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+ page-break-before: always; } + .double {border-style: double;border-width: 4px; padding: 1em; clear: both; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78177 ***</div> + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='double titlepage'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>“<i>Familiar in their Mouths as HOUSEHOLD WORDS.</i>”—<span class='sc'>Shakespeare.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span> + <h1 class='c002'>HOUSEHOLD WORDS.<br> <span class='xlarge'>A WEEKLY JOURNAL.</span></h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div><span class='large'>CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.</span></div> + <div class='c001'>N<sup>o.</sup> 13.]      SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1850.      [<span class='sc'>Price</span> 2<i>d.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE SUNDAY SCREW.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>This little instrument, remarkable for its +curious twist, has been at work again. A +small portion of the collective wisdom of +the nation has affirmed the principle that +there must be no collection or delivery of +posted letters on a Sunday. The principle +was discussed by something less than a fourth +of the House of Commons, and affirmed by +something less than a seventh.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Having no doubt whatever, that this brilliant +victory is, in effect, the affirmation of the +principle that there ought to be No Anything +hut churches and chapels on a Sunday; or, +that it is the beginning of a Sabbatarian +Crusade, outrageous to the spirit of Christianity, +irreconcileable with the health, the +rational enjoyments, and the true religious +feeling, of the community; and certain to result, +if successful, in a violent reaction, +threatening contempt and hatred of that +seventh day which it is a great religious +and social object to maintain in the popular +affection; it would ill become us to be +deterred from speaking out upon the subject, +by any fear of being misunderstood, or by any +certainty of being misrepresented.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Confident in the sense of the country, and +not unacquainted with the habits and exigencies +of the people, we approach the Sunday +question, quite undiscomposed by the late +storm of mad mis-statement and all uncharitableness, +which cleared the way for Lord +Ashley’s motion. The preparation may be +likened to that which is usually described in +the case of the Egyptian Sorcerer and the +boy who has some dark liquid poured into +the palm of his hand, which is presently to +become a magic mirror. “Look for Lord +Ashley. What do you see?” “Oh, here’s +some one with a broom!” “Well! what is +he doing?” “Oh, he’s sweeping away Mr. +Rowland Hill! Now, there is a great crowd; +of people all sweeping Mr. Rowland Hill away; +and now, there is a red flag with Intolerance +on it; and now, they are pitching a great +many Tents called Meetings. Now, the tents +are all upset, and Mr. Rowland Hill has swept +everybody else away. And oh! <i>now</i>, here’s +Lord Ashley, with a Resolution in his hand!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>One Christian sentence is all-sufficient with +us, on the theological part of this subject. +“The Sabbath was made for man, and not +man for the Sabbath.” No amount of signatures +to petitions can ever sign away the +meaning of those words; no end of volumes +of Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates can ever +affect them in the least. Move and carry +resolutions, bring in bills, have committees, +upstairs, downstairs, and in my lady’s chamber; +read a first time, read a second time, read a +third time, read thirty thousand times; the +declared authority of the Christian dispensation +over the letter of the Jewish Law, particularly +in this especial instance, cannot be +petitioned, resolved, read, or committee’d away.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is important in such a case as this +affirmation of a principle, to know what +amount of practical sense and logic entered +into its assertion. We will inquire.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Lord Ashley (who has done much good, and +whom we mention with every sentiment of +sincere respect, though we believe him to be +most mischievously deluded on this question,) +speaks of the people employed in the Country +Post-Offices on Sunday, as though they were +continually at work, all the livelong day. +He asks whether they are to be “a Pariah +race, excluded from the enjoyments of the +rest of the community?” He presents to +our mind’s eye, rows of Post-Office clerks, +sitting, with dishevelled hair and dirty linen, +behind small shutters, all Sunday long, keeping +time with their sighs to the ringing of the +church bells, and watering bushels of letters, +incessantly passing through their hands, with +their tears. Is this exactly the reality? The +Upas tree is a figure of speech almost as +ancient as our lachrymose friend the Pariah, +in whom most of us recognise a respectable old +acquaintance. Supposing we were to take it +into our heads to declare in these Household +Words, that every Post-Office clerk employed +on Sunday in the country, is compelled to sit +under his own particular sprig of Upas, +planted in a flower-pot beside him for the +express purpose of blighting him with its +baneful shade, should we be much more +beyond the mark than Lord Ashley himself? +Did any of our readers ever happen to post +letters in the Country on a Sunday? Did +they ever see a notice outside a provincial +Post-Office, to the effect that the presiding +Pariah would be in attendance at such an +hour on Sunday, and not before? Did they +<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>ever wait for the Pariah, at some inconvenience, +until the hour arrived, and observe +him come to the office in an extremely spruce +condition as to his shirt collar, and do a +little sprinkling of business in a very easy offhand +manner? We have such recollections +ourselves. We have posted and received +letters in most parts of this kingdom on a +Sunday, and we never yet observed the Pariah +to be quite crushed. On the contrary, we +have seen him at church, apparently in the +best health and spirits (notwithstanding an +hour or so of sorting, earlier in the morning), +and we have met him out a-walking with the +young lady to whom he is engaged, and we +have known him meet her again with her +cousin, after the dispatch of the Mails, and +really conduct himself as if he were not +particularly exhausted or afflicted. Indeed, +how <i>could</i> he be so, on Lord Ashley’s own +showing? There is a Saturday before the +Sunday. We are a people indisposed, he says, +to business on a Sunday. More than a million +of people are known, from their petitions, to be +too scrupulous to hear of such a thing. Few +counting-houses or offices are ever opened on +a Sunday. The Merchants and Bankers write +by Saturday night’s post. The Sunday night’s +post may be presumed to be chiefly limited to +letters of necessity and emergency. Lord +Ashley’s whole case would break down, if it +were probable that the Post-Office Pariah had +half as much confinement on Sunday, as the +He-Pariah who opens my Lord’s street-door +when any body knocks, or the She-Pariah +who nurses my Lady’s baby.</p> + +<p class='c005'>If the London Post-Office be not opened on +a Sunday, says Lord Ashley, why should the +Post-Offices of provincial towns be opened on +a Sunday? Precisely because the provincial +towns are <span class='fss'>NOT</span> London, we apprehend. Because +London is the great capital, mart, and business-centre +of the world; because in London there +are hundreds of thousands of people, young +and old, away from their families and friends; +because the stoppage of the Monday’s Post +Delivery in London would stop, for many +precious hours, the natural flow of the blood +from every vein and artery in the world to +the heart of the world, and its return from +the heart through all those tributary channels. +Because the broad difference between London +and every other place in England, necessitated +this distinction, and has perpetuated it.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But, to say nothing of petitioners elsewhere, +it seems that two hundred merchants and +bankers in Liverpool “formed themselves +into a committee, to forward the object of +this motion.” In the name of all the Pharisees +of Jerusalem, could not the two hundred +merchants and bankers form themselves into +a committee to write or read no business-letters +themselves on a Sunday—and let the +Post-Office alone? The Government establishes +a monopoly in the Post-Office, and +makes it not only difficult and expensive for +me to send a letter by any other means, but +illegal. What right has any merchant or +banker to stop the course of any letter that I +may have sore necessity to post, or may +choose to post? If any one of the two +hundred merchants and bankers lay at the +point of death, on Sunday, would he desire +his absent child to be written to—the Sunday +Post being yet in existence? And how do +they take upon themselves to tell us that the +Sunday Post is not a “necessity,” when they +know, every man of them, every Sunday +morning, that before the clock strikes next, +they and theirs may be visited by any one of +incalculable millions of accidents, to make it +a dire need? Not a necessity? Is it possible +that these merchants and bankers suppose +there is any Sunday Post, from any large town, +which is not a very agony of necessity to some +one? I might as well say, in my pride of +strength, that a knowledge of bone-setting in +surgeons is not a necessity, because I have +not broken my leg.</p> + +<p class='c005'>There is a Sage of this sort in the House of +Commons. He is of opinion that the Sunday +Police is a necessity, but the Sunday Post is +not. That is to say, in a certain house in +London or Westminster, there are certain +silver spoons, engraved with the family crest—a +Bigot rampant—which would be pretty +sure to disappear, on an early Sunday, if there +were no Policemen on duty; whereas the +Sage sees no present probability of his requiring +to write a letter into the country on a +Saturday night—and, if it should arise, he can +use the Electric Telegraph. Such is the +sordid balance some professing Heathens hold +of their own pounds against other men’s +pennies, and their own selfish wants against +those of the community at large! Even the +Member for Birmingham, of all the towns in +England, is afflicted by this selfish blindness, +and, because <i>he</i> is “tired of reading and +answering letters on a Sunday,” cannot conceive +the possibility of there being other +people not so situated, to whom the Sunday +Post may, under many circumstances, be an +unspeakable blessing.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The inconsequential nature of Lord Ashley’s +positions, cannot be better shown, than by one +brief passage from his speech. “When he +said the transmission of the Mail, he meant +the Mail-bags; he did not propose to interfere +with the passengers.” No? Think again, +Lord Ashley.</p> + +<p class='c005'>When the Honorable Member for Whitened +Sepulchres moves his resolution for the stoppage +of Mail Trains—in a word, of all Railway +travelling—on Sunday; and when that +Honorable Gentleman talks about the Pariah +clerks who take the money and give the +tickets, the Pariah engine-drivers, the Pariah +stokers, the Pariah porters, the Pariah police +along the line, and the Pariah flys waiting at +the Pariah stations to take the Pariah passengers, +to be attended by Pariah servants at +the Pariah Arms and other Pariah Hotels; +what will Lord Ashley do then? Envy insinuated +<span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>that Tom Thumb made his giants +first, and then killed them, but you cannot do +the like by your Pariahs. You cannot get +an exclusive patent for the manufacture and +destruction of Pariah dolls. Other Honorable +Gentlemen are certain to engage in the trade; +and when the Honorable Member for +Whitened Sepulchres makes <i>his</i> Pariahs of +all these people, you cannot refuse to recognise +them as being of the genuine sort, Lord +Ashley. Railway and all other Sunday Travelling, +suppressed, by the Honorable Member +for Whitened Sepulchres, the same honorable +gentleman, who will not have been particularly +complimented in the course of that +achievement by the Times Newspaper, will +discover that a good deal is done towards the +Times of Monday, on a Sunday night, and +will Pariah the whole of that immense +establishment. For, this is the great inconvenience +of Pariah-making, that when you +begin, they spring up like mushrooms: insomuch, +that it is very doubtful whether we +shall have a house in all this land, from the +Queen’s Palace downward, which will not be +found, on inspection, to be swarming with Pariahs. +Not touch the Mails, and yet abolish the +Mail-bags? Stop all those silent messengers +of affection and anxiety, yet let the talking +traveller, who is the cause of infinitely more +employment, go? Why, this were to suppose +all men Fools, and the Honorable Member +for Whitened Sepulchres even a greater +Noodle than he is!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Lord Ashley supports his motion by reading +some perilous bombast, said to be written +by a working man—of whom the intelligent +body of working men have no great reason, +to our thinking, to be proud—in which there +is much about not being robbed of the +boon of the day of rest; but, with all Lord +Ashley’s indisputably humane and benevolent +impulses, we grieve to say we know no robber +whom the working man, really desirous to preserve +his Sunday, has so much to dread, as +Lord Ashley himself. He is weakly lending +the influence of his good intentions to a movement +which would make that day no day of +rest—rest to those who are overwrought, includes +recreation, fresh air, change—but a +day of mortification and gloom. And this +not to one class only, be it understood. +This is not a class question. If there be no +gentleman of spirit in the House of Commons +to remind Lord Ashley that the high-flown +nonsense he quoted, concerning labour, +is but another form of the stupidest socialist +dogma, which seeks to represent that +there is only one class of laborers on earth, +it is well that the truth should be stated +somewhere. And it is, indisputably, that +three-fourths of us are laborers who work +hard for our living; and that the condition +of what we call the working man, has its +parallel, at a remove of certain degrees, in +almost all professions and pursuits. Running +through the middle classes, is a broad deep +vein of constant, compulsory, indispensable +work. There are innumerable gentlemen, +and sons and daughters of gentlemen, constantly +at work, who have no more hope of +making fortunes in their vocation, than the +working man has in his. There are innumerable +families in which the day of rest, +is the only day out of the seven, where +innocent domestic recreations and enjoyments +are very feasible. In our mean gentility, +which is the cause of so much social mischief, +we may try to separate ourselves, as +to this question, from the working man; and +may very complacently resolve that there is +no occasion for his excursion-trains and tea-gardens, +because we don’t use them; but we +had better not deceive ourselves. It is impossible +that we can cramp his means of +needful recreation and refreshment, without +cramping our own, or basely cheating him. +We cannot leave him to the Christian patronage +of the Honourable Member for Whitened +Sepulchres, and take ourselves off. We cannot +restrain him and leave ourselves free. Our +Sunday wants are pretty much the same as +his, though his are far more easily satisfied; +our inclinations and our feelings are pretty +much the same; and it will be no less wise +than honest in us, the middle classes, not to +be Janus-faced about the matter.</p> + +<p class='c005'>What is it that the Honorable Member +for Whitened Sepulchres, for whom Lord +Ashley clears the way, wants to do? He sees +on a Sunday morning, in the large towns of +England, when the bells are ringing for +church and chapel, certain unwashed, dim-eyed, +dissipated loungers, hanging about the +doors of public-houses, and loitering at the +street corners, to whom the day of rest +appeals in much the same degree as a sunny +summer-day does to so many pigs. Does he +believe that any weight of handcuffs on the +Post-Office, or any amount of restriction imposed +on decent people, will bring Sunday +home to these? Let him go, any Sunday +morning, from the new Town of Edinburgh +where the sound of a piano would be profanation, +to the old Town, and see what Sunday +is in the Canongate. Or let him get up some +statistics of the drunken people in Glasgow, +while the churches are full—and work out +the amount of Sabbath observance which is +carried downward, by rigid shows and sad-colored +forms.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But, there is another class of people, those +who take little jaunts, and mingle in social +little assemblages, on a Sunday, concerning +whom the whole constituency of Whitened +Sepulchres, with their Honorable Member in +the chair, find their lank hair standing on end +with horror, and pointing, as if they were all +electrified, straight up to the skylights of +Exeter Hall. In reference to this class, we +would whisper in the ears of the disturbed +assemblage, three short words, “Let well +alone!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The English people have long been remarkable +<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>for their domestic habits, and their household +virtues and affections. They are, now, +beginning to be universally respected by intelligent +foreigners who visit this country, for +their unobtrusive politeness, their good-humour, +and their cheerful recognition of all +restraints that really originate in consideration +for the general good. They deserve this testimony +(which we have often heard, of late, with +pride) most honorably. Long maligned and +mistrusted, they proved their case from the +very first moment of having it in their power +to do so; and have never, on any single occasion +within our knowledge, abused any public +confidence that has been reposed in them. It +is an extraordinary thing to know of a people, +systematically excluded from galleries and +museums for years, that their respect for such +places, and for themselves as visitors to them, +dates, without any period of transition, from +the very day when their doors were freely +opened. The national vices are surprisingly +few. The people in general are not gluttons, +nor drunkards, nor gamblers, nor addicted to +cruel sports, nor to the pushing of any amusement +to furious and wild extremes. They are +moderate, and easily pleased, and very sensible +to all affectionate influences. Any knot of +holiday-makers, without a large proportion +of women and children among them, would +be a perfect phenomenon. Let us go into any +place of Sunday enjoyment where any fair +representation of the people resort, and we +shall find them decent, orderly, quiet, sociable +among their families and neighbours. There +is a general feeling of respect for religion, and +for religious observances. The churches and +chapels are well filled. Very few people who +keep servants or apprentices, leave out of +consideration their opportunities of attending +church or chapel; the general demeanour +within those edifices, is particularly grave and +decorous; and the general recreations without, +are of a harmless and simple kind. Lord +Brougham never did Henry Brougham more +justice, than in declaring to the House of +Lords, after the success of this motion in the +House of Commons, that there is no country +where the Sabbath is, on the whole, better +observed than in England. Let the constituency +of Whitened Sepulchres ponder, in a +Christian spirit, on these things; take care +of their own consciences; leave their Honorable +Member to take care of his; and let +well alone.</p> + +<p class='c005'>For, it is in nations as in families. Too +tight a hand in these respects, is certain to engender +a disposition to break loose, and to run +riot. If the private experience of any reader, +pausing on this sentence, cannot furnish many +unhappy illustrations of its truth, it is a very +fortunate experience indeed. Our most notable +public example of it, in England, is just +two hundred years old.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Lord Ashley had better merge his Pariahs +into the body politic; and the Honorable +Member for Whitened Sepulchres had better +accustom his jaundiced eyes to the Sunday +sight of dwellers in towns, roaming in green +fields, and gazing upon country prospects. If +he will look a little beyond them, and lift up +the eyes of his mind, perhaps he may observe +a mild, majestic figure in the distance, going +through a field of corn, attended by some +common men who pluck the grain as they +pass along, and whom their Divine Master +teaches that he is the Lord, even of the +Sabbath-Day.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE YOUNG ADVOCATE.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>Antoine de Chaulieu was the son of a +poor gentleman of Normandy, with a long +genealogy, a short rent-roll, and a large +family. Jacques Rollet was the son of a +brewer, who did not know who his grandfather +was; but he had a long purse and only +two children. As these youths flourished in +the early days of liberty, equality, and fraternity, +and were near neighbours, they +naturally hated each other. Their enmity +commenced at school, where the delicate and +refined De Chaulieu being the only gentil-homme +amongst the scholars, was the favorite +of the master (who was a bit of an aristocrat +in his heart) although he was about the worst +dressed boy in the establishment, and never +had a sou to spend; whilst Jacques Rollet, +sturdy and rough, with smart clothes and +plenty of money, got flogged six days in the +week, ostensibly for being stupid and not +learning his lessons—which, indeed, he did +not—but, in reality, for constantly quarrelling +with and insulting De Chaulieu, who had not +strength to cope with him. When they left +the academy, the feud continued in all its +vigour, and was fostered by a thousand little +circumstances arising out of the state of the +times, till a separation ensued in consequence +of an aunt of Antoine de Chaulieu’s undertaking +the expense of sending him to Paris +to study the law, and of maintaining him +there during the necessary period.</p> + +<p class='c005'>With the progress of events came some +degree of reaction in favour of birth and +nobility, and then Antoine, who had passed +for the bar, began to hold up his head and +endeavoured to push his fortunes; but fate +seemed against him. He felt certain that if +he possessed any gift in the world it was that +of eloquence, but he could get no cause to +plead; and his aunt dying inopportunely, +first his resources failed, and then his health. +He had no sooner returned to his home, than, +to complicate his difficulties completely, he +fell in love with Mademoiselle Natalie de +Bellefonds, who had just returned from Paris, +where she had been completing her education. +To expatiate on the perfections of Mademoiselle +Natalie, would be a waste of ink and +paper; it is sufficient to say that she really +was a very charming girl, with a fortune +which, though not large, would have been a +most desirable acquisition to De Chaulieu, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>who had nothing. Neither was the fair +Natalie indisposed to listen to his addresses; +but her father could not be expected to +countenance the suit of a gentleman, however +well-born, who had not a ten-sous piece +in the world, and whose prospects were a +blank.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Whilst the ambitious and love-sick young +barrister was thus pining in unwelcome obscurity, +his old acquaintance, Jacques Rollet, +had been acquiring an undesirable notoriety. +There was nothing really bad in Jacques’ +disposition, but having been bred up a +democrat, with a hatred of the nobility, he +could not easily accommodate his rough +humour to treat them with civility when it +was no longer safe to insult them. The +liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances +brought him into contact with the +higher classes of society, had led him into +many scrapes, out of which his father’s money +had one way or another released him; but +that source of safety had now failed. Old +Rollet having been too busy with the affairs +of the nation to attend to his business, had +died insolvent, leaving his son with nothing +but his own wits to help him out of future +difficulties, and it was not long before their +exercise was called for. Claudine Rollet, his +sister, who was a very pretty girl, had +attracted the attention of Mademoiselle de +Bellefonds’ brother, Alphonso; and as he paid +her more attention than from such a quarter +was agreeable to Jacques, the young men had +had more than one quarrel on the subject, on +which occasions they had each, characteristically, +given vent to their enmity, the one in +contemptuous monosyllables, and the other in +a volley of insulting words. But Claudine +had another lover more nearly of her own +condition of life; this was Claperon, the +deputy governor of the Rouen jail, with whom +she had made acquaintance during one or two +compulsory visits paid by her brother to that +functionary; but Claudine, who was a bit of +a coquette, though she did not altogether +reject his suit, gave him little encouragement, +so that betwixt hopes, and fears, and doubts, +and jealousies, poor Claperon led a very uneasy +kind of life.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Affairs had been for some time in this position, +when, one fine morning, Alphonse de +Bellefonds was not to be found in his +chamber when his servant went to call him; +neither had his bed been slept in. He had +been observed to go out rather late on the +preceding evening, but whether or not he had +returned, nobody could tell. He had not +appeared at supper, but that was too ordinary +an event to awaken suspicion; and little alarm +was excited till several hours had elapsed, +when inquiries were instituted and a search +commenced, which terminated in the discovery +of his body, a good deal mangled, +lying at the bottom of a pond which had +belonged to the old brewery. Before any +investigations had been made, every person +had jumped to the conclusion that the young +man had been murdered, and that Jacques +Rollet was the assassin. There was a strong +presumption in favour of that opinion, which +further perquisitions tended to confirm. Only +the day before, Jacques had been heard to +threaten Mons. de Bellefonds with speedy +vengeance. On the fatal evening, Alphonse and +Claudine had been seen together in the neighbourhood +of the now dismantled brewery; +and as Jacques, betwixt poverty and democracy, +was in bad odour with the prudent and +respectable part of society, it was not easy for +him to bring witnesses to character, or prove +an unexceptionable alibi. As for the Bellefonds +and De Chaulieus, and the aristocracy in +general, they entertained no doubt of his +guilt; and finally, the magistrates coming +to the same opinion, Jacques Rollet was +committed for trial, and as a testimony of +good will, Antoine de Chaulieu was selected +by the injured family to conduct the prosecution.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Here, at last, was the opportunity he had +sighed for! So interesting a case, too, furnishing +such ample occasion for passion, +pathos, indignation! And how eminently +fortunate that the speech which he set himself +with ardour to prepare, would be delivered in +the presence of the father and brother of his +mistress, and perhaps of the lady herself! +The evidence against Jacques, it is true, was +altogether presumptive; there was no proof +whatever that he had committed the crime; +and for his own part he stoutly denied +it. But Antoine de Chaulieu entertained +no doubt of his guilt, and his speech was +certainly well calculated to carry that conviction +into the bosom of others. It was of +the highest importance to his own reputation +that he should procure a verdict, and he confidently +assured the afflicted and enraged +family of the victim that their vengeance +should be satisfied. Under these circumstances +could anything be more unwelcome +than a piece of intelligence that was privately +conveyed to him late on the evening before +the trial was to come on, which tended +strongly to exculpate the prisoner, without +indicating any other person as the criminal. +Here was an opportunity lost. The first step +of the ladder on which he was to rise to fame, +fortune, and a wife, was slipping from under +his feet!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Of course, so interesting a trial was anticipated +with great eagerness by the public, and +the court was crowded with all the beauty +and fashion of Rouen. Though Jacques Rollet +persisted in asserting his innocence, founding +his defence chiefly on circumstances which +were strongly corroborated by the information +that had reached De Chaulieu the preceding +evening,—he was convicted.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In spite of the very strong doubts he privately +entertained respecting the justice of +the verdict, even De Chaulieu himself, in the +first flush of success, amidst a crowd of congratulating +<span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>friends, and the approving smiles +of his mistress, felt gratified and happy; his +speech had, for the time being, not only convinced +others, but himself; warmed with his +own eloquence, he believed what he said. But +when the glow was over, and he found himself +alone, he did not feel so comfortable. A latent +doubt of Rollet’s guilt now burnt strongly in +his mind, and he felt that the blood of the +innocent would be on his head. It is true +there was yet time to save the life of the +prisoner, but to admit Jacques innocent, was +to take the glory out of his own speech, and +turn the sting of his argument against himself. +Besides, if he produced the witness who +had secretly given him the information, he +should be self-condemned, for he could not +conceal that he had been aware of the circumstance +before the trial.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Matters having gone so far, therefore, it was +necessary that Jacques Rollet should die; so +the affair took its course; and early one +morning the guillotine was erected in the +court yard of the jail, three criminals ascended +the scaffold, and three heads fell into the +basket, which were presently afterwards, with +the trunks that had been attached to them, +buried in a corner of the cemetery.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Antoine de Chaulieu was now fairly started +in his career, and his success was as rapid +as the first step towards it had been tardy. +He took a pretty apartment in the Hôtel +Marbœuf, Rue Grange-Batelière, and in a +short time was looked upon as one of the +most rising young advocates in Paris. His +success in one line brought him success in +another; he was soon a favourite in society, +and an object of interest to speculating +mothers; but his affections still adhered to +his old love Natalie de Bellefonds, whose +family now gave their assent to the match—at +least, prospectively—a circumstance which +furnished such an additional incentive to his +exertions, that in about two years from the +date of his first brilliant speech, he was in +a sufficiently flourishing condition to offer the +young lady a suitable home. In anticipation +of the happy event, he engaged and furnished +a suite of apartments in the Rue du +Helder; and as it was necessary that the +bride should come to Paris to provide her +trousseau, it was agreed that the wedding +should take place there, instead of at Bellefonds, +as had been first projected; an arrangement +the more desirable, that a press of business +rendered Mons. de Chaulieu’s absence +from Paris inconvenient.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Brides and bridegrooms in France, except +of the very high classes, are not much in the +habit of making those honeymoon excursions +so universal in this country. A day spent in +visiting Versailles, or St. Cloud, or even the +public places of the city, is generally all that +precedes the settling down into the habits of +daily life. In the present instance St. Denis +was selected, from the circumstance of +Natalie’s having a younger sister at school +there; and also because she had a particular +desire to see the Abbey.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The wedding was to take place on a Thursday; +and on the Wednesday evening, having +spent some hours most agreeably with Natalie, +Antoine de Chaulieu returned to spend +his last night in his bachelor apartments. +His wardrobe and other small possessions, +had already been packed up and sent to his +future home; and there was nothing left in +his room now, but his new wedding suit, +which he inspected with considerable satisfaction +before he undressed and lay down to +sleep. Sleep, however, was somewhat slow +to visit him; and the clock had struck <i>one</i>, +before he closed his eyes. When he opened +them again, it was broad daylight; and his +first thought was, had he overslept himself? +He sat up in bed to look at the clock which +was exactly opposite, and as he did so, in the +large mirror over the fire-place, he perceived +a figure standing behind him. As the dilated +eyes met his own, he saw it was the face of +Jacques Rollet. Overcome with horror he +sunk back on his pillow, and it was some +minutes before he ventured to look again +in that direction; when he did so, the figure +had disappeared.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The sudden revulsion of feeling such a +vision was calculated to occasion in a man +elate with joy, may be conceived! For some +time after the death of his former foe, he had +been visited by not unfrequent twinges of +conscience; but of late, borne along by success, +and the hurry of Parisian life, these +unpleasant remembrancers had grown rarer, +till at length they had faded away altogether. +Nothing had been further from his thoughts +than Jacques Rollet, when he closed his eyes +on the preceding night, nor when he opened +them to that sun which was to shine on +what he expected to be the happiest day +of his life! Where were the high-strung +nerves now! The elastic frame! The bounding +heart!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Heavily and slowly he arose from his bed, +for it was time to do so; and with a trembling +hand and quivering knees, he went +through the processes of the toilet, gashing +his cheek with the razor, and spilling the +water over his well polished boots. When +he was dressed, scarcely venturing to cast a +glance in the mirror as he passed it, he +quitted the room and descended the stairs, +taking the key of the door with him for the +purpose of leaving it with the porter; the +man, however, being absent, he laid it on the +table in his lodge, and with a relaxed and +languid step proceeded on his way to the +church, where presently arrived the fair +Natalie and her friends. How difficult it was +now to look happy, with that pallid face and +extinguished eye!</p> + +<p class='c005'>“How pale you are! Has anything happened? +You are surely ill?” were the exclamations +that met him on sides. He tried +to carry it off as well as he could, but felt +<span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>that the movements he would have wished +to appear alert were only convulsive; and +that the smiles with which he attempted to +relax his features, were but distorted grimaces. +However, the church was not the place for +further inquiries; and whilst Natalie gently +pressed his hand in token of sympathy, they +advanced to the altar, and the ceremony was +performed; after which they stepped into +the carriages waiting at the door, and drove +to the apartments of Madme. de Bellefonds, +where an elegant <i>déjeuner</i> was prepared.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What ails you, my dear husband?” enquired +Natalie, as soon as they were alone.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Nothing, love,” he replied; “nothing, I +assure you, but a restless night and a little +overwork, in order that I might have to-day +free to enjoy my happiness!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Are you quite sure? Is there nothing +else?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Nothing, indeed; and pray don’t take +notice of it, it only makes me worse!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Natalie was not deceived, but she saw that +what he said was true; notice made him +worse; so she contented herself with observing +him quietly, and saying nothing; but, as +he <i>felt</i> she was observing him, she might +almost better have spoken; words are often +less embarrassing things than too curious +eyes.</p> + +<p class='c005'>When they reached Madame de Bellefonds’ +he had the same sort of questioning and +scrutiny to undergo, till he grew quite impatient +under it, and betrayed a degree of +temper altogether unusual with him. Then +everybody looked astonished; some whispered +their remarks, and others expressed them by +their wondering eyes, till his brow knit, and +his pallid cheeks became flushed with anger. +Neither could he divert attention by eating; +his parched mouth would not allow him to +swallow anything but liquids, of which, however, +he indulged in copious libations; and it +was an exceeding relief to him when the +carriage, which was to convey them to +St. Denis, being announced, furnished an +excuse for hastily leaving the table. Looking +at his watch, he declared it was late; and +Natalie, who saw how eager he was to be +gone, threw her shawl over her shoulders, +and bidding her friends <i>good morning</i>, they +hurried away.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was a fine sunny day in June; and as +they drove along the crowded boulevards, and +through the Porte St. Denis, the young bride +and bridegroom, to avoid each other’s eyes, +affected to be gazing out of the windows; +but when they reached that part of the +road where there was nothing but trees on +each side, they felt it necessary to draw in +their heads, and make an attempt at conversation. +De Chaulieu put his arm round his +wife’s waist, and tried to rouse himself from +his depression; but it had by this time so reacted +upon her, that she could not respond to +his efforts, and thus the conversation languished, +till both felt glad when they reached +their destination, which would, at all events, +furnish them something to talk about.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Having quitted the carriage, and ordered a +dinner at the Hôtel de l’Abbaye, the young +couple proceeded to visit Mademoiselle Hortense +de Bellefonds, who was overjoyed to see +her sister and new brother-in-law, and doubly +so when she found that they had obtained +permission to take her out to spend the afternoon +with them. As there is little to be seen +at St. Denis but the Abbey, on quitting that +part of it devoted to education, they proceeded +to visit the church, with its various +objects of interest; and as De Chaulieu’s +thoughts were now forced into another +direction, his cheerfulness began insensibly to +return. Natalie looked so beautiful, too, and +the affection betwixt the two young sisters +was so pleasant to behold! And they spent +a couple of hours wandering about with +Hortense, who was almost as well informed as +the Suisse, till the brazen doors were open +which admitted them to the Royal vault. +Satisfied, at length, with what they had seen, +they began to think of returning to the inn, +the more especially as De Chaulieu, who had +not eaten a morsel of food since the previous +evening, owned to being hungry; so they +directed their steps to the door, lingering here +and there as they went, to inspect a monument +or a painting, when, happening to turn his +head aside to see if his wife, who had stopt to +take a last look at the tomb of King Dagobert, +was following, he beheld with horror the face +of Jacques Rollet appearing from behind a +column! At the same instant, his wife joined +him, and took his arm, inquiring if he was +not very much delighted with what he had +seen. He attempted to say yes, but the word +would not be forced out; and staggering out +of the door, he alleged that a sudden faintness +had overcome him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>They conducted him to the Hôtel, but Natalie +now became seriously alarmed; and well +she might. His complexion looked ghastly, his +limbs shook, and his features bore an expression +of indescribable horror and anguish. +What could be the meaning of so extraordinary +a change in the gay, witty, prosperous +De Chaulieu, who, till that morning, +seemed not to have a care in the world? +For, plead illness as he might, she felt certain, +from the expression of his features, that his +sufferings were not of the body but of the +mind; and, unable to imagine any reason +for such extraordinary manifestations, of +which she had never before seen a symptom, +but a sudden aversion to herself, and regret +for the step he had taken, her pride took the +alarm, and, concealing the distress she really +felt, she began to assume a haughty and +reserved manner towards him, which he +naturally interpreted into an evidence of +anger and contempt. The dinner was placed +upon the table, but De Chaulieu’s appetite +of which he had lately boasted, was quite +gone, nor was his wife better able to eat. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>The young sister alone did justice to the +repast; but although the bridegroom could +not eat, he could swallow champagne in such +copious draughts, that ere long the terror +and remorse that the apparition of Jacques +Rollet had awakened in his breast were +drowned in intoxication. Amazed and indignant, +poor Natalie sat silently observing +this elect of her heart, till overcome with disappointment +and grief, she quitted the room +with her sister, and retired to another apartment, +where she gave free vent to her feelings +in tears.</p> + +<p class='c005'>After passing a couple of hours in confidences +and lamentations, they recollected +that the hours of liberty granted, as an +especial favour, to Mademoiselle Hortense, +had expired: but ashamed to exhibit her +husband in his present condition to the eyes +of strangers, Natalie prepared to re-conduct +her to the <i>Maison Royale</i> herself. Looking +into the dining-room as they passed, they +saw De Chaulieu lying on a sofa fast asleep, +in which state he continued when his wife +returned. At length, however, the driver of +their carriage begged to know if Monsieur +and Madame were ready to return to Paris, +and it became necessary to arouse him. The +transitory effects of the champagne had now +subsided; but when De Chaulieu recollected +what had happened, nothing could exceed +his shame and mortification. So engrossing +indeed were these sensations that they quite +overpowered his previous ones, and, in his +present vexation, he, for the moment, forgot +his fears. He knelt at his wife’s feet, begged +her pardon a thousand times, swore that he +adored her, and declared that the illness and +the effect of the wine had been purely the +consequences of fasting and overwork. It +was not the easiest thing in the world to +re-assure a woman whose pride, affection, and +taste, had been so severely wounded; but +Natalie tried to believe, or to appear to do so, +and a sort of reconciliation ensued, not quite sincere +on the part of the wife, and very humbling +on the part of the husband. Under these +circumstances it was impossible that he should +recover his spirits or facility of manner; his +gaiety was forced, his tenderness constrained; +his heart was heavy within him; and ever +and anon the source whence all this disappointment +and woe had sprung would recur +to his perplexed and tortured mind.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Thus mutually pained and distrustful, they +returned to Paris, which they reached about +nine o’clock. In spite of her depression, +Natalie, who had not seen her new apartments, +felt some curiosity about them, whilst +De Chaulieu anticipated a triumph in exhibiting +the elegant home he had prepared +for her. With some alacrity, therefore, they +stepped out of the carriage, the gates of the +Hôtel were thrown open, the <i>concierge</i> rang +the bell which announced to the servants +that their master and mistress had arrived, +and whilst these domestics appeared above, +holding lights over the balusters, Natalie, +followed by her husband, ascended the stairs. +But when they reached the landing-place of +the first flight, they saw the figure of a man +standing in a corner as if to make way for +them; the flash from above fell upon his +face, and again Antoine de Chaulieu recognised +the features of Jacques Rollet!</p> + +<p class='c005'>From the circumstance of his wife’s preceding +him, the figure was not observed by +De Chaulieu till he was lifting his foot to +place it on the top stair: the sudden shock +caused him to miss the step, and, without +uttering a sound, he fell back, and never +stopped till he reached the stones at the +bottom. The screams of Natalie brought +the concierge from below and the maids +from above, and an attempt was made to +raise the unfortunate man from the ground; +but with cries of anguish he besought them +to desist.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Let me,” he said, “die here! What a +fearful vengeance is thine! Oh, Natalie, +Natalie!” he exclaimed to his wife, who was +kneeling beside him, “to win fame, and fortune, +and yourself, I committed a dreadful crime! +With lying words I argued away the life of a +fellow-creature, whom, whilst I uttered them, +I half believed to be innocent; and now, when +I have attained all I desired, and reached +the summit of my hopes, the Almighty has +sent him back upon the earth to blast me +with the sight. Three times this day—three +times this day! Again! again!”—and +as he spoke, his wild and dilated eyes fixed +themselves on one of the individuals that +surrounded him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“He is delirious,” said they.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No,” said the stranger! “What he says +is true enough,—at least in part;” and bending +over the expiring man, he added, “May +Heaven forgive you, Antoine de Chaulieu! +I was not executed; one who well knew my +innocence saved my life. I may name him, for +he is beyond the reach of the law now,—it was +Claperon, the jailer, who loved Claudine, and +had himself killed Alphonse de Bellefonds +from jealousy. An unfortunate wretch had +been several years in the jail for a murder +committed during the phrenzy of a fit of +insanity. Long confinement had reduced him +to idiocy. To save my life Claperon substituted +the senseless being for me, on the +scaffold, and he was executed in my stead. +He has quitted the country, and I have +been a vagabond on the face of the earth +ever since that time. At length I obtained, +through the assistance of my sister, the +situation of concierge in the Hôtel Marbœuf, +in the Rue Grange-Batelière. I entered on my +new place yesterday evening, and was desired +to awaken the gentleman on the third floor at +seven o’clock. When I entered the room to do +so, you were asleep, but before I had time to +speak you awoke, and I recognised your +features in the glass. Knowing that I could +not vindicate my innocence if you chose to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>seize me, I fled, and seeing an omnibus starting +for St. Denis, I got on it with a vague idea +of getting on to Calais, and crossing the +Channel to England. But having only a franc +or two in my pocket, or indeed in the world, +I did not know how to procure the means of +going forward; and whilst I was lounging +about the place, forming first one plan and +then another, I saw you in the church, and +concluding you were in pursuit of me, I thought +the best way of eluding your vigilance was to +make my way back to Paris as fast as I could; +so I set off instantly, and walked all the +way; but having no money to pay my night’s +lodging, I came here to borrow a couple of +livres of my sister Claudine, who lives in the +fifth story.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Thank Heaven!” exclaimed the dying +man; “that sin is off my soul! Natalie, dear +wife, farewell! Forgive! forgive all!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>These were the last words he uttered; the +priest, who had been summoned in haste, held +up the cross before his failing sight; a few +strong convulsions shook the poor bruised and +mangled frame; and then all was still.</p> + +<p class='c005'>And thus ended the Young Advocate’s +Wedding Day.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>EARTH’S HARVESTS.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c006'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than War.”—</div> + <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Milton’s</span> <cite>Sonnet to Cromwell</cite>.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c006'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Two hundred years ago,<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c007'><sup>[1]</sup></a> the moon</div> + <div class='line in2'>Shone on a battle plain;</div> + <div class='line'>Cold through that glowing night of June</div> + <div class='line in2'>Lay steeds and riders slain;</div> + <div class='line'>And daisies, bending ’neath strange dew,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Wept in the silver light;</div> + <div class='line'>The very turf a regal hue</div> + <div class='line in2'>Assumed that fatal night.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Time past—but long, to tell the tale,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Some battle-axe or shield,</div> + <div class='line'>Or cloven skull, or shattered mail,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Were found upon the field;</div> + <div class='line'>The grass grew thickest on the spot</div> + <div class='line in2'>Where high were heaped the dead,</div> + <div class='line'>And well it marked, had men forgot,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Where the great charge was made.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>To-day—the sun looks laughing down</div> + <div class='line in2'>Upon the harvest plain,</div> + <div class='line'>The little gleaners, rosy-brown,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The merry reaper’s train;</div> + <div class='line'>The rich sheaves heaped together stand,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And resting in their shade,</div> + <div class='line'>A mother, working close at hand,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Her sleeping babe hath laid.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>A battle-field it was, and is,</div> + <div class='line in2'>For serried spears are there,</div> + <div class='line'>And against mighty foes upreared—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Gaunt hunger, pale despair.</div> + <div class='line'>We’ll thank God for the hearts of old,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Their strife our freedom sealed;</div> + <div class='line'>We’ll praise Him for the sheaves of gold</div> + <div class='line in2'>Now on the battle-field.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='footnote' id='f1'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. Naseby, June 14, 1646.</p> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>“THE DEVIL’S ACRE.”</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>There are multitudes who believe that +Westminster is a city of palaces, of magnificent +squares, and regal terraces; that it is the +chosen seat of opulence, grandeur and refinement; +and that filth, squalor, and misery are +the denizens of other and less favoured +sections of the metropolis. The error is +not in associating with Westminster much +of the grandeur and splendour of the capital, +but in entirely dissociating it in idea from the +darker phases of metropolitan life. As the +brightest lights cast the deepest shadows, so +are the splendours and luxuries of the Westend +found in juxta-position with the most +deplorable manifestations of human wretchedness +and depravity. There is no part of the +metropolis which presents a more chequered +aspect, both physical and moral, than Westminster. +The most lordly streets are frequently +but a mask for the squalid districts +which lie behind them, whilst spots consecrated +to the most hallowed of purposes +are begirt by scenes of indescribable infamy +and pollution; the blackest tide of moral +turpitude that flows in the capital rolls its +filthy wavelets up to the very walls of Westminster +Abbey; and the law-makers for one-seventh +of the human race sit, night after +night, in deliberation, in the immediate vicinity +of the most notorious haunt of law-breakers +in the empire. There is no district in London +more filthy and disgusting, more steeped in +villany and guilt, than that on which every +morning’s sun casts the sombre shadows of +the Abbey, mingled, as they soon will be, +with those of the gorgeous towers of the new +“Palace at Westminster.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The “Devil’s Acre,” as it is familiarly +known in the neighbourhood, is the square +block comprised between Dean, Peter, and +Tothill Streets, and Strutton Ground. It +is permeated by Orchard Street, St. Anne’s +Street, Old and New Pye Streets, Pear +Street, Perkins’ Rents, and Duck Lane. +From some of these, narrow covered passage-ways +lead into small quadrangular +courts, containing but a few crazy, tumble-down-looking +houses, and inhabited by characters +of the most equivocal description. +The district, which is small in area, is one +of the most populous in London, almost every +house being crowded with numerous families, +and multitudes of lodgers. There are other +parts of the town as filthy, dingy, and forbidding +in appearance as this, but these are +generally the haunts more of poverty than +crime. But there are none in which guilt +of all kinds and degrees converges in such +volume as on this, the moral plague-spot +not only of the metropolis, but also of the +kingdom. And yet from almost every point +of it you can observe the towers of the Abbey +peering down upon you, as if they were +curious to observe that to which they seem +to be indifferent.</p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>Such is the spot which true Christian benevolence +has, for some time, marked as a chosen +field for its most unostentatious operations. +It was first taken possession of, with a view +to its improvement, by the London City +Mission, a body represented in the district by +a single missionary, who has now been for +about twelve years labouring—and not without +success—in the arduous work of its purification; +and who, by his energy, tact, and +perseverance, has acquired such an influence +over its turbulent and lawless population, as +makes him a safer escort to the stranger +desirous of visiting it, than a whole posse +of police. By the aid of several opulent +philanthropists whom he has interested in his +labours, he has reared up within the district +two schools, which are numerously attended +by the squalid children of the neighbourhood—each +school having an Industrial +Department connected with it. An exclusively +Industrial School for boys of more +advanced age has also been established, which +has recently been attached to the Ragged +School Union. In addition to these, another +institution has been called into existence, to +which and to whose objects the reader’s +attention will be drawn in what follows.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Pye Street Schools being designed only +for children—many of whom, on admission, +manifest an almost incredible precocity in +crime—those of a more advanced age seeking +instruction and reformation were not eligible +to admission. In an applicant of this class, +a lad about sixteen, the master of one of the +schools took a deep interest from the earnestness +with which he sought for an opportunity +of retrieving himself. He was invited to +attend the school, that he might receive instruction. +He was grateful for the offer, but +expressed a doubt of its being sufficient to +rescue him from his criminal and degraded +course of life.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“It will be of little use to me,” said he, +“to attend school in the daytime, if I have to +take to the streets again at night, and live, as +I am now living, by thieving.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The master saw the difficulty, and determined +on trying the experiment of taking +him entirely off the streets. He accordingly +paid for a lodging for him, and secured him +bread to eat. For four months the lad lived +contentedly and happily on “bread and +dripping,” during which time he proved his +aptitude for instruction by learning to read, to +write tolerably well, and to master all the more +useful rules in arithmetic. He was shortly +afterwards sent to Australia, through the +kindness of some individuals who furnished +the means. He is now doing well in the new +field thus opportunely opened up to him, and +the experiment of which he was the subject +laid the germ of the Institution in question.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In St. Anne Street, one of the worst and +filthiest purlieus of the district, stands a house +somewhat larger and cleaner than the miserable, +rickety, and greasy-looking tenements +around it. Over the door are painted, in +large legible characters, the following words: +“The Ragged Dormitory and Colonial Training +School of Industry.” On one of the +shutters it is indicated, in similar characters, +that the house is a refuge for “Youths who +wish to Reform.” None are admitted under +sixteen, as those under that age can get +admission to one or other of the schools. +Those eligible are such vagrants and thieves +as are between sixteen and twenty-two, and +desire to abandon their present mode of life, +and lead honest and industrious courses for +the future.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is obvious that such an institution, if +not carefully watched, would be liable to being +greatly abused. The pinching wants of the +moment would drive many into it, whose sole +object was to meet there, instead of to subject +themselves to the reformatory discipline of the +establishment. Many would press into it +whose love of idleness had hitherto been their +greatest vice. As it is, this latter class is deterred, +to a great extent, from applying, by +the Institution confining its operations to the +thief and the vagrant. Each applicant, by +applying for admission, confesses himself to +belong to one or other of these classes, or to +both. If he is found to be a subject coming +within the scope of the establishment, he is at +once admitted, and subjected to its discipline. +The natural inference would be, that the +avowed object of it would turn applicants +from its doors. But this is far from being the +case; upwards of two hundred having applied +during the past year, the second of its +existence.</p> + +<p class='c005'>To distinguish those who are sincere in +their application from those who merely wish +to make a convenience, for the time being, of +the establishment, each applicant, on admission, +is subjected to a rigid test. In the +attic story of the building is a small room, the +walls and ceiling of which are painted with +yellow ochre. Last year, for it is only recently +that the house has been applied to its present +purpose, this room was occupied by a numerous +and squalid family, some of whose +members were the first victims of cholera, in +Westminster. The massive chimney-stack +projects far into the room, and in the deep +recesses between it and the low walls on +either side are two beds formed of straw, with +a coarse counterpane for a covering. Beyond +this there is not a vestige of furniture in the +apartment. This is the Probation-room, the +ordeal of which every applicant must pass ere +he is fully received into the Institution. But +he must pass a whole fortnight, generally +alone, his fare being bread and water. His +allowance of bread is a pound a-day, which +he may dispose of as he pleases, either at a +meal or at several. He does not pass the +entire day in solitude, for during class-hours +he is taken down to the school-room, where +he is taught with the rest. But, with that +exception, he is not allowed to mingle with +<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>the rest of the inmates, being separated from +them for the remainder of the day, and left +to his own reflections in his lonely cell.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A man, compulsorily subjected to solitude +and short commons, may make up his mind +to it, and resign himself to his fate. But +no one will voluntarily subject himself to +such a test who is not tired of a dishonest +life, and anxious to reform. In nearly nine +cases out of ten it unmasks the impostor. +Many shrink at once from the ordeal, and +retire. Others undergo it for a day or two, +and then leave; for, as there was no compulsion +on them to enter, they are at all times at +liberty to depart. Some stay for a week, and +then withdraw, whilst instances have been +known of their giving up after ten or twelve +days’ endurance. The few that remain are +readily accepted as objects worthy the best +efforts of the establishment.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The applicants, particularly the vagrants, +are generally in the worst possible condition, +as regards clothing. In many cases they +are half-naked, like the wretched objects who +make themselves up for charity in the streets. +Their probation over, they are clad in comparatively +decent attire, consisting chiefly of +cast-off clothing, furnished by the contributors +to the institution. They are then released +from their solitary dormitory, and admitted +to all the privileges of the house.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The tried and accepted inmates of the Institution +have, for the two past years, averaged +about thirty each year. They get up at an +early hour, their first business being to clean +out the establishment from top to bottom. +They afterwards assemble at breakfast, which +consists of cocoa and bread, of which they +make a hearty meal. The business of instruction +then commences, there being two +school-rooms on the first floor, into one of +which the more advanced pupils are put by +themselves, the other being reserved for those +that are more backward and for the new +comers. It is into this latter room that the +probationers are admitted during school-hours. +During school-hours they are instructed in +the fundamental doctrines of religion, and in +the elements of education, including geography—particularly +the geography of the colonies. +The master exercises a general control over +the whole establishment. The upper class is +taught by a young man, who was himself one +of the earliest inmates of the Institution, and +who is now being trained for becoming a +regular teacher. The other class is usually +presided over by a monitor, also an inmate—but +one who is in advance of his fellows. Most +of those now in the house are able to read, +and many to read well. Such as have been +thieves are generally able to read when they +enter, having been taught to do so in the +prisons; those who cannot read being generally +vagrants, or such as have been thieves +without having been apprehended and convicted. +They present a curious spectacle in +their class-rooms. Their ages vary from +twenty-one to sixteen, there being two in at +present under sixteen, but they were admitted +under special circumstances. With the exception +of the probationers, they are all +dressed comfortably, but in different styles, +according to the character and fashion of the +clothing at the command of the establishment. +Some wear the surtout, others the dress-coat; +some the short jacket, and others again the +paletot. They are all provided with shoes +and stockings, each being obliged to keep his +own shoes scrupulously clean. Indeed, they +are under very wholesome regulations as to +their ablutions, and the general cleanliness of +their persons. As they stand ranged in their +classes, the diversity of countenances which +they exhibit is as striking as are the contrasts +presented by their raiment. In some faces +you can still trace the brutal expression which +they wore on entering. In others, the low +cunning, begotten by their mode of life, was +more or less distinguishable. You could +readily point to those who had been longest +in the establishment, from the humanising +influences which their treatment had had +upon their looks and expressions. The faces +of most of them were lit up with new-born +intelligence, whilst it was painful to witness +the vacant and stolid looks of two of them, +who had but recently passed the ordeal of the +dormitory. Generally speaking, they are +found to be quick and apt scholars, their +mode of life having tended, in most instances, +to quicken their perceptions.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Between the morning and afternoon classes +they dine,—their dinner comprising animal +food three times a week, being chiefly confined +on other days to bread and dripping. They +sup at an early hour in the evening, when +cocoa and bread form again the staple of their +meal. After supper, they spend an hour or +two in the training school, which is a large +room adjoining the probationers’ dormitory, +where they are initiated into the mysteries of +the tailors’ and shoemakers’ arts, under the +superintendence of qualified teachers. They +afterwards retire to rest, sleeping on beds laid +out upon the floor, each bed containing one. +When the house is full, the two class-rooms +are converted at night into sleeping apartments. +They are also compelled to attend +some place of worship on the Sunday, and, in +case of sickness, have the advantage of a +medical attendant. During a part of the day +they are allowed to walk out, in different +gangs,—each gang under the care of one of +their number. In their walks they are restricted +as to time, and are required to avoid, +as much as possible, the low neighbourhoods +of the town. Should any of them desire to +learn the business of a carpenter; they have +the means of doing so; and two are now +engaged in acquiring a practical knowledge of +this useful trade.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Such is the curriculum which they undergo +after being fully admitted into the house. They +are so instructed as to wean them as much as +<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>possible from their former habits, to inspire +them with the desire of living honest lives, +and to fit them for becoming useful members +of society, in the different offices for which +they are destined. They must be six months +at least in the house before they are deemed +ready to emigrate. Some are kept longer. +They are all eager to go,—being, without exception, +sickened at the thought of recurring +to their previous habits of life. From twenty +to thirty have already been sent abroad. The +committee who superintend the establishment +are anxious to keep forty on the average in the +house throughout the year, in addition to sending +twenty each year abroad. This, however, +will require a larger fund than they have at +present at their disposal.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Such is the Institution which, for two years +past, has been silently and unostentatiously +working its own quota of good in this little-known +and pestilential region. It is designed +for the reclamation of a class on which +society turns its back. Its doors are open +alike to the convicted and the unconvicted +offender. Five-sixths of its present inmates +have been the denizens of many jails—and +some of them have only emerged from the +neighbouring Penitentiary. It is not easy to +calculate the amount of mature crime which, +in the course of a few years, it will avert +from society, by its timely rescue of the precocious +delinquent. It is thus an institution +which may appeal to the selfishness, as well +as to the benevolence, of the community for +aid: though not very generally known, it is +visited by many influential parties; and some +of the greatest ornaments of Queen Victoria’s +Court have not shrunk from crossing its +threshold and contributing to its support.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Curious indeed would be the biographies +which such an institution could furnish. The +following, extracted from the Master’s Record, +will serve as a specimen. The name is, for +obvious reasons, suppressed.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“John ——, 16 years of age. Admitted +June 3rd, 1848. Had slept for four months +previously under the dry arches in West-street. +Had made his livelihood for nearly +five years by picking pockets. Was twice in +jail—the last time in Tothill-Fields Prison. +The largest sum he ever stole at a time, +was a sovereign and a half. Could read +when admitted. Learnt to write and cipher. +Remained for eight months in the house. +Behaved well. Emigrated to Australia. Doing +well.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is encouraging to know that the most +favourable accounts have been received both +of and from those who have been sent out as +emigrants, not only from this, but also from +the Pear Street School. It is now some time +since a lad, who, although only fourteen, was +taken into the latter, was sent to Australia. He +had been badly brought up; his mother, during +his boyhood, having frequently sent him out, +either to beg or to steal. About a year after +her son’s departure, she called, in a state of +deep distress, upon the missionary of the +district, and informed him that her scanty +furniture was about to be seized for rent, +asking him at the same time for advice. He +told her that he had none to give her but to +go and pay the rent, at the same time handing +her a sovereign. She received it hesitatingly, +doubting, for a moment, the evidence of her +senses. She went and paid the rent, which +was eighteen shillings, and afterwards returned +with the change, which she tendered +to the missionary with her heartfelt thanks. +He told her to keep the balance, as the +sovereign was her own—informing her, at the +same time, that it had been sent her by her +son, and had that very morning so opportunely +come to hand, together with a letter, which +he afterwards read to her. The poor woman +for a moment or two looked stupified and incredulous, +after which she sank upon a chair, +and wept long and bitterly. The contrast +between her son’s behaviour and her own +conduct towards him, filled her with shame +and remorse. She is now preparing to follow +him to Australia.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Another case was that of a young man, +over twenty years of age, who had likewise +been admitted, under special circumstances, +to the same Institution. He had been +abandoned by his parents in his early youth, +and had taken to the streets to avert the +miseries of destitution. He soon became +expert in the art of picking pockets, on one +occasion depriving a person in Cornhill of no +less than a hundred and fifty pounds in Bank +notes. With this, the largest booty he had +ever made, he repaired to a house in the +neighbourhood, where stolen property was +received. Into the room into which he was +shown, a gloved hand was projected, through +an aperture in the wall, from an adjoining +room, into which he placed the notes. The +hand was then withdrawn, and immediately +afterwards projected again with twenty sovereigns, +which was the amount he received for +the notes. He immediately repaired to Westminster, +and invested ten pounds of this sum +in counterfeit money, at a house not a stone’s +throw from the Institution.</p> + +<p class='c005'>For the ten pounds he received, in bad +money, what represented fifty. With this +he sallied forth into the country with the +design of passing it off—a process known +amongst the craft as “shuffle-pitching.” The +first place he went to was Northampton, and +the means he generally adopted for passing +off the base coin was this:—Having first +buried in the neighbourhood of the town all +the good and bad money in his possession, +with the exception of a sovereign of each, +so that, if detected in passing a bad one, +no more bad money would be found upon +his person; he would enter a retail shop, +say a draper’s, at a late hour of the evening, +and say that his master had sent him for +some article of small value, such as a handkerchief. +On its being shown him, he would +<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>demand the price of it, and make up his +mind to take it; whereupon he would lay +down a good sovereign, which the shopkeeper +would take up, but, as he was about +to give him change, a doubt would suddenly +arise in his mind as to whether his master +would give the price asked for the article. +He would then demand the sovereign back, +with a view to going and consulting his +master, promising, at the same time, to be back +again in a few minutes. Back again he would +come, and say that his master was willing to +give the price, or that he wished the article +at a lower figure. He took care, however, +that a bargain was concluded between him +and the shopkeeper; whereupon he would +again lay down the sovereign, which, however, +on this occasion, was the bad and not +the good one. The unsuspecting shopkeeper +would give him the change, and he would +leave with the property and the good money. +Such is the process of “shuffle-pitching.” In +the majority of instances he succeeded, but +was sometimes detected. In this way he +took the circuit twice of Great Britain and +Ireland; stealing as he went along, and +passing off the bad money, which he received, +for good. There are few jails in the United +Kingdom of which he has not been a denizen. +His two circuits took him nine years to perform, +his progress being frequently arrested +by the interposition of justice. It was at the +end of his second journey that he applied for +admission to the Pear Street School. He had +been too often in jail not to be able to read; +but he could neither write nor cipher when +he was taken in. He soon learnt, however, +to do both; and, after about seven months’ +probation, emigrated to America from his +own choice. The missionary of the district +accompanied him on board as he was about +to sail. The poor lad wept like a child when +he took leave of his benefactor, assuring him +that he never knew the comforts of a home +until he entered the Pear Street School. +Several letters have been received from him +since his landing, and he is now busily employed, +and—doing well!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Instances of this kind might be multiplied, +if necessary, of what is thus being done daily +and unostentatiously for the reclamation of the +penitent offender, not only after conviction, +but also before he undergoes the terrible +ordeal of correction and a jail.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>“PRESS ON.”</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c006'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in12'>A RIVULET’S SONG.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Just under an island, ’midst rushes and moss,</div> + <div class='line in2'>I was born of a rock-spring, and dew;</div> + <div class='line'>I was shaded by trees, whose branches and leaves</div> + <div class='line in2'>Ne’er suffered the sun to gaze through.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“I wandered around the steep brow of a hill,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Where the daisies and violets fair</div> + <div class='line'>Were shaking the mist from their wakening eyes,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And pouring their breath on the air.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Then I crept gently on, and I moistened the feet</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of a shrub which enfolded a nest—</div> + <div class='line'>The bird in return sang his merriest song,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And showed me his feathery crest.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“How joyous I felt in the bright afternoon,</div> + <div class='line in2'>When the sun, riding off in the west,</div> + <div class='line'>Came out in red gold from behind the green trees</div> + <div class='line in2'>And burnished my tremulous breast!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“My memory now can return to the time</div> + <div class='line in2'>When the breeze murmured low plaintive tones,</div> + <div class='line'>While I wasted the day in dancing away,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Or playing with pebbles and stones.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“It points to the hour when the rain pattered down,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Oft resting awhile in the trees;</div> + <div class='line'>Then quickly descending it ruffled my calm,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And whispered to me of the seas!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“’Twas <i>then</i> the first wish found a home in my breast</div> + <div class='line in2'>To increase as time hurries along;</div> + <div class='line'>’Twas then I first learned to lisp softly the words</div> + <div class='line in2'>Which I now love so proudly—‘<i>Press on!</i>’</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“I’ll make wider my bed, as onward I tread,</div> + <div class='line in2'>A deep mighty river I’ll be—</div> + <div class='line'>‘<i>Press on</i>’ all the day will I sing on my way,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Till I enter the far-spreading sea.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>It ceased. A youth lingered beside its green edge</div> + <div class='line in2'>Till the stars in its face brightly shone;</div> + <div class='line'>He hoped the sweet strain would re-echo again—</div> + <div class='line in2'>But he just heard a murmur,—“<i>Press on!</i>”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>ADDRESS FROM AN UNDERTAKER TO THE TRADE.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div><span class='small'>(STRICTLY PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.)</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>I address you, gentlemen, as an humble +individual who is much concerned about the +body. This little joke is purely a professional +one. It must go no further. I am afraid the +public thinks uncharitably of undertakers, and +would consider it a proof that Dr. Johnson +was right when he said that the man who +would make a pun would pick a pocket. Well; +we all try to do the best we can for ourselves,—everybody +else as well as undertakers. +Burials may be expensive, but so is legal +redress. So is spiritual provision; I mean the +maintenance of all our reverends and right +reverends. I am quite sure that both lawyers’ +charges and the revenues of some of the chief +clergy are very little, if any, more reasonable +than our own prices. Pluralities are as bad +as crowded gravepits, and I don’t see that +there is a pin to choose between the church +and the churchyard. Sanitary revolutionists +and incendiaries accuse us of gorging rottenness, +and battening on corruption. We don’t +do anything of the sort, that I see, to a greater +extent than other professions, which are +allowed to be highly respectable. Political +military, naval, university, and clerical parties +of great eminence defend abuses in their several +lines when profitable. We can’t do better +than follow such good examples. Let us stick +up for business, and—I was going to say—leave +<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>society to take care of itself. No; that +is just what we should endeavour to prevent +society from doing. The world is growing too +wise for us, gentlemen. Accordingly, this +Interments Bill, by which our interests are so +seriously threatened, has been brought into +Parliament. We must join heart and hand +to defeat and crush it. Let us nail our colours—which +I should call the black flag—to the +mast, and let our war-cry be, “No surrender!” +or else our motto will very soon be, “Resurgam;” +in other words, it will be all up +with us. We stand in a critical position in +regard to public opinion. In order to determine +what steps to take for protecting business, +we ought to see our danger. I wish, +therefore, to state the facts of our case clearly +to you; and I say let us face them boldly, and +not blink them. Therefore, I am going to +speak plainly and plumply on this subject.</p> + +<p class='c005'>There is no doubt—between ourselves—that +what makes our trade so profitable is the +superstition, weakness, and vanity of parties. +We can’t disguise this fact from ourselves, and +I only wish we may be able to conceal it much +longer from others. As enlightened undertakers, +we must admit that we are of no more +use on earth than scavengers. All the good +we do is to bury people’s dead out of their +sight. Speaking as a philosopher—which an +undertaker surely ought to be—I should say +that our business is merely to shoot rubbish. +However, the rubbish is human rubbish, and +bereaved parties have certain feelings which +require that it should be shot gingerly. I +suppose such sentiments are natural, and will +always prevail. But I fear that people will +by and by begin to think that pomp, parade, +and ceremony are unnecessary upon melancholy +occasions. And whenever this happens, +Othello’s occupation will, in a great measure, +be gone.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I tremble to think of mourning relatives +considering seriously what is requisite—and +all that is requisite—for decent interment, in +a rational point of view. Nothing more, I am +afraid Common Sense would say, than to carry +the body in the simplest chest, and under the +plainest covering, only in a solemn and respectful +manner, to the grave, and lay it in +the earth with proper religious ceremonies. +I fear Common Sense would be of opinion +that mutes, scarfs, hatbands, plumes of +feathers, black horses, mourning coaches, and +the like, can in no way benefit the defunct, or +comfort surviving friends, or gratify anybody +but the mob, and the street-boys. But happily, +Common Sense has not yet acquired an +influence which would reduce every burial to +a most low affair.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Still, people think now more than they did, +and in proportion as they do think, the worse +it will be for business. I consider that we +have a most dangerous enemy in Science. +That same Science pokes its nose into everything—even +vaults and churchyards. It has +explained how grave-water soaks into adjoining +wells, and has shocked and disgusted +people by showing them that they are drinking +their dead neighbours. It has taught parties +resident in large cities that the very air they +live in reeks with human remains, which +steam up from graves; and which, of course, +they are continually breathing. So it makes +out churchyards to be worse haunted than +they were formerly believed to be by ghosts, +and, I may add, vampyres, in consequence of +the dead continually rising from them in this +unpleasant manner. Indeed, Science is likely +to make people dread them a great deal more +than Superstition ever did, by showing that +their effluvia breed typhus and cholera; so +that they are really and truly very dangerous. +I should not be surprised to hear some +sanitary lecturer say, that the fear of churchyards +was a sort of instinct implanted in the +mind, to prevent ignorant people and children +from going near such unwholesome places.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It would be comparatively well if the mischief +done us by Science—Medicine and +Chemistry, and all that sort of thing—stopped +here. The mere consideration that burial in +the heart of cities is unhealthy, would but +lead to extramural interment, to which our +only objection—though even that is no very +trifling one—is that it would diminish mortality, +and consequently our trade. But this +Science—confound it!—shows that the dead +do not remain permanently in their coffins, +even when the sextons of metropolitan graveyards +will let them. It not only informs +Londoners that they breathe and drink the +deceased; but it reveals how the whole of the +defunct party is got rid of, and turned into +gases, liquids, and mould. It exposes the way +in which all animal matter—as it is called in +chemical books—is dissolved, evaporates, and +disappears; and is ultimately, as I may say, +eaten up by Nature, and goes to form parts +of plants, and of other living creatures. So +that, if gentlemen really wanted to be interred +with the remains of their ancestors, it would +sometimes be possible to comply with their +wishes only by burying them with a quantity +of mutton—not to say with the residue of +another quadruped than the sheep, which +often grazes in churchyards. Science, in +short, is hammering into people’s heads truths +which they have been accustomed merely to +gabble with their mouths—that all flesh is +indeed grass, or convertible into it; and not +only that the human frame does positively +turn to dust, but into a great many things +besides. Now, I say, that when they become +really and truly convinced of all this; when +they know and reflect that the body cannot remain +any long time in the grave which it is +placed in; I am sadly afraid that they will +think twice before they will spend from thirty +to several hundred pounds in merely putting +a corpse into the ground to decompose.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The only hope for us if these scientific views +become general, is, that embalming will be +resorted to; but I question if the religious +<span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span>feeling of the country will approve of a +practice which certainly seems rather like an +attempt to arrest a decree of Providence; +and would, besides, be very expensive. Here +I am reminded of another danger, to which +our prospects are exposed. It is that likely +to arise from serious parties, in consequence +of growing more enlightened, thinking consistently +with their religious principles, instead +of their religion being a mere sentimental +kind of thing which they never reason +upon. We often, you know, gentlemen, overhear +the bereaved remarking that they trust +the departed is in a better place. Why, if +this were not a mere customary saying on +mournful occasions—if the parties really believed +this—do you think they would attach +any importance to the dead body which we +bury underground? No; to be sure: they +would look upon it merely as a suit of left-off +clothes—with the difference of being unpleasant +and offensive, and not capable of +being kept. They would see that a spirit +could care no more about the corpse it had +quitted, than a man who had lost his leg, +would for the amputated limb. The truth is—don’t +breathe it, don’t whisper it, except to +the trade—that the custom of burying the +dead with expensive furniture; of treating a +corpse as if it were a sensible being; arises +from an impression—though parties won’t +own it, even to themselves—that what is +buried, is the actual individual, the man himself. +The effect of thinking seriously, and at +the same time rationally, will be to destroy +this notion, and with it to put an end to all +the splendour and magnificence of funerals, +arising from it. Moreover, religious parties, +being particular as to their moral conduct, +would naturally consider it wrong and wicked +to spend upon the dead an amount of money +which might be devoted to the benefit of the +living; and no doubt, when we come to look +into it, such expenditure is much the same +thing with the practice of savages and heathens +in burying bread, and meat, and clothes, +along with their deceased friends.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I have been suggesting considerations which +are very discouraging, and which afford but +a poor look-out to us undertakers. But, +gentlemen, we have one great comfort still. +It has become the fashion to inter bodies with +parade and display. Fashion is fashion; and +the consequence is that it is considered an +insult to the memory of deceased parties not +to bury them in a certain style; which must +be respectable at the very least, and cost, on +a very low average, twenty-five or thirty +pounds. Many, such as professional persons +and tradespeople, who cannot afford so much +money, can still less afford to lose character and +custom. That is where we have a pull upon +the widows and children, many of whom, if it +were not for the opinion of society, would be +only too happy to save their little money, and +turn it into food and clothing, instead of +funeral furniture.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Now here the Metropolitan Interments +Bill steps in, and aims at destroying our only +chance of keeping up business as heretofore. +We have generally to deal with parties whose +feelings are not in a state to admit of their +making bargains with us—a circumstance, on +their parts, which is highly creditable to +human nature; and favourable to trade. +Thus, in short, gentlemen, we have it all our +own way with them. But this Bill comes +between the bereaved party and the undertaker. +By the twenty-seventh clause, it empowers +the Board of Health to provide houses +and make arrangements for the reception and +care of the dead previously to, and until +interment; in order, as it explains in a subsequent +clause, to the accommodation of +persons having to provide the funerals—supposing +such persons to desire the accommodation. +Clause the twenty-eighth enacts “That +the said Board shall make provision for the +management and conduct, by persons appointed +by them, of the funerals of persons +whose bodies are to be interred in the Burial +Grounds, to be provided under this Act, +where the representatives of the deceased, or +the persons having the care and direction of +the funeral, desire to have the same so conducted; +and the said Board shall fix and +publish a scale of the sums to be payable for +such funerals, inclusive of all matters and +services necessary for the same, such sums to +be proportioned to the description of the +funeral, or the nature of the matter and +services to be furnished and rendered for the +same; but so that in respect of the lowest of +such sums, the funerals may be conducted +with decency and solemnity.” Gentlemen, if +this enactment becomes law, we shall lose all +the advantages which we derive from bereaved +parties’ state of mind. The Board of Health +will take all trouble off their hands, at whatever +sum they may choose to name. Of +course they will apply to the Board of Health +instead of coming to us. But what is beyond +everything prejudicial to our interests, is the +proviso “that in respect of the lowest of such +sums, the funerals may be conducted with +decency and solemnity.” Hitherto it has +been understood that so much respect could +not be paid in the case of what we call a low +affair as in one of a certain style. We have +always considered that a funeral ought to cost +so much to be respectable at all. Therefore +relations have gone to more expense with us, +than they would otherwise have been willing +to incur, in order to secure proper respect. +But if proper respect is to be had at a low +figure, the strongest hold that we have upon +sorrowing relatives, will be taken away.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is all very fine to say that we are a +necessary class of tradesmen, and if this Bill +passes must continue to be employed. If this +Bill does pass we shall be employed simply as +tradesmen, and shall obtain, like other tradesmen, +a mere market price for our articles, and +common hire for our labour. I am afraid that +<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>it will be impossible to persuade the public +that this would not be perfectly just and right. +I think, therefore, that we had better not +attack the Bill on its merits, but try to excite +opposition against it on the ground of its +accessary clauses. Let us oppose it as a scheme +of jobbery, devised with a view to the establishment +of offices and appointments. Let +us complain as loudly as we can of its creating +a new rate to defray the expenses of its +working, and let us endeavour to get up a +good howl against that clause of it which +provides for compensation to incumbents, +clerks, and sextons. We must cry out with +all our might upon its centralising tendency, +and of course make the most we can out of +the pretence that it violates the sanctity of +the house of mourning, and outrages the most +fondly cherished feelings of Englishmen. Urge +these objections upon church-wardens, overseers, +and vestrymen; and especially din the +objection to a burial rate into their ears. +Recollect, our two great weapons—like those +of all good old anti-reformers—are cant and +clamour. Keep up the same cry against the +Bill perseveringly, no matter how thoroughly +it may be refuted or proved absurd. Literally, +make the greatest noise in opposition to it +that you are able, especially at public meetings. +There, recollect a groan is a groan, and a hiss +a hiss, even though proceeding from a goose. +On all such occasions do your utmost to create +a disturbance, to look like a popular demonstration +against the measure. In addition to +shouting, yelling, and bawling, I should say +that another rush at another platform, +another upsetting of the reporters’ table, +another terrifying of the ladies, and another +mobbing the chairman, would be advisable. +Set to work with all your united zeal and +energy to carry out the suggestions of our +Central Committee for the defeat of a Bill +which, if passed, will inflict a blow on the +undertaker as great as the boon it will confer +on the widow and orphan—whom we, of +course, can only consider as customers. The +Metropolitan Interments Bill goes to dock us +of every penny that we make by taking advantage +of the helplessness of afflicted families. +And just calculate what our loss would then +be; for, in the beautiful language of St. Demetrius, +the silversmith, “Sirs, ye know that +by this craft we have our wealth.”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE TWO SACKS.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c006'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in8'>IMITATED FROM PHÆDRUS.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>At our birth, the satirical elves</div> + <div class='line in2'>Two sacks from our shoulders suspend:</div> + <div class='line'>The one holds the faults of ourselves;</div> + <div class='line in2'>The other, the faults of our friend:</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The first we wear under our clothes</div> + <div class='line in2'>Out of sight, out of mind, at the back;</div> + <div class='line'>The last is so under our nose,</div> + <div class='line in2'>We know every scrap in the sack.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE MODERN “OFFICER’S” PROGRESS.</h2> +</div> +<h3 class='c008'>I.—JOINING THE REGIMENT.</h3> + +<p class='c009'>“I have got some very sad news to tell +you,” wrote Lady Pelican to her friend, Mrs. +Vermeil, a faded lady of fashion, who discontentedly +occupied a suite of apartments at +Hampton Court; “our Irish estates are in +such a miserable condition—absolutely +making us out to be in debt to <i>them</i>, instead +of adding to <i>our</i> income, that poor George—you +will be shocked to hear it—is actually +obliged to go into the Infantry!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The communication of this distressing fact +may stand instead of the regular Gazette, +announcing the appointment of the Hon. +George Spoonbill to an Ensigncy, by purchase, +in the 100th regiment of foot. His military +aspirations had been “Cavalry,” and he had +endeavoured to qualify himself for that branch +of the service by getting up an invisible moustache, +when the Irish agent wrote to say that +no money was to be had in that quarter, and +all thoughts of the Household Brigade were, +of necessity, abandoned. But, though the +more expensive career was shut out, Lord +Pelican’s interest at the Horse Guards remained +as influential as before, and for the +consideration of four hundred and fifty pounds +which—embarrassed as he was—he contrived +to muster, he had no difficulty in procuring a +commission for his son George, in the distinguished +regiment already named. There +were, it is true, a few hundred prior claimants +on the Duke’s list; “but,” as Lord Pelican +justly observed, “if the Spoonbill family were +not fit for the army, he should like to know +who were!” An argument perfectly irresistible. +Gazetted, therefore, the young gentleman +was, as soon as the Queen’s sign-manual +could be obtained, and, the usual interval for +preparation over, the Hon. George Spoonbill +set out to join. But before he does so, we +must say a word of what that “preparation” +consisted in.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Some persons may imagine that he forthwith +addressed himself to the study of Polybius, +dabbled a little in Cormontaigne, got up +Napier’s History of the Peninsular War, or +read the Duke’s Despatches; others, that he +went down to Birdcage-Walk, and placed himself +under the tuition of Colour-Sergeant Pike, +of the Grenadier Guards, a warrior celebrated +for his skill in training military aspirants, or +that he endeavoured by some other means to +acquire a practical knowledge, however slight, +of the profession for which he had always been +intended. The Hon. George Spoonbill knew +better. The preparation <i>he</i> made, was a visit, +at least three times a day, to Messrs. Gorget +and Plume, the military tailors in Jermyn +Street, whose souls he sorely vexed by the +persistance with which he adhered to the +most accurate fit of his shell-jacket and +coatee, the set of his epaulettes, the cut of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span>his trowsers, and the shape of his chako. He +passed his days in “trying on his things,” +and his evenings—when not engaged at the +Casino, the Cider Cellar, or the Adelphi—in +dining with his military friends at St. James’s +Palace, or at Knightsbridge Barracks. In +their society he greatly improved himself, +acquiring an accurate knowledge of lansquenet +and ecarté, cultivating his taste for +tobacco, and familiarising his mind with that +reverence for authority which is engendered +by the anecdotes of great military commanders +that freely circulate at the mess-table. +His education and his uniform being +finished at about the same time, George +Spoonbill took a not uncheerful farewell of +the agonised Lady Pelican, whose maternal +bosom streamed with the sacrifice she made +in thus consigning her offspring to the vulgar +hardships of a marching regiment.</p> + +<p class='c005'>An express train conveyed the honourable +Ensign in safety to the country town where +the “Hundredth” were then quartered, and in +conformity with the instructions which he +received from the Assistant Military Secretary +at the Horse Guards—the only instructions, +by the bye, which were given him by that +functionary—he “reported” himself at the +Orderly-room on his arrival, was presented +by the Adjutant to the senior Major, by the +senior Major to the Lieutenant-Colonel, and +by the Lieutenant-Colonel to the officers +generally when they assembled for mess.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The “Hundredth,” being “Light Infantry,” +called itself “a crack regiment:” the military +adjective signifying, in this instance, not so +much a higher reputation for discipline and +warlike achievements, as an indefinite sort of +superiority arising from the fact that no man +was allowed to enter the <i>corps</i> who depended +upon his pay only for the figure he cut in it. +Lieutenant-Colonel Tulip, who commanded, +was very strict in this particular, and, having +“the good of the service” greatly at heart, +set his face entirely against the admission of +any young man who did not enjoy a handsome +paternal allowance or was not the possessor +of a good income. He was himself the son of +a celebrated army clothier, and, in the course +of ten years, had purchased the rank he now +held, so that he had a right, as he thought, +to see that his regiment was not contaminated +by contact with poor men. His military +creed was, that no man had any business in +the army who could not afford to keep his +horses or tilbury, and drink wine every day; +<i>that</i> he called respectable, anything short of it +the reverse. If he ever relaxed from the +severity of this rule, it was only in favour of +those who had high connections; “a handle +to a name” being as reverently worshipped +by him as money itself; indeed, in secret, he +preferred a lord’s son, though poor, to a commoner, +however rich; the poverty of a sprig +of nobility not being taken exactly in a literal +sense. Colonel Tulip had another theory +also: during the aforesaid ten years, he had +acquired some knowledge of drill, and possessing +an hereditary taste for dress, considered +himself, thus endowed, a first-rate officer, +though what he would have done with his +regiment in the field is quite another matter. +In the meantime he was gratified by thinking +that he did his best to make it a crack corps, +according to his notion of the thing, and such +minor points as the moral training of the +officers, and their proficiency in something +more than the forms of the parade ground, +were not allowed to enter into his consideration. +The “Hundredth” were acknowledged +to be “a devilish well-dressed, gentlemanly +set of fellows,” and were looked after with +great interest at country balls, races, and +regattas; and if this were not what a regiment +ought to be, Colonel Tulip was, he flattered +himself, very much out in his calculations.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The advent of the Hon. George Spoonbill +was a very welcome one, as the vacancy to +which he succeeded had been caused by the +promotion of a young baronet into “Dragoons,” +and the new comer being the second son of +Lord Pelican, with a possibility of being +graced one day by wearing that glittering +title himself, the hiatus caused by Sir Henry +Muff’s removal was happily filled up without +any derogation to the corps. Having also +ascertained, in the course of five minutes’ +conversation, that Mr. Spoonbill’s “man” and +two horses were to follow in a few days with +the remainder of his baggage; and the young +gentleman having talked rather largely of +what the Governor allowed him (two hundred +a-year is no great sum, but he kept the actual +amount in the back ground, speaking “promiscuously” +of “a few hundreds”), and of his +intimacy with “the fellows in the Life +Guards;” Colonel Tulip at once set him +down as a decided acquisition to the “Hundredth,” +and intimated that he was to be +made much of accordingly.</p> + +<p class='c005'>When we described the regiment as being +composed of wealthy men, the statement must +be received with a certain reservation. It was +Colonel Tulip’s hope and intention to make it so +in time, when he had sufficiently “weeded” it, +but <i>en attendant</i> there were three or four officers +who did not quite belong to his favourite +category. These were the senior Major and +an old Captain, both of whom had seen a good +deal of service, the Surgeon, who was a +necessary evil, and the Quartermaster, who +was never allowed to show with the rest of +the officers except at “inspection,” or some +other unusual demonstration. But the rank +and “allowance” of the first, and something +in the character of the second, which caused +him to be looked upon as a military oracle, +made Colonel Tulip tolerate their presence in +the corps, if he did not enjoy it. Neither had +the Adjutant quite as much money as the +commanding officer could have desired, but +as his position kept him close to his duties, +doing that for which Colonel Tulip took credit, +he also was suffered to pass muster; he was a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>brisk, precise, middle-aged personage, who +hoped in the course of time to get his company, +and whose military qualifications consisted +chiefly in knowing “Torrens,” the +“Articles of War,” the “Military Regulations,” +and the “Army List,” by heart. The +last-named work was, indeed, very generally +studied in the regiment, and may be said to +have exhausted almost all the literary resources +of its readers, exceptions being made +in favour of the weekly military newspaper, +the monthly military magazine, and an occasional +novel from the circulating library. +The rest of the officers must speak for themselves, +as they incidentally make their appearance. +Of their character, generally, this +may be said; none were wholly bad, but all +of them might easily have been a great deal +better.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Brief ceremony attends a young officer’s +introduction to his regiment, and the honourable +prefix to Ensign Spoonbill’s name was +anything but a bar to his speedy initiation. +Lieutenant-Colonel Tulip took wine with him +the first thing, and his example was so quickly +followed by all present, that by the time the +cloth was off the table, Lord Pelican’s second +son had swallowed quite as much of Duff +Gordon’s sherry as was good for him. Though +drinking is no longer a prevalent military vice, +there are occasions when the wine circulates +rather more freely than is altogether safe for +young heads, and this was one of them. Claret +was not the habitual “tipple,” even of the +crack “Hundredth;” but as Colonel Tulip had +no objection to make a little display now and +then, he had ordered a dozen in honour of the +new arrival, and all felt disposed to do justice +to it. The young Ensign had flattered himself +that, amongst other accomplishments, he possessed +“a hard head;” but, hard as it was, the +free circulation of the bottle was not without +its effect, and he soon began to speak rather +thick, carefully avoiding such words as began +with a difficult letter, which made his discourse +somewhat periphrastic, or roundabout. But +though his observations reached his hearers +circuitously, their purpose was direct enough, +and conveyed the assurance that he was one +of those admirable Crichtons who are “wide +awake” in every particular, and available for +anything that may chance to turn up.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The conversation which reached his ears +from the jovial companions who surrounded +him, was of a similarly instructive and exhilarating +kind, and tended greatly to his improvement. +Captain Hackett, who came from +“Dragoon Guards,” and had seen a great +deal of hard service in Ireland, elaborately +set forth every particular of “I’ll give you +my honour, the most remarkable steeple-chase +that ever took place in the three kingdoms,” +of which he was, of course, the hero. Lieutenant +Wadding, who prided himself on his +small waist, broad shoulders, and bushy +whiskers, and was esteemed “a lady-killer,” +talked of every woman he knew and damaged +every reputation he talked about. Lieutenant +Bray, who was addicted to sporting and played +on the French horn, came out strong on the +subject of hackles, May-flies, grey palmers, +badgers, terriers, dew-claws, snap-shots and +Eley’s cartridges. Captain Cushion, a great +billiard-player, and famous—in every sense—for +“the one-pocket game,” was eloquent on +the superiority of his own cues, which were +tipped with gutta percha instead of leather, +and offered, as a treat, to indulge “any man in +garrison with the best of twenty, one ‘up,’ for +a hundred aside.” Captain Huff, who had a +crimson face, a stiff arm, and the voice of a +Stentor, and whose soul, like his visage, was +steeped in port and brandy, boasted of achievements +in the drinking line, which, fortunately, +are now only traditional, though he did his best +to make them positive. From the upper end +of the table, where sat the two veterans and +the doctor, came, mellowed by distance, grim +recollections of the Peninsula, with stories of +Picton and Crawford, “the fighting brigade” +and “the light division,” interspersed with +endless Indian narratives, equally grim, of +“how our fellows were carried off by the +cholera at Cawnpore,” and how many tigers +were shot, “when we lay in cantonments at +Dum-dum;” the running accompaniment to +the whole being a constant reference to so-and-so +“of <i>ours</i>,” without allusion to which +possessive pronoun, few military men are able +to make much progress in conversation.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Nor was Colonel Tulip silent, but his conversation +was of a very lofty and, as it were, +ethereal order,—quite transparent, in fact, if +any one had been there to analyse it. It +related chiefly to the magnates at the Horse +Guards,—to what “the Duke” said to him +on certain occasions specified,—to Prince +Albert’s appearance at the last levee,—to a +favourite bay charger of his own,—to the +probability that Lord Dawdle would get into +the corps on the first exchange,—and to a +partly-formed intention of applying to the +Commander-in-Chief to change the regimental +facings from buff to green.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The mess-table, after four hours’ enjoyment +of it in this intellectual manner, was finally +abandoned for Captain Cushion’s “quarters,” +that gallant officer having taken “quite a +fancy to the youngster,”—not so much, perhaps, +on account of the youngster being a +Lord’s youngster, as because, in all probability, +there was something squeezeable in +him, which was slightly indicated in his +countenance. But whatever of the kind there +might indeed have been, did not come out +that evening, the amiable Captain preferring +rather to initiate by example and the show of +good fellowship, than by directly urging the +neophyte to play. The rubber, therefore, was +made up without him, and the new Ensign, +with two or three more of his rank, confined +themselves to cigars and brandy and water, a +liberal indulgence in which completed what +the wine had begun, and before midnight +<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>chimed the Hon. George Spoonbill was—to +use the mildest expression,—as unequivocally +tipsy as the fondest parent or guardian could +possibly have desired a young gentleman to +be on the first night of his entering “the +Service.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Not yet established in barracks, Mr. Spoonbill +slept at an hotel, and thither he was +assisted by two of his boon companions, whom +he insisted on regaling with devilled biscuits +and more brandy and water, out of sheer +gratitude for their kindness. Nor was this +reward thrown away, for it raised the spirits +of these youths to so genial a pitch that, on +their way back—with a view, no doubt, to +give encouragement to trade—they twisted off, +as they phrased it, “no end to knockers and +bell-handles,” broke half a dozen lamps, and +narrowly escaping the police (with whom, +however, they would gloriously have fought +rather than have surrendered) succeeded at +length in reaching their quarters,—a little +excited, it is true, but by no means under the +impression that they had done anything—as +the articles of war say—“unbecoming the +character of an officer and a gentleman.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>In the meantime, the jaded waiter at the +hotel had conveyed their fellow-Ensign to bed, +to dream—if he were capable of dreaming—of +the brilliant future which his first day’s experience +of actual military life held out.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>PICTURES OF LIFE IN AUSTRALIA.</h2> +</div> +<h3 class='c008'>GOING TO CHURCH.</h3> + +<p class='c009'>There is something in the dress of an Australian +Settler that is no less characteristic +than becoming,—what a splendid turn-out of +this class may be seen at some of the townships +as they meet on the Sunday for Divine +service. I have looked at such assemblages +in all parts of the colony, until my eyes +have dimmed with national pride, to think +that to England should belong the right to +own them; the old-fashioned Sunday scenes +and manners of England, seen in her younger +colonies, being thus revived. The gay carts, +the dashing gigs, that are drawn round the +fence of the churchyard enclosures,—the blood-horses, +with side saddles, that are seen quietly +roaming about, add much to the interest of the +scene. True, there are no splendid equipages, +but, then, there are no poor. The dress,—the +appearance of the men,—the chubby faces of +the children,—the neat and comfortable habiliments +of the women (and here let me remark,—for +the information of some of the gay young +bachelors of England, that, among these Sabbath +meetings may be seen here and there +the blooming native maiden in a riding +habit of the finest cloth, and of the newest +fashion, the substantial settler’s daughter +riding her own beautiful and pet mare; I say +“pet mare,” because some of these maidens +have a little stud of their own)—all these +realities of rural life strongly impress a +stranger with the real comforts which these +people enjoy.</p> + +<h3 class='c010'>CHRISTIAN CHARITY.</h3> + +<p class='c009'>As people of different religions meet at +times on the highway, somewhere near their +respective places of worship, it is delightful +to observe that, whatever faith they possess, +Christian charity reigns. As neighbours, the +men group together, sitting upon, or resting +their backs against the fence, whilst a brilliant +sun smiles on them. At the same time, their +children may be seen decorating themselves +with flowers, or dragging a splendid creeper, +in order to beautify the horses, and make fly-brushes +for them. After the weather has +been commented upon, a political shade is seen +to pass over the countenances of the assembly. +There is great earnestness amongst them. +The females arrange for their own comfort, +by resting on the shafts of the carts, or seating +themselves on the grass. Matrimony +and muslins, births and milch cows, by turns +engross their attention, while the men make +free with matters of State.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As the soft sound of the bell gives notice +that the hour of service is near, the party +may be seen to break up: children throw +aside their garlands, wives join their husbands, +and with sober countenances and devout +demeanour enter the House of God. +There is one circumstance worthy of remark, +namely, the perfect security with which they +all leave their conveyances—great coats, and +shawls, whips and saddles, in gigs and carts; +proving that a fair day’s labour for a fair +day’s work is a better protection for property +than the police.</p> + +<p class='c005'>When divine service is over, the families +keep more together. There is a sober reverence +about them which shows that they have +listened attentively. As they move to their +conveyances, or walk on, it is pleasing to see +that if their neighbours have been kept longer +at another church, the first party out will +often delay their departure till they arrive. +These charitable pauses are delightful to +witness; these neighbourly greetings make +bigotry in dismay crouch to the earth, and +show, that when the mind is rightly directed, +the being of different religions is not inimical +to friendship, for frequently in these cases the +elder girl of a Catholic family may be seen in +the cart of a Protestant neighbour; the wife +of one carrying the younger child of the other, +at the same time that the two husbands, as +they get into the open road, slowly pace their +horses, so that they may converse on their +way home, occasionally interrupted perhaps +by their sons, who, mounted on good horses, +try their speed to please their fathers, and +throw bunches of wild flowers to their mothers, +while younger hands catch at the prize.</p> + +<h3 class='c010'>DINNER IN THE BUSH.</h3> + +<p class='c009'>I unexpectedly joined the party I am now +attempting to describe, and leaving my own +travelling spring-van at the church-door, took +<span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>a seat in their cart. On arriving at the farm, +the elder son met the party at the slip-rail +(homely gate). He was a tall, healthy, open-hearted +lad, who greeted us with—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Come, Mother, be careful. Jump out, +girls. Now, Mrs. C——, how welcome you +are; and the dinner just ready! Ah! you +need not tell me who gave you the sermon: +he’s as good as the clock.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>As the girls had all been to church, and +there was no female servant in the house, the +description of this rural home, and a short +detail of the dinner, may be acceptable.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The family room was large, with a commodious +fire-place. The table was laid for twelve; +the plates and dishes were of blue delf; the +knives and forks looked bright and shiny. +It may be remarked, that the Settler’s table +in New South Wales is somewhat differently +arranged from what one is accustomed to see +in England, for here the knife and fork were +placed at the right of the plate, while a chocolate-coloured +tea-cup and saucer stood at +the left; a refreshing cup of tea being made a +part of the dinner repast. By the fire-place +might be seen a large black pot, full of potatoes, +with a white cloth laid on the top for +the purpose of steaming them. Again, at the +outer door might be noticed the son with a +man-servant, looking into an oven, and drawing +from thence a large hind-quarter of pork, +followed by a peach pie.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Lend a hand here!” shouted the son.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Ah! I thought you could not do without +me,” said the father.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Keep the youngsters out of the way, and +look about you, girls;” cried the mother.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Moving where I could better see the cause +of the outcry, a round of beef, cut large and +“handsome,” as the settlers say in the Bush, +had been forced into a pot; but no fork, although +a Bush-fork is rather a formidable +tool, could remove it.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You ought to have put a cord round it,” +remarked the mother.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Turn the pot on one side,” said the father.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Over with it; out with it; shake!—oh, +here we have it now.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>As the pot was removed, the beef was seen +to advantage, reeking in a bright clean milk-pan.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Now, let us make it look decent,” said +the self-trained cook, as with his knife he cut +the out-pieces off to improve its appearance. +His trimmings were substantial cuttings, and +displayed to advantage the fine quality of the +beef; each cutting he threw to his dogs, as +they watched at a respectful distance his operations. +Now, though some of my readers +may not much admire this bush-culinary art, +and this mode of dishing-up a dinner, still +there was in the whole scene so much of +honest hospitality, so much of cheerful and +good humoured hilarity, exhibiting in the +most pleasing form the simple manners of a +primitive people,—the germs, in fact, of the +class of English yeomanry, too often unable to +flourish in their own native land, ingrafted +and revived in a foreign distant shore, that +even the most fastidious and refined could not +but feel at such a moment a peculiar zest in +joining a family so innocently happy and +guileless as this, surrounded as they were by +abundance of all the essential necessaries of +life. Not a shade of care clouded the party, +as they sat down with thankfulness to partake +of those things with which God had blessed +their labour.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The arrangement of the table was something +in unison with the rest. The pork, so +well seasoned, graced the head of the table, +while the burly piece of beef, now reeking and +streaming from its late trimming, was placed +before the honest master of this patriarchal +family, with a plentiful supply of potatoes, +peas, and greens, ranged in their proper places. +As soon as the party had partaken of the +substantials, the eldest daughter poured tea +into the cups set by each one’s plate—for this +is the custom amongst the Australian settlers; +at the same time the good landlady cut up +the peach pie.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The eldest son could now be seen through +an open doorway, peering again into the +rudely constructed oven, from which he pulled, +with a good deal of self-importance and glee, +an orange tart, whilst his assistant-cook placed +custards on the table in tumblers. The good +wife looked amazed, the husband thoughtful.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“How did you get the oranges,” asked the +mother.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why, Frank Gore brought ’em,” he replied.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“And who made the custards?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“<i>I</i> made ’em!”</p> + +<h3 class='c010'>WANTED, A GOOD WIFE.</h3> + +<p class='c009'>“What! our Tom make custards!” exclaimed +the mother.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why not?” replied the young man, +evidently anxious to show that he could turn +his hand to anything useful.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I see, I see how it is,” said the father, +“Tom heard that Mrs. C. was coming, and he +wants a wife.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“A wife! the like of him want a wife,” +said the mother, who, for the first time, looked +on his athletic and manly form with sad +anxiety.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Tom made the custard,” said Jane, “and +William the tart.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I did not bring the oranges,” replied Tom, +as Frank Gore entered with a dish of grapes.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“It’s a regular plot,” said the mother.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“A down right contrivance—and I expect +it is a settled affair,” observed the father.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Jane, don’t blush,” sportively remarked +Lucy.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Let me see,” said the father, thoughtfully. +“Tom is four years older than I was when I +married, so he is,—but Jane is too young.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Say a word,” whispered the mother to +me; “say a word, Mrs. C.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“A snug home indeed,—I only wish my +<span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span>father could have seen the comforts I now +enjoy.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The young people, seeing the turn matters +were taking, scampered off with glowing +cheeks.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“We have four farms I can say master to,” +pursued the father, “and eight hundred sheep, +and six hundred head of cattle, forty pigs, and +a bit of money in the bank, too, that the +youngsters don’t know of. Well, all the lad +will want is a good wife. Let me see,—I’ll be +in Sydney next Monday five weeks,—I must +buy them a few things, a chest of drawers,—yes, +they’d be handy; and I might as well +buy one for Jane, poor girl. Like to deal out +to all alike; and the wife wants one. I only +thought of taking the cart, but I will want a +dray, and eight good bullocks, besides,—that’s +easy enough to be seen. Well, well; it’s a +nice snug home—one hundred and four acres,—two +acres laid out for a vineyard,—forty +under crop,—handy for the station, too.” +Thus the good man musingly spoke, partly to +himself, and partly addressing his wife, who, +with a cheerful and approving look, nodded +consent.</p> + +<h3 class='c010'>HOMELY HINTS TO MARRIED STATESMEN.</h3> + +<p class='c009'>At this little homestead there were five +men, whose savings would have enabled them +to have taken farms, if they could have met +with suitable girls as wives; and they pretty +plainly animadverted upon the policy of those +whom they considered the proper persons to +have rectified their grievances. One remarked, +“What does Lord Stanley care, so that he has +a wife himself!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Ah!” responded another; “and Peel, +with all his great speeches, never said a single +word about wives for us.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Lord John Russell, too,” said Tom Slaney, +“seems just as bad as the rest. What does +he think we’re made of? wood, or stone, or +dried biscuit?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“It ought to be properly represented to +Earl Grey,” observed the fourth. “Do they +call this looking after a young colony? Has +nobody no sense?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Yes,” replied the most sensitive of the +party, “the <i>Queen</i> ought to know it,—it is a +cruel shame.”</p> + +<h3 class='c010'>A COTTAGE, ROMANTIC AND REAL.</h3> + +<p class='c009'>John Whitney had now made his hut a +comfortable cottage. In the centre of the +room stood a neat table, shelves were arranged +over a bush-dresser, and at one corner of the +room could be seen a neat little plate-rack. +A young carpenter in Australia cannot make +these things without thinking of matrimony; +and the one in Whitney’s cottage was beautifully +made, evidently intended as a bridal +gift. At the opening of the small window +was a neat box of mignonette; whilst a footstool, +a salt-box, a board, a rolling-pin, afforded +sufficient evidence that a wife was all that +was wanted to make this abode a happy home.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Nor did the exterior lack any of those embellishments +that are required to invest a +cottage with those charms which the hand of +nature alone can fully set forth. The tasteful +mind and apt hand of Whitney mingled art +and nature so well that the first could hardly +be distinguished by the luxuriance of the +latter. The workman laid first the train, and +then allured nature in a manner to follow and +adorn his handy-work. He first erected an +open verandah of posts, saplings, and laths +along the whole front of his cottage, leaving +three or four door-ways, or spacious apertures +for entrance. Against these posts he planted +rose-trees, which in Australia grow to an extraordinary +height; and around them he +carefully trained beautiful creepers, passionflower, +and other wild plants of the Bush, so +that in the course of a short time the framework +became almost invisible. The posts +seemed to have grown into pillars of rosebush, +thickly entwined with flowery creepers, +threading their way the whole length and +height of the verandah, and here and there +forming the most fanciful festoons over the +doorway, or round the tiny windows, thus +throwing a coolness and a freshness of shade +into the inmost recesses of the little cottage. +There also might be observed two or three +well-trained vines intermixed with all, which +produced the most tempting clusters of grapes, +as they could be seen to hang through the open +lattice of the verandah; while, all over the +roof of the house grew fine water-melons, the +strong stems of which closely encircled the +chimney.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was truly delightful to view this sylvan +cottage in the calm and balmy coolness of a +dewy morning, and to behold this structure, +as it were, of rose-trees and creepers, as the +warmth of the morning sun opened those +closed flowers that seem thus to take their +rest for the night, and the fresh-blown rosebuds +that were hardly to be seen the evening +before; most of those could now be observed +to be tenanted by that busy little creature, +the bee, sent “as a colonist,” from England to +Australia, humming, in all the active vivacity +of its nature, a joyful morning carol to the +God of Nature. Indeed, were it not that +there were appearances of some more substantial +domestic comforts to be seen in the background—such +as rows of beans, sweet peas, +beds of cabbages, &c., set in the garden, and +some young fruit-trees; while near a shady +corner might be noticed young ducks feeding +under a coop, and “little roasters” gambolling +outside the pig-stye, which by the way was +deeply shaded by large bushy rose-trees, this +cottage at a distance might have been mistaken +for a green-house. We ought not to +omit that a number of fowls could be observed +quietly roosting in some trees at the end of +one of the outer buildings.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Truly, it was a little fairy home, with no +rent, no taxes, no rates, to disturb the peace +of the occupier; and no one, who has not +<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>lived in Australia, can conceive with what +ease and little expense such rural beauties, +such little paradises, and domestic comforts +can be formed and kept up in that country. +Notwithstanding, however, the beauty of all +this—the variety of flowers—the magnificence +of the creepers—the stillness and quietness +that reigned around, it must be frankly confessed +there was a certain vacuum that required +filling up. If the animal senses were +gratified, the mind felt somehow dissatisfied. +There was a coldness, a death-like silence, +which hung over the place; there appeared to +be a want of rationality in the thing, for there +seemed to be no human beings to enjoy it, +or not a sufficient number. Yes, this spot of +beauty, to make it a delightful happy home, +required, what one of our favourite poets, +and the poet of nature, calls nature’s “noblest +work”—woman. ’Tis but too true—John +Whitney wanted a wife to make his home a +fit habitation for man. What is John Whitney +without her? He may be an excellent carpenter, +but he is at the same time a desolate, +morose being, incapable of enjoying these +beauties of nature. Poor John Whitney keenly +felt this; and it was the hope alone, warming +and clinging to his heart, that some day he +could call himself the father of a family, that +inspired him to gather all these beauties and +comforts around him.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>EBENEZER ELLIOTT.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>The name of Ebenezer Elliott is associated +with one of the greatest and most important +political changes of modern times;—with +events not yet sufficiently removed from us, +to allow of their being canvassed in this place +with that freedom which would serve the +more fully to illustrate his real merits. +Elliott would have been a poet, in all that +constitutes true poetry, had the Corn Laws +never existed.</p> + +<p class='c005'>He was born on 25th March, 1781, at the +New Foundry, Masborough, in the parish of +Rotherham, where his father was a clerk +in the employment of Messrs. Walker, with +a salary of 60<i>l.</i> or 70<i>l.</i> per annum. His +father was a man of strong political tendencies, +possessed of humorous and satiric power, +that might have qualified him for a comic +actor. Such was the character he bore for +political sagacity that he was popularly known +as “Devil Elliott.” The mother of the poet +seems to have been a woman of an extreme +nervous temperament, constantly suffering +from ill health, and constitutionally awkward +and diffident.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Ebenezer commenced his early training at +a Dame’s school; but shy, awkward, and +desultory, he made little progress; nor did +he thrive much better at the school in which +he was afterwards placed. Here he employed +his comrades to do his tasks for him, and +of course laid no foundation for his future +education. His parents, disheartened by the +lad’s apparent stolidity, sent him next to +Dalton School, two miles distant; and here +he certainly acquired something, for he retained, +to old age, the memory of some of the +scenes through which he used to pass on his +way to and from this school. For want of +the necessary preliminary training, he could +do little or nothing with letters: he rather +preferred playing truant and roaming the +meadows in listless idleness, wherever his +fancy led him. This could not last. His +father soon set him to work in the Foundry; +and with this advantage, that the lad stood +on better terms with, himself than he had +been for a considerable period, for he discovered +that he could compete with others +in work,—sheer hand-labour,—if he could not +in the school. One disadvantage, however, +arose, as he tells us, from his foundry life; +for he acquired a relish for vulgar pursuits, +and the village alehouse divided his attentions +with the woods and fields. Still a deep +impression of the charms of nature had +been made upon him by his boyish rambles, +which the debasing influences and associations +into which he was thrown could +not wholly wipe out. He would still wander +away in his accustomed haunts, and purify +his soul from her alehouse defilements, by +copious draughts of the fresh nectar of natural +beauty imbibed from the sylvan scenery +around him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The childhood and youth of the future +poet presented a strange medley of opposites +and antitheses. Without the ordinary measure +of adaptation for scholastic pursuits, he inhaled +the vivid influences of external things, +delighting intensely in natural objects, and +yet feeling an infinite chagrin and remorse at +his own idleness and ignorance. We find +him highly imaginative; making miniature +lakes by sinking an iron vessel filled with +water in a heap of stones, and gazing therein +with wondrous enjoyment at the reflection of +the sun and skies overhead; and exhibiting +a strange passion for looking on the faces of +those who had died violent deaths, although +these dead men’s features would haunt his +imagination for weeks afterwards.</p> + +<p class='c005'>He did not, indeed, at this period, possess +the elements of an ordinary education. +A very simple circumstance sufficed to apply +the spark which fired his latent energies, and +nascent poetical tendencies: and he henceforward +became a different being, elevated far +above his former self. He called one evening, +after a drinking bout on the previous night, +on a maiden aunt, named Robinson, a widow +possessed of about 30<i>l.</i> a-year, by whom he +was shown a number of “Sowerby’s English +Botany,” which her son was then purchasing +in monthly parts. The plates made a considerable +impression on the awkward youth, +and he essayed to copy them by holding them +to the light with a thin piece of paper before +them. When he found he could trace their +<span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>forms by these means his delight was unbounded, +and every spare hour was devoted to +the agreeable task. Here commenced that +intimate acquaintance with flowers, which +seems to pervade all his works. This aunt of +Ebenezer’s, (good soul! would that every shy, +gawky Ebenezer had such an aunt!) bent on +completing the charm she had so happily +begun, displayed to him still further her son’s +book of dried specimens; and this elated him +beyond measure. He forthwith commenced +a similar collection for himself, for which +purpose he would roam the field still more +than ever, on Sundays as well as week days, +to the interruption of his attendances at +chapel. This book he called his “Dry Flora,” +(<cite>Hortus Siccus</cite>) and none so proud as he when +neighbours noticed his plants and pictures. +He was not a little pleased to feel himself a +sort of wonder, as he passed through the +village with his plants; and, greedy of praise, +he allowed his acquaintance to believe that +his drawings were at first hard, and made by +himself from nature. “Thompson’s Seasons,” +read to him about this time by his brother +Giles, gave him a glimpse of the union of +poetry with natural beauty; and lit up in his +mind an ambition which finally transformed +the illiterate, rugged, half-tutored youth into +the man who wrote “The Village Patriarch,” +and the “Corn Law Rhymes.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>From this time he set himself resolutely to +the work of self-education. His knowledge +of the English language was meagre in the +extreme; and he succeeded at last only by +making for himself a kind of grammar by +reading and observation. He then tried +French, but his native indolence prevailed, +and he gave it up in despair. He read with +avidity whatever books came in his way; and +a small legacy of books to his father came in +just at the right time. He says he could +never read through a second-rate book, and he +therefore read masterpieces only;—“after +Milton, then Shakespeare; then Ossian; then +Junius; Paine’s ‘Common Sense;’ Swift’s +‘Tale of a Tub;’ ‘Joan of Arc;’ Schiller’s +‘Robbers;’ Bürger’s ‘Lenora;’ Gibbon’s +‘Decline and Fall;’ and long afterwards, +Tasso, Dante, De Staël, Schlegel, Hazlitt, and +the ‘<cite>Westminster Review</cite>.’” Reading of this +character might have been expected to lead to +something; and was well calculated to make +an extraordinary impression on such a mind +as Elliott’s; and we have the fruit of this +course of study in the poetry which from this +time he began to throw off.</p> + +<p class='c005'>He remained with his father from his sixteenth +to his twenty-third year, working laboriously +without wages, except an occasional +shilling or two for pocket-money. He afterwards +tried business on his own account. He +made two efforts at Sheffield; the last commencing +at the age of forty, and with a borrowed +capital of 150<i>l.</i> He describes in his +nervous language the trials and difficulties he +had to contend with; and all these his imagination +embodied for him in one grim and +terrible form, which he christened “Bread +Tax.” With this demon he grappled in desperate +energy, and assailed it vigorously with +his caustic rhyme. This training, these mortifications, +these misfortunes, and the demon +“Bread Tax” above all, made Elliott successively +despised, hated, feared, and admired, as +public opinion changed towards him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Howitt describes his warehouse as a +dingy, and not very extensive place, heaped +with iron of all sorts, sizes, and forms, with +barely a passage through the chaos of rusty +bars into the inner sanctum, at once, study, +counting-house, library, and general receptacle +of odds and ends connected with his calling. +Here and there, to complete the jumble, were +plaster casts of Shakspeare, Achilles, Ajax, +and Napoleon, suggestive of the presidency of +literature over the materialism of commerce +which marked the career of this singular +being. By dint of great industry he began to +flourish in business, and, at one time, could +make a profit of 20<i>l.</i> a-day without moving +from his seat. During this prosperous period +he built a handsome villa-residence in the +suburbs. He now had leisure to brood over +the full force and effect of the Corn Laws. +The subject was earnestly discussed then in +all manufacturing circles of that district. +Reverses now arrived. In 1837 he lost +fully one-third of all his savings, getting +out of the storm at last with about 6000<i>l.</i>, +which he wrote to Mr. Tait of Edinburgh, +he intended, if possible, to retain. The +palmy days of 20<i>l.</i> profits had gone by for +Sheffield, and instead, all was commercial +disaster and distrust. Elliott did well to +retire with what little he had remaining. +In his retreat he was still vividly haunted by +the demon “Bread Tax.” This, then, was +the period of the Corn Law Rhymes, and +these bitter experiences lent to them that +tone of sincerity and earnestness—that fire +and frenzy which they breathed, and which +sent them, hot, burning words of denunciation +and wrath, into the bosoms of the working +classes,—the toiling millions from whom +Elliott sprang. “Bread Tax,” indeed, to him, +was a thing of terrible import and bitter +experience: hence he uses no gentle terms, or +honeyed phrases when dealing with the obnoxious +impost. Sometimes coarse invective, +and angry assertion, take the place of convincing +reason, and calm philosophy. At +others, there is a true vein of poetry and +pathos running through the rather unpoetic +theme, which touches us with its +Wordsworthian feeling and gentleness. Then +he would be found calling down thunders +upon the devoted heads of the monopolists, +with all a fanatic’s hearty zeal, and in his +fury he would even pursue them, not merely +through the world, but beyond its dim +frontiers and across the threshold of another +state. Take them, however, as they stand—and +more vigorous, effective, and startling +<span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span>political poetry has not graced the literature +of the age.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was not to be supposed but that this +trumpet-blast of defiance, and shrill scream of +“war to the knife,” should bring down upon +him much obloquy, much vituperation: but +all this fell harmlessly upon him; he rather +liked it. When people began to bear with +the turbid humour and angry utterances of +the “Corn Law Rhymer,” and grew familiar +with the stormy march of his verse, it was +discovered that he was something more than +a mere political party song-writer. He was +a true poet, whose credentials, signed and +sealed in the court of nature, attested the +genuineness of his brotherhood with those +children of song who make the world holier +and happier by the mellifluous strains they +bring to us, like fragments of a forgotten +melody, from the far-off world of beauty and +of love.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Elliott will not soon cease to be distinctively +known as the “Corn Law Rhymer;” +but it will be by his non-political poems that +he will be chiefly remembered by posterity as +the Poet of the People;—for his name will +still be, as it has long been, a “Household +Word,” in the homes of all such as love the +pure influences of simple, sensuous, and +natural poetry. As an author he did not +make his way fast: he had written poetry +for twenty years ere he had attracted much +notice. A genial critique by Southey in the +“Quarterly;” another by Carlyle in the +“Edinburgh;” and favourable notices in +the “Athenæum” and “New Monthly,” +brought him into notice; and he gradually +made his way until a new and cheap edition +of his works in 1840 stamped him as a popular +poet. His poetry is just such as, knowing +his history, we might have expected; and +such as, not knowing it, might have bodied +forth to us the identical man as we find +him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As we have said, Nature was his school; +but flowers were the especial vocation of +his muse. A small ironmonger—a keen +and successful tradesman—we should scarcely +have given him credit for such an exquisite +love of the beautiful in Nature, as we +find in some of those lines written by him +in the crowded counting-room of that dingy +warehouse. The incident of the floral miscellany: +the subsequent study of “The +Seasons;” the long rambles in meadows and +on hill-sides, specimen-hunting for his <cite>Hortus +Siccus</cite>;—sufficiently account for the exquisite +sketches of scenery, and those vivid descriptions +of natural phenomena, which showed +that the coinage of his brain had been +stamped in Nature’s mint. The most casual +reader would at once discover that, with +Thompson, he has ever been the devoted lover +and worshipper of Nature—a wanderer by +babbling streams—a dreamer in the leafy +wilderness—a worshipper of morning upon +the golden hill-tops. He gives us pictures of +rural scenery warm as the pencil of a Claude, +and glowing as the sunsets of Italy.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A few sentences will complete our sketch, +and bring us to the close of the poet’s pilgrimage. +He had come out of the general +collapse of commercial affairs in 1837, with a +small portion of the wealth he had realised by +diligent and continuous labour. He took a +walk, on one occasion, into the country, of +about eighteen miles, reached Argilt Hill, +liked the place, returned, and resolved to buy +it. He laid out in house and land about one +thousand guineas. His family consisted of +Mrs. Elliott and two daughters—a servant-maid—an +occasional helper—a Welch pony +and small gig,—“a dog almost as big as the +mare, and much wiser than his master; a +pony-cart; a wheel-barrow; and a grindstone—and,” +says he, “turn up your nose if +you like!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>From his own papers we learn that he had +one son a clergyman, at Lothedale, near Skipton; +another in the steel trade, on Elliott’s +old premises at Sheffield; two others unmarried, +living on their means; another “druggisting +at Sheffield, in a sort of chimney called +a shop;” and another, a clergyman, living in +the West Indies. Of his thirteen children, +five were dead, and of whom he says—“They +left behind them no memorial—but they are +safe in the bosom of Mercy, and not quite forgotten +even here!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>In this retirement he occasionally lectured +and spoke at public meetings; but he began +to suffer from a spasmodic affection of the +nerves, which obliged him wholly to forego +public speaking. This disease grew worse; +and in December, 1839, he was warned that +he could not continue to speak in public, +except at the risk of sudden death. This disorder +lingered about him for about six years: +he then fell ill of a more serious disease, which +threatened speedy termination. This was in +May, 1849. In September, he writes, “I have +been <i>very, very</i> ill.” On the first of December, +1849, the event, which had so long been impending, +occurred; and Elliott peacefully +departed in the 69th year of his age.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Thus, then, the sun set on one whose life +was one continued heroic struggle with opposing +influences,—with ignorance first, then +trade, then the corn laws, then literary fame, +and, last of all, disease: and thus the world +saw its last of the material breathing form of +the rugged but kindly being who made himself +loved, feared, hated, and famous, as the “<span class='sc'>Corn +Law Rhymer</span>.”</p> + +<hr class='c011'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div>Monthly Supplement of ‘HOUSEHOLD WORDS,’</div> + <div class='c012'>Conducted by <span class='sc'>Charles Dickens</span>.</div> + <div class='c012'><i>Price 2d., Stamped 3d.</i>,</div> + <div>THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE</div> + <div>OF</div> + <div>CURRENT EVENTS.</div> + <div class='c012'><i>The Number, containing a history of the past month, was</i></div> + <div><i>issued with the Magazines.</i></div> + <div class='c001'>Published at the Office, No 16, Wellington Street North, Stand. Printed by <span class='sc'>Bradbury & Evans</span>, Whitefriars, London.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c012'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c013'> + <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + + <ul class='ul_1 c001'> + <li>Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + + </li> + <li>Renumbered footnotes. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78177 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-02-03 22:39:05 GMT --> +</html> diff --git a/78177-h/images/cover.jpg b/78177-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bca4758 --- /dev/null +++ b/78177-h/images/cover.jpg |
