diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/44344.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44344.txt | 9343 |
1 files changed, 9343 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/44344.txt b/old/44344.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c9adca --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44344.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9343 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, FEB 1849 *** + +***** This file should be named 44344.txt or 44344.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/3/4/44344/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |