimate
+as King James before he broke
+his coronation oaths, and abdicated,
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ipso facto</i>, his crown and hereditary
+rights. But De Maistre talks more
+like the schoolmen, though he comes
+to the same practical results. Constitutions,
+the native growth of their
+respective countries, he would argue,
+are the ordinance of <span class="smcap">God</span>; and kings,
+though not the subjects of their
+people, are bound to do homage to
+them, as, in a sense, divine. Legitimacy,
+therefore, is the resultant of
+hereditary majesty and constitutional
+designation; it being always understood
+that constitutional laws are
+never written till after they become
+such by national necessities, which are
+divine providences. Apply this to
+1688. The Bill of Rights was an
+unwritten part of the constitution
+even when James was crowned; and
+so was the principle, that the king
+must not be a Papist, at least in the
+government of his realms. Such, if I
+may so speak, was the Salic law of
+England, by which his public and
+political Popery stripped him of his
+right to the throne. It was the same
+principle that invested the House of
+Brunswick with a legitimacy which
+the heart of the nation did not hesitate
+to recognise, in spite of unfeigned
+disgust with the prince in whom the
+succession was established. To throw
+the proposition into the abstract&mdash;there
+can be no legitimacy without
+hereditary majesty, but that member
+of a royal line is the legitimate king
+in whom concur all the elements of
+<em>constitutional designation</em>. If the
+phrase be new, the idea is as old as
+empire. I mean that constitutional
+power which, without reference to
+national choice or personal popularity,
+selects the true heir of the throne,
+among the descendants of its ancient
+possessors, on fixed principles of national
+law. Thus, in Portugal, the
+constitution sets aside an idiot heir-apparent
+for a cadet of the same
+family, or, if need be, for a collateral
+relative; while, in France, it proclaims
+the line of a king extinct in his
+female heir, and ascends, perhaps, to
+a remote ancestor for a trace of his
+rightful successor. It is a principle
+essentially the same which, in England,
+pronounces a Popish prince as
+devoid of hereditary right to the crown,
+as a bastard, or the child of a private
+marriage; and by which the hereditary
+blood, shut off from its natural
+course, immediately opens some auxiliary
+channel, and widens it into the
+main artery of succession, with all the
+precision of similar resources in physical
+nature. With such an argument,
+if I understand him, the Count de
+Maistre would put you to the blush
+for sneering <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">sub rosâ</i> at the legitimacy
+of your Sovereign. I wish his principles
+were always as capable of being
+put to the proof, without any absurdity
+in the reduction. Hereditary
+majesty is the only material of which
+constitutions make sovereigns; and
+that, too, deserves a word in the light
+which this sage Piedmontese Mentor
+of France has endeavoured to throw
+on the subject. It is interesting in
+the present dilemma of France, which
+stands like the ass between two haystacks&mdash;rejecting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+one dynasty, but not
+yet choosing another. I am a republican,
+you know, holding that my
+loyalty is due to the constitution of
+my own country; and yet I subscribe
+to the doctrine that this idea of <em>majesty</em>
+is a reality, and that, confess it
+or not, even republicans feel its reality.
+<em>The king's name is a tower of strength</em>;
+and inspiration has said to sovereign
+princes, with a pregnant and monitory
+meaning&mdash;<em>ye are gods</em>. This is not
+the fawning of courts, but the admonition
+of Him who invests them with
+His sword of avenging justice, and
+gives them, age after age, the natural
+homage of their fellow-men. Not
+that I would flatter monarchs: I see
+that they <em>die like men</em>, and, what is
+worse, live, very often, like fools, if not
+like beasts. Yet I am sure that they
+have something about them which is
+personally theirs, and cannot be given
+to others, and which is as real a thing
+as any other possession. <span class="smcap">God</span> has
+endowed them with history, and they
+are the living links which connect
+nations with their origin, and the
+men of the passing age with bygone
+generations. Reason about it as we
+may, it is impossible not to look with
+natural reverence on the breathing monuments
+of venerable antiquity. For
+a Guelph, indeed, I cannot get up any
+false or romantic enthusiasm; and
+yet I find it quite as impossible not
+to feel that the house of Guelph entitles
+its royal members to a degree
+of consideration which is the ordinance
+of Heaven. For how many
+ages has that house been a great reality,
+casting its shadow over Europe,
+and stretching it over the world, and
+as absolutely affecting the destinies of
+men as the geographical barriers and
+highways of nations! The Alps and
+the Oceans are morally, as well as
+naturally, majestic; and a moral
+majesty like theirs attaches to a line
+of princes which has stood the storms
+of centuries like them, and like them
+has been always a bulwark or a bond
+between races and generations. Like
+the solemnity of mountains is the
+hereditary majesty of a family, of
+which the origin is veiled in the
+twilight of history, but which is always
+seen above the surface of cotemporary
+events, a crowned and sceptred thing
+that never dies, but perpetuates, from
+generation to generation, a still increasing
+emotion of sublimity and
+awe, which all men feel, and none can
+fully understand. There are many
+women in England who, for personal
+qualities and graces, would as well
+become the throne as she whom you so
+loyally entitle "Our Sovereign Lady."
+Why is it that no election, nor any
+imaginable possession of her place,
+could commend the proudest or the
+best of them to the homage of the
+nation's heart? Such a one might
+wear the robes, and glitter like a star,
+outshining the regalia, and might
+walk like Juno; but not a voice would
+cry <em>God save her!</em>&mdash;while there is a
+glory, not to be mistaken, which invests
+the daughter of ancient sovereigns,
+even when she is recognised,
+against her will, in the costume of
+travel, or when she shows herself
+among her people, and treads the
+heather in a trim little bonnet and
+a Highland plaid. Why is it that ten
+thousand feel a thrill when her figure
+is seen descending from the wooden
+walls of her empire, and alighting
+upon some long unvisited portion of
+its soil? It is not the same emotion
+which would be inspired by the landing
+of Wellington. Then the roaring of
+cannon and the waving of ensigns
+would appear to be a tribute rendered
+to the hero by a grateful country; but
+when her Majesty touches the shore,
+she seems herself to wake the thunders
+and to bow the banners which announce
+her coming. The pomp is all
+her own, and differs from the tributary
+pageant, as the nod of Jove is different
+from the acclamation of Stentor.
+Even I, who "owe her no subscription,"
+can well conceive what a true
+Briton cannot help but feel, when,
+with an ennobling loyalty, he beholds
+in her the concentrated blood of famous
+kings, and the propagated soul of
+mighty monarchs; and when he calls
+to mind, at the same moment, the
+thousand strange events and glorious
+histories which have their august
+and venerable issue in Victoria, his
+queen.</p>
+
+<p>But you will bring me back to my
+main business, by asking&mdash;who, then,
+was the legitimate king of France at
+the beginning of this year? The King
+of the Barricades was not lacking in
+hereditary majesty, and you will make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+out a case of <em>constitutional designation</em>,
+by a parallel between England in
+1688, and France in 1830. If you do
+so, you will greatly wrong your country.
+The loyalty of England settled
+in the house of Brunswick, and would
+have been even less tried if there had
+been a continuance of the house of
+Orange; but no French loyalist could
+ever be reconciled to the dynasty of
+Orleans. And why? It was not the
+natural constitution of France, but the
+mere blunder of a mob, that selected
+Louis Philippe as the king of the
+French. It was an election, as the
+accession of William and Mary was
+not: it was a choice, and not a necessity&mdash;the
+mere caprice of the hour,
+and in no sense the rational designation
+of law. Did ever his Barricade
+Majesty himself, in all his dreams of
+a dynasty, pretend that any unalterable
+principle, or fundamental law of
+France, had turned the tide of succession
+from the heir-presumptive of
+Charles X., and forced heralds upon
+the backward trail of genealogy,
+till they could again descend, and so
+find the hereditary king of the French
+in the son of Egalité? Louis Philippe
+was not legitimate, in any reasonable
+sense of the word; and, could he have
+made such men as Chateaubriand regard
+him as other than a usurper, he
+would not be at Claremont now.
+That splendid Frenchman uttered the
+voice of a smothered, but not extinguished,
+constitution, when he closed
+his political life in 1830, by saying to
+the Duchess de Berry&mdash;"<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Madame, votre
+fils est mon roi.</i>" He lived to see the
+secret heart of thousands of his countrymen
+repeating his memorable
+words, and died not till Providence
+itself had overturned the rival throne,
+and directed every eye in hope, or in
+alarm, to the only prince in Europe
+who could claim to be their king.</p>
+
+<p>I care very little what may be the
+personal qualifications of Henry of
+Bordeaux; it seems to me that he
+is destined to reign upon the throne
+of his ancestors&mdash;and God grant he
+may do it in such wise as shall make
+amends for all that France has suffered,
+by reason of his ancestors, since
+France had a Henry for her king before!
+The prestige of sovereignty is
+his; and while he lives, no republic
+can be lasting; no government, save
+his, can insure the peace which the
+state of Europe so imperatively demands.
+If "experience has taught
+England that in no other course or
+method than that of an hereditary
+crown her liberties can be regularly
+perpetuated and preserved sacred,"<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>&mdash;why
+should not an experience, a
+thousandfold severer, teach France
+the same lesson? It has already been
+taught them by a genius which France
+cannot despise, and to whose oracular
+voice she is now forced to listen, because
+it issues from his fresh grave!
+"Legitimacy is the very life of
+France. Invent, calculate, combine
+all sorts of illegitimate governments,
+you will find nothing else possible as
+the result, nothing which gives any
+promise of duration, of tolerable existence
+during a course of years, or even
+through several months. Legitimacy
+is, in Europe, the sanctuary in which
+alone reposes that sovereignty by
+which states subsist." So I endeavour
+to render the eloquent sentence of
+Chateaubriand;<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and though, since he
+wrote it, a score of years have passed,
+it is stronger now than ever&mdash;for what
+was then his prophecy is already the
+deplorable history of his country.
+Had ever a country such a history,
+without learning more in a year than
+France has gained from a miserable
+half-century?</p>
+
+<p>Just so long as France has been
+busy with experiments, in the insane
+effort to separate her future from her
+past, just so long have all her labours
+to lay a new foundation been miserable
+failures, covering her, in the eyes
+of the world, with shame and infamy.
+What has been wanting all the time?
+I grant that the first want has been
+a national conscience&mdash;a sense of religion
+and of duty. But I mean, what
+has been wanting to the successive
+administrations and governments?
+Certainly not splendour and personal
+dignity, for the Imperial government
+had both; and the King of the Barricades
+made himself to be acknowledged
+and feared as one who bore not
+the sword in vain. But the prestige
+of legitimacy was wanting; and that
+want has been the downfall of everything
+that has been tried. You will
+ask, what was the downfall of Charles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+X? The answer is, that it was
+not a downfall further than concerned
+himself; for everybody feels
+that the Bourbon claim survives, while
+every other has been forced to yield
+to destiny and retribution. How is
+it that legitimacy makes itself felt
+after years of exile and obscurity? Is
+it not that instinct of loyalty which
+cannot be duped or diverted, and
+which detects and detests all shams?
+Is it not the instinct which constitution-makers
+have endeavoured to appease
+by pageants and by names, but which
+has continually revolted against the
+emptiness of both? The existence of
+that instinct has been perpetually exposed
+by miserable attempts to satisfy
+its demands with outside show and
+splendid impositions. The French
+cannot even go to work, under their
+present republic, as we do in America.
+The common-sense of our people
+teaches them that a republican government
+is a mere matter of business,
+which must make no pretences to splendour;
+and hence, the constitution once
+settled, the president is elected and
+sworn-in with no nonsense or parade;
+and Mr Cincinnatus Polk sits down
+in the White House, and sends every
+man about his business. A young
+country has as yet but the instincts of
+infancy; there is as yet nothing to
+satisfy but the craving for nourishment,
+and the demand for large room.
+But it is not so where nations are full-grown.
+<em>Can a maid forget her ornaments,
+or a bride her attire?</em> Can
+France forget that she had once a
+court and a throne that dazzled the
+world? No! says every craftsman of
+the revolution; and therefore our
+republic, too, must be splendid and
+imperial! So, instead of going to work
+as if their new constitution were a
+reality, there must be a fète of inauguration.
+In the same conviction, Napoleon
+is nominated for the presidency,
+because he has a name; and he immediately
+withdraws from vulgar
+eyes, to keep his "presence like a
+robe pontifical," against the investiture.
+Oh, for some Yankee farmer
+to look on and laugh! It would not
+take him long to <em>calculate</em> the end of
+such a republic. Jonathan can understand
+a queen, and would stare at a
+coronation in sober earnest, convinced
+that it had a meaning&mdash;at least, in
+England! But a republic of kettle-drums
+and trumpets will never do with
+him; and if he were favoured with an
+interview with the pompous aspirant
+to the French presidency, it would
+probably end in his telling Louis Napoleon
+the homely truth&mdash;that he has
+nothing to be proud of, and had better
+eat and drink like other folk, and
+"define his position" as a candidate,
+if he don't want to find himself <em>used-up</em>,
+and sent on a long voyage up
+Salt River; which, you may not
+know, my Basil, is a Stygian stream,
+and the ancients called it Lethe. So
+much, then, for the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ultima ratio</i> of
+illegitimate governments&mdash;the attempt
+to satisfy the demand for national
+dignity by pageants and by names,
+and to drown the outcries of natural
+discontent by the sounding of brass
+and the tinkling of cymbals.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did the sage Piedmontese
+foretell it all, like a Cassandra. "Man
+is prohibited," said that admirable
+Mentor, "from giving great names to
+things of which he is the author, and
+which he thinks great; but if he has
+proceeded legitimately, the vulgar
+names of things will be rendered illustrious,
+and become grand." How
+specially does England answer to the
+latter half of this maxim! and who
+can read the former without seeing
+France, in her fool's-cap, before his
+mental eye? De Maistre himself has
+instanced the revolutionary follies of
+Paris, and lashed them with unsparing
+severity. Whatever is national in
+England seems to have grown up, like
+her oaks, from deep and strong roots,
+and to stand, like them, immovable,
+They make their own associations,
+and dignify their own names. Everything
+is home-born, natural, and real.
+The Garter, the Wool-sack, Hyde
+Park, Epsom and Ascot&mdash;these things
+in France would be the <em>Legion of
+Honour</em>, the <em>Curule-chair</em>, the <em>Elysian
+fields</em>, the <em>Olympic games</em>! The veritable
+attempt was made to reinstitute,
+in the Champ-de-Mars, the sports of
+antiquity; and they received the
+pompous name of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les jeux Olympiques</i>.
+De Maistre ridicules their nothingness,
+and adds that, when he saw a building
+erected and called the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Odéon</i>, he was
+sure that music was in its decline,
+and that the place would shortly be to
+let. In like manner, he says of the
+motto of Rousseau, with intense <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">naïvete</i>,
+"Does any man dare to write<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+under his own portrait, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">vitam impendere
+vero</i>? You may wager, without further
+information, fearlessly, that it is
+the likeness of a liar." How quick
+the human heart perceives what is
+thus put into words by a philosopher!
+It is in vain for France to think of
+covering her nakedness with a showy
+veil. The Empire was a glittering
+gauze, but how transparent! They
+saw one called Emperor and a second
+Charlemagne; and the Pope himself
+was there to give him a crown. But
+it was a meagre cheat. Poor Josephine
+never looked ridiculous before, but
+then she acted nonsense. The imperial
+robes were gorgeous, but they
+meant nothing on the Citizen Buonaparte.
+Everybody saw behind the
+scenes. They detected Talma in the
+strut of Napoleon; they pointed at
+the wires that moved the hands and
+eyes of the Pope. All stage-effect,
+machinery, and pasteboard. The imperial
+court was all what children call
+<em>make-believe</em>: it vanished like the
+sport of children.</p>
+
+<p>The great feast of fraternity, last
+spring, was, on de Maistre's principles,
+the natural harbinger of that fraternal
+massacre in June; and the ineffectual
+attempt to be festive over the
+late inauguration of the constitution,
+has but one redeeming feature to prevent
+a corresponding augury of disaster.
+Its miserable failure makes it
+possible that the constitution will survive
+its anniversary. Then there will
+be a demonstration, at any rate, and
+then the thing will be superannuated.
+Since 1790, there has been no end to
+such glorifications; each chased and
+huzza'd, in turn, by a nation of full-grown
+children, and all hollow and
+transient as bubbles. Perpetual beginnings,
+every one warranted to be
+<em>no failure this time</em>, and each going
+out in a stench. What continual
+<i lang="frla" xml:lang="fr">Champs-de-Mars</i> and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Champs-de-Mai</i>!
+what wavings of new flags, and
+scattering of fresh flowers! and all
+ending in confessed failure, and beginning
+the same thing over again! "Nothing
+great has great beginnings"&mdash;says
+Mentor again. "History shows no
+exception to this rule. <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Crescit occulto
+velut arbor ævo</i>,&mdash;this is the immortal
+device of every great institution."</p>
+
+<p>Legitimacy never makes such mistakes,
+except when permitted by <span class="smcap">God</span>,
+to accomplish its own temporary
+abasement. It needs not to support
+itself by tricks and shams. It has a
+creative power which dignifies everything
+it touches; which often turns
+its own occasions into festivals, but
+makes no festivals on purpose to
+dignify itself. When Henry V. is
+crowned at Rheims, or at Notre-Dame,
+he will not send over the Alps
+for <i lang="it" xml:lang="it">Pio Nono</i>, nor consult <i>Savans</i> to
+learn how Cæsar should be attired
+that day. That youth may safely
+dispense with all superfluous pageantry,
+for he is not <em>new Charlemagne</em>,
+but <em>old Charlemagne</em>. The blood of
+the Carlovingians has come down to
+him from Isabella of Hainault, through
+St Louis and Henry IV. Chateaubriand
+should not have forgotten
+this, when (speaking of this prince's
+unfortunate father, the Duke de
+Berry) he enthusiastically sketched a
+thousand years of Capetian glory,
+and cried&mdash;"<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">He bien! la revolution a
+livré tout cela au couteau de Louvel</i>."
+Another revolution has thus far relegated
+the same substantial dignity
+to exile and obscurity, as if France
+could afford to lose its past, and begin
+again, as an infant of days. But
+besides the evident tendency of things
+to reaction, there is something about
+the legitimate king of France which
+looks like destiny. He was announced
+to the kingdom by the dying lips of
+his murdered sire, while yet unborn,
+as if the fate of empire depended on
+his birth. <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ménagez-vous, pour l'enfant
+que vous portez dans votre sein</i>," said
+the unhappy man to his duchess, and
+the group of bystanders was startled!
+It was the first that France heard of
+Henry the Fifth, and it seemed to inspire
+Chateaubriand with the spirit
+of prophecy, and he eloquently remarks
+upon it as a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">dernière espérance</i>.
+"The dying prince," he says, "seemed
+to bear with him a whole monarchy,
+and at the same moment to announce
+another. Oh <span class="smcap">God</span>! and is our salvation
+to spring out of our ruin? Has
+the cruel death of a son of France
+been ordained in anger, or in mercy?
+is it <em>a final restoration of the legitimate
+throne, or the downfall of the empire
+of Clovis</em>?" This grand question now
+hangs in suspense: but, as I said,
+Chateaubriand must have taken courage
+before he died, and inwardly
+answered it favourably. That great
+writer seems to have felt beforehand,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+for his countrymen, the loyalty to
+which they will probably return. To
+the prince he stood as a sort of sponsor
+for the future. When the royal
+babe was baptised, he presented
+water from the Jordan, in which the
+last hope of legitimacy received the
+name of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Dieu-donné</i>: when Charles
+the Tenth was dethroned, he stood
+up for the young king, and consented
+to fall with his exclusion; and the
+last years of France's greatest genius
+were a consistent confessorship for
+that legitimacy with which he believed
+the prosperity of his country
+indissolubly bound. Now, I should
+like to ask a French republican&mdash;if I
+could find a sane one,&mdash;what would
+you wish to do with Henry of Bordeaux?
+Would you wish this heir
+of your old histories to renounce his
+birth-right, declare legitimacy an imposition,
+and undertake to settle
+down in Paris as one of the people?
+Why not, if you are all republicans,
+and see no more in a prince than in a
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">gamin</i>? Why should not this Henry
+Capet throw up his cap for the constitution,
+and stick up a tradesman's
+sign in the Place de la Revolution, as
+"Henry Capet, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">parfumeur</i>?" Why
+not let him hire a shop in the lower
+stories of the Palais Royal and teach
+the Parisians better manners than to
+cut off his head, by devoting himself
+to shaving their beards? Everybody
+knows the reason why not; and that
+reason shows the reality of legitimacy.
+Night and day such a shop would be
+mobbed by friends and foes alike.
+Go where he might, the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">parfumeur</i>
+would be pointed at by fingers, and
+aimed at by <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">lorgnettes</i>, and bored to
+death by a rabble of starers, who
+would insist upon it that he was the
+hereditary lord of France. Mankind
+cannot free themselves from such impressions,
+and, what is more conclusive,
+princes cannot free themselves
+from the impressions of mankind, or
+undertake to live like other men, as
+if history and genealogy were not
+facts. For weal or for woe, they are
+as unchangeable as the leopard with
+his spots. Let Henry Capet come to
+America, and try to be a republican
+with us. Our very wild-cats would
+assert their inalienable right to "look at
+a king," and he would certainly be torn
+to pieces by good-natured curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious to see the natural
+instinct amusing itself, for the present,
+with such a mere <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">nominis umbra</i> as
+Louis Napoleon. In some way or
+other the hereditary <em>prestige</em> must be
+created; nothing less is satisfactory,
+and the "imperial fetishism" will
+answer very well till something more
+substantial is found necessary. Richard
+Cromwell was necessary to Charles
+II., and so is Louis Napoleon to
+Henry V. Napoleon still seems capable
+of giving France a dynasty; this
+possibility will be soon extinguished
+by the incapability of his representative.
+Louis will reign long enough
+to exhibit that recompense to Josephine,
+in the person of her grandson,
+which heaven delights to allot to a
+repudiated wife; and then, for his
+own sake, he will be called <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">coquin</i>
+and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">poltron</i>. Napoleon will take his
+historical position as an individual,
+having no remaining hold on France;
+and the imperial fetishism will be
+ignominiously extinguished. Richard
+Cromwell made a very decent old
+English gentleman, and Louis Napoleon
+may perhaps end his days as
+respectably, in some out-of-the-way
+corner of Corsica. Let me again
+quote the French Mentor. He says,
+"There never has existed a royal
+family to whom a plebeian origin could
+be assigned. Men may say, if Richard
+Cromwell had possessed the genius of
+his father, he would have fixed the
+protectorate in his family; which is
+precisely the same thing as to say&mdash;if
+this family had not ceased to reign,
+it would reign still." Here is the
+formula that will suit the case of Louis
+Napoleon; but future historians will
+moralise upon the manner in which
+Napoleon himself worked out his
+own destruction. For the sake of a
+dynasty, he puts away poor Josephine.
+The King of Rome is born to him, but
+his throne is taken. The royal youth
+perishes in early manhood, and men
+find Napoleon's only representative
+in the issue of the repudiated wife.
+Her grandson comes to power, and
+holds it long enough to make men
+say&mdash;how much better it might have
+been with Napoleon had he kept his
+faith to Josephine, and contentedly
+taken as his heir the child in whom
+Providence has revealed at last his
+only chance of continuing his family
+on a throne! It makes one thing of
+Scripture, "Yet ye say wherefore?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+because the Lord hath been witness
+between thee and the wife of thy
+youth, against whom thou hast dealt
+treacherously; ... therefore take
+heed to your spirit, and let none deal
+treacherously against the wife of his
+youth, for the Lord, the <span class="smcap">God</span> of Israel,
+saith that he hateth putting away."</p>
+
+<p>A traveller from the south of France
+says that he saw everywhere the portrait
+of Henry V. Besides the mysterious
+hold which legitimacy keeps upon
+the vulgar and the polite alike, there
+are associations with it which operate
+on all classes of men. Tradesmen and
+manufacturers are for legitimacy, because
+they love peace, and want to
+make money. The <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">roturiers</i> sooner
+or later learn the misery of mobs, and
+the love of change makes them willing
+to welcome home the king, especially
+as they mistake their own hearts, and
+flatter themselves that their sudden
+loyalty is proof of remaining virtue.
+Then the profligate and abandoned,
+they want a monarchy, in hopes of
+another riot in the palace. It may
+be doubted whether the <em>blouses</em> can
+be permanently contented without a
+king to curse. The national anthem
+cannot be sung with any spirit, unless
+there be a monarch who can be
+imagined to hear all its imprecations
+against tyrants: in fact, the king
+must come back, if only to make sense
+of the Marseilles Hymn.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Que veut cette horde d'esclaves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">De traîtres, de rois conjurés?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ces fers, dès long-tems préparés?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">What imaginable sense is there in
+singing these red-hot verses at a feast
+of fraternity, and in honour of the full
+possession of absolute liberty? Then,
+where is the sport of clubs, and the
+excitement of conspiracies, if there's
+no king to execrate within locked
+doors? Is Paris to have no more of
+those nice little <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">émeutes</i>? What's to
+be done with the genius that delights
+in infernal machines? Who's to be
+fired at in a glass coach? Everybody
+knows that Cavaignacs and Lamartines
+are small game for such sport.
+Your true assassin must have, at least,
+a duke of the blood. These are considerations
+which must have their
+weight in deciding upon probabilities;
+though, for one, I am not sure but
+France is doomed, by retributive
+justice, to be thus the Tantalus of
+nations, steeped to the neck in liberty,
+but forbidden to drink, with kings
+hanging over them to provoke the eye,
+and yet escaping the hand.</p>
+
+<p>In 1796 de Maistre published his
+<cite>Considérations sur la France</cite>. They
+deserve to be reproduced for the present
+age. Nothing can surpass the
+cool contempt of the philosophical
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">réactionnaire</i>, or the confidence with
+which, from his knowledge of the past,
+he pronounces oracles for the future.
+Do you ask how Henry V. is to recover
+his rights? In ten thousand
+imaginable ways. See what Cavaignac
+might have done last July, had
+the time been ripe for another Monk!
+There's but one way to keep legitimacy
+out; it comes in as water enters
+a leaky ship, oozing through seams,
+and gushing through cracks, where
+nobody dreamed of such a thing. As
+long as even a tolerable pretender
+survives, a popular government must
+be kept in perpetual alarm. But you
+shall hear the Count, my Basil! Let
+me give you a free translation.</p>
+
+<p>"In speculating about counter-revolutions,
+we often fall into the mistake
+of taking it for granted that such
+reactions can only be the result of
+popular deliberation. <em>The people won't
+allow it</em>, it is said; <em>they will never consent;
+it is against the popular feeling</em>.
+Ah! is it possible? The people just
+go for nothing in such affairs; at most
+they are a passive instrument. Four
+or five persons may give France a
+king. It shall be announced to the
+provinces that the king is restored:
+up go their hats, and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vive le roi</i>!
+Even in Paris, the inhabitants, save
+a score or so, shall know nothing of
+it till they wake up some morning and
+learn that they have a king. '<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Est-il
+possible?</i>' will be the cry: '<em>how very
+singular! What street will he pass
+through? Let's engage a window in
+good time, there'll be such a horrid
+crowd!</em>' I tell you the people will
+have nothing more to do with re-establishing
+the monarchy, than they
+have had in establishing the revolutionary
+government!... At the
+first blush one would say, undoubtedly,
+that the previous consent of the French
+is necessary to the restoration; but
+nothing is more absurd. Come, we'll
+crop theory, and imagine certain
+facts.</p>
+
+<p>"A courier passes through Bordeaux,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+Nantes, Lyons, and so <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en route</i>,
+telling everybody that the king is
+proclaimed at Paris; that a certain
+party has seized the reins, and has
+declared that it holds the government
+only in the king's name, having despatched
+an express for his majesty,
+who is expected every minute, and
+that every one mounts the white
+cockade. Rumour catches up the
+story, and adds a thousand imposing
+details. What next? To give the republic
+the fairest chance, let us suppose
+it to have the favour of a majority,
+and to be defended by republican
+troops. At first these troops shall
+bluster very loudly; but dinner-time
+will come; the fellows must eat,
+and away goes their fidelity to a
+cause that no longer promises rations,
+to say nothing of pay. Then
+your discontented captains and lieutenants,
+knowing that they have nothing
+to lose, begin to consider how
+easily they can make something of
+themselves, by being the first to set
+up <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vive-le-roi</i>! Each one begins to
+draw his own portrait, most bewitchingly
+coloured; looking down in scorn
+on the republican officers who so lately
+knocked him about with contempt;
+his breast blazing with decorations,
+and his name displayed as that of an
+officer of His Most Christian Majesty!
+Ideas so single and natural will work
+in the brains of such a class of persons:
+they all think them over; every one
+knows what his neighbour thinks, and
+they all eye one another suspiciously.
+Fear and distrust follow first, and
+then jealousy and coolness. The common
+soldier, no longer inspired by his
+commander, is still more discouraged;
+and, as if by witchcraft, the bonds of
+discipline all at once receive an incomprehensible
+blow, and are instantly
+dissolved. One begins to
+hope for the speedy arrival of his
+majesty's paymaster; another takes
+the favourable opportunity to desert
+and see his wife. There's no
+head, no tail, and no more any such
+thing as trying to hold together.</p>
+
+<p>"The affair takes another turn with
+the populace. They push about
+hither and thither, knocking one another
+out of breath, and asking all sorts
+of questions; no one knows what he
+wants; hours are wasted in hesitation,
+and every minute does the business.
+Daring is everywhere confronted by
+caution; the old man lacks decision,
+the lad spoils all by indiscretion; and
+the case stands thus,&mdash;one may get
+into trouble by resisting, but he that
+keeps quiet may be rewarded, and
+will certainly get off without damage.
+As for making a demonstration&mdash;where
+is the means? Who are the
+leaders? Whom can ye trust? There's
+no danger in keeping still; the least
+motion may get one into trouble.
+Next day comes news&mdash;<em>such a town
+has opened its gates</em>. Another inducement
+to hold back! Soon this news
+turns out to be a lie; but it has been
+believed long enough to determine
+two other towns, who, supposing that
+they only follow such example, present
+themselves at the gates of the first
+town to offer their submission. This
+town had never dreamed of such a
+thing; but, seeing such an example,
+resolves to fall in with it. Soon it
+flies about that Monsieur the mayor
+has presented to his majesty the keys
+of his good city of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quelquechose</i>, and
+was the first officer who had the honour
+to receive him within a garrison
+of his kingdom. His Majesty&mdash;of
+course&mdash;made him a marshal of France
+on the spot. Oh! enviable brevet!
+an immortal name, and a scutcheon
+everlastingly blooming with <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fleurs-de-lis</i>!
+The royalist tide fills up every
+moment, and soon carries all before it.
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vive-le-roi!</i> shouts out long-smothered
+loyalty, overwhelmed with transports:
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vive-le-roi!</i> chokes out hypocritical
+democracy, frantic with terror. No
+matter! there's but one cry; and his
+Majesty is crowned, and <em>has all the
+royal makings of a king</em>. This is the
+way counter-revolutions come about.
+God having reserved to himself the
+formation of sovereignties, lets us learn
+the fact, from observing that He never
+commits to the multitude the choice
+of its masters. He only employs them,
+in those grand movements which decide
+the fate of empires, as passive
+instruments. Never do they get what
+they want: they always take; they
+never choose. There is, if one may
+so speak, an <em>artifice</em> of Providence, by
+which the means which a people take
+to gain a certain object, are precisely
+those which Providence employs to
+put it from them. Thus, thinking to
+abase the aristocracy by hurrahing for
+Cæsar, the Romans got themselves
+masters. It is just so with all popular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+insurrections. In the French
+revolution the people have been perpetually
+handcuffed, outraged, betrayed,
+and torn to pieces by factions;
+and factions themselves, at the mercy
+of each other, have only risen to take
+their turn in being dashed to atoms.
+To know in what the revolution will
+probably end, find first in what points
+all the revolutionary factions are
+agreed. Do they unite in hating
+Christianity and monarchy? Very
+well! The end will be, that both will
+be the more firmly established in the
+earth."</p>
+
+<p>Cool, certainly; is it not, my Basil?
+The legitimists are the only Frenchmen
+who can keep cool, and bide their
+time. Chateaubriand has observed,
+in the same spirit, that there is a
+hidden power which often makes war
+with powers that are visible, and that
+a secret government was always following
+close upon the heels of the
+public governments that succeeded
+each other between the murder of
+Louis XVI. and the restoration of
+the Bourbons. This hidden power he
+calls the eternal reason of things; the
+justice of <span class="smcap">God</span>, which interferes in
+human affairs just in proportion as
+men endeavour to banish and drive it
+from them. It is evident that the
+whole force of de Maistre's prophecy
+was owing to his religious confidence
+in this divine interference.
+He wrote in 1796. That year the
+career of Napoleon began at Montenotte;
+and, for eighteen years succeeding,
+every day seemed to make
+it less and less probable that his predictions
+could be verified. The
+Bourbon star was lost in the sun of
+Austerlitz. The Republic itself was
+forgotten; the Pope inaugurated the
+Empire; Austria gave him a princess,
+to be the mould of a dynasty, and the
+source of a new legitimacy. France
+was peopled with a generation that
+never knew the Bourbons, and which
+was dazzled with the genius of Napoleon,
+and the splendour of his imperial
+government. But the time came
+for this <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">puissance occulte, cette justice
+du ciel</i>! When the Allies entered
+Paris in 1814, it was suggested to
+Napoleon that the Bourbons would
+be restored; and, with all his sagacity,
+he made the very mistake which de
+Maistre had foreshown, and said, in
+almost his very words&mdash;"Never!
+nine-tenths of the people are irreconcilably
+against it!" One can almost
+hear what might have been the Count's
+reply&mdash;"<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quelle pitié! le peuple n'est
+pour rien dans les revolutions. Quatre
+ou cinq personnes, peut-être, donneront
+un roi à la France.</i>" What could
+Talleyrand tell about that? The
+facts were, that in four days the
+Bourbons were all the rage! The
+Place Vendôme could hardly hold the
+mob that raved about Napoleon's
+statue; and, with ropes and pulleys,
+they were straining every sinew to
+drag it to the ground, when it was
+taken under the protection of Alexander!<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>
+What next? In terror for
+his very life, this Napoleon flies to
+Frejus, now sneaking out of a back-window,
+and now riding post, as a
+common courier, actually saving himself
+by wearing the white cockade
+over his raging breast, and all the
+time cursing his dear French to Tartarus!
+A British vessel gives him his
+only asylum, and the salute he receives
+from a generous enemy is all
+that reminds him what he once had
+been in France. Meantime these detested
+Bourbons are welcomed home
+again, with De Maistre's own varieties
+of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vive-le-roi</i>! The Duke d'Angouleme,
+advancing to the capital, sees
+the silver lilies dancing above the
+spires of Bordeaux: the Count
+d'Artois hails the same tokens at
+Nancy: not captains and lieutenants,
+but generals and marshals, rush to
+receive His Most Christian Majesty;
+and the successor of the butchered
+Louis XVI. comes to his palace, after
+an exile of twenty years, with the
+title of Louis the Desired! Nor are
+subsequent events anything more
+than the swinging of a pendulum,
+which must eventually subside into a
+plummet. If the first disaster of Napoleon,
+in the fulness of his strength,
+could make France welcome her legitimacy
+in 1814, why should not the
+imbecility of the mere shadow of his
+name produce a stronger revulsion
+before this century gains its meridian?
+There is a residuary fulfilment of de
+Maistre's augury, which remains to
+the Bourbons, when all of Napoleon
+that survives has found its ignominious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+extinction. Then will the ripe
+fruit fall into the lap of one who, if
+he is wise, will make the French forget
+his kindred with the fourteenth
+and fifteenth Louises, and remember
+only that Henry of Bordeaux has
+before him the example of Henry of
+Navarre.</p>
+
+<p>There is, indeed, another conceivable
+end. <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">C'est l'arrêt que le ciel prononce
+enfin contre les peuples sans
+jugement, et rebelles à l'expérience.</i><a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>
+If France does not soon come back to
+reason, we shall be forced to think
+her given up of <span class="smcap">God</span>, to become such
+a country as Germany, or perhaps as
+miserable as Spain. But we must
+not be too hasty in coming to conclusions
+so deplorable. Let the republic
+have its day. It will work its
+own cure; for the chastisement of
+France must be the curse of ancient
+Judah. "The people shall be oppressed,
+every one by another, and
+everyone by his neighbour; the child
+shall behave himself proudly against
+the ancient, and the base against the
+honourable." For the mob of Paris,
+who got drunk with riot, and must
+grow sober with headache; for the
+blousemen and the boys who have
+pulled a house upon their head, and
+now maul each other in painful efforts
+to get from under the ruins; and for
+the miserable <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">philosophes</i> who see, in
+the charming state of their country,
+the fruit of their own atheistic theories;
+for all these it is but retribution.
+They needed government; they resolved
+on license: <span class="smcap">God</span> has sent them
+despotism in its worst form. One
+pities Paris, but feels that it is just.
+My emotions are very different when
+I think of what were once "the pleasant
+villages of France." Miserable
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">campagnards</i>! There are thousands
+of them, besides the poor souls starving
+in provincial towns, who curse
+the republic in their hearts; and,
+from Normandy to Provence and
+Languedoc, there are millions of such
+Frenchmen, who care nothing for
+dynasties, or fraternities, or democracy,
+but only pray the good Lord to
+give peace in their time, that they
+may sit under their own vine, and
+earn and eat their daily bread. For
+them&mdash;may <span class="smcap">God</span> pity them!&mdash;what a
+life Dame Paris leads them! If, with
+the simplicity of rustics, they were
+for a moment disposed to be merry
+last February&mdash;when they heard that
+thereafter loaves and fishes were to
+fling themselves upon every table, for
+the mere pleasure of being devoured&mdash;how
+bitterly the simpletons are undeceived!
+Their present notions of
+fraternity and equality they get from
+hunger and from rags. It is not now
+in France as in the days of Henry
+IV., when every peasant had a pullet
+in the pot for his Sunday dinner.
+That was despotism. It is liberty
+now&mdash;liberty to starve. There is no
+more oppression, for the very looms
+refuse to work, and water-wheels
+stand still; and the vines go gadding
+and unpruned, and the grape disdains
+to be trampled in the wine-vat. Yes&mdash;and
+the old <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">paysan</i> and his sprightly
+dame, who used to drive dull care
+away in the sunshine&mdash;she, with her
+shaking foot and head, and he with
+his fiddle and his bow, they have
+liberty to the full; for their seven
+sons, who were earning food for them
+in the sweat of their brow, have come
+home to the old cabin, ragged and
+unpaid; and they lounge about in
+hungry idleness, longing for war, but
+only because war would provide them
+with a biscuit or a bullet. What care
+they for glory, or for constitutions?
+They ask for bread, and their teeth
+are ground with gravel-stones. Let
+England look and learn. If she has
+troubles, let her see how easily troubles
+may be invested at compound interest,
+with the certainty of dividends for
+years to come. Is hard thrift in a
+kingdom so bad as starvation in a
+democracy? And whether is it better
+to wear out honestly, in this work-day
+world, as good and quiet subjects;
+or to be thrust out of it, kicking and
+cursing, behind a barricade of cabs
+and paving-stones, in the name of
+equality? These are the common-sense
+questions, that every English
+labourer should be made to feel and
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>It provokes me, Basil, that my letter
+may be superannuated while it is
+travelling in the steamer! The
+changes of democracy are more frequent
+than the revolutions of a paddle-wheel.
+Adieu. Yours,</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Ernest.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO.</h2>
+<blockquote>
+<p><cite>Dalmatia and Montenegro.</cite> By Sir <span class="smcap">J. Gardner Wilkinson</span>. London: Murray.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>It is really astonishing that our
+want of information respecting Dalmatia,
+and its neighbourhood, has not
+long ago been supplied. It is by no
+means easy, now-a-days, to hit upon
+a line of country that may afford subject-matter
+for acceptable illustration.
+Travellers are so numerous, and
+authorship is so generally affected,
+that the best part of Europe has been
+described over and over again. You
+may get from Mr Murray a handbook
+for almost any place you will.
+Manners and customs, roads, inns,
+things to be suffered, and notabilities
+to be visited&mdash;in short, all the probable
+contingencies of travel between
+this and the Vistula, are already noted
+and set down. We take it upon ourselves
+to say, that it is one of the most
+difficult things in life to realise the
+sense of desolation and unwontedness
+that are poetic characteristics of the
+traveller. How can a man feel himself
+strange to any place where he is
+so thoroughly up to usages that no
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">locandière</i> can cheat him to the amount
+of a <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">zwanziger</i>? And, thanks to the
+books written, it is a man's own fault
+if he wend almost anywhither except
+thus μύστης γενόμενος.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, European travelling is
+pretty nearly reduced to the work
+of verification. Events are according
+to prescription; and there remains
+very little room for the play of
+an exploring spirit. The grand thing
+to be explored is a matter pysychological
+rather than material; it is to
+prove experimentally what are the
+emotions that a generous mind experiences,
+when vividly acted upon by
+association with the world of past
+existences. Beyond doubt, this is the
+highest range of intellectual enjoyment;
+and to its province may be
+referred much that at first sight would
+appear to be heterogeneous, as, for instance,
+delights purely scientific. But
+at any rate, we must all agree that the
+main privilege of a traveller is, that
+he is enabled to test the force of this
+power of association. It is an enjoyment
+to be known only by experiment.
+No power of description can
+give a man to understand what is the
+sensation of gazing on the Acropolis,
+or of standing within Ἁγία Σοφία. It
+is as another sense, called into existence
+by the occasion of exercise.</p>
+
+<p>To any but the uncommonly well
+read, there has hitherto been meagre
+entertainment in travelling among the
+Slavonian borderers on the Adriatic.
+It has been impossible to realise on
+their subject these high pleasures of
+association, because so little has been
+known of the facts of their history;
+rather should we perhaps say, that, of
+what has been known, so little has
+been generally accessible. But we
+are happy to find that the right sort
+o' "chiel has been amang them, takin'
+notes." The way is now open; and
+henceforth it will be easy to follow
+with profit. The book which Sir
+Gardner Wilkinson has given us
+seems to be exactly the thing which
+was wanted; and certainly the use
+of it will enable a man to travel in
+Dalmatia as a rational creature should.
+No mere dotter down of events could
+have passed through the course of
+this country without producing a
+document of considerable value. The
+widespread family of which its inhabitants
+are a branch have been intimately
+mixed up with the history of the
+Empire and of Christendom; and now
+again we behold them playing a conspicuous
+part in European politics. Modern
+Panslavism deepens the interest to
+be felt in this family, and quickens the
+anxiety to know what they are doing
+and thinking now, as well as what
+they have done in days of old. In
+the present volumes we have, besides
+the memoranda of things existing, a
+compendium of Slavonian history and
+antiquities, and an exhibition of the
+degree in which the race have been mixed
+up with European history. Besides
+this, an account is given of their more
+domestic traditions, of which monuments
+survive; and it must be a man's
+own fault if, having this book with
+him, he miss extracting the utmost
+of profit from a visit to the country.</p>
+
+<p>In one way, we can surely prophesy
+that this book will prove the means
+of bringing to us increase of lore from
+out of that land of which it treats.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+It will naturally be taken on board
+every yacht that, when next summer
+shall open skies and seas, may find its
+way into the Mediterranean. Among
+these birds of passage, it can scarcely be
+but that some one will shape its course
+for this land of adventure, thus, as it
+were, newly laid open. It is a little, a
+very little out of the direct track, in
+which these summer craft are apt to be
+found, plentiful as butterflies. They
+may rest assured that in no place,
+from the Pillars of Hercules to the
+Pharos of Alexandria, can they hope
+to find such provision of entertainment.
+The stories they may thence
+bring will really be worth something&mdash;a
+value much higher than we can vote
+ascribable to much that we hear of
+the well-frequented shores of the
+French lake.</p>
+
+<p>We prophesy, also, that an inspiriting
+effect will be produced on men
+better qualified even than the yachtsmen
+for the work of travel&mdash;we
+mean on the gallant officers who garrison
+the island of Corfu. They
+occupy a station so exactly calculated
+to facilitate excursions in the desirable
+direction, that it will be too bad
+if some of them do not start this
+very next spring. We do not recommend
+the Adriatic in winter time, and
+so give them a few months' grace,
+just to keep clear of the Bora. Let
+them, as soon as possible after the
+equinox, avail themselves of one of
+those gaps which will be occurring in
+the best-regulated garrison life.
+Times will come round when duty
+makes no exaction, and when the
+indigenous resources of the island
+afford no amusement. Should such
+occasion have place out of the shooting
+months&mdash;or when, haply, some
+row with the Albanians has placed
+Butrinto under interdict&mdash;woful are
+the straits to which our ardent young
+fellow-countrymen are reduced. A
+ride to the Garoona pass, or a lounge
+into Carabots; or, to come to the
+worst, an hour or two's <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">flané</i> round
+old Schulenberg's statue, are well in
+their way, but cannot please for ever.
+All these things considered, it is, we
+say, but likely that we shall reap
+some substantial benefit from the
+leisure of our military friends, so
+soon as their literary researches shall
+have carried them into the enjoyment
+of this book. Dalmatia is almost
+before their very eyes. If hitherto
+they have not drifted thither, under
+the combined influences of a long
+leave and an uncertain purpose, it is
+because they have not been in a condition
+to prosecute researches. We
+must not blame them for their past
+neglect, any more than we blame the
+idleness of him who lacks the implements
+of work. Give a man tools, and
+then, if he work not, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">monstrare digito</i>.
+Henceforth they must be regarded as
+thoroughly equipped, and without excuse.
+Let us hope that some two or
+three may be roused to action on the
+very next opportunity&mdash;that is to say,
+on the very next occasion of leave.
+Let us hope that, instead of sloping
+away to Paxo, or Santa Maura, they
+may shape their course through the
+North Channel, and begin, if they
+please, by exploring the Bocca di
+Cattaro.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Gardner speaks of difficulties
+and vexatious delays interposed between
+the traveller and his purpose
+by the Austrian authorities. These
+scrutineers of passports seem to grow
+worse; and with them bad has long
+been the best. We used to think
+that the palm of pettifogging was
+fairly due to the officials of his Hellenic
+majesty. It was bad enough,
+we always thought, to be kept waiting
+and watching for a license to move
+from the Piræus to Lutraki, by steam;
+but we confess that Sir Gardner
+makes out a case, or rather several
+cases, that beat our experience hollow.
+We should like to commit the
+passport system to the verdict to be
+pronounced by common-sense after
+perusal of the two or three pages he
+has written on this subject. But common-sense
+must be far from us, or the
+mob would not be raving for liberty
+while still tolerant of passports.</p>
+
+<p>There is another point in respect of
+which a change for the worse appears
+to have taken place, and that is in
+the important point of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">bienveillance</i>
+towards English travellers. We learn
+that, at present, Austrian officers are
+shy of English companionship; and
+that it is even enjoined on them authoritatively
+that they avoid intimacy
+with stragglers from Corfu. The
+reason assignable is found in the late
+sad and absurd conspiracy hatched in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+that island&mdash;a conspiracy which would
+have been utterly ridiculous, had it
+not in the event proved so melancholy.
+It will freely be admitted that
+the English would deserve to be sent,
+as they are, to Coventry, were it fact
+that the insane project of the young
+Bandieras had found English partisans,
+and that such partisanship had
+been winked at by the authorities.
+But the real state of the case is exactly
+contrary to this supposition.
+Humanity must needs have mourned
+over the cutting off of the young men,
+and the sorrow of their father, the
+gallant old admiral. But common-sense
+must have condemned the undertaking
+as utterly absurd and mischievous.
+It is a pity that any
+misunderstanding should be permitted
+to qualify the good feeling towards us,
+for which the Austrians have been
+remarkable. This good feeling has
+been observable eminently among
+their naval officers, who have got up
+a strong fellowship with us, ever
+since they were associated with our
+fleet in the operations on the coast of
+Syria. That particular service has done
+much towards the exalting of them in
+their own estimation; and, of course,
+the increase of friendship for us has
+been in the direct proportion of the
+lift given to them. The Austrian
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">militaires</i>, also, used to be a very good
+set of fellows, and only too happy to
+be civil to an Englishman. At their
+dull stations an arrival is an event,
+and any considerable accession of
+visitors occasions quite a jubilee.
+These gentlemen, however, cannot
+have among them much of the spirit
+of enterprise, or they would take
+more trouble than they do to learn
+something of the condition of their
+neighbours. They will complain
+freely of the dulness of the place of
+their location, but at the same time
+will evince little interest in the condition
+of the world beyond their immediate
+ken. Many of them who
+live almost within hail of the Montenegrini,
+have never been at the
+trouble of ascending the mountains.
+Nothing seems to astonish them more
+than the erratic disposition which
+leads men in quest of adventure;
+they cannot conceive such an idea as
+that of volunteering for a cruise. Yachts
+puzzle them: the owners must be
+sailors. Of any military officers who
+may chance to visit them in yachts,
+they cannot conceive otherwise than
+that they belong to the marine.
+Nevertheless they are, or used to be,
+kind and hospitable; and would treat
+you well, although they could not
+quite make you out.</p>
+
+<p>That this country is a neglected
+portion of the Austrian empire is very
+evident. The officials sigh under the
+very endearments of office. The
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">sanità</i> man, who comes off to greet
+your arrival, will tell you how insufferably
+dull it is living in the Bocca,&mdash;and
+how he longs to be removed
+anywhither. Place, people, climate,
+all will be condemned. Yet, to a
+stranger, many of the localities seem
+exquisitely beautiful. The same cause
+seems to mar enjoyment here that
+spoils the beauty of our own Norfolk
+Island. The Austrian residents regard
+themselves as being in a state of
+banishment, and take up their abode
+only by constraint: the constraint, that
+is to say, of mammon. By the government,
+its possessions in this quarter
+have been neglected in a manner most
+impolitic. The value of this strip of
+coast to an empire almost entirely
+inland, yet wishing to foster trade,
+and to possess a navy, is obvious.
+Yet even the plainest use of it they
+seem, till lately, to have missed.
+Promiscuous conscriptions were the
+order of the day, and men born sailors
+were enrolled in the levies for the
+army. Of course they were miserable
+and discontented, and the public service
+suffered by the use of these unfit
+instruments. Recently it seems that
+a change has been made in this
+respect, and we doubt not that the
+navy has consequently been greatly
+improved. But many glaring instances
+of neglect in the administration of
+the affairs of the country continue to
+astonish beholders, and to prove that
+the paternal government is not awake
+to its own interests.</p>
+
+<p>But of all objections to be made
+to the wisdom of the government,
+the strongest may be grounded on
+the condition of the agricultural population
+in various parts of Dalmatia.
+Nothing is done to improve their knowledge
+of the primary art of civilisation.
+Their implements of husbandry
+are described as being on a par with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+those used by the unenlightened inhabitants
+of Asia Minor. The waggons
+to be encountered in the neighbourhood
+of Knin are referable to
+the same date in the progress of invention,
+as are the conveniences in
+vogue in the plains about Mount Ida.
+The mode of tillage is like that followed
+in the remote provinces of
+Turkey; the ploughs of the rustic
+population are often inferior to those
+to be seen in the neighbouring Turkish
+provinces. Lastly&mdash;most incredible
+of all!&mdash;we learn that there is not to
+be found in the whole district of the
+Narenta such a thing as a mill,
+wherein to grind their corn. Will it
+be believed that the rustics have to
+send all the corn they grow into
+the neighbouring province of Herzegovina
+to be ground? The inconvenience
+of such an arrangement
+may easily be conceived. Their best
+of the bargain&mdash;<em>i. e.</em> the being obliged
+to seek from across the frontier all
+the flour they want&mdash;is bad enough,
+and must be sufficiently expensive;
+but their predicament is apt to be
+much worse than this. In that
+part of the world, people are subject
+to stoppages of intercommunication.
+The plague may break out in the
+Turkish province, and thus a strict
+quarantine be established, to the interdiction
+even of provisions that
+generally pass unsuspected; or the
+country may be flooded, and the ways
+impassable. What are the poor people
+to do then for flour? Why, the
+only thing they can do is, to send their
+corn to their nearest neighbours possessed
+of mills&mdash;that is to say, to
+Salona, or to Imoschi. As these places
+are distant, the one about thirty-five
+miles, and the other about seventy
+miles, we may fancy how serious must
+be the pressure of this necessity.
+The ordinary expense of grinding
+their corn is stated to be about 13
+per cent. What it must be when the
+seventy miles' carriage of their produce
+is an item in the calculation, we
+are left to conjecture. Now these
+poor folks are not to be blamed&mdash;they
+have no funds to enable them to build
+mills; but that they are left to themselves
+in this inability is a reproach
+to the government under which they
+live. This inconvenience so intimately
+affects their social wellbeing,
+that we cannot put faith in the benevolence
+of the rulers who allow them
+to remain so destitute.</p>
+
+<p>Despite, however, of the disadvantages
+under which the people of Dalmatia
+labour, it will be seen that
+pictures chiefly pleasurable are to be
+met by him who shall travel amongst
+them. Their honest nature seems to
+comprise within itself some compensating
+principle, which makes amends
+for the damage of circumstances. The
+Morlacci, especially, seem to be a
+simple, hardy set, of whom one cannot
+read without pleasure. These are the
+rustic inhabitants of the agricultural
+districts, who eschew the great towns.
+They made their entry into the roll
+of the peasantry of Dalmatia at a
+comparatively late date. The first
+notice of them, we are told, is about
+the middle of the fourteenth century.
+After that time they began to retire
+with their families from Bosnia, as
+the Turks made advances into the
+country. They are of the same Slavonic
+family as the Croatians; though
+their hardy manner of life, and the
+purity of the air in which they have
+dwelt, on the mountains, have co-operated
+to confer on them superiority of
+personal appearance, and of physical
+condition. On a general estimate of
+the people of the land, and of their
+mode of receiving strangers, we
+are disposed to rank highly their
+claims to the title of hospitable and
+honest.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Gardner Wilkinson certainly
+travelled amongst them most effectually.
+North, south, east, and west,
+he intersected the country. One part
+of his travels possesses especial interest,
+because, so far as we know, no
+denizen of civilised Christendom has
+ever before been so completely over
+the ground. We refer to his expedition
+into, and through the territory of the
+Montenegrini. Others&mdash;some few
+only, but still some others&mdash;have been
+far enough to get a peep at these
+wild children of the mountains; and
+more than once of late years, Maga
+has given notices concerning them:<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+but only scanty knowledge of their
+domestic condition has been attainable.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+Sir Gardner went right through their
+country to the Turkish border, and
+tarried amongst them long enough to
+form pretty accurate notions of their
+state.
+.
+In the account of our author's first
+journey, no serious stop is made till we
+come alongside of the island of Veglia:
+apropos to the passage by which, we
+have given to us, at some length, an
+interesting extract from the report of
+a Venetian commissioner sent to the
+island, in 1481, to inquire into its
+state. Of this document we will say
+no more than that it is exceedingly
+curious, and will well reward the pains
+of reading. A passing notice is given
+to Segna, situated on the mainland,
+near Veglia, for the memory's sake of
+those desperate villains the Uscocs, to
+whom it belonged of old. A good
+deal of their history is given in the
+last chapter of the second volume,
+which serves as a documentary appendix
+to the work. Everything necessary
+to beget interest in the islands
+scattered hereaway is told; but we
+pass them by, and are brought to Zara.
+What of antiquities is here discoverable
+is rooted out for our benefit, but
+not much remains. The most interesting
+relic in the place, to our mind,
+is the inscription recording the victory
+of Lepanto. As Zara is the capital
+of Dalmatia, occasion is taken, while
+speaking of the city, to give some
+account of the government of the
+province, and of the general condition
+of the people.</p>
+
+<p>An incident mentioned by Sir Gardner
+displays, in a painful light, the kind
+of feeling entertained by the Austrian
+government towards these its subjects,
+and permitted by its officials to find
+expression before the natives. We
+cannot take it as a case of isolated
+insolence: because men in responsible
+situations, especially where the social
+system comprises an indefinite supply
+of spies, do not ostentatiously commit
+themselves, unless they have a foregone
+conviction, that what they say
+is according to the authorised tone.
+Men under inspection of the higher
+powers do not put themselves out of
+their way to make a display of bitterness,
+unless they think thereby to conciliate
+the good-will of their superiors.
+This is the incident in question: On
+a certain occasion, the conversation
+happened to turn on the subject of a
+then recent disturbance in a Dalmatian
+town. The soldiery and the
+people had quarrelled, and in the
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">émeute</i> two of the soldiers had been
+killed. On these data forth spake a
+Jack in office. He knew not, nor did
+he care to know, how many of the
+peasants had fallen, nor does he appear
+to have entered at all curiously
+into the question of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">casus belli</i>. He
+simply recommended, as the disturbance
+had taken place, and as the actual
+perpetrators of the violence were not
+forthcoming, that the whole population
+of the town should be "decimated
+and shot." "The butchery of any
+number of Dalmatians," says our author,
+"was thought a fit way of remedying
+the incapacity of the police."
+One would hardly imagine that this
+counsel could have been met by the
+applauses of persons holding official
+situations; but so, we are assured, it
+was in fact received. This manifestation
+of feeling is a sort of thing
+which, when emanating from a group
+of merely private individuals, may be
+disregarded. Idle people will talk, and
+their hard words will break no bones.
+But the hard words of the ministers of
+government do break bones; and
+such words must be accepted as
+serious indications of subsistent evil.
+Such receipts for keeping people in
+peace and quietness are consistent
+enough with the genius of their neighbours
+the Turks. Retrenchment of
+heads, and of causes of complaint, are
+to their apprehension one and the same
+thing&mdash;πολλων ὀνομάτων, μο�φὴ μία.
+We know this, and expect it. It is
+not so very long ago since the Capitan
+Pasha gave the word to heave
+the officer of the watch overboard,
+because his ship missed stays in going
+about in the Black Sea. But the
+Austrians are civilised and Christian;
+we expect better things of them, and
+can but mourn over their misapprehension
+of the true principles of
+polity. The Englishman who stood
+by rebuked the promoters of these
+atrocious sentiments, and for this act
+of championship he was subsequently
+thanked by the Dalmatians who
+were present. They could not have
+ventured to undertake their own defence,
+but must have listened in
+silence to this outrageous language.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+Our author doubts not that this exhibition
+of simple humanity on his part,
+had the effect of causing him to be
+forthwith placed under the surveillance
+of the police; and that such a
+consequence should be so very likely
+to follow the honest expression of a
+common-sense opinion in society is a
+fact that shows clearly enough how
+<em>unsound</em> that state of things must be.
+Assuredly one of the best effects of
+intercourse with civilised nations is,
+that we thereby become enabled to
+institute a comparison between their
+social condition and our own. Even
+those unhappy Chartists, who lately
+have acquired the habit of addressing
+one another as "brother slaves,"
+would learn to value British freedom,
+if they knew something of the social
+condition of their European brethren:
+they would see some difference between
+the security of their own hours
+of relaxation, and the degree in which
+a man's freedom in Austria is invaded
+by the espionage of the police.</p>
+
+<p>From Zara the course of the narrative
+takes us to Sebenico, a town
+situated on the inner side of the lake
+or bay into which the waters of the
+Kerka debouch. It is one of the
+coaling stations of the steamer; and,
+when the time of arrival will allow
+such concession, the passengers are
+permitted to take a trip in a four-oared
+boat, to visit the falls of the
+Kerka. Here the costume of the
+women is noticed as being singularly
+graceful. In coasting along from
+Sebenico to Spalato, the headland of
+la Planca is remarkable. Near it is
+a little church which is famous in
+local chronicle for having once upon
+a time served as a trap, wherein an
+ass caught a wolf. How this marvellous
+feat was accomplished, we will
+not just now stop to tell, but must
+refer the curious to the book itself.
+This point is also remarkable, because
+here begins abruptly a change in the
+climate. Some plants unknown to
+the northward begin to appear; and
+henceforward, to one proceeding
+southward, the dreaded Scirocco will
+be a more frequent infliction. To
+the southward of la Planca, this
+objectionable wind is constantly blowing;
+and at Spalato, we are told, it
+assumes for its allowance 100 days
+out of the 365. Apropos to the Scirocco,
+we have an episode on <em>anemology</em>,
+and are taught how the old
+Greeks and Romans used to box the
+compass&mdash;at least how they would
+have done so, had they had compasses
+to box. In the distance, to
+the south of the promontory of la
+Planca, is the island of Lissa, famous
+in modern history for Sir William
+Hoste's action in 1811. "Such an
+action," says James, "stands unrivalled
+in the annals of the naval
+history of Great Britain, or that of
+any other country, from the great
+disproportion in numerical force, as
+well as the beauty and address of its
+man&oelig;uvres; it stands surpassed by
+none in the spirit and enterprise with
+which it was encountered, and carried
+through to a successful issue."
+There is not much risk in making this
+assertion, when we consider that on
+that occasion the French squadron
+consisted of four forty-gun frigates,
+two of a smaller class, a sixteen-gun
+corvette, a ten-gun schooner, one six-gun
+xebec, and two gunboats; and
+that the English squadron was of
+three frigates, and one twenty-two
+gunship. Lissa was also famous in
+the time of the Romans, being then
+called Issa. We have a notice of its
+history, and then pass on to Bua,
+and so to Spalato.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning Spalato details are given,
+as might be expected, at some length.
+Much is told us of its past and present
+condition; in fact, there is presented
+to us a very sufficient assemblage of
+<em>indicia</em> concerning it. We recommend
+any one who wishes to enjoy a
+visit to Spalato to take with him this
+book, and chapter 13th of Gibbon.
+The extract from Porphyrogenitus,
+given by Gibbon, tells us what the
+palace of Diocletian was; and Sir
+Gardner Wilkinson tells us what it is
+now, and what has been its history.
+Besides verbal description, his pencil
+affords some apt illustrations of the
+actual condition of the buildings. We
+see by these, and by his account, that
+the treasures of Spalatine architecture
+have been obscured by the building
+up of modern edifices on their sites.
+"The stranger," he says, "is shocked
+to see windows of houses through the
+arches of the court, intercolumniations
+filled up with petty shops, and the
+peristyle of the great temple masked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+by modern houses." Doubtless, many
+a precious relic has been appropriated
+by modern barbarians to common
+uses, and so perished out of sight. But
+with joy we learn that the government
+has taken measures to prevent the
+continuance of such destruction, and
+that the remaining monuments are
+safe, however they may be mixed up
+with the houses and shops of the present
+generation. We are told that,
+under the care of the present director
+of antiquarian researches, there is good
+reason to hope that the collection at
+Spalato may become truly valuable.
+The high character of Professor
+Carrara is a sure warrant that all will
+be done which is within scope of the
+means afforded. But as the government
+allowance for excavations at
+Salona is only £80 yearly, we cannot
+think that the work is likely to
+proceed rapidly. While we condemn
+as barbarous this carelessness on the
+part of the Austrians, we must bear in
+mind that we are open to a retort of
+the censure. We neglect altogether
+the remains of Samos in Cephalonia,
+and nothing at all is allowed for the
+expense of operations there; yet
+these remains are very extensive, and
+there is every reason to believe that
+their actual condition would amply repay
+a diligent search.</p>
+
+<p>We must stop here a moment to
+congratulate Sir Gardner, on his rencontre
+with the sphinx.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A captive when he gazes on the light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">and so forth, are the only people who
+may venture to talk of Sir Gardner's
+delight at the sight of a sphinx, or a
+mummy. With great gusto he gives
+the description of the black granite
+sphinx, in the court of the palace, near
+the vestibule; and in the drawing
+which he has made of the same court,
+the sphinx is conspicuous.</p>
+
+<p>From Spalato to Salona, is a distance
+of some three miles and a half,
+by a good carriage-road. This road
+crosses the Jader, or Il Giadro&mdash;a
+stream so famous for its trout, that it
+has been thought necessary seriously
+to prove that it was <em>not</em> for the sake
+of these&mdash;not in order that of them he
+might eat his <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">soûl</i> in peace and
+quietness&mdash;that Diocletian retired from
+the command of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Salona is rich in antiquarian remains,
+though nothing is extant to
+redeem from improbability the testimony
+of Porphyrogenitus, that Salona
+was half the size of Constantinople. Of
+its origin no record exists, nor is
+much known of its history till the time
+of Julius Cæsar. Subsequently to that
+era it was subject to various fortunes,
+and bore various titles. At last, in
+Christian times it became a Bishop's
+see, and was occupied by 61 bishops
+in succession. Diocletian was its
+great embellisher and almost rebuilder.
+Later in the day, we find that it was
+from Salona that Belisarius set out in
+544, when recalled to the command of
+the army of Justinian, and intrusted
+with the conduct of the war against
+Totila. The town remained populous
+and fortified, till destroyed by the
+Avars in 639. These ferocious barbarians
+having established themselves
+in Clissa, the terror of their propinquity
+scared away the Salonitans. The
+terrified inhabitants, after a short and
+ineffectual resistance, fled to the
+islands. The town was pillaged and
+burnt, and from that time Salona has
+been deserted and in ruins.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"With these historical facts before us,
+it is interesting to observe the present
+state of the place, which affords many
+illustrations of past events. The positions
+of its defences, repaired at various times,
+may be traced: an inscription lately discovered
+by Professor Carrara, shows that
+its walls and towers were repaired by
+Valentinian II., and Theodosius; and the
+ditch of Constantianus is distinctly seen
+on the north side. Here and there, it has
+been filled up with earth and cultivated;
+but its position cannot be mistaken, and
+in places its original breadth may be
+ascertained. A very small portion of the
+wall remains on the east side, and nearly
+all traces of it are lost towards the river:
+but the northern portion is well preserved,
+and the triangular front, or salient
+angle of many of its towers, may be
+traced.</p>
+
+<p>"In the western part of the town are
+the theatre, and what is called the amphitheatre.
+Of the former, some portion of
+the proscenium remains, as well as the
+solid tiers of arches, built of square
+stone, with bevelled edges, about 6&frac14; feet
+diameter, and 10 feet apart."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We have a good description of the
+annual fair of Salona. The description
+will be suggestive of picturesque<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+recollections to those who have seen
+the open air festivities celebrated by
+the orthodox&mdash;<em>i. e.</em> by the children of
+the Greek Church, about Easter time.
+We can take it upon ourselves to recommend
+highly the lambs, wont to be
+roasted whole on these occasions.
+The culinary apparatus is rude&mdash;consisting
+merely of a few sticks for a fire,
+and another stick to be used as a spit&mdash;but
+the result of their operations is
+most satisfactory.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"All Spalato is of course at the fair;
+and the road to Salona is thronged with
+carriages of every description, horsemen,
+and pedestrians. The mixture of the
+men's hats, red caps, and turbans, and
+the bonnets and Frank dresses of the
+Spalatine ladies, contrasted with the
+costume of the country women, presents
+one of the most singular sights to be soon
+in Europe, and to a stranger the language
+adds in no small degree to the novelty.
+Some business is done as well as pleasure;
+and a great number of cattle, sheep, and
+pigs are bought and sold&mdash;as well as
+various stuffs, trinkets, and the usual
+goods exhibited at fairs. Long before
+mid-day, the groups of peasants have
+thronged the road, not to say street, of
+Salona; some attend the small church,
+picturesquely placed upon a green, surrounded
+by the small streams of the
+Giadro, and shaded with trees; while
+others rove about, seeking their friends,
+looking at, and looked at by strangers, as
+they pass; and all are intent on the
+amusements of the day, and the prospect
+of a feast.</p>
+
+<p>"Eating and drinking soon begin. On
+all sides sheep are seen roasting whole on
+wooden spits, in the open air; and an
+entire flock is speedily converted into
+mutton. Small knots of hungry friends
+are formed in every direction: some
+seated on a bank beneath the trees,
+others in as many houses as will hold
+them; some on grass by the road-side,
+regardless of sun and dust&mdash;and a few
+quiet families have boats prepared for
+their reception.</p>
+
+<p>"In the mean time, the hat-wearing
+townspeople from Spalato and other places,
+as they pace up and down, bowing to an
+occasional acquaintance, view with complacent
+pity the primitive recreations of
+the simple peasantry; and arm-in-arm,
+civilisation, with its propriety and affectation,
+is here strangely contrasted with
+the hearty laugh of the unrefined Morlacchi."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We do not know the country where
+men will meet together and eat without
+drinking also: at the al-fresco
+entertainments of this kind which we
+have seen, the kegs of wine have ever
+been in goodly proportion to the spitted
+lambs. And wherever a mob of men
+set to drinking together, they will most
+assuredly take to fighting. The rows
+at this fair used to be considerable;
+and, considering that more wine is
+said to be consumed here on this one
+day than during the whole of the rest
+of the year, we cannot be surprised
+that fights should come off worthy of
+Donnybrook. At present, better order
+is preserved than of old, because these
+rows have been so excessive that they
+have enforced the attendance of the
+police.</p>
+
+<p>At this fair is to be seen the picturesque
+<em>collo</em> dance of the Morlacchi,
+of which our author affords a capital
+pencil-sketch, as well as the following
+description:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"It sometimes begins before dinner,
+but is kept up with greater spirit afterwards.
+They call it <em>collo</em>, from being,
+like most of their national dances, in a
+circle. A man generally has one partner,
+sometimes two, but always at his right
+side. In dancing, he takes her right
+hand with his, while she supports herself
+by holding his girdle with her left; and
+when he has two partners, the one nearest
+him holds in her right hand that of her
+companion, who, with her left, takes the
+right hand of the man; and each set
+dances forward in a line round the circle.
+The step is rude, as in most of the Slavonic
+dances, including the polka and the
+<em>radovatschka</em>; and the music, which is
+primitive, is confined to a three-stringed
+violin."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Dancing for dancing's sake, is what
+enters into no Englishman's category
+of the enjoyable, nor into many an
+Englishwoman's either, we should
+think, after the passage out of her
+teens; but that it is, in sober earnest,
+an enjoyment to many people under
+the sun, there is no doubt. Surely
+there is something wonderful in the
+faculty of finding pleasure in the elephantine
+man&oelig;uvres of the <em>romaika</em>,
+or in the still more clumsy gyrations
+of a <i>palicari's</i> performance. The <i>collo</i>
+we readily believe to be a picturesque
+dance: but such qualification is not
+the general condition on which the
+people of a nation accept dances as
+national. Most of these exhibitions
+in Greece and Eastern Europe must be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+condemned as graceless and unmeaning:
+as an exhibition of earnest tomfoolery,
+they may be accepted as wonderful;
+and, at all events, may safely
+be pronounced co-excellent with the
+music that inspires them.</p>
+
+<p>In passing from Salona to Traü, a
+distance of about thirteen miles and a
+half to the westward, the traveller
+passes by several of the villages called
+Castelli. The name has been given
+them from the circumstance of their
+having been built near to, and under
+the protection of, the castles which,
+in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
+were constructed here by some of the
+nobles.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"The land was granted to them by the
+Venetians, on condition of their erecting
+places of refuge for the peasants during
+the wars with the Turks. A body of
+armed men lived within them, and, on
+the approach of danger, the flocks and
+herds were protected beneath the walls;
+and, at harvest time, the peasantry had a
+place of security for their crops within
+range of the castle guns."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The rights of lordship over the villages,
+which used to be exercised by
+the nobles in virtue of the protection
+afforded, have nearly all fallen into
+disuse. The only relic of feudalism
+that seems to survive is found at Castel
+Cambio, over which two nobles still
+possess certain rights. One of these
+was the hospitable host of Sir Gardner,
+and his friend Professor Carrara, on
+their passage to and from Traü.</p>
+
+<p>A fact connected with the peculiarity
+of the position of this town
+is, we think, well worthy of notice,
+and deservedly recorded by our author.
+The town stands partly on a
+peninsula, and partly on the island
+of Bua. A fosse, cut across the
+narrow neck of the peninsula, has
+completed its isolation. This ditch
+has proved, on occasion, the most
+effectual of fortifications to the Traürines.
+They were, in 1241, besieged
+by the Tartars in pursuit of King
+Bela IV., who had fled hither before
+them. These impetuous assailants
+were unable to pass the ditch; and,
+having waited on the other side till
+food and forage were exhausted, they
+were obliged to retire. One cannot
+read this story without thinking of the
+account that Sir Francis Head gives
+of the La Plata Indians, whose habits
+of warfare are in many respects so exactly
+akin to those of the Tartars.
+These terrific horsemen would be
+scarcely resistible by their less robust
+enemies, save for their inability to cross
+anything in the shape of a ditch. Out
+of the saddle they can do nothing,
+and their horses will not leap; so that,
+if you wish to be safe from their inroads,
+you have but to surround your
+dwellings with a moderate trench.
+And very striking is the story that
+Sir Francis Head tells of the handful
+of men who, under such protection,
+held out successfully against a host of
+Indians. Traü, however, has been
+elaborately fortified in European fashion,
+though now the works are neglected,
+as being a useless precaution
+against dangers no longer existent.
+It has also a fine old cathedral, and
+some pictures of pretension.</p>
+
+<p>After a brief notice of the islands of
+Brazza and Solta&mdash;a notice, however,
+sufficient for all useful purposes&mdash;we
+pass on to the picturesque neighbourhood
+of the falls of the Kerka. Sir
+Gardner speaks of the delay to which
+the passage by boat from Sebenico to
+Scardona is subject, but does not exactly
+complain of it. In fact, we can
+easily understand that, for the sake of
+the passenger, it is expedient that
+some authoritative note should be
+taken of his departure under charge
+of the particular boatmen who undertake
+his convoy. We never did ascend
+to Kerka, but from what we have
+seen of the class of men under whose
+guidance the expedition has to be performed,
+we are disposed to vote the
+caution of the police to be anything but
+superfluous. Every now and then one
+hears dreadful stories of the atrocities
+of boatmen in convenient parts of the
+Mediterranean; and there is good
+reason to be thankful that the Austrians
+think it worth while to be so
+careful of strangers.</p>
+
+<p>The people about Sebenico, through
+whose lands the course of the lake
+leads, are spoken of as not paying
+much attention to agriculture or to
+their fisheries; but it seems that they
+are sedulously bent on raising grapes,
+and neglect no patch of ground at all
+likely to be available for this purpose.
+The lake of Scardona is considerably
+larger than that of Sebenico. On the
+shore here the Romans had a settlement,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+of which scarcely any remains
+are perceptible. They are, however,
+remarkable as affording a manifest
+proof of the rise of the level of the
+lake, for some of them are under
+water.</p>
+
+<p>Scardona, we are told, does not occupy
+the site of the old Scardon,
+which was a place of considerable importance
+under the empire. Some have
+even imagined that the old city stood
+on the opposite bank of the river.
+The town at present is small, but well
+furnished for the convenience of strangers.
+It boasts an inn, at which Sir
+Gardner put up for one night. He
+then proceeded to the falls, which are
+distant from the inn a three-quarters-of-an-hour
+journey. As he intended
+to ascend the river above the falls, he
+had to send to the monks of Vissovaz
+to ask for a boat, and they readily
+complied with his request. The falls
+do not seem to have been full on
+the occasion of this visit&mdash;but, when
+full, the effect must be striking. They
+are divided into two parts, and their
+picturesque effect is greatly enhanced
+by the surrounding scenery.</p>
+
+<p>At a distance of a few minutes' walk
+up the river, above the falls, the boat
+was waiting to transport Sir Gardner
+to the convent of Vissovaz. It is to
+this fraternity that we have before
+alluded, as being the sole mill-owners
+on the Kerka. Their convent must
+indeed be beautifully situated, and
+we can quite enter into the eulogium
+bestowed on it. The fathers are of
+the Franciscan order. The name of
+Vissovaz is of curious allusion; and
+as probably few of our courteous
+readers will be the worse for a little
+help in the matter of Slavonian etymology,
+we may as well tell them
+that its import is "the place of hanging."
+Not a very complimentary or
+well-omened name, certainly, we would
+think at first sight; but we see that
+it is so when we learn that the allusion
+is to the martyrdom of two
+priests, who were hanged here by the
+Turkish governor of Scardona. By
+the record left of the event, we cannot
+see that the death of these unfortunate
+victims was in any sense martyrdom:
+they were cruelly and unjustly
+put to death, but for a cause
+entirely worldly. However, they
+were Christians, and their murderers
+were Turks; and this has been enough
+to constitute a claim to canonisation
+in more places than at Vissovaz.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Gardner arrived at the picturesque,
+red-tiled convent in time for
+dinner; but as the day happened to
+be a fast, the fare provided was not
+sufficiently tempting to induce a
+wish to stay. He therefore was
+preparing, with many thanks, to
+take his leave of the good fathers,
+and proceed on his journey, when
+he found himself brought up by
+an unexpected difficulty. He was
+informed that he could not proceed
+except by favour of the monks of the
+Greek convent of St Archangelo, another
+religious house still farther up
+the stream. His hospitable entertainers
+readily volunteered to send
+in quest of the requisite assistance.
+These are the conditions of travelling,
+because there are no carriages for hire
+hereaway, nor any boats to let. The
+Franciscans had volunteered to do
+what, when it came to the point, was
+found to be rather an awkward thing.
+No great cordiality subsists generally
+between the Latins and the orthodox.
+Each charges the other with destructive
+heresy; and doubtless both of
+these great branches of the church
+esteem a Protestant safe, by comparison
+with the arch-heretics that they
+each see the other to be. Thus, though
+dwelling on the confines of Christendom,
+and in a solitude that might
+have rendered them neighbourly, we
+find that very little intercourse takes
+place between the two religious establishments.
+Accordingly, the writing
+of the letter was found to be no easy
+affair; and their guest saw them lay
+their heads together in consultation,
+after a fashion that boded ill for the
+prospects of his journey. They confessed
+themselves to be in a fix; and
+were afraid of exposing themselves to
+some affront if, contrary to their wont,
+they should open a communication
+with the Greeks, asking of them a
+favour.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"'Did you ever go as far as the convent?'
+said an old father to a more
+restless and locomotive Franciscan, and
+a negative answer seemed to put an end
+to the incipient letter; when one of the
+party suggested that those Greeks had
+shown themselves very civil on some occasion,
+and the writer of the epistle once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+more resumed his spectacles and his pen.
+'They are,' he observed, 'after all, like ourselves,
+and must be glad to see a stranger
+who comes from afar; and besides, our
+letter may have the effect of commencing a
+friendly intercourse with them, which we
+may have no reason to regret.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This very sensible hint of the Franciscan
+philosopher was happily acted
+out. The letter was sent, and in due
+course of time&mdash;<em>i. e.</em> in time for a start
+next morning&mdash;an answer arrived from
+the Archimandrite. It was to welcome
+the stranger to their hospitality, and
+to inform him that a boat awaited
+him at the falls. As the issue on
+the first intention was so favourable,
+let us hope that the other good results
+anticipated from the sending of
+the letter will have been by this time
+realised. At all events, Sir Gardner
+may congratulate himself on having
+afforded occasion for the opening of
+personal as well as epistolary communication
+between the convents, as one
+of the Franciscans accompanied him
+in the expedition to St Archangelo.</p>
+
+<p>Much praise is bestowed on the
+beauty of the Kerka, and the view of
+the Falls of Roncislap is especially
+distinguished. Sir Gardner praises it
+in artistic language; and we may be
+allowed to regret that he has not
+added a sketch of this scene to the
+views with which his book is embellished.
+The waters of the Kerka
+possess a petrifying quality that is
+common in Dalmatia. Much of the rock
+has been formed under the water, and
+must present a singular appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Near the Falls of Roncislap a depôt
+for coal has been established, that, by
+all accounts, would seem to be anything
+but a good speculation. We
+mention it merely for the sake of a
+good story that hangs by it. It
+seems that the Austrian Lloyds' Company
+patronise this coal because it is
+cheap. It is one reason, certainly,
+for buying it; but, as the coal will not
+burn, we may doubt their wisdom.
+We do not wish to spoil the market
+of the Company of Dernis, but we
+agree with Sir Gardner, that there are
+reasonable objections to the using of
+food for the furnaces that will get up
+no steam, and must be taken on board
+in such quantities, as to lumber up
+the decks. Besides this, hear how it
+goes on when it does burn:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"It has also the effect of causing much
+smoke, and the large flakes of soot that
+fall from the chimney upon the awning
+actually burn holes in it, till it looks like
+a sail riddled with grape-shot; and I remember
+one day seeing the awning on
+fire from one of these showers of soot;
+when the captain calmly ordered it to be
+put out, as if it had been a common occurrence."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"A Russian consul,"&mdash;this is the
+story:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"A Russian consul, who happened to
+be on board, and who was not much accustomed
+to the smoky doings of steamers,
+seemed to be deeply impressed with the
+inconvenience of the falling flakes of soot.
+His voice had rarely been heard during
+the voyage, and he appeared to shun
+communication with his fellow-passengers;
+when one afternoon, the awning
+not being up, he burst forth with these
+startling remarks, uttered with a broad
+Slavonian accent,&mdash;'<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Que ces baateaux à
+vapeur sont sales! Par suite de maaladie,
+il y a dix ans que je ne me zuis paas lavré,
+mais maintenant j'ai zenti le bezoin de me
+lavver, et je me zuis lavvé!!</i>'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This must have been a Russian of
+the old school.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the convent of St Archangelo,
+they had every reason to be
+content with their hospitable reception.
+The Archimandrite is praised
+as being gentlemanlike, and of mien
+as though educated in a European
+capital. This is a very unusual characteristic
+of any Greek ecclesiastic,
+and what we could predicate of but
+one or two out of the numbers that
+we have seen. Greek priests of any
+kind are bad enough, but those living
+in convents seem generally to go on
+the principle of the Russian consul
+just mentioned, and might fitly be
+invited to associate with him. All
+honour, then, to Stefano Knezovich,
+and may his example be abundantly
+followed among his brethren!</p>
+
+<p>There was not much in the Greek
+convent to induce a long visit; so the
+next morning Sir Gardner pushed on
+to Kistagne, in his progress through
+the country. Here he was again the
+victim of letter-writing, but in a different
+way. The sirdar of Kistagne
+took offence at the tone of the letter
+sent to him by the Archimandrite, ordering
+horses for the next morning;
+and the luckless traveller was consequently
+left in the lurch. However,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+the monk did his best to make up for
+the deficiency. He lent him his own
+horse, and had his baggage conveyed
+by some peasants&mdash;an excellent arrangement,
+saving that the porters
+were <em>female</em> peasants. This is a sort
+of thing that sadly shocks our sense
+of decorum, but which many folks
+besides the Dalmatians take as a
+matter of course. Sir Gardner says
+that the custom of assigning the heavy
+burden to the women is prevalent
+among the Montenegrini; it is so also
+among the Albanians; and to a most
+atrocious extent in the Peloponnesus.
+In this particular case, they were well
+off to get the job; it was to exchange
+their task of carrying heavy loads of
+water up the hill for that of shouldering
+his light <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">impedimenta</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at Kistagne, he found the
+sirdar, who had been so disobliging
+at a distance, much improved on acquaintance,
+and from him he received
+all requisite assistance for the prosecution
+of his journey to Knin; and by
+him was guided in his visit to the
+Roman arches, which point out the
+site of the ancient city of Burnum.</p>
+
+<p>Knin is still a place of considerable
+strength, and has been once upon a
+time still stronger. It is identified
+with the ancient Arduba. The marshy
+character of the ground in its immediate
+neighbourhood renders it an unhealthy
+place of abode; but this evil
+is easily removable by a moderate attention
+to drainage. Not very far
+from Knin, but over the Turkish border,
+on the other side of Mount
+Gniath, is supposed to be situated the
+gold mine that of old conferred on
+Dalmatia the title of auriferous. The
+mine is said to exist here; but so
+much mystery is observed on its subject
+by the Turks that nothing certain
+can be affirmed of it. From Verlicca,
+to Sign we pass as quickly as may be,
+merely noticing that there is another
+convent to be visited <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en route</i>, and
+that we have the opportunity of putting
+up at the Han, as Sir Gardner
+did. These people certainly have admitted
+a great many Turkish words
+into their vocabulary: we have <em>Sirdar</em>,
+and <em>Han</em>, and <em>Arambasha</em>&mdash;to say
+nothing of others. At last we come
+to <em>Sign</em>; and, touching this place, we
+must give an extract from the book.
+An annual tilting festival has been
+established here, in commemoration of
+the brave defence maintained in 1715,
+against the Pasha of Bosnia with
+forty thousand men.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"The privilege of tilting is confined to
+natives of Sign, and its territory. Every
+one is required to appear dressed in the
+ancient costume, with the Tartar cap,
+called kalpak, surmounted by a white
+heron's plume, or with flowers interlaced
+in it. He is to wear a sword, to carry a
+lance, and to be mounted on a good horse
+richly caparisoned."</p>
+
+<p>"The opening of the <em>giostra</em> is in this
+manner: The <em>footmen</em>, richly dressed and
+armed, advance two by two before the cavaliers.
+In the usual annual exhibitions
+each cavalier has one <em>footman</em>; and on extraordinary
+occasions, besides the footman,
+he has a <em>padrino</em> well mounted and equipped.
+After the <em>footmen</em> come three persons
+in line&mdash;one carrying a shield, and the other
+two by his side bearing a sort of ancient
+club; then a fair <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">manège</i> horse, led by
+the hand, with large housings and complete
+trappings, richly ornamented, followed
+by two cavaliers&mdash;one the adjutant,
+the other the ensign-bearer. Next comes
+the <i>Maestro-di-Campo</i>, accompanied by
+the two <em>jousters</em>, and followed by all the
+others, marching two and two. The rear of
+the procession is brought up by the <i>Chiauss</i>,
+who rides alone, and whose duty it is to
+maintain order during the ceremony."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We have a description of a fair at
+Sign that is almost as suggestive of
+the picturesque as was the account of
+similar doings at Salona. Sir Gardner
+shall give his own account of his departure
+from the town.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"In the midst of the bustle and business
+going on at Sign, I found some difficulty
+in getting horses to take me on to
+Spalato; but a letter to the Sirdar removed
+every impediment, and, after a
+few hours' delay, the animals being
+brought out, I prepared to start from the
+not very splendid inn.' 'Can you ride
+in that?' asked the ostler, pointing to a
+huge Turkish saddle that nearly concealed
+the whole animal, with stirrups that
+might pass for a pair of coal scuttles;
+and finding that I was accustomed to the
+use as well as sight of that un-European
+horse-furniture, he seemed well satisfied&mdash;observing,
+at the same time, that it was
+fortunate, as there was no other to be
+had.... I was glad to take what
+I could get, and my only question in return
+was, whether the horse could trot;
+which being settled, I posted off, leaving
+my guide and baggage to come after me&mdash;for,
+thanks to the Austrian police, there
+is no fear of robbers appropriating a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+portmanteau in Dalmatia: the interesting
+days of adventure and the Haiduk
+banditti have passed, and the Morlacchi
+have ceased to covet, or at least to take
+other men's goods."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>And now we make a resolute halt,
+and determine to pass <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">sub silentio</i> all
+that intervenes between this part of
+the book and the coming into the
+country of the Montenegrini. Unless
+we act thus discreetly, we shall never
+contrive to compress all we have to
+say into due limits; and even now we
+hardly know how this desirable result
+is to be effected. What we thus
+leave as fallow-ground for the reader
+will yield to his research a history of
+the coast and islands between Spalato
+and Cattaro. The notice of Ragusa
+is especially and deservedly full, and
+presents an admirable condensation of
+Ragusan history.</p>
+
+<p>But it is high time for us to get
+amongst the children of the Black
+Mountain. Among things excellent
+it is permitted to institute comparison
+without disparagement to any of
+them: and, in virtue of this license,
+we are free to say that this part of
+Sir Gardner's book shines forth as
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">inter minora sidera</i>. The subject itself
+is of deep intrinsic interest; and he
+has treated it as we well knew that
+he would. A picture is given of the
+actual condition of a scion of the
+Christian stock that must astonish
+those who, by this book, first learn to
+think of the Montenegrini; and must
+delight those who, having heard somewhat
+of them, or haply even paid them
+a flying visit, have looked in vain for
+some accurate statement of detail to
+help out their personal observations.</p>
+
+<p>The Montenegrini are descended from
+the old Servian stock, and still look to
+modern Servia with affection, as to
+their mother country. Thither also we
+find them, by Sir Gardner's account,
+retiring, when forced by poverty to
+emigrate from their own territory.
+Among them the Slavonian language
+is preserved in unusual purity. The
+present population is about 100,000;
+and the number of fighting men
+amounts to 20,000&mdash;a number which,
+on occasion of need, would be greatly
+augmented by the calling out of the
+veterans. In fact every individual
+man of the nation, whose arm has
+power to wield a weapon, is a warrior;
+and the very women are ready to assist
+in defence. On the Turkish border,
+as is well known, a constant
+system of bloody reprisals is going
+on; and the endeavours of the Vladika
+to reduce their hostilities to
+civilised fashion have hitherto failed
+of success. They are sustained at
+the highest pitch of confident daring
+by the successful war which they
+have so long been able to carry on
+against their powerful neighbours.
+One is glad of the opportunity of
+giving, on the authority of Sir Gardner,
+some of the stories of their prowess;
+for to retail, without the authority
+of some such <em>padrino</em>, the tales
+current in Cattaro, would be to win the
+reputation of talking like Mendez Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>In judging the Montenegrini, we
+should give charitable consideration
+to their circumstances. War is a
+system of violence; and with them,
+unhappily, war is a permanent condition
+of existence. The treachery
+and cruelty of the Turks&mdash;are these
+such recent developments that we need
+make any doubt of them?&mdash;have
+worked out cruel consequences in the
+character of the Montenegrini. They
+believe a Turk to be utterly without
+honesty and good faith&mdash;one with
+whom it is impossible to hold terms&mdash;and
+such, probably, is about the right
+estimate of some of their Turkish neighbours.
+Who, for instance, that knows
+anything about them, has any other
+opinion of the Albanians? Are
+Kaffirs much more hopeless subjects?
+The Montenegrini are far from the
+commission of the horrid cruelties
+that are of everyday occurrence among
+the Albanians. Their imperfect appreciation
+of Christianity allows them
+to behold in revenge a virtue; and
+hence the acts of violence which are
+quoted to their dispraise. Their marauding
+expeditions are but according
+to the usages of war; and if they
+sometimes break through the restrictions
+of a truce, it would seem to be
+because they really do not understand
+what a truce is. We think
+that a very apt apology for the
+Montenegrini is found in the speech of
+a German traveller quoted by Sir
+Gardner. He had been mentioning
+several occurrences of English and
+Scotch history, and spoke in allusion
+to them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"'What think you,' he observed, 'of
+the state of society in those times? Were
+the border forays of the English and
+Scotch more excusable than those of the
+Montenegrins? And how much more
+natural is the unforgiving hatred of the
+Montenegrins against the Turks, the
+enemies of their country, and their faith,
+than the relentless strife of Highland
+clans, with those of their own race and
+religion! Has not many an old castle in
+other parts of Europe, witnessed scenes
+as bad as any enacted by this people?
+I do not wish to exculpate the Montenegrins;
+but theirs is still a dark age,
+and some allowance must be made for
+their uncivilised condition.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The character of the present Vladika
+affords good hope that an improvement
+will take place among the
+people; for he evidently has devoted
+all his energies to their amelioration.
+Sir Gardner entered their territory,
+by what we believe to be the only
+route&mdash;that is to say from Cattaro&mdash;whence
+he took letters of introduction
+from the Austrian governor to
+the Vladika.</p>
+
+<p>We shall best illustrate the condition
+of the Montenegrini by quoting
+some of Sir Gardner's accounts.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"Four Montenegrins, and their sister,
+aged twenty-one, going on a pilgrimage
+to the shrine of St Basilio, were waylaid
+by seven Turks, in a rocky defile, so
+narrow that they could only thread it
+one by one; and hardly had they entered
+between the precipices that bordered it
+on either side, when an unexpected discharge
+of fire-arms killed one brother,
+and desperately wounded another. To
+retrace their steps was impossible without
+meeting certain and shameful death,
+since to turn their backs would give their
+enemy the opportunity of destroying
+them at pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"The two who were unhurt, therefore,
+advanced and returned the fire, killing
+two Turks&mdash;while the wounded one,
+supporting himself against a rock, fired
+also, and mortally injured two others,
+but was killed himself in the act. His
+sister, taking his gun, loaded and fired
+simultaneously with her two brothers,
+but, at the same instant, one of them
+dropped down dead. The two surviving
+Turks then rushed furiously at the only
+remaining Montenegrin&mdash;who, however,
+laid open the skull of one of them with
+his yatagan, before receiving his own
+death-blow. The hapless sister, who had
+all this time kept up a constant fire,
+stood for an instant irresolute; when
+suddenly assuming an air of terror and
+supplication, she entreated for mercy;
+but the Turk, enraged at the death of
+his companions, was brutal enough to
+take advantage of the unhappy girl's
+agony, and only promised her life at the
+price of her honour. Hesitating at first,
+she pretended to listen to the villain's
+proposal; but no sooner did she see him
+thrown off his guard, than she buried in
+his body the knife she carried at her
+girdle. Although mortally wounded, the
+Turk endeavoured to make the most of
+his failing strength, and plucking the
+dagger from his side, staggered towards
+the courageous girl,&mdash;who, driven to
+despair, threw herself on the relentless
+foe, and with superhuman energy hurled
+him down the neighbouring precipice, at
+the very moment when some shepherds,
+attracted by the continued firing,
+arrived just too late for the rescue."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Fancy the tone that must be given
+to their lives by the constant necessity
+of being ready for encounters
+such as this. They never lay aside
+their arms; but in the field, or by the
+wayside, are armed and alert. One
+hand may be allowed to the implement
+of tillage, but the other must be
+reserved for the weapon of defence.</p>
+
+<p>On many occasions, Montenegrin
+courage has prevailed against odds
+far greater than in the above case&mdash;indeed
+such odds as, but for authentication
+of facts, would be incredible.
+In the year 1840, "seventy Montenegrins,
+in the open field, withstood the
+attack of several thousand Turks;
+and having made breastworks with the
+bodies of their fallen foes, maintained
+the unequal conflict till night; when
+forty who survived forced their way
+through the hostile army, and escaped
+with their lives." Another astonishing
+achievement was the successful defence
+of a house held by seven-and-twenty
+Montenegrins, against a body of about
+six thousand Albanians. Of this last
+action, trophies are preserved by the
+Vladika in his palace at Tzetinié, and
+there Sir Gardner saw them.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot wonder that the effect
+on their minds of these astonishing
+successes, should be an unbounded
+confidence in their superiority over
+the Turks. Sir Gardner Wilkinson
+found them impressed with the idea,
+that bread and arms were the only
+needful requisites to enable them to
+drive the Turks out of Albania and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+Herzegovina. It seems certain that,
+in their rencontres With these enemies,
+they dismiss all ordinary considerations
+of prudence. The spirit
+of their feeling with regard to the
+Turks is thus portrayed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"It is not the courage, but the cruelty
+of the Turks which inspires him (the
+Montenegrin) with hatred; and the sufferings
+inflicted upon his country by their
+inroads makes him look upon them with
+feelings of ferocious vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>"These savage sentiments are kept
+alive by the barbarous custom, adopted
+by both parties, of cutting off the heads
+of the wounded and the dead; the consequences
+of which are destructive of all
+the conditions of fair warfare, and preclude
+the possibility of peace. The bitter
+remembrance of the past is constantly
+revived by the horrors of the present;
+and the love of revenge, which strongly
+marks the character of the Montenegrin,
+makes him insensible to reason or justice,
+and places the Turks, in his opinion, out
+of the pale of human beings. He dreams
+only of vengeance; he cares little for the
+means employed, and the man who
+should make any excuse for not persecuting
+those enemies of his country and
+his faith, would be treated with ignominy
+and contempt. Even the sanctity of a
+truce is not always sufficient to restrain
+him; and the hatred of the Turk is paramount
+to all ordinary considerations of
+honour or humanity."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This cutting off of heads is not
+peculiar to the Montenegrins. The
+Turks are, in this respect, just as bad,
+and Sir Gardner found, on the occasion
+of his visit to Mostar, that, in
+point of this barbarism, there is not a
+pin to choose between them. The
+Turks, however, exceed in cruelty.
+It appears, on the evidence of the
+letter of the Vladika, given in the
+second volume, that they (the Turks)
+impale men alive; whereas the Montenegrins
+are chargeable with no
+wanton cruelty. Indeed, they do not
+restrict the performance of this operation
+to the case of enemies; but, as
+an act of friendship, decapitate any
+comrade who may so be wounded in
+action as to have no other means of
+avoiding capture by the enemy. "You
+are very brave," said a well-meaning
+Montenegrin to a portly Russian officer,
+who was unable to keep up with
+his detachment in its retreat,&mdash;"you
+are very brave, <em>and must wish that I
+should cut off your head</em>: say a prayer,
+and make the sign of the cross."</p>
+
+<p>Life, passed amidst every hardship,
+and threatened by constant and deadly
+peril, ought, we suppose, according to
+all rule, to be short in duration. But
+we find that these people are remarkable
+for longevity. A family is mentioned,
+in one of the villages, which
+reckoned six generations, there and
+then extant. The head of the family
+was a great-great-great-grandfather.</p>
+
+<p>The Vladika received his visitor
+most courteously, as he always does
+those who have the privilege of being
+presented to him. He afforded to Sir
+Gardner every facility for seeing the
+country, and engaged his secretary to
+draw up for him a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">précis</i> of Montenegrin
+history. We will condense
+some of its more important facts.
+The supremacy in things spiritual and
+temporal has not been very long
+vested, as it at present is, in the person
+of the Vladika. The two chieftain-ships
+were of old distinct, and the
+figment of a separate temporal authority
+was continued till comparatively
+lately: the year 1832 is mentioned
+as the epoch at which the office of
+civil chief was definitely suppressed.
+The present family (Petrovich) have
+possessed the dignity of the Vladikate
+since the close of the seventeenth
+century. The reigning Vladika&mdash;this
+man of magnificent presentment&mdash;this
+brave, intellectual, and athletic
+ruler of an indomitable race&mdash;is
+nephew of the late Vladika, who has
+been canonised, although but few
+years have passed since his death.
+The prince-bishop is not theoretically
+absolute in power, as the form of a
+republic is kept up: the general
+assembly has the right of deliberation,
+under the presidency of the Vladika.
+But this restriction of power is
+pretty nearly nominal only: we give
+Sir Gardner's account of the native
+Diet.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"In a semicircular recess, formed by
+the rocks on one side of the plain of
+Tzetinié, and about half a mile to the
+southward of the town, is a level piece of
+grass land, with a thicket of low poplar
+trees. Here the diet is held, from which
+the spot has received the name of <i>mali
+sbor</i> (the small assembly.) When any
+matter is to be discussed, the people meet
+in this their Runimede, or 'meadow of
+council,' and partly on the level space,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+partly on the rocks, receive from the
+Vladika notice of the question proposed.
+The duration of the discussion is limited
+to a certain time, at the expiration
+of which the assembly is expected to
+come to a decision; and when the
+monastery bell orders silence, notwithstanding
+the most animated discussion, it
+is instantly restored. The Metropolitan
+asks again what is their decision, and
+whether they agree to his proposal or not.
+The answer is always the same: '<i lang="cs" xml:lang="cs">Budi
+po to oyema, Vladika</i>,'&mdash;'Let it be as
+thou wishest, Vladika.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Montenegro first secured its independence
+about a generation or two
+before the time of the famous Scanderbeg,
+on the breaking up of the
+kingdom of Servia. Since that time
+they have constantly been subject to
+the inroads of the Turks, who, claiming
+them as tributaries, have continued
+to invade their country every now
+and then with savage cruelty. More
+than once they have carried fire and
+sword to Tzetinié, but have never
+been able to hold their ground. The
+Montenegrins sought the protection of
+Russia in the time of Peter the Great,
+and still continue to be subsidised by
+Russia. At the desire of Peter, they
+invaded the Turkish territory, and
+were subjected to reprisals on a grand
+scale. At one time 60,000 Turks, at
+another 120,000, broke into Montenegro.
+The first invasion was
+gloriously repulsed; but the second,
+combining treachery with violence,
+was successful. Great damage was
+done to the country; but the invaders
+were at last obliged to quit, on the
+breaking out of war between Turkey
+and Venice. The Montenegrins then
+returned to their desolate homes, and
+have since been unintermitting in
+their diligence to pay off old scores.
+They co-operated with the Austrians
+and Russians, when they had the
+opportunity of such assistance; and
+when they stood alone, they did so
+nobly and bravely. The last great
+expedition of the Turks was in the
+time of the late Vladika. The Pasha
+of Scutari, with an enormous force,
+invaded the country; and the result
+of the expedition was that 30,000
+Turks were killed, and among them
+the Pasha of Albania, whose head
+now serves as a trophy of victory to
+decorate Tzetinié.</p>
+
+<p>The capital of the Vladika, has
+been described before&mdash;for instance, in
+the pages of this Magazine; so, with
+one brief extract concerning it, we
+will follow Sir Gardner in his progress
+through the country.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"On a rock immediately above the
+convent is a round tower pierced with
+embrasures, but without cannon, on which
+I counted the heads of twenty Turks
+fixed upon stakes round the parapet&mdash;the
+trophies of Montenegrin victory; and below,
+scattered upon the rock, were the
+fragments of other skulls, which had fallen
+to pieces by time,&mdash;a strange spectacle in
+a Christian country, in Europe, and in the
+immediate vicinity of a convent and a
+bishop's palace!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>And, as we said before, when he
+got to Mostar, in Herzegovina, he
+found a spectacle of the same shocking
+kind. He did allow his horror at
+this sight to evaporate ineffectually;
+but in earnest tried to interpose his
+good offices to prevent a continuance
+of these doings. He talked to the two
+people mainly concerned&mdash;<em>i. e.</em> to the
+Vizir of Herzegovina, and to the Vladika.
+He also, at Constantinople,
+endeavoured to effect the making of
+an appeal to the highest Turkish authority.
+His correspondence with the
+Vladika on the subject is evidence of
+his zeal; but no positive good seems
+to have been the result of his intercession.</p>
+
+<p>The road leading from the capital
+to Ostrok is described as being very
+bad at first, and bad beyond description
+as it recedes from the capital.
+The Vladika kindly sent with Sir
+Gardner one of his guards and an interpreter.
+The party passed by several
+villages, and arrived at Mishke,
+the principal village of the Cevo district,
+where they put up for the night
+at the house of the principal senator
+of the province. Here some amusement
+was afforded by Sir Gardner's
+proceeding to sketch the domestic
+party.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the evening a scene
+occurred, which sets forth their social
+condition as graphically as the artist's
+pencil has their personal appearance.
+A party of friends came in to have a
+quiet pipe, and to plan a foray over
+the border.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"On inquiry, I found the expedition
+was to take place immediately. "Is there
+not," I asked, "a truce at this moment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+between you and the Turks of Herzegovina?"
+They laughed, and seemed
+much amused at my scruples. "We
+don't mind that," said a stern swarthy
+man, taking his pipe from his mouth, and
+shaking his head to and fro; "they are
+Turks"&mdash;and all agreed that the Turks
+were fair game. "Besides," they said,
+"it is only to be a plundering excursion;"
+and they evidently considered that any
+one refusing to join in a marauding expedition
+into Turkey, at any time, or in an
+open attack during a war, would be unworthy
+the name of a brave man. They
+seemed to treat the matter like boys in "the
+good old times," who robbed orchards;
+the courage it showed being in proportion
+to the risk, and scruples of conscience
+were laughed at as a want of spirit."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In a freshly-decapitated head, affixed
+to a stake at Mostar, he shortly
+afterwards recognised the features of
+one of these very men.</p>
+
+<p>On the next day he proceeded to
+Ostrok, and found occasion to admire
+the scenery by the way, especially the
+vale of Oranido, distant from Mishke
+about four hours. From the vale of
+Oranido to Ostrok is a journey of
+about the same time. At Ostrok he
+underwent a grand reception, and
+fully won the hearts of his new friends
+by proposing a ride to the Turkish
+frontier, and affording them by the
+way an exhibition of Memlook riding.
+On the frontier is constantly maintained
+a guard of Montenegrins, to give
+timely warning of any suspicious
+movement among the Turks; and so
+well do they execute this office that
+no Turk can approach the border
+without being shot at. Near this
+border it was that, some little time
+ago, in 1843, an affair took place
+which does not tell well for the Montenegrini;
+and which seems for the present
+to preclude hope of amicable arrangement
+with the Turks. A deputation
+of twenty-two Turks, returning
+from Ostrok, were attacked by the
+people, and nine of them killed. This
+breach of faith is, to their minds,
+excused by the suspicion of meditated
+treachery on the part of the Turks.
+But it is a sad affair; and the only
+circumstance which goes in mitigation
+of its guilt is, that the Vladika
+took precautions against its occurrence.
+He sent an armed guard to
+protect the deputation, but their defence
+proved insufficient.</p>
+
+<p>The Archimandrite of Ostrok is the
+person who holds the place of second
+dignity in the government. He ranks
+next to the Vladika; and we are glad
+to find, by Sir Gardner's account, that
+he cordially co-operates with the Vladika
+in his plans of amelioration. Here
+also was met the celebrated priest and
+warrior, Ivan Knezovich, or Popé Yovan&mdash;a
+man who, in this nation of
+brave men, is renowned as the bravest.
+There are two convents at Ostrok, of
+which one fulfils also the function of
+powder magazine and store depot. Its
+position is very remarkable; and certainly
+it does bear a strong family
+likeness to Megaspelion. The same
+quality of not being within reach of
+any missile from above belongs to both
+of them, and has proved the saving of
+both.</p>
+
+<p>The return to Tzetinié was by a
+different route, which took Sir Gardner
+within near view of the northern
+end of the lake of Scutari. The island
+of Vranina, situated at this extremity
+of the lake, is likely to afford the next
+ostensible ground for an outbreak. It
+belonged to Montenegro, but, a few
+years ago, was treacherously seized
+by the Albanians, who effected a surprise
+in time of peace. Remonstrances
+and hard blows have equally
+failed to promote a restoration, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">et adhuc
+sub judice lis est</i>. Throughout the
+course of his journey, Sir Gardner experienced
+much and genuine kindness
+from the rude people of the country;
+they brought him presents of such
+things as they had to offer, and would
+accept no compensation. When at last
+he bade them farewell, and returned
+to the haunts of civilisation, it was
+evidently with kindly recollections of
+them, and with the best of good-will
+towards them. He was able to give
+a satisfactory account of his impressions
+to the Vladika, who inquired
+thus,&mdash;"What do you think of the
+people? Do they appear to you the
+assassins and barbarians some people
+pretend to consider them? I hope you
+found them all well-behaved and civil&mdash;they
+are poor, but that does not
+prevent their being hospitable and
+generous."</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>MODERN BIOGRAPHY.</h2>
+
+<h3>BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL.</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p><cite>Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell.</cite> Edited by <span class="smcap">William Beattie, M.D.</span>, one of
+his Executors. 3 vols. London: Moxon, 1849.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The ancients, who lived beyond
+the reach of the fangs and feelers of
+the printing press, had, in one respect,
+a decided advantage over us unlucky
+moderns. They were not beset by
+the terrors of biography. No hideous
+suspicion that, after he was dead and
+gone&mdash;after the wine had been poured
+upon the hissing embers of the pyre,
+and the ashes consigned, by the hands
+of weeping friends, to the oblivion of
+the funereal urn&mdash;some industrious
+gossip of his acquaintance would incontinently
+sit down to the task of
+laborious compilation and collection
+of his literary scraps, ever crossed,
+like a sullen shadow, the imagination
+of the Greek or the Latin poet. Homer,
+though Arctinus was his near relative,
+could unbosom himself without
+the fear of having his frailties posthumously
+exposed, or his amours
+blazoned to the world. Lucius Varius
+and Plotius Tucca, the literary executors
+of Virgil, never dreamed of
+applying to Pollio for the I O Us
+which he doubtless held in the handwriting
+of the Mantuan bard, or to
+Horace for the confidential notes
+suggestive of Falernian inspiration.
+Socrates, indeed, has found a liberal
+reporter in Plato; but this is a pardonable
+exception. The son of Sophroniscus
+did not write; and therefore
+it was incumbent on his pupil to
+preserve for posterity the fragments of
+his oral wisdom. The ancient authors
+rested their reputation upon their published
+works alone. They knew, what
+we seem to forget, that the poet,
+apart from his genius, is but an ordinary
+man, and, in many cases, has
+received, along with that gift, a larger
+share of propensities and weaknesses
+than his fellow-mortals. Therefore
+it was that they insisted upon that
+right of domestic privacy which is
+common to us all. The poet, in his
+public capacity as an author, held
+himself responsible for what he wrote;
+but he had no idea of allowing the
+whole world to walk into his house,
+open his desk, read his love-letters,
+and criticise the state of his finances.
+Had Varius and Tucca acted on the
+modern system, the ghost of Virgil
+would have haunted them on their
+death-beds. Only think what a legacy
+might have been ours if these
+respectable gentlemen had written to
+Cremona for anecdotes of the poet
+while at school! No doubt, in some
+private nook of the old farm-house at
+Andes, there were treasured up,
+through the infinite love of the mother,
+tablets scratched over with
+verses, composed by young Master
+Maro at the precocious age of ten.
+We may, to a certainty, calculate&mdash;for
+maternal fondness always has been
+the same, and Virgil was an only
+child&mdash;that, in that emporium, themes
+upon such topics as "Virtus est sola
+nobilitas" were religiously treasured,
+along with other memorials of the
+dear, dear boy who had gone to college
+at Naples. Modern Varius would
+remorselessly have printed these:
+ancient Tucca was more discreet.
+Then what say you to the college
+career? Would it not be a nice thing
+to have all the squibs and feuds, the
+rows and rackettings of the jovial
+student preserved to us precisely as
+they were penned, projected, and
+perpetrated? Have we not lost a great
+deal in being defrauded of an account
+of the manner in which he singed the
+wig of his drunken old tutor, Parthenius
+Nicenus, or the scandalously
+late hours which he kept in company
+with his especial chums? Then comes
+the period, darkly hinted at by Donatus,
+during which he was, somehow
+or other, connected with the imperial
+stable; that is, we presume, upon the
+turf. What would we not give for
+a sight of Virgil's betting-book! Did
+he back the field, or did he take
+the odds on the Emperor's bay
+mare, Alma Venus Genetrix? How
+stood he with the legs? What sort
+of reputation did he maintain in
+the ring of the Roman Tattersall?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+Was he ever posted as a defaulter?
+Tucca! you should have told us
+this. Then, when sobered down, and
+in high favour with the court, where
+is the private correspondence between
+him and Mæcenas, the President of
+the Roman Agricultural Society,
+touching the compilation of the
+Georgics? The excellent Equestrian,
+we know, wanted Virgil to construct
+a poem, such as Thomas Tusser afterwards
+wrote, under the title of a "<cite>Hondreth
+Good Points of Husbandrie</cite>,"
+and, doubtless, waxed warm in his
+letters about draining, manure, and
+mangel-wurzel. What sacrifice would
+we not make to place that correspondence
+in the hands of Henry Stephens!
+How the author of the <cite>Book of the
+Farm</cite> would revel in his exposure of
+the crude theories of the Minister of
+the Interior! What a formidable
+phalanx of facts would he oppose to
+Mæcenas' misconceptions of guano!
+Through the sensitive delicacy of his
+executors, we have lost the record of
+Virgil's repeated larks with Horace:
+the pleasant little supper-parties celebrated
+at the villa of that dissipated
+rogue Tibullus, have passed from the
+memory of mankind. We know
+nothing of the state of his finances,
+for they have not thought fit to publish
+his banking-account with the
+firm of Lollius, Spuræna, and Company.
+Their duty, as they fondly
+believed, was fulfilled, when they gave
+to the world the glorious but unfinished
+Æneid.</p>
+
+<p>Under the modern system, we constantly
+ask ourselves whether it is
+wise to wish for greatness, and
+whether total oblivion is not preferable
+to fame, with the penalty of
+exposure annexed. We shudder at
+the thoughts of putting out a book,
+not from fear of anything that the
+critics can do, but lest it should take
+with the public, and expose us to the
+danger of a posthumous biography.
+Were we to awake some fine morning,
+and find ourselves famous, our
+peace of mind would be gone for ever.
+Mercy on us! what a quantity of
+foolish letters have we not written
+during the days of our youth, under the
+confident impression that, when read,
+they would be immediately committed
+to the flames. Madrigals innumerable
+recur to our memory; and, if these
+were published, there would be no rest
+for us in the grave! If any misguided
+critic should say of us, "The works
+of this author are destined to descend
+to posterity," our response would be
+a hollow groan. If convinced that
+our biography would be attempted,
+from that hour the friend of our bosom
+would appear in the light of a base
+and ignominious spy. How durst we
+ever unbosom ourselves to him, when,
+for aught we know, the wretch may
+be treasuring up our casual remarks
+over the fifth tumbler, for immediate
+registration at home? Constitutionally
+we are not hard-hearted; but,
+were we so situated, we own that the
+intimation of the decease of each early
+acquaintance would be rather a relief
+than otherwise. Tom, our intimate
+fellow-student at college, dies. We
+may be sorry for the family of Thomas,
+but we soon wipe away the natural
+drops, discovering that there is balm
+in Gilead. We used to write him
+letters, detailing minutely our inward
+emotions at the time we were distractedly
+in love with Jemima Higginbotham;
+and Tom, who was always
+a methodical dog, has no doubt docqueted
+them as received. Tom's heirs
+will doubtless be too keen upon the
+scent of valuables, to care one farthing
+for rhapsodising: therefore, unless
+they are sent to the snuff-merchant,
+or disseminated as autographs, our
+epistles run a fair chance of perishing
+by the flames, and one evidence of
+our weakness is removed. A member
+of the club meets us in George Street,
+and, with a rueful longitude of countenance,
+asks us if we have heard of
+the death of poor Harry? To the
+eternal disgrace of human nature, be
+it recorded, that our heart leaps up
+within us like a foot-ball, as we hypocritically
+have recourse to our cambric.
+Harry knew a great deal too
+much about our private history just
+before we joined the Yeomanry, and
+could have told some stories, little
+flattering to our posthumous renown.</p>
+
+<p>Are we not right, then, in holding
+that, under the present system, celebrity
+is a thing to be eschewed?
+Why is it that we are so chary of
+receiving certain Down-Easters, so
+different from the real American
+gentlemen whom it is our good fortune
+to know? Simply because Silas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+Fixings will take down your whole
+conversation in black and white, deliberately
+alter it to suit his private
+purposes, and Transatlantically retail
+it as a specimen of your life and
+opinions. And is it not a still more
+horrible idea that a Silas may be perpetually
+watching you in the shape
+of a pretended friend? If the man
+would at once declare his intention,
+you might be comparatively at ease.
+Even in that case you never could
+love him more, for the confession implies
+a disgusting determination of
+outliving you, or rather a hint that
+your health is not remarkably robust,
+which would irritate the meekest of
+mankind. But you might be enabled,
+through a strong effort, to repress
+the outward exhibition of your wrath;
+and, if high religious principle should
+deter you from mixing strychnia or
+prussic acid with the wine of your
+volunteering executor, you may at
+least contrive to blind him by cautiously
+maintaining your guard.
+Were we placed in such a trying
+position, we should utter, before our
+intending Boswell, nothing save sentiments
+which might have flowed from
+the lips of the Venerable Bede. What
+letters, full of morality and high feeling,
+would we not indite! Not an invitation
+to dinner&mdash;not an acceptance of
+a tea and turn-out, but should be
+flavoured with some wholesome apothegm.
+Thus we should strive,
+through our later correspondence, to
+efface the memory of the earlier,
+which it is impossible to recall,&mdash;not
+without a hope that we might throw
+upon it, if posthumously produced, a
+tolerable imputation of forgery.</p>
+
+<p>In these times, we repeat, no man
+of the least mark or likelihood is safe.
+The waiter with the bandy-legs, who
+hands round the negus-tray at a
+blue-stocking coterie, is in all probability
+a leading contributor to a fifth-rate
+periodical; and, in a few days
+after you have been rash enough
+to accept the insidious beverage,
+M'Tavish will be correcting the proof
+of an article in which your appearance
+and conversation are described.
+Distrust the gentleman in the plush
+terminations; he, too, is a penny-a-liner,
+and keeps a commonplace-book
+in the pantry. Better give up writing
+at once than live in such a perpetual
+state of bondage. What
+amount of present fame can recompense
+you for being shown up as a
+noodle, or worse, to your children's
+children? Nay, recollect this, that
+you are implicating your personal,
+and, perhaps, most innocent friends.
+Bob accompanies you home from an
+insurance society dinner, where the
+champagne has been rather superabundant,
+and, next morning, you, as
+a bit of fun, write to the President
+that the watchman had picked up
+Bob in a state of helpless inebriety
+from the kennel. The President, after
+the manner of the Fogies, duly docquets
+your note with name and date, and
+puts it up with a parcel of others,
+secured by red tape. You die. Your
+literary executor writes to the President,
+stating his biographical intentions,
+and requesting all documents
+that may tend to throw light upon
+your personal history. Preses, in
+deep ecstasy at the idea of seeing his
+name in print as the recipient of your
+epistolary favours, immediately transmits
+the packet; and the consequence
+is, that Robert is most unjustly
+handed down to posterity in the
+character of a habitual drunkard,
+although it is a fact that a more
+abstinent creature never went home
+to his wife at ten. If you are an
+author, and your spouse is ailing,
+don't give the details to your intimate
+friend, if you would not wish to publish
+them to the world. Drop all
+correspondence, if you are wise, and
+have any ambition to stand well in
+the eyes of the coming generation.
+Let your conversation be as curt as
+a Quaker's, and select no one for a
+friend, unless you have the meanest
+possible opinion of his capacity.
+Even in that case you are hardly
+secure. Perhaps the best mode of
+combining philanthropy, society, and
+safety, is to have nobody in the
+house, save an old woman who is so
+utterly deaf that you must order
+your dinner by pantomime.</p>
+
+<p>One mode of escape suggests itself,
+and we do not hesitate to recommend it.
+Let every man who underlies the terror
+of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">peine forte et dure</i>, compile his
+own autobiography at the ripe age of
+forty-five. Few people, in this country,
+begin to establish a permanent
+reputation before thirty; and we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+allow them fifteen years to complete
+it. Now, supposing your existence
+should be protracted to seventy, here
+are clear five-and-twenty years remaining,
+which may be profitably employed
+in autobiography, by which
+means you secure three vast advantages.
+In the first place, you can
+deal with your own earlier history
+as you please, and provide against
+the subsequent production of inconvenient
+documents. In the second place,
+you defeat the intentions of your excellent
+friend and gossip, who will
+hardly venture to start his volumes in
+competition with your own. In the third
+place, you leave an additional copyright
+as a legacy to your children, and
+are not haunted in your last moments
+by the agonising thought that a stranger
+in name and blood is preparing to
+make money by your decease. It is,
+of course, unnecessary to say one word
+regarding the general tone of your
+memoirs. If you cannot contrive to
+block out such a fancy portrait of
+your intellectual self as shall throw all
+others into the shade, you may walk
+on fearlessly through life, for your biography
+never will be attempted.
+Goethe, the most accomplished literary
+fox of our age, perfectly understood
+the value of these maxims, and forestalled
+his friends, by telling his own
+story in time. The consequence is,
+that his memory has escaped unharmed.
+Little Eckermann, his amanuensis
+in extreme old age, did indeed
+contrive to deliver himself of a small
+Boswellian volume; but this publication,
+bearing reference merely to the
+dicta of Goethe at a safe period of
+life, could not injure the departed poet.
+The repetition of the early history,
+and the publication of the early documents,
+are the points to be especially
+guarded.</p>
+
+<p>We beg that these remarks may be
+considered, not as strictures upon any
+individual example, but as bearing
+upon the general style of modern biography.
+This is a gossiping world,
+in which great men are the exceptions;
+and when one of these ceases
+to exist, the public becomes clamorous
+to learn the whole minutiæ of his private
+life. That is a depraved taste, and
+one which ought not to be gratified.
+The author is to be judged by the works
+which he voluntarily surrenders to the
+public, not by the tenor of his private
+history, which ought not to be irreverently
+exposed. Thus, in compiling
+the life of a poet, we maintain that a
+literary executor has purely a literary
+function to perform. Out of the mass
+of materials which he may fortuitously
+collect, his duty is to select such portions
+as may illustrate the public
+doings of the man: he may, without
+transgressing the boundaries of propriety,
+inform us of the circumstances
+which suggested the idea of any particular
+work, the difficulties which
+were overcome by the author in the
+course of its composition, and even
+exhibit the correspondence relative
+thereto. These are matters of literary
+history which we may ask for,
+and obtain, without any breach of the
+conventional rules of society. Whatever
+refers to public life is public, and
+may be printed: whatever refers solely
+to domestic existence is private, and
+ought to be held sacred. A very
+little reflection, we think, will demonstrate
+the propriety of this distinction.
+If we have a dear and valued friend,
+to whom, in the hours of adversity or
+of joy, we are wont to communicate
+the thoughts which lie at the bottom
+of our soul, we write to him in the
+full conviction that he will regard these
+letters as addressed to himself alone.
+We do not insult him, nor wrong the
+holy attributes of friendship so much,
+as to warn him against communicating
+our thoughts to any one else in
+the world. We never dream that he
+will do so, else assuredly those letters
+never would have been written. If
+we were to discover that we had so
+grievously erred as to repose confidence
+in a person who, the moment
+he received a letter penned in a paroxysm
+of emotion and revealing a
+secret of our existence, was capable
+of exhibiting it to the circle of his
+acquaintance, of a surety he should
+never more be troubled with any of
+our correspondence. Would any man
+dare to print such documents during
+the life of the writer? We need not
+pause for a reply: there can be but
+one. And <em>why</em> is this? Because
+these communications bear on their
+face the stamp of the strictest privacy&mdash;because
+they were addressed to,
+and meant for the eye of but one
+human being in the universe&mdash;because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+they betray the emotions of a soul
+which asks sympathy from a friend,
+with only less reverence than it implores
+comfort from its God! Does
+death, then, free the friend and the
+confidant from all restraint? If the
+knowledge that his secret had been
+divulged, his agonies exposed, his
+weaknesses surrendered to the vulgar
+gaze, could have pained the living
+man&mdash;is nothing due to his memory,
+now that he is laid beneath the turf,
+now that his voice can never more be
+raised to upbraid a violated confidence?
+Many modern biographers,
+we regret to say, do not appear to be
+influenced by any such consideration.
+They never seem to have asked themselves
+the question&mdash;Would my friend,
+if he had been compiling his own memoirs,
+have inserted such a letter for
+publication&mdash;does it not refer to a
+matter eminently private and personal,
+and never to be communicated to the
+world? Instead of applying this test,
+they print everything, and rather
+plume themselves on their impartiality
+in suppressing nothing. They thus
+exhibit the life not only of the author
+but of the man. Literary and personal
+history are blended together.
+The senator is not only exhibited in
+the House of Commons, but we are
+courteously invited to attend at the
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">accouchement</i> of his wife.</p>
+
+<p>What title has any of us, in the
+abstract, to write the private history
+of his next-door neighbour? Be he
+poet, lawyer, physician, or divine, his
+private sayings and doings are his property,
+not that of a gaping and curious
+public. No man dares to say to another,
+"Come, my good fellow! it is full
+time that the world should know a
+little about your domestic concerns.
+I have been keeping a sort of note-book
+of your proceedings ever since
+we were at school together, and I intend
+to make a few pounds by exhibiting
+you in your true colours.
+You recollect when you were in love
+with old Tomnoddy's daughter? I
+have written a capital account of your
+interview with her that fine forenoon
+in the Botanical Gardens! True,
+she jilted you, and went off with
+young Heavystern of the Dragoons,
+but the public won't relish the scene a
+bit the less on that account. Then I
+have got some letters of yours from
+our mutual friend Fitzjaw. How very
+hard-up you must have been at the
+time when you supplicated him for
+twenty pounds to keep you out of jail!
+You were rather severe, the other day
+when I met you at dinner, upon your
+professional brother Jenkinson; but I
+daresay that what you said was all
+very true, so I shall publish that likewise.
+By the way&mdash;how is your
+wife? She had a lot of money, had
+she not? At all events people say
+so, and it is shrewdly surmised that
+you did not marry her for her beauty.
+I don't mean to say that <em>I</em> think so,
+but such is the <em>on dit</em>, and I have set
+it down accordingly in my journal.
+Do, pray, tell me about that quarrel
+between you and your mother-in-law!
+Is it true that she threw a
+joint-stool at your head? How our
+friends will roar when they see
+the details in print!" Is the case
+less flagrant if the manuscript is
+not sent to press, until our neighbour
+is deposited in his coffin? We cannot
+perceive the difference. If the
+feelings of living people are to be
+taken as the criterion, only one of the
+domestic actors is removed from the
+stage of existence. Old Tomnoddy
+still lives, and may not be abundantly
+gratified at the fact of his daughter's
+infidelity and elopement being proclaimed.
+The intimation of the
+garden scene, hitherto unknown to
+Heavystern, may fill his warlike
+bosom with jealousy, and ultimately
+occasion a separation. Fitzjaw can
+hardly complain, but he will be very
+furious at finding his refusal to accommodate
+a friend appended to the supplicating
+letter. Jenkinson is only
+sorry that the libeller is dead, otherwise
+he would have treated him to an
+action in the Jury Court. The widow
+believes that she was made a bride
+solely for the sake of her Californian
+attractions, and reviles the memory
+of her spouse. As for the mother-in-law,
+now gradually dwindling into
+dotage, her feelings are perhaps of no
+great consequence to any human
+being. Nevertheless, when the obnoxious
+paragraph in the Memoirs is
+read to her by a shrill female companion,
+nature makes a temporary
+rally, her withered frame shakes with
+agitation, and she finally falls backward
+in a fit of hopeless paralysis.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Such is a feeble picture of the results
+that might ensue from private
+biography, were we all permitted,
+without reservation, to parade the
+lives and domestic circumstances of
+our neighbours to a greedy and gloating
+world. Not but that, if our
+neighbour has been a man of sufficient
+distinction to deserve commemoration,
+we may gracefully and skilfully narrate
+all of him that is worth the knowing.
+We may point to his public actions,
+expatiate on his achievements,
+and recount the manner in which he
+gained his intellectual renown; but further
+we ought not to go. The confidences
+of the dead should be as sacred
+as those of the living. And here we
+may observe, that there are other
+parties quite as much to blame as the
+biographers in question. We allude
+to the friends of the deceased, who
+have unscrupulously furnished them
+with materials. Is it not the fact
+that in very many cases they have
+divulged letters which, during the
+writer's lifetime, they would have
+withheld from the nearest and dearest
+of their kindred? In many such
+letters there occur observations and
+reflections upon living characters, not
+written in malice, but still such as
+were never intended to meet the eyes
+of the parties criticised; and these
+are forthwith published, as racy passages,
+likely to gratify the appetite of
+a coarse, vulgar, and inordinate curiosity.
+Even this is not the worst.
+Survivors may grieve to learn that
+the friend whom they loved was capable
+of ridiculing or misrepresenting
+them in secret, and his memory may
+suffer in their estimation; but, put
+the case of detailed private conversations,
+which are constantly foisted
+into modern biographies, and we shall
+immediately discover that the inevitable
+tendency is to engender dislikes
+among living parties. Let us suppose
+that three men, all of them professional
+authors, meet at a dinner
+party. The conversation is very lively,
+takes a literary turn, and the three
+gentlemen, with that sportive freedom
+which is very common in a society
+where no treachery is apprehended,
+pass some rather poignant strictures
+upon the writings or habits of their
+contemporaries. One of them either
+keeps a journal, or is in the habit of
+writing, for the amusement of a confidential
+friend at a distance, any
+literary gossip which may be current,
+and he commits to paper the heads of
+the recent dialogue. He dies, and his
+literary executor immediately pounces
+upon the document, and, to the confusion
+of the two living critics, prints it.
+Every literary brother whom they have
+noticed is of course their enemy for life.</p>
+
+<p>If, in private society, a snob is discovered
+retailing conversations, he is
+forthwith cut without compunction.
+He reads his detection in the calm,
+cold scorn of your eye; and, referring
+to the mirror of his own dim and dirty
+conscience, beholds the reflection of a
+hound. The biographer seems to consider
+himself exempt from such social
+secresy. He shelters himself under
+the plea that the public are so deeply
+interested, that they must not be deprived
+of any memorandum, anecdote,
+or jotting, told, written, or detailed
+by the gifted subject of their memoirs.
+Therefore it is not a prudent thing to
+be familiar with a man of genius. He
+may not betray your confidence, but
+you can hardly trust to the tender
+mercies of his chronicler.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Such are our deliberate views upon
+the subject of biography, and we
+state them altogether independent of
+the three bulky volumes which are
+now lying before us for review.</p>
+
+<p>We cordially admit that it was right
+and proper that a life of Campbell
+should be written. Although he did
+not occupy the same commanding
+position as others of his renowned
+contemporaries&mdash;although his writings
+have not, like those of Scott,
+Byron, and Southey, contributed
+powerfully to give a tone and idiosyncrasy
+to the general literature of
+the age&mdash;Campbell was nevertheless
+a man of rich genius, and a poet of
+remarkable accomplishment. It would
+not be easy to select, from the works
+of any other writer of our time, so
+many brilliant and polished gems,
+without flaw or imperfection, as are
+to be found amongst his minor poems.
+Criticism, in dealing with these exquisite
+lyrics, is at fault. If sometimes
+the suspicion of a certain effeminacy
+haunts us, we have but to turn
+the page, and we arrive at some magnificent,
+bold, and trumpet-toned ditty,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+appealing directly from the heart of
+the poet to the imagination of his
+audience, and proving, beyond all
+contest, that power was his glorious
+attribute. True, he was unequal;
+and towards the latter part of his career,
+exhibited a marked failing in the
+qualities which originally secured his
+renown. It is almost impossible to
+believe that the <cite>Pilgrim of Glencoe</cite>,
+or even <cite>Theodric</cite>, was composed by
+the author of the <cite>Pleasures of Hope</cite>
+or <cite>Gertrude</cite>; and if you place the
+<cite>Ritter Bann</cite> beside <cite>Hohenlinden</cite> or the
+<cite>Battle of the Baltic</cite>, you cannot fail to
+be struck with the singular diminution
+of power. Campbell started
+from a high point&mdash;walked for some
+time along level or undulating ground&mdash;and
+then began rapidly to descend.
+This is not, as some idle critics have
+maintained, the common course of
+genius. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare,
+Milton, Dryden, Scott, Byron,
+and Wordsworth, are remarkable instances
+to the contrary. Whatever
+may have been the promise of their
+youth, their matured performances,
+eclipsing their earlier efforts, show
+us that genius is capable of almost
+boundless cultivation, and that the
+fire of the poet does not cease to
+burn less brightly within him, because
+the sable of his hair is streaked
+with gray, or the furrows deepening
+on his brow. Sir Walter Scott was
+upwards of thirty before he began to
+compose in earnest: after thirty,
+Campbell wrote scarcely anything
+which has added permanently to his
+reputation. Extreme sensitiveness,
+an over-strained and fastidious desire
+of polishing, and sometimes
+the pressure of outward circumstances,
+may have combined to damp
+his early ardour. He evidently was
+deficient in that resolute pertinacity
+of labour, through which alone
+great results can be achieved. He
+allowed the best years of his life to be
+frittered away, in pursuits which
+could not secure to him either additional
+fame, or the more substantial
+rewards of fortune: and, though far
+from being actually idle, he was only
+indolently active. Campbell wanted
+an object in life. Thus, though gifted
+with powers which, directed towards
+one point, were capable of the highest
+concentration, we find him scattering
+these in the most desultory and careless
+manner; and surrendering scheme
+after scheme, without making the
+vigorous effort which was necessary
+to secure their completion. This is a
+fault by no means uncommon in literature,
+but one which is highly dangerous.
+No work requiring great
+mental exertion should be undertaken
+rashly, for the enthusiasm which has
+prompted it rapidly subsides, the
+labour becomes distasteful to the writer,
+and unless he can bend himself
+to his task with the most dogged
+perseverance, and a determination to
+vanquish all obstacles, the result will
+be a fragment or a failure. Of this we
+find two notable instances recorded
+in the book before us. Twice in his
+life had Campbell meditated the construction
+of a great poem, and twice
+did he relinquish the task. Of the
+<cite>Queen of the North</cite> but a few lines
+remain: of his favourite projected
+epic on the subject of Wallace,
+nothing. Elegant trifles, sportive
+verses, and playful epigrams were,
+for many years, the last fruits of that
+genius which had dictated the <cite>Pleasures
+of Hope</cite>, and rejoiced the mariners
+of England with a ballad worthy
+of the theme. And yet, so powerful
+is early association&mdash;so universal was
+the recognition of the transcendant
+genius of the boy, that when Campbell
+sank into the grave, there was
+lamentation as though a great poet
+had been stricken down in his prime,
+and all men felt that a brilliant light
+had gone out among the luminaries
+of the age. Therefore it was seemly
+that his memory should receive that
+homage which has been rendered to
+others less deserving of it, and that
+his public career, at least, should be
+traced and given to the world.</p>
+
+<p>It was Campbell's own wish that
+Dr Beattie should undertake his biography.
+Few perhaps knew the motives
+which led to this selection; for
+the assiduity, care, and filial attachment,
+bestowed for years by the
+warm-hearted physician upon the
+poet, was as unostentatious as it was
+honourable and devoted. Not from
+the pages of this biography can the
+reader form an adequate idea of the
+extent and value of such disinterested
+friendship: indeed it is not too much
+to say, that the rare and exemplary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+kindness of Dr Beattie was the chief
+consolation of Campbell during the
+later period of his existence. It
+was therefore natural that the dying
+poet should have confided this trust
+to one of whose affection he was
+assured by so many rare and signal
+proofs; and it is with a kindly feeling
+to the author that we now approach
+the consideration of the literary merits
+of the book.</p>
+
+<p>The admiration of Dr Beattie for
+the genius of Campbell has in some
+respects led him astray. It is easy to
+see at a glance that his measure of
+admiration is not of an ordinary kind,
+but so excessive as to lead him beyond
+all limit. He seems to have
+regarded Campbell not merely as a
+great poet, but as the great poet of the
+age; and he is unwilling, æsthetically,
+to admit any material diminution of
+his powers. He still clings with a
+certain faith to <em>Theodric</em>; and declines
+to perceive any palpable failure even
+in the <cite>Pilgrim of Glencoe</cite>. Verses
+and fragments which, to the casual
+reader, convey anything but the impression
+of excellence, are liberally
+distributed throughout the pages of the
+third volume, and commented on with
+evident rapture. He seems to think
+that, in the case of his author, it may
+be said, "<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Nihil tetigit quod non
+ornavit</i>;" and accordingly he is slow
+to suppress, even where suppression
+would have been of positive advantage.
+In short, he is too full of his
+subject to do it justice. In the hands
+of a skilful and less biassed artisan,
+the materials which occupy these
+three volumes, extending to nearly
+fourteen hundred pages of print, might
+have been condensed into one highly
+interesting and popular volume. We
+should not then, it is true, have been
+favoured with specimens of Campbell's
+college exercises, with the
+voluminous chronicles of his family,
+with verses written at the age of eleven,
+or with correspondence purely
+domestic; but we firmly believe
+that the reading public would have
+been grateful to Dr Beattie, had he
+omitted a great deal of matter connected
+with the poet's earlier career,
+which is of no interest whatever. The
+Campbells of Kirnan were, we doubt
+not, a highly respectable sept, and performed
+their duty as kirk-elders for
+many generations blamelessly in the
+parish of Glassary. But it was not
+necessary on that account to trace
+their descent from the Black Knight Of
+Lochawe, or to give the particular
+history of the family for more than a
+century and a half. Gillespic-le-Camile
+may have been a fine fellow in
+his day; but we utterly deny, in the
+teeth of all the Campbells and Kembles
+in the world, that he had a drop
+of Norman blood in his veins. It is
+curious to find the poet, at a subsequent
+period, engaged in a correspondence,
+as to the common ancestor of
+these names, with one of the Kembles,
+who, as Mrs Butler somewhere triumphantly
+avers, were descended from
+the lords of Campo-bello. Where
+that favoured region may be, we know
+not; but this we know, that in Gaelic
+<i lang="gv" xml:lang="gv">Cambeul</i> signifies <em>wry-mouth</em>, and
+hence, as is the custom with primitive
+nations, the origin of the name. And
+let not the sons of Diarmid be offended
+at this, or esteem their glories
+less, since the gallant Camerons owe
+their name to a similar conformation
+of the nose, and the Douglases to
+their dark complexion. Having put
+this little matter of family etymology
+right, let us return to Dr Beattie.</p>
+
+<p>The first volume, we maintain, is
+terribly overloaded by trivial details,
+and specimens of the kind to which
+we have alluded. We need not enter
+into these, except in so far as to state
+that Thomas Campbell was the youngest
+child of most respectable parents:
+that his father, having been unfortunate
+in business, was so reduced in
+circumstances, that, whilst attending
+Glasgow College, the young student
+was compelled to have recourse to
+teaching; that he acquitted himself
+admirably, and to the satisfaction of
+all his professors in the literary
+classes; and that, for one vacation at
+least, he resided as private tutor to a
+family in the island of Mull. He
+was then about eighteen, and had
+already exhibited symptoms of a rare
+poetical talent, particularly in translations
+from the Greek. Dr Beattie's
+zeal as a biographer may be gathered
+from the following statement:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I applied last year to the Rev.
+Dr M'Arthur, of Kilninian in Mull,
+requesting him to favour me with such
+traditional particulars regarding the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+poet as might still be current among
+the old inhabitants; but I regret to
+say that nothing of interest has resulted.
+'In the course of my inquiries,'
+he says, 'I have met with
+only two individuals who had seen
+Mr Campbell while he was in Mull,
+and the amount of their information
+is merely that he was <em>a very pretty
+young man</em>. Those who must have
+been personally acquainted with him
+in this country, have, like himself,
+descended into the tomb; so that no
+authentic anecdotes of him can now
+be procured in this quarter.'"</p>
+
+<p>There is a simplicity in this which
+has amused us greatly. Campbell, in
+those days, was conspicuous for nothing&mdash;at
+least, for no accomplishment
+which could be appreciated in
+that distant island. In all probability
+two-thirds of the inhabitants of the
+parish were Campbells, who expired
+in utter ignorance of the art of writing
+their names; so that to ask for literary
+anecdotes, at the distance of half a
+century, was rather a work of supererogation.</p>
+
+<p>For two years more, Campbell led
+a life of great uncertainty. He was
+naturally averse to the drudgery of
+teaching&mdash;an employment which never
+can be congenial to a poetical and
+creative nature. He had no decided
+predilection for any of the learned professions;
+for though he alternately
+betook himself to the study of law,
+physic, and divinity, it was hardly
+with a serious purpose. He visited
+Edinburgh in search of literary employment,
+was for some time a clerk
+in a writer's office, and, through the
+kindness of the late Dr Anderson,
+editor of a collection of the British
+poets,&mdash;a man who was ever eager to
+acknowledge and encourage genius,&mdash;he
+received his first introduction to a
+bookselling firm. From them he received
+some little employment, but
+not of a nature suited to his taste;
+and we soon afterwards find him in
+Glasgow, meditating the establishment
+of a magazine&mdash;a scheme which
+proved utterly abortive.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, however, he had
+not been idle. At the age of twenty
+the poetical instinct is active, and,
+even though no audience can be found,
+the muse will force its way. Campbell
+had already translated two plays
+of Æschylus and Euripides&mdash;an exercise
+which no doubt developed largely
+his powers of versification&mdash;and, further,
+had begun to compose original
+lyric verses. In the foreign edition of
+his works, there is inserted a poem
+called the Dirge of Wallace, written
+about this period, which, with a very
+little concentration, might have been
+rendered as perfect as any of his later
+compositions. In spirit and energy it
+is assuredly inferior to none of them.
+"But," says Dr Beattie, "the fastidious
+author, who thought it too
+rhapsodical, never bestowed a careful
+revision upon it, and persisted in excluding
+it from all the London editions."
+We hope to see it restored
+to its proper place in the next: in
+the mean time we select the following
+noble stanzas:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"They lighted the tapers at dead of night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And chaunted their holiest hymn:<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But her brow and her bosom were damp with affright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Her eye was all sleepless and dim!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the Lady of Ellerslie wept for her lord,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">When a death-watch beat in her lonely room,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">When her curtain had shook of its own accord,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the raven had flapped at her window board,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">To tell of her warrior's doom.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Now sing ye the death-song, and loudly pray<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">For the soul of my knight so dear!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And call me a widow this wretched day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Since the warning of <span class="smcap">God</span> is here.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">For a nightmare rests on my strangled sleep;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">The lord of my bosom is doomed to die!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">His valorous heart they have wounded deep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the blood-red tears shall his country weep<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">For Wallace of Ellerslie!'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Yet knew not his country, that ominous hour&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Ere the loud matin-bell was rung&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">That the trumpet of death, from an English tower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Had the dirge of her champion sung.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">When his dungeon-light looked dim and red<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">On the highborn blood of a martyr slain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">No anthem was sung at his lowly death-bed&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">No weeping was there when <em>his</em> bosom bled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And is heart was rent in twain.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Oh! it was not thus when his ashen spear<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Was true to that knight forlorn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And hosts of a thousand wore scattered like deer<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">At the blast of a hunter's horn;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1"><em>When he strode o'er the wreck of each well-fought field,</em><br /></span>
+<span class="i3"><em>With the yellow-haired chiefs of his native land;</em><br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+<span class="i1"><em>For his lance was not shivered on helmet or shield,</em><br /></span>
+<span class="i1"><em>And the sword that was fit for archangel to wield</em><br /></span>
+<span class="i3"><em>Was light in his terrible hand!</em><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Yet, bleeding and bound, though the Wallace wight<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">For his long-loved country die,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The bugle ne'er sung to a braver knight<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Than William of Ellerslie!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But the day of his triumphs shall never depart;<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">His head, unentombed, shall with glory be palmed&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">From its blood-streaming altar his spirit shall start;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Though the raven has fed on his mouldering heart,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">A nobler was never embalmed!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Nothing can be finer than the lines
+we have quoted in Italics, nor perhaps
+did Campbell himself ever match
+them. Local reputations are dearly
+cherished in the west of Scotland, and
+even at this early period our poet was
+denominated "the Pope of Glasgow."</p>
+
+<p>Again Campbell migrated to Edinburgh,
+but still with no fixed determination
+as to the choice of a profession:
+his intention was to attend the
+public lectures at the University, and
+also to push his connexion with the
+booksellers, so as to obtain the means
+of livelihood. Failing this last resource,
+he contemplated removing to America,
+in which country his eldest brother
+was permanently settled. Fortunately
+for himself, he now made the
+acquaintance of several young men
+who were destined afterwards to
+attract the public observation, and to
+win great names in different branches
+of literature. Among these were
+Scott, Brougham, Leyden, Jeffrey,
+Dr Thomas Brown, and Grahame, the
+author of <cite>The Sabbath</cite>. Mr John
+Richardson, who had the good fortune
+to remain through life the intimate
+friend both of Scott and Campbell,
+was also, at this early period, the
+chosen companion of the latter, and
+contributed much, by his judicious
+counsels and criticisms, to nerve the
+poet for that successful effort which,
+shortly afterwards, took the world of
+letters by storm. Dr Anderson also
+continued his literary superintendence,
+and anxiously watched over the progress
+of the new poem upon which
+Campbell was now engaged. At
+length, in 1799, the <cite>Pleasures of
+Hope</cite> appeared.</p>
+
+<p>Rarely has any volume of poetry
+met with such rapid success. Campbell
+had few living rivals of established
+reputation to contend with; and the
+freshness of his thought, the extreme
+sweetness of his numbers, and the
+fine taste which pervaded the whole
+composition, fell like magic on the ear
+of the public, and won their immediate
+approbation. It is true that, as a
+speculation, this volume did not prove
+remarkably lucrative to the author:
+he had disposed of the copyright
+before publication for a sum of sixty
+pounds, but, through the liberality of
+the publishers, he received for some
+years a further sum on the issue of
+each edition. The book was certainly
+worth a great deal more; but many
+an author would be glad to surrender
+all claim for profit on his first adventure,
+could he be assured of such
+valuable popularity as Campbell now
+acquired. He presently became a
+lion in Edinburgh society; and, what
+was far better, he secured the countenance
+and friendship of such men as
+Dugald Stewart, Henry Mackenzie,
+Dr Gregory, the Rev. Archibald Alison,
+and Telford, the celebrated engineer.
+It is pleasant to know that
+the friendships so formed were interrupted
+only by death.</p>
+
+<p>Campbell had now, to use a common
+but familiar phrase, the ball at
+his foot, but never did there live a
+man less capable of appreciating opportunity.
+At an age when most
+young men are students, he had won
+fame&mdash;fame, too, in such measure and
+of such a kind as secured him
+against reaction, or the possibility of
+a speedy neglect following upon so
+rapid a success. Had he deliberately
+followed up his advantage with anything
+like ordinary diligence, fortune
+as well as fame would have been his
+immediate reward. Like Aladdin, he
+was in possession of a talisman which
+could open to him the cavern in which
+a still greater treasure was contained;
+but he shrunk from the labour which
+was indispensable for the effort. He
+either could not or would not summon
+up sufficient resolution to betake himself
+to a new task; but, under the
+pretext of improving his mind by
+travel, gave way to his erratic propensities,
+and departed for the Continent
+with a slender purse, and, as
+usual, no fixity of purpose.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We confess that the portion of his
+correspondence which relates to this
+expedition does not appear to us remarkably
+interesting. He resided
+chiefly at Ratisbon, where his time
+appears to have been tolerably equally
+divided between writing lyrics for the
+<cite>Morning Chronicle</cite>, then under the
+superintendence of Mr Perry, and
+squabbling with the monks of the
+Scottish Convent of Saint James.
+Some of his best minor poems were
+composed at this period; but it will
+be easily comprehended that, from the
+style of their publication in a fugitive
+form, they could add but little at the
+time to his reputation, and certainly
+they did not materially improve his
+finances. With a contemplated poem
+of some magnitude&mdash;the <cite>Queen of the
+North</cite>&mdash;he made little progress; and,
+upon the whole, this year was spent
+uncomfortably. After his return to
+Britain, he resided for some time in
+Edinburgh and London, mixing in the
+best and most cultivated society, but
+sorely straitened in circumstances,
+which, nevertheless, he had not the
+courage or the patience to improve.</p>
+
+<p>A quarto edition of the <cite>Pleasures</cite>,
+printed by subscription for his own
+benefit, at length put him in funds,
+and probably tempted him to marry.
+Then came the real cares of life,&mdash;an
+increased establishment, an increasing
+family: new mouths to provide for,
+and no settled mode of livelihood.
+Of all literary men, Campbell was
+least calculated, both by habit and
+inclination, to pursue a profession
+which, with many temptations, was
+then, and is still, precarious. He was
+not, like Scott, a man of business habits
+and unflagging industry. His impulses
+to write were short, and his
+fastidiousness interfered with his impulse.
+Booksellers were slow in offering
+him employment, for they could
+not depend on his punctuality. Those
+who have frequent dealings with the
+trade know how much depends upon
+the observance of this excellent virtue;
+but Campbell never could be brought
+to appreciate its full value. The
+printing-press had difficulty in keeping
+pace with the pen of Scott: to
+wait for that of Campbell was equivalent
+to a cessation of labour. Therefore
+it is not surprising that, about
+this period, most of his negotiations
+failed. Proposals for an edition of
+the British Poets, a large and expensive
+work, to be executed jointly by
+Scott and Campbell, fell to the ground:
+and the bard of Hope gave vent to his
+feelings by execrating the phalanx of
+the Row.</p>
+
+<p>At the very moment when his prospects
+appeared to be shrouded in the
+deepest gloom, Campbell received intimation
+that he had been placed on
+the pension-list as an annuitant of
+£200. Never was the royal bounty
+more seasonably extended; and this
+high recognition of his genius seems
+for a time to have inspired him with
+new energy. He commenced the compilation
+of the <cite>Specimens of British
+Poets</cite>; but his indolent habits
+overcame him, and the work was not
+given to the public until <em>thirteen years</em>
+after it was undertaken. No wonder
+that the booksellers were chary of
+staking their capital on the faith of
+his promised performances!</p>
+
+<p>Ten years after the publication of
+the <cite>Pleasures of Hope</cite>, <cite>Gertrude of
+Wyoming</cite> appeared. That exquisite
+little poem demonstrated, in the most
+conclusive manner, that the author's
+poetical powers were not exhausted by
+his earlier effort, and the same volume
+contained the noblest of his immortal
+lyrics. Campbell was now at the
+highest point of his renown. Critics
+may compare together the longer
+poems, and, according as their taste
+leans towards the didactic or the
+descriptive form of composition, may
+differ in awarding the palm of excellence,
+but there can be but one opinion
+as to the lyrical poetry. In this respect
+Campbell stands alone among
+his contemporaries, and since then he
+has never been surpassed. <cite>Lochiel's
+Warning</cite> and the <em>Battle of the Baltic</em>
+were among the pieces then published;
+and it would be difficult, out of the
+whole mass of British poetry, to select
+two specimens, by the same author,
+which may fairly rank with these.</p>
+
+<p>A new literary field was shortly
+after this opened to Campbell. He was
+engaged to deliver a course of lectures
+on poetry at the Royal Institution of
+London, and the scheme proved not
+only successful but lucrative. In after
+years he lectured repeatedly on the
+belles lettres at Liverpool, Birmingham,
+and other places, and the celebrity of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+his name always commanded a crowd of
+listeners. We learn from Dr Beattie,
+that at two periods of his life it was proposed
+to bring him forward as a candidate,
+either for the chair of Rhetoric
+or that of History in the University of
+Edinburgh; but he seems to have
+recoiled from the idea of the labour
+necessary for the preparation of a
+thorough academical course, a task
+which his extreme natural fastidiousness
+would doubtless have rendered
+doubly irksome. Several more years,
+a portion of which time was spent on
+the Continent, passed over without any
+remarkable result, until, at the age of
+forty-three, Campbell entered upon
+the duties of the editorship of the <em>New
+Monthly Magazine</em>.</p>
+
+<p>He held this situation for ten years,
+and resigned it, according to his own
+account, "because it was utterly impossible
+to continue the editor without
+interminable scrapes, together with a
+law-suit now and then." In the interim,
+however, certain important
+events had taken place. In the first
+place, he had published <em>Theodric</em>&mdash;a
+poem which, in spite of a most laudatory
+critique in the <em>Edinburgh Review</em>,
+left a painful impression on the public
+mind, and was generally considered
+as a symptom either that the rich
+mine of poesy was worked out, or
+that the genius of the author had
+been employed in a wrong direction.
+In the second place, he took an active
+share in the foundation of the London
+University. He appears, indeed, to
+have been the originator of the scheme,
+and to have managed the preliminary
+details with more than common skill
+and prudence. It was mainly through
+his exertions that it did not assume
+the aspect of a mere sectarian institution,
+bigoted in its principles and
+circumscribed in its sphere of utility.
+Shortly after this academical experiment,
+he was elected Lord Rector of
+the Glasgow University. Whatever
+abstract value may be attached to
+such an honour&mdash;and we are aware
+that very conflicting opinions have
+been expressed upon the point&mdash;this
+distinction was one of the most gratifying
+of all the tributes which were
+ever rendered to Campbell. He found
+himself preferred, by the students of
+that university where his first aspirations
+after fame had been roused, to
+one of the first orators and statesmen
+of the age; and his warm heart overflowed
+with delight at the kindly compliment.
+He resolved not to accept
+the office as a mere sinecure, but
+strictly to perform those duties which
+were prescribed by ancient statute, but
+which had fallen into abeyance by the
+carelessness of nominal Rectors. He
+entered as warmly into the feelings,
+and as cordially supported the interests
+of the students, as if the academical
+red gown of Glasgow had been still
+fresh upon his shoulders; and such
+being the case, it is not surprising
+that he was almost adored by his
+youthful constituents. This portion
+of the memoirs is very interesting: it
+displays the character of Campbell in
+a most amiable light; and the coldest
+reader cannot fail to peruse with pleasure
+the records of an ovation so
+truly gratifying to the sensibilities of
+the kind and affectionate poet. For
+three years, during which unusual
+period he held the office, his correspondence
+with the students never
+flagged; and it may be doubted whether
+the university ever possessed a better
+Rector.</p>
+
+<p>In 1831 he took up the Polish cause,
+and founded an association in London,
+which for many years was the main
+support of the unfortunate exiles who
+sought refuge in Britain. The public
+sympathy was at that time largely excited
+in their favour, not only by the gallant
+struggle which they had made for
+regaining their ancient independence,
+but from the subsequent severities perpetrated
+by the Russian government.
+Campbell, from his earliest years, had
+denounced the unprincipled partition
+of Poland; he watched the progress
+of the revolution with an anxiety
+almost amounting to fanaticism; and
+when the outbreak was at last put
+down by the strong hand of power,
+his passion exceeded all bounds. Day
+and night his thoughts were of Poland
+only: in his correspondence he hardly
+touched upon any other theme; and,
+carried away by his zeal to serve the
+exiles, he neglected his usual avocations.
+The mind of Campbell was
+naturally of an impulsive cast: but
+the fits were rather violent than enduring.
+This psychological tendency
+was, perhaps, his most serious misfortune,
+since it invariably prevented<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+him from maturing the most important
+projects he conceived. Unless
+the scheme was such as could be executed
+with rapidity, he was apt to halt
+in the progress.</p>
+
+<p>He next became engaged in a new
+magazine speculation&mdash;<em>The Metropolitan</em>&mdash;which,
+instead of turning
+out, as he anticipated, a mine of
+wealth, very nearly involved him in
+serious pecuniary responsibility. After
+this, his public career gradually became
+less marked. The last poem
+which he published, <em>The Pilgrim of
+Glencoe</em>, exhibited few symptoms of
+the fire and energy conspicuous in his
+early efforts. "This work," says Dr
+Beattie, "in one or two instances was
+very favourably reviewed&mdash;in others,
+the tone of criticism was cold and
+austere; but neither praise nor censure
+could induce the public to judge
+for themselves; and silence, more fatal
+in such cases than censure, took the
+poem for a time under her wing. The
+poet himself expressed little surprise
+at the apathy with which his new
+volume had been received; but whatever
+indifference he felt for the influence
+it might have upon his reputation,
+he could not feel indifferent to
+the more immediate effect which a
+tardy or greatly diminished sale must
+have upon his prospects as a householder.
+'A new poem from the pen
+of Campbell,' he was told, 'was as good
+as a bill at sight;' but, from some
+error in the drawing, as it turned out,
+it was not negotiable; and the expenses
+into which he had been led, by
+trusting too much to popular favour,
+were now to be defrayed from other
+sources." It ought, however, to be
+remarked, that he had now arrived at
+his great climacteric. He was sixty-four
+years of age, and his constitution,
+never very robust, began to exhibit
+symptoms of decay. Dr Beattie, who
+had long watched him with affectionate
+solicitude, in the double character
+of physician and friend, thus notes his
+observation of the change. "At the
+breakfast or dinner table&mdash;particularly
+when surrounded by old friends&mdash;he
+was generally animated, full of anecdote,
+and always projecting new
+schemes of benevolence. But still
+there was a visible change in his conversation:
+it seemed to flow less freely;
+it required an effort to support it; and
+on topics in which he once felt a keen
+interest, he now said but little, or remained
+silent and thoughtful. The
+change in his outward appearance was
+still more observable; he walked with
+a feeble step, complained of constant
+chilliness; while his countenance, unless
+when he entered into conversation,
+was strongly marked with an expression
+of languor and anxiety. The
+sparkling intelligence that once animated
+his features was greatly obscured;
+he quoted his favourite authors
+with hesitation&mdash;because, he told me,
+he often could not recollect their
+names."</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of his life was spent
+in comparative seclusion. Long before
+this period he was left a solitary
+man. His wife, whom he loved with
+deep and enduring affection, was taken
+away&mdash;one of his sons died in childhood,
+and the other was stricken with
+a malady which proved incurable.
+But the kind offices of a nephew and
+niece, and the attentions of many
+friends, amongst whom Dr Beattie
+will always be remembered as the
+chief, soothed the last days of the
+poet, and supplied those duties which
+could not be rendered by dearer hands.
+He expired at Boulogne, on 15th
+June 1844, his age being sixty-seven,
+and his body was worthily interred in
+Westminster Abbey, with the honours
+of a public funeral.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"Never," says Beattie, "since the
+death of Addison, it was remarked, had
+the obsequies of any literary man been attended
+by circumstances more honourable
+to the national feeling, and more expressive
+of cordial respect and homage, than
+those of Thomas Campbell.</p>
+
+<p>"Soon after noon, the procession began
+to move from the Jerusalem Chamber to
+Poet's Corner, and in a few minutes
+passed slowly down the long lofty aisle&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Through breathing statues, then unheeded things;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through rows of warriors, and through walks of kings.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">On each side the pillared avenues were
+lined with spectators, all watching the
+solemn pageant in reverential silence, and
+mostly in deep mourning. The Rev.
+Henry Milman, himself an eminent poet,
+headed the procession; while the service
+for the dead, answered by the deep-toned
+organ, in sounds like distant thunder,
+produced an effect of indescribable solemnity.
+One only feeling seemed to pervade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+the assembled spectators, and was
+visible on every face&mdash;a desire to express
+their sympathy in a manner suitable to
+the occasion. He who had celebrated
+the glory and enjoyed the favour of his
+country for more than forty years, had
+come at last to take his appointed chamber
+in the Hall of Death&mdash;to mingle ashes
+with those illustrious predecessors, who,
+by steep and difficult paths, had attained
+a lofty eminence in her literature, and
+made a lasting impression on the national
+heart."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We observe that Dr Beattie has,
+very properly, passed over with little
+notice certain statements, emanating
+from persons who styled themselves
+the friends of Campbell, regarding his
+habits of life during the latter portion
+of his years. It is a misfortune incidental
+to almost all men of genius,
+that they are surrounded by a fry of
+small literary adulators, who, in order
+to magnify themselves, make a practice
+of reporting every circumstance,
+however trivial, which falls under
+their observation, and who are not
+always very scrupulous in adhering to
+the truth. Campbell, who had the
+full poetical share of vanity in his
+composition, was peculiarly liable to
+the attacks of such insidious worshippers,
+and was not sufficiently careful
+in the selection of his associates.
+Hence imputations, not involving any
+question of honour or morality, but
+implying frailty to a considerable degree,
+have been openly hazarded by
+some who, in their own persons, are
+no patterns of the cardinal virtues.
+Such statements do no honour either
+to the heart or the judgment of those
+who devised them: nor would we have
+even touched upon the subject, save
+to reprobate, in the strongest manner,
+these breaches of domestic privacy,
+and of ill-judged and unmerited confidence.</p>
+
+<p>A good deal of the correspondence
+printed in these volumes is of a trifling
+nature, and interferes materially with
+the conciseness of the biography. We
+do not mean to say that anything
+objectionable has been included, but
+there are too many notes and epistles
+upon familiar topics, which neither
+illustrate the peculiar tone of Campbell's
+mind, nor throw any light whatever
+upon his poetical history. But
+the correspondence with his own family
+is highly interesting. Nowhere
+does Campbell appear in a higher and
+more estimable point of view, than in
+the character of son and brother.
+Even in the hours of his darkest adversity,
+we find him sharing his small
+and precarious gains with his mother
+and sisters; and they were in an equal
+degree the participators of his better
+fortunes. His fondness and consideration
+for his wife and children are
+most conspicuous; and many of his
+letters regarding his boy, when "the
+dark shadow" had passed across his
+mind, are extremely affecting. Those
+who have a taste for the modern style
+of maundering about children, and the
+perverted pictures of infancy so common
+in our social literature, may not,
+perhaps, see much to admire in the
+following extract from a letter by
+Campbell, announcing the birth of his
+eldest child: to us it appears a pure
+and exquisite picture:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>"This little gentleman all this while
+looked to be so proud of his new station in
+society, that he held up his blue eyes and
+placid little face with perfect indifference
+to what people about him felt or thought.
+Our first interview was when he lay in
+his little crib, in the midst of white muslin
+and dainty lace, prepared by Matilda's
+hands, long before the stranger's arrival.
+I verily believe, in spite of my partiality,
+that lovelier babe was never smiled upon
+by the light of heaven. He was breathing
+sweetly in his first sleep. I durst
+not waken him, but ventured to give him
+one kiss. He gave a faint murmur, and
+opened his little azure lights. Since that
+time he has continued to grow in grace
+and stature. I can take him in my arms;
+but still his good nature and his beauty
+are but provocatives to the affection
+which one must not indulge: he cannot
+bear to be hugged, he cannot yet stand a
+worrying. Oh! that I were sure he
+would live to the days when I could take
+him on my knee, and feel the strong
+plumpness of childhood waxing into vigorous
+youth. My poor boy! shall I have
+the ecstasy to teach him thoughts and
+knowledge, and reciprocity of love to me?
+It is bold to venture into futurity so far!
+at present his lovely little face is a comfort
+to me; his lips breathe that fragrance
+which it is one of the loveliest kindnesses
+of Nature that she has given to infants&mdash;a
+sweetness of smell more delightful than
+all the treasures of Arabia. What adorable
+beauties of God and Nature's bounty
+we live in without knowing! How few
+have ever seemed to think an infant beautiful!
+But to me there seems to be a beauty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+in the earliest dawn of infancy which is
+not inferior to the attractions of childhood,
+especially when they sleep. Their
+looks excite a more tender train of emotions.
+It is like the tremulous anxiety
+which we feel for a candle new lighted,
+which we dread going out."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The sensibility, too, which he uniformly
+exhibited towards those who
+had shown him kindness, especially
+his older and earlier friends, is exceedingly
+pleasing. In writing to or
+speaking of the Rev. Archibald Alison
+and Dugald Stewart, his tone is one
+of heartfelt, and almost filial, affection
+and reverence; and amongst all the
+benevolent actions performed by those
+great and good men, there were few
+to which they could revert with more
+pleasure than to their seasonable patronage
+of the young and sanguine
+poet. With his literary contemporaries,
+also, he lived upon good terms,&mdash;a
+circumstance rather remarkable, for
+Campbell, notwithstanding his good-nature,
+was sufficiently touchy, and
+keenly alive to satire or hostile criticism.
+Excepting an early quarrel
+with John Leyden, on the score of
+some reported misrepresentation, a
+temporary feud with Moore, which
+was speedily reconciled, and a short
+and unacrimonious disruption from
+Bowles, we are not aware that he
+ever differed with any of his gifted
+brethren. He was upon the best
+terms with Scott; and Dr Beattie has
+given us several valuable specimens
+of their mutual correspondence. With
+Rogers he was intimate to the last:
+and even the sarcastic and dangerous
+Byron always mentioned him with
+expressions of regard. Let us add,
+moreover, that, whenever he had the
+power, he was ready, even in instances
+where his own interest might have
+counselled otherwise, to lend a helping
+hand to others who were struggling
+for literary reputation. This generous
+impulse was sometimes carried so far
+as to injure him in his editorial capacity;
+for, although fastidious to a degree
+as to the quality of his own
+writings, it was always with a sore
+heart that he shut the door in the
+face of a needy contributor.</p>
+
+<p>The querulousness with which Campbell
+complains throughout, of the cruel
+treatment which he met with at the
+hands of the publishers, would be
+amusing if it were not at the same
+time most unjust. He acknowledges,
+in a letter written to Mr Richardson,
+so late as 1812, that the sale of his
+poems, for a series of years before, had
+yielded him, on an average, £500 per
+annum: not a bad annuity, we think,
+as the proceeds of a couple of volumes!
+We happen to know, moreover, that
+by the first publication of <em>Gertrude</em>
+Campbell made upwards of a thousand
+pounds; and, unless we are grievously
+misinformed, he received from Mr Murray,
+for the copyright of the <em>Specimens</em>,
+a similar sum, being double
+the amount contracted for. We have
+already mentioned the publication of
+a subscription edition of the <em>Pleasures
+of Hope</em>, "which," says Dr Beattie,
+"with great liberality on the part of the
+publishers, was to be brought out for
+his own exclusive benefit." We should
+not have alluded to these matters,
+which, however, we believe, are no
+secrets, but for the publication by Dr
+Beattie of some very absurd expressions
+used and reiterated by Campbell.
+Such phrases as the following constantly
+occur: "They are the greatest
+ravens on earth with whom we have to
+deal&mdash;liberal enough as booksellers go&mdash;but
+still, you know, ravens, croakers,
+suckers of innocent blood, and living
+men's brains." Nor, in the opinion
+of Campbell, were these outrages confined
+merely to the living subjects, for
+he says, in reference to the older
+tenants of Parnassus, "Poor Bards!
+you are all ill used, even after death,
+by those who have lived upon your
+brains. And now, having scooped
+out those brains, they drink out of
+them, like Vandals out of the skulls
+of the severed and slain, served up by
+a Gothic Ganymede!" Further, in
+speaking of Napoleon, he says, " Perhaps
+in my feelings towards the Gallic
+usurper there may be some personal
+bias; for I must confess that, ever
+since he shot the bookseller in Germany,
+I have had a warm side to him.
+It was sacrificing an offering, by the
+hand of genius, to the manes of the
+victims immolated by the trade; and
+I only wish we had Nap here for a
+short time, to cut out a few of our own
+cormorants." The fact is, that so far
+from Campbell being ill-used by the
+trade, they behaved towards him with
+uncommon liberality. It is true that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+in several instances, they hesitated in
+making high terms for work not yet
+commenced, with a man who was notoriously
+deficient in punctuality and
+perseverance; nor are they to be
+blamed, when we consider the number
+of his schemes, and the very few instances
+in which these were brought
+to maturity.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, then, though we
+cannot bestow unqualified praise upon
+Dr Beattie, for the manner in which
+he has compiled these volumes, we
+shall state that we have passed no
+unprofitable hours in their perusal.
+We rise from them with full appreciation
+of the many excellent points
+in the poet's character, with an augmented
+regard for his memory on
+account of the virtues so eminently
+displayed, and with no lessened reverence
+for the man in consequence of
+the admitted foibles from which none
+of the human family are exempt.
+The book may be practically useful to
+those who aspire to literary eminence,
+and who are apt to rely too confidently
+and implicitly on the powers
+with which they are naturally gifted.
+So long as Campbell was under restraint&mdash;so
+long as he was subjected
+to the wholesome discipline of the
+University, and forced into the race of
+emulation, we find that his genius
+was largely and rapidly developed.
+He was not a mere philological scholar,
+though his attainments in Greek might
+have put many a pedant to the blush;
+but he improved his sense of beauty
+and his taste by the contemplation of
+the Attic flowers; and, without injuring
+his style by any affectation
+of antiquity unsuited to the tone of
+his age, he adorned it by many of the
+graces which are presented by the
+ancient models. At Glasgow he
+worked hard and won merited honours.
+But afterwards, by abandoning
+himself to a desultory course of study
+and of composition, by never acting
+upon the wise and sure plan of keeping
+one object only steadily in view,
+and persevering in spite of all difficulties
+until that point was attained,&mdash;he
+failed in realising the high expectations
+which were justified by his
+early promise. As it is, Campbell's
+name is ranked high in the roll
+of the British poets; but assuredly
+he would have occupied a still more
+exalted place, and also have avoided
+much of that anxiety which at times
+clouded his existence, if he had used
+his fine natural gifts with but a
+portion of the energy and determination
+of his great compatriot, Scott.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion let us remark, that
+however Dr Beattie may have erred
+on the side of prolixity, by including
+in the compass of the memoirs some
+trifling and irrelevant matter, he is
+more than concise whenever it is
+necessary to allude to his own relationship
+with Campbell. He has
+made no parade whatever of his intimacy
+with the poet; and no stranger,
+in perusing these volumes, could discover
+that to Beattie Campbell was
+substantially indebted for many disinterested
+acts of friendship, which
+contributed largely to the comfort of
+his declining years. This modesty is
+a rare feature in modern biography;
+and, when it does occur so remarkably
+as here, we are bound to mention
+it with special honour.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>All over Europe, of late, we have
+been hearing a great deal of universities
+and students. The trencher-cap
+has claimed a right to take its part in
+the movements which make or mar
+the destinies of nations, by the side
+of plumed casque and priestly tiara.
+Whether it was the beer of the
+German burschen that "decocted
+their cold blood to such valiant heat,"
+or whether their practice in make-believe
+duels had imparted a savage
+appetite for foeman's blood in some
+more genuine combat, or whether
+Fichte's metaphysics had fairly muddled
+their brains into delirium, certain
+it is that they have, wheresoever
+they could find an opportunity, been
+foremost in the cause of demolition
+and disorder, vied with and encouraged
+the lowest of the rabble in
+lawless aggressions, exulted in the
+glow of blazing houses, and cried
+havoc to rapine and murder.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious that, while all this has
+been going on in Europe, the attention
+of the public should have been so
+much occupied by the condition of our
+English universities. Still more curious
+is it, perhaps, that so large a
+portion of the attention thus directed
+should have assumed an objurgatory
+tone, as if Oxford and Cambridge
+were not duly performing their functions,
+as if they were of a character
+suited only to bygone ages, as if, in
+short, they were doing nothing. True
+enough, in one sense, they were
+"doing nothing." There was no
+academical legion formed&mdash;none, at
+least, that we heard of&mdash;in Christchurch
+Meadows or Trinity Walks;
+no body of sympathising students
+marched to London, with the view of
+taking part in the democratic exhibitions
+of the 10th of April. If Cuffey
+is to be President of the British Republic,
+he must search for the body-guard
+of democracy elsewhere than on
+the banks of the Cam and the Isis.
+No doubt this excellent result is attributable,
+in a great measure, to the
+loyalty of the professional and middle
+classes, from which our university
+students principally spring. Their
+feelings will naturally be akin to those
+of their relations and friends. But
+when, in so many other instances, we
+see the academic population taking
+the lead in the work of revolution,
+beyond any spirit which exists among
+their kindred, and urged on by a
+democratic madness of purely academic
+growth, we cannot help holding
+that some credit on behalf of the loyalty
+of English students is due to the
+institutions by the influence of which
+they are surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>We are inclined to think that the
+public have not been sufficiently alive
+to this not unimportant difference
+between Oxford and Heidelberg&mdash;Cambridge
+and Vienna. Certes, but
+little account was taken of the peaceful
+bearing of our academic population.
+On the contrary, much supercilious
+wordiness has been lavished,
+more or less to the discredit of cap
+and gown, by portions of the London
+press in the lead, and, as a necessary
+consequence, by provincial journalists
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ad libitum</i>. This talk, current now
+for some years, was all concentrated
+and endued with new vigour by a
+movement of the University of Cambridge
+itself. The people who stop
+your way by talking of "progress,"
+and deal out dark rhodomontade on
+the subject of "enlightenment," were
+all set agog by what they thought
+a symptom of capitulation in the
+strongholds of the Ancient. All our
+old imbecile friends, the cant phrases
+of twenty and thirty years ago, started
+up as fresh as paint, ready to go
+through all the handling they had before
+endured. We heard of, "keeping
+alive ancient prejudices," "cleaving
+pertinaciously to obsolete forms,"
+"following a monastic rule," "forgetting
+the world outside their college
+walls," and multifarious twaddle of this
+sort, till the Pope fled from Rome,
+or some other little revolution occurred
+to withdraw the attention of the public
+from this set of phrases to another,
+no doubt not less forcible and original.
+Others, again, took a friendly tone and
+spoke apologetically: it was a great
+thing to get any move at all from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+university: those who took the lead
+in her management were not men who
+mixed with the world at large, and
+allowance must be made if they did
+not altogether march with the times.
+"The world at large" is an expression
+of very doubtful import: "all
+think their little set mankind:" but
+when the resident fellows of colleges
+are charged with not duly mixing with
+the world at large, we cannot help
+thinking that those who use the phrase
+are ignoring the existence of the Didcot
+Junction and Eastern Counties
+Railway, and borrowing their ideas of
+academic life from the time when
+Hobson travelled "betwixt Cambridge
+and the Bull." As far as our
+observation goes, we should say that
+there is no class of persons who have
+better opportunities of taking an extended
+view of different phases of
+social being, or who are more disposed
+to take advantage of those opportunities.
+A fellow of a college is not
+engaged much more than half the year
+in university business; for four months,
+at the very least, he generally has it
+in his power to expatiate where he
+will, from May Fair to Mesopotamia;
+he has no household ties to detain him,
+and if he does not rub off the lexicographic
+rust, and the mathematical
+mouldiness, which he may have contracted
+during his labours of the term,
+he must be possessed of a local attachment
+almost vegetable: some few
+instances of which secluded existence
+still linger in quiet nooks of our halls
+and colleges, but which are no more
+the types of their class than Parson
+Trulliber is a representative of the
+country clergy, or the stage Diggory
+of the English yeoman. But the self-complacency
+of Cockneyism is the
+most unshaken thing in this revolutionary
+age. It is perfectly ready to
+lecture the parson on the teaching of
+Greek, or the Yorkshire farmer on the
+fattening of bullocks. All the distributive
+machinery in the world does
+not diminish, it would seem, the absorption
+of intelligence by the Ward of
+Cheap.</p>
+
+<p>We are not, however, surprised that
+the conclusions, on which we have remarked,
+should be those arrived at by
+the large class of small observers
+whose phraseology we have quoted.
+The bustling man of business, who
+takes his day-ticket to Oxford or
+Cambridge, is of course struck by seeing
+a number of usages, for the original
+of which, if he inquire, he is
+referred back to hoar mediæval times&mdash;times
+which his Cockney guides dispose
+of by some such phrase as crass
+ignorance, or feudal barbarism. He
+is naturally surprised at such things;
+he never saw anything like it before;
+they don't do so in Mincing Lane, or
+even in Gower Street. He can hardly
+be expected to view these matters in
+their relation to the system of which
+they form a part; he can hardly be
+expected to realise in them the symbols
+through which the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">genius loci</i>
+finds an utterance and exerts an
+agency; and so he goes smiling home
+in his railway carriage, and perhaps
+buys a number of <cite>Punch</cite> by the way,
+and thinks that there is more practical
+wisdom in that periodical than is embodied
+in the great monuments of
+William of Wykeham or Lady Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, while we rebut these
+vague general charges of a blind impassibility
+to the influences of the
+time, we are far from denying that a
+tendency to cling to ancient ideas and
+observances is a characteristic of the
+universities. This tendency is a property
+of all corporate institutions,
+and is commonly the reason of their
+foundation. They are to perpetuate
+to a future time a feeling or design of
+the present; to form a nucleus, round
+which the thoughts and principles of
+one age congregate, and are thus
+handed down to another in a preserved
+and crystallised form. Changes of
+ideas pass upon them of necessity,
+through the individual liability of
+their constituent members to be
+affected by the current of the passing
+time; but these changes take place
+rather by a gradual fusion of the old
+into the new, than by those sudden
+transitions to which the popular and
+prevailing opinions are so often subjected.
+And it may fairly be supposed
+that, by means of this property,
+corporations are more likely to adopt
+and amalgamate into their framework
+that which is most permanent and
+genuine, out of all that the ever-changing
+tide of time casts upon the
+shore.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, too, this tenacity of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+bygone will more naturally be found
+to be a characteristic of the universities,
+than of other corporations. The
+spots which they occupy are holy
+ground, fraught with historic memories
+of the great and wise of former
+days. The <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">genius loci</i> is a mighty
+advocate in behalf of antiquity:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"As the ghost of Homer clings<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Round Scamander's wasting springs;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">As divinest Shakspeare's might<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Fills Avon and the world with light;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">&mdash;so we may not well pass unaffected
+by the congregation of priest, and
+poet, and sage, whose recollections
+consecrate the banks of our academic
+rivers. As we go beneath "Bacon's
+mansion," or about Milton's mulberry
+tree; as we kneel where Newton
+knelt, or dine in halls where the portraits
+of Erasmus, and Fisher, and
+Taylor, look down upon us,&mdash;these are
+not times and places for the dogmatism
+and arrogance of "the nineteenth
+century"&mdash;for bragging of our advance
+and illumination, or sneering at "the
+good old times." This is in accordance
+with the law of our nature; but
+these recollections, and the lessons
+which they teach, are not, if rightly
+laid hold of, such as to induce a mere
+blind attachment to the skeletons of
+dead notions and practices. And
+although it may, perhaps must, happen
+that, at any given time, there may
+be found relics adhering to the system,
+whose vitality and meaning have been
+withdrawn by time, and left them
+dry and sapless, yet we will venture
+to assert that, if a dogged adherence
+to antiquated forms could fairly be
+charged on the universities, they could
+never have maintained their ground
+amidst the mighty historical transmutations
+that have passed over their heads.
+Civil wars and popular tumults have
+raged around them; the throne has
+yielded to violence and to intrigue;
+the Church has admitted modifications,
+both of her doctrine and her discipline;
+and, more than all, the still
+more important, though silent and
+gradual changes&mdash;changes to which
+the striking and salient events of
+history are but the indexes and visible
+signs&mdash;changes of thought and rule of
+action&mdash;have risen and sunk, and
+ebbed and flowed, and still these stable
+monuments of the piety and munificence
+of men whose names are almost
+unknown, remain unshorn of their
+ancient vigour, and intimately entwined
+with our social system.</p>
+
+<p>But it is time that we should come
+to particulars, and make known to
+our readers, as briefly as we can, the
+nature of the alterations recently introduced
+at Cambridge, which have
+called forth so much objurgatory commendation
+from quarters, which were
+commonly considered to entertain
+tolerably destructive views in regard
+to the universities. We say objurgatory
+commendation, because the faint
+praise of a "move in the right direction"
+was generally more or less coupled
+with vigorous denunciation of the antiquated
+obstinacy which had so long
+kept in the wrong. And here we
+must premise the statement of certain
+qualities of the age in which we live,
+which will have fallen under the
+notice of all observers. Perhaps
+the most distinguishing feature of our
+time is the principle which forms
+the life and soul of retail trade&mdash;the
+principle which sets men to
+busy themselves about small and
+immediate returns for outlay; which
+looks more to the gains across the
+counter, than to the advantage which
+is general, or distant, or future. In a
+word, <em>practicality</em> is the ruling passion
+of our day. As might have been expected,
+education, among other things,
+has been subjected to this huckstering
+test. People have asked, what is the
+market value of this or that branch
+of learning? Will it get a boy on in
+the world? Will it enable him to
+provide for himself soon? Will the
+returns for the expenditure I am
+going to make be quick and certain?
+Cowper represents the father of a son
+intended for the church as speculating
+on his young hopeful's prospects after
+the following fashion:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Let reverend churls his ignorance rebuke,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Who starve upon a dog's-eared Pentateuch,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The parson knows enough who knows a duke."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">In these days the acquaintance of a
+duke is not of the same relative value
+as it was when Cowper wrote; but
+this sort of worldly-wise calculation
+is more prevalent than ever, and the
+cry of the largest class of the public
+is&mdash;give us such knowledge as will <em>pay</em>.
+Those who took this commercial view
+of education derived no small encouragement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+from the circumstance that
+Prince Albert, the learned field-marshal,
+and warlike chancellor of Cambridge
+University, had interfered
+to promote the culture of modern
+languages in these venerable precincts
+of Eton, where for many a
+year Henry's holy shade had watched
+the growth of an education of less obvious
+utility. How was young Thomas
+or William "the better off" for
+being able to con "the tale of Troy divine?"
+But teach him to mince a little
+French, simper a little Italian, snarl a
+little German, and there he is at once
+accomplished for an <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">attaché</i>, a correspondent,
+or a bagman&mdash;profitable
+walks of life all of them. And the same
+notions mounted still higher in the ascendant,
+when the senate of the University
+of Cambridge apparently evinced
+a desire to examine the requirements
+of that body by the same standard.</p>
+
+<p>The first step of this kind was taken
+about three years ago. Most of our
+readers are aware that, at Cambridge,
+those candidates for a degree who do
+not aspire to honours are said to go
+out in the <em>poll</em>; this being the abbreviated
+term to denote those who were
+classically designated �ι πολλοι. Now
+the qualifications required for attaining
+this poll degree consisted of an
+acquaintance with a part of Homer,
+a part of Virgil, a part of the Greek
+Testament, and Paley's <cite>Evidences of
+Christianity</cite>, over and above the mathematics,
+of which we shall speak
+presently. By what curious infelicity
+the recondite, and, in many particulars,
+inexplicable language of Homer
+has been so commonly selected for
+beginners in Greek at school, and,
+as in this case, for those who were not
+expected to appear as accomplished
+scholars&mdash;we need not here stop to
+inquire. Suffice it to say that the
+university, in this initial reform,
+ousted Homer and Virgil from the
+course, and supplied their places with
+a Latin and Greek author, to be varied
+in each successive year. This was
+decidedly an improvement, at least as
+regards Homer, for the reason we have
+alluded to above. Perhaps a better
+innovation would have been to have
+followed the Oxford system, and allowed
+to the student a choice of his
+author. But it is a great misfortune
+that the university, in recasting this
+course, did not substitute a work of
+some one of the logical or philosophical
+authors current in the English
+language, for the shallow and plausible
+book of Paley's above mentioned&mdash;with
+regard to which it would be
+difficult to say whether it is worse
+chosen as a model of reasoning, or as
+a proof of Christian facts.</p>
+
+<p>The mathematical portion of this
+course consisted of Euclid, algebra,
+and trigonometry, the student being
+thus trained in the model processes of
+pure mathematical reasoning left us
+by the first, and also brought acquainted
+with the elementary operations
+of analysis. As a matter of
+mental training, the most valuable
+portion of this curriculum was the
+knowledge acquired of the geometrical
+processes employed by Euclid, as
+familiarising the mind of the student
+with the severest forms of reasoning,
+and the steps whereby indubitable
+verity is attained. This portion, however,
+was most especially selected for
+curtailment by the reforms to which
+we are alluding. In the stead of the
+requirements thus displaced, a motley
+amount of elementary propositions
+in statics, dynamics, and hydrostatics,
+were substituted&mdash;useful information
+enough as instances of the simpler
+applications of the analytical machinery
+of mathematics, but comparatively
+worthless as an exercise of the
+mind. Country clergymen, whose
+forgotten mathematics loomed grandly
+on their minds through the mist of
+years, were confounded with disappointment
+at beholding their sons, in
+whom they expected to find philosophers,
+return to them with an examination
+paper, apparently rather calculated
+to unfold the mysteries of engineering,
+well-sinking, and carpentering.</p>
+
+<p>This object&mdash;the practicability and
+immediate utility of the studies pursued,
+in preference to the superiority
+of mental training derivable from
+them&mdash;seems to be simply that which
+has dictated the recent innovations of
+1848. The principle which entered
+into both measures may easily be
+traced in the prevalent phases of
+literature and science throughout the
+public at large. A few years ago,
+every one fancied himself a philosopher.
+Little volumes, cabinet cyclopædias
+and the like, swarmed on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+booksellers' shelves, containing a
+string of disjointed and bald scientific
+facts, involving no truth and expressive
+of no law, but more or less
+adroitly arranged under several heads,
+with a <em>savant</em> air. The man of business&mdash;the
+apprentice&mdash;the boarding-school
+miss&mdash;took it into their heads
+that a royal road was thus opened to
+all branches of useful and entertaining
+knowledge,&mdash;that the acquirements of
+Bacon were "in this wonderful age"
+brought within the reach of every one
+who had an occasional hour or two in
+the day to spare from more mechanical
+employments; and that the progress
+from ignorance to philosophy was as
+much facilitated by these little-book
+contrivances, as the journey from London
+to Birmingham, by the rushing
+railway-train, was an advance upon
+the week's toil of our forefathers in
+accomplishing the same space. Much
+of this mania for desultory knowledge
+has evaporated, but its influences are
+still distinctly to be traced among us.
+It is not surprising that those influences
+should in some measure have
+affected the universities. In accordance
+with the popular notions afloat,
+the Cambridge legislators followed up
+the alteration which we have been
+describing by the adoption of their
+recent measures, by which they
+effected an extension of their field of
+"honours" similar to that which they
+had already accomplished in the qualifications
+for the ordinary degree.
+To the old "triposes," or classes of
+honours in mathematics and classics,
+they have now added two more&mdash;namely,
+one in moral sciences and
+one in natural sciences.</p>
+
+<p>Before, however, we offer any conjectures
+as to the probable effect of
+these yet untried changes, we must
+remind our readers of a certain characteristic
+of the Cambridge system,
+which is important in estimating the
+internal relations of the late reforms.
+The academic life of Cambridge circulates
+through two concurrent systems,
+which we may term the university
+and the collegiate system.
+The university is one corporation, and
+each individual college is altogether
+another. The union between the two
+systems might be dissolved without
+difficulty. If the university were to
+abandon her ancient seat, and take
+up some new abode, as she did for a
+time at Northampton some centuries
+ago, the colleges might still remain
+as places of education, with but little
+modification of their present character.
+The older system&mdash;the university&mdash;has
+had its functions gradually
+absorbed in a great measure by the
+collegiate. The earliest form in which
+Cambridge appears, dimly seen in
+hoar antiquity, is that of a congregation
+of students, commonly living
+together for mutual convenience in
+hostels, governed by a code of statutes,
+and endowed with the privilege of
+granting degrees. Then came the
+founders of colleges, with their noble
+endowments, and reared edifices, in
+which societies of these students
+should live together under a common
+rule, and form distinct corporations
+by themselves, for purposes connected
+with, and auxiliary to, those of the
+university. The latter body has from
+time immemorial matriculated only
+those who were already members of
+some one or other of the colleges; but
+there probably was a time at which a
+student in the university was not
+necessarily a member of any college,
+until by degrees these foundations
+absorbed into their composition the
+whole of the academic population.
+By-and-by, the principal part of the
+functions of teaching also lapsed into
+the hands of the colleges. In the old
+times, the university discharged this
+duty by means of the public readings
+or lectures by the newly admitted
+masters of arts, (termed <em>regents</em>,) and
+by the keeping of acts and opponencies&mdash;being
+certain <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vivâ voce</i> disputations&mdash;by
+the students. To this system,
+comprehending the main studies of
+the place, was superadded, by individual
+endowment or royal beneficence,
+the collateral information on
+special subjects given by the professors.
+The colleges were altogether
+subsidiary to this mode of instruction&mdash;the
+practice being that every student
+who enrolled himself in the ranks of
+a particular college, must do so under
+the charge of some one of the fellows
+of the college, who became a kind of
+private tutor to him. Hence arose
+college tutors; and as their lectures,
+given in each separate college, were
+found to be the most efficient aids in
+prosecuting the university studies, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+readings of the masters of arts gradually
+fell altogether into disuse, and
+the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vivâ voce</i> exercises of the students
+have nearly done so.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly, along with the transfer of
+the functions of lecturing from the
+university regents to the college tutors,
+the professorial chairs may also have
+declined in importance as an element
+of the academic education. But, as we
+have before seen, these were never the
+main vehicle for the dispensation of
+knowledge on the part of the university.
+Nevertheless, we suspect that
+one object of the recently erected triposes
+is to revive the importance of
+the professors' lectures in the university
+course. For it is now required
+that every one who presents himself
+as a candidate for the ordinary or <em>poll</em>
+degree, shall have attended the lectures
+of some one of the professors at
+his individual choice; and these lectures
+will, moreover, be necessary
+guides in the studies required of those
+who aim at the honours of the new
+triposes. It seems clear, therefore,
+that the devisers of the scheme had it
+in contemplation, through the medium
+of their changes, to fill the class-rooms
+of the professors, and so far to assimilate
+the modern system to the ancient,
+by bringing the university instruction
+into more active play. We are disposed
+to question the wisdom of these
+proceedings. Until now, the university
+and the colleges had apportioned
+their several functions, by assigning
+to the latter the duty of imparting proficiency
+in the studies cultivated; to
+the former, that of testing proficiency
+attained. The two systems had
+thus harmonised, as we believe, in
+conformity with the requirements of
+the age by lapse of time; and if it
+was deemed desirable to disturb this
+arrangement, and restore the faculty
+of teaching to the university, this
+should rather have been done, we
+think, by reviving the system of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vivâ
+voce</i> disputations, now altogether disused
+except in the progress to a degree
+in law, physic, or divinity; but which
+would form, under proper regulations,
+an important adjunct to the ordinary
+course, by cultivating a decision, a
+readiness, and an ingenuity in reasoning,
+which are comparatively left dormant
+by a written examination. Again,
+it is, as we consider, altogether a mistake
+to suppose that the primary end
+of a professorial existence is to deliver
+lectures. The endowment of a professorship
+is rather, as we take it, to
+enable the holder of it to give up his
+time to the particular science to which
+he is devoted; and it is by no means
+necessary, especially in these days,
+when words are so easily winged by
+the printer's devil, that the results of
+his labours should be given forth by
+oral lectures. At the same time, when
+his subject, and his manner of treating
+it, were such as to command interest,
+he was at no loss for an audience. The
+professorships, however, being mostly
+established for the purpose of aiding
+the pursuit of the inductive sciences,
+side by side with the severer studies of
+the university, fell under the patronage
+of the spirit of the age. Whether
+the sciences, for the promotion of
+which they were founded, will be
+materially advanced by this sort of
+"protection," remains to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>It is likely enough, we think, that
+some confusion may arise from this
+revival of the lecturing powers of the
+university. This, however, will be
+easily obviated in practice, as the two
+systems have never, so far as we are
+aware, manifested anything like a
+mutual antagonism or jealousy of each
+other. A greater practical difficulty is
+one which appears to be left untouched
+by the new regime. We allude to
+the growing plan of instruction by
+private tutors&mdash;a calling which has
+sprang up, in the strictest principles of
+demand and supply, to meet the eagerness
+for external aid which has been
+induced by the great competition for
+university honours. The existence
+and increasing importance of the class
+of private tutors has been decried as an
+evil; and it, no doubt, enhances considerably
+the expenses attendant on a
+college education. But, after all, this
+is only part and parcel of the lot which
+has fallen to us in these latter days
+of merry England. There are so
+many of us, and we keep so constantly
+adding to our numbers, that
+we must not be surprised at more
+pushing and contrivance being required
+to realise a livelihood than heretofore;
+and as the end to be attained increases
+in its relative importance, the outlay
+attendant on its attainment will, in the
+ordinary course of things, be augmented<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+also. It is not our intention,
+however, to discuss at this time the
+merits or demerits of the private-tutor
+system; it suffices for our purpose to
+notice it as the reappearance, in another
+form, of the old functions of instruction,
+as lodged in the hands of the
+university regents. As the collegiate
+system gradually supplanted that
+pristine form, so the office of the
+private tutors is, to a certain extent,
+supplanting the collegiate system.
+These instructors are likely, as we before
+said, to occupy, under the new
+rules, much the same place as they
+held under the old; and indeed it
+appears that, whether desirable or not,
+it would be extremely difficult to get
+rid of them; at all events the colleges,
+being now trenched upon by the
+university professors on the one
+hand, and by the private tutors on
+the other, must exert themselves to
+ascertain their proper functions, and
+to fulfil them with zeal and energy.</p>
+
+<p>As for the new triposes themselves,
+it may be doubted whether the name
+given to them is not the most unfortunate
+part of them. The common
+name of Tripos looks like a confusion
+of ideas on the part of the university
+itself, and a want of discrimination
+between its old studies and its new.
+At first, probably, the recent triposes
+will be comparatively neglected, and
+on that ground alone it is both misjudging
+and unfair to include in the
+same category of "honours" and
+"tripos," classes which are respectively
+the subject of ardent competition
+and of none at all. But supposing
+that the new classes attracted
+their fair share of competitors, it
+would still be a grievous fault in the
+university to hold out to the world
+so false an estimate of the vehicle of
+mental training, as it would appear
+to do by placing on a par the new
+studies and the old&mdash;by assuming, or
+seeming to assume, that ratiocinative
+thought may be as well employed
+about the fallacies of Mr Ricardo, as
+the exact reasoning and indubitable
+verities of Euclid and Newton; or
+that the faculties of discrimination
+and speculation may be unfolded by
+the "getting up" of botanical or
+chemical nomenclature, not less than
+by the new world of thought opened
+through the authors of Greece and
+Rome. We must, however, confess
+that we are now taking the most
+unfavourable view of the matter.
+With respect, indeed, to the natural
+sciences' tripos, we cannot help being
+fully of opinion, that it should have
+been distinctly recognised as subsidiary
+to the main vehicles of education
+adopted at Cambridge. But the
+moral sciences' tripos furnishes, if
+properly constructed, an excellent
+means for training thought. It is a
+great misfortune that the study of
+Aristotle has been suffered at Cambridge
+to fall almost into desuetude:
+we speak of the philosophical study
+of his works in contradistinction to
+the philological. The former is
+maintained at Oxford with great
+success; thus combining, with Oxford
+scholarship, a training of the reasoning
+powers which is almost an equivalent
+for the mathematical studies
+of her sister university. Moreover,
+the literature of Great Britain boasts
+of a band of moral philosophers far
+greater than any other modern nation
+can produce. The works of Butler,
+Cudworth, Berkeley, Hume, Reid,
+and Stewart, with many others, form
+a group of authorities worthy of the
+groves of Academus. The metaphysics
+of Locke&mdash;we should rather
+say, the wall which Locke has built
+up between the English mind and the
+science of metaphysics&mdash;has too long
+prevented the moral reasoners of this
+country from duly availing themselves
+of the treasures at their command.
+Under the guidance of such lights as
+those we have enumerated, we may
+hope to see a school of metaphysical
+thinkers arise in England, whose exertions
+may dissipate the mist of
+half-thought in which Teutonic speculation
+has involved the science of its
+choice. If, however, the tap-root of
+our metaphysical thought is to be cut
+through by the study of the plausibilities
+of Locke and Paley, (no very
+unlikely issue, we should fear, at least
+under present circumstances,) then
+this moral sciences' tripos also is one
+of those things which had better never
+have been.</p>
+
+<p>We repeat that Cambridge has incurred
+great blame, if she has allowed
+herself to mislead, or to seem to mislead,
+the popular mind on these matters.
+The more talkative portion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+the public, and the newspapers which
+commonly represent that more talkative
+portion, have evidently been inclined
+to interpret this movement of
+Cambridge as an indication of a most
+utilitarian system of education coming
+to supplant the old rules. They
+anticipate all sorts of civil engineering,
+butterfly-dissecting, light geology,
+and a whole Babel of modern languages,
+to be victoriously let loose on
+the home where for many a century
+Wisdom has sat with the scroll of Plato
+on her knee, and Science has unravelled
+the wizard lore of fluxion and equation.
+The senate of Cambridge is
+egregiously mistaken if it supposes
+that it will win over to its body the
+students of these popular branches of
+knowledge, by following the dictation
+of the popular taste. Those who want
+to be civil engineers will not come to
+a university to learn their art. They
+will follow Brunel and Stephenson,
+and see how the work is actually done
+in practice; and those who do so will
+soon prove themselves far superior,
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">quoad</i> civil engineering, to the Cambridge-bred
+theorist. In like manner,
+a month's flirtation in Paris,
+or a few games at <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">écarté</i> with a
+German baron, will teach the student
+of modern languages more French
+or German than all the philologists
+of Oxford, Cambridge, or Eton can
+impart in a year.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+"Quam quisque nôrit artem, in hâc se exerceat."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noind">If the public have mistaken the functions
+of the university, it is the more
+incumbent on her to assert them correctly.
+Nor is the outcry less groundless,
+that the universities have failed
+to furnish the best men in law
+and medicine. With regard to the
+law, certain gentlemen were even cited
+by name, in leading articles of newspapers,
+as types of the class of men
+who were now taking the lead at the
+bar, and representing an altogether
+different school from that trained at
+the universities. The fact of the university
+men being supplanted, or being
+likely to be supplanted, at the bar,
+may admit of considerable question.
+But it is not, after all, the question
+by which the universities are to be
+judged. They do not undertake to
+make men great lawyers or skilful
+physicians; this, where it does belong
+to their functions, is a collateral duty,
+and not the main object of their training.
+That object is distinctly avowed
+in their own formularies. That noble
+clause in the "bidding prayer" will attach
+itself to the memories of most of
+those who have heard it:</p>
+
+<p>"<em>And that there never may be wanting
+a supply of persons duly qualified
+to serve God, both in Church and State</em>,
+let us pray for a blessing on all seminaries
+of sound learning and religious
+education, particularly the universities
+of this realm."</p>
+
+<p>A higher end to be attained, perhaps,
+than that of merely qualifying
+the student to "get on in the world."
+His university education is not so
+much to enable him to attain those
+eminent stations which are the prizes
+of ability and industry, as to fit him to
+adorn and fill worthily those stations
+when he has attained them. In truth,
+we think it is not desirable, any more
+than necessary, that a degree should
+be an essential opening to the bar, the
+profession of medicine, or even the
+Church. The university is injured by
+being too much regarded as a step to
+be got over with the view of reaching
+some ulterior end.</p>
+
+<p>We dwell on this point with the
+more interest, because we are satisfied
+that a still greater responsibility
+rests with the universities, to guard
+the fountains of knowledge pure and
+unsullied, in those days of professed
+knowledge, than in the so-called dark
+ages. Our day is rich in the knowledge
+of <em>facts</em>; there were many <em>truths</em>
+influencing those men of the times
+we please to call dark, which we have
+ignored or forgotten. The general
+demand for information&mdash;for this
+knowledge of facts&mdash;has made it a
+marketable commodity, a subject of
+commercial speculation; consequently,
+a vast deal that is shallow and desultory,
+a vast deal, too, that is counterfeit
+and fraudulent, is abroad, made
+up for the market, and circulates
+among multitudes who are incapable
+of separating the grain from the chaff.
+It is therefore, we repeat, even more
+important that the sources of learning
+should be guarded from contamination,
+now that the antagonistic principles
+are the knowledge of truth and the
+subserviency to falsehood, than when,
+at the revival of literature, the struggle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+was between knowledge and ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>We would have the universities remember
+that it is their best policy as
+corporations, as well as a duty they
+owe to those great medieval spirits
+who planted them where they stand,
+to own a better principle than that
+which would lead them to succumb to
+what is called popular opinion&mdash;in other
+words, the floating fallacy of the day&mdash;and
+aim at producing the shallow
+party leaders and favourite writers of
+the passing moment. They cannot
+control the frothy surface and the
+deep under-current at the same time.
+It would be a sacrifice to expediency
+which, after all, would not serve their
+turn. There are institutions which
+will do that work, and which will beat
+them in the race. Let all such take
+their own course.</p>
+
+<p>"Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his
+hoggish kinde:" let Stinkomalee train
+the statesmen for the League and the
+jokers for <cite>Punch</cite>,&mdash;but Oxford and
+Cambridge have other rôles.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, we are told there is a new
+aristocracy rising in England, and that
+the English universities are gaining no
+hold upon the coming generation of
+"chiefs of industry." It would be far
+better for our social condition that
+these same chiefs of industry should
+be educated men, and should pass
+through a training which might tend
+to neutralise the power of the mercantile
+iron in entering into their soul.
+But at present the race to be rich is
+so strong and hardly contested, that
+this class is hardly likely, in general,
+to devote their scions to academical
+studies of any description; and the
+merchant or manufacturer who came
+from the banks of Isis or Cam, at the
+age of twenty-one, to the Exchange
+or the Cloth-hall, would find himself
+starting under a most heavy disadvantage
+as compared with his neighbour
+of the same age, who had spent
+the last three or four years in a counting-house.
+The reason that this class
+is not commonly trained in the national
+seminaries, is to be sought in the
+habit and requirements of the class,
+and not in the nature of the education
+afforded them.</p>
+
+<p>We have spoken chiefly of Cambridge,
+because Cambridge has put
+herself forward as the representative
+of a system of so-called university reform&mdash;of
+a certain movement in the
+direction of that principle which would
+accommodate the education of our
+higher classes to the caprice of a popular
+cry or cant phrase. We care not
+so much whether that movement in
+itself be advantageous or the reverse:
+it is against the principles supposed
+to be involved in it that we protest.
+The report goes, that changes of some
+kind or other are contemplated at
+Oxford also. If these changes be
+made, we trust that they will not be
+devised in deference to the noisier
+portion of the public, or to that fondness
+for short-cuts to knowledge,
+which fritters away the energies of the
+rising man in the collection of desultory
+facts, and the dependence upon
+shallow plausibilities. The Scottish
+universities, too, are likely to be put
+to the test in the same manner as their
+sisters of the Southern kingdom; and
+the questions raised cannot be uninteresting
+to them.</p>
+
+<p>Nor, indeed, can the whole nation
+be otherwise than deeply concerned
+in this matter; and we are not surprised,
+at the interest which has been excited
+by the recent alterations at Cambridge,
+though not measures in themselves
+of any great importance. While
+we have contended for a higher ground
+on the part of the universities than
+that of merely finding such knowledge
+as is required by the popular taste,
+and happens to be most current in
+the market, and have called upon
+them to lead the public mind in these
+matters, we need hardly say that we
+must not be understood as failing to
+see the necessity of those institutions
+closely observing the shifting relations
+of our social equilibrium, and adapting
+their policy by judicious change, if
+need be, to the circumstances in which
+they find themselves. We might
+perhaps adduce the altered position of
+the Church with respect to the nation
+at large, as an instance of these
+changes. We have before hinted
+that the universities have, as we
+think, in some degree aimed at being
+too exclusively the training-schools
+of the clergy; and this circumstance,
+in our judgment, so far as England is
+concerned, has both narrowed the
+operations of the Church and the
+influence of the universities. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+Church and European civilisation&mdash;the
+latter having grown up under the
+tutelage of the former&mdash;stand no
+longer in the relation of nurse and
+bantling, though Heaven forbid that
+they should ever be other than firm
+friends and allies! But the Church
+is no longer the exclusive teacher of
+the world: mankind are in a great
+measure taught by books. Viewing
+the clergy not in respect of their
+sacerdotal functions, but as the instructors
+of mankind, we find their
+office shared by a motley crowd of
+authors, pamphleteers, newspaper
+editors, magazine contributors, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">quales
+nos vel Cluvienus</i>. It is incumbent,
+then, on the universities to consider
+how they may bring within the sphere
+of that control which they exercised
+in old times over the clergy, this
+mixed multitude of public instructors;
+how they may become not
+merely the schools of the clerical
+order, but also the nurseries of a future
+caste of literary men, who are to bear
+their part with that order in the coming
+development of human thought.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h2>THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN.</h2>
+
+<h3>BY DELTA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>[Making all allowances for the many over-coloured pictures, nay, often
+onesided statements of such apologetic chroniclers as Knox, Melville,
+Calderwood, and Row, it is yet difficult to divest the mind of a strong
+leaning towards the old Presbyterians and champions of the Covenant&mdash;probably
+because we believe them to have been sincere, and know
+them to have been persecuted and oppressed. Nevertheless, the liking
+is as often allied to sympathy as to approbation; for a sifting of motives
+exhibits, in but too many instances, a sad commixture of the chaff of
+selfishness with the grain of principle&mdash;an exhibition of the over and over
+again played game, by which the gullible many are made the tools of the
+crafty and designing few. Be it allowed that, both in their preachings from
+the pulpit and their teachings by example, the Covenanters frequently proceeded
+more in the spirit of fanaticism than of sober religious feeling; and
+that, in their antagonistic ardour, they did not hesitate to carry the persecutions
+of which they themselves so justly complained into the camp of the
+adversary&mdash;sacrificing in their mistaken zeal even the ennobling arts of architecture,
+sculpture, and painting, as adjuncts of idol-worship&mdash;still it is to be
+remembered, that the aggression emanated not from them; and that the rights
+they contended for were the most sacred and invaluable that man can possess&mdash;the
+freedom of worshipping God according to the dictates of conscience.
+They sincerely believed that the principles which they maintained were right:
+and their adherence to these with unalterable constancy, through good report
+and through bad report; in the hour of privation and suffering, of danger and
+death; in the silence of the prison-cell, not less than in the excitement of the
+battle-field; by the blood-stained hearth, on the scaffold, and at the stake,&mdash;forms
+a noble chapter in the history of the human mind&mdash;of man as an
+accountable creature.</p>
+
+<p>Be it remembered, also, that these religious persecutions were not mere
+things of a day, but were continued through at least three entire generations.
+They extended from the accession of James VI. to the English throne, (<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">testibus</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+the rhymes of Sir David Lyndsay, and the classic prose of Buchanan,)
+down to the Revolution of 1688&mdash;almost a century, during which many thousands
+tyrannically perished, without in the least degree loosening that tenacity
+of purpose, or subduing that <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">perfervidum ingenium</i>, which, according to
+Thuanus, have been national characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>As in almost all similar cases, the cause of the Covenanters, so strenuously
+and unflinchingly maintained, ultimately resulted in the victory of Protestantism&mdash;that
+victory, the fruits of which we have seemed of late years so readily
+inclined to throw away; and, in its rural districts more especially, of nothing
+are the people more justly proud than</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">&mdash;&mdash;"the tales<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of persecution and the Covenant,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noind">So says Wordsworth. These traditions have been emblazoned by the pens
+of Scott, M'Crie, Galt, Hogg, Wilson, Grahame, and Pollok, and by the
+pencils of Wilkie, Harvey, and Duncan,&mdash;each regarding them with the eye
+of his peculiar genius.</p>
+
+<p>In reference to the following stanzas, it should be remembered that, during
+the holding of their conventicles,&mdash;which frequently, in the more troublous
+times, took place amid mountain solitudes, and during the night,&mdash;a sentinel
+was stationed on some commanding height in the neighbourhood, to give warning
+of the approach of danger.]</p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">I.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ho! plaided watcher of the hill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">What of the night?&mdash;what of the night?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The winds are lown, the woods are still,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The countless stars are sparkling bright;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From out this heathery moorland glen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">By the shy wild-fowl only trod,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We raise our hymn, unheard of men,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To Thee&mdash;an omnipresent God!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">II.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Jehovah! though no sign appear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through earth our aimless path to lead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We know, we feel Thee ever near,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A present help in time of need&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Near, as when, pointing out the way,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For ever in thy people's sight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A pillared wreath of smoke by day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Which turned to fiery flame at night!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">III.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Whence came the summons forth to go?&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From Thee awoke the warning sound!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Out to your tents, O Israel! Lo!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The heathen's warfare girds thee round.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">&nbsp;</a></span>
+<span class="i0">Sons of the faithful! up&mdash;away!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The lamb must of the wolf beware;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The falcon seeks the dove for prey;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The fowler spreads his cunning snare!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">IV.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Day set in gold; 'twas peace around&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'Twas seeming peace by field and flood:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We woke, and on our lintels found<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The cross of wrath&mdash;the mark of blood.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lord! in thy cause we mocked at fears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We scorned the ungodly's threatening words&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beat out our pruning-hooks to spears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And turned our ploughshares into swords!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">V.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Degenerate Scotland! days have been<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy soil when only freemen trod&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When mountain-crag and valley green<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Poured forth the loud acclaim to God!&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fire which liberty imparts,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Refulgent in each patriot eye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, graven on a nation's hearts,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2"><em>The Word</em>&mdash;for which we stand or die!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">VI.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Unholy change! The scorner's chair<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is now the seat of those who rule;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tortures, and bonds, and death, the share<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of all except the tyrant's tool.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That faith in which our fathers breathed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And had their life, for which they died&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That priceless heirloom they bequeathed<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Their sons&mdash;our impious foes deride!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">VII.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">So We have left our homes behind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And We have belted on the sword,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And We in solemn league have joined,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yea! covenanted with the Lord,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Never to seek those homes again,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Never to give the sword its sheath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Until our rights of faith remain<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Unfettered as the air we breathe!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">VIII.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Thou, who rulest above the sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Begirt about with starry thrones,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Cast from the Heaven of Heavens thine eye<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Down on our wives and little ones&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From Hallelujahs surging round,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Oh! for a moment turn thine ear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The widow prostrate on the ground,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The famished orphan's cries to hear!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">&nbsp;</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="p2">IX.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And Thou wilt hear! it cannot be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That Thou wilt list the raven's brood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When from their nest they scream to Thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And in due season send them food;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It cannot be that Thou wilt weave<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The lily such superb array,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet unfed, unsheltered, leave<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy children&mdash;as if less than they!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">X.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We have no hearths&mdash;the ashes lie<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In blackness where they brightly shone;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We have no homes&mdash;the desert sky<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Our covering, earth our couch alone:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We have no heritage&mdash;depriven<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of these, we ask not such on earth;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our hearts are sealed; we seek in heaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For heritage, and home, and hearth!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">XI.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Salem, city of the saint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And holy men made perfect! We<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pant for thy gates, our spirits faint<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy glorious golden streets to see;&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To mark the rapture that inspires<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The ransomed, and redeemed by grace;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To listen to the seraphs' lyres,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And meet the angels face to face!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2">XII.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Father in Heaven! we turn not back,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Though briers and thorns choke up the path;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rather the tortures of the rack,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Than tread the winepress of Thy wrath.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let thunders crash, let torrents shower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Let whirlwinds churn the howling sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What is the turmoil of an hour,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To an eternal calm with Thee?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h2>THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The debates in the Cortes, and the
+increasing development of the civil war
+in Catalonia, have again called attention
+to the affairs of Spain. Three
+months ago we glanced at the state
+of that country, briefly and broadly
+sketching its political history since the
+royal marriages. The quarter of a
+year that has since elapsed has been a
+busy one in Spain. Two things have
+been clearly proved: first, that the
+Carlist insurrection is a very different
+affair from the paltry gathering of banditti,
+as which the Moderados and their
+newspapers so long persisted in depicting
+it; and, secondly, that the
+Madrid government are heartily
+repentant of their unceremonious
+dismissal of a British ambassador.
+Christina and her Camarilla scarcely
+know which most deeply to deplore&mdash;the
+intrusion of Cabrera or the expulsion
+of Bulwer.</p>
+
+<p>In Catalonia, we have a striking
+example of what may be accomplished,
+under most unfavourable
+circumstances, by one man's energy
+and talent. Nine months ago there
+was not a single company of Carlist
+soldiers in the field. A few irregular
+bands, insignificant in numbers, without
+uniform and imperfectly armed,
+roamed in the mountains, fearing to
+enter the plain, hunted down like
+wolves, and punished as malefactors
+when captured. To persons ignorant
+how great was the difference made by
+the fall of Louis Philippe in the
+chances of the Spanish Carlists, the
+cause of these never appeared more
+hopeless than in the spring of 1848.
+Suddenly a man, who for seven years
+had basked in the orange groves of
+Hyères, and listlessly lingered in the
+mountain solitudes of Auvergne,&mdash;reposing
+his body, scarred and weary
+from many a desperate combat, and
+recruiting his health, impaired by
+exertion and hardship&mdash;crossed the
+Pyrenees, and appeared upon the
+scene of his former exploits. The
+news of his arrival spread fast, but for
+a time found few believers. Cabrera,
+said the incredulous, who evacuated
+Spain at the head of ten thousand
+hardy and well-armed soldiers, because
+he would not condescend to a
+guerilla warfare, after having held
+towns and fortresses, and won pitched
+battles in the field&mdash;Cabrera would
+never re-enter the country to take
+command of a few hundred scattered
+adventurers. Others denied his presence,
+because he had not immediately
+signalised it by some dashing
+feat, worthy the conqueror of Morella
+and Maella. Various reports were
+circulated by those interested to discredit
+the arrival of the redoubted
+chief. He was ill, they said; he had
+never entered Spain or dreamed of so
+doing; he had come to Catalonia,
+others admitted, but was so disgusted
+at the scanty resources of his party,
+at the few men in the field, at the
+lack of arms, money, organisation,&mdash;of
+everything, in short, necessary for the
+prosecution of a war,&mdash;that he cursed
+the lying representations which had
+lured him from retirement, and was
+again upon the wing for France. The
+truth was in none of these statements.
+If Cabrera sounded a retreat in 1840,
+when ten thousand warlike and devoted
+followers were still at his orders,
+it was because the Carlist <em>prestige</em> was
+gone for a time, the country was
+exhausted by war, anarchy reigned in
+the camp, and he himself was prostrated
+by sickness. In seven years, circumstances
+had entirely changed; the
+country, galled by misgovernment and
+oppression, was ripe for insurrection;
+the intermeddling of foreign powers
+was no longer to be apprehended; and
+Cabrera emerged from his retirement,
+not expecting to find an army, or
+money, or organisation, but prepared
+to create all three. In various ingenious
+and impenetrable disguises
+he moved rapidly about eastern Spain;
+fearlessly entering the towns, visiting
+his old partisans, and reviving their
+dormant zeal by ardent and confident
+speech; giving fresh spirit to the
+timid, shaming the apathetic, and
+enlisting recruits. His unremitting
+efforts were crowned with success.
+Numbers of his former followers rallied
+round him; secret adherents of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+cause contributed funds; arms and
+equipments, purchased in France and
+England, safely arrived; officers of
+rank and talent, distinguished in former
+wars, raised their banners and
+mustered companies and even battalions;
+and soon Cabrera was strong
+enough to traverse Catalonia in all
+directions, and to collect from the inhabitants
+regular contributions, in
+almost every instance willingly paid,
+and gathered often within cannon-shot
+of the enemy's forts. He seemed
+ubiquitous. He was heard of everywhere,
+but more rarely seen, at least
+in his own character. In various assumed
+ones, not unfrequently in the
+garb of a priest, he accompanied small
+detachments sent to collect imposts;
+doing subaltern's rather than general's
+duty, ascertaining by personal observation
+the temper and disposition of
+the peasantry, and making himself
+known when a point was to be gained
+by the influence of his name and presence.
+His prodigious activity and
+perseverance wrought miracles in a
+country where those qualities by no
+means abound. Doubtless he has
+been well seconded, but his has been
+the master-spirit. The result of his
+exertions is best shown by a statement
+of the present Carlist strength
+in Catalonia. We have already
+mentioned what it was eight or nine
+months ago&mdash;a few hundred men,
+half-armed and ill disciplined, wandering
+amongst ravines and precipices.
+At the close of 1848, the Moderado
+papers, without means of obtaining
+correct information, estimated
+the Carlist army in Catalonia at 8000
+men. The Carlists themselves, whose
+present policy is rather to under-state
+their strength, admitted 10,000.
+Their real numbers&mdash;and the accuracy
+of these statistics may be relied upon&mdash;are
+12,000 bayonets and sabres,
+exclusive of small guerilla parties,
+known as <i>volantes</i>, and other irregulars.
+A large proportion of the 12,000 are
+old soldiers, who served in the last
+war; and all are well armed, equipped,
+and disciplined, and superior to their
+opponents in power of endurance, and
+of effecting those tremendous marches
+for which Spanish troops are celebrated.
+Regularly rationed and supplied
+with tobacco, they wait cheerfully till
+the military chest is in condition to
+disburse arrears. The curious in costume
+may like to hear something of
+their appearance. The brigade under
+the immediate orders of Cabrera wears
+a green uniform with black facings:
+Ramonet's men have dark blue jackets;
+there is a corps clothed <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">à l'Anglaise</i>, in
+scarlet coats and blue continuations,
+which is known as Count Montemolin's
+own regiment. The old <em>boina</em> or
+flat cap, and a sort of light, low-crowned
+shako, such as is worn by the
+French in Africa, compose the convenient
+and appropriate head-dress.
+With the important arms of artillery
+and cavalry, in which armies raised as
+this one has been are apt to be deficient,
+Cabrera is well provided. A
+number of guns were buried and otherwise
+concealed in Spain ever since the
+last war, and others have been procured
+from France. As to cavalry,
+the want of which was so frequently
+and severely felt by the Carlists during
+the former struggle, the Christinos will
+be surprised, one of these days, to find
+how formidable a body of dragoons
+their opponents can bring into the
+field, although at the present moment
+they have but few squadrons under
+arms. Nearly four thousand horses
+are distributed in various country districts,
+comfortably housed in farm and
+convent stables, and divided amongst
+the inhabitants by twos and threes.
+They are well cared for, and kept in
+good condition, ready to muster and
+march whenever required.</p>
+
+<p>What the Catalonian Carlists are
+now most in want of, is a centre of
+operations, a strong fortress&mdash;a Morella
+or a Berga&mdash;whither to retreat and
+recruit when necessary. That Cabrera
+feels this want is evident from the
+various attempts he has made to surprise
+fortified towns, with a view to
+hold them against the Christinos.
+Hitherto these attempts have been
+unsuccessful, but we may be prepared
+to hear any day of his having made
+one with a different result.</p>
+
+<p>When the general tranquillity of
+Europe brought Spanish dissensions
+into relief, a vast deal of romance was
+written in France, Spain, and England,
+in the guise of memoirs of
+Cabrera, and of other distinguished
+leaders of the civil war, and not a
+little was swallowed by the simple as
+historical fact. We remember to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+have seen the Convention of Bergara
+accounted for in print by a game at
+cards between Espartero and Maroto,
+who, both being represented as desperate
+gamblers, met at night at a
+lone farm-house between their respective
+lines, and played for the crown
+of Spain. Espartero won; and Maroto,
+more loyal as a gamester than to his
+king, brought over his army to the
+queen. This marvellous tale, although
+not exactly vouched for in the
+original English, was gravely translated
+in French periodicals; and the
+chances are that a portion of the
+French nation believe to the present
+hour that Isabella owes her crown to
+a lucky hit at <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">monté</i>. Fables equally
+preposterous have been circulated
+about Cabrera. Of his personal appearance,
+especially, the most absurd
+accounts have been published; and
+type and graver have furnished so many
+fantastical and imaginary portraits of
+him, that one from the life may have
+its interest. Ramon Cabrera is
+about five feet eight inches in height,
+square built, muscular, and active.
+He is rather round-shouldered; his
+hair is abundant and very black; his
+grayish-brown eyes must be admitted,
+even by his admirers, to have a cruel
+expression. His complexion is tawny,
+his nose aquiline; he has nothing remarkable
+or striking in his appearance,
+and is neither ugly nor handsome,
+but of the two may be accounted
+rather good-looking than otherwise.
+He has neither an assassin-scowl nor
+an expression like a bilious hyena,
+nor any other of the little physiognomical
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">agrémens</i> with which imaginative
+painters have so frequently embellished
+his countenance. His character,
+as well as his face, has suffered from
+misrepresentation. He has been depicted
+as a Nero on a small scale,
+dividing his time between fiddling
+and massacre. There is some exaggeration
+in the statement. Unquestionably
+he is neither mild nor merciful;
+he has shed much blood, and has
+been guilty of divers acts of cruelty,
+but more of these have been attributed
+to him than he ever committed. His
+mother's death by Christino bullets
+inspired him with a burning desire of
+revenge. The system of reprisals, so
+largely adopted by both sides, during
+the late civil war in Spain, will account
+for many of his atrocities, although
+it may hardly be held to
+justify them. But in the present contest
+he has hitherto gone upon a
+totally different plan. Mercy and
+humanity seem to be his device, as
+they are undoubtedly his best policy.
+His aim is to win followers, by clemency
+and conciliation, instead of
+compelling them by intimidation and
+cruelty. There is as yet no authenticated
+account of an execution occurring
+by his order. One man was
+shot at Vich by the troops blockading
+the place; but he was known as a spy,
+and was twice warned not to enter the
+town. He pretended to retire, made
+a circuit, tried another entrance, and
+met his death. As to Cabrera's having
+shot four or five officers for a plot
+against his life, as was recently reported
+in Spanish papers, and repeated
+by English ones, the tale is unconfirmed,
+and has every appearance of
+a fabrication. There is no doubt he
+finds it necessary to keep a tight hand
+over his subordinates, especially in
+presence of the recent defection of
+some of their number, whose treachery,
+however, is not likely to be very
+advantageous to the Christinos.
+The troops whom Pozas, Pons,
+Monserrat, and the other renegade
+chiefs induced to accompany
+them, have for the most part returned
+to their banners, and the queen
+has gained nothing but a few very
+untrustworthy officers. These, by
+one of the conditions of their desertion,
+her generals are compelled to employ,
+thus creating much discontent among
+those officers of the Christino army
+over whose heads the traitors are placed.
+The principal traitor, General Miguel
+Pons, better known as Bep-al-Oli, has
+been known as a Carlist ever since the
+rising in Catalonia in 1827, when he was
+captured by the famous Count d'Espagne,
+and was condemned to the galleys,
+as was his brother Antonio Pons,
+one of those whom Cabrera was lately
+falsely reported to have shot. After
+the death of Ferdinand, both brothers
+served under their former persecutor,
+who thought to extinguish their resentment
+by good treatment and promotion,
+in spite of which precaution
+a share in his assassination is pretty
+generally attributed to Antonio Pons.
+Bep-al-Oli is Catalan for Joseph-in-oil,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+or Oily Joe, a slippery cognomen,
+which his recent change of sides
+seems to justify. Still he is a model
+of consistency compared to many
+Spanish officers, who have changed
+sides half-a-dozen times in the last
+fifteen years. And, indeed, after
+one-and-twenty years' stanch and
+active Carlism, the sincerity of Bep's
+conversion may perhaps be considered
+dubious. It would be no way surprising
+if he were to return to his
+first love, carrying with him, of
+course, the large sum for which he
+was bought. Another chief, Monserrat,
+passed over to the Christinos
+with two or three companions, and
+the very next week he had the misfortune
+to fall asleep, whereupon the
+better half of his band took advantage
+of his slumbers to go back to their
+colours, much comforted by the
+gratuities they had received for changing
+sides. When Monserrat awoke,
+he was furious at this defection, and
+instantly pursued his stray sheep.
+Not having been heard of since, it is
+not unlikely he may ultimately have
+followed their example. Of course,
+money is the means employed to
+seduce these fickle partisans. They
+are all bought at their own price,
+which rate is generally so high as to
+preclude profit. The cash-keepers at
+Madrid will soon get tired of such
+purchases. The regular expenses of
+the war are enormous, without squandering
+thousands for a few days' use
+of men who cannot be depended upon.
+It is notorious that immense offers
+were made to Cabrera to induce him
+to abandon the cause of Charles VI.,
+of which he is the life and soul. Gold,
+titles, rank, governorships, have been
+in turn and together paraded before
+him, but in vain. <em>He</em> would indeed
+be worth buying, at almost any
+price; for he could not be replaced,
+and his loss would be a death-blow
+to the Carlist cause. Knowing
+this, and finding him incorruptible,
+it were not surprising if certain unscrupulous
+persons at Madrid sought
+other means of removing him from
+the scene. Cabrera, aware of the
+great importance of his life, very
+prudently takes his precautions. He
+has done so, to some extent, at
+various periods of his career. During
+the early portion of his exile in
+France, when that country, especially
+its southern provinces, swarmed with
+Spanish emigrants, many of whom
+had deep motives for hating him&mdash;whilst
+others, needy and starving,
+and inured to crime and bloodshed,
+might have been tempted to knife him
+for the contents of his pockets&mdash;the
+refugee chief wore a shirt of mail beneath
+his sheepskin jacket. He had
+also a celebrated pair of leathern
+trousers, which were generally believed
+to have a metallic lining.
+And, at the present time, report says
+that his head is the only vulnerable
+part of his person.</p>
+
+<p>In presence of their Catalonian
+anxieties, of Cabrera's rapidly increasing
+strength, and of the impotence
+of Christino generals, who
+start for the insurgent districts with
+premature vaunts of their triumphs,
+and return to Madrid, baffled and
+crestfallen, to wrangle in the senate
+and divulge state secrets&mdash;the Narvaez
+government is secretly most
+anxious to make up its differences
+with England. This anxiety has been
+made sufficiently manifest by the
+recent discussions in the Cortes.
+Notwithstanding his assumed indifference
+and vain-glorious self-gratulation,
+the Duke of Valencia would
+gladly give a year's salary, perquisites,
+and plunder, to recall the impolitic act
+by which a British envoy was expelled
+the Spanish capital. Señor
+Cortina, the Progresista deputy, after
+denying that there were sufficient
+grounds for Sir Henry Bulwer's dismissal,
+and lamenting the rupture
+that has been its consequence, politely
+advised Narvaez to resign office, as
+almost the only means of repairing
+the dangerous breach. The recommendation,
+of course, was purely
+ironical. General Narvaez is the
+last man to play the Curtius, and
+plunge, for his country's sake, into the
+gulf of political extinction. In his
+scale of patriotism, the good of Spain
+is secondary to the advantage of
+Ramon Narvaez. We can imagine
+the broad grins of the Opposition, and
+the suppressed titter of his own
+friends, upon his having the face to
+declare, that, when the French Revolution
+broke out, he was actually
+planning a transfer of the reins of
+government into the hands of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+Progresistas. The bad example of
+democratic France frustrated his disinterested
+designs, changed his benevolent
+intentions, and compelled him
+to transport and imprison, by wholesale,
+the very men towards whom, a
+few weeks previously, he was so magnanimously
+disposed. Returns of
+more than fifteen hundred persons,
+thus arbitrarily torn from their homes
+and families, were moved for early in
+the session; but only the names were
+granted, the charges against them
+being kept secret, in order not to give
+the lie to the ministerial assertion
+that but a small minority were condemned
+for political offences. As to
+the dispute with England, although
+Narvaez' pride will not suffer him to
+admit his blunder and his regrets,
+many of his party make no secret of
+their desire for a reconciliation at any
+price; fondly believing, perhaps, that
+it would be followed, upon the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">amantium
+iræ</i> principle, by warmer love
+and closer union than before. The
+slumbers of these <i>ojalatero</i> politicians
+are haunted by sweet visions of a
+British steam-flotilla cruising off the
+Catalonian coast, of Carlist supplies
+intercepted, of British batteries mounted
+on the shores of Spain, and manned
+by British marines&mdash;the sight of
+whose red jackets might serve, at a
+pinch, to bolster up the wavering
+courage of a Christino division&mdash;and
+of English commodores and artillery-colonels
+supplying such deficient
+gentlemen as Messrs Cordova and
+Concha with the military skill which,
+in Spain, is by no means an indispensable
+qualification for a lieutenant-general's
+commission. Doubtless, if the
+alliance between Lord Palmerston and
+Queen Christina had continued, we
+should have had something of this
+sort, some more petty intermeddling
+and minute military operations, consumptive
+of English stores, and discreditable
+to English reputation. As
+it is, there seems a chance of the
+quarrel being fairly fought out; of
+the Spaniards being permitted to
+settle amongst themselves a question
+which concerns themselves alone. If
+the Carlists get the better of the
+struggle, (and it were unsafe to give
+long odds against them,) it is undeniable
+that they began with small resources,
+and that their triumph will
+have been achieved by their own
+unaided pluck and perseverance.</p>
+
+<p>Puzzled how to make his peace
+with England, without too great mortification
+to his vanity and too great
+sacrifice of what he calls his dignity,
+Narvaez falls back upon France, and
+does his best to curry favour there by
+a fulsome acknowledgment of the
+evils averted from Spain by the
+friendly offices of Messrs Lamartine
+and Bastide, and of "the illustrious
+General Cavaignac." The fact is,
+that during the first six months of the
+republic, nobody in France had leisure
+to give a thought to Spain, and Carlists
+and Progresistas were allowed
+to concert plans and make purchases
+in France without the slightest molestation.
+At last, General Cavaignac,
+worried by Sotomayor&mdash;and partly,
+perhaps, through sympathy with his
+brother-dictator, Narvaez&mdash;sent to
+the frontier one Lebrière, a sort of
+thieftaker or political Vidocq, who
+already had been similarly employed
+by Louis Philippe. This man was to
+stir up the authorities and thwart the
+Carlists, and at first he did hamper
+the latter a little; but whether it was
+that he was worse paid than on his
+former mission&mdash;Cavaignac's interest
+in the affair being less personal than
+that of the King of the French&mdash;or
+that some other reason relaxed his
+activity, he did not long prove efficient.
+Then came the elections, and
+the success of Louis Napoleon was
+unwelcome intelligence to the Madrid
+government&mdash;it being feared that old
+friendship might dispose him to favour
+Count Montemolin as far as lay in his
+power: whereupon&mdash;the influence of
+woman being a lever not unnaturally
+resorted to by a party which owes its
+rise mainly to bedchamber intrigue
+and to the patronage of Madame
+Muñoz&mdash;the notable discovery was
+made that the Duchess of Valencia (a
+Frenchwoman by birth) is a connexion
+of the Buonaparte family, and
+her Grace was forthwith despatched
+to Paris to exercise her coquetries and
+fascinations upon her far-off cousin,
+and to intrigue, in concert with the
+Duke of Sotomayor, for the benefit
+of her husband's government. The
+result of her mission is not yet apparent.
+Putting all direct intervention
+completely out of the question, France<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+has still a vast deal in her power in
+all cases of insurrection in the northern
+and eastern provinces of Spain.
+A sharp look-out on the frontier,
+seizure of arms destined for the insurgents,
+and the removal of Spanish
+refugees to remote parts of France,
+are measures that would greatly harass
+and impede Carlist operations; much
+less so now, however, than three or
+four months ago. Most of the emigrants
+have now entered Spain; and
+horses and arms&mdash;the latter in large
+numbers&mdash;have crossed the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the middle of January, the
+Montemolinist insurrection was confined
+to Catalonia, where alone the
+insurgents were numerous and organised.
+This apparent inactivity in
+other districts, where a rising might
+be expected, was to be attributed to
+the season. The quantity of snow
+that had fallen in the northern provinces
+was a clog upon military operations.
+About the middle of the
+month, a thousand men, including three
+hundred cavalry, made their appearance
+in Navarre, headed by Colonel
+Montero, an old and experienced officer
+of the peninsular war, who served on the
+staff so far back as the battle of Baylen.
+This force is to serve as a nucleus.
+The conscription for 1849 has been
+anticipated; that is to say, the young
+soldiers who should have joined their
+colours at the end of the year, are
+called for at its commencement; and
+it is expected that many of these conscripts,
+discontented at the premature
+summons, will prefer joining the Carlists.
+When the weather clears, it is
+confidently anticipated that two or
+three thousand hardy recruits will
+make the valleys of Biscay and Navarre
+ring once more with their Basque
+war-cries, headed by men whose
+names will astonish those who still
+discredit the virtual union of Carlists
+and Progresistas.</p>
+
+<p>The masses of troops sent into
+Catalonia have as yet effected literally
+nothing, not having been able to prevent
+the enemy even from recruiting
+and organising. General Cordova
+made a military promenade, lost a few
+hundred men&mdash;slain or taken prisoners
+with their brigadier at their head&mdash;and
+resigned the command. He has
+been succeeded by Concha, a somewhat
+better soldier than Cordova, who
+was never anything but a parade
+butterfly of the very shallowest capacity.
+Concha has as yet done little more
+than his predecessor, (his reported
+victory over Cabrera between Vich
+and St Hippolito was a barefaced invention,
+without a shadow of foundation,)
+although his force is larger than Cordova's
+was, and his promises of what
+he <em>would</em> do have been all along most
+magnificent. Already there has been
+talk of his resignation, which doubtless
+will soon occur, and Villalonga is
+spoken of to succeed him. This general,
+lately created Marquis of the Maestrazgo
+for his cruelty and oppression
+of the peasantry in that district, will
+hardly win his dukedom in Catalonia,
+although dukedoms in Spain are now to
+be had almost for the asking. Indeed,
+they have become so common that,
+the other day, General Narvaez,
+Duke of Valencia, anxious for distinction
+from the vulgar herd, was about
+to create himself prince; but having
+unfortunately selected Concord for his
+intended title, and the accounts from
+Catalonia being just then anything
+but peaceable, he was fain to postpone
+his promotion till it should be more
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">de circonstance</i>. The Prince of Concord
+would be a worthy successor to
+the Prince of the Peace. Spain was
+once proud of her nobility and choice
+of her titles. Alas! how changed are
+the times! What a pretty list of
+grandees and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">titulos de Castilla</i> the
+Spanish peerage now exhibits! Mr
+Sotomayor, the other day a bookseller's
+clerk, then sub-secretary in a
+ministry, then understrapper to Gonzales
+Bravo, now duke and ambassador
+at Paris! What a successor
+to the princely and magnificent envoys
+of a Philip and a Charles!
+And Mr Sartorius, lately a petty
+jobber on the Madrid Bolsa, is now
+Count of St Louis, secretary of state,
+&amp;c.! When the Legion of Honour
+was prostituted in France by lavish
+and indiscriminate distribution, and
+by conversion into an electioneering
+bribe and a means of corruption, many
+old soldiers, who had won their cross
+upon the battle-fields of the Empire,
+had the date of its bestowal affixed
+in silver figures to their red ribbon.
+The old nobility of Spain must soon
+resort to a similar plan, and sign their
+date of creation after their names, if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+they would be distinguished from the
+horde of disreputable adventurers on
+whom titles have of late years been
+infamously squandered.</p>
+
+<p>When the Madrid government has
+performed its promise, so often repeated
+during the last six months, of
+extinguishing the Carlists and restoring
+peace to Spain, we hope those ill-treated
+gentlemen in the city of London,
+who, from time to time, draw up
+a respectful representation to General
+Narvaez on the subject of Spanish
+debts&mdash;a representation which that
+officer blandly receives, and takes an
+early opportunity of forgetting&mdash;will
+pluck up courage and sternly urge the
+Duke of Valencia and the finance
+minister of the day to apply to the
+liquidation of Spanish bondholders'
+claims a part, at least, of the resources
+now expended on military operations.
+Forty-five millions of reals, about
+half-a-million of pounds sterling, are
+now, we are credibly informed, the
+monthly expenditure of the war department
+of Spain. That this is
+squeezed out of the country, by some
+means or other, is manifest, since nobody
+now lends money to Spain. A
+very large part of this very considerable
+sum being expended in Catalonia,
+goes into the pockets of the inhabitants
+of that province, who pay it
+over to the Carlists in the shape of
+contributions, and still make a profit
+by the transaction&mdash;so that they are
+in no hurry to finish the war; and
+Catalonia presents at this moment
+the singular spectacle of two contending
+armies paid out of the same military
+chest. But Spain is the country
+of anomalies; and nothing in the conduct
+of Spaniards will ever surprise us,
+until we find them, by some extraordinary
+chance, conducting their affairs
+according to the rules of common
+sense and the dictates of ordinary
+prudence.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center space-above"><em>Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.</em></p>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "Amongst the Caucasian tribes, the interest of Europe has attached itself
+especially to the Circassians, because they are regarded (in Urquhart's words) 'as
+the only people, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, ever ready to revenge an
+injury and retort a menace proceeding from the Czar of the Muscovites.' Urquhart's
+opinion, which is shared by the great majority of the European public, is not
+quite correct, the Circassians not being the only combatants against Russia. Indeed
+it so happens that, for the last four years, they have kept tolerably quiet in their
+mountains, contenting themselves with small forays into the Cossack country on the
+Kuban; whilst the warlike Tshetshens in the eastern Caucasus, their chief, Chamyl,
+at their head, have given the Russian army much more to do. But, in the absence of
+official intelligence, and of regular newspaper information concerning the events of
+the war, people in Europe have got accustomed to admire and praise the Circassians
+as the only defenders of Caucasian freedom against Russian aggression; and
+even in St Petersburg the intelligent public hold the famous Chamyl to be chief
+of the Circassians, with whom he has nothing whatever to do."&mdash;<cite>Der Kaukasus</cite>,
+&amp;c., vol. ii. p. 22-3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> "It must be admitted that Russian officers are second to those of no other nation,
+in thirst for distinction, and in honourable ambition, to awaken and stimulate which,
+innumerable means are employed. In no other army are the rewards for those officers
+who distinguish themselves in the field of so many kinds, and so lavishly dealt
+out. There are all manner of medals and marks for good service&mdash;crosses and stars of
+Saints George, Stanislaus, Vladimir, Andrew, Anna, and other holy personages; some
+with crowns, some with diamonds, peculiar distinctions on the epaulets and uniforms,
+&amp;c. &amp;c. I was once in a distinguished society, composed almost entirely of officers
+of the army of the Caucasus. Not finding very much amusement, I had the patience to
+count all the orders and decorations in the room, and found that upon the breasts of
+the thirty-five military guests, there glittered more than two hundred stars, crosses,
+and medals; on some of the generals' coats were more orders than buttons. As it
+usually happens, the desire for these distinctions increases with their possession.
+The Russian who has obtained a medal leaves no stone unturned to get a knight's
+cross, and when the cross is at his button-hole, he is ravenous for the glittering star,
+and ready to make any sacrifice to obtain it."&mdash;<cite>Der Kaukasus</cite>, &amp;c., vol. ii. p. 98.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The reference in this instance is more particularly to the land of the Ubiches
+and Tchigetes, two tribes that abide south of Circassia Proper, and whose language
+differs from those of the Circassians and Abchasians, their neighbours to the
+north and south. The general medium of conversation amongst the various Caucasian
+tribes is the Turkish-Tartar dialect, current amongst most of the dwellers on the
+shores of the Black and Caspian Seas.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Longworth's <cite>Circassia</cite>, vol. i. p. 1589.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This certainly cannot be said of Cumberland generally, one of the most beautiful
+counties in Great Britain. But the immediate district to which Mr Caxton's exclamation
+refers; if not ugly, is at least savage, bare, and rude.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <cite>The New statistical Account of Scotland.</cite> In 15 vols. Edinburgh, 1845.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Schlozer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> "It is said that a woman in Benbecula went at night to the Sandbanks, to dig
+for some roe used for dyeing a red colour, against her husband's will; that, when
+she left her house, she said with an oath she would bring some of it home, though
+she knew there was a regulation by the factor and magistrates, prohibiting people
+to use it or dig for it, by reason that the sandbanks, upon being excavated, would be
+blown away with the wind. The woman never returned home, nor was her body
+ever found. It was shortly thereafter that the meteor was first seen; and it is said
+that it is the ghost of the unfortunate and profane woman that appears in this shape."&mdash;<cite>New
+Statistical Account</cite>, "Inverness," p. 184.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Hogel</span>, <cite>Entwurf zur Theorie der Statistik</cite>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <cite>The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland.</cite> Illustrated by <span class="smcap">R. W.
+Billings</span>, and <span class="smcap">William Burn</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Prospectus <cite>Parochiale Scoticanum</cite>, now editing by <span class="smcap">Cosmo Innes</span>, Esq., Advocate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Burke.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <cite>Memoires sur le Duc de Berry.</cite></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Alison.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Chateaubriand.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See <cite>Blackwood's Magazine</cite>, for January 1845, and for October 1846</p></div></div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="tn"><h3>Transcriber's note:</h3>
+<p>Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed.</p>
+
+<p>Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where the missing quote should be placed.</p>
+
+<p>The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
+65, No. 400, February, 1849, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, FEB 1849 ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 65,
+No. 400, February, 1849, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 65, No. 400, February, 1849
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: December 4, 2013 [EBook #44344]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, FEB 1849 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Library of Early Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+Text enclosed by plus signs indicates Greek transliteration
+(+Ai, ai+).
+
+Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+  NO. CCCC.      FEBRUARY, 1849.      VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS,                          129
+
+  THE CAXTONS. PART X.,                               147
+
+  STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND,                   162
+
+  THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART,             175
+
+  AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS,          190
+
+  DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO,                            202
+
+  MODERN BIOGRAPHY.--BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL,      219
+
+  THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS,         235
+
+  THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN. BY DELTA,              244
+
+  THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA,                          248
+
+
+  EDINBURGH:
+  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET:
+  AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
+
+  _To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._
+
+  SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+  PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+  NO. CCCC.       FEBRUARY, 1849.       VOL. LXV.
+
+
+
+
+CAUCASUS AND THE COSSACKS.
+
+     _Der Kaukasus und das Land der Kosaken in den Jahren 1843 bis
+     1846._ Von MORITZ WAGNER. 2 vols. Dresden und Leipzig, 1848.
+
+
+A handful of men, frugal, hardy, and valiant, successfully defending
+their barren mountains and dearly-won independence against the
+reiterated assaults of a mighty neighbour, offer, apart from
+political considerations, a deeply interesting spectacle. When, upon
+a map of the world's eastern hemisphere, we behold, not far from its
+centre, on the confines of barbarism and civilisation, a spot, black
+with mountains, and marked "Circassia;" when we contrast this petty
+nook with the vast territory stretching from the Black Sea to the
+Northern Ocean, from the Baltic to Behring's Straits, we admire and
+wonder at the inflexible resolution and determined gallantry that
+have so long borne up against the aggressive ambition, iron will,
+and immense resources of a czar. Sixty millions against six hundred
+thousand--a hundred to one, a whole squadron against a single
+cavalier, a colossus opposed to a pigmy--these are the odds at
+issue. It seems impossible that such a contest can long endure. Yet
+it has lasted twenty years, and still the dwarf resists subjugation,
+and contrives, at intervals, to inflict severe punishment upon his
+gigantic adversary. There is something strangely exciting in the
+contemplation of so brave a struggle. Its interest is far superior
+to that of any of the "little wars" in which Europe, since 1815,
+has evaporated her superabundant pugnacity. African raids and
+Spanish skirmishes are pale affairs contrasted with the dashing
+onslaughts of the intrepid Circassians. And, in other respects than
+its heroism, this contest merits attention. As an important section
+of the huge mountain-dyke, opposed by nature to the south-eastern
+extension of the Russian empire, Circassia is not to be overlooked.
+On the rugged peaks and in the deep valleys of the Caucasus, her
+fearless warriors stand, the vedettes of southern Asia, a living
+barrier to the forward flight of the double eagle.
+
+Matters of pressing interest, nearer home, have diverted public
+attention from the warlike Circassians, whose independent spirit and
+unflinching bravery deserves better than even temporary oblivion.
+Not in our day only have they distinguished themselves in freedom's
+fight. Surrounded by powerful and encroaching potentates, their
+history, for the last five hundred years, records constant struggles
+against oppression. Often conquered, they never were fully subdued.
+Their obscure chronicles are illumined by flashes of patriotism
+and heroic courage. Early in the fifteenth century, they conquered
+their freedom from the Georgian yoke. Then came long wars with the
+Tartars, who could hardly, perhaps, be considered the aggressors,
+the Circassians having overstepped their mountain limits, and spread
+over the plains adjacent to the Sea of Azov. In 1555, the Russian
+grand-duke, Ivan Vasilivitch, pressed forward to Tarki upon the
+Caspian, where he placed a garrison. A Circassian tribe submitted
+to him; he married the daughter of one of their princes, and
+assisted them against the Tartars. But after a while the Russians
+withdrew their succour; and the Circassians, driven back to the
+river Kuban, their natural boundary to the north-west, paid tribute
+to the Tartars, till the commencement of the eighteenth century,
+when a decisive victory liberated them. Meanwhile Russia strode
+steadily southwards, reached the Kuban in the west, whilst, in the
+east, Tarki and Derbent fell, in 1722, into the hands of Peter
+the Great. The fort of Swiatoi-Krest, built by the conqueror, was
+soon afterwards retaken by a swarm of fanatical mountaineers from
+the eastern Caucasus. It is now about seventy years since Russian
+and Circassian first crossed swords in serious warfare. A fanatic
+dervise, who called himself Sheikh Mansour, preached a religious war
+against the Muscovites; but, although followed with enthusiasm, his
+success was not great, and at last he was captured and sent prisoner
+into the interior of Russia. With his fall the furious zeal of the
+Caucasians subsided for a while. But the Turks, who viewed Circassia
+as their main bulwark against the rapidly increasing power of their
+dangerous northern neighbour, made friends of the mountaineers, and
+stirred them up against Russia. The fortified town of Anapa, on the
+north-west coast of Circassia, became the focus of the intercourse
+between the Porte and its new allies. The creed of Mahomet was
+actively propagated amongst the Circassians, whose relations with
+Turkey grew more and more intimate, and in the year 1824 several
+tribes took oath of allegiance to the sultan. In 1829, during the
+war between Russia and Turkey, Anapa, which had more than once
+changed hands in the course of previous contests, was taken by the
+former power, to whom, by the treaty of Adrianople, its possession,
+and that of the other Turkish posts on the same coast, was finally
+conceded. Hence the chief claim of Russia upon Circassia--although
+Circassia had never belonged to the Turks, nor been occupied by
+them; and from that period dates the war that has elicited from
+Russia so great a display of force against an apparently feeble, but
+in reality formidable antagonist--an antagonist who has hitherto
+baffled her best generals, and picked troops, and most skilful
+strategists.
+
+The tribes of the Caucasus may be comprehended, for the sake of
+simplicity, under two denominations: the Tcherkesses or Circassians,
+in the west, and the Tshetshens in the east. In loose newspaper
+statements, and in the garbled reports of the war which remote
+position, Russian jealousy, and the peculiarly inaccessible
+character of the Caucasians, suffer to reach us, even this broad
+distinction is frequently disregarded.[1] It is nevertheless
+important, at least in a physiological point of view; and, even
+as regards the resistance offered to Russia, there are differences
+between the Eastern and the Western Caucasians. The military tactics
+of both are much alike, but the character of the war varies. On
+the banks of the Kuban, and on the Euxine shores, the strife has
+never been so desperate, and so dangerous for the Russians, as
+in Daghestan, Lesghistan, and the land of the Tshetshens. The
+Abchasians, Mingrelians, and other Circassian tribes, dwelling on
+the southern slopes of Caucasus, and on the margin of the Black Sea,
+are of more peaceable and passive character than their brethren
+to the North and East. The Tshetshens, by far the most warlike
+and enterprising of the Caucasians, have had the ablest leaders,
+and have at all times been stimulated by fierce religious zeal.
+As far back as 1745, Russian missionaries were sent to the tribe
+of the Osseti, who had relapsed from Christianity to the heathen
+creed of their forefathers. Every Osset who presented himself at
+the baptismal font received a silver cross and a new shirt. The
+bait brought thousands of the mountaineers to the Russian priests,
+who contented themselves with the outward and visible sign of
+conversion. These propagandist attempts enraged the Mahomedan
+tribes, and then it was that they thronged around Sheikh Mansour,
+as they have done in our day (in 1830) around that strange fanatic
+Chasi-Mollah, when in his turn he preached a holy war against the
+Russian. In the latter year, General Paskewitch had just been
+called away to Poland, and his successor, Baron Rosen, found all
+Daghestan in an uproar. He immediately opened the campaign, but met
+a strenuous resistance, and suffered heavy loss. The defence of the
+village of Hermentschuk, held against him, in the year 1832, by
+3000 Tshetshens, was an extraordinary example of heroism. When the
+Russian infantry forced their way into the place with the bayonet, a
+portion of the garrison shut themselves up in a fortified house, and
+made it good against overwhelming numbers, singing passages from the
+Koran amidst a storm of bombs and grapeshot. At last the building
+took fire, and its undaunted defenders, the sacred verses still
+upon their lips, found death in the flames. In an equally desperate
+defence of the fortified village of Himri, Chasi-Mollah met his
+death, falling in the very breach, bleeding from many wounds. The
+chief who succeeded him was less venerated and less energetic,
+and for a few years the Tshetshens remained tolerably quiet, but
+without a thought of submission. Nevertheless the Russians flattered
+themselves that the worst was past; that the death of the mad
+dervish was an irreparable loss to the mountaineers. They were
+mistaken. Out of his most ardent adherents Chasi-Mollah had formed a
+sort of sacred band, whom he called Murides, gloomy fanatics, half
+warriors, half priests. They composed his body-guard, were unwearied
+in preaching up the fight for the Prophet's faith, and in battle
+devoted themselves to death with a heroism that has never been
+surpassed. From these, within a short time of their first leader's
+death, Chamyl, the present renowned chief of the Tshetshens, soon
+stood forth pre-eminent, and the Murides followed him to the field
+with the same enthusiasm and valour they had shown under his
+predecessor. He did not prove less worthy of guiding them; and the
+Russians were compelled to confess, that it was easier for the
+Tshetshens to find an able leader than for them to find a general
+able to beat him. And victories over the restless and enterprising
+Caucasians were of little profit, even when obtained. For the most
+part, they only served to fill the Russian hospitals, and to procure
+the officers those ribbons and distinctions they so greedily covet,
+and which, in that service, are so liberally bestowed.[2] Thus,
+in 1845, Count Woronzoff made a most daring expedition into the
+heart of Daghestan. He found the villages empty and in flames,
+lost three thousand men, amongst them many brave and valuable
+officers, and marched back again, strewing the path with wounded,
+for whom the means of transport (the horses of the Cossack cavalry)
+were quite insufficient. With great difficulty, and protected by
+a column that went out to meet them, the Russians regained their
+lines, harassed to the last by the fierce Caucasians. This affair
+was called a victory, and Count Woronzoff was made a prince. Two
+more such victories would have reduced his expeditionary column to
+a single battalion. Chamyl, who had cannonaded the Russians with
+their own artillery, captured in former actions, possibly considered
+himself equally entitled to triumph, as he slowly retreated, after
+following up the foe nearly to the gates of their fortresses, into
+the recesses of his native valleys.
+
+  [1] "Amongst the Caucasian tribes, the interest of Europe has
+  attached itself especially to the Circassians, because they are
+  regarded (in Urquhart's words) 'as the only people, from the
+  Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, ever ready to revenge an injury
+  and retort a menace proceeding from the Czar of the Muscovites.'
+  Urquhart's opinion, which is shared by the great majority of the
+  European public, is not quite correct, the Circassians not being
+  the only combatants against Russia. Indeed it so happens that,
+  for the last four years, they have kept tolerably quiet in their
+  mountains, contenting themselves with small forays into the Cossack
+  country on the Kuban; whilst the warlike Tshetshens in the eastern
+  Caucasus, their chief, Chamyl, at their head, have given the Russian
+  army much more to do. But, in the absence of official intelligence,
+  and of regular newspaper information concerning the events of the
+  war, people in Europe have got accustomed to admire and praise the
+  Circassians as the only defenders of Caucasian freedom against
+  Russian aggression; and even in St Petersburg the intelligent public
+  hold the famous Chamyl to be chief of the Circassians, with whom he
+  has nothing whatever to do."--_Der Kaukasus_, &c., vol. ii. p. 22-3.
+
+  [2] "It must be admitted that Russian officers are second to those
+  of no other nation, in thirst for distinction, and in honourable
+  ambition, to awaken and stimulate which, innumerable means are
+  employed. In no other army are the rewards for those officers
+  who distinguish themselves in the field of so many kinds, and so
+  lavishly dealt out. There are all manner of medals and marks for
+  good service--crosses and stars of Saints George, Stanislaus,
+  Vladimir, Andrew, Anna, and other holy personages; some with crowns,
+  some with diamonds, peculiar distinctions on the epaulets and
+  uniforms, &c. &c. I was once in a distinguished society, composed
+  almost entirely of officers of the army of the Caucasus. Not finding
+  very much amusement, I had the patience to count all the orders and
+  decorations in the room, and found that upon the breasts of the
+  thirty-five military guests, there glittered more than two hundred
+  stars, crosses, and medals; on some of the generals' coats were
+  more orders than buttons. As it usually happens, the desire for
+  these distinctions increases with their possession. The Russian who
+  has obtained a medal leaves no stone unturned to get a knight's
+  cross, and when the cross is at his button-hole, he is ravenous
+  for the glittering star, and ready to make any sacrifice to obtain
+  it."--_Der Kaukasus_, &c., vol. ii. p. 98.
+
+The interior of Circassia is still an unknown land. The
+investigations of Messrs Bell, Longworth, Stewart, and others,
+who of late years have visited and written about the country,
+were confined to small districts, and cramped by the jealousy of
+the natives. Mr Bell, who made the longest residence, was treated
+more like a prisoner than a guest. Other foreigners find a worse
+reception still. Even the Poles, who desert from the Russian army,
+are made slaves of by the Circassians, and so severely treated
+that they are often glad to return to their colours, and endure
+the flogging that there awaits them. The only European who, having
+penetrated into the interior, has again seen his own country, is
+the Russian Baron Turnau, an aide-de-camp of General Gurko; but
+the circumstances of his abode in Circassia were too painful and
+peculiar to allow opportunity for observation. They are well told by
+Dr Wagner.
+
+     "By the Emperor's command, Russian officers acquainted with
+     the language are sent, from time to time, as spies into
+     Circassia,[3]--partly to make topographical surveys of
+     districts previously unknown; partly to ascertain the numbers,
+     mode of life, and disposition of those tribes with whom no
+     intercourse is kept up. These missions are extremely dangerous,
+     and seldom succeed. Shortly before my arrival at Terek, four
+     Russian staff-officers were sent as spies to various parts of
+     Lesghistan. They assumed the Caucasian garb, and were attended
+     by natives in Russian pay. Only one of them ever returned;
+     the three others were recognised and murdered. Baron Turnau
+     prepared himself long beforehand for his dangerous mission.
+     He gave his complexion a brownish tint, and to his beard the
+     form affected by the aborigines. He also tried to learn the
+     language of the Ubiches, but, finding the harsh pronunciation
+     of certain words quite unattainable, he agreed with his guide
+     to pass for deaf and dumb during his stay in the country.
+     In this guise he set out upon his perilous journey, and for
+     several days wandered undetected from tribe to tribe. But one
+     of the _works_ (nobles) under whose roof he passed a night,
+     conceived suspicions, and threatened the guide, who betrayed his
+     employer's secret. The baron was kept prisoner, and the Ubiches
+     demanded a cap-full of silver for his ransom from the Russian
+     commandant of Fort Ardler. When this officer declared himself
+     ready to pay, they increased their demand to a bushel of silver
+     rubles. The commandant referred the matter to Baron Rosen, then
+     commander-in-chief of the army of the Caucasus; the baron
+     reported it to St Petersburg, and the Emperor consented to pay
+     the heavy ransom. But Rosen represented it to him as more for
+     the Russian interest to leave Turnau for a while in the hands of
+     the Ubiches; for, in the first place, the payment of so large a
+     sum was a bad precedent, likely to encourage the mountaineers to
+     renew the extortion, instead of contenting themselves, as they
+     previously had done, with a few hundred rubles; and, secondly,
+     as a prisoner, Baron Turnau would perhaps have opportunities of
+     gathering valuable information concerning a country and people
+     of whom little or nothing was known. The unfortunate young
+     officer was cruelly sacrificed to these considerations, and
+     passed a long winter in terrible captivity, tortured by frost
+     and hunger, compelled, as a slave, to the severest labour, and
+     often greatly ill-treated. Several attempts at flight failed;
+     and at last the chief, in whose hands he was, confined him in a
+     cage half-buried in the ground, and withal so narrow that its
+     inmate could neither stand upright nor lie at length."
+
+  [3] The reference in this instance is more particularly to the
+  land of the Ubiches and Tchigetes, two tribes that abide south of
+  Circassia Proper, and whose language differs from those of the
+  Circassians and Abchasians, their neighbours to the north and south.
+  The general medium of conversation amongst the various Caucasian
+  tribes is the Turkish-Tartar dialect, current amongst most of the
+  dwellers on the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas.
+
+Thus immured, a prey to painful maladies, his clothes rotting on
+his emaciated limbs, the unhappy man moaned through his long and
+sleepless nights, and gave up hope of rescue. No tender-hearted
+Circassian maiden brought to him, as to the hero of Pushkin's
+well-known Caucasian poem, deliverance and love. Such luck had been
+that of more than one Russian captive; but poor Turnau, in his
+state of filth and squalor, was no very seductive object. He might
+have pined away his life in his cage, before Baron Rosen, or his
+paternal majesty the Czar, had recalled his fate to mind, but for
+an injury done by his merciless master to one of his domestics, who
+vowed revenge. Watching his opportunity, this servant, one day that
+the rest of the household were absent, murdered his lord, released
+the prisoner, tied him with thongs upon his saddle, upon which the
+baron, covered with sores and exhausted by illness, was unable to
+support himself, and galloped with him towards the frontier. In one
+day they rode eighty _versts_, (about fifty-four English miles,)
+outstripped pursuers, and reached Fort Ardler. The accounts given
+by Baron Turnau of the land of his captivity could be but slight:
+he had seen little beyond his place of confinement. What he did
+relate was not very encouraging to Russian invasion. He depicted
+the country as one mass of rock and precipice, partially clothed
+with vast tracts of aboriginal forest, broken by deep ravines and
+mountain torrents, and surmounted by the huge ice-clad pinnacles of
+the loftiest Caucasian ridge. The villages, some of which nestle in
+the deep recesses of the woods, whilst others are perched upon steep
+crags and on the brink of giddy precipices, are universally of most
+difficult access.
+
+Dr Wagner, whose extremely amusing book forms the text of this
+article, has never been in Circassia, although he gives us more
+information about it, of the sort we want, than any traveller in
+that singular land whose writings have come under our notice.
+His wanderings were under Russian guidance and escort. During
+them, he skirted the hostile territory on more than one side;
+occasionally setting a foot across the border, to the alarm of
+his Cossacks, whose dread by day and dreams by night were of
+Circassian ambuscades; he has lingered at the base of Caucasus, and
+has traversed its ranges--without, however, deeming it necessary
+to penetrate into those remote valleys, where foreigners find
+dubious welcome, and whence they are not always sure of exit. He
+has mixed much with Circassians, if he has not actually dwelt in
+their villages. It were tedious and unnecessary to detail his
+exact itinerary. He has not printed his entire journal--according
+to the lazy and egotistical practice of many travellers--but has
+taken the trouble to condense it. The essence is full of variety,
+anecdote and adventure, and gives a clear insight into the nature
+of the war. Professedly a man of science, an antiquary and a
+naturalist, Dr Wagner has evidently a secret hankering after matters
+military. He loves the sound of the drum, and willingly directs
+his scientific researches to countries where he is likely to smell
+powder. We had heard of him in the Atlas mountains, and at the
+siege of Constantina, before we met him risking his neck along the
+banks of the Kuban, and across the wild steppes of the Caucasus.
+He has travelled much in the East, and prepared himself for his
+Caucasian trip by a long stay in Turkey and in Southern Russia.
+Well introduced, he derived from distinguished Russian generals,
+intelligent civilians, and Circassian chiefs, particulars of the war
+more authentic than are to be obtained either from St Petersburg
+bulletins, or from the ordinary trans-Caucasian correspondents of
+German and other newspapers, many of whom are in the pay of Russia.
+His African reminiscences proved of great value. The officers of the
+army of Caucasus take the strongest interest in the contest between
+French and Arabs, finding in it, doubtless, points of similitude
+with the war in which they themselves are engaged. Amongst these
+officers he met, besides Russians and Germans, several naturalised
+Poles and Frenchmen, Flemings and Spaniards, who gave in exchange
+for his tales of razzias and Bedouins, details of Circassian warfare
+which he highly prized, as likely to be more impartial than the
+accounts afforded by the native Russians. His own journey to the
+Caucasus took place in 1843; but a subsequent correspondence with
+well-informed friends, on both sides the Caucasian range, enabled
+him to bring down his sketch of the struggle to the year 1846.
+
+Many English writers on Circassia have been accused of an undue
+preference for the mountaineers, of exaggerating their good
+qualities, and of elevating them by invidious contrasts with the
+Russians. There is no ground for suspecting a German of such
+partiality; and Dr Wagner, whilst lauding the heroic valour and
+independent spirit of the Circassians--qualities which Russian
+authors have themselves admitted and extolled--does not forget
+to do justice to his Muscovite and Cossack friends, to whom he
+devotes a considerable portion of his book, many of his details
+concerning them being extremely novel and curious. He carefully
+studied both Cossacks and Circassians, living amongst the former
+and meeting thousands of the latter, who go and come freely upon
+Russian territory. At Ekaterinodar, the capital of the Tchernamortsy
+Cossacks, the Friday's market swarmed with Circassians. In Turkey,
+and elsewhere, Dr Wagner had met many individuals of that nation,
+but this was the first time he beheld them in crowds. He describes
+them as very handsome men, with black beards, aquiline noses, and
+flashing black eyes. He was struck with their lofty mien, and
+attributes it to their mental energy, and to a consciousness of
+physical strength and beauty.
+
+     "This superiority of the pure Circassian blood does not belie
+     itself under Russian discipline, any more than it does in
+     Mahometan lands, where, as Mamelukes in Cairo, and as pashas in
+     Stamboul, the sons of Caucasus have ever played a prominent and
+     distinguished part. The Turk, who by certain imposing qualities
+     awes all other Orientals, tacitly recognises the superiority of
+     the Circassian _ousden_, or noble. The Emperor Nicholas, who
+     preserves so rigid a discipline in the various corps of his
+     vast army, shows himself extraordinarily considerate towards
+     the Circassian squadrons of his guard. Persons well versed
+     in the military chronicles of St Petersburg relate many a
+     characteristic trait, proving the bold stubborn spirit of these
+     Caucasian men to be still unbroken, and showing how it more
+     than once has so imposed upon the emperor, and even upon the
+     grand-duke Michael, reputed the strictest disciplinarian in
+     Russia, that they have shut their eyes even to open mutiny. At a
+     review, where the Caucasian cavalry formally refused obedience,
+     the emperor contented himself with sending a courteous reproof
+     by General Benkendorf. Beside the coarse common Russians, the
+     Circassian looks like an eagle amidst a flock of bustards. Even
+     capital crimes are not visited upon Circassians with the same
+     severity as upon the other subjects of the emperor. A Circassian
+     who had struck his dagger into the heart of a hackney-coachman
+     at St Petersburg, in requital of an insolent overcharge, was
+     merely sent back to the Caucasus. For a like offence a Russian
+     might reckon upon the knout, and upon banishment for life to the
+     Siberian mines.
+
+     "Amongst the Circassians at Ekaterinodar, a _work_, or noble,
+     of the Shapsookian tribe, was particularly remarkable for his
+     beauty and dignity. None of the picturesque figures of Arabs
+     and Moors furnished me by my African recollections, could bear
+     comparison with this Caucasian eagle. I afterwards saw, in
+     Mingrelia, a more ideal mould of feature, resembling the antique
+     Apollo type: but there the expression was too effeminate; the
+     heroic head of the dweller on the Kuban pleased me better. I
+     stood a good while before the Shapsookian, as if fettered to the
+     ground, so extraordinary was the effect of his striking beauty.
+     What a study, I thought, for a German painter, who would in vain
+     seek such models in Rome; or for a Vernet, whose Arabian groups
+     prove the great power of his pencil! The Arabs, rather priestly
+     than knightly in their aspect, produce far less effect upon
+     the large Algerine pictures at Versailles than the Circassian
+     warrior would do in a battle-piece by such masters as Vernet or
+     Peter Hess. The Shapsook chief at Ekaterinodar seemed conscious
+     of his magnificent appearance. With proud mien, and that light
+     half-gliding gait observable in most Caucasians, he sauntered
+     amongst the groups of Cossacks upon the market-place, casting
+     glances of profoundest scorn upon their clumsy sheepskin-wrapped
+     figures. His slender form and small foot, the grace and elegance
+     of his person and carriage, the richness of his costume and
+     beauty of his weapons, contrasted most advantageously with
+     the muscular but somewhat thickset figures, and with the ugly
+     woolly winter dress of the Tchernamortsies. By help of a Cossack
+     I made his acquaintance, and got into conversation. His name
+     was Chora-Beg, and he dwelt at a hamlet thirty versts south of
+     Ekaterinodar."
+
+Chora-Beg wondered greatly that his new acquaintance was neither
+Russian nor English. He had heard vaguely that there was a third
+Christian nation, which, under Sultan Bunapart, had made war upon
+the Padisha of the Russians, but he had no notion of such a people
+as the Germans. He greatly admired Dr Wagner's rifle, but rather
+doubted its carrying farther than a smooth bore, and allowed free
+inspection of his own arms, consisting of pistols and dagger, and of
+the famous _shaska_--a long heavy cavalry sabre, slightly curved,
+with hilt of silver and ivory. At the doctor's request he drew this
+weapon from the scabbard, and cut twice or thrice at the empty air,
+his dark eyes flashing as he did so. "How many Russians has that
+sabre sent to their account?" asked the inquisitive Doctor. The
+Circassian's intelligent countenance assumed an expression hard to
+interpret, but in which his interlocutor thought he distinguished a
+gleam of scorn, and a shade of suspicion. "It was long," he replied,
+"since his tribe had taken the field against the Russians. Since
+the deaf general (Sass) had left the land of the Cossacks, peace
+had reigned between Muscovite and Shapsookian. Individuals of his
+tribe had certainly been known to join bands from the mountains, and
+to cross the Kuban with arms in hand." And as Chora-Beg spoke, the
+expression of his proud eye belied his pacific pretensions.
+
+The general Sass above-named commanded for several years on
+the line of the Kuban, and is the only Russian general who has
+understood the mountain warfare, and proved himself a match for
+the Circassians at their own game of ambuscades and surprises. His
+tactics were those of the Spanish guerilla leaders. Lavish in his
+payment of spies, he was always accurately informed of the musters
+and projects of the Circassians; whilst he kept his own plans so
+secret, that his personal staff often knew nothing of an intended
+expedition until the call to "boot and saddle" sounded. His raids
+were accomplished, under guidance of his well-paid scouts, with
+such rapidity and local knowledge that the mountaineers rarely had
+time to assemble in force, pursue the retiring column, and revenge
+their burnt vilages and ravished cattle. But one day the report
+spread on the lines of the Kuban that the general was dangerously
+ill; shortly afterwards it became known that the physicians had
+given him up; and finally his death was announced, and bewailed by
+the whole army of the Caucasus. The consternation of the Cossacks,
+accustomed, under his command, to victory and rich booty, was as
+great as the exultation of the mountaineers. Hundreds of these
+visited the Russian territory, to witness the interment of their
+dreaded foe. A magnificent coffin, with the general's cocked hat
+and decorations laid upon it, was deposited in the earth amidst
+the mournful sounds of minute guns and muffled drums. With joyful
+hearts the Circassians returned to their mountains, to tell what
+they had seen, and to congratulate each other at the prospect of
+tranquillity for themselves, and safety to their flocks and herds.
+But upon the second night after Sass's funeral, a strong Russian
+column crossed the Kuban, and the dead general suddenly appeared
+at the head of his trusty lancers, who greeted with wild hurrahs
+their leader's resurrection. Several large _auls_ (villages) whose
+inhabitants were sound asleep, unsuspicious of surprise, were
+destroyed, vast droves of cattle were carried off, and a host of
+prisoners made. This ingenious and successful stratagem is still
+cited with admiration on the banks of the Kuban. Notwithstanding
+his able generalship, Sass was removed from his command when in
+full career of success. All his military services could not shield
+him from the consequences of St Petersburg intrigues and trumped-up
+accusations. None of his successors have equalled him. General
+Willaminoff was a man of big words rather than of great deeds. In
+his bombastic and blasphemous proclamation of the 28th May 1837, he
+informed the Circassians that "If the heavens should fall, Russia
+could prop them with her bayonets;" following up this startling
+assertion with the declaration that "there are but two powers in
+existence--God in heaven, and the emperor upon earth!"[4] The
+Circassians laughed at this rhodomontade, and returned a firm and
+becoming answer. There were but few of them, they said--but, with
+God's blessing, they would hold their own, and fight to the very
+last man: and to prove themselves as good as their word, they soon
+afterwards made fierce assaults upon the line of forts built by the
+Russians upon the shores of the Black Sea. In 1840 four of these
+were taken, but the triumph cost the victors so much blood as to
+disgust them for some time with attacking stone walls, behind which
+the Russians, perhaps the best defensive combatants in the world,
+fight like lions. Indeed, the Circassians would hardly have proved
+victorious, had not the garrisons been enfeebled by disease. During
+the five winter months, the rations of the troops employed upon
+this service are usually salt, and the consequences are scurvy and
+fever. Informed by Polish deserters of the bad condition of the
+garrisons, the Circassians held a great council in the mountains,
+and it was decided to take the forts with the sabre, without
+firing a shot. It is an old Caucasian custom, that, upon suchlike
+perilous undertakings, a chosen band of enthusiastic warrors devote
+themselves to death, binding themselves by a solemn oath not to
+turn their backs upon the enemy. Ever in the van, their example
+gives courage to the timid; and their friends are bound in honour
+to revenge their death. With these fanatics have the Circassian and
+Tshetshen chiefs achieved their greatest victories over the Russians.
+
+  [4] Longworth's _Circassia_, vol. i. p. 1589.
+
+When it was decided to attack the forts, several hundred
+Shapsookians, including gray-haired old men and youths of tender
+age, swore to conquer or to die. They kept their word. At the fort
+of Michailoff, which made the most obstinate defence, the ditch was
+filled with their corpses. The conduct of the garrison was truly
+heroic. Of five hundred men, only one third were fit for duty;
+the others were in hospital, or on the sick-list. But no sooner
+did the Circassian war-cry rend the air than the sufferers forgot
+their pains; the fever-stricken left their beds, and crawled to
+the walls. Their commandant called upon them to shed their last
+drop of blood for their emperor; their old _papa_ exhorted them, as
+Christians, to fight to the death against the unbelieving horde. But
+numbers prevailed: after a valiant defence, the Russians retreated,
+fighting, to the innermost enclosures of the fortress. Their chief
+demanded a volunteer to blow up the fort when farther resistance
+should become impossible. A soldier stepped forward, took a lighted
+match, and entered the powder magazine. The last defences were
+stormed, the Circassians shouted victory. Then came the explosion.
+Most of the buildings were overthrown, and hundreds of maimed
+carcases scattered in all directions. Eleven Russians escaped with
+life, were dragged off to the mountains, and subsequently ransomed,
+and from them the details of this bloody fight were obtained.
+
+The capture of these forts spread discouragement and consternation
+in the ranks of the Russian army. The emperor was furious, and
+General Rajewski, then commander-in-chief on the Circassian
+frontier, was superseded. This officer, who at the tender age of
+twelve was present with his father at the battle of Borodino, and
+who has since distinguished himself in the Turkish and Persian
+wars, was reputed an able general, but was reproached with sleeping
+too much, and with being too fond of botany. His enemies went
+so far as to accuse him of making military expeditions into the
+mountains, with the sole view of adding rare Caucasian plants to his
+_herbarium_, and of procuring seeds for his garden. General Aurep,
+who succeeded him, undertook little beyond reconnoissances, always
+attended with very heavy loss; and the Circassians remained upon the
+defensive until the year 1843, when the example of the Tshetshens,
+who about that time obtained signal advantages over the Russians,
+roused the martial ardour of the chivalrous Circassians, and spurred
+them to fresh hostilities. But the war at the western extremity of
+Caucasus never assumed the importance of that in Daghestan and the
+country of the Tshetshens.
+
+From the straits of Zabache to the frontier of Guria, the Russians
+possess seventeen _Kreposts_, or fortified posts, only a few of
+which deserve the name of regular fortresses, or could resist a
+regular army provided with artillery. To mountaineers, however,
+whose sole weapons are shaska and musket, even earthen parapets
+and shallow ditches are serious obstacles when well manned and
+resolutely defended. The object of erecting this line of forts was
+to cut off the communication by sea between Turkey and the Caucasian
+tribes. It was thought that, when the import of arms and munitions
+of war from Turkey was thus checked, the independent mountain
+tribes would soon be subjugated. The hope was not realised, and the
+expensive maintenance of 15,000 to 20,000 men in the fortresses of
+the Black Sea has but little improved the position of the Russians
+in the Caucasus. The Caucasians have never lacked arms, and with
+money they can always get powder, even from the Cossacks of the
+Kuban. In another respect, however, these forts have done them
+much harm, and thence it arises that, since their erection, and
+the cession of Anapa to Russia, the war has assumed so bitter a
+character. So long as Anapa was Turkish, the export of slaves, and
+the import of powder, found no hindrance. The needy Circassian
+noble, whose rude mountains supply him but sparingly with daily
+bread, obtained, by the sale of slaves, means of satisfying his
+warlike and ostentatious tastes--of procuring rich clothes, costly
+weapons, and ammunition for war and for the chase. In a moral point
+of view, all slave traffic is of course odious and reprehensible,
+but that of Circassia differed from other commerce of the kind,
+in so far that all parties were benefited by, and consenting to,
+the contract. The Turks obtained from Caucasus handsomer and
+healthier wives than those born in the harem; and the Circassian
+beauties were delighted to exchange the poverty and toil of their
+father's mountain huts for the luxurious _farniente_ of the
+seraglio, of whose wonders and delights their ears were regaled,
+from childhood upwards, with the most glowing descriptions. The
+trade, although greatly impeded and very hazardous, still goes on.
+Small Turkish craft creep up to the coast, cautiously evading the
+Russian cruisers, enter creeks and inlets, and are dragged by the
+Circassians high and dry upon the beach, there to remain till the
+negotiation for their live cargo is completed, an operation that
+generally takes a few weeks. The women sold are the daughters of
+serfs and freedmen: rarely does a _work_ consent to dispose of
+his sister or daughter, although the case does sometimes occur.
+But, whilst the sale goes on, the slave-ships are anything but
+secure. It is a small matter to have escaped the Russian frigates
+and steamers. Each of the Kreposts possesses a little squadron of
+row-boats, manned with Cossacks, who pull along the coast in search
+of Turkish vessels. If they detect one, they land in the night, and
+endeavour to set fire to it, before the mountaineers can come to
+the assistance of the crew. The Turks, who live in profound terror
+of these Cossack coast-guards, resort to every possible expedient
+to escape their observation; often covering their vessels with dry
+leaves and boughs, and tying fir branches to the masts, that the
+scouts may take them for trees. If they are captured at sea by the
+cruisers, the crew are sent to hard labour in Siberia, and the
+Circassian girls are married to Cossacks, or divided as handmaidens
+amongst the Russian staff officers. From thirty to forty slaves
+compose the usual cargo of each of these vessels, which are so
+small that the poor creatures are packed almost like herrings in
+a barrel. But they patiently endure the misery of the voyage, in
+anticipation of the honeyed existence of the harem. It is calculated
+that one vessel out of six is taken or lost. In the winter of
+1843-4, eight-and-twenty ships left the coast of Asia Minor for that
+of Caucasia. Twenty-three safely returned, three were burned by the
+Russians, and two swallowed by the waves.
+
+A Turkish captain at Sinope told Dr Wagner the following interesting
+anecdote, illustrating Circassian hatred of the Russians:--"A
+few years ago a slave-ship sprang a leak out at sea, just as a
+Russian steamer passed in the distance. The Turkish slave-dealer,
+who preferred even the chill blasts of Siberia to a grave in deep
+water, made signals of distress, and the steamer came up in time
+to rescue the ship and its living cargo from destruction. But so
+deeply is hatred of Russia implanted in every Circassian heart, that
+the spirit of the girls revolted at the thought of becoming the
+helpmates of gray-coated soldiers, instead of sharing the sumptuous
+couch of a Turkish pasha. They had bid adieu to their native
+mountains with little emotion, but as the Russian ship approached
+they set up terrible and despairing screams. Some sprang headlong
+into the sea; others drove their knives into their hearts:--to
+these heroines death was preferable to the bridal-bed of a detested
+Muscovite. The survivors were taken to Anapa, and married to
+Cossacks, or given to officers as servants." Nearly every Austrian
+or Turkish steamboat that makes, in the winter months, the voyage
+from Trebizond to Constantinople, has a number of Circassian girls
+on board. Dr Wagner made the passage in an Austrian steamer with
+several dozens of these willing slaves, chiefly mere children,
+twelve or thirteen years old, with interesting countenances and
+dark wild eyes, but very pale and thin--with the exception of
+two, who were some years older, far better dressed, and carefully
+veiled. To this favoured pair the slave-dealer paid particular
+attention, and frequently brought them coffee. Dr Wagner got into
+conversation with this man, who was richly dressed in furs and
+silks, and who, despite his vile profession, had the manners of
+a gentleman. The two coffee-drinkers were daughters of noblemen,
+he said, with fine rosy cheeks, and in better condition than the
+others, consequently worth more money at Constantinople. For the
+handsomest he hoped to obtain 30,000 piastres, and for the other
+20,000--about L250 and L170. The herd of young creatures he spoke of
+with contempt, and should think himself lucky to get 2000 piastres
+for them all round. He further informed the doctor that, although
+the slave-trade was more dangerous and difficult since the Russian
+occupation of the Caucasian coast, it was also far more profitable.
+Formerly, when Greek and Armenian women were brought in crowds to
+the Constantinople market, the most beautiful Circassians were
+not worth more than 10,000 piastres; but now a rosy, well-fed,
+fifteen-year-old slave is hardly to be had under 40,000 piastres.
+
+The Tshetshen successes, already referred to as having at the close
+of 1842 stirred into flame and action, by the force of example,
+the smouldering but still ardent embers of Circassian hatred to
+Russia, are described with remarkable spirit by Dr Wagner, in the
+chapter entitled "Caucasian War-Scenes,"--episodes taken down by him
+from the lips of eye-witnesses, and of sharers in the sanguinary
+conflicts described. This graphic chapter at once familiarises the
+reader with the Caucasian war, with which he thenceforward feels
+as well acquainted as with our wars in India, the French contest
+in Africa, or with any other series of combats, of whose nature
+and progress minute information has been regularly received. The
+first event described is the storming of Aculcho, in the summer
+of 1839. It is always a great point with guerilla generals, and
+with leaders of mountain warfare, to have a centre of operations--a
+strong post, whither they can retreat after a reverse, with the
+confidence that the enemy will hesitate before attacking them there.
+In Spain, Cabrera had Morella, the Count d'Espagne had Berga, the
+Navarrese viewed Estella as their citadel. In the eastern Caucasus,
+Chasi-Mollah had Himri, and preferred falling in its defence to
+abandoning his stronghold; his successor, Chamyl, who surpasses him
+in talent for war and organisation, established his headquarters
+at Aculcho, a sort of eagle's nest on the river Koisu, whither his
+escorts brought him intelligence of each movement of Russian troops,
+and whence he swooped, like the bird whose eyrie he occupied, upon
+the convoys traversing the steppe of the Terek. Here he planned
+expeditions and surprises, and kept a store of arms and ammunition;
+and this fort General Grabbe, who commanded in 1839 the Russian
+forces in eastern Caucasus, and who was always a strong advocate
+of the offensive system, obtained permission from St Petersburg to
+attack. General Golowin, commander-in-chief of the whole army of
+the Caucasus, and then resident at Teflis, approved the enterprise,
+whose ultimate results cost both generals their command. The taking
+of Aculcho itself was of little moment; there was no intention of
+placing a Russian garrison there; but the double end to be obtained
+was to capture Chamyl, and to intimidate the Tshetshens, by proving
+to them that no part of their mountains, however difficult of access
+and bravely defended, was beyond the reach of Russian valour and
+resources. Their submission, at least nominal and temporary, was the
+result hoped for.
+
+Nature has done much for the fortification of Aculcho. Imagine
+a hill of sand-stone, nearly surrounded by a loop of the river
+Koisu--a miniature peninsula, in short, connected with the continent
+by a narrow neck of land--provided with three natural terraces,
+accessible only by a small rocky path, whose entrance is fortified
+and defended by 500 resolute Tshetshen warriors. A few artificial
+parapets and intrenchments, some stone huts, and several excavations
+in the sand rock, where the besieged found shelter from shot and
+shell, complete the picture of the place before which Grabbe and his
+column sat down. At first they hoped to reduce it by artillery, and
+bombs and congreve rockets were poured upon the fortress, destroying
+huts and parapets, but doing little harm to the Tshetshens, who lay
+close as conies in their burrows, and watched their opportunity to
+send well-aimed bullets into the Russian camp. From time to time,
+one of the fanatical Murides, of whom the garrison was chiefly
+composed, impatient that the foe delayed an assault, rushed headlong
+down from the rock, his shaska in his right hand, his pistol in his
+left, his dagger between his teeth; causing a momentary panic among
+the Cossacks, who were prepared for the whistling of bullets, but
+not for the sudden appearance of a foaming demon armed _cap-a-pie_,
+who generally, before they could use their bayonets, avenged in
+advance his own certain death by the slaughter of several of his
+foes, whilst his comrades on the rock applauded and rejoiced at
+the heroic self-sacrifice. The first attempt to storm was costly
+to the besiegers. Of fifteen hundred men who ascended the narrow
+path, only a hundred and fifty survived. The Tshetshens maintained
+such a well-directed platoon fire, that not a Russian set foot on
+the second terrace. The foremost men, mown down by the bullets
+of the besieged, fell back upon their comrades, and precipitated
+them from the rock. General Grabbe, undismayed by his heavy loss,
+ordered a second and a third assault; the three cost two thousand
+men, but the lower and middle terraces were taken. The defence
+of the upper one was desperate, and the Russians might have been
+compelled to turn the siege into a blockade, but for the imprudence
+of some of the garrison, who, anxious to ascertain the proceedings
+of the enemy's engineers--then hard at work at a mine under the
+hill--ventured too far from their defences, and were attacked by a
+Russian battalion. The Tshetshens fled; but, swift of foot though
+they were, the most active of the Russians attained the topmost
+terrace with them. A hand-to-hand fight ensued, more battalions
+came up, and Aculcho was taken. The victors, furious at their
+losses, and at the long resistance opposed to them, (this was the
+22d August,) raged like tigers amongst the unfortunate little band
+of mountaineers; some Tshetshen women, who took up arms at this
+last extremity, were slaughtered with their husbands. At last the
+bloody work was apparently at an end, and search ensued amongst the
+dead for the body of Chamyl. It was nowhere to be found. At last
+the discovery was made that a few of the garrison had taken refuge
+in holes in the side of the rock, looking over the river. No path
+led to these cavities; the only way to get at them was to lower
+men by ropes from the crag above. In this manner the surviving
+Tshetshens were attacked; quarter was neither asked nor given.
+The hole in which Chamyl himself was hidden held out the longest.
+Escape seemed, however, impossible; the rock was surrounded; the
+banks of the river were lined with soldiers; Grabbe's main object
+was the capture of Chamyl. At this critical moment the handful of
+Tshetshens still alive gave an example of heroic devotion. They knew
+that their leader's death would be a heavy loss to their country,
+and they resolved to sacrifice themselves to save him. With a few
+beams and planks, that chanced to be in the cave, they constructed
+a sort of raft. This they launched upon the Koisu, and floated with
+it down the stream, amidst a storm of Russian lead. The Russian
+general doubted not that Chamyl was on the raft, and ordered every
+exertion to kill or take him. Whilst the Cossacks spurred their
+horses into the river, and the infantry hurried along the bank,
+following the raft, a man sprang out of the hole into the Koisu,
+swam vigorously across the stream, landed at an unguarded spot, and
+gained the mountains unhurt. This man was Chamyl, who alone escaped
+with life from the bloody rock of Aculcho. His deliverance passed
+for miraculous amongst the enthusiastic mountaineers, with whom
+his influence, from that day forward, increased tenfold. Grabbe
+was furious; Chamyl's head was worth more than the heads of all
+the garrison: three thousand Russians had been sacrificed for the
+possession of a crag not worth the keeping.
+
+After the fall of Aculcho, Chamyl's head-quarters were at the
+village of Dargo, in the mountain region south of the Russian fort
+of Girselaul, and thence he carried on the war with great vigour,
+surprising fortified posts, cutting off convoys, and sweeping the
+plain with his horsemen. Generals Grabbe and Golowin could not
+agree about the mode of operations. The former was for taking
+the offensive; the latter advocated the defensive and blockade
+system. Grabbe went to St Petersburg to plead in person for his
+plan, obtained a favourable hearing, and the emperor sent Prince
+Tchernicheff, the minister at war, to visit both flanks of the
+Caucasus. Before the prince reached the left wing of the line
+of operations, Grabbe resolved to surprise him with a brilliant
+achievement; and on the 29th May 1842, he marched from Girselaul
+with thirteen battalions, a small escort of mounted Cossacks, and a
+train of mountain artillery, to attack Dargo. The route was through
+forests, and along paths tangled with wild flowers and creeping
+plants, through which the heavy Russian infantry, encumbered with
+eight days' rations and sixty rounds of ball-cartridge, made but
+slow and painful progress. The first day's march was accomplished
+without fighting; only here and there the slender active form of
+a mountaineer was descried, as he peered between the trees at the
+long column of bayonets, and vanished as soon as he was observed.
+After midnight the dance began. The troops had eaten their rations,
+and were comfortably bivouacked, when they were assailed by a sharp
+fire from an invisible foe, to which they replied in the direction
+of the flashes. This skirmishing lasted all night; few were killed
+on either side, but the whole Russian division were deprived of
+sleep, and wearied for the next day's march. At daybreak the enemy
+retired; but at noon, when passing through a forest defile, the
+column was again assailed, and soon the horses, and a few light
+carts accompanying it, were insufficient to convey the wounded.
+The staff urged the general to retrace his steps, but Grabbe was
+bent on welcoming Tchernicheff with a triumphant bulletin. Another
+sleepless bivouac--another fagging day, more skirmishing. At last,
+when within sight of the fortified village of Dargo, the loss of
+the column was so heavy, and its situation so critical, that a
+retreat was ordered. The daring and fury of the Tshetshens now knew
+no bounds; they assailed the troops sabre in hand, captured baggage
+and wounded, and at night prowled round the camp, like wolves round
+a dying soldier. On the 1st June, the fight recommenced. The valour
+displayed by the mountaineers was admitted by the Russians to be
+extraordinary, as was also their skill in wielding the terrible
+shaska. They made a fierce attack on the centre of the column--cut
+down the artillery-men and captured six guns. The Russians, who
+throughout the whole of this trying expedition did their duty
+as good and brave soldiers, were furious at the loss of their
+artillery, and by a desperate charge retook five pieces, the sixth
+being relinquished only because its carriage was broken. Upon the
+last day of the retreat, Chamyl came up with his horsemen. Had he
+been able to get these together two days sooner, it is doubtful
+whether any portion of the column would have escaped. As it was,
+the Russians lost nearly two thousand men; the weary and dispirited
+survivors re-entering Girselaul with downcast mien. Preparations
+had been made to celebrate their triumph, and, to add to their
+general's mortification, Tchernicheff was awaiting their arrival. On
+the prince's return to St Petersburg, both Grabbe and Golowin were
+removed from their commands.
+
+Against this same Tshetshen fortress of Dargo, Count Woronzoff's
+expedition (already referred to) was made, in July 1845. A capital
+account of the affair is given in a letter from a Russian officer
+engaged, printed in Dr Wagner's book. Dargo had become an important
+place. Chamyl had established large stores there, and had built
+a mosque, to which came pilgrims from the remotest villages of
+Daghestan and Lesghistan, partly to pray, partly to see the dreaded
+chief--equally renowned as warrior and priest--and to give him
+information concerning the state of the country, and the movements
+of the Russians. Less vigorously opposed than Grabbe, and his
+measures better taken, Woronzoff reached Dargo with moderate loss.
+"The village," says the Russian officer: "was situated on the slope
+of a mountain, at the brink of a ravine, and consisted of sixty
+to seventy small stone-houses, and of a few larger buildings,
+where the stones were joined with mortar, instead of being merely
+superimposed, as is usually the case in Caucasian dwellings. One
+of these buildings had several irregular towers, of some apparent
+antiquity. When we approached, a thick smoke burst from them. Chamyl
+had ordered everything to be set on fire that could not be carried
+away. One must confess that, in this fierce determination of the
+enemy to refuse submission--to defend, foot by foot, the territory
+of his forefathers, and to leave to the Russians no other trophies
+than ashes and smoking ruins--there is a certain wild grandeur which
+extorts admiration, even though the hostile chief be no better
+than a fanatical barbarian." This reminds us of the words of the
+Circassian chief Mansour:--"When Turkey and England abandon us," he
+said, to Bell of the 'Vixen,'--"when all our powers of resistance
+are exhausted, we will burn our houses,and our goods, strangle our
+wives and our children, and retreat to our highest rocks, there to
+die, fighting to the very last man." "The greatest difficulty,"
+said General Neidhardt to Dr Wagner, who was a frequent visitor
+at the house of that distinguished officer, "with which we have
+to contend, is the unappeasable, deep-rooted, ineradicable hatred
+cherished by all the mountaineers against the Russians. For this
+we know no cure; every form of severity and of kindness has been
+tried in turn, with equal ill-success." Valour and patriotism are
+nearly the only good qualities the Caucasians can boast. They are
+cruel, and for the most part faithless, especially the Tshetshens,
+and Dr Wagner warns us against crediting the exaggerated accounts
+frequently given of their many virtues. The Circassians are said
+to respect their plighted word, but there are many exceptions.
+General Neidhardt told Dr Wagner an anecdote of a Circassian, who
+presented himself before the commandant of one of the Black Sea
+fortresses, and offered to communicate most important intelligence,
+on condition of a certain reward. The reward was promised. Then
+said the Circassian,--"To-morrow after sunset, your fort will be
+assailed by thousands of my countrymen." The informer was retained,
+whilst Cossacks and riflemen were sent out, and it proved that he
+had spoken the truth. The enemy, finding the garrison on their
+guard, retired after a short skirmish. The Circassian received his
+recompense, which he took without a word of thanks, and left the
+fortress. Without the walls, he met an unarmed soldier; hatred of
+the Russians, and thirst of blood, again got the ascendency: he shot
+the soldier dead, and scampered off to the mountains.
+
+Chamyl did not long remain indebted to the Russians for their visit
+to Dargo. His reputation of sanctity and valour enabled him to unite
+under his orders many tribes habitually hostile to each other, and
+which previously had fought each "on its own hook." Of these tribes
+he formed a powerful league; and in May 1846 he burst into Cabardia
+at the head of twenty thousand mountaineers, four thousand of whom
+were horsemen. Formidable though this force was, the venture was one
+of extreme temerity. He left behind him a double line of Russian
+camps and forts, and two rivers, then at the flood, and difficult
+to pass. With an undisciplined and heterogeneous army, without
+artillery or regular commissariat, this daring chief threw himself
+into a flat country, unfavourable to guerilla warfare; slipping
+through the Russian posts, marching more than four hundred miles,
+and utterly disregarding the danger he was in from a well-equipped
+army of upwards of seventy thousand men, to say nothing of the
+numerous military population of the Cossack settlements on the
+Terek and Sundscha, and of the fact that the Cabardians, long
+submissive to Russia, were more likely to arm in defence of their
+rulers than to favour the mountaineers. Shepherds and dwellers in
+the plain, and far less warlike than the other Circassian tribes,
+they never were able to make head against the Russians; and had
+remained indifferent to all the incentives of Tshetshen fanatics
+and propagandists. For years past, Chamyl had threatened them with
+a visit; but nevertheless, his sudden appearance greatly surprised
+and confounded both them and the Russian general, who had just
+concentrated all his movable columns, with a view to an expedition,
+relying overmuch upon his lines of forts and blockhouses. The
+Tshetshen raid was more daring, and at least as successful, as
+Abd-el-Kader's celebrated foray in the Metidja, in the year 1839.
+Chamyl addressed to the Cabardians a thundering proclamation, full
+of quotations from the Koran, and denouncing vengeance on them if
+they did not flock to the banner of the Prophet. The unlucky keepers
+of sheep found themselves between the devil and the deep sea. From
+terror rather than sympathy, a large number of villages declared
+for Chamyl, whose wild hordes burned and plundered the property of
+all who adhered to the Russians; leaving, like a swarm of locusts,
+desolation in their track. When the Cossacks began to gather, and
+the Russian generals to manoeuvre, Chamyl, who knew he could not
+contend in the plain with disciplined and superior forces, and whose
+retreat by the road he came was already cut off, traversed Great and
+Little Cabardia, burning and destroying as he went; dashed through
+the Cossack colonies to the south of Ekaterinograd, and regained
+his mountains in safety--dragging with him booty, prisoners, and
+Cabardian recruits. These latter, who had joined through fear of
+Chamyl, remained with him through fear of the Russians. By this
+foray, whose apparent great rashness was justified by its complete
+success, Chamyl enriched his people, strengthened his army, and
+greatly weakened the confidence of the tribes of the plain in the
+efficacy of Russian protection. As usual, in cases of disaster, the
+Russians kept the affair as quiet as they could; but the truth could
+not be concealed from those most concerned, and murmurs of dismay
+ran along the exposed line fringing the Muscovite and Circassian
+territories.
+
+The Russian army of the Caucasus reckoned, in 1843, about eighty
+thousand men, exclusive of thirty-five thousand who had little to
+do with the war, but were more especially employed in watching the
+extensive line of Turkish and Persian frontier, and in endeavouring
+to exclude contraband goods and Asiatic epidemics. But the severe
+fighting that occurred in 1842 and 1843, showed the necessity
+of an increase of force. Subsequent events have not admitted of
+a reduction in the Caucasian establishment; and we are probably
+very near the mark, in estimating the troops occupying the various
+forts and camps on the Black Sea, and the lines of the rivers,
+(Terek, Kuban, Koisu, &c.,) at about one hundred thousand men--not
+at all too many to guard so extensive a line, against so active
+and enterprising a foe. The Russian ranks are constantly thinned
+by destructive fevers, which, in bad years, have been known to
+carry off as much as a sixth of the Caucasian army. At a review
+at Vladikawkas, Dr Wagner was struck by the powerful build of the
+Russian foot-soldiers--broad-shouldered, broad-faced Slavonians,
+with enormous mustaches, drilled to automatical perfection. In point
+of bone and limb, every man of them was a grenadier. In a bayonet
+charge, such infantry are formidable opponents. Segur mentions that,
+on the battle-field of Borodino, the nation of the stripped bodies
+was easily known--the muscle and size of the Russians contrasting
+with the slighter frames of French and Germans. "You may kill the
+Russians, but you will hardly make them run," was a saying of
+Frederick the Great; and certainly Seidlitz, who scattered the
+French so briskly at Rossbach, had to sweat blood before he overcame
+the Russians at Zorndorf. Those survivors of Napoleon's famous Guard
+who fought in the drawn battle of Eylau, will bear witness to the
+stubborn resistance and bull-dog qualities of the Muscovite. But
+the grenadier stature, and the immobility under fire--admirable
+qualities on a plain, and against regular troops--avail little in
+the Caucasus. The burly Russian pants and perspires up the hills,
+which the light-footed chamois-like Circassians and Tshetshens
+ascend at a run. The mountaineers understand their advantages,
+and decline standing still in the plain to be charged by a line
+of bayonets. They dance round the heavy Russian, who, with his
+well-stuffed knapsack and long greatcoat, can barely turn on his
+heel fast enough to face them. They catch him out skirmishing, and
+slaughter him in detail. "One might suppose," said a foreigner in
+the Russian service to Dr Wagner, "that the musket and bayonet of
+the Russian soldier would be too much, in single combat, for the
+sabre and dagger of the Tshetshen. The contrary is the case. Amongst
+the dead, slain in hand-to-hand encounter, there are usually a third
+more Russians than Caucasians. Strange to say, too, the Russian
+soldier, who in the serried ranks of his battalion meets death with
+wonderful firmness, and who has shown the utmost valour in contests
+with European, Turkish, and Persian armies, often betrays timidity
+in the Caucasian war, and retreats from the outposts to the column,
+in spite of the heavy punishment he thereby incurs. I myself was
+exposed, during the murderous fight near Ischkeri (Dargo,) in 1842,
+to considerable danger, because, having gone to the assistance of a
+skirmisher, who was sharply engaged with a Tshetshen, the skirmisher
+ran, leaving me to fight it out alone." This shyness of Russian
+soldiers in single fight and irregular warfare, is not inexplicable.
+They have no chance of promotion, no honourable stimulus: food and
+brandy, discipline and dread of the lash, convert them from serfs
+into soldiers. As bits of a machine, they are admirable when united,
+but asunder they are mere screws and bolts. Fanatic zeal, bitter
+hatred, and thirst of blood, animate the Caucasian, who, trained to
+arms from his boyhood, and ignorant of drill, relies only upon his
+keen shaska, and upon the Prophet's protection.
+
+Presuming Dr Wagner's statement of Russian rations to be correct,
+it is a puzzle how the soldier preserves the condition of his thews
+and sinews. The daily allowance consists of three pounds of bread,
+black as a coal; a water-soup, in which three pounds of bacon are
+cut up for every two hundred and fifty men; a ration of _wodka_,
+or bad brandy, and once a-week a small piece of meat. The pay is
+nine rubles a-year, (about one-third of a penny _per diem_,) out of
+which the unfortunate private has to purchase his stock, cap, soap,
+blacking, salt, &c., &c. Any surplus he is allowed to expend upon
+his amusement. "Our soldiers are obliged to steal a little," said a
+German officer in the Russian service to Dr Wagner; "their pay will
+not purchase soap and blacking; and if their shirts are not clean,
+and their shoes polished, the stick is their portion." "Stealing a
+little," in one way or other, is no uncommon practice in Russia,
+even amongst more highly placed personages than the soldiers.
+Officials of all kinds, both civil and military, particularly those
+of the middle and lower ranks, are prone to peculation. Dr Wagner
+was deafened with the complaints that from all sides met his ear.
+"Ah! if the emperor knew it!" was the usual cry. The subjects of
+Nicholas have strong faith in his justice. It is well remembered
+in the Caucasus, especially by the army, how one day, at Teflis,
+the emperor, upon parade, in full view of mob and soldiers, tore,
+with his own hand, the golden insignia of a general's rank from the
+coat of Prince Dadian, denounced to him as enriching himself at his
+men's expense. For several years afterwards, the prince carried the
+musket, and wore the coarse gray coat of a private sentinel. The
+officers pitied him, although his condemnation was just. "_Il faut
+profiter d'une bonne place_," is their current maxim. The soldiers
+rejoiced; but in secret; for such rejoicings are not always safe.
+A sentence often recoils unpleasantly upon the accuser. Dr Wagner
+gives sundry examples. A major in Sewastopol fell in love with a
+sergeant's wife; and as she disregarded his addresses, he persecuted
+her and her husband at every opportunity. In despair, the sergeant
+at last complained to the general commanding. He was listened to;
+an investigation ensued; the major was superseded; and from his
+successor the sergeant received five hundred lashes, under pretence
+of his having left his regiment without permission when he went to
+lodge his charge. Corporal punishment, of frequent application, at
+the mere caprice of their superiors, to Russian serfs and soldiers,
+is inflicted with sticks or rods, the knout being reserved for
+very grave offences, such as murder, rebellion, &c., and preceding
+banishment to Siberia, should the sufferer survive. Dr Wagner's
+description of this dreadful punishment is horribly vivid. Few
+criminals are sentenced to more than twenty-five lashes, and less
+than twenty often kill. Running the gauntlet through three thousand
+men is the usual punishment of deserters; and this would usually be
+a sentence of death but for the compassion of the officers, who hint
+to their companies to strike lightly. If the sufferer faints, and
+is declared by the surgeon unable to receive all his punishment, he
+gets the remainder at some future time. "Take him down" is a phrase
+unknown in the Russian service, until the offender has received the
+last lash of his sentence.
+
+Severity is doubtless necessary in an army composed like that of
+Russia. Two-thirds of the soldiers are serfs, whose masters, being
+allowed to send what men they please--so long as they make up their
+quota--naturally contribute the greatest scamps and idlers upon
+their estates. The army in Russia is what the galleys are in France,
+and the hulks in England--a punishment for an infinity of offences.
+An official embezzles funds--to the army with him; a Jew is caught
+smuggling--off with him to the ranks; a Tartar cattle-stealer, a
+vagrant gipsy, an Armenian trader convicted of fraud, a Petersburg
+coachman who has run over a pedestrian--all food for powder--gray
+coats and bayonets for them all. Jews abound in the Russian army,
+being subjected to a severe conscription in Poland and southern
+Russia. They submit with exemplary patience to the hardships of the
+service, and to the taunts of their Russian comrades. Poles are of
+course numerous in the ranks, but they are less enduring than the
+Israelite, and often desert to the Circassians, who make them work
+as servants, or sell them as slaves to the Turks. No race are too
+unmilitary in their nature to be ground into soldiers by the mill
+of Russian discipline. Besides Jews, gipsies and Armenians figure
+on the muster-roll. It must have been a queer day for the ragged
+Zingaro, when the Russian sergeant first stepped into his smoky
+tent, bade him clip his elf locks, wash his grimy countenance, and
+follow to the field. For him the pomp of war had no seductions; he
+would far rather have stuck to his den and vermin, and to his meal
+of roast rats and hedgehogs. But military discipline works miracles.
+The slouching filthy vagabond of yesterday now stands erect as if
+he had swallowed his ramrod, his shoes a brilliant jet, his buttons
+sparkling in the sun--a soldier from toe to top-knot.
+
+The right bank of the Kuban, from the Sea of Azov to the mouth
+of the Laba, (a tributary of the former stream,) is peopled with
+Tchernamortsy Cossacks, who furnish ten regiments, each of a
+thousand horsemen, for the defence of their lands and families.
+These cavalry carry a musket, slung on the back, and a long
+red lance: their dress is a sheepskin jacket, except on state
+occasions, when they sport uniform. They are much less feared by
+the Circassians than are the Cossacks of the Line, who wear the
+Circassian dress, carry sabres instead of lances, and are more
+valiant, active and skilful, than their Tchernamortsy neighbours.
+The Cossacks of the Caucasian Line dwell on the banks of the Kuban
+and Terek, form a military colony of about fifty thousand souls,
+and keep six thousand horsemen ready for the field. There is a
+mixture of Circassian blood in their veins, and they are first-rate
+fighting men. Their villages are exposed to frequent attacks from
+the mountaineers; but when these are not exceedingly rapid in
+collecting their booty, and effecting their retreat, the Cossacks
+assemble, and a desperate fight ensues. When the combatants are
+numerically matched, the equality of arms, horses, and skill renders
+the issue very doubtful. The Tchernamortsies and Don Cossacks are
+less able to cope with the Circassians. In a _melee_ their lances
+are inferior to the shaska. The rival claims of lance and sabre
+have often been discussed; many trials of their respective merits
+have been made in English, French, and German riding-schools; and
+much ink has been shed on the subject. Unquestionably the lance has
+done good service, and in certain circumstances is a terrible arm.
+"At the battle of Dresden," Marshal Marmont tells us, "the Austrian
+infantry were repeatedly assailed by the French cuirassiers,
+whom they as often beat back, although the rain prevented their
+firing, and the bayonet was their sole defence. But fifty lancers
+of Latour-Maubourg's escort at once broke their ranks." Had the
+cuirassiers had lances, their first charge, Marmont plausibly enough
+asserts, would have sufficed. This leads to another question, often
+mooted--whether the lance be properly a light or a heavy cavalry
+weapon. When used to break infantry, weight of man and horse might
+be an advantage; but in pursuit, where--especially in rugged and
+mountainous countries--the lance is found particularly useful, the
+preference is obviously for the swift steed and light cavalier.
+In the irregular cavalry combats on the Caucasian line, the sabre
+carries the day. Unless the Don Cossack's first lance-thrust settles
+his adversary, (which is rarely the case,) the next instant the
+adroit Circassian is within his guard, and then the betting is ten
+to one on Caucasus. Moreover, the Don Cossacks, brought from afar to
+wage a perilous and profitless war, are unwilling combatants. They
+find blows more plentiful than booty, and approve themselves arrant
+thieves and shy fighters. Relieved every two or three years, they
+have scarcely time to get broken in to the peculiar mode of warfare.
+The Cossacks of the Line are the flower of the hundred thousand wild
+warriors scattered over the steppes of Southern Russia, and ready,
+at one man's word, to vault into the saddle. Their gallant feats
+are numerous. In 1843, during Dr Wagner's visit, three thousand
+Circassians dashed across the Kuban, near the fortified village of
+Ustlaba. A dense fog hid them from the Russian vedettes. Suddenly
+fifty Cossacks of the Line, the escort of a gun, found themselves
+face to face with the mountaineers. The mist was so thick that the
+horses' heads almost touched before either party perceived the
+other. Flight was impossible, but the Cossacks fought like fiends.
+Forty-seven met a soldier's death; only three were captured,
+and accompanied the cannon across the river, by which road the
+Circassians at once retreated, having taken the brave detachment for
+the advanced guard of a strong force.
+
+The word Kasak, Kosak, or Kossack, variously interpreted by Klaproth
+and other etymologists as robber, volunteer, daredevil, &c., conveys
+to civilised ears rude and inelegant associations. Paris has not
+yet forgotten the uncouth hordes, wrapped in sheepskins and overrun
+with vermin, who, in the hour of her humiliation, startled her
+streets, and made her dandies shriek for their smelling-bottles.
+Not that Paris saw the worst of them. Some of the Uralian bears,
+centaurs of the steppes, Calibans on horseback, were never allowed
+to pass the Russian frontier. Their emperor appreciated their good
+qualities, but left them at home. Since then, a change has occured.
+Civilisation has made huge strides north-eastward. Near Fanagoria,
+Dr Wagner passed a pleasant evening with a Cossack officer, a prime
+fellow, with all unquenchable thirst for toddy, and an inexhaustible
+store of information. He had made the campaigns against the French;
+had evidently been bred a savage, or little better; but had
+acquired, during his long military career, knowledge of the world
+and a certain degree of polish. Amongst other interesting matters,
+he gave a sketch of his grandfather, a bloodthirsty old warrior
+and image-worshipper, the scourge of his Nogay neighbours, and a
+great slayer of the Turk; who in 1812, at the mature age of ninety,
+had responded to Czar Alexander's summons to fight for "faith and
+fatherland," and had taken the field under Platoff, at the head of
+thirteen sons and threescore grandsons. Whilst the Cossack major
+told the history of the "Demon of the Steppes," as his ferocious
+ancestor was called, his son, a gay lieutenant in the Cossacks of
+the Guard, entered the apartment. This young gentleman, slender,
+handsome, with well-cut uniform, graceful manners, and well-waxed
+mustaches, declined the punch, "having got used at St Petersburg
+to tea and champagne." He brought intelligence of promotions
+and decorations, of high play at Tcherkask, (the capital of the
+Don-Cossacks' country,) and of the establishment at Toganrog of
+a French _restaurateur_, who retailed _Veuve Clicquot's_ genuine
+champagne at four silver rubles a bottle. He was fascinated by
+the French actresses at St Petersburg, and enthusiastic in praise
+of Taglioni, then displaying her legs and graces in the Russian
+metropolis. Dr Wagner left the symposium with a vivid impression of
+the contrast between the bearded barbarian of 1812 and the dapper
+guardsman of thirty years later; and with the full conviction that
+the next Russian emperor who makes an inroad into civilised Europe,
+will have no occasion to be ashamed of his Cossacks, even though his
+route should lead him to the polite capital of the French republic.
+
+
+
+
+THE CAXTONS.--PART X.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+My uncle's conjecture as to the parentage of Francis Vivian seemed
+to me a positive discovery. Nothing more likely than that this
+wilful boy had formed some headstrong attachment which no father
+would sanction, and so, thwarted and irritated, thrown himself on
+the world. Such an explanation was the more agreeable to me, as it
+cleared up all that had appeared more discreditable in the mystery
+that surrounded Vivian. I could never bear to think that he had done
+anything mean and criminal, however I might believe he had been rash
+and faulty. It was natural that the unfriended wanderer should have
+been thrown into a society, the equivocal character of which had
+failed to revolt the audacity of an inquisitive mind and adventurous
+temper; but it was natural, also, that the habits of gentle birth,
+and that silent education which English gentlemen commonly receive
+from their very cradle, should have preserved his honour, at least,
+intact through all. Certainly the pride, the notions, the very
+faults of the wellborn had remained in full force--why not the
+better qualities, however smothered for the time? I felt thankful
+for the thought that Vivian was returning to an element in which he
+might repurify his mind,--refit himself for that sphere to which he
+belonged;--thankful that we might yet meet, and our present half
+intimacy mature, perhaps, into healthful friendship.
+
+It was with such thoughts that I took up my hat the next morning
+to seek Vivian, and judge if we had gained the right clue, when we
+were startled by what was a rare sound at our door--the postman's
+knock. My father was at the Museum; my mother in high conference, or
+close preparation for our approaching departure, with Mrs Primmins;
+Roland, I, and Blanche had the room to ourselves.
+
+"The letter is not for me," said Pisistratus.
+
+"Nor for me, I am sure," said the Captain, when the servant entered
+and confuted him--for the letter was for him. He took it up
+wonderingly and suspiciously, as Glumdalclitch took up Gulliver, or
+as (if naturalists) we take up an unknown creature, that we are not
+quite sure will not bite and sting us. Ah! it has stung or bit you,
+Captain Roland! for you start and change colour--you suppress a cry
+as you break the seal--you breathe hard as you read--and the letter
+seems short--but it takes time in the reading, for you go over it
+again and again. Then you fold it up--crumple it--thrust it into
+your breast pocket--and look round like a man waking from a dream.
+Is it a dream of pain, or of pleasure? Verily, I cannot guess, for
+nothing is on that eagle face either of pain or pleasure, but rather
+of fear, agitation, bewilderment. Yet the eyes are bright, too, and
+there is a smile on that iron lip.
+
+My uncle looked round, I say, and called hastily for his cane and
+his hat, and then began buttoning his coat across his broad breast,
+though the day was hot enough to have unbuttoned every breast in the
+tropics.
+
+"You are not going out, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"But are you strong enough yet? Let me go with you?"
+
+"No, sir; no. Blanche, come here." He took the child in his arms,
+surveyed her wistfully, and kissed her. "You have never given me
+pain, Blanche: say, 'God bless and prosper you, father!'"
+
+"God bless and prosper my dear, dear papa!" said Blanche, putting
+her little hands together, as if in prayer.
+
+"There--that should bring me luck, Blanche," said the Captain,
+gaily, and setting her down. Then seizing his cane from the servant,
+and putting on his hat with a determined air, he walked stoutly
+forth; and I saw him, from the window, march along the streets as
+cheerfully as if he had been besieging Badajoz.
+
+"God prosper thee, too!" said I, involuntarily.
+
+And Blanche took hold of my hand, and said in her prettiest way,
+(and her pretty ways were many), "I wish you would come with us,
+cousin Sisty, and help me to love papa. Poor papa! he wants us
+both--he wants all the love we can give him!"
+
+"That he does, my dear Blanche; and I think it a great mistake that
+we don't all live together. Your papa ought not to go to that tower
+of his, at the world's end, but come to our snug, pretty house, with
+a garden full of flowers, for you to be Queen of the May--from May
+to November;--to say nothing of a duck that is more sagacious than
+any creature in the Fables I gave you the other day."
+
+Blanche laughed and clapped her hands--"Oh, that would be so nice!
+but,"--and she stopped gravely, and added, "but then, you see, there
+would not be the tower to love papa; and I am sure that the tower
+must love him very much, for he loves it dearly."
+
+It was my turn to laugh now. "I see how it is, you little witch,"
+said I; "you would coax us to come and live with you and the owls!
+With all my heart, so far as I am concerned."
+
+"Sisty," said Blanche, with an appalling solemnity on her face, "do
+you know what I've been thinking?"
+
+"Not I, miss--what?--something very deep, I can see--very horrible,
+indeed, I fear, you look so serious."
+
+"Why, I've been thinking," continued Blanche, not relaxing a muscle,
+and without the least bit of a blush--"I've been thinking that
+I'll be your little wife; and then, of course, we shall all live
+together."
+
+Blanche did not blush, but I did. "Ask me that ten years hence,
+if you dare, you impudent little thing; and now, run away to Mrs
+Primmins, and tell her to keep you out of mischief, for I must say
+good-morning."
+
+But Blanche did not run away, and her dignity seemed exceedingly
+hurt at my mode of taking her alarming proposition, for she retired
+into a corner pouting, and sate down with great majesty. So there
+I left her, and went my way to Vivian. He was out; but, seeing
+books on his table, and having nothing to do, I resolved to wait
+for his return. I had enough of my father in me to turn at once to
+the books for company; and, by the side of some graver works which
+I had recommended, I found certain novels in French, that Vivian
+had got from a circulating library. I had a curiosity to read
+these--for, except the old classic novels of France, this mighty
+branch of its popular literature was then new to me. I soon got
+interested, but what an interest!--the interest that a nightmare
+might excite, if one caught it out of one's sleep, and set to work
+to examine it. By the side of what dazzling shrewdness, what deep
+knowledge of those holes and corners in the human system, of which
+Goethe must have spoken when he said somewhere--(if I recollect
+right, and don't misquote him, which I'll not answer for)--"There
+is something in every man's heart which, if we could know, would
+make us hate him,"--by the side of all this, and of much more that
+showed prodigious boldness and energy of intellect, what strange
+exaggeration--what mock nobility of sentiment--what inconceivable
+perversion of reasoning--what damnable demoralisation! I hate the
+cant of charging works of fiction with the accusation--often unjust
+and shallow--that they interest us in vice, or palliate crime,
+because the author truly shows what virtues may entangle themselves
+with vices; or commands our compassion, and awes our pride, by
+teaching us how men deceive and bewitch themselves into guilt. Such
+painting belongs to the dark truth of all tragedy, from Sophocles to
+Shakspeare. No; this is not what shocked me in those books--it was
+not the interesting me in vice, for I felt no interest in it at all;
+it was the insisting that vice is something uncommonly noble--it
+was the portrait of some coldblooded adultress, whom the author or
+authoress chooses to call _pauvre Ange!_ (poor angel!);--it was some
+scoundrel who dupes, cheats, and murders under cover of a duel, in
+which he is a second St George; who does not instruct us by showing
+through what metaphysical process he became a scoundrel, but who
+is continually forced upon us as a very favourable specimen of
+mankind;--it was the view of society altogether, painted in colours
+so hideous that, if true, instead of a revolution, it would draw
+down a deluge;--it was the hatred, carefully instilled, of the
+poor against the rich--it was the war breathed between class and
+class--it was that envy of all superiorities, which loves to show
+itself by allowing virtue only to a blouse, and asserting that a
+man must be a rogue if he belong to that rank of society in which,
+from the very gifts of education, from the necessary associations
+of circumstances, roguery is the last thing probable or natural.
+It was all this, and things a thousand times worse, that set my
+head in a whirl, as hour after hour slipped on, and I still gazed,
+spell-bound, on these Chimeras and Typhons--these symbols of the
+Destroying Principle. "Poor Vivian!" said I, as I rose at last,
+"if thou readest these books with pleasure, or from habit, no
+wonder that thou seemest to me so obtuse about right and wrong,
+and to have a great cavity where thy brain should have the bump of
+'conscientiousness' in full salience!"
+
+Nevertheless, to do those demoniacs justice, I had got through
+time imperceptibly by their pestilent help; and I was startled to
+see, by my watch, how late it was. I had just resolved to leave
+a line, fixing an appointment for the morrow, and so depart,
+when I heard Vivian's knock--a knock that had great character
+in it--haughty, impatient, irregular; not a neat, symmetrical,
+harmonious, unpretending knock, but a knock that seemed to set the
+whole house and street at defiance: it was a knock bullying--a
+knock ostentatious--a knock irritating and offensive--"impiger" and
+"iracundus."
+
+But the step that came up the stairs did not suit the knock: it was
+a step light, yet firm--slow, yet elastic.
+
+The maid-servant who had opened the door had, no doubt, informed
+Vivian of my visit, for he did not seem surprised to see me; but he
+cast that hurried, suspicious look round the room which a man is apt
+to cast when he has left his papers about, and finds some idler,
+on whose trustworthiness he by no means depends, seated in the
+midst of the unguarded secrets. The look was not flattering; but my
+conscience was so unreproachful that I laid all the blame upon the
+general suspiciousness of Vivian's character.
+
+"Three hours, at least, have I been here!" said I, maliciously.
+
+"Three hours!"--again the look.
+
+"And this is the worst secret I have discovered,"--and I pointed to
+those literary Manicheans.
+
+"Oh!" said he carelessly, "French novels!--I don't wonder you stayed
+so long. I can't read your English novels--flat and insipid: there
+are truth and life here."
+
+"Truth and life!" cried I, every hair on my head erect with
+astonishment--"then hurrah for falsehood and death!"
+
+"They don't please you; no accounting for tastes."
+
+"I beg your pardon--I account for yours, if you really take for
+truth and life monsters so nefast and flagitious. For heaven's
+sake, my dear fellow, don't suppose that any man could get on in
+England--get anywhere but to the Old Bailey or Norfolk Island, if he
+squared his conduct to such topsy-turvy notions of the world as I
+find here."
+
+"How many years are you my senior," asked Vivian sneeringly, "that
+you should play the mentor, and correct my ignorance of the world?"
+
+"Vivian, it is not age and experience that speak here, it is
+something far wiser than they--the instinct of a man's heart, and a
+gentleman's honour."
+
+"Well, well," said Vivian, rather discomposed, "let the poor books
+alone; you know my creed--that books influence us little one way or
+the other."
+
+"By the great Egyptian library, and the soul of Diodorus, I wish you
+could hear my father upon that point! Come," added I, with sublime
+compassion--"come, it is not too late--do let me introduce you to
+my father. I will consent to read French novels all my life, if a
+single chat with Austin Caxton does not send you home with a happier
+face and a lighter heart. Come, let me take you back to dine with us
+to-day."
+
+"I cannot," said Vivian with some confusion--"I cannot, for this day
+I leave London. Some other time perhaps--for," he added, but not
+heartily, "we may meet again."
+
+"I hope so," said I, wringing his hand, "and that is likely,--since,
+in spite of yourself, I have guessed your secret--your birth and
+parentage."
+
+"How!" cried Vivian, turning pale, and gnawing his lip--"what do
+you mean?--speak."
+
+"Well, then, are you not the lost, runaway son of Colonel Vivian?
+Come, say the truth; let us be confidants."
+
+Vivian threw off a succession of his abrupt sighs; and then, seating
+himself, leant his face on the table, confused, no doubt, to find
+himself discovered.
+
+"You are near the mark," said he at last, "but do not ask me farther
+yet. Some day," he cried impetuously, and springing suddenly to his
+feet--"some day you shall know all: yes; some day, if I live, when
+that name shall be high in the world; yes, when the world is at my
+feet!" He stretched his right hand as if to grasp the space, and his
+whole face was lighted with a fierce enthusiasm. The glow died away,
+and with a slight return of his scornful smile, he said--"Dreams
+yet; dreams! And now, look at this paper." And he drew out a
+memorandum, scrawled over with figures.
+
+"This, I think, is my pecuniary debt to you; in a few days, I shall
+discharge it. Give me your address."
+
+"Oh!" said I, pained, "can you speak to me of money, Vivian?"
+
+"It is one of those instincts of honour you cite so often," answered
+he, colouring. "Pardon me."
+
+"That is my address," said I, stooping to write, to conceal my
+wounded feelings. "You will avail yourself of it, I hope, often, and
+tell me that you are well and happy."
+
+"When I am happy, you shall know."
+
+"You do not require any introduction to Trevanion?"
+
+Vivian hesitated: "No, I think not. If ever I do, I will write for
+it."
+
+I took up my hat, and was about to go--for I was still chilled and
+mortified--when, as if by an irresistible impulse, Vivian came to me
+hastily, flung his arms round my neck, and kissed me as a boy kisses
+his brother.
+
+"Bear with me!" he cried in a faltering voice: "I did not think to
+love any one as you have made me love you, though sadly against the
+grain. If you are not my good angel, it is that nature and habit are
+too strong for you. Certainly, some day we shall meet again. I shall
+have time, in the meanwhile, to see if the world can be indeed 'mine
+oyster, which I with sword can open.' I would be _aut Caesar aut
+nullus_! Very little other Latin know I to quote from! If Caesar, men
+will forgive me all the means to the end; if _nullus_, London has a
+river, and in every street one may buy a cord!"
+
+"Vivian! Vivian!"
+
+"Now go, my dear friend, while my heart is softened--go, before I
+shock you with some return of the native Adam. Go--go!"
+
+And taking me gently by the arm, Francis Vivian drew me from the
+room, and, re-entering, locked his door.
+
+Ah! if I could have left him Robert Hall, instead of those execrable
+Typhons! But would that medicine have suited his case, or must grim
+Experience write sterner recipes with her iron hand?
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+When I got back, just in time for dinner, Roland had not returned,
+nor did he return till late in the evening. All our eyes were
+directed towards him, as we rose with one accord to give him
+welcome; but his face was like a mask--it was locked, and rigid, and
+unreadable.
+
+Shutting the door carefully after him, he came to the hearth, stood
+on it, upright and calm, for a few moments, and then asked--
+
+"Has Blanche gone to bed?"
+
+"Yes," said my mother, "but not to sleep, I am sure; she made me
+promise to tell her when you came back."
+
+Roland's brow relaxed.
+
+"To-morrow, sister," said he slowly, "will you see that she has the
+proper mourning made for her? My son is dead."
+
+"Dead!" we cried with one voice, and surrounding him with one
+impulse.
+
+"Dead! impossible--you could not say it so calmly. Dead!--how do you
+know? You may be deceived. Who told you?--why do you think so?"
+
+"I have seen his remains," said my uncle, with the same gloomy calm.
+"We will all mourn for him. Pisistratus, you are heir to my name
+now, as to your father's. Good-night; excuse me, all--all you dear
+and kind ones; I am worn out."
+
+Roland lighted his candle and went away, leaving us thunderstruck;
+but he came back again--looked round--took up his book, open in
+the favourite passage--nodded again, and again vanished. We looked
+at each other, as if we had seen a ghost. Then my father rose and
+went out of the room, and remained in Roland's till the night was
+wellnigh gone. We sat up--my mother and I--till he returned. His
+benign face looked profoundly sad.
+
+"How is it, sir Can you tell us more?"
+
+My father shook his head.
+
+"Roland prays that you may preserve the same forbearance you have
+shown hitherto, and never mention his son's name to him. Peace be to
+the living, as to the dead. Kitty, this changes our plans; we must
+all go to Cumberland--we cannot leave Roland thus!"
+
+"Poor, poor Roland!" said my mother, through her tears. "And to
+think that father and son were not reconciled. But Roland forgives
+him now--oh, yes! _now!_"
+
+"It is not Roland we can censure," said my father, almost fiercely;
+"it is--but enough. We must hurry out of town as soon as we can:
+Roland will recover in the native air of his old ruins."
+
+We went up to bed mournfully.
+
+"And so," thought I, "ends one grand object of my life!--I had hoped
+to have brought those two together. But, alas! what peacemaker like
+the grave!"
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+My uncle did not leave his room for three days, but he was much
+closeted with a lawyer; and my father dropped some words which
+seemed to imply that the deceased had incurred debts, and that the
+poor Captain was making some charge on his small property. As Roland
+had said that he had seen the remains of his son, I took it at first
+for granted that we should attend a funeral, but no word of this was
+said. On the fourth day, Roland, in deep mourning, entered a hackney
+coach with the lawyer, and was absent about two hours. I did not
+doubt that he had thus quietly fulfilled the last mournful offices.
+On his return, he shut himself up again for the rest of the day,
+and would not see even my father. But the next morning he made his
+appearance as usual, and I even thought that he seemed more cheerful
+than I had yet known him--whether he played a part, or whether the
+worst was now over, and the grave was less cruel than uncertainty.
+On the following day, we all set out for Cumberland.
+
+In the interval, Uncle Jack had been almost constantly at the house,
+and, to do him justice, he had seemed unaffectedly shocked at the
+calamity that had befallen Roland. There was, indeed, no want of
+heart in Uncle Jack, whenever you went straight at it; but it was
+hard to find if you took a circuitous route towards it through the
+pockets. The worthy speculator had indeed much business to transact
+with my father before we left town. The _Anti-Publisher Society_
+had been set up, and it was through the obstetric aid of that
+fraternity that the Great Book was to be ushered into the world. The
+new journal, the _Literary Times_, was also far advanced--not yet
+out, but my father was fairly in for it. There were preparations for
+its debut on a vast scale, and two or three gentlemen in black--one
+of whom looked like a lawyer, and another like a printer, and a
+third uncommonly like a Jew--called twice, with papers of a very
+formidable aspect. All these preliminaries settled, the last thing
+I heard Uncle Jack say, with a slap on my father's back, was, "Fame
+and fortune both made now!--you may go to sleep in safety, for you
+leave me wide awake. Jack Tibbets never sleeps!"
+
+I had thought it strange that, since my abrupt exodus from
+Trevanion's house, no notice had been taken of any of us by himself
+or Lady Ellinor. But on the very eve of our departure, came a kind
+note from Trevanion to me, dated from his favourite country seat,
+(accompanied by a present of some rare books to my father,) in which
+he said briefly that there had been illness in his family, which had
+obliged him to leave town for a change of air, but that Lady Ellinor
+expected to call on my mother the next week. He had found amongst
+his books some curious works of the Middle Ages, amongst others a
+complete set of Cardan, which he knew my father would like to have,
+and so sent them. There was no allusion to what had passed between
+us.
+
+In reply to this note, after due thanks on my father's part, who
+seized upon the Cardan (Lyons edition, 1663, ten volumes folio) as
+a silkworm does upon a mulberry leaf, I expressed our joint regrets
+that there was no hope of our seeing Lady Ellinor, as we were just
+leaving town. I should have added something on the loss my uncle had
+sustained, but my father thought that, since Roland shrank from any
+mention of his son, even by his nearest kindred, it would be his
+obvious wish not to parade his affliction beyond that circle.
+
+And there had been illness in Trevanion's family! On whom had it
+fallen? I could not rest satisfied with that general expression, and
+I took my answer myself to Trevanion's house, instead of sending it
+by the post. In reply to my inquiries, the porter said that all the
+family were expected at the end of the week; that he had heard both
+Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion had been rather poorly, but that
+they were now better. I left my note, with orders to forward it; and
+my wounds bled afresh as I came away.
+
+We had the whole coach to ourselves in our journey, and a silent
+journey it was, till we arrived at a little town about eight miles
+from my uncle's residence, to which we could only get through a
+cross-road. My uncle insisted on preceding us that night, and,
+though he had written, before we started, to announce our coming, he
+was fidgety lest the poor tower should not make the best figure it
+could;--so he went alone, and we took our ease at our inn.
+
+Betimes the next day we hired a fly-coach--for a chaise could never
+have held us and my father's books--and jogged through a labyrinth
+of villanous lanes, which no Marshal Wade had ever reformed from
+their primal chaos. But poor Mrs Primmins and the canary-bird
+alone seemed sensible of the jolts; the former, who sate opposite
+to us, wedged amidst a medley of packages, all marked "care, to
+be kept top uppermost," (why I know not, for they were but books,
+and whether they lay top or bottom it could not materially affect
+their value,)--the former, I say, contrived to extend her arms over
+those _disjecta membra_, and, griping a window-sill with the right
+hand, and a window-sill with the left, kept her seat rampant, like
+the split eagle of the Austrian Empire--in fact it would be well,
+now-a-days, if the split eagle were as firm as Mrs Primmins! As for
+the canary, it never failed to respond, by an astonished chirp, to
+every "Gracious me!" and "Lord save us!" which the delve into a rut,
+or the bump out of it, sent forth from Mrs Primmins's lips, with all
+the emphatic dolor of the "+Ai, ai+ in a Greek chorus.
+
+But my father, with his broad hat over his brows, was in deep
+thought. The scenes of his youth were rising before him, and his
+memory went, smooth as a spirit's wing, over delve and bump. And
+my mother, who sat next him, had her arm on his shoulder, and was
+watching his face jealously. Did she think that, in that thoughtful
+face, there was regret for the old love? Blanche, who had been
+very sad, and had wept much and quietly since they put on her the
+mourning, and told her that she had no brother, (though she had no
+remembrance of the lost), began now to evince infantine curiosity
+and eagerness to catch the first peep of her father's beloved tower.
+And Blanche sat on my knee, and I shared her impatience. At last
+there came in view a church spire--a church--a plain square building
+near it, the parsonage, (my father's old home)--a long straggling
+street of cottages and rude shops, with a better kind of house here
+and there--and in the hinder ground, a gray deformed mass of wall
+and ruin, placed on one of those eminences on which the Danes loved
+to pitch camp or build fort, with one high, rude, Anglo-Norman tower
+rising from the midst. Few trees were round it, and those either
+poplars or firs, save, as we approached, one mighty oak--integral
+and unscathed. The road now wound behind the parsonage, and up a
+steep ascent. Such a road!--the whole parish ought to have been
+flogged for it! If I had sent up a road like that, even on a map, to
+Dr Herman, I should not have sat down in comfort for a week to come!
+
+The fly-coach came to a full stop.
+
+"Let us get out," cried I, opening the door and springing to the
+ground to set the example.
+
+Blanche followed, and my respected parents came next. But when Mrs
+Primmins was about to heave herself into movement,
+
+"_Papae!_" said my father. "I think, Mrs Primmins, you must remain
+in, to keep the books steady."
+
+"Lord love you!" cried Mrs Primmins, aghast.
+
+"The subtraction of such a mass, or _moles_--supple and elastic
+as all flesh is, and fitting into the hard corners of the inert
+matter--such a subtraction, Mrs Primmins, would leave a vacuum which
+no natural system, certainly no artificial organisation, could
+sustain. There would be a regular dance of atoms, Mrs Primmins; my
+books would fly here, there, on the floor, out of the window!
+
+  "_Corporis officium est quoniam omnia deorsum._"
+
+The business of a body like yours, Mrs Primmins, is to press all
+things down--to keep them tight, as you will know one of these
+days--that is, if you will do me the favour to read Lucretius,
+and master that material philosophy, of which I may say, without
+flattery, my dear Mrs Primmins, that you are a living illustration."
+
+These, the first words my father had spoken since we set out
+from the inn, seemed to assure my mother that she need have no
+apprehension as to the character of his thoughts, for her brow
+cleared, and she said, laughing,
+
+"Only look at poor Primmins, and then at that hill!"
+
+"You may subtract Primmins, if you will be answerable for the
+remnant, Kitty. Only, I warn you that it is against all the laws of
+physics."
+
+So saying, he sprang lightly forward, and, taking hold of my arm,
+paused and looked round, and drew the loud free breath with which we
+draw native air.
+
+"And yet," said my father, after that grateful and affectionate
+inspiration--"and yet, it must be owned, that a more ugly country
+one cannot see out of Cambridgeshire."[5]
+
+  [5] This certainly cannot be said of Cumberland generally, one of
+  the most beautiful counties in Great Britain. But the immediate
+  district to which Mr Caxton's exclamation refers; if not ugly, is at
+  least savage, bare, and rude.
+
+"Nay," said I, "it is bold and large, it has a beauty of its own.
+Those immense, undulating, uncultivated, treeless tracks have
+surely their charm of wildness and solitude! And how they suit the
+character of the ruin! All is feudal there: I understand Roland
+better now."
+
+"I hope in heaven Cardan will come to no harm!" cried my father; "he
+is very handsomely bound; and he fitted beautifully just into the
+fleshiest part of that fidgety Primmins."
+
+Blanche, meanwhile, had run far before us, and I followed fast.
+There were still the remains of that deep trench (surrounding the
+ruins on three sides, leaving a ragged hill-top at the fourth) which
+made the favourite fortification of all the Teutonic tribes. A
+causeway, raised on brick arches, now, however, supplied the place
+of the drawbridge, and the outer gate was but a mass of picturesque
+ruin. Entering into the courtyard or bailey, the old castle mound,
+from which justice had been dispensed, was in full view, rising
+higher than the broken walls around it, and partially overgrown with
+brambles. And there stood, comparatively whole, the tower or keep,
+and from its portals emerged the veteran owner.
+
+His ancestors might have received us in more state, but certainly
+they could not have given us a warmer greeting. In fact, in his
+own domain, Roland appeared another man. His stiffness, which
+was a little repulsive to those who did not understand it, was
+all gone. He seemed less proud, precisely because he and his
+pride, on that ground, were on good terms with each other. How
+gallantly he extended--not his arm, in our modern Jack-and-Jill
+sort of fashion--but his right hand, to my mother; how carefully
+he led her over "brake, bush, and scaur," through the low vaulted
+door, where a tall servant, who, it was easy to see, had been a
+soldier--in the precise livery, no doubt, warranted by the heraldic
+colours, (his stockings were red!)--stood upright as a sentry.
+And, coming into the hall, it looked absolutely cheerful--it took
+us by surprise. There was a great fire-place, and, though it was
+still summer, a great fire! It did not seem a bit too much, for
+the walls were stone, the lofty roof open to the rafters, while
+the windows were small and narrow, and so high and so deep sunk
+that one seemed in a vault. Nevertheless, I say the room looked
+sociable and cheerful--thanks principally to the fire, and partly
+to a very ingenious medley of old tapestry at one end, and matting
+at the other, fastened to the lower part of the walls, seconded
+by an arrangement of furniture which did credit to my uncle's
+taste for the Picturesque. After we had looked about and admired
+to our hearts' content, Roland took us--not up one of those noble
+staircases you see in the later manorial residences--but a little
+winding stone stair, into the rooms he had appropriated to his
+guests. There was first a small chamber, which he called my father's
+study--in truth, it would have done for any philosopher or saint who
+wished to shut out the world--and might have passed for the interior
+of such a column as Stylites inhabited; for you must have climbed a
+ladder to have looked out of the window, and then the vision of no
+short-sighted man could have got over the interval in the wall made
+by the narrow casement, which, after all, gave no other prospect
+than a Cumberland sky, with an occasional rook in it. But my father,
+I think I have said before, did not much care for scenery, and he
+looked round with great satisfaction upon the retreat assigned him.
+
+"We can knock up shelves for your books in no time," said my uncle,
+rubbing his hands.
+
+"It would be a charity," quoth my father, "for they have been very
+long in a recumbent position, and would like to stretch themselves,
+poor things. My dear Roland, this room is made for books--so round
+and so deep. I shall sit here like Truth in a well."
+
+"And there is a room for you, sister, just out of it," said my
+uncle, opening a little low prison-like door into a charming room,
+for its window was low, and it had an iron balcony; "and out of that
+is the bed-room. For you, Pisistratus, my boy, I am afraid that it
+is soldier's quarters, indeed, with which you will have to put up.
+But never mind; in a day or two we shall make all worthy a general
+of your illustrious name--for he was a great general, Pisistratus
+the First--was he not, brother?"
+
+"All tyrants are," said my father: "the knack of soldiering is
+indispensable to them."
+
+"Oh, you may say what you please here!" said Roland, in high
+good humour, as he drew me down stairs, still apologising for my
+quarters, and so earnestly that I made up my mind that I was to be
+put into an _oubliette_. Nor were my suspicions much dispelled on
+seeing that we had to leave the keep, and pick our way into what
+seemed to me a mere heap of rubbish, on the dexter side of the
+court. But I was agreeably surprised to find, amidst these wrecks,
+a room with a noble casement commanding the whole country, and
+placed immediately over a plot of ground cultivated as a garden.
+The furniture was ample, though homely; the floors and walls well
+matted; and, altogether, despite the inconvenience of having to
+cross the courtyard to get to the rest of the house, and being
+wholly without the modern luxury of a bell, I thought that I could
+not be better lodged.
+
+"But this is a perfect bower, my dear uncle! Depend on it, it was
+the bower-chamber of the Dames de Caxton--heaven rest them!"
+
+"No," said my uncle, gravely; "I suspect it must have been the
+chaplain's room, for the chapel was to the right of you. An earlier
+chapel, indeed, formerly existed in the keep tower--for, indeed, it
+is scarcely a true keep without chapel, well, and hall. I can show
+you part of the roof of the first, and the two last are entire; the
+well is very curious, formed in the substance of the wall at one
+angle of the hall. In Charles the First's time, our ancestor lowered
+his only son down in a bucket, and kept him there six hours, while
+a Malignant mob was storming the tower. I need not say that our
+ancestor himself scorned to hide from such a rabble, for _he_ was a
+grown man. The boy lived to be a sad spendthrift, and used the well
+for cooling his wine. He drank up a great many good acres."
+
+"I should scratch him out of the pedigree, if I were you. But,
+pray, have you not discovered the proper chamber of that great Sir
+William, about whom my father is so shamefully sceptical?"
+
+"To tell you a secret," answered the Captain, giving me a sly poke
+in the ribs, "I have put your father into it! There are the initial
+letters W. C. let into the cusp of the York rose, and the date,
+three years before the battle of Bosworth, over the chimneypiece."
+
+I could not help joining my uncle's grim low laugh at this
+characteristic pleasantry; and after I had complimented him on so
+judicious a mode of proving his point, I asked him how he could
+possibly have contrived to fit up the ruin so well, especially as he
+had scarcely visited it since his purchase.
+
+"Why," said he, "about twelve years ago, that poor fellow you
+now see as my servant, and who is gardener, bailiff, seneschal,
+butler, and anything else you can put him to, was sent out of the
+army on the invalid list. So I placed him here; and as he is a
+capital carpenter, and has had a very fair education, I told him
+what I wanted, and put by a small sum every year for repairs and
+furnishing. It is astonishing how little it cost me, for Bolt,
+poor fellow, (that is his name,) caught the right spirit of the
+thing, and most of the furniture, (which you see is ancient and
+suitable,) he picked up at different cottages and farmhouses in the
+neighbourhood. As it is, however, we have plenty more rooms here and
+there--only, of late," continued my uncle, slightly changing colour,
+"I had no money to spare. But come," he resumed, with an evident
+effort--"come and see my barrack: it is on the other side of the
+hall, and made out of what no doubt were the butteries."
+
+We reached the yard, and found the fly-coach had just crawled to
+the door. My father's head was buried deep in the vehicle,--he was
+gathering up his packages, and sending out, oracle-like, various
+muttered objurgations and anathemas upon Mrs Primmins and her
+vacuum; which Mrs Primmins, standing by, and making a lap with her
+apron to receive the packages and anathemas simultaneously, bore
+with the mildness of an angel, lifting up her eyes to heaven and
+murmuring something about "poor old bones." Though, as for Mrs
+Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years, and you
+might as soon have found a Plesiosaurus in the fat lands of Romney
+Marsh as a bone amidst those layers of flesh in which my poor father
+thought he had so carefully cottoned up his Cardan.
+
+Leaving these parties to adjust matters between them, we stepped
+under the low doorway, and entered Rowland's room. Oh, certainly
+Bolt _had_ caught the spirit of the thing!--certainly he had
+penetrated down even to the very pathos that lay within the deeps
+of Roland's character. Buffon says "the style is the man;" there,
+the room was the man. That nameless, inexpressible, soldier-like,
+methodical neatness which belonged to Roland--that was the first
+thing that struck one--that was the general character of the whole.
+Then, in details, there, in stout oak shelves, were the books on
+which my father loved to jest his more imaginative brother,--there
+they were, Froissart, Barante, Joinville, the _Mort d'Arthur_,
+_Amadis of Gaul_, Spenser's _Fairy Queen_, a noble copy of Strutt's
+_Horda_, Mallet's _Northern Antiquities_, Percy's _Reliques_, Pope's
+_Homer_, books on gunnery, archery, hawking, fortification--old
+chivalry and modern war together cheek by jowl.
+
+Old chivalry and modern war!--look to that tilting helmet with
+the tall Caxton crest, and look to that trophy near it, a French
+cuirass--and that old banner (a knight's pennon) surmounting those
+crossed bayonets. And over the chimneypiece there--bright, clean,
+and, I warrant you, dusted daily--are Roland's own sword, his
+holsters, and pistols, yea, the saddle, pierced and lacerated, from
+which he had reeled when that leg----I gasped--I felt it all at a
+glance, and I stole softly to the spot, and, had Roland not been
+there, I could have kissed that sword as reverently as if it had
+been a Bayard's or a Sidney's.
+
+My uncle was too modest to guess my emotion; he rather thought I
+had turned my face to conceal a smile at his vanity, and said, in
+a deprecating tone of apology--"It was all Bolt's doing, foolish
+fellow."
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+Our host regaled us with a hospitality that notably contrasted his
+economical thrifty habits in London. To be sure, Bolt had caught the
+great pike which headed the feast; and Bolt, no doubt, had helped
+to rear those fine chickens _ab ovo_; Bolt, I have no doubt, made
+that excellent Spanish omelette; and for the rest, the products of
+the sheepwalk and the garden came in as volunteer auxiliaries--very
+different from the mercenary recruits by which those metropolitan
+_Condottieri_, the butcher and green-grocer, hasten the ruin of that
+melancholy commonwealth called "genteel poverty."
+
+Our evening passed cheerfully; and Roland, contrary to his custom,
+was talker in chief. It was eleven o'clock before Bolt appeared with
+a lantern to conduct me through the court-yard to my dormitory,
+among the ruins--a ceremony which, every night, shine or dark, he
+insisted upon punctiliously performing.
+
+It was long before I could sleep--before I could believe that but
+so few days had elapsed since Roland heard of his son's death--that
+son whose fate had so long tortured him; and yet, never had Roland
+appeared so free from sorrow! Was it natural--was it effort? Several
+days passed before I could answer that question, and then not wholly
+to my satisfaction. Effort there was, or rather resolute systematic
+determination. At moments Roland's head drooped, his brows met, and
+the whole man seemed to sink. Yet these were only moments; he would
+rouse himself up like a dozing charger at the sound of a trumpet,
+and shake off the creeping weight. But, whether from the vigour of
+his determination, or from some aid in other trains of reflection, I
+could not but perceive that Roland's sadness really was less grave
+and bitter than it had been, or than it was natural to suppose. He
+seemed to transfer, daily more and more, his affections from the
+dead to those around him, especially to Blanche and myself. He let
+it be seen that he looked on me now as his lawful successor--as the
+future supporter of his name--he was fond of confiding to me all
+his little plans, and consulting me on them. He would walk with me
+around his domains, (of which I shall say more hereafter,)--point
+out, from every eminence we climbed, where the broad lands which
+his forefathers owned stretched away to the horizon; unfold with
+tender hand the mouldering pedigree, and rest lingeringly on those
+of his ancestors who had held martial post, or had died on the
+field. There was a crusader who had followed Richard to Ascalon;
+there was a knight who had fought at Agincourt; there was a cavalier
+(whose picture was still extant, with fair lovelocks) who had fallen
+at Worcester--no doubt the same who had cooled his son in that
+well which the son devoted to more agreeable associations. But of
+all these worthies there was none whom my uncle, perhaps from the
+spirit of contradiction, valued like that apocryphal Sir William:
+and why?--because, when the apostate Stanley turned the fortunes
+of the field at Bosworth, and when that cry of despair--"Treason,
+treason!" burst from the lips of the last Plantagenet, "amongst
+the faithless," this true soldier "faithful found!" had fallen in
+that lion-rush which Richard made at his foe. "Your father tells
+me that Richard was a murderer and usurper," quoth my uncle. "Sir,
+that might be true or not; but it was not on the field of battle
+that his followers were to reason on the character of the master
+who trusted them, especially when a legion of foreign hirelings
+stood opposed to them. I would not have descended from that turncoat
+Stanley to be lord of all the lands the Earls of Derby can boast
+of. Sir, in loyalty, men fight and die for a grand principle, and
+a lofty passion; and this brave Sir William was paying back to the
+last Plantagenet the benefits he had received from the first!"
+
+"And yet it may be doubted," said I maliciously, "whether William
+Caxton the printer did not--"
+
+"Plague, pestilence, and fire seize William Caxton the printer, and
+his invention too!" cried my uncle barbarously. "When there were
+only a few books, at least they were good ones; and now they are
+so plentiful, all they do is to confound the judgment, unsettle
+the reason, drive the good books out of cultivation, and draw a
+ploughshare of innovation over every ancient landmark; seduce the
+women, womanize the men, upset states, thrones, and churches; rear
+a race of chattering, conceited, coxcombs, who can always find
+books in plenty to excuse them from doing their duty; make the poor
+discontented, the rich crotchety and whimsical, refine away the
+stout old virtues into quibbles and sentiments! All imagination
+formerly was expended in noble action, adventure, enterprise, high
+deeds and aspirations; now a man can but be imaginative by feeding
+on the false excitement of passions he never felt, dangers he never
+shared; and he fritters away all there is of life to spare in him
+upon the fictitious love-sorrows of Bond Street and St James's.
+Sir, chivalry ceased when the press rose! And to fasten upon me, as
+a forefather, out of all men who have ever lived and sinned, the
+very man who has most destroyed what I most valued--who, by the
+Lord! with his cursed invention has wellnigh got rid of respect for
+forefathers altogether--is a cruelty of which my brother had never
+been capable, if that printer's devil had not got hold of him!"
+
+That a man in this blessed nineteenth century should be such a
+Vandal! and that my uncle Roland should talk in a strain that
+Totila would have been ashamed of, within so short a time after my
+father's scientific and erudite oration on the Hygeiana of Books,
+was enough to make one despair of the progress of intellect and the
+perfectibility of our species. And I have no manner of doubt that,
+all the while, my uncle had a brace of books in his pockets, Robert
+Hall one of them! In truth, he had talked himself into a passion,
+and did not know what nonsense he was saying, poor man. But this
+explosion of Captain Roland's has shattered the thread of my matter.
+Pouff! I must take breath and begin again!
+
+Yes, in spite of my sauciness, the old soldier evidently took to me
+more and more. And, besides our critical examination of the property
+and the pedigree, he carried me with him on long excursions to
+distant villages, where some memorial of a defunct Caxton, a coat of
+arms, or an epitaph on a tombstone, might be still seen. And he made
+me pore over topographical works and county histories, (forgetful,
+Goth that he was, that for those very authorities he was indebted
+to the repudiated printer!) to find some anecdote of his beloved
+dead! In truth, the county for miles round bore the _vestigia_ of
+those old Caxtons; their handwriting was on many a broken wall.
+And, obscure as they all were, compared to that great operative
+of the Sanctuary at Westminster, whom my father clung to--still,
+that the yesterdays that had lighted them the way to dusty death
+had cast no glare on dishonoured scutcheons seemed clear, from the
+popular respect and traditional affection in which I found that
+the name was still held in hamlet and homestead. It was pleasant
+to see the veneration with which this small hidalgo of some three
+hundred a-year was held, and the patriarchal affection with which
+he returned it. Roland was a man who would walk into a cottage,
+rest his cork leg on the hearth, and talk for the hour together
+upon all that lay nearest to the hearts of the owners. There is
+a peculiar spirit of aristocracy amongst agricultural peasants:
+they like old names and families; they identify themselves with the
+honours of a house, as if of its clan. They do not care so much for
+wealth as townsfolk and the middle class do; they have a pity, but a
+respectful one, for wellborn poverty. And then this Roland, too--who
+would go and dine in a cook shop, and receive change for a shilling,
+and shun the ruinous luxury of a hack cabriolet--could be positively
+extravagant in his liberalities to those around him. He was
+altogether another being in his paternal acres. The shabby-genteel,
+half-pay captain, lost in the whirl of London, here luxuriated into
+a dignified case of manner that Chesterfield might have admired.
+And, if to please is the true sign of politeness, I wish you could
+have seen the faces that smiled upon Captain Roland, as he walked
+down the village, nodding from side to side.
+
+One day a frank, hearty, old woman, who had known Roland as a boy,
+seeing him lean on my arm, stopped us, as she said bluffly, to take
+a "geud luik" at me.
+
+Fortunately I was stalwart enough to pass muster, even in the eyes
+of a Cumberland matron; and, after a compliment at which Roland
+seemed much pleased, she said to me, but pointing to the Captain--
+
+"Hegh, sir, now you ha the bra time before you; you maun een try and
+be as geud as _he_. And if life last, ye wull too--for there never
+waur a bad ane of that stock. Wi' heads kindly stup'd to the least,
+and lifted manfu' oop to the heighest--that ye all war' sin ye came
+from the Ark. Blessins on the ould name--though little pelf goes
+with it--it sounds on the peur man's ear like a bit o' gould!"
+
+"Do you not see now," said Roland, as we turned away, "what we owe
+to a name, and what to our forefathers?--do you not see why the
+remotest ancestor has a right to our respect and consideration--for
+he was a parent? 'Honour your parents'--the law does not say,
+'Honour your children!' If a child disgrace us, and the dead,
+and the sanctity of this great heritage of their virtues--_the
+name_;--if he does--" Roland stopped short, and added fervently,
+"But you are my heir now--I have no fear! What matters one foolish
+old man's sorrow?--the name, that property of generations, is saved,
+thank Heaven--the name!"
+
+Now the riddle was solved, and I understood why, amidst all his
+natural grief for a son's loss, that proud father was consoled.
+For he was less himself a father than a son--son to the long dead.
+From every grave, where a progenitor slept, he had heard a parent's
+voice. He could bear to be bereaved, if the forefathers were not
+dishonoured. Roland was more than half a Roman--the son might still
+cling to his household affections, but the _lares_ were a part of
+his religion.
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+But I ought to be hard at work, preparing myself for Cambridge. The
+deuce!--how can I? The point in academical education on which I
+require most preparation is Greek composition. I come to my father,
+who, one might think, was at home enough in this. But rare indeed is
+it to find a great scholar who is a good teacher.
+
+My dear father! if one is content to take you in your own way,
+there never was a more admirable instructor for the heart, the
+head, the principles, or the tastes--in your own way, when you have
+discovered that there is some one sore to be healed--one defect
+to be repaired; and you have rubbed your spectacles, and got your
+hand fairly into that recess between your frill and your waistcoat.
+But to go to you, cut and dry, monotonously, regularly--book and
+exercise in hand--to see the mournful patience with which you tear
+yourself from that great volume of Cardan in the very honeymoon of
+possession--and then to note those mild eyebrows gradually distend
+themselves into perplexed diagonals, over some false quantity or
+some barbarous collocation--till there steal forth that horrible
+"Papae!" which means more on your lips than I am sure it ever did
+when Latin was a live language, and "Papae!" a natural and unpedantic
+ejaculation!--no, I would sooner blunder through the dark by myself
+a thousand times, than light my rush-light at the lamp of that
+Phlegethonian "Papae!"
+
+And then my father would wisely and kindly, but wondrous slowly,
+erase three-fourths of one's pet verses, and intercalate others that
+one saw were exquisite, but could not exactly see why. And then one
+asked why; and my father shook his head in despair, and said--"But
+you ought to _feel_ why!"
+
+In short, scholarship to him was like poetry: he could no more teach
+it you than Pindar could have taught you how to make an ode. You
+breathed the aroma, but you could no more seize and analyse it,
+than, with the opening of your naked hand, you could carry off the
+scent of a rose. I soon left my father in peace to Cardan, and to
+the Great Book, which last, by the way, advanced but slowly. For
+Uncle Jack had now insisted on its being published in quarto, with
+illustrative plates; and those plates took an immense time, and
+were to cost an immense sum--but that cost was the affair of the
+Anti-Publisher Society. But how can I settle to work by myself?
+No sooner have I got into my room--_penitus ab orbe divisus_, as
+I rashly think--than there is a tap at the door. Now, it is my
+mother, who is benevolently engaged upon making curtains to all
+the windows, (a trifling superfluity that Bolt had forgotten or
+disdained,) and who wants to know how the draperies are fashioned
+at Mr Trevanion's: a pretence to have me near her, and see with her
+own eyes that I am not fretting;--the moment she hears I have shut
+myself up in my room, she is sure that it is for sorrow. Now it
+is Bolt, who is making book-shelves for my father, and desires to
+consult me at every turn, especially as I have given him a Gothic
+design, which pleases him hugely. Now it is Blanche, whom, in an
+evil hour, I undertook to teach to draw, and who comes in on tiptoe,
+vowing she'll not disturb me, and sits so quiet that she fidgets me
+out of all patience. Now, and much more often, it is the Captain,
+who wants me to walk, to ride, to fish. And, by St Hubert! (saint
+of the chase,) bright August comes--and there is moor-game on those
+barren wolds--and my uncle has given me the gun he shot with at my
+age--single-barrelled, flint lock--but you would not have laughed at
+it if you had seen the strange feats it did in Roland's hands--while
+in mine, I could always lay the blame on the flint lock! Time, in
+short, passed rapidly; and if Roland and I had our dark hours, we
+chased them away before they could settle--shot them on the wing as
+they got up.
+
+Then, too, though the immediate scenery around my uncle's was so
+bleak and desolate, the country within a few miles was so full of
+objects of interest--of landscapes so poetically grand or lovely;
+and occasionally we coaxed my father from the Cardan, and spent
+whole days by the margin of some glorious lake.
+
+Amongst these excursions, I made one by myself to that house in
+which my father had known the bliss and the pangs of that stern
+first love that still left its scars fresh on my own memory. The
+house, large and imposing, was shut up--the Trevanions had not been
+there for years--the pleasure-grounds had been contracted into the
+smallest possible space. There was no positive decay or ruin--that
+Trevanion would never have allowed; but there was the dreary look of
+absenteeship everywhere. I penetrated into the house with the help
+of my card and half-a-crown. I saw that memorable boudoir--I could
+fancy the very spot in which my father had heard the sentence that
+had changed the current of his life. And when I returned home, I
+looked with new tenderness on my father's placid brow--and blessed
+anew that tender helpmate, who, in her patient love, had chased from
+it every shadow.
+
+I had received one letter from Vivian a few days after our arrival.
+It had been redirected from my father's house, at which I had given
+him my address. It was short, but seemed cheerful. He said, that
+he believed he had at last hit on the right way, and should keep
+to it--that he and the world were better friends than they had
+been--and that the only way to keep friends with the world was to
+treat it as a tamed tiger, and have one hand on a crow-bar while one
+fondled the beast with the other. He enclosed me a bank-note which
+somewhat more than covered his debt to me, and bade me pay him the
+surplus when he should claim it as a millionnaire. He gave me no
+address in his letter, but it bore the post-mark of Godalming. I had
+the impertinent curiosity to look into an old topographical work
+upon Surrey, and in a supplemental itinerary I found this passage,
+"To the left of the beech-wood, three miles from Godalming, you
+catch a glimpse of the elegant seat of Francis Vivian, Esq." To
+judge by the date of the work, the said Francis Vivian might be the
+grandfather of my friend, his namesake. There could no longer be any
+doubt as to the parentage of this prodigal son.
+
+The long vacation was now nearly over, and all his guests were to
+leave the poor Captain. In fact, we had made a long trespass on
+his hospitality. It was settled that I was to accompany my father
+and mother to their long-neglected _penates_, and start thence for
+Cambridge.
+
+Our parting was sorrowful--even Mrs Primmins wept as she shook hands
+with Bolt. But Bolt, an old soldier, was of course a lady's man. The
+brothers did not shake hands only--they fondly embraced, as brothers
+of that time of life rarely do now-a-days, except on the stage.
+And Blanche, with one arm round my mother's neck, and one round
+mine, sobbed in my ear,--"But I will be your little wife, I will."
+Finally, the fly-coach once more received us all--all but poor
+Blanche, and we looked round and missed her.
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+Alma Mater! Alma Mater! New-fashioned folks, with their large
+theories of education, may find fault with thee. But a true Spartan
+mother thou art--hard and stern as the old matron who bricked up
+her son Pausanias, bringing the first stone to immure him; hard and
+stern, I say, to the worthless, but full of majestic tenderness to
+the worthy.
+
+For a young man to go up to Cambridge (I say nothing of Oxford,
+knowing nothing thereof) merely as routine work, to lounge through
+three years to a degree among the +hoi polloi+--for such an one,
+Oxford Street herself, whom the immortal Opium-eater hath so direly
+apostrophised, is not a more careless and stony-hearted mother.
+But for him who will read, who will work, who will seize the rare
+advantages proffered, who will select his friends judiciously--yea,
+out of that vast ferment of young idea in its lusty vigour, choose
+the good and reject the bad--there is plenty to make those three
+years rich with fruit imperishable--three years nobly spent, even
+though one must pass over the Ass's Bridge to get into the Temple of
+Honour.
+
+Important changes in the Academical system have been recently
+announced, and honours are henceforth to be accorded to the
+successful disciples in moral and natural sciences. By the side
+of the old throne of Mathesis, they have placed two very useful
+_fauteuils a la Voltaire_. I have no objection; but, in those three
+years of life, it is not so much the thing learned, as the steady
+perseverance in learning something that is excellent.
+
+It was fortunate, in one respect, for me that I had seen a little
+of the real world--the metropolitan, before I came to that mimic
+one--the cloistral. For what were called pleasures in the last, and
+which might have allured me, had I come fresh from school, had no
+charm for me now. Hard drinking and high play, a certain mixture of
+coarseness and extravagance, made the fashion among the idle when
+I was at the university _sub consule Planco_--when Wordsworth was
+master of Trinity: it may be altered now.
+
+But I had already outlived such temptations, and so, naturally, I
+was thrown out of the society of the idle, and somewhat into that of
+the laborious.
+
+Still, to speak frankly, I had no longer the old pleasure in
+books. If my acquaintance with the great world had destroyed
+the temptation to puerile excesses, it had also increased my
+constitutional tendency to practical action. And, alas! in spite
+of all the benefit I had derived from Robert Hall, there were
+times when memory was so poignant that I had no choice but to rush
+from the lonely room, haunted by tempting phantoms too dangerously
+fair, and sober down the fever of the heart by some violent bodily
+fatigue. The ardour which belongs to early youth, and which it best
+dedicates to knowledge, had been charmed prematurely to shrines less
+severely sacred. Therefore, though I laboured, it was with that
+full _sense of labour_ which (as I found at a much later period
+of life) the truly triumphant student never knows. Learning--that
+marble image--warms into life, not at the toil of the chisel, but
+the worship of the sculptor. The mechanical workman finds but the
+voiceless stone.
+
+At my uncle's, such a thing as a newspaper rarely made its
+appearance. At Cambridge, even among reading men, the newspapers
+had their due importance. Politics ran high; and I had not been
+three days at Cambridge before I heard Trevanion's name. Newspapers,
+therefore, had their charms for me. Trevanion's prophecy about
+himself seemed about to be fulfilled. There were rumours of changes
+in the cabinet. Trevanion's name was bandied to and fro, struck
+from praise to blame, high and low, as a shuttlecock. Still the
+changes were not made, and the cabinet held firm. Not a word in the
+_Morning Post_, under the head of _fashionable intelligence_, as to
+rumours that would have agitated me more than the rise and fall of
+governments--no hint of "the speedy nuptials of the daughter and
+sole heiress of a distinguished and wealthy commoner:" only now and
+then, in enumerating the circle of brilliant guests at the house of
+some party chief, I gulped back the heart that rushed to my lips,
+when I saw the names of Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion.
+
+But amongst all that prolific progeny of the periodical
+press--remote offspring of my great namesake and ancestor, (for I
+hold the faith of my father,)--where was the _Literary Times_?--what
+had so long retarded its promised blossoms? Not a leaf in the shape
+of advertisements had yet emerged from its mother earth. I hoped
+from my heart that the whole thing was abandoned, and would not
+mention it in my letters home, lest I should revive the mere idea of
+it. But, in default of the _Literary Times_, there did appear a new
+journal, a daily journal too; a tall, slender, and meagre stripling,
+with a vast head, by way of prospectus, which protruded itself for
+three weeks successively at the top of the leading article;--with
+a fine and subtle body of paragraphs;--and the smallest legs, in
+the way of advertisements, that any poor newspaper ever stood upon!
+And yet this attenuated journal had a plump and plethoric title, a
+title that smacked of turtle and venison; an aldermanic, portly,
+grandiose, Falstaffian title--it was called THE CAPITALIST. And all
+those fine subtle paragraphs were larded out with receipts how to
+make money. There was an El Dorado in every sentence. To believe
+that paper, you would think no man had ever yet found a proper
+return for his pounds, shillings, and pence. You would have turned
+up your nose at twenty per cent. There was a great deal about
+Ireland--not her wrongs, thank Heaven! but her fisheries: a long
+inquiry what had become of the pearls for which Britain was once
+so famous: a learned disquisition upon certain lost gold mines now
+happily rediscovered: a very ingenious proposition to turn London
+smoke into manure, by a new chemical process: recommendations to
+the poor to hatch chickens in ovens like the ancient Egyptians:
+agricultural schemes for sowing the waste lands in England with
+onions, upon the system adopted near Bedford, net produce one
+hundred pounds an acre. In short, according to that paper, every
+rood of ground might well maintain its man, and every shilling be
+like Hobson's money-bag, "the fruitful parent of a hundred more."
+For three days, at the newspaper room of the Union Club, men talked
+of this journal: some pished, some sneered, some wondered; till
+an ill-natured mathematician, who had just taken his degree, and
+had spare time on his hands, sent a long letter to the _Morning
+Chronicle_, showing up more blunders, in some article to which the
+editor of _The Capitalist_ had specially invited attention, (unlucky
+dog!) than would have paved the whole island of Laputa. After that
+time, not a soul read _The Capitalist_. How long it dragged on its
+existence I know not; but it certainly did not die of a _maladie de
+langueur_.
+
+Little thought I, when I joined in the laugh against _The
+Capitalist_, that I ought rather to have followed it to its grave,
+in black crape and weepers,--unfeeling wretch that I was! But, like
+a poet, O _Capitalist_! thou wert not discovered, and appreciated,
+and prized, and mourned, till thou wert dead and buried, and the
+bill came in for thy monument!
+
+The first term of my college life was just expiring, when I received
+a letter from my mother, so agitated, so alarming, at first reading
+so unintelligible, that I could only see that some great misfortune
+had befallen us; and I stopped short and dropped on my knees, to
+pray for the life and health of those whom that misfortune more
+specially seemed to menace; and then--and then, towards the end of
+the last blurred sentence--read twice, thrice, over--I could cry,
+"Thank Heaven, thank Heaven! it is only, then, money after all!"
+
+
+
+
+STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF SCOTLAND.
+
+
+It is a term of very wide application, this of statistics--extending
+to everything in the state of a country subject to variation either
+from the energies and fancies of men, or from the operations of
+nature, in so far as these, or the knowledge of them, has any
+tendency to occasion change in the condition of the country. Its
+elements must be either changeable in themselves, or the cause of
+change; because the use of the whole matter is to direct men what
+to do for their advantage, moral or physical--by legislation, when
+the case is of sufficient magnitude--or otherwise by the wisdom and
+enterprise of individuals.
+
+Governments, it is plain, must have the greatest interest in
+possessing knowledge of this sort; but they have not been the first
+to engage very earnestly in obtaining it. It would seem that, in all
+countries, the first very noticeable efforts in this way have been
+made by individuals.
+
+In this country we have now from government more and better
+statistics than from any other source; for besides the decennial
+census, there is the yearly produce in this way of Crown Commissions
+and of Parliamentary Committees; and, moreover, there is the late
+institution of a statistical department in connexion with the Board
+of Trade, for arranging, digesting, and rendering more accessible
+all matter of this kind collected, from time to time, by the
+different branches of the administration. But before statistical
+knowledge became the object of much care to the government of
+this country, it had been well cultivated by individuals. So in
+Germany statistics first took a scientific form in the works of an
+individual about the middle of the last century: and in France,
+the unfinished _Memoires des Intendants_, prepared on the order
+of the king, were scarcely an exception, since meant for the
+private instruction of the young prince. But without attaching
+undue importance to the fact of mere precedence, it may be said
+that, considering the chief uses of this kind of knowledge, it has
+received more contributions from individuals than could have been
+expected.
+
+This admits of being easily explained. It has been well said
+that, while history is a sort of current statistics, statistics
+are a sort of stationary history. The one has therefore much the
+same invitations to mere literary taste as the other; and if the
+subject be not so generally engaging, the fancy way be as strong,
+and produce as pure a devotion to statistics as there ever is to
+history. More than this, the statist may care far less for his
+subject than its uses,--that is, he may choose to undergo the toil
+of researches only recommended by the chance of their ministering
+to the better guidance of some part of public policy, and therefore
+to the public good. The impulse is then not literary; nor is it
+legislative, for the power is wanting; it is simply patriotic, for
+so it must be considered, even when, in the words of Mr M'Culloch,
+the object is only "to bring under the public view the deficiencies
+in statistical information, and so to contribute to the advancement
+of the science."
+
+This public nature of the aim of statistical works, and the
+unlikelihood of their authors choosing that medium to set forth
+anything supposed worthy of notice in the figure of their own
+genius, seem to have been recognised, except in rare instances, as
+giving to works of this kind a title to be well received, and to
+have their faults very gently remarked.
+
+Again, it might be expected that the statistics of individuals
+should have a more limited range than those of governments; that
+they should refer to districts of less extent; and to the state
+of the country in fewer of its aspects. But the case is somewhat
+different. The statistics of individuals are often more national
+than local, and generally consist of many branches presented in some
+connexion; while those of governments are commonly confined to the
+single department on which some question of policy may chance for
+the time to have fixed attention.
+
+On the occasion mentioned, the inquiries instituted in France were
+not so confined, but embraced all the points of chief interest in
+the state of the country. In England, nothing similar has been
+attempted; although, some years ago, it is known that a proposal to
+institute a general survey of Ireland--on the plan, we believe, of
+the Ordnance Survey of the parish of Templemore--was for some time
+under consideration of the government.
+
+On the other hand, the instances of individual enterprise in this
+way to a national extent are numerous, both at home and abroad.
+Among the latter, Aucherwall gives the first example, and Peuchet
+probably the best; both treating of the country not in parts but
+as a whole,--not in one respect but in many. Of the same sort are
+the excellent statistical works of Colquhoun, M'Culloch, Porter,
+and others, relating to the British empire, and directed to many
+aspects of its condition. To these we add the _Statistical Account
+of Scotland_,--occupied with as many or more matters of inquiry,
+but not so properly national, since viewing not the country
+collectively, but its parochial divisions in succession.
+
+One advantage belongs to the collection of statistics upon many
+points, which is not found in those that are limited to one. It is
+remarked by Schlozer in his _Theorie der Statistik_, that "there
+are many facts seemingly of no value, but which become important
+as soon as you combine them with other facts, it may be of quite
+another class. The affinities subsisting among these facts are
+discovered by the talent and genius of the statist; and the more
+various the knowledge he possesses, with so much the more success
+he will perform this last and crowning part of his task." The
+observation need not be confined to facts apparently unimportant:
+for even those, whose importance is at once perceived, may acquire
+a new value from a skilful collation. In either case, there seems
+a necessity for remitting the detached statistics collected by
+government to some such department as that in connexion with the
+Board of Trade; otherwise, the works of individual statists must
+continue to afford the only opportunity of tracing the latent
+relations of one branch of statistics to another.
+
+The individual, however, who attempts so much, is in hazard
+of attempting more than any individual can well perform. For,
+besides this, he has to make another effort quite distinct--in the
+investigation of facts. All the needed scientific knowledge he
+may possess; but the same sufficiency of local or topographical
+knowledge is not supposable. The work so produced, therefore,
+cannot easily avoid the defects, either of error in the details
+of some branch, of unequal development of the parts, or of a
+superficial treatment of the whole. Against these dangers some
+writers have had recourse to assistance, inviting contributions from
+others favoured with better means of information than themselves;
+and to them attributing, in so far as they assisted, the entire
+merit and responsibility of the work.
+
+This transference of responsibility is warranted by the necessity
+of the case--but it is unusual; and as it scarcely occurs except in
+works of the kind in question, it may happen that even a professing
+judge of such works, if the habit of attention be not good, may
+entirely overlook the circumstance.
+
+In the _Statistical Account of Scotland_, the obligation to
+individual contributions has been carried to the greatest extent;
+indeed, it is simply a collection of such contributions, and nothing
+more. This part of the plan was necessitated by another, in which
+the work is equally peculiar--namely, the distinct treatment of
+smaller divisions of the country, than have been taken up in any
+other work of the kind, having an entire country for its object.
+To obtain a body of parochial statistics, it was necessary to
+have recourse to persons well acquainted with the bounds, and
+intelligent, at the same time, upon the various subjects of inquiry.
+But to find such in nine hundred parishes would, of itself, have
+required much of that local knowledge, the want of which was the
+occasion of the search--had there not been a class or order of men
+among whom the desired qualification, in many points, might be
+supposed to be pretty generally diffused; and from whose favour to a
+project of public usefulness much aid might be expected. It was in
+this manner that the co-operation of the parochial clergy came to be
+suggested.
+
+The _Statistical Account of Scotland_ was originated, promoted,
+and superintended by the late Sir John Sinclair. The authors of
+such works, as one of the best of them remarks, should be careful
+to explain their motives in undertaking it--we presume, because
+undertakings of the kind are felt to be scarcely an affair of
+individuals. In this instance, a desire to promote the public good
+was at once professed and accredited by many other acts apparently
+inspired by the same sentiment. The devotion of Sir John Sinclair's
+life in that direction was complete, and the example uncommon.
+In this a late reviewer perceives nothing more than a restless
+pursuit of plans of no further interest to himself than as they
+bore the inscription of his own name. But whenever public spirit is
+professed, and by anything like useful acts attested, our faith, we
+think, should be more generous. On such occasions, if on any, it is
+right to waive all speculation upon private motives, and to presume
+the best--for reasons so well understood in general that they do
+not need to be explained. But if genius, with a bent to that sort
+of penetration, must have its freedom, we do demand that some token
+should appear of a belief in the possibility of the virtue which is
+denied.
+
+It does not improve the grace of any such judgments that they are
+passed fifty years after the occasion; for, in the meantime, the
+work may have acquired merits which could not belong to it at
+first:--and so it has happened with the _Statistical Account_ of Sir
+John Sinclair. Results may be fairly ascribed to that performance
+which were not intended nor foreseen, and which seem to have come
+from its very defects, as well as from the defects which it revealed
+in the condition of the country, and in the means of ascertaining
+what the condition of the country was. Its population-statistics
+were extremely imperfect; the census followed in a very few years.
+Its scanty and unequal notices of agriculture suggested the project
+of the County Reports; and to these succeeded the _General Report of
+Scotland_--a work still useful, and of the first authority in much
+that relates to the agriculture and other industry of the country.
+To take advantage of those capabilities which the statistical
+accounts had shown his country to possess, Sir John Sinclair
+originated the Agricultural Society. All of those things, and more,
+appear to have resulted from the _Statistical Account_. They
+are honours that have arisen to it in the course of time, and may
+be fairly permitted to mitigate the notice and recollection of its
+faults.
+
+After the lapse of fifty years, Scotland had ceased to be the
+country represented in the old _Statistical Account_; for the
+greater part of what is proper to such a work is, as we have said,
+changeable and changing. It contained not a little, however, which
+remained as true and as interesting as at first: the topography,
+the physical characters, the civil divisions of the country were
+the same; all that had been said of its history, whether local or
+general, might be said again as seasonably as before. It occurred,
+then, to those to whom the author had presented the right of this
+work, to attempt to restore it in those parts which time had
+rendered useless, preserving those which were under no disadvantage
+from that cause. This, as we learn, was the plain, unambitious
+intention of the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_. It was
+projected and carried on during ten years by a Society, whose object
+it is to afford aid, where aid is needed, in the education of the
+children of the clergy of the Church of Scotland. Nothing could be
+more foreign to that object than to engage in a work of national
+statistics; nothing more natural than that, in their relation to
+the clergy, and with their interest in the first work, they should
+propose to renew it in the manner mentioned. A society expressly
+formed for statistical purposes, and not restrained like the Society
+for the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy, would probably have
+proposed something different--something more new; it might have
+been expected to produce something more excellent--though, even
+in that case, the demand of excellence would have been limited by
+the consideration, that the means of completely investigating the
+statistics of a country are not at the command of any statistical
+society that exists. A modernisation, so to speak, of the first work
+appears to have been the idea of the second.
+
+It has been executed, however, in the freest style, and scarcely
+admitted, indeed, of being accomplished at all in any other manner.
+In such cases, it is seldom that the adaptation is effected by
+mere numerical changes; the whole statement, in form, manner, and
+substance, behoves to be remodelled. Then, certain parts of the
+original may have been deficient, and become more evidently so by
+the changes that have since ensued in the state of the object: here
+the task is less one of correction than of supplement. For example,
+the very interesting and full accounts of mining and manufacturing
+industry which abound in the new work are nearly peculiar to it,
+and have scarcely an example in the old. One entire section of the
+latter, that of natural history, has been developed to an extent
+not attempted in the former, nor indeed in any other statistical
+work. These are rather noticeable licenses, on the supposition of
+the aim being as moderate as professed, and they go far to form a
+new and independent work--having nothing in common with the first,
+except the parochial divisions and the obligation to the clergy, as
+respects the plan; and as respects the matter, only the small part
+of it which is historical, and therefore not obsolete.
+
+We observe, accordingly, that the society who promoted the new work
+have put it forward as taking some things from the old, for which
+they are not responsible, but as containing far more which must form
+a new and separate character for itself. In both respects, we think
+they have viewed the work with a proper reference to the conditions
+under which it was produced.
+
+In other points, the new Account has improved upon the old, and
+might be expected to do so. It has more matter, by a third part,
+neither less suited to the place, nor more diffuse in the statement;
+and, as befits a work of reference, the arrangement is more orderly
+and more uniform. It is, on the whole, more carefully and better
+written, and shows, on the part of the reverend contributors, a
+remarkable advance in the many sorts of knowledge requisite to the
+task. If the comparison were pursued further, it might be said that
+some contributions to the first are not surpassed in the value of
+what they contain; while, from the greater novelty of the task at
+that time, as well as from the greater freedom of the method, they
+are somewhat fresher and more genial in manner. The later work, if
+fuller, more exact, more statistical throughout, possesses that
+advantage at the cost of appearing sometimes more like a collection
+of returns in answer to submitted points of inquiry,--a character,
+however, by no means unsuitable to a compilation of the kind. In all
+other points a decided superiority must be attributed to the new
+Account.
+
+Our remarks at this time shall be confined to the plan of the new
+Account, and to the general description of its contents.[6]
+
+  [6] _The New statistical Account of Scotland._ In 15 vols.
+  Edinburgh, 1845.
+
+The chief feature of the plan is the distinct treatment of each
+parish--producing a body neither of county nor of national, but
+merely of parochial statistics. This was the design, and there
+is much to recommend it. It is the last thing that can take the
+aspect of a fault in statistics, to view the matter in very minute
+portions; for thus, and thus only, it is possible to arrive at
+an accurate knowledge of the whole. There can be no good county
+statistics which do not suppose inquiries limited, at first, to
+lesser divisions of the country, and which do not express the sum
+of particulars taken from subdivisions that can hardly proceed too
+far. If such minor surveys do not come before the public, they are
+presumptively carried on in private. But, in the latter case, they
+are the more apt to be superficial, as they can be so with the
+less chance of being noticed; they are apt to take aid from mere
+computation of averages; they are apt, also, to result in that vague
+description which is the master-vice of statistics. "In this town,
+there are manufactures which employ _many_ hands; in this district,
+_vast_ quantities of silk are produced. These," says Schlozer, "are
+pet phrases of tourists, who would say something, when they know
+nothing; but they are not the language of statistics." The parochial
+method stands, then, on two good grounds: it is inevitable either
+in an open or a latent form; and it favours the collection of
+sufficient data for those specific enumerations which are the true
+worth and the characteristic grace of this branch of knowledge.
+
+This plan, however, has some disadvantages; in referring to which we
+shall find occasion to bring to view some of the proper merits of
+the work.
+
+In the first place, a work on this plan is inevitably voluminous.
+The territorial divisions submitted to distinct treatment are about
+nine hundred in number, and the matter is still further augmented by
+the occasional assignment to different hands of different parts of
+the survey of a single parish. In proportion to the descent of the
+details, is the bulk of the production; which we suppose to be an
+evil in the same measure in which it exceeds the necessity of the
+case. Now the _New Statistical Account_ is at once seen to contain
+not a little matter of merely local interest, and of the smallest
+value considered as pertaining to a body of national statistics;
+and here, if anywhere, it is apt to be regarded as at fault. It
+is right, however, to recollect the privilege of every work to
+be judged according to the conditions of the species to which it
+belongs. The present is not set forth as a statistical account of
+Scotland, but as a collection of the statistical accounts of all the
+parishes in Scotland; for this, we perceive, is not merely implied
+in the plan of the work, but is declared in the prospectus, where
+the hope is expressed that, by exhibiting the actual state of the
+parishes, with whatever is therein amiss, it may lead to parochial
+improvements. It does not appear, therefore, to have been from any
+miscalculation of their worth, that matters of merely local interest
+have been so liberally admitted; and, all things considered, more of
+that nature might have been expected. Let us quote again from the
+best theory of statistics that has ever been produced. "An object
+may be deserving of remark in the description of some particular
+portion of a country, and at the same time have no claim to notice
+in any general account of that country at large. In the former
+case, the rivulet is not to be omitted; in the latter, any allusion
+to it would be a defect, for it would be matter of unnecessary
+and trifling detail."[7] It is recorded, in the _New Statistical
+Account_, that "Will-o'-wisp had never appeared in the parish of
+South Uist previous to the year 1812." Nothing, in a national point
+of view, can be conceived more insignificant than this fact; but,
+taken in connexion with a notable superstition in that district, its
+local importance appears.[8] To the credit of this method, it may be
+noticed, that the accounts which are most parochial are, at the same
+time, among those which have been drawn up with the most general
+intelligence; and, this being the case, it is not a strange wish
+that the accounts, in general, had been somewhat more parochial than
+they are.
+
+  [7] Schlozer.
+
+  [8] "It is said that a woman in Benbecula went at night to the
+  Sandbanks, to dig for some roe used for dyeing a red colour,
+  against her husband's will; that, when she left her house, she
+  said with an oath she would bring some of it home, though she knew
+  there was a regulation by the factor and magistrates, prohibiting
+  people to use it or dig for it, by reason that the sandbanks, upon
+  being excavated, would be blown away with the wind. The woman
+  never returned home, nor was her body ever found. It was shortly
+  thereafter that the meteor was first seen; and it is said that it is
+  the ghost of the unfortunate and profane woman that appears in this
+  shape."--_New Statistical Account_, "Inverness," p. 184.
+
+On this plan, it is certain there is a risk of much repetition, many
+parishes having some common characterists which, in place of being
+recounted for each, might be stated once for all. How far does the
+_Statistical Account_ offend in this manner? It is true that, where
+the same facts occur in many parishes, a single statement might
+suffice; though this might be at the cost of violating the plan
+which for the whole it might be fittest to adopt, upon consideration
+that the like resemblance is not found among the greater number of
+the parishes. But it is remarkable, how seldom different parishes
+have all the similarity requisite for such a common description;
+for, in statistics, a difference in mere number or quantity is
+a vital difference, and expresses essentially different facts.
+Many parishes have the same articles of produce; while no two
+produce exactly the same quantities. A very short distance often
+brings to view considerable varieties in climate, soil, and other
+physical qualities of a country. Now, considering that the object
+of this work is to present the parishes in their distinguishing,
+as well as in their common features, we do not see much sameness
+in the substance of the details which could have been avoided. A
+sameness there is; but more in form than in substance--each account
+delivering its matter under the same general heads, recurring in
+all cases in exactly the same order. This is convenient when the
+book is used for reference; it may be wearisome to one who reads
+only for amusement: it is monotonous; but who looks for any "soul of
+harmony" in such a quarter? We repeat, it is not attended, on the
+whole, with much importunate reappearance of the same facts, and
+cannot seem to be so, except to a very careless or distempered eye.
+But if, perchance, there may be some facts much alike in several
+parishes, this itself is an unusual fact, and we should not object
+to its coming out in the usual way of each parish speaking for
+itself; in which case, there is always a chance of some variety in
+the description, from the same thing presenting itself to different
+persons under different aspects. But, on the whole, we think there
+is less repetition in these accounts, and indeed less occasion for
+it, than might at first sight be supposed.
+
+There is another obvious tendency to imperfection in the plan of
+parochial accounts. Their first, but not their sole object, is
+to describe the parishes; it is certainly meant that they should
+furnish, at the same time, the grounds of statistical computation
+for the whole country. This is the natural complement and the
+proper conclusion to a work of parish statistics. It is, however,
+a part of the plan which, not being quite necessary, and requiring
+a fresh effort at the last, is apt to be omitted. It was not till
+twenty-five years after the publication of the old Account that Sir
+John Sinclair at length produced his _Analysis of the Statistical
+Account of Scotland considered as one District_. It came too late. A
+similar analysis or summary appears to have been at first intended
+for the new Account: and we regret that this part of the design was,
+by force of circumstances, not carried into effect. One use of it
+would have been to evince that parochial statistics do not assume
+the character of national; while yet, for even national statistics,
+they furnish the most proper foundation. To pass at once, however,
+from parochial to national statistics would have been too great a
+step; there is an intermediate stage, at which the new Account would
+certainly have paused, though it had designed to proceed farther;
+and at which, without that design, it has here rested; presenting
+the statistics of each county in a summary of the more important
+particulars concerning the included parishes; but making no nearer
+approach to any general computations for the country at large.
+
+The method of proceeding from parishes to counties suggests that
+other plan for the entire work, which would have followed the
+opposite course--the plan that would have begun with counties, and
+given County, not Parochial reports. Somewhat in this fashion has
+been formed the _Geographie Departementale_ of France, now in course
+of publication, in which the whole matter is rigorously subjected
+to as skilful an arrangement as has ever been devised for matters
+of the kind. It is plain, however, that greater difficulty and more
+expense would have attended the construction of the Scotch work on
+that scheme, than private parties could have undertaken; and even
+the example of the French work does not show that, for the compacter
+method thus obtained, there might not have been a sacrifice of much
+that is valuable in detail.
+
+It may be added, that when parishes are well described, and a county
+or more general summary succeeds, we ask no more; a work like this
+has then accomplished its object, and what remains must be sought
+for elsewhere. What remains is this--to interpret the statistics
+thus laid down, for they are often very far from interpreting
+themselves; to ascertain, by analysis or combination of their
+different parts, what they signify in regard to the condition of
+the country. Thus, betwixt the rate of wages and the habits of a
+people--the prevailing occupations and the rate of mortality--the
+description of industry and the amount of pauperism--there are
+relations which it is exceedingly important to remark. But if a
+statistical account simply notes the kind, number, or quantity of
+each of these particulars, it performs its part,--no matter how
+blindly, how unconsciously of the relation that subsists betwixt
+them, this may be done. The rest is so different a work, that it
+must be left to other hands. It is not to be forgotten, that, for
+bringing out the more latent truths of statistics in the manner
+mentioned, a work like this is merely _pour servir_; and, keeping
+that in view, our prepossessions are all in favour of abundance and
+minuteness of detail.
+
+Lastly, a work made up of contributions from nine hundred
+individuals must be of unequal merit, according to the different
+measures of intelligence or care, and according to the feeling with
+which a task of that nature may happen to have been undertaken. A
+slight inspection, accordingly, discovers that it is the character
+of the writer, more than of the parish, that determines the length
+and interest of any one of these reports. This is an imperfection,
+and something more--for it makes one part of the book, by
+implication, reveal the defects of another. A few years ago, when
+a Crown commission considered a project for a general survey and
+statistical report of Ireland, their attention was much attracted
+to the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_; and, in their report,
+they notice, in the course of a very fair estimate, this inequality
+as the main disadvantage of the plan. It is, however, inevitable,
+except upon a scheme which, from the expense attending it, would
+have hindered the existence of the Scottish work, and which appears
+to have prevented or postponed the Irish. From a single author,
+something like proportion might be expected in the parts of such a
+compilation; but to that perfection a work like the _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_, with its hundreds of avowed responsible, and
+therefore uncontrolled authors, could not pretend. For this reason,
+it is the more proper to follow a rule of judgment which, in any
+case, is a good one:--to estimate the general character of the work
+with a lively recollection of its merits; and to be much upon our
+guard against the mean instinct of looking only to the weaker and
+more peccant parts of it.
+
+Passing from the plan to the matter of the work, we now ask, whether
+all that it contains is properly statistical, and whether it
+contains all of any consequence that falls under that description.
+
+Nothing, we suppose, is alien to this branch of knowledge that
+tends, in however little, to show the state of a country--social,
+political, moral--or even physical.
+
+But this last, comprising somewhat of geography and natural history,
+some writers would remove entirely from the sphere of statistics.
+Among these is Peuchet, in his work before mentioned--who gives as
+the reason of the exclusion, that, in any analysis of the wealth or
+power of a state, neither its geography nor natural history ever
+come into view: a fact rather hastily assumed. The parallel work for
+this country, by Mr. M'Culloch, while it follows Peuchet's method
+in much, leaves it in this instance, admitting various branches of
+natural history to ample consideration. It is true that trespass
+on the proper ground of statistics has been so common an offence,
+that writers have been careful to mark those cases in which no title
+exists. Thus Schlozer, looking to the intrusions that come from
+the quarter we refer to, is averse to all imaginative descriptions
+of the physical aspect of a country, but does not prohibit
+natural history. Hogel, who also writes well upon the theory of
+statistics,[9] is more explicit--admitting that natural history may
+encroach too far, but asserting that its several branches may be
+received to a certain extent. "Whatever, in the physical nature of a
+country, has any influence upon the life, occupations, or manners of
+the people, pertains to statistics; by all means, therefore, in any
+body of statistics, let us have as much of mineralogy, hydrology,
+botany, geology, meteorology, as has any bearing upon the condition
+of the people." All of these subjects have been allowed to enter
+largely into the _New Statistical Account_.
+
+  [9] HOGEL, _Entwurf zur Theorie der Statistik_.
+
+They form a feature of that work which scarcely belonged to the
+old Account, and which is new, indeed, to parochial statistics.
+Investigations of natural history have usually been carried on with
+reference to other bounds than those of parishes; but, when confined
+to parishes, it is remarkable how much this has been at once for the
+advantage of the science, and for the enhancement of any interest in
+these territorial divisions by the picturesque mixture of natural
+objects with the works and pursuits of men. More of this parochial
+treatment of natural history we may possibly have hereafter, upon
+the suggestion of the _Statistical Account_.
+
+For the abundant favour which the work has shown to the whole
+subject of natural history, reasons are not wanting. One portion
+of that matter has obviously the quality that designates for
+statistical treatment,--comprising, for example, mines, whether
+wrought or unwrought; animals, profitable or destructive; plants, in
+all their variety of uses: the connexion of which with the wealth
+and industry of the country is at once apparent. The same connexion
+exists for another class of objects; but not so obviously. For
+example, there is a detailed account of the flowering periods of
+a variety of plants in one parish; the pertinence of which is not
+perceived, until it is mentioned that, in the same neighbourhood,
+there are two populous and well-frequented watering-places, which
+owe their prosperity to the qualities of the climate: there the
+trade of the locality connects itself with the early honours of the
+hepaticas. A third class of facts, and not the least in amount,
+is not qualified by any relation they are known to possess to the
+social condition of the country; but then they belong to a body
+of facts, some of which have that relation; and the same may be
+established for them hereafter. Still, it may be said that the
+matter, if appropriate, behoves to be presented in a statistical,
+not in a scientific form. But this, perhaps, is to interpret too
+strictly the laws of statistical writing, which do not seem to
+forbid the predominance of a scientific interest in the description,
+when the matter fairly belongs to the province of statistics. And if
+any license at all may be allowed in works of so severe a character,
+it is precisely here where that is least unbefitting. It is not
+among the faults of the _New Statistical Account_, but rather among
+its most interesting features, that the mineral resources of the
+country are so often described with all the skill and passion of the
+mineralogist, forgetting for the moment everything but the phenomena
+of nature.
+
+Under the head of Natural History, we have many instances of the
+landscape painting proscribed by Schlozer. But it is remarked,
+that the same authority, when adverting to another matter, lays
+down a principle of admission which is equally applicable here.
+"Antiquities," he observes, "become a proper subject of statistics
+in such a case as that of Rome, where a large amount of money was at
+one time annually expended by the strangers who came to form their
+taste, or to indulge their curiosity, upon the remains of ancient
+art." In like manner, if there are places in Scotland that profit
+economically by the attractions of their natural beauty, we do
+not see that there is any obligation to be silent upon the cause,
+by reason merely of the seeming dissonance betwixt an imaginative
+description and the austere account of statistics. Other and better
+apologies might be offered; and, on the whole, we are not satisfied
+that, in this respect, any less indulgence of the gentler vein would
+have been attended with advantage to the work.
+
+On these grounds it appears to have been, that so much scope is
+allowed to the whole subject of natural history. But if too much,
+the fault has been redeemed by the frequent excellence of what is
+put forth on that head. Here the _New Statistical Account_ passes
+expectation; and to it we may attribute much of the increased
+interest that has lately attached to that branch of knowledge in
+Scotland.
+
+Another thing of questionable connexion with statistics is
+history, which imports a reference to the past; whereas, as the
+name declares, statistics contemplates but the present, and can
+look neither backward nor forward, without trenching upon other
+provinces. Many excellent statistical works, accordingly, have
+allowed no place to history at all; and the writers before cited,
+on the theory of the subject, concur in excluding it. Hogel is most
+explicit. "Statistics never go beyond the circle of the present
+in their representations of the condition of a country: they are
+like painting--they fix upon a single point of time; and the facts
+which they select are those which come last in the series, though
+the series they belong to may extend backwards for ages. All that
+went before rests on testimony, and is therefore beyond the sphere
+of statistics, whose grounds are in actual observation. There is
+no limit to the number of facts with which statistics have to do,
+provided they are co-existing facts, and do not present themselves
+in succession: facts, and not their causes, are the proper matter
+of statistics; and they must be facts of the present time." This
+doctrine, in which there seems nothing in the main amiss, if
+strictly applied to the work under consideration, cancels a large
+part of it. But against that consequence we can suppose it to
+be pleaded--First, that for relief from a continuity of details
+somewhat arid to many readers, the work borrows something from a
+neighbouring branch of knowledge, and so far, of purpose, drops its
+statistical character--the more allowably, as in this way no harm
+ensues to the statistical character of the rest. And next--that
+all the history of a place has not equally little to do with its
+present state; for past events are often, casually or otherwise,
+related to the present, and so become a fair subject of retrospect,
+unless restraints are to be imposed on this branch of knowledge
+which are unknown to any other. The fault, in this instance, is at
+least not so great, as where no discoverable relation exists. It
+may be worth while, then, to observe how far the historical matter
+of the _Statistical Account_ does show any connexion of the sort in
+question.
+
+It includes, under the head of history, various classes of
+particulars. 1. The parish has been the scene of some event
+remarkable in the history of the country. Of this, perhaps, distinct
+traces remain, not in memory alone, but in some local custom or
+institution. But the most common case is, that, as the range extends
+to the remotest periods, all influence or effect of the event has
+ceased, and the interest of its recital is purely historical. Here
+the _Statistical Account_ transgresses one rule of such a work by
+the admission of such matter, and asks, as we perceive it does ask
+in the prospectus, liberty to do so on one of the grounds above
+suggested.
+
+2. The same apology is required for the antiquities, that form a
+large section under this head. These have sometimes perceptibly the
+connexion that gives the title we desire; a connexion, perhaps, no
+more than perceptible. Thus, in reference to the round hill in the
+parish of Tarbolton, on which the god Thor was anciently worshipped,
+we are told that, "on the evening before the June fair, a piece of
+fuel is still demanded at each house, and invariably given, even by
+the poorest inhabitant," in order to celebrate the form of the same
+superstitious rite which has been annually performed on that hill
+for many centuries. The famous Pictish tower at Abernethy is said
+to be used "for civil purposes connected with the burgh." In these
+cases it is seen how very slight is the qualifying circumstance; but
+it is still more so for much the greater number of particulars of
+this kind which the book contains--such as ancient coins, ancient
+armour, barrows, standing-stones, camps, or moat hills: all of which
+particularly belong to archaeology, and obtain a place here simply
+by favour. Indeed, no part of the work adheres to it so loosely as
+this of antiquities. Their objects live as curiosities; but, to all
+intents that can recommend them to the notice of statistics, they
+are dead, "and to be so extant is but a fallacy in duration."
+
+If this portion of the matter be the least appropriate, it is, at
+the same time, not the least difficult to handle; for uncertainty
+besets a very great part of it, and nothing more tries the reach of
+knowledge than conjecture. Besides, the knowledge here requisite
+implies both taste and opportunities for its cultivation,--which may
+belong to individuals, but which cannot be attributed to an entire
+profession, spread over all parts of the country, and designated
+to very different studies. If antiquities could be considered as
+a main part of statistics, it is, assuredly, not to the clergy we
+should look for a statistical account; nor indeed to any other
+body, however learned, if it be not the Society of Antiquaries. The
+clergyman who honours his profession with the greatest amount of
+appropriate learning, may in this particular know but little; and if
+we do not, on that account, the less value him, it is assuredly not
+from undervaluing in the slightest degree a very interesting branch
+of knowledge.
+
+In these circumstances, the reasons for allowing to antiquities
+so much of this compilation appear to have been,--the compelling
+example of the old Account, the occasional aptness of the matter,
+and the effect of such a _melange_ upon the mass of details that
+form the body of the work. But a better apology remains; and
+it may be extended to what is said of the remarkable events of
+history. We are warranted in saying, that the _New Statistical
+Account_ has contributed much to the history and antiquities of
+Scotland,--evincing on these subjects a frequent novelty and fulness
+of knowledge far surpassing what either the design or the apparatus
+of the undertaking gave any title to expect.
+
+Of one fault, in particular, there is no appearance in the
+archaeology of this work. Nowhere is there any sign of an
+idiosyncracy which is not without example--that of professing to
+speak of statistics, and yet speaking of nothing but antiquities;
+as if these, which are saved with so much difficulty from the
+charge of being wholly out of place, were the pith and marrow, the
+most vital part of any body of statistics. This is a small merit,
+but it is allied to a greater. Throughout these volumes, there is
+no tendency to discuss such futile questions as have sometimes
+lowered the credit of antiquarian pursuits. We have seen it solemnly
+inquired, whether AEneas, upon landing in Italy, touched the soil
+with the right or with the left foot foremost; whether Karl Haco
+was in person present at the sacrifice of his son; whether a faded
+inscription upon the walls of an old church be of this import or
+that--in either case the interest having so little to support it
+in the significance of the record that it can scarce be imagined
+to exist at all, except as it may centre in the mere truth of
+the deciphering. Nothing of this doting, degenerate character,
+repudiated by all antiquaries, occurs in the _Statistical Account_:
+if it did, the sum of all the errors in names, dates, and other
+things, inevitably incident to so vast a variety of details, would
+not have been an equal blemish.
+
+It is probable that neither history nor antiquities will find a
+place in any future statistics of Scotland. Not that they have
+been enough examined either in that connexion, or elsewhere; but
+it is now common to make them the subject of separate, independent
+essays--the most proper form for the delivery of anything that
+pertains to such matters. The good service done in this department,
+by both of these Accounts, now falls to be performed by such works
+as the "Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland,"[10]
+which have this for their single object; and the presumption is only
+fair, that some further light on such matters may be contributed by
+the "Parochiale Scoticanum," lately announced as in the course of
+preparation[11]--though our expectations would not have been at all
+lessened by a somewhat less magnificent promise than that "every
+man in Scotland may be enabled to ascertain, with some precision,
+the first footing and _gradual progress of Christianity_ in his own
+district and neighbourhood."
+
+  [10] _The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland._
+  Illustrated by R. W. BILLINGS, and WILLIAM BURN.
+
+  [11] Prospectus _Parochiale Scoticanum_, now editing by COSMO INNES,
+  Esq., Advocate.
+
+It is not to be supposed, however, that some other topics which
+regularly appear in this New Account, under the head of history,
+will ever drop from any work of parochial statistics. We refer to
+what may be termed Parish History, as distinct from what belongs to
+the history of the country,--notices of distinguished individuals
+and of ancient families, changes of property, territorial
+improvements, variations in the social state of the people. No
+part of a book is more novel, or, to a proper curiosity, more
+interesting; and no indication is needed of the fair incidence of
+such matters to a work of this description.
+
+If the _New Statistical Account_ contains, then, some particulars
+not quite proper to the professed object, the excess appears to
+be on the whole venial. But it may still be asked, whether any
+important and proper matters appear to have been omitted.
+
+Now, considering how many things of nature, art, institutions, and
+industry pertain to statistics, we do not expect any compilation to
+embrace all, or to treat completely of all such things as it does
+embrace,--we expect imperfection in the details.
+
+Accordingly, it is seen that some subjects well described in some
+accounts, are either not at all, or not so fully, taken up in
+others; while yet the occasion may be much the same. The climate
+of some districts, for instance, is well illustrated by careful
+observations from the rain-gage and thermometer; in some parishes we
+are informed of the size of the agricultural possessions, the number
+of ploughs, the rent of land; in some, manufactories, mines, and
+other kinds of industry, are viewed in all their aspects. But, for
+other districts or parishes, reports on these subjects are wanting;
+and the disadvantage is, not merely that such desirable information
+is not given for such places, but that the means are not furnished
+of making any general computations for the whole country. It is
+plain there have been special reasons for the less satisfactory
+representation of particular parishes in these respects: but for all
+such faults, both of omission and imperfection, we understand the
+_New Statistical Account_ to have one general apology; which is this.
+
+Two distinct efforts are requisite to the preparation of a
+comprehensive work of statistics. There is first, the investigation
+of facts; and next, the task of arranging and presenting them in
+the report. One of the theorists before-mentioned, views it as
+a necessary division of labour, that both things should not be
+attempted by one and the same party,--especially as the first, when
+the subjects are numerous, is not to be accomplished but by the
+assistance of many hands--all of which, as he observes, must be at
+once skilful and suitably rewarded. Now, here, the task of inquiring
+and reporting was not divided; the whole of it was placed, by the
+necessities of the case, in the hands of the reverend contributors.
+But, as no private society had the means or authority to investigate
+the facts completely, it is urged that the defects to which we have
+alluded, were for the most part inevitable.
+
+We believe it; and, recognising how much the clergy had thus to
+do, which could only be done completely by the government, we only
+advert to the sources of information to which they could have
+recourse.
+
+_Public documents_ seem to have been consulted, when information
+of a later date could not be had,--and chiefly the parliamentary
+reports on population, crime, education, and municipal affairs, from
+which the parish accounts appear to have been supplemented with
+whatever was necessary to the completion of the county summaries.
+Much has also been derived from the reports of Societies, Boards,
+and mercantile companies; of this there is evidence in the account
+of every considerable town.
+
+_Public records_ appear also to have been examined, and chiefly the
+parish registers. Every parish has a record of the transactions of
+its kirk-session,--sometimes extending to distant periods. Extracts
+from these occasionally show, in a clear light, the state and
+manners of the country in former times; more of which authentic
+illustration we could have wished, and more the same sources
+might possibly have supplied. Most parishes have also records of
+births or baptisms, marriages and deaths. From these, and these
+only, this work could derive the elements of its important section
+of vital statistics; but how far were they fitted to serve that
+purpose? It is certain that they nowhere form a complete register
+of these occurrences, and that for the most part they are very
+defective. Baptisms appear to have been entered, in the parish
+register, regularly till the year 1783, when the imposition of
+a small tax first broke the custom of registration; and, when
+that tax was removed, dissenting bodies were unwilling to resume
+the practice. The proportion of registered baptisms to births,
+for instance, is at the present time not more than one fourth in
+Edinburgh, and one third in Glasgow. The marriage register is also
+unavailable to statistical purposes, by reason of the practice of
+double enrolment--in the parish of each party. In many parishes no
+record of burials exists: in others, those of paupers are omitted.
+In short, there is scarcely a country in Europe that does not, by
+proper arrangements, furnish better information on these important
+points; and no industry of individuals can remedy that defect. It is
+therefore among the postulates of a work like this, for Scotland,
+that its vital statistics should be imperfect.
+
+_Books_ relating to the history, civil or natural, the institutions
+or manners of the country, have in many instances been well
+consulted; in some, not at all; but probably as much from want of
+opportunity as from any other cause.
+
+Still much occasion for inquiry remained after all the use that
+could be made of reports, registers, and books. Much of what related
+to the institutions of Religion, education, and the poor, might
+be supposed to come readily to hand, the clergy themselves being
+most conversant with such matters. But they appear to have charged
+themselves with the toil of very different investigations. Some
+have been at the pains to ascertain the amount and occupations of
+the population, betwixt the decennial terms of the parliamentary
+census. Few have omitted to state, in connexion with the agriculture
+of the parish, the quantities of land under tillage or under wood,
+in pasture or in moor, and the amount respectively of the different
+kinds of produce--facts that imply not a little correspondence with
+land-owners and land-occupiers, and much industry in the collation
+of returns. They have had recourse, frequently, to mineralogists,
+botanists, overseers of mining and manufacturing works, whose
+contributions are of as much value as the fullest and ripest
+knowledge can give. Picture-galleries are sometimes described by
+their owners; family papers occasionally disclose facts of some
+interest in the history of the country. Throughout the work there
+are signs not to be mistaken, of much private and unwonted inquiry
+on the part of the reverend authors, to do, in a creditable way, a
+work that, from the nature of it, ought to have been apportioned to
+at least two different parties.
+
+The defects which remain only suggest to us the hope which was thus
+expressed in similar circumstances, that "the circulation of this
+work, by bringing the deficiencies in the means of statistical
+information under the public view, and drawing attention to them,
+may, in this respect, also contribute to the advancement of the
+science." It is implied, of course, that the work, to be useful
+in this indirect way, must have merits of another kind. On these
+the _New Statistical Account_ may stand. No other book affords the
+same insight into the various natural resources of the country;
+none describes so well, and so skilfully, the most considerable
+branches of industry, and the methods of conducting them; none has
+brought together the same variety of statistics, with the same
+ample means of speculating upon their mutual relations. It is still
+more remarkable, that such a work, embracing, as it does, so much
+beyond the usual sphere of their observation, should proceed from
+the clergy; but the explanation is, that the position and character
+of that body open to them the best means of information on many
+subjects with which they are themselves not at all conversant. They
+have produced here a work, which, as a collection of parochial
+statistics, stands alone, without either rival or resemblance in any
+other country, representing the state of Scotland, at the period to
+which it refers, in all its aspects, and so affording the means of
+a definite comparison between the past and the present, such as, in
+all cases, it is at once natural and profitable to make. A peculiar
+interest arises from the unusual diversity of the matter, and the
+familiarity of the writers with the bounds which they describe.
+It is a useful work, and will continue long to be so, in as many
+ways as it throws light upon the condition of the country--and,
+not least, in the local improvements to which its suggestions may
+give rise. But, if its uses were less than they are, it would still
+leave an impression of respect for the general intelligence and the
+readiness to employ their opportunities for the public good, which
+its authors have known to unite with exemplary devotion to the
+duties of their calling.
+
+
+
+
+THE POETRY OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART.
+
+     _The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art._ By Mrs JAMESON.
+
+
+We are of the belief that art without poetry is worthless--dead,
+and deadening; or, if it have vitality, there is no music in its
+speech--no command in its beauty. We treat it with a kind of
+contempt, and make apology for the pleasure it has afforded. _Sacred
+and Legendary Art!_ How different--how precious--how life-bestowing!
+The material and immaterial world linked, as it were, together by
+a new sympathy, working out a tissue of beautiful ideas from the
+golden threads of a Divine revelation! By _Sacred and Legendary Art_
+is meant the treatment of religions subjects, commencing with the
+Old Testament, and terminating in traditionary tales and legends. It
+is from the latter that the old painters have, for the most part,
+taken that rich poetry, which, glowing on the canvass, shows, even
+amidst the wild errors of fable, a truth of sentiment belonging to a
+purer faith.
+
+By the Protestant mind, nursed, perhaps, in an undue contempt of
+histories of saints and martyrs of the Romish Church, the treasures
+of art of the best period are rarely understood, and still more
+rarely felt, in the spirit in which they were conceived. Those for
+whom they were painted needed no cold inquiry into the subjects.
+They accepted them as things universally known and religiously to
+be received, with a veneration which we but little comprehend. With
+them pictures and statues were among their sacred things, and,
+together with architecture, spoke and taught with an authority
+that books, which then were rare in the people's hands, have since
+scarcely ever obtained. Men of genius felt this respect paid to
+their works, if denied too often to themselves; and thus to their
+own devotion was added a kind of ministerial importance. Their work
+became a duty, and was very frequently prosecuted as such by the
+inmates of monasteries. Besides their works on a large scale, upon
+the walls and in their cloisters, the ornamenting and illustrating
+missals embodied a religious feeling, if in some degree peculiar to
+the condition of the workers, of a vital form and beauty. Treasures
+of this kind there are beyond number; but they have been hidden
+treasures for ages. A Protestant contempt for their legends has
+persecuted, with long hatred, and subsequent long indifference,
+the art which glorified them. And now that we awake from this dull
+state, and begin to estimate the poetry of religious art, we stand
+before the noblest productions amazed and ignorant, and looking
+for interpreters, and lose the opportunity of enjoyment in the
+inquiry. Art is too valuable for all it gives, to allow this entire
+ignorance of the subjects of its favourite treatment. If, for the
+better understanding of heathen art, an acquaintance with classical
+literature is thought to be a worthy attainment, the excellence of
+what we may term Christian art surely renders it of importance that
+we should know something about the subjects of which it treats. The
+inquiry will repay us also in other respects, as well as with regard
+to taste. If we would know ourselves, it is well to see the workings
+of the human mind, under its every phase, its every condition. And
+in such a study we shall be gratified, perhaps unexpectedly, to find
+the good and the beautiful still shining through the obscurity of
+many errors, predominant and influential upon our own hearts, and
+scarcely wish the fabulous altogether removed from the minds of
+those who receive it in devotion, lest great truth in feeling be
+removed also. Indeed, the legends themselves are mostly harmless,
+and, even as they become discredited, may be interpreted as not
+unprofitable allegories. Had we not, in a Puritanic zeal, discarded
+art with an iconoclast persecution, _The Pilgrim's Progress_ had
+long ere this been a "golden legend" for the people, and spoken to
+them in worthy illustration; nor would they have been religiously
+or morally the worse had they been imbued with a thorough taste for
+the graceful, the beautiful, and the sublime, which it is in the
+power of well cultivated art to convey to every willing recipient.
+It is a great mistake of a portion of the religious world to look
+upon ornament as a sin or a superstition. Religion is not a bare and
+unadorned thing, nor can it be so received without debasing, without
+making too low and mean the worshipper for the worship. The "wedding
+garment" was not the every-day wear. The poorest must not, of a
+choice, appear in rags before the throne of Him who is clothed in
+glory, nor with less respect of their own person than they would use
+in the presence of their betters. It was originally of God's doing,
+command, and dictation, to sanctify the beautiful in art, by making
+his worship a subject for all embellishment. For such a purport
+were the minute directions for the building of His temple. And yet
+how many "religious" of our day contradict this feeling, which
+seems to come to us, not only by a natural instinct, but with the
+authority of a command! It is a deteriorated worship that prefers
+four bare, unadorned, whitened walls of a mean conventicle to the
+lofty and arched majesty and profuse enrichment of a Gothic minster.
+We want every aid to lift every sense above our daily grovelling
+cares, and ought to feel that we are acceptable and invited guests
+in a house far too great, spacious, and magnificent for ourselves
+alone. Even our humility should be sublime, as all true worship
+is, for we would fain lift it up as an offering to the Heaven of
+heavens. It has its aspect towards Him who deigns to receive,
+together with consciousness of the lowliness of him that offers. It
+is good that the eye and the ear should see and hear other sounds
+and sights than concern things, not only of time, but of that poor
+portion of it which hems in our daily wants and businesses. Beauty
+and music are of and for eternity, and will never die; and in our
+perception of them we make ourselves a part of all that is undying.
+These are senses that the spiritualised body will not lose. Their
+cultivation is a thing for ever; we are now even here the greater
+for their possession in their human perfection. The wondrous pile
+so elaborately finished; the choral service, the pealing organ, and
+the low voice of prayer, and, it may be, angel forms and beatified
+saints in richly-painted windows:--we do not believe all this to be
+solely of man's invention, but of inspiration; how given we ask not,
+seeing what is, and acknowledging a greatness around us far greater
+than ourselves, and lifting up the full mind to a magnitude emulous
+of angelic stature. Yes--poetic genius is a high gift, by which the
+gifted make discoveries, and show high and great truths, and present
+them, palpable and visible, before the world--by architecture,
+by painting, by sculpture, by music--rendering religion itself
+more holy by the inspiration of its service. Take a man out of
+his common, so to speak, irreverent habit, and place him here to
+live for a few moments in this religious atmosphere--how unlike is
+he to himself, and how conscious of this self-unlikeness! Would
+that our cathedrals were open at all times! Even when there is no
+service, though that might be more frequent, there would be much
+good communing with a man's own heart, when, turning away for a
+while from worldly troubles and speculations, in midst of that great
+solemn monument, erected to his Maker's praise, and with the dead
+under his feet--the dead who as busily walked the streets and ways
+he has just left--he would weigh the character of his doings, and in
+a sanctified place breathe a prayer for direction. Nor would it be
+amiss that he should be led to contemplate the "storied pane" and
+religious emblems which abound; he will not fail, in the end, to
+sympathise with the sentiment even where he bows not to the legend.
+He may know the fact that there have been saints and martyrs--that
+faith, hope, and charity are realities--that patience and love may
+be here best learnt to be practised in the world without.
+
+It is curious that the saints, those _Dii minores_, to whom so many
+of our churches are dedicated, still retain their holding. Beyond
+the evangelists and the apostles, little do the people know of the
+other many saints while they enter the churches that bear their
+names. Few of a congregation, we suspect, could give much account of
+St Pancras, St Margaret, St Werburgh, St Dunstan, St Clement, nor
+even of St George, but that he is pictured slaying a dragon, and is
+the patron saint of England. Yet were they once "household gods" in
+the land. It is a curious speculation this of patron saints, and
+how every family and person had his own. There is a great fondness
+in this old personal attachment of his own angel to every man. That
+notion preceded Christianity, and was easily engrafted upon it: and
+the angel that attended from the birth was but supplanted by some
+holy dead whom the Church canonised. And a corrupt church humoured
+the superstition, and attached miracles to relics; and thus, as
+of old, these came, in latter times, to be "gods many." And what
+were these but over again the thirty thousand deities who, Hesiod
+said, inhabited the earth, and were guardians of men? Yet, it must
+be confessed, there has been a popular purification of them. They
+are not the panders to vice that infested the morals of the heathen
+world.
+
+But how came the heathen world by them? Did they invent, or where
+find them? And how came their characteristics to be so universal, in
+all countries differing rather in name than personality? The most
+intellectually-gifted people under the sun, the ancient Greeks,
+give nowhere any rational account how they came by the gods they
+worshipped. They take them as personifications from their poets.
+There is the theogony of Hesiod, and the gods as Homer paints
+them. They have called forth the glory of art; and wonderful were
+the periods that stamped on earth their statues, as if all men's
+intellect had been tasked to the work, that they should leave a
+mark and memorial of beauty than which no age hereafter should show
+a greater. We acknowledge the perfection in the remains that are
+left to us. Greek art stills sways the mind of every country--all
+the world mistrusts every attempt in a contrary direction. The
+excellence of Greek sculpture is reflected back again upon Greek
+fable, the heathen mythology from which it was taken; and perhaps
+a greater partiality is bestowed upon that than it deserves,--at
+least, we may say so in comparison with any other. We must be
+cautious how we take the excellence of art for the excellence of its
+subject. The Greeks were formed for art beyond every other people;
+had their creed been hideous--and indeed it was obscene--they would
+have adorned it with every beauty of ideal form. And this is worthy
+of note here, that their poetry in art was infinitely more beautiful
+than their written poetry. Their sculptors, and perhaps their
+painters, of whom we are not entitled to speak but by conjecture,
+and from the opinions formed by no bad judges of their day, did aim
+at the portraying a kind of divine humanity. If their sculptured
+deities have not a holy repose, they are singularly freed from
+display of human passions; whereas, in their poetry, it is rarely
+that even decent repose is allowed them; they are generally too
+active, without dignity, and without respect to the moral code of a
+not very scrupulous age. Yet have these very heathen gods, even as
+their historians the poets paint them--for it would disgrace them
+to speak of their biographers--a trace of a better origin than we
+can gather out of the whimsical theogony. There are some particulars
+in the heathen mythology that point to a visible track in the
+strange road of history. Much we know was had from Egypt; more,
+probably, came with the Cadmean letters from Phoenicia--a name
+including Palestine itself. Inventions went only to corruptions--the
+original of all creeds of divinity is from revelation. We may not
+be required to point out the direct road nor the resting-places of
+this "_santa casa_," holding all the gods of Greece, so beautiful in
+their personal portraiture, that we love to gaze with the feeling
+of Schiller, though their histories will not bear the scrutiny: but
+it will suffice to note some similitudes that cannot be accidental.
+Somehow or other, both the historic and prophetic writings of the
+Bible, or narratives from them, had reached Greece as well as other
+distant lands. The Greeks had, at a very early period, embodied
+in their myths even the personal characters as shown in those
+writings. Let us, for example, without referring to their Zeus in
+a particular manner, find in the Hermes or Mercury of the Greeks
+the identity with Moses. What are the characteristics of both? If
+Moses descended from the Mount with the commands of God, and was
+emphatically God's messenger, so was Hermes the messenger from
+Olympus: his chief office was that of messenger. If Moses is known
+as the slayer of the Egyptian, so is Hermes, (and so is he more
+frequently called in Homer,) +Argeiphontes+, the slayer of Argus,
+the overseer of a hundred eyes. Moses conducted through the
+wilderness to the Jordan those who died and reached not the promised
+land; nor did he pass the Jordan. So was Hermes the conductor of the
+dead, delivering them over to Charon, (and here note the resemblance
+of name with Aaron, the associate of Moses); nor was he to pass to
+the Elysian fields.
+
+Then the rod, the serpents,--the Caduceus of Hermes, with the
+serpents twining round the rod. The appearance of Moses, and
+the shining from his head, as it is commonly figured, is again
+represented in the winged cap of Hermes. There are other minute
+circumstances, especially some noted in the hymn of Hermes, ascribed
+to Homer, which we forbear to enumerate, thinking the coincidences
+already mentioned are sufficiently striking.
+
+Then, again, the idea of the serpent of the Greek mythology, whence
+did it come, and the slaying of it by the son of Zeus--and its very
+name, the Python, the serpent of corruption? And in that sense it
+has been carried down to this day as an emblem in Christian art.
+But, to go back a moment, this departure of the Israelites from
+Egypt, is there no notice of it in Homer? We think there is a hint
+which indicates a knowledge of at least a part of that history--the
+previous slavery, the being put to work, and the after-readiness of
+the Egyptians to be "spoiled." Ulysses, giving a false account of
+himself, if we remember rightly, to Eumaeus, says he came from Egypt,
+where he had been a merchant, that the king of that country seized
+him and all his men, whom _he put to work_, but that at length he
+found favour, and was allowed to depart with his people; adding that
+he collected much property from the people of Egypt, "for all of
+them gave."
+
+                     +"Polla ageira,
+    Chremat' an' Aigyptious andras, didosan gar apantes."
+
+We do not mean to lay any great stress upon this quotation, and but
+think at least that it shows a characteristic of the Egyptians as
+narrated by Moses; and never having met with any allusion to it, nor
+indeed to our parallel between Moses and Hermes, which it may seem
+to support, we have thought it worthy this brief notice.
+
+We fancy we trace the history of the cause of the fall of man, in
+the eating of the pomegranate seed which doomed Proserpine to half
+an existence in the infernal regions. Can there be anything more
+striking than the Prometheus Bound of AEschylus? Whence could such
+a notion come, that a man-god would, for his love to mankind, (for
+bringing down fire from heaven,) suffer agonies, nailed not upon a
+cross indeed, but on a rock, and, in the description, crucified?
+"It is, after a manner," says Mr Swayne, who has with great power
+translated this strange play of AEschylus, "a Christian poem by a
+pagan author, foreshadowing the opposition and reconciliation of
+Divine justice and Divine love. Whence the sublime conception of
+the subject of this drama could have been obtained, it is useless
+to speculate. Some even suppose that its author must have been
+acquainted with the old Hebrew prophets."
+
+Even the introduction of Io in the tale is suggestive--the
+virgin-mother who was so strangely to conceive (and this too given
+in a prophecy) miraculously.
+
+    "Jove at length shall give thee back thy mind,
+    With one light touch of his unquailing hand,
+    And, from that fertilising touch, a son
+    Shall call thee mother."
+
+Her whom Prometheus thus addresses,--
+
+      "In that the son shall overmatch the sire."
+    --"Of thine own stem the strong one shall be born."
+
+Then again Sampson passes into the Egyptian or Tyrian Hercules, to
+lose his life by another Delilah in Dejaneira. Whence the prophetic
+Sybils, whence and what the Eleusinian mysteries? and that strange
+glimpse of them in the significant passage of the Alcestis, where
+the restored from the dead must abstain from speech till the third
+day--the duration of her consecration to Hades!
+
+    "+Houpo demis soi tesde prosphonematon,
+     Kluein, prin an theoisi toisi nerterois
+     Aphagnisetai, kai triton mole phaos.+"
+
+We might enter largely into the mysteries of heathen mythology, and
+discover strange coincidences and resemblances, but it would take us
+too wide from our present subject. Our present purpose is to show
+that we are apt to attribute too much to the Grecian fable, when
+we ascribe to it all the beauty which Grecian art has elaborated
+from it. For, in fact, the origin of that fabulous poetry is beyond
+them in far-off time; and by them how corrupted, shorn of its real
+grandeur, and at once magnificent and lovely beauty! How much more,
+then, is it ours than theirs, as it is deducible from that high
+revelation which is part of the Christian religion. We overlook,
+in the excellence of Grecian art, the far better materials for all
+art, which we in our religion possess, and have ever possessed.
+With the Greeks it was an instinct to love the beautiful, sensual
+and intellectual: it was a part of their nature to discover it or
+to create it. They would have fabricated it out of any materials;
+and deteriorated, indeed, were those which came to their hands.
+And even this excess of their love, at least in their poets, made
+the sensuous to overcome the intellectual; but the far higher than
+intellectual--the celestial, the spiritual--they had not: their
+highest reach in the moral sense was a sublime pride: they had no
+conception of a sublime humility. Their highest divinity was how
+much lower than the lowest order of angels that wait around the
+heavenly throne and adore,--low as is their Olympus, where they
+placed their Zeus and all his band, to the Christian "heaven of
+heavens," which yet cannot contain the universal Maker. It is bad
+taste, indeed, in us, as some do, to give them the palm of the
+possession of a better field--poetic field for the exercise of art.
+"Christian and Legendary art" has a principle which no other art
+could have, and which theirs certainly had not; they were sensuous
+from a necessity of their nature, lacking this principle. We ought
+to ascribe all which they have left us to their skill, their genius:
+wonderful it was, and wonderful things did it perform; but, after
+all, we admire more than we love. Their divine was but a grand
+and stern repose; their loveliness, but the perfection of the
+human form. And so great were they in this their genius, that the
+monuments of heathen art are beyond the heathen creed; for in those
+the unsensuous prevailed.
+
+Let us suppose the gift of their genius to have been delayed to
+the Christian era--as poetical subjects, their whole mythology
+would have been set aside for a far better adoption; and we should
+be now universally acknowledging how lovely and how great, how
+full and bountiful, for poetry and for art, are the ever-flowing
+fountains, gushing in life, giving exuberance from that high mount,
+to the sight of which Pindus cannot lift its head, nor show its
+poor Castalian rills. The "gods of Greece," the far-famed "gods
+of Greece," what are they to the hierarchy of heaven--angels and
+archangels, and all the host--powers, dominions, hailing the
+admission to the blissful regions of saints spiritualised, and after
+death to die no more--glorified? What loveliness is like that of
+throned chastity? Graces and Muses in their perfectness of marbled
+beauty--what are they to faith, hope, and charity, and the veiled
+virtues that like our angels shroud themselves? When these became
+subjects for our Christian art, then was true expression first
+invented in drapery. "Christian and legendary art" is not denied
+the nude; but no other has so made drapery a living, speaking
+poetry. There is a dignity, a grace, a sweetness, in the drapery of
+mediaeval sculpture, that equally commands our admiration, and more
+our reverence and our love, than ancient statues, draped or nude.
+And this is the expression of Scripture poetry--the represented
+language, the "clothing with power," the "garment of righteousness."
+We often loiter about our old cathedrals, and look up with wonder
+at the mutilated remains as a new type of beauty, beaming through
+the obscurity of the so-called dark ages. Lovers of art, as we
+profess to be, in all its forms, we profess without hesitation
+that we would not exchange these--that is, lose them as never to
+have existed--for all that Grecian art has left us. Even now, what
+power have we to restore these specimens of expressive workmanship,
+broken and mutilated as they have been by a low and misbegotten
+zeal? We maintain further, generally, that the works of "Christian
+and legendary art," in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are
+as infinitely superior to the works of all Grecian antiquity, as
+is the source of their inspiration higher and purer: we are, too,
+astonished at the perfect agreement of the one with the other,
+showing one mind, one spirit--devotion. We strongly insist upon
+this, that there has been a far higher character and equal power in
+Christian art compared with heathen. It ought to be so, and it is
+so. It has been too long set aside in the world's opinion (often
+temporary and ill-formed) to establish the inferior. This country,
+in particular, has yielded a cold neglect of these beautiful things,
+in shameful and indolent compliance with the mean, tasteless,
+degrading Puritanism, that mutilated and would have destroyed them
+utterly if it could, as it would have treated every and all the
+beautiful.
+
+Even at the first rise of this Christian art, the superiority of
+the principle which moved the artists was visible through their
+defect of knowledge of art, as art. The devotional spirit is
+evident; a sense of purity, that spiritualised humanity with its
+heavenly brightness, dims the imperfections of style, casting out
+of observation minor and uncouth parts. Often, in the incongruous
+presence of things vulgar in detail of habit and manners, an angelic
+sentiment stands embodied, pure and untouched, as if the artist,
+when he came to that, felt holy ground, and took his shoes from off
+his feet. It was not long before the art was equal to the whole
+work. There are productions of even an early time that are yet
+unequalled, and, for power over the heart and the judgment, are much
+above comparison with any preceding works of boasted antiquity.
+
+Take only the full embodying of all angelic nature: what is
+there like to it out of Christian art? How unlike the cold
+personifications of "Victories" winged,--though even these were
+borrowed,--are the ministering and adoring angels of our art--now
+bringing celestial paradise down to saints on earth, and now
+accompanying them, and worshipping with them, in their upward
+way, amid the receding and glorious clouds of heaven! Look at the
+sepulchral monuments of Grecian art--the frigid mysteries, the
+abhorrent ghost, yet too corporeal, shrinking from Lethe; and
+the dismal boat--the unpromising, unpitying aspect of Charon:
+then turn to some of the sublime Christian monuments of art, that
+speak so differently of that death--the Coronation of the Virgin,
+the Ascension of Saints. The dismal and the doleful earth has
+vanished--choirs of angels rush to welcome and to support the
+beatified, the released: death is no more, but life breathing no
+atmosphere of earth, but all freshness, and all joy, and all music;
+the now changed body glowing, like an increasing light, into its
+spirituality of form and beauty, and thrilling with
+
+    "That undisturbed song of pure consent,
+     Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne
+     To Him that sits thereon;
+     With saintly shout and solemn jubilee,
+     Where the bright seraphim, in burning row,
+     Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow;
+     And the cherubic host, in thousand choirs,
+     Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,
+     With those just spirits that wear victorious palms,
+     Hymns devout and holy psalms
+     Singing everlastingly."
+
+Then shall we doubt, and not dare to pronounce the superior
+capabilities of Christian art, arising out of its subject--poetry?
+We prefer, as a great poetic conception, Raffaelle's Archangel,
+Michael, with his victorious foot upon his prostrate adversary,
+to the far-famed Apollo Belvidere, who has slain his Python; and
+his St Margaret, in her sweet, her innocent, and clothed grace,
+to that perfect model of woman's form, the Venus de Medici. Not
+that we venture a careless or misgiving thought of the perfectness
+of those great antique works: their perfectness was according to
+their purpose. Higher purposes make a higher perfectness. Nor
+would we have them viewed irreverently; for even in them, and the
+genius that produced them, the Creator, as in "times past, left
+not Himself without witness." In showing forth the glory of the
+human form, they show forth the glory of Him who made it--who is
+thus glorified in the witnesses; and so we accept and love them.
+But to a certain degree they must stand dethroned--their influence
+faded. Lowly unassuming virtues--virtues of the soul, far greater
+in their humility, in the sacred poetry of our Christian faith,
+shine like stars, even in their smallness, on the dark night of our
+humanity; and they are to take their places in the celestial of art;
+and we feel that it is His will, who, as the hymn of the blessed
+Virgin--that type of all these united virtues--declares, "hath put
+down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and
+meek."
+
+We trust yet to see sacred art resumed; for the more we consider its
+poetry, the more inexhaustible appears the mine. Nor do we require
+to search and gather in the field of fabulous legends; though in
+a poetic view, and for their intention, and resumed merely as a
+fabulous allegory, they are not to be set aside. But sure we are
+that, whatever can move the heart, can excite to the greatest degree
+our pity, our love, or convey the greatest delight through scenes
+for which the term beautiful is but a poor describer, and personages
+for whose magnificence languages have no name--all is within the
+volume and the history of our suffering and triumphant religion.
+
+Would that we could stir but one of our painters to this, which
+should be his great business! Genius is bestowed for no selfish
+gratification, but for service, and for a "witness," to bear which
+let the gifted offer only a willing heart, and his lamp will not
+be suffered to go out for lack of oil. Why is the tenderness of Mr
+Eastlake's pencil in abeyance? That portion of the sacred history
+which commences with his "Christ weeping over Jerusalem," might well
+be continued in a series. Even still more power has he shown in the
+creative and symbolic, as exemplified in his poetic conception of
+Virtue from Milton--
+
+    "She can teach you how to climb
+     Higher than the sphery chime;
+     Or if Virtue feeble were,
+     Heaven itself would stoop to her."
+
+If we believe genius to be an inspiring spirit, we may contemplate
+it hereafter as an accusing angel. With such a paradise of subjects
+before them, why do so many of our painters run to the kennel
+and the stable, or plunge their pencils into the gaudy hues of
+meretricious enticement? We do verily believe that the world is
+waiting for better things. It is taking a greater interest in higher
+subjects, and those of a pure sentiment. It is that our artists are
+behind the feeling, and not, as they should be, in the advance. It
+is a great fact that there is such a growing feeling. The resumption
+of sacred art in Germany is not without its effect, and is making
+its way here in prints. Most of these are from the Aller Heiligen
+Kapelle at Munich, the result of the taste of at least one crowned
+head in Europe, who, with more limited means and power, has set an
+example of a better patronage, which would have well become Courts
+of greater splendour, and more imperial influence. Must it be asked
+what our own artists--the Academy, with all its staff--are doing?
+
+We must stay our hand; for we took up the pen to notice the two
+volumes just published of Mrs Jameson's _Sacred and Legendary Art_.
+They have excited, in the reading, an enthusiastic pleasure, and led
+the fancy wandering in the delightful fields sanctified by heavenly
+sunshine, and trod by sainted feet; and, like a traveller in a
+desert, having found an oasis, we feel loath to leave it, and would
+fain linger and drink again of its refreshing springs. These volumes
+have reached us most seasonably, at a period of the year when the
+mind is more especially directed to contemplate the main subjects
+of which they treat, and to anticipate only by days the vision of
+joy and glory which will be scripturally put before us--to see the
+Virgin Mother and the Holy Babe--
+
+    "And all about the courtly stable,
+     Bright harness'd angels sit in order serviceable."
+
+Mrs Jameson disclaims in this work any other object than the poetry
+of Sacred and Legendary Art; and to enable those who are, or wish to
+be, conversant with the innumerable productions of Italian and other
+schools, in an artistic view, likewise at once to know the subjects
+upon which they treat. Even as a handbook, therefore, these volumes
+are valuable. Much of the early painting was symbolical. Ignorance
+of the symbols rejects the sentiment, or at least the intention, and
+at the same time makes what is only quaint appear absurd.
+
+"The first volume contains the legends of the Scripture personages,
+and the primitive fathers. The second volume contains those sainted
+personages who lived, or are supposed to have lived, in the first
+ages of Christianity, and whose real history, founded on fact or
+tradition, has been so disguised by poetical embroidery, that they
+have in some sort the air of ideal beings." Possibly this poetical
+disguise is favourable upon the whole to art, but it renders a
+key necessary, and that Mrs Jameson has supplied--not pretending,
+however, to more than a selection of the most interesting; and, what
+is extremely valuable, there are marginal references to pictures,
+and in what places they are to be met with, and by whom painted, of
+the subjects given in the text, and of the view the artists had in
+so painting them. The emblems are amply noted with their meanings;
+and even the significance of colours, which has been so commonly
+overlooked, and is yet so important for the comprehension of the
+full subject of a picture, is clearly laid down. It is well said:
+
+     "All the productions of art, from the time it has been directed
+     and developed by the Christian influences, may be regarded
+     under three different aspects:--1st, The purely religious
+     aspect, which belongs to one mode of faith; 2d, The poetical
+     aspect, which belongs to all; 3d, The artistic, which is the
+     individual point of view, and has reference only to the action
+     of the intellect on the means and material employed. There is
+     a pleasure, an intense pleasure, merely in the consideration
+     of art, as art; in the faculties of comparison and nice
+     discrimination brought to bear on objects of beauty; in the
+     exercise of a cultivated and refined taste on the productions
+     of mind in any form whatever. But a threefold, or rather a
+     thousandfold, pleasure is theirs, who to a sense of the poetical
+     unite a sympathy with the spiritual in art, and who combine with
+     a delicacy of perception and technical knowledge, more elevated
+     sources of pleasure, more variety of association, habits of more
+     excursive thought. Let none imagine, however, that in placing
+     before the uninitiated these unpretending volumes, I assume
+     any such superiority as is here implied. Like a child that
+     has sprang on a little way before its playmates, and caught a
+     glimpse through an opening portal of some varied Eden within,
+     all gay with flowers, and musical with birds, and haunted by
+     divine shapes which beckon forward, and, after one rapturous
+     survey, runs back and catches its companions by the hand, and
+     hurries them forwards to share the new-found pleasure, the yet
+     unexplored region of delight: even so it is with me: I am on the
+     outside, not the inside, of the door I open."
+
+This is a happy introduction to that which immediately follows of
+angels and archangels.
+
+Mrs Jameson has so managed to open the door as to frame in her
+subject to the best advantage; and the reader is willing to stand
+for a moment with her to gaze upon the inward brightness of the
+garden, ere he ventures in to see what is around and what is
+above. It is on the first downward step that we stand breathless
+with Aladdin, and feel the influence of the first--the partial and
+framed-in picture--glowing in the unearthly illumination of its
+magical creation.
+
+There is nothing more interesting than these few pages upon angels.
+The information we receive is very curious. It is beautiful poetry
+to see orders, and degrees, and ministrations various, types of
+an embodied, a ministering church here, and ordained, together
+with the saints of earth, to make one glorified triumphant church
+hereafter. Without entering upon the theological question, as to
+the extension and mystification of the ideas of angels after the
+Captivity, (yet we think it might be shown that there was originally
+no Chaldaic belief on the subject not taken, first or last, from the
+Jews themselves,) it may not be unworthy of remark, that the word
+"angel," signifying messenger, could scarcely with propriety have
+been at the first applied to Satan, the deceiving serpent, until,
+in the after-development of the history of the human race, the
+ministering offices gave the general title, which, when established,
+included all who had not "kept their first estate." Nor do we
+think, with Mrs Jameson, that Chaldea had anything to do with the
+introduction of the worship of angels into the Christian church.
+The "gods many" of the heathen countries in which Christianity
+established itself, will sufficiently account for the readiness of
+the people to transfer the multifarious worship to which they had
+been accustomed to names more suitable to the new religion. It is
+with the poetical development we have here to do; and what ground
+is there for that full development in the New Testament, wherein
+they are represented as "countless--as superior to all human wants
+and weaknesses--as deputed messengers of God? They rejoice over
+the repentant sinner; they take deep interest in the mission of
+Christ; they are present with those who pray; they bear the souls
+of the just to heaven; they minister to Christ on earth, and will
+be present at his second coming." From such authority, from such
+a sacred theatre of scenes and celestial personages, arose the
+beautiful, the magnificent visions of the workers of sacred art.
+Heresy, however, reached it, as might have been expected; and the
+agency of angels, in the creation of the world and of man, has been
+represented, to the deterioration of its great poetry. From the
+beginning of the fourteenth century, a great change seems to have
+taken place in the representation of the angel with reference to the
+Virgin: the feeling is changed; "the veneration paid to the Virgin
+demanded another treatment. She becomes not merely the principal
+person, but the superior being; she is the 'regina angelorum,' and
+the angel bows to her, or kneels before her, as to a queen. Thus,
+in the famous altar-piece at Cologne, the angel kneels; he bears
+the sceptre, and also a sealed roll, as if he were a celestial
+ambassador delivering his credentials. About the same period we
+sometimes see the angel merely with his hands folded over his
+breast, and his head inclined, delivering his message as if to a
+superior being."
+
+It is a great merit in this work of Mrs Jameson's, that we are not
+only referred to the most curious and to the best specimens of art,
+but have likewise beautiful woodcuts, and some etchings admirably
+executed by Mrs Jameson's own hand in illustration. There is a
+greatness in the simplicity of Blake's angels: "The morning stars
+sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Poor Blake!
+Yet why say poor? he was happy in his visions--a little before his
+time, and one of whom the world (of art) in his day were not worthy:
+though, with a wild extravagance of fancy, his creations were his
+faith, often great, and always gentle. Exquisitely beautiful are the
+"angels of the planets" from Raffaelle, and copied by Mrs Jameson
+from Gruner's engravings of the frescoes of the Capella Chigiana.
+That great painter of mystery, Rembrandt, whom the mere lovers of
+form would have mistakenly thought it a profanation to commission
+with an angelic subject, is justly appreciated. A perfect master
+of light, and of darkness, and of colour, it mattered not what
+were the forms, so that they were unearthly, that plunged into or
+broke through his luminous or opaque. Of the picture in the Louvre
+it is thus remarked: "Miraculous for true and spirited expression,
+and for the action of the soaring angel, who parts the clouds and
+strikes through the air like a strong swimmer through the waves of
+the sea." Strange--but so it is--we cannot conceive an alteration of
+his pictures, all parts so agree. Attention to the more beautiful
+in form would have appeared to him a mistrust in his great gift
+of colour and chiaroscuro; and, stranger still, that without, and
+seemingly in a marked defiance of mere beauty, he is, we would
+almost say never, vulgar, never misses the intended sentiment,
+nor fails where it is of tenderness, even of feminine tenderness,
+for which, if he does not give beauty, he gives its equivalent in
+the fulness of the feeling. We instance his Salutation--Elizabeth
+and the Virgin Mary. There is something terrifically grand in the
+crouching angel in the Campo Santo,--not in the form, nor in the
+face, which is mostly hid, but in the conception of the attitude
+of horror with which he beholds the awful scene. It is from the
+Last Judgment of Orcagua in the Campo Santo. We must not speak of
+Rubens as a painter of angels; and, for real angelic expression,
+perhaps the earlier painters are the best. It is surprising that
+Mrs Jameson, from whose refined taste, and from whose sense of the
+beautiful and the graceful in their highest qualities, we should
+have expected another judgment, could have ventured to name together
+Raffaelle and Murillo as angel painters. It is true, in speaking of
+the Visit to Abraham, she admits that the painter has set aside the
+angelic and mystic character, and merely represented three young men
+travellers; but she generally, throughout these volumes, speaks of
+that favourite Spaniard in terms of the highest admiration,--terms,
+as we think, little merited. The angels in the Sutherland Collection
+are as vulgar figures as can well be, and quite antagonistic in
+feeling to a heavenly mission. We confess that we dislike almost
+all the pictures by this so much esteemed master: their artistic
+manner is to us uncertain and unpleasing,--disagreeable in colour,
+deficient in grace. We often wonder at the excess of present
+admiration. We look upon his vulgarity in scriptural subjects as
+quite profane. His highest power was in a peasant gentleness; he
+could not embody a sacred feeling: yet thus is he praised for a
+performance beyond his power:--"St Andrew is suspended on the
+high cross, formed not of planks, but of the trunks of trees laid
+transversely. He is bound with cords, undraped, except by a linen
+cloth, his silver hair and beard loosely streaming on the air, his
+aged countenance illuminated by a heavenly transport, as he looks up
+to the opening skies, whence two angels, of really celestial beauty,
+like almost all Murillo's angels, descend with the crown and palm."
+The angels of Correggio are certainly peculiar: they are not quite
+celestial, but perhaps are sympathetically more lovely from their
+touch of humanity; they are ever pure. Those in the Ascension of
+the the Virgin, in the Cupola at Parma, seem to be rather adopted
+angels than of the "first estate;" for they are of several ages,
+and, if we mistake not, many of them are feminine, and, we suspect,
+are meant really to represent the loveliest of earth beatified,
+adopted into the heavenly choir. Those who have seen Signor Toschi's
+fine drawings of the Parma frescoes, (now in progress of engraving),
+will readily give assent to this impression. We remember this
+feeling crossing our mind, and as it were lightly touching the
+heart with angelic wings--if we have lost a daughter of that sweet
+age, let us fondly see her there. We cannot forbear quoting the
+passage upon the angels of Titian:--"And Titian's angels impress
+me in a similar manner: I mean those in the glorious Assumption at
+Venice, with their childish forms and features, but an expression
+caught from beholding the face of 'our Father which is in heaven:'
+it is glorified infancy. I remember standing before this picture,
+contemplating those lovely spirits one after another, until a thrill
+came over me, like that which I felt when Mendelssohn played the
+organ: I became music while I listened. The face of one of those
+angels is to the face of a child, just what that of the Virgin, in
+the same picture, is, compared with the fairest daughter of earth.
+It is not here superiority of beauty, but mind, and music, and love,
+kneaded together, as it were, into form and colour." This is very
+eloquent, but it was not _the thought_ which supplied that ill word
+"kneaded."
+
+It is remarked by Mrs Jameson, as a singular fact, that neither
+Leonardo da Vinci, nor Michael Angelo, nor Raffaelle, have given
+representations of the Four Evangelists. In very early art they are
+mostly symbolised, and sometimes oddly and uncouthly; and even so
+by Angelico da Fiesole. In Greek art, the Tetramorph, or union of
+the four attributes in one figure, is seen winged. "The Tetramorph,
+in Western art, in some instances became monstrous, instead of
+mystic and poetical." The animal symbols of the Evangelists, however
+familiarised in the eyes of the people, and therefore sanctioned to
+their feeling, required the greatest judgment to bring within the
+poetic of art. We must look also to the most mysterious subjects for
+the elucidation, such as Raffaelle's Vision of Ezekiel. There we
+view in the symbols a great prophetic, subservient to the creating
+and redeeming power, set forth and coming out of that blaze of the
+clouds of heaven that surround the sublime Majesty.
+
+The earlier painters were fond of representing everything
+symbolically: hence the twelve apostles are so treated. In the
+descending scale, to the naturalists, the mystic poetry was reduced
+to its lowest element. The set of the apostles by Agostino Caracci,
+though, as Mrs Jameson observes, famous as works of art, are
+condemned as absolutely vulgar. "St John is drinking out of a cup,
+an idea which might strike some people as picturesque, but it is
+in vile taste. It is about the eighth century that the keys first
+appear in the hand of St Peter. In the old churches at Ravenna, it
+is remarked, St Peter and St Paul do not often appear." Ravenna, in
+the fifth century, did not look to Rome for her saints.
+
+After his martyrdom, St Paul was, it is said, buried in the spot
+where was erected the magnificent church known as St Paolo fuore-le
+mura. "I saw the church a few months before it was consumed by
+fire in 1823. I saw it again in 1847, when the restoration was far
+advanced. Its cold magnificence, compared with the impressions left
+by the former structure, rich with inestimable remains of ancient
+art, and venerable from a thousand associations, saddened and
+chilled me." We well remember visiting this noble church in 1816. A
+singular coincidence of fact and prophecy has imprinted this visit
+on our memory. Those who have seen it before it was burnt down, must
+remember the series of portraits of popes, and that there was room
+but for one more. We looked to the vacant place, as directed by our
+cicerone, whilst he told us that there was a prophecy concerning it
+to this effect, that when that space was filled up there would be
+no more popes. The prophecy was fulfilled, at least with regard to
+that church, for it was burnt down after that vacant space had been
+occupied by the papal portrait.
+
+The subject of the Last Supper is treated of in a separate chapter.
+There has been a fresco lately discovered at Florence, in the
+refectory of Saint Onofrio, said to have been painted by Raffaelle
+in his twenty-third year. Some have thought it to be the work of
+Neri de Bicci. Mrs Jameson, without hesitation, pronounces it to
+be by Raffaelle, "full of sentiment and grace, but deficient,
+it appears to me, in that depth and discrimination of character
+displayed in his later works. It is evident that he had studied
+Giotto's fresco in the neighbouring Santa Croce. The arrangement
+is nearly the same." All the apostles have glories, but that round
+the head of Judas is smaller than the others. Does the prejudice
+against thirteen at table arise from this betrayal by Judas, or
+from the legend of St Gregory, who, when a monk in the monastery
+of St Andrew, was so charitable, that at length, having nothing
+else to bestow, he gave to an old beggar a silver porringer which
+had belonged to his mother? When pope, it was his custom to
+entertain twelve poor men. On one occasion he observed thirteen,
+and remonstrated with his steward, who, counting the guests, could
+see no more than twelve. After removal from the table, St Gregory
+called the unbidden guest, thus visible, like the ghost of Banquo,
+to the master of the feast only. The old man, on being questioned,
+declared himself to be the old beggar to whom the silver porringer
+had been given, adding, "But my name is Wonderful, and through me
+thou shalt obtain whatever thou shalt ask of God." There is a famous
+fresco on this subject by Paul Veronese, in which the stranger is
+represented to be our Saviour. To entertain even angels unknowingly,
+and at convivial entertainments, and visible perhaps but to one, as
+a messenger of good or of evil, would be little congenial with the
+purport of such meetings.
+
+Mrs Jameson objects to the introduction of dogs in such a subject
+as the Last Supper, but remarks that it is supposed to show that
+the supper is over, and the paschal lamb eaten. It is so common
+that we should rather refer it to a more evident and more important
+signification, to show that this institution was not for the Jews
+only, and alluding to the passage showing that "dogs eat of the
+crumbs which fell from their masters' table." The large dogs,
+however, of Paul Veronese, gnawing bones, do not with propriety
+represent the passage; for there is reason to believe that the word
+"crumbs" describes the small pet dogs, which its was the fashion for
+the rich to carry about with them. The early painters introduced
+Satan in person tempting Judas. When Baroccio, with little taste,
+adopted the same treatment, the pope, Clement VIII., ordered the
+figure to be obliterated--"Che non gli piaceva il demonio si
+dimesticasse tanto con Gesu Christo." We know not where Mrs Jameson
+has found the anecdote which relates that Andrea del Castagno,
+called the Infamous, after he had assassinated Dominico his friend,
+who had intrusted him with Van Eyck's secret, painted his own
+portrait in the character of Judas, from remorse of conscience. We
+are not sure of the story at all respecting Andrea del Castagno:
+there may be other grounds for doubting it, but this anecdote, if
+true to the fact, would rather indicate insanity than guilt. The
+farther we advance in the history and practice of art, the more we
+find it suffering in sentiment from the infusion of the classical.
+In the Pitti Palace is a picture by Vasari of St Jerome as a
+penitent, in which he has introduced Venus and cupids, one of whom
+is taking aim at the saint. It is true that, as we proceed, legends
+crowd in upon us, and the painters find rather scope for fancy than
+subjects for faith and resting-places for devotion. Art, ever fond
+of female forms, readily seized upon the legends of Mary Magdalene.
+Her penitence has ever been a favourite subject, and has given
+opportunity for the introduction of grand landscape backgrounds
+in the lonely solitudes and wildernesses of a rocky desert. The
+individuality of the characters of Mary and Martha in Scripture
+history was too striking not to be taken advantage of by painters.
+There is a legend of an Egyptian penitent Mary, anterior to that
+of Mary Magdalene, which is curious. Whether this was another
+Mary or not, she is represented as a female anchoret; and we are
+reminded thereby of the double story of Helen of Troy, whom a real
+or fabulous history has deposited in Egypt, while the great poet of
+the Iliad has introduced her as so visible and palpable an agent
+in the Trojan war, and not without a touch of penitence, not quite
+characteristic of that age. Accounts say that it was her double, or
+eidolon, which figured at Troy.
+
+Mrs Jameson makes a good conjecture with regard to the famous
+picture by Leonardo da Vinci, known as Modesty and Vanity, and that
+it is Mary Magdalene rebuked by her sister Martha for vanity and
+luxury, which exactly corresponds with the legend respecting her. We
+cannot forbear quoting the following eloquent passage:--
+
+     "On reviewing generally the infinite variety which has been
+     given to these favourite subjects, the life and penance of the
+     Magdalene, I must end where I began. In how few instances has
+     the result been satisfactory to mind, or heart, or soul, or
+     sense! Many have well represented the particular situation,
+     the appropriate sentiment, the sorrow, the hope, the devotion;
+     but who has given us the _character_? A noble creature, with
+     strong sympathies and a strong will, with powerful faculties
+     of every kind, working for good or evil. Such a woman Mary
+     Magdalene must have been, even in her humiliation; and the
+     feeble, girlish, commonplace, and even vulgar women, who appear
+     to have been usually selected as models by the artists, turned
+     into Magdalenes by throwing up their eyes and letting down their
+     hair, ill represent the enthusiastic convert, or the majestic
+     patroness!"
+
+The second volume commences with the patron saints of Christendom.
+These were delightful fables in the credulous age of first youth,
+when feeling was a greater truth than fact; and we confess that we
+read these legends now with some regret at our abated faith, which
+we would not even "now have shaken in the chivalric characters of
+the seven champions of Christendom."
+
+The Romish Church (we say not the Catholic, as Mrs Jameson so
+frequently improperly terms _her_) readily acted that part, to
+the people at large, which nurses assume for the amusement of
+their children; and in both cases, the more improbable the story
+the greater the fascination; and the people, like children, are
+more credulous than critical. Had we not known in our own times,
+and nearly at the present day, stories as absurd as any in these
+legends, gravely asserted, circulated, and credited, and maintained
+by men of responsible station and education--to instance only the
+garment of Treves--we should have pronounced the _aurea legenda_
+to have been a creation of the fancy, arising, not without their
+illumination, from the fogs and fens of the Middle Ages, adapted
+solely for minds of that period. But the sanction of them by the
+Church of Rome leads us to view them as _ignes fatui_ of another
+character, meant to amuse and to bewilder. We must even think it
+possible now for people to be brought to believe such a story as
+this:--"It is related that a certain man, who was afflicted with a
+cancer in his leg, went to perform his devotions in the church of
+St Cosmo and St Damian at Rome, and he prayed most earnestly that
+these beneficent saints would be pleased to aid him. When he had
+prayed, a deep sleep fell upon him. Then he beheld St Cosmo and St
+Damian, who stood beside him; and one carried a box of ointment,
+the other a sharp knife. And one said, 'What shall we do to replace
+this diseased leg, when we have cut it off?' And the other replied,
+'There is a Moor who has been buried just now in San Pietro in
+Vincolo; let us take his leg for the purpose!' Then they brought
+the leg of the dead man, and with it they replaced the leg of the
+sick man--anointing it with celestial ointment, so that he remained
+whole. When he awoke, he almost doubted whether it could be himself;
+but his neighbours, seeing that he was healed, looked into the tomb
+of the Moor, and found that there had been an exchange of legs; and
+thus the truth of this great miracle was proved to all beholders."
+It is, however, rather a hazardous demand upon credulity to serve
+up again the feast of Thyestes, cooked in a caldron of even more
+miraculous efficacy than Medea's. Such is the stupendous power of
+St Nicholas:--"As he was travelling through his diocese, to visit
+and comfort his people, he lodged in the house of a certain host,
+who was a son of Satan. This man, in the scarcity of provisions, was
+accustomed to steal little children, whom he murdered, and served up
+their limbs as meat to his guests. On the arrival of the Bishop and
+his retinue, he had the audacity to serve up the dismembered limbs
+of these unhappy children before the man of God, who had no sooner
+cast his eyes on them than he was aware of the fraud. He reproached
+the host with his abominable crime; and, going to the tub where
+their remains were salted down, he made over them the sign of the
+cross, and they rose up whole and well. The people who witnessed
+this great wonder were struck with astonishment; and the three
+children, who were the sons of a poor widow, were restored to their
+weeping mother."
+
+But what shall we say to an entire new saint of a modern day, who
+has already found his way to Venice, Bologna, and Lombardy,--even
+to Tuscany and Paris, not only in pictures and statues, but even
+in chapels dedicated to her? The reader may be curious to know
+something of a saint of this century. In the year 1802 the skeleton
+of a young female was discovered in some excavations in the catacomb
+of Priscilla at Rome; the remains of an inscription were, "Lumena
+Pax Te Cum Tri." A priest in the train of a Neapolitan prelate, who
+was sent to congratulate Pius VII. on his return from France, begged
+some relics. The newly-discovered treasure was given to him, and the
+inscription thus translated--"Filomena, rest in peace." "Another
+priest, whose name is suppressed _because of his great humility_,
+was favoured by a vision in the broad noonday, in which he beheld
+the glorious virgin Filomena, who was pleased to reveal to him that
+she had suffered death for preferring the Christian faith, and her
+vow of chastity, to the addresses of the emperor, who wished to make
+her his wife. This vision leaving much of her history obscure, a
+certain young artist, whose name is also suppressed--perhaps because
+of his great humility--was informed in a vision that the emperor
+alluded to was Diocletian; and at the same time the torments and
+persecutions suffered by the Christian virgin Filomena, as well as
+her wonderful constancy, were also revealed to him. There were some
+difficulties in the way of the Emperor Diocletian, which inclines
+the writer of the _historical_ account to adopt the opinion that
+the young artist in his vision _may_ have made a mistake, and that
+the emperor may have been his colleague, Maximian. The facts,
+however, now admitted of no doubt; and the relics were carried by
+the priest Francesco da Lucia to Naples; they were inclosed in a
+case of wood, resembling in form the human body. This figure was
+habited in a petticoat of white satin, and over it a crimson tunic,
+after the Greek fashion; the face was painted to represent nature;
+a garland of flowers was placed on the head, and in the hands a
+lily and a javelin--with the point reversed, to express her purity
+and her martyrdom; then she was laid in a half sitting posture in a
+sarcophagus, of which the sides were glass; and after lying for some
+time in state, in the chapel of the Torres family in the Church of
+Saint Angiolo, she was carried in procession to Magnano, a little
+town about twenty miles from Naples, amid the acclamations of the
+people, working many and surprising miracles by the way. Such is
+the legend of St Filomena, and such the authority on which she has
+become, within the last twenty years, one of the most fashionable
+saints in Italy. Jewels to the value of many thousand crowns have
+been offered at her shrine, and solemnly placed round the neck of
+her image, or suspended to her girdle."
+
+We dare not in candour charge the Romanists with being the only
+fabricators or receivers of such goods, remembering our own Saint
+Joanna, and Huntingdon's Autobiography. There are _aurea legenda_ in
+a certain class of our sectarian literature, presenting a large list
+of claimants of very high pretensions to saintship, only waiting for
+power and an established authority to be canonised.
+
+It is not surprising, as the world is--working often in the dark
+places of ignorance--if a few glossy threads of a coarser material,
+and deteriorating quality, be taken up by no wilful mistake, and
+be interwoven into the true golden tissue. Nevertheless the mantle
+may be still beautiful, and fit a Christian to wear and walk in not
+unbecomingly. There are worse things than religious superstition,
+whose badness is of degrees. In the minds of all nations and people
+there is a vacuum for the craving appetite of credulity to fill.
+The great interests of life lie in politics and religion. There
+are bigots in both: but we look upon a little superstition on the
+one point as far safer than upon the other, especially in modern
+times; whereas political bigotry, however often duped, is credulous
+still, and becomes hating and ferocious. We fear even the legends
+are losing their authority in the Roman States, whose history may
+yet have to be filled with far worse tales. A generous, though we
+deem it a mistaken feeling, has induced Mrs Jameson to make what
+we would almost venture to call the only mistake in her volumes:
+the following passage is certainly not in good taste, quite out of
+the intention of her book, and very unfortunately timed--"But Peter
+is certainly the democratical apostle _par excellence_, and his
+representative in our time seems to have awakened to a consciousness
+of this truth, and to have thrown himself--as St Peter would most
+certainly have done, were he living--on the side of the people and
+of freedom." A democratical successor to St Peter! He is, then, the
+first of that character. With him the "side of freedom" seems to
+have been the inside of his prison, and his "side of the people"
+a precipitate flight from contact with them in their liberty--and
+for his tiara the disguise of a valet. We more than pardon Mrs
+Jameson--we love the virtue that gives rise to her error; for it is
+peculiarly the nature of woman to be credulous, and to be deceived.
+We admire, and more than admire, women equally well, whether they
+are right or wrong in politics: these are the business of men,
+for they have to do with the sword, and are out of the tenderer
+impulses of woman. But we are amused when we find grave strong men
+in the same predicament of ill conjectures. We smile as we remember
+a certain dedication "To Pio Nono," which by its simple grandeur
+and magnificent beauty will live _splendide mendax_ to excuse its
+prophetic inaccuracy. It is not wise to foretell events to happen
+whilst we live. Take a "long range," or a studied ambiguity that
+will fit either way. The example of Dr Primrose may be followed
+with advantage, who in every case of domestic doubt and difficulty
+concluded the matter thus--"I wish it may turn out well this day six
+months;" by which, in his simple family, he attained the character
+of a true prophet.
+
+We fear we are losing sight of the "Poetry of Sacred and Legendary
+Art," and gladly turn from the thought of what is to be, to
+those beautiful personified ideas of the past, whether fabulous
+or historical, in which we are ready to take Mrs Jameson as our
+willing and sure guide. The four virgin patronesses and the female
+martyrs are favourite subjects, which she enters into with more
+than her usual spirit and feeling. These two have chiefly engaged
+and fascinated the genius of the painters of the best period, and
+will ever interest the world of taste by their sentiment, as well
+as by their grace of form and beauty, and why not say improved them
+too? The really beautiful is always true. It is not amiss that we
+should be continually reminded, or, as Mrs Jameson better expresses
+it--"It is not a thing to be set aside or forgotten, that generous
+men and meek women, strong in the strength, and elevated by the
+sacrifice of a Redeemer, did suffer, did endure, did triumph for
+the truth's sake; did leave us an example which ought to make our
+hearts glow within us." The memory of Christian heroism should
+never be lost sight of in a Christian country, and we earnestly
+recommend this part of Mrs Jameson's volumes to the attention of our
+painters: they will find not unfrequent instances of fine subjects
+yet untouched, which may sanctify art, and dignify the profession by
+making it the teacher of a purer taste--not that true genius will
+ever lack materials, for materials are but suggestive to an innate
+inventive power. It is curious that the authoress should not yet
+have satisfied our expectation with regard to the legends of the
+Virgin. Whatever the motive of her forbearance, we hope this subject
+will take the lead in the promised third volume, which is to treat
+of the legends of the monastic orders, considered, as she cautiously
+observes, "merely in their connexion with the development of the
+fine arts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."
+
+The numerous pictures in Italy which represent parts of the legends
+of the Virgin render this work incomplete without a full development
+of the subject. If her forbearance arises from a fear that at this
+particular time, when mariolatry is dreaded by a large portion of
+the religious world, we would remind her that the Virgin Mother is
+still "the blessed" of our own church.
+
+It is a question if the list of sainted martyrs in repute has not
+been left to the arbitrament of the painters; for we find many
+deposed, and the adopted favourites of art not found in the early
+list, as represented in their processions. We find a Saint Reparata,
+after having been the patroness saint of Florence for six hundred
+years, deposed, and the city placed under the tutelage of the Virgin
+and St John the Baptist.
+
+Yet these were early times for the influence of art; but, at a
+period when pictures were thought to have a kind of miraculous
+power, it is not improbable that some potent work of art
+representing the Virgin and St John may have caused the new
+devotional dedication--as was the case in modern times, when the
+imaged Madonna de los Dolores was appointed general-in-chief of the
+Carlist army. Painters were what the poets had been--_Vates sacri_.
+Events and the memory of saints may have perished, _Carent quia vate
+sacro_. We wish our own painters were more fully sensible of the
+power of art to perpetuate, and that it is its province to teach.
+With us it has been too long disconnected with our religion. It will
+be a glorious day for art, and for the people that shall witness the
+reunion.
+
+In taking leave of these two fascinating volumes, we do so with
+the less regret, knowing that they will be often in our hands, as
+most valuable for instant reference. No one who wishes to know the
+subjects and feel the sentiment of the finest works in the world,
+will think of going abroad without Mrs Jameson's book. We must again
+thank her for the beautiful woodcuts and etchings; the latter, in
+particular, are lightly and gracefully executed, we presume mostly
+(to speak technically) in dry point. Mrs Jameson writes as an
+enthusiast, her feeling flows from her pen. Her style is fascinating
+to a degree, forcible and graceful; but there is no mistaking its
+character--feminine. We know no other hand that could so happily
+have set forth the _Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art_.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS.
+
+
+  BOSTON, _December 1848_.
+
+THE YEAR OF CONSTITUTIONS is drawing to its end, to be succeeded,
+I doubt not, by the Year of Substitutions. I am sorry, my Basil,
+that you do not quite agree with me as to the issue of all this
+in France; but I am sure you will not dispute my opinion that
+this year's work is good for nothing, so far as it has attempted
+construction, instead of fulfilling its mission by overthrow. Its
+great folly has been the constitution-fever, which has amounted
+to a pestilence. When mushrooms grow to be oaks, then shall such
+constitutions as this year has bred, stand a chance of outliving
+their authors. Will men learn nothing from the past? How can they
+act over such rotten farces,--make themselves such fools!
+
+You admit the difference, which I endeavoured to show you, between
+the American constitution and that of any conceivable constitution
+which may be cooked up for an old European state. I am glad if I
+have directed your attention, accordingly, to the great mistake of
+France. She supposes that a feeble, and debauched old gentleman
+can boil himself in the revolutionary kettle, and emerge in all
+the tender and enviable freshness of the babe just severed from
+the maternal mould. Politicians have committed a blunder in not
+allowing the natural, and hence legitimate, origin of the American
+constitution in that of its British parent. They have thus favoured
+the theory that a tolerably permanent constitution can be drafted _a
+priori_, and imposed upon a state. This is the absurdity that makes
+revolutions. If the silly French, instead of reading De Tocqueville,
+would study each for himself the history of our constitution, and
+see how gradually it grew to be our constitution, before pen was
+put to paper to draft it, they might perhaps stop their abortive
+nonsense in time, to save what they can of their national character
+from the eternal contempt of mankind.
+
+But you cannot think the French will find so fair a destiny as a
+Restoration! Tell me, in what French party, at present existing,
+there is any inherent strength, save in that of the legitimists?
+Other parties are mere factions; but the legitimists have got a
+seminal principle among them, which dies very hard, and of which
+the nature is to sprout and make roots, and then show itself. I am
+no admirer of the Bourbons: their intrigues with Jesuitism have
+been their curse, and are the worst obstacle to their regaining
+a hold on the sympathies of freemen. The reactionary party have
+in vain endeavoured to overcome it for fifty years. Yet there is
+such tenacity of life in legitimacy, that it seems to me destined
+to outlive all opposition, and to succeed by necessity. The rapid
+developments of this memorable year strengthen the probability of
+my prediction. Revolutionism is spasmodic, but not so long in dying
+as it used to be. I cannot but think this year has done more for a
+permanent restoration of the Bourbons than any year since Louis XVI.
+ascended the scaffold. In this respect the Barricades of 1848 may
+tell more impressively on history than the Allies of 1814, or even
+the carnage of Waterloo.
+
+Why should I be ashamed of my theory, when everything, so far, has
+gone as I supposed it would, only a hundred times more rapidly than
+any body could have thought possible? What must be the residue of
+a series which thus far has tended but one way?--what say you of
+the Bartholomew-butchery in June?--what of Lamartine's fall?--what
+of the dictatorship of Cavaignac? If things have gone as seems
+probable, Louis Napoleon is president of the republic. If so, what
+is the instinct which has thus called him into power? The hereditary
+principle is abolished on paper, and instantly recognised by the
+first popular act done under the new constitution! But, for all
+we can tell in America, things may have taken another turn. Is
+Cavaignac elected? Then a military master is put over the republic,
+who can _Cromwellise_ the Assembly, and _Monk_ the state, as
+soon as he chooses. The republic has given itself the form of a
+dictatorship, and demonstrated that it does not exist, except on
+paper. Has there been an insurrection? Then the republic is dead
+already. But I shall assume that Louis has succeeded: then it is
+virtually an hereditary empire. To be sure, instinct has for once
+failed to know "the true prince,"--has accorded, to the mere shadow
+of a usurper, what, in a more substantial form, is due to the heir
+of France; but long-suspended animation must make a mistake or
+two in coming to life again. The events of the year have been all
+favourable to a restoration, because they have crushed a thousand
+other plans and plottings for the sovereignty, and because they must
+have forced upon at least as many theorists the grand practical
+conclusion, that there is to be no rational liberty in France until
+she returns to first principles, and finds the repose which old
+nations can only know under their legitimate kings.
+
+I am ashamed of you for more than hinting that legitimacy must be
+given up, as far as kings are concerned. Alas! Diogenes must light
+his lantern, and hunt through England for a Tory! You are bewhigged,
+indeed, if you give it up that George III. was a legitimate king,
+and that his grand-daughter is to you what no other person alive
+can possibly be,--your true and hereditary sovereign lady! Must I,
+a republican, say this to an English monarchist, who votes himself
+a conservative, and who is the son of a sturdy old English Tory?
+Is there no virtue extant, that even you allow yourself to be
+flippant about "the divinity that hedges kings," and to trifle with
+suggestions which your immortal ancestor, who fell at Prestonpans,
+would have drummed out of doors with poker and tongs? Why, even
+I, who have a right to be whatever I choose, by way of amateur
+allegiance, and who have always found myself a Jacobite whenever
+the talk has been against the White Rose--even I, in sober earnest,
+yield the point, that George I. was a legitimate sovereign, and that
+Charlie was a bit of a rebel. Those stupid Dutchmen! it makes me
+mad to say as much for them; but I love Old England too well to own
+that she bore with such sovereigns on any lower grounds than that of
+their right to reign.
+
+I am sorry you give in to the silly cant of revolutionists, and
+confess yourself posed with their challenge. What if they do insist
+upon a definition? Are you bound to keep your heart from beating
+till you can tell why it throbs over a page of Shakspeare's Richard
+II., and bounces, in precisely an opposite manner, over Carlyle's
+Cromwell? Am I going to let a Whig choke me with a dictionary,
+because it contains no explanation of my good old-fashioned word?
+Let him, with his "Useful Knowledge Society" information, give me
+an explanation of the magnetic needle, or tell me why it turns to
+the pole, and not to the antipodes? The fellow will recollect some
+twopenny picture of the compass, and retail me half a column of the
+Penny Magazine about the mysteries of nature. And what if I talk
+as sensibly from nature in my own heart, and tell the stereotype
+philosopher that I am conscious of an ennobling affection, which
+honest men never lack, and which God Almighty has made a faculty of
+the human soul to dignify subordination; and that loyalty has no
+lode-star but legitimacy? At least, my dear Whigo-Tory, you must
+allow, I should succeed in answering a fool according to his folly.
+But I claim more: I have defined legitimacy when I say it is the
+home of loyalty.
+
+I have amused myself during the summer with some study of the
+history of reaction in France, and flatter myself that I have
+discovered the secret of its failure, and the great distinction
+between its spirit and that of English Conservatism. But this by
+the way; for I was going to say that I have found, in the writings
+of one of the chief of the reactionary party, some very sensible
+hints upon the subject I am discussing with you. Though in many
+respects a dangerous teacher, and, I fear, a little jesuitical in
+practice as well as in theory, I have been surprised to find the
+Count de Maistre willing "to be as _his master_" on this point, and
+to rest legitimacy very nearly on the sober principles of Burke.
+He is far from the extravagances of Sir Robert Filmer, though
+he often expresses, in a startling form, the temperate views of
+English Anti-Jacobins. Thus he says, with evident relish of its
+smart severity, _the people will always accept their masters, and
+will never choose them_. Strongly and unpalatably put, but most
+coincident with history, and not to be disputed by any admirer
+of the glorious Revolution of 1688! I suspect the Frenchman made
+his aphorism without stopping to ask whether it suited any other
+case. But Burke has virtually said the same thing in his reply
+to the Old Jewry doctrine of 1789, in which he so forcibly urges
+the fact, that the settlement of the crown upon William and the
+Georges "was not properly _a choice_, ... but an act of necessity,
+in the strictest moral sense in which necessity can be taken."
+Mary and the Hanoverians, then, were acknowledged by the nation,
+in spite of itself, as legitimate sovereigns; and even William was
+smuggled into the acknowledgment as _quasi_-legitimate. It is the
+clear, reasonable, and truly English doctrine of Burke, that _the
+constitution of a country makes its legitimate kings_; and that the
+princes of the House of Brunswick, coming to the crown according to
+constitutional law, at the date of their respective accessions, were
+as legitimate as King James before he broke his coronation oaths,
+and abdicated, _ipso facto_, his crown and hereditary rights. But
+De Maistre talks more like the schoolmen, though he comes to the
+same practical results. Constitutions, the native growth of their
+respective countries, he would argue, are the ordinance of GOD; and
+kings, though not the subjects of their people, are bound to do
+homage to them, as, in a sense, divine. Legitimacy, therefore, is
+the resultant of hereditary majesty and constitutional designation;
+it being always understood that constitutional laws are never
+written till after they become such by national necessities, which
+are divine providences. Apply this to 1688. The Bill of Rights was
+an unwritten part of the constitution even when James was crowned;
+and so was the principle, that the king must not be a Papist, at
+least in the government of his realms. Such, if I may so speak,
+was the Salic law of England, by which his public and political
+Popery stripped him of his right to the throne. It was the same
+principle that invested the House of Brunswick with a legitimacy
+which the heart of the nation did not hesitate to recognise, in
+spite of unfeigned disgust with the prince in whom the succession
+was established. To throw the proposition into the abstract--there
+can be no legitimacy without hereditary majesty, but that member
+of a royal line is the legitimate king in whom concur all the
+elements of _constitutional designation_. If the phrase be new,
+the idea is as old as empire. I mean that constitutional power
+which, without reference to national choice or personal popularity,
+selects the true heir of the throne, among the descendants of its
+ancient possessors, on fixed principles of national law. Thus,
+in Portugal, the constitution sets aside an idiot heir-apparent
+for a cadet of the same family, or, if need be, for a collateral
+relative; while, in France, it proclaims the line of a king extinct
+in his female heir, and ascends, perhaps, to a remote ancestor for
+a trace of his rightful successor. It is a principle essentially
+the same which, in England, pronounces a Popish prince as devoid
+of hereditary right to the crown, as a bastard, or the child of a
+private marriage; and by which the hereditary blood, shut off from
+its natural course, immediately opens some auxiliary channel, and
+widens it into the main artery of succession, with all the precision
+of similar resources in physical nature. With such an argument, if
+I understand him, the Count de Maistre would put you to the blush
+for sneering _sub rosa_ at the legitimacy of your Sovereign. I wish
+his principles were always as capable of being put to the proof,
+without any absurdity in the reduction. Hereditary majesty is the
+only material of which constitutions make sovereigns; and that, too,
+deserves a word in the light which this sage Piedmontese Mentor of
+France has endeavoured to throw on the subject. It is interesting
+in the present dilemma of France, which stands like the ass between
+two haystacks--rejecting one dynasty, but not yet choosing another.
+I am a republican, you know, holding that my loyalty is due to the
+constitution of my own country; and yet I subscribe to the doctrine
+that this idea of _majesty_ is a reality, and that, confess it
+or not, even republicans feel its reality. _The king's name is a
+tower of strength_; and inspiration has said to sovereign princes,
+with a pregnant and monitory meaning--_ye are gods_. This is not
+the fawning of courts, but the admonition of Him who invests them
+with His sword of avenging justice, and gives them, age after age,
+the natural homage of their fellow-men. Not that I would flatter
+monarchs: I see that they _die like men_, and, what is worse, live,
+very often, like fools, if not like beasts. Yet I am sure that they
+have something about them which is personally theirs, and cannot
+be given to others, and which is as real a thing as any other
+possession. GOD has endowed them with history, and they are the
+living links which connect nations with their origin, and the men of
+the passing age with bygone generations. Reason about it as we may,
+it is impossible not to look with natural reverence on the breathing
+monuments of venerable antiquity. For a Guelph, indeed, I cannot
+get up any false or romantic enthusiasm; and yet I find it quite
+as impossible not to feel that the house of Guelph entitles its
+royal members to a degree of consideration which is the ordinance
+of Heaven. For how many ages has that house been a great reality,
+casting its shadow over Europe, and stretching it over the world,
+and as absolutely affecting the destinies of men as the geographical
+barriers and highways of nations! The Alps and the Oceans are
+morally, as well as naturally, majestic; and a moral majesty like
+theirs attaches to a line of princes which has stood the storms of
+centuries like them, and like them has been always a bulwark or a
+bond between races and generations. Like the solemnity of mountains
+is the hereditary majesty of a family, of which the origin is
+veiled in the twilight of history, but which is always seen above
+the surface of cotemporary events, a crowned and sceptred thing
+that never dies, but perpetuates, from generation to generation, a
+still increasing emotion of sublimity and awe, which all men feel,
+and none can fully understand. There are many women in England who,
+for personal qualities and graces, would as well become the throne
+as she whom you so loyally entitle "Our Sovereign Lady." Why is
+it that no election, nor any imaginable possession of her place,
+could commend the proudest or the best of them to the homage of the
+nation's heart? Such a one might wear the robes, and glitter like
+a star, outshining the regalia, and might walk like Juno; but not
+a voice would cry _God save her!_--while there is a glory, not to
+be mistaken, which invests the daughter of ancient sovereigns, even
+when she is recognised, against her will, in the costume of travel,
+or when she shows herself among her people, and treads the heather
+in a trim little bonnet and a Highland plaid. Why is it that ten
+thousand feel a thrill when her figure is seen descending from the
+wooden walls of her empire, and alighting upon some long unvisited
+portion of its soil? It is not the same emotion which would be
+inspired by the landing of Wellington. Then the roaring of cannon
+and the waving of ensigns would appear to be a tribute rendered to
+the hero by a grateful country; but when her Majesty touches the
+shore, she seems herself to wake the thunders and to bow the banners
+which announce her coming. The pomp is all her own, and differs from
+the tributary pageant, as the nod of Jove is different from the
+acclamation of Stentor. Even I, who "owe her no subscription," can
+well conceive what a true Briton cannot help but feel, when, with
+an ennobling loyalty, he beholds in her the concentrated blood of
+famous kings, and the propagated soul of mighty monarchs; and when
+he calls to mind, at the same moment, the thousand strange events
+and glorious histories which have their august and venerable issue
+in Victoria, his queen.
+
+But you will bring me back to my main business, by asking--who,
+then, was the legitimate king of France at the beginning of this
+year? The King of the Barricades was not lacking in hereditary
+majesty, and you will make out a case of _constitutional
+designation_, by a parallel between England in 1688, and France
+in 1830. If you do so, you will greatly wrong your country. The
+loyalty of England settled in the house of Brunswick, and would have
+been even less tried if there had been a continuance of the house
+of Orange; but no French loyalist could ever be reconciled to the
+dynasty of Orleans. And why? It was not the natural constitution of
+France, but the mere blunder of a mob, that selected Louis Philippe
+as the king of the French. It was an election, as the accession of
+William and Mary was not: it was a choice, and not a necessity--the
+mere caprice of the hour, and in no sense the rational designation
+of law. Did ever his Barricade Majesty himself, in all his dreams of
+a dynasty, pretend that any unalterable principle, or fundamental
+law of France, had turned the tide of succession from the
+heir-presumptive of Charles X., and forced heralds upon the backward
+trail of genealogy, till they could again descend, and so find the
+hereditary king of the French in the son of Egalite? Louis Philippe
+was not legitimate, in any reasonable sense of the word; and,
+could he have made such men as Chateaubriand regard him as other
+than a usurper, he would not be at Claremont now. That splendid
+Frenchman uttered the voice of a smothered, but not extinguished,
+constitution, when he closed his political life in 1830, by saying
+to the Duchess de Berry--"_Madame, votre fils est mon roi._" He
+lived to see the secret heart of thousands of his countrymen
+repeating his memorable words, and died not till Providence itself
+had overturned the rival throne, and directed every eye in hope, or
+in alarm, to the only prince in Europe who could claim to be their
+king.
+
+I care very little what may be the personal qualifications of Henry
+of Bordeaux; it seems to me that he is destined to reign upon the
+throne of his ancestors--and God grant he may do it in such wise as
+shall make amends for all that France has suffered, by reason of
+his ancestors, since France had a Henry for her king before! The
+prestige of sovereignty is his; and while he lives, no republic can
+be lasting; no government, save his, can insure the peace which
+the state of Europe so imperatively demands. If "experience has
+taught England that in no other course or method than that of an
+hereditary crown her liberties can be regularly perpetuated and
+preserved sacred,"[12]--why should not an experience, a thousandfold
+severer, teach France the same lesson? It has already been taught
+them by a genius which France cannot despise, and to whose oracular
+voice she is now forced to listen, because it issues from his fresh
+grave! "Legitimacy is the very life of France. Invent, calculate,
+combine all sorts of illegitimate governments, you will find nothing
+else possible as the result, nothing which gives any promise of
+duration, of tolerable existence during a course of years, or even
+through several months. Legitimacy is, in Europe, the sanctuary in
+which alone reposes that sovereignty by which states subsist." So
+I endeavour to render the eloquent sentence of Chateaubriand;[13]
+and though, since he wrote it, a score of years have passed, it is
+stronger now than ever--for what was then his prophecy is already
+the deplorable history of his country. Had ever a country such a
+history, without learning more in a year than France has gained from
+a miserable half-century?
+
+  [12] BURKE.
+
+  [13] _Memoires sur le Duc de Berry._
+
+Just so long as France has been busy with experiments, in the insane
+effort to separate her future from her past, just so long have
+all her labours to lay a new foundation been miserable failures,
+covering her, in the eyes of the world, with shame and infamy. What
+has been wanting all the time? I grant that the first want has
+been a national conscience--a sense of religion and of duty. But I
+mean, what has been wanting to the successive administrations and
+governments? Certainly not splendour and personal dignity, for the
+Imperial government had both; and the King of the Barricades made
+himself to be acknowledged and feared as one who bore not the sword
+in vain. But the prestige of legitimacy was wanting; and that want
+has been the downfall of everything that has been tried. You will
+ask, what was the downfall of Charles X? The answer is, that it was
+not a downfall further than concerned himself; for everybody feels
+that the Bourbon claim survives, while every other has been forced
+to yield to destiny and retribution. How is it that legitimacy
+makes itself felt after years of exile and obscurity? Is it not
+that instinct of loyalty which cannot be duped or diverted, and
+which detects and detests all shams? Is it not the instinct which
+constitution-makers have endeavoured to appease by pageants and by
+names, but which has continually revolted against the emptiness of
+both? The existence of that instinct has been perpetually exposed
+by miserable attempts to satisfy its demands with outside show and
+splendid impositions. The French cannot even go to work, under their
+present republic, as we do in America. The common-sense of our
+people teaches them that a republican government is a mere matter
+of business, which must make no pretences to splendour; and hence,
+the constitution once settled, the president is elected and sworn-in
+with no nonsense or parade; and Mr Cincinnatus Polk sits down in the
+White House, and sends every man about his business. A young country
+has as yet but the instincts of infancy; there is as yet nothing to
+satisfy but the craving for nourishment, and the demand for large
+room. But it is not so where nations are full-grown. _Can a maid
+forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?_ Can France forget
+that she had once a court and a throne that dazzled the world? No!
+says every craftsman of the revolution; and therefore our republic,
+too, must be splendid and imperial! So, instead of going to work as
+if their new constitution were a reality, there must be a fete of
+inauguration. In the same conviction, Napoleon is nominated for the
+presidency, because he has a name; and he immediately withdraws from
+vulgar eyes, to keep his "presence like a robe pontifical," against
+the investiture. Oh, for some Yankee farmer to look on and laugh! It
+would not take him long to _calculate_ the end of such a republic.
+Jonathan can understand a queen, and would stare at a coronation
+in sober earnest, convinced that it had a meaning--at least, in
+England! But a republic of kettle-drums and trumpets will never do
+with him; and if he were favoured with an interview with the pompous
+aspirant to the French presidency, it would probably end in his
+telling Louis Napoleon the homely truth--that he has nothing to be
+proud of, and had better eat and drink like other folk, and "define
+his position" as a candidate, if he don't want to find himself
+_used-up_, and sent on a long voyage up Salt River; which, you may
+not know, my Basil, is a Stygian stream, and the ancients called
+it Lethe. So much, then, for the _ultima ratio_ of illegitimate
+governments--the attempt to satisfy the demand for national dignity
+by pageants and by names, and to drown the outcries of natural
+discontent by the sounding of brass and the tinkling of cymbals.
+
+In vain did the sage Piedmontese foretell it all, like a Cassandra.
+"Man is prohibited," said that admirable Mentor, "from giving
+great names to things of which he is the author, and which he
+thinks great; but if he has proceeded legitimately, the vulgar
+names of things will be rendered illustrious, and become grand."
+How specially does England answer to the latter half of this
+maxim! and who can read the former without seeing France, in her
+fool's-cap, before his mental eye? De Maistre himself has instanced
+the revolutionary follies of Paris, and lashed them with unsparing
+severity. Whatever is national in England seems to have grown up,
+like her oaks, from deep and strong roots, and to stand, like them,
+immovable, They make their own associations, and dignify their own
+names. Everything is home-born, natural, and real. The Garter, the
+Wool-sack, Hyde Park, Epsom and Ascot--these things in France would
+be the _Legion of Honour_, the _Curule-chair_, the _Elysian fields_,
+the _Olympic games_! The veritable attempt was made to reinstitute,
+in the Champ-de-Mars, the sports of antiquity; and they received
+the pompous name of _Les jeux Olympiques_. De Maistre ridicules
+their nothingness, and adds that, when he saw a building erected
+and called the _Odeon_, he was sure that music was in its decline,
+and that the place would shortly be to let. In like manner, he says
+of the motto of Rousseau, with intense _naivete_, "Does any man
+dare to write under his own portrait, _vitam impendere vero_? You
+may wager, without further information, fearlessly, that it is the
+likeness of a liar." How quick the human heart perceives what is
+thus put into words by a philosopher! It is in vain for France to
+think of covering her nakedness with a showy veil. The Empire was a
+glittering gauze, but how transparent! They saw one called Emperor
+and a second Charlemagne; and the Pope himself was there to give
+him a crown. But it was a meagre cheat. Poor Josephine never looked
+ridiculous before, but then she acted nonsense. The imperial robes
+were gorgeous, but they meant nothing on the Citizen Buonaparte.
+Everybody saw behind the scenes. They detected Talma in the strut of
+Napoleon; they pointed at the wires that moved the hands and eyes of
+the Pope. All stage-effect, machinery, and pasteboard. The imperial
+court was all what children call _make-believe_: it vanished like
+the sport of children.
+
+The great feast of fraternity, last spring, was, on de Maistre's
+principles, the natural harbinger of that fraternal massacre in
+June; and the ineffectual attempt to be festive over the late
+inauguration of the constitution, has but one redeeming feature
+to prevent a corresponding augury of disaster. Its miserable
+failure makes it possible that the constitution will survive its
+anniversary. Then there will be a demonstration, at any rate, and
+then the thing will be superannuated. Since 1790, there has been
+no end to such glorifications; each chased and huzza'd, in turn,
+by a nation of full-grown children, and all hollow and transient
+as bubbles. Perpetual beginnings, every one warranted to be _no
+failure this time_, and each going out in a stench. What continual
+_Champs-de-Mars_ and _Champs-de-Mai_! what wavings of new flags, and
+scattering of fresh flowers! and all ending in confessed failure,
+and beginning the same thing over again! "Nothing great has great
+beginnings"--says Mentor again. "History shows no exception to this
+rule. _Crescit occulto velut arbor aevo_,--this is the immortal
+device of every great institution."
+
+Legitimacy never makes such mistakes, except when permitted by GOD,
+to accomplish its own temporary abasement. It needs not to support
+itself by tricks and shams. It has a creative power which dignifies
+everything it touches; which often turns its own occasions into
+festivals, but makes no festivals on purpose to dignify itself. When
+Henry V. is crowned at Rheims, or at Notre-Dame, he will not send
+over the Alps for _Pio Nono_, nor consult _Savans_ to learn how
+Caesar should be attired that day. That youth may safely dispense
+with all superfluous pageantry, for he is not _new Charlemagne_,
+but _old Charlemagne_. The blood of the Carlovingians has come down
+to him from Isabella of Hainault, through St Louis and Henry IV.
+Chateaubriand should not have forgotten this, when (speaking of this
+prince's unfortunate father, the Duke de Berry) he enthusiastically
+sketched a thousand years of Capetian glory, and cried--"_He bien!
+la revolution a livre tout cela au couteau de Louvel_." Another
+revolution has thus far relegated the same substantial dignity to
+exile and obscurity, as if France could afford to lose its past, and
+begin again, as an infant of days. But besides the evident tendency
+of things to reaction, there is something about the legitimate
+king of France which looks like destiny. He was announced to the
+kingdom by the dying lips of his murdered sire, while yet unborn, as
+if the fate of empire depended on his birth. "_Menagez-vous, pour
+l'enfant que vous portez dans votre sein_," said the unhappy man to
+his duchess, and the group of bystanders was startled! It was the
+first that France heard of Henry the Fifth, and it seemed to inspire
+Chateaubriand with the spirit of prophecy, and he eloquently remarks
+upon it as a _derniere esperance_. "The dying prince," he says,
+"seemed to bear with him a whole monarchy, and at the same moment to
+announce another. Oh GOD! and is our salvation to spring out of our
+ruin? Has the cruel death of a son of France been ordained in anger,
+or in mercy? is it _a final restoration of the legitimate throne,
+or the downfall of the empire of Clovis_?" This grand question now
+hangs in suspense: but, as I said, Chateaubriand must have taken
+courage before he died, and inwardly answered it favourably. That
+great writer seems to have felt beforehand, for his countrymen,
+the loyalty to which they will probably return. To the prince he
+stood as a sort of sponsor for the future. When the royal babe was
+baptised, he presented water from the Jordan, in which the last hope
+of legitimacy received the name of _Dieu-donne_: when Charles the
+Tenth was dethroned, he stood up for the young king, and consented
+to fall with his exclusion; and the last years of France's greatest
+genius were a consistent confessorship for that legitimacy with
+which he believed the prosperity of his country indissolubly bound.
+Now, I should like to ask a French republican--if I could find
+a sane one,--what would you wish to do with Henry of Bordeaux?
+Would you wish this heir of your old histories to renounce his
+birth-right, declare legitimacy an imposition, and undertake to
+settle down in Paris as one of the people? Why not, if you are all
+republicans, and see no more in a prince than in a _gamin_? Why
+should not this Henry Capet throw up his cap for the constitution,
+and stick up a tradesman's sign in the Place de la Revolution, as
+"Henry Capet, _parfumeur_?" Why not let him hire a shop in the lower
+stories of the Palais Royal and teach the Parisians better manners
+than to cut off his head, by devoting himself to shaving their
+beards? Everybody knows the reason why not; and that reason shows
+the reality of legitimacy. Night and day such a shop would be mobbed
+by friends and foes alike. Go where he might, the _parfumeur_ would
+be pointed at by fingers, and aimed at by _lorgnettes_, and bored to
+death by a rabble of starers, who would insist upon it that he was
+the hereditary lord of France. Mankind cannot free themselves from
+such impressions, and, what is more conclusive, princes cannot free
+themselves from the impressions of mankind, or undertake to live
+like other men, as if history and genealogy were not facts. For weal
+or for woe, they are as unchangeable as the leopard with his spots.
+Let Henry Capet come to America, and try to be a republican with us.
+Our very wild-cats would assert their inalienable right to "look at
+a king," and he would certainly be torn to pieces by good-natured
+curiosity.
+
+It is curious to see the natural instinct amusing itself, for
+the present, with such a mere _nominis umbra_ as Louis Napoleon.
+In some way or other the hereditary _prestige_ must be created;
+nothing less is satisfactory, and the "imperial fetishism" will
+answer very well till something more substantial is found necessary.
+Richard Cromwell was necessary to Charles II., and so is Louis
+Napoleon to Henry V. Napoleon still seems capable of giving France
+a dynasty; this possibility will be soon extinguished by the
+incapability of his representative. Louis will reign long enough
+to exhibit that recompense to Josephine, in the person of her
+grandson, which heaven delights to allot to a repudiated wife; and
+then, for his own sake, he will be called _coquin_ and _poltron_.
+Napoleon will take his historical position as an individual, having
+no remaining hold on France; and the imperial fetishism will be
+ignominiously extinguished. Richard Cromwell made a very decent old
+English gentleman, and Louis Napoleon may perhaps end his days as
+respectably, in some out-of-the-way corner of Corsica. Let me again
+quote the French Mentor. He says, "There never has existed a royal
+family to whom a plebeian origin could be assigned. Men may say, if
+Richard Cromwell had possessed the genius of his father, he would
+have fixed the protectorate in his family; which is precisely the
+same thing as to say--if this family had not ceased to reign, it
+would reign still." Here is the formula that will suit the case of
+Louis Napoleon; but future historians will moralise upon the manner
+in which Napoleon himself worked out his own destruction. For the
+sake of a dynasty, he puts away poor Josephine. The King of Rome is
+born to him, but his throne is taken. The royal youth perishes in
+early manhood, and men find Napoleon's only representative in the
+issue of the repudiated wife. Her grandson comes to power, and holds
+it long enough to make men say--how much better it might have been
+with Napoleon had he kept his faith to Josephine, and contentedly
+taken as his heir the child in whom Providence has revealed at last
+his only chance of continuing his family on a throne! It makes one
+thing of Scripture, "Yet ye say wherefore? because the Lord hath
+been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom
+thou hast dealt treacherously; ... therefore take heed to your
+spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his
+youth, for the Lord, the GOD of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
+away."
+
+A traveller from the south of France says that he saw everywhere
+the portrait of Henry V. Besides the mysterious hold which
+legitimacy keeps upon the vulgar and the polite alike, there are
+associations with it which operate on all classes of men. Tradesmen
+and manufacturers are for legitimacy, because they love peace, and
+want to make money. The _roturiers_ sooner or later learn the misery
+of mobs, and the love of change makes them willing to welcome home
+the king, especially as they mistake their own hearts, and flatter
+themselves that their sudden loyalty is proof of remaining virtue.
+Then the profligate and abandoned, they want a monarchy, in hopes of
+another riot in the palace. It may be doubted whether the _blouses_
+can be permanently contented without a king to curse. The national
+anthem cannot be sung with any spirit, unless there be a monarch
+who can be imagined to hear all its imprecations against tyrants:
+in fact, the king must come back, if only to make sense of the
+Marseilles Hymn.
+
+    Que veut cette horde d'esclaves,
+      De traitres, de rois conjures?
+    Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,
+      Ces fers, des long-tems prepares?
+
+What imaginable sense is there in singing these red-hot verses
+at a feast of fraternity, and in honour of the full possession
+of absolute liberty? Then, where is the sport of clubs, and the
+excitement of conspiracies, if there's no king to execrate within
+locked doors? Is Paris to have no more of those nice little
+_emeutes_? What's to be done with the genius that delights in
+infernal machines? Who's to be fired at in a glass coach? Everybody
+knows that Cavaignacs and Lamartines are small game for such sport.
+Your true assassin must have, at least, a duke of the blood. These
+are considerations which must have their weight in deciding upon
+probabilities; though, for one, I am not sure but France is doomed,
+by retributive justice, to be thus the Tantalus of nations, steeped
+to the neck in liberty, but forbidden to drink, with kings hanging
+over them to provoke the eye, and yet escaping the hand.
+
+In 1796 de Maistre published his _Considerations sur la France_.
+They deserve to be reproduced for the present age. Nothing can
+surpass the cool contempt of the philosophical _reactionnaire_,
+or the confidence with which, from his knowledge of the past, he
+pronounces oracles for the future. Do you ask how Henry V. is to
+recover his rights? In ten thousand imaginable ways. See what
+Cavaignac might have done last July, had the time been ripe for
+another Monk! There's but one way to keep legitimacy out; it comes
+in as water enters a leaky ship, oozing through seams, and gushing
+through cracks, where nobody dreamed of such a thing. As long as
+even a tolerable pretender survives, a popular government must be
+kept in perpetual alarm. But you shall hear the Count, my Basil! Let
+me give you a free translation.
+
+"In speculating about counter-revolutions, we often fall into the
+mistake of taking it for granted that such reactions can only be the
+result of popular deliberation. _The people won't allow it_, it is
+said; _they will never consent; it is against the popular feeling_.
+Ah! is it possible? The people just go for nothing in such affairs;
+at most they are a passive instrument. Four or five persons may give
+France a king. It shall be announced to the provinces that the king
+is restored: up go their hats, and _vive le roi_! Even in Paris,
+the inhabitants, save a score or so, shall know nothing of it till
+they wake up some morning and learn that they have a king. '_Est-il
+possible?_' will be the cry: '_how very singular! What street will
+he pass through? Let's engage a window in good time, there'll be
+such a horrid crowd!_' I tell you the people will have nothing more
+to do with re-establishing the monarchy, than they have had in
+establishing the revolutionary government!... At the first blush
+one would say, undoubtedly, that the previous consent of the French
+is necessary to the restoration; but nothing is more absurd. Come,
+we'll crop theory, and imagine certain facts.
+
+"A courier passes through Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyons, and so _en
+route_, telling everybody that the king is proclaimed at Paris; that
+a certain party has seized the reins, and has declared that it holds
+the government only in the king's name, having despatched an express
+for his majesty, who is expected every minute, and that every one
+mounts the white cockade. Rumour catches up the story, and adds
+a thousand imposing details. What next? To give the republic the
+fairest chance, let us suppose it to have the favour of a majority,
+and to be defended by republican troops. At first these troops shall
+bluster very loudly; but dinner-time will come; the fellows must
+eat, and away goes their fidelity to a cause that no longer promises
+rations, to say nothing of pay. Then your discontented captains
+and lieutenants, knowing that they have nothing to lose, begin to
+consider how easily they can make something of themselves, by being
+the first to set up _Vive-le-roi_! Each one begins to draw his own
+portrait, most bewitchingly coloured; looking down in scorn on the
+republican officers who so lately knocked him about with contempt;
+his breast blazing with decorations, and his name displayed as that
+of an officer of His Most Christian Majesty! Ideas so single and
+natural will work in the brains of such a class of persons: they
+all think them over; every one knows what his neighbour thinks, and
+they all eye one another suspiciously. Fear and distrust follow
+first, and then jealousy and coolness. The common soldier, no
+longer inspired by his commander, is still more discouraged; and,
+as if by witchcraft, the bonds of discipline all at once receive
+an incomprehensible blow, and are instantly dissolved. One begins
+to hope for the speedy arrival of his majesty's paymaster; another
+takes the favourable opportunity to desert and see his wife. There's
+no head, no tail, and no more any such thing as trying to hold
+together.
+
+"The affair takes another turn with the populace. They push about
+hither and thither, knocking one another out of breath, and asking
+all sorts of questions; no one knows what he wants; hours are
+wasted in hesitation, and every minute does the business. Daring
+is everywhere confronted by caution; the old man lacks decision,
+the lad spoils all by indiscretion; and the case stands thus,--one
+may get into trouble by resisting, but he that keeps quiet may be
+rewarded, and will certainly get off without damage. As for making
+a demonstration--where is the means? Who are the leaders? Whom can
+ye trust? There's no danger in keeping still; the least motion may
+get one into trouble. Next day comes news--_such a town has opened
+its gates_. Another inducement to hold back! Soon this news turns
+out to be a lie; but it has been believed long enough to determine
+two other towns, who, supposing that they only follow such example,
+present themselves at the gates of the first town to offer their
+submission. This town had never dreamed of such a thing; but, seeing
+such an example, resolves to fall in with it. Soon it flies about
+that Monsieur the mayor has presented to his majesty the keys of
+his good city of _Quelquechose_, and was the first officer who had
+the honour to receive him within a garrison of his kingdom. His
+Majesty--of course--made him a marshal of France on the spot. Oh!
+enviable brevet! an immortal name, and a scutcheon everlastingly
+blooming with _fleurs-de-lis_! The royalist tide fills up every
+moment, and soon carries all before it. _Vive-le-roi!_ shouts out
+long-smothered loyalty, overwhelmed with transports: _Vive-le-roi!_
+chokes out hypocritical democracy, frantic with terror. No matter!
+there's but one cry; and his Majesty is crowned, and _has all the
+royal makings of a king_. This is the way counter-revolutions
+come about. God having reserved to himself the formation of
+sovereignties, lets us learn the fact, from observing that He never
+commits to the multitude the choice of its masters. He only employs
+them, in those grand movements which decide the fate of empires,
+as passive instruments. Never do they get what they want: they
+always take; they never choose. There is, if one may so speak, an
+_artifice_ of Providence, by which the means which a people take to
+gain a certain object, are precisely those which Providence employs
+to put it from them. Thus, thinking to abase the aristocracy by
+hurrahing for Caesar, the Romans got themselves masters. It is just
+so with all popular insurrections. In the French revolution the
+people have been perpetually handcuffed, outraged, betrayed, and
+torn to pieces by factions; and factions themselves, at the mercy of
+each other, have only risen to take their turn in being dashed to
+atoms. To know in what the revolution will probably end, find first
+in what points all the revolutionary factions are agreed. Do they
+unite in hating Christianity and monarchy? Very well! The end will
+be, that both will be the more firmly established in the earth."
+
+Cool, certainly; is it not, my Basil? The legitimists are the only
+Frenchmen who can keep cool, and bide their time. Chateaubriand
+has observed, in the same spirit, that there is a hidden power
+which often makes war with powers that are visible, and that a
+secret government was always following close upon the heels of the
+public governments that succeeded each other between the murder of
+Louis XVI. and the restoration of the Bourbons. This hidden power
+he calls the eternal reason of things; the justice of GOD, which
+interferes in human affairs just in proportion as men endeavour to
+banish and drive it from them. It is evident that the whole force
+of de Maistre's prophecy was owing to his religious confidence
+in this divine interference. He wrote in 1796. That year the
+career of Napoleon began at Montenotte; and, for eighteen years
+succeeding, every day seemed to make it less and less probable
+that his predictions could be verified. The Bourbon star was lost
+in the sun of Austerlitz. The Republic itself was forgotten; the
+Pope inaugurated the Empire; Austria gave him a princess, to be the
+mould of a dynasty, and the source of a new legitimacy. France was
+peopled with a generation that never knew the Bourbons, and which
+was dazzled with the genius of Napoleon, and the splendour of his
+imperial government. But the time came for this _puissance occulte,
+cette justice du ciel_! When the Allies entered Paris in 1814, it
+was suggested to Napoleon that the Bourbons would be restored; and,
+with all his sagacity, he made the very mistake which de Maistre had
+foreshown, and said, in almost his very words--"Never! nine-tenths
+of the people are irreconcilably against it!" One can almost hear
+what might have been the Count's reply--"_Quelle pitie! le peuple
+n'est pour rien dans les revolutions. Quatre ou cinq personnes,
+peut-etre, donneront un roi a la France._" What could Talleyrand
+tell about that? The facts were, that in four days the Bourbons
+were all the rage! The Place Vendome could hardly hold the mob that
+raved about Napoleon's statue; and, with ropes and pulleys, they
+were straining every sinew to drag it to the ground, when it was
+taken under the protection of Alexander![14] What next? In terror
+for his very life, this Napoleon flies to Frejus, now sneaking out
+of a back-window, and now riding post, as a common courier, actually
+saving himself by wearing the white cockade over his raging breast,
+and all the time cursing his dear French to Tartarus! A British
+vessel gives him his only asylum, and the salute he receives from
+a generous enemy is all that reminds him what he once had been
+in France. Meantime these detested Bourbons are welcomed home
+again, with De Maistre's own varieties of _Vive-le-roi_! The Duke
+d'Angouleme, advancing to the capital, sees the silver lilies
+dancing above the spires of Bordeaux: the Count d'Artois hails the
+same tokens at Nancy: not captains and lieutenants, but generals
+and marshals, rush to receive His Most Christian Majesty; and the
+successor of the butchered Louis XVI. comes to his palace, after an
+exile of twenty years, with the title of Louis the Desired! Nor are
+subsequent events anything more than the swinging of a pendulum,
+which must eventually subside into a plummet. If the first disaster
+of Napoleon, in the fulness of his strength, could make France
+welcome her legitimacy in 1814, why should not the imbecility of
+the mere shadow of his name produce a stronger revulsion before
+this century gains its meridian? There is a residuary fulfilment
+of de Maistre's augury, which remains to the Bourbons, when all of
+Napoleon that survives has found its ignominious extinction. Then
+will the ripe fruit fall into the lap of one who, if he is wise,
+will make the French forget his kindred with the fourteenth and
+fifteenth Louises, and remember only that Henry of Bordeaux has
+before him the example of Henry of Navarre.
+
+  [14] ALISON.
+
+There is, indeed, another conceivable end. _C'est l'arret que le
+ciel prononce enfin contre les peuples sans jugement, et rebelles
+a l'experience._[15] If France does not soon come back to reason,
+we shall be forced to think her given up of GOD, to become such
+a country as Germany, or perhaps as miserable as Spain. But we
+must not be too hasty in coming to conclusions so deplorable. Let
+the republic have its day. It will work its own cure; for the
+chastisement of France must be the curse of ancient Judah. "The
+people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and everyone by
+his neighbour; the child shall behave himself proudly against the
+ancient, and the base against the honourable." For the mob of Paris,
+who got drunk with riot, and must grow sober with headache; for the
+blousemen and the boys who have pulled a house upon their head,
+and now maul each other in painful efforts to get from under the
+ruins; and for the miserable _philosophes_ who see, in the charming
+state of their country, the fruit of their own atheistic theories;
+for all these it is but retribution. They needed government; they
+resolved on license: GOD has sent them despotism in its worst form.
+One pities Paris, but feels that it is just. My emotions are very
+different when I think of what were once "the pleasant villages
+of France." Miserable _campagnards_! There are thousands of them,
+besides the poor souls starving in provincial towns, who curse
+the republic in their hearts; and, from Normandy to Provence and
+Languedoc, there are millions of such Frenchmen, who care nothing
+for dynasties, or fraternities, or democracy, but only pray the
+good Lord to give peace in their time, that they may sit under
+their own vine, and earn and eat their daily bread. For them--may
+GOD pity them!--what a life Dame Paris leads them! If, with the
+simplicity of rustics, they were for a moment disposed to be merry
+last February--when they heard that thereafter loaves and fishes
+were to fling themselves upon every table, for the mere pleasure of
+being devoured--how bitterly the simpletons are undeceived! Their
+present notions of fraternity and equality they get from hunger
+and from rags. It is not now in France as in the days of Henry
+IV., when every peasant had a pullet in the pot for his Sunday
+dinner. That was despotism. It is liberty now--liberty to starve.
+There is no more oppression, for the very looms refuse to work, and
+water-wheels stand still; and the vines go gadding and unpruned,
+and the grape disdains to be trampled in the wine-vat. Yes--and the
+old _paysan_ and his sprightly dame, who used to drive dull care
+away in the sunshine--she, with her shaking foot and head, and he
+with his fiddle and his bow, they have liberty to the full; for
+their seven sons, who were earning food for them in the sweat of
+their brow, have come home to the old cabin, ragged and unpaid; and
+they lounge about in hungry idleness, longing for war, but only
+because war would provide them with a biscuit or a bullet. What
+care they for glory, or for constitutions? They ask for bread, and
+their teeth are ground with gravel-stones. Let England look and
+learn. If she has troubles, let her see how easily troubles may be
+invested at compound interest, with the certainty of dividends for
+years to come. Is hard thrift in a kingdom so bad as starvation
+in a democracy? And whether is it better to wear out honestly, in
+this work-day world, as good and quiet subjects; or to be thrust
+out of it, kicking and cursing, behind a barricade of cabs and
+paving-stones, in the name of equality? These are the common-sense
+questions, that every English labourer should be made to feel and
+answer.
+
+  [15] CHATEAUBRIAND.
+
+It provokes me, Basil, that my letter may be superannuated while
+it is travelling in the steamer! The changes of democracy are more
+frequent than the revolutions of a paddle-wheel. Adieu. Yours,
+
+  ERNEST.
+
+
+
+
+DALMATIA AND MONTENEGRO.
+
+     _Dalmatia and Montenegro._ By Sir J. GARDNER WILKINSON. London:
+     Murray.
+
+
+It is really astonishing that our want of information respecting
+Dalmatia, and its neighbourhood, has not long ago been supplied. It
+is by no means easy, now-a-days, to hit upon a line of country that
+may afford subject-matter for acceptable illustration. Travellers
+are so numerous, and authorship is so generally affected, that the
+best part of Europe has been described over and over again. You may
+get from Mr Murray a handbook for almost any place you will. Manners
+and customs, roads, inns, things to be suffered, and notabilities
+to be visited--in short, all the probable contingencies of travel
+between this and the Vistula, are already noted and set down. We
+take it upon ourselves to say, that it is one of the most difficult
+things in life to realise the sense of desolation and unwontedness
+that are poetic characteristics of the traveller. How can a man feel
+himself strange to any place where he is so thoroughly up to usages
+that no _locandiere_ can cheat him to the amount of a _zwanziger_?
+And, thanks to the books written, it is a man's own fault if he
+wend almost anywhither except thus +mustes genomenos+.
+
+In truth, European travelling is pretty nearly reduced to the work
+of verification. Events are according to prescription; and there
+remains very little room for the play of an exploring spirit. The
+grand thing to be explored is a matter pysychological rather than
+material; it is to prove experimentally what are the emotions that
+a generous mind experiences, when vividly acted upon by association
+with the world of past existences. Beyond doubt, this is the highest
+range of intellectual enjoyment; and to its province may be referred
+much that at first sight would appear to be heterogeneous, as, for
+instance, delights purely scientific. But at any rate, we must all
+agree that the main privilege of a traveller is, that he is enabled
+to test the force of this power of association. It is an enjoyment
+to be known only by experiment. No power of description can give a
+man to understand what is the sensation of gazing on the Acropolis,
+or of standing within +Hagia Sophia+. It is as another sense, called
+into existence by the occasion of exercise.
+
+To any but the uncommonly well read, there has hitherto been meagre
+entertainment in travelling among the Slavonian borderers on the
+Adriatic. It has been impossible to realise on their subject these
+high pleasures of association, because so little has been known of
+the facts of their history; rather should we perhaps say, that,
+of what has been known, so little has been generally accessible.
+But we are happy to find that the right sort o' "chiel has been
+amang them, takin' notes." The way is now open; and henceforth it
+will be easy to follow with profit. The book which Sir Gardner
+Wilkinson has given us seems to be exactly the thing which was
+wanted; and certainly the use of it will enable a man to travel
+in Dalmatia as a rational creature should. No mere dotter down of
+events could have passed through the course of this country without
+producing a document of considerable value. The widespread family
+of which its inhabitants are a branch have been intimately mixed up
+with the history of the Empire and of Christendom; and now again
+we behold them playing a conspicuous part in European politics.
+Modern Panslavism deepens the interest to be felt in this family,
+and quickens the anxiety to know what they are doing and thinking
+now, as well as what they have done in days of old. In the present
+volumes we have, besides the memoranda of things existing, a
+compendium of Slavonian history and antiquities, and an exhibition
+of the degree in which the race have been mixed up with European
+history. Besides this, an account is given of their more domestic
+traditions, of which monuments survive; and it must be a man's own
+fault if, having this book with him, he miss extracting the utmost
+of profit from a visit to the country.
+
+In one way, we can surely prophesy that this book will prove the
+means of bringing to us increase of lore from out of that land of
+which it treats. It will naturally be taken on board every yacht
+that, when next summer shall open skies and seas, may find its
+way into the Mediterranean. Among these birds of passage, it can
+scarcely be but that some one will shape its course for this land of
+adventure, thus, as it were, newly laid open. It is a little, a very
+little out of the direct track, in which these summer craft are apt
+to be found, plentiful as butterflies. They may rest assured that in
+no place, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pharos of Alexandria,
+can they hope to find such provision of entertainment. The stories
+they may thence bring will really be worth something--a value much
+higher than we can vote ascribable to much that we hear of the
+well-frequented shores of the French lake.
+
+We prophesy, also, that an inspiriting effect will be produced
+on men better qualified even than the yachtsmen for the work of
+travel--we mean on the gallant officers who garrison the island of
+Corfu. They occupy a station so exactly calculated to facilitate
+excursions in the desirable direction, that it will be too bad if
+some of them do not start this very next spring. We do not recommend
+the Adriatic in winter time, and so give them a few months' grace,
+just to keep clear of the Bora. Let them, as soon as possible after
+the equinox, avail themselves of one of those gaps which will be
+occurring in the best-regulated garrison life. Times will come round
+when duty makes no exaction, and when the indigenous resources of
+the island afford no amusement. Should such occasion have place out
+of the shooting months--or when, haply, some row with the Albanians
+has placed Butrinto under interdict--woful are the straits to which
+our ardent young fellow-countrymen are reduced. A ride to the
+Garoona pass, or a lounge into Carabots; or, to come to the worst,
+an hour or two's _flane_ round old Schulenberg's statue, are well in
+their way, but cannot please for ever. All these things considered,
+it is, we say, but likely that we shall reap some substantial
+benefit from the leisure of our military friends, so soon as their
+literary researches shall have carried them into the enjoyment of
+this book. Dalmatia is almost before their very eyes. If hitherto
+they have not drifted thither, under the combined influences of a
+long leave and an uncertain purpose, it is because they have not
+been in a condition to prosecute researches. We must not blame them
+for their past neglect, any more than we blame the idleness of him
+who lacks the implements of work. Give a man tools, and then, if he
+work not, _monstrare digito_. Henceforth they must be regarded as
+thoroughly equipped, and without excuse. Let us hope that some two
+or three may be roused to action on the very next opportunity--that
+is to say, on the very next occasion of leave. Let us hope that,
+instead of sloping away to Paxo, or Santa Maura, they may shape
+their course through the North Channel, and begin, if they please,
+by exploring the Bocca di Cattaro.
+
+Sir Gardner speaks of difficulties and vexatious delays interposed
+between the traveller and his purpose by the Austrian authorities.
+These scrutineers of passports seem to grow worse; and with them
+bad has long been the best. We used to think that the palm of
+pettifogging was fairly due to the officials of his Hellenic
+majesty. It was bad enough, we always thought, to be kept waiting
+and watching for a license to move from the Piraeus to Lutraki, by
+steam; but we confess that Sir Gardner makes out a case, or rather
+several cases, that beat our experience hollow. We should like
+to commit the passport system to the verdict to be pronounced by
+common-sense after perusal of the two or three pages he has written
+on this subject. But common-sense must be far from us, or the mob
+would not be raving for liberty while still tolerant of passports.
+
+There is another point in respect of which a change for the worse
+appears to have taken place, and that is in the important point
+of _bienveillance_ towards English travellers. We learn that, at
+present, Austrian officers are shy of English companionship; and
+that it is even enjoined on them authoritatively that they avoid
+intimacy with stragglers from Corfu. The reason assignable is found
+in the late sad and absurd conspiracy hatched in that island--a
+conspiracy which would have been utterly ridiculous, had it not in
+the event proved so melancholy. It will freely be admitted that
+the English would deserve to be sent, as they are, to Coventry,
+were it fact that the insane project of the young Bandieras had
+found English partisans, and that such partisanship had been winked
+at by the authorities. But the real state of the case is exactly
+contrary to this supposition. Humanity must needs have mourned over
+the cutting off of the young men, and the sorrow of their father,
+the gallant old admiral. But common-sense must have condemned the
+undertaking as utterly absurd and mischievous. It is a pity that any
+misunderstanding should be permitted to qualify the good feeling
+towards us, for which the Austrians have been remarkable. This good
+feeling has been observable eminently among their naval officers,
+who have got up a strong fellowship with us, ever since they were
+associated with our fleet in the operations on the coast of Syria.
+That particular service has done much towards the exalting of them
+in their own estimation; and, of course, the increase of friendship
+for us has been in the direct proportion of the lift given to
+them. The Austrian _militaires_, also, used to be a very good set
+of fellows, and only too happy to be civil to an Englishman. At
+their dull stations an arrival is an event, and any considerable
+accession of visitors occasions quite a jubilee. These gentlemen,
+however, cannot have among them much of the spirit of enterprise,
+or they would take more trouble than they do to learn something of
+the condition of their neighbours. They will complain freely of
+the dulness of the place of their location, but at the same time
+will evince little interest in the condition of the world beyond
+their immediate ken. Many of them who live almost within hail of
+the Montenegrini, have never been at the trouble of ascending the
+mountains. Nothing seems to astonish them more than the erratic
+disposition which leads men in quest of adventure; they cannot
+conceive such an idea as that of volunteering for a cruise. Yachts
+puzzle them: the owners must be sailors. Of any military officers
+who may chance to visit them in yachts, they cannot conceive
+otherwise than that they belong to the marine. Nevertheless they
+are, or used to be, kind and hospitable; and would treat you well,
+although they could not quite make you out.
+
+That this country is a neglected portion of the Austrian empire
+is very evident. The officials sigh under the very endearments of
+office. The _sanita_ man, who comes off to greet your arrival, will
+tell you how insufferably dull it is living in the Bocca,--and how
+he longs to be removed anywhither. Place, people, climate, all
+will be condemned. Yet, to a stranger, many of the localities seem
+exquisitely beautiful. The same cause seems to mar enjoyment here
+that spoils the beauty of our own Norfolk Island. The Austrian
+residents regard themselves as being in a state of banishment,
+and take up their abode only by constraint: the constraint, that
+is to say, of mammon. By the government, its possessions in this
+quarter have been neglected in a manner most impolitic. The value
+of this strip of coast to an empire almost entirely inland, yet
+wishing to foster trade, and to possess a navy, is obvious. Yet
+even the plainest use of it they seem, till lately, to have missed.
+Promiscuous conscriptions were the order of the day, and men born
+sailors were enrolled in the levies for the army. Of course they
+were miserable and discontented, and the public service suffered by
+the use of these unfit instruments. Recently it seems that a change
+has been made in this respect, and we doubt not that the navy has
+consequently been greatly improved. But many glaring instances of
+neglect in the administration of the affairs of the country continue
+to astonish beholders, and to prove that the paternal government is
+not awake to its own interests.
+
+But of all objections to be made to the wisdom of the government,
+the strongest may be grounded on the condition of the agricultural
+population in various parts of Dalmatia. Nothing is done to improve
+their knowledge of the primary art of civilisation. Their implements
+of husbandry are described as being on a par with those used by
+the unenlightened inhabitants of Asia Minor. The waggons to be
+encountered in the neighbourhood of Knin are referable to the same
+date in the progress of invention, as are the conveniences in vogue
+in the plains about Mount Ida. The mode of tillage is like that
+followed in the remote provinces of Turkey; the ploughs of the
+rustic population are often inferior to those to be seen in the
+neighbouring Turkish provinces. Lastly--most incredible of all!--we
+learn that there is not to be found in the whole district of the
+Narenta such a thing as a mill, wherein to grind their corn. Will
+it be believed that the rustics have to send all the corn they grow
+into the neighbouring province of Herzegovina to be ground? The
+inconvenience of such an arrangement may easily be conceived. Their
+best of the bargain--_i. e._ the being obliged to seek from across
+the frontier all the flour they want--is bad enough, and must be
+sufficiently expensive; but their predicament is apt to be much
+worse than this. In that part of the world, people are subject to
+stoppages of intercommunication. The plague may break out in the
+Turkish province, and thus a strict quarantine be established, to
+the interdiction even of provisions that generally pass unsuspected;
+or the country may be flooded, and the ways impassable. What are
+the poor people to do then for flour? Why, the only thing they can
+do is, to send their corn to their nearest neighbours possessed of
+mills--that is to say, to Salona, or to Imoschi. As these places
+are distant, the one about thirty-five miles, and the other about
+seventy miles, we may fancy how serious must be the pressure of this
+necessity. The ordinary expense of grinding their corn is stated
+to be about 13 per cent. What it must be when the seventy miles'
+carriage of their produce is an item in the calculation, we are left
+to conjecture. Now these poor folks are not to be blamed--they have
+no funds to enable them to build mills; but that they are left to
+themselves in this inability is a reproach to the government under
+which they live. This inconvenience so intimately affects their
+social wellbeing, that we cannot put faith in the benevolence of the
+rulers who allow them to remain so destitute.
+
+Despite, however, of the disadvantages under which the people of
+Dalmatia labour, it will be seen that pictures chiefly pleasurable
+are to be met by him who shall travel amongst them. Their honest
+nature seems to comprise within itself some compensating principle,
+which makes amends for the damage of circumstances. The Morlacci,
+especially, seem to be a simple, hardy set, of whom one cannot
+read without pleasure. These are the rustic inhabitants of the
+agricultural districts, who eschew the great towns. They made their
+entry into the roll of the peasantry of Dalmatia at a comparatively
+late date. The first notice of them, we are told, is about the
+middle of the fourteenth century. After that time they began to
+retire with their families from Bosnia, as the Turks made advances
+into the country. They are of the same Slavonic family as the
+Croatians; though their hardy manner of life, and the purity of the
+air in which they have dwelt, on the mountains, have co-operated to
+confer on them superiority of personal appearance, and of physical
+condition. On a general estimate of the people of the land, and of
+their mode of receiving strangers, we are disposed to rank highly
+their claims to the title of hospitable and honest.
+
+Sir Gardner Wilkinson certainly travelled amongst them most
+effectually. North, south, east, and west, he intersected the
+country. One part of his travels possesses especial interest,
+because, so far as we know, no denizen of civilised Christendom has
+ever before been so completely over the ground. We refer to his
+expedition into, and through the territory of the Montenegrini.
+Others--some few only, but still some others--have been far enough
+to get a peep at these wild children of the mountains; and more than
+once of late years, Maga has given notices concerning them:[16]
+but only scanty knowledge of their domestic condition has been
+attainable. Sir Gardner went right through their country to the
+Turkish border, and tarried amongst them long enough to form pretty
+accurate notions of their state.
+
+  [16] See _Blackwood's Magazine_, for January 1845, and for October
+  1846.
+
+In the account of our author's first journey, no serious stop is
+made till we come alongside of the island of Veglia: apropos to
+the passage by which, we have given to us, at some length, an
+interesting extract from the report of a Venetian commissioner sent
+to the island, in 1481, to inquire into its state. Of this document
+we will say no more than that it is exceedingly curious, and will
+well reward the pains of reading. A passing notice is given to
+Segna, situated on the mainland, near Veglia, for the memory's sake
+of those desperate villains the Uscocs, to whom it belonged of old.
+A good deal of their history is given in the last chapter of the
+second volume, which serves as a documentary appendix to the work.
+Everything necessary to beget interest in the islands scattered
+hereaway is told; but we pass them by, and are brought to Zara. What
+of antiquities is here discoverable is rooted out for our benefit,
+but not much remains. The most interesting relic in the place, to
+our mind, is the inscription recording the victory of Lepanto. As
+Zara is the capital of Dalmatia, occasion is taken, while speaking
+of the city, to give some account of the government of the province,
+and of the general condition of the people.
+
+An incident mentioned by Sir Gardner displays, in a painful
+light, the kind of feeling entertained by the Austrian government
+towards these its subjects, and permitted by its officials to
+find expression before the natives. We cannot take it as a case
+of isolated insolence: because men in responsible situations,
+especially where the social system comprises an indefinite supply
+of spies, do not ostentatiously commit themselves, unless they
+have a foregone conviction, that what they say is according to
+the authorised tone. Men under inspection of the higher powers
+do not put themselves out of their way to make a display of
+bitterness, unless they think thereby to conciliate the good-will
+of their superiors. This is the incident in question: On a certain
+occasion, the conversation happened to turn on the subject of a
+then recent disturbance in a Dalmatian town. The soldiery and the
+people had quarrelled, and in the _emeute_ two of the soldiers
+had been killed. On these data forth spake a Jack in office. He
+knew not, nor did he care to know, how many of the peasants had
+fallen, nor does he appear to have entered at all curiously into
+the question of the _casus belli_. He simply recommended, as the
+disturbance had taken place, and as the actual perpetrators of
+the violence were not forthcoming, that the whole population of
+the town should be "decimated and shot." "The butchery of any
+number of Dalmatians," says our author, "was thought a fit way of
+remedying the incapacity of the police." One would hardly imagine
+that this counsel could have been met by the applauses of persons
+holding official situations; but so, we are assured, it was in fact
+received. This manifestation of feeling is a sort of thing which,
+when emanating from a group of merely private individuals, may be
+disregarded. Idle people will talk, and their hard words will break
+no bones. But the hard words of the ministers of government do
+break bones; and such words must be accepted as serious indications
+of subsistent evil. Such receipts for keeping people in peace and
+quietness are consistent enough with the genius of their neighbours
+the Turks. Retrenchment of heads, and of causes of complaint, are to
+their apprehension one and the same thing-+pollon onomaton, morphe
+mia+. We know this, and expect it. It is not so very long ago since
+the Capitan Pasha gave the word to heave the officer of the watch
+overboard, because his ship missed stays in going about in the
+Black Sea. But the Austrians are civilised and Christian; we expect
+better things of them, and can but mourn over their misapprehension
+of the true principles of polity. The Englishman who stood by
+rebuked the promoters of these atrocious sentiments, and for this
+act of championship he was subsequently thanked by the Dalmatians
+who were present. They could not have ventured to undertake their
+own defence, but must have listened in silence to this outrageous
+language. Our author doubts not that this exhibition of simple
+humanity on his part, had the effect of causing him to be forthwith
+placed under the surveillance of the police; and that such a
+consequence should be so very likely to follow the honest expression
+of a common-sense opinion in society is a fact that shows clearly
+enough how _unsound_ that state of things must be. Assuredly one
+of the best effects of intercourse with civilised nations is,
+that we thereby become enabled to institute a comparison between
+their social condition and our own. Even those unhappy Chartists,
+who lately have acquired the habit of addressing one another as
+"brother slaves," would learn to value British freedom, if they knew
+something of the social condition of their European brethren: they
+would see some difference between the security of their own hours of
+relaxation, and the degree in which a man's freedom in Austria is
+invaded by the espionage of the police.
+
+From Zara the course of the narrative takes us to Sebenico, a town
+situated on the inner side of the lake or bay into which the waters
+of the Kerka debouch. It is one of the coaling stations of the
+steamer; and, when the time of arrival will allow such concession,
+the passengers are permitted to take a trip in a four-oared boat,
+to visit the falls of the Kerka. Here the costume of the women
+is noticed as being singularly graceful. In coasting along from
+Sebenico to Spalato, the headland of la Planca is remarkable. Near
+it is a little church which is famous in local chronicle for having
+once upon a time served as a trap, wherein an ass caught a wolf. How
+this marvellous feat was accomplished, we will not just now stop
+to tell, but must refer the curious to the book itself. This point
+is also remarkable, because here begins abruptly a change in the
+climate. Some plants unknown to the northward begin to appear; and
+henceforward, to one proceeding southward, the dreaded Scirocco will
+be a more frequent infliction. To the southward of la Planca, this
+objectionable wind is constantly blowing; and at Spalato, we are
+told, it assumes for its allowance 100 days out of the 365. Apropos
+to the Scirocco, we have an episode on _anemology_, and are taught
+how the old Greeks and Romans used to box the compass--at least
+how they would have done so, had they had compasses to box. In the
+distance, to the south of the promontory of la Planca, is the island
+of Lissa, famous in modern history for Sir William Hoste's action
+in 1811. "Such an action," says James, "stands unrivalled in the
+annals of the naval history of Great Britain, or that of any other
+country, from the great disproportion in numerical force, as well
+as the beauty and address of its manoeuvres; it stands surpassed
+by none in the spirit and enterprise with which it was encountered,
+and carried through to a successful issue." There is not much risk
+in making this assertion, when we consider that on that occasion
+the French squadron consisted of four forty-gun frigates, two of
+a smaller class, a sixteen-gun corvette, a ten-gun schooner, one
+six-gun xebec, and two gunboats; and that the English squadron was
+of three frigates, and one twenty-two gunship. Lissa was also famous
+in the time of the Romans, being then called Issa. We have a notice
+of its history, and then pass on to Bua, and so to Spalato.
+
+Concerning Spalato details are given, as might be expected, at
+some length. Much is told us of its past and present condition;
+in fact, there is presented to us a very sufficient assemblage of
+_indicia_ concerning it. We recommend any one who wishes to enjoy
+a visit to Spalato to take with him this book, and chapter 13th of
+Gibbon. The extract from Porphyrogenitus, given by Gibbon, tells us
+what the palace of Diocletian was; and Sir Gardner Wilkinson tells
+us what it is now, and what has been its history. Besides verbal
+description, his pencil affords some apt illustrations of the actual
+condition of the buildings. We see by these, and by his account,
+that the treasures of Spalatine architecture have been obscured by
+the building up of modern edifices on their sites. "The stranger,"
+he says, "is shocked to see windows of houses through the arches of
+the court, intercolumniations filled up with petty shops, and the
+peristyle of the great temple masked by modern houses." Doubtless,
+many a precious relic has been appropriated by modern barbarians to
+common uses, and so perished out of sight. But with joy we learn
+that the government has taken measures to prevent the continuance of
+such destruction, and that the remaining monuments are safe, however
+they may be mixed up with the houses and shops of the present
+generation. We are told that, under the care of the present director
+of antiquarian researches, there is good reason to hope that the
+collection at Spalato may become truly valuable. The high character
+of Professor Carrara is a sure warrant that all will be done which
+is within scope of the means afforded. But as the government
+allowance for excavations at Salona is only L80 yearly, we cannot
+think that the work is likely to proceed rapidly. While we condemn
+as barbarous this carelessness on the part of the Austrians, we must
+bear in mind that we are open to a retort of the censure. We neglect
+altogether the remains of Samos in Cephalonia, and nothing at all
+is allowed for the expense of operations there; yet these remains
+are very extensive, and there is every reason to believe that their
+actual condition would amply repay a diligent search.
+
+We must stop here a moment to congratulate Sir Gardner, on his
+rencontre with the sphinx.
+
+    "A captive when he gazes on the light,
+     A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,"
+
+and so forth, are the only people who may venture to talk of Sir
+Gardner's delight at the sight of a sphinx, or a mummy. With great
+gusto he gives the description of the black granite sphinx, in the
+court of the palace, near the vestibule; and in the drawing which he
+has made of the same court, the sphinx is conspicuous.
+
+From Spalato to Salona, is a distance of some three miles and a
+half, by a good carriage-road. This road crosses the Jader, or Il
+Giadro--a stream so famous for its trout, that it has been thought
+necessary seriously to prove that it was _not_ for the sake of
+these--not in order that of them he might eat his _soul_ in peace
+and quietness--that Diocletian retired from the command of the world.
+
+Salona is rich in antiquarian remains, though nothing is extant
+to redeem from improbability the testimony of Porphyrogenitus,
+that Salona was half the size of Constantinople. Of its origin no
+record exists, nor is much known of its history till the time of
+Julius Caesar. Subsequently to that era it was subject to various
+fortunes, and bore various titles. At last, in Christian times it
+became a Bishop's see, and was occupied by 61 bishops in succession.
+Diocletian was its great embellisher and almost rebuilder. Later
+in the day, we find that it was from Salona that Belisarius set
+out in 544, when recalled to the command of the army of Justinian,
+and intrusted with the conduct of the war against Totila. The town
+remained populous and fortified, till destroyed by the Avars in 639.
+These ferocious barbarians having established themselves in Clissa,
+the terror of their propinquity scared away the Salonitans. The
+terrified inhabitants, after a short and ineffectual resistance,
+fled to the islands. The town was pillaged and burnt, and from that
+time Salona has been deserted and in ruins.
+
+     "With these historical facts before us, it is interesting to
+     observe the present state of the place, which affords many
+     illustrations of past events. The positions of its defences,
+     repaired at various times, may be traced: an inscription lately
+     discovered by Professor Carrara, shows that its walls and towers
+     were repaired by Valentinian II., and Theodosius; and the ditch
+     of Constantianus is distinctly seen on the north side. Here and
+     there, it has been filled up with earth and cultivated; but its
+     position cannot be mistaken, and in places its original breadth
+     may be ascertained. A very small portion of the wall remains
+     on the east side, and nearly all traces of it are lost towards
+     the river: but the northern portion is well preserved, and the
+     triangular front, or salient angle of many of its towers, may be
+     traced.
+
+     "In the western part of the town are the theatre, and what is
+     called the amphitheatre. Of the former, some portion of the
+     proscenium remains, as well as the solid tiers of arches, built
+     of square stone, with bevelled edges, about 6-1/4 feet diameter,
+     and 10 feet apart."
+
+We have a good description of the annual fair of Salona. The
+description will be suggestive of picturesque recollections to
+those who have seen the open air festivities celebrated by the
+orthodox--_i. e._ by the children of the Greek Church, about Easter
+time. We can take it upon ourselves to recommend highly the lambs,
+wont to be roasted whole on these occasions. The culinary apparatus
+is rude--consisting merely of a few sticks for a fire, and another
+stick to be used as a spit--but the result of their operations is
+most satisfactory.
+
+     "All Spalato is of course at the fair; and the road to Salona
+     is thronged with carriages of every description, horsemen,
+     and pedestrians. The mixture of the men's hats, red caps, and
+     turbans, and the bonnets and Frank dresses of the Spalatine
+     ladies, contrasted with the costume of the country women,
+     presents one of the most singular sights to be soon in Europe,
+     and to a stranger the language adds in no small degree to the
+     novelty. Some business is done as well as pleasure; and a great
+     number of cattle, sheep, and pigs are bought and sold--as well
+     as various stuffs, trinkets, and the usual goods exhibited at
+     fairs. Long before mid-day, the groups of peasants have thronged
+     the road, not to say street, of Salona; some attend the small
+     church, picturesquely placed upon a green, surrounded by the
+     small streams of the Giadro, and shaded with trees; while others
+     rove about, seeking their friends, looking at, and looked at by
+     strangers, as they pass; and all are intent on the amusements of
+     the day, and the prospect of a feast.
+
+     "Eating and drinking soon begin. On all sides sheep are seen
+     roasting whole on wooden spits, in the open air; and an entire
+     flock is speedily converted into mutton. Small knots of hungry
+     friends are formed in every direction: some seated on a bank
+     beneath the trees, others in as many houses as will hold them;
+     some on grass by the road-side, regardless of sun and dust--and
+     a few quiet families have boats prepared for their reception.
+
+     "In the mean time, the hat-wearing townspeople from Spalato
+     and other places, as they pace up and down, bowing to an
+     occasional acquaintance, view with complacent pity the
+     primitive recreations of the simple peasantry; and arm-in-arm,
+     civilisation, with its propriety and affectation, is here
+     strangely contrasted with the hearty laugh of the unrefined
+     Morlacchi."
+
+We do not know the country where men will meet together and eat
+without drinking also: at the al-fresco entertainments of this
+kind which we have seen, the kegs of wine have ever been in goodly
+proportion to the spitted lambs. And wherever a mob of men set to
+drinking together, they will most assuredly take to fighting. The
+rows at this fair used to be considerable; and, considering that
+more wine is said to be consumed here on this one day than during
+the whole of the rest of the year, we cannot be surprised that
+fights should come off worthy of Donnybrook. At present, better
+order is preserved than of old, because these rows have been so
+excessive that they have enforced the attendance of the police.
+
+At this fair is to be seen the picturesque _collo_ dance of the
+Morlacchi, of which our author affords a capital pencil-sketch, as
+well as the following description:--
+
+     "It sometimes begins before dinner, but is kept up with greater
+     spirit afterwards. They call it _collo_, from being, like most
+     of their national dances, in a circle. A man generally has
+     one partner, sometimes two, but always at his right side. In
+     dancing, he takes her right hand with his, while she supports
+     herself by holding his girdle with her left; and when he has two
+     partners, the one nearest him holds in her right hand that of
+     her companion, who, with her left, takes the right hand of the
+     man; and each set dances forward in a line round the circle. The
+     step is rude, as in most of the Slavonic dances, including the
+     polka and the _radovatschka_; and the music, which is primitive,
+     is confined to a three-stringed violin."
+
+Dancing for dancing's sake, is what enters into no Englishman's
+category of the enjoyable, nor into many an Englishwoman's either,
+we should think, after the passage out of her teens; but that it is,
+in sober earnest, an enjoyment to many people under the sun, there
+is no doubt. Surely there is something wonderful in the faculty of
+finding pleasure in the elephantine manoeuvres of the _romaika_,
+or in the still more clumsy gyrations of a _palicari's_ performance.
+The _collo_ we readily believe to be a picturesque dance: but such
+qualification is not the general condition on which the people
+of a nation accept dances as national. Most of these exhibitions
+in Greece and Eastern Europe must be condemned as graceless and
+unmeaning: as an exhibition of earnest tomfoolery, they may be
+accepted as wonderful; and, at all events, may safely be pronounced
+co-excellent with the music that inspires them.
+
+In passing from Salona to Traue, a distance of about thirteen miles
+and a half to the westward, the traveller passes by several of the
+villages called Castelli. The name has been given them from the
+circumstance of their having been built near to, and under the
+protection of, the castles which, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries, were constructed here by some of the nobles.
+
+     "The land was granted to them by the Venetians, on condition
+     of their erecting places of refuge for the peasants during the
+     wars with the Turks. A body of armed men lived within them, and,
+     on the approach of danger, the flocks and herds were protected
+     beneath the walls; and, at harvest time, the peasantry had a
+     place of security for their crops within range of the castle
+     guns."
+
+The rights of lordship over the villages, which used to be exercised
+by the nobles in virtue of the protection afforded, have nearly
+all fallen into disuse. The only relic of feudalism that seems to
+survive is found at Castel Cambio, over which two nobles still
+possess certain rights. One of these was the hospitable host of Sir
+Gardner, and his friend Professor Carrara, on their passage to and
+from Traue.
+
+A fact connected with the peculiarity of the position of this town
+is, we think, well worthy of notice, and deservedly recorded by our
+author. The town stands partly on a peninsula, and partly on the
+island of Bua. A fosse, cut across the narrow neck of the peninsula,
+has completed its isolation. This ditch has proved, on occasion, the
+most effectual of fortifications to the Trauerines. They were, in
+1241, besieged by the Tartars in pursuit of King Bela IV., who had
+fled hither before them. These impetuous assailants were unable to
+pass the ditch; and, having waited on the other side till food and
+forage were exhausted, they were obliged to retire. One cannot read
+this story without thinking of the account that Sir Francis Head
+gives of the La Plata Indians, whose habits of warfare are in many
+respects so exactly akin to those of the Tartars. These terrific
+horsemen would be scarcely resistible by their less robust enemies,
+save for their inability to cross anything in the shape of a ditch.
+Out of the saddle they can do nothing, and their horses will not
+leap; so that, if you wish to be safe from their inroads, you have
+but to surround your dwellings with a moderate trench. And very
+striking is the story that Sir Francis Head tells of the handful
+of men who, under such protection, held out successfully against a
+host of Indians. Traue, however, has been elaborately fortified in
+European fashion, though now the works are neglected, as being a
+useless precaution against dangers no longer existent. It has also a
+fine old cathedral, and some pictures of pretension.
+
+After a brief notice of the islands of Brazza and Solta--a notice,
+however, sufficient for all useful purposes--we pass on to the
+picturesque neighbourhood of the falls of the Kerka. Sir Gardner
+speaks of the delay to which the passage by boat from Sebenico to
+Scardona is subject, but does not exactly complain of it. In fact,
+we can easily understand that, for the sake of the passenger, it
+is expedient that some authoritative note should be taken of his
+departure under charge of the particular boatmen who undertake his
+convoy. We never did ascend to Kerka, but from what we have seen
+of the class of men under whose guidance the expedition has to be
+performed, we are disposed to vote the caution of the police to be
+anything but superfluous. Every now and then one hears dreadful
+stories of the atrocities of boatmen in convenient parts of the
+Mediterranean; and there is good reason to be thankful that the
+Austrians think it worth while to be so careful of strangers.
+
+The people about Sebenico, through whose lands the course of
+the lake leads, are spoken of as not paying much attention to
+agriculture or to their fisheries; but it seems that they are
+sedulously bent on raising grapes, and neglect no patch of ground at
+all likely to be available for this purpose. The lake of Scardona
+is considerably larger than that of Sebenico. On the shore here
+the Romans had a settlement, of which scarcely any remains are
+perceptible. They are, however, remarkable as affording a manifest
+proof of the rise of the level of the lake, for some of them are
+under water.
+
+Scardona, we are told, does not occupy the site of the old Scardon,
+which was a place of considerable importance under the empire. Some
+have even imagined that the old city stood on the opposite bank of
+the river. The town at present is small, but well furnished for the
+convenience of strangers. It boasts an inn, at which Sir Gardner put
+up for one night. He then proceeded to the falls, which are distant
+from the inn a three-quarters-of-an-hour journey. As he intended
+to ascend the river above the falls, he had to send to the monks
+of Vissovaz to ask for a boat, and they readily complied with his
+request. The falls do not seem to have been full on the occasion
+of this visit--but, when full, the effect must be striking. They
+are divided into two parts, and their picturesque effect is greatly
+enhanced by the surrounding scenery.
+
+At a distance of a few minutes' walk up the river, above the falls,
+the boat was waiting to transport Sir Gardner to the convent of
+Vissovaz. It is to this fraternity that we have before alluded, as
+being the sole mill-owners on the Kerka. Their convent must indeed
+be beautifully situated, and we can quite enter into the eulogium
+bestowed on it. The fathers are of the Franciscan order. The name
+of Vissovaz is of curious allusion; and as probably few of our
+courteous readers will be the worse for a little help in the matter
+of Slavonian etymology, we may as well tell them that its import
+is "the place of hanging." Not a very complimentary or well-omened
+name, certainly, we would think at first sight; but we see that it
+is so when we learn that the allusion is to the martyrdom of two
+priests, who were hanged here by the Turkish governor of Scardona.
+By the record left of the event, we cannot see that the death of
+these unfortunate victims was in any sense martyrdom: they were
+cruelly and unjustly put to death, but for a cause entirely worldly.
+However, they were Christians, and their murderers were Turks; and
+this has been enough to constitute a claim to canonisation in more
+places than at Vissovaz.
+
+Sir Gardner arrived at the picturesque, red-tiled convent in time
+for dinner; but as the day happened to be a fast, the fare provided
+was not sufficiently tempting to induce a wish to stay. He therefore
+was preparing, with many thanks, to take his leave of the good
+fathers, and proceed on his journey, when he found himself brought
+up by an unexpected difficulty. He was informed that he could not
+proceed except by favour of the monks of the Greek convent of St
+Archangelo, another religious house still farther up the stream.
+His hospitable entertainers readily volunteered to send in quest of
+the requisite assistance. These are the conditions of travelling,
+because there are no carriages for hire hereaway, nor any boats
+to let. The Franciscans had volunteered to do what, when it came
+to the point, was found to be rather an awkward thing. No great
+cordiality subsists generally between the Latins and the orthodox.
+Each charges the other with destructive heresy; and doubtless both
+of these great branches of the church esteem a Protestant safe,
+by comparison with the arch-heretics that they each see the other
+to be. Thus, though dwelling on the confines of Christendom, and
+in a solitude that might have rendered them neighbourly, we find
+that very little intercourse takes place between the two religious
+establishments. Accordingly, the writing of the letter was found to
+be no easy affair; and their guest saw them lay their heads together
+in consultation, after a fashion that boded ill for the prospects
+of his journey. They confessed themselves to be in a fix; and were
+afraid of exposing themselves to some affront if, contrary to their
+wont, they should open a communication with the Greeks, asking of
+them a favour.
+
+     "'Did you ever go as far as the convent?' said an old father
+     to a more restless and locomotive Franciscan, and a negative
+     answer seemed to put an end to the incipient letter; when one of
+     the party suggested that those Greeks had shown themselves very
+     civil on some occasion, and the writer of the epistle once more
+     resumed his spectacles and his pen. 'They are,' he observed,
+     'after all, like ourselves, and must be glad to see a stranger
+     who comes from afar; and besides, our letter may have the effect
+     of commencing a friendly intercourse with them, which we may
+     have no reason to regret.'"
+
+This very sensible hint of the Franciscan philosopher was happily
+acted out. The letter was sent, and in due course of time--_i.
+e._ in time for a start next morning--an answer arrived from the
+Archimandrite. It was to welcome the stranger to their hospitality,
+and to inform him that a boat awaited him at the falls. As the
+issue on the first intention was so favourable, let us hope that
+the other good results anticipated from the sending of the letter
+will have been by this time realised. At all events, Sir Gardner may
+congratulate himself on having afforded occasion for the opening of
+personal as well as epistolary communication between the convents,
+as one of the Franciscans accompanied him in the expedition to St
+Archangelo.
+
+Much praise is bestowed on the beauty of the Kerka, and the view
+of the Falls of Roncislap is especially distinguished. Sir Gardner
+praises it in artistic language; and we may be allowed to regret
+that he has not added a sketch of this scene to the views with
+which his book is embellished. The waters of the Kerka possess a
+petrifying quality that is common in Dalmatia. Much of the rock has
+been formed under the water, and must present a singular appearance.
+
+Near the Falls of Roncislap a depot for coal has been established,
+that, by all accounts, would seem to be anything but a good
+speculation. We mention it merely for the sake of a good story that
+hangs by it. It seems that the Austrian Lloyds' Company patronise
+this coal because it is cheap. It is one reason, certainly, for
+buying it; but, as the coal will not burn, we may doubt their
+wisdom. We do not wish to spoil the market of the Company of Dernis,
+but we agree with Sir Gardner, that there are reasonable objections
+to the using of food for the furnaces that will get up no steam,
+and must be taken on board in such quantities, as to lumber up the
+decks. Besides this, hear how it goes on when it does burn:--
+
+     "It has also the effect of causing much smoke, and the large
+     flakes of soot that fall from the chimney upon the awning
+     actually burn holes in it, till it looks like a sail riddled
+     with grape-shot; and I remember one day seeing the awning on
+     fire from one of these showers of soot; when the captain calmly
+     ordered it to be put out, as if it had been a common occurrence."
+
+"A Russian consul,"--this is the story:--
+
+     "A Russian consul, who happened to be on board, and who was not
+     much accustomed to the smoky doings of steamers, seemed to be
+     deeply impressed with the inconvenience of the falling flakes
+     of soot. His voice had rarely been heard during the voyage, and
+     he appeared to shun communication with his fellow-passengers;
+     when one afternoon, the awning not being up, he burst forth
+     with these startling remarks, uttered with a broad Slavonian
+     accent,--'_Que ces baateaux a vapeur sont sales! Par suite de
+     maaladie, il y a dix ans que je ne me zuis paas lavre, mais
+     maintenant j'ai zenti le bezoin de me lavver, et je me zuis
+     lavve!!_'"
+
+This must have been a Russian of the old school.
+
+Arrived at the convent of St Archangelo, they had every reason to
+be content with their hospitable reception. The Archimandrite is
+praised as being gentlemanlike, and of mien as though educated in
+a European capital. This is a very unusual characteristic of any
+Greek ecclesiastic, and what we could predicate of but one or two
+out of the numbers that we have seen. Greek priests of any kind
+are bad enough, but those living in convents seem generally to go
+on the principle of the Russian consul just mentioned, and might
+fitly be invited to associate with him. All honour, then, to Stefano
+Knezovich, and may his example be abundantly followed among his
+brethren!
+
+There was not much in the Greek convent to induce a long visit; so
+the next morning Sir Gardner pushed on to Kistagne, in his progress
+through the country. Here he was again the victim of letter-writing,
+but in a different way. The sirdar of Kistagne took offence at the
+tone of the letter sent to him by the Archimandrite, ordering horses
+for the next morning; and the luckless traveller was consequently
+left in the lurch. However, the monk did his best to make up for
+the deficiency. He lent him his own horse, and had his baggage
+conveyed by some peasants--an excellent arrangement, saving that
+the porters were _female_ peasants. This is a sort of thing that
+sadly shocks our sense of decorum, but which many folks besides
+the Dalmatians take as a matter of course. Sir Gardner says that
+the custom of assigning the heavy burden to the women is prevalent
+among the Montenegrini; it is so also among the Albanians; and to a
+most atrocious extent in the Peloponnesus. In this particular case,
+they were well off to get the job; it was to exchange their task of
+carrying heavy loads of water up the hill for that of shouldering
+his light _impedimenta_.
+
+Arrived at Kistagne, he found the sirdar, who had been so
+disobliging at a distance, much improved on acquaintance, and from
+him he received all requisite assistance for the prosecution of his
+journey to Knin; and by him was guided in his visit to the Roman
+arches, which point out the site of the ancient city of Burnum.
+
+Knin is still a place of considerable strength, and has been once
+upon a time still stronger. It is identified with the ancient
+Arduba. The marshy character of the ground in its immediate
+neighbourhood renders it an unhealthy place of abode; but this evil
+is easily removable by a moderate attention to drainage. Not very
+far from Knin, but over the Turkish border, on the other side of
+Mount Gniath, is supposed to be situated the gold mine that of old
+conferred on Dalmatia the title of auriferous. The mine is said to
+exist here; but so much mystery is observed on its subject by the
+Turks that nothing certain can be affirmed of it. From Verlicca,
+to Sign we pass as quickly as may be, merely noticing that there
+is another convent to be visited _en route_, and that we have the
+opportunity of putting up at the Han, as Sir Gardner did. These
+people certainly have admitted a great many Turkish words into their
+vocabulary: we have _Sirdar_, and _Han_, and _Arambasha_--to say
+nothing of others. At last we come to _Sign_; and, touching this
+place, we must give an extract from the book. An annual tilting
+festival has been established here, in commemoration of the brave
+defence maintained in 1715, against the Pasha of Bosnia with forty
+thousand men.
+
+     "The privilege of tilting is confined to natives of Sign, and
+     its territory. Every one is required to appear dressed in the
+     ancient costume, with the Tartar cap, called kalpak, surmounted
+     by a white heron's plume, or with flowers interlaced in it. He
+     is to wear a sword, to carry a lance, and to be mounted on a
+     good horse richly caparisoned."
+
+     "The opening of the _giostra_ is in this manner: The _footmen_,
+     richly dressed and armed, advance two by two before the
+     cavaliers. In the usual annual exhibitions each cavalier has
+     one _footman_; and on extraordinary occasions, besides the
+     footman, he has a _padrino_ well mounted and equipped. After the
+     _footmen_ come three persons in line--one carrying a shield,
+     and the other two by his side bearing a sort of ancient club;
+     then a fair _manege_ horse, led by the hand, with large housings
+     and complete trappings, richly ornamented, followed by two
+     cavaliers--one the adjutant, the other the ensign-bearer. Next
+     comes the _Maestro-di-Campo_, accompanied by the two _jousters_,
+     and followed by all the others, marching two and two. The
+     rear of the procession is brought up by the _Chiauss_, who
+     rides alone, and whose duty it is to maintain order during the
+     ceremony."
+
+We have a description of a fair at Sign that is almost as suggestive
+of the picturesque as was the account of similar doings at Salona.
+Sir Gardner shall give his own account of his departure from the
+town.
+
+     "In the midst of the bustle and business going on at Sign,
+     I found some difficulty in getting horses to take me on to
+     Spalato; but a letter to the Sirdar removed every impediment,
+     and, after a few hours' delay, the animals being brought out,
+     I prepared to start from the not very splendid inn.' 'Can you
+     ride in that?' asked the ostler, pointing to a huge Turkish
+     saddle that nearly concealed the whole animal, with stirrups
+     that might pass for a pair of coal scuttles; and finding that I
+     was accustomed to the use as well as sight of that un-European
+     horse-furniture, he seemed well satisfied--observing, at the
+     same time, that it was fortunate, as there was no other to
+     be had.... I was glad to take what I could get, and my only
+     question in return was, whether the horse could trot; which
+     being settled, I posted off, leaving my guide and baggage to
+     come after me--for, thanks to the Austrian police, there is
+     no fear of robbers appropriating a portmanteau in Dalmatia:
+     the interesting days of adventure and the Haiduk banditti have
+     passed, and the Morlacchi have ceased to covet, or at least to
+     take other men's goods."
+
+And now we make a resolute halt, and determine to pass _sub
+silentio_ all that intervenes between this part of the book and the
+coming into the country of the Montenegrini. Unless we act thus
+discreetly, we shall never contrive to compress all we have to say
+into due limits; and even now we hardly know how this desirable
+result is to be effected. What we thus leave as fallow-ground
+for the reader will yield to his research a history of the coast
+and islands between Spalato and Cattaro. The notice of Ragusa
+is especially and deservedly full, and presents an admirable
+condensation of Ragusan history.
+
+But it is high time for us to get amongst the children of the Black
+Mountain. Among things excellent it is permitted to institute
+comparison without disparagement to any of them: and, in virtue of
+this license, we are free to say that this part of Sir Gardner's
+book shines forth as _inter minora sidera_. The subject itself is
+of deep intrinsic interest; and he has treated it as we well knew
+that he would. A picture is given of the actual condition of a scion
+of the Christian stock that must astonish those who, by this book,
+first learn to think of the Montenegrini; and must delight those
+who, having heard somewhat of them, or haply even paid them a flying
+visit, have looked in vain for some accurate statement of detail to
+help out their personal observations.
+
+The Montenegrini are descended from the old Servian stock, and still
+look to modern Servia with affection, as to their mother country.
+Thither also we find them, by Sir Gardner's account, retiring,
+when forced by poverty to emigrate from their own territory. Among
+them the Slavonian language is preserved in unusual purity. The
+present population is about 100,000; and the number of fighting men
+amounts to 20,000--a number which, on occasion of need, would be
+greatly augmented by the calling out of the veterans. In fact every
+individual man of the nation, whose arm has power to wield a weapon,
+is a warrior; and the very women are ready to assist in defence. On
+the Turkish border, as is well known, a constant system of bloody
+reprisals is going on; and the endeavours of the Vladika to reduce
+their hostilities to civilised fashion have hitherto failed of
+success. They are sustained at the highest pitch of confident daring
+by the successful war which they have so long been able to carry on
+against their powerful neighbours. One is glad of the opportunity
+of giving, on the authority of Sir Gardner, some of the stories
+of their prowess; for to retail, without the authority of some
+such _padrino_, the tales current in Cattaro, would be to win the
+reputation of talking like Mendez Pinto.
+
+In judging the Montenegrini, we should give charitable consideration
+to their circumstances. War is a system of violence; and with them,
+unhappily, war is a permanent condition of existence. The treachery
+and cruelty of the Turks--are these such recent developments that we
+need make any doubt of them?--have worked out cruel consequences in
+the character of the Montenegrini. They believe a Turk to be utterly
+without honesty and good faith--one with whom it is impossible to
+hold terms--and such, probably, is about the right estimate of some
+of their Turkish neighbours. Who, for instance, that knows anything
+about them, has any other opinion of the Albanians? Are Kaffirs much
+more hopeless subjects? The Montenegrini are far from the commission
+of the horrid cruelties that are of everyday occurrence among the
+Albanians. Their imperfect appreciation of Christianity allows them
+to behold in revenge a virtue; and hence the acts of violence which
+are quoted to their dispraise. Their marauding expeditions are but
+according to the usages of war; and if they sometimes break through
+the restrictions of a truce, it would seem to be because they really
+do not understand what a truce is. We think that a very apt apology
+for the Montenegrini is found in the speech of a German traveller
+quoted by Sir Gardner. He had been mentioning several occurrences of
+English and Scotch history, and spoke in allusion to them.
+
+     "'What think you,' he observed, 'of the state of society in
+     those times? Were the border forays of the English and Scotch
+     more excusable than those of the Montenegrins? And how much more
+     natural is the unforgiving hatred of the Montenegrins against
+     the Turks, the enemies of their country, and their faith, than
+     the relentless strife of Highland clans, with those of their own
+     race and religion! Has not many an old castle in other parts of
+     Europe, witnessed scenes as bad as any enacted by this people? I
+     do not wish to exculpate the Montenegrins; but theirs is still a
+     dark age, and some allowance must be made for their uncivilised
+     condition.'"
+
+The character of the present Vladika affords good hope that an
+improvement will take place among the people; for he evidently has
+devoted all his energies to their amelioration. Sir Gardner entered
+their territory, by what we believe to be the only route--that is to
+say from Cattaro--whence he took letters of introduction from the
+Austrian governor to the Vladika.
+
+We shall best illustrate the condition of the Montenegrini by
+quoting some of Sir Gardner's accounts.
+
+     "Four Montenegrins, and their sister, aged twenty-one, going
+     on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Basilio, were waylaid by
+     seven Turks, in a rocky defile, so narrow that they could only
+     thread it one by one; and hardly had they entered between the
+     precipices that bordered it on either side, when an unexpected
+     discharge of fire-arms killed one brother, and desperately
+     wounded another. To retrace their steps was impossible without
+     meeting certain and shameful death, since to turn their backs
+     would give their enemy the opportunity of destroying them at
+     pleasure.
+
+     "The two who were unhurt, therefore, advanced and returned the
+     fire, killing two Turks--while the wounded one, supporting
+     himself against a rock, fired also, and mortally injured two
+     others, but was killed himself in the act. His sister, taking
+     his gun, loaded and fired simultaneously with her two brothers,
+     but, at the same instant, one of them dropped down dead. The
+     two surviving Turks then rushed furiously at the only remaining
+     Montenegrin--who, however, laid open the skull of one of them
+     with his yatagan, before receiving his own death-blow. The
+     hapless sister, who had all this time kept up a constant fire,
+     stood for an instant irresolute; when suddenly assuming an air
+     of terror and supplication, she entreated for mercy; but the
+     Turk, enraged at the death of his companions, was brutal enough
+     to take advantage of the unhappy girl's agony, and only promised
+     her life at the price of her honour. Hesitating at first, she
+     pretended to listen to the villain's proposal; but no sooner did
+     she see him thrown off his guard, than she buried in his body
+     the knife she carried at her girdle. Although mortally wounded,
+     the Turk endeavoured to make the most of his failing strength,
+     and plucking the dagger from his side, staggered towards the
+     courageous girl,--who, driven to despair, threw herself on the
+     relentless foe, and with superhuman energy hurled him down the
+     neighbouring precipice, at the very moment when some shepherds,
+     attracted by the continued firing, arrived just too late for the
+     rescue."
+
+Fancy the tone that must be given to their lives by the constant
+necessity of being ready for encounters such as this. They never lay
+aside their arms; but in the field, or by the wayside, are armed and
+alert. One hand may be allowed to the implement of tillage, but the
+other must be reserved for the weapon of defence.
+
+On many occasions, Montenegrin courage has prevailed against odds
+far greater than in the above case--indeed such odds as, but for
+authentication of facts, would be incredible. In the year 1840,
+"seventy Montenegrins, in the open field, withstood the attack of
+several thousand Turks; and having made breastworks with the bodies
+of their fallen foes, maintained the unequal conflict till night;
+when forty who survived forced their way through the hostile army,
+and escaped with their lives." Another astonishing achievement
+was the successful defence of a house held by seven-and-twenty
+Montenegrins, against a body of about six thousand Albanians. Of
+this last action, trophies are preserved by the Vladika in his
+palace at Tzetinie, and there Sir Gardner saw them.
+
+We cannot wonder that the effect on their minds of these astonishing
+successes, should be an unbounded confidence in their superiority
+over the Turks. Sir Gardner Wilkinson found them impressed with the
+idea, that bread and arms were the only needful requisites to enable
+them to drive the Turks out of Albania and Herzegovina. It seems
+certain that, in their rencontres With these enemies, they dismiss
+all ordinary considerations of prudence. The spirit of their feeling
+with regard to the Turks is thus portrayed:--
+
+     "It is not the courage, but the cruelty of the Turks which
+     inspires him (the Montenegrin) with hatred; and the sufferings
+     inflicted upon his country by their inroads makes him look upon
+     them with feelings of ferocious vengeance.
+
+     "These savage sentiments are kept alive by the barbarous custom,
+     adopted by both parties, of cutting off the heads of the wounded
+     and the dead; the consequences of which are destructive of all
+     the conditions of fair warfare, and preclude the possibility
+     of peace. The bitter remembrance of the past is constantly
+     revived by the horrors of the present; and the love of revenge,
+     which strongly marks the character of the Montenegrin, makes
+     him insensible to reason or justice, and places the Turks, in
+     his opinion, out of the pale of human beings. He dreams only of
+     vengeance; he cares little for the means employed, and the man
+     who should make any excuse for not persecuting those enemies of
+     his country and his faith, would be treated with ignominy and
+     contempt. Even the sanctity of a truce is not always sufficient
+     to restrain him; and the hatred of the Turk is paramount to all
+     ordinary considerations of honour or humanity."
+
+This cutting off of heads is not peculiar to the Montenegrins.
+The Turks are, in this respect, just as bad, and Sir Gardner
+found, on the occasion of his visit to Mostar, that, in point of
+this barbarism, there is not a pin to choose between them. The
+Turks, however, exceed in cruelty. It appears, on the evidence
+of the letter of the Vladika, given in the second volume, that
+they (the Turks) impale men alive; whereas the Montenegrins are
+chargeable with no wanton cruelty. Indeed, they do not restrict the
+performance of this operation to the case of enemies; but, as an
+act of friendship, decapitate any comrade who may so be wounded in
+action as to have no other means of avoiding capture by the enemy.
+"You are very brave," said a well-meaning Montenegrin to a portly
+Russian officer, who was unable to keep up with his detachment in
+its retreat,--"you are very brave, _and must wish that I should cut
+off your head_: say a prayer, and make the sign of the cross."
+
+Life, passed amidst every hardship, and threatened by constant
+and deadly peril, ought, we suppose, according to all rule, to be
+short in duration. But we find that these people are remarkable for
+longevity. A family is mentioned, in one of the villages, which
+reckoned six generations, there and then extant. The head of the
+family was a great-great-great-grandfather.
+
+The Vladika received his visitor most courteously, as he always
+does those who have the privilege of being presented to him. He
+afforded to Sir Gardner every facility for seeing the country, and
+engaged his secretary to draw up for him a _precis_ of Montenegrin
+history. We will condense some of its more important facts. The
+supremacy in things spiritual and temporal has not been very long
+vested, as it at present is, in the person of the Vladika. The two
+chieftain-ships were of old distinct, and the figment of a separate
+temporal authority was continued till comparatively lately: the
+year 1832 is mentioned as the epoch at which the office of civil
+chief was definitely suppressed. The present family (Petrovich)
+have possessed the dignity of the Vladikate since the close of the
+seventeenth century. The reigning Vladika--this man of magnificent
+presentment--this brave, intellectual, and athletic ruler of an
+indomitable race--is nephew of the late Vladika, who has been
+canonised, although but few years have passed since his death.
+The prince-bishop is not theoretically absolute in power, as the
+form of a republic is kept up: the general assembly has the right
+of deliberation, under the presidency of the Vladika. But this
+restriction of power is pretty nearly nominal only: we give Sir
+Gardner's account of the native Diet.
+
+     "In a semicircular recess, formed by the rocks on one side of
+     the plain of Tzetinie, and about half a mile to the southward
+     of the town, is a level piece of grass land, with a thicket of
+     low poplar trees. Here the diet is held, from which the spot
+     has received the name of _mali sbor_ (the small assembly.)
+     When any matter is to be discussed, the people meet in this
+     their Runimede, or 'meadow of council,' and partly on the level
+     space, partly on the rocks, receive from the Vladika notice of
+     the question proposed. The duration of the discussion is limited
+     to a certain time, at the expiration of which the assembly is
+     expected to come to a decision; and when the monastery bell
+     orders silence, notwithstanding the most animated discussion, it
+     is instantly restored. The Metropolitan asks again what is their
+     decision, and whether they agree to his proposal or not. The
+     answer is always the same: '_Budi po to oyema, Vladika_,'--'Let
+     it be as thou wishest, Vladika.'"
+
+Montenegro first secured its independence about a generation or
+two before the time of the famous Scanderbeg, on the breaking up
+of the kingdom of Servia. Since that time they have constantly
+been subject to the inroads of the Turks, who, claiming them as
+tributaries, have continued to invade their country every now and
+then with savage cruelty. More than once they have carried fire and
+sword to Tzetinie, but have never been able to hold their ground.
+The Montenegrins sought the protection of Russia in the time of
+Peter the Great, and still continue to be subsidised by Russia. At
+the desire of Peter, they invaded the Turkish territory, and were
+subjected to reprisals on a grand scale. At one time 60,000 Turks,
+at another 120,000, broke into Montenegro. The first invasion was
+gloriously repulsed; but the second, combining treachery with
+violence, was successful. Great damage was done to the country; but
+the invaders were at last obliged to quit, on the breaking out of
+war between Turkey and Venice. The Montenegrins then returned to
+their desolate homes, and have since been unintermitting in their
+diligence to pay off old scores. They co-operated with the Austrians
+and Russians, when they had the opportunity of such assistance; and
+when they stood alone, they did so nobly and bravely. The last great
+expedition of the Turks was in the time of the late Vladika. The
+Pasha of Scutari, with an enormous force, invaded the country; and
+the result of the expedition was that 30,000 Turks were killed, and
+among them the Pasha of Albania, whose head now serves as a trophy
+of victory to decorate Tzetinie.
+
+The capital of the Vladika, has been described before--for instance,
+in the pages of this Magazine; so, with one brief extract concerning
+it, we will follow Sir Gardner in his progress through the country.
+
+     "On a rock immediately above the convent is a round tower
+     pierced with embrasures, but without cannon, on which I
+     counted the heads of twenty Turks fixed upon stakes round
+     the parapet--the trophies of Montenegrin victory; and below,
+     scattered upon the rock, were the fragments of other skulls,
+     which had fallen to pieces by time,--a strange spectacle in a
+     Christian country, in Europe, and in the immediate vicinity of a
+     convent and a bishop's palace!"
+
+And, as we said before, when he got to Mostar, in Herzegovina, he
+found a spectacle of the same shocking kind. He did allow his horror
+at this sight to evaporate ineffectually; but in earnest tried to
+interpose his good offices to prevent a continuance of these doings.
+He talked to the two people mainly concerned--_i. e._ to the Vizir
+of Herzegovina, and to the Vladika. He also, at Constantinople,
+endeavoured to effect the making of an appeal to the highest Turkish
+authority. His correspondence with the Vladika on the subject is
+evidence of his zeal; but no positive good seems to have been the
+result of his intercession.
+
+The road leading from the capital to Ostrok is described as being
+very bad at first, and bad beyond description as it recedes from
+the capital. The Vladika kindly sent with Sir Gardner one of his
+guards and an interpreter. The party passed by several villages, and
+arrived at Mishke, the principal village of the Cevo district, where
+they put up for the night at the house of the principal senator of
+the province. Here some amusement was afforded by Sir Gardner's
+proceeding to sketch the domestic party.
+
+In the course of the evening a scene occurred, which sets forth
+their social condition as graphically as the artist's pencil has
+their personal appearance. A party of friends came in to have a
+quiet pipe, and to plan a foray over the border.
+
+     "On inquiry, I found the expedition was to take place
+     immediately. "Is there not," I asked, "a truce at this moment
+     between you and the Turks of Herzegovina?" They laughed, and
+     seemed much amused at my scruples. "We don't mind that," said a
+     stern swarthy man, taking his pipe from his mouth, and shaking
+     his head to and fro; "they are Turks"--and all agreed that the
+     Turks were fair game. "Besides," they said, "it is only to be a
+     plundering excursion;" and they evidently considered that any
+     one refusing to join in a marauding expedition into Turkey, at
+     any time, or in an open attack during a war, would be unworthy
+     the name of a brave man. They seemed to treat the matter like
+     boys in "the good old times," who robbed orchards; the courage
+     it showed being in proportion to the risk, and scruples of
+     conscience were laughed at as a want of spirit."
+
+In a freshly-decapitated head, affixed to a stake at Mostar, he
+shortly afterwards recognised the features of one of these very men.
+
+On the next day he proceeded to Ostrok, and found occasion to
+admire the scenery by the way, especially the vale of Oranido,
+distant from Mishke about four hours. From the vale of Oranido to
+Ostrok is a journey of about the same time. At Ostrok he underwent
+a grand reception, and fully won the hearts of his new friends by
+proposing a ride to the Turkish frontier, and affording them by the
+way an exhibition of Memlook riding. On the frontier is constantly
+maintained a guard of Montenegrins, to give timely warning of any
+suspicious movement among the Turks; and so well do they execute
+this office that no Turk can approach the border without being shot
+at. Near this border it was that, some little time ago, in 1843, an
+affair took place which does not tell well for the Montenegrini; and
+which seems for the present to preclude hope of amicable arrangement
+with the Turks. A deputation of twenty-two Turks, returning from
+Ostrok, were attacked by the people, and nine of them killed.
+This breach of faith is, to their minds, excused by the suspicion
+of meditated treachery on the part of the Turks. But it is a sad
+affair; and the only circumstance which goes in mitigation of its
+guilt is, that the Vladika took precautions against its occurrence.
+He sent an armed guard to protect the deputation, but their defence
+proved insufficient.
+
+The Archimandrite of Ostrok is the person who holds the place of
+second dignity in the government. He ranks next to the Vladika; and
+we are glad to find, by Sir Gardner's account, that he cordially
+co-operates with the Vladika in his plans of amelioration. Here also
+was met the celebrated priest and warrior, Ivan Knezovich, or Pope
+Yovan--a man who, in this nation of brave men, is renowned as the
+bravest. There are two convents at Ostrok, of which one fulfils also
+the function of powder magazine and store depot. Its position is
+very remarkable; and certainly it does bear a strong family likeness
+to Megaspelion. The same quality of not being within reach of any
+missile from above belongs to both of them, and has proved the
+saving of both.
+
+The return to Tzetinie was by a different route, which took Sir
+Gardner within near view of the northern end of the lake of Scutari.
+The island of Vranina, situated at this extremity of the lake, is
+likely to afford the next ostensible ground for an outbreak. It
+belonged to Montenegro, but, a few years ago, was treacherously
+seized by the Albanians, who effected a surprise in time of peace.
+Remonstrances and hard blows have equally failed to promote a
+restoration, _et adhuc sub judice lis est_. Throughout the course
+of his journey, Sir Gardner experienced much and genuine kindness
+from the rude people of the country; they brought him presents of
+such things as they had to offer, and would accept no compensation.
+When at last he bade them farewell, and returned to the haunts of
+civilisation, it was evidently with kindly recollections of them,
+and with the best of good-will towards them. He was able to give a
+satisfactory account of his impressions to the Vladika, who inquired
+thus,--"What do you think of the people? Do they appear to you the
+assassins and barbarians some people pretend to consider them? I
+hope you found them all well-behaved and civil--they are poor, but
+that does not prevent their being hospitable and generous."
+
+
+
+
+MODERN BIOGRAPHY.
+
+BEATTIE'S LIFE OF CAMPBELL.
+
+     _Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell._ Edited by WILLIAM
+     BEATTIE, M.D., one of his Executors. 3 vols. London: Moxon, 1849.
+
+
+The ancients, who lived beyond the reach of the fangs and feelers of
+the printing press, had, in one respect, a decided advantage over us
+unlucky moderns. They were not beset by the terrors of biography.
+No hideous suspicion that, after he was dead and gone--after the
+wine had been poured upon the hissing embers of the pyre, and the
+ashes consigned, by the hands of weeping friends, to the oblivion
+of the funereal urn--some industrious gossip of his acquaintance
+would incontinently sit down to the task of laborious compilation
+and collection of his literary scraps, ever crossed, like a sullen
+shadow, the imagination of the Greek or the Latin poet. Homer,
+though Arctinus was his near relative, could unbosom himself without
+the fear of having his frailties posthumously exposed, or his amours
+blazoned to the world. Lucius Varius and Plotius Tucca, the literary
+executors of Virgil, never dreamed of applying to Pollio for the I O
+Us which he doubtless held in the handwriting of the Mantuan bard,
+or to Horace for the confidential notes suggestive of Falernian
+inspiration. Socrates, indeed, has found a liberal reporter in
+Plato; but this is a pardonable exception. The son of Sophroniscus
+did not write; and therefore it was incumbent on his pupil to
+preserve for posterity the fragments of his oral wisdom. The ancient
+authors rested their reputation upon their published works alone.
+They knew, what we seem to forget, that the poet, apart from his
+genius, is but an ordinary man, and, in many cases, has received,
+along with that gift, a larger share of propensities and weaknesses
+than his fellow-mortals. Therefore it was that they insisted upon
+that right of domestic privacy which is common to us all. The poet,
+in his public capacity as an author, held himself responsible for
+what he wrote; but he had no idea of allowing the whole world to
+walk into his house, open his desk, read his love-letters, and
+criticise the state of his finances. Had Varius and Tucca acted on
+the modern system, the ghost of Virgil would have haunted them on
+their death-beds. Only think what a legacy might have been ours if
+these respectable gentlemen had written to Cremona for anecdotes of
+the poet while at school! No doubt, in some private nook of the old
+farm-house at Andes, there were treasured up, through the infinite
+love of the mother, tablets scratched over with verses, composed
+by young Master Maro at the precocious age of ten. We may, to a
+certainty, calculate--for maternal fondness always has been the
+same, and Virgil was an only child--that, in that emporium, themes
+upon such topics as "Virtus est sola nobilitas" were religiously
+treasured, along with other memorials of the dear, dear boy who
+had gone to college at Naples. Modern Varius would remorselessly
+have printed these: ancient Tucca was more discreet. Then what say
+you to the college career? Would it not be a nice thing to have
+all the squibs and feuds, the rows and rackettings of the jovial
+student preserved to us precisely as they were penned, projected,
+and perpetrated? Have we not lost a great deal in being defrauded of
+an account of the manner in which he singed the wig of his drunken
+old tutor, Parthenius Nicenus, or the scandalously late hours which
+he kept in company with his especial chums? Then comes the period,
+darkly hinted at by Donatus, during which he was, somehow or other,
+connected with the imperial stable; that is, we presume, upon the
+turf. What would we not give for a sight of Virgil's betting-book!
+Did he back the field, or did he take the odds on the Emperor's bay
+mare, Alma Venus Genetrix? How stood he with the legs? What sort of
+reputation did he maintain in the ring of the Roman Tattersall? Was
+he ever posted as a defaulter? Tucca! you should have told us this.
+Then, when sobered down, and in high favour with the court, where is
+the private correspondence between him and Maecenas, the President
+of the Roman Agricultural Society, touching the compilation of
+the Georgics? The excellent Equestrian, we know, wanted Virgil to
+construct a poem, such as Thomas Tusser afterwards wrote, under the
+title of a "_Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie_," and, doubtless,
+waxed warm in his letters about draining, manure, and mangel-wurzel.
+What sacrifice would we not make to place that correspondence in the
+hands of Henry Stephens! How the author of the _Book of the Farm_
+would revel in his exposure of the crude theories of the Minister
+of the Interior! What a formidable phalanx of facts would he oppose
+to Maecenas' misconceptions of guano! Through the sensitive delicacy
+of his executors, we have lost the record of Virgil's repeated
+larks with Horace: the pleasant little supper-parties celebrated at
+the villa of that dissipated rogue Tibullus, have passed from the
+memory of mankind. We know nothing of the state of his finances, for
+they have not thought fit to publish his banking-account with the
+firm of Lollius, Spuraena, and Company. Their duty, as they fondly
+believed, was fulfilled, when they gave to the world the glorious
+but unfinished AEneid.
+
+Under the modern system, we constantly ask ourselves whether it
+is wise to wish for greatness, and whether total oblivion is not
+preferable to fame, with the penalty of exposure annexed. We shudder
+at the thoughts of putting out a book, not from fear of anything
+that the critics can do, but lest it should take with the public,
+and expose us to the danger of a posthumous biography. Were we
+to awake some fine morning, and find ourselves famous, our peace
+of mind would be gone for ever. Mercy on us! what a quantity of
+foolish letters have we not written during the days of our youth,
+under the confident impression that, when read, they would be
+immediately committed to the flames. Madrigals innumerable recur to
+our memory; and, if these were published, there would be no rest
+for us in the grave! If any misguided critic should say of us, "The
+works of this author are destined to descend to posterity," our
+response would be a hollow groan. If convinced that our biography
+would be attempted, from that hour the friend of our bosom would
+appear in the light of a base and ignominious spy. How durst we
+ever unbosom ourselves to him, when, for aught we know, the wretch
+may be treasuring up our casual remarks over the fifth tumbler,
+for immediate registration at home? Constitutionally we are not
+hard-hearted; but, were we so situated, we own that the intimation
+of the decease of each early acquaintance would be rather a relief
+than otherwise. Tom, our intimate fellow-student at college, dies.
+We may be sorry for the family of Thomas, but we soon wipe away the
+natural drops, discovering that there is balm in Gilead. We used to
+write him letters, detailing minutely our inward emotions at the
+time we were distractedly in love with Jemima Higginbotham; and Tom,
+who was always a methodical dog, has no doubt docqueted them as
+received. Tom's heirs will doubtless be too keen upon the scent of
+valuables, to care one farthing for rhapsodising: therefore, unless
+they are sent to the snuff-merchant, or disseminated as autographs,
+our epistles run a fair chance of perishing by the flames, and one
+evidence of our weakness is removed. A member of the club meets
+us in George Street, and, with a rueful longitude of countenance,
+asks us if we have heard of the death of poor Harry? To the eternal
+disgrace of human nature, be it recorded, that our heart leaps up
+within us like a foot-ball, as we hypocritically have recourse to
+our cambric. Harry knew a great deal too much about our private
+history just before we joined the Yeomanry, and could have told some
+stories, little flattering to our posthumous renown.
+
+Are we not right, then, in holding that, under the present system,
+celebrity is a thing to be eschewed? Why is it that we are so chary
+of receiving certain Down-Easters, so different from the real
+American gentlemen whom it is our good fortune to know? Simply
+because Silas Fixings will take down your whole conversation
+in black and white, deliberately alter it to suit his private
+purposes, and Transatlantically retail it as a specimen of your
+life and opinions. And is it not a still more horrible idea that a
+Silas may be perpetually watching you in the shape of a pretended
+friend? If the man would at once declare his intention, you might
+be comparatively at ease. Even in that case you never could love
+him more, for the confession implies a disgusting determination of
+outliving you, or rather a hint that your health is not remarkably
+robust, which would irritate the meekest of mankind. But you
+might be enabled, through a strong effort, to repress the outward
+exhibition of your wrath; and, if high religious principle should
+deter you from mixing strychnia or prussic acid with the wine of
+your volunteering executor, you may at least contrive to blind
+him by cautiously maintaining your guard. Were we placed in such
+a trying position, we should utter, before our intending Boswell,
+nothing save sentiments which might have flowed from the lips of the
+Venerable Bede. What letters, full of morality and high feeling,
+would we not indite! Not an invitation to dinner--not an acceptance
+of a tea and turn-out, but should be flavoured with some wholesome
+apothegm. Thus we should strive, through our later correspondence,
+to efface the memory of the earlier, which it is impossible to
+recall,--not without a hope that we might throw upon it, if
+posthumously produced, a tolerable imputation of forgery.
+
+In these times, we repeat, no man of the least mark or likelihood
+is safe. The waiter with the bandy-legs, who hands round the
+negus-tray at a blue-stocking coterie, is in all probability a
+leading contributor to a fifth-rate periodical; and, in a few days
+after you have been rash enough to accept the insidious beverage,
+M'Tavish will be correcting the proof of an article in which your
+appearance and conversation are described. Distrust the gentleman
+in the plush terminations; he, too, is a penny-a-liner, and keeps
+a commonplace-book in the pantry. Better give up writing at once
+than live in such a perpetual state of bondage. What amount of
+present fame can recompense you for being shown up as a noodle, or
+worse, to your children's children? Nay, recollect this, that you
+are implicating your personal, and, perhaps, most innocent friends.
+Bob accompanies you home from an insurance society dinner, where
+the champagne has been rather superabundant, and, next morning,
+you, as a bit of fun, write to the President that the watchman had
+picked up Bob in a state of helpless inebriety from the kennel.
+The President, after the manner of the Fogies, duly docquets your
+note with name and date, and puts it up with a parcel of others,
+secured by red tape. You die. Your literary executor writes to the
+President, stating his biographical intentions, and requesting all
+documents that may tend to throw light upon your personal history.
+Preses, in deep ecstasy at the idea of seeing his name in print as
+the recipient of your epistolary favours, immediately transmits the
+packet; and the consequence is, that Robert is most unjustly handed
+down to posterity in the character of a habitual drunkard, although
+it is a fact that a more abstinent creature never went home to his
+wife at ten. If you are an author, and your spouse is ailing, don't
+give the details to your intimate friend, if you would not wish
+to publish them to the world. Drop all correspondence, if you are
+wise, and have any ambition to stand well in the eyes of the coming
+generation. Let your conversation be as curt as a Quaker's, and
+select no one for a friend, unless you have the meanest possible
+opinion of his capacity. Even in that case you are hardly secure.
+Perhaps the best mode of combining philanthropy, society, and
+safety, is to have nobody in the house, save an old woman who is so
+utterly deaf that you must order your dinner by pantomime.
+
+One mode of escape suggests itself, and we do not hesitate to
+recommend it. Let every man who underlies the terror of the _peine
+forte et dure_, compile his own autobiography at the ripe age of
+forty-five. Few people, in this country, begin to establish a
+permanent reputation before thirty; and we allow them fifteen years
+to complete it. Now, supposing your existence should be protracted
+to seventy, here are clear five-and-twenty years remaining, which
+may be profitably employed in autobiography, by which means you
+secure three vast advantages. In the first place, you can deal
+with your own earlier history as you please, and provide against
+the subsequent production of inconvenient documents. In the second
+place, you defeat the intentions of your excellent friend and
+gossip, who will hardly venture to start his volumes in competition
+with your own. In the third place, you leave an additional copyright
+as a legacy to your children, and are not haunted in your last
+moments by the agonising thought that a stranger in name and blood
+is preparing to make money by your decease. It is, of course,
+unnecessary to say one word regarding the general tone of your
+memoirs. If you cannot contrive to block out such a fancy portrait
+of your intellectual self as shall throw all others into the shade,
+you may walk on fearlessly through life, for your biography never
+will be attempted. Goethe, the most accomplished literary fox of our
+age, perfectly understood the value of these maxims, and forestalled
+his friends, by telling his own story in time. The consequence
+is, that his memory has escaped unharmed. Little Eckermann, his
+amanuensis in extreme old age, did indeed contrive to deliver
+himself of a small Boswellian volume; but this publication, bearing
+reference merely to the dicta of Goethe at a safe period of life,
+could not injure the departed poet. The repetition of the early
+history, and the publication of the early documents, are the points
+to be especially guarded.
+
+We beg that these remarks may be considered, not as strictures upon
+any individual example, but as bearing upon the general style of
+modern biography. This is a gossiping world, in which great men are
+the exceptions; and when one of these ceases to exist, the public
+becomes clamorous to learn the whole minutiae of his private life.
+That is a depraved taste, and one which ought not to be gratified.
+The author is to be judged by the works which he voluntarily
+surrenders to the public, not by the tenor of his private history,
+which ought not to be irreverently exposed. Thus, in compiling the
+life of a poet, we maintain that a literary executor has purely a
+literary function to perform. Out of the mass of materials which
+he may fortuitously collect, his duty is to select such portions
+as may illustrate the public doings of the man: he may, without
+transgressing the boundaries of propriety, inform us of the
+circumstances which suggested the idea of any particular work,
+the difficulties which were overcome by the author in the course
+of its composition, and even exhibit the correspondence relative
+thereto. These are matters of literary history which we may ask
+for, and obtain, without any breach of the conventional rules of
+society. Whatever refers to public life is public, and may be
+printed: whatever refers solely to domestic existence is private,
+and ought to be held sacred. A very little reflection, we think,
+will demonstrate the propriety of this distinction. If we have
+a dear and valued friend, to whom, in the hours of adversity or
+of joy, we are wont to communicate the thoughts which lie at the
+bottom of our soul, we write to him in the full conviction that he
+will regard these letters as addressed to himself alone. We do not
+insult him, nor wrong the holy attributes of friendship so much, as
+to warn him against communicating our thoughts to any one else in
+the world. We never dream that he will do so, else assuredly those
+letters never would have been written. If we were to discover that
+we had so grievously erred as to repose confidence in a person who,
+the moment he received a letter penned in a paroxysm of emotion
+and revealing a secret of our existence, was capable of exhibiting
+it to the circle of his acquaintance, of a surety he should never
+more be troubled with any of our correspondence. Would any man dare
+to print such documents during the life of the writer? We need not
+pause for a reply: there can be but one. And _why_ is this? Because
+these communications bear on their face the stamp of the strictest
+privacy--because they were addressed to, and meant for the eye
+of but one human being in the universe--because they betray the
+emotions of a soul which asks sympathy from a friend, with only
+less reverence than it implores comfort from its God! Does death,
+then, free the friend and the confidant from all restraint? If the
+knowledge that his secret had been divulged, his agonies exposed,
+his weaknesses surrendered to the vulgar gaze, could have pained
+the living man--is nothing due to his memory, now that he is laid
+beneath the turf, now that his voice can never more be raised to
+upbraid a violated confidence? Many modern biographers, we regret
+to say, do not appear to be influenced by any such consideration.
+They never seem to have asked themselves the question--Would my
+friend, if he had been compiling his own memoirs, have inserted such
+a letter for publication--does it not refer to a matter eminently
+private and personal, and never to be communicated to the world?
+Instead of applying this test, they print everything, and rather
+plume themselves on their impartiality in suppressing nothing.
+They thus exhibit the life not only of the author but of the man.
+Literary and personal history are blended together. The senator is
+not only exhibited in the House of Commons, but we are courteously
+invited to attend at the _accouchement_ of his wife.
+
+What title has any of us, in the abstract, to write the private
+history of his next-door neighbour? Be he poet, lawyer, physician,
+or divine, his private sayings and doings are his property, not that
+of a gaping and curious public. No man dares to say to another,
+"Come, my good fellow! it is full time that the world should know a
+little about your domestic concerns. I have been keeping a sort of
+note-book of your proceedings ever since we were at school together,
+and I intend to make a few pounds by exhibiting you in your true
+colours. You recollect when you were in love with old Tomnoddy's
+daughter? I have written a capital account of your interview with
+her that fine forenoon in the Botanical Gardens! True, she jilted
+you, and went off with young Heavystern of the Dragoons, but the
+public won't relish the scene a bit the less on that account. Then I
+have got some letters of yours from our mutual friend Fitzjaw. How
+very hard-up you must have been at the time when you supplicated him
+for twenty pounds to keep you out of jail! You were rather severe,
+the other day when I met you at dinner, upon your professional
+brother Jenkinson; but I daresay that what you said was all very
+true, so I shall publish that likewise. By the way--how is your
+wife? She had a lot of money, had she not? At all events people say
+so, and it is shrewdly surmised that you did not marry her for her
+beauty. I don't mean to say that _I_ think so, but such is the _on
+dit_, and I have set it down accordingly in my journal. Do, pray,
+tell me about that quarrel between you and your mother-in-law! Is
+it true that she threw a joint-stool at your head? How our friends
+will roar when they see the details in print!" Is the case less
+flagrant if the manuscript is not sent to press, until our neighbour
+is deposited in his coffin? We cannot perceive the difference. If
+the feelings of living people are to be taken as the criterion, only
+one of the domestic actors is removed from the stage of existence.
+Old Tomnoddy still lives, and may not be abundantly gratified at the
+fact of his daughter's infidelity and elopement being proclaimed.
+The intimation of the garden scene, hitherto unknown to Heavystern,
+may fill his warlike bosom with jealousy, and ultimately occasion
+a separation. Fitzjaw can hardly complain, but he will be very
+furious at finding his refusal to accommodate a friend appended to
+the supplicating letter. Jenkinson is only sorry that the libeller
+is dead, otherwise he would have treated him to an action in the
+Jury Court. The widow believes that she was made a bride solely for
+the sake of her Californian attractions, and reviles the memory
+of her spouse. As for the mother-in-law, now gradually dwindling
+into dotage, her feelings are perhaps of no great consequence to
+any human being. Nevertheless, when the obnoxious paragraph in the
+Memoirs is read to her by a shrill female companion, nature makes a
+temporary rally, her withered frame shakes with agitation, and she
+finally falls backward in a fit of hopeless paralysis.
+
+Such is a feeble picture of the results that might ensue from
+private biography, were we all permitted, without reservation, to
+parade the lives and domestic circumstances of our neighbours to
+a greedy and gloating world. Not but that, if our neighbour has
+been a man of sufficient distinction to deserve commemoration,
+we may gracefully and skilfully narrate all of him that is worth
+the knowing. We may point to his public actions, expatiate on
+his achievements, and recount the manner in which he gained his
+intellectual renown; but further we ought not to go. The confidences
+of the dead should be as sacred as those of the living. And here we
+may observe, that there are other parties quite as much to blame
+as the biographers in question. We allude to the friends of the
+deceased, who have unscrupulously furnished them with materials. Is
+it not the fact that in very many cases they have divulged letters
+which, during the writer's lifetime, they would have withheld from
+the nearest and dearest of their kindred? In many such letters
+there occur observations and reflections upon living characters,
+not written in malice, but still such as were never intended to
+meet the eyes of the parties criticised; and these are forthwith
+published, as racy passages, likely to gratify the appetite of a
+coarse, vulgar, and inordinate curiosity. Even this is not the
+worst. Survivors may grieve to learn that the friend whom they
+loved was capable of ridiculing or misrepresenting them in secret,
+and his memory may suffer in their estimation; but, put the case
+of detailed private conversations, which are constantly foisted
+into modern biographies, and we shall immediately discover that the
+inevitable tendency is to engender dislikes among living parties.
+Let us suppose that three men, all of them professional authors,
+meet at a dinner party. The conversation is very lively, takes a
+literary turn, and the three gentlemen, with that sportive freedom
+which is very common in a society where no treachery is apprehended,
+pass some rather poignant strictures upon the writings or habits of
+their contemporaries. One of them either keeps a journal, or is in
+the habit of writing, for the amusement of a confidential friend
+at a distance, any literary gossip which may be current, and he
+commits to paper the heads of the recent dialogue. He dies, and his
+literary executor immediately pounces upon the document, and, to
+the confusion of the two living critics, prints it. Every literary
+brother whom they have noticed is of course their enemy for life.
+
+If, in private society, a snob is discovered retailing
+conversations, he is forthwith cut without compunction. He reads his
+detection in the calm, cold scorn of your eye; and, referring to the
+mirror of his own dim and dirty conscience, beholds the reflection
+of a hound. The biographer seems to consider himself exempt from
+such social secresy. He shelters himself under the plea that the
+public are so deeply interested, that they must not be deprived of
+any memorandum, anecdote, or jotting, told, written, or detailed by
+the gifted subject of their memoirs. Therefore it is not a prudent
+thing to be familiar with a man of genius. He may not betray your
+confidence, but you can hardly trust to the tender mercies of his
+chronicler.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such are our deliberate views upon the subject of biography, and we
+state them altogether independent of the three bulky volumes which
+are now lying before us for review.
+
+We cordially admit that it was right and proper that a life of Campbell
+should be written. Although he did not occupy the same commanding
+position as others of his renowned contemporaries--although his
+writings have not, like those of Scott, Byron, and Southey,
+contributed powerfully to give a tone and idiosyncrasy to the
+general literature of the age--Campbell was nevertheless a man of
+rich genius, and a poet of remarkable accomplishment. It would not
+be easy to select, from the works of any other writer of our time,
+so many brilliant and polished gems, without flaw or imperfection,
+as are to be found amongst his minor poems. Criticism, in dealing
+with these exquisite lyrics, is at fault. If sometimes the suspicion
+of a certain effeminacy haunts us, we have but to turn the page,
+and we arrive at some magnificent, bold, and trumpet-toned ditty,
+appealing directly from the heart of the poet to the imagination of
+his audience, and proving, beyond all contest, that power was his
+glorious attribute. True, he was unequal; and towards the latter
+part of his career, exhibited a marked failing in the qualities
+which originally secured his renown. It is almost impossible to
+believe that the _Pilgrim of Glencoe_, or even _Theodric_, was
+composed by the author of the _Pleasures of Hope_ or _Gertrude_; and
+if you place the _Ritter Bann_ beside _Hohenlinden_ or the _Battle
+of the Baltic_, you cannot fail to be struck with the singular
+diminution of power. Campbell started from a high point--walked for
+some time along level or undulating ground--and then began rapidly
+to descend. This is not, as some idle critics have maintained, the
+common course of genius. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton,
+Dryden, Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth, are remarkable instances to
+the contrary. Whatever may have been the promise of their youth,
+their matured performances, eclipsing their earlier efforts, show us
+that genius is capable of almost boundless cultivation, and that the
+fire of the poet does not cease to burn less brightly within him,
+because the sable of his hair is streaked with gray, or the furrows
+deepening on his brow. Sir Walter Scott was upwards of thirty
+before he began to compose in earnest: after thirty, Campbell wrote
+scarcely anything which has added permanently to his reputation.
+Extreme sensitiveness, an over-strained and fastidious desire of
+polishing, and sometimes the pressure of outward circumstances, may
+have combined to damp his early ardour. He evidently was deficient
+in that resolute pertinacity of labour, through which alone great
+results can be achieved. He allowed the best years of his life to
+be frittered away, in pursuits which could not secure to him either
+additional fame, or the more substantial rewards of fortune: and,
+though far from being actually idle, he was only indolently active.
+Campbell wanted an object in life. Thus, though gifted with powers
+which, directed towards one point, were capable of the highest
+concentration, we find him scattering these in the most desultory
+and careless manner; and surrendering scheme after scheme, without
+making the vigorous effort which was necessary to secure their
+completion. This is a fault by no means uncommon in literature,
+but one which is highly dangerous. No work requiring great mental
+exertion should be undertaken rashly, for the enthusiasm which
+has prompted it rapidly subsides, the labour becomes distasteful
+to the writer, and unless he can bend himself to his task with
+the most dogged perseverance, and a determination to vanquish all
+obstacles, the result will be a fragment or a failure. Of this we
+find two notable instances recorded in the book before us. Twice
+in his life had Campbell meditated the construction of a great
+poem, and twice did he relinquish the task. Of the _Queen of the
+North_ but a few lines remain: of his favourite projected epic on
+the subject of Wallace, nothing. Elegant trifles, sportive verses,
+and playful epigrams were, for many years, the last fruits of that
+genius which had dictated the _Pleasures of Hope_, and rejoiced the
+mariners of England with a ballad worthy of the theme. And yet, so
+powerful is early association--so universal was the recognition of
+the transcendant genius of the boy, that when Campbell sank into
+the grave, there was lamentation as though a great poet had been
+stricken down in his prime, and all men felt that a brilliant light
+had gone out among the luminaries of the age. Therefore it was
+seemly that his memory should receive that homage which has been
+rendered to others less deserving of it, and that his public career,
+at least, should be traced and given to the world.
+
+It was Campbell's own wish that Dr Beattie should undertake his
+biography. Few perhaps knew the motives which led to this selection;
+for the assiduity, care, and filial attachment, bestowed for years
+by the warm-hearted physician upon the poet, was as unostentatious
+as it was honourable and devoted. Not from the pages of this
+biography can the reader form an adequate idea of the extent and
+value of such disinterested friendship: indeed it is not too much
+to say, that the rare and exemplary kindness of Dr Beattie was
+the chief consolation of Campbell during the later period of his
+existence. It was therefore natural that the dying poet should have
+confided this trust to one of whose affection he was assured by so
+many rare and signal proofs; and it is with a kindly feeling to the
+author that we now approach the consideration of the literary merits
+of the book.
+
+The admiration of Dr Beattie for the genius of Campbell has in some
+respects led him astray. It is easy to see at a glance that his
+measure of admiration is not of an ordinary kind, but so excessive
+as to lead him beyond all limit. He seems to have regarded Campbell
+not merely as a great poet, but as the great poet of the age; and
+he is unwilling, aesthetically, to admit any material diminution of
+his powers. He still clings with a certain faith to _Theodric_; and
+declines to perceive any palpable failure even in the _Pilgrim of
+Glencoe_. Verses and fragments which, to the casual reader, convey
+anything but the impression of excellence, are liberally distributed
+throughout the pages of the third volume, and commented on with
+evident rapture. He seems to think that, in the case of his author,
+it may be said, "_Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit_;" and accordingly
+he is slow to suppress, even where suppression would have been of
+positive advantage. In short, he is too full of his subject to do
+it justice. In the hands of a skilful and less biassed artisan, the
+materials which occupy these three volumes, extending to nearly
+fourteen hundred pages of print, might have been condensed into
+one highly interesting and popular volume. We should not then, it
+is true, have been favoured with specimens of Campbell's college
+exercises, with the voluminous chronicles of his family, with
+verses written at the age of eleven, or with correspondence purely
+domestic; but we firmly believe that the reading public would have
+been grateful to Dr Beattie, had he omitted a great deal of matter
+connected with the poet's earlier career, which is of no interest
+whatever. The Campbells of Kirnan were, we doubt not, a highly
+respectable sept, and performed their duty as kirk-elders for many
+generations blamelessly in the parish of Glassary. But it was not
+necessary on that account to trace their descent from the Black
+Knight Of Lochawe, or to give the particular history of the family
+for more than a century and a half. Gillespic-le-Camile may have
+been a fine fellow in his day; but we utterly deny, in the teeth
+of all the Campbells and Kembles in the world, that he had a drop
+of Norman blood in his veins. It is curious to find the poet, at a
+subsequent period, engaged in a correspondence, as to the common
+ancestor of these names, with one of the Kembles, who, as Mrs Butler
+somewhere triumphantly avers, were descended from the lords of
+Campo-bello. Where that favoured region may be, we know not; but
+this we know, that in Gaelic _Cambeul_ signifies _wry-mouth_, and
+hence, as is the custom with primitive nations, the origin of the
+name. And let not the sons of Diarmid be offended at this, or esteem
+their glories less, since the gallant Camerons owe their name to a
+similar conformation of the nose, and the Douglases to their dark
+complexion. Having put this little matter of family etymology right,
+let us return to Dr Beattie.
+
+The first volume, we maintain, is terribly overloaded by trivial
+details, and specimens of the kind to which we have alluded. We
+need not enter into these, except in so far as to state that Thomas
+Campbell was the youngest child of most respectable parents: that
+his father, having been unfortunate in business, was so reduced
+in circumstances, that, whilst attending Glasgow College, the
+young student was compelled to have recourse to teaching; that he
+acquitted himself admirably, and to the satisfaction of all his
+professors in the literary classes; and that, for one vacation at
+least, he resided as private tutor to a family in the island of
+Mull. He was then about eighteen, and had already exhibited symptoms
+of a rare poetical talent, particularly in translations from the
+Greek. Dr Beattie's zeal as a biographer may be gathered from the
+following statement:--
+
+"I applied last year to the Rev. Dr M'Arthur, of Kilninian in Mull,
+requesting him to favour me with such traditional particulars
+regarding the poet as might still be current among the old
+inhabitants; but I regret to say that nothing of interest has
+resulted. 'In the course of my inquiries,' he says, 'I have met with
+only two individuals who had seen Mr Campbell while he was in Mull,
+and the amount of their information is merely that he was _a very
+pretty young man_. Those who must have been personally acquainted
+with him in this country, have, like himself, descended into the
+tomb; so that no authentic anecdotes of him can now be procured in
+this quarter.'"
+
+There is a simplicity in this which has amused us greatly. Campbell,
+in those days, was conspicuous for nothing--at least, for no
+accomplishment which could be appreciated in that distant island.
+In all probability two-thirds of the inhabitants of the parish were
+Campbells, who expired in utter ignorance of the art of writing
+their names; so that to ask for literary anecdotes, at the distance
+of half a century, was rather a work of supererogation.
+
+For two years more, Campbell led a life of great uncertainty. He was
+naturally averse to the drudgery of teaching--an employment which
+never can be congenial to a poetical and creative nature. He had no
+decided predilection for any of the learned professions; for though
+he alternately betook himself to the study of law, physic, and
+divinity, it was hardly with a serious purpose. He visited Edinburgh
+in search of literary employment, was for some time a clerk in a
+writer's office, and, through the kindness of the late Dr Anderson,
+editor of a collection of the British poets,--a man who was ever
+eager to acknowledge and encourage genius,--he received his first
+introduction to a bookselling firm. From them he received some
+little employment, but not of a nature suited to his taste; and we
+soon afterwards find him in Glasgow, meditating the establishment of
+a magazine--a scheme which proved utterly abortive.
+
+In the mean time, however, he had not been idle. At the age of
+twenty the poetical instinct is active, and, even though no audience
+can be found, the muse will force its way. Campbell had already
+translated two plays of AEschylus and Euripides--an exercise which
+no doubt developed largely his powers of versification--and,
+further, had begun to compose original lyric verses. In the foreign
+edition of his works, there is inserted a poem called the Dirge
+of Wallace, written about this period, which, with a very little
+concentration, might have been rendered as perfect as any of his
+later compositions. In spirit and energy it is assuredly inferior to
+none of them. "But," says Dr Beattie, "the fastidious author, who
+thought it too rhapsodical, never bestowed a careful revision upon
+it, and persisted in excluding it from all the London editions." We
+hope to see it restored to its proper place in the next: in the mean
+time we select the following noble stanzas:--
+
+    "They lighted the tapers at dead of night,
+       And chaunted their holiest hymn:
+     But her brow and her bosom were damp with affright,
+       Her eye was all sleepless and dim!
+     And the Lady of Ellerslie wept for her lord,
+       When a death-watch beat in her lonely room,
+     When her curtain had shook of its own accord,
+     And the raven had flapped at her window board,
+       To tell of her warrior's doom.
+
+    "'Now sing ye the death-song, and loudly pray
+       For the soul of my knight so dear!
+     And call me a widow this wretched day,
+       Since the warning of GOD is here.
+     For a nightmare rests on my strangled sleep;
+       The lord of my bosom is doomed to die!
+     His valorous heart they have wounded deep,
+     And the blood-red tears shall his country weep
+       For Wallace of Ellerslie!'
+
+    "Yet knew not his country, that ominous hour--
+       Ere the loud matin-bell was rung--
+     That the trumpet of death, from an English tower,
+       Had the dirge of her champion sung.
+     When his dungeon-light looked dim and red
+       On the highborn blood of a martyr slain,
+     No anthem was sung at his lowly death-bed--
+     No weeping was there when _his_ bosom bled,
+       And is heart was rent in twain.
+
+    "Oh! it was not thus when his ashen spear
+       Was true to that knight forlorn,
+     And hosts of a thousand wore scattered like deer
+       At the blast of a hunter's horn;
+     _When he strode o'er the wreck of each well-fought field,
+       With the yellow-haired chiefs of his native land;_
+     _For his lance was not shivered on helmet or shield,
+     And the sword that was fit for archangel to wield
+       Was light in his terrible hand!_
+
+    "Yet, bleeding and bound, though the Wallace wight
+       For his long-loved country die,
+     The bugle ne'er sung to a braver knight
+       Than William of Ellerslie!
+     But the day of his triumphs shall never depart;
+       His head, unentombed, shall with glory be palmed--
+     From its blood-streaming altar his spirit shall start;
+     Though the raven has fed on his mouldering heart,
+       A nobler was never embalmed!"
+
+Nothing can be finer than the lines we have quoted in Italics, nor
+perhaps did Campbell himself ever match them. Local reputations are
+dearly cherished in the west of Scotland, and even at this early
+period our poet was denominated "the Pope of Glasgow."
+
+Again Campbell migrated to Edinburgh, but still with no fixed
+determination as to the choice of a profession: his intention was
+to attend the public lectures at the University, and also to push
+his connexion with the booksellers, so as to obtain the means of
+livelihood. Failing this last resource, he contemplated removing
+to America, in which country his eldest brother was permanently
+settled. Fortunately for himself, he now made the acquaintance
+of several young men who were destined afterwards to attract the
+public observation, and to win great names in different branches
+of literature. Among these were Scott, Brougham, Leyden, Jeffrey,
+Dr Thomas Brown, and Grahame, the author of _The Sabbath_. Mr
+John Richardson, who had the good fortune to remain through life
+the intimate friend both of Scott and Campbell, was also, at this
+early period, the chosen companion of the latter, and contributed
+much, by his judicious counsels and criticisms, to nerve the poet
+for that successful effort which, shortly afterwards, took the
+world of letters by storm. Dr Anderson also continued his literary
+superintendence, and anxiously watched over the progress of the new
+poem upon which Campbell was now engaged. At length, in 1799, the
+_Pleasures of Hope_ appeared.
+
+Rarely has any volume of poetry met with such rapid success.
+Campbell had few living rivals of established reputation to contend
+with; and the freshness of his thought, the extreme sweetness of his
+numbers, and the fine taste which pervaded the whole composition,
+fell like magic on the ear of the public, and won their immediate
+approbation. It is true that, as a speculation, this volume did
+not prove remarkably lucrative to the author: he had disposed of
+the copyright before publication for a sum of sixty pounds, but,
+through the liberality of the publishers, he received for some
+years a further sum on the issue of each edition. The book was
+certainly worth a great deal more; but many an author would be glad
+to surrender all claim for profit on his first adventure, could he
+be assured of such valuable popularity as Campbell now acquired.
+He presently became a lion in Edinburgh society; and, what was far
+better, he secured the countenance and friendship of such men as
+Dugald Stewart, Henry Mackenzie, Dr Gregory, the Rev. Archibald
+Alison, and Telford, the celebrated engineer. It is pleasant to know
+that the friendships so formed were interrupted only by death.
+
+Campbell had now, to use a common but familiar phrase, the
+ball at his foot, but never did there live a man less capable
+of appreciating opportunity. At an age when most young men are
+students, he had won fame--fame, too, in such measure and of such a
+kind as secured him against reaction, or the possibility of a speedy
+neglect following upon so rapid a success. Had he deliberately
+followed up his advantage with anything like ordinary diligence,
+fortune as well as fame would have been his immediate reward. Like
+Aladdin, he was in possession of a talisman which could open to him
+the cavern in which a still greater treasure was contained; but he
+shrunk from the labour which was indispensable for the effort. He
+either could not or would not summon up sufficient resolution to
+betake himself to a new task; but, under the pretext of improving
+his mind by travel, gave way to his erratic propensities, and
+departed for the Continent with a slender purse, and, as usual, no
+fixity of purpose.
+
+We confess that the portion of his correspondence which relates
+to this expedition does not appear to us remarkably interesting.
+He resided chiefly at Ratisbon, where his time appears to have
+been tolerably equally divided between writing lyrics for the
+_Morning Chronicle_, then under the superintendence of Mr
+Perry, and squabbling with the monks of the Scottish Convent of
+Saint James. Some of his best minor poems were composed at this
+period; but it will be easily comprehended that, from the style
+of their publication in a fugitive form, they could add but
+little at the time to his reputation, and certainly they did not
+materially improve his finances. With a contemplated poem of some
+magnitude--the _Queen of the North_--he made little progress; and,
+upon the whole, this year was spent uncomfortably. After his return
+to Britain, he resided for some time in Edinburgh and London, mixing
+in the best and most cultivated society, but sorely straitened in
+circumstances, which, nevertheless, he had not the courage or the
+patience to improve.
+
+A quarto edition of the _Pleasures_, printed by subscription for
+his own benefit, at length put him in funds, and probably tempted
+him to marry. Then came the real cares of life,--an increased
+establishment, an increasing family: new mouths to provide for,
+and no settled mode of livelihood. Of all literary men, Campbell
+was least calculated, both by habit and inclination, to pursue a
+profession which, with many temptations, was then, and is still,
+precarious. He was not, like Scott, a man of business habits and
+unflagging industry. His impulses to write were short, and his
+fastidiousness interfered with his impulse. Booksellers were slow
+in offering him employment, for they could not depend on his
+punctuality. Those who have frequent dealings with the trade know
+how much depends upon the observance of this excellent virtue;
+but Campbell never could be brought to appreciate its full value.
+The printing-press had difficulty in keeping pace with the pen of
+Scott: to wait for that of Campbell was equivalent to a cessation of
+labour. Therefore it is not surprising that, about this period, most
+of his negotiations failed. Proposals for an edition of the British
+Poets, a large and expensive work, to be executed jointly by Scott
+and Campbell, fell to the ground: and the bard of Hope gave vent to
+his feelings by execrating the phalanx of the Row.
+
+At the very moment when his prospects appeared to be shrouded in
+the deepest gloom, Campbell received intimation that he had been
+placed on the pension-list as an annuitant of L200. Never was the
+royal bounty more seasonably extended; and this high recognition of
+his genius seems for a time to have inspired him with new energy.
+He commenced the compilation of the _Specimens of British Poets_;
+but his indolent habits overcame him, and the work was not given to
+the public until _thirteen years_ after it was undertaken. No wonder
+that the booksellers were chary of staking their capital on the
+faith of his promised performances!
+
+Ten years after the publication of the _Pleasures of Hope_,
+_Gertrude of Wyoming_ appeared. That exquisite little poem
+demonstrated, in the most conclusive manner, that the author's
+poetical powers were not exhausted by his earlier effort, and the
+same volume contained the noblest of his immortal lyrics. Campbell
+was now at the highest point of his renown. Critics may compare
+together the longer poems, and, according as their taste leans
+towards the didactic or the descriptive form of composition, may
+differ in awarding the palm of excellence, but there can be but one
+opinion as to the lyrical poetry. In this respect Campbell stands
+alone among his contemporaries, and since then he has never been
+surpassed. _Lochiel's Warning_ and the _Battle of the Baltic_ were
+among the pieces then published; and it would be difficult, out of
+the whole mass of British poetry, to select two specimens, by the
+same author, which may fairly rank with these.
+
+A new literary field was shortly after this opened to Campbell.
+He was engaged to deliver a course of lectures on poetry at the
+Royal Institution of London, and the scheme proved not only
+successful but lucrative. In after years he lectured repeatedly on
+the belles lettres at Liverpool, Birmingham, and other places, and
+the celebrity of his name always commanded a crowd of listeners.
+We learn from Dr Beattie, that at two periods of his life it was
+proposed to bring him forward as a candidate, either for the chair
+of Rhetoric or that of History in the University of Edinburgh; but
+he seems to have recoiled from the idea of the labour necessary for
+the preparation of a thorough academical course, a task which his
+extreme natural fastidiousness would doubtless have rendered doubly
+irksome. Several more years, a portion of which time was spent on
+the Continent, passed over without any remarkable result, until,
+at the age of forty-three, Campbell entered upon the duties of the
+editorship of the _New Monthly Magazine_.
+
+He held this situation for ten years, and resigned it, according
+to his own account, "because it was utterly impossible to continue
+the editor without interminable scrapes, together with a law-suit
+now and then." In the interim, however, certain important events
+had taken place. In the first place, he had published _Theodric_--a
+poem which, in spite of a most laudatory critique in the _Edinburgh
+Review_, left a painful impression on the public mind, and was
+generally considered as a symptom either that the rich mine of poesy
+was worked out, or that the genius of the author had been employed
+in a wrong direction. In the second place, he took an active share
+in the foundation of the London University. He appears, indeed,
+to have been the originator of the scheme, and to have managed
+the preliminary details with more than common skill and prudence.
+It was mainly through his exertions that it did not assume the
+aspect of a mere sectarian institution, bigoted in its principles
+and circumscribed in its sphere of utility. Shortly after this
+academical experiment, he was elected Lord Rector of the Glasgow
+University. Whatever abstract value may be attached to such an
+honour--and we are aware that very conflicting opinions have been
+expressed upon the point--this distinction was one of the most
+gratifying of all the tributes which were ever rendered to Campbell.
+He found himself preferred, by the students of that university
+where his first aspirations after fame had been roused, to one of
+the first orators and statesmen of the age; and his warm heart
+overflowed with delight at the kindly compliment. He resolved not
+to accept the office as a mere sinecure, but strictly to perform
+those duties which were prescribed by ancient statute, but which
+had fallen into abeyance by the carelessness of nominal Rectors.
+He entered as warmly into the feelings, and as cordially supported
+the interests of the students, as if the academical red gown of
+Glasgow had been still fresh upon his shoulders; and such being the
+case, it is not surprising that he was almost adored by his youthful
+constituents. This portion of the memoirs is very interesting: it
+displays the character of Campbell in a most amiable light; and the
+coldest reader cannot fail to peruse with pleasure the records of
+an ovation so truly gratifying to the sensibilities of the kind and
+affectionate poet. For three years, during which unusual period he
+held the office, his correspondence with the students never flagged;
+and it may be doubted whether the university ever possessed a better
+Rector.
+
+In 1831 he took up the Polish cause, and founded an association
+in London, which for many years was the main support of the
+unfortunate exiles who sought refuge in Britain. The public sympathy
+was at that time largely excited in their favour, not only by the
+gallant struggle which they had made for regaining their ancient
+independence, but from the subsequent severities perpetrated by the
+Russian government. Campbell, from his earliest years, had denounced
+the unprincipled partition of Poland; he watched the progress of
+the revolution with an anxiety almost amounting to fanaticism; and
+when the outbreak was at last put down by the strong hand of power,
+his passion exceeded all bounds. Day and night his thoughts were
+of Poland only: in his correspondence he hardly touched upon any
+other theme; and, carried away by his zeal to serve the exiles, he
+neglected his usual avocations. The mind of Campbell was naturally
+of an impulsive cast: but the fits were rather violent than
+enduring. This psychological tendency was, perhaps, his most serious
+misfortune, since it invariably prevented him from maturing the
+most important projects he conceived. Unless the scheme was such as
+could be executed with rapidity, he was apt to halt in the progress.
+
+He next became engaged in a new magazine speculation--_The
+Metropolitan_--which, instead of turning out, as he anticipated,
+a mine of wealth, very nearly involved him in serious pecuniary
+responsibility. After this, his public career gradually became
+less marked. The last poem which he published, _The Pilgrim of
+Glencoe_, exhibited few symptoms of the fire and energy conspicuous
+in his early efforts. "This work," says Dr Beattie, "in one or
+two instances was very favourably reviewed--in others, the tone
+of criticism was cold and austere; but neither praise nor censure
+could induce the public to judge for themselves; and silence, more
+fatal in such cases than censure, took the poem for a time under her
+wing. The poet himself expressed little surprise at the apathy with
+which his new volume had been received; but whatever indifference
+he felt for the influence it might have upon his reputation, he
+could not feel indifferent to the more immediate effect which a
+tardy or greatly diminished sale must have upon his prospects as a
+householder. 'A new poem from the pen of Campbell,' he was told,
+'was as good as a bill at sight;' but, from some error in the
+drawing, as it turned out, it was not negotiable; and the expenses
+into which he had been led, by trusting too much to popular favour,
+were now to be defrayed from other sources." It ought, however,
+to be remarked, that he had now arrived at his great climacteric.
+He was sixty-four years of age, and his constitution, never very
+robust, began to exhibit symptoms of decay. Dr Beattie, who had long
+watched him with affectionate solicitude, in the double character
+of physician and friend, thus notes his observation of the change.
+"At the breakfast or dinner table--particularly when surrounded
+by old friends--he was generally animated, full of anecdote, and
+always projecting new schemes of benevolence. But still there was a
+visible change in his conversation: it seemed to flow less freely;
+it required an effort to support it; and on topics in which he once
+felt a keen interest, he now said but little, or remained silent
+and thoughtful. The change in his outward appearance was still more
+observable; he walked with a feeble step, complained of constant
+chilliness; while his countenance, unless when he entered into
+conversation, was strongly marked with an expression of languor
+and anxiety. The sparkling intelligence that once animated his
+features was greatly obscured; he quoted his favourite authors with
+hesitation--because, he told me, he often could not recollect their
+names."
+
+The remainder of his life was spent in comparative seclusion. Long
+before this period he was left a solitary man. His wife, whom he
+loved with deep and enduring affection, was taken away--one of his
+sons died in childhood, and the other was stricken with a malady
+which proved incurable. But the kind offices of a nephew and niece,
+and the attentions of many friends, amongst whom Dr Beattie will
+always be remembered as the chief, soothed the last days of the
+poet, and supplied those duties which could not be rendered by
+dearer hands. He expired at Boulogne, on 15th June 1844, his age
+being sixty-seven, and his body was worthily interred in Westminster
+Abbey, with the honours of a public funeral.
+
+     "Never," says Beattie, "since the death of Addison, it was
+     remarked, had the obsequies of any literary man been attended by
+     circumstances more honourable to the national feeling, and more
+     expressive of cordial respect and homage, than those of Thomas
+     Campbell.
+
+     "Soon after noon, the procession began to move from the
+     Jerusalem Chamber to Poet's Corner, and in a few minutes passed
+     slowly down the long lofty aisle--
+
+    'Through breathing statues, then unheeded things;
+    Through rows of warriors, and through walks of kings.'
+
+     On each side the pillared avenues were lined with spectators,
+     all watching the solemn pageant in reverential silence, and
+     mostly in deep mourning. The Rev. Henry Milman, himself an
+     eminent poet, headed the procession; while the service for the
+     dead, answered by the deep-toned organ, in sounds like distant
+     thunder, produced an effect of indescribable solemnity. One only
+     feeling seemed to pervade the assembled spectators, and was
+     visible on every face--a desire to express their sympathy in a
+     manner suitable to the occasion. He who had celebrated the glory
+     and enjoyed the favour of his country for more than forty years,
+     had come at last to take his appointed chamber in the Hall of
+     Death--to mingle ashes with those illustrious predecessors, who,
+     by steep and difficult paths, had attained a lofty eminence in
+     her literature, and made a lasting impression on the national
+     heart."
+
+We observe that Dr Beattie has, very properly, passed over with
+little notice certain statements, emanating from persons who
+styled themselves the friends of Campbell, regarding his habits of
+life during the latter portion of his years. It is a misfortune
+incidental to almost all men of genius, that they are surrounded
+by a fry of small literary adulators, who, in order to magnify
+themselves, make a practice of reporting every circumstance, however
+trivial, which falls under their observation, and who are not always
+very scrupulous in adhering to the truth. Campbell, who had the
+full poetical share of vanity in his composition, was peculiarly
+liable to the attacks of such insidious worshippers, and was not
+sufficiently careful in the selection of his associates. Hence
+imputations, not involving any question of honour or morality, but
+implying frailty to a considerable degree, have been openly hazarded
+by some who, in their own persons, are no patterns of the cardinal
+virtues. Such statements do no honour either to the heart or the
+judgment of those who devised them: nor would we have even touched
+upon the subject, save to reprobate, in the strongest manner, these
+breaches of domestic privacy, and of ill-judged and unmerited
+confidence.
+
+A good deal of the correspondence printed in these volumes is of a
+trifling nature, and interferes materially with the conciseness of
+the biography. We do not mean to say that anything objectionable
+has been included, but there are too many notes and epistles upon
+familiar topics, which neither illustrate the peculiar tone of
+Campbell's mind, nor throw any light whatever upon his poetical
+history. But the correspondence with his own family is highly
+interesting. Nowhere does Campbell appear in a higher and more
+estimable point of view, than in the character of son and brother.
+Even in the hours of his darkest adversity, we find him sharing his
+small and precarious gains with his mother and sisters; and they
+were in an equal degree the participators of his better fortunes.
+His fondness and consideration for his wife and children are most
+conspicuous; and many of his letters regarding his boy, when "the
+dark shadow" had passed across his mind, are extremely affecting.
+Those who have a taste for the modern style of maundering about
+children, and the perverted pictures of infancy so common in our
+social literature, may not, perhaps, see much to admire in the
+following extract from a letter by Campbell, announcing the birth of
+his eldest child: to us it appears a pure and exquisite picture:--
+
+     "This little gentleman all this while looked to be so proud of
+     his new station in society, that he held up his blue eyes and
+     placid little face with perfect indifference to what people
+     about him felt or thought. Our first interview was when he lay
+     in his little crib, in the midst of white muslin and dainty
+     lace, prepared by Matilda's hands, long before the stranger's
+     arrival. I verily believe, in spite of my partiality, that
+     lovelier babe was never smiled upon by the light of heaven. He
+     was breathing sweetly in his first sleep. I durst not waken him,
+     but ventured to give him one kiss. He gave a faint murmur, and
+     opened his little azure lights. Since that time he has continued
+     to grow in grace and stature. I can take him in my arms; but
+     still his good nature and his beauty are but provocatives to
+     the affection which one must not indulge: he cannot bear to
+     be hugged, he cannot yet stand a worrying. Oh! that I were
+     sure he would live to the days when I could take him on my
+     knee, and feel the strong plumpness of childhood waxing into
+     vigorous youth. My poor boy! shall I have the ecstasy to teach
+     him thoughts and knowledge, and reciprocity of love to me? It
+     is bold to venture into futurity so far! at present his lovely
+     little face is a comfort to me; his lips breathe that fragrance
+     which it is one of the loveliest kindnesses of Nature that she
+     has given to infants--a sweetness of smell more delightful than
+     all the treasures of Arabia. What adorable beauties of God and
+     Nature's bounty we live in without knowing! How few have ever
+     seemed to think an infant beautiful! But to me there seems to be
+     a beauty in the earliest dawn of infancy which is not inferior
+     to the attractions of childhood, especially when they sleep.
+     Their looks excite a more tender train of emotions. It is like
+     the tremulous anxiety which we feel for a candle new lighted,
+     which we dread going out."
+
+The sensibility, too, which he uniformly exhibited towards those
+who had shown him kindness, especially his older and earlier
+friends, is exceedingly pleasing. In writing to or speaking of
+the Rev. Archibald Alison and Dugald Stewart, his tone is one of
+heartfelt, and almost filial, affection and reverence; and amongst
+all the benevolent actions performed by those great and good men,
+there were few to which they could revert with more pleasure than
+to their seasonable patronage of the young and sanguine poet. With
+his literary contemporaries, also, he lived upon good terms,--a
+circumstance rather remarkable, for Campbell, notwithstanding his
+good-nature, was sufficiently touchy, and keenly alive to satire or
+hostile criticism. Excepting an early quarrel with John Leyden, on
+the score of some reported misrepresentation, a temporary feud with
+Moore, which was speedily reconciled, and a short and unacrimonious
+disruption from Bowles, we are not aware that he ever differed with
+any of his gifted brethren. He was upon the best terms with Scott;
+and Dr Beattie has given us several valuable specimens of their
+mutual correspondence. With Rogers he was intimate to the last: and
+even the sarcastic and dangerous Byron always mentioned him with
+expressions of regard. Let us add, moreover, that, whenever he had
+the power, he was ready, even in instances where his own interest
+might have counselled otherwise, to lend a helping hand to others
+who were struggling for literary reputation. This generous impulse
+was sometimes carried so far as to injure him in his editorial
+capacity; for, although fastidious to a degree as to the quality of
+his own writings, it was always with a sore heart that he shut the
+door in the face of a needy contributor.
+
+The querulousness with which Campbell complains throughout, of the
+cruel treatment which he met with at the hands of the publishers,
+would be amusing if it were not at the same time most unjust. He
+acknowledges, in a letter written to Mr Richardson, so late as
+1812, that the sale of his poems, for a series of years before, had
+yielded him, on an average, L500 per annum: not a bad annuity, we
+think, as the proceeds of a couple of volumes! We happen to know,
+moreover, that by the first publication of _Gertrude_ Campbell
+made upwards of a thousand pounds; and, unless we are grievously
+misinformed, he received from Mr Murray, for the copyright of the
+_Specimens_, a similar sum, being double the amount contracted for.
+We have already mentioned the publication of a subscription edition
+of the _Pleasures of Hope_, "which," says Dr Beattie, "with great
+liberality on the part of the publishers, was to be brought out for
+his own exclusive benefit." We should not have alluded to these
+matters, which, however, we believe, are no secrets, but for the
+publication by Dr Beattie of some very absurd expressions used and
+reiterated by Campbell. Such phrases as the following constantly
+occur: "They are the greatest ravens on earth with whom we have to
+deal--liberal enough as booksellers go--but still, you know, ravens,
+croakers, suckers of innocent blood, and living men's brains." Nor,
+in the opinion of Campbell, were these outrages confined merely to
+the living subjects, for he says, in reference to the older tenants
+of Parnassus, "Poor Bards! you are all ill used, even after death,
+by those who have lived upon your brains. And now, having scooped
+out those brains, they drink out of them, like Vandals out of the
+skulls of the severed and slain, served up by a Gothic Ganymede!"
+Further, in speaking of Napoleon, he says, " Perhaps in my feelings
+towards the Gallic usurper there may be some personal bias; for I
+must confess that, ever since he shot the bookseller in Germany,
+I have had a warm side to him. It was sacrificing an offering, by
+the hand of genius, to the manes of the victims immolated by the
+trade; and I only wish we had Nap here for a short time, to cut out
+a few of our own cormorants." The fact is, that so far from Campbell
+being ill-used by the trade, they behaved towards him with uncommon
+liberality. It is true that, in several instances, they hesitated
+in making high terms for work not yet commenced, with a man who was
+notoriously deficient in punctuality and perseverance; nor are they
+to be blamed, when we consider the number of his schemes, and the
+very few instances in which these were brought to maturity.
+
+On the whole, then, though we cannot bestow unqualified praise upon
+Dr Beattie, for the manner in which he has compiled these volumes,
+we shall state that we have passed no unprofitable hours in their
+perusal. We rise from them with full appreciation of the many
+excellent points in the poet's character, with an augmented regard
+for his memory on account of the virtues so eminently displayed,
+and with no lessened reverence for the man in consequence of the
+admitted foibles from which none of the human family are exempt.
+The book may be practically useful to those who aspire to literary
+eminence, and who are apt to rely too confidently and implicitly on
+the powers with which they are naturally gifted. So long as Campbell
+was under restraint--so long as he was subjected to the wholesome
+discipline of the University, and forced into the race of emulation,
+we find that his genius was largely and rapidly developed. He was
+not a mere philological scholar, though his attainments in Greek
+might have put many a pedant to the blush; but he improved his sense
+of beauty and his taste by the contemplation of the Attic flowers;
+and, without injuring his style by any affectation of antiquity
+unsuited to the tone of his age, he adorned it by many of the graces
+which are presented by the ancient models. At Glasgow he worked hard
+and won merited honours. But afterwards, by abandoning himself to a
+desultory course of study and of composition, by never acting upon
+the wise and sure plan of keeping one object only steadily in view,
+and persevering in spite of all difficulties until that point was
+attained,--he failed in realising the high expectations which were
+justified by his early promise. As it is, Campbell's name is ranked
+high in the roll of the British poets; but assuredly he would have
+occupied a still more exalted place, and also have avoided much
+of that anxiety which at times clouded his existence, if he had
+used his fine natural gifts with but a portion of the energy and
+determination of his great compatriot, Scott.
+
+In conclusion let us remark, that however Dr Beattie may have
+erred on the side of prolixity, by including in the compass of the
+memoirs some trifling and irrelevant matter, he is more than concise
+whenever it is necessary to allude to his own relationship with
+Campbell. He has made no parade whatever of his intimacy with the
+poet; and no stranger, in perusing these volumes, could discover
+that to Beattie Campbell was substantially indebted for many
+disinterested acts of friendship, which contributed largely to the
+comfort of his declining years. This modesty is a rare feature in
+modern biography; and, when it does occur so remarkably as here, we
+are bound to mention it with special honour.
+
+
+
+
+THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR REFORMS.
+
+
+All over Europe, of late, we have been hearing a great deal of
+universities and students. The trencher-cap has claimed a right to
+take its part in the movements which make or mar the destinies of
+nations, by the side of plumed casque and priestly tiara. Whether it
+was the beer of the German burschen that "decocted their cold blood
+to such valiant heat," or whether their practice in make-believe
+duels had imparted a savage appetite for foeman's blood in some
+more genuine combat, or whether Fichte's metaphysics had fairly
+muddled their brains into delirium, certain it is that they have,
+wheresoever they could find an opportunity, been foremost in the
+cause of demolition and disorder, vied with and encouraged the
+lowest of the rabble in lawless aggressions, exulted in the glow of
+blazing houses, and cried havoc to rapine and murder.
+
+It is curious that, while all this has been going on in Europe, the
+attention of the public should have been so much occupied by the
+condition of our English universities. Still more curious is it,
+perhaps, that so large a portion of the attention thus directed
+should have assumed an objurgatory tone, as if Oxford and Cambridge
+were not duly performing their functions, as if they were of a
+character suited only to bygone ages, as if, in short, they were
+doing nothing. True enough, in one sense, they were "doing nothing."
+There was no academical legion formed--none, at least, that we
+heard of--in Christchurch Meadows or Trinity Walks; no body of
+sympathising students marched to London, with the view of taking
+part in the democratic exhibitions of the 10th of April. If Cuffey
+is to be President of the British Republic, he must search for the
+body-guard of democracy elsewhere than on the banks of the Cam and
+the Isis. No doubt this excellent result is attributable, in a great
+measure, to the loyalty of the professional and middle classes, from
+which our university students principally spring. Their feelings
+will naturally be akin to those of their relations and friends. But
+when, in so many other instances, we see the academic population
+taking the lead in the work of revolution, beyond any spirit which
+exists among their kindred, and urged on by a democratic madness of
+purely academic growth, we cannot help holding that some credit on
+behalf of the loyalty of English students is due to the institutions
+by the influence of which they are surrounded.
+
+We are inclined to think that the public have not been sufficiently
+alive to this not unimportant difference between Oxford and
+Heidelberg--Cambridge and Vienna. Certes, but little account was
+taken of the peaceful bearing of our academic population. On the
+contrary, much supercilious wordiness has been lavished, more or
+less to the discredit of cap and gown, by portions of the London
+press in the lead, and, as a necessary consequence, by provincial
+journalists _ad libitum_. This talk, current now for some years,
+was all concentrated and endued with new vigour by a movement of
+the University of Cambridge itself. The people who stop your way
+by talking of "progress," and deal out dark rhodomontade on the
+subject of "enlightenment," were all set agog by what they thought
+a symptom of capitulation in the strongholds of the Ancient. All
+our old imbecile friends, the cant phrases of twenty and thirty
+years ago, started up as fresh as paint, ready to go through all
+the handling they had before endured. We heard of, "keeping alive
+ancient prejudices," "cleaving pertinaciously to obsolete forms,"
+"following a monastic rule," "forgetting the world outside their
+college walls," and multifarious twaddle of this sort, till the
+Pope fled from Rome, or some other little revolution occurred to
+withdraw the attention of the public from this set of phrases to
+another, no doubt not less forcible and original. Others, again,
+took a friendly tone and spoke apologetically: it was a great thing
+to get any move at all from the university: those who took the lead
+in her management were not men who mixed with the world at large,
+and allowance must be made if they did not altogether march with
+the times. "The world at large" is an expression of very doubtful
+import: "all think their little set mankind:" but when the resident
+fellows of colleges are charged with not duly mixing with the world
+at large, we cannot help thinking that those who use the phrase are
+ignoring the existence of the Didcot Junction and Eastern Counties
+Railway, and borrowing their ideas of academic life from the time
+when Hobson travelled "betwixt Cambridge and the Bull." As far
+as our observation goes, we should say that there is no class of
+persons who have better opportunities of taking an extended view
+of different phases of social being, or who are more disposed to
+take advantage of those opportunities. A fellow of a college is not
+engaged much more than half the year in university business; for
+four months, at the very least, he generally has it in his power
+to expatiate where he will, from May Fair to Mesopotamia; he has
+no household ties to detain him, and if he does not rub off the
+lexicographic rust, and the mathematical mouldiness, which he may
+have contracted during his labours of the term, he must be possessed
+of a local attachment almost vegetable: some few instances of
+which secluded existence still linger in quiet nooks of our halls
+and colleges, but which are no more the types of their class than
+Parson Trulliber is a representative of the country clergy, or the
+stage Diggory of the English yeoman. But the self-complacency of
+Cockneyism is the most unshaken thing in this revolutionary age.
+It is perfectly ready to lecture the parson on the teaching of
+Greek, or the Yorkshire farmer on the fattening of bullocks. All
+the distributive machinery in the world does not diminish, it would
+seem, the absorption of intelligence by the Ward of Cheap.
+
+We are not, however, surprised that the conclusions, on which we
+have remarked, should be those arrived at by the large class of
+small observers whose phraseology we have quoted. The bustling man
+of business, who takes his day-ticket to Oxford or Cambridge, is
+of course struck by seeing a number of usages, for the original
+of which, if he inquire, he is referred back to hoar mediaeval
+times--times which his Cockney guides dispose of by some such phrase
+as crass ignorance, or feudal barbarism. He is naturally surprised
+at such things; he never saw anything like it before; they don't
+do so in Mincing Lane, or even in Gower Street. He can hardly be
+expected to view these matters in their relation to the system of
+which they form a part; he can hardly be expected to realise in
+them the symbols through which the _genius loci_ finds an utterance
+and exerts an agency; and so he goes smiling home in his railway
+carriage, and perhaps buys a number of _Punch_ by the way, and
+thinks that there is more practical wisdom in that periodical than
+is embodied in the great monuments of William of Wykeham or Lady
+Margaret.
+
+Nevertheless, while we rebut these vague general charges of a blind
+impassibility to the influences of the time, we are far from denying
+that a tendency to cling to ancient ideas and observances is a
+characteristic of the universities. This tendency is a property of
+all corporate institutions, and is commonly the reason of their
+foundation. They are to perpetuate to a future time a feeling or
+design of the present; to form a nucleus, round which the thoughts
+and principles of one age congregate, and are thus handed down to
+another in a preserved and crystallised form. Changes of ideas pass
+upon them of necessity, through the individual liability of their
+constituent members to be affected by the current of the passing
+time; but these changes take place rather by a gradual fusion of
+the old into the new, than by those sudden transitions to which the
+popular and prevailing opinions are so often subjected. And it may
+fairly be supposed that, by means of this property, corporations are
+more likely to adopt and amalgamate into their framework that which
+is most permanent and genuine, out of all that the ever-changing
+tide of time casts upon the shore.
+
+Perhaps, too, this tenacity of the bygone will more naturally be
+found to be a characteristic of the universities, than of other
+corporations. The spots which they occupy are holy ground, fraught
+with historic memories of the great and wise of former days. The
+_genius loci_ is a mighty advocate in behalf of antiquity:--
+
+    "As the ghost of Homer clings
+     Round Scamander's wasting springs;
+     As divinest Shakspeare's might
+     Fills Avon and the world with light;"
+
+--so we may not well pass unaffected by the congregation of priest,
+and poet, and sage, whose recollections consecrate the banks of
+our academic rivers. As we go beneath "Bacon's mansion," or about
+Milton's mulberry tree; as we kneel where Newton knelt, or dine in
+halls where the portraits of Erasmus, and Fisher, and Taylor, look
+down upon us,--these are not times and places for the dogmatism and
+arrogance of "the nineteenth century"--for bragging of our advance
+and illumination, or sneering at "the good old times." This is in
+accordance with the law of our nature; but these recollections, and
+the lessons which they teach, are not, if rightly laid hold of,
+such as to induce a mere blind attachment to the skeletons of dead
+notions and practices. And although it may, perhaps must, happen
+that, at any given time, there may be found relics adhering to the
+system, whose vitality and meaning have been withdrawn by time,
+and left them dry and sapless, yet we will venture to assert that,
+if a dogged adherence to antiquated forms could fairly be charged
+on the universities, they could never have maintained their ground
+amidst the mighty historical transmutations that have passed over
+their heads. Civil wars and popular tumults have raged around them;
+the throne has yielded to violence and to intrigue; the Church has
+admitted modifications, both of her doctrine and her discipline;
+and, more than all, the still more important, though silent and
+gradual changes--changes to which the striking and salient events of
+history are but the indexes and visible signs--changes of thought
+and rule of action--have risen and sunk, and ebbed and flowed, and
+still these stable monuments of the piety and munificence of men
+whose names are almost unknown, remain unshorn of their ancient
+vigour, and intimately entwined with our social system.
+
+But it is time that we should come to particulars, and make known
+to our readers, as briefly as we can, the nature of the alterations
+recently introduced at Cambridge, which have called forth so
+much objurgatory commendation from quarters, which were commonly
+considered to entertain tolerably destructive views in regard to the
+universities. We say objurgatory commendation, because the faint
+praise of a "move in the right direction" was generally more or
+less coupled with vigorous denunciation of the antiquated obstinacy
+which had so long kept in the wrong. And here we must premise the
+statement of certain qualities of the age in which we live, which
+will have fallen under the notice of all observers. Perhaps the most
+distinguishing feature of our time is the principle which forms the
+life and soul of retail trade--the principle which sets men to busy
+themselves about small and immediate returns for outlay; which looks
+more to the gains across the counter, than to the advantage which
+is general, or distant, or future. In a word, _practicality_ is the
+ruling passion of our day. As might have been expected, education,
+among other things, has been subjected to this huckstering test.
+People have asked, what is the market value of this or that branch
+of learning? Will it get a boy on in the world? Will it enable him
+to provide for himself soon? Will the returns for the expenditure
+I am going to make be quick and certain? Cowper represents the
+father of a son intended for the church as speculating on his young
+hopeful's prospects after the following fashion:--
+
+    "Let reverend churls his ignorance rebuke,
+     Who starve upon a dog's-eared Pentateuch,
+     The parson knows enough who knows a duke."
+
+In these days the acquaintance of a duke is not of the same relative
+value as it was when Cowper wrote; but this sort of worldly-wise
+calculation is more prevalent than ever, and the cry of the largest
+class of the public is--give us such knowledge as will _pay_.
+Those who took this commercial view of education derived no small
+encouragement from the circumstance that Prince Albert, the learned
+field-marshal, and warlike chancellor of Cambridge University,
+had interfered to promote the culture of modern languages in
+these venerable precincts of Eton, where for many a year Henry's
+holy shade had watched the growth of an education of less obvious
+utility. How was young Thomas or William "the better off" for being
+able to con "the tale of Troy divine?" But teach him to mince a
+little French, simper a little Italian, snarl a little German, and
+there he is at once accomplished for an _attache_, a correspondent,
+or a bagman--profitable walks of life all of them. And the same
+notions mounted still higher in the ascendant, when the senate of
+the University of Cambridge apparently evinced a desire to examine
+the requirements of that body by the same standard.
+
+The first step of this kind was taken about three years ago. Most
+of our readers are aware that, at Cambridge, those candidates
+for a degree who do not aspire to honours are said to go out in
+the _poll_; this being the abbreviated term to denote those who were
+classically designated +hoi polloi+. Now the qualifications required
+for attaining this poll degree consisted of an acquaintance with a
+part of Homer, a part of Virgil, a part of the Greek Testament, and
+Paley's _Evidences of Christianity_, over and above the mathematics,
+of which we shall speak presently. By what curious infelicity the
+recondite, and, in many particulars, inexplicable language of Homer
+has been so commonly selected for beginners in Greek at school,
+and, as in this case, for those who were not expected to appear as
+accomplished scholars--we need not here stop to inquire. Suffice
+it to say that the university, in this initial reform, ousted
+Homer and Virgil from the course, and supplied their places with a
+Latin and Greek author, to be varied in each successive year. This
+was decidedly an improvement, at least as regards Homer, for the
+reason we have alluded to above. Perhaps a better innovation would
+have been to have followed the Oxford system, and allowed to the
+student a choice of his author. But it is a great misfortune that
+the university, in recasting this course, did not substitute a work
+of some one of the logical or philosophical authors current in the
+English language, for the shallow and plausible book of Paley's
+above mentioned--with regard to which it would be difficult to say
+whether it is worse chosen as a model of reasoning, or as a proof of
+Christian facts.
+
+The mathematical portion of this course consisted of Euclid,
+algebra, and trigonometry, the student being thus trained in the
+model processes of pure mathematical reasoning left us by the
+first, and also brought acquainted with the elementary operations
+of analysis. As a matter of mental training, the most valuable
+portion of this curriculum was the knowledge acquired of the
+geometrical processes employed by Euclid, as familiarising the mind
+of the student with the severest forms of reasoning, and the steps
+whereby indubitable verity is attained. This portion, however, was
+most especially selected for curtailment by the reforms to which
+we are alluding. In the stead of the requirements thus displaced,
+a motley amount of elementary propositions in statics, dynamics,
+and hydrostatics, were substituted--useful information enough as
+instances of the simpler applications of the analytical machinery
+of mathematics, but comparatively worthless as an exercise of
+the mind. Country clergymen, whose forgotten mathematics loomed
+grandly on their minds through the mist of years, were confounded
+with disappointment at beholding their sons, in whom they expected
+to find philosophers, return to them with an examination paper,
+apparently rather calculated to unfold the mysteries of engineering,
+well-sinking, and carpentering.
+
+This object--the practicability and immediate utility of the studies
+pursued, in preference to the superiority of mental training
+derivable from them--seems to be simply that which has dictated
+the recent innovations of 1848. The principle which entered into
+both measures may easily be traced in the prevalent phases of
+literature and science throughout the public at large. A few years
+ago, every one fancied himself a philosopher. Little volumes,
+cabinet cyclopaedias and the like, swarmed on the booksellers'
+shelves, containing a string of disjointed and bald scientific
+facts, involving no truth and expressive of no law, but more or less
+adroitly arranged under several heads, with a _savant_ air. The
+man of business--the apprentice--the boarding-school miss--took it
+into their heads that a royal road was thus opened to all branches
+of useful and entertaining knowledge,--that the acquirements of
+Bacon were "in this wonderful age" brought within the reach of
+every one who had an occasional hour or two in the day to spare
+from more mechanical employments; and that the progress from
+ignorance to philosophy was as much facilitated by these little-book
+contrivances, as the journey from London to Birmingham, by the
+rushing railway-train, was an advance upon the week's toil of our
+forefathers in accomplishing the same space. Much of this mania for
+desultory knowledge has evaporated, but its influences are still
+distinctly to be traced among us. It is not surprising that those
+influences should in some measure have affected the universities.
+In accordance with the popular notions afloat, the Cambridge
+legislators followed up the alteration which we have been describing
+by the adoption of their recent measures, by which they effected an
+extension of their field of "honours" similar to that which they
+had already accomplished in the qualifications for the ordinary
+degree. To the old "triposes," or classes of honours in mathematics
+and classics, they have now added two more--namely, one in moral
+sciences and one in natural sciences.
+
+Before, however, we offer any conjectures as to the probable
+effect of these yet untried changes, we must remind our readers
+of a certain characteristic of the Cambridge system, which is
+important in estimating the internal relations of the late reforms.
+The academic life of Cambridge circulates through two concurrent
+systems, which we may term the university and the collegiate system.
+The university is one corporation, and each individual college is
+altogether another. The union between the two systems might be
+dissolved without difficulty. If the university were to abandon
+her ancient seat, and take up some new abode, as she did for a
+time at Northampton some centuries ago, the colleges might still
+remain as places of education, with but little modification of their
+present character. The older system--the university--has had its
+functions gradually absorbed in a great measure by the collegiate.
+The earliest form in which Cambridge appears, dimly seen in hoar
+antiquity, is that of a congregation of students, commonly living
+together for mutual convenience in hostels, governed by a code
+of statutes, and endowed with the privilege of granting degrees.
+Then came the founders of colleges, with their noble endowments,
+and reared edifices, in which societies of these students should
+live together under a common rule, and form distinct corporations
+by themselves, for purposes connected with, and auxiliary to,
+those of the university. The latter body has from time immemorial
+matriculated only those who were already members of some one or
+other of the colleges; but there probably was a time at which a
+student in the university was not necessarily a member of any
+college, until by degrees these foundations absorbed into their
+composition the whole of the academic population. By-and-by, the
+principal part of the functions of teaching also lapsed into the
+hands of the colleges. In the old times, the university discharged
+this duty by means of the public readings or lectures by the newly
+admitted masters of arts, (termed _regents_,) and by the keeping of
+acts and opponencies--being certain _viva voce_ disputations--by
+the students. To this system, comprehending the main studies of the
+place, was superadded, by individual endowment or royal beneficence,
+the collateral information on special subjects given by the
+professors. The colleges were altogether subsidiary to this mode
+of instruction--the practice being that every student who enrolled
+himself in the ranks of a particular college, must do so under the
+charge of some one of the fellows of the college, who became a kind
+of private tutor to him. Hence arose college tutors; and as their
+lectures, given in each separate college, were found to be the most
+efficient aids in prosecuting the university studies, the readings
+of the masters of arts gradually fell altogether into disuse, and
+the _viva voce_ exercises of the students have nearly done so.
+
+Possibly, along with the transfer of the functions of lecturing
+from the university regents to the college tutors, the professorial
+chairs may also have declined in importance as an element of
+the academic education. But, as we have before seen, these were
+never the main vehicle for the dispensation of knowledge on the
+part of the university. Nevertheless, we suspect that one object
+of the recently erected triposes is to revive the importance of
+the professors' lectures in the university course. For it is now
+required that every one who presents himself as a candidate for the
+ordinary or _poll_ degree, shall have attended the lectures of some
+one of the professors at his individual choice; and these lectures
+will, moreover, be necessary guides in the studies required of
+those who aim at the honours of the new triposes. It seems clear,
+therefore, that the devisers of the scheme had it in contemplation,
+through the medium of their changes, to fill the class-rooms of
+the professors, and so far to assimilate the modern system to the
+ancient, by bringing the university instruction into more active
+play. We are disposed to question the wisdom of these proceedings.
+Until now, the university and the colleges had apportioned their
+several functions, by assigning to the latter the duty of imparting
+proficiency in the studies cultivated; to the former, that of
+testing proficiency attained. The two systems had thus harmonised,
+as we believe, in conformity with the requirements of the age by
+lapse of time; and if it was deemed desirable to disturb this
+arrangement, and restore the faculty of teaching to the university,
+this should rather have been done, we think, by reviving the system
+of _viva voce_ disputations, now altogether disused except in the
+progress to a degree in law, physic, or divinity; but which would
+form, under proper regulations, an important adjunct to the ordinary
+course, by cultivating a decision, a readiness, and an ingenuity
+in reasoning, which are comparatively left dormant by a written
+examination. Again, it is, as we consider, altogether a mistake
+to suppose that the primary end of a professorial existence is to
+deliver lectures. The endowment of a professorship is rather, as
+we take it, to enable the holder of it to give up his time to the
+particular science to which he is devoted; and it is by no means
+necessary, especially in these days, when words are so easily winged
+by the printer's devil, that the results of his labours should be
+given forth by oral lectures. At the same time, when his subject,
+and his manner of treating it, were such as to command interest,
+he was at no loss for an audience. The professorships, however,
+being mostly established for the purpose of aiding the pursuit of
+the inductive sciences, side by side with the severer studies of
+the university, fell under the patronage of the spirit of the age.
+Whether the sciences, for the promotion of which they were founded,
+will be materially advanced by this sort of "protection," remains to
+be seen.
+
+It is likely enough, we think, that some confusion may arise from
+this revival of the lecturing powers of the university. This,
+however, will be easily obviated in practice, as the two systems
+have never, so far as we are aware, manifested anything like a
+mutual antagonism or jealousy of each other. A greater practical
+difficulty is one which appears to be left untouched by the new
+regime. We allude to the growing plan of instruction by private
+tutors--a calling which has sprang up, in the strictest principles
+of demand and supply, to meet the eagerness for external aid which
+has been induced by the great competition for university honours.
+The existence and increasing importance of the class of private
+tutors has been decried as an evil; and it, no doubt, enhances
+considerably the expenses attendant on a college education. But,
+after all, this is only part and parcel of the lot which has fallen
+to us in these latter days of merry England. There are so many of
+us, and we keep so constantly adding to our numbers, that we must
+not be surprised at more pushing and contrivance being required to
+realise a livelihood than heretofore; and as the end to be attained
+increases in its relative importance, the outlay attendant on its
+attainment will, in the ordinary course of things, be augmented
+also. It is not our intention, however, to discuss at this time
+the merits or demerits of the private-tutor system; it suffices
+for our purpose to notice it as the reappearance, in another form,
+of the old functions of instruction, as lodged in the hands of the
+university regents. As the collegiate system gradually supplanted
+that pristine form, so the office of the private tutors is, to a
+certain extent, supplanting the collegiate system. These instructors
+are likely, as we before said, to occupy, under the new rules, much
+the same place as they held under the old; and indeed it appears
+that, whether desirable or not, it would be extremely difficult to
+get rid of them; at all events the colleges, being now trenched upon
+by the university professors on the one hand, and by the private
+tutors on the other, must exert themselves to ascertain their proper
+functions, and to fulfil them with zeal and energy.
+
+As for the new triposes themselves, it may be doubted whether the
+name given to them is not the most unfortunate part of them. The
+common name of Tripos looks like a confusion of ideas on the part
+of the university itself, and a want of discrimination between its
+old studies and its new. At first, probably, the recent triposes
+will be comparatively neglected, and on that ground alone it is both
+misjudging and unfair to include in the same category of "honours"
+and "tripos," classes which are respectively the subject of ardent
+competition and of none at all. But supposing that the new classes
+attracted their fair share of competitors, it would still be a
+grievous fault in the university to hold out to the world so false
+an estimate of the vehicle of mental training, as it would appear
+to do by placing on a par the new studies and the old--by assuming,
+or seeming to assume, that ratiocinative thought may be as well
+employed about the fallacies of Mr Ricardo, as the exact reasoning
+and indubitable verities of Euclid and Newton; or that the faculties
+of discrimination and speculation may be unfolded by the "getting
+up" of botanical or chemical nomenclature, not less than by the new
+world of thought opened through the authors of Greece and Rome. We
+must, however, confess that we are now taking the most unfavourable
+view of the matter. With respect, indeed, to the natural sciences'
+tripos, we cannot help being fully of opinion, that it should have
+been distinctly recognised as subsidiary to the main vehicles of
+education adopted at Cambridge. But the moral sciences' tripos
+furnishes, if properly constructed, an excellent means for training
+thought. It is a great misfortune that the study of Aristotle has
+been suffered at Cambridge to fall almost into desuetude: we speak
+of the philosophical study of his works in contradistinction to
+the philological. The former is maintained at Oxford with great
+success; thus combining, with Oxford scholarship, a training of the
+reasoning powers which is almost an equivalent for the mathematical
+studies of her sister university. Moreover, the literature of Great
+Britain boasts of a band of moral philosophers far greater than any
+other modern nation can produce. The works of Butler, Cudworth,
+Berkeley, Hume, Reid, and Stewart, with many others, form a group
+of authorities worthy of the groves of Academus. The metaphysics
+of Locke--we should rather say, the wall which Locke has built
+up between the English mind and the science of metaphysics--has
+too long prevented the moral reasoners of this country from duly
+availing themselves of the treasures at their command. Under the
+guidance of such lights as those we have enumerated, we may hope
+to see a school of metaphysical thinkers arise in England, whose
+exertions may dissipate the mist of half-thought in which Teutonic
+speculation has involved the science of its choice. If, however, the
+tap-root of our metaphysical thought is to be cut through by the
+study of the plausibilities of Locke and Paley, (no very unlikely
+issue, we should fear, at least under present circumstances,) then
+this moral sciences' tripos also is one of those things which had
+better never have been.
+
+We repeat that Cambridge has incurred great blame, if she has
+allowed herself to mislead, or to seem to mislead, the popular
+mind on these matters. The more talkative portion of the public,
+and the newspapers which commonly represent that more talkative
+portion, have evidently been inclined to interpret this movement of
+Cambridge as an indication of a most utilitarian system of education
+coming to supplant the old rules. They anticipate all sorts of
+civil engineering, butterfly-dissecting, light geology, and a whole
+Babel of modern languages, to be victoriously let loose on the home
+where for many a century Wisdom has sat with the scroll of Plato
+on her knee, and Science has unravelled the wizard lore of fluxion
+and equation. The senate of Cambridge is egregiously mistaken if it
+supposes that it will win over to its body the students of these
+popular branches of knowledge, by following the dictation of the
+popular taste. Those who want to be civil engineers will not come
+to a university to learn their art. They will follow Brunel and
+Stephenson, and see how the work is actually done in practice; and
+those who do so will soon prove themselves far superior, _quoad_
+civil engineering, to the Cambridge-bred theorist. In like manner,
+a month's flirtation in Paris, or a few games at _ecarte_ with a
+German baron, will teach the student of modern languages more French
+or German than all the philologists of Oxford, Cambridge, or Eton
+can impart in a year.
+
+  "Quam quisque norit artem, in hac se exerceat."
+
+If the public have mistaken the functions of the university, it
+is the more incumbent on her to assert them correctly. Nor is
+the outcry less groundless, that the universities have failed to
+furnish the best men in law and medicine. With regard to the law,
+certain gentlemen were even cited by name, in leading articles of
+newspapers, as types of the class of men who were now taking the
+lead at the bar, and representing an altogether different school
+from that trained at the universities. The fact of the university
+men being supplanted, or being likely to be supplanted, at the bar,
+may admit of considerable question. But it is not, after all, the
+question by which the universities are to be judged. They do not
+undertake to make men great lawyers or skilful physicians; this,
+where it does belong to their functions, is a collateral duty, and
+not the main object of their training. That object is distinctly
+avowed in their own formularies. That noble clause in the "bidding
+prayer" will attach itself to the memories of most of those who have
+heard it:
+
+"_And that there never may be wanting a supply of persons duly
+qualified to serve God, both in Church and State_, let us pray
+for a blessing on all seminaries of sound learning and religious
+education, particularly the universities of this realm."
+
+A higher end to be attained, perhaps, than that of merely qualifying
+the student to "get on in the world." His university education is
+not so much to enable him to attain those eminent stations which
+are the prizes of ability and industry, as to fit him to adorn and
+fill worthily those stations when he has attained them. In truth,
+we think it is not desirable, any more than necessary, that a
+degree should be an essential opening to the bar, the profession of
+medicine, or even the Church. The university is injured by being too
+much regarded as a step to be got over with the view of reaching
+some ulterior end.
+
+We dwell on this point with the more interest, because we are
+satisfied that a still greater responsibility rests with the
+universities, to guard the fountains of knowledge pure and
+unsullied, in those days of professed knowledge, than in the
+so-called dark ages. Our day is rich in the knowledge of _facts_;
+there were many _truths_ influencing those men of the times we
+please to call dark, which we have ignored or forgotten. The general
+demand for information--for this knowledge of facts--has made
+it a marketable commodity, a subject of commercial speculation;
+consequently, a vast deal that is shallow and desultory, a vast
+deal, too, that is counterfeit and fraudulent, is abroad, made up
+for the market, and circulates among multitudes who are incapable
+of separating the grain from the chaff. It is therefore, we repeat,
+even more important that the sources of learning should be guarded
+from contamination, now that the antagonistic principles are the
+knowledge of truth and the subserviency to falsehood, than when, at
+the revival of literature, the struggle was between knowledge and
+ignorance.
+
+We would have the universities remember that it is their best policy
+as corporations, as well as a duty they owe to those great medieval
+spirits who planted them where they stand, to own a better principle
+than that which would lead them to succumb to what is called popular
+opinion--in other words, the floating fallacy of the day--and aim
+at producing the shallow party leaders and favourite writers of
+the passing moment. They cannot control the frothy surface and the
+deep under-current at the same time. It would be a sacrifice to
+expediency which, after all, would not serve their turn. There are
+institutions which will do that work, and which will beat them in
+the race. Let all such take their own course.
+
+"Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his hoggish kinde:" let Stinkomalee
+train the statesmen for the League and the jokers for _Punch_,--but
+Oxford and Cambridge have other roles.
+
+It is true, we are told there is a new aristocracy rising in
+England, and that the English universities are gaining no hold
+upon the coming generation of "chiefs of industry." It would be
+far better for our social condition that these same chiefs of
+industry should be educated men, and should pass through a training
+which might tend to neutralise the power of the mercantile iron in
+entering into their soul. But at present the race to be rich is
+so strong and hardly contested, that this class is hardly likely,
+in general, to devote their scions to academical studies of any
+description; and the merchant or manufacturer who came from the
+banks of Isis or Cam, at the age of twenty-one, to the Exchange
+or the Cloth-hall, would find himself starting under a most heavy
+disadvantage as compared with his neighbour of the same age, who had
+spent the last three or four years in a counting-house. The reason
+that this class is not commonly trained in the national seminaries,
+is to be sought in the habit and requirements of the class, and not
+in the nature of the education afforded them.
+
+We have spoken chiefly of Cambridge, because Cambridge has put
+herself forward as the representative of a system of so-called
+university reform--of a certain movement in the direction of that
+principle which would accommodate the education of our higher
+classes to the caprice of a popular cry or cant phrase. We care
+not so much whether that movement in itself be advantageous or the
+reverse: it is against the principles supposed to be involved in it
+that we protest. The report goes, that changes of some kind or other
+are contemplated at Oxford also. If these changes be made, we trust
+that they will not be devised in deference to the noisier portion of
+the public, or to that fondness for short-cuts to knowledge, which
+fritters away the energies of the rising man in the collection of
+desultory facts, and the dependence upon shallow plausibilities.
+The Scottish universities, too, are likely to be put to the test in
+the same manner as their sisters of the Southern kingdom; and the
+questions raised cannot be uninteresting to them.
+
+Nor, indeed, can the whole nation be otherwise than deeply concerned
+in this matter; and we are not surprised, at the interest which
+has been excited by the recent alterations at Cambridge, though
+not measures in themselves of any great importance. While we have
+contended for a higher ground on the part of the universities
+than that of merely finding such knowledge as is required by the
+popular taste, and happens to be most current in the market, and
+have called upon them to lead the public mind in these matters,
+we need hardly say that we must not be understood as failing to
+see the necessity of those institutions closely observing the
+shifting relations of our social equilibrium, and adapting their
+policy by judicious change, if need be, to the circumstances in
+which they find themselves. We might perhaps adduce the altered
+position of the Church with respect to the nation at large, as
+an instance of these changes. We have before hinted that the
+universities have, as we think, in some degree aimed at being
+too exclusively the training-schools of the clergy; and this
+circumstance, in our judgment, so far as England is concerned, has
+both narrowed the operations of the Church and the influence of the
+universities. The Church and European civilisation--the latter
+having grown up under the tutelage of the former--stand no longer
+in the relation of nurse and bantling, though Heaven forbid that
+they should ever be other than firm friends and allies! But the
+Church is no longer the exclusive teacher of the world: mankind
+are in a great measure taught by books. Viewing the clergy not in
+respect of their sacerdotal functions, but as the instructors of
+mankind, we find their office shared by a motley crowd of authors,
+pamphleteers, newspaper editors, magazine contributors, _quales
+nos vel Cluvienus_. It is incumbent, then, on the universities to
+consider how they may bring within the sphere of that control which
+they exercised in old times over the clergy, this mixed multitude
+of public instructors; how they may become not merely the schools
+of the clerical order, but also the nurseries of a future caste of
+literary men, who are to bear their part with that order in the
+coming development of human thought.
+
+
+
+
+THE COVENANTERS' NIGHT-HYMN.
+
+BY DELTA.
+
+
+[Making all allowances for the many over-coloured pictures, nay,
+often onesided statements of such apologetic chroniclers as Knox,
+Melville, Calderwood, and Row, it is yet difficult to divest the
+mind of a strong leaning towards the old Presbyterians and champions
+of the Covenant--probably because we believe them to have been
+sincere, and know them to have been persecuted and oppressed.
+Nevertheless, the liking is as often allied to sympathy as to
+approbation; for a sifting of motives exhibits, in but too many
+instances, a sad commixture of the chaff of selfishness with the
+grain of principle--an exhibition of the over and over again played
+game, by which the gullible many are made the tools of the crafty
+and designing few. Be it allowed that, both in their preachings
+from the pulpit and their teachings by example, the Covenanters
+frequently proceeded more in the spirit of fanaticism than of sober
+religious feeling; and that, in their antagonistic ardour, they did
+not hesitate to carry the persecutions of which they themselves
+so justly complained into the camp of the adversary--sacrificing
+in their mistaken zeal even the ennobling arts of architecture,
+sculpture, and painting, as adjuncts of idol-worship--still it is to
+be remembered, that the aggression emanated not from them; and that
+the rights they contended for were the most sacred and invaluable
+that man can possess--the freedom of worshipping God according
+to the dictates of conscience. They sincerely believed that the
+principles which they maintained were right: and their adherence to
+these with unalterable constancy, through good report and through
+bad report; in the hour of privation and suffering, of danger and
+death; in the silence of the prison-cell, not less than in the
+excitement of the battle-field; by the blood-stained hearth, on the
+scaffold, and at the stake,--forms a noble chapter in the history of
+the human mind--of man as an accountable creature.
+
+Be it remembered, also, that these religious persecutions were not
+mere things of a day, but were continued through at least three
+entire generations. They extended from the accession of James VI. to
+the English throne, (_testibus_ the rhymes of Sir David Lyndsay,
+and the classic prose of Buchanan,) down to the Revolution of
+1688--almost a century, during which many thousands tyrannically
+perished, without in the least degree loosening that tenacity of
+purpose, or subduing that _perfervidum ingenium_, which, according
+to Thuanus, have been national characteristics.
+
+As in almost all similar cases, the cause of the Covenanters, so
+strenuously and unflinchingly maintained, ultimately resulted in
+the victory of Protestantism--that victory, the fruits of which we
+have seemed of late years so readily inclined to throw away; and, in
+its rural districts more especially, of nothing are the people more
+justly proud than
+
+                        ----"the tales
+    Of persecution and the Covenant,
+    Whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour."
+
+So says Wordsworth. These traditions have been emblazoned by the
+pens of Scott, M'Crie, Galt, Hogg, Wilson, Grahame, and Pollok, and
+by the pencils of Wilkie, Harvey, and Duncan,--each regarding them
+with the eye of his peculiar genius.
+
+In reference to the following stanzas, it should be remembered that,
+during the holding of their conventicles,--which frequently, in the
+more troublous times, took place amid mountain solitudes, and during
+the night,--a sentinel was stationed on some commanding height in
+the neighbourhood, to give warning of the approach of danger.]
+
+
+I.
+
+    Ho! plaided watcher of the hill,
+      What of the night?--what of the night?
+    The winds are lown, the woods are still,
+      The countless stars are sparkling bright;
+    From out this heathery moorland glen,
+      By the shy wild-fowl only trod,
+    We raise our hymn, unheard of men,
+      To Thee--an omnipresent God!
+
+
+II.
+
+    Jehovah! though no sign appear,
+      Through earth our aimless path to lead,
+    We know, we feel Thee ever near,
+      A present help in time of need--
+    Near, as when, pointing out the way,
+      For ever in thy people's sight,
+    A pillared wreath of smoke by day,
+      Which turned to fiery flame at night!
+
+
+III.
+
+    Whence came the summons forth to go?--
+      From Thee awoke the warning sound!
+    "Out to your tents, O Israel! Lo!
+      The heathen's warfare girds thee round.
+    Sons of the faithful! up--away!
+      The lamb must of the wolf beware;
+    The falcon seeks the dove for prey;
+      The fowler spreads his cunning snare!"
+
+
+IV.
+
+    Day set in gold; 'twas peace around--
+      'Twas seeming peace by field and flood:
+    We woke, and on our lintels found
+      The cross of wrath--the mark of blood.
+    Lord! in thy cause we mocked at fears,
+      We scorned the ungodly's threatening words--
+    Beat out our pruning-hooks to spears,
+      And turned our ploughshares into swords!
+
+
+V.
+
+    Degenerate Scotland! days have been
+      Thy soil when only freemen trod--
+    When mountain-crag and valley green
+      Poured forth the loud acclaim to God!--
+    The fire which liberty imparts,
+      Refulgent in each patriot eye,
+    And, graven on a nation's hearts,
+      _The Word_--for which we stand or die!
+
+
+VI.
+
+    Unholy change! The scorner's chair
+      Is now the seat of those who rule;
+    Tortures, and bonds, and death, the share
+      Of all except the tyrant's tool.
+    That faith in which our fathers breathed,
+      And had their life, for which they died--
+    That priceless heirloom they bequeathed
+      Their sons--our impious foes deride!
+
+
+VII.
+
+    So We have left our homes behind,
+      And We have belted on the sword,
+    And We in solemn league have joined,
+      Yea! covenanted with the Lord,
+    Never to seek those homes again,
+      Never to give the sword its sheath,
+    Until our rights of faith remain
+      Unfettered as the air we breathe!
+
+
+VIII.
+
+    O Thou, who rulest above the sky,
+      Begirt about with starry thrones,
+    Cast from the Heaven of Heavens thine eye
+      Down on our wives and little ones--
+    From Hallelujahs surging round,
+      Oh! for a moment turn thine ear,
+    The widow prostrate on the ground,
+      The famished orphan's cries to hear!
+
+
+IX.
+
+    And Thou wilt hear! it cannot be,
+      That Thou wilt list the raven's brood,
+    When from their nest they scream to Thee,
+      And in due season send them food;
+    It cannot be that Thou wilt weave
+      The lily such superb array,
+    And yet unfed, unsheltered, leave
+      Thy children--as if less than they!
+
+
+X.
+
+    We have no hearths--the ashes lie
+      In blackness where they brightly shone;
+    We have no homes--the desert sky
+      Our covering, earth our couch alone:
+    We have no heritage--depriven
+      Of these, we ask not such on earth;
+    Our hearts are sealed; we seek in heaven,
+      For heritage, and home, and hearth!
+
+
+XI.
+
+    O Salem, city of the saint,
+      And holy men made perfect! We
+    Pant for thy gates, our spirits faint
+      Thy glorious golden streets to see;--
+    To mark the rapture that inspires
+      The ransomed, and redeemed by grace;
+    To listen to the seraphs' lyres,
+      And meet the angels face to face!
+
+
+XII.
+
+    Father in Heaven! we turn not back,
+      Though briers and thorns choke up the path;
+    Rather the tortures of the rack,
+      Than tread the winepress of Thy wrath.
+    Let thunders crash, let torrents shower,
+      Let whirlwinds churn the howling sea,
+    What is the turmoil of an hour,
+      To an eternal calm with Thee?
+
+
+
+
+THE CARLISTS IN CATALONIA.
+
+
+The debates in the Cortes, and the increasing development of the
+civil war in Catalonia, have again called attention to the affairs
+of Spain. Three months ago we glanced at the state of that country,
+briefly and broadly sketching its political history since the royal
+marriages. The quarter of a year that has since elapsed has been a
+busy one in Spain. Two things have been clearly proved: first, that
+the Carlist insurrection is a very different affair from the paltry
+gathering of banditti, as which the Moderados and their newspapers
+so long persisted in depicting it; and, secondly, that the Madrid
+government are heartily repentant of their unceremonious dismissal
+of a British ambassador. Christina and her Camarilla scarcely know
+which most deeply to deplore--the intrusion of Cabrera or the
+expulsion of Bulwer.
+
+In Catalonia, we have a striking example of what may be
+accomplished, under most unfavourable circumstances, by one man's
+energy and talent. Nine months ago there was not a single company of
+Carlist soldiers in the field. A few irregular bands, insignificant
+in numbers, without uniform and imperfectly armed, roamed in the
+mountains, fearing to enter the plain, hunted down like wolves,
+and punished as malefactors when captured. To persons ignorant
+how great was the difference made by the fall of Louis Philippe
+in the chances of the Spanish Carlists, the cause of these never
+appeared more hopeless than in the spring of 1848. Suddenly a man,
+who for seven years had basked in the orange groves of Hyeres, and
+listlessly lingered in the mountain solitudes of Auvergne,--reposing
+his body, scarred and weary from many a desperate combat, and
+recruiting his health, impaired by exertion and hardship--crossed
+the Pyrenees, and appeared upon the scene of his former exploits.
+The news of his arrival spread fast, but for a time found few
+believers. Cabrera, said the incredulous, who evacuated Spain at
+the head of ten thousand hardy and well-armed soldiers, because
+he would not condescend to a guerilla warfare, after having held
+towns and fortresses, and won pitched battles in the field--Cabrera
+would never re-enter the country to take command of a few hundred
+scattered adventurers. Others denied his presence, because he had
+not immediately signalised it by some dashing feat, worthy the
+conqueror of Morella and Maella. Various reports were circulated by
+those interested to discredit the arrival of the redoubted chief.
+He was ill, they said; he had never entered Spain or dreamed of
+so doing; he had come to Catalonia, others admitted, but was so
+disgusted at the scanty resources of his party, at the few men in
+the field, at the lack of arms, money, organisation,--of everything,
+in short, necessary for the prosecution of a war,--that he cursed
+the lying representations which had lured him from retirement, and
+was again upon the wing for France. The truth was in none of these
+statements. If Cabrera sounded a retreat in 1840, when ten thousand
+warlike and devoted followers were still at his orders, it was
+because the Carlist _prestige_ was gone for a time, the country was
+exhausted by war, anarchy reigned in the camp, and he himself was
+prostrated by sickness. In seven years, circumstances had entirely
+changed; the country, galled by misgovernment and oppression, was
+ripe for insurrection; the intermeddling of foreign powers was no
+longer to be apprehended; and Cabrera emerged from his retirement,
+not expecting to find an army, or money, or organisation, but
+prepared to create all three. In various ingenious and impenetrable
+disguises he moved rapidly about eastern Spain; fearlessly
+entering the towns, visiting his old partisans, and reviving their
+dormant zeal by ardent and confident speech; giving fresh spirit
+to the timid, shaming the apathetic, and enlisting recruits. His
+unremitting efforts were crowned with success. Numbers of his
+former followers rallied round him; secret adherents of the cause
+contributed funds; arms and equipments, purchased in France and
+England, safely arrived; officers of rank and talent, distinguished
+in former wars, raised their banners and mustered companies and even
+battalions; and soon Cabrera was strong enough to traverse Catalonia
+in all directions, and to collect from the inhabitants regular
+contributions, in almost every instance willingly paid, and gathered
+often within cannon-shot of the enemy's forts. He seemed ubiquitous.
+He was heard of everywhere, but more rarely seen, at least in
+his own character. In various assumed ones, not unfrequently in
+the garb of a priest, he accompanied small detachments sent to
+collect imposts; doing subaltern's rather than general's duty,
+ascertaining by personal observation the temper and disposition
+of the peasantry, and making himself known when a point was to be
+gained by the influence of his name and presence. His prodigious
+activity and perseverance wrought miracles in a country where those
+qualities by no means abound. Doubtless he has been well seconded,
+but his has been the master-spirit. The result of his exertions
+is best shown by a statement of the present Carlist strength in
+Catalonia. We have already mentioned what it was eight or nine
+months ago--a few hundred men, half-armed and ill disciplined,
+wandering amongst ravines and precipices. At the close of 1848, the
+Moderado papers, without means of obtaining correct information,
+estimated the Carlist army in Catalonia at 8000 men. The Carlists
+themselves, whose present policy is rather to under-state their
+strength, admitted 10,000. Their real numbers--and the accuracy of
+these statistics may be relied upon--are 12,000 bayonets and sabres,
+exclusive of small guerilla parties, known as _volantes_, and other
+irregulars. A large proportion of the 12,000 are old soldiers,
+who served in the last war; and all are well armed, equipped, and
+disciplined, and superior to their opponents in power of endurance,
+and of effecting those tremendous marches for which Spanish troops
+are celebrated. Regularly rationed and supplied with tobacco, they
+wait cheerfully till the military chest is in condition to disburse
+arrears. The curious in costume may like to hear something of their
+appearance. The brigade under the immediate orders of Cabrera
+wears a green uniform with black facings: Ramonet's men have dark
+blue jackets; there is a corps clothed _a l'Anglaise_, in scarlet
+coats and blue continuations, which is known as Count Montemolin's
+own regiment. The old _boina_ or flat cap, and a sort of light,
+low-crowned shako, such as is worn by the French in Africa, compose
+the convenient and appropriate head-dress. With the important arms
+of artillery and cavalry, in which armies raised as this one has
+been are apt to be deficient, Cabrera is well provided. A number
+of guns were buried and otherwise concealed in Spain ever since
+the last war, and others have been procured from France. As to
+cavalry, the want of which was so frequently and severely felt by
+the Carlists during the former struggle, the Christinos will be
+surprised, one of these days, to find how formidable a body of
+dragoons their opponents can bring into the field, although at
+the present moment they have but few squadrons under arms. Nearly
+four thousand horses are distributed in various country districts,
+comfortably housed in farm and convent stables, and divided amongst
+the inhabitants by twos and threes. They are well cared for, and
+kept in good condition, ready to muster and march whenever required.
+
+What the Catalonian Carlists are now most in want of, is a centre
+of operations, a strong fortress--a Morella or a Berga--whither to
+retreat and recruit when necessary. That Cabrera feels this want is
+evident from the various attempts he has made to surprise fortified
+towns, with a view to hold them against the Christinos. Hitherto
+these attempts have been unsuccessful, but we may be prepared to
+hear any day of his having made one with a different result.
+
+When the general tranquillity of Europe brought Spanish dissensions
+into relief, a vast deal of romance was written in France, Spain,
+and England, in the guise of memoirs of Cabrera, and of other
+distinguished leaders of the civil war, and not a little was
+swallowed by the simple as historical fact. We remember to have
+seen the Convention of Bergara accounted for in print by a game at
+cards between Espartero and Maroto, who, both being represented as
+desperate gamblers, met at night at a lone farm-house between their
+respective lines, and played for the crown of Spain. Espartero won;
+and Maroto, more loyal as a gamester than to his king, brought
+over his army to the queen. This marvellous tale, although not
+exactly vouched for in the original English, was gravely translated
+in French periodicals; and the chances are that a portion of the
+French nation believe to the present hour that Isabella owes her
+crown to a lucky hit at _monte_. Fables equally preposterous
+have been circulated about Cabrera. Of his personal appearance,
+especially, the most absurd accounts have been published; and
+type and graver have furnished so many fantastical and imaginary
+portraits of him, that one from the life may have its interest.
+Ramon Cabrera is about five feet eight inches in height, square
+built, muscular, and active. He is rather round-shouldered; his
+hair is abundant and very black; his grayish-brown eyes must be
+admitted, even by his admirers, to have a cruel expression. His
+complexion is tawny, his nose aquiline; he has nothing remarkable
+or striking in his appearance, and is neither ugly nor handsome,
+but of the two may be accounted rather good-looking than otherwise.
+He has neither an assassin-scowl nor an expression like a bilious
+hyena, nor any other of the little physiognomical _agremens_ with
+which imaginative painters have so frequently embellished his
+countenance. His character, as well as his face, has suffered
+from misrepresentation. He has been depicted as a Nero on a small
+scale, dividing his time between fiddling and massacre. There is
+some exaggeration in the statement. Unquestionably he is neither
+mild nor merciful; he has shed much blood, and has been guilty of
+divers acts of cruelty, but more of these have been attributed
+to him than he ever committed. His mother's death by Christino
+bullets inspired him with a burning desire of revenge. The system of
+reprisals, so largely adopted by both sides, during the late civil
+war in Spain, will account for many of his atrocities, although it
+may hardly be held to justify them. But in the present contest he
+has hitherto gone upon a totally different plan. Mercy and humanity
+seem to be his device, as they are undoubtedly his best policy.
+His aim is to win followers, by clemency and conciliation, instead
+of compelling them by intimidation and cruelty. There is as yet no
+authenticated account of an execution occurring by his order. One
+man was shot at Vich by the troops blockading the place; but he
+was known as a spy, and was twice warned not to enter the town. He
+pretended to retire, made a circuit, tried another entrance, and
+met his death. As to Cabrera's having shot four or five officers
+for a plot against his life, as was recently reported in Spanish
+papers, and repeated by English ones, the tale is unconfirmed, and
+has every appearance of a fabrication. There is no doubt he finds
+it necessary to keep a tight hand over his subordinates, especially
+in presence of the recent defection of some of their number, whose
+treachery, however, is not likely to be very advantageous to the
+Christinos. The troops whom Pozas, Pons, Monserrat, and the other
+renegade chiefs induced to accompany them, have for the most part
+returned to their banners, and the queen has gained nothing but a
+few very untrustworthy officers. These, by one of the conditions
+of their desertion, her generals are compelled to employ, thus
+creating much discontent among those officers of the Christino army
+over whose heads the traitors are placed. The principal traitor,
+General Miguel Pons, better known as Bep-al-Oli, has been known
+as a Carlist ever since the rising in Catalonia in 1827, when he
+was captured by the famous Count d'Espagne, and was condemned to
+the galleys, as was his brother Antonio Pons, one of those whom
+Cabrera was lately falsely reported to have shot. After the death
+of Ferdinand, both brothers served under their former persecutor,
+who thought to extinguish their resentment by good treatment and
+promotion, in spite of which precaution a share in his assassination
+is pretty generally attributed to Antonio Pons. Bep-al-Oli is
+Catalan for Joseph-in-oil, or Oily Joe, a slippery cognomen, which
+his recent change of sides seems to justify. Still he is a model
+of consistency compared to many Spanish officers, who have changed
+sides half-a-dozen times in the last fifteen years. And, indeed,
+after one-and-twenty years' stanch and active Carlism, the sincerity
+of Bep's conversion may perhaps be considered dubious. It would be
+no way surprising if he were to return to his first love, carrying
+with him, of course, the large sum for which he was bought. Another
+chief, Monserrat, passed over to the Christinos with two or three
+companions, and the very next week he had the misfortune to fall
+asleep, whereupon the better half of his band took advantage of
+his slumbers to go back to their colours, much comforted by the
+gratuities they had received for changing sides. When Monserrat
+awoke, he was furious at this defection, and instantly pursued his
+stray sheep. Not having been heard of since, it is not unlikely he
+may ultimately have followed their example. Of course, money is
+the means employed to seduce these fickle partisans. They are all
+bought at their own price, which rate is generally so high as to
+preclude profit. The cash-keepers at Madrid will soon get tired
+of such purchases. The regular expenses of the war are enormous,
+without squandering thousands for a few days' use of men who cannot
+be depended upon. It is notorious that immense offers were made to
+Cabrera to induce him to abandon the cause of Charles VI., of which
+he is the life and soul. Gold, titles, rank, governorships, have
+been in turn and together paraded before him, but in vain. _He_
+would indeed be worth buying, at almost any price; for he could
+not be replaced, and his loss would be a death-blow to the Carlist
+cause. Knowing this, and finding him incorruptible, it were not
+surprising if certain unscrupulous persons at Madrid sought other
+means of removing him from the scene. Cabrera, aware of the great
+importance of his life, very prudently takes his precautions. He
+has done so, to some extent, at various periods of his career.
+During the early portion of his exile in France, when that country,
+especially its southern provinces, swarmed with Spanish emigrants,
+many of whom had deep motives for hating him--whilst others, needy
+and starving, and inured to crime and bloodshed, might have been
+tempted to knife him for the contents of his pockets--the refugee
+chief wore a shirt of mail beneath his sheepskin jacket. He had
+also a celebrated pair of leathern trousers, which were generally
+believed to have a metallic lining. And, at the present time, report
+says that his head is the only vulnerable part of his person.
+
+In presence of their Catalonian anxieties, of Cabrera's rapidly
+increasing strength, and of the impotence of Christino generals, who
+start for the insurgent districts with premature vaunts of their
+triumphs, and return to Madrid, baffled and crestfallen, to wrangle
+in the senate and divulge state secrets--the Narvaez government
+is secretly most anxious to make up its differences with England.
+This anxiety has been made sufficiently manifest by the recent
+discussions in the Cortes. Notwithstanding his assumed indifference
+and vain-glorious self-gratulation, the Duke of Valencia would
+gladly give a year's salary, perquisites, and plunder, to recall
+the impolitic act by which a British envoy was expelled the Spanish
+capital. Senor Cortina, the Progresista deputy, after denying that
+there were sufficient grounds for Sir Henry Bulwer's dismissal,
+and lamenting the rupture that has been its consequence, politely
+advised Narvaez to resign office, as almost the only means of
+repairing the dangerous breach. The recommendation, of course,
+was purely ironical. General Narvaez is the last man to play the
+Curtius, and plunge, for his country's sake, into the gulf of
+political extinction. In his scale of patriotism, the good of Spain
+is secondary to the advantage of Ramon Narvaez. We can imagine the
+broad grins of the Opposition, and the suppressed titter of his own
+friends, upon his having the face to declare, that, when the French
+Revolution broke out, he was actually planning a transfer of the
+reins of government into the hands of the Progresistas. The bad
+example of democratic France frustrated his disinterested designs,
+changed his benevolent intentions, and compelled him to transport
+and imprison, by wholesale, the very men towards whom, a few weeks
+previously, he was so magnanimously disposed. Returns of more than
+fifteen hundred persons, thus arbitrarily torn from their homes and
+families, were moved for early in the session; but only the names
+were granted, the charges against them being kept secret, in order
+not to give the lie to the ministerial assertion that but a small
+minority were condemned for political offences. As to the dispute
+with England, although Narvaez' pride will not suffer him to admit
+his blunder and his regrets, many of his party make no secret of
+their desire for a reconciliation at any price; fondly believing,
+perhaps, that it would be followed, upon the _amantium irae_
+principle, by warmer love and closer union than before. The slumbers
+of these _ojalatero_ politicians are haunted by sweet visions of a
+British steam-flotilla cruising off the Catalonian coast, of Carlist
+supplies intercepted, of British batteries mounted on the shores of
+Spain, and manned by British marines--the sight of whose red jackets
+might serve, at a pinch, to bolster up the wavering courage of a
+Christino division--and of English commodores and artillery-colonels
+supplying such deficient gentlemen as Messrs Cordova and Concha with
+the military skill which, in Spain, is by no means an indispensable
+qualification for a lieutenant-general's commission. Doubtless,
+if the alliance between Lord Palmerston and Queen Christina had
+continued, we should have had something of this sort, some more
+petty intermeddling and minute military operations, consumptive of
+English stores, and discreditable to English reputation. As it is,
+there seems a chance of the quarrel being fairly fought out; of the
+Spaniards being permitted to settle amongst themselves a question
+which concerns themselves alone. If the Carlists get the better of
+the struggle, (and it were unsafe to give long odds against them,)
+it is undeniable that they began with small resources, and that
+their triumph will have been achieved by their own unaided pluck and
+perseverance.
+
+Puzzled how to make his peace with England, without too great
+mortification to his vanity and too great sacrifice of what he
+calls his dignity, Narvaez falls back upon France, and does his
+best to curry favour there by a fulsome acknowledgment of the evils
+averted from Spain by the friendly offices of Messrs Lamartine
+and Bastide, and of "the illustrious General Cavaignac." The fact
+is, that during the first six months of the republic, nobody in
+France had leisure to give a thought to Spain, and Carlists and
+Progresistas were allowed to concert plans and make purchases
+in France without the slightest molestation. At last, General
+Cavaignac, worried by Sotomayor--and partly, perhaps, through
+sympathy with his brother-dictator, Narvaez--sent to the frontier
+one Lebriere, a sort of thieftaker or political Vidocq, who already
+had been similarly employed by Louis Philippe. This man was to
+stir up the authorities and thwart the Carlists, and at first he
+did hamper the latter a little; but whether it was that he was
+worse paid than on his former mission--Cavaignac's interest in the
+affair being less personal than that of the King of the French--or
+that some other reason relaxed his activity, he did not long prove
+efficient. Then came the elections, and the success of Louis
+Napoleon was unwelcome intelligence to the Madrid government--it
+being feared that old friendship might dispose him to favour Count
+Montemolin as far as lay in his power: whereupon--the influence of
+woman being a lever not unnaturally resorted to by a party which
+owes its rise mainly to bedchamber intrigue and to the patronage of
+Madame Munoz--the notable discovery was made that the Duchess of
+Valencia (a Frenchwoman by birth) is a connexion of the Buonaparte
+family, and her Grace was forthwith despatched to Paris to exercise
+her coquetries and fascinations upon her far-off cousin, and to
+intrigue, in concert with the Duke of Sotomayor, for the benefit
+of her husband's government. The result of her mission is not yet
+apparent. Putting all direct intervention completely out of the
+question, France has still a vast deal in her power in all cases
+of insurrection in the northern and eastern provinces of Spain. A
+sharp look-out on the frontier, seizure of arms destined for the
+insurgents, and the removal of Spanish refugees to remote parts of
+France, are measures that would greatly harass and impede Carlist
+operations; much less so now, however, than three or four months
+ago. Most of the emigrants have now entered Spain; and horses and
+arms--the latter in large numbers--have crossed the frontier.
+
+Up to the middle of January, the Montemolinist insurrection was
+confined to Catalonia, where alone the insurgents were numerous
+and organised. This apparent inactivity in other districts, where
+a rising might be expected, was to be attributed to the season.
+The quantity of snow that had fallen in the northern provinces was
+a clog upon military operations. About the middle of the month, a
+thousand men, including three hundred cavalry, made their appearance
+in Navarre, headed by Colonel Montero, an old and experienced
+officer of the peninsular war, who served on the staff so far back
+as the battle of Baylen. This force is to serve as a nucleus. The
+conscription for 1849 has been anticipated; that is to say, the
+young soldiers who should have joined their colours at the end of
+the year, are called for at its commencement; and it is expected
+that many of these conscripts, discontented at the premature
+summons, will prefer joining the Carlists. When the weather clears,
+it is confidently anticipated that two or three thousand hardy
+recruits will make the valleys of Biscay and Navarre ring once
+more with their Basque war-cries, headed by men whose names will
+astonish those who still discredit the virtual union of Carlists and
+Progresistas.
+
+The masses of troops sent into Catalonia have as yet effected
+literally nothing, not having been able to prevent the enemy even
+from recruiting and organising. General Cordova made a military
+promenade, lost a few hundred men--slain or taken prisoners with
+their brigadier at their head--and resigned the command. He has been
+succeeded by Concha, a somewhat better soldier than Cordova, who
+was never anything but a parade butterfly of the very shallowest
+capacity. Concha has as yet done little more than his predecessor,
+(his reported victory over Cabrera between Vich and St Hippolito was
+a barefaced invention, without a shadow of foundation,) although
+his force is larger than Cordova's was, and his promises of what
+he _would_ do have been all along most magnificent. Already there
+has been talk of his resignation, which doubtless will soon occur,
+and Villalonga is spoken of to succeed him. This general, lately
+created Marquis of the Maestrazgo for his cruelty and oppression
+of the peasantry in that district, will hardly win his dukedom in
+Catalonia, although dukedoms in Spain are now to be had almost for
+the asking. Indeed, they have become so common that, the other day,
+General Narvaez, Duke of Valencia, anxious for distinction from
+the vulgar herd, was about to create himself prince; but having
+unfortunately selected Concord for his intended title, and the
+accounts from Catalonia being just then anything but peaceable,
+he was fain to postpone his promotion till it should be more _de
+circonstance_. The Prince of Concord would be a worthy successor to
+the Prince of the Peace. Spain was once proud of her nobility and
+choice of her titles. Alas! how changed are the times! What a pretty
+list of grandees and _titulos de Castilla_ the Spanish peerage now
+exhibits! Mr Sotomayor, the other day a bookseller's clerk, then
+sub-secretary in a ministry, then understrapper to Gonzales Bravo,
+now duke and ambassador at Paris! What a successor to the princely
+and magnificent envoys of a Philip and a Charles! And Mr Sartorius,
+lately a petty jobber on the Madrid Bolsa, is now Count of St Louis,
+secretary of state, &c.! When the Legion of Honour was prostituted
+in France by lavish and indiscriminate distribution, and by
+conversion into an electioneering bribe and a means of corruption,
+many old soldiers, who had won their cross upon the battle-fields of
+the Empire, had the date of its bestowal affixed in silver figures
+to their red ribbon. The old nobility of Spain must soon resort to
+a similar plan, and sign their date of creation after their names,
+if they would be distinguished from the horde of disreputable
+adventurers on whom titles have of late years been infamously
+squandered.
+
+When the Madrid government has performed its promise, so often
+repeated during the last six months, of extinguishing the Carlists
+and restoring peace to Spain, we hope those ill-treated gentlemen
+in the city of London, who, from time to time, draw up a respectful
+representation to General Narvaez on the subject of Spanish
+debts--a representation which that officer blandly receives, and
+takes an early opportunity of forgetting--will pluck up courage
+and sternly urge the Duke of Valencia and the finance minister
+of the day to apply to the liquidation of Spanish bondholders'
+claims a part, at least, of the resources now expended on military
+operations. Forty-five millions of reals, about half-a-million of
+pounds sterling, are now, we are credibly informed, the monthly
+expenditure of the war department of Spain. That this is squeezed
+out of the country, by some means or other, is manifest, since
+nobody now lends money to Spain. A very large part of this very
+considerable sum being expended in Catalonia, goes into the pockets
+of the inhabitants of that province, who pay it over to the Carlists
+in the shape of contributions, and still make a profit by the
+transaction--so that they are in no hurry to finish the war; and
+Catalonia presents at this moment the singular spectacle of two
+contending armies paid out of the same military chest. But Spain is
+the country of anomalies; and nothing in the conduct of Spaniards
+will ever surprise us, until we find them, by some extraordinary
+chance, conducting their affairs according to the rules of common
+sense and the dictates of ordinary prudence.
+
+
+_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as
+printed.
+
+Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where
+the missing quote should be placed.
+
+The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the
+transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
+65, No. 400, February, 1849, by Various
+
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