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diff --git a/78179-h/78179-h.htm b/78179-h/78179-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aab594d --- /dev/null +++ b/78179-h/78179-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3677 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>Household Words, No. 15, July 6, 1850 | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 10%; } + h1 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; } + h2 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; } + h3 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: large; } + .pageno { right: 1%; font-size: x-small; background-color: inherit; color: silver; + text-indent: 0em; text-align: right; position: absolute; + border: thin solid silver; padding: .1em .2em; font-style: normal; + font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; } + p { text-indent: 0; 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} + div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; } + div.titlepage p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + 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 78179 ***</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_227'>227</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> 15.]      SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1850.      [<span class='sc'>Price</span> 2<i>d.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE OLD LADY IN THREADNEEDLE STREET.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>Perhaps there is no Old Lady who has attained +to such great distinction in the world, +as this highly respectable female. Even the +Old Lady who lived on a hill, and who, if +she’s not gone, lives there still; or that other +Old Lady who lived in a shoe, and had so +many children she didn’t know what to do—are +unknown to fame, compared with the Old +Lady of Threadneedle Street. In all parts of +the civilised earth the imaginations of men, +women, and children figure this tremendous +Old Lady of Threadneedle Street in some +rich shape or other. Throughout the length +and breadth of England, old ladies dote upon +her; young ladies smile upon her; old gentlemen +make much of her, young gentlemen +woo her; everybody courts the smiles, and +dreads the coldness, of the powerful Old Lady +in Threadneedle Street. Even prelates have +been said to be fond of her; and Ministers of +State to have been unable to resist her attractions. +She is next to omnipotent in the three +great events of human life. In spite of the +old saw, far fewer marriages are made in +Heaven, than with an eye to Threadneedle +Street. To be born in the good graces of the +Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, is to be +born to fortune: to die in her good books, is +to leave a far better inheritance, as the world +goes, than “the grinning honour that Sir +Walter hath,” in Westminster Abbey. And +there she is, for ever in Threadneedle Street, +another name for wealth and thrift, threading +her golden-eyed needle all the year +round.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This Old Lady, when she first set up, carried +on business in Grocers’ Hall, Poultry; but in +1732 she quarrelled with her landlords about a +renewal of her lease, and built a mansion of her +own in Threadneedle Street. She reared her +new abode on the site of the house and garden +of a former director of her affairs, Sir John +Houblon. This was a modest structure, somewhat +dignified by having a statue of William +the Third placed before it; but not the more +imposing from being at the end of an arched +court, densely surrounded with habitations, +and abutting on the churchyard of St. Christopher +le Stocks.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But now, behold her, a prosperous gentlewoman +in the hundred and fifty-seventh year +of her age; “the oldest inhabitant” of Threadneedle +Street! There never was such an insatiable +Old Lady for business. She has gradually +enlarged her premises, until she has spread +them over four acres; confiscating to her +own use not only the parish church of St. +Christopher, but the greater part of the +parish itself.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We count it among the great events of our +young existence, that we had, some days since, +the honour of visiting the Old Lady. It was +not without an emotion of awe that we passed +her Porter’s Lodge. The porter himself, +blazoned in royal scarlet, and massively embellished +with gold lace, is an adumbration of +her dignity and wealth. His cocked hat advertises +her stable antiquity as plainly as if +she had written up, in imitation of some of +her lesser neighbours, “established in 1694.” +This foreshadowing became reality when we +passed through the Hall—the tellers’ hall. +A sensation of unbounded riches permeated +every sense, except, alas! that of touch. The +music of golden thousands clattered in the +ear, as they jingled on counters until its last +echoes were strangled in the puckers of +tightened money-bags, or died under the +clasps of purses. Wherever the eye turned, it +rested on money; money of every possible +variety; money in all shapes; money of all +colours. There was yellow money, white +money, brown money; gold money, silver +money, copper money; paper money, pen and +ink money. Money was wheeled about in +trucks; money was carried about in bags; +money was scavengered about with shovels. +Thousands of sovereigns were jerked hither +and thither from hand to hand—grave games +of pitch and toss were played with staid +solemnity; piles of bank notes—competent +to buy whole German dukedoms and Italian +principalities—hustled to and fro with as +much indifference as if they were (as they had +been) old rags.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This Hall of the Old Lady’s overpowered +us with a sense of wealth; oppressed us with +a golden dream of Riches. From this vision +an instinctive appeal to our own pockets, and +a few miserable shillings, awakened us to +Reality. When thus aroused we were in one +of the Old Lady’s snug, elegant, waiting-rooms, +which is luxuriously Turkey-carpeted +<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>and adorned with two excellent portraits of +two ancient cashiers; regarding one of whom +the public were warned:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c006'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in8'>“Sham Abraham you may,</div> + <div class='line in8'>I’ve often heard say:</div> + <div class='line'>But you mustn’t sham ‘Abraham Newland.’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>There are several conference-rooms for +gentlemen who require a little private conversation +with the Old Lady—perhaps on the +subject of discounts.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is no light thing to send in one’s card to +the Foster-Mother of British commerce; the +Soul of the State; “the Sun,” according to +Sir Francis Baring, around which the agriculture, +trade, and finance of this country +revolves; the mighty heart of active capital, +through whose arteries and veins flows the entire +circulating medium of this great country. +It was not, therefore, without agitation that +we were ushered from the waiting-room, into +that celebrated private apartment of the Old +Lady of Threadneedle Street—the Parlour—the +Bank Parlour, the inmost mystery—the +<i>cella</i> of the great Temple of Riches.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The ordinary associations called up by the +notion of an old lady’s comfortable parlour, +were not fulfilled by this visit. There is no +domestic snugness, no easy chair, no cat, no +parrot, no japanned bellows, no portrait of +the Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold +in the Royal Box at Drury Lane Theatre; +no kettle-holder, no worsted rug for the urn, +no brass footman for the buttered toast, in the +parlour in Threadneedle Street. On the +contrary, the room is extensive—supported by +pillars; is of grand and true proportions; +and embellished with architectural ornaments +in the best taste. It has a long table for the +confidential managers of the Old Lady’s affairs +(she calls these gentlemen her Directors) to +sit at; and usually, a side table fittingly supplied +with a ready-laid lunch.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Old Lady’s “Drawing” Room is as unlike—but +then she is such a peculiar Old Lady!—any +ordinary Drawing-room as need be. +It has hardly any furniture, but desks, stools, +and books. It is of immense proportions, +and has no carpet. The vast amount of +visitors the Old Lady receives between nine +and four every day, would make lattice-work +in one forenoon of the stoutest carpet ever +manufactured. Everybody who comes into +the Old Lady’s Drawing-room delivers his +credentials to her gentlemen-ushers, who are +quick in examining the same, and exact in +the observance of all points of form. So +highly-prized, however, is a presentation (on +any grand scale) to the Old Lady’s Drawing-room, +notwithstanding its plainness, that there +is no instance of a Drawing-room at Court +being more sought after. Indeed, it has become +a kind of proverb that the way to Court +often lies through the Old Lady’s apartments, +and some suppose that the Court Sticks are +of gold and silver in compliment to her.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As to the individual appearance of the Old +Lady herself, we are authorised to state that +<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>the portrait of a Lady (accompanied by eleven +balls on a sprig, and a beehive) which appears +in the upper left-hand corner of all the Bank +of England Notes, is <span class='fss'>NOT</span> the portrait of <i>the</i> +Lady. She invariably wears a cap of silver +paper, with her yellow hair gathered carefully +underneath. When she carries any defensive +or offensive weapon, it is not a lance, but a +pen; and her modesty would on no account +permit her to appear in such loose drapery as +is worn by the party in question—who we +understand is depicted as a warning to the +youthful merchants of this country to avoid +the fate of George Barnwell.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In truth, like the Delphian mystery, <span class='sc'>She</span> of +Threadneedle Street is invisible, and delivers +her oracles through her high priests: and, as +Herodotus got his information from the priests +in Egypt, so did we learn all we know +about the Bank from the great officers of +the Myth of Threadneedle Street. All of +them are remarkable for great intelligence and +good humour, particularly one <span class='sc'>Mr. Matthew +Marshall</span>; for whom the Old Lady is supposed +to have a sneaking kindness, as she +is continually promising to pay him the most +stupendous amounts of money. From what +these gentlemen told us, we are prepared +unhesitatingly to affirm in the teeth of the +assertions of Plutarch, and Pliny, and Justin, +that although Crœsus might have been well +enough to do in the world in his day, he was +but a pettifogger compared with the Great +Lady of St. Christopher le Stocks. The +Lydian king never employed nine hundred +clerks, or accommodated eight hundred of +them under one roof; and if he could have +done either, he would have been utterly unable +to muster one hundred and thirty thousand +pounds a year to pay them. He never +had bullion in his cellars, at any one time, +to the value of sixteen millions and a half +sterling, as our Old Lady has lately averaged; +nor “other securities”—much more marketable +than the precious stones Crœsus showed +to Solon—to the amount of thirty millions. +Besides, <i>all</i> his capital was “dead weight;” +that in Threadneedle Street is active, and is +represented by an average paper currency of +twenty millions per annum.</p> + +<p class='c005'>After this statement of facts, we trust that +modern poets when they want a hyperbole for +wealth will cease to cite Crœsus, and draw +their future inspirations from the shrine and +cellars of the Temple opposite the Auction +Mart; or, as the late Mr. George Robins designated +it when professionally occupied, “The +Great House over the way.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>When we withdrew from the inmost fane of +this Temple, we were ushered by the priest, +who superintends the manufacture of the +mysterious Deity’s oracles, into those recesses +of her Temple in which these are made. Here +we perceived, that, besides carrying on the +ordinary operations of banking, the Old Lady +is an extensive printer, engraver, bookbinder, +and publisher. She maintains a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>steam-engine to drive letter-press and copper-plate +printing machines, besides the other +machinery which is employed in various operations, +from making thousand pound notes +to weighing single sovereigns. It is not until +you see three steam-printing machines—such +as we use for this publication—and hear that +they are constantly revolving, to produce, at +so many thousand sheets per hour, the printed +forms necessary for the accurate account-keeping +of this great Central Establishment +and its twelve provincial branches, that you +are fully impressed with the magnitude of the +Old Lady’s transactions. In this one department +no fewer than three hundred account-books +are printed, ruled, bound, and used +every week. During that short time they +are filled with MS. by the eight hundred +subordinates and their chiefs. By way of +contrast we saw the single ledger which sufficed +to post up the daily transactions of the Old +Lady on her first establishment in business. +It is no bigger than that of a small tradesman’s, +and served to contain a record of the year’s +accounts. Until within the last few years, +visitors to the Bullion Office were shown the +old box into which the books of the Bank were +put every night for safety during the Old +Lady’s early career. This receptacle is no +bigger than a seaman’s chest. A spacious fire-proof +room is now nightly filled with each day’s +accounts, and they descend to it by means of a +great hydraulic trap in the Drawing Office; +the mountain of calculation when collected +being too huge to be moved by human agency.</p> + +<p class='c005'>These works are, of course, only produced +for private reference; but the Old Lady’s publishing +business is as extensive as it is profitable +and peculiar. Although her works are the +reverse of heavy or erudite—being “flimsy” +to a proverb—yet the eagerness with which +they are sought by the public, surpasses that +displayed for the productions of the greatest +geniuses who ever enlightened the world: she +is, therefore, called upon to print enormous +numbers of each edition,—generally one hundred +thousand copies; and reprints of equally +large impressions are demanded, six or seven +times a year. She is protected by a stringent +copyright; in virtue of which, piracy is felony, +and was, until 1831, punished with death. +The very paper is copyright, and to imitate +even that entails transportation. Indeed its +merits entitle it to every protection, for it +is a very superior article. It is so thin that +each sheet, before it is sized, weighs only +eighteen grains; and so strong, that, when +sized and doubled, a single sheet is capable of +suspending a weight of fifty-six pounds.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The literature of these popular prints is +concise to terseness. A certain individual, +duly accredited by the Old Lady, whose autograph +appears in one corner, promises to pay to +the before-mentioned Mr. Matthew Marshall, +or bearer on demand, a certain sum, for the +Governor and Company of the Bank of England. +There is a date and a number; for the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>Old Lady’s sheets are published in Numbers; +but, unlike other periodicals, no two copies of +hers are alike. Each has a set of numerals, +shown on no other.—It must not be supposed +from the utter absence of rhetoric in this +Great Woman’s literature, that it is devoid of +ornament. On the contrary, it is illustrated +by eminent artists: the illustrations consisting +of the waves of a watermark made in the +paper; a large black blot, with the statement +in white letters of the sum which is promised +to be paid; and the portrait referred to in a +former part of this account of the Wonderful +Old Lady.</p> + +<p class='c005'>She makes it a practice to print thirty thousand +copies of these works daily. Everything +possible is done by machinery,—engraving, +printing, numbering; but we refrain from +entering into further details of this portion +of the Old Lady’s Household here, as we are +preparing a review of her valuable works, +which shall shortly appear, in the form of a +History of a Bank note. The publication department +is so admirably conducted, that a +record of each individual piece of paper +launched on the ocean of public favour is +kept, and its history traced till its return; for +another peculiarity of the Old Lady’s establishment +is, that every impression put forth +comes back—with few exceptions—in process +of time to her shelves; where it is kept for ten +years, and then burnt. This great house is, +therefore, a huge circulating library. The +daily average number of notes brought back +into the Old Lady’s lap—examined to detect +forgeries; defaced; entered upon the record +made when they were issued; and so stored +away that they can be reproduced at any +given half-hour for ten years to come,—is +twenty-five thousands. On the day of our +visit, there came in twenty-eight thousand +and seventy-four of her picturesque pieces of +paper, representing one million, one thousand, +two hundred and seventy pounds sterling, +to be dealt with as above, preparatory to their +decennial slumber on her library shelves.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The apartment in which the notes are kept +<i>previous</i> to issue, is the Old Lady’s Store-room. +There is no jam, there are no pickles, +no preserves, no gallipots, no stoneware jars, +no spices, no anything of that sort, in the +Store-room of the Wonderful Old Lady. +You might die of hunger in it. Your sweet +tooth would decay and tumble out, before +it could find the least gratification in the +Old Lady’s Store-room. There was a mouse +found there once, but it was dead, and nothing +but skin and bone. It is a grim room, fitted +up all round with great iron-safes. They +look as if they might be the Old Lady’s +ovens, never heated. But they are very +warm in the City sense; for when the Old +Lady’s two store-keepers have, each with his +own key, unlocked his own one of the double +locks attached to each, and opened the door, +Mr. Matthew Marshall gives you to hold +a little bundle of paper, value two millions +<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>sterling; and, clutching it with a strange +tingling, you feel disposed to knock Mr. +Matthew Marshall down, and, like a patriotic +Frenchman, to descend into the streets.</p> + +<p class='c005'>No tyro need be told that these notes are +representatives of weightier value, and were +invented partly to supersede the necessity of +carrying about ponderous parcels of precious +metal. Hence—to treat of it soberly—four +paper parcels taken out, and placed in +our hands—consisting of four reams of Bank +notes ready for issue, and not much more +bulky than a thick octavo volume—though +they represent gold of the weight of <i>two +tons</i>, and of the value of two millions of +pounds sterling, yet weigh not quite one +pound avoirdupois each, or nearly four pounds +together. The value in gold of what we could +convey away in a couple of side pockets (if +simply permitted by the dear Old Lady in +Threadneedle Street, without proceeding to +extremities upon the person of the Chief +Cashier) would have required, but for her +admirable publications, two of Barclay and +Perkins’s strongest horses to draw.<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c007'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f1'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. One thousand sovereigns weigh twenty-one pounds, and +five hundred and twelve Bank-notes weigh exactly one +pound.</p> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>We have already made mention of the +Old Lady’s Lodge, Hall, Parlour, Store-room, +and Drawing-room. Her Cellars are not less +curious. In these she keeps neither wine, nor +beer, nor wood, nor coal. They are devoted +solely to the reception of the precious metals. +They are like the caves of Treasures in the +Arabian Nights; the common Lamp that +shows them becomes a Wonderful Lamp in Mr. +Marshall’s hands, and Mr. Marshall becomes a +Genie. Yet only by the power of association; +for they are very respectable arched cellars +that would make dry skittle-grounds, and have +nothing rare about them but their glittering +contents. One vault is full of what might +be barrels of oysters—if it were not the +Russian Loan. Another is rich here and +there with piles of gold bars, set cross-wise, +like sandwiches at supper, or rich biscuits +in a confectioner’s shop. Another has a +moonlight air from the presence of so much +silver. Dusky avenues branch off, where gold +and silver amicably bide their time in cool +retreats, not looking at all mischievous here, +or anxious to play the Devil with our souls. +Oh for such cellars at home! “Look out +for your young master half a dozen bars of +the ten bin.” “Let me have a wedge of +the old crusted.” “Another Million before +we part—only one Million more, to finish +with!” The Temperance Cause would make +but slow way, as to such cellars, we have a +shrewd suspicion!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Beauty of colour is here associated with +worth. One of these brilliant bars of gold +weighs sixteen pounds troy, and its value is +eight hundred pounds sterling. A pile of +these, lying in a dark corner—like neglected +cheese, or bars of yellow soap—and which +<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>might be contained in an ordinary tea-chest, +is worth two hundred and ten thousand +pounds. Fortune herself transmuted into +metal seems to repose at our feet. Yet this +is only an <i>eightieth</i> part of the wealth contained +in the Old Lady’s cellars.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The future history of this metal is explained +in three sentences; it is coined at the +Mint, distributed to the public, worn by +friction (or “sweated” by Jews) till it becomes +light. What happens to it then we shall see.</p> + +<p class='c005'>By a seldom failing law of monetary attraction +nearly every species of cash, “hard” or +soft, metallic or paper, finds its way some +time or other back to the extraordinary Old +Lady of Threadneedle Street. All the sovereigns +returned from the banking-houses are +consigned to a secluded cellar; and, when you +enter it, you will possibly fancy yourself on the +premises of a clock-maker who works by steam. +Your attention is speedily concentrated to a +small brass box not larger than an eight-day +pendule, the works of which are impelled +by steam. This is a self-acting weighing +machine, which with unerring precision tells +which sovereigns are of standard weight, and +which are light, and of its own accord separates +the one from the other. Imagine a long +trough or spout—half a tube that has been +split into two sections—of such a semi-circumference +as holds sovereigns edgeways, +and of sufficient length to allow of two hundred +of them to rest in that position one +against another. This trough thus charged +is fixed slopingly upon the machine over a +little table as big as that of an ordinary sovereigns-balance. +The coin nearest to the Lilliputian +platform drops upon it, being pushed +forward by the weight of those behind. Its +own weight presses the table down; but how +far down? Upon that hangs the whole merit +and discriminating power of the machine. At +the back, and on each side of this small table, +two little hammers move by steam backwards +and forwards at different elevations. If the +sovereign be full weight, down sinks the table +too low for the higher hammer to hit it; but +the lower one strikes the edge, and off the +sovereign tumbles into a receiver to the left. +The table pops up again, receives, perhaps, a +light sovereign, and the higher hammer having +always first strike, knocks it into a receiver to +the right, time enough to escape its colleague, +which, when it comes forward, has nothing to +hit, and returns to allow the table to be elevated +again. In this way the reputation of +thirty-three sovereigns is established or destroyed +every minute. The light weights are +taken to a clipping machine, slit at the rate of +two hundred a minute, weighed in a lump, +the balance of deficiency charged to the banker +from whom they were received, and sent to +the Mint to be re-coined. Those which have +passed muster are re-issued to the public. +The inventor of this beautiful little detector +was Mr. Cotton, a former governor. The +comparatively few sovereigns brought in by +<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>the general public are weighed in ordinary +scales by the tellers. The average loss upon each +light coin, on an average of thirty-five thousands +taken in 1843, was twopence three +farthings.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The business of the “Great House” is +divided into two branches; the issue and the +banking department. The latter has increased +so rapidly of late years, that the last addition +the Old Lady was constrained to make to her +house was the immense Drawing-room aforesaid, +for her customers and their payees to +draw cash on checks and to make deposits. +Under this noble apartment is the Strong +Room, containing private property, supposed +to be of enormous value. It is placed there +for safety by the constituents of the Bank, +and is concealed in tin boxes, on which the +owners’ names are legibly painted. The +descent into this stronghold—by means of the +hydraulic trap we have spoken of—is so +eminently theatrical, that we believe the +Head of the Department, on going down with +the books, is invariably required to strike +an attitude, and to laugh in three sepulchral +syllables; while the various clerks above +express surprise and consternation.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Besides private customers, everybody knows +that our Old Lady does all the banking +business for the British Government. She +pays the interest to each Stock-holder in the +National Debt, receives certain portions of +the revenue, &c. A separate set of offices is +necessary, to keep all such accounts, and +these Stock Offices contain the most varied +and extensive collection of autographs extant. +Those whom Fortune entitles to dividends, +must, by themselves or by their agents, +sign the Stock books. The last signature of +Handel, the composer, and that upon which +Henry Fauntleroy was condemned and executed, +are among the foremost of these lions. +Here, standing in a great long building of +divers stories, looking dimly upward through +iron gratings, and dimly downward through +iron gratings, and into musty chambers +diverging into the walls on either hand, +you may muse upon the National Debt. +All the sheep that ever came out of Northamptonshire, +seem to have yielded up their +skins to furnish the registers in which its +accounts are kept. Sweating and wasting in +this vast silent library, like manuscripts in a +mouldy old convent, are the records of the +Dividends that are, and have been, and of +the Dividends unclaimed. Some men would +sell their fathers into slavery, to have the +rummaging of these old volumes. Some, +who would let the Tree of Knowledge wither +while they lay contemptuously at its feet, +would bestir themselves to pluck at these +leaves, like shipwrecked mariners. These are +the books to profit by. This is the place for +X. Y. Z. to hear of something to his advantage +in. This is the land of Mr. Joseph Ady’s +dreams. This is the dusty fountain whence +those wondrous paragraphs occasionally flow +<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>into the papers, disclosing how a labouring +thatcher has come into a hundred thousand +pounds—a long, long way to come—and gone +out of his wits—not half so far to go. Oh, +wonderful Old Lady! threading the needle +with the golden eye all through the labyrinth +of the National Debt, and hiding it in such +dry hay-stacks as are rotting here!</p> + +<p class='c005'>With all her wealth, and all her power, and +all her business, and all her responsibilities, +she is not a purse-proud Old Lady; but a +dear, kind, liberal, benevolent Old Lady; so +particularly considerate to her servants, that +the meanest of them never speaks of her +otherwise than with affection. Though her +domestic rules are uncommonly strict; though +she is very severe upon “mistakes,” be they +ever so unintentional; though till lately she +made her in-door servants keep good hours, +and would not allow a lock to be turned or a +bolt to be drawn after eleven at night, even to +admit her dearly beloved Matthew Marshall +himself—yet she exercises a truly tender and +maternal care over her family of eight hundred +strong. To benefit the junior branches, she has +recently set aside a spacious room, and the sum +of five hundred pounds, to form a library. With +this handsome capital at starting, and eight +shillings a year subscribed by the youngsters, +an excellent collection of books will soon be +formed. Here, from three till eight o’clock +every lawful day, the subscribers can assemble +for recreation or study; or, if they prefer +it, they can take books to their homes. A +member of the Committee of Management attends +in turn during the specified hours—a +self-imposed duty, in the highest degree creditable +to, but no more than is to be expected +from, the stewards of a Good Mistress; who, +when any of her servants become superannuated, +soothes declining age with a pension. The +last published return states the number of pensioners +at one hundred and ninety three; each +of whom received on an average 161<i>l.</i>, or an +aggregate of upwards of 31,000<i>l.</i> per annum.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Her kindness is not unrequited. Whenever +anything ails her, the assiduous attention of +her people is only equalled by her own +bounty to them. When dangerously ill of +the Panic in 1825, and the outflow of her circulating +medium was so violent that she was +in danger of bleeding to death, some of her +upper servants never left her for a fortnight. +At the crisis of her disorder, on a memorable +Saturday night (December the seventeenth) +her Deputy-Governor—who even then had not +seen his own children for a week—reached +Downing Street “reeling with fatigue,” and +was just able to call out to the King’s Ministers—then +anxiously deliberating on the dear Old +Lady’s case—that she was out of danger! +Another of her managing men lost his life in +his anxiety for her safety, during the burning +of the Royal Exchange, in January, 1838. When +the fire broke out, the cold was intense; and +although he had but just recovered from an +attack of the gout, he rushed to the rescue of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>his beloved Old Mistress, saw everything done +that could be done for her safety, and died +from his exertions. Although the Old Lady +is now more hale and hearty than ever, +two of the Senior Clerks sit up in turn every +night, to watch over her; in which duty they +are assisted by a company of Foot Guards.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The kind Old Lady of Threadneedle Street +has, in short, managed to attach her dependants +to her by the strongest of ties—that +of love. So pleased are some with her service, +that when even temporarily resting from it, +they feel miserable. A late Chief Cashier +never solicited but one holiday, and that for +only a fortnight. In three days he returned +expressing his extreme disgust with every +sort of recreation but that afforded him by the +Old Lady’s business. The last words of another +old servant when on his death-bed, were, “Oh, +that I could only die on the Bank steps!”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE SERF OF POBEREZE.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>The materials for the following tale were +furnished to the writer while travelling last +year near the spot on which the events it +narrates took place. It is intended to convey +a notion of some of the phases of Polish, or +rather Russian serfdom (for, as truly explained +by one of the characters in a succeeding +page, it <i>is</i> Russian), and of the catastrophes +it has occasioned, not only in Catherine’s +time, but occasionally at the present. The +Polish nobles—themselves in slavery—earnestly +desire the emancipation of their serfs, +which Russian domination forbids.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The small town of Pobereze stands at the +foot of a stony mountain, watered by numerous +springs in the district of Podolia, in Poland. +It consists of a mass of miserable cabins, with +a Catholic chapel and two Greek churches +in the midst, the latter distinguished by their +gilded towers. On one side of the marketplace +stands the only inn, and on the opposite +side are several shops, from whose doors and +windows look out several dirtily dressed Jews. +At a little distance, on a hill covered with vines +and fruit-trees, stands the Palace, which does +not, perhaps, exactly merit such an appellation, +but who would dare to call otherwise the +dwelling of the lord of the domain?</p> + +<p class='c005'>On the morning when our tale opens, there +had issued from this palace the common +enough command to the superintendent of the +estate, to furnish the master with a couple of +strong boys, for service in the stables, and a +young girl, to be employed in the wardrobe. +Accordingly, a number of the best-looking +young peasants of Olgogrod assembled in the +broad avenue leading to the palace. Some were +accompanied by their sorrowful and weeping +parents, in all of whose hearts, however, rose +the faint and whispered hope, “Perhaps it will +not be <i>my</i> child they will choose!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Being brought into the court-yard of the +palace, the Count Roszynski, with the several +members of his family, had come out to pass +<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>in review his growing subjects. He was a +small and insignificant-looking man, about fifty +years of age, with deep-set eyes and overhanging +brows. His wife, who was nearly of +the same age, was immensely stout, with a +vulgar face and a loud disagreeable voice. +She made herself ridiculous in endeavouring +to imitate the manners and bearing of the +aristocracy, into whose sphere she and her +husband were determined to force themselves, +in spite of the humbleness of their origin. +The father of the “Right Honourable” Count +Roszynski was a valet, who, having been +a great favourite with his master, amassed +sufficient money to enable his son, who inherited +it, to purchase the extensive estate of +Olgogrod, and with it the sole proprietorship +of 1600 human beings. Over them he had +complete control; and, when maddened by +oppression, if they dared resent, woe unto +them! They could be thrust into a noisome +dungeon, and chained by one hand from the +light of day for years, until their very existence +was forgotten by all except the jailer +who brought daily their pitcher of water and +morsel of dry bread.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Some of the old peasants say that Sava, +father of the young peasant girl, who stands +by the side of an old woman, at the head of +her companions in the court-yard, is immured +in one of these subterranean jails. Sava was +always about the Count, who, it was said, had +brought him from some distant land, with his +little motherless child. Sava placed her under +the care of an old man and woman, who had +the charge of the bees in a forest near the +palace, where he came occasionally to visit +her. But once, six long months passed, and +he did not come! In vain Anielka wept, +in vain she cried, “Where is my father?”—No +father appeared. At last it was said that +Sava had been sent to a long distance with a +large sum of money, and had been killed by +robbers. In the ninth year of one’s life the +most poignant grief is quickly effaced, and +after six months Anielka ceased to grieve. +The old people were very kind to her, and +loved her as if she were their own child. That +Anielka might be chosen to serve in the palace +never entered their head, for who would be so +barbarous as to take the child away from an old +woman of seventy and her aged husband?</p> + +<p class='c005'>To-day was the first time in her life that +she had been so far from home. She looked +curiously on all she saw,—particularly on a +young lady about her own age, beautifully +dressed, and a youth of eighteen, who had +apparently just returned from a ride on horseback, +as he held a whip in his hand, whilst +walking up and down examining the boys +who were placed in a row before him. He +chose two amongst them, and the boys were +led away to the stables.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“And I choose this young girl,” said Constantia +Roszynski, indicating Anielka; “she +is the prettiest of them all. I do not like ugly +faces about me.”</p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>When Constantia returned to the drawing-room, +she gave orders for Anielka to be taken +to her apartments, and placed under the +tutelage of Mademoiselle Dufour, a French +maid, recently arrived from the first milliner’s +shop in Odessa. Poor girl! when they separated +her from her adopted mother, and began +leading her towards the palace, she rushed, +with a shriek of agony, from them, and grasped +her old protectress tightly in her arms! They +were torn violently asunder, and the Count +Roszynski quietly asked, “Is it her daughter, +or her grand-daughter?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Neither, my lord,—only an adopted child.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“But who will lead the old woman home, +as she is blind?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I will, my lord,” replied one of his servants, +bowing to the ground; “I will let her walk +by the side of my horse, and when she is in +her cabin she will have her old husband,—they +must take care of each other.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>So saying, he moved away with the rest of +the peasants and domestics. But the poor +old woman had to be dragged along by two +men; for in the midst of her shrieks and tears +she had fallen to the ground, almost without +life.</p> + +<p class='c005'>And Anielka? They did not allow her to +weep long. She had now to sit all day in the +corner of a room to sew. She was expected +to do everything well from the first; and if +she did not, she was kept without food or +cruelly punished. Morning and evening she +had to help Mdlle. Dufour to dress and undress +her mistress. But Constantia, although she +looked with hauteur on everybody beneath +her, and expected to be slavishly obeyed, was +tolerably kind to the poor orphan. Her true +torment began, when, on leaving her young +lady’s room, she had to assist Mdlle. Dufour. +Notwithstanding that she tried sincerely to do +her best, she was never able to satisfy her, or +to draw from her aught but harsh reproaches.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Thus two months passed.</p> + +<p class='c005'>One day Mdlle. Dufour went very early to +confession, and Anielka was seized with an +eager longing to gaze once more in peace and +freedom on the beautiful blue sky and green +trees, as she used to do when the first rays of +the rising sun streamed in at the window of +the little forest cabin. She ran into the garden. +Enchanted by the sight of so many beautiful +flowers, she went farther and farther along the +smooth and winding walks, till she entered the +forest. She who had been so long away from +her beloved trees, roamed where they were +thickest. Here she gazes boldly around. She +sees no one! She is alone! A little farther on +she meets with a rivulet which flows through +the forest. Here she remembers that she has +not yet prayed. She kneels down, and with +hands clasped and eyes upturned she begins +to sing in a sweet voice the Hymn to the +Virgin.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As she went on she sang louder and with +increased fervour. Her breast heaved with +emotion, her eyes shone with unusual brilliancy; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>but when the hymn was finished she +lowered her head, tears began to fall over her +cheeks, until at last she sobbed aloud. She +might have remained long in this condition, +had not some one come behind her, saying, +“Do not cry, my poor girl; it is better to sing +than to weep.” The intruder raised her head, +wiped her eyes with his handkerchief, and +kissed her on the forehead.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was the Count’s son, Leon!</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You must not cry,” he continued; “be +calm, and when the filipony (pedlars) come, +buy yourself a pretty handkerchief.” He then +gave her a rouble and walked away. Anielka, +after concealing the coin in her corset, ran +quickly back to the palace.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Fortunately, Mdlle. Dufour had not yet +returned, and Anielka seated herself in her +accustomed corner. She often took out the +rouble to gaze fondly upon it, and set to work +to make a little purse, which, having fastened +to a ribbon, she hung round her neck. She +did not dream of spending it, for it would have +deeply grieved her to part with the gift of +the only person in the whole house who had +looked kindly on her.</p> + +<p class='c005'>From this time Anielka remained always +in her young mistress’s room; she was better +dressed, and Mdlle. Dufour ceased to persecute +her. To what did she owe this sudden +change? Perhaps to a remonstrance from +Leon. Constantia ordered Anielka to sit +beside her whilst taking her lessons from +her music-masters, and on her going to the +drawing-room, she was left in her apartments +alone. Being thus more kindly treated, Anielka +lost by degrees her timidity; and when her +young mistress, whilst occupied over some +embroidery, would tell her to sing, she did so +boldly and with a steady voice. A greater +favour awaited her. Constantia, when unoccupied, +began teaching Anielka to read in +Polish; and Mdlle. Dufour thought it politic +to follow the example of her mistress, and +began to teach her French.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Meanwhile, a new kind of torment commenced. +Having easily learnt the two languages, +Anielka acquired an irresistible passion +for reading. Books had for her the charm of +the forbidden fruit, for she could only read by +stealth at night, or when her mistress went +visiting in the neighbourhood. The kindness +hitherto shown her, for a time, began to relax. +Leon had set off on a tour, accompanied by +his old tutor, and a bosom friend as young, as +gay, and as thoughtless as himself.</p> + +<p class='c005'>So passed the two years of Leon’s absence. +When he returned, Anielka was seventeen, +and had become tall and handsome. No one +who had not seen her during this time, would +have recognised her. Of this number was +Leon. In the midst of perpetual gaiety and +change, it was not possible he could have remembered +a poor peasant girl; but in Anielka’s +memory he had remained as a superior being, +as her benefactor, as the only one who had +spoken kindly to her, when poor, neglected, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>forlorn! When in some French romance +she met with a young man of twenty, of a +noble character and handsome appearance, she +bestowed on him the name of Leon. The +recollection of the kiss he had given her +ever brought a burning blush to her cheek, +and made her sigh deeply.</p> + +<p class='c005'>One day Leon came to his sister’s room. +Anielka was there, seated in a corner at work. +Leon himself had considerably changed; from +a boy he had grown into a man. “I suppose +Constantia,” he said, “you have been told +what a good boy I am, and with what docility +I shall submit myself to the matrimonial +yoke, which the Count and Countess have +provided for me?” and he began whistling, +and danced some steps of the Mazurka.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Perhaps you will be refused,” said Constantia +coldly.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Refused! Oh, no. The old Prince has +already given his consent, and as for his +daughter, she is desperately in love with me. +Look at these moustachios, could anything be +more irresistible?” and he glanced in the glass +and twirled them round his fingers; then +continuing in a graver tone, he said, “To tell +the sober truth, I cannot say that I reciprocate. +My intended is not at all to my taste. +She is nearly thirty, and so thin that whenever +I look at her, I am reminded of my +old tutor’s anatomical sketches. But, thanks +to her Parisian dress-maker, she makes up +a tolerably good figure, and looks well in a +Cachemere. Of all things, you know, I wished +for a wife with an imposing appearance, and I +don’t care about love. I find it’s not fashionable, +and only exists in the exalted imagination +of poets.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Surely people are in love with one another +sometimes,” said the sister.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Sometimes,” repeated Anielka, inaudibly. +The dialogue had painfully affected her, and +she knew not why. Her heart beat quickly, +and her face was flushed, and made her look +more lovely than ever.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Perhaps. Of course we profess to adore +every pretty woman,” Leon added abruptly. +“But, my dear sister, what a charming ladies’ +maid you have!” He approached the corner +where Anielka sat, and bent on her a coarse +familiar smile. Anielka, although a serf, was +displeased, and returned it with a glance full +of dignity. But when her eyes rested on +the youth’s handsome face, a feeling, which +had been gradually and silently growing in +her young and inexperienced heart, predominated +over her pride and displeasure. She +wished ardently to recal herself to Leon’s +memory, and half unconsciously raised her +hand to the little purse which always hung +round her neck. She took from it the rouble +he had given her.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“See!” shouted Leon, “what a droll girl; +how proud she is of her riches! Why, girl, +you are a woman of fortune, mistress of a +whole rouble!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I hope she came by it honestly,” said +<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>the old Countess, who at this moment +entered.</p> + +<p class='c005'>At this insinuation, shame and indignation +kept Anielka, for a time, silent. She replaced +the money quickly in its purse, with the bitter +thought that the few happy moments which +had been so indelibly stamped upon her +memory, had been utterly forgotten by Leon. +To clear herself, she at last stammered out, +seeing they all looked at her enquiringly, “Do +you not remember, M. Leon, that you gave me +this coin two years ago in the garden?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“How odd!” exclaimed Leon, laughing, +“do you expect me to remember all the pretty +girls to whom I have given money? But I +suppose you are right, or you would not have +treasured up this unfortunate rouble as if it +were a holy relic. You should not be a miser, +child; money is made to be spent.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Pray, put an end to these jokes,” said +Constantia impatiently; “I like this girl, and +I will not have her teased. She understands +my ways better than any one, and often puts +me in good humour with her beautiful voice.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Sing something for me, pretty damsel,” +said Leon, “and I will give you another +rouble, a new and shining one.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Sing instantly,” said Constantia imperiously.</p> + +<p class='c005'>At this command Anielka could no longer +stifle her grief; she covered her face with her +hands, and wept violently.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why do you cry?” asked her mistress +impatiently; “I cannot bear it; I desire you +to do as you are bid.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>It might have been from the constant +habit of slavish obedience, or a strong feeling +of pride, but Anielka instantly ceased weeping. +There was a moment’s pause, during which +the old Countess went grumbling out of the +room. Anielka chose the Hymn to the +Virgin she had warbled in the garden, and as +she sung, she prayed fervently;—she prayed +for peace, for deliverance from the acute emotions +which had been aroused within her. Her +earnestness gave an intensity of expression +to the melody, which affected her listeners. +They were silent for some moments after its +conclusion. Leon walked up and down with +his arms folded on his breast. Was it agitated +with pity for the accomplished young +slave? or by any other tender emotion? +What followed will show.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“My dear Constantia,” he said, suddenly +stopping before his sister and kissing her +hand, “will you do me a favour?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Constantia looked enquiringly in her +brother’s face without speaking.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Give me this girl.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Impossible!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I am quite in earnest,” continued Leon, +“I wish to offer her to my future wife. In +the Prince her father’s private chapel they +are much in want of a solo soprano.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I shall not give her to you,” said Constantia.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Not as a free gift, but in exchange. I will +<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>give you instead a charming young negro—so +black. The women in St. Petersburg and +in Paris raved about him: but I was inexorable; +I half-refused him to my princess.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No, no,” replied Constantia; “I shall be +lonely without this girl, I am so used to her.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Nonsense! you can get peasant girls by +the dozen; but a black page, with teeth +whiter than ivory, and purer than pearls; a +perfect original in his way; you surely cannot +withstand. You will kill half the province +with envy. A negro servant is the most +fashionable thing going, and yours will be the +first imported into the province.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>This argument was irresistible. “Well,” +replied Constantia, “when do you think of +taking her?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Immediately; to-day at five o’clock,” said +Leon; and he went merrily out of the +room. This then was the result of his cogitation—of +Anielka’s Hymn to the Virgin. +Constantia ordered Anielka to prepare herself +for the journey, with as little emotion as +if she had exchanged away a lap-dog, or +parted with a parrot.</p> + +<p class='c005'>She obeyed in silence. Her heart was full. +She went into the garden that she might +relieve herself by weeping unseen. With one +hand supporting her burning head, and the +other pressed tightly against her heart, to +stifle her sobs, she wandered on mechanically +till she found herself by the side of the river. +She felt quickly for her purse, intending to +throw the rouble into the water, but as quickly +thrust it back again, for she could not bear to +part with the treasure. She felt as if without +it she would be still more an orphan. Weeping +bitterly, she leaned against the tree which +had once before witnessed her tears.</p> + +<p class='c005'>By degrees the stormy passion within her +gave place to calm reflection. This day she +was to go away; she was to dwell beneath +another roof, to serve another mistress. Humiliation! +always humiliation! But at least +it would be some change in her life. As she +thought of this, she returned hastily to the +palace that she might not, on the last day of +her servitude, incur the anger of her young +mistress.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Scarcely was Anielka attired in her prettiest +dress, when Constantia came to her +with a little box, from which she took several +gay-coloured ribbons, and decked her in them +herself, that the serf might do her credit in +the new family. And when Anielka, bending +down to her feet, thanked her, Constantia, +with marvellous condescension, kissed her on +her forehead. Even Leon cast an admiring +glance upon her. His servant soon after came +to conduct her to the carriage, and showing +her where to seat herself, they rolled off +quickly towards Radapol.</p> + +<p class='c005'>For the first time in her life Anielka rode +in a carriage. Her head turned quite giddy, +she could not look at the trees and fields as +they flew past her; but by degrees she became +more accustomed to it, and the fresh air enlivening +<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>her spirits, she performed the rest of +the journey in a tolerably happy state of mind. +At last they arrived in the spacious court-yard +before the Palace of Radapol, the dwelling +of a once rich and powerful Polish family, +now partly in ruin. It was evident, even +to Anielka, that the marriage was one for +money on the one side, and for rank on the +other.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Among other renovations at the castle, +occasioned by the approaching marriage, the +owner of it, Prince Pelazia, had obtained +singers for the chapel, and had engaged Signor +Justiniani, an Italian, as chapel-master. Immediately +on Leon’s arrival, Anielka was presented +to him. He made her sing a scale, +and pronounced her voice to be excellent.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Anielka found that, in Radapol, she was +treated with a little more consideration than +at Olgogrod, although she had often to submit +to the caprices of her new mistress, and she +found less time to read. But to console herself, +she gave all her attention to singing, +which she practised several hours a day. Her +naturally great capacity, under the guidance +of the Italian, began to develope itself steadily. +Besides sacred, he taught her operatic music. +On one occasion Anielka sung an aria in so +impassioned and masterly a style, that the +enraptured Justiniani clapped his hands for +joy, skipped about the room, and not finding +words enough to praise her, exclaimed several +times, “Prima Donna! Prima Donna!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>But the lessons were interrupted. The +Princess’s wedding-day was fixed upon, after +which event she and Leon were to go to +Florence, and Anielka was to accompany +them. Alas! feelings which gave her poignant +misery still clung to her. She despised herself +for her weakness; but she loved Leon. +The sentiment was too deeply implanted in +her bosom to be eradicated; too strong to be +resisted. It was the first love of a young and +guileless heart, and had grown in silence and +despair.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Anielka was most anxious to know something +of her adopted parents. Once, after the +old prince had heard her singing, he asked +her with great kindness about her home. +She replied, that she was an orphan, and had +been taken by force from those who had so +kindly supplied the place of parents. Her +apparent attachment to the old bee-keeper +and his wife so pleased the prince, that he +said, “You are a good child, Anielka, and to-morrow +I will send you to visit them. You +shall take them some presents.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Anielka, overpowered with gratitude, threw +herself at the feet of the prince. She dreamed +all night of the happiness that was in store for +her, and the joy of the poor, forsaken, old +people; and when the next morning she set +off she could scarcely restrain her impatience. +At last they approached the cabin; she saw +the forest, with its tall trees, and the meadows +covered with flowers. She leaped from the +carriage, that she might be nearer these trees +<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>and flowers, every one of which she seemed to +recognise. The weather was beautiful. She +breathed with avidity the pure air which, +in imagination, brought to her the kisses and +caresses of her poor father! Her foster-father +was, doubtless, occupied with his bees; but his +wife?</p> + +<p class='c005'>Anielka opened the door of the cabin; all +was silent and deserted. The arm-chair on +which the poor old woman used to sit, was +overturned in a corner. Anielka was chilled +by a fearful presentiment. She went with a +slow step towards the bee-hives; there she +saw a little boy tending the bees, whilst the +old man was stretched on the ground beside +him. The rays of the sun, falling on his pale +and sickly face, showed that he was very ill. +Anielka stooped down over him, and said, +“It is I, it is Anielka, your own Anielka, who +always loves you.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The old man raised his head, gazed upon +her with a ghastly smile, and took off his +cap.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“And my good old mother, where is she?” +Anielka asked.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“She is dead!” answered the old man, and +falling back he began laughing idiotically. +Anielka wept. She gazed earnestly on the +worn frame, the pale and wrinkled cheeks, in +which scarcely a sign of life could be perceived; +it seemed to her that he had suddenly fallen +asleep, and not wishing to disturb him, she +went to the carriage for the presents. When +she returned, she took his hand. It was cold. +The poor old bee-keeper had breathed his +last!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Anielka was carried almost senseless back +to the carriage, which quickly returned with +her to the castle. There she revived a little; +but the recollection that she was now quite +alone in the world, almost drove her to +despair.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Her master’s wedding and the journey to +Florence were a dream to her. Though the +strange sights of a strange city slowly restored +her perceptions, they did not her cheerfulness. +She felt as if she could no longer endure the +misery of her life; she prayed to die.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why are you so unhappy?” said the +Count Leon kindly to her, one day.</p> + +<p class='c005'>To have explained the cause of her wretchedness +would have been death indeed.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I am going to give you a treat,” continued +Leon. “A celebrated singer is to appear to-night +in the theatre. I will send you to hear +her, and afterwards you shall sing to me what +you remember of her performances.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Anielka went. It was a new era in her +existence. Herself, by this time, an artist, +she could forget her griefs, and enter with her +whole soul into the beauties of the art she +now heard practised in perfection for the first +time. To music a chord responded in her +breast which vibrated powerfully. During +the performances she was at one moment pale +and trembling, tears rushing into her eyes; +at another, she was ready to throw herself at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>the feet of the cantatrice, in an ecstacy of +admiration. “Prima donna,”—by that name +the public called on her to receive their applause, +and it was the same, thought Anielka, +that Justiniani had bestowed upon her. +Could <i>she</i> also be a prima donna? What a +glorious destiny! To be able to communicate +one’s own emotions to masses of entranced +listeners; to awaken in them, by the power +of the voice, grief, love, terror.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Strange thoughts continued to haunt her +on her return home. She was unable to sleep. +She formed desperate plans. At last she +resolved to throw off the yoke of servitude, +and the still more painful slavery of feelings +which her pride disdained. Having learnt +the address of the prima donna, she went +early one morning to her house.</p> + +<p class='c005'>On entering she said, in French, almost +incoherently, so great was her agitation—“Madam, +I am a poor serf belonging to a +Polish family who have lately arrived in Florence. +I have escaped from them; protect, +shelter me. They say I can sing.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Signora Teresina, a warm-hearted, +passionate Italian, was interested by her +artless earnestness. She said, “Poor child! +you must have suffered much,”—she took +Anielka’s hand in hers. “You say you can +sing; let me hear you.” Anielka seated herself +on an ottoman. She clasped her hands +over her knees, and tears fell into her lap. +With plaintive pathos, and perfect truth of +intonation, she prayed in song. The Hymn +to the Virgin seemed to Teresina to be offered +up by inspiration.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Signora was astonished. “Where,” +she asked, in wonder, “were you taught?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Anielka narrated her history, and when +she had finished, the prima donna spoke +so kindly to her that she felt as if she had +known her for years. Anielka was Teresina’s +guest that day and the next. After the Opera, +on the third day, the prima donna made her +sit beside her, and said:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I think you are a very good girl, and you +shall stay with me always.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The girl was almost beside herself with joy.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“We will never part. Do you consent, +Anielka?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Do not call me Anielka. Give me instead +some Italian name.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Well, then, be Giovanna. The dearest +friend I ever had—but whom I have lost—was +named Giovanna,” said the prima donna.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Then, I will be another Giovanna to you.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Teresina then said, “I hesitated to receive +you at first, for your sake as well as mine; +but you are safe now. I learn that your +master and mistress, after searching vainly +for you, have returned to Poland.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>From this time Anielka commenced an +entirely new life. She took lessons in singing +every day from the Signora, and got an engagement +to appear in inferior characters at +the theatre. She had now her own income, +and her own servant—she, who had till then +<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>been obliged to serve herself. She acquired +the Italian language rapidly, and soon passed +for a native of the country.</p> + +<p class='c005'>So passed three years. New and varied +impressions failed, however, to blot out the +old ones. Anielka arrived at great perfection +in her singing, and even began to +surpass the prima donna, who was losing her +voice from weakness of the chest. This sad +discovery changed the cheerful temper of +Teresina. She ceased to sing in public; for +she could not endure to excite pity, where she +had formerly commanded admiration.</p> + +<p class='c005'>She determined to retire. “You,” she +said to Anielka, “shall now assert your claim +to the first rank in the vocal art. You will +maintain it. You surpass me. Often, on +hearing you sing, I have scarcely been able +to stifle a feeling of jealousy.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Anielka placed her hand on Teresina’s +shoulder, and kissed her.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Yes,” continued Teresina, regardless of +everything but the bright future she was +shaping for her friend. “We will go to Vienna—there +you will be understood and appreciated. +You shall sing at the Italian Opera, +and I will be by your side—unknown, no +longer sought, worshipped—but will glory in +your triumphs. They will be a repetition of +my own; for have I not taught you? Will +they not be the result of my work?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Though Anielka’s ambition was fired, her +heart was softened, and she wept violently.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Five months had scarcely elapsed, when a +<i>furore</i> was created in Vienna by the first appearance, +at the Italian Opera, of the Signora +Giovanna. Her enormous salary at once +afforded her the means of even extravagant +expenditure. Her haughty treatment of male +admirers only attracted new ones; but in +the midst of her triumphs she thought often +of the time when the poor orphan of Pobereze +was cared for by nobody. This remembrance +made her receive the flatteries of +the crowd with an ironical smile; their fine +speeches fell coldly on her ear, their eloquent +looks made no impression on her heart: <i>that</i>, +no change could alter, no temptation win.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In the flood of unexpected success a new +misfortune overwhelmed her. Since their +arrival at Vienna, Teresina’s health rapidly +declined, and in the sixth months of Anielka’s +operatic reign she expired, leaving all her +wealth, which was considerable, to her +friend.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Once more Anielka was alone in the world. +Despite all the honours and blandishments +of her position, the old feeling of desolateness +came upon her. The new shock destroyed +her health. She was unable to appear on the +stage. To sing was a painful effort; she grew +indifferent to what passed around her. Her +greatest consolation was in succouring the +poor and friendless, and her generosity was +most conspicuous to all young orphan girls +without fortune. She had never ceased to +love her native land, and seldom appeared +<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>in society, unless it was to meet her countrymen. +If ever she sang, it was in Polish.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A year had elapsed since the death of the +Signora Teresina when the Count Selka, a +rich noble of Volkynia, at that time in Vienna, +solicited her presence at a party. It was impossible +to refuse the Count and his lady, +from whom she had received great kindness. +She went. When in their saloons, filled with +all the fashion and aristocracy in Vienna, the +name of Giovanna was announced, a general +murmur was heard. She entered, pale and +languid, and proceeded between the two rows +made for her by the admiring assembly, to the +seat of honour beside the mistress of the house.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Shortly after, the Count Selka led her to +the piano. She sat down before it, and +thinking what she should sing, glanced round +upon the assembly. She could not help +feeling that the admiration which beamed +from the faces around her was the work of +her own merit, for had she neglected the +great gift of nature—her voice, she could not +have excited it. With a blushing cheek, and +eyes sparkling with honest pride, she struck +the piano with a firm hand, and from her +seemingly weak and delicate chest poured +forth a touching Polish melody, with a voice +pure, sonorous, and plaintive. Tears were in +many eyes, and the beating of every heart +was quickened.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The song was finished, but the wondering +silence was unbroken. Giovanna leaned exhausted +on the arm of the chair, and cast +down her eyes. On again raising them, she +perceived a gentleman who gazed fixedly at +her, as if he still listened to echoes which had +not yet died within him. The master of the +house, to dissipate his thoughtfulness, led him +towards Giovanna. “Let me present to you, +Signora,” he said, “a countryman, the Count +Leon Roszynski.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The lady trembled; she silently bowed, +fixed her eyes on the ground, and dared not +raise them. Pleading indisposition, which +was fully justified by her pallid features, she +soon after withdrew.</p> + +<p class='c005'>When on the following day Giovanna’s +servant announced the Counts Selka and Roszynski, +a peculiar smile played on her lips; +and when they entered, she received the latter +with the cold and formal politeness of a +stranger. Controlling the feelings of her heart, +she schooled her features to an expression of +indifference. It was manifest from Leon’s +manner, that without the remotest recognition, +an indefinable presentiment regarding +her possessed him. The Counts had called +to know if Giovanna had recovered from her +indisposition. Leon begged to be permitted +to call again.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Where was his wife? why did he never +mention her? Giovanna continually asked +herself these questions when they had departed.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A few nights after, the Count Leon arrived +sad and thoughtful. He prevailed on Giovanna +<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>to sing one of her Polish melodies; which she +told him had been taught, when a child, by +her muse. Roszynski, unable to restrain the +expression of an intense admiration he had +long felt, frantically seized her hand, and +exclaimed, “I love you!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>She withdrew it from his grasp, remained +silent for a few minutes, and then said slowly, +distinctly, and ironically, “but I do not love +<i>you</i>, Count Roszynski.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Leon rose from his seat. He pressed his +hands to his brow, and was silent. Giovanna +remained calm and tranquil. “It is a penalty +from Heaven,” continued Leon, as if speaking +to himself, “for not having fulfilled my duty +as a husband towards one whom I chose +voluntarily, but without reflection. I wronged +her, and am punished.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Giovanna turned her eyes upon him. Leon +continued, “Young, and with a heart untouched, +I married a princess about ten years +older than myself, of eccentric habits and +bad temper. She treated me as an inferior. +She dissipated the fortune hoarded up with so +much care by my parents, and yet was ashamed +on account of my origin to be called by my name. +Happily for me, she was fond of visiting and +amusements. Otherwise, to escape from her, +I might have become a gambler, or worse; but, +to avoid meeting her, I remained at home—for +there she seldom was. At first from +ennui, but afterwards from real delight in +the occupation, I gave myself up to study. +Reading formed my mind and heart. I became +a changed being. Some months ago my father +died, my sister went to Lithuania, whilst my +mother, in her old age, and with her ideas, +was quite incapable of understanding my +sorrow. So when my wife went to the baths +for the benefit of her ruined health, I came +here in the hope of meeting with some of my +former friends—I saw you—”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Giovanna blushed like one detected; but +speedily recovering herself, asked with calm +pleasantry, “Surely you do not number <i>me</i> +among your former friends?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I know not. I have been bewildered. It +is strange; but from the moment I saw you +at Count Selka’s, a powerful instinct of love +overcame me; not a new feeling; but as if +some latent, long-hid, undeveloped sentiment +had suddenly burst forth into an uncontrollable +passion. I love, I adore you. I——”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Prima Donna interrupted him—not +with speech, but with a look which awed, +which chilled him. Pride, scorn, irony sat +in her smile. Satire darted from her eyes. +After a pause, she repeated slowly and +pointedly, “Love <i>me</i>, Count Roszynski?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Such is my destiny,” he replied. “Nor, +despite your scorn, will I struggle against it. +I feel it is my fate ever to love you; I fear it +is my fate never to be loved by you. It is +dreadful.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Giovanna witnessed the Count’s emotion +with sadness. “To have,” she said mournfully, +“one’s first pure, ardent, passionate affection +<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>unrequited, scorned, made a jest of, is indeed +a bitterness, almost equal to that of death.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>She made a strong effort to conceal her +emotion. Indeed she controlled it so well as +to speak the rest with a sort of gaiety.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You have at least been candid, Count +Roszynski; I will imitate you by telling +a little history that occurred in your country. +There was a poor girl born and bred +a serf to her wealthy lord and master. +When scarcely fifteen years old, she was +torn from a state of happy rustic freedom—the +freedom of humility and content—to be +one of the courtly slaves of the Palace. +Those who did not laugh at her, scolded her. +One kind word was vouchsafed to her, and +that came from the lord’s son. She nursed +it and treasured it; till, from long concealing +and restraining her feelings, she at last found +that gratitude had changed into a sincere +affection. But what does a man of the world +care for the love of a serf? It does not even +flatter his vanity. The young nobleman did +not understand the source of her tears and +her grief, and he made a present of her, as +he would have done of some animal to his +betrothed.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Leon, agitated and somewhat enlightened, +would have interrupted her; but Giovanna +said, “Allow me to finish my tale. Providence +did not abandon this poor orphan, but +permitted her to rise to distinction by the +talent with which she was endowed by nature. +The wretched serf of Pobereze became a celebrated +Italian cantatrice. <i>Then</i> her former +lord meeting her in society, and seeing her +admired and courted by all the world, without +knowing who she really was, was afflicted, as +if by the dictates of Heaven, with a love for +this same girl,—with a guilty love”—</p> + +<p class='c005'>And Giovanna rose, as she said this, to +remove herself further from her admirer.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No, no!” he replied earnestly; “with a +pure and holy passion.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Impossible!” returned Giovanna. “Are +you not married?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Roszynski vehemently tore a letter from +his vest, and handed it to Giovanna. It was +sealed with black, for it announced the death +of his wife at the baths. It had only arrived +that morning.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You have lost no time,” said the cantatrice, +endeavouring to conceal her feelings +under an iron mask of reproach.</p> + +<p class='c005'>There was a pause. Each dared not speak. +The Count knew—but without actually and +practically believing what seemed incredible—that +Anielka and Giovanna were the same +person—<i>his slave</i>. That terrible relationship +checked him. Anielka, too, had played her +part to the end of endurance. The long-cherished +tenderness—the faithful love of her +life could not longer be wholly mastered. +Hitherto they had spoken in Italian. She +now said in Polish,</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You have a right, my Lord Roszynski, +to that poor Anielka who escaped from the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>service of your wife in Florence; you can +force her back to your palace, to its meanest +work; but”—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Have mercy on me!” cried Leon.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“But,” continued the serf of Pobereze, +firmly, “you cannot force me to love you.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Do not mock—do not torture me more; +you are sufficiently revenged. I will not +offend you by importunity. You must indeed +hate me! But remember that we Poles +wished to give freedom to our serfs; and +for that very reason our country was invaded +and dismembered by despotic powers. +We must therefore continue to suffer slavery +as it exists in Russia; but, soul and body, we +are averse to it: and when our country once +more becomes free, be assured no shadow of +slavery will remain in the land. Curse then +our enemies, and pity us that we stand in +such a desperate position between Russian +bayonets and Siberia, and the hatred of our +serfs.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>So saying, and without waiting for a reply, +Leon rushed from the room. The door was +closed. Giovanna listened to the sounds of +his rapid footsteps till they died in the street. +She would have followed, but dared not. She +ran to the window. Roszynski’s carriage was +rolling rapidly away, and she exclaimed vainly, +“I love you, Leon; I loved you always!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Her tortures were unendurable. To relieve +them she hastened to her desk, and wrote +these words:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Dearest Leon, forgive me; let the past be +for ever forgotten. Return to your Anielka. +She always has been, ever will be, yours!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>She despatched the missive. Was it too late? +or would it bring him back? In the latter +hope she retired to her chamber, to execute a +little project.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Leon was in despair. He saw he had been +premature in so soon declaring his passion +after the news of his wife’s death, and vowed +he would not see Anielka again for several +months. To calm his agitation, he had ridden +some miles into the country. When he returned +to his hotel after some hours, he found +her note. With the wild delight it had darted +into his soul, he flew back to her.</p> + +<p class='c005'>On regaining her saloon a new and terrible +vicissitude seemed to sport with his passion:—she +was nowhere to be seen. Had the +Italian cantatrice fled? Again he was in +despair; stupified with disappointment. As +he stood uncertain how to act in the midst of +the floor, he heard, as from a distance, an Ave +Maria poured forth in tones he half-recognised. +The sounds brought back to him a +host of recollections; a weeping serf, the +garden of his own palace. In a state of +new rapture he followed the voice. He traced +it to an inner chamber, and he there beheld +the lovely singer kneeling, in the costume +of a Polish serf. She rose, greeted Leon +with a touching smile, and stepped forward +with serious bashfulness. Leon extended his +arms; she sank into them; and in that fond +<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>embrace all past wrongs and sorrows were +forgotten! Anielka drew from her bosom a +little purse, and took from it a piece of silver. +It was the rouble. <i>Now</i>, Leon did not smile +at it. He comprehended the sacredness of +this little gift; and some tears of repentance +fell upon Anielka’s hand.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A few months after, Leon wrote to the +steward of Olgogrod to prepare everything +splendidly for the reception of his second wife. +He concluded his letter with these words:—“I +understand that in the dungeon beneath +my palace there are some unfortunate men, +who were imprisoned during my father’s lifetime. +Let them be instantly liberated. This +is my first act of gratitude to God, who has so +infinitely blessed me!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Anielka longed ardently to behold her native +land. They left Vienna immediately after the +wedding, although it was in the middle of +January.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was already quite dark when the carriage, +with its four horses, stopped in front of the +portico of the Palace of Olgogrod. Whilst the +footman was opening the door on one side, a +beggar soliciting alms appeared at the other, +where Anielka was seated. Happy to perform +a good action, as she crossed the threshold of +her new home, she gave him some money; but +the man, instead of thanking her, returned her +bounty with a savage laugh, at the same time +scowling at her in the fiercest manner from +beneath his thick and shaggy brows. The +strangeness of this circumstance sensibly +affected Anielka, and clouded her happiness. +Leon soothed and re-assured her. In the arms +of her beloved husband, she forgot all but the +happiness of being the idol of his affections.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Fatigue and excitement made the night +most welcome. All was dark and silent around +the palace, and some hours of the night had +passed, when suddenly flames burst forth from +several parts of the building at once. The +palace was enveloped in fire; it raged furiously. +The flames mounted higher and higher; the +windows cracked with a fearful sound, and +the smoke penetrated into the most remote +apartments.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A single figure of a man was seen stealing +over the snow, which lay like a winding-sheet +on the solitary waste; his cautious steps +were heard on the frozen snow as it crisped +beneath his tread. It was the beggar who +had accosted Anielka. On a rising ground, +he turned to gaze on the terrible scene. +“No more unfortunate wretches will now +be doomed to pass their lives in your dungeons,” +he exclaimed. “What was <i>my</i> crime? +Reminding my master of the lowness of his +birth. For this they tore me from my +only child—my darling little Anielka; they +had no pity even for her orphan state; let +them perish all!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Suddenly a young and beautiful creature +rushes wildly to one of the principal windows: +she makes a violent effort to escape. For a +moment her lovely form, clothed in white, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>shines in terrible relief against the background +of blazing curtains and walls of fire, and as +instantly sinks back into the blazing element. +Behind her is another figure, vainly endeavouring +to aid her,—he perishes also; neither +are ever seen again!</p> + +<p class='c005'>This appalling tragedy horrified even the +perpetrator of the crime. He rushed from the +place; and as he heard the crash of the falling +walls, he closed his ears with his hands, and +darted on faster and faster.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The next day some peasants discovered the +body of a man frozen to death, lying on a heap +of snow,—it was that of the wretched incendiary. +Providence, mindful of his long, of his +cruel imprisonment and sufferings, spared him +the anguish of knowing that the mistress of +the palace he had destroyed, and who perished +in the flames, was his own beloved daughter—the +Serf of Pobreze!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>A STROLL BY STARLIGHT.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c008'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>We left the Village. On the beaten road</div> + <div class='line in2'>Our steps and voices were the only sound.</div> + <div class='line in2'>The lady Moon was not yet come abroad,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Our coyly-veiled companion. We found</div> + <div class='line in2'>A footway through the corn; upon the ground</div> + <div class='line in2'>The crake among the holms was occupied;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Rapid of movement, from all points around</div> + <div class='line in2'>Came his rough note whose music is supplied</div> + <div class='line'>By iteration while all sounds are hushed beside.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>The stars were out, the sky was full of them,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Dotted with worlds. The land was all asleep.</div> + <div class='line in2'>And, like its gentle breath, from stem to stem</div> + <div class='line in2'>Through the dry corn a murmur there would creep,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Murmur of music: as when in the deep</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of the sun-pierced Ægean, with turned ear,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The Nereids might have heard its waters leap</div> + <div class='line in2'>And kiss the dimpled islands, thus, less near,</div> + <div class='line'>Fainter, more like a thought, did to our hearts appear,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>The midnight melody. Our way then led</div> + <div class='line in2'>Where myriad blades of grass were drinking dew;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thirsty, to God they looked, by God were fed,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Whose cloudless heaven could their life renew.</div> + <div class='line in2'>A copse beside us on the starry blue</div> + <div class='line in2'>Cut its hard outline. Through the leaves a fire</div> + <div class='line in2'>Shone with enlarging brilliance; red of hue</div> + <div class='line in2'>The large moon rose,—did to a throne aspire</div> + <div class='line'>Of dizzy height, and paled in winning her desire.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>A change of level, and another scene;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Life, light, and noise. The roaring furnace-blast,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Flame-pointed cones and fields of blighted green!</div> + <div class='line in2'>The vivid fires, dreaming they have surpassed</div> + <div class='line in2'>The stars in brightness, furiously cast</div> + <div class='line in2'>Upward their wild strength to possess the sky;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Break into evanescent stars at last,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Glitter and fall as fountains. Thus men try,</div> + <div class='line'>And thus men try in vain, false gods to deify.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>The roar and flame diminish. Busy light</div> + <div class='line in2'>Streams from the casting-house. The liquid ore</div> + <div class='line in2'>Through arch and lancet window, dazzling Night,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Flows in rich rills upon the sanded floor.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Steropes, Arges, Brontes, from the shore</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of Acheron returned, seem glowing here;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Such form the phantom of Hephæstus wore,</div> + <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>Illumined by his forge. Each feature clear,</div> + <div class='line'>Men glorified by fire seem demon-births of fear.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>But the ray reddens, and the light grows dim.</div> + <div class='line in2'>The cooling iron, counterpaned with sand</div> + <div class='line in2'>By those night servitors, no longer grim</div> + <div class='line in2'>In unaccustomed glow, from the green land</div> + <div class='line in2'>And yonder sky, now ceases to command</div> + <div class='line in2'>Our thoughts to wander. As we backward gaze,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The blast renews; with aspiration grand</div> + <div class='line in2'>The flames again soar upward: but we raise</div> + <div class='line'>Our glances to God’s Lamp, which overawes their blaze.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>So forward through the stillness we proceed.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Winding around a hill, the white road leaves</div> + <div class='line in2'>Life, light, and noise behind. We, gladly freed</div> + <div class='line in2'>From human interruption, we, mute thieves,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Pass onward through Night’s treasure; each receives</div> + <div class='line in2'>From her rich store his bosom full of wealth,</div> + <div class='line in2'>For secret hoarding. Now an oak-wood weaves</div> + <div class='line in2'>A cloister way to sanctify the stealth</div> + <div class='line'>Practised in loving guise, and for the spirit’s health.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>We climb into the moonlight once again.</div> + <div class='line in2'>A broken rail beside the way doth keep</div> + <div class='line in2'>Neglectful guard above the Vale’s domain.</div> + <div class='line in2'>The Vale is in the silence laid asleep,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Not far below. Among her beauties peep</div> + <div class='line in2'>The wakeful stars, and from above her bed</div> + <div class='line in2'>The grey night-veil, wherein to rest so deep</div> + <div class='line in2'>She sank, the Moon hath lifted; yet the thread</div> + <div class='line'>Of slumber holds, the dream hath from her face not fled.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>Yon meadow track leads by the church; it saves</div> + <div class='line in2'>Ten minutes if we follow it. We laugh</div> + <div class='line in2'>To see our saving lost among the graves.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Deciphering a moonlit Epitaph</div> + <div class='line in2'>We linger, laugh and sigh. All mirth is half</div> + <div class='line in2'>Made up of melancholy. There is pure</div> + <div class='line in2'>Humour in woe. Man’s grief is oft the staff</div> + <div class='line in2'>On which his happy thoughts can lean secure;</div> + <div class='line'>And he who most enjoys, he too can most endure.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>We leave the tombstones, death-like, white, and still,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Fixed in the dim light,—awful, unbeheld.</div> + <div class='line in2'>A squalid village, straggling up a hill</div> + <div class='line in2'>We pass. In passing, one among us yelled,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And from no gallinaceous throat expelled</div> + <div class='line in2'>A crow sonorous. From the near church tower,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Through the cold, voiceless air of night there knell’d</div> + <div class='line in2'>The passing bell of a departed hour:</div> + <div class='line'>What sign of budding day? How will the morning flower?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>CHIPS.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>There is a saying that a good workman is +known by his chips. Such a prodigious +accumulation of chips takes place in our +Manufactory, that we infer we must have +some first-rate workmen about us.</p> + +<p class='c005'>There is also a figure of speech, concerning +a chip of the old block. The chips with which +<i>our</i> old block (aged fifteen weeks) is overwhelmed +every week, would make some five-and-twenty +blocks of similar dimensions.</p> + +<p class='c005'>There is a popular simile—an awkward +one in this connexion—founded on the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>dryness of a chip. This has almost deterred +us from our intention of bundling a few chips +together now and then. But, reflection on +the natural lightness of the article has re-assured +us; and we here present a few to our +readers,—and shall continue to do so from time +to time.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>DESTRUCTION OF PARISH REGISTERS.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>As the poorest man cannot foresee to what +inheritance he may succeed, through the +instrumentality of Parochial Registers, so in +their preservation every member of the community +is more or less interested; but the +Parish Register returns of 1833 show that a +general feeling seemed to exist in favour of +their destruction. Scarcely one of them pronounced +the Registers in a satisfactory state. +The following sentences abound in the Blue +Book: “leaves cut out,” “torn out,” “injured +by damp,” “mutilated,” “in fragments,” “destroyed +by fire,” “much torn,” “illegible,” +“tattered,” “imperfect,” “early registers +lost.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Thanks to the General Registry Act of +William the Fourth, all such records made +since 1835 are now properly cared for; but +those prior to that date are still in parochial +keeping, to be torn, lost, burnt, interpolated, +stolen, defaced, or rendered illegible at the +good pleasure of every wilful or heedless individual +of a destructive organisation. Some +time ago Mr. Walbran, of Ripon, found part +of a Parish Register among a quantity of wastepaper +in a cheesemonger’s shop. The same +gentleman has rescued the small but very +interesting register of the chapelry of Denton, +in the county of Durham, from the fate which +once had nearly befallen it, by causing several +literatim copies to be printed and deposited +in public libraries. Among other instances +of negligent custody, Mr. Downing Bruce, the +barrister, relates, in a recently published +pamphlet, that the Registers of South Otterington, +containing several entries of the great +families of Talbot, Herbert, and Fauconberg, +were formerly kept in the cottage of the +parish-clerk, who used all those preceding the +eighteenth century for waste paper; a considerable +portion having been taken to “singe +a goose!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Abstraction, loss, and careless custody of +registers is constantly going on. Mr. Bruce +mentions, that in 1845 he made some copious +extracts from the dilapidated books at +Andover, “but on recently visiting that +place for the purpose of a supplementary +search,” he says, “I found that these books +were no longer in existence, and that those +which remained were kept in the rectory-house, +in a damp place under the staircase, +and in a shameful state of dilapidation.” The +second case occurred at Kirkby Malzeard, near +Ripon, where the earliest register mentioned +in the parliamentary return was reported to +be lost. “Having occasion to believe that +<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>the statement was not correct,” Mr. Bruce +states, “I persevered in my inquiries, and at +length fortunately discovered the book, in +a tattered state, behind some old drawers +in the curate’s back kitchen. Again, at +Farlington, near Sheriff Hutton, the earliest +registers were believed and represented to +be lost, until I found their scattered leaves +at the bottom of an old parish chest which I +observed in the church.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Even as we write, an enquiry appears in the +newspapers from the parish officers of St. +Paul’s, Covent Garden, addressed to “collectors” +and others, after their own Registers; +two among the most historically important +and interesting years of the seventeenth +century are nowhere to be found.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The avidity and dishonesty of many of these +“collectors,” or archæological cockchafers, +are shocking to think of. They seem to have +passed for their own behoof a universal statute +of limitations; and when a book, an autograph, +or a record is a certain number of +years old, they think it is no felony to steal +it. Recently we were interested in searching +the Register for the birth of Joseph +Addison; and at the altar of the pretty little +church of Milston, in Wilts, we were told that +a deceased rector had cut out the leaf which +contained it, to satisfy the earnest longings +of a particular friend, “a collector”—a poet, +too, who ought to have been ashamed to +instigate the larceny. It is hoped that his +executors—his name has been inserted in +a burial register since—will think fit to +restore it to its proper place at their early +convenience.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Bruce recommends that the whole of the +Registers now deposited in parish churches, +in rectors’ coal-cellars, churchwardens’ outhouses, +curates’ back-kitchens, and goose-eating +parish clerks’ cottages, should be collected +into one central fire-proof building in +London.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Innocent Mr. Bruce! While the great +historical records of this land are “preserved” +over tons of gunpowder in the White Tower +of the Tower in London; while the Chancery +records are feeding a fine, fat, historical, and +uncommonly numerous breed of rats in the +cellars of the Rolls Chapel; while some of +the most important muniments existing (including +William the Conqueror’s Domesday +Book) are being dried up in the Chapter-House +of Westminster Abbey, by the united +heats of a contiguous brew-house and an +adjacent wash-house; and while heaps of +monastic charters and their surrenders to +Henry the Eighth, with piles of inestimable +historical treasures, are huddled together upon +scaffolds in the interior of the dilapidated +Riding-School in Carlton Ride—can Mr. +Bruce or any other man of common sense, +suppose that any attention whatever will be +paid by any person in power to his very +modest suggestion?</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span> + <h2 class='c003'>FROM MR. T. OLDCASTLE CONCERNING THE COAL EXCHANGE.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>“<span class='sc'>Sir</span>,      Blue Dragon Arms, South Shields.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>“I have just read in your ‘Household +Words’ a pleasant enough account of +the ‘Coal Exchange of London,’ in which my +name is mentioned. I suppose I ought—and +therefore I do—consider it a great honour; +and what Captain of a collier-brig would not? +So, no more about that, except to thank you. +Same time, mayhap, there may be a trifle or +two in the paper to which I don’t quite subscribe; +and, as I seem to be towed astern of +the writer as he works his way on, it seems +only fair that I should overhaul his log in +such matters as I don’t agree to, whether so +be in respect of his remarks or reckoning.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“In the first place, the writer says the Coal +Exchange is painted as bright as a coffee-garden +or dancing-place on the continent. +Well—belike it is. And what o’ that? Did +he wish it to be painted in coal-tar? as if we +didn’t see enough of this at home—whether +collier-men or coal-merchants! I make no +doubt he wanted to see all the inside just of +the same colour as your London buildings +are on th’ outside—walls, and towers, and +spires, like so many great smoke-jacks. Then +as to his taste in female beauty, he seems +more disposed to the pale faces of novel-writers’ +young ladies than such sort of brown +and ruddy skins as some of us think more +mettlesome. I confess I do; and so he may +rig me out on this matter as he pleases. +Howsomever, I must say that I believe most +people will prefer both the bright ladies, +and the bright adornment of the building, to +any mixture of soot and blacking, which has, +hitherto, characterised the taste of my old +friends the Londoners. And it is my advice +to the artist, Mr. Sang, just to snap his +fingers at the opposite taste of your writer, +which is exactly what I do myself, for his +comparing my ‘hard weather-beaten face’ to +the wooden figure of a ship’s head.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-r'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“I remain, respected Sir,</div> + <div class='line in4'>“Yours to command,</div> + <div class='line in8'>“<span class='sc'>Thomas Oldcastle</span>.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>“P.S. What the writer of these coal-papers +says I told him about Buddle of Wallsend, is +all true enough; but why did he tell me, in +return, that his name was ‘Gulliver?’”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>NEW SHOES.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>The following “Chip” is from the chisel of +a blacksmith—a certain Peter Muller of +Istra, son of the person to whom it refers. +It was gathered from his forge by M. Stæhlin, +who inserted it in his original anecdotes of +Peter the Great, collected from the conversation +of several persons of distinction at St. Petersburg +and Moscow.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Among all the workmen at Muller’s forge, +near Istra, about ninety versts from Moscow, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>there was one who had examined everything +connected with the work with the most +minute attention, and who worked harder +than the rest. He was at his post every day, +and appeared quite indifferent to the severity +of the labour. The last day on which he was +employed, he forged eighteen poods of iron—the +pood is equal to forty pounds—but though +he was so good a workman, he had other +matters to mind besides the forging of iron; +for he had the affairs of the State to attend +to, and all who have heard of Peter the +Great, know that those were not neglected.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It happened that he spent a month in the +neighbourhood of Istra, for the benefit of the +chalybeate waters; and wherever he was, he +always made himself thoroughly acquainted +with whatever works were carried on. He +determined not only to inspect Muller’s forge +accurately, but to become a good blacksmith. +He made the noblemen who were in +attendance on him accompany him every +morning, and take part in the labour. Some +he appointed to blow the bellows, and others +to carry coals, and perform all the offices of +journeymen blacksmiths. A few days after +his return to Moscow, he called on Muller, +and told him that he had been to see his +establishment, with which he had been much +gratified.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Tell me,” said he, “how much you allow +per pood for iron in bar, furnished by a +master blacksmith.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Three copecks or an altin,” answered +Muller.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Well, then,” said the Czar, “I have earned +eighteen altins, and am come to be paid.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Muller went to his bureau, and took from +it eighteen ducats, which he reckoned before +the Emperor. “I would not think of offering +less to a royal workman, please your +Majesty.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Put up your ducats again,” interrupted +the Czar, “I will not take more than I have +earned, and that you would pay to any other +blacksmith. Give me my due. It will be +sufficient to pay for a pair of shoes, of which +you may see,” added he, as he raised his foot, +and displayed a shoe somewhat the worse for +the wear, “I am very much in need.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Muller reckoned out the eighteen altins, +with which the Czar hurried off to a shop, +and purchased a pair of shoes. He put them +on with the greatest delight; he thought he +never had worn such a pair of shoes; he +showed them with a triumphant air to those +about him, and said, “See them; look how +well they fit; I have earned them well—by +the sweat of my brow, with hammer and +anvil.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>One of these bars of iron, forged by Peter +the Great, and bearing his mark, was kept as +a precious relic in the forge at Istra, and +exhibited with no little pride to all who +entered. Another bar which was forged by +his hand is shown in the Cabinet of the +Academy of Sciences at Petersburg.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span> + <h2 class='c003'>THE MODERN “OFFICER’S” PROGRESS.</h2> +</div> +<h3 class='c009'>III.—THE CATASTROPHE.</h3> + +<p class='c010'>What the Psalmist said in sorrow, those +who witnessed the career of the Honourable +Ensign Spoonbill and his companions might +have said, not in sorrow only but in anger: +“One day told another, and one night certified +another.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>When duty was to be performed—(for even +under the command of such an officer as Colonel +Tulip the routine of duty existed)—it was +slurred over as hastily as possible, or got +through as it best might be. When, on the other +hand, pleasure was the order of the day,—and +this was sought hourly,—no resource was +left untried, no expedient unattempted; and +strange things, in the shape of pleasure, were +often the result.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The nominal duties were multifarious, and, +had they been properly observed, would have +left but a comparatively narrow margin for +recreation,—for there was much in the old +forms which took up time, without conveying +any great amount of real military instruction.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The orderly officer for the day—we speak +of the subaltern—was supposed to go through +a great deal. His duty it was to assist at +inspections, superintend drills, examine the +soldiers’ provisions, see their breakfasts and +dinners served, and attend to any complaints, +visit the regimental guards by day and night, +be present at all parades and musters, and, +finally, deliver in a written report of the proceedings +of the four-and-twenty hours.</p> + +<p class='c005'>To go through this routine, required—as it +received in some regiments—a few days’ training; +but in the Hundredth there was none at +all. Every officer in that distinguished corps +was supposed to be “a Heaven-born genius,” +and acquired his military education as pigeons +pick up peas. The Hon. Ensign Spoonbill +looked at his men after a fashion; could swear +at them if they were excessively dirty, and +perhaps awe them into silence by a portentous +scowl, or an exaggerated loudness of voice; +but with regard to the real purpose of inspection, +he knew as little, and cared as much, as +the valet who aired his noble father’s morning +newspaper. His eye wandered over the men’s +kits as they were exposed to his view; but to +his mind they only conveyed the idea of a +kaleidoscopic rag-fair, not that of an assortment +of necessaries for the comfort and well-being +of the soldier. He saw large masses of +beef, exhibited in a raw state by the quartermaster, +as the daily allowance for the men; +but if any one had asked him if the meat was +good, and of proper weight, how could he have +answered, whose head was turned away in +disgust, with his face buried in a scented +cambric handkerchief, and his delicate nature +loathing the whole scene? In the same spirit +he saw the men’s breakfasts and dinners +served; fortifying his opinion, at the first, that +<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>coffee could only be made in France, and wondering, +at the second, what sort of <i>potage</i> it +could be that contrived to smell so disagreeably. +These things might be special +affectations in the Hon. Ensign, and depended, +probably, on his own peculiar organisation; +but if the rest of the officers of the Hundredth +did not manifest as intense a dislike to this +part of their duties, they were members of +much too “crack” a regiment to give themselves +any trouble about the matter. The +drums beat, the messes were served, there was +a hasty gallop through the barrack-rooms, +scarcely looking right or left, and the orderly +officer was only too happy to make his escape +without being stopped by any impertinent +complaint.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The “turning out” of the barrack guard +was a thing to make an impression on a +bystander. A loud shout, a sharp clatter +of arms, a scurry of figures, a hasty formation, +a brief enquiry if all was right, and +a terse rejoinder that all <i>was</i> remarkably +so, constituted the details of a visit to the +body of men on whom devolved the task +of extreme watchfulness, and the preservation +of order. If the serjeant had replied +“All wrong,” it would have equally enlightened +Ensign Spoonbill, who went towards +the guardhouse because his instructions told +him to do so; but why he went there, and for +what purpose he turned out the guard, never +entered into his comprehension. Not even did +a sense of responsibility awaken in him when, +with much difficulty, he penned the report +which gave, in a narrative form, the summary +of the duties he had performed in so exemplary +a manner. Performed, do we say? +Yes, once or twice wholly, but for the most +part with many gaps in the schedule. Sometimes +the dinners were forgotten, now and +then the taptoo, generally the afternoon parade, +and not unfrequently the whole affair. +For the latter omission, there was occasionally +a nominal “wigging” administered, not by +the commanding officer himself, but through +the adjutant; and as that functionary was +only looked upon by the youngsters in the +light of a bore, without the slightest reverence +for his office, his words—like those of Cassius—passed +like the idle wind which none regarded. +When Ensign Spoonbill “mounted +guard” himself, his vigilance on his new post +equalled the assiduity we have seen him +exhibit in barracks. After the formality of +trooping, marching down, and relieving, was +over, the Honourable Ensign generally amused +himself by a lounge in the vicinity of the +guardhouse, until the field-officer’s “rounds” +had been made; and that visitation at an end +for the day, a neighbouring billiard-room, +with Captain Cushion for his antagonist or +“a jolly pool” occupied him until dinner-time. +It was the custom in the garrison where the +Hundredth were quartered, as it was, indeed, +in many others, for the officers on guard to +dine with their mess, a couple of hours or so +<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>being granted for this indulgence. This relaxation +was made up for, by their keeping +close for the rest of the evening; but as there +were generally two or three off duty sufficiently +at leisure to find cigars and brandy-and-water +attractive, even when consumed in +a guard-room, the hardship of Ensign Spoonbill’s +official imprisonment was not very great. +With these friends, and these creature-comforts +to solace, the time wore easily away till +night fell, when the field-officer, if he was “a +good fellow,” came early, and Ensign Spoonbill, +having given his friends their <i><span lang="fr">congé</span></i>, was +at liberty to “turn in” for the night, the +onerous duty of visiting sentries and inspecting +the reliefs every two hours, devolving upon +the serjeant.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It may be inferred from these two examples +of Ensign Spoonbill’s ideas of discipline and +the service, what was the course he generally +adopted when <i>on</i> duty, without our being +under the necessity of going into further +details. What he did when <i>off</i> duty helped +him on still more effectually.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Lord Pelican’s outfit having “mounted” +the young gentleman, and the credit he obtained +on the strength of being Lord Pelican’s +son, keeping his stud in order, he was enabled +to vie with the crackest of the crack Hundredth; +subject, however, to all the accidents +which horseflesh is heir to—especially when +allied to a judgment of which green was the +prevailing colour. A “swap” to a disadvantage; +an indiscreet purchase; a mistake as +to the soundness of an animal; and such +other errors of opinion, entailed certain losses, +which might, after all, have been borne, without +rendering the applications for money at +home, more frequent than agreeable; but +when under the influence of a natural obstinacy, +or the advice of some very “knowing +ones,” Ensign Spoonbill proceeded to back his +opinion in private matches, handicaps, and +steeple-chases, the privy purse of Lady Pelican +collapsed in a most unmistakeable manner. +Nor was this description of amusement the +only rock-a-head in the course of the Honourable +Ensign. The art or science of betting +embraces the widest field, and the odds, given +or taken, are equally fatal, whether the subject +that elicits them be a match at billiards or a +horse-race. Nor are the stakes at blind-hookey +or unlimited loo less harmless, when +you hav’n’t got luck and <i>have</i> such opponents +as Captain Cushion.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In spite of the belief in his own powers, +which Ensign Spoonbill encouraged, he could +not shut his eyes to the fact that he was +every day a loser; but wiser gamblers than +he—if any there be—place reliance on a +“turn of luck,” and all he wanted to enable +him to take advantage of it, was a command +of cash; for even one’s best friends prefer the +coin of the realm to the most unimpeachable +I. O. U.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The want of money is a common dilemma,—not +the less disagreeable, however, because +<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>it <i>is</i> common—but in certain situations this +want is more apparent than real. The Hon. +Ensign Spoonbill was in the predicament of +impecuniosity; but there were—as a celebrated +statesman is in the habit of saying—three +courses open to him. He might leave +off play, and do without the money; he +might “throw himself” on Lord Pelican’s +paternal feelings; or he might <i>somehow</i> contrive +to raise a supply on his own account. +To leave off just at the moment when he was +sure to win back all he had lost, would have +been ridiculous; besides, every man of spirit +in the regiment would have cut him. To +throw himself upon the generosity of his sire, +was a good poetical idea; but, practically, it +would have been of no value: for, in the first +place, Lord Pelican had no money to give—in +the next, there was an elder brother, whose +wants were more imperative than his own; +and lastly, he had already tried the experiment, +and failed in the most signal manner. +There remained, therefore, only the last expedient; +and being advised, moreover, to have +recourse to it, he went into the project <i><span lang="fr">tête +baissée</span></i>. The “advice” was tendered in this +form.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Well, Spooney, my boy, how are you, this +morning?” kindly enquired Captain Cushion, +one day on his return from parade, from +which the Honourable Ensign had been absent +on the plea of indisposition.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Deuced queer,” was the reply; “that +Roman punch always gives me the splittingest +headaches!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Ah! you’re not used to it. I’m as fresh +as a four-year old. Well, what did you do +last night, Spooney?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Do! why, I lost, of course; <i>you</i> ought to +know that.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I—my dear fellow! Give you my honour +I got up a loser!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Not to me, though,” grumbled the Ensign.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Can’t say as to that,” replied the Captain; +“all I know is, that I am devilishly minus.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Who won, then?” enquired Spoonbill.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Oh!” returned the Captain, after a slight +pause, “I suspect—Chowser—he has somebody’s +luck and his own too!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I think he must have mine,” said the +Ensign, with a faint smile, as the alternations +of the last night’s Blind Hookey came more +vividly to his remembrance. “What did I +lose to you, Cushion?” he continued, in the +hope that his memory had deceived him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Captain’s pocket-book was out in an +instant.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Sixty-five, my dear fellow; that was all. +By-the-bye, Spooney, I’m regularly hard up; +can you let me have the tin? I wouldn’t +trouble you, upon my soul, if I could possibly +do without it, but I’ve got a heavy bill coming +due to-morrow, and I can’t renew.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Honourable Ensign sank back on his +pillow, and groaned impotently. Rallying, +however, from this momentary weakness, he +raised his head, and, after apostrophising the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>spirit of darkness as his best friend, exclaimed, +“I’ll tell you what it is, Cushion, I’m +thoroughly cleaned out. I haven’t got a +dump!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Then you must fly a kite,” observed the +Captain, coolly. “No difficulty about that.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>This was merely the repetition of counsel +of the same friendly nature previously urged. +The shock was not greater, therefore, than +the young man’s nerves could bear.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“How is it to be done?” asked the +neophyte.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Oh, I think I can manage that for you. +Yes,” pursued the Captain, musing, “Lazarus +would let you have as much as you want, I +dare say. His terms are rather high, to be +sure; but then the cash is the thing. He’ll +take your acceptance at once. Who will you +get to draw the bill?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Draw!” said the Ensign, in a state of +some bewilderment. “I don’t understand +these things—couldn’t you do it?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why,” replied the Captain, with an air of +intense sincerity, “I’d do it for you with +pleasure—nothing would delight me more; +but I promised my grandmother, when first I +entered the service, that I never <i>would</i> draw a +bill as long as I lived; and as a man of honour, +you know, and a soldier, I can’t break my +word.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“But I thought you said you had a bill of +your own coming due to-morrow,” observed +the astute Spoonbill.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“So I did,” said the Captain, taken rather +aback in the midst of his protestations, “but +then it isn’t—exactly—a thing of <i>this</i> sort; +it’s a kind of a—bond—as it were—old family +matters—the estate down in Lincolnshire—that +I’m clearing off. Besides,” he added, +hurriedly, “there are plenty of fellows who’ll +do it for you. There’s young Brittles—the +Manchester man, who joined just after you. +I never saw anybody screw into baulk better +than he does, except yourself—he’s the one. +Lazarus, I know, always prefers a young +customer to an old one; knowing chaps, these +Jews, arn’t they?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Captain Cushion’s last remark was, no +doubt, a just one—but he might have applied +the term to himself with little dread of disparagement; +and the end of the conversation +was, that it was agreed a bill should be +drawn as proposed, “say for three hundred +pounds,” the Captain undertaking to get the +affair arranged, and relieving Spoonbill of all +trouble, save that of “merely” writing his +name across a bit of stamped paper. These +points being settled, the Captain left him, and +the unprotected subaltern called for brandy +and soda-water, by the aid of which stimulus +he was enabled to rise and perform his +toilette.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Messrs. Lazarus and Sons were merchants +who perfectly understood their business, and, +though they started difficulties, were only too +happy to get fresh birds into their net. They +knew to a certainty that the sum they were +<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>asked to advance would not be repaid at the +end of the prescribed three months: it would +scarcely have been worth their while to enter +into the matter if it had; the profit on the +hundred pounds’ worth of jewellery, which +Ensign Spoonbill was required to take as part +of the amount, would not have remunerated +them sufficiently. Guessing pretty accurately +which way the money would go, they foresaw +renewed applications, and a long perspective +of accumulating acceptances. Lord Pelican +might be a needy nobleman; but he <i>was</i> Lord +Pelican, and the Honourable George Spoonbill +was his son; and if the latter did not +succeed to the title and family estates, which +was by no means improbable, there was Lady +Pelican’s settlement for division amongst the +younger children. So they advanced the +money; that is to say, they produced a +hundred and eighty pounds in cash, twenty +they took for the accommodation (half of +which found its way into the pocket of—never +mind, we won’t say anything about Captain +Cushion’s private affairs), and the value of the +remaining hundred was made up with a series +of pins and rings of the most stunning magnificence.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This was the Honourable Ensign Spoonbill’s +first bill-transaction, but, the ice once broken, +the second and third soon followed. He found +it the pleasantest way in the world of raising +money, and in a short time his affairs took a +turn so decidedly commercial, that he applied +the system to all his mercantile transactions. +He paid his tailors after this fashion, satisfied +Messrs. Mildew and his upholsterers with +negotiable paper, and did “bits of stiff” with +Galloper, the horse-dealer, to a very considerable +figure. He even became facetious, +not to say inspired, by this great discovery; +for, amongst his papers, when they were afterwards +overhauled by the official assignee—or +some such fiscal dignitary,—a bacchanalian +song in manuscript was found, supposed to +have been written about this period, the +<i>refrain</i> of which ran as follows:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c006'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“When creditors clamour, and cash fails the till,</div> + <div class='line'>There is nothing so easy as giving a bill.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>It needs no ghost to rise from the grave to +prophesy the sequel to this mode of “raising +the wind.” It is recorded twenty times a +month in the daily papers,—now in the Bankruptcy +Court, now in that for the Relief of +Insolvent Debtors. Ensign Spoonbill’s career +lasted about eighteen months, at the end of +which period—not having prospered by +means of gaming to the extent he anticipated—he +found himself under the necessity +of selling out and retiring to a continental +residence, leaving behind him debts, which +were eventually paid, to the tune of seven +thousand, two hundred and fourteen pounds, +seventeen shillings, and tenpence three farthings, +the vulgar fractions having their +origin in the hair-splitting occasioned by +reduplication of interest. He chose for his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>abode the pleasant town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, +where he cultivated his moustaches, acquired +a smattering of French, and an insight into +the mystery of pigeon-shooting. For one or +other of these qualifications—we cannot exactly +say which—he was subsequently appointed +<i><span lang="fr">attaché</span></i> to a foreign embassy, and at the present +moment, we believe, is considered one of +those promising young men whose diplomatic +skill will probably declare itself one of these +days, by some stroke of finesse, which shall set +all Europe by the ears.</p> + +<p class='c005'>With respect to Colonel Tulip’s “crack” +regiment, it went, as the saying is, “to the +Devil.” The exposure caused by the affair of +Ensign Spoonbill—the smash of Ensign +Brittles, which shortly followed—the duel +between Lieutenant Wadding and Captain +Cushion, the result of which was a ball +(neither “spot” nor “plain,” but a bullet) +through the head of the last-named gentleman, +and a few other trifles of a similar description, +at length attracted the “serious notice” of his +Grace the Commander-in-Chief. +It was significantly hinted to Colonel +Tulip that it would be for the benefit of the +service in general, and that of the Hundredth +in particular, if he exchanged to half-pay, +as the regiment required re-modelling. A +smart Lieutenant-Colonel who had learnt +something, not only of drill, but of discipline, +under the hero of “Young Egypt,” in which +country he had shared that general’s laurels, +was sent down from the Horse Guards. +“Weeding” to a considerable extent took +place; the Majors and the Adjutant were +replaced by more efficient men, and, to sum +up all, the Duke’s “Circular” came out, +laying down a principle of <i>practical military +education, while on service</i>, which, if acted up +to,—and there seems every reason to hope +it will now be,—bids fair to make good +officers of those who heretofore were merely +idlers. It will also diminish the opportunities +for gambling, drinking, and bill-discounting, +and substitute, for the written words on the +Queen’s Commission, the real character of a +soldier and a gentleman.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>HOW TO SPEND A SUMMER HOLIDAY.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>If the walls of London—the bill-stickers’ +chosen haunt—could suddenly find a voice to +tell their own history, we might have a few +curious illustrations of the manners and customs—the +fashions, fancies, and popular idols—of +the English during the last half century,—from +the days when a three feet blue bill +was thought large enough to tell where +Bonaparte’s victories might be read about, to +the advent acres of flaring paper and print +which announce a Bal Masque or a new Haymarket +Comedy. One of the most startling +contrasts of such a confession would refer to +the announcements about means of locomotion. +It is not very long ago that “The Highflyer,” +<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>“The Tally-ho,” the Brighton “Age,” and the +Shrewsbury “Wonder” boasted, in all the +glory of red letters, their wonder-feat speed +of ten miles an hour,—“York in one day;” +“Manchester in twenty-four hours;” and so +on. The same wall now tells the passer-by a +different tale, for we have Excursion Trains to +all sorts of pleasant places at all sorts of low +fares. “Twelve Hours to Paris” is the +burden of one placard, whilst another shows +how “Cologne on the Rhine” may be reached +in twenty-four.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Nor is this marvellous change in speed—this +real economy of life—the only variation +from old modes; for the cost in money of a +journey has diminished with its cost of time. +The cash which a few years ago was required +to go to York, will now take the tourist to +Cologne. The Minster of the one city is now, +therefore, rivalled as a point for sight-seers by +the Dom-Kirche of the other. When the South Eastern +Railway Company offers to take the +traveller, who will pay them about three pounds +at London Bridge one night, and place him by +the next evening on the banks of the Rhine,—the +excellent tendency is, that the summer +holiday folks will extend their notions of an +excursion beyond the Channel.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Steam, that makes the trip from London to +Cologne so rapid and so cheap, does not stop +there, but is ready now to bear the traveller by +railway to Brunswick, Hanover, Berlin, Dresden, +Vienna,—nay, with one short gap, he +may go all the way to Trieste, on the Adriatic, +by the iron road. Steam is ready also on the +Rhine to carry him at small charge up that +stream towards Switzerland. Indeed, afloat +by steamer and ashore by railway, the tourist +who leaves London Bridge on a Monday +night may well reach Basle by Thursday or +Friday, seeing many things on his way, including +the best scenery of the Rhine. The +beautiful portion of the banks of that river +forms but a small part of its entire length; +indeed, on reaching Cologne, the traveller +is disappointed to find so little that is remarkable +in what he beholds on the banks +of the famous stream. It is not till he ascends +many miles higher that he feels repaid for his +journey. <i>The</i> scenery lies between Coblenz +and Bingen, and in extent bears some such +proportion to the whole length of the river as +would the banks of the Thames from Chelsea +to Richmond to the entire course of our great +river, from its rise in Gloucestershire to its +junction with the sea. In addition to the part +just named, there are some few other points +where the Rhine is worth seeing,—such as the +fall at Schaffhausen,—but Switzerland may +claim this as one of <i>its</i> attractions. It is a fine +river from Basle, even down through the Dutch +rushes and flats to the sea; but, with all its +reputation, there is only a morsel of the Rhine +worth going to look at, and that lies, as we +have just said, between its junction with the +picturesque Moselle at Coblenz and the small +town of Bingen. Between those points it +<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>passes through hills and near mountains, +whose sides and summits boast the castles and +ruins so often painted and often sung; and +these spots are now within the reach of the +three pounds first-class railway ticket, now-a-days +announced by placard on the walls and +hoardings of London.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Once on a Rhine steamer, and Switzerland +is within easy reach.</p> + +<p class='c005'>On our table, as we write, lies the second +edition of a volume<a id='r2'></a><a href='#f2' class='c007'><sup>[2]</sup></a> written by the physician +to the Queen’s Household, Dr. Forbes, showing +how a month may be employed in Switzerland. +He adopted the South Eastern Railway plan, +and, starting by a mail train at half-past eight +in the evening of the 3rd of August, found +himself and companions on the next evening +looking from the window of an hotel on the +Rhine. Steam and a week placed him in +Switzerland. Here railways must be no +longer reckoned on, and the tourist, if he be +in search of health, may try what pedestrian +exercise will do for him. This the Doctor +strongly recommends; and, following his own +prescription, we find him—though a sexagenarian—making +capital way; now as a pedestrian, +anon on horseback, and then again on +foot, only adopting a carriage when there was +good reason for such assistance. He describes +the country, as all do who have been through +it, as a land of large and good inns, well stored +with luxurious edibles and drinkables. Against +a too free use of them, he doctor-like gives +a medical hint or two, and goes somewhat +out of his way, perhaps, to show how much +better the waters of the mountains may +be than the wine. Indeed the butter, the +honey, the milk, the cheese, and the melted +snows of Switzerland win his warmest +praises. The bread is less fortunate; but its +inferiority, and many other small discomforts, +are overlooked and almost forgotten in his enjoying +admiration of what he found good on his +way amidst the mountain valleys and breezy +passes of his route. The bracing air, the +brilliant sky, the animating scenes, the society +of emulous and cheerful companions, and, +above all, the increased corporeal exercise +soon produce a change in the mind and the +body, in the spirits and the stomach of the +tourist.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f2'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. “The Physician’s Holiday.”</p> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>What a marvellous change it is for a smoke-dried +man who for months, perhaps years, +has been “in populous cities pent,” to escape +from his thraldom, and find himself far away +from his drudgeries and routines up amongst +the mountains and the lakes, and surrounded +by the most magnificent scenes in nature; +where he sees in all its glory that which a +townsman seldom gets a glimpse of—a sunrise +in its greatest beauty; and where sunsets +throw a light over the earth, which +makes its beauties emulate those of the +heavens! Day by day, during summer in +Switzerland, such enjoyments are at hand. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>One traveller may choose one route, and +another another; for there are many and +admirable changes to be rung upon the roads +to be taken. Dr. Forbes, for instance, went +from Basle to Schaffhausen, thence to Zurich, +and, steaming over a part of the lake, made +for Zug, and thence to the Rigi. He returned +to the Zurich-See, and then went to +Wallenstadt, Chur, and the Via Mala. Had +he to shorten his trip without great loss +of the notable scenes, he might, having first +reached Lucerne, have left that place for +Meyringen, and then pursued his subsequent +way by the line of the lakes, visiting the +various glorious points in their neighbourhood +that challenged his attention—Grindelwald, +Schreckhorn, Lauterbrunnen, Unterseen, and +so on to Thun; then by the pass of the Gemmi +to Leuk, and, from there, to what is described +by our author as the gem of his whole Swiss +experience—the Riffelberg, and the view at +Monte Rosa:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Sitting there, up in mid-heaven, as it +were, on the smooth, warm ledge of our rock; +in one of the sunniest noons of a summer day; +amid air cooled by the elevation and the +perfect exposure to the most delicious temperature; +under a sky of the richest blue, and +either cloudless, or only here and there +gemmed with those aerial and sun-bright +cloudlets which but enhance its depth; with +the old field of vision, from the valley at our +feet to the horizon, filled with majestic shapes +of every variety of form, and of a purity and +brilliancy of whiteness which left all common +whiteness dull;—we seemed to feel as if +there could be no other mental mood but +that of an exquisite yet cheerful serenity—a +sort of delicious abstraction, or absorption of +our powers, in one grand, vague, yet most +luxurious perception of Beauty and Loveliness.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“At another time—it would almost seem at +the same time, so rapid was the alternation +from mood to mood—the immeasurable vastness +and majesty of the scene, the gigantic +bulk of the individual mountains, the peaks +towering so far beyond the level of our daily +earth, as to seem more belonging to the sky +than to it, our own elevated and isolated +station hemmed in on every side by untrodden +wastes and impassable walls of snow, and, +above all, the utter silence, and the absence +of every indication of life and living things—suggesting +the thought that the foot of man +had never trodden, and never would tread +there: these and other analogous ideas would +excite a tone of mind entirely different—solemn, +awful, melancholy....</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I said at the time, and I still feel disposed +to believe, that the whole earth has but few +scenes that can excel it in grandeur, in beauty, +and in wonderfulness of every kind. I thought +then, and I here repeat my opinion in cool +blood, that had I been brought hither blindfolded +from London, had had my eyes opened +but for a single hour on this astonishing +<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>panorama, and had been led back in darkness +as I came, I should have considered the +journey, with all its privations, well repaid by +what I saw.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Having seen this crowning glory of mountain +scenery, the tourist intent only upon a +short trip might adopt one of many variations +for his return to Basle. If on going out he +had missed any bright spot, he should see it +on his way back. He must remember:</p> + +<p class='c005'>Interlachen, one of the sweetest spots in all +Switzerland, which, though only about four +miles in extent, affords a perfect specimen of +a Swiss valley in its best form.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Lake of Thun, inferior to that of +Wallenstadt in grandeur, and to that of +Lucerne in beauty, but superior to the Lake +of Zurich in both; and in respect to the view +from it, beyond all these; none of them having +any near or distant prospect comparable to +that looking back, where the snowy giants of +the Oberland, with the Jungfrau, and her +silver horns, are seen over the tops of the +nearer mountains.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The “show glacier” of the Rosenlaui, which +is so easy of access.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The view from the Hotel of the Jungfrau +on the Wengern Alp.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The lake scenery near Alpnach.</p> + +<p class='c005'>All these points should be made either out +or home. They are not likely to be forgotten +by the tourist when once seen. On the pilgrimage +to these wonders of nature, the other +peculiarities of the country and its people will +be observed, and amongst them the frequency +of showers and the popularity of umbrellas; +the great division of landed property; the +greater number of beggars in the Romanist +as compared with the Protestant Cantons, +and the better cultivation of the latter; the +numerous spots of historical interest, as Morgarten, +Sempach, Naefels; where the Swiss +have fought for the liberty they enjoy (to say +nothing of the dramatic William Tell, and his +defeat of the cruel Gesler); the fruitfulness +and number of Swiss orchards (which give us +our grocers’ “French plums”), the excellent +flavor of Alpine strawberries and cream; the +scarcity of birds; and the characteristic +sounds of the Swiss horn, the Ranz des +Vaches, and the night chaunts of the watchmen.</p> + +<p class='c005'>On the map attached to Dr. Forbes’s volume +are the dates, jotted down, when our traveller +entered Switzerland, at Basle, and when he left +it on his return to smoke and duty in London. +He reached the land of mountains and lakes +on the 11th of August; he quitted it on the +12th of September; four days afterwards he +was being bothered at the Custom-House at +Blackwall. The last words of his book are +these:—“In accordance with a principle kept +constantly in view while writing out the particulars +of the Holiday now concluded, viz. to +give to those who may follow the same or a +similar track, such economical and financial +details as may be useful to them, I may here +<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>state that the total expenses of the tour—from +the moment of departure to that of return—was, +as near as may be, <i>One Guinea per diem</i> +to each of the travellers.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The thousands of young gentlemen with +some leisure and small means, who are in +the habit of getting rid of both in unhealthy +amusements, need hardly be told that a +winter’s abstinence from certain modes and +places of entertainment would be more than +rewarded by a single summer holiday spent +after the manner of Dr. Forbes and his younger +companions. No very heroic self-denial is +necessary; and the compensation—in health, +higher and more intense enjoyment, and the +best sort of mental improvement—is incalculable.</p> + +<p class='c005'>What we have here described is an expensive +proceeding compared with the cheap +contract trips which are constantly diverging +from the Metropolis, to every part of England, +Ireland, Scotland, and to all attainable places +on the Continent. These, so far as we are +able to learn, have hitherto been well conducted; +and although the charges for every +possible want—from the platform of the +London Terminus back again to the same +spot, are marvellously moderate—the speculations, +from their frequent repetition, appear to +have been remunerative to the projectors.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>CHRISTOPHER SHRIMBLE ON THE “DECLINE OF ENGLAND.”</h2> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div><i>To Mr. Ledru Rollin.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-l'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Sir,</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>I generally believe everything that is +going to happen; and as it is a remarkable +fact that everything that is going to happen +is of a depressing nature, I undergo a good +deal of anxiety. I am very careful of myself +(taking a variety of patent medicines, and +paying particular attention to the weather), +but I am not strong. I think my weakness +is principally on my nerves, which have been +a good deal shaken in the course of my profession +as a practising attorney; in which I +have met with a good deal to shock them; +but from which, I beg leave most cheerfully +to acquaint you, I have retired.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Sir, I am certain you are a very remarkable +public gentleman, though you have the misfortune +to be French. I am convinced you +know what is going to happen, because you +describe it in your book on “The Decline of +England,” in such an alarming manner. I +have read your book and, Sir, I am sincerely +obliged to you for what you have made me +suffer; I am very miserable and very grateful.</p> + +<p class='c005'>You have not only opened up a particularly +dismal future, but you have shown me in +what a miserable condition we, here, (I mean +in Tooting, my place of abode, and the surrounding +portion of the British Empire) are +at this present time; though really I was not +aware of it.</p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>I suppose that your chapter on the law of +this land is the result of a profound study of +the statutes at large and the “Reports of +Cases argued,” &c.; for students of your +nation do not take long for that sort of thing, +and you have been amongst us at least three +months. In the course of your “reading +up” you must doubtless have perused the +posthumous reports of J. Miller, Q. C. +(Queen’s Comedian). There you doubtless +found the cause of Hammer <i>v.</i> Tongs, which +was an action of <i>tort</i> tried before Gogg, C. J. +Flamfacer (Serjeant)—according to the immortal +reporter of good things—stated his +case on behalf of the plaintiff so powerfully, +that before he could get to the peroration, +said plaintiff’s hair stood on end, tears +rolled down his cheeks in horror and pity +at his own wrongs, and he exclaimed, while +wringing his pocket-handkerchief, “Good gracious! +That villain Tongs! What a terrific +box on my ear it must have been! To think +that a man may be almost murdered without +knowing it!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>I am Hammer, and you, Mr. Rollin, +are Tongs. Your book made my ears to +tingle quite as sharply as if you had actually +boxed them. I must, however, in justice to +the little hair that Time has left me, positively +state that, even while I was perusing +your most powerful passages, it showed no +propensity for the perpendicular. I felt very +nervous for all that; for still—although +I could hardly believe that a French gentleman +residing for a few months in the +neighbourhood of Leicester Square, London, +could possibly obtain a thorough knowledge, +either from study or personal observation, +of the political, legislative, agricultural, +agrarian, prelatical, judicial, colonial, commercial, +manufacturing, social, and educational +systems and condition of this empire—yet, +from the unqualified manner in which you +deliver yourself upon all these branches, I +cannot choose but think that your pages +must, like certain fictions, be at least founded +on <i>some</i> fact; that to have concocted your +volume—of smoke—there must be some fire +somewhere. Or is it only the smell of it?</p> + +<p class='c005'>For, Sir, even an alarm of fire is unpleasant; +and, to an elderly gentleman with +a very small stake in the country (prudently +inserted in the three per cent. consols), reading +of the dreadful things which you say are +to happen to one’s own native land is exceedingly +uncomfortable, especially at night; when +“in silence and in gloom” one broods over one’s +miseries, personal and national; when, in fact, +your or any one else’s <i><span lang="fr">bête noire</span></i> is apt to get +polished off with a few extra touches of blacking. +Bless me! when I put my candle out the +other night, and thought of your portrait of +Britannia, I quite shook; and when I lay +down I could almost fancy her shadow on the +wall. Even now I see her looking uncommonly +sickly, in spite of the invigorating properties +of the waves she so constantly “rules;” the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>trident and shield—her “supporters” for ages—can +hardly keep her up. Grief, and forebodings +of the famine which you promise, has +made her dwindle down from Great to Little +Britain. The British Lion at her feet is in the +last stage of consumption; in such a shocking +state of collapse, that he will soon be in a condition +to jump out of his skin; but you do not +point out the Ass who is to jump into it.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Fortunately for my peace I found, on reading +a little further, that this is not Britannia +as she is, but Britannia seen by you, “as +in a glass darkly”—as she is to be—when +some more of her blood has been sucked +by a phlebotomising Oligarchy and State-pensionary; +by an ogreish Cotton lordocracy; +by a sanguinary East India Company, whose +“atrocious greediness caused ten millions of +Indians to perish in a month;” by the servile +Parsonocracy, who “read their sermons, in +order that the priest may be able to place his +discourse before the magistrate, if he should +be suspected of having preached anything +contrary to law;” by the Landlords, whose +oppressions cause labourers to kill one another +“to get a premium upon death;” and by a +variety of other national leeches, which +your imagination presents to our view with +the distinctness of the monsters in a drop +of Thames water seen through a solar microscope.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But, Sir, as Mr. Hammer said, “to think +that a man may be almost murdered without +knowing it!” and so, <i>I</i> say, (one trial of your +book will prove the fact) may a whole parish—such +as Tooting—or an entire country—such +as England. If it had not been for your +book I should not have had the remotest +notion that “English society is about to fall +with a fearful crash.” Society at large, so +far as I can observe it (at Tooting, and elsewhere), +seems to be quite innocent of its +impending fate; and if one may judge from +appearances (but then you say, we may not),—we +are rather better off than usual just +now: indeed, when you paint Britannia as +she is at the present writing, she makes a +rather fat and jolly portrait than otherwise. +In your “Exposition” (for 1850) you say: “The +problem is not to discover whether England +is great, but whether her greatness can +endure.” In admitting, in the handsomest +manner possible, that England <i>is</i> great, you +go on to say, that “Great Britain, which is +only two hundred leagues long, and whose +soil is far from equal to that of Aragon or +Lombardy, draws every year from its agriculture, +by a skilful cultivation and the breeding +of animals, a revenue which amounts to more +than three billions six hundred millions francs, +and this revenue of the mother-country is +almost doubled by the value of similar produce +in its colonies and dependencies. Her +industry, her commerce, and her manufactures, +create a property superior to the +primal land-productions, and all owing to +her inexhaustible mines, her natural wealth, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>and her admirable system of circulation by +fourscore and six canals, and seventy lines of +railway. The total revenue of England then +amounts to upwards of twelve billion francs. +Her power amongst the nations is manifest +by the number and greatness of her fleets +and of her domains. In Europe she possesses, +besides her neighbour-islets, Heligoland, +Gibraltar, Malta, and the Ionian Islands; in +Asia, she holds British Hindostan with its +tributaries, Ceylon, and her compulsory allies +of the Punjab and of Scinde—that is to say, +almost a world; in Africa she claims Sierra +Leone with its dependencies, the Isle of +France, Seychelles, Fernandez Po, the Cape of +Good Hope and Saint Helena; in America, +she possesses Upper and Lower Canada, Cape +Breton, the Lesser Antilles, the Bermudas, +Newfoundland, Lucays, Jamaica, Dominica, +Guiana, the Bay of Honduras, and Prince +Edward’s Island; lastly, in Oceania, she has +Van Dieman’s Land, Norfolk Island, Nova +Scotia, Southern Australia; and these hundred +nations make up for her more that one +hundred and fifty millions of subjects, including +the twenty-seven to twenty-eight +millions of the three mother kingdoms. As +to her mercantile marine, two details will +suffice to make it known; she has about +thirty thousand sailing-vessels and steamers, +without counting her eight thousand colonial +ships; and in one year she exports six or +seven hundred millions of cotton stuffs, which +makes for a single detail an account beyond +the sum total of all the manufacturing exportation +of France.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>But now for the plague spot! All this +territory, and power, and commercial activity +is, you say, our ruin; all this wealth is precisely +our pauperism; all this happiness is +our misery. What Montesquieu says, and +you Mr. Ledru Rollin indorse with your +unerring imprimatur, <i>must</i> be true:—“The +fortune of maritime empires cannot be long, +for they only reign by the oppression of the +nations, and while they extend themselves +abroad, they are undermining themselves +within.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Upon my word, Mr. Rollin, this looks very +likely: and when you see your neighbours +gaily promenading Regent Street; when you +hear of the “Lion of Waterloo” (at whom +you are so obliging as to say in your Preface, +you have no wish “to fire a spent ball”) +giving his usual anniversary dinner to the +usual number of guests, and with his usual +activity stepping off afterwards to a ball; +when you are told that a hundred thousand +Londoners can afford to enjoy themselves at +Epsom Races; and that throughout the +country there is just now more enjoyment +and less grumbling than there has been for +years, I can quite understand that your +horror at the innocent disregard thus evinced +at the tremendous “blow up” that is coming, +must be infinitely more real than that of +Serjeant Flamfacer. “Alas!” you exclaim +<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>with that “profound emotion” with which +your countrymen are so often afflicted; +“Government returns inform me that during +the past year English pauperism has decreased +eleven per cent., and that the present +demand for labour in the manufacturing +districts nearly equals the supply? The culminating +point is reached; destruction must +follow!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Heavens! Mr. Rollin, I tremble with you. +The plethora of prosperity increases, and will +burst the sooner! We, eating, drinking, contented, +trafficking, stupid, revolution-hating, +spiritless, English people, “are undermining +ourselves within.” We are gorging ourselves +with National prosperity to bring on a National +dyspepsia, and will soon fall asleep +under the influence of a national nightmare! +Horrible! the more so because</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c006'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>“Alas! unconscious of their fate,</div> + <div class='line'>The little victims play.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>Now, Sir, I wish to ask you calmly and +candidly, if there <i>is</i> any fire at the bottom of +your volumes of smoke? or have you read +our records, and seen our country through a +flaming pair of Red Spectacles, that has converted +everything within their range into +Raw-Head-and-Bloody-Bones?</p> + +<p class='c005'>Indeed I hope it is so; for though I am +very much obliged to you for putting us on +our guard, you have made me very miserable. +This is the worst shock of all. With my +belief in “what is going to happen,” I have +led but a dog-life of it, ever since I retired +from that cat-and-dog life, the Law. First, +the Reform Bill was to ruin us out of +hand; then, the farmers threatened us with +what was going to happen in consequence +of Free Trade; and that was bad enough, +for it was starvation—no less. What was +going to happen if the Navigation Laws were +repealed, I dare not recall. Now we are to be +swept off the face of the earth if we allow +letters to be sorted on a Sunday. But these +are comparative trifles to what you, Mr. R., +assert is going to happen, whatever we do or +don’t do. However, I am resolved on one +thing—<i>I</i> won’t be in at the death, or rather +<i>with</i> the death. I shall pull up my little +stake in Capel Court, and retire to some quiet +corner of the world, such as the Faubourg +St. Antoine, the foot of Mount Vesuvius, +or Chinese Tartary.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-r'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in4'>Yours truly,</div> + <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Christopher Shrimble</span>.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-l'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Paradise Row, Tooting.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class='c011'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div>Monthly Supplement of ‘HOUSEHOLD WORDS,’</div> + <div>Conducted by <span class='sc'>Charles Dickens</span>.</div> + <div class='c012'><i>Price 2d., Stamped 3d.</i>,</div> + <div class='c012'><span class='large'>THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE</span></div> + <div class='c012'>OF</div> + <div class='c012'>CURRENT EVENTS.</div> + <div class='c012'><span class='small'><i>The Number, containing a history of the past month, was issued with the Magazines.</i></span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class='c011'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span><span class='small'>Published at the Office, No 16, Wellington Street North, Strand. Printed by <span class='sc'>Bradbury & Evans</span>, Whitefriars, London.</span></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 78179 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-03-11 11:15:49 GMT --> +</html> diff --git a/78179-h/images/cover.jpg b/78179-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5c273f --- /dev/null +++ b/78179-h/images/cover.jpg |
