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diff --git a/9992.txt b/9992.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4644e64 --- /dev/null +++ b/9992.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10833 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 + Vol. 53, January, 1843 + +Author: Various + +Posting Date: October 29, 2011 [EBook #9992] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: November 6, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1843 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE + +NO. CCCXXVII. JANUARY, 1843. VOL. LIII. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + GREAT BRITAIN AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR 1843 + LESURQUES; OR, THE VICTIM OF JUDICIAL ERROR + CALEB STUKELY + PART X. + IMAGINARY CONVERSATION. BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR + TASSO AND CORNELIA + THE WORLD OF LONDON + SECOND SERIES, PART I. + THE DREAM OF LORD NITHSDALE + TWO HOURS OF MYSTERY + THE EAST AND SOUTH OF EUROPE + THE CURSE OF GLENCOE. BY B. SIMMONS + THE MARTYRS' MONUMENT. A MONOLOGUE + TASTE AND MUSIC IN ENGLAND + + + + +GREAT BRITAIN AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR 1843. + + +Great Britain, at the present moment, occupies a position of dignity, of +grandeur, and of RESPONSIBILITY, unparalleled in either her own history, +or that of any other nation ancient or modern. Let him who is inclined +to doubt this assertion, of whatever country he may be, and whether +friendly, hostile, or indifferent to England, glance for a moment at a +map of the world, and having at length found out our little island, +(which, perhaps, he may consider a mere fragment chipped off, as it +were, from the continent of Europe,) turn to our stupendous possessions +in the east and in the west--in fact, all over the world--and he may be +apt to think of the fond speculative boast of the ancient geometrician, +"[Greek: Dos pou sto, chai ton chosmon chinaeso]," and to paraphrase and +apply it thus--"Give the genius of Great Britain but where she may place +her foot--some mere point peeping above the waves of the sea--and she +shall move the world." Is not this language warranted by recent facts? +While our irritable but glorious neighbour France--_pace tantae +gentis!_--is frittering away her warlike energies in Algeria, and Russia +is worried by her unsuccessful and unjust attempts upon Circassia, +behold the glorious monarch of this little island, Queen Victoria, +roused by indignities and injuries offered to her most distant subjects +in the East, strike single-handed a blow there, which shakes a vast and +ancient empire to its very foundations, and forces its haughty emperor +from his throne, to assume the attitude of a suppliant for peace, +yielding her peremptory but just demands, even at the cannon's mouth, +and actually relinquishing to her a large portion of his dominions. +Events, these, so astonishing, that their true character and +consequences have not yet been calmly considered and appreciated by +either ourselves or other nations. Look, again, at recent occurrences in +British India--that vast territory which only our prodigious enterprise +and skill have acquired for us, and nothing but profound sagacity can +preserve to the British crown--and observe, with mixed feelings, two +principal matters: a perilous but temporary error of overweening +ambition on the part of Great Britain, yet retrieved with power and +dignity; and converted into an opportunity of displaying--where, for the +interests of Great Britain, it was imperiously demanded--her +irresistible valour, her moderation, her wisdom; exhibiting, under +circumstances the most adverse possible, in its full splendour and +majesty, the force of that OPINION by which alone we can hold India. +Passing swiftly over to the Western Continent, gaze at our vast +possessions _there_ also--in British North America--containing +considerably upwards of four millions of square geographical miles of +land; that is, nearly a ninth part of the whole terrestrial surface of +the globe![1]--besides nearly a million and a half miles of water--five +hundred thousand of these square miles being capable, and in rapid +progress, of profitable cultivation! at more than three thousand miles' +distance from the mother country, and in immediate juxtaposition to the +territory of our distinguished but jealous descendants and rivals--a +rising nation--the United States! Pausing here in the long catalogue of +our foreign possessions, let our fancied observer turn back his eye +towards the little island that owns them; will he not be filled with +wonder, possibly with a conviction that Great Britain is destined by +Almighty God to be the instrument of effecting His sublime but hidden +purposes with reference to humanity? Assume, however, our observer to be +actuated by a hostile and jealous spirit, and to regard our foreign +possessions, and the national greatness derived from them, as only +nominal and apparent--to insinuate that we could not really hold them, +or vindicate our vaunted supremacy if powerfully challenged and +resented. Let him then meditate upon the authentic intelligence which we +have just received from the East: what must then be his real sentiments +on this the 1st day of January 1843? Let us ask him, in all manly +calmness, whether England has not _done_ what he doubted or denied her +ability to do? whether she has not shown the world that she may, indeed, +do what she pleases among the nations, so long as her pleasure is +regulated and supported by her accustomed sagacity and spirit? She has, +however, recently had to pass through an awful ordeal, principally +occasioned by the brief ascendency of incompetent councils; and while +expressing, in terms of transport, our conviction that, "out of this +nettle danger, we have plucked the flower safety"--we cannot repress our +feelings of indignation against those who precipitated us into that +danger, and of gratitude towards those who, under Divine Providence, +have been instrumental in extricating us from it, not only rapidly, but +with credit; not merely with credit, but with glory. To appreciate our +present position, we must refer to that which we occupied some twelve or +eighteen months ago; and that will necessarily involve a brief +examination of the policy and proceedings of the late, and of the +present Government. We shall speak in an unreserved and independent +spirit in giving utterance to the reflections which have occurred to us +during a watchful attention paid to the course of public affairs, both +foreign and domestic, in the interval alluded to; though feeling the +task which we have undertaken both a delicate and a difficult one. + + [1] Malte Brun, xi. 179. Alison, x. 256. + +After a desperate tenacity in retaining office exhibited by the late +Government, which was utterly unexampled, and most degrading to the +character and position of public men engaged in carrying on the Queen's +Government, Sir Robert Peel was called to the head of affairs by her +Majesty, in accordance with the declared wishes of a triumphant majority +of her subjects--of a perfectly overwhelming majority of the educated, +the thinking, and the monied classes of society. When he first placed +his foot upon the commanding eminence of the premiership, the sight +which presented itself to his quick and comprehensive glance, must have +been, indeed, one calculated to make + + --"the boldest hold his breath + For a time." + +What appalling evidence in every direction of the ignorance and madness +of his predecessors! An exchequer empty, exactly at the moment when it +ought to have been fullest, in order to support our tremendous +operations in the East and elsewhere: in fact, a prospect of immediate +national insolvency; all resources, ordinary and extraordinary, +exhausted; all income anticipated: an average deficiency of revenue, +actual and estimated, in the six years next preceding the 5th of January +1843, of L.10,072,000! Symptoms of social disorganization visible on the +very surface of society: ruin bestriding our mercantile interests, +palsied every where by the long pressure of financial misrule: credit +vanishing rapidly: the working-classes plunged daily deeper and deeper +into misery and starvation, ready to listen to the most desperate +suggestions: and a Government bewildered with a consciousness of +incompetency, and of the swiftly approaching consequences of their +misrule, at the eleventh hour--on the eve of a general election-- +suddenly resolving (in the language of their own leader) to stir society +to its foundations, by proposing a wild and ruinous alteration in the +Corn-Laws, declaring that it, and it only, would bring cheap bread to +the doors of the very poorest in the land:--after the manner of giving +out ardent spirits to an already infuriated mob. In Ireland, crime and +sedition fearfully in the ascendant; treasonable efforts made to +separate her from us; threats even held out of her entering into a +foreign alliance against us. So much for our domestic--now for our +foreign condition and prospects. He would see Europe exhibiting serious +symptoms of distrust and hostility: France, irritated and trifled with, +on the verge of actual war with us: our criminally neglected differences +with America, fast ripening into the fatal bloom of war: the very +existence of the Canadas at stake. In India, the tenure by which we hold +it in the very act of being loosened; our troops shedding their blood in +vain, in the prosecution of as mad and wicked an enterprise as ever was +undertaken by a civilized nation; the glory of our hitherto invincible +arms tarnished; the finances of India deranged and wasted away in +securing only fresh accessions of disgraceful defeat. In China, we were +engaged, in spite of the whisper of our guardian angel, Wellington, in a +_little war_, and experiencing all its degrading and ruinous +consequences to our commerce, our military and naval reputation, our +statesmanship, our honour. Did ever this great empire exhibit such a +spectacle before as that which it thus presented to the anxious eye of +the new Premier? Having concluded the disheartening and alarming survey, +he must have descended to his cabinet oppressed and desponding, +enquiring who is sufficient for these things? With no disposition to +bestow an undue encomium on any one, we cannot but say, happy was Queen +Victoria in having, at such a moment, such a man to call to the head of +her distracted affairs, as Sir Robert Peel. He was a man preeminently +distinguished by caution, sobriety, and firmness of character--by +remarkable clear-sightedness and strength of intellect--thoroughly +practical in all things--of immense knowledge, entirely at his +command--of consummate tact and judgment in the conduct of public +affairs--of indefatigable patience and perseverance--of imperturbable +self-possession. He seemed formed by nature and habit to be the leader +of a great deliberative assembly. Add to all this--a personal character +of unsullied purity, and a fortune so large as to place him beyond the +reach of suspicion or temptation. Such was the man called upon by his +sovereign and his country, in a most serious crisis of her affairs. He +was originally fortunate in being surrounded by political friends +eminently qualified for office; from among whom he made, with due +deliberation, a selection, which satisfied the country the instant that +their names were laid before it. We know not when a British sovereign +has been surrounded by a more brilliant and powerful body of ministers, +than those who at this moment stand around Queen Victoria. They +constitute the first real GOVERNMENT which this country has seen for the +last twelve years; and they instantly addressed themselves to the +discharge of the duties assigned to them with a practised skill, and +energy, and system, which were quickly felt in all departments of the +State. In contenting himself with the general superintendance of the +affairs of his government, and devolving on another the harassing office +of Chancellor of the Exchequer, which, till then, had been conjoined +with that of the First Lord of the Treasury, Sir Robert Peel acted with +his usual judgment, and secured, in particular, one capital +object--_unity of action._ + +As soon as the late Ministry and their adherents perceived that Sir +Robert Peel's advent to power was inevitable, they clamorously required +of him a full preliminary statement of the policy he intended to adopt +on being actually installed in office! By those who had floundered on, +session after session, from blunder to blunder, from folly to +folly--each more glaring and destructive than the preceding one--he was +modestly expected to commit himself _instanter_ to some scheme struck +off, to please them, at a heat! A cut-and-dried exposition of his plans +of domestic and foreign policy, before it was even certain that he would +ever be called on to frame or act on them; before he had had a glimpse +of the authentic and official _data_, of which none but the actual +adviser of the crown could be in possession. This was doubtless _their_ +notion of statesmanship, and faithfully acted on from first to last; but +Sir Robert Peel and his friends had been brought up in another school, +whose maxim was--_priusquam incipias, consulta--sed ubi consulueris, +mature facto, opus est_. The Premier stood unmoved by the entreaties, +the coaxings, and the threatenings of those wriggling before him in +miserable discomfiture and restlessness on the abhorred benches of +Opposition; calmly demonstrating to them the folly and injustice of +which they were guilty. Yet the circumstances of the country made his +adherence to this first determination exquisitely trying. He relied, +however, on the cautious integrity of his purposes, and the necessity of +the case; and amidst the silent agitation of friends, and the frenzied +clamour of opponents, and with a dreadful prospect before the country in +the ensuing winter--maintained the silence he had imposed upon himself, +and, with his companions, entered forthwith on a searching and complete +investigation of the affairs of the nation. Not seduced by the +irrepressible eagerness of friends, or dismayed by the dark threats and +dismal predictions of enemies, who even appealed direct to the throne +against them, Ministers pursued their course with calmness and +determination, till the legitimate moment had arrived for announcing to +the country their thoroughly considered plans for the future. Sir Robert +Peel is undoubtedly entitled to the credit of resuscitating and +re-organizing the great party all but annihilated by the passing of the +Reform Bill. It is under vast obligations to him; but so is he to it. +What fortitude and fidelity have been theirs! How admirable their +conduct on the occasion we are alluding to! And here let us also pay a +just tribute of respect to the Conservative newspaper press, both in the +metropolis and in the country. To select particular instances, would be +vain and invidious; but while the whole country has daily opportunities +of judging of the assistance afforded to the Conservative cause by the +powerful and independent metropolitan press, few are aware, as we are, +of the very great ability generally displayed by the provincial +Conservative press. Their resolute and persevering exposure of the +dangerous false doctrines of our unscrupulous adversaries, and eloquent +advocacy of Conservative principles, are above all praise, and are +appreciated in the highest quarters. + +The winter was at length nearly passed through when Parliament +assembled. The distress which the people had suffered, and continued to +suffer, no pen can adequately describe, or do justice to the touching +fortitude with which those sufferings were borne. It wrung the hearts of +all who had opportunities of personally observing it. They resisted, +poor famishing souls! all the fiendish attempts that were systematically +made to undermine their loyalty, to seduce them into insubordination and +rebellion. Let us, by and by, see how far the result has justified this +implied confidence of theirs in the power, the wisdom, and the integrity +of the new Government. After all the boasting of the Opposition--in +spite of their vehement efforts during the recess, to concert and mature +what were given out as the most formidable system of tactics ever +exhibited in parliament, for the dislodgement of a Ministry denounced as +equally hateful to the Queen and to the country, the very first division +utterly annihilated the Opposition. So overwhelming was the Ministerial +majority, that it astonished their friends as much as it dismayed their +enemies: and to an accurate observer of what passed in the House of +Commons, it was plain that the legitimate energies of the Opposition +were paralyzed thenceforth to the end of the session. Forthwith, there +sprung up, however, a sort of conspiracy to _annoy_ the triumphant +Ministers, to exhaust their energies, to impede all legislation, as far +as those ends could be attained by the most wicked and _vulgar_ faction +ever witnessed within the House of Commons! + +The precise seat of Sir Robert Peel's difficulty at home was, that his +immediate predecessors had (whether wilfully or otherwise signifies +nothing for the present) raised expectations among the people, which _no +party_ could satisfy; while their measures has reduced the people to a +state in which the disappointment of those expectations seemed to +excuse, if not justify, even downright rebellion. They arrayed the +agricultural and manufacturing interests in deadly hostility against +each other; they sought to make the one responsible for the consequences +springing only from the reckless misconduct of the other. The farmers +must be run down and ruined in order to repair the effects of excessive +credit and over-trading among the manufacturers; the corn-grower must +smart for the sins of the cotton-spinner. Such were some of the fierce +elements of discord in full action, when the affairs of the nation were +committed by her Majesty to her present Ministers, on whom it lay to +promote permanent domestic tranquillity, amidst this conflict between +interests which had been taught that they were irreconcilable with each +other; to sustain the public credit at once, without endangering our +internal peace and safety, or compromising the honour of the nation in +its critical and embarrassing foreign relations. How were they to effect +these apparently incompatible objects? "See," said the enemies of the +Ministry, "see, by and by, when parliament assembles, a cruel specimen +of _class legislation_--the unjust triumph of the landed interest--the +legitimate working of the Chandos clause in the Reform Bill!" But bear +witness, parliamentary records, how stood the fact! + +That the present Ministry are mainly indebted for their accession to +power, to the prodigious exertions of the agricultural interest during +the last general election, is, we presume, undeniable. It was talked of +as their mere tool or puppet. Their first act is to lower the duties on +the importation of foreign cattle! "We are ruined!" cried the farmers in +dismay; and the Duke of Buckingham withdrew from the Cabinet. "This is a +step in the right way," said the opponents of Ministers, "but it will +clearly cost Peel his place--then _we_ return, and will go the rest of +the journey, and quickly arrive at the goal of free-trade in corn, and +every thing else, except those particular articles in which _we_ deal, +and which must be protected, for the benefit of the country, against +foreign competition." Then the Radical journals teemed with joyful +paragraphs, announcing that Sir Robert Peel's ministry was already +crumbling to pieces! The farmers, it would seem, were every where up in +arms; confusion (and something a vast deal worse!) was drunk at all +their meetings, to Peel! Nevertheless, these happy things came not to +pass; Sir Robert Peel's Ministry _would_ not fall to pieces; and the +curses of the farmers came not so fast or loud as their eager +disinterested friends could have wished! To be serious, the alteration +of the Corn-Laws was undoubtedly a very bold one, but the result of most +anxious and profound consideration. A moment's reflection of the +character and circumstances of the Ministry who proposed it, served +first to arrest the apprehensions entertained by the agricultural +interest; while the thorough discussions which took place in Parliament, +demonstrating the necessity of _some_ change--the moderation and caution +of the one proposed--several undoubted and very great improvements in +details, and, above all, _a formal recognition of the principle of +agricultural protection_, still further allayed the fears of the most +timorous. To _us_ it appears, that the simple principle of a scale of +duties, adapted to admit foreign corn when we want it, and exclude it +when we can grow sufficient ourselves, is abundantly vindicated, and +will not be disturbed for many years to come, if even then. Has this +principle been surrendered by Sir Robert Peel? It has not; and we +venture to express our confident belief, that it never will. He cannot, +of course, prevent the subject from being mooted during the ensuing +session, because there are persons, unfortunately, sent to Parliament +for the very purpose; but while he is listening with a calm smile, and +apparently thoughtfully, to the voluble tradesmen who are haranguing him +upon the subject, it is not improbable that he will be revolving in his +mind matters much more personally interesting and important to them; +viz. how he shall put a stop to the monstrous joint-stock banking system +frauds, as exhibited at this moment at Manchester, in the Northern and +Central Banking Company, and other similar establishments, blessed with +the disinterested patronage of the chief member of the "Anti-Corn-Law +League." The mention of that snug little speculation of two or three +ingenious and enterprising Manchester manufacturers, forces from us an +observation or two, viz. that the thing _will not do_, after all. There +is much cry, and little wool; very little corn, and a great deal of +cotton. They have a smart saying at Manchester, to the effect, that it +is no use whistling against thunder; which we shall interpret to mean, +that all their "great meetings," speechifyings, subscriptions, and so +forth, will fail to kindle a single spark of real enthusiasm in their +favour, among those who are daily becoming more and more personally +sensible, first, of the solid benefits conferred by the wise policy of +the present Administration; secondly, of the want of personal +respectability among the leaders of the League; and lastly, the +necessity and vast advantage of supporting the agriculture of Old +England. The recent discussions on the Corn-Laws, in Parliament and +elsewhere, the masterly expositions of the true principles on which they +are really based, have thrown a flood of light on the subject, now made +visible and intelligible to the lowest capacity. That some further +alteration may not erelong be made on the scale of duties, no one can +assert, though we have no reason to believe that any such is at present +contemplated; but that the principle of the "sliding scale," as it is +called, will be firmly adhered to, we entertain no doubt whatever. The +conduct of the agricultural interest, with reference to subjects of such +vital importance to them as the Corn-Law Bill and the Tariff, has been +characterized by signal forbearance and fortitude; nor, let them rest +assured, will it be lost upon the Ministry or the country. + +The next step in Sir Robert Peel's bold and comprehensive policy, was to +devise some method of recruiting _forthwith_ its languishing vital +energies--to rescue its financial concerns from the desperate condition +in which he found them. With an immediate and perspective increase of +expenditure that was perfectly frightful--in the meditation and actual +prosecution of vast but useless enterprises--of foreign interference and +aggrandizement, to secure a little longer continuance of popular favour, +they deliberately destroyed a principal source of revenue, by the +reduction of the postage duties, in defiance of the repeated protests +and warnings of Sir Robert Peel, when in Opposition. They had, in fact, +brought matters to such a pitch, as to render it almost impossible for +even "a heaven-born minister" to conduct the affairs of the nation, with +safety and honour, without inflicting grievous disappointment and +sufferings, and incurring thereby a degree of obloquy fatal to any +Ministry. They seemed, in fact, to imagine, as they went on, that the +day of reckoning could never arrive, because they had resolved to stave +it off from time to time, however near it approached, by a series of +desperate expedients, really destructive of the national prosperity, but +provocative of what served their purposes, viz. temporary popular +enthusiasm. What cruelty! what profligacy! what madness! And all under +the flag on which were inscribed "_Peace! Retrenchment! Reform!_" Acting +on the salutary maxim, that the knowledge of the disease is half the +cure, Sir Robert Peel resolved to lay before the nation _the whole +truth_, however appalling. Listen to the following pregnant sentences +which he addressed to the House of Commons, within a few moments after +he had risen to develope his financial policy, we mean on the 11th of +March 1842:--"It is sometimes necessary, on the occasion of financial +statements of this kind, to maintain great reserve, and to speak with +great caution. A due regard for the public interest, may impose on a +Minister the duty of only partially disclosing matters of importance. +But I am hampered by no fetters of official duty. I mean to lay before +you the truth--the unexaggerated truth, but to conceal nothing. I do +this, because in great financial difficulties, the first step towards +improvement is to look those difficulties boldly in the face. This is +true of individuals--it is true also of nations. There can be no hope of +improvement or of recovery, _if you consent to conceal from yourselves +the real difficulties with which you have to contend_."[2] There was no +gainsaying the facts which, amidst an agitated and breathless silence, +he proceeded to detail with dreadful clearness and brevity; and out of +which the question instantly sprung into the minds of every one--_are we +not on the very verge of national insolvency_? He proceeded to +demonstrate that his predecessors had exhausted every device which their +financial ingenuity could suggest, down to their last supposed +master-stroke, the addition of 10 per cent to the assessed taxes--thus +adding very nearly the last straw which was to break the camel's +back--the last peculiarly cruel pressure on the lower orders. + + [2] Hansard, vol. lxi. col. 423. + +"Shall we persevere," he continued, "in the system on which we have been +acting for the last five years? Shall we, in time of peace, have +recourse to the miserable expedient of continued loans? Shall we try +issues of Exchequer bills? Shall we resort to Savings' banks?--in short, +to any of those expedients which, _call_ them by what name you please, +are neither more nor less than a permanent addition to the public debt? +We have a deficiency of nearly L.5,000,000 in the last two years: _is +there a prospect of reduced expenditure?_ Without entering into details, +but looking at your extended empire, at the demands which are made for +the protection of your commerce, and the general state of the world, and +calling to mind the intelligence which has lately reached us," [from +Affghanistan,] "can you anticipate for the year after the next, the +possibility, consistent with the honour and safety of this country, of +greatly reducing the public expenses? I am forced to say, I cannot +calculate on that.... Is the deficiency I have mentioned a casual +deficiency? Sir, it is not; it has existed for the last seven or eight +years. At the close of 1838, the deficiency was L.1,428,000; of 1839, +L.430,000; of 1840, L.1,457,000; of 1841, L.1,851,000. I estimate that +the deficiency of 1842 will be L.2,334,030; and that of 1843, +L.2,570,000; making an aggregate deficiency, in six years, of +L.10,072,000! ... With this proof that it is not with an occasional or +casual deficiency that we have to deal, will you, I ask, have recourse +to the miserable expedient of continued _loans_? It is impossible that I +could be a party to a proceeding which, I should think, might perhaps +have been justifiable at first, _before you knew exactly the nature of +your revenue and expenditure_; but with these facts before me, I should +think I were degrading the situation which I hold, if I could consent to +such a paltry expedient as this. I can hardly think that Parliament will +adopt a different view. I can hardly think that you, who inherit the +debt contracted by your predecessors--when, having a revenue, they +reduced the charges of the post-office, and inserted in the preamble of +the bill a declaration that the reduction of the revenue should be made +good by increased taxation--will now refuse to make it good. The effort +having been made, but the effort having failed, that pledge is still +unredeemed. _I advised you not to give that pledge_; but if you regard +the pledges of your predecessors, it is for you now to redeem them.... I +apprehend that, with almost universal acquiescence, I may abandon the +idea of supplying the deficiency by the miserable desire of fresh loans, +of an issue of Exchequer bills. Shall I, then, if I must resort to +taxation, levy it _upon the articles of consumption_, which constitute, +in truth, almost all the necessaries of life? _I cannot consent to any +proposal for increasing taxation on the great articles of consumption by +the labouring classes of society_." [Is it the friend or the enemy _of +the people_, that is here speaking?] "I say, moreover, I can give you +conclusive proofs that you have arrived at the limits of taxation on +articles of consumption."[3] Sir Robert Peel then proceeded, with +calmness and dignity, to encounter the possible, if not even _probable_ +fatal unpopularity of proposing that which he succeeded in convincing +_Parliament_ was the only resource left a conscientious Minister--an +INCOME TAX. + + [3] Hansard, vol. lxi. col. 429, 430, 431. + +"I will now state what is the measure which I propose, under a sense of +public duty, and a deep conviction that it is necessary for the public +interest; and impressed at the same time with an equal conviction"-- +[mark, by the way, the exquisite judgment with which this suggestion was +_here_ thrown in!]--"that the present sacrifices which I call on you to +make, will be amply compensated, ultimately, in a pecuniary point of +view, and _much more_ than compensated, by the effect which they will +have in maintaining public credit and the ancient character of this +country. Instead of looking to taxation on consumption--instead of +reviving the taxes on salt or on sugar--it is my duty _to make an +earnest appeal to the possessors of property_, for the purpose of +repairing this mighty evil. I propose, for a time at least, (and I never +had occasion to make a proposition with a more thorough conviction of +its being one which the public interest of the country required)--I +propose _that, for a time to be limited, the income of this country +should be called on to contribute a certain sum for the purpose of +remedying this mighty and growing evil_, ... should bear a charge not +exceeding 7d. in the pound, which will not amount to 3 per cent, but, +speaking accurately, L.2, 18s. 4d. per cent--for the purpose of not only +supplying the deficiency in the revenue, but of enabling us, with +confidence and satisfaction, to propose great commercial reforms, which +will afford a hope of reviving commerce, and such an improvement in the +manufacturing interests as will re-act on every other interest in the +country; and by diminishing the prices of the articles of consumption +and the cost of living, will, in a pecuniary point of view, compensate +you for your present sacrifices; whilst you will be, at the same time, +relieved from the contemplation of a great public evil."[4] + + [4] Hansard, vol, lxi. col. 439. + +We have quoted the very words of Sir Robert Peel, because they are every +way memorable and worthy of permanent conspicuousness. In point, for +instance, of mere oratorical skill, observe the matchless tact of the +speaker. Conscious that he was about to propose what would come like a +clap of thunder on all present, and on the country, he prepares the way +for its favourable reception, by pointing out the almost necessarily +_direct pecuniary benefit_ ultimately derivable from his unpalatable +tax; and the instant that he has disclosed his proposal, in the same +breath carries our attention to a similar topic--an assurance calculated +to arouse the self-interest and excite the approbation first of the +commercial classes, and then of all classes, by the means this tax will +give the Minister of proposing "great commercial reforms," and "reducing +the cost of living." No power of description we possess can adequately +set before the reader the effect produced on the House of Commons by the +delivery of the passage above quoted, and which was shared, as the +intelligence was communicated, by the country at large. One thing was +plain, that the Minister, disdaining personal considerations of +unpopularity, had satisfied the nation that a desperate disease had been +detected, which required a desperate remedy. It was--it is, in vain to +disguise that an income-tax has many disgusting, and all but absolutely +intolerable, incidents and characteristics, and which were instantly +appreciated by all who heard or read of the proposal for its adoption, +and these topics were pounced upon by the late Ministers and their +supporters, with eager and desperate determination to make the most of +them. To give effect to their operations, they secured an immediate and +ample interval for exasperating popular feeling against Ministers and +their abominable proposition! But it was all in vain. There was a bluff +English frankness about the Minister that mightily pleased the country, +exciting a sympathy in every right-thinking Englishman. _Here was no +humbug of any sort_, no obtaining of money under false pretences. At +first hearing of it, honest John Bull staggered back several paces, with +a face rueful and aghast; buttoned up his pockets, and meditated +violence even; but, in a few moments, albeit with a certain sulkiness, +he came back, presently shook hands with the Minister, and getting +momentarily more satisfied of his honesty, and of the necessity of the +case, only hoped that a little breathing-time might be given him, and +that the thing might be done as quietly and genteelly as possible! To be +serious, however. + +By whom, let us ask, had this Minister been brought into power? by whom +most furiously and unscrupulously opposed? The former were those on whom +he instantly imposed this very severe and harassing tax; the latter, +those whom he entirely exempted from it: the former, those who _could_, +with a little inconvenience, make the effort requisite to protect +themselves in the tranquil enjoyment of what they possessed, the latter, +those who were already faint, oppressed, and crushed beneath _burdens +they were unable to bear_. Was this justice, or injustice? It then +_must_ be very contradistinctive--was the Minister, in this instance, +the poor man's friend, or the rich man's friend? Was he exhibiting +ingratitude and insanity, or a truly wise and honest statesmanship? We +need _not_ "pause for a reply." It has been sounding ever since in our +ears, in the accents of national concord, and of admiration of the +Minister who, in his very zenith of popularity and success, perilled +all, to obey the dictates of honour and conscience, fearlessly proposed +a measure which seemed levelled directly at those gifted and powerful +classes by whom he had been so long and enthusiastically supported; of +the Minister who, in fine, looked, and made the country look, a +frightful danger full in the face--till it turned and fled. In spite of +all that could be done by his bitter unscrupulous factious opponents in +the House of Commons, and of the eloquent and conscientious opposition +of Lord Brougham in the House of Lords, backed, all the while, by the +immediate self-interest of those who were to smart under the tax, Sir +Robert Peel carried his great and salutary measure in triumph through +both Houses, without one single material alteration, till it became the +law of the land, amidst the applause of the surrounding nations; for +even those, alas! too frequently bitter and jealous censors of English +conduct and character, the French, "owned that the English people had +exhibited a signal and glorious instance of virtue, of fortitude, of +self-denial, and sagacity." We have reason to believe that, on quitting +the House of Commons after hearing the speech of Sir Robert Peel, from +which we have been quoting, Lord John Russell asked a gentleman of +brilliant talent and independent character, but of strong liberal +opinions, "what he thought of Peel's financial scheme?" The answer was, +"It is so fine a thing, that I only wish it had been prepared by Lord +John Russell instead of Sir Robert Peel!" On which, unless we are +mistaken, Lord John shrugged his shoulders in silence. His opposition to +the income-tax, on going into, and while the bill was in, committee, was +temperate, and even languid; and he stood in the dignified attitude +worthy of his ancient name, and of personal character, far aloof from +those who, throughout the session, pursued a line of conduct +unprecedented in parliamentary history, degrading to the House of +Commons, but possibly in keeping with all that might have been expected +from them. We are vastly mistaken if Lord John does not regard them with +secret scorn, and experience a shudder of disgust from any momentary +contact with them; and shall not be surprised if, during the ensuing +session, he should be at no particular pains to conceal the state of +his mind. + +One circumstance highly honourable to the national character, in +relation to the income-tax, should not escape observation: that +comparatively little or no real opposition, certainly no clamorous +opposition, has been offered to the _principle_ of the tax, and the +policy of its imposition, by those on whom its pressure falls heaviest, +namely, the great capitalists and landed proprietors of the kingdom. +"The grasshopper," said Mr Burke, "fills the whole field with the noise +of its chirping, while the stately ox browses in silence." The clamour +against the income-tax comes mainly from those who are unscathed by it; +those who suffer most severely from it, suffer in silence. The inferior +machinery of the income-tax is unquestionably very far from attaining +that degree of perfection, which we had a right to look for from the +able and practised hands which framed it. The outcry raised, however, +against the income-tax on this score, particularly on the ground of the +heedlessness of subordinate functionaries, is subsiding. There is +evident, as far as the Government itself is concerned, an anxious desire +to enforce the provisions of the act with the greatest possible degree +of delicacy and forbearance, consistent with the discharge of a painful +but imperative duty. We repeat that the outcry in question, however, +was principally occasioned by those who had least real cause, on +personal grounds, to complain; who (unfortunately, it may be, for +themselves) never yet approached, nor have any prospect of infringing +upon, the fatal dividing point of L. 150 a-year, in spite of their long +and zealous literary services, under the very best-conducted and _truly +liberal_ Radical newspapers, which they have filled, with persevering +ingenuity, day after day, with eloquent descriptions of the awful state +of feeling in the country on this most atrocious subject. Where, +patriotic, but most imaginative gentlemen! where have been the great +meetings summoned to condemn the principle of the tax? The great +landholders, the great capitalists, the great merchants, are pouring +their contributions into the exhausted Treasury, with scarce a murmur at +the temporary inconvenience it may occasion them!--thus nobly responding +to the appeal so earnestly and nobly made to them by the Prime Minister. +So, moreover, are the vast majority of those persons on whom the tax +falls with peculiar severity--we allude to the occupants of schedule +D--who must pay this tax out of an income, alas! evanescent as the +morning mist; which, on the approach of sickness or of death is +instantly annihilated. These also suffer with silent fortitude; and we +think we have heard it upon sufficient authority, that it was on these +persons that Ministers felt the greatest reluctance in imposing the +tax--at least to its present extent, only under an absolute compulsion +of state policy. The total, or even partial exemption of this class of +persons from the operation of the income-tax, would have been attended +with consequences that were not to be contemplated for a moment, and +into which it is impracticable here satisfactorily to enter. The tax +undoubtedly pinches severely men of small and uncertain incomes, who are +striving, on slender means, to maintain a respectable station in +society; the man who, with a large family to be supported _and +educated_, and who moves in a respectable sphere of society, has to pay +his L.9 or L.12 out of his precarious L.300 or L.400 a-year, is an +object of most earnest sympathy. Still, let him not lose sight of the +undoubted hardships borne by his wealthier brethren. Is it nothing for a +man--say the Duke of Buccleuch, the Marquis of Westminster, the Duke of +Sutherland, or Lord Ashburton, or Mr Rothschild--to have to pay down +their L.3000, L.4000, or L.5000 clear per annum, as the per-centage on +their magnificent incomes, in sudden and unexpected addition to the +innumerable and imperative calls upon them already existing, such as +compulsory upholding of many great establishments in different parts of +the country--various members of their families--married and single--to +support in a style adequate to their rank and position in the country? +It is needless, however, to pursue the matter further. The plain truth +is, there is no help for it; the burthen is one that must be borne, and +it is being borne bravely. + +_But why_ must this dreadful income-tax be borne? What has led to it? +The vast majority of honest and thinking men in the nation have but one +answer to give to the question. That the income-tax is the penalty the +nation must pay for its weakness and folly, in permitting a Whig +Ministry to get into power, and continue in power, "playing such +fantastic tricks" as theirs, for the last ten years, both at home and +abroad, as the nation _ought to have foreseen_ would be inevitably +followed by some such grievous results as the present. This income-tax, +however, let our opponents know, will serve for many years to come, long +after it may have been removed, as a memento to prevent the country from +tolerating the return to power of men whose reluctant and compulsory +exit from power, after again doing enormous mischief, will be followed +by a similar result--will impose on their Conservative successors the +bitter necessity of imposing another income-tax. "The evil that they +do," does indeed "live after them;" and without any "good, interred with +their bones!" With the frightful deficit exhibited by Sir Robert Peel +still staring us in the face; the war in the East yet to be paid for; +faith to be kept with the public creditor both at home and abroad: a +revenue of a _million a-year_ recklessly sacrificed in reducing the +postage duties:[5] a deficiency in the last quarter's revenue, that +tells its own frightful story as to its cause, and an all but certain +heavy deficiency to be looked for, we fear, in the ensuing quarter: with +all this before him, will any _member or supporter of the late +Government_--of all other persons--be found hardy enough to rise in his +place next session, and bait Sir Robert Peel about the repeal of the +income-tax? The country will not tolerate such audacity. We shall not +reason with _them_; but to those who, like ourselves, are smarting under +the effects of the late Ministry's misconduct, who have a right to +complain loudly and indignantly, and enquire with eager anxiety when +their suddenly augmented pressure is to cease, we feel compelled to +express our opinion, founded on a careful observation of our present +financial position and prospects, that we see no chance of being +relieved from the burden of the income-tax, before the period originally +fixed by Sir Robert Peel. Till then we must submit with what fortitude +and cheerfulness we may. Under, however, a year or two's steady and +enlightened administration of public affairs, matters may mend with +unexpected rapidity; but it is not in the ordinary course of human +affairs, that evils, the growth of many years, can be remedied in a +moment. A chronic disease of the body requires a patient course of +abstinence and skilful treatment, to afford a chance of the system's +getting once again into a permanent state of health; even as with +individuals, so is it with nations. That the sudden cessation of the +drain upon our resources from the East, and the partial reimbursement we +have already realized, will sensibly lighten the burthens under which +the Minister has hitherto laboured, and make him with joy to realize the +expectations which, in proposing the income-tax, he so distinctly, yet +cautiously, held out, as to the period of its duration, we may consider +as indisputable. Add to this the pacific policy which Sir Robert Peel +and his Cabinet are bent upon maintaining, as far as is consistent with +a jealous regard to our national honour, (and which our late resplendent +successes are calculated to facilitate,) and the revival, erelong, of +the revenue, concurrently with that of trade and commerce, which may be +confidently anticipated under our present firm, cautious, and +experienced councils, and we may give to the winds our fears as to the +continuance of the income-tax one instant after it can be prudently +dispensed with. What, however, as a matter of _mere speculation_, if the +nation should by and by, when familiarized with the character and +working of the income-tax, become more reconciled to it, and prefer its +retention as a substitute for _the Assessed Taxes_, which at present +press so heavily on all, but particularly on the working-classes! But +while Sir Robert Peel was remodelling the Corn-Laws, and creating a new +source of direct revenue, he also undertook another task--a herculean +task, one utterly hopeless, and beyond the reach or even conception of +any but a Minister conscious of occupying an impregnable position in the +confidence of the country: we allude to his reconstruction of our entire +commercial system, as represented by his _new Tariff_. What courage was +requisite to grapple with this giant difficulty! What practical skill; +what patience and resolution; what exact yet extensive acquaintance with +mercantile affairs; what a comprehensive discernment of consequences; +what firm impartiality in deciding between vast conflicting interests, +were here evinced! And observe--all these great measures, effecting a +complete revolution in our domestic economy and policy--the fruits of +only a few months accession to office of a Conservative Ministry! All +the while that the Radical press was assailing them on the ground of +their insolent and cruel disregard of their duty, and of the sufferings +of the people, they were engaged upon the united labours of enquiry and +reflection, on which alone can have been safely based the great measures +which we have been briefly reviewing! "But all these," says some +faithful mourner after the deceased Ministry, "they intended to have +done, and would have done, _if they could_." Ay, to be sure. Admit it, +for the nonce; 'twas easy to _say_ it, but the thing was _to do +it_--quoth Mr Blewitt! That same _doing_, is what we are congratulating +the present Ministry upon. Yes, it has been done--the great experiment +is being tried; may it prove as safe and successful, as it is bold and +well meant. It must be regarded, however, as only a part of the entire +scheme proposed by Sir Robert Peel, and judged of accordingly, with +reference also to the necessity of his position, arising from the last +acts of his predecessors--from the spirit and temper of the age. The +long-continued languor and prostration of our commerce, undoubtedly +required some decisive, but cautious and well-considered movement, in +the _direction_ of free-trade. How far we shall be met, in the same +spirit, by France, Germany, Russia, and America, as has been long +confidently predicted by those whose opinions have been perseveringly +and vehemently urged upon the public, now remains to be seen. _Felix +faustumque sit!_ But at present, at all events, our example seems not +likely to be followed by those on whom we most calculated, and time +alone can decide between our course and theirs--between the doctrines of +the old and of the new school of political economy--as to which is the +short-sighted and mischievous--which the sagacious and successful +policy. The powerful protection afforded by the new Tariff to our +colonial produce, is one of its most interesting and satisfactory +features. That, however, which has justly attracted to it incomparably +the greatest share of public attention and discussion, is the +introduction of foreign cattle. This topic is one requiring to be spoken +of in a diffident spirit, and most guarded language. Whether it will +effect its praiseworthy object of lowering the price of animal food, +without being overbalanced by its injurious effects upon our +all-important agricultural interests, we shall not for some considerable +time be in a condition to determine. At present, it would appear, that +the alarm of the farmers on this score was premature and excessive, and +is subsiding. The combined operation of this part of the new Tariff, and +of the reduction in the duties on the importation of foreign corn, may +ultimately have the effect of lowering the rent of the farmer, and of +stimulating him into a more energetic and scientific cultivation of the +land; and generally, of inducing very important modifications in the +present arrangements between landlords and tenants. In some of the most +recent agricultural meetings, speeches have been made, from which many +journalists have inferred the existence of rapidly-increasing +convictions on the part of the agricultural interest, that a sweeping +alteration in the Corn-Law is inevitable and immediate. They are, +however, attaching far too much weight to a few sentences uttered, +amidst temporary excitement, by a few country gentlemen, in some eight +or ten places only in the whole kingdom. Let them _pause_, at all +events, till they shall have more authentic _data_, viz. what the +agricultural members of Parliament will say in their places, in the +ensuing session. Much of the sort of panic experienced by the country +gentlemen alluded to, may be referred to a recent paragraph in the +_Globe_ newspaper, confidently announcing the intention of Ministers to +propose a fixed duty on corn. The glaring improbability, that even +_were_ such a project contemplated by Ministers, they would (forgetting +their characteristic caution and reserve) agitate the public mind on so +critical a question, and derange vast transactions and arrangements in +the corn trade by its premature divulgement; and, above all, constitute +the _Globe_ newspaper their confidential organ upon the occasion, should +alone have satisfied the most credulous of its unwarrantable and +preposterous character. We acquit the _Globe_ newspaper of intentional +mischief, but charge it with great _thoughtlessness_ of consequences. To +return, however, for a moment, to that topic in the new Tariff most +important to farmers. We believe that, since the day (9th July 1842) in +which the new Tariff became the law of the land, the entire importation +of cattle from the Continent, has fallen far short of a single +fortnight's sale at Smithfield; but whether this will be the state of +things two years, or even a twelvemonth hence, is another matter. At +present, at all events, the new Tariff has had the beneficial effect of +really lowering the price of provisions, and of other articles of +consumption, essentially conducing to the comforts of the labouring +classes. May _this_, in any event, be a _permanent_ result; and who +could have brought it about, except such a Ministry as that of Sir +Robert Peel, possessing their combined qualifications means, and +opportunities, and equally bent upon using them promptly and honestly? + + [5] Year ending 5th January 1840, L.2,390,764!--1841, + L.1,342,604!--1842, L.1,495,540!--(_Finance Accounts_, 1842, + p. 2.) + +No sooner had that Parliament which had passed, in its first session, +such a number of great measures, having for their object the immediate +benefit of the lower orders, (and, it may really be said, almost wholly +at the expense of the higher orders,) separated, after its exhausting +labours, than there occurred those deplorable and alarming outrages in +the principal manufacturing districts, which so ill requited the +benevolent exertions of the Legislature in their behalf. They exhibited +some features of peculiar malignity--many glaring indications of the +existence of a base and selfish hidden conspiracy against the cause of +law, of order, and of good government. Who were the real originators and +contrivers of that wicked movement, and what their objects, is a +question which we shall not here discuss, but leave in the hands of the +present keen and vigilant Government, and of the Parliament, so soon to +be assembled. If a single chance of bringing the really guilty parties +to justice--of throwing light on the actors and machinery of that +atrocious conspiracy shall be thrown away, the public interests will +have been grievously betrayed. On this subject, however, we have no +apprehensions whatever, and pass on heartily to congratulate the country +on possessing a Government which acted, on the trying occasion in +question, with such signal promptitude, energy, and prudence. Not one +moment was lost in faltering indecision; never was the majesty of the +law more quickly and completely vindicated, never was there exhibited a +more striking and gratifying instance of a temperate and discriminating +exercise of the vast powers of the executive. The incessant attention of +all functionaries, from the very highest to the lowest, by night and by +day, on that occasion, at the Home-Office, (including the Attorney and +Solicitor-General,) would hardly be credited; _mercy to the misguided_, +but instant vengeance upon the guilty instigators of rebellion, was +then, from first to last, the rule of action. The enemies of public +tranquillity reckoned fearfully without their host, in forgetting who +presided at the Home-Office, and who at the Horse Guards. Nothing could +be better than the Government examination into the real causes of the +outbreak, instituted upon the spot the very moment it was over, while +evidence was fresh and accessible, and of which the guilty parties +concerned have a great deal yet to hear. The Special Commission for the +trial of the rioters, was also issued with salutary expedition. The +prosecutions were carried on by the Attorney and Solicitor-General, on +the part of the Crown, in a dignified spirit at once of forbearance and +determination, and with a just discrimination between the degree of +culpability disclosed. The merciful spirit in which the prosecutions +were conducted by the law-officers of the Crown, was repeatedly pointed +out to the misguided criminals by the Judges; who, on many occasions, +intimated that the Government had chosen to indict for the minor offence +only, when the facts would have undoubtedly warranted an indictment for +high treason, with all its terrible consequences. Before quitting this +incidental topic of legal proceedings, let us add a word upon the +substantial improvements effected in the administration of justice +during the late session, and of which the last volume of the +statute-book affords abundant evidence, principally under the heads of +bankruptcy, insolvency, and lunacy. Great and salutary alterations have +been effected in these departments, as well as various others; the +leading statutory changes being most ably carried into effect by the +Lord Chancellor, who continues to preside over his court, and to +discharge his high and multifarious duties with his accustomed dignity +and sagacity. His recent bankruptcy appointments have certainly been +canvassed by the Radical press with sufficient freedom, but on very +insufficient grounds. _No_ appointments could have been made against +which unscrupulous faction might not have raised a clamour. That +temporarily excited in the present instance, has quite died away. The +appointments in question have undoubtedly been made with a due regard to +the public interest; but did the intelligent censors of the Radical +press expect that those appointments of L.1500 a-year would be sought +for or accepted by men at the bar, already making their L.3000, L.5000, +L.8000, or L.10,000 a-year, and aspiring to the very highest honours of +their profession? The gentlemen who have accepted these appointments, +are many of them personally known to us as very acute and able practical +men, who will be found to give the utmost satisfaction in the discharge +of their duties to both the profession and the public. The two +Vice-Chancellors, Sir James L. Knight Bruce, and Sir James Wigram, are +admirable appointments. Each must have resigned a practice very far +exceeding--perhaps doubling, or even trebling--their present salaries of +office. The transference to the former, without any additional salary, +of the office of Chief Judge in Bankruptcy, (vacant by the recent death +of Sir John Cross,) was a highly advantageous and economical arrangement +for the public, at the willing expense of Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce. + +May we here be allowed to allude for an instant to a very delicate +topic--the new Poor-Law--simply to call attention to the resolute +support of it by the present Government (whether right or wrong), as at +least a pretty decisive evidence of their uprightness and independence. +On this sore subject we shall not dwell, nor do we feel bound to offer +any opinion of our own as to the alleged merits or demerits of the new +Poor-Law; but it certainly looks as though Ministers had resolved to do +what they _believed_ to be right, _ruat caelum_. What other motive they +can have, is to us, at least, inconceivable. + +Let us again point with undisguised triumph to IRELAND, as a very +striking instance of the results of a sound and firmly-administered +Conservative policy. The late Government misgoverned Ireland, in order +that they might be allowed to continue misgoverning England. Their +memory will ever be execrated for their surrender of that fair portion +of the empire into the hands of a political reprobate and impostor, of +whom we cannot trust ourselves to speak, and the like of whom has never +yet appeared, and it is to be hoped never will again appear, in British +history. Immediately before and after their expulsion from office, they +pointed to this scene of their long misconduct, and, with a sort of +heartless jocularity, asked Sir Robert Peel "What he meant to do with +Ireland?"--adding, that whatever else he might be able to do, by the aid +of intrigue and corruption, "he could _never_ govern Ireland." How +_now_, gentlemen? What will you find to lay to the charge of Ministers +in the coming session? What has become of your late patron, Mr O'Connel? +Is "his occupation gone?" Is he spending the short remainder of his +respectable old age at Darrynane, even (begging pardon of the noble +animal for the comparison) + + --"like a worn-out lion in a cave, + That goes not out to prey?" + +What can you any longer do, or affect to do, old gentleman, to earn your +honourable wages? Is there not (as the lawyers would style it) a failure +of consideration? If you go on any longer collecting "the rent," may you +not be liable to an indictment for obtaining money under false +pretences? Poor old soul! his cuckoo cry of Repeal grows feebler and +feebler; yet he must keep it up, or starve. _Tempus abire senex! satis +clamasti!_ That Ireland is still subject to great evils, recent +occurrences painfully attest. Mr Pitt, in 1799, (23d January,) pointed +out what may still be regarded as their true source:--"I say that +Ireland is subject to great and deplorable evils, which have a deep +root: for they lie in the nature of the country itself in the present +character, manners, and habits of its people; in their want of +intelligence, or, in other words, in their ignorance; in the unavoidable +separation of certain classes; in the state of property; in its +religious distinctions; in the rancour which bigotry engenders, and +superstition rears and cherishes."[6] How many of these roots of evil +are still in existence! + + [6] Parliamentary History, vol. xxxiv. p. 271. + +But consider what we have done, even already, for Ireland, by giving her +the blessings of a strong and honest Government; what a blow we have +aimed at absenteeism, in a particular provision of our income-tax! _Nil +desperandum_, gentlemen, give us a little time to unravel your long +tissue of misgovernment; and, in the mean time, make haste, and go about +in quest of a _grievance_, if you can find one, against the ensuing +session. Depend upon it, we will redress it! + + * * * * * + +The present aspect of foreign affairs is calculated to excite mixed +feelings of pain and exultation in the breast of a thoughtful observer. +The national character of Great Britain had unquestionably fallen in +European estimation, and lost much of the commanding influence of its +mere name, during the last few years preceding the accession to office +of the present Government. That was an event--viz. the formation of a +Cabinet at St James's, containing Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of +Wellington, Lord Aberdeen, and Lord Stanley--which justly excited an +instant and great sensation in all foreign courts, regard being had to +the critical circumstances of the times. Every one, both at home and +abroad, knew well that if WAR was at hand, here was a Government to +conduct it on the part of Great Britain, even under the most adverse +circumstances imaginable, with all our accustomed splendour and success. +But all knew, at the same time, that imminent as was the danger, if a +profound statesmanship could avert it, consistently with the +preservation of the national honour, that danger would promptly +disappear. The new Cabinet instantly proclaimed themselves "lovers of +peace, but not afraid of war;" and an altered tone of feeling and policy +was quickly observable on the Continent. + +The peculiar position and interests of Great Britain impose upon her one +paramount obligation--to interfere as little as possible with the +affairs of other nations, especially in Europe--_never_, except upon +compulsion--when bound by treaty, or when the eye of a profound and +watchful statesmanship has detected in existence unquestionable elements +of danger to the general peace and welfare of the world. To be always +scrutinizing the movements of foreign states, with a view to convicting +them of designs to destroy the balance of power (as it is called) in +Europe, and thereupon evincing a disposition to assume an offensively +distrustful and hostile attitude, requiring explanations, and +disclaimers, and negotiations, which every one knows the slightest +miscarriage may convert into inevitable pretexts and provocatives of +war--is really almost to court the destruction of our very national +existence. If there was one principle of action possessed by the late +Government to be regarded as of more importance than another, it was +that of maintaining peace, and non-intervention in the affairs of other +nations. This, indeed, was emblazoned upon the banner unfurled by Lord +Grey, on advancing to the head of affairs. Can it, however, be necessary +to show how systematically--how perilously--this principle was set at +nought by the late Government? As represented by Lord Palmerston, Great +Britain had got to be regarded as the most pestilent, intrusive, +mischief-making of neighbours. A little longer, and our name would have +actually _stunk in the nostrils_ of Europe. Some began to hate us; +others, to despise us!! all, to cease _dreading_ us. In the language of +a powerful journalist, (the _Spectator_,) opposed on most points to the +present Government, "the late Ministers commenced a career, perilous in +the extreme to all the best interests of the nation--demoralizing public +opinion, wasting public resources, and entangling the country in +quarrels alike endless and aimless; and all this with a labouring after +melodramatic stage effect, and a regardlessness of consequences +perfectly unprecedented." We were, in the words of truth and soberness, +fast losing our moral ascendency in Europe--by a series of querulous, +petty, officious, needless, undignified interpositions; by the +exhibition of a vacillating and short-sighted policy; by appearing +(novel position for Great Britain) "willing to wound, but yet afraid to +strike;" by conceiving and executing idle and preposterous schemes of +aggrandizement and conquest. To go no further in Europe than our +immediate neighbour, France, let us ask whether Lord Palmerston did not +bring us to the very verge, and keep us at it for many months, of actual +war with that power, which is always unhappily eager to "cry hurra, and +let slip the dogs of war;" and with reference to _us_, to go out of +their way to create occasions for misunderstanding, and hostilities? +Were we not really on the verge of war?--of a war which would have +instantly kindled all over Europe a war of extermination? Not, however, +to descend to the discussion of recent occurrences familiar to every +body, we shall very briefly advert to the state of our relations with +America, with China, and of our affairs in British India, when Sir +Robert Peel assumed the direction of affairs. Lord Palmerston has never +been sufficiently called to account for his long, most disgraceful, and +perilous neglect of our serious differences with America; and which had +brought us to within a hair's-breadth of a declaration of war, which, +whatever might have been its issue, (possibly not difficult to have +foreseen,) would have been disastrous to both countries, and to one of +them utterly destructive. It is notorious that within the last eighteen +or twenty months, every arrival from the west was expected to bring +intelligence of the actual commencement of hostilities. The state of +public feeling towards us in America was being every hour more +exasperated and malignant. The accession of the present Government +opened, however, a bright and happy prospect of an adjustment of all +difficulties; honourable to both parties. How long had they been in +power, before they had earned universal applause by their prompt and +masterly move, in dispatching Lord Ashburton to America on his delicate, +difficult, and most responsible mission? Was ever man selected for a +great public duty so peculiarly and consummately fitted for it? And how +admirably has he discharged it! as our opponents may hear for themselves +early in the ensuing session. Do Ministers deserve no credit for hitting +on this critical device? Was it no just cause of congratulation, to be +able to find such a person amongst the ranks of their own immediate and +most distinguished supporters? We are now, happily, at perfect peace +with America; and, notwithstanding some present untoward appearances, +trust that both countries will soon reap the advantages of it. Of what +real _value_ that peace may be, however, with reference to their +extensive commercial relations with us, is another question, dependent +entirely on the character which they may vindicate to themselves for +honour and fidelity in their pecuniary transactions. That rests with +themselves alone: whether they will go forward in a career of +improvement and greatness, or sink into irretrievable disgrace and ruin, +REPUDIATED and scouted by all mankind. We cannot quit America without a +very anxious allusion to late occurrences in Canada. We feel words +inadequate to express our sense of the transcendent importance of +preserving in their integrity our Canadian possessions. No declaration +of her Majesty since her accession gave greater satisfaction to her +subjects, than that of her inflexible determination to preserve +inviolate her possessions in Canada. We are of opinion that Lord Durham +did incalculable, and perhaps irreparable, mischief there. We have no +time, however, to enter into details concerning either his policy and +proceedings, or those of Lord Sydenham; and we are exceedingly anxious +also to offer no observations on the recent movements of Sir Charles +Bagot, beyond a frank expression of the profound anxiety with which we +await Ministerial explanations in the ensuing session. Before these +pages shall have met the reader's eyes, Sir Charles Bagot may be no +longer numbered among men. We therefore withhold all comment on his late +proceedings, which we are satisfied have originated in an anxious desire +to serve the best interests of his country. We confidently believe that +Ministers will be able abundantly to satisfy the country upon this +subject; and that, in the event of the necessity arising, they will +choose a successor to Sir Charles Bagot every way qualified for his very +responsible post, thoroughly instructed as to the line of policy he is +to adopt, and capable of carrying it out with skill and energy. It is +impossible to turn to India, for the purpose of taking a necessarily +rapid and general view of the course of recent events there, without +experiencing great emotion, arising from conflicting causes. We have +already said, that our vast and glorious Indian empire is indeed the +wonder of the world. Every one of our countrymen is aware of the means +by which we originally acquired it, and that have subsequently augmented +and retained it by an almost inconceivable amount of expenditure and +exertion--by the display of overwhelming civil and military genius. If, +moreover, he has entered into Indian history with proper feeling and +intelligence, he will be able to appreciate the truth and force of the +celebrated saying of one who contributed immensely to our ancient +greatness in India, viz.--that _we hold India by_ OPINION _only:_ the +opinion which is there entertained of our greatness of national +character, intellectual and moral--of our wisdom, our justice, our +power. If this fail us, our downfall in India inevitably follows; and +memorable and tremendous indeed will be such an event, amongst all +nations, and at all future times, till the name of England is blotted +from the recollection of mankind. Therefore it is that we all regard the +administration of affairs in India with profound anxiety, justly +requiring, in those to whom it is entrusted, an intimate practical +acquaintance with Indian character and manners, with Anglo-Indian +history, and a clear view of the policy to be ever kept in sight, and +ability and determination to carry it out to the uttermost. When Lord +Auckland went to India, under the Whig Government, in 1836, he found +both its foreign and domestic affairs in a satisfactory state--peaceful +and prosperous--with, upon the whole, a sufficient military force, +notwithstanding the immense reduction of Lord William Bentinck. How did +he leave it to his successor, Lord Ellenborough, in 1841? The prospect +which awaited that successor was indeed dark, troubled, and bloody. An +army, alas! dreadfully defeated in one quarter, and dangerously +disaffected in another; a war of extermination in Affghanistan; probable +hostilities with Burmah and Nepaul; an almost hopelessly involved +foreign policy; and, moreover, under these desperate circumstances, with +a treasury _empty!_ + +We shall confine ourselves to one topic, the war in Affghanistan--which +we fearlessly, and with deep indignation, pronounce to have inflicted +almost irreparable injury on the British nation--an almost indelible +stain on the British character--and to have shaken the whole of our +Eastern possessions. Lord Auckland, in listening, and his superiors at +home in instructing him to listen, to the representations of Shah +Soojah, and to be persuaded by him to embark in the late disastrous and +disgraceful campaign, were guilty either of an incredible weakness and +ignorance of the nature of the cause they were espousing, together with +an inconceivable degree of short-sightedness as to the most obvious +consequences of it, or of infamous hypocrisy in making the restoration +of Shah Soojah only the pretext and stepping-stone to the conquest of +Affghanistan, in the most criminal and reckless spirit of imaginary +aggrandizement and extension of territory that ever has actuated the +rules of India. Will they pretend that it was really designed, and +necessarily so, solely for the purpose of defeating subtle and dangerous +intrigues on the part of Russia and Persia? Listen to the language of +one of the responsible authors of the policy since followed by such +fearful consequences, Sir John Hobhouse--who, on the 11th July 1840, on +the occasion of a dinner given to their richly and prematurely rewarded +hero, Lord Keane, thus poured forth his insane, exulting avowal of the +real object they had had in view:-- + + "The gallant officer had alluded to the late addition made to + the vast territory of the East India Company. _It was just + possible_ that that territory had _at that moment_ received a + further and important increase. _It is just possible,_ that + since he (Sir John Hobhouse) last met the Directors at the + festive board--now about six months since--the Government of + India _has been enabled to make an addition to its territory, + the vast consequences of which could scarcely be imagined in + the wildest dream of fancy_, and which for centuries would be + of advantage to the empire!!! In the history of the world there + was no instance of yearly sovereigns (as the Directors of the + Company were) having conquered so vast a territory as that of + India. There was no instance of such successive success. To + them the happiness belonged of giving to the vast country under + their control the blessing of education. It was owing to God's + ministering hand, by which successive Directions had sprung up + to spread the benefits of light and knowledge in India, and + among a people enshrouded in darkness and idolatry. It was + scarcely a hundred years ago since the power of the East India + Company was felt in India; their banners were now flying from + the Indus to the Burrampooter. He would say emphatically, go on + in the great work of extending the religion, civilization, and + education of India; for the wishes of the good are with you--go + on in your great work, for the sake of India, and Great + Britain itself." + +What must _now_ be the feelings of Sir John Hobhouse and his brother +ex-Ministers on this paragraph catching his eyes; when they reflect on +the frightful sacrifice of life, British and Affghan--the defeat of our +arms while engaged in a shameful and wicked cause--with its perilous +effects upon the stability of our tenure of India--which have directly +resulted from the measures thus vaingloriously vaunted of! A thousand +reflections here occur to us upon the subject of the insane (or guilty) +conduct of the late Government in India; but the extent to which this +article has already reached, compels us to suppress them. We the less +regret this circumstance, however, because there really seems but one +opinion upon this topic among well-informed persons. After the last +intelligence from India, it is idle, it is needless, to attempt +reasoning on the subject; to ask how we should have strengthened +ourselves by the destruction of a powerful and (according to authentic +intelligence) a really friendly chief in Dost Mahommed; how we could +even have _occupied_ Affghanistan without a ruinous expenditure, +continual alarm and danger from a perpetual series of treachery and +insurrection; and to what purpose, after all, of solid advantage! The +whole policy of Lord Auckland was incontestably one of mad encroachment, +conquest, and aggrandizement, in utter ignorance of the character and +exigencies of the times; the Duke of Wellington's memorable prediction +is now far more than fulfilled! "_It will not be till Lord Auckland's +policy has reached the zenith of apparent success, that its difficulties +will begin to develope themselves._" Begin to develope themselves! What +would have become of us, had the councils originating that policy still +been in the ascendant, we tremble to contemplate. The exulting French +press, on hearing of our recent disasters, thus expressed themselves:[7] +"_England is rich and energetic. She may re-establish her dominion in +India for some time longer; but the term of her Indian empire is marked, +it will conclude before the quarter of a century._" Such has been the +anticipated--such would have been the inevitable result of the policy +which Sir Robert Peel's Government, guided by the profound sagacity of +the Duke of Wellington, made it their first business _totally to +reverse_; not, however, till they had completely re-established the old +terror of our arms, convincing the natives of India that what we were of +yore, we still are; that our punishment of treachery is instant and +tremendous; that we can act with irresistible vigour and complete +success, at one and the same moment, both in India and in China. In +their minds, may the splendour of our recent victories efface the +recollection of our previous bloody and disgraceful defeats! And if we +cannot make them _forget_ the wickedness--the folly--the madness which +originally dictated our invasion of Affghanistan, at least we have shown +them how calmly and magnanimously we can obey the dictates of justice +and of prudence, _in the very moment of, fierce and exciting military +triumph_. May, indeed, such be the effect of all that has recently +occurred, whether adverse or prosperous, in India! For the former, the +guilty councils of the late Government are alone answerable; for the +latter, we are exclusively indebted to the vigour and sagacity of our +present Government. The proclamation in which Lord Ellenborough +announces our abandonment of Affghanistan will probably excite great +discussion, and possibly (on the part of the late Government) furious +objurgation, in the ensuing session of Parliament. We are so delighted +at the achievement which was the subject of that proclamation, that even +were there valid grounds of objection to its taste and policy, we should +entirely overlook them. If even Lord Ellenborough, in the excitement of +the glorious moment in which he penned the proclamation, departed from +the style of all previous state documents of that character, was it not +very excusable? But we are disposed to vindicate the propriety of the +step he took. It may be said that it was highly impolitic to make so +frank an avowal to the natives of India, that a mere change of Ministry +at home may be attended with a total and instant revolution in our +native policy, to place on record a formal and humiliating confession of +our errors and misconduct. But let it be borne in mind how potent and +glaring was already that error, that misconduct, with all its alarming +consequences; and that one so intimately acquainted as Lord Ellenborough +with the Indian character, may have seen, _then and there_, reasons to +recommend the course he has adopted, which may not occur to us at home. +That document will truly purport, in all time to come, to have been +issued in a spirit of remarkable wisdom and justice, at the very moment +of our having achieved the proudest triumph we could have desired for +our arms. But, above all, what does that striking document tell, but +_the truth_, and nothing but _the truth_? Let us, however, now +confidently rely on the vast advantages which we cannot but derive from +a prudent and vigorous administration of the affairs of India. We trust +that Lord Ellenborough will persevere in the admirable line of conduct +which he has hitherto adopted, turning neither to the right hand nor the +left, disturbed by no sinister hopes or fears. Let his grand object be, +by every legitimate means at his command, _to Anglicize India_; to +encourage the adoption of English habits of thought, the practical +appreciation of English principles of government; in short, thoroughly +to identify the people of India with the people of England, in all their +partialities, and prejudices, and interests. Every thing he has hitherto +done in India, we rejoice to observe, tends this way. Let him but +persevere, and he will acquire imperishable renown, and reflect +permanent splendour on the Government which appointed him. In a +confident and well-founded reliance upon his fitness for his post, upon +his capacity for thoroughly carrying out the policy of a strong and +enlightened Conservative government, which has entrusted to him the +management of such vast and splendid national interests--the nation now +looks with a bright untroubled eye towards India. + + [7] The _Siecle_. (See No. cccxxi. p. 112.) + + --"Now is the winter of our discontent + Made glorious summer! + And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house + In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. + Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths, + Our bruised arms hung up for monuments, + Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings, + Our dreadful marches to delightful measures!" + +Our allotted space is well-nigh exhausted, and we have only now reached +the confines of CHINA!--a topic on which we had prepared ourselves for a +very full expression of our opinions. We are compelled, however, now to +content ourselves with a mere outline of our intended observations on a +subject--our victory over the Emperor of China--which is pregnant with +matter for long and profound reflection. Abstractly, our triumphant +assault on these distant and vast dominions, affords matter for national +pride and exultation, as far as concerns our naval and military renown; +and the names of Parker and Gough will never be forgotten in British +history. The submission of the Emperor of China to our arms, is an event +calculated of itself to distinguish the reign of our glorious sovereign, +Queen Victoria, far beyond those of most of her predecessors. It is an +event that concerns and affects the prospects and interests of the whole +world, and though it is at this moment occupying the thoughts of all the +statesmen of Europe, with reference to its contingent effects upon their +respective countries, not the most experienced and sagacious of them can +predict with safety what will be its effects within even the next year +or two. As for ourselves, our present prevalent feeling seems to be in +accordance with our daring military character, which would say merely-- + + "Why then, _China's_ our oyster + Which we with sword have open'd." + +But to those in England who are accustomed to regard occurrences with +reference to their probable consequences, the recent events in China +afford matter for the most anxious reflection of which thinking men are +capable--whether in the character of philosophers, of statesmen, of +warriors, or of merchants. Were we justified in our attack upon the +Emperor of China? We have no hesitation whatever in expressing our +opinion, after having had our attention for some years directed to the +subject of our relation with China, in the affirmative. From the moment +of our first intercourse with that people, we have had to submit to a +series of indignities sufficient to kindle into fury the feelings of any +one who merely reads any authentic account of those indignities. The +Chinese have long derived an immense revenue, together with other great +advantages, from us; encouraging us to embark a vast capital in our +trade with them, and to form great permanent establishments dependent +upon it. Language cannot describe the degrading circumstances under +which we have been forced to carry on our commercial intercourse with +the Chinese; our long submission to such conduct having, of course, +insured its continual aggravation. The Opium trade, perhaps +beneficially, brought matters to a crisis. It was alleged on behalf of +the Emperor, that we were surreptitiously, and from motives of gain, +corrupting and destroying his people, by supplying them with opium; but +it is easily demonstrable that this was only a pretence for endeavouring +to effect a change in the medium of our dealings with them, vastly +beneficial to the Emperor, and disadvantageous to us. We might have been +permitted to quadruple our supply of opium to his subjects, if we would +have been content to be paid, _not in bullion_, but by taking Chinese +goods in exchange; in a word, to change the basis of our dealings from +_sale_ to _barter_; and all this from a totally groundless notion of the +Emperor and his advisers, that we were draining his kingdom of silver +--in their own words, "causing the Sycee silver to ooze out of the +dominions of the Brother of the Sun and the Moon." Their desperate +anxiety to carry this point, led them to take the decisive step of +seizing a vast quantity of our opium, under circumstances perfectly +familiar to every body; constituting a crowning indignity and injury, +which, without reference to the original legality or illegality of the +opium trade, gave us an unquestionable cause for war against the +Emperor. He seized the person of her Majesty's representative, and those +of many of her principal subjects in China; and under the threat of +inflicting death upon them, extorted a delivery of an enormous amount of +property belonging to her Majesty's subjects. If this was not a cause of +war with any nation, whether civilized or uncivilized, there never was +one; and without going into further detail, we have stated sufficient to +justify, beyond all doubt, our commencement of hostilities against +China. But this occurred so long ago as the month of March 1839; yet, to +the eternal scandal of the then existing Government, no effectual +warlike demonstration was made to redress this flagrant unparalleled +outrage on the British nation, till better councils, those of the +present Government, were had recourse to by her Majesty; and which led +to the quick triumphant result with which the world is now ringing. Till +the present vigorous Government took the affair in hand, we were +_pottering_ about the extremities of the empire, month after month, even +year after year, at a ruinous expense, in a way justly calculated to +excite the derision of even the Chinese--of the whole world who had +heard of our mode of procedure. It will be in vain for the late +Government to endeavour meanly to make Captain Elliot their scapegoat. +Let them, if they can, satisfy the nation that, in all he appears to +have done so ineffectually and disgracefully, he did not act according +to the strict orders of the late Government; that in all he would have +done, and wished to have done, viz. to carry hostilities at once, with +an adequate force, to the right point of attack, he was not either +positively overruled, or left without advice and authority. Owing to +their own want of forethought, of energy, and of practical knowledge, +and their financial mismanagement, even if they had contemplated the +plan of operations which led ultimately to the successful enterprize on +which we are now justly congratulating ourselves, they _could_ not, they +_did not_ act upon them. No, it was left for the present Government, +under the auspices of him who told us that "England _could_ not carry on +a little war," amidst all the embarrassments and dangers which they had +just inherited from their predecessors, to send out the peremptory +instructions which have been so ably acted upon; and _above all_, a +naval and military force fully adequate for the occasion. This done, +China succumbed; and we understand that poor Lord Palmerston is pluming +himself on being able to produce, next session, a despatch which he +issued to Sir Henry Pottinger, chalking out the very line of operations +which was adopted with such supreme success. We, of course, cannot +officially know that such is the fact: but even admitting it, why did +not Lord Palmerston do this far earlier? What excuse can be offered for +this vacillation and procrastination in an affair of such vast urgency? +"We had not the means to equip a sufficient force," his lordship may +reply, in his usual strain of bitter flippancy. And why had he not the +means? The extravagance and profligacy of his Government had deprived +him of them; his exchequer was empty; and had he, or they, the boldness +or the virtue to propose what has been demonstrated to have been the +only mode of meeting the exigency, an income-tax? In vain, therefore, +may his lordship and his friends declaim in the ensuing session, and +with our bombardment of China in his ears, say "that is _my_ thunder." +They will be only laughed at and despised. No, no, Lord Palmerston; +_palmam qui meruit, ferat._ Let the nation decide. + +The late military and naval proceedings against China, reflect permanent +glory upon the arms of England, naval and military, and we earnestly +hope--we confidently believe--that those concerned in them will soon +receive substantial and enduring marks of national gratitude. But what +is the real value, what will be the consequences, of our victory? We are +very anxious to take the earliest opportunity of placing on record our +views upon this all-important subject, with a view of moderating the +expectations, and allaying the excitement, which prevails upon the +subject of the commercial advantages anticipated to follow immediately +on the final ratification of the treaty. Let us take a sober and +common-sense view of the affair, and reason thus:-- + +First of all, we must bear in mind the long-cherished hatred borne by +the Emperor and his court to all barbarians, particularly towards us; +exasperated now, doubtless, to a pitch of extreme intensity and +malignity, by the signal humiliation and injury we have inflicted upon +him. Can we expect that this will be suddenly and permanently altered? +It is not in human nature, which is the same every where. With the +thunder of our cannon in his ears, the supplies of his whole empire at +our immediate mercy, his armies scattered like dust, and his forts and +walled cities crumbling to pieces under our artillery, the necessity of +his position forced him to buy peace on almost any terms. We have +exacted from him what is at variance with the fixed Chinese policy of +ages. The more he, by and by, reflects upon it, in the absence of our +awe-inspiring military and naval forces, the more galling and +intolerable will become the contemplation of what he has been compelled +to concede and sacrifice. Who knows what artful falsehoods may not be +perseveringly poured into his ear, day after day, month after month, +year after year, to our disadvantage and disparagement in his +estimation? He may not dare, perhaps, to resort to open hostility, +directly to provoke our tremendous vengeance; but those best acquainted +with China, know what countless facilities exist for his doing +indirectly what he dares not, or may choose not, to do openly. We are +not without fear, from our knowledge of the Chinese character, and of +their long-established mode of procedure, that every chicane and evasion +will be resorted to, in order to neutralize and nullify, as far as +possible, the commercial advantages which we have, at the cannon's +mouth, extorted from them. A great deal, at all events, will depend on +the skill, firmness, and vigilance, of the consuls to be appointed at +the five opened ports of China. We rely, also, greatly on the +unquestionable eagerness of the _Chinese_ people to enter into trading +relations with us. The Emperor, however, and those by whose counsels he +is guided, are Tartars, between whom and the Chinese there is a +long-cherished and bitter hostility, which may eventually operate in our +favour. Adverting, for a moment, to the proceedings of Sir Henry +Pottinger, we feel very great doubt, indeed, whether our forces should +not, either with or without the consent of the Chinese, have gone on to +Pekin, and insisted on the negotiations being carried on _there_. What a +prodigious effect would not thereby have been produced, not only on the +mind of the Emperor, but of the whole nation! The painful but salutary +truth of their own weakness, and our power, would have been thus +"brought home to their businesses and bosoms,"--there could never +afterwards have been any pretence for his or their saying, that they had +been deceived in any part of the proceedings. Doubtless, however, Sir +Henry Pottinger acted advisedly in abstaining from penetrating to Pekin, +and also from stipulating for the residence of a British ambassador at +Pekin. How such a proposal would have been received--or how, if adopted +and carried into effect, it would have answered our expectations--it is +difficult to say; but we have several letters lying before us, from +peculiarly well-informed persons on the spot, in all of which the +absence of this stipulation from the treaty is very greatly regretted. +"I am afraid," says one, "we shall be again left to the tender mercies +of the local mandarins, and that their old habits of arrogance and +deceit and extortion, will be resumed. For what are _consuls?_ They have +no power of communicating even with the provincial officers: or if this +should now be conceded, they have none with the government at Pekin: and +may we not fear that the Chinese will continue to force away gradually, +by effectual but invisible obstacles, the trade from the ports now +ostensibly opened to us?" The gentleman, from whose long and very able +letter we have quoted this paragraph, takes a somewhat disheartening +view of the treaty, and its probable observance and consequences. He is +on the spot, and has access to the best sources of knowledge; but we +confess, that for our own part, we do not share his apprehensions. +Whatever disposition to do so the Emperor or his people may entertain, +we believe they will neither dare at all to offend or injure us openly, +or persevere long in attempting to do so indirectly. It may be a work of +time but as soon as they perceive the steady benefits derivable from a +prudently-conducted course of dealing with them, we think it likely that +a sense of self-interest will lead them to encourage our intercourse and +augment our dealings. On one thing we regret to feel certain that we +must calculate--namely, on an enormous overstocking of the Chinese +market with articles of British merchandize, long before any sensible, +or at least important, demand for them shall have been created; which +will of course lead to serious loss on the part of the adventurers. We +must also expect Hong-Kong, and the five open ports, to be forthwith +flooded with commercial adventurers. To all such we would earnestly +say--"pause. Consider the circumstances of China--how capricious and +perfidious its people are by nature--the _possibility_, at all events, +of their acting on the hostile policy we have above alluded to, and +discouraging your trade; or if not so, still do not imagine that the +vast empire of China is standing agape for any sort of goods you may +send or take out." We must, however, pass on to allude briefly to a +subject both important and difficult--the opium trade with China. This +is a subject imperatively demanding the best consideration of the +Government. A careful examination of the subject, in all its bearings, +induces us, with due diffidence, to express an opinion that the +Government sale of opium in India should cease. We cannot, of course, +prevent the poppy's being grown in India--nor, on the other hand, should +a great source of revenue be easily parted with. Let their opium be +produced and sold as before, and subject to such a tax as may appear +expedient to the Government. With reference to the policy and propriety +of our continuing to supply opium to the Chinese, we have already +expressed our opinion as to the true ground of objection to it by the +Emperor of China, namely, simply a financial, not a moral or religious +one. We have reason to believe that Sir Henry Pottinger most +strenuously, and, in our opinion, most judiciously, urged upon the +imperial commissioners the expediency of the raising a revenue from +opium, by legalizing its importation. To this they replied, however, +"that they did not dare, _at present_, to bring the painful subject to +the Emperor's notice." We are, notwithstanding, very strongly of opinion +that the opium trade will, at no distant period, be legalized, as soon +as the Emperor can be made to understand the great profit he will derive +from it. In any event, it will be obviously nugatory for the Government +directly to prohibit British subjects from importing opium into China. +The only effect of such a measure would be, that they could carry on the +trade through the intervention of foreigners. + +Many other topics, such as the opportunity now afforded for the +introduction of the Christian religion into China, the extent to which +we shall be permitted to acquire a knowledge of the habits, the economy, +the literature, and the science, of China; the exertions which may be +expected from other nations to share in the advantages which we have, by +our own unassisted efforts, secured--we must pass over, as inconsistent +with the limits assigned us, or, indeed, the scope of this article. + +Whatever may be the ultimate effects of the blow we have struck in +China, there can be no doubt that it has prodigiously extended the +reputation, and augmented the influence of Great Britain, especially +coupled as it is with our contemporaneous brilliant successes in India, +and our satisfactory adjustment of our differences with America. We are +now, thank God, at peace with all the world, to whose counsels soever it +is to be attributed. Let us now endeavour to make the most of the +blessings which the Divine favour vouchsafes to us. Let us cultivate +virtue--let us cherish religion. Let us, as a nation, give up all idle +and dangerous dreams of foreign conquest, satisfied that we already +possess as much as it is possible for us to hold, with safety and +advantage. Let us _honour all men_. At home, let us bear with +cheerfulness the burthens necessarily imposed to support the state, and +each do all that lies in us to extinguish party animosities; generously +and cordially co-operating with, and supporting those whom we believe +honestly striving to carry on the government of this great country, at a +very critical conjuncture of affairs, with dignity and prudence. Let us +discourage faction, and each, in our several spheres exert ourselves to +ameliorate the condition of the inferior classes of society. May the +ensuing session of Parliament commence its labours auspiciously, and in +due course bring them to a peaceful and happy close, in a spirit of good +will towards all men of loyalty to our Queen, and piety towards God! + + * * * * * + + + + +LESURQUES; OR, THE VICTIM OF JUDICIAL ERROR. + + + [Many as are the frightful cases of error recorded in the + annals of every judiciary court, there are few more striking of + the uncertainty of evidence respecting personal identity, and + of the serious errors based upon it, than are to be read in the + curious trial we are about to relate; and which has, for forty + years, been the subject of parliamentary appeals in the country + where it took place. The recent death of the widow of the + unhappy sufferer excites a fresh interest in her wrongs, so + strangely left unredressed by the very government that was the + unwitting cause of them.] + + +I.--THE FOUR GUESTS. + + +On the 4th Floreal of the 4th year of the Republic, one and indivisible, +(23d April 1796,) four young men were seated at a splendid breakfast in +the Rue des Boucheries at Paris. They were all dressed in the costume of +the _Incroyables_ of the period; their hair _coiffes en cadenettes_ and +_en oreilles de chien_, according to the fantastic custom of the day; +they had all top-boots, with silver spurs, large eyeglasses, various +watch-chains, and other articles of _bijouterie_; carrying also the +little cane, of about a foot and a half in length, without which no +dandy was complete. The breakfast was given by a M. Guesno, a +van-proprietor of Douai, who was anxious to celebrate the arrival at +Paris of his compatriot Lesurques, who had recently established himself +with his family in the busy capital. + +"Yes, _mon cher_ Guesno," said Lesurques, "I have quitted for ever our +good old town of Douai; or, if not for ever, at least until I have +completed in Paris the education of my children. I am now thirty-three +years of age. I have paid my debt to my country by serving in the +regiment of Auvergne, with some distinction. On leaving the ranks I was +fortunate enough to make my services of some slight use, by fulfilling, +gratuitously, the functions of _chef de bureau_ of the district. At +present, thanks to my patrimony and the dowery of my wife, I have an +income of fifteen thousand francs (L.600) a-year, am without ambition, +have three children, and my only care is to educate them well. The few +days that I have been at Paris have not been wasted; I have a pretty +apartment, Rue Montmartre, where I expect to be furnished, and ready to +receive you in my turn, with as much comfort as heartiness." + +"Wisely conceived," interrupted one of the guests, who, till this +moment, had maintained a profound silence; "but who can count upon the +morrow in such times as these? May your projects of peace and +retirement, Monsieur, be realized: if so, you will then be the happiest +man in the Republic; for during the last five or six years, there has +been no _citoyen_, high or low, who could predict what the next week +would decide for him." + +The speaker uttered this with a tone of bitterness and discouragement +which contrasted strangely with the flaunting splendour of his toilet, +and the appetite with which he had done honour to the breakfast. He was +young, and would have been remarkably handsome, had not his dark eyes +and shaggy brows given an expression of fierceness and dissimulation to +his countenance, which he vainly endeavoured to hide, by never looking +his interlocutor in the face. His name was Couriol. His presence at this +breakfast was purely accidental. He had come to see M. Richard, (the +proprietor of the house where M. Guesno alighted on his journey to +Paris, and who was also one of the guests,) just as they were about to +sit down to table, and was invited to join them without ceremony. + +The breakfast passed off gaily, in spite of the sombre Couriol; and +after two hours' conviviality, they adjourned to the Palais Royal, +where, after taking their cafe at the _Rotonde du Caveau_, they +separated. + + +II.--THE FOUR HORSEMEN. + + +A few days afterwards, on the 8th Floreal, four men mounted on dashing +looking horses, which, however, bore the unequivocal signs of being +hired for the day, rode gaily out of Paris by the barrier of Charenton; +talking and laughing loudly, caracoling with great enjoyment, and +apparently with nothing but the idea of passing as joyously as possible +a day devoted to pleasure. + +An attentive observer, however, who did not confine his examination to +their careless exteriors, might have remarked that, beneath their long +_levites,_ (a peculiar cloak then in fashion,) they carried each a +sabre, suspended at the waist, the presence of which was betrayed from +time to time by a slight clanking, as the horses stumbled or changed +their paces. He might have further remarked a sinister pre-occupation +and a brooding fierceness in the countenance of one, whose dark eyes +peeped out furtively beneath two thick brows. He took but little share +in the boisterous gaiety of the other three, and that little was forced; +his laugh was hollow and convulsive. It was Couriol. + +Between twelve and one, the four horsemen arrived at the pretty village +of Mongeron, on the road to Melun. One of them had preceded them at a +hand-gallop to order dinner at the _Hotel de la Poste_, kept by the +Sieur Evrard. After the dinner, to which they did all honour, they +called for pipes and tobacco--(cigars were then almost unknown)--and two +of them smoked. Having paid their bill, they proceeded to the Cassino, +where they took their cafe. + +At three o'clock they remounted their horses, and following the road, +shaded by stately elms, which leads from Mongeron to the forest of +Lenart, they reached Lieursaint; where they again halted. One of their +horses had cast a shoe, and one of the men had broken the little chain +which then fastened the spur to the boot. The horseman to whom this +accident had happened, stopped at the entrance of the village at Madame +Chatelain's, a _limonadiere_, whom he begged to serve him some cafe, and +at the same time to give him a needleful of strong thread to mend the +chain of his spur. She did so, but observing the traveller to be rather +awkward in his use of the needle, she called her servant, _la femme_ +Grossetete, who fixed the chain for him, and helped him to place it on +his boot. The other three travellers had, during this time, alighted at +the inn kept by the Sieur Champeaux, where they drank some wine; while +the landlord himself accompanied the traveller and his unshod horse to +the farrier's, the Sieur Motteau. This finished, the four met at Madame +Chatelain's, where they played at billiards. At half-past seven, after a +parting cup with the Sieur Champeaux, whither they returned to re-saddle +their horses, they set off again in the direction of Melun. + +The landlord stood at his door watching the travellers till out of +sight, and then turning into his house again, he saw on the table a +sabre, which one of his guests had forgotten to fasten to his belt; he +dispatched one of his stable-boys after them, but they were out of +sight. It was not till an hour afterwards, that the traveller who had +had his spur-chain mended, returned at full gallop to claim his sabre. +He drank a glass of brandy, and having fastened his weapon securely, +departed at furious speed in the direction taken by his comrades. + + +III.--THE ROBBERY AND MURDER. + + +At the same time that the horseman left Lieursaint for Paris, the Lyons +mail arrived there from Paris, and changed horses. It was about +half-past eight, and the night had been obscure for some time. The +courier, having charged horses and taken a fresh postilion, set forth to +traverse the long forest of Senart. The mail, at this epoch, was very +different from what it is at present. It was a simple post-chaise, with +a raised box behind, in which were placed the despatches. Only one +place, by the side of the courier, was reserved for travellers, and +that was obtained with difficulty. On the night in question this seat +was occupied by a man of about thirty, who had that morning taken it for +Lyons, under the name of Laborde, a silk-merchant; his real name was +Durochat; his object may be guessed. + +At nine o'clock, the carriage having descended a declivity with great +speed, now slackened its course to mount a steep hill which faced it; at +this moment four horsemen bounded into the road--two of them seizing the +horses' heads, the two other attacked the postilion, who fell lifeless +at their feet, his skull split open by a sabre-cut. At the same +instant--before he had time to utter a word--the wretched courier was +stabbed to the heart by the false Laborde, who sat beside him. They +ransacked the mail of a sum of seventy-five thousand francs (L.3000) in +money, _assignats_, and bank-notes. They then took the postilion's horse +from the chaise, and Durochat mounting it, they galloped to Paris, which +they entered between four and five in the morning by the Barrier de +Rambouillet. + + +IV.--THE ARREST. + + +This double murder, committed with such audacity on the most frequented +route of France, could not but produce an immense sensation, even at +that epoch so fertile in brigandage of every sort, where the exploits of +_la Chouannerie_, and the ferocious expeditions of the _Chauffeurs_,[8] +daily filled them with alarm. The police were at once in pursuit. The +post-horse ridden by Durochat, and abandoned by him on the Boulevard, +was found wandering about the Palais Royale. It was known that four +horses covered with foam had been conducted at about five in the morning +to the stables of a certain Muiron, _Rue des Fosse's, +Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois_, by two men who had hired them the day +before: these men were Bernard and Couriol; the former of whom was +immediately arrested, the second had, with the other accomplices, +taken flight. + + [8] An atrocious gang of thieves, who adopted the unnecessary + brutality of burning the unfortunate victims they intended + to rob. + +The research was pursued with great activity at Paris, as well as at the +scene of the crime, and along the route which the assassins had twice +travelled. The information obtained showed that there were five +culprits. The description of the four horsemen who rode from Paris, +stopping at Mongeron and Lieursaint, was furnished with as much +precision as concordance by the various witnesses who had seen and +spoken to them on the road, and in the inns and cafes. The description +of the traveller, who, under the name of Laborde, had taken the seat +beside the courier, was furnished with equal exactitude by the clerks, +from whom he had retained the place, and by those who saw him mount. +Couriol, recognized as having with Bernard conducted back the horses to +Muiron, after the crime, had left Paris for Chateau-Thierry, where he +was lodged in the house of Citoyen Bruer, where also Guesno had gone on +some business. The police followed Couriol, and arrested him. They found +upon him a sum in money and assignats, nearly equivalent to a fifth +share of what the courier had been robbed. Guesno and Bruer were also +arrested, and had their papers seized; but they so completely +established their _alibi_, that they were at once dismissed on their +arrival at Paris. At the epoch of which we write, the examination of +judicial affairs followed a very different course from the one now +traced by the French code. It was to the Citoyen Daubenton, justice of +the peace of the division of Pont Neuf, and officer of the _police +judiciare_, that the Central Bureau confided the examination of this +affair. This magistrate having ordered the dismissal of Guesno, told him +that he might present himself at his _cabinet_ on the morrow, for the +papers which had been seized at Chateau-Thierry; at the same time he +ordered an officer, Hendon, to start at once for Mangeron and +Lieursaint, and to bring back the witnesses, whose names he gave him, +so that they might all be collected the next day at the Bureau for +examination. + +Guesno, desirous of having his papers as soon as possible, went out +early, and directed his steps towards the Central Bureau, which he had +just reached when he encountered his compatriot Lesurques; having +explained to him the motive that called him to the Bureau, he proposed +to him that they should go together. Lesurques accepted, and the Citizen +Daubenton not having yet arrived, they sat down in the antechamber, in +order to see him as he passed, and thus expedite the matter. + +About ten o'clock the judge, who had entered his cabinet by a back door, +was interrupted in his examination of the documents, previous to +interrogating the witnesses, by the officer Hendon, who demanded leave +to make an important communication. "Amongst the witnesses," said he, +"now waiting in the antechamber, are two women--one, _la femme_ Santon, +servant to Evrard the innkeeper at Mongeron--the other, _la fille_ +Grossetete, servant to Madame Chatelain the _limonadiere_ at Lieursaint, +who assert in the most positive manner, that two of the assassins are +there, waiting like them to be admitted. These women declare that they +cannot deceive themselves, for one of them served the four travellers at +Mongeron, and the other spoke to them at Lieursaint, and stayed an hour +in the billiard-room while they were playing." + +The judge could not admit the probability of two of the assassins thus +voluntarily placing themselves within the grasp of the law, yet he +ordered the women to be shown into his presence. On interrogation, they +persisted in their statements, declaring that it was impossible they +could deceive themselves. Guesno was then introduced to the judge's +presence, the women being continued to examine him strictly before +finally pronouncing as to his identity. + +"What brings you to the Central Bureau?" demanded the judge. + +"I come to receive my papers," replied Guesno, "as you promised me +yesterday that I should have them on application." + +"Are you alone?" + +"I have a compatriot with me, one Joseph Lesurques, whom I met on the +way here." + +The judge then ordered the second individual designated by the women to +be introduced. It was Lesurques. He spoke to Lesurques and to Guesno for +a few minutes, and then begged them to return into the antechamber, +where their papers would be sent to them. An order was given, however, +to the officer, Hendon, not to lose sight of them. + +On their leaving the room, M. Daubenton again demanded of the women, if +they persisted in their declarations as to the identity of these men +with the criminals they were in search of. They replied, without +hesitation, that they were certain of it; that they could not be +deceived. The magistrate was then forced to receive their depositions in +writing, and to order the arrest of Guesno and Lesurques. + +From the moment of their arrest, the examination proceeded with great +rapidity. Guesno and Lesurques were confronted with the witnesses +brought from Mongeron and Lieursaint, and were recognised by all +of them! + +_La femme_ Santon deposed, that Lesurques was the one who, after the +dinner at Mongeron, wanted to pay in _assignats_, but that the big dark +man (Couriol) paid in money. She was positive as to Lesurques being +the man. + +Champeaux and his wife, who kept the inn at Lieursaint, were equally +positive as to Lesurques being the one whose spur wanted mending, and +who came back to fetch the sabre which he had forgotten. Lafolie, groom +at Mongeron, and _la femme_ Alfroy, also recognised him; and Laurent +Charbaut, labourer, who dined in the same room with the four horsemen, +recognised Lesurques as the one who had silver spurs fastened by little +chains to his top-boots. This combination of testimony, respecting one +whom they had seen but a few days before, was sufficient to leave little +doubt in the mind of any one. The trial was therefore fixed on. + +The day of his arrest, Lesurques wrote the following letter to one of +his friends, which was intercepted, and joined to the documentary +evidence to be examined on the trial:-- + + "My dear Friend,--I have met with nothing but unpleasantries + since my arrival at Paris, but I did not--I could not + anticipate the misfortune which has befallen me to-day. You + know me--and you know whether I am capable of sullying myself + with a crime--yet the most atrocious crime is imputed to me. + The mere thought of it makes me tremble. I find myself + implicated in the murder of the Lyons' courier. Three women and + two men, whom I know not--whose residence I know not--(for you + well know that I have not left Paris)--have had the impudence + to swear that they recognise me, and that I was the first of + the four who presented himself at their houses on horseback. + You know, also, that I have not crossed a horse's back since my + arrival in Paris. You may understand the importance of such an + accusation, which tends at nothing less than my judicial + assassination. Oblige me by lending me the assistance of your + memory, and endeavour to recollect where I was and what persons + I saw at Paris, on the day when they impudently assert they saw + me out of Paris, (I believe it was the 7th or 8th,) in order + that I may confound these infamous calumniators, and make them + suffer the penalty of the law." + +In a postscript he enumerates the persons he saw on that day: Citoyen +Tixier, General Cambrai, 'Demoiselle Eugenie, Citoyen Hilaire Ledru, his +wife's hairdresser, the workmen in his apartments, and the porter of +the house. + + +V.--THE TRIAL, AND THE BLINDNESS OF ZEAL. + + +MM. Lesurques, Guesno, Couriol, Bernard, Richard, and Bruer, were +summoned before the tribunal of justice; the three first as authors or +accomplices of the murder and robbery--Bernard as having furnished the +horses--Richard as having concealed at his house Couriol--and his +mistress, Madelaine Breban, as having received and concealed part of the +stolen goods--and Bruer as having given Couriol refuge at +Chateau-Thierry. + +The witnesses persisted in their declarations as to the identity of +Guesno and Lesurques. But Guesno established beyond all doubt the fact +of his _alibi_; and Bruer easily refuted every charge that concerned +himself. Lesurques had cited fifteen witnesses--all respectable men--and +presented himself at the bar with a calmness and confidence which +produced a favourable impression. Against the positive testimony of the +six witnesses who asserted him to have been at Mongeron and Lieursaint +on the 8th Floreal, he had brought a mass of testimony to prove +an _alibi._ + +Citoyen Legrand, a rich jeweller and goldsmith, compatriot of Lesurques, +was first examined. He deposed, that on the 8th Floreal--the day on +which the crime had been committed--Lesurques had passed a portion of +the morning with him. + +Aldenof, a jeweller, Hilaire Ledru, and Chausfer, deposed, that on that +day they dined with Lesurques in the _Rue Montorgueil;_ that, after +dinner, they went to a cafe, took some liqueur, and went home with him. + +Beudart, a painter, deposed that he was invited to the dinner, with +Lesurques and his friends, but that, as one of the national guard, he +was that day on service, and so was prevented attending; but that, he +had gone to Lesurques that very evening in his uniform, and had seen him +go to bed. In support of his deposition he produced his _billet de +garde_, dated the 8th. + +Finally, the workmen employed in the apartment that Lesurques was having +fitted up, deposed that they saw him at various times during the 8th and +9th Floreal. + +No further doubt of his innocence now remained; the _alibi_ was so +distinctly proved, and on such unquestionable testimony, that the jury +showed in their manner that they were ready to acquit him, when a fatal +circumstance suddenly changed the whole face of the matter. + +The jeweller Legrand, who had manifested such zeal in the establishment +of his friend's innocence, had, with an anxiety to avail himself of +every trifle, declared, that to prove the sincerity of his declaration, +he would cite a fact which prevented his being mistaken. On the 8th +Floreal, he had made before dinner an exchange of jewellery with the +witness, Aldenof. He proposed that his ledger should be sent for, as its +entry there would serve to fix all recollections. + +As a matter of form, the ledger was sent for. At the first glance, +however, it was evident that the _date_ of the transaction, mentioned by +Legrand, had been _altered!_ The exchange had taken place on the 9th, +and an alteration, badly dissimulated by an erasure, had substituted the +figure 8 for the original figure 9. + +Murmurs of surprise and indignation followed this discovery, and the +President, pressing Legrand with questions, and unable to obtain from +him any satisfactory answer, ordered his arrest. Legrand then, trembling +and terrified, retracted his former deposition, and declared that he was +not certain he had seen Lesurques on the 8th Floreal, but that he had +altered his book in order to give more probability to the declaration he +had determined to make in his friend's favour--of whose innocence he was +so assured, that it was only the conviction that he was accused +erroneously, which made him perjure himself to save that innocent head. + +From this moment, the jury received the depositions in favour of +Lesurques with extreme prejudice--those already heard seemed little +better than connivance, and those yet to be heard were listened to with +such suspicion as to have no effect. The conviction of his guilt was +fixed in every mind. Lesurques, despairing to get over such fatal +appearances, ceased his energetic denials, and awaited his sentence in +gloomy silence. The jury retired. + +At this moment a woman, agitated with the most violent emotions, +demanded to speak to the President. She said that she was moved by the +voice of conscience, and wished to save the criminal tribunal from a +dreadful error. It was Madelaine Breban, the mistress of Couriol. +Brought before the President, she declared that she knew positively +Lesurques was innocent, and that the witnesses, deceived by an +inexplicable resemblance, had confounded him with the real culprit, who +was called Dubosq. + +Prejudiced as they were against Lesurques, and suspicious of all +testimony after the perjury they had already detected, the tribunal +scarcely listened to Madelaine Breban; and the jury returned with their +verdict, in consequence of which, Couriol, Lesurques, and Bernard were +condemned to death; Richard to four-and-twenty years' imprisonment; +Guesno and Bruer were acquitted. + +No sooner was the sentence passed, than Lesurques rose calmly, and +addressing the Judges, said, "I am innocent of the crime of which I am +accused. Ah! citoyens, if it is horrible to murder on the high-road, it +is not less so to murder by the law!" + +Couriol, condemned to death, rose and said, "Yes, I am guilty--I avow +it. But Lesurques is innocent, and Bernard did not participate in +the murder." + +Four times he reiterated this declaration; and, on entering his prison, +he wrote to the judge a letter full of sorrow and repentance, in which +he said, "I have never known Lesurques; my accomplices are Vidal, Rossi, +Durochat, and Dubosq. The resemblance of Lesurques to Dubosq has +deceived the witnesses." + +To this declaration of Couriol was joined that of Madelaine Breban, who, +after the judgment, returned to renew her protestation, accompanied by +two individuals, who swore that, before the trial, she had told them +Lesurques had never had any relations with the culprits; but that he was +a victim of his fatal likeness to Dubosq. These testimonies threw doubt +in the minds of the magistrates, who hastened to demand a reprieve from +the Directory, which, terrified at the idea of seeing an innocent man +perish through a judicial error, had recourse to the _Corps Legislatif;_ +for every other resource was exhausted. The message of the Directory to +the Five Hundred was pressing; its aim was to demand a reprieve, and a +decision as to what course to pursue. It ended thus: "Must Lesurques +perish on the scaffold because he resembles a villain?" + +The _Corps Legislatif_ passed to the order of the day, as every +condition had been legally fulfilled, that a particular case could not +justify an infraction of decreed laws; and that, too, on such +indications, to do away with a condemnation legally pronounced by a +jury, would be to overset all ideas of justice and equality before +the law. + +The right of pardon had been abolished; and Lesurques had neither +resources nor hope. He bore his fate with firmness and resignation, and +wrote, on the day of his execution, this note to his wife:-- + +"_Ma bonne Amie_,--There is no eluding ones destiny, I was fated to be +judicially murdered. I shall at least bear it with proper courage. I +send you my locks of hair; when our children are grown up, you will +divide it among them; it is the only heritage I can leave them." + +He addressed also a letter to Dubosq through the newspapers. "You, in +whose place I am about to perish, content yourself with the sacrifice of +my life. Should you ever be brought to justice, remember my three +children covered with opprobrium--remember my wife reduced to despair +and do not longer prolong their misfortunes." + + +VI.--THE EXECUTION. + + +The 10th March 1797, Lesurques was led to the scaffold. He wished to be +dressed completely in white, as a symbol of his innocence. He wore +pantaloons and frock-coat of white cotton, and his shirt-collar turned +down over his shoulders. It was the day before Good Friday, and he +expressed regret that he had not to die on the morrow. In passing from +the prison _de la Conciergerie_ to the _Place de la Greve_, where the +execution took place, Couriol, placed beside Lesurques in the cart, +cried out to the people in a loud voice, "Citoyens, I am guilty! I am +guilty! but Lesurques is innocent." + +On arriving at the platform of the guillotine, already stained with the +blood of Bernard, Lesurques exclaimed, "I pardon my judges; I pardon the +witnesses through whose error I die; and I pardon Legrand, who has not a +little contributed to my judicial assassination. I die protesting my +innocence." In another instant he was no more. + +Couriol continued his declarations of Lesurques's innocence to the foot +of the scaffold; and, after a final appeal, he, too, delivered himself +to the executioner. The drop fell on a guilty neck, having before been +stained with the blood of two innocent men. + +The crowd retired with a general conviction that Lesurques had perished +guiltless; and several of the judges were seriously troubled by the +doubts which this day had raised in their minds. Many of the jury began +to repent having relied so on the affirmations of the witnesses from +Mongeron and Lieursaint, precise as they had been. M. Daubenton, the +magistrate who had first ordered the arrest, went home a thoughtful man, +and determined to lose no opportunity of getting at the truth, which the +arrest of the three accomplices mentioned by Couriol could alone +bring to light. + + +VII.--THE PROOFS + + +Two years passed on without affording any clue to the conscientious +magistrate. One day, however, he heard that a certain Durochat was +arrested for a recent robbery, and was confined in the Sainte Pelagie; +and remembering that Durochat was the name of the one designated by +Couriol as having taken the place beside the courier, under the false +name of Laborde. At the epoch of the trial of Lesurques, it came out +that several persons, amongst them an inspector of the _administration +des postes_, had seen the false Laborde at the moment that he was +awaiting the mail, and had preserved a distinct recollection of +his person. + +M. Daubenton, on ascertaining the day of Durochat's approaching trial +for robbery, went to the _administration des postes_, and obtained +through the _Chef_ the permission to send for the inspector who had seen +the false Laborde, and who was no longer in Paris. + +The _juges du tribunal_ had also been warned of the suspicions which +rested on Durochat. The day of trial arrived, and he was condemned to +fourteen years' imprisonment, and was about being led from the court +when the inspector arrived, and declared that Durochat was the man whom +he had seen on the 8th Floreal mount beside the courier under the false +name of Laborde. Durochat only opposed feeble denials to this +declaration, and was consequently taken to the _Conciergerie_. + +On the morrow, Durochat was transferred to Versailles, where he was to +be judged. Daubenton and a huissier departed with the prisoner and four +gendarmes. As they reached the village of Grosbois he demanded some +breakfast, for he had eaten nothing since the preceding day. They +stopped at the first _auberge_, and there Durochat manifested a desire +to speak to the magistrate in private. + +Daubenton ordered the gendarmes to leave them together, and even the +huissier, though he made him understand by a sign the danger of being +alone with so desperate a villain, was begged to retire. A breakfast was +ordered for the two. It was brought--but, by order of the huissier, only +_one_ knife was placed on the table. Daubenton took it up, and began +carelessly to break an egg with it. + +Durochat looked at him fixedly for a moment, and said, + +"Monsieur le juge, you are afraid?" + +"Afraid!" replied he calmly, "and of whom?" + +"Of me," said Durochat. + +"Folly!" continued the other, breaking his egg. + +"You are. You arm yourself with a knife," said he sarcastically. + +"Bah!" replied Daubenton, presenting him the knife, "cut me a piece of +bread, and tell me what you have to communicate to me respecting the +murder of the courier of Lyons." + +There is something in the collected courage of a brave man more +impressive than any menace; and courage is a thing which acts upon all +natures, however vile. Strongly moved by the calm audacity of the +magistrate the ruffian, who had seized the knife with menacing vivacity, +now set it down upon the table, and with a faltering voice said, "_Vous +etes un brave, citoyen_!" then after a pause, "I am a lost man--it's all +up with me; but you shall know all." + +He then detailed the circumstances of the crime, as we have related them +above, and confirmed all Couriol's declarations, naming Couriol, Rossi, +Vidal, and Dubosq, as his accomplices. Before the tribunal he repeated +this account, adding, "that he had heard an individual named Lesurques +had been condemned for the crime, but that he had neither seen him at +the time of the deed, nor subsequently. He did not know him." + +He added, that it was Dubosq whose spur had been broken, and was mended +where they had dined; for he had heard them talk about it, and that he +had lost it in the scuffle. He had seen the other spur in his hand, and +heard him say that he intended throwing it in the river. He further gave +a description of Dubosq's person, and added, that on that day he wore a +flaxen peruke. + +Towards the end of the year 8--four years after the murder of the +courier of Lyons--Dubosq was arrested for robbery; and was transferred +to Versailles, there to be judged by the _Tribunal Correctionnel_. The +president ordered that he should wear a flaxen peruke, and be confronted +with the witnesses from Mongeron and Lieursaint, who now unanimously +declared that he was the man they had seen. This, coupled with the +declarations of Couriol, Durochat, and Madelaine Breban, sufficed to +prove the identity; and he did not deny his acquaintance with the other +culprits. He was therefore condemned, and perished on the scaffold for +the crime. + +Vidal was also arrested and executed, though persisting in his +innocence; and, finally, Rossi was shortly after discovered and +condemned. He exhibited profound repentance, and demanded the succours +of religion. To his confessor he left this declaration--"I assert that +Lesurques is innocent; but this must only be made public six months +after my death." + +Thus ends this strange drama; thus were the proofs of Lesurques's +innocence furnished beyond a shadow of doubt; and thus, we may add, were +seven men executed for a crime committed by five men; two therefore were +innocent--were victims of the law. + + +VIII.--THE WAY IN WHICH FRANCE RECTIFIES AN ERROR. + + +It is now forty years since the innocence of Lesurques has been +established, and little has been done towards the rehabilitation of his +memory, the protection of his children, and the restitution of his +confiscated goods! Forty years, and his wretched widow has only recently +died, having failed in the object of her life! Forty years has the +government been silent. + +M. Daubenton, who took so honourable and active a part in the detection +of the real criminals, consecrated a great part of his life and fortune +to the cause of the unfortunate widow and her children. The declaration +he addressed to the Minister of Justice commenced thus:-- + +"The error, on which was founded the condemnation of Lesurques, arose +neither with the judges nor the jury. The jury, convinced by the +depositions of the witnesses, manifested that conviction judicially; and +the judges, after the declaration of the jury, pronounced according +to the law. + +"The error of his condemnation arose from the mistake of the +witnesses--from the fatal resemblance to one of the culprits not +apprehended. Nothing gave reason to suspect at that time the cause of +the error in which the witnesses had fallen." + +We beg to observe that the whole trial was conducted in a slovenly and +shameful manner. A man is condemned on the deposition of +witnesses;--witnesses, be it observed, of such dulness of perception, +and such confidence in their notions, that they persisted in declaring +Guesno to be one of the culprits as well as Lesurques. Yet the _alibi_ +of Guesno was proved beyond a doubt. How, then, could the jury, with +this instance of mistake before their eyes, and which they themselves +had condemned as a mistake by acquitting Guesno--how could they place +such firm reliance on those self-same testimonies when applied to +Lesurques? If they could convict Lesurques upon such evidence, why not +also convict Guesno on it? Guesno proved an _alibi_--so did Lesurques; +but because one foolish friend perjured himself to serve Lesurques, the +jury hastily set down all his friends as perjurers; they had no evidence +of this; it was a mere indignant reaction of feeling, and, as such, a +violation of their office. The case ought to have been sifted. It was +shuffled over hastily. A verdict, passed in anger, was executed, though +at the time a strong doubt existed in the minds of the judges as to its +propriety! + +Neither the Directory nor the Consulate, neither the Empire nor the +Restoration, paid attention to the widow's supplications for a revision +of the sentence, that her husband's name might be cleared, and his +property restored. In vain did M. Salgues devote ten years to the +defence of the injured family; in vain did M. Merilhou, in an important +_proces_, warmly espouse the cause; the different governments believed +themselves incapable of answering these solicitations. + +Since 1830 the widow again supplicated the _Tribune des Chambres_. Few +sessions have passed without some members, particularly from the +_department du Nord_, calling attention to the subject. All that has +been obtained is a restitution of part of the property seized by the +_fisc_ at the period of the execution. + +Madame Lesurques has died unsuccessful, because a judicial error cannot +be acknowledged or rectified, owing to the insufficiency of the Code. A +French journal announces that the son and daughter of Lesurques, still +living, pledged themselves on the death-bed of their mother to continue +the endeavour which had occupied her forty long years--an endeavour to +make the law comprehend that nothing is more tyrannous than the strict +fulfilment of its letter--an endeavour to make the world at large more +keenly feel the questionable nature of evidence as to personal identity +in cases where the witnesses are ignorant, and where the evidence +against their testimony is presumptive. + + * * * * * + + + + +CALEB STUKELY. + + +PART X. + +THE REVULSION. + + +"_The companion of the wise shall be wise_." A six months' residence +with the religious and self-renouncing minister could not be without its +effect on the character and disposition of the disciple, newly released +from sin and care, and worldly calamity. The bright example of a good +man is much--that of a good and _beloved_ man is more. I was bound to Mr +Clayton by every tie that can endear a man to man, and rivet the ready +heart of youth in truthful and confiding love. I regarded my preserver +with a higher feeling than a fond son may bear towards the mere author +and maintainer of his existence. For Mr Clayton, whose smallest praise +it was that he had restored to me my life, in addition to a filial love, +I had all the reverence that surpassing virtue claims, and lowly piety +constrains. Months passed over our head, and I was still without +occupation, though still encouraged by my kind friend to look for a +speedy termination to my state of dependence. Painful as the thought of +separation had become to Mr Clayton, my situation was far from +satisfactory to myself. I knew not another individual with whom I could +have established myself under similar circumstances. The sense of +obligation would have been oppressive, the conviction that I was doing +wrong intolerable to sustain; but the simplicity, the truth, the +affectionate warmth of my benevolent host, lightened my load day after +day, until I became at last insensible to the burthen. At this period of +my career, the character of Mr Clayton appeared to me bright and fixed +as a spotless star. He seemed the pattern of a man, pure and perfect. +The dazzling light of pious fervour consumed within him the little +selfishness that nature, to stamp an angel with humanity, had of +necessity implanted there. He was swallowed up in holiness--his thoughts +were of heaven--his daily conduct tinged and illumined with a heavenly +hue. Nothing could surpass the intense devotedness of the child of God, +except perhaps the self-devotion, the self-renunciation, and the +profound humility which distinguished him in the world, and in his +conversation amongst men. "_The companion of the wise shall be wise_." I +observed my benefactor, and listened to his eloquence; I pondered on his +habitual piety, until, roused to enthusiasm by the contemplation of the +matchless being, I burned to follow in his glorious course, to revolve +in the same celestial orbit, the most distant and the meanest of his +satellites. The hand of Providence was traceable in every act, which, in +due course, and step by step, had brought me to the minister. It could +not be without a lofty purpose that I had been plucked a brand, as it +were, from the burning; it was not an aimless love that snatched me from +death to life--from darkness to mid-day light--from the depths of +despondency to the heights of serenity and joy. It was that I might +glorify the hand that had been outstretched on my behalf, that I might +carry His name abroad, proclaim His wondrous works, sing aloud His +praises, and in the face of men, give honour to the everlasting Giver of +all good. It was for this and these that I had been selected from +mankind, and made the especial object of a Father's grace. I believed it +in all the simplicity and ingenuousness of a mind awakened to a sense of +religion and human responsibility. I could not do otherwise. From the +moment that I was convinced of the obligation under which I had been +brought, that I could feel the force of the silent compact which had +been effected between the unseen Power and my own soul, it would have +been as easy for me to annihilate thought, to prevent its miraculous +presence in the mind, as to withstand the urgent prickings of my +conscience. I believed in my divine summons, and I was at once ready, +vehement, and impatient to obey it. Had I followed the dictates of my +will, I would have walked through the land, and preached aloud the +wonderful mercies of God, imploring my fellow-creatures to repentance, +and directing them to the fount of all their blessings and all their +happiness. I would have called upon men to turn from error and dangerous +apathy, before their very strongholds. Powerful in the possession of +truth, I would have thundered the saving words before their marketplaces +and exchanges--at the very fortresses in which the world deems itself +chiefly secure, with Mammon at its head, Satan's chief lieutenant. I +would have called around me the neglected and the poor, and in the +highways and in the fields disclosed to them the tenderness and +loving-kindness that I had found, that they might feel, in all their +fulness, if they would turn from sin, and place their trust in heaven. +It was pain and anguish to be silent. Not for my own sake did I yearn to +speak. Oh no! There was nothing less than a love of self in the panting +desire that I felt to break the selfish silence. It was the love of +souls that pressed me forward, and the confidence that the good news +which it was my privilege to impart would find in every bosom a welcome +as warm and ready as it would prove to be effectual. To walk abroad in +silence, feeling myself to be the depositary of a celestial revelation, +and believing that to communicate it to mankind would be to ensure their +participation in its benefits, was hardly to be borne. There was not a +man whom I encountered in the street, to whom I did not secretly wish to +turn, and to pour into his ear the accents of peace and consolation; not +one whom I did not regard as a witness against me on that great day of +trial, when every man shall be judged according to his opportunities. I +spoke to Mr Clayton. He encouraged the feeling by which I was actuated, +but he dissuaded me from the manifestation of it in the form which +I proposed. + +"There was no doubt," he said, "that every place was consecrated where +truth was spoken, and the Spirit made itself apparent. No one could deny +it. Much fruit, he did believe, might follow the sowing of the seed, +whose hand soever scattered it. Still there were other and nearer roads +to the point I aimed at. There were the sick and the needy around us-- +many of his own congregation--with whom I might reciprocate sweet +comfort, and at whose bedside I might administer the balm that should +serve them in the hardest hour of their extremity. It should be his +office to conduct me to their humble habitations: it would be +unspeakable joy to him to behold me well and usefully employed." + +And it was with eagerness that I accepted the touching invitation. I was +not loth or slow to take advantage of it. To serve mankind, to evince my +gratitude for mercies great and undeserved, was all I asked. To know +that I had gratified my wish, was peace itself. Highly as I had +estimated the character of Mr Clayton, I had yet to learn his real +value. I had yet to behold him the dispenser of comfort and contentment +in the hovels of the wretched and the stricken--to see the leaden eye of +disease grow bright at his approach, and the scowl of discontent and +envious repining dissolve into equanimity, or mould itself in smiles. I +had yet to see him the kind and patient companion of the friendless and +the slighted--slighted, because poor; the untired listener to long tales +of misery--so miserable, that they who told them could not track their +dim beginnings, or fix the time in distant childhood when wretchedness +was not. I had yet to find him standing at the beggar's pallet, giving +encouragement, inciting hope, and adding to the counsel of a guide the +solid evidences of a brother's love. With what a zeal did I attempt to +follow in my patron's steps--with what enthusiasm did I begin the course +which his sanction had legalized and rendered holy--and how, without a +doubt as to my title, or a reflection on the propriety of the step, +impelled by religious fervour, did I assume the tone and authority of a +teacher, and arrogate to myself the right of determining the designs of +the Omnipotent, and of appointing the degree of holy warmth below which +no believer could be sure of forgiveness and salvation! + +In no transaction of my life have I ever been more sincere--have I acted +with a more decided assurance of the justice and necessity of the task, +than at this critical moment of my career. If Divine goodness had not +been specially vouchsafed to me, it was not that the conviction of my +appointment was not as clear and firm as the liveliest impressions of +the inmost heart could make it. To labour for the souls of the poor--to +teach them their obligations--to point out to them the way of safety--it +was this view of my delegated office that raised me to ecstasy, and +compelled from me the strangest ebullitions of passion. I pronounced the +change in my habits of thought to be "the dawning of the day, and the +sudden rising of the day-star in my heart;" and, dwelling with intensity +on my future labours, I could exclaim, with trembling emotion,--"Oh the +exceeding excellency and glory and sweetness of the work! The smile of +heaven is upon it--the emphatic testimony of my own conscience approves +and hallows it." I reflect at this moment with wonder upon the almost +supernatural ardour and devotion by which I was elevated and abased when +I first became thoroughly convinced of my mission, and declared aloud +that my only business now upon earth was that of the lowest and readiest +of servants, whose joy consists in the pleasure of their Master. The +strangeness, the excitement that accompanied the adoption of my new +character, had nearly overthrown me. Wild with gladness, before I +visited a human being, I took a journey of some twenty miles from the +metropolis. I do not remember now the name of the village at which I +stopped, from which I hurried, and whose fields I scoured with the +design of finding some covert, unfrequented spot, where I might +unmolested and unobserved pour forth the prayers and hymns of praise +with which my surcharged heart was teeming. Until nightfall I remained +there, nor did I leave the place until calmly and deliberately I begged +permission to devote myself to the glory and honour of Him, whose +favoured child I was. I walked a few miles on my return homeward. I +passed a church, that in the stillness of night reared its dark form, +and seemed, solemnly and pensively, like a thing of life, to stand +before me. The moon rose at its full over the venerable wall, and +scattered its bright cool light across the tall and moss-grown windows. +Oh! every thing in life that wondrous night stirred up my soul to pious +resolutions, and gave a wing to thought that could not find repose but +in the silent and eternal sky. + +The impetuosity with which I entered upon my scheme of usefulness, +forbade preparation of any kind, had I not believed that any previous +qualification was not essential to my purpose; or if essential, had been +miraculously implanted in me. I was soon called upon to make my first +visitation. Never will it be forgotten. It was to the work-house. Mr +Clayton had been called thither by an old communicant, of whom he had +not heard before for years. "He was ill, and he desired to speak with +his still beloved minister." + +Such was the message which reached my friend at the moment of his +quitting his abode, on an errand of still greater urgency. "Go, Caleb," +said Mr Clayton, "visit and comfort the poor sufferer; and may grace +accompany your first labour of love." I proceeded to the place, and, +arriving there, was ushered into a small close room--to recoil at once +from the scene of misery which was there presented. Lying, with his hat +and clothes upon the bed, dying, was the man himself; his wife was busy +in the room, cleaning it, quietly and indifferently, as though the sleep +of healthy life had closed her partner's eye, and nothing worse. On the +threshold was a girl, the daughter of them both, twenty years of age or +more, _an idiot_, for she laughed outright when I approached her. I had +come to the house with my heart full of precious counsel, and yearning +to communicate the message with which I knew myself to be charged. But +in a moment I was brought to earth, shocked by the sight which I beheld, +wounded in my nature, and I had not a word to say. The hardened woman +looked at me for a moment, and calling me to myself by the act, I +mentioned the name of Mr Clayton, and was again silent. + +"What! can't he come, sir?" asked the beldame. "Well, it don't much +matter. It's all over with 'un, I fear. Come, Jessie, can't you speak to +the gentleman? What can you make of her, sir?" + +The daughter looked at me again, and sickened me with her unmeaning +laughter. I remembered the object of my visit, and struggled for +composure. Had I become a recreant so quickly? Had I not a word to say +for my Master? Nothing to offer the needy creatures, perishing, perhaps, +of spiritual want? Alarmed at my own apathy, and eager to throw it off, +I turned to the poor girl, and spoke to her. I asked her many questions +before I could command attention. She could only look at me wildly, +blush, laugh, and make strange motions to her mother. At length +I said-- + +"Tell me, Jesse, tell your friend, who came into the world to save +sinners?" + +"Him, him, him," she answered hastily, and gabbled as before. + +"Ah," said the mother, "the poor cretur does sometimes talk about +religion, but it's very seldom, and uncertain like, and I can't help +her either." + +"Let me read to _you_," said I. + +"Lor' bless you, sir," she answered, "it wouldn't do me no good. I am +too old for that. Now, get out of the way there--do, you simpleton," she +added, turning to the idiot; "just let me pass--don't you see I am +wanting to fetch up water." + +She left the room immediately, and her daughter ran after her, screaming +a wild and piercing note. I moved to the dying man. He was insensible to +anything I could say. Fretted and ashamed of myself, I hurried from the +house, and, returning home, rushed to my room, fell upon my knees, and +implored my Father to inflict at once the punishment due to lukewarmness +and apostasy. How vain had been all my previous desire to distinguish +myself--how arrogant my pretensions--how inefficient my weak attempts! I +was not worthy of the commission with which I had been invested, and I +besought heaven to degrade the wretch who could not speak at the +seasonable moment, and to bestow it upon one worthier of its love, and +abler to perform his duty. I passed a miserable night of remorse, and +bitter self-accusation, and in the morning was distracted by the +battling feelings that were marshalled against each other in my soul. +Now, a sense of my unworthiness was victorious over every other thought, +and I resolved to resign my trust, and think of it no more; then the +belief in my election, the animating thought that I was chosen, and must +still go forward or stand condemned, hated by myself, rejected by my +God;--this gained the mastery next, and I was torn by sore perplexity. I +appealed to my benefactor. As usual, balm was on his lips, and I found +encouragement and support. + +"I was yet young in the faith," he said, "and the abundance of heavenly +grace was not yet manifested. It would come in due time; and, in the +mean while, I must persevere, and a blessing would unquestionably +follow." + +Much more he added, to reconcile me to the previous day's defeat, and to +animate me to new trials. Never did I so much need incentive and +upholding, never before had I esteemed the value of a spiritual +counsellor and friend. + +In a small cottage, distant about three miles from the residence of Mr +Clayton, there lodged, at this time, an old man with his sister, a blind +woman about seventy years of age. He had communicated with Mr Clayton's +church for many years. He was now poor, and had retired from the +metropolis, to the hut, for the advantage of purer air, and in the hope +of prolonging the short span within which his earthly life had been +brought. To this humble habitation I was directed by Mr Clayton. + +"The woman," said the minister, "is without any comfortable hope; but +the prospects of the brother are satisfactory and most cheering. Go to +the benighted woman. Her's is a melancholy case. Satan has a secure +footing in her heart, and defeats every effort and every motive that I +have brought to bear against it. May you be more fortunate--may her +self-deceived and hardened spirit melt before the force and earnestness +of your appeals!" + +I ventured for a second time on sacred and interdicted ground, and +visited the cottage. The unhappy woman, to whom I had specially come, +was smitten indeed. She was blind and paralyzed, and on the extreme +verge of eternity. Yet, afflicted as she was, and as near to death as +the living may be, she enjoyed the tranquillity and the gentleness of a +child, ignorant of sin, and, in virtue of her infancy, confident of her +inheritance. I could discover no evidence of a creature alarmed with a +sense of guilt, loathing itself, conscious of its worthlessness. Her +nature, in truth, seemed to have usurped a sweetness and placidity, the +possession of which, as Mr Clayton afterwards observed, was justifiable +only in those who could find nothing but vileness and depravity in +every thought and purpose of their hearts. + +It was a beautiful day in summer, and Margaret was sitting before the +cottage porch, feeling the sun's benevolent warmth, and tempering, with +the closed lid, the hot rays that were directed to her sightless orbs. +She had no power to move, and was happy in the still enjoyment of the +lingering and lovely day. She might have been a statue for her +quietness--but there were curves and lines in the decrepit frame that +art could never borrow. Little there seemed about her to induce a love +of life, and yet a countenance more bright with cheerfulness and mild +content I never met. The healthy and the young might read a lesson on +her blanched and wrinkled cheek. Full of my errand, I did not hesitate +at once to engage her mind on heavenly and holy topics. She did not, or +she would not, understand me. I spoke to her of the degradation of +humanity, our fallen nature, and the impossibility of thinking any thing +but sin--and a stone could not be more senseless than the aged listener. + +"Was I sure of it?" she asked. "Did my Bible say it? Much she doubted +it, for she had sometimes, especially since her blindness, clear and +beautiful thoughts of heaven that could not be sinful, they rendered her +so happy, and took away from her all fear. It was so shocking, too," she +thought, "to think so ill of men--our fellow-creatures, and the +creatures of a perfect Father. She loved her brother--he was so +simple-minded, and so kind to her, too; how _could_ she call him wicked +and depraved!" + +"Do you feel no load upon your conscience?" I enquired. + +"Bless the good man's heart!" she answered, "why, what cares have I? If +I can hear his friendly voice, and know he is not heavy-burthened, I am +happy. Brother is all to me. Though now and then I'm not well pleased if +the young children keep away who play about me sometimes, as if they did +not need a playfellow more gay than poor blind Margaret." + +"Have you no fear of death?" said I. + +"Why should I have?" she answered quietly; "I never injured another in +my life." + +"Can that take off the sting?" I asked. + +"And I have tried," continued she, "as far as I was able, to please the +God who made me." + +"Did you never think yourself the vilest of the vile?" + +"Bless you! never, sir. How could I? If I had been, you may be sure Mr +Clayton and the visiting ladies would never have been so kind to me and +Thomas as they have--and how could we expect it? I was only thinking, +sir, before you came up, that if I had been wicked when I was young, I +would never have been so easy under blindness. Now, it doesn't give me +one unquiet hour." + +"Margaret, I would you were more anxious." + +"It wouldn't do, sir, for the blind to be anxious," she replied. "They +must do nothing, sir, but wait with patience. Besides, Thomas and I need +no anxiety at all. God gives us more than we require, and it would be +very wicked to be restless and unquiet." + +"Margaret," I said impressively, "there is heaven!" + +"Yes," she answered quickly, "that I'm sure of. I read of it before I +lost my eyes; and since my blindness I have seen it often. God is very +good to the afflicted, and none but the afflicted know how He makes up +for what He takes away. I have seen heaven, sir, though I have not sight +enough to know your face. Do you play dominoes, Mr--what did you say +your name was, sir?" + +"You trifle, Margaret." + +"Oh, no indeed, sir. But how wonderful and quick my touch has got, and +how kind is heaven there, sir! I can see the dominoes with my +fingers--touch is just as good as sight. Just think how many hours a +poor blind creature has, that must be filled up some way or another! I +like to keep to myself, and think, and think; but not always--and +sometimes I want Thomas to read to me; and when that's over, I feel a +want of something else. I'll tell you what it is--my eyes they want to +open. When that's the case, I always play at dominoes, and then the +feeling goes away. Thomas can tell you that, for he plays with me." + +I continued the conversation for an hour, and with the same result. I +grew annoyed and irritated--not with the deluded sinner, as I deemed +her, but with myself, the feeble and unequal instrument. For a second +time I had attempted to comply with the instructions of my master, and +for a second time had I been foiled, and driven back in melancholy +discomfiture. The imperturbability and easy replies of the woman +harassed and tormented me in the extreme. I had been too recent a pupil +to be thoroughly versed in all the subtleties and mysteries of my +office. Silence was painful to me, and reply only accumulated difficulty +and vexation. She seemed so happy, too; in the midst of all her heresy +and error there existed an unaffected tranquillity and repose which I +would have purchased at any cost or sacrifice. I blushed and grew +ashamed, and for a moment forgot that the bereaved creature was unable +to behold the confusion with which defeat and exposure had covered me. +At length I spoke imperfectly, loosely, and at random. The woman +detected me in an untenable position--checked me--and in her artless +manner, laid bare the fallacy of an inconsiderate assertion. In an +instant I was aware of my conviction, I retracted my expression, and +involved myself immediately in fresh dilemma. Again, and as gently as +before, she made the unsoundness of a principle evident and glaring. How +I closed the argument--the conversation and the interview--and escaped +from her, I know not. Burning with shame, despising myself, and desirous +of burying both my disgrace and self deep in the earth, where both might +be forgotten, I was sensible of hurrying homeward. I reached it in +despair, satisfied that I had become a coward and a renegade, and that I +was lost, hopelessly and utterly here upon earth, and eternally +in heaven! + +I had resolved, upon the day succeeding this adventure, to restore to my +benefactor the credentials with which be had been pleased to entrust me. +Satisfied of the truth of my commission, I could only deplore my +inability to execute it faithfully. In spite of what had passed at the +cottage-door, the doctrines which I had advocated there lost none of +their character and influence upon my own mind. Falling from the lips of +others, they dropped with conviction into my _own_ soul. Nothing could +shake my _own_ unbounded reliance on their saving efficacy and heavenly +origin. It was only when _I_ spoke of them, when _I_ attempted to +expound and teach them, that clouds came over the celestial truths, and +the sun's disk was dimmed and troubled. The moment that I ceased to +speak, light unimpaired, and bright effulgence, were restored. It was +enough that I could feel this. Grace and a miracle had made the +startling fact palpable and evident. This assurance followed easily. No +oral communication could have satisfied me more fully of the importance +and necessity of an immediate resignation of my trust. It was a +punishment for my presumption. I should have rested grateful for the +interposition which had rescued me from the jaws of hell, and left to +others, worthy of the transcendent honour, the glorious task of saving +souls. What was I, steeped in sin, as I had been up to the very moment +of my conversion--what was I, insolent, pretending worm, that I should +raise my grovelling head, and presume upon the unmerited favour that had +been showered so graciously upon me? It remained for those--purest and +best of men, whose lives from childhood onward had been a lucid +exposition of the word of truth--whose deeds had given to the world an +assurance of their solemn embassy; it was for them to feel the strength +the countenance, and support of heaven, and to behold with gratitude and +joy their labours crowned with a triumphant issue and success. This was +the new train of feeling suggested by new circumstances. I resigned +myself to its operation as quickly as I had adopted my previous +sentiments; and, a few days before, I was not more anxious to commence +my sacred course than I was now miserable and uneasy until I turned from +it once and for ever. Mr Clayton had placed in my hands a list of +individuals whom he transferred to my care. It was oppressive to know +that I possessed it, and my first step was to place it again at his +disposal. The interview which I obtained for this purpose was an +important one--important in itself--marvellous and astounding in its +consequences. + +Mr Clayton spent many hours daily in a small room, called _a study_. It +was a chamber sacred to the occupation followed there. I had not access +to it--nor had any stranger, with the exception of two ill-favoured men, +whom I had found, for weeks together, constant attendants upon my +benefactor. For a month at a time, not a single day elapsed during which +they were not closeted for a considerable period with the divine. A +three weeks' interval of absence would then take place; Mr Clayton +prosecuted his studies alone and undisturbed, and no strange foot would +cross the threshold until the ill-looking men returned, and passed some +five weeks in the small sanctuary as before. Who could they be? I had +never directly asked the question, curious as I had been to know their +history and the purpose of their visits. Had I not learned from Mr +Clayton the impropriety and sinfulness of judging humanity by its looks, +I should have formed a most uncharitable opinion of their characters. +They were hard-featured men, sallow of complexion, rigid in their looks. +I knew that, attached to the church of Mr Clayton, were two +missionaries--men of rare piety, and some of humble origin--small +boot-makers, in fact; sometimes I believed that the visiters and they +were the same individuals. Circumstances, however, unfavourable to this +idea, arose, and I turned from one conjecture to another, until I +reposed, at length, in the belief that they were sinners--sinners of the +deepest dye--such as their ill-omened looks betrayed--and that they +sought the kind and ever-ready minister to obtain his counsel, and to +share his prayers. At all events, this was a subject upon which I +received no enlightening from their confidant. Once I took occasion to +make mention of it; but, in an instant, I perceived that my enquiry was +not deemed proper to be answered. It was to this forbidden closet--the +scene of so much mystery--that, to my great surprize, I found myself +invited by my benefactor, when I implored him to release me from the +obligation in which I had too hastily involved myself. + +"Be seated, Caleb," said Mr Clayton, as we entered the room in company. +"Be seated, and be tranquil. You are excited now." + +I was, in truth, and not more so than deeply mortified and humbled. + +"You alarm me, dear young friend," continued the good minister. "You +alarm and grieve me. I tremble for you, when I behold your versatility. +Tell me, how is this? Can you not trust yourself? Can I trust you?" + +I did not answer. + +"I have been careful in not thwarting your own good purposes. I have +been most anxious to give your feelings their full bent. Has your +conversion been too sudden to endure? Have you so soon regretted the +abandonment of the great world and all its pleasures--such as they were +to you? Has a life of usefulness and peace no charms? Alas! I had hoped +otherwise." + +I assured my friend that he had mistaken the motive which had compelled +me to forsake, at least for the present, the intention that I had +entertained honestly--though, I felt, erroneously--for the last few +days. Nothing was further from my thoughts than a desire to mix again in +a world of sinfulness and trouble. His precepts and bright example had +won me from it; and I prayed only to be established in the principles, +in the true knowledge of which I knew my happiness to consist. I was not +equal to the task which I had proposed to myself, and he had kindly +permitted me to assume. I wished to be his meanest disciple--to acquire +wisdom from his tuition--and, by the labour of years, to prepare myself +finally for that reward which he had so often announced to me as the +peculiar inheritance of the faithful and the righteous. I ceased. My +auditor did not answer me immediately. He sat for some minutes in +silence, and closed his eyes as if absorbed in thought. At length, he +said to me-- + +"You do not surprize me, Caleb. I am prepared for this. I perceived +your difficulties from afar. It was inevitable. Self-confidence has +placed you where you are. Be happy, and rejoice in your weakness--but +turn now to the strong for strength. The work that has begun in your +heart must be completed. It shall be so--do not doubt it." + +The minister hesitated, looked hard at me, and endeavoured, as I +imagined, to find, in the expression of my countenance, an index to my +thoughts. I said nothing, and he proceeded. + +"There are the appointed means. His way is in the sanctuary. He shall +feed his flock like a shepherd. There is but one refuge for the outcast. +I have but one alleviation to offer you. It is all and every thing. Are +you prepared to accept it?" + +"You are my friend, my guardian, and my father," I replied. + +"You have wandered long in the wilderness," continued the minister. "You +have fed with the swine and the goats. You have found no nourishment +there. All was bleak, and barren, and desolate there. The living waters +were dried up, and the bread of life was denied to the starving +wayfarer." + +"What must be done, sir?" + +"You MUST ENTER THE FOLD--and have communion with the chosen people of +the Lord. Are you content to do it?" + +"Oh, am I worthy," I exclaimed, "to be reckoned in the number of those +holy men?" + +"I cannot doubt it; but your own spirit shall bear witness to your +state. To-morrow is our next church-meeting. There, if it be your wish, +I will propose you; messengers will be appointed to converse with you. +They will come to you, and gather, from your experience, the evidences +of your renewed, regenerated character." + +"What shall I say, sir?" I asked in all simplicity. + +"What says the drowning man to the hand that brings him to the shore? +Your beating heart will be too ready to acknowledge the mighty work that +has been already done on your behalf. Have you forgotten the way you +have been led? Point it out to them. Have you been plucked as a brand +from the burning? Acknowledge it to them in strains of liveliest +gratitude. Does not your soul at this moment overflow at the vivid +recollection of all the Lord has done for it and you? Will it not yearn +to sing aloud His praise when strangers come to listen to the song? Then +speak aloud to them. Do you not feel, have not a hundred circumstances +all concurred to prove, that you exist a vessel chosen to show forth His +praise? Show it to them, and let them carry back the certain proofs of +your redemption--let them convey the sweet intelligence of a brother's +safety--and let them bid the church prepare to welcome him with hymns of +praise into her loving bosom." + +Within a week of the above conversation, two respectable individuals +called upon me at Mr Clayton's house--the accredited messengers of the +church in which my eternal safety was about to be secured. One was a +thickset man, with large black whiskers and corresponding eyebrows. His +countenance had a stern expression--the eye especially, which lay +couched like a tiger beneath its rugged overhanging brow. You did not +like to look at it, and you could not meet it without unpleasantness and +awe. The gentleman was very tall and sturdy--evidently a hairy person; +he was unshaven, and looked muscular. Acting under the feeling which led +him to despise all earthly grandeur and distinction, and which, no doubt +influenced his conduct throughout life, he was remarkable for a +carelessness and uncleanness of attire, as powerful and striking as the +odour which exhaled from his broad person, and which explained the +profession of the gentleman to be--a working blacksmith. His companion +was thin, and neat, and dapper. There was an air about _him_ that could +not have been acquired, except by frequent intercourse with the polished +and the rich. He was delicacy itself, incapable of a strong expression, +and happier far when he could hint, and not express his sentiments. Had +I been subject only to his examination, my ordeal would not have been +severe. It was the blacksmith whom I found hard and unimpressible as his +own anvil, dark as his forge, and as unpitying as its flames. The thin +examiner held the high office of deacon of the church. Whether it was +the particularly dirty face of his friend that set him off to such +advantage, or whether he had inherent claims to my respect, I cannot +tell; well I know, throughout the scrutiny that soon took place, many +times I should have fallen beneath the blacksmith's hammer, but for the +support and mild encouragement that I found in him. He was most +becomingly dressed. He wore a white cravat, and no collar. He had light +hair closely cut, and his face was as smooth as a woman's. His shirt was +whiter than any shirt I have ever seen before or since, and it was made +of very fine material. He carried an agreeable smirk upon his +countenance, and he disinterred, now and then, some very long and +extraordinary word from the dictionary, when he was particularly +desirous either to make himself understood or conceal his meaning. I had +almost omitted to add, that he was a ladies' haberdasher. + +I received the deputation with a trembling and apprehensive heart. I +knew my faith to be sincere, and I believed it to be correct, according +to the views of the church of which my revered friend was the minister +and organ. Still, I could not be insensible to the importance of the +step which I was about to take, and to the high tone of piety which the +true believers demanded from all who joined their ranks and partook of +their exclusive privileges. + +It will not be necessary to repeat in detail the course of my +examination. At the close of two hours it was concluded, and I am at +this moment willing to confess that it was, upon the whole, +satisfactory. I mean to myself--for by my questioners, and by the +little haberdasher more particularly, the conference was pronounced most +gratifying and comforting in every way. I say _upon the whole_, for I +could not, even at that early period of my initiation, and with all my +excitement and enthusiasm, prevent the intrusion of some disturbing +thoughts--some painful impressions that were not in harmony with the +general tenor of my feelings. I had prepared myself to meet and deal +with the appointed delegates of heaven, and I had encountered _men_, +yes, and men not entitled to my reverence and regard, except as the +chosen ambassadors of the church. One was low, ignorant, and vulgar. He +took no pains to conceal the fact; he rather gloried in his native and +offensive coarseness. The other was a smoother man, scarcely less +destitute of knowledge, or worthier of respect. Looking back, at this +distance of time, upon this strange interview, I am indeed shocked and +grieved at the part which I then and there permitted myself to +undertake. The scene has lost the colours which gave it a false and +superficial lustre, and I gaze on the melancholy reality chidden, and, +let me say, instructed by the sight. I can now better appreciate and +understand the self-confident tone which pronounced upon my state in the +eye of heaven--the canting expressions of brotherly love--the irreverent +familiarity with which Scripture was quoted, garbled, and tortured to +justify dissent, and render disobedience holy--the daring assumption of +inquisitorial privileges, and the scorn, the illiberality and +self-righteousness, with which my angry, bigoted, and vulgar questioners +decided on the merits of every institution that eschewed their fanciful +vagaries and most audacious claims. I do not wonder that, overtaken in a +career of misery, the consequence of my own imprudence, I should have +been arrested by the voice, and smitten by the eloquence, of Mr Clayton. +I do not wonder that I listened to his arguments, and observed his +conduct, until I was reduced to passiveness, and my mind was willing to +be moulded to his purposes. But I do wonder and lament that any +obscuration of my judgment, any luxuriance of feeling, should have +permitted my youthful understanding for an instant to believe that to +such men as my examiners the keys of heaven were entrusted, and that on +them, and on their voice, depended the reception of a broken-hearted +penitent at the mercy-seat of God. + +A few words from the haberdasher-deacon, at the breaking up of the +convocation, or whatever else it might be termed, were satisfactory, in +so far as they showed that my temporal prospects were not entirely +neglected by those who had become so deeply interested in my spiritual +welfare. The blacksmith had hardly brought to a close a somewhat lengthy +and very ungrammatical exhortation, that wound up the day's proceedings, +when the dapper Jehu Tomkins, jumping at once from the carnival to the +revel, shook me cordially by the hand, and most kindly suggested to me +that, under the patronage of so important and religious a connexion as +that into which I was about to enter, I could not fail to succeed, +whatever might be the plan which I had laid down for my future support. + +"I have heard all about you," added Jehu, "from our respected minister, +and you'll soon get into something now. It's a good congregation, sir-- +wealthy and influential. I should say we have richer people in our +connexion than in any about London. Mr Clayton is a very popular man, +sir--very good, and speaks the truth." + +"He is good indeed," I answered. + +"Sir, grace is sure to follow you now. It is fifteen years since I first +sat under Mr Clayton! Ah, I remember the night I was converted, as if it +were yesterday. I always felt, up to that very time, the need of +something better than I had got. Business had gone wrong ever since I +opened shop, and my mind was quite unsettled. Satan tried very hard at +me, but it wouldn't do. Sometimes, when my boy had gone home, and shop +was shut up, the Tempter would whisper in my ears words like +these--'Jehu, you're insured, over and over again, for your stock; let a +spark fall on the shavings, and your fortune's made.' Well, sir, once or +twice--will you believe it?--the Devil had nearly got it all his own +way; but grace prevented, and I was saved. I owe it all to Mr Clayton. I +was told by one or two of my customers to go and hear him, but somehow +or other I never did. Satan kept me back. At last the gentleman as was +the deacon--him as built the chapel--Mrs Jehu Tomkin's father--comes to +my shop with his daughter, Mrs Jehu as is now, and spoke to me about the +minister. Well, I heard the old gentleman was very rich and pious, and I +went the next Sabbath-day as was, with his family, into his pew. I never +went any where else after that. He seemed to hit the nail just on the +head, and I was convinced--oh, quite wonderful!--all on a sudden. I was +married to Mrs Jehu before that day twelvemonth. So you see grace +followed me throughout, as it will you, my dear brother, if you only +mind what you are about, and don't be a backslider." + +"Mr Clayton," said I, "has kindly promised to procure employment for +me." + +"Ah! and he'll do it, if he says so," rejoined Mr Tomkins. "That's your +man. You stick to him, and you won't hurt. He's a chosen vessel, if ever +there was one. What do you say, brother Buster?" + +Brother Buster simply groaned his assent, and scowled. He had been for +some time anxious to depart, and he now took his leave without +further ceremony. + +"You wouldn't think that man was a saint to look at him, would you?" +asked the deacon, as soon as his friend was gone. "He is though. He is +riper in spiritual matters than any man I know. Ah! the Establishment +would give something for a few like him. He'll be taken from us, I fear. +We make a idol of him, and that's sure to be punished. It's wonderful +what he knows; and how it has come to him we can't tell." + +I received a pressing invitation from Mr Tomkins to visit his "small and +'appy family," as he was pleased to call it, on any evening after eight +o'clock, which was his latest business hour. "Mrs Jehu," I was assured, +"was just like her father, and his four small Jehus as exactly like +their grandfather, and he wished to say no more for them. After +business his family enjoyed invariably a little spiritual refreshment, +and that and a hymn made the time pass very agreeably till supper-time +at nine, when he had a 'ot collation, at which he should be most proud +to see me." + +To all the charges that have been at various times, with more or less +virulence and disinterestedness, brought against the Church of England, +that of assuming to itself the divine attribute of searching the secret +heart of many has, I believe, never been superadded. It has remained for +men very far advanced indeed in spiritual knowledge and perfection, to +assert the bold prerogative, and to venture, unappalled, beneath the +frown of heaven. The close scrutiny, on the part of Mr Buster, proper as +it was as a step preliminary, was by no means sufficient to procure for +me an easy and unquestioned admission into the church which the +blacksmith had so ably represented. There was yet another trial to +ensue, and another jury to pronounce upon the merits of the anxious +candidate. He had yet to prove to the perfect satisfaction of the +self-constituted junto, that styled itself a _church_, how God had +mercifully dealt with him--to detail, with historic accuracy, the method +and procedure of his regeneration, and to find evidence of a spiritual +change, that carried on its front the proof of his conversion and his +accepted state. All this was to be done before I could be _entitled_ to +the privileges which Messrs Buster, Tomkins, and the rest, had it in +their power to bestow. The manner in which this delicate investigation +was carried on, its indecorum and profaneness, I never can forget; nor +can I, in truth, remember it without humiliation and deep sorrow. +Against the indiscreet, illegal exhibition, I set off my ignorance, +simplicity, and desire of serving heaven; and in these I place my hope +of pardon for the share I had in such proceedings. + +I received, in due form, a requisition to appear before the body of the +_church_, at its general meeting. I appeared. The chapel was thronged, +the majority of members being women. In the hands of nearly every third +person was a printed paper. I was not then aware of its contents; if I +had been, the ceremony would, in all probability, have concluded with my +entrance. Will it be believed, that this paper contained a printed +formula of the questions which were to test the quality of my faith, and +to pronounce upon the vitality and worth of my spiritual pretensions! +Any person present was at liberty to address me, and to form his own +opinion of my case from the manner and the matter which their ingenuity +elicited. At the suggestion of Mr Tomkins, who, in his capacity of +deacon, was remarkably active on this occasion, it was deemed proper +that I should enter upon my "experience" at once. My heart fluttered as +I rose to comply with the demand, and the chapel was hushed. It will be +sufficient to say, that I repeated my entire history, and secured the +attention of my auditory until I had spoken my last word. There were +parts of the narrative which I could, with a glance, perceive to be +peculiarly _piquant_ and acceptable. As these occurred, a rustling and a +murmur expressed the subdued applause. When, for instance, I mentioned +the disgust which I had conceived for the University upon losing the +scholarship, and the uneasiness which I afterwards felt as long as I +continued a member of that community, a few of the most acute looked at +one another, and shrugged mysteriously, as who should say, "How wondrous +are the ways of Providence!" and when I arrived at the point of my +deliverance by the hand of their own minister, there would have been, I +thought, no end to the gesticulations, expressions of gratitude and joy, +that burst from the "church," in spite of the praiseworthy efforts of +the minister to control and keep them down. When I had concluded, and +whilst the half-suppressed rejoicing still buzzed in the chapel, the +stern Buster rose, and presented to me the unmitigated force of his +unpleasant eye. Silence prevailed immediately. + +"Now, sir," said my old friend, "what makes you think yourself a child +of grace? Speak out, if you please; I'm rather deaf." + +"The loathing that I feel of what I was." + +"Good!" said Jehu Tomkins, with strong emphasis, and loud enough to be +heard by every one. + +"When did you feel the fetters fust busting from your spirit?" + +"Not till I heard the minister's kind voice," was the reply. + +"Do you always feel as strong upon the subject? Do you feel your spirit +always willing?" + +"Oh, no," I answered; "there are dreadful fluctuations, and there is +nothing so uncertain as self-dependence. I have dark and bitter moments, +when I feel, in all its power, the melancholy truth--'When I would do +good, evil is present with me.'" + +"Capital sign!--capital sign!" exclaimed Jehu Tomkins again; "quite +sufficient!--quite sufficient!" + +Yes, it was so. A few questions were put to me by individuals, rather +for the sake of gratifying an impertinent curiosity, than that of +elucidating further proof of my proficiency, and the ceremony was +finished by my formal reception into the body of the church. A prayer +was offered, an address delivered, a hymn sung--the eyes of many ladies +were turned with smiling interest upon me--and the meeting separated. +Jehu Tomkins was the first to congratulate me upon the happy issue of +my trial. + +"You are a made man, sir, depend upon it," said he, with his first +salutation. "You can't fail. There--do you see that fat man that's just +going out--him as has got on the Indy 'ankycher?--I sold him that--he +came on purpose to hear you, and if he found you up to the mark, he's +going to provide for you. He belongs to all our societies, and just does +what he pleases. His word's a law. We've a boiled leg of mutton at nine +to-night. Suppose you come to us, and finish the day there? Bless me, +what a full meeting we've had! Here's a squeezing!" There was certainly +some difficulty in our egression. The people had gathered into a crowd +at the small doorway, and men jostled and made their way without regard +to others in their vicinity. Lost as I was in the indiscriminate host, a +few observations fell upon my ear that were not, I presume, especially +intended for it. + +"Well," said a greasy youth, not many yards distant from me, "I doubt +his having had a call. There wasn't life enough in it for me. I +shouldn't be surprised if he's a black sheep after all. I wish I had put +a question or two to him. I think I could have shown Satan in his heart +pretty quick." + +"Now you say it," replied the person addressed, "I did think him very +backward and lukewarm. I didn't like his tone altogether. Ah! what a +thing experimental religion is! You know what it is, and so do I; but I +werry much fear that delooded young man is as carnal-minded as my mother +was, that went to hell, though I say it, as contented and unconcerned as +if she was going to the saints in glory." + +The information conveyed to me by Mr Tomkins as we issued from the +chapel was not unfounded. The very day subsequent to my admittance into +the bosom of the church, I was requested to attend the minister in the +_sanctum_ already referred to. Upon reaching it, I discovered the fat +gentleman of the preceding evening, dressed as he was on the previous +occasion, and still adorned with Jehu's India handkerchief. Both he and +Mr Clayton were seated at table, and writing materials were before them. +The moment I entered the apartment, the fat gentleman held out his hand, +and shook mine with much stateliness. My friend, however, addressed me. + +"Caleb," said he, "we are at length able to fulfil our promise. It is my +pleasure to announce to you that a situation is procured for you, +suitable to your talents, and agreeable to your feelings. We are both of +us indebted to this good gentleman. In your name I have already thanked +him, and in your name I have accepted the office which he has been at +some pains to obtain for you." + +I looked towards the stout gentleman, and bowed in grateful +acknowledgment. + +"Tell him the duties, Clayton," requested my new-found influential +friend. + +"Mr Bombasty," proceeded the minister, "feels a warm interest in your +welfare. The happy result of yesterday's trial has secured for you a +friendship which it will be your duty and study to deserve. There is +established, in connexion with our church, a Christian instruction +society, of which Mr Bombasty is the esteemed and worthy president. The +appointment of a travelling secretary rests with him, and he has this +very day nominated you to that distinguished office. I have tendered +your thanks. You can now repeat them." + +"Tell him the salary," interrupted the president. + +"You will receive one hundred and fifty pounds per annum," continued Mr +Clayton, "in addition to your travelling charges; apartments likewise, I +believe"--He hesitated as if uncertain, and looked towards the +president. + +"Yes," replied that gentleman, "go on--coals and candles. You answer for +him, Clayton--eh?" + +"As I told you, sir," said my friend, "I will pledge myself for his +trustiness and probity." + +The remembrance of Mr Chaser's cold-hearted cruelty occured to my mind +as my benefactor spoke, and tears of gratitude trembled in my eyes. The +fat gentleman remarked the expression of feeling, and brought the +interview to a close. + +"Well, Clayton," said he, "you can talk to him. I've twenty places to go +to yet. Get the paper signed, and he may begin at once. Let a lawyer +draw it up. Just make yourself security for a thousand pounds--I don't +suppose he'll ever have more than half that at a time in his +possession--and that'll be all the society will require. He can come to +me to-morrow. Now I'm off. Good-bye, my friend--'morning, young man." +The last adieu was accompanied with a patronizing nod of the head, +which, with the greeting on my first appearance, constituted the whole +of the intercourse that passed between me and my future principal. The +moment that he departed, I turned to Mr Clayton, and thanked him warmly +and sincerely for all that he had accomplished for me. + +"I shall leave you, sir," I added, "with mingled feelings of regret and +satisfaction--regret in separating from the purest and the best of men, +my friend, my counsellor, and father--but joy, because I cease to be a +burden upon your charity and good nature. I carry into the world with me +the example of your daily life, and my own sense of your dignified and +exalted character. Both will afford me encouragement and support in the +vicissitudes which yet await me. Tell me how I may better evince my +gratitude, and let me gratify the one longing desire of my +overflowing heart." + +"Caleb," replied the minister, with solemnity, "it is true that I have +been permitted to protect and serve you. It is true that, but for me, at +this moment you would be beyond the reach of help and man's regard. I +have brought you from the grave to life. I have led you to the waters of +life, of which you may drink freely, and through which you will be made +partaker with the saints, of glory everlasting. This I have done for +you. Do I speak in pride? Would I rob Heaven and give the praise and +honour to the creature? God forbid. _I_ have accomplished little. _I_ +have done nothing good and praiseworthy but as the instrument of Him +whose servant and whose minister I am. Not for myself, but for my +Master's sake, I demand your friendship and fidelity. If I have been +accounted worthy to save your soul, I am not unworthy of your loyalty +and love." + +"They are yours, sir. It is my happiness to offer them." + +"Caleb," continued my friend, in the same tone, "you have lived with me +many months. Mine is a life of privacy and retirement compared with that +of other men. I strive to be useful to my fellow-creatures, and am happy +if I succeed. If any one may claim immunity from slander and reproach, +it is I, who have avoided diligently all appearance of offence. Yet I +have not succeeded. You are about to mix again with men. You have joined +the church, and you will not fail to hear me spoken of harshly and +injuriously." + +"Impossible!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, it would seem so, and it would _be_, if justice in this world +accompanied men's acts. I tell you," continued Mr Clayton, flushing as +he raised his voice, "there are men living now whom I have raised from +beggary and want--men, indebted to me for the air they breathe, who +calumniate and defame me through the world, and who will not cease to do +so till I or they are sleeping in the dust. They owed me every thing, +like you--their gratitude was unbounded, even as yours. What assurance +have I that you will not deal as hardly by your friend as they have +done, and still do?" + +"Mr Clayton," I answered, eagerly, "I would lay down my life to serve +you." + +"I believe you to be frank and honest, Caleb. I should believe it; for I +am about to pledge a heavy sum upon your integrity--and, indeed, I can +but ill spare it. You ask me how I would have you show your thankfulness +for what I have accomplished for you. I answer, by giving me your +_friendship_. It is a holy word, and comprehends more than is supposed. +A friend believes not ill that is spoken of him to whom he is united by +mutual communion and interest; he is faithful to the end, through good +report and evil, and falls, if need be, with the man to whom he has +engaged his troth and given his heart." + +"I am unworthy, sir," I said, "to stand in this relation with one so +good, so holy as yourself. I have but a word to say--trust and confide +in me. I will never deceive you." + +"Let us pray," said Mr Clayton, after a long pause, sighing as he spoke, +and speaking very softly--and immediately he fell upon his knees, and I, +according to a practice which I had acquired at the chapel, leaned upon +a chair, and turned my face to the window. + +It was about a month after my installation into my new office, that +business connected with the society carried me to the village of +Highgate. It was late in the evening when my commission was completed, +and I was enabled, after a day of excessive fatigue, to direct my steps +once more homeward. The stage-coach, which set out from the village for +London twice during the day, luckily for me, was appointed to make its +last journey about half an hour after my engagements had set me at +liberty. A mile, across fields, intervened between me and the +coach-office. Short as the distance was, it was any thing but an +agreeable task to get over it, with the rain spitting into my face, the +boisterous wind beating me back, and the darkness of a November night +confounding me at every turn. In good time, however, I reached the inn. +Providence favoured me. There were but two seats unoccupied in the +coach; one was already engaged by a gentleman who had requested to be +taken up a mile forward; the other had just been given up by a lady who +had been frightened by the storm, and had postponed her return to London +to the following day. This seat I immediately secured, and in a few +minutes afterwards we were on our way towards Babylon. We made but +little progress. The breed of coach horses has been much improved since +the period of which I write, and a journey from Highgate to London was a +much more important event than a railway conductor of the present day +would suppose. My companions were all men. Their conversation turned +upon the topics of the day. A monetary crisis had taken place in the +mercantile world, and for many days I had heard nothing spoken of but +the vast losses which houses and individuals of high character and +standing had incurred, and the bankruptcy with which the community had +become suddenly threatened. The subject had grown stale and wearisome to +me. It had little interest, in fact, for one whose humble salary of one +hundred and fifty pounds per annum depended so little upon the great +fluctuations of commerce, and I accordingly disposed myself for sleep as +soon as the words _bills_, _money_, and _bankruptcy_, became the staple +matter of discourse. I had scarcely established a comfortable doze +before the coach stopped suddenly, and awoke me. It had halted for the +last inside. A gentleman, apparently stout and well wrapped up--it was +impossible to speak positively on the subject, the night was so very +dark--trod his way into the vehicle over the toes of his +fellow-passengers, and took his seat. The coach was once more moving +towards the metropolis, and again I endeavoured to lull myself to sleep. +The same expressions proceeded from the lips of the travellers, and they +were growing more and more indistinct and shadowy, when I was startled +all on a sudden by one of the most palpable sounds that had ever +disturbed and confounded a dreamer. I sat up and listened, coughed to +convince myself that I was certainly awake, and the sounds were repeated +as clear and as audible as before. I would have sworn that Mr Clayton +was the gentleman whom we had last picked up--that he was now in the +coach with me--and was now talking, if the words which fell from the +traveller had not been such as he would never have used, and the subject +on which he spoke had not been one upon which Mr Clayton, I believed, +was as ignorant as a child. The resemblance between the voices was so +great, that I pronounced the phenomenon the most extraordinary that had +ever occurred to me; and growing quite wakeful from the incident, I +continued to listen to the accents of the speaker until once or twice I +had almost thought it my duty to acquaint him with the remarkable fact, +which he was now living to illustrate. But I held my peace, and the +conversation proceeded without interruption. + +"You may depend upon it," said one gentleman, "things must get worse +before they'll mend. Half the mischief isn't done yet. There's a report +to-day that ---- cannot hold out much longer. It will be a queer thing +if they smash. Many petty tradesmen bank with that house, who will be +ruined if they go. Things are certainly in a very sweet state." + +"You do not mean," said _the voice_, trembling with emotion or alarm, +"that the house of ---- threatens to give way? I have been in the city +to-day, and did not hear a syllable of this. I think you must he +mistaken. Good God, how frightful!" + +Well, it was really wonderful! I could have sworn that Mr Clayton was +the speaker. Had he not concluded with the ejaculation, my doubt would +certainly have ceased. That exclamation, of course, removed the +supposition entirely. + +"You'll find I'm right, sir," was the reply of the traveller who spoke +first. "At least, I fear you will. I hope I may be wrong. If you have +any thing in their hands, you would find it worth your while, I think, +to pay them an early visit to-morrow morning. If there's a run upon +them, nothing in the world can save them." + +"And is it true," asked _the voice_, "that ---- stopped payment +on Tuesday? I came to town from Warwickshire only yesterday, and this +is the first news that I heard." + +"Oh, there's no doubt about that," answered a third person; "but that +surprized nobody. The only wonder is, how he managed to keep afloat so +long. He has been up to the chin for the last twelvemonth and more. I +hope you don't lose there, sir?" + +"Mine has been the devil's luck this year," continued _the voice_, in a +bitter savage tone, that never belonged to Mr Clayton. "Yes, gentlemen, +I lose heavily by them both. But never mind, never mind, _one_ shall +wince for it, if he has been playing ducks and drakes with my good +money. He shall feel the scourge, depend upon it. I'll never leave him +till he has paid me back in groans. Heaven, what a sum!" + +_The voice_ said no more during the journey. The other gentlemen having +lost nothing by the various failures, discussed matters with philosophy +and praiseworthy decorum. Sometimes, indeed, "the third person" grew +slightly facetious and jocose when he represented to himself what he +termed "the queer cut" that some old friend would display on presenting +his cheque for payment at the rickety counter of Messrs ---- & Co.; but +no deeper expression of feeling escaped one of those who spoke so long +and volubly on what concerned themselves so very little. I was puzzled +and disturbed. The stranger had returned from Warwickshire the day +before. Twice during my residence with the minister, business of +importance had carried him to that county. It was certainly a curious +coincidence, but coincidences more curious pass by us every day +unheeded. It would have been absurd to conclude from that the identity +of the stranger; yet the fact, coupled with _the voice_, staggered and +confounded me. I said nothing, but determined, as soon as we reached the +public streets, to call to my aid the light--feeble as it was--of the +dimly-burning lamps, which, at the time I speak of, were placed at a +considerable distance from each other along the principal streets of +London, scattering no light, and looking like oil lamps in the last +stage of a lingering consumption. These afforded me little help. The +weakest effort of illumination imaginable strayed across the coach +window as we passed a burner, about as serviceable as the long interval +of darkness that ensued, and far more tantalizing. We were driving +through the city. I was still brooding over the singular occurrence, +when the coach stopped. The stranger alighted. I endeavoured to obtain +sight of him, but he was so wrapped and clothed that I did not succeed. +The coach was on its way again, and I had just opportunity enough to +discover that we had halted at the corner of the street in which Mr +Clayton resided. I had been so intent upon scanning the figure of the +traveller, that the fact had escaped me. Had I been aware of it, I would +certainly have followed the man, and seen him at all events safely +beyond the door of the minister. Now it was too late. + +I could not repress the desire which I felt to visit Mr Clayton on the +following morning. I went to him at an early hour. If he and the +stranger were one and the same person, I should be made aware of it at a +glance. The cause that had affected him so deeply in the stage-coach +existed still, and his manner must betray him. My suspicions were, thank +Heaven, instantly removed. I found my friend tranquil as ever, busy at +his old occupation, and welcoming me with his usual smile of +benevolence. He was paler than usual, I thought; but this impression +only convinced me how difficult it is to be charitable and just, when +bias and prejudice once take possession of us. My friend was, if any +thing, kinder and more affectionate than ever. He spoke to me about my +new employment, gave me his advice on points of difficulty, and bade me +consult him always, and without hesitation, when doubt might lead me +into danger. He could not tell me how happy he had been made by having +secured a competency for me; and he hoped sincerely that no act of mine +would ever cause him to regret the step that he had taken. + +"Indeed," said he, "I have great confidence in you, Caleb. I do not know +another person in the world upon whose character I would have staked so +large a sum. In truth, I should not have been justified. A thousand +pounds is a heavy venture for one so straitened as I am. But you are +worthy of it all. You are a faithful and good boy, and will never give +me reason to repent my generosity. Will you, child?" + +"No, sir," I replied; "not if I am master of myself." + +"It is strange," continued the good man, "how we attach ourselves to +individuals! There are some men who repel you at first sight--with whom +your feelings are at variance as oil with water. Others again, who win +us with a look--to whom we could confide the secrets of our inmost +heart, and feel satisfied of their losing nothing of their sacredness. +Have you never experienced this, Caleb?" + +"I could speak to you, sir," said I, in return, "as unreservedly as to +myself." + +"Yes, and I to you. It is a strange and beautiful arrangement. +Providence has a hand in this, as in all other sublunary dispensations. +We were created to be a comfort and a joy to one another, and to +reciprocate confidence and love. Such instances are not confined to +modern times. History tells us of glorious friendships in the ancient +world. The great of old--of Greece and Rome--they who advanced to the +very gate and threshold of TRUTH, and then despairingly turned +back--they have honoured human nature by the intensity and permanency of +their attachments. But what is a Pagan attachment in comparison with +that which exists amongst believers, and unites in bonds that are +indissoluble, the faithful hearts of pious Christians?" + +"Ah, what indeed, sir!" + +"Come to me to-morrow, Caleb," continued my friend, changing the +subject. "Let me see you as often as your duties will permit you. We +must not be strangers. I did not intend to give you up so easily. It is +sweet and refreshing to pursue our old subjects of discourse. You are +not tired of them?" + +"Oh, no, sir." + +"Come, then, to-morrow." + +It was truly delightful to listen to the minister. I had never known him +more sweetly disposed and more calm than on this occasion. He was +unruffled by the presence of one anxious thought. Ah, how different +would he have been if he had really proved to be my coach acquaintance! +How I despised myself for the one unkind half suspicion which I had +entertained so derogatory to the high character of the saint. But it was +a great comfort to me, nevertheless, to be so satisfied of my delusion, +and to feel so easy and so happy in my mind at the close of our long +interview. According to my promise, I saw the minister on the following +day. He was as peaceful and heavenly-minded as before. Another +appointment was made and kept--another succeeded to that--and for one +fortnight together, I spent many hours daily in the society of my +respected friend. + +In pursuance of an arrangement which we had made, I called one afternoon +at Mr Clayton's house, and was distressed to hear that he was confined +to his bed by a sudden attack of illness. He had directed his servant to +acquaint all visiters with his condition, and to admit no one to him, +with the exception of the medical attendant and myself. I was eager to +profit by my privilege, and was in a few seconds at the bedside of my +benefactor. He was reading when I approached him, and he looked flushed +and agitated. He put his book away from him, and held out his hand to +me. I pressed it most affectionately. + +"I have been ill, Caleb," he began, "but I am better now, and I shall be +quite well soon. Do not be alarmed." + +"How did it happen, sir?" I asked. + +"We are in the flesh now, dear boy, and are subject to the evils of the +flesh. Hereafter it will be otherwise. Sorrow and distress, we are told, +shall be no more. Oh, happy time for sinners! I have grievously +offended. This very day I have permitted worldly thoughts to disturb and +harrass me, and to shake the fleshly tabernacle. It was wrong, +very wrong." + +"What has happened, sir?" I enquired. + +The minister looked hard and tenderly upon me, pressed my hand again, +and bade me take a chair. + +"Bring it near to the bed, Caleb," said Mr Clayton; "I like to have you +near me. I am better since you came. To see you is always soothing to my +mind. I am reminded, then, that I am not altogether so worthless and +insignificant a worm as I believe myself, since I have been able to do +so much for you. Tell me, do you still like the employment that I +procured for you?" + +"I would not resign it for any other that I know of. It is every thing +to me. I feel my independence, and I have been told that I am useful to +my fellow-creatures. It would be a bitter hour to me, sir, that should +find me deprived of my appointment." + +"And that hour is very distant, Caleb, if you are sensible of your duty, +and grateful to the instruments which Heaven has raised for you. You +shall always feel your independence, and always hear that you are useful +and respected. Be but faithful. It is a lesson that I have repeated to +you many times--it cannot be told too often." + +"You are a patient and a kind instructor, sir." + +"Come closer to me, Caleb, and now listen. But first--look well at me, +and tell me what you see." + +I looked as he required, but gave no answer. + +"Tell me, do you see the lines and marks that beggary and ruin bring +upon the countenance of men? Does poverty glare from any one expression? +_I am a lost and ruined man._" + +"You, sir?" + +"Yes. The trifling pittance upon which I lived, and barely lived, and +yet from which I could still extract enough to do a little good--to +feed, perhaps, one starving throat--is wrested, torn from me, and from +those who shared in what it might obtain. I am myself a beggar." + +Mr Clayton became agitated as he spoke, and I implored him to compose +himself. + +"Yes--it is that I wish to do. I should be above the influence of dross. +And for myself I am. Would that I might suffer alone! And this is not +all. The man who has effected my ruin owes every thing to me. I found +him penniless, and raised him to a condition that should have inspired +him with regard and gratitude. I would have trusted that man with +confidence unbounded. I did entrust him with my all, and he has beggared +and undone me." + +"Take it not to heart, sir," I said, soothing the afflicted man; "things +may not be so bad as you suppose." + +"They cannot be worse," was the reply; "but I will _not_ take it to +heart. The blow is hard to bear--the carnal man must feel it--yet I am +not without my solace. Read to me, Caleb." + +I read a chapter from the work that was lying on the bed. It was called +"_The Good Man's Comfort in Affliction_." It was effectual in restoring +my friend to composure. He spoke afterwards with his usual softness +of manner. + +"This bad man, Caleb," he resumed, "is a member of our church. I am +sorry for it--grievously, bitterly sorry for it. The scandal must be +removed. Personally, I would be as passive and forbearing as a child, +but the church suffers whilst one such member is permitted to profane +her ordinances. He must be cut off from her. It must be done. The church +must disavow the man who has betrayed her minister and disgraced +himself. I have been your friend, Caleb--you must now prove mine." + +"Most willingly," said I. + +"This business must be brought before a general meeting of the church. +From me the accusation will come with ill grace, and yet a public charge +must be preferred. You must be the champion of my cause. Your's shall be +the task of conferring a lasting obligation on your friend--your's shall +be the glory of ridding the sanctuary of defilement." + +"How am I to act, sir?" + +"Your course is very easy, child. A meeting shall be convened without +delay. You shall attend it. You shall be made master of the case. You +must propose an examination of his affairs on the part of the church. +The man has failed--he is a bankrupt--our church is pure, and demands an +investigation into the questionable conduct of her children. This you +shall do. The church will do the rest." + +I know not how it was--I cannot tell what led to it--but a cold shudder +crept through my body, and a sudden sickness overcame me. I thought of +the coach scene--_the voice_ seemed more like than ever--the tones were +the very same. I seemed unexpectedly enclosed and entangled in some +dreadful mystery. I could not conceive why I should hesitate to accept +the invitation of my friend with alacrity and pleasure. He was my +benefactor, preserver, best and only friend. + +He had been defrauded, and he called upon me now to perform a simple act +of justice. A man under much less obligation to the minister would have +met his wishes joyfully; but I _did_ hesitate and hold back. A natural +suggestion, one that I could not control or crush, told me as loudly as +a voice could speak, not to commit myself by an immediate and rash +consent. It must have been the _coach_; for, previously to that +adventure, had the minister commanded me to accuse a hundred men, a hint +would have sufficed for my obedience. But that unfortunate occurrence, +now revived by the manner of my friend--by the expressions which he +employed--by the charge which he adduced against the unhappy member of +his church--filled me with doubt, uncertainty, and alarm. Mr Clayton was +not slow to remark what was passing in my mind. + +"How is this, Caleb?" he enquired. "You pause and hesitate." + +"What has he done sir?" I asked, in my confusion, hardly knowing what I +said. + +"Done!" exclaimed the minister, with an offended air. "Caleb, he has +ruined the man who has made you what you are." + +It was too true. Mr Clayton had indeed made me what I was. It was a just +reproof. It was ingratitude of the blackest character, to listen so +coldly to his wishes. For months I had received daily and hourly the +most signal benefits from his hands. He had never till now called upon +me to make the shadow of a return for all his disinterested +love--_disinterested_, ah, was it so? I hated myself for the momentary +doubt--and yet the doubt returned upon me. If I had not heard his voice +in the coach, such a suspicion would have been impossible. _Now_, any +thing seemed possible--nothing was too extraordinary to happen. Well, it +was little that the minister requested me to do. I had but to demand an +investigation into the man's affairs. It was easily done, and without +any cost or sacrifice of principle. But why could not the minister +demand the same himself? "It would be unseemly," he asserted. Well, it +might be--why had he not selected an elder member of the Church? +Because, as he had often told me, there was none so dear to him. This +was plain and reasonable, and all this passed through my brain with the +rapidity of thought in an instant of time. + +"You may command me, sir," I said at length. + +"No, Caleb, I will not _command_ you. To serve your friend would have +been, I deemed, a labour of love. I did not _command_ you, and I now +retract the trifling request which I find I was too bold to make." + +"Do not talk so to me, Mr Clayton, I entreat you. I am disturbed and +unwell to-day. Your illness has unsettled me. Pray command me. Speak to +me as is your wont--with the same kindliness and warmth--you know I am +bound to you. Let me serve you in any way you please." + +"We will speak of it some other time. Let us change the subject now. +There are twenty men who will be eager to comply with the wishes of +their minister. An intimation will suffice." + +"But why, sir," I returned--"why should others be privileged to do your +bidding, and I denied? Forgive my apparent coldness, and give me my +instructions." + +"Not now," said Mr Clayton, softened by my returning warmth. "Let us +read again. Some other time." + +In a few days the subject was again introduced, and I put in possession +of the history of the unfortunate man who was so soon to be brought +under the anathema of the church. According to the statement of the +minister, the guilty person had received at various times from him as a +loan, no less a sum than four thousand pounds, the substance of his +wealth, besides an equal amount from other sources, for which Mr Clayton +had made himself accountable. Mr Clayton had implicated himself so +seriously, as he said, for the advantage of the man whom he had known +from boyhood, and raised from beggary, simply on account of the love he +bore him, and in consideration of his Christian character. Of every +farthing thus advanced, the minister had been defrauded, and within a +month the trader had declared himself a bankrupt. That the minister +should have acted so inconsiderately and prodigally, might seem strange +to any one who did not thoroughly understand the extreme unselfishness +of his disposition. Towards me he had behaved with an equal liberality, +and I, at least, had no right to question the truth of every word he +spoke. The conduct of the man appeared odious and unpardonable, and I +regretted that I should have doubted, for one moment, the propriety of +assisting so manifest an act of justice. Let me acknowledge that there +was much need of self-persuasion to arrive at this conclusion. I wished +to believe that I felt _urged_ to my determination; but the necessity +that I experienced of working myself up to a conviction of the justice +of the case, militated sadly against so pleasing a delusion. + +The second church meeting in which it fell to my lot to perform a +distinguished character, took place soon after the communication which I +received from my respected friend. It was convened with the especial +object of inquiring into the circumstances connected with the failure of +Mr George Whitefield Bunyan Smith. The chapel was, if possible, fuller +than on the former evening, and the majority of members was, as before, +women. A movement throughout the assembly--a whispering, and a ceaseless +expectoration, indicated the raciness and interest which attached to the +matter in hand, and every eye and mouth seemed opened in the fulness of +an anxious expectation. I sat quietly and uncomfortably, and my heart +beat palpably against my clothes. I endeavoured to paint the villany of +Mr Smith in the darkest colours, and by the contemplation of it, to +rouse myself to self-esteem--but the effort was a failure. I could see +nothing but the man in the coach, and hear nothing but _the voice_, +which sounded in my ears louder than ever, _and far more like_; and I +became at length perfectly satisfied that I had no business to stand in +the capacity of Mr Smith's accuser. It was too late to recant. The bell +had rung--the curtain was up and the performances were about to begin. + +A hymn, as usual, ushered in the proceedings of the day. The +fifty-second psalm was then read by the minister, in the beautiful tone +which he knew so well how to assume, and reverence and awe accompanied +his emphatic delivery. Ah, could I ever forget the hour when those +accents first dropped with medicinal virtue on my soul--when every +syllable from his lips brought unction to my bruised nature--and the +dark shadows of earth were dissipated and destroyed, beneath the clear, +pure light of heaven that he invoked and made apparent! Why passed the +syllables now coldly and ineffectually across the heart they could not +penetrate? Why glittered they before the eye with phosphorescent lustre, +void of all heat and might? I could not tell. The charm was gone. It was +misery to know it. The minister having concluded, "Brother Buster was +requested to engage in prayer." That worthy rose _instanter_. First, he +coughed, then he made a face--an awful face--then closed his eyes--then +opened them again, looked up, and stretched forth his arms. At last he +spoke. He prayed for the whole world, including the islands recently +discovered, "even from the river to the oceans of ages"--then for +Europe, and "more especially" for England, and London "in particular," +but "chiefly" for the parish in which the chapel stood, and +"principally" for the Chosen People then and there assembled, and, +"above all," for the infatuated man upon whose account they had been +brought together. "Oh, might the delooded sinner repent _off_ his sin, +and, having felt the rod, turn from the error _off_ his ways. Oh might +the Church have grace to purify itself; and oh might the vessel wot was +chosen this night to bring the criminal to justice, be hindood with +strength for the work; and oh, might the criminal be enabled to come out +of it with clean hands, (which he very much doubted;) and oh, might the +minister be preserved to his Church for many years to come; and oh, +might he himself be a door-keeper in heaven, rather than dwell in the +midst of wickedness and sinners!" This was the substance of the divine +supplication, offered up by Jabez Buster, in the presence of the +congregation, and listened to with devout respect and seriousness by the +refined and intellectual Mr Clayton. Another hymn succeeded immediately. +It must have been written for the occasion, for the sentiment of it was +in accordance with the prayer. It was a wail over the backsliding of a +fallen saint. To the assembly thus prejudiced--an assembly made up of +men of business and their wives, mechanics, dressmakers, servant-maids, +and the like, an address suitable to their capacities was spoken. Mr +Clayton himself delivered it.--He trembled with emotion when he referred +to the painful duty which he was now called upon to perform. "Dear +brethren," said he, "you are all aware of the unhappy condition of that +brother who has long been bound to us by every tie that may unite the +brethren in cordial and in Christian love. Truly, he has been dear to +all of us; and for myself, I can with sincerity aver, that no creature +living was dearer to me in the flesh, than him upon whose conduct we are +met this night in Christian charity to adjudicate. Yes, he was my equal, +my guide, and my acquaintance. We took sweet council together, and we +walked to the house of prayer in company. I hope, I pray--would that I +might add, that I believe!--the sin that has been committed in the face +of the Church, and before the world, may be found not to lie at the door +of him we loved and cherished. We are not here to take cognizance of the +temporal concerns of every member of our congregation. We have no right +to do this, so long as the Church is kept pure, and suffers not by the +delinquencies of her children. If the limb be unworthy and unsound, let +it be lopped off. You have heard that the worldly affairs of our brother +are crushed; it is whispered abroad that there is reason to fear the +commission of discreditable acts. Is this so? If it be true, let the +whisper assume a bolder form, and pronounce our brother unworthy of a +place with the elect. If it be false, let every evil tongue be silenced, +and let us rejoice exceedingly, yea, with the timbrel and dance, with +stringed instruments and loud-sounding cymbals. For my own part, I will +not believe him guilty, until proof positive has made him so. His +accuser is here this night. From what I know of our young brother, I am +satisfied he will proceed most cautiously. Should he suggest simply an +investigation into the recent transactions of the unfortunate man, it +will be our duty to act upon that suggestion. If he comes armed with +evidences of guilt, they must be examined with a kind but still +impartial spirit. I know not to what extent it is proposed to proceed. +It is not for me to know it. I am not his prosecutor. I shall not +pronounce upon him. It is for you to judge. If he be proved culpable in +this most melancholy business, and, alas! I fear he must be, if reports +are true--though you must be careful to discard reports and look to +testimony only--our course is plain and easy. Pardon is not with us; it +must be sought elsewhere. I will not detain you longer. Brother Stukely, +the Church will listen to your charge." + +But Brother Stukely had been for some time rendered incapable of speech. +He was staggered and overwhelmed. He distrusted his eyes, his ears, and +every sense that he possessed. What?--was _this_ Mr Clayton, the meek, +the pious, the good, the benevolent, the just, the truth-telling, the +Christian, and the minister? What?--could he assert that he was +satisfied of his victim's innocence, until I should prove him guilty--I, +who knew nothing of the man and his affairs, but what I gathered from +his own false lips? There was some terrible mistake here. I dreamt, or +raved. What!--had the history of the last twelvemonth been a cheat--a +fable?--How was it--where was I? What!--could Mr Clayton talk +thus--could HE descend to falsehood and deceit--HE, the immaculate and +infallible? What a moral earthquake was here! What a re-enacting of the +fall of man! But every eye was upon me, and the Church was silent as +death, waiting for my rising. The chapel commenced swimming round me. I +grew sick, and feared that I was becoming blind, for a mist came before +my eyes, and confounded all things. At length I was awakened to +something like consciousness, by a rapid and universal expectoration. I +rose, and became painfully distressed by a conflict of opposing +feelings. I remembered, in spite of the present obliquity of the +minister, his great kindness to me--I remembered it with gratitude--this +urged me to speak aloud, whilst a sense of justice as strongly demanded +silence, and pity for the man whom I had undertaken to accuse, but who +had never offended me, cried shame upon me for the words I was about to +utter. For a second, I stood irresolute, and a merciful interference was +sent to rescue me. + +"Why," exclaimed a voice that came pleasing to my ears,--"why are you +going to accuse this here brother? Harn't twenty men failed afore, and +you never thought of asking questions?" + +I looked round, and my friend Thompson of happy memory nodded +familiarly, and by no means disconcertedly to me. I had never seen him +in the chapel before. I did not know that he was a member. Here was +another mystery! His words were the signal for loud disapprobation. He +had marred the general curiosity at an intensely interesting moment, and +the anger that was conceived against him was by no means partial. The +minister rose in the midst of it. He looked very pale and much annoyed, +but his manner was still mild, and his expressions as full of charity +and kind feeling as ever. + +"It was a proper enquiry," he said; "one that should immediately be +answered." Heaven forbid that their conduct, in one particular, should +savour of injustice. In due time the explanation would have been +offered. Had their brother waited for that time, he would have found +that his harsh observation might have been withheld. The unfortunate man +needed not the champion who had stood so irreverently forward. "I can +assure our brother, that there is one who will hear of his innocence +with greater joy than any other man may feel for him." But it was his +duty to state, and publicly, that there were circumstances connected +with this failure, that unfavourably marked it from every other that had +taken place amongst them. These must be enquired into. Their brother +Stukely had been interrupted in the charge which he was about to make. +He repeated that he knew not how far that charge might have been brought +home. He would propose now, that two messengers be appointed to wait +upon the bankrupt, and to examine thoroughly his affairs, and that, +previous to their report, no further proceedings should take place. The +purity and disinterestedness of their conduct should be made apparent. +Brothers Buster and Tomkins were the gentlemen whom he proposed for the +delicate office, with the full assurance that they would execute their +commission with Christian charity, tempering justice with +heavenly mercy. + +The assembly gave a reluctant consent to this arrangement. "Such +things," it was argued, "were better settled at once; and it would have +been far more satisfactory if the bankrupt's matters had been disclosed +to the meeting, who had come on purpose to hear them, and had neglected +important matters at home, rather than be disappointed." The meeting, +however, dissolved with a hymn, sung without spirit or heart. At the +close of it, the minister retired. He passed me on his way; looked at me +coldly, and I thought a frown had settled on his brow almost in spite of +him. I was scarcely in the open street again, before Thompson was at my +side, shaking my hand with the greatest heartiness. + +"Well," said he, "I should much sooner have thought of seeing the d----l +in that chapel than you, any how. Why, what does it all mean? I thought +you were in Brummagem." + +"Ah! Thompson," I exclaimed sighing, "I wish I were! It is a long +history." + +"Well, do let's have it. I _am_ astonished." + +I put him in possession of my doings since we parted at the Bull's Head +Inn in Holborn. I had not finished when we arrived at my lodgings. I +invited my old friend to supper, and after that meal, he heard the +conclusion of the narrative. + +"Well," said he at last, "some people don't believe in sperits. Now I +do. I believe that a sperit has brought you and me together again. +You've told me a good deal. Now, I'll tell you something. Clayton's an +out-and-outer." + +"He's a mysterious and unintelligible being," I exclaimed. + +"Yes," answered Thompson, "you were always fond of them fine words. +P'raps you mean the same as me after all. What I mean is, that fellow +beats all I ever came near. Talk of the Old Un! He's a babby to him." + +"I can believe any thing now," I answered. + +"I don't complain; because I think it serves me right. I did very well +at our parish church, and had no business to leave it; and I shouldn't +either, if I hadn't been a easy fool all my life. I went on right well +there, and understood the clergyman very well, and I should have done to +this day, if it hadn't been for my missus; she's always worriting +herself about her state, and she happened to hear this Mr Clayton, and +nothing would please her but we must join his congregation, the whole +biling lot of us, and get elected, as they call it. She said all was +cold in the church, and nothing to catch hold on there. I'm blessed if I +havn't catched hold of a good deal more than I like in this here chapel. +They call one another brothers--sich brothers I fancy as Cain was to +Abel. They are the rummest Christians you ever seed. Just look at the +head of them--that Mr Clayton, rolling in riches"---- + +"In what?" said I, interrupting him. "You mistake. The little that he +had is lost." + +"Oh, don't you be gammoned," was the reply. "What he has lost wont hurt +him. He's got enough now to buy this street, out and out. He's the +greediest fellow for money this world ever saw." + +"I am puzzled, Thompson," said I. + +"Yes, perhaps you are, and you'll be more puzzled yet when you know all. +Why, what is all this about poor Smith? I knew him before Clayton ever +got hold of him, when the chap hadn't a halfpenny to fly with, but was a +most ordacious fellow at speculating and inventions, and was always up +to something new. One day he had a plan for making moist sugar out of +bricks--then soap out of nothing--and sweet oil out of stones. At last +Clayton hears of him, and hooks him up, gets him to the chapel; first +converts him, and then goes partners with him in the spekylations--let's +him have as much money as he asks for, and because soap doesn't come +from nothing, and sugar from bricks, and sweet oil from stones, he stops +short, sews him up, drives him into the Gazette, and now wants to throw +him into the world a beggar, without name and character, and with ten +young 'uns hanging about his widowed arm for bread" + +"Oh, it's dreadful, if it's true," said I; "but if he has robbed the +minister, whatever Mr Clayton may be, he ought to be punished." + +"But it isn't true, and there's the villany of it. Smith's a fool; you +never see'd a bigger in your life, and though he thinks himself so +clever in his inventions and diskiveries, he's as simple as a child in +business. Why, he gave three thousand pounds for the machinery wot was +to make soap out of nothing; and so all the money's gone. How sich a +deep 'un as Clayton ever trusted him, I can't tell. He's wexed with +himself now, and wants to have his spite upon his unfortunate tool." + +"I can hardly believe it," said I. + +"No; and do you think I would have believed it the first day as missus +made me come to listen to that out and outer? and, do you think if I had +known about it, they would ever have lugged me in to be a brother? You +shall take a walk with me to-morrow, if you please, and if you don't +believe it then of your own accord, why I sha'n't ask you." + +"He has been so kind, so generous to me. He has behaved so unlike a +mercenary man." + +"Yes; that's just his way. That's what he calls, I suppose, _sharpening +his tools_. He's made up his mind long ago to have out of you all he +gave you, and a little more besides. Why, what did you get up for in the +chapel? Didn't he say it was to bring a charge against Smith? Why, what +do you know of Smith? Can't you see, with half an eye, he's been feeding +of you to do his dirty work; and if you had turned out well, wouldn't it +have been cheap to him at the price?" + +"What is it," said I, "you propose to do to-morrow?" + +"To take a walk; that's all. Don't ask questions. If you go with me, +I'll satisfy your doubts." + +"Surely," said I, "his congregation must have known this; and they would +not have permitted him"---- + +"Ah, my dear sir, you don't know human nature. Wait till you have lived +as long as I have. Now, there's my wife; she knows as much as I do about +the man, and yet I'm blowed if she doesn't seem to like him all the +better for it! She calls him a chosen wessel, and only wishes I was half +as sure of salvation. As for the congregation, they are a complete set +of chosen wessels together, and the more you blow 'em up, the better the +wessels like it. If what they call the world didn't speak agin 'em, +they'd be afraid they were going wrong. So you never can offend them." + +Thompson continued in the same strain for the rest of the evening, +bringing charge after charge against the minister, with the view of +proving him to be a hypocrite of the deepest dye. As he had fostered and +protected me, Thompson explained that he had previously maintained and +trained up Smith, whom he never would have deserted had all his +speculations issued favourably. The loss of his money had so enraged +him, that his feelings had suddenly taken a different direction, and he +would now not stop until he had thoroughly effected the poor man's ruin. +He (Thompson) knew Smith well; he had seen his books; and the man was as +innocent of fraud as a child unborn. Clayton knew it very well, and the +trick of examining the books was all a fudge. "That precious pair of +brothers, Bolster and Tomkins, knew very well what they were about, and +would make it turn out right for the minister somehow. As for hisself, +he stood up for the fellow, because he hadn't another friend in the +place. He knew he should be kicked out for his pains, but that would be +more agreeable than otherways." From all I gathered from Thompson, it +appeared that the pitiable man--the audacious minister of God--was the +slave of one of the most corroding passions that ever made shipwreck of +the heart of man. _The love of money_ absorbed or made subservient every +other sentiment. To heap up riches, there was no labour too painful, no +means too vicious, no conduct too unjustifiable. The graces of earth, +the virtues of heaven, were made to minister to the lust, and to conceal +the demon behind the brightness and the beauty of their forms. There is +no limit to the moral baseness of the man of avarice. There was none +with Mr Clayton. He lived to accumulate. Once let the desire fasten, +anchor-like, with heavy iron to the heart, and what becomes of the +world's opinion, and the tremendous menaces of heaven? Mr Clayton was a +scholar--a man of refinement, eloquent--an angel not more winning--he +was self-denying in his appetites, humble, patient--powerful and +beautiful in expression, when the vices of men compelled the unwilling +invective. Witness the burst of indignation when he spoke of Emma +Harrington, and the race to which it was her misery to belong. He was, +to the eyes of men, studious and holy as an anchorite. But better than +his own immortal soul, he loved and doated upon _gold!_ That love +acknowledged, fed, and gratified, when are its demands appeased?--when +does conscience raise a barrier against its further progress? It is a +state difficult to believe. Could I have listened with an ear of +credulity to the tale of Thompson--could I have borne to listen to it +with patience, had I not witnessed an act of turpitude that ocular +demonstration could only render credible--had I not been prepared for +that act by the tone, the manner, the expressions of the minister, when +we passed an hour together, ignorant of each other's presence? It was a +dreadful conviction that was forced upon me, and as wonderful as +terrible. Self-delusion, for such it was, so perfect and complete, who +could conceive--hypocrisy so super-eminent, who could conjecture! There +was something, however, to be disclosed on the succeeding day. Thompson +was very mysterious about this. He would give no clue to what he +designed. I should judge from what I saw of the truth of his +communications. Alas! I had seen enough already to mourn over the most +melancholy overthrow that had ever crushed the confidence, and bruised +the feelings, of ingenuous youth. + +I passed a restless and unhappy night. Miserable dreams distressed me. I +dreamed that I was sentenced to death for perjury--that the gallows was +erected--and that Buster and Tomkins were my executioners. The latter +was cruelly polite and attentive in his demeanour. He put the rope round +my neck with an air of cutting civility, and apologized for the whole +proceeding. I experienced vividly the moment of being turned off. I +suffered the horrors of strangulation. The noose slipped, and I was +dangling in the air in excruciating agony, half-dead and half-alive. +Buster rushed to the foot of the scaffold, and with Christian charity +fastened himself to my legs, and hung there till I had breathed my last. +Whilst he was thus suspended, he sang one of his favourite hymns with +his own rich and effective nasal vigour. Then I dreamed I was murdering +Bunyan Smith in his sleep. Mr Clayton was pushing me forward, and urging +a dagger into my hand. Just as I had killed him, I was knocked down by +Thompson, and Clayton ran off laughing. Then I woke up, thank Heaven, +more frightened than hurt, with every limb in my body sore and aching. +Then, instead of going to sleep again, which I could not do, I lay +awake, and reflected on what had taken place, and I thought all I had +heard against Mr Clayton, and all I had seen in the chapel, was a +dream, like the execution and the murder. One thing seemed just as real +and as likely as the other. Then I became uneasy in my bed, got up, and +walked about the room, and wondered what in the world I should do, if +Mr Clayton deprived me of my situation, and I was thrown out of bread +again. Then I recollected his many hints concerning fidelity and +friendship, and what he had said about my being in no danger, so long as +I was faithful, and the rest of it; and then I wished I had thrown +myself over Blackfriars' Bridge as I had intended, and so put an end to +all the trials that beset my path. But this wish was scarcely felt +before it was regretted and checked at once. Mr Clayton had taught me +wisdom, which his own bad conduct could not sully or affect. It was not +because under the garb of religion he concealed the tainted soul of the +hypocrite, that religion was not still an angel of light, of purity, and +loveliness. Her consolations were not less sweet--her promises not less +sure. It would have been an unsound logic that should have argued, from +the sinfulness of the minister, the falseness of that faith whose simple +profession, and nothing more, alas! had been enough to hide foulest +deformity. No! the vital spark that Mr Clayton had kindled, burned still +steadily and clear. I could still see by its holy light the path of +rectitude and duty, and thank God the while, that in the hour of +temptation he gave me strength to resist evil, and the faculty of +distinguishing aright between _the unshaken testimony_ and _the +unfaithful witness_. I did not, upon reflection, regret that I had not +recklessly destroyed myself; but I prayed on my knees for direction and +help in the season of difficulty and disappointment through which I was +now passing. + +Thompson came early on the following day, punctual to his appointment. +He was accompanied by poor Bunyan Smith, and a voluminous statement of +his affairs. I looked over them as well as I was able; for the +unfortunate man was all excitement, and, faithful to the description of +Thompson, sanguine in the extreme. He interrupted me twenty times, and, +as every new speculation turned up, had still something to say why it +had not succeeded according to his wishes. Although he had failed in +every grand experiment, there was not one which would not have realized +his hopes a hundredfold, but for the occurrence of some unfortunate +event which it was impossible to foresee, but which could not possibly +take place again, had he but money to renew his trials. His bankruptcy +had not subdued him, nor in the least diminished his belief in the +efficacy of his great discoveries. There was certainly no appearance of +fraud in the account of his transactions, but it was not Mr Smith's +innocence I was anxious to establish. It was the known guilt of Mr +Clayton that I would have made any sacrifice to remove. + +It was in the afternoon that Thompson and I were walking along the +well-filled pavement of Cheapside, on our way to what he called "the +best witness he could bring to speak in favour of all that he had said +about the minister." He still persisted in keeping up a mystery in +respect of this same witness. "He might be, after all," he said, +"mistaken in the thing, and he didn't wish to be made a fool of. I don't +expect I shall, but we shall see." We reached Cornhill, and were +opposite the Exchange. + +"That's a rum place, isn't?" asked Thompson, looking at the +building--"Have you ever been inside?" + +"Never," I replied. + +"Suppose we just stroll in then? What a row they are kicking up there! +And what a crowd! There's hardly room to move." + +The area was, as he said, crowded. There was a loud continued murmur of +human voices. Traffic was intense, and had reached what might be +supposed its acme. It seemed as if business was undergoing a paroxysm, +or fit, rather than pursuing her steady, healthful course. Bodies of men +were standing in groups--some were darting from corner to corner, pen in +mouth--a few were walking leisurely with downcast looks--others quickly, +uneasy and excited. A stout and well-contented gentleman or two leaned +against the high pillars of the building, and formed the centre of a +human circle, that smiled as he smiled, and stopped when he stopped. + +"Nice place to study in, sir," said Thompson, as we walked along. + +I smiled. + +"I mean it though," said he. "I see a man now that comes here on purpose +to study--as clever a man at his books as ever I saw, and as fine a +fellow to talk as you know--there, just look across the road--under that +pillar--near the archway. There, just where them two men has left a open +space. Tell me, who do you see there, sir?" + +"Why, Mr CLAYTON!" I replied, astonished at the sight. + +"Yes, and if you'll come here every day of your life, there you'll find +him. I've watched him often, since Smith first put me up to his tricks, +and I have never missed him. There he is making money, and wearing his +soul out because he can't make half enough to satisfy his greedy maw. +His covetousness is awful. There's nothing that he doesn't speckylate +in; there's hardly a man of business in his congregation that he +doesn't, either by himself or others, lend money out at usury. I mean +such on 'em as he knows are right; for catch him, if he knows it, +trusting the rotten brothers. Smith says he has got something to do with +every one of the stocks. I don't know whether that is any thing to eat +and drink or not, but I think they call this here bear-garden the Stock +Exchange, and here the out-and-outer spends more than half his days." +Whilst Thompson spoke, one of the two men, whom I have mentioned as +being for many hours together closeted with the minister in his private +study, and whom I set down as missionaries--came up in great haste to Mr +Clayton, and communicated to him news, apparently, of importance. The +latter immediately produced a pocket-book, in which he wrote a few words +with a pencil, and the individual departed. The information, whatever it +may have been, had deeply affected the man to whom it had been brought. +He did not stand still, as before, but walked nervously about, looked +pale, care-worn, and miserably anxious. He referred to his book a dozen +times--restored it frequently to his pocket, and had it out again +immediately for surer satisfaction, or for further calculations. In +about ten minutes, "_the missionary_" returned. This time he was the +bearer of a better tale. The minister smiled--his brow expanded, and his +eye had the vivacity and fire that belonged to it in the pulpit. Another +memorandum was written in the pocket book, and the two gentlemen walked +quickly, and side by side, along the covered avenue. I had seen +sufficient. + +"Let us go," I said to Thompson. + +"Why, you don't mean to say you have had enough!" returned he; "oh, wait +a bit, and see the other boy. They make a precious trio." + +I declined to witness the melancholy spectacle any longer. I was +oppressed, grieved, sickened, at the sad presentation of humanity. What +an overthrow was this! What a problem in the moral structure of man! I +could not understand it. I had no power to enquire into it. Against all +preconceived notions of possibility, there existed a palpable fact. What +could reason do in a case in which the senses almost refused to +acknowledge the evidence which they themselves had produced? + +Thompson was delighted at the result of our "voyage of discovery," and +continued to be facetious at the expense of the unhappy minister. I +implored him to desist. + +"Say no more, Thompson. This is no subject for laughter. I have suffered +much since your brother carried me to Birmingham. This is the hardest +blow yet. I believe now that all is a dream. This is not Mr Clayton. It +is a cheat of Satan. We are deluded and made fools in the hands of the +Wicked One." + +"You'll excuse me, sir," said Thompson, "but if I didn't know you +better, I should say, to hear you talk in that uncommonly queer way, +that you were as big a wessel as any of 'em. Don't flatter yourself you +are dreaming, when you never were wider awake in all your life." + +It is perhaps needless to say, that I had no heart to present myself +again before my friend and benefactor--the once beloved, and still +deeply compassionated minister of religion. I pitied him on account of +the passion which had overmastered him, and trembled for myself when I +contemplated the ruins of such an edifice. But I could visit him no +longer. What could I say to him? How should I address him? How could I +bear to meet his eye--I did not hate him sufficiently to inflict upon +him the shame and ignominy of meeting mine. I avoided the house of Mr +Clayton, and absented myself from his chapel. But I was not content with +the first view that had been afforded me at the Exchange. I was +unwilling to decide for ever upon the character of my former friend +without a complete self-justification. I went again to the house of +commerce, and alone. Again I beheld Mr Clayton immersed in the doings of +the place. For a week I continued my observation. Proofs of his +worldliness and gross hypocrisy came fast and thick upon each other. I +no longer doubted the statement of Thompson and the speculator Smith. I +resolved upon seeing my preserver no more. I could not think of him +without shuddering, and I endeavoured to forget him. One evening, about +ten days after the chapel scene, sitting alone in my apartment, I was +attracted by a slight movement on the stairs. A moment afterwards there +was a knock at my door. The door opened, and Mr Clayton himself walked +into the room. I trembled instantly from head to foot. The minister had +a serious countenance, and was very placid. He took a chair, and I +waited till he spoke. + +"You have not visited me of late, Caleb," he began. "You have surely +forgotten me. You have forgotten your promise--our friendship--your +obligations--gratitude--every thing. How is this?" + +Still I did not speak. + +"Tell me," he continued, "who has taught you to become a spy? Who has +taught you that it is honourable and just to track the movements and to +break upon the privacy of others. I saw you in the Exchange this +morning--I saw you yesterday--and the day before. Tell me, what took +you there?" + +I gave no answer. + +"Your Bible, Caleb, gives no encouragement to the feeling which has +prompted you to act thus. You have read the word of truth imperfectly. +There is a holiness--a peculiar sanctity"---- + +"For heaven's sake, Mr Clayton," I cried out, interrupting him, "do not +talk so. Do not deceive yourself. Do not attempt to bewilder me. Do not +provoke the wrath of heaven. You have been kinder to me than I can +express. The recollection of what you have done is ever present to me. +Oh, would that I owed you nothing! Would that I could pay you back to +the last farthing, and that the past could be obliterated from my mind. +I would have parted with my life willingly, gladly, to serve you. Had +you been poor, how delightful would it have been to labour for my +benefactor! I will not deceive you. I lave learnt every thing. Such +miserable knowledge never came to the ears of man, save in those regions +where perdition is first made known, and suffered everlastingly. I dare +not distrust the evidence of my eyes and ears. The bitterest hour that I +have known, was that in which you fell, and I beheld your fall. Whom can +I trust now? Whom shall I believe? To whom attach myself? Mr Clayton, it +seems incredible to me that I can talk thus to you. It is indeed, and I +tremble as I do so. But what is to be done? I can respect you no longer, +however my poor heart throbs towards you, and pities"---- + +I burst into tears. + +"Spare your pity, boy," said Mr Clayton, coldly; "and spare those hollow +tears. You acknowledge that there exists a debt between us. Well have +you attempted to repay it! Listen to me. I have been your friend. I am +willing to remain so. Come to me as before, and you shall find me as I +have ever been--affectionate and kind. Avoid me--place yourself in the +condition of my opponent, and _beware_. In a moment, by one word, I can +throw you back into the slough from whence I dragged you. To-morrow +morning, if I so will it, you shall wander forth again, an outcast, +depending for your bread upon a roadside charity. It is a dreadful thing +to walk a marked and branded man through this cold world; yet it is only +for me to say the word, and _infamy_ is attached to your name for ever. +And what greater crime exists than black ingratitude? It is our duty to +expose and punish it. It is for you to make the choice. If you are wise, +you will not hesitate. If Christianity has worked"---- + +"Sir, what has _Christianity_ to do with this? Satan must witness the +compact that you would have us make. I cannot sell myself?" + +"Your new companions have taught you these fine phrases, Caleb. They +will support you, no doubt, and you will remain faithful to them, until +a fresh acquaintance shall poison your ear against them, as they have +corrupted it to win you from the man whom you have sworn to serve. I +have nothing more to say. You promised to be faithful through good +report and evil. You have broken your plighted word. I forgive you, if +you are sorry for the fault, and my arms are ready to receive you. +Punishment shall follow--strict justice, and no mercy--if you persist in +evil. Within a week present yourself at my abode, and every thing is +forgotten and forgiven. I am your friend for ever. Do not come, be +obstinate and unyielding, and prepare yourself for misery." + +The minister left me. The week elapsed, and at the end of it, I had not +presented myself at his residence. But, in the mean while, I had been +active in taking measures for the security of the office which I held, +and whose duties I had hitherto performed to the perfect satisfaction of +my employers. I had been given to understand that it remained with Mr +Bombasty to continue my appointment, or to dismiss me at once; that he +was in the hands of Mr Clayton; and that if the latter desired my +dismissal, and could bring against me the shadow of a complaint to +justify Mr Bombasty in the eye of the Society, nothing could save me +from ejection. It was proposed to me by a fellow-servant of the Society, +to place myself as soon as possible beyond the reach and influence of Mr +Clayton. He advised me to secede at once from the Church, and to attach +myself to another, professing the same principles, and like that in +connexion with the Society. By this means, Clayton and I would be +separated, and his power over me effectually removed. Exclusion was to +me starvation, and I eagerly adopted the counsel of my companion. To be, +however, in a condition to join another church, it was necessary to +procure, either by personal application, or at the instance of the +minister of the new church, _a letter of dismission_, which letter +should contain an assurance of the candidate's previous good conduct and +present qualification. In my case, the minister himself proposed to +apply for my testimonials. He did apply, and at the end of a month, no +answer had been returned to his communication. He wrote a second, and +the second application met with no greater respect than the first. At +length I received a very formal and polite letter from Mr Tomkins, +informing me that "a church-meeting had been convened for the purpose of +considering the propriety of affording Brother Stukely the opportunity +of joining another connexion, by granting him a letter of dismission," +and that my presence was requested on that very important occasion. + +If there was one thing upon earth more than another which at this +particular time of my life I abominated with unmitigated and ineffable +disgust, it was the frequent recurrence of these eternal +church-meetings. Nothing, however trifling, could be carried forward +without them; no man's affairs, however private and worldly, were too +uninteresting for their investigation. My connexion with the church had +hardly commenced, before two had taken place, principally on my account, +and now a third was proposed in order to enable the minister to write a +letter of civility, and to state the simple fact of my having conducted +myself with propriety and decorum. Still it was proper that I should +attend it; I did so, accompanied by Thompson, and a crowded assembly, as +befitted the occasion, welcomed us amoungst them, with many short +coughs, and much suppressed hissing. There was the usual routine. The +hymn, the portion of Scripture, and the prayer of Brother Buster. In the +latter, there were many dark hints that were intended to be appropriate +to my case, and were, to all appearance, well understood by the +congregation at large. They did not frighten me. I was guilty of no +crime against their church. They could bring no charge against me. The +prayer concluded, Mr Clayton coldly requested me to retire. I did so. I +passed into the vestry, which was separated from the main building by a +very thin partition, that enabled me to hear every word spoken in the +chapel. Mr Clayton began. He introduced his subject by lamenting, in the +most feeling terms, the unhappy state of the brother who had just +departed from the congregation--(the crocodile weeping over the fate of +the doomed wretch he was about to destroy!) He had hoped great things of +him. He had believed him to be a child of God. It was not for him to +judge their brother now; but this was a world of disappointment, and the +fairest hopes were blasted, even as the rose withereth beneath the +canker. They all knew--it was not for him to disguise or hide the +fact--that their brother had not realized the ardent expectations that +one and all had formed of him. Their brother himself carried about with +him this miserable consciousness, and under such circumstances it was +that he proposed to withdraw from their communion, and to receive a +dismission that should entitle him to a seat elsewhere. It was for them +to consider how far they were justified in complying with his request. +As for himself, he was sorely distressed in spirit. His carnal heart +urged him to listen to the desire of his brother in the flesh, and that +heart warred with his spiritual conviction. To be charitable was one +thing, to involve one's self in guilt, to encourage sinfulness, and to +reward backsliding--oh, surely, this was another! He had no right in his +high capacity to indulge a personal affection. It was his glory that he +could sacrifice it at the call of duty. Accordingly, in the answer to +the application that he had received, he had humbly attempted rather to +embody the views of the church, than the suggestions of his own weak +bosom. That answer he would now submit to them, and their voice must +pronounce upon its justice. He did not fear for them. They were highly +privileged; they had been wonderfully directed hitherto, and they would, +adorned as they were with humility and faith, be directed even unto +the end. + +"Ha-men," responded Buster very audibly, and the minister forthwith +proceeded to his letter. + +It was my honour to be represented in it as a person but too likely to +disturb the peace of any church; whose conduct, however exemplary on my +first joining the congregation, had lately been such as to give great +reason to fear that I had been suddenly deprived of all godliness and +grace; who had caused the brethren great pain; and whom recent +circumstances had especially rendered an object of suspicion and alarm. +There was much more to the same effect. There was no distinct +charge--nothing tangible, or of which I could defy them to the proof. +All was dark doubt and murderous innuendo. There was nothing for which I +could claim relief from the laws of my country--more than enough to +complete my ruin. I burned with anger and indignation; forgot every +thing but the cold-blooded designs of the minister; and, stung to action +by the imminent danger in which I stood, I rushed at once from the +vestry into the midst of the congregation. Thompson was already on his +legs, and had ventured something on my behalf, which had been drowned in +loud and universal clamour. Silence was, in measure, restored by my +appearance, and I took the opportunity to demand from the minister a +reperusal of the letter that had just been read. + +He scowled upon me with a natural hate, and refused to comply with my +request. + +"What!" I asked aloud, "am I denied the privilege that is extended to +the vilest of his species? Will you condemn me unheard? Accuse me in my +absence--keep me in ignorance of my charge--and stab me in the dark?" + +I received no answer, and then I turned to the congregation. I implored +them--little knowing the men to whom I trusted my appeal--to save me +from the persecution of a man who had resolved upon my downfall. "I +asked nothing from them, from him, but the liberty of gaining, by daily +labour, an honourable subsistence. Would they deny it me?"-- + +I was interrupted by groans and hisses, and loud cries of "Yes, yes," +from Brother Buster. + +I addressed the minister again. + +"Mr Clayton," said I, "beware how you tread me down. Beware how you +drive me to desperation. Cruel, heartless man! What have I done that you +should follow me with this relentless spite? Can you sleep? Can you walk +and live without the fear of a punishment adequate to your offence? Let +me go. Be satisfied that I possess the power of exposing unheard-of +turpitude and hypocrisy, and that I refrain from using it. Dismiss me; +let me leave your sight for ever, and you are safe--for me." + +"Viper!" exclaimed the minister rising in his seat, "whom I have warmed +and nourished in my bosom; viper! whom I took to my hearth, and kept +there till the returning sense of life gave vigour to your blood, and +fresh venom to your sting! Is it thus you pay me back for food and +raiment--thus you heap upon me the expressions of a glowing +gratitude!--with threats and deadly accusations? Spit forth your malice! +Pile up falsehoods to the skies!--WHO WILL BELIEVE THE TALE OF +PROBABILITY? Brethren! behold the man whose cause I pleaded with +you--for whom my feelings had well-nigh mastered my better judgment. +Behold him, and learn how hard it is to pierce the stony heart of him +whose youth has passed in dissolute living, and in adultery. Shall I +approach thy ear with the voice of her who cries from the grave for +justice on her seducer? Look, my beloved, on the man whom I found +discarded by mankind, friendless and naked whom I clothed and fostered, +and whom I brought in confidence amongst you. Look at him, and oh, +be warned!" + +The hissing and groaning were redoubled. Thompson rose a dozen times to +speak, but a volley assailed him on each occasion, and he was obliged to +resume his seat. He grew irritated and violent, and at length, when the +public disapprobation had reached its height, and for the twenty and +first time had cut short his address almost before he spoke, unable to +contain himself any longer, he uttered at the top of his stentorian +voice a fearful imprecation, and recommended to the care of a gentleman +who had more to do with that society than was generally supposed--Mr +Clayton, and every individual brother in the congregation. + +Jabez Buster, after looking to the ceiling, and satisfying himself that +it had not fallen in, rose, dreadfully distressed. + +"He had lived," he said, "to see sich sights, and hear sich language as +had made his nature groan within him. He could only compare their +beloved minister to one of them there ancient martyrs who had died for +conscience-sake before Smithfield was a cattle market; but he hoped he +would have strength for the conflict, and that the congregation would +help him to fight the good fight. He called upon 'em all now to do their +duty, to exclude and excommunicate for ever the unrighteous +brethren--and to make them over to Satan without further delay." + +The shout with which the proposition was received, decided the fate of +poor Thompson and myself. It was hardly submitted, before it was carried +_nemine contradicente_; and immediately afterwards, Thompson buttoned +his coat in disgust, and was hooted out of the assembly. I followed him. + + * * * * * + + + + +IMAGINARY CONVERSATION. + +BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. + + +TASSO AND CORNELIA. + + +_Tasso_.--She is dead, Cornelia--she is dead! + +_Cornelia_.--Torquato! my Torquato! after so many years of separation do +I bend once more your beloved head to my embrace? + +_Tasso_.--She is dead! + +_Cornelia_.--Tenderest of brothers! bravest and best and most +unfortunate of men! What, in the name of heaven! so bewilders you? + +_Tasso_.--Sister! sister! sister! I could not save her. + +_Cornelia_.--Certainly it was a sad event; and they who are out of +spirits may be ready to take it for an evil omen. At this season of the +year the vintagers are joyous and negligent. + +_Tasso_.--How! what is this? + +_Cornelia_.--The little girl was crushed, they say, by a wheel of the +car laden with grapes, as she held out a handful of vine-leaves to one +of the oxen. And did you happen to be there just at the moment? + +_Tasso_.--So then the little too can suffer! the ignorant, the indigent, +the unaspiring! Poor child! She was kind-hearted; else never would +calamity have befallen her. + +_Cornelia_.--I wish you had not seen the accident. + +_Tasso_.--I see it? I? I saw it not. There is but one crushed where I +am. The little girl died for her kindness!--natural death! + +_Cornelia_.--Be calm, be composed, my brother! + +_Tasso_.--You would not require me to be composed or calm if you +comprehended a thousandth part of my sufferings. + +_Cornelia_.--Peace! peace! we know them all. + +_Tasso_.--Who has dared to name them? Imprisonment, derision, madness. + +_Cornelia_.--Hush! sweet Torquato! If ever these existed, they are past. + +_Tasso_.--You do think they are sufferings? ay? + +_Cornelia_.--Too surely. + +_Tasso_.--No, not too surely: I will not have that answer. They would +have been; but Leonora was then living. Unmanly as I am! did I complain +of them? and while she was left me? + +_Cornelia_.--My own Torquato! is there no comfort in a sister's love? Is +there no happiness but under the passions? Think, O my brother, how many +courts there are in Italy; are the princes more fortunate than you? +Which among them all loves truly, deeply, and virtuously? Among them all +is there any one, for his genius, for his generosity, for his +gentleness, ay, or for his mere humanity, worthy to be beloved? + +_Tasso_.--Princes! talk to me of princes! How much coarse-grained wood a +little gypsum covers! a little carmine quite beautifies! Wet your +forefinger with your spittle; stick a broken gold-leaf on the sinciput; +clip off a beggar's beard to make it tresses, kiss it; fall down before +it; worship it. Are you not irradiated by the light of its countenance? +Princes! princes! Italian princes! Estes! What matters that costly +carrion? Who thinks about it? (_After a pause_.) She is dead! She +is dead! + +_Cornelia_.--We have not heard it here. + +_Tasso_.--At Sorrento you hear nothing but the light surges of the sea, +and the sweet sprinkles of the guitar. + +_Cornelia_.--Suppose the worst to be true. + +_Tasso_.--Always, always. + +_Cornelia_.--If she ceases, as then perhaps she must, to love and to +lament you, think gratefully, contentedly, devoutly, that her arms had +encircled your neck before they were crossed upon her bosom, in that +long sleep which you have rendered placid, and from which your +harmonious voice shall once more awaken her. Yes, Torquato! her bosom +had throbbed to yours, often and often, before the organ-peel shook the +fringes round the catafalc. Is not this much, from one so high, so +beautiful? + +_Tasso_.--Much? yes; for abject me. But I did so love her! so love her! + +_Cornelia_.--Ah! let the tears flow: she sends thee that balm from +heaven. + +_Tasso_.--So loved her did poor Tasso! Else, O Cornelia, it had indeed +been much. I thought in the simplicity of my heart that God was as great +as an emperor, and could bestow, and had bestowed on me as much as the +German had conferred, or could confer on his vassal. No part of my +insanity was ever held in such ridicule as this. And yet the idea +cleaves to me strangely, and is liable to stick to my shroud. + +_Cornelia_.--Woe betide the woman who bids you to forget that woman who +has loved you: she sins against her sex. Leonora was unblameable. Never +think ill of her for what you have suffered. + +_Tasso_.--Think ill of her? I? I? I? No; those we love, we love for +every thing; even for the pain they have given us. But she gave me none: +it was where she was not, that pain was. + +_Cornelia_.--Surely, if love and sorrow are destined for companionship, +there is no reason why the last comer of the two should supersede +the first. + +_Tasso_.--Argue with me, and you drive me into darkness. I am easily +persuaded and led on while no reasons are thrown before me. With these, +you have made my temples throb again. Just heaven! dost thou grant us +fairer fields, and wider, for the whirlwind to lay waste? Dost thou +build us up habitations above the street, above the palace, above the +citadel, for the Plague to enter and carouse in? Has not my youth paid +its dues, paid its penalties? Cannot our griefs come first, while we +have strength to bear them? The fool! the fool! who thinks it a +misfortune that his love is unrequited. Happier young man! look at the +violets until thou drop asleep on them. Ah! but thou must wake! + +_Cornelia_.--O heavens! what must you have suffered. For a man's heart +is sensitive in proportion to its greatness. + +_Tasso_.--And a woman's? + +_Cornelia_.--Alas! I know not; but I think it can have no other. Comfort +thee--comfort thee, dear Torquato! + +_Tasso_.--Then do not rest thy face upon my arm; it so reminds me of +her. And thy tears, too! they melt me into her grave. + +_Cornelia_.--Hear you not her voice as it appeals to you: saying to you +as the priests around have been saying to _her_, Blessed soul! rest +in peace? + +_Tasso_.--I heard it not; and yet I am sure she said it. A thousand +times has she repeated it, laying her hand on my heart to quiet +it--simple girl! She told it to rest in peace, and she went from me! +Insatiable love! ever self-torturer, never self-destroyer! the world, +with all its weight of miseries, cannot crush thee, cannot keep thee +down. Generally mens' tears, like the droppings of certain springs, only +harden and petrify what they fall on; but mine sank deep into a tender +heart, and were its very blood. Never will I believe she has left me +utterly. Oftentimes, and long before her departure, I fancied we were in +heaven together. I fancied it in the fields, in the gardens, in the +palace, in the prison. I fancied it in the broad daylight, when my eyes +were open, when blessed spirits drew around me that golden circle which +one only of earth's inhabitants could enter. Oftentimes in my sleep also +I fancied it--and sometimes in the intermediate state--in that serenity +which breathes about the transported soul, enjoying its pure and perfect +rest, a span below the feet of the Immortal. + +_Cornelia_.--She has not left you; do not disturb her peace by these +repinings. + +_Tasso_.--She will bear with them. Thou knowest not what she was, +Cornelia; for I wrote to thee about her while she seemed but human. In +my hours of sadness, not only her beautiful form, but her very voice +bent over me. How girlish in the gracefulness of her lofty form! how +pliable in her majesty! what composure at my petulance and reproaches! +what pity in her reproofs! Like the air that angels breathe in the +metropolitan temple of the Christian world, her soul at every season +preserved one temperature. But it was when she could and did love me! +Unchanged must ever be the blessed one who has leaned in fond security +on the unchangeable. The purifying flame shoots upward, and is the glory +that encircles their brows when they meet above. + +_Cornelia_.--Indulge in these delightful thoughts, my Torquato! and +believe that your love is and ought to be imperishable as your glory. +Generations of men move forward in endless procession to consecrate and +commemorate both. Colour-grinders and gilders, year after year, are +bargained with to refresh the crumbling monuments and tarnished +decorations of rude unregarded royalty, and to fasten the nails that +cramp the crown upon the head. Meanwhile, in the laurels of my Torquato, +there will always be one leaf, above man's reach, above time's wrath and +injury, inscribed with the name of Leonora. + +_Tasso_.--O Jerusalem! I have not then sung in vain the Holy Sepulchre. + +_Cornelia_.--After such devotion of your genius, you have undergone too +many misfortunes. + +_Tasso_.--Congratulate the man who has had many, and may have more. I +have had, I have, I can have--one only. + +_Cornelia_.--Life runs not smoothly at all seasons, even with the +happiest; but after a long course, the rocks subside, the views widen, +and it flows on more equably at the end. + +_Tasso_.--Have the stars smooth surfaces? No, no; but how they shine! + +_Cornelia_.--Capable of thoughts so exalted, so far above the earth we +dwell on, why suffer any to depress and anguish you? + +_Tasso_.--Cornelia, Cornelia! the mind has within it temples, and +porticoes, and palaces, and towers: the mind has under it, ready for the +course, steeds brighter than the sun, and stronger than the storm; and +beside them stand winged chariots, more in number than the Psalmist hath +attributed to the Almighty. The mind, I tell thee again, hath its +hundred gates, compared whereto the Theban are but willow wickets; and +all those hundred gates can genius throw open. But there are some that +groan heavily on their hinges, and the hand of God alone can close them. + +_Cornelia_.--Torquato has thrown open those of his holy temple; Torquato +hath stood, another angel, at his tomb; and am I the sister of Torquato? +Kiss me, my brother, and let my tears run only from my pride and joy! +Princes have bestowed knighthood on the worthy and unworthy; thou hast +called forth those princes from their ranks, pushing back the arrogant +and presumptuous of them like intrusive varlets, and conferring on the +bettermost crowns and robes, imperishable and unfading. + +_Tasso_.--I seem to live back into those days. I feel the helmet on my +head; I wave the standard over it; brave men smile upon me; beautiful +maidens pull them gently back by the scarf, and will not let them break +my slumber, nor undraw the curtain. Corneliolina!---- + +_Cornelia_.--Well, my dear brother! Why do you stop so suddenly in the +midst of them? They are the pleasantest and best company, and they make +you look quite happy and joyous. + +_Tasso_.--Corneliolina, dost thou remember Bergamo? What city was ever +so celebrated for honest and valiant men, in all classes, or for +beautiful girls? There is but one class of those: Beauty is above all +ranks; the true Madonna, the patroness and bestower of felicity, the +queen of heaven. + +_Cornelia_.--Hush, Torquato, hush! talk not so. + +_Tasso_.--What rivers, how sunshiny and revelling, are the Brembo and +the Serio! What a country the Valtellina! I went back to our father's +house, thinking to find thee again, my little sister--thinking to kick +away thy ball of yellow silk as thou went stooping for it, to make thee +run after me and beat me. I woke early in the morning; thou wert grown +up and gone. Away to Sorrento--I knew the road--a few strides brought me +back--here I am. To-morrow, my Cornelia, we will walk together, as we +used to do, into the cool and quiet caves on the shore; and we will +catch the little breezes as they come in and go out again on the backs +of the jocund waves. + +_Cornelia_.--We will, indeed, to-morrow; but before we set out we must +take a few hours' rest, that we may enjoy our ramble the better. + +_Tasso_.--Our Sorrentines, I see, are grown rich and avaricious. They +have uprooted the old pomegranate hedges, and have built high walls to +prohibit the wayfarer from their vineyards. + +_Cornelia_.--I have a basket of grapes for you in the bookroom that +overlooks our garden. + +_Tasso_.--Does the old twisted sage-tree grow still against the window? + +_Cornelia_.--It harboured too many insects at last, and there was always +a nest of scorpions in the crevice. + +_Tasso_.--O! what a prince of a sage-tree! And the well too, with its +bucket of shining metal, large enough for the largest cocomero[9] to +cool in it for dinner! + +[9] Water-melon. + +_Cornelia_.--The well, I assure you, is as cool as ever. + +_Tasso_.--Delicious! delicious! And the stone-work round it, bearing no +other marks of waste than my pruning-hook and dagger left behind? + +_Cornelia_.--None whatever. + +_Tasso_.--White in that place no longer? There has been time enough for +it to become all of one colour; grey, mossy, half-decayed. + +_Cornelia_.--No, no; not even the rope has wanted repair. + +_Tasso_.--Who sings yonder? + +_Cornelia_.--Enchanter! No sooner did you say the word _cocomero_, than +here comes a boy carrying one upon his head. + +_Tasso_.--Listen! listen! I have read in some book or other those verses +long ago. They are not unlike my _Aminta_. The very words! + +_Cornelia_.--Purifier of love, and humanizer of ferocity! how many, my +Torquato, will your gentle thoughts make happy! + +_Tasso_.--At this moment I almost think I am one among them.[10] + + [10] The miseries of Tasso arose not only from the imagination + and the heart. In the metropolis of the Christian world, with + many admirers and many patrons, cardinals and princes of all + sizes, he was left destitute, and almost famished. These are + his own words.--"_Appena_ in questo stato ho comprato _due + meloni_: e benche io sia stato _quasi sempre infermo_, molte + volte mi sono contentato del' manzo e la ministra di latte o di + zucca, _quando ho potuto averne_, mi e stata in vece di + delizie." In another part he says that he was unable to pay the + carriage of a parcel, (1590:) no wonder; if he had not + wherewithal to buy enough of zucca for a meal. Even had he been + in health and appetite, he might have satisfied his hunger with + it for about five farthings, and have left half for supper. And + now a word on his insanity. Having been so imprudent not only + as to make it too evident in his poetry that he was the lover + of Leonora, but also to signify (not very obscurely) that his + love was returned, he much perplexed the Duke of Ferrara, who, + with great discretion, suggested to him the necessity of + feigning madness. The lady's honour required it from a brother; + and a true lover, to convince the world, would embrace the + project with alacrity. But there was no reason why the + seclusion should be in a dungeon, or why exercise and air + should be interdicted. This cruelty, and perhaps his + uncertainty of Leonora's compassion, may well be imagined to + have produced at last the malady he had feigned. But did + Leonora love Tasso as a man would be loved? If we wish to do + her honour, let us hope it: for what greater glory can there be + than to have estimated at the full value so exalted a genius, + so affectionate and so generous a heart! + +_Cornelia_.--Be quite persuaded of it. Come, brother, come with me. You +shall bathe your heated brow and weary limbs in the chamber of your +boyhood. It is there we are always the most certain of repose. The child +shall sing to you those sweet verses; and we will reward him with a +slice of his own fruit. + +_Tasso_.--He deserves it; cut it thick. + +_Cornelia_.--Come then, my truant! Come along, my sweet smiling +Torquato! + +_Tasso_.--The passage is darker than ever. Is this the way to the little +court? Surely those are not the steps that lead down toward the bath? Oh +yes! we are right; I smell the lemon-blossoms. Beware of the old wilding +that bears them; it may catch your veil; it may scratch your fingers! +Pray, take care: it has many thorns about it. And now, Leonora! you +shall hear my last verses! Lean your ear a little toward me; for I must +repeat them softly under this low archway, else others may hear them +too. Ah! you press my hand once more. Drop it, drop it! or the verses +will sink into my breast again, and lie there silent! Good girl! + + Many, well I know, there are + Ready in your joys to share, + And (I never blame it) you + Are almost as ready too. + But when comes the darker day, + And those friends have dropt away; + Which is there among them all + You should, if you could, recall? + One who wisely loves, and well, + Hears and shares the griefs you tell; + Him you ever call apart + When the springs o'erflow the heart; + For you know that he alone + Wishes they were _but_ his own. + Give, while these he may divide, + Smiles to all the world beside. + +_Cornelia_.--We are now in the full light of the chamber: cannot you +remember it, having looked so intently all around? + +_Tasso_.--O sister! I could have slept another hour. You thought I +wanted rest: why did you waken me so early? I could have slept another +hour, or longer. What a dream! But I am calm and happy. + +_Cornelia_.--May you never more be otherwise! Indeed, he cannot be whose +last verses are such as those. + +_Tasso_.--Have you written any since that morning? + +_Cornelia_.--What morning? + +_Tasso_.--When you caught the swallow in my curtains, and trod upon my +knees in catching it, luckily with naked feet. The little girl of +thirteen laughed at the outcry of her brother Torquatino, and sang +without a blush her earliest lay. + +_Cornelia_.--I do not recollect it. + +_Tasso_.--I do. + + Rondinello! rondinello! + Tu sei nero, ma sei bello. + Cosa fa se tu sei nero? + Rondinello! sei il premiero + De' volanti, palpitanti + (E vi sono quanti quanti!) + Mai tenuto a questo petto, + E percio sei il mio diletto.[11] + + [11] The author wrote the verses first in English, but he found + it easy to write them better in Italian. They stood in the text + as below:-- + + Swallow! swallow! though so jetty + Are your pinions, you are pretty: + And what matter were it though + You were blacker than a crow? + Of the many birds that fly + (And how many pass me by!) + You're the first I ever prest, + Of the many, to my breast: + Therefore it is very right + You should be my own delight. + +_Cornelia_.--Here is the cocomero; it cannot be more insipid. Try it. + +_Tasso_.--Where is the boy who brought it? where is the boy who sang my +Aminta? Serve him first; give him largely. Cut deeper; the knife is too +short: deeper, mia brave Corneliolina! quite through all the red, and +into the middle of the seeds. Well done! + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WORLD OF LONDON. SECOND SERIES. + + +PART I. + +ARISTOCRACIES OF LONDON LIFE. + + +OF ARISTOCRACIES IN GENERAL. + + +The cumulative or aggregative property of wealth and power, and in a +less degree of knowledge also, make up in time a consolidation of these +elements in the hands of particular classes, which, for our present +purposes, we choose to term an aristocracy of birth, wealth, knowledge, +or power, as the case nay be. The word aristocracy, distinctive of these +particular classes, we use in a conventional sense only, and beg leave +to protest, _in limine_, against any other acceptation of the term. We +use the word, because it is popularly comprehensive; the [Greek: hoi +aristoi], distinguished from the [Greek: hoi polloi]: "good men," as is +the value of goodness in the city; "the great," as they are understood +by penners of fashionable novels; "talented," or "a genius," as we say +in the _coteries_; but not a word, mark you, of the abstract value of +these signs--their positive significations; good may be bad, great mean, +talented or a genius, ignorant or a puppy. We have nothing to do with +that; these are thy terms, our Public; thou art responsible for the use +made of them. Thou it is who tellest us that the sun rises and sets, +(which it does not,) and talkest of the good and great, without knowing +whether they are great and good, or no. Our business is to borrow your +recognized improprieties of speech, only so far as they will assist us +in making ourselves understood. + +When Archimedes, or some other gentleman, said that he could unfix the +earth had he a point of resistance for his lever, he illustrated, by a +hypothesis of physics, the law of the generation of aristocracies. +Aristocracies begin by having a leg to stand on, or by getting a finger +in the pie. The multitude, on the contrary, never have any thing, +because they never _had_ any thing, they want the _point d'oppui_, the +springing-ground whence to jump above their condition, where, +transformed by the gilded rays of wealth or power, discarding their +several skins or sloughs, they sport and flutter, like lesser insects, +in the sunny beams of aristocratic life. + +Indeed, we have often thought that the transformation of the insect +tribes was intended, by a wise Omnipotence, as an illustration (for our +own benefit) of the rise and progress of the mere aristocracy of +fashionable life. + +The first condition of existence of these diminutive creatures, is the +egg, or _embryo_ state; this the anxious parent attaches firmly to some +leaf or bough, capable of affording sufficient sustenance to the future +grub, who, in due course, eats his way through the vegetable kingdom +upon which he is quartered, for no merit or exertion of his own; and +where his career is only to be noted by the ravages of his insatiable +jaws. After a brief period of lethargy or _pupa_ state, this +good-for-nothing creature flutters forth, powdered, painted, perfumed, +scorning the dirt from which he sprung, and leading a life of +uselessness and vanity, until death, in the shape of an autumnal shower, +prostrates himself and his finery in the dust. + +How beautiful and how complete is the analogy between the insect and his +brother butterfly of fashionable life! While yet an _embryo_, a worm, he +_grubs_ his way through a good estate, and not a little ready money. +Then, after a long sojourn in the _pupa_ or _puppy_ state--longer far +than that of any other maggot--he emerges a perfect butterfly, vain, +empty, fluttering, and conceited, idling, flirting, flaunting, +philandering, until the summer of his _ton_ is past, when he dies, or is +arrested, and expiates a life of puerile vanity in Purgatory or the +Queen's Bench. + +Let the beginning once be made--the point of extreme depression once be +got over: the cares of the daily recurring poor necessities of +life--shelter, clothing, food, be of no moment: let a man taste, though +it were next to nothing, of the delicious luxury of accumulation, let +him, with every hoarded shilling, or half-crown, or pound, carry his +head higher, smiling in secret at the world and his friends, and the +aristocrat of wealth is formed: he is removed for ever from the +hand-to-mouth family of man, and thenceforth represents his +breeches pocket. + +It is the same with the aristocrat of birth: some fortunate +accident--some well-aimed and successful stroke of profligacy, or more +rarely of virtue, redeems an individual from the common herd: the rays, +mayhap, of royal favour fall upon him, and he begins to bloat; his +growth is as the growth of the grain of mustard-seed, and in a little +while he overshadoweth the land: Noble and Right Honourable are his +posterity to the end of time. + +There is a poor lad sitting biting his nails till he bites them to the +quick, wearing out his heart-strings in constrained silence on the back +benches of Westminster Hall: he maketh speeches, eloquent, inwardly, and +briefless, mutely bothereth judges, and seduceth innocent juries to his +_No_-side: he findeth out mistakes in his learned brethren, and +chuckleth secretly therefor: he scratcheth his wig with a pen, and +thinketh by what train of circumstantial evidence he may be able to +prove a dinner: he laugheth derisively at the income-tax, and the +collectors thereof: yet, when he may not have even a "little brown" to +fly with, haply, some good angel, in mortal shape of a solicitor, may +bestow on him a brief: rushing home to his chambers in the Temple, he +mastereth the points of the case, cogitating _pros_ and _cons_: he +heareth his own voice in court for the first time: the bottled +black-letter of years falleth from his lips, like treacle from a pipkin: +he maketh good his points, winneth the verdict and the commendations of +the judge: solicitors whisper that there is something in him, and clerks +express their conviction that he is a "trump:" the young man eloquent is +rewarded in one hour for the toil, rust, and enforced obscurity of +years: he is no longer a common soldier of the bar; he steppeth by right +divine, forth of the ranks, and becometh a man of mark and likelihood: +he is now an aristocrat of the bar--perhaps, a Lyndhurst. + +Again, behold the future aristocrat of literary life: to-day regard him +in a suit of rusty black, a twice-turned stock, and shirt of Isabella +colour, with an affecting hat: in and out of every bookseller's in the +Row is he, like a dog in a fair: a brown paper parcel he putteth into +your hand, the which, before he openeth, he demands how much cash down +you mean to give for it: then, having unfolded the same, giveth you to +understand that it is such a work as is not to be seen every day, which +you may safely swear to. He journeyeth from the east to the west, from +the rising of the sun to the setting thereof, manuscript in hand: from +Leadenhall Street, where Minerva has her press, to the street hight +Albemarle, which John Murray delighteth to honour, but to no purpose: +his name is unknown, and his works are nothing worth. Let him once make +a _hit,_ as it is termed, and it is no longer hit or miss with him: he +getteth a reputation, and he lieth in bed all day: he shaketh the +alphabet in a bag, calling it his last new work, and it goeth through +three editions in as many days: he lordeth it over "the trade," and will +let nobody have any profit but himself: he turneth up his nose at the +man who invites him to a plain dinner, and utterly refuseth evening +parties: he holdeth _conversaziones_, where he talks you dead: he +driveth a chay, taketh a whole house, sporteth a wife and a minute +tiger: in brief, he is now an aristocrat of letters. + +The materials for the growth and preservation of these several +aristocracies abound in London; and no where on the earth have we the +same facilities for the study and investigation of their family +likenesses and contrasts, their points of contact and repulsion. + + +THE ARISTOCRACY OF FASHION. + + +Approach, reader, but _awful_, as Pope says--approach "with mincing +steps and bow profound;" we are about to introduce you to persons +of quality. + +It is an extraordinary fact, illustrative how far the ignorance of a +discerning public will carry those who make a living by practising upon +their credulity, that notwithstanding there is an immense number of +books annually presented to the do-nothing world, under the +curiosity-provoking title of fashionable novels, we have hardly more +than one or two generally recognised true and faithful pictures of +really fashionable life. The caricatures of caricatures of this Elysian +state are numberless--imagination has been exhausted, sense confounded, +grammar put on the rack, the "well of English undefiled" stirred up from +the very dregs, to give the excluded pictures of the life of the +exclusives--yet, what have we? You will excuse us, reader, disturbing +the current of our thoughts, by recollecting any of this forty +novel-power of inanity, vulgarity, and pertness; but if you take up any +of the many volumes in marbled boards, with calf backs, that you will +find in cart-loads at the circulating libraries, and look over a page of +the fashionable "_lingo_" the Lord Jacob talks to the Lady Suky, or the +conversation between Sir Silly Billy and the Honourable Snuffy Duffy; or +what the Duke of Dabchick thinks of the Princess Molly; and when you are +satisfied, which we take it will be in the course of two pages, if you +do not throw down the book, and swear by the Lord Harry--why then, read +on and be jolly! + +The indescribable absurdities, vices, and follies of the bulk of that +class of literature called the fashionable novel, are past the power of +catalogue-makers to record; but perhaps overwhelming ignorance of the +peculiar class they pretend to describe is not the least conspicuous. +Next to lack of knowledge, or sound materials deduced from actual +observation, we may place want of taste. There are writers to write the +exclusives up, and writers to write them down; one raises our envy, and +makes us miserable, because we are not permitted to enter their paradise +of social life; another devotes three volumes post octavo, in +exemplification of the not altogether forgotten moral fiction of the fox +and the sour grapes. + +The writers of fashionable novels may be divided, as to their social +positions, into the tolerated fashionable novel writers, and the +intolerable fashionable novel writers; the first, moving in phases more +or less equivocal round their centre and their deity, the exclusive set; +the last, desperate from the fact of their total and permanent exclusion +from society, but still moving round the outside of the boundary wall, +and peeping through chinks in the palings. From the former we have the +eulogistic, from the latter the depreciatory fashionable novels; these +make us familiar with the celestial attributes of countesses-dowager, +and the amiability of their pugs. They are slavering, servile, +self-degrading productions, and only serve the exclusives as +provocatives to laughter; they are usually written by tutors, ladies who +have married tutors, or superannuated governesses, patronized by some +charitable member of some distinguished family. + +The depreciatory or vilificatory fashionable novel delights in exposing +the peccadilloes, or imagined peccadilloes, (for it is all the same,) of +young or old people of fashion: a _gourmand_ peer, a titled demirep, a +"desperate dandy," a black-leg, and a few such other respectable +characters, are dialogued through the customary number of chapters, and +conducted to the usual catastrophe: virtue is triumphant, vice abashed, +towards the latter end of the last volume; and some low-born hero and +heroine, introduced to exhibit, by contrast, the vices of the +aristocracy, suddenly, and without any effort of their own, acquire +large fortunes, perhaps titles, which it would have been just as easy to +have given them at first--go to church in an orthodox manner, and set up +a virtuous aristocracy of their own. + +We are indebted for this class of fashionable novel to outlaws of both +sexes; persons who might have held, but for their own misconduct, +respectable positions in society; persons of this sort have the +impudence, with their no-characters staring them in the face, to set up +as public instructors, and to give us ensamples, drawn from their own +perverted imaginations, of a class of which they might have known +something, but which it is now past human possibility they can +ever know. + +These people are not merely not in society--which implies no crime--but +they are, notwithstanding their nominal rank or title, _out_ of society, +for reasons well and thoroughly known: they are those not merely who +cannot come in, but those who, if they did intrude, would be immediately +turned out. + +Next, ascending from this equivocal class, we have the fashionable novel +writers of fashionable life. I do not mean exclusive fashionable life, +for there are no writers of these works in that class; but I allude to +those who mingle with general fashionable society upon such terms, that +if they possessed the talent, they might have supplied with ease the +want of which the world complains--that of a just and natural picture of +the lives of those forming the Corinthian capital of society in London. + +Take, for example, a noble and late viceregal lord and his brother, the +Honourable Edmund Phipps. These gentlemen have written fashionable +novels, and ought to have written good ones; yet we don't know how it +is, but whenever we send to a circulating library to enquire whether +they have "YES AND NO," the noes have it; and when we venture to ask for +the "FERGUSONS," we find that the three post octavo gentlemen of that +title not only do not lodge here or there, but that they don't lodge +_any where_. + +The fact is, opportunity of observation will do little or nothing +without _faculty_ of observation: though the whole social world, old or +new, lay bare under the eyes of some men, not one idea could they +extract from it; and who, wanting also the descriptive power, still more +rare, fail in any attempt to give to the world the results of their +experience. + +Of this class is the larger number of writers of the better sort, in the +line we are talking of: they go into society as they go to galleries, +not to copy pictures, but to enjoy them. They enter into the amusements +and dissipation of their class, not to look on merely, but to play +the game. + +In addition to all this, there is a point of honour involved, we think +an erroneous one, among persons of quality, as to violating the +freemasonry, the signs, ceremonies, and absurdities, of their privacy. +Now, this applies only so far as individuals are indicated, and it is so +far right. But fashionable classes are fair game, if not shot at +sitting; or poached, or snared, or bagged, in any ungentlemanlike, +unsportsmanlike fashion. They belong to human character, and human +nature; and the reason they have seldom been painted well is, that they +have seldom been painted after nature; and any artist will inform you, +that whatever is painted to the life, must be painted from the life. + +They have not been painted by themselves, because they would have their +lives, like the walls that encircle their town houses, impervious to the +curious excursive eye; they have not been painted by themselves, +because, secondly, the power of depicting graphically what they are in +the daily habit of seeing, is not in them, not having been cultivated by +study and practice; and thirdly, not being stimulated to literary +activity by that Muse of the imperative mood, Necessity, they find more +pleasure in having these things brought under their eyes, results of the +mental toil and culture of others. + +There is a vulgar error uppermost in the minds of some men, which is +this: the world of fashion has not hitherto been painted with effect, +for the same reason that nobody thinks it worth while to describe a +ditch; both being, in the estimation of these persons, stagnant perfumed +entities, rich in peculiarly useless vegetation, abounding in vermin and +animalculae, and diffusing a contagious effluvia over the surface of +society. This error, like many other errors, is an excuse for ignorance, +and only shows the innate uncharitableness of some men; they run down, +like other sceptics, what they do not know and cannot understand, nor +will they believe there can be any good therein; forgetting, knaves and +fools as they are, that the aristocratic classes are human beings, with +the same intermingled elements of good and ill as themselves, modified +by accidental circumstances, which, as the Parliamentary people say, +they cannot control, and possessing at least as much of the ordinary +good principles and feelings of our common nature, as any other class of +our graduated social scale. + +Can any thing be more illiberal, more ignorant, more stupid, than for a +low man to turn leveller, because he is a low man, and attack, without +ceremony and without mercy, people of whom he can by any possibility +know no more than the worst side, that is to say, the _outside_: and +whom he considers, like the gilt gingerbread he sees in his biennial +visit to Greenwich Fair, as vastly fine, but exceedingly unwholesome? + +The truth is, fashionable life has been exalted above its just and +proper level, and depressed below it, by the slaverers and the +vituperaters, solely because they cannot get at it; the former are +idolatrous from hope, the latter devilish in despair; and the result we +are familiar with, in caricatures portraying this sort of life +alternately as a Heaven and a Hell. + +The peculiarities of fashionable life are, it is true, few, but they are +characteristic, and we now proceed to-- + +_You_ proceed to--! Now, my good fellow, tell us, will you, how such a +person as you, a garreteer, confessing to dining upon the heel of a +twopenny loaf and half an onion; making no secret of running up beer +scores at public houses, when they will trust you; retailing your nasty +scenes of low life, creatures dying in hospitals, work-house funerals, +the adventures of street apple-women, and matters and things +incomprehensible to genteel families like ourselves living in Russell +Square; an outlaw, living from tavern to tavern, from pot-house to +pot-house, without name, residence, or station; a mere fellow, +subsisting on the misplaced indulgence of an undiscerning public, and +one who, if gentlemen and ladies (like ourselves) would only condescend +to write, would find his appropriate circle in a work-house, unless he +escaped it by dying in an hospital. _You_ proceed to----! What, in the +name of gentility, can _you_ know of fashionable life? + +Sir, or madam, have mercy, or at least have manners. How astonished you +will be--we say, how astonished you _will_ be--if in the fulness of time +our title shall dignify the title-page; when it might appear, that by +the pen of a peer these papers were made apparent; when, instead of the +sort of person you have chosen to imagine your caterer for the good +things of fashionable life in London, you may discern to your dismay +that a lord--a real lord, alive and kicking, has made a Bude-light of +himself, illuminating the shadows of your ignorance: you may read a +preparatory memoir, informing you how these ideas of ours were collected +in a coach and four, and transmitted to paper in a study overlooking the +Green Park; with paper velvet-like, and golden pen ruby-headed, upon +rose-wood desk inlaid with ivory, you may find that these essays have +been transcribed: you will grovel, you will slaver, you will rub your +nose in the pebbles, like a salmon at spawning-time, when this very +immortal work shall come out, clothed in purple morocco, our arms +emblazoned on the covers, and coroneted on the back, after the manner of +publication of the works of royal and noble authors. Then, what running +to Debrett for our genealogy, our connexions, our _set_, and all that +customary inquisition of the affairs of the great which makes the +delight of the little: the "Book of Beauty," and "Pictures of the +Nobility," will be ransacked, of course, for verses by our lordship, or +portraits of our lordship's ladyship, or of the ladies Exquisitina or +Nonsuchina, daughters of our lordship, with slavering verses by +intolerable poets; then it will be discovered, and the discovery duly +recorded, that our lordship's eldest son, Viscount Ne'er-do-weel, and +the Honourable Mr Nogo, are pursuing cricket and pie-crust (commonly +called their _studies_) at Eton or Harrow, but are expected at our +lordship's seat in Some-Shire for their holidays: then we will be +proposed, seconded, and elected, like other noblemen equally +undistinguished in the world of science, a fellow of the Royal Society +and a fellow of the Society of Arts--and for the same good reason, +because we may be a lord; and you, and all the world, will say it was +very proper that I should have been elected, though knowing no more of +science than that acoustics (if we mistake not) means a pump; or of +arts, than that calico-printing and letterpress printing are, somehow or +other, not exactly one and the same thing. + +Then, sir, we shall hear no more of the bread and cheese and onions, +pot-house scores, and low company, with which you have so +unceremoniously taxed our lordship. You will drive your jumped-up coach, +with your awkward wives and dowdy daughters, and your tawdry liveries, +all the way from Russell Square to the Green Park, to catch the chance +of a glimpse of our lordship. You find out from our lordship's footman +that our lordship wears a particular collar to his coat, and you will +move heaven and earth to find out our lordship's tailor. When you apply +to him to make a coat in our lordship's style, our tailor, who sees at a +glance that you are not fit to be his customer, will tell you with an +air, that he "declines to execute." + +You will discover, from the same authority, that our lordship smokes a +particular tobacco, to be had only at a particular shop; and forthwith +even real Havannah stinks in your nostrils, and you apply to Pontet. +Pontet gives you a tobacco, (_not_ our tobacco,) and you go away in the +innocent consciousness of smoking the exclusive weed of a man +of fashion. + +Prithee, fool, mind thy own business, and stick to thy shop or thy +station, whatever it may be; to which while thou stickest, thou must be +respectable, but which when thou wouldst quit, desperately to seize the +hem of our lordship's garment, thou becomest the laughing-stock of us +and of our class, and we cannot choose but despise thee thoroughly. + +When we look at the shelves of a circulating library, groaning beneath +that generally despicable class of volumes called fashionable novels, +when we take up, only to lay down in disgust, "NOTORIETY, OR +FASHIONABLES UNVEILED," "PAVILION, OR A MONTH AT BRIGHTON," "MEMOIRS OF +A PEERESS," "MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE," "ALMACK S REVISITED," or some such +stuff, we cannot but infer, that it is not the vices or absurdities of +what is ignorantly called fashionable life that creates this +never-ceasing demand for trash and nonsense, but rather a morbid +appetite for vapidity and small-talk, a lady's-maid's curiosity of the +secrets of her betters, a servile love of imitating what is unworthy +imitation, and of following that which is not worth following, simply +because it is supposed that these ridiculous caricatures represent the +real life of + + "The twice ten thousand for whom earth was made," + +When we recollect, to our shame, that not only these swarms of trashy +volumes, which penetrate even into the back-slums, and may be seen +unfolded in the paper-patched windows of eighteen-penny milliners in +the lowest quarters of our metropolis, find a never-failing succession +of ravenous readers, but that newspapers--Sunday newspapers, +forsooth--devoted to smutty epigrams, low abuse, vile insinuations, and +openly indecent allusion to the connexions, habits of life, and even +personal appearance, of fashionable and _pseudo_-fashionable people, +receive a disgraceful and dangerous support; we must come to the +conclusion, that in this, as in all other merchandize, the demand +creates the supply, and that it is among the lower orders of the middle +classes that these caricaturers by profession of the upper, their +slanderers and their eulogists, find sympathy and encouragement. + +There is a sort of "hero-worship," as Mr Carlyle would term it, +attaching to the most absurd, ridiculous, and even vicious doings of +people who _might be_ fashionable; a counter-jumper, barber's clerk, +medical student, or tailor's apprentice, adores the memory of that great +man whom we are happy to be able to style the _late_ "markis." The +_pave_ of the Haymarket he considers classic ground, and the "Waterford +Arms" a most select wine-bibbing establishment. If he does not break a +dozen bells or wrench three or four brace of knockers in the season, +this penny-cigar-smoking creature hardly thinks he attains to his +fractional proportion of humanity. + +This may be relied on, that the great inducement of young scapegraces of +fashion to the committal of their diurnal and nocturnal outrages upon +propriety, is the mischievous gratification they derive from the awkward +imitation of their inferiors; and the most effectual method of bringing +these aristocratic pranks into disrepute, will be, to treat them as +merely vulgar outrages, and punish the perpetrators accordingly. + +If, indeed, the small-fry of society would set themselves to imitate all +that is worthy imitation in the better sort of their betters, following +good examples instead of bad, it would be something to talk of. But +since it is not to be expected that they will pursue virtue, piety, good +sense, and good breeding for their own sakes, and as these attributes, +when they exist in fashionable life--and they _do_ exist among the most +fashionable of fashionable people--are in their nature retiring and +unobtrusive, while all that is bad in good society is pushed into +notoriety, for the example of the mob, we must take pains to point out +at some length the difference between really "good society" and what is +vulgarly called good society; that is, in fact, the difference between +good and bad, and to mark the distinguishing characteristics of the +truly fashionable and the vulgarly fashionable man, as wide and deep as +is the gulf between a gent and a gentleman. + +If the fashionable world be truly represented, as it is not, in the +swarms of so-called fashionable novels, gleaned from the sloppy +conversation of footmen's ordinaries, or the retail tittle-tattle of +lady's-maids in waiting at the registry-offices, how little is it to the +credit of the mass of the reading public that they peruse such stuff; or +would it be perused at all, but for that vulgar love, so prevalent about +town, of imitation of the Lady Fannys and Lady Mary Dollymops, their +_nonchalance_, their insipidity, their studied ease, and their +affectation of being unaffected? + +We therefore desire, before we begin, that our young lady readers, our +jury of maidens, will do us the favour to dismiss from their +recollection all that they may have heard and read of the fashionable +world; that they will not believe the exclusives to be as dull as so +many bottles of stale small-beer, or as lively as Seltzer water from the +spring, with a dash of brandy in it; that they will forget that there +is, in fashionable life, any thing worthy their imitation or adoption, +unless it should otherwise appear by the evidence; and that they will +not once take up a professedly fashionable novel till they have +carefully studied and slept upon what we are going to say. + +The word "world" is a comprehensive term, and should be taken in all its +relations with great latitude, whether with adjectives or without. For +example, the "fashionable world" is far from being an integral quantity, +or capable of being reasoned upon as if it were as definite in its +relations and proportions as an equilateral triangle. It contains within +itself a complete gradation from fashionable excellence to fashionable +villany; from fashionable virtue to fashionable vice; fashionable ladies +and gentlemen, fashionable pimps, demireps, and profligates. It must be +individualized if we wish to treat it fairly, as judges try prisoners +severally, not in a lump. But our impressions of the fashionable world, +as a class, must be taken from the general preponderating +characteristics of good or evil of the whole. + +Hast ever been, reader, to Bartlemy fair? If you have, you may have +seen--nay, you _must_ have seen--Richardson's immortal show. You must +have seen a tall platform in front of the migratory edifice, and on that +platform you must have delighted your visual orb with the clown, the +pantaloon, the harlequin, the dancing ladies, the walking dandy, the +king with his crown, the queen in her rabbit-skin robes, the +smock-frocked countryman, the top-booted jockey, and all the _dramatis +personae_ of the performance that every moment of every day, during every +fair, is for ever "going to begin." You may hardly have observed, +sliding quietly through all this tinselled and spangled poverty, a plain +carpenter-like man, in a decent suit, who looks as if he had never seen +a performance in the whole course of his life, and as if he never cared +to see one. This man is, or rather was, the late Mr Richardson, who died +worth thirty thousand pounds, and all the clowns, harlequins, +pantaloons, dancing ladies, walking dandies, kings with their crowns, +and queens in their rabbit-skins, and the rest, are poor pinch-bellied +devils, caricaturing humanity for some twelve or fourteen shillings +a-week, finding their own paint and frippery. Now, whenever you wish to +form a correct idea of the two great classes of fashionable life, call +to your remembrance the gentlemen who, like the late lamented Mr +Richardson, are proprietors of shows, and the berouged, bedraggled +creatures who exhibit on the platform outside for their living. + +To be sure, there may be a little difference in names. The proprietors +of the show may be dukes, and earls, and marquisses, and so forth. The +mountebanks outside may be called counts, chevaliers, knights of the +order of the golden fleece, or of the thimble, or of Malta. But the +realities are the same. Fashionable life is a show, truly fashionable +people are the proprietors, who are never prominently or ridiculously +seen therein; and these several orders of over dressed, under-fed, +empty-pocketed mountebanks, are the people put on the platform outside, +to astonish the eyes and ears of the groundlings. + +The _physique_ of the true fashionable is peculiar and characteristic. +From the toe of his boot to the crown of his hat, there is that +unostentatious, undefinable something about him distinctive of his +social position. Professional men, every body knows, have an expression +common to their profession. A purblind cyclops could never mistake the +expression of an Independent preacher, an universal free-black-nigger +Baptist minister, or a Jesuit. Every body knows an infantry officer, +with his "eyes right" physiognomy, his odious black-stock, and his habit +of treading on his heels, and can distinguish him from the cavalry man, +straddling like a gander at a pond side. Your medical doctor has an +obsequious, mealy-mouthed, hope-I-see-you-better face, and carries his +hands as if he had just taken his fingers from a poultice; while your +lawyer is recognised at once by his perking, conceited, +cross-examination phiz, the exact counterpart to the expression of an +over-indulged jackdaw. + +The gentleman of fashion has nothing in common with the professional +gentleman, or any other. He stands alone, "like Adam's recollection of +his fall." He has an air, it is true, but his air is not a breeze, like +the air of a pretender to fashion. The air of the man of fashion is +a zephyr. + +The expression of the man of fashion is the more difficult to reduce to +words, in that it is mostly negative. It is easier to say what this +expression is not, than what it is. We can only say, that there is +nothing professionally distinctive about it. It is the expression of a +man perfectly at ease in his position, and so well aware that he is so, +that he does not _seem_ to be aware of it. An absence of all straining +after effect; a solicitude rather to avoid than to court observation. If +there is any thing positively indicative in his expression, by which I +include his manner, it is that of a good-humoured indifference, an +inoffensive, unobtrusive stoicism. He would seem to have adopted the +excellent advice given by the Apostle to the Thessalonians--"STUDY TO BE +QUIET." This is his rule of life, and he acts upon it upon great and +small occasions. He only desires that you will have the goodness to let +him alone. If he is cheated by a man of his own _set_, (for he knows +that he is cheated, as a matter of course, by tradespeople,) he _cuts_ +the fellow coolly. If he is insulted, he coolly calls out his man. He +falls in love with coolness, marries coolly, and leads a cool connubial +life. Whether he wins or loses, whatever happens to disturb the world or +himself, he takes coolly, and if he has an aspiration on earth, it is +that he may be cool and comfortable. + +His philosophy is the mingled Stoical and Epicurean. With him life is a +trifle to be gracefully played with--a "froward child, to be humoured +till it falls asleep, and all is over." His indifference is imputed to +him as a crime; but it should not be forgotten that, if there be any +fault at all in this indifference, it is the fault of his position. +Fortune is to blame, not he, for setting up a man with no other enemy +than time, and no other business than amusement. We do not say that this +is the true end of life; we do not enter into the enquiry, which might +carry us to leeward of our subject, whether men who have the means of +enjoying life, do not show the truest wisdom in pursuing enjoyment. We +only know that most men similarly circumstanced would act similarly; and +whether there is most vice or greatest misery in the idleness of +fashionable life, or in the business of the busy world, _as it is +carried on in our time_, I leave to those who have experience and +leisure to determine. + +Those who wish to study the subject further, may read at their leisure +the pleasant paper in which an agreeable writer, Fontenelle, describes +Aristotle and Anacreon contending for the prize of wisdom; and may +decide with the essayist, giving the prize to the generous old toper of +Scios, as we should have done, or to the beetlebrowed Reviewer, +according to their humour. + +The constitutional and habitual indifference of the man of fashion is +generally supposed by those who do not know it, to be an effect of +pride; but it is, generally speaking, a symptom of something more akin +to humility--of timidity, in short. It is part of his system to avoid +contact, save with his fellows; and with those who are not his fellows, +or of his _set_, he is altogether out of his element. Therefore, as he +is afraid of giving, and incapable of taking offence, he entrenches +himself in the unstudied reserve which he finds by experience renders +his individuality least assailable, exactly as he surrounds his +ornamental woods, his shrubberies, and his parterres with fences, not +the less strong because they are invisible. + +With adventurers, people who are treading upon his kibes, equivocal +pretenders who are galling his heel, he is hopelessly exclusive, +preserving towards them an armed neutrality. His friendship is extended +to his equals, and to his equals alone: with these his intercourse is +free and unrestrained. These alone see the English man of fashion as he +really exists, denuded of that armour of reserve with which he goes +clothed _cap-a-pie_ in public. Towards others he is distantly polite; +and with such nice tact does he blend a distant manner with politeness, +that you cannot carp at the former, or catch at the latter. He lets you +see that you cannot be _one of them_, but in such a way that you may not +quarrel with the manner in which he conveys his intimation. + +With his inferior he will not be intimate, nor towards him will he be +"proudly condescending." He declines to forget himself so far as for a +moment to put you on a level with him; but he will not (as _you_ too +often do) degrade you by sinking you below your own level. He holds the +even tenor of his way whether you trot, spaniel-like, at his heels or +no; nor will he once turn round to bestow upon you either cuffs +or caresses. + +Although by leisure, education, and intelligence, he is qualified to +converse with men of genius, he prefers conversing with them through the +medium of their works. He is aware that the days of subscriptions, and +"striking for dedications," are past and gone, and that the public have +taken the place of the patron. He knows that the habits, employments, +and in most instances the circumstances, of intellectual men preclude +their mingling familiarly in fashionable circles, on equal terms, and +that upon no other terms will they consent to be met. He neither +patronizes nor neglects them, but is content to stand in the relation +towards them of one of the reading public. + +His indifference to the fate and fortunes of deserving men has been, +among the vulgar, a common imputation upon the man of fashion, of which +class most frequently is the man of power. He is accused of lavishing +his favours only upon the toady and the tuft-hunter, and leaving men of +independent mind to the caprice of fortune. + +This complaint comes with a very bad grace from men who would be thought +independent. The man who wants the patronage of the great, must go in +search of it, whether he call himself independent or no. Men in power +are accustomed to be met more than half way; and the independent man, +whether he have merit or no, who expects people of rank to come in +search of him, and to hunt him out of the obscurity of his garret, will +find himself very much mistaken. + +None are truly independent while in pursuit of objects which are +attainable only by the pleasure of another. The truly independent are +those who not only do not solicit favours, but those who do not want +them: and there is seen too often, among needy and struggling men of +merit, an irritable pride, a "_fierte_," arising not from a sense of +independence, but a consciousness of neglect; and many men boast of the +pleasure of an independent life, as many ladies exalt the delights of +single blessedness, only because they have never had the offer of +changing their condition. + +It is quite as unfair, too, to accuse people of condition of bestowing +all their favours upon toadies, tuft-hunters, and bear-leaders. The +truth is, as they are not in the habit of going into the highways to +lookout for persons whereupon to confer obligations, they are obliged to +take up with such as offer themselves to their notice. While the man of +independence is dreaming away his existence over books and papers in his +closet, and cursing the barbarism of the age that does not take him by +the hand, and set him up in high places, the man of the world is pushing +his fortune in a worldly way, and is content not to talk of independence +until he has secured it. The hard words, tuft-hunter, toady, and so +forth, are applied, it may be, oftener than they are deserved: +led-captain is a term of frequent reproach, but it must always be +considered that that sort of talent will be chiefly noticed and rewarded +which is in demand in certain circles; fashionable people desire neither +to be deafened with wit, nor bewildered with philosophy, nor oppressed +with learning; their business, to which they have been brought up, is to +glide smoothly through life, and their patronage is chiefly extended to +those who offer to relieve them of its petty cares and small annoyances, +which men of solid and sterling merit are not able, and, if they were +able, are not willing to do. + +A wealthy cit has as little regard for men of letters as a fashionable, +nor has he the same tact of concealing his indifference; the well-bred +man of fashion, who is alone truly the man of fashion, studies _tact_ +above all things, and his tact prevents him ever regarding men of mind +with any thing approaching contempt. + +His friendly offices, which his equals never require, he generally +bestows upon men whose position in society is marked and permanent, and +who never can by any possibility compete with him; to these, if they be +_safe_--that is, if they keep quiet, and are content to enjoy a sort of +unpretending familiarity, without boasting or pluming themselves upon +their position, he does the kindest and most liberal things, in the +kindest and most liberal way; in a way that no other man than one truly +fashionable can accomplish. He confers benefits with an affable and +disinterested air, which, while it increases the burden of obligation, +seems to demand no acknowledgement; he bestows without seeming to know +that he is bestowing, and knowing enough of human nature to be aware +that to the deserving, obligations have something humiliating, he wishes +to make the burden as light as possible. + +One of the most amiable qualities about the aristocracy is their +liberality and kindness to their dependents; you seldom or never hear +any one who has served them faithfully and long having reason to +complain. To do something for these people is part of their system, and +not to see them neglected or in want, a point of honour. This kindly +feeling they extend, as far as their power or influence extends--to +humble friends, electioneering partizans, poor connexions. They are +always kind and considerate, provided only these persons possess that +unpresuming quietude of manner, which makes up a considerable part of +that character they delight in, and which they call _safe_. If you +introduce to one of these people of fashion, any man who may have an +object in view, the first enquiry is, what are his claims--that is, what +equivalent has he given, or can he give, for the favours he expects? for +it is with the high, as with the low world, nothing for nothing; and +secondly, you must be prepared to answer for his _safety_, so that, +whatever may be said or done, nothing may, by any possibility, leak out +of the _protege_. This accounts for so many perfumed, be-wigged, +purblind, silky fellows being taken in and "done for" by the great; and +although these fellows dress like fools, and look like fools, depend +on't, they are not the fools you take them for: they are aware, that +nothing so effectually throws off their guard and disarms the great, as +a well-carried affectation of gentlemanly effeminacy, and "a still small +voice, like a woman's." We happen to know that some of these people, for +this very delicacy of air and manner picked out of the dirt, and carried +into high places, who are _au naturel_, as we may say, when they go +home, and have laid aside the wigs, silk waistcoats, quizzing-glasses, +and the rest of their disguise, as honest, friendly, and unaffected +fellows, as are in the world--only they do not desire that any body +should say so. + +Of a man with a stiff back, black beard, short hair, loud voice, and +buff waistcoat, people of fashion, on the contrary, stand in continual +awe; his tongue is to them a rattlesnake's tail wagging only as a signal +for them to get out of his way; they quiver like an aspen at the sound +of his voice, and for their own particular, would rather hear the +sharpening of a saw: if such a one courts their acquaintance, they are +hopelessly, despairingly polite; if, as is usual, he then waxes +insolent, and, as the fast fellows would call it, _slangs_ them, they +are delighted with the opportunity of displaying that placid +indifference upon which they pride themselves as one of their exclusive +accomplishments. + +Another peculiarity of truly fashionable people is, that they never say +or do spiteful, or vindictive things; revenge and spite they consider +_low_, plebeian, and vulgar; besides, vindictiveness of any kind +disturbs their equanimity, puts them out of their way, and levels them +with the people who may have injured or annoyed them; they cannot endure +jaundice of body or mind, and equally abhor any thing that sticks either +in the gall, bladder, or "gizzard." Their defensive armour, than which +none can be less penetrable, is equanimity; their weapons, unstudied +indifference and dignified neglect. + +Towards their own "order," they are invariably consistent in kindness +and consideration; they stand by, and stand to, one another with a +paternal amity, which is only _outwardly_ disturbed by politics; +embarrassment or necessity effaces conventional distinctions of +politics, and Whig or Tory is always ready to provide for "honest Jack," +or "do something" for "poor Fred." But we are not to consider their +exertions in this way, accompanied with any self-sacrifice or +self-denial; holding in their own hands the means of providing for their +friends or relatives, they usually so contrive matters that they lose +nothing by it. + +To the peculiar quietude of manner, and characteristic gentleness of +persons of fashion, in their intercourse with each other, we have many +concurring testimonies of impartial observers: of these, the most just +at once, and eloquent, that we remember to have read, is that contained +in an ever-memorable letter from a Mr Tomkins to a Mrs Jenkins, +attributed (with what justice, deponent knoweth not) to a noble and +learned lord, supreme in natural theology and excitability, remarkable +for versatile nose and talents, and distinguished for chequered +fortunes, and "inexpressibles" to match. This learned lord, or Tomkins +aforesaid, or whoever may have been the inditer of the epistle _ad_ +Jenkins, is eloquent exceedingly upon the _narcotine_ of fashionable +life: declares that its soothing influences were unequalled by vapour of +purest mundungus, or acetate of morphia, or even pill of opium, blended +intimately with glass of _eau-de-vie_. Tomkins is quite right: no man, +admitted by whatever door, or ascending by whatever staircase, to the +_salons_ of the great, fails to be impressed with the idea that there +exists among what the _Post_ calls the "gay and fastidious _habitues_" +of the place, every disposition to place him perfectly at his ease: and, +if he cannot be at ease, the fault is in him, not in his entertainers. +To a great _nisi prius_ lawyer, accustomed during a long life to the +discrimination of character in the way of his profession, such a +contrast as is presented by the repose and unobtrusive _politesse_ of +high life, compared with the _brusquerie_ of the world below, must have +been doubly delightful; and we are glad to have upon record the just and +eloquent testimony to its existence and social value from so eloquent +a pen. + +The world without is apt to confound reserve and distance among the +great, with pride and insensibility: even those who, admitted by +sufferance to fashionable circles, behold the peculiar charm of high +life through a wintry atmosphere: the free and unrestrained converse of +men of fashion with their equals, none but themselves can know, and none +but themselves describe. + +Their habit of living, among themselves, is generally simple, and devoid +of extravagance or ostentation: they have the best of every thing it is +true, but then they have all the advantages of unbounded competition. +and unlimited credit: they pay when they think proper, but no tradesman +ever dares venture to ask them for money: such as have the bad taste to +"dun" are "done:" the patient and long-suffering find their money "after +many days." Their amusements among themselves are inexpensive, almost to +meanness: the subscription to Almacks, that paradise of exclusives, and +envy of the excluded, amounts to not more than half a-guinea a ball, if +so much: a stall at the opera costs a young man of fashion, for the +season, forty, fifty, or sixty pounds, according to position: for this +he is entitled to an ivory ticket, which, when he does not feel inclined +to go himself, he can transfer for the evening to another. If he have +the misfortune to be a younger brother, many little windfalls come to +his share, the results of his relationship. He has an apartment at his +elder brother's town-house, or he resides with the dowager, or with a +maiden aunt; somebody keeps his cab horse, and some other body keeps the +saddle-horse that Lady Mary or Jack Somebody gave him; his "tiger" has +the run of all his friends' kitchens as a matter of course, and, as a +matter of course, himself has two or three invitations a-day during the +season; though, like other poor men, he prefers dining independently at +his club. He is on very good terms with the "girls" of his _set_, and is +allowed a little innocent flirtation, because he is known to have _tact_ +enough not to compromise himself or them by falling in love, or paying +"ridiculous" addresses: although a little "fast" perhaps, he is +perfectly _safe_, and is on good terms with every body except his eldest +brother: he is the idol of countesses-dowager, who hand him a few +hundreds whenever he is short, pay his debts for him--give him good +advice, and call him "Freddy dear:" in short, although he has nothing, +excepting his boot-hooks, that he can possibly call his own, he is a +merry, good-natured, honest, harmless fellow, a favourite with every +body, and envied for his light-heartedness even by his more fortunate +elder brother. + +In a book published some five-and-thirty years ago, is an account of the +then prevailing method of killing a fashionable day: as the pursuit of +inanity and folly has a tedious sameness about it, this picture will +answer, with a few variations, for the man of fashion of to-day. + +"About twelve, he (the man of fashion) rises, lolls upon a sofa, skims +the newspaper, and curses its stupidity. He is particularly angry if he +does not find in it a paragraph which he sent to the agent of a +fashionable newspaper, generally the _Morning Post_, who lives by +procuring such sort of intelligence, containing an account of his having +dined at some titled man's table the day before, with whom, if he has no +rank himself, he is particularly anxious to mingle. After swallowing +several cups of tea and cocoa, and slices of foreign sausages and fowls, +he assumes his riding coat, and sallies out to his stables to inspect +his horses, and chat with his coachman and grooms. + +"Having finished this review and audience, he orders his curricle, and, +followed by a couple of grooms, he dashes through most of the principal +streets, and calls upon the most celebrated coach and harness makers; at +the latter he is shown several new bits for his approbation. He then +proceeds to his breeches-maker, thence to Tattersall's, where he is sure +to meet a great number of friends, with whom he kills another hour +discussing the merits of the different animals he meets with there. +These important duties being done, he strolls to an exhibition, or to a +print-shop, and looks over a portfolio of caricatures; thence he keeps +on moving to a fashionable hotel, to take white spruce beer(!) and +sandwiches; here, after arranging his parties for the evening, be +returns home to dress. After looking over the cards which have been left +for him, he proceeds to his _toilette_ with his valet, and is dressed +about seven, when his chariot is at the door, and he drives either to +some family to dinner, or to the hotel he visited in the morning, when +he perhaps formed a party of four. At ten o'clock he enters the Opera, +and like a butterfly moves from box to box; thence behind the scenes; +after which he proceeds to one or two routs, or some fashionable +gaming-house, and about four is in bed, to recruit himself for a +repetition of the same course the next day. + +"These loungers have a phraseology peculiar to themselves. A short time +since, if one of them was asked how he was, the answer would have been, +'we are in _force_ to-day;' if his wife was enquired after, 'she is in +high preservation;' if asked how often he had been at the opera, 'it is +my _second_ opera.' They also say, perhaps, speaking of some illustrious +hero, 'he's a fine brave fellow, but he ties his handkerchief most +shockingly.' I also remember being one day in Hyde Park, when a +gentleman rode up to one of these loungers, and after exchanging +salutations, the former said to the latter, I wish much to have the +pleasure of seeing you--are you engaged next Wednesday? Upon which the +other turned round to a little half starved groom, and said, 'John, am I +engaged next Wednesday?' + +"The women of fashion," observes this writer, "are just as great and as +insipid idlers, in their way, as are the male triflers. They seldom walk +in the streets, but are almost always cooped up in their carriages, +driving about the streets, and leaving their cards at the houses of +their friends, whom they never think of seeing, although they may be at +home at the time; thence they proceed to the most expensive jewellers, +where they order a piece of plate or a trinket; thence to some +fashionable milliner." + +This picture is not altogether like, but some of the features may +certainly be easily reorganized; if we substitute sherry, a chop, and a +club in Pall-Mall, for white spruce beer, sandwiches, and a tavern; +replacing the curricle and footman by a cab and tiger, the remainder, +with trivial alterations, may stand good of the fashionable idler of +to-day, as of him of the last century. + +In childhood, nay, even in infancy, for all I can see to the contrary, +the _physique_ of persons of fashion is sufficiently distinctive and +characteristic of the class. If you walk in the parks and gardens, and +notice these young thoroughbreds exercising under the care of their +nurses, their tutors, and their nursery governesses, you will be +perfectly convinced that they are as easily to be distinguished in all +their points and paces from the children of the _mobility_, as is a +well-blooded Arabian from a Suffolk punch. + +The small oval head, clustered with _rippling_ ringlets, as Alfred +Jennyson calls them; the clear laughing eye, the long fair neck, the +porcelain skin, warmed with the tenderest tinge of pink, so transparent +withal that you almost see the animal spirit careering within; the +_drooping_ shoulder, the rounded bust, clean limbs, well-turned ankle, +fine almost to a fault, the light springy step, the graceful easy +carriage, the absence of sheepishness or shyness, an air cheerful +without noise, a manner playful without rudeness, and you have the true +son or daughter of the Englishman of fashion. + +Then, how characteristic of the class of which these children are the +rising hope, is the taste displayed in their dress; they are attired +with costly simplicity; or, if a fond mamma indulges in any little +extravagance of childish costume, you see that it is the extravagance of +taste; there is no tawdriness, no over-dressing, no little ones in +masquerade, they dress appropriately, and, at the same time, +distinctively. + +Pretty souls! Many a time and oft have we wandered forth of the +turbulent town, less to brace our unstrung nerves by the elastic +air--less to bathe our wearied eyes in the green light of earth's bosom, +than to drive away sad thoughts in the contemplation of your innocent +gambols; with our stick; delight we to launch your mimic barks from the +sandy shores of Serpentine; with you, glad are we to make haste, +expecting the fastest sailer on the further shore; with you, we exult, +once more a boy, in the speed of our trim-built favourite. + +We love the old Newfoundland dog, ay, and the old footman, as much as +you do, and could hang like you about both their necks; we wish you +would not think us too big a boy to "stop" for you at single-wicket; +imaginary hoops we trundle in your gleesome train; like you, we have a +decided aversion to "taw," considering it not young-gentleman-like; we, +too, forgetting that the governess is single and two-and-thirty, wonder +on earth what _can_ make governess so cross; we love you, when we see +you hand in hand squiring your little sister, saluting your little +sister's little friends, carrying their little parasols, and helping +them over little stony places, like little gentlemen. Happy, happy dogs! +we envy neither your birth nor the fortune that awaits you, nor repine +we that our fate condemns us to tug the unremitting oar against that +tide of fortune upon which, with easy sail, you will float lightly down +to death; the whole heart, the buoyant spirit, the conscience yet +unstung by mute reproach of sin; these things we envy you--not the +things so mean a world can give, but the things which, though it cannot +give, soon--alas, how soon--it takes away! + +Contrast these children with the children of Mr Deputy Stubbs of the +ward of Farringdon Within, or common Councillor Muggs of Bassishaw; they +really do not look like animals of the same species. + +The rising Stubbses and Muggses have heads shaped like a China orange, +croppy hair, chubby chins, chubby cheeks, and blazing red and chubby +noses--short, pursy, apoplectic necks, like their fathers--squab, +four-square figures, mounted upon turned legs, with measly skins; so +that, taken altogether, they are exceedingly offensive and disagreeable. +Then they eat, these young, Stubbses and Muggses, how they _do_ eat! +then they are dressed, how they _are_ dressed! five different tartans, +four colours in velvet, seven sorts of ribbons, and a woolpack of fleecy +hosiery, as if there wasn't another Stubbs or Muggs in existence; then +how they annoy and infest, with bad manners and noise, the deputies and +common-councilmen who visit at Stubbses and Muggses; how the maids "drat +them" all day long, and how Mrs Stubbs and Mrs Muggs _hate_ Mr +Sucklethumb, the butterman, because he never "notices the child." + +Another extraordinary phenomenon you cannot fail to observe in the +children of the aristocracy; they seem to skip over the equivocal +period, the neutral ground of human life, and emerge from the chrysaloid +state of childhood, into the full and perfect _imago_ of little lords +and gentlemen, and little ladies, without any of those intermediate +conditions of laddism, hobble-de-hoyism, or bread-and-butterishness, so +prominently characteristic of the approaching puberty of the rest of the +rising generation. Your Eton boy is not a boy, he is a young gentleman; +your Lady Louisa is not a girl, she is only not yet "come out;" how to +account for the peculiarity I know not, except the knowledge of the +fact, that attention to the _petites morales_ forms so great a part of +the education of our rising aristocracy, and is considered so vitally +important to their proper carriage, as well in their _set_ as out of it, +that their children are as far advanced in this particular at fifteen, +as the children of middling people at twenty-five. The petticoat-string +by which the youth of the non-fashionable class is tied to their mother, +is a ligature not in use among the fashionable world; from the earliest +period professional persons are employed in their education, and the +_mother_ never shows in the matter. Whether this, or any other +peculiarity of the class, be an advantage or a disadvantage, natural or +unnatural, right or wrong, it is not for the writer to say; he only +points out what he has observed; and if he has failed to state it +properly, let him be properly corrected. + +Our aristocratic youth we take the liberty to classify, as they do +coaches, of which they are so passionately fond, into + + 1. FAST, + + 2. SLOW. + +The fast youths have several degrees of swiftness, from the railway +pace, down through imperceptible gradations, to ten miles an hour, at +which rate of going the fast fellows end, and the slow fellows begin. + +Of these last there are also many varieties, from the tandem and +tax-cart down to the waggon and dog-truck; and it cannot be denied, that +as regards the former more especially, there is a great similarity +between the youths themselves and the vehicles they govern; they go very +fast, don't know what they are driving at, are propelled in any +direction by much more sagacious animals than themselves, and are +usually empty inside. The fast fellows are divided, moreover, into the +occasional and permanently fast; and first of the occasional fast +fellows:-- + +These form a very considerable proportion of our fashionable youth, and +combine the gentleman with a dash of the _petit-maitre_, overlaying a +naturally good disposition with a surface of scampishness, which, +however, they lay down when they marry, and thenceforward they belong +altogether to the slow school. + +The permanently fast fellows deserve a more detailed notice, since they +are always before the police magistrates and the public, in one shape or +another; and although often committing themselves, are seldom or never +committed. + +The members of this class it is who furnish the democratic Sunday papers +with a never-ending succession of articles, headed "THE ARISTOCRACY +AGAIN," "BRUTALITY OF THE HIGHER CLASSES," "DEPRAVITY OF THE NOBBY +ONES," and the like and it is from these fast fellows, unfortunately, +that a great many ignorant people draw their conclusions of fashionable +life and conversation in general, extending the vices of a few shameless +profligates to the entire of the little world, commonly called +the great. + +The permanently fast fellows, or, as we think their general demeanour +entitles them to be called, "Blackguard Nobs," are a lot of little, +scrubby, bad-blooded, groom-like fellows, who have always, even from +childhood, been incorrigible, of whom nursery governesses could make +nothing, and whose education tutors abandoned in despair; expelled from +Eton, rusticated at Cambridge, good for nothing but mischief in boyhood, +regularly bred scamps and profligates in youth, and, luckily for +mankind, generally worn-out before they attain the wrong side of forty. +A stable is their delight, almost their home, and their olfactories are +refreshed by nothing so much as by the smell of old litter, to which +attar of roses is assafoetida in comparison. + +Their knowledge of horses, which they get at second-hand from Field, or +some of the other _crack_ veterinaries, is their only pride, and indeed +the only thing they imagine any man ought to be proud of; they reverence +a fellow who has a good seat in his saddle, and delight in horsemanship, +because horsemanship requires no brains; driving a "buggy" in good style +is respectable, but "shoving along" a four-in-hand the highest exercise +of human intellect, as for Milton and Shakspeare, and such inky-fingered +old prigs, who never had a good horse in their lives, they despise such +low fellows thoroughly. Their chief companions, or rather, their most +intimate friends, are the fellows who hang about livery stables, +betting-rooms, race-courses, and hippodromes; crop-eared grooms, +_chaunters_, dog-stealers, starveling jockeys, blacklegs, foreign +counts, breeders, feeders; these are all "d--d honest fellows," and the +"best fellows in the world," although they get their living by cheating +the fast fellows, who patronize them. + +Of money, they know no more than that it is a necessary instrument of +their pleasures, and must be got some how or anyhow; accordingly, they +are on intimate terms with a species of shark called a bill-discounter, +who commits upon them every sort of robbery, under the sanction of the +law; and who also is always a "d--d honest fellow." + +They can be sufficiently liberal of their money, whenever they have any, +to all who do not want, or who do not deserve it; if a prize-fighter +becomes embarrassed in his circumstances, or a jockey is "down upon his +luck," it is quite refreshing to see the madness with which the fast +fellows strike for a subscription; an opera-dancer out of an engagement, +or an actress in the same interesting condition, provided they are not +modest women, have, they think, a claim upon their generosity--and +perhaps they have. + +They think it ungentlemanly to cheat, or, as they call it, "_stick_" any +of their own set, except in matters of horse-flesh; but "sticking" any +body out of their own set, especially tradesmen, is considered an +excellent joke, and the "sticker" rises several degrees in public +estimation. + +We should be doing great injustice to the fast fellows if we omitted a +brief notice of their accomplishments. Driving is, of course, the chief; +and, by long experience and impunity, wonderfully grand exploits are +achieved by the fast fellows in this department. + +One of the most original is to get into a strong cab, with a very +powerful horse, lamps lit, tiger inside, and to go quietly along, +keeping a sharp look-out for any night cabman who may be "lobbing," as +the phrase is, off his stand, the moment the "game," who is generally +one part asleep and three parts drunk, is espied, put your horse to full +gallop, and, guiding your vehicle with the precision fast fellows alone +attain, whip inside the cabwheel, and take it off. The night cab comes +down by the run, the night cabman tumbles off, breaking his nose or +neck, as it may happen, and you drive off as if the devil kicked you. +When you have gone a couple of miles, make a circumbendibus back again +to the night-house frequented by your set, and relate the adventure, +with the same voice and countenance as a broker quotes the price of +stocks; then order a cool bottle of claret with the air of a man who has +done a meritorious action! + +Another accomplishment, at which not a few of the fast fellows excel, is +that of imitating upon a key-bugle various animals, in an especial +manner the braying of an ass: when the fast fellows drive down to the +Trafalgar at Greenwich, the Toy at Hampton Court, or the Swan at Henley +upon Thames, the bugle-player mounts aloft, the rest of the fast fellows +keeping a lookout for donkeys; when one is seen, a hideous imitative +bray is set up by the man of music, and his quadrupedal brother, +attracted by the congenial sound, rushes to the roadside--mutual +recognition, with much merriment, is the result. + +The fast fellow who does this best, is considered one of the immortals; +and we are not without expectation, in due time, of seeing his talent +rewarded by a pension. + +Breaking bells, twisting knockers, and "knapping" rail-heads, has +descended so low of late that the fast fellows are ashamed of it, and +have resigned it to the medical students, patriotic young members of +Parliament, and others of the imitative classes; but there yet exists, +or very lately existed, a collection of these and various other +surreptitiously acquired properties, known among the fast fellow by the +title of ----'s Museum, every article being ticketed artistically, and +the whole presenting an example of devotion to the cause of science, we +believe, without a parallel. + +These are a few of the comparatively innocent amusements of the fast +fellows; others there are of graver character, which we need not refer +to, especially as the fast school is fast wearing itself out, and many +of the fast fellows already begin to "put on the drag," and go at a more +reasonable pace. + +Their ignorance, with the single exception of horse-flesh, is appalling. +Nobody who does not know the fast fellows, would credit that men could +by any possibility grow up in such absolute ignorance of whatever a +gentleman is expected to know; whatever a gentleman is expected not to +know, they have at their tongues' and fingers' ends. + +Intellectual men, of whatever description, they regard with the most +perfect indifference--an indifference too passive for contempt; they +affect to wonder, or probably do wonder, what such men are for, or why +people sometimes talk about them. Books they find convenient for putting +under the legs of barrack-room tables, to bring them to a level, and +think they are made of different sizes for that purpose; but no fast +fellow was ever yet detected in looking into one of them, to see whether +there was any thing inside. Such as have been taught to spell, employ +part of the Sunday in deciphering the smutty jokes of the _Satirist_, +and pronounce the jokes "d--d good," and the paper "a d--d honest +paper." If they happen, by any chance, to come into contact with one of +the slow school, or any body who has been taught to read, they have a +method of silencing his battery, which they think "capital." If a man +should say in their company, that Chaucer was a great poet, one will +immediately enquire, "_how much?_" while another wishes to know if +Chaucer is entered for the "Derby?" "How much?" is the invariable slang, +whenever a man gets the bit out of his mouth, or, in other words, talks +of any thing but horses. + +There is no novelty in this; it is only a second edition of Dean Swift's +"new-fashioned way of being witty," which, in his fashionable day, was +called "a bite." "You must ask a bantering question," he informs Stella, +"or tell some damned lie in a serious manner, and then they will answer +or speak as if you were in earnest; then cry you, 'there's a _bite_.' I +would not have you undervalue this, for it is the constant amusement in +court, and every where else among the great people; and I let you know +it, in order to have it obtain amongst you, and teach you a new +refinement." + +If they accept an invitation from Lord Northampton to go to one of his +_soirees_, which they sometimes do for a "lark," their antics are vastly +amusing; they put on grave, philosophic faces, and mimic the _savans_ to +the life; if the noble president, thinking he is doing the polite thing, +points out to them a poet, for example, or a professor, they have a +knack of elevating the shoulders, looking at the man with a pitying air, +and whispering the words "_poor beast_," with a tone and manner quite +inimitable. Indeed this is one of the few clever things they do, and on +or off the stage we have never seen any thing like it. + +If Dickens were to die--an event that, we hope and trust, may not occur +these fifty years, the fast fellows would have some such conversation +upon the event, as follows:-- + +A. So, Dickens, I hear, is dead. + +B. How much? + +C. What's that? + +A. Why, Pickwick, to be sure. + +B. Oh! Eh? Pickwick--Moses--Bath coach--_I_ know. + +C. Pickwick--near Chippenham? Paul Methven lives there--_I_ know. + +A. No--no--I tell you, he's a man that writes. + +B. Is he? He may be. How should I know? + +C. Well--it's a d----d hard case, that, at the beginning of the season, +I should have lost a d----d good tiger. Has any body got a d----d +small tiger for sale? + +As we are in the humour for dialogue, we may as well give a _verbatim_ +report of our last interview with Lord----, who had been a fast fellow +in his youth. We encountered him on the sunny side of St James's Street, +the other day, tottering to Brookes's: although we don't expect you to +believe it, what passed was, as we recollect it, exactly as follows:-- + +"Well, my Lord, I hope your gout is better?" + +"Eh--how are you? Well, I think I _am_ better, d'ye know." + +"Glad to hear it." + +"Thankee--thankee--d'ye know, eh, I've changed my doctor?" + +"Well, and how d'ye like your new one?" + +"Capitally--eh--d'ye know, he's a clever fellow. Young--eh--but +clever--very. D'ye know, eh--he corresponds regularly with--eh--with Sir +_Humphrey_ Newton and Sir _Isaac_ Davy!" + + * * * * * + + + + +THE DREAM OF LORD NITHSDALE. BY CHARLES MACKAY. + + + [Lord Nithsdale, as is well known, was condemned to death for + his participation in the Rebellion of 1715. By the exertions of + his true-hearted wife, Winifred, he was enabled to escape from + the Tower of London on the night before the morning appointed + for his execution. The lady herself--noble soul!--has related, + in simple and touching language, in a letter to her sister, the + whole circumstances of her lord's escape. The letter is + preserved in the Appendix to "Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale and + Galloway Song," page 313 to 329--London, 1810.] + + + "Farewell to thee, Winifred, dearest and best! + Farewell to thee, wife of a courage so high!-- + Come hither, and nestle again in my breast, + Come hither, and kiss me again ere I die!-- + And when I am laid bleeding and low in the dust, + And yield my last breath at a tyrant's decree, + Look up--be resign'd--and the God of the just + Will shelter thy fatherless bairnies and thee!" + + She wept on his breast, but, ashamed of her tears, + She dash'd off the drops that ran warm down her cheek; + "Be sorrow for those who have leisure for tears-- + O pardon thy wife that her soul was so weak! + There is hope for us still, and I will not despair, + Though cowards and traitors exult at thy fate; + I'll show the oppressors what woman can dare, + I'll show them that love can be stronger than hate!" + + Lip to lip, heart to heart, and their fond arms entwined, + He has kiss'd her again, and again, and again; + "Farewell to thee, Winifred, pride of thy kind, + Sole ray in my darkness, sole joy in my pain!" + She has gone--he has heard the last sound of her tread; + He has caught the last glimpse of her robes at the door;-- + She has gone, and the joy that her presence had shed, + May cheer the sad heart of Lord Nithsdale no more. + + And the prisoner pray'd in his dungeon alone, + And thought of the morn and its dreadful array, + Then rested his head on his pillow of stone, + And slumber'd an hour ere the dawning of day. + Oh, balm of the Weary! Oh, soother of pain! + That still to the sad givest pity and dole; + How gently, oh sleep! lay thy wings on his brain, + How sweet were thy dreams to his desolate soul! + + Once more on his green native braes of the Nith, + He pluck'd the wild bracken, a frolicsome boy; + He sported his limbs in the waves of the Frith; + He trod the green heather in gladness and joy;-- + On his gallant grey steed to the hunting he rode, + In his bonnet a plume, on his bosom a star; + He chased the red deer to its mountain abode, + And track'd the wild roe to its covert afar. + + The vision was changed. In a midsummer night + He roam'd with his Winifred, blooming and young; + He gazed on her face by the moon's mellow light, + And loving and warm were the words on his tongue. + Thro' good and thro' evil, he swore to be true, + And love through all fortune his Winnie alone; + And he saw the red blush o'er her cheek as it flew, + And heard her sweet voice that replied to his own. + + Once more it has changed. In his martial array, + Lo, he rides at the head of his gallant young men! + And the pibroch is heard on the hills far away, + And the clans are all gather'd from mountain and glen. + For exiled King Jamie, their darling and lord, + They raise the loud slogan--they rush to the war. + The tramp of the battle resounds on the sward-- + Unfurl'd is the banner--unsheath'd the claymore! + + The vision has fled like a sparkle of light, + And dark is the dream that possesses him now; + The morn of his doom has succeeded the night, + And the damp dews of death gather fast on his brow. + He hears in the distance a faint muffled drum, + And the low sullen boom of the death-tolling bell; + The block is prepared, and the headsman is come, + And the victim, bareheaded, walks forth from his cell.-- + + No! No! 'twas a vision! his hour was not yet, + And waking, he turn'd on his pallet of straw, + And a form by his side he could never forget, + By the pale misty light of a taper he saw. + "'Tis I! 'tis thy Winifred!"--softly she said, + "Arouse thee, and follow--be bold, never fear! + There was danger abroad, but my errand has sped, + I promised to save thee--and lo I am here!" + + He rose at the summons, and little they spoke, + The gear of a lady she placed on his head; + She cover'd his limbs with a womanly cloak, + And painted his cheeks of a maidenly red. + "One kiss, my dear lord, and begone!--and beware! + Walk softly--I follow!" Oh guide them, and save, + From the open assault, from the intricate snare, + Thou, Providence, friend of the good and the brave! + + They have pass'd unsuspected the guard at the cell, + And the sentinel band that keep watch at the gate; + One peril remains--it is past--all is well! + They are free; and her love has proved stronger than hate. + They are gone--who shall follow?--their ship's on the brine, + And they sail unpursued to a far friendly shore, + Where love and content at their hearth may entwine, + And the warfare of kingdoms divide them no more. + + * * * * * + + + + +TWO HOURS OF MYSTERY. + + +CHAPTER I. + + +One bright day, last June, one of the London coaches rattled at an +amazing rate down the main street of a garrison town, and, with a sudden +jerk which threw the smoking horses on their haunches, pulled up at the +door of the Waterloo hotel. A beautiful sight it is--a fine, well +appointed coach, of what we must now call the ancient fashion, with its +smart driver, brilliant harness, and thoroughbred team. Then it is a +spectacle pleasing to gods and men, the knowing and instantaneous manner +in which the grooms perform their work in leading off the horses, and +putting fresh ones to--the rapid diving for carpet-bags and portmanteaus +into the various boots and luggage holes--the stepping down or out (as +the case may be) of the passengers--the tip to the coachman--the touch +of the hat in return--the remounting of that functionary into his chair +of honour--the chick, chick! with which he hints to the pawing greys he +is ready for a start--and, finally, the roll off into dim distance of +the splendid vehicle, watched by the crowd that have gathered round it, +till it is lost from their sight. A steam-coach, with its disgusting, +hissing, sputtering, shapeless, lifeless engine, ought to be ashamed of +itself, and would probably blush for its appearance, if it were not for +the quantity of brass that goes to its composition. On the +above-mentioned bright day in June, only two passengers go out from the +inside of the Celerity. The outsides, who were apparently pushed for +time, urged them to make haste; and the lady, the first who stept on the +pavement, took their admonitions in good part. With only a small basket +on her arm, and a dark veil drawn close down over her face, she dropt +half-a-crown into the hand of the expectant coachman, and walked rapidly +up the street. The gentleman, however, put off a good deal of time in +identifying his carpet-bag--then his pocket seemed to be indefinitely +deep, as his hand appeared to have immense difficulty in getting to the +bottom of it. At last he succeeded in catching hold of some coin, and, +while he dropt it into the extended palm of the impatient Jehu, he sad, +"Hem! I say, coachie, who is that lady? Eh! fine eyes--hem!" + +"Can't say, sir--no name in the way-bill--thank ye, sir." + +"Then you can't tell me any thing about her? Prettiest critter I ever +saw in my life. As to Mrs Moss"-- + +But before the inquisitive gentleman, who stood all this time with the +carpet-bag in his hand, had an opportunity of making any further +revelation as to Mrs Moss, or any more enquiries as to his unknown +travelling companion, the coachman had mounted the box, and, after +asserting in a very complacent tone that it was all right, had driven +off, and left him in the same state of ignorance as before. + +"Sleep here, sir?--Dinner, sir?--This way to the coffee-room," said a +smart young man, with long hair and a blue coat, with a napkin over +his arm. + +"Oh! you're the waiter, I suppose. Now, waiter, I want to find out +something, and I daresay you can help me"-- + +"This way, sir. You can have a mutton-chop in twenty minutes." + +"No--listen to me--I'm going to ask you some questions. Did you see the +lady that got out of the coach when I did? She's a beautiful critter; +such black eyes!--such a sweet voice!--such a small hand! We travelled +together the whole way from town. She spoke very little, and kept her +name a secret. I couldn't find out what she came here for. Do you +understand?" + +"Yes, sir--perfectly," said the waiter, at the same time evidently +understanding nothing about it. + +"Well, you see, I don't know what you think of it down here; but, for my +part, I think ladies at forty-five are past their prime. Now, my next +neighbour in London--Mrs Moss is her name--she's exactly that age. You +hear what I am saying, waiter?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Now, I don't think this young lady, from her eyes and mouth, can be +more than twenty-three--a charming age, waiter--hem! You never saw her +before, did you?" + +"No, sir--never." + +"Well, its very astonishing what a beautiful girl she is. I am retired +from the lace and ribbon business, waiter, but I think she's the +sweetest specimen of the fair sex I ever saw. And you don't know who she +is, do you?" + +"No, sir. You'll sleep here, sir, I think you said? shammaid!" + +"No--I haven't said so yet," said the stranger, rather sharply. + +"Oh!" said the waiter, who had not attended to a syllable the gentleman +had spoken--and retired under the archway into the hotel. + +"The only way to get information," mused the gentleman with the +carpet-bag, still standing on the pavement, "is to have your eyes about +you and ask questions. It's what I always do since I have begun to +travel for improvement--I got all the waiter knew out of him in a +moment--I ought to have been an Old Bailey barrister--there ain't such a +cross-questioner as I am in the whole profession." + +The person who possessed such astonishing powers of investigation, was a +man about fifty years of age, little and stout, with a face of perfect +good-nature, and presenting the unmistakeable appearance of a prosperous +man. The twinkle about his eye spoke strongly of the three-and-a-half +per cents, and a mortgage or two might be detected in the puckers round +his mouth. I shouldn't at all care to change banker's books with him +on chance. + +"How lucky I haven't proposed to Mrs M.! Charming woman, but +fat--decidedly fat--and a little dictatorial too. Travel, says +she--enlarge your mind--why, how big would she have it?--expand your +intellect--does she think a man's brains are shaped like a fan? I wish +to heaven I could find out who this beautiful"-- + +But, as if his wish was that moment to be gratified, a small light hand +was laid upon his shoulder, and, on turning round, he saw his fair +fellow-traveller. + +"Excuse me, sir," she said, in a very sweet but slightly agitated voice, +"excuse me for addressing you, but I am emboldened by your +appearance to"-- + +"Oh, ma'am--you're very polite--I feel it a great compliment, I assure +you." + +"The benevolent expression of your counternance encourages me to"-- + +"Oh, ma'am, don't mention it, I beg"-- + +"To ask your assistance in my present difficulty." + +"Now, then," thought the gentleman thus appealed to, "I'll find out all +about her--how I'll question her!" + +"You will help me, I feel sure," continued the lady. + +"Oh, certainly--how can you doubt it?--(Hem--what white teeth! Mrs. M. +is a martyr to toothache.) How can I be useful, ma'am? Don't you think +it's a curious coincidence we travelled together, ma'am, and both of us +coming to the same town? It strikes me to be very singular; doesn't it +you, ma'am?" + +"I shall be glad of it, if"-- + +"Ah! by-the-bye--another queer thing is your applying to me--a man past +the bloom of boyhood, to be sure, in fact a little beyond"-- + +"The prime of life," added the lady, not regarding the disappointed look +with which her interpolation was received; "it is for that reason, sir, +I throw myself on your kindness; you have perhaps daughters, sir, or +grandchildren, who"-- + +"Devil a one. Gad, ma'am, I wish you heard Mrs M., a neighbour of +mine--why, she's always talking of my wildness and juvenile liveliness, +and all that sort of thing; an excellent woman Mrs M., but +stout--certainly stout." + +"Are you acquainted with this town, sir?" said the lady. + +"God bless ye! read an immense account of it in the Penny Magazine ever +so long ago; but whether it is famous for a breakwater, or a harbour, or +a cliff, or some dock-yard machinery, I can't recollect; perhaps it's +all of them together; we shall find out soon; for travelling, as Mrs M. +says, enlarges the mind, and expands the intellect." + +The lady looked in the face of the disciple of Mrs M. with an anxious +expression, as if she repented having addressed him. + +"But are you acquainted with the localities here?" she said at last. "As +to myself, I am utterly ignorant of the place I have to go to; and if +you knew what reason I have to"-- + +"Ah! that's the very thing; give me your confidence, and I can refuse you +nothing." + +"My confidence!--alas, the business I come on can only be interesting to +the parties concerned. I came from London for one sole object; and if I +fail, if any delay occurs, the consequences may be--oh, I dread to +think of them!" + +"You don't say so? Lord! what a thing it is to travel!" + +"It was of the utmost consequence that my journey here should be +unknown. I had no one to trust. Alas, alas! I have no friend in all the +world in whom I could confide!" + +"Hem, hem!" said the little man, moved by the earnest sadness of her +tone and looks, "you have one friend, ma'am; you may trust _me_ with any +thing in the world; yes, me, Nicholas Clam, No. 4, Waterloo Place, +Wellington Road, Regent's Park, London. I tell you my name, that you may +know I am somebody. I retired from business some years ago, because +uncle John died one day, and left me his heir; got into a snug cottage, +green verandah, trellice porch, green door, with bell handle in the +wall; next door to Mrs Moss--clever woman, but large--very large. And +now that you know who I am, you will perhaps tell me"-- + +"I have little to tell, sir; I came here to see an officer who was to +have landed this morning from foreign service; if I don't see him +instantly there will be death--ah!"-- + +"Soldiers--death--ah!" thought Mr Clam; "wild fellows them +officers--breach of promise--short memories--a lovely critter, but +rather silly I'm afraid; I should like to see a soldier coming the +sentimental over Mrs M. Well, ma'am?" + +The lady perceived something in the expression of Mr Clam's face (which +was radiant with the wonderful discovery he thought he had made) which +probably displeased her; for she said, in a very abrupt and almost +commanding manner-- + +"Do you know the way, sir, to the infantry barracks?" + +"Not I, ma'am; never knew a soldier in my life. (Think of Mrs M. paying +a morning visit to the barracks! What a critter this is!") + +"Then you can't assist me, sir, as I had hoped, and therefore"-- + +"Oh, by no means, ma'am; I can find out where the barracks are in a +moment. There's a young officer crossing the street; I'll ask him, and +be back in a minute." + +So saying, Mr Clam placed his, carpet-bag in safety inside the archway +of the hotel, and started off in pursuit of information. While her +Mercury was gone on his voyage of discovery, the lady looked at the +officer he was following. He was a young handsome man of two or +three-and-twenty, lounging slowly along with the air of modest +appreciation of his own value to Queen and country--not to mention +private dinner parties and county balls--which seems soon to become a +part of the military character in a garrison town. As he turned round to +speak to Mr Nicholas Clam, the lady half shrieked, and pulled her veil +more carefully over her face. + +"I'm lost! I'm lost!" she said; "'tis Chatterton himself! Oh, why did I +allow this talkative old man to trouble himself with my affairs? If the +meeting takes place before I can explain, my happiness is gone +for ever!" + +She turned away, and walked as quickly as she could up one of the side +streets. Not daring to turn round, she was alarmed by hearing steps +rapidly nearing her in pursuit; and, from the heaviness of the sound, +concluded at once that there was more than one person close behind. It +turned out, however, to be nobody but her portly, and now breathless +companion, Mr Clan. + +"Stop, for heaven's sake, ma'am! that ain't the way," he said. "What a +pace she goes at! Ma'am! ma'am! She's as deaf as a post, and would drive +me into consumption in a week; and this in a hot day in June, too! Mrs +M. has more sense--stop!" + +"Have you discovered the way, sir?" she enquired, hurriedly. + +"Haven't I? I certainly have the knack of picking up information. I told +the young man I had travelled with you from London; that you had some +secret business at the barracks; that I didn't know what it was; and the +moment I asked him all these questions"-- + +"Questions, sir?" said the lady, spitefully; "it strikes me you were +telling every thing, and asking nothing"-- + +"The moment he found out, I say, that there was a lady in the case, and +that you wanted to know the way to the barracks, he insisted on coming +to show you the way himself--a civil young man." + +"Oh, why did you speak to him?" exclaimed the lady, still hurrying on; +"to him of all men? you have ruined me!" + +"Me ruined you! That's going it a little too strong. I never ruined any +body in my life. How did I know you knew the man? There's some awful +mystery in this young woman," muttered Mr Clam, puffing like a +broken-winded coach horse, "and if I live I'll find it out. There's +nothing improves the mind, as Mrs M. says, so much as curiosity." + +"Is it far to the barracks, sir?" + +"This ain't the way, ma'am; you're making it further every minute; and, +besides, you're running away from the young officer." + +"I _mustn't_ meet him, sir--do you hear me?--I _must_ not be +recognized." + +"Well, ma'am," said Mr Clam, "there's no great harm done yet; I did +every thing for the best--following the dictates of an unbiassed +judgment, as Mrs M. says; and if I've brought you into a scrape, I'll +get you out of it. Take my arm, ma'am, turn boldly round, and I'll soon +set him about his business." + +The lady did as she was told, and they retraced their steps. The young +officer now approached, and touching his hat with an air of unspeakable +elegance, and then swinging his cane, said, "You asked me, sir, to show +the way to the barracks." + +"Quite a mistake, sir," replied Mr Clam, drily; "we know the way +perfectly well ourselves." + +"It isn't far," pursued the officer; "and I shall be delighted to +accompany you. Any thing that you, sir, or your beautiful companion, may +require, I shall be happy to procure for you. Is there any one you wish +to see at the barracks?" + +This question was addressed to the lady, who drew back, and made no +reply. + +"If there's any body we want to see," said Mr Clam, "we'll ask for him; +but we're in a hurry, sir. This lady travelled all the way from London +expressly on purpose to"-- + +But here a pinch in the arm prevented any further revelation, and made +Mr Clam wince as if he had been stung by an adder. + +"You needn't grip, so hard," he said to his companion; "for its my +solemn opinion you've taken the bit out. Let us go, sir," he continued, +addressing the officer once more. "We don't need your assistance." + +The young man looked surprised. + +"Well, sir," he said, "it was entirely to do you a favour that I came." + +"You'll do us a far greater if you'll go," replied Mr Clam, becoming +boisterous and dignified, after the manner of a turkey-cock. + +"Sir, I don't understand such language," said the officer. + +"Then your education has been neglected, sir. It's English--plain, +downright English. We have no desire for your society, sir.--Right about +wheel--march." + +"_You_ are below my notice," said the young man, flushing up; "and your +insolent vulgarity is, therefore, safe. At the same time, if the lady +needs my assistance"-- + +"She doesn't need your assistance--far from it--she told me she wished +never to"-- + +Another pinch, more powerful apparently than the former, from the +writhing of the sufferer, interrupted once more the stream of his +eloquence; and he was worked up into a tremendous passion, partly, +perhaps, by the cool contempt of the young officer, and principally by +the pain he suffered in his arm. + +"You're an impudent fellow, sir," he said. "I don't care twopence for +all the puppies that ever wore red coats, sir. My name is Nicholas Clam, +Esq., No. 4, Waterloo Place, Wellington Road, Regent's Park, London; and +I can shoot at a popinjay as well as another." + +"You shall hear from me, sir," said the officer, biting his lips. "My +name is Chatterton--Lieutenant Chatterton. Good day, sir." + +He touched his hat proudly, and walked away. + +"A good riddance, ma'am," said Mr Clam. "Them young chaps think to have +it all their own way. I wish I had seen a policeman or a serjeant of +soldiers; I would have charged him, as sure as a gun!" + +"Oh, come quick, quick!" exclaimed the lady, pressing more hurriedly on +his arm. "Take me to the barracks! I must see him instantly!" + +"Who?" enquired Mr Clam. "I'm all on the teeters to understand what all +this is about. Who is it you must see? Now, for my own part, I don't +want to see any one; only I wish you would tell me what"-- + +"Oh, spare me the recital at present. I'm so agitated by recent events, +that, that--indeed you must excuse me. Oh come--quickly, quickly, come!" + +There was no answer possible to such a request, more especially as by +suiting the action to the word, and drawing her companion forward at a +tremendous rate, she had entirely taken away the quantity of breath +required to carry on a conversation. Mr Clam's cogitations, however, +were deep; and, among them, the most prominent was a doubt as to the +great advantages to be derived from travel, and a firm persuasion that +it is a very foolish thing to become the champion of any lady whatever, +more particularly if she conceals her name, and refuses to satisfy one's +curiosity in the smallest point. + + +CHAPTER II. + + +The young man who has been introduced to us as Lieutenant Chatterton, +pursued his way up the main street in no very equable temper. A little, +grey-eyed, snub-nosed civilian, to have insulted an officer and a +gentleman! the disgrace was past all bearing, especially as it had been +inflicted on him in the presence of a lady. Burning with the indignation +befitting his age and profession, and determined to call out the +insulter, his present object was to meet with a friend whom he might +send with the message. Luckily for his purpose, he was met by +Major McToddy. + +"Ha! major--never was so happy to see any one in my life," exclaimed +Chatterton, seizing the hand of his friend--a tall, raw-boned, red-faced +man, with a good-natured expression of face, not unmixed with a +considerable share of good sense. + +"I really," replied the major, in an accent that was a great deal more +redolent of Renfrew than Middlesex--"I really jist at this moment dinna +happen to have a single guinea aboot me, so ye needna go on wi' your +compliments; but at hame in the kist,--the _arca_, as a body may say"-- + +"Poh! I don't want to borrow just now--except, indeed, your assistance +in a matter of the highest importance. You have always been so kind, so +obliging, that I am sure you wont refuse." + +"Weel, say awa', speak on; _perge, puer_, as a body may say," +interrupted the major, who seemed resolved to show what command of +language he had, for he uniformly began his speeches in his vernacular, +and translated them, though with an effort, into English, or any other +tongue he chanced to recollect. + +"Did you see a lady near the Waterloo? tall, graceful, timid; by +heavens, a shape to dream of, not to see?" + +"Then, what for did ye look at it?--answer that if you +please--_responde, s'il vous plait_." + +"A creature so sweet, so beautiful; ah, McToddy!" + +"What's a' this aboot. What's the meaning of all this? Is't in some wild +play aboot a woman--_une femme,_--a _faemina_, as a body may say, you +want my help? Gae wa' wi' ye--be off with you,--_apage, Sathanas_, as a +body may say--I'm owre auld in the horn for sic nonsense--_non +mihi tantas_." + +"I tell you, major, she is the loveliest creature in Europe. Such a foot +--such shoulders--such a walk--by heavens! I'll shoot him as dead as +Julius Caesar." + +"Who are you going to shoot?--is't a woman in man's claes?" enquired the +major, astonished. + +"I'll shoot him--the cursed, fat, pudgy, beastly rascal, her husband. +I've never seen her face, but"-- + +"Lord seff us!--heaven preserve us, as a body may say. Is that a +respectable reason for shooting a man that you have never seen his +wife's face? Come, come, be cool, John Chatterton--be cool; _animum +rege_, as a body may"-- + +"Cool? a pretty thing for a steady old stager like you, to tell me to +be cool. I tell you, I've been insulted, threatened, quizzed, +laughed at." + +"Wha laughed at ye?" enquired the major. + +"The woman. I'm certain, she must have laughed. How could she avoid it? +I know she laughed at me; for though I couldn't see her face for the +horrid veil she kept over it, I saw from the anxiety she was in to hide +it, from the shaking, of her whole figure, that she was in the +convulsions of a suppressed titter. I'll shoot him as I would a +partridge." + +"But ye've nae license, sir, nor nae qualification either that I can +see--for what did the honest man do?" said the major, amazed at the +wrath of his companion. + +"Do! He didn't actually call me a puppy, but he meant it. I know he +did--I saw it in the twinkle of his light, prying, silly-looking +eyes--the pucking up of his long, red, sneering lip." + +"But ye canna fecht a man--you can't challenge a person, as a body may +say, for having light eyes and long lips--what mair? _quid ultra?_ as +a body"-- + +"He asked me the way to the barracks." + +"Weel, there's no great harm in that--_non nocet_, as a"-- + +"I told him the way, and offered to escort them there; I offered to be +of any use to them in my power, for I knew every officer in garrison, +you know, except our own regiment, that only came in to-day; and just +when I was going to offer my arm to the lovely creature at his side, he +said that they didn't need my guidance, that they did not desire my +society--that he could shoot at a popinjay; now, what the devil _is_ a +popinjay?" + +"I'm thinking jay is the English for some sort of a pyet--a tale-bearer, +as a body may say--a blab." + +"A blab!--by heavens, Major M'Toddy, I don't know what to say--if I +thought the fellow really meant to insinuate any thing of that kind, I +would horsewhip him though I met him in a church." + +"Oho! so your conscience is pricked at last?--_mens sibi non conscia_, +as a body may say," answered the major. "Noo, I want to speak to you on +a point of great importance to yourself, my young friend, before you get +acquainted with the regiment. Hoo long have you been in the depot here, +John Chatterton?" + +"Eighteen months." + +"Weel, man, that's a-year-and-a-half, and you must be almost a man noo." + +The youth looked somewhat inclined to be angry at this mode of hinting +that he was still rather juvenile--but the major went on. + +"And you were engaged, six months ago, to the beauty you used to tell me +so much about, Miss Hope of Oakside." + +"Yes--yes--well?" replied the youth. + +"And what for have ye broke off in such a sudden manner?--_unde rixa?_ +as a body may say." + +"I broke off, Major M'Toddy? I tell you _she_ broke off with me." + +"Did she tell you so?" enquired the senior. + +"No--do you think I would condescend to ask her? No; but doesn't every +body know that she is married?" + +"Have you seen the announcement in the papers?" + +"I never look at the papers--but I tell you I know from the best +authority, that she is either married, or is going to marry an old +worn-out fellow of the name of Smith. A friend of Smith's told me so, +the last time I came down by the coach." + +"A man on the top of the coach told you that she was going to be +married--that is, _in vulgum pargere voces_, as a body may say--capital +authority! And what did you do then?" + +"Sent her back her letters--with a tickler to herself on her conduct." + +"And was that a'?--did you not write to any of her family?" + +"No. Her eldest sister is a very delightful, sensible girl, and I am +certain must have been as angry at Marion's behaviour as I was." + +"And now her brother's come home to-day--you're sure to meet him--it'll +be an awkward meeting." + +"I can meet him or any man in England," replied the youth. "If there's +any awkwardness about it, it sha'n't be on my side." + +"Noo, John Chatterton, my young friend, I'm going to say some words to +you that ye'll no like. Ye're very vain o' yoursel'--but maybe at your +time o' life it's not a very great fault to have a decent bump o' +self-conceit; you're the best-hearted, most honourable-minded, +pleasantest lad I know any where, and very like some nephews of my own +in the Company's service: ye'll be a baronet when your father dies, and +as rich as a Jew. But oh, John Chatterton, ye're an ass--a reg'lar +donkey, as a body may say, to get into tiffs of passion, and send back a +beautiful girl's letters, because some land-louping vagabond on the top +of a coach told you some report or other about a Mr Smith"-- + +"_Captain_ Smith," said Chatterton, biting his lips; "he's a well known +man; he was an ensign in this very regiment, succeeded to a large +fortune, and retired: he's a very old man." + +"He's very fine fellow, and as gallant a soldier as ever lived," +answered the major; "and if you think that a man of six or +seven-and-thirty is ow'r auld to marry, by my troth, Mister Chatterton, +I tak' the liberty to tell you that you labour under a very +considerable mistake." + +Chatterton looked at the irate face of his companion, in which the +crow-feet of forty years were distinctly visible, and perceived that he +had gone on a wrong tack. + +"Well, but then, major, what the deuce right had she to marry without +giving me notice of her intentions?" + +"Set ye up, and push ye forrit!--marry come up! as a body may say--who +made you the young lassie's guardian? If you were really engaged to her, +why didn't you go to Oakside at once and find out the truth, and then go +instantaneously and kick the fellow you met on the top of the coach, +round and round the barrack yard, till there was not enough of him left +to plant your boot on?" + +The young man looked down as if a little ashamed of himself. + +"Never mind, major," said he, "it can't be helped now; so do, like a +good fellow, go and find out the little rascal who insulted me so +horribly just now. It would be an immense satisfaction to pull his nose +with a regulation glove on." + +"But you must describe him, and tell me his name, for it would be a sad +occurrence if I were to give your message to the wrong man." + +"You can't mistake him; the most impudent-looking vulgarian in England. +His name is Nicholas Clam, living in some unheard-of district near the +Regent's Park." + +"And the lady is his wife, is she?" + +"Of course. Who the devil would walk with such a fellow that wasn't +obliged to do it by law?" + +"Well, my young friend, I'll see what's to be done in this matter, and +will bring you, most likely, a solemn declaration that he never shot at +a popinjay in his life. And you're really going to end the conversation +without asking me for a loan? You're not going to be like Virtus, _post +nummos_ after the siller, as a body may say?" + +"No, not to-day, thank you. The governor keeps me rather short just now, +and won't come down handsome till I'm married; but"-- + +"So you've lost that and the girl too--the lass and the tocher, as a +body may say--all by the lies of a blackguard on the top of a coach? +Ye're a wild lad, John Chatterton, and so _vale, et memor esto mei--au +revoir_, as a body may say." + +The major turned away on warlike thoughts intent, that is to say, with +the intention of finding out Mr Clam, and enquiring into the +circumstances of the insult to his friend. Mr Chatterton was also on the +point of hurrying off, when a gentleman, who had overheard the last +sentence of the sonorous-voiced major's parting speech, stopped +suddenly, as if struck by what was said, and politely addressed +the youth. + +"I believe, sir, I heard the name of Chatterton mentioned by the +gentleman who has just left you?" + +"Yes, he was speaking of him." + +"Of your regiment, sir?" + +"Yes, we have a man of that name," replied Mr Chatterton. "What the +deuce can this fellow want?" + +"I am extremely anxious to meet him," continued the stranger, "as I have +some business with him of the highest importance." + +"Oh, a dun, by Jupiter!" thought the young soldier. He looked at the +stranger, a very well dressed gentlemanly man--too manlike for a tailor +--too polished for a horse-dealer; his Wellingtons were brightly +polished--he was perhaps his boot-maker. "Oh, you wish to see Mr +Chatterton?" he said aloud. + +"Very much," replied the stranger. "I have some business with him that +admits of no delay." + +"An arrest at least," thought the youth. "I wish to heaven M'Toddy had +not left me! Is it fair to ask," he continued, aloud, "of what nature +your business is with Mr Chatterton? I am his most intimate +acquaintance; whatever you say to me is sure to reach him." + +"I must speak to him myself, sir," replied the stranger, coldly. "Where +am I likely to find him?" + +"Oh, most likely at the bankers," said the young man, by way of putting +his questioner on the wrong scent. "He has just stept into an immense +fortune from a maiden aunt, and is making arrangements to pay off all +his debts." + +"There are some he will find it difficult to settle," replied the +stranger with a sneer, "in spite of his new-found wealth." + +"Indeed, sir! What an exorbitant Jew this fellow is; and yet I never +signed any bond!" + +"Yes, sir," continued the other, with a bitterer sneer than before, "and +at the same time such as he can't deny. I have vouchers for +every charge." + +"Well, he will not dispute your charges. I daresay they are much the +same as those of other people in the same situation with yourself." + +"Are there others in that condition?" enquired the stranger; "what an +unprincipled scoundrel!" + +"Who, sir? How dare you apply such language to a gentleman?" + +"I did not, sir, apply it to a gentleman; I applied it to Mr +Chatterton." + +"To _me_, sir! It was to me! _I'm_ Mr Chatterton, sir; and now, out with +your writ--whose suit? What's the amount? Is it Stulz or Dean?" + +The stranger steps back on this announcement, and politely but coldly +lifted his hat. + +"Oh, curse your politeness!" exclaimed the young man, in the extremity +of anger. "Where's the bill?" + +"I don't know your meaning, sir," answered the stranger, "in talking +about writs and bills; but"-- + +"Why--are you not a tailor, or a bootmaker, or something of the kind? +Don't you say you have claims on me, and don't you talk of charges with +vouchers, and heaven knows what? Come, let us hear. I'll give you a +promissory note, and I daresay my friend Major M'Toddy will give me his +security." + +"I thought you had recently succeeded to a fortune, sir? but that, I +suppose, was only another of your false and unfounded assertions. Do you +know me, sir?" + +"No--except that you are the most insulting scoundrel I ever met, and +that I wish you were worth powder and shot." + +"Let that pass, sir," continued the stranger, with a bitter smile. "Did +you ever hear of Captain Smith, sir?" + +"Of twenty, sir. I know fifteen Captain Smiths most intimately." + +"But I happen to be one of the five unhonoured by your acquaintance. You +are acquainted with Mrs Smith; sir?" + +"I'm acquainted with three-and-twenty, sir. What then?" + +"I was in hopes, that the recollection of Oakside would have induced you +to treat her name with more respect." + +Chatterton's brow grew dark with rage. "So, then," he said, lifting his +hat with even more pride and coldness than his adversary--"so, then, +you're the Captain Smith I have heard of, and it was no false report? I +am delighted, sir, to see you here, and to know that you are a +gentleman, that I may, without degradation to her Majesty's commission, +put a bullet or two into your body. Your insulting conduct deserves +chastisement, sir, and it shall have it." + +"With all my heart," replied Captain Smith; the pleasure of calling you +to account was the object of my visit. I accept your challenge--only +wondering that you have spirit and honour enough left to resent an +intentional affront. Can we meet to-night?" + +"Certainly. I shall send a friend to you in half an hour. He is gone on +a similar message to another person already; and I will let you know at +what hour I shall be disengaged." + +"Agreed," said Captain Smith; and the enemies, after a deep and formal +bow on either side, pursued their way in different directions. + + +CHAPTER III. + + +In the meanwhile Mr Nicholas Clam, and the lady leaning on his arm, had +proceeded in silence, for the lady's thoughts were so absorbed that she +paid no attention to the many prefatory coughs with which her companion +was continually clearing his throat. He thought of fifty different ways +of commencing a conversation, and putting an end to the rapid pace they +were going at. But onward still hurried the lady, and breathless, tired, +disconcerted, and very much perplexed, Mr Clam was obliged to continue +at her side. + +"This all comes of Mrs Moss writing a book," he muttered, "and being a +philosophical character. What business had she to go publishing all that +wonderful big volume above my mantel-piece--'Woman's Dignity; developed +in Dialogues?' Without that she never would have found out that I could +not be a sympathizing companion without the advantages of travel, and I +never should have left number four, to be quarrelled with by every +whipper-snapper of a soldier, and dragged to death by a woman unknown--a +synonymous personage, as Mrs M. would say, that I encountered in a +coach. 'Pon my word, ma'am," he added aloud, driven to desperation by +fear of apoplexy from the speed they were hurrying on with, "this is +carrying matters a little too far, or a great deal too fast at least. +Will you let me ask you one question, ma'am?" + +"Certainly, sir," replied the lady; "but oh, do not delay!" + +"But I must delay though, for who do you think can have breath enough +both to speak and run? And now, will you tell me, ma'am, what all this +is about--why that young soldier and I were forced to quarrel--what you +came down from London for, and what you are going to do at the +barracks?" + +"You will hear it all, sir; you shall know all when we arrive. But do +not harrow my feelings at present, I beseech you. It may all end well, +if we are in time; but if not"-- + +The look of the lady, and her tone as she said this, did not by any +means contribute to Mr Clam's satisfaction. However, he perceived at +once that further attempts to penetrate the mystery would be useless, +and he kept musing on the strangeness of the circumstance, as profoundly +puzzled as before. On getting into the barrack-yard, the lady muffled +herself in her veil more closely than ever, and asked one of the +soldiers she met in the archway, if Captain Hope "was in his room?" + +"He's not come ashore yet, ma'am," said the soldier, "we expect him +every moment with the last detachment from the transport." + +"Not come yet?" exclaimed the lady; "which way will they march in?" + +"Up the Main Street, and across the drawbridge," said the soldier, +goodnaturedly. + +"I wished to see him--to see him alone. Oh, how unfortunate he is not +arrived!" + +"Now, 'pon my word," muttered Mr Clam, "this is by no means a favourable +specimen of woman's dignity developed in dialogues. I wish my infernal +thirst for knowledge and swelling-out the intellect hadn't led me into +an acquaintance with a critter so desperate fond of the soldiers; and +Captain Hope, too! Oh, I see how it is--this here lady, in spite of all +her veils and pretences, is no better than she should be; or rather, a +great deal worse. Think of Mrs M. falling into hysterics about a Captain +Hope! It's a case of a breach of promise. What should we do now, ma'am?" +he said, anxious to disengage himself, and a little piqued at the want +of confidence his advances had hitherto been received with. "If you'll +tell me the whole story, I shall be able to advise"-- + +"Oh, you will know it all ere long. Soldier," she said to the man who +had answered her former questions, "is there any lady in the +barrack--the wife of one of the officers?" + +"There's our colonel, ma'am--at least the colonel's wife, ma'am; she's +inspecting the regiments baggage in the inner court" + +"Come, come!" said the lady hurriedly, on hearing this, and again Mr +Clam was forced along. In the inner court a stout lady, dressed in a +man's hat and a green riding-habit without the skirts, was busily +employed in taking the numbers of an amazing quantity of trunks and +boxes, and seeing that all was right, with the skill and quickness of +the guard of a heavy coach. She looked up quickly when she saw Mr Clam +and his companion approach. + +"I hope you will pardon me, madam, for addressing you," said the +latter, dropping Mr Clam's arm, and lifting her veil. + +"Be quick about it," said the colonel's wife; "I've no time to put off. +Hand down that box, No. 19, H. G.," she continued to a sergeant who was +perched on the top of the luggage. + +"I wished to see you on a very interesting subject, madam." + +"Love, I'll bet a guinea--who has deserted you now?--that green chest, +Henicky, No. 34." + +"There is an officer in this regiment of the name of Chatterton?" + +"Yes, he's one of my young men, though I've not seen him yet. What +then?" + +"Can I speak to you for a minute alone?" + +"If it's on regimental business, I shall listen to you, of course; but +if it's some nonsensical love affair, you must go to Colonel Sword. I +never trouble myself about such matters." + +"If I could see Colonel Sword, madam"-- + +"Why can't you see him? Go into the commandant's room. You'll find him +rocking the cradle of Tippoo Wellington, my youngest son! That other +box, Henicky, L. M. And who is this old man with you?" continued Mrs +Sword. "Your attorney, I suppose? See that you aren't ducked at the pump +before you get out, old man; for I allow no lawyers inside these walls." + +"Ma'am?" enquired Mr Clam, bewildered at the sudden address of the +officer in command. + +"It's a fact, as you'll find; so, make haste, young woman, and Sword +will settle your business." + +"Captain Hope is not come on shore yet, I believe?" said the lady. + +"Charlie Hope? No! he's bringing the men and baggage. Has _he_ deserted +you too? Go to Sword, I tell you; and let your legal friend retreat +without beat of drum. How many chests is this, Henicky?" + +The Amazonian Mrs Sword proceeded with her work, and Mr Clam stood +stupified with surprise. His companion, in the mean time, proceeded as +directed to the commandant's house, and in a short time found herself in +presence of Colonel Sword. + +The colonel was a tall thin man, with a very pale face, and a very +hooked nose. He was not exactly rocking the cradle of Tippoo Wellington, +as supposed by his wife, but he was reposing in an easy attitude, with +his head thrown back, and his feet thrown forward, and his hands deeply +ensconced in his pockets. The apparition of a stranger roused him in a +moment. He was as indefatigable in politeness, as his wife had been in +her regimental duties. + +"I was in hopes of finding my brother, Captain Hope, in the barracks, +sir," she began; "but as I am disappointed, I throw myself on your +indulgence, in requesting a few minutes' private conversation." + +"A sister of Captain Hope? delighted to see you, my dear--did you see +Mrs Sword as you came in?" + +"For a minute, but she was busy, and referred me to you." + +"She's very good, I am sure," said the colonel.--"How can I be of use?" + +"I have a sister, Colonel Sword, very thoughtless, and very young. She +became acquainted about a year ago with Mr Chatterton of your +regiment--they were engaged--all the friends on both sides approved of +the match, and all of a sudden Mr Chatterton wrote a very insulting +letter, and withdrew from his engagement." + +"The devil he did? Is your sister like you, my dear?" + +"We are said to be like, but she is much younger--only eighteen." + +"Then this Chatterton is an ass. Good God! what chances silly fellows +throw away! And what would you have me do?" + +"Prevent a duel, Colonel Sword. My brother is hot and fiery; Mr +Chatterton is rash and headstrong. There will be enquiries, +explanations, quarrels, and bloodshed. Oh, Colonel, help me to guard +against so dreadful a calamity. I was anxious to see Charles, to tell +him that the rupture was on Marion's side--that she had taken a dislike +to Chatterton. We have kept it secret from every body yet. I haven't +even told my husband." + +"You're married, then?" + +"To Captain Smith, once of this regiment." + +"Ah, an old friend. Give me your hand, my dear--we must keep those wild +young fellows in order. If I see them look at each other, I'll put them +both in arrest. But what can be the meaning of Chatterton's behaviour? I +hear such good reports of him from all hands! M'Toddy writes me he is +the finest young man in the corps." + +"I can't pretend to guess. He merely returned all my sister's letters, +and wished her happy in her new position." + +"What position was that?" + +"A very unhappy one. She has been ill and nervous ever since." + +"So she liked the rascal. Strange creatures you girls are! Well, I'll do +my best. I'll give my wife a hint of it, and you may depend on it, if +she takes it in hand, there will be no quarrelling under her--I mean +under my command. If you go towards the harbour, you'll most likely +encounter your brother. In the meantime, I will go to Chatterton, and +take all necessary precautions. And Captain Smith knows nothing +of this?" + +"Nothing.--He was on a visit at Oakside, my sister's home, and I took +the opportunity of his absence, to run down and explain matters to +Charles. I must return to town immediately; for if I am missed, my +husband will make enquiries, and he will be more difficult to pacify +than my brother." So saying, they parted after a warm shake of the +hand--but great events had occurred in the meantime in the barrack-yard. + +"Who is that young woman?" said the Colonel's wife, to our astonished +friend Mr Clam. "Have you lost your tongue, sir?--who is she, I say?" + +"If you were to draw me with horses, I could'nt tell you, ma'am--'pon my +solemn davit," said Mr Clam. + +"Oh, you won't tell, won't you?" returned the lady, cocking her hat, and +leaving the mountain of baggage to the care of her friend Sergeant +Henicky. "I tell you, sir, I insist on knowing; and if you don't confess +this moment, I shall perhaps find means to make you." + +"Me, ma'am? How is it possible for me to confess, when I tell you I know +nothing about her? I travelled with her from London in the coach--am +very likely to get shot by a young soldier on her account--brought her +here at a rate that has taken away all my breath--and know no more about +her than you do." + +"A likely story!--but it won't do for me, sir; no, sir--I see you are an +attorney--ready to prosecute some of my poor young men for breach of +promise; but we stand no nonsense of that kind in the gallant Sucking +Pidgeons. So, trot off, old man, and take your decoy-duck with you, or I +think its extremely likely you'll be tost in a blanket. Do you hear?--go +for your broken-hearted Desdemona, and double-quick out of the yard. +I'll teach a set of lawyers to come playing the Jew to my young men. +They shall jilt every girl in England if they think proper, and serve +them right too--and no pitiful green-bag rascal shall trouble them about +such trifles--right about face--march"-- + +"Madam," said Mr Clam, in the extremity of amazement and fear, "did you +ever happen to read 'Woman's Dignity, developed in Dialogues?' It's +written by my friend, Mrs Moss, No. 5, Waterloo Place, Wellington Road, +Regent's Park--in fact, she's my next door neighbour--a clever woman, +but corpulent, very corpulent--you never met with 'Woman's Dignity, +developed in Dialogues?'" + +"Woman's idiocy, enveloped in petticoats! Who the devil cares about +woman, or her dignity either? I never could bear the contemptible +wretches. No--give me a man--a good, stout-hearted, front-rank +man--there's some dignity there--with the eye glaring, nostril widening, +bayonet fixed, and double-quick the word, against the enemies' line. But +woman's dignity!--let her sit and sew--work squares for ottomans, or +borders for chair-bottoms--psha!--beat a retreat, old man, or you'll be +under the pump in two minutes. I'll teach you to talk nonsense about +your women--I will--as sure as my name is Jane Sword and I command the +Sucking Pigeons!" + +"Pigeons don't suck, ma'am. Mrs M. lent me book of nat'ral history"-- + +"You'll find they'll bite, tho'--Henicky, take a corporal's guard, +and"-- + +"Oh no, for heaven's sake, ma'am!" exclaimed Mr Clam. "Your servant, +ma'am. I'm off this moment." + +The unhappy victim of Mrs Moss's advice to travel for the improvement of +his mind, thought it best to follow the orders of the military lady in +the riding-habit, and retired as quickly as he could from the barrack +yard. But, on arriving at the outer archway, shame, or curiosity, or +some other feeling, made him pause. "Am I to go away," he thought, +"after all, without finding out who the lady is or what business brought +her here--what she knows about Chatterton--and what she wants with Hope? +There's a mystery in it all. Mrs M. would never forgive me if I didn't +find it out. I'll wait for the pretty critter--for she is a pretty +critter, in spite of her not telling me her story--I think I never saw +such eyes in my life. Yes--I'll wait." Mr Clam accordingly stopped +short, and looked sharply all round, to watch if his fair companion was +coming. She was still detained in the colonel's room. + +"Will you pardon me for addressing a stranger, sir?" said a gentleman, +politely bowing to Mr Clam. + +"Oh, if it's to ask what o'clock it is, or when the coach starts, or any +thing like that, I shall be happy to answer you, sir, if I can," replied +Mr Clam, whose liking for new acquaintances had not been much increased +by the events of the day. + +"I should certainly not have taken the liberty of applying to you," +continued the stranger, "if it had not been under very peculiar +circumstances." + +"Are they very peculiar, sir?" enquired Mr Clam. + +"Yes--as you shall have explained to you some other time." + +"Oh, you won't tell them now, won't you? Here's another mystery. 'Pon my +word, sir, so many queer things happen in this town, that I wish I had +never come into it. I came down only to-day per coach"-- + +"That's fortunate, sir; if you are a stranger here, your service to me +will be greater." + +"What is it you want? My neighbour in No. 5--a very talented woman, but +big, uncommonly big--says in her book, never purchase the offspring of +the sty enveloped in canvass--which means, never meddle with any thing +you don't know." + +"You shall know all--but I must first ask, if you are satisfied, will +you be my friend in a troublesome matter in which I am a party?" + +"Oh, you're in a troublesome matter too, are you?--as for me, I came +down from London with such a critter, so pretty, so gentle, such a +perfect angel to look at!" + +"Oh, I don't wish to have your confidence in such affairs. I am pressed +for time," replied the stranger, smiling. + +"But I tell you, I am trying to find out what the matter is that you +need my help in." + +"I beg pardon. I thought you were telling me an adventure of your own"-- + +"Well sir, this beautiful critter asked my help, just as you're +doing--dragged me hither and thither, first asking for one soldier, +then another." + +"And finally, smiling very sweetly on yourself. I know their ways--said +the stranger. + +"Do you, now? Not joking?--Oh lord! the sooner the better, for such lips +to smile with, are not met with every day. Well sir, then there came up +a puppy fellow of the name of Chatterton." + +"Oh, Chatterton!" said the stranger; "that is curious." + +"And insulted us, either her or me I forget which; but I blew him up, +and he said he would send a friend to me"--here a new thought seemed to +strike Mr Clam--his countenance assumed a very anxious expression-- +"you're not his friend, sir?" he asked. + +"No sir; far from it. He is the very person with whom I have the +quarrel." + +"You've quarrelled with him too? Another breach of promise?--a wild dog +that Chatterton." + +"Another breach! I did not know that that was _your_ cause of quarrel." + +"Nor I; 'pon my solemn davit, I'm as ignorant as a child of what my +quarrel is about; all that I know is, that my beautiful companion seemed +to hate the sight of him." + +"Then I trust you won't refuse me your assistance, since you have +insults of your own to chastise. I expect his message every moment. My +name is Captain Smith." + +"And mine, Nicholas Clam, No. 4, Waterloo Place, Welling"-- + +"Then, gentlemen," said Major M'Toddy, lifting his hat, "I'm a lucky +man--_fortunatus nimium_, as a body may say, to find you both together; +for I am charged with an invitation to you from my friend Mr +Chatterton." + +"Oh! he wants to make it up, does he, and asks us to dinner? No. I won't +go," said Mr Clam. + +"Then you know the alternative, I suppose!" said the Major. + +"To pay for my own dinner at the inn," replied Mr Clam; "of course I +know that." + +The Major threw a glance at Mr Clam, which he would probably have taken +the trouble to translate into two or three languages, although it was +sufficiently intelligible without any explanations, but he had no time. +He turned to Captain Smith, and said:-- + +"I'm very sorry, Captain Smith, to make your acquaintance on such a +disagreeable occasion. I've heard so much of you from mutual friends, +that I feel as if I had known you myself, _quod facit per alium facit +per se_--I'm Major M'Toddy of this regiment." + +"I have long wished to know you, Major, and I hope even this matter need +not extend any of its bitterness to us." + +The gentlemen here shook hands very cordially-- + +"Well, that's a rum way," said Mr Clam, "of asking a fellow to go out +and be shot at. But this whole place is a mystery. I'll listen, however, +and find out what this is all about." + +"And noo, Captain Smith, let me say a word in your private ear." + +"Privateer! that's a sort of ship," said Mr Clam. + +"I hate eaves-droppers," continued the Major, with another glance at Mr +Clam--"_odi profanum vulgus_, as a body may say--and a minute's talk +will maybe explain matters." + +"I doubt the power of a minute's talk for any such purpose," said +Captain Smith, with a smile; "but," going a few yards further from Mr +Clam at the same time--"I shall listen to you with pleasure." + +"Weel, then, I canna deny--_convenio_, as a body may say--that in the +first instance, you played rather a severe trick on Mr Chatterton." + +"I play a trick!" exclaimed Captain Smith; "I don't understand you. But +proceed, I beg. I will not interrupt you." + +"But then, on the other hand, it's not to be denied that Mr Chatterton's +method of showing his anger was highly reprehensible." + +"His anger, Major M'Toddy!" + +"'Deed ay, just his anger--_ira furor brevis_--and it's really very +excusable in a proud-spirited young man to resent his being jilted in +such a sudden and barefaced manner." + +"_He_ jilted! but again I beg pardon--go on." + +"Nae doubt--_sine dubio_, as a body may say--the lassie had a right to +change her mind; and if she thought proper to prefer you to him, I canna +see what law, human or divine"-- + +"Does the puppy actually try to excuse himself on so base a calumny as +that Marion preferred me? Major M'Toddy, I am here to receive your +message; pray deliver it, and let us settle this matter as soon as +possible." + +"Whar's the calumny?" said the major. "You wadna have me to believe, +Captain Smith, that the lady does not prefer you to him?" + +"Now perhaps she does, for she has sense enough and pride enough, I +hope, to despise him; but never girl was more attached to a man in the +world than she to Chatterton. Her health is gone--she has lost the +liveliness of youth. No, no--I am much afraid, in spite of all that has +passed, she is fond of the fellow yet." + +"How long have you suspected this?" enquired the major. + +"For some time; before my marriage, of course, I had not such good +opportunities of judging as I have had since." + +"Of course, of course," said the major, in a sympathizing tone; "it's +bad business. But if you had these suspicions before, what for did +you marry?" + +"Why? Do you think things of that sort should hinder a man from marrying +the girl he likes? Mrs Smith regrets it as much as I do." + +"Then what for did she not tell Chatterton she was going to marry you?" + +"What right had he to know, sir?" + +"A vera good right, I think; or if he hadna, I wad like to know wha +had?" + +"There, sir, we differ in opinion. Will you deliver your message, name +your place and hour, and I shall meet you. I shall easily get a friend +in this town, though I thought it better at one time to apply to a +civilian; but I fear," he added, with a smile, "my friend Mr Clam will +scarcely do." + +"I really dinna ken--I positively don't know, as a body may say, how to +proceed in this matter. In the first place, if your wife is over fond of +Chatterton." + +"My wife, sir?" + +"'Deed ay--_placens uxor_, as a body may say--I say if your wife +continues to like Chatterton, you had better send a message to him, and +not he to you." + +"So I would, if she gave me occasion, Major M'Toddy; but if your friend +boasts of any thing of that kind, his conduct is still more infamous and +intolerable than I thought it." + +"But your ainsel'--your own self told me so this minute." + +"You mistake, sir. I say that Marion Hope, my wife's sister, is still +foolish enough to like him." + +"Your wife's sister! You didna marry Chatterton's sweetheart?" + +"No, sir--her elder sister." + +"Oh, lord, if I had my fingers round the thrapple o' that leein' +scoundrel on the tap of the coach! Gie me your hand, Captain Smith--it's +all a mistake. I'll set it right in two minutes. Come with me to +Chatterton's rooms--ye'll make him the happiest man in England. He's wud +wi' love--mad with affection, as a body may say. He thought you had run +off with his sweetheart, and it was only her sister!" + +Captain Smith began to have some glimmerings of the real state of the +case; and Mr Clam was on the point of going up to where they stood to +make further enquiries for the improvement of his mind, when his +travelling companion, again deeply veiled, laid her hand on his arm. + +"Move not for your life!" she said. + +"I'm not agoing to move, ma'am." + +"Let them go," she continued; "we can get down by a side street. If they +see me, I'm lost." + +"Lost again! The mystery grows deeper and deeper." + +"One of these is my husband." + +Mr Clam drops her arm. "A married woman, and running after captains and +colonels! Will you explain a little ma'am, for my head is so puzzled, +that hang me if I know whether I stand on my head or my heels?" + +"Not now--sometime or other you will perhaps know all; but come with me +to the beach--all will end well." + +"Will it?--then I hope to heaven it will end soon, for an hour or two +more of this will kill me." + +The two gentlemen, in the meantime, had disappeared, and Mr Clam was on +the eve of being hurried off to the harbour, when a young officer came +rapidly towards them. + +"Charles!" cried the lady, and put her arms round his neck. + +"There she goes!" said Mr Clam--"another soldier!--She'll know the whole +army soon." + +"Mary!" exclaimed the soldier--"so good, so kind of you to come to +receive me." + +"I wished to see you particularly," she said, "alone, for one minute." + +The brother and sister retired to one side, leaving Mr Clam once more +out of ear-shot. + +"More whispering!" muttered that disappointed gentleman. "This can never +enlarge the intellect or improve the mind. Mrs M. is a humbug--not a +drop of information can I get for love or money. Nothing but whisperings +here, closetings there--all that comes to my share is threats of +shootings and duckings under pumps. I'll go back to Waterloo Place this +blessed night, and burn 'Woman's Dignity' the moment I get home." + +"Then let us go to Chatterton's rooms," said the young officer, giving +his arm to his sister; "I have no doubt he will explain it all, and I +shall be delighted to see your husband." + +"She's going to see her husband! She's the wickedest woman in England," +said Mr Clam, who caught the last sentence. + +"Still here'" said a voice at his ear--"lurking about the barracks!" + +He looked round and saw the irate features of the tremendous Mrs Sword. +He made a rapid bolt and disappeared, as if he had a pulk of Cossacks in +full chase at his heels. + +The conversation of the good-natured Colonel Sword with Chatterton had +opened that young hero's eye so entirely to the folly of his conduct, +that it needed many encouraging speeches from his superior to keep him +from sinking into despair.--"That I should have been such a fool," he +said, "as to think that Marion would prefer any body to me!" Such was +the style of his soliloquy, from which it will be perceived, that in +spite of his discovery of his stupidity, he had not entirely lost his +good opinion of himself--"to think that she would marry an old fellow of +thirty-six! What will she think of me! How lucky I did not write to my +father that I had broken matters off. Do you think she'll ever forgive +me, colonel?" + +"Forgive you, my, dear fellow?" said the colonel; "girls, as Mrs Sword +says, are such fools, they'll forgive any thing." + +"And Captain Smith!--a fine gentlemanly fellow--the husband of Marion's +sister--I have insulted him--I must fight him, of course." + +"No fighting here, young man; you must apologize if you've done wrong; +if not, he must apologize to you; Mrs Sword would never look over a duel +between two Sucking Pigeons." + +"Then _I_ must apologize." + +"Ye canna have a better chance--you can't have a better opportunity, as +a body may say," said the bilingual major, entering the room, "for +here's Captain Smith ready to accept it." + +"With all his heart, I assure you," said that gentleman, shaking +Chatterton's hand; "so I beg you'll say no more about it." + +"This is all right--just as it should be," said the Colonel. "Captain +Smith, you'll plead poor Chatterton's cause with the offended lady." + +"Perhaps the culprit had better be his own advocate--he will find the +court very favourably disposed; and as the judge is herself at the +Waterloo hotel"-- + +"Marion here!" exclaimed Chatterton; "good heavens, what an atrocious +ass I have been!" + +"She is indeed," replied the Captain. "I knew she would be anxious to +receive her brother Charles on his landing, and as I had wormed out from +her the circumstances of this lover's quarrel"-- + +"_Amantium ira amoris redintegratio est_--as a body may say," interposed +Major M'Toddy. + +"And was determined to enquire into it, I thought that the pretence of +welcoming Captain Hope would allay any suspicion of my intention; and +so, with her good mother's permission, I brought her down, leaving my +wife in Henley Street"-- + +"Where she didn't long remain," said no other than Captain Charles Hope, +himself leading in Mrs Smith, the mysterious travelling acquaintance +of Mr Clam. + +"Do you forgive me," she said to her husband, "for coming down without +your knowledge?" + +"I suppose I must," said Captain Smith, laughing, "on condition that you +pardon me for the same offence?" + +"And noo, then," said Major M'Toddy, "I propose that we all, together +and singly, _conjunctim ac separatim_--as a body may say--go down +instanter to the Waterloo Hotel. We can arrange every thing there better +than here, for we must hear the other side--_audi alteram partem_, as a +body may say." + +"This will be a regular _jour de noce_, as you would say, Major," +remarked Colonel Sword, giving his arm to Mrs Smith. + +"It's a _nos non nobis_, poor auld bachelors--as a body may say," +replied the Major, and the whole party proceeded to the hotel. + +Mr Clan, on making his escape from the fulminations of Mrs Sword, had +been rejoiced to see his carpet-bag still resting against the wall under +the archway of the inn, as he had left it when he first arrived. + +"Waiter!" he cried; and the same long-haired individual in the blue +coat, with the napkin over his arm, came to his call. + +"Is there any coach to London this evening?" + +"Yes, sir--at half-past six." + +"Thank heaven!" exclaimed Mr Clam, "I shall get out of this infernal +town. Waiter!" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I came from London to-day with a lady--close veiled, all muffled up. +She is a married woman, too--more shame for her." + +"Yes, sir. Do you dine before you go, sir." said the waiter, not +attending to Mr Clan's observations. + +"No. Her husband doesn't know she's here; but, waiter, Mr Chatterton +does." Mr Clam accompanied this piece of information with a significant +wink, which, however, made no sensible impression on the waiter's mind. + +"Yes, Chatterton does; for you may depend on it, by this time he's found +out who she is." + +"Yes, sir. Have you secured a place, sir?" + +"Now, she wouldn't have her husband know she is here for the world." + +"Outside or in, sir? The office is next door"--continued the waiter. + +"Then, there's a tall gentleman, who speaks with a curious accent. I +wonder who the deuce _he_ can be." + +"No luggage but this, sir? Porter will take it to the office, sir." + +"Nor that dreadful he-woman in the hat--who the mischief can _she_ be? +What had Chatterton done?--who is the husband?--who is the lady? Waiter, +is there a lunatic asylum here?" + +"No, sir. We've a penitentiary." + +"Then, 'pon my davit, the young woman"-- + +But Mr Clam's observation, whatever it was--and it was evidently not +very complimentary to his travelling companion--was interrupted by the +entrance of the happy party from Chatterton's rooms. + +Mr Clam looked first at the colonel and Captain Hope, and Mrs Smith--but +they were so busy in their own conversation, that they did not observe +him. Then followed Major M'Toddy, Captain Smith, and Mr Chatterton. + +"Here's our civil friend," said the Major--"_amicas noster_, as a body +may say." + +"Oh, by Jove!" said Mr Chatterton, "I ought to teach this fellow a +lesson in natural history." + +"He's the scientific naturalist that called you popinjay," continued the +major--"_ludit convivia miles_, as a body may say." + +"He's the fellow that refused to be my friend, and told me some foolish +story of his flirtations with a lady he met in the coach," added +Captain Smith. + +"Gentlemen," said Mr Clam, "I'm here in search of information; will you +have the kindness to tell me what we have all been fighting, and +quarrelling, and whispering and threatening about for the last two +hours? My esteemed and talented neighbour, the author of 'Women's +Dignity developed in Dialogues'"-- + +"May gang to the deevil," interposed Major M'Toddy--_abeat in malam +crucem_, as a body may say--We've no time for havers, _i prae, sequar_, +as a body may say. What's the number of her room?" + +"No. 14," said the Captain, and the three gentlemen passed on. + +"_Her_ room!" said Mr Clam, "another lady! Waiter!" + +"Yes sir." + +"I'll send you a post-office order for five shillings, if you'll find +out all this, and let me know the particulars--address to me, No. 4, +Waterloo Place, Wellington Road, Regent's Park, London. I've done every +thing in my power to gain information according to the advice of Mrs M., +but it's of no use. Let me know as soon as you discover any thing, and +I'll send you the order by return of post." + +"Coach is coming, sir," said the waiter. + +"And I'm going; and very glad I am to get out of the town alive. And as +to the female banditti in the riding habit, with all the trunks and +boxes; if you'll let me know"-- + +"The coach can't wait a moment, sir." + +Mr Clam cast a despairing look as he saw his last hope of finding out +the mystery disappear. He stept into the inside of the coach-- + +"Coachman," he said, with his foot on the step--"There's no lady inside, +is there?" + +"No, sir." + +"Then drive on; if there had been, I wouldn't have travelled a mile with +her." The roll of the coach drowned the remainder of Mr Clam's +eloquence; and it is much feared that his enquiries have been +unsuccessful to the present day. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE EAST AND SOUTH OF EUROPE. + + + A Steam-voyage to Constantinople, by the Rhine and Danube, in + 1840-41, and to Portugal, Spain, &c. By the Marquis of + Londonderry. In 2 vols. 8vo. + + +We have a very considerable respect for the writer of the Tour of which +we are about to give extracts in the following pages. The Marquis of +Londonderry is certainly no common person. We are perfectly aware that +he has been uncommonly abused by the Whigs--which we regard as almost a +necessary tribute to his name; that he has received an ultra share of +libel from the Radicals--which we regard as equally to his honour; and +that he is looked on by all the neutrals, of whatever colour, as a +personage too straightforward to be managed by a bow and a smile. Yet, +for all these things, we like him the better, and wish, as says the +old song-- + + "We had within the realm + Five hundred good as he." + +He is a straightforward, manly, and high-spirited noble, making up his +mind without fee or reward, and speaking it with as little fear as he +made it up; managing a large and turbulent population with that +authority which derives its force from good intention; constant in his +attendance on his parliamentary duty; plainspoken there, as he is every +where; and possessing the influence which sincerity gives in every part +of the world, however abounding in polish and place-hunting. + +His early career, too, has been manly. He was a soldier, and a gallant +one. His mission to the Allied armies, in the greatest campaign ever +made in Europe, showed that he had the talents of council as well as of +the field; and his appointment as ambassador to Vienna, gave a character +of spirit, and even of splendour, to British diplomacy which it had +seldom exhibited before, and which, it is to be hoped, it may recover +with as little delay as possible. + +We even like his employment of his superfluous time. Instead of giving +way to the fooleries of fashionable life, the absurdities of galloping +after hares and foxes, for months together, at Melton, or the patronage +of those scenes of perpetual knavery which belong to the race-course, +the Marquis has spent his vacations in making tours to the most +remarkable parts of Europe. It is true that Englishmen are great +travellers, and that our nobility are in the habit of wandering over the +Continent. But the world knows no more of their discoveries, if they +make such, or of their views of society and opinions of governments, if +they ever take the trouble to form any upon the subject, than of their +notions of the fixed stars. That there are many accomplished among them, +many learned, and many even desirous to acquaint themselves with what +Burke called "the mighty modifications of the human race," beginning +with a land within fifteen miles of our shores, and spreading to the +extremities of the earth, we have no doubt. But in the countless +majority of instances, the nation reaps no more benefit from their +travels than if they had been limited from Bond Street to Berkeley +Square. This cannot be said of the Marquis of Londonderry. He travels +with his eyes open, looking for objects of interest, and recording them. +We are not now about to give him any idle panegyric on the occasion. We +regret that his tours are so rapid, and his journals so brief. He passes +by many objects which we should wish to see illustrated, and turns off +from many topics on which we should desire to hear the opinions of a +witness on the spot. But we thank him for what he has given; hope that +he will spend his next autumn and many others as he has spent the +former; and wish him only to write more at large, to give us more +characters of the rank with which he naturally associates, draw more +contrasts between the growing civilization of the European kingdoms and +our own; and, adhering to his own straightforward conceptions, and +telling them in his own sincere style, give us an annual volume as long +as he lives. + +Steam-boats and railways have produced one curious effect, which no one +anticipated. Of all _levellers_ they are the greatest. Their superiority +to all other modes of travelling crowds them with the peer as well as +the peasant. Cabinets, and even queens, now abandon their easy, but +lazy, equipages for the bird-like flight of iron and fire, and though +the "special train" still sounds exclusive, the principle of commixture +is already there, and all ranks will sweep on together. + +The Marquis, wisely adopting the bourgeois mode of travelling, set forth +from the Tower Stairs, on a lovely morning at the close of August 1840. +Fifty years ago, the idea of a general, an ambassador, and a peer, with +his marchioness and suite, embarking on board the common conveyance of +the common race of mankind, would have been regarded as an absolute +impossibility; but the common sense of the world has now decided +otherwise. Speed and safety are wisely judged to be valuable +compensations for state and seclusion; and when we see majesty itself, +after making the experiment of yachts and frigates, quietly and +comfortably return to its palace on board a steamer, we may be the less +surprised at finding the Marquis of Londonderry and his family making +their way across the Channel in the steamer Giraffe. Yet it is to be +remarked, that though nothing can be more miscellaneous than the +passengers, consisting of Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, and Yankee; of +Jews, Turks, and heretics; of tourists, physicians, smugglers, and all +the other diversities of idling, business, and knavery; yet families who +choose to pay for them, may have separate cabins, and enjoy as much +privacy as is possible with specimens of all the world within +half-an-inch of their abode. + +The voyage was without incident; and after a thirty hours' passage, the +Giraffe brought them to the Brill and Rotterdam. It has been an old +observation that the Dutch clean every thing but themselves; and nothing +can be more matter of fact than that the dirtiest thing in a house in +Holland is generally the woman under whose direction all this scrubbing +has been accomplished. The first aspect of Rotterdam is strongly in +favour of the people. It exhibits very considerable neatness for a +seaport--the Wapping of the kingdom; paint and even gilding is common on +the outsides of the shops. The shipping, which here form a part of the +town furniture, and are to be seen every where in the midst of the +streets, are painted with every colour of the rainbow, and carved and +ornamented according to such ideas of taste in sculpture as are +prevalent among Dutchmen; and the whole exhibits a good specimen of a +people who have as much to struggle with mud as if they had been born so +many eels, and whose conceptions of the real colour of the sky are even +a shade darker than our own. + +The steam-boats also form a striking feature, which utterly eluded the +wisdom of our ancestors. There are here, bearing all colours, from all +the Rhenish towns, smoking and suffocating the Dutch, flying past their +hard-working, slow-moving craft; and bringing down, and carrying away, +cargoes of every species of mankind. The increase of Holland in wealth +and activity since the separation from Belgium, the Marquis regards as +remarkable; and evidently having no _penchant_ for our cousin Leopold, +he declares that Rotterdam is at this moment worth more solid money than +Antwerp, Brussels, and, he believes, "all Leopold's kingdom together." + +At Antwerp, he happened to arrive at the celebration of the fete in +honour of Rubens. "To commemorate the painter may be all very well," he +observes; "but it is not very well to see a large plaster-of-Paris +statue erected on a lofty pedestal, and crowned with laurels, while the +whole population of the town is called out for fourteen days together, +to indulge in idleness and dissipation, merely to announce that Rubens +was a famed _Dutch_ painter in times long past." We think it lucky for +the Marquis that he had left Antwerp before he called Rubens a Dutch +painter. We are afraid that he would have hazarded a summary application +of the Lynch law of the Flemish avengers of their country. + +"If such celebrations," says the Marquis, "are proper, why not do equal +honour to a Shakspeare, a Pitt, a Newton, or any of those illustrious +men by whose superior intelligence society has so greatly profited?" The +obvious truth is, that such "celebrations" are not to our taste, that +there is something burlesque, to our ideas, in this useless honour; and +that we think a bonfire, a discharge of squibs, or even a discharge of +rhetoric, and a display of tinsel banners and buffoonery, does not +supply the most natural way of reviving the memory of departed genius. +At the same time, they have their use, where they do not create their +ridicule. On the Continent, life is idle; and the idlers are more +harmlessly employed going to those pageants, than in the gin-shop. The +finery and the foolery together also attract strangers, the idlers of +other towns; it makes money, it makes conversation, it makes amusement, +and it kills time. Can it have better recommendations to ninety-nine +hundredths of mankind? + +In 1840, when this tour was written, all the politicians of the earth +were deciding, in their various coffee-houses, what all the monarchs +were to do with the Eastern question. Stopford and Napier were better +employed, in battering down the fortifications of Acre, and the +politicians were soon relieved from their care of the general concerns +of Europe. England settled this matter as she had often done before, and +by the means which she has always found more natural than protocols. But +a curious question is raised by the Marquis, as to the side on which +Belgium might be inclined to stand in case of an European struggle; his +opinion being altogether _for_ the English alliance. + +"France could undoubtedly _at first_ seize possession of a country so +close to her empire as to be in fact a province. But still, with Antwerp +and other fortresses, Holland in the rear, and Hanover and Germany at +hand, and, above all, England, aiding perhaps with a British army, the +independence of King Leopold's throne and kingdom might be more +permanently secured by adhering to the Allies, than if he linked himself +to Louis Philippe, in whose power alone, in case of non-resistance to +France, he would ever afterwards remain; and far better would it be, in +my opinion, for this founder of a Belgian monarchy, if he would achieve +for his dynasty an honourable duration, to throw himself into the arms +of the many, and reap advantages from all, than to place his destiny at +the mercy of the future rulers of France." + +No doubt this is sound advice; and if the decision were to depend on +himself, there can be as little doubt that he would be wiser in +accepting the honest aid of England, than throwing his crown at the feet +of France. But he reigns over a priest-ridden kingdom, and Popery will +settle the point for him on the first shock. His situation certainly is +a singular one; as the uncle of the Queen of England, and the son-in-law +of the King of France, he seems to have two anchors dropped out, either +of which might secure a throne in ordinary times. But times that are +_not_ ordinary may soon arise, and then he must cut both cables and +trust to his own steerage. If coldness is prudence, and neutrality +strength, he may weather the storm; but it would require other qualities +to preserve Belgium. + +Brussels was full of English. The Marquis naturally talks in the style +of one accustomed to large expenditure. The chief part of the English +residents in Brussels, are families "who live there on three or four +thousand a-year--far better as to luxuries and education than they could +in England for half as much more." He evidently thinks of three or four +thousand a-year, as others might think of as many hundreds. But if any +families, possessed of thousands a-year, are living abroad for the mere +sake of _cheaper_ luxuries and _cheaper_ education, we say, more shame +for them. We even can conceive nothing more selfish and more +contemptible. Every rational luxury is to be procured in England by such +an income. Every advantage of education is to be procured by the same +means. We can perfectly comprehend the advantages offered by the +cheapness of the Continent to large families with narrow incomes; but +that the opulent should abandon their country, their natural station, +and their duties, simply to drink champagne at a lower rate, and have +cheaper dancing-masters, we must always regard as a scandalous +dereliction of the services which every man of wealth and rank owes to +his tenantry, his neighbours, and his nation. Of course, we except the +traveller for curiosity; the man of science, whose object is to enlarge +his knowledge; and even the man of rank, who desires to improve the +minds of his children by a view of continental wonders. Our reprobation +is, of the habit of living abroad, and living there for the vulgar and +unmanly purpose of self-indulgence or paltry avarice. Those absentees +have their reward in profligate sons, and foreignized daughters, in +giving them manners ridiculous to the people of the Continent, and +disgusting to their countrymen--morals adopting the grossness of +continental life, and general habits rendered utterly unfit for a return +to their country, and, of course, for any rational and meritorious +conduct, until they sink into the grave. + +The Marquis, who in every instance submitted to the rough work of the +road, took the common conveyance by railroad to Liege. It has been a +good deal the custom of our late tourists to applaud the superior +excellence of the continental railroads. Our noble traveller gives all +this praise the strongest contradiction. He found their inferiority +quite remarkable. The materials, all of an inadequate nature, commencing +with their uncouth engine, and ending with their ill-contrived double +seats and carriages for passengers. The attempts made at order and +regularity in the arrangements altogether failed. Every body seemed in +confusion. The carriages are of two sorts--the first class, and the +_char-a-banc_. The latter are all open; the people sit back to back, and +face to face, as they like, and get at their places by scrambling, +squeezing, and altercation. Even the Marquis had a hard fight to +preserve the seats which he had taken for his family. At Malines, the +train changes carriages. Here a curious scene occurred. An inundation of +priests poured into all the carriages. They came so thick that they were +literally thrown back by their attempt to squeeze themselves in; "and +their cocked hats and black flowing robes gave them the appearance of +ravens with their wide-spreading wings, hovering over their prey in the +vehicles." + +Travelling, like poverty, brings one acquainted with strange companions; +and, accustomed as the Marquis was to foreign life, one railway +traveller evidently much amused him. This was a personage who stretched +himself at full length on a seat opposite the ladies, "his two huge legs +and thighs clothed in light blue, with long Spanish boots, and heavy +silver spurs, formed the foreground of his extended body. A black satin +waistcoat, overlaid with gold chains, a black velvet Spanish cloak and +hat, red beard and whiskers, and a face resembling the Saracen's on +Snow-Hill, completed his _ensemble_." He was probably some travelling +mountebank apeing the Spanish grandee. + +Aix-la-Chapelle exhibited a decided improvement on the City of the +Congress five-and-twenty years ago. The principal streets were now +paved, with fine _trottoirs_, the buildings had become large and +handsome, and the hotels had undergone the same advantageous change. +From Liege to Cologne the country exhibited one boundless harvest. The +vast cathedral of Cologne at last came in sight, still unfinished, +though the process of building has gone on for some hundred years. The +extraordinary attempt which has been made, within the last few months, +to unite Protestantism with Popery, in the completion of this gigantic +building, will give it a new and unfortunate character in history. The +union is impossible, though the confusion is easy, and the very attempt +to reconcile them only shows to what absurdities men may be betrayed by +political theories, and to what trivial and temporary objects the +highest interests of our nature may be sacrificed. Cologne, too, is +rapidly improving. The free navigation of the Rhine has done something +of this, but the free passage of the English has done a great deal more. +A perpetual stream of British travellers, flowing through Germany, +benefits it, not merely by their expenditure, but by their habits. Where +they reside for any length of time, they naturally introduce the +improvements and conveniences of English life. Even where they but pass +along, they demand comforts, without which the native would have plodded +on for ever. The hotels are gradually provided with carpets, +fire-places, and a multitude of other matters essential to the civilized +life of England; for if civilization depends on bringing the highest +quantity of rational enjoyment within the reach of general society, +England is wholly superior in civilization to the shivering splendours +of the Continent. Foreigners are beginning to learn this; and those who +are most disposed to scoff at our taste, are the readiest to follow +our example. + +The streets of Cologne, formerly dirty and narrow, and the houses, old +and tumbling down, have given way to wide spaces, handsome edifices, and +attractive shops. The railway, which we have lent to the Continent, will +shortly unite Brussels, Liege, and Cologne, and the three cities will be +thereby rapidly augmented in wealth, numbers, and civilization. + +The steam-boats on the Rhine are in general of a good description. The +arrangements are convenient, considering that at times there are two +hundred passengers, and that among foreigners the filthy habit of +smoking, with all its filthy consequences, is universal; but, below +decks, the party, especially if they take the _pavillion_ to themselves, +may escape this abomination. The Rhine has been too often described to +require a record here; but the rapturous nonsense which the Germans pour +forth whenever they write about the national river, offends truth as +much as it does taste. The larger extent of this famous stream is +absolutely as dull as a Dutch pond. The whole run from the sea to +Cologne is flat and fenny. As it approaches the hill country it becomes +picturesque, and its wanderings among the fine declivities of the +Rheingate exhibit beautiful scenery. The hills, occasionally topped with +ruins, all of which have some original (or invented) legend of love or +murder attached to them, indulge the romance of which there is a +fragment or a fibre in every bosom; and the general aspect of the +country, as the steam-boat breasts the upward stream, is various and +luxuriant. But the German architecture is fatal to beauty. Nothing can +be more _barbarian_ (with one or two exceptions) than the whole range of +buildings, public and private, along the Rhine; gloomy, huge, and +heavy--whether palace, convent, or chateau, they have all a prison-look; +and if some English philanthropist, in pity to the Teutonic taste, would +erect one or two "English villas" on the banks of the Rhine, to give +the Germans some idea of what architecture ought to be, he would render +them a national service, scarcely inferior to the introduction of +carpets and coal-fires. + +Johannisberg naturally attracts the eye of the English traveller, whose +cellar has contributed so largely to its cultivation. This +mountain-vineyard had been given by Napoleon to Kellerman; but +Napoleon's gifts were as precarious as himself, and the Johannisberg +fell into hands that better deserved it. At the peace of 1814 it was +presented by the Emperor Francis to the great statesman who had taught +his sovereign to set his foot on the neck of the conqueror of Vienna. +The mountain is terraced, clothed with vineyards, and forms a very gay +object to those who look up to it from the river. The view from the +summit of the hill is commanding and beautiful, but its grape is +_unique_. The chief portion of the produce goes amongst the +principalities and powers of the Continent; yet as the Englishman must +have his share of all the good things of the earth, the Johannisberg +wine finds its way across the Channel, and John Bull satisfies himself +that he shares the luxury of Emperors. + +The next _lion_ is Ehrenbreitstein, lying on the right bank of the +Rhine, the most famous fortress of Germany, and more frequently +battered, bruised, and demolished, than any other work of nature or man +on the face of the globe. It has been always the first object of attack +in the French invasions, and, with all its fortifications, has always +been taken. The Prussians are now laying out immense sums upon it, and +evidently intend to make it an indigestible morsel to the all-swallowing +ambition of their neighbours; but it is to be hoped that nations are +growing wiser--a consummation to which they are daily arriving by +growing poorer. Happily for Europe, there is not a nation on the +Continent which would not be bankrupt in a single campaign, provided +England closed her purse. In the last war she was the general paymaster: +but that system is at an end; and if she is wise, she will never suffer +another shilling of hers to drop into the pocket of the foreigner. + +The Prussians have formed an entrenched camp under cover of this great +fortress, capable of containing 120,000 men. They are obviously right in +keeping the French as far from Berlin as they can; but those enormous +fortresses and entrenched camps are out of date. They belonged to the +times when 30,000 men were an army, and when campaigns were spent in +sieges. Napoleon changed all this, yet it was only in imitation of +Marlborough, a hundred years before. The great duke's march to Bavaria, +leaving all the fortresses behind him, was the true tactic for conquest. +He beat the army in the field, and then let the fortresses drop one by +one into his hands. The change of things has helped this bold system. +Formerly there was but one road through a province--it led through the +principal fortress--all the rest was mire and desolation. Thus the +fortress must be taken before a gun or a waggon could move. Now, there +are a dozen roads through every province--the fortress may be passed out +of gun-shot in all quarters--and the "grand army" of a hundred and fifty +thousand men marches direct on the capital. The _tetes-du-pont_ on the +Niemen, and the entrenched camp which it had cost Russia two years to +fortify, were turned in the first march of the French; and the futility +of the whole costly and rather timorous system was exhibited in the +fact, that the crowning battle was fought within hearing of Moscow. + +Beyond Mayence the Rhine reverts to its former flatness, the hills +vanish, the shores are level, but the southern influence is felt, and +the landscape is rich. + +Wisbaden is the next stage of the English--a stage at which too many +stop, and from which not a few are glad to escape on any terms. The Duke +of Nassau has done all in his power to make his watering-place handsome +and popular, and he has succeeded in both. The Great Square, containing +the assembly-room, is a very showy specimen of ducal taste. Its +colonnades and shops are striking, and its baths are in the highest +order. Music, dancing, and promenading form the enjoyment of the crowd, +and the gardens and surrounding country give ample indulgence for the +lovers of air and exercise. _The_ vice of the place, as of all +continental scenes of amusement, is gambling. Both sexes, and all ages, +are busy at all times in the mysteries of the gaming-table. Dollars and +florins are constantly changing hands. The bloated German, the meagre +Frenchman, the sallow Russian, and even the placid Dutchman, hurry to +those tables, and continue at them from morning till night, and often +from night till morning. The fair sex are often as eager and miserable +as the rest. It is impossible to doubt that this passion is fatal to +more than the purse. Money becomes the price of every thing; and, +without meaning to go into discussion on such topics, nothing can be +clearer than that the female gambler, in this frenzy of avarice, +inevitably forfeits the self-respect which forms at least the outwork of +female virtue. Though the ancient architecture of Germany is altogether +dungeon-like, yet they can make pretty imitations. The summer palace of +the duke at Biberach might be adopted in lieu of the enormous fabrics +which have cost such inordinate sums in our island. "The circular room +in the centre of the building is ornamented with magnificent marble +pillars. The floor is also of marble. The galleries are stuccoed, with +gold ornaments encrusted upon them. From the middle compartment of the +great hall there are varied prospects of the Rhine, which becomes +studded here with small islands: and the multitudinous orange, myrtle, +cedar, and cypress trees on all sides render Biberach a most +enchanting abode." + +The Marquis makes some shrewd remarks on the evident attention of the +Great Powers to establish an interest among the little sovereignties of +Germany. Thus, Russia has married "her eldest daughter to an adopted +Bavarian. The Cesarowitch is married to a princess of Darmstadt," &c. He +might have added Louis Philippe, who is an indefatigable advocate of +marrying and giving in marriage. Austria is extending her olive branches +as far as she can; and all princes, now having nothing better to do, are +following her example. + +Yet, we altogether doubt that family alliances have much weight in times +of trouble. Of course, in times of peace, they may facilitate the common +business of politics. But, when powerful interests appear on the stage, +the matrimonial tie is of slender importance; kindred put on their +coats-of-mail, and, like Francis of Austria and his son-in-law Napoleon, +they throw shot and shell at each other without any ceremony. It is only +in poetry that Cupid is more powerful than either Mammon or Mars. + +The next _lion_ is Frankfort--a very old lion, 'tis true, but one of the +noblest cities of Germany, connected with high recollections, and doing +honour, by its fame, to the spirit of commerce. Frankfort has been +always a striking object to the traveller; but it has shared, or rather +led the way to the general improvement. Its shops, streets, and public +buildings all exhibit that march, which is so much superior to the +"march of mind," panegyrised by our rabble orators--the march of +industry, activity, and invention; Frankfort is one of the liveliest and +pleasantest of continental residences. + +But the Marquis is discontented with the inns; which, undoubtedly, are +places of importance to the sojourner--perhaps of much more importance +than the palaces. He reckons them by a "sliding scale;" which, however, +is a descending one--Holland bad, Belgium worse, Germany the third +degree of comparison. Some of the inns in the great towns are stately; +but it unluckily happens that the masters and mistresses of those inns +are to the full as stately, and that, after a bow or curtsey at the door +to their arriving guests, all their part is at an end. The master and +mistress thenceforth transact their affairs by deputy. They are +sovereigns, and responsible for nothing. The _garcons_ are the cabinet, +and responsible for every thing; but they, like superior personages, +shift their responsibility upon any one inclined to take it up; and all +is naturally discontent, disturbance, and discomfort. We wonder that the +Marquis has not mentioned the German _table-d'hote_ among his +annoyances; for he dined at it. Nothing, in general, can be more adverse +to the quiet, the ease, or the good-sense of English manners. The +_table-d'hote_ is essentially vulgar; and no excellence of _cuisine_, or +completeness of equipment, can prevent it from exhibiting proof of its +original purpose, namely--to give a cheap dinner to a miscellaneous +rabble. + +German posting is on a par with German inns, which is as much as to say +that it is detestable, even if the roads were good. The roughness, mire, +and continual ascents and descents of the roads, try the traveller's +patience. The only resource is sleep; but even that is denied by the +continual groanings of a miserable French horn, with which the postilion +announces his approach to every village. + + "Silence, ye wolves, while tipsy Mein-Herr howls, + Making night hideous; answer him, ye owls." + +The best chance of getting a tolerable meal in the majority of these +roadside houses, is, to take one's own provisions, carry a cook, if we +can, and, if not, turn cooks ourselves; but the grand hotels are too +"grand" for this, and they insist on supplying the dinner, for which the +general name is _cochonerrie_, and with perfect justice. + +On the 12th of September, the Marquis and his family arrived at +Nuremberg, where the Bavarian court were assembled, in order to be +present at a Camp of Exercise. To the eye of an officer who had been in +the habit of seeing the armies of the late war, the military spectacle +could not be a matter of much importance, for the camp consisted of but +1800 men. But he had been a comrade of the king, when prince-royal, +during the campaigns of 1814 and 1815; and, as such, had helped (and not +slightly) to keep the tottering crown on the brow of Bavaria. He now +sent to request the opportunity of paying his respects; but Germany, +absurd in many things, is especially so in point of etiquette. Those +miraculous productions of Providence, the little German sovereigns, live +on etiquette, never abate an atom of their opportunities of convincing +inferior mortals that they are of a super-eminent breed; and, in part, +seem to have strangely forgotten that salutary lesson which Napoleon and +his captains taught them, in the days when a republican brigadier, or an +imperial aid-de-camp, though the son of a tailor, treated their "Serene +Highnesses" and "High Mightinesses" with as little ceremony as the +thoroughly beaten deserved from the conquerors. In the present instance, +the little king did _not_ choose to receive the gallant soldier, whom, +in days of difficulty, he had been rejoiced to find at his side; and the +ground assigned was, that the monarch received none but in uniform; the +Marquis having mentioned, that he must appear in plain clothes, in +consequence of dispatching his uniform to Munich, doubtless under the +idea of attending the court there in his proper rank of a +general officer. + +The Marquis was angry, and the fragment of his reply which we give, was +probably as unpalatable a missive as the little king had received since +the days of Napoleon. + +"My intention was, to express my respect for his majesty, in taking this +opportunity to pay my court to him, in the interesting recollection of +the kindly feelings which he deigned to exhibit to me and my _brother_ +at Vienna, when Prince Royal of Bavaria. + +"I had flattered myself, that as the companion-in-arms of the excellent +Marshal Wrede in the campaigns of 1814 and 1815, his majesty would have +granted this much of remembrance to an individual, without regard to +uniform; or, at least, would have done me the honour of a private +audience. I find, however, that I have been mistaken, and I have now +only to offer my apologies to his majesty. + +"The flattering reception which I have enjoyed in other courts, and the +idea that this was connected with the name and services of the +individual, and not dependent on the uniform, was the cause of my +indiscretion. As my profound respect for his majesty was the sole +feeling which led me towards Munich, I shall not _delay a moment_ in +quitting his majesty's territory." + +If his majesty had been aware that this Parthian arrow would have been +shot at him, he would have been well advised in relaxing his etiquette. + +In the vicinity where this trifling transaction occurred, is the +_locale_ of an undertaking which will probably outlast all the little +diadems of all the little kings. This is the canal by which it is +proposed to unite the Rhine, the Mayne, and the Danube; in other words, +to make the longest water communication in the world, through the heart +of Europe; by which the Englishman embarking at London-bridge, may +arrive at Constantinople in a travelling palace, with all the +comforts--nay, all the luxuries of life, round him; his books, pictures, +furniture, music, and society; and all this, while sweeping through some +of the most magnificent scenery of the earth, safe from surge or storm, +sheltered from winter's cold and summer's sun, rushing along at the rate +of a couple of hundred miles a-day, until he finds himself in the +Bosphorus, with all the glories of the City of the Sultans glittering +before him. + +This is the finest speculation that was ever born of this generation of +wonders, steam; and if once realized, must be a most prolific source of +good to mankind. But the Germans are an intolerably tardy race in every +thing, but the use of the tongue. They harangue, and mystify, and +magnify, but they will not act; and this incomparable design, which, in +England, would join the whole power of the nation in one unanimous +effort, languishes among the philosophists and prognosticators of +Germany, finds no favour in the eyes of its formal courts, and threatens +to be lost in the smoke of a tobacco-saturated and slumber-loving +people. + +But the chief monument of Bavaria is the Val Halla, a modern temple +designed to receive memorials of all the great names of Germany. The +idea is kingly, and so is the temple; but it is built on the model of +the Parthenon--evidently a formidable blunder in a land whose history, +habits, and genius, are of the north. A Gothic temple or palace would +have been a much more suitable, and therefore a finer conception. The +combination of the palatial, the cathedral, and the fortress style, +would have given scope to superb invention, if invention was to be found +in the land; and in such an edifice, for such a purpose, Germany would +have found a truer point of union, than it will ever find in the absurd +attempt to mix opposing faiths, or in the nonsense of a rebel Gazette, +and clamorous Gazetteers. + +Still the Bavarian monarch deserves the credit of an unrivalled zeal to +decorate his country. He is a great builder, he has filled Munich with +fine edifices, and called in the aid of talents from every part of +Europe, to stir up the flame, if it is to be found among his +drowsy nation. + +The Val Halla is on a pinnacle of rising ground, about a hundred yards +from the Danube, from whose bank the ascent is by a stupendous marble +staircase, to the grand portico. The columns are of the finest white +stone, and the interior is completely lined with German marbles. Busts +of the distinguished warriors, poets, statesmen, and scholars, are to be +placed in niches round the walls, but _not_ till they are dead. A +curious arrangement is adopted with respect to the living: Persons of +any public note may send their busts, while living, to the Val Halla, +where they are deposited in a certain chamber, a kind of marble +purgatory or limbo. When they die, a jury is to sit upon them, and if +they are fortunate enough to have a verdict in their favour, they take +their place amongst these marble immortals. As the process does not +occur until the parties are beyond the reach of human disappointment, +they cannot feel the worse in case of failure; but the vanity which +tempts a man thus to declare himself deserving of perpetual renown, by +the act of sending his bust as a candidate, is perfectly _foreign_, and +must be continually ridiculous. + +The temple has been inaugurated or consecrated by the king in person, +within the last month. He has made a speech, and dedicated it to German +fame for ever. He certainly has had the merit of doing what ought to +have been long since done in every kingdom of Europe; what a slight +retrenchment in every royal expenditure would have enabled every +sovereign to set on foot; and what could be done most magnificently, +would be most deserved, and ought to be done without delay, in England. + +At Ratisbon, the steam navigation on the Danube begins, taking +passengers and carriages to Linz, where the Austrian steam navigation +commences, completing the course down the mighty river. The former +land-journey from Ratisbon to Vienna generally occupied six days. By the +steam-boat, it is now accomplished in forty-eight hours, a prodigious +saving of space and time. The Bavarian boats are smaller than those on +the Rhine, owing to the shallows on the upper part of the river, but +they are well managed and comfortable. The steamer is, in fact, a +floating hotel, where every thing is provided on board, and the general +arrangements are exact and convenient. The scenery in this portion of +the river is highly exciting.--"The Rhine, with its hanging woods and +multitudinous inhabited castles, affords a more cultivated picture; but +in the steep and craggy mountains of the Danube, in its wild outlines +and dilapidated castles, the imagination embraces a bolder range. At one +time the river is confined within its narrowest limits, and proceeds +through a defile of considerable altitude, with overhanging rocks +menacing destruction. At another it offers an open, wild archipelago of +islands. The mountains have disappeared, and a long plain bounds on each +side of the river its barren banks." + +The steam-boats stop at Neudorf, a German mile from Vienna. On his +arrival, the Marquis found the servants and carriages of Prince +Esterhazy waiting for him, and quarters provided at the Swan Hotel, +until one of the prince's palaces could be prepared for his reception. +The importance of getting private quarters on arriving at Vienna is +great, the inns being all indifferent and noisy. They have another +disqualification not less important--they seem to be intolerably dear. +The Marquis's accommodations, though on a _third_ story of the Swan, +cost him eight pounds sterling a-day. This he justly characterizes as +extravagant, and says he was glad to remove on the third day, there +being an additional annoyance, in a club of the young nobles at the +Swan, which prevented a moment's quiet. The _cuisine_, however, was +particularly good, and the house, though a formidable affair for a +family, is represented as desirable for a "bachelor"--we presume, a +rich one. + +Vienna has had her share in the general improvement of the Continent. +She has become commercial, and her streets exhibit shops with gilding, +plate-glass, and showy sign-boards, in place of the very old, very +barbarous, and very squalid, displays of the last century. War is a +rough teacher, but it is evidently the only one for the Continent. The +foreigner is as bigoted to his original dinginess and discomfort, as the +Turk to the Koran. Nothing but fear or force ever changes him. The +French invasions were desperate things, but they swept away a prodigious +quantity of the cobwebs which grow over the heads of nations who will +not use the broom for themselves. Feudalities and follies a thousand +years old were trampled down by the foot of the conscript; and the only +glimpses of common-sense which have visited three-fourths of Europe in +our day, were let in through chinks made by the French bayonet. The +French were the grand improvers of every thing, though only for their +own objects. They made high roads for their own troops, and left them to +the Germans; they cleared the cities of streets loaded with nuisances of +all kinds, and taught the natives to live without the constant dread of +pestilence; they compelled, for example the Portuguese to wash their +clothes, and the Spaniards to wash their hands. They proved to the +German that his ponderous fortifications only brought bombardments on +his cities, and thus induced him to throw down his crumbling walls, fill +up his muddy ditches, turn his barren glacis into a public walk, and +open his wretched streets to the light and air of heaven. Thus Hamburgh, +and a hundred other towns, have put on a new face, and almost begun a +new existence. Thus Vienna is now thrown open to its suburbs, and its +suburbs are spread into the country. + +The first days were given up to dinner at the British ambassador's, +(Lord Beauvale's,) at the Prussian ambassador's, and at Prince +Metternich's. Lord Beauvale's was "nearly private He lived on a second +floor, in a fine house, of which, however, the lower part was understood +to be still unfurnished. His lordship sees but few people, and seldom +gives any grand receptions, his indifferent health being the reason for +living privately." However, on this point the Marquis has his own +conceptions, which he gives with a plainness perfectly characteristic, +and very well worth being remembered. + +"I think," says he, "that an ambassador of England, at an imperial +court, with _eleven thousand pounds_ per annum! should _not_ live as a +private gentleman, nor consult solely his own ease, unmindful of the +sovereign he represents. A habit has stolen in among them of adopting a +spare _menage_, to augment _private fortune when recalled_! This is +wrong. And when France and Russia, and even Prussia, entertain +constantly and very handsomely; our embassies and legations, generally +speaking, are niggardly and shut up." + +However the Lord Beauvale and his class may relish this honesty of +opinion, we are satisfied that the British public will perfectly agree +with the Marquis. A man who receives L. 11,000 a-year to show hospitality +and exhibit state, ought to do both. But there is another and a much +more important point for the nation to consider. Why should eleven +thousand pounds a-year be given to any ambassador at Vienna, or at any +other court of the earth? Cannot his actual diplomatic functions be +amply served for a tenth of the money? Or what is the actual result, but +to furnish, in nine instances out of ten, a splendid sinecure to some +man of powerful interest, without any, or but slight, reference to his +faculties? Or is there any necessity for endowing an embassy with an +enormous income of this order, to provide dinners, and balls, and a +central spot for the crowd of loungers who visit their residences; or to +do actual mischief by alluring those idlers to remain absentees from +their own country? We see no possible reason why the whole ambassadorial +establishment might not be cut down to salaries of fifteen hundred +a-year. Thus, men of business would be employed, instead of the +relatives of our cabinets; dinner-giving would not be an essential of +diplomacy; the ambassador's house would not be a centre for all the +ramblers and triflers who preferred a silly and lavish life abroad to +doing their duty at home; and a sum of much more than a hundred thousand +pounds a-year would be saved to the country. Jonathan acts the only +rational part on the subject. He gives his ambassador a sum on which a +private gentleman can live, and no more. He has not the slightest sense +of giving superb feasts, furnishing huge palaces, supplying all the +rambling Jonathans with balls and suppers, or astonishing John Bull by +the tinsel of his appointments. Yet he is at least as well served as +others. His man is a man of business; his embassy is no showy sinecure; +his ambassador is no showy sinecurist. The office is an understood step +to distinction at home; and the man who exhibits ability here, is sure +of eminence on his return. We have not found that the American diplomacy +is consigned to mean hands, or inefficient, or despised in any country. + +The relative value of money, too, makes the folly still more +extravagant. In Vienna, L. 11,000 a-year is equal to twice the sum in +England. We thus virtually pay L. 22,000 a-year for Austrian diplomacy. +In France about the same proportion exists. But in Spain, the dollar +goes as far as the pound in England. There L. 10,000 sterling would be +equivalent to L. 40,000 here. How long is this waste to go on? We +remember a strong and true _expose_, made by Sir James Graham, on the +subject, a few years ago; and we are convinced that, if he were to take +up the topic again, he would render the country a service of remarkable +value; and, moreover, that if he does not, it will be taken up by more +strenuous, but more dangerous hands. The whole system is one of lavish +absurdity. + +The Russian ambassador's dinner "was of a different description. +Perfection in _cuisine_, wine, and attendance. Sumptuousness in liveries +and lights; the company, about thirty, the _elite_ of Vienna." + +But the most interesting of those banquets, from the character of the +distinguished giver, was Prince Meternich's. The prince was residing at +his "Garten," (villa) two miles out of town. He had enlarged his house +of late years, and it now consisted of three, one for his children, +another for his own residence, and a third for his guests. This last was +"really a fairy edifice, so contrived with reflecting mirrors, as to +give the idea of being transparent." It was ornamented with rare +malachite, prophyry, jasper, and other vases, presents from the +sovereigns of Europe, besides statues, and copies of the most celebrated +works of Italy. + +The Marquis had not seen this eminent person since 1823, and time had +played its part with his countenance; the smile was more languid, the +eye less illumined, the person more slight than formerly, the hair of a +more silvery hue, the features of his expressive face more distinctly +marked; the erect posture was still maintained, but the gait had become +more solemn; and when he rose from his chair, he had no longer his +wonted elasticity. + +But this inevitable change of the exterior seems to have no effect on +the "inner man." "In the Prince's conversation I found the same talent, +the unrivalled _esprit_. The fluency and elocution, so entirely his own, +were as graceful, and the memory was as perfect, as at any +former period." + +This memorable man is fond of matrimony; his present wife, a daughter of +Count Zichy Ferraris, being his third. A son of the second marriage is +his heir, and he has by his present princess two boys and a girl. The +Princess seems to have alarmed her guest by her vivacity; for he +describes her in the awful language with which the world speaks of a +confirmed _blue_:--"Though not so handsome as her predecessor, she +combines a _very spirited_ expression of countenance, with a clever +conversation, a versatility of genius, and a wit rather satirical than +humorous, which makes her _somewhat formidable_ to her acquaintance." We +dare say that she is a very showy tigress. + +The Marquis found Vienna less gay than it was on his former visit. It is +true that he then saw it in the height of the Congress, flushed with +conquest, glittering with all kinds of festivity; and not an individual +in bad spirits in Europe, but Napoleon himself. Yet in later times the +court has changed; "the Emperor keeps singularly aloof from society; the +splendid court-days are no more; the families are withdrawing into +coteries; the beauties of former years have lost much of their +brilliancy, and a new generation equal to them has not yet appeared." + +This is certainly not the language of a young marquis; but it is +probably not far from the estimate which every admirer of the sex makes, +_after_ a five-and-twenty years' absence. But he gallantly defends them +against the sneer of the cleverest of her sex, Lady Wortley Montagu, a +hundred years ago; her verdict being, "That their costume disfigured the +natural ugliness with which Heaven had been pleased to endow them." He +contends, however, that speaking within the last twenty (he probably +means _five-and-twenty_) years, "Vienna has produced some of the +handsomest women in the world: and in frequenting the public walks, the +Prater, and places of amusement, you meet as many bewitching +countenances, especially as to eyes, hair, and _tournure_, as in any +other capital whatever." + +We think the Marquis fortunate; for we must acknowledge, that in our +occasional rambles on the Continent, we _never_ saw beauty in a German +visage. The rotundity of the countenance, the coarse colours, the +stunted nose, and the thick lip, which constitute the general mould of +the native physiognomy, are to us the very antipodes of beauty. Dress, +diamonds, rouge, and lively manners, may go far, and the ball-room may +help the deception; but we strongly suspect that where beauty casually +appears in society, we must look for its existence only among foreigners +to Teutchland. The general state of intercourse, even among the highest +circles, is dull. There are few houses of rank where strangers are +received; the animation of former times is gone. The ambassadors live +retired. The monarch's state of health makes him averse to society. +Prince Metternich's house is the only one constantly open; "but while he +remains at his Garten, to trudge there for a couple of hours' general +conversation, is not very alluring." Still, for a family which can go so +far to look for cheap playhouses and cheap living, Vienna is a +convenient capital. + +But Austria has one quality, which shows her common sense in a striking +point of view. She abhors change. She has not a radical in her whole +dominions, except in jail--the only place fit for him. The agitations +and vexations of other governments stop at the Austrian frontier. The +people have not made the grand discovery, that universal suffrage is +meat and drink, and annual parliaments lodging and clothing. They +labour, and live by their labour; yet they have as much dancing as the +French, and better music. They are probably the richest and most +comfortable population of Europe at this hour. Their country has risen +to be the protector of Southern Europe; and they are making admirable +highways, laying down railroads, and building steam-boats, ten times as +fast as the French, with all their regicide plots, and a revolution +threatened once-a-month by the calendar of patriotism. "Like the great +Danube, which rolls through the centre of her dominions, the course of +her ministry and its tributary branches continue, without any deviation +from its accustomed channel." The comparison is a good one, and what can +be more fortunate than such tranquillity? + +The two leading ministers, the government in effect, are Metternich and +Kollowrath; the former the Foreign Minister, the latter the Minister of +the Interior. They are understood to be of different principles; the +latter leaning to the "Movement," or, more probably, allowing himself to +be thought to do so, for the sake of popularity. But Metternich is the +true head. A Conservative from the beginning, sagacious enough to see +through the dupery of the pretended friends of the human race, and firm +enough to crush their hypocrisy--Metternich is one of those statesmen, +of whom men of sense never could have had two opinions--a mind which +stamped itself from the beginning as a leader, compelled by +circumstances often to yield, but never suffering even the most +desperate circumstances to make it despair. He saw where the strength of +Europe lay, from the commencement of the Revolutionary war; and, guided +by the example of Pitt, he laboured for a general European alliance. +When he failed there, he husbanded the strength of Austria for the day +of struggle, which he knew would come; and when it came, his genius +raised his country at once from a defeated dependency of France, into +the arbiter of Europe. While this great man lives, he ought to be +supreme in the affairs of his country. But in case of his death, General +Fiquelmont, the late ambassador to Russia, has been regarded as his +probable successor. He is a man of ability and experience, and his +appointment to the court of St Petersburg was probably intended to +complete that experience, in the quarter to which Austria, by her new +relations, and especially by her new navigation of the Danube, must look +with the most vigilant anxiety. + +The Austrian army is kept up in very fine condition; but nearly all the +officers distinguished in the war are dead, and its present leaders have +to acquire a name. It is only to be hoped that they will never have the +opportunity. The regimental officers are generally from a higher class +than those of the other German armies. + +After remaining for a fortnight at Vienna, the Marquis paid a visit to +his friend Prince Esterhazy. + +This nobleman, long known and much-esteemed in England, is equally well +known to be a kind of monarch in Hungary. Whatever novelist shall write +the "Troubles of rank and riches," should take the prince for his hero. +He has eight or nine princely mansions scattered over the empire, and in +each of them it is expected, by his subjects of the soil, that his +highness should reside. + +The Marquis made a round of the principal of those mansions. The first +visit was to a castle in the neighbourhood of Vienna, which the prince +has modernized into a magnificent villa. Here all is constructed to the +taste of a statesman only eager to escape the tumult of the capital, and +pining to refresh himself with cooling shades and crystal streams. All +is verdure, trout streams, leafy walks, water blue as the sky above it, +and the most profound privacy and seclusion. + +After a "most exquisite entertainment" here, the Marquis and his family +set out early next morning to visit Falkenstein. Every castle in this +part of the world is historical, and derives its honours from a Turkish +siege. Falkenstein, crowning the summit of a mountain of granite, up +which no carriage can be dragged but by the stout Hungarian horses +trained to the work, has been handsomely bruised by the Turkish balls in +its day; but it is now converted into a superb mansion; very grand, and +still more curious than grand; for it is full of relics of the olden +time, portraits of the old warriors of Hungary, armour and arms, and all +the other odd and pompous things which turn an age of barbarism into an +age of romance. The prince and princess are hailed and received at the +castle as king and queen. A guard of soldiers of the family, which the +Esterhazy have the sovereign right to maintain, form the garrison of +this palatial fortress, and it has a whole establishment of salaried +officials within. The next expedition was to two more of those +mansions--Esterhazy, built by one of the richest princes of the house, +and Eisenstadt. The former resembles the imperial palace at Schonbrun, +but smaller. The prince is fitting it up gorgeously in the Louis XIV.th +style. Here he has his principal studs for breeding horses; but +Eisenstadt outshone all the chateaus of this superb possessor. The +splendours here were regal: Two hundred chambers for guests--a saloon +capable of dining a thousand people--a battalion of the "Esterhazy +Guard" at the principal entrances; all paid from the estate. To this all +the ornamental part was proportioned--conservatory and greenhouses on +the most unrivalled scale--three or four hundred orange-trees alone, +throwing the Duke of Northumberland's gardens into eclipse, and +stimulating his Grace of Devonshire even to add new greens and glories +to Chatsworth. + +On his return to Vienna, the Marquis was honoured with a private +interview by the emperor--a remarkable distinction, as the ambassador +was informed "that the emperor was too well acquainted with the +Marquis's services to require any presentation, and desired that he +might come alone." He was received with great politeness and +condescension. Next day he had an interview with Prince Metternich, who, +with graceful familiarity, took him over his house in Vienna, to show +him its improvements since the days of Congress. He remarks it as a +strange point in the character of this celebrated statesman, how +minutely he sometimes interests himself in mere trifles, especially +where art and mechanism are concerned. He had seen him one evening +remain for half an hour studiously examining the construction of a +musical clock. The Prince then showed his _cabinet de travail_, which he +had retained unchanged. "Here," said he, "is a spot which is exactly as +it was the last day you saw it." Its identity had been rigidly +preserved, down to the placing of its paper and pencils. All was in the +same order. The Prince evidently, and justly, looked on those days as +the glory of his life. + +We regret that the conversation of so eminent a person could not be more +largely given; for Metternich is less a statesman than statemanship +itself. But one remark was at once singularly philosophical and +practical. In evident allusion to the miserable tergiversations of our +Whig policy a couple of years since, he said, "that throughout life, he +had always acted on the plan of adopting the _best determination on all +important subjects_. That to this point of view he had steadfastly +adhered; and that, in the indescribable workings of time and +circumstances, it had _always happened to him_ that matters were +brought round to the very spot, from which, owing to the folly of +misguided notions or inexperienced men, they had for a time taken their +departure." This was in 1840, when the Whigs ruled us; it must be an +admirable maxim for honest men, but it must be perpetually thwarting the +oblique. To form a view on principle, and to adhere to it under all +difficulties, is the palpable way to attain great ultimate success; but +the paltry and the selfish, the hollow and the intriguing, have neither +power nor will to look beyond the moment; they are not steering the +vessel to a harbour; they have no other object than to keep possession +of the ship as long as they can, and let her roll wherever the gale may +carry her. + +After all, one grows weary of every thing that is to be had for the mere +act of wishing. Difficulty is essential to enjoyment. High life is as +likely to tire on one's hands as any other. The Marquis, giving all the +praise of manners and agreeability to Vienna, sums up all in one +prodigious yawn. "The _same_ evenings at Metternich's, the _same_ +lounges for making purchases and visits on a morning, the _same_ +idleness and fatigue at night, the searching and arid climate, and the +clouds of execrable fine dust"--all conspiring to tell the great of the +earth that they can escape _ennui_ no more than the little. + +On leaving Vienna, he wrote a note of farewell to the Prince, who +returned an answer, of remarkable elegance--a mixture of the pathetic +and the playful. His note says that he has no chance of going to see any +body, for he is like a coral fixed to a rock--both must move together. +He touches lightly on their share in the great war, "which is now +becoming a part of those times which history itself names heroic;" and +concludes by recommending him on his journey to the care of an officer +of rank, on a mission to Turkey--"Car il scait le Turc, aussi bien que +nous deux ne le scavons pas." With this Voltairism he finishes, and +gives his "Dieu protege." + +We now come to the Austrian steam passage. This is the boldest effort +which Austria has ever made, and its effects will be felt through every +generation of her mighty empire. The honour of originating this great +design is due to Count Etienne Zecheny, a Hungarian nobleman, +distinguished for every quality which can make a man a benefactor to his +country. The plan of this steam-navigation is now about ten years old. +The Marquis justly observes, that nothing more patriotic was ever +projected; and it is mainly owing to this high-spirited nobleman that +the great advantage is now enjoyed of performing, in ten or twelve days, +the journey to the capital of Turkey, which some years ago could be +achieved only by riding the whole way, and occupying, by couriers, two +or three weeks. The chief direction of the company is at Vienna. It had, +at the time of the tour, eighteen boats, varying from sixty to one +hundred horse-power, and twenty-four more were to be added within the +year. Some of these were to be of iron. + +But the poverty of all foreign countries is a formidable obstacle to the +progress of magnificent speculations like those. The shares have +continued low, the company has had financial difficulties to encounter, +and the popular purse is tardy. However, the prospect is improving, the +profits have increased; and the Austrian archdukes and many of the great +nobles having lately taken shares, the steam-boats will probably become +as favourite as they are necessary. But all this takes time; and as by +degrees the "disagreeables" of the voyage down the Danube will be +changed into agreeables, we shall allude no more to the noble +traveller's voyage, than to say, that on the 4th of November, a day of +more than autumnal beauty, his steamer anchored in the Bosphorus. + +Here we were prepared for a burst of description. But the present +describer is a matter-of-fact personage; and though he makes no attempt +at poetic fame, has the faculty of telling what he saw, with very +sufficient distinctness. "I never experienced more disappointment," is +his phrase, "than in my first view of the Ottoman capital. I was bold +enough at once to come to the conclusion, that what I had heard or read +was overcharged. The most eminent of the describers, I think, could +never have been on the spot." Such is the plain language of the last +authority. + +"The entrance of the Tagus, the Bay of Naples, the splendid approach to +the grand quays of St Petersburg, the Kremlin, and view of Moscow, all +struck me as far preferable to the scene at the entrance of the +Bosphorus." + +He admits, that in the advance to the city up this famous channel, there +are many pretty views, that there is a line of handsome residences in +some parts, and that the whole has a good deal the look of a "drop-scene +in a theatre;" still he thinks it poor in comparison of its +descriptions, the outline low, feeble, and rugged, and that the less it +is examined, probably the more it may be admired. Even the famous +capital fares not much better. "In point of fine architectural features, +monuments of art, and magnificent structures, (excepting only the great +Mosques,) the chisel of the mason, the marble, the granite, +Constantinople is more destitute than any other great capital. But then, +you are told that these objects are not in the style and taste of the +people. Be it so; but then do not let the minds of those who cannot see +for themselves be led away by high-wrought and fallacious descriptions +of things which do not exist." The maxim is a valuable one, and we hope +that the rebuke will save the reading public from a heap of those +"picturesque" labours, which really much more resemble the heaviest +brush of the scene-painter, than the truth of nature. + +But if art has done little, nature has done wonders for Constantinople. +The site contains some of the noblest elements of beauty and grandeur; +mountain, plain, forest, waters; its position is obviously the key of +Europe and Asia Minor--even of more, it is the point at which the north +and south meet; by the Bosphorus it commands the communication of the +Black Sea, and with it, of all the boundless region, once Scythia, and +now Russia and Tartary; by the Dardanelles, it has the most immediate +command over the Mediterranean, the most important sea in the world. +Russia, doubtless, may be the paramount power of the Black Sea; the +European nations may divide the power of the Mediterranean; but +Constantinople, once under the authority of a monarch, or a government, +adequate to its natural faculties, would be more directly the sovereign +of both seas, than Russia, with its state machinery in St Petersburg, a +thousand miles off, or France a thousand miles, or England more nearly +two thousand miles. This dominion will never be exercised by the +ignorant, profligate, and unprincipled Turk; but if an independent +Christian power should be established there, in that spot lie the +materials of empire. In the fullest sense, Constantinople, uniting all +the high-roads between east and west, north and south, is the centre of +the living world. We are by no means to be reckoned among the theorists +who calculate day by day on the fall of Turkey. In ancient times the +fall of guilty empires was sudden, and connected with marked evidences +of guilt. But those events were so nearly connected with the fortunes of +the Jewish people, that the suddenness of the catastrophe was essential +to the lesson. The same necessity exists no longer, the Chosen People +are now beyond the lesson, and nations undergo suffering, and approach +dissolution, by laws not unlike those of the decadence of the human +frame; the disease makes progress, but the evidence scarcely strikes the +eye, and the seat of the distemper is almost beyond human investigation. +The jealousy of the European powers, too, protects the Turk. But he must +go down--Mahometanism is already decaying. Stamboul, its headquarters, +will not survive its fall; and a future generation will inevitably see +Constantinople the seat of a Christian empire, and that empire, not +improbably, only the forerunner of an empire of Palestine. + +The general view of Constantinople is superb. A bridge has been thrown +across the "Golden Horn," connecting its shores; and from this the city, +or rather the four cities, spread out in lengthened stateliness before +the eye. From this point are seen, to the most striking advantage, the +two mountainous elevations on which Constantinople and Pera are built, +and other heights surrounding. A communication subsists across the +"Golden Horn," not only by water and the bridge, but also by the road, +which by the land is a distance of five or six miles. Viewing +Constantinople as a whole, it strikes one as larger by far than Paris or +London, but they are both larger. The reason of the deception being, +that here the eye embraces a larger space. + +The Turks never improve anything. The distinction between them and the +Europeans is, that the latter think of conveniences, the former only of +luxuries. The Turks, for example, build handsome pavilions, plant showy +gardens, and erect marble fountains to cool them in marble halls. But +they never mend a high-road--they never even make one. Now and then a +bridge is forced on them by the necessity of having one, or being +drowned; but they never repair that bridge, nor sweep away the +accumulated abomination of their streets, nor do any thing that it is +possible to leave undone. + +Pera is the quarter in which all the Christians even of the highest rank +live; the intercourse between it and Constantinople is, of course, +perpetual, yet perhaps a stone has not been smoothed in the road since +the siege of the city. From Pera were the most harassing trips down +rugged declivities on horseback, besides the awkwardness of the +passage in boats. + +One extraordinary circumstance strikes the stranger, that but one sex +seems to exist. The dress of the women gives no idea of the female form, +and the whole population seems to be male. + +The masses of people are dense, and among them the utmost silence in +general prevails. About seven or eight at night the streets are cleared, +and their only tenants are whole hosts of growling, hideous dogs; or a +few Turks gliding about with paper lanterns; these, too, being the only +lights in the streets, if streets they are to be called, which are only +narrow passes, through which the vehicles can scarcely move. + +The dogs are curious animals. It is probable that civilization does as +much injury to the lower tribes of creation, as it does good to man. If +it polishes our faculties, it enfeebles their instincts. The Turkish +dog, living nearly as he would have done in the wilderness, exhibits the +same sagacity, amounting to something of government. For instance, the +Turkish dogs divide the capital into quarters, and each set has its own; +if an adventurous or an ambitious dog enters the quarters of his +neighbours, the whole pack in possession set upon him at once, and he is +expelled by hue and cry. They also know how to conduct themselves +according to times and seasons. In the daytime, they ramble about, and +suffer themselves to be kicked with impunity; but at night the case is +different: they are the majority--they know their strength, and insist +on their privileges. They howl and growl then at their own discretion, +fly at the accidental stranger with open mouth, attack him singly, +charge him _en masse_, and nothing but a stout bludgeon, wielded by a +strong arm, can save the passenger from feeling that he is in the +kingdom of his four-footed masters. + +The Marquis arrived during the Ramazan, when no Turk eats, drinks, or +even smokes, from sunrise to sunset. Thus the Turk is a harder faster +than the papist. The moment the sun goes down, the Turk rushes to his +meal and his pipe, "not eating but devouring, not inhaling but wallowing +in smoke." At the Bajazet colonnade, where the principal Turks rush to +enjoy the night, the lighted coffee-houses, the varieties of costume, +the eager crowd, and the illumination of myriads of paper lanterns, make +a scene that revives the memory of Oriental tales. + +Every thing in Turkey is unlike any thing in Europe. In the bazar, +instead of the rapid sale and dismissal in our places of traffic, the +Turkish dealer, in any case of value, invites his applicant into his +shop, makes him sit down, gives him a pipe, smokes him into +familiarity--hands him a cup of coffee, and drinks him into confidence; +in short, treats him as if they were a pair of ambassadors appointed to +dine and bribe each other--converses with, and cheats him. + +But the Marquis regards the bazars as contemptible places, says that +they are not to be compared with similar establishments at Petersburg or +Moscow, and recommends whatever purchases are made, to be made at one's +own quarters, "where you escape being jostled, harangued, smoked, and +poisoned with insufferable smells." + +One of the curious features of the sojourn at Constantinople, is the +presentation to the Ministers and the Sultan. Redschid Pasha appointed +to see the Marquis at three o'clock, _a la Turque_--which, as those +Orientals always count from the sunset, means eight o'clock in +the evening. + +He was led in a kind of procession to the Minister, received in the +customary manner, and had the customary conversation on Constantinople, +England, the war, &c. Then, a dozen slaves entered, and universal +smoking began. "When the cabinet was so full of smoke that one could +hardly see," the attendants returned, and carried away the pipes. Then +came a dropping fire of conversation, then coffee; then sherbet, which +the guest pronounced good, and "thought the most agreeable part of the +ceremonial." The Minister spoke French fluently, and, after an hour's +visit, the ceremony ended--the pasha politely attending his visiter +through the rooms. The next visit was to Achmet Pasha, who had been in +England at the time of the Coronation--had been ambassador at Vienna for +some years--spoke French fluently--was a great friend of Prince and +Princess Metternich, and, besides all this, had married one of the +Sultan's sisters. The last honour was said to be due to his immense +wealth. It seems that the "course of true love" does not run more +smoothly in Turkey than elsewhere--for the young lady was stated to be +in love with the commander-in-chief, an older man, but possessing more +character. Achmet was now Minister of Commerce, and in high favour. He +kept his young wife at his country house, and she had not been seen +since her marriage. When asked permission for ladies to visit her, he +always deferred it "till next spring, when," said he, "she will be +civilized." The third nocturnal interview was more picturesque--it was +with the young Sultana's flame, the Seraskier, (commander-in-chief.) His +residence is at the Porte, where he has one of the splendid palaces. + +"You enter an immense court, with his stables on one side and his harem +on the other. A regiment of guards was drawn up at the entrance, and two +companies were stationed at the lower court. The staircase was filled +with soldiers, slaves, and attendants of different nations. I saw +Greeks, Armenians, Sclavonians, Georgians, all in their native costume; +and dark as were the corridors and entrance, by the flashes of my +flambeaux through the mist, the scene struck me as much more grand and +imposing than the others. The Seraskier is a robust, soldier-like man, +with a fierce look and beard, and an agreeable smile." The Minister was +peculiarly polite, and showed him through the rooms and the war +department, exhibiting, amongst the rest, his military council, composed +of twenty-four officers, sitting at that moment. They were of all ranks, +and chosen, as it was said, without any reference as to qualification, +but simply by favour. The Turks still act as oddly as ever. A friend of +the Marquis told him, that he had lately applied to the Seraskier to +promote a young Turkish officer. A few days after, the officer came to +thank him, and said, that though the Seraskier had not given him the +command of a regiment, he had given him "the command of a ship." The +true wonder is, that the Turks have either ships or regiments. But there +is a fine quantity of patronage in this department--the number of clerks +alone being reckoned at between seven and eight hundred. + +The opinions of the Marquis on Mediterranean politics are worth +regarding, because he has had much political experience in the highest +ranks of foreign life--because from that experience he is enabled to +give the opinions of many men of high name and living influence, and +because he is an honest man, speaking sincerely, and speaking +intelligibly. He regards the preservation of Turkey as the first +principle of all English diplomacy in the east of Europe, and considers +our successive attempts to make a Greek kingdom, and our sufferance of +an Egyptian dynasty, as sins against the common peace of the world. +Thus, within a few years, Greece has been taken away; Egypt has not +merely been taken away, but rendered dangerous to the Porte; the great +Danubian provinces, Moldavia and Wallachia, have been taken away, and +thus Russia has been brought to the banks of the Danube. Servia, a vast +and powerful province, has followed, and is now more Russian than +Turkish; and while those limbs have been torn from the great trunk, and +that trunk is still bleeding from the wounds of the late war, it is +forced to more exhausting efforts, the less power it retains. But, with +respect to Russia, he does not look upon her force and her ambition with +the alarm generally entertained of that encroaching and immense power. +He even thinks that, even if she possessed Constantinople, she could not +long retain it. As all this is future, and of course conjectural, we +may legitimately express our doubts of any authority on the subject. +That Russia does not think with the Marquis is evident, for all her real +movements for the last fifty years have been but preliminaries to the +seizure of Turkey. Her exhibitions in all other quarters have been mere +disguises. She at one time displays a large fleet in the Baltic, or at +another sends an army across Tartary; but she never attempts any thing +with either, except the excitement of alarm. But it is in the direction +of Turkey that all the solid advances are made. There she always +finishes her hostility by making some solid acquisition. She is now +carrying on a wasteful war in the Caucasus; its difficulty has probably +surprised herself, but she still carries it on; and let the loss of life +and the expenditure of money be what they will, she will think them well +encountered if they end in giving her the full possession of the +northern road into Asia Minor. Russia, in possession of Constantinople, +would have the power of inflicting dreadful injuries on Europe. If she +possessed a responsible government, her ambition might be restrained by +public opinion; or the necessity of appealing to the national +representatives for money--of all checks on war the most powerful, and +in fact the grand operative check, at this moment, on the most restless +of European governments, France. But with her whole power, her revenues, +and her military means completely at the disposal of a single mind, her +movements, for either good or evil, are wholly dependent on the caprice, +the ambition, or the absurdity of the individual on the throne. The idea +that Russia would weaken her power by the possession of Constantinople, +seems to us utterly incapable of proof. She has been able to maintain +her power at once on the Black Sea, seven hundred miles from her +capital; on the Danube, at nearly the same distance, and on the Vistula, +pressing on the Prussian frontier. In Constantinople she would have the +most magnificent fortress in the world, the command of the head of the +Mediterranean, Syria, and inevitably Egypt. By the Dardanelles, she +would be wholly inaccessible; for no fleet could pass, if the batteries +on shore were well manned. The Black Sea would be simply her wet-dock, +in which she might build ships while there was oak or iron in the north, +and build them in complete security from all disturbance; for all the +fleets of Europe could not reach them through the Bosphorus, even if +they had forced the Dardanelles--that must be the operation of an army +in the field. On the north, Russia is almost wholly invulnerable. The +Czar might retreat until his pursuers perished of fatigue and hunger. +The unquestionable result of the whole is, that Russia is the real +terror of Europe. France is dangerous, and madly prone to hostilities; +but France is open on every side, and experience shows that she never +can resist the combined power of England and Germany. It is strong +evidence of our position, that she has never _ultimately_ triumphed in +any war against England; and the experience of the last war, which +showed her, with all the advantages of her great military chief, her +whole population thrown into the current of war, and her banner followed +by vassal kings, only the more consummately overthrown, should be a +lesson to her for all ages. But Russia has never been effectually +checked since the reign of Peter the Great, when she first began to +move. Even disastrous wars have only hastened her advance; keen intrigue +has assisted military violence, and when we see even the destruction of +Moscow followed by the final subjugation of Poland, we may estimate the +sudden and fearful superiority which she would be enabled to assume, +with her foot standing on Constantinople, and her arm stretching at will +over Europe and Asia. Against this tremendous result there are but two +checks, the preservation of the Osmanli government by the jealousy of +the European states, and the establishment of a Greek empire at +Constantinople: the former, the only expedient which can be adopted for +the moment, but in its nature temporary, imperfect, and liable to +intrigue: the latter, natural, secure, and lasting. It is to this event +that all the rational hopes of European politicians should be finally +directed. Yet, while the Turk retains possession we must adhere to him; +for treaties must be rigidly observed, and no policy is safe that is not +strictly honest. But if the dynasty should fail, or any of those +unexpected changes occur which leave great questions open, the formation +of a Greek empire ought to be contemplated as the true, and the only, +mode of effectually rescuing Europe from the most formidable struggle +that she has ever seen. But the first measure, even of temporary +defence, ought to be the fortification of Constantinople. It is computed +that the expense would not exceed a million and a half sterling. + +The Marquis, by a fortunate chance for a looker-on, happened to be in +the Turkish capital at the time when the populace were all exulting at +the capture of Acre. It was admitted that the British squadron had done +more in rapidity of action, and in effect of firing, than it was +supposed possible for ships to accomplish, and all was popular +admiration and ministerial gratitude. In addition to the lighting of the +mosques for the Ramazan, Pera and Constantinople were lighted up, and +the whole scene was brilliant. Constant salvoes were fired from the +ships and batteries during the day, and at night, of course, all was +splendour on the seven hills of the great city. + +On the "Seraskier's Square," two of the Egyptian regiments taken at +Beyrout defiled before the commander-in-chief. The Turkish bands in +garrison moved at their head. The prisoners marched in file; and, having +but just landed from their prison-ships, looked wretchedly. Having a red +woollen bonnet, white jackets, and large white trowsers, they looked +like an assemblage of "cricketers." The men were universally young, +slight made, and active, with sallow cheeks, many nearly yellow, orange, +and even black; still, if well fed and clothed, they would make by no +means bad light troops. The Turks armed and clothed then forthwith, and +scattered them among their regiments; a proceeding which shows that even +the Turk is sharing the general improvement of mankind. Once he would +have thrown them all into the Bosphorus. + +From this professional display, the Marquis adjourned to the "Grand +Promenade," where the sultanas see the world, unseen themselves, in +their carriages. "Though," as he writes, "I never had an opportunity of +_verifying_ any thing like Miss Pardoe's anecdote of the 'sentries being +ordered to face about when presenting arms,' rather than be permitted to +gaze on the _tempting_ and _forbidden_ fruit; but, on the contrary, +witnessed soldiers escorting all the sultanas' carriages: it is +nevertheless true, that a gruff attendant attacked and found fault with +me for daring to raise my eyes to a beautiful Turkish woman, whom it was +quite impossible I could admire beyond her forehead and two large black +eyes, eyebrows, and lashes, which glanced from under her yashmack." But +the Marquis has no mercy on the performances of poor Miss Pardoe. + +The sultana-mother was a personage of high importance at this time, from +her supposed influence over her son. Her equipage was somewhat +European--a chariot, with hammer-cloth, (apparently lately received from +Long-Acre.) The coachman drove four large bay horses, with a plurality +of reins. There were attendants, running Turks, and guards before to +clear the way. Two open barouches, ornamented after the manner of the +country, followed, and the rear of the sultanas' procession was closed +by arebas (or covered and gilded vans) full of women and slaves. + +But the most characteristic display of all is the "Cabinet." "On the +side of this drive is a long colonnade of shops; and, at the bottom of +it, a _barber's_, in which all the ministers of the divan and the pasha +assemble! They sit on cushions in grand conclave and conference; and, +while affecting to discuss the affairs of the state, the direction of +their eyes, and their signs to the recumbent houris in the carriages, +show their thoughts to be directed to other objects." + +What should we think of the chancellor, the premier, and the three +secretaries of state, sitting in council at a fruiterer's in Regent +Street, and nodding to the ladies as they pass? But this is not all. The +sultan, in his kiosk, sits at one end of the drive, inspecting the whole +panorama. Still, it is not yet complete; at the lower end of the +colonnade there is a woman-market, where each slave, attended by a +duenna, passes and parades, casting her languishing eyes through the +files of lounging officers and merchants, who crowd this part of the +promenade. All this is essentially Turkish, and probably without any +thing like it in the world besides. + +The beauty of the Turkish women is still a matter of dispute. When +beauty is an object of unlimited purchase, its frequency will be +probably found a safe admission. But Turkish women occasionally unveil, +and it is then generally discovered that the veil is one of their +principal charms. They have even been described as merely good-humoured +looking "fatties"--a sufficiently humble panegyric. Lord Londonderry +gives it as his opinion, that they are "not generally handsome, but all +well-built and well-grown, strong, and apparently healthy. Their eyes +and eyebrows are invariably fine and expressive; and their hair is, +beyond measure, superior to that of other nations. The thickness of its +braidings and plaits, and the masses that are occasionally to be seen, +leave no doubt of this." + +Long and luxuriant tresses belong to all the southern nations of Europe, +and seem to be the results of heat of climate; and there are few facts +in physiology more singular than the sudden check given to this +luxuriance on the confines of Negroland. There, with all predisposing +causes for its growth, it is coarse, curled, and never attains to length +or fineness of any kind. The Georgians and Circassians were once the +boast of the harem; but the war and the predominance of the Russian +power in the Caucasus, have much restricted this detestable national +traffic--a circumstance said to be much to the regret of both parents +and daughters; the former losing the price, and the latter losing the +preferment, to which the young beauties looked forward as to a certain +fortune. But later experience has told the world, that the charms of +those Armidas were desperately exaggerated by Turkish romance and +European credulity; that the general style of Circassian features, +though fair, is Tartarish, and that the Georgian is frequently coarse +and of the deepest brown, though with larger eyes than the Circassian, +which are small, and like those of the Chinese. The accounts written by +ladies visiting the harems are to be taken with the allowance due to +showy dress, jewels, cosmetics, and the general effect of a prepared +exhibition, scarcely less than theatrical. It is scarcely possible that +either the human face or form can long preserve symmetry of any kind in +a life almost wholly destitute of exercise, in the confined air of their +prison, and in the full indulgence of their meals. Activity, animation, +and grace--the great constituents of all true beauty--must soon perish +in the harem. + +The Marquis (an excellent judge of a horse) did not much admire the +steeds of the pashas. On a visit to the Seraskier's stables, the head +groom brought out fourteen, with light Tartars on them to show their +points. Their stables were miserable. The horses were without stalls or +litter, in a dark, ill-paved barn. They were heavily covered with rugs. +Three or four were very fine Arabs; but the rest were of Turkish blood, +with large heads, lopped ears, and thick necks, of indifferent action, +and by no means desirable in any shape. + +The interview with the Sultan was the last, and was interesting and +characteristic. The Marquis had naturally expected to find him in the +midst of pomp. Instead of all this, on entering a common French carpeted +room, he perceived, on an ordinary little French sofa, the sovereign +crosslegged, and alone; two small sofas, half-a-dozen chairs, and +several wax-lights, were all the ornaments of this very plain saloon. +But the Sultan was diamonded all over, and fully made amends for the +plainness of his reception-room. As to his person, Abdul-Mehjid is a +tall sallow youth of nineteen or twenty, with a long visage, but +possessing fine eyes and eyebrows, so that, when his face is lighted up, +it is agreeable and spiritual. + +We must now close our sketch of those diversified and pleasant volumes. +We regret to hear that their distinguished and active author has lately +met with a severe accident in following the sports of his country; but +we are gratified with the hope of his recovery, and the hope, too, of +seeing him undertake more excursions, and narrate them with equal +interest, truth, and animation. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE CURSE OF GLENCOE.[12] + +BY B. SIMMONS. + + + [12] The tale that follows is founded upon an incident that + occurred some little time before the American War, to Colonel + Campbell of Glenlyon, whose grandfather, the Laird of Glenlyon, + was the officer in King William's service who commanded at the + slaughter of the Macdonalds of Glencoe. The anecdote is told in + Colonel David Stewart's valuable history of the Highland + Regiments. Edin 1822. + + + The fair calm eve on wood and wold + Shone down with softest ray, + Beneath the sycamore's red leaf + The mavis trill'd her lay, + Murmur'd the Tweed afar, as if + Complaining for the day. + + And evening's light, and wild-bird's song, + And Tweed's complaining tune; + And far-off hills, whose restless pines + Were beckoning up the moon-- + Beheld and heard, shed silence through + A lofty dim saloon. + + The fruits of mellow autumn glow'd + Upon the ebon board; + The blood that grape of Burgundy + In other days had pour'd, + Gleam'd from its crystal vase--but all + Untasted stood the hoard. + + Two guests alone sat listlessly + That lavish board beside; + The one a fair-haired stripling, tall, + Blithe-brow'd and eager-ey'd, + Caressing still two hounds in leash, + That by his chair abide. + + Right opposite, in musing mood, + A stalwart man was placed, + With veteran aspect, like a tower + By war, not time, defaced, + Whose shatter'd walls exhibit Power + Contending still with Waste. + + And as the ivy's sudden veil + Will round the fortress spring, + Some grief unfading o'er that brow + Its shadow seemed to fling, + And made that stalwart man's whole air + A sad and solemn thing. + + And so they sat, both Youth and Years, + An hour without a word-- + The pines that beckon'd up the moon + Their arms no longer stirr'd, + And through the open windows wide + The Tweed alone was heard. + + The elder's mood gave way at last, + Perhaps some sudden whine + Of the lithe quest-hounds startled him, + Or timepiece striking nine; + "Fill for thyself, forgotten Boy," + He said, "and pass the wine." + + "A churlish host I ween am I + To thee, who, day by day, + Thus comest to cheer my solitude + With converse frank and gay, + Or tempt me with thy dogs to course + The moorlands far away. + + "But still the fit returns"--he paused, + Then with a sigh resumed, + "Remember'st thou how once beneath, + Yon chestnut, when it bloom'd, + Thou ask'd'st me why I wore the air + Of spirit disentomb'd; + + "And why, apart from man, I chose + This mansion grim and hoary, + Nor in my ancient lineage seem'd, + Nor ancient name, to glory? + I shunn'd thy questions then--now list, + And thou shalt hear the story-- + + "With a brief preface, and thro' life + Believe its warning true-- + That they who (save in righteous cause) + Their hands with blood imbrue-- + Man's sacred blood--avenging heaven + Will long in wrath pursue. + + "A curse has fallen upon my race; + The Law once given in fire, + While Sinai trembled to its base, + That curse inflicted dire, + TO VISIT STILL UPON THE SON, + THE OFFENCES OF THE SIRE. + + "My fathers strong, of iron hand, + Had hearts as iron hard, + That never love nor pity's touch, + From ruthless deeds bebarr'd. + And well they held their Highland glen, + Whatever factions warr'd. + + "When Stuart's great but godless race + Dissolved like thinnest snow + Before bright Freedom's face, my clan, + The Campbells, served their foe. + --Boy--'twas my grandsire" (soft he said) + "Commanded at Glencoe." + + The stripling shrank, nor quite suppress'd + His startled bosom's groan; + Forward and back the casements huge + By sudden gust were blown, + And at the sound one dreaming hound + Awaken'd with a moan. + + "_Glencoe_--ay, well the word may stir, + The stoutest heart with fear, + Or burn with monstrous shame the face + Of man from year to year, + As long as Scotland's girdling rocks + The roar of seas shall hear. + + "Enough--Glenlyon redly earn'd + The curse he won that night, + When rising from the social hearth + He gave the word to smite, + And all was shriek and helplessness, + And massacre and flight. + + "And such a flight!--O, outraged Heaven, + How could'st thou, since, have smiled? + A fathom deep the frozen snow + Lay horrid on the wild, + Where fled to perish youth and age, + And wife and feeble child. + + "My couch is soft--yet dreams will still + Convert that couch to snow, + And in my slumbers shot and shout + Are ringing from Glencoe." + That stalwart man arose and paced + The chamber to and fro, + While to his brow the sweat-drop sprung + Like one in mortal throe. + + * * * * * + + "Glenlyon died, be sure, as die + All desperate men of blood, + And from my sire (his son) our lands + Departed sod by sod, + Till the sole wealth bequeathed me was + A mother fearing God. + + "She rear'd me in that holy fear, + In stainless honour's love, + And from the past she warned me, + Whate'er my fate should prove, + To shrink from bloodshed as a sin. + All human sins above. + + "I kept the precept;--by the sword + Compell'd to win me bread, + A soldier's life of storm and strife + For forty years I led, + Yet ne'er by this reluctant arm + Has friend or foeman bled. + + "But still I felt Glencoe's dark curse + My head suspended o'er, + --Look, this reluctant hand, for all, + Is red with human gore!" + Again that white-lipp'd man arose + And strode the echoing floor. + + * * * * * + + "A prosperous course through life was mine + On rampart, field, and wave, + Though more my warrior skill than deeds, + Command and fortune gave. + Years roll'd away, and I prepared + To drop the weary glaive. + + "'Twas when beyond th' Atlantic foam, + To check encroaching France, + Our war spread wide, and, on his tide, + In many a martial glance, + St Lawrence saw grey Albyn's plumes + And Highland pennons dance. + + "E'en while I waited for the Chief, + By whom relieved at last, + Heart-young, though time-worn, I was free + To hail my country's blast-- + That on a sentry, absent found, + The doom of death was pass'd. + + "POOR RONALD BLAIR! a fleeter foot + Ne'er track'd through Morvern moss + The wind-hoof'd deer; nor swimmer's arm + More wide the surge could toss + Than his, for whom dishonour's hand + Now dug the griesly fosse. + + "Suspicion of those hunter tribes, + Along whose giant screen + Of shadowy woods our host encamp'd, + The early cause had been + Of rule, that none of Indian race + Should come our lines within. + + "The law was kept, yet, far away, + Amid the forests' glade, + The fair-hair'd warriors of the North + Woo'd many a dusky maid, + Who charm'd, perhaps, not less because + In Nature's garb array'd. + + "And warm and bright as southern night, + When all is stars and dew, + Was that dark girl, who, to the banks, + Where lay her light canoe, + Lured Ronald's footsteps, day by day, + What time the sun withdrew. + + "Far down the stream she dwelt, 'twould seem, + Yet stream nor breeze could bar + Her little boat, that to a nook, + Dark with the pine-tree's spar, + Each evening Ronald saw shoot up + As constant as a star. + + "Alone she came--she went alone:-- + She came with fondest freight + Of maize and milky fruits and furs + Her lover's eyes to greet; + She went--ah, 'twas her bosom then, + Not bark, that bore the weight! + + "How fast flew time to hearts like theirs! + The ruddy summer died, + And Arctic frosts must soon enchain + St. Lawrence' mighty tide; + But yet awhile the little boat + Came up the river-side. + + "One night while from their northern lair + With intermittent swell, + The keen winds grumbled loud and long, + To Ronald's turn it fell + Close to the shore to keep the lines, + A lonely sentinel. + + "'Twas now the hour was wont to bring + His Indian maid; and hark! + As constant as a star it comes, + That small love-laden bark, + It anchors in the cove below-- + She calls him through the dark. + + "He dared not answer, dared not stir, + Where Discipline had bound him; + Nor was there need--led by her heart + The joyous girl has found him; + She understands it not, nor cares, + Her raptured arms are round him. + + "He kiss'd her face--he breathed low + Those brook-like, murmuring words + That, without meaning, speak out all + The heart's impassion'd chords, + The truest language human lip + To human lip affords. + + "He pointed towards the distant camp, + Her clasping arms undid, + And show'd that till the morrow's sun + Their meeting was forbid; + She went--her eyes in tears--he call'd, + And kiss'd them from the lid. + + "She went--he heard her far below + Unmoor her little boat; + He caught the oars' first dip that sent + It from the bank afloat; + Next moment, down the tempest swept + With an all-deafening throat. + + "Loud roar'd the storm, but louder still + The river roar'd and rose, + Tumbling its angry billows, white + And huge as Alpine snows; + Yet clear through all, one piercing cry + His heart with terror froze. + + "She shrieks, and calls upon the name + She learn'd to love him by; + The waves have swamp'd her little boat-- + She sinks before his eye! + And he must keep his dangerous post, + And leave her there to die! + + "One moment's dreadful strife--Love wins; + He plunges in the water; + The moon is out, his strokes are stout, + The swimmer's arm has caught her, + And back he bears, with gasping heart, + The Forest's matchless daughter! + + "'Twas but a chance!--her life is gain'd, + And his is gone--for, lo! + The picquet round has come, and found, + Left open to the foe, + The dangerous post that Ronald kept + So short a time ago. + + "They met him bearing her--he scorn'd + To palter or to plead: + Arrested--bound--ere beat of drum, + The Judgment-court decreed + That Ronald Blair should with his life + Pay forfeit for his deed. + + "He knew it well--that deed involved + Such mischief to the host, + While prowling spy and open foe + Watch'd every jealous post, + That, of a soldier's crimes, it call'd + For punishment the most. + + "On me, as senior in command, + The charge I might not shun + Devolved, to see the doom of death + Upon the culprit done. + The place--a league from camp; the hour-- + The morrow's evening sun. + + "Meanwhile some touches of the tale + That reach'd the distant tent + Of Him who led the war in Chief, + Won justice to relent. + That night, in private, a REPRIEVE + Unto my care was sent, + + "With secret orders to pursue + The sentence to the last, + And when the prisoner's prayer was o'er, + And the death-fillet past, + _But not till then_, to read to him + That Pardon for the past. + + "The morrow came; the evening sun + Was sinking red and cold, + When Ronald Blair, a league from camp + We led, erect and bold, + To die the soldier's death, while low + The funeral drum was roll'd. + + "With arms reversed, our plaided ranks + The distance due retire, + The fatal musqueteers advance + The signal to require: + '_Till I produce this kerchief blue, + Be sure withhold your fire_.' + + "His eyes are bound--the prayer is said-- + He kneels upon his bier; + So dread a silence sank on all, + You might have heard a tear + Drop to the earth. My heart beat quick + With happiness and fear, + + "To feel conceal'd within my vest + A parting soul's relief! + I kept my hand on that REPRIEVE + Another moment brief; + Then drew it forth, but with it drew, + O God! the handkerchief. + + "He fell!--and whether He or I + Had died I hardly knew-- + But when the gusty forest breeze + Aside the death-smoke blew, + I heard those bearing off the dead, + Proclaim that there were _two_. + + "They said that as the volley ceased, + A low sob call'd them where + They found an Indian maiden dead, + Clasping in death's despair + One feather from a Highland plume + And one bright lock of hair. + + "I've long forgot what follow'd, save + That standing by his bier, + I shouted out the words some fiend + Was whispering in my ear-- + 'My race is run--_the curse of Heaven + And of Glencoe is here_!'[13] + + "From that dark hour all hope to me, + All _human_ hope was gone; + I shrank from life a branded man-- + I sought my land alone, + And of a stranger's purchased halls + I joy'd to make my own. + + "Thou'st known me long as Campbell--now + Thou know'st the Campbell's story, + And why, apart from man, I chose + This mansion grim and hoary, + Nor in my ancient lineage seem'd, + Nor ancient name, to glory. + + "Though drear my lot, yet, noble boy, + Not always I repine; + Come, wipe those watery drops away + That in thine eyelids shine; + Fill for thyself," the old man said, + "Once more, and pass the wine." + + [13] Such was his exclamation, as repeated in the History + before referred to. Colonel Campbell always imputed the + unfortunate occurrence that clouded the evening of his life to + the share his ancestor had in the disastrous affair of Glencoe. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE MARTYRS' MONUMENT. + +A MONOLOGUE. + + + Now glory to our Councillors, that true and trusty band-- + And glory to each gallant heart that loathes its fatherland; + And glory evermore to those who the battle first began, + For the cause of just fraternity, and the equal rights of man. + + Ye citizens of Mary-le-bone! 'twas yours to point the way + How freemen best might mock the laws which none but slaves obey; + How classic fanes should rise to mark the honour that we owe + To all who hated Church and King, and planned their overthrow. + + O fresh and bright shone reason's light through superstition's gloom, + When one and all ye heard the call of honest Joseph Hume; + When listening to his flowing words, than honey-dew more sweet, + Ye sate, dissolved in holy tears, at that Gamaliel's feet! + + How touchingly he spoke of those now gather'd to their rest, + By knaves and laws upbraided, but by righteous patriots bless'd; + How brightly gleamed his eagle eye, as he poured his ancient grudge + On that foul throng that wrought them wrong--on Jury and on Judge! + + Well may ye boast among the host of patriots tried and true, + That to your bold humanity the foremost place is due; + Yet others follow fast behind, though ye have led the van, + In the cause of just fraternity, and the equal rights of man! + + Dun-Edin's civic Councillors come closely in your wake, + They, too, can feel for injured truth, and blush for Scotland's sake; + Well have they wiped the stain away, affix'd in former years + Upon the citizens of France, and on their bold compeers. + + Let women moan and maunder against the glorious time, + When France arose in all her might, when loyalty was crime; + When prison shambles stream'd with blood, and red the gutters ran, + In the cause of just fraternity, and the equal rights of man! + + When piled within the crazy boats, chain'd closely to the beam, + By hundreds the aristocrats sank in the sullen stream; + When age and sex were no respite, and merrily and keen, + From morning until night, rush'd down the clanking guillotine. + + 'Tis ours to render homage, where homage most is due-- + Now glory be to DANTON, and to his valiant crew-- + And glory to those mighty shades, who never stoop'd to spare, + The virtuous regicides of France, and the hero, ROBESPIERRE. + + But greater glory still to those, who strove within our land, + To hoist the cap of liberty, and bare the British brand, + To drag our ancient Parliament from its place of honour down, + To ride rough-shod upon the Lords, and spit upon the Crown. + + What though the bigots of the bench declared their treason vile-- + What though they languish'd slowly in the felon's distant isle-- + Shall we, the children of Reform, withhold our just applause + From those who loved the people and, of course, despised the laws? + + We'll rear a stately monument--we'll build it fair and high, + And on the porch this graven verse shall greet the passers-by-- + "IN HONOUR OF THE MARTYRS WHO THE BATTLE FIRST BEGAN + FOR THE CAUSE OF JUST FRATERNITY, AND THE EQUAL RIGHTS OF MAN!" + + 'Twill be a proud memorial, when we have pass'd away, + Of old Dun-Edin's loyalty, and the Civic Council's sway; + And it shall stand while earth is green and skies are summer blue, + Eternal as the sleep of those who fell at Peterloo! + + Were I a chosen Councillor--a tetrarch of the town, + I'd drag from off their pedestals these Tory statues down; + I'd make a universal sweep of all that serves to show + How vilely the aristocrats have used us long ago. + + The column rear'd to victory in that detested war, + When the Tricolor went down before our flag at Trafalgar, + The column that hath taught our sons to mutter Nelson's name, + I'd level straightway with the dust, and with it sink our shame. + + Yes! in that place a classic fane should stand where Nelson's stood, + With new baptismal cognizance from famous THISTLEWOOD; + His bust should in the centre shine, and round it, placed on guard, + The effigies of HATFIELD, INGS, and of the good DESPARD. + + There's Pitt, the Lar of Frederick Street--O shame to us and ours! + Was it not he whose policy struck back the Gallic powers? + Was it not he whose iron hand so ruthlessly kept down + The tide of bold democracy, and saved the British crown? + + I'd fetch him from his lofty perch; I'd dash him on the stones; + I'd serve the lifeless bronze the same as I'd have served his bones; + And on the empty stance I would in radiant metal show, + A bolder and a braver man--the patriot PAPINEAU. + + Down, down, I say, with George the Fourth!--for him there's no delay; + Let all askance direct their glance, for virtue's sake, we pray; + So says our new Pygmalion, the purist of the town, + 'Twere shame that he compelled should be, in passing, to look down. + + Let's find another statue of the brave old English breed, + A worthy of an earlier age--a champion good at need; + No cause were then to seem ashamed, though slaves might feel afraid, + When emancipated bondsmen bow'd to the image of JACK CADE. + + There's room enough where Royal Charles sits stiffly in the Square, + To rear a double effigy--Why not of BURKE and HARE? + Though not in freedom's cause they died, remember'd let it be, + That science has its martyrdom, as well as liberty. + + A monument to Walter Scott!--A monument forsooth! + What has that bigot done for us, for freedom, or for truth? + He always back'd the Cavalier against the Puritan, + And sneer'd at just fraternity, and the equal rights of man. + + What good to us have ever done his Legends of Montrose, + Of Douglas and of dark Dundee, the fellest of our foes? + What care we for the Border chiefs, or for the Stuart line, + Or the thraldom of the people in "the days of auld langsyne?" + + Men dream'd not of equality in days so darkly wild, + Nor was the peasant's bantling _then_ mate for the baron's child; + But we've learn'd another lesson since the golden age drew near, + And working men may keep the wall, and jostle prince and peer. + + Ye fools! take down your monument--or rear it, if ye will, + But choose another effigy that lofty niche to fill. + None better, say ye? Pause awhile, and I will tell you one, + Who never bent the servile knee at altar or at throne. + + No fond illusions dull'd _his_ eye, no tales of wither'd eld; + No childish faith was _his_ to trust aught save what he beheld; + No sovereignty would he allow save Reason's rightful reign; + No laws save those of Nature's code--and such was THOMAS PAINE. + + Place him within your Gothic arch, the only fit compeer + Of those whose martyr monument the Council seek to rear; + Since traitors to the laws of man may boldly look abroad, + Towards the image of their friend who broke the laws of God. + + Since anarchy must have its meed, let's leave no statue here, + That might from other lips than ours provoke a cynic sneer: + If temples must be built to crime, we'll worship there alone, + Nor leave a mark of loyalty or honour in the stone. + + Then glory to our Councillors, that true and trusty band-- + And glory to each gallant heart that loathes its fatherland; + And glory evermore to those who the battle first began, + For the cause of just fraternity, and the equal rights of man! + + * * * * * + + + + +TASTE AND MUSIC IN ENGLAND. + + +PART I. + + +The heart of an Englishman must ever swell with pride as he contemplates +his country's greatness. He looks around him, and his eye every where +meets with the signs of increasing opulence and prosperity, while his +ear is filled with the busy hum of an industrious, and, despite the idle +babblings of the ignorant, and the empty declamation of interested, +selfish, and disappointed men, a contented population, happy in the +enjoyment of comfort, beyond that of the labouring classes of most other +countries. He visits her marts, her harbours, and her ports--men of all +nations are met together there--fleets of rich argosies are ever +arriving and departing--and myriads of steamers flit to and fro, happily +now engaged in promoting the arts of peace, but ready at a moment's +notice to become the defenders of his country's shores, and, as recent +events have shown the world, able also to carry war and devastation +along the coasts of her enemies, even to the uttermost parts of the +earth. He explores the seats of her manufactures; there he beholds vast +edifices teeming with crowds of work-people, occupied in supplying the +wants of mankind. In short, wherever he bends his steps, all are +usefully employed--industry, enterprise, and perseverance, are found +throughout the land. He also feels it no vain boast to be a denizen of +that small isle, whose inhabitants, by their own proper energy, have +extended their dominion over a territory on which the sun never sets-- +peopled by upwards of two hundred million souls--consisting of colonies, +nations, and people, differing from each other in form of person, +complexion, habits, manners, and in language--elements apparently the +most discordant and heterogeneous, yet firmly knit and bound into one +vast glorious empire, which, successfully resisting the rudest shocks, +often assaulted, ever victorious, and, thanks to the bravery of her +warriors, and the wisdom of those who now guide her councils, having +defeated alike the open attacks and the secret machinations of her +enemies, at this moment constitutes the most powerful state of ancient +or modern times--abounding in wealth, and rejoicing in freedom, beyond +all other nations of the earth. + +He glories also in the intellectual pre-eminence of his country. Her +victories by sea and land attest the genius of her captains; her +institutions bear witness to the sagacity of her lawgivers and her +statesmen. Her railroads, docks, canals, and other public works, bear +the marks of superior intelligence acting for the general good. His +countrymen were the first to press steam into the active service of +mankind. By the genius of Watt and his successors, a power, before +destructive and uncontrollable, has been rendered the mighty agent of +man's will, the supplier of his wants, and the minister of his +convenience. Through their inventions, steam has become, as it were, the +breath, the life, of a noble animal of man's creation, untiring in its +ceaseless labours, irresistible in its tremendous strength; and, when +its maker chooses to endow it with powers of motion, fleeter also than +the wind, but of imposing might and majesty as it pursues its headlong +course; and yet, withal, checked by a single touch, yielding a perfect +obedience to the hand of its ruler, and submissive to the slightest +intimation of his will. In the walks of science, literature, and +philosophy, he finds equal reason to be proud of his country. Splendid +discoveries in every branch of science meet him as he enquires, and but +a few years have passed away since the death of one--Sir Humphry +Davy--of whom it is scarce too much to say, that he revolutionized a +great science by his discoveries, or that, by the power of his single +intellect, he dived deeper into the hidden mysteries of the material +world than all preceding generations had been able to penetrate. In +short, an Englishman finds his country possessed of warriors, statesmen, +philosophers, historians, poets, and authors, in every branch of +literature, who are the admiration of the whole civilized world. In all +these, England stands proudly pre-eminent, the first, the very first, +among the nations. It is much to be able to feel this, but an Englishman +would fain feel even more than this; his noble ambition is to see his +country first in every thing; he would have her pre-eminent alike in the +fine arts and those pursuits which distinguish the recreations and +amusements of a refined and polished people, as in the more useful +arts of life. + +But here the pleasing portion of the picture ceases-- + + "Ogni medaglia ha il suo rovescio," + +every medal has its obverse, says the Italian proverb; and the +comparatively low rank which his country occupies in this new field of +view, is a melancholy contemplation for an Englishman. He finds that, in +general, things are judged of only by the measure of their practical +utility, and that the beautiful and the useful are usually deemed to be +incompatible; thereby affording, however reluctantly we may admit it, at +least some justification of Napoleon's celebrated and bitter reproach, +that we are a nation of shopkeepers. It would seem, in truth, that we do +not possess that quick perception of the beautiful which is enjoyed by +the more excitable and imaginative sons of the south. In painting, we +believe we possess a school second to none of modern art. But, beautiful +as their works may be, can we place our Reynolds, Lawrence, Hogarth, and +Gainsborough in competition with Raphael, Correggio, Rubens, or Claude? +In sculpture also, can Westmacott, or even Chantrey--we speak with +reverence of the illustrious dead--be compared with Michael Angelo or +Giovanni de Bologna? When pressed on these topics, the candid Englishman +must, with a sigh, confess his country's inferiority. Architecture also, +with few exceptions, has long been our reproach. We judge of the degree +of civilization and refinement to which ancient Greece and Rome +attained, by the beauty and elegance of their mutilated remains. We find +their temples, even in ruins, beautiful beyond the day-dream of our +modern architects; some of them, till bold and sacrilegious hands +despoiled them, adorned with sculptures which, surviving the destruction +of the people who raised them, the wanton rage of barbarous enemies, and +the inroads of the elements for near two thousand years, sill remain, in +their decay, the wonder and admiration of the world, the models of +modern sculptors, and the greatest treasure of art a nation can possess. + +In the lapse of ages, perhaps, England, in her turn, may be deserted, +her mines exhausted, her edifies ruined, her existence as a nation +terminated. The site of her vast metropolis may once more become an +undulating verdant plain, intersected by a tidal river; and, perhaps, +nothing may remain outwardly to show the curious traveller where the +ancient city stood. The pristine abode of man upon the earth, may again +be thickly peopled, and civilization may have rolled back to the south, +its ancient source. Then may history or tradition vaguely tell of +powerful nations who once flourished in the north; their very existence +doubted, perhaps, by all, and by many disbelieved. Some day, perchance, +one whom accident or curiosity may have brought to the shores of ancient +Britain, may wend his weary way along the bank of the noblest river of +the land. On a mound a little higher than the rest, something on which +the hand of man had evidently been employed may attract his attention, +and stimulate him to search among the tangled weeds and brushwood which +grow around. The discovery of a marble fragment may, perhaps, eventually +lead to the uncovering of one of those statues which now grace the +interior of our St Paul's, on the site of which the stranger had +unconsciously been exploring. Or, suppose the traveller to have bent his +steps in a north-easterly direction, towards the foot of that gentle +slope which terminates at the base of the heights of Highgate and of +Hampstead. Suppose him, by some strange chance, to stumble upon that +incomparable specimen of modern sculpture which stands on high at +King's-Cross, lifted up, in order, we presume, to enable the good +citizens duly to feast their eyes upon its manifold perfections, as they +daily hie them to and fro between their western or suburban retreats and +the purlieus of King Street or Cheapside. What estimate would the +stranger form of the taste or skill of those who placed on its pedestal +the statue we have first supposed him to have found? It avails not to +disguise the truth. What that truth may be, we leave to the intelligence +of the reader to divine. But what would be the effect of the other +discovery we have imagined? The traveller would turn away, convinced +that history or tradition gave false accounts of the power and genius of +the ancient inhabitants of the land on which he trod, that their glory +was a dream, their civilization a delusion, their proficiency in the +arts a fable. For the honour of our country, let us hope that the figure +of which we speak may not be suffered much longer to disgrace a leading +thoroughfare of our metropolis. It has already stood some eight or ten +years, a melancholy monument of English taste and English art in the +nineteenth century. + +For the attainment of excellence in the higher branches of art, as has +been well observed by an intelligent foreigner, M. Passavant, it is +requisite that a people should possess deep poetic feeling, and that art +should not be considered among them as a thing of separate nature, but +that it should interweave itself with the ties of social life, and be +employed in adding beauty to its nearest, dearest interests. Now, the +English, he continues, are more disposed to an active than to a +contemplative life. They possess, it must be owned, a character of much +earnestness and energy; yet, from the earliest times, their attention +has been more directed to the cultivation of the mechanical arts and the +sciences appertaining to them than to those nobler branches of art which +flourish spontaneously in a more contemplative nation. This +characteristic disposition, and the physical activity necessarily +connected with it, have been by some ascribed to the influence of our +climate, to our moist and heavy atmosphere, and clouded skies, to +counteract the influence of which, and to preserve a counterbalancing +buoyancy of mind and body, an active habit of life is requisite. But +this hypothesis is untenable; for Flanders, with a similar climate, and +flourishing likewise by means of its native industry, affords sufficient +proof how little these circumstances are prejudicial to the cultivation +of the fine arts. Perhaps a better reason may be found in the wide +difference which is observable between the national habits of our +countrymen and those of the people among whom the arts have been +cultivated with the greatest success. In those countries where the +beautiful was felt, where the arts were objects of national importance, +where a people assembled to award the palm between rival sculptors; and +also, in comparatively modern times, when a reigning monarch did not +disdain to pick up a painter's pencil, and a whole city mourned an +artist's death, and paid honours to his remains; all the rank, wealth, +genius, talent, taste, and intelligence of the people were concentrated +in one grand focus. Among the states of ancient Greece and modern Italy, +the city was in fact the nation; and at Athens, Rome, Venice, and +Florence, was collected all of genius, taste, and talent, the people as +a body possessed. The mental qualities were thereby rendered more acute, +and the tastes and manners of the people more refined and cultivated, by +constant intercourse and communication with each other. This refinenent +was shared by all classes, and the lower taking pattern from the higher, +the whole mass was learned. In England, the very reverse of this takes +place. Here, for the most part, those alone frequent our towns, whose +doom it is to labour for their bread, they have no leisure from the +engrossing pursuits of wealth; business, like a jealous mistress, leaves +them no time for other objects. In spite of various disadvantages of +soil and climate, the taste for rural pursuits seems part and parcel of +our nature, and that species of the genus _homo_, the country gentleman, +seems peculiar to our island. Till within a few years, the great +majority of this class, whose abundant wealth and leisure might seem to +constitute them the peculiar patrons of the arts, seldom or never +frequented even the metropolis, but for generations remained fixed and +immovable in the place of their forefathers, rooted to the soil as one +of their old oaks. "His guns, dogs, and horses, were the things the +squire held most dear." Hunting, shooting, and other sports, formed not +only the amusements of his leisure hours, but the business of his life. +His intercourse with the world confined to a narrow circle of +acquaintance, all of the same tastes and pursuits with himself, he could +learn or know no others. Generous pursuits, hospitable, liberal, and +open hearted, hating alike poachers and dissenters, possessed of many +virtues, avoiding many a crime, discharging the duties, as well as +exercising the rights of property; exemplary in all the relations of +life, a good father, a tender husband, a kind master, an indulgent +landlord, a blessing to himself and those around him, he lived and died +the _Squire Western_ of his day, without that refinement and cultivation +of the tastes and mental powers which the more polished inhabitants of +the metropolis insensibly contract. Sure there were many to whom this +does not apply, many who combined the "gifts" of both a town and country +life. But, nevertheless such was the great bulk of that class, among +whom, had London been England, as even in our own time Paris is or was +France, the beautiful would not probably have been so much neglected. + +So occupied have the great mass of our countrymen been in the pursuit of +wealth, that all that did not directly contribute to this end has been +uniformly rejected as useless. A familiar example of the truth of this +observation may be seen in the numerous factories and other buildings +erected for commercial purposes, in the manufacturing districts of +Lancashire and Yorkshire. In buildings of this class, all embellishment +and ornament, however simple, which good taste, had it been consulted, +might have suggested, to relieve the wearying straightness of outline, +or the plain dull flatness of these large ponderous masses of brick and +mortar, have been neglected, or rejected, probably as not increasing its +productive powers, and therefore unworthy of consideration. Such has +been the general principle. But this neglect has at length recoiled upon +the heads of its promoters. As long as the world was content to take our +manufactures as we chose to make them--when, no other nation having +entered the lists with us, we were without competitors, and absolute +masters of the commerce of the world, this make-all save-all principle +was undoubtedly the most effective. But now, when our manufacturers meet +with the keenest competition in every market; when a suicidal export of +machinery enables the foreigner immediately to benefit by every +mechanical discovery, or improvement in machinery, that is made by our +engineers, the case is wholly altered, and the English manufacturer +finds out the grievous mistake that he has made. Beauty of design has at +length become of paramount importance, and the beautiful, so long +neglected, is now avenged. The public taste has advanced too fast. Since +the introduction of foreign goods, such as silks and other ornamental +fabrics, the inferiority of our native designs for these materials has +become manifest to all. We are credibly informed, that there now exists +a regular organized system, viz. supply of French designs to our +manufacturers; that from these designs all their ideas are borrowed and +all their patterns taken, and that, in fact, scarcely a single pattern +of purely home invention is worked in a season. The manufacturers are, +however, now roused from their lethargy, and great efforts are made to +remedy the evil. Schools of design are established, and copyright of +design has just been conferred by act of parliament. In some of our +commercial towns, large rooms or galleries are opened to the mechanic, +where he may study the beautiful and ideal from casts and models of the +antique. Pictures also are occasionally exhibited for his instruction. +These are indeed great and praiseworthy efforts, in which +utilitarianism has assumed a new character, and found a new field of +action. These novel institutions, not organized and supported from a +pure abstract love of the arts ostensibly promoted by them, but from +dire necessity created by successful competition in the more elegant +branches of manufacture, in which the exercise of taste and fancy is +required, may eventually produce great general results; years, however, +must necessarily elapse before their benefits can be felt. + +We have hitherto purposely abstained from any allusion to music and +musical taste, for the purpose of showing, that music is not the only +fruit of civilization which has not as yet arrived at maturity among +us; and also for the purpose of ascertaining, whether there might not be +some general causes in operation, which affect, in an equal degree, +every branch of the more intellectual refinements of civilized life. In +this case, the low standard of musical taste and science which will +hereafter become the subject of more particular observation, cannot be +attributed solely to causes which relate exclusively to music, but must +be considered as one amongst other results of general principles. If +there be any truth in the foregoing speculations, they apply more +particularly to music, and musical taste and science, than to the fine +arts, to which we have hitherto confined our observations. Music is +peculiarly a social pursuit. It can be cultivated only among the haunts +of men. The taste deteriorates, and the mental standard of excellence +which each possesses, is lowered when really good music is seldom or +never heard. By "the million," it can be heard only while mixing with +the world at large; the performer can acquire his mastery over the +instrument, at the cost of much time and labour, and he can maintain +this mastery, and the purity of his style, only where he can compare +himself with others of acknowledged excellence. This can be done only +where men congregate in large and populous cities, where the want of +amusement is best supplied; the recluse or the solitary man can be +no musician. + +It may seem anomalous at first sight, and we can well conceive it to be +objected to our argument, that it is impossible, that while +architecture, sculpture, painting, and music, should have been +comparatively neglected, that literature, in all its branches, should be +so highly esteemed among us. Milton, and more especially Shakspeare, +have never lost one tittle of their value; nay, even at this moment, +there are three rival editions of Shakspeare's works in the course of +publication. Many volumes of poetry put in their claim to immortality +every year. Novel after novel appears each to elbow its predecessor out +of the public mind, and be in its turn forgotten. It is easy to imagine, +that to many it may appear a paradox in the history of the human race, +that a people should exist, endowed by nature with a high degree of +poetic feeling, having, as Mr Hallam observes, produced more eminent +original poets than any other nation can boast, and attaching a high +value to literary talent of every description, but, nevertheless, whose +attainments in the fine arts during a thousand years of national +existence, should never have passed mediocrity. This apparent +inconsistency, however, lies only on the surface. The language of true +poetry is understood by all; it strikes home: however rude the thoughts, +however uncultivated the understanding, the heart can feel; and it is to +the heart the poet speaks; and even in the rudest ages of mankind his +power was acknowledged. Voltaire has remarked, that "amusement is one of +the wants of man". + +Novels are taken up to amuse the vacant hour--in this consists their +use. They are read without effort--the mind lies fallow as they are +perused, and no study is required, no cultivation of any taste is +necessary, to place this amusement within reach. With music and the fine +arts, this is not so. The taste for these pursuits requires cultivation; +and in order to estimate and appreciate them correctly, the judgment +must be formed by a process of education, far different from that which +enables all who read to value our poets and authors in the various +departments of literature. + +On examining the records of mankind, it will be found that this has been +the ordinary succession of events in the history of civilization; and +that poetry and oratory, the more independent efforts of the human mind, +appear in the earlier stages of society, and that by them man is first +distinguished as an intellectual and rational creature. + +Of Egyptian literature, we know nothing. The destruction of the library +of the Ptolemies may be the principal cause of our ignorance. The +gigantic remains of this people, and the manner in which they worked in +a stone which no modern tool will touch, show that among them the useful +arts were considerably advanced. We have, however, abundant evidence of +the small degree of proficiency in the fine arts. Their sculptors are +characterized by Flaxman as "mere beginners," or "laborious mechanics;" +their works as "lifeless forms, menial vehicles of an idea." When +Egyptian art ended, then Grecian art began. It appears, however, to have +made but little progress down to the time of Homer; and Daedalus and his +disciple Eudaeus are, we believe, the only artists of that early period +whose fame has survived. These sculptors worked in wood, and by their +proficiency we may form a pretty accurate idea of the state of art in +Greece when Homer wrote. The works of Daedalus are described by Pausanias +as rude and uncomely in aspect. In his Grecian tour, Pausanias twice +makes mention of a statue of Hercules by Daedalus, from which +circumstance it would appear to have been held in high estimation. On +this statue Flaxman observes--"In the British Museum, as well as in +other collections in Europe, are several small bronzes of a naked +Hercules, whose right arm, holding a club, is raised to strike; whilst +the left is extended, bearing a lion's skin as a shield. From the style +of extreme antiquity in these statues--from the rude attempt at bold +action, which was the peculiarity of Daedalus--the general adoption of +this action in the early ages--the traits of savage nature in the face +and figure, expressed with little knowledge, but strong feeling--by the +narrow loins, turgid muscles of the breast, thighs, and calves of the +legs, will all find reason to believe they are copied from the +above-mentioned statue." Greece, it must be owned, possessed musicians +long anterior to Homer: Chiron the Centaur, regarded by the ancients as +one of the inventors of medicine, botany, and chirurgery, who, when +eighty-eight years of age, formed the constellations for the use of the +Argonauts; Linus, the preceptor of Hercules, who added a string to the +lyre, and is said to be the inventor of rhythm and melody; Orpheus, who +also extended the scale of the lyre, and was the inventor and propagator +of many arts and doctrines among the Greeks; and Musaeus, the priest of +Ceres, are all remembered as musicians, as well as poets, historians, +and philosophers; characters which, in those days, were all combined in +the same individuals. The ancients, indeed, appear to have used the term +music in a much more extended sense than has been attached to it in +modern times, and to have applied it to all the arts and sciences. But +even if the ancient meaning of the term were identical with its modern +signification, there may be good reason to suppose that their fame as +musicians would principally survive. The memory of these first +preceptors of mankind was long preserved as the general benefactors of +their species. But while the other arts they taught advanced, it does +not appear that music made any progress. Thus, they came chiefly to be +remembered for that talent in which posterity had produced no equals. As +poets they were once celebrated; but, eclipsed by the glory and +splendour of the great historian of Troy, their poetical productions +were forgotten; whilst, as musicians, unrivalled through many centuries, +their skill was long remembered as the most excellent the world had +ever known. The arts of sculpture and painting appear to have remained +even more stationary than music. For, while about the middle or latter +end of the seventh century, B.C., the names of Archilochus and Terpander +adorn the page of musical history, followed by many others, including +Alcaeus, Sappho, and Simonides, down to Pindar and his rival Corinna, the +former of whom, according to the chronology of Dr Blair, died in 435 +B.C. aged 86, it is evident, says Flaxman, "that sculpture was 800 +years, from Daedalus to the time immediately preceding Phidias, in +attaining a tolerable resemblance of the human form." It appears, +therefore, that the greatest epic poem ever written had been read, +appreciated, and admired, for nearly five centuries before the arts +arrived at perfection. Then, indeed, there burst a flood of glory over +ancient Greece, and names never to be forgotten were borne upon the +tide. Contemporary with Pindar and Corinna were Phidias, Alcamenes, and +many other sculptors, together with poets, philosophers, warriors, and +statesmen; men whose names will rise superior to the lapse of time, and +whose fame, like the rocky barriers of the ocean, on which the elements +in vain expend their fury, will be of equal duration with the +world itself. + +Ancient Rome was indebted to others for all of the liberal arts and +sciences she possessed. In the earlier periods of her existence, and +before Greece had become known in Rome, Etruria was the instructress of +her sons. When Greece had been subdued, and rendered a tributary +province of the all-conquering city, her polished people, nevertheless, +exercised an intellectual sovereignty over their masters. In the streets +of Athens a singular spectacle was exhibited; _there_ might be seen the +conqueror learning of the vanquished; Romans, of exalted rank and +unbounded power, had become the disciples of Grecian philosophers. +Nevertheless, when Rome possessed orators and poets, each of whom +has raised + + "Monumentum aere perennius," + +in that the golden age of her existence, it does not appear, says Dr +Burney, that "except Vitruvius, the Romans had one architect, sculptor, +painter, or musician; those who have been celebrated in the arts of Rome +having been Asiatics or European Greeks, who came to exercise such arts +among the Latins, as the Latins had not among themselves. This custom +was continued under the successors of Augustus; and those Romans who +were prevented, by more important concerns, from going into Greece, +combined, in a manner, to bring Greece to Rome, by receiving into their +service the most able professors of Greece and Asia in all the arts." +Vitruvius, in the chapter on music inserted in his treatise on +architecture, complains that "the science of music, in itself obscure, +is particularly so to such as understand not the Greek language." This +observation shows the low state of music at Rome at that time; indeed +Vitruvius is said to be the first who has treated of music in the +Latin tongue. + +Modern Europe also furnishes another illustration and example of the +truth of our proposition. When the mists of ignorance and superstition +which had for centuries enveloped the world, had begun to clear away, +and when Europe first attempted to throw off the errors of the Dark +Ages, the arts were dead, and the only music known was that cultivated +by the monks and clergy, as necessary to their profession, and the songs +of the Troubadours. "The fame of the Troubadours," remarks Mr Hallam, +"depends less on their positive excellence than on the darkness of +preceding ages, the temporary sensation they excited, and their +permanent influence on the state of European poetry." The intrinsic +merit of the music of this period may be collected from the following +observation of Dr Burney:--"However barbarous and wretched the melody +and harmony of the secular songs of this period may have been, they were +in both respects superior to the music of the church." The Troubadours +flourished from the middle of the twelfth century till the latter end of +the fourteenth century, when their dissolute and licentious habits +caused them to be universally banished and proscribed. During the +barbarism of these times, not only had the arts themselves been lost, +but even the principles on which they rest had been forgotten. Italy, +indeed, possessed many ancient marbles, but they seemed to have lost +their value; and it was not till the thirteenth century that any attempt +to imitate these remains of antiquity was made. Nicola Pisano, about the +year 1231, taking for his model an ancient sarcophagus at Pisa, which +contained the remains of Beatrice, mother of the Countess Matilda, +sculptured an urn--a feat in those days so extraordinary, as to have +conferred upon him the title of Nicolas of the Urn. This artist, in the +words of Lanzi, "was the first to see and follow light." He was, +however, more ambitious than successful, and was followed by his sons +and others, in whose hands the art seems to have no very rapid progress. +The art of painting, in which there were no models in existence, was +later in manifesting any improvement. It was not till after the year +1250 that, according to Vasari, some Greek painters were invited to +Florence by the rulers of the city, for the express purpose of restoring +the art to Florence, where it was rather wholly lost than degenerated. +Cimabue, the reviver of painting, received instruction from the Greeks. +He died in 1300. Fierce as the age in which he lived, says Lanzi, his +Madonnas were without beauty, and his angels, even in the same picture, +were all in the same attitude. To Cimabue succeeded his pupil, the +famous Giotto, who died in 1337. With him the ruggedness of his master's +manner was softened down, and considerable advances made towards a +better style. He was honourably received at many of the principal towns +and cities of Italy, and may, perhaps, be considered as the real founder +of their several schools; at all events, painters every where were long +the imitators of Giotto. His faults partook also of the character of the +age, and among other defects, the dry hardness of his works has given +rise to an opinion, that he partly formed his style upon the works of +the Pisani. Giotto and his school, indeed, conducted the art through +infancy, but it still exhibited many signs of childhood, especially in +chiara-oscuro, and even more so in perspective. Figures sometimes +appeared as if sliding from the canvass--buildings had not the true +point of view, and foreshortening was only rudely attempted. Stefano +Fiorentino, a _grandson_ of Giotto, was the first and only one of the +school who endeavoured to grapple with this last difficulty, which he +may be said to have perceived rather than overcome; his contemporaries, +for the most part, evaded it, and concealed their deficiency as they +could. Such is the summary of the merits of this school of art given by +Lanzi, who dates the commencement of the first epoch of modern painting +from the death of Giotto. In further illustration of the low state of +art in the early part of the fourteenth century, it may be observed, +that Lanzi also describes a great work of Masaccio, who flourished in +the succeeding century, as "beautiful _for those times_;" and that it +was not till the year 1410 that oil-painting was invented or improved +by Van-Eyck. + +From this sketch of the history of the arts of music, sculpture, and +painting during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, will be seen +their state and condition, when the great work of the immortal Dante +took his country by surprise. The _Divina Comedia_ was written about the +year 1300. Its illustrious author, the creator of the national poetry of +his country, died in 1321, leaving behind him Petrarch, who was crowned +in the Capitol in 1341, and Boccaccio, who--though, as Byron said of +Scott, he spoiled his poetry by writing better prose--was nevertheless a +poet of no mean merit, and the probable inventor of the _ottava rima_. +Two centuries after the last of these parents of modern literature had +nearly elapsed, ere he who has been styled the Dante of the arts, +Michael Angelo, and his contemporaries, among whom were Leonardo da +Vinci and Raphael, appeared upon the stage. Thus language, the first +great want of man, the necessary instrument of reason, by which its +possessor is distinguished from the rest of creation, the vehicle of +human thoughts, the means by which man's wants, desires, griefs, and +joys, are communicated and made known, would seem to form the earliest +object of his attention. He enriches and improves it, till it is +rendered capable of expressing all the workings of his reason. This +done, genius and invention are applied to other pursuits; and in many +instances it may be, that the poet and the artist were but the creatures +of the age which produced them. Had he lived at a later period, Homer, +the great sire of song, might perhaps have shone the Phidias or the +Zeuxis of his day; or, had his birth been anticipated two hundred years, +the genius of "the Dante of the arts" might possibly have been displayed +in works like those which have immortalized Dante Alighieri. It is, +therefore, no inconsistency in the character of a people amongst whom +poetry is passionately admired, and books of all kinds eagerly devoured, +that the arts should be generally uncared-for and unknown. When another +century has passed away, their history may tell another tale, and the +powers of mind hitherto employed principally upon the physical sciences, +may have achieved like triumphs in the liberal arts. That this may be +the case, the past history of other nations affords every reason to +hope. What man has done, man may, and doubtless _will_, do again. + +In the earlier ages of the world, music, in its rudest, simplest form, +is said to have stopped the flow of rivers, to have tamed wild beasts, +and to have raised the walls of cities; allegories which at least show +the prodigious influence the art possessed over the inhabitants of +infant Greece. In the course of time, love of the art was a national +characteristic of this people; and music became a specific in the hand +of the physician, a fundamental principle of public education, and the +medium of instruction in religion, morals, and the laws. The lyre may be +said to have ruled Greece, the glorious and the free, with the same +despotic sway with which the iron hand of tyranny has in our own day +governed her. Discord, and civil commotions arose among the +Lacedaemonians; Terpander came, and with his lyre at once appeased the +angry multitude. Among the Athenians it was forbidden, under pain of +death, to propose the conquest of the isle of Salamis; but the songs of +Solon raised a tumult amongst the people; they rose, compelled the +repeal of the obnoxious decree, and Salamis straightway fell. Was it +found necessary to civilize a wild and extensive province? Music was +employed for this desirable object; and Arcadia, before the habitation +of a fierce and savage people, became famed as the abode of happiness +and peace. Plutarch places the masters of tragedy--to which the modern +opera bears a great resemblance--on a level with the greatest captains: +nor did the people fail in gratitude to their benefactors; they held +their memory in veneration. The lyre of Orpheus was transplanted to the +skies, there to shine for countless ages; and divine honours were paid +to the name of Sappho. + +The Greeks, although perhaps excelling all other nations in this, as in +the other arts, are not the only people among whom music was cultivated +and esteemed. Both China and Arabia are said to have felt its influence +upon their customs, manners, and institutions. The musical traditions of +China might seem to be but repetitions of the marvels of the Greeks. +King-lun, Kovei, and Pinmonkia, are said to have arrested the flow of +rivers, and to have caused the woods and forests, attracted by the +melody of their performance, to crowd around. The Chinese are said to +believe, that the ancient music of their country has drawn angels down +from heaven, and conjured up from hell departed souls: they also believe +that music can inspire men with the love of virtue, and cause them +faithfully to fulfil their several duties. Confucius says "to know if a +kingdom be well governed, and if the customs of its inhabitants be bad +or good, examine the musical taste which there prevails." There is still +extant a curious document, which shows the importance which a ruler of +this people attached to music, as a moral and political agent. We allude +to a proclamation of the Emperor Ngaiti, who ascended the throne of the +Celestial Empire in the year of the tenth aera 364. After complaining, +that tender, artificial, and effeminate strains inspire libertinism, he +proceeds, in severe terms, to order a reformation in these matters; the +first step to which, is a prohibition of every sort of music but that +which serves for war, and for the ceremony Tido. The Arabs also appear +to have held similar opinions as to the power of music. They boast of +Ishac, Kathab Al Moussouly, Alfarabi, and other musicians, whom they +relate to have worked miracles by their vocal and instrumental +performances. With the Arabs, music was interwoven with philosophy; and +their wise men imagined a marvellous relation to exist between +harmonious sounds and the operations of nature. Harmony was esteemed +the panacea, or universal remedy, in mental and even bodily affections; +in the tones of the lute were found medical recipes in almost all +diseases. Upon one occasion, in the presence of the grand vizier, +Alfarabi, accompanying his voice with an instrument, is related to have +roused a large assembly to an extreme pitch of joyful excitement, from +which he moved them to grief and tears, and then plunged all present +into a deep sleep, none having the power to resist the enchantment of +his performance. + +The children of Israel cultivated music in the earliest periods of their +existence as a people. After the passage of the Red Sea, Moses, and his +sister Miriam, the prophetess, assembled two choruses, one of men, and +the other of women, with timbrels, who sang and danced. The facility +with which the instruments were collected on the spot, and with which +the choruses and dances were arranged and executed, necessarily implies +a skill in these exercises, which must have been acquired long before, +probably from the Egyptians. We have abundant evidence in Holy Writ, of +the high estimation in which music was held among the Hebrews at a later +period of their history. They also appear to have successfully applied +it to the cure of diseases. The whole of David's power over the disorder +of Saul may, without any miraculous intervention, be attributed to his +skilful performance upon the harp. In 1st Samuel, c. xvi., we read that +Saul's servants said unto him, "Behold now, an evil spirit from God +troubleth thee: Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before +thee, to seek out a man who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall +come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall +play with his hand, and thou shalt be well." Saul having assented to +this proposal, the son of Jesse the Bethlemite was sent for, and stood +before him. "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon +Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was +refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." So +great were the esteem and love for music among this people when David +ascended the throne, that we find that he appointed 4000 Levites to +praise the Lord with instruments, (1. Chron. c. xxiii.;) and that the +number of those that were _cunning_ in song, was two hundred four score +and eight, (c. xxv.) Solomon is related by Josephus to have made 200,000 +trumpets, and 40,000 instruments of music, to praise God with. In the 2d +chapter of Ecclesiastes, music is mentioned by Solomon among the +vanities and follies in which he found no profit, in terms which show +how generally a cultivated taste was diffused among his subjects. "I gat +me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, +as musical instruments, and that of all sorts." Many other passages of +similar import might be quoted from the sacred writings, and among +others, some from which it would appear that musicians marched in the +van of the Jewish armies, and not unfrequently contributed to the +victory by the animation of their strains; and that music was the +universal language of joy and lamentation. There is, however, one +portion of Holy Writ, which, from the highly interesting testimony it +incidentally bears to the love of music which prevailed in Jerusalem, +and the skill of her inhabitants, we cannot forbear to notice. We allude +to the 137th Psalm, "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when +we remembered thee, O Sion. As for our harps, we hanged them up upon the +trees that are therein. For they that led us away captive required of us +there a song and melody in our heaviness: Sing us one of the songs of +Sion." From the facts here narrated, we may judge how great was the +attachment of the Jewish people for the musical art; their beloved city +sacked, their temple plundered and destroyed, their homes desolate, in +the midst of danger and despair, deserted by their God, surrounded by +infuriated enemies, (Isaiah, xiii. 16.,) nevertheless their harps were +not forgotten. From this beautiful and pathetic lamentation, it would +also appear that the repute of Hebrew musicians was far extended. No +sooner had they arrived in the land of their captivity, than the +Chaldean conqueror required of them a song and melody in their +heaviness, demanding _one of the songs of Sion_. The fame of the +captives must have long preceded them, for, according to Dr Burney, the +art was then declining in Judea. + +In the physical sciences, we have surpassed the nations who excelled in +music; in war we have equalled their most glorious feats; in poetry and +oratory we are not inferior. Shall not our future history also tell of +triumphs in the tuneful art? We believe that sooner or later, the time +will surely come when our country in her turn will boast of masters in +the art, whose memories will ever be preserved and hallowed. But +whatever the future may bring forth, the marvellous accounts of the +powers of ancient music will meet with little indulgence from modern +scepticism. At present such effects are unknown among us, and therefore +unintelligible. Among the early Greeks, for many centuries, the several +characters of poet, musician, lawgiver, and philosopher, were combined +in the same individual; and it is probable that the music of that period +consisted principally of recitative or musical declamation. This species +of composition, so utterly neglected and unknown to the English school, +possesses great powers of expression, both when in its simple form and +when accompanied. A modern example of the effects it is capable of is +recorded by Tartini. He relates, in the following terms, as one of many +similar instances which had come under his observation:--"In the 14th +year of the present century, (the 18th,) in the opera they were +performing at Ancona, there was at the beginning of the 3d act a line of +recitative, unaccompanied by any instruments but the bass, by which, +equally among the professors and the audience, was raised such and so +great a commotion of mind, that all looked in one another's faces, on +account of the evident change of colour which took place in each. The +effect was not that of grief, (I very well remember that the words +expressed indignation,) but that of a certain congealing and coldness of +the blood, which completely disturbed the mind. Thirteen times was the +drama repeated, and the same effect always followed universally; a +palpable sign of which was the deep previous silence with which the +audience prepared themselves to enjoy its effects.[14]" + + [14] We may refer to this hereafter, and to show that _we_ at + least are not guilty of exaggeration, we subjoin the passage in + the original Italian, from which it will be seen that our + translation is as literal as possible. + + "L'anno quatuor-decimo del secolo presente, nel dramma che si + rappresentava in Ancona, v'era, su'l principio dell' atto + terzo, una riga di recitativo, non accompagnato da altri + stromenti che dal basso; per cui, tanto in noi professori + quanto negli ascoltanti, si destava una tale e tanta commozione + di animo, che tutti si guardavano in faccia l'un l'altro, per + la evidente mutazione di colore che si faceva in ciascheduno di + noi. L'effetto non era di pianto (mi ricordo benissimo che le + parole erano di sdegno) ma di un certo rigore e freddo nel + sangue, che di fatto turbava l'animo. Tredici volte si recito + il dramma, e sempre segui l'effetto stesso universalmente: di + che era segno palpabile il sommo previo silenzio, con cui + l'uditorio tutto si apparechiava a goderne l'effetto." + +The line of recitative has unfortunately not been preserved; nor is it +known what the opera, or whose the music, which produced an effect which +may not be inaptly described in the words of Byron:-- + + "An undefined and sudden thrill, + Which made the heart a moment still, + Then beat with quicker pulse." + +The music of Allessandro Scarlatti was then current and universally +popular in Italy. This composer was particularly famous for the +excellence of his recitative; and his general merit may be judged of by +the fact, that he is placed by Arteaga, in his work on the revolutions +of the musical drama in Italy, among the early authors belonging to the +period which he terms the golden age of Italian music. On these grounds, +we may reasonably conclude, that he was the composer of that terrible +line of recitative. + +We have ourselves also witnessed a somewhat similar example of the +powers of Italian recitative. Many of our readers, doubtless, have +witnessed Pasta's wonderful performance in Anna Bolena, who also may +remember Anna's exclamation, "Giudici ad Anna! ad Anna giudici!" when +Henry's intention of bringing her to trial is first made known to her. +Such was the fearful tone, of mingled horror, amaze, and wrathful +indignation, with which that greatest queen of tragic song gave out +these words, that, in a foreign land, we have on more than one occasion +observed some of the audience, as these fiery accents burst forth upon +them, to start, change colour, and almost shudder at the intensity of +the conflicting passions she exhibited. Much, nay most, of this was +undoubtedly owing to the genius of the songstress. We do but mention +these examples, to show how perfect a medium of musical expression and +dramatic effect, good recitative becomes, when adequately performed. +Still, the wonders related of ancient music--wonders not confined to one +age, one people, or to one quarter of the globe, but, on the contrary, +commencing at a remote period of man's history, including Jews, Chinese, +Arabs, and Greeks, amongst whose records their memory is preserved--will +meet with a cold assent from most; and perhaps few among us would be +found bold enough to avow a belief in their reality. We have certainly +no warrant for their truth in the powers or effects of our national +music, and thus experience directly contradicts the testimony of +antiquity. + +On the same grounds, however, had no specimens of ancient handiwork been +preserved, we might also have doubted the excellence and beauty of any +of those works of art which, nevertheless, immortalized those by whose +hands they were fashioned. Were not the Dying Gladiator now before us, +it might, at this day, be deemed a monstrous supposition, that a statue +of a dying man should have existed, in which there might be seen how +much of life was left. Inferiority is ever sceptical and self-satisfied; +it is only given to the really wise to know how much lies hidden from +their view. Though the scope and object of all the imitative arts is the +same, to dignify, elevate, and embellish nature--though the beauty of +the ideal is the aim of the musician, equally as it is the aspiration of +the poet, painter, and the sculptor, the character of these pursuits is +in some respects essentially different. In the latter, material objects +are imitated and embellished, the things themselves are bodily before +the eyes, and the beauty and excellence of the work will appear by +comparison with nature herself. These arts also possess great landmarks +of taste and skill, which speak the same language to all ages. Of the +symmetry of the sculptor's chiselled forms, of the beauty of the poet's +or the painter's pictures, we have a standard in nature's own originals, +seldom, probably never, exhibiting the same concentration of refined and +elevated beauty in one individual object, but, nevertheless, furnishing +an accurate and never varying standard, for the exercise of the +judgement; while the heart, that inner world, ever uniform and +unchanging amid the manifold vicissitudes of human life, supplies a test +by which the poet's thoughts and sentiments may be correctly tried. +Thus, in the lapse of ages, the public taste has known no change; and +though more than 2000 years have passed away, the works of ancient +Greece are worshipped still. + +It cannot, however, be imagined, that the music of those times could +have among us the same influence it possessed of old. It is no new +remark, that in no other branch of the imitative arts have the same +rapid and successive changes occurred, as are observed to have taken +place in music. From this fact, the following question naturally arises, +whether there are any fixed first principles of art, by adhering to +which, music might be produced which would please equally all ages and +amongst all people; or, in other words, whether the pleasure which music +brings, is the result of education, habit, or association, or an +inherent and necessary effect of any particular succession or +combination of sounds. We have thrown together the following +observations of Rousseau, which occur in several different portions of +his essay on the origin of languages, and which, though not made with +reference to this question, nevertheless appear to us conclusive upon +it. "As the feelings which a beautiful picture excites are not caused by +mere colour, so the empire which music possesses over our souls is not +the work of sound alone. All men love to listen to sweet sounds; but if +this love be not quickened by such melodious inflexions as are familiar +to the hearer, it cannot be converted into pleasure. Melody, such as, to +our taste, may be most beautiful, will have little effect upon the ear +which is unaccustomed to it; it is a language of which we must possess a +dictionary. Sounds in a melody do not operate as mere sounds, but as +signs of our affections and our feelings; it is thus they excite the +emotions they express, and whose image we there recognize. If this +influence of our sensations is not owing to moral causes, how is it that +we are so sensitive where a barbarian would feel nothing? How is it that +our most touching airs would be but so much empty noise to the ear of a +Carribee? All require the kind of melody whose phrases they can +understand; to an Italian, his country's airs are necessary; to a Turk, +a Turkish melody; each is affected only by those accents with which he +is familiar. In short, he must understand the language that is spoken to +him." This reasoning seems to show that there are no principles or rules +of art, by following which music would be produced of that inherent +beauty which would intrinsically command universal admiration. + +This being so, music is at the mercy of many circumstances, the +influence of which is felt, in some degree, even in those arts whose +principles have long been fixed and ascertained, and whose rules are not +merely conventional. The love of novelty, which the weariness caused by +a constant repetition of the same musical phrase or idea renders more +_exigeant_ in this than in other arts, the want or impossibility of +having any classic examples which might fix the taste or guide the +studies of the novice, are doubtless among the causes of these frequent +changes. The style of the leading singer of the day often forms and +rules the passing taste, and even characterizes the works of +contemporary composers. Music is often composed purposely for the +singer; his intonation, his peculiarities, his very mannerisms, are +borne in mind. Not merely sounds, but _his_ sounds, are the vehicles of +the composer's thoughts, the medium through which alone the composer's +ideas can be adequately expressed. In the next generation, when +performer and composer are dead and gone, all that is left of this their +_mutual_ work, once the object of universal admiration becomes +comparatively unintelligible. The melody, the harmony, indeed, remain, +but they are a body without a soul; the fire and genius of him who +lighted up the whole, who realized and brought home to the hearer the +_whole_ creation of the composer's imagination, are no more. The manner +of the performance, therefore, being, as it were, part and parcel of the +very music, and a necessary ingredient of the excellence of the +composition, to judge of the merit of the whole from the qualities of +the portion which is left, would be to judge of the beauty of the +Grecian Helen by the aspect or appearance of her lifeless remains. On +looking at the greater portion of the music by the execution of which +Catalani raised herself to the highest pinnacle of fame, we are +compelled to the conclusion, that in the singer lay the charm. The +effects said to have been produced by Handel's operas are now +inconceivable and unintelligible, so "mechanical and dull" do these +works appear, "beyond mere simplicity and traits of melody." Handel, in +one species of composition, wrote _down_ to the singers of his time. +Whoever examines the bass songs of that period, will perceive that they +were composed for inflexible and unwieldy voices, possessing a large and +heavy volume of tone, but incapable of executing any but simple +passages, constructed according to an ascertained routine of intervals. +Lord Mount-Edgcumbe truly conjectured, that Mozart was led to make the +bass so prominent a part in the Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, by +writing for a particular singer. The part of Figaro was, in fact, +composed for Benucci. The sparkling brilliancy of Rossini would perhaps +never have been so fully developed, had not the skill and flexibility of +voice possessed by the singer David, for whom he wrote, enabled him to +indulge it to the uttermost. The characters thus imparted to the music +of the day are necessarily perishable and evanescent, to be again +superseded by later artists, whose excellences or peculiarities will +again lead to like results. Thus change succeeds change; the judgment of +the public is led by the composer and the performer, who, mutually +deferring to each other, often mould at will the taste of their +countrymen. We, of course, speak only of those whose talent, science, +and ability, have constituted them the masters of their art. + +In England we have but few of those giants; they appear among us only +at long intervals; for which reason, perhaps, musical taste has +undergone fewer mutations in England than in most other countries. +Handel has now reigned supreme among us for near a century, and his bass +songs still influence the style of this branch of our native music. +Though bass singing has advanced elsewhere, it has stood comparatively +still with us; the same rude intervals, the same ponderous passages, +through which the voice moves heavily, as if a mountain heaved, are +still retained in the few bass songs of our school; in fact, without +them, many think a bass song cannot exist. This mannerism received a +blow from Weber, whom, as in the case of Handel, we have grown to +consider national property. His early death, however, prevented his +acquiring that permanent influence on the musical mind, which he might +have acquired had he lived, and continued to be successful. + +From the glance we have taken of the rate at which poetry, literature, +and the fine arts, respectively advance as civilization holds her onward +course; from the wide diffusion and cultivation of musical taste and +musical science, ere barbarism and ignorance resumed their sway over +mankind; we cannot entertain a doubt that, ultimately, we also as a +people may emulate the glory other nations have acquired in each of +those pursuits. We are, perhaps, less excitable and less easily moved +than they; but the English character contains within it the elements of +greatness in every thing to which its energies are directed. +Circumstances may erelong rouse long-dormant tastes. Riches bring with +them new wants, they create new passions, new desires. Much wealth was +amassed by the preceding generation; their sons, now affluent and +educated, already form a vast addition to that class which we have +designated as the peculiar patron of the arts, and which, as commercial +prosperity continues to advance, will, in each succeeding generation, +receive another incalculable accession to its numbers. + +The philosophical observer may even now discover the evidences of these +new wants of increasing opulence; and should providence, in its mercy, +deign still to bless the world with peace, the Augustan age of England +may be nearer than we think. However, it is most certain that this age, +as yet, has not arrived. An accurate knowledge of our defects will +soonest lead to their cure. By a searching, rigorous, and impartial +self-examination can these deficiencies only become known. It may be +necessary to apply the cautery; but the hand that wounds would also +heal; and if, in the course of the preceding observations, or in any +subsequent remarks, as we enquire into the present state of musical +taste and science in England, we may be deemed severe, let it be borne +in mind, that ours is a "tender fierceness," and that self-knowledge, +the first grand step to all improvement, is alone our object and +our aim. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1843 *** + +***** This file should be named 9992.txt or 9992.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/9/9992/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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