diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/44533.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44533.txt | 9670 |
1 files changed, 9670 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/44533.txt b/old/44533.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68fa242 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44533.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9670 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, +No. 393, July 1848, 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, Volume 64, No. 393, July 1848 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 28, 2013 [EBook #44533] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JULY 1848 *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Julia Neufeld +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 equal marks is translieterated Greek (+Polla ta +deina+). + +The [)a] in "wach-unkam[)a]net" refers to an "a" with breve. + +Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. + + + + * * * * * + + + + + BLACKWOOD'S + + Edinburgh + + MAGAZINE. + + VOL. LXIV. + + JULY-DECEMBER, 1848. + + [Illustration: Buchanan] + + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH; + + AND + + 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. + + 1848. + + BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. + + + + + BLACKWOOD'S + + EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + No. CCCXCIII. JULY, 1848. VOL. LXIV. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + THE LAWS OF LAND. 1 + + LIFE IN THE "FAR WEST." PART II. 17 + + AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS. 31 + + THE CAXTONS. Part IV. 40 + + REPUBLICAN FRANCE.--JUNE 1848. 51 + + COLONISATION. 66 + + SIBERIA. 76 + + THE SCOTTISH DEER FORESTS. 92 + + THE BURIED FLOWER. 108 + + HUZZA FOR THE RULE OF THE WHIGS. 112 + + THE NAVIGATION LAWS. 114 + + 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. CCCXCIII. JULY, 1848. VOL. LXIV. + + + + +THE LAWS OF LAND. + +_A Treatise on the Succession to Property vacant by Death._ By J. R. +M'CULLOCH, Esq. London: Longmans, 1848. + + +Mr M'Culloch's book introduces us to a question much debated in this +age of class jealousy. As soon as we open it, we are straightway +environed with "a barbarous noise of owls and cuckoos, asses, +apes, and dogs," amid whose jargon of phrases rises loudest and +most frequent the cry of "commercial principles." It is a great +grievance, it seems, that land should not be disposed of according +to "commercial principles;" that hill and holt, and moor and dale, +should not pass from seller to buyer with the same readiness as +candles and calicoes. Truly we have enough, and more than enough, of +these same commercial principles in all walks of thought. Even the +pulpit is not free from them. Politics are positively smothered with +them. Ethical science, with the shallowisms of Paley and Bentham +round her neck, struggles feebly with them. The book-keeper is +abroad every where, with an indestructible faith in double entry. +The Spirit of the Age wears a pen behind his ear, and sits on a high +stool with three legs. That the prevailing commercial principles +should have been so long excluded from the absolute possession of +our laws of land, and that those laws should have preserved to a +time like this so much of their feudal character, is a notable proof +of the adaptation of the laws to the general requirements of the +community, and of the steadiness of that social system which is so +essentially linked to the maintenance of these laws. + +The cry of complaint to which we have above alluded, is inspired by +many diverse motives. As Mr Cochrane's ragged followers flocked to +Trafalgar Square to denounce the income-tax, so many a man takes up +the shout against the law of primogeniture and entail, as tying up +lands and restricting their sale, who never had the wherewithal to +purchase a single acre if all broad England was in the market. On +the other hand, the purse-proud citizen, sore that ready money is +not yet quite at the top of the tree, and that he does not receive +the same consideration at St James's as in Change Alley, delights to +have some grievance whereon he can vent his spleen; and really, in +some stolid instances, persuades himself that he is kept out of the +land which his gold could buy, through the agency of aristocratical +laws, as if George Robins had been a mythical personage, or the +advertisements of Farebrother, Clark, and Lye were a mockery and +delusion. + +But the largest class of assailants are those who come to the +debate fortified with certain specious economical arguments, +generally derived from a one-sided view of some particular effect +of these restrictive laws. To the demolition of these objectors +Mr M'Culloch's work is more immediately addressed; and very +effectually, in our opinion, does it accomplish its end. He has +not, perhaps, treated the subject so widely as it might have been +treated: he has not entered into the indirect social influences that +might be traced to our system of the laws relating to land; but the +economical part of the question he has grasped most completely, and +supported by most able and practical reasoning. + +We must, we suppose, look for the text of the work, not where the +text is usually found, but at the end. The following sentence, +which is almost the concluding one, may be taken as the leading +proposition of the work:-- + + "A powerful and widely-ramified aristocracy like that of + England, not resting for support on any oppressive laws, and + enjoying no privileges but which are for the public advantage, + is necessary to give stability and security to the government, + and freedom to the people. And our laws in regard to succession + being well fitted to maintain such an aristocracy, and, at the + same time, to inspire every other class with the full spirit of + industry and enterprise, to change them would not be foolish + merely, but criminal,--a _lese majeste_ against the public + interests."--P. 172. + +It must not, however, be supposed from this remark, that any portion +of the work is appropriated to a set defence of government by +means of an aristocracy. By an aristocracy we mean the deposition +of political power in the hands of men of leisure and education, +as opposed to the tendency of the Reform Bill, to transfer +the governing functions to the "practical" men of the trading +and moneyed interests, and the analogous claims of Chartism, +founded on Jack Cade's complaint, that the "king's council are +no good workmen." In England, we are pretty sure to have an +aristocracy--that is, the influences which affect government and +legislation will emanate principally from that class which is +socially at the head of the nation; and the question is, whether +we are to have a mere moneyed aristocracy, or one qualified by +those mixed and undefinable conditions which, more than any thing +else, act to keep down the growing and eager ascendency of wealth +_per se_. Among the safeguards of such an aristocracy as we have +described, not the least powerful is to be found in the laws +discussed in the work before us. Mr M'Culloch, as we have said, +assumes the importance to the country of preserving the present +characteristics of British aristocracy; and he therefore proceeds +at once to show how the laws on which he treats operate for this +preservation, and to rebut the objections advanced against them on +the score of their relations to other classes of the community. + +One of the most frequent of these objections is, that the laws +in question tend to diminish the productiveness of the land, and +thereby inflict a serious injury on the community at large; that +they prevent, in many instances, the landlord from granting leases +to his tenant beyond the term of his own life; that the tenant, in +consequence, is not willing to incur the outlay of drainage and +other expensive improvements, because he is not secured by a lease; +while the landlord, on the other hand, will not enter into these +expenses, because he does not feel the same interest in his limited +estate which he would in the unconditional fee-simple. + +Note first of all the logic of this argument. The tenant, it seems, +will not spend his money in draining without a lease. As, however, +a lease would suffice to induce him so to do, we might naturally +suppose that the landlord's estate for life, or in tail, would be at +least an equal inducement. These reasoners, however, aver, that the +landlord is only to be tempted by the unrestricted fee. According to +this progressive scale, it might be fairly, argued, that the tenant, +on becoming lessee for years, would still require the landlord's +life-interest; and the latter, when seised of the fee, would decline +the requisite expense, except on a guarantee of immortality, and +justify himself by Horace's authority,-- + + "Tanquam + Sit proprium quidquam puncto quod mobilis horae + Permutet dominos, et cedat in altera jura." + +But the general scope of an argument may be just, though clumsily +stated and fallaciously supported. We are, however, at no loss for +experiments on the largest scale whereby to test the theory here +noticed. We have English agriculture, subjected to a limited law of +entail, contrasted on the one hand with Scottish agriculture, under +a law of perpetual entail, and on the other with that of France and +its compulsory gavelkind. Mr M'Culloch has taken an elaborate view +of the question in its relation to the tillage of the soil in these +three countries respectively, more especially in France. We find, +from the result of his investigation, that,-- + + "The average produce per acre of the crops of wheat in England + and Wales in good years, has been carefully estimated at + thirty-two bushels an acre, and it is certainly not under thirty + bushels. But in France the produce of wheat, even in the richest + and best cultivated departments, is little more, according to + the official returns and the best private authorities, than + twenty bushels an acre; and at an average of the entire kingdom, + it hardly amounts in a good year to fourteen bushels. This + result is completely decisive. It shows that one acre of land + in England yields, from its being better farmed, considerably + more wheat than two acres in France: and if we took barley or + oats, turnips, beef, or wool for a standard, the difference in + our favour would be seen to be still greater.... If labour were + taken for a standard instead of land, the result would be still + more in our favour. One man and one horse in England produce + more corn and other agricultural produce than three men and + three horses in France. Labour in the latter is misapplied and + wasted."--P. 117. + +Again:-- + + "While two husbandmen in France furnish a surplus of food above + their own consumption adequate for _one_ individual, the same + number of English husbandmen furnish a surplus for no fewer than + _four_ individuals; showing, that, as measured by its capacity + of providing for the other classes of the population, English is + to French agriculture as four to one."--P. 121. + +So much for the comparison of French and English agriculture. Let us +now turn to Scotland:-- + + "In an Appendix to the 'Sketches of the History of Man,' + published in 1774, Lord Kames says, 'The quantity of land that + is locked up in Scotland by entails has damped the growing + spirit of agriculture. There is not produced sufficiency of + corn at home for our consumption; and our condition will become + worse and worse by new entails, till agriculture and industry be + annihilated.' Now the extent of land under entail in Scotland + has been certainly more than doubled, perhaps more than trebled, + since this paragraph was written, and yet agriculture and + manufactures have made a more rapid progress in Scotland in the + interval, and especially during the last thirty years, when + entails were most prevalent, than in England or in any other + country whatever."--P. 71. + +Lord Kames, in this respect, seems to have had the same subtle +ingenuity in prophesying counter to the event, as distinguishes Mr +Cobden. + +The first part of Mr M'Culloch's volume contains a cursory +historical view of the earliest regulations of succession and +inheritance. Thus, at p. 16, he traces the right of primogeniture, +or preference of the eldest son, to the Mosaic law. We are far from +maintaining that the specific details of the code promulgated on +Sinai are a model of law for all nations; on the contrary, they +were no doubt intended to be such as a wise human law-giver would +frame, and consequently more or less applicable according to the +changes and differences of social organisation. But we do hold that +these laws indicate to mankind principles which are to be observed +in all times and by all nations. Thus, the septennial release of +debts, the return of every man to his possession in the year of +jubilee, the prohibition of interest upon loans except to an alien, +even the poor man's portion in the field and vineyard, may or +may not be regulations adapted to a particular existing state of +society. But they enunciate a principle of mercy and forbearance +towards the poor and unfortunate, of which, we fear, our political +economists and commercial legislators are too apt to lose sight. In +conformity with this view, when we hear the right of primogeniture +assailed as contrary to the law of nature, (by the way, where is +this much-talked-of law of nature to be found?) we may safely appeal +to the express recognition by the Jewish law of "the right of the +first-born as the beginning of his father's strength," to show +that the custom of primogeniture is at all events not repugnant to +instinctive justice or the common-sense of mankind. The old Saxon +law of gavelkind might be better adapted to a superabundance of +land and a thin population; the preference of the youngest son, by +the custom of Borough-English, might well prevail among the far +progenitors of the Saxon race on the steppes of Scythia,[1] when +the elder brothers would be sent forth to roam over the boundless +plain with their flocks and herds, the youngest remaining at home to +be the prop of his father's old age. But in a settled and cultivated +country, and among an advanced people, we maintain succession by +primogeniture to be the most consonant, as a matter of theory, to +the social feelings and requirements of man; and we think our author +has fully established his position as to the beneficial character of +its practical results. + + [1] We suspect this custom may be traced in the Scythian legends of + Herodotus. See his 4th book, chapters v., vi., and x. + +In the course of his historical survey, Mr M'Culloch has of course +touched on the principle of succession under the Roman law, but +more lightly than we should have expected in reference to a system +which has entered so largely into our Scottish law, and which is +still accepted as a model framework of legal principles in most of +the universities of Christendom. And the slight notice taken traces +an analogy between the feudal and civil principles of succession, +which we think is altogether incorrect. Our author, in speaking of +the Roman law of succession, appears to confound in some measure +the Roman term _haeres_ with the English word _heir_. The civilian +definition of _haeres_ is _qui ex testamento succedit in universum +jus testatoris_. In Scotland the word _heir_ has much the same +import:--"The law deems it reasonable," says Erskine, (_Inst._ book +iii. tit. 8, Sec. 2) "that every fiar shall have the power by deed, +during his life, to declare who shall have the lands after his +death: and the person so favoured is called the _heir_." Whereas the +feudal notion of the word _heir_ preserved in the English law, is of +one upon whom the estate is cast, after the death of his ancestor, +by act of law and right of blood. In other words, _haeres_ is he who +is appointed by the will of the deceased to succeed to his civil +rights, and, in default of such appointment, the person indicated +by a certain general law. But the _heir_ (in English law) is the +next and worthiest of blood, appointed by the common-law to succeed +to his ancestor; although this rule of succession may be set aside +by the appointment or will of the ancestor, if possessed of the +fee-simple. Bearing in mind this distinction, we shall perceive the +cause of Mr M'Culloch's error when he says-- + + "The Furian, the Voconian, and the Falcidian laws were passed, + the first two under the republic, and the latter under Augustus, + to secure the interests of children by limiting the power of + fathers to make settlements to their prejudice." P. 6. + +Now, the Voconian law, so far from protecting the interests of +children, frequently operated in the case of daughters to prejudice +them;--of this we have a remarkable instance in the case of Annius +Asellus, dwelt upon by Cicero, in the second action against +Verres, _Orat._ i., c. 41--44. The law prevented all registered or +assessed (_censi_) citizens of Rome from appointing a female as +their _haeres_. Again, the Furian and Falcidian laws were passed to +secure the person nominated as _haeres_ from being prejudiced by +the excessive amount of legacies under the will. Hence, if a man +died leaving only daughters, he was prohibited by the Voconian law +from appointing any of them as his _haeres_; and the other two laws +restrained him from appointing a nominal _haeres_, and leaving his +property to his daughters by way of legacies (_legata_.) + +In truth, the English notion of heirship, as succession by right +of blood, seems to be entirely due to the northern nations and the +feudal system. Under both systems, however, it is observable how +the progress of legislation and society has been to increase the +privileges and diminish the duties of the constituted successor. For +as, in tenure by chivalry, the heir was rather the person to whom, +in consequence of proximity of blood, the lord might look for the +performance of the military services, than the fortunate acquirer of +the property, so the Roman _haeres_ was regarded more in the light +of one on whom devolved the religious, civil, and private duties +of the deceased; frequently so burdensome that the inheritance was +altogether refused, until the heir was guarded by such laws as the +Furian and Falcidian. + +While we are in the humour of finding fault, we may notice a +passage in which we think Mr M'Culloch has not dealt fairly with the +English law. It is as follows:-- + + "In one respect the law of intestacy appears to stand much in + need of revision. It is interpreted so as to give, in many + cases, more to the eldest son than the real estate and his + share of the personalty. Suppose, for example, that a person + dies intestate, leaving an estate worth (say) L.100,000, with + a mortgage made by him upon it for half its value, or L50,000, + and leaving also L50,000 of personal property, in this case the + real estate is obviously worth only L50,000; and consistently + with the principles previously laid down, the eldest son + should succeed to the estate burdened with its debt, and the + personal property be divided among the children generally. But + a different rule has been permitted to grow up. The personal + property of persons dying intestate is the first fund for their + debts, though secured upon their estates; and it is the surplus + only, if there be any, after these debts are paid, that is + divisible among the children, who, in the above case, would be + entitled to nothing. This appears to be in all respects a most + objectionable arrangement."--P. 41. + +We cannot see any anomaly here. "It is a rule in equity," says +Cruise, (_Digest_, tit. xv. c. 4,) "that where a person dies, +leaving a variety of funds, one of which must be charged with a +debt, that the fund which received the benefit by the contracting +the debt shall make satisfaction." This seems to us perfectly just +and reasonable, according to the principles of the English law. In +the case put by Mr M'Culloch, the personalty of L50,000 obviously +owes its existence to the mortgage debt; and it is, therefore, +fairly applied to the discharge of that debt. But, _cessante +ratione, cessat etiam lex_; this only applies where the deceased was +himself the mortgager. Where the lands came to him mortgaged, his +personal estate will not be liable, even though he may have made a +covenant to pay it. We may refer the legal reader to the judgment +of Lord King, delivered, with the assistance of Lord Chief-Justice +Raymond and the Master of the Rolls, in Evelyn _v._ Evelyn, 2 P. +Wms. 659. Compare Cope _v._ Cope, 1 Salk. 449. Shafto _v._ Shafto, 2 +P. Wms. 664. + +Although the custom of primogeniture and the law of entail exercise +a similar influence on our social state, yet, as they may be said +in some measure to go by a different path towards the same end, Mr +M'Culloch has treated them separately. With respect to the first, he +begins by rebutting Adam Smith's sweeping denunciation:--"Nothing +can be more contrary to the real interest of a numerous family, than +a right which, in order to enrich one, beggars all the rest of the +children." _Wealth of Nations_, p. 171. + + "On the contrary," says Mr M'Culloch, "we are well convinced + that much of the industry and of the superior wealth and + civilisation of modern Europe, may be ascribed to the influence + of the custom of primogeniture in determining the succession + to estates; and that, were it abolished, or superseded by the + opposite custom of equally dividing landed property among all + the children, or even among all the sons, they would suffer + universally by the change, the youngest as well as the oldest; + while it would most seriously compromise the interests of every + other class."--P. 28. + +The truth is, that the right of primogeniture is rather to be +regarded as having for its object the benefit of the community, +than the interest of the particular family. If a man has L50,000 +a-year and five sons, it may appear, at first sight, decidedly +more conducive to "the greatest possible happiness of the greatest +possible number," that each of these five sons should have L10,000 +a-year, than that one should possess the whole, or bulk, of the +paternal property, and the other four be left to buffet their way +through the world. But it is for the interest of the nation that +its aristocracy should be founded in old families, fortified and +graced by historical associations; and these are only to be kept up +by a devolution of their lands according to the feudal rule. But, +as regards the interest of the particular family, it will appear +on consideration that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, this +also is most effectually promoted by the law of primogeniture. By +means of this law, the main stock of the family is left in its full +strength as a nucleus round which the younger branches are united, +and from which their members derive alike a great portion of their +status in society, and inducement to advance themselves in their +respective pursuits; and, on the other hand, the professions of +the country are exalted and dignified by the infusion into their +ranks of men of birth and education, who are, at the same time, +dependent on those professions for their advancement. Sir Matthew +Hale, as quoted by Mr M'Culloch, forcibly describes the results +of the opposite system. "This equal division of inheritance," he +says, speaking of the old times of Saxon gavelkind, "did by degrees +bring the inhabitants to a low kind of country living; and families +were broken; and the younger sons which, had they not had these +little parcels of land to apply themselves to, would have betaken +themselves to trades, or to military, or civil, or ecclesiastical +employments, neglecting those opportunities, wholly applied +themselves to those small divisions of land; whereby they neglected +the opportunities of greater advantage of enriching themselves +and the kingdom." And if it should be urged that Sir Matthew Hale +could do little more than form an _a priori_ judgment of the social +condition of England in the days of the Confessor, it should be +remembered that the picture here drawn is precisely applicable to +the state of France at the present day, and may easily be traced to +its similar system of partition. An important public result of the +same system, as regards the landholders in the exercise of their +functions as citizens, may also be observed in that country. The +large body of landed proprietors, amounting to between four and five +millions, so far from being the leaders of the people, are, perhaps, +the most inert and uninfluential class of the whole community. They +pay the bulk of the taxes, and grumble accordingly; but beyond a +vague dread of aristocracy--not unnaturally founded, perhaps, on the +traditions of the vexatious privileges swept away in 1791--they seem +disposed calmly to acquiesce in all the proclamations, charters, +and chimeras that maybe thrust upon them by busier handlers of the +tools of government, and behold revolutions concocted in Paris, +and bursting over their heads, apparently without the remotest +conception that it any wise rests with them to control or guide the +convulsion. + + "It has sometimes been contended that the custom of + primogeniture is injurious, from its interesting the leading + families of the country in the support of expensive public + establishments, in which their younger branches are most + commonly placed."--P. 38. + +This objection also Mr M'Culloch brings to the test of experiment, +and shows that this bias, if it really exist, is little perceptible, +and that the aristocracy have shown much more zeal to discharge +the functions of the ill-paid offices of the army and navy, than +to get into their hands the lucrative situations connected with +the administration of justice. It was certainly not the immediate +interest of the aristocracy, for instance, to maintain the offices +of the six clerks in Chancery, the profits on which were estimated +for compensation at sums varying, we believe, from L2500 to L1000 +per annum. + +The law of entail is traceable to the same human instincts as the +law of primogeniture. The clannish feelings of the northern nations, +their notion of representation by blood, and the territorial +character of their citizenship, all combined to produce an anxiety +to perpetuate the old stocks in the homes of their fathers. Nor is +this desire of posthumous control over the transmission of lands +the product, as is sometimes alleged, of an artificial state of +society. Man's possessory instinct essentially connects itself with +the future--_Serit arbores quae alteri prosint saeculo._ The justice +of gratifying this wish by general laws of the community is not +more impeachable than that of guarding the indefeasible possession +of the owner during his lifetime. It remains to be seen how far the +sanction of entails is consistent with the good of the nation in +general. + +Every lawyer knows that the progress of legal decisions in England +has been adverse to entails, and that although the statute De Donis +continues on the statute-book, yet it was long ago rendered almost +nugatory by the introduction of fines and recoveries. Hence the term +entail is now popularly applied to denote the strict settlement of +lands, under provisions which prevent them from passing from the +heirs to whom they are limited; this having been, of old, the result +of an entail properly so called, though it now requires a more +complicated mode of settling, and can only endure (so as to render +the lands inalienable) for a life or any number of lives in being, +and twenty-one years afterwards. This more popular meaning of the +word entail is that which Mr M'Culloch follows--his object being to +treat of the influence of tying up lands from alienation. + +Measuring the practice of entails by the rule of utility, Mr +M'Culloch selects two points as the principal topics of discussion. + + "In the first place, it is alleged in favour of entails that + they stimulate exertion and economy; that they hold out to + industry and ambition the strongest and safest excitement in the + prospect of founding an imperishable name and a powerful family, + and of being remembered and venerated by endless generations + as their chief and benefactor. And, in the second place, it is + said that entails form the only solid bulwark of a respectable + aristocracy, and prevent generations from being ruined by the + folly or misfortunes of an individual."--P. 78. + +The first of these propositions is, no doubt, partially true; but +the motive put forward has not, we think, as a matter of experience, +the force that might, at first sight, be attributed to it. Perhaps +the keenest accumulators of wealth have not been those who have +fixed their capital in a landed estate. The man of business habits +and judicious speculation is drawn to make his fortune in obedience +to a passion which is partly developed, and at all events fostered, +by the pursuit of his life. It cannot be said to arise altogether +from a notion of benefiting posterity, of being the founder of a +house--the man of whom future Fitztomkynses shall be ashamed--that +John Tomkins, merchant, sets at nought all the expostulations of +self-indulgence: + + "Tun' mare transilias? tibi torta cannabe fulto + Coena sit in transtro? Veientanumque rubellum + Exhalet vapida laesum pice fissilis obba?" + +Enormous fortunes were accumulated during the declining days +of the Roman republic. But entails being then unknown, and the +Roman nobility having no territorial position, these fortunes, +usually acquired by oppression and extortion in the provinces, were +squandered in largesses and corruption at home. There was no other +way in which a Roman citizen of great wealth could establish the +influence of his family. He could not, like, all English gentleman, +connect his name with a landed estate, and extend his influence by +those good offices and local duties which lie so immediately open +to a man in that capacity. As an almost necessary consequence, he +sought for power through the demoralisation and corruption of the +holders of the suffrage--causes which contributed more than any +other to the downfall of the republic. By lavishing his gold in this +manner, he obtained, not only political eminence for himself, but +also that power which led to proconsulates and propraetorships among +his heirs, and thus gave them the opportunity of repairing, by fresh +exactions, his diminished revenues. + +Hence we should rather view the law of entail as an inducement to a +man to perpetuate his thousands in broad acres than to acquire his +fortune in the first instance. And, in conformity with this view, +it may be observed, that it is more generally the son or other +successor than the architect of the fortune himself who converts the +accumulated wealth into this permanent form. + +Mr M'Culloch's second point--the preservation of families by means +of entails--is one of wider interest and more general importance. In +a bustling mercantile community like ours, we cannot too jealously +guard any institution which, directly or indirectly, tends to +preserve distinctions due to something more than mere wealth. And +there can be no doubt that the system of entails has saved many +an ancient line from being thrust from its home of centuries to +a strange spot, and this not only among the titled and wealthy, +but among the yeomanry and "statesmen." In England, of course, a +family may frequently perish through the possession of an estate in +fee-simple passing into the hands of an unthrifty representative +of the line, as the settlements require constant renewal. But in +Scotland the system of perpetual entail exercises a much more potent +influence in their behalf. Mr M'Culloch, though he rebuts many of +the objections urged against the Scottish law, is nevertheless +anxious to see it assimilated in a great measure to that of +England. There is, however, an exception which he would make to +the rule against perpetuity of entails. It is with regard to the +peerage, in which matter we cordially agree with him. There were, +in ancient times, instances of barons who were degraded from their +dignity on account of their lack of sufficient revenue to support +their hereditary title. The independence and the dignity of the +House of Lords would be alike maintained by an enactment enabling, +or even obliging, all peers to tie up by perpetual entail a certain +portion of their estates to accompany the title. Such anomalies +as that of an Earl of Buchan (Lord Erskine's father, see Lord +Campbell's _Lives of the Chancellors_) living in the uppermost flat +of a sixteen-story house, would thereby be avoided with considerable +advantage to the national interests. + +Mr M'Culloch, therefore, who quotes Sir William Temple and Dr +Johnson on the same side, would preserve the law of perpetual entail +for the Scottish peerage, and extend it also to that of England. +In other respects he is, as we have above stated, in favour of a +considerable modification of the Scottish law of entail. He admits, +however, the difficulty of dealing with existing entails. + + "These have established a right of property not only in the + actual possessors and their families, but, speaking generally, + in a wide circle of collateral heirs; nor could the rights of + the unborn heirs be affected without annulling the clauses in a + great number of settlements, and also in marriage-contracts and + other deeds _inter vivos_. It is, therefore, hardly possible + materially to relax the fetters of entails with strict justice + to all parties, though it might perhaps be slowly and gradually + effected without inflicting any very serious hardship on + any individual. We incline to think that this might be most + easily brought about by saving the rights of living heirs + of entail, and of such heirs as may be born under existing + marriage-contracts. The interests of the possible heirs that + might be prejudiced by the adoption of some such rule as this, + are of so very unsubstantial a description that they might + safely be neglected." P. 78. + +At the time we write, a measure is pending before Parliament, +entitled "A Bill for the amendment of the Law of Entail in +Scotland," and endorsed with the names of the Lord-Advocate, Sir +George Grey, and Mr Solicitor-General for Scotland. Whatever +difficulties Mr M'Culloch feels with regard to relaxing the fetters +of entail, it is obvious that the contrivers of this bill are in +nowise hampered by them. They go to work in the most off-hand manner +possible. A short and unobtrusive-looking bill is to drive clean +through all the existing settlements and deeds of tailzie, with +their complicated train of clauses irritant and resolutive, as if no +mortal was concerned in the matter, and estates were the proper toys +of law-makers. + +The fact of the quantity of alienable land diminishing in a +commercial country, while trade and population are increasing, is no +doubt a state of things which calls for a remedy, since there must +at some period or another, be a failure of land adequate to meet the +requirements of realised fortunes. If, in the judgment of reasonable +and practical observers, the difficulty could be met by making all +future entails subject to be barred by a process analogous to that +existing in England, we should think there could be no hesitation +in affirming it to be the most just and most expedient course to +introduce such a change, and leave the existing settlements in their +contemplated perpetuity. If, however, it can be clearly established +that already too much land is locked up in the northern kingdom, +and that the soil now free from entail is insufficient to satisfy +the requirements of future buyers, then we should say that the +utmost care and skill were required in framing enactments which +should adapt themselves to the justice of particular cases, and +should, as far as might be, save existing and vested interests in +their delicate multiplicity and connexion. If ever such care and +skill were required, it would be in a measure which interferes +more extensively with vested rights--usually with good reason a +sacred thing in the eye of the law--than any which appears in the +statute-books of the three kingdoms. A statute to convert the Irish +tenants into owners of the fee-simple of their several holdings, +(a project which has been talked of,) would scarcely be a more +startling invasion of the rights of property as they are usually +recognised. We do not, however, intend to impeach the general +provisions of the bill. If, as we before observed, so important a +change was found to be necessary, it is right to make it; and it is +no more than was effected in England by a more gradual process--the +subtle fictions of the law-courts, which virtually got rid of the +statute De Donis. But we can anticipate nothing but uncertainty +and multiplied litigation, from the apparently crude and careless +project now before us. + +An instance of the loose wording of this bill strikes the reader +in the very first section. It proposes to enact "that where any +estate in Scotland shall be entailed by a deed of tailzie, dated +on or after the first day of March one thousand eight hundred and +forty-eight, it shall be lawful for any heir of entail, born after +the date of such tailzie, being of full age, and in possession of +such entailed estate in virtue of such tailzie, _to acquire such +estate in fee-simple_, by applying to the Court of Session, &c." +Now, what is this estate which the heir of entail is to acquire in +fee-simple? The estate-tail, for so it is by hypothesis. But to +talk of acquiring an estate-tail in fee-simple is nothing better +than downright nonsense. An estate-tail is, by the origin of the +word, cut or carved (taille) out of the fee-simple. You may talk of +converting or enlarging the part into the whole, but you cannot talk +of acquiring the part in the entirety of the whole. This is not all; +the bill plunges at once _in medias res_, without favouring us with +any sort of definition of the important phrase, "heir of entail," in +this and other clauses. The same expression in the statute 1 Jac. +VII. c. 32, has already (see _Sandford's Entails_, p. 231) given +rise to no small questioning and litigation, which promise to be +renewed in abundance should this measure pass into a law. Again, +perpetual inalienability is not an incident to all estates-tail. +Lands merely bound by what are called the prohibitive clauses, may +be alienated for a valuable consideration, though not by a voluntary +or (as the Scotch say) gratuitous conveyance. Tailzies, however, to +which no clauses are annexed, do not prevent the heir from conveying +the lands in any manner he pleases. Now, as, the object of this bill +is to relax the bonds of perpetual inalienability, we presume that +only those tailzies which are guarded by the irritant and resolutive +clauses are within its purview. If so, the general expression "deed +of tailzie" should have been distinctly limited. If that expression +should be held to comprehend all deeds of tailzie, which it must of +course do when taken by itself, then the proposed act will exercise +a very extensive disabling power, by restricting the unlimited right +of alienation under tailzies of simple destination,[2] and the right +of alienation for value under tailzies with prohibitive clauses +only introduced, to the peculiar form and instrument pointed out by +this bill, and which we suppose was devised in analogy to the forms +substituted for fines and recoveries by the statute 3 & 4 Will. IV. +c. 74. + + [2] See Erskine's _Institutes_, B. iii. tit. 8, Secs. 21-25. + +We have already seen how Mr M'Culloch would deal with the difficulty +of disturbing the devolution of lands already limited in perpetual +entail--namely, by "saving the rights of living heirs of entail, +and of heirs born under existing marriage-contracts." We think our +author has not, in this passage, expressed himself with due legal +perspicuity and precision. The phrase "living heirs of entail" is +somewhat vague and uncertain; we presume Mr M'Culloch intended the +living issue of the heir of entail in possession, and all living +heirs-substitute and their living issue. Again, what are existing +marriage-contracts? Probably those marriage-contracts are intended, +which are annexed to marriages solemnised before the introduction of +a new system. Both these suggestions, as we have interpreted them, +might with justice, and advantage have formed part of the new law. +It is true that this would, at all events for a considerable period +of time, stop short of that assimilation of the Scottish law to the +English which seems to have been a great object with the framers of +this bill. But the two systems would gradually correspond; and we +hold that there is a principle of justice involved in the upholding +of contracts the objects of which are as yet unfulfilled. Where +an English settler has limited lands to a man for life, remainder +to his first and other sons successively in tail, he knew, at the +time of making the settlement, that it was liable to be barred with +consent of the eldest son on his coming of age. But it was not so +with a Scotch settler who executed a deed of tailzie to several +brothers as successive heirs-substitute; and the legislature has no +right, without the gravest public cause, to step in and defeat his +intention. + +But the bill, though intending to give far greater liberty to the +owner of an entailed estate than Mr M'Culloch does, or, as we think, +is consistent with justice, sets about affording him aid in the +most ambiguous and misty manner conceivable. The 2d clause enacts +that the heir of entail in possession, born after the date of the +act, may disentail in the manner provided by the act; and an heir +of entail born before the date of the act may similarly disentail, +"with the consent (and not otherwise) of the heir-substitute next +in succession, and heir-apparent under the entail of the heir in +possession," he being born after the date of the act, and capable of +contracting. + +We should recommend the tenant in tail to be very cautious how he +attempts to "acquire his estate in fee-simple" under the provisions +of this clause. He is to obtain the consent of the heir-substitute +next in succession. So far his course is clear. But the same person +is also designated by the term "heir-apparent under the entail of +the heir in possession." Now, is this a qualification of the general +term "heir-substitute next in succession," and must such person, +under the act, be also heir-apparent? If so, what is the particular +qualification required of him under the expression "heir-apparent?" +Adhering to the use of the phrase in popular language, we must take, +as the only circumstances under which the next heir-substitute and +the heir-apparent are one and the same person, the case in which +the first estate under the entail is limited to a man and the heirs +of his body, and the second to his second son and the heirs of his +body; then, supposing the eldest son to die in the lifetime of his +father, the second son would be both the next heir-substitute and +also the heir-apparent. Is this, therefore, the only case within +the act? Scarcely, we should think, was it so intended. Are we, +then, to interpret the word heir-apparent in the sense in which the +phrase heir-presumptive is generally used; and must we suppose that +the cases indicated are those in which there is no issue under the +first entail, and therefore the next heir-substitute is what we +should call heir-presumptive to the person in possession? If so, +what is to become of the numerous cases where there is issue to +take under the existing estate-tail? Or can it be that the issue +in tail is altogether forgotten by this act, and that the person +whose consent is required is merely the next heir-substitute in any +case? We are inclined to think this the most probable explanation of +this unfortunate clause, but can scarcely imagine that it will be +suffered to pass into a law. A further ambiguity, however, arises +with respect to this term heir-apparent, from its having a peculiar +technical meaning in the Scottish law. "He who is entitled," says +Erskine, "to enter heir to a deceased ancestor is, before his actual +entry, styled, both in our statutes and by our writers, _apparent +heir_." If the bill intends any reference to this legal acceptation +of the phrase, we can only understand the person whose consent is +required, to be such person as, being next heir-substitute, would, +on the immediate decease of the possessor, be his apparent heir, +or entitled to enter on the lands. This, again, shuts out all +those estates where the possessor has issue in tail, and would, +consequently, limit the operation of the bill to exceptional +cases. We think we have said enough to convince our readers that +this clause is not likely to set free many entailed estates in +Scotland--at all events, not without a chaos of litigation, in which +the elements of profit will have a tendency to range themselves on +the side of the lawyers. + +The person whose consent is to be obtained (whoever that mysterious +person may be) is, as we have seen, to be born after the date of +the act. In conformity with this principle, one would have supposed +that where the next heir-substitute shall have been born before +that date, then it should be necessary to obtain the consent of the +first person entitled to take _per formam doni_, who shall be born +after this date, together with the consent of all those who are to +take before him. The third clause, however, introduces a new form of +protection to the settlement, and merely enacts that, in such cases, +the consent of a certain number of the heirs-substitute is to be +obtained, (the blank left for the number was filled up with the word +"three" in committee of the House of Commons. Nothing said about the +issue in tail, as before. + +Where the main enactments of the bill are so incomprehensible, it +is useless to dwell on its details. We can only say, that whatever +evils may be shown to exist under the present law, they will not +only fail to be cured, but must be aggravated tenfold, by such a +product of off-hand legislation-- + + "Sent before its time + Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, + And that so lamely and unfashionable," + +that it must necessarily die of its own deformity, unless the +law-courts will lick it into shape by their decisions,--a shape (as +it must be) in which its own parents would not know it again. + +The law of real property in France exhibits a system so distinctly +antagonistic to our English and Scottish law of entail, that we +cannot be surprised at the attention with which Mr M'Culloch has +investigated its influences. + + "According to the law of France, a person with one child may + dispose at pleasure of a moiety of his property, the child + inheriting the other moiety as legitim, or matter of right; a + person having two children can only dispose of a third part + of his property; and those having more than two must divide + three-fourths of their property equally amongst them, one-fourth + part being all that is then left at their disposal. When a + father dies intestate, his property is equally divided among his + children, without respect to sex or seniority. Nothing can be + more distinctly opposed to the principles we have endeavoured + to establish, and to the system followed in this country, than + this law. It is therefore lucky that it is now no novelty. It + has been established for more than half a century, so that we + may trace and exhibit its practical influence over the condition + of the extensive population subject to its operation. Such an + experiment is of rare occurrence, but when made is invaluable. + And if its results should confirm the conclusions already + come to, it will go far to establish them on an unassailable + basis."--P. 80-81. + +We have already seen how these results may be traced in the state +of French agriculture. They may also, we think, be discerned in the +relative position which the landholders of France bear to other +classes in the social scale. These, numbering between four and +five millions, ought, as a class, to constitute the leaders of the +nation. So far from this being the case, they are perhaps the most +inert and uninfluential portion of the community, having apparently +had little or no voice in the two revolutions which have swept over +their heads within the last eighteen years, and as little in the +erection, maintenance, or downfall of the Throne of the Barricades. +It yet remains to be seen whether they will continue to accept every +thing which the clubs of Paris are willing to force upon them. As +tax-payers and cultivators of the soil, it can hardly suit them to +be propagandists; as men who have something to lose, they will not +readily give in to the dictatorial vagaries of Ledru Rollin. If, +however, they would hold their own, it is time for them to be up and +doing. France has been governed by a minority before now. + +We have always regarded it as one of the main advantages of a +landed aristocracy, that it raises up a principle of social rank +antagonistic to that of mere wealth. In France, the constant +subdivision and transfer of land breaks down this influence, +and causes land to be regarded as a mere marketable article and +equivalent for money. + + "In countries where the custom of primogeniture exercises a + powerful influence, families become identified with estates--the + family representing the estate, and the estate the family. The + wealth and consideration enjoyed by the latter depend upon, and + are intimately connected with, the possession of the lands + which have descended to them from their ancestors. They estimate + their value by another than a mere pecuniary standard. They are + attached to them by the oldest and most endearing associations; + and they are seldom parted with except under the most painful + circumstances. Hence the perpetuity of property in England in + the same families, notwithstanding the limited duration of + entails; great numbers of estates being at this moment enjoyed + by those whose ancestors acquired them at or soon after the + Conquest. But in France such feelings are proscribed. Estates + and families have there no abiding connexion; and at the demise + of an individual who has a number of children, his estate can + hardly escape being subdivided. And this effect of the law tends + to imbue the proprietors with corresponding sentiments and + feelings. 'Non seulement,' says M. De Tocqueville, 'la loi des + successions rend difficile aux familles de conserver intacts les + memes domaines, mais elle leur ote le desir de le tenter, et + elle les entraine, en quelque sorte, a cooperer avec elle a leur + propre ruine.'"--P. 85-86. + +But Mr M'Culloch dwells more particularly on the injurious effects +to agriculture from the parcelling out of the land into small +properties. He shows that a small proprietor is not so efficient a +cultivator of the soil as a tenant, in which doctrine Arthur Young +had preceded him. He shows, also, that the subdivision of properties +leads to the subdivision of farms, and urges that it is impossible +to have good farming on small patches of land. Of the miseries of an +agricultural system carried on by small farmers on petty holdings, +we have already a sufficient example in Ireland. We cannot but +think, however, that the progress of things in England has too much +swallowed up those little farms of from thirty to fifty acres, which +at one time were common over the country. Not but what capital is +employed at a great disadvantage on these little holdings--but where +there is a general system of good-sized farms, an intermixture, of +smaller farms is not attended with injurious effects proportional +to those which arise where the whole of the land is split up into +minute parcels. And then small farmers furnish a link between the +yeomanry and peasantry, which it is useful to maintain, cheering +the poor man's lot by pointing out to him a path by which lie may +advance from the position of a day-labourer to that of an occupier +of land. On the same principle, we are rejoiced to observe the +gradual extension of the allotment system; although it would have +a still more beneficial effect, we think, if the land was granted +in the shape of a croft about the cottage, thus giving the tenant a +greater interest, and more individual sense of proprietorship, than +when his piece of land is packed, along with a number of others, +into a mass of unsightly patches. + +In connexion with the small holdings in Ireland, it should not be +forgotten that this subdivision of the land results mainly from the +practice of sub-letting; and this again has arisen in a great degree +from the practice of granting long leases, the want of which in +England has served, among many other things, for an outcry against +the landlords. Mr M'Culloch has pointed out the evils of too long +leases on the farming tenant, that they superinduce a sense of +security which easily degenerates into indolence. But the influence +on Ireland is even worse, by breaking up the land into small +patches, on which the occupier can but just maintain himself, paying +an exorbitant rent to the middleman. For it is not the eager demand +for land amongst the Irish peasantry, as we sometimes hear, that has +produced this subdivision of the land, but the subdivision that has +produced the demand, by putting the cultivation of the land into the +hands of a class who are unable, through want of skill and capital, +to carry it on; who cannot, therefore, furnish employment for the +labourers, and thus drive them to grasp at little parcels of land +as their only means of securing a wretched subsistence; and this +security, as we know, has more than once proved but a fancied one, +as in the disastrous failure of the potato crop. + +While we are on this subject, we may draw the reader's attention +to a very able pamphlet by an Irish gentleman, on Irish matters, +which, though we believe it has never been published, has had +an extensive private circulation. We allude to "An Address to +the Members of the House, of Commons on the Landlord and Tenant +Question, by Warren H. R. Jackson, Esq." The work, though somewhat +tinged with the hard politico-economical school, is written with +great shrewdness of thought and freedom from prejudice, and is well +worthy the careful attention of the honourable House. The writer, in +discussing the vexed question he has taken in hand, fully coincides +with the general principles laid down by Mr M'Culloch. "This," he +says, (speaking of the subdivision of land) "is one of the monster +grievances of Ireland, and you will do little good unless you abate +it." This abatement he would bring about mainly by prospective +laws, as by placing all contracts for subletting _hors la loi_, and +so taking away from the first lessee all power of recovering his +rent from the actual tenant. We cannot but think that this would be +found a most salutary enactment. It should be remembered, that the +occupier is responsible to the owner of the freehold by the power +of distress vested in the latter, and it is but just that he should +be relieved from the liability to pay two rents--a liability which +it is manifest no good farmer would incur, but which the squalid +ravager of the soil in Ireland is always eager for. + +It has been said that no further legislative enactment is required +in Ireland, and that administrative wisdom must do what yet +remains to be done. Mr Jackson, however, shows that there are such +deep-seated evils in Ireland as cannot be cured except by the direct +interference of the legislature. But we think he expects too much +from the Sale of Encumbered Estates Bill. An extensive change of +proprietorship would, we are persuaded, be a great evil in Ireland. +There is an attachment in general to the "ould stock" among their +poorer neighbours, which would naturally be followed by a jealousy +and prejudice against the new comers who displaced them. And this +prejudice would of itself neutralise any efforts for improvement +which the landlord might otherwise be disposed to make--although, +in most cases, we should not expect much effort in this direction +from a stranger mortgagee, often an unwilling purchaser, who would +naturally be anxious to contract with those parties from whom he +could obtain his rents with least trouble, leaving them to deal with +the land as they liked, and thereby continuing and increasing the +odious middleman system. + +Mr M'Culloch does not confine his examination of the compulsory +partition in France to its influence on agriculture. He has +discerned certain political effects of that and the concomitant +system of which it is a part, with a precision which subsequent +events have elevated into a sort of prophecy. The preface to his +work is dated December 1847, and the work was published, we believe, +early in January. There can, therefore, be no grounds for classing +the following passage with those anticipations which are made after +the event:-- + + "The aristocratical element is no longer to be found in French + society; and the compulsory division of the soil, while it + prevents the growth of an aristocracy, impresses the same + character of mobility upon landed possessions that is impressed + on the families of their occupiers. Hence the prevalent want of + confidence in the continuance of the present order of things in + France. What is there in that country to oppose an effectual + resistance to a revolutionary movement? Monarchy in France has + been stripped of those old associations and powerful bulwarks + whence it derives almost all its lustre and support in this + and other countries. The throne stands in solitary, though not + unenvied dignity, without the shelter of a single eminence, + exposed to the full force of the furious blasts that sweep + from every point of the surrounding level. There is nothing + intermediate, nothing to hinder a hostile majority in the + Chamber of Deputies from at once subverting the regal branch of + the constitution, or changing the reigning dynasty."--P. 132-133. + +Scarcely was the printer's ink dry on this passage when the Throne +of the Barricades was gone. We have given our author full credit +for his sagacity in penetrating into the future, but we think it +would puzzle him to foretell what is to come next. We are disposed +to doubt, however, whether an aristocracy could have preserved the +throne of Louis Philippe. It is true that in our own country William +of Nassau and George of Brunswick maintained their crowns by the +aid of powerful sections of the nobility. But the revolutions which +gave them those crowns were not the volcanic outbursts of popular +force. Under such outbursts, no successful usurper, no "Hero-king," +no sovereign by the will of the people, has been able to devise a +principle which shall establish his throne in security, and serve +in the stead of that prestige of old hereditary succession, that +grand feudal idea of kingly right, which is the essential fountain +of the reverence that guards royalty. Louis Philippe would have +confirmed his sovereignty by means of the influence exerted upon +interested officials. No sooner was his power shaken in its unstable +equilibrium than the men whom his gold had bought rushed to worship +the rising sun of the young Republic. Napoleon, before him, would +have built up a similar power on military glory: his doom was +sealed when his eagles turned from the field of Leipsic. Cromwell +employed religious fanaticism to the same end: the fanaticism +lasted his time; but we will venture to say that, had he lived, his +protectorate would not have reached the seventeen years allotted to +the democratic King of the French. + +Our author is of opinion that, after all, the system of compulsory +partition will fail to guard what has since become the French +Republic:-- + + "But, though it were possible, which it is not, to obviate + the mischievous influence of the French and other plans for + preventing the increase and continuance of property in the same + families, it may be confidently predicted that they will, in + time to come as hitherto, wholly fail in their grand object of + perpetuating the ascendancy of the democracy. In old settled and + fully peopled countries, where the bulk of the population is + necessarily poor and dependent, an aristocracy is indispensable + for the support of a free system of government--'Il importe a + tous les peuples qui ont la pretention de devenir ou de rester + puissants, d'avoir une aristocratie, c'est-a-dire un corps + hereditaire ou non, qui conserve et perpetue les traditions, + donne de l'esprit de suite a la politique, et se voue a l'art le + plus difficile de tous, qu' aujourd'hui cependant tout le monde + croit savoir sans l'avoir appris, celui de gouverner. Un peuple + sans aristocratic pourra briller dans les lettres et les arts, + mais sa gloire politique me semble devoir etre passagere comme + un meteore.' CHEVALIER, _Lettres sur l'Amerique_, ii. 379," pp. + 171, 172. + +We have already said that we think England certain to have an +aristocracy of some description. The ambition of the people to +advance themselves individually in the social scale will necessarily +lead to a high value being set upon those advanced positions, +and will tend to make them the fulcrum from which the country is +governed. And we can conceive nothing more fatal to our national +organisation than the result which would follow indirectly from the +repeal of these laws. It may be supposed at first sight that no very +vital question is involved here. Let those who suppose so, take a +view of the probable condition of society which would ensue. These, +and other so-called feudalities, being swept away, land becomes +a commercial article, according to the desire of the plutocratic +reformers. Estates are trucked about in the market like bills of +exchange; constantly changing hands, their owners have little +connexion with them or the people that live on them, regarding them +merely in the light of so much realised capital. The old families +gradually become dispossessed; mere wealth is recognised as the +sole qualification for rank and influence; and the leading class +in the state is composed of men who are an aristocracy by virtue +of ready money. Far be it from us to undervalue the enterprise, +integrity, and industry of our merchant manufacturers and tradesmen. +But we will say that when we meet with a man, as we often do among +those classes, endowed with a broad range of thought and high and +noble aims, we regard him as possessing these qualities not as a +consequence, but in spite of a commercial training. The immediate +effects of such training are to narrow the mind and cramp the +soul, not in respect of domestic and social life--for in these, +perhaps, the middle classes are unsurpassed by any other--but in the +provinces of the statesman and the politician. + +In these times, it seems to be commonly supposed that a +legislator--like a poet--_nascitur, non fit_. There is a certain +kind of training, the acquisition of a certain cast of thought, +which are requisites for statesmen as a class, as much as his legal +reading for a lawyer, or his apprenticeship for a handicraftsman. +Statesmen, however, have to deal with practical matters; and +therefore we think, as we have before said, that while the +predominance of these requisites in the legislature is essential +to good government, there may with advantage at the same time be +a certain admixture of the men practically versed in commerce +and manufactures. But this should be always a subordinate, not a +leading, element in the principles which regulate the administration +of government.--We repeat, that the counting-house, the loom, and +the anvil, are not the best schools for legislators. For that +office, a man requires leisure and education. We shall be told that +a "Squire" is not necessarily an educated man. We do not maintain +that he is. But, in the first place, as we cannot well have an +education-test, we must go to the class in which, as a class, we +find the highest and most enlarged form of education; and we believe +that this qualification can, without question, be claimed for the +leisure-class, or gentlemen of England. In the second place, it +should be remembered, that if the squire is not always individually +what we should call an educated man, he yet imbibes his thoughts +and notions from those who are such, who give tone to the society +in which he moves. In investigating the characteristics of classes, +it can scarcely be but that a number of exceptions to our general +rules will force themselves upon our attention. Yet, in good truth, +we believe that almost all the individual examples which can be +cited will bear out our estimate. The highest contributions to the +legislature, on the part of the middle or commercial classes, have +been the shrewd practical men of business, men of the stamp of Mr +Hawes. As for the Cobdens and Brights, _et hoc genus omne_, their +only motive principle appears to be the interests of _My Shop_. +Their notion of loyalty, patriotism, and British prosperity, is +nothing but low wages, high profits, and a brisk trade in calicoes. + +Many of our readers will recollect a passage in Cicero, (_Off._ +i. 42,) in which he reprobates, more or less, all commercial +pursuits, in respect of their operations on the moral insight of +man, and finishes with the praise of the culture of the soil, in +these words: "Omnium rerum ex quibus aliquid acquiritur, nihil est +agricultura melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine +libero dignius." In this country we should find it difficult to go +along with the feelings of the old Roman republican on these points. +But though we have already expressed our high sense of the social +and domestic virtues of the middle or trading classes, yet we are +most confident in the truth of our position, that the shop is the +worst possible preparation for the senate. We know that there is +a talk abroad about earnest workers, drones of the hive, and so +forth. By all means, let every man work who is fit to work. But it +is not necessary, nor is it desirable, that every man should work +for gain. On the contrary, we hold that a class endowed with leisure +is indispensable, not only for the grace and civilisation, but even +for the moral well-being of a community. That money should become +the one grand loadstar of thought and action is the bane of those +societies where the pursuit of money is the general employment; but +where there is such a leisure-class as we have spoken of, forming +the topmost rank of a nation otherwise chiefly mercantile, there are +numberless influences derived from it which percolate through the +underlying masses, and check or modify the exclusive reverence for +wealth to which they would otherwise be prone. Even a mere blind +respect for rank or title exalts the mind immeasurably as compared +with mammon-worship. + +While on the subject of our leisure-class, which is pretty nearly +synonymous with the landed gentry, we must not pass over in silence +a subject in connexion with which the outcry against "the drones +of the hive" is frequently introduced. We refer to the Game-Laws. +The whole question of these laws has been so fully discussed in a +recent Number of this magazine, that we will not attempt in any +way to open that controversy. But they are so commonly coupled +with the Laws of Entail as "feudalities," and as interfering with +the transmission of land according to "commercial principles," +that we could not altogether omit the mention of them. We will at +this time only observe, that the denunciation of the Game-Laws is +a part of the crusade which Hard-Cash, that arrogant monopolist +who bears no brother near his throne, is waging against all other +objects of interest or devotion. Let it not be supposed that laws +are of minor importance because they relate to the amusements of any +portion of the community. They may derive their importance from that +circumstance as tending to raise up something which shall cope with +the lust of gold. The game-preserving interest is worth maintenance +if only as clashing with mammonism. + +While the brawlers about "improvement" and "progress," are heaping +their meaningless abuse upon feudalities, we should be glad to +know what they purpose to do with that greatest feudality of all, +the Crown? Already there are symptoms of an intention to take that +matter in hand. Mr Cobden and some of his Calibans have talked in +the House of Commons about curtailing the "barbarous splendour" of +the throne. They know nothing and care nothing about the historical +association and constitutional truths embodied in the ancient +appendages of royalty. How should they? They want somebody to look +after the police, and take care that no one robs their till; that +is their idea of government. They want a man (some of them being +willing to allow him a small salary, though others think that it +does not pay) to preach to the masses, and tell them not to steal, +and to be content with their wages; that is their idea of the +church. We do not think, however, that the tone of thought prevalent +among the Manchester school is destined yet to lead the mind of +England. And we are the less inclined to look forward to such a +national debasement when we find so enlightened an advocate of +free-trade policy as Mr M'Culloch--the advocate of a theory which we +hold to be erroneous, but not the selfish and greedy clamourer for +the gain of himself and his class--thus coming forward to vindicate +the laws which preserve the hereditary character of our aristocracy, +which lend so efficient an aid in shielding us from the crushing +tread of mammonism, and in preventing "commercial principles" from +introducing the ledger and day-book into our manor houses, and the +counter into our farmers' parlours. In this view we most heartily +thank our author for his noble and energetic contribution to our +National Defences at the present time; and as there is a wide field +open in connexion with the subject he has so powerfully handled, +we cannot take leave of him without expressing a hope that we may +before long listen to him again "on the same side." + + + + +LIFE IN THE "FAR WEST." + +PART II. + + The reader is informed that "Life in the Far West" is _no + fiction_. The scenes and incidents described are strictly true. + The characters are real, (the names being changed in two or + three instances only,) and all have been, and are, well known in + the Western country. + + +"And Mary Brand herself,--what is she like?" + +"She's 'some' now; that _is_ a fact, and the biggest kind of punkin +at that," would have been the answer from any man, woman, or child, +in Memphis County, and truly spoken too; always understanding that +the pumpkin is _the_ fruit to which the _ne-plus-ultra_ of female +perfection is compared by the figuratively speaking westerns. + +Being an American woman, of course she was tall, and straight and +slim as a hickory sapling, well formed withal, with rounded bust, +and neck white and slender as the swan's. Her features were small, +but finely chiselled; and in this, it may be remarked, the lower +orders of the American women differ from, and far surpass the same +class in England, or elsewhere, where the features, although far +prettier, are more vulgar and commonplace. She had the bright blue +eye, thin nose, and small but sweetly-formed mouth, the too fair +complexion and dark brown hair, which characterise the beauty of the +Anglo-American, the heavy masses (hardly curls) which fell over her +face and neck contrasting with their polished whiteness. Such was +Mary Brand: and to her good looks being added a sweet disposition, +and all the good qualities of a thrifty housewife, it must be +allowed that she fully justified the eulogiums of the good people of +Memphis. + +Well, to cut a love-story short, in the which not a little moral +courage is shown, young La Bonte fell desperately in love with +the pretty Mary, and she with him; and small blame to her, for he +was a proper lad of twenty--six feet in his moccassins--the best +hunter and rifle-shot in the country, with many other advantages too +numerous to mention. But when did the course, &c. e'er run smooth? +When the affair had become a recognised "courting," (and Americans +alone know the horrors of such prolonged purgatory,) they became, +to use La Bonte's words, "awful fond," and consequently about once +a-week had their tiffs and makes-up. + +However, on one occasion, at a "husking," and during one of these +tiffs, Mary, every inch a woman, to gratify some indescribable +feeling, brought to her aid jealousy--that old serpent who has +caused such mischief in this world; and by a flirtation over the +corn-cobs with Big Pete, La Bonte's former and only rival, struck +so hard a blow at the latter's heart, that on the moment his brain +caught fire, blood danced before his eyes, and he became like one +possessed. Pete observed and enjoyed his struggling emotion--better +for him had he minded his corn-shelling alone; and the more to annoy +his rival, paid the most sedulous attention to the pretty Mary. + +Young La Bonte stood it as long as human nature, at boiling heat, +could endure; but when Pete, in the exultation of his apparent +triumph, crowned his success by encircling the slender waist of the +girl with his arm, and snatched a sudden kiss, he jumped upright +from his seat, and seizing a small whisky-keg which stood in the +centre of the corn-shellers, he hurled it at his rival, and crying +to him, hoarse with passion, "to follow if he was a man," he left +the house. + +At that time, and even now, in the remoter states of the western +country, rifles settled even the most trivial differences between +the hot-blooded youths; and of such frequent occurrence and +invariably bloody termination did they become, that they scarcely +produced sufficient excitement to draw together half a dozen +spectators of the duel. + +In the present case, however, so public was the quarrel, and so +well known the parties concerned, that not only the people who had +witnessed the affair, but all the neighbourhood thronged to the +scene of action, where, in a large field in front of the house, +the preliminaries of a duel between Pete and La Bonte were being +arranged by their respective friends. + +Mary, when she discovered the mischief her thoughtlessness was +likely to occasion, was almost beside herself with grief, but she +knew how vain it would be to attempt to interfere. The poor girl, +who was most ardently attached to La Bonte, was carried, swooning, +into the house, where all the women congregated, and were locked in +by old Brand, who, himself an old pioneer, thought but little of +bloodshed, but refused to let the "women folk" witness the affray. + +Preliminaries arranged, the combatants took up their respective +positions at either end of a space marked for the purpose, at forty +paces from each other. They were both armed with heavy rifles, and +had the usual hunting-pouches, containing ammunition, hanging over +the shoulder. Standing with the butts of their rifles on the ground, +they confronted each other, and the crowd drawing away a few paces +only on each side, left one man to give the word. This was the +single word "fire;" and after this signal was given, the combatants +were at liberty to fire away until one or the other dropped. + +At the word both the men quickly raised their rifles to the +shoulder, and as the sharp cracks rung instantaneously, they were +seen to flinch, as either felt the pinging sensation of a bullet +entering his flesh. Regarding each other steadily for a few moments, +the blood running down La Bonte's neck from a wound under the +left jaw, whilst his opponent was seen to place his hand once to +his right breast, as if to feel the position of his wound, they +commenced reloading their rifles. As, however, Pete was in the +act of forcing down the ball with his long hickory wiping-stick, +he suddenly dropped his right arm,--the rifle slipped from his +grasp,--and, reeling for a moment like a drunken man,--he fell dead +to the ground. + +Even here, however, there was law of some kind or another, and the +consequences of the duel were, that the constables were soon on the +trail of La Bonte to arrest him. He, however, easily avoided them, +and taking to the woods, lived for several days in as wild a state +as the beasts he hunted and killed for his support. + +Tired of this, however, he resolved to quit the country, and betake +himself to the mountains, for which life he had ever felt an +inclination. + +When, therefore, he thought the officers of justice had tired of +seeking him, and the coast was comparatively clear, he determined to +start on his distant expedition to the Far West. + +Once more, before he carried his project into execution, he sought +and had a last interview with Mary Brand. + +"Mary," said he, "I'm about to break. They're hunting me like a fall +buck, and I'm bound to quit. Don't think any more about me, for I +shall never come back." Poor Mary burst into tears, and bent her +head on the table near which she was sitting. When again she raised +it, she saw La Bonte, with his long rifle on his shoulder, striding +with rapid steps from the house; and year after year rolled on, and +he never returned. + +A few days after this he found himself at St Louis, the emporium +of the fur trade, and the fast rising metropolis of the precocious +settlements of the west. Here, a prey to the agony of mind which +jealousy, remorse, and blighted love mix into a very puchero of +misery, La Bonte got into the company of certain "rowdies," a class +which every western city particularly abounds in; and anxious to +drown his sorrows in any way, and quite unscrupulous as to the +means, he plunged into all the vicious excitements of drinking, +gambling, and fighting, which form the every-day amusements of the +rising generation of St Louis. + +Perhaps in no other part of the United States, where indeed humanity +is frequently to be seen in many curious and unusual phases, is +there a population so marked in its general character, and at the +same time divided into such distinct classes, as in the above-named +city. Dating, as it does, its foundation from yesterday,--for what +are thirty years in the growth of a metropolis?--its founders +are now scarcely passed middle life, regarding with astonishment +the growing works of their hands; and whilst gazing upon its busy +quays, piled with grain and other produce of the west, its fleets +of huge steamboats lying tier upon tier alongside the wharves, its +well-stored warehouses and all the bustling concomitants of a great +commercial depot, they can scarcely realise the memory of a few +short years, when on the same spot nothing was to be seen but the +few miserable hovels of a French village--the only sign of commerce +the unwieldy bateaux of the Indian traders, laden with peltries +from the distant regions of the Platte and Upper Missouri. Where +now intelligent and wealthy merchants walk erect, in conscious +substantiality of purse and credit, and direct the commerce of a +vast and numerously-populated region, but the other day stalked, +in dress of buckskin, the Indian trader of the west; and all the +evidences of life, mayhap, consisted of the eccentric vagaries +of the different bands of trappers and hardy mountaineers, who +accompanied, some for pleasure and some as escort, the periodically +arriving bateaux, laden with the beaver skins and buffalo robes +collected during the season at the different trading posts in the +Far West. + +These, nevertheless, were the men whose hardy enterprise opened to +commerce and the plough the vast and fertile regions of the West. +Rough and savage though they were, they alone were the pioneers +of that extraordinary tide of civilisation which has poured its +resistless current through tracts large enough for kings to govern; +over a country now teeming with cultivation, where, a few short +years ago, countless herds of buffalo roamed unmolested, the bear +and deer abounded, and where the savage Indian skulked through the +woods and prairies, lord of the unappreciated soil which now yields +its prolific treasures to the spade and plough of civilised man. To +the wild and half-savage trapper, who may be said to exhibit the +energy, enterprise, and hardihood characteristic of the American +people, divested of all the false and vicious glare with which a +high state of civilisation, too rapidly attained, has obscured +their real and genuine character, in which the above traits are +eminently prominent--to these men alone is due the empire of the +West--destined in a few short years to become the most important of +those confederate states which compose the mighty union of North +America. + +Sprung, then, out of the wild and adventurous fur trade, St Louis, +still the emporium of that species of commerce, preserves even now, +in the character of its population, many of the marked peculiarities +which distinguished its early founders, who were identified with +the primitive Indian in hardiness and instinctive wisdom. Whilst +the French portion of the population retain the thoughtless levity +and frivolous disposition of their original source, the Americans +of St Louis, who may lay claim to be native, as it were, are as +particularly distinguished for determination and energy of character +as they are for physical strength and animal courage; and are +remarkable, at the same time, for a singular aptitude in carrying +out commercial enterprises to successful terminations, which would +appear to be incompatible with the love of adventure and excitement +which forms so prominent a feature in their character. In St Louis, +nevertheless, and from her merchants, have emanated many commercial +enterprises of gigantic speculation, not confined to its own +locality or the distant Indian fur trade, but embracing all parts of +the continent, and even a portion of the Old World. And here it must +be remembered that St Louis is situated inland, at a distance of +upwards of one thousand miles from the sea, and three thousand from +the capital of the United States. + +Besides her merchants and upper class, who form a little +aristocracy even here, she has a large portion of her population +still connected with the Indian and fur trade, who preserve all +their characteristics unacted upon by the influence of advancing +civilisation, and between whom and other classes there is a marked +distinction. There is, moreover, a large floating population of +foreigners of all nations, who must possess no little amount of +enterprise to be tempted to this spot, from whence they spread +over the remote western tracts, still invested by the savage; +and, therefore, if any of their blood is infused into the native +population, the characteristic energy and enterprise is increased, +and not tempered down, by the foreign cross. + +But perhaps the most singular of her casual population are the +mountaineers, who, after several seasons spent in trapping, and with +good store of dollars, arrive from the scene of their adventures, +wild as savages, determined to enjoy themselves, for a time, in all +the gaiety and dissipation of the western city. In one of the back +streets of the town is a tavern well known as the "Rocky Mountain +House," and here the trappers resort, drinking and fighting as long +as their money lasts, which, as they are generous and lavish as +Jack Tars, is for a few days only. Such scenes as are enacted in +the Rocky Mountain House, both tragical and comical, are beyond the +powers of pen to describe; and when a fandango is in progress, to +which congregate the coquettish belles from "Vide Poche," as the +French portion of a suburb is nicknamed,--the grotesque endeavours +of the bear-like mountaineers to sport a figure on the light +fantastic toe, and their insertions into the dance of the mystic +jumps of Terpsichorean Indians when engaged in the "medicine" +dances in honour of bear, of buffalo, or ravished scalp,--are such +startling innovations on the choreographic art as would cause the +shade of Gallini to quake and gibber in his pumps. + +Passing the open doors and windows of the Mountain House, the +stranger stops short as the sounds of violin and banjo twang upon +his ears, accompanied by extraordinary noises--which sound unearthly +to the greenhorn listener, but which the initiated recognise as an +Indian song roared out of the stentorian lungs, of a mountaineer, +who, patting his stomach with open hands, to improve the necessary +shake, choruses the well-known Indian chant:-- + + Hi--Hi--Hi--Hi, + Hi-i--Hi-i--Hi-i--Hi-i + Hi-ya--hi-ya--hi-ya--hi-ya + Hi-ya--hi-ya--hi-ya--hi-ya + Hi-ya--hi-ya--hi--hi, + &c. &c. &c. + +and polishing off the high notes with a whoop which makes the old +wooden houses shake again, as it rattles and echoes down the street. + +Here, over fiery "monaghahela," Jean Batiste, the sallow half-breed +voyageur from the north--and who, deserting the service of the +"North-West," (the Hudson's Bay Company,) has come down the +Mississippi, from the "Falls," to try the sweets and liberty of +"free" trapping--hobnobs with a stalwart leather-clad "boy," just +returned from trapping on the waters of Grand River, on the western +side the mountains, who interlards his mountain jargon with Spanish +words picked up in Taos and California. In one corner a trapper, +lean and gaunt from the starving regions of the Yellow Stone, has +just recognised an old companyero, with whom he hunted years before +in the perilous country of the Blackfeet. + +"Why, John, old hos, how do you come on?" + +"What! Meek, old 'coon! I thought you were under?" + +One from Arkansa stalks into the centre of the room, with a pack of +cards in his hand, and a handful of dollars in his hat. Squatting +cross-legged on a buffalo robe, he smacks down the money, and cries +out--"Ho, boys, hyar's a deck, and hyar's the beaver, (rattling the +coin,) who dar set his hos? Wagh!" + +Tough are the yarns of wondrous hunts and Indian perils, of +hairbreadth 'scapes and curious "fixes." Transcendant are the +qualities of sundry rifles, which call these hunters masters; "plum" +is the "centre" each vaunted barrel shoots; sufficing for a hundred +wigs is the "hair" each hunter has "lifted" from Indians' scalps; +multitudinous the "coups" he has "struck." As they drink so do they +brag, first of their guns, their horses, and their squaws, and +lastly of themselves:--and when it comes to that, "ware steel." + +La Bonte, on his arrival at St. Louis, found himself one day in no +less a place than this; and here he made acquaintance with an old +trapper about to start for the mountains in a few days, to hunt +on the head waters of Platte and Green River. With this man he +resolved to start, and, having still some hundred dollars in cash, +he immediately set about equipping himself for the expedition. To +effect this, he first of all visited the gun-store of Hawken, whose +rifles are renowned in the mountains, and exchanged his own piece, +which was of very small bore, for a regular mountain rifle. This was +of very heavy metal, carrying about thirty-two balls to the pound, +stocked to the muzzle and mounted with brass, its only ornament +being a buffalo bull, looking exceedingly ferocious, which was not +very artistically engraved upon the trap in the stock. Here, too, he +laid in a few pounds of powder and lead, and all the necessaries for +a long hunt. + +His next visit was to a smith's store, which smith was black by +trade and black by nature, for he was a nigger, and, moreover, +celebrated as being the best maker of beaver-traps in St Louis, +and of whom he purchased six new traps, paying for the same twenty +dollars--procuring, at the same time, an old trap-sack, made of +stout buffalo skin, in which to carry them. + +We next find La Bonte and his companion--one Luke, better known +as Grey-Eye, one of his eyes having been "gouged" in a mountain +fray--at Independence, a little town situated on the Missouri, +several hundred miles above St Louis, and within a short distance of +the Indian frontier. + +Independence may be termed the "prairie port" of the western +country. Here the caravans destined for Santa Fe and the interior +of Mexico, assemble to complete their necessary equipment. Mules +and oxen are purchased, teamsters hired, and all stores and outfit +laid in here for the long journey over the wide expanse of prairie +ocean. Here, too, the Indian traders and the Rocky Mountain trappers +rendezvous, collecting in sufficient force to ensure their safe +passage through the Indian country. At the seasons of departure and +arrival of these bands, the little town presents a lively scene +of bustle and confusion. The wild and dissipated mountaineers get +rid of their last dollars in furious orgies, treating all comers +to galore of drink, and pledging each other, in horns of potent +whisky, to successful hunts and "heaps of beaver." When every cent +has disappeared from their pouches, the free trapper often makes +away with rifle, traps, and animals, to gratify his "dry," (for your +mountaineer is never "thirsty;") and then, "hos and beaver" gone, is +necessitated to hire himself to one of the leaders of big bands, and +hypothecate his services for an equipment of traps and animals. Thus +La Bonte picked up three excellent mules for a mere song, with their +accompanying pack saddles, _apishamores_,[3] and lariats, and the +next day, with Luke, "put out" for Platte. + + [3] Saddle-blanket made of buffalo-calf skin. + +As they passed through the rendezvous, which was encamped on a +little stream beyond the town, even our young Mississippian was +struck with the novelty of the scene. Upwards of forty huge waggons, +of Connestoga and Pittsburg build, and covered with snow-white +tilts, were ranged in a semicircle, or rather a horse-shoe form, +on the flat open prairie, their long "tongues" (poles) pointing +outwards; with the necessary harness for four pairs of mules, or +eight yoke of oxen, lying on the ground beside them, spread in ready +order for "hitching up." Round the waggons groups of teamsters, tall +stalwart young Missourians, were engaged in busy preparation for the +start, greasing the wheels, fitting or repairing harness, smoothing +ox-bows, or overhauling their own moderate kits or "possibles." +They were all dressed in the same fashion: a pair of "homespun" +pantaloons, tucked into thick boots reaching nearly to the knee, and +confined round the waist by a broad leathern belt, which supported a +strong butcher knife in a sheath. A coarse checked shirt was their +only other covering, with a fur cap on the head. + +Numerous camp-fires surrounded the waggons, and by them lounged +wild-looking mountaineers, easily distinguished from the "greenhorn" +teamsters by their dresses of buckskin, and their weather-beaten +faces. Without an exception, these were under the influence of the +rosy god; and one, who sat, the picture of misery, at a fire by +himself--staring into the blaze with vacant countenance, his long +matted hair hanging in unkempt masses over his face, begrimed with +the dirt of a week, and pallid with the effects of ardent drink--was +suffering from the usual consequences of having "kept it up" +beyond the usual point, and now was paying the penalty in a fit of +"horrors"--as _delirium tremens_ is most aptly termed by sailors and +the unprofessional. + +In another part, the merchants of the caravan and Indian traders +were superintending the lading of the waggons, or mule packs. These +were dressed in civilised attire, and some bedizened in St Louis +or Eastern City dandyism, to the infinite disgust of the mountain +men, who look upon a bourge-way (bourgeois) with most undisguised +contempt, despising the very simplest forms of civilisation. The +picturesque appearance of the encampment was not a little heightened +by the addition of several Indians from the neighbouring Shawnee +settlement, who, mounted on their small active horses, on which they +reclined, rather than sat, in negligent attitudes, quietly looked on +at the novel scene, indifferent to the "chaff" which the thoughtless +teamsters indulged in at their expense. Numbers of mules and horses +were picketed at hand, while a large herd of noble oxen were being +driven towards the camp--the wo-ha of the teamsters sounding far and +near, as they collected the scattered beasts in order to yoke up. + +As most of the mountain men were utterly unable to move from camp, +Luke and La Bonte, with three or four of the most sober, started +in company, intending to wait on "Blue," a stream which runs into +the Caw or Kanzas River, until the "balance" of the band came up. +Mounting their mules, and leading the loose animals, they struck +at once into the park-like prairie, and were out of sight of +civilisation in an instant. + +It was the latter end of May, towards the close of the season of +heavy rains, which in early spring render the climate of this +country almost intolerable, at the same time that they serve to +fertilise and thaw the soil, so long bound up by the winter's +frosts. The grass was every where luxuriously green, and gaudy +flowers dotted the surface of the prairie. This term, however, +should hardly be applied to the beautiful undulating scenery of this +park-like country. Unlike the flat monotony of the Grand Plains, +here well wooded uplands clothed with forest trees of every species, +and picturesque dells through which run clear and bubbling streams +belted with gay-blossomed shrubs, every where present themselves; +whilst on the level meadowland, topes of trees with spreading +foliage afforded a shelter to the game and cattle, and well-timbered +knolls rise at intervals from the plain. + +Many clear streams dashing over their pebbly beds intersect the +country, from which, in the noonday's heat, the red-deer jump, +shaking their wet sides, as the noise of approaching man disturbs +them; and booming grouse rise from the tall luxuriant herbage at +every step. Where the deep escarpments of the river banks exhibit +the section of the earth, a rich alluvial soil of surprising depth +appears to court the cultivation of civilised man; and in every +feature it is evident that here nature has worked with kindliest and +most bountiful hand. + +For hundreds of miles along the western or right bank of the +Missouri does such a country as this extend, to which, for fertility +and natural resources, no part of Europe can offer even feeble +comparison. Sufficiently large to contain an enormous population, +it has, besides, every advantage of position, and all the natural +capabilities which should make it the happy abode of civilised man. +Through this unpeopled country the United States pours her greedy +thousands, to seize upon the barren territories of her feeble +neighbour. + +Camping the first night on "Black Jack," our mountaineers here +cut each man a spare hickory wiping-stick for his rifle, and La +Bonte, who was the only greenhorn of the party, witnessed a savage +ebullition of rage on the part of one of his companions, exhibiting +the perfect unrestraint which these men impose upon their passions, +and the barbarous anger which the slightest opposition to the will +excites. One of the trappers, on arriving at the camping-place, +dismounted from his horse, and, after divesting it of the saddle, +endeavoured to lead his mule by the rope up to the spot where +he wished to deposit his pack. Mule-like, however, the more he +pulled the more stubbornly she remained in her tracks, planting +her fore-legs firmly, and stretching out her neck with provoking +obstinacy. If truth be told, it does require the temper of a +thousand Jobs to manage a mule; and in no case does the wilful +mulishness of the animal stir up one's choler more than in the very +trick which this one was playing, and which is a daily occurrence. +After tugging ineffectually for several minutes, winding the rope +round his body, and throwing himself forward and suddenly with all +his strength, the trapper actually foamed with passion; and although +he might have subdued the animal at once by fastening the rope with +a half-hitch round its nose, with an obstinacy equal to that of +the mule itself he refused to attempt it, preferring to vanquish +her by main strength. However, this failed, and with a volley of +blasphemous imprecations the mountaineer suddenly seized his rifle, +and, levelling it at the mule's head, shot her dead. + +Passing the Wa-ka-rasha, a well-timbered stream, they met a band +of Osages going "to buffalo." These Indians, in common with some +tribes of the Pawnees, shave the head, with the exception of a ridge +from the forehead to the centre of the scalp, which is "roached" or +hogged like the mane of a mule, and stands erect, plastered with +unguents, and ornamented by feathers of the hawk and turkey. The +naked scalp is often painted in mosaic with black and red, the face +with shining vermilion. They were all naked to the breech-clout, +the warmth of the sun having caused them to throw their dirty +blankets from their shoulders. These Indians not unfrequently levy +contributions on strangers whom they may accidentally meet; but they +easily distinguish the determined mountaineer from the incautious +greenhorn, and think it better to let the former alone. + +Crossing Vermilion, they arrived on the fifth day at "Blue," where +they encamped in the broad timber which belts the creek, and there +awaited the arrival of the remainder of the party. + +It was two days before they came up; but the day after, fourteen +in number, they started for the mountains, striking a trail which +follows the "Big Blue" in its course through the prairies, which, as +they advance to the westward, are gradually smoothing away into a +vast unbroken expanse of rolling plain. Herds of antelope began to +show themselves, and some of the hunters, leaving the trail, soon +returned with plenty of their tender meat. The luxuriant but coarse +grass they had hitherto seen now changed into the nutritious and +curly buffalo grass, and their animals soon improved in appearance +on the excellent pasture. In a few days, without any adventure, they +struck the Platte River, its shallow waters (from which it derives +its name) spreading over a wide and sandy bed, numerous sand bars +obstructing the sluggish current, and with nowhere sufficient water +to wet the forder's knee. + +By this time, but few antelope having been seen, the party became +entirely out of meat; and, one whole day and part of another having +passed without so much as a sage rabbit having presented itself, +not a few objurgations on the buffalo grumbled from the lips of the +hunters, who expected ere this to have reached the land of plenty. +La Bonte killed a fine deer, however, in the river bottom, after +they had encamped, not one particle of which remained after supper +that night, but which hardly took the rough edge off their keen +appetites. Although already in the buffalo range, no traces of these +animals had yet been seen; and as the country afforded but little +game, and the party did not care to halt and lose time in hunting +for it, they moved along hungry and sulky, the theme of conversation +being the well remembered merits of good buffalo meat,--of "fat +fleece," "hump rib," and "tender loin;" of delicious "boudins," +and marrow bones too good to think of. La Bonte had never seen the +lordly animal, and consequently but half believed the accounts of +the mountaineers, who described their countless bands as covering +the prairie far as the eye could reach, and requiring days of travel +to pass through; but the visions of such dainty and abundant feeding +as they descanted on set his mouth watering, and danced before his +eyes as he slept supperless, night after night, on the banks of the +hungry Platte. + +One morning he had packed his animals before the rest, and was +riding a mile in advance of the party, when he saw on one side the +trail, looming in the refracted glare which mirages the plains, +three large dark objects without shape or form, which rose and +fell in the exaggerated light like ships at sea. Doubting what it +could be, he approached the strange objects; and as the refraction +disappeared before him, the dark masses assumed a more distinct +form, and clearly moved with life. A little nearer, and he made +them out--they were buffalo. Thinking to distinguish himself, +the greenhorn dismounted from his mule, and quickly hobbled her, +throwing his lasso on the ground to trail behind when he wished to +catch her. Then, rifle in hand, he approached the huge animals, and, +being a good hunter, knew well to take advantage of the inequalities +of the ground and face the wind; by which means he crawled at length +to within forty yards of the buffalo, who were quietly cropping the +grass, unconscious of danger. Now, for the first time, he gazed upon +the noble beast of which he had so often heard, and longed to see. +With coal-black beard sweeping the ground as he fed, an enormous +bull was in advance of the others, his wild brilliant eyes peering +from an immense mass of shaggy hair, which covered his neck and +shoulder. From this point his skin was bare as one's hand, a sleek +and shining dun, and his ribs well covered with shaking flesh. As +he leisurely cropped the short curly grass he occasionally lifted +his tail into the air, and stamped his foot as a fly or musquito +annoyed him--flapping the intruder with his tail, or snatching at +the itching part with his ponderous head. + +When La Bonte had sufficiently admired the animal, he lifted his +rifle, and, taking steady aim, and certain of his mark, pulled the +trigger, expecting to see the huge beast fall over at the report. +What was his surprise and consternation, however, to see the +animal flinch as the ball struck him, but gallop off, followed by +the others, and apparently unhurt. As is generally the case with +greenhorns, he had fired too high, not understanding that the only +certain spot to strike a buffalo is but a few inches above the +brisket, and that above this a shot is rarely fatal. When he rose +from the ground, he saw all the party halting in full view of his +discomfiture; and when he joined them, loud were the laughs, and +deep the regrets of the hungry at his first attempt. + +However, they now knew that they were in the country of meat; and a +few miles farther, another band of stragglers presenting themselves, +three of the hunters went in pursuit, La Bonte taking a mule to pack +in the meat. He soon saw them crawling towards the band, and shortly +two puffs of smoke, and the sharp cracks of their rifles showed +that they had got within shot; and when he had ridden up, two fine +buffaloes were stretched upon the ground. Now, for the first time, +he was initiated into the mysteries of "butchering," and watched +the hunters as they turned the carcass on the belly, stretching +out the legs to support it on each side. A transverse cut was then +made at the nape of the neck, and, gathering the long hair of the +boss in one hand, the skin was separated from the shoulder. It was +then laid open from this point to the tail, along the spine, and +the skin was freed from the sides and pulled down to the brisket, +but, still attached to it, was stretched upon the ground to receive +the dissected portions. Then the shoulder was severed, the fleece +removed from along the backbone, and the hump-ribs cut off with a +tomahawk. All this was placed upon the skin; and after the "boudins" +had been withdrawn from the stomach, and the tongue--a great +dainty--taken from the head, the meat was packed upon the mule, and +the whole party hurried to camp rejoicing. + +There was merry-making in the camp that night, and the way they +indulged their appetites--or, in their own language, "throw'd" the +meat "cold"--would have made the heart of a dyspeptic leap for joy +or burst with envy. Far into the "still watches of the tranquil +night" the fat-clad "depouille" saw its fleshy mass grow small +by degrees and beautifully less, before the trenchant blades of +the hungry mountaineers; appetising yards of well-browned "boudin" +slipped glibly down their throats; rib after rib of tender hump +was picked and flung to the wolves; and when human nature, with +helpless gratitude, and confident that nothing of superexcellent +comestibility remained, was lazily wiping the greasy knife that had +done such good service,--a skilful hunter was seen to chuckle to +himself as he raked the deep ashes of the fire, and drew therefrom +a pair of tongues so admirably baked, so soft, so sweet, and of +such exquisite flavour, that a veil is considerately drawn over +the effects their discussion produced in the mind of our greenhorn +La Bonte, and the raptures they excited in the bosom of that, as +yet, most ignorant mountaineer. Still, as he ate he wondered, +and wondering admired, that nature, in giving him such profound +gastronomic powers, and such transcendent capabilities of digestion, +had yet bountifully provided an edible so peculiarly adapted to his +ostrich-like appetite, that after consuming nearly his own weight in +rich and fat buffalo meat, he felt as easy and as incommoded as if +he had been lightly supping on strawberries and cream. + +Sweet was the digestive pipe after such a feast, and soft the +sleep and deep, which sealed the eyes of the contented trappers +that night. It felt like the old thing, they said, to be once more +amongst the "meat;" and, as they were drawing near the dangerous +portion of the trail, they felt at home; although not a night now +passed but, when they lay down on their buffalo robes to sleep, they +could not be confident that that sleep was not their last--knowing +full well that savage men were hovering near, thirsting for their +lives. + +However, no enemies showed themselves as yet, and they proceeded +quietly up the river, vast herds of buffaloes darkening the plains +around them, affording them more than abundance of the choicest +meat; but, to their credit be it spoken, no more was killed than +absolutely required,--unlike the cruel slaughter made by most of the +white travellers across the plains, who wantonly destroy these noble +animals, not even for the excitement of sport, but in cold-blooded +and insane butchery. La Bonte had practice enough to perfect him in +the art, and, before the buffalo range was passed, he was ranked as +a first-rate hunter. One evening he had left the camp for meat, and +was approaching a band of cows for that purpose, crawling towards +them along the bed of a dry hollow in the prairie, when he observed +them suddenly jump away towards him, and immediately after a score +of mounted Indians appeared in sight, whom, by their dress, he +at once knew to be Pawnees and enemies. Thinking they might not +discover him, he crouched down in the ravine; but a noise behind +causing him to turn his head, he saw some five or six advancing up +the bed of the dry creek, whilst several more were riding on the +bluffs. The cunning savages had cut off his retreat to his mule, +which he saw in the possession of one of the Indians. His presence +of mind, however, did not desert him; and seeing at once that to +remain where he was would be like being caught in a trap, (as the +Indians could advance to the edge of the bluff and shoot him from +above,) he made for the open prairie, determined at least to sell +his scalp dearly, and make "a good fight." With a yell the Indians +charged, but halted when they saw the sturdy trapper deliberately +kneel, and, resting his rifle on the wiping-stick, take a steady +aim as they advanced. Full well the Pawnees know, to their cost, +that a mountaineer seldom pulls his trigger without sending a +bullet to the mark; and, certain that one at least must fall, they +hesitated to make the onslaught. Steadily the white retreated with +his face to the foe, bringing the rifle to his shoulder the instant +that one advanced within shot, the Indians galloping round, firing +the few guns they had amongst them at long distances, but without +effect. One young "brave," more daring than the rest, rode out +of the crowd, and dashed at the hunter, throwing himself, as he +passed within a few yards, from the saddle, and hanging over the +opposite side of his horse,--presenting no other mark than his left +foot,--discharged his bow from under the animal's neck, and with +such good aim, that the arrow, whizzing through the air, struck the +stock of La Bonte's rifle, which was at his shoulder, and, glancing +off, pierced his arm, inflicting, luckily, but a slight wound. +Again the Indian turned in his course, the others encouraging him +with loud war-whoops, and once more passing at still less distance, +drew his arrow to the head. This time, however, the eagle eye of +the white caught sight of the action, and suddenly rising from his +knee as the Indian was approaching, hanging by his foot alone over +the opposite side of the horse, he jumped towards the animal with +outstretched arms and a loud yell, causing it to start so suddenly, +and swerve from its course, that the Indian lost his foot-hold, and, +after in vain struggling to regain his position, fell to the ground, +but instantly rose upon his feet and gallantly confronted the +mountaineer, striking his hand upon his brawny chest and shouting +a loud whoop of defiance. In another instant the rifle of La Bonte +had poured forth its contents; and the brave Indian, springing into +the air, fell dead to the ground, just as the other trappers, who +had heard the firing, galloped up to the spot, at sight of whom the +Pawnees, with yells of disappointed vengeance, hastily retreated. + +That night La Bonte first lifted hair! + +A few days after they reached the point where the Platte divides +into two great forks:--the northern one, stretching to the +north-west, skirts the eastern base of the Black Hills, and sweeping +round to the south rises in the vicinity of the mountain valley +called the New Park, receiving the Laramie, Medicine Bow, and +Sweet-Water creeks. The other, or "South Fork," strikes towards +the mountains in a south-westerly direction, hugging the base of +the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, and, fed by several small +creeks, rises in the uplands of the Bayou Salado, near which is +also the source of the Arkansa. To the forks of the Platte the +valley of that river extends from three to five miles on each side, +being enclosed by steep sandy bluffs, from the summits of which +the prairies stretch away in broad undulating expanse to the north +and south. The "bottom," as it is termed, is but thinly covered +with timber, the cotton-woods being scattered only here and there; +but some of the islands in the broad bed of the stream are well +wooded, which leads to the inference that the trees on the banks +have been felled by Indians who formerly frequented this river as +a chosen hunting-ground. As during the long winters the pasture in +the vicinity is scarce and withered, the Indians feed their horses +on the bark of the sweet cotton-wood, upon which they subsist, and +even fatten. Thus, wherever a village has been encamped, the trunks +of these trees strew the ground, with their upper limbs and smaller +branches peeled of their bark, and looking as white and smooth as if +scraped with a knife. + +On the forks, however, the timber is heavier and of greater variety, +some of the creeks being well wooded with ash and cherry, which +break the monotony of the everlasting cotton-wood. + +Dense masses of buffalo still continued to darken the plains, and +numerous bands of wolves hovered round the outskirts of the vast +herds, singling out the sick and wounded animals, and preying upon +the calves whom the rifles and arrows of the hunters had bereaved +of their mothers. The white wolf is the invariable attendant upon +the buffalo; and when one of these persevering animals is seen, +it is certain sign that buffalo are not far distant. Besides the +buffalo wolf, there are four distinct varieties common to the +plains, and all more or less attendant upon the buffalo. These are +the black, the gray, the brown, and last and least the _coyote_, +or _cayeute_ of the mountaineers, the "_wach-unkam[)a]net_," +or "medicine wolf" of the Indians, who hold the latter animal in +reverential awe. This little wolf, whose fur is of great thickness +and beauty, although of diminutive size, is wonderfully sagacious, +and makes up by cunning what it wants in physical strength. In +bands of from three to thirty they will not unfrequently station +themselves along the "runs" of the deer and the antelope, extending +their line for many miles,--and the quarry being started, each +wolf will follow in pursuit until tired, when it relinquishes the +chase to another relay, following slowly after until the animal is +fairly run down, when all hurry to the spot and speedily consume +the carcass. The cayeute, however, is often made a tool of by his +larger brethren, unless, indeed, he acts from motives of spontaneous +charity. When a hunter has slaughtered game, and is in the act +of butchering it, these little wolves sit patiently at a short +distance from the scene of operations, while at a more respectful +one the larger wolves (the white or gray) lope hungrily around, +licking their chops in hungry expectation. Not unfrequently the +hunter throws a piece of meat towards the smaller one, who seizes it +immediately, and runs off with the morsel in his mouth. Before he +gets many yards with his prize, the large wolf pounces with a growl +upon him, and the cayeute, dropping the meat, returns to his former +position, and will continue his act as long as the hunter pleases to +supply him. + +Wolves are so common on the plains and in the mountains, that the +hunter never cares to throw away a charge of ammunition upon them, +although the ravenous animals are a constant source of annoyance to +him, creeping to the camp-fire at night, and gnawing his saddles +and _apishamores_, eating the skin ropes which secure the horses +and mules to their pickets, and even their very hobbles, and not +unfrequently killing or entirely disabling the animals themselves. + +Round the camp, during the night, the cayeute keeps unremitting +watch, and the traveller not unfrequently starts from his bed with +affright, as the mournful and unearthly chiding of the wolf breaks +suddenly upon his ear: the long-drawn howl being taken up by others +of the band, until it dies away in the distance, as some straggler +passing within hearing answers to the note, and howls as he lopes +away. + +Our party crossed the south fork about ten miles from its juncture +with the main stream, and then, passing the prairie, struck the +north fork a day's travel from the other. At the mouth of an +ash-timbered creek they came upon Indian "sign," and, as now they +were in the vicinity of the treacherous Sioux, they moved along +with additional caution, Frapp and Gonneville, two experienced +mountaineers, always heading the advance. + +About noon they had crossed over to the left bank of the fork, +intending to camp on a large creek where some fresh beaver "sign" +had attracted the attention of some of the trappers; and as, on +further examination, it appeared that two or three lodges of that +animal were not far distant, it was determined to remain here a day +or two, and set their traps. + +Gonneville, old Luke, and La Bonte, had started up the creek, and +were carefully examining the banks for "sign," when the former, who +was in front, suddenly paused, and looking intently up the stream, +held up his hand to his companions to signal them to stop. + +Luke and La Bonte both followed the direction of the trapper's +intent and fixed gaze. The former uttered in a suppressed tone +the expressive exclamation, Wagh!--the latter saw nothing but a +wood-duck swimming swiftly down the stream, followed by her downy +progeny. + +Gonneville turned his head, and extending his arm twice with a +forward motion up the creek, whispered--"Les sauvages." + +"Injuns, sure, and Sioux at that," answered Luke. + +Still La Bonte looked, but nothing met his view but the duck with +her brood, now rapidly approaching; and as he gazed, the bird +suddenly took wing, and, flapping on the water, flew a short +distance down the stream and once more settled on it. + +"Injuns?" he asked; "where are they?" + +"Whar?" repeated old Luke, striking the flint of his rifle, and +opening the pan to examine the priming. "What brings a duck +a-streakin it down stream, if humans aint behint her? and who's thar +in these diggins but Injuns, and the worst kind; and we'd better +push to camp, I'm thinking, if we mean to save our hair." + +"Sign" sufficient, indeed, it was to all the trappers, who, on being +apprised of it, instantly drove in their animals, and picketed +them; and hardly had they done so when a band of Indians made their +appearance on the banks of the creek, from whence they galloped to +the bluff which overlooked the camp at the distance of about six +hundred yards; and crowning this, in number some forty or more, +commenced brandishing their spears and guns, and whooping loud +yells of defiance. The trappers had formed a little breast-work of +their packs, forming a semicircle, the chord of which was made by +the animals standing in a line, side by side, closely picketed and +hobbled. Behind this defence stood the mountaineers, rifle in hand, +and silent and determined. The Indians presently descended the bluff +on foot, leaving their animals in charge of a few of the party, and, +scattering, advanced under cover of the sage bushes which dotted +the bottom, to about two hundred yards of the whites. Then a chief +advanced before the rest, and made the sign for a talk with the +Long-knives, which led to a consultation amongst the latter, as to +the policy of acceding to it. They were in doubts as to the nation +these Indians belonged to, some bands of the Sioux being friendly, +and others bitterly hostile to the whites. + +Gonneville, who spoke the Sioux language, and was well acquainted +with the nation, affirmed they belonged to a band called the +Yanka-taus, well known to be the most evil-disposed of that +treacherous nation; another of the party maintaining that they were +Brules, and that the chief advancing towards them was the well-known +Tah-sha-tunga or Bull Tail, a most friendly chief of that tribe. +The majority, however, trusted to Gonneville, and he volunteered to +go out to meet the Indian, and hear what he had to say. Divesting +himself of all arms save his butcher-knife, he advanced towards +the savage, who awaited his approach, enveloped in the folds of +his blanket. At a glance he knew him to be a Yanka-tau, from the +peculiar make of his moccassins, and the way in which his face was +daubed with paint. + +"Howgh!" exclaimed both as they met; and, after a silence of a few +moments, the Indian spoke, asking--"Why the Long-knives hid behind +their packs, when his band approached? Were they afraid, or were +they preparing a dog-feast to entertain their friends? That the +whites were passing through his country, burning his wood, drinking +his water, and killing his game; but he knew that they had now come +to pay for the mischief they had done, and that the mules and horses +they had brought with them were intended as a present to their red +friends. + +"He was Mah-to-ga-shane," he said, "the Brave Bear: his tongue was +short, but his arm long; and he loved rather to speak with his bow +and his lance, than with the weapon of a squaw. He had said it: the +Long-knives had horses with them and mules; and these were for him, +he knew, and for his 'braves.' Let the White-face go back to his +people and return with the animals, or he, the 'Brave Bear,' would +have to come and take them; and his young men would get mad and +would feel blood in their eyes; and then he would have no power over +them; and the whites would have to 'go under.'" + +The trapper answered shortly.--"The Long-knives," he said, "had +brought the horses for themselves--their hearts were big, but not +towards the Yanka-taus: and if they had to give up their animals, it +would be to _men_ and not _squaws_. They were not 'wah-keitcha,'[4] +(French engages) but Long-knives; and, however short were the +tongues of the Yanka-taus, theirs were still shorter, and their +rifles longer. The Yanka-taus were dogs and squaws, and the +Long-knives spat upon them." + + [4] The French Canadians are called _wah-keitcha_--"bad + medicine"--by the Indians, who account them treacherous and + vindictive, and at the same time less daring than the American + hunters. + +Saying this, the trapper turned his back and rejoined his +companions; whilst the Indian slowly proceeded to his people, +who, on learning the contemptuous way in which their threats had +been treated, testified their anger with loud yells; and, seeking +whatever cover was afforded, commenced a scattering volley upon the +camp of the mountaineers. The latter reserved their fire, treating +with cool indifference the balls which began to rattle about them; +but as the Indians, emboldened by this apparent inaction, rushed for +a closer position, and exposed their bodies within a long range, +half-a-dozen rifles rang from the assailed, and two Indians fell +dead, one or two more being wounded. As yet, not one of the whites +had been touched, but several of the animals had received wounds +from the enemy's fire of balls and arrows. Indeed, the Indians +remained at too great a distance to render the volleys from their +crazy fusees any thing like effectual, and had to raise their pieces +considerably to make their bullets reach as far as the camp. After +having lost three of their band killed outright, and many more being +wounded, their fire began to slacken, and they drew off to a greater +distance, evidently resolved to beat a retreat; and retiring to +the bluff, discharged their pieces in a last volley, mounted their +horses and galloped off, carrying their wounded with them. This last +volley, however, although intended as a mere bravado, unfortunately +proved fatal to one of the whites. Gonneville, at the moment, was +standing on one of the packs, in order to get an uninterrupted +sight for a last shot, when one of the random bullets struck him +in the breast. La Bonte caught him in his arms as he was about to +fall, and, laying the wounded trapper gently on the ground,--they +proceeded to strip him of his buckskin hunting-frock, to examine +the wound. A glance was sufficient to convince his companions that +the blow was mortal. The ball had passed through the lungs; and in +a few moments the throat of the wounded man began to swell, as the +choking blood ascended, and turned a livid blue colour. But a few +drops of purple blood trickled from the wound,--a fatal sign,--and +the eyes of the mountaineer were already glazing with death's icy +touch. His hand still grasped the barrel of his rifle, which had +done good service in the fray. Anon he essayed to speak, but, choked +with blood, only a few inarticulate words reached the ears of his +companions, who were bending over him. + +"Rubbed--out--at--last," they heard him say, the words gurgling in +his blood-filled throat; and opening his eyes once more, and looking +upwards to take a last look at the bright sun, the trapper turned +gently on his side and breathed his last sigh. + +With no other tools than their scalp-knives, the hunters dug a +grave on the banks of the creek; and whilst some were engaged in +this work, others sought the bodies of the Indians they had slain +in the attack, and presently returned with three reeking scalps, +the trophies of the fight. The body of the mountaineer was then +wrapped in a buffalo robe, the scalps being placed on the dead man's +breast, laid in the shallow grave, and quickly covered--without a +word of prayer, or sigh of grief; for, however much his companions +may have felt, not a word escaped them; although the bitten lip and +frowning brow told tale of anger more than sorrow, and vowed--what +they thought would better please the spirit of the dead man than +sorrow--lasting revenge. + +Trampling down the earth which filled the grave, they placed upon +it a pile of heavy stones; and packing their mules once more, and +taking a last look of their comrade's lonely resting-place, they +turned their backs upon the stream, which has ever since been known +as "Gonneville's Creek." + +If the reader casts his eye over any of the recent maps of the +western country, which detail the features of the regions embracing +the Rocky Mountains, and the vast prairies at their bases, he will +not fail to observe that many of the creeks or smaller streams which +feed the larger rivers,--as the Missouri, Platte, and Arkansa--are +called by familiar proper names, both English and French. These +are invariably christened after some unfortunate trapper, killed +there in Indian fight; or treacherously slaughtered by the lurking +savages, while engaged in trapping beaver on the stream. Thus +alone is the memory of these hardy men perpetuated, at least of +those whose fate is ascertained: for many, in every season, never +return from their hunting expeditions, having met a sudden death +from Indians, or a more lingering fate from accident or disease +in some of the lonely gorges of the mountains, where no footfall +save their own, or the heavy tread of grizzly bear, disturbs the +unbroken silence of these awful solitudes. Then, as many winters +pass without some old familiar faces making their appearance at the +merry rendezvous, their long protracted absence may perhaps occasion +such remarks, as to where such and such a mountain worthy can have +betaken himself, to which the casual rejoinder of "Gone under, +maybe," too often gives a short but certain answer. + +In all the philosophy of hardened hearts, our hunters turned from +the spot where the unmourned trapper met his death. La Bonte, +however, not yet entirely steeled by mountain life to a perfect +indifference to human feeling, drew his hard hand across his eye, +as the unbidden tear rose from his rough but kindly heart. He could +not forget so soon the comrade they had lost, the companionship in +the hunt or over the cheerful camp-fire, the narrator of many a +tale of dangers past, of sufferings from hunger, cold, and thirst, +and from untended wounds, of Indian perils, and of a life spent in +such vicissitudes. One tear dropped from the young hunter's eye, and +rolled down his cheek--the last for many a long year. + +In the forks of the northern branch of the Platte, formed by the +junction of the Laramie, they found a big village of the Sioux +encamped near the station of one of the fur companies. Here the +party broke up; many, finding the alcohol of the traders an +impediment to their further progress, remained some time in the +vicinity, while La Bonte, Luke, and a trapper named Marcelline, +started in a few days to the mountains, to trap on Sweet Water +and Medicine Bow. They had leisure, however, to observe all the +rascalities connected with the Indian trade, although at this season +(August) hardly commenced. However, a band of Indians having come in +with several packs of last year's robes, and being anxious to start +speedily on their return, a trader from one of the forts had erected +his lodge in the village. + +Here, he set to work immediately to induce the Indians to trade. +First, a chief appointed three "soldiers" to guard the trader's +lodge from intrusion; and who, amongst the thieving fraternity, +can be invariably trusted. Then the Indians were invited to have a +drink--a taste of the fire-water being given to all to incite them +to trade. As the crowd presses upon the entrance to the lodge, and +those in rear become impatient, some large-mouthed possessor of many +friends, who has received a portion of the spirit, makes his way, +with his mouth full of the liquor and cheeks distended, through +the throng, and is instantly surrounded by his particular friends. +Drawing the face of each, by turns, near his own, he squirts a small +quantity into his open mouth, until the supply is exhausted, when he +returns for more, and repeats the generous distribution. + +When paying for the robes, the traders, in measuring out the liquor +in a tin half-pint cup, thrust their thumbs or the four fingers +of the hand into the measure, in order that it may contain the +less, or not unfrequently fill the bottom with melted buffalo fat, +with the same object. So greedy are the Indians, that they never +discover the cheat, and once under the influence of the liquor, +cannot distinguish between the first cup of comparatively strong +spirit, and the following ones diluted five hundred per cent, and +poisonously drugged to boot. + +Scenes of drunkenness, riot, and bloodshed last until the trade +is over, which in the winter occupies several weeks, during which +period the Indians present the appearance, under the demoralising +influence of the liquor, of demons rather than men. + + + + +AMERICAN THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS. + + + _Boston, May 1848._ + +A thousand leagues of ocean, my Basil, are indeed between us, but it +is no longer right to reckon distances by leagues. Time is your only +measure. I know of a gentleman who had a home in Paris, while Paris +was capable of homes, and he came every year across the Atlantic, +only to fish for trout. Why do you stare? You know very well that +you have often waited a fortnight for a good day to go a-fishing. +Come, then, pack up your slender reed, and spend such a fortnight +in a steamer. By God's favour you shall be the better for sea air; +and in two weeks from Liverpool, you shall find yourself on the +shores of a lake in the interior of the State of New York, where, +since the fifth day of the creation, the trout have apparently been +multiplying in a manner that would astonish a Malthus. Such is now +that dissociable ocean, which was once thought too great a waste of +waters to be passed by colonial members of parliament representing +the provinces of America. "_Opposuit Natura_;" said Burke, "I cannot +remove the eternal barriers of the creation." But Burke forgot his +Greek:-- + +"+Polla ta deina, kouden anthropou deinoteron pelei; touto kai poliou +peran pontou cheimerio noto chorei, peribrychioisi peron ep' +oidmasi;+" + +I know it is an old saw, but it is so freshened by the modern +instance of steamers every week, that it has become quotable once +more; and I have almost a mind to go on with the chorus, and show +that Sophocles may be fairly rendered in favour of railways and +iron-steeds. But the telegraph, Basil! I must even quote a bit of +English for that. As gentle Cowper saith:-- + + "The tempest itself lags behind, + And the swift-wing'd arrows of light!" + +The wires are already stretched from Massachusetts, and almost +from Halifax to the Gulf of Mexico. A spark here, and the lettered +bulletin is reeling off in Louisiana! The fresh news will, +hereafter, be hawked in the streets of Boston and along the wharves +of New Orleans in the same hour. It will soon be sent farther +still; and a British fleet in the Pacific may be served with orders +from the Admiralty Board, not two weeks old. We are fairly in +hand-shaking neighbourhood. I remember when European intelligence +came to us rather as history than as news. It is not so now. While +emotion is yet warm with you, it sets our own hearts throbbing. We, +too, are, in the present tense, with Europe; for the revolutions +of peace have been more wonderful than those of warfare. They have +reunited what strife had sundered, and rendered England and America +again one family. + +Talking of revolutions,--how hot the noon of the century is growing! +You will allow, dear Basil, that we in America, are well situated +to be lookers on. With all the security of distance, we have the +advantages of nearness. You are on the stage--we are in the boxes. +You go behind the scenes, and see the wire-working and machinery, +but we get the effect of the spectacle. The great revolutionary +drama is before us, and we can behold it calmly; interested, but not +involved. For a devout or philosophical spectator, America is the +true observatory. Here we can watch "the great Babel, and not feel +the crowd." It is our own fault if, with such advantages, we do not +anticipate the judgment of future ages, and arrive instinctively at +conclusions which those who share the tumult itself must ordinarily +learn in the soberness of after-thoughts, or, perhaps, by a dear +experience. + +Did you ask how the doings in France appear in republican eyes? +And pray what do you expect me to answer? You appear to think +republicanism a specific instead of a generic term, and to expect +us to hail the French as our kindred. As well might I suppose that +your monarchical sympathies deeply interest you in the autocracy of +Dahomey and Darfur. A boy may play with a monkey, without admiring +him; and although the monkey is a biped without feathers, the boy +would not like to have him taken for a younger brother. Believe +me, we are not yet ready to claim fraternity with the Provisional +Government. _How we apples swim_, seems to be their salutation to +America; but, for one, I reject the odorous impeachment. No one is +very cordial, as yet, in returning it. There is a general gaping and +staring; but the prevailing disposition towards France is to wait +and see if she will be decent. You will agree with me, that this +caution is creditable to the _Model Republic_. + +In the spectacle before us, believe me, then, we know how to +distinguish the harlequin from the hero, and are not in danger +of clapping hands at the buffoonery of Paris, when we have just +been charmed by the solemn buskin in which London came upon the +stage--reluctant to play her part, but prepared to go through it +nobly. A French melodrama, of men in smocks chanting _Mourir pour la +Patrie_, or priests, in defiled surplices, asperging and incensing +May-poles, must of course suit the tastes of the groundlings; but +such inexplicable dumb-shows are generally understood to be only +the prelude to something tragic that is coming. For one, I look +for solemn monologues from Pio Nono and Lamartine; and, by-and-by, +expect a scene between the Soldan and the Czar. I do not look +without feelings of awe, for I am sure it is the shadow of GOD'S own +hand that is now passing over the nations. It is He that says, as of +old, "remove the diadem and take off the crown; exalt him that is +low, and abase him that is high." I am glad that others recognise +his footsteps in the earth, and therefore was pleased with that +motto lately quoted in Maga, from St Augustine--"GOD is patient, +because He is eternal." + +For seventeen years we have been watching the great political +Humpty-Dumpty, in his efforts to come to an equilibrium, and to +stand firm in his place; and the end is, that Humpty-Dumpty is +fallen, according to the oracular rhyme of Mother Goose. What +shall we say of him, except that he was barricaded in, and has +been barricaded out? Laugh as we may at the undefinableness +of legitimacy, one feels that the lack of it makes a great +difference in our disposition towards a discrowned king. Still, +Louis-Philippe is treated with much forbearance, and men think of +his hoar hairs and his eventful life. In one of our newspapers, +a generous word has been spoken for his government, as about the +best that France deserved, and his best measures have been reviewed +with praise. Still, he is much disliked in America. One of his +earliest Claremonts was with us; and when Lafayette made him a +king, Americans felt as if they had a right to be pleased with his +accession. But his quarrel with his benefactor turned the feeling +strongly against him, for Lafayette was revered among us to the +hour of his death. I think there is a general satisfaction with +the fall of the Orleans dynasty; but it certainly has not been +malicious or spiteful. An eminent American, who has lived long in +Paris, has written two letters in the leading democratic newspaper +of New York, in which the fallen monarch is more severely handled +than he has been elsewhere. He is there said to be a much overrated +man--possessed of no great talents, except those which enable him +to dissimulate with the utmost cunning, and to manage with the +basest perfidy. The writer, nevertheless, has no confidence in +the revolution as having destroyed the monarchy; and quotes with +approbation a sentiment which he says was advanced in conversation +with himself, so long ago as 1830, by Odillon Barrot,--"_Enfin, +monsieur, la France a besoin de se sentir gouvernee_." He thinks two +things will work against the Duc de Bordeaux--that he has married an +Austrian, and grown fat; yet he confidently predicts that Henry V. +will one day ascend the throne of his ancestors. "As for a republic +that is to go on harmoniously, and with any thing like tolerable +quiet, law, and order," he concludes, "I hold it to be just as +impracticable as it would be to set up a Doge of Venice and a +Council of Ten in the State of New York. _We hear only the voices of +the revolutionists_, the rest of the nation being temporarily mute. +The day will come, however, when the last will speak." + +These sentiments are not singular among us. I am agreeably surprised +by the great moderation of our people and of our press. When the +tidings of the outbreak reached us, it produced excitement, of +course; but there was no echo of the French howl, and remarkably +little enthusiasm, all things considered. You have seen reprinted in +England some of the most foolish things that were said in our most +worthless prints. The press in general behaved with great reserve +and caution. Successive steamers brought continual abatements to +the degree of confidence, or hope, that had been inspired in the +minds of the more ardent; and so general was the candour of the +newspapers, that when those of the Clay party were pettishly accused +of a sympathy with tyranny, the charge was easily met by quotations +from democratic newspapers, equally liable to the imputation, if a +manly reprobation of revolutionary misrule and excess be sufficient +to prove it. The truth is, our country was caught in the trap in +1792. Then, the pulpit and the press strove together in glorifying +France; and the remorse and burning shame that were the consequence, +have left a very salutary impression. + +In fact, the violent democracy of Paris is exerting a beneficial +effect upon our people. We see the degrading spectacle, and learn to +value ourselves for a love of law and order. There is a reluctance +to reduce ourselves to the level of such a republic as has sprung up +like a mushroom in a night, and is likely to perish in the same way. +Our own revolution was not one of drunken riot, and street-singing +blouse-men: our constitution is not a mere poetical theory of +liberty and equality, nor a socialist's dream of brotherhood. We +now learn the secret of our strength, and of that comparative +durability which has almost surprised ourselves. We are, after +all, a transplanted slip of old England; nor are we so essentially +changed, my Basil, as even you imagine. The spirit of our people +is indeed democratic; but the spirit of our constitution is imbued +with a stronger element. The facts concerning it will enable you +to see one secret of our comparative success, and to judge whether +France can possibly come to any thing as good. The founders of this +republic were not Frenchmen, but Englishmen; I mean they were of +English stock, and had learned all their notions of liberty from the +history of England. Each province of America had taken shape under +the British constitution; and when the provinces became independent, +the general government was organised in such wise as to supply the +place of that constitution. Its founders did not frame a new and +untried constitution, a _priori_, according to their own schemes; +they simply modified the great principles of British constitutional +law to suit a new state of things, and a peculiar people. A +monarchy was out of the question; but they did not intend to make a +democracy. They only made a republic. The democratic spirit came in +with Jefferson and French politics at the beginning of the present +century. It has become dominant, but by no means triumphant; and +its great obstacle has been the constitution. In the several states +it has changed the constitutions one after the other, introducing +universal suffrage, and other democratic features. But the national +constitution has not been so easily reached; and it is the strength +of the great party with which Clay and Webster are identified, and +which is a constant check on the popular party. It is republican, +but not simply democratic. The executive magistracy is elective; +but the electors are not the people, directly, but electoral +colleges, appointed by the several states; and the office itself is +endowed with prerogatives, some of which are more unlimited than +the corresponding rights of the British crown. Our senate is a mere +modification of the House of Lords: it is a body more select than +the lower house, and not so immediately responsible to constituents; +and its practical working shows the great importance of such a +balance-wheel in any government. There is no working without it, in +spite of what your Roebucks may say. The House of Commons reappears +in our House of Representatives, which, like its great original, is +the safety-valve of popular feeling, and gives sonorous vent to a +mighty pressure of steam and vapour, which would otherwise blow us +to atoms, with a much less endurable noise. The whole fabric of our +law is a precious patrimony derived, with our blood, from England. +Our new states are filling up with emigrants from the continent +of Europe, but they all adopt the law of their older sisters; and +thus the institutions of the immortal Alfred may be found among the +Swedes and Danes of Wisconsin. These, then, are the elements of +our strength; and you observe they partake of the strength of the +British empire, which has been legitimately and naturally imparted +to us, like the mother's life-blood to the daughter of her womb. We +have indeed characteristic peculiarities. We have tried some new +experiments; but let not France suppose she can imitate them. We are +a new country, a sparse population, and our people have their heads +full of subduing the soil, and setting water-wheels in streams, and +making roads and canals. We have no natural taste for insurrection +and confusion, for we have nobody that is idle enough to want such +work. Our new wine, then, has been put into new bottles; and the +fool that attempts to decant it into the old vessels of Europe, will +ruin it and them together. + +Our newspapers have pointed out another secret of our strength, +which France cannot possibly enjoy. In spite of that wild prophecy +of Lady Hester Stanhope to Lamartine--so much of which has come +true--Paris is France, and will be France while France holds +together. The city of Washington is not America; and its great acres +of unoccupied building lots are the best thing about it. The State +governments, which could not have been planned beforehand, but are a +natural product of old events--which dispose of all local matters, +and prevent sectional jealousies, which divide and balance power, +and _satisfy small ambition_,--these are the helps, without which +our national existence could not have been prolonged beyond the +lifetime of Washington himself. The threatened disturbance of the +admirable equilibrium which has heretofore been maintained between +North and South, and East and West, by the introduction of Mexican +and Texan states, and the power which it will throw into the hands +of a few persons at the seat of government, is even now our most +alarming danger. We know, from what we see among ourselves, that +governments must take form, not from human devices, but from GOD'S +providences. We ourselves are the results of circumstances: no +scheming patriot could have made us what we are; and no imitative +Frenchman can give to his country a government like ours; nor, if +he could, would it survive beyond the lifetime of some individual, +whose popularity would supply a temporary strength to its essential +weakness. An imported constitution must be a sickly one, in any +country on earth. + +For us, then, there is a legitimacy in our institutions which makes +them durable, and dear to all classes of our people. But to be loyal +to our own republic is by no means to be committed to universal +republicanism, far less to be delighted with universal anarchy. +You must pardon our tastes. We are young, and we think a jacket +and shako becoming. We wear our appropriate costume as gracefully +as we can. We are yet the growing, perhaps the awkward, but still +the active boy. But when Europe befools itself, in its dotage, with +republican attire, we lads have a right to laugh. It will do for us +to play leap-frog, or cut any other caper that we choose; but who +can restrain derision when corpulent imbecility assumes an unskirted +coat, and submits its uncovered proportions to hootings and to +kicks, or throws a ponderous summersault that less demonstrates +agility than exposes nakedness! + +I speak for myself, and for many, very many of my countrymen. Our +mere populace are of course possessed with the idea that a universal +Yankee-doodle is the panacea for all the miseries of the world. It +has been told them so often by demagogues, that they are pardonable. +But even they would probably allow that the _Chinese_, for instance, +are not yet quite ready for liberty-poles and ballet-boxes, and by +degrees might be brought to confess as much for any country less +remarkable and astonishing than our own. But there is a solid mass +of good sense among us that is not so deceived. It consists of those +who would rejoice to see a rational republic in France, or in any +other country; but who know that, with the exception perhaps of +Holland, such a thing is impossible, and that, in France, reason +is more likely to reappear as the divinified harlot of Notre Dame +than in any more respectable form. As to Great Britain, even our +schoolboys have learned that, with all the stability of empire, +it unites the freedom of a republic; and in spite of some feeling +against John Bull, I scarcely know the man who would not be sorry +to see it suddenly or violently revolutionised. On Irish affairs +opinion is not so sane among us. Few of us know any thing about +them; and for the sake of the starving peasantry of Ireland, there +is some sympathy with its turbulent Gracchi. Believe it, the general +tone of sentiment on this side the Atlantic, among reflecting men, +is far more conservative than you imagine. Indeed, all classes +stand amazed at the democracy of Europe. Our wildest enthusiasts +are outdone, even by some who sit in the House of Commons; and the +rampant socialism of Paris is as unlike the worst excesses of our +elections, as the ferocity of a tiger is unlike the playfulness of +a kitten. Young as we are, we are better mannered; and I must say, +dear Basil, that when the older nations of the world are allowing +themselves such license, we have a right to regard ourselves as +taking new rank, and deserving more credit than has heretofore been +given us, as, after all, a law-loving and law-maintaining people. + +You will say, as was said to the trumpeter in AEsop--"No, no,--you +make all the mischief; others cut throats, but you have set them +on." But is the democratic spirit really of American origin? +Our Plymouth orators--the men who annually glorify our earliest +colonists--usually trace it to the Puritans, and through them to +Geneva. At all events, it now infects the world, and those are +the happy and the permanent governments which are prepared for +its violence, by constitutional vents and floodgates. It is not +to be stifled, or dammed up. We believe, therefore, that our own +government is the best for ourselves, and few of us have any fear +for that of England. On British matters we do not feel bound to +judge by our own experiences. We are free to theorise on broader +principles; and many of us form our own opinions, not as cool +and critical foreigners, but as having a deep interest in the +preservation of the institutions of our ancestors. Why should we +not? The study of history carries us, at once, beyond the narrow +limits of threescore years and ten, which is the age of our +national existence, and as soon as we pass that boundary we too +are Britons. The blood of our forefathers ran in English veins, or +flowed for British freedom and sovereignty. This fact is enough to +make our educated and reflecting men speculatively conservative +as to British politics. We know the past, and do not feel the +party-heats of the present in England. Hence I am far from being +alone among my countrymen, in looking at English matters with an +English heart. Even our commercial class have a reason for wishing +internal peace and prosperity to England; and I believe there +is generally something better than selfishness in the prevalent +good-will toward her. I wish you could have watched, as I did, the +feelings of our whole people, while lately, between the arrivals +of two steamers, there was a solemn feeling of surprise as to what +would be the results of the Chartist demonstration! Till the news +came, the stoutest of us held our breath. I assure you, Basil, the +peril of England was observed with a deep anxiety. During all that +time I met not a respectable man who wished to see a revolutionary +result. It was the talk of all circles. Our merchants trembled for +England; our scholars hoped for her; a clerical gentleman assured +me that he daily prayed for her. The press very generally predicted +a triumph of order, but there were some specimens of newspaper +literature that ventured an opposite augury. I wish you could have +seen this city when the result was known. The news was received with +a thrill. There was some laughing at the parturient mountain and +the still-born mouse, but a graver cheerfulness was the reigning +emotion. We deeply felt that, by the mercy of God, the world had +been spared from a conflagration which the match of a madman could +light, but which only another deluge could extinguish. For one, I +was as a watcher by the sea-side, who, after a night of tempest, +waits for the fog to rise, and then thanks God to see the good old +ship coming home, in season, her masts all standing, and her flag +untorn. + +I had felt fears, my Basil. What was not imaginable, when Europe +presented the appearance of a table on which empires had fallen +in a day, like card-houses blown down by the breath of children! +I knew that neither France, nor Prussia, nor Austria, nor Italy, +were any thing like England, which is founded on a rock, and knit +together by joints and bands: but I felt that England is no longer +what she was. With a Whig government she is never herself.[5] The +Whigs are more than half Frenchmen. I tell you you seem to me not +half enough afraid of your Whigs; they are worse than your Radicals. +You show some uneasiness under the Jewish Disabilities Bill, but +I wish you could see it as it strikes a looker-on. If time has on +you the effect which distance has on me, you will yet look back on +that measure as you now look back on the great mistake of 1829. +It will haunt you like a nightmare, and you will regard it with +less of anger than of shame and remorse; with the deep conviction +that, if the friends of the constitution had done their duty, it +never would have disgraced a Christian state. True, the Whigs are +responsible for inflicting the blow; but what has been done to avert +it? So far as I know, nothing commensurate with the greatness of +the evil. You seem to give way to it as only one of many inroads +upon old proprieties, which are inevitable, and cannot be withstood. +But is the unchristianising of the state to be spoken of side by +side with even the destruction of colonies, and the discouragement +of agriculture? As it strikes me, it is not a thing of a class, it +stands out a portent, a harbinger, a phenomenon of its own kind. Not +that it surprises me. From Lord John Russell nothing that argues +fatuity and lack of political principle should surprise any one. +To carry out the plans to which he has committed himself, he must +consistently pander to infidels, foster heretics, and subsidise +Jews. To the reforms of the last score of years, there could be no +more fitting sequel than this coalition with a people loaded with +the hereditary burthen of the saving blood of the Crucified. I only +marvel that the bill goes on so slowly. The Baron should have been +long since in his place, and the Easter holidays should have been +disregarded, out of respect to his feelings. It is astonishing +that he is not already an ecclesiastical commissioner. The times +are not now as during a former French revolution, when a British +statesman could say[6]--"the Jews in Change Alley have not yet +dared to hint their hopes of a mortgage on the revenues belonging +to the see of Canterbury." You are always praising your church, +Basil, but allow me to ask, Why you may not live to see a Jewish +rabbi nominated to a bishopric. As I understand it, the obsequious +chapter would be obliged to perform the election, and close all by +anthems to Almighty GOD, ascribing to Him the glory of a gift so +felicitous and so auspicious to the church! It would not be the +first time, I believe, that Lord John has set the _Te Deum_ of +cathedrals going, like the whistles of a juggler's barrel-organ. +Forgive me, Basil; I am not mocking the agonies of your church, but +I am scorning a British minister that can use for her destruction +the powers confided to him for her nourishment and defence. I +have learned my notions of your politics from Edmund Burke, and I +remember what he said in his _Reflections on the French Revolution +of 1792_--for, by the way, revolutions in France must be always +referred to by dates, and will soon be known, like policemen, by +letters and numbers. "The men of England," said that great and +honest man, "the men I mean of light and leading in England, would +be ashamed, as of a silly deceitful trick, to profess any religion +in name which, by their proceedings, they appear to contemn." Does +not Lord John profess to be a Christian? I must caution you, too, +against supposing that I dislike the Israelites. Far from it. In my +own country I am glad that they labour under no disabilities, and I +can testify to their good order, decency, and propriety of behaviour +as citizens. But we have "no past at our back," and nothing in our +system which demands a prior consideration. No, Basil--I honour a +Jew, however much I may pity him. Crying old clothes, or lolling in +a banker's chariot, the Jew is to me a man of sacred associations. +And then--a Jewish gentleman--he makes me think at once of the sons +of Maccabaeus and all the Asmoneans; those Hebrews of the Hebrews, +those Tories of Israel! What natural sympathy has a Jewish gentleman +with a Whig? Were I merely covetous of votes I would say--let the +Jews in! I could trust _their_ conscience; I could appeal to their +own feelings; I would put it to them whether their liberalism +would consent to eat pork with the Gentiles, or to call in the +uncircumcised to make laws for the synagogue. We pity the blindness +of the Jews that offered their thirty pieces of silver--but we do +not despise them. Our contempt settles on the head of the Christian +who consented to take them at the bargain. + + [5] We fully agree with our correspondent as to the danger of + Whiggery in our councils, but are so far reconciled to the Whigs + being in office at the present crisis, by the knowledge that, had + they been in opposition, they would, to a certain extent, have + fraternised with French Republicans and English Chartists. Who could + doubt that such would have been the conduct of the men who headed + physical force processions, and hounded on window-breaking vagabonds + in the Reform riots of 1830? What amount of profligate partisanship + might not be expected from the men who, when thirsting for office, + solemnly denounced as unconstitutional and unjust the course pursued + by a conservative government towards O'Connell, which identical + course they now, when in power, adopt towards Mitchell, a much less + dangerous criminal? + + [6] Burke's _Reflections on the French Revolution_. + +You speak of this Jew bill as the first step! Why, yes, the first +step in tragedy; there was a former one in farce. There is Sir Moses +Montefiore! Who made him a knight? "A Jewish knight," said I, at +the time--"hear it, ye dry bones,--ye cross-legged effigies--ye +Paladins--ye Templars! Hear it, Du-Bois-Gilbert,--hear it, Richard +Coeur-de-Lion! Yes, and thou, too, old Roger de Coverley! Hear it, +thou true old English knight; for they that bought thine old clothes +now come for thine old spurs!" So said I--wondering that no one +seemed to wonder. The nineteenth century had not time to stare. +There was not even a London _Punch_ to laugh at such a _Judy_, and +so Moses was belted and spurred, no man gainsaying; and knighthood, +that was Sidney's once, is just the thing for Sir Peter Laurie now. + +And if a Jewish knight, why not a Jewish senator! True, there is +something grand in the idea of a nation that never, since the +Wittenagemote, has seen a lawgiver unbaptised; and then there is +still a red cross in the flag of England; and there has been a +pleasing notion that the Christian faith was part and parcel with +the British constitution; and even we in America, averse to church +and state, have long allowed ourselves to admire one exception +to the rule, and to confess the majestic figure made among the +nations by a Christian empire, shining forth in splendid contrast +to surrounding kingdoms, some of them infidel and some of them +superstitious, but she alone the witness to reasonable faith, and +faithful reason. But who regards it in this light? Who among you +stands up to warn his country of the glory that is departing? +Who has said any thing in parliament at all adequate to the +turning-point of a nation's religion? I have looked for some one to +speak as Burke would have spoken, of "uncovering your nakedness, +by throwing off that Christian religion which has hitherto been +your boast and comfort." I have longed to see his promise made +good,--"_we shall never be such fools_ as to call in an enemy to +the substance of any system, to remove its corruptions, to supply +its defects, or to perfect its construction." I read _The Times_, +but as yet I have looked in vain. A few honest remonstrances have +indeed been ventured amid cries of _oh, oh!_ and vociferations of +buck-toothed laughter from the benches that support the honourable +members from Cottonburgh and Calicopolis. But who has stood up as +for altars and fires? I hope, ere this reaches you, the question +will be creditably answered. I hope the Christianity of England will +not die without a struggle. I suspect it will be of no use, but I +look yet for some John of Gaunt in the House of Lords. Imagine him, +my Basil:-- + + "This sceptred isle, + This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, + Renowned for her deeds as far from home + (For _Christian service_ and _true chivalry_) + As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry + Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son; + This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land, + _Dear for her reputation through the world, + Is now--paun'd out to Jews!_" + +This is what ought to be said; and I look for it, if not from lords +spiritual, then even from lords temporal. But surely it would well +become the primate's mouth! Of course, it would do little good; but +then the religion of England would fall at least dramatically. It +would make a picture quite as good as the death of Chatham. Do you +remember the lawn-sleeves in that picture? The bishops are "in at +the death,"--but nothing more. + +But another steamer has come in with news; and France is all the +talk. The elections are over; the _Moderes_ have triumphed; the +National Assembly has convened, and the Provisional Government is +at an end. _Vive Lamartine!_ Of course the stock of the republic +takes a rise, but holders are not firm. The bloodshed at Rouen, +the _emeutes_ at Elboeuf and Limoges, and the threats of the +_Communistes_, do not precisely inspire confidence. Still, we are +so far surprised, and those who have predicted favourably for +France grow a little more sanguine in their hopes. I am glad to +say that Louis Blanc has no sympathisers here. All are convinced +that Lamartine will make the best of it, and that, if he fails, +the republic will be suffocated and expire in a stench. For one, +it seems to me that Lamartine is not bad enough to encounter +successfully the frantic malice of his opponents, and that their +eventual success is certain. Already, things have very likely taken +a decisive turn, and by the time this letter reaches you, the doings +of the Assembly will have enabled you to conjecture whether the +nation is going by the long way, or the short cut, to Henry Fifth. +As all will be stale before you can read what I now write, I will +not presume to predict the immediate results; but I am sure that the +assembling of such a set as have been returned to the legislature, +would be enough to blow up the strongest government on earth. +Jew, Dominican, pastor and bishop, poet and butcher, all in their +tricoloured sashes--was there ever such a full-blown tulip-bed of +liberty, equality, and fraternity! + +The announcement of several clergymen as members of the Assembly +reminds me that there has been some sickly sentiment among us, +about the _piety_ that has been displayed in this revolution. +In Boston we are favoured with some strange types of religions +enthusiasm; in fact, the type of Christianity that prevails among +us is peculiarly our own; and like our improvements in machinery, +deserves the proverbial name of a "Boston notion." Emerson, who is +now illuminating England, may give you some idea of what I mean; +and a queer story that is told of one of his disciples, may furnish +you with an explanation of the fact, that some men see religion +in the sacking of the Tuileries. The youth was at the Opera to +see a celebrated _danseuse_, and excited general attention by his +somewhat extraordinary applause. His enthusiasm so transported +him, that the emotions of his heart became unconsciously audible. +As the dancer began to whirl, he cried, "_Ah, that is poetry!_" As +she stretched her toe to the horizontal, he exclaimed, "_That's +divinity!_" but when she proceeded to an evolution that forced +the ladies to pay attention to their fans, he burst into the +climax--"_That's religion!_" If this be caricature, the Emersonians +richly deserve it. They are laughed at even in Boston. But they +are not alone in thinking well of the piety of Paris, and arguing +from it that there will be no reign of terror; as if there was not +vastly more show of religion in the first revolution! If there is +an archbishop of Paris now, there was formerly a Talleyrand for +high-priest and master of ceremonies. Oh, but they rejoin with a +story! When the blouses were gutting the palace of its pictures +and marbles, they found, among other works of art, an image of the +Crucified. As a blouseman was about to dash it to atoms, there was a +cry, "Save it--save the great teacher of fraternity!" The crucifix +was accordingly saved, and borne about the streets amid songs and +curses, and, very appropriately, "with lanterns and torches." +"_Ah, that's religion!_" says your Emersonian. So, when recreant +priests baptise a liberty-pole, or join a procession of blouses, +with crosses and censers, _that's divinity_, at least. Was ever +hypocrisy so revolting! The nauseous mockery has its only parallel +in the writings of George Sand, who makes a favourite hero and +heroine betake themselves to an adulterous bed, after duly reciting +their prayers, in which the absent husband is very affectionately +remembered. If a revolution thus begun is not destined to go +speedily through all the ripening and rotting of a godless anarchy, +it is to be accounted for only on the principle that "He who is +Eternal can wait." The old scene at Notre Dame may not be actually +revived, and the Bible may not be literally dragged through Paris +again tied to an ass's tail; but the undisguised atrocities of the +first revolution may, after all, be exceeded by the smooth-faced +blasphemies of that which has already degraded the world's Redeemer +into the patron saint of insurrection, and the father of infidel +fraternity. + +Poor Lamartine! Is this the man, my Basil, whom you once likened to +Chateaubriand? _Quantum mutatus!_ I knew him, till lately, only as a +poet and a traveller. He certainly went to Palestine with the spirit +of a palmer. He bathed in Siloa with enthusiasm, and almost expired +of feeling under the venerable olive-trees of Gethsemane. + +How Frenchy--how intensely French! mass in the morning, and weeping +and sighing,--a revel before nightfall, and desperate gaming. And +this man to be the Cromwell of the commonwealth? He could hardly +have been the Milton, though it would have been more becoming. And +what will be his career? It is a pity Lady Hester Stanhope was not +permitted to consult his stars in full when he met her on Mount +Lebanon, when she praised his handsome foot and arched instep, +and told him he should be very important in the history of the +world. Ah, how certainly he will yet lament, if he does not lament +already, the fulfilment of the oracle! Such weird sisters as Lady +Hester generally tell _only half_, leaving the rest to imagination +and to time. But whether this Phaeton, who has grasped the reins, +is to set the world on fire; whether he, in turn, is only to try +the game of Humpty-Dumpty and to fall; or whether, even as I write +this, he be not already under the foot of Louis Blanc and his +_Communistes_,--what probabilities or improbabilities shall aid my +conjecture? This thing only will I venture as my surmise, though not +my hope, that kings shall reign again in France, as if Lamartine +never lived: that tricoloured cockades shall be made no more, and +lilies be cultivated again: that there will soon be longings for a +sight of the _drapeau blanc_, and a prince of the sons of St Louis: +and that, fat as he is, and Bourbon as he is, and half Austrian as +he has made himself, Henry Duke of Bordeaux will soon be known as +HENRI LE DESIRE. + + Yours ever, my dear Basil, + + ERNEST. + + + + +THE CAXTONS--PART IV. + +CHAPTER IX. + + +I was always an early riser. Happy the man who is! Every morning, +day comes to him with a virgin's love, full of bloom, and purity, +and freshness. The youth of nature is contagious, like the gladness +of a happy child. I doubt if any man can be called 'old' so long as +he is an early riser, and an early _walker_. And oh, youth!--take +my word of it,--youth in dressing-gown and slippers, dawdling over +breakfast at noon, is a very decrepid ghastly image of that youth +which sees the sun blush over the mountains, and the dews sparkle +upon blossoming hedgerows. + +Passing by my father's study, I was surprised to see the windows +unclosed--surprised more, on looking in, to see him bending over +his books--for I had never before known him study till after the +morning meal. Students are not usually early risers, for students, +alas! whatever their age, are rarely young. Yes; the great work must +be getting on in serious earnest. It was no longer dalliance with +learning: this was work. + +I passed through the gates into the road. A few of the cottages were +giving signs of returning life; but it was not yet the hour for +labour, and no "Good morning, sir," greeted me on the road. Suddenly +at a turn, which an overhanging beech-tree had before concealed, I +came full upon my Uncle Roland. + +"What! you, sir? So early? Hark, the clock is striking five!" + +"Not later! I have walked well for a lame man. It must be more than +four miles to ---- and back." + +"You have been to ----: not on business? No soul would be up." + +"Yes, at inns there is always some one up. Ostlers never sleep! I +have been to order my humble chaise and pair. I leave you to day, +nephew." + +"Ah, uncle, we have offended you. It was my folly--that cursed +print--" + +"Pooh!" said my uncle, quickly. "Offended me, boy! I defy you!" and +he pressed my hand roughly. + +"Yet this sudden determination! It was but yesterday, at the Roman +Camp, that you planned an excursion with my father to C---- Castle." + +"Never depend upon a whimsical man. I must be in London to-night." + +"And return to morrow?" + +"I know not when," said my uncle, gloomily; and he was silent +for some moments. At length, leaning less lightly on my arm, he +continued--"Young man, you have pleased me. I love that open saucy +brow of yours, on which nature has written 'Trust me.' I love those +clear eyes that look man manfully in the face. I must know more of +you--much of you. You must come and see me some day or other in your +ancestor's ruined keep." + +"Come! that I will. And you shall show me the old tower--" + +"And the traces of the out-works;" cried my uncle, flourishing his +stick. + +"And the pedigree--" + +"Ay, and your great-great-grandfather's armour, which he wore at +Marston Moor--" + +"Yes, and the brass plate in the church, uncle." + +"The deuce is in the boy! Come here--come here; I've three minds to +break your head, sir!" + +"It is a pity somebody had not broken the rascally printer's, before +he had the impudence to disgrace us by having a family, uncle." + +Captain Roland tried hard to frown, but he could not. "Pshaw!" said +he, stopping, and taking snuff. "The world of the dead is wide; why +should the ghosts jostle us?" + +"We can never escape the ghosts, uncle. They haunt us always. We +cannot think or act, but the soul of some man, who has lived before, +points the way. The dead never die, especially since--" + +"Since what, boy? you speak well." + +"Since our great ancestor introduced printing," said I, majestically. + +My uncle whistled "_Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre_." + +I had not the heart to plague him further. + +"Peace!" said I, creeping cautiously within the circle of the stick. + +"No! I forewarn you--" + +"Peace! and describe to me my little cousin, your pretty +daughter--for pretty I am sure she is." + +"Peace," said my uncle, smiling. "But you must come and judge for +yourself." + + +CHAPTER X. + +Uncle Roland was gone. Before he went, he was closeted for an hour +with my father, who then accompanied him to the gate; and we all +crowded round him as he stepped into his chaise. When the Captain +was gone, I tried to sound my father as to the cause of so sudden a +departure. But my father was impenetrable in all that related to his +brother's secrets. Whether or not the Captain had ever confided to +him the cause of his displeasure with his son,--a mystery which much +haunted me,--my father was mute on that score, both to my mother +and myself. For two or three days, however, Mr Caxton was evidently +unsettled. He did not even take to his great work; but walked much +alone, or accompanied only by the duck, and without even a book in +his hand. But by degrees the scholarly habits returned to him; my +mother mended his pens, and the work went on. + +For my part, left much to myself, especially in the mornings, I +began to muse restlessly over the future. Ungrateful that I was, the +happiness of home ceased to content me. I heard afar the roar of the +great world, and roved impatient by the shore. + +At length, one evening, my father, with some modest hums and ha's, +and an-unaffected blush on his fair forehead, gratified a prayer +frequently urged on him, and read me some portions of "the great +Work." I cannot express the feelings this lecture created--they +were something akin to awe. For the design of this book was so +immense--and towards its execution, a learning so vast and various +had administered--that it seemed to me as if a spirit had opened to +me a new world, which had always been before my feet, but which my +own human blindness had hitherto concealed from me. The unspeakable +patience with which all these materials had been collected year +after year--the ease with which now, by the calm power of genius, +they seemed of themselves to fall into harmony and system--the +unconscious humility with which the scholar exposed the stores of +a laborious life;--all combined to rebuke my own restlessness and +ambition, while they filled me with a pride in my father, which +saved my wounded egotism from a pang. Here, indeed, was one of those +books which embrace an existence; like the Dictionary of Bayle, or +the History of Gibbon, or the _Fasti Hellenici_ of Clinton,--it +was a book to which thousands of books had contributed, only to +make the originality of the single mind more bold and clear. Into +the furnace all vessels of gold, of all ages, had been cast, but +from the mould came the new coin, with its single stamp. And +happily, the subject of the work did not forbid to the writer the +indulgence of his _naive_, peculiar irony of humour--so quiet, yet +so profound. My father's book was the "History of Human Error." +It was, therefore, the moral history of mankind, told with truth +and earnestness, yet with an arch unmalignant smile. Sometimes, +indeed, the smile drew tears. But in all true humour lies its germ, +pathos. Oh! by the goddess Moria or Folly, but he was at home in +his theme! He viewed man first in the savage state, preferring in +this the positive accounts of voyagers and travellers, to the vague +myths of antiquity, and the dreams of speculators on our pristine +state. From Australia and Abyssinia, he drew pictures of mortality +unadorned, as lively as if he had lived amongst Bushmen and savages +all his life. Then he crossed over the Atlantic, and brought before +you the American Indian, with his noble nature, struggling into +the dawn of civilisation, when friend Penn cheated him out of his +birthright, and the Anglo-Saxon drove him back into darkness. He +showed both analogy and contrast between this specimen of our kind, +and others equally apart from the extremes of the savage state and +the cultured. The Arab in his tent, the Teuton in his forests, the +Greenlander in his boat, the Fin in his rein-deer car. Up sprang +the rude gods of the north, and the resuscitated Druidism, passing +from its earliest templeless belief into the later corruptions of +crommell and idol. Up sprang, by their side, the Saturn of the +Phoenicians, the mystic Budh of India, the elementary deities of the +Pelasgian, the Naith and Serapis of Egypt, the Ormuzd of Persia, the +Bel of Babylon, the winged genii of the graceful Etruria. How nature +and life shaped the religion; how the religion shaped the manners; +how, and by what influences, some tribes were formed for progress; +how others were destined to remain stationary, or be swallowed up +in war and slavery by their brethren, was told with a precision +clear and strong as the voice of Fate. Not only an antiquarian and +philologist, but an anatomist and philosopher--my father brought to +bear on all these grave points, the various speculations involved +in the distinctions of race. He showed how race in perfection +is produced, up to a certain point, by admixture: how all mixed +races have been the most intelligent--how, in proportion as local +circumstance and religious faith permitted the early fusion of +differing tribes, races improved and quickened into the refinements +of civilisation. He tracked the progress and dispersion of the +Hellenes, from their mythical cradle in Thessaly; and showed +how those who settled near the sea-shores, and were compelled +into commerce and intercourse with strangers, gave to Greece her +marvellous accomplishments in arts and letters--the flowers of the +ancient world. How others, like the Spartans, dwelling evermore in +a camp, on guard against their neighbours, and rigidly preserving +their Dorian purity of extraction, contributed neither artists, nor +poets, nor philosophers to the golden treasure-house of mind. He +took the old race of the Celts, Cimry, or Cimmerians. He compared +the Celt who, as in Wales, the Scotch Highlands, in Bretagne, and +in uncomprehended Ireland, retains his old characteristics and +purity of breed, with the Celt whose blood, mixed by a thousand +channels, dictates from Paris the manners and revolutions of the +world. He compared the Norman in his ancient Scandinavian home, +with that wonder of intelligence and chivalry which he became, +fused imperceptibly with the Frank, the Goth, and the Anglo-Saxon. +He compared the Saxon, stationary in the land of Horsa, with the +colonist and civiliser of the globe, as he becomes, when he knows +not through what channels--French, Flemish, Danish, Welch, Scotch, +and Irish--he draws his sanguine blood. And out from all these +speculations, to which I do such hurried and scanty justice, he drew +the blessed truth, that carries hope to the land of the Caffre, the +hut of the Bushman--that there is nothing in the flattened skull +and the ebon aspect that rejects God's law, improvement; that by +the same principle which raises the dog, the lowest of the animals +in its savage state, to the highest after man,--viz. admixture of +race--you can elevate into nations of majesty and power the outcasts +of humanity, now your compassion or your scorn. But when my father +got into the marrow of his theme--when, quitting these preliminary +discussions, he fell pounce amongst the would-be wisdom of the wise; +when he dealt with civilisation itself, its schools, and porticos, +and academies; when he bared the absurdities couched beneath the +colleges of the Egyptians, and the Symposia of the Greeks;--when he +showed that, even in their own favourite pursuit of metaphysics, +the Greeks were children; and in their own more practical region +of politics, the Romans were visionaries and bunglers;--when, +following the stream of error through the middle ages, he quoted the +puerilities of Agrippa, the crudities of Cardan; and passed, with +his calm smile, into the _salons_ of the chattering wits of Paris +in the eighteenth century, oh, then his irony was that of Lucian, +sweetened by the gentle spirit of Erasmus. For not even here was +my father's satire of the cheerless and Mephistophelian school. +From this record of error he drew forth the grand eras of truth. He +showed how earnest men never think in vain, though their thoughts +may be errors. He proved how, in vast cycles, age after age, the +human mind marches on--like the ocean, receding here, but there +advancing. How from the speculations of the Greek sprang all true +philosophy; how from the institutions of the Roman rose all durable +systems of government; how from the robust follies of the North +came the glory of chivalry, and the modern delicacies of honour, +and the sweet harmonising influences of woman. He tracked the +ancestry of our Sidneys and Bayards from the Hengists, Genserics, +and Attilas. Full of all curious and quaint anecdote--of original +illustration--of those niceties of learning which spring from a +taste cultivated to the last exquisite polish--the book amused, and +allured, and charmed; and erudition lost its pedantry now in the +simplicity of Montaigne, now in the penetration of La Bruyere. He +lived in each time of which he wrote, and the time lived again in +him. Ah, what a writer of romances he would have been, if--if what? +If he had had as sad an experience of men's passions, as he had the +happy intuition into their humours. But he who would see the mirror +of the shore, must look where it is cast on the river, not the +ocean. The narrow stream reflects the gnarled tree, and the pausing +herd, and the village spire, and the romance of the landscape. But +the sea reflects only the vast outline of the headland, and the +lights of the eternal heaven. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"It is Lombard Street to a China orange," quoth Uncle Jack. + +"Are the odds in favour of fame against failure so great? You do not +speak, I fear, from experience, brother Jack," answered my father, +as he stooped down to tickle the duck under the left ear. + +"But Jack Tibbets is not Augustine Caxton. Jack Tibbets is not a +scholar, a genius, a wond--" + +"Stop," cried my father. + +"After all," said Mr Squills, "though I am no flatterer, Mr Tibbets +is not so far out.... That part of your book which compares the +crania or skulls of the different races is superb. Lawrence or Dr +Pritchard could not have done the thing more neatly. Such a book +must not be lost to the world; and I agree with Mr Tibbets that you +should publish as soon as possible." + +"It is one thing to write and another to publish," said my father +irresolutely. "When one considers all the great men who have +published; when one thinks one is going to intrude one's-self +audaciously into the company of Aristotle and Bacon, of Locke, of +Herder--of all the grave philosophers who bend over nature with +brows weighty with thought--one may well pause, and--" + +"Pooh!" interrupted Uncle Jack; "science is not a club, it is an +ocean. It is open to the cockboat as the frigate. One man carries +across it a freightage of ingots, another may fish there for +herrings. Who can exhaust the sea? who say to intellect, the deeps +of philosophy are preoccupied?" + +"Admirable!" cried Squills. + +"So it is really your advice, my friends," said my father, who +seemed struck by Uncle Jack's eloquent illustration, "that I should +desert my household gods; remove to London, since my own library +ceases to supply my wants; take lodgings near the British Museum, +and finish off one volume, at least, incontinently." + +"It is a duty you owe to your country," said Uncle Jack, solemnly. + +"And to yourself," urged Squills. "One must attend to the natural +evacuations of the brain. Ah! you may smile, sir; but I have +observed that if a man has much in his head, he must give it vent +or it oppresses him; the whole system goes wrong. From being +abstracted, he grows stupefied. The weight of the pressure affects +the nerves. I would not even guarantee you from a stroke of +paralysis." + +"Oh, Austin!" cried my mother tenderly, and throwing her arms round +my father's neck. + +"Come, sir, you are conquered," said I. + +"And what is to become of you, Sisty?" asked my father. "Do you go +with us, and unsettle your mind for the university?" + +"My uncle has invited me to his castle; and in the meanwhile I will +stay here, fag hard, and take care of the duck." + +"All alone?" said my mother. + +"No. All alone! Why Uncle Jack will come here as often as ever, I +hope." + +Uncle Jack shook his head. + +"No, my boy--I must go to town with your father. You don't +understand these things. I shall see the booksellers for him. I +know how these gentlemen are to be dealt with. I shall prepare the +literary circles for the appearance of the book. In short, it is a +sacrifice of interest I know. My Journal will suffer. But friendship +and my country's good before all things!" + +"Dear Jack!" said my mother affectionately. + +"I cannot suffer it," cried my father. "You are making a good +income. You are doing well where you are; and as to seeing the +booksellers--why, when the work is ready, you can come to town for a +week, and settle that affair." + +"Poor dear Austin," said Uncle Jack, with an air of superiority and +compassion. "A week! Sir, the advent of a book that is to succeed +requires the preparation of months. Pshaw! I am no genius, bu I am a +practical man. I know what's what. Leave me alone." + +But my father continued obstinate and Uncle Jack at last ceased to +urge the matter. The journey to fame and London was now settled; but +my father would not hear of my staying behind. + +No; Pisistratus must needs go also to town and see the world; the +duck would take care of itself. + + +CHAPTER XII. + +We had taken the precaution to send, the day before, to secure +our due complement of places--four in all (including one for Mrs +Primmins)--in, or upon, the fast family coach called the Sun, +which had lately been set up for the special convenience of the +neighbourhood. + +This luminary, rising in a town about seven miles distant +from us, described at first a very erratic orbit amidst the +contiguous villages before it finally struck into the high-road of +enlightenment, and thence performed its journey, in the full eyes +of man, at the majestic pace of six miles and a half an hour. My +father, with his pockets full of books, and a quarto of "Gebelin on +the Primitive World" for light reading under his arm; my mother, +with a little basket, containing sandwiches and biscuits of her +own baking; Mrs Primmins, with a new umbrella, purchased for the +occasion, and a bird-cage containing a canary, endeared to her +not more by song than age, and a severe pip through which she had +successfully nursed it--and I myself, waited at the gates to welcome +the celestial visitor. The gardener, with a wheel-barrow full of +boxes and portmanteaus, stood a little in the van; and the footman, +who was to follow when lodgings had been found, had gone to a rising +eminence to watch the dawning of the expected planet, and apprise us +of its approach by the concerted signal of a handkerchief fixed to a +stick. + +The quaint old house looked at us mournfully from all its deserted +windows. The litter before its threshold, and in its open hall; +wisps of straw or hay that had been used for packing; baskets and +boxes that had been examined and rejected; others, corded and +piled, reserved to follow with the footman: and the two heated +and hurried serving-women left behind standing half-way between +house and garden-gate, whispering to each other, and looking as +if they had not slept for weeks--gave to a scene, usually so trim +and orderly, an aspect of pathetic abandonment and desolation. The +genius of the place seemed to reproach us. I felt the omens were +against us, and turned my earnest gaze from the haunts behind with +a sigh, as the coach now drew up in all its grandeur. An important +personage, who, despite the heat of the day, was enveloped in a vast +superfluity of belcher, in the midst of which galloped a gilt fox, +and who rejoiced in the name of "guard," descended to inform us +politely that only three places, two inside and one out, were at our +disposal, the rest having been pre-engaged a fortnight before our +orders were received. + +Now, as I knew that Mrs Primmins was indispensable to the comforts +of my honoured parents, (the more so, as she had once lived in +London, and knew all its ways,) I suggested that she should take +the outside seat, and that I should perform the journey on foot--a +primitive mode of transport which has its charms to a young man with +stout limbs and gay spirits. The guard's outstretched arm left my +mother little time to oppose this proposition, to which my father +assented with a silent squeeze of the hand. And, having promised to +join them at a family hotel near the Strand, to which Mr Squills lad +recommended them as peculiarly genteel and quiet, and waved my last +farewell to my poor mother, who continued to stretch her meek face +out of the window till the coach was whirled off in a cloud like one +of the Homeric heroes, I turned within, to put up a few necessary +articles in a small knapsack, which I remembered to have seen in the +lumber-room, and which had appertained to my maternal grandfather; +and with that on my shoulder, and a strong staff in my hand, I set +off towards the great city at as brisk a pace as if I were only +bound to the next village. Accordingly, about noon, I was both tired +and hungry; and seeing by the wayside one of those pretty inns yet +peculiar to England, but which, thanks to the railways, will soon be +amongst the things before the Flood, I sate down at a table under +some clipped limes, unbuckled my knapsack, and ordered my simple +fare, with the dignity of one who, for the first time in his life, +bespeaks his own dinner, and pays for it out of his own pocket. + +While engaged on a rasher of bacon and a tankard of what the +landlord called "No mistake," two pedestrians, passing the same +road which I had traversed, paused, cast a simultaneous look at +my occupation, and, induced no doubt by its allurements, seated +themselves under the same lime-trees, though at the farther end of +the table. I surveyed the new-comers with the curiosity natural to +my years. + +The elder of the two might have attained the age of thirty, though +sundry deep lines, and hues formerly florid and now faded, speaking +of fatigue, care, or dissipation, might have made him look somewhat +older than he was. There was nothing very prepossessing in his +appearance. He was dressed with a pretension ill suited to the +costume appropriate to a foot-traveller. His coat was pinched and +padded; two enormous pins, connected by a chain, decorated a very +stiff stock of blue satin, dotted with yellow stars; his hands were +cased in very dingy gloves which had once been straw-coloured, +and the said hands played with a whalebone cane surmounted by a +formidable knob, which gave it the appearance of a "life-preserver." +As he took off a white napless hat, which he wiped with great care +and affection with the sleeve of his right arm, a profusion of +stiff curls instantly betrayed the art of man. Like my landlord's +ale, in that wig there was "no mistake:" it was brought--(in the +fashion of the wigs we see in the popular effigies of George IV. in +his youth)--low over his forehead and raised at the top. The wig +had been oiled, and the oil had imbibed no small quantity of dust; +oil and dust had alike left their impression on the forehead and +cheeks of the wig's proprietor. For the rest, the expression of his +face was somewhat impudent and reckless, but not without a certain +drollery in the corners of his eyes. + +The younger man was apparently about my own age, a year or two +older perhaps--judging rather from his set and sinewy frame than +his boyish countenance. And this last, boyish as it was, could not +fail to demand the attention even of the most careless observer. It +had not only the darkness but the character of the gipsy face, with +large brilliant eyes, raven hair, long and wavy, but not curling; +the features were aquiline but delicate, and when he spoke he showed +teeth dazzling as pearls. It was impossible not to admire the +singular beauty of the countenance; and yet, it had that expression +at once stealthy and fierce, which war with society has stamped +upon the lineaments of the race of which it reminded me. But, +withal, there was somewhat of the air of a gentleman in this young +wayfarer. His dress consisted of a black velveteen shooting-jacket, +or rather short frock, with a broad leathern strap at the waist, +loose white trousers, and a foraging cap, which he threw carelessly +on the table as he wiped his brow. Turning round impatiently and +with some haughtiness from his companion, he surveyed me with a +quick observant flash of his piercing eyes, and then stretched +himself at length on the bench, and appeared either to doze or muse, +till, in obedience to his companion's orders, the board was spread +with all the cold meats the larder could supply. + +"Beef!" said his companion, screwing a pinchbeck glass +into his right eye. "Beef;--mottled, cowey--humph. +Lamb;--oldish--rawish--muttony, humph. Pie;--stalish, veal?--no, +pork. Ah! what will you have?" + +"Help yourself," replied the young man peevishly, as he sat up, +looked disdainfully at the viands, and after a long pause, tasted +first one, then the other, with many shrugs of the shoulders and +muttered exclamations of discontent. Suddenly he looked up and +called for brandy; and to my surprise, and I fear admiration, he +drank nearly half a tumblerful of that poison undiluted, with a +composure that spoke of habitual use. + +"Wrong!" said his companion, drawing the bottle to himself, and +mixing the alcohol in careful proportions with water. "Wrong! coats +of stomach soon wear out, with that kind of clothes' brush. Better +stick to 'the yeasty foam' as sweet Will says. That young gentleman +sets you a good example," and therewith the speaker nodded at me +familiarly. Inexperienced as I was, I surmised at once that it was +his intention to make acquaintance with the neighbour thus saluted. +I was not deceived. "Any thing to tempt _you_, sir?" asked this +social personage after a short pause, and describing a semicircle +with the point of his knife. + +"I thank you, sir, but I have dined." + +"What then? 'Break out into a second course of mischief,' as the +swan recommends--swan of Avon, sir! No? 'Well then, I charge you +with this cup of sack.' Are you going far, if I may take the liberty +to ask?" + +"To London, when I can get there!" + +"Oh!" said the traveller--while his young companion lifted his +eyes; and I was again struck with their remarkable penetration and +brilliancy. + +"London is the best place in the world for a lad of spirit. See life +there; 'glass of fashion and mould of form.' Fond of the play, sir?" + +"I never saw one!" + +"Possible!" cried the gentleman, dropping the handle of his knife, +and bringing up the point horizontally: "then, young man," he added +solemnly, "you have, but I won't say what you have to see. I won't +say--no, not if you could cover this table with golden guineas, and +exclaim with the generous ardour so engaging in youth 'Mr Peacock, +these are yours, if you will only say what I have to see!'" + +I laughed outright--may I be forgiven for the boast, but I had the +reputation at school of a pleasant laugh. The young man's face grew +dark at the sound: he pushed back his plate and sighed. + +"Why," continued his friend, "my companion here, who I suppose is +about your own age, _he_ could tell you what a play is! he could +tell you what life is. He has viewed the manners of the town: +'perused the traders,' as the swan poetically remarks. Have you not, +my lad, eh?" + +Thus directly appealed to, the boy looked up with a smile of scorn +on his lips. "Yes, I know what life is, and I say that life, like +poverty, has strange bedfellows. Ask me what life is now, and I say +a melodrama; ask me what it is twenty years hence, and I shall say--" + +"A farce?" put in his comrade. + +"No, a tragedy--or comedy as Congreve wrote it." + +"And how is that?" I asked, interested and somewhat surprised at the +tone of my contemporary. + +"Where the play ends in the triumph of the wittiest rogue. My friend +hee has no chance!" + +"'Praise from Sir Hubert Stanley,' hem--yes--Hal Peacock maybe +witty, but he is no rogue." + +"That was not exactly my meaning," said the boy dryly. + +"'A fico for your meaning,'" as the swan says. "Hallo, +you, sir! Bully Host, clear the table, fresh tumblers--hot +water--sugar--lemon, and the bottle's out! Smoke, sir?" and Mr +Peacock offered me a cigar. + +Upon my refusal, he carefully twirled round a very uninviting +specimen of some fabulous havannah--moistened it all over, as a +boa-constrictor may do the ox he prepares for deglutition; bit +off one end, and lighting the other from a little machine for +that purpose which he drew from his pocket, he was soon absorbed +in a vigorous effort (which the damp inherent in the weed long +resisted) to poison the surrounding atmosphere. Therewith, the young +gentleman, either from emulation or in self-defence, extracted from +his own pouch a cigar-case of notable elegance, being of velvet, +embroidered apparently by some fair hand, for "From Juliet" was very +legibly worked thereon--selected a cigar of better appearance than +that in favour with his comrade, and seemed quite as familiar with +the tobacco as he had been with the brandy. + +"Fast, sir--fast lad that!" quoth Mr Peacock, in the short gasps +which his resolute struggle with his uninviting victim alone +permitted--"nothing but--(puff, puff)--your true--(suck--suck,) +syl--syl--sylva--does for him. Out, by the Lord! 'the jaws of +darkness have devoured it up;'" and again Mr Peacock applied to his +phosphoric machine. This time patience and perseverance succeeded, +and the heart of the cigar responded by a dull red spark (leaving +the sides wholly untouched) to the indefatigable ardour of its wooer. + +This feat accomplished, Mr Peacock exclaimed triumphantly, "And now +what say you, my lads, to a game at cards?--three of us--whist and +a dummy?--nothing better--eh?" As he spoke, he produced from his +coat-pocket a red silk handkerchief, a bunch of keys, a nightcap, +a toothbrush, a piece of shaving-soap, four lumps of sugar, the +remains of a bun, a razor, and a pack of cards. Selecting the last, +and returning its motley accompaniments to the abyss whence they +had emerged, he turned up, with a jerk of his thumb and finger, the +knave of clubs, and, placing it on the top of the rest, slapped the +cards emphatically on the table. + +"You are very good, but I don't know whist," said I. + +"Not know whist--not been to a play! not smoke! Then pray tell me, +young man," (said he majestically, and with a frown,) "what on earth +you _do_ know!" + +Much consternated by this direct appeal, and greatly ashamed of +my ignorance of the cardinal points of erudition in Mr Peacock's +estimation, I hung my head, and looked down. + +"That is right," renewed Mr Peacock, more benignly; "you have the +ingenuous shame of youth. It is promising, sir--'lowliness is young +ambition's ladder,' as the swan says. Mount the first step, and +learn whist--sixpenny points to begin with." + +Notwithstanding my newness in actual life, I had had the good +fortune to learn a little of the way before me, by those +much-slandered guides called novels--works which are often to the +inner world what maps are to the outer; and sundry recollections of +"Gil Blas" and the "Vicar of Wakefield" came athwart me. I had no +wish to emulate the worthy Moses, and felt that I might not have +even the shagreen spectacles to boast of, in my negotiations with +this new Mr Jenkinson. Accordingly, shaking my head, I called for my +bill. As I took out my purse--knit by my mother--with one gold piece +in one corner, and sundry silver ones in the other, I saw that the +eyes of Mr Peacock twinkled. + +"Poor spirit, sir! poor spirit, young man! 'This avarice sticks +deep,' as the swan beautifully observes. 'Nothing venture, nothing +have.'" + +"Nothing have, nothing venture," I returned, plucking up spirit. + +"Nothing have!--Young sir, do you doubt my solidity--my capital--my +'golden joys?'" + +"Sir, I spoke of myself. I am not rich enough to gamble." + +"Gamble!" exclaimed Mr Peacock, in virtuous indignation--"Gamble! +what do you mean, sir? You insult me!" and he rose threateningly, +and slapped his white hat on his wig. + +"Pshaw! let him alone, Hal," said the boy contemptuously. "Sir, if +he is impertinent, thrash him." (This was to me.) + +"Impertinent!--thrash!" exclaimed Mr Peacock, waxing very red; but +catching the sneer on his companion's lip, he sat down, and subsided +into sullen silence. + +Meanwhile I paid my bill. This duty, rarely a cheerful one, +performed, I looked round for my knapsack, and perceived that it was +in the boy's hands. He was very coolly reading the address which, in +case of accidents, I had prudently placed on it--Pisistratus Caxton, +Esq., ---- Hotel, ---- Street, --, Strand. + +I took my knapsack from him, more surprised at such a breach of +good manners in a young gentleman who knew life so well, than I +should have been at a similar error on the part of Mr Peacock. He +made no apology, but nodded farewell, and stretched himself at full +length on the bench. Mr Peacock, now absorbed in a game of patience, +vouchsafed no return to my parting salutation, and in another moment +I was alone on the high-road. My thoughts turned long upon the young +man I had left: mixed with a sort of instinctive compassionate +foreboding of an ill future for one with such habits, and in such +companionship, I felt an involuntary admiration, less even for his +good looks than his ease, audacity, and the careless superiority he +assumed over a comrade so much older than himself. + +The day was far gone when I saw the spires of a town at which I +intended to rest for the night. The horn of a coach behind made me +turn my head, and, as the vehicle passed me, I saw on the outside +Mr Peacock, still struggling with a cigar--it could scarcely be +the same--and his young friend stretched on the roof amongst the +luggage, leaning his handsome head on his hand, and apparently +unobservant both of me and every one else. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +I am apt--judging egotistically, perhaps, from my own experience--to +measure a young man's chances of what is termed practical success in +life, by what may seem at first two very vulgar qualities; viz., his +inquisitiveness and his animal vivacity. A curiosity which springs +forward to examine every thing new to his information--a nervous +activity, approaching to restlessness, which rarely allows bodily +fatigue to interfere with some object in view--constitute, in my +mind, very profitable stock in hand to begin the world with. + +Tired as I was, after I had performed my ablutions, and refreshed +myself in the little coffee-room of the inn at which I put up, with +the pedestrian's best beverage, familiar and oft-calumniated tea, +I could not resist the temptation of the broad bustling street, +which, lighted with gas, shone on me through the dim windows of the +coffee-room. I had never before seen a large town, and the contrast +of lamp-lit, busy night in the streets, with sober, deserted night +in the lanes and fields, struck me forcibly. + +I sauntered out, therefore, jostling and jostled, now gazing at +the windows, now hurried along the tide of life, till I found +myself before a cook' shop, round which clustered a small knot +of housewives, citizens, and hungry-looking children. While +contemplating this group, and marvelling how it comes to pass that +the staple business of earth's majority is how, when, and where to +eat, my ear was struck with "'In Troy there lies the scene,' as the +illustrious Will remarks." + +Looking round, I perceived Mr Peacock pointing his stick towards +an open doorway next to the cook's shop, the hall beyond which was +lighted with gas, while, painted in black letters on a pane of glass +over the door, was the word "Billiards." + +Suiting the action to the word, the speaker plunged at once into the +aperture and vanished. The boy-copanion was following more slowly, +when his eye caught mine. A slight blush came over his dark cheek; +he stopped, and leaning against the door-jambs, gazed on me hard and +long before he said--"Well met again, sir! You find it hard to amuse +yourself in this dull place; the nights are long out of London." + +"Oh," said I, ingenuously, "every thing here amuses me; the lights, +the shops, the crowd; but, then, to me every thing is new." + +The youth came from his lounging-place and moved on, as if inviting +me to walk; while he answered, rather with bitter sullenness, than +the melancholy his words expressed-- + +"One thing, at least, cannot be new to you; it is an old truth with +us before we leave the nursery--'Whatever is worth having must be +bought; _ergo_, he who cannot buy, has nothing worth having.'" + +"I don't think," said I, wisely, "that the things best worth having +can be bought at all. You see that poor dropsical jeweller standing +before his shop-door,--his shop is the finest in the street,--and I +dare say he would be very glad to give it to you or me in return for +our good health and strong legs. Oh no! I think with my father--'All +that are worth having are given to all;--that is, nature and +labour.'" + +"Your father says that; and you go by what your father says! +Of course, all fathers have preached that, and many other good +doctrines, since Adam preached to Cain; but I don't see that the +fathers have found their sons very credulous listeners." + +"So much the worse for the sons," said I bluntly. + +"Nature," continued my new acquaintance, without attending to my +ejaculation--"nature indeed does give us much, and nature also +orders each of us how to use her gifts. If nature gave you the +propensity to drudge, you will drudge; if she gives me the ambition +to rise, and the contempt for work, I may rise--but I certainly +shall not work." + +"Oh," said I, "you agree with Squills, I suppose, and fancy we are +all guided by the bumps on our foreheads?" + +"And the blood in our veins, and our mother's milk. We inherit other +things besides gout and consumption. So you always do as your father +tells you! Good boy!" + +I was piqued. Why we should be ashamed of being taunted for +goodness, I never could understand; but certainly I felt humbled. +However I answered sturdily--"If you had as good a father as I have, +you would not think it so very extraordinary to do as he tells you." + +"Ah! so he is a very good father, is he! He must have a great trust +in your sobriety and steadiness to let you wander about the world as +he does." + +"I am going to join him in London." + +"In London! Oh, does he live there?" + +"He is going to live there for some time." + +"Then, perhaps, we may meet. I, too, am going to town." + +"Oh, we shall be sure to meet there!" said I, with frank gladness; +for my interest in the young man was not diminished by his +conversation, however much I disliked the sentiments it expressed. + +The lad laughed, and his laugh was peculiar. It was low, musical, +but hollow and artificial. + +"Sure to meet! London is a large place: where shall you be found?" + +I gave him, without scruple, the address of the hotel at which I +expected to find my father; although his deliberate inspection +of my knapsack must already have apprised him of that address. +He listened attentively, and repeated it twice over, as if to +impress it on his memory; and we both walked on in silence, till, +turning up a small passage, we suddenly found ourselves in a large +churchyard,--a flagged path stretched diagonally across it towards +the market-place, on which it bordered. In this churchyard, upon a +grave-stone, sat a young Savoyard; his hurdy-gurdy, or whatever else +his instrument might be called, was on his lap; and he was gnawing +his crust, and feeding some poor little white mice (standing on +their hind-legs on the hurdy-gurdy) as merrily as if he had chosen +the gayest resting-place in the world. + +We both stopped. The Savoyard, seeing us, put his arch head on one +side, showed all his white teeth in that happy smile so peculiar to +his race, and in which poverty seems to beg so blithely, and gave +the handle of his instrument a turn. + +"Poor child!" said I. + +"Aha, you pity him! but why? According to your rule, Mr Caxton, he +is not so much to be pitied; the dropsical jeweller would give him +as much for his limbs and health as for ours! How is it--answer me, +son of so wise a father--that no one pities the dropsical jeweller, +and all pity the healthy Savoyard? It is, sir, because there is a +stern truth which is stronger than all Spartan lessons--Poverty _is_ +the master-ill of the world. Look round. Does poverty leave its +signs over the graves? Look at that large tomb fenced round; read +that long inscription:--'virtues'--'best of husbands'--'affectionate +father'--'inconsolable grief'--'sleeps in the joyful hope,' &c., &c. +Do you suppose these stoneless mounds hide no dust of what were men +just as good? But no epitaph tells their virtues; bespeaks their +wives' grief; or promises joyful hope to them!" + +"Does it matter? Does God care for the epitaph and tombstone?" + +"_Date qualche cosa!_" said the Savoyard, in his touching patois, +still smiling, and holding out his little hand. + +Therein I dropped a small coin. The boy evinced his gratitude by a +new turn of the hurdy-gurdy. + +"That is not labour," said my companion; "and had you found him at +work, you had given him nothing. I too have my instrument to play +upon and my mice to see after. Adieu!" + +He waved his hand, and strode irreverently over the graves back in +the direction we had come. + +I stood before the fine tomb with its fine epitaph; the Savoyard +looked at me wistfully. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +The Savoyard looked at me wistfully. I wished to enter into +conversation with him. That was not easy. However, I began:-- + +PISISTRATUS.--"You must be often hungry enough, my poor boy. Do the +mice feed you?" + +SAVOYARD puts his head on one side, shakes it, and stroked his mice. + +PISISTRATUS.--"You are very fond of the mice; they are your only +friends, I fear." + +SAVOYARD, evidently understanding Pisistratus, rubs his face gently +against the mice, then puts them softly down on a grave, and gives a +turn to the hurdy-gurdy. The mice play unconcernedly over the grave. + +PISISTRATUS, pointing first to the beasts, then to the +instrument.--"Which do you like best, the mice or the hurdy-gurdy?" + +SAVOYARD shows his teeth--considers--stretches himself on the +grass--plays with the mice--and answers volubly. + +PISISTRATUS, by the help of Latin comprehending that the Savoyard +says, that the mice are alive and the hurdy-gurdy is not--"Yes, a +live friend is better than a dead one. Mortua est hurda-gurda!" + +SAVOYARD shakes his head vehemently.--"No--no! Eccellenza, non e +mortu!" and strikes up a lively air on the slandered instrument. The +Savoyard's face brightens--he looks happy: the mice run from the +grave into his bosom. + +PISISTRATUS, affected.--"Have you a father--An vivat pater?" + +SAVOYARD, with his face overcast.--"No--eccellenza!" then pausing +a little, he says briskly, "Si-Si!" and plays a solemn air on the +hurdy-gurdy--stops--rests one hand on the instrument, and raises the +other to heaven. + +PISISTRATUS understands.--"The father is like the hurdy-gurdy, at +once dead and living. The mere form is a dead thing, but the music +lives." Pisistratus drops another small piece of silver on the +ground, and turns away. + +"God help and God bless thee, Savoyard. Thou hast done Pisistratus +all the good in the world. Thou hast corrected the hard wisdom of +the young gentleman in the velveteen jacket; Pisistratus is a better +lad for having stopped to listen to thee." + +I regained the entrance to the churchyard--I looked back--there sate +the Savoyard, still amidst men's graves, but under God's sky. He was +still looking at me wistfully, and when he caught my eye, he pressed +his hand to his heart, and smiled. "God help and God bless thee, +young Savoyard." + + + + +REPUBLICAN FRANCE. + +JUNE 1848. + + +How far is the application to France, of the epithet employed in the +title that heads these pages, a misnomer? This is a question that +would be answered very differently by those who study its state of +feeling, and those who judge its position by mere established fact. +That the fact and the feeling are completely at issue throughout +the country, is undoubted, indisputable. A republican government +has been established by the _coup de main_ of a small minority in +France--has been accepted by the hesitation of surprise--has been +maintained by the desire of peace and order:--so far goes fact. +Republican principles were hateful to the immense majority of +the country at large in the past, uncongenial to its habits and +sentiments, impossible according to its views; they are productive, +as yet, of nothing but confusion, distress, ruin, riot, and +mistrust, in the present; they are looked upon with alarm as regards +their results in the future:--so much for feeling. Fact and feeling, +then, are at variance and in collision. The result of the conflict +lies hidden in the mysteries of that future, the issue of which, at +no epoch of history, perhaps, clearseeing eyes and wise foreseeing +heads could less pretend to predict, than in the present chaotic +hurly-burly of European society. The politicians who declared that +the general spirit of the country in France was, in their vague and +fantastic language of the Chamber, _centre-gauche_, or the advocate +of liberal progress, may have been very right,--but republican it +never was, republican it is not. Republican--without pretension +to the audacity of a prediction but just stated as impossible--it +certainly does not as yet appear ever likely to become. + +In its present state of feeling, then, France--that is to say, +the country, the provinces, the departments, or whatever France, +out of Paris, may be called--is about as much genuine republican, +as a white man who suddenly finds his face smeared over with the +contents of a blacking-bottle is a genuine negro. But, for the sake +of avoiding that confusion of terms and ideas in which the French +themselves are so fond of indulging, to an extent that proves the +deification of "the vague" to take far higher flights among them, +especially in their republican tenets, than any flown by confused +German head,--let it be taken as a rule, that fact is to have the +precedence of feeling, as in most matters in the world,--and let it +be supposed that the misnomer is no misnomer, that there has been no +mistake, in truth, in the title of "Republican France." + +Between France out of Paris and France in Paris, a great +distinction, in speaking of the country, must always be drawn; +although, in the matter of republicanism in the feelings of the +mass, the same blacking-bottle remark might be applied to the +majority of the citizens of the capital, as to the country at large. +No family of grown-up daughters, who have been tyrannically kept +in the nursery like children when they no longer felt themselves +such, and made to wear mamma's worn-out dresses scantily cut down +to their shapes, could be more sundered in feeling from their +lady-mother, and jealous of her overgrown charms, her gaiety, her +splendour, and her power, than the departments,--kept in the nursery +upon centralisation system, and fed upon the bread-and-milk of +insignificance,--are of the tyrannical supremacy, the overweening +superiority, and the disdainful airs, affected to her despised +progeny by Mother Paris. The pursuance of the concentrating system +has thus produced an estrangement in the family,--a jealousy and +spite on the one hand, a greater and increasing assumption of airs +of supremacy on the other. The family ties between Paris and France +are as wholly disunited as family ties can be, in the necessities +of a more or less intimate connexion: the mother has isolated, in +her despotism, herself from her children, the children have imbibed +distrust and envy of the mother. The consequence is, that there +are two distinct families in feeling,--there are two Frances; there +is the France of Paris, of Paris that asserts its right to be all +France, and the France of the departments, that, in spite of the +assertions of Paris, desire to put in their little claim for a +small share in the name, and would like to have their own little +fingers in the pies of revolutions, and changes of government in +the family, that mamma cooks up. True, they are supposed to eat at +the same table, but mamma has all the tit-bits. They have a voice +in the family council, but it is when mamma has already issued +her _dictum_, and declared that such and such things shall be as +she has decided it. They help to support the family establishment +with the moneys which mamma declares they must contribute out of +their heritage; but then mamma, they declare, spends a most undue +proportion upon herself, in dressing herself out with finery, +keeping up an unnecessary state, and throwing away the sums confided +to her to overpay a throng of unruly onhangers, with all the +prodigality of fear; while they, the poor daughters, are made to put +up with cast-off finery, and to be thwarted and twitted by harsh +governesses, and to fight, as best they may, with an obstreperous +herd of unpaid pensioners, which mamma's mismanagement has excited +to uproar; and then, after all, to kiss hands and thank mamma for +whatever they can get,--scanty sugar-plums and many cuffs. Is this +to be endured? The children grumble much, and particularly since +mamma has chosen to make changes in the direction of the household +establishment of which they by no means approve, and has only +produced confusion and disorder in it. But at present they can do no +more than grumble; mamma has the rod, and they know that she will +use it; mamma has the supreme influence, and habit makes them think +they must abide by it. There is no doubt, at the same time, that the +children and parent would unite in a common bond of union were the +family honour to be asserted against an attack from any adversary +to the family out of the house. Their intestine jealousies would be +forgotten for the time, for the maintenance of the common good--a +fancied good; for, after all, mother and daughters have the same +blood, the same temperr and character, the same vain-glory, conceit, +and irritability, the same strong prejudices of ignorance; and +they would join hands and clamour together in the same opposition +to the stranger. But this common-cause making, upon occasions of +extraordinary pressure from without, detracts nothing, at other +times, from the mistrust, jealousy, and angry susceptibility of the +children in internal affairs. In moments of family crisis, will +matters always go on as heretofore? + +Nurseries will be obstreperous sometimes, and children will revolt, +and mammas may pass very uncomfortable moments in the face of angry +daughters in rebellion. Will the children take upon themselves, +at last, to protest against mamma's disdainful commands, and +assert a will of their own, and a right to think for themselves? +This question is one upon the solution of which depends the fate +of France, as well as upon the many thousand chances which the +capricious and ever-shifting gales of a revolutionary atmosphere +may, at any moment, suddenly blow, like a spark into a powder +barrel, shattering the face of the past, and changing the direction +of the future. Twice already, since the revolution of February, +has the question been nearly answered in the affirmative. The last +instance, of which more anon, may be taken as a striking proof that +the children may possibly not always submit to the dictates of the +mother,--that family mistrust may break out into family quarrel, +and family quarrel in nations is civil war. Who again, however, +may venture to predict what shall be the destinies of Republican +France,--what web of darkness or of light, of blood-streaked stuff +or of gold-threaded tissue, it may be weaving with its agitated and +troubled hands, or what force it may interpose to tear the work to +shreds before it be even yet completed? Most may fear, none may say. +But prediction, upon whatever cunning foresight it may be based, +must always call a sort of feeling of inspiration, nearly allied to +superstition, to its aid: and thus the fanciful mind may, without +taking upon itself the airs of a Pythoness, give way to a little +superstition, and yet, perhaps, be not too strongly condemned of +folly. There exists an old prophecy in France, emanating from a monk +of the middle ages, the authenticity of which cannot be doubted, or, +at all events, cannot be disputed, in as far as it was in well-known +existence at the commencement of this century. It predicts, in +mystic language,--dark, it is true, but wonderfully clear after +its verification,--all the many revolutionary changes that have +taken place in France, and now once more proclaims the reign of the +"sons of Brutus." "Armed men," it distinctly says, "will march upon +the doomed city," "sword and fire will prevail against it," "the +wolves will devour each other." May the seeming superstition of a +fantastical question be pardoned! May not these words refer to the +future outbreak of the provinces of France against the capital? If +they do, in what sense, with what tendencies, to forward the views +of what party, may it be? Be that as it may, however, it is not the +obscure future that is dealt with here, but the present confused and +uncertain state of Republican France. + +As it may be inferred from what has been said, Paris, then, has put +on its crown, as capital, to some purpose. Never did despot assert +his right to dictate his autocratic will to serfs and slaves more +authoritatively than does revolutionary and republican Paris to +the provinces of France. No three-tailed Bashaw of old melodrams +could be more imperative in his ordinances, more arrogant in the +conviction of the indisputability of his will. The bare supposition +that the provinces could have a will of their own would strike +Paris dumb with astonishment. Paris has been accustomed to consider +itself not only as the heart, but the head, and the arms and legs +to boot, of the whole country. The inert body has no more, in its +consideration, to do, than allow itself to be fed with what scanty +morsels of bounty and importance Paris may choose to afford, and +then not to dare to grumble afterwards if the food prove unsavoury +to its tastes, or indigestible to its susceptibilities. Paris is +"Sir Oracle," and, when it speaks, no provincial "dog dare bark." +Paris, thus, is the great type of the mainspring of the national +character,--which works sometimes, we allow, for good as well +as for evil:--namely, of that mixture of vanity and overweening +conceit, which may be found at the bottom of almost every action +of the French. It calls itself "the great capital of the civilised +world;" and thus considers that, although the departments may be +admitted to the reflected rays of lustre that emanate from its +superior glory, they must look upon themselves as mere satellites, +created to revolve at its liking and its high will, and perform +their revolutions in whatever direction it deems fit to make its +own revolution. Let it not be supposed that this representation +is exaggerated, or that it proceeds from the distorted views of a +foreigner. Hear the Parisian himself speak; list to his expressions +of contempt for those unknown and barbarous regions called +departments; mark how he asserts the unutterable superiority of +his Parisian essence; see how he tosses his head and curls his lip +with an infinitely aristocratic air, when he condescends to notice +them with a word; and never was Paris more eager in the maintenance +of its tyrannical supremacy; never was it more despotically and +autocratically disposed; never more aristocratic, to use the pet +phrase of the day, than under the rule of _soi-disant_ liberty, and +of liberty of opinion, above all other liberties proclaimed by the +French republic. + +What were the expressions of the first republican minister of the +interior, that type of republican exclusiveness and despotism, in +his famous and rather too famous _bulletins de la republique_, +issued to all France as the language and opinions of the government +of the day? Paris, they informed the world, was the heart of France, +from which all life and living principle emanated, through which +every drop of the country's blood must flow, in order that it might +beat in unison, and be refreshed with true republican vitality. +Paris, they said again, was the hand that had created and fashioned +the republic, and that was to direct its steps, lead it vigorously +forward in its way--as it was the head that conceived, it was the +hand that executed: it was more than all this, it was the _soul_ +of France--the pure and true essence emanating from the new deity, +the republic. Paris, they asserted in as many direct words, was +the mistress whose will was to be obeyed. It is unnecessary to +point out how little such declarations were in accordance with +republican principles, what little affinity they had with the three +great watchwords of the day, "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." +Republicanism in France, according to those old traditions, to which +those who call themselves the only true and pure republicans seem +always to be looking back as the only true and pure models for their +admiration and imitation, was always based upon despotism, supported +by constraint, compulsion, violence, and even terrorism; and the +first efforts of modern republicanism were evidently exerted to +place their old, newfangled, statue of bastard liberty upon the same +heterogeneous pedestal. The instructions of the same Bashaw-minister +to the emissaries whom he despatched as Bashaws of lesser and fewer +tails into the provinces, to see that they were duly disposed to +fall down and worship the Goddess Republic, that had been set up, +were modelled after the same and still rougher fashion. + +The missionaries were invested with autocratic powers to make +and unmake according to their own autocratic will; to send away +functionaries who might appear lukewarm in the cause; to put +in their places such acolytes as might better serve the altars +of the goddess, and to offer up sacrifices to her, civil and +military, judicial and political, as they might think pleasing +to the divinity, or convenient and agreeable to their own hates +and prejudices. They were particularly requested to _travailler_ +the country, to torture it, as the French phrase goes; and were +taught, if they could not hammer the hard and unbending metal of +departmental feeling to the shape they fancied, just gently to +make the iron red-hot with the fire of terrorism, and then twist +it to the suitable form. How well the workmen, in many instances, +performed the task--how well they employed the fiery passions of the +mob to produce the desired red-hot effect, and then strike--is a +matter of historical fact. + +In the elections for the National Assembly, the same dogmas of +republican religion were strenuously enforced. No emissaries of +the Inquisition ever used more moral violence to propagate a faith +among suspected schismatics, than did these ministers of republican +despotism to enforce the full, entire, and uttermost doctrines +of their creed, even to the minutest articles. Where the moral +influence appeared unlikely to penetrate as deeply into men's +hearts as was desired, other and more direct methods were adopted +to make entire converts; and, when these methods were found too +mild to work the intended effect, and purge the land of moderatism +and anti-whole-hog-ism, another stronger and more racking dose +was administered: the mob was excited to overawe with threat and +terrorism, and, where it could not prevent, to destroy. How should +the departments dare to have a will of their own? The rebellious +children were to be whipped like schoolboys into learning their +lessons of pure and undefiled republicanism, and reciting them +as Master Commissioner taught them; there was no better rod in +pickle for such naughty urchins than the scourge of the fury of a +mob, carefully taught another lesson, and one it was not slow of +learning--namely, that it was master, and must constrain obedience +to its will; while, in fact, itself obeyed the influence, and +was the instrument of the master-spirit that ruled up above, and +made the best, or rather the worst use of its rule. That all +these measures failed in a great measure--those of violence as +well as those of moral constraint--is attributable to a variety +of complicated reasons, connected with the present state of the +departments; and the how and why they failed, will be the subject of +a few considerations presently. + +What, again, were the expressions of the more violent and so-called +only true republican party in the capital, proceeding from its +organs, the clubs, upon the same occasion of the elections? To all +the candidates who presented themselves before them, the same +question was propounded. If, when the votes of all France were +taken, it should be found that the departments declared themselves +averse to the establishment of a republic, what would be the duty +they would have to perform,--what steps would they take? Those who +did not declare that they would turn against that National Assembly, +of which they themselves might then be members, and take up arms +to march upon it, were denounced as traitors to their country, +unworthy of the votes of true men, and hooted from the tribune, in +which they had dared to stand forward as future representatives of +the people. It would have been in vain to insinuate to these good +gentlemen, that, in the application of the principle of universal +suffrage, in which every man was not only an elector, but eligible +as representative, the voice of the majority would be the voice of +all France; and that it was for all France, by the voice of its +majority, to decide upon the form of government best suited to all +France. In vain, indeed. The ready answer would invariably have +been--that Paris was the mistress of France, and had a right to +dictate its will; that Paris had made the revolution, and that, +consequently, Paris was privileged to support the principles of +that revolution, and to arrogate to itself all its advantages: that +the country at large, in fact, had nothing to do but to give in its +approval, and be happy that its concurrence was so far demanded, and +that, should it dare to have an opinion of its own, woe betide it! +All this insolent bombast of the ultra party in Paris might have +been spared, however; the cause of "Paris _v._ the Departments" was +never called into the court of the country. The departments had +accepted the establishment of the republic as a _fait accompli_: +they never desired to subvert the new order of things by another +convulsion, that would have plunged the country, already so +miserable, into an increase of misery; but they protested in favour +of a republic of peace and order, upon moderate principles; and, +lo and behold, Paris itself combined with them in this desire. The +disappointed party of the directing master-spirits of Paris have +been none the less furious in their expressions of contempt for +the openly declared will of all France. They had long kicked down +their idol of universal suffrage with disdain, as soon as they had +found that, in spite of all the hidden machinery they had set to +work in it, the idol had not obeyed their will, or declared their +oracles. Universal suffrage they pronounced a hoax: constraint, +tyranny, anarchy, conspiracy, civil war, were proclaimed by them +the only true elements of the only true republic. Frantic with +disappointment at the result of their own manoeuvres, by which they +had been caught in their own toils, they seized upon the pretext +of sympathy in the sorrows of another country; and, aided by the +treachery of certain of their own party in authority, invaded the +obnoxious Assembly, overthrew the government for an hour, and +proclaimed a terrorist government of their own. Foiled again in +this audacious attempt, _foiled at least for the time being_, they +now endeavoured to patch up the shaking soil that has given way +beneath their feet, and plunged their leaders into a quagmire, and +to build new foundations for fresh aggressions upon the discontent +of a part of the working-classes. For this purpose they have taken +two newfangled tools into their hands, the one of impulsion, the +other of repulsion--the one of enthusiasm, the other of alarm; and +both are so vaguely fashioned, and of so unintelligible a nature, +that the real fact of their existence can never be proved, although +their use, their purpose, and their design, in the hands of these +men, are very clear. The one of these tools is a bugbear, a phantom, +a bogie, to which they endeavour to give as terrific an aspect +as possible, in order to fright ignorant men over into their own +ranks. This evil spirit, they declare, has an existence, although +no one ever saw it, no one ever felt it, no one ever knew where it +dwells. No superstitious people was ever endeavoured to be worked +up into a more irrefragable belief of some mysterious demon that +haunts them in dark woods and obscure places to devour them--nor, +generally, with more complete success over the credulous; for fear +is the most powerful agent over the minds of the masses, and more +especially when the fear is of the unknown and mysterious: and +certainly no demon was ever described with a more hideous or blacker +face. This bogie, phantom, bugbear, is a supposed influence called +"Reaction." No precise form is given to it, for that would be to +deprive it of more than half its terrors. No! _onme ignotum pro +terribili_ is the policy. Nothing can be more vague or indefinite +than this same monster, Reaction; it remains an Ossianic cloudlike +spectre, floating no one knows whence, but bringing death and +pestilence in its train. If the working-classes suffer, it is the +Reaction, they are told, that is the cause of all their sufferings. +If all their exactions, however exorbitant and impossible, _are not +conceded at once_, it is because that horrible Reaction labours +that their just demands should be withheld. If the most violent of +their own body are not elected as the true representatives of the +people, it is because that pestilential Reaction has cast a spell +over the minds of all the electors. The Reaction has also, potent +demon although it be, all the freaks and caprices of a lesser imp; +it performs the strangest and most incomprehensible feats,--for +if a discontented mass of workmen revolt unsuccessfully, and gain +not their ends, it was the Reaction again that was the cause of +all. The Reaction, for its own vile reactionary purposes, it was, +that treacherously induced them to revolt, when they themselves +were naturally inclined to be the most peaceable, contented, and +the least exorbitant people on the earth. See how perfidious, +Machiavelic, and Jesuitical, is this horrible monster Reaction! Pity +it is that, in order to establish the fact of its real existence, +it should not as yet have made itself visible to mortal eyes in any +incarnate form! The Reaction is, however, no less, men are told, +the enemy of the republic, the adversary of all true republican +principles, labouring ever to overthrow it; above all, the enemy +of the people and the people's interests, their undermining +serpent, their secret assassin. It is already sapping, unseen, +the foundations of the republic, and it intends to pull down the +ruins of that august structure upon the heads of the people, and +crush it for ever beneath them. In spite of the infinite harm +worked upon the spirit of the lower classes by the establishment +of the belief in this phantom, there would, perhaps, be no real +danger in the effect produced by the clamours of insensate ultra +journals, the preachings of agitating demagogues, and the insidious +insinuations of anarchist _meneurs_ among the crowd, did not certain +members of the government itself, and some of those in authority, +render themselves parties concerned to the propagation of the +belief, either genuinely, from having been themselves carefully +inoculated with the _virus_ of false fear, until they have really +taken the disease, or designedly, for the advancement of their +own purposes--did they not, in fact, throw a sop continually to +mob-lecturers, by insinuating their own conviction in the existence +of "bogie" by their decrees, edicts, and proclamations, and, when +they are called to put down anarchy, never obey without crying +"Reaction" at the same time, and vainly giving the phantom a +slap on the face. As it is--and herein lies the evil--the people +are taught that the National Assembly, as it is now constituted, +is the concentrated essence of the spirit of Reaction--that the +representatives of the people, with but few exceptions, are the +ministering imps in a visible form of the invisible demon. If a +word of reason is spoken in the Assembly against the clamours of +unreasonable demand--"Look ye there! reaction!" is the cry; if it +prepares safe measures of repression against the open efforts of +anarchy--"reaction;" if it defends its own existence against the +subversive attempts of conspirators--"reaction;" if it attempts +to establish the republic upon a firm and solid, but moderate +basis--"reaction;" if it does any thing--"reaction;" if it does +nothing--"reaction;" if it cannot perform impossible wonders for the +amelioration and prosperity of the lower working-classes,--at which, +however, it labours most hard,--"reaction--reaction--reaction; the +reaction of aristocratic feeling--the reaction of ill will--the +reaction of indifference and indolence;" thereby always meaning +reaction against the true republic, and its true representatives, +the lower classes. The phantom Reaction is thus used as a tool +by a wild and violent party against the present order of things; +against the moderate majority of the Assembly more particularly; +against all things and all men not suiting its views, its schemes, +its dreams, and its ambitions; and the bugbear is not ill got up to +scare the credulous of the lower classes more completely into the +toils of the malcontents, with the fear that reaction really may +destroy that idol from which they have been taught to expect all +the good gifts of "roasted larks," for which they have only to open +their mouths, and "showers of gold," for which they have only to +stretch forth their hands--that idol that has been lacquered over +with the false gilding of delusive promises by imprudent rulers, and +which the many still fancy to be all of solid gold--in a word, the +Republic. The reaction, in truth, exists not, or exists not in the +manner that people would be led to believe. If it exists, it is in +the disgust of the more laborious and less tumultuous of the lower +classes themselves, who, in their increasing misery, would be happy +to accept the Lama of Thibet, or any other abstraction, with an +absolute government, in the place of the false idol of their hopes, +that has as yet only deluded them into greater misery-- it is in the +reactionary cry of the wretched, who call for "King Log," or any +other senseless ruler that would bring with it peace, and order, and +a hope of well-being. + +The other tool employed by the designing malcontents--that of +impulsion--is the banner upon which is inscribed "_Republique +Democratique_." We have a republic, it is true, they say, but not +the republic of our wishes. This is only a mere republic like any +other: we want a democratic republic, and the democratic republic is +taken from us; but the democratic republic we must and will have. +Ask them what they mean by their "_republique democratique_," they +will not be able to inform you. They launch into phrases which are +but phrases: they lose themselves in a cloudy confusion of terms and +ideas: they pretend to give you vague and chaotic explanations, that +are no explanations at all: they know not themselves what they mean. +Universal suffrage upon its broadest basis, with all the rights +and privileges thereto attached, in their most democratic sense, +is no democratic republic according to their view. What is? Who +can tell?--certainly not they. "They have clamoured for the moon," +says a wit of the day, "and the moon has been given them; and now +they cry, 'we are betrayed; we wanted the sun, and the sun we will +have.' But have a care! the sun will blind your eyes, my friends, +and you will stagger in still greater darkness; the sun will burn +your fingers, and you will smart beneath the blisters. But they heed +not; they still clamour for the sun." At all events, the banner on +which flaunts aloft the words--"_Republique democratique_" is a good +rallying banner for all malcontents, a good banner under which to +enlist the unwary among their ranks. It is a cry, a clamour, and all +the more enticing because it is vague, unexplained, mysterious in +its fresh promises of some fancied good that has not yet arrived, +full of the great and alluring unknown. Thus it serves a purpose. + +But to return from this long digression upon the efforts of +subversive parties, to the state of feeling that subsists in +Republican France between its now well-sorted and divided +elements--Paris and the provinces. + +What are, again, the expressions used by the lower classes with +regard to the departments? what the feelings they express? Ever +the same. Paris, they declare, makes, has made, and will make all +the revolutions of the country. Paris, consequently, is all in +all in France: Paris is the mistress, and the queen, the supreme +arbitress of the destinies of France: Paris must be obeyed in all +its wishes and its high will. What were the words of the workmen of +the national workshops, in a late revolt, to the Minister of Public +Works? They were told that there was no longer any work for them in +the capital, that their pretended labour was an irony of labour, +that the country paid them for doing nothing, and that they were +eating the bread of idleness under the name of work: they were told +that they were to be dispersed in the provinces, to be employed +upon great works of public utility--upon railroads and canals, that +stood still for want of hands: while money was lavishly promised +them for this work, which the treasury could no longer afford upon +unproductive labour. What was their answer? That they, the people, +had made the revolution in Paris, that they were the masters of +Paris, that Paris was theirs, to work in it their work; that, as +masters of Paris, they were not to be bid leave it; that leave it +they would not; that if labour failed, money must be found them at +all events, or they would find means of taking it; in short, that +they would not be _degraded_ by being sent into the provinces. The +workmen of Paris claim, then, to be the masters of the capital, and +still more, in their esteem, the masters of all France. The people +of Paris, then, is _the_ people; it owns no other. Now the people, +in modern republican phrase, and alas! in government decrees also, +is by no means the nation; it means the lower classes alone. The +people, it has been previously declared, is the sovereign people, +whose voice is the voice of God; then, they reply, by the simplest +reasoning, the sovereign people, whose voice is the voice of +God--it is alone we: it is the lower classes. But there is still +another deduction to be drawn. Among the lower classes it is only +the active, the stirring, the discontented, the disorderly and +tumultuous, who come forward in evidence as the representatives of +this people. And thus it is very clear that the sovereign people, +whose voice is the voice of God, the sovereign of France, is a small +body of uneducated, misled, and wrong-headed men in the capital. +So stands the account in theory. And who can deny that, in theory, +they are in truth the masters? Who shall say when the chances of +revolutionary struggles may not make them so in fact? + +So stands the state of feeling on the side of Paris--how stands it +on the other side? + +When the revolution of February broke out, the departments scarcely +knew themselves, their wishes, or their feelings. They had no +mutual understanding. They were taken by surprise. They had not +the time to consult their sentiments. Notoriously anti-republican +as has been shown to have been the spirit of all France in the +departments, they accepted, however, from old habit, the _dictum_ +of Paris: they accepted, as has been before remarked, from that +species of resignation shown in France to a _fait accompli_: they +accepted from a wish to avoid all further convulsion, from a love +of established order in whatever shape it might come--from a hope +that, whatever the form of government proclaimed and imposed upon +the country, all would "go well." And besides, the republic, they +were told, was only a provisional form of government at a moment +of crisis, when no other could be adopted: upon its future form of +government, the country, it was said, was to be freely consulted: +the provinces were not prepared for the ulterior _dictum_ of Paris, +that, without consulting the nation at all, the republic was to be +considered as definitive; and that those who desired a change would +be regarded as traitors to their country. But France is not what it +was; it is enlightened by the experience of successive revolutions. +The jealousy of the departments, towards despotic Paris had long +been boiling in men's hearts: it did not at first boil over; but +when, instead of order and peace, the provinces found that the +new government produced only results of disorder, animosity, and +ruin, the departments began to grumble and murmur openly--for the +first time they seemed determined to show that they ought to have, +and would have, a will of their own. In the commencement all was +tranquil. In some parts of France the republic was accepted, if +not with that enthusiasm which lying Parisian papers would have +induced the world to believe, at all events with a species of +contentment, arising from the trust that a more equitable popular +government would relieve the mass from some of those charges +which weighed so heavily upon them under the former government, +and remove constraints that were painful to them. In other parts, +there prevailed a sort of sullen resignation to the establishment +of a _regime_ which was dreaded from an experience of a hateful +past, and was repulsive to its tastes--but it was a resignation to +the _fait accompli_. Some thus hoped, and others feared; but all +combined in assuming an attitude of quiet expectation. + +In this state was France, when an imprudent Minister of the +Interior, pushed on by ambitious, designing, misguided, and reckless +men, sent down as a scourge upon the country those commissaries +of obnoxious memory, who were publicly charged to work their will +upon the departments as they pleased, by the means they pleased, by +whatever oppressive or repressive measures they pleased, provided +they worked the suspected and mistrusted departments into a proper +feeling of true republican principle, according to the most ultra +traditional doctrines of old republicanism. Down upon the country +came the autocratic commissaries with these instructions; and, +in too many instances, with the best intentions of torturing and +tormenting the country, after their own fashion and according +to their own views, to their heart's content. Down they came, +with their history of the first republic in their heads, and the +desire in their hearts of emulating the zeal of those fearful +representatives of the people of the last century, who ruled in the +departments, each a petty, but a bloody tyrant. To all alike the +same violence of disposition must not be attributed: there were a +few more prudent and better-thinking men among the number--although +they, in certain instances, were afterwards accused in high quarters +of mild laxity, and recalled as suspected of moderatism; but the +many were evidently disposed to play the tyrant to the life, in +their desperate measures to twist the country to their will. The +times, however, were changed; the spirit of the age no longer +permitted of the same violence. _Messieurs les Commissaires_ could +not well proceed by the old-established and expeditious method of +cementing the foundations of republics, one and indivisible, by +blood, or erecting the scaffolding of the edifice on scaffolds. +Shootings, drownings, and guillotinings were instruments rather +too rough to be accepted by the manners of the time. But they +had other means in their power, and according to the tenor of +their instructions, which they thought to use, and attempted to +use, with just as much effect. They dismissed functionaries in +wholesale numbers--put their creatures, or those who cringed and +worshipped, in their places, with orders to brow-beat and bully +the recalcitrant, and with the exhibition of high example before +their eyes. They threatened and accused; and when these means +failed, according to their fancy, or when they were too mild for +the taste of Master Commissary, the other underhand instruments +of terrorism, already mentioned, were employed to make men crouch +and tremble. The manner in which mobs have been excited against +the better classes, or those who were suspected of moderatism, by +manoeuvres unequivocally traced to the agency of the commissaries +themselves, and the frightful excesses committed, are matters +of common notoriety and of newspaper history. The scenes of the +old Revolution were resorted to, although in another form; and +not only supposed anti-republican sentiment, but moderatism, +was endeavoured to be kept down by agents of terror, and the +ever-ready riotous populations of the great towns. It would be an +endless and a useless task to re-transcribe all the scenes of the +violence of an insensate mob, secretly got up by the republican +agents in authority, more than secretly connived at, and openly +and avowedly excused and applauded. The rod that the commissary +himself could not prudently employ, he placed in the hands of a +designedly inflamed and infuriated people, to scourge the country +to his will. One of the strongest instances, however, may be found +in that state of continual terror on the one hand, and violence +on the other, which for many long weeks hung over the head of the +doomed city of Lyons. See there the mob constituting itself into +illegally armed bodies, sundered from and inimical to the national +guards, assuming names, such as _les voraces_ and _les devorants_, +by which they themselves marked their character, ruling the whole +city of Lyons by fear; exacting, spoliating, arresting _suspects_ +at will; searching the houses of quiet inhabitants under the +pretext of conspiracies against the republic that did not exist, +and of concealed arms, such as they themselves illegally bore, +that never could be found; dragging trembling priests from the +altar to be confined in cellars, because they were suspected of +anti-republicanism; laying their hands upon church plate as the +property of traitors; liberating prisoners arrested for revolt +and disorder--arresting the magistrates who had condemned them; +dictating their orders to military officers for the release of +soldiers put under restraint; pulling a general from his horse, +and nearly immolating him to the wrath of their high justice in +the streets; commanding the fortresses, making barricades at the +least opposition to their will, domineering over the whole city as +masters--a herd of power-intoxicated savages--and the commissary +looking on, applauding, sanctioning their deeds, rubbing his hands +with satisfaction, and approving them with the words "_Allez, mes +enfans! vous faites bien!_" Such scenes as these, carried to the +utmost limits of anarchy and excess in Lyons, have been exhibited +also in almost all the great towns of France, with all the effect of +well-applied terrorism. There is scarcely one that has not similar +outrages, from the violence of an excited mob, to lay to the charge +of him who was set in authority over them--to work his will, so +said the letter of his instructions--but to preserve peace and +order, in a country where convulsions, collisions, and commotions +were so infinitely to be dreaded and avoided--so should his duty +have told him. It ought to be said, at the same time, that the +acknowledged authorities of the government were aided in their high +revolutionary mission, and in the extraordinary means they employed +in its execution, by less acknowledged agents, in the persons of +emissaries from the violent ultra clubs of Paris; who, arrogating to +themselves the right to the true expression of the only true feeling +of Paris--and consequently, _a fortiori_, of all France--racked the +country with their manoeuvres, their excitements to violence, their +bullying threats and intimidations. Unacknowledged by government +authority as they were, however, their missions were bestowed +on them by the quondam friends and fellow-conspirators, under +the former reign of the Minister of the Interior; their expenses +were supported by funds, supplied no one could say by what hand, +although most might divine; their measures were evidently taken +in accordance, and in perfectly good understanding, with the +departmental commissary. + +What, however, was the result? The very reverse from that intended +by _Messieurs les Commissaires_ and their supporter, the Minister +of the Interior. They over-reached themselves, and worked the very +effect they attempted to exterminate. Instead of subjugating the +departments to their will of ultra-republicanism by the violence +of terrorism, they almost roused the whole better feeling of the +country, at first quietly disposed and resigned, against the very +principles of republicanism in general. The sentiment at first +accepted was soured and embittered; the discontent and aversion +daily increased; and it was more than once openly affirmed that +the departments were ready to revolt, and formed the design of +marching upon Paris. That this subject was actually discussed in +large, and not even secret meetings in the provinces--and even in +such as had been always considered ultra-liberal and democratic +in their opinions, as parts of Normandy, for instance--admits of +but little doubt; and this feeling, although it was never actually +embodied in any living and active fact of resistance, may be taken +as one example in support of the opinion, that the children may +not always prove so submissive to the dictates of the mother, +and may one day raise their voices and hold forth their hands to +dispute her will. The open and general outbreak of the provinces, +which was at one time expected, and was the common topic of +conversation in Paris, was suppressed, however, by the influence +of the better-thinking and more prudential men in the country. But +the feeling of opposition and resistance did not fail to manifest +itself in minor demonstrations. Expostulations were at first +made against the tyranny and the inflammatory manoeuvres of the +government commissaries; then broke out angry remonstrances on the +part of the _bourgeoisie_, backed by the better and quieter of the +working-classes; and at last, when all these more legitimate means +failed, the populations of several of the larger towns rose against +the provisional despot, who played the autocrat and the tyrant in +the name of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." + +The national guards took up arms to demand the revocation and +the departure of the obnoxious commissary. The commissary, in +opposition, acted the self-same part of which a despotic king +has since been so violently accused by the republican journals. +As Ferdinand of Naples is said to have excited the dregs of the +populace, the lazzaroni, to aid him in a reactionary movement in his +favour, so did even the republican commissary after the self-same +system. He caused the mob to be roused to his assistance, as to that +of the only true democratic friend of the people; he called upon +them to take up arms and combat in his defence: the lazzaroni mob of +the departments was the weapon he wielded to overcome the resistance +of the majority to his will. In most instances the recalcitrant part +of the provincial populations prevailed. In several of the larger +towns, as in Bordeaux, Bourges, and many others, the commissary was +obliged to take to flight: in some the palace of the little tyrant +was stormed, he himself was made prisoner, and was taken to the +railroad, and "packed off" back to that Paris which had sent him. +In a very few instances only the influence of the commissary gained +the day: in still less was he again returned, to be enforced upon +the department from which he had been driven; and in one case he was +sent back by the powers that were, only to be again ignominiously +expelled. + +In the department of the Ariege, at the town of Foix, a journal, +founded under the auspices of the commissaries of the government, +and professing the most violent ultra-republican doctrines, was +publicly burnt by the magistrates and most influential persons of +the place, to show their contempt and abhorrence of the principles +and actions of the authority set over them. Other instances of +the general opposition, either to the commissaries themselves or +to the agents they had appointed and supported, on account of +their violence, their tyrannical measures, and their anarchical +principles, are too numerous to quote; and, generally speaking, the +feeling was so strong, that the _Messieurs les Commissaires_, or +rather, _les Citoyens Commissaires_, were obliged to give way before +the expression of popular indignation. + +The departments then, for the first time, have begun to show that +they are determined not to be treated as the mere humble serfs +of the capital,--that they are resolved to have a will and an +action of their own. The results have been such that, even among +the staunch republicans in the provinces, and among those who +look to the republic as the only form of government at present +suitable to France, symptoms of a tendency to a federal system have +indubitably sprung up,--of a tendency, in fact, to that system +in opposition to which, under the first revolution, the title of +"one and indivisible,"--so little understood at the present day, +so constantly repeated by the herd without any real meaning being +attached to it,--was bestowed upon the republic. The fear of a +powerfully organised resistance to the sacred principles of French +republicanism,--unity and indivisibility,--is, at this very time, +one of the bugbears by which those in power are terrified and +haunted. But, whether this fear be well founded or not, it suffices +for the present purpose, to show that a disunited feeling exists to +a great extent between the departments and the capital; and that, +while on the one hand the former begin to show a disposition to +resist the overweening influence and tyrannical importance of the +former, on the other, a dread is beginning to be expressed of their +growing discontent, and a suspicion is constantly expressed of their +increasing tendency to reactionary principles, likely to prove +eventually subversive to the republic. Among those "lookers-on," +who proverbially "see the most of the game," there are some who, in +their exceptional and impartial position as foreigners, are able +to see expressed in letters from the provinces "curses, not loud, +but deep," against "that detestable, unruly, and insolent Paris, +that has made alone a hateful revolution, which it imposes on all +France." It cannot, however, be said, at the same time, that any +reactionary feeling against the republic itself, and a republican +form of government, prevails in the country at large. That which +is thought to be stigmatised by the ultra party with the term of +"reaction," appears, as yet, to be nothing but the acceptation of +a republic based upon the principles of peace and order; but, at +the same time, an opposition to all views and doctrines likely to +produce disorder and anarchy. And yet still, in another sense, +the feeling of the country at large cannot be said to be strictly +republican: the "true men" might be in vain sought except in the +disorderly, tumultuous, excitable, and easily stirred populations of +the great manufacturing towns. + +Shortly after the appointment of the obnoxious commissaries, several +causes arose to increase the discontent of the departments, not only +among the _ci-devant_ upper and middling classes, but among the +lower classes,--particularly in the agricultural districts, and more +especially among that peasant population that has so universally +in France acquired a little property in land. One of these causes +was the imposition of the new taxes. Under the former _regime_, +France had been crushed down by the weight of its impositions. One +of the first advantages of the republic was announced, in official +proclamations, to consist in the removal of taxes, and in the +enormous diminution of state expenses necessarily attendant upon a +republican form of government. Already the country people looked to +a release from the greater part of their obligations: the system of +"no taxes at all," they thought, in their _naivete_, was to follow; +instead of which came very shortly the decree, begging the country +for the loan of a certain proportion of the taxes for the ensuing +year beforehand, in order to meet the deficiencies in the finances, +followed up almost immediately by the more imperative ordinance, +imposing the additional 45 per cent in support of the increased, +not diminished, expenses of the republican government. In many +parts of the country the peasant population refused to pay this +additional tax, or responded only to the demand with that equivocal +answer, so characteristic of the French peasant, "We'll see about +it." It nevertheless, however, refused to pay at the same time the +rents of its landlords, upon the pretext that it was ruined by the +revolution, and the exactions of the republic. It was in vain that +the government protested that these measures were necessitated by +the financial dilapidations of the dethroned dynasty. Clear-sighted +enough where their own interests are concerned, the French peasants +in the provinces replied by denunciations of that odious Paris. +Paris, they declared, had chosen to make for the nonce a revolution +in which they had not aided, and which they had not desired; and +then Paris turned to its own advantage alone the results of that +revolution. It had imposed upon all France, by calling for resources +from a country already drained, to be lavishly squandered in +rewarding the idleness of its own tumultuous and unruly inhabitants +among the working-classes, which it dreaded, by the establishment of +its expensive so-called _ateliers nationaux_, and by paying fresh +troops under the name _gardes mobiles_,--when the standing army was +already such a burden the country,--for the sake of draining off and +regularising the worst dregs of its own population, and satisfying +the caprices of a riotous Parisian mob, that chose to object to the +presence of the old military force among it, while it accepted a new +defensive and repressive force, in addition to the former, under a +new title. Upon such questions, of vital importance to their own +interests, the country people of the provinces were not disposed +to listen to argument or reason; and in the discontent at the +exorbitant exactions of the capital the jealousy of the departments +towards Paris waxed stronger and stronger. + +Another cause, which added greatly to the increasing apprehension +and aversion was the preaching of the communist doctrines in Paris, +upon the first establishment of republican principles, and the +support apparently given to these wild and spoliating principles by +certain members of the Provisional Government itself. If there be +any feeling more alive than any other in the breast of the French +peasant, it is that attached to the acquirement and the possession +of landed property in however humble a form, be it but a small field +or a tiny vineyard. If he has any hope, any ambition, any sentiment, +which he thinks worth living for, it is the extension, by any and +every means, of his small domain. On the fact of this possession +are concentrated all the mainspring motives and agencies of his +whole existence--in this, his industry, his talent, his cunning, +his thoughts, his affections, his very love for his children, to +whom he hopes to transmit it. The great _mobile_ of the character of +the French peasant is self-interest in this respect. The doctrines, +then, which preached that the possession of all landed property by +individuals is an infamous spoliation of the _res publica_, filled +the country people in the provinces with the liveliest alarm, and +contributed to establish a still greater hatred to a state of things +that tended to produce results so fatally detrimental to all that +they held dear. The Parisian, almost as blindly ignorant of the +state of his own country--which, in his theory that Paris is all +France, he looks upon with indifference, if not contempt--as he is +proverbially utterly ignorant of every other country beyond the +frontiers of France, even the most neighbouring--and, in fact, of +every thing that touches upon geography or the state of nations, of +which he has only the vaguest and most incorrect notions--thought +that all his wild fraternity schemes, developed and accepted by +those who possessed nothing, in the capital, would be received +with enthusiasm also by the "miserable, oppressed, and tyrannised +inhabitant of the fields and plains;"--such was the language used, +and eagerly caught up. The Parisian soon found, by experience, that +he had made a gross mistake. The emissaries sent down into the +provinces by the professors and high-priests of communism, or by the +ultra clubs, and supported, there is every reason to believe, by +the members of the government before alluded to, met only with the +most active repulsion. Their Utopian ideas of universal fraternity +and spoliation of property were scorned, scouted, and opposed: +themselves were hooted, pelted, almost lapidated as incendiary +enemies of the peasant. "The innocent and humble inhabitant of +the fields" was indignant, insulted, aggrieved, that he should +be so contemptuously considered "miserable and oppressed:" he +showed himself in the light of the landed proprietor, the most +avariciously interested in the possession of property, and by no +means the _naif_ individual the Parisian had been accustomed to +believe him, according to his text-books of _vaudevilles_ and +melodramas. The agents of communistic doctrines were forced to +retreat in dudgeon, to declare the French peasant the most ignorant +and pig-headed animal upon earth, still under the yoke of the +tyrants, and _endoctrine_ by the aristocrats; and to avow that +the departments were not ripe for the enlightenment of communism, +perhaps even to denounce them as infamously reactionary. Certain it +is that communistic doctrines found no enthusiastic disciples in the +country; or, if the propagandism made any steps, it was after the +fashion so characteristically depicted in a caricature published +by the _Charivari_, in which a peasant appears before the mayor of +his _commune_ to say, that, since a general _partage des biens_ is +to take place, he puts down his name for the _chateau_, but makes +a most wofully wry face upon hearing that his own field has been +already divided among the paupers of the village. The propagation of +communism, then, only excited fears instead of hopes, consternation +instead of joy, and tended still more to indispose the country +people, and excite their aversion and discontent towards a state of +things likely to become so prejudicial to their interests: more than +ever, they were disposed to revolt. + +In this state was the feeling of the country at large when the +general elections came on, accompanied by all the violence of +party manoeuvre to support the principles of ultra-republicanism, +advocated by the unscrupulous minister of the nation; but all +these efforts tended only to indispose it still more, and to call +forth, in spite of the desperate opposition made, its sense in +favour of respect of property, order, and moderatism of views in +the republic, if republic there was to be. As is well known, an +immense majority of those men of moderate principles, whom all +the ill-judged and hateful efforts of the violent and reckless +republicans at the head of affairs had so greatly contributed to +form into a decided, self-conscious, and compact party of opponents, +was returned to the Assembly. Most of the leading men of the liberal +party under the former dynasty, who had stood forward as friends +of progressive reform, but not as opponents to the constitutional +monarchy principle, were likewise elected, with great majorities, +by the suffrages of the people. The country declared its will to +be against the views of the principal and stirring influence which +emanated from the reckless man who governed the interior affairs +of the country in the capital. But it did not forget, at the same +time, and it still bears an inveterate grudge to the violent agents +of that ultra-republicanism, chiefly concentrated in Paris, who +had filled the country with disorder, tumult, terror, and, in some +cases, bloodshed, by the atrocious and outrageous means it placed in +the hands of a riotous mob to overawe them, and sway the direction +of the elections, and by the base manoeuvres employed to attain their +ends. It does not forget the despotism of certain commissaries, who, +after having their own lists of ultra-democratic candidates, whom +they intended to force down the throats of the electors, printed, +threatened the printer, who should dare to print any other, with +their high displeasure, and caused them to shut up their press. It +does not forget the seizure of those papers that proposed moderate +candidates, with every attempt to strangle in practice that liberty +of the press which was so clamorously claimed in theory. It does +not forget the voters' lists torn from the hands of voters by a +purposely excited mob. It does not forget the odious manoeuvre by +which agents were largely paid and sent about to cry "_Vive Henri +V._" in the streets of towns, in order to induce the belief in +a Bourbonist reactionary party, and thus rouse the passions and +feelings of the flattered and declamation-intoxicated mob against +the moderates, regardless of the consequences--of the animosity +and the bloodshed. It does not forget the intimidation, the threat +of fire and sword, the opposition by force to the voting of whole +villages suspected of moderatism--the collision, the constraint, +the conflict, the violence. It does not forget all this, nor also +that it owes the outrage, the alarm, and the suffering, the ruin +to peace and order, to commerce, to well-being, to fortune, to +that central power which turned a legion of demons upon it, in the +shape of revolutionary emissaries and agents. It forgets still +less the scenes of Limoges, where a mob were turned loose into +the polling-house to destroy the votes, drive out the national +guards, disarm these defenders of order and right, and form a mob +government, to rule and terrorise the town, while Master Commissary +looked on, and told the people that it did well, and laughed in his +sleeve. It forgets still less the fury of the disappointed upon +the result of the elections, their incitements to insurrections, +their preachings of armed resistance for the sake of annulling the +elections, obtained, it must never be forgotten, by _universal +suffrage_, in face of their culpable manoeuvres: the emissaries +again sent down from the clubs, and with an apparent connivance +of certain ultra-members of the government, from the charge of +which, now more than ever since the conspiracy of the 15th May, +they will scarcely be able to acquit themselves: the efforts of +these emissaries to make the easily excited and tumultuous lower +classes take up arms, and the bloody conflicts in the streets of +Rouen: the complicity of the very magistrates appointed by these +members of the government--the terror and the bloodshed, and then +the cry of the furious ultras that the people had been treacherously +assassinated--the conspiracies and incendiary projects of the +vanquished at Marseilles, the troubles of Lisle, of Amiens, of +Lyons, of Aubusson, of Rhodez, of Toulouse, of Carcassonne--why +swell the list of names?--of almost every town in France, all with +the same intent of destroying those elections of representatives +which the country had proclaimed in the sense of order and of +moderatism. It forgets still less the dangers of that same 15th +May, when the government was for a few hours overthrown, by the +disorderly, the disappointed, the discontented, the violent ultra +republicans, the conspirators of Paris,--when some of those, who +had been formerly their rulers, were arrested as accomplices, and +others still in power can scarcely yet again avoid the accusation +and conviction of complicity. + +All the other troubles of this distracted country, since the +revolution of February, may be passed over--the ruin to commerce, +the poverty, misery, and want, the military revolts excited by +the same emissaries to cause divisions in the army, as likewise +the unhappy troubles of Nismes, where the disturbances took +a religions tendency--as a conflict of creeds between Roman +Catholics and Protestants, rather than a political or even a social +character,--although they still bore evidence of the disorder of +the times and the disturbance of the country. The elections, then, +contributed more powerfully than ever to the fermentation, the +discontent, the mistrust, and the ill-will of the country. + +In this state of France, with the feeling of impatient jealousy +and irritation against tyranny and despotism expressed by the +departments towards the capital, with the evident disunion between +the provinces and Paris, what are likely to be the destinies of +the Republic hereafter? Again it must be said--who can tell, +who foresee, who predict? The Republic has been accepted, and +is maintained, from a love of order and the _status quo_: but +there is no enthusiasm, no admiration for the republican form of +government throughout the country at large; there is, at most, +indifference to any government, whatever it may be, provided it but +insure the stability and prosperity of the country. If an opinion +may be hazarded, however, it is, that the danger to the present +established form of things will not arise so much from the conflict +of contending parties in the capital, as from the discontent, +disaffection, jealousy, and, perhaps, final outbreak and resistance +of the departments. Terrorism has had its day; and it would be +difficult, if not impossible, to apply the system once again to the +country in its present state. What other means will the violent +possess--what coercive measures, if, when parties come to an issue, +the wearied and disgusted country should rise to protest against the +disorders of Republican Paris? There seem at present to be none. The +result of such an outbreak would be inevitable civil war. The strong +instance before alluded to, of the determination of the departments +to assert a will of their own, was given in a very striking +manner in the affair of the 15th May. One of the conspirators got +possession of the electric telegraph at the Home Office, and sent +down despatches into all the provinces, to inform the country +that the Assembly was dissolved, and the new government of the +ultra-anarchist party had taken the reins of power. Instead of being +awed into submission as heretofore, instead of calmly and resignedly +accepting the _fait accompli_ as was their wont, the departments +immediately rose to protest against the new revolution of Paris. +Before a counter-despatch could be sent down into the provinces, +to let them know that the former order of things was restored, the +national guards of all the great towns were up and out, with the cry +"to arms!" and it was resolved to march upon Paris. It was not only +in the towns within a day's journey of the capital that the movement +was spontaneously made. In the furthest parts of the country, from +the cities of Avignon, Marseilles, Nismes, and all the south of +France, the national guards were already on their way towards the +capital, before the information that declared the more satisfactory +result of the day could be made public. It is more than probable, +then, that, should a desperate faction ever seize upon the power, or +even should a close conflict of parties further endanger the safety +of the country and its tottering welfare, that the provinces would +again take up arms against Paris, and that a civil war would be the +result. + +This is rather a suggestion hazarded, than a prediction made, as to +the future fate of the French republic. Whatever that future may be, +an uneasy submission on the part of a great anti-republican majority +to the active agency of a small republican minority--but, at the +same time, a desire of maintaining a government, whatever it may be, +if supportable, for tranquillity's sake; a feeling of humiliation +and degradation in this utter submission to the will of Paris +throughout the country--but, at the same time, an apparent growing +determination eventually to resist that will, should it at last +prove intolerable--such is the present state of Republican France. + + + + +COLONISATION. + +_Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia_, +&c. By Lieut.-Colonel Sir T. MITCHELL, Surveyor-General, &c. 1 vol. +London: Longmans. + + +Australia is the greatest accession to substantial power ever made +by England. It is the _gift_ of a _Continent_, unstained by war, +usurpation, or the sufferings of a people. But even this is but a +narrow view of its value. It is the addition of a territory, almost +boundless, to the possessions of mankind; a location for a new +family of man, capable of supporting a population equal to that of +Europe; or probably, from its command of the ocean, and from the +improved systems, not merely of commercial communication, but of +agriculture itself, capable of supplying the wants of double the +population of Europe. It is, in fact, the virtual future addition +of three hundred millions of human beings, who otherwise would not +have existed. And besides all this, and perhaps of a higher order +than all, is the transfer of English civilisation, laws, habits, +industrial activity, and national freedom, to the richest, but the +most abject countries of the globe; an imperial England at the +Antipodes, securing, invigorating, and crowning all its benefits by +its religion. + +Within the last fifty years, the population of the British islands +has nearly tripled; it is increasing in England alone at the rate of +a thousand a day. In every kingdom of the Continent it is increasing +in an immense ratio. The population is becoming too great for the +means of existence. Every trade is overworked, every profession +is overstocked, every expedient for a livelihood threatens to be +exhausted under this vast and perpetual influx of life; and the +question of questions is, How is this burthen to be lightened? + +There can be but one answer,--Emigration. For the last century, +common sense, urged by common necessity, directed the stream of +this emigration to the great outlying regions of the western world. +North America was the chief recipient. Since the conquest of Canada, +annual thousands had directed their emigration to the British +possessions: the conquest of the Cape has drawn a large body of +settlers to its fine climate; but Australia remained, and remains +for the grand future field of British emigration. + +The subject has again come before the British public with additional +interest. The Irish famine, the British financial difficulties, +and the palpable hazard of leaving a vast pauperism to grow up +in ignorance, have absolutely compelled an effort to relieve the +country. A motion has just been made in Parliament by Lord Ashley, +giving the most startling details of the infant population; and +demanding the means of sending at least its orphan portion to some +of those colonial possessions, where they may be trained to habits +of industry, and have at least a chance of an honest existence. We +shall give a few of these details, and they are of the very first +importance to humanity. On the 6th of June Lord Ashley brought in a +resolution, "That it is expedient that means be annually provided +for the voluntary emigration, to some one of her Majesty's colonies, +of a certain number of young persons of both sexes, who have been +educated in the schools, ordinarily called 'ragged schools,' in and +about the metropolis." + +In the speech preparatory to this resolution, a variety of +statements were made, obtained from the clergy and laity of London. +It was ascertained that the number of children, either deserted +by their parents, or sent out by their parents to beg and steal, +could not be less than 30,000 in the metropolis alone. Their habits +were filthy, wretched, and depraved. Their places of living by day +were the streets, and by night every conceivable haunt of misery +and sin. They had no alternative but to starve, or to grow up into +professional thieves, perhaps murderers. Of the general population, +the police reports stated, that in 1847 there had been taken into +custody 62,181 individuals of both sexes and all ages. Of these, +20,702 were females, and 47,479 males. Of the whole, 15,693 were +under twenty years of age, 3,682 between fifteen and ten, and 362 +under ten. Of the whole, 22,075 could neither read nor write, and +35,227 could read only, or read and write imperfectly. + +The average attendance last year in the "ragged schools" was +4000. Of these 400 had been in prison, 600 lived by begging, 178 +were the children of convicts, and 800 had lost one or both their +parents, and of course were living by their own contrivances. Out +of the 62,000, there were not less than 28,113 who had no trade, or +occupation, or honest livelihood whatever! + +The statement then proceeded to consider the expense to which the +nation was put to keep down crime. It will perhaps surprise those +readers who object to the expenses of emigration. + + In 1847. The expense of Parkhurst Prison was L14,349 + " Of Pentonville Prison, 18,307 + In 1846. Of County Gaols, 147,145 + " Of County Houses of Correction, 160,841 + " Of Rural Police, 180,000 + " Of Prosecutions for Coining, 9,000 + In 1847. Of Metropolitan Police, 363,164 + +The whole but a few items, yet amounting to a million sterling +annually. In this we observe the Millbank Penitentiary, an immense +establishment, Newgate, the Compter, and the various places of +detention in the city, are not included; and there is no notice of +the expenses of building, which in the instance of the Penitentiary +alone amounted to a million. + +Yet, to dry up the source of this tremendous evil, Lord Ashley +asks only an expenditure of L100,000 annually, to transform 30,000 +growing thieves into honest men, idlers into cultivators of the +soil, beggars into possessors of property, which the generality of +settlers become, on an average of seven years. + +There can be no rational denial of the benefit, and even of the +necessity, of rescuing those unfortunate creatures from a career +which, beginning in vice and misery, must go on in public mischief, +and end in individual ruin. Lord Ashley's suggestion is that the +plan shall be first tried on the moderate scale of sending 500 boys, +and 500 girls, chosen from the ragged schools of London, under +proper superintendents, to the most fitting of the colonies; by +which we understand Australia. The plan may then be extended to the +other parts of the kingdom, to Scotland and Ireland. He concluded by +placing his motion in the hands of government, who, through the Home +Secretary, promised to give it all consideration. + +It is certainly lamentable that such statements are to be made; +and we have little doubt that the foreign journalist will exult in +this evidence of what they call "the depravity of England." But, +it is to be remembered that London has a population of nearly two +millions--that all the idleness, vice, and beggary of an island +of twenty millions are constantly pouring into it--that _foreign_ +vice, idleness, and beggary contribute their share, and that +what is abhorred and _corrected_ in England, is overlooked, and +even cherished abroad. It is also to be remembered, that there +is a continual temptation to plunder in the exposed wealth of +the metropolis, and a continual temptation to mendicancy in the +proverbial humanity of the people. + +Still, crime must be punished wherever it exists, and vice must be +reformed wherever man has the means; and, therefore, we shall exult +in the success of any judicious plan of emigration. + +It happens, at this moment, that there is an extraordinary demand +for emigration; that every letter from Australia calls for a supply +of human life, and especially for an emigration of females,--the +proportion of males to females in some of the settlements being 9 to +1, while the number of females predominates, by the last census in +England. + +There is a daily demand for additional labourers, artificers, and +household servants, and with offers of wages which in England +neither labourer nor artisan could hope to obtain. Thousands are now +offered employment, comfort, and prospective wealth in Australia, +who must burthen the workhouse at home. The advantages are so +evident, the necessity is so strong, and the opportunity is so +prompt and perfect, that they _must_ result in a national plan of +constant emigration, until Australia can contain no more--an event +which may not happen for a thousand years. + +It happens, also, by a striking coincidence, that Australian +discovery has just assumed new vigour; and that instead of the +barrenness and deformity which were generally supposed to form +the principal characteristics of this vast territory, immense +tracts have been brought to European knowledge for the first time, +exhibiting remarkable fertility, and even the most unexpected and +singular beauty. We now give a sketch of the journey in which those +discoveries were made. + +To explore the interior of this great country has been the object +of successive expeditions for the last five-and-twenty years. But +such was the want of system or the want of means, that nothing was +done, except to increase the tales of wonder regarding the middle +regions of Australia. The theorists were completely divided; one +party insisting on the existence of a mediterranean or mighty lake +in the central region, _because_ there was a tendency in some of the +small rivers of the coast to flow inward. Others, with quite as much +plausibility, laughed at the idea; and, from having felt a hot wind +occasionally blowing from the west, had no doubt that the central +region was a total waste, a desert of fiery sand, an Australian +Sahara! while both parties seem to have been equally erroneous, so +far as any actual discovery has been made. + +But it seems equally extraordinary, that even the only two +expeditions which within our time have added largely to our +knowledge, alike should have neglected the most obvious and +almost the only useful means of discovery. The especial object of +exploration must be, to ascertain the existence of considerable +rivers pouring into the sea, because it is only thus that the +government can effectively form settlements. The especial difficulty +of the explorers is, to find provisions, or carry the means of +subsistence along with them. Both difficulties would be obviated by +the steam-boat, and by nothing else. The natural process, therefore, +would be, to embark the expedition in a well appointed and well +provisioned steamer; to anchor it at the necessary distance from the +coast, which in general has deep and sheltered water, within the +great rocky ridge; and then send out the explorers for fifty or a +hundred miles north and south, making the steamer the headquarters. +Thus they might ascertain every feature of the coast, inch by inch, +be secure of subsistence, and be free from native hostility. + +Yet all the expeditions have been overland, generally with the most +imminent hazard of being starved, and occasionally losing some of +their number by attacks from the natives. Thus also the present +expedition of the surveyor succeeded but in part, though it had +the merit of discovering that the reports of Australian barrenness +belonged but to narrow tracts, while the general character of the +country towards the north was of striking fertility. The purpose of +Sir T. Mitchell's late expedition was, to ascertain the probability +of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria. But as this +route was to be made dependent on a presumed river flowing into the +gulf, the actual object was to reach the head of that river--an +object which could have been more effectually attained by tracing it +upward from the gulf; and, in consequence of not so tracing it, the +expedition ultimately failed. + +To establish an easy connexion between the colony of New South +Wales and the traffic of the Indian Ocean had long been a matter of +great interest. Torres Strait, the only channel to the north, is +a remarkably dangerous navigation; while, by forming an overland +communication directly with the Gulf of Carpentaria to the west of +the strait, the commerce would find an open sea. A trade in horses +had also commenced with India, which was impeded by the hazards of +the strait. There had also been a steam communication with England +by Singapore, and there was a hope that this line might be connected +with a line from the gulf. + +The idea of tracing a river towards the north was a conjecture +of several years' standing, in some degree founded on the natural +probability that an immense indentation of the land could not but +exhibit some outlet for the course of a considerable fall of waters, +and also that there had been a report by a Bushman, of having +followed its course to the sea. + +After some difficulties with the governor, which were obviated by a +vote of the Colonial Legislature of L2000 for the expenses of the +expedition, it set out from Paramatta on the 17th of November 1845. +The expedition consisted of Sir Thomas Mitchell; E. B. Kennedy, +Esq., assistant-surveyor; William Stephenson, Esq., surgeon and +naturalist; twenty-three convicts, who volunteered for the sake +of a free pardon, which was to be their only payment; and three +freemen. They had a numerous list of baggage conveyances, &c. &c.; +eight drays, drawn by eighty bullocks; two boats, thirteen horses, +four private horses, three light carts, and provisions for a year, +including two hundred and fifty sheep, which travelled along with +them, constituting a chief part of their animal food. They had also +gelatine and pork. The surveyor-general preferred light carts, and +horses in place of bullocks; but it was suggested that the strong +drays were necessary, and that bullocks were more enduring than +horses--the latter an opinion soon found to be erroneous. It is +rather singular, that either opinion should not have been settled +fifty years ago. + +Some natural and well-expressed reflections arise, in the course of +this volume, on the lonely life of the settler. Its despondency, +and its inutility to advance his moral nature, are in some measure +attributed to the absence of the "gentler sex." + +"At this sheep station," says Sir Thomas, "I met with an individual +who had seen better days, and had lost his property amid the wreck +of colonial bankruptcies; a 'tee-totaller,' with Pope's 'Essay +on Man' for his consolation, in a _bark hut_. This man spoke of +the depravity of shepherd life as excessive.... The pastoral +life, so favourable to the enjoyment of nature, has always been a +favourite with the poets. But here it appears to be the antipodes +of all poetry and propriety, simply because man's better half +is wanting. Under this unfavourable aspect the white man comes +before the aboriginal. Were they intruders, accompanied with wives +and children, they would not be half so unwelcome. In this, too, +consists one of the most striking differences between settling and +squatting. Indeed, if it were an object to _uncivilise_ the human +race, I know of no method more likely to effect it, than to isolate +a man from the gentler sex and children. Remove afar off all courts +of justice and means of redress of grievances, all churches and +schools, all shops where he can make use of money, and then place +him in close contact with savages. 'What better off am I than a +black native!' was the exclamation of a shepherd to me." + +A general description of the aspect of New South Wales would be +difficult, from its extreme diversity in parts; but the general +face of the country is marked by lines of granite hills; short +water-courses, which in summer are dry, or retain the water only +in pools; clumps of trees, generally dotted over the soil, and +occasional _prairies_. But the soil is generally fertile, and, in +the spring, exhibits a great variety of flowers. Thus the land is +every where fit for European life, though in the same latitude +with the hottest portions of Africa. It has occasional gushes of +intense heat, but they seem not to have affected the health of the +expedition; and with that progress of comforts which follows all +civilisation, the heat and cold alike may be successfully mitigated. +We have not heard of any endemic in Australia; the epidemic has +never visited its shores. The chief want in the pasture-grounds +is water, but even that is merely the result of the rudeness of +early settling; for vast quantities of water run to waste, or are +lost in swamps, which future colonists will receive in tanks, and +check with dams. The capricious abundance and deficiency of this +prime necessary of life, for it is more essential than food, is +shown in a striking, passage of this picturesque Journal. They were +still within the sheep-feeding country. Water was much wanted. +Mr Stephenson, the naturalist, was sent out on the inquiry. He +returned soon, having met two of the mounted police, who told him +that "a flood was coming down from the Turon Mountains." + +"But the little encampment was held in suspense. Still, the bed +of the Macquarie continued so dry, that the report could scarcely +be believed. Towards evening, a man was stationed with a gun, to +give a signal on the appearance of the flood. The shades of evening +came, but no flood; and the man returned. This was a period of +considerable anxiety, for the need of water was urgent. + +"Some hours later, and after the moon had risen, a murmuring sound, +like that of a distant waterfall, mingled with occasional cracks, +as of breaking timber, drew our attention." They then returned to +the river bank. Still no flood appeared, though they continued to +hear the sounds of the crashing timber. At length an increase of the +sounds told them that the water was in the next bend. All this, in +a serene moonlight night, was new. At length it came, and came in +power and beauty. + +"It rushed into our sight, glittering in the moonbeams, a moving +_cataract_; tossing before it ancient trees, and snapping them +against its banks. It was preceded by a _point_ of meandering water, +picking its way, like a thing of life, through the deepest parts of +the dark, dry, and shady bed of what thus again became a flowing +river." The phenomenon might make a fine subject for the pencil, if +our artists were not divided between the palace and the pigstye. The +noble river rolling along under a _tropical_ moon; the wild country +around, with its forests and hills touched by the light; the bronzed +faces and bold figures of the men of the expedition, gazing with +natural surprise and gladness at this relief, and at the majestic +object before them; and even the cattle hurrying up from the +encampment, to cool the thirst which had pressed so severely on them +during the day, all were made for the finest efforts of the pencil. + +"By my party," says Sir T. Mitchell, "situated as we were at the +time--beating about the country, and impeded in our journey solely +by the almost total absence of water--suffering excessively from +thirst and extreme heat,--I am convinced the scene can _never_ be +forgotten! _There_ came abundance at once, the product of storms in +the far-off mountains, that _overlooked our homes_! My first impulse +was to have welcomed this flood on our knees; for the scene was +sublime in itself, while the subject, an abundance of water sent to +us in a desert, greatly heightened the effect to our eyes. I had +witnessed nothing of the kind in all my Australian travels." + +But the writer is an accomplished man of science, and he leads the +contemplation to still more glorious things, "Even the heavens +presented something new, at least uncommon, and therefore in harmony +with this scene. The variable Star of Argol had increased to the +first magnitude, just above the beautiful constellation of the +Southern Cross, which slightly inclined over the river, in the only +portion of sky seen through the trees. That very red star, thus +increasing in magnitude, might, as characteristic of her rivers, +be recognised as the 'Star of Australia,' when Europeans cross the +line. The flood gradually filled up the channel nearly bank high, +while the living cataract travelled onward much slower than I had +expected to see it; so slowly, indeed, that more than an hour after +its first arrival, the _sweet music_ of the head of the flood was +distinctly audible from my tent, as the murmur of waters and crash +of logs travelled slowly through the tortuous windings of the river +bed. I was finally lulled to sleep by that melody of waters." + +It has been often remarked, that Europeans once accustomed to a life +of wandering, can never return to the life of cities; and even the +clever journalist before us appears to have been a little captivated +with this life of the wilderness. It may be easily admitted, that +vigorous health, and active exercise, variety of objects, even if +those objects are no more than new ridges of mountains or new rills +of water; with keen appetite and sound sleep, are all excellent +things in their style. But, is life given to man only to eat, gaze, +and sleep? What is the life of the wilderness above that of the +brute? The true improvement of man, and, therefore, the especial +employment intended for man, is, that increase of knowledge, of +command over the powers of nature, and of the various means of +adding to the conveniences, comforts and value of human existence, +which, delivered down to us by our forefathers, it is our part to +deliver with increase to our posterity. But the savage improves in +nothing; he is as much a brute this year as he was a thousand years +ago. Savagery is, in practice, a total defeat and denial of all the +original purposes for which our nature was made. And it is with some +regret and more surprise, that we quote, from such a source, such +language as the following:-- + +"We set out, guided by our native friend," (a savage whom they had +hired to lead them to some water-courses.) "He was a very perfect +specimen of the _genus_ homo, and such as is _never_ to be seen, +except in the precincts of savage life, _undegraded_ by any scale +of _graduated classes_; and the countless _bars_ these present +to the free enjoyment of existence." Whether this is actually a +recommendation that we should throw off our clothes and walk in +nudity, for the purpose of recovering the original elegance of our +shapes, or whether it is the borrowed rapture of some savage in +person which the gallant officer has transplanted into his pages, +to vary his more rational conceptions, we know not; but he has +_not_ made us converts to the pleasures of cold, hunger, filth, and +bloodshed, which furnish the realities of savage life, even in the +paradisaic solitudes of Australia. + +The savage, in his original state, is simply an animal, superior to +his own dog only in sharpness of intellect; but wholly inferior to +his dog in fidelity and affection. All savages are tyrannical--cruel +to their wives, if wives they can be called--and in general +cheating and plundering wherever they can. As to their bodily +organs, of course, they cannot be perverted where they cannot +reach temptation; but no savage comprehends moral restraint, and +he gets drunk whenever he has the opportunity, and robs wherever +he finds any thing to steal. On the other hand, civilisation +necessarily enfeebles no man, and what the gallant Colonel regards +as its "degradation of man by classes," produces quite the contrary +effect; for the humbler the class, generally the more vigorous--as +the peasant is a stronger man than the artisan, and the artisan +than the nobleman. Even the idea that savage limbs can do more +than civilised, is equally erroneous. A well clothed and well fed +Englishman, if well formed, and with some training, will outwork, +outrun, and outwrestle any savage from pole to pole. A ropedancer, +a tumbler, or a horserider, at any of our theatres, though bred +in the very heart of civilisation, or even in the hotbed of its +temptations, will perform feats of activity which would defy all the +muscles of a generation of savages. The truth is, that civilisation +improves the features, the form, and the powers of the human frame. +Men in society may be indolent, and throw away their advantages; but +society is the place for man. Rousseau, once made a noise by talking +nonsense on this subject; but Rousseau _knew_ that he was talking +nonsense. Whether his imitators are equally cognisant of their own +performances, is another question; but we come to better things. + +This journey settled the disputed point of "horses or bullocks, +light carts, or heavy drays." The bullocks and the drays were a +perpetual annoyance; to feed and water the one, and to drag the +other, soon became the grand difficulty of the expedition. We find +the Colonel perpetually leaving them to follow, when any peculiar +object of exploration was in view. At length the whole "park" was +left to take its rest, under the second in command; and the Colonel, +with eight men, two native boys, fourteen horses, and two light +carts, with provisions for ten weeks, moved to the northward, to +trace where the division of the waters was to be found, and then +follow some of them down to the Gulf. + +We were not prepared for the beauty sometimes exhibited by the +Australian landscape. The Journal compares it to a succession +of Ruysdaels. "The masses of rock, lofty trees, shining sands, +and patches of water in wild confusion; the mimosae, the +Anthistiria-grass, of a red brown, contrasting most harmoniously +with the light green bushes; all those again so opposed to the dark +hues of the casuarinae, mimosae, and rifted rocks, that a Ruysdael or +a Gainsborough might have found an inexhaustible stock of subjects +for the pencil." + +This wild travelling has its discomforts, and now and then its +dangers; but it is a perpetual source of exciting sensations. +Every step is new, and every day's journey may place the traveller +within some region of unexpected value or beauty. One of the hopes +of the Journalist, on commencing this portion of his travels, was +to discover a chain of hills to the northwest, from which he might +trace the course of a river to the Gulf. At last this chain rose +before his eyes. + +"The most interesting sight to me was that of blue pics at a great +distance to the northwest, the object of all my dreams of discovery +for years. _No white man had before seen them._ There we might hope +to find the division of the waters still undiscovered--the pass to +Carpentaria still unexplored. I called this hill Mount First-View, +and descended, delighted with what I had seen from its rocky crest." +The latitude was 27 deg., yet the thermometer at sunrise was but at 45 deg., +at noon 68 deg., and at 9 P.M. 45 deg. + +The captivations of the scenery were equal to the delights of the +temperature, though so near the tropics.--"An Australian morning +is always charming. Amid those scenes of primaeval nature it seemed +exquisitely so. The barita or gymnoskina, the organ-magpie, was +here represented by a much smaller bird, whose notes, resembling +the softest breathings of a flute, were the only sounds that met +the ear. What the stillness of evening adds to such sounds in other +climes, is felt more intensely in the stillness of morn in this." + +The forms of the vegetation, both tree and shrub, are picturesque, +and the colours are finer still:--"Instead of autumnal tints, +there is a perpetual blending of the richest hues of autumn with +the most brilliant verdure of spring; while the sun's welcome +rays in a winter's morning, and the cool breath of the woods in a +summer morning, are equally grateful. This was in the depth of the +Australian winter, and, which sounds oddly to the European ear, in +the 'merry month of June.'" + +Advancing still to the north, a country of an extraordinary kind was +reached in July; and they had now found, that most important of all +objects in a wilderness, a fine "flowing stream, full of sparkling +water to the margin." The Journalist seems quite enamoured with +the surrounding scene, a miniature Australian Switzerland:--"The +hills overhanging it surpassed any I had ever seen, in picturesque +outline. Some resembled Gothic cathedrals in ruins; some forts; +other masses were perforated; and being mixed and contrasted with +the flowing outlines of evergreen woods, and having a fine stream in +the foreground, gave a charming appearance to the whole country. It +was a vision worthy of the toils of a pilgrimage. Those beautiful +recesses of unpeopled earth could no longer remain unknown. The +better to mark them out on any map, I gave to the valley the name +of Salvator Rosa. The rocks stood out sharply and sublimely from +the thick woods, just as John Martin's fertile imagination would +dash them out in his beautiful landscapes. I never saw any thing +in nature come so near those creations of genius and imagination." +But this river, which they followed for some time, ran so far to +the east, that they justly began to doubt its being the one of +which they were in search and they turned again to the north. They +now passed into a fine level country, incomparably formed for +settlement. "An almost boundless extent of the richest surface in +a solitude corresponding to that of (southern) China, yet still +unoccupied by man. A great reserve provided by Nature for the +extension of his race." + +They left the Salvator between the 21st and 22d degrees of latitude, +and moved to the north-west. There at length their aspirations, +though only partially, were probably realised. In the middle of +September they reached some heights, from which lay before them +a vast extent of open downs traversed by a river, traceable to +the utmost verge of the horizon, and falling to the _north-west_! +"Ulloa's delight at the first view of the Pacific could not have +surpassed mine," is the natural exclamation of the Journalist. "Nor +could the fervour with which he was impressed have exceeded my sense +of gratitude for being allowed to make such a discovery. From that +rock the scene was so extensive as to leave _no room for doubt_ as +to the course of the river, which, then and there revealed to me +alone, seemed like a reward direct from Heaven for perseverance, +and as a compensation for the many sacrifices which I had made, in +order to solve the question as to the interior rivers of tropical +Australia." + +From the 16th to the 24th of September the course of the river was +followed, which still was north-west, but at this period the party +returned. The reason stated is the failure of provisions. This must +have been a most vexatious disappointment--so vexatious, that we +cannot comprehend how it could have been submitted to without some +more remarkable effort than any thing that we find recorded in these +pages. That an expedition equipped for a four months' journey should +have turned back at the very moment when a few days', perhaps a +few hours', march, might have completed its object, is altogether +incomprehensible, while it had any conceivable means of subsistence. +In such a condition of things, the traveller ought to have eaten +his horse, if he could get nothing else. But there was actually, at +no great distance behind, a depot of their own bullocks and sheep, +all feeding comfortably, and, as the party found on marching back +to them, "Sheep and cattle fat, the whole a sort of farm." A good +stackyard had been set up, a storehouse had been built, a garden +had been fenced in, and contained lettuce, radishes, melons, and +cucumbers. Indeed, the whole establishment exhibited the effects of +good order and discipline. + +Why, then, did not the Journalist return on his track, and establish +the discovery which was the express object of his mission? This +exceeds our knowledge. The only direct intimation of his necessities +in these pages is, "our provisions were nearly out, the sun having +reduced the _mess sugar and melted the bacon_, which had been +boiled before we set out." Whether the _lean_ of Australian bacon +may liquefy in the sun is more than our European experience can +tell, but we presume it must be ranked among the wonders of a new +country; at all events, the Journalist returned without having +done the very thing for which his expedition had been fitted out, +and left the object to be completed by his subordinate, who was +subsequently despatched in the direction of the north-west. Thus, +though probabilities are in favour of the river, which the Colonel +named the Victoria, the point is by no means settled, and Australian +curiosity may be disappointed after all. + +As the party approached the river, they saw considerable numbers of +the natives. On reaching one of the lagoons, the shrieks of many +women and children, and the angry voices of men, apprised them that +they had at length overtaken the tribe, and unfortunately had come +on them by surprise. "Aya, minya!" was vociferated repeatedly, and +was understood to mean, "What do you want?" I steadily adhered to +my own tactics towards the aborigines, and took not the slightest +notice of them, but rode on according to my compass-bearing. On +looking back for my men, I saw one beckoning me to return. He had +observed two natives with spears and clubs hide themselves behind +a bush in the direction in which I was advancing. On my halting, +they stole away. The whole seemed to have been amusing themselves +in the water during the noonday heat, which was excessive, and the +cool shades round the lagoon looked most luxuriant. Our position, on +the contrary, was any thing but enviable. Even there, in the heart +of the interior, on a river utterly unheard of by white men, an +iron tomahawk glittered in the hand of a chief. The anxious care of +the females to carry off their children seemed the most agreeable +feature of the scene. Some had been digging in the mud for worms, +others searching for fresh-water mussels, and if the whole could +have been witnessed unperceived, such a scene of domestic life +among the aborigines had been worth a little more risk. The strong +men assumed a strange attitude, which seemed very expressive of +surprise, having the right knee bent, the left leg forward--the +right arm dropping, but grasping clubs--the left arm raised, and +the fingers spread out. "Aya, aya, minya," they continually shouted. +However, the party rode on, and the shouts died away. + +The Journalist occasionally recovers from his enthusiasm for +savagery. We have no more bursts in his earlier style, "Such +truth and exemption from disease, such _intensity_ of existence, +in short, must be far beyond the _enjoyments of civilised men_, +with all that art can do for them. And the proof of this is to +be found, in the failure of all attempts to persuade these free +denizens of uncultivated earth to forsake it for the tilled ground. +They prefer the land, unbroken and free from the earliest curse +pronounced against the first banished and first created man." All +this unfortunately shows nothing, but that the gallant Colonel would +be the wiser for going back to his Bible, where he would find the +words, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake." +But at last (page 328) we have a sketch of the reality. "It would +appear that, the finer the climate and the fewer man's wants, the +more he sinks towards the condition of the lower animals. Where the +natives had passed the night, no huts, even of bushes, had been set +up. A few tufts of dry grass only marked the spot, where, beside a +small fire, each person had sat, folded up like the capital letter +N. Their occupation during the day was only wallowing in a muddy +hole, in no respect cleaner than swine. They have no idea of any +necessity for washing themselves between their birth and the grave, +while groping in mud for worms." After admitting the filth, the +indolence, and the uselessness of the savage; contrasting, however, +his teeth and tongue favourably with those of the civilised man or +child, of which he pronounces it to be "ten to one but he should +find _only impurity and decay_," (a point in which we are wholly +at issue with him,) he asks, "what then is civilisation in the +economy of the human animal?" He answers, "Cultivated man despises +the perishable substance, and pursues the immortal shadow." We are +but little satisfied with the language of this solution, nor is +its meaning much more intelligible. In the first place, man, in a +civilised state, does not necessarily injure his bodily organs. The +fool who cannot stir, or even sit, without a cigar in his mouth, or +the drunkard who continually sacrifices health and understanding +to intoxication, has only to condemn himself. But, give the savage +tobacco and rum, and he will as speedily destroy his organs, and +bring himself to the grave, as the most civilised profligate in +existence. And as to the grand supposed use of civilisation--the +fixing our minds on "immortal shadows"--if by this he meant giving +us ideas of religion, there are many highly civilised nations +which think but very little of religion, and many highly civilised +persons who think of it nothing at all. Yet, it is only justice to +the gallant Colonel to quote this sentence. "Animal gratification +is transient and dull compared to the acquisition of knowledge, the +gratification of mind,--the raptures of the poet, or the delight +of the enthusiast, however imaginary. Such were my reflections on +this day of rest, in the heart of a desert, while protected from the +sun's rays by a blanket." + +But even his metaphysics are entirely a misconception. The original +purpose of civilisation is, to enable man to live in society; that +is, in peace, with the advantages of mutual assistance. That those +objects are powerfully aided by religion is true, and that science +may be best cultivated in settled life, is equally true; but those +are merely collateral. Civilisation means the work of law, of safe +intercourse, of secure property, and of all the safeguards of +society which ultimately enable man to polish the general manners, +and to improve the general mind. Religion is not the consequence, +but the origin of Civilisation. + +We now take leave of the journey, with the sketch of the rivers. +After moving for some distance between two streams, they approached +the junction, which formed--"the broad, deep, and placid waters of a +river as deep as the Murray. Pelicans and ducks floated upon it, and +mussel shells of extraordinary size lay in such quantities, where +the natives had been in the habit of eating them, as to resemble +snow covering the ground. But even that reach seemed diminutive, +when compared with the vast body of water of which traces had been +left there; affording evidence, that though wide, they must have +been impetuous in their course. Verdure alone shone now, over the +wide extent to which the waters sometimes rose. Beyond that channel +lay the almost boundless plains; the whole together forming the +finest region I had ever seen in Australia." + +Still the luckless character of the Australian rivers appears; and +after expecting that this fine channel, which there seemed navigable +for steamers, would continue, in a few miles more it exhibited only +ponds. Whether the great central stream may not exhibit the same +caprice, is still the question. + +The party returned to Sydney in January 1847; and in March, Mr +Kennedy, the second in command, was sent, as has been already +stated, to explore the course of the Victoria. + +There are some valuable observations on the aborigines. It is +said that they have good natural faculties, all one of them +named Uranigh, an attendant on the expedition, obtains especial +praise for sagacity, fidelity, and courage. But, from inevitable +circumstances, it appears to be the fate of the natives to waste +away before the European blood, and, even without any violence +or oppression, gradually to vanish. To teach them to earn their +bread, to adopt European habits of any kind, or even to live with +any sense of comfort in the vicinity of European settlers, seems +impossible, and thus they gradually retire into the interior. This +process has so uniformly occurred in all colonised countries, where +a new civilisation has been introduced, that it may be regarded as +almost a law of nature. "Fire, grass, and kangaroos," are essential +to native life; and when the pastures are no longer suffered to be +burned, and when the kangaroos disappear, the savage _must_ retire. +Sir T. Mitchell's favourite project would be, to send away a young +married pair to the south of Europe, where they might learn the +cultivation of the grape and olive, fig, &c.; then to bring them +back with their children. But we are afraid they would make but few +converts; that the benevolent experiment would be totally thrown +away; and that the poor, idle, and useless being, whom Sir Thomas +will persist in calling the noble savage, must be left to eat rats +and mice, to live in misery and wretchedness, and to be inevitably +pushed into the wilderness, to make way for a superior class of +human capability. + +But, regarding the condition of the natives as utterly beyond +European influence, except so far as it may and ought to be exerted +to protect them from all injury,--there are other questions of high +importance, relative to the condition of the convicts. The preamble +of the Transport Act made the reformation of the culprit a primary +object. There never was any use of forced labour so effective. The +galley-slaves of France and Italy were in general made more wicked, +if possible, by their imprisonment and work. We think it also +next to an impossibility that any culprit, punished by temporary +imprisonment, and then thrown out again among his associates, _can_ +change his habits. Who will employ a known felon? A single act of +robbery may give him more means of gross gratification, than he +could obtain by the severest toil in a twelvemonth. The temptation +is too strong. The only hope of his recovery, is in his being sent +where his bad character will not utterly prevent his getting a good +one; where he will have profitable work, (let the profit be more or +less;) where he will have few temptations, and none of his old ones; +and where he may have a prospect of bettering his condition among +his fellows. All these he had, and has, in New South Wales. + +But it is remarkable and unfortunate, that we seldom have a new +head of the colonial department who does not bring with him some +new theory; and the fashionable theory now is, to try the effect of +prison discipline. We have no hesitation in denouncing this theory, +as ineffectual, intolerably costly, highly dangerous, and even +actually cruel. We take the points in succession: we doubt whether +it has really reformed one prisoner out of a thousand. Its expense +is enormous: the single prison at Millbank cost a million sterling, +and probably L100,000 a-year for its support. The model prison at +Pentonville is an architectural _bijou_, but terribly expensive. +Men cannot be reformed by turnkeys in the most moral costume, or by +locks of the most exquisite invention.--It is dangerous: because +those felons, once let loose, almost invariably become felons +again; and a general jail-delivery once a year, from handcuffs and +shackles, may people the streets with ruffianism.--It is even cruel. +The prisoners are not merely deprived, for a long succession of +years, of all healthful exercise--for who ever could take healthful +exercise within prison walls?--but shut out from all the view and +enjoyment of nature, and especially from matrimony; they cannot +be husbands or fathers. It is true, that the felon forfeits all +rights, if they are found incompatible with the public safety; but +we have no _right_ to inflict on him any suffering beyond that +which is absolutely necessary. If by sending him to Australia we +can accomplish, without cruelty, those objects which we _cannot_ +accomplish without cruelty at home, it is our duty to send him to +Australia. + +We know that a middle system of imprisonment, to be followed by +transportation, has been attempted, but we have no faith in its +operations. The true place is Australia. + +Sir Thomas Mitchell, the very best authority on such subjects, tells +us, "There is no country in which labour appears to be more required +to render it available to, and habitable by civilised man, than New +South Wales. _Without_ labour, the inhabitants must be savages, or +such helpless people as we find the Aborigines. With equal truth, it +may be asserted that there is _no region_ of earth susceptible of so +much improvement solely by the labour and ingenuity of man." There +are no unwholesome savannahs; the rocky ranges afford the means of +forming reservoirs, &c., of water, which, under the tropics, is +life, abundance, and health; there is an immensity if it be properly +used, and Australia might be made the finest scene of vegetation and +luxuriance in the world. + +We take our leave of this volume with regret. It is strikingly +written; it excites and rewards curiosity, and (a few rambling +ideas excepted) it powerfully increases our interest in Australian +discovery, and in that whole mighty region of the Pacific, which +God's providence has given into the hands of England, for the +happiness of mankind. + + + + +SIBERIA. + +_Travels in Siberia: including Excursions Northwards, down the Obi +to the Polar Circle, and Southwards to the Chinese Frontier._ By +ADOLPH ERMAN. Translated from the German by W. R. COOLEY. Two vols. +London, 1848. + + +Of no important portion of the dominions of the five great European +powers are such vague and imperfect notions entertained, as of the +vast tract comprised between Russia in Europe and the Kamschatkan +sea, between the Chinese empire and the Arctic Ocean. Courageous +explorers have not been wanting, of the inclement steppes and +rugged mountains forming Europe's bulwark against the Mongul and +the Tartar. Men of enterprise and distinction have undertaken the +task, and executed it well. But their journeys, usually performed +with special objects and scientific views, have been recorded +for the most part in a similar spirit. Either an ardent love of +science and zeal for its advancement, or the strong encouragement +and liberal subsidies of an enlightened government, are requisite +inducements to brave the perils and hardships of Siberian travel. +The mere inquisitive and speculative traveller has difficulty +in persuading himself, that the country can reward him for the +discomfort and inconvenience he must endure in traversing it. Not +that Siberia is entirely devoid of wild attractions and romantic +associations. To the adventurous hunter, its vast forests and +thinly-peopled plains give assurance of sport. The motley character +of its native and immigrant population affords to the philosopher +curious matter of consideration. A place of deportation for traitors +and criminals--and not unfrequently for the innocent--its name is +inseparably connected with the memory of innumerable unfortunates +who have there pined out their existence in expiation of crime, +or in obedience to mandates often as unjust as arbitrary. Fallen +favourites of the Czars, rebels against their tyranny, traitors to +their person, murderers, and other malefactors, and even prisoners +of war, have here found a living grave till released by death, +clemency, or flight. Did the tears of exiles fertilise, Siberia +should be a teeming land. Since its first subjugation by Ivan the +Terrible, how many a Russian magnate, lord of thousands of serfs, +owner of millions of rubles, proud of his position, and confident +of imperial favour, has suddenly found himself travelling eastward +under escort, banished and a beggar. How many mournful trains of +minor offenders have plodded their weary way across the Uralian +chain, guarded by barbarian Bashkirs, to labour in the mines of +Nerchinsk, or to lead a peasant's toilsome life on the margin of the +Frozen Sea. From those vast and ice-bound regions, escape can rarely +be accomplished. But at intervals, during the last five-and-thirty +years, bearded and toil-worn men of martial aspect have crossed the +German frontier, and astonished those they accosted by wild tales +of suffering, and ignorance of the most notorious events. Some have +inquired for Napoleon, and wept when they learned he was a captive, +or dead. Circumstances of current history, known to each child +and peasant, were to them a mystery and a marvel. These strange +wanderers, escaped from long bondage in Siberia, were amongst the +last survivors of that countless host led northwards by a Corsican's +ambition, and whose funeral pile was lighted in Moscow's city. + +Amongst the delineators of Siberia and its inhabitants, of the +produce, customs, and peculiarities of the country and its people, +one of the most successful is the German gentleman and scholar whose +admirable work has just now appeared in a clever English dress. +The son of a man of great learning and high attainments, Mr Adolph +Erman treads nobly in his father's footsteps. Still young, he has +done much to increase the lustre of the honourable name transmitted +to him. Born in the year 1806, he was but two-and-twenty years of +age when he undertook, at his own cost, a journey round the world, +having for its chief object a series of magnetical observations. The +expedition was completely successful. Starting from Berlin to St +Petersburg, he crossed northern Asia, with occasional digressions +of a few hundred leagues, took ship at Okhotsk for Kamschatka, +thence proceeded to California, visited Otaheite, and came round by +Cape Horn and Rio Janeiro to Europe and Berlin. Then he sat down to +write of what he had seen, entitling his work--"Journey round the +Earth, across North Asia and both Oceans." But the tale of travel +so extensive takes time to tell; and, up to the present date, +he has not protracted his narrative beyond Okhotsk. What he has +done, however, is complete in itself, very interesting, and withal +somewhat voluminous, since its abridged translation forms two heavy +octavos, heavy in amount of paper and print, but not, we must in +justice admit, in the nature of their contents. Whilst recording +scientific investigations, the author does not neglect subjects more +generally interesting. Upon all he brings to bear an extraordinary +amount of reading and research. The result is a book of travels of +no ephemeral nature, but that will long be esteemed as a standard +work, and respected as a valuable authority. + +Mr Erman commences his narrative of travel on the day of his +departure from Berlin; but its earlier portion has been compressed +by the translator, in order to escape as soon as possible from +Europe, and get upon the less trodden ground east of Tobolsk. Much +has been written of late years concerning European Russia and its +inhabitants, and it was hardly to be expected that even so acute +an observer as Mr Erman should find any thing particularly novel +to say about them. He takes a sensible and practical view of the +condition, character, and disposition of the population; and is +happy in his detection and indication of national peculiarities. +He does not, like the majority of travellers in Russia, enter the +country with a settled determination to behold nothing, from the +White Sea to the Black, but oppression and cruelty on the one +hand, slavery and suffering upon the other. He does not come to a +premature decision, that because Russia is ruled by an absolute +monarch, all happiness, prosperity, and justice are essentially +banished from the land. It is really pleasant to find a deviation +from the established routine of books about Russia. These are now +nearly all concocted upon one and the same plan. The recipe is as +exact as any in Mrs Rundell: and is as conscientiously adhered to +by literary cooks, as that great artist's invaluable precepts are +by knights and ladies of the ladle. Tyranny, misery, and the knout +are the chief ingredients of the savoury dish. We are shown a nation +of cretins, crushed under the boot-heel of an imperial ogre; whilst +a selfish, servile aristocracy salaam their admiration, and catch +greedily at the titles and gewgaws thrown to them as a sop by their +terrible master. This is the substance of the mess, which, being +handsomely garnished with lying anecdotes of horrible cruelties +practised upon the unfortunate population, is deemed sufficiently +dainty to set before the public, and is forthwith devoured as +genuine and nutritive food by the large body of simpletons who take +type for a guarantee of veracity. Mr Erman despises the common trick +and claptrap resorted to by vulgar writers. Avoiding anecdotage, and +abuse of the powers that be, he gives, in brief shrewd paragraphs, +glimpses of Muscovite character and feelings, which clearly prove +the people of that vast empire to be far happier, more prosperous, +and more practically free, than the inhabitants of many countries +who boast of liberty because anarchy has replaced good government. +Judging less from any distinct assertions or arguments advanced in +these volumes, than from their general tenor, and by the inferences +to be gleaned from them, we must consider the Russians a contented +and flourishing nation, likely to make the larger strides in +civilisation that they are unimpeded by revolutionary agitation. +Propagandists meet little encouragement amongst the loyal and +light-hearted subjects of the autocrat. "We have often observed at +Moscow," says Mr Erman, "birch-trees hewn for fencing, yet still +alive in the horizontal position, and throwing out shoots. The +great distinction of the vegetable nature in this region is its +tenacity of life; and, singularly enough, the same capability of +existing under oppression, and of withstanding stubbornly every +revolutionising influence, is here the characteristic of man also. +The ear of the stranger is sure, at every turn of conversation, to +catch the sounds--'Kak ni bud,' (no matter how,) with which the +Russians are used to give expression to their habitual indifference, +and renunciation of all care.... Notwithstanding the great variety +of condition which the population exhibit, every thing has the stamp +of nationality, and an obstinate adherence to established usage +may be plainly recognised as a fundamental principle. Some foreign +customs, indeed, are adopted from strangers residing in Moscow; but +they are, at the same time, so changed as to be assimilated to the +national manners. Russian nationality may be compared to a river, +which receives other streams without changing its name; or, still +better, to a living organism, which, while devouring every variety +of food, continues still the same." + +It was on the 29th of July that Mr Erman, who travelled in +company with the Norwegian professor Hansteen, left Moscow, and +moved eastwards, passing through a productive country, strewn +with populous and comfortable villages. At Pokrof, his first +halting-place, his chamber walls were adorned with rude carvings and +paintings, whose subjects were taken from the events of 1812, and +represented the valiant deeds of the peasantry. Buikova, a village +forty miles east of Moscow, was the farthest point to which the +French penetrated. Their invasion has left but a faint impression +upon the popular mind in Russia--even in Moscow, which suffered so +much at their hands. Conflagrations have been common occurrences +in that city, and the inhabitants are accustomed to be burned out. +We read of seven such events, from the thirteenth to the beginning +of the nineteenth century, in all of which the destruction was +complete, or very nearly so. The fire of 1812 spared many of the +stone churches, on whose towers "the Mahomedan crescent rises above +the cross, a monument of earlier revolutions. The yoke of the Tatars +was so lasting and oppressive, that later events of a similar kind +seem comparatively unimportant; and even the French invasion is +here thought little of, being usually compared with the irruptions +of the Pechenegues and that of the Poles in later times, but never +set on a level with the Tatar domination." The French have little +prestige in Russia. Whatever respect they previously enjoyed there, +was completely annihilated by the pitiful figure they cut in the +Moscow campaign; retreating, as they did, a ragged, disorderly, +frost-bitten remnant, before a swarm of armed peasants and irregular +horse. And Muscovite sign-painters and saint-carvers decorate +village walls with episodes of the disastrous overthrow of an army, +probably the most powerful and really efficient ever got together. +Any notion entertained by the Russians of French invincibility was +as completely dissipated in that country by the events of 1812, +as it was in Germany by the ensuing, and scarcely less important, +campaign of 1813. + +Passing Murom, where a sort of Yankee tradition exists of a +"robber-nightingale," which entices travellers into the woods by +its song, and then kills them by the power of its notes, Mr Erman +reached Nijni Novgorod at the moment of the great annual fair. The +mixture of European and Asiatic produce and manufactures gives the +Russian fairs an appearance singularly striking to the foreigner's +eye. Things the most opposite are there brought together. _Obrasa_, +or Greek holy images, amulets, and other objects used in the +solemnities of the Graeco-Russian church, are seen in juxtaposition +with the elegant luxuries and superfluities of extreme European +civilisation. The clumsy carvings of Uralian peasants are found in +the next warerooms to the fragile and fashionable masterpieces of +a Parisian milliner. The chief part of the goods come from great +distances. Amongst the important articles of traffic are tea from +China, horse-hides from Tatary, iron bars from Siberia, shawls +of camel's-down from Bokhara. The Bokharians also import large +quantities of cotton, partly raw and partly spun. This is one of the +principal objects of trade at Nijni. Concerning the origin of this +useful substance, curious fables were current in Russia not quite a +century ago. "It appears to me certain," says Mr Erman, "that the +story of the zoophytic plant called Baranez, or lamb-plant (formed +as a diminutive from Baran, a sheep,) originated in some embellished +account of the cotton plant. Herberstein relates it at full length +and unchanged, just as he had heard it. 'There has been seen, near +to the Caspian Sea, a seed, rather larger and rounder than that of +a melon, from which, when set in the ground, is produced something +similar to a lamb, of the altitude of five palms, having a very fine +fleece, &c., &c. The German edition of Herberstein (Basel, 1563) +adds that the Baranez has a head, eyes, ears, and all the limbs, +like a sheep. But it mentions correctly '_the very fine fleece +which the people of that country commonly made use of to pad their +caps withal_.' This is the ordinary use which the Tatar tribes +in general make of cotton at the present day." The fair at Nijni +lasts two months, and brings together six hundred thousand persons +of different nations and tribes, or about thirty-three times the +number of the stationary population. It produces a large revenue +to the imperial treasury,--the letting of the wooden booths, and +of two thousand five hundred and twenty-two stone storerooms, (to +each of which latter is attached a chamber for the owner of the +goods to live in) alone yielding, so far back as 1825, nearly four +hundred thousand rubles; whilst the population of the government, or +district, amounting to nearly a million of souls, paid taxes to the +amount of fourteen millions of rubles. + +Nijni Novgorod is the point of rendezvous for criminals from the +western provinces of the empire, condemned to Siberian exile. They +arrive there in small detachments, to pursue their journey in +large bodies. In the vicinity of every post-house along the road +is another building known as the Ostrog or fort, which is merely a +large barrack divided into numerous small chambers, and surrounded +by a fence of palisades, where the convicts are lodged upon the +journey. From various passages scattered through Mr Erman's book, it +appears that these Siberian exiles are by no means so badly treated +as has frequently been stated and believed. In most instances the +punishment derives its severity less from any painful toil or cruel +discipline imposed upon them, than from the rigidity of the climate, +the separation from friends, and the mortal ennui those accustomed +to civilisation and society cannot but experience, whilst leading +the monotonous life of a peasant or Cossack in regions as dreary +as any the globe's surface affords. The first caravan of prisoners +encountered by Mr Erman, at about a hundred versts beyond Nijni, +were well clothed and cared for, and seemed neither dissatisfied +with their past journey, nor overwhelmed with care about the +future. "With every train of them are several waggons, drawn by +post-horses, to carry the women and the old and infirm men; the +rest follow in pairs, in a long train, after the waggons, escorted +by a militia established in the villages. It is but rarely that +one sees special offenders with fetters upon their legs during the +march." The majority of tales circulated by romancing travellers, +with reference to Siberian exile, have little foundation save in +the imagination of the narrators. Amongst these fictions is to +be reckoned the statement that certain classes of the banished +are compelled to pass their lives in hunting the sable, and other +animals. The great majority of the delinquents are condemned only to +settle in Siberia; and when hard labour in the Uralian mines, and +in certain manufactories, is superadded, it is generally for a year +or other limited period. Those of the peasant class have to support +themselves, whilst offenders of a higher rank, and unused to manual +labour, have an allowance made them by the government. In various +places Mr Erman met with exiles, from some of whom he obtained +curious information. They are usually known by the mild name of +"_the unfortunates_," and are held in no particular disfavour by +the natives, with whose families they intermarry. By a remarkable +enactment of the Russian law, serfs, when transported to Siberia, +become in all respects as free as the peasants in western Europe. Mr +Erman refers to this with strong approval, and attributes to it the +happiest results. "I have often," he says, "heard intelligent and +reflecting Russians mention, as an almost inexplicable paradox, that +the peasants condemned to become settlers, all, without exception, +and in a very short time, change their habits and lead an exemplary +life; yet it is certain that the sense of the benefit conferred +on them by the gift of personal freedom is the sole cause of this +conversion. Banishment subservient to colonisation, instead of +close imprisonment, is, indeed, an excellent feature in the Russian +code; and though the substitution of forced labour in mines for the +punishment of death may be traced back to Grecian example, yet the +improving of the offender's condition by bestowing on him personal +freedom, is an original as well as an admirable addition of a +Russian legislator." It is of course by the higher class of exiles +that the banishment is most severely felt; but these live in the +towns, that the succour received from government may reach them the +more easily, and submit, for the most part, with great equanimity +to the startling change from the luxury of Moscow or St Petersburg, +to the dulness and simplicity of Tobolsk, and even of worse places. +Some of them have to do penance in church for a certain time after +their arrival, and a portion of these continue the practice when +it is no longer compulsory. At Beresov, a town in western Siberia, +which Mr Erman passed through on an excursion northwards from +Tobolsk, the oral chronicles of the inhabitants furnish curious +details of the numerous illustrious exiles who have there ended +their days. Menchikoff, the well-known favourite of Peter I., was +one of these. "After his political extinction, he prepared himself, +by devout penitence, for his natural decease. He worked with his +own hands in erecting the little wooden church, now fallen to +decay, which stands thirty or forty feet above the bank of the +Sosva, at the southern extremity of the town: he then served in it +as bell-ringer, and was finally buried by the grateful inhabitants +of Beresov, immediately before the door of the building." It was +here, at Beresov, that Mr Erman fell in with a number of unlucky +conspirators, who had lost fortune, rank, and home, by their +association in a recent abortive revolutionary attempt. Amongst them +were a M. Gorski, at one time a count and general of cavalry, and +the ex-chieftains Focht and Chernilov. They usually wore the costume +of the country, but upon holidays they donned European coats, _in +order to display the vestiges of the orders which had once been +sewed upon them_. A curious instance of vanity, traceable, perhaps, +to a desire to distinguish themselves from persons condemned to the +same punishment for crimes of a more disgraceful nature. + +In the streets of Yekaterinburg, the first town of importance after +crossing the Asian boundary, parties of exiles are a frequent +spectacle; the number passing through in a year being estimated at +five thousand, or about two-fifths of the annual export of convicts +to Siberia, as stated by Mr Stepanov, whose statement, however, +Mr Erman seems disposed to consider exaggerated. The detachments +are usually guarded by Kosaks of the Ural, and by a company of +Bashkir militia. These Uralian Kosaks are well uniformed, armed, +and mounted, and enjoy the same privileges as the Kosaks of the +Don. They are allowed an immunity from every impost, but are bound +to devote themselves to the public service. Touching the Bashkirs, +another irregular and half-savage militia, serving to swell the +ranks of Russia's enormous army, Mr Erman, who made some stay at +Yekaterinburg, the northern limit of their residence, gives curious +particulars. They are the only aboriginal Siberian tribe whose mode +of life regularly alternates from the nomadic to the fixed. Their +winters are passed in permanent villages of wooden huts, erected +usually upon the skirt of a forest. But when spring approaches, +they collect their flocks and herds, strap hair tent-cloths upon +their saddles, and are off to the plains. They appear to live +upon horseback, and are indolent, indocile, and useless out of +the saddle. The only thing the men do, is to drive home the mares +at milking-time; all other domestic toil is left to the women. +And although grass abounds in the summer pastures, hay is unknown +amongst them. The cattle sustain life in winter as best they may, on +stunted or decayed herbage, sought under the snow and gathered on +the dunghills. Fermented mare's milk is the favorite drink of the +Bashkirs, who live chiefly upon mutton and fish, and upon the fruit +of the bird-cherry (_Prunus padus_) kneaded into a sort of cake. +In the chase they make use of hawks, which they are particularly +skilful in training. The smaller species of these birds are used to +take hares, whilst the greater will strike foxes, and even wolves. +The roving careless life of the Bashkirs possesses a peculiar charm, +admitted even by the civilised Russians; and it is with no good will +that, on the return of winter, the tribes re-enter their settled +habitations. "They approach them with reluctance, and believe that +Shaitan, or the evil spirit, has taken up his abode in the huts that +oppress them with such a sense of restraint. The men accordingly +remain at some distance from the settlement, and send the women +forward, armed with staves, with which they strike the door of every +hut, uttering loud imprecations; and it is not till they have made +the rounds with their noisy exorcisms, that the men ride forward at +full speed and with terrific shouts, to banish the dreaded demon +from his lurking-place." The chief weapon of these Bedouins of the +north is the same which so forcibly excited Captain Dalgetty's +risibility upon his visit to the Children of the Mist. But although +in these days of Paixhans and percussion, bows and arrows certainly +appear rather anomalous, they are by no means contemptible weapons +in the hands of some of the Siberian tribes. Of this Mr Erman had +abundant opportunity to convince himself, especially when his ramble +northwards from Tobolsk brought him amongst the Ostyaks of the river +Obi. The ordinary hunting weapons of these people are bows six feet +long, of very slight curve, and from which four-feet arrows are +discharged with murderous effect. Much practice and strength are +required to draw these bows; and our scientific traveller, who, not +having taken the necessary precaution of shielding the left arm with +a piece of horn, from the recoil of the string, had been unable to +draw his bow to more than one third of the arrow's length, was not a +little astounded to see an Ostyak pigmy, with sore eyes and a sickly +aspect, send a blunt arrow one hundred and sixty feet, and strike +the object aimed at, the stem of a larch, near its summit, fully +sixty feet from the ground. Blunt arrows, headed with flattened iron +balls, are used to kill sables and squirrels, that the skin may +not be injured; the sharp ones are a settler for any quadruped the +country produces. + +After many days' journey through Tatar villages of wooden huts, +and towns that are little better, the first view of Tobolsk, +obtained some miles before reaching the place, is quite imposing; +and the traveller, who might think he had got a few stages +beyond civilisation, is cheered and encouraged by the sight of +church-towers, lofty monasteries, and well-built houses. In vain +does he seek an inn. Such things are unknown in Siberia; and, if he +has no acquaintance in the town, he must apply to the police-master, +who recommends him to the hospitality of an inhabitant, by whom he +is made welcome during his stay, without demand for remuneration, +although, if proffered, it will sometimes be accepted. In this +manner Mr Erman and his companions were accommodated in the upper +storey of a well-built wooden house; and here their progress +eastward was arrested by the character of the weather. It was the +commencement of October, the period of transition from summer to +winter, and the traveller's entrance into the town was rendered +memorable by a heavy fall of snow--"white flies," as the postilions +called the flakes, which they beheld with much pleasure. Their +satisfaction was probably owing to the fact that in Siberia the +coldest part of the year is the most favourable for travelling, a +matter of interest to people of their profession. But the moment of +transition, whilst the struggle lasts between summer and winter, +when snow encumbers the ground, and frost has not yet hardened it, +is known, as well as the similar period at the close of winter, +as "the time of the unroading," (spoiling of the roads;) and the +Russians have even manufactured a verb "to be unroaded." The snow +obstructs wheeled carriages, and forbids the use of the sledge; +and, unless peremptorily compelled to move forward, the Russian +merchants--the most experienced of Siberian travellers--await, in +some convenient resting-place, the hardening of the winter road. +From Mr Erman's account, a better place than Tobolsk could scarcely +be found, in those wild regions, wherein to pass a few weeks of +compulsory inaction. Nevertheless, and although cordially received +by the governor-general, Velyaminov, from whom, and from other +Russian officers, he got much useful information, our traveller was +impatient to be off. He had a pet scheme in view. From the very +commencement of the journey he had planned an excursion to the mouth +of the Obi, within the Arctic circle. To this he was partly induced +by the desire of tracing certain magnetic lines, and partly by "the +alluring prospect of enjoying, on the northern part of the Obi, +the first undisturbed intercourse with the aboriginal possessors +of the land, where they are little changed by foreign influence." +Accordingly, towards the middle of November, the drifting ice upon +the Irtuish having united into a solid sheet, Mr Erman joyfully +made final preparations for his journey to Obdorsk. They were few, +and soon completed. A Kosak guide and interpreter, a fur dress, +a copper kettle, bread and ham, salted salmon and caviar, were +stowed in a couple of sledges, one of which was light enough to +be drawn by dogs or reindeer. It was held advisable also to take +out a fresh passport, signed by the governor of Tobolsk, in lieu of +the one delivered at St Petersburg, for, in places far removed from +the great road across Siberia, people have confused and indistinct +notions of the power which issues from the capital of the empire. +The larger sledge was provided with otvodi or guides--two strong +bars placed lengthways on either side the carriage to prevent +an upset. "Towards the end of winter, the snow-ways, which are +constantly travelled upon, have an undulating surface, like that +of a stormy sea, and give the sledge a motion so like that of a +ship tossed on the waves, that travellers unused to it often grow +sea-sick on the road, and the use of otvodi is a very necessary +precaution." Russian travelling, delightfully rapid, has many +drawbacks. Upon the log-roads, (formed of tree-trunks,) the violent +and incessant jolting is said to have even worse effects than the +excessive undulations of the sledge. After a few years, it not +only brings on a complete paralysis of the mental faculties of the +Russian postilions, but also occasions spinal disease, to such an +extent as to have obtained for those roads the significant name of +spine-crushers. + +On the 22d November, when Mr Erman began his slide northwards, +traffic had not yet given the road that wavy configuration so +uncomfortable to the bilious traveller. The post from Tobolsk to +Beresov had made but one journey on the winter-track, and the +sledges glided rapidly and smoothly on the almost virgin snow-way. +Beyond Tugalova, a village 140 miles from Tobolsk, they travelled on +the frozen Irtuish, and frequently passed the self-acting machinery +used for the winter fishing. This consists of a strong pole in an +inclined position, with its lower extremity frozen fast in the +ice. "At the upper end of this pole was a continuation made of +switches, which, bending down, reached to the surface of the ice; +at that point was a hole through which was let down the hook and +line. The upper part of the apparatus is seen bent down more or less +according as the bait is still untouched, or as a fish pulling at +it has freed a check put to the elasticity of the rod, and is thus, +in consequence of its own efforts, drawn nearer to the surface of +the water." The ingenuity of this contrivance would avail little, +however, were not means found of rousing the sleepy sturgeon from +their winter slumbers. They lie in muddy hollows in the bed of the +river, quite motionless, and clustered together for the sake of +warmth. To awaken them, hard balls of clay, heated in the fire, are +thrown from time to time into the water, below the line. Driven from +their resting-place, they swim up stream, according to their custom, +and come upon the bait. This mode of fishing is very productive. +Fishing, of one kind or other, is the principal occupation of the +Ostyaks, in the heart of whose country, after three or four days' +journey, Mr Erman found himself. The rivers abound with excellent +fish--eels, especially, being very abundant, but not much eaten, +although their skins are in great request as window-panes. These are +rubbed with fat, to make them more transparent, but there are small +roundish swellings in the skin which refract and confound the rays +of light. A better substitute for glass is a flake of ice, used by +the Sosnovian Ostyaks, a tribe further north. The flakes are about a +foot thick, and are propped from without by a pole, whose lower end +bears obliquely against the ground. The fire, kept burning in the +hut, thaws the inner surface of the ice, rendering it smooth as a +mirror. A whiter and brighter light penetrates through these windows +than through the fish-skins, which the Sosnovians use for boots, and +even for clothes. Strong and air-tight, and well rubbed with fat, +they are almost as warm as fur, and better against the wet. + +The commencement of a fishing season or expedition is celebrated +by the Ostyaks with all manner of queer saturnalia. Although +nominally Christians, and accustomed to attend church once a-year, +they are very heathenish in some of their rites and ceremonies, +and make a strange jumble of their old superstitions and their new +faith. The priests do not invariably set them a good example. +"Our Russian informant complained bitterly of the priest in his +neighbourhood, who came into the village on holidays so drunk, that +the congregation assembled to no purpose." With such pastors, no +wonder if the sheep cleave to some of their ancient usages. Those +who are departing on an expedition, slaughter a tame animal, and +smear their faces with its blood, accompanying the sacrifice with +a carousal. In one village Mr Erman found the huts remarkably +empty, and was told that the men had just gone a-fishing, and that +their wives were drinking brandy in the kabak or public-house. The +sale of spirits in Siberia, as in all the Russian dominions, is a +government monopoly, and brandy is only to be had in certain houses, +to whose keepers the privilege is farmed. In a small dark room, +scarcely ten paces wide, Mr Erman found ten or twelve Ostyak dames +clustered round the bottle, and benevolently drunk. His account of +their maudlin state is amusingly grave and sentimental. "A number +of short corpulent figures, with black sparkling eyes, could be +just seen, moving and mingling together, in the narrow space. They +all talked with animation, and with remarkably delicate voices, +which now gave expression only to soft and joyous emotions. They +embraced, one after the other, the Yamschik, who entered with us; +and their soft voices, now almost whining, seemed attuned, not so +much to words of old acquaintance, as to the endearments of young +and growing love." The ladies having emptied their purses without +quenching their thirst, the good-natured German, who observed +that "the pleasure of drinking had but just risen to its highest +pitch," opened them a credit with the kabak-keeper. "They now took +especial pains to show themselves deserving of the European treat, +by good Christian observance. Devout Russians are in the habit of +neutralising the Satanic operation of spirituous liquors by a rapid +movement of the right hand, intended to describe the cross, or by a +softly-ejaculated prayer, or merely by blowing the breath upon the +glass. But the good-humoured Ostyaks, novices in Christian prayer as +in drinking, made the sign of the cross to such an extent, so slowly +and with such deep bowing of the body, as would be required by the +church only on the most solemn occasions." + +Although much engrossed by fishing, the Ostyaks do not neglect the +chase. Their thick woods abound in the better kinds of fur animals, +and the annual tribute of two sable skins, payable by each family +to the Russian government, is not very difficult to obtain. It is +seldom found necessary to pay an equivalent in other skins. Although +quite the beginning of winter, Mr Erman's host, in an Ostyak +village, showed him a fine sable skin, which he kept in a strong +box, like a treasure, concealed in a corner of his dwelling. Its +value was diminished by a yellowish tinge, ascribed to the animal's +having lived in a wood where there was too much light. Besides +sable and squirrel, the reindeer, the fox, the glutton, and the +elk, are objects of chase. Mr Erman tried to get at the fact of the +enmity said to exist between the two latter animals. The reply to +his inquiries was the old story current in Europe--how the glutton +leaps from a branch on the elk's neck, and keeps his seat till the +death of his steed. No one, however, had seen any thing of the kind: +it was matter of tradition, handed down from their dead fathers. +The ermine is taken in traps. The fox is in great variety, the +most esteemed being the crossed stone fox, whose colour is partly +a grayish yellow, partly white, so distributed that the grayish +parts unite prettily to form a cross, one bar of which extends +along the back, whilst the other stretches obliquely down the +middle ribs to the belly. The fur of this animal is greatly prized +by the Russian clergy, for whom pelisses, covered with natural +crosses, are made from it. The latitude of the town of Beresov is +the headquarters of the Siberian beaver, hunted not for the fur but +for the precious castoreum or beaver-stone, to which such great +medical virtues are ascribed. Attempts have been made in Germany +to obtain from the beavers of that country a product which might +replace that of Siberia; but all in vain. The fine quality is only +to be had in the far north, where, as Mr Erman fancifully observes, +nature scatters animal perfumes in place of fragrant flowers. +"The Kosaks and Russian traders have exalted the beaver-stone +into a panacea.... To the sentence, 'God arose, and our enemies +were scattered,' the Siberians add, very characteristically, the +apocryphal interpolation, 'and we are free from headache.' To ensure +this most desirable condition, every one has recourse, at home or on +his travels, and with the firmest faith, to two medicines, and only +two, viz., beaver-stone, or beaver-efflux, as it is here called, and +sal-ammoniac." From the strength of the castoreum, the Siberians +infer that other parts of the animal must possess peculiar virtues. +Gouty swellings are said to subside rapidly when rubbed with the +fat, and the beaver's teeth are popularly believed to cure toothach. + +The beaver is the only fur animal in these latitudes that does not +change its colour in the course of the year. This is probably owing +to the circumstance, that in winter it dwells wholly in the water, +thus enjoying a comparatively equable temperature. In the river +Obi, at Beresov, the water does not usually freeze below the depth +of four feet eight inches, and the beaver always has two entrances +to his dwelling, one high on the bank above the stream, the other +below the freezing limit. The architectural and wood-cutting habits +of the animal are the same here as in America; but two assertions, +new to Mr Erman, were made respecting it by the Beresov hunters. He +was assured that "among beavers, as with bees and men, there are +distinctions of ranks; each chief keeping a number of labourers, +the toils of which he oversees and directs without taking part in +them; and, again, it was stated that the contents of the castoreum +bags depend on the moon." It was impossible to verify the veracity +of these two statements. As regards the moon's influence, however, +there is ground for a suspicion that its advantages are rather felt +by the hunter, than essential to the virtues of the drug. Full moon +is maintained, both by Ostyaks and Russians, to be the propitious +time. + +The most northern tribe of Ostyaks, who dwell between the rivers +Obi and Yenisei, surpass their southern neighbours in venatorial +skill, as they, in their turn, are surpassed by the Samoyedes, +who live in the northernmost regions of Siberia. The men of the +Yenisei kill wolves, which, on account of their long soft hair, +are reckoned greatly superior to the forest and steppe wolves of +middle Siberia. They are also famed for their dexterity in killing +and capturing reindeer. "Tying leathern cords between the tops of +the antlers of their tame deer, they turn the animals loose, one +by one, in the neighbourhood of a wild herd: these do not fail +to attack the strangers, and their antlers becoming entangled +in the cords during the contest, they are held fast by the tame +deer till the men arrive. These Ostyaks know also how to plant +spring-bows, which send the arrow against the animal's breast." But +the Samoyedes, besides these ordinary artifices, have other and +ingenious ways, peculiar to themselves, of ensnaring and slaying +the brute creation, by putting themselves as much as possible on an +equality with the animals pursued, going on all-fours, and imitating +them in voice and clothing. The Polar bear is a common victim to +their cunning devices, and even to their open attacks; for their +intimate acquaintance with the formidable beast makes them regard +him as an easy prey. "The Samoyedes assert that the white bear far +exceeds the black bear in ferocity and strength, whilst fully equal +to it in cunning; yet, owing to his unwieldiness, they encounter it +without fear, and always reckon on victory as certain. A man will +often go singly against a Polar bear, eight feet long, without any +other weapon than his knife, which he fastens to the end of a pole. +In spring and autumn these animals are found upon the ice, near the +hole, whence the seals come forth to breathe. There the bear covers +himself up with snow, facing the hole, and with one paw stretched +into the water." The Samoyede seal-hunters imitate the bears, and +when the seal walks out upon the ice, they shove a board over +the hole and capture the phoca. Concerning the bear the Ostyaks +entertain peculiar notions, viewing it with a sort of superstitious +respect. "A member of the court of justice told me that, in suits +between Russians and Ostyaks, it is still the custom here (at +Beresov) to bring, into court the head of a bear, and that this +animal, which is supposed to be omniscient, is there appealed to +as a witness by the Ostyaks. In swearing, they make the gesture of +eating, and call upon the bear to devour them in like manner if they +do not tell the truth." Some similar reverence for Bruin exists, we +believe, amongst certain North American tribes. + +The draught-dogs, so faithful and useful to the northern Siberians, +often receive but scurvy treatment at their masters' hands. The +Ostyaks, who are honesty personified, and who laugh at the common +European precautions of locking up valuables and bolting doors, +cannot endure the predatory propensities of their canine allies, +and fly into a passion whenever an unlucky dog sneaks into their +dwelling in search of warmth or food. The poor brute is immediately +a mark for the blows and kicks of every body present, the storm +of abuse being justified by the cunning and greediness of its +object, who, if allowed to abide in the house, would soon reduce +its inmates to short commons. There is some excuse for the dogs' +voracity, however; for, according to Mr Erman's account, they are +considerably more than half-starved, and are rarely admitted to the +fire to be fed, save when they return weary and distressed from a +long journey. Severe as is the cold in those regions, protection +from it is not essential to the existence, or even to the health +of these hardy dogs. They sleep outside the houses, in holes which +they thaw in the snow by their own warmth. At Obdorsk, where there +are no pastures, and consequently no horses, four hundred dogs are +kept by sixty inhabitants, and each of them is estimated to draw +five poods' (two hundred pounds) weight in the loaded sledge. About +eight o'clock in the evening these four hundred brutes set up a +hideous howling, by way of claiming their daily meal, consisting +invariably of fish, which, for them as well as for their owners' +consumption, is first dried in the sun and then pounded, bones and +all. Except this evening concert, a bark or a cry is rarely uttered +by these dogs, unless at first starting when yoked to the sledge, +or on coming across a reindeer team upon the road. Hydrophobia +would be a terrible scourge in this dog-district, but the disease +is fortunately unknown there. Steller has stated the same thing +of the dogs of Kamschatka, and Mr Erman concludes that the malady +is a result of the European system of living in towns. And as the +Siberian dogs are so very moderately fed, he infers that excess, +not want, generates the morbid habit. We are inclined to attribute +more importance to the quality than to the quantity of the food. A +fish diet may be more conducive to a wholesome state of the animals' +blood than the masses of horse-flesh, paunch, and other rank and +unclean offal commonly given to dogs in Europe, and especially in +England, where the carnivorous addictions of the bipeds induce a +belief in the propriety of unlimited flesh-feeding for quadrupeds. + +The large annual importation of exiles, the system of conscription, +and the advantages offered to public officers volunteering for +Siberian service, are the most important and efficacious measures by +which Russia proceeds gradually but steadily with the colonisation +and civilisation of her Asiatic dominions. The conscripts are +sometimes drawn, not only from Tobolsk, but from the remotest parts +of Siberia, and the term of military service being twenty-eight +years, it is probable that only a small proportion return to their +native villages. Those who do are looked up to as oracles by +their countrymen. They are objects of pride to their families and +of respect to every body else; the place of honour is theirs by +right, and they are addressed by the title of Master Soldier.[7] +The ferry of the Irtuish, by Tobolsk, whose passage is considered +the symbol of political death to the numerous exiles who each year +cross it--bestows a step of rank on all public servants offering +themselves for duty in Siberia Proper. The passion for rank, +stronger in Russia than in any other country, drives hosts of +officers across this important boundary; but as they are not obliged +to remain more than three years, most of them return home at the end +of that time. Far nearer to St Petersburg than the Asiatic frontier, +civilisation is still at a very low ebb amongst the aboriginal +tribes. Close to Nijni Novgorod, and within a very short distance +of Moscow, the prevailing population consists of Cheremisses and +Chuvashes, two tribes many of whose customs are nearly as barbarous +as their names. These people are shy and timid, very slow in +acquiring industrious habits, and addicted to sundry practices +stamping them as semi-savages. In some places they cling to +paganism, and offer up horned beasts, fruit, and vegetables to their +various deities. The Chuvash ladies wear a sort of bustle of sheet +copper, hanging from the girdle backwards over the hips, and having +appended to it all manner of metal ornaments, making a perpetual +clatter in walking. But these tribes are the pink of refinement +by comparison with those in the northern portion of the Muscovite +empire,--with the Ostyaks, who eat out of the same trough with +their dogs, or with the Samoyedes who tear with their teeth, and +swallow with infinite relish, huge lumps of raw and reeking flesh. +The women of the latter people wear, as their favourite decoration, +(certainly no inappropriate one) a glutton's tail, hanging down the +back of their pelisse. Their hair is plaited in tails, to which all +manner of lumber, brass and iron rings, and rusty musket-locks, are +attached. Mr Erman's account of "Life in the _Chum_" (the skin tent +of the Samoyedes) is quaint and graphic. + + [7] _Gospodin Slujivui._ Gospodin is equivalent to the French + Monsieur or Seigneur, and Slujivui means literally one who has + served in the army. + +"The reindeer calf, which we had got on the way, was killed and cut +up in front of the tent a few minutes, after our arrival. The men +now brought the bleeding flesh into the tent, and began devouring +it immediately, quite raw, with the heartiest appetite. The old man +was satisfied with sucking the brain from the head, whilst each +of our younger comrades gnawed away at a limb of the animal, even +to the bone. They laughed at the amazement which my good-humoured +Esthonian attendant expressed at their blood-stained faces; and +when he gave them to understand, through the interpreter, that they +were no better than wolves, they seemed quite unprepared for such +reproof; replying gravely, that they were at the same time no worse +than the wolves, since they shared honestly with them, and left +the bones and some scraps of flesh merely for their sake." In this +same tent there was a little monster of a boy named Peina, whom one +reads of with a sort of shudder, and with a strong suspicion that +the creature was not _canny_. Mr Erman himself seems to write of +him with peculiar reserve, stating facts, but evidently unwilling +to give an opinion as to the exact nature of the beast. Peina, who +had first-rate masticators, got his share of the raw meat, which +did not prevent his drawing on his mother's lacteal resources, and +thumping her brutally till she honoured the draft, or handed him +the pot-ladle, with which he supped scalding porridge to his great +internal contentment. The travellers' bread, although frozen hard +and not easy eating for adult jaws, disappeared by wholesale within +those of Peina. At night the anomalous urchin was laid naked in a +canoe-shaped basket, and covered up so thickly with furs that his +cries seemed to come from the depths of the earth. In the morning +his mother took him from his bed and set him up, still naked, before +the fire to warm himself. Sugar, when first presented to him, +he called snow, and threw away, but when once he had tasted the +dainty, his demands for it were unceasing and peremptory. Taking +into consideration the uncomfortable and uncleanly peculiarities +of the Samoyedes, both young and old, we cannot feel surprised +that Mr Erman's interpreter conceived an intense dislike to their +society, and so managed matters that one morning, whilst the man of +science was busy measuring a base-line to ascertain the heights of +some mountains, his Samoyede companions suddenly disappeared with +their tent and their reindeer, leaving him with three ill-equipped +sledges and a few Ostyak attendants, and with no choice but to make +the best of his way back to Obdorsk, whence he soon afterwards +returned to Tobolsk. There he passed his Christmas, and then resumed +his journey; but this time in a southerly direction. After having +penetrated to sixty-seven degrees north, the region of eternal +frost, he struck southwards to the latitude of the Land's End, +making a dip into China, which furnishes some of the best chapters +in his book. + +Irkutsk, the last town of importance north of the Chinese frontier, +consists of nineteen hundred houses, fifty being of brick, and +the remainder of wood, and is probably the cheapest place in the +civilised world as regards articles of food. We say "civilised," +because, although situate in a barbarous region, and possessing +a population of a very motley character, the town has much that +is European in its aspect and usages. It possesses an exchange, +government factories, where newly-arrived convicts are employed, +a school of medicine, a gymnasium, and a handsome parade-ground. +In the market, formed of wooden booths, the stores of food were +enormous. Beef cost about a halfpenny a pound; of flour one penny +would purchase nearly eight and a half pounds; partridges and +heathfowl were sold at five farthings a-piece. But we are in haste +to get amongst the Celestials. First comes a gallop across More +Baikal, a large lake just beyond Irkutsk, on which the Russian +government maintains an armed flotilla. This gallop is a fine bit of +helter-skelter, over ice brilliant as glass. "There was no snow upon +the ice, so that its surface shone like a polished mirror in the +moonlight. The horses that were put under our sledges in Kadilnaya +had to be held on each side till the very moment of starting, when +they broke at once into full gallop, which they kept up till we +landed on the further shore. We completed seven German miles in two +hours and a quarter, undoubtedly the most extraordinary as well as +the most speedy stage upon any route in Russia." Thence, onwards +to the frontier line. "We followed the crowd that pressed forward +towards a narrow door in the front of a long wooden building. This +admitted us into the inner quadrangle of a Russian warehouse. A +corresponding door, at the opposite side of this court, opens just +upon a wooden barricade, which constitutes the barrier of China. In +this there is a wide portal, ornamented with pillars, and displaying +the Russian eagle above it, along with the cipher of the reigning +emperor, Nicholas the First, by whom it was erected." On passing +through this gate, the change is immediate and striking,--from +Russian sobriety of aspect and hue to the gaudy finery of China. +Maimachen, the name of the Chinese town visited by Mr Erman, has a +very masquerading air to a European eye. The walls on either side +of the streets do not look like house walls, the roofs being flat +and invisible from the street. "Indeed, they are nearly altogether +concealed by the gay-coloured paper lanterns and flags, with +inscriptions on them, hung out on both sides of the way. Cords, +with similar scrolls and lanterns, are likewise stretched from roof +to roof across the street. These dazzling decorations stand out +in glaring contrast with the dull yellow of the ground and walls. +In the open crossings of the streets, which intersect each other +at right angles, stood enormous chafing-dishes of cast-iron, like +basins, upon a slender pedestal four feet in height. The benches +by which they were surrounded were occupied by tea-drinkers, who +sat smoking from the little pipes they carry at their girdles, +whilst their kettles boiled at the common fire." Mr Erman had the +good fortune to be on the frontier at the period of the Chinese +festival of the White Moon, which is in fact the celebration of +the new-year, and he had the still greater luck to be invited to +share in it at Maimachen. He found the town in its gayest costume. +The expenditure of flags and lanterns was prodigious. The scrolls +usually contained the names of the families before whose houses +they were hung out, coupled with words of auspicious import, as +gladness, riches, wisdom, &c. There was a great firing of crackers +and rockets, partly to celebrate the day, but chiefly in honour of +the guests. Before dinner the latter were diverted by a theatrical +representation. Maimachen boasts a regular company of actors, and +upon this great occasion they did their best. Their orchestra was of +a rather violent description, consisting of "wooden drums, shaped +like casks, brass cymbals, and plates of the same metal, or gongs, +held by a string and beaten with knockers, and wooden truncheons, +of different sizes, which they used as castanets." There were no +actresses; but the deficiency was not to be detected, the younger +and more delicate men personating women to the life by the aid +of wigs and long tresses of black hair, but especially by curls +pressed flat upon the forehead. Masks were not used, but paint was +in abundance; in some cases with a view to represent spectacles, +mustachios, &c.; in others to conceal the human features, or give +them a monstrous aspect. "One face was covered with coloured rays, +issuing from the mouth. The same actor had also a feather on +his head--in Chinese comedy the conventional mark of a ghost or +apparition. Another wore a golden helmet, which constituted him a +warrior. Several kept beating themselves incessantly on the hip with +a cane, and by so doing intimated that they were on horseback." The +play itself was more like a game of romps than any regular dramatic +representation. Little was said; but, on the other hand, there was +a deal of dancing, drumming, and running about. Mr Erman could make +neither head nor tail of the proceedings. By way of experiment, +however, he made some tender gestures to one of the pseudo-ladies, +who acknowledged them in the most amiable manner, and after that the +horsemen without horses paid him much attention, pointing with their +sticks to his spectacles, and trying to touch them as they passed. +All this greatly diverted the Mongol audience, evidently delighted +to see a real counterpart to the painted spectacles of some of the +actors. + +The play over, Mr Erman and the other guests, preceded by the +uproarious orchestra, marched off to dinner at the house of the +sarguchei or chief officer of Maimachen. This gentleman, a tall, +thin person of stern countenance, dressed in gray velvet, had a +white button on the crown of his black felt hat, indicating his +rank, and a chalcedony ring, an inch wide, upon his right-hand +thumb, this being a mark of official dignity. "His nails," says our +traveller, "did not extend above half an inch beyond the tips of +his fingers, his personal vanity being in this respect subdued, as +might be expected in a man of sober mind and mature years." The man +of short nails and sober mind was exceeding hospitable, welcomed +his guests in a soft and sonorous voice, and sat down with them +to dinner at tables covered with scarlet cloth. The regale that +followed might have caused a European _chef_ to pale his ineffectual +fires from sheer envy. It began, oddly enough, with fruits, +sweetmeats, and tea. These discussed, a piece of fine paper, for a +napkin, and a pair of ivory chopsticks, were laid before each guest, +and the tables, which were six feet wide, were covered over thickly +with small porcelain plates full of all manner of complicated +edibles. Fat abounded in the dressing, to neutralise which weak +vinegar was used. The first series of saucers duly honoured, a +second was brought in and put on the top of its predecessor. Others +followed, and as the previous stratum was never removed, there soon +arose upon the table a lofty pile of gastronomical curiosities. +Pipes and _chowsen_, a Chinese spirit distilled from rice, concluded +the feast, as the strangers thought;--but they were vastly mistaken. +The soup course had still to come, and that was followed by an +infusion of cabbage-leaves, drawn out of an urn by a cock, and drunk +steaming hot. How a dinner commencing with preserved apricots, +and concluding with cabbage water, agreed with German stomachs, +Mr Erman does not inform us. After managing to taste upwards of +a hundred dishes, he went to visit the temple of Fo, whose court +was guarded by two clay lions painted green, whilst at his shrine +were deposited, on account of the festive season, a prodigious heap +of delicacies. Whole sheep without the skin, plucked chickens, +pheasants, and guinea-fowls, in their natural positions, and +glistening with fat, lay in hillocks at the feet of half-a-dozen +grotesque and indecent idols. On a long table, a wall of offerings +was built up, consisting of dressed meat and cakes of every kind, +the whole surrounded with an elaborate lattice-work of white dough, +five or six feet high, the openings of which were filled with dried +fruits and confectionary of the finest kind. Perfumed candles burned +before the disgusting idols, and brass discs hung from the ceiling, +and were struck with clappers when any bearing offerings approached. + +The contents of the shops at Maimachen gave Mr Erman a very +high opinion of Chinese skill and ingenuity. He saw scientific +instruments of great merit, very clever clockwork, paintings drawn +and finished with the greatest care, (although highly objectionable +by the indelicacy of their subjects,) porcelain, sculpture, bowls, +vases, and figures of various kinds of stone. "There were large +spherical bowls, and oval vases, of chalcedony and agate, and +reliefs cut in cornelians, nephrit, and other coloured stones. Of +the latter kind, the most common are flowers, the several parts of +which are formed of various and tastefully selected stones, and then +cemented with mastic on a foundation of stone. For many of these +articles, highly elaborate, and at the same time quite useless, the +merchants of Maimachen asked four thousand tea-bricks, (a standard +of currency,) or about two thousand five hundred Russian dollars. +In this we saw a proof of luxury and profuse expenditure amongst +the Chinese. Many other branches of industry indicated enervation +and effeminacy of manners:" musk, for instance, and other perfumes, +enclosed in little bags, and considered indispensable appendages +to a young man's dress. A curious plaything, considered equally +essential, is composed of two polished balls, about an inch in +diameter, which the men always carry with them. "These are taken +in the right hand, at idle times, and rolled and rubbed one over +the other with the fingers; the noise they make amuses, and perhaps +there is something agreeable also in the feel of them. Here, in +Maimachen, I saw some of these balls made of glass, striped green +and white, and, hollow, containing within them a little lump of +clay, which rattled with every motion." The musk and perfumes, +however abundantly used, are all insufficient to counteract a very +peculiar and unpleasant smell attributed by Mr Erman to the Chinese. +He first perceived it at the theatre, and took it to arise from an +inordinate addiction to leeks on the part of actors and audience, +whose breath and clothes were infected with the disagreeable +odour of that bulb. But he was subsequently induced to regard it +as a national taint, a Chinese exhalation, not to be overcome by +any amount of artificial perfume, and whose cause is matter of +inquiry for the chemist. Doubtless the Chinese would get rid of it, +were it possible so to do, for the care they bestow on personal +beauty and elegance is very great. Another striking defect in the +inhabitants of Maimachen is to be found in their black and decayed +teeth. The cause of this Mr Erman suspects to be the solution of +copper, produced by the empyreumatic oil of tobacco in the bronze +mouth-pieces of their pipes. + +At a post-house upon his road back to Irkutsk, Mr Erman and his +party were met by a deputation from no less a personage than the +Khamba Lama, the high-priest of the Buraets, a Mongolian tribe +closely allied in language and customs to the natives of the +northern provinces of China. The embassy consisted of four lamas +or priests attired in scarlet robes and bright yellow hats. They +brought an invitation to a grand festival, which was readily +accepted,--and a very remarkable business it proved to be. The +discordant theatrical music at Maimachen was a mere trifle compared +to the monstrous noise made by the Buraet kettle-drums, so large +that they were dragged upon four wheels, and by copper trumpets ten +feet long, borne by one man and blown by another. "The grave prelude +of the wind instruments was like a roaring hurricane, and the +chorus of brass gongs, drums, &c., resembled the crash of a falling +mountain." In this place we find some curious and interesting +details respecting the Buddhist religion and priesthood, after which +Mr Erman returns to Irkutsk, and resumes his journey eastward, +through the valley of the Lena, to the land of the Tunguzes and +Yakuts. The chief town of the latter people, Yakutsk, is two degrees +to the south of Beresov, which Mr Erman had visited on his way to +Obdorsk; but, nevertheless, the cold is far more severe at the +former place, where frozen earth is found near the surface all the +year round, and the same condition of the ground continues to the +depth of six hundred feet. "The inhabitants of the Swiss Alps would +not unjustly think themselves lost if they were compelled to live at +the height of ten thousand feet, or two thousand three hundred feet +above the hospital of the great St Bernard, and there to support +and clothe themselves by keeping cattle, and with the productions +of the surrounding mountains; yet they would then, and not until +they arrived at that height, be settled on ground having the same +temperature which I found here amongst the Yakuts, who are rich in +cattle. It would seem, therefore, as if that succeeded in Siberia +which was impossible in Europe, if we did not take into account +that the same constant temperature of the ground may be made up +at different places of very different elements." Notwithstanding +the severity of their climate and resistance of their frozen soil, +the Yakuts are a prosperous people, having attained a considerable +degree of civilisation, and amongst whom crime is rare, although +the influence of Russian example and contact daily renders it less +so. There is much interest in Mr Erman's account of them, and of +the wandering Tunguzses, the last tribe with whom he consorted +before his arrival at Okhotsk. Here his reception was not very +flattering. "We were looked at with much curiosity from all the +house-doors on the way, for the devout elders of the place had been +filled with anxious forebodings by the accounts of the arrival of +a foreigner. They signed themselves with the cross whenever he +was mentioned. And I learned to-day that they had fears of war, +conscription, and other calamities." Nor was their alarm abated by +learning that "the heathen foreigner wore snow-shades (spectacles) +even in thick weather, and that he carried a dog in the sledge +with him. Thus the return to civilised man was marked in the first +instance by the encounter of intolerant superstition, and it was +necessary to forget the nobler traits of the wilderness before +we could become reconciled to the Russians of Okhotsk." At which +place Mr Erman's narrative ceases. We await with interest its +promised continuation--an account of his adventures in Kamschatka, +California, and the Pacific. + + + + +THE SCOTTISH DEER FORESTS. + +_Lays of the Deer Forest, with Sketches of Olden and Modern Deer +Hunting, &c. &c._ By JOHN SOBIESKI and CHARLES EDWARD STUART. 2 +vols., post 8vo. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London. + + +We would that, like stout Lord Percy of yore, it were in our power +at this present moment to chronicle a vow that we should forthwith +take our pastime for three summer days on the pleasant hills of +Scotland. Alas for us, that we are doomed, from divers causes, to +absent ourselves from felicity awhile, and, amidst the heat and +noise of London, listen with intense disgust to the brutal bayings +of the Chartists! This very night, we hear, the ignoble hunt is to +be up in Bishop Bonner's fields. Crowds of dirty, unshaven, squalid +ruffians, who have not the strength to use the pike, but the will +to employ the knife of the assassin--fellows whom even Cobden would +be chary to recognise as his _quondam_ supporters, defenders, and +dupes--not unmingled with foreign propagandists, whom even France, +in the fury of her revolutionary tornado, repudiates--are thronging +to the place of rendezvous, where, doubtless, their souls will +be worthily regaled by the ravings of some rascally vendors of +sedition, blasphemy, and treason. Then will ensue the usual scene +which for nights has disgraced the metropolis. Some unfortunate +tradesman, whose curiosity has been stronger than his prudence, will +be fixed upon as a "special" or a spy--the cowards, presuming upon +their numbers, and the apparent absence of all executive power, +will attempt a deliberate murder--the police will sally from their +hiding-place to the rescue--there will be a storm of brickbats, a +determined charge with the baton, a shop or two will be gutted, +some score of craniums cracked, and to-morrow morning the greasy +patriots, at the bar of Bow Street, will read their recantation, +and, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, protest +their loyalty to the Queen. Such are the pastimes of merry England +in the month of June, and such the results of that enlightened +policy which yields every thing to popular clamour, adopts the +most fatal delusions as distinct principles of right, and then +shrinks, trembling and aghast, from the inevitable result of their +development! + +We do not want--in this article, at least--to be political, and +we vow that we took up our pen three minutes ago in a spirit of +perfect good-will and harmony towards all manner of men. But +the hoarse bawling of these cannibals has somewhat ruffled our +temper, dispelled for the moment our dreams of the mountains, and +forced us back to the sterner realities of popular tumult and +the truncheon. If this sort of thing lasts, we shall indubitably +emigrate. Assassination, as recommended by the modern Hamilcar, is +by no manner of means to our taste. Our opinion coincides with that +of the gracious Captain of Knockdunder, and, were we promoted to +a judicial function, "the chiel they ca' the Fustler" should ere +long fustle in a tow. Neither are we at all disposed to fraternise +with the milder Cuffey--a fellow, by the way, who is not without +some redeeming scintillations of humour. We have no wish to be +introduced to him even at a mesmeric soiree; and, acting upon +the principle of Jacquey, we shall pray heaven to decrease our +acquaintance, and put the Tweed as speedily as possible between +ourselves and the partisans of O'Connor. We hope the Lord Provost, +though discomfited in his Police Bill, has been looking after the +tranquillity of the Calton. If not, we must move further north, and +finally locate ourselves somewhere in the vicinity of Dalnacardoch. +The deuce is in it, if the revolutionary mania has penetrated +to that sequestred region! No son of the mountains has ever yet +given in his adhesion to the Charter--treason hath not stained the +tartan, and no republican pins have ever been exposed beneath the +checkered margin of the kilt. There is loyalty at least in the +land which was traversed by Montrose and Dundee; and without the +slightest fear that any of the numerous points of that interesting +but incomprehensible public document, which Mr Joseph Hume proposes +to condense, shall be unduly obtruded on our notice, we shall at +once exchange our London dwelling for the more pleasant bothy of the +hills. + +As for a companion, we shall seek none better--for we could not +find one--than this last publication of the Stuarts. And here, +once for all, let us draw a line of distinction betwixt the poetry +and the prose of these very remarkable brothers. We have not the +remotest intention of sitting in judgment on the "Lays," or of +testing the poetical merits of John Sobieski and Charles Edward, +either by the canons of Longinus, or by that superior code of +literary laws which Maga has promulgated to the world. The poems, +which occupy exclusively the first of these volumes, are, with one +exception, fugitive in their nature, and appear to have been penned +rather from occasional impulse, than from any deliberate intention +of publication. Accordingly, we find that most of them relate to +topics personal to the authors themselves--and with these we do not +meddle. In others, there are flashes of the deep national spirit +which still survives--though our rulers do not seem to mark it--in +Scotland: indignation at the neglect with which too many of our +national institutions have been treated, and mournful lamentings +over the misfortunes of a former age. But the impulse which leads to +the composition of poetry does not always imply its accomplishment. +Poetry, as an art in which excellence can only be obtained by a +combination of the simple and the sublime, requires a study far +more intense and serious than the mere critic is apt to allow. In +a former Number we devoted an article to an exposition of those +principles, which are absolutely invariable in their application, +and which must be thoroughly understood, if they are not intuitive +to the poet; and, being in no mood for repetition, we shall simply +say that we adhere to our recorded doctrines. The Stuarts, it must +be confessed, are more successful with the rifle than the lyre. We +would far rather meet them in the garb of the forester, than in the +more fantastic fashion of the minstrel: be theirs the lot of Ryno +the hunter, not the darkened destiny of the bard. + +Do, therefore, what you please with the first volume--pack it up +in your portmanteau, or place it on the shelf beside Chambers' +History and the collections of good old Bishop Forbes. But if you +profess to be a deer-stalker--though we fear your profession to be +false--or if you are but an aspiring neophyte, and hankerer after +that proud position--or if you merely bound your aspirations towards +the compassing of the death of a roebuck--or if simply you have a +keen and a kindly eye for nature, and are a lover of the sylvan +solitudes--in one or other, or all of these characters, we pray you +to deal more leisurely with the other tone, which is the Hunter's +Vade-Mecum, the best guide ever yet published to the haunts of the +antlered monarch. + +We are fond of Mr Scrope, and we have an excessive partiality for St +John. Two finer fellows never shouldered a rifle; and our conscience +does not accuse us of having used too superlative, in epithet in +their praise. This was the more creditable on our part, because +we knew them both to be Southrons; and while freely admitting the +sportsman-like qualities of the one, and the strong picturesque +style and spirit of the other, we felt a slight, passing, but +pardonable pang of jealousy, that they should have stepped in, and +pre-occupied the native field. Where, thought we, are our Scottish +deer-stalkers? Can the lads not handle a pen as well as touch a +trigger? Will none of them, who have been trained to the hills since +they were striplings, stand forth for the honour of Albyn, and try +a match with these fustian-coated circumventers of the stag? By the +shade of Domhnull Mac-Fhionnlaidlhnan Dan, we blush for the literary +reputation of our country, and almost wish that we were young enough +ourselves to take the hill against the invading Sassenach! At +length--and we are delighted to see it--the reproach has been swept +away. Two stalwart champions of the forest have risen in the persons +of the Stuarts--they have encountered the Englishmen with their own +weapons, and, in our opinion, beaten them hollow. + +Mr Scrope had the merit of producing the earliest work in which +deer-stalking was treated as a distinct and peculiar branch of +the art venatory. We speak of it now from recollection; for +our copy, somewhat frayed and worn by the fingers of ambitious +sportsmen, is in the snug corner of a library some hundred miles +to the northward. But we remember well the Waltonian character of +the book--the professional style in which the elder practitioner +enforced his precepts upon the dawning intellect of his companion; +and the adventures, neither few nor feeble, which were depicted +in the heart of the Atholl forest. Taken as the production of +an English sportsman, Mr Scrope's book is highly creditable: +considered as the manual of a deer-stalker, it is at the best +indifferent. Nor, indeed, could it well be otherwise. Not until +middle age, if we are informed rightly, did Mr Scrope first send +a ball into the ample shoulder of a hart: his young blood never +beat tumultuously in his veins at the sight of the mighty creature +rolling over upon the heather, and its antlers buried in the +moss. His boyish enthusiasm, we fear, was expended upon game of +less mark and likelihood--partridges, perchance, as they whirred +from the turnips, or possibly he was "entered" with the hare. +Wordsworth's maxim, that the boy is the father of the man, is +peculiarly applicable in sporting matters. Upon the character of +the country in which the latent spirit of the hunter is earliest +developed, depends, in a great degree, his future success, and +certainly his accomplishment as an Orion. The young squire, who +has been brought up in the faith of Sykes, who never stirs abroad +without a keeper, and who is accustomed to see his delicate pointers +execute their manoeuvres with almost mathematical precision on the +flat stubbles of Norfolk, labours under a huge disadvantage in the +higher branches of his science, compared with the Highland boy who +has received his education on the hill. What though the single +barrel of the latter be a clumsy implement indeed in competition +with the Purdie which decorates the shoulder of the former--though +the hound that sometimes attends him, though oftener he is alone, +never slept a single night in a kennel, and is the ruggedest +specimen of his kind--still he is in the enjoyment of advantages +incomparably superior for the development of all his faculties, +and the sharpening of every sense. The triumph of the sportsman +does not lie so much in the killing as in the finding of his game. +Were it otherwise, the pigeon-slayer of Battersea or the Red-house +would have just claims to the honours of Sir Tristram, and the +annihilator of poultry to rank with the Nimrods of the world. Our +young friend the Squire shoots well--that is to say, he can kill +with reasonable precision: but, after all, what is he save an +instrument? Take Ponto away from him, tie up Juno, send a bullet +through the brain of Basta, and a pretty beggarly account you will +have of it in the evening when we come to the emptying of the bags! +Or lead him down to the sea-shore, and show him a whaup, which in +the English tongue is denominated a curlew; request him to use all +his possible skill to compass possession of the bird; but do not set +your heart on having it, else, as sure as fate, you are doomed to +disappointment. Whaup is quite alive to his own interests, and by +no means unsuspicious of the Saxon, who advances straight towards +him with a hypocritical air of unconcern. Had the Highland lad been +there, what a difference! He would have dropped like a stone behind +that rock, wriggled like a serpent over the sand, kept the bird +between himself and the sea, taken advantage of every inequality in +the ground, discerned from the attitude of his quarry whether its +suspicions were aroused or not, and in ten minutes a pluff of white +smoke and a report would have announced its extermination. As it +is, the curlew remains apparently unconcerned until the Lord of the +Manor has reduced the intermediate distance to a hundred and twenty +yards, and then, with a shrill whistle, takes flight along the +margin of the tide. Or set him to stalk a blackcock, perched high +of an Autumn morning on a dyke. How clumsily he sets about it! how +miserable is his stoop! how wretchedly he calculates his distance! +That wide-awake hat, which, for the sake of symmetry, he has been +pleased to surmount with a feather, is as conspicuous to the country +for miles round, and of course to the blackcock, as was the white +plume of Murat in the field of battle, and as potent to effect a +clearance, of which we presently have ocular demonstration. + +We contend, therefore, that it is extremely difficult for the man, +be he ever so addicted to field-sports, who has been educated in +a cultivated country, to disembarrass himself of the artificial +habits which he is tolerably sure to acquire. His trolling may +be excellent--indeed, English gentlemen are, generally speaking, +first-rate shots--but he will be deficient in the science of the +naturalist, and in that singular acuteness of perception which can +hardly be gained save by an early intimacy with nature, on the +mountain, the moor, or in the glen. No subsequent education or +experience can make up for the normal deficiency, least of all in +the pursuit of an animal so wary, so instinctive, and so peculiar in +its habits as the deer. Of course we do not mean to deny that there +is much which may be learned. What a pointer is to partridges, some +wary and experienced forester may often be made to the deer; and +if you put yourself under his tuition, and scrupulously obey his +orders, you may very possibly succeed in attaining the object of +your desires. Nor indeed can you do better, up to a certain point, +notwithstanding the strictures of the Stuarts, who are, we think, +unnecessarily wroth at the system which would call in the aid of +any supplementary assistance. We hope no gentleman who has rented a +forest for the ensuing season will be deterred from following the +feet of a Highland Gamaliel on account of any ridicule which may +be attached to the fact of his having been "taken up" to a deer. +If he should rashly attempt stalking at his own hand, without any +preliminary instruction, we should be sorry to found our hopes of +dinner on the chance of his acquisition of a haunch. + + "When advancing upon deer [say our authors]--except in strange + ground--the forester, or any other attendant, should be left + behind a stone, or in some covert, before the stalker commences + his approach; not from any recognition of the false reproach + made against the guides by Mr Scrope, but because there is + no occasion for an assistant, and the action of one has more + celerity, independence, and security from discovery, than when + a greater number are in motion. The charge made by the author + of 'The Art of Deer-stalking,' that the forester is often in + the way, and sometimes obstructs the shot, is not true, unless + in instances of inexperienced and awkward individuals, who are + not to be found among that class of foresters of whom the guest + of the _Atholl Forest_ proposes his remarks. With a MacKenzie, + or a MacDonald, a Catanach, and a MacHardie, the asserted + inconvenience must proceed from the ignorance or maladroitness + of the gray worm which crawls at his back, and who often does + not know what he is doing, or where he is going, with his + ideas _egare_ on his sensitive knees and varnished Purdie, + unconscious of what he ought to do and nervous for what he ought + not, flurried with eagerness and disgusted with his posture, + and who, never seeing a deer except once in the year, is led + up to him like a 'blind burraid,' by one whose language he + scarcely understands. In general, therefore, the embarrassments + of the 'creep' are those of the superior, who is frequently so + ignorant, unpractised, and dependent upon the guidance of the + forester, that to be '_taken up to the deer_' has become the + modern forest phrase for the approach of the sportsman. This + contemptible term, and its contemptible practice, has only + been introduced within the last quarter century, since the + prevalence of stalking gentlemen utterly unacquainted with the + ground and pursuit of deer. Of old, the '_Sealgair uasal nam + beann_' was initiated to the hill when yet but a '_biorach_' + of a stalker; and when he became a matured hill-man, he should + no more have suffered himself to be--'_taken up_ to his deer' + by an attendant, than a Melton fox-hunter to be trained after + the hounds by a whipper-in with a leading rein.--What should + have been the sentiments of the old chiefs and Uaislean of the + last century--the Dukes of Atholl and Gordon--Glengarrie--John + Aberardar--Iain dubh Bhail-a-Chroaein--to hear a deer-hunter + speak of being '_taken up to his deer_!'--Certainly that he was + a noble 'amadan' or 'gille-crubach,' who had not the faculties + or the limbs to act for himself.--But this is only one of the + many instances for which the hills of Gael may mourn with the + mountains of Gilboa--'_Quomodo ceciderunt robusti!_'" + +Far are we from insinuating that Mr Scrope is at all liable to the +remarks contained in the foregoing extract. On the contrary, we +hold him to be a man of vigorous mind and acute eye, and any thing +but a contemptible foe to the stags, after the measure of his own +experience. If he is deficient at all, it is in the poetry and +higher mysteries of the art, which hardly would be expected from a +stranger, whose initiation was necessarily late. Waverley, though a +respectable shot, and a man of literary taste, would, we apprehend, +have described the driving and disposition of the tainchel less +effectively, and certainly far less truly, than Fergus M'Ivor; so +great a difference is there betwixt the craft of the master and +his pupil. Let Mr Scrope, therefore, rest content with the laurels +he has won, and the trophies he has taken from the forest. Not +unforgotten is his name in Atholl, nor unloved. Let him be a guide +to the Southren, but he must not dream of rivalling the Stuarts in +woodcraft, or Stoddart in the science of piscation. + +Of Mr St John's "Wild Sports of the Highlands," we have already +spoken in terms of unqualified praise. A more delightful volume was +never adapted for the pocket of the sportsman: a more truthful or +observant work has seldom issued from the pen of the naturalist. His +sketches and pictures of deer-stalking we allow to be as perfect in +their way as the compositions of Landseer; and having said so much, +we shall not make any further call upon that gentleman's blushes. +Still, even his experience is limited, and his knowledge imperfect. +He has given us a brilliant account of his own exploits upon the +hill, but he has not lived long enough in the wilder haunts of the +deer accurately to understand their habits. Not so our authors, who +for years have been denizens of the mountains, speaking the tongue +of the Gael, wearing the native garb, and following the chase with +an ardour and enthusiasm unparalleled in these degenerate days. + +Gentlemen who complain of the inferior accommodation afforded by +some of the more distant hostelries of Scotland--who are shocked +at the absence of warming-pans, and tremulously nervous about +your sanatory condition, when subjected to the enormity of damp +sheets--how would you like to spend a few nights on the misty +hill-side, or even in the hut of the hunters? We shall take you if +you please to the latter spot, merely premising that, in order to +reach it, we must cross the Findhorn, now roaring down in spate. A +terrible stream is that Findhorn, as Mr St John well knows; but we +question whether he ever ventured to ford it on the rise, as was +done by one of the Stuarts. For the information of distant friends, +we beg to put our imprimatur to the following description of this +furious Highland flood, which rolled between the residence of the +hunters and their favourite ground. + + "That stream, however, which was so calm, and bright, and sunny, + when the otters floated down its current in a still summer's + morning, was a fierce and terrible enemy in its anger; and, + for a great part of the year, the dread of its uncertainty + and danger was a formidable cause for the preservation of + that profound solitude of the forest which so long made it + the sanctuary of deer, roe, and every kind of wild game. The + rapidity with which the river comes down, the impassable height + to which it rises in an incredibly short time, its incertitude + and fury, would render it an object of care to bold forders and + boatmen; but with the peasants of the 'laich,' unaccustomed, + like the Highlanders, to wrestle with a mountain torrent, and, + excepting in rare instances, unable to swim or manage a coble, + it inspires a dread, almost amounting to awe, and none except + ourselves ventured to keep a boat above the fishing-station of + Slui. Pent within a channel of rocks from fifty to a hundred + and eighty feet in height, the rise of the water is rapidly + exaggerated by the incapability of diffusion; and the length of + its course sometimes concealing beyond the horizon the storms by + which it is swelled at its source, its floods then descend with + unexpected violence. Frequently when, excepting a low wreath + upon Beann-Drineachain, the sun is shining in a cloudless sky, + and the water scarce ripples over the glittering ford, a deep + hollow sound--a dull approaching roar may be heard in the gorges + of the river; and almost before the wading fisherman can gain + the shore, a bank of water, loaded with trees, and rocks, and + wreck, will come down three--four--five feet abreast--sweeping + all before it in a thunder of foam and ruin. In ordinary cases, + after two days of rain, the stream will rise twenty or thirty + feet--it _has_ risen nearly ten fathoms in its rocky gulf; and + once upon this occasion it mounted fifteen feet in a quarter + of an hour. When the dawn broke, it appeared sweeping through + the trees, which the evening before hung fifty feet above its + brink--a black roaring tempest loaded with ruins and debris, + from which were seen to rise at times the white skeletons of + trees peeled of their bark, beams and couples of houses--a + cart--a door--a cradle, hurrying and tilting through the foam + and spray, like the scattered 'floatsome' of a wreck. + + "It may be judged how far it was convenient in winter to hunt + a forest separated by such a boundary, of which the nearest + certain passage was by a bridge two miles to the west, with + frequently the view of hunting three miles to the east. Often we + have gone out in a clear sapphire morning, when there was scarce + a ripple on the pools, and the water on the ford was not over + our 'glunachan,' and when we returned at evening, and approached + through the dark veil of pines which descended to the river, + have heard a roar as if the world was rolling together down the + black trough before us, and as we came out on the bank, found a + furious tempest of water, tumbling, and plunging, and leaping, + over stock and rock twenty feet upon the clatach, where we had + left it whimpering among the pebbles in the morning; while, in + the far, deep, birch-embowered channel, where the stream was + then so still and placid that you could only guess its course by + the bright glistening eye which here and there blinked between + the trees and stones,--now it came yelling, and skirling, and + clamouring down the rocks and falls, as if all the air was full + of gibbering, babbling, laughing demons, who were muttering, and + yammering, and prophesying, and hooting, at what you were going + to do, if you attempted to cross." + +We pray you at your leisure to read on, and you will presently +see what peril our authors underwent at the fearful fords of +the Findhorn. Once or twice in our life we have been in similar +jeopardy, and we can testify with unction to the singular sensations +which beset a man in the midst of a roaring river, when the rapids +are shooting away below, and the boulder-stones rolling beneath his +feet. We pass over some perilous instances of adventure, which at +length became so frequent as to lead to the construction of the hut. + + "Such continually and unexpectedly were the ferries of the + Findhorn, and many such escapes we had, in daylight and in + darkness.--Twice I have been swamped, often nearly upset, and + more than once carried off my legs in the fords; and--I say it + with humility, and always under the mercy of heaven--that I owed + rescue either to actual swimming, or to the confidence inspired + by that power when struggling with the strong and terrible enemy. + + "This continual exposure to battle and disappointment, however, + became at length too vexatious an abridgment of sport and + certainty; and as I would--and often--have made my bed under + a fir tree rather than go round by the bridge of Daltullich, + I resolved upon another alternative--to build in the forest a + '_bothan an t-sealgair_,' or 'hunter's hut,' where we might + lodge for the night when it was impossible to cross the water. + + "There is a high and beautiful craig at the crook of the river + near the 'Little Eas,'--a precipice eighty feet in height, and + then like a vast stone helmet crowned with a feathery plume of + wood, which nodded over its brow. From its top you might drop + a bullet into the pool below, but on the south side there is + an accessible woody bank, down which, by planting your heels + firmly in the soil and among the roots of the trees, there is a + descent to a deep but smooth and sandy ford. Upon the summit of + the rock there is, or there was--my blessing upon it!--a thick + and beautiful bird-cherry, which hung over the craig, and whose + pendant branches, taking root on the edge of the steep, shot up + again like the banana, and formed a natural arbour and close + trellis along the margin of the precipice. Behind its little + gallery, there is a mighty holly, under which the snow rarely + lays in winter, or the rain drops in summer. Beneath the shelter + of this tree, and within the bank at its foot, I dug a little + cell large enough to hold two beds, a bench, a hearth, a table, + and a 'kistie.' The sides were lined with deals well caulked + with moss, and the roof was constructed in the same manner, but + covered with a tarpauling, which, lying in the slope of the + surrounding bank, carried off any water which might descend from + thaw or rain, and, when the autumn trees shook off their leaves, + could not be distinguished from the adjoining bank. Its door was + on the brink of the craig, veiled by the thick bird-cherries + on the edge of the precipice; and the entrance to the little + path, which ascended from either side upon the brow of the + rock, was concealed by a screen of birch and hazel, beneath + which the banks were covered with primroses, wood-anemones, + and forget-me-not. Bowers of honeysuckle and wild-roses twined + among the lower trees; and even in the tall pines above, the + rose sometimes climbed to the very top, where all its blossoms, + clustering to the sun, hung in white tassels out of the + dark-blue foliage. There the thrush and the blackbird sang at + morning and evening, and the owl cried at night, and the buck + belled upon the Torr.--Blessed, wild, free, joyous dwelling, + which we shall never see again!" + +A lovely place indeed must that have been in the pleasant days of +summer! We do not wonder at the fondness with which the Stuarts +speak of that lodge in the wilderness, reared as it was in the +midst of the most beautiful and romantic scenery which exists +within the compass of the seas of Britain, or, for aught we know, +elsewhere. Years have rolled by since we last set foot upon the +banks of Findhorn; but never shall we forget the glories of that +deep ravine, or the noble woods of Altyre, still possessed by the +descendants of the princely Comyns. Did we not expect to be summoned +out within half an hour to contribute to the safety of the realm by +breaking the head of a Chartist, we should ourselves launch out into +description, and try conclusions with Horatio M'Culloch. But, after +all, it would be a work of supererogation. Mr St John has already +illustrated most charmingly that abode of the faithful; and he will +not be displeased to see that, even in painting, he has met with +formidable rivals. Rarely, indeed, have we met with any thing so +perfect as the following sketch:-- + + "Near Slui on the Findhorn there is a range of precipices + and wooded steeps crowned with pine, and washed by a clear + and rippling stream of the river, through which there is an + excellent ford, very well known to the roe, for escaping to + the woods of Slui when pressed by the hounds. This reach is + called the Ledanreich, from a remarkable craig, a sheer naked + even wall of sandstone, lying in horizontal strata eighty or + ninety feet high: At the eastern extremity of this rock there + is a great division, partly separated from the main curtain by + a deep woody slope, which dips into the precipice with little + more inclination from the perpendicular than to admit of careful + footing. In the face of the divided craig, the decomposition of + the softer stone between the courses of the strata has wasted + it away into narrow galleries, which, passing behind the tall + pillars of the pines growing from the rifts and ledges, extend + along the face of the precipice, veiled by a deep tapestry of + ivy, which spreads over the mighty wall of rock, and hangs + from shelf to shelf over the covered ways. Beyond the craigs, + the bank of the forest, an abrupt steep, covered with oak and + copsewood, slopes down to the river, its brow darkened with a + deep-blue cloud of pines, and its descent carpeted with moss, + primroses, and pyrolas, here and there hollowed into quaint + 'cuachs,' filled with hazels, thorns, and giant pines. Along + this woody scarp, and through its thick copse, the roe had made + narrow galleries, which communicated with the ivy corridors + on the face of the craig, to which there were corresponding + ways upon the opposite side. In that fortress of the rock, for + shelter from the sun and flies, and seclusion from the stir of + the world during the day in the heat of summer, the red-deer + and roe made their secret haunt, concealed behind the deep dim + veil of leaves, unseen and unsuspected in the cool hollows of + the cliff. The prying eye might search the craig from below, + and the beaters or the woodmen might whistle, and whoop, and + shout above, but nothing appeared or moved except the gray + falcon, which rose channering out of the rifts. Above the craig + the wooded bank was so abrupt, that to the front view there + was no indication of a slope, and any who passed quickly over + the brow was immediately out of sight. At each descent beyond + the extremities of the whole range of rocks there was a common + roe's run and pass, which was supposed to be 'deadly sure' if + the deer took the path, since the precipice below was believed + to be an infallible barrier against any intermediate escape. + Often, however, when pressed upon the terrace above, the deer + neither went through the passes nor turned against the beaters, + but vanished as if by magic--nobody could tell where; and it + was the common opinion of the drivers and fishermen, that, when + forced near the river, they threw themselves over the craigs + 'for spite,'--a belief often confirmed by old Davie Simpson, who + declared that he had often found their bodies beneath the rocks, + and in the Cluach, the Clerk's Pool, and the 'Furling Hole.' He + did not, however, relate what _wounds_ they had, and the truth + was, that those which disappeared at the brow of the Ledanreich + dashed down the sudden dip of the bank between the precipices, + and, turning through the ivy corridors, went out through the + copse galleries upon the other side, and either descended to the + water or skirted below the pass, and went back into the forest. + Those which were found dead were such as had been mortally + wounded at some in-wood pass, and, unable to take, or cross + the water, had died on the beach, or been carried down by the + river. In the same mysterious passages which gave concealment + and escape to the stags and bucks, the does were used to lay + with their kids, and from thence at morning and evening they + brought them out to pluck the tender grass upon the green banks + beyond. Often from the brow above, or from behind the ivy + screen, we have watched their 'red garment' stealing through the + boughs, followed by their little pair drawing their slender legs + daintily through the wet dew, and turning their large velvet + ears to catch every passing sound upon the breeze as it brought + the hum of the water, or the crow of the distant cock--now + trotting before, now lingering behind their dam, now nestling + together, now starting off as the gale suddenly rustled the + leaves behind them--then listening and re-uniting in a timorous + plump, pricking their ears, and bobbing their little black noses + in the wind,--then, as the doe dropped on her knees in the moss, + and laid her side on the warm spot where the morning sun glanced + in through the branches, they gambolled about her, leaping over + her back, and running round in little circles, uttering that + soft, wild, plaintive cry like the treble note of an accordion, + till, weary of their sport, they lay down at her side, and + slept while she watched as only a mother can. No marvel it was + that they loved that safe and fair retreat, with all its songs + and flowers, its plenty and repose. All around was sweet, and + beautiful, and abundant, such as the poetical imagination of the + painter can rarely compose, and _never_, unless like Salvator + he has lived in the wilderness with its free denizens. Upon the + summit above the craig there was a broad and verdant terrace + surrounded by ivied pines and feathering birches, and upon a + little green glade in the midst grow two of the most beautiful + objects ever produced by art or nature. These were a pair of + twin thorns exactly similar in size, age, and form, and standing + about three yards from each other: their stems as straight as + shafts, and their round and even heads like vast bushes of wild + thyme, but each so overgrown with ivy and woodbine, that their + slender trunks appeared like fretted columns, over which the + thorny foliage served as a trellis to suspend the heavy plumes + of the ivy and the golden tassels of the woodbine. Many a + 'ladye's bower' we have seen, and many a rich and costly plant + reared by the care of man, but none so beautiful as those lonely + sisters of the forest, planted by His hand in His great garden, + where none beheld but those for whom He made it lovely--the + ravens of the rock, the deer who couched under its shade by + night, and the birds who sang their matins and their even-song + out of its sweet boughs." + +If we go on quoting at this rate, we shall never reach the hill, and +as yet we have not started from the hut. To say the truth, we are +in no hurry, and neither, we suspect, upon many occasions were the +Stuarts, indomitable huntsmen as they are. What though at night the +river swept with the sound of thunder below, making the solid rock +vibrate to its deep foundation,--what though the wind swept mightily +down the ravine, swaying the trees like saplings, and threatening to +tear them away,--what though the windows of heaven were open, and +the deluge came down, and the bark of the hill-fox sounded sharp +above the roaring of the water and the wood,--yet within that little +bothy that rests upon the face of the craig, the wearied huntsmen +slept peacefully; and in the morning, says one of them,--"I was +awakened as usual by the whistle of the robin in the bird-cherry, +and the sharp note of the blue bonnet sharpening his little saw on +the top of the holly. I went out to the narrow terre-plain over the +craig. The wind was gone, and the sun smiling on the still leaves +and dewy grass--the flood torrent of the river dancing and laughing +in its light, and the calm bright air breathing with the sweet +perfume of the damp plants, and all the freshness and fragrance of +the forest wilderness." We back it against the forest of Ardennes! + +Every true hunter is humane. What! you say--do you call it humane +to persecute the unfortunate stag, the monarch of the wilds, to the +death?--to drive rifle-bullets into the target of the harmless roe? +to murder otters by the dozen, and to slaughter seals by the score? +Indubitably we do. Let us reason a little upon this. Yesterday, +you recollect that you dined upon very juvenile veal, smothered in +a mess of dingy vegetable matter which we apprehend to have been +sorrel, after the beastly fashion of the Gauls. Posterior to that, +you devoured the larger moiety of a duckling. This morning we saw +you, with our own eyes, regaling yourself at the club, between the +intervals of muffin, with what assuredly were cutlets of lamb. After +all this, can you have the face to stand up and defend your own +humanity? For how many days had the sun dawned upon that luckless +calf, the mangled fragments of which upon your platter rather +resembled the rags of a kid-glove, than food meet for the stomach +of a Christian? How long had the feeble quackle of Draco been heard +round the row of peas near which he unsuspiciously perambulated, +little dreaming how much the pods thereof were mixed up with his +future destiny? How many races were run upon the meadow by that +perished daughter of the sheep? Three infantine lives cut off simply +for your sole gormandising! This is but a slight case. Set you down +to a rook-pie, and you will engulf a dozen unfortunates before you +bury your visage in the pewter. Pay for you at Blackwall, and the +whitebait will disappear by the thousand. It is in vain that you +attempt to shift the atrocity of your inordinate appetite from your +own shoulders to those of the grazier, the butcher, the poulterer, +or the fisherman. Cobden, or Joe Hume, or any other of the political +economists belonging to the tribe who would starve the workman in +order that they may guzzle themselves, will tell you that invariably +the demand regulates the supply. You, therefore, are the responsible +party: the young have fallen into your Scylla--the immature of +days have been swept into the vortex of your Charybdis! Moreover, +if you were a sportsman--which you are not--our minds would be +grievously troubled for the future safety of the singing-birds. +Welford, the friend of Bright, as we all remember, proposed a grand +crusade throughout Britain against the feathered tribe; and you +are not at all unlikely to join in a general St Bartholomew of the +sparrows. Do you venture to retort upon us? Do you think we take +life unnecessarily, or that we are base enough to use our weapons +until the quarry has reached its prime? No calf or fawn ever fell +by the hand of the genuine hunter--no cheeper or pout ever sullied +the interior of the sportsman's bag. Not until the better part of +his life has been run,--till his muscles are hard as iron, his slot +deep, and his branches towering on the beam,--not until he has lived +and loved, do we strike down, as if with lightning and painless +death, the great hart in the middle of the wilderness. But to all +innocent things--to the harmless indwellers of the forest and moor, +the true hunter is a guardian and a friend. The strong man is ever +brave, and none but the strong can pass to where the herds of the +mountain dwell. + +One more scene at the Hut, and we shall illustrate this subject +further. + + "But though our bothie was far from resembling the Peri + Paribanon's cell, or the rock-palace where the old kaiser keeps + his court in the bowels of the Unterberg--we loved it, not + only for its bucks and stags, and all its greenwood cheer, but + for the love of nature by which it was surrounded. Beyond its + 'vert and venison,' there was a world of life and interest for + those who had the eye to mark and the heart to read its book. + On every side we had companions; from the passenger which came + from Norway, to the little native guest--the robin which roosted + in the holly-bush above us. '_The_ robin?'--you smile and say. + Yes, there was but one. He lived in the bush, as we lived in + the bothie, and we were his neighbours too long not to be very + well acquainted. His species, as well as all the small tribes, + conformable to the minuteness of their range and habits, are + very local, and may be found all the year in, or near, the same + place; and those who feed them will rarely wait many minutes + for their appearance. There were many robins which lived about + the bothie, and all were continually in its vicinity, and very + tame; but none so gentle and grateful as our little neighbour + in the holly. They would, however, enter the hut, sit on the + bed or the table, and hop about the floor, and, when I went + out, follow me to the brae. They liked very much to see me turn + up the soil, which always provided them with a little feast; + accordingly, they were never absent at the planting of a shrub + or a flower; and when I brought home, in my shooting-bag, a + tuft of primroses, pyrolas, or lilies of the valley, they were + always in attendance to see them put into the bank. For watching + my occupation, they preferred something more elevated than the + ground, but not so high as the branches of the trees, which + were too far from the earth to give them a clear sight of what + I turned up; for their accommodation, therefore, I made little + crosses and crotchets, and, when I was planting, set them up + beside me, moving them as I proceeded from place to place. + Each was immediately occupied by an attentive observer; and, + whenever an insect or a worm was discovered, one of the nearest + darted down and caught it, even from between my fingers, and + disappeared for a few moments under the rock or behind the great + holly, to enjoy his success undisturbed. At his disappearance + his place was immediately occupied by another, but at the return + of the first it was amiably resigned by his successor. The + blue-bonnets were almost as numerous as the robins, but they + never arrived at the same intimacy and confidence. They never + entered the bothie in my presence, and even when I fed them + they would not approach as long as I remained outside the door; + but as soon as I went in they descended four or five together, + chattering and fluttering about the entrance, peeping in at + the little window, and stretching their necks as far as they + could, to see where I was, and if all was right. Then they would + begin their breakfast on what I had left for them, talking a + great deal about it, but occasionally ogling the door, in a + manner from which I concluded that there was but small esteem + or gratitude in their conversation.----Far different was the + friendship of our little neighbour in the holly. In the morning + he used to come down and perch on the arm of the bird-cherry, + which stretched over the precipice before the door, waiting + for its opening and the preparation of the breakfast, which he + always shared; and when we were seated he would venture over the + sill, and gather the crumbs about the table at our feet. Often + when the first blood-red streaks of the autumn morning shone + like lurid fire through the little window, we were awakened by + his sad and solitary whistle, as he sat on his usual branch, + his jet-black eye cast towards the door, impatient for our + appearance. Many of his little cousins there were in the wood, + with whom we were also well acquainted, and between us happened + many an incident, which increased our interest and familiarity. + + "I remember a day, one of those deep still blue days so solemn + in the forest; the ground was covered with a foot of snow, and + all the trees were hanging like gigantic ostrich feathers; but + all the world was blue,--the sky was a sleeping mass of those + heavy indigo clouds which forebode a 'feeding storm,'--not a + tempest, but a fall of snow; for, in Scotland, snow is called + '_storm_,' however light and still it falls: thus, in tracking + the deer, we say he 'has brushed the _storm_ from the heather;' + and a '_feeding storm_' is when the clouds are continually + feeding the earth with its velvet pall.--The reflection of + those deep-blue clouds cast a delicate tint of the same colour + over the whitened world. I was standing with my back against a + huge pine--one of the old remnant of the great forest of Moray, + which had, no doubt, heard the bell toll for the first Stuart + earl.--I counted the rings in a smaller tree which once stood in + the same hollow;--I shunned its wreck as I would have avoided a + corpse which I could not bury, and always, when I passed near + it, averted my face; but one day running to cut off a buck, and + just heading him, I dropped on my knee to receive him as he + came out from a mass of junipers, and when reloading, I found + that I had knelt by the stump of my old friend.--I counted two + hundred and sixty-four rings in his wood!--how many earls had + he seen?--Well, I was leaning against his elder brother, as I + suppose by the size. I had been there for a long time, waiting + to hear the dogs bring back a buck from--I don't know now from + where.----As I had been through all the swamps, and stripes, and + wet hollows on that side of the forest, and waded through two + and three feet of snow-wreaths, my kilt and hose, and, as it + seemed, my flesh was saturated to the bones with 'snaw-bree,' + and I began to beat, first one foot, and then the other, to + quicken the blood, which was warm enough in my trunk.--I had + scarce commenced this exercise, when I heard a little 'tic!' + close to my ear, and the soft low voice of a bird--a sound, + neither a whistle nor a chirp, but which I knew very well before + I turned and saw the robin, who sat on a dry branch within a + yard of my cheek. I guessed what had brought him: he was very + cold, his ruffled back humped as round as a ball, and his tail + drooping almost perpendicular with his legs, as if it was a + little brown peg to lean on, like that on which the travelling + Tyrolean merchant rests his pack. He looked at me with his large + black eye, then, with a flirt of his tail and a bow with his + head, indicated that, if I had no objection, he should like to + descend to the place which I occupied; the object of which + he expressed, by turning his head sidelong, and directing one + eye into the black earth which my foot had beaten bare in the + snow. I immediately drew back a couple of feet, and he instantly + dropped into the spot of mould, peeped and picked under every + leaf and clod of earth, and, when there was nothing more, hopped + up on the guard of my rifle, on which I was leaning, and, + turning his head, looked at me with his upper eye.--I again + stepped forward, and recommenced my foot-exercise, during which + he returned to his branch, examining my progress with some + impatience. As soon as my foot was removed, he again dropped + into the hollow, and busily collected all the little grubs and + chrysales which, though too small for me to see as I stood, I + knew abounded beneath the sere leaves and thatch of moss and + sticks. In this manner I repeated his supply several times, + on one of which, when I was too long, or he too impatient, he + dropped from his perch, and hovered over the space in which my + foot was at work, and, as I continued, lighted on the point of + the other shoe, and remained there, peeping into the hollow, + until I withdrew my foot, and then descended to finish his + repast. When he was satisfied, he ruffed his feathers, looked + up sidelong to me, and, after a shake of satisfaction, resumed + his perch close to my head, and, after pruning and oiling his + feathers, mounted another branch higher, and opened his little + throat with that most sad, sweet, and intermitting warble which + gives such a melancholy charm to a still winter's day." + +Take a picture of the roe, and you will hardly doubt the humanity +of our sportsmen. But why talk of it thus? No one, we hope, +save a member of the Manchester manufacturing school could feel +otherwise--certainly not a genuine hills-man; and we quote the +passage simply for its extreme beauty and perfect fidelity to +nature. No creature is more beautiful than the kid of the roe-deer, +especially when seen in their rest, or moving through the ferns, on +a summer evening, beside their gentle mother the doe. + + "In the bedding season the does retire into the most secret + thickets, or other lonely places, to produce their young, and + cover them so carefully that they are very rarely found; we + have, however, deceived their vigilance. There was a solitary + doe which lived in the hollow below the Braigh-cloiche-leithe + in Tarnaway. I suppose that we had killed her 'marrow;' but I + was careful not to disturb her haunt, for she was very fat and + round, stepped with much caution, and never went far to feed. + Accordingly, when at evening and morning she came out to pick + the sweet herbs at the foot of the brae, or by the little green + well in its face, I trode softly out of her sight, and if I + passed at noon, made a circuit from the black willows, or thick + junipers, where she reposed during the heat. At last, one fine + sunny morning I saw her come tripping out from her bower of + young birches as light as a fairy, and very gay and 'canty'--but + so thin, nobody but an old acquaintance could have known her. + For various mornings afterwards I saw her on the bank, but she + was always restless and anxious--listening and searching the + wind--trotting up and down--picking a leaf here and a leaf + there, and after her short and unsettled meal, she would take a + frisk round leap into the air--dart down into her secret bower, + and appear no more until the twilight. In a few days, however, + her excursions became a little more extended, generally to the + terrace above the bank, but never out of sight of the thicket + below. At length she ventured to a greater distance, and one day + I stole down the brae among the birches. In the middle of the + thicket there was a group of young trees growing out of a carpet + of deep moss, which yielded like a down pillow. The prints of + the doe's slender-forked feet were thickly tracked about the + hollow, and in the centre there was a bed of the velvet 'fog,' + which seemed a little higher than the rest, but so natural, + that it would not have been noticed by any unaccustomed eye. I + carefully lifted the green cushion, and under its veil, rolled + close together, the head of each resting on the flank of the + other, nestled two beautiful little kids, their large velvet + ears laid smooth on their dappled necks, their spotted sides + sleek and shining as satin, and their little delicate legs as + slender as hazel wands, shod with tiny glossy shoes as smooth + and black as ebony, while their large dark eyes looked at me out + of the corners with a full, mild, quiet gaze, which had not yet + learned to fear the hand of man: still they had a nameless doubt + which followed every motion of mine--their little limbs shrunk + from my touch, and their velvet fur rose and fell quickly; but + as I was about to replace the moss, one turned its head, lifted + its sleek ears towards me, and licked my hand as I laid their + soft mantle over them. I often saw them afterwards when they + grew strong, and came abroad upon the brae, and frequently + I called off old Dreadnought when he crossed their warm + track. Upon these occasions he would stand and look at me with + wonder--turn his head from side to side--snuff the ground again, + to see if it was possible that he could be mistaken--and when he + found that there was no disputing the scent, cock one ear at me + with a keener inquiry, and seeing that I was in earnest, trot + heavily onward with a sigh. + + "The affection of the roe for their young is very strong; and + timid and feeble as they are by nature, inspired by the danger + of their offspring, they become brave and daring, and, in their + defence, will attack not only animals but men. We were one day + passing along the west walk of Eilean-Agais, and, beyond a turn + in the path, heard the sound of feet running towards us, and + immediately out shot a cat round the corner, and, close at her + heels, a doe pursuing her with great eagerness. Knowing that her + pursuer could not overtake her, and having no instinctive dread + of her kind, the cat did not give herself the trouble to run + faster than just sufficient to keep beyond her reach, while the + doe pursued her with an angry scrambling pace, and, whenever she + was near overtaking her, endeavoured to kneel on her back. This + is a mode of attack common to deer as well as cattle, which, + when they have overthrown their object, not only gore them with + their horns, but bruise and crush them with their knees. At our + appearance there was a pause; the cat cantered up the brae to + the top of a little rock, where she lay down in the sun to see + what would happen between us and her pursuer. The doe, after + a few bounds, turned round and looked indignantly at us, and + stamped and belled in great displeasure; this she continued for + some moments, glancing occasionally at the cat with a strong + desire to resume her chase; but being restrained by a sense of + prudence, she slowly ascended the hill, stopping at intervals to + stamp and bell at us, who knew very well that she had two kids + in the junipers upon the craig." + +Now let us up to the hill, where the mighty herds are feeding. +Scotland will, in all probability, never see a tainchel more; +indeed, save at a royal hunting, it were scarcely desirable now. The +feudal system has melted away, the clans are broken and scattered, +and we care not again to see a pageant which is indissolubly +connected in our memories with national gallantry and misfortune. +But the deer are still on the mountain and in the wood, and we shall +seek them in their former haunt. Wood-stalking, though the Stuarts +speak of it with considerable enthusiasm, was never much to our +taste. It is true that the largest stags are generally to be met +with in the wood, and we have followed the sport ere now in the +Spessart, among the pines of Darmstadt, and the thickets of Strath +Garve; but it must always partake more or less of the character +of driving, and we never have felt, while engaged in it, that +enthusiasm and keenness which sends the blood to the heart of the +hunter when he first discovers a herd in the gorge of some solitary +glen. Then he feels that he must put forth the whole resources of +his art--that he must baffle the acutest of all instincts by the aid +of human cunning--that he has a thousand difficulties to overcome +before he can arrive within reach of his quarry, and that a single +false step or miscalculation is sufficient to destroy the labour, +the patience, and the vigilance of a day. + +Great, fat fallow-deer, waxing into obesity in a park, do not seem +to mind the approach of a human being, even were he an alderman +redolent of black-currant jelly. But the red-deer, as many incipient +stalkers know to their cost, has a very different amount of +perception. Unless you take the wind of him, he is off like a shot, +though your distance may be upwards of a mile. In the words of the +old stalker, "Above all things, let not the devil tempt you to +trifle with a deer's nose: you may cross his sight, walk up to him +in a gray coat, or, if standing against a tree or rock near your +own colour, wait till he walks up to you; but you cannot cross his +nose, even at an incredible distance, but he will feel the tainted +air. Colours or forms may be deceptive or alike; there are gray, +brown, and green rocks and stocks as well as men, and all these +may be equivocal; but there is _but one scent of man_, and that he +never doubts or mistakes; that is filled with danger and terror, +and one whiff of its poison at a mile off, and, whether feeding or +lying, his head is instantly up, his nose to the wind, and, in the +next moment, his broad antlers turn, and he is away to the hill or +the wood; and if there are no green peas, corn, or potatoes in the +neighbourhood, he may not be seen on the same side of the forest +for a month." A word to the wise, from the lips of a Celtic Solon! + +So much for your chance, if, in the plenitude of your full +flavour, you take the hill, regardless of the currents of the air, +which, moreover, are perpetually shifting. But there are other +difficulties. Though not impossible, it is very ticklish work to get +within shot of a deer by any other means save diligent creeping, and +sometimes, when the ground is unusually flat and open, that method +of approach is impracticable. Then there are divers enemies--that +is, of yours, for in reality they are scouts to the deer--whom you +must try particularly to avoid. This is not easy. Sometimes when +you are sinuating like a serpent towards the especial stag of your +heart, a blundering covey of grouse will start from the heather, and +give an effectual alarm; sometimes the shrill whistle of the plover +will change your anticipated triumph into mourning; and sometimes +a charge of that disagreeable cavalry the mountain sheep, little +less sagacious and wary than the deer themselves, will put the +whole of the glen into disorder. But the worst enemies you have to +guard against are the hinds, who are usually so disposed as to be +out upon the feeding-grounds, and thus to mask the stag. In such a +position, it becomes a point of honour to circumvent the lady, which +is any thing but an easy task. The Stuarts give us an admirable +recollection of such a scene in the forest of Glen-Fidich, which +is so exciting that, though rather long, we make no apology for +transferring it to the columns of Maga. + + "After about an hour's stalking, we came upon the shoulder + of a long slope, which looks into the gorges of two or three + short glens, opening to a narrow plain, on which we saw a noble + sight--a herd of four or five hundred deer, among which were + many very fine stags. After having feasted my eyes with this + splendid sight--the illustrious cavalry of the hill, the crowned + and regal array of the wilderness--I began to calculate how to + make the approach, how to slip between the chain of vidette + hinds, and numerous picquets of small stags, which commanded + almost every knoll and hollow. In the centre of the main body, + with a large plump of hinds--which he herded within a wide + vacant circle--there was a mighty black hart, with a head like + a blasted pine, and a cluster of points in each crown. Though + each stag of the surrounding circle had not less than ten + points, there were none which approached his size, and they all + kept at a respectful distance, while he marched round and round + the central group of hinds. 'He will have them all in the ring + before long,' said MacLellan; 'yon's one of the old heroes of + the Monadh-liath; he has not been four-and-twenty hours in the + forest.' I looked with an eager and longing eye at his gigantic + stature, but there was no apparent possibility of approaching + even the outward circle of stags. The herd was scattered over + all the ground between the hills, and every little knoll and + eminence had its restless picquets, and plumps of discomfited + stags, which had been beaten by the great hart, and were chafing + about, driving off and broding the buttocks of all the inferior + stags which came in their way, then returning and staring + with jealous disgust at the mighty stranger, who gave them no + notice, except when one or two more audacious, or less severely + beaten, made a few steps before his companions; upon which he + immediately charged, drove them before him, and scattered the + nearest in every direction. Upon these occasions, some hind of + greater levity than the rest took the opportunity of extending + her pasture, or paying her compliments to her companions, for + which she immediately received a good prod in the haunch, and + was turned back again into the centre. + + "'There is no doing any thing there,' said I. + + "''Deed no', replied MacLellan, shutting up his glass, 'we be to + go down to the foot of the burn.' + + "This was a stream which runs through the middle of the narrow + plain, and empties itself into the Fidich, about four miles + below, at the east end of the forest. Before resolving upon + this, however, we made an attempt to cross the little glen + to the north-west; but, after passing round one hill, and + nearly to the top of another, we fell in with a small herd + of insignificant stags, but none among them being worth the + disturbance of the great herd; and being unable to pass them + unobserved, we were obliged to adopt the last alternative, and + descend to the Fidich. In about an hour and a half we performed + this retrogration, and, having crossed at the forester's house, + ascended the burn till we again approached the deer, and + stealing from knoll to knoll, again came in sight of the herd. + The outskirts of its wide circle had been much broken and + deranged by the jousts and expulsions during our absence; and we + saw that it was impossible to get near the better stags without + taking the channel of the stream. We immediately descended + into the water, and crept up the middle, sometimes compelled + to crouch so low, that the pools reached our hips, and, as the + stones were round and slippery, it was very uneasy to proceed + without floundering and splashing. At length, however, we were + within the circle of the deer: there was not a breath of wind, + and the least sound was audible in the profound stillness. + We slipped through the water like eels, till we came to a + little rock, which, crossing the burn, made a shelving fall, + which there was no means of passing, but by drawing ourselves + up the shoot of the stream. With some difficulty I pushed my + rifle before me along the edge of the bank, and then, while + the water ran down our breasts, we glided up through the gush + of the stream, and reached the ledge above. The return of + the water, which I had obstructed, made, however, a rush and + plash different from its accustomed monotonous hum, and I had + scarce time to lay flat in the burn, when a _hind_ sprung up + within a few yards, and trotted briskly away, then another, and + another. I thought that all was over, and that, in the next + moment, we should hear all the clattering hoofs going over the + turf like a squadron of cavalry. All remained still, however, + and, in a few seconds, I saw the first hind wheel about, and + look back steadily towards the fall. I was rejoiced to observe + that she had not seen us, and had only been disturbed by the + unusual sound of the water. She continued, however, anxious and + suspicious--watched and listened--picked off the tops of the + heather--then walked on, with her ears laid back, and her neck + and step stilting away as stiff as if she had been hung up in + the larder for a week. This, however, was not the worst; all the + surrounding _hinds_ which noticed her gait gathered here and + there, and stood on the tops of the little knolls, like statues, + as straight as pucks, with nothing visible but their narrow + necks and two peg-legs, and their broad ears perked immovably + towards us, like long-eared bats. MacLellan gave me a rueful + look. 'Cha n'eil comas air.' 'Never mind,' said I, 'we shall + see who will be tired first.' The forester gave a glance of + satisfaction, slid up his glass on the dry bank, and we lay as + still as the stones around us, till the little trouts, which had + been disturbed by our convulsion, became so accustomed to our + shapes, that they again emerged from under the flat pebbles, and + returned to their station in the middle of the stream, skulling + their little tails between my legs with no more concern than if + I had been a forked tree. At length the immobility of the hinds + began to give way: first one ear turned back, then another, + then they became sensible of the flies, and began to flirt and + jerk as usual, and, finally, one applied her slender toe to + her ear, and another rubbed her velvet nose upon her knee;--it + was more than half an hour, however, before, one by one, they + began to steal away, perking and snuffing, and turning to gaze + at the least air that whiffed about them. At length they all + disappeared, except one gray, lean, haggard old grandmother + of hinds, who had no teeth, and limped with one leg, probably + from a wound which she received fifty or perhaps a hundred + years before I was born. Her vigilance, however, was only + sharpened by age; time, and the experience of many generations, + had made her acquainted with all the wiles and crafts of the + hill,--her eyes and ears were as active as a kid's, and I have + no doubt she could smell like Tobit's devil.--MacLellan looked + at her through his glass, and spit into the burn, and grinned + against the sun--as if he was lying in the bilboes instead of + cold water.--The old sorceress continued to watch us without + relaxation, and at last lay down on the brow of the knoll, and + employed her rumination in obstinate contemplation of the bank + under which we were ambushed. There was now no alternative but + to recommence our progress up the burn; and as I was determined + to circumvent the hind, I prepared for every inconvenience + which could be inflicted by the opposite vexations of a sharp, + rough, slippery, and gravelly stream. Fortunately, at the place + where we then were, it was so narrow, that we could hold by the + heather on both sides, and thus drag ourselves forward through + the water, between each of which advances I pushed my rifle on + before me. In this manner we reached the turn of the brook, + where I concluded that we should be round the shoulder of the + knoll, and out of sight of the hind, who lay upon its east brow. + This was effected so successfully, that, when we looked behind, + we only saw her back, and her head and ears still pointing at + the spot which we had left. One hundred yards more would bring + us within sight of the great hart; the general position of the + herd had not changed, and I hoped to find him near the central + knoll of the flat, at the base of which the burn circled. We + were almost surrounded by deer; but the greater number were + small vigilant hinds, the abomination and curse of a stalker. + At length, however, we reached the knoll, and rested, to take + breath, at its foot; I examined my rifle, to see that the lock + was clean and dry. We took a view of all around us, and, drawing + ourselves cautiously out of the burn, slid up through the + heather on the south side of the eminence.--Scarce, however, had + our legs cleared the stream, when we discovered a pair of ears + not above fifteen yards from the other side.--'_Mo mhallachd + ort!_' [My curse upon you]--whispered MacLellan. She had not + discovered us, however, and we glided round the base of the + knoll--but on the other side lay three hinds and a calf, and I + could see no trace of the great hart.--On the edge of the burn, + however, further up, there were five very good stags, and a + herd of about thirty deer, on the slope of the north brae. All + round us the ground was covered with hinds; for the prevalence + of the westerly wind, during the last few days, had drawn the + deer to that end of the forest. Upon the spot where I lay, + though I could only see a portion of the field, I counted four + hundred and seventy; and it was evident that no movement could + be made upon that side. We tried again the opposite slope of the + knoll;--the hind which we had first seen was still in the same + place, but she had laid down her head, and showed only the gray + line of her back over the heather. We drew ourselves cautiously + up the slope and looked over the summit. On the other side + there was a small flat moss, about seventy yards in breadth; + then another hillock; and to the left two more, with little + levels, and wet grassy hollows between them. Upon the side of + the first knoll there were two young stags and some hinds; but + the points of some good horns showed above the crest.--The + intervening ground was spotted with straggling hinds, and we + might lay where we were till to-morrow morning, without a chance + of getting near any of the good deer. While we deliberated, + MacLellan thought that, by crawling with extreme caution up a + wet hollow to the left, we might have a chance to approach the + stags whose horns we had seen behind the other knoll, and, as + nothing better could be done, we decided upon this attempt. The + sun was going down from the old towers of Auchandun, and we had + no more time than would give light for this venture.--We slid + away towards the hollow, and, drawing ourselves, inch by inch, + though the heather and tall thin grass, had reached the middle + of the level between the hillocks, when we heard a stamp and + a short grunt close beside us--I had scarce time to turn my + head, and catch a glimpse of a base little gray hind who, in + crossing the hollow, had stumbled upon us.--It was but a moment: + a rapid wheel and rush through the long grass, and I heard the + career of a hundred feet going through the hollow. I sprung on + my knee, and skaled a dozen small stags and hinds which came + upon us full speed; for those behind, not knowing from whence + came the alarm, made straight for the hill. The herd were now + gathering in all directions; charging--flying--re-uniting, + dispersing, and reassembling in utter disorder, like a rout of + cavalry.--I made a run for the middle knoll,--two stags, with + pretty good heads, met me right in the face.--I did not stop + to look at them, but rushed up the brae.--What a sight was + seen from its top!--upwards of six hundred deer were charging + past--before, behind, around, in all directions.--The stately + figure which I sought--the mighty black hart, was slowly + ascending an eminence about three hundred yards off, from whence + he reconnoitred the ground below; while the disarray of stags + and hinds gathered round him, like rallying masses of hussars + in the rear of a supporting column. I was so intent upon the + king of the forest, that I saw nothing else.--No other heads, + forms, numbers, took any place in my senses; all my faculties + were on the summit of that height.--At this moment I felt my + kilt drawn gently; I took no notice--but a more decided pull + made me look round:--MacLellan motioned up the slope, and I + saw the points of a good head passing behind a little ridge, + about eighty yards away. I looked back at the hart--he was just + moving to the hill. What would I have given to have diminished + a hundred and fifty yards of the distance which divided us! He + passed slowly down the back of the eminence and disappeared, and + the gathering herd streamed after him. '_O Chial! A Chial!_' + exclaimed the forester--'_bithidh e air falbh!_' The stag whose + horns I had seen had come out from behind the ridge, and stood + with his broad side towards me, gazing at the herd; but as they + moved away, he now began to follow. The disappearance of the + great hart, and the disappointment of MacLellan, recalled me to + the last chance. I followed the retreating stag with my rifle, + passed it before his shoulder, whiz went the two-ounce ball, and + he rolled over headlong in the heath, on the other side of the + knoll, which the next stretch would have placed between us. I + looked to the hill above: the whole herd was streaming up the + long green hollow in its west shoulder headed 'by the mighty + of the desert.' They rounded and passed the brow, and sloped + upward on the other side, till the forest of heads appeared + bristling along the sky-line of the summit. In a few moments + afterwards, as the sun was going down upon Scur-na-Lapaich, and + the far western hills of Loch Duaich, the terrible wide-forked + tree came out in the clear eastern sky on the top of the hill, + and, crowding after, at least two hundred heads--crossing, and + charging, and mingling--their polished points flashing in the + parting sunbeams, and from many a horn, the long steamers of the + moss fluttering and flying like the pennons and bannerolles of + lances. The herd continued to file along the ridge of the hill, + and wheeling below the crest, countermarched along the sky-line, + till their heads and horns slowly decreased against the light." + +With such a book as this before us, we could go on alternately +commenting and extracting until we had broken the back of the +Number. Even now we are dying to pilfer the account of the late +Glengarry's course with "Black Dulochan," and the no less exciting +history of the three day's ruse with a roebuck. But abstinence is a +virtue which is forced upon us in the present instance, rather from +the lack of space than from any exercise of voluntary discretion; +and we shall now leave the deer without further molestation for +a season, hoping soon to encounter them in person with our rifle +somewhere about the skirts of Cairn-Gorm. + +This is, we have no hesitation in saying, the best work on +deer-stalking which has yet been written; and the amount of +information which it contains regarding the habits of the stag and +roe, combined with the vivid pictures of which we have made such +ample use, cannot fail to render it popular. In an antiquarian point +of view, it is also highly interesting; for it embodies a large +amount of traditionary lore, sketches of the clans, and fragments of +Highland song, of much superior merit to those which have hitherto +come into our hands. The disquisitions, too, upon the disappearance +of some animals once indigenous to Scotland--such as the wolf, +the elk, the wild bull, and the beaver--exhibit a great amount of +research, and supply a gap which has long been wanted in the page of +natural history. + +One word to the authors--though we fear our words must travel a long +way before they can reach them in a foreign land. Why should they +not recast and add to their second volume, so as to make it a single +and unrivalled work upon the noblest sports of the Highlands? If +it has proved so fascinating, as in truth we have felt it, in the +more cumbrous shape of notes, how much better would it be if issued, +not as an appendage to the poems, but in a distinct and articulate +form? Perpend upon this, John Sobieski and Charles Edward, at +your leisure; and let us add, that we trust some of your more +gloomy anticipations may fall short of reality; that the walks of +Eilean-Agais, that little Eden of the north, may again be gladdened +by your presence; and that the sound of your hunting-horns may once +more be heard in the woods of Tarnaway, and on the hills near the +sources of the Findhorn. + + + + +THE BURIED FLOWER. + + + In the silence of my chamber, + When the night is still and deep, + And the drowsy heave of ocean + Mutters in its charmed sleep, + + Oft I hear the angel voices + That have thrill'd me long ago,-- + Voices of my lost companions, + Lying deep beneath the snow. + + O, the garden I remember, + In the gay and sunny spring, + When our laughter made the thickets + And the arching alleys ring! + + O the merry burst of gladness! + O the soft and tender tone! + O the whisper never utter'd + Save to one fond ear alone! + + O the light of life that sparkled + In those bright and bounteous eyes! + O the blush of happy beauty, + Tell-tale of the heart's surprise! + + O the radiant light that girdled + Field and forest, land and sea, + When we all were young together, + And the earth was new to me! + + Where are now the flowers we tended? + Wither'd, broken, branch and stem; + Where are now the hopes we cherish'd? + Scatter'd to the winds with them. + + For ye, too, were flowers, ye dear ones! + Nursed in hope and rear'd in love, + Looking fondly ever upward + To the clear blue heaven above: + + Smiling on the sun that cheer'd us, + Rising lightly from the rain, + Never folding up your freshness + Save to give it forth again: + + Never shaken, save by accents + From a tongue that was not free, + As the modest blossom trembles + At the wooing of the bee. + + O! 'tis sad to lie and reckon + All the days of faded youth, + All the vows that we believed in, + All the words we spoke in truth. + + Sever'd--were it sever'd only + By an idle thought of strife, + Such as time might knit together; + Not the broken chord of life! + + O my heart! that once so truly + Kept another's time and tune, + Heart, that kindled in the spring-tide, + Look around thee in the noon. + + Where are they who gave the impulse + To thy earliest thought and flow? + Look around the ruin'd garden-- + All are wither'd, dropp'd, or low! + + Seek the birth-place of the lily, + Dearer to the boyish dream + Than the golden cups of Eden, + Floating on its slumbrous stream; + + Never more shalt thou behold her-- + She, the noblest, fairest, best: + She that rose in fullest beauty, + Like a queen, above the rest. + + Only still I keep her image + As a thought that cannot die, + He who raised the shade of Helen + Had no greater power than I. + + O! I fling my spirit backward, + And I pass o'er years of pain; + All I loved is rising round me, + All the lost returns again. + + Blow, for ever blow, ye breezes, + Warmly as ye did before! + Bloom again, ye happy gardens, + With the radiant tints of yore! + + Warble out in spray and thicket, + All ye choristers unseen, + Let the leafy woodland echo + With an anthem to its queen! + + Lo! she cometh in her beauty, + Stately with a Juno grace, + Raven locks, Madonna-braided + O'er her sweet and blushing face: + + Eyes of deepest violet, beaming + With the love that knows not shame,-- + Lips, that thrill my inmost being + With the utterance of a name. + + And I bend the knee before her, + As a captive ought to bow,-- + Pray thee, listen to my pleading, + Sovereign of my soul art thou! + + O my dear and gentle lady, + Let me show thee all my pain, + Ere the words that late were prison'd + Sink into my heart again. + + Love, they say, is very fearful + Ere its curtain be withdrawn, + Trembling at the thought of error + As the shadows scare the fawn. + + Love hath bound me to thee, lady, + Since the well-remember'd day + When I first beheld thee coming + In the light of lustrous May. + + Not a word I dared to utter-- + More than he who, long ago, + Saw the heavenly shapes descending + Over Ida's slopes of snow: + + When a low and solemn music + Floated through the listening grove, + And the throstle's song was silenced, + And the doling of the dove: + + When immortal beauty open'd + All its grace to mortal sight, + And the awe of worship blended + With the throbbing of delight. + + As the shepherd stood before them + Trembling in the Phrygian dell, + Even so my soul and being + Own'd the magic of the spell; + + And I watch'd thee, ever fondly, + Watch'd thee, dearest, from afar, + With the mute and humble homage + Of the Indian to a star. + + Thou wert still the Lady Flora + In her morning garb of bloom; + Where thou wert was light and glory, + Where thou wert not, dearth and gloom. + + So for many a day I follow'd + For a long and weary while, + Ere my heart rose up to bless thee + For the yielding of a smile,-- + + Ere thy words were few and broken + As they answer'd back to mine, + Ere my lips had power to thank thee + For the gift vouchsafed by thine. + + Then a mighty gush of passion + Through my inmost being ran; + Then my older life was ended, + And a dearer course began. + + Dearer!--O, I cannot tell thee + What a load was swept away, + What a world of doubt and darkness + Faded in the dawning day! + + All my error, all my weakness, + All my vain delusions fled: + Hope again revived, and gladness + Waved its wings above my head. + + Like the wanderer of the desert, + When, across the dreary sand, + Breathes the perfume from the thickets + Bordering on the promised land; + + When afar he sees the palm-trees + Cresting o'er the lonely well, + When he hears the pleasant tinkle + Of the distant camel's bell: + + So a fresh and glad emotion + Rose within my swelling breast, + And I hurried swiftly onwards + To the haven of my rest. + + Thou wert there with word and welcome, + With thy smile so purely sweet; + And I laid my heart before thee, + Laid it, darling, at thy feet!-- + + O ye words that sound so hollow + As I now recall your tone! + What are ye but empty echoes + Of a passion crush'd and gone? + + Wherefore should I seek to kindle + Light, when all around is gloom? + Wherefore should I raise a phantom + O'er the dark and silent tomb? + + Early wert thou taken, Mary! + In thy fair and glorious prime, + Ere the bees had ceased to murmur + Through the umbrage of the lime. + + Buds were blowing, waters flowing, + Birds were singing on the tree, + Every thing was bright and glowing, + When the angels came for thee. + + Death had laid aside his terror, + And he found thee calm and mild, + Lying in thy robes of whiteness, + Like a pure and stainless child. + + Hardly had the mountain violet + Spread its blossoms on the sod, + Ere they laid the turf above thee, + And thy spirit rose to God. + + Early wert thou taken, Mary! + And I know 'tis vain to weep-- + Tears of mine can never wake thee + From thy sad and silent sleep. + + O away! my thoughts are earthward! + Not asleep, my love! art thou, + Dwelling in the land of glory + With the saints and angels now. + + Brighter, fairer far than living, + With no trace of woe or pain, + Robed in everlasting beauty, + Shall I see thee once again, + + By the light that never fadeth, + Underneath eternal skies, + When the dawn of resurrection + Breaks o'er deathless Paradise. + + W. E. A. + + + + +HUZZA FOR THE RULE OF THE WHIGS! + +AIR--"_Old Rosin the Beau._" + + + All ye who are true to the altar and throne, + Come join in this ditty with me; + And you who don't like it may let it alone, + Or listen a little and see. + How quietly now we may sleep in our beds, + And waken as merry as grigs; + Though fears of rebellion hang over our heads, + We're safe while we're ruled by the Whigs. + + In the 'nineties we saw (I remember the day) + Revolution disguised as Reform; + But the country was saved in a different way, + By the Pilot that weather'd the storm. + Our vessel was steer'd by the bravest and best, + And, except a few quality sprigs, + The whole English nation had thought it a jest + To propose being ruled by the Whigs. + + But as matters now stand in this ill-fated realm, + When old comrades will give us the slip, + We are strangely compell'd to put men at the helm. + To prevent them from scuttling the ship. + Only think, for a moment, if Russell were out, + How wild he'd be running his rigs! + About popular rights he would make such a rout-- + 'Tis lucky we're ruled by the Whigs. + + The Church--can you doubt what her danger would be + Were Tories at present in power? + Lord John, or his friends, we should certainly see + Attacking her posts every hour. + But as long as the Bishops may help out his lease, + He won't injure a hair of their wigs; + Nay, he even proposes the list to increase-- + So huzza for the rule of the Whigs! + + If Grey were at large, how he'd lay down the law + On the cures he for Ireland had found; + And swear that he never would rest till he saw + Her Establishment razed to the ground. + But Grey, while in office, sits muffled and mum, + Like a small bird asleep in the twigs; + And Ward, in the Commons, is equally dumb-- + So huzza for the rule of the Whigs! + + If any of us had made war on Repeal + With the weapons that Clarendon tries, + What shrieks of indignant invective from Shiel + At the wrongs of Old Erin would rise. + By millions of noisy Milesians back'd, + From the peer to the peasant that digs-- + How would Monaghan murmur that juries were pack'd!-- + So huzza for the rule of the Whigs! + + On Aliens or Chartists to hear them declaim, + You'd think Castlereagh come from the dead. + Though the mixture of metaphors isn't the same, + And the courage and coolness are fled. + But the Whigs are becoming respectable men + As any that ever kept gigs, + They are practising _now_ all they preach'd against _then_-- + So huzza for the rule of the Whigs! + + Go on, my good lads--never think of retreat, + Though annoy'd by a squib or a squirt; + You're fulfilling the fate such impostors should meet, + And eating your bushel of dirt + Then swallow it fast, for your hour may not last-- + We shall soon, if it pleases the pigs, + Give your places to men of a different cast, + And get rid of the rule of the Whigs! + + + + +THE NAVIGATION LAWS. + + +"When the Act of Navigation," says Adam Smith, "was made, though +England and Holland were not actually at war, the most violent +animosity subsisted between the two nations. It is not impossible, +therefore, that some of the regulations of this famous act may have +proceeded from national animosity. They _are as wise, however, as if +they had all been dictated by the most deliberate wisdom_. National +animosity, at that particular time, aimed at the very object which +the most deliberate wisdom would have recommended,--the diminution +of the naval power of Holland, the only naval power which could +endanger the security of England. The Act of Navigation is not +favourable to foreign commerce, or to the growth of that opulence +which can arise from it. As defence, however, is of much more value +than opulence, the Act of Navigation is perhaps the wisest of all +the commercial regulations of England."[8] Before these pages issue +from the press, this, undoubtedly the wisest of all the commercial +regulations of Great Britain, and under which the maritime strength +and colonial empire of England have risen to a pitch of grandeur +unknown in any other age or country, will be numbered among the +things which have been. The House of Commons, by a majority, have +voted for the repeal of the Navigation Laws. + + [8] _Wealth of Nations_, iv. c. 2. + +Free trade will soon have done its work, so far, at least, as the +House of Commons is concerned. It is gradually but unceasingly +advancing, and swallowing up successively all the great interests of +the empire, save that of the capitalists, as it moves forward. The +agricultural interests will find themselves deprived, in February +next, of all protection; and the British cultivator exposed to +the competition, without any shield save a nominal duty of 1s. a +quarter, of states where wheat can be raised, with a fair profit +in average years, at 18s. a quarter, and brought to this country +for 10s. at the very utmost of freight. As soon as we have two fine +harvests in succession, it will be seen to what state this system +will reduce British rural production. The West India interests have +been next assailed; and our colonies, upon whom free labour has +been forced, upon a compensation being given to the proprietors on +an average of a fourth of the value of their slaves, are speedily +to be exposed, with no protection but a differential duty of 5s. +6d. a hundredweight, diminishing 1s. 6d. a-year, till, in 1854, it +disappears, to the competition of slave colonies, where sugar can be +raised for L4 a ton, while in the British colonies the measures of +government have precluded its being raised for less than L10 a ton. +As a natural consequence, cultivation is about to cease in those +noble settlements; the forest and the jungle will speedily supplant +the smiling plantations, and L100,000,000 worth of British property +will be lost beyond redemption. + +Domestic manufactures were at the same time assailed, though with a +more gentle hand than rude produce. Protective duties on them were +lowered, though not entirely removed; and the consequence is, that +at this time there are 8000 hands wholly unemployed at Manchester, +and above 10,000 at Glasgow, and distress to an unparalleled extent +pervades the whole commercial and manufacturing classes. Nothing +daunted by these calamitous results, so exactly what the opponents +of free trade predicted would ensue, so diametrically the reverse +of the unbounded prosperity which they promised the nation as the +consequence of their changes, the Free-traders, in pursuance of +their usual system of preferring their own opinions to the evidence +of facts, are preparing to apply the same system to the commercial +navy of the country, and, by the repeal of the Navigation Laws, +against the opinion of Adam Smith, to depress our shipping interest +as much as they encourage that of foreign states, and endanger our +national existence, by crippling our own means of defence as much +as they augment the means of attack in the hands of our enemies. Not +content with rendering us dependent for a large part of our bread +on foreign nations, they are determined on measures calculated to +deprive us of the means of maintaining our naval superiority, or +upholding the national independence. They are set upon saying the +nation a few millions a-year in freight, though the consequence is, +that we shall be alike unable to withstand a pacific blockade or +hostile aggression. + +Many estimable and thoughtful persons in the country, struck with +astonishment at the adoption and determined adherence to such a +suicidal policy--alike by our rulers and a powerful party in the +country--in the face of the decisive evidence afforded by facts, and +the universal distress of the nation, as to its ruinous tendency, +have come to the opinion, that we have been struck with a judicial +blindness, and that Providence, as a just punishment for our sins, +and for the furtherance of its mysterious designs in the general +government of mankind, has rendered our own infatuation the means +of working out our destruction. They think it affords a marvellous +proof of the weakness of the human mind, and the impotence of man +against the arm of his Creator, that this vast empire, which has +done such mighty things in the annals of history, and which has +stood proof against the hostility of the combined world, directed +by consummate ability, when its rule was that of justice, should +thus crumble away and perish, not from external violence or foreign +aggression, but solely from domestic infatuation, when that rule has +passed away. And observing that this country has already suffered +greater losses, and been more severely crippled in its resources +by the effects of three years of free trade and fettered currency +policy, than by the whole efforts of France during a war of twenty +years--and still the same course is blindly persevered in--they draw +the conclusion that the evil is irremediable by human means, and +that the nation, if not absolutely shipwrecked, will approach as +near the verge of ruin as the providence of God will permit human +infatuation to effect. + +Without denying that there is much truth in these observations, and +humbly acknowledging a Divine superintendence alike in the rise and +the decline, the prosperity and decay, of nations, it yet appears +more reasonable to trace the extraordinary obstinacy of the ruling +party in the nation to the causes which, humanly speaking, seem to +have been mainly instrumental in producing it. The fanaticism of the +political economists, who, like all other fanatics, are inaccessible +to reason or experience, is, without doubt, a main cause of the +disastrous policy to which the nation seems now irrevocably pledged. +But a still more powerful agent in producing the determined +adherence to this system, in the face of the most conclusive +evidence of its pernicious tendency, is to be found in the _class_ +government which it is now apparent the Reform Bill has imposed upon +the nation. It is now unhappily proved that the _trading_ interest, +in whom a decisive majority both in the constituency and the number +of seats in parliament has been vested by the Reform Bill, are +alive, like all other classes, mainly to the suggestions of their +own advantage; and that advantage they think is, to buy cheap and +sell dear. Whatever we were in the days when Napoleon said it, we +are now, if not a nation of shopkeepers, at least a nation _ruled +by shopkeepers_. The colonies are entirely unrepresented. Schedules +A and B, sixteen years ago, cut off all their representatives. The +landed interest is in a minority, from two-thirds of the seats in +the Commons being for boroughs; and those boroughs, owing to the +depression of the producing classes by the currency laws, and the +vast increase of the trading interests from the same cause, being +for the most part under the direction of the commercial part of +the community. It is in these circumstances that we are to look +for the real causes of the adoption of free-trade principles of +late years by our statesmen, and the determined adherence to it, +in spite of all experience, by a majority of the House of Commons. +Such conduct is the inevitable result of every _uniform_ system +of representation, because that lands the government in the class +government of the majority, composed of a particular interest. The +evil was not felt under the old constitution, because it was _not_ +a class government, being based on a multifarious, not a uniform +representation. Its _defects_, as they are now called, _i. e._ its +nomination boroughs, combined with the extension of our colonial +and shipping interests, had let in a most efficient representation +of _all_ the interests in the empire, as well as that of the +inhabitants of those islands, into the House of Commons. It is to +this cause that the protection of _all_ interests by the old House +of Commons is to be ascribed. Doubtless, under the old system the +Corn Laws would have been upheld; but the West Indies would have +been saved from ruin, domestic industry rescued from bankruptcy and +the Navigation Laws, the palladium of our national independence, +preserved from destruction. + +That the Navigation Laws have been a great advantage to our +shipowners and seafaring interests is self-evident. They afforded +superior advantages in conducting the trade of the empire to +British over foreign shipowners; and they nursed up, accordingly, +the immense and hardy body of British seamen, who have founded and +protected our colonial empire, and rendered Great Britain the terror +and admiration of the world. What, then, is the great benefit which +is anticipated from the repeal of laws, the practical operation of +which has been attended with such uniform and unparalleled benefits? +The benefit is, that it will save our merchants some millions a-year +in the payment of freights. It is calculated by the Free-traders +that L30,000,000 yearly is paid by Great Britain for freights; and +of this sum, it is thought a fourth, or L7,500,000 yearly, may be +saved by the employment of foreign instead of British sailors in the +conducting of our commerce, or the reduction of freight and seamen's +wages in these islands, which will result from their unrestrained +competition. This is the benefit to attain which our Navigation +Laws, the nursery of our seamen, are to be sacrificed. And the +question to be considered is,--Is the gain real, or apparent only; +and, supposing it is real, is it worth the risk with which it is +attended? + +Is the advantage real, or apparent only? Concede to the Free-traders +all they contend for: call the saving to the nation annually in +freights, to be effected by free trade in shipping, not L7,500,000 +but L10,000,000 annually. The strength of the argument will admit +of almost any concession. Admit this, and consider what it is +worth, and on whom it is made. It is not worth a _fiftieth part_ +of the revenue of the nation, which, in the produce of land and +manufactures alone, is above L500,000,000 annually. A week of +sunshine in autumn, a favourable set of Fall orders from America, +the stoppage of a revolution in Europe, are each worth more to the +nation. But, such as it is, from whom is it gained? Why, it is all +_gained from our own people_: it is a saving effected to _one class +of our inhabitants by impoverishing another class_. If our merchants +and the purchasers from them pay L20,000,000 a-year for freight of +goods sea-borne, instead of L30,000,000 as formerly, undoubtedly +there is a saying of L10,000,000 _to them_, or the consumers who buy +from them. But of whom is this saving made? From whom is it derived? +Is it not from our shipbuilders, shipowners, and seamen, who get +so much the less: either by being driven out of the market by +foreign mercantile navies, or by getting their own profits or wages +reduced by external competition to that amount? Ten millions now +earned by shipowners and sailors in Great Britain, is, on the most +favourable supposition for the Free-traders, _taken from them_, and +given to the dealers in or consumers of the commodities which they +transport. Is the nation, as a whole, any gainer by that transfer? +If ten pounds are taken from John and given to James, are John and +James, taken together, any gainers by the transfer? And is not the +great family of the nation composed of all its members, not of John +only, but of John and James taken together? Is not the repeal of the +Navigation Laws, in this view robbing Peter to pay Paul? This is +the mighty advantage, for the attainment of which we are going to +crush by external competition our mercantile shipping; and endanger +the national independence, by withering the nursery of the navy, by +which it can alone be maintained! Can there be a stronger proof of +how completely, by the operation of the Reform Bill, we have fallen +under the influence of class government; and how entirely such +class government blinds the vision even of the most clear-sighted, +to any thing but the perception of its own immediate interests? + +The evidence taken before the Commons' committee, on the comparative +cost of building and navigating ships in the north of Europe +and in this country, comes to this, that both are about _twice_ +as expensive in this country as on the shores of the Baltic. A +copper-sheathed vessel, which there costs L4500, cannot here be +constructed for less than L9000: a master's wages there, which are +L2, 11s. a month, are here L5 for the same period: seamen's, there +7d. a day, besides provisions, &c., are here 1s. 2d. Every thing +else is in the same proportion. Shipbuilding and ship-navigating are +twice as costly in Great Britain as they are in Norway and Denmark. +How could it be otherwise, when they have the materials of ships +and rigging at their doors, while we have to transport them to the +British shores from Canada or the Baltic; and they are the poor +nations, whose money being scarce goes far, and we are the rich one, +whose money being comparatively plentiful goes but a little way. +Compare the cost of living in London during the season, with what +it is in Aberdeen or Inverness, and you will at once see the main +cause of the extraordinary difference in the value of money, and +consequently in the money-price of articles, in the two situations. +The difference in the cost of shipbuilding and seamanship, viz. one +half, is nearly the same as the difference in the cost of raising +sugar in our free-labour colonies and the foreign slave ones, +which is L10 a ton in the former situation, and L4 in the latter. +And it is in the perfect knowledge of the entire ruin which the +approach even to a free trade in sugar has brought, under these +circumstances, upon the British West India islands, that government +are prepared to force a similar disastrous competition upon the +British shipowners, and through them on the palladium of British +independence, the royal navy. + +Mr Labouchere said, in the debate on this subject in the House +of Commons, that the Protection Party seemed to consider every +importation as in itself an evil, inasmuch as it displaced a +corresponding amount of native industry; but that till he found that +goods were brought by merchants into the country for nothing, he +never could see how importation did not encourage domestic industry +as much as home orders. This is manfully spoken: it comes home to +the kernel of the question. It is pleasing to have to contend with +such an antagonist. We will answer him equally briefly, and, as it +seems to us, decisively. The difference between home orders and +foreign orders is this, that the one encourages industry at _both +ends_, viz., in the consumers and the producers; the other, at _one +end only_, viz., in the consumer. This difference, however, may +become vital to the national fortunes. If a London merchant pays +L20,000 a-year to British shipowners and seamen, he keeps in motion +at once the industry of the consumers, by whose produce the freights +are ultimately paid, and the industry of the seafaring classes by +whom they are earned. But if he pays the L20,000 a-year not to +British but foreign shipowners, the only industry put in motion, so +far as we are concerned, is that which raises the produce which is +to pay the freight. The other end of the chain is placed in Norway +or America, and any encouragement to industry there afforded is +wholly lost to England. It is just the difference between rents +spent in Great Britain, and rents spent in Paris or Naples. + +Doubtless they are the same thing, so far as the whole world is +concerned; but are they the same thing so far as that portion of +the world in which we are interested, viz., the British Islands, +is concerned? Unquestionably they are not. What the Protectionists +say is, not that no British industry is encouraged when importation +takes place: they know perfectly it is encouraged at _their end_ of +the line; what they say is, that it is not encouraged at the _other +end_, because that other end rests in foreign states; and that it is +unwise to encourage industry at _one end_ only, when it is possible +to do so at _both_. Adam Smith saw this perfectly when he so well +explained the difference between the home trade and foreign trade, +and said the former was "worth all foreign trade put together." But +his observations on this head are as much forgotten by the majority +of our legislators as those he made on the great wisdom of our +Navigation Laws, as the only security for our national independence. + +Mr M'Gregor said in debate on the same subject, that "he admitted +our naval strength had co-existed with the Navigation Laws, but he +denied that they were cause and effect. They had about as much to do +with each other as the height of the Pyramids had with the floods +of the Nile."[9] We agree with the honourable member for Glasgow in +one part of this observation. The Navigation Laws have had as much +to do with our maritime prosperity as the Pyramids had with the +floods of the Nile; and we will tell the ex-secretary of the board +of trade what the relation was--it was that of cause and effect. +Mr M'Gregor is too well informed not to know that there exists in +Cairo a _Nilometer_, and that, during the period of the inundation, +the spirits of the people and the animation of commerce rise and +fall with the rise or fall of the prolific stream. It is no wonder +they do so, for it is the source of life and prosperity to the whole +community. Raised by the power of the Pharaohs from the riches +produced by the inundations of former times, the Pyramids are the +Nilometer of antiquity, as much as the tower of Babel and the ruins +of Babylon were the monument of the opulence of the plain of Shinar; +or as Waterloo Bridge is of the wealth produced by the favourable +maritime situation of London, or York Cathedral of the agricultural +riches of the plains of Yorkshire. In all these causes there is a +relation between the natural advantages which produce the riches +and the durable monument to the construction of which they lead, +and that relation is that of cause and effect. We entirely concur +with the member for Glasgow in thinking that the same connexion, +and no other, subsists between the Navigation Laws and the maritime +greatness of England as existed formerly between the Pyramids of +Egypt and the fertilising floods which encircle their base. + + [9] _Times_, June 9, 1848. + +To prove that these remarks are not made at random, but that the +Navigation Laws really are the foundation of the maritime greatness +of England, and that, when they are repealed, it must of necessity +languish and ultimately expire, we subjoin three tables: one showing +the progress of British as compared with foreign shipping, from +1801 to 1823, when the protection of the Navigation Laws was first +infringed upon by the adoption of the reciprocity system with the +Baltic powers; and another showing the comparative progress of our +foreign and home shipping with Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Prussia, +the countries with whom reciprocity treaties were first concluded, +from 1823 to the end of 1847, when the reciprocity system had been a +quarter of a century in operation. + +TABLE showing the comparative progress of British and Foreign +Tonnage inwards, from 1821 to 1847, both inclusive, with Sweden, +Norway, Denmark, and Prussia. + +[Transcriber's note: Column headings: Y=Year. Bt=Brit. tons. Ft=For. tons.] + + | | SWEDEN. | NORWAY. | DENMARK. | PRUSSIA. | + | | | | | | + | Y | Bt | Ft | Bt | Ft | Bt | Ft | Bt | Ft | + +------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+--------+--------+ + | 1821 | 23,005| 8,508| 13,855| 61,342| 5,312| 3,969| 79,590| 37,720| + | 1822 | 20,799| 13,692| 13,377| 87,974| 7,096| 3,910| 102,847| 58,270| + | 1823 | 20,986| 22,529| 13,122| 117,015| 4,413| 4,795| 81,202| 86,013| + | 1824 | 17,074| 40,092| 11,419| 135,272| 6,738| 23,689| 94,664| 151,621| + | 1825 | 15,906| 53,141| 14,825| 157,916| 15,158| 50,943| 189,214| 182,752| + | 1826 | 11,829| 16,939| 13,603| 90,726| 22,000| 56,544| 119,060| 120,589| + | 1827 | 11,719| 21,822| 13,945| 96,420| 10,825| 52,456| 150,718| 109,184| + | 1828 | 14,877| 24,700| 10,826| 85,771| 17,464| 49,293| 133,753| 99,195| + | 1829 | 16,536| 25,046| 9,985| 86,205| 24,576| 53,390| 125,918| 127,861| + | 1830 | 12,116| 23,158| 6,459| 84,585| 12,210| 51,420| 102,758| 139,646| + | 1831 | 11,450| 38,689| 4,518| 114,865| 6,552| 62,190| 83,908| 140,532| + | 1832 | 8,335| 25,755| 3,789| 82,155| 7,268| 35,772| 62,079| 89,187| + | 1833 | 10,009| 29,454| 5,901| 98,931| 6,840| 38,620| 41,735| 108,753| + | 1834 | 15,353| 35,911| 6,403| 98,303| 5,691| 53,282| 32,021| 118,711| + | 1835 | 12,036| 35,061| 2,592| 95,049| 6,007| 49,008| 25,514| 124,144| + | 1836 | 10,865| 42,439| 1,573| 125,875| 2,152| 51,907| 42,567| 174,439| + | 1837 | 7,608| 42,602| 1,035| 88,004| 5,357| 55,961| 67,566| 145,742| + | 1838 | 10,425| 38,991| 1,364| 110,817| 3,466| 57,554| 86,734| 175,643| + | 1839 | 8,359| 49,270| 2,582| 109,228| 5,535| 106,960| 111,470| 229,208| + | 1840 | 11,953| 53,337| 3,161| 114,241| 6,327| 103,067| 112,709| 237,984| + | 1841 | 13,170| 46,795| 977| 113,045| 3,368| 83,009| 88,198| 210,254| + | 1842 | 15,296| 37,218| 1,385| 98,979| 5,499| 59,837| 87,202| 145,499| + | 1843 | 6,435| 44,184| 1,814| 97,248| 4,148| 82,940| 70,164| 163,745| + | 1844 | 12,806| 59,835| 1,315| 125,011| 7,423| 123,674| 108,626| 220,202| + | 1845 | 15,157| 89,923| 1,215| 129,897| 4,528| 84,566| 49,334| 256,711| + | 1846 | 12,625| 80,649| 3,313| 113,738| 9,531| 105,973| 63,425| 270,801| + | 1847 | 7,037| 117,918| 2,318| 128,075| 20,462| 116,382| 88,390| 303,225| + +--PORTER'S _Parliamentary Tables_; and _Parliamentary Report, 3d +April 1848_. + +Thus, while our shipping with the whole world _quadrupled_, as +compared with the foreign employed in the same trade, under the +protective system, from 1801 to 1823; it declined under the +reciprocity system of equal duties, in the countries to which that +system was applied in the next twenty years, till it had dwindled +to a perfect fraction;--our tonnage with Sweden being, in 1847, +not more than a _sixteenth_ part of the foreign; with Norway, a +_fiftieth_ part; with Denmark somewhat above a _sixth_; with Prussia +somewhat under a _fourth_. + +But then it is said these are _selected_ states which do not give +a fair average of the reciprocity system, or afford a correct +criterion of its probable effects when applied, as it is about to +be by a general repeal of the Navigation Laws, to the whole world. +If they are "selected states," we can only say they were selected +by Mr Huskisson and the Free-traders themselves as likely to afford +the best specimen of the effect of their principles, and therefore +as the first on which the experiment was to be made. But we are +quite willing to take the general tonnage of the empire as the test; +and we shall commence with a quotation from the tables of the great +statistical apostle of free trade, Mr Porter, to show the effect +of free trade in shipping on the comparative growth of our whole +tonnage, as compared with that of foreign states, from 1801 to 1823, +when the reciprocity system began; and again from thence lo 1847, +when free trade in shipping was in full operation by the temporary +suspension of the Navigation Laws, from the effect of the Orders +in Council in March 1847 suspending the Navigation Laws under the +pressure of the Irish famine:-- + + | | Tons inward, | Tons inward | | + | Year. | British. | Foreign. | TOTAL. | + +-------+--------------+-------------+------------+ + | 1801 | 922,594 | 780,155 | 1,702,749 | + | 1802 | 1,333,005 | 480,251 | 1,813,256 | + | 1803 | 1,115,702 | 638,104 | 1,753,806 | + | 1804 | 904,932 | 607,299 | 1,512,231 | + | 1805 | 953,250 | 691,883 | 1,645,138 | + | 1806 | 904,367 | 612,904 | 1,517,271 | + | 1807 | Records lost | | | + | 1808 | Records lost | | | + | 1809 | 938,675 | 759,287 | 1,697,692 | + | 1810 | 896,001 | 1,176,243 | 2,072,244 | + | 1811 | | | | + | 1812 | Records destroyed by fire. | + | 1813 | | | | + | 1814 | 1,290,248 | 599,287 | 1,889,535 | + | 1815 | 1,372,108 | 746,985 | 2,119,093 | + | 1816 | 1,415,723 | 379,465 | 1,795,188 | + | 1817 | 1,625,121 | 445,011 | 2,070,132 | + | 1818 | 1,886,394 | 762,457 | 2,648,851 | + | 1819 | 1,809,128 | 542,684 | 2,351,812 | + | 1820 | 1,668,060 | 447,611 | 2,115,671 | + | 1821 | 1,599,274 | 396,256 | 1,995,530 | + | 1822 | 1,664,186 | 469,151 | 2,133,337 | + +--PORTER'S _Progress of the Nation_, 407. + +It appears from this most instructive table that, under the +protection system, from 1801 to 1823, the British shipping employed +in conducting our commerce had gained so decisively on the foreign +employed in the same commerce, that it had increased, from having +been on an average of five years, at the commencement of the second, +about two British tons to one foreign, to be, on the last five +years, about _four_ British tons to one foreign: in other words, +during these twenty-two years, the proportion of British to foreign +shipping had _doubled_. + +Turn now to the contrast afforded by the comparative progress of +British and foreign shipping from 1823, when the reciprocity system +was introduced with certain states, to 1847, when it was made +universal by the suspension of the Navigation Laws in March of that +year:-- + + | Year. | Tons inward, | Tons inward, | TOTAL. | + | | British. | Foreign. | | + +-------+--------------+--------------+------------+ + | 1823 | 1,740,859 | 582,996 | 2,323,855 | + | 1824 | 1,797,320 | 759,441 | 2,556,761 | + | 1825 | 2,144,598 | 958,132 | 3,102,730 | + | 1826 | 1,950,630 | 694,116 | 2,644,746 | + | 1827 | 2,086,898 | 751,864 | 2,839,762 | + | 1828 | 2,094,357 | 634,620 | 2,728,977 | + | 1829 | 2,184,525 | 710,303 | 2,894,828 | + | 1830 | 2,180,042 | 758,828 | 2,938,870 | + | 1831 | 2,367,322 | 874,605 | 3,241,927 | + | 1832 | 2,185,980 | 639,979 | 2,825,959 | + | 1833 | 2,183,814 | 762,085 | 2,945,899 | + | 1834 | 2,298,263 | 833,905 | 3,132,168 | + | 1835 | 2,442,734 | 866,990 | 3,309,724 | + | 1836 | 2,505,473 | 988,899 | 3,494,372 | + | 1837 | 2,617,166 | 1,005,940 | 3,623,106 | + | 1838 | 2,785,387 | 1,211,666 | 3,997,053 | + | 1839 | 3,101,650 | 1,331,365 | 4,433,015 | + | 1840 | 3,197,501 | 1,460,294 | 4,657,795 | + | 1841 | 3,361,211 | 1,291,165 | 4,652,376 | + | 1842 | 3,294,725 | 1,205,303 | 4,500,028 | + | 1843 | 3,545,346 | 1,301,950 | 4,847,296 | + | 1844 | 3,647,463 | 1,402,138 | 5,049,601 | + | 1845 | 4,310,639 | 1,735,079 | 6,045,718 | + | 1846 | 4,294,733 | 1,806,282 | 6,101,015 | + | 1847 | 4,942,094 | 2,253,939 | 7,196,033 | + + --PORTER'S _Progress of the Nation_, 407, 2d edition; + and _Parliamentary Paper, 3d April 1848_. + +Thus it appears that under the reciprocity system with some +countries since 1823, and free trade in shipping with all in 1847, +the foreign shipping employed in carrying on the British trade had +so rapidly grown upon the British, that, while at the commencement +of the period the British stood to the foreign as 174 to 58, or _3 +to 1_ exactly, at the close they stood as 49 to 22, or _somewhat +above 2 to 1 only_. And observe the vast start of foreign shipping +as compared with British, since free trade was introduced by Sir R. +Peel in 1846. For while the British tonnage was to the foreign in +1845 as 43 to 17, or as 2-1/2 to 1; in the year 1847 it was as 49 +to 229, or 2-1/3 to 1 only. So rapid has been the growth of foreign +shipping over British in eighteen months of general free trade. +In ten years of such a system, it is easy to see that the foreign +tonnage employed in carrying on our trade will be equal to the +British; and then our national independence is gone for ever, for we +have nursed up in our harbours a body of foreign seamen equal to our +own. + +But we have not yet done with the parliamentary returns. From the +return 3d April 1848, it appears that the total tonnage, British and +foreign, employed in carrying on our trade was-- + + British Islands. Foreign. Total. + 4,942,094 2,253,939 7,196,033 tons. + +Deduct British and foreign tons employed in the colonial trade, +viz.-- + + Tons Brit. Tons For. + inward. inward. + + Brit. N. Amer. colonies 953,466 3,274 + West Indies 243,388 + Channel islands 131,899 3,049 + Gibraltar 11,623 + Malta 33,554 3,789 + Ionian islands 13,101 + Africa 203,812 6,983 + Asia and Australia 379,529 2,774 + + Total to colonies 1,970,372 19,847 + +Thus the British trade to our colonial settlements is about _a +hundred times_ the foreign, and constitutes nearly a _third_ +of the whole tonnage employed in carrying on our commerce, and +about two-fifths of the total British tonnage,--(1,970,372 out of +4,942,094.) + +But it is important to discover what proportion the British tonnage +employed in conducting our trade with all the world, _except our +colonies_, bears to the foreign tonnage employed in the same work. +That is easily found:-- + + Tons Brit. Tons For. + 1847. Total British Tonnage, 4,942,094 Total For. ton. 2,253,939 + Deduct British + colonial tonnage, 1,970,372 Foreign do. 19,847 + Remains in trade with all --------- --------- + the world except colonies, 2,971,722 2,233,092 + +So that, setting aside our colonial trade, the British tonnage is to +the tonnage with all the rest of the world as 29 to 22, or as 4 to +3 only! Considering the rapid strides which, under the reciprocity +system established only with a limited number of countries in 1823, +the foreign shipping is making in encroachment upon the British, +this fact affords room for the most serious reflections. It is +clear, from the great advance of foreign over British shipping in +the single year of temporary suspension of the Navigation Laws, +under the pressure of famine in 1847--viz. from 1,735,679, to +2,253,979; while the British in the same period advanced only from +4,310,639, to 4,942,094,--that two or three years of free trade in +shipping will bring the foreign vessels employed in conducting our +trade, exclusive of those engaged in the colonial, to an _equality +with the British_. The moment that period arrives, our maritime +superiority, and with it our national independence, hang entirely on +our colonial trade, which, and which alone, strikes the balance at +present in our favour. And yet, the colonial trade is the precise +thing which it is the object of the repeal of the Navigation Laws +to throw open to foreign nations! In their anxiety to cheapen every +thing, the Free-traders would gladly expose our shipping interest +engaged in the colonial trade to the same competition, which has +already proved so disastrous to that part of it which is engaged in +the traffic with foreign nations. + +Observe how one false step in policy by nations, like one deviation +from virtue in private life, leads by natural consequences to a +repetition of errors and crimes, till irreparable ruin ensues. +The agricultural interest at home was first attacked; and by the +cry of cheap bread, and the weight of class legislation, its +protection was taken away. The West India islands were the next +victims; because, if the farmer in England raises his wheat with +nothing but a nominal protection, it was plausible to say the West +India planter must raise his sugar on the same terms. The ruinous +competition to which this exposed the West India planters naturally +produced in them a desire to be liberated from any burdens to which +they were subjected for the benefit of the mother country; and in +this demand the Canadians, exposed to the competition of American +grain, for a similar reason concurred. Thus the cry for cheap +freights, originating in free-trade principles in England, came to +be responded to from the British colonies on the other side of the +Atlantic; and the Navigation Laws began to be repudiated by the +colonies--the very thing which formerly it was their most anxious +desire to uphold. The firm though unseen bond of mutual interest, +founded on protective principles, which has hitherto held together +the vast and widely separated dominions of the British empire, is +dissolved. Being deprived of the benefit of protection, they very +naturally wished to be relieved of its burdens. Such is the maze +of error and danger into which we have been led by the sophistry +of free trade; and such the way in which the greatest and best +consolidated empires are first loosened, and then destroyed, by the +delusions of those entrusted with their guidance. + +The manner in which foreign shipping has encroached upon British, +since the reciprocity system began in 1823, is clearly proved by the +centesimal proportions of each, published by Mr Porter, from 1820 to +1844, both inclusive. + +It will be seen from the following table, that, since 1820, the +centesimal proportion of British shipping employed in conducting our +trade has _declined_ from 78 to 72, while that of foreign nations +has _increased_ from 21 to 27. But this proportion, such as it is, +is solely upheld by our colonial trade, which, as already shown, +employs nearly 2,000,000 tons of our shipping. But for it, the +encroachment of foreign on British shipping would appear in such +alarming colours as to strike the most inconsiderate. It is the +rapid growth of our colonial trade under the protective system which +has alone concealed the ravages effected on it by free trade under +the reciprocity. + +Centesimal Proportions of the British and Foreign Tonnage employed +in the Import Trade of the United Kingdom from 1820 to 1844. + + | Year. |Brit. inward.|For. inward.|Year.|Brit. inward.|For. inward.| + +--------+-------------+------------+-----+-------------+------------+ + | 1820 | 78.84 | 21.16 | 1834| 73.37 | 26.63 | + | 1821 | 80.14 | 19.86 | 1835| 73.85 | 26.15 | + | 1822 | 78.00 | 22.00 | 1836| 71.41 | 28.59 | + | 1823[10] 74.91 | 25.09 | 1837| 72.23 | 27.77 | + | 1824 | 70.29 | 29.71 | 1838| 69.68 | 30.32 | + | 1825 | 69.12 | 30.88 | 1839| 69.96 | 30.04 | + | 1826 | 73.75 | 26.25 | 1840| 68.64 | 31.36 | + | 1827 | 73.51 | 26.49 | 1841| 72.24 | 27.76 | + | 1828 | 76.74 | 23.26 | 1842| 73.21 | 26.79 | + | 1829 | 75.46 | 25.54 | 1843| 73.14 | 26.86 | + | 1830 | 74.18 | 25.82 | 1844| 72.23 | 27.77 | + | 1831 | 73.02 | 26.98 | 1845| ... | ... | + | 1832 | 77.35 | 22.65 | 1846| ... | ... | + | 1833 | 74.13 | 25.87 | 1847| ... | ... | + + --PORTER'S _Progress of the Nation_, 416, 2d edition. + + [10] Reciprocity System introduced. + +Mr Porter himself tells us that the centesimal proportion of our +trade with the European powers has _declined_ (p. 410) from 65 to +52.38, while that of our colonies has increased thus,-- + + | | 1802. | 1814. | 1835. | 1844. | + | | Tons. |Cent.| Tons. |Cent.| Tons. |Cent.| Tons. |Cent.| + | | |prop.| |prop.| |prop.| |prop.| + | +-------+-----+-------+-----+---------+-----+---------+-----+ + |America |336,344|18.54|343,658|19.32| 886,524|26.21| 984,850|19.50| + |Africa | 7,270| 0.40| 13,514| 0.76| 40,131| 1.21| 157,364| 3.12| + |India, &c.| 67,627| 3.72| 74,117| 4.16| 161,473| 4.88| 264,978| 5.25| + |Australia | ... | ... | 488| .02| 16,019| 0.48| 36,454| 0.74| + | +-------+-----+-------+-----+---------+-----+---------+-----+ + | |411,241|19.66|431,727|24.26|1,104,147|32.78|1,443,646|28.61| + +Such has been the working of the reciprocity system, as compared +with the protective and colonial--in other words, free trade in +shipping with some particular nations--in twenty years. And it is +from this experience of the effects of the partial adoption of these +principles that the Free-traders now propose to make it universal! + +America is the country to which, in comparison with Great Britain, +the Free-traders constantly refer for a demonstration of the +justice and beneficial operation of their principles. We accept the +instance, and proceed to inquire into the comparative value of the +American protected trade with our own colonies, and the American +free trade with the United States, both at this time and in the +respective progress of each for the last twenty-five years. + +The foreign and British tonnage with the United States, Canada, and +the West Indies, in the year 1847, stood thus, viz.:-- + + | |British tons.|Foreign tons.| Total. | + | +-------------+-------------+---------+ + |British North American Colonies | 953,466 | 3,724 | 954,190| + |British West Indies | 243,388 | ... | 243,388| + | +-------------+-------------+---------+ + | Total protected | 1,196,854 | ... |1,197,578| + |United States of America | | | | + | (unprotected) | 437,095 | 651,189 |1,088,284| + + --_Parliamentary Paper, 3d April 1848._ + +So that, while our West India and North American colonies, under +this Protective system, support 1,196,854 tons of British shipping +against 3,724 of foreign, or 300 to 1 nearly; the American trade +with the United States only maintains 437,095 of British against +651,189 of foreign; in other words, about 2 to 3 nearly! But the +Free-traders think it better to adopt the system which makes the +foreign shipping to the British as 3 to 2, than uphold the one which +has brought the foreign shipping to the British, in the colonial +trade, as 1 to 300! + +Observe, too, the decisive proof which the same return affords of +the vast superiority, in every point of view, of our colonial trade +to our foreign, even in the hands of our best free-trade customers, +the Americans. For while less than 3,000,000 of souls between the +West India and North American colonies furnished employment to +1,197,000 tons of British and foreign shipping, of which 1,193,000 +was British; twenty millions of Americans in the United States only +furnished employment to 1,088,284 tons of shipping, in all of which +no more than 437,095 were British! And this is the pet instance +of the Free-traders--their favourite _cheval de bataille_--to +demonstrate the great superiority of free and foreign over protected +and colonial trade! + +Again, if we take the comparative progress of British and American +tonnage in conducting the trade of the United States, since the +reciprocity system was begun in 1823, the same conclusion is forced +upon the mind. Not only is the American shipping, throughout the +whole period, superior to the British in the proportion generally of +3 to 1, but this superiority in their favour remains undiminished in +any material degree. We take the following returns from Mr Porter:-- + + Year. British American + tons inwards. tons inwards. + 1823 63,606 165,699 + 1826 47,711 151,765 + 1829 64,343 162,367 + 1832 95,203 167,359 + 1835 86,383 226,483 + 1838 83,203 357,467 + 1841 121,777 294,170 + 1844 206,183 338,737 + 1845 224,089 444,609 + 1846 205,123 435,399 + +It is easy to see how it has happened that, in competition with the +shipowners of every country, the British shipowners have suffered +so much under the partial operation of the free-trade principles +which the reciprocity system has afforded. It is the inevitable fate +of the old and the rich state, in shipbuilding and agriculture, to +be undersold by the young and the poor one. The reason is, that +the old state, by the very magnitude of its wealth, the amount of +its transactions, the number of its inhabitants, the multitude +of its fabrics, is obliged to pay much higher for labour and +materials of all sorts than the young and the poor one. Machinery +and the steam-engine compensate, and more than compensate, this +superiority in regard to manufactured articles. England undersells +Hindostan, where wages are a penny or twopence a day, by the work +of steam-power looms working on cotton raised on the banks of the +Ganges. But there is no steam-power loom in shipbuilding any more +than in agriculture. Great things in nautical affairs, as in rural +economy, can be effected only by the labour of man's hands and the +sweat of his brow, in the last ages of civilisation, as in the +first. It would appear to be a permanent law of nature, to which +there is no exception in any age of the world, or any stage of +human progress, that the chief branches of industry on which the +subsistence and defence of nations rest--agriculture, and the naval +and military arts--are pursued more cheaply, and with more success +by young and rising than old and opulent states. History is full of +examples in which the manufactures of rich and ancient nations have +obtained an undisputed supremacy over the fabrics of poor and rising +ones; but it presents still more examples of the encroachments +made on the industry and power of old nations by the agricultural +produce, or naval and military efforts, of young ones. It is this +law of nature which provides for the decay and ruin of nations when +they are approaching the limit of their allotted space of existence, +and should give place to others entering on the career which they +have terminated. No efforts of human energy or virtue can prolong, +for any considerable period, this allotted space. But it is the +peculiar reproach of free trade, whether applied to agriculture or +nautical affairs, that it tends to shorten, instead of prolonging, +the life of the nation to which it is applied, by oppressing instead +of relieving those vital branches of industry on which its existence +depends, and thus both aggravates the natural evils incident to old +age, and accelerates the approach of the political society to the +tomb. + +When Mr Huskisson, in 1823, introduced the Reciprocity System, he +did not dispute that it would injure our maritime interests; but he +contended that it would open a new field for our manufactures,--that +the time had now arrived when the Protective System could no longer +be maintained, and it had become indispensable to sacrifice to a +certain extent our maritime interests, in order to preserve the +chief vents on Continental Europe for the industry of our artisans. +The sacrifice was made, and the tables already given show with what +fatal effect to our shipping interest. Has it extended the market +for our manufactures, or diminished the jealousy with which they are +regarded by the states of Continental Europe? Let the Zollverein +league, at the head of which Prussia has placed herself, and which +has imposed duties to an amount, in practical operation, of fifty +per cent on our manufactures, give the answer. The exports which +we send to the states of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Prussia, are +still, after a quarter of a century's experience of the immense +impulse it has given to their maritime interests, and corresponding +depression to ours, a perfect trifle.[11] Our exports to America +are less than they were fifteen years ago, despite the boasted +conciliatory effect of twenty years' reciprocity.[12] What can be +more injudicious, therefore, than to persist in, and even extend, +a system which, without diminishing in the slightest degree the +jealousy of Continental nations at our manufacturing superiority, +has inflicted a serious and gratuitous wound on the naval resources +by which alone that superiority can be maintained? + + [11] + + Exports from Great Britain--to + 1844 Sweden L108,475 + Norway 152,824 + Denmark 286,679 + Prussia 505,384 + + PORTER'S _Progress of the Nation_, p. 366, 2d edition. + + + [12] + + Exports to United States of America:-- + + 1836 L12,425,605 + 1844 7,938,079 + + PORTER, _ibid._ + + +We have recently made a very great stride in free-trade principles, +by the sacrifice of our agricultural protection, and the throwing +open the English markets to cultivators of all nations. In the +three last months of 1846 and even of 1847, in consequence of the +import duties being removed, above L30,000,000 sterling was sent +out of the country to purchase foreign grain; and the moderate +duty of eight shillings a quarter has since been reimposed on +wheat,--yet it terminates in February next, and corn from all +quarters will then be admitted for the nominal duty of one shilling +a quarter. We have abandoned the protection of our colonies to +conciliate the slave-growing states, and augment the market for +Manchester goods in Cuba and Brazil. With what disastrous effects +these changes have been attended, upon the best interests of the +empire, need be told to none who are familiar with the total ruin +which has in consequence overtaken our West India colonies, and the +unprecedented distress which prevails in all the great seats of +our manufacturing industry. The loss of half the realised wealth +of Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow, and the creation of nearly +a hundred thousand persons, including dependants, in a state of +pauperism, in each of those once rich and prosperous cities, is the +price which, in a year and a half, we have paid for the adoption by +Sir R. Peel of Mr Cobden's principles of free trade, and Mr Jones +Loyd's principles of a fettered currency. Have we, in consequence, +reaped any countervailing advantage, or does the increase of our +export and import trade show any benefit derived to the nation, +to compensate such dreadful wounds inflicted on its internal +prosperity, in the attempt to disarm the jealousy of foreign +manufacturers? So far from it, our exports and imports have steadily +_declined_ since free-trade principles were introduced. All the main +sources of our strength have diminished since Sir R. Peel abandoned +protection in July 1846.[13] In adopting these principles, we have +gratuitously inflicted a grievous wound on our own people, without +having obtained for them the shadow even of a benefit to compensate +the evil. + + [13] + + | | EXPORTS. | | | + | |British Produce and| IMPORTS. | REVENUE. | + | | Manufactures. | | | + | | Declared Value. | | | + +------+ | | | + | 1845 | L53,227,451 | L85,281,958 | L52,009,324 | + | 1846 | 51,227,060 | 75,953,579 | 54,473,762 | + | 1847 | 50,897,790 |Not yet made up,| 52,082,757 | + + --_Porter's Parl. Tables_; and _Parl. Paper, 3d April 1848_. + + +Such have been the effects of free-trade principles on the +comparative prosperity of British and foreign shipping, on the +showing of the Free-traders themselves, and according to the +figures which their great statistician, Mr Porter, has prepared +and published at the Board of Trade. We were unwilling to mix up a +great national question, such as the repeal of the Navigation Laws, +with any subordinate examination as to the accuracy or inaccuracy +of the view of our maritime affairs which these figures exhibit. +Such is the strength of the case, that it will admit of almost any +concession; and the opponents of their repeal have no occasion to +go farther than to the statistics of their adversaries for the +most decisive refutation of their principles. But there are two +observations on the tables published by the Board of Trade, so +important that they cannot be passed over in silence. The first is, +that in 1834, when Mr Poulett Thomson was president of the Board of +Trade, a regulation was made by the Board as to the measurement of +vessels, which had the effect of adding _a fifth_ to the apparent +tonnage of all British vessels, subsequent to that date. This +change was clearly proved by the witnesses examined before the +Commons' committee; but though Mr Porter, in his last edition of +the _Progress of the Nation_, mentions the change, (p. 368,) he +makes no allusion to it in comparing the amount of British and +foreign tonnage since 1834. Of course a fifth must be deducted from +British tonnage, as compared with foreign, since that time; and what +overwhelming force does this give to the facts, already strong, +in regard to the effect of the reciprocity system on our maritime +interests! + +The second is, that the tonnage with countries near Great Britain, +such as France, Belgium, and Holland, _includes steam vessels_ +carrying passengers, and their repeated voyages. In this way a boat, +measuring 148 tons, and carrying passengers chiefly, comes to figure +in the returns for 24,000 tons! It is evident that this important +circumstance deprives the returns of such near states of all value +in the estimate of the comparative amount of tonnage engaged in +the trade with different countries. That with France will appear +greatest in spring 1848, in consequence of the number of large +vessels then employed in bringing back English residents expelled +by, or terrified at, the Revolution--though that circumstance was +putting a stop to nearly all the commercial intercourse between +the two countries. As steam navigation has so immensely increased +since 1834, when the changes in the measurement was introduced--and +Great Britain, from its store of coal and iron, enjoys more of that +traffic than all Europe put together--this is another circumstance +which militates against the returns as exhibiting a fair view of our +trade, compared with that of foreign nations, especially with near +countries, and fully justifies Mr Porter's admission, when examined +before the Lords' committee, that "considerable fallacy is to be +found in the returns." Unfortunately for the Free-traders, however, +who had the preparation of them in their hands, these fallacies all +point one way--viz. to augment the apparent advantages of free trade +in shipping. + +Such as free-trade principles are, they are evidently not likely to +remain, if these islands are excepted, long in the ascendant either +in the Old or the New World. The American tariff shows us how little +we have to expect from Transatlantic favour to our manufactures: +the savage expulsion of English labourers from France, how far the +principles of "Liberty, Equality, and _Fraternity_," are likely +to be acted upon by our enthusiastic and democratic neighbours +on the Continent of Europe. It is clear from the communist and +socialist principles now in the ascendant, both at Paris, Berlin, +and Vienna, that the interests of _labour_ will above all things +be considered by their governments in future times, and that the +most rigorous measures, in the form of fiscal regulations, if not +_absolute prohibition_, may shortly be expected in France, Italy, +and Germany, against manufactures of any sort which interfere, or +seem to interfere, with the interests of the dominant multitude of +operatives. Why does our government adhere so strongly, in the face +of the clearest evidence of their ruinous tendency, to the present +system of free trade and a fettered currency? Because it works well +for the great capitalists, who desire to have money dear, and the +great manufacturers, who wish to have labour cheap, and because +a majority of the House of Commons has been placed by the Reform +Bill under their influence. Give the operatives the majority, +and the opposite interest will instantly prevail. A successful +Chartist revolt would at once send the whole free trade and fettered +currency measures by the board in three months. In truth, it is +the disasters they have produced which has revived Chartism, and +rendered it so menacing in the land. We should like to see how +long a legislature, elected by universal suffrage, would allow +Spitalfields and Macclesfield to be pauperised by Lyons silks, and +Manchester invaded by Rouen cottons, and the shipwrights of Hull and +Sunderland to be ruined by Baltic shipbuilders. As the operative +classes have obtained the ascendency in the principal Continental +states, a similar jealousy of foreign interference with industry may +with certainty be looked for in Continental Europe. Can any thing +be more insane, therefore, than to persist in a policy fraught, as +every thing around us demonstrates, with such ruinous social injury +to ourselves, and which the progress of political change on the +Continent renders incapable of producing the ultimate benefits, +in exchange for those evils which their authors hold out as the +inducing causes of the measures which have produced them? + +While the political changes which have recently occurred on the +Continent of Europe have rendered any reciprocity of advantages +utterly hopeless from the most violent adoption of free-trade +principles, they have augmented in a proportional degree the +dangers to this country of foreign aggression, and the risk to +be apprehended from any diminution of our naval resources. The +days have gone by when the dream of a free-trade millenium, in +which a reciprocity of advantages is to extinguish all feelings +of hostility, and war is to be looked back to as a relic of the +pre-Adamite world, can with safety be indulged. It is rather too +late to think of the termination of the angry passions of men, when +Europe, in its length and breadth, is devastated alike by civil +dissension and foreign warfare; when barricades have so recently +been erected in all its chief capitals; when bloodshed is hourly +expected in Paris and Berlin; when the Emperor of Austria has fled +to Innspruck; when every station in London was, only a few days +ago, occupied by armed battalions; and when a furious war, rousing +the passions of whole races of men, is raging on the Mincio and the +Elbe. Threatened by a raging fire in all the countries by which +we are surrounded, uncertain whether we are not slumbering on the +embers of a conflagration in our own, is this the time to relax +in our warlike preparations, and, by crippling the nursery of our +seamen, expose ourselves, without the means of resistance, to the +assaults of hostile nations, envious of our fame, jealous of our +manufactures, covetous of our wealth, desirous of our ruin? + +While Western Europe is torn by revolutionary passions, and the +seeds of a dreadful, because a popular and general war, are rapidly +springing to maturity from the Seine to the Vistula, Russia is +silently but unceasingly gathering up its giant strength, and +the Czar has already 300,000 men, and 800 pieces of cannon, +ready to take the field against the revolutionary enthusiasts of +France and Germany. Sooner or later the conflict must arrive. It +is not unlikely that either a second Napoleon will lead another +crusade of the western nations across the Niemen, or a second +Alexander will conduct the forces of the desert to the banks of the +Seine. Whichever proves victorious, England has equal cause for +apprehension. If the balance of power is subverted on Continental +Europe, how is the independence of this country to be maintained? +How are our manufactures or revenue to be supported, if one +prevailing power has subjugated all the other states of Europe +to its sway? It is hard to say whether, in such circumstances, +we should have most to dread from French fraternity or Russian +hostility. But how is the balance of power to be preserved in +Europe amidst the wreck of its principal states? when Prussia is +revolutionised, and has passed over to the other side; when Austria +is shattered and broken in pieces, and Italy has fallen under the +dominion of a faction, distinguished beyond any thing else by its +relentless hatred of the aristocracy, and jealousy of the fabrics +of England? What has Great Britain to rely on in such a crisis but +the energy of its seamen and the might of its navy, which might at +least enable it to preserve its connexion with its own colonies, +and maintain, as during the Continental blockade, its commerce +with Transatlantic nations? And yet this is the moment which our +rulers have selected for destroying the Navigation Laws, so long +the bulwark of our mercantile marine, and permitting all the world +to make those inroads on our shipping, which have already been +partially effected by the nations with whom we have concluded +reciprocity treaties! + +The defence of Great Britain must always mainly rest on our navy, +and our navy is almost entirely dependent on the maintenance of +our colonies. It is in the trade with the colonies that we can +alone look for the means of resisting the general coalition of the +European powers, which is certain, sooner or later, to arise against +our maritime superiority, and the advent of which the spread of +democratic principles, and the sway of operative jealousy on the +Continent, is so evidently calculated to accelerate. But how are our +colonies to be preserved, even for a few years, if free-trade severs +the strong bond of interest which has hitherto attached them to the +mother country, and the repeal of the Navigation Laws accustoms them +to look to foreigners for the means of conducting their mercantile +transactions? Charged with the defence of a colonial empire which +encircles the earth, and has brought such countless treasures and +boundless strength to the parent state, Great Britain at land is +only a fourth-rate power, at least for Continental strife. At +Waterloo, even, she could only array forty-five thousand men to +contend with the conqueror of Europe for her existence. It is in +our ships we must look for the means of maintaining our commerce, +and asserting our independence against manufacturing jealousy, +national rivalry, and foreign aggression. Is our navy, then, to +be surrendered to the ceaseless encroachments of foreigners, in +order to effect a saving of a few millions a-year on freights, reft +from our own people, and sapping the foundations of our national +independence? + +How can human wisdom or foresight, the energy of the Anglo-Saxons, +or the courage of the Normans, maintain, for any length of time, +our independence in the perilous position into which free-trade +policy has, during the short period it has been in operation, +brought us? The repeal of the Corn Laws has already brought an +importation of eight or ten millions of foreign quarters annually +upon our people--a full sixth of the national subsistence, and +which will soon become indispensable to their existence. A simple +non-intercourse act will alone enable Russia or America, without +firing a shot, to compel us to lower the flag of Blake and Nelson. +Stern famine will "guard the solitary coast," and famished +multitudes demand national submission as the price of life. The +repeal of the Navigation Laws will ere long bring the foreign seamen +engaged in carrying on our trade to a superiority over our own, +as has already taken place in so woful a manner with the Baltic +powers. Hostile fleets will moor their ships of the line across our +harbours, and throw back our starving multitudes on their own island +for food, and their own market for employment. What will then avail +our manufacturers and our fabrics,--the forges of Birmingham, the +power-looms of Manchester, the iron-works of Lanarkshire,--if the +enemies' squadrons blockade the Thames, the Mersey, and the Clyde, +and famished millions are deprived alike of food and employment, +by the suicidal policy of preceding rulers? Our present strength +will then be the measure of our weakness; our vast population, as +in a beleaguered town, the useless multitude which must be fed, and +cannot fight,--our wealth, the glittering prize which will attract +the rapacity of the spoiler. With indignant feelings, but caustic +truth, our people will then curse the infatuated policy which +abandoned the national defences, and handed them over, bound hand +and foot, to the enemy, only the more the object of rapacity because +such boundless wealth had accumulated in a few hands amongst them. +Then will be seen, that with our own hands, as into the ancient +city, we have admitted the enemies' bands; we have drawn the horse +pregnant with armed men through our ramparts, and our weeping and +dispersed descendants will exclaim with the Trojans of old-- + + "Fuimus Troes, fuit Ilium, et ingens + Gloria Teucrorum." + + +_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._ + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note: + +Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. +Irregularities and inconsistencies in the ext 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. + +Page 11: There is a closing parenthesis missing in the following--(the +blank left for the number was filled up with the word "three" in +committee of the House of Commons. Nothing said about the issue in +tail, as before ... + +Page 22: The transcriber has inserted "the" ... rope up to the spot +where he ... + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume +64, No. 393, July 1848, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JULY 1848 *** + +***** This file should be named 44533.txt or 44533.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/5/3/44533/ + +Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Julia Neufeld +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. |