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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78192 ***
+
+
+     “_Familiar in their Mouths as HOUSEHOLD WORDS._”—SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+
+
+                            HOUSEHOLD WORDS.
+                           A WEEKLY JOURNAL.
+
+
+                     CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+
+     N^{o.} 22.]      SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1850.      [PRICE 2_d._
+
+
+
+
+                  FROM THE RAVEN IN THE HAPPY FAMILY.
+
+
+I suppose you thought I was dead? No such thing. Don’t flatter
+yourselves that I haven’t got my eye upon you. I am wide awake, and you
+give me plenty to look at.
+
+I have begun my great work about you. I have been collecting materials
+from the Horse, to begin with. You are glad to hear it, ain’t you? Very
+likely. Oh, he gives you a nice character! He makes you out a charming
+set of fellows.
+
+He informs me, by the bye, that he is a distant relation of the pony
+that was taken up in a balloon a few weeks ago; and that the pony’s
+account of your going to see him at Vauxhall Gardens, is an amazing
+thing. The pony says, that when he looked round on the assembled crowd,
+come to see the realisation of the wood-cut in the bill, he found it
+impossible to discover which was the real Mister Green—there were so
+many Mister Greens—and they were all so very green!
+
+But, that’s the way with you. You know it is. Don’t tell me! You’d go to
+see anything that other people went to see. And don’t flatter yourselves
+that I am referring to “the vulgar curiosity,” as you choose to call it,
+when you mean some curiosity in which you don’t participate yourselves.
+The polite curiosity in this country, is as vulgar as any curiosity in
+the world.
+
+Of course you’ll tell me, no it isn’t, but I say yes it is. What have
+you got to say for yourselves about the Nepaulese Princes, I should like
+to know? Why, there has been more crowding, and pressing, and pushing,
+and jostling, and struggling, and striving, in genteel houses this last
+season, on account of those Nepaulese Princes, than would take place in
+vulgar Cremorne Gardens and Greenwich Park, at Easter time and
+Whitsuntide! And what for? Do you know anything about ’em? Have you any
+idea why they came here? Can you put your finger on their country in the
+map? Have you ever asked yourselves a dozen common questions about its
+climate, natural history, government, productions, customs, religion,
+manners? Not you! Here are a couple of swarthy Princes very much out of
+their element, walking about in wide muslin trousers, and sprinkled all
+over with gems (like the clock-work figure on the old round platform in
+the street, grown up), and they’re fashionable outlandish monsters, and
+it’s a new excitement for you to get a stare at ’em. As to asking ’em to
+dinner, and seeing ’em sit at table without eating in your company
+(unclean animals as you are!), you fall into raptures at that. Quite
+delicious, isn’t it? Ugh, you dunder-headed boobies!
+
+I wonder what there is, new and strange, that you _wouldn’t_ lionise, as
+you call it. Can you suggest anything? It’s not a hippopotamus, I
+suppose. I hear from my brother-in-law in the Zoological Gardens, that
+you are always pelting away into the Regent’s Park, by thousands, to see
+the hippopotamus. Oh, you’re very fond of hippopotami, ain’t you? You
+study one attentively, when you _do_ see one, don’t you? You come away,
+so much wiser than you went, reflecting so profoundly on the wonders of
+creation—eh?
+
+Bah! You follow one another like wild geese, but you are not so good to
+eat!
+
+These, however, are not the observations of my friend the Horse. _He_
+takes you, in another point of view. Would you like to read his
+contribution to my Natural History of you? No? You shall then.
+
+He is a Cab-horse now. He wasn’t always, but he is now, and his usual
+stand is close to our Proprietor’s usual stand. That’s the way we have
+come into communication, we “dumb animals.” Ha, ha! Dumb, too! Oh, the
+conceit of you men, because you can bother the community out of their
+five wits, by making speeches!
+
+Well. I mentioned to this Horse that I should be glad to have his
+opinions and experiences of you. Here they are:
+
+  “At the request of my honourable friend the Raven, I proceed to offer
+  a few remarks in reference to the animal called Man. I have had varied
+  experience of this strange creature for fifteen years, and am now
+  driven by a Man, in the hackney cabriolet, number twelve thousand four
+  hundred and fifty-two.
+
+  “The sense Man entertains of his own inferiority to the nobler
+  animals—and I am now more particularly referring to the Horse—has
+  impressed me forcibly, in the course of my career. If a Man knows a
+  Horse well, he is prouder of it than of any knowledge of himself,
+  within the range of his limited capacity. He regards it, as the sum of
+  all human acquisition. If he is learned in a Horse, he has nothing
+  else to learn. And the same remark applies, with some little
+  abatement, to his acquaintance with Dogs. I have seen a good deal of
+  Man in my time, but I think I have never met a Man who didn’t feel it
+  necessary to his reputation to pretend, on occasion, that he knew
+  something of Horses and Dogs, though he really knew nothing. As to
+  making us a subject of conversation, my opinion is that we are more
+  talked about, than history, philosophy, literature, art, and science,
+  all put together. I have encountered innumerable gentlemen in the
+  country, who were totally incapable of interest in anything but Horses
+  and Dogs—except Cattle. And I have always been given to understand
+  that they were the flower of the civilised world.
+
+  “It is very doubtful, to me, whether there is, upon the whole,
+  anything Man is so ambitious to imitate, as an ostler, a jockey, a
+  stage coachman, a horse-dealer, or a dog-fancier. There may be some
+  other character which I do not immediately remember, that fires him
+  with emulation; but, if there be, I am sure it is connected with
+  Horses, or Dogs, or both. This is an unconscious compliment, on the
+  part of the tyrant, to the nobler animals, which I consider to be very
+  remarkable. I have known Lords, and Baronets, and Members of
+  Parliament, out of number, who have deserted every other calling, to
+  become but indifferent stablemen or kennelmen, and be cheated on all
+  hands, by the real aristocracy of those pursuits who were regularly
+  born to the business.
+
+  “Ail this, I say, is a tribute to our superiority which I consider to
+  be very remarkable. Yet, still, I can’t quite understand it. Man can
+  hardly devote himself to us, in admiration of our virtues, because he
+  never imitates them. We Horses are as honest, though I say it, as
+  animals can be. If, under the pressure of circumstances, we submit to
+  act at a Circus, for instance, we always show that we are acting. We
+  never deceive anybody. We would scorn to do it. If we are called upon
+  to do anything in earnest, we do our best. If we are required to run a
+  race falsely, and to lose when we could win, we are not to be relied
+  upon, to commit a fraud; Man must come in at that point, and force us
+  to it. And the extraordinary circumstance to me, is, that Man (whom I
+  take to be a powerful species of Monkey) is always making us nobler
+  animals the instruments of his meanness and cupidity. The very name of
+  our kind has become a byeword for all sorts of trickery and cheating.
+  We are as innocent as counters at a game—and yet this creature WILL
+  play falsely with us!
+
+  “Man’s opinion, good or bad, is not worth much, as any rational Horse
+  knows. But, justice is justice; and what I complain of, is, that
+  Mankind talks of us as if We had something to do with all this. They
+  say that such a man was ‘ruined by Horses.’ Ruined by Horses! They
+  can’t be open, even in that, and say he was ruined by Men; but they
+  lay it at _our_ stable-door! As if we ever ruined anybody, or were
+  ever doing anything but being ruined ourselves, in our generous desire
+  to fulfil the useful purposes of our existence!
+
+  “In the same way, we get a bad name as if we were profligate company.
+  ‘So and so got among Horses, and it was all up with him.’ Why, _we_
+  would have reclaimed him—_we_ would have made him temperate,
+  industrious, punctual, steady, sensible—what harm would he ever have
+  got from _us_, I should wish to ask?
+
+  “Upon the whole, speaking of him as I have found him, I should
+  describe Man as an unmeaning and conceited creature, very seldom to be
+  trusted, and not likely to make advances towards the honesty of the
+  nobler animals. I should say that his power of warping the nobler
+  animals to bad purposes, and damaging their reputation by his
+  companionship, is, next to the art of growing oats, hay, carrots, and
+  clover, one of his principal attributes. He is very unintelligible in
+  his caprices; seldom expressing with distinctness what he wants of us;
+  and relying greatly on our better judgment to find out. He is cruel,
+  and fond of blood—particularly at a steeple-chase—and is very
+  ungrateful.
+
+  “And yet, so far as I can understand, he worships us too. He sets up
+  images of us (not particularly like, but meant to be) in the streets,
+  and calls upon his fellows to admire them, and believe in them. As
+  well as I can make out, it is not of the least importance what images
+  of Men are put astride upon these images of Horses, for I don’t find
+  any famous personage among them—except one, and _his_ image seems to
+  have been contracted for, by the gross. The jockeys who ride our
+  statues are very queer jockeys, it appears to me, but it is something
+  to find Man even posthumously sensible of what he owes to us. I
+  believe that when he has done any great wrong to any very
+  distinguished Horse, deceased, he gets up a subscription to have an
+  awkward likeness of him made, and erects it in a public place, to be
+  generally venerated. I can find no other reason for the statues of us
+  that abound.
+
+  “It must be regarded as a part of the inconsistency of Man, that he
+  erects no statues to the Donkeys—who, though far inferior animals to
+  ourselves, have great claims upon him. I should think a Donkey
+  opposite the Horse at Hyde Park, another in Trafalgar Square, and a
+  group of Donkeys, in brass, outside the Guildhall of the City of
+  London (for I believe the Common Council Chamber is inside that
+  building) would be pleasant and appropriate memorials.
+
+  “I am not aware that I can suggest anything more, to my honorable
+  friend the Raven, which will not already have occurred to his fine
+  intellect. Like myself, he is the victim of brute force, and must bear
+  it until the present state of things is changed—as it possibly may be
+  in the good time which I understand is coming, if I wait a little
+  longer.”
+
+There! How do you like that? That’s the Horse! You shall have another
+animal’s sentiments, soon. I have communicated with plenty ’of em, and
+they are all down upon you. It’s not I alone who have found you out. You
+are generally detected, I am happy to say, and shall be covered with
+confusion.
+
+Talking about the horse, are you going to set up any more horses? Eh?
+Think a bit. Come! You haven’t got horses enough yet, surely? Couldn’t
+you put somebody else on horseback, and stick him up, at the cost of a
+few thousands? You have already statues to most of the “benefactors of
+mankind,” (SEE ADVERTISEMENT) in your principal cities. You walk through
+groves of great inventors, instructors, discoverers, assuagers of pain,
+preventers of disease, suggesters of purifying thoughts, doers of noble
+deeds. Finish the list. Come!
+
+Whom will you hoist into the saddle? Let’s have a cardinal virtue! Shall
+it be Faith? Hope? Charity? Aye, Charity’s the virtue to ride on
+horseback! Let’s have Charity!
+
+How shall we represent it? Eh? What do you think? Royal? Certainly.
+Duke? Of course. Charity always was typified in that way, from the time
+of a certain widow, downwards. And there’s nothing less left to put up;
+all the commoners who were “benefactors of mankind” having had their
+statues in the public places, long ago.
+
+How shall we dress it? Rags? Low. Drapery? Common-place. Field-Marshal’s
+uniform? The very thing! Charity in a Field-Marshal’s uniform (none the
+worse for wear) with thirty thousand pounds a year, public money, in its
+pocket, and fifteen thousand more, public money, up behind, will be a
+piece of plain uncompromising truth in the highways, and an honor to the
+country and the time.
+
+Ha, ha, ha! You can’t leave the memory of an unassuming, honest,
+good-natured, amiable old Duke alone, without bespattering it with your
+flunkeyism, can’t you? That’s right—and like you! Here are three brass
+buttons in my crop. I’ll subscribe ’em all. One, to the statue of
+Charity; one, to a statue of Hope; one, to a statue of Faith. For Faith,
+we’ll have the Nepaulese Ambassador on horseback—being a prince. And for
+Hope, we’ll put the Hippopotamus on horseback, and so make a group.
+
+Let’s have a meeting about it!
+
+
+
+
+                     A SHILLING’S WORTH OF SCIENCE.
+
+
+Dr. Paris has already shown, in a charming little book treating
+scientifically of children’s toys, how easy even “philosophy in sport
+can be made science in earnest.” An earlier genius cut out the whole
+alphabet into the figures of uncouth animals, and enclosed them in a
+toybox representing Noah’s Ark, for the purpose of teaching children
+their letters. Europe, Asia, Africa, and America have been decimated;
+“yea, the great globe itself,” has been parcelled into little wooden
+sections, that their readjustment into a continuous map might teach the
+infant conqueror of the world the relative positions of distant
+countries. Archimedes might have discovered the principle of the lever
+and the fundamental principles of gravity upon a rocking-horse. In like
+manner he might have ascertained the laws of hydrostatics, by observing
+the impetus of many natural and artificial fountains, which must
+occasionally have come beneath his eye. So also the principles of
+acoustics might even now be taught by the aid of a penny whistle, and
+there is no knowing how much children’s nursery games may yet be
+rendered subservient to the advancement of science. The famous Dr.
+Cornelius Scriblerus had excellent notions on these subjects. He
+determined that his son Martinus should be the most learned and
+universally well-informed man of his age, and had recourse to all sorts
+of devices in order to inspire him even unthinkingly with knowledge. He
+determined that everything should contribute to the improvement of his
+mind,—even his very dress. He therefore, his biographer informs us,
+invented for him a geographical suit of clothes, which might give him
+some hints of that science, and also of the commerce of different
+nations. His son’s disposition to mathematics—for he was a remarkable
+child—was discovered very early by his drawing parallel lines on his
+bread and butter, and intersecting them at equal angles, so as to form
+the whole superficies into squares. His father also wisely resolved that
+he should acquire the learned languages, especially Greek,—and
+remarking, curiously enough, that young Martinus Scriblerus was
+remarkably fond of gingerbread, the happy idea came into his parental
+head that his pieces of gingerbread should be stamped with the letters
+of the Greek alphabet; and such was the child’s avidity for knowledge,
+that the very first day he eat down to _iota_.
+
+When Sir Isaac Newton changed his residence and went to live in
+Leicester Place, his next door neighbour was a widow lady, who was much
+puzzled by the little she observed of the habits of the philosopher. One
+of the Fellows of the Royal Society, called upon her one day, when among
+other domestic news, she mentioned that some one had come to reside in
+the adjoining house, who she felt certain was a poor mad gentleman. “And
+why so?” asked her friend. “Because,” said she, “he diverts himself in
+the oddest way imaginable. Every morning when the sun shines so brightly
+that we are obliged to draw down the window-blinds, he takes his seat on
+a little stool before a tub of soap-suds, and occupies himself for hours
+blowing soap-bubbles through a common clay-pipe, which he intently
+watches floating about until they burst. He is doubtless,” she added,
+“now at his favourite diversion, for it is a fine day; do come and look
+at him.” The gentleman smiled; and they went upstairs, when after
+looking through the staircase window into the adjoining court-yard, he
+turned round and said, “My dear lady, the person whom you suppose to be
+a poor lunatic, is no other than the great Sir Isaac Newton studying the
+refraction of light upon thin plates, a phenomenon which is beautifully
+exhibited upon the surface of a common soap-bubble.”
+
+The principle, illustrated by the examples we have given, has been
+efficiently followed by the Directors of the Royal Polytechnic
+Institution in Regent Street, London. Even the simplest models and
+objects they exhibit in their extensive halls and galleries,
+expound—like Sir Isaac Newton’s soap-bubble—some important principle of
+Science or Art.
+
+On entering the Hall of Manufactures (as we did the other day) it was
+impossible not to be impressed with the conviction that we are in an
+utilitarian age in which the science of Mechanics advances with
+marvellous rapidity. Here we observed steam-engines, hand-looms, and
+machines in active operation, surrounding us with that peculiar din
+which makes the air
+
+  “Murmur, as with the sound of summer-flies.”
+
+Passing into the “Gallery in the Great Hall,” we did not fail to derive
+a momentary amusement, from observing the very different objects which
+seemed most to excite the attention and interest of the different
+sightseers. Here, stood obviously a country farmer examining the model
+of a steam-plough; there, a Manchester or Birmingham manufacturer
+looking into a curious and complicated weaving machine; here, we noticed
+a group of ladies admiring specimens of elaborate carving in ivory, and
+personal ornaments esteemed highly fashionable at the antipodes; and
+there, the smiling faces of youth watching with eager eyes the little
+boats and steamers paddling along the Water Reservoir in the central
+counter. But we had scarcely looked around us, when a bell rang to
+announce a lecture on Voltaic Electricity by Dr. Bachhoffner; and moving
+with the stream of people up a short staircase, we soon found ourselves
+in a very commodious and well arranged theatre. There are many
+universities and public institutions that have not better lecture rooms
+than this theatre in the Royal Polytechnic Institution. The lecture was
+elementary and exceedingly instructive, pointing out and showing by
+experiments, the identity between Magnetism and Electricity—light and
+heat: but notwithstanding the extreme perspicuity of the Professor, it
+was our fate to sit next two old ladies who seemed to be very
+incredulous about the whole business.
+
+“If heat and light are the same thing,” asked one, “why don’t a flame
+come out at the spout of a boiling tea-kettle?”
+
+“The steam,” answered the other, “may account for that.”
+
+“Hush!” cried somebody behind them; and the ladies were silent: but it
+was plain they thought Voltaic Electricity had something to do with
+conjuring, and that the lecturer might be a professor of Magic. The
+lecture over, we returned to the Gallery, where we found the Diving Bell
+just about to be put in operation. It is made of cast iron, and weighs
+three tons; the interior being provided with seats, and lighted by
+openings in the crown, upon which a plate of thick glass is secured. The
+weighty instrument suspended by a massive chain to a large swing crane,
+was soon in motion, when we observed our sceptical lady-friends join a
+party and enter, in order, we presume, to make themselves more sure of
+the truth of the diving bell than they could do of the identity between
+light and heat. The Bell was soon swung round and lowered into a tank,
+which holds nearly ten thousand gallons of water; but we confess our
+fears for the safety of its inmates were greatly appeased, when we
+learned that the whole of this reservoir of water could be emptied in
+less than one minute. Slowly and steadily was the Bell drawn up again,
+and we had the satisfaction of seeing the enterprising ladies and their
+companions alight on _terra firma_, nothing injured excepting that they
+were greatly flushed in the face. A man, clad in a water-tight dress and
+surmounted with a diving helmet, next performed a variety of sub-aqueous
+feats; much to the amusement and astonishment of the younger part of the
+audience, one of whom shouted as he came up above the surface of the
+water, “Oh! Ma’a! Don’t he look like an Ogre!” and certainly the shining
+brass helmet and staring large plate-glass eyes fairly warranted such a
+suggestion. The principles of the Diving Bell and of the Diving Helmet,
+are too well known to require explanation; but the practical utility of
+these machines is daily proved. Even while we now write, it has been
+ascertained that the foundations of Blackfriars Bridge are giving way.
+The bed of the river, owing to the constant ebb and flow of its waters,
+has sunk some six or seven feet below its level, since the bridge was
+built, thus undermining its foundation; and this effect, it is presumed,
+has been greatly augmented by the removal of the old London Bridge, the
+works surrounding which operated as a dam in checking the force of the
+current. These machines, also, are constantly used in repairing the
+bottom of docks, landing-piers, and in the construction of breakwater
+works, such as those which are at present being raised at Dover Harbour.
+
+Among other remarkable objects in the museum of natural history we
+recognised, swimming upon his shingly bed under a glass case, our old
+friend the Gymnotus Electricus, or Electrical Eel. Truly, he is a
+marvellous fish. The power which animals of every description possess in
+adapting themselves to external and adventitious circumstances, is here
+marvellously illustrated, for, notwithstanding this creature is
+surrounded by the greatest possible amount of artificial circumstances,
+inasmuch as instead of sporting in his own pellucid and sparkling waters
+of the River Amazon, he is here confined in a glass prison, in water
+artificially heated; instead of his natural food, he is here supplied
+with fish not indigenous to his native country, and denied access to
+fresh air, with sunlight sparkling upon the surface of the waves—he is
+here surrounded by an impure and obscure atmosphere, with crowds of
+people constantly moving to and fro and gazing upon him;—yet,
+notwithstanding all these disadvantageous circumstances, he has
+continued to thrive; nay, since we saw him, ten years ago, he has
+increased in size and is apparently very healthy, notwithstanding that
+he is obviously quite blind.
+
+This specimen of the Gymnotus Electricus was caught in the River Amazon,
+and was brought over to this country by Mr. Potter, where it arrived on
+the 12th of August, 1838, when he displayed it to the proprietors of the
+Adelaide Gallery. In the first instance, there was some difficulty in
+keeping him alive, for, whether from sickness, or sulkiness, he refused
+food of every description, and is said to have eaten nothing from the
+day he was taken in March, 1838, to the 19th of the following October.
+He was confided upon his arrival to the care of Mr. Bradley, who placed
+him in an apartment the temperature of which could be maintained at
+about seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit, and acting upon the suggestions
+of Baron Humboldt, he endeavoured to feed him with bits of boiled meat,
+worms, frogs, fish, and bread, which were all tried in succession. But
+the animal would not touch these. The plan adopted by the London
+fishmongers for fattening the common Eel was then had recourse to;—a
+quantity of bullock’s blood was put into the water, care being taken
+that it should be changed daily, and this was attended with some
+beneficial effects, as the animal gradually improved in health. In the
+month of October it occurred to Mr. Bradley to tempt him with some small
+fish, and the first gudgeon thrown into the water he darted at and
+swallowed with avidity. From that period the same diet has been
+continued, and he is now fed three times a day, and upon each occasion
+is given two or three carp, or perch, or gudgeon, each weighing from two
+to three ounces. In watching his movements we observed, that in swimming
+about he seems to delight in rubbing himself against the gravel which
+forms the bed above which he floats, and the water immediately becomes
+clouded with the mucus from which he thus relieves the surface of his
+body.
+
+When this species of fish was first discovered, marvellous accounts
+respecting them were transmitted to the Royal Society: it was even said
+that in the River Surinam, in the western province of Guiana, some
+existed twenty feet long. The present specimen is forty inches in
+length; and measures eighteen inches round the body; and his physiognomy
+justifies the description given by one of the early narrators, who
+remarked, that the Gymnotus “resembles one of our common eels, except
+that its head is flat, and its mouth wide, like that of a cat-fish,
+without teeth.” It is certainly ugly enough. On its first arrival in
+England, the proprietors offered Professor Faraday (to whom this country
+may possibly discover, within the next five hundred years, that it owes
+something) the privilege of experimenting upon him for scientific
+purposes, and the result of a great number of experiments, ingeniously
+devised, and executed with great nicety, clearly proved the identity
+between the electricity of the fish and the common electricity. The
+shock, the circuit, the spark, were distinctly obtained; the
+galvanometer was sensibly affected; chemical decompositions were
+obtained; an annealed steel needle became magnetic, and the direction of
+its polarity indicated a current from the anterior to the posterior
+parts of the fish, through the conductors used. The force with which the
+electric discharge is made is also very considerable, for this
+philosopher tells us we may conclude that a single medium discharge of
+the fish is at least equal to the electricity of a Leyden Battery of
+fifteen jars, containing three thousand five hundred square inches of
+glass, coated upon both sides, charged to its highest degree. But great
+as is the force of a single discharge, the Gymnotus will sometimes give
+a double, and even a triple shock, with scarcely any interval. Nor is
+this all. The instinctive action it has recourse to in order to augment
+the force of the shock, is very remarkable.
+
+The Professor one day dropped a live fish, five inches long, into the
+tub; upon which the Gymnotus turned round in such a manner as to form a
+coil enclosing the fish, the latter representing a diameter across it,
+and the fish was struck motionless, as if lightning had passed through
+the water. The Gymnotus then made a turn to look for his prey, which
+having found, he bolted it, and then went about seeking for more. A
+second smaller fish was then given him, which being hurt, showed little
+signs of life; and this he swallowed apparently without “shocking it.”
+We are informed by Dr. Williamson, in a paper he communicated some years
+ago to the Royal Society, that a fish already struck motionless gave
+signs of returning animation, which the Gymnotus observing, he instantly
+discharged another shock, which killed it. Another curious circumstance
+was observed by Professor Faraday,—the Gymnotus appeared conscious of
+the difference of giving a shock to an animate and an inanimate body,
+and would not be provoked to discharge its powers upon the latter. When
+tormented by a glass rod, the creature in the first instance threw out a
+shock, but as if he perceived his mistake, he could not be stimulated
+afterwards to repeat it, although the moment the Professor touched him
+with his hands, he discharged shock after shock. He refused, in like
+manner, to gratify the curiosity of the philosophers, when they touched
+him with metallic conductors, which he permitted them to do with
+indifference. It is worthy of observation, that this is the only
+specimen of the Gymnotus Electricus ever brought over alive into this
+country. The great secret of preserving his life would appear to consist
+in keeping the water at an even temperature—summer and winter—of
+seventy-five degrees of Fahrenheit. After having been subjected to a
+great variety of experiments, the creature is now permitted to enjoy the
+remainder of its days in honorable peace, and the only occasion upon
+which he is now disturbed, is when it is found necessary to take him out
+of his shallow reservoir to have it cleaned, when he discharges angrily
+enough shock after shock, which the attendants describe to be very
+smart, even though he be held in several thick and well wetted cloths,
+for they do not at all relish the job.
+
+The Gymnotus Electricus is not the only animal endowed with this very
+singular power; there are other fish, especially the Torpedo and
+Silurus, which are equally remarkable, and equally well known. The
+peculiar structure which enters into the formation of their electrical
+organs, was first examined by the eminent anatomist John Hunter, in the
+Torpedo; and, very recently, Rudolphi has described their structure with
+great exactness in the Gymnotus Electricus.
+
+Without entering into minute details, the peculiarity of the organic
+apparatus of the Electrical Eel seems to consist in this, that it is
+composed of numerous _laminæ_ or thin tendinous partitions, between
+which exists an infinite number of small cells filled with a thickish
+gelatinous fluid. These strata and cells are supplied with nerves of
+unusual size, and the intensity of the electrical power is presumed to
+depend on the amount of nervous energy accumulated in these cells,
+whence it can be voluntarily discharged just as a muscle may be
+voluntarily contracted. Furthermore, there are, it would appear, good
+reasons to believe that nervous power (in whatever it may consist) and
+electricity are identical. The progress of Science has already shown the
+identity between heat, electricity, and magnetism;—that heat may be
+concentrated into electricity, and this electricity reconverted into
+heat; that electric force may be converted into magnetic force, and
+Professor Faraday himself discovered how, by reacting back again, the
+magnetic force can be reconverted into the electric force, and _vice
+versâ_; and should the identity between electricity and nervous power be
+as clearly established, one of the most important and interesting
+problems in Physiology will be solved.
+
+Every new discovery in Science, and all improvements in Industrial Art,
+the principles of which are capable of being rendered in the least
+degree interesting, are in this Exhibition forthwith popularised, and
+become, as it were, public property. Every individual of the great
+public can at the very small cost of one shilling, claim his or her
+share in the property thus attractively collected, and a small amount of
+previous knowledge or natural intelligence will put the visitor in
+actual possession of treasures which previously “he wot not of,” in so
+amusing a manner that they will be beguiled rather than bored into his
+mind.
+
+
+
+
+                         THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR.
+
+
+                          AN ATTORNEY’S STORY.
+
+One morning, about five years ago, I called by appointment on Mr. John
+Balance, the fashionable pawnbroker, to accompany him to Liverpool, in
+pursuit for a Levanting customer,—for Balance, in addition to pawning,
+does a little business in the sixty per cent. line. It rained in
+torrents when the cab stopped at the passage which leads past the
+pawning boxes to his private door. The cabman rang twice, and at length
+Balance appeared, looming through the mist and rain in the entry,
+illuminated by his perpetual cigar. As I eyed him rather impatiently,
+remembering that trains wait for no man, something like a hairy dog, or
+a bundle of rags, rose up at his feet, and barred his passage for a
+moment. Then Balance cried out with an exclamation, in answer apparently
+to a something I could not hear, “What, man alive!—slept in the
+passage!—there, take that, and get some breakfast for Heaven’s sake!” So
+saying, he jumped into the “Hansom,” and we bowled away at ten miles an
+hour, just catching the Express as the doors of the station were
+closing. My curiosity was full set,—for although Balance can be free
+with his money, it is not exactly to beggars that his generosity is
+usually displayed; so when comfortably ensconced in a _coupé_, I
+finished with—
+
+“You are liberal with your money this morning: pray, how often do you
+give silver to street cadgers?—because I shall know now what walk to
+take when flats and sharps leave off buying law.”
+
+Balance, who would have made an excellent parson if he had not been bred
+to a case-hardening trade, and has still a soft bit left in his heart
+that is always fighting with his hard head, did not smile at all, but
+looked as grim as if squeezing a lemon into his Saturday night’s punch.
+He answered slowly, “A cadger—yes; a beggar—a miserable wretch, he is
+now; but let me tell you, Master David, that that miserable bundle of
+rags was born and bred a gentleman; the son of a nobleman, the husband
+of an heiress, and has sat and dined at tables where you and I, Master
+David, are only allowed to view the plate by favour of the butler. I
+have lent him thousands, and been well paid. The last thing I had from
+him was his court suit; and I hold now his bill for one hundred pounds
+that will be paid, I expect, when he dies.”
+
+“Why, what nonsense you are talking! you must be dreaming this morning.
+However, we are alone, I’ll light a weed, in defiance of Railway law,
+you shall spin that yarn; for, true or untrue, it will fill up the time
+to Liverpool.”
+
+“As for yarn,” replied Balance, “the whole story is short enough; and as
+for truth, that you may easily find out if you like to take the trouble.
+I thought the poor wretch was dead, and I own it put me out meeting him
+this morning, for I had a curious dream last night.”
+
+“Oh, hang your dreams! Tell us about this gentleman beggar that bleeds
+you of half-crowns—that melts the heart even of a pawnbroker!”
+
+“Well, then, that beggar is the illegitimate son of the late Marquis of
+Hoopborough by a Spanish lady of rank. He received a first-rate
+education, and was brought up in his father’s house. At a very early age
+he obtained an appointment in a public office, was presented by the
+marquis at court, and received into the first society, where his
+handsome person and agreeable manners made him a great favourite. Soon
+after coming of age, he married the daughter of Sir E. Bumper, who
+brought him a very handsome fortune, which was strictly settled on
+herself. They lived in splendid style, kept several carriages, a house
+in town, and a place in the country. For some reason or other, idleness,
+or to please his lady’s pride he said, he resigned his appointment. His
+father died, and left him nothing; indeed, he seemed at that time very
+handsomely provided for.
+
+“Very soon Mr. and Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy began to disagree. She was
+cold, correct—he was hot and random. He was quite dependant on her, and
+she made him feel it. When he began to get into debt, he came to me. At
+length some shocking quarrel occurred; some case of jealousy on the
+wife’s side, not without reason, I believe; and the end of it was Mr.
+Fitz-Roy was turned out of doors. The house was his wife’s, the
+furniture was his wife’s, and the fortune was his wife’s—he was, in
+fact, her pensioner. He left with a few hundred pounds ready money, and
+some personal jewellery, and went to an hotel. On these and credit he
+lived. Being illegitimate, he had no relations; being a fool, when he
+spent his money he lost his friends. The world took his wife’s part,
+when they found she had the fortune, and the only parties who interfered
+were her relatives, who did their best to make the quarrel incurable. To
+crown all, one night he was run over by a cab, was carried to a
+hospital, and lay there for months, and was during several weeks of the
+time unconscious. A message to the wife, by the hands of one of his
+debauched companions, sent by a humane surgeon, obtained an intimation
+that ‘if he died, Mr. Croak, the undertaker to the family, had orders to
+see to the funeral,’ and that Mrs. Molinos was on the point of starting
+for the Continent, not to return for some years. When Fitz-Roy was
+discharged, he came to me limping on two sticks, to pawn his court suit,
+and told me his story. I was really sorry for the fellow, such a
+handsome, thoroughbred-looking man. He was going then into the west
+somewhere, to try to hunt out a friend. ‘What to do, Balance,’ he said,
+‘I don’t know. I can’t dig, and unless somebody will make me their
+gamekeeper, I must starve, or beg, as my Jezebel bade me when we
+parted!’
+
+“I lost sight of Molinos for a long time, and when I next came upon him
+it was in the Rookery of Westminster, in a low lodging-house, where I
+was searching with an officer for stolen goods. He was pointed out to me
+as the ‘gentleman cadger,’ because he was so free with his money when
+‘in luck.’ He recognised me, but turned away then. I have since seen
+him, and relieved him more than once, although he never asks for
+anything. How he lives, Heaven knows. Without money, without friends,
+without useful education of any kind, he tramps the country, as you saw
+him, perhaps doing a little hop-picking or hay-making, in season, only
+happy when he obtains the means to get drunk. I have heard through the
+kitchen whispers that you know come to me, that he is entitled to some
+property; and I expect if he were to die his wife would pay the hundred
+pound bill I hold; at any rate, what I have told you I know to be true,
+and the bundle of rags I relieved just now is known in every thieves’
+lodging in England as the ‘gentleman cadger.’”
+
+This story produced an impression on me,—I am fond of speculation, and
+like the excitement of a legal hunt as much as some do a fox-chase. A
+gentleman a beggar, a wife rolling in wealth, rumours of unknown
+property due to the husband: it seemed as if there were pickings for me
+amidst this carrion of pauperism.
+
+Before returning from Liverpool, I had purchased the gentleman beggar’s
+acceptance from Balance. I then inserted in the “Times” the following
+advertisement: “_Horatio Molinos Fitz-Roy_.—If this gentleman will apply
+to David Discount, Esq., Solicitor, St. James’s, he will hear of
+something to his advantage. Any person furnishing Mr. F.’s correct
+address, shall receive 1_l._ 1_s._ reward. He was last seen,” &c. Within
+twenty-four hours I had ample proof of the wide circulation of the
+“Times.” My office was besieged with beggars of every degree, men and
+women, lame and blind, Irish, Scotch, and English, some on crutches,
+some in bowls, some in go-carts. They all knew him as “the gentleman,”
+and I must do the regular fraternity of tramps the justice to say that
+not one would answer a question until he made certain that I meant the
+“gentleman” no harm.
+
+One evening, about three weeks after the appearance of the
+advertisement, my clerk announced “another beggar.” There came in an old
+man leaning upon a staff, clad in a soldier’s great coat all patched and
+torn, with a battered hat, from under which a mass of tangled hair fell
+over his shoulders and half concealed his face. The beggar, in a weak,
+wheezy, hesitating tone, said, “You have advertised for Molinos
+Fitz-roy, I hope you don’t mean him any harm; he is sunk, I think, too
+low for enmity now; and surely no one would sport with such misery as
+his.” These last words were uttered in a sort of piteous whisper.
+
+I answered quickly, “Heaven forbid I should sport with misery: I mean
+and hope to do him good, as well as myself.”
+
+“Then, Sir, I am Molinos Fitz-Roy!”
+
+While we were conversing candles had been brought in. I have not very
+tender nerves—my head would not agree with them—but I own I started and
+shuddered when I saw and knew that the wretched creature before me was
+under thirty years of age and once a gentleman. Sharp, aquiline
+features, reduced to literal skin and bone, were begrimed and covered
+with dry fair hair; the white teeth of the half-open mouth chattered
+with eagerness, and made more hideous the foul pallor of the rest of the
+countenance. As he stood leaning on a staff half bent, his long, yellow
+bony fingers clasped over the crutch-head of his stick, he was indeed a
+picture of misery, famine, squalor, and premature age, too horrible to
+dwell upon. I made him sit down, sent for some refreshment which he
+devoured like a ghoul, and set to work to unravel his story. It was
+difficult to keep him to the point; but with pains I learned what
+convinced me that he was entitled to some property, whether great or
+small there was no evidence. On parting, I said “Now Mr. F., you must
+stay in town while I make proper enquiries. What allowance will be
+enough to keep you comfortably?”
+
+He answered humbly after much pressing, “Would you think ten shillings
+too much?”
+
+I don’t like, if I do those things at all, to do them shabbily, so I
+said, “Come every Saturday and you shall have a pound.” He was profuse
+in thanks of course, as all such men are as long as distress lasts.
+
+I had previously learned that my ragged client’s wife was in England,
+living in a splendid house in Hyde Park Gardens, under her maiden name.
+On the following day the Earl of Owing called upon me, wanting five
+thousand pounds by five o’clock the same evening. It was a case of life
+or death with him, so I made my terms and took advantage of his pressure
+to execute a _coup de main_. I proposed that he should drive me home to
+receive the money, calling at Mrs. Molinos in Hyde Park Gardens, on our
+way. I knew that the coronet and liveries of his father, the Marquis,
+would ensure me an audience with Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy.
+
+My scheme answered. I was introduced into the lady’s presence. She was,
+and probably is, a very stately, handsome woman, with a pale complexion,
+high solid forehead, regular features, thin, pinched, self-satisfied
+mouth. My interview was very short. I plunged into the middle of the
+affair, but had scarcely mentioned the word husband, when she
+interrupted me with “I presume you have lent this profligate person
+money, and want me to pay you.” She paused, and then said, “He shall not
+have a farthing.” As she spoke, her white face became scarlet.
+
+“But, Madam, the man is starving. I have strong reasons for believing he
+is entitled to property, and if you refuse any assistance, I must take
+other measures.” She rang the bell, wrote something rapidly on a card;
+and, as the footman appeared, pushed it towards me across the table,
+with the air of touching a toad, saying, “There, Sir, is the address of
+my solicitors; apply to them if you think you have any claim. Robert,
+show the person out, and take care he is not admitted again.”
+
+So far I had effected nothing; and, to tell the truth, felt rather
+crest-fallen under the influence of that grand manner peculiar to
+certain great ladies and to all great actresses.
+
+My next visit was to the attorneys Messrs. Leasem and Fashun, of
+Lincoln’s Inn Square, and there I was at home. I had had dealings with
+the firm before. They are agents for half the aristocracy, who always
+run in crowds like sheep after the same wine-merchants, the same
+architects, the same horse-dealers, and the same law-agents. It may be
+doubted whether the quality of law and land management they get on this
+principle is quite equal to their wine and horses. At any rate, my
+friends of Lincoln’s Inn, like others of the same class, are
+distinguished by their courteous manners, deliberate proceedings,
+innocence of legal technicalities, long credit and heavy charges.
+Leasem, the elder partner, wears powder and a huge bunch of seals, lives
+in Queen Square, drives a brougham, gives the dinners and does the
+cordial department. He is so strict in performing the latter duty, that
+he once addressed a poacher who had shot a Duke’s keeper, as “my dear
+creature,” although he afterwards hung him.
+
+Fashun has chambers in St. James Street, drives a cab, wears a tip, and
+does the grand haha style.
+
+My business lay with Leasem. The interviews and letters passing were
+numerous. However, it came at last to the following dialogue:—
+
+“Well, my dear Mr. Discount,” began Mr. Leasem, who hates me like
+poison. “I’m really very sorry for that poor dear Molinos—knew his
+father well; a great man, a perfect gentleman; but you know what women
+are, eh, Mr. Discount? My client won’t advance a shilling, she knows it
+would only be wasted in low dissipation. Now don’t you think (this was
+said very insinuatingly)—don’t you think he had better be sent to the
+workhouse; very comfortable accommodation there, I can assure you—meat
+twice a week, and excellent soup; and then, Mr. D., we might consider
+about allowing you something for that bill.”
+
+“Mr. Leasem, can you reconcile it to your conscience to make such an
+arrangement. Here’s a wife rolling in luxury, and a husband starving!”
+
+“No, Mr. Discount, not starving; there is the workhouse, as I observed
+before; besides, allow me to suggest that these appeals to feeling are
+quite unprofessional—quite unprofessional.”
+
+“But, Mr. Leasem, touching this property which the poor man is entitled
+to.”
+
+“Why, there again, Mr. D., you must excuse me; you really must. I don’t
+say he is, I don’t say he is not. If you know he is entitled to
+property, I am sure you know how to proceed; the law is open to you, Mr.
+Discount—the law is open; and a man of your talent will know how to use
+it.”
+
+“Then, Mr. Leasem, you mean that I must, in order to right this starving
+man, file a Bill of Discovery, to extract from you the particulars of
+his rights. You have the Marriage Settlement, and all the information,
+and you decline to allow a pension, or afford any information; the man
+is to starve, or go to the workhouse?”
+
+“Why, Mr. D., you are so quick and violent, it really is not
+professional; but you see (here a subdued smile of triumph), it has been
+decided that a solicitor is not bound to afford such information as you
+ask, to the injury of his client.”
+
+“Then you mean that this poor Molinos may rot and starve, while you keep
+secret from him, at his wife’s request, his title to an income, and that
+the Court of Chancery will back you in this iniquity?”
+
+I kept repeating the word “starve,” because I saw it made my respectable
+opponent wince. “Well, then, just listen to me. I know that in the happy
+state of our equity law, Chancery can’t help my client; but I have
+another plan; I shall go hence to my office, issue a writ, and take your
+client’s husband in execution—as soon as he is lodged in jail, I shall
+file his schedule in the Insolvent Court, and when he comes up for his
+discharge, I shall put you in the witness-box, and examine you on oath,
+‘touching any property of which you know the insolvent to be possessed,’
+and where will be your privileged communications then?”
+
+The respectable Leasem’s face lengthened in a twinkling, his comfortable
+confident air vanished, he ceased twiddling his gold chain, and at
+length he muttered, “Suppose we pay the debt?”
+
+“Why then, I’ll arrest him the day after for another.”
+
+“But, my dear Mr. Discount, surely such conduct would not be quite
+respectable?”
+
+“That’s my business; my client has been wronged, I am determined to
+right him, and when the aristocratic firm of Leasem and Fashun takes
+refuge according to the custom of respectable repudiators, in the cool
+arbours of the Court of Chancery, why, a mere bill-discounting attorney
+like David Discount need not hesitate about cutting a bludgeon out of
+the Insolvent Court.”
+
+“Well, well, Mr. D., you are so warm—so fiery; we must deliberate, we
+must consult. You will give me until the day after to-morrow, and then
+we’ll write you our final determination; in the mean time, send us copy
+of your authority to act for Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy.”
+
+Of course I lost no time in getting the gentleman beggar to sign a
+proper letter.
+
+On the appointed day came a communication with the L. and F. seal, which
+I opened not without unprofessional eagerness. It was as follows:
+
+                  “_In re Molinos Fitz-Roy and Another._
+
+  “Sir,—In answer to your application on behalf of Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy,
+  we beg to inform you that under the administration of a paternal aunt
+  who died intestate, your client is entitled to two thousand five
+  hundred pounds eight shillings and sixpence, Three per Cents.; one
+  thousand five hundred pounds nineteen shillings and fourpence, Three
+  per Cents. Reduced; one thousand pounds, Long Annuities; five hundred
+  pounds, Bank Stock; three thousand five hundred pounds, India Stock,
+  besides other securities, making up about ten thousand pounds, which
+  we are prepared to transfer over to Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy’s direction
+  forthwith.”
+
+Here was a windfall! It quite took away my breath.
+
+At dusk came my gentleman beggar, and what puzzled me was how to break
+the news to him. Being very much overwhelmed with business that day, I
+had not much time for consideration. He came in rather better dressed
+than when I first saw him, with only a week’s beard on his chin; but, as
+usual, not quite sober. Six weeks had elapsed since our first interview.
+He was still the humble, trembling, low-voiced creature, I first knew
+him.
+
+After a prelude, I said, “I find, Mr. F., you are entitled to something;
+pray, what do you mean to give me in addition to my bill, for obtaining
+it?” He answered rapidly, “Oh, take half: if there is one hundred
+pounds, take half: if there is five hundred pounds, take half.”
+
+“No, no; Mr. F., I don’t do business in that way, I shall be satisfied
+with ten per cent.”
+
+It was so settled. I then led him out into the street, impelled to tell
+him the news, yet dreading the effect; not daring to make the revelation
+in my office, for fear of a scene.
+
+I began hesitatingly, “Mr. Fitz-Roy I am happy to say that I find you
+are entitled to ... ten thousand pounds!”
+
+“Ten thousand pounds!” he echoed. “Ten thousand pounds!” he shrieked.
+“Ten thousand pounds!” he yelled; seizing my arm violently. “You are a
+brick,——Here, cab! cab!” Several drove up—the shout might have been
+heard a mile off. He jumped in the first.
+
+“Where to?” said the driver.
+
+“To a tailor’s, you rascal!”
+
+“Ten thousand pounds! ha, ha, ha!” he repeated hysterically, when in the
+cab; and every moment grasping my arm. Presently he subsided, looked me
+straight in the face, and muttered with agonising fervour, “What a jolly
+brick you are!”
+
+The tailor, the hosier, the bootmaker, the hairdresser, were in turn
+visited by this poor pagan of externals. As by degrees under their hands
+he emerged from the beggar to the gentleman, his spirits rose; his eyes
+brightened; he walked erect, but always nervously grasping my arm;
+fearing, apparently, to lose sight of me for a moment, lest his fortune
+should vanish with me. The impatient pride with which he gave his orders
+to the astonished tradesman for the finest and best of everything, and
+the amazed air of the fashionable hairdresser when he presented his
+matted locks and stubble chin, to be “cut and shaved,” may be _acted_—it
+cannot be described.
+
+By the time the external transformation was complete, and I sat down in
+a _Café_ in the Haymarket opposite a haggard but handsome
+thoroughbred-looking man, whose air, with the exception of the wild eyes
+and deeply browned face, did not differ from the stereotyped men about
+town sitting around us, Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy had already almost
+forgotten the past; he bullied the waiter, and criticised the wine, as
+if he had done nothing else but dine and drink and scold there all the
+days of his life.
+
+Once he wished to drink my health, and would have proclaimed his whole
+story to the coffee-room assembly, in a raving style. When I left he
+almost wept in terror at the idea of losing sight of me. But, allowing
+for these ebullitions—the natural result of such a whirl of events—he
+was wonderfully calm and self-possessed.
+
+The next day, his first care was to distribute fifty pounds among his
+friends the cadgers, at a house of call in Westminster, and formally to
+dissolve his connection with them; those present undertaking for the
+“fraternity,” that for the future he should never be noticed by them in
+public or private.
+
+I cannot follow his career much further. Adversity had taught him
+nothing. He was soon again surrounded by the well-bred vampires who had
+forgotten him when penniless; but they amused him, and that was enough.
+The ten thousand pounds were rapidly melting when he invited me to a
+grand dinner at Richmond, which included a dozen of the most agreeable,
+good-looking, well-dressed dandies of London, interspersed with a
+display of pretty butterfly bonnets. We dined deliciously, and drank as
+men do of iced wines in the dog-days—looking down from Richmond Hill.
+
+One of the pink bonnets crowned Fitz-Roy with a wreath of flowers; he
+looked—less the intellect—as handsome as Alcibiades. Intensely excited
+and flushed, he rose with a champagne glass in his hand to propose my
+health.
+
+The oratorical powers of his father had not descended on him. Jerking
+out sentences by spasms, at length he said, “I was a beggar—I am a
+gentleman—thanks to this——”
+
+Here he leaned on my shoulder heavily a moment, and then fell back. We
+raised him, loosened his neckcloth—
+
+“Fainted!” said the ladies—
+
+“Drunk!” said the gentlemen—
+
+He was _dead_!
+
+
+
+
+                                 CHIPS.
+
+
+                   FAMILY COLONISATION LOAN SOCIETY.
+
+If on any Saturday you should chance to find your way to Charlton
+Crescent, an obscure thoroughfare lying between the road from Islington
+to Holloway and the New River, not far from the Angel, you will see
+several men and women dropping into a small house, the parlour window of
+which contains a printed bill with the above words. The callers are
+chiefly of the decent mechanic class, and not a few travellers from the
+country,—pilgrims in search of truth about emigration. Saturday is the
+day on which the subscriptions of emigrants desiring to avail themselves
+of the Family Colonisation Loan Society are received.
+
+And what is the Colonisation Loan Society? The question is worth asking.
+
+It is an association—devised by Mrs. Chisholm, and to be speedily
+carried out extensively with the aid of several philanthropists, and the
+advice of two eminent actuaries—for establishing a self-supporting
+system of emigration, for assisting industrious people, and for
+promoting practically the spread of sound moral principles in a much
+neglected colony.
+
+Persons desirous of emigrating form themselves into “groups,” after
+being mutually satisfied of their respective suitability and
+respectability. Each intending emigrant pays, either in one sum or by
+weekly instalments, as much as will amount to half the passage money to
+Australia. The philanthropists of the society lend the other half to be
+repaid by four annual instalments,—each family becoming jointly bound
+for the sums lent to each member of that family, and each group being
+publicly pledged to assist in enforcing punctual repayments.
+
+The details for securing repayment of the loans have been arranged by
+Mrs. Chisholm, and are the result of her large practical experience.
+Each emigrant, when he has paid back his loan, will have the privilege
+of nominating a relation or friend to be assisted in emigrating with the
+same amount of money. Thus, the original charitable fund will work in a
+circle of colonisation, at the mere sacrifice of annual interest. That
+emigrants among the humble classes are willing to remit for the purpose
+of assisting their friends and relations to follow them, is proved by
+the fact that, within the last three years, upwards of one million
+sterling has been remitted by the Irish emigrants from the United States
+alone, in small sums, to pay the passage of parents, brothers, sisters,
+wives, or sweethearts in Ireland. Australia, in proportion to its
+population, affords even greater opportunities of earning money wages
+than the United States.
+
+Mrs. Chisholm’s plan offers several advantages of an important
+character. It will enable many to emigrate who, though frugal and
+industrious, are not only unable to raise _the whole_ passage money;
+but, during temporary trade-depressions, would be consuming their
+savings. It will keep families united, and cherish an honourable,
+independent spirit. It will secure a class of emigrants calculated to
+improve the moral tone of the colony; for, as the character of each
+emigrant will be investigated by his fellows, there will be no room for
+the deceptions practised on the wealthy charitable. The certificate of
+shop-mates with whom a man has worked, is more to be trusted than that
+of the clergyman who has only seen him in his Sunday clothes. It will
+afford the best kind of protection for young girls or single women
+desirous of joining friends in Australia, because each ship will be
+filled with “groups” previously acquainted and mutually _sifted_. Among
+minor advantages, the cost of passage and outfit, by the aid of
+co-operation and communication, will be much diminished.
+
+The two following instances will display the practical working of Mrs.
+Chisholm’s plan. Among the applicants to join the Society (for already
+the working-classes are prepared to subscribe two thousand pounds) was
+an artisan in the North, belonging to a trade which “strikes”
+periodically. When contemplating these “strikes,” the leaders of the
+trade base their financial arrangements for supporting the body while
+out of work, upon the savings made by the more frugal of their
+associates. The artisan in question being a Teetotaller and skilful, had
+three times been able to save from fifteen to twenty pounds, with the
+express design of emigrating; but twice his stock of cash had been
+melted in the common treasury during strikes. With the assistance of a
+loan from the Society, he will now be able to emigrate. There can be no
+fear of such a man not repaying it honourably. Had he been able to
+emigrate a few years ago, he must have been wealthy by this time, and in
+a position to help all his relatives to join him.
+
+Again, a benevolent Dowager Countess has subscribed two hundred and
+twenty-five pounds to this Society; a sum which has been appropriated to
+assisting the following parties in making up their passage money to
+Australia. Let us see what this money will do:—
+
+  It will send three wives with nine children, out to join husbands in
+  Australia.
+
+  Two aged widows who have children there.
+
+  Ditto a man and wife, who have children there.
+
+  M. and wife, with five children.
+
+  H. and wife.
+
+  P. and wife, with three children.
+
+  L. and wife, with seven children. (This man has received the
+  insufficient sum of fifty pounds to pay his passage from a brother in
+  Australia.)
+
+  W. and wife, with four children (have received twenty-five pounds from
+  Australia for same purpose).
+
+  Five young men, of whom three have relations in the Colony.
+
+  Nine friendless young women, of whom four have relations there.
+
+Thus it will be seen this two hundred and twenty-five pound loan affords
+
+                       A passage, to Adults   31
+                                     Children 28
+                                              ——
+                                      Total   59
+
+At the end of the first year after the arrival of these persons, there
+will be available for assisting other friends and relatives of this
+batch of fifty-nine to join them, about forty pounds; at the end of the
+second year, about sixty pounds; third year, about eighty pounds; fourth
+year, about one hundred and twenty pounds.
+
+This system sacrifices no independence; incurs scarcely any weight of
+obligation. It affords the best possible kind of assistance; for it
+helps those who help themselves, and puts it in their power to help
+their fellows.
+
+
+
+
+                     THE STRANGERS’ LEAF FOR 1851.
+
+
+Among the myriads of products of art, science, and manufactures, to be
+congregated under Mr. Paxton’s great glass house in Hyde Park next year,
+it is to be hoped that the newspaper press will not be unrepresented. We
+do not mean model morning papers, displaying several square acres of
+advertisements, or news conveyed from the other hemisphere, by steam and
+electricity, since the previous morning; but a modest sheet, in the
+humble guise of a miniature Morning Post (like the Morning Post of old),
+for the registry of the names and “up-puttings” of the tens of thousands
+of strangers who will inevitably be thrusting themselves into London,
+like needles in bundles of hay, where nobody can find them. Such a
+humble record as we propose already exists, and we will describe it:—
+
+About three years since, a brother of the well-known German philosopher,
+Heine, established a paper in Vienna, called the “_Fremden Blatt_,” or
+“Strangers’ Leaf.” One of its chief objects is to give the names and
+residences of such strangers as arrive daily in the capital, and the
+dates of their departure. It is printed on a sheet about the size of a
+lady’s pocket-handkerchief. It costs rather less than a penny; the
+expenses of conducting it are trifling, and its circulation is very
+extensive. There is not an hotel or coffee-house, not a lounge, or a
+pastry-cook’s shop (the chief place of resort in Vienna), which does not
+take it in, and indeed, among the idlers and triflers—a very large class
+of every population—it is the only paper read at all.
+
+It will, perhaps, however, give a better idea of it to analyse the
+contents of the number for July 31st, 1850, now before us. The first
+column, and two-thirds of the second, is devoted to intelligence
+connected with Austria and the provinces; all short paragraphs, most of
+them of only three or four lines. Their matter concerns the movements of
+persons of note, and such military and civil appointments, promotions,
+and retirements, as are likely to be of general interest. If they touch
+upon any other news, the bare fact is related without comment of any
+kind. In the next column, Foreign news—including the exciting
+intelligence from Schleswig Holstein—are disposed of in a dozen
+paragraphs, containing, however, quite as much as it is necessary to
+know to be on equal terms with one’s friends after dinner. Then come the
+domestic _on dits_ of Vienna with the current topics of conversation and
+a spice or two of scandal; by no means to be imitated here, or anywhere
+else. Births, deaths, marriages, accidents and offences, follow. All
+this is, however, merely the prelude. The rise and fall of nations, the
+mere change of a dynasty, or the details of an earthquake, are but
+accessories to the grand aim, end, and purpose of the Fremden Blatt’s
+existence. As Sarah Battle relaxed from the serious business of whist,
+to unbend over a book, so the editor of the Strangers’ Leaf dallies with
+the great globe itself and its most terrific catastrophes to recreate
+the minds of his readers previous to the study of—“arrivals and
+departures.” Upon these the editor fastens all his care—all his genius.
+They are alphabetically arranged with great precision. They are his
+leading article. Should a mistake occur in geography, or should he be a
+few thousands out in his statistics, it is nothing; but the accidental
+mis-spelling of a title of ten syllables; if he happen to leave out a
+“z” in the name of Count Sczorowszantzski; he inserts, next morning, an
+apologetic “erratum” of great length.
+
+The utility of such a register in London, at the approaching Industrial
+Fair, as we presume to call it, is easily seen. Let us suppose Count
+Smorltork arriving in England with the intention of writing an account
+of the Exposition. He has only a few days to make his observations; and
+it is not till he has driven half over London, that he discovers of Lord
+Tomnoddy and Sir Carnaby Jenks—from whom he expects to derive his chief
+information—that one is at Leamington, and the other in Scotland. Or we
+may imagine Dr. Dommheit, with the grave Senor Eriganados, and their
+volatile coadjutor, M. de Tête-vide, arriving in our capital on a
+scientific excursion. It costs them a month’s income in messengers and
+cab-fares, and a week’s waiting while their strangely spelt letters are
+decyphered at the Post-Office, before they learn that Mr. Crypt is off
+with Lord Rhomboid and the Chrononhotonthologos Society, somewhere in
+the provinces; Dr. Dryasdust is looking for antiquities in the Hebrides;
+and the oracle of their tribe, Earl Everlasting—having been left alone
+with the secretary and the porter at the sixth hour of the reading of
+his paper on the antediluvian organisms of a piece of slate—has gone
+down to his “place” in Dorsetshire in a huff. On the other hand, the
+famous Dr. Ledern Langweile, Monsieur de Papillon-Sauvage, and the great
+Condé Hermosa-Muchacha-Quieres, are going crazy because they cannot find
+each other; yet all are perhaps dwelling within a stone’s throw of each
+other; perhaps in the same street or square—most probably Leicester
+Square, which they have been given to understand is the most fashionable
+quarter of the town. This is exactly the condition of things which may
+be expected without such a register of names and addresses as we
+suggest.
+
+To our own men about town, also, or to “ladies of condition,” as
+Addison’s Spectator has it, the Strangers’ Leaf will be invaluable. None
+have so little time as the idle; and how severely Indolence will have to
+work for the benefit of its foreign and provincial friends in 1851, it
+must tremble to anticipate. To relieve it a little, some such means as
+we suggest should be adopted, for allowing Indolence to find out easily
+those strangers who have been recommended to his attention and good
+offices. One glance at a list of “arrivals” would save it a world of
+trouble.
+
+The duties of the editor of the “London Strangers’ Leaf” would not be
+very onerous. The names and intended addresses of every individual
+coming from abroad it will not be difficult to obtain. To reach us
+Islanders every visitor must arrive by sea, and at each port we are
+blessed with a customhouse. The captain of every steamer is bound for
+customhouse purposes to have the name of each of his passengers set down
+in a sort of Way-bill; and, for a slight consideration, the person who
+performs that office (generally the steward), would doubtless learn and
+add the address to which each of the passengers is going in London. An
+arrangement with a customhouse clerk at each of the ports could be made
+for forwarding daily a copy of the list. Thus a complete record of
+arrivals from abroad could be obtained with little trouble. The names
+and lodgings of persons from the provinces would be more difficult of
+access; but a good understanding with hotel-keepers, and some assistance
+from the “Lodging-house Committee” (for of course there will be one,) of
+the Executive of the Great Congress, would insure the editor a tolerably
+complete “List of the Company” who assemble, even from the country. The
+“Strangers’ Leaf” might be published early each afternoon so as to give
+the arrivals of the morning.
+
+It is not to be doubted that at the essentially Industrial Meeting of
+1851, the _Chevaliers d’Industrie_ of all nations will make it their
+especial business to attend in large numbers. _Their_ names, personal
+appearance, addresses, and achievements, it would be very useful to
+record in “the Strangers’ Leaf.” To our excellent friends the Detectives
+the benefit would be great and reciprocal: for they would not only
+derive, but contribute much useful information. As a kind of “Hue and
+Cry,” of a more refined and fashionable kind, the proposed sheet would
+be invaluable.
+
+Should any enterprising gentleman, literary or otherwise, make the
+experiment, it may possibly turn out not only useful but profitable.
+Should such a speculation be deemed too undignified, we would silence
+the objection with a remark from Macaulay’s Essay on the life of Bacon,
+to the effect that Nothing is too insignificant for the attention of the
+wisest, which may be of advantage to the smallest in the community.
+
+
+
+
+                      NO HOSPITAL FOR INCURABLES.
+
+
+It is an extraordinary fact that among the innumerable medical charities
+with which this country abounds, there is not one for the help of those
+who of all others most require succour, and who must die, and do die in
+thousands, neglected, unaided. There are hospitals for the cure of every
+possible ailment or disease known to suffering humanity, but not one for
+the reception of persons past cure. There are, indeed, small charities
+for incurables scattered over the country—like the asylum for a few
+females afflicted with incurable diseases, at Leith, which was built,
+and solely supported by Miss Gladstone; and a few hospital wards, like
+the Cancer ward of Middlesex, and the ward for seven incurable patients
+in the Westminster; but a large hospital for incurables, does not exist.
+
+The case of a poor servant girl which lately came to our knowledge, is
+the case of thousands. She was afflicted with a disease to which the
+domestics of the middle classes, especially, are very liable—white
+swelling of the knee. On presenting herself at the hospitals, it was
+found that an operation would be certain death; and that, in short,
+being incurable, she could not be admitted. She had no relations; and
+crawling back to a miserable lodging, she lay helpless till her small
+savings were exhausted. Privations of the severest kind followed; and
+despite the assistance of some benevolent persons who learnt her
+condition when it was too late, she died a painful and wretched death.
+
+It is indeed a marvellous oversight of benevolence that sympathy should
+have been so long withheld from precisely the sufferers who most need
+it. Hopeless pain, allied to hopeless poverty, is a condition of
+existence not to be thought of without a shudder. It is a slow journey
+through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, from which we save even the
+greatest criminals.
+
+When the law deems it necessary to deprive a human being of life, the
+anguish, though sharp, is short. We do not doom him to the lingering
+agony with which innocent misfortune is allowed to make its slow descent
+into the grave.
+
+
+
+
+                           SORROWS AND JOYS.
+
+
+               Bury thy sorrows, and they shall rise
+               As souls to the immortal skies,
+               And then look down like mothers’ eyes.
+
+               But let thy joys be fresh as flowers,
+               That suck the honey of the showers,
+               And bloom alike on huts and towers.
+
+               So shall thy days be sweet and bright,—
+               Solemn and sweet thy starry night,—
+               Conscious of love each change of light.
+
+               The stars will watch the flowers asleep,
+               The flowers will feel the soft stars weep,
+               And both will mix sensations deep.
+
+               With these below, with those above,
+               Sits evermore the brooding Dove,
+               Uniting both in bonds of love.
+
+               Children of Earth are these; and those
+               The spirits of intense repose—
+               Death radiant o’er all human woes.
+
+               For both by nature are akin;—
+               Sorrow, the ashen fruit of sin,
+               And joy, the juice of life within.
+
+               O, make thy sorrows holy—wise—
+               So shall their buried memories rise,
+               Celestial, e’en in mortal skies.
+
+               O, think what then had been their doom,
+               If all unshriven—without a tomb—
+               They had been left to haunt the gloom!
+
+               O, think again what they will be
+               Beneath God’s bright serenity,
+               When thou art in eternity!
+
+               For they, in their salvation, know
+               No vestige of their former woe,
+               While thro’ them all the Heavens do flow.
+
+               Thus art thou wedded to the skies,
+               And watched by ever-loving eyes,
+               And warned by yearning sympathies.
+
+
+
+
+                  THE HOME OF WOODRUFFE THE GARDENER.
+
+
+                     IN EIGHT CHAPTERS.—CHAPTER I.
+
+“How pleased the boy looks, to be sure!” observed Woodruffe to his wife,
+as his son Allan caught up little Moss (as Maurice had chosen to call
+himself before he could speak plain) and made him jump from the top of
+the drawers upon the chair, and then from the chair to the ground. “He
+is making all that racket just because he is so pleased he does not know
+what to do with himself.”
+
+“I suppose he will forgive Fleming now for carrying off Abby,” said the
+mother. “I say, Allan, what do you think now of Abby marrying away from
+us?”
+
+“Why, I think it’s a very good thing. You know she never told me that we
+should go and live where she lived, and in such a pretty place, too,
+where I may have a garden of my own, and see what I can make of it—all
+fresh from the beginning, as father says.”
+
+“You are to try your hand at the business, I know,” replied the mother,
+“but I never heard your father, nor any one else, say that the place was
+a pretty one. I did not think new railway stations had been pretty
+places at all.”
+
+“It sounds so to him, naturally,” interposed Woodruffe. “He hears of a
+south aspect, and a slope to the north for shelter, and the town seen
+far off; and that sounds all very pleasant. And then, there is the
+thought of the journey, and the change, and the fun of getting the
+ground all into nice order, and, best of all, the seeing his sister so
+soon again. Youth is the time for hope and joy, you know, love.”
+
+And Woodruffe began to whistle, and stepped forward to take his turn at
+jumping Moss, whom he carried in one flight from the top of the drawers
+to the floor. Mrs. Woodruffe smiled, as she thought that youth was not
+the only season, with some people, for hope and joy.
+
+Her husband, always disposed to look on the bright side; was
+particularly happy this evening. The lease of his market-garden ground
+was just expiring. He had prospered on it; and would have desired
+nothing better than to live by it as long as he lived at all. He desired
+this so much that he would not believe a word of what people had been
+saying for two years past, that his ground would be wanted by his
+landlord on the expiration of the lease, and that it would not be let
+again. His wife had long foreseen this; but not till the last moment
+would he do what she thought should have been done long before—offer to
+buy the ground. At the ordinary price of land, he could accomplish the
+purchase of it; but when he found his landlord unwilling to sell, he bid
+higher and higher, till his wife was so alarmed at the rashness, that
+she was glad when a prospect of entire removal opened. Woodruffe was
+sure that he could have paid off all he offered at the end of a few
+years; but his partner thought it would have been a heavy burden on
+their minds, and a sad waste of money; and she was therefore, in her
+heart, obliged to the landlord for persisting in his refusal to sell.
+
+When that was settled, Woodruffe became suddenly sure that he could pick
+up an acre or two of land somewhere not far off. But he was mistaken;
+and, if he had not been mistaken, market-gardening was no longer the
+profitable business it had been, when it enabled him to lay by something
+every year. By the opening of a railway, the townspeople, a few miles
+off, got themselves better supplied with vegetables from another
+quarter. It was this which put it into the son-in-law’s head to propose
+the removal of the family into Staffordshire, where he held a small
+appointment on a railway. Land might be had at a low rent near the
+little country station where his business lay; and the railway brought
+within twenty minutes’ distance a town where there must be a
+considerable demand for garden produce. The place was in a raw state at
+present; and there were so few houses, that, if there had been a choice
+of time, the Flemings would rather have put off the coming of the family
+till some of the cottages already planned had been built; but the
+Woodruffes must remove in September, and all parties agreed that they
+should not mind a little crowding for a few months. Fleming’s cottage
+was to hold them all till some chance of more accommodation should
+offer.
+
+“I’ll tell you what,” said Woodruffe, after standing for some time, half
+whistling and thinking, with that expression on his face which his wife
+had long learned to be afraid of, “I’ll write to-morrow—let’s see—I may
+as well do it to-night;” and he looked round for paper and ink. “I’ll
+write to Fleming, and get him to buy the land for me at once.”
+
+“Before you see it?” said his wife, looking up from her stocking
+mending.
+
+“Yes. I know all about it, as much as if I were standing on it this
+moment; and I am sick of this work—of being turned out just when I had
+made the most of a place, and got attached to it. I’ll make a sure thing
+of it this time, and not have such a pull at my heartstrings again. And
+the land will be cheaper now than later; and we shall go to work upon it
+with such heart, if it is our own! Eh?”
+
+“Certainly, if we find, after seeing it, that we like it as well as we
+expect. I would just wait till then.”
+
+“As well as we expect! Why, bless my soul! don’t we know all about it?
+It is not any land-agent or interested person, that has described it to
+us; but our own daughter and her husband; and do not they know what we
+want? The quantity at my own choice; the aspect capital; plenty of water
+(only too much, indeed); the soil anything but poor, and sand and marl
+within reach to reduce the stiffness; and manure at command, all along
+the railway, from half-a-dozen towns; and osier beds at hand (within my
+own bounds if I like) giving all manner of convenience for fencing, and
+binding, and covering! Why, what would you have?”
+
+“It sounds very pleasant, certainly.”
+
+“Then, how can you make objections? I can’t think where you look, to
+find any objections?”
+
+“I see none now, and I only want to be sure that we shall find none when
+we arrive.”
+
+“Well! I do call that unreasonable! To expect to find any place on earth
+altogether unobjectionable! I wonder what objection could be so great as
+being turned out of one after another, just as we have got them into
+order. Here comes our girl. Well, Becky, I see how you like the news!
+Now, would not you like it better still if we were going to a place of
+our own, where we should not be under any landlord’s whims? We should
+have to work, you know, one and all. But we would get the land properly
+manured, and have a cottage of our own in time; would not we? Will you
+undertake the pigs, Becky?”
+
+“Yes, father; and there are many things I can do in the garden too. I am
+old and strong, now; and I can do much more than I have ever done here.”
+
+“Aye; if the land was our own,” said Woodruffe, with a glance at his
+wife. She said no more, but was presently upstairs putting Moss to bed.
+She knew, from long experience, how matters would go. After a restless
+night, Woodruffe spoke no more of buying the land without seeing it; and
+he twice said, in a meditative, rather than a communicative, way, that
+he believed it would take as much capital as he had to remove his
+family, and get his new land into fit condition for spring crops.
+
+
+                          CHAPTER THE SECOND.
+
+“You may look out now for the place. Look out for our new garden. We are
+just there now,” said Woodruffe to the children as the whistle sounded,
+and the train was approaching the station. It had been a glorious autumn
+day from the beginning; and for the last hour, while the beauty of the
+light on fields and trees and water had been growing more striking, the
+children, tired with the novelty of all that they had seen since
+morning, had been dropping asleep. They roused up suddenly enough at the
+news that they were reaching their new home; and thrust their heads to
+the windows, eagerly asking on which side they were to look for their
+garden. It was on the south, the left-hand side; but it might have been
+anywhere, for what they could see of it. Below the embankment was
+something like a sheet of grey water, spreading far away.
+
+“It is going to be a foggy night,” observed Woodruffe. The children
+looked into the air for the fog, which had always, in their experience,
+arrived by that way from the sea. The sky was all a clear blue, except
+where a pale green and a faint blush of pink streaked the west. A large
+planet beamed clear and bright: and the air was so transparent that the
+very leaves on the trees might almost be counted. Yet could nothing be
+seen below for the grey mist which was rising, from moment to moment.
+
+Fleming met them as they alighted; but he could not stay till he had
+seen to the other passengers. His wife was there. She had been a merry
+hearted girl; and, now, still so young, as to look as girlish as ever,
+she seemed even merrier than ever. She did not look strong, but she had
+hardly thrown off what she called “a little touch of the ague;” and she
+declared herself perfectly well when the wind was anywhere but in the
+wrong quarter. Allan wondered how the wind could go wrong. He had never
+heard of such a thing before. He had known the wind too high, when it
+did mischief among his father’s fruit trees; but it had never occurred
+to him that it was not free to come and go whence and whither it would,
+without blame or objection.
+
+“Come—come home,” exclaimed Mrs. Fleming. “Never mind about your bags
+and boxes! My husband will take care of them. Let me show you the way
+home.”
+
+She let go the hands of the young brothers, and loaded them, and then
+herself, with parcels, that they might not think they were going to lose
+every thing, as she said; and then tripped on before to show the way.
+The way was down steps, from the highest of which two or three
+chimney-tops might be seen piercing the mist which hid everything else.
+Down, down, down went the party, by so many steps that little Moss began
+to totter under his bundle.
+
+“How low this place lies!” observed the mother.
+
+“Why, yes;” replied Mrs. Fleming. “And yet I don’t know. I believe it is
+rather that the railway runs high.”
+
+“Yes, yes; that is it,” said Woodruffe. “What an embankment this is! If
+this is to shelter my garden to the north—”
+
+“Yes, yes, it is. I knew you would like it,” exclaimed Mrs. Fleming. “I
+said you would be delighted. I only wish you could see your ground at
+once: but it seems rather foggy, and I suppose we must wait till the
+morning. Here we are at home.”
+
+The travellers were rather surprised to see how very small a house this
+“home” was. Though called a cottage, it had not the look of one. It was
+of a red brick, dingy, though evidently new: and, to all appearance, it
+consisted of merely a room below, and one above. On walking round it,
+however, a sloping roof in two directions gave a hint of further
+accommodation.
+
+When the whole party had entered, and Mrs. Fleming had kissed them all
+round, her glance at her mother asked, as plainly as any words, “Is not
+this a pleasant room?”
+
+“A pretty room, indeed, my dear,” was the mother’s reply, “and as nicely
+furnished as one could wish.”
+
+She did not say anything of the rust which her quick eye perceived on
+the fire-irons and the door-key, or of the damp which stained the walls
+just above the skirting-board. There was nothing amiss with the ceiling,
+or the higher parts of the walls,—so it might be an accident.
+
+“But, my dear,” asked the mother, seeing how sleepy Moss looked, “Where
+are you going to put us all? If we crowd you out of all comfort, I shall
+be sorry we came so soon.”
+
+As Mrs. Fleming led the way upstairs, she reminded her family of their
+agreement not to mind a little crowding for a time. If her mother
+thought there was not room for all the newly-arrived in this chamber,
+they could fit out a corner for Allan in the place where she and her
+husband were to sleep.
+
+“All of us in this room?” exclaimed Becky.
+
+“Yes, Becky; why not? Here, you see, is a curtain between your bed and
+the large one; and your bed is large enough to let little Moss sleep
+with you. And here is a morsel of a bed for Allan in the other corner;
+and I have another curtain ready to shut it in.”
+
+“But,” said Becky, who was going on to object. Her mother stopped her by
+a sign.
+
+“Or,” continued Mrs. Fleming, “if you like to let Allan and his bed and
+curtain come down to our place, you will have plenty of room here; much
+more than my neighbours have, for the most part. How it will be when the
+new cottages are built, I don’t know. We think them too small for new
+houses; but, meantime, there are the Brookes sleeping seven in a room no
+bigger than this, and the Vines six in one much smaller.”
+
+“How do they manage, now?” asked the mother. “In case of illness, say:
+and how do they wash and dress?”
+
+“Ah! that is the worst part of it. I don’t think the boys wash
+themselves—what we should call washing—for weeks together: or at least
+only on Saturday nights. So they slip their clothes on in two minutes;
+and then their mother and sisters can get up. But there is the pump
+below for Allan, and he can wash as much as he pleases.”
+
+It was not till the next day that Mrs Woodruffe knew—and then it was
+Allan who told her—that the pump was actually in the very place where
+the Flemings slept,—close by their bed. The Flemings were, in truth,
+sleeping in an outhouse, where the floor was of brick, the swill-tub
+stood in one corner, the coals were heaped in another, and the light
+came in from a square hole high up, which had never till now been
+glazed. Plenty of air rushed in under the door, and yet some more
+between the tiles,—there being no plaster beneath them. As soon as Mrs.
+Woodruffe had been informed of this, and had stepped in, while her
+daughter’s back was turned, to make her own observations, she went out
+by herself for a walk,—so long a walk, that it was several hours before
+she reappeared, heated and somewhat depressed. She had roamed the
+country round, in search of lodgings; and finding none,—finding no
+occupier who really could possibly spare a room on any terms,—she had
+returned convinced that, serious as the expense would be, she and her
+family ought to settle themselves in the nearest town,—her husband going
+to his business daily by the third-class train, till a dwelling could be
+provided for them on the spot.
+
+When she returned, the children were on the watch for her; and little
+Moss had strong hopes that she would not know him. He had a great cap of
+rushes on his head, with a heavy bulrush for a feather; he was stuck all
+over with water-flags and bulrushes, and carried a long osier wand,
+wherewith to flog all those who did not admire him enough in his new
+style of dress. The children were clamorous for their mother to come
+down, and see the nice places where they got these new playthings: and
+she would have gone, but that their father came up, and decreed it
+otherwise. She was heated and tired, he said; and he would not have her
+go till she was easy and comfortable enough to see things in the best
+light.
+
+Her impression was that her husband was, more or less (and she did not
+know why), disappointed; but he did not say so. He would not hear of
+going off to the town, being sure that some place would turn up
+soon,—some place where they might put their heads at night; and the
+Flemings should be no losers by having their company by day. Their
+boarding all together, if the sleeping could but be managed, would be a
+help to the young couple,—a help which it was pleasant to him, as a
+father, to be able to give them. He said nothing about the land that was
+not in praise of it. Its quality was excellent; or would be when it had
+good treatment. It would take some time and trouble to get it into
+order,—so much that it would never do to live at a distance from it.
+Besides, no trains that would suit him ran at the proper hours; so there
+was an end of it. They must all rough it a little for a time, and expect
+their reward afterwards.
+
+There was nothing that Woodruffe was so hard to please in as the time
+when he should take his wife to see the ground. It was close at hand;
+yet he hindered her going in the morning, and again after their early
+dinner. He was anxious that she should not be prejudiced, or take a
+dislike at first; and in the morning, the fog was so thick that
+everything looked dank and dreary; and in the middle of the day, when a
+warm autumn sun had dissolved the mists, there certainly was a most
+disagreeable smell hanging about. It was not gone at sunset; but by that
+time Mrs. Woodruffe was impatient, and she appeared—Allan showing her
+the way—just when her husband was scraping his feet upon his spade,
+after a hard day of digging.
+
+“There, now!” said he, good-humouredly, striking his spade into the
+ground, “Fleming said you would be down before we were ready for you:
+and here you are!—Yes, ready for you. There are some planks coming, to
+keep your feet out of the wet among all this clay.”
+
+“And yours too, I hope,” said the wife. “I don’t mind such wet, after
+rain, as you have been accustomed to; but to stand in a puddle like this
+is a very different thing.”
+
+“Yes—so ’tis. But we’ll have the planks; and they will serve for running
+the wheelbarrow too. It is too much for Allan, or any boy, to run the
+barrow in such a soil as this. We’ll have the planks first; and then
+we’ll drain, and drain, and get rare spring crops.”
+
+“What have they given you this artificial pond for,” asked the wife, “if
+you must drain so much?”
+
+“That is no pond. All the way along here, on both sides the railway,
+there is the mischief of these pits. They dig out the clay for bricks,
+and then leave the places—pits like this, some of them six feet deep.
+The railways have done a deal of good for the poor man, and will do a
+great deal more yet; but, at present this one has left those pits.”
+
+“I hope Moss will not fall into one. They are very dangerous,” declared
+the mother, looking about for the child.
+
+“He is safe enough there, among the osiers,” said the father. “He has
+lost his heart outright to the osiers. However, I mean to drain and fill
+up this pit, when I find a good outfall: and then we will have all high
+and dry, and safe for the children. I don’t care so much for the pit as
+for the ditches there. Don’t you notice the bad smell?”
+
+“Yes, indeed, that struck me the first night.”
+
+“I have been inquiring to-day, and I find there is one acre in twenty
+hereabouts occupied with foul ditches like that. And then the overflow
+from them and the pits, spoils many an acre more. There is a stretch of
+water-flags and bulrushes, and nasty coarse grass and rushes, nothing
+but a swamp, where the ground is naturally as good as this; and, look
+here! Fleming was rather out, I tell him, when he wrote that I might
+graze a pony on the pasture below, whenever I have a market-cart. I ask
+him if he expects me to water it here.”
+
+So saying, Woodruffe led the way to one of the ditches which, instead of
+fences, bounded his land; and, moving the mass of weeds with a stick,
+showed the water beneath, covered with a whitish bubbling scum, the
+smell of which was insufferable.
+
+“There is plenty of manure there,” said Woodruffe: “that is the only
+thing that can be said for it. We’ll make manure of it, and sweep out
+the ditch, and deepen it, and narrow it, and not use up so many feet of
+good ground for a ditch that does nothing but poison us. A fence is
+better than a ditch any day. I’ll have a fence, and still save ten feet
+of ground, the whole way down.”
+
+“There is a great deal to do here,” observed the wife.
+
+“And good reward when it is done,” Woodruffe replied. “If I can fall in
+with a stout labourer, he and Allan and I can get our spring crops
+prepared for; and I expect they will prove the goodness of the soil.
+There is Fleming. Supper is ready, I suppose.”
+
+The children were called, but both were so wet and dirty that it took
+twice as long as usual to make them fit to sit at table: and apologies
+were made for keeping supper waiting. The grave half-hour before Moss’s
+bedtime was occupied with the most solemn piece of instruction he had
+ever had in his life. His father carried him up to the railway, and made
+him understand the danger of playing there. He was never to play there.
+His father would go up with him once a day, and let him see a train
+pass: and this was the only time he was ever to mount the steps, except
+by express leave. Moss was put to bed in silence, with his father’s
+deep, grave voice sounding in his ears.
+
+“He will not forget it,” declared his father. “He will give us no
+trouble about the railway. The next thing is the pit. Allan, I expect
+you to see that he does not fall into the pit. In time, we shall teach
+him to take care of himself; but you must remember, meanwhile, that the
+pit is six feet deep—deeper than I am high: and that the edge is the
+same clay that you slipped on so often this morning.”
+
+“Yes, father,” said Allan, looking as grave as if power of life and
+death were in his hands.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER THE THIRD.
+
+One fine morning in the next spring, there was more stir and
+cheerfulness about the Woodruffes’ dwelling than there had been of late.
+The winter had been somewhat dreary; and now the spring was anxious; for
+Woodruffe’s business was not, as yet, doing very well. His hope, when he
+bought his pony and cart, was to dispatch by railway to the town the
+best of his produce, and sell the commoner part in the country
+neighbourhood, sending his cart round within the reach of a few miles.
+As it turned out, he had nothing yet to send to the town, and his agent
+there was vexed and displeased. No radishes, onions, early salads, or
+rhubarb were ready: and it would be sometime yet before they were.
+
+“I am sure I have done everything I could,” said Woodruffe to Fleming,
+as they both lent a hand to put the pony into the cart. “Nobody can say
+that I have not made drains enough, or that they are not deep enough;
+yet the frost has taken such a hold that one would think we were living
+in the north of Scotland, instead of in Staffordshire.”
+
+“It has not been a severe season either,” observed Fleming.
+
+“There’s the vexation,” replied Woodruffe. “If it had been a season
+which set us at defiance, and made all sufferers alike, one must just
+submit to a loss, and go on again, like one’s neighbours. But, you see,
+I am cut out, as my agent says, from the market. Everybody else has
+spring vegetables there, as usual. It is no use telling him that I never
+failed before. But I know what it is. It is yonder great ditch that does
+the mischief.”
+
+“Why, we have nothing to do with that.”
+
+“That is the very reason. If it was mine or yours, do you think I should
+not have taken it in hand long ago? All my draining goes for little
+while that shallow ditch keeps my ground a continual sop. It is all
+uneven along the bottom;—not the same depth for three feet together
+anywhere, and not deep enough by two feet in any part. So there it is,
+choked up and putrid; and, after an hour or two of rain, my garden gets
+such a soaking, that the next frost is destruction.”
+
+“I will speak about it again,” said Fleming. “We must have it set right
+before next winter.”
+
+“I think we have seen enough of the uselessness of speaking,” replied
+Woodruffe, gloomily. “If we tease the gentry any more, they may punish
+you for it. I would show them my mind by being off,—throwing up my
+bargain at all costs, if I had not put so much into the ground that I
+have nothing left to move away with.”
+
+“Don’t be afraid for me,” said Fleming, cheerfully, “It was chiefly my
+doing that you came here, and I must try my utmost to obtain fair
+conditions for you. We must remember that the benefit of your outlay has
+all to come.”
+
+“Yes; I can’t say we have got much of it yet.”
+
+“By next winter,” continued Fleming, “your privet hedges and screens
+will have grown up into some use against the frost; and your own
+drainage——. Come, come, Allan, my boy! be off! It is getting late.”
+
+Allan seemed to be idling, re-arranging his bunches of small radishes,
+and little bundles of rhubarb, in their clean baskets, and improving the
+stick with which he was to drive: but he pleaded that he was waiting for
+Moss, and for the parcel which his mother was getting ready for Becky.
+
+“Ah! my poor little girl!” said Woodruffe. “Give my love to her, and
+tell her it will be a happy day when we can send for her to come home
+again. Be sure you observe particularly, to tell us, how she looks; and,
+mind, if she fancies anything in the cart,—any radishes, or whatever
+else, because it comes out of our garden, be sure you give it her. I
+wish I was going myself with the cart, for the sake of seeing Becky; but
+I must go to work. Here have I been all the while, waiting to see you
+off. Ah! here they come! you may always have notice now of who is coming
+by that child’s crying.”
+
+“O, father! not always!” exclaimed Allan.
+
+“Far too often, I’m sure. I never knew a child grow so fractious. I am
+saying, my dear,” to his wife, who now appeared with her parcel, and
+Moss in his best hat, “that boy is the most fractious child we ever had:
+and he is getting too old for that to begin now. How can you spoil him
+so?”
+
+“I am not aware,” said Mrs. Woodruffe, her eyes filling with tears,
+“that I treat him differently from the rest: but the child is not well.
+His chilblains tease him terribly; and I wish there may be nothing
+worse.”
+
+“Warm weather will soon cure the chilblains, and then I hope we shall
+see an end of the fretting.—Now, leave off crying this minute, Moss, or
+you don’t go. You don’t see me cry with my rheumatism, and that is worse
+than chilblains, I can tell you.”
+
+Moss tried to stifle his sobs, while his mother put more straw into the
+cart for him, and cautioned Allan to be careful of him, for it really
+seemed as if the child was tender all over. Allan seemed to succeed best
+as comforter. He gave Moss the stick to wield, and showed him how to
+make believe to whip the pony, so that before they turned the corner,
+Moss was wholly engrossed with what he called driving.
+
+“Yes, yes,” said Woodruffe, as he turned away, to go to his garden,
+“Allan is the one to manage him. He can take as good care of him as any
+woman, without spoiling him.”
+
+Mrs. Woodruffe submitted to this in silence; but with the feeling that
+she did not deserve it.
+
+Becky had had no notice of this visit from her brothers: but no such
+visit could take her by surprise; for she was thinking of her family all
+day long, every day, and fancying she should see them, whichever way she
+turned. It was not her natural destination to be a servant in a
+farm-house: she had never expected it,—never been prepared for it. She
+was as willing to work as any girl could be; and her help in the
+gardening was beyond what most women are capable of: but it was a bitter
+thing to her to go among strangers, and toil for them, when she knew
+that she was wanted at home by father and mother, and brothers, and just
+at present, by her sister too; for Mrs. Fleming’s confinement was to
+happen this spring. The reason why Becky was not at home while so much
+wanted there was, that there really was no accommodation for her. The
+plan of sleeping all huddled together as they were at first would not
+do. The girl herself could not endure it; and her parents felt that she
+must be got out at any sacrifice. They had inquired diligently till they
+found a place for her in a farm-house where the good wife promised
+protection, and care, and kindness; and fulfilled her promise to the
+best of her power.
+
+“I hope they do well by you here, Becky,” asked Allan, when the surprise
+caused by his driving up with a dash had subsided, and everybody had
+retired, to leave Becky with her brothers for the few minutes they could
+stay. “I hope they are kind to you here.”
+
+“O, yes,—very kind. And I am sure you ought to say so to father and
+mother.”
+
+Becky had jumped into the cart, and had her arms round Moss, and her
+head on his shoulder. Raising her head, and with her eyes filling as she
+spoke, she inquired anxiously how the new cottages went on, and when
+father and mother were to have a home of their own again. She owned, but
+did not wish her father and mother to hear of it, that she did not like
+being among such rough people as the farm servants. She did not like
+some of the behaviour that she saw; and, still less, such talk as she
+was obliged to overhear. When _would_ a cottage be ready for them?
+
+“Why, the new cottages would soon be getting on now,” Allan said: but he
+didn’t know; nobody fancied the look of them. He saw them just after the
+foundations were laid; and the enclosed parts were like a clay-puddle.
+He did not see how they were ever to be improved; for the curse of wet
+seemed to be on them, as upon everything about the Station. Fleming’s
+cottage was the best he had seen, after all, if only it was twice as
+large. If anything could be done to make the new cottages what cottages
+should be, it would be done: for every body agreed that the railway
+gentlemen desired to do the best for their people, and to set an example
+in that respect: but it was beyond anybody’s power to make wet clay as
+healthy as warm gravel. Unless they could go to work first to dry the
+soil, it seemed a hopeless sort of affair.
+
+“But, I say, Becky,” pursued Allan, “you know about my garden—that
+father gave me a garden of my own.”
+
+Becky’s head was turned quite away; and she did not look round, when she
+replied,
+
+“Yes; I remember. How does your garden get on?”
+
+There was something in her voice which made her brother lean over and
+look into her face; and, as he expected, tears were running down her
+cheeks.
+
+“There now!” said he, whipping the back of the cart with his stick;
+“something must be done, if you can’t get on here.”
+
+“O! I can get on. Be sure you don’t tell mother that I can’t get on, or
+anything about it.”
+
+“You look healthy, to be sure.”
+
+“To be sure I am. Don’t say any more about it. Tell me about your
+garden.”
+
+“Well: I am trying what I can make of it, after I have done working with
+father. But it takes a long time to bring it round.”
+
+“What! is the wet there, too?”
+
+“Lord, yes! The wet was beyond everything at first. I could not leave
+the spade in the ground ten minutes, if father called me, but the water
+was standing in the hole when I went back again. It is not so bad now,
+since I made a drain to join upon father’s principal one; and father
+gave me some sand, and plenty of manure: but it seems to us that manure
+does little good. It won’t sink in when the ground is so wet.”
+
+“Well, there will be the summer next, and that will dry up your garden.”
+
+“Yes. People say the smells are dreadful in hot weather, though. But we
+seem to get used to that. I thought it sickly work, just after we came,
+going down to get osiers, and digging near the big ditch that is our
+plague now: but somehow, it does not strike me now as it did then,
+though Fleming says it is getting worse every warm day. But come—I must
+be off. What will you help yourself to? And don’t forget your parcel.”
+
+Becky’s great anxiety was to know when her brothers would come again. O!
+very often, she was assured—oftener and oftener as the vegetables came
+forward: whenever there were either too many or too few to send to the
+town by rail.
+
+After Becky had jumped down, the farmer and one of the men were seen to
+be contemplating the pony.
+
+“What have you been giving your pony lately?” asked the farmer of Allan.
+“I ask as a friend, having some experience of this part of the country.
+Have you been letting him graze?”
+
+“Yes, in the bit of meadow that we have leave for. There is a good deal
+of grass there, now. He has been grazing there these three weeks.”
+
+“On the meadow where the osier beds are? Ay! I knew it, by the look of
+him. Tell your father that if he does not take care, his pony will have
+the staggers in no time. An acquaintance of mine grazed some cattle
+there once; and in a week or two, they were all feverish, so that the
+butcher refused them on any terms; and I have seen more than one horse
+in the staggers, after grazing in marshes of that sort.”
+
+“There is fine thick grass there, and plenty of it,” said Allan, who did
+not like that anybody but themselves should criticise their new place
+and plans.
+
+“Ay, ay; I know,” replied the farmer. “But if you try to make hay of
+that grass, you’ll be surprised to find how long it takes to make, and
+how like wool it comes out at last. It is a coarse grass, with no
+strength in it; and it must be a stronger beast than this that will bear
+feeding on it. Just do you tell your father what I say, that’s all; and
+then he can do as he pleases: but I would take a different way with that
+pony, without loss of time, if it was mine.”
+
+Allan did not much like taking this sort of message to his father, who
+was not altogether so easy to please as he used to be. If anything vexed
+him ever so little, he always began to complain of his rheumatism—and he
+now complained of his rheumatism many times in a day. It was managed,
+however, by tacking a little piece of amusement and pride upon it. Moss
+was taught, all the way as they went home, after selling their
+vegetables, how much everything sold for; and he was to deliver the
+money to his father, and go through his lesson as gravely as any big
+man. It succeeded very well. Everybody laughed. Woodruffe called the
+child his little man-of-business; gave him a penny out of the money he
+brought; and when he found that the child did not like jumping as he
+used to do, carried him up to the railway to listen for the whistle, and
+see the afternoon train come up, and stop a minute, and go on again.
+
+
+
+
+                       TOPOGRAPHY AND TEMPERANCE.
+
+                     FROM MR. CHRISTOPHER SHRIMBLE.
+
+
+ “MR. CONDUCTOR,
+
+“Sir, I take up my pen to tell you what’s going to happen if the cause
+of temperance is to be allowed to have unlicensed power to unlicense all
+the public-houses. We have heard a good deal about the advantages of
+Temperance (and I don’t deny them), but Mr. Ledru Rollin has taught me
+to look closer than ever to the dark side of things, and tee-totalism
+has its dark side like everything else; it is not all clear water, I can
+tell you. I look forward to the time when strong liquors will be
+abolished, and pot-houses taken from the corners of the streets or
+shifted from the sides of the road, and I say, ‘how _shall_ I find my
+way about?’
+
+“For the fact is; Sir, public-houses are the great land-marks of the
+country. Whether you are benighted in a Northumberland moor; lost in a
+Devonshire lane (the one thing in nature which it is well known has no
+end); whether you are cast away in a river; left without a clue upon
+Salisbury Plain; or reduced to a state of topographical despair in a
+Warwickshire wood; the first person you meet—be it he or she, gentle or
+simple, old or young, a genius or an idiot—will assuredly convince you
+that the only rural means of directing you are the names and signs of
+places of public entertainment. ‘Go on straight till you come to the
+Green Lion, then turn to the left close to the Goat and Compasses, and
+after you have passed the Plough, bear off to the right; and, opposite
+the Jolly Gardeners, you will see a lane: go down that lane till you
+have to cross a brook by the side of the Bottle and Bagpipes, and when
+you have got to the Three Whistles and Cockchafer further down, get over
+a stile next to the Tinker and Turkey-Cock, take the first to the
+left—and that’s it.’ Such were the directions by which I found my old
+friend, Groggles, last Monday. Without the signs I have mentioned, I
+never should have found Groggles to this day.
+
+“Now, Sir, I trust the advocates of temperance will pause before they
+wash away the land-marks of England (Tooting included), in order to
+substitute water-marks. How are we to find our way about without signs,
+I wonder? for I suppose these will not be allowed to stand when the
+houses behind them are taken away. Do the great Father Mathews of this
+age intend—like the monks of old—to christen the wells, and to give
+names to the pumps, and springs, and fountains, and conduits? Indeed I
+hope they do; for these I venture to say will be the only taps they
+intend leaving to a future generation.
+
+“Unless, Sir, they wish the topography of our native land to be utterly
+confused, and desire to make voluntary locomotion impossible (I call
+railways compulsory travelling, for you must go where they choose to
+take you), I do intreat of them to leave us their signs, whatever they
+do with the inns. Why not move the former to stand sponsors to their
+new-fangled watering places? Take the ‘Puncheon of Rum’ from what used
+to be the posting-house (before steam blew post-horses off the road) and
+stick it on the parish pump. Let wayside wells be ornamented with
+effigies of ‘Topers Heads’; transfer the ‘Barrel of Beer’ from the
+village inn to the village fountain, and the ‘Jolly Full Bottle’ from
+the alehouse to the conduit. Then, when a man comes to the picture of
+three drunken soldiers, and the inscription, ‘The Rendezvous,’ he will
+know it means a reservoir, or regular meeting of the waters. The
+‘Punch-Bowl,’ in gold letters, will indicate a water-trough; the ‘Black
+Jack’ would give a significant license for water to be drunk on the
+premises; and the ‘Sir John Barleycorn’ would indicate that a good
+supply of the ale of our first parent is not far off.
+
+“I do hope my suggestion will be complied with. The tavern signs of
+England are a great topographical institution. If they will not take
+them down, the Temperance Movement may do its worst for me. I, and a
+good many others who live out of town and don’t carry lanterns at night,
+will still be able to find our way about, and the agricultural
+population will be able to show us when we have lost it. In that case,
+the Green Dragons, Marquises of Granby, Roses and Crowns, Bears and
+Buttermilks, Bulls in the Pounds, Stars and Stumps, with innumerable
+other signs dear to the eyes and ready to the tongues of unconverted
+tipplers for the behoof of way-beguiled strangers, would not be utterly
+lost to the land. Without them, I venture to assert, in conclusion, in
+the words of the late Mr. Pope, England (Tooting included) will be ‘a
+mighty maze without a plan.’
+
+                            “I am, &c., &c.
+                         “CHRISTOPHER SHRIMBLE.
+                        “Paradise Row, Tooting.”
+
+
+
+
+                      THE LATE AMERICAN PRESIDENT.
+
+
+Towards the close of the last century there was a movement of settlers
+to the frontiers of Kentucky. The new comers to the then unsettled
+district were from various parts of the American continent, and each of
+the pioneers who thus cast his lot upon the extreme verge of
+civilisation made his account for holding his homestead by aid of his
+rifle, against the attacks of the denizens of the neighbouring forests.
+Sometimes the enemy was only in shape of a wolf or a bear—oftentimes in
+that of an Indian. In either case the farmer had to maintain his ground
+by the strong hand, in those days the only law that held sway in the
+backwoods. In such a state of affairs it is clear that none but bold
+spirits would venture to found a home on the frontier; yet such were not
+wanting; and amongst them was a farmer, who at an earlier period of his
+life had left the plough to take up arms in defence of American
+independence. In that rough and ready service he had gained the often
+quickly-acquired rank of Colonel; but the war ceasing, he, like others
+among his patriotic countrymen, quietly returned to his more peaceful
+occupation as a farmer; choosing a location where land was plenty and
+cheap to those who had the courage to hold it where Indians and other
+dangerous neighbours were abundant. The sons of such a man, nurtured in
+such a spot, might well be expected to inherit the enterprise, courage,
+and hardihood which distinguished their parent. Handling a rifle as soon
+as they were strong enough to lift one; accustomed to hunting excursions
+and “camping out;” working now at the plough, now in building up a barn,
+or in filling it when complete; driving the waggon and its load to a
+distant market, and bringing back at any hour, and in all seasons, the
+stores that varied their farm-grown contributions to the larder; and
+when winter-time brought comparative leisure, turning to books for
+almost the only education procurable in the rough and primitive region
+they inhabited;—boys, so reared, could scarcely be other than bold,
+energetic, and fruitful in resources, and equal in after life to the
+shifting exigencies of an active military career. From such a parent,
+and such a childhood and youth, and with such an early training, sprang
+President and General Zachary Taylor, whose recent death our
+Transatlantic brethren are even now deploring; and the story of whose
+life their journals will help us to tell.
+
+Zachary Taylor before he was twenty-one volunteered to leave home on a
+military expedition needed by the exigencies of the time. This, his
+first essay in war, proved very harmless; for no enemy was found, and he
+soon returned to his father’s farm, with a taste, however, for the new
+life he had made this short trial of. The taste thus acquired induced
+him to accept with great alacrity an opportunity that subsequently
+offered of joining the regular army of the United States, which he did
+in 1803, with the rank of lieutenant. Shortly afterwards an occasion
+arose for distinguishing himself, and he did not let it pass unimproved.
+He defended a post called Fort Harrison, against great odds; and by the
+check thus given to a large hostile party of Indians, saved a frontier
+from devastation. This gallant commencement was followed by a succession
+of equally noticeable exploits. He courted every chance of securing
+active service, and in succession won new reputation in contests with
+the Indians, with the English, and lastly with the Mexicans. Since it
+was with this last opponent that his chief battles were fought, and his
+really important victories won; and as those victories have gained an
+European reputation from the fact that they led to the acquisition of
+the real land of gold—El Dorado—California itself; we may glance over
+the events that induced and characterised the strife, and led to so
+memorable a result.
+
+Mexico and the United States had long had causes of quarrel; not the
+least of which was that the Mexicans got into debt to the Yankees, and
+would not pay what they admitted to be due. With several such unsettled
+and unsatisfactory accounts on hand, the Texas difficulty arose, and a
+large body of the Texians declaring for annexation with the United
+States, the few scruples that stood in the way of such an increase of
+dominion were quickly overlooked, and the large and fertile province was
+incorporated in the Union. Half such a cause of quarrel was enough to
+secure a declaration of war from a country like Mexico—_a country that
+has gone through eighteen revolutions in twenty-five years_—and
+accordingly war began. The Mexicans took steps for re-assuming the lost
+Texas, when, on the 4th of February, 1846, General Taylor received
+orders to march, with a force of three thousand men under his command,
+to the Rio Grande, the western limit of the newly-attached State. The
+President, for the time being, of Mexico claimed Texas as a revolted
+province, and hastened to submit the question to the ordeal of battle.
+The Mexicans shed the first blood. They took some prisoners—some
+Americans—and shot them in cold blood; and soon afterwards they captured
+more Americans, including some women, whose bodies were discovered
+subsequently with their throats cut. This brutality added fuel to the
+flame before existing, and the struggle began that ended in the capture
+of Mexico and the cession of California.
+
+The early days of the war were characterised by many acts of daring
+bravery. Amongst others, we find mention of the feat performed by a
+Captain Walker. The Americans were in total ignorance of the movements
+of the enemy, when they heard cannonading in the direction of a fort
+with which they had been unable to keep open communications. Taylor
+dispatched a squadron of cavalry, who returned without definite
+information, and the General was in suspense as to the condition of his
+friends in the fort, when Captain Walker arrived in the camp bearing
+dispatches from the leader of the beleaguered party in Fort Brown. He
+had left the small stronghold under the cover of night, and with no
+other guide than the wind on his cheek had tracked his way through the
+enemy’s camp, and through the wild, roadless country that lay between it
+and the army of General Taylor. He brought the news that the Mexicans
+had attacked Fort Brown, opening upon it a heavy cannonade. The besieged
+had, however, returned the fire with spirit, and had succeeded in
+dismounting some of the Mexican guns. General Taylor at once set off to
+raise the siege, taking with him two thousand three hundred men. With
+this force he encountered the enemy at Palo Alta, and the battle so
+named was fought. For five hours was the strife continued, when the
+attacking party carried the day. The Mexicans fell back.
+
+On the next morning another engagement took place with the same result.
+The Mexicans lost a thousand men; some cannon; and had one of their
+generals taken prisoner;—and Fort Brown was relieved.
+
+The war had thus commenced. The Mexicans loudly denounced what they
+called the dismemberment of their empire; the Americans heard with
+evident joy that their small army had won two battles of an enemy who
+had provoked the encounter.
+
+President Polk (the history of whose administration, by L. B. Chase,
+affords us some of these particulars) was, after much debate, authorised
+to call into the field volunteers, “to serve for a year or during the
+war.” Double the number asked-for soon offered themselves, and General
+Taylor found himself at the head of a force comparatively undisciplined
+but eager to advance, and equal to almost any amount of endurance in the
+prosecution of the enterprise on hand. The temper of the new levies was
+soon tried. The fight at Monterey was a repetition, on a larger scale,
+of the scenes and successes near Fort Brown. The Americans attacked and
+put to flight an enemy four times as numerous as the attacking force.
+The Mexicans seemed to think their invaders invincible; victory for the
+American flag was the result of each encounter, and before long General
+Taylor had a greater extent of country in his possession than the whole
+force under his command could well grasp with security. At this juncture
+General Scott, who for some time before this war began, had been
+Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, finding that great renown was
+being won by his junior officer, wrote from New York to General Taylor
+to state his intention of taking command in Mexico, and leading forward
+an additional force in advance of the positions conquered and held by
+Taylor. General Scott decided upon attacking Vera Cruz, and Taylor,
+being ordered to act on the defensive, complained bitterly when he found
+that Scott was to withdraw from his command all the regular troops he
+had, with the exception of one thousand men, leaving him to defend his
+position chiefly with volunteers, and these in deficient force. The
+military law of obedience to orders, however, left no choice, and though
+stating his belief in the weakness of his army he declined to fall back,
+urging the bad effect such a step must have on the minds of his new
+levies. He enjoyed the prestige of successive victories, and by
+supporting that alone could he hope to maintain his small force against
+an enemy so largely outnumbering him.
+
+About twelve thousand Americans had marched under Scott against Vera
+Cruz; about five thousand mustered under the flag of Taylor, when the
+news came that Santa Anna, with an army of twenty thousand strong, was
+marching upon the scattered and weakened forces of the smallest of the
+two American armies. Scott was too far on his way towards the sea coast
+to march to the rescue of Taylor, and the latter was left to do his best
+alone. On the morning of the 23rd of February, 1847, the unequal battle
+began. General Taylor had secured for his five thousand men a strong
+position at Buena Vista, in which the artillery of his antagonist could
+not readily be brought into play. When Santa Anna approached with twenty
+thousand men, he sent a message to Taylor to surrender at discretion; a
+request which the American chieftain abruptly declined, and the fight
+began. The contest was long and doubtful. The disparity of numbers was
+soon felt, and the feeling that all depended on their valour nerved the
+attacked party to greater desperation in their defence. Less than five
+hundred of Taylor’s men were regular troops; more than four thousand of
+them, but a few months before, were at work in the fields, and on
+wharfs, and in warehouses in the States. But volunteers though they
+were, no veterans could have done more. About seven hundred of them
+fell, killed and wounded, but night, which stayed the battle, saw the
+Mexicans in retreat before a force over which, in the morning, they
+expected a rapid and easy victory. The gallantry of the Anglo-Saxons
+prevailed over the numbers of their semi-Spanish antagonists, and Santa
+Anna retreated with an army weakened by the loss of nearly two thousand
+killed and wounded. “Along the road leading from Buena Vista to Agua
+Nueva (says Mr. Chase), a scene of horror was presented on the night of
+the 23rd of February. The means of transporting the wounded being
+extremely limited, they were left to struggle with suffering and with
+death, and the sighing of the wind and the cry of the wolf were their
+only requiem. Abandoned to their fate, without food, parched with
+thirst, without medical aid, and with no shelter to protect them from
+the piercing night air, they awaited the moment when death should
+release them from their suffering. The main body of the army reached
+Agua Nueva at midnight, and, dying with thirst, many of the soldiers
+plunged into a stagnant sheet of water which, in many cases, produced
+instant death. Suffering from the want of food and water, dispirited and
+disheartened by the result of the battle, they presented a striking
+contrast to that splendid array which, buoyant with hope and confident
+of victory, had attacked the American army.”
+
+Many anecdotes of this period of Taylor’s career are told with pride by
+his countrymen. Here are some of them which amusingly illustrate the
+character of the man.
+
+First we have one descriptive of his personal appearance.
+
+  “Winding down a hill near Mont Morales, the column is halted to let a
+  troop of horse pass. Do you see at their head a plain looking
+  gentleman, mounted upon a brown horse, having upon his head a Mexican
+  sombrero, dressed in a brown olive-coloured loose frock coat, grey
+  pantaloons, wool socks, and shoes? From under the frock appears the
+  scabbard of a sword; he has the eye of a hawk, and every lineament of
+  his countenance is expressive of honesty, and a calm determined mind.
+  The plain looking gentleman is General Zachary Taylor, who, with his
+  military family, and a squadron of dragoons as an escort, is on his
+  way to the front.”
+
+A few more anecdotes will serve to show the peculiarities of the now
+deceased general.
+
+  “After the capitulation of Monterey, the officers of the army used
+  their exertions to get General Taylor to move from his camp at St.
+  Domingo to the Plaza, and there establish his head quarters. Several
+  public buildings were examined and decided upon as suitable. After
+  considerable persuasion General Taylor consented to move, at the same
+  time giving the following instructions:—‘Choose a pleasant location—a
+  house that is surrounded by a garden filled with large trees; put up a
+  tent under the trees for my residence, and you [the staff and other
+  officers] may have the house in front.’ It is needless to add, that no
+  more was said about the head quarters being removed into the city of
+  Monterey.
+
+  “In the early part of a severe action, when the enemy had succeeded in
+  turning the left wing of his little army, and secured a seeming
+  advantageous position in rear of their line, at the base of the
+  mountain; when a portion of the troops, overpowered by the superiority
+  of numbers, were forced to retire in “hot haste;” when, indeed, the
+  fortunes of the day seemed extremely problematical, an officer of high
+  rank rode up to General Taylor, and announced the temporary success of
+  the enemy, and expressed his fears for the success of the army.
+  Taylor’s reply was characteristic of the man. ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘so long
+  as we have thirty muskets, we can never be conquered! If those troops
+  who have abandoned their position can be rallied and brought into
+  action again, I will take three thousand of the enemy prisoners. Had I
+  the disposition of the enemy’s forces, I would myself place them just
+  where they are.’ The officer resumed his duties with a light heart,
+  considering that the battle, in spite of appearance, was already won.”
+
+The volunteers who flocked to his standard soon learned to regard the
+old general as a friend as well as a commander.
+
+  “As proof of his humanity, it is recorded that Taylor, before leaving
+  the battle-ground of Buena Vista, ordered upwards of forty mule loads
+  of provisions to be sent from his camp to Incarnacion, for the use of
+  the wounded Mexicans who were in the hospital there, and starving from
+  hunger.
+
+  “Taylor told General Ricardo that General Ampudia had written to him,
+  stating that the war should be conducted in accordance with the usages
+  of civilised nations, but that after the last battle they had
+  barbarously stripped and mutilated our dead. To this charge General
+  Ricardo replied, that ‘this was done by the rancheros, who could not
+  be controlled.’ ‘I am coming over, and will control them for you,’
+  said Taylor.
+
+  “The general had assembled his council of officers the night previous
+  to the conflict of Buena Vista, for the purpose of hearing their
+  suggestions in relation to the approaching battle. A good deal of
+  uneasiness was exhibited—objections were raised—the disadvantages of
+  the immense ‘odds’ were presented—propositions to retire and wait for
+  reinforcements were urged—some were for giving the enemy battle—and
+  one proposed that the American army should ‘fall back’—when the old
+  hero’s opinion was asked. ‘Are you all done, gentlemen?’ Every one had
+  finished. ‘Then, gentlemen, I will adjourn this meeting,’ coolly added
+  Taylor, ‘_till after the fight to-morrow_.’ ‘Good!’ was the unanimous
+  response. The battle was fought and—won.”
+
+But we must return to our narrative. Whilst Taylor was holding his
+position in the interior, General Scott was approaching the sea coast,
+and a naval force being there ready to co-operate with him, the news
+that reached Santa Anna not long after he had been beaten by Taylor was,
+that the Americans had bombarded and captured Vera Cruz. The Mexicans
+were deeply dispirited; intestine quarrels and partisan disputes, added
+to the presence of a foreign enemy, rendered them more than ordinarily
+indisposed to make any really great and national exertions for their
+defence. Santa Anna had by his personal crimes gained many enemies, and
+there were not wanting Mexicans who secretly hailed the advent of the
+Americans rather as an advantage than a calamity. Hence, when Scott
+advanced from his newly acquired stronghold upon the city of Mexico
+itself, Santa Anna could at first bring only six thousand men to oppose
+his march, and these were met and beaten at Jalapa by the Americans.
+Three desperately contested battles soon followed, in which the
+invaders, though suffering most severely, came off victorious. In one of
+these, three thousand one hundred Americans met and defeated fourteen
+thousand Mexicans, leaving, however, seven hundred of their comrades
+dead upon the field. The final attack was upon the city itself, and by
+the 14th of September, Santa Anna had fled; the city of the Montezumas
+was in the hands of Brother Jonathan, and the stars and stripes waved on
+the national palace of Mexico.
+
+General Taylor never entirely forgave the Commander-in-Chief for taking
+from him the best part of his force, and he contended that had Scott
+threatened Vera Cruz only, and so divided the attention of Santa Anna,
+leaving the army at Monterey in its full force to march thence upon the
+capital, Mexico would have been taken at a less cost of time and blood
+than was ultimately expended on the conquest of the place. So also
+thought a large section of the American people, and though another
+commander actually took possession of the capital, Taylor was popularly
+regarded as the real hero of the Mexican war. This feeling was
+strengthened when the series of quarrels began between Scott and his
+companions in arms, and between that general and the American Minister,
+Mr. Trist, deputed to arrange a treaty between the two countries; and
+when Scott left the army in charge of General Butler to return in
+disgust to the United States, there was no officer in all Mexico, whose
+reputation could stand in competition with that of “Old Rough and
+Ready,” as Taylor was now called. He was looked upon as the one heroic
+leader of the successful war.
+
+Bayard Taylor, after his stay in the city of Mexico, says he does not
+believe that Mexican enmity has been increased by the war, but rather
+the contrary. During all his stay in the country he did not hear a
+bitter word against the Americans. The officers of the United States’
+army seem to have made friends everywhere, and the war, by throwing the
+natives into direct contact with foreigners, greatly abated their former
+prejudices against all not of Spanish blood. The departure of the
+American troops is declared to have been a cause of general lamentation
+amongst the tradesmen of Mexico and Vera Cruz. Nothing was more common
+to me (continues the traveller) than to hear Generals Scott and Taylor
+mentioned by the Mexicans in terms of entire respect and admiration. “If
+you see General Taylor,” said a gentleman to his namesake Bayard, “tell
+him that the Mexicans all honour him. He has never given up their houses
+to plunder; he has helped their wounded and suffering; he is as humane
+as he is brave, and they can never feel enmity towards him.”
+
+Not without contest and difficulties, but still by a considerable
+majority, General Taylor was in November, 1848, rewarded for his many
+years’ services by being installed in the highest position his
+countrymen had in their gift. They made him President of the United
+States, and his term of office in that capacity commenced in March,
+1849, under the favourable impression created by the following
+straightforward declaration:—
+
+  “I intend that all new appointments shall be of men honest and
+  capable. I do not intend to remove any man from office because he
+  voted against me, for that is a freeman’s privilege; but such
+  desecration of office and official patronage as some of them have been
+  guilty of to secure the election of the master whom they served as
+  slaves is degrading to the character of American freemen, and will be
+  a good cause for removal of friend or foe. The office of the
+  government should be filled with men of all parties; and as I expect
+  to find many of those now holding to be honest, good men, and as the
+  new appointments will, of course, be whigs, that will bring about this
+  result. Although I do not intend to allow an indiscriminate removal,
+  yet it grieves me to think that it will be necessary to require a
+  great many to give place to better men. As to my cabinet, I intend
+  that all interests and all sections of the country shall be
+  represented, but not, as some of the newspapers will have it, all
+  parties. I am a whig, as I have always been free to acknowledge, but I
+  do not believe that these who voted for me wish me to be a mere
+  partisan President, and I shall, therefore, try to be a President of
+  the American people. As to the new territory, it is now free, and
+  slavery cannot exist there without a law of Congress authorising it,
+  and that I do not believe they will ever pass. I was opposed to the
+  acquisition of this territory, as I also was to the acquisition of
+  Texas. I was opposed to the war, and, although by occupation a
+  warrior, I am a peace man.”
+
+His subsequent conduct tended to realise the hopes created by this
+opening avowal. But a life of hardship and an age verging on sixty
+years, prepared him, but indifferently, to meet the renewed exertions
+required by his new position. Resigning the panoply of the general to
+assume the garb of the President, he gained a respite from the toils of
+war to accept the still more soul-wearying contests, jealousies, and
+responsibilities of civil government. With soldierly determination,
+however, he addressed himself to the task, and, like a true hero, fell
+with harness on his back. He was born on the 9th of November, 1786—he
+died on the 9th of July, 1850. His last words were:—“I am prepared. I
+have endeavoured to do my duty.” May all deathbeds be consoled by the
+truthful utterance of such a sentiment.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+                Monthly Supplement of “HOUSEHOLD WORDS,”
+                      Conducted by CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+
+                       _Price 2d., Stamped, 3d._,
+
+                         THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE
+                                   OF
+                             CURRENT EVENTS.
+
+  _The Number, containing a history of the past month, was issued with
+                             the Magazines._
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
+
+
+ ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
+ ● Renumbered footnotes.
+ ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
+ ● The caret (^) is used to indicate superscript, whether applied to a
+     single character (as in 2^d) or to an entire expression (as in
+     1^{st}).
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78192 ***
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+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78192 ***</div>
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+<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>
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+<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_505'>505</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> 22.]&#8196; &#8196; &#8196; SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1850.&#8196; &#8196; &#8196; [<span class='sc'>Price</span> 2<i>d.</i></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>FROM THE RAVEN IN THE HAPPY FAMILY.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>I suppose you thought I was dead? No
+such thing. Don’t flatter yourselves that I
+haven’t got my eye upon you. I am wide
+awake, and you give me plenty to look at.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I have begun my great work about you.
+I have been collecting materials from the
+Horse, to begin with. You are glad to hear it,
+ain’t you? Very likely. Oh, he gives you a
+nice character! He makes you out a charming
+set of fellows.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>He informs me, by the bye, that he is a
+distant relation of the pony that was taken
+up in a balloon a few weeks ago; and that the
+pony’s account of your going to see him at
+Vauxhall Gardens, is an amazing thing. The
+pony says, that when he looked round on the
+assembled crowd, come to see the realisation
+of the wood-cut in the bill, he found it impossible
+to discover which was the real Mister
+Green—there were so many Mister Greens—and
+they were all so very green!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>But, that’s the way with you. You know
+it is. Don’t tell me! You’d go to see anything
+that other people went to see. And
+don’t flatter yourselves that I am referring
+to “the vulgar curiosity,” as you choose to call
+it, when you mean some curiosity in which
+you don’t participate yourselves. The polite
+curiosity in this country, is as vulgar as any
+curiosity in the world.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Of course you’ll tell me, no it isn’t, but I
+say yes it is. What have you got to say for
+yourselves about the Nepaulese Princes, I
+should like to know? Why, there has been
+more crowding, and pressing, and pushing, and
+jostling, and struggling, and striving, in genteel
+houses this last season, on account of those
+Nepaulese Princes, than would take place in
+vulgar Cremorne Gardens and Greenwich
+Park, at Easter time and Whitsuntide! And
+what for? Do you know anything about ’em?
+Have you any idea why they came here? Can
+you put your finger on their country in the
+map? Have you ever asked yourselves a
+dozen common questions about its climate,
+natural history, government, productions, customs,
+religion, manners? Not you! Here are
+a couple of swarthy Princes very much out of
+their element, walking about in wide muslin
+trousers, and sprinkled all over with gems
+(like the clock-work figure on the old round
+platform in the street, grown up), and they’re
+fashionable outlandish monsters, and it’s a
+new excitement for you to get a stare at ’em.
+As to asking ’em to dinner, and seeing ’em sit
+at table without eating in your company
+(unclean animals as you are!), you fall into
+raptures at that. Quite delicious, isn’t it?
+Ugh, you dunder-headed boobies!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I wonder what there is, new and strange,
+that you <i>wouldn’t</i> lionise, as you call it. Can
+you suggest anything? It’s not a hippopotamus,
+I suppose. I hear from my brother-in-law
+in the Zoological Gardens, that you are
+always pelting away into the Regent’s Park,
+by thousands, to see the hippopotamus. Oh,
+you’re very fond of hippopotami, ain’t you?
+You study one attentively, when you <i>do</i> see
+one, don’t you? You come away, so much
+wiser than you went, reflecting so profoundly
+on the wonders of creation—eh?</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Bah! You follow one another like wild
+geese, but you are not so good to eat!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>These, however, are not the observations of
+my friend the Horse. <i>He</i> takes you, in another
+point of view. Would you like to read his
+contribution to my Natural History of you?
+No? You shall then.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>He is a Cab-horse now. He wasn’t always,
+but he is now, and his usual stand is close to
+our Proprietor’s usual stand. That’s the way
+we have come into communication, we “dumb
+animals.” Ha, ha! Dumb, too! Oh, the conceit
+of you men, because you can bother the
+community out of their five wits, by making
+speeches!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Well. I mentioned to this Horse that I
+should be glad to have his opinions and experiences
+of you. Here they are:</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“At the request of my honourable friend
+the Raven, I proceed to offer a few remarks
+in reference to the animal called Man. I have
+had varied experience of this strange creature
+for fifteen years, and am now driven by a
+Man, in the hackney cabriolet, number twelve
+thousand four hundred and fifty-two.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“The sense Man entertains of his own
+inferiority to the nobler animals—and I am
+now more particularly referring to the Horse—has
+impressed me forcibly, in the course of
+my career. If a Man knows a Horse well, he is
+prouder of it than of any knowledge of himself,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_506'>506</span>within the range of his limited capacity. He
+regards it, as the sum of all human acquisition.
+If he is learned in a Horse, he has nothing
+else to learn. And the same remark applies,
+with some little abatement, to his acquaintance
+with Dogs. I have seen a good deal of Man
+in my time, but I think I have never met a
+Man who didn’t feel it necessary to his reputation
+to pretend, on occasion, that he knew
+something of Horses and Dogs, though he
+really knew nothing. As to making us a
+subject of conversation, my opinion is that we
+are more talked about, than history, philosophy,
+literature, art, and science, all put
+together. I have encountered innumerable
+gentlemen in the country, who were totally
+incapable of interest in anything but Horses
+and Dogs—except Cattle. And I have always
+been given to understand that they were the
+flower of the civilised world.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“It is very doubtful, to me, whether there
+is, upon the whole, anything Man is so
+ambitious to imitate, as an ostler, a jockey, a
+stage coachman, a horse-dealer, or a dog-fancier.
+There may be some other character
+which I do not immediately remember, that
+fires him with emulation; but, if there be,
+I am sure it is connected with Horses, or
+Dogs, or both. This is an unconscious compliment,
+on the part of the tyrant, to the
+nobler animals, which I consider to be very
+remarkable. I have known Lords, and
+Baronets, and Members of Parliament, out
+of number, who have deserted every other
+calling, to become but indifferent stablemen
+or kennelmen, and be cheated on all hands,
+by the real aristocracy of those pursuits who
+were regularly born to the business.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“Ail this, I say, is a tribute to our superiority
+which I consider to be very remarkable.
+Yet, still, I can’t quite understand it.
+Man can hardly devote himself to us, in admiration
+of our virtues, because he never
+imitates them. We Horses are as honest,
+though I say it, as animals can be. If, under
+the pressure of circumstances, we submit to
+act at a Circus, for instance, we always show
+that we are acting. We never deceive anybody.
+We would scorn to do it. If we are
+called upon to do anything in earnest, we do
+our best. If we are required to run a race
+falsely, and to lose when we could win, we are
+not to be relied upon, to commit a fraud;
+Man must come in at that point, and force us
+to it. And the extraordinary circumstance to
+me, is, that Man (whom I take to be a powerful
+species of Monkey) is always making us
+nobler animals the instruments of his meanness
+and cupidity. The very name of our kind
+has become a byeword for all sorts of trickery
+and cheating. We are as innocent as counters
+at a game—and yet this creature <span class='fss'>WILL</span> play
+falsely with us!</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“Man’s opinion, good or bad, is not worth
+much, as any rational Horse knows. But,
+justice is justice; and what I complain of, is,
+that Mankind talks of us as if We had something
+to do with all this. They say that such
+a man was ‘ruined by Horses.’ Ruined by
+Horses! They can’t be open, even in that,
+and say he was ruined by Men; but they lay
+it at <i>our</i> stable-door! As if we ever ruined
+anybody, or were ever doing anything but
+being ruined ourselves, in our generous
+desire to fulfil the useful purposes of our
+existence!</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“In the same way, we get a bad name as if
+we were profligate company. ‘So and so got
+among Horses, and it was all up with him.’
+Why, <i>we</i> would have reclaimed him—<i>we</i> would
+have made him temperate, industrious,
+punctual, steady, sensible—what harm would
+he ever have got from <i>us</i>, I should wish to
+ask?</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“Upon the whole, speaking of him as I have
+found him, I should describe Man as an unmeaning
+and conceited creature, very seldom
+to be trusted, and not likely to make advances
+towards the honesty of the nobler animals.
+I should say that his power of warping the
+nobler animals to bad purposes, and damaging
+their reputation by his companionship, is,
+next to the art of growing oats, hay, carrots,
+and clover, one of his principal attributes.
+He is very unintelligible in his caprices;
+seldom expressing with distinctness what he
+wants of us; and relying greatly on our better
+judgment to find out. He is cruel, and fond
+of blood—particularly at a steeple-chase—and
+is very ungrateful.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“And yet, so far as I can understand, he
+worships us too. He sets up images of us
+(not particularly like, but meant to be) in the
+streets, and calls upon his fellows to admire
+them, and believe in them. As well as I can
+make out, it is not of the least importance
+what images of Men are put astride upon
+these images of Horses, for I don’t find any
+famous personage among them—except one,
+and <i>his</i> image seems to have been contracted
+for, by the gross. The jockeys who ride our
+statues are very queer jockeys, it appears to
+me, but it is something to find Man even
+posthumously sensible of what he owes to us.
+I believe that when he has done any great
+wrong to any very distinguished Horse, deceased,
+he gets up a subscription to have an
+awkward likeness of him made, and erects it
+in a public place, to be generally venerated.
+I can find no other reason for the statues of
+us that abound.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“It must be regarded as a part of the inconsistency
+of Man, that he erects no statues to
+the Donkeys—who, though far inferior animals
+to ourselves, have great claims upon him. I
+should think a Donkey opposite the Horse at
+Hyde Park, another in Trafalgar Square, and
+a group of Donkeys, in brass, outside the
+Guildhall of the City of London (for I believe
+the Common Council Chamber is inside that
+building) would be pleasant and appropriate
+memorials.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“I am not aware that I can suggest anything
+more, to my honorable friend the Raven,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_507'>507</span>which will not already have occurred to his
+fine intellect. Like myself, he is the victim
+of brute force, and must bear it until the
+present state of things is changed—as it
+possibly may be in the good time which I
+understand is coming, if I wait a little
+longer.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>There! How do you like that? That’s
+the Horse! You shall have another animal’s
+sentiments, soon. I have communicated
+with plenty ’of em, and they are all down
+upon you. It’s not I alone who have found
+you out. You are generally detected, I am
+happy to say, and shall be covered with
+confusion.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Talking about the horse, are you going to set
+up any more horses? Eh? Think a bit. Come!
+You haven’t got horses enough yet, surely?
+Couldn’t you put somebody else on horseback,
+and stick him up, at the cost of a few thousands?
+You have already statues to most of
+the “benefactors of mankind,” (<span class='sc'>see Advertisement</span>)
+in your principal cities. You
+walk through groves of great inventors, instructors,
+discoverers, assuagers of pain, preventers
+of disease, suggesters of purifying
+thoughts, doers of noble deeds. Finish the
+list. Come!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Whom will you hoist into the saddle?
+Let’s have a cardinal virtue! Shall it be
+Faith? Hope? Charity? Aye, Charity’s the
+virtue to ride on horseback! Let’s have
+Charity!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>How shall we represent it? Eh? What do
+you think? Royal? Certainly. Duke? Of
+course. Charity always was typified in that
+way, from the time of a certain widow, downwards.
+And there’s nothing less left to put
+up; all the commoners who were “benefactors
+of mankind” having had their statues in the
+public places, long ago.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>How shall we dress it? Rags? Low. Drapery?
+Common-place. Field-Marshal’s uniform?
+The very thing! Charity in a Field-Marshal’s
+uniform (none the worse for wear)
+with thirty thousand pounds a year, public
+money, in its pocket, and fifteen thousand
+more, public money, up behind, will be a
+piece of plain uncompromising truth in the
+highways, and an honor to the country and
+the time.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Ha, ha, ha! You can’t leave the memory
+of an unassuming, honest, good-natured,
+amiable old Duke alone, without bespattering
+it with your flunkeyism, can’t you? That’s
+right—and like you! Here are three brass
+buttons in my crop. I’ll subscribe ’em all.
+One, to the statue of Charity; one, to a statue
+of Hope; one, to a statue of Faith. For Faith,
+we’ll have the Nepaulese Ambassador on
+horseback—being a prince. And for Hope,
+we’ll put the Hippopotamus on horseback,
+and so make a group.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Let’s have a meeting about it!</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>A SHILLING’S WORTH OF SCIENCE.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>Dr. Paris has already shown, in a charming
+little book treating scientifically of children’s
+toys, how easy even “philosophy in sport can
+be made science in earnest.” An earlier genius
+cut out the whole alphabet into the figures of
+uncouth animals, and enclosed them in a toybox
+representing Noah’s Ark, for the purpose
+of teaching children their letters. Europe,
+Asia, Africa, and America have been decimated;
+“yea, the great globe itself,” has
+been parcelled into little wooden sections, that
+their readjustment into a continuous map
+might teach the infant conqueror of the world
+the relative positions of distant countries.
+Archimedes might have discovered the principle
+of the lever and the fundamental principles
+of gravity upon a rocking-horse. In like
+manner he might have ascertained the laws
+of hydrostatics, by observing the impetus of
+many natural and artificial fountains, which
+must occasionally have come beneath his eye.
+So also the principles of acoustics might even
+now be taught by the aid of a penny whistle,
+and there is no knowing how much children’s
+nursery games may yet be rendered subservient
+to the advancement of science. The
+famous Dr. Cornelius Scriblerus had excellent
+notions on these subjects. He determined
+that his son Martinus should be the most
+learned and universally well-informed man of
+his age, and had recourse to all sorts of
+devices in order to inspire him even unthinkingly
+with knowledge. He determined
+that everything should contribute to the improvement
+of his mind,—even his very dress.
+He therefore, his biographer informs us,
+invented for him a geographical suit of clothes,
+which might give him some hints of that
+science, and also of the commerce of different
+nations. His son’s disposition to mathematics—for
+he was a remarkable child—was
+discovered very early by his drawing
+parallel lines on his bread and butter, and
+intersecting them at equal angles, so as to
+form the whole superficies into squares. His
+father also wisely resolved that he should
+acquire the learned languages, especially
+Greek,—and remarking, curiously enough,
+that young Martinus Scriblerus was remarkably
+fond of gingerbread, the happy idea
+came into his parental head that his pieces
+of gingerbread should be stamped with the
+letters of the Greek alphabet; and such was
+the child’s avidity for knowledge, that the very
+first day he eat down to <i>iota</i>.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>When Sir Isaac Newton changed his residence
+and went to live in Leicester Place, his
+next door neighbour was a widow lady, who
+was much puzzled by the little she observed
+of the habits of the philosopher. One of the
+Fellows of the Royal Society, called upon her
+one day, when among other domestic news,
+she mentioned that some one had come to
+reside in the adjoining house, who she felt
+certain was a poor mad gentleman. “And
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_508'>508</span>why so?” asked her friend. “Because,” said
+she, “he diverts himself in the oddest way
+imaginable. Every morning when the sun
+shines so brightly that we are obliged to
+draw down the window-blinds, he takes his
+seat on a little stool before a tub of
+soap-suds, and occupies himself for hours
+blowing soap-bubbles through a common
+clay-pipe, which he intently watches floating
+about until they burst. He is doubtless,”
+she added, “now at his favourite diversion, for
+it is a fine day; do come and look at him.”
+The gentleman smiled; and they went upstairs,
+when after looking through the staircase
+window into the adjoining court-yard, he
+turned round and said, “My dear lady, the
+person whom you suppose to be a poor
+lunatic, is no other than the great Sir Isaac
+Newton studying the refraction of light upon
+thin plates, a phenomenon which is beautifully
+exhibited upon the surface of a common
+soap-bubble.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The principle, illustrated by the examples
+we have given, has been efficiently followed
+by the Directors of the Royal Polytechnic
+Institution in Regent Street, London. Even
+the simplest models and objects they exhibit
+in their extensive halls and galleries, expound—like
+Sir Isaac Newton’s soap-bubble—some
+important principle of Science or Art.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>On entering the Hall of Manufactures (as
+we did the other day) it was impossible not to
+be impressed with the conviction that we are
+in an utilitarian age in which the science of
+Mechanics advances with marvellous rapidity.
+Here we observed steam-engines, hand-looms,
+and machines in active operation, surrounding
+us with that peculiar din which makes the air</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“Murmur, as with the sound of summer-flies.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Passing into the “Gallery in the Great
+Hall,” we did not fail to derive a momentary
+amusement, from observing the very different
+objects which seemed most to excite the
+attention and interest of the different sightseers.
+Here, stood obviously a country farmer
+examining the model of a steam-plough;
+there, a Manchester or Birmingham manufacturer
+looking into a curious and complicated
+weaving machine; here, we noticed
+a group of ladies admiring specimens of elaborate
+carving in ivory, and personal ornaments
+esteemed highly fashionable at the
+antipodes; and there, the smiling faces of
+youth watching with eager eyes the little
+boats and steamers paddling along the Water
+Reservoir in the central counter. But we
+had scarcely looked around us, when a bell
+rang to announce a lecture on Voltaic Electricity
+by Dr. Bachhoffner; and moving
+with the stream of people up a short staircase,
+we soon found ourselves in a very commodious
+and well arranged theatre. There
+are many universities and public institutions
+that have not better lecture rooms than this
+theatre in the Royal Polytechnic Institution.
+The lecture was elementary and exceedingly
+instructive, pointing out and showing by experiments,
+the identity between Magnetism
+and Electricity—light and heat: but notwithstanding
+the extreme perspicuity of the
+Professor, it was our fate to sit next two old
+ladies who seemed to be very incredulous
+about the whole business.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“If heat and light are the same thing,”
+asked one, “why don’t a flame come out at
+the spout of a boiling tea-kettle?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“The steam,” answered the other, “may
+account for that.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Hush!” cried somebody behind them;
+and the ladies were silent: but it was plain
+they thought Voltaic Electricity had something
+to do with conjuring, and that the lecturer
+might be a professor of Magic. The lecture
+over, we returned to the Gallery, where we
+found the Diving Bell just about to be put
+in operation. It is made of cast iron, and
+weighs three tons; the interior being provided
+with seats, and lighted by openings
+in the crown, upon which a plate
+of thick glass is secured. The weighty
+instrument suspended by a massive chain to
+a large swing crane, was soon in motion, when
+we observed our sceptical lady-friends join a
+party and enter, in order, we presume, to
+make themselves more sure of the truth of
+the diving bell than they could do of the
+identity between light and heat. The Bell
+was soon swung round and lowered into a
+tank, which holds nearly ten thousand gallons
+of water; but we confess our fears for the
+safety of its inmates were greatly appeased,
+when we learned that the whole of this
+reservoir of water could be emptied in less
+than one minute. Slowly and steadily was
+the Bell drawn up again, and we had the satisfaction
+of seeing the enterprising ladies and
+their companions alight on <i><span lang="la">terra firma</span></i>, nothing
+injured excepting that they were greatly flushed
+in the face. A man, clad in a water-tight
+dress and surmounted with a diving helmet,
+next performed a variety of sub-aqueous feats;
+much to the amusement and astonishment of
+the younger part of the audience, one of
+whom shouted as he came up above the
+surface of the water, “Oh! Ma’a! Don’t he
+look like an Ogre!” and certainly the shining
+brass helmet and staring large plate-glass
+eyes fairly warranted such a suggestion.
+The principles of the Diving Bell and of
+the Diving Helmet, are too well known to
+require explanation; but the practical utility
+of these machines is daily proved. Even
+while we now write, it has been ascertained
+that the foundations of Blackfriars Bridge are
+giving way. The bed of the river, owing to
+the constant ebb and flow of its waters, has
+sunk some six or seven feet below its level,
+since the bridge was built, thus undermining
+its foundation; and this effect, it is presumed,
+has been greatly augmented by the removal
+of the old London Bridge, the works surrounding
+which operated as a dam in checking
+the force of the current. These machines, also,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_509'>509</span>are constantly used in repairing the bottom of
+docks, landing-piers, and in the construction of
+breakwater works, such as those which are at
+present being raised at Dover Harbour.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Among other remarkable objects in the
+museum of natural history we recognised,
+swimming upon his shingly bed under a glass
+case, our old friend the Gymnotus Electricus,
+or Electrical Eel. Truly, he is a marvellous
+fish. The power which animals of every
+description possess in adapting themselves to
+external and adventitious circumstances, is
+here marvellously illustrated, for, notwithstanding
+this creature is surrounded by the
+greatest possible amount of artificial circumstances,
+inasmuch as instead of sporting in his
+own pellucid and sparkling waters of the
+River Amazon, he is here confined in a glass
+prison, in water artificially heated; instead
+of his natural food, he is here supplied with
+fish not indigenous to his native country,
+and denied access to fresh air, with sunlight
+sparkling upon the surface of the waves—he
+is here surrounded by an impure and obscure
+atmosphere, with crowds of people constantly
+moving to and fro and gazing upon him;—yet,
+notwithstanding all these disadvantageous
+circumstances, he has continued to
+thrive; nay, since we saw him, ten years
+ago, he has increased in size and is apparently
+very healthy, notwithstanding that he is
+obviously quite blind.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>This specimen of the Gymnotus Electricus
+was caught in the River Amazon, and was
+brought over to this country by Mr. Potter,
+where it arrived on the 12th of August, 1838,
+when he displayed it to the proprietors of the
+Adelaide Gallery. In the first instance, there
+was some difficulty in keeping him alive, for,
+whether from sickness, or sulkiness, he refused
+food of every description, and is said to have
+eaten nothing from the day he was taken in
+March, 1838, to the 19th of the following October.
+He was confided upon his arrival to the
+care of Mr. Bradley, who placed him in an
+apartment the temperature of which could
+be maintained at about seventy-five degrees
+Fahrenheit, and acting upon the suggestions of
+Baron Humboldt, he endeavoured to feed him
+with bits of boiled meat, worms, frogs, fish, and
+bread, which were all tried in succession. But
+the animal would not touch these. The plan
+adopted by the London fishmongers for fattening
+the common Eel was then had recourse
+to;—a quantity of bullock’s blood was put
+into the water, care being taken that it should
+be changed daily, and this was attended with
+some beneficial effects, as the animal gradually
+improved in health. In the month of October
+it occurred to Mr. Bradley to tempt him with
+some small fish, and the first gudgeon thrown
+into the water he darted at and swallowed
+with avidity. From that period the same diet
+has been continued, and he is now fed three
+times a day, and upon each occasion is given
+two or three carp, or perch, or gudgeon, each
+weighing from two to three ounces.  In
+watching his movements we observed, that in
+swimming about he seems to delight in
+rubbing himself against the gravel which
+forms the bed above which he floats, and the
+water immediately becomes clouded with the
+mucus from which he thus relieves the surface
+of his body.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>When this species of fish was first discovered,
+marvellous accounts respecting them
+were transmitted to the Royal Society: it
+was even said that in the River Surinam, in
+the western province of Guiana, some existed
+twenty feet long. The present specimen is
+forty inches in length; and measures eighteen
+inches round the body; and his physiognomy
+justifies the description given by one of the
+early narrators, who remarked, that the
+Gymnotus “resembles one of our common
+eels, except that its head is flat, and its mouth
+wide, like that of a cat-fish, without teeth.”
+It is certainly ugly enough. On its first
+arrival in England, the proprietors offered
+Professor Faraday (to whom this country may
+possibly discover, within the next five hundred
+years, that it owes something) the privilege
+of experimenting upon him for scientific purposes,
+and the result of a great number of experiments,
+ingeniously devised, and executed with
+great nicety, clearly proved the identity between
+the electricity of the fish and the common
+electricity. The shock, the circuit, the spark,
+were distinctly obtained; the galvanometer
+was sensibly affected; chemical decompositions
+were obtained; an annealed steel
+needle became magnetic, and the direction of
+its polarity indicated a current from the
+anterior to the posterior parts of the fish,
+through the conductors used. The force
+with which the electric discharge is made is
+also very considerable, for this philosopher
+tells us we may conclude that a single medium
+discharge of the fish is at least equal to the
+electricity of a Leyden Battery of fifteen jars,
+containing three thousand five hundred square
+inches of glass, coated upon both sides, charged
+to its highest degree. But great as is the force
+of a single discharge, the Gymnotus will sometimes
+give a double, and even a triple shock,
+with scarcely any interval. Nor is this all.
+The instinctive action it has recourse to in
+order to augment the force of the shock, is
+very remarkable.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The Professor one day dropped a live fish,
+five inches long, into the tub; upon which the
+Gymnotus turned round in such a manner as
+to form a coil enclosing the fish, the latter
+representing a diameter across it, and the fish
+was struck motionless, as if lightning had
+passed through the water. The Gymnotus
+then made a turn to look for his prey, which
+having found, he bolted it, and then went
+about seeking for more. A second smaller
+fish was then given him, which being hurt,
+showed little signs of life; and this he swallowed
+apparently without “shocking it.” We
+are informed by Dr. Williamson, in a paper
+he communicated some years ago to the Royal
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_510'>510</span>Society, that a fish already struck motionless
+gave signs of returning animation, which the
+Gymnotus observing, he instantly discharged
+another shock, which killed it. Another
+curious circumstance was observed by Professor
+Faraday,—the Gymnotus appeared
+conscious of the difference of giving a shock
+to an animate and an inanimate body, and
+would not be provoked to discharge its powers
+upon the latter. When tormented by a glass
+rod, the creature in the first instance threw
+out a shock, but as if he perceived his mistake,
+he could not be stimulated afterwards
+to repeat it, although the moment the Professor
+touched him with his hands, he discharged
+shock after shock. He refused, in
+like manner, to gratify the curiosity of the
+philosophers, when they touched him with
+metallic conductors, which he permitted them
+to do with indifference. It is worthy of observation,
+that this is the only specimen of the
+Gymnotus Electricus ever brought over alive
+into this country. The great secret of preserving
+his life would appear to consist in
+keeping the water at an even temperature—summer
+and winter—of seventy-five degrees
+of Fahrenheit. After having been subjected
+to a great variety of experiments, the creature
+is now permitted to enjoy the remainder of its
+days in honorable peace, and the only occasion
+upon which he is now disturbed, is when it is
+found necessary to take him out of his shallow
+reservoir to have it cleaned, when he discharges
+angrily enough shock after shock,
+which the attendants describe to be very
+smart, even though he be held in several
+thick and well wetted cloths, for they do not
+at all relish the job.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The Gymnotus Electricus is not the only
+animal endowed with this very singular power;
+there are other fish, especially the Torpedo
+and Silurus, which are equally remarkable,
+and equally well known. The peculiar structure
+which enters into the formation of their
+electrical organs, was first examined by the
+eminent anatomist John Hunter, in the Torpedo;
+and, very recently, Rudolphi has described
+their structure with great exactness in
+the Gymnotus Electricus.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Without entering into minute details, the
+peculiarity of the organic apparatus of the
+Electrical Eel seems to consist in this, that it
+is composed of numerous <i><span lang="la">laminæ</span></i> or thin tendinous
+partitions, between which exists an
+infinite number of small cells filled with a
+thickish gelatinous fluid. These strata and
+cells are supplied with nerves of unusual size,
+and the intensity of the electrical power is
+presumed to depend on the amount of nervous
+energy accumulated in these cells, whence it
+can be voluntarily discharged just as a muscle
+may be voluntarily contracted. Furthermore,
+there are, it would appear, good reasons to
+believe that nervous power (in whatever it
+may consist) and electricity are identical.
+The progress of Science has already shown
+the identity between heat, electricity, and
+magnetism;—that heat may be concentrated
+into electricity, and this electricity reconverted
+into heat; that electric force may be
+converted into magnetic force, and Professor
+Faraday himself discovered how, by reacting
+back again, the magnetic force can be reconverted
+into the electric force, and <i><span lang="la">vice versâ</span></i>;
+and should the identity between electricity
+and nervous power be as clearly established,
+one of the most important and interesting
+problems in Physiology will be solved.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Every new discovery in Science, and all improvements
+in Industrial Art, the principles of
+which are capable of being rendered in the
+least degree interesting, are in this Exhibition
+forthwith popularised, and become, as it were,
+public property. Every individual of the great
+public can at the very small cost of one
+shilling, claim his or her share in the property
+thus attractively collected, and a small
+amount of previous knowledge or natural intelligence
+will put the visitor in actual possession
+of treasures which previously “he wot not
+of,” in so amusing a manner that they will
+be beguiled rather than bored into his mind.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR.</h2>
+</div>
+<h3 class='c007'>AN ATTORNEY’S STORY.</h3>
+
+<p class='c008'>One morning, about five years ago, I called
+by appointment on Mr. John Balance, the
+fashionable pawnbroker, to accompany him
+to Liverpool, in pursuit for a Levanting
+customer,—for Balance, in addition to pawning,
+does a little business in the sixty per
+cent. line. It rained in torrents when the cab
+stopped at the passage which leads past the
+pawning boxes to his private door. The
+cabman rang twice, and at length Balance appeared,
+looming through the mist and rain in
+the entry, illuminated by his perpetual cigar.
+As I eyed him rather impatiently, remembering
+that trains wait for no man, something
+like a hairy dog, or a bundle of rags, rose up
+at his feet, and barred his passage for a
+moment. Then Balance cried out with an
+exclamation, in answer apparently to a something
+I could not hear, “What, man alive!—slept
+in the passage!—there, take that, and
+get some breakfast for Heaven’s sake!” So
+saying, he jumped into the “Hansom,” and
+we bowled away at ten miles an hour, just
+catching the Express as the doors of the
+station were closing. My curiosity was full
+set,—for although Balance can be free with
+his money, it is not exactly to beggars that his
+generosity is usually displayed; so when comfortably
+ensconced in a <i><span lang="fr">coupé</span></i>, I finished with—</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“You are liberal with your money this
+morning: pray, how often do you give silver
+to street cadgers?—because I shall know now
+what walk to take when flats and sharps
+leave off buying law.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Balance, who would have made an excellent
+parson if he had not been bred to a case-hardening
+trade, and has still a soft bit
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_511'>511</span>left in his heart that is always fighting with his
+hard head, did not smile at all, but looked
+as grim as if squeezing a lemon into his
+Saturday night’s punch. He answered slowly,
+“A cadger—yes; a beggar—a miserable wretch,
+he is now; but let me tell you, Master David,
+that that miserable bundle of rags was born
+and bred a gentleman; the son of a nobleman,
+the husband of an heiress, and has sat
+and dined at tables where you and I, Master
+David, are only allowed to view the plate by
+favour of the butler. I have lent him thousands,
+and been well paid. The last thing I
+had from him was his court suit; and I hold
+now his bill for one hundred pounds that will
+be paid, I expect, when he dies.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Why, what nonsense you are talking! you
+must be dreaming this morning. However,
+we are alone, I’ll light a weed, in defiance of
+Railway law, you shall spin that yarn; for,
+true or untrue, it will fill up the time to
+Liverpool.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“As for yarn,” replied Balance, “the whole
+story is short enough; and as for truth, that
+you may easily find out if you like to take
+the trouble. I thought the poor wretch was
+dead, and I own it put me out meeting him
+this morning, for I had a curious dream last
+night.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Oh, hang your dreams! Tell us about
+this gentleman beggar that bleeds you of half-crowns—that
+melts the heart even of a pawnbroker!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Well, then, that beggar is the illegitimate
+son of the late Marquis of Hoopborough by a
+Spanish lady of rank. He received a first-rate
+education, and was brought up in his
+father’s house. At a very early age he obtained
+an appointment in a public office, was
+presented by the marquis at court, and received
+into the first society, where his handsome
+person and agreeable manners made him
+a great favourite. Soon after coming of age,
+he married the daughter of Sir E. Bumper,
+who brought him a very handsome fortune,
+which was strictly settled on herself. They
+lived in splendid style, kept several carriages,
+a house in town, and a place in the country.
+For some reason or other, idleness, or to
+please his lady’s pride he said, he resigned his
+appointment. His father died, and left him
+nothing; indeed, he seemed at that time very
+handsomely provided for.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Very soon Mr. and Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy
+began to disagree. She was cold, correct—he
+was hot and random. He was quite
+dependant on her, and she made him feel it.
+When he began to get into debt, he came
+to me. At length some shocking quarrel
+occurred; some case of jealousy on the wife’s
+side, not without reason, I believe; and the
+end of it was Mr. Fitz-Roy was turned out of
+doors. The house was his wife’s, the furniture
+was his wife’s, and the fortune was his wife’s—he
+was, in fact, her pensioner. He left with
+a few hundred pounds ready money, and some
+personal jewellery, and went to an hotel. On
+these and credit he lived. Being illegitimate,
+he had no relations; being a fool, when he
+spent his money he lost his friends. The world
+took his wife’s part, when they found she had
+the fortune, and the only parties who interfered
+were her relatives, who did their best
+to make the quarrel incurable. To crown
+all, one night he was run over by a cab, was
+carried to a hospital, and lay there for months,
+and was during several weeks of the time unconscious.
+A message to the wife, by the
+hands of one of his debauched companions,
+sent by a humane surgeon, obtained an intimation
+that ‘if he died, Mr. Croak, the
+undertaker to the family, had orders to see to
+the funeral,’ and that Mrs. Molinos was on
+the point of starting for the Continent, not to
+return for some years. When Fitz-Roy was
+discharged, he came to me limping on two
+sticks, to pawn his court suit, and told me
+his story. I was really sorry for the fellow,
+such a handsome, thoroughbred-looking man.
+He was going then into the west somewhere,
+to try to hunt out a friend. ‘What to
+do, Balance,’ he said, ‘I don’t know. I can’t
+dig, and unless somebody will make me their
+gamekeeper, I must starve, or beg, as my
+Jezebel bade me when we parted!’</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I lost sight of Molinos for a long time, and
+when I next came upon him it was in the
+Rookery of Westminster, in a low lodging-house,
+where I was searching with an officer
+for stolen goods. He was pointed out to me
+as the ‘gentleman cadger,’ because he was
+so free with his money when ‘in luck.’ He
+recognised me, but turned away then. I have
+since seen him, and relieved him more than
+once, although he never asks for anything.
+How he lives, Heaven knows. Without money,
+without friends, without useful education of
+any kind, he tramps the country, as you saw
+him, perhaps doing a little hop-picking or
+hay-making, in season, only happy when he
+obtains the means to get drunk. I have heard
+through the kitchen whispers that you know
+come to me, that he is entitled to some property;
+and I expect if he were to die his wife
+would pay the hundred pound bill I hold; at
+any rate, what I have told you I know to be
+true, and the bundle of rags I relieved just
+now is known in every thieves’ lodging in England
+as the ‘gentleman cadger.’”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>This story produced an impression on me,—I
+am fond of speculation, and like the excitement
+of a legal hunt as much as some do a
+fox-chase. A gentleman a beggar, a wife
+rolling in wealth, rumours of unknown property
+due to the husband: it seemed as if
+there were pickings for me amidst this carrion
+of pauperism.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Before returning from Liverpool, I had
+purchased the gentleman beggar’s acceptance
+from Balance. I then inserted in the “Times”
+the following advertisement: “<i>Horatio Molinos
+Fitz-Roy</i>.—If this gentleman will apply
+to David Discount, Esq., Solicitor, St. James’s,
+he will hear of something to his advantage.
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_512'>512</span>Any person furnishing Mr. F.’s correct address,
+shall receive 1<i>l.</i> 1<i>s.</i> reward. He was
+last seen,” &#38;c. Within twenty-four hours I
+had ample proof of the wide circulation of
+the “Times.” My office was besieged with
+beggars of every degree, men and women,
+lame and blind, Irish, Scotch, and English,
+some on crutches, some in bowls, some in
+go-carts. They all knew him as “the gentleman,”
+and I must do the regular fraternity of
+tramps the justice to say that not one would
+answer a question until he made certain that
+I meant the “gentleman” no harm.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>One evening, about three weeks after the
+appearance of the advertisement, my clerk
+announced “another beggar.” There came in
+an old man leaning upon a staff, clad in a
+soldier’s great coat all patched and torn, with
+a battered hat, from under which a mass of
+tangled hair fell over his shoulders and half
+concealed his face. The beggar, in a weak,
+wheezy, hesitating tone, said, “You have advertised
+for Molinos Fitz-roy, I hope you don’t
+mean him any harm; he is sunk, I think, too low
+for enmity now; and surely no one would sport
+with such misery as his.” These last words
+were uttered in a sort of piteous whisper.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I answered quickly, “Heaven forbid I
+should sport with misery: I mean and hope to
+do him good, as well as myself.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Then, Sir, I am Molinos Fitz-Roy!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>While we were conversing candles had
+been brought in. I have not very tender
+nerves—my head would not agree with them—but
+I own I started and shuddered when I
+saw and knew that the wretched creature
+before me was under thirty years of age and
+once a gentleman. Sharp, aquiline features,
+reduced to literal skin and bone, were begrimed
+and covered with dry fair hair; the white
+teeth of the half-open mouth chattered with
+eagerness, and made more hideous the foul
+pallor of the rest of the countenance. As he
+stood leaning on a staff half bent, his long,
+yellow bony fingers clasped over the crutch-head
+of his stick, he was indeed a picture of
+misery, famine, squalor, and premature age,
+too horrible to dwell upon. I made him sit
+down, sent for some refreshment which he
+devoured like a ghoul, and set to work to
+unravel his story. It was difficult to keep
+him to the point; but with pains I learned
+what convinced me that he was entitled to
+some property, whether great or small there
+was no evidence. On parting, I said “Now
+Mr. F., you must stay in town while I make
+proper enquiries. What allowance will be
+enough to keep you comfortably?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>He answered humbly after much pressing,
+“Would you think ten shillings too much?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I don’t like, if I do those things at all, to do
+them shabbily, so I said, “Come every Saturday
+and you shall have a pound.” He was
+profuse in thanks of course, as all such men
+are as long as distress lasts.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I had previously learned that my ragged
+client’s wife was in England, living in a
+splendid house in Hyde Park Gardens, under
+her maiden name. On the following day the
+Earl of Owing called upon me, wanting five
+thousand pounds by five o’clock the same
+evening. It was a case of life or death with
+him, so I made my terms and took advantage
+of his pressure to execute a <i><span lang="fr">coup de main</span></i>. I
+proposed that he should drive me home to
+receive the money, calling at Mrs. Molinos in
+Hyde Park Gardens, on our way. I knew
+that the coronet and liveries of his father, the
+Marquis, would ensure me an audience with
+Mrs. Molinos Fitz-Roy.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>My scheme answered. I was introduced
+into the lady’s presence. She was, and probably
+is, a very stately, handsome woman,
+with a pale complexion, high solid forehead,
+regular features, thin, pinched, self-satisfied
+mouth. My interview was very short. I
+plunged into the middle of the affair, but had
+scarcely mentioned the word husband, when
+she interrupted me with “I presume you have
+lent this profligate person money, and want
+me to pay you.” She paused, and then said,
+“He shall not have a farthing.” As she spoke,
+her white face became scarlet.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“But, Madam, the man is starving. I have
+strong reasons for believing he is entitled to
+property, and if you refuse any assistance, I
+must take other measures.” She rang the
+bell, wrote something rapidly on a card; and,
+as the footman appeared, pushed it towards
+me across the table, with the air of touching
+a toad, saying, “There, Sir, is the address of
+my solicitors; apply to them if you think you
+have any claim. Robert, show the person out,
+and take care he is not admitted again.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>So far I had effected nothing; and, to tell the
+truth, felt rather crest-fallen under the influence
+of that grand manner peculiar to certain
+great ladies and to all great actresses.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>My next visit was to the attorneys
+Messrs. Leasem and Fashun, of Lincoln’s Inn
+Square, and there I was at home. I had had
+dealings with the firm before. They are
+agents for half the aristocracy, who always
+run in crowds like sheep after the same wine-merchants,
+the same architects, the same
+horse-dealers, and the same law-agents. It
+may be doubted whether the quality of law
+and land management they get on this principle
+is quite equal to their wine and horses.
+At any rate, my friends of Lincoln’s Inn,
+like others of the same class, are distinguished
+by their courteous manners, deliberate proceedings,
+innocence of legal technicalities, long
+credit and heavy charges. Leasem, the elder
+partner, wears powder and a huge bunch of
+seals, lives in Queen Square, drives a brougham,
+gives the dinners and does the cordial department.
+He is so strict in performing the
+latter duty, that he once addressed a poacher
+who had shot a Duke’s keeper, as “my dear
+creature,” although he afterwards hung him.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Fashun has chambers in St. James Street,
+drives a cab, wears a tip, and does the grand
+haha style.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_513'>513</span>My business lay with Leasem. The interviews
+and letters passing were numerous.
+However, it came at last to the following dialogue:—</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Well, my dear Mr. Discount,” began Mr.
+Leasem, who hates me like poison. “I’m
+really very sorry for that poor dear Molinos—knew
+his father well; a great man, a perfect
+gentleman; but you know what women are,
+eh, Mr. Discount? My client won’t advance
+a shilling, she knows it would only be wasted
+in low dissipation. Now don’t you think (this
+was said very insinuatingly)—don’t you think
+he had better be sent to the workhouse; very
+comfortable accommodation there, I can assure
+you—meat twice a week, and excellent soup;
+and then, Mr. D., we might consider about
+allowing you something for that bill.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Mr. Leasem, can you reconcile it to your
+conscience to make such an arrangement.
+Here’s a wife rolling in luxury, and a husband
+starving!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“No, Mr. Discount, not starving; there is
+the workhouse, as I observed before; besides,
+allow me to suggest that these appeals to
+feeling are quite unprofessional—quite unprofessional.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“But, Mr. Leasem, touching this property
+which the poor man is entitled to.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Why, there again, Mr. D., you must excuse
+me; you really must. I don’t say he is, I don’t
+say he is not. If you know he is entitled to
+property, I am sure you know how to proceed;
+the law is open to you, Mr. Discount—the
+law is open; and a man of your talent will
+know how to use it.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Then, Mr. Leasem, you mean that I must,
+in order to right this starving man, file a Bill
+of Discovery, to extract from you the particulars
+of his rights. You have the Marriage
+Settlement, and all the information, and you
+decline to allow a pension, or afford any information;
+the man is to starve, or go to the
+workhouse?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Why, Mr. D., you are so quick and violent,
+it really is not professional; but you see
+(here a subdued smile of triumph), it has been
+decided that a solicitor is not bound to afford
+such information as you ask, to the injury of
+his client.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Then you mean that this poor Molinos may
+rot and starve, while you keep secret from
+him, at his wife’s request, his title to an
+income, and that the Court of Chancery will
+back you in this iniquity?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I kept repeating the word “starve,” because
+I saw it made my respectable opponent wince.
+“Well, then, just listen to me. I know that
+in the happy state of our equity law, Chancery
+can’t help my client; but I have another plan;
+I shall go hence to my office, issue a writ,
+and take your client’s husband in execution—as
+soon as he is lodged in jail, I shall file his
+schedule in the Insolvent Court, and when he
+comes up for his discharge, I shall put you in
+the witness-box, and examine you on oath,
+‘touching any property of which you know
+the insolvent to be possessed,’ and where will
+be your privileged communications then?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The respectable Leasem’s face lengthened
+in a twinkling, his comfortable confident air
+vanished, he ceased twiddling his gold chain,
+and at length he muttered, “Suppose we pay
+the debt?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Why then, I’ll arrest him the day after
+for another.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“But, my dear Mr. Discount, surely such
+conduct would not be quite respectable?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“That’s my business; my client has been
+wronged, I am determined to right him, and
+when the aristocratic firm of Leasem and
+Fashun takes refuge according to the custom
+of respectable repudiators, in the cool arbours
+of the Court of Chancery, why, a mere bill-discounting
+attorney like David Discount
+need not hesitate about cutting a bludgeon
+out of the Insolvent Court.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Well, well, Mr. D., you are so warm—so
+fiery; we must deliberate, we must consult.
+You will give me until the day after to-morrow,
+and then we’ll write you our final
+determination; in the mean time, send us
+copy of your authority to act for Mr. Molinos
+Fitz-Roy.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Of course I lost no time in getting the
+gentleman beggar to sign a proper letter.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>On the appointed day came a communication
+with the L. and F. seal, which I opened
+not without unprofessional eagerness. It was
+as follows:</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b c009'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“<i>In re Molinos Fitz-Roy and Another.</i></div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c006'>“Sir,—In answer to your application on behalf
+of Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy, we beg to inform
+you that under the administration of a paternal
+aunt who died intestate, your client is entitled
+to two thousand five hundred pounds eight
+shillings and sixpence, Three per Cents.; one
+thousand five hundred pounds nineteen shillings
+and fourpence, Three per Cents. Reduced;
+one thousand pounds, Long Annuities; five
+hundred pounds, Bank Stock; three thousand
+five hundred pounds, India Stock, besides
+other securities, making up about ten thousand
+pounds, which we are prepared to transfer
+over to Mr. Molinos Fitz-Roy’s direction
+forthwith.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Here was a windfall! It quite took away
+my breath.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>At dusk came my gentleman beggar, and
+what puzzled me was how to break the news
+to him. Being very much overwhelmed with
+business that day, I had not much time for
+consideration. He came in rather better
+dressed than when I first saw him, with only
+a week’s beard on his chin; but, as usual, not
+quite sober. Six weeks had elapsed since
+our first interview. He was still the humble,
+trembling, low-voiced creature, I first knew
+him.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>After a prelude, I said, “I find, Mr. F.,
+you are entitled to something; pray, what do
+you mean to give me in addition to my bill,
+for obtaining it?” He answered rapidly, “Oh,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_514'>514</span>take half: if there is one hundred pounds,
+take half: if there is five hundred pounds,
+take half.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“No, no; Mr. F., I don’t do business in
+that way, I shall be satisfied with ten per
+cent.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It was so settled. I then led him out into
+the street, impelled to tell him the news, yet
+dreading the effect; not daring to make the
+revelation in my office, for fear of a scene.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I began hesitatingly, “Mr. Fitz-Roy I am
+happy to say that I find you are entitled to&#160;...
+ten thousand pounds!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Ten thousand pounds!” he echoed. “Ten
+thousand pounds!” he shrieked. “Ten thousand
+pounds!” he yelled; seizing my arm
+violently. “You are a brick,——Here, cab!
+cab!” Several drove up—the shout might
+have been heard a mile off. He jumped in the
+first.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Where to?” said the driver.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“To a tailor’s, you rascal!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Ten thousand pounds! ha, ha, ha!” he
+repeated hysterically, when in the cab; and
+every moment grasping my arm. Presently
+he subsided, looked me straight in the face,
+and muttered with agonising fervour, “What
+a jolly brick you are!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The tailor, the hosier, the bootmaker, the
+hairdresser, were in turn visited by this poor
+pagan of externals. As by degrees under
+their hands he emerged from the beggar to
+the gentleman, his spirits rose; his eyes
+brightened; he walked erect, but always
+nervously grasping my arm; fearing, apparently,
+to lose sight of me for a moment,
+lest his fortune should vanish with me. The
+impatient pride with which he gave his
+orders to the astonished tradesman for the
+finest and best of everything, and the amazed
+air of the fashionable hairdresser when he
+presented his matted locks and stubble chin,
+to be “cut and shaved,” may be <i>acted</i>—it
+cannot be described.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>By the time the external transformation
+was complete, and I sat down in a <i><span lang="fr">Café</span></i> in the
+Haymarket opposite a haggard but handsome
+thoroughbred-looking man, whose air, with
+the exception of the wild eyes and deeply
+browned face, did not differ from the stereotyped
+men about town sitting around us, Mr.
+Molinos Fitz-Roy had already almost forgotten
+the past; he bullied the waiter, and criticised
+the wine, as if he had done nothing else but
+dine and drink and scold there all the days
+of his life.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Once he wished to drink my health, and
+would have proclaimed his whole story to
+the coffee-room assembly, in a raving style.
+When I left he almost wept in terror at the
+idea of losing sight of me. But, allowing for
+these ebullitions—the natural result of such a
+whirl of events—he was wonderfully calm and
+self-possessed.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The next day, his first care was to distribute
+fifty pounds among his friends the cadgers,
+at a house of call in Westminster, and
+formally to dissolve his connection with them;
+those present undertaking for the “fraternity,”
+that for the future he should never
+be noticed by them in public or private.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I cannot follow his career much further.
+Adversity had taught him nothing. He was
+soon again surrounded by the well-bred
+vampires who had forgotten him when penniless;
+but they amused him, and that was
+enough. The ten thousand pounds were
+rapidly melting when he invited me to a grand
+dinner at Richmond, which included a dozen
+of the most agreeable, good-looking, well-dressed
+dandies of London, interspersed with
+a display of pretty butterfly bonnets. We
+dined deliciously, and drank as men do of iced
+wines in the dog-days—looking down from
+Richmond Hill.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>One of the pink bonnets crowned Fitz-Roy
+with a wreath of flowers; he looked—less
+the intellect—as handsome as Alcibiades.
+Intensely excited and flushed, he rose with a
+champagne glass in his hand to propose my
+health.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The oratorical powers of his father had not
+descended on him. Jerking out sentences by
+spasms, at length he said, “I was a beggar—I
+am a gentleman—thanks to this——”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Here he leaned on my shoulder heavily a
+moment, and then fell back. We raised him,
+loosened his neckcloth—</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Fainted!” said the ladies—</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Drunk!” said the gentlemen—</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>He was <i>dead</i>!</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>CHIPS.</h2>
+</div>
+<h3 class='c007'>FAMILY COLONISATION LOAN SOCIETY.</h3>
+
+<p class='c008'>If on any Saturday you should chance to
+find your way to Charlton Crescent, an obscure
+thoroughfare lying between the road from
+Islington to Holloway and the New River,
+not far from the Angel, you will see several
+men and women dropping into a small house,
+the parlour window of which contains a
+printed bill with the above words. The
+callers are chiefly of the decent mechanic
+class, and not a few travellers from the
+country,—pilgrims in search of truth about
+emigration. Saturday is the day on which the
+subscriptions of emigrants desiring to avail
+themselves of the Family Colonisation Loan
+Society are received.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>And what is the Colonisation Loan Society?
+The question is worth asking.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It is an association—devised by Mrs. Chisholm,
+and to be speedily carried out extensively
+with the aid of several philanthropists,
+and the advice of two eminent actuaries—for
+establishing a self-supporting system of
+emigration, for assisting industrious people,
+and for promoting practically the spread of
+sound moral principles in a much neglected
+colony.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Persons desirous of emigrating form themselves
+into “groups,” after being mutually
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_515'>515</span>satisfied of their respective suitability and
+respectability. Each intending emigrant pays,
+either in one sum or by weekly instalments,
+as much as will amount to half the passage money
+to Australia. The philanthropists of
+the society lend the other half to be repaid
+by four annual instalments,—each family
+becoming jointly bound for the sums lent to
+each member of that family, and each group
+being publicly pledged to assist in enforcing
+punctual repayments.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The details for securing repayment of the
+loans have been arranged by Mrs. Chisholm,
+and are the result of her large practical
+experience. Each emigrant, when he has paid
+back his loan, will have the privilege of nominating
+a relation or friend to be assisted in
+emigrating with the same amount of money.
+Thus, the original charitable fund will work
+in a circle of colonisation, at the mere sacrifice
+of annual interest. That emigrants among
+the humble classes are willing to remit for
+the purpose of assisting their friends and
+relations to follow them, is proved by the
+fact that, within the last three years, upwards
+of one million sterling has been remitted by
+the Irish emigrants from the United States
+alone, in small sums, to pay the passage of
+parents, brothers, sisters, wives, or sweethearts
+in Ireland. Australia, in proportion
+to its population, affords even greater opportunities
+of earning money wages than the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Mrs. Chisholm’s plan offers several advantages
+of an important character. It will enable
+many to emigrate who, though frugal and
+industrious, are not only unable to raise <i>the
+whole</i> passage money; but, during temporary
+trade-depressions, would be consuming their
+savings. It will keep families united, and
+cherish an honourable, independent spirit. It
+will secure a class of emigrants calculated to
+improve the moral tone of the colony; for, as
+the character of each emigrant will be investigated
+by his fellows, there will be no
+room for the deceptions practised on the
+wealthy charitable. The certificate of shop-mates
+with whom a man has worked, is more
+to be trusted than that of the clergyman who
+has only seen him in his Sunday clothes. It
+will afford the best kind of protection for
+young girls or single women desirous of joining
+friends in Australia, because each ship will be
+filled with “groups” previously acquainted
+and mutually <i>sifted</i>. Among minor advantages,
+the cost of passage and outfit, by the
+aid of co-operation and communication, will
+be much diminished.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The two following instances will display
+the practical working of Mrs. Chisholm’s plan.
+Among the applicants to join the Society (for
+already the working-classes are prepared to
+subscribe two thousand pounds) was an
+artisan in the North, belonging to a trade
+which “strikes” periodically. When contemplating
+these “strikes,” the leaders of the trade
+base their financial arrangements for supporting
+the body while out of work, upon the
+savings made by the more frugal of their
+associates. The artisan in question being a
+Teetotaller and skilful, had three times been
+able to save from fifteen to twenty pounds,
+with the express design of emigrating; but
+twice his stock of cash had been melted in the
+common treasury during strikes. With the
+assistance of a loan from the Society, he will
+now be able to emigrate. There can be no
+fear of such a man not repaying it honourably.
+Had he been able to emigrate a few years
+ago, he must have been wealthy by this time,
+and in a position to help all his relatives to
+join him.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Again, a benevolent Dowager Countess has
+subscribed two hundred and twenty-five
+pounds to this Society; a sum which has been
+appropriated to assisting the following parties
+in making up their passage money to Australia.
+Let us see what this money will do:—</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>It will send three wives with nine children, out
+to join husbands in Australia.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Two aged widows who have children there.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Ditto a man and wife, who have children there.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>M. and wife, with five children.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>H. and wife.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>P. and wife, with three children.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>L. and wife, with seven children. (This man
+has received the insufficient sum of fifty pounds
+to pay his passage from a brother in Australia.)</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>W. and wife, with four children (have received
+twenty-five pounds from Australia for same purpose).</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Five young men, of whom three have relations
+in the Colony.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Nine friendless young women, of whom four
+have relations there.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Thus it will be seen this two hundred and
+twenty-five pound loan affords</p>
+
+<table class='table0'>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c010'>A passage, to</td>
+    <td class='c011'>Adults</td>
+    <td class='c012'>31</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c010'>&#160;</td>
+    <td class='c011'>Children</td>
+    <td class='c012'>28</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c010'>&#160;</td>
+    <td class='c011'>&#160;</td>
+    <td class='c012'><hr></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c010'>&#160;</td>
+    <td class='c013'>Total</td>
+    <td class='c012'>59</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class='c005'>At the end of the first year after the
+arrival of these persons, there will be available
+for assisting other friends and relatives of
+this batch of fifty-nine to join them, about
+forty pounds; at the end of the second year,
+about sixty pounds; third year, about eighty
+pounds; fourth year, about one hundred and
+twenty pounds.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>This system sacrifices no independence;
+incurs scarcely any weight of obligation. It
+affords the best possible kind of assistance;
+for it helps those who help themselves, and
+puts it in their power to help their fellows.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>THE STRANGERS’ LEAF FOR 1851.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>Among the myriads of products of art,
+science, and manufactures, to be congregated
+under Mr. Paxton’s great glass house in Hyde
+Park next year, it is to be hoped that the
+newspaper press will not be unrepresented.
+We do not mean model morning papers, displaying
+several square acres of advertisements,
+or news conveyed from the other hemisphere,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_516'>516</span>by steam and electricity, since the previous
+morning; but a modest sheet, in the humble
+guise of a miniature Morning Post (like the
+Morning Post of old), for the registry of the
+names and “up-puttings” of the tens of thousands
+of strangers who will inevitably be
+thrusting themselves into London, like needles
+in bundles of hay, where nobody can find
+them. Such a humble record as we propose
+already exists, and we will describe it:—</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>About three years since, a brother of the
+well-known German philosopher, Heine,
+established a paper in Vienna, called the
+“<cite>Fremden Blatt</cite>,” or “Strangers’ Leaf.” One
+of its chief objects is to give the names and
+residences of such strangers as arrive daily in
+the capital, and the dates of their departure.
+It is printed on a sheet about the size of a
+lady’s pocket-handkerchief. It costs rather
+less than a penny; the expenses of conducting
+it are trifling, and its circulation is very extensive.
+There is not an hotel or coffee-house,
+not a lounge, or a pastry-cook’s shop (the chief
+place of resort in Vienna), which does not
+take it in, and indeed, among the idlers and
+triflers—a very large class of every population—it
+is the only paper read at all.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It will, perhaps, however, give a better idea
+of it to analyse the contents of the number for
+July 31st, 1850, now before us. The first
+column, and two-thirds of the second, is devoted
+to intelligence connected with Austria
+and the provinces; all short paragraphs, most
+of them of only three or four lines. Their
+matter concerns the movements of persons of
+note, and such military and civil appointments,
+promotions, and retirements, as are likely to
+be of general interest. If they touch upon
+any other news, the bare fact is related without
+comment of any kind. In the next
+column, Foreign news—including the exciting
+intelligence from Schleswig Holstein—are disposed
+of in a dozen paragraphs, containing,
+however, quite as much as it is necessary to
+know to be on equal terms with one’s friends
+after dinner. Then come the domestic <i>on dits</i>
+of Vienna with the current topics of conversation
+and a spice or two of scandal; by
+no means to be imitated here, or anywhere
+else. Births, deaths, marriages, accidents and
+offences, follow. All this is, however, merely
+the prelude. The rise and fall of nations, the
+mere change of a dynasty, or the details of an
+earthquake, are but accessories to the grand
+aim, end, and purpose of the Fremden Blatt’s
+existence. As Sarah Battle relaxed from the
+serious business of whist, to unbend over a
+book, so the editor of the Strangers’ Leaf
+dallies with the great globe itself and its most
+terrific catastrophes to recreate the minds of
+his readers previous to the study of—“arrivals
+and departures.” Upon these the editor
+fastens all his care—all his genius. They are
+alphabetically arranged with great precision.
+They are his leading article. Should a mistake
+occur in geography, or should he be a few
+thousands out in his statistics, it is nothing;
+but the accidental mis-spelling of a title of ten
+syllables; if he happen to leave out a “z” in
+the name of Count Sczorowszantzski; he inserts,
+next morning, an apologetic “erratum”
+of great length.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The utility of such a register in London, at
+the approaching Industrial Fair, as we presume
+to call it, is easily seen. Let us suppose Count
+Smorltork arriving in England with the intention
+of writing an account of the Exposition.
+He has only a few days to make his
+observations; and it is not till he has driven
+half over London, that he discovers of Lord
+Tomnoddy and Sir Carnaby Jenks—from
+whom he expects to derive his chief information—that
+one is at Leamington, and the other
+in Scotland. Or we may imagine Dr. Dommheit,
+with the grave Senor Eriganados, and
+their volatile coadjutor, M. de Tête-vide,
+arriving in our capital on a scientific excursion.
+It costs them a month’s income in
+messengers and cab-fares, and a week’s
+waiting while their strangely spelt letters are
+decyphered at the Post-Office, before they
+learn that Mr. Crypt is off with Lord Rhomboid
+and the Chrononhotonthologos Society,
+somewhere in the provinces; Dr. Dryasdust
+is looking for antiquities in the Hebrides;
+and the oracle of their tribe, Earl Everlasting—having
+been left alone with the
+secretary and the porter at the sixth hour of
+the reading of his paper on the antediluvian
+organisms of a piece of slate—has gone down
+to his “place” in Dorsetshire in a huff. On
+the other hand, the famous Dr. Ledern Langweile,
+Monsieur de Papillon-Sauvage, and the
+great Condé Hermosa-Muchacha-Quieres, are
+going crazy because they cannot find each
+other; yet all are perhaps dwelling within a
+stone’s throw of each other; perhaps in the
+same street or square—most probably Leicester
+Square, which they have been given to understand
+is the most fashionable quarter of the
+town. This is exactly the condition of things
+which may be expected without such a register
+of names and addresses as we suggest.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>To our own men about town, also, or to
+“ladies of condition,” as Addison’s Spectator
+has it, the Strangers’ Leaf will be invaluable.
+None have so little time as the idle; and how
+severely Indolence will have to work for the
+benefit of its foreign and provincial friends
+in 1851, it must tremble to anticipate. To
+relieve it a little, some such means as we
+suggest should be adopted, for allowing
+Indolence to find out easily those strangers
+who have been recommended to his attention
+and good offices. One glance at a
+list of “arrivals” would save it a world of
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The duties of the editor of the “London
+Strangers’ Leaf” would not be very onerous.
+The names and intended addresses of every
+individual coming from abroad it will not be
+difficult to obtain. To reach us Islanders
+every visitor must arrive by sea, and at each
+port we are blessed with a customhouse. The
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_517'>517</span>captain of every steamer is bound for customhouse
+purposes to have the name of each of his
+passengers set down in a sort of Way-bill;
+and, for a slight consideration, the person who
+performs that office (generally the steward),
+would doubtless learn and add the address
+to which each of the passengers is going in
+London. An arrangement with a customhouse
+clerk at each of the ports could be made
+for forwarding daily a copy of the list. Thus
+a complete record of arrivals from abroad
+could be obtained with little trouble. The
+names and lodgings of persons from the provinces
+would be more difficult of access; but a
+good understanding with hotel-keepers, and
+some assistance from the “Lodging-house Committee”
+(for of course there will be one,) of
+the Executive of the Great Congress, would
+insure the editor a tolerably complete “List
+of the Company” who assemble, even from
+the country. The “Strangers’ Leaf” might
+be published early each afternoon so as to
+give the arrivals of the morning.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It is not to be doubted that at the essentially
+Industrial Meeting of 1851, the <i><span lang="fr">Chevaliers
+d’Industrie</span></i> of all nations will make it their
+especial business to attend in large numbers.
+<i>Their</i> names, personal appearance, addresses,
+and achievements, it would be very useful to
+record in “the Strangers’ Leaf.” To our
+excellent friends the Detectives the benefit
+would be great and reciprocal: for they
+would not only derive, but contribute much
+useful information. As a kind of “Hue and
+Cry,” of a more refined and fashionable kind,
+the proposed sheet would be invaluable.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Should any enterprising gentleman, literary
+or otherwise, make the experiment, it may
+possibly turn out not only useful but profitable.
+Should such a speculation be deemed
+too undignified, we would silence the objection
+with a remark from Macaulay’s Essay
+on the life of Bacon, to the effect that Nothing
+is too insignificant for the attention of the
+wisest, which may be of advantage to the
+smallest in the community.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>NO HOSPITAL FOR INCURABLES.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>It is an extraordinary fact that among the
+innumerable medical charities with which
+this country abounds, there is not one for the
+help of those who of all others most require
+succour, and who must die, and do die in
+thousands, neglected, unaided. There are
+hospitals for the cure of every possible ailment
+or disease known to suffering humanity,
+but not one for the reception of persons past
+cure. There are, indeed, small charities for
+incurables scattered over the country—like
+the asylum for a few females afflicted with
+incurable diseases, at Leith, which was built,
+and solely supported by Miss Gladstone;
+and a few hospital wards, like the Cancer
+ward of Middlesex, and the ward for seven
+incurable patients in the Westminster; but a
+large hospital for incurables, does not exist.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The case of a poor servant girl which lately
+came to our knowledge, is the case of thousands.
+She was afflicted with a disease to
+which the domestics of the middle classes,
+especially, are very liable—white swelling of
+the knee. On presenting herself at the hospitals,
+it was found that an operation would
+be certain death; and that, in short, being incurable,
+she could not be admitted. She had
+no relations; and crawling back to a miserable
+lodging, she lay helpless till her small
+savings were exhausted. Privations of the
+severest kind followed; and despite the assistance
+of some benevolent persons who learnt
+her condition when it was too late, she died
+a painful and wretched death.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It is indeed a marvellous oversight of benevolence
+that sympathy should have been so
+long withheld from precisely the sufferers
+who most need it. Hopeless pain, allied to
+hopeless poverty, is a condition of existence
+not to be thought of without a shudder. It
+is a slow journey through the Valley of the
+Shadow of Death, from which we save even
+the greatest criminals.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>When the law deems it necessary to deprive
+a human being of life, the anguish, though
+sharp, is short. We do not doom him to the
+lingering agony with which innocent misfortune
+is allowed to make its slow descent
+into the grave.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>SORROWS AND JOYS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Bury thy sorrows, and they shall rise</div>
+      <div class='line'>As souls to the immortal skies,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And then look down like mothers’ eyes.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>But let thy joys be fresh as flowers,</div>
+      <div class='line'>That suck the honey of the showers,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And bloom alike on huts and towers.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>So shall thy days be sweet and bright,—</div>
+      <div class='line'>Solemn and sweet thy starry night,—</div>
+      <div class='line'>Conscious of love each change of light.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>The stars will watch the flowers asleep,</div>
+      <div class='line'>The flowers will feel the soft stars weep,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And both will mix sensations deep.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>With these below, with those above,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Sits evermore the brooding Dove,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Uniting both in bonds of love.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Children of Earth are these; and those</div>
+      <div class='line'>The spirits of intense repose—</div>
+      <div class='line'>Death radiant o’er all human woes.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>For both by nature are akin;—</div>
+      <div class='line'>Sorrow, the ashen fruit of sin,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And joy, the juice of life within.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>O, make thy sorrows holy—wise—</div>
+      <div class='line'>So shall their buried memories rise,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Celestial, e’en in mortal skies.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>O, think what then had been their doom,</div>
+      <div class='line'>If all unshriven—without a tomb—</div>
+      <div class='line'>They had been left to haunt the gloom!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>O, think again what they will be</div>
+      <div class='line'>Beneath God’s bright serenity,</div>
+      <div class='line'>When thou art in eternity!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_518'>518</span>For they, in their salvation, know</div>
+      <div class='line'>No vestige of their former woe,</div>
+      <div class='line'>While thro’ them all the Heavens do flow.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Thus art thou wedded to the skies,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And watched by ever-loving eyes,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And warned by yearning sympathies.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>THE HOME OF WOODRUFFE THE GARDENER.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class='c007'>IN EIGHT CHAPTERS.—CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+<p class='c008'>“How pleased the boy looks, to be sure!”
+observed Woodruffe to his wife, as his son
+Allan caught up little Moss (as Maurice had
+chosen to call himself before he could speak
+plain) and made him jump from the top of the drawers upon the chair, and then from the
+chair to the ground. “He is making all that
+racket just because he is so pleased he does
+not know what to do with himself.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I suppose he will forgive Fleming now for
+carrying off Abby,” said the mother. “I say,
+Allan, what do you think now of Abby
+marrying away from us?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Why, I think it’s a very good thing. You
+know she never told me that we should go
+and live where she lived, and in such a pretty
+place, too, where I may have a garden of my
+own, and see what I can make of it—all fresh
+from the beginning, as father says.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“You are to try your hand at the business,
+I know,” replied the mother, “but I never
+heard your father, nor any one else, say that
+the place was a pretty one. I did not think
+new railway stations had been pretty places
+at all.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“It sounds so to him, naturally,” interposed
+Woodruffe. “He hears of a south aspect, and
+a slope to the north for shelter, and the town
+seen far off; and that sounds all very pleasant.
+And then, there is the thought of the journey,
+and the change, and the fun of getting the
+ground all into nice order, and, best of all,
+the seeing his sister so soon again. Youth is
+the time for hope and joy, you know, love.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>And Woodruffe began to whistle, and
+stepped forward to take his turn at jumping
+Moss, whom he carried in one flight from the
+top of the drawers to the floor. Mrs. Woodruffe
+smiled, as she thought that youth was
+not the only season, with some people, for
+hope and joy.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Her husband, always disposed to look on
+the bright side; was particularly happy this
+evening. The lease of his market-garden
+ground was just expiring. He had prospered
+on it; and would have desired nothing better
+than to live by it as long as he lived at all. He
+desired this so much that he would not believe
+a word of what people had been saying
+for two years past, that his ground would be
+wanted by his landlord on the expiration of
+the lease, and that it would not be let again.
+His wife had long foreseen this; but not till
+the last moment would he do what she
+thought should have been done long before—offer
+to buy the ground. At the ordinary
+price of land, he could accomplish the
+purchase of it; but when he found his landlord
+unwilling to sell, he bid higher and
+higher, till his wife was so alarmed at the
+rashness, that she was glad when a prospect
+of entire removal opened. Woodruffe was
+sure that he could have paid off all he offered
+at the end of a few years; but his partner
+thought it would have been a heavy burden
+on their minds, and a sad waste of money;
+and she was therefore, in her heart, obliged
+to the landlord for persisting in his refusal
+to sell.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>When that was settled, Woodruffe became
+suddenly sure that he could pick up an acre
+or two of land somewhere not far off. But
+he was mistaken; and, if he had not been
+mistaken, market-gardening was no longer
+the profitable business it had been, when it
+enabled him to lay by something every year.
+By the opening of a railway, the townspeople,
+a few miles off, got themselves better supplied
+with vegetables from another quarter. It was
+this which put it into the son-in-law’s head
+to propose the removal of the family into
+Staffordshire, where he held a small appointment
+on a railway. Land might be had at a
+low rent near the little country station where
+his business lay; and the railway brought
+within twenty minutes’ distance a town where
+there must be a considerable demand for
+garden produce. The place was in a raw
+state at present; and there were so few
+houses, that, if there had been a choice of
+time, the Flemings would rather have put off
+the coming of the family till some of the
+cottages already planned had been built; but
+the Woodruffes must remove in September,
+and all parties agreed that they should not
+mind a little crowding for a few months.
+Fleming’s cottage was to hold them all till
+some chance of more accommodation should
+offer.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I’ll tell you what,” said Woodruffe, after
+standing for some time, half whistling and
+thinking, with that expression on his face
+which his wife had long learned to be afraid
+of, “I’ll write to-morrow—let’s see—I may as
+well do it to-night;” and he looked round for
+paper and ink. “I’ll write to Fleming, and
+get him to buy the land for me at once.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Before you see it?” said his wife, looking
+up from her stocking mending.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes. I know all about it, as much as if I
+were standing on it this moment; and I am
+sick of this work—of being turned out just
+when I had made the most of a place, and got
+attached to it. I’ll make a sure thing of it
+this time, and not have such a pull at my
+heartstrings again. And the land will be
+cheaper now than later; and we shall go to
+work upon it with such heart, if it is our
+own! Eh?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Certainly, if we find, after seeing it, that
+we like it as well as we expect. I would just
+wait till then.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_519'>519</span>“As well as we expect! Why, bless my
+soul! don’t we know all about it? It is not
+any land-agent or interested person, that has
+described it to us; but our own daughter and
+her husband; and do not they know what
+we want? The quantity at my own choice;
+the aspect capital; plenty of water (only too
+much, indeed); the soil anything but poor,
+and sand and marl within reach to reduce
+the stiffness; and manure at command, all
+along the railway, from half-a-dozen towns;
+and osier beds at hand (within my own
+bounds if I like) giving all manner of convenience
+for fencing, and binding, and
+covering! Why, what would you have?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“It sounds very pleasant, certainly.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Then, how can you make objections? I
+can’t think where you look, to find any
+objections?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I see none now, and I only want to be
+sure that we shall find none when we
+arrive.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Well! I do call that unreasonable! To
+expect to find any place on earth altogether
+unobjectionable! I wonder what objection
+could be so great as being turned out of one
+after another, just as we have got them into
+order. Here comes our girl. Well, Becky,
+I see how you like the news! Now, would
+not you like it better still if we were going
+to a place of our own, where we should not
+be under any landlord’s whims? We should
+have to work, you know, one and all. But
+we would get the land properly manured,
+and have a cottage of our own in time; would
+not we? Will you undertake the pigs,
+Becky?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, father; and there are many things I
+can do in the garden too. I am old and
+strong, now; and I can do much more than
+I have ever done here.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Aye; if the land was our own,” said Woodruffe,
+with a glance at his wife. She said no
+more, but was presently upstairs putting
+Moss to bed. She knew, from long experience,
+how matters would go. After a restless
+night, Woodruffe spoke no more of buying
+the land without seeing it; and he twice
+said, in a meditative, rather than a communicative,
+way, that he believed it would take as
+much capital as he had to remove his family,
+and get his new land into fit condition for
+spring crops.</p>
+
+<h3 class='c015'>CHAPTER THE SECOND.</h3>
+
+<p class='c008'>“You may look out now for the place.
+Look out for our new garden. We are just
+there now,” said Woodruffe to the children as
+the whistle sounded, and the train was approaching
+the station. It had been a glorious
+autumn day from the beginning; and for the
+last hour, while the beauty of the light on
+fields and trees and water had been growing
+more striking, the children, tired with the
+novelty of all that they had seen since
+morning, had been dropping asleep. They
+roused up suddenly enough at the news that
+they were reaching their new home; and
+thrust their heads to the windows, eagerly
+asking on which side they were to look for
+their garden. It was on the south, the left-hand
+side; but it might have been anywhere,
+for what they could see of it. Below the
+embankment was something like a sheet of
+grey water, spreading far away.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“It is going to be a foggy night,” observed
+Woodruffe. The children looked into the
+air for the fog, which had always, in their
+experience, arrived by that way from the sea.
+The sky was all a clear blue, except where a
+pale green and a faint blush of pink streaked
+the west. A large planet beamed clear and
+bright: and the air was so transparent that
+the very leaves on the trees might almost be
+counted. Yet could nothing be seen below
+for the grey mist which was rising, from
+moment to moment.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Fleming met them as they alighted; but
+he could not stay till he had seen to the other
+passengers. His wife was there. She had
+been a merry hearted girl; and, now, still so
+young, as to look as girlish as ever, she
+seemed even merrier than ever. She did
+not look strong, but she had hardly thrown
+off what she called “a little touch of the
+ague;” and she declared herself perfectly
+well when the wind was anywhere but in the
+wrong quarter. Allan wondered how the
+wind could go wrong. He had never heard
+of such a thing before. He had known the
+wind too high, when it did mischief among his
+father’s fruit trees; but it had never occurred
+to him that it was not free to come and go
+whence and whither it would, without blame
+or objection.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Come—come home,” exclaimed Mrs.
+Fleming. “Never mind about your bags
+and boxes! My husband will take care
+of them. Let me show you the way home.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>She let go the hands of the young brothers,
+and loaded them, and then herself, with
+parcels, that they might not think they were
+going to lose every thing, as she said; and
+then tripped on before to show the way. The
+way was down steps, from the highest of
+which two or three chimney-tops might be
+seen piercing the mist which hid everything
+else. Down, down, down went the party, by
+so many steps that little Moss began to
+totter under his bundle.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“How low this place lies!” observed the
+mother.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Why, yes;” replied Mrs. Fleming. “And
+yet I don’t know. I believe it is rather that
+the railway runs high.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, yes; that is it,” said Woodruffe.
+“What an embankment this is! If this is
+to shelter my garden to the north—”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, yes, it is. I knew you would like it,”
+exclaimed Mrs. Fleming. “I said you would
+be delighted. I only wish you could see your
+ground at once: but it seems rather foggy,
+and I suppose we must wait till the morning.
+Here we are at home.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_520'>520</span>The travellers were rather surprised to see
+how very small a house this “home” was.
+Though called a cottage, it had not the look
+of one. It was of a red brick, dingy, though
+evidently new: and, to all appearance, it consisted
+of merely a room below, and one above.
+On walking round it, however, a sloping roof
+in two directions gave a hint of further
+accommodation.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>When the whole party had entered, and
+Mrs. Fleming had kissed them all round, her
+glance at her mother asked, as plainly as any
+words, “Is not this a pleasant room?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“A pretty room, indeed, my dear,” was the
+mother’s reply, “and as nicely furnished as
+one could wish.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>She did not say anything of the rust which
+her quick eye perceived on the fire-irons and
+the door-key, or of the damp which stained
+the walls just above the skirting-board. There
+was nothing amiss with the ceiling, or the
+higher parts of the walls,—so it might be an
+accident.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“But, my dear,” asked the mother, seeing
+how sleepy Moss looked, “Where are you
+going to put us all? If we crowd you out
+of all comfort, I shall be sorry we came
+so soon.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>As Mrs. Fleming led the way upstairs, she
+reminded her family of their agreement not to
+mind a little crowding for a time. If her
+mother thought there was not room for all
+the newly-arrived in this chamber, they could
+fit out a corner for Allan in the place where
+she and her husband were to sleep.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“All of us in this room?” exclaimed Becky.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, Becky; why not? Here, you see, is
+a curtain between your bed and the large one;
+and your bed is large enough to let little Moss
+sleep with you. And here is a morsel of a
+bed for Allan in the other corner; and I have
+another curtain ready to shut it in.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“But,” said Becky, who was going on to
+object. Her mother stopped her by a sign.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Or,” continued Mrs. Fleming, “if you like
+to let Allan and his bed and curtain come
+down to our place, you will have plenty of
+room here; much more than my neighbours
+have, for the most part. How it will be when
+the new cottages are built, I don’t know. We
+think them too small for new houses; but,
+meantime, there are the Brookes sleeping
+seven in a room no bigger than this, and the
+Vines six in one much smaller.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“How do they manage, now?” asked the
+mother. “In case of illness, say: and how do
+they wash and dress?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Ah! that is the worst part of it. I don’t
+think the boys wash themselves—what we
+should call washing—for weeks together: or
+at least only on Saturday nights. So they slip
+their clothes on in two minutes; and then
+their mother and sisters can get up. But
+there is the pump below for Allan, and he can
+wash as much as he pleases.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It was not till the next day that Mrs Woodruffe
+knew—and then it was Allan who told
+her—that the pump was actually in the very
+place where the Flemings slept,—close by
+their bed. The Flemings were, in truth,
+sleeping in an outhouse, where the floor was
+of brick, the swill-tub stood in one corner, the
+coals were heaped in another, and the light
+came in from a square hole high up, which
+had never till now been glazed. Plenty of air
+rushed in under the door, and yet some more
+between the tiles,—there being no plaster
+beneath them. As soon as Mrs. Woodruffe
+had been informed of this, and had stepped in,
+while her daughter’s back was turned, to make
+her own observations, she went out by herself
+for a walk,—so long a walk, that it was several
+hours before she reappeared, heated and somewhat
+depressed. She had roamed the country
+round, in search of lodgings; and finding
+none,—finding no occupier who really could
+possibly spare a room on any terms,—she had
+returned convinced that, serious as the expense
+would be, she and her family ought to
+settle themselves in the nearest town,—her
+husband going to his business daily by the
+third-class train, till a dwelling could be provided
+for them on the spot.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>When she returned, the children were on the
+watch for her; and little Moss had strong
+hopes that she would not know him. He had
+a great cap of rushes on his head, with a heavy
+bulrush for a feather; he was stuck all over
+with water-flags and bulrushes, and carried a
+long osier wand, wherewith to flog all those
+who did not admire him enough in his new
+style of dress. The children were clamorous
+for their mother to come down, and see the
+nice places where they got these new playthings:
+and she would have gone, but that
+their father came up, and decreed it otherwise.
+She was heated and tired, he said; and
+he would not have her go till she was easy
+and comfortable enough to see things in the
+best light.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Her impression was that her husband was,
+more or less (and she did not know why), disappointed;
+but he did not say so. He would
+not hear of going off to the town, being sure
+that some place would turn up soon,—some
+place where they might put their heads at
+night; and the Flemings should be no losers
+by having their company by day. Their boarding
+all together, if the sleeping could but be
+managed, would be a help to the young couple,—a
+help which it was pleasant to him, as a
+father, to be able to give them. He said
+nothing about the land that was not in praise
+of it. Its quality was excellent; or would be
+when it had good treatment. It would take
+some time and trouble to get it into order,—so
+much that it would never do to live at a
+distance from it. Besides, no trains that would
+suit him ran at the proper hours; so there
+was an end of it. They must all rough it a
+little for a time, and expect their reward
+afterwards.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>There was nothing that Woodruffe was so
+hard to please in as the time when he should
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_521'>521</span>take his wife to see the ground. It was close
+at hand; yet he hindered her going in the
+morning, and again after their early dinner.
+He was anxious that she should not be prejudiced,
+or take a dislike at first; and in the
+morning, the fog was so thick that everything
+looked dank and dreary; and in the
+middle of the day, when a warm autumn
+sun had dissolved the mists, there certainly
+was a most disagreeable smell hanging about.
+It was not gone at sunset; but by that time
+Mrs. Woodruffe was impatient, and she appeared—Allan
+showing her the way—just
+when her husband was scraping his feet upon
+his spade, after a hard day of digging.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“There, now!” said he, good-humouredly,
+striking his spade into the ground, “Fleming
+said you would be down before we were ready
+for you: and here you are!—Yes, ready for
+you. There are some planks coming, to
+keep your feet out of the wet among all this
+clay.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“And yours too, I hope,” said the wife. “I
+don’t mind such wet, after rain, as you have
+been accustomed to; but to stand in a puddle
+like this is a very different thing.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes—so ’tis. But we’ll have the planks;
+and they will serve for running the wheelbarrow
+too. It is too much for Allan, or any
+boy, to run the barrow in such a soil as this.
+We’ll have the planks first; and then we’ll
+drain, and drain, and get rare spring crops.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“What have they given you this artificial
+pond for,” asked the wife, “if you must drain
+so much?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“That is no pond. All the way along here,
+on both sides the railway, there is the
+mischief of these pits. They dig out the clay
+for bricks, and then leave the places—pits
+like this, some of them six feet deep. The
+railways have done a deal of good for the poor
+man, and will do a great deal more yet; but,
+at present this one has left those pits.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I hope Moss will not fall into one. They
+are very dangerous,” declared the mother,
+looking about for the child.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“He is safe enough there, among the osiers,”
+said the father. “He has lost his heart outright
+to the osiers. However, I mean to drain
+and fill up this pit, when I find a good outfall:
+and then we will have all high and dry,
+and safe for the children. I don’t care so
+much for the pit as for the ditches there.
+Don’t you notice the bad smell?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, indeed, that struck me the first
+night.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I have been inquiring to-day, and I find
+there is one acre in twenty hereabouts occupied
+with foul ditches like that. And then
+the overflow from them and the pits, spoils
+many an acre more. There is a stretch of
+water-flags and bulrushes, and nasty coarse
+grass and rushes, nothing but a swamp, where
+the ground is naturally as good as this; and,
+look here! Fleming was rather out, I tell him,
+when he wrote that I might graze a pony on
+the pasture below, whenever I have a market-cart.
+I ask him if he expects me to water it
+here.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>So saying, Woodruffe led the way to one of
+the ditches which, instead of fences, bounded
+his land; and, moving the mass of weeds with
+a stick, showed the water beneath, covered
+with a whitish bubbling scum, the smell of
+which was insufferable.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“There is plenty of manure there,” said
+Woodruffe: “that is the only thing that can
+be said for it. We’ll make manure of it, and
+sweep out the ditch, and deepen it, and narrow
+it, and not use up so many feet of good ground
+for a ditch that does nothing but poison us.
+A fence is better than a ditch any day. I’ll
+have a fence, and still save ten feet of ground,
+the whole way down.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“There is a great deal to do here,” observed
+the wife.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“And good reward when it is done,” Woodruffe
+replied. “If I can fall in with a stout
+labourer, he and Allan and I can get our
+spring crops prepared for; and I expect they
+will prove the goodness of the soil. There is
+Fleming. Supper is ready, I suppose.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The children were called, but both were so
+wet and dirty that it took twice as long as
+usual to make them fit to sit at table: and
+apologies were made for keeping supper
+waiting. The grave half-hour before Moss’s
+bedtime was occupied with the most solemn
+piece of instruction he had ever had in his
+life. His father carried him up to the railway,
+and made him understand the danger of
+playing there. He was never to play there.
+His father would go up with him once a day,
+and let him see a train pass: and this was the
+only time he was ever to mount the steps,
+except by express leave. Moss was put to
+bed in silence, with his father’s deep, grave
+voice sounding in his ears.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“He will not forget it,” declared his father.
+“He will give us no trouble about the railway.
+The next thing is the pit. Allan, I expect
+you to see that he does not fall into the pit.
+In time, we shall teach him to take care of
+himself; but you must remember, meanwhile,
+that the pit is six feet deep—deeper than I am
+high: and that the edge is the same clay that
+you slipped on so often this morning.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, father,” said Allan, looking as grave
+as if power of life and death were in his
+hands.</p>
+
+<h3 class='c015'>CHAPTER THE THIRD.</h3>
+
+<p class='c008'>One fine morning in the next spring, there
+was more stir and cheerfulness about the
+Woodruffes’ dwelling than there had been of
+late. The winter had been somewhat dreary;
+and now the spring was anxious; for Woodruffe’s
+business was not, as yet, doing very
+well. His hope, when he bought his pony
+and cart, was to dispatch by railway to the
+town the best of his produce, and sell the
+commoner part in the country neighbourhood,
+sending his cart round within the reach of a
+few miles. As it turned out, he had nothing
+yet to send to the town, and his agent there
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_522'>522</span>was vexed and displeased. No radishes,
+onions, early salads, or rhubarb were ready:
+and it would be sometime yet before they
+were.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I am sure I have done everything I could,”
+said Woodruffe to Fleming, as they both lent
+a hand to put the pony into the cart. “Nobody
+can say that I have not made drains enough,
+or that they are not deep enough; yet the
+frost has taken such a hold that one would
+think we were living in the north of Scotland,
+instead of in Staffordshire.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“It has not been a severe season either,”
+observed Fleming.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“There’s the vexation,” replied Woodruffe.
+“If it had been a season which set us at
+defiance, and made all sufferers alike, one
+must just submit to a loss, and go on again,
+like one’s neighbours. But, you see, I am cut
+out, as my agent says, from the market.
+Everybody else has spring vegetables there,
+as usual. It is no use telling him that I
+never failed before. But I know what it is.
+It is yonder great ditch that does the mischief.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Why, we have nothing to do with that.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“That is the very reason. If it was mine
+or yours, do you think I should not have taken
+it in hand long ago? All my draining goes
+for little while that shallow ditch keeps my
+ground a continual sop. It is all uneven along
+the bottom;—not the same depth for three
+feet together anywhere, and not deep enough
+by two feet in any part. So there it is, choked
+up and putrid; and, after an hour or two of
+rain, my garden gets such a soaking, that the
+next frost is destruction.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I will speak about it again,” said Fleming.
+“We must have it set right before next
+winter.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I think we have seen enough of the uselessness
+of speaking,” replied Woodruffe, gloomily.
+“If we tease the gentry any more, they may
+punish you for it. I would show them my
+mind by being off,—throwing up my bargain
+at all costs, if I had not put so much into the
+ground that I have nothing left to move away
+with.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Don’t be afraid for me,” said Fleming,
+cheerfully, “It was chiefly my doing that
+you came here, and I must try my utmost to
+obtain fair conditions for you. We must
+remember that the benefit of your outlay has
+all to come.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes; I can’t say we have got much of it
+yet.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“By next winter,” continued Fleming, “your
+privet hedges and screens will have grown up
+into some use against the frost; and your own
+drainage——. Come, come, Allan, my boy!
+be off! It is getting late.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Allan seemed to be idling, re-arranging his
+bunches of small radishes, and little bundles
+of rhubarb, in their clean baskets, and improving
+the stick with which he was to drive:
+but he pleaded that he was waiting for Moss,
+and for the parcel which his mother was
+getting ready for Becky.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Ah! my poor little girl!” said Woodruffe.
+“Give my love to her, and tell her it will be a
+happy day when we can send for her to come
+home again. Be sure you observe particularly,
+to tell us, how she looks; and, mind, if she
+fancies anything in the cart,—any radishes, or
+whatever else, because it comes out of our
+garden, be sure you give it her. I wish I was
+going myself with the cart, for the sake of
+seeing Becky; but I must go to work. Here
+have I been all the while, waiting to see you
+off. Ah! here they come! you may always
+have notice now of who is coming by that
+child’s crying.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“O, father! not always!” exclaimed Allan.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Far too often, I’m sure. I never knew a
+child grow so fractious. I am saying, my
+dear,” to his wife, who now appeared with her
+parcel, and Moss in his best hat, “that boy is
+the most fractious child we ever had: and he
+is getting too old for that to begin now. How
+can you spoil him so?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I am not aware,” said Mrs. Woodruffe, her
+eyes filling with tears, “that I treat him differently
+from the rest: but the child is not
+well. His chilblains tease him terribly; and
+I wish there may be nothing worse.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Warm weather will soon cure the chilblains,
+and then I hope we shall see an end
+of the fretting.—Now, leave off crying this
+minute, Moss, or you don’t go. You don’t
+see me cry with my rheumatism, and that is
+worse than chilblains, I can tell you.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Moss tried to stifle his sobs, while his
+mother put more straw into the cart for him,
+and cautioned Allan to be careful of him, for
+it really seemed as if the child was tender all
+over. Allan seemed to succeed best as comforter.
+He gave Moss the stick to wield, and
+showed him how to make believe to whip the
+pony, so that before they turned the corner,
+Moss was wholly engrossed with what he
+called driving.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, yes,” said Woodruffe, as he turned
+away, to go to his garden, “Allan is the one
+to manage him. He can take as good care of
+him as any woman, without spoiling him.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Mrs. Woodruffe submitted to this in silence;
+but with the feeling that she did not deserve it.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Becky had had no notice of this visit from
+her brothers: but no such visit could take her
+by surprise; for she was thinking of her
+family all day long, every day, and fancying
+she should see them, whichever way she
+turned. It was not her natural destination
+to be a servant in a farm-house: she had
+never expected it,—never been prepared for
+it. She was as willing to work as any girl
+could be; and her help in the gardening was
+beyond what most women are capable of: but
+it was a bitter thing to her to go among
+strangers, and toil for them, when she knew
+that she was wanted at home by father and
+mother, and brothers, and just at present, by
+her sister too; for Mrs. Fleming’s confinement
+was to happen this spring. The reason why
+Becky was not at home while so much wanted
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_523'>523</span>there was, that there really was no accommodation
+for her. The plan of sleeping all
+huddled together as they were at first would
+not do. The girl herself could not endure it;
+and her parents felt that she must be got out
+at any sacrifice. They had inquired diligently
+till they found a place for her in a farm-house
+where the good wife promised protection, and
+care, and kindness; and fulfilled her promise
+to the best of her power.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I hope they do well by you here, Becky,”
+asked Allan, when the surprise caused by
+his driving up with a dash had subsided,
+and everybody had retired, to leave Becky
+with her brothers for the few minutes they
+could stay. “I hope they are kind to you
+here.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“O, yes,—very kind. And I am sure you
+ought to say so to father and mother.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Becky had jumped into the cart, and had
+her arms round Moss, and her head on his
+shoulder. Raising her head, and with her eyes
+filling as she spoke, she inquired anxiously
+how the new cottages went on, and when
+father and mother were to have a home of
+their own again. She owned, but did not
+wish her father and mother to hear of it, that
+she did not like being among such rough
+people as the farm servants. She did not like
+some of the behaviour that she saw; and,
+still less, such talk as she was obliged to overhear.
+When <i>would</i> a cottage be ready for
+them?</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Why, the new cottages would soon be
+getting on now,” Allan said: but he didn’t
+know; nobody fancied the look of them. He
+saw them just after the foundations were laid;
+and the enclosed parts were like a clay-puddle.
+He did not see how they were ever to be
+improved; for the curse of wet seemed to be
+on them, as upon everything about the Station.
+Fleming’s cottage was the best he had
+seen, after all, if only it was twice as large.
+If anything could be done to make the new
+cottages what cottages should be, it would be
+done: for every body agreed that the railway
+gentlemen desired to do the best for their
+people, and to set an example in that respect:
+but it was beyond anybody’s power to make
+wet clay as healthy as warm gravel. Unless
+they could go to work first to dry the soil, it
+seemed a hopeless sort of affair.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“But, I say, Becky,” pursued Allan, “you
+know about my garden—that father gave me
+a garden of my own.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Becky’s head was turned quite away; and
+she did not look round, when she replied,</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes; I remember. How does your garden
+get on?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>There was something in her voice which
+made her brother lean over and look into her
+face; and, as he expected, tears were running
+down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“There now!” said he, whipping the back
+of the cart with his stick; “something must
+be done, if you can’t get on here.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“O! I can get on. Be sure you don’t tell
+mother that I can’t get on, or anything about
+it.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“You look healthy, to be sure.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“To be sure I am. Don’t say any more
+about it. Tell me about your garden.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Well: I am trying what I can make of it,
+after I have done working with father. But
+it takes a long time to bring it round.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“What! is the wet there, too?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Lord, yes! The wet was beyond everything
+at first. I could not leave the spade in
+the ground ten minutes, if father called me,
+but the water was standing in the hole when
+I went back again. It is not so bad now,
+since I made a drain to join upon father’s
+principal one; and father gave me some sand,
+and plenty of manure: but it seems to us that
+manure does little good. It won’t sink in
+when the ground is so wet.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Well, there will be the summer next, and
+that will dry up your garden.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes. People say the smells are dreadful
+in hot weather, though. But we seem to get
+used to that. I thought it sickly work, just
+after we came, going down to get osiers, and
+digging near the big ditch that is our plague
+now: but somehow, it does not strike me
+now as it did then, though Fleming says it is
+getting worse every warm day. But come—I
+must be off. What will you help yourself
+to? And don’t forget your parcel.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Becky’s great anxiety was to know when
+her brothers would come again. O! very
+often, she was assured—oftener and oftener
+as the vegetables came forward: whenever
+there were either too many or too few to send
+to the town by rail.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>After Becky had jumped down, the farmer
+and one of the men were seen to be contemplating
+the pony.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“What have you been giving your pony
+lately?” asked the farmer of Allan. “I ask
+as a friend, having some experience of this
+part of the country. Have you been letting
+him graze?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, in the bit of meadow that we have
+leave for. There is a good deal of grass there,
+now. He has been grazing there these three
+weeks.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“On the meadow where the osier beds are?
+Ay! I knew it, by the look of him. Tell
+your father that if he does not take care, his
+pony will have the staggers in no time. An
+acquaintance of mine grazed some cattle there
+once; and in a week or two, they were all
+feverish, so that the butcher refused them on
+any terms; and I have seen more than one
+horse in the staggers, after grazing in marshes
+of that sort.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“There is fine thick grass there, and plenty
+of it,” said Allan, who did not like that anybody
+but themselves should criticise their
+new place and plans.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Ay, ay; I know,” replied the farmer.
+“But if you try to make hay of that grass,
+you’ll be surprised to find how long it takes
+to make, and how like wool it comes out at
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_524'>524</span>last. It is a coarse grass, with no strength in
+it; and it must be a stronger beast than this
+that will bear feeding on it. Just do you tell
+your father what I say, that’s all; and then
+he can do as he pleases: but I would take a
+different way with that pony, without loss of
+time, if it was mine.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Allan did not much like taking this sort of
+message to his father, who was not altogether
+so easy to please as he used to be. If anything
+vexed him ever so little, he always
+began to complain of his rheumatism—and
+he now complained of his rheumatism many
+times in a day. It was managed, however,
+by tacking a little piece of amusement and
+pride upon it. Moss was taught, all the way
+as they went home, after selling their vegetables,
+how much everything sold for; and
+he was to deliver the money to his father,
+and go through his lesson as gravely as any
+big man. It succeeded very well. Everybody
+laughed. Woodruffe called the child his little
+man-of-business; gave him a penny out of
+the money he brought; and when he found
+that the child did not like jumping as he used
+to do, carried him up to the railway to listen
+for the whistle, and see the afternoon train
+come up, and stop a minute, and go on again.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>TOPOGRAPHY AND TEMPERANCE.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c001'>
+    <div>FROM MR. CHRISTOPHER SHRIMBLE.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='lg-container-l c001'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“<span class='sc'>Mr. Conductor</span>,</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Sir, I take up my pen to tell you what’s
+going to happen if the cause of temperance is
+to be allowed to have unlicensed power to
+unlicense all the public-houses. We have
+heard a good deal about the advantages of
+Temperance (and I don’t deny them), but
+Mr. Ledru Rollin has taught me to look closer
+than ever to the dark side of things, and
+tee-totalism has its dark side like everything
+else; it is not all clear water, I can tell you.
+I look forward to the time when strong
+liquors will be abolished, and pot-houses taken
+from the corners of the streets or shifted
+from the sides of the road, and I say, ‘how
+<i>shall</i> I find my way about?’</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“For the fact is; Sir, public-houses are the
+great land-marks of the country. Whether
+you are benighted in a Northumberland moor;
+lost in a Devonshire lane (the one thing in
+nature which it is well known has no end);
+whether you are cast away in a river; left
+without a clue upon Salisbury Plain; or
+reduced to a state of topographical despair in
+a Warwickshire wood; the first person you
+meet—be it he or she, gentle or simple, old or
+young, a genius or an idiot—will assuredly
+convince you that the only rural means of
+directing you are the names and signs of places
+of public entertainment. ‘Go on straight till
+you come to the Green Lion, then turn to the
+left close to the Goat and Compasses, and
+after you have passed the Plough, bear off to
+the right; and, opposite the Jolly Gardeners,
+you will see a lane: go down that lane till
+you have to cross a brook by the side of the
+Bottle and Bagpipes, and when you have got
+to the Three Whistles and Cockchafer further
+down, get over a stile next to the Tinker and
+Turkey-Cock, take the first to the left—and
+that’s it.’ Such were the directions by which
+I found my old friend, Groggles, last Monday.
+Without the signs I have mentioned, I never
+should have found Groggles to this day.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Now, Sir, I trust the advocates of temperance
+will pause before they wash away the
+land-marks of England (Tooting included), in
+order to substitute water-marks. How are we
+to find our way about without signs, I wonder?
+for I suppose these will not be allowed to stand
+when the houses behind them are taken away.
+Do the great Father Mathews of this age
+intend—like the monks of old—to christen
+the wells, and to give names to the pumps,
+and springs, and fountains, and conduits?
+Indeed I hope they do; for these I venture
+to say will be the only taps they intend
+leaving to a future generation.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Unless, Sir, they wish the topography of
+our native land to be utterly confused, and
+desire to make voluntary locomotion impossible
+(I call railways compulsory travelling,
+for you must go where they choose to take
+you), I do intreat of them to leave us their
+signs, whatever they do with the inns. Why
+not move the former to stand sponsors to their
+new-fangled watering places? Take the
+‘Puncheon of Rum’ from what used to be
+the posting-house (before steam blew post-horses
+off the road) and stick it on the parish
+pump. Let wayside wells be ornamented with
+effigies of ‘Topers Heads’; transfer the
+‘Barrel of Beer’ from the village inn to the
+village fountain, and the ‘Jolly Full Bottle’
+from the alehouse to the conduit. Then,
+when a man comes to the picture of three
+drunken soldiers, and the inscription, ‘The
+Rendezvous,’ he will know it means a reservoir,
+or regular meeting of the waters.
+The ‘Punch-Bowl,’ in gold letters, will indicate
+a water-trough; the ‘Black Jack’
+would give a significant license for water to
+be drunk on the premises; and the ‘Sir
+John Barleycorn’ would indicate that a good
+supply of the ale of our first parent is not
+far off.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I do hope my suggestion will be complied
+with. The tavern signs of England are a
+great topographical institution. If they will
+not take them down, the Temperance Movement
+may do its worst for me. I, and a good
+many others who live out of town and don’t
+carry lanterns at night, will still be able to
+find our way about, and the agricultural
+population will be able to show us when we
+have lost it. In that case, the Green Dragons,
+Marquises of Granby, Roses and Crowns,
+Bears and Buttermilks, Bulls in the Pounds,
+Stars and Stumps, with innumerable other
+signs dear to the eyes and ready to the
+tongues of unconverted tipplers for the behoof
+of way-beguiled strangers, would not be utterly
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_525'>525</span>lost to the land. Without them, I venture to
+assert, in conclusion, in the words of the late
+Mr. Pope, England (Tooting included) will be
+‘a mighty maze without a plan.’</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>“I am, &#38;c., &#38;c.</div>
+    <div>“<span class='sc'>Christopher Shrimble.</span></div>
+    <div>“Paradise Row, Tooting.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>THE LATE AMERICAN PRESIDENT.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>Towards the close of the last century there
+was a movement of settlers to the frontiers of
+Kentucky. The new comers to the then unsettled
+district were from various parts of
+the American continent, and each of the
+pioneers who thus cast his lot upon the
+extreme verge of civilisation made his account
+for holding his homestead by aid of his
+rifle, against the attacks of the denizens of
+the neighbouring forests. Sometimes the
+enemy was only in shape of a wolf or a bear—oftentimes
+in that of an Indian. In either
+case the farmer had to maintain his ground
+by the strong hand, in those days the only
+law that held sway in the backwoods. In
+such a state of affairs it is clear that none but
+bold spirits would venture to found a home
+on the frontier; yet such were not wanting;
+and amongst them was a farmer, who at an
+earlier period of his life had left the plough to
+take up arms in defence of American independence.
+In that rough and ready service
+he had gained the often quickly-acquired rank
+of Colonel; but the war ceasing, he, like
+others among his patriotic countrymen,
+quietly returned to his more peaceful occupation
+as a farmer; choosing a location where
+land was plenty and cheap to those who had
+the courage to hold it where Indians and
+other dangerous neighbours were abundant.
+The sons of such a man, nurtured in such a
+spot, might well be expected to inherit the
+enterprise, courage, and hardihood which distinguished
+their parent. Handling a rifle as
+soon as they were strong enough to lift one;
+accustomed to hunting excursions and “camping
+out;” working now at the plough, now in
+building up a barn, or in filling it when complete;
+driving the waggon and its load to a
+distant market, and bringing back at any
+hour, and in all seasons, the stores that varied
+their farm-grown contributions to the larder;
+and when winter-time brought comparative
+leisure, turning to books for almost the only
+education procurable in the rough and primitive
+region they inhabited;—boys, so
+reared, could scarcely be other than bold,
+energetic, and fruitful in resources, and equal
+in after life to the shifting exigencies of an
+active military career. From such a parent,
+and such a childhood and youth, and with
+such an early training, sprang President and
+General Zachary Taylor, whose recent death
+our Transatlantic brethren are even now
+deploring; and the story of whose life their
+journals will help us to tell.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Zachary Taylor before he was twenty-one
+volunteered to leave home on a military expedition
+needed by the exigencies of the time.
+This, his first essay in war, proved very
+harmless; for no enemy was found, and he
+soon returned to his father’s farm, with a
+taste, however, for the new life he had made
+this short trial of. The taste thus acquired
+induced him to accept with great alacrity an
+opportunity that subsequently offered of
+joining the regular army of the United
+States, which he did in 1803, with the rank
+of lieutenant. Shortly afterwards an occasion
+arose for distinguishing himself, and he did
+not let it pass unimproved. He defended a
+post called Fort Harrison, against great
+odds; and by the check thus given to a large
+hostile party of Indians, saved a frontier from
+devastation. This gallant commencement
+was followed by a succession of equally noticeable
+exploits. He courted every chance of
+securing active service, and in succession
+won new reputation in contests with the
+Indians, with the English, and lastly with the
+Mexicans. Since it was with this last opponent
+that his chief battles were fought, and
+his really important victories won; and
+as those victories have gained an European
+reputation from the fact that they led to the
+acquisition of the real land of gold—El
+Dorado—California itself; we may glance
+over the events that induced and characterised
+the strife, and led to so memorable a result.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Mexico and the United States had long had
+causes of quarrel; not the least of which was
+that the Mexicans got into debt to the Yankees,
+and would not pay what they admitted to be
+due. With several such unsettled and unsatisfactory
+accounts on hand, the Texas difficulty
+arose, and a large body of the Texians declaring
+for annexation with the United States,
+the few scruples that stood in the way of such
+an increase of dominion were quickly overlooked,
+and the large and fertile province was
+incorporated in the Union. Half such a cause
+of quarrel was enough to secure a declaration
+of war from a country like Mexico—<i>a country
+that has gone through eighteen revolutions in
+twenty-five years</i>—and accordingly war began.
+The Mexicans took steps for re-assuming the
+lost Texas, when, on the 4th of February,
+1846, General Taylor received orders to march,
+with a force of three thousand men under his
+command, to the Rio Grande, the western
+limit of the newly-attached State. The President,
+for the time being, of Mexico claimed
+Texas as a revolted province, and hastened to
+submit the question to the ordeal of battle.
+The Mexicans shed the first blood. They took
+some prisoners—some Americans—and shot
+them in cold blood; and soon afterwards
+they captured more Americans, including some
+women, whose bodies were discovered subsequently
+with their throats cut. This brutality
+added fuel to the flame before existing, and
+the struggle began that ended in the capture
+of Mexico and the cession of California.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The early days of the war were characterised
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_526'>526</span>by many acts of daring bravery.
+Amongst others, we find mention of the feat performed
+by a Captain Walker. The Americans
+were in total ignorance of the movements of
+the enemy, when they heard cannonading in
+the direction of a fort with which they had
+been unable to keep open communications.
+Taylor dispatched a squadron of cavalry, who
+returned without definite information, and the
+General was in suspense as to the condition
+of his friends in the fort, when Captain Walker
+arrived in the camp bearing dispatches from
+the leader of the beleaguered party in Fort
+Brown. He had left the small stronghold
+under the cover of night, and with no other
+guide than the wind on his cheek had tracked
+his way through the enemy’s camp, and through
+the wild, roadless country that lay between it
+and the army of General Taylor. He brought
+the news that the Mexicans had attacked Fort
+Brown, opening upon it a heavy cannonade.
+The besieged had, however, returned the fire
+with spirit, and had succeeded in dismounting
+some of the Mexican guns. General Taylor
+at once set off to raise the siege, taking with
+him two thousand three hundred men. With
+this force he encountered the enemy at Palo
+Alta, and the battle so named was fought.
+For five hours was the strife continued, when
+the attacking party carried the day. The
+Mexicans fell back.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>On the next morning another engagement
+took place with the same result. The Mexicans
+lost a thousand men; some cannon; and had
+one of their generals taken prisoner;—and
+Fort Brown was relieved.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The war had thus commenced. The
+Mexicans loudly denounced what they called
+the dismemberment of their empire; the
+Americans heard with evident joy that their
+small army had won two battles of an enemy
+who had provoked the encounter.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>President Polk (the history of whose administration,
+by L. B. Chase, affords us some
+of these particulars) was, after much debate,
+authorised to call into the field volunteers, “to
+serve for a year or during the war.” Double
+the number asked-for soon offered themselves,
+and General Taylor found himself at the head
+of a force comparatively undisciplined but
+eager to advance, and equal to almost any
+amount of endurance in the prosecution of
+the enterprise on hand. The temper of the
+new levies was soon tried. The fight at
+Monterey was a repetition, on a larger scale,
+of the scenes and successes near Fort Brown.
+The Americans attacked and put to flight an
+enemy four times as numerous as the attacking
+force. The Mexicans seemed to think their
+invaders invincible; victory for the American
+flag was the result of each encounter, and
+before long General Taylor had a greater extent
+of country in his possession than the
+whole force under his command could well
+grasp with security. At this juncture General
+Scott, who for some time before this war
+began, had been Commander-in-Chief of the
+American Army, finding that great renown
+was being won by his junior officer, wrote
+from New York to General Taylor to state
+his intention of taking command in Mexico,
+and leading forward an additional force in
+advance of the positions conquered and
+held by Taylor. General Scott decided
+upon attacking Vera Cruz, and Taylor, being
+ordered to act on the defensive, complained
+bitterly when he found that Scott was to
+withdraw from his command all the regular
+troops he had, with the exception of one
+thousand men, leaving him to defend his
+position chiefly with volunteers, and these in
+deficient force. The military law of obedience
+to orders, however, left no choice, and though
+stating his belief in the weakness of his army
+he declined to fall back, urging the bad effect
+such a step must have on the minds of his
+new levies. He enjoyed the prestige of successive
+victories, and by supporting that alone
+could he hope to maintain his small force
+against an enemy so largely outnumbering him.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>About twelve thousand Americans had
+marched under Scott against Vera Cruz;
+about five thousand mustered under the flag
+of Taylor, when the news came that Santa
+Anna, with an army of twenty thousand
+strong, was marching upon the scattered and
+weakened forces of the smallest of the two
+American armies. Scott was too far on his
+way towards the sea coast to march to the
+rescue of Taylor, and the latter was left to do
+his best alone. On the morning of the
+23rd of February, 1847, the unequal battle
+began. General Taylor had secured for his
+five thousand men a strong position at Buena
+Vista, in which the artillery of his antagonist
+could not readily be brought into play.
+When Santa Anna approached with twenty
+thousand men, he sent a message to Taylor to
+surrender at discretion; a request which the
+American chieftain abruptly declined, and
+the fight began. The contest was long and
+doubtful. The disparity of numbers was soon
+felt, and the feeling that all depended on
+their valour nerved the attacked party to
+greater desperation in their defence. Less
+than five hundred of Taylor’s men were
+regular troops; more than four thousand of
+them, but a few months before, were at work
+in the fields, and on wharfs, and in warehouses
+in the States. But volunteers though they
+were, no veterans could have done more.
+About seven hundred of them fell, killed and
+wounded, but night, which stayed the battle,
+saw the Mexicans in retreat before a force over
+which, in the morning, they expected a rapid
+and easy victory. The gallantry of the Anglo-Saxons
+prevailed over the numbers of their
+semi-Spanish antagonists, and Santa Anna
+retreated with an army weakened by the loss
+of nearly two thousand killed and wounded.
+“Along the road leading from Buena Vista
+to Agua Nueva (says Mr. Chase), a scene of
+horror was presented on the night of the
+23rd of February. The means of transporting
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_527'>527</span>the wounded being extremely limited, they
+were left to struggle with suffering and with
+death, and the sighing of the wind and the
+cry of the wolf were their only requiem.
+Abandoned to their fate, without food, parched
+with thirst, without medical aid, and with no
+shelter to protect them from the piercing
+night air, they awaited the moment when
+death should release them from their suffering.
+The main body of the army reached Agua
+Nueva at midnight, and, dying with thirst,
+many of the soldiers plunged into a stagnant
+sheet of water which, in many cases, produced
+instant death. Suffering from the want of food
+and water, dispirited and disheartened by the
+result of the battle, they presented a striking
+contrast to that splendid array which, buoyant
+with hope and confident of victory, had
+attacked the American army.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Many anecdotes of this period of Taylor’s
+career are told with pride by his countrymen.
+Here are some of them which amusingly illustrate
+the character of the man.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>First we have one descriptive of his personal
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“Winding down a hill near Mont Morales, the
+column is halted to let a troop of horse pass.
+Do you see at their head a plain looking gentleman,
+mounted upon a brown horse, having upon
+his head a Mexican sombrero, dressed in a brown
+olive-coloured loose frock coat, grey pantaloons,
+wool socks, and shoes? From under the frock
+appears the scabbard of a sword; he has the eye
+of a hawk, and every lineament of his countenance
+is expressive of honesty, and a calm determined
+mind. The plain looking gentleman is General
+Zachary Taylor, who, with his military family, and
+a squadron of dragoons as an escort, is on his way
+to the front.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>A few more anecdotes will serve to show
+the peculiarities of the now deceased general.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“After the capitulation of Monterey, the officers
+of the army used their exertions to get General
+Taylor to move from his camp at St. Domingo to
+the Plaza, and there establish his head quarters.
+Several public buildings were examined and decided
+upon as suitable. After considerable persuasion
+General Taylor consented to move, at the
+same time giving the following instructions:—‘Choose
+a pleasant location—a house that is surrounded
+by a garden filled with large trees; put
+up a tent under the trees for my residence, and
+you [the staff and other officers] may have the
+house in front.’ It is needless to add, that no
+more was said about the head quarters being
+removed into the city of Monterey.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“In the early part of a severe action, when the
+enemy had succeeded in turning the left wing of
+his little army, and secured a seeming advantageous
+position in rear of their line, at the base of the
+mountain; when a portion of the troops, overpowered
+by the superiority of numbers, were
+forced to retire in “hot haste;” when, indeed,
+the fortunes of the day seemed extremely problematical,
+an officer of high rank rode up to
+General Taylor, and announced the temporary
+success of the enemy, and expressed his fears for
+the success of the army. Taylor’s reply was
+characteristic of the man. ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘so long
+as we have thirty muskets, we can never be conquered!
+If those troops who have abandoned
+their position can be rallied and brought into
+action again, I will take three thousand of the
+enemy prisoners. Had I the disposition of the
+enemy’s forces, I would myself place them just
+where they are.’ The officer resumed his duties
+with a light heart, considering that the battle, in
+spite of appearance, was already won.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The volunteers who flocked to his standard
+soon learned to regard the old general as a
+friend as well as a commander.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“As proof of his humanity, it is recorded that
+Taylor, before leaving the battle-ground of Buena
+Vista, ordered upwards of forty mule loads of
+provisions to be sent from his camp to Incarnacion,
+for the use of the wounded Mexicans who
+were in the hospital there, and starving from
+hunger.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“Taylor told General Ricardo that General
+Ampudia had written to him, stating that the
+war should be conducted in accordance with the
+usages of civilised nations, but that after the last
+battle they had barbarously stripped and mutilated
+our dead. To this charge General Ricardo replied,
+that ‘this was done by the rancheros, who
+could not be controlled.’ ‘I am coming over, and
+will control them for you,’ said Taylor.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“The general had assembled his council of
+officers the night previous to the conflict of Buena
+Vista, for the purpose of hearing their suggestions
+in relation to the approaching battle. A
+good deal of uneasiness was exhibited—objections
+were raised—the disadvantages of the immense
+‘odds’ were presented—propositions to retire
+and wait for reinforcements were urged—some
+were for giving the enemy battle—and one proposed
+that the American army should ‘fall back’—when
+the old hero’s opinion was asked. ‘Are
+you all done, gentlemen?’ Every one had finished.
+‘Then, gentlemen, I will adjourn this meeting,’
+coolly added Taylor, ‘<i>till after the fight to-morrow</i>.’
+‘Good!’ was the unanimous response. The
+battle was fought and—won.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>But we must return to our narrative.
+Whilst Taylor was holding his position in the
+interior, General Scott was approaching the
+sea coast, and a naval force being there ready
+to co-operate with him, the news that reached
+Santa Anna not long after he had been beaten
+by Taylor was, that the Americans had
+bombarded and captured Vera Cruz. The
+Mexicans were deeply dispirited; intestine
+quarrels and partisan disputes, added to the
+presence of a foreign enemy, rendered them
+more than ordinarily indisposed to make any
+really great and national exertions for their
+defence. Santa Anna had by his personal
+crimes gained many enemies, and there were
+not wanting Mexicans who secretly hailed the
+advent of the Americans rather as an advantage
+than a calamity. Hence, when Scott advanced
+from his newly acquired stronghold
+upon the city of Mexico itself, Santa Anna could
+at first bring only six thousand men to oppose
+his march, and these were met and beaten at
+Jalapa by the Americans. Three desperately
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_528'>528</span>contested battles soon followed, in which the
+invaders, though suffering most severely, came
+off victorious. In one of these, three thousand
+one hundred Americans met and defeated
+fourteen thousand Mexicans, leaving, however,
+seven hundred of their comrades dead
+upon the field. The final attack was upon
+the city itself, and by the 14th of September,
+Santa Anna had fled; the city of the Montezumas
+was in the hands of Brother Jonathan,
+and the stars and stripes waved on the
+national palace of Mexico.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>General Taylor never entirely forgave the
+Commander-in-Chief for taking from him the
+best part of his force, and he contended that
+had Scott threatened Vera Cruz only, and so
+divided the attention of Santa Anna, leaving
+the army at Monterey in its full force to
+march thence upon the capital, Mexico would
+have been taken at a less cost of time
+and blood than was ultimately expended on
+the conquest of the place. So also thought a
+large section of the American people, and
+though another commander actually took possession
+of the capital, Taylor was popularly
+regarded as the real hero of the Mexican war.
+This feeling was strengthened when the series
+of quarrels began between Scott and his companions
+in arms, and between that general
+and the American Minister, Mr. Trist, deputed
+to arrange a treaty between the two countries;
+and when Scott left the army in charge of
+General Butler to return in disgust to the
+United States, there was no officer in all
+Mexico, whose reputation could stand in competition
+with that of “Old Rough and Ready,”
+as Taylor was now called. He was looked
+upon as the one heroic leader of the successful
+war.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Bayard Taylor, after his stay in the city of
+Mexico, says he does not believe that Mexican
+enmity has been increased by the war, but
+rather the contrary. During all his stay in
+the country he did not hear a bitter word
+against the Americans. The officers of the
+United States’ army seem to have made friends
+everywhere, and the war, by throwing the
+natives into direct contact with foreigners,
+greatly abated their former prejudices against
+all not of Spanish blood. The departure of
+the American troops is declared to have been
+a cause of general lamentation amongst the
+tradesmen of Mexico and Vera Cruz. Nothing
+was more common to me (continues the traveller)
+than to hear Generals Scott and Taylor
+mentioned by the Mexicans in terms of entire
+respect and admiration. “If you see General
+Taylor,” said a gentleman to his namesake
+Bayard, “tell him that the Mexicans all
+honour him. He has never given up their
+houses to plunder; he has helped their
+wounded and suffering; he is as humane as
+he is brave, and they can never feel enmity
+towards him.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Not without contest and difficulties, but still
+by a considerable majority, General Taylor
+was in November, 1848, rewarded for his
+many years’ services by being installed in the
+highest position his countrymen had in their
+gift. They made him President of the United
+States, and his term of office in that capacity
+commenced in March, 1849, under the favourable
+impression created by the following
+straightforward declaration:—</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>“I intend that all new appointments shall be
+of men honest and capable. I do not intend to
+remove any man from office because he voted
+against me, for that is a freeman’s privilege; but
+such desecration of office and official patronage as
+some of them have been guilty of to secure the
+election of the master whom they served as slaves
+is degrading to the character of American freemen,
+and will be a good cause for removal of
+friend or foe. The office of the government
+should be filled with men of all parties; and as I
+expect to find many of those now holding to be
+honest, good men, and as the new appointments
+will, of course, be whigs, that will bring about
+this result. Although I do not intend to allow
+an indiscriminate removal, yet it grieves me to
+think that it will be necessary to require a great
+many to give place to better men. As to my
+cabinet, I intend that all interests and all sections
+of the country shall be represented, but not, as
+some of the newspapers will have it, all parties. I
+am a whig, as I have always been free to acknowledge,
+but I do not believe that these who voted for
+me wish me to be a mere partisan President, and I
+shall, therefore, try to be a President of the American
+people. As to the new territory, it is now free,
+and slavery cannot exist there without a law of
+Congress authorising it, and that I do not believe
+they will ever pass. I was opposed to the acquisition
+of this territory, as I also was to the acquisition
+of Texas. I was opposed to the war, and, although
+by occupation a warrior, I am a peace man.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>His subsequent conduct tended to realise
+the hopes created by this opening avowal.
+But a life of hardship and an age verging
+on sixty years, prepared him, but indifferently,
+to meet the renewed exertions required by
+his new position. Resigning the panoply of
+the general to assume the garb of the President,
+he gained a respite from the toils of war
+to accept the still more soul-wearying contests,
+jealousies, and responsibilities of civil government.
+With soldierly determination, however,
+he addressed himself to the task, and,
+like a true hero, fell with harness on his
+back. He was born on the 9th of November,
+1786—he died on the 9th of July, 1850. His
+last words were:—“I am prepared. I have
+endeavoured to do my duty.” May all deathbeds
+be consoled by the truthful utterance of
+such a sentiment.</p>
+
+<hr class='c016'>
+
+<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='c001'><i>Price 2d., Stamped, 3d.</i>,</div>
+    <div class='c017'><span class='large'>THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE</span></div>
+    <div>OF</div>
+    <div>CURRENT EVENTS.</div>
+    <div class='c017'><span class='small'><i>The Number, containing a history of the past month, was issued with the Magazines.</i></span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c017'>
+</div>
+<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'>
+
+<div class='chapter ph2'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c018'>
+    <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 78192 ***</div>
+  </body>
+  <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-02-06 22:31:38 GMT -->
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #78192
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78192)