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} + .c013 { vertical-align: top; text-align: center; padding-right: 1em; } + .c014 { margin-top: 2em; font-size: .9em; } + .c015 { page-break-before: always; margin-top: 2em; } + .c016 { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; margin-top: 0.8em; + margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 35%; margin-right: 35%; width: 30%; } + .c017 { margin-top: 1em; } + .c018 { margin-top: 4em; } + div.tnotes { padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;background-color:#E3E4FA; + border:thin solid silver; margin:2em 10% 0 10%; font-family: Georgia, serif; + clear: both; } + .covernote { visibility: hidden; display: none; } + div.tnotes p { text-align: justify; } + .x-ebookmaker .covernote { visibility: visible; display: block; } + h1 {line-height: 150%; } + .chapter { clear: both; page-break-before: always; } + body {font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; text-align: justify; } + table {font-size: .9em; padding: 1.5em .5em 1em; page-break-inside: avoid; + clear: both; } + div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; } + div.titlepage p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + .double {border-style: double;border-width: 4px; padding: 1em; clear: both; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78192 ***</div> + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='double titlepage'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>“<i>Familiar in their Mouths as HOUSEHOLD WORDS.</i>”—<span class='sc'>Shakespeare.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_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.]      SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1850.      [<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,” &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 ... +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'> </td> + <td class='c011'>Children</td> + <td class='c012'>28</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + <td class='c012'><hr></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c010'> </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, &c., &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 --> +</html> diff --git a/78192-h/images/cover.jpg b/78192-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed3a82a --- /dev/null +++ b/78192-h/images/cover.jpg |
